sunshinedaisybliss

This is a fresh, sweet and fruity scent - it does have a 'wet' feel too. Thankfully I'm not getting any pitch-stench or fungal lichens.. but I have no idea where the black incense is hiding.. there's nothing black in here at all for me although there is something lurking behind the sweetness! I'm thinking this has grapefruit in it, and some apple. Possibly a little bit of lemon or lime, and there's a slight saltiness to it. Surprisingly pretty - if you love sugary citrus blends, definitely give this one a try

I really had very few expectations for this one - I wasn't quite sure how it was going to smell! I get the beeswax, which is quite soft and ever-so-slightly sweet, and the woods which are really gorgeous. There seems to be a lot going on in here - there's a touch of saltiness, and something very golden, but most of all it's the beeswax and warm woods that are winning here.. together they're just lovely. This blend reminds me a little bit of Wezweenie/Hold from the Salons - it's much less rich than W/H, but it has the same kind of feel to it. I also love the way that it's settled in to my skin - it's not on my skin, it's in it - like it's my skin but better smelling. I won't be surprised if this becomes one of the big hits from the 2010 Yules - it has a lovely complexity without being too fussy, and a gorgeous warmth that's very comforting.

Mmm.. this is a pretty one! The vanilla is soft but not overly sweet, and the orange blossom is gorgeous - subtle, but definitely there. I can smell the carnation - it's warm and slightly peppery, but the most dominant note for me is the white sandalwood. There's something very berry-like in here, which may be from the red tea, and also a slight herbal quality which is probably the mate. Overall, this is a lovely scent which has a kind of 'feel good' quality to it - warm and kind of sunny.

Wow.. this is just gorgeous! It never snows where I live, so I haven't really gotten into many of BPAL's 'snow' blends but I thought I'd give this one a try. So glad I did! When first applied it had a slightly sharp or medicinal note that reminded me a bit of Tulzcha, but that very quickly disappeared. There's a beautiful softness about Winter-Time - it smells clean and fresh, but also slighty sweet and ethereal. It would be interesting to know what's actually gone into this blend - I suspect there's a light touch of vanilla, and something green-ish, but it's hard to pinpoint things because the overall smell is so smooth. If I take a big deep sniff, I can detect something slightly mentholated right at the bottom - not eucalyptus, not pine, and not mint.. just that menthol kind of smell. But that just adds an interesting dimension to the scent, rather than taking it over. I'm not sure how much I'd actually wear this.. as lovely as it is, it's one of those very close-to-the-skin blends and I like my perfumes to have a bit more oomph.. but it sure is pretty.

2010 version I had to try this, it's really one of those legendary BPALs and I had never sampled any of the blends from previous years so this was my chance! What I'm getting is a dry, dusky sort of incense blend. I think there's some dark rose in here.. not fresh/live rose but more the smell of rose petals that have been dried. There's also a slightly sweet, slightly waxy/woody thing going on in the background. It does evoke images of old empty churches. It's not unpleasant, but it's not particularly swoon-worthy either - it's a nice blend, but I have other incense-y BPALs that I much prefer.

2010 version Wait.. what's this.. florals? Yes, yes it is! What's going on?!? If I didn't know this was supposed to be dust, wood and musks, I would have said it has jasmine, orchid and hyacinth. Seriously! So I have to say.. The Rat King is a huge disappointment, given that I really don't dig floral blends. Having said that, it's actually quite a nice smell.. soft, flowery, slightly sweet... but that's not what I wanted! Poop, I say. POOP!

Yeah.. I agree with previous reviewers - there's just too much going on in here. The fruits are all mashed together in a way that produces a slightly bitter, unpleasant smell that's a bit too strong for my liking, and I can't separate them at all except that the red currant is doing a cat pee thing and the lemon peel is sharp. The cedar is lurking around, adding a touch of strange dullness. And the herbal fragrance from the balsam just seems to be misplaced. I can barely detect the French vanilla - it's there, but sooooo faint - which is a shame, because I think that vanilla could have saved the fruit mush from being too bitter. Overall, this is a big no for me. It definitely had potential, but I think the mix of fruits in this particular blend is just off-key somehow and it's just not working.

