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Initially sharp, it dries into a cute, bright sugary lemongrass cream with hints of complexity. Very light. 

A very TKOey Dorian, that's for sure! 

Very atmospheric. Reminds me at first of a high-end mainstream designer perfume, but quickly acquires some ineffable aura of dissolution, dissipation. I'm glad it stays pretty on me; it inspires a powerful sense of nostalgia. 

Light, green sweet fruit and tea. It does have that bit of sandalwood shoring it up. Perfectly blended, nothing eclipsing any other note. 

Super musky with an overtone of Atomic Fireball. This blend is so aged, there's no way to describe the notes, it's too complex and incredibly evocative. 

Love the bergamot, which is good because there's a lot of it. Severin, more than Dorian, is what this reminds me of a while in... Alas my beloved Severin, we hardly knew you. 

So this goes on SCREAMIN' HOLY MOTHER OF GOD sharpness (I think both components are just like that on me), goes through an interesting brand-new pencil smell phase on drydown, and then it's a faint scratchy/cuddly little poof of frankincense close to the wrist. 

For a second on application this is the brassy younger sister of Badgers. I love Badgers. Then it has a vague stanky weirdness under the honeysuckle for a while, and it sort of trails off in a cute, slightly more complicated honeysuckle manner. 

I so wanted the blackberry not to go synthetic on me. I wanted the high note not to be so shrill (my assumption is that my skin is to blame for this one; I've experienced it where a fruit note to others is like a scented pen version of that fruit note on me.) Le sigh.... 

I think what others have referred to as anise reminds me of fennel. Kind of an orange bran spice muffin with a bit of fennel in, and maybe a slightly overclocked lemon sugar topper. 

Cardamom's coming on a bit strong when paired with the red musk; wish it was more Snake Oil (I still like it) 

Very well put-together. Perfectly smooth blend right on application and doesn't morph. Doesn't scream coconut, if you were on the fence. Just a light, elegant smell. I wear it to work and my scent-sensitive coworker loves it. 

ETA reminds me a lot of First Mate. 

No one's mentioned Sachs- Not as smoky as you might like, but there is complexity to it, and it wouldn't be too hard to get your hands on some.

First thought: HEMP. Wet, it's a blast of hemp with sweet undertones. I like the near-brashness and the very faithful hemp scent. As it dries, I can smell a background, but none of the other notes except, I think, the honeysuckle are really distinguishing themselves at all. Maybe I smell the beeswax a bit. Hemp with a touch of honeysuckle and beeswax. I am not displeased in the least. First potential bottle purchase of my Luper decants. I like light, springy scents that aren't Floral.

I hope my high expectations of this one don't let me down.

Wet: This is the Ronin-style honey, thick and strong. The apricot smells not like apricot, quite, but I can't pick out what it DOES smell like, and I don't get cayenne pepper at ALL. More of a nondescript potpourri smell, inoffensive and pleasant, but BPAL shouldn't remind me of 'inoffensive potpourri.'

I think I can almost see the 'cheesecake' comparison Balame made. The apricot note's got a tang to it, an almost dairy tang. The generic potpourriness recedes as it dries... pretty, simple. I'll keep this one for aging purposes. I often have a kitchen-sink effect with so many notes in one perfume, so this nice, simple apricot honey scent (as it is in the drydown) is refreshing.

Like most, I get hit with the orris as soon as I opened my decant. It (fortunately) quickly pipes down a tiny bit-- I associate the smell with Johnson's baby shampoo and, while pleasant, I don't need to smell like it. There's a faint whiff of ambergris and maybe a gentle bit of musk. Either the amber is just softening it up or I'm not unentangling it from the golden musk. I might keep this decant to see how it ages.

Through the graciousness of a generous forumite who preferred to share than to hoard, I got a wonderful, full bottle.

I first notice the sarsaparilla, which easily and quickly blends with a vanilla note. The dry (but still soft) spice of this is given fullness by the leather note, which is very soft indeed, but unmistakeble. I think that this is the mildest patchouli I've ever smelled, adding only the suggestion of sharp fullness carrying the perfectly blended sarsaparilla/french vanilla. I was afraid the honeysuckle might drown everything else on me as florals tend to do, but it's so well blended that I don't even truly detect it as a separate scent. The longer I wear this, the warmer and more vivid the leather becomes, remaining sweetly spicy and redolent of sarsaparilla, french vanilla and that coy twinge of patchouli. This is just so good, and even though I will probably never be so lucky to find a bottle, I will cherish every drop of this scent.

I received my bottle from the lovely Catseyes who posted above me *waves* And though I am sorry it didn't work for her, I've wanted to try DMH since, literally, Day One of my BPAL existence. And though after six years it is doubtful I will get DMH, I was 100% to see her post.

