DevilsCandyCane

I'm loving almost all of my BPTP Yules, but this is a HUGE no! I ended up scrubbing it off with soap. In the bottle and when first applied it was quite nice, very fizzy and orange smelling and happy, but it quickly turned into nasty cough sweets and old man aftershave. Beastly!!

I so wish the blueberries didn't die so quickly In the bottle and when first applied, the squishy blueberries are so realistic, and it smells like a summery day in the countryside, with just enough greenery going on...buuuut, sadly the blueberries vanish, and the weeds and lemoniness go completely rampant, turning it into a bitter green soapy nightmare. At that point I rubbed it off on my jeans, and what's left now smells identical to a Lush bathbomb I got for christmas, the round navy blue one with a yellow moon on one side - I think it's basically a lavender scent now, with a hint of lemon. If there was a squishy blueberry single note, I would be all over it, but this is just too full of weeds on my skin

Edit again, I've gotta re-do this review, because I strongly suspect what I was reviewing may have been a prototype O.o I own a decant, and a bottle, and the difference is huuuuuge, it's beyond mere ageing, plus the decant oil is lighter coloured than the bottle, which is generally the opposite to ageing, sooo...I have no idea, here's them both: My decant, possible prototype, is gorgeous. It's all about the honey, with just a little amber peeking out, it's soft and sexy and gentle and lickable, with a hint of something Egyptian-smelling - I'm not sure what, but there's the faintest, faintest resemblance to Anubis and Cairo, very far in the background. Mostly it's honey though, and I adore it. My bottle - actual Imaginer, without a doubt - is not half so lovely It's very 'perfume', it smells like what my mum wears, to the extent that I may just donate it to her. All that honey and beeswax and amber I get in the decant, nope...nopenopenope, that's barely there at all. It's just all powerful, in-your-face traditionally feminine mainstream perfume. I had been leaving the lid ajar for a while here and there in an attempt to speed-age it, and that's made it a little less harsh, there's more of a patchouli note coming from behind the perfume stink now, and I kind of like it at this point, but I suspect it will eventually go to live with my mum ...major bummer, I so wanted a whole bottle of the honey wonderfulness of my (prototype?) decant... Happily I have some White Bees Swarming hair gloss, and that's got a very similar lovely honey note, so that's easing the disappointment slightly!

Ohhhh, this is *lovely!* As with the other two Lilith-y bottles I've fallen in love with, the initial description did nothing for me, but after seeing the reviews I gave it a shot, and I'm so glad I did Wet, it smells like banana Nesquick, which I *love*, then as it dries it turns into a creamier banana icecream sort of scent, before Dorian starts to peek out from behind. And it's the very best parts of Dorian, all aged Dorian, the soft sugared vanilla tea note with a hint of masculinity, still tinged by banana icecream - I adore that this is so gender neutral while still being foodie. And it somehow manages to *smell* like being outdoors on a happy summery day, it's such an uplifting, happy-inducing scent. In its final stages there's a hint of incense, while the Dorian and soft banana remain, and this final soft comforting stage lingers quite a while on my skin (like a WHILE, it's been on for 7 hours now!) I tried it in my scent locket about an hour ago, and at first I thought, oops, bad move - the banana got very strong and artificial, it reminded me of some peculiar banana Rizlas I bought in Amsterdam many years ago, and then mostly ate while stoned! After about 10-15 minutes though, the banana calmed down into the soft banana icecream stage, where it's basically remained, a little Dorian coming out now. It's very lovely and making me a bit hungry, which never happens with BPAL! Overall I think I prefer it on skin though, the complexity of the scent really shows itself more. In summary, I frickin' *adore* this, and will be wearing it very, very often. It may even require the hunting down of a backup bottle!

