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Thank you to the lovely Dark Alice for sending me a tester of this! When first applied, I got milky chocolate and butterscotch/buttercream, as others have mentioned. Then about 3 minutes in, I got banana. What, banana?!? Yep, banana - the fake/candy/syrup kind of banana. So for a couple of minutes, it was all chocolate and banana then suddenly.. the banana vanished. Then it was back to chocolate (which has lost its initial milky flavour and become more deep) and butterscotch, but the butterscotch has done its usual thing and turned into a burnt sugar smell which isn't as bad as some other butterscotch/brown sugar experiences I've had, but it definitely leans towards the 'burnt' side. Despite my lack of love for butterscotch, this is actually quite yummy. For people whose skin tolerates brown sugar related notes better than mine, I think this would be delicious.

I agree with ZZ's review above - it is slightly medicinal at first, like a strong balsam perhaps. Actually everything about it is pretty strong at first - it's kind of pungent for 5 minutes or so before it starts to dry down. 10 minutes in, and I can finally lean in close for a smell now that it's settled down. And what I get is like a gorgeous leather - not the soft and subtle type, but also not the harsh/chemical type - it's a strong leather type of smell, but it's more 'rugged' than 'harsh', like it's well-worn. Vetiver? Hmm.. yes, probably - but it's not the evil vetiver of doom.. there's just a nice smokiness to the base. And there's something musky in here too - a dark musk, but with a hint of sweetness - perhaps a brown musk, or a black musk - it's nice. And there's something that tickles the very back of my nose when I breathe the fragrance in deeply.. that may be the vetiver, but it could be a touch of ginger. Every now and then, I think I can smell something nutty in there, but I can't quite pinpoint it so perhaps that's imaginary. Despite its somewhat rude introduction, LUES II dries down into something really special - warm, musky, leathery, and smoky. The longer it stays on my skin, the nicer it gets! EDIT to add - the dry-down of LUES II is very similar to Burning Vulva, but less powdery.

What I get most from Fée is a beautiful soft honeydew melon (but it's not too sweet or candy-ish, it smells just like fresh melon) and I can also smell the lychee so together it's just a lovely clean fruity sweetness. The vanilla isn't something that I notice on its own - kinda like how the vanilla in Mouse's Sad & Long Tale just merges invisibly with the sweet pea, in Fee it merges with the melon/lychee. I don't get any sunflower. I find that the carnation comes in after about 15 minutes - it kind of overlays the fruit and takes away the sweetness a little, and at that stage the smell deepens a bit but doesn't really change a whole lot except that the melon becomes a lot less MELON like it was at first. I have no idea where the oakmoss is - it never really comes out on my skin.. nor does the white tea (but to be honest, I don't find that white tea itself has much of a fragrance). I also don't really notice the peach blossom! So it might just be the way it works on me, but really it's all about the melon/lychee/vanilla, with the lovely carnation threading through. Fée is really a beautiful scent, it's soft but not weak, and sweet but not foody. It's just like a fresh ray of sunshine on my skin - gorgeous.

This starts off with a bang - the musk, clove and pepper are very much up front when I first apply the oil. In the imp, it's a lovely rich brown colour, which is always a good sign when musk is involved After letting it dry down for 10 minutes, I find that it's softened up nicely and those strong notes have mellowed out a lot. The musk and clove together form a base that's richly sweet rather than scary dark, and the pepper has subsided nicely. The tonka and neroli have added some lightness to the scent, and the opoponax provides a sweet resinous vibe, so the whole thing ends up having some nice layers to it. Often I find the GCs lack the complexity of some LE blends, but that is definitely not the case with Old Demons of the First Class. On my skin, it retains its multi-layered complexity for quite some time - the darker notes don't lose their richness and the opoponax/tonka/neroli never go too far into the light. The pepper stays on top, slightly tickling my nose but not in a way that's overwhelming. Overall, everything is beautifully balanced and smooth. This is definitely one to try if you enjoy deep musky blends like Panther Moon and WILF - it's a very classy blend with a touch of intrigue

