Alethia

Thoughts before testing: I really, really love buttery, creamy scents and amber. Unfortunately after having my daughter in 2022, my skin throws anything with honey into the next town. So we’ll see how this goes!

Wet: Ooh, this is a really pretty and warm floral amber. Sweet but not gourmand. It’s not smoky at all but kind of reminds me of a floral Light of Men’s Lives. 
 

Dry down: This definitely honey but it’s not overwhelming on me and the throw is reasonable. I’m thinking the amber is grounding it. This feels like Valentine’s Day to me. 
 

Dry: This is so beautiful. I get no butter at any stage but it’s so pretty I don’t even miss it.
 

Final Thoughts: This definitely feels like a Luper instead of a Yule to me. It’s warm and comforting and just pretty. And it lasted forever: a solid 10 hours later I could still smell it. This is my favorite from the 2023 Yules. 

Thoughts before testing: marshmallow is my forever love and I’m hoping this will be a Snow White marshmallow love fest. 
 

Wet: A big ol’ blast of pine and Snow White! 
 

Dry down: The pine is really taking over and is quite chilled smelling, making it reminiscent of Skadi to me. 
 

Dry: This eventually settled into a pretty Snow White with a heavy dose of chilly pine. It’s pretty, but no marshmallow. I’m willing to let it age for a while, but in the meantime I’m

officially on the hunt for a marshmallow single note to layer with my 2006 bottle of Snow White. 

Thoughts before testing: Peach is one of my forever love notes, best encapsulated in the discontinued Josie (honeyed peaches and magnolia) from The District. Marshmallow, vanilla, and cream are also big winners for me. It's like I wrote out this list note to create my perfect perfume.

Wet: This is a dead ringer for the Yankee Candles Peaches and Cream. It's kind of artificial and cloying at the wet stage, despite smelling like something I want to eat out of the bottle. 

Dry down: The cream and marshmallow come more to the forefront and start to smooth out that artificial peach candle smell. At this stage, it's like taking a homemade marshmallow and drenching it in peach syrup. 

Dry: After around 2 hours, the vanilla and toasted cream really take over and turn this from "eh" to pure love. It's like homemade canned peaches got wrapped up in a slightly toasted marshmallow and then drenched in vanilla.

Verdict: I've been out of Josie for almost a year now and have been looking for a peach to take it's place. This definitely fills the space and surprisingly I prefer this to the honey-overdose that Josie has. The vanilla/cream/marshmallow works better for me than sticky honey, especially given the hot climate I live in. Love this to pieces. 

Thoughts before testing: One of my holy grail scents is Castitas bath oil from the Trading Post. It's notes are listed as rice flower, vanilla, and cream. But it's been out of stock for so long that I started looking for substitutes (and you better believe once it comes back, I'll be buying 5 bottles lol). I figured Lola Lee Loo would be a close contender more smoky and with a little more depth due to the fig, clove, and patch. Fingers crossed! 

Wet: Wow, this is stunning! It's a heady floral vanilla with just a hint of the clove/patch. The fig bloomed for about thirty seconds before retreating to the background and making the vanilla/rice flower more rounded and not screechy at all. 

Dry down: As it dries, the clove and patch get screechy for about fifteen minutes; you know, high pitched and nostril-assaulting. I decided to give it another 10 to see if it toned down at all and to my extreme surprise this morphs into a much more smooth vanilla with the edges of smoke and sensuality from the clove/patch combo. 

Dry: After about four hours on my skin, it's all smooth and creamy golden vanilla with just a hint of smoke and spice with a very light floral tinge. 

Verdict: My perfume sweet spot is best described as Morocco, all vanillas and spices and cream and sweetness without being foodie. Lola Lee Loo is EXACTLY what I've been looking for in a perfume. I didn't realize I needed a little touch of something smoky and dirty to really bring the spicy creamy sweetness to it's full potential. This is also lasted forever on my skin, taking a full 9 hours before I had to really try and smell it. The throw is low-medium and got me a bunch of compliments at work yesterday. I'm absolutely hoarding this one. 

Thoughts before testing: I tend to vastly prefer fresh Snake Oil on my skin, so fingers crossed that this is new and not aged SO. 

Wet: Nutty? It smells like fresh SO mixed with a fresh jar of peanut butter. Big yikes at this stage. 

Dry down: Thankfully the weird peanut butter smell fades and I'm left with a beeswax heavy SO. I get almost no sweetness or vanilla; it smells like I mixed SO with The Lights of Men's Lives which is absolutely terrific. I think this is going to age beautifully. 

