ravenfeathers

in the bottle very light, fruity, tart wet on skin the tartness disappears entirely and is replaced by a distinct warmth. the fruitiness deepens into a pretty true pomegranate note dry on skin it goes just a little candy-ish on drydown, but keeps a nice warmth. i swapped this for my gingerbread poppet, which made me unaccountably ravenously hungry when i wore it and i'm glad for the swap. this a good blend, dark enough to wear in winter and bright enough to wear in summer, too.

in the bottle my, what a girly man you are, tristran.... wet on skin wood, wood, and wood! and some wood! suddenly very masculine and there's a soft, dry evergreen note, which must be the redwood. dry on skin dry, this goes a bit girly again. the primary notes i'm getting are rosewood, sandalwood, and lemon. it's fresh and quite pretty. possibly a bit too pretty.... i'm fine with just a decant of this.

in the bottle RED MUSK OMG!!! wet on skin the patchouli and lilac come out to offset the RED MUSK OMG!!! and there's something just a little spicy here. i'm not sure what that would be. dry on skin dry, it becomes much drier, a sweeter, more masculine version of mme. moriarty: musky, dark, and incredibly sweet. i'm even getting a tiny, tiny whiff of vanilla bean. uh, yeah, i pretty much love this like crazy. must have bottle.

in the bottle woody, but with a sweet/tart top note wet on skin it goes a bit medicinal on the skin and is fairly unpleasant dry on skin dry, this is woody, but very fresh and masculine liek whoa. strong, juicy lime comes jettisoning out of the woods along with the bay rum. i had to jot "nice!!" next to my notes because this is a very elegant, if masculine, blend. love it. my one gripe is that BPAL's bay rum tends to amp on me and simultaneously go a bit "stale" and wonky. i could wish for slightly less bay rum and maybe slightly more red currant.

in the bottle dark, sweet, and floral, but not in a bad way (says the non-floral loving BPALer) wet on skin sharp and strong with a burnt sugar background and a cologne-y, floral-y top dressing. not a fan of this stage. dry on skin this gradually fades from the wet phase, losing density as it ages on my skin. an hour after applying, it's wood and sugar with a little bit of a fruity bite. another hour in, it's a sweet, burnished wood and stays like that until it finally fades away. throw is fairly weak, wear time is shorter than i thought it would be judging by the potency in the wet stage. this is a fascinating blend, maybe a bit muddled in places and more reminiscent of some of the GC scents than LEs that i've tried. it's unique enough to be a keeper, though, as long as i can tolerate the short wet phase that isn't my favourite.

in the bottle sweet, bland wet on skin sweet, bland. milky tea with too many sugars. no kick, no bite, just bland. dry on skin the musks are coming out now and they're pretty, inoffensive, and generally dull. this is a close skin scent with negligible throw. not my... cup... of tea.

in the bottle erm... it's saw-scaled viper. almost exactly. *scratches head* wet on skin okay, it's not saw-scaled. it's fascinating, though! it has the same dry, hot cinnamon of saw-scaled, but not the funk that sort of bothers me. but, and here's the fascinating part, it smells like gunpowder and smoke, too. combine the smoke and the faint acridity of sulfur with the cinnamon and you get a conflagration! NEAT! dry on skin the smoky, firey bits ease off and what's left is an ashy myrhh that's interesting, but not very pretty. this is one of those art BPALs that don't do much for me as a wearable scent, but blow my puny freaking mind conceptually.

in the bottle fruity snake oil, heavy on the almond, but not in a cherry-ish way, more like marzipan. wet on skin hm. the myrrh is taking control of this show, but that's fine because snake oil + extra myrhh= OMG YES! it's so sticky sweet and incense-y liek whoa. dry on skin no change in dry down except that the snake oily bits amp up over the extras and it's the soft, sinuous, and stiflingly dark sweetness of snake oil without the sharper impact of snake oil. it's like a well-aged snake oil, but sweet sweet sweet. edit y halo thar, mandarin... i think asp viper has shot directly up into my top five BPALs ever. this is why we should frimp early, frimp often. this wasn't even on my radar, even after a painstaking review of the snake pit a few months ago. HUGE WIN.

