Lucchesa

In the imp, cocoa is the note I smell most prominently, with some vanilla and woods in the background. (I never get the Lab's pepper note! I seem to be scent-blind to it.) But on my skin, my experience was similar to that of LizziesLuck: the cedar and patch took over. It's still very pretty, but the lovely array of notes is drowned out by cedar in particular, with patchouli enabling the cedar. I may still wear the imp, but I definitely don't need a bottle of this.

I received Lights of Men's Lives in a swap just as I was about to go watch my son in a production of Mary Zimmerman's play The Secret in the Wings, which is all about dark fairy tales. I slathered some on as I left the house and could not stop smelling my wrists as I watched the brilliant young actors as kings and queens and ogres and frightened children. I love this scent -- warm beeswax with a faint touch of vanilla. It will always remind me of the play, but I can also see it becoming one of a handful of everyday scents for me. And it's GC! Almost certainly a bottle in my next Lab purchase.

Delight in Disorder looks, and in the imp even smells a bit, like cherry cola. The cherry recedes in drydown and I get a long-lasting and lovely red musk. Sexy and good staying power. I like red musk, but I was hoping for more cherry. I will use up the imp, but I don't think I need to seek out a bottle of this one.

Rose! Big, fleshy, and yes, damp red rose. Wet, Whip was all about the rose. I hesitated on this scent for a long time because leather can be such an an iffy note on me, and when I first put it on, I couldn't even tell the leather was there. But as it dried down, a warm, gorgeous leather began to make itself felt. This has become an instant favorite. It may be the most beautiful BPAL rose I've tried, and then the leather emerges and the pairing is just luscious.

Wet, this is not good on me at all. Sharp leather, sharp gin, sharp tobacco. No pretty rose, no mellow boozy vanilla. The gin gets the upper hand, but it's quite a battle. I never get the rose, and the interesting thing is that I have Whip on my other arm, and it is all rose at first. It's as if all the roses in both blends fled for my left arm while all the leather ganged up on my right Ultimately, after a couple of hours it settles into an interesting and unusual gin-dominated scent that I could bear to wear, but not when it takes two hours to get there.

In the imp: Juicyfruit! On my skin, there was a bubblegum quality and I thought, I wonder if this has lotus in it? Lots of sniffs of a fruity floral in between then and now, 4 hours after application, when I am checking the notes. Roses and lotus, no apples or other fruit. Wow, lotus is really fruity on me. This is quite nice if you like juicy smells. A terrific scent for this gorgeous summer day.

Testing Namaste blind, I got lemon and floral. But the lab's lemon note so frequently goes into lemon pledge territory for me that I should have guessed it was lemongrass. The patchouli stays in the background, thankfully; the rose and jasmine settle under the lemon, and the sandalwood becomes more apparent in drydown. It is really upbeat, a pretty summer scent that could probably be worn year round as a pick me up. I wasn't using this as a meditation scent, although I will definitely be experimenting with it in the future, as I can always use joy and peace in my life.

Wilde is beautiful - I love the lavender and bergamot pairing - but it's just too masculine on me, too "cologney" in my husband's words, and he is profoundly uninterested in ever wearing scent of any kind. I'll need to pass this one on.

I should have looked at the reviews more carefully or I might have avoided Penny Dreadful. Wet, I'm getting the baked goods note that is so terrible with my skin chemistry, and I see other reviewers mentioning cookies and gingerbread. That is never going to go well on me. Once it dries down completely it is actually quite nice, with a sort of spicy soil scent (I really like the Lab's earth notes), but I will probably pass this one on to avoid the wet phase.

The Black Tower is unexpectedly pretty. On me it reads as much more feminine than unisex and is not terribly smoky or leathery. I'm getting a lot of ambergris and I would have guessed there were roses growing along with the ivy and grasses. Low throw and average wear length on me. I will definitely use up the imp, and I will keep it in mind for a bottle depending on how future wear goes.

In the bottle, I get the smell of tree sap and pine needles. Wet, it has the feel of a deciduous forest for some reason, but as it dries down I get more and more of the evergreens coming out, pines and spruces and cedars. There's a sharpness in the drydown - not unpleasant, just a woodsy tang, almost citrusy. Once it is dry, it morphs yet again, exchanging the sharpness for a sweetness, still redolent of evergreens and woods, growing softer and softer each hour. Lovely. I think this will be a beautiful holiday scent, but it's perfect for everyday wear year-round, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. I imagine this would be similarly excellent on a man.

Irish Coffee Buttercream smells exactly as I expected it to, which is wonderful. I like Miskatonic U, so I expected this scent to work well for me. It is creamier, more buttery than Misk U. The whiskey is most evident in the bottle and wet and recedes on drydown, which is fine, it makes it more socially acceptable. But really, this is not a go out and party scent. Maybe a go out for breakfast with friends scent, but I really see this as a curl up with a good book on a crappy Seattle November day kind of scent. This is comfort food in a little amber bottle, with no calories. I am going to be cozying up to this little gem all winter long.

Covfefe is not what I expected -- and indeed, perhaps I should have expected it to be out in left field. Or right field. Or whatever. It is really like no other scent in my collection. I thought it would be much, much sweeter, along the lines of Jiggery Pokery. It is not. There is a gin and tonic sharpness to it, and maybe the pepper too (I never seem to pick up the lab's pepper note), which keeps the orange marshmallow creme from overwhelming fluffiness. And it does smell like "orange marshmallow creme" to me - not blood orange or navel orange but commercial orange flavoring, obviously not the real thing (as suits the scent's namesake). Only as it dries down do I get the spicy carnation note, and it's not the same one I love in Alice. All in all, this is an interesting scent experience, though I haven't fallen in love with it. Maybe I can wear it in the mornings before I shower as I am youtubing last night's Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah...

