SmellsPrettyGood2Me

Creamy salted caramel in the bottle with just a tiny bit of smoke. Once applied to skin, the clove bud barges into the scene and challenges the caramel to a duel. I have to breathe in deeply to get the bright golden saffron and a hint of the chili, the latter of which is the only thing that keeps this out of Yankee Candle territory. Moderate to big sillage and 7 hours of wear; I would not call this office safe as it booms with sweetness. I loved how this smelled in the bottle, but my skin chemistry did some sort of dirty magic to it, supercharging the caramel note in plastic-y, artificial ways that were mildly nauseating for the first hour. Sadly this one was a miss for regular wear and will get passed on to a friend. I unexpectedly really enjoyed the smoked chili note and will look for this in other blends.

Chewy, sweet figs and almost inky patchouli waft up from the bottle with a moderate amount of intensity. I could tell from that moment that I was really going to like this! Lightly dabbed on skin, these notes came galloping out with honey as the rider. This honey is a bit dusty and dirty from the oud and I'm here for it. Speaking of the oud, it shows up with the amber maybe 23 minutes in and really anchors the scent alongside the patchouli. Up until today I would have told you that loukhoum was a character in Lord of the Rings, but further study reveals it's actually a rosewater infused Turkish sweet type scent. I am grateful to get zero perceptible rose here! The bourbon vanilla shows up last and a dollar short in this one, which is ok because the preceding note combinations carry it well. Medium big sillage with 6 strong hours and 3 more mild hours of wear. My bottle was secondhand and aged for about 4 years; I'm honestly considering getting a backup bottle to put in the closet now for when this runs out. Aging has turned it into an absolute banger, and I'm reminded of the coaster I got for my birthday a few years ago. "I am not bossy, I am the boss" Yes, Nasty Woman, you are.

2025 Version I tried something a little different with this scent in that I didn't re-read the notes prior to sniffing and testing it, to see how far I have come in training my nose. Spoiler: not far enough to be able to identify a marigold note, I guess. In the bottle, I get a very light, faint vegetal sweetness - nothing even remotely akin to the loud brightness that others have described. I checked my notes (typing noises) and it had been resting for about 2 weeks, which should have corrected any mail shock. It doesn't smell bad, just not remarkable or easily identifiable. Applied to skin, the scent starts to warm up, and I get grassy, fresh petals with a touch of amber underneath. I am definitely starting to smell the mum-like quality of the marigolds at about the 13 minute mark, but the general impression I've had from the start is more like scented baby wipes. It sits relatively close to the skin and stays there for about 4 hours before fading into pleasant but unremarkable obscurity. I agree with others who have categorized this as work safe and unlikely to cause sensitivity issues. This is a much better spring scent than a fall one for me, as I prefer punchier, darker blends in cooler weather. Will put this away and revisit next Easter time frame when I want a soft, green floral.

Minty grapes boiled in simple syrup, big white tropical flowers, and a single rose on the cusp of wilting is what I sniff from the frimp. On skin, I still get all of these, plus what seems like a moderate dose of grapefruit, or some other pink citrus. Very big in the open but quickly settles into slightly floral Bath and Body Works style Juicy Fruit gum scent when mixing with my personal chemistry for the dry down. Wear is about 5 hours on a hot day where I spent a lot of the time sweating my way through house chores. While lovely in composition and blending, this is the signature scent of the swaying lei'ed extras in South Pacific, and I am just not that girl.

A generous frimp of this made it's way into my (metaphorically) grubby little hands a few months ago and I am finally getting around to testing it. In the imp, the lavender is most prominent, followed by rosewood, and a little bit of amber. I sniffed the wand several times trying to find something to be excited about, but it just wasn't jiving with my scent receptors. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I did a light dab on my arm and waited for the magic to happen. As expected, the lavender pushed hard as a top note. It was a bit bracing and harsh for the first 15 minutes, fighting with the rosewood for dominance while the tonka and amber sat quietly in the corner. As it began to relent, the rosewood clamored to the forefront and did it's own song and dance for the next 30 minutes or so. I am really not enjoying this, but I ride it out, and by the two hour mark I finally get the amber and the tonka. Moderate throw and pretty long lasting at about 8 hours. I am torn on this one. I like each of the individual notes on their own and in other things, but here they don't really work in concert for me until long dried down. With so many other great scents in the GC and in LE, I don't feel the need to find a place for this in my collection and will be passing it on.