in the bottle berries!... and cough syrup. berry flavoured cough syrup. but that medicinal tang isn't overt or unpleasant. it took a big whiffff to get the tingle in the back of the nose that said "cough syrup". wet on skin oranges and berries and... cough syrup. it's still not icky, but i'm waiting for someone to walk in my office and ask if i'm sick. it's that lurking, cloying sweetness of someone with a chest cold. dry on skin halloo, mini-morpher! it goes from thick, rotten-ripe berries to bright, though dusty orange, and is now going to wood and incense with just a hint of the fruits. and the berries? have become sharp and sour. throw is decent and now i'm just waiting for the inevitable comment from a coworker. if i hear "robitussin" or "orange liqueur".... unique and interesting and i like it a lot.

in the bottle soft, dark, sinuous and very sweet. the honey, amber, and vanilla are the strongest notes. almost edible. wet on skin i'm getting a little bit of sandalwood which is giving it an incense feel, but so sweet. hm. it's reminding me of something, but i'm not sure what. dry on skin HA! ha ha! i know what it reminds me of! it's suntan oil! not the nice lotion that keeps you from frying, but the old oils that we got in the 80s that were bottles o' melanoma. now i'm almost embarrassed to admit that i really like this.

in the bottle very incense-y and sweet. i think this one's going to be a hit with me, except that there's something vaguely anise-like that i'm not sure about. we'll see how it does on the skin. wet on skin no anise, but it's going straight to soap. dry on skin oh, yuck. it smells like moldy food. and soap. oh, look. it's that anise-y smell again. this is so not a keeper.

in the bottle smells a bit like dryer sheets, only richer. and that doesn't sound very nice, but it's quite sweet and understated and clean wet on skin laundry detergent and the richness is gone. dry on skin the bay rum peers out along with the musk and... maybe the cinnamon? the richness has returned and the soapy smell is evening out. still far too soapy on me to wear, unfortunately. it's like lever 2000 or something.

in the bottle ha ha! it's grassiness! the rose and carnation are making me think of rose red, but it's much, much greener, like clover and fresh hay. i'm not sure but what a horse might eat me if i was wearing this. wet on skin rose and grass. very sweet and green. uh, i think i like this better than rose red! dry on skin the rose fades and the clover comes out. wow, is this evocative. slightly soapy, though, so as much potential as i'm smelling here, i'm going to need to retest it.

in the bottle patchouli and sandalwood with a soft spiciness; can't wait to try this on wet on skin something spicy, maybe the clove? and cedar. spicy cedar. and that's about it. dry on skin despite the fact that this remains nearly a cedar single note, i find it interesting. more testing, i think. later: more clove, less cedar, and something else that's spicy that might be the nutmeg. the rose is kind of icking the thing up, though. more testing again.

in the bottle sugared cucumber? yuck! i'm getting a tiny whiff of pine and melon, but mostly sweet vegetable-y scent wet on skin god... MELON! dry on skin i officially really hate this! fortunately, it's mostly gone in about fifteen minutes on me except for a faint waft of melon. thank goodness. i was not looking forward to the scrubbing.

in the bottle sweet, sensuous and darkly feminine. that red currant is reminding me of mme. moriarty. YUM! wet on skin any resemblance to mme. m is gone except for that sharp, slightly sweet red currant wisp. this is sooooo pretty, dark and almost smoky. the honey is so bright and pale and the amber starts to go a little bit powdery and slinky. dry on skin amber-y goodness, which is a phrase i didn't think i'd ever use as i'm not a huge fan of amber, but this is so sweet and musky. i really like this. edit this is tending toward heavy and really cologne-y on my retest. the throw is fairly inoffensive, but close to the skin it's a bit acrid. unfortunately, this won't be a bottle purchase for me, which is probably dumb, because i'm guessing this ages really well and i'll be kicking myself a year from now. edit 2 six hours later, it's still plugging along. good wearlength. throw is kind of a musty, musky feminine flowery scent; close to skin is sweet and weedy.

