edenssixthday

Heroine - I LOVE this blend. I mean, I really, really, REALLY love it! It opens up with the dominant notes of warm, pliable leather and juicy, slightly tart rhubarb. Who would have ever thought that those two notes would go together so well? The skin musk is subtle, but adds a nice hint of sweetness to the blend, and the darker notes -- patchouli, dark musk, and amber -- are even more subtle, but work to pull the whole thing together. On my skin, this is an absolutely amazing fragrance. It's quite strong when I first apply it, but it settles down as it dries, and it lasts for hours. When I wear this in public, I feel a little self-conscious because it's so unique and it's so sexy that I'm afraid of drawing too much attention to myself. I think this goes in my Top 10 BPALs of all time.

Loosening of the Obi - This is a beautiful, soft, feminine scent. It's mostly vanilla and white musk, with a touch of rice wine that smooths it out and keeps it interesting. The white sandalwood is also subtle, but gives the scent texture and grounds it. Something in it doesn't work quite right on my skin, and I'm thinking it must be the musk. Oh well, more for the rest of you.

Celeste - This is a super-sugary vanilla scent with a strong blast of vanilla musk and something nauseatingly chemical about it -- someone else said it's similar to new tires, and someone else said the saffron was giving it a bit of a leathery scent, so maybe that's the saffron doing it, but it's definitely the smell of new tires coated in sugar and vanilla. It's *so close* to being awesome on me, but doesn't quite do it, sadly.

Rimmon Soap - This is a great-smelling soap. I often can't wear the Lab's pomegranate perfume oils, even though I love the scent of them, so it's been nice to have a pomegranate soap to use so I can enjoy that pomegranate fragrance. It's bright and juicy, although I think the soap should have been scented a little stronger, but I tend to like my soaps REALLY fragrant. As with all Villainess soaps, it's a luxurious and silky lather and a top-notch quality product.

Nikephoros - This opens up as a strong patchouli and orange blend. The oakmoss and galbanum are pretty heavy, as well. The black currant gives it a bit of dark berry juiciness, but since black currant always turns to cat pee on me, I know this will go horribly awry when it dries down. Interestingly, it doesn't do what I think it will. Upon drydown, the black currant disappears instead of going all cat pee on me, the orange lightens up significantly, and in fact, the whole blend becomes a lot more subtle. The patchouli is still the strong note, sweetened up by the orange and benzoin. I love most of the notes in this blend (except for black currant) and the end effect is nice, but I don't love it. It's a great gender-neutral scent that would smell good on both men and women who like this "dirty" type of patchouli that's cleaned up/sweetened up by the bright, crisp orange.

Chaos Theory IV: DXXVIII (528) - Previously reviewed here. This is a pretty scent. The previous reviewer noted something "waxy...like toffee" in it. I also notice something kind of buttery and chewy and waxy, and I definitely see how she gets "toffee" from it, but it's less foody to my nose. When I first apply the oil, that's all I smell - that pretty beeswax type of note and a soft bit of creamy coffee. It's got a slight hint of a pretty, soft musk -- maybe blue musk or pink musk -- that wafts further than the wax and coffee. And I smell a hint of something that my nose identifies as cinnamon, but I know that cinnamon's not put in Chaos Theories, so I'm not sure what it is, but it's something spicy, and maybe could even be mint, but it's almost too sweet to be mint. It's a very pretty scent, and one of the Chaos Theories that worked out really, really well.

Sweet Winter Berry Ale - This smells like sweet, fizzy ginger ale infused with loads of red and dark mixed berries. Very simple, very pretty.

Strawberry Lemon Drop Candy Cane - My very first thought upon applying this is that it reminds me of the Strawberry Lemonade I order at Mimi's Cafe... if I were drinking it while simultaneously sucking on a peppermint candy. It's delicious - the strawberry definitely smells like a thick strawberry syrup and the lemon is fresh is sweet and doesn't remotely remind me of furniture polish. The peppermint gets stronger as the scent warms up on my skin. This is such a fun fragrance, and I can see it being delightful as a summertime scent as much as it is a festive holiday scent. Love it!