Rose! Rich, luscious, nose-tickly red rose. And sharp red currant. That's pretty much all I get from this blend (but your results may vary.. I amp rose in crazy proportions) so I'm very disappointed because I wanted everything *but* the rose from this blend. So unfortunately I can't comment on the amber, blood orange, myrrh or golden musk. All of those should have been beautiful, especially the amber + blood orange combo, but alas.. rose is a fiend. One day I will invent a device to extract or minimise unwanted notes from my BPALs. And rose will be the first to go. Then perhaps I'll be able to enjoy some of these lovely blends

When this first hit my skin, I got a big smack of red musk and dragon's blood with a slight warmth of wood.. I'm thinking ooh! this could be good! Ten minutes later, I'm left with dragon's blood and cherry and rose. Like dragon's milk without the milk, kind of. The cherry is very nice though - it's not the cough medicine type of cherry, or the red/artificial kind of cherry - it's a deep dark luscious one. Twenty minutes later, and it's all about the rose. Definitely a red rose - the deep, velvety kind - which is nice if you like rose, but rose is not my friend. I can smell the persimmon though - that's an interesting note, and if the stupid rose wasn't stomping all over it then I think it would be really lovely here. Berry.. hmm.. maaaaaaaaaybe, it's very subtle. The rosemary is a bit strange in this mix - it seems to be trying to find its place in amongst the fruits but it can't seem to settle. Ultimately, this ends up being a very faint dragon's blood/cherry mix with a hint of red musk. It doesn't stay on my skin very long, but what I get is very enjoyable. But as interesting as Areia is, I don't think it would be a perfume I'd reach for - it's just not enthralling enough to hold my attention.

Yeah.. loving this one! When first applied, the anise is strong but the coconut is right there with it. Who's going to come out on top? Anise steps up in front.. coconut comes up from behind.. coconut leaps forward, anise jumps ahead.. and so it goes for the first ten minutes until they finally get to a point where they share the lead. And that's when Harigata II hits its sweet spot for me - I get a beautiful soft, creamy coconut/anise mix that's really quite beautiful. Thankfully, no hazelnut in the early stages - that was the only worrisome note here for me. There is a very waxy tone to this blend though, which could possibly be from the hazelnut but I think is more related to the coconut. And the white amber.. well, I'm not finding that one much in here either - there's a hint of amber, and it's brighter than the 'standard' amber (which generally adds a powdery element on me), but really the stars of this show are the coconut and anise. Which is just fine with me, because they are a fantastic combination - the sweetness of the coconut is beautifully tempered by the weight of the anise and together they blend seamlessly into a softly sweet and rich licorice/coconut smell that I'm really enjoying. Over time, the anise fades more quickly than the coconut - so that's my only complaint here really.. it's a shame they don't both hold their own equally through to the end. Oh, and finally after about an hour.. the hazelnut appears! But it's subtle, which is good because I do tend to amp nutty notes. I've been searching for a good anise for a while now - and this may just be it.. Harigata II could become a bottle purchase for me

Yep, here I am again.. another one I had to try, because of the mango. Have I mentioned how much I love mango? Yes, yes I have.. several times already The uh-oh note in here was the crushed tomatoes.. because seriously, what are those doing in there??!!?? But my concerns have been squished, because Ushi is just gorgeous - simple yet complex, bright yet deep.. really it's very impressive. When I first apply the oil, it's all mango - sweet, fruity, lush. Then the fig comes out and cuts through the fruitiness quite a lot, which is good here because the mango was pretty full-on at first so the earthy sweetness of the fig is perfect. The red musk in Ushi is fairly subdued on me - it's there, but it's not stomping around like it sometimes can on my skin. And the crushed tomatoes.. well, it's strange, but I can actually smell them in here! If I sniff really close-up to my skin, and take it all in, then the last thing passing through my nose is the tomatoes (but I think they're tomatoes with a touch of vine/leaf rather than just the tomato fruit). Eventually once everything has dried down and been on for about an hour, I'm left with a gorgeous red musk base with the mango and fig floating softly above it - a slightly creamy feel has emerged, and the whole thing has become very soft and snuggly. My only complaint about this Shunga is that it reminds me a lot of Shango, which I already have. The fig is probably the point of difference for me between the two, and I think Ushi is overall a more complex blend with more layers than Shango, but I'm not sure the variance is enough to warrant a bottle purchase of Ushi.. as lovely as it is.

