ellebelle

In a way, this reminds me of Thalia. It's a combination of lush fruit and sparkling florals. Definitely a spring/summer scent and in my "to buy" pile.

I love honey scents. Giant Vulva? Win for me. Defututa? Awesome. O was a little sweet for me, but worth holding onto my imp. But this?

Oh Crib Girls, you have broken my heart. I was certain, certain that this was going to be the best of my lot of decants that I got with the Yules. It was the scent I was most looking forward to. But it smells like lemon balm. It's a soft, sweet lemon - not like the lemon verbena scents. But it is still just .... lemon. Ultimately, the lemon fades and the generic honey scent is leftover. Massive lose, off to the swap pile, I'm going to go cry in my beer now.

This smells very much like the snow note, with a little less mint - which I think agrees with me. The snow is less brittle, if that makes sense. There is a floral that comes out and seems to temper the "cold". The pepper is strong in the imp, but less strong on my skin, though I think the pepper anchors this scent a little. I love it, and it is worth a full trial wear.

Oh lemon verbena of doom, why do you hate me so? There are so many beautiful notes in this, but all I get is lemon verbena. That is it. Nothing else. And as it dries? MORE LEMON VERBENA. Lemon is not my friend and this goes into the swap pile.

Cinnamon. All I smell is cinnamon. Maybe a little bit of honey. Oh, but where is the beeswax? Where is the olive blossom? Oh why, oh why cinnamon? Note to self: cinnamon may be a note of DOOM. Even as it dries, cinnamon is the predominant scent on my skin. I wanted to love this so much.

I smell mostly the cirtusy things - I get the guava, the mandarin, the honeydew. I even get the freesia. I don't get the salty, woodiness which is too bad since that it what this scent needs for me to take it out of the realm of soapiness. Oh well.

This smells like sweet beeswax, as noted by others. I don't really get vanilla, I get more of a ... honeyish note? It is definitely a close to the skin scent. I love it and I could easily imagine wearing this often. Then again, the beeswax note on me is one of pure WIN. I don't know what it is, but the wax note loves me. This is remininscent of Hanerot Halalu or Giant Vulva (both of which I liked). It's sweeter than Hanerot Halalu but lacks the honey note of Giant Vulva. I love love love it.

Am I the only one who smells peach Bath and Body Works, circa 1992? This reminds me of that SO strongly, it is uncanny. I like the smell, but I don't want to smell like it.

I thought I was going to love this. At the beginning, I get the tangerine creamy scent that the other reviews have talked about, but then I don't know what happens! I think my skin amps to benzoin and sandalwood and eats away the delicious citrus. I am left with this smelling a little bit like candle wax. It reminds me a lot of Summer's Last Will and Testament which I also thought I was going to love, but ended up not working on me. Sigh, off to the swaps.

in the bottle: this is very musky in the bottle. Basically, the musk is just about the only note I smell.

wet: Musk and resins. As noted by some of the previous reviewers, if you are into resinous scents, you should like it.

drydown: The musk backs off a little as does the intense first resinous scent. It becomes more balanced into a spiced resin. I was really hoping for more vanilla in this, but I don't really smell the vanilla at all. It reminds me a little of Fascinum and Azathoth.

verdict: I'll try it one more time, just to be sure, but I think this is going off to the swap pile.

Voodoo Lily to me is a slightly more floral version of Flesh-Eating Reindeer (DD).

I was wondering if anyone found similarities between The Girl and any GC scents. The Girl is probably my favorite BPAL scent that I have come across and I am trying to pin down the note in it that makes me love it so much. On me, it is not floral at all - more of a vanilla muskiness to it.

Stupid lemon/lime.

I wanted to love this, but it is all citrus on me. I get no moss, no cedar, no vanilla, no snake oil. Just lemon and lime and maybe a hint of something herbal making this smell even more like cleanser. I let it dry for a while in the hopes that it would morph, but it stays very lemony on me even on the dry down. I eventually got frustrated and pulled out my imp of snake oil and slathered it OVER this blend, which did help a little. Really what I am missing is the vanilla. I'd love to layer this with Antique Lace, but I am conserving that.

