patina

Chewy, sweet, dark, smoky licorice with black currant and spice. Yum. Blue pumpkin floss was way too spicy for me, or at least the spice didn't have much to hold it in check. This seems more balanced. Initially this is a strong, buttery pumpkin, but that gets fainter and the licorice takes over, though it's not too strong to smell maple syrup and blackcurrant. Can you tell I like licorice?

No idea if you'd like this, but how about something from The Last Unicorn collection? Or Mokey or The Gorg's Garden from the Fraggles (if you don't mind smelling like radishes.) From the GC, there's The Witch's Garden and others(go browse around the Marchen section.) No mermaid scents, but there's Yemaya.

This is green, mossy and leathery and it has the sweetness I get in some aquatics. It's pleasant and reminds me of some masculine cologne or other. My brain is tricking me into thinking this smells a bit like damp evergreen forest and tobacco too. Wererats smell of moss and manliness, apparently.

Here goes: Black Annis (GC: leaves and stone, musky cave.) The Decrepit House, definitely. Silenti- reminds me of a well cared for Victorian house. Old Moon- Dusty attic scent Seance- GC: smells like wood in a dusty parlor and old roses (rosewood) to me. Days and Nights in Vaults and Charnal Houses- downright creepy underground scent. Also smells like spring flowers somehow. House of Night- GC: evergreen, floral. Reminds me of a funeral home, all flowers mixing with various people's perfumes and faint cigarette smoke. German Expressionist Horror DD: Old, mildewing velvet drapes, black and white pine forest- a dusty, lonely, mysterious movie set. Sloth GC: Dank basement or room filled with burning incense. I don't know what smells like castles, but Night's Bridge might work.

I also get mahogany or some dark wood with the smallest touch of something lemony. (then again, maybe mahogany just smells slightly lemony to me. Pandemonium certainly did.) Also, there's dust, possibly black musk and the faintest possible smell of oatmeal. This scent has actually made me want oatmeal now. And I don't really even like oatmeal. I can't tell whether this scent has a cold feel to it or not, especially since my room's cold anyway. This scent's just dark, formal wood. Dark wood and a small bowl of warm oatmeal. Mmm, warm oatmeal.

At first sniff, I get something weirdly bitter, like burned nuts. However, as soon as this goes on my skin, the burned smell turns into frankincense and salt. I wouldn't be surprised if ambergris accord was involved too. I get billowing clouds of frankincense smoke and damp, salty ocean air. And stone? Maybe? This has a medium throw and sticks around for a good while on my skin. Similar scents include Halloween: San Francisco.

This is a good pumpkin latte. There's more oak than latte, but I happen to like oak. I also get a musky scent and cologne, but, while the cologne would smell good on a guy, I think it's something I could pull off as well. It helps that the pumpkin spice sweetens everything up. I'm not sure if I want a bottle, but this is a nice, cozy scent. Misketonic U. didn't work on me since it turned into milk, mushrooms and wood. The spice in this one keeps it from going bad on me. It isn't terribly strong after drydown though.

I can see a comparison to both Halloween: Los Vegas and Samhain. (The red musk smells a little fruity, suggesting the cider from Samhain.) This is a very dry, sweet, and very, very red musky scent. I can imagine swirling autumn leaves against an oxblood red sky. However, I can't pick out an individual leaf note. The incense sweetens the blend and gives it more of a perfumy edge. I couldn't tell you what resins were involved in the incense, though. Bottle-worthy? Maybe. The red musk is a little aggressive. Maybe this will smell richer with age.

Initially this is herbal in an unpleasant way. On my skin, it turns into smooth mahogany with a trace of smoke and some spice (the gingergrass, probably). It's a very dark scent. I'd like this on my skin, except there's an aggressive, perfumy edge similar to the one I got in Lurid Library. I'm blaming the red musk. The lemony gingergrass may also be playing a part in making this faintly soapy.

Odd red spice. A little like red hot candies. My mind initially says cinnamon, but it's its own brand of sweet red spiciness, rounded out by the amber and frankincense. This would be a definite bottle purchase, except ginger vanishes on my skin. It turns into a nice sweet resin with a little spice and very little throw. Good, but not great.

This is very sweet and, as another reviewer commented, something like an old perfume. I get the powdery, woody scent of old pages and soft leather but it's more a tactile sense than a smell, if that makes sense. Mostly I get perfume. The resins here are very sweet for some reason (they remind me of Mage) and I can detect tiny traces of the lab's warm brimstone note (as seen in The Hellgate of Ireland.) This is a warm room full of aging paperback books that have soaked up incense and whiffs of brimstone over the years and were recently generously sprayed with old fashioned perfume.

I don't think anything can negate the smell of death (from what I've heard.) I do have to work in an environment heavy with rancid bacon grease sometimes. I've found musky, dirty scents generally make the problem worse (so does Snake Oil). Resins and spices are probably your best bet, especially if they're strong and sweet (not foody, just sweet). My favorites are Melainis (powerfully sweet caramel with spices. Yes there's musk but it's overpowered) Sentimental Initiation (even though it's got black musk, there's some powerful clove) Day of the Skulls (it doesn't seem like white sandalwood, tobacco and beeswax should be so strong, but they're pretty effective at blocking smell for me. As for GC, maybe some of the spicy ones other people have suggested. I've used Event Horizon, but it hasn't cut into the bad smell the way I wanted.

