Monster

The review Helas wrote is just perfect. All of her reviews are beautifully written but this one is my favorite. In fact, it's what made me want to try Love's Torments. Vetiver is also one of my favorte notes so I knew I was going to love this, and I do.

When first applied, this is a lightly citrus vetiver and reminds me a bit of one of my favorte BPAL oils, Incantation. As this dries, the citrus fades and I'm getting a bit more sandalwood. The vetiver in this blend isn't the dark and smoky variety, it's lush and green. That's the great thing about vetiver, it seems to take on the qualities of the supporting notes and had the ability to smell dirty, smoky, posh, green, or clean.

In the final stage, I'm left with a leafy vetiver and a soft base of sandalwood. It really could be a sister to Incantation.

Love's Torments is incredibly beautiful and I'm sad to see it leave. If you have a chance to try this before it's gone forever, please do!

Shanghai is all sweet tea and lemon verbena on my skin. How is it possible I haven't tried this yet? This is a mildly floral tea and lemon, perfect for spring and summer. Love!

This oil is incredibly thick and sappy. I love the labs olibanum and am thrilled to have a decant. This is a rich, piney, resinous scent with a cooling menthol note when sniffed up close (it clears my sinuses) and dries to a smoldering church incense on my skin. I agree with Milo, this reminds me a lot of Golden Priapus. I bet this will age beautifully. Love! I'm going to track down a full bottle for sure.

When first applied, Autumn Lace is mostly tobacco and musk to my nose.

As it dries, the black tea is more prominent giving this a mildly bitter and dry feeling. The tobacco, musk and tea together almost remind me of the Labs opium tar note. About 10 minutes into the drying I'm getting more incense, sweetness and dry, crunchy leaves. I'm not detecting any linen notes at all. It's reminding me a bit of Black Lace without the sweetness and the linen. This is a drier, smokier cousin.

The final stage is a dry and sweet musk with a swirl of incense smoke. As with all the laces, this does a great job of giving you the image of a delicate black fabric against pale skin. It wears close to the skin and has a wear time of about two hours. Out of all the laces, I'd have to say this is my favorite next to Mourning Lace. Love this one!

ETA: I've been dabbing this in my hand for the past couple evenings to sniff while I'm hanging out, watching movies. I'm sniffing this now and realizing how happy it makes me. Well, all BPAL oils make me happy for different reasons but for some reason, Autumn Lace has this addictive quality to it. The deeper I sniff, the more I get out of it...like I discover multiple layers and facets in one deep breathe. It's hard to explain. There are fleeting moments and memories I experience when I smell this. It's a beauty I can't quite put my finger on. This is a really special perfume.

When first applied, this is almost a tobacco single note. As it dries, the black musk and patchouli come out more. Uh! Come to mama! I am in resin heaven! Achluophobia is exactly the sort of scent I love, it's dark, rich, earthy, slightly bitter and a little smoky. The final dry down is black musk in the front supported by tobacco and patchouli. This has amazing throw (a little goes a long way) and wears for hours. I'm guessing this one will age beautifully. LOVE

When first applied, Summer Lace has that fizzy, effervescent thing going on. It's that sparking citrus Beth does so well. Dead on. Based on the note listing, this is a lot softer and prettier than I had expected it to be.

Wet, it's all carbonated mandarin soda with a breath of honeysuckle.

As it dries, I start to amp the floral notes. The mandarin top note has completely given way to pure honeysuckle and poppy with a little bit of sweetness from the vanilla. This gives me the image of delicate, cream colored lace against sun-tanned skin. Unfortunately, the tobacco never makes an appearance and my skin eats it up after only 20 minutes (it usually does that with scents containing citrus though).

Overall, Summer Lace is really pretty fruity floral and does an amazing job with it's synesthesia effect. Overall, I like it, but it's just not my style. I'm very happy with my decant.

I was gifted a decant of this by a lovely forumite I slathered this as soon as it arrived.

