edenssixthday

A Cold, Clear Winter Day - This is very, very, very nice. It's a crisp, cool snow scent full of fir and mint and then in the background is that gorgeous tuberose scent that I love so much. It's actually quite a simple scent, but it's stunningly beautiful. I have so many cold, winter scents that I don't know if I'd reach for this one over L'Inverno, Moon of Ice, or Snow Bunny, but I might. It could be so perfect on a really cold, snowy day. Or wonderfully refreshing on a hot, humid, summer day. The throw is really, really powerful when first applied, but it does settle down.

Incessant Torture of Remorse - The remorse started the second I put this on my skin and smelled the lavender in it. The torture started about 0.5 seconds later. I can't wear lavender or blackberry and in this blend, they are in cahoots to make this as inhumanly horrific as possible on my skin. The olive leaf even jumps in to give it a green edge that, when mixed with the lavender, reminds me of the weird caraway note from one of last year's Ode to Mars scents. I'm a lavender- and blackberry-hater, and so this is just awful. If you like those two notes, YMMV.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse - This smells so good in the bottle - tons of holly berry and pine, musk and resin. However, the moment it touches my skin, the chypre comes out really strong, giving this scent a masculine cologne vibe. And then I smell two of my evil notes, blackberry and black currant, both of which smell like cat pee on me, and the longer this is on my skin, the more the cat pee overwhelms everything else. Without the chypre and cat pee, I think this would be a lovely scent, but as long as those notes are in it, it's just not going to work well with my skin chemistry.

WILF - When I opened the bottle and sniffed, my first thought was that it's a very close cousin to Snake Charmer and Snake Oil. On my skin, it smells so delicious with the musks and vanilla bean and patchouli really standing out. But as it dries on my skin, something acrid starts to come out, and I realize it's the peppermint, which only works on me in a couple of blends, and then once it's completely dry, in addition to the bitter, acrid peppermint, there's a dry, dustiness that can only be the type of BPAL chocolate that goes completely wrong on my skin. Without the chocolate and peppermint, I think this would be a huge winner for me, and for those who can wear those notes and love Snake Oil and Snake Charmer, I think WILF is going to charm their pants off!

Pink Champagne - I positively adore champagne scents, and since Bon Vivant is one of my long-time, all-time favorites, I absolutely had to try this. To my nose, the "pink" aspect of this is more than just strawberries -- it actually reminds me a lot of Pink Phoenix and what you might get if you blended it with champagne. It's a very sweet scent, and it's a really fun and free-spirited scent, but sadly, it doesn't last on my skin for more than 5 minutes. Once it dries down, it's just completely gone without a trace.

Champagne and Absinthe - I love this. It goes on with less effervescence than I tend to expect from champagne blends, but it's still definitely champagne I'm smelling, it's just been tempered by the smoothness of the anise and citrus in the absinthe. I positively adore the absinthe note(s) in this blend -- it smells very similar to La Fee Verte and it blends wonderfully with the champagne. It doesn't last on my skin very long, but it's a scent that's well-worth reapplication. I'll likely try this in a scent locket soon and see if I can't retain some of the longevity of the scent that way.

Arachne of Lydia - Of all the Unicorn Horn blends, this one worried me the most because I can never, I mean never, wear blackcurrant; it turns to the not-too-subtle odor of cat pee on me. So I was absolutely bowled over when I applied this and liked it...and it never "turned." This is predominantly a warm, sweet clove scent, and I would have never attached the adjective "dusty" to it on my own. There's a hint of fruity sweetness in the background that is just lovely and must be the black currant, and I'm excited to finally know what it smells like when it works well! It's a really lovely scent, the best of the bunch so far.

Mommy Fortuna - On me, this is just awful. It opens up with a sickly sweet honey note -- one of the BPAL honeys I can't stand and which never works on me. Mixed in with it is the weird smoky, gritty, rusty-metallic scent of gunpowder and it smells like there's a bit of vetiver in it, too, which usually works great on me once it dries down, but this combination of notes is just awful on me, and sadly, no amount of magic seems to be able to save it. This is a "MUST WASH IT OFF NOW!" scent for me.

The Butterfly - When this is wet on my skin, it smells quite strongly of bergamot, a note that I don't enjoy at all. As it dries down, the bergamot goes away, and what's left is that "fuzzy brown tonka", which oddly, is quite "fuzzy", which I've never noticed with tonka. It smells almost as if there's a bit of brown musk in there, too. The petitgrain adds a really nice slightly earthy note that blends beautifully with the tonka. The amber takes back seat to the tonka (and whatever I'm identifying as possibly brown musk), but it rounds the scent out quite nicely. I've only tried three of the Unicorn Horn scents so far, but so far this is my favorite. It's definitely a gender-neutral scent, and would smell quite lovely on my husband, if I could only get him to wear it.

