Wren12

2012 version In bottle...sweet, red cherries, no real boozy note to my nose. On wet...succulent sweet cherry candies. No cough syrup that I can discern. Dry down...the cherry takes on a touch of a bitter note, moving away from the earlier candy note. Now a touch of booziness appears, warming, like a sip of some brandy as it goes down. If I didn't love cherry so much this would be meh, but since I love cherry it is Yah!!! ETA: Color me sad, because this faded faster than any BPAL I have ever experienced, 30 minutes later and I can maybe smell the ghost of the cherries, which is amazing because it is an incredibly assertive scent when first applied. No worries though, I think I'll make some into solid perfume and see if that enhances the length I get from it, it's worth the trouble because while it hangs around it is lush and amazing.

First time testing this today, got it in an imp lot, I believe aged several years. The oil is a rich gold evocative of the resins comprising it. In imp...bright, high notes, an interesting, almost pine aroma. On wet...the resins bloom here, the sweetness of the frankincense is tempered by the dark bitterness of the myrrh. Dry down...I really like this. Not too much morphing, but some woody notes become present, bringing to mind the chest these precious resins might have been stored in. The myrrh really shines in this blend, tempered masterfully by the lightness of the frankincense. Love this one, not bottle love, but I'd take another imp for sure!

Holy Hell, this taught me the lesson not to judge BPAL by the bottle smell. In the bottle: Mediciney, sharp, astringent. On wet: This immediately blooms into the most wonderful leather scent I have yet experienced. The patchouli jumps up next, and it's the patchouli I like, thank gods. Drying: OMG, this is sososososo good. The vanilla wafts up from the leathery patchouli goodness. It warms the leather, and makes it feel less cool, as I find leather can be. On further drying the cedar becomes marvelously pronounced, giving the scent a "beloved leather jacket, stored away in a cedar chest after being, anointed with patchouli and vanilla before storage," type of feeling. I absolutely love this, and will treasure this bottle. One swap mate will be lucky I agreed to decant some before I actually skin tested it, but this baby is coming off the swap list, like woah! Eta...on further drydown the patchouli backs off and the vanilla and leather mingle in a loving embrace. I keep loving this more and more!

No big review here, because this is just too good. Boozy cordial cherries, heavy on the dark chocolate, slightly bitter in the bottle but warm, delicious and everything I dreamed it would be on my skin. I pray that other reviewers comments on its lasting power are true, because I'd be happy smelling like this FOREVER!! I love it so!

In the imp...lovely bright dragons blood, bright and red...tinged with something salty, wet, less bright than others in the draconis line. On wet...the brightness of the dragons blood is lovely as always, but tinged with an aquatic note that is difficult to describe. It's almost dragons blood watered down with ocean water. Dry down...much the same, so far little morphing. Normally dragons blood scents smell red to me, but this smells almost purple, if that makes sense. I very much like it, but I love most dragons blood scents. This won't overtake Milk or Reverie as my fave in the line, but I'm very happy for the imp and it will get used!! gain, wrote this before reading the notes for more nose training and I was pretty spot on. Now that it has dried down some more some bitterness rears its head, balancing the dragons bloods brightness. I love this and if I didnt already have too many bottles I'd get one!

In the imp: sweet and powdery, where's the mint?? On wet: strangely smells barely there. Maybe some minty notes showing themselves but nothing prominent... On dry: the mint becomes somewhat apparent. There are some aquatic notes here, with a soft, powdery cologne. Very very light. All in all not enough mint for me, too much powder, I think my skin may not like ambergis all that much.

B I expected so much more from this. It's mainly just sweet with a tiny undercurrent of ginger. It doesn't morph much, mainly just sugar and light ginger the whole way through. After a bit the sweetness does go a little less generic, hinting at the pear and quince notes, which saves it from going completely on the swap pile! It does last forever though!

In the bottle: Holy chocolate batman, Interestingly, neither dark nor milk, but almost like the two were swirled together...sweet, but not too sweet. On Wet: Still nice, chocolate. Not getting very many other notes here. Deep, rich chocolate, redolent with cocoa Dry Down: Yup, it's chocolate. It's quite nice, really. A bit one note for me. Wish it had a touch of vanilla or something else to mix it up, but I very much appreciate that it's not overly sweet. It's almost a warm chocolate. As it dries the notes within the chocolate become more complex, sometimes sharpening to a higher cocoa dark chocolate, and lightening to a sweeter, milk chocolate. I really like this. I don't need a bottle, but it is a nice, comforting scent. It's not overly obtrusive, not overly sweet, not overly complex. I'm glad I have the imp, it will get used. (The above was my review for my stash, I'm trying to do them without reading other reviews to work on training my nose. After reading a few I think I can pick out some of the marshmallow-y-ness and a touch of the nuttiness, but could that just be suggestion?. But so far, on my skin, it's mainly just a lovely chocolate.)

