undergroundwoman

I have not really tried this for its intended purpose, but am rather enjoying the olfactory aspect of it so far. Very herbal... definitely lavender somewhere here--it reminds me a bit of Sylph. I swear I am getting whiffs of fennel or anise. And whatever the heck it is in Val Sans Retour that makes me crave it, that "moist green slot canyon" smell. Something reminiscient of Eidolon as well. I love the herby green scents so this is a winner in my book--slightly soapy, but I tend to like soapy. This isn't particularly musky on me, or at least the musk is blending in with my skin smell. There is a sweetness to it as well--maybe that's the rock star debauch? I can definitely see this helping bring about creativity for me, overall I get the feeling of being outside somewhere where Pan would have liked to hang out and gather inspiration from nature. I can picture the gorgeous watercolor illustration in the edition of The Wind in the Willows (illustrated by Michael Hague) that I grew up with.

As a Scandinavian-American mutt, I've been salivating over the prospect of this blend for months now. I haven't quite decided what I am going to use this oil for but have decided its purpose will present itself. OMFG apples! Boozy dark syrupy apples. Reminds me of The Hesperides a bit. As it dries the scent itself becomes drier. It reminds me of making those dried apple witches with my mom when I was little--the peeled apple dries into a wrinkly facsimile of a witch's face. This smells like dried apple witches. And a touch of Roadhouse somehow, oddly. Freyja's golden apples and a slightly spicy-musty warmness; I LOOOVE it. It makes me feel in touch with my ancestors.

I was most curious about this out of all the Yule blends; I wanted a Penny Lane in Almost Famous scent. My first thoughts on opening the bottle: "I KNEW I liked spicy white florals" and "This smells like my mom" (probably because she likes spicy white florals too). Overall I get a very heady floral, with tons of musk. It's pretty darn strong, and I don't see myself having the occasion to wear it very often, but this is gorgeous and dirty all at once. I probably have gotten by with just an imp, for how much I'll actually wear it, but I'm glad I have a bottle...

Nearly indistinguishable from Snow Bunny wet, but as it dries it bears more of a resemblance to Dublin, which I'm guessing is due to the white rose. As I mentioned in my Snow Bunny review, I definitely think it's that Snow Bunny has an anthropogenic aspect to it, while this is just pure outdoors. Both will be staples for me this winter!

First of all, I am delighted with this scent--everything I hoped it would be and more! I've been trying to think of a good way to describe this vs. Snow Moon, since they are so similar at the beginning, and I think I've finally got it. Snow Bunny has a human presence to it that Snow Moon does not... it's still the snow and pines and slush, but there's someone out there enjoying herself too! Which I guess was the whole point of the oil in the first place, but my "revelation" there definitely helps separate this and Snow Moon in my mind. It's definitely sweet and perfumey on the drydown, while maintaining its outdoorsiness. Well done! I'm trying to figure out if I can afford another bottle...

In the bottle this has a distinct ozone-aquatic note that I don't get from Skadi/Snow Bunny/Snow Moon. It reminds me of Storm Moon a bit... which had me worried. On however it loses much of that aquatic edge and is a lovely piney winter tree snow etc smell. I would have considered swapping it, since Snow Bunny and Moon are so similar, but the drydown is very unique... it's like sweet birch syrup. Birch beer!--which my first impression of on trying was "maple Certs." Luckily this isn't minty because I don't do mint well... but a very neat scent and I'll be enjoying it all winter. And of course I currently live among the birch and fir in a pretty darn cold area of the continental US, so I'm quite pleased that it goes very well thematically with my surroundings.

What the heck am I smelling in here? Rather lemony at first. I was hoping this would be a a nice Chiroptera replacement, but it appears not to be. This is a lot like Eidolon on me--I normally am all about the herbs but like Eidolon this smells like something I'd cook with. So lemony herbs, which should theoretically be good for me... but the drydown is a bit odd on me. Woody-musty. I'll probably keep the imp, since I like to think I'm introspective and contemplative, and perhaps this will bring me fortune and glory through my research. Fortune and glory, kid. Maybe it will help with writing, keep me focused.

