eoifemacbeth

A blend of native Georgian flowers, graveyard dirt and loam. I've never started a review thread before. I hope I do this right! I skin-tested Ol' Roswell Cemetery beside Graveyard Dirt 2008, to compare dirt notes. In the bottles, it is DEFINITELY the same dirt note---ORC has sweet flowers lying just under the grave loam and of course GD is straight up earth. The second ORC touches my skin, it's all about those flowers. They really are sweet, almost---lemony? The dirt is still there, which is awesome, and that amazing metallic tang in GD is starting to come out underneath the flowers. Oh. Oh, my god, they smell a little bit like... I will absolutely flip my shit if that is daphne odora, because that's really what I'm smelling here. I'm smelling daphne odora. I'M SMELLING DAPHNE ODORA IN A PERFUME, YOU GUYS! Holy crap, maybe my decision to buy two bottles wasn't unfounded... except now I'm not sure I'll be swapping one of them as previously planned. I'm totally layering this like crazy with my Graveyard Dirt. It's throwing very high and clear, but not frantically like a lot of florals do on me. Huffing it, the dirt and flowers are perfectly balanced, and it is so completely, perfectly like this beautiful graveyard on St. Simon's Island that I am actually wishing it were spring RITE NAO so I could wear this tomorrow. (And I never wish it was spring. Too much sun, yo.) God, it's awesome. to Beth, for real. (...so how'd I do? )

Yes. A thousand times yes. I was really intrigued to try this one (largely because of the qualifier that it was apple peel, not just apple), and not only did it not disappoint, it is potentially my new favorite apple scent. To my nose the apple in this isn’t bright or tart, it’s very much an autumnal red or pink apple, a Macintosh or a Pink Lady maybe, and stays warm and juicy from wet to dry on my skin. The vetiver is my favorite kind, the almost grassy very cooling variety, and the patchouli is light and a little sweet. If you like Verdandi, you definitely want to try this - take the amber out of Verdandi and replace it with a slightly smoky, herbal, refreshing patchouli-vetiver. It is SO good. Definitely picking up a bottle for the upcoming autumntime!

On me, alas, this is about 90% honey! It’s a pretty honey, much lighter and summer-y-er than the thicker more dank honey that shows up in a lot of Lupers. I do amp honey tremendously so if you don’t, your mileage will certainly vary! I can smell a little vanilla and musk if I work quite hard and the orange blossoms are just barely there on my skin; I get zero coconut or tuberose, which is surprising! This will probably age beautifully.

God, this is good. On me it's an almost gourmand vetiver, a little smoky and a little leathery, but mostly a thick rich sweetened earthy vetiver. If you're a vetiver fan in any way, you neeeeeed this.

Agreed with this! I have a bionic knee that's had two surgeries and I've been using coconut oil most of my life as a moisturizer (my mom used it on my siblings and me when we were babies and kids and the habit stuck into adulthood). You can barely see the scars on my knee, which were UGLY and huge and puckered. I also have a recent enormous second-degree burn scar from the popcorn popper (I work in a movie theater) that's fading incredibly quickly and is nearly the same color as the rest of my arm now. So, highly recommending coconut oil to the dry or accident-prone among us I also put a few drops of BPAL in my palmful of coconut oil every morning or evening post-shower. It's one of my favorite ways to be scented! My current jar does have a delicious coconut scent (Kelapo, if anyone's wondering) but it hasn't interfered with any of the scents of the oils. And in fact some smell even better with it mixed in (Banshee Beat in particular is AMAZING).

I love all of these. I'd been mulling over this too, recently, recataloguing my collection during a Hannibal marathon, and came up with: Will - Fenris Wolf - this is literally a scent that says "fuzzy but insane" to me Hannibal - Villian. PERFECT because Villain doesn't smell villainous at all to me, it smells very gentlemanly and proper, but it's called Villain... I think Hannibal would get a kick out of it Jack - Hellhound on my Trail: masculine, rough, a little smoky and gunpowdery... yet funny with the name again! Alana - something classic and understated like Ode on Melancholy (lavender and wisteria, heart-wrenching pale rose, desolate white sandalwood and thin, tear-streaked white musk), which also works for the name Freddie - Vixen for her red hair and sassy, clever, foxlike attitude Abigail - The Girl; this immediately came to me, I think it was the first one I thought of Beverly (she's my favorite) - Embalming Fluid because, hurr hurr, the name again, but it's fresh and clean and pretty and no-nonsense, just like Beverly Bedelia - I actually think Bedelia would smell like White Rabbit; it's the crispness of the scent mixed with the subtle warmth, mixed with the... something-not-right that I always smell in White Rabbit. Plus, with the recent things we've learned about her relationship with Hannibal... we can see she's sort of gone down the rabbit hole, so to speak. I love this! Anybody else have ideas about Hannibal characters? I can't wait until season two and the possibility of having David Tennant, Lee Pace and particularly DAVID BOWIE on the show. !!!!!!!!!

Girl say whaaaaaaaaaat? I've been intrigued by these since Nouveau Cheap did a review on them (love her), and now I'm basically legitimately putting on sweatpants to make a 2:30AM CVS run. Must. Smell. Now.

I was wearing Banshee Beat yesterday in our 90+ Georgia heat, and it was wonderful -- the perfect combination of sweet from the vanilla and cooling from the patchouli. I'm still getting whiffs of it a full 36 hours after application, and it still smells refreshing. This is going to be heavily used this summer!