Hmmmm....this is much sweeter than I hoped...I'm getting some type of high floral notes from this one, with a sharpness to it I can't identify. Drying a bit of a sweet musk peeks it's head out. Whatever is causing the sharpness may keep this from the swap pile. At least I don't get cat lee like some people, hehe. ETA: on further reflection this is going too high and too floral for me. /sigh. I wanted to like it so bad.

In the bottle...sharp, very sharp. The cedar I believe? Where's the vanilla, that was the note I thought would hold it all together? On wet...hmmm...the cedar becomes extremely woody. Seriously cedar shavings woody, which I think is kinda pleasant, if a little hampster cagey...vanilla where are you? Drydown...oh, yay, as it warms up the vanilla finally makes an appearance! Also as it warms I thought I got a wiff of the bo smell of doom I got from Troll...(is that balsam?) But it was just a wiff and then settled back into a nice woodsy vanilla. Overall, warm rugged vanilla in a cedar chest. I like it, but don't need a bottle, but not swapping it either! Thanks TeaOtter!

Hellboy seems to be the opposite of Troll for me, in that I love the hell out of it while other people are getting the funk! In the bottle: Strong, wet cologne. Much sweeter than a typical cologne, it must be the bits of sugar stuck to the candy wrappers. I am excited by this scent. I don't smell any of the brimstone whatsoever in the bottle, but that's fine! On wet: Yup, that aquatic cologne. I don't actually know what Old Spice smells like (apparently I'm the only one?) but if it smells like this I enjoy it. It is aquatic, as someone described...and...what the heck, it takes on a bit of muskiness, in a good way. Drydown: Cologne, sweet cologne, and warm fur. The aquatic notes have died down and I distinctly smell clean, warm cat fur. As someone else mentioned it smells like I nuzzled my face in my kitty's tummy, after giving her a spritz of cologne. I love cat smell!! It's now ~4 hours later and I can still smell it clearly. It has gotten a touch of the brimstone note now, which smooths down the sweet with a slightly acrid (but not in a bad way) smokey scent. The kitty fur is still present and the cologne remains nice. I love this and I think this will be the next oil up for eau de parfum experimentation. Glittler and Crowley both worked a treat, so I'm hoping this will work out as well. I may have to buy a back up of this one...

Ohhh, no! Thank you for the heads up, though - now I just need to find a substitute. And I do appreciate all the LE recommendations, but I just don't have the heart. I know a regular scent could always be discontinued too (I'm still mourning Black Opal), but at least with those, I have a shot at hanging onto it. I mean, they'd never discontinue Alice (my go to fragrance when the chips are down), would they??? It's just that I know with an LE, if I fall in love, it's gone all too soon. All righty then - I just saw a vanilla thread bumped to the top, so I think imp #6 may just be the odd man out, even though that would match up with chocolate - something vanilla might be nice to layer it with, so I'm off to check that out! Maybe something sweet, like "Eat Me". Thank you again, ladies! I know I can always count on great advice here! Eat me is a FANTASTIC choice. It seems to be universally adored and you see it on a lot of wish lists of people who have huge collections. I just adore it, its one of my 'go to' scents that plays nicely on my skin or in a locket, you have great taste! Anx, personally, I don't think it's too foodie, although I do love foodie scents so I may be biased...

Vice for sure... Here's the review thread...http://www.bpal.org/topic/7-vice/page__p__7__hl__vice__fromsearch__1#entry7

Thid is amazing. I'm the bottle bright, orange citrus notes. On wet...lovely diffuse citrus scents with a brightness from The dragons blood. The blood as none of its normal floral tones here. Dry...more of the same, lovely and brightened by the blood and the citrus. On dry down the pine becomes more assertive, cradling the bright within its warm boughs, not astringent at all as I worried it might be. Iove this, its not going anywhere near the swap pile!! May have to convert this one to a spray and see of that increases the throw a bit!