In terms of representing the muse, this perfume does a splendid job of it. My research interests are pretty darn terrestrial; I don't look to the sky for knowledge, but since we are all made of stardust, who's keeping track? The scent is a light airy floral--more like a typical perfume. Something I would have picked up and enjoyed before BPAL broadened my scent tastes. And back when I thought I still liked florals... so I am delighted to have a BPAL floral that works on me! The ozone and musk I think are what push it into perfumey--good perfumey though; and the ozone is not too much. I'm not familiar enough with the florals to pick up on what I'm smelling, but what I am smelling is good. I feel as if I should lurk about in the moonlight in a long flowing gown while wearing this. This might be a bottle someday.

I nearly ordered a bottle of this unsniffed, since everything in it I absolutely love... ...except leather. I'm glad I decided to go for the imp. The first sniff was eyes-rolling-back-in-head good, so I slathered it on the back of my hand. And then the leather came out in full force... not bad, just overpowering everything else. I just don't particularly like smelling like leather. So I will definitely keep the imp around, since it still smells yummy, but not the sweet creamy herbal I was hoping for. I will try it a few more times, just to make sure it wasn't a one-time thing with the leather. This on a guy would probably put me at his mercy, but I'm not sure it's quite so good on me. I get the feeling this may be a pillowcase scent, like Oisin.

I too get the 13 comparisons--it's a darker, more masculine version of 13. At first it is all chocolate and orange, pretty darn yummy. But as it dries I swear there's a bit of sassafras in there--it's reminding me of Tombstone a bit. Although sassafras isn't really an herb, is it? It's a tree. I used to love digging down to the roots of them as a kid to smell the root beer aroma. The drydown is less sweet and more herby, more masculine. I like it a lot--definite keeper for the imp. I'll have to try it a few more times to see if it is bottle-worthy for me.

I would have never ordered this had I not been told by UltraViolet that this "smells like New Mexico." That was enough for me to risk the red musk (I had no idea I liked musk at the time) and amber (can be weird and powdery on me sometimes) in order to get at the sage and lavender. This is my smack-me-in-the-face sagebrush laden instant trip to the desert, which is exactly what I wanted it to be. Corazon morphs a lot depending on where I put it. The mango kind of fades, and I wish it stuck around a bit more, as the sage, much like the real shrub, can get a little heady and bring on a headache. But it's worth it for the feeling of being in the desert. I really like wearing this in the crooks of my arms with long sleeves, since this seems to keep the juicyness around a bit longer. Overall I get desert and a bit of mango salsa and that makes me happy. Like with the other Oblations, I'm so glad I managed to nab a bottle of this one at the last minute.

I've been tossing this in and out of the cart all day, so I decided to go try my imp of it again. And it went right back in my cart. So I thought I'd try to add my thoughts here and help out any other people debating this one. Lavender is pretty much the scent I have been raised on so I'm of course delighted with it. It's a very fresh, clean lavender, with some sort of citrus-herb vibe to it, which means it has my name all over it. It's almost "shower fresh." Shower gel-y. It's kind of biting at first, but calms down and I think is quite gorgeous. Probably one of my favorite BPAL lavenders--very different from the others I've tried. A lot of the other ones seem sort of earthier, and this is, go figure, airier. As aidenraine said, I was surprised to have been drawn to this one since I'm a water sign person (and as a geoscience type I rather like the earth ones too), but the description of this one now that I see it blends beautifully with what I associate as key traits of my personality. I don't know if superconscious is the same as hyperconscious, but I'm going to pretend they are, considering Notes from Underground was a seminal text in my intellectual development (in that case one would think I'd go for Gnome, but that one was stinky on me). I'm not much of a magickal person per se, but I can see the cleanliness of this one helping clear my mind so I can just sit down and right my darn thesis up. Which explains why I am sitting here writing BPAL reviews of course. edit, 1/11/06: Now that I have my full bottle from the anniversary update (as opposed to my decanted imp from earlier this summer), I notice a definite change in the way this smells. It is a ton more herby/green, which I love, so I am definitely not complaining! It now has this chammomile or sage or sweetgrass edge to it. Like breaking off a piece of sagebrush and inhaling deeply from the broken stem. Gorgeous. I may be trying to find another bottle.