Dry: After about an hour, it mellows out to nearly straight Snake Oil. I'm really glad that I didn't immediately spring for a bottle of this. It's pretty but I think I prefer regular SO and quite frankly, I'm not willing to buy a bottle and hope that in a year it ages into something more than it is right now. 

Verdict: Keeping the imp, no bottle.

Thoughts before testing: Hopefully the champagne will prevent the cherry from going too cough syrup on my skin. 

Wet: Ooh, this smells like cherry Starburst (my favorite flavor). 

Dry down: The champagne takes over and turns the entire thing into a fizzy, pretty scent with just the slightest hint of cherry. This is super pretty. 

Dry: The cherry comes back for the final dry stage and mixes so prettily with the champagne, making it sweeter and more vibrant. I really like this. 

Final thoughts: I've been following BPAL for almost 10 years now and my collection is in a really nice place: not an overwhelming amount of bottles and a nice representation from all the major scent families with heavy emphasis on sweet/gourmand and spicy/warm scents. I don't have any cherry or champagne scents in my collection though, and I'm pleased as punch to have found this. 

Verdict: Upgrading to a bottle.

Thoughts before testing: At this point, I'm almost 10 years into being part of the BPAL family. In that time, my tastes have changed drastically and now I'm leaning toward the sweet/gourmand family (this would have shocked the 2011 Alethia). I'm hopeful that this will be warm, cozy, and sweet. 

Wet: Vanilla musk without being too sweet. It's smelling like a more linear Morocco to my nose at this stage. 

Dry down: Definitely smelling like Morocco: dry, warm, and pretty.

Dry: It keeps the Morocco vibe all the way through the day (lasting an impressive 8 hours on my skin). 

Final thoughts: I find Morocco more interesting and less linear than this. It's definitely in the same family and this is a good thing for my wallet. Morocco might be my favorite BPAL ever and I have 4 bottles aging while I work through my current bottle. To date, I'm on my fifth bottle of Morocco. That similarity makes this superfluous in my collection. It's beautiful, but not as beautiful as Morocco. 

Verdict: Pass. 

Thoughts before testing: Peach, musk, and amber are all wins for me so I'm hopeful that this will be the star of the 2020 Lupers for me. 

Wet: Yeah buddy! This is beautiful and kind of bright to my nose. The peach is sweet but not syrupy and the amber grounds it and keeps the whole thing from smelling like a typical fruity/floral. 

Dry down: That sugared amber is absolutely stunning. It's warm, sweet, and only slightly fruity. 

Dry: The peach stays quietly in the background while the amber shines. This is really beautiful and right in my wheelhouse. 

Final thoughts: I love this, but I don't know if I love it enough to upgrade to a bottle. I keep my collection tight to only those perfumes that I LOVE. I'm not sure if this is a LOVE, but it's definitely beautiful. 

Verdict: Keeping the imp, probably not upgrading to a bottle.

Thoughts before testing: This has been on my "to try" list forever so I was thrilled when it came back with the 2020 Lupers. I'm hoping that this is a sexy, smoky skin scent. 

Wet: Woof, very indolic coconut. If I didn't know better, I'd say this has jasmine in it. As I sniff, the indolic part starts to become almost plasticky? 

Dry down: The indolic smell is gone but the coconut is definitely smelling like plastic. This is so disappointing! 

Dry: After about an hour, the plastic burns off and it becomes this nuanced, beautiful sexy coconut. This is exactly what I was looking for!

Final thoughts: It lasts forever on my skin. I was still smelling it strongly 9 hours later and it kept that sexy coconut vibe the whole way through. The first hour was rough what with the indolic/plastic stage. But there's a good chance it just needs to age that off, so I'm keeping the imp for now and strongly considering a bottle. 

Verdict: Keeping to age, look for an update in 6 months. 

Thoughts before testing: Pink pepper is one of my favorite notes but cherry has been wildly hit or miss on my skin. I'm intrigued but fully prepared to write this off as "good for her but not for me". 

Wet: Strong almondy cherry. Very pretty! 

Dry down: The cherry burns off in the first 5 minutes, leaving a really bright and sparkly pepper. 

Dry: The pepper hangs around for a surprisingly long time. It took a good 5 hours before I had to really smell it. That pretty cherry never made a reappearance, sadly. 

Final thoughts: If this kept the cherry note around longer instead of being just a single note pepper experience, I'd like this a lot more. I'm trying to keep my collection ruthlessly pared down and I don't think I have room for a pepper single note. 

Verdict: Lovely, but not keeping. 

