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Imp: Amaretto, spice, and a gorgeous aftershave. Wet: Cloves and almond cookies and manly soap. Dry: Clove soap and a hint of almonds. This promised to be nice, with cologne cutting through the extreme foodiness, but alas, 'tis not to be.

Imp: Soap! Gritty herbal soap and a bit of muguet. Wet: Not soap any more, but incense. Somber, gorgeous incense like the kind I've smelled in temples. I think it must be the lotus, champaca and opium. It smells like one of those very very expensive hippie shops, the kind meant for yuppies rather than stoners. There's definitely a touch of cool aquatic about it too. Very nice, clinging close to the skin. Dry: A fruity, floral incense that is very different from the other, heavier BPAL incenses. I think the stone and water are what's giving it a gorgeous, slightly dusty quality. There's almost no throw on this, but it's definitely so gorgeous that if you catch a whiff you want to move closer. I don't find this harsh or creepy it all-- it's beautiful!

Imp: Orange oil, beeswax, candle smoke and honey. Simple and comforting. Wet: Honey and beeswax and hot orange-scented oil in a burner. This is sweet without being summery, and heavy without being cloying. It's gorgeous, it reminds me a great deal of Hanerot Halalu with an added citrus rind component. Dry: A gentle, slightly powdery wax and honey with gorgeous, soft folds of orange and something that smells like cashmere feels. Comforting but beautiful. I'm definitely keeping my Imp!

Imp: Thick heavy red musk, reminiscent of Snake Charmer and Smut. A little tobacco, a little nutmeg, not much else. Wet: I had no idea what to expect from red musk and hemlock and nutmeg but the end result smells like Sin had a baby with a wet conifer. I'm getting amber and orchid and the other, sweeter components now too, but this is definitely one of Beth's Red Musk Blends. Dry: Red musk, spice, a touch of floral. Pretty, but very very close to both Scherazade and Sin on me.

Imp: Oh my God. I had no idea what to expect, but this is rich, spicy, gorgeous citrus, like the world's most interesting desert. Wet: Bitter clove, something that must be pimento, thick caramel sauce, tobacco smoke, bitter citrus and dark berries. Holy bejebus. This is unusual, interesting, gorgeous and just sophisticated as hell. Caramel never works on me but in here it's almost more like a dry, sweet wood smell. Dry: A sweetly sophisticated woods, tobacco, bitter citrus and pepper blend that is much more inviting and feminine than that description makes it sound! This is way too grown-up and fancy of a scent for me to wear, but it is really magical in the way a bunch of disparate components come together to work in a way that none of them would on their own. Like nothing else I've ever smelled!

Imp: Peaches, pine trees and white flowers. Wet: Heavy, ripe peaches, pale delicate flowers, rice milk and just a tiny tiny breath of the weird powder that black musk turns to on me. The rice flower note strongly reminds me of Lovers in a Ricefield, but with peach substituted for plum. It also seems to be missing the unpleasantly tangy topnote that the Asian Lupers have on me, which give me a giant headache. Dry: Sweet peach, rice milk, floral musk. This is very very pretty, but not the sort of thing I usually wear.

Imp: A sweet white floral and an almost alcoholic pear. Like a gorgeous, summery mixed drink. Wet: Clean, fruity, magnolia soap. Yum. Perfect for a bright spring day like today! Dry: Sadly, this turns into the fancy milled soap that so many floral BPALs do on my skin.

Imp: Sharp, alcoholic, woody, herbal. Lots of dusty musk and bitter orange underneath. Interesting but not very appealing. Wet: Scorched lavender, woods, dust, heavy patchouli and incense. Something a little salty, maybe myrrh for the parchment. It's quite masculine, and I'm not getting sweetness from the benzoin, orange, or amber. After a while, it settles down to a incense-y patch with a heavy, dusty air of citrus. The throw is pretty strong, too! Dry: The same, with a bit more orange and amber to sweeten it. This is nice, but not outstanding on me.

