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For me this is lots of rose in the bottle, then rose and dirt and moss when freshly applied. The rose quickly damps down and is overtaken by the earthy dirt. It's a nice kind of dirt. Unfortunately this faded even further on me. I would be tempted anyway, but I already have Penny Dreadful which gives me a sort of gingery dirt smell plus perfume, and I don't need two so closely related.

I got this as a frimp. It wasn't one I'd looked at before - the notes had never stuck out to me much. I liked this a lot - it's a nice, well-blended scent. But I don't think I fell for it enough to buy a bottle. When I first put it on, I smelt ginger, something lemony and the fresh grass coming through. As it dried, it became a lovely well-rounded amber scent. The ginger mostly faded away for me. In fact it was very soft generally. I liked it but I don't think it's quite strong enough for my skin chemistry.

This started off as a pleasant incense tinged with berries, but somehow turned to soap on drydown. Not too disappointed as it was a frimp but it's not for me.

Floral, green, soapy. If there had been a lot of fig it could've been a winner, but alas, not on my skin.

Violet, mint, and on my skin there's a strange sweetness too - maybe the ylang ylang. Five minutes later and it turns into Playdoh. Ten minutes later and I'm turning into an old lady. I quite liked the sound of this one, but my skin clearly hates it. Bah!

Just got an imp of this and I like it! It's green, fresh, citrussy, with a hint of ginger. My only concern (for me), is that I get the impression it's going to be one of those light disappearing scents, or that it's 'nice' but that if I got a bottle I wouldn't return to it much. Hmm, this is one to keep as an imp for a while and see how I get on with it, I think.

In the imp I get all the notes in the description. On my arm it is initially very green/herby but the tea has disappeared. A few moments later, it is mostly tea leaf left behind, but although I love tea it somehow isn't working with my chemistry and just smells a bit dirty (and not in a good way! I like Penny Dreadful, for example).

Green, fresh and fruity in imp form. All sparkly rose on my arm initially. It feels very 'young'. I like BPAL's rose note and I don't dislike this, but I just don't know if it's special enough to order. For now I think I'll keep the imp and see if I go back to it.

Reminds me a little of Hell's Belle. Otherwise I'm mostly getting red musk and the orchid and it's nice, but on my skin nothing special. Sorry lovely perfume.

Snake Oil, it's nice to meet you again. I tried Snake Oil early on in my BPAL life and just wasn't that impressed and sold it on. I think it felt a bit 'nothingy' among the other very distinct perfumes I'd ordered. After a bit of an absence from BPAL this was one of the scents I was keen to go back to. I like Dorian and thought it'd be a good companion scent. And I was right! It's soft and sexy and vanilla with a hint of spice. Just lovely. I can't wait until this bottle has aged a bit.

Anne Bonny is all frankincense and patchouli on my skin. I can't detect the sandalwood, though I guess it might be balancing things in the background. It's strong and sweet, deep and resiny. It makes me feel confident when I wear it, as if there's some pirate blood in my veins.

This is one of my favourite scents at the moment. I'm not usually a fan of citrussy perfumes, but in this the mandarin is grounded by the cocoa. It's deep and earthy on my skin rather than sharp and metallic (which is what citrus usually does to me). My only concern is having to tell people that I'm wearing 'The Great Sword of War' as a perfume!

This is a beautiful rose scent to my nose. It's a rose that will never lose its beauty - dried petals perhaps. There's something more solid and permanent behind it - the incense maybe? It's classic and pure but not too girly or overly green and fresh. After dithering for a year or so, I've finally decided to order a 5ml of it

Fascinating post - thank you! It certainly made me think. I knew part of the story, but not that she'd sold so much BPAL here.

On me, this is a strong amber/vanilla scent - almost sickly sweet/foody. It lasted quite a while. It is nice, but I'm trying to cut down on the amount of vanillas I own, so this won't be a bottle purchase for now. But I will keep the frimp I got for random sniffages.