Spanked Revisited - When I opened the bottle and put some on my wrists, I was immediately whisked back to the first half of 2006, when I wore the original Spanked regularly. It's a super sexy, spicy, leather scent with a bit of earthy patchouli. The bourbon isn't very strong. A thin ribbon of it runs through the other notes, smoothing them out. The second time I wore Spanked Revisited, I discovered the hard way that the spiciness is too much for my chest/neck skin, which isn't usually sensitive, but a few rare scents give me a horribly itchy, burning rash, and this appears to be one of them. I can still wear it on my wrists and in my hair, though! Overall, it's an incredibly sexy scent, full of leather, cardamom, (and even though it's not listed, I'm positive there's cinnamon in it, since cardamom is a favorite note that has never before given me a burning rash, but cinnamon has quite often), and patchouli. It's an awesome scent, and I'm so glad to have Spanked back in my life again. Oh, one final thing -- the original Spanked was great, but didn't last on my skin very long. This version is still not an all-day wear for my dry skin, but it lasts for several hours.

Hekaerge – This really isn’t my type of scent, but I still had hopes that somehow the myrrh and lemongrass would rule and it would be a surprisingly awesome scent. It isn’t. Rather, it’s strongly woody on me – tons of red patchouli and balsam, both of which are notes I dislike. The lavender, my arch-nemesis, is barely even noticeable over the balsam, which says a lot for how strong the balsam is. The lemongrass and honey aren’t remotely discernable and while I can smell the myrrh, it smells like “light myrrh,” which I dislike, as opposed to “dark myrrh,” which I adore. So this is basically full of scents that could just never win on my skin and with my nose. More for the rest of you, I suppose.

Kypris - I don't at all get the gourmand type scent that other reviewers noted. On me, the honey is the dominant note, with a hint of benzoin, and a solid amount of rose. I think I smell the tiniest hint of cherry, but I'd have never picked it out on my own without referencing the note listing. I thought there was orange blossom in this, too, but I don't see it on the ingredient list. I'd classify this as a honey scent, with a bit of powderiness, and I don't know if that's from the honey, the benzoin, the almond, or something else. After drydown, there's something slightly woody and almost spicy about the scent, which must be the Peru balsam -- something that amazes me since I don't typically like balsam at all. This is such a pretty scent, absolutely perfect for spring. It's not something I'd typically wear, so I don't know whether to keep it or not, because it really is beautiful, but I don't know if I'd actually ever reach for it. But I might.

Areia - When first applied, this is a super-cherry-sweet red musk with a hint of dragon's blood. It's got depth and sexiness and sweetness and it's awesome. As it dries down, the sillage dissipates significantly and the olive wood becomes highly noticeable, and sadly, on my skin at least, the olive wood doesn't blend well at all with the other notes. It gives the scent a flat, almost leather-type of fragrance that reminds me of what it must smell when you gnaw on an old shoe sole. I mean, it's just a really weird scent on my skin after drydown. Fortunately, the overall fragrance is subtle enough that I don't feel the need to wash it off immediately, but that flat, dirty-shoe-sole weirdness is going to keep me from wearing this again, even if it does smell amazing fresh out of the bottle while it's still wet.

Metal Rabbit - This is a GORGEOUS fruity-floral blend. It's bright and cheery, and absolutely perfect for spring. The peony, lychee, kumquat, and peach are the dominant notes from the bottle until full dry-down on my skin. The only bummer about the blend is there's nothing to keep it grounded to my skin and within 15-20 minutes, it's completely gone. I've tested it several times, with lotion on a base layer, and it disappeared quickly every time.

Apatrophia - This is a surprisingly masculine blend. The petitgrain is quite strong and bewtween that and the cedar and the lime, it definitely gives off a very sophisticated mens fougere-type fragrance. As it dries down, the musk comes out more and more, and a bevy of complex spices becomes really evident. The orange blossom gives the scent the tiniest hint of floral powderiness, but mostly, this is a nice, brown musk with petitgrain, lime zest, and blonde woods. It's a great scent, would love to smell it on my husband, but it's too masculine for me to wear.

Female Nude, Three-Quarter Length, Beside Her Left an Apple Tree - This is the perfect example of why I like to leave no stone unturned when it comes to BPAL. There is absolutely nothing about this scent that appealed to me. Rosewood? Ewww, no. Mahogany? No thanks. Apple? Probably not. Yet somehow, put them together, and they work together with amazing synergy to create something absolutely spectacular and really impressive. What blossoms on my skin is a beautiful, warm wood scent with a hint of apple and something else -- maybe oak or tonka, something that's warm and golden. Apple is not a note I typically enjoy, as it's just a bit too crisp and juicy for me, but in this blend, the apple keeps the woods from being too dry and flat and the woods tone down the brightness of the apple and they compliment each other perfectly. I really adore this scent and I'm so glad that I didn't completely disregard it based on the ingredient list. It's such a pretty fragrance that I imagine would be perfect year-round for any type of situation, whether it's wearing to work, on a date, out on the town, skiing in the mountains, shopping at the farmer's market, or wearing to enjoy during a relaxing day at home.