Snake Oil isn't a scent I can wear since it turns to play dough on me, but SO blends such as Lilith Victoria tend to work really well. I was hoping this one wasn't too heavy on the Snake Oil…and my dreams have come true! Hooray!

Gingerbread Snake starts out as a strong, fresh baked gingerbread (just like Gingerbread Poppet). As it dries, the Snake Oil elements are a bit more prominent, tempering the gingerbread and smelling more of spiced cake with cinnamon standing in the foreground. The final dry down isn't much different, a fresh baked spice cake with sugary cinnamon icing. I was afraid this would be a seasonal, winter scent but this is something you could easily wear any time of year. They staying power isn't very long (about an hour) but it has a good amount of throw. I can't wait to try this in my scent locket tomorrow.

Overall, I'm kicking myself for not snagging a bottle when I had the chance to. I'll be on the hunt for this for sure.

I have been collecting BPAL for almost 9 years now and I am JUST getting around to testing Morocco. Why have I waited so long? This stuff is bottle worthy.

Morocco is a sugared musk on my skin with the faintest wafts of incense in the background. I'm not getting any carnation at all. This hugs my skin, has a low throw but long wear. Hours later I can still smell it on both of my wrists. There's definitely a baked goods quality to this, I have a tendency to amp sweet notes though. The final dry down is a sugary, pastry-like musk with a wee bit of incense.

Dark, rich resins and thick black musk. The benzoin gives Minotaur a little bit of sweetness, keeping this from smelling too masculine. There is also a soft, furry quality to it (I think from the musk). I can't stop huffing my wrist. This is one of the most perfect resin scents I have ever smelled. It's dark, mysterious and drop dead gorgeous…time to hunt down a bottle.

This is a vegetable and herb garden in a vial. I'm getting notes of cucumber, lettuce, possibly lemon balm (?), fresh cut grass, daisies and sunshine. It starts out sharp and a bit citrusy and dries down to a soft, clean, green scent. Very pretty!

The two best rose scents for me (another rose amper) are White Rose and Red Rose from the unity set. They may be a little harder to find but White Rose is a soft coconut rose and Red Rose, a spicy clove rose.

Beths Haunted House scents are probably my favorite for the synesthesia factor. Bloody Banister has the same effect that Forbidden Foyer had on me, I have such a strong memory of playing in my grandmothers old house when I smell this. It totally evokes the image of fine, polished wood. From a perfume standpoint, this is sharp at first but soon mellows to a warm wood with a bit of red musk. I'm not getting the masculine vibe that everyone is reporting. I love love love this one and am so glad I have a bottle.

Witch Dance is one of my absolute FAVORITE 'Weenies. I'm actually halfway through my first bottle I should start hunting down a back-up. This smells like Samhain + red musk. Seriously. It's perfect. Out of the bottle it's a faintly sweet red musk but once applied BAM! Samhain shows up with it's crunchy leaves and sweet woods. Samhain + red musk. That's my review. This stuff is amazing for super fans of red musk like me.

I purchased Callidora along with Sylvia and wholeheartedly expected to fall in love with Callidora immediately due to all of the win notes in here, red musk, patchouli, etc… However, Sylvia won my heart first while Callidora has slowly been growing on me.

Out of the bottle I get a gorgeous red musk and patchouli, however, once I put this on my skin it's all tobacco and bitter cacao. Sometimes tobacco registers as "old man" to my nose and this one definitely does. Chocolate is also another difficult note for me as it sometimes drys down to an old cheese scent on my skin. Fortunately, this morphs again and transforms to a resinous red musk without any trace of bitter cocoa or too much tobacco. Up close I get a lot of patchouli while, from a distance the tobacco is more prominent. I wouldn't describe this as a sexy, sultry scent. It's more masculine than anything.

I'm not in love with Callidora yet, but with some age hopefully we'll learn to like each other

I've just found myself newly hooked on LUSH products that contain the Rose Jam fragrance, which to my nose seem to be a solid mid-level fresh red rose combined with a bit of spice, like cinnamon, or cinnamon and clove, perhaps (though if it IS clove, nothing obvious about it, just there to lend a little tooth to the mix. Any recommendations?

