blueroses

A freebie included with Trick or Treat Inquisition orders. No description available. This is pumpkin with white and/or vanilla musks to me. I hate to even say it, but it has an Antique-Lace-with-pumpkin vibe to it. It's light and sweet, so I think it would appeal even to people who normally find pumpkin too heavy or buttery. I LOVE this. I just wish it was something I could get a full-size bottle of!

Several weeks ago, I (the Mom, not the Uncle) was working on my computer at home (working on this update, actually), when I heard a commotion behind me. Lilith had somehow gotten a hold of one of my tarot decks and was going to town with them. A chip off the old block, right? Coconut and a bit of sugar with pomegranate, pink musk, orange blossom, cypress, honey myrtle, and incense. Mlle. Lilith is definitely lighter, sweeter, pinker version of Mme. Moriarty! I loved the latter but red musk is too heavy for my personal preferences. This version is much more wearable for me, and I loved the idea of it. In the bottle this scent smells very incensey, but that didn't translate to my skin. On, it's heavy on the coconut and musk, drying down to a musky sugared pomegranate, with coconut and a little bit of incense and cyprus.

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love - I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me - Yes! - that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we - Of many far wiser than we - And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling - my darling - my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. A soft, innocent blend, touched with a funereal, gloom-filled air: wild peony, sweet pea, cucumber and white sage with sea lilies and moss. In the bottle, I smell sage and cucumber right off the bat. On: This is very light and pretty. Cucumber is one of my favorite notes, and with the moss it balances out what would be perfumy floral blend. The cucumber and moss give me a fresh, green impression. This is a definite keeper, but I'm saving it for spring.

This didn't work for me at all. The rosy amber is dominant on my skin, but the tears make this scent distinctly salty and there's a metallic edge from the gold note. I can't smell the hay at all. The salt and metal notes just made this one smell sharp and odd to me at first. It does dry down to a very nice resinous amber and rose scent, but I'm just not into wearing resinous scents as perfume.

I've been meaning to try this scent for ages because I adore fizzy champagne notes and almost always enjoy strawberry. Sometimes champagne scents (not just BPAL, but in general) don't really smell like wine to me, but just ... fizzy. For me, that's not necessarily a bad thing, because I like fizziness. In the imp, Bon Vivant clearly smells like a berryish white wine. Once applied, there is an initial burst of effervescence and sweet strawberry, which quickly dries down to a light white whine with a pinkish note. If I didn't know it was strawberry, I'm not sure I'd be able to pick it out. It just smells pink. I'm pondering a bottle purchase of this one.

In the imp: Alcoholic. Rum! When I dabbed Polynesian Pop on my hand, it was initially a super-fizzy blast of ginger ale. The orange very quickly steps to the front-and-center ... and it pretty much stays that way. The fizziness doesn't last, and what I'm left with is orange and ginger ale, with the white rum adding sweetness and just a hint of booziness.

Sweet clove-y red rose. A little spicy, fir undetectable on me. I like this much more than I thought I would, better than White Rose. This does not strike me as particularly masculine. With White Rose: I like both scents individually but weirdly don't like them together very much. It's all clove and coconut on me.

This is almost super, a creamy vanilla white rose. I was hoping for more frankincense, but it's almost absent on me. Coconut does funky things on me though so the scent goes buttery, which I don't like. A little bit of tea peeps out as I wear this, reminding me of Dorian. There was something cloying about Dorian that made me ultimately sell my bottle, and it's bothering me here too. I wish this had worked but alas it doesn't. With Red Rose: I like both scents individually but weirdly don't like them together very much. It's all clove and coconut on me.

There is a surprising fizzy scent to this one right upon opening the bottle. Applied, it's a brash, fizzy, pure ginger scent. There's kind of a ginger ale vibe. It dries down to a pure, unsweetened ginger scent. This one was a major disappointment because I'd have preferred the ginger with French vanilla and marshmallow cream from the description, but I'm sure plenty of people will love the bold and fizzy reality.

Freshly applied, Fairy Market is candied grass, bluebells, and faint incense. It dries down to the scent of grass and exotic florals. Eventually the scent becomes a sweet floral. This one is beautiful and very evocative of its name. I hope it returns someday! I'm a big fan of the Stardust line in general and this one is my favorite.

Any scent with the word "butter" in it isn't likely to work for me, but I just had to try this one for the bread note and the concept. I really adore some of the Moonalisa scents with "bread" in the description and was eager to try one by BPAL. I certainly get a lot of toast put of this one. It definitely smells like toasted bread to me. Unfortunately, I don't get much cream or sugar (which might have saved this scent for me), and instead get a "buttery" herbal scent that makes the whole thing so sharp, bitter, and unpleasant. So not for me, but I do like the idea of bready scents!

I just sprayed this for the first time after a day of cleaning, to counteract that cleanser smell. I'm kicking myself for not spraying it sooner! Nuts are one of those items (like coffee) for which I am only slowly and recently acquiring a taste. But I've always enjoyed the scent of roasted nuts and like many, associate them with the holidays--for me, it's Thanksgiving, when my family has roasted nuts for dessert. This spray is the buttery scent of warm nuts. I'm not enough of a nut connoisseur to pick out the particular kinds of nuts. Warm, nutty, sugary sums it up for me. This will get a lot of use next fall and winter for sure.

Yep, it's strawberry gum! There's an initial burst of strawberry and the scent of plain bubblegum. But after that early sweet strawberry, I swear it morphs into cinnamon. It still smells like gum, only now it's Big Red. I was pleasantly surprised by this. I like this scent much more than I expected to because it's not too cloyingly sweet.