There is something very reminiscient of B&BW Sun-Ripened Raspberry in this scent. Maybe the sun-ripened part? Also like Tempest, but with less tang. I like this much better than both Tempest and obviously it's much nicer and more sophisticated than the B&BW scent. As it dries, the berry scent fades and it's very fresh, but still strangely sweet. I can't figure out if there's a whiff of wet sagebrush in there or not, but let me just say that with a strong helping of sage to this I'd be in Montana thunderstorm heaven. This reminds me of one of the best days of my life, mapping Archean metasediments on rolling ranchlands outside of Dillon, sneaking several miles out of our mapping area to find fist-sized garnets, and hightailing it back to the vans trying to beat the storm on the one day I didn't bring my raingear. But with that faint B&BW association I also get a bit of bittersweet 8th grade, my first big crush, and the rainy end of a 26 mile hike around Lake Geneva, WI (ah, junior high outdoor ed). I think this might be a little too fresh-laundry for some noses, and true I have to apply it sparingly or I get a headache, but my romantic notions of western storms are really running away with me here. I'm glad I impulsively purchased this before the Oblations went away.

I think my review of this oil can best be summed up in the following three words: HOT IRISH MAN Is it bad that I sometimes sprinkle a bit on my pillowcase at bedtime? I ordered this last-minute and unsniffed when the Oblations went away, and I am very very grateful that I did. I am also grateful for being single and not having to share this... since I'm sure my hypothetical hunk of manflesh would very much like the results of him wearing it. I can only plead that this come back someday before I sniff my one lonely bottle to death.

(I wrote this last March or so...I have that 5mL now. A favorite for road trips and brewfests.) This seriously smells so good it makes me want to cry. My first thought upon smelling it was a quaint little store in the touristy little town of New Buffalo, MI. This is mostly dandelion and bitter hops on me, and a faint sweetness that might be the tobacco. Summery and fresh, girl-or-boy-next-door, pigtails and freckles, yet languid and lazy. It's stopping at dusk on a cross-country roadtrip, opening up the windows in your motel room and letting in the humid summer night, or stretching your legs at a wayside when you haven't left the car since hot sunny noontime, reveling in the cool breezes carrying the sweet smells of roadside flowers and grasses. This is amazing and comforting as I am trying not to drop out of grad school to become a truck driver. Instead I will drink beers on the porch this summer at twilight while wearing this and play my banjo and be happy and relaxed and maybe ready to write the next day. I am slightly disturbed that "truckstop sleaze" seems to be a comforting and happy, perhaps signature scent on me, but I won't question it. I will definitely be getting a big bottle for this summer because this is what I want my life to smell like.

If you like deserts, try to get your hands on some of this. This isn't a dry desert sage smell like Corazon. This is like hiking along and then ending up in a cool damp canyon with greenery, out of the blazing sun and stifling heat. Damp sandstone walls with little happy mosses growing on them. It smells like my early morning hike in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park. Or investigating petroglyphs along the banks of the Rio Grande. I don't know what plants are there that are also in here, but that's what this smells like. I actually have a hard time identifying notes in this... I would agree there's some sort of piney-ness. When, when, when will this ever be released? My only complaint is that it fades pretty fast (and evaporates out of the imps I have pretty quickly). This is what it smells like. (yes that's a photo from my hike) Oh this is green scent heaven. 10mL, instantly, were it possible.

