Poenari

I completely forgot to review this when I got it all those long years ago with my autographed copy of the book! OMG it's been over 10 years now. BPAL time flies too.

Bocal de Sang is another terrific vampire scent. I get blood, dark wine, cloves, honey, and maybe a hint of tobacco. It's dark and syrupy and I love it. If this came in a bottle, I would buy it.

Well this is as advertised, all Dorian in a hair gloss. The vanilla is a bit more prominent than the perfume, but it is still Dorian. So glad I bought this long ago and forgot to review it, now that there is a Dorian drought. Certainly hoping it returns! 

This is lovely! It is like a more clove-forward version of my beloved Vampire Red hair gloss. Patchouli, clove, incense scented. Might need a backup bottle. 

This decant has the least "dead leaves" note out of the multitudes of dead leaves scents I own and love! It's definitely a wine scent, with the oudh coming out on the drydown. Barely a hint of leaves.  The overall feeling is autumnal, as if I'm sitting near a pile of raked leaves, drinking a glass of merlot. Nice, but I prefer more dead leaves in my dead leaves scents. 

Reviewing this when worn as a body spray. This is a great Sandalwood blend! I also get the wine note, but it isn't boozy or overpowering. The cinnamon and copal come out on the drydown. I really like this a lot. Pairs very well with several of my wine-based Poe scents, especially Prospero, The Mask, and Montresor.

This one is very unusual, but not in a bad way. I get smoke followed by tart pomegranate, powdery myrrh, and a titch of cassia, all swirled together. It makes me think of a swirl of smoke drifting up into the air, softly swirling into a curling wisp that smells faintly of incense, tart and sweet fruits, but not a fruity scent. Olibanum is another term for frankincense, but this is so subtle. Each of the resins in this scent mingle together and give it that incense base, without overpowering the pomegranate and currant. I think people who are uncertain about wearing incense or resin based scents should give this one a whirl! It's lovely, gender neutral, stays close to the skin. 

Honey-sweetened biscotti with a hint of lavender. No beer or ale detected when wet or even after drydown, which makes me happy. Usually I amp that note, and I dislike the taste of beer. It doesn't put me off wearing scents with it, but I usually have to apply very lightly so I don't smell like someone spilled beer on me.  This is a nice scent for foodies.

2020 version:

I had never tried Hearth, and I love smoky tobacco scents, so I ordered a decant of it this year. I didn't blind bottle it out of fear of the leather. I rarely if ever wear leather scents. The various kinds of leather notes that Beth uses just don't work on me for the most part. I'm happy to report that Hearth is a winner! 

This is smoky, but in such a great way. It is exactly as described. I feel like I'm transported to this library. I'm sitting near a lit fireplace and someone is smoking a pipe filled with cherry tobacco. This is the mingled smells of the tobacco and the fireplace smoke, the dark wooden walls of the room, and a very well-worn and very old leather side chair that you sink into. Bottle upgrade!! 

12/2022- After further aging, I wore this while drinking my morning coffee and scrolling the book of faces. About an hour after application, I realized I was smelling something sweet and cherry-ish! The cherry tobacco finally showed up! Now this reminds me of the Swisher Sweets cigarillos my husband used to smoke when we first met. What a lovely scent memory!

My dad used to love fruitcake and always bought good ones at the holidays, not those hard as a rock fruitcakes that everyone hates. The ones he brought home were chock full of candied fruits and nuts with moist sweet cake surrounding them.  When I first applied from the decant, the scent of those sweet candy fruits hit my nose and took me right back to that forgotten memory! The only difference is that this sweet cake is made with chocolate batter!  Dries down and stays closer to my skin after a half hour.  Foodies should love this.

 It's a minty gingerbread when wet.  The chocolate comes out after drydown as the mint fades. The gingerbread isn't sharp or lemony. I think foodies will love this one. 

This one is more pine than peppermint on me. At first, it's a blast of sharp pine, not pine cleaner, but as if I held a handful of freshly cut pine needles up to my nose. The peppermint isn't sweet, but dry somehow. Dries down quickly to a softer scent, which would make it a lot more wearable for me. However, the overall blend remains more pine and I just don't think it's my kind of scent. Might try the suggestion above to layer it with Stekk and see what happens. Glad I got a decant to try, but that is all I need of this one. 

