Invidiana

I went on a passionfruit dig, and while I can't seem to find one that's mostly vanilla and passionfruit, here are two GCs and also two LEs that aren't too difficult to find: Golden Wave: Tangerine, gin, passion fruit, guava, and tonic (I know it's fizzy and not creamy like the LaVanilla one you're describing but you can definitely smell the passionfruit) Rangoon Riptide: Pineapple, mandarin orange, raspberry, passion fruit, and rum (the booze is not insane) Blue Moon 2009 (Beth's): Mugwort, Calea Zacatechichi, Orchid and frankincense, musk, exquisite woods, moonflower, Madagascan ylang ylang, Florentine iris, Greek cypress, green tea absolute, palmarosa, cucumber, Clary sage, lavender, lemon balm, and passion fruit. (tiny hint of passionfruit but a lovely scent--I was first to review this one!) Agape: carnation, apple, sweet pea, vanilla cream, passionfruit, sugar cane, tonka, and guava. (alas carnation doesn't like my chemistry but you may have better luck) Fruit Moon 05 and Velvet Tiki also have passionfruit in there, but a) it's not very obvious and b ) they're both pretty difficult to find. Exotic fruit notes do tend to pop up in summer LE blends, so maybe it will wave hello somewhere in the coming months.

I can't put my finger on what this reminds me of, but for some reason it brings back the few good memories I have from high school. It might have been some delicious-smelling strawberry lipgloss from Sephora that's been long since discontinued (and the lipgloss comparison is intended in the best way possible). I get lots of the sticky glaze moreso than the cheesecake, which I'm guessing is probably going to come out more with age. The tartness of the candylike--but not cloying--strawberry balances out the peach, which I'm glad for because peach on its own can sometimes get too sweet on my skin. This puts me in a happy place.

This strikes the perfect balance between shadowy florals, dark fruits and undertones of warm musk and wood. The teak in this is does not clash with the fruits but instead compliments them and adds warmth. I love that this has sugar cane because it not only sweetens the blend just enough but gives an added depth, the same kind you get when you compare Sugar in the Raw with standard white sugar. Despite the handful of florals this is by no means one of those screeching florals that triggers sneezing but a rather enigmatic and velvety one. For anyone afraid of rose, there is really only the slightest hint of rose here, and nothing sharp or dry. On me the final drydown is musky, sweet and alluring.

Try The Clock Strikes Midnight from this past Yule! It shouldn't be immensely hard to find. I know it's got blackcurrant which looks as if it would take over but it's actually mostly wisteria and blue musk (at least on me), very ethereal and dreamy. It's definitely my favorite wisteria blend by far.

Let me cut to the chase: if you've tried Bath & Body Works' sweet pea, this beats the hell out of it. It's a burst of fresh pink flowers that dries down to a sweet (but not cloying), slightly candylike floral. The candylike quality is really just an undertone that is an aspect of the actual plant itself, not "added sugar" to the scent at all. This is a pink scent that still evokes the color pink without being sickly sweet, and brings a breath of spring to the air whenever I smell it. It's a really pretty and fresh and feminine I've fallen quite in love with, and this is coming from a person who insisted she didn't do florals a year ago.

I do love this one; it is soft sweet snow as advertised, minty but not too minty, ozone somewhere but not blasting, and with sweet vanillic undertones. There definitely has to be some of that beautiful BPAL white musk in here, which could account of the tinge of vanilla, or a nonfoody vanilla, or both. Whatever it is, this is definitely not a wintry ozone assault on your nostrils; rather, it's the olfactory version of a winter wonderland.

I am positively leaping for joy at another BPAL apple blossom scent that doesn't go to cheap floral soap on me. Actually it starts off wet as that apple shampoo I used to use in junior high, but dries down into a lovely feminine floral honey scent with just a hint of mint to give it an airy and refreshing feeling. An unexpected winner which I can see as ideal for those summer days when you feel like you're wilting.

I was really hoping to love this one because of the first four notes listed, but with my luck I ended up amping the last three, mate and carnation more than anything. I can't stand mate. I tried yerba mate tea once and promptly spat it out. That said, what happened with this but after the initial confusion of notes in the wet stage, the mate came blasting out in a lemony-medicinal type of way followed by carnation to eleven. I could barely smell anything else. Ugh.

This one really isn't for me; I was hoping the blackcurrant and violet would amp but I mostly get green tea with a bit of mandarin. If you like green tea scents, though, I can defintiely recommend it from an objective point of view; it's definitely a more complex green tea.

