Blood onmy hands

The Anise Swallowtail is a creature of wide open spaces. She flies through wide open spaces, over hills and through lots abandoned by humankind, dancing among dill, parsley, fennel, and wild carrots. Bourbon vanilla, star anise, cypress, juniper berry, a drop of blood orange, and bronze fennel. Anise Swallowtail reminds me of Golden Priapus with its smooth, cool evergreen notes and lots of creamy, lightly sweet vanilla. The cypress, juniper and fennel are green, frosty, slightly herbal, and slightly camphorous, without smelling like full-on menthol or mint or anything harsh. This reminds me quite a bit of Tokyo Milk's "Arsenic" fragrance as well, especially as it dries down (that one is notes of 'absinthe, vanilla salt, cut greens and crushed fennel'). Cool, green, and lots of vanilla.

Russet amber and orange blossom honey, red labdanum and wild plum, golden musk and a rustle of patchouli root. Mostly orange blossom honey and patchouli in the bottle, and it's a lovely, creamy, sweet orange blossom and dry patchouli. I wish that this is the scent that showed up on my skin, but that's not to be. On my skin, this actually gets sweeter (a bit cloying) and more powdery than I would like, and the patchouli instantly disappears and never returns. There's a weird, slightly funky soapiness that makes me think of rest room soap, and I think that's the honey note going a bit urine-like on me, and the orange blossom trying to clean it up. The amber and musk form a powdery, perfumey cloud around the intensely sweet honey and slight funkiness. No plum or patchouli for me, unfortunately.

Drifting low to the ground, this tiny, tough butterfly searches for nectar and mates in vacant lots and coastal flats. Orange blossom and brimstone. I love orange blossom and tend to hate ashy, soot-y, smoky fragrances. I'm really happy that this is about 90% orange blossom on me, and only 10% of a smoky scent that actually isn't that bad. Dainty Sulphur is mostly strong, beautiful orange blossom. Slightly waxy, super creamy, white floral with sweet, ripe orange. Very realistic and natural smelling, and has a tropical vibe to it, like being covered in a wreath of orange blossoms. The smokiness hides under the sweet orange and adds more of a dark, sexy growl than woodsmoke or ash. It reminds me of the way that black musk can sometimes have a smokiness to it. This is one of my favorites of this year's butterflies.

A child of summer, the woodnymph sips moisture from the sand and flits through grasses and wild buckwheat. Hay and grasses with two eyespots of cacao and tonka. Great Basin Woodnymph is lovely, and I can pick out all four of the listed notes. I enjoy green grass fragrances, but they are difficult for me to wear, as they usually take on a too green, slightly sour, sharp edge. The toasty hay with its soft, lemony scent and the sweet creaminess of the tonka and cocoa are wonderful, though, and take the sharpness out of the green grass. I always get this lemony scent from bpal's hay notes, like in Hay Moon. The toasty notes, lemon and vanilla-ish tonka swirl together and smell like having a decadent little lemon cream tart on a bed of dying grasses. I like the fresh, outdoorsy gourmand feel.

The El Segundo Blue butterfly is endangered, and only three colonies remain: one at Los Angeles International Airport, one at an oil refinery, and one on a tiny patch of SoCal beach. Sand and sea salt, murky beach water, a gust of peony, and a drop of petroleum. Bpal's aquatics tend to go soapy on me, and this one does too, but the sharp salt and dark, murky notes are keeping it interesting for me. I smell this and can't help but think of "Duma Key," which is my favorite Stephen King novel. It's like a haunted beach along the ocean, with a storm rolling in and the twang of sharp, salty ozone in the air. The peony, I think, adds a rich, round sweetness to the scent, sort of a juicy, heady floral in the storm. I'm actually shocked by how much I've been enjoying El Segundo Blue. I think this is my favorite bpal aquatic ever. It manages to feel beautiful, but dark and creepy, at the same time.

This and Queen Butterfly are the two that smell better in the bottle than on me this year. In the bottle, this is a beautiful scent of earthy patchouli and tobacco, sweetened with a baked blueberry note, warmed up with amber, and made all creamy from the coconut. On my skin, the blueberry and lilac quickly amp up and are a little too sweet for me, and the tobacco note goes smoky in the background. Blueberry candy and cigarette smoke. It also fades really fast on me and stays close to my skin with not much throw, which is strange for all of the deeper base notes.

Cabbage White is a loud, white, powdery, sweet explosion of a scent on my skin. The orris is powdery, silvery, and sweet like powdered sugar covered iris petals, the lily smells clean, but also rich, waxy, and of honeyed pollen, and the vanilla cream just furthers the sweetness. It's quite a bit like Possets' Silver Lily fragrance, only richer and heavier. I like all of these notes, but together they are almost overwhelming on me. Perhaps a bit too sweet on my skin. I do like how this is a bold, heavy fragrance with notes that I usually consider to be softer and quieter, though. It smells like a very aggressive, intense, sugar hyped lily on me, and I'm sure that there will be a time to wear this, but it'll never be an every day, casual scent to me.