I hesitated quite a while before trying this because did I really want to smell like apricot brandy? Yes, as it turns out. In the imp this is sweet, fruity and boozy. Wet, the distinctive flavor of both the apricot and the brandy come to the fore. This isn't tart, not-quite-ripe apricot; it's deep, luscious apricot, and it has a little throw, more than most blends do on me. As it dries down, the sweetness recedes, and so does the booze: as the very first reviewer so brilliantly put it, the apricot becomes the designated driver. It becomes a gorgeous rich apricot-preserves-with-a-hint-of-brandy smell that I could definitely wear to work without smelling like I'd just hit the bar. So this was a surprise win.

What Laurel the Woodfairy says! (Except for the part where she disses Alice, which this Old Broad of BPAL finds young but not child-like.) Lots of spicy carnation and mum and just a veil of incense. It has some throw, which is rare on my OBB skin, and isn't super long lasting but doesn't disappear right away either. Love it!

Wow, I had a different experience from everyone else. Wet, For Each Ecstatic Instant was almost a single-note patchouli on me. Patch, patch, and more patch, with a little jasmine and maybe rose hiding in the next room, weeping. After at least an hour it settled into more of a balance, with patchouli still dominant but jasmine and rose finally perceptible and a soft boozy vanilla whispering in the background. But given the length of time it took to get to something I enjoyed, this one is now in search of a new owner whose skin will like it better from the get-go.

Dee is soft rosewood, just a hint of leather and parchment -- a really nice men's cologne, not one that my husband will sniff and say, "Too cologney," Not all unisex blends work on me, and leather is very iffy, but this one is beautiful. No throw but a lovely skin scent for my more scholarly days when I want to evoke some of that Renaissance magic. And I have days like that, definitely.

I'm really glad I was able to purchase a decant of this from a lovely forumite. I definitely do not need a whole bottle because it is so sweet it makes my teeth ache. I almost never get pink pepper out of anything -- my skin just obliterates it or something -- though it's possible this would be even sweeter without it. It does have that orange creamsicle feel others have commented on, and as it dries down the intense sweetness backs off and it becomes very wearable. And it is the perfect scent for those occasions where you have to force yourself to be cheerful. Even if you're furious or your heart is breaking or whatever the circumstance is, you can catch a whiff of your wrist -- Jiggery Pokery! -- and remember to smile.

This particular apple note just doesn't work on my skin. I wish it did - I love carnation and honey. It's reminding me strongly of something else -- I will edit if I remember what it is. Not much throw and seems to be fading quickly on me.

I have to be in the right mood for dragon's blood. It's so strong and distinctive, and at times strikes me as cloying. The musks are a really nice addition, and the black musk stayed in line and didn't get all ugly on me, though it might have kept me from appreciating any fig or blackcurrant. I already find dragon's blood kind of fruity, so I think they just added to that sensation. I still like Dragon's Milk better, but this will be a nice choice on days when I want to feel powerful. Where I would wear it: to the gym. On a hard hike or bike ride. To a meeting where I needed a little extra courage.

I love violets, but I don't always love them in perfume where the scent can take on a maiden aunt vibe. But I like this blend a lot. Besides violets, and the earthy notes of patchouli and moss, I got what smelled to me a little like bergamot and must be the red currant, which brightened the blend up for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on my sponge-like skin at all.

This was a frimp from a generous forumite -- thank you! It's a keeper! I had to look up redoul on Wikipedia -- turns out I could just have looked at the first review. A Mediterranean shrub with poisonous blackberry-like berries. I don't get dusky blackberry here -- and frankly, I would be thrilled with more blackberry scents in the catalog -- but something brighter. More like a salmonberry than a blackberry. This is not as heady and dark as the only other apiary scent I've tried, Deadly Nightshade Honey. On me it has a springtime vibe; I would wear Deadly Nightshade Honey in winter but would only wear this in winter if I were longing for a taste of spring. This lasts forever on me, which is incredibly rare. I put it on around 11 last night (I know, I know) and can still smell it at eight in the morning. A fantastic choice for any situation where you want to smell fantastic all day but won't have the opportunity to reapply. An Alpine meadow hike? Wandering through Monet's garden? Perfect.

I finally tried my imp of Hermia, and in the imp I frankly couldn't make out much at all. But this bloomed on my skin and lasted quite a while as a skin scent. I don't get a distinct pepper note, just a brightness that goes beautifully with the sweet honeysuckle and golden amber. Not sure exactly what passionflower smells like but I will have to seek it out in more blends because this one is A. discontinued and B. lovely, lovely, lovely.

Whoa, oleander! That was the dominant note on me, wet or dry. Not a problem - I don't adore oleander, but I like it , and if it's going to let a scent last a little longer on me, I'm all for it. Especially when there's mandarin involved, and creamy magnolia. (I couldn't identify any specific spices.) I applied it several hours ago, and although it's totally a skin scent now, my wrist still smells terrific. This wasn't dark or smoky on me -- I was a little worried deep musks would translate into problematic black musk, but they did not. It's sort of sexy and confident. Very nice!

Tuberose usually ruins a scent for me, but I was hoping that if it was listed that far back in the credits, it would behave and not hog the stage. And for the most part it did. I know it's there, but it's not dominating ruthlessly. Pear and plumeria are so beautiful, and the rose takes prominence as it dries down. This is a lovely, feminine scent. I wish it lasted longer on me, though. Where I would wear this: a garden party in April