#570: vanilla, sandalwood, and pear (could be apple--the note reminds me of the one in Agape, although my immediate thought was "pear!"). It dries down to a mostly vanilla sandalwood, but the pear/apple is still around and peeks out now and again. #626: I LOVE this one but am not sure about notes. It smells like buttercream in the bottle. At the beginning, still wet, I almost thought I could smell almond or cherry, but that goes away. It dries down to and remains an intense vanilla, almost like vanilla extract. Maybe there's still almond/cherry in the background? ETA that I think it might be orange. Not sure why I was getting almond/cherry anymore.

#213: stick o' firewood.

I've always avoided the foodie scents because they tend to go spectacularly wrong on me, but I gave Cake Smash a chance because I've been branching out and it had such good reviews. I also figured it could only be a good thing for me that the scent was anchored by Snake Oil and Dorian (although I don't like Doc Constantine). In the bottle, Cake Smash smells like the cream cheese frosting of the description, but once it on it smells like ... something I'm not sure I've smelled in the real world, but would be wonderful if I could find it. Like ... Halloween or fall cupcakes, maybe. A heavier, spicier cake with light frosting, definitely reminiscent of cool-weather baking. So my initial reaction was that I absolutely loved it, but my enthusiasm is a little tempered now because the Dorian really comes out and overtakes the scent. An hour after applying, Cake Smash is immediately recognizable as Dorian, although a spicier, cake-ier version. I like Dorian, luckily, but can't help but wish the cake stayed around a little more.

A very understated, feminine floral. I also don't strongly smell the vanilla musk, but I think it's there, softening the florals. The rose and lily are equally strong to my nose, bright but not cloying. A keeper for me, I think.

In the bottle: peaches and patchouli. On, it's a very earthy patchouli, peach blossom, and frankincense scent, with little random flashes of mandarin. It smells good at this point, but it's also a bit confusing because I'm not sure how to categorize this scent, with so much going on. I like the scent of True Love best when it's faded a bit. The citrus goes away and it's a very distinct patchouli floral. The frankincense sticks around and makes it sort of dramatic.

In the bottle Longing reminds me strongly of Hope and/or Faith: there's a definite sweet floral vibe. Here, it's syrupy (due to the pear) violets and freesia. I love freesia, and this is the only BPAL scent I've come across that has this note. When I put it on my skin, it goes through a brief weird stage. Pear and grape do a funny thing on my skin where they smell like baby aspirin - sort of a medicinal fruit smell. Luckily, this fades very quickly (about five minutes) and then I'm left with the most lovely sweet rose-and-violet scent, with a touch of freesia. (I don't get the orris root, but I use a couple of scents that combine rose and orris, so my nose might just lump them together at this point.) It's a much better rose/violet scent for me than Marie, because they don't compete like the latter scent seems to do on me, but has more of a layered effect. I really couldn't be more happy with this scent. I also think it's a good candidate to use in a scent locket, due to the funny pear stage.

I always hesitate to review floral blends, because aside from rose, violet, and wildflowers, I tend to avoid them and thus I never get any better at identifying the different notes. But I do like this one enough to make an exception. In the bottle, all I smell is patchouli and an exotic, perfumey floral. On, there's a very fleeting, sharp floral note and the patchouli warms up. There's also the scent of a floral-y resin, and just a touch of something sweet. There's a bit of a really fresh green note in there as well. It dries down to a smoky floral incense. This is one of those scents that really make me feel the "tone" of the perfume. "Darkly romantic," indeed. I put this on Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the weekend wanting to curl up on the couch with Jane Eyre or Rebecca.

I own several of BPAL's icy, snowy blends, but this one is just a bit different enough to warrant keeping. In the bottle, The Darkling Thrush is a sweet slushy scent. On, it's an icy sweet violet that fades to a soft powdery violet and orris. After a few hours, it just smells cold, like snow, how I thought Snow-Flakes would smell.

I love almost all of BPAL's "snow" scents, so I had to give this one a try. In the bottle, Snow Maiden smells an awful lot like Ice Queen, only stronger. Pinier. On, the berry scent comes out, and a light floral mixes with the snow. Luckily, the berry scent is strong enough to counter the pine. I like Ice Queen and Snow Bunny a lot, and Snow Maiden is like a mix of the two.

This is a classic, simple floral with white musk. The notes I can pick out are musk, amber, rose otto and lavendar, and they all blend into a very clean floral scent. I also dislike strong jasmine scents, and Dolce Stil Nuovo wasn't a problem.

Coral Snake is so different from what I was expecting, but definitely a keeper. I'd never be able to tell that this was a Snake Oil variant from sniffing the bottle. It smells like bright, fresh apples and cinnamon. On, Coral Snake retains the spicy apple smell, but the plumeria is the next-strongest note, and it sweetens and brightens the scent. Ordinarily, I'd consider a spicy apple scent to be more appropriate for fall or winter, but this can be worn year-round without feeling like the scent is odd for the season. I get just a hint of gardenia, and I'd never be able to tell that there's citrus in this. Overall, a grown-up, tropical apple perfume.

In the bottle, Bakeneko smells like musky, spicy tea. It's darker than I anticipated. On, the cardamom is the most prominent note - it usually is with me. The cherry blossom and tangerine are just the merest hints that brighten up the musk and tea. Gorgeous. Cardamom sometimes makes me feel slightly ill; it's just a scent reaction that I have. The citrus and cherry blossom in Bakeneko smell almost bubblegum-y, and I personally don't like this sweet smell in conjunction with the cardamom. I really adore this scent, but might not be able to wear it. ETA this is starting to smell like cinnamon gum on me. I like it.