GhillieDhu

I actually got STRONG used motor oil from Dragon's Hide. Well, it was mixed with Hawaiian Punch, but my skin has issues with dragon's blood. Good luck!

Imp: Dirt! and a little patchouli Wet: DIRT!!! (As expected. Dirt notes always amp like mad on me, then disappear after twenty minutes.) Drying: Spicy patchouli with cinnamon and a little dirt. Dry: Still patchouli and spices. (Ginger and nutmeg?) Maybe a liiiittle bit of amber. A cousin to Shub, but I'm not getting any vanilla or sweetness from this, thank goodness. Dry, warm, and much more like the kind of gingersnaps I prefer. Verdict: Keep the imp. Maybe a bottle at some point, but not right away. If you like this, try: Clemence, Samhainophobia.

I was hoping to get this one! It is green, but not bright sunny green. It's a dark, wet, wild green. Grassy, mossy and a little cucumbery, with what I think is a dash of ivy darkening it, and a mishmash of green leaves. Jungly is an appropriate description. There's some sweeter floral lurking in the background on drydown, but I can't tell what it is. It's actually a little cold and intimidating for me on its own, but I can't wait to try layering it with an earthy scent like Graveyard Dirt or Badger.

I suspect Tabella is going to be quite sought-after in a little while. Never smelled Luperci, so I can't comment on any likeness there... to me, this is halfway between Valentine of Rome and The Apothecary. Glowing clean golden resins, crisp deep green herbs, and a rich base of fig, just a smidge spicy. It's serious, yes, but not somber. More hopeful, with a quiet confidence to it. Sooo lovely. I can't really categorize this, other than to say YUM! Glad I have a bottle, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it ages.

Lab frimp - thank you, Beth! In the imp: STRONG and sweet, and very rich, a little like Yankee Candle's "Fall Festival". Hmm. On, wet: Gooey spice-laden pumpkin pie. There's something pastry-like and almost nutty in this. I'm also smelling a lot of dry cinnamon (which must be something else - perfumes that actually have cinnamon on them smell nothing like it on me!). Drying: Okay, the peach is starting to come out a bit more, but it's not corn-syrupy sweet like peach often is. I was a big fan of instant Quaker Oatmeal as a kid, and this smells just like a packet of peaches 'n' cream mixed with a packet of cinnamon spice flavor, with an extra spoon of brown sugar. Mmm. A lot sweeter than my usual, but a nice cozy scent to have around during the holidays. It should be wonderful in the oil burner.

Frimped with my latest order. Thanks, Lab! In the bottle and wet, this is ozone-y, rainy dirt with something slightly green/floral underneath. It reminds me of walking through the woods behind my parents' house at night, with cold rainwater dripping down my neck through the branches, and wet underbrush catching at my legs in the darkness. As it dries, the dirt dies back and the ozone comes to the fore - laundry hung out dry on a grey, chilly early spring day. I really like this, and I hadn't expected to. It's very evocative, but more than that, it really smells good on me. Psychic labbies strike again!

Oh.My.Guh. YUM. This was a frimp some time back from a LOVELY seller whose name I unfortunately can't remember. I was a little wary, because normally I don't like mint and vanilla doesn't like me. In the imp: Why hello, Thin Mints! What are you doing in my BPALs? Wet: Still Thin Mints. I want to eat my wrist! Drying: More cookie, less mint. Still very nice. Later: An interesting, but not really me, warm baked vanilla musk. Verdict: Don't need a bottle, but absolutely keeping the imp for the wet stage. This is my token foodie BPAL, and I foresee wearing it a lot over the holidays, and maybe in the summer when I'm feeling silly.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this one. Patchouli, amber, honey, and orange are some of my favorite notes of all time. Pine, heliotrope, and linden blossom I've tried and liked. Mallow and brown musk were the only question marks... I have weird luck with musks. It was just difficult to imagine what everything would smell like together. But the Piper does not disappoint! In the bottle it's a piney-orange mishmash, and wet on my skin it starts out a rather offputting bitter green orange... but once it starts to warm up, it's the most amazingly complex, glowing scent. It has a little of everything - sweet, sour, bitter, earthy, green, floral, musk. If this was a color, it would be translucent sunset orange and gold, surrounded by shadowed deep greens and browns. After a while, it settles down into mostly orange, honey, and musk with a trace of pine and sweet heliotrope in the background. (I used to wear Charlie Sunshine a lot, but had to stop because the white flowers and light musk turned on my skin. This is a darker, earthier, more grown-up and all around yummier citrus-honey-musk!) The musk in Piper is not something I've smelled in other BPAL blends. It's not black or red, and not rank or sexual at all. It's a small-furry-animals sort of musk, like nuzzling a rabbit or hamster. Delightful and appropriate. Out of all the Yules, this wasn't an OMG scent straight away for me (that distinction belongs to Midnight Mass!), but it's the one I find myself reaching for most often. Complex enough to provide plenty of wrist-sniffing entertainment, but light and understated enough to wear anywhere, anytime. This may be the first BPAL I could consider a "signature scent." If it doesn't turn weird on me in the next couple of months, I'll have to pick up a bottle (perhaps two).