I was initially unsure about whether to keep my bottle - lately I've been applying BPAL oils to the back of my hand, rather than my wrist, because they seem to last longer and stay truer rather than being corrupted by my skin chemistry, and *usually* that's a good thing, but with this it's been the opposite. On the back of my hand, ALL I was getting was the bottle scent - ZOMG STRAWBERRY JAM! Which was quite nice, but I didn't really *want* to smell like a jar of jam, and in terms of strawberry scents, I much prefer Pink Surprise Cake. ...but, when I tried it on my wrists, total game changer! This stuff *needs* to be corrupted by skin chemistry, it kills off a little of the strawberry, and brings the goddamn DONUT out to play, which was what I wanted all along ...on my wrists, it becomes *gorgeous* within about a minute, smells exactly like the description, powdered sugar donuts, oozing gooey strawberry centre, bloody gorgeous It's really warm and *happy* and comforting, and I will definitely be holding onto my bottle!

Another Yule I'm very glad not to have bought a bottle of! I love most rose scents - London, Harlot, Eve, but this is just utterly *beastly!* In the bottle it smells like a disastrous batch of Roadhouse - that bitter horrible green dandelion note, as though you're getting the nasty white sap smeared all over your face. When applied, the repulsive green bitterness continues on its foul journey, at which point I was so horrified I smeared it off, but the stench was not to be defeated so easily. With grim determination, the Beast of Garden Feculence clung to my skin, reeking and bitter and profoundly ghastly, until finally the rose actually bothered to show up, and then it smelled...like a granny. Very artificial and unpleasant, total Granny Soap, with the Dandelion of Foulness remnants still lurking in the background. And now, I hasten to the bathroom to scrub it off my skin with wirewool. I haven't met a BPAL I've loathed this intensely in many years, blehhhhhh!!!

In a word: underwhelming. It's a little wimp of a scent that dies into nondescript nothingness very, very quickly. In the bottle it's fairly nice, chocolatey with a good slosh of stout, but even at this stage it's a bit of a bland and artificial sort of chocolate. Once applied the stout goes sort of weirdly artificial floral almost, and kills off much of the chocolate, then everything just fades rapidly into the faintest hint of dry chocolate, the stout really doesn't stick around. Also, globs of chocolate-brown oil separate constantly from the rest of the perfume, rolling and even shaking do little to mix it up - it seems to be the same perpetually separating chocolate note as in the Chocolate Box collection, which I really wasn't fond of in that either - more artificial and ick than the chocolate notes in El Dia or Centzon Totochtin. In summary, I'm very, very glad I didn't get sucked into the hype and buy a whole bottle. It's reasonably pleasant, but El Dia absolutely craps all over it in terms of bittersweet chocolate, warm snuggliness, and most of all THROW and longevity!

Edit - ohhhh, sadness!! Terrible woe! I just received my second bottle of this, and...it's totally different None of the heavy, sexy, narcotic murkiness of Bottle #1, this second one is just soft, thin rose, like it's been watered down by half - I suspect it won't even smell, once put in the bath About to write to the lab, never had to moan about anything before... This product does say it needs shaking first, and I'm wondering if someone didn't mix it before decanting into bottles, giving me the watery topping. Now I have barely dregs of the Good Stuff! Bottle #1 review: I just got out of my first bath with this, and I feel awesome I think I'm coming down with something ghastly, haven't been able to get warm all day, and a bath with Luna Sanguinem is like a big sexy hug, the scent is so frickin' relaxing, I feel all wonderfully monged out like I do coming back from aromatherapy massages - I think in future it'll be reserved for bedtimes, chillout nights and dealing with anxiety - definitely not for when I want to accomplish things afterwards, heh... Another thing I love is that the scent has actually clung to my skin afterwards - so many bath products make the BATH smell gorgeous, but not the person in it, whereas this leaves a subtle hint of dark sexy...*rose-stuff* Onwards to the scent - when this first came I had my doubts, initially it smelled gorgeous, but the next time I sniffed it had an odd plasticky smell. I then noticed it says 'shake gently before use', and that seems to sort it out, when gently shaken there's no plasticky smell. It smells really *dark* and brooding, there are some scent notes I'm not very familiar with, so it's hard to say what exactly that is (Myrrh? Frankincense?) - certainly it's not the innocent Pink Snowballs type scent that rose and vanilla *can* produce, this is really dark, and rich and sexy (without crossing into the overly mature and civilised Mom Rose territory that OLLA Eve is to me. This is fucking SEXY rose!). The rose and vanilla are there when I try hard to find them, but it's so smoothly blended that the overall impression is just thick brooding sexy darkness, and I love it! I had no idea there was a perfume oil of the same name since I never keep up with lunacies, but I may have to seek some out, for comparison... It's 9.30pm, I'm generally nocturnal and don't sleep until 4am, but at this point I could quite happily lie on the floor and snooze in front of the TV, I feel so chilled out. My shadow self is a lazy bastard, I guess, but I think I knew that already Ultimate bedtime bath oil, the usual BPAL sleep inducers never touch me, Somnus, TKO etc, but this has knocked me on my ass in a really lovely way!