Sugar Cookie 2011 In bottle: Yummy!! Cinammon and sugar, smells a bit like a snickerdoodle! On wet: More of the spice comes out, especially the nutmeg, cinammon....and...something else. I came downstairs and my roommate said, "Woah, you smell like Christmas." Drey: The spiciness remains, the vanilla cookieness is gone. I'm ok with that, I have other baker scents. I love how much this scent evokes Christmas for me. Unfortunately this is one that my skin wants to eat up, so in about 1.5 hours there was but a lingering hint of spice. Good thing I grabbed a bottle!

Eep!! Good luck Scary!! I generally can't wear oils on the holidays as my mom is allergic to scents and she always seems to be at those family thingies... I do use oils on days when I'm trying to evoke specific personal moods though, Pain is one that immediately comes to mind when I'm thinking I'm going to be in a stressful situation because it makes me feel cool and detached. Kinda like a rush of endorphins from a piercing or tattoo.

Tried this today after my skin ate the Absinthe I tested, so light scrub and here we go. In bottle...very nice, refreshing, cool. Bright and airy like sun Shi.ing on a high peak. No mint here for me, but an interesting sweet note. On wet...very nice, cool and refreshing. A tang of ozone and now I get light mint, sweet and tingly in my nose. A high note that I enjoy. On dry...the ozone melts away, leaving a whiff of mint...and soap. That's the sandlewood rearing its head. Sandlewood always comes off as soap to me. Going to wear this out and see if the sandlewood grows on me, I hope it does because I just adore everything else in this! After several hours of wear, including during a strenuous workout...omg, this is going to sound really strange, but this is just a perfect 'gym' fragrance for me. I'm a bit of a gym rat and spend a lot of time there, and this just stayed and stayed despite the sweatiness. The nice sandlewood or 'soapiness' was not unpleasant at all, it was actually quite nice and refreshing, and as I got warm I noticed some notes of incense to it. I have an 8 mile run tomorrow and I think I will apply this then layer some Pain over the top of it to make it a bit more uplifting and pick me uppy. I thought this one might go in the swap pile, but now I'm thinking I'm going to grab a bottle come Black Friday!!

In the bottle...love it, green and herbal with some warmth fro m the anise, which is a warm scent for me. On wet...still love it, the anise spreads with am herbal warmth...the hyssop? Haven't smelled many hyssop notes so not sure. I get no citrus, or cardamom. On dry...the anise recedes a touch, leaving a light herbal note with just a bit of liccorice. And now something sweet, not sure where that is coming from. k Overall I quite enjoy this, not surprising as it has many notes I enjoy. My only issue is that my skin seems to eat it like candy, good thing I got a big bottle!

Wicked and vicious! A sharp, cruel blend of lavender and pennyroyal. In the Imp: Wooh, mint, mint mint. Pepper. Mint. On wet: Yup, that is very minty. It is a sharp mint sent, more of a peppermint to me. It must be the pennyroyal? I'm glad to have smelled this because if this is what pennyroyal smells like it's a good intro. Some herbiness in the background... On dry: The mintiness recedes a touch and the pepper comes more to the foreground. They both last for a good long while, with low to medium throw. All in all - I didn't get any lavendar whatsoever from this, and I am just fine with that, I don't really care for it. The sharpness of the smell was appealing to me, enhanced by whatever was causing the preponderance of pepper over mint. For some reason this makes me think of the aftermath of pain, when a wound is being well cared for. Almost antiseptic, but not in a bad way. I like it, but don't need a bottle of it. Although it was a good one to try when I was feeling logey this morning pre-tea!

So...this was...intense? In the bottle: green, mossy, sharp. Wet and dripping. On Wet: Ok, this is very strange, but it smells like sweet body odor. Not pleasant at all. Dry Down: Yep, unpleasant body odor, and now it turns spicy a bit, can very much smell the smoke from the cloves and cumin. This scent is overwhelming, it's a bit of a discordant clash of sweet, smoke, and downright unpleasant muskiness. This is the first of the labs scents I had to wash off. Which makes me sad, because I love love love musk and cloves and thought this would work, but nope. Luckily there are sosososo many more lovelies to smell!

