Violaine

Haloes is fuzzy. Warm, glowing, and golden. Exactly what I wanted it to be. I adore it.

It's soft vanilla (almost candle-y, but never quite) and oak, and something almost dry and fizzy. Is that the sandalwood? No, maybe the ginger. But truly, all of the above notes are blended together so well... I really feel like this scent shows Beth's mastery off SO WELL. A glorious skin scent, something that will melt perfectly into the right person's skin. Gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful, and something very special, this one.

My favorite BPAL rose yet. The Peacock Queen is lush, velvety, blood red rose, not headachingly perfumey or too green either. It's perfect, almost the scent of a pure essential rose oil or crushed petals in your hand.

Simply gorgeous.

The original Beaver Moon 2005 smells like wonderful, perfect, delicious, complex cheesecake on my skin.

Beaver'Versary smells like watered down cinnamon toothpaste on my skin.

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Thanks to tikva, I have just recently discovered that I adore carnation!

I never cared for the original Alice, but I wanted to give the Queen a shot. It's gorgeous, peppery, nose-tingly carnation to me, with gorgeous cider underneath! I can't pick out much else, but once it dries down on my skin, that sweet treacle comes out and threatens to make the entire blend tooth-rotting. It's so unusual and so perfumey, but I mean that in the best way possible. The carnation and cider continues to hang on and make up the body of the blend, but I'm still wary of the sweetness.

This could absolutely warrant a bottle.

Prunella isn't really what I would call creamy. It's a very sharp scent to me, plummy and purple with those wildflowers underneath. It unfortunately becomes too flowery on my skin, as anything with florals in it is wont to do. If there were just something a little more solid and dark underneath, maybe a musk or a sandalwood, maybe it would play nice with me.

Alas, this wee imp goes into the "new home" pile.

Quite redundant for me to even post a review of this much-revered scent, but... well, unfortunately, it's utter love for me. I received this in a wonderful swap from Deek, and I'm so happy to have my little imp!

On me, it's absolutely Antique Lace, except... with a bit of the innocence sliced off and replaced with some bad girl. It's almost a little trashy on me, like something a teenage girl swiped from her mother's dressing table. But it's creamy and sugary and deliciously dark. I'm not sure than I can pick out any one note except maybe the tobacco, but it's just magnificent as a whole.

I can't help but see a black lace lingerie-clad woman lounging on a leather armchair and tempting a gorgeous man in a suit who happens to be smoking a cigar and drinking cognac. Oh yes. One day I shall have a bottle. One day.

There's something in here that's in Dorian, right? Or maybe The Mouse's Long And Sad Tale? Something in the background, something sweet and slick and dark, something sinister and sexy... UNF, it's totally in there. Ohhh, maybe it's the amber? But amber usually goes bad on me... hmmm....

ANYWAY! This is glorious. It's a dark, smutty pine forest, the scent of hot sweaty sex next to a bonfire, oh yes. YESSSSSS. I cannot quit huffing my arm. I mean... smutty pine forest and sweaty bonfire sex. I'm not sure there's anything else I can say, here!

So, so good.

I am truly confused over this scent. It's on the complex side for me, but I am so intrigued by it.

In the bottle I definitely smell the fig most strongly. Wet on my skin, it's delicious fig and something... dry. Might that be the black musk? It's harsh (not necessarily in a bad way) and dry, almost powdery. As this dries on me it goes through SO many phases. Every time I smell it I get something different, but never the orange. There are definitely times that it threatens to turn into the amber of death on me, that powdery "old lady" smell to my nose, but it never quite makes it.

I'm on the fence. It's missing a softness for me, and I wish the fig would come back. But then there are times I give it a sniff and I nearly groan, it's so good.

This is definitely going to be one that I try a few times before I make a decision on its fate.

Well, this will be a short review. I wanted this one to work SO MUCH, but alas...

Wet: Cherries. Glorious, sweet, juicy cherries.

Dry: Pure wood. Pencil shavings. *sighs*

Into the swap pile.

