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I'm also getting a sort of aquatic/ozone thing here! That's not what I was expecting, but maybe the water content of the fog is higher than I thought it would be I was hoping for warm, old wood.. and something a bit smoky.. but instead I have something that's quite clean and fresh. It's not horrible or anything, but it's kinda un-interesting on my skin.

Ooh.. interesting! When first applied, I got a blast of cologne-like fragrance but with a slightly sweet and almost fruity top note. That soon passed, and the dark sinister side of Scrooge came out as soon as it started drying down The leather here is fresh and a bit sharp - that smell of a leather shop. The tonka bean sits atop the pepper and cumin and vetiver so that none of those come out too strong.. I can smell them, they're definitely there, but no one note dominates. I'm not sure where the oakmoss has gone - there is a slight fresh/greenness here, so maybe that's it. The leather does soften up a bit after it's been on my skin for a while - that 'new leather' smell has gone, it's warmed in nicely and lost that fresh/sharp edge. I think this one would have been right at home amongst the VILF blends - it has that same sort of sinister quality with a sexy edge. If you're scared of vetiver - don't be.. it isn't nasty here at all. And cumin haters can also relax.. it's not dominant here. I think this will age nicely, and it definitely suits its namesake!

Phew! So glad I don't love this one, now that it's discontinued!! Mr Fezziwig starts off all mince pie.. quite spicy, slightly sweet.. and a hint of beer. So I leave it to dry down for 10 minutes, lean in for another sniff.. and where'd it go?? It's almost completely disappeared!!! What's left on my skin now is a faint smell of beer and mince pie. Just a vague kind of spicey foodiness. I'm going to pass my decant on, because clearly there's no ball to be had on my skin - Mr. Fezziwig apparently left early.

On my skin, this isn't as smoky as I was hoping it would be.. mostly I can smell the sherry and something vaguely pastry/cake-ish. When I first applied it, I could smell a really sweet fruit - almost a bubblegum - which turned into more of a sweet apricot-like smell and eventually dried down into the sherry smell. There's really nothing remarkable about this one for me - it's nice, but not really nice. I have other 'hearth' type BPALs that I like better.. and the fruit in here is just too strong in the blend, if it had more of the smoke/wood aspect I'd be happier but alas.. nope.

I was curious about this one, and ordered a decant - I'm glad I did! As it turns out, it's not at all like I was expecting.. I had in mind a dark, dusty, slightly sinister smell.. probably more for the name of the blend rather than the notes. So what a surprise - on me, this feels very warm and sort of golden/glowy - not dark and deathly at all. The frankincense here is beautiful, smooth and slightly sweet, and as others have mentioned the black cedar is really lovely - it still has that 'wood' feel to it, but it's not doing the soggy sawdust thing that regular cedar sometimes does. Strangely enough, I'm getting a slight plum tinge to the fragrance.. almost Hellion-like - weird, since I don't think there's any fruit in here!! I'm not sure where the dust comes into play.. usually when dust is a listed note, I can smell.. well.. dust. Perhaps that's what is giving the blend a light and airy feel - again, a surprise since I expected dark and heavy. It is resinous in feel, but not in a heavy way. Overall, this is a really lovely scent and judging by the low number of reviews perhaps it wasn't one of the more popular blends in this year's Yules? I wouldn't be at all surprised if this turns out to be a sleeper hit - one that people end up looking for later - it will almost certainly age nicely, and it's one of those 'every day' blends that I could wear regularly when I just want something warm and comforting that gives me the nice incense smell without being too heavy.

Wow.. this is SPICY when it first goes on! Spicy in a boozy Christmas pudding kind of way. Into the dry-down, I can smell the fig but it's not coming out sweet and rich as it usually does for me (in things like Miller vs California) - the spices are still dominant and they're covering the fig. Once it fully dries, the spices mellow out a bit and everything turns into a slightly incense-y smell but still retaining the pudding element. At this point it's reminding me of Bread & Butterfly. Unfortunately this holds a slightly bitter/burnt smell on my skin which makes it a bit unpleasant. It's just not working for me, I'm left with a burnt spice kind of smell that's quite faint but strangely pungent.