Another musk, which I'm coming to realize I quite love, but this one has patchouli...which I really do not love. But I do like citrus, forests, vanilla and leather, so I thought I'd give this a go. In the bottle: Ooh, love it, the sharpness of the red musk is higtenend somewhat by a light citrus and underlayed with shiny leather. On wet: Much the same, but I get more of the vanilla now. On Dry: O.M.G. I love this. The musk is just warm and fuzzy and the leather and vanilla intermingle in a dance of salacious warmth. Strangely enough, or perhaps just because I have only smelled "hippy" patchouli and not red patchouli I do not find much patchouli, and thank my stars, because the patchouli I'm thinking of would ruin it. The citrus which was present in the bottle does seem to completely fade fairly significantly, giving way to the darker musk tones. I'm not getting a ton of mahogany or lilac, but I'm fine with that because I am absolutely in love with this scent. May have to buy a backup bottle of this one...... It doesn't help that Crowley is one of my favorite characters of all time either!

Dragons Heart, my third in the AD series, further cements my love of dragons blood. In the bottle: The sharp, bright, red scent of the dragons blood sets the stage, some wisps of tartness waft up, hinting of dark burgundy berries. On Wet: Yup, my skin loves dragons blood. Its sweetness is predominant, with the tart touch of currant playing counterpoint and balancing it out from being overwhelming. I am not getting a lot of the musks yet, but I am new at picking out notes, so that is probably why... (Ok, after smelling some Scherezade I have more of an idea of the musk tones, and I can absolutely see some of those here) Dry The whole scent softens from its aggressively sweet/tart combination. I think the fig comes through here more, and tempers the sweetness of the dragons blood. For me, this one is a keeper. Apparently I have a thing for dragons blood...who know...

New sniffer here, so, grain of salt and all. Read the description of this one and knew I had to have it, so bought a 5ml, scent unsniffed! Got it, opened it, and UGH! Smacked in the face by patchouli, but I'm convinced I will like this, everything else is what I love...but I'm really not a fan of patchouli. On Wet: Bloody hell, patchouli patchouli patchouli and..........patchouli. *cry* Dry Down: Patchouli mellows a bit. Not enough. But I do start getting some very faint notes of the fir, almost a piney astringency...but I think patchouli is astringent too, so that might ave something to do with it. I get 0 apples, or spice, which is what I was really hoping for. After I slept: Great googly moogly, I still smell it. But now it is soft and warm, not much patchouli left. Still no spice but I get a little sweet red apple. I wanted to like this sooooo much. And I'm not giving up on it yet. But...why patchouli, why must you stomp on the loveliness that this scent should be??? *Edit* So, after I slept, and it was nice when I woke up I committed to wearing it today. Same effect on the application, but I did appreciate it more as it dried...then I went and worked out for an hour and a half, like, hard, and when I was done.....still there, but I can smell the spice!! What the heck??? I like it now...but the commitment to patchouli-dom for so long may make this a swapper. Also, why can't scents I love have this kind of wear??

A truly fae nectar! Dragon’s blood resin and honeyed vanilla. In the bottle - A bit sharp, the dragon's blood, I imagine, very noticeable honey notes. On Wet - Feels warm, heavy, honey and milk and sugar. The dragon's blood is a little aggressive at first, but I <3 dragon's blood, and it loves me, and it quickly takes backseat to the lovely honey vanilla that really pushes this one forward. Dry - Honey and Vanilla, Honey and Vanilla, and lingering in the background the sharpness of the dragon's blood. This makes me feel somewhat lickable, which is not a bad thing. Long wear, wish it had more throw, but I wish that for lots of things, I have a scent locket coming so that should help. A favorite,maybe my most fave at the moment, had to buy a bottle.

Still getting into pulling out scent points, take my reviews with a grain of salt... In the imp - warm, sweet, vanilla. I just know I'm going to love this... On my skin - Mmmmmmm...the cake smell is amped up, the vanilla mingles in a warm embrace with it... After a few minutes a burgundy tartness shimmers into play, like a wash of red frosting spilling over moist, soft cake. The vanilla and red frosting (the currant) mix together, the warm, sugary smell of the vanilla cake contrasted with the tart currant makes me want to...well, Eat Me! On dry down - sweet, very sweet, but I like that. The cake-i-ness backs off a bit, with vanilla currant taking the stage. Some people have mentioned smelling chocolate cake notes in this one, but I don't get any of that whatsoever. The sweet/tart/butteriness (of the cake) notes just mingle into a lovely melange of scrumptious for me. I wish this lasted longer, it probably has a go for about an hour on me. I have a scent locket on the way, I'm excited to try it with this scent. I really love it and wish it had more life and throw... Buying a bottle of this one!!