Blood onmy hands

In the bottle, this smells like wonderful planty things and cool earth <3. It really smells like a garden. Both of my parents love/loved to garden. Our garden was always filled with at least three things - tomatoes, green beans, and strawberries. Planting Moon smells so much like the green bean section of our garden. It's a green, soft, fuzzy, earthy smell. Really good, slightly damp, happy soil and healthy green beans. As it dries down, I can smell a hint of the spicy tomato leaf creeping in. Love. I am in love. I'm so glad that this is the May lunacy. I can pretend that it's my birthday scent now, lol. Planting Moon is just a perfect, uncomplicated, vegetable garden fragrance. Earthy and awesome. I'm very glad to have a bottle, as this is such a comforting, familiar scent to me. ETA: My bottle of this did not age well at all after a year. Turned to a faint, watery green pepper and plastic-y smell.

In the imp, this smells like gummi bears, or perhaps more like those peach flavored gummis. On my skin... burnt sugar and a sharp citrus, like lemon drops. It's cloying and a bit sickening to me. Other reviewers mentioned chocolate and fig notes, but I'm not getting anything like chocolate, fig, or earthiness. After fifteen minutes, this is just lemon drops with an edge of burnt sugar. It's a very candied smell, but it's too sweet and simple for me. This is a light scent that doesn't have lots of throw, but it's still making me feel a bit nauseous. The Tree is just too sweet for me.

In the imp, this smells like pine trees and ferns - all green and fresh. On my skin, Bohun Upas smells like one of those green pine tree air fresheners that people hang on the mirrors in their cars. Air freshener pine. It reminds me of Dublin. Over time, it gets more soapy-fresh on me, like fabric softener sheets. It's still artifically pine-y as well. Joining the soapy-pine is a hint of spice that smells like cinnamon on me. Air freshener, fakey pine and a hint of spice. This isn't a keeper for me.

I love apple fragrances, but I've come to realize that bpal's apple notes just don't tend to work out for me. It always turns out to be spice instead of apple, or it turns soapy, or it fades within five minutes. The apple in Apple of Sodom seems to be the spice-instead-of-apple variety. It's a sweet cinnamon. I guess that it might want to be apple cider, but there's no fruit that I can pick out. Just spice. And I amp up spices, so that's all I get from this. I was afraid of the ash, but any ash in this is bound and gagged by the cinnamon. So... this is cinnamon on me. That's all.

In the vial, this smells like potting soil and something sweet. On my skin, it's not a black potting soil smell, but a rich, freshly dug dirt. It doesn't smell terribly dusty or dry on me, but the earth is less damp earth and more dry earth, if that makes sense. As this dries down, I might smell a hint of sweet, tropical floral, but mostly it keeps making me think of earth and gingerbread cookies. Something about it is just spicy and warm on my skin. Yorick smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie, trampled thoroughly into brown soil (with some crunchy, dry leaves), with a tropical flower thrown on top to mark its grave. After a half hour, the spice is more like a sharp cinnamon. It sort of stings my nose when I smell it. This isn't awful, but I think that it's going into my swap pile. The floral and sharp spice aspects of this start to smell sour and off to me after a while.

In the bottle, this smells of dandelions with a hint of grass. On my skin at first... dandelions with a hint of grass. I love the lab's dandelion note. It's so perfect and true to real life dandelions - milky sweetness plus that green bitterness. The grass pokes out a bit more, smelling just like fresh, green grass, but this remains mostly dandelion on my skin. After a half hour, this is more floral than grassy. It makes me think of trampled flowers... crushed green stems and a few scattered, sweet smelling petals. The dandelion is still holding strong, though, adding some charming weeds to the proper flowers. I definitely recognize the sweet, rosy smelling heather note from Glasgow. Heather, dandelion, and a hint of green grass. It's gorgeous, girly, and perfect for spring/summer. I think this is a floral that I can actually wear. This is definitely my favorite of the dandelion/grass type scents that bpal has released thus far.

