theredshoes

Oh how I wanted to love this. I ADORE pom scents. The BPAL pom note does tend to turn a little sharp on me, especially after a while, and I think that's why I got a citrus feeling from this scent all the way from first slather to drydown. I think the pom was softened up by the fig or tuberose -- I kept getting wafts of sweet and sharp citrus that were not that tangy -- more like those clear citrus candies. A kind of sour note came out with the drydown, maybe the tobacco leaf or smoke. This had fairly good throw and LOTS of staying power. The smoky note started to give me a headache so I washed it off with dishwashing soap -- twice! -- and this scent was still hanging on, and did for hours after washing. Sometimes I layer a sweeter scent over the BPAL pom notes, but that mix just didn't work in this bottle -- the sharp pom note and creamy tuberose? sweet fig? blended into a kind of weird artificial fruitiness.

My skin just amps honey and almond (and eats milk and vanilla) so that's mostly what I got out of this. 😕

Wet - BLAST of almond, then a lot of honey, no incense, some amber (BPAL's amber goes to powder on me mostly), maybe a bit of vanilla. 

Drydown - A lot less almond, thankfully, and a vague sweet smell -- not a big pouf of sweetness, and no incense. The amber turns powdery. Very low throw.

Dry - It lasted maybe 45 minutes on my skin! I wanted to love this (okay, largely because of the name) but it wound up being kind of bland and faint as well as short-lived. I wonder if the incense would come out more as it ages.

I agree that it's more perfumey, not as foodie as I was expecting, and is rather "soft girl" or "vanilla life" (even if I didn't get much vanilla). My husband said "this is one of those very light scents."

I've had mixed experiences with oud in BPAL blends -- all the way from "STEPPED IN FRESH POOP" to a subtle but deep spicy-smoky-woody-musky note. Typically it doesn't work on me, though.

In the imp: A pretty whiff of pecans, syrup and something bitter-musky! Promising.

Wet: No other note detectable than BANDAID. Strong, fresh, immensely overpowering BANDAID. I'm guessing my skin is amping the oud and that drowns everything else out. Husband was drafted to see if he could smell other notes and he immediately recoiled from my wrist. It's not the bad oud stank, but very unpleasant.

Drydown: The BANDAID smell is going away, but unfortunately it's being replaced by rubber. The smell isn't really getting any better, just fainter, but it's still pungent. Not much throw but once you get close the rubber washer smell hits you in the nose. 

Dry: The bandaid/rubber washer scent is still hanging on even though I washed my hands repeatedly with dishwasher detergent while cooking! It's still terrible, though. Hours and hours later I was still getting whiffs of BANDAID and new car tires from my skin. The longevity and consistency was impressive! ....even if with a kind of awful result. 

I'm keeping this because it was a limited treat and it's part of a set, and maybe it'll change as it ages! I really don't think I got BANDAID from oud before. I also wonder what it might be like in a scent locket. It was very interesting to test!

Wow, I don't get lavender from this at all. Lavender is my favourite scent, and I was really hoping this would be heavy on it. Instead, there's a very sharp unpleasant note at first, and then something my husband said smelled "like pine needles, but not the good ones." I guess my skin's tendency to amp whatever woods/grass/leaves/any green stuff BPAL notes, plus whatever rockrose is, completely drowned it out! Oh well, at least I helped support a good cause and maybe the lavender will come out as this ages.  Sometimes ugh scents morph into beautiful keepers.

I....wanted to love this? Especially after all the great descriptions here. I don't know what happened. I slathered it on and barely smelled anything. My husband said he smelled something, "really powdery" (while it was still wet). I kept barely smelling something, and then an hour later it was just gone. I tried slathering it on again, but nothing. It's weird because neither Snake Oil nor Snow White vanish on me, in fact Snow White turns into pure Play-Do. This smells like sharp musk in the bottle, but just really nothing on me. My skin tends to eat vanilla, so maybe that's what happened, although I thought the Snake Oil part would stand out more. Maybe after aging the invisible vanilla will ease up.

In the bottle: Whoo! Knocked out with a strong butterscotch buttery rum scent. I was a little nervous about this one because I amp cinnamon and maybe nutmeg, but I absolutely loved Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee, so I was hoping for another neat spiced rum blend.

Wet: On me the apple note starts coming out right away, and yeah, it's more of a pale green note than a deep red one. Not a lot of spice or rum. The vanilla cream makes this apple very light and sweet.

