Leopard403

I can't smell anything but the vetiver. Sometimes I hate my nose.

Another blend that is all vetiver to me, which once again supports my hypothesis that vetiver.eats.everything.

In the bottle and wet on my skin, this was too perfume-y on me, in an alcohol-y, medicinal, cheap drugstore blend kind of way. On the drydown, too smokey and the plum was cloying. Sad.

I get the dreaded nailpolish, too. Fried my nostrils a little. I couldn't even bring myself to skin-test this.

Very manly, even though the carnation is prevalent. This is calming and green, with that sort-of-smokey note get get from carnation. Lovely on my boy toy.

This very masculine, though something about it also smells, well, dead. It's a rotting forest-type scent, combined with a salty aquatic that doesn't really smell like but definitely evokes fish. I can't even tell there is lily in this.

Yep, vetiver. Which mutes everything else.

Well hello, opium. Where are you hiding the other notes in this blend? Because that's all I get. No lovely sandalwood, no lily or vanilla, no orange. Just head-shop incense smoke.

Lily, you betray me! That "drop" of labdanum takes over this whole blend, and all I smell is smokey incense.

I love these scents that have few notes, as it lets me narrow down what works and what doesn't! While intense on me, I like violet. So I guess it's the vetiver that's the Rule Out scent for me. Duly noted, and this imp goes to the swaps pile.

Oh bad bad bad. The lab frimped this my way, and otherwise I wouldn't have tried it because I was terrified by the idea of civet and musk and opium altogether. Sure enough: Notes of coughing and death. Way too heady and serious.

This is a Yankee Candle in Plumeria. Cheap-smelling and very cloying.

The juniper here is bright and fizzy and fun, but the other notes act as described and this is just too manly for me to wear. Smells great on my boyfriend, though!

This is a lovely "Oriental floral" with a bit of green on me. Surprisingly fresh on the drydown, though there is a short period when wet on the skin that this can be slightly cloying.

When I first delved into BPAL, "musk" was one of my verboten notes; and anything with it was on the No Way, Don't Even Try It list. In the past years, I've learned the differences among musks and have found that some do work on me. Unfortunately, the "Arabian musk" variety is one that does not work. It is too incense-y and masculine to work with my chemistry; and in this blend, combined with that dark plum, the blend is shockingly sour. Bad-milk-and-really-dirty-feet sour. I don't get any carnation, though even if I did, I don't know that it would temper my strong dislike of the other notes.

This is a very bitter, hippy-ish scent on me; a bad combination of black musk and patchouli. Very head-shop, which just doesn't work for me.

The two words that comes to mind when sniffing The Unicorn are "dainty" and "ethereal." It's very hard to describe because it is feminine, but not in a powdery way; and clean, but not in a dryer sheet way. Unfortunately, this makes for a very mild, light scent; and while I like it, it is a little too delicate for me. I'm tall and zaftig and feel like I need something with more oomph. Plus, it doesn't last at all on my skin.

I can only wear The Hesperides if it is very fresh, as that gives me boozy, woody apple that makes me yearn for Autumn. But after this has aged for a while--even just a few months--all I get is apple cider vinegar.

This is really lovely. Very similar to The Atrocious Attic, which is one of my favorite blends of all time. I don't get the lavender that so many others do, but instead I get a creamy vanilla rose with a hint of fresh (not spicy) carnation that manages to be soft and voluptuous without becoming baby powder-y. The musks are very soft (not the In Your Face Musk! that the lab's red musk scents tend toward) and the amber is very light but anchors the other notes nicely. This is another favorite!

Oh. Oh YES. On my skin, this is SO amazing: Take the true pumpkin of BPAL's Jack blend, and smush it up with Lush's Snowcake scent, and you get Pumpkin I. Slightly foody, slightly creamy, a true pumpkin with an almond icing coating, YUM.

I wish I got candy corn from this, but this smells like a drugstore candle in "spicy harvest blend." It has a cheap, common bent to it.

If I ever had any doubt that my skin amps rose, this blend puts that doubt to rest. This was ALL rose on my skin. NO pumpkin here, nothing else recognizable. Exactly like spritzing plain ol' rosewater on my skin.

I am pleasantly surprised at how crisp these apples are. There is definitely a foody-sweet bent to this, and I get much more butterscotch than caramel, but that fresh, crisp apple keeps it from becoming too sickeningly sweet.

This is quite lovely. This is that delicious top note that burns off my skin too quickly when I wear Floating Brain, Beaver Moon '07, and Teenage Cannibal. Somehow it is clean-sweet without being too candy-sweet or too dryer-sheet-clean. Just a bright fresh marshmallow kind of scent, though not overtly "foody."

This is a fruity but well-anchored scent that is great fun. The predominant note reminds me of the Orange Cream Lifesaver swirly candies they released a few years ago. However, despite the lovely sandalwood base, it's just gone way too fast. We're talking minutes, then poof.