I was highly suspicious of a cinnamon aroma at first. I avoid pumpkin pie/gingerbread scents like the plague... I like to eat them, but me smelling like them is nauseating. On, my first thought was yucky cinnamon sugar cookie, and I was really upset, but then the musks started poking through, along with the smokiness and I suppose the autumn breezes or whatever. Then it reached this stage where it smelled of this cheap perfume I had in high school, Ici. That was odd. With high school on the brain, this now reminded me of driving way south on LaGrange Road out into (or beyond?) Orland to go to some pumpkin patch place with a corn maze and pig races? Or driving about the west suburbs in my friend's Mustang and stealing construction horses (blinkies, in our terminology) to put on people's lawns. Mischief indeed. I put this on before bed, and was rather liking it as I was falling asleep, but where I had put it when I woke up smelled like dirty men. After a few retries, still dirty men on the drydown. And not in a good way. I really wanted this to work but alas, not for me.

I fricking love Lurid. Everytime I think the currant is too sweet, the wonderful lavender spices it up and kicks it away. The ozone behaves itself quite nicely and I think people who like Vinland might like this... there's a certain element of it in there. I tried going out to the beach to run with this on one arm and Vinland on the other. Both went really well with the pounding waves and wind and pine trees and mist. However, I can't run. Running on sand is not the best way to start out when I haven't been running in forever. So I hiked the three miles instead. Anyway, Lurid is sort of cleaner and more air/water than Vinland--Vinland has more greenery, woods, and flowers along with the ozone and berries. I wish I got more of the white musk, since apparently I love white musk because I would have Oisin's babies if I could. It does peek through from time to time. I don't pick up much resin, which is fine by me. This reminds me of something from my past, but I know not what. Did I mention I love this stuff? It also is slightly akin to Thunderbird (which I love but can be overload on ozone) and Glasgow (nice idea, but went dish-soapy on me). I have decided that Lurid kind of also smells like the Dagoba chocolate with lavender and blueberries tastes... but without the chocolate. Maybe I should acquire some Bliss and test that out.

I have decided to write a proper review of Chiroptera, since I am smitten with it. Yes, I am in deep smit (I stole that from Mike Myers). I think this might be trying to shove Tombstone out of the way for my very favorite BPAL blend. Thus it gets to be my first review on the BPAL forum. In the bottle and wet it's a very sharp herbal with some florals--I can pick out the lavender/sage/thyme (my favorite herbs). It kind of smells like people who get bad allergies should stay far away from it. If it stayed at this intensity I don't think I could wear it. As it dries, the honeysuckle, and I presume the other florals, which I don't recognize, are much more predominant... very sweet. I love honeysuckle since my mom planted honeysuckle bushes in the sandy "yard" outside our cottage in Michigan (yes I know it's invasive but it still smells pretty). This smells like June--pulling up sprouted acorns out of the yard, raking up all our neighbor's leaves that he blew onto our property with his leaf blower during the fall, hanging up wet bathing suits in the fading light after a day at the beach on the clothesline which hangs between the ancient trees where Great Great Uncle Julius used to hang his hammock. This is also thus a very bittersweet scent, since my family's agnosticism and/or "wrong kind of Christianity" will probably prevent us from being able to keep the cottage in the family. Long story. And that's all I should write about that right now because I'm tearing up already. (I originally wrote this review a few months ago--since then my mom has finally talked to a lawyer and there is no way the un-Christian Christians can take our cottage from us, which makes me very very happy) The end result of this oil on me is a light, clean, and fresh herbal and sweet floral...almost soapy. I smell "faintly of herbal soap" and if you can tell me who else (i.e. a character from a book) does than you are just as nerdy as me. Even though I don't like that character. Completely inoffensive; a great everyday spring-summer scent. Interestingly, I don't get much of the lemon or citrus that other people seem to find in this. Gorgeous. Did I mention I love bats too?