This is extremely pretty, and very winter-y.. as you would expect. It does have a light, 'dancing' quality to it - quite soft and graceful - but it has surprising depth to the fragrance as well. As others have mentioned, this reminds me very much of Snowblind and Snow White. So I actually layered those two on one arm, and applied Waltz on the other, and yep - this is *just* like a mix of Snowblind + Snow White. There is a slightly mint element, but it's more the bracing winter-y freshness of the fir needle rather than straight-up mint. The vanilla is soft and musk rather than candy-sweet, and the snow is fresh but not sharp. The pine bark is providing the depth that I mentioned earlier - it's present, but not obvious. For me, I'm happy with my beloved Snow White and won't need a bottle of The Waltz - there's not enough of a difference between the two on my skin and I'm not loving the pine note in here all that much. But if you're one of those people who found Snow White to be too floral/sweet or if you get the dreaded 'plastic' smell from SW then I'd recommend trying The Waltz. A lovely, lovely scent indeed - beautifully done.

I'm also getting a sort of aquatic/ozone thing here! That's not what I was expecting, but maybe the water content of the fog is higher than I thought it would be I was hoping for warm, old wood.. and something a bit smoky.. but instead I have something that's quite clean and fresh. It's not horrible or anything, but it's kinda un-interesting on my skin.

Ooh.. interesting! When first applied, I got a blast of cologne-like fragrance but with a slightly sweet and almost fruity top note. That soon passed, and the dark sinister side of Scrooge came out as soon as it started drying down The leather here is fresh and a bit sharp - that smell of a leather shop. The tonka bean sits atop the pepper and cumin and vetiver so that none of those come out too strong.. I can smell them, they're definitely there, but no one note dominates. I'm not sure where the oakmoss has gone - there is a slight fresh/greenness here, so maybe that's it. The leather does soften up a bit after it's been on my skin for a while - that 'new leather' smell has gone, it's warmed in nicely and lost that fresh/sharp edge. I think this one would have been right at home amongst the VILF blends - it has that same sort of sinister quality with a sexy edge. If you're scared of vetiver - don't be.. it isn't nasty here at all. And cumin haters can also relax.. it's not dominant here. I think this will age nicely, and it definitely suits its namesake!

Phew! So glad I don't love this one, now that it's discontinued!! Mr Fezziwig starts off all mince pie.. quite spicy, slightly sweet.. and a hint of beer. So I leave it to dry down for 10 minutes, lean in for another sniff.. and where'd it go?? It's almost completely disappeared!!! What's left on my skin now is a faint smell of beer and mince pie. Just a vague kind of spicey foodiness. I'm going to pass my decant on, because clearly there's no ball to be had on my skin - Mr. Fezziwig apparently left early.

On my skin, this isn't as smoky as I was hoping it would be.. mostly I can smell the sherry and something vaguely pastry/cake-ish. When I first applied it, I could smell a really sweet fruit - almost a bubblegum - which turned into more of a sweet apricot-like smell and eventually dried down into the sherry smell. There's really nothing remarkable about this one for me - it's nice, but not really nice. I have other 'hearth' type BPALs that I like better.. and the fruit in here is just too strong in the blend, if it had more of the smoke/wood aspect I'd be happier but alas.. nope.

