Ohmaude

What? I haven't reviewed this yet? T.N.M. is rice candy, ginger and soft florals. It is a perfect late spring scent. Soft, airy and cheering. Incredibly beautiful.

In the vial: Ooh that's very pretty, minty and bracing! ON my skin: Fir, Mint, Berry and rose and Cool Water cologne, but lovelier. Oh and there's the cedar. This is gorgeous, but I don't think I will be wearing this. I'm just not a cool scent kind of girl, but I can appreciate the artistry of this blend, it is amazing.

In the vial: It's like I am digging my hands in to dark, rich soil. Wow! On my wrist: Ooh this gets musky. Dirty musk and a bit of Vanilla sweetness. Laters: Soft Vanilla musk and the slight hint of earthiness. Lovely!!

I love every single note in this blend, so I was excited to try it. This is sharp, tart and golden and a bit conventional perfume-y. The Tobacco flower, bergamot and Frankincense really stand out at first, then the Sage and St. John come out, followed by the grounding sweetness of fig and benzoin, and ahh there is that ginger. It is completely unique and very well-balanced, but very faint. I have a feeling that will change as it ages. It reminds me of Pirate Moon, but I couldn't tell you why.

Oh wow, to think I almost didn't get a decant of this. A touch of sweet fragrant olive oil, strong beeswax made from orange blossom pollen, and the slight touch of a blown out candle. Beautiful!

This is strongly dark and bitter, yet sweet and warm at the same time. The thick black incense is the most prominent. Hovering in the background is the poppy and rosewood, and then a fruity sweetness from the benzoin and rose geranium. The bitterness fades over time, still this has a touch of tarry blackness to it, like a tire, but it's not unpleasant. This strangely, is Mme. Moriarty in funeral attire, I swear.

Heavy on the green herbs, light soft florals, and the pine-y aura of cypress. The crocus is the only floral note that makes itself known. Very quieting, dry, and light. ETA: Several hours later this has faded almost completely, and I don't detect it unless I hold my wrist right under my nose.

2008 I missed this the last time it was around, as I wasn't in the trying-every-LE stage. I was so excited because I LOVE Amber. In the vial this is golden, sweet and resiny. Everything I have heard about Jacobs Ladder. Joy! On my skin, however, this goes to sadville. The sweetness fades, the Ambrette too musky, the rockrose too acrid-sharp, the Galbanum too green apple-y and the whole result is old avon perfume and sour baby powder. No sweet warm benzoin. This makes the back of my throat burn. I'm heartbroken. However, I'm getting over a cold, and I just went to sniff some of my favorite BPAL as a comparison and they are smelling a little "off." So I'm not ready to throw in the towel quite yet. I'm putting the decant aside and will be back to edit this with my final verdict. (Please please please be my bad sniffer)

This is tropical, warm orchid. Do orchids smell though? I don't know of any that really have a scent, minus the vampire and vanilla orchids. (the former smells lightly of rotting meat, the other of vanilla, of course) So this orchid is a strong, dark, sweet floral, falling somewhere between violet, jasmine and gardenia. Despite being close to those notorious notes, it never turns to soap. Very lovely. Ponthieva racemosa, the shadow witch orchid.

Sweet musk, sandalwood, wood (but the dry kind, not the sap kind), and herbs, plus a little bit of vetiver that was strong when first applied but now hovers in the background. Odin is warm and dry and very comforting. It smells incredibly good. This is very light on me and has very little throw. This is definitely one of those keep a secret, lean-in-closer BPALs, which are perfect for the occasions where you don't want to amp all over the place. This is masculine, but it is still very much something I would wear. However, it would be wonderfully yummy to lean in to my boyfriend and then catch of whiff of this. uh-huh.

A cool, soft bamboo and lotus scent. I too love Beth's bamboo note. I'm not really getting much of the cassia at all. This is almost all bamboo, with a hint of wisteria and lotus. I totes agree with Lucretia, this does have an old hamadryad quality to it. Maybe that is from the very soft cassia? It is very evocative of a early autumn breeze, where the air has just a tinge of cool to it. It's very pretty, but has a very light throw. This is a great scent for days when you want to wear something subtle and light. OK, OK, I'm loving this more with every hour. Maybe I do need a bottle..

Thanks tartchef, the strange thing is I looked at TwilightEye's flickr stream twice before posting. But there it is, weird!! When in doubt, always check TwilightEyes' flickr stream

Papery, white roses with sandalwood and frankincense and a lovely dusty cocoa base. A little like Dia de los Muertos. This is all roses at the beginning but the roses fade and the beeswax and cocoa come through. So lovely!

Does anyone have a pic of To Autumn? I'm not finding it... Thanks!

Why write a review after Galleywest's? So awesome. A Blade of Grass is the smell of mowing the lawn while wearing nothing but daisy chains. Yardwork on the commune. With incredible throw, this is bitter grass, dandelion sap, my compost bin and the slightest hint of something floral and lemony-sweet. I can't believe how spot on this is. Truly literal perfume.