I was really disappointed with this when I first got my decants, but I've rediscovered them some weeks later and it seems to have settled into something quite nice I'm not really a fan of Snake Oil, but this slightly reminds me of it, in a more complex, interesting way. It's got the patchouli/vanilla Snake Oil thing going on, but the black tea just adds a bit of something - I love tea scents The incense smoke comes out for a decent period as it begins to dry, and I love that, it's not headshop incense at all, just a sort of dark, evocative smokiness. I don't really get the licorice jellybeans thing other people have mentioned, and for that I'm grateful! My only complaint would be that it has a little hint of soapiness, getting progressively stronger, which was my annoyance about Fettered in the Shackles too Overall it's nice, but I won't be chasing down a bottle!

Short review, since I applied it a few minutes ago so sort of missed the initial stages in depth! My main thoughts were that smells like very nice bubblebath to start with, sort of citrusy-happy but quite soapy. A little later the soapiness died down some, and it reminded me of getting aromatherapy massages, the oil blend the woman mixes up for anxiety - it has a really peaceful, happy vibe, which I found interesting given the name; it's definitely the 'high' phase of opium usage, not the Shame And Regret portion! On my skin it's as good as gone within 15 minutes though, and while it's quite pleasant I won't need more than my decant.

This is another butterfly that's pleasantly surprising me, and making me wish I could've tried more of them before they sold out! Wet, I was a little unsure whether to bother trying it, it's quite...bitter and weedy, and with the 'goatweed' name as well, I was thinking nooo, this is not gonna be good, but I'm glad I persevered! Briefly it has the same almost patchouli-like scent that I got from the Duskywing, and again there's no patchouli, so that's weird, but it quickly fades. Dry, it reminds me a lot of Temple Viper, that almost nag champa-ish vibe, but richer and more interesting. The tonka bean is there, just, but it's very mellow and woodsy. The orange blossom is so faint I would never have guessed at it, just a subtle hint of sweetness. I'm AMAZED that the sandalwood doesn't fuck this right to hell for me, sandalwood is usually a deathnote, but I'm not sure if I've tried *brown* sandalwood before - apparently that likes my skin! Overall it's wonderfully gender-neutral, very soft and slightly powdery-musky, almost with a tiny, tiny hint of leather, and I think it's rather sexy Not something I'll need a bottle of, but if I ever came across a decant I'd snap it up, since I only have a little sniffie!

