yakiguri

Samhain '13 Samhain has been the one BPAL scent that everyone else loved but would never love me back. I always got dirt and nasty moldy wet leaves, none of the autumn awesomeness everyone else got. Then Samhain '13 came along and I think I've FINALLY found MY Samhain. The blend starts off with spiced apples and dark woods, and pretty much stays that way. There is a bit of sharpness to it which I think is from the mullein, but I'm really hoping (and expecting) that aging will smooth that out. I even got an immediate "ooh, you smell nice" from Mr. Elf. Definite bottle purchase, and may spring for the pumpkin version too.

Starts off VERY heavy on the vetiver, but eventually dries to a mellow, sweet, and cool spiciness with the clove and geranium being most prominent but the spices never overwhelm. I agree with the above poster that it's evocative of a clear autumn night. The more I sniff, the more I love. I imagine this will be AWESOME with aging, and will definitely upgrade to a bottle.

Starts off as a very mellow honeyed pumpkin minus the oft-paired spices, but unfortunately turns to plastic as the blend dries and beeswax takes over. It was quite pleasant while it lasted though, and for once the BPAL pumpkin note didn't go poof within 5 minutes. As I'm desperately hoping this year for a BPAL pumpkin blend that works on my skin (I LURV the smell of pumpkin but the Lab's pumpkin note doesn't tend to love me back) I'll revisit my decant before the Weenies come down. EDIT: All hints of plastic are gone, and now the blend is a warm, mellow honeyed pumpkin. This one's a winner!

Starts off as creamy almond with a slight sharpness from the lemon, but quickly burns off into spicy Christmas candle. Will revisit before the Weenies come down but thus far prospects don't look good for even keeping the decant.

Thanks to Highwayman I've learned I like vetiver but NOT if it's front-and-center, like it is here. The first few minutes were torture as the vetiver was so strong and sour I nearly retched. I stuck it out though, and as Highwayman dries I get more of a smoky leather dusted with rose and jasmine, though vetiver still lurks menacingly in the background. I like my scents dark but this is too dark even for me. Though I imagine this might be incredibly sexy on the right man...

The greatest of all Aztec cities, and capital of their empire. Amber, hyssop, coriander, epazote, Mexican sage, prickly pear and Mexican tulip poppy. If you were to mix orchid with a generic Christmas spice candle, you would get Tenochtitlan...or at least that's how it goes on my skin. :/ The juicy fruits and lush florals at the beginning burn off pretty quickly (less than half an hour) and now I'm left with a flat Mrs. Grose minus the interesting bits.

… Our Grand Guignol perfume is a shot of sweet apricot brandy; just enough to settle your nerves after a ghoulish, gory brush with the macabre. Selected this blindly from my grab bag of yet-to-be-tested-frimps, and had I known it had a booze note I would've immediately put it away. The apricot is high-pitched and screechy, which is also putting that note into my death notes list. The blend itself is just plain acrid on me and it's most definitely going in my NOPE pile.

Sweet powdery lavender is pretty much all I get. Unfortunately I think either the vanilla ice cream note or the honey skin musk disagree with my skin chemistry as the powder has an acrid, almost metallic tinge to it. :(Odd, as none of the notes listed are death notes, and my bottle's about two weeks old so it's had time to settle. Will have to revisit again in a few months--I love the theme and the label art too much to let this go yet. EDIT 2/5/16: Only after YEARS of aging can I wear this. There's still a hint of that acrid tang I hate, but it's not nearly as sharp. It's still there though, so if years of aging won't get this to work on my skin nothing will. I'm sure it can be easily rehomed.

Started off with wonderfully smokey and dark vetiver with a bit of bite from the carnation...then black musk swooped in and smothered the blend with baby powder. I should have known that scorched musk = black musk, the only musk that doesn't work on me.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. Haute Macabre is everything I had hoped VILF to had been--a dark spicy black leather sweetened by something thick and slightly dirty. All the notes come off beautifully on my skin, none competing with the other. The black leather behaves superbly and doesn't have a hint of the chemical edge the Lab's black leather note tends to have on me. I can imagine this becoming even richer with age. Definitely need to grab a backup at some point.

I've never smelled real absinthe before, but this blend on my skin is primarily lemony anise. I'm actually quite surprised that lemon's behaving on my skin, being that citrus tends to be a major skin nemesis. Wish it had something with a bit more oomph as an anchor...maybe I should hunt down a bottle of Absinthe & Lace. >_>

This skirts just over the androgynous line towards manly, so much so that this masculine-blend loving gal can't find it in her to wear this. The lilac and musk are quite strong on me, with leather creeping in a little later (and staying further in the background than I prefer). My nose refuses to acknowledge this as anything other than "freshly showered male." Not that there's anything wrong with that. This blend may not work for me, but I think I now have Mr. Elf's summer blend.

