claudia6913

Dabbed on some Mme. Moriarty for my Birthday Breakfast with the siblings today. I'm the eldest so it seems fitting. Plus, I have big love for it.

I'm sad to see this go. It's one of the few scents my husband complimented without being prompted.

That being said, at first this is a wet, in your face, bunch of orchids. They're there and they're not going anywhere. But as it dries, it smooths out into a wonderfully blended potted orchid smell. A little musk/dirt/base scent, a little green, and a lot of orchid. Very nice indeed.

I'll be sporting The Passionate Shepard to his Love for St. Patty's Day.

Unfortunately this is just straight up soap on me. Nice soap, but strong and well ... soapy.

In the bottle: Woody floral

Wet on skin: This is soft, slightly floral, slightly sweet.

Dry: Vanilla, musky amber, with a bit of floral. Light, sweet, and very nice. It keeps trying to go soapy, but it like toeing the line with it.

Edit to add: With just a little rest this has really come out of it's shell. It only keeps the soap interpretation for 5 minutes or so before going to a beautiful, soft, sweet scent. But the staying power isn't there. I'm on my 3rd application in 4 hours. But it's so nice!

In the bottle: Spicy amber.

Wet on skin: Spicy, dry amber. Not a peppery spice, not a carnation spice, not a foodie spice that I recognize. Just a nice warm spicy amber.

Dry: This doesn't really morph, it just is what it is and is unapologetic about it.

In the bottle: I know this is weird, but it almost has a yeast-y bread-y scent to it.

Wet on skin: I honestly have no idea what I'm smelling here. It's golden, but I'm wondering what is giving me a bread association. I've had all these notes in a scent before, everything but the musk in one scent too ... but this is just, different. It's morphing away from the bread-scent as it dries thank goodness!

Dry: Ok, that's bettter. It's very soft. It's nicely blended that I can't pick out every note, but I'm liking it more as time goes on.

Whew, that scared me!

Edit One Year: Age has been good to this blend. It is softer, smoother, sweeter and the staying power is amazing.

In the bottle: I get lots of myrtle and apple blossom.

Wet on skin: It's floral, no amber, and only a hint of carnation. As this dries, the amber starts to come out and the carnation starts to spice it up a little.

Dry: This is a very soft, floral scent. It's a little powdery, but very nice.

Green, green greeny green greenery. Like walking through a meadow lush from spring with the morning dew on it. As it dries the carnation starts to come out a little more, but, it's not spicy, and I was kind of looking forward to a little spice in this blend. It's pretty, but probably only good to wear for a specific two weeks out of a year.

Edit: Ok, after just wearing it for a while, I can see it's allure, or smell it rather. It mellows out into a nice meadow scent with florals wafting through. Definitely a green scent, but pretty if you like that sort of thing, which on occasion I do.

Edit 2: After wearing it all day, I'm hooked. I can't stop sniffing my wrists.

I was really hoping the juniper berry would not overpower this blend, but I should've known. I amp anything evergreen and it's turned into juniper berry SN. I'll try again later when it's had longer to sit.

Edit: Ok, 24-ish hours since I've left it alone, and while the juniper berry is prominent when wet, it dies down fairly quickly and turns into a very nice antique-y smell. It's woodsy, and resiny and very nice.

Barely let this sit as it's the one I'm most anxious to try.

In the bottle: soft, slightly floral, a sort of golden green scent association.

Wet on skin: Soft, blended, I'm having a hard time picking out any single note. It's floral without being floral, soft without being a pushover, wet smelling without smelling like water.

Dry: This is starting to remind me of a not so watery version of my beloved Leanan Sidhe.

I think I may have to give this a long test to see, but the more it dries the more it goes away. It's so pretty though when it's here!

This is musky, spicy, and a little tangy. The imp I'm testing is probably one of the first few imps I'd ever gotten, so god knows how old it is. It mellows beautifully and it's just all around lovely to sniff. In the imp I wasn't terribly impressed, but on my skin it's doing wonderful things. I may have to add this to my next GC order...

Very soft, very feminine. I've stayed away because of the milk and honey. Honey does weird things and honestly milk just sounded too odd to me. Rose's can go straight to baby powder as well. I'm mostly testing to see if I would like to purchase this for my daughter.

Alice? She's sweet, a little spicy, very floral. I think the honey is just adding a bit of sweetness. The rose is behaving thus far but I get hints of baby powder occasionally. The carnation (my favorite) is spicing it up a little. I may have to try this on my daughter to see how it goes on her skin. If nothing else, I might just get it for myself.

I get a very sharp scent in the bottle. On my skin it's like it's trying to go sexy, but this sharp note keeps getting in the way. Maybe another year to age it? Not sure really. Love vanilla but I'm not sure which scent is giving the sharpness.