With the exception of the spikenard that I am not sure I could pick out of a lineup, every single note in this scent description was appealing to me. Opening the bottle, the predominant notes are bourbon and a perfume-y lilac. Applied to skin, the lilac and sugar cane hit first, providing complimentary fresh and sweet contrast. Then comes the peru balsam and some oakmoss to ground it. Lovely!!! At this point, my phone rings and I get distracted. My smell timer languishes. Talk, talk, type, talk, sniff. Mmmm, I smell good. Type more, wander around for a snack, catch a whiff of myself. I smell great! The patchouli has arrived, the vanilla is along for the ride, and I'm happy. This is a little more of a boozy bourbon than I've been sniffing recently in other blends, and it's terrific. Moderate throw that softens a bit after 4 hours but meaningfully stays for about 6ish. This strikes me as very Serpent in the Lilacs adjacent, with a bit more woodiness than brightness in the drydown and overall aura of the scent. Really gorgeous and definitely suitable across the gender spectrum, as it is not too floral and there is a little something for everyone here. Immediate backup bottle worthy; I can see people being upset when this comes down with the rest of the Halloween 2025 collection because it's that good.

Opening my frimp, I feel compelled to politely and respectfully push back on the categorization of the eucalyptus here as the "barest touch". There is a deep, mentholated, evergreen astringency that climbs my nose hairs like those Tough Mudder people haul themselves up moated rope walls. A small dab on skin is anything but shy. WOW! The juniper doesn't have much of a chance because the cypress just Hulks out and starts swinging. That spicy galangal isn't running away, and brings a warmth to a scent that could have been just a little too cool without it. HUGE sillage in the open that keeps coming hard for the first half hour, and then the cypress relents a bit and lets the juniper start to peek from behind the curtain. Where did that eucalyptus go? It's a quiet hum now instead of a shout. The lovely, lemony sweet sapiness remains moderately strong overall for about 3 more hours, and then much softer-but-detectable for 4 more thereafter. This scent taught me that I like galangal as a scent note, and I was glad to experience it in a blend that didn't have a lot of other Asian food note smells alongside it to take away it's time in the spotlight. This is the signature scent of an Australian guy who did a gap year in Thailand, then moved to California for work where he met his future wife, before ultimately settling down in her hometown in eastern Washington State. She secretly steals this and wears it when he goes away for work to remind her of his rugged, adventurous spirit.

Each order placed on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Filler Whatever Sunday, or Cyber Monday will receive two 1/32 oz. imps of INCOLUMITAS, one to keep and one to share.  It’s been a very challenging year for so many, and this little imp is our gesture of bottled kindness. INCOLUMITAS is a scent of safety and security, of peace of mind and freedom from harm: warm honeyed patchouli, bourbon vanilla, sweet sage, and lavender. 2024 Version Potent, sinus and psyche clearing lavender and sage intermingling in the imp. On skin, more of the same as I patiently waited for the rest of the notes to emerge. At exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds post application (yeah, I've started using a timer 👀), the bourbon vanilla starts to creep in. The conversion from astringency to sweetness continues and something honey-like emerges at minute 9. This honey is sweet, clear, and pure, with no dustiness or polleny sneeziness. By minute 15 the lavender is 50% gone, but the sweet sage remains, while the vanilla keeps getting a little more bit boozy. Minute 32 has just a pale reflection of it's former lavender glory, and by the end of the first hour it has retired for the evening. I'm sniffing every 5 minutes or so for the next couple of hours, trying to get that patchouli note sussed out, almost willing it to reveal itself. I know it's in there, but it's so restrained that I could never quite make it out. Sillage is low to moderate, and I was able to catch whiffs of this for 7 hours before I passed out so it has good staying power. This being a very short availability window frimp, albeit a recurring one, you may have to find it secondhand. If you see it, and are a lavender person, GRAB IT. Despite being spoiled by other lavender forward scents in the catalog (heeeeey Gaueko 😘) I am adding my voice to the chorus to ask for it to be promoted to a Limited Edition scent in the future. I will not be greedy and ask for a mega upgrade to the GC, because let's be fair: if it even just shows up on Black Friday as a frimp again this year I will be very excited. This scent is truly a love letter from BPAL to us.