Drydown: The spice notes start coming out and I get some of my spiced rum, although it does smell a little burnt, which I guess is the butter note. I thought this would be a lot more rich and heavy, it seems more like light apple-butter plus spiced rum.

Dry: Not much throw, but okay staying power, and it keeps kind of shifting from sweet vanilla cream/apple close up to the more diffuse spiced rum note further out. A bit too sweet and light for me, I was expecting more of a cider note.

Verdict: It is close to those caramel apple lollipops, but with sweet vanilla cream, not caramel. (Which is odd because the butterscotch note was SO strong in the bottle.) The buttery spiced rum note is good but it's too background for me. I guess the apple note drowned nearly everything else out -- I do like the apple blends (and have a lot of them!), I just wanted more of the spiced rum.

For some reason this doesn't feel like a fall scent to me -- maybe more like a Yule? But I don't know why.

My Marquis! I love him, he's my favourite character in the book, I could read a whole other book or two or three just all about him. (I had the same feeling about Silas the vampire.) (I do not have a bad boy thing.) However, after a mere decade or so of BPAL testing (has it really been that long? goodness) I am now a little bit better informed about what does not smell good on me. So I got a for-curiosity's-sake imp from my decant circle.

In the imp: Cologne. Uh-oh.

Wet: Very spicy, very sharp cologne. I'm guessing this is the bay rum. Not getting any leather, opium, wool, dust, or sweet/cocoanut from the massoia bark.

OUR HEROINE, hopefully: Does this smell like a beloved old leather jacket?

SPOUSAL OVERUNIT: Sure....

(wait for it, wait for it -- )

SPOUSAL OVERUNIT: ....if you doused it in bad cologne.

SIGH. As in BPAL, so in life, the Marquis and I are destined to remain forever apart, due to my weird skin chemistry. I guess my skin's amping the hell out of on note and eating at least a few others, but heck if I know what exactly.

Drydown: This faded FAST on me, I have no idea why. I got something that might be leather? but is also so faint it's hard to tell. It also smells very fake and chemical-y. It was just faint, yet bad.

Fortunately, it faded quickly....but for some of us, not quickly enough.

SPOUSAL OVERUNIT, a couple of hours later: Could you wash that off? It's giving me a headache. -- With the dishwashing liquid.

SIGH.

I figured the citrus and verbena would stomp on the amber, cedar, labdanum and oud. sigh. Wanted to try it anyway, because I like the Steampunk line.

In the imp: Citrus and something like tea.

Wet: Lemon bathroom cleaner. The cats left the room.

Drydown: The citrus has died down a bit and something vaguely amber-wood-resin is in the background, but it's still all about the lemon bathroom cleaner. There's also a faintly sour note -- almost oily, definitely unpleasant.

(Husband: "It's definitely changing. Less lemon, less bathroom cleaner.")

Verdict: Total miss, sadly. About the only thing this was good for was when one cat chased another into the bedroom, I was able to get the aggressor to turn tail immediately by putting my hand down near the floor. It's good cat repellent, I guess.

I LOVE jasmine. //rubs hands //slathers

In the imp: Heady musky gorgeous overblown floral. Come to mama, baby, this is gonna be good.

Wet: Nooo there's some kind of acrid almost plasticky note coming up -- this isn't the jasmine, as it doesn't go to cat pee on me. THANK GOD, that's going away. Might be the iris or the night-blooming whatsit. It dies down and a hint of musk comes up and a lot of pretty pretty jasmine. Still slightly sharp, but it's an interestingly dark -- dusky -- floral.

Drydown: Gets both fainter and sweeter. Decent throw, fairly long-lasting. As a friend of mine noted, the throw is sweeter than the on-skin smell (I've noticed this with a number of BPAL sharp florals). A little bit of that sharpness stays, which makes me sad, and it goes slightly soapy, too. Flowery and femme, but sophisticated. The musk definitely comes up more.

Hours later: Much sweeter, and the musks and spice really come out. Very very pretty. Almost creamy.

Verdict: I could've sworn I tested another imp of this years back and it was more flowery, less plastic. Maybe it ages well? I might try it in a scent locket to see if I can get that gorgeous in-the-imp blast to stick around. I'm guessing either the iris or the primrose is the culprit here. If you're looking for an old-fashioned big sweet WHOOM! FLORAL scent, this is a good one. ("Perfumey, in a good way" is very accurate.) It'd be great in summer, or on a late-night date in a cafe, a midnight rendezvous on a verandah....sorry, got carried away there. It reminds me a lot of walking on summer nights in Santa Fe, when we'd pass a big lilac bush and there'd be this sudden wall of heavy sweet scent you could almost see, and kept smelling after you walked through it. Substitute jasmine for lilac and this feels very similar. I wish the on-skin smell wasn't as sharp/green, but the move from floral into sweetened musk is interesting.