I love lilacs. I have over a dozen planted in my yard now, just because I love their honeyed, creamy fragrance so much. They strike a perfect balance between sweetness and a fresh, springtime airiness. Echo Azure is mostly lilac on me, with a bit of blackberry bush peeking out from underneath as a tangy, slightly herbal, super realistic blackberry. The only thing that throws me off about this is that I associate lilac blooms with early spring and blackberries with late summer, and this scent is so realistic that it almost makes me feel lost in time (not a bad thing, just a strange-ness within me, lol). Overall, it has this dreamlike, soft, purple feel to it that I really enjoy, and is a beautiful mix of sweet and clean tones.

Snake Oil with orris, white frankincense, and black copal. My original, short review for King Cobra: "On me, King Cobra smells like someone removed the sweet parts of Snake Oil and added in some woodsmoke where the vanilla sweetness would have been. It smells like some sort of dark musk & wood smoke, and it's just too sharp and acrid for my tastes." Aged after several years, it's mostly sweet, powdery orris and Snake Oil vanilla with hints of woodsmoke. Aged, it seems like a lot of the Snake Pit blends have become more vanilla-y. I digress. This new version doesn't smell like orris, frankincense or copal to me. It smells like a very clean, perfumey, chemical musk. If I didn't know what I was wearing, I would have guessed some sort of white musk single note. I would never pick out the frankincense or copal. As it dries down, it's the same, but I'm noticing the smokiness of Snake Oil and some powdery vanilla. It's a cleaner, muskier Snake Oil to my nose. I'm very curious to read other reviews of these.

I don't like plain Snake Oil at all (aged or fresh), but I love most of the Snake Oil blends (why? some sort of magic), and I loooove patchouli and Dragon's Milk, so I snagged two bottles of this heavenly creature. Dragon-Smooched reminds me of Schwarzer Mond, the original MMe Moriarty, and a bit of Banshee Beat. I feel like they would all hang out and be extremely close, loyal friends who share clothes and take swigs out of the same bottle. Smooched is like Schwarzer Mond's amazingly dark, plush, resins with that cola-like sweetness, and the patchouli turned waaaay up. Then the drydown has the sensual vanilla of Snake Oil/Mme Moriarty, along with the red dragon's blood going all sultry and red-fruity-ish on my skin. The patchouli is gorgeous all the way through. It's dark, earthy, slightly spicy patchouli that's so rich and perfect. A lot of patchouli blends lately have felt flat, too dry, or sour to my nose, but this one is bold and beautiful. It smells like an elegant, sensual, oriental perfume. I would have guessed at red musk, vanilla, patchouli, and a hint of honey if I were smelling this blindly. It is fantastic on my skin. I was trying to be nice by only buying two bottles of this and leaving some for everyone else, but now I wish I had not cared . Smooched has already shot up into my bpal top 10, and I love that the label is a picture of itself. I don't know why I find that so amusing.

cold first winter rain poor monkey, you too could use a woven straw cape Compassion: pink lotus root and fig milk with ylang ylang, bourbon vanilla, soft myrrh, fir, khus, and sandalwood incense. I bought this mostly because of the adorable monkey on the label and the cute description, but it has wound up being one of my favorites of the Yule scents I purchased this year. Poor Monkey is a very foodie fragrance on my skin. I love the lab's fig note, and the fig and lovely bourbon vanilla are the strongest notes on my skin. It's like figs drenched in milky vanilla cream with a slice of moist vanilla cake and slight, sweet spice to it. There's a soft swirl of sweet lotus floral perfume, temple incense and sweet myrrh, and a hint of fir that fades in and out of the fragrance. But it's mostly fig milk and bourbon vanilla, with the other notes keeping things interesting and more perfume-like in the background. I really love this one <3

On me, this smells like a little dish of rose scented hand soaps next to a dish of old, dusty, cinnamon potpourri. The rose comes off as very sharp, sour, perfumey, and soapy, mixed with very dusty, dry spices. This is a scrubber for me.

I like the GC blend The Knave of Hearts a lot more than this one (for red roses and a pastry scent). I don't really smell anything gourmand, buttery or cookie-ish in Cinq. On me, Cinq smells like a mix of fresh, dewy rose and a sweet-ish rose dusting powder. More and more powdery on me over time. Pleasant and simple, but I don't need more than the decant.

The almond in this smells like that maraschino cherry/almond extract type of almond, which I really don't care for. It starts off all almond extract, but finally starts to fade after about a half hour (which is too long for me), and then I can smell red rose and a hint of sharp black leather. The rose goes slightly soapy on me in the drydown. I prefer Whip in the GC for a black leather & red rose fragrance. I think that Whip is a lot stronger than Six and doesn't have the almond extract or soapy thing happening in it.