Velvet Panther was the velvet I was most excited about. I love all of the notes in it, except for the dark musk and the sometimes-iffy mandarin. In the bottle, this smells sweet & dark. I think that I can pick out a vanilla, sweet citrus, and some incensey, resinous qualities. On my skin at first, Velvet Panther sort of smells like a soft, sexy orange creamsicle. I get a creamy vanilla, sweet orange, and muskiness. As it dries down, it smells very different, though. It loses its sweetness after a few minutes, and starts to go powdery. It smells like baby powder, a hint of earthy herbs, a hint of sharp citrus, and a good dose of perfumey musk. Over time, Velvet Panther smells more and more like pure baby powder on me. I'll keep my bottle and hope that this is less powdery with age. I'm not even sure what note(s) in this could be going powdery at the moment. Boo...

In the imp, this smells like something clean (soapy herbs?) plus Dee. It's like an incensey, dry tobacco with soft leather. On my skin... dry, slightly sweet tobacco leaves with a hint of smoky black leather. I don't get the floral or greenery that others have mentioned. As it dries down, there's something perfumey and golden about this, and something slightly cloying. Gold, golden musk, leather, tobacco smoke, and a hint of rotting fruit. Leipreachan's leathery-incensey-tobacco qualities remind me a lot of Dee, but this is lighter and more musky on me than Dee is. Something about it keeps making me think of gold when I smell this, which is quite interesting. It really is a cool, metallic, golden smell.

I love these scrubs. I'm not crazy about Olwen's scent, just because I don't like honey, but the scent isn't overly strong or offensive at all. In the jar, it's mostly honey + mint, and it turns into more of a honey + carnation spice scent as I rub it in and wash it off. I hate scrubs that are too oily, and these ones are awesome in that they are super moisturizing, but they don't leave a film of oil on my skin. The scrub almost feels like a really thick, scrubby gel to me. It melts into my skin, is perfectly exfoliating, & leaves my skin moisturized. Love. My feet & hands are so soft & happy whenever I use one of these scrubs. If they weren't so expensive, I'd buy them by the dozens, lol.

Partial bottle CLXIX. This morphs like crazy on my skin, but it does smell really good for the most part. In the bottle & on my skin at first, it reminds me of Sugar Slathered Candy Apple, but darker, richer, and better. I get something crisp and slightly fruity smelling, smothered in sugar (brown sugar, burnt sugar, and not quite caramel-goodness). It has a dry smell that reminds me of walnuts as well. As it dries down on my skin, it has a perfumey apple + musk quality that's keeping all of that sweetness in check. Then suddenly it morphs into smelling like burnt sugar, caramel apple, and coffee for about an hour. My boy hates coffee, so it bothered him a bit. It dries down to burnt sugar and crisp fruitiness for me. It's sort of like Sugar Skull, but not quite as obnoxious, lol. I wouldn't say that this smells anything like Dorian, though. Last reviewed by DangerInRed.

CCXII. In the bottle: Um, I don't know, really. It definitely has an aggressive smell to it, but I have no clue what it is. When I first smelled it, I recoiled & was like, "What the hell?" but after sniffing it a few more times, it kind of grew on me. Perhaps a sweet smoke and overall dark, spooky feel? On my skin... I definitely smell O with its dark honeyed sweetness and powdery amber. But this is like a creepier, angsty O, all dressed up for Halloween and sneaking around in the dark after stealing liquor from its parents. It makes me think of dry leaves and faroff bonfires. As it dries down, it smells like O and sticky, fizzy cola + stale champagne, with a lingering bit of smokiness. I like this, and I don't generally have good luck with Chaos Theory blends. I don't need more than my partial bottle, but I'll enjoy what I do have of this blend. It's an amusing scent.

