Rheliwen

Mmmm...rich Indian incense.

 

The benzoin is rich and resiny and reminds me of smelling the amber chunks you used to get in lockets at the hippy nature stores.

 

This is a rich, slightly green resiny blend. Like moist incense. And it only gets better with time. It sweetens up a bit with the sage and hay. The chamomile gives this a soothing base and the oakmoss lends some earthy creaminess.

 

If you like incense/resin blends you'll like this one. Midnight Mass lovers will like it. Others have mentioned that this really isn't a wearing scent but I really like it as a perfume. It reminds me a lot of the incense in this one Moroccan restaurant I used to go to.

Hmm, not quite as sweet as I was expecting. I mostly get citrus daffodil. It's really mellow and sligtly soapy. This one is really weird on me. I don't think the orris of frankincense are working for me here. They are doing funky things with the citrus and making it really bitter.

 

I'm going to have to work with this one a bit. It smells lovely. I just don't know if it was meant for my skin.

Crow Moon is fantastic!!!!

 

I can't remember smelling a BPAL like this before. Right on the skin all I could think of was it smelled like dry grasses and sweet hay. For some reason I really like the smell of hay (after visiting CB and sniffing his). It sweetens up when dry but I have no idea what I am smelling. I do detect some woods in the background that smell like really light cedar (I amp cedar and it's happening here too but not as much as it usually does). It's spring green and fresh without being fresh in a citrusy or linen way. I am unfamiliar with the florals in here but they are sweet and not cloying at all.

 

Love!!!

 

ADD:

I put it on today and now it has a vibrant cucumbery vibe in the wet stage. Kind of like those Ponds cucumber eye pads.

Freshly applied there's a blast of tart, slightly bitter blackberry and a heavy dose of lavender.

 

Dry, the lavender has receded (did I see a pig fly outside my window??) and I'm left with straight blackberry. The berry is a really fresh scent, like the fruit is alive in its vibrancy. It reminds me of picking blackberries along the roads in Seattle where they grow like weeds

Quincey Morris (a little drier Dead Man's Hand) leather is the first note I smell. I detect the snake oil in the background but it's pretty subtle. dry, the snake oil is much more prominent and playing an equal role to the leather.

 

I love this.

Hmm...

I can't decide if I like this yet.

Initially on it has a sharp bamboo/citrus quality along with dry woods. Not really into the citrus thing.

As it dries down some fuzzy green notes start to pop along with some pulpy florals. The drydown phase is so much more pleasant. It's not the most tropical BPAL scent I've tried but it is vibrant and different.

The florals are really muted. They lend their tartness only. The green notes smell like a just broken off baby branch.

Overall I think I like this as long as I can tell my brain to stop smelling bamboo (cause I hates bamboo )

I smelled this at a MnS a couple of months ago and was really intrigued despite my dreaded vetiver being listed in the note description. I hesitated to try it out for the longest time until and transaction placed an imp in my lap.

 

I have to say that I am going to have to re-evaluate my distaste for vetiver. I can really get to like it in small, light doses like it is represented here.

 

Immediately on my skin I almost get a fizzy cola vibe from it. The fizz is most definitely from the interaction between the powdery lavender and verbena. I really like it in this stage.

 

As it dried the verbena really kicks it up a notch and threatens to ruin the blend for me. However, I think the plum, musk and vetiver have teamed up against the little guy. I don't get much coconut and fig other than an unstated creaminess, a roundess if you will. Figs are so hard to describe but if you've ever eaten one and love the texture and really subtle taste then you'll know how its playing in this scent.

 

Overall I really like this and am glad I'm stepping outside my comfort zone. Perfumed Garden proved to me that jasmine can be nice. Antonino proved the same for vetiver.

ROFL. I have a tendency to do that sometimes (I really can read, I promise), you can trout me.

 

We'll definitely have to wait patiently for the bottles but I'm sure they'll be just as beautiful as usual. Perhaps some will call people can shed some light on the subject.

Nevermind. I apparently cannot read.

I'm not a huge foody person. I enjoy them but I at the end of the day they get swapped. So I never looked into Lick It Again. But then I won a bottle in the snowflake contest and tried it on yesterday...and I really like it!

 

It starts with a blast of nose-clearing peppermint but within 5 seconds dies down to a really true candy cane scent. I found myself cursing the boy for throwing out the xmas candy canes this past weekend because this scent gave me some major candy cravings.

 

The dry down is a beautiful, creamy, musky vanilla that really reminds me of the dry down of le fee verte minus the citrusy absinthe note.

 

I found myself discreetly trying to sniff my wrists during class last night. I think my professor thought I was weird because he kept looking at me after I'd take a whiff.

what about purple phoenix?

 

i find it such a deep purple scent and it smells wonderful with so much depth. i think i'm going to go mad when i finish using mine and cant find another bottle. so any equivlents out there?

 

I found that Horreur Sympathique is very similar to Purple Phoenix but you aren't going to get the wonderful Myrrh/resin/woody/violet depth in HS that you get in PP. HS is purple, but lighter and not as moody. Perhaps layering it with something else can add the extra depth missing to make it a true PP equivalent.