The Last Unicorn - This scent opens up with the crisp green scent of lettuce combined with the creaminess of coconut and white chocolate. When it dries down, the lettuce disappears, and the creamy coconut and white chocolate are now accompanied by the wonderfully warm scent of oakmoss, the softly powdery scent of orris, and the faintest trace of lilac. It's a lovely scent, but a tad on the sweet side for me. On me, it's also very much a skin scent without hardly any throw.

The Lilac Wood – When first applied, this is green and grassy like whoa! As it dries down, it becomes much gentler and lovelier. The greenery settles down significantly, and while it’s still pretty strong, it backs up enough to allow the other notes to come through. The lilac on me isn’t very strong at all. In fact, it’s fleeting and hard to pin down. There’s definitely a soapy edge to the floral note(s?), which never turns fully soapy on me, but keeps threatening to. There’s a warmth to the scent that a previous reviewer noted as oak, and I’m inclined to agree with her, as on me, oak is less like a typical wood scent and more of a pretty warm scent. And then there are the “soft shadows” which the same previous reviewer noted as white musk. I am not sure it’s white musk, as that’s a note my nose has never been able to distinguish, but there’s definitely a soft musk note, whether it’s white or some other type of musk; it’s sweet, soft, and very pretty. Overall, this is a lovely scent after dry-down, but still too grassy for my personal preferences.

Kourabiedes - Keep in mind I can rarely wear bakery/gourmand scents. On me, this is tons and tons of spices -- mostly clove and nutmeg. And when I say tons of spices, I mean TONS of spices. I also smell a really bitter alcohol, but can't place it for the life of me. With the exception of whiskey, most alcohol scent notes smell somewhere between fairly decant and amazingly awesome on me...but this one doesn't. It reminds me of something that goes wrong on me in one of the Tiki Lounge scents...maybe it's brandy that's not working. After it dries down, I can smell the faintest hint of cookie or baked goods in the background, but really, it's still mostly rancid booze and heavy spices. Bummer.

Chocolate Espresso Gingerbread - I'm not a chocolate scent lover, so I didn't expect much from this, although I still hoped the chocolate would be light and the coffee strong. Rather, the chocolate is extremely heavy, by far the most dominant note. The gingerbread lends the overall scent a hint of spiciness, and there's the faintest trace of coffee in the background, but it's mostly just another chocolate scent that turns sour on my skin with a bit of non-sour spiciness. That means more for the rest of you, I s'pose

Shortbread Snowflakes - This opens up with a strong, minty snow scent, but quickly dries down to a strong minty-vanilla scent with the faint hint of cookies in the background. I tend to not be able to wear foody blends, and this is the first vanilla-mint scent I've found that doesn't turn to plastic on my skin. I kind of "get it" now when it comes to all the love for vanilla-mint scents, as this is really lovely.

An T-Samhuinn Soap - I agree with the reviewers who said this smells like an October/Samhain love-child. With its heavy appleness, it's not something I should have enjoyed, but as with Samhain, I just can't get enough of it. It's mostly crisp apples and lovely woods blended with the most beautiful touch of dry leaves. It's not the type of scent I'd have ever imagined using as a soap, yet I think it's one of my favorite BPAL and/or Villainess soaps ever.

Dance of the Mirlitons - Another winner from the Yule update! This scent is phenomenal. It goes on with a really sweet almond scent -- sweeter than most almond blends, definitely marzipan. But the sweetness dies off as the scent dries down on my skin, and what comes out underneath that sweetness is just stunning. It's mostly rosewood, sandalwood, tonka, and rum on me, and I would swear there's a drop or two of dark myrrh in this, as well. It's warm and woody and has a bit of huskiness to it that is what makes me think there's a drop of myrrh in here, but that could just be the sandalwood blending with the tonka and/or rum. All I know is that it's positively gorgeous, it wears beautifully on my skin, has a really nice, inoffensive level of throw, and lasts for quite a while on my skin. I'll give it two snaps up in a circle!

The Spanish Dance - Out of all the Anni/Yule II update blends, this is the one that, when opening my bottles and sniffing them, grabbed me the most. It smelled dark and sweet and fruity in a really juicy way. Once I realized there were huge globules of chocolate sitting on the bottom of the bottle, I shook and shook and shook it to blend it really well, but I was worried because I can rarely wear chocolate. However, when I applied it to my skin, the chocolate was immediately identifiable as the same chocolate note that is in Cthulhu in Love, Wulfric, and Great Sword of War, which means it's a chocolate my skin actually doesn't reject. The chocolate is definitely the strongest note when first applied to my skin, and when the scent is shaken up so the chocolate globules are evenly distributed throughout, it loses a lot of its juiciness. Instead, it's mostly dark chocolate and sweet honey with just a hint of the sweet pomegranate. While my skin doesn't "turn" the chocolate on me, it doesn't smell nearly as good on me as it does in the bottle (especially when the chocolate is sitting on the bottom of the bottle -- I love the other oils that sit on top, I guess). Once it dries down on my skin, it's very, very subtle, but the scent does last for hours. Still, I never catch it wafting around me, and have to shove my wrist up my nose to detect the scent. I do like it, but can't imagine I'd reach for it when there are so many other blends I'm desperately in love with, so this will be getting passed along (as I tend to do with most scents that have chocolate in them).