I'm pretty sure that this is number CXI. The silver pen has issues :/ In the bottle, this smells like banana candies. Oh no. It's that cloying, powdery, sickly sweet banana candy smell. On my skin, it's banana candies and cream? Over time, the banana is less fake smelling and obnoxious. It smells almost like real bananas, vanilla icecream, and pie crust. It's very foodie on me for a while. I can smell the Penitence in the drydown as well, adding a touch of bright, sharp resins. After a half hour, it just smells like Penitence and nothing more.

I don't tend to like pomegranate fragrances. Pom is usually too tart and/or powdery for my tastes. It usually reminds me of sweet tarts candies. So, to my surprise, I really like Proserpina. It smells a lot like Skadi in the bath & on my skin afterwards. I definitely smell some frosty pine & snow note in this. And the pomegranate smells like juicy, frosty berries. I don't get any floral. I'll definitely use up my decant of this, and might have to buy a full bottle if it's ever up for sale again.

In the bottle... I dunno about this. It smells like cherry cough syrup and evil. It's like the kind of cough syrup that they try to mask with wayyy too much sweetness, so it turns into a cloying mess. On my skin, this is still insanely sweet at first. The currant and rhubarb smell like they got drunk and gorged themselves on sugar until they exploded. Thankfully, the champaca and myrrh rush in to clean up the scene. The champaca + myrrh smell like a really sexy, sultry, incense, which is beautiful & interesting over the intensely sugared fruitiness. This is surprisingly lovely on me, and quite a unique fruity-incense combo. All in all, I like and would wear all three of the blends in this set (on their own, not layered together). Mixing Marotte, Coxcomb, & Motley together (I mixed a couple drops of each together in a vial): Smells like musk and fruit. On my skin, the combined musks seem to amp up and this is a very warm scent. There's a hint of pear and redcurrant drowning underneath the musks. As it dries down, it's warm musk and baby powder, which is weird, because neither of the three original scents went powdery on their own :/. After a half hour, this is powdery musk and an earthy, burnt rubber smell. Like the Red Rose/White Rose set, I much prefer the scents separately. Separately, Marotte, Coxcomb, and Motley are all loves for me. Together, they morph into an uber-musk that just smells cheap and strange on my skin.

In the bottle, this smells like gorgeous, sweet, smooth incense and a sweet musk. I have a hard time wearing musk notes; they have a tendency to go sharp, cheap smelling, and headache inducing on my skin. But the musk here is just lovely. It's like a sweet, resinous musk that dries down to a spicy, sweet musk. It's not cinnamon-spice or anything like that, but it did remind me of cooking. It's a smooth, sweet smell rather than a sharp one. I can also definitely smell the red currant, which is always a bit sour on me. Coxcomb is sour, tart, red fruitiness from the currant and a sweet, resinous, slightly spicy musk. It's really lovely. Mixing Marotte, Coxcomb, & Motley together (I mixed a couple drops of each together in a vial): Smells like musk and fruit. On my skin, the combined musks seem to amp up and this is a very warm scent. There's a hint of pear and redcurrant drowning underneath the musks. As it dries down, it's warm musk and baby powder, which is weird, because neither of the three original scents went powdery on their own :/. After a half hour, this is powdery musk and an earthy, burnt rubber smell. Like the Red Rose/White Rose set, I much prefer the scents separately. Separately, Marotte, Coxcomb, and Motley are all loves for me. Together, they morph into an uber-musk that just smells cheap and strange on my skin.