Thoughts before testing: Josie (magnolia and honeyed peaches) is one of my favorite BPALs of all time, but now that it's discontinued and I'm just about done with my (third!) bottle of it, it's time to find a replacement. I get almost no magnolia, it's a straight up PEACH dripping with honey. So when I saw this bad boy in the Luper lineup, I jumped. All of the notes here are absolute winners on my skin and I'm hoping that this will be a home run. I should note that I use the Lab's bath oils as post-shower moisturizers and not in the actual bath. 

Wet: This is a super realistic, wet, fleshy peach. I absolutely love it at this stage. I don't get any honey or cream and that's ok by me! 

Dry down: The honey and cream start to peek out. Lordy, this is good stuff. It's like Josie but creamier (the magnolia could make her a little sharper than I'd like sometimes) and not as heady. 

Dry: Creamy peaches drizzled in honey. This is absolute perfection.

Final thoughts: This is a worthy successor to Josie, particularly if you weren't crazy about the magnolia. In fact, I might even like this better than Josie. As far as longevity goes, this is a winner too. Using it as a moisturizer gets me a full 8 hours of lightly scented skin and if I try hard enough, I can still smell it by hour 10. This is rocketing up into my top 10.

Verdict: Hoarding.

Thoughts before testing: I've been doing keto for almost two years now (and low carb for even longer before that) and Coke was by far the hardest thing for me to quit. So when I saw the description of this, I immediately tossed it in my cart. Marshmallow is one of my favorite perfume notes and I have high hopes that this will satisfy those damn sweet cravings that still linger even now.

Wet: It smells like I smeared an ice cold Coke on my skin, all fizz and sweet

Dry down: The marshmallow comes out a little more but mostly it's a fizzy Coke scent. I don't mind the lightness of the marshmallow here as I don't have anything in my perfume box that comes even close to a cola fragrance.

Dry: That fizziness is just delightful and lasts forever. When I worked at the now-defunct Borders bookstore, our cafe would make a cola drink with vanilla whipped cream and raw sugar that tasted exactly like this smells. I'm shockingly into this.

Final thoughts: I don't have anything in my perfume box like this and it's a definite keeper!

Verdict: upgrading to a bottle!

Thoughts before testing: I generally steer clear of fruit scents but apple is an exception for me. Ever since the really beautiful Celestial Apples from the 2011 Weenies, I've been on the lookout for interesting apple scents. Apple and milk sounds just simple but intriguing enough for me to bite (pun intended )

Wet: Super duper realistic, crisp, juicy, sweet Honeycrisp apple with just a hint of milky goodness in the back.

Dry down: After about fifteen minutes, the apple becomes creamy and the sweetness dials back just a little bit.

Dry: The apple really mellows out and the creaminess becomes the star of the show. I definitely agree with those above saying it's sweetened like cereal milk (although without the fruitiness that was present in the Marshmallow Bunnies of Niflhel, thankfully).

Final thoughts: Sweet creamy scents are my absolute favorite type of perfume and this is a stunner. The apple is to die for, the creamy sweetness lasts forever, and all throughout the day I kept getting wafts of this really amazing scent that I was continually delighted to realize was me. My husband is very into apple scents and went gaga over this as well. I have a lot of sweet/cream scents but nothing with apple so this is definitely a keeper.

Verdict: upgrading to a bottle!

Thoughts before testing: I've been on the hunt for a grapefruit perfume forever so this was a no-brainer.

Wet: Wow! Bright sweet grapefruit with a little honey and crisp apple. LOVE at this stage.

Dry down: Ooh this is super fun and almost sparkling. The apple isn't "shampoo apple" and is actually really pretty when it's blended with the grapefruit. I'm in agreement with other reviewers that there definitely smells like honeyed plumeria mixed in. Not a complaint at all as I think this note is what's making me not miss a heavier grapefruit.

Dry: The grapefruit starts to come a little more to the forefront and the plumeria/apple cider is a little sparkly all the way through.

Final thoughts: I really love that this isn't piercing or sharp. It's just pretty and sparkly and a little sweet and different from anything else I've got in my perfume box.

Verdict: upgrading to a bottle!

Thoughts before testing: I recently fell in love with the plum in Bathsheba so when I saw this, I immediately pounced.

Wet: Slightly indolic but very pretty. Very well blended, I can't really pick out any individual notes except to go "ooh, pretty and fancy"

Dry down: The indolic smell isn't going away which is weird because I usually only get this from jasmine. Beneath that, it's a sweetish resinous scent.

Dry: The patch starts to really blossom after several hours on the skin. It's not gnarly or rooty but is really smooth and polished and warm.

Final thoughts: That indolic tinge never went away despite a full day test this week. Maybe hormones? I don't know, but I also don't know if i liked this enough to try it again.

