Blood onmy hands

What everyone else has said - this smells like a Terry's chocolate orange, like milk chocolate and an orange note that's sweet and somewhat artificial, but not *too* artificial. I don't tend to enjoy chocolate + fruit scents, but this one is kind of fun and sweetly simple.

Lots of beeswax, which is realistically sweet, honeyed, and waxy. Smells like burning candles and sweet resins with hints of spiciness from the cassia and a touch of cool, misty fir. Reminds me of atmosphere sprays like Alchemical Laboratory and Templum Victoriae. A sweet, honeyed, waxy, warm incense fragrance.

When I first spray this, I always think of caramel apples (with tons and tons of caramel), which I guess must be the cookies note? Then there's a cigars, hint of cigar smoke, and old wood note that's like walking into a cigar shop. The overall feel reminds me a lot of the Red Lantern room spray, which is one of my favorites. There are little hints of pleasant dustiness and cold air as well (like the scent of cold winter air following you into a warm store during winter, and a hint of frozen, green flower stems). Caramel apples in a cigar shop full of old wood, a hint of chilled air from the outside, and a hint of frozen, green stems from a florist's fridge. If you like Red Lantern, I think you would enjoy this. It's like a gourmand tobacco with airy touches.

I've always wanted bpal's snow note as a room spray, and here it is chilly, slushy, weirdly realistic, ever-so-slightly minty, snow note. Spraying this in a room makes it feel like you have snow melting all over the place. It's clean (but not soapy), refreshing, cool, and delicately sweet. I think this makes a perfect home fragrance.

I picked this one up mainly because the label and name made me laugh. I'm not really loving it as a perfume yet, though. It reminds me of scents like Cheesecloth Ghosts and some of the plasticy type single notes. It smells like crisp, new notebook paper, glue and wet paint on my skin. Within a few minutes, I also get a generic, sharply lemony, musky men's cologne. Then hints of toasty, warm, slightly bitter coffee and dark leather creep in underneath that generic cologne and plasticy glue scent. I don't like the musky citrus cologne in this (prefer Wilde for that sort of thing), as it's thin and sharp to my nose, and the warm coffee and dark leather just don't mesh well with it for me. It's like it's trying to go in too many directions at once and can't form a cohesive scent on my skin. It smells chaotic and jumbled to me.

I'm also a Taurus and into vanillas and gourmands but also earthy, sensual, deep fragrances. If you like Twilight, I think you'll enjoy TKO. Jack can sometimes be a little too buttery and holiday-candle-esque to me, but lots of people love it. There are so many bpals that it can be really hard to find your favorites. One thing I'd recommend when starting out is to focus on the general catalogue and avoid the limited editions for a while. There are a lot of gems in the GC and it's just more affordable than getting into the LE collecting. Snake Oil isn't really vanilla-y on me either, but I'd strongly suggest trying Dorian. It's one of the most popular bpal scents and is a very nice, cool, sweet vanilla tea. Alice, O and Dragon's Milk are also very popular and lean towards being gourmand. Eat Me and Drink Me are the very sweet, straightforward cake blends. Shub-Niggurath is gingerbread cookies. I've gotten a few variations of Mouse Circus. The first bottle I had smelled like vanilla ice cream and peanut butter cookies, but the second bottle is like vanilla, salty popcorn and pink cotton candy. Gobo is one of my favorites (Fraggle collection). From my review: "It's sort of like marshmallows, salted vanilla cream and tangy lemon and tangerine custard." I don't like Snake Oil, but I do like the Snake Pit blends in the Carnaval. If you like chocolate at all, I strongly recommend checking out Boomslang. The Other Hot Chocolate in the Coralines is also a great cocoa scent. And for my random recommendations, I suggest Voodoo and Sacred Whore of Babylon. They just smell very bpal, complex, mystical, and have a good dose of sweetness to them.

HOCHELAGA Warm musk with soft leather, a dusting of dry wildflowers and herbs, sweetgrass, sage, shagbark hickory, and Canadian balsam. Un musc chaud avec une note de cuir souple, saupoudré de fleurs sauvages et d'herbes, de foin d'odeur, de sauge, de caryer ovale, et de baume du Canada. Hochelaga reminds me of bpal's Fledgling Raptor Moon (but much better) and Harvest Moon 06 (and I now realize that they share notes of sage and shag hickory, so I guess that's the similarity that I was picking up on). This also smells a lot like Arcana's Hate blend on me - all creamy, dry woods and warm spices. I'm surprised at how spicy this is on me, and it smells very much like a dry, slightly powdery, warm, sweet clove. The balsam has a creamy, dry quality that reminds me of a good sandalwood. And the sage, sweetgrass, hickory, and herbs mix together in a way that's sort of exotic, comforting, and delicious smelling. I don't find this to be bitter or green herbal at all, more spicy, warm, and almost edible. I can't pick out any of the leather or florals - just wonderful, cozy spice and beautiful, smooth, dry woods with a little extra oomph. This one has amazing throw and staying power on me as well, lasting really strongly for about 8 hours.