Fruit gums are a note that never fails me, so I'm looking forward to this. Imp: Patchouli and heavy, sweet fruit-- cherries and peaches and other berries, backed by a very cloying, almost sickly jasmine. Which is weird, because I usually love jasmine! I think it's the combo of jasmine-vetiver-pine-fruit that's making this smell like really unpleasant bubblegum. Too bad, because all of those notes are generally okay on me by themselves. Wet: Way heavy, WAY perfume-y jasmine and soap scent quickly covers up the bubblegum (thank goodness.) I get a burst of incense and a sticky lovely bit of those fruit gums that are always stellar on me. After a minute, patchouli and pine come out to calm the whole thing down. Aaah, that's better. Now it's dark fruit and polished wood and incense and night air. Dry: Eventually this dries down into something very similar to Nightmare on me, but without the linen note. It's sweet fruit, dried fruit, patchouli, incense and a breath of floral. Lovely!

Bottle: Amber, strong incense-y vanilla-ish amber, sandalwood, and a slightly plasticky vanilla. No flowery notes just yet. Wet: Ah, there they are! Cool green leaves, like crushed grass, and a strongly perfumed amber. I get very little cinnamon or vanilla, but there is a decent whiff of sandalwood. This smells very femme, very cool, and very, very sophisticated-- like a really striking traditional perfume. Dry: Cinnamon and amber incense, which is gorgeous, but unfortunately the vanilla here is the kind that turns into burnt plastic on me. I can imagine how this would be amazing on the right skin chemistry, but it's definitely not for me.

Imp: Soap! Sharp, overwhelming soap (Dove specifically) with ginger, sulphur, and a very astringent citrus note. Wet: Slushy, minty snow and bright lemon vodka, very much like Snowblind but a little less sweet. Definitely an element of soap (the white tea?), but with a lot of very interesting stone and smoke background scents going on. Complex and interesting and much, much more adult than Snowblind, even though they share that same lemon-mint-slushee top note. Dry: This ends up exactly like a less annoying, milder Snowblind with nice hints of incense smoke and rock dust. It's quite lovely, but not the sort of thing I usually wear.

Bottle: Crushed green stems, spring air, fresh laundry, sandalwood incense and a faint, faint hint of mushrooms. Earthy and cheerful and very, very spring-time. Wet: Earthy sandalwood and mushrooms, then something that smells a LOT like lotus and magnolia and fresh grass. It takes on a slightly powdery, perfumey note from the linen and sandalwood, but it smells like 'fresh' incense with the windows wide open in April. It is super-strong, though-- in fact, it might be so strong as to trigger a headache. We'll see. Dry: Powdery fresh laundry, mushrooms and fresh mown grass. Unusual, springy, and quite nice, but this is not my usual sort of scent at all. I may hang on to it for warmer weather, or I may pass it on.

Very excited to try this one, since the notes are basically a giant listing of all that is awesome on me. Imp: Soft pear, patchouli incense, and a musk that reminds me quite a lot of those "china rain" scents that were popular back in the day. Behind it all is cool metal and stone, figs, and sleek polished wood. Complex and gorgeous! Wet: The pear here is watery, cool and not very foody, but extremely lovely nonetheless. Behind it is a scent that reminds me a lot of the wet stone in Dwarf, along with a lot of beautiful golden musk, incense, and a hint of green leaves. It's pleasantly incensey and outdoorsy all at once. Dry: This ends up being a very nice patchouli incense on me with hints of stone. Nice, but my imp will do.

So excited to try a sniffie of this! Imp: Fresh, salty ozone and bodywash. Ambergris and salt with something more interesting and smoky, probably the incense, underneath, and a BIG hit of very masculine musk. Wet: It softens immediately, turning into a feminine, sensual musk (Arabian, maybe? It's warm and desert-y), ambergris-- which is a YES! note on me and here continues its awesomeness with a close, sexy, almost chocolatey smell-- and hints of sea air and incense smoke. Unfortunately, a smell just a hint like burning plastic almost ruins it. Does this have leather in it? Leather is usually the only thing that causes major plastic problems for me. Dry: Sweet musk, ambergris, wood, and faint incense. The plastic seems to have burnt off and this has turned into a very femme, old-fashioned night-time perfume, a bit like Morocco! It's got hints of dust and salt and warm berries. Very pretty, but I don't think I need more than my tester.