Oh my. This is perfect. The galangal really comes through and makes this a spicy, but not foody, apple and autumn woods scent. It's not yankee candle either, it's just fantastic. It has a lot less throw than Samhain, which To Autumn is related to. If Samhain is a dark, cold autumn night, To autumn is walking through a apple orchard in autumn sunlight. Again, perfect.

Lovely. This starts out as bright roses and sweet agave, but then takes on a beautiful powder-dry quality with the emergence of the wood and copal. Yet the agave smells aquatic, damp and sweet, like it has just been tapped and boiled in the field. What ends up dominating is the rose, with the other notes lingering in the background. In that sense it is a sister-scent and reminiscent of Dia de Los Muertos in it's general rose-mesoamerica theme, but more aquatic.

Apple cider is something I know and love. We just made gallons of it at our house with my grandfather's 100+ year-old cider press. Our house smells of hot-spiced cider for all of October, it is so awesome. It goes without saying that I adore BPAL autmumn apple scents; Creepy, Harvest Moon '06, Samhain.. I was so excited to try Fearful Pleasure I could hardly wait for my decant to arrive, and almost ordered a botttle. I'm glad I was patient, because this sadly misses the mark. Fearful Pleasure is cider-y goodness, but there is something about the oakmoss/orange-peel/smoke combo that turns this into potpourri/yankee candle. It smells as if I have stepped into a hallmark gift shop two weeks before Halloween. I imagine this is wonderful with the right chemistry, alas I do not possess it. I'd be heartbroken if it weren't for my most loved Samhain.

My imp is at least three years old, if not older. It is sweetness and wonderfully calming. Centering. I wear it when I need to stop. freaking. myself. out. and think things through. It most def. has a therapeutic effect, like my other favorite voodoo oils Aunt Caroline's and High John. The scent itself is vetiver and sweetgrass, and goes powdery on the dry-down, but stays awesome.

fresh: Apple, caramel, apple, coconut, apple and more apple. on the dry down: caramel sugar with a hint of effervescent apple. If sugar skull and Punkie Night had a baby, this is how it would smell.

This is wonderfully musky and opiumy and I am almost on debauchery's team, but I'm afraid civet just takes it in a direction I don't want to go. This is really similar to Hunter Moon. I know all of Beth's civet/ambergis are actually bouquets and not the real thing, but damn if this doesn't remind me of straight wolverine pee. You may wonder how I know the smell of wolverine waste. Trust me, I am expert. Beth is just that talented. So yeah, while I seem to LOVE faux-whale puke, I can't handle faux-cat glandular secretions. Go figure.

I've been slowly going through my imp box of limbo scents; stuff I haven't swapped, but haven't given my attention, either. Elegba has been there for probably a couple of years. Perhaps my bpal tastes have evolved somewhat, but now I am regretting overlooking Elegba. It is absolutely beautiful. I could have been slathering myself in this all the time! The coconut is fresh, it the whole thing sweet and just a touch boozy, the tobacco keeping it from being overly sugary or overwhelming. It is yummy but at the same time, soft and graceful and everything I could want from a coconut scent. I'm so getting a bottle of this with my next order.

Snake Oil, do you really need another review? Fresh, you're great. But! the thick, dripping, red oil at the bottom of my nearly four year-old imp? Good god. Same with the two-year aged bottle I try to parse but end up slathering. You are spice and love. (also, my boyfriend gives the BEST *ahem* when I wear you)

This is another decant I have been in posession of for the longest time, but for some reason, I've never tested it out. In the vial I get sugary mint. On my arm this is peppermint schnapps in coconut milk. Yum! This is fantastic, and one of the few sugar mint scents that work on me. The coconut makes it milky and sweet without going into the wacky plastic scent that Tokyo stomp becomes and other vanilla-mints. In the end I get peppermint candy, dipped in chocolate covered with coconut flakes. Alas, I imagine finding a bottle of this could be a task. Well, I will treasure the imp (and try not to eat my arm, good god!) This will be great for the winter. I'm still blown away to find a foody scent that I love.

This has been sitting in my imp box since, ohhhh, when the scent came out. YET I realize I have never worn it out. WTF? Probably I've picked it up and then reached for Red Phoenix or Chimera or Scherzade for my rosy red needs. It's just one of those overlooked decants. I've been probably holding on to Kanishta because in my decant the oil is a gorgeous saffron red. It LOOKS like it will smell sexy and amazing. And it does for a moment... I'm in love with the patchouli, opium and jasmine, until that no-good bitch Mangolia shows up. Magnolia is always following Jasmine around in various perfumes, and she brings out the worst in the other notes. Kanishta becomes bitter soap and headaches. It's a shame, because mangolia flowers are fantastically beautiful, just not on me. I'm going to have to swap this to someone who Magnolia will get along with.