SmileCat

This is a silly, silly scent. It's sweet and slightly floral with the sweet pea and strawberry standing on top, the vanilla bean and honeycomb acting as the scent pyramid base, and all of them juggling the sugared pear. On me the sweet pea really comes out on top with the vanilla a second. It's still good, but not quite the pink silliness in the imp. Later the honey dominates the scent and the fruits have disappeared behind the honey-sweet pea-vanilla bean trio. I like this blend, it makes me giggle.

Oh! This is pretty. Big, squishy armful of blossoms and flowers in your hair. While you run through a field of flowers. With honey-coated sunshine.

 

This scent makes me laugh, it's just so happy and springy.

 

It's not floral, it's FLOWERS! And sweet, sweet honey. I get different flowers at different times in the drydown and through the day but it's always pretty.

 

Not a very comprehensive review, but I <3 Poisson d'Avril.

Um, yeah. My arm and I, we'll be in my bunk.

 

This kind of reminds me of Vasakasajja, but while Vasakasajja is waiting for her lover, Defututa is later that evening as she's sprawled across the bower all, well, fucked out.

 

It's the champaca flower and vanilla combination that's doing the reminding, but the honey is noticeable as well and the sandalwood and cinnamon give it a spicy undertone to keep it from being too sweet. The jasmine peeks out sometimes.

Mmm, a deep, voluptuous, red rose, a glass of good merlot, and thee and a bowl of fruit. Taken separately each component is simple, but together they form something exotic and unforgettable.

There's something funny, almost sharp and medicinal when I smell it in the bottle, but on my skin it mellows into a vanilla-y strawberries and cream. It smells kind of like those strawberry and creme Lifesavers taste only without the funky aftertaste those candies have. Baby pink and light cream-white colored. I like this one; it's not complex or startling or really all that complicated, but it's so much fun!

Warm, spiced apricot jam. The sweet clove note is different from straight clove and is, um, sweeter. Less bite, more fuzzy. I like sweet clove and wish Beth would use it more often.

 

Yummy scent.

Butterscotch and rum. Very strong. On my skin and dry it rounds out to smell more like butterscotch cookies with a dribble of booze. This is a mixed blessing because it makes me smell too edible and I have to fend off my roomie from chewing on my arm.

On me, Snake Oil is like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When it's good, it's very very good, but when it's bad it's horrible.

Most of the time SO is a dark, golden vanilla 'n spice. Very nice. Snake Oil is the blend that has people tracking me down in the grocery store to wax rapturous about the smell they followed two aisles down. Or makes a postal worker smile. Deep and sultry and sweetly edible.

But sometimes SO just goes wrong. Every once in a while the patchouli decides it's going to act up and overwhelms everything. Not good, rich patchouli, but a dirty, dirty one that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Thankfully, I can usually tell when those days will be and even then the patch typically dies off after an hour or so.

The difference between new SO and one that's sat around for even a couple of months is more dramatic than any other blend I've tried. It's the difference between candy and something very very good and very very naughty.

How have I not reviewed this blend until now?! Such a shocking oversight on my part.

 

I love this scent. Now, I love roses so this is not a surprise. But this rose... It's a softer rose, but not soft like powder or fuzzy. Wistful, it's a wistful rose. The blue lilac and the violet leaf and other florals fill in the overall rosiness and while the balsam and patchouli leaf worried me, but neither of them show up. Or if they do, it's so far in the background they provide more of a foundation than any noticeable scent.

 

Rose petals strew on a silvery lake.

 

ETA: I went and hunted down my Will Call preview review because I think it describes Rose Moon so well:

 

Rose Moon: this was mostly rose, but such a pretty rose! Very full and round, a rose with weight. Solid, it would fill my whole hand, velvety and a luscious red. At first I thought 'nah, I like the rose scents I have' but now I think I want a bottle because while it's rose, it's a different rose and it feels different from the others. Smoother. Not smooth like glass or smooth like satin, but smooth like cool skin. Only rose. Sorry about my 'scents as tactile sensations' bit, but I don't know how else to describe it.

Ohhhhhhh.

 

I'm not sure *what* this smells like in the bottle, but it dries down into a soft, velvety vanilla. It's the mellow vanilla of Dorian and cotton fuzziness of Snow Bunny with a swirl of smoke and something else. There's a brief moment where the tobacco goes slightly sour, but that goes away and what's left is good.

 

This doesn't fade and doesn't amp on my skin, but it...matures. Not so much a bloom as a gradual unfolding of complexities. And it lasts! Seven hours later and going just as strong as new, now with a background of sensual musk.

 

Yeah, I can call it an introverted Snake Oil. Snake Oil will give you a lap dance, but Black Lace will take you behind closed doors and give you a slow strip tease to candlelight and Vivaldi.

 

I got to try this at a MnS from the generous GypsyRoseRed and I spent about half the sniffing time with my hand draped over my nose, inhaling the scent.

Snow White '04 was the first bottle of BPAL I ever ordered. Alas, I did not like it; it was far too coconuty for my taste and I passed it on to a better home. I skipped SW '05 remembering the fiasco of 2004.

 

Come winter 2006 and I adore Snow Flakes, but sometimes it's too piney for my nose.

 

Cue yule 2007.

 

Have you ever seen something, a piece of art or the unthinking kindness of a child, that is just so beautiful, so perfect in its form and grace that it makes you cry?

