becca_s

When I first put this on for the first 10 or 15 mintutes the apricot and cayenne pepper merge together to create a really strange, spicy/medicinal smell. After it settles into my skin though, this one is really pretty. After its first initial burst the cayenne actaully fades away and I can barely detect it anymore. I am left with a honeyed apricot scent, its fresh and very summery. There are times when this reminds me a little bit of Josie.

2013 version

On me, this is dominated by the honey and date palm, as it dries I can smell the amber and maybe the champaca flower too. I don't get any tuberose or rose. The date palm and amber make it kind of exotic smelling. I will re-test this one, I am a fan of honey scents so I may upgrade my decant to a bottle and perhaps the vanilla and other notes will come out more when it has aged a little bit.

This is really lovely, it starts out quite strongly with the cedar which worried me because I amp wood notes and they don't really work on me. Luckily, the cedar faded making way for the lilac and blue musk, with a hint of jasmine. The lilac here is so pretty and realistic smelling, it is like walking through a garden at night time, or having the smell of lilac wafting through your window at night. This will probably be a night or sleep scent for me.

This is the 2013 version

This starts out with all violet - very sweet and sugary violet. When I first put it on it actually reminded of High Strung Daisies, that is how sweet and sugary it is on me. I think that it must be the madagascan vanilla and my skin translating it into sugar. There are times when I can smell the narcissus - it's kind of sharp and doesn't really seem to fit with the other notes. The sugaryness does calm down after a while and this becomes a very soft, violet and orris scent. Overall, this is nice especialy when that sweetness settles down and I can no longer smell the narcissus

This one is my favorite out of all my luper decants, it starts out with the milky, pear and then the oakmoss, tuberose and opponax come out to create a beautiful, well blended scent. I wasn't sure if this one would work on me with the opponax and carrot seed but it's really lovely. Like the other reviewers have mentioned this is very vintage and classy I will definitely be getting a bottle of this one.

I recommend Lady Una: Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices. It's honey musk, but its very prominent on me. It's my favorite honey scent.

If you are a fan of snake oil then you should try Womb Fury: Snake Oil and three types of honey.

Have you tried O?: Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. It's not my favorite honey scent but you may like it

There is also Door which I have never tried but always wanted to: Golden honey, nicotiana, blue chamomile, and cistus.It also has chamomile in it.

I hope that helps

I get alot of white rose and water lily in Helena. There are times when I smell the lush white rose and it is so pretty and there are other time when I get whiffs of the waterlily. The other notes seem to stay in the background, I don't get much of the rose amber but I think that the jasmine and lily may add something kind of sharp to the blend. This is quite perfumey to my nose. I would describe this as a watery, aquatic white rose scent. It's quite pretty and I will keep the imp and re-test again.

This is the 2013 version.

This one is definately a morpher! It starts out with alot of lavender on me, and at first it smells like a musky lavender scent. The lavender slowly fades and makes way for the rose, carnation and amber. I love the drydown of this when it reaches a point of being mostly amber,carnation and vanilla flower, its a really warm and feminine scent. I can't smell any jasmine in this at all, from start to finish which is good because I wasn't sure how it was going to smell on me. Overall, this is a really lovely floral/amber scent. It smells kind of vintage and romantic to my nose. I really love this when the lavender settles down and lets the amber, carnation, vanilla flower and rose come through, they smell so good together (ETA: I want to age this one, because I think that it may age nicely).

On me this starts out with the fresh heather and carnation - its smells very realistic and pretty. After about 10 mintues I think that the ivy and maybe the clover must take over, and makes the blend smell very green and at this stage I get a kind of masculine vibe from it. I am going to re-test this one since it only came out of the mail today, it might need some time to settle. I would love for the flowers to stay around longer.

I think that you might like Miss Jessell from this years Yules: Black roses with myrrh, benzoin, and guiac wood. It's a darker rose scent on me and the myrrh & guiac wood add a lovely warm element to the blend

You could try: Roses, Pearls & Diamonds from Marchen: Red roses, dazzling crystalline musks, and pearlescent coconut-tinged orris.

Rose Cross: purest rose with sacred frankincense

Some of my favorite rose scents are - Peacock Queen (a very true, pure rose scent on me), Alice (cake, milk & rose), Persephone (pommegranate & rose), Glasgow (rosy heather & blackberries), London (tea rose). There are so many rose blends in the Black Phoenix GC alone that I am sure you will find the perfect one for you

This smells like really spicy ginger biscuits/cookies. It definitely has cinnamon and some other spices. I can smell the honey too, when I first tried it I thought that it was butterscotch or something like that but then I realized that it must be the honey. I think that the honey evens this out though because the ginger in this seems like it could have the tendency to be sharp, but the honey softens it

This starts out with a strong burst of roses - these are definitely dark, black roses. When it dries down I can smell the warm myrrh and what I think must be the guiac wood in the background. The guiac wood is interesting - kind of green and woodsy at the same time. This is a really unique rose scent, and I will be using up the decant and could possibly upgrade to a bottle if this keeps growing on me.

This is a decant of the 2012 version, I have never tried Peacock Queen before so I can't compare it to other years versions. This is a very true and pure rose scent, probably the most realistic rose scent that I have smelt from BPAL. I have been looking for a rose scent that works on me for ages, and it looks like this is the one the only problem is that it seems to fade pretty quickly.

