malanna

First, this rose is a sweaty rose. I think I can safely assume that's the musk. Then, after an hour or two, it's not so sweaty (maybe even not sweaty at all), the musk recedes, and the amber comes out. I actually sort of like it after four hours. I don't really like rose scents, but it no longer smells like rose after four hours. It just smells like light amber and musk, with dry spices.

This is quite sweet and strong sandalwood with a bit of oomph (cloves and spices) to start with. Over time, however, the oomph goes away, and all I can pick up is sandalwood. This makes me think of going to a Buddhist home, and smelling the incense burning.

Okay, I don't actually say all lemon scents smell like Lemon Pledge. Some lemon scents are sweet, like in an iced lemonade. Other lemon scents might be fresh and sour, like a just cut lemon. June Gloom is neither. It's a bit acrid and very strong, so Lemon Pledge. Maybe this smells like some sort of lemon bush or something, but I never grew up with one, so that's not what I associate it with. Anyway, after a while, I get the wet smell. This is the smell of a lemon bush (or a Lemon Pledge coated bush) after it's rained on a humid summer day, but it's no longer so hot because it's rained. The rainy smell makes the Lemon Pledge less strong. Sometimes, the Lemon Pledge becomes less acrid and becomes a pleasant lemon and floral rain smell. Other times, this just stays Lemon Pledge + rain - floral (i.e. no floral).

At first, Harvest Moon is sweet on my skin. It smells like candy corn! Hurrah! However, it quickly morphs into an indistinct, murky smell with a tad bit of floral--I think this is the woodsmoke and clove kicking in. Sort of like Samhain, but less wet leaves and more...pleasant. In the end, the florals come out more strongly, and it becomes an indistinct, sweet, floral scent. A scent an older woman might wear to a summer party.

I expected this to be more grapefruit-y and sparkling citrus. I did get a bit of grapefruit at first, but it's a sweet grapefruit, not a sour one.

After a while, the grapefruit isn't very apparent, and I think it's the delphinium and dark musk trying to take over, turning the Cat into a sweet, yet subtle floral. I can smell the lavender, but it's not the usual humid hothouse lavender, because of the delphinium and musk. I was really surprised by how subtle this was. The end scent actually makes me think of a type of soap by SoftSoap. I'm not sure which one, though.

On me, Entropy is sort of clean. It's sort of like smelling clean air. In this world of cars and smog, what we breathe is polluted air, so clean air has a bit of a distinct smell, a smell of nothingness. It's sort of funny that Entropy smells like nothingness to me. After absorbing that smell, I can sense something dirty smelling underneath. I think it's the patchouli that becomes that nothing smell, with the civet (yeah, if I think about it, it's a bit pee-like--civet always manages to smell like pee to me--but not as pee-like as civet in other scents) becoming the dirty.

Damn, this sucker is strong. I have to say, I usually end up getting headaches with sickly sweet/floral scents, and this is one of them. The rosewood goes Wham!Bam! on me, with the rose shortly behind to give a Thwap! to finish me off. However, after an hour, while this still gives me a headache, Libertine becomes an indistinct, clean floral with a detergent feel to it. As always with such headache-scents, Libertine is lovely once it's sunk into my skin and I can barely smell it.

At first, it's apple blossom, with a hint of rose. Normally, I can smell rose a mile away, but I think it's the honey that's making the rose less apparent. Rose is always sweet to me, but the honey makes the sweetness seem more ambiguous. Still, the first few hours, I'm not so big on this, because of the rose. However, after several hours, it's in the "settled into my skin and I can barely smell it" stage, and it's quite lovely. The rose is barely there, and the honey's playing with the apple blossom, making this a nice, skin scent.

Whoa, Nelly, plum! Plum, plum, plum. After an hour, this turns into spicy, holiday fun (I'm thinking it's the carnation, which is a bit spicy). After another hour, it becomes dry holiday spices, like that craft store smell. Later, it isn't so dry, and is still plummy. I thought I liked this, but now that I think about it, I don't like it so much. Great for the plum lover, though. Whenever the plum pops up, there's musk, and the musk makes it juicier.