I'm going to give it a little time to settle and I'll try again. But the first impression is not favorable.

2009 Version

This smells like a darker musk and mulling spices to me. When I first put it on, I got a little of the apple, but that went away rapidly. Unfortunately, I don't really know what the dry down would smell like as this is the very first BPAL oil that has ever given me a rash. I don't have particularly sensitive skin, and I don't know what note it was, but I had to shower it off. Too bad, because I was loving it. If you have sensitive skin, I would test lightly first.

In the bottle: Bright, bold citrus.

wet: More citrus, but with something very sharp behind it. I think that is the geranium in it.

drydown: This one isn't really much of a morpher on me. I don't really get any of the traditional floral notes, just the spicier floral of the geranium. The sharpness dulls a bit, but there is still something vaguely unpleasant about this blend.

final verdict: I regret buying a bottle. This is one that I could keep and wear occasionally, but I would rather wear stuff I truly love wearing.

On me, Stinky smells just like baby powder. Maybe at the beginning, I get faint whiffs of the honey and the milk notes, but the overwhelming scent is that of baby powder. This is definitely not for me.

This smells like dial soap. I mean, just like dial soap on my skin. My boyfriend uses dial and I did a side by side sniff test with him and he couldn't tell the difference either. Definitely not what I would want to wear for perfume.

In the bottle: carmel and rum.

Wet: A VERY light throw - I can smell the carmel and the apples mostly and a bit of the cream.

Drydown: This smells exactly like caramel apples. This might be a little foody for me, but a wearable kind of foody (as opposed to, say, Lambs-Wool which I love to smell, but I don't want to smell like Lambs-Wool). I think the light throw also helps here to make it a little more subtle and a little less BLAM! Food in your face.

Verdict: I'm keeping my bottle, but I suspect it will take a LONG time for me to finish it. This was the surprise hit for me among the Halloween scents this year.

In the bottle: Fruit with a nutty sort of background.

Wet: More fruit, but this has gone sharp and plasticy on me.

Drydown: The apple becomes more and more dominant, and the plastic smell remains. It's a little better than the wet stage, but still. Yuck!

Verdict: Swap pile.

in the bottle: almond.

Wet: more creamy almond. This is exactly what hecate smells like on me in the wet stage before MUSK MUSK MUSK.

Drydown: The almond scent it still there, but it has gone powdery, like all of the rosy floral scents do on me.

Verdict: Yet another scent that ends up smelling like talcum powder. Almond is not a long lasting scent on my skin. For the swap pile.

in the imp: Lemony and wonderful.

Wet: holy floral, batman!. I get no resins, no fruit, just a huge burst of nose tingling, get it away from me floral.

Drydown: The floral starts to fade and then it just smells like soap. I can almost smell a hint of something resinous, like the sandalwood, but it is overpowered by the soapy smell.

Verdict: I wanted to like this very badly, but I don't. It takes a very very special floral to work on my skin.

I am with Molls and Monster - this quickly turned to vanilla plastic on my skin. I had to wash it off.

This one smells so much like Pumpkin I on me that I had to put one on each wrist and do a smell test. This one is a little darker than Pumpkin I, but the overwhelming scent I get here is still spice. This one is a little muskier than Pumpkin I and lacks a bit of the sweetness. I like this well enough to keep the imp, but not so well as I would want to buy a bottle.

This smells like caramel to me. In the bottle, it smells like caramel. Wet, it smells like caramel. The dry down? Still smells like caramel. I don't know where there linens are in this, but that note is absolutely lost on my skin. On the upside, I do like caramel.

I ended up with two imps of this, and I think I will keep them but two imps is probably the perfect amount of this scent for me.

This one really surprised me. I added it to my order at the last minute, but of the three pumpkin scents I have tried, it is my favorite. In the imp, it is all sweetness - I guess the sweetness I am smelling is the pitch? I am not sure, but this is lovely. On wet, it smells pretty much like it did in the bottle, with the pumpkin add a bit of buttery-ness without overpowering the more delicate scents that it is blended with. As it dries, the fir comes out more and adds even more depth to this. A surprise hit and I am considering a bottle.