Imp: Soap? Clean, sweet, resin-y soap, and linen stored with the incense sticks, and sunshine through the window. Not at all what I expected! Wet: Green crushed stems and soap (the bamboo, probably), opium incense smoke, warm clean laundry, smoky green tea, herbs sprouting on the windowsill and faint, sweet, white florals. Oh man, this smells like a really wonderful Sunday afternoon in the late springtime, full of sunshine and laziness and beautiful blue sky. I get no cologne, no Antikythera Mechanism, just something that's indolent and wonderful and cheery. I kinda get the coconut connection, but it doesn't actually smell like coconut, just sweet and happy. Dry: Okay, I can definitely see coconut. A sweetly fruity smell has developed, and along with the herbs and opium incense it turns it into an almost foody scent. This one was a definite surprise, I expected smoke and stone and dry herbs and got sunshine, linen and flowers instead. It's a surprise hit and I will enjoy my tester!

Imp: A lovely, nocturnal floral over an array of sweet, clean musks. Smells like I'd attract bats! There's a faint hint of mint that's really nice, but it's definitely not a predominantly mint scent. Wet: A sweet, almost melon-y floral with... whatever that flower that ends up smelling sort of grainy on me is. Lettuce and musk. It smells, and I mean this as a compliment, like a REALLY nice soap. Dry: A creamy green floral with lots of gorgeous musk. Pretty, but not something I'd normally seek out.

Leather does NOT work on me, but I'm happy to try this anyway. Imp: Sweet, thick, sticky, sexy honey, very much like the honey in O (but fresher and more... um.. real? Somehow.) Powdered rose buds and a faint hint of mead. VERY very feminine but also very classic. Wet: I applied lightly 'cause this sucker is strrroooooong. The first thing that comes up, oddly, smells like... fir? Or birch? Something woodsy, which is unexpected. Then rose, then powdery amber, then sugary wine. Far in the back, I'm getting a slick vanilla plastic smell that must be the leather. Dry: Honey, dried roses, and wine. Not my sort of scent, but gorgeous, and I think, destined to be very popular!

Imp: Deep, dark, citrus smoke with gorgeous thick ginger and heavy curtains of incense. Umph. Good stuff right here. Thick and heady like some of the great GC incense blends. Wet: Interesting combo of grass and smoke, almost like a dry meadow on fire. I'm getting something that I think is the black gum leaf-- smells like dried sap-- along with dusty roots (mandrake), bitterness (rue) and tomato leaf. Despite that, the musks and the amber make this sweet enough to be wearable. It's dark and witchy and wonderful, if many of the blends I love (Feb. 2010 13) are witches' kitchens, this is definitely their sabbath, with herbs and incense aplenty! Dry: This ends up being a gorgeous, sweet incense blend, rather like Sin, but full of dark vegetation and a smell that smells extremely similar to all of my firefighting equipment. Needless to say, I like it! I will see how fast I go through my partial Imp, but I could see buying a decant or two of this no problem. If the heavy notes in this one scare you, don't be too afraid!

More Roerich goodness! Imp: A blast of something really, really, really familiar, but I can't tell what! Not motor oil, not gas station, a botanical note that I absolutely know but cannot for the life of me recall. It's sharp and a little metholated, but also-- TEA TREE! THAT'S IT! This smells like straight up tea tree oil! Pungent, medicinal, and (to my nose) quite pleasant. Wet: The tea tree dies down is replaced by a powdery, soft rock-flour smell. I get the gas station comparisons, but really to me it smells like a weird combo of potato starch, tea tree oil, an ice note, and medicinal herbs. Odd but not unpleasant. An oily component finally appears later on. Dry: Tea tree, potato starch and motor oil. What a bizarre combination.

Bottle: Barlett pear, sweet and crunchy, with vanilla whipped cream and a gorgeous, sharp honey liqueur. Smells good enough to drink, and I'm hoping the honey mead note will keep it wearable on me! Strong enough to scent the whole room, too, if I leave it uncapped for a moment. Wet: Sweet pear-scented honey laced with comforting vanilla candles. It's an almost floral honey rather than a sexy, sticky one, which brightens the scent up and makes it less overwhelming. From further away, it smells like pear-honey liqueur over vanilla ice cream. Dry: A sweet, almost pungent smell of honey liqueur and pears with a soft trace of vanilla. This is one of the very rare foody scents that isn't plasticky on me, but I will need to see how often I wear it before I make any decisions.