in the bottle earthy and masculine, a little sour, maybe from the mandarin? no sign of cardamom or any notes, really. sort of a generic, slightly medicinal masculine blend wet on skin okay, seriously, where the hell did this blast of spiciness come from?? the cardamom explodes on my skin and the patchouli and sandalwood peek out, too. and this sounds like it would be really pleasant, but it's just vaguely... icky. sort of musty and damp and slithery. still a bit medicinal. dry on skin this is really weird, because it's like the bastard love child of buck moon and the phantom calliope. the cardamom note is the same nose-whacking one in the calliope, but the herbal, vegetable-y muskiness is right out of buck moon. i think this needs to be sweeter, maybe the mandarin was more obvious when it was fresher? i'm gutted to say that i actually rather hate this, lol! ah, well.

DCXCVII in the vial fruity cherry almond, sharp and tart wet on skin almond almond almond, but the tartness is fleeing and there's a warmth bubbling up dry on skin dry, warm, incense-y, but fruity, too. there's a lingering marzipan quality that's part almond, part vanilla and a headiness that seems almost musky in nature. this is a gorgeous, gorgeous incarnation. oddly, it's not something i'd actually want to wear. might keep the imp, though, rather than frimping it on. the morphing, it intrigues me. Last reviewed by cranberry.

my first BPAL love, real love, i mean, was hunter moon '07, which was also my first bottle and my first LE. so when i was reading reviews for it back then and saw so many references to buck moon, i figured i'd have to track some down someday. for the first time ever, i was quick enough on a sale to get the rare LE before five other people had claimed it! and i was prepared to have hunter moon '07 and his saucy little brother, ivanushka, blown completely out of the water. well. in the bottle cucumbers and fuzzy musk. it's greenish aquatic, like the liquid light in a forest. wet on skin cucumbers and fuzzy musk... hm. dry on skin cucumbers and fu- well, yeah, you get the idea. it's like the missing link progenitor of squirting cucumber and ivanushka. i don't smell much similarity to hunter moon at all, except in the same animalistic furriness and a general cologne-y feel. to be frank, i prefer both hunter moon and ivanushka to poor buck moon.

The deepest, darkest point in a shadow; the area contained within the shadow of an eclipse. East African black patchouli, cedarwood, vetiver and a dribble of cinnamon. i got this as a frimp, took a whiff of it, and chucked it straight onto the frimping pile. i'm really not a fan of patchouli, no. then, this morning, i was craving patch for some gawdawful reason (possibly alien abduction blowback?) and thought of this, so tried it. in the bottle dirty, dirty patchouli and it makes my throat clench a bit in horror wet on skin patchouli... patchouli... hmm! what's that? it smells kinda like cocoa bean. is that the cedar and the cinnamon interacting oddly? it's like hippy and brownies, heh heh. dry on skin well, hello nice notes! i'm glad you beat vetiver and patchouli into submission. cedar and cinnamon with a dark earthiness. it's not particularly spicy and not particularly woody or "pine"-y. it's a really decent blend and i'm pleasantly surprised. i probably won't wear this again just because it doesn't stand out that much for me and has little appreciable throw, but it has reminded me to always test imps before chucking them on the frimp pile.

in the bottle lemon and soft musk wet on skin lemon powder and then some. it smells cold and fresh in a powdery kind of way. dry on skin more of the same with very short wearlength. pretty. the florals never really strike me, there's just a hint of them in the background. i'm tempted to keep this imp around for those hideously hot days in july.

in the bottle whew! strong and quite medicinal! wet on skin oh, red musk, you are mine. this is heady and heavy and resinous and somewhat unsettling. it's not comfortable scent. it's dark and dangerous, but somehow languid. dry on skin like a rich incense with smoke so thick it actually falls instead of rising, this is heavy and sweet with a strong opium feel. the fruits are very much in the background, keeping this from being heavy as lead. superb and i think the right guy could totally pull this off, so i'm going to call it unisex. throw is strong, omg, and wear length is close to infinite, i think. it's stronger three hours later than when i put it on.