This was a surprise sniffie I got sent, and I'm amazed by it! Most of the notes are unfamiliar to me, and those that *are* familiar I generally don't like, and I certainly wasn't expecting a butterfly collection to smell so masculine, but I love this so much I've just bought a bottle! Freshly applied, it's very much earthy patchouli, though I don't understand that as it's not a listed note. That quickly fades though, and what's left fits the name so perfectly, 'indigo duskywing' - it *smells* like the colour indigo, sort of dark and denimy and soft and reassuring, gently masculine and a little powdery/smoky. It smells like being hugged by a very sexy boy The blending is amazing, I'm *completely* baffled by the note list and how much I love it - usually clove goes soapy on me, iris I wouldn't touch with a bargepole! The smoky honey is...possibly lending it a little hint of creamy, smoky beeswax, perhaps frankincense making it a touch more...almost incensey but not quite, but I have *no* idea what that lovely dark snuggly indigo-denim note is! Can't wait for my bottle to arrive

I'm so sad that the orange fades so quickly In the bottle the orange is very strong and sharp, like cutting through the peel of a fresh orange, but when applied it becomes sweeter and rounder, and is so bright and happy but still gender-neutral, and I *love* that stage, but the orange dies off really quickly, and all that's left is the hay. Hay is such a bugger of a note on me, it lingers for DAYS, so I've gotten a bit sick of it - the dry scent of this is the same dismal squelchy grey countryside smell as Bram Stoker, smells like an old man in muddy wellies smoking a pipe >_< I need to try this in my scent locket - if the orange lingers longer, keeping the hay in the background as a nice hint of masculinity, I will have to pursue a bottle, but on skin alone, it's not worth it for 5 minutes of lovely and hours of squelchy hay!

Her scent is one that travels through the eons: the Irish moss, yarrow, and hawthorn of the Iron Age Britons, ancient Rome’s omphacium and honey, myrrh and calamus from Egypt, the frankincense and damask roses of the Florentine Renaissance, white sandalwood from the Far East, Moroccan saffron and rose water, and a swirl of incense from the souks. So I finally got hold of a sniffie to see what everyone's going mad about In the bottle it's *amazing*, like Morocco but just...richer and more complex and absolutely gorgeous. First applied to skin it's a strange mixture of chaotic warring scents that somehow still smell peaceful together, but then the moss and skin-hating-sandalwood conspire to give it a cold, dirty ickiness for a couple of minutes. Once it's thrown its little tantrum and settled down though, it comes closer to the bottle scent again - decent throw, warm rose and incense and spice, and it's very calm and comforting and pretty...buuuut I don't think I'll be chasing out a bottle, because to me it's just too mature and motherly smelling - it smells like my stepmum! That vibe admittedly fits very well with Eve in the film though... If it was GC I might grab a full imp for occasional at-home wearing because it *is* really pretty, but it's entirely not 'me' so I shan't be battling the waitlist queue and shelling out $30. ...and actually, on my skin, it is REALLY, really similar to Morocco, just with 3x the throw and maybe a hint more rose, so easy enough to duplicate!

Hmm...I'm really on the fence about whether to keep this one, but I think I might let it hang around for a month or so and see how it develops, since on day 1 it was just *foul*, like the stink of a school cafeteria full of mingling overcooked food odours, whereas after a couple of days it's...less bad... I just love the *idea* of what it's Supposed To Be so much that, arghh, massively disappointing!! In the bottle it's very, very strange, like a weird floral candy, and once on it begins to vaguely resemble milky coffee if I imagine very, very hard, but I'm certain that if I was given this for a blind sniff, I would not think either 'coffee' or 'beignets'. It actually smells more like old polished wood and a little bit of strange masculine-ish cologne...and not much else. The dryer it gets, the more it edges towards milky chicory coffee, but at the same time there's still a BIG hint of grotty cafeteria stench, so...ehh...I have no idea what to make of this, it will probably get sold on!

