LauraB

Ack! Get it off me now!

I have cedarwood (tons of cedar wood - it smells like I'm a sawmill or something) and something black and sinister which I assume is the vetiver - so if you want an Evil Lumberjack scent this could be your thing! Note that it is very persistent - I thought I put a reasonable amount on but it is incredibly potent and doesn't seem to shift easily.

This is sooo bad on me (but would work on someone who wanted a dark woody scent and could apply in moderation)

It's called fruitcake and it smells of fruitcake. I love this and I am really not a foody scent person!

It's definitely a fruitcake with almonds or marzipan, because there is an almond note in with all the candied fruit and spicy cake scent (not playdoh, which is what my skin usually does to almonds).

I can see myself paying silly money on ebay to get another imp of this if Beth doesn't release it!

Oooh! This is lovely!

It starts off smelling very like Indian sweets - a lovely thick coconutty creamy scent (that doesn't go funky on me! Yay!) Then it develops a fruity sweet top note and there is the barest hint of wood underpinning this. I was nervous of this in that almond can go to play doh, milk can go sour and cedar can amp to high heaven, but everything is working.

Ok, does anyone in the US know pontefract cakes? They are little treacly liquorice sweets and I suspect they're like candy charcoal because there is a definite pontefract cake note in this. I'm getting pontefract cakes and violet. After a while the lilies come out and it gets a bit more floral, but the pontefract cakes are still there. Interesting, but I'm not sure whether it's my thing.

Ok, cards on the table - I love rose. There are very few BPAL roses that I can't wear. Unfortunately, this is one of them, but I don't think that's the rose's fault.

This is a gorgeous red rose - and greenstuff (smells like there's mint in there somewhere). And it's making me sneeze!

I can see why people love this, but I'll stick with Maiden for my "rose and fresh greenery" scent.

I thought this was certain to work on me given the listed notes, but it doesn't. All I can smell is topnotes - it's so high pitched it practically whistles. All the florals have merged into something that most closely resembles Sainsbury's own brand washing powder (not my preferred smell!)

I will leave it alone for a few days and see if it settles down because I am really surprised at what I'm getting at the moment. I am still hoping for a floral scent with blue musk!

Edit - it has settled down now and the musk and sweet florals have come out more, but the "washing powder" note is still noticeable in the background. Will swap.

This is just gorgeous. Fruity floral with a very "juicy" feel to it over a light but noticeable incense note.

It is very feminine - far more than I would have expected from an incense blend.

Chai tea. Exactly like black chai tea (no honey or sweetener) - so much so it is a little unnerving. I have never smelled so much like a drink!

Lasted about 4 hours.

Rose! And rose and rose and rose and then possibly an eensy weensy touch of lily hovering somewhere at the top of the blend. I don't know what happened to the jasmine, but I'm happy without it. On me this is slightly sweeter and feels a bit more "perfumy" than London.

This was a frimp - it's not something I would buy because red musk smells of peanuts on me and nicotiana and wine are not really my kind of scents

Initially, the red musk and cocoa combine to a smell of peanuts and dark chocolate, which I would be happy to wear though I'm not normally a foody, but as it dries it becomes more and more tobacco. Soon it is mostly tobacco, with a faint undercurrent of patchouli. Off to swaps!

This is green! Mostly it smells of cut grass, with an initial burst of lime and a mint note that recalls fresh mint leaves rather than mint sweets. The lavender is just present, but I didn't actually realise what it was until I looked at the description. Overall very pretty and fresh.

Beth doesn't always state the origins of her rose oils, but sometimes she does. There are blends out there using Moroccan Rose which you should be able to find if you do a search on Moroccan in the search engine (this also brings up Moroccan Jasmine, but it's a shorter list than all the rose blends!).

This is a beautiful fruity floral but stays very very close to my skin after the first half hour. It stays so close I don't think I can justify a bottle, which is a shame - I'd have expected an interpretation of this picture to be a bit more extrovert!

Rose (not particularly heavy on me) with a definite topnote of carnation and something behind it which stops it from being entirely floral (could be honey or sweet fruits or both - I can't honestly tell).

Something about it really does suggest "air".

This is so pretty! Sweet mint (almost like sugary mint sweets but I can't wear the BPAL sugar note so that must be what "white mint" does) and florals - there are probably more than rose and violet here, but they're the only two I can smell under the mint.

I may need to find some more of this - it's completely unlike anything else I've tried and I love it.

Bother! There is a white musk blend that doesn't work on me at all, and it's this. Poppy is always an iffy note for me but the other notes looked good so I thought I'd try it. Unfortunately, on me this smells like someone's sprayed air freshner to try and hide the smell of burning plastic and it really hasn't worked...

Wish I got what other people are getting cos the burning plastic note gets stronger over time...this is now truly vile and I'm going to have to wash it off.

Vegetables! This is mostly carrots with a hint of something peppery - the myrtle appears a bit later. I don't get honeysuckle at all or anything I'd describe as floral and the overall effect is quite masculine, which surprised me.

This is so pretty - light, sweet and floral (more rose than lily) with just a tiny hint of musk. Unfortunately, on me it goes from light to barely there to totally gone in half an hour. I will keep my imp but it's so fleeting I don't see me using it as anything other than a pick-me-up after a stressful day...

Eh? One of my skin chemistry or my nose is definitely wonky. I get gunpowder and a definite wood note (but not amped to infinity), but then I get - leather?!

Unfortunately the leather note becomes really prominent on me and it's one of those notes I can't wear so I washed this off after 15 minutes - which is a shame because the gunpowder was dead on.

Wow! I love lilies but there aren't many perfumes with them in that I can wear. This, however, has a slight fruity edge to it and as a result is absolutely gorgeous on me. I want more!

Oh dear. This has something in it that really does not work on me. It has a really deep dark base and then this "off" note on top, which doesn't smell like any of the listed notes, but I think it's the lemon peel (lemon has gone wrong on me before). I am fairly certain this isn't how it's meant to smell...

I'm always slightly worried about vanilla, because some vanillas go to Play Doh on me. But I had to try anything that even made vague reference to giant moths (MOTHRA! )

In the bottle, this smells of Murray Mints. On me, this smells of butter until the butter smell gives way to the smell of Play doh. Off to swaps!

Thanks! I tend to amp dragon's blood too, but I do quite like it, so I'll give Tintagel a go anyway

I was wondering if any of the newer LEs had it? There are an awful lot that I haven't tried and I don't think they show up on the search engine yet

I've searched for this, but I couldn't find a topic so sorry if I've missed something.

I know it means I'm weird, but I really like the smell of hawthorn hedges in bloom*. Does anyone know any BPAL that has it as a note?

Note - I have Phantom Queen and it's lovely, but on me it's pretty much all orchid with a bit of clover.

* The ones near me, anyway. Apparently, there are two species of hawthorn in Britain and one smells rank...

Well, that was predictable! I have a tendency to amp caramel into the buttery toffee note of doom.

On me, this is the buttery toffee note of doom. For 10 hours so far and counting.

Off to swaps!