If anyone was wondering how this scent has aged after several years, it's unbelievably good! Bottle sniffs find me a smooth, non-tannic black tea, copal, and that beautiful patchouli. On warm skin, the tea (with just the smallest drop of bergamot to brighten it) and frankincense go hand in hand for the open. The champaca is not far behind with a bit of a spicy bite, followed by the vanilla, creating a sweet blend that has me wrist huffing with pleasure every few minutes. The patchouli, so dominant when wet, takes an intermission until about two hours in when the tea and incense have mellowed. The agarwood isn't specifically discernible to me, but I am not missing it. This is so expertly blended that you cannot tell from one moment to the next whether this scent is truly light or dark, which fits perfectly with the poem about marriage that shares its name. Two hands in the air for this to return in the Lupers collection in 2026, as it has a little bit of something for everyone in it. Firmly in my top 20 favorite BPAL scents and very much threatening to break into the top 10 the more I wear it.

This scent did not make my first round of Weenie orders as I am still trying to mentally reconcile how the dead leaves note transitions from stinky to sweet as it dries on skin. After a few other trepidatious sniffing and testing experiences with it that turned out pretty well in the end, I picked this up in my second round because I really do love a good red musk and patchouli combo. In the bottle, I was surprised to note that, to me, this smells like 75% red musk, 15% dead leaves and 10% dirty patchouli. Applied to skin, the dead leaves and red musk invert in influence for the first 15 minutes until the leaves slowly start to soften. At that point, the red musk starts to smell almost shiny, in contrast to the emerging earthiness of the patchouli. I am definitely getting a whiff of cinnamon in here around minute 30. By the one hour mark the dead leaves note has finished it's transition to sweet decay and I am left with a raging red musk / patchouli duel for the next TEN HOURS where the red musk ultimately claims victory. I could still smell this on my hand the next morning and it continued to linger even after taking a shower! Please approach the amount you apply with deliberate caution. The best word I can use to describe this scent is feral. It's a high amperage, bold concoction that calls to mind old bloodlusts and familial battles playing out in an autumn forest. As such it feels exceptionally well suited to LARPing, ren faires and cosplay experiences.

2025 version Imagine you ordered a pumpkin spice latte with real heavy whipped cream and a drizzle of honey on top, then scooped off the frothy topping and smeared it all over yourself. That is exactly what I smelled like when The Witches fully dried down. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - to start, in the bottle, vanilla sugar and full fat cream are leading the charge. Deep sniffs reveal a lightly spiced pumpkin underneath, but it is barely detectable. Gently dabbed on skin, the honey comes out hard as a top note, joined shortly thereafter by the spiced pumpkin. As the scent warms, the pumpkin amps up but stays delicate, and when the honey has burned off about 40 minutes in the vanilla sugar takes over. The heavy cream starts to recede and the smoked vanilla makes itself known about an hour in. This is a silky, smooth, warm blend that never goes sour, lactonic or boozy on my skin, with moderate projection and just under 6 hours of good wear. The honey overall behaves beautifully and does not attempt to dominate the other notes, and the "smoked" aspect of the vanilla is present but quite faint. A gentle, beautiful scent that gives gossamer vibes. I'm so glad that this was resurrected this year! Immediate backup bottle worthy, and now I also need to try the Hair Gloss of the same scent to see what sort of effect they give when worn together.