This is one of my all-time-favourite BPTP sprays, and I must say I'm surprised it doesn't get more love!! Out of all my atmo sprays (and I have quite a few of them), this is the one that people comment on most favourably when they visit. I get pretty much the notes as listed.. the wood is dark and warm, the herbs are mysterious and dark - adding a 'fresh' feel to the fragrance, the olibanum gives a slightly smoky sweet edge, the sarsparilla adds just a touch of earthy sweetness and the bay rum is simply divine.. not boozy as such, just kinda.. err.. sexy but in a snuggly and cosy way. I could have sworn there's a touch of leather in it, but I see there's no mention of that in the notes so it must be just my imagination. With this one, I only need to do a little spritz and it lingers for ages, not in a way that makes you go "eewww something smells in here" but in a way that makes you go "oohhhhhhh what's that gorgeous smell". It's not overpowering, it's actually quite clean and refreshing. It's also divine as a bed spray - I've taken to spritzing my pillows with it at nighttime If you enjoy the more 'dark' BPTP atmos like Mahogany Hall, Bah! Humbug, and even the Thriambus or Lair of Nefarious Misdeeds sprays, then I think you'll like this. I don't like it, I freakin' LOVE it

As others have said, The Shadowy and the Sublime has the air of an expensive perfume. It actually reminds me a bit of YSL's Opium, which may seem like an odd comparison but I think it's the lovely amber in TS&S that's making me think of Opium - possibly the white rose as well, which is quite dusky here and beautifully soft. It also reminds me slightly of The Girl in that it's another of those hauntingly pretty 'my skin but better' kind of blends. Comparisons aside, TS&S is a very Victorian-esque fragrance.. soft and very feminine, and beautifully blended - and it sits on my skin in the way that a good dusting powder does.. it just seems to have melded with/over my skin perfectly,- I can smell it all the way up my arm even though I only applied a tiny dab to my inner wrist. It's quite subtle - I can smell the wisteria and magnolia, but neither is dominant or overly heady which is really quite remarkable given how pungent each of those florals can be. The myrrh adds a slightly resinous, smoky feel that makes this more than 'just' a perfume - it creates a mood that's slightly sensuous - and the ambergris adds a gorgeous smoothness. This is the kind of perfume you'd wear on a first date, and have your love tell you years later that he/she still remembers how good you smelled. I'm not getting any white mint at all, nor any angelica or bergamot, but no complaints - I'm actually glad, because I think too much mint would spoil this and the greenery of angelica and/or bergamot would upset the balance of things. Overall, this is really a beautiful perfume - something I'd wear when I don't want to smell like anything in particular.. I just want to smell nice.

Jupita - I'd suggest you try Beer From the Marsh Woman's Brewery! It doesn't smell exactly like CSS but definitely has a similar scent... reviews are here if you'd like to check them out. edited to fix link .

This is a nice change from the Yule ginger blends that are usually cake-y or cookie-y.. those always smell gorgeous in the bottle but not so great on my skin, generally because they are more of a brown-sugar/caramel/buttery kind of mix and those never work for me. Although Mother Ginger has spices, they're quite subdued and I think this is more white sugar than brown (I'm having no problem at all with the sugar here, which tells me it's not brown). The vanilla is soft and not too sweet - just right, as is the marshmallow cream - everything is beautifully blended so that the overall feel is quite natural and light rather than overly foody. I can see why people are mentioning ginger beer - it does have that sort of feel. As nice as this is, I don't see it being a perfume I'd reach for. But it really is a beautiful soft ginger - it's not too sweet, not too spicy - it's just right.

