mxtine

I've wanted this since I started collecting BPAL, because of the coconut. I read the reviews later on and dismissed it based on the reviews that it was floral and it had too many "white" notes that usually equal soap on me. Plus, it was impossible to find. Oakmoss makes it a little cologney in the bottle, but I can tell it's going to be good. On skin, I can see the comparison to Snow White. There's that same cool, non-tropical comforting coconut note but it's more of a creamy citrus musk version of Snow White for Summer. I'm surprised how refreshing the white amber and musk are. I'm in love with Dia.

This one is very simple. Amber and pomegranate or some other dark fruit. I'm betting on pomegranate. It starts to go a little powdery like amber typically does, but I'm a fan of amber and this doesn't bother me. The red fruit is sweet and rounds it out. I've been outside in the garden a bit today, and my skin warmed up the fragrance, so it has a lot of throw and now smells a little like strawberry, but it's not plasticky like strawberry scents can sometimes be. It's sweet with golden amber. I have an amber oil from another retailer and I can see this layering nicely with that.

I was expecting this to smell like Midway--super foodie like funnel cakes, taffy and cotton candy all in your face. Strangely, it's very light and airy. Faintly sweet, with a night blooming floral note. It's almost as if I'm walking towards the midway on an evening with a cool breeze blowing the smells of sweetness and night-blooming jasmine your way. Not what I expected, but yummy regardless. Thanks to the King of Goblins for sending this to me.

I wanted Rose Red to work on my skin, but it was so sharp that it gave me a headache. I prefer rose with resins or musk as a perfume, but I digress. This is just like Rose Red but the fresh vivid red rose is perfect for a room spray. There's also fresh cut grass and a bit of rich black soil. If I close my eyes I can picture myself in the Queen's rose garden.

This is one of those scents that is so beautiful in it's simplicity! I can smell each note, and a tiny bit of coconut which isn't listed. It's the same dry coconut husk that was in Blood Pearl. Perhaps it's the Brazilian cigar tobacco that's giving it the tropical note? Leather is a note that's hit or miss but this one is so smooth and the soft musk is to die for. I love the dog-smoking-cigar label.

I've avoided this because of the cinnamon. I amp cinnamon so any amount usually smacks me over the head big time or it burns my skin. I decided on a partial decant because I like to try all "cat" scents. The cardamom reminds me of Spanked, and the whole blend is similar to Bengal, without the honey. I don't really get any tangerine or cherry blossom, which isn't a bad thing. It's like warm chai, all the spices are very muted and I love the amber musk base. I might be looking for a partial of this, it's very pretty.

I don't do so well with spicy notes in BPAL. Sometimes they can be amazing, like in Hod or the Blue Pumpkin Floss prototype, but mostly they turn into a sickening holiday candle/potpourri mess on my skin. Lamia v3 is one of the exceptions. It's like straight cardamom in the decant, but on my skin it's sugary spiced gumdrops, the clove ones. Oh so edible! As it dries it turns into this amazing spicy, dry woods and musk cologne. WANT.

I've had Venom on my WL since I was a BPAL newbie because of the comparisons to an old favorite, Poison. Thanks to the lovely saralaughs for the awesomely testable sniffie! In the vial, I can smell the comparison. It's a wickedly dark plum/berry resin. To my dismay, the jasmine note amps on my skin. The jasmine doesn't stay strong and I'm able to smell mostly wild berry resin and a bit of lime. The lime complements the dark notes very well, keeping this from being too sweet by adding a citrusy zing. I loved to finally review this, but something tells me the floral aspect would get in the way too much for me to really enjoy it.

I'm excited I finally have an imp of Morocco to review. It's one of those BPAL classics, but I have a rocky history with cassia/spice notes so I just figured I'd wait until one floated by. When I heard of the comparisons to Hod, I put it on my wish list. In the decant, I get almost nothing. It's a little carnation-spicy/sweet/incensey, but just barely. On my skin, it's no different. I can see the comparisons to Hod, but Hod is stronger and creamier and just fabulous, and this, well, there's nothing to it. Where's the red sandalwood? I really think this would be better aged. I can tell I'd love this in it's full glory, so I plan to hunt down an aged bottle.

This was mostly an impulse purchase--I saw a bottle on LJ and looked at the reviews, and after I read the story and the notes I bought it. I love musks, but the "pickle" note in the reviews scared me. When I opened the bottle to sniff, I got the pickle note that people were talking about. It wasn't like a jar of pickles though, but more like dried leaves mixed with musk that gave it that sourness. This disappears on my skin, leaving just musk and woods. It smells so familiar but I can't put my finger on it. It's a sparkling clean yet creamy musk and nothing like any BPAL I've tried yet. I'm in love with this! The label on this bottle is absolutely beautiful. I have a soft spot for deer, they are such majestic and powerful creatures.

I love BPAL amber. It's powdery but to me it's comforting and nothing like baby powder. I didn't really hear much about this perfume but I smell tagettes/marigold in the bottle. I don't have much experience with this note but I've always liked the strange smell of marigolds so this isn't off-putting. It's almost citrusy and I don't smell a lot of amber. Once applied to my skin, it turns into a rich golden amber. The oil is a strange consistency, it's not sticky, but it doesn't evaporate or blend into my skin easily. The amber reminds me of Jacob's Ladder at this point. The dry down on this is just gorgeous. The amber's powderiness has died down leaving a warm cognac skin scent.

THIS is my HG incense perfume, and thanks to the lovely TrailerTrashPrincess for offering to be a pickup fairy. All of the notes in this are made of win. It's a dark, rich and sweet incensey sandalwood/teak blend. I reminds me a little of Midnight Mass, but it's less heavy on frankincense and myrrh. I really don't need to go on about how beautiful this is and how much I love it. Truly hoard-worthy and most definitely fantastic aged.