Like everyone else has said, Cherry Blossom's sweet, clean and soapy. It wasn't so soapy on initial application, though. It's more clean (just washed sheets) than floral. Nice, but not nice enough for me to wear.

Akuma's very citrus-y, but it's not sparkly, like the way a fresh-squeezed fruit is. In fact, on me, I smell something like soy sauce underneath the citrus. There's just something sour underneath all that grapefruit-iness. It smells like grapefruit to me, because it's sour, but there's something sour that's separate from the grapefruit. I know neroli and blood orange is citrus, so maybe it's the raspberry that's doing wonky stuff on my skin. In any case, that yeasty, salty undercurrent continues underneath the citrus. That soy sauce aspect definitely makes Akuma quite evil on my skin.

Viola is a clean, perfumed powder. It's the powder that your mom would dip into with her big pouffy, uh, pouf and dust all over. It's definitely a purple sort of floral. In fact, Viola reminds me of the stila sparkly violet powder my sister once got me. It definitely smells like it, even though I don't get violets from Viola. In any case, it's a pleasant, sweet powder. I think it must be the lilac with the sandalwood that's giving me powder vibes. Also, normally, if there's rose in something, my nose starts beeping--rose!rose!rose!--but it didn't with Viola. I guess it must be because the rose is mixed in so well with the other florals. Also, I think it must be the lily that makes it soft and a bit sweet. This is a nice scent, but I'm not much of a floral scent person.

When I first smelled this, I was hit with a booze-y smell. I knew it was rum, but it smelled more familiar to me, with a more specific name...hey, it smells like Bailey's! Yes, it's rum-y, but it's really creamy, and I could practically smell the cream swirling about. I'm not too big on rum scents, even though they smell delicious, but the creaminess made me think that, if it became creamier, I could learn to really like Grog. Grog's a bubbly (not champagne-bubbly), cheerful scent--well, it's alcohol, so.... However, after several hours, it turns into stale foody, vanilla lotion. It's the type of foody lotion you test at Bath and Body Works, but smells brown and stale, because it's been sitting out for hours and so many people's been mucking around in it. Ah well. P'haps rum and I just don't get along.

I remember when Beth first released the scent, she'd posted that she couldn't get rid of the coffee note in the beginning, and for us to wait it out. Yes, there's a bit of coffee in the beginning, but it's intermingled with the jasmine. Actually, it's not so much coffee jasmine as it is brown/dirt jasmine. After ten minutes, the brown/dirt note fades, and there's jasmine in all it's glory (still, sort of a rotting jasmine on me...). It gives me a headache for about the next two hours. It's heady, but not in a headshop sort of way, but in a whoa-floral! sort of way. When it's faded a bit, it's not so headache-inducing, and the jasmine becomes a more generic floral with fig. I'm thinking the brown scent that was strong in the beginning would be the fig and tonka, with soured vanilla (I love vanilla, but some vanillas turn into the sort of smell you get when your lotions been sitting out in the sun a while and smells weird and gets brown).

I haven't tried Absinthe, so I can't attest to the accuracy of the scent. This is definitely a green sort of scent. It's very herbal, and you can smell the mint, but there's a sort of woody, bark sort of undertone to it (I'm assuming that's the anise), which makes the mint less cool and fresh. If this is a faery, it's a green-tinged wood faery. I didn't get any lemon from this either. Overall, it's not my type of scent.

Hmm, I'll have to try out my March Hare. Could you give us some more details, such as color and other notes?

I don't think there should be any issues (knowing that there's just essential oils in it), if the flushing was done for a long enough period of time. In any case, good luck, and I hope the experience hasn't put Sofie off BPAL!