Smut! Smut! Smut! Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes. i hope it's okay for me to write a new review here for a new vintage? my previous review was for the 2007 version. smut 08 in the bottle oh! sharper than the aged version. and boozy! woo! wet on skin if there's one complaint i have with the 07 version, it's that it has a few brief minutes of smelling like a used rubber, which amuses me, but isn't particularly nice. the 06 version doesn't do this and i'm pleased to note that the 08 version doesn't either. (at least, not yet....) it's sugar sugar sugar musk sugar booze sugar and musk, everything that i love about smut. dry on skin mmmm, smut.... eta some thoughts i ended up putting in another thread: -this year's smut is distinctly PINK, while my other two bottles are brown; i don't know if this is due to aging or a difference in components. -i got something crazy like 13 hours wearlength out of 08. O_o -this year's version (whether it's different or just fresh) is quickly becoming my favourite of the three. it seems sweeter, crisper, and more boozy/less musky, but still absolutely rutting with musk.

in the bottle more fruity than i expected with a tart tang and a slightly soapy feel. wet on skin oh, heaven. it's soft and just floral enough to be sweet. it's a much girlier version of harvest moon. dry on skin i'm getting some blowback from another scent i applied to the same arm, but it seems to be staying very much in the same vein as the wet stage. there's something vaguely resinous here that gives it a real stability. this one is absolutely gorgeous and i could only wish it lasted longer. three hours later and it's mostly gone. all that means is that i get to reapply! eta after retest this is one of those odd scents that seems to cycle through notes, so sniffing this is like: lemon, apple blossom, grape, rose, lemon, apple blossom, grape, rose. i do like rose, but am glad that this one stays in the background and lets the grape and apple blossom run the show. eta 2 unfortunately, a retest showed this to be slightly bitter and heavily shampoo-y on me, so it's off to swaps.

in the bottle vanilla creaminess, like a fine whipped frosting wet on skin soft saffron dusted over the same frosting, the somewhat sharp organic grassy smell of the saffron keeping the rest from being cloying sweet dry on skin orgasmic vanilla! this is such a wonderful surprise! it's all the things that i've learned to love about haloes without the sandalwood, which has always been right on the edge of being a deal breaker for me in that blend. so softly feminine and splendiferous! there's not a phase of this that i don't adore and i'm so absolutely chuffed! the throw is quite good for scent this delicate and i'm going on three hours with no change in strength of throw. as an aside, i don't smell anything in the least bit minty here in any stage. and i was prepared for it to turn to play-doh on me like egg nog, but not even for a millisecond. one of my daughters claims it smells like mint on her (and she hasn't heard about any reviews or anything here), but when i sniffed her arm, i got a huge waft of saffron and nothing minty. i think it's the saffron that's throwing out the "mint" notes that people are getting? anyway. i'm not getting it at all. ADDED March 6: over in livejournal, someone noted that her two bottles of love's philosophy smelled different and asked if anyone else had the same experience. one was vanilla ice cream, one was soft and minty. when i got home from work, i checked my unopened, unsniffed bottle and LO! it was minty! my first bottle is not minty at all. they were ordered together on the same day of the update. so, let's review the second bottle, which is almost an entirely different scent! in the bottle flat, somehow, with a bland smell of vanilla. it's sort of... stale, almost? and a whiff of wintergreen. wet on skin blast of wintergreen! holy crap, you guys were right! i've been trying to figure out for weeks where all the wintergreen in the reviews was coming from. now i know. dry on skin erm. okay. mint is all gone now, but it's gone kind of plasticky and, yes, indeed, it smells like generic candle. :D throw is negligible. which is okay, because it's getting a band-aid like odor now. what the...? the sound of clattering you hear after i post this is me going to put my original bottle in total lockdown mode because i'm not risking it with cats or kids knowing that it's a delicious minority! here's hoping my back-up bottle mellows out and starts to match her sister.