Husbandly verdict: "You smell like flowery hotel soap in a plastic bottle." SIGH. (He likes O. No, he loves O. If every BPAL were like O, with very slight variations, he'd love it.)

I'm normally cautious about snow and ozone notes, but this is one of my favourite fairytales, so I went for a decant.

In the imp: An almost-clear oil, not that thick. First sniff is sweet but sharp, not unpleasant but pretty intense. It's really hard for me to describe or analyze. I got almost a faint citrusy note, but my husband didn't (his opinion: "Smells like Christmas....no, I don't know why"). Definitely a chilly smell. I get no mint.

Wet: Sweetens up a tiny bit, but not much -- I'm still waiting for the vanilla and sandalwood. I don't get pine -- it's still a pretty sharp bright cold scent, with maybe some of the juniper. Not a heavy smell, but definitely sort of piercing. Usually "high white" scents give me a headache, but not this one -- maybe the vanilla's softening it up a little? This smells the way bright sunlight looks on snow.

Drydown: My husband could definitely smell the sandalwood long before me ("Incense.....smoky? I like it, it's not sweet like your other perfumes," HAHAAHAH //cries). I finally got the sandalwood note, smoky-sweet, but it took a while, and was mixed with the juniper (?) in a really interesting way. I don't think this has a lot of throw, but it hung on for quite a while.

Verdict: Definitely a wintry cold smell and it suits the subject perfectly. Not something I'd want a bottle of but I'm really glad I got the decant. Bright, icy, snowy, faintly sweet but a deep chill underneath. I think the sandalwood and vanilla darken this down and sweeten it up a lot, because other snow scents just don't work on me (Snow White goes right to the infamous Play-Do).

(One of my 2015 NYRs is to write more BPAL reviews! I slacked off sadly during 2014.)

Frimp from my lovely decanter! I love the Alice line and it's one of my favourite books ever, so this seemed like a good scent to start the New Year off with. I also love the BPAL honey note.

In the imp: A barely yellow thin oil, almost clear. I get a nice whiff of golden honey, and some flowers, maybe a little spice.

Wet: Rather faint honey, sweet but not cloying. I really slathered it (accidentally, and there went the label) but it's still quite faint. Definitely not that golden rich heavy honey, but a nice unsyrupy sweetness. (Husband thinks it smells powdery, boo. Also: "Wow, that's really faint.")

Drydown: This doesn't fade too much, but remains very light. Husband thought almost a light musk came out, I got more powder -- we might both be picking up on the tonka. Green turns to instant ugly blech on my skin, so I was worried about the chamomile and hyssop, but I also amp honey so I guess it's drowning out the green. I don't get the honey-in-tea smell, but this is definitely sweet honeyed herbs, rather than herbed honey. It might be much sweeter on people who have less trouble with green notes. Not a lot of throw, but pretty good staying power for something so faint.

Verdict: It's sunny out but really cold here, and we have the blinds drawn all the way up but the windows tightly closed to catch the sunshine, which is fading but a little bit warm. Pathetic Fallacy Alert: this reminds me of very early spring, when the sky is that pale clear blue and you see a promising haze of green on trees more than actual leaves or buds. This would be a nice light, slightly green, honey for those who don't want that big sweet blast. Not bottle-worthy for me, but I'm glad to have tried it -- I might get another imp of it.

Frimp from the lab. I absolutely love Midsummer Night's Dream and have always wanted to try this. Unfortunately, it was rather disastrous.

In the imp: Faint sweet floral with a harsh chemical undertone.

Wet: YO, something went terribly wrong immediately. I don't know if it was the green note (?) or the pansy or the carnation (which hates me) or what, but I got almost no floral and a kind of awful wet swampy chemical smell. Husband said it was like bathroom air freshener from the eighties! Thankfully it didn't cause a headache, but this is really unpleasant.

Drydown: After a while it seems to get a little sweeter, but that awful chemical note remains, and I can't tell whether the perfume is sweetening or just fading. Weirdly, it also wears off very quickly but the nasty note hangs on and on and is really difficult to wash off. It smells something like floral hairspray.

