sunshinedaisybliss

The whole "snow" thing is a bit strange to me.. because I live in a part of Australia where it never snows, and at the time of year when it's snowing in the US it's usually around 100 degrees here! So I've generally avoided the whole snow thing in BPAL, with three exceptions... Snow, Glass, Apples - I know this is hard to find, but definitely worth hunting down - it combines the icy cool you'd expect from snow and glass with the crisp, sweet tartness of apples and is really lovely. Snow White - a favourite for so many people, but a new discovery for me. I've got the '05 version and I really LOVE IT - soft, sweet, cool, just gorgeous. Snowblind - chilly vanilla.. this *does* have mint, and quite a strong mint at that, but after it's warmed up a bit on your skin the vanilla balances out the mint quite nicely and sweetens it up. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but can any of you Snow White aficionados tell me whether all the Snow White releases are exactly the same from year to year? My chances of finding another bottle of the '05 version are slim, but I'm reluctant to buy the others in case they're different.

2005 Blend Considering it never snows in the part of Australia where I live, it's really not surprising that I haven't dabbled in many of the BPAL snow-related blends. That is.. until I discovered Snow White '05. I realise This is going to sound very weird, but have you ever come back from a day at the beach - basking in the hot sun, swimming in the cool ocean.. and smelt your skin afterwards? I don't know about you, but for me this is one of my most favourite ever smells - I love how my skin smells when it's been at the beach all day. No.. not all salty and suntan lotion-y, but musky and warm. Well, that's how Snow White '05 goes for me. This might actually be the best match for my skin chemistry that I've found so far in all my BPAL adventures. There's an almost smokey vanilla kinda thing going on, slightly cake-like but not at all foody or sweet, and a slight tinge of something that's a bit like honeydew melon. Just YUMMY. It actually reminds me of hot summer nights when you can smell sweet tropical flowers and the blossoms of fruit trees in the air. Did I mention this is going to sound weird? It's supposed to be a winter blend, right? Yeah.. well.. Anyways - this is a definite winner. It just works for me. I'm going to have to try this year's version and see how it compares. Edited to update - Ok, so I tried two newer versions - '07, and '09. Results - '07 was bearable, but very sharp and fake smelling.. I didn't really like it. But oh dear me, the '09 one was unbearable - it did this weird mint/rotting flowers thing on me, then dried down into a smell of burning plastic. In both cases, I could still smell 'my' Snow White in there, but it was all wrong. So my conclusion is that I can only handle SW when it's aged.. and this has been confirmed by getting a bottle of the '04 version, which is just as lovely as my '05. So.. there ya go! For me, it's gotta be vintage only

This is a very impressive blend.. diabolical voluptuousness indeed! It starts off quite heavy on the patchouli, juniper and oude, very earthy and feral smelling. Then the red musk and blood come out, and it sweetens up beautifully but the patchouli is still there keeping it dark and mysterious. After about 30 minutes on my skin, I get the rose (this would be a deep red velvety rose) and that's mixing with the blood & red musk to give it almost a fruity vibe - I'm guessing it's the violets messing around with things that's creating the sweetness. Then it changes again and goes back to being all dark and mysterious. This is a scent that throbs. Throbs? Yes, throbs. As in.. it's very alive, it keeps changing and getting more and more interesting as it wears. I agree with previous reviewers - this doesn't seem like a day scent, it needs to be worn at night with your sexy vamp gear or most seductive corsetry. I think this is exactly what Lucy may have smelled like and I'm quite sure this will have hypnotic properties if placed strategically on the neck

When this first went on, it was nasty NASTY get this offamenowaaaaaaggghhhhhhh! How nasty? Kinda like a mixture of peanut butter, poo, and rotting meat. Uh huh. Like ND¢ before me.. I too made such a face. That mostly went away, leaving behind a weird kind of boozy, honey-ish rose with a teensy touch of something slightly rancid lurking in there. Errr.. not for me. Interesting, though.

Hmmm.. I have weird skin.. on me, this is like Monsterbait Underbed had a secret tryst with Orange, made little babies and decided to call them PX117. Spicey orange yumminess!