Wet on skin, a blast of gingerbread and anise! A combination I would never have thought would work. But I like it! After drydown, it softens and wears closer to the skin than I expected. I don't detect the chocolate, which is good as it doesn't usually wear well on my skin. I think the chocolate and cinnamon are just so well-mingled with the gingerbread that it keeps the gingerbread sweeter and more gourmand, without any of it's usual lemony notes. The anise still stands out, but I like the taste and smell of anise. I really like this version of gingerbread. It's much sweeter on my skin than Gingerbread Wolfman was, and I like it better.

I use rosewater daily in my facial routine. I love the gentle scent of rose given off. This is the same rose as in Rose Quartz Bedroom, but softer and with a powdery myrrh grounding it. No soapiness here, just a lovely scent. 

This is the strangest experience! It smells like Boo on me! I cannot figure it out, but the top note is the same kind of cotton/linen note that I get from Boo! As it dries down, it warms up and becomes a gentle brown musk. Stays very close to my skin and would be wearable in any situation. It's very nice but I can't get the similarity to Boo out of my mind. Skin chemistry is so weird. 

Wow this wolf bites! This is some very dark gingerbread - very much akin to to the Black Label Thirteen (Feb. 2009) minus chocolate. That Thirteen is all strong spicy ginger on me, and this reminds me a lot of it. The molasses and nutmeg are present, and I can detect the chestnut too, but this is more gingery than anything. For the first 20 minutes the throw was so strong and so dark that I feared I was going to have to wash it off. At 30 minutes it had tamed enough that I knew I could keep wearing it. This is still going strong 6 hours later. If you like strong, dark, spicy ginger scents, this one is for you.

This is more like snowcovered pine with a hint of sweet marshmallow. The same kind of snowy, wintry note that is in my beloved Skadi. I actually smell the marshmallow quite distinctly once it's on my skin, although the pine-snow is more dominant. It's a lovely wintry scent, but as for me, I prefer my Skadi.

Upon first sniff from the decant, sharp recoil! That was unexpected. It smells more like cigarette tobacco than either weed or whiskey to me! Upon application, however, this is a very strong harsh whiskey, not the smooth bourbon I like to drink. The weed note here is a supporting player that doesn't stand out as distinctly as in my other weed-included BPALs. I really expected to upgrade my decant to a bottle of this, but sadly I have other boozy or weedy BPALs that I prefer. 

I have had such limited luck with rose scents that I skipped Bear Prince the previous times it was released. This year I have been in a "rose mood" and after Rose Quartz Bedroom was such a hit, I decided to try a partial bottle of 2020/21 Bear Prince. I am so glad that I did! This is another lovely soft, gentle, sweet rose on me, with just a hint of winter's chill. The fur keeps it warm enough that it doesn't give me sinus pain the way that Snow White does. I am so happy to have my partial bottle, and have added another to my wishlist if I can afford it before they come down. Lovely scent! 

This is just the most perfect blend of cinnamon and clove, and I love it! Smells like winter holidays in Ye Olde Fashioned Tymes. Upgrading to a bottle.

Lovely warm amber and spicy cardamom make a lovely duet. There's just not much else to say about this, other than I need to upgrade to a bottle. Good throw and stays on a long time. Comforting.

Retesting my decant that has been sitting around for forever, so that I can review it.

This is the very green sharp dead leaves note, not my favorite version. The maple sap helps tone down the sharpness of it. After a while it all calms down into a scent that is like the dead leaves that I prefer. Overall, not one I would reach for, as I have many more dead leaves scents that I really love. 

A flash of buttery pumpkin, the same as I get from Jack. Then Smut. The "pumpkin spice" note isn't as strong as in my other pumpkin scents. This blends together into a sweet and spicy Smut on the dry down. Truthfully, I wish it blended this well into my Pumpkin Spice Dragon's Milk hair gloss. This one is bottle worthy.

Oh my! The scent of a mouthful of black jelly beans (I love 'em) and Smut is the combination I never knew I needed. The licorice keeps Smut from wafting it's usual dirty "after sex" smell on me and keeps it a more traditional musk (is that a thing?) This one is truly bottle-worthy. Long lasting and has good throw, the way I like it!

Well this is exactly as advertised. Strong black licorice note and dead leaves. I do love the smell of anise, and it goes so well with the dead leaves! Really enjoying this one.

This has a bright lemony tinge at first... weird, but I think it is somehow the sharpness of the combo of each of the notes forming a strong top note. It dries down slowly to a more cologne note but still bright, sharp, and lemon. Huh. A rare miss for me! Decant will suffice.