Maybe my skin chemistry's out of whack since it's TTOTM, but all I get is a very muted, almost watered down vanilla. It's almost like Lyonesse, but after it's been on after an 8-hour work day. I have to be thisclose to my skin to even get a whiff of it. I can't tell the other notes, but overall the blend is very sweet powdery vanilla. I'll try again under more normal circumstances, but so far I'm glad I never bought a bottle blind.

Mmmm, Love is what happens when you combine Boo with The Peacock Queen. I was hoping for a sweet creamy rose, and that's exactly what I got. Luckily the rose in Love is a red rose, not yellow (which screeches on my skin) or a tea rose (which turns to nail polish remover). I was leery of the strawberry, which can go plastic-fake on my skin, but luckily it's so faint I wouldn't have known it was there if I didn't read the scent description first. Longevity and throw are decent--not sticking around all day but not gone in a flash, smellable without screaming its presence to the world. Juuuuust right. If you love rose, you probably already have this, and if you don't, FOR SHAME. If you've wanted to try rose, or if rose and you haven't been working out, you should give this at least a try. The name is definitely apt. LOVE.

This is probably the only BPAL blend with wine in it that didn't immediately turn sour, but the combination of it with the other notes makes for a scent that's like baby powder, but off. I blame the myrrh since unless it's far deep in the background it can start smelling vomit-esque on my skin. Ah well.

Heavy citrus and floral spice soapiness which unfortunately reminds me of cheap hotel soap. I guess that could be kinky, but not for me.

Clean nondescript "spring" laundry detergent. :/

I was looking to this scent the most out of the Our Lady of Pain update, and while I like it, I don't love it like I thought I would. Lavender is one of my favorite notes but it's more prominent in this blend than I would like, and can swing between being soft and going sharp and herbally. I get patch and some hints of orchid and opium and not much else. I have a feeling Our Lady of Pain might need quite a few more months of aging to be fully appreciated, and for that reason alone I might just pick up a backup.

Yet another one of the Our Lady of Pain scents that smells exactly how I had hoped another blend would've. Raptures and Roses of Vice smells like what I had hoped Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds would've been. Orris ruined RPD for me but since it's not in RRV I'm perfectly safe. I get a heady, languid, slightly cool coconut rose tinged with warmth from the magnolia and cinnamon. I get slight hints of tobacco here and there, but I have to actively look for it. Hopefully it'll be more pronounced with some aging. As someone recently recovering from avoiding anything rose I'm glad I got a bottle of this unsniffed.

Oddly enough Feed Me and Fill Me with Pleasure smells exactly like I had hoped Badgers would: sweet, thick honeyed patchouli with a dash of vanilla. The patch is much rawer than it is in Badgers, but it lacks the piercing honeysuckle note that keeps ruining Badgers for me. The amber adds a slight powdery perfuminess that just rounds this out beautifully. I imagine this will be INCREDIBLE aged and I'll have to pick up another bottle before the collection goes down. Also, the throw is pretty strong in this one--you might want to dab rather than slather.

I'm seriously hoping more aging turns this blend into something amazing, as currently all I'm getting is pencil shavings (I blame the cypress) and a spicy, soapy floral (the opium and orchid). I also can't smell it unless my nose is thisclose to my skin. A shame since otherwise this has nothing but win notes in it and theoretically should be awesome on my skin. EDIT 6/06: Now that the blend has aged more the soapy pencil shavings are GONE. The cypress is now more of a green, slightly sharp backdrop to what is now a spicy-sweet orchid blend, an aquatic with a bite. Longevity was surprising for a floral, lasting all workday on my skin. Glad I have this as part of my orchid stash, and yet more proof that with BPAL you gotta give the scents time to settle before they truly bloom on the skin.

Nothing but grapefruit on my skin, but at least it never went sour as 99.9% of citrus blends tend to go on my skin.

I get primarily jasmine and lavender, and a twinge of something sharp and sweet that later turns out to be honeysuckle. Unfortunately this veers too close to soap to warrant a bottle purchase, but it'd be nice to have my linens and laundry smell like this.

I absolutely love the scent of lavender and regularly wear a lavender vanilla lotion to bed, so why it took me so long to get a bottle of this I have no idea. TKO starts off a bit medicinal and herbal but quickly settles down into a soft, creamed lavender. Whoever said it was like lavender marshmallows is spot on. I'm quite a light sleeper and since using this I have been able to not only fall asleep quicker but also sleep more deeply, so TKO gets plenty of gold stars for that. I can see myself going through bottles of this quickly and will need to pick up the TKO massage oil from the Trading Post. (Psst...hey Puddin, could you please make a TKO atmo? )

All cherry and red musk, no anise whatsoever. If I want red musk + fruit I'll stick with Hollywood Babylon.