strahlend

Patchouli, Kashmiri tea, cardamom, black pepper, carnation, and clove. This is all warm spice on my skin. It's dominantly clove, but I can see how the carnation and cardamom play a part in the spice-fest. Pathouli is a perfect, yet subtle, backdrop for the dominant notes. I'm very happy to have a bottle, it smells great and I think it will make a lovely layering component.

I only get black musk, no cinnamon

Sniffing the decant: mild ginger compared to what I expected, it seems...maybe like there's more vine and gingerGRASS than ginger in here. testing ---- ohhhh this smells good. Oh, but wait, maybe not. Weird. There is a green-ness to this that, while not unpleasant, is not something I'm really enjoying. The honey is distinct, but not a deal breaker in this incarnation at this point. I wish I could smell more ginger cream and less vine and gingergrass. Suddenly when I sniffed it almost seemed like there's vetiver in here. It seems smokey all of a sudden. Must be the ginger kicking in. I like this much better than the green impression, but it's still not what I hoped it would be. It's like smelling ginger candy from a foot away. It's gingery and sweet … but faint. The honey is still hanging out, though the green has pretty much gone away. Sort of just seems like a slightly herbal light, fresh honey smell. At this point I don't feel like I can tell how I feel about it. It's weird how the vetiver wafts in and out of this scent. This scent is first to disappear and leaves behind only a trace of honey. Retesting: this wavers back and forth between sour greenness and smokey vetiver. A fascinating scent, but in the end probably not one I would wear because of the occasional sourish green parts. When this dries it is lovely. The smokey part and the hint of sweet are really interesting. I STILL don't know what to think about this scent.

Sniffing the decant: this seems faint, maybe herbal – like an herb shop that also sells resins and incense, and I really don't know what to make of it in the imp. Doesn't smell anything like what I would expect from the description. Testing: immediately this reminded me of something that I can't remember and made me smile. I think it's the cardamom that is going wild in here. Oh and the cumin! Lots of cumin. This really smells atmospheric. I think it would make a better atmo spray than a perfume perhaps. The cumin is really blasting through here. I wonder why I keep reading it as anise? Maybe it's the cumin cardamom combination. This is a pretty unusual scent. I can't quite decide how I feel about it. Retesting: cumin and something that's still making me think of anise. This is a unique scent and I find it appealing, but I'm just not sure that I would wear it enough. Finally remembered that this reminds me a lot of the potpourri I bought at an herb shop. It keeps striking me as appealing, but I'm not head over heels in love.

I fell in love with this scent immediately. Definitely a favorite from this update. This is what I wrote down as soon as I sniffed it - My loves are in here: rum, wood and tobacco. There's something amazingly fresh and zingy in here too.... it's like.... Tom Robbins. Like a goofy grin on the Mona Lisa. Like pirates who wear sequins. There's something very sexy and adventurous mixed with something very lighthearted and playful. So far this is The One that screams my name and says LOVE !!! Kagema starts out with a delicious blend of rum and tobacco. After a few minutes a little bit of orange peel starts to make its way forward and mixes with the rum and other musky cohorts to give this a little twist. This holds its own as a unique scent. The teakwood is becoming more prominent and is BEAUTIFUL with the rum, the orange is still hanging around in the back. I don't distinctly notice the cedar, bay or thyme, this scent doesn't feel herbal to me in the least. Kagema fades down to rum and soft warm leather and lingers for quite a while. There are several unexpected loves for me in this update, but I will make it a point to get a couple backups of Kagema.

On first application from the decant something seems a little sour, and I get a hit of a high pitched floral. Next I'm getting more distinct impression of black musk, but it's not overwhelming. I smell the frankincense lurking in the back, but it's not the star here. I'm getting mainly black musk and a sharp floral. There's also something reminding me of opium in the background. It takes just a little while for this blend to settle down. When the frankincense comes forward just a bit more it helps blend the musk and florals together. Overall though, this scent remains sour, powdery, and sharp with my skin chemistry.

Frankincense dominates this scent for me. The leather is very soft, not the sharp new leather product kind. The frankincense blends with the rum, leather and vanilla to give this a very inviting feel. I think it's the champaca mixing with the resin-warm backdrop gives me an impression of carnations. This reminds me slightly of Midnight Mass and other blends that feature frankincense, but this is a whole new twist which warrants a try from people who like resins. I know I'll be ordering a bottle. This stuff is gorgeous.