Nicholas Roerich is one of my favorite artists ever, so I just about died when I saw Beth had made these! I love the still, silent, otherworldy quality of his paintings and pastels, and I am very much hoping that the Roerich scents work on me. Imp: Sweet, floral snow-- grapefruit and citrus and bright pale fluttering florals rimmed with ice. Gorgeous! Smells just like Snow Moon, with a hint of something bitterly resinous and woody. Wet: Snow, and ice, and high, clear, piercing winter air. I get the ozone and aquatic comparisons, but on my skin, it's not quite the same. There's something green and growing underneath it all, and brief flashes and hints of dusty cedar. This smells, on me, almost exactly like one of those early spring days where the tips of the green grass are just starting to push through the nasty, gritty slush. It tries to go soapy, but ends up staying that sweet, crystalline note. Dry: This stays that same slushy snow note, so it is definitely not for ozone-haters, but accompanied by a bright grass green... something. Up close, soft wafts of cedar and incense beckon you to come closer. Unfortunately, it seems to make me sneeze! Overall, this is (weirdly) like a cross between Snow Moon and Pirate Moon, with the soft wood and incense of PM but the fresh, gorgeous winter notes from SM. It's lovely, but nothing I really feel compelled to seek out more of.

Imp: Spicy, musky, peppery with a hint of bubblegum. I smell clove, pepper, tonka, neroli, and the same sort of musk as Smut, which ended up smelling great but not being something I wore often. Let's see what this is like. Wet: Heavy, smoky, warm, woody musk with a hint of sugary sex. Very Smut-like, but whereas Smut was screamingly sweet on me, this is much more balanced by some of the darker aspects. It has a lot of splintered wood and something that's registering as campfire smoke to keep that diva musk in check. Dry: A sweet, cedary (without actual cedar, I think) musk full of soft incense smoke, wood, and spice. It's much much tamer than the "loud" musks like Smut, and I like it a lot better. I'll hang on to this and see how much I use it.

Imp: Yum! A soft, edible lavender combined with a sweet herbal lemon, some mint, and gorgeous, almost bakery orange-almond. I would like to roll in it please! Wet: Orange-almond liqueur, catmint, a glowing delicate lavender, and lemon verbena tea. Feminine, yielding, but also cheerful and sunny and wonderful. Oh, I really like this, it's like a slightly more edible Santa Eularia des Riu. Dry: It smells exactly like catmint leaves, right down to the slightly dusty fuzz, with hints of lavender and lemon and baking. Oh, this is glorious! So sad it's discontinued, but Santa Eularia will have to do if I want more.

Imp: Deep, earthy patchouli (a very popular note in the Marchen line, I'm noticing, which makes sense, since it does smell magical!) and sharp florals. It smells a bit purple, but sort of in an unpleasantly alcoholic way. Wet: PATCHOULI, the stanky, sour, dirty hippie kind I love! Right behind that, a big swell of almost sharp florals and AAAAAAAAAAAH! How did I not notice this has rose geranium in it? It's everywhere, with its sour "off" smell that I hate! It's all over my arms, too, why didn't I read the notes before I slathered? Dry: There's a lovely jasmine underneath it all, and maybe even some nocturnal plum, and the base note is that patchouli I love so much-- but dangit, rose geranium is like Godzilla in Tokyo! I'll try this a time or two more, because there's a hint of something deep and resinous and musky underneath, but unless that rose geranium backs the EFF off, we're gonna have words!

Bottle: Sweet, realistic, red apple, with just a touch of bright, tart peel. And ginger, and cinnamon, and cloves, and something that smells like milk and caramel and just a touch like booze. Oh yum, this smells like grownup, sophisticated caramel apples! What an amazing fall scent. <3 Wet: A tart, gorgeous apple, heavy spice, and caramel. I am not a foody scent lover, but this is mostly amazing apple with spices and just a hint of brown sugar. And there's something kinda herbal-earthy in there too, maybe the beer? It's awesome! Dry: Grown-up caramel apples, spicy and almost floral and sexy and snuggly. I predict wearing this a lot when the weather is cold. It's the perfect scent to cuddle up to in your lovely, draped white winter scarf.