Nude Woman Reclining - This opens up with a blast of calla lily and honeysuckle, plus a little drop of jasmine. It's very much a heady floral, almost overwhelming. But as it dries down, the florals settle down, and while it's still obviously a floral scent, it's not nearly as overwhelming as it is initially. About 45 minutes into the wear time, it suddenly changes, and the florals are barely discernible and the scent takes on a sweet musky quality and the vanilla begins to spread a warm glow over my skin, and it's like a completely different scent than it was when first applied. At this point in the wear, I can't stop sniffing my wrists. The florals are very subtle and it's mostly a sweet, musky vanilla and very, very pretty. Amazing how this one morphs! I really love the end product, but not sure I can handle the first 45 minutes of heady florals.

The Ring - This scent has a lot of potential, as I love most notes except for the hay and skin musk, which are two scents I generally dislike. I was hoping the resins, oakmoss, and mint would be the dominant notes, but no such luck. From the first moment I put it on, it's 90% skin musk -- ultra-sweet and cloying, and behind it are the hay and white mint. I love white mint, but blended with the hay and skin musk, the overall effect is just kind of weird on my skin. The amber is far in the background and I don't smell the frankincense or patchouli or oakmoss at all. The longer it's on my skin, the more the skin musk amps and becomes sickeningly sweet to the point where I simply have to wash it off. This is one that I just can't handle continuing to wear to see if it balances out nicely upon drydown.

Manilus Hurles from the Rock - This is a really nice masculine/gender-neutral scent. It's very strong on the leather, which is a warm, well-worn, brown leather, reminiscent of Dead Man's Hand, reminding me of a western saddle and has a rugged "cowboy" vibe. The sandalwood, frankincense, and cedar give the scent a dry quality, almost dusty from the frankincense, but the nutmeg spices it up just a touch -- it's very faint, but gives it just enough texture to keep the scent interesting. The violet leaf is a really interesting addition -- on me, it's gives the scent the faintest hint of soapy greenery, enough that when the scent is still wet on my skin, the overall scent reminds me a bit of saddle soap. Fortunately, as it dries down on my skin, the soapiness goes away, and what's left is just this really awesome leathery scent with a nice base of wood and a hint of nutmeg (I seriously can't get over how that tiny drop of nutmeg pulls the other notes together -- amazing!) This reminds me so much of what I smell when I go in my mom's barn -- the strong scent of all the leather saddles and bridles in the tack room combined with the wooden railings and walls of the horse stalls, and the frankincense even gives it a hint of the dustiness that is present in every barn. Yet it doesn't smell musky and stinky like a barn -- it just has the good parts. It's rugged, sexy, manly -- if the Marlboro Man were a BPAL, this would be he.

Standing Female Nude - This is a gorgeous fruity-floral-resin scent. In the bottle, I smell tons of red rose, but the moment it touches my skin, the juicy red currant, dry amber, and sweet, dark blood orange are evident and those notes blend together so amazingly well. As the oil warms up on my skin, the musk starts to come out and it definitely lends a beautiful, warm, golden vibe to the scent, blending perfectly with the orange and amber. As the scent dries on my skin, I can really begin to smell the husky, smoky myrrh, and I'm positively adoring the synergy of the notes in this blend. Everthing compliments everything else so perfectly. I used to be a huge fan of red rose, but over the years, have discovered so many other scents I prefer to rose, and this scent reminds me again why I once loved rose so much. I don't have much rose left in my repertoire, and I think this will be a wonderful addition to my perfume collection. This bright, juicy, sunshiny-warm rose scent will be particularly perfect on warm, golden days in the late-spring/summer months.

Wrestlers - This is sweet, warm, butterscotchy rum, musk, wood, and vetiver. It has a bit of a Caribbean pirate vibe without the aquatics. The vetiver is not in-your-face at all. It's subtle and smooth and gives the scent a nice, well-rounded smokiness. The woods are really nice, slightly dry, but not overly dry, as the butterscotchy rum warms it up significantly. The rum is not a straight rum, but definitely has the butterscotch vibe that Grog has, which unfortunately tends to turn plasticky on my skin, but damn do I love that smell up until the point! (Grog is my #1 "wish I could drink this!" BPAL and I looove that aspect of the rum in Wrestlers.) The musk is also quite well-balanced with the other notes, and it's not an overtly musky scent, although it has a bit of velveteen fuzziness from the musk. And then there's the balsam... I'm not a fan of balsam and this one pretty much ruins for me what would otherwise be a pretty awesome scent, so I will ultimately have to pass it on. Overall, I see this as being a really good scent for a guy, but it's not necessarily masculine, more of a gender-neutral scent, as I know I would love it without that pesky balsam note. I think a lot of women who are drawn to more masculine-type scents would probably really like this.