This was a huge morpher. It goes from citrus cake (the kind with flecks of lemon rind) in the decant, to oatmeal cookies, to one of those giant Toll House fresh baked milk chocolate cookies that I love to smell (but can't eat), and finally to a candied ginger cookie. There seems to be a cedar wood note in here for a second, but it disappears. Despite being the bakery explosion it sounds like, it's rather light and airy.

I'm always iffy with Dragon's Blood. I loved it in Dragon's Milk and Dragon's Musk, but it seems to overpower a lot of other blends with a piercing cherry-floral most of the time. This is no different. It's very sweet and soapy rose and it's giving me a headache.

I received this decant as a freebie in a swap. I never heard of it, and I almost didn't want to try it on because I had one bad experience with civet. Being a patchouli lover, I had to put it on. It smells like Christian Dior Opium without alcohol in the decant, and this translates to my skin while it's wet. I love heady scents like this, so it has real promise. As it dries, it goes through a stage where I'm afraid it's going sour which must have been the civet, but several seconds later it develops a heavy sweet patchouli that's quite irresistible! It does have a tiny bit of rose (this is what I hoped Vamp.Goth would smell like!), but it doesn't distract my nose away from the patchouli and black poppy. I really like this, but being that it's discontinued and not very popular, I can't see myself finding a bottle anytime soon.

I didn't buy this when it was live because it just didn't sound good. Leather with nuts and coffee? Yuck. I'm going through a tobacco phase and now that I found out that coffee and leather can smell good in perfume, I wanted to try this. I've read that there are 2 versions of this floating around, one that's more leather and another that's more coffee. I have no idea what I have, but it seems more coffee than leather. In the bottle, the coffee note is a lot more friendly than the almost single-note coffee in IXHV4, it's more like a rich coffee ice cream so I figure this will be more wearable. This is delicious on skin! The leather note is there, but it's not sharp or chemical-like, and the hazelnuts and sweet tobacco are creating this lovely caramel-hazelnut liqueur note. It's like eating coffee ice cream while drinking Frangelico and smoking a pipe in a leather jacket. Instant WIN.

Tobacco is one of my new favorite notes, so I've been on a mission to track down bottles with tobacco. I was a little worried about the brimstone in Hellhound, but I've had good experiences with the other notes. Hellhound smells similar to Jacob's Ladder '10 in the bottle. It has an herbal-medicinal, light resins and smoky quality, and it's very light. As soon as it touches my skin, the galangal blooms, which is typical since I always amp spice notes. At this stage it's still very light and smoky and I'm not getting any bay rum, vanilla or tobacco...until about 10 minutes later. Now there's a smooth balsam-like note, and I'm unsure if that's a combination of the other notes or it's something unlisted. It's an interesting woody, sweet and spicy scent. I'll hang onto it until it's cooler when this would be more appropriate to wear.

Yes, and thank you for that.

I've actually wondered this! I bought a bottle off livejournal and it was all golden incense with a breath of candy. Definitely not cakey or foody as I've heard it described. At first I chalked it up to skin chemistry, as foody scents go really strange on me quite often, but the reviews all seemed so similar! Well, at least I know my nose isn't crazy. Anyway, it's unfortunate that you got a weird bottle.

Minamoto No Yorimitsu Cuts at the Earth Spider smelled a lot like Opium to me.

I love the released version of Cake Smash, so I was happy to have found a bottle of the prototype. In the bottle, it smells very similar to the cream cheese frosting in Cake Smash, or MB Closet. On my skin, it's Beaver Moon 05, but stronger. It's like a lightly spiced carrot cake with thick cream cheese frosting. The dry down smells like pure yellow cake, and the spices are gone. This really doesn't have much throw and it doesn't last.

I received this bottle with about a decant's worth inside as a swap extra. Like a lot of others, it smells familiar but I can't place it. This bottle is kinda old (it has the old-style label), so the floral intensity has aged away, which is a good thing because I don't do a lot of florals. I get mostly a faintly spicy amber with a bit of creamy floral. The amber in this one is really beautiful, and it dries down to a nice skin scent.

I wanted this because of Invidiana's review. Grapefruit? Egyptian Musk? Sold! Mmm! It smells like grapefruit oil in the bottle and on my skin. There's some lemon rind, and a bit of powderiness that throws it off a bit at first. I'm thinking, oh god no...is that a white floral sneaking up to turn this into laundry powder? Moments later, the powderiness that scared me has turned into a glowing Egyptian musk with an aura of nondescript citrus. It wears very close to the skin, so it's perfect for hot Summer days.

I thought I'd never get my hands on this one. It seemed right up my alley because of the comparison to Panther Moon, which is in my top 5. I smell resins and cola in the bottle! It's about the same on my skin, sweet resins, toasted sandalwood and cola, like the note I get from Schwarzer Mond. A spiciness starts to develop, it seems like cinnamon but when I accidentally got some on my upper lip, it didn't burn so it must be cardamom or even ginger. It smells like a natural cola I had once, the flavor was much more complex and rich than that your typical cola, with spices. Instant favorite! *sneaks away to buy backups*

I've always been afraid to try coffee scents. I love the smell of coffee, but I wasn't sure I wanted to wear it. When I opened the bottle to sniff, it cleared my head immediately. I've had a headache all day, and this smelled like freshly brewed, expensive, RICH coffee. The kind my Lebanese ex used to make, loaded with sugar. It's absolutely delightful! It also smells a lot like Kahlua, which I haven't tasted or smelled in years. There's some cream in here, but nothing that smells plasticky or goes rancid, and a bit of hazelnut. There has to be something else in here, grounding it and keeping it from smelling like "just coffee", maybe sassafras? It's so different than anything I have in my collection and I plan to cherish it.