Right out of the decant I'm thinking this smells really good. I would have guessed dark wood instead of leather if I didn't know. It's reminding me of Interfector, which is “ tobacco, sharp woods, frankincense, and bunn”. I guess the tobacco and resins with wood/leather is enough to have in common that the comparison doesn't seem too far fetched. When I smell them side by side they seem very similar, but the comparison accentuates the honey in this blend. It makes the overall impression a little bit more light and sweet than the Interfector.

It's hard to describe El Dorado. It smells like a copal single note to me, but that's not much of a description. It smells clean, but with depth and hint of from-the-earth-ness that only resins have. This scent is unlike anything else I can think of. I upgraded my imp to a bottle a while back. This might sound strange, but this is a scent that is free of emotional overtones - unlike most other scents in my collection. This really is a wonderful go-to scent when I want to feel clear. What I mean by that is that I when I put this scent on I don't feel like I have to be in the right mood for it, it's somehow neutral but in a bright and uplifting way. I find it to be a soothing, centering sort of scent that is free from other entanglements.

At first when I got into bpal I was all about exploring the various kinds of aquatics. Then I tried a few and ended up thinking they smelled like soap. I wrote off aquatics for the most part for a while and didn't even bother with them. I don't know if it's because my nose has gained more experience or if the aquatics I'm trying are different - probably some of both - but several of them have worked their way onto my bottle list. The bay rum is sweet and a little spiced and I think I'll probably love just about anything featuring this note. The leather is soft and warm and mingles with the bay rum to create a euphoric combination. The wood and sea spray are present, the wood is somehow slightly salty smelling and kind of dry, the sea spray is just a hint in the air. This scent is so atmospheric that it really sweeps me away. I hope there's a bottle out there with my name on it, I would love to have more of this in my life.

At first this came across as being pretty nutty. Like, nuts that you eat. I was reminded of Mount Misery and Sweet Hollow Roads, I think because of the combination of nuts and dry leaves. After the first stage has time to mellow out this becomes a woody, somewhat sweet, and slightly cologne-ish scent. This might sound crazy but it's reminding me a lot of Black Lace. I think it's the musky and sweet (vanilla?) notes together that seem similar. This ends up being a fantastic woody vanilla scent that has decent but not overwhelming throw and great longevity. *edit* after reading the reviews above mine I think that what's coming across as cologne and reminding me of Black Lace is what yeahbutnobut pinned as cognac. I totally agree. Although this is totally different than I thought it would be, it's also much better. I'm so glad I caught a bottle of this, I think when people get the chance to try Oak Moon it will gain a following.

When this is fresh on my skin there's a lot of orange blossom. It smells very orangy and quite flowery. It doesn't take long though for the woodier, muskier notes to show up. I'm getting a mental image of an orange & orange blossoms sitting in a wood box. After about 15 or 20 minutes the intensity of the orange and blossoms have mellowed out a lot and it starts to smell more like incense. This is one of the few sandalwood blends that hasn't gone powdery on me. Here it maintains a dry, woody, freshness and with the incense and now relatively faint orange it creates a very beautiful scent.

I had a good feeling about this scent for some reason. I like snow scents, but I'm not sure what particularly called out to me. I ended up getting a partial bottle before my decants even arrived. I've never tried Skadi, so I've got no comparison to offer there. Initial impression - snow, sweet evergreen, and a touch of pine. Testing - it goes on with a mighty blast of pine but that quickly subsides and other woodsy, snowy, wintery notes pop forward. I almost get a hint of lemon among the snow, evergreen, and pine. There's a musky note anchoring this scent that's reminding me of something, a perfume I had a long time ago. It's feeling menthol cool on my skin where I applied it. Refreshing! The musk with the cool notes is feeling kind of cologne-ish, but in a really fantastic way. I keep feeling like I'm getting hints of beeswax or candles. As the cold and tree notes mellow just a touch the waxy note hangs in there which is making this feel a little softer and sweeter than it did when it first went on. Still getting the faintest hint of something just a little bit tart in the background. Eventually it softens into this really gorgeous snowy musk with just a touch of sweetness to it. This scent has a lot of interesting layers to it. It's a very lovely scent experience. I like it a lot.