I had to try this, because.. mango. I have extreme love for mango. So even though I figured the white rose would spoil everything (I do not have extreme love for rose), I gave it a shot. Well.. what a surprise! This is extraordinarily pretty - and I am very happy to report that the mango is here! Nymphia and Ushi both have the same gorgeous sweet and rich mango nectar- like note, but in Nymphia it's softened into something very creamy in feel - that's probably the influence of coconut and perhaps the waxiness of apple blossom. This is so well blended, that it's actually hard to pinpoint individual notes. I think the mango and coconut are most prominent, but the spun sugar is quite noticeable as a top note - it's not toothachingly sweet, it's quite a subtle sweetness but very very nice. Although I think this is a creamy smell, it's still quite fresh with the cucumber. The white rose is so subtle that I can hardly find it, and I honestly can't smell any lavender in here at all. It does have a tropical vibe to it, but nowhere near as full-on as the Atomic Luau Lounge blends or Tiki Princess - it's just a hint of tropical. Hmm.. wait a sec - 30 minutes in, and the white rose has come out a lot more. Not to the point where it's amped over everything else (as rose tends to do on me), but it has interrupted the nice sweet creaminess a bit. Nymphia really is very very pretty - sweet, creamy, slightly tropical, fresh and clean. It's the perfect sunny spring day smell, but it also has some depth to it that presents as slightly sensuos. If you enjoy blends like The Girl and Vasilissa, you're going to love this.

For the first 15 minutes or so, Manilus keeps messing around on my skin! One minute it's all leather and sandalwood goodness, the next it's a weird lemon/floral thing, then it goes back to leather again. Finally, after about half an hour, it settles into a nice soft leather with a hint of nutmeg - slightly powdery from the sandalwood. The cedar is very soft, but the frankincense is definitely there - being a bit annoying actually.. it's a bit too much for my liking, and it's overpowering the other notes. There's a freshness in here as well, which is probably the frank again plus the violet leaf, and that bright/fresh element seems out of place - the whole blend feels off-balance somehow. The leather/sandalwood/cedar/nutmeg are merging together really nicely into a soft and mellow brown fuzz but the frankincense and violet leaf keep coming in and going LOOK AT ME which just kills the mood. I think the frankincense and violet leaf should have been hurled from the rock, leaving Manilus to keep the other lovely notes. I dunno.. I don't hate this, but I'm annoyed at the dissonance that this combination of notes produces on my skin.

As expected, this one starts of with a blast of vetiver. Actually.. make that a BLAST of vetiver - really, it was kind of overwhelming when I first applied the oil. But that silly vetiver - it's just a show pony, and was soon pushed back once the other notes emerged from behind it. About 15 minutes in, and I am getting a beautiful wood/balsam/rum mix which is heady and luscious. There's also a coconut smell going on, which seems very out of place but I suspect could be the labdanum being silly with the rum. At the 30-minute mark, I'm still trying to find the musk - it's not obvious.. it's there, but subtle, and the weird coconut thing has faded away now. The overall vibe to Wrestlers on my skin is slightly sweet with the wood and rum being the main players and the lovely smoky vetiver creeping around in the background (the vetiver kinda tickles my nose, it's not sharp or overly strong/dark.. it's absolutely just right in the mix). I'd put this in the same kind of group as blends like Raven Moon, Hellhound, WILF etc - not that it really smells like any of those, but it has a similar feel. I'm particularly loving the rum accord, and surprisingly.. also the vetiver - if you're reading this and worrying about the vetiver, I'd say give Wrestlers a try because it's not at all nasty. A really nice blend with a clever mix of notes that keeps me interested in this fragrance long after its initial application.

