Drae

Oh man, this is STRONG. I ordered this on a whim being unfamilliar to BPAL's pumpkin note and scents in general, and knew it wasn't for me right away. I was intrigued by a non-sweet/foody/typical pumpkin scent because spicy sweet pumpkin scents don't impress me, but I've now learnt I just don't like pumpkin period. This smells like a pumpkin candle, a whiff of the ashphalt, maybe a bit of the smoke but no beer. I love the smell of natural beeswax but this just had that generic wax candle smell, no smoky sweet honeyness like beeswax normally has. After awhile it kind of turned into Pumpkin Playdoh on my wrist. I'm glad others really like this because my bottle is headed for swaps ASAP ETA: After 2 hours and an attempted wash off, the scent is still quite strong considering, but has really mellowed and sweetened on me and is much more pleasant. The waxy playdoh smell is gone and the pumpkin has also settled down quite a bit, and the smoke keeps it from being cloying or too foody. Will test again but still most likely to swap my bottle.

In the imp: Earthy yet clean, with a subtle lemon-like note. Very quiet and peaceful. Wet on Skin: Fragile rose starts to come out. They are dried roses, but they're cut with a freshness which I'm guessing is the mosses. It still remains slightly astringent with the lemonyish note (I'm not familiar with the scent of the mosses so maybe that's where I'm getting lemon from) Dry: The astringency is gone as well as the earthy/dirt note and this is a lovely, light wispy rose, I adore it Verdict: I jumped the gun on ebay when bidding on my first ever bpal scents, and after 7 fails this is finally one that I would wear, it's absolutely lovely and understated and fresh. I'm in love with the rose in it and kicking myself for not getting imps of Seance and Alice in my order last week. ETA: After 2 hours the moss and dirt have returned and eaten up all the roses. The scent on my wrist is sort of...funky, for lack of a better word, and it's not as pretty as the initial drydown. This oil truly lives up to it's name and is a bit unsettling. I had put some of it behind my ears, and went to sleep and lo and behold, I dreamt of zombies

In the imp: Fresh pine. It "feels" spicy and warm although there isn't any spice detected Wet on skin: Boom, berries! The berries are kind of fighting with the pine for center stage. No tomato leaf or cedar detected. Drydown/Dry: This has become a blackberry Christmas potpourri, synthetic and oversweet and cloying If the cranberry was more tart and the blackberry absent, I think this would have worked for me. The pine hasn't been completely drowned in berries, but it doesn't temper them. I don't mind smelling like fruit from the peach/nectarine/apricot or citrus family, but berries just don't work on me, Swaps Ahoy!

In the imp: All I smell is patchouli. I'm not very familiar with juniper berry or oakmoss but this smells like a warm, dry patchouli. I've only tested myrrh once in a health food store and wasn't a fan. Wet on skin: Patchouli is still in the forefront, but it's getting that heavy overly-perfumey quality. Dry: Smells like the above, but also similar to old perfumey lotion or sunscreen gone bad, and also OFF!Deep woods mosquito repellant, yuck! Verdict: This smells like "old lady" perfume and bug spray on me, had to wash it off. Confirmed my dislike of patchouli and myrrh, might give oakmoss another try in a completely different blend. Off to swap.

In the imp: Sea salt with some leather and an astringent alcohol in the background On my skin: SALT!!! LEATHER!!! SALTY LEATHER!! No rum. The nice aquatic-ness note completely disappears. Dry: The leather turns to a salty forest fire with some weird unsettling sweetness lurking beneath (the rum?) I guess my nose/skin likes to amp leather to high heavens, because the Jolly Roger assaulted me. I was initially intrigued by the sea spray description, but the leather and dry woods ended up making this way too masculine for my liking, and just not my personality at all, swapping it.

I received an old sniffe of this, like seriously old (it was tarted with what I thought was synthetic black hair at first, I was quite scared LOL! Also the imp wand was broken off and the oil so thick that I had to use a toothpick to fish it out) In the imp: thick, luscious musky rose, slightly powdery and quite dark. Wet on skin: the same as above Dry: Spellbound is a sophisticated, sexy woman. I have discovered I am very picky with rose scents - they can't be sugary or fruity sweet, or light and green. Rose with amber is definitely a winner here. I will have to get a full imp of this, hopefully it doesn't take 8+ years of aging for me to like it

Yay, my first BPAL testing! This is for Snow Bunny 2008 In the Bottle: I'm getting a soapy-sweet floral, but the soapiness is pleasant. There's a specific flower I smell but can't recall what it is. Faint pine and a tinge of icy lemon. Wet on my skin: It smells...fluffy. Fluffy, yet damp. The sharpness of the lemon is gone and it really mellows out. During the drydown the sweetness amps and becomes berry-like, but the pine is gone, unfortunately Dry: Pretty much the same as wet. Like sugared berries with a hint of soap. I think it morphed too much on me, the sweetness of it makes it less fresh and snowy like it was in the bottle. I don't hate it but I don't think I love it enough to keep the bottle. Edit: After a few hours, this just smells like a synthetic berry room spray on me. Swapping for sure

For nostalgia's sake, I would love to find a BPAL scent that's reminiscent of Dream by the Gap. The notes I found for it are: I think the star notes are the Freesia and orange blossom, and the "cloud" note may be ozone-ish? It seems there are not a lot of Bpal scents featuring Freesia, especially paired with orange blossom or ozone notes(or they are discontinued/LE, like Naiad which was suggested on the board) Any suggestions?