Verdict: NO NO NO NO NO cat. Like someone else said, I wish I knew what notes were in this so I could avoid them forever, because something in this really doesn't go with my skin. I think it's probably a green note, beause those really really don't work on me, but usually they don't smell like some kind of awful spray.

Frimp from the lab.

In the imp: Bubblegum, candy.

Wet: A blast of raspberries soaked in orange juice. Can't smell the neroli, so I think my skin, which amps citrus, is cranking the orange to eleven and drowning it out completely.

Drydown: Turns into fake sharply-sweet candy -- Sweet Tarts is about right. I don't know why someone would want to smell like this, really. It also fades insanely quickly on me -- within about half an hour it was almost impossible to smell.

Verdict: Glad it was a frimp.

This was a really nice surprise for me, because I thought it might be too boozy, but it's a great scent.

In the bottle: honey wine and maybe grape, or cherry. No pom.

Wet: The pom blooms on my skin and overpowers everything else for a few minutes -- I amp pom and love it. The pom mixes really well with the wine. The BPAL pom note often goes too tart on me, but this is a very dark sweet version. On me the pom keeps the sweetness other people mentioned in check and I get some incense, and the balm I think adds a really nice hint of wood. This scent is dark, complex and well-blended. Not flowery, and not that fruity either: it's rich dark red wine with dark berries, maybe mahogany. It glows like a ruby. I know I'm emphasizing the wine but it really doesn't smell that boozy. It's maybe more like the flavour you get in a red wine reduction, very rich.

Drydown: Doesn't really morph at all on me. It gets a little sweeter and more of the incense comes out. It has GREAT throw -- my husband smelled it a few feet away from me outside on a windy day! Lasted a fairly long while, too. It's a great fall/winter scent.

Verdict: I'm just sorry I didn't get two bottles.

Lightning + stormclouds = ozone and aquatic Death Notes, but Mary Shelley is one of My Girls, I love the GC Absinthe and really like the new Inspiration line, so I decided what the hell.

In the bottle (I know, I know we don't get the perfume for the labels but the Inspiration ones are SO GOOD. Dying for the T-shirt): I smell mostly mint, maybe some wormwood. Thank God it's not sharp. Most BPAL mints drown out every other note on me, so I'm probably amping the faint mint note in this.

Wet: Thought this was disaster when I seemed to smell celery. Husband, when applied to, reassured me multiple times it was not celery. (He thought it was "floral and sweet, kind of nice, not great.") Fortunately the celery? didn't stick around long. I definitely got all the mint, anise, sugar, wormwood, laudanum, absinthe, fennel, &c &c. notes, but faintly. It's really not that strong at all. Thankfully it didn't turn to screaming green on my skin, nor did the ozone note give me a headache. Rather pleasant surprise on both counts.

Drydown: On me it sweetens up and gets rather faint, and more mint comes out. It's a cool smell, not sharp at all, more a soft floral with faint mint, and would be a good summer perfume. Pretty, but fades fairly fast. It does smell more like a cologne than a perfume, but it's not sharp. I do like it. I agree with everyone else that after drydown there isn't much absinthe, so if you get it for that, you might be disappointed.

Verdict: Don't know if it would be bottle-worthy for other people, but I like finding a mint/green scent I can actually wear. I was expecting more absinthe and 'Victorian oriental' notes, but it's rare for me to find an ozone/aquatic or green or mint scent I can even tolerate, so I'm actually sort of pleased with it.

Review of the 2012 bottle -- I have a decant from (I think) 2009 and really like it.

In the bottle: Slightly sharp but not unpleasant, and wood/balsam rather than flowers or incense. This is a rather thick clear golden oil that's even a little sticky.

Wet: Spicy, faintly floral, woody. I do pick up hints of the rose and lily. I think the spice is caused by frankincense, maybe balsam fir. There's a forest-y smell that isn't green (on me, the BPAL green note turns to ugh), a little like pine or fir. Almost no incense. Not exactly a floral scent, but I'm not really getting any resin either.

Drydown: This fades fast, but lingers. As it dries I get more of the wood and frank, and then the flowers peep out again near the end, before it gets very faint, which happens on me after maybe about six hours. Really doesn't last as long as I expected.

Verdict: I do like this scent -- it's a well-blended rose/spice/wood/forest mix that's very pleasant, and fitting for the winter holidays. It really doesn't remind me of midnight mass, though -- more like Advent Sunday, maybe: quiet but not somber, certain of coming joy, peaceful. I think as this ages the incense comes up, and there isn't as much pine/fir in the older versions.