I bought this bottle unsniffed because of all the rave reviews it was getting on the forums. It's not something I'd ordinarily ever buy on my own, really, due to the red musk. Red musk just isn't something I like on me, period. I adore it on other people, but it's never really done well on me.

After a preliminary little knuckle test, I thought to myself that Mircalla was so special. Something I could wear on nights out when I wanted to be super sultry and mysterious. It's a beautiful fragrance. Red musk and spicy clove. Zanzibar clove, which is one of my favorite scents ever. (Pier 1 used to carry a Zanzibar Clove candle that I adored, omg.) This is a deep purpley red scent to me, and... well, I hate to say it, but it reminds me of Christian Dior's Poison. Then again, just about everything with red musk in it reminds me of Poison. And... it's not a great thing for me.

The bottom line is that I feel like I'm wearing someone else's perfume when I put this on. I don't feel comfortable in it, and I feel like it wears me. I'll be putting my bottle up for sale even though I think it's a marvelously blended perfume. Just not my thing. The Girl is me. Not Mircalla.

THIS. Is just DIVINE.

Buttery, flaky pastry simply shoved full of sweet, yet tart apricot jam and almond paste. The apricot jam is the strongest on my skin, but I can totally smell the BUTTER in the pastry as well as the almond paste hanging out in the background. It's not sickeningly sweet, and I honestly wouldn't even call it a true full-blown foody scent, though it definitely leans that way.

The more this dries down, the more I think I might need to order a backup bottle. It's really special! APRICOT!

Lovely. Wet on my skin this is snow and roses. Light, perfect, young roses hidden under that first, fresh, powdery snow. Gently icy and SO happy. Once it dries I smell more of the snow and less of the roses, but I think it's more of a case of the scents blending together and mushing nicely. I never really get vanilla out of this, but it IS sweet... just not foody sweet.

Beautiful.

Just adding to everyone else, here. Gluttony, on me, is heavy, boozy, fatty, syrupy-sweet NUTS. It turns my stomach sometimes it's so rich, but it was the perfect choice to wear today, Thanksgiving! I think my lone imp will likely last me a looooong time.

What scent could I possibly wear today other than GLUTTONY??

Beh. I always want to like the idea of aquatics, but the fact of the matter is that I just don't, period. I was excited to hear about the grapefuit in R'lyeh, though, so I decided to give it a try.

Wet, in the imp, I definitely smell grapefruit - a salty grapefruit, really. On my skin it turns more aquatic and I can recognize that it's such a well blended perfume... but it's just not for me. To me it's a quintessential aquatic, salty and... well, shower gel-ish. Not something I want to smell like. But truly, if aquatics are your thing, then you have GOT to try this blend!

I'm truly surprised that Cristina doesn't get more love! I was riding the line between wary and intrigued after reading the reviews, but something in the back of my head kept saying "It will work on you, it will be love!" And indeed it is.

I'm not even sure what I smell in the bottle, but there's definitely chestnut. On the skin while it's wet, it's GORGEOUS - chestnut and some spicy floral or maybe even resin in the background. While it dries things go a little iffy on me, but once it's had a chance to sink into my skin it's just glorious. There's the chestnut at the forefront still, but the musk shows up and softens everything into this warm, smoky, almost silk-like scent.

Cristina isn't foody on me. At least, not to my nose. My husband did say that it smelled like nuts at some point, but he also likes it quite a lot. I'm terribly glad I bought a bottle unsniffed, and now I'm going to have to track down another one!

Clarimonde isn't obviously ROSE to me, not like a lot of BPAL rose blends are, but I am still learning (even after years!) the differences between the different roses. The white rose in here is bearable to me, even beautiful, and the cushion of the musk and oriental perfume only serve to make it even nicer. It sits so lovely and spicy-floral on my skin for a good long time before finally going sour, as most floral blends do on me. I need to hunt for a half-bottle of this!

The "vanilla" in this smells exactly like the vanilla in Eat Me to my nose. Which is indeed a WONDERFUL thing. When I first put it on, it's definitely very sharp and almost too much for me if I smell it up close, but after about ten minutes it's just this beautiful mix of warm, complex vanilla and lavender. It's going to be a staple of mine, I can tell.