It takes a bit, but once it goes into a good dry stage, it smells nice. It's a kind of dark floral sweet smell. It's on the verge of going sharp. I still don't know if I like it or not...

This was just pulled out of the mailbox a little over 2 hours ago. I think I've waited all I can to open this without bursting with anticipation.

In the bottle: Straight patchouli - down and dirty and raw.

Wet on skin: Still patchouli in the forefront but it's got some sweetness and dustiness backing it up.

Drydown: Now the amber and vanilla come through, softening the screaming patchouli. It's a very warm and heady scent. Not disappearing in the slightest. The longer it sits, the smoother it gets and the calmer it gets.

Overall: Pretty damn good, I gotta say.

Rose, rose, jasmine, rose, rose, rose ...and just a bit more rose to round it out. Aaaand now it's going baby powder. I'm not getting any of the other notes. =(

This blend actually has a lot of notes I shy away from typically, along with notes I'm drawn to. So, I managed to come across and imp and color me surprised. It's actually very nice. Warm, sweet, fuzzy, a little yellow, and cozy. I'm getting a lot of the tonka, amber, sandalwood, a bit of clove and maybe a hint of the cinnamon, but I'm sure the rest is in there. I may have to hunt another imp or two down to keep around.

It's taken three years of aging an imp of this to finally get it to the point where the dragon's blood doesn't scream SOAP upon touching my skin. And it's finally, finally just as the lab describes, and everything I wanted it to be. This was the scent I sought out when I first started BPAL and it was my first heart-break. Glad to say now it's just purely wonderful. It's soft, smoky, warm and slightly sweet. The longer it sits, the warmer and cozier it gets. The leather note reminds me of De Sade (for those lucky enough to have tried it).

Just pulled this out of the aging drawer. Purchased 7/2011. And my what a little aging has done. Warm, smooth, soft, sleek. Everything you think of when you think of "snake". I adore it and hope to be able to find more sometime as one bottle will not be enough!

In the bottle this smells like straight up Vick's Vapo-Rub. I nearly didn't skin test it until I kept reading reviews of red musk and wood. (yes please!!) I definitely get a minty undertone in this blend, but the red musk is front an foremost. Maybe a hint of a pine-type wood, but thankfully it's not amping so far. It's flipping for me between a beautiful musky/minty blend and a medicinal minty blend.

This scent is definitely reminiscent of the "lace" line of scents. It has that soft vanilla tone to it - but in addition, it's fuzzy and brown. Definitely tonka fuzz. Not fizzy though, which tonka can do on me sometimes. There's a wood in there too, but I can't tell which one - it's not a pine though, as every pine note BPAL has amps to the nth degree on me, and this is not amping. It's blended very well. Morphs a bit as it sits. It moves away from the "lace" association and moves more into the fuzzy/woody/hunter type zone.

Sweet, musky, slightly herbal and just delicious. Of course, red musk is front and center, the golden skin musk and golden amber seem to warm this up, while the orchid is a nice floral note wafting around. I'm not good at picking out tobacco and hemlock yet, but I'm sure they're in there, maybe giving it that herbal feel. All in all this is warm, roll around fuzzy, and just an all around wonderful scent! I can only imagine this will get better with age. So now I have to purchase a back-up bottle to set away. =)

3/13 update: A little over a year later and it's still pretty wonderful. I'm still having to get over the initial medicinal (hemlock I think) phase. But that doesn't last long any more. It's gotten deeper, but it still has that warm fuzzy feel to it.

This is everything autumn could be and so much more! I've been hunting for that perfect autumn/apple scent and this soooo delivers! I can see on some this might go straight to potpourri-ville, especially wet, but as this dries it mellows out. The spices aren't nearly as strong once it dries, the apple comes out more. The citrus gives it a bright feeling, the butterscotch and brown sugar sweeten it nicely, and the fermentation and the liquor do not make this into an alcoholic blend. It's quite simply fall in a bottle.

This has a "glittering" quality to it - probably the shivering white musk. I'm not honestly sure if I'm smelling cocoa in here as I don't really know what cocoa smells like unless it's actual chocolate, and I'm not getting edible chocolate out of this. The dry leaves are there, not as crispy dry as I'd like, perhaps it's the amber incense. I think that's what is giving it a "powder" feel to it. Overall it's a very nice blend, very evocative of a cool, crisp fall evening. I really want to age this and see how it does next fall.

This is a golden delicious apple, warmed in the sun, sweetened with a crispiness. It's just wonderful. The carnation adds a bit of spice to give it an extra kick. The amber warms it up. The flowers are background - there but not overpowering. The frankincense and the tea give it a bit of depth. It's a wonderful blend and I'm in love!