splendidissima

I gave in and grabbed this because I'm teaching Frankenstein this semester in my Monsters class! It's fascinating; I don't have anything else like it! I'm not super-familiar with most of these notes, but I love the whole idea and atmosphere. First, I get...a cool white note, a little floral but very cool-floral, if that makes sense? White and pale and maybe a little misty? It's very pretty, though I'm a little surprised by the floral - maybe that's something about the ink? Florals aren't as much my thing (I like fruit, usually, or ginger spice, or sweet mint) but the coolness is making it interesting! As it warms, there's a very neat soft vanilla-adjacent scent - it really is very reminiscent of breathing in the scent of old books, warm and dry and papery! Which is a scent I like - I've happily sniffed some of my old-book collection on occasion! - so I'm really enjoying that. It's not very sweet, just...warm? Almost-but-not-exactly-sort-of like some of the Lab's hay-vanilla combos? And then that warms up the cool floral on top. I really do think of stormy nights and old books - this will be great in autumn, or to create a cool chilly feeling on a hot summer night!

Agreed with the previous poster - this is a big, red, berry wine! Great throw. I was nervous about the patch - it's not a note I seek out - but I really can't find it in here at all. Mostly this is the sweet red wine scent from...well, so many other BPAL red wine scents! Lots of berries, lots of fruit. Ruby port, not tawny. It's definitely a rich dessert sort of wine, something you sip slowly from a snifter, while lounging by a fire on a chilly evening. I've ended up really liking this one, especially because it's rainy here tonight and we have got a fire and we actually also have some port, so I might pour some of that, and grab a book, and pet the cat while sipping.

Definitely nutty! It's a swirl of nuts; I can't really pick out distinctions between them. There's a little bit of spice, but it's not really spicy: just enough for a warmth. I'm not sure I really get the honey, but the brown sugar is adding some toasted dark sweetness, and it's definitely that darker sugar, not light or white. Good for autumn or generally chilly weather, I think, when you want to feel cozy. It goes on strong, but it does fade quickly, which seems to be something I'm saying about a few recent bottles - not sure if it's me or just a succession of scents that happen to fade fast!

Pumpkin and apple cider! I agree that it's reminiscent of Fearful Pleasure, which I loved. Pumpkin mash, gently stewed into apples, spices, and cider - beautifully autumnal, nicely balanced.

Oh my word this is my fav of the Yules this year. I love a good gingerbread - sweet, spicy, ginger cookie, yes please! - and this is beautifully exactly that. It's very reminiscent of Shub, as others have observed - it's that deep dark ginger, molasses and ginger and rich spice. But here it's also got a buttery cookie layer underneath - more a fluffy cake-y kind of cookie, a fresh baked good that you want to eat right now but it's just out of the oven and still hot. Love love love. If there's a down-side, it doesn't last as long as Shub does on me - it's got a gorgeous initial throw, so I end up not putting too much on, but then it fades, and I have to reapply. Not that that's a hardship! But I might go through this quickly. Wondering if I need a second bottle while this is here, or if my beloved Shub is enough...

This one does some interesting things on me! I really wanted to love it - I love the Lick Its and I love berry scents and sugar, so this was an instant buy. And...I like it, but I don't know if I LOVE it. It goes through two very distinct stages on me, rather than melding or blending. It starts as a BIG boom of sweet mint with a little red muskiness underneath, which...is a little odd with the mint? It's fine, but if I really want a big sweet mint, I'd prefer a pure Lick It, without the underlying red note. But THEN, as it dries completely, the mint burns off entirely, to the point where I can't even find it (such a surprise, given how loud the mint is to start!) - now it's a pink sugary honey-strawberry scent, a little darkened by red wine. This stage is very pretty, and it does feel like a late spring/early summer night - strawberries, sundown, sparkling wine to sip. I like both stages, but it's very sequential: sweet mint with some red wine musk ---> honey strawberry wine. I'm happy to have a bottle, and I'll definitely use it, I just wish I could've experienced something closer to a *blending* of vanilla mint + berry wine, if that makes sense! It ends up as basically a sparkling strawberry honey wine...not single note, but like a strawberry honey wine trio, which, don't get me wrong, I would probably also buy on purpose. ?

Ooh, this is nice! I was hesitant about the tobacco but I love blueberry and pink pepper, and the reviews sounded so good - and this is really, really good! It is mostly blueberry - a jammy, cooked, sweet blueberry. Under that, there's a sharp sweet bright pepper note, very playful. The tobacco is there at the back, making it all warmer and a little smoky - not like bonfires, but like pipe tobacco, warm and glowing and rich. I don't think I've got anything else quite like it, and I like it!

