SmellsPrettyGood2Me
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BPAL: (in the singsong call of Marco Polo) "Leath-errrrrrrr" Me: "Com-ingggggg" (in the singsong answer of same) Freshly tanned leather, not too dark, mixed with what smells like a slightly yeasty cinnamon bun with a light drizzle of apple tinged flood icing. Somehow, even on skin, the cinnamon doesn't really ride in hard at all. Not spicy, not dank, not cloying. Just hide and baked fluffy dough. Dare I call it a Leathermond? Sits close-ish to skin, doesn't evolve much (but doesn't need to), still tossing random wafts of scent my way close to 7 hours later. The word "genderless" comes to mind, which I mean more of in the sense that this will smell really good on you (I hope!) no matter how you identify. I haven't been so quickly enamored of a leathermond scent since Three Pairs of Shoes. I bet it will age like a dream!!
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Seasonal perfection - what an exceptionally well blended, joyful, memory conjuring scent. Wet in the bottle are fir needles and forest-worn frocks that are a bit musky from Father's effort of dragging the tree inside on a slightly damp December day. On skin, these notes combine with the fabric of Mother's dress and her dried wedding bouquet hanging faithfully above the hearth, a symbol of other celebratory times. Her honey scented face powder has put in a hard day's work decorating the house, but still leaves a lingering waft of sweetness as she tenderly bends over to kiss the children goodnight on their foreheads. These scents meld together to make a bouquet unique to their family, the season, and this moment. This is another stunner that is so textural and multifacted that my meager imagination springs to life to manifest a vision to accompany what I am smelling. I'm mentally transported to a middle class Victorian home, seated next to a Noble fir tree. As always, the fabric notes here are perfectly tuned. Moderate projection and just under 5 hours of wear before it fades away. Perfect for that day you decide to do the family Christmas cards, decorate the tree, or sing the songs of days gone by.
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The Devil volunteered to make something for his neighborhood bake sale, and this is what his house smelled like for a full day afterwards. Crisp cinnamon spiced cookies and sinuous tentacles of swarthy patchouli tickle their way from the bottle to your nose. Applied to skin, the molasses arrives, getting really deep and broody. I swear I'm catching a whiff of the parchment paper that the cookies were baked on? Sin's amber and sandalwood don't have a chance to play until about 35 minutes in, when the cinnamon finally relents a bit. Now I'm getting the impression of some granulated turbinado sugar sprinkled on top of the cookie. Is there a little bit of leather dribbled in here? I'm getting spank-me-very-much vibes. Delectable. Moderately strong projection, with 6 hours of good wear and another 1-2 of the remaining whispers of patchouli. Buy a bottle for this year and two to stash away for safe keeping!
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When David Bowie and Bing Crosby sang The Little Drummer Boy in The Year of Our Lord 1977 AD, it brought together two classic voices in a brief, but glorious, intersection. So, you can imagine that when I saw two beloved BPAL classics combining forces in a single scent for a limited time only, a mental parallel was drawn. I had to know, would it be just as magical? Opening the bottle, the photorealistic Rose Red rose we all love is there, strong, vibrant. The green stems are there, too, but there is something a bit...off. I kept sniffing, and those frost bright petals and winter air smell a little rancid. I closed the cap, put the bottle down for a few hours, then picked it up and brought it into another room with less "smell pollution". No difference. Gah! I eyed the label suspiciously, looking for a hint of what may have gone wrong. Of course, there was no visual clue. I drank some water, took a deep breath, and put it on skin. Today was not our day for redemption. That same decay I smelled in the bottle came along for the ride, and despite rose riding hard in the front of the pack, there was a fetidity that was too legit to quit. As the rose faded and the Snow White elements took over it got a bit better, but it never smelled GOOD. I scrubbed it off after two hours with no regrets. All things being subjective, this pairing was confusingly disappointing to me. I love the individual scents deeply as solo artists, but neither my nose nor my skin could reconcile them as a duet.
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Unequivocally my favorite scent from The Prophet series so far. BPAL's hay notes are like catnip to my nose-brain; as soon as I opened the bottle and took my first deep inhale, I knew we had a winner. A touch of frankincense and a dab of cedar are there too, but this is all sweet hay (sweeter than, but similar to, the hay absolute in Judgmental Longhorn) in the initial whiff. Once on skin, the amber arrives, along with a background track of light beeswax such as you would find as remnants in a candle stick, as opposed to an actively melting, pooling liquid. The hearthsmoke is restrained, giving a slightly dry tone, and the frankincense is simply beautiful. Low projection, but 7 full hours of detectable wear. A work safe, blind buy safe, gorgeous skin scent type fragrance that could easily become a daily wear for me if I didn't have a bit of a testing backlog to get through first. I loved every minute I had it on and will be recommending this to everyone!