This is like Gingerbread Poppet on clouds of vanillaed marshmallow cream, like Marshmallow Pumpkin's Yule counterpart. As it dries down the vanilla and marshmallow notes actually become more prominent than the gingerbread on me, but for the record I do amp vanilla (not like I actually mind). The gingerbread doesn't disappear into a trace of spice like some gingerbread scents do, though; it holds its own. There's really nothing more to say except it makes me want to eat my wrist.

Comforting warm woods and that lovely beeswax I recognize from The Lights of Men's Lives, thick and rich with honeyed overtones and a bit of something vanillic. I think I detect some amber in here as well, probably part of what makes up the "scent of gold coins". It evokes a schoolhouse of days gone by without actually smelling like an old house (that one's reserved for Copulating Mice on me). This is one of those scents that warms up the imagination even if it's freezing in reality.

Yummmm, this is like an entire candy store jammed into one 5ml bottle. It's like a blast of sweet sticky sour stuff, mostly tart and fruity like Sour Patch kids, gummies, etc; I don't get too much peppermint. Screw Christmas, this is ideal for any time of year!

Rose, carnation, and jasmine...this was one of those I wanted to try more for a how many ways of wrong can this go moment. Sure enough, there went the jasmine turning to cat pee on me, then the rose making it sharp cat pee, and hella blasting carnation. Too bad I can tell there's some really pretty vanilla flower and lavender under there but all in all it was pretty disasterous.

I think this would be ideal for anyone skeptical about rose who wants to test-drive it. The rose isn't sharp or loud, just soft white rose on a bed of sweet resins, though mostly rose.

I think Little Bird nailed it by saying this one is like layering two different scents that are great on their own but odd together. I too love BPAL gin (Blue Fire!) and white chocolate blends but the two together just don't seem to mesh on me. It's like the fizzy, tangy gin is constantly at war with the creamy and sweet white chocolate and they won't just settle down already. I think if there was some sort of fruit in there it may have worked better.

Wow did this ever make me sneeze. Most BPAL jasmines go to cat pee on me, but after trying this I think Grandiflorum is the worst offender. I would probably ooze cat pee from 50 feet away if I actually wore this. Take that jasmine and add rose to it, and it becomes sharp cat pee. My skin doesn't do this one any justice whatsoever.

This reminds me very much of how Sacrifice ended up on me; raging cedar and manly De Sade-esque leather. I really can't pick out the other elements because those two amp so strongly on me. I do imagine it would be sexy on the right guy, meaning one who doesn't turn it to hamstercage cedar like I do.

There was some hope for this in the beginning from the syrupy black fig backed by the resins; however, as it dries down a lemony green tea plus a strong carnation dominate with a bit of smoky vetiver in the background. That shouldn't really be a surprise to me since I amp both carnation and anything remotely lemony. Ah well.

Oh, cedar, even when you're white you don't give up until you trample everything else to death. I barely even get to smell the Eastern musk, which was what I was most looking forward to; I get about 90% screaming CEDAR and a sprinkling of spikenard, mint and petitgrain. I had to expel Apatrophia from my wrist faster than she expels sinful lusts.

This started out very promising; lots of dark, sweet rum reminiscent of the booze in Banned in Boston with additional depth from the musks and resins and smokiness from the vetiver and guiacwood. However, after a minute or so something starts to go off and give it this odd lemony overtone and I have no idea what's doing it. I'm guessing it's the combination of two or more of the components on my skin, because I'm pretty sure none of them does it on me alone. Ah well, I'll always have my Banned.

I don't know what happened with this. I was especting a lot of red musk, black cherry and dragon's blood but instead got blasting red rose with only a bit of a berry and rosemary undertone. My skin should have amped my favorite elements in this but for some reason it didn't. Iz confuzd.

Here we go again with the lemon verbena. Behind it I can sense some lovely rich golden honeycomb with hints of anise and tea, but the verbena is just so LOUD on me it drowns them out. So sad.

I had such high hopes for this because I love wisteria, but on my skin the lemongrass basically strangles it and all the other elements. I can tell there's a really pretty spring floral underneath all the deathly sharp lemongrass, but it's been trampled beyond recognition.

Remember those 90s Herbal Essences commercials, "she has the urge to herbal"? Obviously my skin had an urge to herbal with Festival Mask because all it lets me get is stomping sage and bitter tea leaf with bits of citrus and patchouli somewhere in there wishing they could make their presence known. The amber and flowers didn't even stand a chance over the sage amping so much. I wanted to love this because I have a thing for masks, but all my chemistry wanted to do was herbal.

Oh GAH GERANIUM. Without that blasted flower I imagine I would have loved this. Sadly not only can I not stand rose geranium in any way shape or form but I amp it like they amp techno on Jersey Shore. Basically wet this is peach and rose geranium, and dries down to mostly rose geranium with something sweet struggling to break out of the background. Gah.