allidavie

Infatuation is a gorgeous, fruity scent that isn't too sweet. I tend to amp cherry, but not with this particular blend - it's more of a light tart citrus with a note of cherry. This reminds me a lot of YSL's Baby Doll - one of my all time favorite commercial perfumes, so I *love* this. It's kind of a summery scent, and I can't wait to wear it then!

Wow. I can't pick a single note of this out. It's so smooth and well-rounded, I've got no idea what the heck this smells like but I adore it! I have very few multiple bottles anymore (as in, there are only two scents I have multiple bottles of, and I've got a lot of bottles!) and I have to say.... I'm going to be buying a second bottle of this! It's gorgeous, light enough to wear everyday, just fabulous. That was probably the least helpful review ever.

Weird.... I looked up the two oils that immediately come to mind, and neither of them have apple in them. The first is The Temptation (new Love Potion, I don't think it's in the search engine yet, these are its notes: : attar of rose, calla lily, palmarosa, peach blossom, wisteria, rice flower, and black musk), which smells like a straight up apple cider mill to me. The other is Empyreal Mist (a hazy, soft, veiled scent: mist floating through twilit skies, curling gently towards the heavens), which smells like crisp green apples to me. Clearly, I have an odd nose, but it's worth getting imps of these to try - even if you disagree that they're apple-y, they're both lovely, fresh scents.

If you could use some extra energy along with your orangeyness, TAL Energy is the orangiest orange that ever was.

Kalli, Are there any BPAL's you *can* wear? I know this is a distasteful solution, but you may have to consider that the scents may just be too strong for you. I'm having a similar problem with my Mom - one day she'll say, oh, you smell so good and the next I'll get "Honey, I love you but if you don't get out of the room this second and wash that off I'll have to kill you." And I'll be wearing the same scent both times. It's just sometimes a scent will affect her, sometimes it won't, and I never know what'll be the case when. So I have completely given up wearing any BPAL whatsoever when I'm going to be around her. I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but I'm afraid you might be trying to solve this if the headaches are intermittent and not always triggered by the same notes or even the same oil.

This smells more like fig leaf to me than it does fig (although to be fair I'm basing my impressions on an old fig leaf perfume I had - Demeter, i think). It is a beautiful fresh, woodsy, mellow green scent that gets slightly sweeter on drydown. For the record Strangler Fig + Obtala = HEAVEN!! This combo would be great for anyone who found Eden too foody. All in all, Strangler Fig is one of my go-to, wear everyday scents. It's subtle and not overpowering, but still a bit sexy and warm. Love it.

Energy, one of the new TAL oils, is like Moxie on steroids. It works AMAZINGLY well. I used some in my plug in room diffuser thing and got more done in on afternoon (I applied for 5 jobs!) than I had in the past three weeks. Can't recommend it enough. It also happens to smell fabulous, which while not the point of the TAL oils, certainly can't hurt.

This just disappears on my skin and has no throw at all.... It's a lovely white floral with a bit of spicey musk thrown in there, and seemed like it would be one of the few florals I could wear, but it literally had no smell as soon as it dried. To check I just reapplied one more drop and sure enough, no more smell once it dried. Oh well. On my 1) swap it 2) put it away and mull whether to swap it and probably eventually swap it 3) keep it and use it 4) hoard it and hunt it down all over the universe scale, this goes into category 1, as I'm sure someone else will enjoy it more than I.

Smells like drinking a mug of chai while camping. Yummy. But somehow, I never reach for this one, even though I quite like it and it's very comforting. On my 1) swap it 2) put it away and mull whether to swap it and probably eventually swap it 3) keep it and use it 4) hoard it and hunt it down all over the universe scale, this goes into category 2, mostly because it has lived in the category 3 box for a long time now and I never seem to reach for it - I've never done anything but test it.

Thoroughly revisited. This year’s Hearth is warmer, sweeter, and more traditionally comforting. This is the scent of candied chestnuts, buttered, covered in brown sugar and honey, alongside the scent of cedar smoke and soft pine. You could fry up an awesome apple cobbler using the stuff Hearth '05 smells like - honey, maple syrup and butter. Mmm. Surprising light with little throw for one of the foody scents. I don't get any plastic at all. I like this, but on my swap it / put it away and mull whether to swap it and probably eventually swap it / keep it and use it / hoard it and hunt it down all over the universe scale, this goes into category 2 - mull it over for a while.