This is the most weirdly nostalgic thing I've ever smelled! It is the *essence* of my life as a 14 year old goth kiddie, wandering round gloomy goth shops in the city centre. There's the patchouli, and what smells like swirling nag champa incense smoke, but above all there's something in it that is EXACTLY like Emily Strange Black Rose perfume, which was the only thing I owned at that age, and haven't smelled in years! Not something I would wear to go out, but it's so nostalgic I shall be treasuring my imp, and possibly grabbing a couple more The final stage of drydown is really pretty too, it does smell *exactly* like the pagan shop in Bridgnorth, the incense is more like...a floral one now, it just smells like that peaceful, calm environment while you riffle through velvet dresses and bowls of gemstones. Nostalgic, really pretty and really calming

Frimped, I am *not* an aquatics person, but gave it a shot anyway. It smells like the bathroom of a posh hotel, that kind of unisex, non-offensive, swanky and expensive handsoap smell. Would actually make a really nice soap, but as a perfume, not for me!

Smells like Velvet, if it was spilled in a pencilcase. A bit of that same gentle chocolate note, but mostly a crap-tonne of dirty pencil shavings, pencil shavings so strong that even soap won't wash it off completely. I don't really get mint at all, because it's hiding behind the pencilcase stink >_< I have the same issue with the Red Queen, they both do this on me, blehhh, nope!

I really, really love this! Pine is a new Thing I'm getting into - I love Jersey Devil, and I had a brief fling with The Forest Reverie until that grape note started getting on my nerves, but Black Forest is really lovely, more complex than Jersey Devil. Got that same Actual Pine Trees note that smacks you in the face first, but Black Forest's pine note is somehow more Christmas tree-y, a bit warmer like an indoor tree, rather than the outdoorsy Jersey Devil. I'm guessing maybe it's the juniper (wild guess!) that does that, makes it a little more warm and rounded, and I love that so much ...it has pretty good staying power at that level, but when it does fade, it leaves behind this sexy masculine musky thing which is also wonderful. (somehow reminds me of one my exes, in wintertime, in a black rollneck jumper, being cuddled up smoking weed and playing Mario Karts ...which probably means that this fadey stage has something in common with a CK men's fragrance, but I can never remember which one it was he wore...) This would be fabulous on a guy, but I love it on *me* One imp is NOT gonna be enough! Also lovely to have the smell of Christmas trees when we haven't bought one yet

A few weeks before DragonCon this year, I took ill with a persistent, irritating, gooey flu. To cheer up me up, my crazy, wonderful daughter and her crazy, wonderful dad threw me a surprise party. They decorated Lilith's room, baked me a cake in the Easy Bake Oven (it tasted very pink), and brought me little gifts, including a ridiculously pink lipstick, some balloons and noisemakers, and a bottle of OxyClean. (Long story.) This perfume captures the ridiculously pink scent of that ridiculously pink cake. I love my family. This was a spontaneous add on to my order, and I'm SO glad I went for it! Freshly applied it is the pinkest thing ever, to me it's exactly the scent of Nesquick strawberry milkshake powder, which is such a happy childhood smell, and as it dries it gets warmer and cakier. The throw and staying power are both great, and it's just such a comforting, warm, *happy* scent, I absolutely love it! ...also, with it being such a simple, almost single note scent, I think it may layer fabulously with things, so there is much experimentation to be done! Edit - currently trying it layered with Snow White, and it's like *neon* Pink Snowballs! I've been using London + Snow White to create pretty much a Pink Snowballs dupe since it wasn't released with this year's Yules, and Surprise Cake also works really nicely for a much girlier cakier bouncier Snowball Also gave it a go with Lick It With Consent - initially the mint blows away all the pinkness, but after a few minutes there's just a little bit of strawberry thickening the mint/vanilla, which is really nice