A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense.

Trying out unused frimps from the Lab -- this is several months old, I think.

In the imp: A kind of fresh soapy smell. Yikes?

Wet: WHAM high white florals hit me in the face. This usually causes a headache instanter, but not right now. Maybe the frank and sandalwood are toning down the flowers. Rather pleasant, actually.

Drydown: The wisteria and lily really aren't mixing well. I can't smell rose at all, which is odd because my skin amps it. There's a very weird almost bitter undertone, which might be the sandalwood, because my skin amps that too. The scent isn't not soapy or sharp, but really not what I was expecting. If anything this is a kind of flowery incense, not a floral. (Husband says it smells more flowery to him, less incense, but he also gets the bitter scent.)

Dry: Almost no throw and the bitter note, whatever it is, heats up. Not soapy, but it's biting and unpleasant.

Verdict: Total miss for me. It's a shame that right-out-of-the-imp smell didn't last because I really liked it.

Miracle of miracles, this is one of the few BPAL "high" white florals I can wear without an insta-headache, so I like it a lot for that alone.

In the bottle: Very sweet, light and feminine floral. I really liked the comparisons to a wedding bouquet and Easter lilies. It's maybe not that sweet, and slightly sharp.

Wet: Sharpens a little bit more, but it's not soapy or perfumey. This is definitely the All-Singing All-Jasmine show. I get maybe a little of the orris root or the amber, which seem to be weighing down the florals a bit and adding a powdery note. This is slightly girly and "juvenile" for me -- it feels like perfume for a young girl. Pretty, but simple.

Drydown: More of the same, maybe a little more powdery. This warms up into a nice juicy strong jasmine scent. Fades rather quickly. I doubt I'll ever get my hands on the BPAL Jasmine SN, so this appears to be a nice substitute.

Verdict: If you like jasmine, this is for you. If you despair of ever finding a BPAL white floral you can wear pain-free, this may also be for you. I'm keeping this, but might try it in a scent locket to see if it lasts longer, or layering it with a resin to see if I can bring out the other notes more. This could be a nice BPAL starter scent for someone (someone who doesn't get that cat-pee effect, needless to say).

In the bottle: Very faint florals.

Wet: SOAP. Overwhelming sharp headache-inducing soap. It's exactly like Farenath said, like someone took all the stems, leaves and thorns from a field of wildflowers and crushed them all up, and then made them into powerful soap. Obviously there's some really intense green note. I wouldn't have gotten this if I'd known that. (My fault for not checking reviews first, I guess.....) Maybe it's the heather, or the thyme.

Drydown: Soap soap soap. It doesn't morph at all, no jasmine, no wisteria, no honeysuckle, no nothing except very sharp green soap. Husband said it was like a mix of Ivory and Irish Spring.

Verdict: Total miss. Kinda heartbroken as I'd waited a long time to get this one....Hope the green or the soap will die down as this ages, maybe.

I was disappointed in this because I wanted a big ripe gorgeous peach smell, but it's still a pretty scent.

In the bottle: Sharp chemical artificial florals. Yikes.

Wet: Still pretty sharp, and I get that Herbal Essences note. Thankfully it died down pretty fast, and the scent didn't ever go soapy on me, but the 'shampoo' left a bad aftertaste (aftersmell?). I think this might be the chrysanthemum, which seemed to be softened later by the musk. The tea note was really strong on me at first, but then the peach blossoms started coming out fairly soon. A very light scent, in several senses -- if it were a colour it'd be pale pale pastel yellow.

Dry: Semi-sweet, pale, and quite faint. This is definitely more a light crisp floral than a heavy sweet fruit. It doesn't give me the headaches that typical light florals often do, but I think this is because it's more like peach tea, or white tea with a trace of peach syrup. Almost no throw, although it did last longer than I thought -- my skin seemed to eat it in about an hour and half, but several hours after that I was still getting faint little whiffs every now and then. Little Bird called it "perfume-sharp" which seems right to me -- not unpleasantly sharp like soap, but not what I wanted.

Verdict: Not a total miss, but not something I'll be wearing all that often, either. Maybe part of the problem is testing it in November -- it's definitely a spring/early summer kind of scent, or early spring.

Corollary: I don't like mums any more as perfume than as actual flowers, ack gag. I'm not that fond of carnations either, and now I'm a little nervous about Flor de Muerto, which sounded intriguing....

A friend of mine absolutely swears by Lionheart: http://www.bpal.org/topic/12842-lionheart/ Put it on the backs of your hands and type!