I was curious about this one, and ordered a decant - I'm glad I did! As it turns out, it's not at all like I was expecting.. I had in mind a dark, dusty, slightly sinister smell.. probably more for the name of the blend rather than the notes. So what a surprise - on me, this feels very warm and sort of golden/glowy - not dark and deathly at all. The frankincense here is beautiful, smooth and slightly sweet, and as others have mentioned the black cedar is really lovely - it still has that 'wood' feel to it, but it's not doing the soggy sawdust thing that regular cedar sometimes does. Strangely enough, I'm getting a slight plum tinge to the fragrance.. almost Hellion-like - weird, since I don't think there's any fruit in here!! I'm not sure where the dust comes into play.. usually when dust is a listed note, I can smell.. well.. dust. Perhaps that's what is giving the blend a light and airy feel - again, a surprise since I expected dark and heavy. It is resinous in feel, but not in a heavy way. Overall, this is a really lovely scent and judging by the low number of reviews perhaps it wasn't one of the more popular blends in this year's Yules? I wouldn't be at all surprised if this turns out to be a sleeper hit - one that people end up looking for later - it will almost certainly age nicely, and it's one of those 'every day' blends that I could wear regularly when I just want something warm and comforting that gives me the nice incense smell without being too heavy.

Wow.. this is SPICY when it first goes on! Spicy in a boozy Christmas pudding kind of way. Into the dry-down, I can smell the fig but it's not coming out sweet and rich as it usually does for me (in things like Miller vs California) - the spices are still dominant and they're covering the fig. Once it fully dries, the spices mellow out a bit and everything turns into a slightly incense-y smell but still retaining the pudding element. At this point it's reminding me of Bread & Butterfly. Unfortunately this holds a slightly bitter/burnt smell on my skin which makes it a bit unpleasant. It's just not working for me, I'm left with a burnt spice kind of smell that's quite faint but strangely pungent.

This is one of my all-time-favourite BPTP sprays, and I must say I'm surprised it doesn't get more love!! Out of all my atmo sprays (and I have quite a few of them), this is the one that people comment on most favourably when they visit. I get pretty much the notes as listed.. the wood is dark and warm, the herbs are mysterious and dark - adding a 'fresh' feel to the fragrance, the olibanum gives a slightly smoky sweet edge, the sarsparilla adds just a touch of earthy sweetness and the bay rum is simply divine.. not boozy as such, just kinda.. err.. sexy but in a snuggly and cosy way. I could have sworn there's a touch of leather in it, but I see there's no mention of that in the notes so it must be just my imagination. With this one, I only need to do a little spritz and it lingers for ages, not in a way that makes you go "eewww something smells in here" but in a way that makes you go "oohhhhhhh what's that gorgeous smell". It's not overpowering, it's actually quite clean and refreshing. It's also divine as a bed spray - I've taken to spritzing my pillows with it at nighttime If you enjoy the more 'dark' BPTP atmos like Mahogany Hall, Bah! Humbug, and even the Thriambus or Lair of Nefarious Misdeeds sprays, then I think you'll like this. I don't like it, I freakin' LOVE it

As others have said, The Shadowy and the Sublime has the air of an expensive perfume. It actually reminds me a bit of YSL's Opium, which may seem like an odd comparison but I think it's the lovely amber in TS&S that's making me think of Opium - possibly the white rose as well, which is quite dusky here and beautifully soft. It also reminds me slightly of The Girl in that it's another of those hauntingly pretty 'my skin but better' kind of blends. Comparisons aside, TS&S is a very Victorian-esque fragrance.. soft and very feminine, and beautifully blended - and it sits on my skin in the way that a good dusting powder does.. it just seems to have melded with/over my skin perfectly,- I can smell it all the way up my arm even though I only applied a tiny dab to my inner wrist. It's quite subtle - I can smell the wisteria and magnolia, but neither is dominant or overly heady which is really quite remarkable given how pungent each of those florals can be. The myrrh adds a slightly resinous, smoky feel that makes this more than 'just' a perfume - it creates a mood that's slightly sensuous - and the ambergris adds a gorgeous smoothness. This is the kind of perfume you'd wear on a first date, and have your love tell you years later that he/she still remembers how good you smelled. I'm not getting any white mint at all, nor any angelica or bergamot, but no complaints - I'm actually glad, because I think too much mint would spoil this and the greenery of angelica and/or bergamot would upset the balance of things. Overall, this is really a beautiful perfume - something I'd wear when I don't want to smell like anything in particular.. I just want to smell nice.