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I'm seconding portalkat's excellent suggestions - the only problem with Midway (and/or Midway Resurrected) is that it can be hard to find. However, Detestable Putrescence is sooooo similar to Midway, and currently available! I think you should definitely give that a try for your vanilla fix

I finally got Scurvy!! I was worried this would smell like either fake lime-candy, sharp sour lime, alcoholic lime.. or a combination of the three. But nope - thankfully my skin is treating this with some respect and giving me a lovely soft and natural lime.. exactly like a fresh lime when you first cut through it. After it's been on my skin for a little while, the initial blast of lime softens up and goes a little creamy, slightly waxy and almost musky - perhaps it is sandalwood as others have mentioned.. it's hard to say, but there's definitely something more grounded that's lurking behind the lime. With summer coming up in this part of the world, I know I'm going to be wearing this a lot. I may need to hunt down a second bottle - I think I'll go through this fairly quickly.. it doesn't stay on my skin very long, as others have mentioned. Huge hugs go to parrot_suspect who used her stealth ninja skills to hunt down this bottle for me

This is a beautiful soft, sweet orange. I'm sure there's something else in there, but I'm not getting any sense of creaminess or musk. On my skin, it's not as rich/deep as the Gaiman orange, nor a creamy candy type like Albedo, it's just a lovely soft sweet orange. Oh, I said that already

As others have mentioned, this is very very Midway-esque to me.. DP has a more buttery vanilla about it, and as ifinena said it seems "thicker", but really they are so much alike! Putting aside the Midway doppelgänger phenomenon, this is an absolute must-have for any fans of soft creamy vanilla. When I first put it on, I thought I detected something brown in there, like crème brûlée (which I just saw Iceblink also mentioned) but the vanilla was definitely the predominant note. It goes a little plastic-ish around the edges at about the 10-minute mark, but thankfully that phase passed quickly. After 45 minutes on my skin, it's dried down to more of what I was expecting - melted vanilla icecream. This, to me, is just right - it's not too sweet, not too buttery, perfect-o. There's nothing putrid about this at all, it's delicious! ETA: when I was wearing this today, two people said they could smell popcorn

Awww.. you say the sweetest things sqwook is very wise, those are some good suggestions. I would definitely second her on the Eden, it does have a similar "feel" to Bastet.

Do you know how old your Bastet is? I've found that the almond really mellows out with age - when I compare a fresh imp of Bastet with my old bottle of it, there really is a big difference. I can loan you my super secret Almond Note Removing Machine™ but if you tell anyone how it works, I'll have to kill you. *runs away before you can slap me*

Wowsers - this is a skin stainer! The oil in my decant (a surprise frimp from Stargirl - thank you!) is very dark brown, and it's actually left my skin a little sticky. At first I get lovely warm spicey chocolate, like a rich liquer kinda smell. That initial warmth fades pretty quickly and it dries down to a powdery spicey chocolate. A very interesting blend indeed, very sumptuous and feastly (that is *so* a word!).

This was a surprise frimp from the very lovely BloodyDuchess - thank you! On my skin, this is a lovely bright and golden citrus with underlying tones of pine and herbs. It does have an invigorating quality about it. I shall enjoy wearing it, and hope that some of the qualities for which it was designed are enhanced in me

When this first hits my skin, it's pink bubblegum - just like everyone else here has said. But it's not *like* pink bubblegum, it's an absolute dead-on smells exactly like pink bubblegum. Remember when you were a kid and you'd put way too many pieces of gum in your mouth and end up with a huge big wad of sticky pink goo that made your jaw ache to chew but you did anyway because it was so yummy? That's the smell. After a few minutes, it does this weird thing on my skin and develops a menthol note that's not quite unpleasant but not real nice either. But that only lasts for a few moments and then goes away - very weird. The bubblegum doesn't come back quite the same after that though - it's still there, but it's mellowed a lot now. Then I realise I can smell cinnamon - not strong, and not as spicey as cinnamon usually is - this is peppery, but quite smooth. After about 15 minutes , it reminds me a bit of Midway.. but with bubblegum. And although the bubblegum was far stronger and "bubblegum-y" at the start, I like it now that it's smoothed out. It doesn't stay on my skin for very long though - within less than an hour it has faded to a point where I can barely tell where the oil was.

Ooh, me too! They look appropriately evil Thanks you guys for sharing!!

This is gorgeous, yes - it is like baby powder, but I *like* the smell of baby powder! There's more to this than just baby powder though, I know there's something else going on but I can't really describe it.. it's just clean, and nice. I will definitely be getting a couple of bottles of this, it's strangely comforting and just very pleasant without having any particular "smell" about it.