Rat is much more nuanced than I expected from the listed notes. It's definitely piney, and orangey, and vetivery, but there's more to it than that. In the imp it's all smokey vetiver and orangewood, but on skin it develops into something harmonious and oddly spicy, though still strong. Like a dried-out clove and orange pomander thrown onto a fire of green pinewood. Gender-neutral, I think, leaning toward masculine. At first I didn't think this was something I'd wear, and was prepared to swap it or use it in the oil burner... but the longer it stays on, the sweeter, mellower and more well-blended it gets until it turns into something delightful. Still not sure how often I'll wear it, but I'll keep an imp for sure!

This is an extremely gentlemanly mole. (Despite the little white apron on the bottle art!) As other reviewers have said, the most prominent note is moss, which always makes me think of cologne and old paper. It's a crumbly green-brown sort of scent, dry and earthy but not quite dusty. The sandalwood is there but not overpowering, and the patchouli is more of a feeling than a smell. Mostly masculine, but I can just barely pull it off. This is Dee's hippie brother, who lives in a cabin in the deep woods with his books and magickal implements and feeds the rabbits every morning. I'm a little bit in love with him.

Badger smells... rooty. Like potatoes and carrots with the dirt still on them, just brought up from a cool dry cellar. It's natural, and old - like this smell has been around as long as people have dug things out of the earth. Beth just bottled it. The roots, galangal, and dry dirt are most prominent... I don't get much myrrh at all, and the cedar only pops its head in to add a little edge to the scent. There's a savory backnote to it, almost like good soy sauce. With that description, you wouldn't think this oil would be wearable, but it really is. It's so very comforting. And now I want to go make stew.... Verdict: Glad to have a partial! I'll probably not wear this often, but I'm happy to have it around.

This is a scent you could wear anywhere. The pine doesn't jump out too hard, and the snow note is really pleasant. Primarily a cool, unisex, slightly musky herbal/floral. I agree with the previous reviewer - it is a bit like a snowy Hex. Something in here is a little Davidoff Cool Water-ish, which makes me think this would be very good for summer as well. There's one note that's clashing with my skin chemistry in the drydown - not sure whether it's the flax or something in this musk, but it smells faintly rank and rotten. Goes away after about a half hour, though, so it's survivable. Verdict: Glad to have a partial, don't need a full bottle. (Edited 'cos I apparently don't know the difference between pine and fir.) Edited again: Grr. On aging, the musk has decided it doesn't like me. Still a nice, bracing, slushy snowy pine at the beginning, but a few hours into drydown all I'm left with is . Unfortunately, this is rather typical of musk on my skin. Most other people will probably be fine, but I think my imp is going to a better home.

2008 version. Inadvertently tested this while decanting for my circle people. It is delicious. This is exactly what I'd hoped Cathedral would be. Golden frankincense and syrupy myrrh, with soft beeswax and a little bit of mellow wood... cedar? There's something spicy and almost green in this... smells like coriander or maybe sage. It's probably the frankincense interacting with something, but it keeps this from being too dark and heavy. It stays true on my skin for a long time. This is a quiet, peaceful, sacred scent - as it should be. Verdict. I think I need a bottle.

This is so very sweet. At first, all I got was gooey burnt sugar and cloying red musk, with some sort of heady floral in the background, Very strong. Almost washed it off at that point, but I'm glad I didn't. It then evolved into a spicy Oriental with a very interesting mineral note, similar to what I sometimes get from orange blossom, but stronger. Not "me," but not something I mind smelling at all. Sexy, vintage, and somehow expensive-smelling. However, two hours later, it's back to burnt sugar and musk. All in all, not for me, but glad to have tried it.

Straight out of the imp, strong perfumey amber and a little patchouli, but somehow masculine. Unfortunately, this is the kind of amber that turns to potato starch on me, so that's all I smelled for the first half hour. On drydown, it's a little cinnamon-ish, with a weird planty note - maybe the hyssop - and something that reminds me of Anubis (appropriate!) coming out. After a couple of hours, it's dusty, slightly rotted root beer. Glad to have tried it, but it just does not work with my skin.

