Mountaingrrl00

Smells like a walk through a tropical nursery -- banana leaves, then creamy, waxy flowers, then a ripe, burnt-sugar scent, followed by the scent of dry autumn leaves outdoors. Very pretty and unusual. Edited to add: dries down to a warm and sweet vanilla-caramel scent. Stays close to the skin.

Is there anything with violet and anise?

The plum in Snooty Rose is marvelous. Rich and aromatic but still bright from the bergamot. Romanti.Goth is my favorite dark plum scent -- not so available, though.

THE CHINESE DANCE Green and black tea, King mandarin, violet, blackcurrant, and wormwood. First impressions: citrus, clean, green, fresh, sparkly, gender-neutral. No particular note dominates. The teas are definitely present but they balance each other out, so the black tea isn't too astringent and the green tea isn't too powdery. In some ways this smells light and summery, but there's also a deeper scent underneath that's herbal and earthy. Wet on skin: there's more sweetness from the mandarin and violet now, and at the same time the sharpness of the tea comes forward. I still have a strong "fresh, sparkly" impression. Dry on skin: I love that the slight bit of fruitiness is still lingering. I think that may be the wormwood as well as or instead of the king mandarin. It's both citrusy and green, in the way litsea cubeba is. The green tea is soft. There's a slightly bitter earthiness that blends in with everything else in a way I like. It lingers as an earthy tea for a long time. Some of the complexity fades, but not the refreshing quality.

For a leafy fig tree scent, try Strangler Fig. If you like it mellower and warmer, try Intrigue. Biwa is my favorite not-too-sweet black currant BPAL.

Try this thread: http://www.bpal.org/topic/15581-best-iris-scent/

The Unsteady Governess is doing nicely in the hot weather.

In the vial I get ozone and metal. On my skin, it warms up to a soft, green resin scent. It actually reminds me a lot of Midnight Mass, but a bit lighter.

I'm a violet lover, and this is such a beautiful setting for violet - smoky, earthy, a little juicy, with just a subtle hint of ylang ylang. One of my favorites.

I got this when it came out about nine months ago, but never wore it beyond the initial skin-test. In the long, cold autumn and winter the ozone and burnt smells just didn't work. I'm glad I hung onto it now, though, because it's glorious in the heat. It blooms on my skin and evokes the dry air and western herbs and grasses I grew up with, and the burning smell is really subdued now, like incense without the smoke. It's herbal-resiny, slightly sweet, natural-smelling, unisex. It's going to be very wearable for summer.

This isn't something I thought I'd like, and I almost passed it on after the initial sharp, piney sniff of it in the vial. I'm glad I tested it, though, because once it hits my skin it blooms into a balsam needle smell with just a hint of the tree bark. It reminds me of one of my favorite LEs, Midnight Mass, but younger and greener.

Reminds me of Givenchy Pi, which I love. It's fresh and almost cologney but with a lovely almost vanilla warmth to it.

The Silk Road smells like lightly spiced rice to me.

This was a heartbreaker for me. The description looked so lovely, but I didn't get any of my beloved caramel or red musk. For some reason it smells smoky and multi-floral, not a combination I like.

This is pretty much summer in a bottle. The strawberry dominates at first, true and tart-sweet, then recedes into an ethereal green scent. I got a bottle of this and it's a great winter pick-me-up as well as a fitting light scent in summer.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! It's one of my all-time favorites. The mead note is very true, yummy and rich. The way it mixes with the lemon and spices and gruit smells warm and festive and never fails to put me in a good mood.

This had promise. I love incense scents, and I like the syrupy aspect to this one, but something about it consistently made me sneeze. Had to swap it away.

I keep trying different things on, but my place smells definitively of Goblin of Yuletide Present.

A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, and peach fruit and hemp to represent the fourth phase of Wu Xing, with a splash of blazing red of dragon's blood... to help you scare away the rampaging Nian. This smells like bright copper at first, and it reminds me more than a bit of Copper Phoenix. I agree with filigree_shadow that it is fruity and bright and happy, too. The peach and citrus distinguish themselves first. The floral notes are subtle and spring-like. I can't really pick out the cypress or hemp, and I only know the dragon's blood is there because of the metal association. This is a nice mood-booster of a scent.

I love it. The strong cardamom and nutmeg give it an assertiveness and brightness that gradually melds into the richness of the leather, coffee, hazelnut and tobacco. This is heady stuff, quite sexy, and yummy without being overtly foodie.

Spicy plastic leather? I think it's the dragon's blood that's behaving oddly on me, although I don't have this reaction to Dragon's Milk. I usually love the Lab's spice scents, but this one doesn't work for me.

The Arabian Dance (from the 2010 Yules) is cardamom-spicy and smoky with coffee, tobacco and hazelnut. It's rich but not sweet.

This is an amazingly nostalgic scent for me. It reminds me of baking with my grandmother. She used to make these light, creamy cookies scented with ginger and vanilla and orange extracts. Mother Ginger is like being in that kitchen and stirring the batter and having the ingredients wafting around. The marshmallow is there too -- the same cozy note that's in TKO. The strong natural ginger fades after a few hours, and I'm left with the marshmallow and French vanilla and a very light, creamy orange.

At first sniff, this is chilly and almost ozone-like, as BPAL pomegranate often is to me. It warms up quickly on my skin, though, and morphs into a beautiful bittersweet scent that's like chocolate oranges, but lighter and with a bit of a perfume edge. It's yummy but not too foody. There's something that's almost like orange zest in the drydown. I like this a lot -- it's very cheerful in a grown-up way. It doesn't have much throw, but it does last a long time.

Not available as a lab imp, but if you can get a decant of The Unsteady Governess from swaps, it's a wonderful tea scent - just white tea and violet leaf.