Edit again - redoing this completely because after two days in a warm room, after a week of cold international shipping, this has changed entirely and gotten so much better - it barely had any smell at all initially and it was cold and bitter and strange but it's really blossomed In the bottle it's all creamy vanilla icecream and a little spice, really sweet and comforting and lovely. Sadly it seems to hate my skin, I think I blame the red sandalwood for that - on my skin the creaminess and the vanilla *immediately* vanish, and all that's left is cold dirty bitter spices, like really bad incense. Happily though, it ROCKS in my scent locket! The creaminess and vanilla and gentle warm spices stay, and the candlewax comes out a little too, it's really smooth and warm and beautiful, and the combination of vanilla with possibly a little nutmeg actually gives it a tiny hint of eggnog, which I *love*. The smoke is so far in the background it might be purely my imagination, so it's not at all the candley-smoky thing I was hoping for (Hand of Glory is one of my all-time favourites, so I was hoping for the smokiness to be similar, in a girlier version), but it's absolutely gorgeous in its own way and will be in my locket A Lot ...and given how much this has blossomed just two days after opening, I think it will continue to age fabulously over the next few months...I hold out some faint hope that perhaps one day I might be able to wear it on my skin, but that's probably pushing it!

Major sadface about this one. I *love* smoke scents, Hand of Glory is probably my favourite BPAL in the entire world, I love the subtle bonfire smoke of Samhain/Samhainophobia and when I could tolerate caffeine I used to adore Lapsang Souchong tea - that was what I was hoping for from Bonfire, that last night of Glastonbury campfire smell. In the bottle it's OMG BITTER AND GREEN, reminds me a little of The Death of Autumn but amped times a million, bitter green and ick. When it dries that goes, but the smoke scent left is very, very dirty and acrid. I tried a little layering, and a bizarre choice that kinda worked was Eden - the sweetness smoothed over the acrid yuck of Bonfire, but even so it didn't make anything I would ever wear, so off to swaps with it

I love this in the bottle, the spices are so strong it's like gingerbread snake with a hint of warm, comforting pumpkin - so amazing, but sadly I can't make it work. On my skin the spices vanish and I'm left with rather blah pumpkin which I don't like half as much as my 2012 hay and leather Pumpkin Patch, and in my scent locket it ends up truly revolting, like strange mouldy spices that sort of turn into curry-like body odour. Bummer - straight to the sales pile

I've had this in my sales pile since whatever year it came out, and recently rediscovered that it's aged gorgeously. It used to turn rancid and foul on my skin, but tonight it is *amazing!* I'm really surprised to see the actual notes though, because my guess was totally different. As other people mention, I get a lot of warm, creamy beeswax and almost a hint of smoke, it does smell really candle-y, which I adore, and then there's a hint of something I would've guessed was cranberry but must be orange zest, just a little festive sweetness. It's quite a soft scent, not very strong, but I absolutely love it, so I really hope it's not gonna be temperamental with my skin in future. Either way though, this will be in my scent locket a LOT in December, I'm so glad I never managed to sell it! Edit to add: I've tried this in my scent locket and OH MY GOD! It is *amazing!* I think my skin tends to eat it, even when it doesn't corrupt it, so in the locket it has far more strength and throw. Warm and beeswaxy with a tiny hint of orange, it kinda suggests Christmas just in the warmth but it's not so overtly Christmassy to be unwearable at other times. Think this will be vying with Dorian for permanent scent locket residence!

Found an imp of this today, I'd initially written it off as an 'oh HELL no, this is the weirdest shit I ever smelled!' but I thought I'd give it a go. Wet, it isn't perfume at all, it's straight up TCP, all antiseptic an anaesthetising and I get the feeling that if I licked it, my whole mouth would go numb. Then I get a bit of a root beer/cola syrup thing, then as it dries it smells like a dusty old Victorian apothecary's shop - still antiseptic and medicinal, but older and dryer and dustier, less harsh and numb-making, and as it fades there's almost a hint of something like rose... So essentially, I get *none* of the actual listed notes bar sassafras, and it's so bizarre I would never wear it out, but it's definitely weird and fascinating and compulsive enough to be a home use novelty sniffy...particularly while I'm writing a Victorian novel with lots of drug abuse in it, heh, it's kinda perfect for that!