For Christmas Eve I wore Peacock Queen, for Christmas I think that I will wear Snow White

I wasn't sure about this one because it has a few iffy notes for me - pineapple, frankincense, cinnamon but I was really pleasantly suprised and happy that I got a decant. It does start out quite fruity - but it's not obviously pineapple on me, I also get quite a bit of the chamomile at first too. This dry's into a really lovely combination of yellow rose, frankincense and heliotrope. It's very solar and summery ... I think that the cinnamon stays in the background giving it a hint of spice and some depth. The frankincense in this is nice, I am not generally a fan of it but it works well in this blend. I think I may need a bottle of this one

Lunar phoenix really doesn't work on my skin at all. It smells really sharp and harsh - I think that this is coming from the lettuce and galbanum or maybe the parsley. I can't smell any of the jasmine or lily. I really wanted this one to work on me and I am envious of all the people who this smells great on. There is something in this which just doesn't work with my skin chemistry

This is a musky, green tea scent on me. Brittle is a good way to describe it. The green tea is really fresh smelling, I only get hints of the violet and I can't smell any vanilla orchid I 'm sure it is there as a vaguely floral undertone. I think that my skin amps any type of tea scent and it is no different here. This is a very pretty and fresh smelling scent, I generally don't like tea scents but I like this one. I'm not sure if I would upgrade to a bottle though.

This starts out very almondy on me, it dominates all the other notes for a while. It dries down to be a honey and lavender scent with a hint of thyme. The almond almost completely fades away. The thyme does add an interesting herbal element but it stays in the background. Overall I like this, the lavender and honey make a really nice combination. I could end up buy a bottle of this one.

This starts out really creamy - at first it smells kind of nutty - like someone else said, kind of like hazlenuts. This lasts for about 10 mintues and then it morphs into a soft, creamy floral. The peony in this reminds me more of the Dormouse than The Girl in the Speckled Pink Kimono - it's not a sweet smelling peony it's kind of more green and fresh smelling like other people have said. Overall, this is very wearable and I wear it quite alot. I don't think that I have given the scent justic here but I found it hard to describe all the different elements. It's one of those scents that you could wear everyday, I often wear it to work.

I have tested this twice now to see if it would be different after it had settled down after coming straight out of the mailbox. It has been the same both times.

This starts out with a bright red rose and very sweet cherry. The cherry is almost almondy at the beginning. After a while the cherry settles down and it stops smelling like almonds. The rose in this is a juicy kind of rose - it doesn't turn powdery on me like some roses can. This eventually dries down to be a sweet, fruity rose scent mixed with the lemon verbena. The lemon verbena does become quite strong after about 10-15 minutes, there are times when I think it almost dominates the rose. It's generally a 50/50 mix between the fruity rose and lemon verbena on me - I guess my skin must amp it. Overall, this is a nice, bright, sunny kind of scent.

This was a frimp from the lab

I tried this one on without realizing it was a men's scent, it started out quite dry and my impression was that it had sandalwood in it, but I think that it must be from the amber. It was also initially quite piney and woodsy, which isn't really my thing. After a few hours of wearing it I could smell this yummy vanilla smell and I couldn't work out where it was coming from. I thought it must have been something left over from another perfume I had been wearing. It took me a while to realize it was coming from Golden Priapus! The vanilla in this is really, really good. Even though this scent does have a masculine side I definitely think that it could be unisex and would smell great on a male or a female.

This is mostly a clean, aquatic scent on me. It would be nice on a hot, summer day. I am happy that this is an aquatic scent that doesn't turn sharp on me. It's very true to it's description - it reminds me of a very still, crystalline lake or ocean. I really like this one, its probably not something that I would wear on an everyday basis but there are definitely lots of times when I would feel like wearing a scent like this.

This was a frimp from the lab

Catherine starts out with alot of orange blossom, as it dries I get hints of the rose & rosemary. Orange blossom generally doesn't work on me because it turns sharp and soapy. It takes a while for it to get this stage, there were actually a few moments here where I could smell the wonderful orange blossom that other people love ... but due to my unfortunate skin chemsitry this ends up smelling soapy and the rose also turns powdery. The initial stages of this were really nice and I think that it would smell good on someone else, but it doesn't really work on me. Interestingly, someone told me that I smelt nice when wearing this so perhaps it's just my nose

This was a frimp from the lab I wanted to try this one for a while but I wasn't sure about the fir because my skin seems to amp pine/fir scents.

This is a really lovely scent, it smells really fresh like summer rain falling on the jasmine and hyacinth. This is actually an aquatic that works on me! And the fir doesn't amp. Stays close to the skin and does seem to fade quite fast. This is a perfect scent for summer or days at the beach, I will definitely be using up my imp and may even upgrade to a 5ml at some stage.

This was a frimp from the lab Thanks, because I have wanted to try this one for ages!

Most blends with ginger turn really sharp on me, but I think that this is finally a ginger blend that works on me. It smells, like warm spicy gingerbread on me. It's definitely a foody, baked kind of ginger. I think that there are some spices in here because every now and then I get wafts of cinnamon or mixed spice. I am very happy to have an imp of this one