I did put it on at bedtime last night, but I was wicked tired from a dose of Relpax anyway and I generally fall asleep within five minutes of my head hitting the pillow. Thus, I'm not sure it it helped me sleep or not but it sure was nice to snuggle up smelling something this beautiful. Mmm. I'm so happy I bought a bottle!

Lolita is a perfume that I have to be in the mood to wear. When I'm not, it gives me a killer headache and I have to try washing it off. On those days, it's sickly sweet, dripping with heliotrope and lemon.

On the days I'm in the mood for it though... well, it has the wondrous ability to make me feel exactly like it's name. It's a heady, sweet, but deceptively sexy scent that's still primarily heliotrope and lemon, but in the best kind of way possible. It's perfect for those days when I feel like I want to put my hair in pigtails... but then think better of it, haha!!

A frimp from the lab, and a wonderfully lucky one for me!

This, to my nose, is very close to Aveda's Rose Absolute perfume oil. It's almost a single note to me, light, true, and unchanging. It doesn't give me a headache, as many roses and florals do, and I don't feel over-scented at all. I slathered, too.

Gorgeous. Bottle-worthy.

I really wish there was a way for me to describe to you what The Girl smells like to me. It is unlike anything I have ever worn and it instantly became my most favorite fragrance of all time.

The Girl is a very grey scent to me. Silvery and sparse, soft yet... pointed. It enraptures me from the moment I put it on, it has a tremendous throw, and it lasts for hours. There's licorice in it, at least to my nose, and while I truly wouldn't tell you what any note in this blend smelled exactly like, there is indeed a powdery, musky quality to it. It's vanilla-ish, yes, but not in a foody way.

Beth nailed this on the head when she described it as "elusive". There's no possible way to describe it - you just have to try it. It's stunning.

I like Dorian. I do not like Snake Oil. I have never smelled Doc Constantine. But I love me some foodie scents, I do I do.

However, Cake Smash was amazingly strong on me, and from just the tiniest of drops. It's a delicious scent, I can smell that, but it did a great job of giving me a headache, and even after scrubbing twice with water, salt, soap, and a nail brush, the scent is just as true on my arm as it was when I tried it on.

I love the bottle art and think Lilith is an absolute doll - I wanted to keep this one so badly! Alas, it was not meant to be.

Well, this is a review of what it smells like on my husband, not me... because if you look at my signature you can tell that it's just not an oil I'd wear myself.

That being said, however, it is one that I ADORE on my husband. It's a dirty, dark, very powerful scent, not one you'd want to wear every day, I don't think. It has a really strong throw of mostly clove smoke and pine pitch from him, though there's a serious complexity to it all. The other notes in there serve to pull it all together and turn it into an absolutely gorgeous skin scent. I can see where some people might equate it to "body odor" or being dirty, but so far that's been a very, very good thing on my man.

Thank you SO MUCH for the frimp, labbies! I'm tossing in a bottle for my hubby with my next order. Rawr!

I waffled on this one, I did I did, until the very last minute. I finally just said "what the hell" and ordered it, and am I ever glad I did.

This is just warm, homey, comforting, buttery, almondy pumpkin on my skin. There is definitely a nutty quality to it, and the brown musk, honey, and almond all just seem to blend together into this amazing scent... Man. I kind of want to nom my arm off.

I just want to put on a cable cardigan, thick socks, and grab some hot tea so I can pile up on the couch with blankets and watch the last of the autumn leaves fall outside. Pumpkin I is absolutely wonderful!

I've never really met a blend that makes me SNEEZE like this one is. O_O I'm not overly fond of musk or amber, and rose has to be the "right" rose for me to like it. The combination of the three on me is just... well, not pleasant. Not to my nose, at least. It's heavy, cloying, and powdery. Like a lot of blends with musk and amber, it just reads as "old lady" to me. Of course, I grew up in a very hippie town, so maybe it's a very crunchy old lady.

Not for me, not one bit.