Blood onmy hands

Something in this is turning soapy on me, which I don't understand, because all of these notes are generally fine and nowhere near soapy on my skin. Fresh and clean, high pitched, soapy dryer sheets, a sort of steamy, fresh from the shower feel, and a slap of very sharp pepper. The drydown is mostly the same, except with hints of ashy vetiver (like a burnt out campfire), burnt tire rubber and pine that swirl in and out of the soapiness. Not really resinous on me and no clove or tonka that I can discern.

I'm glad that I just went with a decant of this one. I was really tempted by the dark chocolate, vanilla, clove, tobacco and patchouli, but those notes aren't present for me. I get a hint of dark chocolate and then mostly ginger, honey and a hint of lemon. Honey notes can sometimes smell a bit urine-like on my skin, and the honey here is doing that. It's sort of sickly-sweet. The ginger reminds me of ginger cookies. Faint ginger cookies and sickly honey with a weird undertone of salty corn chips. This Thirteen is super light on me. I can only smell it if I hover my nose about an inch above my skin, and it fades away entirely before it hits the half hour mark.

Has a watery cucumber and sour pickle undertone, along with the strong scent of plasticy craft glue. Dries down with a powdery, papery edge, but still mostly smells very plastic-like on my skin. Plastic, dry powder, and sour cucumber.

This smells so much like PineSol. A very strong, chemical, intense pine note. There's something dark underneath the pine. I'm not sure what it is, but it smells a bit fecal and a bit powdery to me, maybe a powdery black musk and something more filthy. My family often cleans up and rebuilds hoarder houses that have been trashed by previous tenants, and that's what Musty Santa Costume reminds me of... walking into a house where filth has accumulated and people are desperately throwing disinfectant and cleanser everywhere. Really gross, but an experience, I guess.

The milk and honey last for about a minute and I love that sadly brief stage. It smells like the original Milk Moon, all creamy and sweet. Unfortunately, the milk and honey quickly and completely disappears and I'm left with a lackluster frankincense note. It's light, thin, weirdly oily smelling, like a couple drops of golden frankincense oil poured into baby oil. I really didn't like this one in the drydown.

I expected powder from the sandalwood and sweetness from the vanilla and orris, but I can't pick out any of those notes. The white tea is there, very crisp and with a hint of sharp citrus and sour cucumber sort of feel to it. The snow is more bracing and minty than usual. It's a harsher, more crisp version of snow note with a weird, sour cucumber undertone.

Smells similar to the other Gingerbreads, which all have a strong cinnamon potpourri feel on my skin this year. This one also reminds me of blends like Maison En Pain d'Epices, where there's an overlay that smells like stale powdered sugar and sweet tarts candy over the cinnamon. Has a generic room fragrance vibe to me.

The sour-sweet, dark, slinky booziness is similar to the Dark Chocolate & Whiskey Truffle scent, but the 'hot buttered' part gives it a strange, buttery maple syrup tone on my skin and maybe a touch of cinnamon? Makes me think of warm booze poured over a dark, polished, wooden bar and a plate of pancakes...

Bpal's ambers almost always turn to heavy baby powder scent on my skin (which I rarely get from any other companies' ambers), and that's all that I can smell with The Forest in Winter. I like Ded Moroz a lot more, because the foresty notes are able to shine through the amber in that blend, where this is all powdery amber all the time.

Dark, thick evergreen and a cold, mentholic undertone. It reminds me of another GC bpal (Belladonna, I think? minus the smokiness that the newer imps have). As it dries down, it's less menthol/medicinal and more of the sweet, slushy snow note with warmer, dryer notes of oakmoss and benzoin. It makes me think of being out in the woods as the sun is setting and the air is turning deadly cold. It has a quiet, but dangerous quality to it, because the evergreen smells so dark and cold.

Road to Versailles is very light on me, and is mainly a warm, powdery sandalwood incense type of scent. Clean woods and a touch of dry herbs, but mostly just a soft, powdery sandalwood fragrance. Fades away by the one hour mark.

Matcha tends to smell like really bitter, sour, green lemons on me. I get a hint of that from this Gingerbread, but mostly it's cinnamon with a whiff of smokiness around the edges, like cinnamon-heavy gingerbread that's burned a bit in the oven. With a squeeze of sour, bitter, lemony tea. I don't get mint at all.

I love blue musk, but this may as well be another snow single note blend. Minty, slushy snow with a strong, soapy undertone that turns very harsh on my skin and gives me a headache after a while. Like bpal's snow note dumped over dryer sheets.