Yep - this one's pretty much exactly what I expected! It smells like a bowl full of different flavoured Jolly Ranchers, or one of those five-flavour packs of Life Savers.. just a mix of different coloured candy. I wouldn't have said jelly beans though - the smell is more like hard-boiled candy (like Jolly Ranchers) to me. The mint seems to sit a bit uncomfortably on my skin - at first when I applied this it was just all the candy smells, but then the mint came out and is sort of interfering with the candy in a way that's turning the whole thing into a slightly soapy smell that reminds me of those shampoos that are labelled as 'fruit punch' or something similar. So for me, this was fun to try, and it really is very sweet and pretty, but not something I would wear. I'll keep my decant just for fun though, because it is yummy

I just love it when a BPAL turns out to be as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be The Arabian Dance is a stunner - it definitely suits its namesake, for me it feels exotic and warm and mysterious. And the one note that I was worried about - hazelnut - thankfully is a minor player here. On my skin, this is all about the leather and spices. The leather is gorgeous - warm, soft, but not a wimpy leather at all - it definitely has substance and it's the most prominent note on my skin, and it's not the harsh/chemical smelling leather - it's the old, supple, soft and slightly sweet leather. For the first little while, the spices are almost equal in presence to the leather - at first it was slightly pepper-y on my skin, but after a few minutes the spices have settled and mellowed. I do detect a hint of cinnamon, and nutmeg, and I think perhaps some cardamom and/or caraway. Maybe a teensy hint of aniseed? In middle eastern cooking they make a spice mix called 'sebah baharat' which literally means 'seven spices' and it does differ slightly depending on who makes the mix and the country it's made in - that's what the spices in The Arabian Dance are like.. hard to distinguish the exact smells, but you get that overall feel of the spice mix associated with that type of cooking. The coffee comes out after about 15 minutes, by this stage the spices have settled a lot and gone behind the leather more. So now I have a gorgeous blend of leather and coffee with the spices just sprinkled throughout. Still no hazelnut really (just a slight hint of creamy nuttiness) so that's still just fine with me. Re the comparisons to Spanked.. well.. I just LOVE my Spanked, it's one of my all-time-fave BPALs. And yes, there is some similarity between Spanked and The Arabian Dance. Comparing the notes, and doing a side-by-side comparison of the two on my skin, I think my guess of cardamom in TAD could be right (since it's a listed note in Spanked) and the leather is very similar in both. TAD is missing the bourbon of Spanked, but the coffee adds a similar depth. So whilst they're not a direct match I do agree that they are very close. Very close! ETA: Also.. to me, this has a lot of similarity to Pinched With Four Aces - the coffee note is almost exactly the same I can see that I'm going to need a couple more bottles of this - it could very well become a strong favourite, and I just know it's going to age beautifully.

This is pretty much what I expected it to be.. sweet plums (definitely white sugar) with a hint of vanilla. I can smell the amber musk under the plum, it's doing a great job of keeping the sugar from being too sweet. The tiare is also very present, and it's keeping the plum in check.. sometimes plum can go too 'grape-y' on my skin but that's not happening here. Can't say I'm picking up any cacao at all, nor any hint of apricot. So for me.. this is very pretty, soft sugary plum with a undertone of amber musk and a hint of tiare dancing around the edge. I had to apply quite a bit of oil for this to be really noticeable on my skin though, and after about 30 minutes it had faded almost completely away.

