lady_pandora

Elf starts out with a blast of moss, then I get evergreen with a hint of roundness or sweetness to it. Pine and its friends can sometimes be harsh, but here it's smoothed out, and I think that must be the beeswax and amber working their magic but without really standing out on their own. There's a hint of berry, and maybe a little mint; it's the cooling sensation like in Wolf Moon 2016. This is a Yule-ish scent to me. I like it and will be keeping the imp.

This is STRONG oakmoss from the get-go, with violet underneath and patchouli in the background. It's weird enough that it took me a few hours to realize I liked it, but I find it oddly soothing. It is kind of medicinal. But I feel mysterious and witchy in it. I'm not quite sure what kind of occasion or mood to wear it for, but for now, I'm keeping this imp. LOADS of staying power, sweeter in the late late drydown.

Gooey, spicy, syrupy peach pie filling! Not the whole pie, just the filling, and no discernible pumpkin. I like peach, and I quite like this! Autumnal vibe. I'm tempted to layer it with Samhain; it kind of reminds me of the way Samhain's apple note works on me, and I think it would play well with the earthier notes there.

My jasmine-amping skin strikes again. This is basically Jasmine SN on me, with maybe the tiniest hint of lemon, and fades quickly. Hearts for Ghost Friends and Hell's Belle evoke NOLA more for me.

I got a little purple baby! The scent of actual king cake is really fresh in my mind, since I had it pretty recently, including a half-hour stint in a warm car where the heat just kept amplifying the AMAZING scent until it took all my self-control not to grab it from the back seat and OM NOM NOM the whole thing right on the spot. King Cake, the perfume, starts out butterscotchy on me, then turns to a buttery, almondy, maybe a little syrupy scent. It reminds me a lot of Hot Buttered Rum. I don't get the impression of a baked cake at this point--it's definitely making me think "liquid"--and my skin is not cooperating very well, because I don't get any of the icing or any cinnamon or filling that the cake might have. It's just super super sweet, liquid, and a little bland. It's actually cooperating better than cake scents usually do on me, but I think I'm still just not cut out to be a cake-scent wearer. Womp womp. After sleeping on it overnight, I do get more of a bready note in the morning. I wonder how this would do as a room scent, since I think the problem is my skin more than anything else.

This starts out with a medicinal lavender, and then turns into the pine solo act. And this pine is a very strong, harsh one on me. It sort of drifts back and forth between "floor cleaner" and "men's aftershave," and just isn't really my thing. Love Silence, though!

I never tried the body butter, but maybe Tamora?

I didn't even order this, but I love it! Thanks to Mystery213 for including a tester of it in my decant order. I would never have picked it out for myself; I'm meh on tea and white musk, and jasmine is usually amped to annoying levels. But this doesn't even really smell like those things, on me! I popped open the imp and instantly made the "unf" sound, which is always a good sign. In the vial and when it's first on my skin, I get a lovely blend of sweetness, floral, and citrus--if I hadn't been looking at the notes, I'd have said honey/orange/lily instead of what's actually here. It's delicate and just sooo pretty. I find myself sniffing my arm constantly just for the pleasure of it. It dries down to a combo of the sweet honey and the bitter lemon peel. I can distinctly make out both the sweetness and the bitterness; they don't cancel each other out, it's more like a bitter candy with a dusting of sweet on the outside, if that makes sense. They enhance each other. The early stages are absolutely divine, and the drydown is also quite nice, and I've been looking for a new lemon scent since exhausting my Seven Herbs Charm. Big bottle imminent! ETA: I think it might be a little like Iulia.

Emphasis on the "ancient" rather than on the spices--Deux gives me a definite "Egyptian sacred funereal oils" vibe. I'm pretty sure there's myrrh in this, which comes out really strongly on me, and rose obviously, as well as whatever incense note always smells a little soapy to me (it's also in Thanatos and in 7 Word Story: Lust). There's enough myrrh that it feels mournful; the most similar oil I can think of is This World, Where Death Reigns. It's not quite what I was looking for in a Luper, but it really is quite beautiful and might find its true calling during the fall or winter. Probably a decant keeper, but I don't need a big bottle.

This is almost a narcissus single note on me, with the amber and vanilla more providing roundness and staying power rather than taking a starring role, and occasional wafts that remind me of sniffing my neighbor's irises as a kid. Really languid and pretty, giving me the impression of purple and gold. Smells amazing the morning after, too. I think the only other narcissus-heavy BPAL I have is Darkness, and this is a very different take on the note--I may need a bottle!

I also get a little lemon in the early going, and then it settles down to be a slightly sweeter Snake Oil, not very different on me from regular Snake Oil. Unfortunately, Snake Oil has never quite been my thing, so it's not quite a fit.

It's so fluffy I'm gonna diiiiieeee! This is just plain fun. Sweet sweet SWEET sugary rose and something that really does give off the impression of floofiness--I don't know how Beth does it! Maybe a light musk of some sort? Girlish and accessible--you could use this to enable your teenage sister into BPAL. There's something mainstream about it, not in an unpleasant way. Do I need a bottle? I might! There have been several occasions where I wanted to smell PINK in great big capital pink foofy letters, and I don't have anything else quite like this.

