Ilex

This was disappointing. Sin should not be innocuous but that's how I would describe this. Cinnamon and amber, very gentle. I slathered it a bit at first because I was having trouble smelling it, but that was a mistake because after it sat on my skin it amped up a bit, with the amber stepping up and cutting the cinnamon. I think the patchoulli and sandalwood engaged in a death match wherein both perished (normally sandalwood goes to powder on me and I was hoping that the patch would keep that in check, but the patch seems to have disappeared in the process). I'm also getting what I have come to think of as "red musk tang," red musk has a tendency to smell like sweet tarts on me in a bad way. That tart note is here, but I have no notion of what is the culprit as red musk isn't listed as a note. To the swaps with you, Sin.

Urd! Its in Excolo, one of the Norns (Fates). Yummy yummy eeevil grape: Muscadine, black and red patchouli, cereus and nag champa.

I got this imp in the summer and had high hopes for it, most BPAL turns to candy on me and I thought this might be dark enough to fight off my super sweet skin chemistry (and I don't even really eat sweets!). If I could smell like a fresh cut plank in the mud I think I'd dig that, but my skin seems to eat all woods and mosses. It sort of did work, or at least the sweet isn't intolerable. I tried it first in the summer, and it was cloying, like a cat who wants to be right next to you when you are sticky sweaty from the heat and won't leave you alone. Not so good, but kind of endearing, in its way. Now, its fall, so I gave it another go. Its yummy. The civet is there, I occasionally get, hm? is this really working moments from it. But there are also wafts of chocolate and licorice and spice. It is a bit male cologne-y, but its an unusual enough male cologne that it isn't annoying. I also started thinking it smelled like black tea... and realized part of that was the reminents of lavender face scrub (honey and a little lavender oil, works well btw) that I used last night. So I recommend a light layering with lavender and seeing what that does for you if its not quite working.

This is a pretty green oil, as others have said, its striking not just for its smell. I can't decide what to think of it. It invokes the idea of "hair product" for me at first, which is not a plus. I'm not getting woods, or patchoulli. There was a whiff of mint which was quickly gone. The black musk and laudanum are stealing the show. And something is going to powder in the mix, is there sandalwood or a close relative thereof in there somewhere? Sandalwood is my usual powder culprit. Hmm... it is similar to Morocco, which I wanted to like, but was too sweet. This isn't so sweet, but is still a bit sweet. It is cloying, but interesting. I'm on the fence about it. Unfortunately, my husband is not on the fence. This stuff has amazing throw, I didn't slather, and he rarely smells bpal from a distance but he walked in and I said "would you like to sniff a new one?" and he said "I can all ready smell it and I'm fleeing." Oh well.

Of all the evergreen forest scents I've tried (Yew Trees, Hemlock, Nocnista, Hamadryad) this is the closest to smelling like a forest to my nose. At first it evoked shampoo, but it settled into a sweet, citrus-y tart forest, but a forest smell nonetheless (barely- and sometimes it does go too sweet and crashes, so to speak- the forest trees have lemon drops for berries). It does have hints of candle/potpourri going on. I'm not getting much musk at all, but I think the ambergris is pulling up the candle associations with its tinge of spice. Zippo throw though, I can really only smell it if I stick my wrist right up to my face. I was hoping this would be the perfect forest scent, but its not quite. Its good, but not great.

Two notes usually bring up purple associations for me: wine and Dragon's Blood. Wine goes to Grape Crush soda on me. Hence Blood Rose was a very purple scent on me, albeit a disgusting sickly sweet one. And Dragon's Blood is a not unpleasant floral lilac-like scent. Which makes the scent names a little weird, because some of the "fierce" blends have Dragon's Blood, so what they are supposed to be invoking is lost on me. Wrath, for example, was the wrath of the cute wee purple fairy in my case because of the Dragon's Blood component.

Wet and for the first oh, 10 minutes it was mint doing battle with lavender and musk. Then the mint lost with a poof and it disappeared. Which is too bad because the mint was adding some needed interest, it made the scent dynamic. There was a well blended sweetness which held on for many hours after that. It wasn't heavy on the lavender, it was heavy on the sweet. The musk went a bit off, it really smelled, hmmm... stale? for lack of a better term. I also picked up some leather in this, which is just plain odd as no one has mentioned that and it isn't one of the notes. So, in a nutshell, it is a rather unobjectionable cologne scent after the mint disappears (sad), but nothing too exciting.