I'm testing this from a decant, rather than a bottle, so I can't be sure about the distribution of chocolate against the other notes.. however there's a big dark globule of chocolate in the bottom of the vial and I know my decanter knows what she's doing so I'm thinking this decant is probably a good representation of the experience I'd get from a bottle. When first applied, there's a slightly bitter-sweet top note that I didn't recognise, but it quickly went away. In its place I can smell the pomegranate (which on my skin, always, produces a very candy-like almost bubblegum-y smell) and the honey with just a hint of orange. Honey doesn't always place nice for me - sometimes it produces a funky, semi-cloying powderiness - but not here, it's beautifully soft and sweet and just a little bit dusky. The orange blossom isn't sharp or sweet overly obvious, nor is it a typical citrus type or orange, it's really soft and lovely. Surprisingly, the chocolate isn't dominant - I kinda expected it would be when I saw the big glob of dark goodness in the vial - but it just sits in the background under the pomegranate and orange/honey. So although this may seem like it's a foody blend, I wouldn't put it in the same category as other chocolate-y things like the White Choc Strawberry or Dark Choc Cherry from the Valentine's LE series, or even the chocolate blends that came out earlier this year in the Truffle/She-Goat Chocolatier series (Dark Choc Lime Truffle etc). I can smell the chocolate in Spanish Dance, but it really isn't obviously a CHOCOLATE blend. I'm really very happy with this one! So many of my BPAL chocolate blends smell delicious but I just don't wear them often because the chocolate is just too much. But this.. is gorgeous, and it stays lovely on my skin for a good two or three hours. I think a bottle of this will be required!

Like crebbsgirl said.. this is definitely less "dark" than I was expecting! Of all the notes, it was the patchouli and dark musk and aged leather that I was most looking forward to - and the rhubarb which I loved so much in the BPTP blend Motley from 2009. Ten minutes in, and Heroine is mostly apple blossom (sweet, bright, with a slight tartness) and the skin musk which is also slightly sweet. Twenty minutes in, and I can detect just a hint of the rhubarb - the leather is also peeking in just a teensy bit. For me, Heroine strikes its best point after about half an hour - that's when the darker notes come out and balance the brightness of the apple blossom. Now I can smell the patchouli and the leather much better, and the skin musk has pretty much disappeared.. the dark musk has taken its place. The amber has also made an appearance, again cutting down the sweetness of the apple blossom and adding a dusky feel to the fragrance. The aged leather is particularly nice - it's not bitter or sharp, it's very smooth and soft. Sadly, the rhubarb really isn't present.. and also I'm not picking up any petitgrain here at all. This really is a beautiful blend, I don't recall any BPAL quite like it and the combination of notes here is really interesting with the sweet/dark balance. I think it will be interesting to see what it's like in a few months' time - I think that some aging might tone down the apple blossom a little - to me, that's what Heroine needs.. I'd like the darker notes to come out a bit more but overall this is quite lovely.

Christmas Day.. Aussie style.. in 40C/100F heat The only BPAL to wear on a day like this is Snake Oil, which smells better as it gets hotter

Thanks for all the hard work you do! This little glimpse behind the curtain is really interesting I like the idea of being able to see a person's feedback statistics quickly and easily via something like a tab on the profile. And the 'soft delete' option is also a great idea. And the things you're working on for the Reviews section sound fantastic!

This one reminds me of The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love - it has that same uber-rich chocolate mixed with madness thing going on. But where Cthulhu was all about the ocean, Ein Kuss von Krampus is all about the spices and wood. And I agree with lamenteuse that this could easily have passed as one of the Thirteen blends - it's kinda like the March '09 version, but most reminiscent of the 13 from August this year with its similar pepper/paprika vibe. The cocoa here is definitely tinged with spices - the most obvious ones I find are the paprika and black pepper, but there's also something a bit like nutmeg or cinnamon behind it. It's not really sweet, and I don't think it smells like milky cocoa at all, this isn't a wimpy hot chocolate for sissies - it's a kick ass cocoa - it has a 'red' feel to it.. like a Mexican or Brazilian cocoa. I do like the wood-y undertones, they are quite subtle but very nice and earthy. It didn't 'go on like candy' for me - it started out a reedy, bittersweet spiced cocoa and stayed that way. And this guy has some throw! I only dabbed a little bit on, and I could smell it wafting all around me for quite a while. I'm just not sure about this one - the notes are somehow a little clamorous together for me, the spices are interfering with the cocoa and the cocoa is interfering with the spices - they just don't seem to find a time when they blend in harmony on my skin. It's quite fresh and brash, and a little bit assaulting - much like a kiss from Krampus would probably be I'm reserving my verdict on this one, I'll give it another try in a week or so.. and I'm tempted to put it aside for a bit and see what a few months of aging would do - it might mellow the spices and help out with the balance issue for me. But if you love your cocoa hot and spicy and with a little kick - go grab a kiss from Krampus - it's certainly an experience ETA PS Auri - you did great for your first review! .