Starts off like warm, melty milk chocolate and a sugary mishmash of a fruit smell (sort of reminded me of dried pineapple and canned fruit cocktail scent). I like white chocolate with fruit, but milk or dark chocolate mixed with fruit just never works for me. I don't like the taste or smell. Very quickly, though, this morphs into more of a dry curry spice with swirls of cigar smoke and hints of toasty coffee and sweet chocolate. It actually reminds me of several of the Cuban/Havana inspired fragrances that I've tried, which all seem to be a cigar, spice, and tropical fruit thing with hints of coffee. By the half hour mark, this is all curry and whiffs of cinnamon on my skin. Dry and spicy with a little sweetness. I tend to like gourmand scents, but this is like a mishmash of foodie things that I don't really enjoy (the chocolate + fruit and the savory curry drydown). Still, it's interesting.

The apple blossom in this is the lovely kind that was in Bestiaire du Moyen Age, and not the kind that turns to soap on me. It's like chilled green apple slices, dusted lightly with powdered sugar. Sweet, but airy and crisp. The lemon and pine aren't as bad as I expected them to be, but the lemon still turns a little too tart and sour on my skin, with the fir smelling cool, crisp and mentholic. I think I'm actually going to try this out in an oil diffuser, because I feel like it would be an awesome, clean smelling room fragrance. Forest apples with clean lemon.

Bpal's gunpowder note doesn't really work for me. It reminds me of rust and dirty pennies. I get that and smoky, chemical, black leather. Reminds me of the Leather series Luper blends from this year, which all read rather sharp and chemical rather than a natural, soft leather scent. I expected this to be soapy and cologne-like, but the pomade and aftershave aren't showing up to the party. The overwhelming leather and smokiness in this is not my friend...

I love parts of this, mainly the parts that smell like soft, vanilla-ish, warm dirt (like Death Cap) and roots. But there's a harsh, vetiver smokiness that I don't love, and something that smells like hot asphalt. I enjoy the natural, earthy tones, but not the industrial, harsh, sooty tones.

I really enjoy St. Louis #1. It reminds me of a more masculine Storyville, and feels like it should be in the family as Storyville, Voodoo Queen, and Doc Buzzard. It's complex, mystical and reminds me of early bpal blends. The bay rum and Florida water give this a rich, spicy cologne feel that lays over the sticky, dark tobacco base just beautifully. Sweet clove and sweet tobacco with a hint of smokiness. There's a splash of citrusy men's cologne and a touch of the sour, green moss. The patchouli is barely there, just adding a hint of grounding earthiness. It smells sexy, old fashioned (but not outdated) and Southern. I love the sweet, toasty clove scent in this.

Orange, but powdery and tart, somewhere between orange flavoured sweet tarts and chewable vitamins. The gin adds a weird, dry fizziness. If you've ever smelled those "fizzy pop" scented incense sticks, it's like that. As it dries down, it's much the same, except the black pepper adds an edge of sharp, dark, dry cologne. The whole thing is strangely dusty, powdery and old smelling. Not really gourmand to me at all. I don't smell anything creamy and nothing like vanilla or marshmallow. Orange chewable vitamins, old and dust covered fizzy pop incense sticks, and a dark, off, powdery men's cologne...

First on, this reminds me of strawberry soda. Sugary, tart, syrupy. Dries down like strawberry candy with a hint of powdery, sweet floral. It doesn't smell green or like dandelion on me. It's more of a soft, sugar-dusted wildflower. Only lasts about a half hour on me, but is a pleasant strawberry candy and sugared wildflower.

Mugwort makes this very herbal and medicinal, like bitter, dry, green herbs, menthol and a hint of soap. As it dries down, it smells similar, but also like I crushed fresh mint leaves in my hands. It makes me think of batches of soap made with peppermint and fresh herbs. Glass Eye smells like the kind of soaps that are made in small batches and sold at county fairs from little artisanal soap makers, that smell very natural, simple and fresh. I don't get any ash, but I can pick out a bit of a honeyed, sweet, mellow frankincense note after a while. Doesn't have much throw on me and only lasts about 40 minutes, but is pleasant while it lasts.