I do love a sweet lemon scent! And that's exactly what this is: slightly tart, bright, sugared lemon! I agree with all the comments about it feeling like a homemade lemonade or lemon-honey drink. Very summery and fun.

A big buttery spice cake! I like this, but it's very strong - a little goes a long way! I don't really get rum or booze - just a warm pumpkin-spice cake with a TON of hot buttery sauce poured over. Great for cold weather!

Maple donuts, glazed donuts, chocolate donuts! Perfectly realistic, like I've just opened the box and inhaled. Such nostalgia - my dad always used to pick up donuts for us on Sundays! I love this. Great throw, too!

How have I never reviewed this? Nymphia was my wedding scent! ? It's absolutely beautiful, like a light, airy, sugar-fruit-floral cloud. It's very well blended; no one note is too loud. It's a big swirl of pastel color, very green-gold in color: mango, sugar, cucumber, pale green leaves with little blossoming flowers. I love that it's sweet without being over-the-top - the cucumber adds a refreshing almost watery note, and the mango makes everything juicy and brighter, and the sugar floats over everything. It's a very soft, bright, hopeful sort of scent, like early sunrises. ?

On me, this is a nice, buttery, warm, vanilla shortbread - exactly as expected! A little bit of that dark rich caramelized brown sugar note as well. It's a skin-close scent but seems to be lasting a while, though I have to get close to smell it! Nice, uncomplicated, exactly what it says. I bet this will be great for cold weather, and also maybe for layering with some fruit/jam or spice or chocolate notes.

Exactly what everyone's said - a big bucketful of those childhood sweet-tart fruity candies, Sweet-Tarts and Smarties and Jolly Ranchers, maybe some Pixie Stix, some Nerds... It's delightful - very childhood nostalgic! I don't have anything else quite like it, and I'm glad I got it.

This is also one of my favs from this release! Bright, sweet, sugary lemon cookies. Just enough booze to make it extra-interesting and a little sharp (sweet-sharp) and not purely foody, though it's definitely that! Basically, if you love the sweet lemon BPAL scents, you'll want this! ❤️

Yep, sweet booze! A little lemony, but mostly sugar and brandy. Not complicated, very much what it says, so if you like those notes, you'll like this! Of some of the holiday boozy scents the Lab has done of late, I like this one better than Yuletide Revenge Tale, maybe not as much as Yuletide Bacchanal - Y.B. has those fruit notes with the date and fig, which adds, well, fruitiness! Y.R.T. is more dry - a spiced ale, versus the brandy and rum and sugar here.

Ah, right, this is one that my skin just drinks up! It goes on as a big burst of fruit - mostly pineapple, but with orange and the rest in there too - a huge swirl of sweet tropical fruit (with pineapple on top), and then it dries to a balance between that and a sweet rum, warm and boozy. I'd drink this, preferably on a beach somewhere! And THEN it's just gone. Within maybe ten minutes I can barely find a whisper of scent on my arm. I put on my other two Luau scents (Mahana and Pahoehoe) at the same time to compare, and those two are still sticking around, but Riptide's scent's gone on vacation without me.

I'd forgotten the notes in this, and deliberately didn't look before putting some on again, and my first impressions were "bananas + something dark red + rum!" And...well, that seems about right! It's a candied sort of banana - someone above mentioned bananas Foster, brown sugar, etc, and I agree! The grenadine is adding some pomegranate sweetness, and then there's the rum note. I don't actually get the coconut specifically, maybe because of the age of this bottle? The rum *is* there but not as up front as I remember; it's banana-pom first, and then, oh yeah, there's something else there. It's not as strong as I recall it being; it lingers, but it's a skin-close scent. Tropical and summery!

Grabbed this from the Lab's Etsy; got it yesterday! On me, Mahana is interestingly creamy - I think it's the cream de cacao - and almond-forward, primarily, with hints of pineapple bouncing around - I'm not sure I really get peach? There's a bit of a booze note, but of the three bottles I've got (this, Rangoon Riptide, Pahoehoe) I'd say this is the least boozy. Very fun and summery - I absolutely picture sipping a big creamy frozen cocktail, with a slice of pineapple in it, while lounging by a pool under the sun.