Hmmm.. when I first put this on, it was quite peppery - almost spicy - the rum was very much in full force. However, within less than ten minutes that faded away and left a much more subtle and soft rum scent behind.. and out came the banana and coconut! I can actually smell the grenadine as well. So this is pretty much what it says on the box - grenadine and banana, coconut and rum. It smells like a cocktail, as you'd expect. It smells yummy. It's the same kind of rum I get in Rangoon Riptide from the old Atomic Luau Lounge series. The uber banana-ness of the fragrance fades out after about 20 minutes on my skin, leaving behind a kind of alcohol/fruit fragrance with a tinge of coconut.. but the coconut never takes over, which it sometimes does on my skin - it's soft here, almost hardly noticeable. I really love rum in my BPALs when it's partnered up with more 'dark' notes, but with sweet things like banana.. not so much. Ultimately I'm left with a sort of soft and creamy liqueur banana smell, which in itself is kind of delicious - but as a perfume, not something I can see myself wearing. I actually prefer the sweet creamy tropical-ness of Mahana (which I could have sworn has banana in it!) to this - the rum just seems out of place here in Pahoehoe. But it really is yummy!

What a bummer Splatter Comedy didn't work out for you! That's by far the most banana-y BPAL I've tried, but I do find it to be more 'fake' banana than 'real' banana. I just tested my frimp of Mahana recently, without knowing what the notes were, and I was sure it had banana in it! It was just like a banana milkshake on my skin - very yummy, but a fruity vibe rather than sweet candy-like. Then I read the notes for Mahana and discovered it has peach and pineapple, no banana! Well.. it sure smells like banana Shango is one of my faves, but to me the banana doesn't really stand out - it's more like a fruity punch, the individual fruits are indistinguishable, so it sounds like your skin and my skin handle the banana differently. I haven't tried Pahoehoe yet - it's on my list to grab, so I can't help you with that one but the reviews mostly say the banana is definitely there. Banana Peel in a Graveyard is another one I haven't tried! And for me, Manila was also not-very-banana-y.. more wet and green than fruity. I also wish I got to try Hi'iaka, lots of people said that was banana-ish but it's discontinued now. Hmm.. have you tried the Aswang prototype? That one is banana, but not a candyish type.. it has a very fresh and green vibe about it but the banana is definitely there. So I'm not sure if I've been much help.. but I do love a good banana smell myself, so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see what other recommendations come up!

Oh.. no.. this is not nice at all on my skin. It smells like burnt butter. Or burnt popcorn. Or burnt nuts. And sour milk. And a slight smell of burning plastic. No fruits. No nice creamy rice porridge. You know those rich Christmas fruit cakes that are very buttery and full of nuts.. well, this smells like one of those that's been left in the oven for way too long with its plastic wrapper still on. I left it on for 15 minutes, hoping it might change, but noo... it just got kinda worse. I have to go wash it off . Note to self: this is doing the same nasty burnt smell that Paper Kite did. No notes in common though.

Wow.. what a lovely, soft and comforting smell this starts out as! I do love fig, so the chances of this one being a winner were high, but the combination of notes here is interesting - the frankincense is slightly sweet but dusky and resinous, and the galbanum adds a touch of fresh green-ness. But mostly, it's all about the fig - gorgeous.. not too sweet, and slightly woody. Unfortunately, this one loses its appeal after it's been on my skin for a while - I loved it for the first ten minutes.. but after that the galbanum became a little overpowering and kinda stomped out the nice fig and the soft duskiness of the frankincense. Somehow the notes just don't seem to be blending nicely on my skin. I don't think this will end up being a bottle I reach for to wear.