Ditto. pure bananas and hazelnut. This might be nice if you like banana bread, but it seems to disappear from the air not long after I spray it. Too bad.

To me, this is similar in feel to Unspeakably Evil Temple. However, LL doesn't have that firy sense. It does smell almost like something roasting though. (Must be spices.) I get some spice and probably myrrh and wood. Edit: After reading the ingredients, I get mostly moss, but moss tends to smell a bit spicy to me sometimes anyway. Or it could be the acid. Anyway, the incense is still amazing and autumn-like. Nice scent for a laboratory. Or, excuse me, a la-BOR-a-try. May not be for you if you think moss smells fusty or you dislike any scent that could be considered manly.

see if you like The Phantom Wooer. That's a little more "white stone" to me than lemony and it doesn't actually have lemon, I think. It still smells a little citrusy to me.

Airy, dusty, earthy/green botanical I didn't expect to like this, since I dislike Zombi. The "mildewed rose" description sounded pretty unpleasant too. It does smell sort of rosy, or rose-geranium like and it does have a fuzzy gray overtone, but somehow this smelled good to me. It has a clean aspect that evokes dry, dusty bathroom drawers that used to hold soap. It also reminds me of a zoo, somehow. Not the animal smells of course, but the deep green humid tropical-ness of a botanical garden.

This is an odd fruity floral. It reminds me of Poison Apple, probably because of the oleander. There is a faint smell of fruity dish soap underneath, but it's not high pitched or acrid enough to be unpleasant. It's sweet and exotic. I'm keeping this one.

Yep. If this had a color it would be lilac or light blue. It's powdery, but not offensively so. Maybe a little like orris root? The general tone is cool. It's also a bit soapy, but like an expensive milled soap with a delicate scent. As another poster said, this reminds me of Easter somehow. This may be too soapy for me.

OMGosh, really?? I received a frimp of that from the lab that I haven't tried it yet. Ghoul is in my top 5 BPAL scents of all time. I will have to go and test this, thank you! That's funny- I don't get that. To me it smells green/woody and dark (more dirt-like than ODFC's smooth musk) and a little misty.

First I get a blast of butterscotch. I don't love butterscotch, but this is pretty good and doesn't smell plasticy or overly buttery at all. I get a hint of patchouli with it too. Also vetiver? Somehow I could swear there's vetiver. After only a few minutes, the butterscotch dies down a bit and the vetiver begins to separate into smoky myrrh and sweet anise. The anise is very faint, though. A nice, foody scent for fall. Edit: I was wrong. The vetiver scent did not disappear (though it was never overwhelming or unpleasant). I think it is the dirt note. Funny, I was expecting oakmossy or dusty dirt. It's a lot like something I get from Black Annis.

I have no idea what year my sample comes from. Lovely sweet resins here. The golden amber is the strongest though there is some powder from the tonka. It reminds me faintly of Sheol, though it's not as dark or morbid as Sheol at all. The sweetness of the amber is offset by the somewhat darker costus and rockrose and overall this is just gorgeous. Recommended for fans of amber and labdanum. Edit 2016 version: I don't remember smelling this last time, but I must have. This reminds me strongly of an old fashioned perfume, I can't think what. It's powdery, almost cloying yet oddly compelling. It smells a bit like bug spray, yet I can't stop wanting to smell it? Confusing. As it warms up, the bug spray effect goes away.

This scent starts off in the imp and on the skin as profoundly unpleasant: strong pine and burning grapes. However, possibly due to my skin chemistry, this turns into a forest in the warm afternoon sun with hanging muskedine grapes everywhere. It's sweet and there's an undertone of patchouli. I'd say this is generally on the masculine side due to the deep patchouli and pine. This smells a lot like Arcadia, if that imaginary place had a smell. I expect Pan to show up at any moment.

"U" a retail scent smells like paper, leather and binding glue (not the awful smelling stuff.) The discontinued Pluto smells like linseed oil. Rumplestiltzchen reminded me of charcol and bonfire, but that might be just me.

I have to admit I'm sad for the Spider's disappearance.

Whoa. Now that is some powerful cocoa. I can detect a tiny hint of red dragon's blood underneath. I get cherry cordials only because I've never had raspberry cremes. Sad but true. The honey makes this syrupy and wonderfully sweet, but I'm concerned that the faint tinge of baby powder it adds will amp and ruin the scent for me eventually. Right now it's mostly dark and rich with buried resins. This is like a chocolate flavored Womb Furie on me. I may not be a big fan of chocolate in perfume, but this is really nice. Edit: Powderiness has not amped. Instead there's some pitch and myrrh coming out underneath lending a slightly spicy smell. This gets better and better.