I really loved Meigetsu Ya (red mandarin + frost) and I was hoping this would be similar! It both is and isn't, I think? They All Came to Grief starts out MUCH heavier on the minty, icy, slush, and for quite a while I don't get any fruit at all, just that zingy nose-tingling mint. (Which I like, mind you, but that's just...all there is, for a while!) And then...slowly...after watching an episode of a tv show and making a drink, so, like at least an hour...there's some chilly fruit. If Meigetsu Ya was chilled sweetened orange juice slushie, this is...I'd say less sweet and more orange-red slushie, probably the effect of the red currant? It's definitely still more mint and more...sharp, I think, than Meigetsu Ya, but along the same lines. It ends up as a very bright energizing sort of scent - mint and orange-red fruits both being loud together, like you've got up and brushed your teeth and had a good breakfast, with orange juice and fruit, on a brisk chilly icy morning, and now you're ready to Accomplish Things.

Oh, this is nice - and more complex than I expected! I do absolutely agree with wanting to eat this, except that there is something sophisticated about it that reminds me not to do that! It's not as sweet as I expected - it is still on the sweeter side, but not overwhelmingly so. Very berry-forward, lots of red fruits. I think some tartness from the cranberries is tempering the sweetness. Wet on skin, it also does feel like growing cranberries somehow - like the cranberry bog? Maybe there's some sort of hidden aquatic note that, as previous reviewers have mentioned, might show up as a little touch of greenness/soapiness? I don't get soapiness, but I could see there being a little tiny tiny touch of green/wetness. The cream is definitely present - it's not a buttercream, but a warm creamy note, more like a....sweet milk? Not sugary, but naturally sweet. As it dries it's melding together into a swirl of red - definitely red - berries and cream, nicely blended together. If you like the Lab's cream note, and if the idea of red fruits and cream appeals to you, then you should probably grab this!

Oh, this is pretty! I'd kept considering and not ever quite trying older versions, so I can't compare. This year (thanks to a gift certificate from the Husband!) I ended up making a big order, and finally went for it! It goes on as mainly olive oil/blossom and beeswax at first, I think: that tart/fruity note of good olive oil plus a smoother warmer background note. Good initial throw! As it dries, the amber and suf and fruit emerge - they're all really well blended and nothing outright takes over. The sweet sufganiyot is giving a warm donut (but like the more bready donuts, if that makes sense? not sugary, just fresh warm lightly fried - not oily - dough) backdrop, but that's all. The fruits give it a dark rich note, a little sweet/earthy. But, again, it's really well blended - I wouldn't call it fruity, or foody, exactly. Everything swirls together into a warm golden glowing scent, not overly sweet, but lush and rich, and friendly as a kitchen and a welcome and lit candles, and really comforting somehow. I keep finding myself coming back to sniff my arm, wanting more!

Sweet purple candy! It's more sugar plum than lavender on me, but the lavender is also there, and it's also a sweet kind. It's all backed by the marshmallow, which I think is really just reading as...more sweetness, soft and fluffy and sugared. If you like combinations of sweet purple fruit, sweet lavender, and marshmallow, definitely grab this one!

Boozy old-fashioned fruit punch! Which I mean in a good way. I'd say it's not as immediately "holiday-ish" as Yuletide Revenge Tale or Pom Cider - it feels more year-round evening party to me, something with wine and brandy, sweet dates and figs, colors of dark brown and dark plum, textures of velvet and warm companionable firelight while everyone plays some sort of old-fashioned (but brandy-and-fire-and-fruit related!) drinking game like snapdragon! It *could* be a holiday party scent, but it doesn't have to be. It's not overly spiced or overly sweet, just warm and inviting - I could wear this to our local DickensFest, perhaps!

I love TKO, though I've never tried Snow White - I was never sure about the "florals" aspect. But I figured, none of the listed notes are Death Notes for me, and TKO is lovely, so, why not? TKSnow goes on with the familiar big swoop of sweet lavender marshmallow, and after a few minutes a warmer coconut-almond-vanilla layer emerges. Oddly, despite being 'Snow,' it's not really chilly - it has a 'white fluff' sort of feel, if that makes sense, with the coconut vanilla, but it's not reading as cold to me, as such! The coconut gets a little louder over time, and settles in alongside the lavender: coconut lavender herbs on a bed of vanilla marshmallow sweetness. This is really nice, soft and fluffy and calming. I do think I prefer straight TKO in a direct comparison - I just love that balance of notes! - but I'm glad to have this as well. I haven't tried Frostbitten TKO, but now I want to!

I was pretty sure I was going to like this - I love pretty much all the BPAL cider scents! - and I do! It's a gorgeous sweet apple cider with a big splash of juicy ripe pomegranate, with glowing warmth from the spices. Perfect for the holidays - making me want mulled wine and apples and candied citrus. Bright and luscious and festive!