Low Key really makes me want a black clove single note. The first fifteen minutes or so on my skin, I really don't like this one. It's earthy and spicy, but in a strange, unpleasant, plasticy way that reminds me of cheap craft store wreaths and potpourri. The cinders also smell like a dirty ash tray. Fifteen minutes in, I'm pleasantly surprised that the dirtiness disappears and the cassia chills out enough to let the clove take over. I love clove fragrances. The 'cinders' add some warm smokiness around the edges of the clove, and the cassia adds a hint of woody cinnamon, but this is mostly a spicy, sweet, heavy clove. Similar to a bay rum type of scent. A bit black peppery smelling too. I was considering full bottling this one, but I probably won't, because I don't tend to wear fragrances where I don't enjoy the initial stage... I just never want to have to wait for the pleasant drydown, and the start of this one is pretty bad on my skin. I think I'll stick with Shadow for my spicy win from this collection.

I get lots of black soil, damp and slightly perfumey, like it has an aquatic and white floral note swirled into it. The fruitiness is purple and tart, like hints of blackberry and tart red currant. Reminds me of The Premature Burial perfume oil. After a while, it's a clean, tart fruit scent, with the soil fading away.

I love this for the first half hour, because it starts off very well balanced. The red musk doesn't overpower or turn as sweet as it usually does, and I smell lots of sweet, dark plum with hints of orange blossom and jasmine, with a soft smokiness from the vetiver and incense (and not the weird bbq smoke that vetiver sometimes has). It's mostly plum and vetiver on me, held together with red musk, with the other notes dancing over that base. Dark and not exactly as sexy as most red musk scents feel to me, but smells confident and a little dangerous. Very bold, with swirls of lighter notes giving it some lift. By about the one hour mark, though, the vetiver in this has amped way up and starts to smell like woodsmoke and ashes on my skin. Very strong, smoky, blackened, ashy vetiver.

I'm going to have to get a full bottle of Shadow. I love the sweet, spicy, rich, clove scent of bay rum, and the amber in this is warm, toasty and not as powdery as bpal's ambers usually are to my nose. Sweet and spicy, but mellow and easy to wear. I was afraid of the oud, because bpal's oud notes tend to be odd and fecal smelling to me, but I'm not getting any dirtiness or oud from this. Smells like thick vanilla, sweet clove, and sandy, dry amber.

The first time that I wore this, it was like roasted, dry, slightly burnt and bitter coffee beans. It read very sour and strangely spicy on my skin. I've liked it a lot more every other time that I've worn it, though. Now it reminds me of the smell of just barely roasted marshmallows (burnt sugary and a bit smoky) and black coffee. Like roasted marshmallows dipped in black coffee. Warm, dark, slightly smoky, sugary fun...

This is in the same family as scents like Pediophobia, Antique Lace, Lyonesse, and The Girl. Sweet, vanilla, powder fluff of a fragrance. It's a little too dry, powdery and warm for me, with lots of powdery amber and sweet (slightly Play-Doh-y) vanilla, and that same hint of pink candy fluffiness that I get from Pediophobia (what is that? the white tobacco for some reason? I have no idea). If you get along well with bpal's amber notes, this is a pretty straightforward vanilla-amber on me. I don't get any moonflower or ambergris. Bpal's ambers just turn too powdery for my tastes. This one is also really strong and long lasting on me; it lasted 8+ hours on me before it started to fade.

Coin Trick is another that just falls flat on me. It actually smells similar to Mister Wednesday's clean, generic, slightly soapy cologne thing. Musky, clean, light, metallic cologne... almost a little lemony and turns soapy on me in the drydown. It reminds me of Axe body spray.

Media is close to smelling like nothing on me, with not much throw or lasting power at all. It's powdery, like violet scented cosmetics dusting powder, sort of sweet and floral, with something like a clean white musk and slightly soapy, sharp white floral. Perfumey, powdery and light. The white floral muskiness turns a little sour on me in the drydown. Powdery, clean, slightly soapy, sharp white floral wafts...

I was hoping for more milk and honeysuckle, but Eostre of the Dawn is a slightly soapy jasmine with green, herbal undertones. Not really milky or gourmand at all on me. Like a pretty bar of soap scented with jasmine and green herbs.

The thought of this scent grosses me out, but if I wear it and don't think about being buried alive, throwing up embalming fluid, and trying to use soap to cover up decay... Laura's fragrance is actually pretty tame and cheerful. I smell a hint of wet dirt at first, but the drydown is all candy-sweet strawberry with fizziness. Like a strawberry version of Blue Fire. It's all sugary, fizzy, strawberry flavored drinks.