Verdict: I'll hang onto the decant for aging purposes but definitely not a bottle purchase.

Thoughts before testing: Stekk from the 2015 (or maybe 2016?) Yules is one of my all-time favorite perfumes and since I've only got one bottle of that I'm always on the look out for marshmallow replacements. I'm hoping that this will hit that same olfactory spot.

Wet: Wowza, nothing but super sweet Fruity Pebbles.

Dry down: After five or so minutes, the Fruity Pebbles fades and leaves just a sweet slightly fruity marshmallow.

Dry: Pretty sugar with just a hint of fruitless.

FInal thoughts: Normally I steer clear of fruity scents but the fruit is so light here that I don't mind. There isn't enough actual marshmallow in this for me to jump for joy and Stekk is a lot warmer and fluffier so I don't think this will fill my backup spot. But it is pretty in it's own right and I definitely like it enough to keep the decant.

Verdict: keeping, but not a bottle purchase.

Thoughts before testing: Snake Oil is one of my favorite love-muffins and I have high hopes for this one!

Wet: Fresh Snake Oil and bright pink bubblegum for sure. The bubblegum is a sweet and a little dusty, like the bubblegum tape you could get in the 90s.

Dry down: The Snake Oil starts to overpower the bubblegum and it's all I can smell at this point.

Dry: And now it's just play-do This is extra weird for me because I greatly prefer fresh Snake Oil over the aged stuff. I've never gotten play-do out of Snake Oil so I think this is going to be a pass for me.

Final thoughts: I like bubblegum and I love Snake Oil so I'm sad that the combination didn't work for me.

Verdict: passing the decant along to someone who can appreciate it better.

Thoughts before testing: I first tried a frimp of Aeval in 2013 (you can find my original review of Aeval here) To date, I've drained that bottle and two imps and when it was discontinued I was so sad. My excitement when it was re-released this summer was enough to get me to order 3 bottles immediately. I don't have the original to compare against so I'll try to review this on it's own merit.

Wet: YES. This is it! It smells exactly like I remember the original Aeval smelling. It's really pretty, clean, and sweetly floral.

Dry down: The sage is crisp and clean and slightly green; the sweet pea is vintage and sweet.

Dry: The musk finally comes out to play and blends beautifully with the sage and sweet pea.

Final thoughts: This winds up being a really lovely softly sweet floral musk with a generous helping of beautiful clean sage. The throw is pretty much nonexistent and it doesn't last for very long at all (3 hours on well moisturized skin in humid Ohio) but neither did the original. Aeval was my go-to perfume for work due to it's close throw and inoffensive prettiness and I'm so very happy this was brought back.

Verdict: Hoarding, with a potential fourth bottle on the horizon.

Thoughts before testing: I can't get enough of blends with skin musk, and vanilla + sandalwood is always a win in my book, so my hopes were high for Like a Girl to smell pretty dang good.

Wet: Ugh so pretty. This is heavy on the skin musk wet and it smells clean and warm and just slightly sweet.

Dry down: The sandalwood and vanilla come to the forefront and it definitely starts to smell like a sheered out Morocco. Still clean and warm but more sweet from the vanilla.

Dry: The vanilla and skin musk intensify just slightly and this winds up being a vanilla'd skin musk with just a breath of resin to ground it. It's warm and clean and just barely sweet and I love it. This has moderate throw and good wear time (7 hours before I really had to try and notice it).

Final thoughts: It's been a minute since I tried a perfume that made me think "Man, I smell PRETTY." Very feminine, very pretty, and basically what I want my own natural skin to smell like. Morocco has long been my favorite perfume, but the lighter and more natural feel of Like a Girl might be enough to claim the top spot.

Verdict: Backup bottle needed stat.

Thoughts before testing: Despite my recent BPAL hiatus I had to come out of hiding for this one. I've been searching for a gardenia/tuberose perfume to round out my collection a little more and I'm hopeful that this one will be it!

Wet: Big, white, waxy, tropical gardenia and tuberose. Very big and loud but not screechy at all. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Dry down: The ambergris and vanilla become more prominent and start wrapping up the florals in a sexy, salty gauze that turns everything from Classic Lady Perfume to a really interesting and beautiful scent.

Dry: Hello lover This is a creamy, slightly salty, vanilla'd white floral with just a hint of powdery amber on the very back end.

Final thoughts: Love, love, love. This is such a pretty and interesting take on the classic gardenia/tuberose combination. Really lovely, really classy, really womanly. I can see the comparison dementia_divine makes to Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending and Ava and I agree that this is in the same family but different enough to warrant owning all three. I might be biased here though as BFJA and Ava are in my top ten already; at this rate, The Eternal Queen is rapidly approaching that list as well.