You've already got a lot of ideas to work with here, but my recommendations are: Lady Una - Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices. La Petit Mort - The scent of warm, damp skin flushed with the glow of passion, touched by the luxuriant potency of ylang ylang and myrrh. And I agree that A Wonderful Light and Womb Furie might work for you too.

Initial lemon blast followed shortly by the thyme and then sweet frankincense and evergreen. The lemon sticks around through the later stages too, just not with the intensity of the initial application. It's an interesting scent, but not for me personally.

This smells exactly like Snow White with an extra helping of buttery vanilla and only the faintest almost nonexistent hint of rose.

Started out all chamomile gorgeousness and for the first two minutes, then my skin amped the rose. It's a very genuine and gentle rose, but it's taken over and dominated this scent. This happens with me and rose though. I loved the chamomile opening, it was beautiful.

Skin Testing – well, this is mainly verbena as far as I can tell. Lemony with a touch of an herbal feel to it, that's verbena right? I think that the other notes are tempering it though, because often verbena goes loud screaming lemons on my skin but this scent is a bit muskier and more subdued. It's like the screaming lemon tucked a flower behind her ear, took a sedative and wrapped herself in a sandalwood scented sweater. It's like lemon-sandalwood dusting powder. It's like a lemonade stand in an herb garden that also gives out sandalwood hugs.

2011 version A celebration of the Nativity: the light, uplifting incense of the Misa de Noche Buena, purple sage, and a vibrant bouquet of plumeria, chrysanthemum, tuberose, Angel's Trumpet, Mexican tiger lily, dahlia, and azucenas. I can't say I'm familiar with very many of these flowers, but this scent is very pretty! It seems a little golden sort of floral with some greenery. It's like sticking my nose into a fresh bouquet of golden flowers and juicy green leaves with maybe some dry leaves thrown in for contrast. I amp rose but I don't smell any of it here. I think I'm getting the mums and the lily. I'm surprised this doesn't get more love, it's a very beautiful scent.

When I first sprayed Alchemical Laboratory I thought it seemed like generic soapy florals, and I was a bit disappointed. Since then it's really grown on me. It makes my bedroom feel like I opened the windows onto a fragrant garden and burned some resinous incense. Fresh, floral, airy incense. I really like it.

I think I expected this to be a dark scent because of the vetiver, moss, and clove. In fact I find this to be a soft and powdery scent. More like the blanket you curl up with in November rather than a dark and dreary representation of the month of November. I'm smelling mostly the white sandalwood with a touch of moss rounding it out. The other notes are lost to me, even the vetiver. I keep thinking I can smell cedar and maybe fig in here and it's reminding me a bit of Intrigue. Summary: warm, soft, lightly woody, powdery, pleasant.

Sniff – I don't know. At first it smelled just like musky grain to me, now it smells like rosey leather... neither impression is favorable. Right now it smells like horse stalls at the county fair; hay, leather, horses, wood. Skin testing – this smells like jasmine and ammonia and lemons... ok, I guess the sourness of the rose first came across as lemon, but it's the rose. After a while it softens up a bit but the intense rose overwhelms all the other listed notes. To my nose there's also something like civit or jasmine or similar hanging around in the background. I know for a fact that I will never need to test this again. It's not for me.

Warm snuggly soft musk with a touch of clove to spice it up just a little bit. There is a clean feel to it, but it's reminding me of the kind of clean and clove/spice scents I've liked in the past. Maybe it was Jolly Roger or Spider? It smells like a warm clean body with just a touch of sweet clovey warmth. I'm really enjoying this on myself and if I smelled it on someone else I think I would swoon.

This is all about the dry leaves. Smells similar to Samhain, Falling Leaf Moon, Phoenix in Autumn and others of the similar type.

First impression is of cold pine and grapefruit. It smells perfumy to me, but I like grapefruit so I want to give it a try. Skin Test – this is a lot of pine-mint. I'm not getting lemon or grapefruit or vanilla. Just minty slush with maybe a very slight citrus in the way, way back. After a while - the yuzu comes out and smells very nice with the slush. Eventually the yuzu is the note that hangs on and lasts longest.