First up, I have to say this is a beautiful poem.. sad, haunting, beautiful. So I had to try this blend purely because I love the poem - even though I didn't have much hope for it since the only note that really appealed was oude. When first applied, I got the watery rose that others have mentioned but with the oude smelling quite resinous and sweet/dark in the background. That quickly faded into a pretty generic rose smell (my skin amps rose, so your results may differ) with a hint of amber. On me, it ends up smelling like dried roses (pink and white, pale roses rather than dark ones) with a bit of smokiness and a slight plastic top note. And it fades pretty fast. So this one is just not for me.. but I'm glad I gave it a try.

Hmm.. when I first dabbed this on, it smelt like leather + nail polish remover Thankfully, that chemical sharpness died down and the leather came out nicely within about 3 minutes, and the brown musk in here is quite soft and powdery rather than feral/dark at this early stage. 15 minutes in, I hit this weird patch when I could swear it had turned into jasmine - I have no idea what that was about, but I swear it developed a really strong and sweet floral-like top note. That actually stuck around for a while, and became quite strong, until it eventually faded away and left me with a dry sandalwood/musk scent on my skin. Alas, one hour later I lean in for another whiff and discover that the leather + nail polish aroma is back. I really feel that there's just too much going on in this blend - to me, it seems like it wants to be all brown musk/leather/sandalwood/clove but the labdanum and champaca come dancing in with their pretty floral and sweet tones and just spoil the whole thing. Bye bye, Dancing Koi.. you are not for me.

Honey, you are an evil nemesis. You totally spoilt this one for me. me---> <---honey Yes, this is the same gorgeous deep ginger from Loaded Gun. And I love that ginger.. so rich and luxurious. And the clove for me is surprisingly subtle - it's there, but it's not really strong. The cream would have been nice if it wasn't mixed with the honey. Which brings me back to the honey. Sadly, this is the type of honey that produces a horrible powdery cloying sweetness on my skin and makes me feel a bit sick. I'm happy that I didn't go for a bottle unsniffed (which I was tempted to do, because.. mmmmmm, ginger) - I have learnt that I must try before I buy when honey's involved. Sadly, this is not a winner for me. Honey strikes again!!

Mmm.. this starts off full of dark, mysterious fig with a touch of sweetness but then the nutmeg and vetiver join in and it all gets very dark and mysterious. Myrrh pops in a few minutes later, and the carnation also makes an appearance around this time. Fifteen minutes in, and what I have is a lot of carnation going on - by far the most prominent note, to the exclusion of almost everything else. Even the vetiver! Carnation beats vetiver, who woulda thunk it?!? So although I can detect the other notes, albeit very subtly (the green tea is particularly nice), ultimately this ends up being a dark version of carnation on my skin. Nice, but not particularly interesting.

I love mango. I'd like to live on Mango Island, where I would sleep in a bed made of mango - within a house made of mango, and if all I could eat for the rest of my life was mango.. I would be quite happy with that. So I was really hoping for a lot of mango in this blend, and not so much the white chocolate/buttercream business. So can somebody please explain why this smells like coconut on my skin? I swear this is all white chocolate + coconut on me. If I try real hard, I can find the mango in there, but it's nowhere near as mango-y as I was hoping for. And I'm finding the white chocolate to be exactly the same variety that we had in the Box of Chocolates series, which isn't a bad thing but it's quite sweet and slightly cloying. So the lack of mango hit is disappointing, but that aside.. this is a lovely sweet tropical blend but with emphasis on the sweet.