I really like Port Royal. Somehow, between ordering it and receiving it, I'd convinced myself that it would just be a not-so-hot Jolly Roger. Thankfully, it more than exceeded those rather pathetic expectations. On my wrists, this is spiced old woods - treasure chests - with just a touch of salt air. Mmmmm. An instant favourite.

I can't decide whether I like this or not, whether I want to keep it or not. It's mostly spicy on me, and a little plummy. It's very strong at first, and after a while I lose the ability to detect any separate notes, other than a general spiciness. I suspect I might like it on cold days that need brightening up, but am still unsure whether to keep it

This is a lovely scent. It's soft and sweet and it's possible to easily detect the sweet-pea, the vanilla and the amber. However, I found it very sweet, just like Dorian is. They do have different qualities (Dorian is more lemony), but on my skin both turned to sweet vanilla. Mouse's vanished first though, so I decided to pass my bottle on.

I've fallen for Annabel Lee and it's unlike any of the other BPAL scents I own. Can anyone think of something similar to it?

I'm pretty sure that I'm one of the people who sold you a Seance 5ml, and it could just be a difference in opinion/chemistry thing, because I *did* get rose from it, though it wasn't hugely strong.

I love my Geek, but am afraid I'm allergic to it. I wore it on Friday and sneezed all day as if I was full of cold (and I was fine the next day, so clearly not ill). I tried sniffing it again just now and had another sneezing fit. It can't be the leather or patchouli, as I have other scents with those in, which leads me to wonder what else it could be. I hope it doesn't affect anything else I like!

I could smell everything at once with this scent - the mix of tea and bergamot, and the leather, too. I was worried about it's longevity, after reading some reviews, but on me (and I'm not particularly a slatherer), this lasts as well as pretty much everything else I have. It's a light scent, sure, but I could still smell it on my wrists at the end of a day at work. The scent reminds me of sipping on earl grey, while I'm reading a book. I love it! This scent has instantly jumped into my top five. I'd say top three, but Alice keeps fighting for that spot too.

This is a really *interesting* scent. To my nose, it smells mostly loamy in the bottle - reminding me strongly of Graveyard Dirt, which I thought was a great scent, but not something I'd particularly want *me* to smell of. Once I put it on, I began to get hints of the soft perfume. The perfume smell is hard to describe - slightly spicy, very slightly floral (I couldn't pick out individual notes) - I like it very much, actually. I wanted to love Zombi, but found the rose overpowering - this is a similar smell but without the rosiness and something much nicer (from my perspective) in its place. I'm not sure whether this is the kind of scent my husband will like on me - it's very earthy/dirty. However, *I* like it on me, which is clearly more important. Glad I jumped straight to a 5ml.

Sweet, smoky and sensually wicked. A thick, steamy scent, truly sinister in its voluptuous sexuality. The perfume of a demon's favored consort, or of the devil herself. Oleander with wet, sweet mandarin, lush magnolia, a rush of deep musk and a touch of spice. One of the few florals that I really like, and long-lasting to boot (on me). I only bought this scent (unsniffed in bottle form) because of the name - I'm a Helen, and people sometimes call me 'Hel' (or even Hell's Belle). I'm glad I got it. This scent makes me feel sexy. I wouldn't wear it to work - but I'd definitely wear it for a date or a night out or just to make myself feel good in the evening. The smokiness, florals and sweetness all combine into something really beautiful here.

I almost feel as everything I could say about this scent has already been said, but I guess that's not going to stop me. This is a very sugary sweet smell, slightly citrus-y, with tea. Does what it says on the tin, in other words, but it is a lot sexier than you might think from the notes alone. This isn't something I'd put on in the hot summer mornings, but instead it's something I turn to when I read in the evenings, or during the cooler months. Dorian will always be (ok, I'm guessing, but I think so) a top three scent for me. It's the reason I'd never be able to walk away from my BPAL addiction, even if I wanted to