In a last minute panic I picked this up. If the pear was subtle it would work on the boy and if the pear was pronounced it would work for me.

 

It works for me.

 

It's the leather from Dead Man's Hand for sure (yay!) with a juicy pear overtone. The pear does die away in the drydown but overall it gives this blend a nice softness and character.

This initially goes on as a sticky grape popsicle. As it begins to dry the myrrh really starts to pop making this a deep and sinister little popsicle. The violet is most prominent in the dry stage but all the other notes manage to keep it in check. There's also a woodsy note I detect way down there.

 

This is wonderful. I've had real misses with the wine scents, but this is not one of them.

This smells like antique lace meets nag champa with a slight more floral quality.

 

I really like this. The floral is ripe (almost in a fruity way) and sweet. It isn't cloying or heady at all. It does get a little soapy but remains sweet and incensey at the same time. I smell night-blooming jasmine, not jasmine jasmine and some other night florals in here...very lovely!

Carpathian Mountains is teetering on the gorgeous ledge. I didn't quite believe all the ben-gay stuff since many people associate weirds scents with things others don't. But it's totally there! If that one single note was gone this would be fantastic! It might actually be the raspberry leaf mixing with the juniper and moss. It's bitter.

 

Dry, that note is more subdued and the raspberry note itself comes to the front and now I have sweet berry and floral with a light green background. That note is still there but I can almost ognore it. LOVE ME Carpathian Mountains...LOVE ME!!!!

 

It loves me! The bitter note is gone and now it's all yummy raspberry florals, almost carnationy!

I could smell the almond and pine in the bottle the most and it smelled like that initially onmy skin.

 

As it started to dry the apple got really juicy and almond sort of retreated a bit. I'm left with a perfect balance of woods, apple and almond. It's not as piney as I expected it to be. It's not in your face, high in the nose woods.

My heart sank when I put this on at first. All I got was astringent ferns. I was looking for the perfect lilac as it's my favorite floral.

 

BUT!...

 

As I was walking down the stairs I smelled it again and stopped in my tracks...I smelled lilac, sweet, delicious lilac! It's a little subdued, but I love it now...yay!

This is really light. Wet it's a sweet, subtle herb scent. On the drydown it turns into a sweet, creamy pencil shaving (did we figure out this is redwood?)...but I like that!

 

It sort of reminds me the way Sanrio erasers smell! Holy crap it does!

D'oh, nm!

Hmm, this one smells nice and the boy really likes it but it was not what I was expecting.

 

It goes on all pine and it takes about an hour to start smelling the flowers. At no point do I get the pastry smell. It reminds me of Snow Bunny and Skadi a lot on the drydown, but in the intermediate stages it reminded me of Ice Queen a lot.

 

I'm going to have to stew on this one as I really wanted moss, dirt and pastries. It's a wonderful blend though so I'll have to divorce myself from my expectations and go from there.

 

I tried this on again last night but only put a whee bit on in an attempt to soften the piney aspect of it. It worked! I could actually smell the florals and moss. There was never a prominent dirt note and the pastries still never showed up. If I keep it I will remember to not slather

It does smell reminiscent of Underpants, with some orange thrown in.

 

It's powdery from the sandalwood, cocoa bean and lavender (which is only a distant memory), sweet from the vanilla and orange, and a little spicey from the nutmeg. This is far better than the initial 13, which I also liked.

I took a big chance with this one and have been worried about it ever since I ordered. But I love it!

 

Wet this really reminded me of a more smooth Ides of March. It was very green pine and green herbs. I was so excited at this stage!

 

Once dry it becomes Midnight Mass incense meets a very subtle Ides of March meets cedar.

 

Incense and geenery and cold stone bricks in the countryside. I adore this so much! At first I was afraid this might be too cologne-y or masculine but it isn't in he slightest.

Lily then lilac. I'm not a huge fan of lily so I wish there was more lilac in here. Nonetheless, this is the first bpal that I notice the lilac and that makes me happy.

 

Once this dries a green sappy scent comes from below. It's like when you break a leaf or a fresh budding branch and the gooey stuff that comes out. The sandalwood combined with the lily is creating a some powdered soap effect too.

 

This smells ok but once the dry down hits my lilac is gone

 

I wanted to add that it reminds me of Beltane 2005. There was a flower in that that was sour to my nose and I get it here too...must be the lily. I am crushed this didn't work, I was so excited about it.

Wow, this one is weird.

 

I totally got pledge musk when wet...but my eyes start to roll back into my head when I take big whiffs. This is a strong masculine blend without the roughness and anger. It's smooth enough for a woman to wear for sure...I think it's the myrrh. I find myrrh very smooth and comforting.

 

It's totally about the sweet patchouli and myrrh here.

 

So very spicey without trying too hard. SM is so comfident in itself that it doesn't need gimmicks or flash to get attention. It knows it's beautiful but isn't totally egocentric.

This really reminded me of Scorpio in the bottle, but not quite on. I find this to like a more tropical and floral black pearl. It has that same purple electric quality going on, but with orchids and pears and musk.

 

As it dries, it gets more crystalline from the musk. It's really lovely overall...so different than I expected based on the other reviews I read.