edenssixthday

The Vampire Bride - I had much higher hopes for this. On my skin, it's very non-descript and boring. It's mostly white tea, crypt dust, and saffron. I can't smell the red musk, myrrh, or elemi at all. There's the faintest hint of beautiful sweet violet, but the dominant notes mostly drown it out. Within five minutes of application, the scent begins to stick really, really close to my skin, and 30 minutes after that, it's pretty much gone. It just won't stay fixed to my skin even after reapplying.

The Green Apple of Venus - This goes on extremely candy-sweet on my skin. Between the sweetness of the apple, the strawberry, and the pomegranate, it's just super sugary-sweet, like a Jolly Rancher kind of sweet. Apple blossom is a known enemy of my skin chemistry, and sadly, in this scent, it does what it so often does, and it goes soapy. Likewise, something else (could easily be the violet, tea rose, or red sandalwood) turns powdery, almost an iris-like powdery scent. So it's kind of a super sugar sweet apple, soap, and powder scent on me, which just doesn't work for me. After drydown it stays very close to the skin, but I can still smell it on my skin a good 12 hours later, which is absolutely amazing for my dry skin that usually sucks BPAL up. Unfortunately, 12 hours later, it still mostly smells of sweet apple, soap, and powder.

The Black Apple of Saturn - This is GORGEOUS. GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS!!! It goes on with the strong scent of black musk, reminding me a lot of the musk used in Panther Moon. Almost instantly the myrrh and tobacco start to warm up on my skin giving it an amazingly warm vibe, and the myrrh especially takes on this awesome sweet and gritty huskiness. The quince gives it a bit of sweetness, too, and the apple isn't very evident, but it lurks in the background providing another bit of juicy, fruity sweetness. All in all, this is STUNNING. I love it so much. The scent has really strong throw and the staying power is beyond anything I've encountered with BPAL before. I put it on in the morning, didn't reapply at all, took a bath in the evening, went to bed, and in the middle of the night when I woke up, I could still smell it on my wrists.

The Gorobble - This goes on smelling sweet and sugary and smoky and very spicy. As it warms up on my skin, it does what most marshmallow scents do and gets a plastic undertone, but it doesn't ever overwhelm the scent. The spice (cinnamon?) gets spicier and spicier the longer it's on my skin and it becomes this amazing spicy scent with a bit of marshmallow sweetness and smoke beneath it. I'd have never guessed this would work on me, but it's a really wonderful spicy fall scent!

The Geek Show - This goes on smelling like loads of dust and dirt - not the sweet scent of freshly overturned loam, but the dirty scent of dirt that has been trod underfoot by crowds of people. However, as soon as it starts to warm up on my skin, something very sweet and fizzy start to come out. It smells lightly fruity and effervescent, like some sort of sweet fruit punch. It takes over the dirt scent, and by the time the scent has completely dried down on me, it smells really, really good. There's the faintest trace of earth and maybe copper (?) beneath the sweetness of the scent.

Dwarf - On me, this is all metal and very earthy stone. I don't smell any leather or hops. It's quite evocative of the inspiration behind the blend, but it's not something I would ever wear myself. The scent has amazing throw, and lasts for quite a long while.

Blood Moon 2010 - This is probably the most beautiful dragon's blood scent I've ever tried! The dragon's blood is quite evident from the get-go, but it's not overwhelming and doesn't overpower the other notes. It's almost as if it serves the sole purpose of bolstering the other notes, making them smell better than they wood otherwise. There's a definite spiciness about the blend that reminds me of cinnamon, but is not. I think it may be the cassia other reviewers have noted, although I'm always terrible about picking out cassia in a scent. There's a hint of sweet animalic musk and a pine-like incense. It's really, really pretty.

Ranger - This is gorgeous! I think it's my favorite of the RPGs I've tried so far. It's got a really amazing sweet animalic muskiness about it that reminds me of Buck Moon, but the pine, juniper, patchouli, and moss are also quite evident and give it a really beautiful scent evocative of a nighttime forest. As it dries down, the dryness of the hay note also becomes evident, but it's subtle and doesn't make the scent smell like a barnyard (as hay typically does for me). This is one I'm adding to my bottle wishlist. There's something about it that's just so incredibly pretty even though it's not typically the type of scent I'd wear.