Sweet Tarts. Sweet Tarts of Death, I guess, but I'm not really getting the death theme in this scent, I'm afraid. No earth at all. The musk seems really similar to that of Fenris Wolf, which also went sweet on me. Yoohoo, pine? Please come out, I'd like to visit with you! Sigh, there is a hint of pine, eventually, after an hour I'm catching a little whiff of it here and there, but its drowning under the strange sweet tart smell, which seems to be going a bit vanilla? Weird. This one is just not playing nice with my picky chemistry, or its an old imp that's gone off. But it did disappear in an hour, pretty much, so I didn't have to live with it long.

Well, this is a different scent. On first application my initial response was "burnt toast and floral?" Then the leather poked out. And then there was ozone over the "fresh floral" which I assume is the English Ivy. But sadly, the wine in this is a deal breaker, as it goes grape crush on me, just as the lovely ambergris makes itself known, and plays nice with the ozone. Phooey. On a guy/gal where the wine (whine!) note didn't go foul sicky sweet grapes and the English Ivy didn't get over sweet to boot, it'd be a really interesting blend. Not for me though.

Ecclesiastical candy? Frankincense and cinnamon, indeed. I’m not getting the violet, although perhaps that’s what amping the sweet on me. For some crazy reason, the frankincense note really evokes Jerry Curl (you know, that hair goop from the eighties) as much as church for me. If I can get past that association, then it is not bad, if too sweet. If it wasn’t so candy-like, it’d be really nice, a bottle worthy scent even.

I find it a little weird that many folks are saying there's neroli in here, its not listed, and if it was in there I'd probably have a headache from wearing this blend. And I don't, quite the opposite. When it showed up in my mail box the imp was broken, and I could smell it- hm, orange blossom? A fresh but deep floral? I didn't order anything like that... It turned out to be a frimp, which is why I was confused. I love this. It may even be my holy grail, an everyday personal scent that my hubby actually likes, rather than tolerates. He said "oooh, I'm in head shop heaven" when he first smelled it (and he meant it in a good way). I find it more like an old occult bookshop than a head shop, but I'll take what I can get from the perfume hater. It is a bit sharp, but the orange flower and carnation softens it up for the most part. Eventually, on the far far dry down it goes to a not unpleasant powder, I blame the carnation for that, but not to angrily, as the powder isn't bad. I tried layering it with Mandrake to get the woody aspect going a bit more, but Masquerade really didn't need any messing about with, the Mandrake kinda took over. It is a mysterious incense scent good on its own. I will be getting a bottle.

I found Haunted to have the heavier aspects of Aveda scents. My hubby said it smelled like my Aveda shampoo, which is scented with their Inspiratu (sp?) perfume.

Well, at least he likes scents. By and large, I can only wear perfume oils when my fellow is out of range, he just doesn't like perfume. I recommend an LE, if you can find it. Quincy Morris (from the Order of the Dragon series). Its a vanilla/leather cowboy scent. I really like it, but unfortunately vanilla will turn to putty/playdoh on me eventually so I get only ten minutes of yum from it.

Calliope had a lot of herbiness on me, especially thyme/rosemary. Most of the herb blends either go sweet (like nearly all BPAL, sigh) or "generic men's collogne" on me. But Calliope stays pretty sharply herbal. Wolfsbane also was a nice herbally blend on me that stayed true, but its not only herbal, there are some other elements to it.

I got this as a kind frimp from a decant circle. I don't know how the gifter intuited that I'd dig it, but I do, quite a bit. Its so perfectly evocative of a crazy wooden puppet, its a little creepy, just in that sense. Initially it smelled like a generic wood plank soaked in hazelnut syrup, but after a while things come together and it becomes more like a really sweet pipe tobacco scent, with a dab of wooden something in it. I love wood scents, and normally nearly everything over powers the wood for me (why can't I amp wood and not florals?) and any sweet element is generally too sweet, but this is really really lovely. Such a pity its an LE and I'll have to struggle to get any more of it than the half imp I've got. Good grief this is good- I think its my favorite BPAL yet. Reading more of the reviews/notes, the patchoulli is pretty mild on me, and I get zippo apricot. Which is just fine, actually. I'm glad those notes are leaving the sweet caramel wood alone. The sad bit is after a while it kind of descends into a powdery butterscotch, but oh what a beginning.