The Arabian Dance - It's like Spanked and Arabian Dance are brothers of another mother. Twin brothers. Not identical twins, but pretty darn close enough. It's amazing! It's awesome! It's effing spectacular! It smells soooo good! Arabian Dance goes on as mostly a spicy leather scent, but as the scent warms up on my skin, the spices soften up and the coffee scent comes out, giving the leather a hint of creaminess it didn't have when it was wet. I don't smell the hazelnut or tobacco at all, unless the hazelnut is what's giving the coffee a creaminess as opposed to a pure coffee-beanness. All I know is it's close enough to Spanked that anyone who loved Spanked should snatch up a trillion bottles of this and huff it to their heart's content.

Bob Cratchit's Hearth - When I sniff this in the bottle, I mostly smell sherry and warm, spicy goodness. Once it hits my skin, the firewood really comes out. It doesn't smell like a bonfire, it actually smells like burning, charred firewood. It's an amazing scent that I haven't encountered before in a BPAL. The firewood and spices and sherry blend gorgeously together. I was worried the foodiness of the pie would make the scent "turn" on my skin, but it doesn't. It's really, really lovely. It's a very subtle scent on me -- an hour after application, I can barely smell it on my skin. But I love it, so I'll wear it again and just apply a little more next time.

Whoop - I was excited about this scent more than any others from the first Yule update. While it definitely smells Christmassey, it's way too powerful of a scent. The pine cone, bayberry, and cranberry are the strongest notes, and as they warm up on my skin, the smell becomes positively overwhelming, until I smell like I rolled around in a huge vat of potpourri. It's just way too strong and overwhelming for me. I probably would like it a lot more as a room spray to give my home that holiday scent and feel, but on my skin, it's just way too much.

Haloa 2010 - The last two releases of Haloa smelled like warm, buttery goodness on me. They were stronger on the cake note than anything else and sweetened a bit by the fruit. This one is completely different on me, even though it seems there's only one ingredient that's different. The 2010 version is really strong on the grape and pomegranate and there's a pretty prevalent note of greenery running through it that I'm guessing is the olive leaf. I can barely smell the cake, although I know it's there because it's keeping the the fruit notes from turning sour on my skin. I also can't identify the resins, but something's got to be grounding this scent to my skin, as it's the type that would otherwise wisp away quickly. I really, really like this scent. It's very pretty and unique.

The Clock Strikes Midnight - I love blue musk and frankincense, but black currant tends to go really, really bad on me, so I wasn't sure how this would turn out. Wet, it smells like nail polish remover. As it dries down, the frankincense gives it a dry huskiness that's kind of nice and the blue musk lends a bit of sweetness to the blend. The black currant still turns on me, though, and there's something else not quite going right on my skin (mugwort? I have no idea what that smells like), so i'm afraid this one isn't a winner on me.

Gingerbread Poppet 2010 - By far my favorite of the Gingerbread Poppets over the years. This one reminds me more of the 2007 version than either '04 or '05, but it doesn't have the lemon zest scent I picked up on from '07. This is a warm, fresh-baked gingerbread. It's not nearly as spicy as the earlier versions were, but there is spice that warms up the ginger. It's not overly-sweet, but it's just right. I would definitely recommend lovers of Shub and ginger in general to try this one out. My reviews for 2004 and 2005 GP are here. My review for 2007 GP is here.

Christmas Eve on the Moor - I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one because it sounded like it could smell really beautiful, but if the mud note took over, I would hate it. Well, I tried it, and I love it. I don't smell any mud at all. It's a really gorgeous scent -- definitely has the scent of frost-dampened winter grasses, and the moss gives it a really lovely layer of depth. The stone note is faint, and is the "good" stone that I love from scents like Night's Bridge. I don't pick up at all on the fire note. When I first apply, it's mostly a strong ozone and moss scent, and the ozone renders the wet oil slightly cologney, but it dries down beautifully, without the faintest hint of cologne, even though the ozone is still present. Once it's dried down, it's mostly an ozone and moss scent, while the other notes (except for the mud and fire, which I never do smell at all) play in the background. It's really, really beautiful.

A World of Fools - Whoa, this is a foody scent? I can't usually wear foodies, and when I tried this on, I hadn't read the scent description, so I had no idea what was in it. It doesn't smell remotely of fig to me. Rather, to my nose, it smells heavy and resinous with a hint of spiciness. I thought for sure it had myrrh and ginger in it. But it didn't smell remotely sweetly foody or like baked goods at all. And it didn't "turn" on my skin, as most foody scents do. I was honestly shocked when I read the scent description. Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. I do smell a bit of an evergreen type scent, but it smells more like pine resin than the greenery of holly. It does give it a bit of a Christmas feel, but more than anything, it's just warm, resinous, and spicy. The throw is really lovely and the staying power is well above average. Of all the Yules I've tried so far this year, this one is my favorite.