Wow.. when this first went on, I was surprised at how strong it was - the leather was sharp, the tea and pepper were right out there, and I could swear I was smelling something like licorice or anise. A few minutes in, and the initial sharpness of the leather has calmed down a bit but leather is still the dominant note. It's reminding me a bit of Crowley at this point.. strong, rich and heady leather with an undertone of vanilla. A bit like what I get when I layer old Crowley with old Snake Oil. The Soldier really hit his stride after about half an hour, which is when the red musk started to come through. And I can't smell the pie specifically, but there's definitely a rich, gourmand feel to it now. The leather is very swoon-worthy, still very deep and lush and strong. I can still pick up the pepper, but not so much the tea. And the vanilla isn't really standing out either - everything here is really beautifully blended. I'm definitely getting a licorice/anise smell here though, like ivyandpeony mentioned.. it's almost sasparilla-y. One hour later, and it's stayed pretty much the same - everything has mellowed a bit and warmed up nicely on my skin, although the leather is still quite sharp - I think that might be due to the black pepper, which is making the back of my nose tingle a little. I still can't notice the pie that much, but I don't care - I was actually hoping it wouldn't be dominant because 'pie' notes can sometimes go a bit wonky on my skin. This is a bold and brave blend - I only dabbed a little on, but it has great throw and stays strong on my skin. Crowley is my absolute favourite go-to BPAL leather blend, but he may have some competition here! The Soldier is a ballsy little guy - and I suspect he's going to smell even more awesome after a bit of aging - I'm hoping that the leather will lose its sharpness a bit and soften up a little more. It's not that 'chemical' leather that people mention from other BPALs, it's the nice old warm leather, but it is very strong. I think I got lucky with this one - yay for a skin chemistry win! I reckon another bottle might be required

If I can't see through the label or if the oil isn't visible above the label, then what I do is hold the imp on its side (like flat, as if it were sitting on a table top) and look at/up the bottom of the vial.. if you're holding the imp nice and straight, you'll be able to see how full it is that way. If it's pretty much full, there won't be a lot of space between the top surface of the oil and the vial.. if it's about half space and half oil then the imp's about half-full, and so on I think most people consider an imp to be "full" if the oil is sitting above the label when the cap/applicator is taken off - or at the bottom of the stopper when the cap is on. When I do decants, I usually fill the imp to about 2 or 3mm above the label - then when I put the cap on, that pushes the oil up to just below the top of the vial. Any more than that, and it is usually too full once the cap goes on. I know that the level on Lab imps does vary a fair bit, but most of the time the oil will be either at or slightly above the top of the label when the imp camp is removed - that's what people will refer to as 'Lab full'. I hope that helps!

I do get the comparisons to Midway on this one, but for me it actually has more of a Monsterbait: Underbed vibe to it - the spices are quite prominent - moreso than the sweet/cake aspect of it. I'd say there's a dash of cinnamon in here, and possibly some ginger.. it's not quite as spicy as the Gooey Pillowcase spray, but it's in a similar vein - it definitely gives the nostrils a bit of a tickle I'm not sure where the 'gold-leafed' part of the description comes into play, but visually it brings to mind dilapidated merry-go-round carousels where the horses are now old and faded. I honestly wouldn't have picked up a wood aspect in this if it weren't mentioned in the notes, but since it is.. yes, there is something quite 'solid' in the feel of the spray that acts as a foundation for all the sweet spiciness. The fragrance that it leaves in the room is like a mix of pastries, cake and doughnuts - sweet but not overly so, with a touch of wood-y smokiness - it's really a very yummy smell. I don't find that this one stays in the air/room for long - with some of my other BPTP sprays I can walk into the room hours later and still smell them but I don't get that with Steeplechase. It's more the type of fragrance that settles *on* things - I can smell it on the rug and the couch more than I can in the air. This is a really enjoyable fragrance - I'm sure that if it was available as a GC or LE, it would be hugely popular. I'm very grateful that I had a lovely forum friend pick some up from NYCC for me