Grape Crush soda pop with roses. Yuck. It has a lot of throw. My hubby fled the room after I put on a couple of swipes shouting incoherently ("what are you trying to do, woman, kill me?"). I tried to sit with it a bit longer than 15 minutes to see if it would get better, but it really didn't. Off it goes.

The bergamot steals the first act (wet, dry down and a little after- its all lemon) and thyme steals the second (this stage gets bitter- which is exceptionally odd as no other BPAL really has done that on me, most of the BPAL I've tried has gone sicky sweet). If it had been rosemary in the later drydown, with a bit of the bergamot sticking it out, we'd have had a winner. I like thyme, but not that much. I guess it is not off to the swaps as I thought it was. The hubby has declared it "on the right track" towards a scent he might like. That has only happened about 3 times of the many times I've made him sniff test BPAL. I'm really surprised. I think its the "not going sickly sweet" factor at play.

This scent is rescued on me by the grapefruit. Without that note, it would smell bland sweet and powdery, perhaps akin to dryer sheets. But with it, its a sharp, clean scent that is actually pleasant. Good for summer, its very light. But I think I'd like it more as a room spray than for wearing (it does smell a bit like a room freshener, a decent one though).

Wet this was foul. Like chemicals spilled on hot asphalt with melting bubblegum over the top. My cat fled the smell. I was headed to wash it off when it improved, the mint finally jumped in to mediate between the juniper/lotus. It became a light, well blended sweet scent. Which eventually wound its way down to a minty play dough/bubblegum. Lotus and I evidently don't get along too well. This scent clinches that idea for me.

I had high hopes for this, but they weren't met. I'd really love a spiced bamboo scent, and I love woods. There was a little lemon edge to the Snake Oil, but the extras really couldn't compete with the vanilla note of the original Snake Oil. It went vanilla toffee with a quick shift to strong plastic putty smell on me with nothing else between (I just don't get along with BPAL vanilla, for some reason). Sad.

Rose. Nothing but rose. Its a pleasant sort of rose, but not a classy one- pretty generic really. I like it well enough, and it did leave me feeling a bit more cheerful for the couple of hours it lasted, which is I guess supposed to be part of its voodoo charm aspect (and that is part of why I was interested in it, silly desperate me). I don't think I'll get a big bottle, but if I want roses, there it is. Oh, and I tried layering it with a couple of other scents, Haunted and Azathoth, but it didn't hold up as a rose note, layered it just made everything go to powder prompt like. Which was a bit disappointing as I'd like a rose I could add to things.

Very strange. I get none of the notes listed from this scent. Just a generic spicy powder scent with is quite a bit like the smell of Bee and Flower brand Sandalwood soap. Which is weird, because there isn't supposed to be any sandalwood in there. I really wish the tangerine had made an appearance. Ah well. Overall its not a bad bedtime scent, but not rich or exciting enough for me to want to wear out and about. I think my skin turns even the woodiest, darkest BPAL scents sweet and mild. Its unfortunate.

This is really lovely. Smooth and spicy. It seems a lot more complex than just musk and amber, like ceder should be in the mix somewhere, and possibly a dab of vanilla. It didn't go sickly sweet on me like many BPALs do, bonus! and the hubby pronounced it "Okay. Its like your Aveda shampoo but sweeter" which is stunning praise of a scent coming from him. I think it'd be great layered with a single note rose, or some other sharper floral scent (perhaps lavender even?). I shall have to experiment. In addition to the Aveda Inspiratu: Air (sp?) scent, it also reminded me of the BPAL Morocco, sans a ton of vanilla so it didn't become super sweet and reminiscent of that scent from the 70's, Tabu (which my mom had in her jewelery box, and hence I know it well) the way Morocco did.

Sigh. In the bottle I get the nice sweet earth folks have raved about here. On my skin... well, its as if I poured on a bottle of coconut oil tanning lotion and rolled around in some mushroom loam. It ain't pretty. The coconut sweet scent is doing battle with the earthy element and they aren't dancing together nicely, they are at loggerheads. This was a disappointment.

I'm a weirdo. I find no forest in the scent of Dublin. Nor any pine. Its more like an Irish Pub in a smoke free community, with old wood fixtures, and a passel of dudes sitting at the bar wearing Old Spice. This is an inoffensive spice scent on me, from start to finish. Not too strong and not too memorable.