This is a really nice musk - not as deep and mysterious as Creature Feature - on me, this one's quite a sweet/clean kind of musk. It's quite pretty - I would agree with a previous reviewer who said it's "ethereal" - I have to lean in quite close to really get a good feel for this, and there's definitely something lying underneath but I don't think it's anything scary

Morbidly romantic, thick with murky melodrama, untouched by the centuries, and dust-rimed: Byzantine incense, benzoin, myrrh, bitter clove, spikenard, oud, and ancient balsam. Well.. unfortunately this is a floral version of baby shampoo on my skin. It's quite warm and slightly waxy, but.. shampoo. I was not expecting this, I'm looking for the incense and oud and benzoin and "darkness".. nope, can't find 'em. I won't be needing a bottle of this - it's nice, but not what I was hoping for.

At first this is kinda fizzy, and I thought it was strawberry. After it dries down a little, it's definitely not strawberry - it's citrus, but I can't say exactly what kind of citrus - just.. "citrus". I think it may be grapefruit, but there might also be a slight bit of lime in there. I wouldn't say it's sweet - more like tart, but not in a sour way. This is a very 'fresh' scent, not at all what I was expecting from spiced space fruits and tentacle goo.. I guess I thought it would be more dark and sinister but this is actually kinda pretty, in a weird alien fruity kinda way

MmmmMmmmMMmmm braaaaaaaaaaains! Gooey squidgy raspberry jam! It goes on that way, and pretty much stays that way after going through a slight spicey phase for a minute. Yummy!! I just had a really big huff of it on my arm, and it made me sneeze, but in a good way

This is nasty. N.A.S.T.Y. I didn't sniff this from the imp, I just put a dab straight on my skin. Then I leaned in for a sniff. Then I nearly vomited. Seriously. Then I went and scrubbed it off. And scrubbed it again, until it was all gone. I know I should have waited to see how it dried down, but I just couldn't stomach it. I've never really encountered a smell this bad, so I'm not sure how to describe it. And it only stayed on my skin for about 8 seconds. But the brief whiff I caught was something like what I imagine might be the result of blending raw meat with and motor oil then leaving it in the sun outside for six weeks. I honestly NEVER want to smell this again. I will be keeping it to share with friends though, because of the childish enjoyment I'll get from seeing their faces when they smell it. In the same way that I enjoy spritzing that nasty old-style perm solution around the office and waiting for people to start saying "eewww what smells like rotten eggs", Gore Shock might just be my most heinous office prank ever

First up, the label is great! Naughty ol' Stinky dog I really really love this one. It reminds me a bit of puppy-breath smell.. it's all gooey softness and sweet, warm clean air. Honey and baby powder, definitely - I'm not really familiar with "white honey" as opposed to regular honey.. to my nose this is more like a dark honey but it's not overpowering the other things in this blend. The milk note doesn't go sour on my skin at all, it's nice and creamy although every now and then I get whiffs of something like violet (which happens with other things like Dragon's Milk occasionally.. weirdo skin) but that just makes it interesting. This stays on my skin for ages, and stays pretty true all the time - it never went powdery or soapy at all. I seem to have been really lucky here and found and excellent match for my skin chemistry. I can see myself wearing Stinky a lot, it's perfect for those (frequent) times when I have trouble deciding on what BPAL to wear and just want to smell.. nice.

This is not quite like any other berry-based BPALs that I've tried, yet at the same time quite similar to other berry-based BPALs that I've tried. Like that makes any sense?!? So it starts off very BRIGHT, almost tart, raspberries mostly. Then when it starts to dry down, the musk and fig comes out and blunts the sharp sweetness of the berries, adding a nice depth. After about a half-hour on my skin, I've got a nice musky and base with sweet berries on top. After a couple of hours, it hasn't really changed much.. the berries have gone softer but the musk/fig base is still nice and warm and I think the honey's there now (finally). Berry Moon is very pretty, and definitely one for berry lovers.

The apple in this makes me picture a really old, gnarly and twisted apple tree that I just happened to find in a forest - the tree has huge ripe green apples and The Hesperides is what one of those apples would smell like. This, to me, is very much like Snow Glass Apples but with mist replacing the snow - where SGA has that cold edge, this has a wispy soft edge. A must for apple lovers! So very pretty, fresh and lovely.