Holy guacamole, this is good stuff. Seriously, seriously, good stuff. This totally smells like an opium den. Not that I've spent time in an opium den! Well, maybe I have. But you'll never know I feel like I'm just copying what VioletChaos said.. but really, this spray should also come with interior design transformation powers - I expected to turn around and find the room full of old black leather furniture with red velvet throws draped all over them and massive soft tasselled velvet cushions everywhere. And a big old mahogany four-poster bed with miles of silken fabrics billowing around it. There's cast iron candelabras everywhere, and through the hazy room I can see a half-naked man reclining on a burgundy velvet chaise lounge over in the corner, lazily swirling his cognac around a jewelled goblet. And I'm pretty sure there would be a bawdy wench or two around somewhere. Anyway - where was I? Oh yeah.. Red Lantern spray. It's rich and spicy - exotic and delicious. There's a very intoxicating sweetness that's not foody/candy like at all - but oh so yummy. This is good. So Good. GET SOME NOW!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about Spanked coming back. I love the original Spanked. I'm talking about real love.. the open-up-my-decant-and-swoon kind of love. The slather-it-on-and-roll-my-eyes-back kind of love. The yes-I-would-sell-a-kidney-for-a-bottle-of kind of love. So the only thing I was worried about with this Revisited version was.. can this new one possibly be as good as the original? When my bottles arrive, will I have a happy face? Or a sad face? I am very pleased to announce that... drum roll... I HAVE A HAPPY FACE! Yes, YES! This is good. GOOD. Thank you so much, Beth, for bringing this back - it's a masterpiece. This new contender for best BPAL ever is more young and shiny than its ancestor - it's like Daniel Craig is to Sean Connery, Chris Robinson to Steven Tyler, Ryan Phillippe to Robert Redford.. you get the idea. The original Spanked has that beautiful smoothness and symmetry to the notes which comes with age and maturity, and this new one is less refined - I can pick up each individual note in here, and the cardamom could do with chilling out a bit - it's quite strong - but the leather is good - smooth, soft, warm - and the bourbon is perfect.. it has that same sexy smoky edge that I love so much in the original Spanked. The patchouli surprised me - I was expecting it to be a bit too 'fresh' for my liking, but nope.. it's quite subtle, very natural in tone, just lovely. One benefit to this new, shiny version is that it definitely lasts longer on my skin. And I could relate this to an inappropriate comment about the stamina of young vs old.. but I won't. But even with that benefit, I'm still going to stash my bottles away for aging because I think that a few years on this new version will get it to the same point of sumptuousness that the original has. Right now, new Spanked isn't as good as old Spanked - purely because it needs to mature. It needs Conneryising. Or Redfording. Or Clooneying. Whatever. Anyway, I have to get going - I don't mean to be rude, but I need to spend some quiet time with my new Spanked. Close the door, please.

Hmm.. much hype to live up to, oh noble Celeste. My initial take on this oil when first applied was that it had a very sharp, chemical-like top note - almost bitter. I could smell the vanilla underneath, but I pretty much let it do its thing for 5 minutes or so and didn't really lean in for a big huff because it was that sharp. The vanilla here has a boozy side to it but also a floral aspect - the two seem to clash in a way that leaves the vanilla kind of stuck in the middle, unsure about whether it wants to be sweet or flowery. It's not creamy - I do get the comparison to Love's Philosophy (and I agree the saffron is very similar), but it's not as creamy and smooth as LP. Actually.. Celeste reminds me a lot of Antique Lace - the vanilla is very similar to my nose - she has far more punch at first than AL, more overall 'strength' to the scent and a much more 'sharp' tone, but once Celeste has fully dried down (about 30 minutes in) then I really do find this to be very Antique Lace-ish. As in.. seriously - anyone mourning the loss of AL needs to try Celeste. Celeste is reminiscent of a few other vanilla-based BPALs, although she's not an exact match.. she's very similar to blends like Antique Lace and XCDL13 and Love's Philosophy, and I'm picking up a very subtle undertone of 'pink' almost berry-like sugar which makes me think of Gothabilly and Marshmallow Poof. Unfortunately for me Celeste never quite loses that sharp/chemical air it had at the start, and the vanilla with its weird identity crisis is just not really working for me. It also doesn't stick around very long - one hour on my skin, and it's become very very faint. So overall - I don't hate it.. I just don't love it. Edited, because things changed later - after I'd had Celeste on for about two hours, she finally did lose that sharpness and became a beautiful deep and dry vanilla and I found myself liking her a lot more. And at that stage, her resemblance to Antique Lace was uncanny - maybe it's just the way my skin handles the two blends but I swear Celeste is almost a dupe for AL on me. .