Rogue - This is a strong leather scent with a subtle hint of pine and something else kind of bitter and green that must be the hemp. I love the leather in it, but the other notes don't work well with my skin. It's just too bitter for my taste.

Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah - This is a really pretty, sweet fruity-floral scent. The dominant note is the apple, with a bit of tart pomegranate to keep it from being too appley. The honey sweetens up the scent, but doesn’t dominate the apple. The hyssop gives the scent a hint of a floral bouquet that keeps the scent from being entirely fruity. It’s a really pretty and fresh scent that reminds me of something I’d wear in the spring/summer months. Unfortunately, I don’t generally enjoy apple scents more than just for a sniff here and there, so it’s not really one I’d ever reach for. I’m still glad I got to try it!

Witch-Cursed Castle - I definitely can't describe the feelings this scent evokes nearly as well as Absinthetics does! She's right on the money. This is a heavy, menacing, and desolate scent that's dry and woody, and there's definitely the scent of wet stone in it. It always amazes me how BPAL gets "stone" and "wet stone" so accurate. It's not the type of fragrance I would ever choose to wear, but as a work of art that captures the essence of a character from a story, it is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It's really brilliant.

Prince Lir - This goes on herbal but almost immediately morphs into a cologne-like soapiness. There's a hint of vanilla, ambergris, and juniper. But mostly, it's soap and cologne.

This is my favorite from the third set of Last Unicorn scents. It's dry, woody, has the same slightly soapy ash note found in Meliai, and the "bitter" balsam actually has a flip side that's slightly sweet... it's bittersweet, I guess you could say. It's a fascinating scent, oddly appealing in its barrenness. I really like it, but it's more masculine than I typically wear, so I would love to smell it on a dude even more than I like it on myself.

Hagsgate - I was actually quite surprised to come to this review thread and see that the scent description is so complex and varied, because I thought for certain this was a two- or three-note blend at most. When I sniff it in the vial, I smell dirt and earthiness and when I apply it on my skin, I smell grassy greenery, which is probably the cucumber and lettuce. I don't smell any of the herbs or vegetables, tomato, or darker notes. It's a very, very simple scent to my nose.

Good - Beautiful! This is a gorgeous sweet, floral, musky scent. It's balanced really well so that none of the notes overwhelm the others. Everything is soft and sweet, feminine, and very pretty. It doesn't last very long on me, but when it's first applied, it has excellent throw. Love it!

White Chocolate Mango Buttercream - Most sweet/foody/candy scents turn on my skin and smell rally gross. This one doesn't! It smells delicious. It's candy-sweet and the mango gives it a really nice tropical-fruit flair. It doesn't last long at all - maybe 30 minutes at most, since there's nothing to fix it to my skin. But it's exciting to find another very rare candy scent that actually works on me!

In the corner of a desolate, dismal schoolhouse, all lonely stone walls, beeswax, and dusty wooden writing desks, stirs the scent of gold coins hidden in forest outside Baghdad, waves crashing against the hull of a Salé pirate ship, the lofty halls of Pépin le Bossu’s court, and a wild child’s home in the woods. The School - I didn't care for this when I first tried it when it first came out. It was too cologney. But now... well, aging has been very, very good to it. It's woody and full of sweet, smooth beeswax, has a murky, salt-water feel about it, and I could swear that's golden amber in it (or not. Ha!) No matter what, it's really awesome, and waaaay better than I would have ever expected it would turn out after aging.

A Golden Idol - It goes on as bitter lavender and amber, but as it dries down, the vetiver starts to behave, and I mostly smell a masculine, husky, cologne type scent. The lavender never smells awful to me (which is amazing, since I lavender is my nemesis) and the tea rose is very faint and dusty. Mostly, it's just warm amber on a bed of husky vetiver and it's nice, but not something I'd really ever reach for since it's a bit too masculine for my preference.