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Melted Jolly Rancher in the wet open on skin, sticky and saccharine. The currant is just tart enough to not make the sweetness completely overwhelming as it dries down. It's over an hour before the patchouli becomes detectable, helping to ground and balance the scent as a whole. As the fruity intensity abates, there is a really nice jammy quality that starts to emerge. The patchouli is mostly what remains at 3 hours in. Moderate sillage and around 6 hours of wear all in. Fans of the BPAL pomegranate note will probably really enjoy this one, as it feels like the fruits here are all cousins. Something about it reads more fall to me, but really it's appropriate in any cooler weather day; summer heat and humidity would likely amp it into overdrive. This is another one of several Yule 2025 scents that I expect will age like fine wine.
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In the bottle, an astringent tea, a murky lavender, and a bit of that watery rain note stand out. On skin, the top notes burn off in about 10 minutes, leaving the iris and lilac standing there awkwardly looking at each other. Like Donkey's Tail, the musk moves in quickly, sitting here next to the muted, aquatic rainy moss. Very soft sillage, and only about 4-5 hours of noticeable wear. I'm usually pretty well aligned with the BPAL Hive Mind on popular scents, but like Donkey's Tail this doesn't do it for me at all. I very much get sad, musty old lady vibes here, despite generally liking iris, lilac and lavender as notes in other Lab offerings. My search for an offering in The Hundred-Acre Wood collection that hits continues!
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YES. I feel so fortunate that this scent returned for the 2025 Yules collection, because I had never tried it before, and she's an absolute stunner. I have to think anyone who was lucky enough to get this in the initial release carefully guards their precious stash and never lets it go! The sweet, oaty incense in the bottle is intoxicating, and it only gets better on skin. Although I know it's a pseudogourmand, it doesn't give "edible"; instead, I'm in a Portland, ME bar on a cold snowy day, sitting with a gaggle of girlfriends having a catch up over a late brunch next to a fireplace. The one sitting next to me smells like a combo of incense and a bowl of lightly honeyed oatmeal, comforting and a bit seductive at the same time. She's a little older, much better traveled, and has an impeccable sense of chic Euro-bohemian fashion. I secretly wonder if she is the illegitimate offspring of a Roma traveller and a Bavarian duke, because she moves so easily in any company she keeps. On top of being supremely cool, she never gatekeeps the amazing things she has come across in life, and when I mention how nice she smells she reaches into her vintage velvet patchwork satchel and hands me a bottle, telling me to keep it. Every time I open it and put some on I feel like a little bit of the magic she has collected in her adventures briefly casts a spell on me. My only very minor complaint is that this fades faster on me than I would prefer, peaking around 45 minutes in and quickly falling off a sillage cliff from there. By the fourth hour post dry down, it's largely gone. I'm infatuated with this, and need at least 2 more backup bottles (and, pretty please, a lotion, hair gloss, and atmosphere spray as well 🙏🏼🤞🏼💛).
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That first deep sniff is all brown musk and spice, with a touch of sweet dark molasses lurking below. Applied to skin, cinnamon, clove and a bit of sugar surge to the forefront and dominate for the first 25 minutes, right about when the patchouli starts to make its first appearance. The booze note here is powerful and present, but the brown musk itself stays quiet until around an hour in when the spices start to burn off a bit. I am not getting as much of the molasses note on skin as I did from the bottle, but I expect it will emerge more as it deepens with time in storage. Medium to strong sillage (a bit potent for small workspaces and places), lasting just under 7 hours before fading away. Not blind buy safe if you are sensitive to cinnamon in particular, but otherwise very enjoyable to wear now, and likely to get even better as the spices mellow out with time. Perfect transition scent from pumpkin spices in Fall to gingerbread spices in Winter! I suspect that people who may not be paying close attention will sleep on this vs Gingerbread Snek, but I think it has standalone merit and will end up being a cult favorite.
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VERY strong butterscotch rum wet in the bottle, cloying and synthetic. Coming in hard behind that is an oily hazelnut with just a touch of astringency from the white oak. First impression is overwhelming, and I am not optimistic. On skin, even with an electron sized dab, the butterscotch rum screams and the hazelnut wails. There is no subtlety here; the scent swells and expands with time, becoming more potent. I got 6 hours of nuclear wear, 2 hours of modest wear, and 4 more hours of faint wear, even though I considered scrubbing it off several times along the way. There is a cream note lurking in here somewhere that I've not really liked in other BPAL scents, and I'm getting hardcore Yankee Candle vibes from the butterscotch rum. Overall impression is that this is too potent and artificial smelling to be enjoyable for me. I will keep it to see if it smooths out as it ages, but can't imagine wearing it again anytime soon.