Mmmm... pear is such a lovely note! I totally second (third?) the suggestion of The Perilous Parlor - it may be a bit hard to find now, since it's an old Limited Edition blend, but it has a beautiful sweet pear note in it - the vanilla makes it kinda syrupy and sweet without going into a 'fake' fruity smell. And I agree with beliefunwrought - Marotte has a beautiful musky pear.. again, this was a Limited Edition blend but shouldn't be too hard to find if you hunt around the For Sale area here on the forum. Oh, and seconding the suggestion of Peacocks from the Salon collection Another LE worth looking for is Luna - that has Asian pear, which is lovely, but there's a lot of 'green' notes in that one so depending on how your skin handles those things, you may not get a lot of oomph from the pear. Endymion is definitely worth a try (it's GC) - on me, the lily and rose and white musk drowned out the pear but you may have better luck with it. And another one is Juliet - the florals ruined this one too for me, but it does have a gorgeous pear note in it. Finally - maybe The Sluggard.. another no-no for me because of the gardenia, but the pear in this one is very 'real' smelling. Out of everything I've mentioned though.. The Perilous Parlor is hands-down the best pear I've found in BPAL

BOO to you, caramel and brown sugar and butterscotch! BOO, I say!! This started off full of potential - a gorgeous wallop of rich apricot with a beautiful dry woodsy/earthy patchouli.. and then it all turned to burnt toffee. Well - actually it's burnt toffee with a hint of dirt. Not nice

Hmm.. floral, Asian-style, sweet/heady, somewhat intoxicating but in a very floral way. Lily is the most prominent smell for me, with the tuberose and narcissus a close second. I don't get the 'hypnotic opium den haze' at all.. this blend isn't hazy in any way - it's bright and strong. So this is far from being a poet's morphine dream on me.. it has more like a WAKE UP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS kind of effect. It dries down to a sweet floral with a touch of powderiness but retains its heady quality. Totally not my thing at all (it was a frimp with a forum sales purchase, so I had to try it!) but if you love these strong, heady floral notes then go for it!

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As others have mentioned, this spray has a kind of old world glamour to it and it's very feminine. It does bring to mind the buxom blonde Hollywood stars of the 1950s with their bouffant hair, extravagant cleavage and red lipstick. The smoky vanilla musk is the standout note - it's gorgeous, sweet and smoky, quite sensuous in the air for the first few minutes after spritzing British Blondes in the room. The orchid is a bit too strong for my liking - I think it's the orchids that are responsible for the perfume-like aroma that comes out after about 5 minutes to the point where it becomes a kind of generic floral-y perfume-y smell that I'm not loving so much. The amber is gorgeous though - soft and dusky, a perfect match with the smoky vanilla. I'm glad I have this, but I'm not sure I'll use it all that much because the orchids kinda spoil it for me. It leaves my room smelling a bit like someone's just sprayed some flowery perfume in there, rather than the complex rich fragrances that I've come to love from my BPTP sprays. But to be fair, British Blondes isn't really my kind of thing at all (despite my being a British-born blonde myself!).. but if you love orchids and sultry musk/amber combinations then you'll probably really enjoy this one

Hmm.. I was expecting something dark and sinister but seductive with Dracul - but instead, when this first hits my skin I get minty orange disinfectant. Where's the black musk, the clove, the tobacco, fir and balsam? Who knows!! OK.. ten minutes in, and things improve. The mint dried off surprisingly quickly, which allowed the orange blossom to come out nicely. So now I've got a pretty tasty orange-y clove-y thing going on, and the black musk is starting to creep in. Alas.. a few minutes after I was just starting to like Dracul, the mint comes back! And now I can really smell the fir.. but it's gone back to that kind of 'disinfectant' smell. And it stays like that pretty much from this point forward. This really just isn't working on my skin at all Three hours later, I can barely smell where I applied the oil. I'm left with a very very faint musk on my skin, but there's really no fragrance - it's just a dry generic muskiness. So unfortunately Dracul will be going to live with someone else.