Jupita - I'd suggest you try Beer From the Marsh Woman's Brewery! It doesn't smell exactly like CSS but definitely has a similar scent... reviews are here if you'd like to check them out. edited to fix link .

This is a nice change from the Yule ginger blends that are usually cake-y or cookie-y.. those always smell gorgeous in the bottle but not so great on my skin, generally because they are more of a brown-sugar/caramel/buttery kind of mix and those never work for me. Although Mother Ginger has spices, they're quite subdued and I think this is more white sugar than brown (I'm having no problem at all with the sugar here, which tells me it's not brown). The vanilla is soft and not too sweet - just right, as is the marshmallow cream - everything is beautifully blended so that the overall feel is quite natural and light rather than overly foody. I can see why people are mentioning ginger beer - it does have that sort of feel. As nice as this is, I don't see it being a perfume I'd reach for. But it really is a beautiful soft ginger - it's not too sweet, not too spicy - it's just right.

Yep - this one's pretty much exactly what I expected! It smells like a bowl full of different flavoured Jolly Ranchers, or one of those five-flavour packs of Life Savers.. just a mix of different coloured candy. I wouldn't have said jelly beans though - the smell is more like hard-boiled candy (like Jolly Ranchers) to me. The mint seems to sit a bit uncomfortably on my skin - at first when I applied this it was just all the candy smells, but then the mint came out and is sort of interfering with the candy in a way that's turning the whole thing into a slightly soapy smell that reminds me of those shampoos that are labelled as 'fruit punch' or something similar. So for me, this was fun to try, and it really is very sweet and pretty, but not something I would wear. I'll keep my decant just for fun though, because it is yummy

I just love it when a BPAL turns out to be as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be The Arabian Dance is a stunner - it definitely suits its namesake, for me it feels exotic and warm and mysterious. And the one note that I was worried about - hazelnut - thankfully is a minor player here. On my skin, this is all about the leather and spices. The leather is gorgeous - warm, soft, but not a wimpy leather at all - it definitely has substance and it's the most prominent note on my skin, and it's not the harsh/chemical smelling leather - it's the old, supple, soft and slightly sweet leather. For the first little while, the spices are almost equal in presence to the leather - at first it was slightly pepper-y on my skin, but after a few minutes the spices have settled and mellowed. I do detect a hint of cinnamon, and nutmeg, and I think perhaps some cardamom and/or caraway. Maybe a teensy hint of aniseed? In middle eastern cooking they make a spice mix called 'sebah baharat' which literally means 'seven spices' and it does differ slightly depending on who makes the mix and the country it's made in - that's what the spices in The Arabian Dance are like.. hard to distinguish the exact smells, but you get that overall feel of the spice mix associated with that type of cooking. The coffee comes out after about 15 minutes, by this stage the spices have settled a lot and gone behind the leather more. So now I have a gorgeous blend of leather and coffee with the spices just sprinkled throughout. Still no hazelnut really (just a slight hint of creamy nuttiness) so that's still just fine with me. Re the comparisons to Spanked.. well.. I just LOVE my Spanked, it's one of my all-time-fave BPALs. And yes, there is some similarity between Spanked and The Arabian Dance. Comparing the notes, and doing a side-by-side comparison of the two on my skin, I think my guess of cardamom in TAD could be right (since it's a listed note in Spanked) and the leather is very similar in both. TAD is missing the bourbon of Spanked, but the coffee adds a similar depth. So whilst they're not a direct match I do agree that they are very close. Very close! ETA: Also.. to me, this has a lot of similarity to Pinched With Four Aces - the coffee note is almost exactly the same I can see that I'm going to need a couple more bottles of this - it could very well become a strong favourite, and I just know it's going to age beautifully.