Quatre smells awful on me, like someone took a chocolate scented marker and scribbled over a single rose, stem and leaves and all. Chemical chocolate, sour greenery, and sharp rose. Surprisingly sharp and chemical. The chocolate note in this is not agreeing with me, but I usually don't like milk/dark chocolate + rose fragrances (rose and vanilla forever!).

I like orris, but I don't smell any of its sweet, powdery tones in this. Trois is all about rose and ambergris. Bpal's ambergris always smells a bit like hints of clean, salty aquatic mixed into a golden, slightly spicy amber to me. I'm picking up on the ambergris and a dewy, but slightly sharp, musky, and perfumey rose. My favorite roses tend to be very creamy and sweet, and I don't know if this one is quite sweet enough for me. Still, very pretty.

A lot of my favorite scents are vanilla-rose or candied-rose, so I was excited for this one, but I honestly don't smell anything like vanilla or cotton candy here. It's not as sweet as LUSH's Rose Jam is to me either. It's more of a fresh, fruity rose scent on my skin, like rosewater and citrus-y berries mixed into a red rose perfume.

Fortuna Mala is simple and enjoyable to me. The vetiver isn't that charred, smoky bbq variety, and it melds into the patchouli to form a dry, warm, earthy scent that makes me think of dried out potting soil and dead grass. It smells like a dry black patchouli. Earthy and dry, lightly sweet, with the clove coming out more and more in the drydown. It's a sweet, spicy, warm clove that isn't turning to cinnamon on me (a lot of bpal's latest clove blends read more as cinnamon on me for some reason). An hour in, a smokiness has curled up from the scent, and it reminds me of smoky clove cigarettes and spicy dead leaves over an earthy base. Strong on me for about three hours and then fades quickly after that. If I hadn't recently stocked up on tons of clove oils from various companies, I might consider a full bottle of this one.

I have a few bacon scents that I enjoy (bpal's Milk Chocolate, Cassia and Bacon truffle is wonderful, and Possets' Tricky is yummy too), but I think they have to be mixed with sweeter notes to be tolerable as an actual perfume. This is charred, super smoky, burnt bacon and a strange, greasy, oily smell. Dries down like artificial bacon bits (dry, salty, strange) and smoke. Pretty similar to the Bacon oil from Indigo Fragrances.

Sweet, dark brown, slightly earthy tobacco that has a chocolate-y quality on my skin. I just wish that the jasmine note were sweeter and not a sour, soapy variety. The tobacco reminds me a bit of a less spicy Bulgarian Tobacco, which I love, but the jasmine isn't working for me.

Bpal's oud and red patchouli both tend to go funky on me (the first smelling like fecal matter and the latter smelling like sweaty men), and there's enough of both in this to make this smell dirty and wrong on my skin. Other than that, I'm getting perfumey, sharp red rose and the fruity/red wine and slight spiciness of the blood musk.

Another fail from my luper order. It's a kind of animalic/poopy smelling musk, tons of baby powder, and a nag champa incense smell. Headshoppy, too powdery, and has a strange, plasticy edge like walking into a craft store and smelling hints of sharp cinnamon potpourri and the plasticy-clean scent of lots of fake, plastic flowers and wreaths. Strangely clean and way too powdery for me, and the clove is coming off as sharp, dry cinnamon to my nose. I was hoping for sweet, dark resins and Snake Charmer coconut with clove, but this is intensely powdery, clean, and off smelling to me. Very strong and gave me a headache after about a half hour, at which point I just scrubbed it off and gave up. I'm going to be giving away my bottle of this.

I find King Cake to be really cloying and unpleasant. It is one of those very simple foodie scents that make me think of walking into a Yankee Candle store. I was drawn in by the promise of cream cheese frosting, but I'm not smelling that at all. I was worried about the almond, but I don't smell any almond either. This smells like maple syrup, butter and brown sugar. It's too sweet and has a waxy edge to it in the drydown that makes it seem even more like a candle scent. Smells like maple syrup, butter and brown sugar, but waxy and artificial. I love gourmand scents, but this one is just unwearable for me.

This goes very wrong and headache-inducing on my skin, with a sharp, perfumey, soapy white floral and hints of sour, green grass. Nothing like vanilla, woods or cereal for me, just amped up perfume floral.

Powdery, golden amber, a cold and chilly sort of metallic note, and a cold, creamy, clean, aquatic-floral, green stem scent that I'm guessing is the olive blossom. Like a clean, crisp, metallic cologne mixed with a woman's frosty floral perfume and powdery finish. Makes me think of lilies, waterplants, and gleaming, shiny, silver metal. Just slightly soapy and with a slight honeyed note as it dries down. It does give off a powerful, womanly feel to me. I usually hate powdery amber, but the powder isn't overwhelming everything else here. Floral, clean, metallic, pretty, lightly honeyed...