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Absolutely gorgeous, and my favorite of this year's Yules that I've tried so far. I love me a good carnation note, and this one glimmers at the very top of the bottle when you take that first, long sniff. The peony is a little sweet, the vanilla subdued, the orris restrained. All together, the effect is soft, familiar and familial. On skin, the red musk and leather finally show their faces, but instead of shoving their way to the front they linger mid-stage, present but not overpowering the softness in the lead. Eventually, the red musk moves forward and the other notes move to the back. I agree completely with other reviewers who said that this orris is not at all powdery. Overall, it is a very well balanced scent. This wears closer to the skin on initial application, but really blooms in strength when the red musk takes over post dry down - take care not to over slather and then become a bit overwhelmed when it gains strength as time goes by. I had a full 8 hours of wear and enjoyed them all. Will be buying a back up bottle as I expect this will age like a dream!
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Wow! Three years aged, this scent has really deepened and evolved into something pretty fantastic. Wet in the imp is a dance between a cocoa-y chocolate, a tanned brown leather, and a hint of a fir needle that has dried out but remains fragrant. On skin, it's mostly chocolate and leather for a good half hour until the amber and vanilla start to emerge. I start to feel a little uneasy at this point, as I'm getting that woodiness that sometimes accompanies some vanilla scents; it lingers for about a half hour before mercifully fading away. The fir needle has also left the building. What remains for the next 3-4 hours is a dark vanilla chocolate. Projection is on the low end of moderate, with a total wear time of about 6 hours.
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Knowing how beloved the perfume oil version of this scent is (by me, and so many others) I thought it would be best to give my impressions as a stand-alone product first, then compare it to the OG fragrance. Here we go! Although not explicitly stated anywhere, I like to shake my hair oils prior to application to ensure that everything is properly mixed. I have fine, untreated hair that is oily at the scalp and drier on the ends; I aim for the mid-back part of my head and brush down from there. Two sprays on mostly damp hair was enough to provide good coverage, and everything distributed evenly and nicely. First whiff is overwhelmingly green cardamom, very snappy and spicy, followed by the vanilla chiffon that almost smells marshmallow-esque. The orchid petals are there, but not very "floral" in tone. As it dries down, the sugared amber pops up from a nap in the back seat, looks around, and lays back down again. There is a light resinousness that accompanies the dry down which could be called incense smoke, but it isn't "smokey" like a campfire or woodstove at all. The cardamom abandoned ship pretty quickly and left the vanilla chiffon steering the way. Very pleasant, and lasted a good 8 hours before I either became anosmic to it or it largely just faded away. (The former is probably true, because I got a whiff of it the next morning when the water hit my hair in the shower.) This hair gloss formulation has cyclomethicone and botanisil, two synthetic silicone type molecules that coat the hair to give it shine. I noticed that this texture benefit seemed to persist even after shampooing my hair the next day, even though the fragrance itself washed away. How does this compare to the perfume version? Much chirpier, brighter cardamom leads the way in the hair gloss format, and fluffier, mallowy vanilla carries it the rest of the way, with much less amber and orchid. It smells exceptionally good, but not an exact note experience match to the perfume in real world wear. I like to think of them as fraternal twins, easy to tell apart although clearly sharing a lot of DNA.
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The Donkey's Tail
SmellsPrettyGood2Me replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
Incredibly fabric forward! In the imp, the silk note is the most prominent, followed by the cotton. The grey musk is also there, but surprisingly little lavender or vanilla. On skin, I feel like in the wet open the silk note has elements in common with the satin note in White Satin Hearse; there is the impression of a soft sheen. The French lavender appears, barely, in partnership with the grey cotton note, almost like a freshly laundered hand towel. The grey musk is more potent on skin, showing up as fast as 20 minutes post application. I couldn't tell you what silver thistle smells like, because there isn't anything particularly distinctive about it. Maybe there is a hint of a lace note in here too? The bourbon vanilla almost seems like dried baking extract remnants stuck to a measuring spoon that didn't get washed right away; no boozy, alcoholic or particularly dark undertones are present. The musk is a little sweatier than I had expected, and (to echo and affirm another reviewer) the whole scent gives post-warm up, lightly perspiring ballerina vibes. Delicate, low sillage and only about 5 hours of perceptible wear. Freebies are generous, much appreciated, and fun to try, but I don't think I'd be tempted to buy a full bottle of this if it was available. -
Pomegranate, Pink Pepper, and Black Apple
SmellsPrettyGood2Me replied to Seajewel's topic in Halloweenie
A very juicy fresh red apple with a hint of scorch or cooked skin that must be the "black" part of that note. The pomegranate isn't terribly prominent, but gives a slightly deeper sweetness and tone to the scent. The pink pepper only emerges on skin after a few minutes, smelling like whole peppercorns, papery and piquant in ways that aren't entirely pleasing. I'm in an uneasy truce with it for an hour or so, until the apple and pepper both fade away and a faint hint of dried pomegranate juice is all that is left behind. By the end of the second hour, it's 90% gone. At the four hour mark, it was as if nothing had ever been there at all. This trio is inoffensive if you like peppercorns (and even if you don't, it won't torment you for very long).