jiggahava

These days I like my foodie scents to be more complex than just...well....food. This definitely fits the bill. Pumpkin is detectable, but it fades and the fig, cranberry and rosey-frankincense come to the forefront. This is beautifully complex and very much a fall scent. I ended up selling a bunch of my pumpkin-heavy scents because it's not my preference these days but I"ll happily hang on to this bottle.

Sillage is decent, fades after a few hours, but still stays on skin for many hours.

At first application, I'm getting the mild smell of wildflowers, lilies and Iris. It's a nice, sharp floral blend. No opoponax that I can detect, which usually smells rather incense-y. After an hour the blend starts to go soapy on me, which comes from the lilies and iris together. This might be off-putting for some. But I notice that the soapiness is only with my nose to my wrist up close, less so in the sillage which remains a bright and pleasant floral. At the 5 hour mark, the soapiness fades and the perfume goes back to a mild, pretty floral. I'm going to let this bottle age a while longer, since I've only had it for a week and see if it develops.

Ooo, this is really nice. The patchouli and the cannabis meld together so one is pretty indistinguishable from the other. Despite the notes here, it's not super heavy. Hours in everything melds together nicely, with the champaca and leather combining with the rest to create a hazy, smokey blend. I don't get any eucalyptus leaf, but that just could be that it gets eaten by the other notes. Not a ton of throw, but I also applied pretty sparingly. It lasts all day though, and there's a faint musky hint of it at end end of the day. Very happy with my bottle.

My absolute favorites are:

Cloister Graveyard in the Snow

The Death of Sardanapal

The Pentinent Magdalene

Cupid Complaining to Venus

Garden Path with Chickens

The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa

and Philosopher in Meditation

all beautiful, for different reasons.

This definitely smells like nightblooming flowers. The moonflower is cool and creamy, it reminds me of how wisteria smells. I get a lot of amber out of this too, and it is very grey in feel, slightly dusty as well. A lot of cool, creamy smelling florals. Like most of the floral-heavy salon scents, the throw is almost non-existent. Pretty enough to keep.

I didn't think I'd find any aquatic I liked as much as Thalassa, the Galapagos Mermaid. But this Salon has proved me wrong. It's very mildly salty, with a bit of kelp, sweetened by the freesia, which is a beautiful, bright, crisp floral. It smells like a mild, pleasant day at the beach. My only complaint is there isn't very much throw. It sticks close to the skin, like most of the other Salon scents. Still, it's very lovely. I think I will get a bottle when my imp is gone.

Hmm...all I seem to get is the grapefruit and the orchid. A little soapy, but not obnoxiously soapy. I can smell a teensy bit of the white tea as well. Overall, a slightly high pitched fruity-floral. While I have other fruity-florals I like more than Manhattan, this is a nice, clean scent. Very unobtrusive. I think I'll keep my imp.

Is there anything even remotely like Gothabilly? I love it, but I can't shell out $200 on ebay...

The most approximate pairing I had was to layer MB: Bloody Mary(for the cherries) and The Ankythera Mechanism(for the black vanilla). It's still missing the alcholic fruitiness of the liquer, but I found it to be remarkably similar. Try it.

Ogyiya is a nice addition to the aquatics family. It's sort of a cross between Black Forest(green woods) and Thalassa(salty sea water). It's very nice and definitley one of the best aquatics I've ever smelled.

Smells like a cross between a earthy, forest scent and a fresh aquatic one. The Pine and cedar are very strong at first, and it has a medicinal quality to it that I don't quite like. Fortunatley, the scent softens and smells somewhere between Thalassa The Galapagos Mermaid and Black Forest. Its soapier qualities have calmed down. I don't have too many aquatics that I like and keep, but I already own Thlassa, which fulfills all my aquatic needs, so I'll probably keep Ogyia as a decant. It's pretty though, and one of the most pleasant aquatics I have tried at BPAL.

Violens! What a delcious pure sandalwood scent. You can't go wrong with 5 sandalwoods in one blend.

I was expecting to hate this. But, instead I love it! I was expecting it to be bitter and dark, the way alot of sandalwood blends can turn on my skin, but maybe the musk and leather help to even it out, because the sandalwood turns very sweet on my skin. It doesn't smell that manly, it smells like a vanilla sandalwood. Maybe vanilla is in this blend to? I might have to upgrade to a bottle.

This does smell, as others have described as fruity without being overly sweet. I'm getting a lighter, more floral version of Strawberry Moon. I mostly get light pink musk layered delicately over strawberry and rasberry leaf, with just a touch of floral. It's lovely, and very unassuming. I imagine it can be worn at many occasions, from job interviews to weddings, and it's never intrusive. Low throw, but fairly long lasting. I love it!

Monster Bait: Bloody Mary!

When Emma first hits my skin it's all tea rose. A nice, pleasant rose, but very one-dimensional. Then after it settles on my skin, I can pick up the lovely vanilla bourbon and jasmine. It smells soapier on the insides of my elbows, but that's fairly normal for heavy floral scents, which this one is. Very pretty and pleasant. I'll keep my imp, but I can skip the bottle.

Thank you, kind lady!

Here you go.

Man alive, I can't find a review of this scent anywhere I look! I've tried the search engine in the review section many times, to no avail. I know I'll have no chance in hell of ever testing it, but I just want to see what the reviews are! Any kind soul care to direct me to the review of Jingo-Kogo so I can see what all the fuss is about?

The Owen's Tomb has daffodils in it! Try that one.

No one's mentioned Veil yet. Very lilac-y, and the violet and lavender blend very well with it.

No seeds. No sandlawood. Just powdery floral dust. Is that the amber that's causing this? Whatever it is, it's making me sad. Looks like it's one for the swap pile. :-( And I wanted it to work.

Velvet Bandito. OMG, this is almost pure clove on me. I love it! The Smiling Spider is a GC equivalent of Velvet Bandito, all clove and spices. MMMM. You can't get more pure clove than that.

I would like to suggest La Vague, it is a lovely lilly of the valley and cream scent.

Now there's Velvet Tiki, so there's another tropical scent to love. I get mostly orchid, vanilla, pineapple and gardenia? from it. Delicious.

When I first apply it....I feel as if I'm putting on bacon. More that I smeared bacon grease all over my skin. This smells REALLY unpleasant and vetiver-y in the imp, so I put it on sparingly. Still bacony, burned meat smelling.

A few hours later, a faded patchouli and vetiver smell. It's okay, but definitley not my kind of scent.

I don't have to apply very much, because that pine scent is thick and very bracing. Gooey, sappy pine and it is hella strong! Crazy throw, but after an hour the throw is very minimal, almost undetectable. This is a fantastic pine scent. It's a little more of a salty and aquatic pine on the dry down, very nice. I won't need a bottle because I have Black Forest to take care of most of my pine needs, but I think I'll keep the imp around to cool me down when those hot sticky southern california summers hit!