Lawful - I typically dislike fig, but I love every other note listed for this, so of course I had to try it "just in case." Sure enough, the fig leaf is the strongest note and it definitely smells like sweet, meaty fig, but blended with the dry, woody oak, the soft, ethereal and herbal chamomile, and the tart, juicy rhubarb... well, it works. And it works really well. It's really gorgeous. It's a very gender-neutral scent, and while it has good throw, it's gentle. It doesn't last long on my skin, but it's really pretty while it's there.

Goliath Birdwing - This opens up with the clear, sweet scent of sage and bright, herbal lemongrass, but very, very, VERY quickly turns into the scent of soap -- bright, citrusy dish soap. I am positive it's the musk going bad on my skin. I tried it in my hair, but it's not even much better there. It just really smells soapy to my nose. I do not like at all, which is sad because I usually enjoy lemongrass.

The Russian Dance - I'm surprised there aren't more reviews, and more positive reviews, for this scent. On me, it's predominantly an iris scent, and it's so pretty in that powdery-floral way that iris has. Very feminine, soft, and pleasant. The ambergris gives it a really nice warmth to it, and honestly, I can't identify the tea, labdanum, patchouli, champaga, benzoin or anything else because the iris really does dominate -- but it doesn't dominate in a dominatrix kind of way, smacking your nose around all over the place. It's very gentle and sweet and lovely. I really like it, and it lasts a nice long time and a little bit goes a long way, so slathering would be a Really Bad Idea. A tiny dab on the back of my wrists keeps me wrapped in scent all day long.

Half-Elf - I was very surprised to see that "bitter herbs" wasn't a listed ingredient for this scent, because on me, that's exactly what it smells like -- earthy, bitter herbs. It doesn't remotely smell woody, musky, beeswaxy, or anything that I could ever identify with the listed notes. I like it, but I think I would like it on a manly, outdoorsy dude even more. Even though it's bitter, I find it strangely appealing. The throw is solid and the scent is very long-lasting.

When I first tried this scent in 2010, I didn't care for it. Something about it really turned me off. So I kept a couple of drops in a vial so I could test and do a full review later, and the bottle went off to swaps. Now, I'm finally catching up on reviews, and tested it again. It's been at least 9-10 months since I first tested this, and I don't remotely understand why I didn't like it. It's so pretty! The amber and vanilla blend beautifully together along with the geranium (one of my favorite notes!) and the other bright florals. The florals are bright, but not bitter or cloying or heady. Everything is in such perfect balance, with the non-foody vanilla really pulling it together and the amber providing a really nice, warm base. It definitely seems more of a summertime scent, and so I find it odd that it's a Yule blend, but I do like it and I'm so glad I re-tested it and had a much more positive result this time. I still don't think I need to chase down a bottle because I'm trying really hard to reign in the BPAL spending a bit, but if a low-level partial bottle ever passes in front of me, I probably won't be able to resist it.

Olisbos 2011 - My review of Olisbos 2010 is here. I think the 2011 also smells kind of like a souvenir shop in the American Southwest, but this year's version seems to have a lot more olive oil than the previous year's version, and it blends really well with the leather and wood, and I think this year's (or maybe it's the batch I got) smells more like the inspiration than I felt last year's did. I'm not sure I'd wear this scent since it doesn't really fit my personal scent m.o., but I do like it and think it probably smells amazing with the right skin chemistry.

The Chicken-Legged Hut - I knew I wouldn't like this from the description, but if something claims to smell like magical chicken feet, I've just got to check it out! It predominantly smells like hay and grains and something nutty that reminds me of Sleipnir, which I did not like due to the nuts. It's like Hay Moon and Sleipner hooked up in a barn. It's very dusty and outdoorsy and odd. It's definitely not for me, but fun to try nevertheless. I also must say that I didn't get even the slightest hint of magical chicken feet. I'd like to see a magical chicken feet single note now, please!