Hmmm, I get some very different notes from this one than Laurel does... At first this is a purely minty oil on me - but one I actually like (Lick It is the only other mint I like, this is similar at first, but with no vanilla at all and a less sugary sweetness). I think my nose might be confusing something else with mint though, because while this does smell minty to me it's not really any mint I could identify - it's sort of pepperminty but not sharp at all, the way peppermint is . After a few minutes, the mintiness settles down and a sweetness comes out, but not a sugary sweetness - more of a touch of smoky honey. This is calm and reassuring, but at the same time very invigorating - I can see how this could be used to give you the confidence to move forward. Seeing as I just got a new car and am taking it on a roadtrip tomorrow, it's really perfect. Y'know what, I'm getting a strong Grandma vibe from this too, and I just figured out why (don't worry, it's not an old lady smell at all) - it reminds me of my Grandmother, probably my favorite person ever, because it smells almost exactly like Ricola herbal cough drops (the original ones) which she adored and would always dole out the second your voice got scratchy. Soooo happy and reassuring. I love it!!

Yup, I smell Sex and Candy! I'm in total agreement with everyone who thinks this smells like Lush's It's a Date/Sugar Plum Fairy/Plum Duff line. The notes in here are all some of my favorites individually, so I guess it's not a big shock that I love this too! Most of the fruity/sweet BPAL's amplify on me so much that I can't wear them, but this one is just perfect. Can't recommend it highly enough... this is one of the scents like Dorian that I imagine almost everyone would like.

I love Fee - smells like fresh melon salad - mostly honeydew with a little bit of cantaloupe. So refreshing and summery. On dry down it becomes more complex, with some of the floral and tea notes coming forward. This is just gorgeous - definitely on my top 10 list. NB - Fee is extremely thin, viscosity-wise. Decanting it is not the world's easiest enterprise.

I tried a drop of this from a friend, so this is only a "how does it smell" review, I haven't used this for anything else.... and am afraid I would have trouble doing so. On me this was way too sweet and sticky - it smelled like those turkish dried apricots (the kind that are cut in half and sticky and tart) which I love to eat, but the smell of them always makes me a bit queasy. Using this would always make me feel sticky, if that makes sense, and I'd always feel like I needed to wash my hands. Yes, I'm weird.

I used to have a dried wreath hanging over my bed that was mostly eucalyptus with some pink peppercorns and other herbs in it - Vigor smells exactly like this. It made me feel "vigorous" in an outdoorsy, let's go for a hike sort of way, but seeing as I used it while I was in Florida I... just went to the gym. I wouldn't wear this for its scent, just for its purpose, but I can't help but think this would be a yummy scent on a guy (and maybe the term vigor could be read in more than one way?).

I'm not the hugest fan of how this one smells - as others have said, it's a bit medicinal - but this works very well for its intended effect. I don't know if it's the little ritual of putting it on your hands, rubbing them together, and inhaling the scent deeply itself that refocuses my energy (in a good way) but whatever it is, Concentration definitely works just as it should.

Anthelion = liquid Xanax. There is something so incredibly calming and cozy about this oil. It makes me feel better the second I put it on. I don't think I've got any good guesses about the notes in this - all I know is that overall it feels like getting out of the pool at the end of a long day and having your Mom there to give you a warm, fluffy towel-hug. I like to layer this with other scents - it has just enough throw that I smell it, and it always makes me smile, but I don't think it is all that noticeable to anyone else. I just adore this.

I have to second this - I believe Ava Luxe's oil is a dupe/inspired by the late, lamented Grass perfume made by the Gap. I suspect that the Gap scent is exactly what you're looking for, you may want to check for it on eBay, but the price for the perfume (as opposed to the EDT or body splash) is usually pretty high. None of the BPAL I've tried thus far has that really grassy/lawny type of smell. I think maybe because it is not the world's most complex smell and sort of overwhelms things it is paired with? In any event, I highly recommend Ava Luxe's Grass perfume oil, and they are a great company to deal with.