Editing to add that the throw on this is moderate and it lasted for right around 6 hours on my (well-moisturized) skin here in humid Ohio.

Verdict: Hoarding

Thoughts before testing: I haven't made a BPAL order since last year's Anniversary scents as I've found my small stable of perfumes that work perfectly on me every time. But when I saw the notes for this, I had to try it. Carnation, honey, milk, and cardamom are all part of my top ten love muffin notes list and so I had to give it a whirl.

Wet: Yowza, the honey and cardamom are mixing to create this almost raisin-y, chewy sweet scent. I'm not sure I'm feeling this wet stage at all.

Dry down: Thankfully after 30-ish minutes the chewiness dies down and the whole thing morphs into a sweetened spicy carnation.

Dry: The carnation is sweet and spicy and lovely. This is really pretty, really feminine, really me.

Verdict: Keeping!

Edited to add: the throw on this is mild but lasted for roughly 7 hours before I had to really try to smell it. My husband says he likes it but prefers Stekk or Paper Phoenix to this.

Thoughts before testing: I've got a pretty serious love affair with marshmallow going on and Snake Oil/Snow White are dependable and wonderful on my skin, so I figured I was pretty safe with Cotton Phoenix.

Wet: Sweet, fresh Snake Oil with a really beautiful hit of creamy/sweet/floral Snow White. I would never have thought to mix these two, but they're really beautiful together.

Dry down: The marshmallow comes out and makes everything a little sweeter and more fun.

Dry: After several hours, the marshmallow is gone and I'm left with a almond-y Snake Oil. It lasted forever on my skin.

Final thoughts: I'm not sure I'm super wowed by this. I wanted to really big heart eyes love it, but I just didn't. And since I'm paring down my collection in a major way, I don't think this is staying.

Verdict: Lovely, but a pass from me.

I can't even do a proper review for this because on my skin this is a dead ringer for Clinique Happy. Like seriously, I sprayed one on each arm and (once the alcohol burned away) they smell identical.

I'm not even mad about this because Happy has been one of my favorite scents forever and I'm thrilled to have a BPAL dupe of it!

Thoughts before testing: Literally everything here is a win. Dorian is one of my all time favorites, Antique Lace is one of the best vanillas I've ever smelled, and pink pepper is true love. I don't see how this can go wrong!

Wet: Hellloooooo Dorian! This is a huge hit of bright, sweetly musky, citrusy Dorian smacked in the face with the delicious fruity sharpness of the pink pepper. A little sharp, but not unpleasantly so.

Dry down: Everything starts to mellow and I can start to smell a hint of the linens and vanilla of Antique Lace.

Dry: By several hours in, Dorian and Antique Lace have melded to become this really outstanding scent. I don't even know if I can properly describe it except to say that it's creamy and sweet and slightly citrus/herbal and just really lovely. This one lasted forever on my skin. I put it on around 8 am and could still smell it 10 hours later. The husband loved it (no surprise as Dorian and Antique Lace are his favorites on me) and has already ordered me a backup bottle.

Final thoughts: When I originally got into BPAL, I was thrilled at the idea of having dozens of perfumes to choose from each day and loved trying out new things and new personas with each scent. But now eight years later (where did the time go?!), I want a small stable of 3-5 perfumes, scents that I love and that make me feel the most authentically me. Paper Phoenix definitely fits that bill.

Verdict: Hoarding.

Thoughts before testing: I purchased this bottle back in 2015 and immediately put it away to age after the first sniff. It was nothing but loud, indolic jasmine and sharp screechy woods and I knew that it desperately needed aging before it would even have a chance of working on me. So here we are, almost exactly 2 years to the day later and I'm ready to take this baby for a test drive. Looking back at the note list, I'm not exactly sure why I bought this. It's practically a list of notes guaranteed to not work on my skin. But having said that I have noticed some pretty significant skin chemistry changes since I miscarried last winter, so maybe it'll turn out ok!

Wet: Heady jasmine that's still pretty indolic. I get a little honey and a little bourbon vanilla, making it a really lovely sweetened floral with a hint of earthiness.

Dry down: The woods start to come out more and the jasmine starts to recede. It's pretty hypnotic actually and feels like super slinky, super sexy, Serious Perfume. The honey and vanilla sweeten everything, This is shockingly lovely.

Dry: Much heavier on the woods and honey now, but this one lasted forever on my skin (6 hours and still going strong).

Final thoughts: This is so far out of my normal perfume range, but I'm shocked at how much I like it. Keeping!

Edited for spelling.