 

I came here looking for the exact same thing!

 

I think A Game Called Yes & No is really similar, if you can track it down. It reminds me of a cross between Rose Jam and Glogg.

 

Another is Athens, and it's a GC scent.

Haha I came here for the same reason. I am recently hooked on their Rose Jam bubble bars. To me, it smells like coconut and rose. White Rose (from BPTP Unity set) has a similar smell but not exact. I'll have to check out Athens and see if I can track down a decant of A Game Called Yes & No.

Also, as I was going through my collection last night, I realized that Candy Phoenix smells nearly identical to Luch's Rockstar soap.

This opens with a syrupy almond and slowly dries to a fresh baked spice cake drizzled with carmel and maple syrup. The final dry down stage almost smells like hot buttered french toast. So good! This such a comforting scent to wear.

I purchased this from directly from the Trading Post a couple years back and I haven't reviewed it yet! I recently pulled this from my collection to my "currently wearing" box. Lately, I've been in the mood for strawberry scents and Kitty is pretty much a perfect strawberry perfume.

She starts out as a sugar-spun strawberry and then mellows out into a creamy, strawberry frosting with a pinch of orchid and sandalwood to remind you it's perfume you're wearing and not dessert. The sandalwood is a beautiful base, in the final dry down stage it holds all of the notes together. This is a grown-up food scent (and it's aged beautifully!). Kitty is incredibly wearable, not overly sweet and is my absolute favorite strawberry perfume. I wish I had snagged a back-up!

Mourning Lace is the perfect clove scent This is a warm, creamy, vanilla clove with a swirl of smoke. Back-ups are needed.

Lulu is a morpher! It starts out as a strong tobacco flower. As it settles into my skin, the geranium comes out a bit more making the perfume go sharp and more high-pitched. Dry, this is a faintly sweet, dusty gardenia. Initially and for about 30 minutes, Lulu has a good throw and then quickly fades into a close to the skin scent. I would describe this as a feminine white flower (and not the indolic kind). It's very pretty, just not my taste.

Purple Snowballs could almost be part of the Luau Lounge collection. This smells like a fizzy gin concoction with a dribble of fruit. Unfortunately, my skin eats this up and after only an hour I'm left with a very faint powder note.

Mmm, this is almost exactly what I imagined it would smell like! It's a bit like red musk frosting. With root beer froth (specifically froth-- it's a very airy root beer)….snipped...

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this one yet, it's one of my favorite scents.

Out of the bottle this is a red musk single note. Once applied, the red musk gives way to sweet sarsaparilla, cookies, candy and popcorn. The dry down is a slightly spicy, cookie-like red musk. Alderys description is spot on, "Red musk frosting with root beer froth". I'm SO glad I have a bottle of this.

Love starts out as a sweet, vanilla musk reminiscent of Antique Lace. After about an hour the vanilla musk gives way to a pale strawberry note.

Dusty, vanilla musk with a kiss of strawberry…exactly as I had hoped!

My first impression was tropical incense. This is unlike any other BPAL I have tried. The banana note isn't artificial, plastic or cloying but more green and lush. The coconut adds to the tropical impressions in this. I'm not detecting any lily. This is simply a fruity, beachside incense. Gorgeous. I may need to track down a bottle.

Everything that zankoku_zen said! Little Pythia starts out as licorice on me and dries to a sweet, rosy incense. This is perfect.

This is one of the most gorgeous perfumes I have ever had the pleasure of smelling. There is no end to Beth's talent!

At first application I'm getting mostly guaiac wood and Peru balsam. As it warms to my skin, it's a melange of resins and woods with smallest bit of orchid flower. Dry, it's resinous woods. This is classy, sexy, totally gorgeous and reminds me of an incredibly expensive boutique perfume by Tauer or Bois 1920. This could easily be a sister scent to L`Air du Desert Marocain. I wish I could get my hands on more of this stuff. <3