Mountaingrrl00

I think you would love Courtney. Reviews here: Courtney

It's an Unreleased But Available TAL. http://www.bpal.org/topic/25516-unreleased-but-available/ You can order from the regular TAL address and just put the name of the oil in your order comments.

This is a job for TAL Nocturne. Seriously, it's really effective.

This is not one I wear very often, but there's nothing like it to warm me up on a super-cold winter day. It smells like my grandmother and her friends, lavishly dressed, coming into a warm New York apartment for a party on a cold evening. All the rich perfumes mingle with the coffee and roses and there's this swath of old-fashioned festivity.

The drydown reminds me of my beloved super-rare Buck Moon! It has the same soft Egyptian musk note. The top note is a bracing cold pine.

Go To Sleep, Darlings is a pretty one in this year's Yules. It's like Snow White with a soft mintiness.

I get the iced peat note most of all, along with something like the green cognac of Summer Lace. There's a woody warmth waiting in the background and just a tinge of musk. It comes on strong but fades fairly quickly.

The pomegranate, amber and saffron in the description gave me hope that this could resemble my super-rare BPAL favorite, Queen of Clubs. Could it?

 

Not initially. It smells more like The Kingdom of Sweets, all tart fruity candy. BPAL's pomegranate note does that to me sometimes. Then I get the darker fruitiness of the plum: better.

 

The scent when it dries down is warmer and more ambery but that sweet-tart pom note is still there, and I can't catch the saffron, frankincense or limonite accord. The saffron and frankincense may even be contributing to that enduring "bright" scent impression.

 

Not much resemblance to QoC. It's pretty close to SN Pomegranate on me.

Yum! This smells rich, appropriately enough. It's woody, resinous, and somehow metallic. The Atlas cedar is not a pencil-shavings scent, but has a real depth, anchoring the brightness of the saffron. There's a warmth from the amber and a sweetness from the heliotrope. I'm unfamiliar with the scent of honey laurel; I think it might be the sort of bay-leaf tinge I'm getting initially that contributes to the "metallic" impression.

As it dries down, the resins and woods remain and I get more vanillic heliotrope, less metal. There's also something earthy that I can't identify, but love.

I'm so glad I ordered when I did to get this lagniappe. It's delicious in a strong, dark-golden way.

Spanked reads as leather and pepper to me; the cardamom has that bite.

In all my years of BPALdom, there've been only a handful of scents I've felt compelled to buy a second bottle of after using up the first one. Insupportable Misery is one. It's fresh and deep, floral and smoky, and yes, a bit lemony too, though that gives way to the saffron aromatic sweetness on drydown. Lilac is the easiest note to pick out, but really everything is beautifully blended into a soft violet-grey cloud of gorgeousness. Mmmph - can't stop huffing my wrist!

I went with Graveyard Dirt for Halloween. I'm testing September Midnight now, thinking of wearing it to a Day of the Dead party tonight.

The way this morphs is fascinating. Wet, it's a dry woody perfume with an ozone edge. I worry that it may give me a headache, and I can't smell the pomegranate at all. Then the oakmoss comes out and the ozone fades away. On drydown, there's the pomegranate in soft oakmoss with subtle hints of resins that make me want to huff my wrist. This will definitely be an evening dress-up kind of scent for me.

Midwinter's Eve, Yuletide and Yule have shown up several times.

 

Jacob's Ladder and Midnight Mass are frequently recurring resin/incense Yules.

 

Egg Nog and Sugar Cookie are recurrent foodie Yules.

If you like your spices and tobacco with coffee, try The Arabian Dance.

Interesting to contemplate. I'd add Luna Azul and Sea of Glass to your list.

Silver Phoenix is very orris-dominant to my nose.

Thieves' Rosin works for me, and it's on your bottle list! Take care, and know we BPAListas are rooting for you.

Tobacco Honey?

I kept Ehecatl in the fridge for such occasions last summer.

The first thing that came to mind for me was Morocco. The list of notes doesn't even mention vanilla, but I get exactly the vibe you're describing.

 

"The intoxicating perfume of exotic incenses wafting on warm desert breezes. Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia."

 

The incenses are smoky and the warm desert breezes are dry, I guess. I think the warm musk with the spices are what read as vanilla.

In the bottle the camphor and lavender dominate, giving a medicinal impression. Wet on my skin, the mango emerges, juicy and a bit spicy.

 

Dry, this is one of the most beautiful blends ever. It's like a tropical fruit blossom wafting on cool evening air. So evocative and alluring. I love it!

This reminds me strongly of the wonderful unreleased 2007 BPAL Fruitcake, with rum in place of the brandy. Candied fruits and marzipan with a sweet boozy undercurrent. Yummy!

Merry Carousel, I'm thinking Cheshire Cat for you.

Mama-Ji is a nice one. The Arabian Dance and Spanked/Spanked Revisited are also heavy on the cardamom.