Kytherian - Wow! This is an absolute stunner! I had no idea that with notes like narcissus and neroli in this (which I dislike), I would :heart: this so much! The plum musk is by far the dominant note and it's so amazing there simply aren't words. The ambergris is the second strongest note on me, but my skin and ambergris have been having a love-affair for many years, they get along like two peas in a pod, so I'm not surprised by the warm, golden muskiness the ambergris gives this blend, and I wouldn't have thought it would work well with plum, but wow, it really does. The thyme is faint, but adds a bit of a bright herbal sweetness, and the grapefruit also lends the scent a bit of sweet juiciness, while the white sandalwood gives the scent of a bit of a dry, woody base. The florals aren't remotely heady, overwhelming, soapy, or anything else unpleasant often attributed to florals. They're in absolute perfect balance with the other notes, and while the scent does have a trace of a floral vibe, on me, it's not really a scent I would classify as a traditional floral. Overall this is an A++++++ scent. It's very unique and well-blended, and most of all, absolutely gorgeous. God, I love this.

Tea - This is so fresh and warmly crisp and pretty! On me, the lemon verbena takes front and center and is such a beautiful, beautiful note! The tea is pretty faint, but the honeycomb is absolutely lovely. It gives a sweet warmth to the fresh crispness of the lemon verbena and really helps balance out the lemon verbena, keeping it from turning into a Lemon Pledge scent. I get only the faintest trace of star anise that I can barely pin down when I smell it -- as soon as I identify it, it's gone, only to peek its head out again when I'm looking elsewhere. Overall, this is an absolutely gorgeous spring/summer scent. I'm not sure it's one I would reach for, as my scent preferences trend away from this type of fragrance, but it's still really, really pretty and I bet that if I don't keep it, there will come a day this summer when I wish I had. Oh, one more thought -- this would make an AWESOME soap or shower gel scent. It would be so great to wake up to in the morning!

Ushi - This is a really unique scent -- tons of bitter tomato (smells more like a tomato plant than the actual tomato fruit) mixed with fig and a hint of mango. I can barely smell the red musk. I didn't think I'd like this scent, as fig is not my favorite and I find tomato more interesting than wearable, but this is a highly wearable scent. The fig is turning me off from it a bit, as I generally don't like fig, but if I liked fig a bit more, I think I'd be a huge fan of this scent. It's so incredibly unique and interesting and fresh and juicy and absolutely perfect for summertime wear.

Harigata II - This is lots of sweet coconut with the tiniest bit of anise in the background. I don't smell any amber or hazelnut at all. Not a drop. It dries down to a soft, sweet coconut scent, pretty much a single note. Unfortunately, the coconut in this goes a little plasticky on me, as coconut often does. If I was a bigger fan of coconut scents in general, it would make an awesome scent locket scent. I think coconut lovers have to try this one!

Biwa - In the bottle and when first applied on my skin, this is the incredibly awesome scent of fresh tangerines drizzled with honey. It's a dead-ringer for the scent of Bella Lucce's Manuka Honey Drizzle. As it starts to warm up on my skin, the tagetes comes out, and adds a really interesting touch -- kind of a dry, bitter floral, but not unpleasant. I typically can't stand the scent of marigolds (neither can bunnies, which is why I border my garden in marigolds!), but when it's used in BPAL blends, it's typically light enough to not overwhelm and to add an interesting and unique touch to the scent, and this is definitely not an exception. I really like the addition of the tagetes. Oh, but then I smell the black currant, which is one of my long-time nemesis scents, as it always turns and smells like cat pee on me once it dries down. Sure enough, this scent smells absolutely fantastic until dry-down, at which point the black currant starts to smell like a room where a cat peed on the carpet a long time ago -- musty and old and dry and really, really cat pissy. And all the tangerine is gone at this point, too. This would be a lovely scent locket scent for me. I'll definitely have to try it that way before deciding to pass, but for straight skin-wear, it's definitely a pass.