In the bottle, this smells wonderfully juicy, sweet, and crisp. I thought of red apples, but I guess that I must be smelling the pear. On my skin, this is still dominated by the pear. I usually amp amber (and bpal's amber tends to turn to baby powder), but all I can smell is the crisp pear and a bit of perfumey musk. With all of the listed notes, I thought that this would be more of a complex scent. I also thought that it would be darker and more earthy, with the mahogany and patchouli. But it's not, and I'm complaining . I really love that crisp pear note (which still smells like red apples to me, lol). Mixing Marotte, Coxcomb, & Motley together (I mixed a couple drops of each together in a vial): Smells like musk and fruit. On my skin, the combined musks seem to amp up and this is a very warm scent. There's a hint of pear and redcurrant drowning underneath the musks. As it dries down, it's warm musk and baby powder, which is weird, because neither of the three original scents went powdery on their own :/. After a half hour, this is powdery musk and an earthy, burnt rubber smell. Like the Red Rose/White Rose set, I much prefer the scents separately. Separately, Marotte, Coxcomb, and Motley are all loves for me. Together, they morph into an uber-musk that just smells cheap and strange on my skin.

In the bottle, this is intensely pink. It sort of smells like pink bubblegum to me, and lots of pink, sugary candy. I *love* the lab's gin note and was hoping that it would keep this from smelling cloying on me. Unfortunately, I don't smell much of the gin, and this is overwhelmingly sweet on me. I wanted this to be like Blue Fire, with strawberry instead of blueberry, but the candy is just too overpowering. This is loads of pink candy, sugar, and a hint of gin (which I always recognize as smelling like the blend Twenty-One, lol). And the gin disappears entirely after fifteen minutes, leaving me with crazed pink sugar candy and strawberry candy. It's much too much sweetness for me to handle. I thought that I'd love this blend and that Velvet Unicorn would be too sweet, but it's definitely the other way around. Velvet Pink Kitty is cloying enough to give me a headache

XXV (decant from angelicruin <3). In the vial, this smells like the lab's blackberry note. It's a creamy, almost citrussy blackberry. On my skin at first, it's blackberry and a clean orange smell, I think. It doesn't *really* smell like Dorian, but I can kinda convince myself that there's a clean tea note in here. As it dries down, it smells like orange hard candy and clean tea with a hint of berry (and the berry part now reminds me a lot of Jester). It's a bit dryer-sheet-fresh. Jester, orange candy, and dryer sheets. Not so much on the Dorian.

In the vial, all that I can smell is a sweet, SWEET honey. Bpal's honey notes sometimes smell sharp/metallic on me rather than sweet, but this one is definitely sweet. Lotus usually smells rather nice, sweet, and bubblegummy on my skin, but I don't smell that here. I'm getting more a sharp, white floral smell than the usual sweet lotus smell. As this dries down on my skin, it's mostly a sweet honey, with a sharp, perfumey white floral something in the background. The floral aspect of this gets way too sharp and artificial for me, and starts to smell like cheap, metallic hairspray on me after a while. It's more like tuberose than lotus on me. Honey and cheap hairspray (sort of like honey + bpal's Stardust on me). This is not a keeper for me. It starts to give me a vicious headache after a while.

In the vial, this smells like eucalyptus/menthol/vaporub and a dark green, planty, herbal something. On my skin, this is sinus-clearing, medicinal menthol and dark greenery. As it dries down, I'm getting lots of sharp evergreen/pine, and it's a bit soapy on me. The chilly menthol continues to linger. After fifteen minutes or so, it's clean evergreen, menthol, and something like sweet lavender & smoke (burning lavender scented incense?). It's very medicinal and soothing to me. I should hate this. It doesn't sound like anything that I would ever enjoy. But I must admit that I kinda love Ya-Te-Vo, much to my surprise. It helps me breath easier & makes me feel calm. I'm going to keep my imp, and maybe even get a bottle of this. This is just such a soothing fragrance to me, and I can see myself reaching for it often when I'm not feeling well .