2025 version An absolute stunner. Sunny, bright, orange petals and a hint of dead leaves in the bottle. Applied to skin, the freshest rose you've ever smelled leaps out from behind the mums and marigolds and announces itself with jazz hands. The tiniest hint of dried leaves sits underneath it with earthy sweetness, but do not mistake this for anything other than the most cheerful non-indolic floral blend you've ever had the pleasure of trying. My skin does not let the chamomile come out to play much at all and prefers to sit with the rose in the lead for the rest of the ride. I am missing the bourbon vanilla more as it would soften the scent up a bit. Sillage is bold and enduring at 7+ hours, even with the most sparing application. Please dab, not slather, and beware enclosed spaces for the first hour of wear! I don't often go for dead leaves, or rose (save for Rose Red, the ultimate rose fragrance in the BPAL catalog in my opinion) and also didn't realize this was a returning scent when I ordered it. I really love marigold and chrysanthemum as notes and was willing to give it a try on that merit alone. This is so incredibly cheerful that it feels impossible to be melancholy while wearing it.

2025 version Love at first sniff! Bourbon, pomegranate and roasted pumpkin whirls up into the nose from the bottle with a sweetness that smells almost candied. Upon deeper inhalation I get a chewy, almost chocolate-y patchouli. On skin the ripe pomegranate takes center stage for the first 30 minutes, slowly getting less juicy as the leather comes out to play. There is then a bit of an uncomfortable intermission for about 15 minutes where the agarwood really kicks up a few notches before the incense arrives to bring the scent back to a happy baseline. Low throw for about 3 hours, after which the scent is more of a remnant of itself than anything distinctive in terms of notes. For whatever reason it reminds me of a spooky shop my friends used to own in Salem, MA. This scent is a heartbreaker; it pulls you in from the bottle, shoulders itself around for a bit, and then rapidly retreats. Simply beautiful for short term wear but gone so fast on me that I will need to frequently reapply to keep the notes active throughout the day. I'd love to compare this version to an older bottle to see if it deepens in staying power after aging.

Ah! I was afeared of you, Monk, at first wet sniff. Doth my nose detect the sandalwood pickle??! I opened and closed this imp 3 times before I finally relented and put it on skin. As the drydown began, I got a beautiful green note, followed by a sunny honey, and then a very mild incense. Slowly, in the reverse order in which they appear, upon full drydown they start to recede. By Hour One I smell mostly light incense with just a touch of the honey, by Hour Three it is all incense. Overall low throw, and no pickles to be found anywhere along the way, thank Zeus. There was just the faintest hint left on my skin when I woke up the next morning, even though it was largely gone within about 5 hours the night before. Although this is a nice scent on me, I think it gives ancient masculine energy despite some of the notes being a bit lighter and sweeter in the open. I would even go as far as to call it fougere adjacent. If these notes generally work for you it is likely both blind buy and office space safe.

I opened this imp and immediately turned into Burton Guster from Psych. Leather? Cold white metal? You know that's right! There is absolutely the mental image of a knight's armor and a leather clad helmet as I'm sniffing. Swabbed onto skin, a furry musk joins the party - sweet, but a little bit swarthy, too. It takes a few minutes (maybe 10?) for the blood note to come through, which I interpret here as another musk, this time red. Unlike other scents where each note takes their turn in the spotlight and eventually a single or maybe duet impression remains, all four listed notes here are in it to win it. Check in sniffs at Hour 3, 4, 5 all yielded detectable quantities of each. Moderate sillage, and very respectable longevity of about 6 strong hours and 2 softer ones before it starts to fade in unison. I really can't get enough of the Lab's leather and metal notes, and this scent is no exception. While completely understanding how this can read masculine, I also think it's for a bad ass corporate bitch who sits at the head of the table with her silver toned saffiano leather Prada laptop bag and leaves the psyche of unsuspecting men bloody on the board room floor in her wake, the smell of their sweat mixing with hers.