At first this smelled quite like Queen of Spades initial phase on me - a little too fruity sweet, bordering on bubblegum, but that note quickly fades and it becomes a sweet, dark plum and incense scent. Interestingly, very little throw on me. I just had to put some more on. And now I can smell the sandalwood much more strongly, and the spices and plumminess - just, yum. I wasn't convinced I would keep this until I put on that second drop - changed the scent entirely. This is verrrry sexy. It has the same feel as "Noir" but doesn't smell quite the same (at least, doesn't smell quite like my long-faded memories of what noir smelled like). The sandalwood is very grounding, and gives it an earthy sexiness. The patchouli in here smells almost like patchouli blossom to me (or at least, smells like a candle I have that is supposed to smell like patchouli blossom) - it is not at all overwhelming, just adds some oomph to the blend.

Oy. I'm so bad at reviews, I always hate it when I'm near the top. LFV is AMAZING. Has instantly gone on my top 10 list, perhaps my top 5. It's like Dorian with a little less vanilla, with the lime note from Leo, plus some honey single note and a good douse of the white musk from Oisin. Has a good but not overwhelming throw. It kind of morphs between notes and I detect a baby oil note occasionally (but I like that). This is just wonderful stuff. There aren't too many BPAL's that I think, hey, I could wear that everyday, but this is one of them. It is sweet, without being too sweet, and i just gives me memories of warm summer days. Interestingly, though I've tried Absinthe a number of times (the real stuff ), it doesn't really remind me of that. ETA: This one, weirdly, gets MUCH stronger during drydown. Still gorgeous, but it's a bit much and I only put on a drop. I think this bottle will last a good long time. ETAA: Hot damn! I just figured out what that note I couldn't detect was and now I feel dumb, because Wickedgoddess already said it. This one is reminding me of summer so much because of the balsam - I didn't consciously know what balsam smelled like, but all of a sudden it just hit me - flex balsam and protein shampoo! Not that that's what it smells like entirely, but that's definitely the note I couldn't figure out and was identifying as baby oil. Noses are weird.

This went so wrong on me that I think I either received a bad imp or it is just the worst possible bpal/body chemistry matchup I've come across. Smelled like it was going to be a too sweet for me berry sort of thing in the imp, but when I put it on it turned into pure, burnt band-aid. Bizarre. I don't actually know what a burnt band-aid smells like, but it's gotta be just about how this one smelled on me. Very very strange. Guess I'm no viking.

Manly vanilla... who knew there was such a thing? This is very very sexy and very pleasant and warm at the same time. I love this one, but not for me to wear as a scent. Now where can I find myself a nice cowboy to douse with this?

I'm not too big on berry scents, but this one is very nice. It is a rich, deep berry - for some reason I picture unripe black currants, although I see how people see blueberry here too. It is not a sickeningly sweet sort of berrycherry thing, which I really dislike, it is definitely a more sophisticated berry scent. This one reminds me more of a commercial perfume; I don't mean that as an insult, more that this is accessible. (Note - it is somewhat reminiscent of YSL's Baby Doll, which I love, but is a little less complex). I can't imagine anyone actively disliking it, and it's not one of those BPAL scents you need to learn to love/develop a nose for. Very nice, but I don't think I'd get a big bottle, mostly because I have enough Baby Doll to get me through, oh, the next 30 years.

Piney. Evergreeny. Fir real. (Sorry, couldn't resist). This is evergreen-forest-in-a-bottle, which is lovely as a concept but just doesn't work on me as a scent. Would be a fabulous scent to use for home fragrance type things, especially around the holidays. This reminds me quite a bit of Mistletoe (Yule '04) if memory serves, but I just sent that one to a new home so I can't compare and contrast. Very nice, but not the Skadi stand in I was hoping for.... Talvikku here I come!

I'm totally shocked to see that this is a rose and lotus scent. Rose scents don't work on me, lotus REALLY doesn't work on me and yet..... this is lovely. A sweet, summery, rosey floral with a bit of fruitiness to it. Just gorgeous. A great one to try if you can't normally wear rose.