I don't have good luck with cherry fragrances, so I wasn't sure how Velvet Unicorn and I would get along. Thankfully, I don't really smell any cherry in this, and it's not really a fruity blend at all on my skin. In the bottle, this smells sooo good. It reminds me a little bit of Aquolina's Pink Sugar, but with more pink taffy and cotton candy & less musky perfume. On my skin, this is such a pretty, sweet fragrance. It truly smells like marshmallows, cotton candy, pink taffy, and a drizzle of strawberry syrup lingering softly in the background. It sounds like that would be cloying & unbearable, but it's not. It's soft and creamy smelling on my skin. And I'm amazed at the staying power of this one. It stays true and strong for hours, with rather decent throw. Marshmallows, cotton candy, and strawberry. I'm in love. I really didn't think that this would work on me. It sounded too fruity & too sweet. Velvet Unicorn is awesome, though. I need at least a half dozen bottles of this one. :love!:

In the bottle, this reminds me of Dior. I can't remember exactly what Dior fragrance it reminds me of (Miss Dior Cherie?), but it definitely has that fancy, perfumey quality. Perfumey musk and sweet florals. I'm also getting a lemony sharpness, though I'm not sure why... On my skin... lemons. Why lemons? :/. Musky, sharp lemons and a bit of baby powder. And that's pretty much how it stays on me. Velvet Nudie is lemons and perfumey musk, with an overall very dry, powdery feel. I really don't care for lemon smells (unless the lemon is paired with cream, sugar, and cake notes, lol) or dry/powdery scents, so this isn't working for me at all.

Where wealth accumulates and men decay. A scent of opulence, luxury, depredation, and dissolusion: velvety orris root and glittering bergamot, ambergris, red currant, honey, and neroli, with red oakmoss, patchouli, labdanum, and black musk. In the bottle, this smells like intensely salty ocean spray with a tart, sour, citrussy vibe from the red currant & bergamot. It made me recoil when I first smelled it, because it has such a sour edge. Thankfully, The Village calms down almost instantly on my skin into a soft, cologney smell. It smells like a musk + woods men's cologne with a hint of sweet citrus. It reminds me a bit of The Sea Rat, but not as good. The muskiness here is very soft & comforting - a fuzzy, cozy scent. As this dries down, this fades really fast on me, and starts to smell like dust. It's unbearably dry and smells like getting a nose full of dust as you're cleaning off the top of a neglected wooden cabinet. This one won't be a keeper for me, though it isn't bad for the first fifteen minutes or so on my skin.

In the bottle, this smells like musky, tart cherries and reminds me of Monster Bait: Bloody Mary. I also keep smelling something buttery-spicy that reminds me of pumpkin blends like Jack. On my skin at first, this is all cherry, but it smells better than it did in the bottle. It's a softer, sweeter cherry note. As it dries down, the scent briefly gets darker and more complex. I get a bit of smooth, dark chocolate and an unusual woods note. It makes me think of dark chocolate syrup - glossy, smooth, and slithering down the side of something. It's an interesting chocolate note, but I don't love/like it as much as I love Boomslang and most of the Chocolate Box blends from this year's Lupercalia. Unfortunately, after fifteen minutes on my skin, this morphs into something even less wearable for me. The cherry seems to have creeped back in, and is oddly cloying. It smells like sticky, dried cherries. The chocolate slowly dies off and I'm left with cloying dried cherry smell & stale chocolate. This one is not a winner for me, but I have trouble pulling off cherry fragrances.

I have a hard time wearing floral blends (they often give me headaches), so I wasn't sure about this. In the bottle, I can definitely pick out the honey. It's a fuzzy, golden honey, with an almost metallic sharpness to it. BPAL honey notes often aren't as sweet on me as honey notes from most other companies. The floral aspect is a little sharp & perfumey, which is exactly the sort of floral that I don't like. On my skin, this is sharp, clean floral perfume. It makes me think of pale, perfumey white flowers. I get light hints of the not-so-sweet, golden honey draped over the musky flowers. Whenever I smell it, I think that it's a very clean floral smell, but it's not going soapy on me at all. This isn't awful, but it is too much perfumey, fakey floral for me to pull off. The label art is a favorite, though <3