This is pretty much what I expected it to be.. sweet plums (definitely white sugar) with a hint of vanilla. I can smell the amber musk under the plum, it's doing a great job of keeping the sugar from being too sweet. The tiare is also very present, and it's keeping the plum in check.. sometimes plum can go too 'grape-y' on my skin but that's not happening here. Can't say I'm picking up any cacao at all, nor any hint of apricot. So for me.. this is very pretty, soft sugary plum with a undertone of amber musk and a hint of tiare dancing around the edge. I had to apply quite a bit of oil for this to be really noticeable on my skin though, and after about 30 minutes it had faded almost completely away.

I'm testing this from a decant, rather than a bottle, so I can't be sure about the distribution of chocolate against the other notes.. however there's a big dark globule of chocolate in the bottom of the vial and I know my decanter knows what she's doing so I'm thinking this decant is probably a good representation of the experience I'd get from a bottle. When first applied, there's a slightly bitter-sweet top note that I didn't recognise, but it quickly went away. In its place I can smell the pomegranate (which on my skin, always, produces a very candy-like almost bubblegum-y smell) and the honey with just a hint of orange. Honey doesn't always place nice for me - sometimes it produces a funky, semi-cloying powderiness - but not here, it's beautifully soft and sweet and just a little bit dusky. The orange blossom isn't sharp or sweet overly obvious, nor is it a typical citrus type or orange, it's really soft and lovely. Surprisingly, the chocolate isn't dominant - I kinda expected it would be when I saw the big glob of dark goodness in the vial - but it just sits in the background under the pomegranate and orange/honey. So although this may seem like it's a foody blend, I wouldn't put it in the same category as other chocolate-y things like the White Choc Strawberry or Dark Choc Cherry from the Valentine's LE series, or even the chocolate blends that came out earlier this year in the Truffle/She-Goat Chocolatier series (Dark Choc Lime Truffle etc). I can smell the chocolate in Spanish Dance, but it really isn't obviously a CHOCOLATE blend. I'm really very happy with this one! So many of my BPAL chocolate blends smell delicious but I just don't wear them often because the chocolate is just too much. But this.. is gorgeous, and it stays lovely on my skin for a good two or three hours. I think a bottle of this will be required!

Like crebbsgirl said.. this is definitely less "dark" than I was expecting! Of all the notes, it was the patchouli and dark musk and aged leather that I was most looking forward to - and the rhubarb which I loved so much in the BPTP blend Motley from 2009. Ten minutes in, and Heroine is mostly apple blossom (sweet, bright, with a slight tartness) and the skin musk which is also slightly sweet. Twenty minutes in, and I can detect just a hint of the rhubarb - the leather is also peeking in just a teensy bit. For me, Heroine strikes its best point after about half an hour - that's when the darker notes come out and balance the brightness of the apple blossom. Now I can smell the patchouli and the leather much better, and the skin musk has pretty much disappeared.. the dark musk has taken its place. The amber has also made an appearance, again cutting down the sweetness of the apple blossom and adding a dusky feel to the fragrance. The aged leather is particularly nice - it's not bitter or sharp, it's very smooth and soft. Sadly, the rhubarb really isn't present.. and also I'm not picking up any petitgrain here at all. This really is a beautiful blend, I don't recall any BPAL quite like it and the combination of notes here is really interesting with the sweet/dark balance. I think it will be interesting to see what it's like in a few months' time - I think that some aging might tone down the apple blossom a little - to me, that's what Heroine needs.. I'd like the darker notes to come out a bit more but overall this is quite lovely.

Christmas Day.. Aussie style.. in 40C/100F heat The only BPAL to wear on a day like this is Snake Oil, which smells better as it gets hotter

Thanks for all the hard work you do! This little glimpse behind the curtain is really interesting I like the idea of being able to see a person's feedback statistics quickly and easily via something like a tab on the profile. And the 'soft delete' option is also a great idea. And the things you're working on for the Reviews section sound fantastic!