ScabbyLucy

Hmm...apparently fig smells like apple to me. The small, tart apples that grew on a tree in my childhood home. It even has the slight rancid smell they got from being on the ground (but that's gone after a minute). Then the cooking spices show up, and this smells like a pot of some delicious concoction of the two cooking on the stovetop. A very warm, domestic, earthy sort of feminine.

So while doing some browsing, I noticed a definite similarity between my current favorite BPAL and my forever favorite B&BW:

 

Tamora: Amber, heliotrope, peach blossom, vanilla bean, golden sandalwood

 

Bath and Body Works Secret Wonderland:

 

Top Notes: Luscious Strawberry, Wild Goji Berries, Ripe Raspberry

Mid Notes: Gardenia Petals, Jasmine, Peach Nectar

Base Notes: Coconut Musk, Creamy Vanilla, Sandalwood, White Amber

Oddly appropriate. The combination of "cold" smelling mint and one of whatever flower they used? Smells like apple on me.

Oooh, I can understand why this is so popular.

 

On me I mostly get wet leaves and the apple and spices combining to smell like my grandma's homemade applesauce (which would be more appropriate if we didn't usually have to pick them in July or they'll fall and rot). The patchouli is hanging in the background being its usual shady self, but the other notes beat it happily into submission.

: sighs: Heliotrope. Honeysuckle. Sweet Pea. Calla Lily. Several of my favorite flowers and favorite floral scents. Pear is one of my favorite fruits. I choose to blame the white musk again, because this is soap on me, and in the imp.

Not "soapy" as in a little soapy smelling, or a little artificial smelling. This smells like a brick of Ivory soap. The kind we used to carve in Girl Scouts.

:applies:

 

:sniffs:

 

:shudders in ecstasy:

 

Oh this is definitely a top 5, buy asap from first application. I would be hard-pressed to tell you what amber or heliotrope smell like, but they LOVE my skin (my favorite bath and body works scent had amber in it, and it used to smell amazing on me until my nose got too sensitized to the alcohol). Vanilla is also a note that always seems to come down in my favor, and this vanilla plays perfectly nice, sweetening and warming and never taking over. The sandalwood keep its mature, for being too super girly, color impression changing from a pink, to a softer, more golden peachy. Its not quite as peachy smelling as I would have hoped, but the peach pokes it head out occasionally, shy I guess :pets peach, its ok sweetie, you can stay inside if you want, but you're always welcome:

 

Average throw, and surprisingly good staying power (fruity-flowery blends tend to fade immediately on me), an hour and a half later it still smells as strong as when I first applied.

I keep trying to describe this and all I'm getting is "oooh, pretty". Whereas Strawberry Moon is summer in a bottle, Titania is spring in a bottle, all ripe young fruits and sweet (rather than perfumey) blooming flowers. I do wish it had more throw/lasted longer though.

OO, this is such an unusual blend. Straight off, its mostly carnation, rose and a touch of milk. Normally that would way too little girl flowery, but carnations have such an odd spicy scent to them... Alice was a decidedly unusual heroine herself, and this is quite like her. Proper and feminine, but not soft or conventional.

D: I was hoping for a fun, unusual blend. But I can't smell the lollipops at all.

 

And the sweet bubblegum and whatever note they used for "womanly perfume" combine and smell like pencil erasers on me.

:gazes wistfully at the delicious fruity notes:

 

:casts gaze of defeat at gardenia swamped wrist:

This smelled so good in the vial- ripe, juicy and fresh. On me, I get white musk and a little of the orange blossom.

 

Nice for some, but on me, white musk doesn't smell like the "nice, clean skin" sort of smell.

 

On me, it smells like laundry detergent.

I should have learned my lesson with Katharina about musk. In bottle, nice, dark sweetened tea. On me. Laundry. Clean laundry. Nothing else.

 

ETA: OK, once it dries completely, the laundry smell dissipates, but what I'm left with smells exactly like Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar. And I already have a bottle of that.

First sniff- Peanuts! Salty, fresh peanuts! A great switch from the lab's usually sugar heavy foodie scents. Along the way I get bits of popcorn, wood and occasionally cotton candy, but the peanuts stay front and center.

Patchouli you hippie bastard. You just had to read your head and ruin a perfectly good sea/gunpowder/rum blend didn't you?

Sadly, this both begins and ends soapy on me. And in the middle, its pretty, but the tobacco takes over and blocks out all the other notes. Sounds pretty in description, but on my skin just reminds me of road trips with 3+ relatives smoking out the windows.

Oooh. This would be PERFECT. Sweet/tart strawberry, green grass, the slight sweetness of sugar and dandelion. But maybe because of the age of the bottle, its 90% gone within an hour. If this stuck around it would be a top 5 easy.

Of all the BPALs I've tried, Tombstone is the first one that has jumped up and screamed "buy a big bottle of me now!"

 

The cedar is pretty strong when first applied, making me feel like I'm running through a forest wearing a super sweet vanilla perfume I wore when I was a teenager. The cedar mellows later on, and I can start smelling the sassafras. I can't smell the balsam, which may be that I don't know 100% what it smells like. A very warm, almost lonesome smelling blend.

Alas, while this one is actually lovely on me, sweet and musky, my skin really powers up the musk, making me super uncomfortable wearing it to work.

 

Guess this is stuck as a strictly rare wild night out on the town scent for me.

 

It also has the longest lasting power I've encountered. I can still kind of smell it after SHOWERING.