2018 version. OK, if I hadn't been looking at the notes list, I would have been willing to swear in a court of law that there was orange, or at least orange blossom, in this. It starts with sort of a floral orangey scent, then I get more of the coconut along with some musky sweetness. It's evocative of sunscreen, tropical drinks, and warm skin, and will be a great scent for summer. I don't always mesh with this type of scent, but I'm liking it here. Unfortunately, it fades on me after about an hour. Decant keeper, but probably not a bottle.

This is so pretty! I smiled as soon as I opened the vial and got a whiff. Not much of a morpher on me, this is mostly honey-rose with a little lavender foofing around in the background. I'm going to plagiarize my own post from the testing thread, but this smells like spring in a bottle to me. Soft, pink, dreamy, uber-femme, a little old-fashioned. I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this during the spring, and I definitely need a bottle. And I discovered a new-to-me poet! I know not everybody's into honey, or rose, but if you do like those notes, you need this. ETA: With a couple more wears, have noticed a distinct mintiness in the early stages!

I bought Aegir because I fell in love with the imp of Silence that came in my Black Friday order. I'm already halfway through that imp because it's become my favorite sleep scent. So when I saw lavender and cedar as notes in Aegir, I thought it might hit the spot similarly. It's not quite the same, but I do like it! Aegir starts out a little nutty in the first few minutes, and then becomes lavender/cedar/salt. Others have mentioned that there's something masculine about it, and I would agree, and I'm not sure which note is creating that impression. It would keep Aegir from becoming a day scent for me, but for sleep I don't mind it. It's beautifully calm, soothing, and oceanic without being ozoney. I slept in it last night with good results. I think it would smell amazing on a guy too.

This starts out with a note reminiscent of something like melon? It makes no sense with the listed notes, so my skin or nose is being weird. Then it becomes cinnamon-dominant. In the later hours I can make out frankincense close to the skin, but the throw continues to be all cinnamon. There's nothing objectionable about it, but I have spice blends that stand out more, so this is probably one for the swaps.

Wander Darkling is very much myrrh-dominant on me; I can't make out a lot of the other notes individually, and this scent smells to me like a close relative of some of the other "darkness"-themed scents Beth has done, such as Event Horizon and a couple of the Eclipse 2017 scents I tried. This is awesome, because I've been kicking myself for months for not getting big bottles of any of the Eclipses, and because I love the slight soft rose I pick up in the middle stages of this one, which is gentler than the opium in Event Horizon. Keeper!

I smell patchouli and tobacco and...rain? Seriously, there's something about this that reminds me of that rain smell. It's really refreshing and a nice counter to the fact that the dominant notes in this are on the heavy side. I agree with melodynamite that this isn't sweet like Nasty Woman--I can't make out any of the vanilla or tonka. I admit I bought this because the description moved me, and I didn't even expect to like it--I'm not a big tobacco fan as a general rule--but I like this way better than I expected to. I'm still not sure if it's "me" but I keep going back to sniff my arm.

HFS I love the honey note so much, just gonna huff my arm forever. Honey and snow, pure and simple and so pretteh.

A little lemony in the first few minutes (a bit of lemon balm maybe?) and then becomes a combo of herbs with white floral, with a little woodiness hanging around in the background. Not so much somber for me as just very calm. Without sharing any notes as far as I know, it has a similar vibe to Silence, which I guess makes sense. This one's a winner for me!

There's an herb in this, which I can't identify, which just doesn't get along with my nose, and wafts up to me periodically while wearing the scent. It's a shame, because I feel like the honey-amber core of this is really pretty, and I think on someone else it could be a soothing scent like the review above me describes. I could potentially see using this in a TAL sort of way though, on candles or the like. ETA: I think LizziesLuck is right--the off note is kind of metallic! I wonder what we're picking up on? It's so weird!

This is one of those "smells like the BPAL box" scents on me, and it was driving me nuts all night trying to figure out why it seemed so specifically familiar, and I finally pinned it down: it's a close relative of The White Witch. Which kind of makes sense when I look at the note list--4 notes in common--and also makes sense thematically! And it came along at just the right moment for me, when (a) I'm almost out of The White Witch, ( I've been amping red musk too much, and so it's fortuitous to find a "sister" oil without that one note, and © the Women's March is tomorrow, and I shall be nastying up the place. I really like it; it's a little hippie and a little fruity and a little incensey and very comfortable on my skin chemistry.

This scent is weird but I think I like it. Initially the throw is medicinal, eucalyptus maybe or something camphoraceous, and the skin scent is more of a smoky wood. Gradually the throw calms down and the apple comes out more in the skin scent, though there's still a chilly edge to it from the medicinal note. Makes me think of melancholy late fall.

I get a cloud of incense, I think including red musk, over the wood note that was in the eponymous Crimson Peak. Pretty and ethereal and a little spooky.

I think you'd like Spellbound in the GC (musky incensey rose), CIcuta in the Vampires (rose/incense/candle smoke), and Elizabeth of Bohemia (rose and oudh) from the Lupers if you can get a hold of some. It appeared in a couple of different years and I don't think it's super rare.