 

Take that feeling, distill it, put it in a little amber bottle, and send it out from a magical place. That is Snow White '07. No rapturous exclamations or outpourings of love, but quiet tears and that little catch in your chest every time you uncap the bottle. A cessation of all troubles, absolution of all ills.

 

'Happy' is not the right word for this. Snow White does not make me happy. Snow White gives me peace.

Nom nom nom. Caramel disappears instantly on my skin so this is entirely funnel cake/sugar tart with salt water taffy in the background lending just a tiny bit of salt. It really does smell like a carnival midway, only without the grease and unwashed masses in a hot summer sun. I can almost hear the music...

 

Even my mom likes this one and she never says she likes anything.

In the bottle: Pear and plumeria. This makes me happy because trips to Hawaii have left me with a love of the flower. And pear always smells nice.

 

Wet on skin: More pear!

 

Overall, a soft, languid floral blend that is heartbreakingly pretty. This remains one of my favorite flower scents of Beth's.

I tried this out at the last MnS in LA. It brought some interesting revelations.

 

Civet smells like lilies on my skin.

 

Satyr dries down to red musk with a lingering odor of flowers.

 

Lilies. Some people get cat piss, I get lilies. Lollerskates.

It's more a case of creating "bouquets", a combination of scent notes that smell like a certain thing without actually coming from it. Like, there isn't really a cake essential oil. AFAIK, there are no synthetics in BPAL.

Mmm, this blend is delicious. Warm pumpkin with warm ginger and equally warm vanilla. First on the ginger springs out to announce its presence and the pumpkin in in your face, but it settles down to a very comforting pumpkin and spice. There's almost an apply hint to it that I have no idea where it's coming from, but sometimes green pumpkin can taste like apples so maybe that's it. I don't usually like pumpkin scents but this one has me.

When I first opened the bottle, I thought "Bloodrose?" It has a similar boozy rose smell to it. First on, there's a candyish flavor to it and after a bit it fades. But give it time, give it time! It blooms later as a musky, spiced floral.

 

A queen's salon indeed! Rich red velvet and old world spices. Regal and womanly.

A dried bouquet of violets lain upon the forgotten grave of a loved one.

 

This is the only 'dirt' scent I like. Soft violets and loam, definitely loam not dust or dirt or anything else dirtish. Wistful, melancholy, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Once-bright colors faded with memory.

HELENA

 

 

You can't do Hermia without Helena!

 

I must admit, I am a self-confessed rose lover. This is another beautiful rose blend from Beth.

 

The blend of rose and jasmine reminds me a bit of Rose Moon, but while Rose Moon has an earthier woodsy base, Helena has a dewier one. Must be the water lily and cala lily elements.

 

I can't say I can pick out the rose amber (rose amber?) except maybe as another rose note, but it's a very pretty blend! I can definitely get a feel of Helena's self-martyring melancholy.

 

In the imp and on my skin stays fairly true but the rose does certainly come to the foreground.

HERMIA

 

Can I feel some love for Hermia? Not only does she have my affection for being short like me, but she's an AWESOME blend in the Illyria collection.

 

When I first opened the imp she was all sticky sweetness and pepper. Amber and honeysuckle make for one syrupy scent! The pink pepper (PINK pepper, more awesomeness) lends a touch of zing; Hermia's no wilting flower. If I huff deeply I can pick out the passion flower behind the rest.

 

On my skin the passion flower really starts to come into play and the stickiness mellows out. I think I have found a true floral love in passion flower. There's a roundness to it that doesn't play high in your nose like a lot of florals. No nostril tickling here. There's a tinge of the fruitiness like, well, the fruit to it.

 

This scent makes me smile. Really, all-out, dimple-producing smile. It's...bouncy and in love with life. To that end, this scent rates a BOTTLE NOW from me. Passionate, fiesty, sweet in love Hermia, you are beautiful.

When I first sniffed this, it was a very odd vanilla and mint. I could detect the chocolatey hint other people mentioned, but it was still Odd. I put it away for a week and came back to it last night. Oh baby! Must have been post-shipping blues because it's soooo much nicer now. Yummy yummy vanilla with a hint of mint. This is a warmer, richer vanilla and a smooth mint. Kind of like the vanilla version of a peppermint hot chocolate.

PINK!

 

Sweet pink like a young maiden with the promise of the woman she could have become.

If ever a scent could be sweetly charming, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale would be it. This is mostly sweetpea and vanilla on me, two notes I like/love. It's soft, not in terms of throw or longevity because it has both in spades, but in the warm furry way like holding a mousie under your chin and feeling his whiskers and fur tickle you. The sandalwood offers up a bit of spice and the ambers a different kind of sweet. There's something wistful about this perfume.

Why helloooo jungle boudoir!

 

Skin musk is always great on me, I haven't met a flower yet that went bad, and I adore vanilla so this blend was a "well, duh" order. And how right I was! The orchid note is the most recognizable floral and the vanilla and tonka bean ground it to keep from being too heady. Lush, almost fruity florals and seductive musk.

 

This is a feminine scent. Not girly, but womanly.

OH YUM! This, this is just lickable. Rich, smoky vanilla and yummy acai berry. I can only imagine that this will get better with age like plain SO and since it's positively delish fresh from the Lab...hoo boy. I keep wanting to eat my arm as it is.