I actually enjoy Ecclesiophobia, which is surprising, because I usually hate bpal's jasmine blends and this is definitely more than just a thread of jasmine. This one isn't really sour or perfumey on me, though; it's more heavy and thickly sweet (like vanilla-honey-sweet). I think it pairs really nicely with the heavy, sweet myrrh and powdery, dark, amber-y labdanum. It's like drooping, sticky, yellow flowers and air heavy with church incense. My decant will be enough, I think, but I'll definitely keep the decant.

This isn't as bad as Europa was on my skin, but has a similar smoky, powdery vetiver and burnt, sour coffee thing happening, and the vanilla never shows up to the party for me. I think the only bpal coffee blend to work for me was Bah, as that one went very sweet and gourmand. This one is too bitter for me.

I love the wild plum note - sweet, dark, juicy plums. The opening of this is all about plum and makes me happy. The drydown, though, is all about intensely soapy lilies, snow note and lavender. It's a frosty bar of lavender dappled soap. Too clean for me.

Smells pretty much as I remember the original Lick It With Consent: "Peppermint, as usual, but I find this year's version to be sharper and not as sweet as previous year's. It has an almost musky/perfumey sharpness to it, and is all bracing, cold mint. I don't get vanilla and not much of a sugary scent to it either." The original Lick It is still my favorite, because it was so sweet, and lasted all day on me. This year's version is rather light and doesn't have so much of the cooling effect on my skin. Only lasts around the 45 minute mark.

Starts off as a sour, herbal raspberry, made more astringent and bitter by the tea notes. As it dries down, the fruit and tea fade more and more and I'm left with birch tar, which is a bit ashy and reminiscent of sharp woodsmoke on my skin. The whole thing is very bitter and harsh.

Very dry, warm woods (and after reading previous reviews, I keep thinking pencil shavings now too, lol) and a powdery sandalwood incense type of feel. Drydown has the warm, powdery, slightly spicy, musky-clean-amber scent of the ambergris. The whole thing is rather light, dry and powdery on my skin.

I don't like this, but I don't tend to enjoy bpal's evergreen/pine blends, because they don't smell natural to me. This one is supposed to be unnatural, and it does nail that. Sour, PineSol-ish pines with a metallic, soapy, bright undertone.

This smells just like the original Lick It, which I enjoyed. It's very sweet, slightly vanilla creamy, peppermint candy. I don't get anything that makes me think of cake or frosting from my bottle, though. It's a sweet peppermint candy cane scent.

Yes to the patchouli, leather and honey. I love this when first applied. It's smooth black leather and a thick and rich patchouli that is spicy, chocolatey, and reminiscent of tobacco and black dirt, all at once. Dark and earthy, but charmingly sweet. The honey adds to the sticky sweetness without being aggressive. Reminds me of a darker, honeyed, no vanilla version of Banshee Beat. The mid-stage isn't great on me. From the 10 minute to around the one hour mark, something mentholic and minty comes through on my skin, and Pognophobia smells like harsh mouthwash. Around the one hour mark, though, that mintiness goes away and I'm left with gorgeous patchouli and leather again, just barely sweetened by honey. It's not as sweet or complex as the glorious opening stage, but it's good. I'll keep my bottle of this and see how it ages and continues to wear.

The first few times that I wore this, I thought that it was way too powdery for me. Then it seemed to settle into itself (or I got used to it) and I really started to appreciate the perfumey sweetness of it. Pediophobia reminds me of The British Blondes atmosphere spray, which I always say is like the scent of walking into a Sephora and smelling all of those sweet cosmetics powders and hints of All The Perfumes. It's a powdery, sweet vanilla floof of a scent. It also has an edge to it that smells girly and pink. Perfumey and powdery are usually terms that I use when I don't like a fragrance, but I like this enough that I ordered two bottles...

Wearing this is like rolling around in sugar cookies and buttery, gooey, marshmallow-y rice krispies treats. I don't get much of a chocolate smell from it, which I'm okay with. It does have a cool vanilla cream to it that is similar to Boo, especially in the drydown, but I like this more than Boo, because it has none of the clean linen and more of a cookies and marshmallow scent. Yummy.

This smells like Bath & Body Works' Sea Island Cotton fragrance + bpal's High-Strung Daisies. The vanilla freesia is a cool, breezy, vanilla powder puff sort of floral. Clean, but not outright soapy, with an almost salty aquatic feel to it. Vanilla is soft and powdery rather than sweet. A Thousand Thoughts does smell sugared and vanilla-y, but it's nowhere near as sweet as I was expecting it to be. It definitely leans towards a clean floral with dry, subtle sweetness. I don't think my bottle of this will be a keeper, just because it reminds me so much of Sea Island Cotton and bpal's High-Strung Daisies. I can even smell the pink peppery note and hint of bubblegum that I get from Daisies in the drydown.