I just realized after a quick reorganization of my stash last night that my "musk" partition in my BPAL box (I use a tea chest with different compartments) is completely full! Mostly with red musk blends, but a couple of other musks (Oisin's white, Coyote's skin/animal, SN Siberian Musk) are in there too... and I'm expecting a bottle of Third Charm soon! Gonna have to reorganize them into "dark" and "light" musks in separate compartments. What's everybody's favorite red musk? I think mine is a three-way tie between Devil's Night (2009 is my personal favorite), Red Lace and Snake Oil.

I'm all for basking in the heat with a sticky red musk blend... there's really no battling the heat in Georgia.

Liz smelled almost exactly like Vanillary to me, FWIW!

I'm a classical musician (I play bassoon), so I never, ever wear more than a tiny drop of something in my cleavage to a concert, and only then if I know the hall is big enough to give me some elbow room --- there is nothing worse than having a musician come in reeking of perfume/cologne... no one in the wind section can breathe and it's miserable. But on the rare occasion I'm playing in a chamber group or, le gasp, alone, I do tend to match my scent to either the feel of the piece or the occasion --- I wore Snake Oil to my senior recital, for instance, because it's a scent my school of music friends associate with me, and it's comforting and radiant, which was exactly what I needed for calming strength that day. But then when I played Firebird a few years ago I wore Fire Phoenix --- it just depends on if a scent feels enough like the piece to me; otherwise I usually go completely scentless so as not to clash with the music. It's been my dream for years and years for Beth to do a classical-music-themed collection with all my favorites --- Le Sacre du Printemps, Dvorak's 8th, Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat, Nessun Dorma from Turandot, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Rachmaninov's second piano concerto... I could go on, but you guys get the idea

Anybody have any comparisons to Black Orchid? I get just a breath of flowers and vetiver floating over the top; on me it's mostly a creamy incensey patchouli with black currant. I will never ever be able to afford a $150 bottle of perfume but ugh, it's lovely.

I actually can only sometimes tell the difference between Winchester and Rogue. They're INCREDIBLY similar to my nose, both in the bottle and on my skin. Sometimes I amp the dustier notes of Winchester and that's basically the only time I can tell them apart. Definitely track down some Rogue --- I hope they're as similar for you!

The Elephantine Colossus certainly is one of the more unique BPALs I've ever smelled --- I LOVE it, and save it for special occasions, as it does have a really sexy/frightening thing going on. On me it's very red musky mixed with the salt of the popcorn and sweetness of something sexy, but in a way like... does anybody remember on America's Next Top Model cycle 7 (Caridee's cycle) when they did the "circus freak" photo shoot? And they were all sexy carnies? This smells like that. Like these pictures: Just like that. And I love it.

I remember thinking F5 was almost a dead ringer, but that was a loooooong time ago, so it may not be true anymore. Definitely worth hunting down a bit to try, though?

YMMV, but every time I wear Purple-Spotted Swallowtail I can smell the lime from the initial citrusy blast all the way into the soft, delicious drydown. It's not LIME LIME LIME by any means but the lime is there the whole time for me, and it balances the other notes well for me (most of which are over-amping notes on me, like clove). Every time I want lime, I reach for this.

Oh gosh, I just have to say, that's beautiful. There couldn't possibly be a better olfactory connection. Congratulations on your new baby girl!

I wore Hunter to the midnight premiere of the Hunger Games. Seemed like the only fitting scent for Katniss.

Too... too many wolfy scents? I'm sorry, that doesn't compute *hugs bottles of wolfy scents close*

Dude, for Hufflepuff---Badger! It's a 2008 LE, but you should be able to track down an imp with an ISO over in Wanted. Also, I think you should throw in Bewitched---it's a sparkly, magical scent, and it's light and pretty, a great starter BPAL. And I definitely say Tintagel over Misk U; Tintagel is definitely the scent of Hogwarts to me. For Tonks---kind of a long story and probably wouldn't make sense to your friend, but I have always worn Coyote when I've dressed up as her (which has been the last two midnight book releases and the last four midnight movie premieres; before Tonks was introduced to the Potterverse I was always Hermione). Fenris Wolf is Lupin's scent to me, the wild untamed beast in Lupin mixed with a gentleman's mild aftershave, and Coyote is almost the feminine form of FW in my head---a softer, more delicate scent, but with every bit of the lust for the wild and the sense of freedom. It's a complicated analogy, but Coyote suits Tonks so much IMO. And Werepuppy for Teddy is too inspired, I love it. ETA: Oh, and perhaps Spellbound!

I dressed up as Tonks and wore Coyote---it was the scent that was most Tonks/Lupin-like to me.

I am absolutely obsessed with Hunter right now. Soft suede leather, furry musk, soft breezes of sage... I think I might layer this with Coyote. And then pass out from hyperventilation because I'll be so busy huffing myself.

I agree. I just received a bottle of The Elephantine Colossus, and it is almost all red musk, in an utterly amazing way. It is fairly foodie, and just incredible. I love it! If you're up for foodie scents at all, try this for sure. Bump of an old thread to say that yes, the Elephantine Colossus might be one of my top ten favorite BPALs of all time. Someday I'm gonna have funds for a backup bottle. And adding that Red Lace is a new favorite red musk of mine. Very sweet and dainty, but just a little slutty from the twist of musk I love it.

The drydown of WILF smelled exactly like Snake Charmer to me. YMMV, of course, and mentioning it isn't super helpful since it's another (harder to find) LE, but if you know of anything that smells like Snake Charmer smells on you, maybe you could start there! And if WILF is Snake Oil and champaca on you, then I think you would love Temple Viper, because that's what it was on me.