Eep! I remember really liking this scent, but now it’s giving me a headache. Right now, immediately after application, I get a very tart ginger. The Dormouse is very sour at this point. I’m hoping the four teas come out soon. After half an hour, the loveliness comes out. Four teas, indeed! This is no longer biting and is instead soft and lovely. It makes me think of sitting underneath a willow tree in the spring, when it’s a bit warm, and a soft breeze blowing over. This is quite light, though (except in the first stage—eek!).

Oh, I know this! It reminds me of something, and I got it! It’s like Black Dahlia, so I think there’s a magnolia note in the initial application. Or a doppelganger for one. I remember this being a bit more citrus-y, but then again, I always get Kitsune-Tsuki confused with Kumiho. Either way, the Black Dahlia impression remains, but with a bit of tartness, thus showing the true pluminess of the scent. This lasts for about five hours before it starts to lose its scent personality, but this isn’t a strong scent to begin with.

This is a review of Jack I.

At first, this reminds me of Jack II—buttery, slightly tart (apricots) pumpkin. However, in a few moments, this becomes a black-flecked orange. It’s probably the patchouli. Slightly earthy, but still rather tartly fruity. This is sort of foody, but in a sour, Mexican candy sort of way. It's not so comforting for me. Instead, it seems to be a bit...lecherous. The staying power is nice (average for me--five hours and not faded into oblivion), and it is sort of growing on me.

Slightly cinnamon-y at first. How to describe this? The cinnamon goes down and there’s this…not quite musky scent, yet not quite warm, but it swirls and envelopes you. It is slightly musty, with a tang. It's hard to get a grasp of this scent. It's one of those scents that you'll remember, but will have difficulty describing. This isn't quite the scent of a library, but the pages of a book that hasn't been opened in a long time. After four hours, this is fainter, and I definitely get the tea impression. It's less hermit/indistinguishable-individual-notes at this point.

Just about every review said that Samhain smelled like fall leaves, and I thought, “Okay, I know Beth and crew are amazing, but I really can’t smell in my mind what that’d be like.” I understand it now, though. This isn’t leaves, floating in the wind. This is the middle of a pile of leaves—a bit wet and slightly grimy from the dirt. I get that there’s patchouli here—the dirt part—but it doesn’t make me shriek in pain, which is HUGE. Samhain isn’t quite spicy, but a bit buttery. I’d say there could be pumpkin here, but this doesn’t smell like individual notes to me. It’s just the whole impression of the wet leaves. This isn’t too strong, but I’d apply with a light hand. It’s also a long lasting scent—more than a day for me, even though it fades a bit towards the end (more so than Sugar Skull). I don’t consciously like the scent, but I’m still reluctant to let it go, because I still gravitate towards it from time to time, for a bit of comfort.

Sugar Skull is maple syrup sans pancakes. I had expected more of a buttery, edible scent. Yes, this is sugary and all that, but it’s more…pointed, I guess is the word. The scent stays pretty consistent and this is very strong. And very long-lasting—the longest lasting BPAL scent I’ve encountered (more than a day!). This is a great scent that’s true to its name, but it’s not foody enough for me. I think Sugar Skull would be great for killing those sugar cravings, though.

This is a review for Jack II (Jack I to come later).

Jack, oh, Jack…how I love thee. I hadn’t loved this quite so much at first, but now, this is in my top three. Or five. Jack is a buttery pumpkin. There’s probably a bit of vanilla, to make it so rounded, and it’s also a bit tart, which makes me think there might be apples here (okay, okay, I just checked the description and it’s peaches—bah, fruits are all the same). This isn’t too strong, nor is it too light and it lasts for at least six hours (I can’t keep track, because I keep on re-applying). WUB

Like Baobhan Sith, which I had just tried yesterday, this smells like Embalming Fluid. it makes sense that this smells like Baobhan Sith, because of the ginger and white tea. There isn't much to add to this review, except that it lasts slightly longer than Baobhan Sith, but is still gone after three hours.