Of course, you all know what it smells like. On me the essentially Leather SN quickly adds a subtle layer of gentle herb or a nice, inoffensive soft men's cologne scent, and that's pretty much how it stays rather than being leather and nothing else. Since I haven't ever smelled the original DMH, I don't know if it had a similar tendency. But it's so subtle my nose can forget about cologne and go 'leather' again. I will love wearing every drop of this out, both alone and as a layering base (I tried it a few times already. It did give my other recent Grail BPAL, Trick #1, a nice little above and beyond what it already has.)

I consider one of my Grail BPALs officially fulfilled.

So I've been waiting and wanting to get this scent for four years, and now thanks to a lovely forumite, I have it.

I feared opening it and being disappointed. aquatics are not my friend, so I feared those reviews as well as I bent to my task.

In the bottle: Green. Green and open with a tangy note in the middle of a gentle background of wet plants. Breathing in deeply you can detect an authentic smell of soggy leaves that's spot on and terrific. And I haven't even put it on yet.

wet on the arm: wet green plants with that same high fragrancey note and something in it is the same note as in one of my CT3s: an aromatic but strongly natural smell (eta: probably the tomato leaf.) I really like it. The quest of so many years: success.

Distinctly smoky cinnamon-apple smell.

Before I even open this imp (a generous freebie in a swap) I will just say I've got very high hopes for it, so we'll see how they bear up under testing. I would be prepared to layer this with something gourmand or sweet if it is lacking in balance, but I adore Beth's 'simple' (few notes) blends and... okay okay.

In the imp: Harsh sandalwood, not too spicy, and leather.

On me: I totally get the stable comment for the first second. Then it immediately gains a slight dimension of sandalwood-spice, enough to throw it off a bit from that (thank god.) A sharp or almost 'raw' leather scent with sandalwood layered over it, and a vague spice as I exhale. It wants to tip into 'cologne' but doesn't quite, also thank God. Yeah, there is a little sweetness to it like people have mentioned. You know what, I like it. I tried a little Pandy on over it and, though it wasn't a match, I still think this will be great for a subtle layering.

This is the scent that finally nailed neroli as a no-go for my skin. It's just sharp and very, well, shrill. This is an interesting scent, but the neroli dominates any hope of perceiving it other than through a thick fog. I think the peach would be a sweet, cute note, and I almost get the cocoa absolute too.

It's like the previous reviewer said... something about this just works for me and I don't know why. It's a comfortable, natural scent. I get the odd duality of the cool vs the food note. On me the caramel (and prob. musk and nicotiana) smell terribly familiar. It's another BPAL that I can't pick out (not Hearth, as someone mentioned.) Strange, evocative, and very straightforward, and since I'm not a floral girl I enjoyed this more than I thought I would given the description. A totally non-buttery caramel, BTW, for those like me who overamp and as such avoid like the plague the lab's buttery foodie scents. This is definitely more gourmand, and I don't see it as a masculine fragrance at all so much as a very simple, almost alluring scent. Sometimes I feel like oils with a jillion notes in them are just a screaming mishmash that is more trouble to discern than to enjoy. This is not overly complex, and doesn't have that problem.

Took me a while to appreciate how unusual this scent is (or to appreciate it at all, for that matter... it sat neglected, beautifully aging, in my BPAL box for literally a year and a half if it was a day. Then I dug it out one day when I was bored and stuck at home after surgery and smeared a shitton on my neck and the back of my ear.

Honey was not a scent I thought I liked, but the pepper blends cleanly with it to sharpen it up (I think this is how I avoid the artificial/play-doh smell on me, to some extent, because some floral honeys smell weirdly fake on me.) And this is a strong, dominant honey instead of a girly light honey. I am sure the 'strong dominant' perception comes not only from the, well, dominance of the honey note but also from the slightly muddying oakmoss. And then it dries down to a beautiful perfect sandalwood that's so crisp and simple that it's like brushstrokes on white paper. This reminds me of Mum Moon, which I also love.

One thing I hadn't predicted from reading the previous reviews is how LIGHT this scent is. I had to get right up on my wrist to smell it. So I slathered that arm like no other and... This does smell like Graveyard Dirt and recalls Penny Dreadful as well, but there's a hint of spice as previous reviewers have said instead of the flowers of PD or the 100% freshly turned ground of GD. My boyfriend was reminded of a 'moss' and a quality that I think others have referred to as loam.. it reminds me of my dad's old leather wallet and a ghost of spice all in one. As if this wasn't an unusual and fascinating enough scent (I almost felt compelled to keep sniffing and 'figure it out') as the drydown went on I started to notice what might have been the sandalwood previously mentioned. The combination of loamy dirt and a hint of earthly spice is a bit haunting, as portrayed so gently here. I'll definitely keep and appreciate using this, maybe layered with some delicate and simple sweeter SN that needs the depth this would bring it.