So lovely! This has the "autumn leaves" note from October, without October's inexplicable coconut morph. The grass is definitely the top layer, superbly green and juicy (and just a liiittle soapy) with a hint of clovery sweetness, but once it settles down, you can smell the leaves. This isn't so much fall grass, as it is fresh spring grass with last year's decomposing leaf litter matted down between the blades. (I can't be the only one who just runs the mower over fallen leaves and calls it mulch!) I see a bottle in my future, and much reliance on it during the dark of winter, Layering this with a tiny drop of Graveyard Dirt adds a whole new dimension of awesome. It's exactly like burying your nose in a lawn on a mild day - sun-warmed grass, moss, bits of dead leaves and thatch, and underneath it all, rich brown dirt full of roots and worms. Incredible.

My skin tends to turn everything sweet, and unfortunately Ichabod is no exception. I was hoping for a scholarly aroma of musty wool, strong tea, and beeswax. What I got? Sweet buttery vanilla cream, heady lilies, and a tingle of pepper, with a fuzzy undertone of sweaters. It's warm and cosy, and I can see why people like it, but it's just too thick and sweet for me.

I was a bit worried at first. In the bottle this smelled perfumey in the way that things often do when they're preparing to attack me. But the worries were unfounded - this is gorgeous! On my skin, it's all glowing golden amber and fresh-cut Easter lilies, with a hint of green (the sunflower?) to keep it from getting cloying. As it dries, it settles to a soft ambery vanilla skin scent that lasts for ages and isn't at all sugary or powdery. It's young without being flighty, peaceful and sunny and innocently sexy. I don't want to say it's a simple smell... but it's tight and seamlessly blended, in contrast to the delicious jumble of notes that is L'Autunno. I adore this, and will definitely be keeping my precious decant.

Not sure which year this is. In imp: dark and mellow with a hint of pumpkiny sweetness in the back of the nose… promising. On: WIN. Opens up with dead leaves, smooth sweet vetiver, and a subtle patchouli that's rich and almost fruity. Lightened a little by the floral geranium and given a faint pine-amber undertone by the balsams. In mid-drydown, I got a whiff of icy mint for a few minutes, but it was actually pretty pleasant. Clove isn't really noticeable, but may be contributing the suggestion of cider in the late drydown. Warm, earthy without being heavy, subtle, and antique. Need a bottle, stat! Odd side note: the night before I tested this, I had a very odd dream involving David Tennant/the Tenth Doctor. HE SMELLED LIKE THIS. Which only makes me like it more.

Beth's ambergris accord smells like clean cat fur to me. There's a spot on the back of my cat's neck that's always a little musky, and it's exactly that scent. Antony smells like the pookins when she's just come in from playing in the garden.

Nobody's mentioned Troll yet?? It does have a lot of clove, but it's not sweet at all. Troll is dark as dark can be. I get mostly dry cumin and peppery clove smoke, with a weird but interesting grilled meat effect from the black musk. It sort of smells like a Middle Eastern grocery store. Valentine of Rome was extremely spicy for me, too.

Thirding Clemence (with extreme prejudice!), and seconding Port-Au-Prince. The almond and rum are a bit overpowering at first, but it dries down into a complicated, rich, unsweet clove spice. Also, you could try Bastet. It's a bit sweet, but not really in a foody way, and it's a very sexy take on cardamom and saffron.

Oh my... this is good stuff. I'm having a hard time picking out individual notes wet. There's just a whiff of delicious incensey patchouli, dark mellow myrrh, and a hint of something vaguely cologney that may be the bay rum. The geranium isn't overt, but I suspect it may be keeping the whole thing from getting too heavy. Oddly, this is a very subtle scent on my skin. The black musk comes out most strongly in early drydown... I'm pretty sure it's the same as the musk in Two Monsters. Sweetish, but not cloying and not too masculine. After half an hour, it's faded to this gorgeous clinging aura of dark, sexy, just slightly gender-bending danger - more a subliminal impression than an actual scent. This is definitely not a daytime perfume, but it would be perfect to wear out (or in) to a somewhat intimate setting. Verdict: Top ten, possibly top five. If this ages at all well (and it should!), I'll be wishing I'd ordered more than one bottle.

Right out of the vial, the dark bitter chocolate and spices in this are saying "mole sauce!" It does mellow out on drydown, but I still get kind of a Mexican food vibe, with a side note of tonka. Never got any mandarin at all - boo. This is a very aggressive perfume. I could see it being worn by some hard-charging young executive - an entrepreneur or trial lawyer who doesn't care whether people like him. War, indeed. It's a very well-crafted scent, but I don't think I know anyone "Type A" enough to actually wear it. (Edited to fix typos.)

This turned out much better than I expected, based on past trauma associated with Dragon's Hide! I'm not getting so much "leather" as wax, smoke, incense, and dark wood - like some Southeast Asian wooden curio bought from a weird little import shop. More like the concoctions used to cure leather than the hide itself. It dries down quite nicely on my skin, too, sexy, deep, and a bit intimidating. Not sure when I'd wear this by itself, but it should layer well! (Oooh, idea... De Sade + Clemence?? Sounds delightfully evil. Will try it and report back!)