This was part of a birthday present to myself -- I almost didn't get it, but decided at the last minute, what the heck. I love Proserpine, and Swinburne too -- this is one of my favourite poems.

In the imp: I can really smell the bourbon and the vanilla. Uh-oh. A kind of medicinal but sweet scent. Rather sharp.

Wet: WHOOM sandalwood. I didn't smell quite like a stick of incense, but it was close. Then I read "pencil shavings" in the forum reviews and it was all I could smell. :-/ Husband said it smelled "flowery, maybe incense-y" and not at all like pencil shavings. I kept smelling pencil shavings. Definitely a kind of woody smell. As another reviewer said, it's kind of dark resin/wood, rather than the bright frank. It was a little sharp, but not too bad.

Drydown: This got a lot sweeter, and less sharp, but also a lot fainter. It sticks pretty close to the skin. I don't think I ever got the bourbon (yay) and the vanilla did sweeten the resiny darkness, but it didn't really pop out, which was nice -- it's not a foody vanilla at all, maybe more like vanilla extract. This really wasn't what I was expecting, but it's all right. It might make a nice winter scent. Seems sweeter from a distance, but sharper and more like sandalwood/resin close up.

A few hours later: All gone except for a kind of residual sweetness.

Verdict: Nice enough but I don't know if I needed a bottle. Then again, it's one of those special limited editions I'd wonder about forever otherwise and spend time and money chasing down at least a decant of later. I might try it in a scent locket (if I ever get one), since my skin amps resins (part of why I like them) -- if this was just a little sweeter, I'd really like it. As it is, it's a little too harsh and dark for me to love it. And it fades really fast.

ETA: I was starting to feel a little headachey (a bit arrrrgh for me, since I get migraines easily) and decided to add something sweeter -- the labbies had thrown in an imp of Wanton (love!) so I reached for that. The rose really lifted up the scent and eased the harshness -- I might try layering this with something like Eat Me, Dorian, Vanilla Bean, Madagascan Vanilla Rum, other vanilla scents, if aging doesn't sweeten this up a bit.

Oh dear, I should have learned my lesson about this kind of blend from Two, Five and Seven, but what with the gorgeous artwork and lovely poem and me being a rose fiend, I was smitten. This just didn't work on me, and it's due to my amping green notes and turning them into bitter bitterness. SIGH.

(I know we don't buy the bottles for the labels but seriously this is just one beautiful design, down to the lettering.)

In the bottle: A very sharp green sort of chemical smell. Uh-oh.

Wet: A very very GREEN note. Husband said I smelled like celery. Husband was invited to revise his opinion. Repeatedly. He never did. I didn't smell celery myself, and thought at first the smell was a bit pretty, but on me it's definitely some kind of tangy green leaf with a sweet undertone. No red, no dry leaves, not really even any rose, other than a mild sweetness.

Drydown: The celery? note died down a bit (Husband: "Some") and the blend got sweeter, but more like generic flowery perfume, not red roses. After a while it was sweet powder underneath a green note. It's pretty strong and has a lot of throw, and lasted a long while, but on me this was not a good thing.

Verdict: I'm going to let this one age a while in the hope the dry leaf will come out and the green subside, at least a little bit. I love autumn, and roses, and this sounds like such a beautiful scent (on people whose skin doesn't hate grass. Damn).

Chilly/white/creamy/snow/flower scents usually aren't my thing, but I got this as part of a Yule set last year. 2012 version.

In the bottle: YO peppermint and vanilla. Smells a bit like a milkshake.

Wet: oh my God, the dread Play-Do smell, and I get a whiff of cat pee undertone - husband didn't smell it, though.

Drydown: The Play-Do smell receded, and I got a little bit of fake coconut and pineapple, but then the Play-Do came back again. A really synthetic, doughy, sorta-sweet chemical smell.

Verdict: Total miss.

Roman apple festival! I love BPAL apple notes, I love Rome. 2012 version.

In the bottle: Artificial fruit candy. Woe.

Wet: Artifical fruity candy smell with chemical undertones. Woe squared. Husband: "You smell like cherry-orange-lemon Lifesavers in the pack." No berries, juices, blossoms or nuts, either, unless the nuts are causing the chemical smell. I don't get the nail-polish acetone smell, just something really....candied and fake. To me it smells like air freshener.

Drydown: Candy-scented air freshener with a chemical aftertaste. Ack! This also fades very quickly, which might be a good thing for me.