Vega

The Carpathian Mountains (an old Halloweenie LE) smells like an alpine forest, although it might stray too much to the herbal-medicinal side. The Snow Storm (Yule LE) is the quintessential evergreen forest. Yule (yes, that's its name - from the Yules LE catalogue) is the same evergreen forest, but colder.

Sniffed: Gentle and bright. Light resins mingled with fruity sweetness and dry floral. On skin: This is one of those scents where I can distinguish all the individual notes, yet smell how they are combining into a more complex, well-blended perfume. Light frankincense (lighter than what I'm familiar with) forms the dry, resin-sweet base. Pineapple clearly contributes the juicy fruity sweetness; the florals are bright and "yellow", and I can distinguish the gentle, spicy brightness of my beloved Roman chamomile. The blend is rounded out with a breath of spice from cinnamon and a hint of herbal-ness from bay laurel. The resulting scent is dry, warm and sweet with a little spicy edge, and gets more airy with drydown, increasing in depth and body but still remaining light and gentle. Indeed, Solar Phoenix evokes a benevolent Sun, warm and life-giving, not at all scorching or harsh. Yeahbutnobut above captures it perfectly in her review: this is a lazy afternoon lying on the grass outdoors; a laid-back, happy Sun. Colour impression is pure yellow-gold with a muted sheen. Solar Phoenix reminds me of Copper Phoenix, which is a similar resin/fruit/floral blend that is richer and more fruity. (I no longer have Copper Phoenix so can't do a comparison.) Verdict: The more I test Solar Phoenix, the more I love it. I think it's a perfect scent for summer: it evokes the season, but is light enough to wear in hot weather. I think it has benefited from some aging, and will continue to age well. Thank you so much to my Switch Witch for gifting me a bottle!

Berry Moon 2011 has "brandy" listed in its notes. The notes list has lots of berries, but alcohol is definitely the dominant note here.

The Kingdom of Sweets (from the Nutcracker Yule a few years back) is all sugar and candy. I second Velvet Unicorn and Boo as well.

No one has recommended Joyful Moon? It is floral/vanilla sweet, and feels delicate, graceful, gentle and airy. I think it is the quintessential wedding scent. When I think of a bride at a wedding, I guess I think of delicate and gentle floral/fruity scents, or scents with "white" or "pale" colour impressions. From the GC, I think Titania, Helena, Endymion and Amsterdam would be great.

Sniffed: Dark, heady roses deepened by myrrh, and the other notes. On skin: Black rose is the showcase note, floating upon the solemn base of resins and guiacwood. If "black" is meant to evoke darkness, these are indeed the darkest, richest roses I've ever smelled in any BPAL perfume, And yet it remains warm and definitely feminine. Overall, Miss Jessell is full-bodied and gentle, deep dark roses mingling with gloomy resins... and a distinctly sharp, sour greenness. Reading the other reviews in this thread, it must be from guiacwood. Alas, this completely spoils the blend. Miss Jessell is simple but evocative: calm, soft, melancholy, sunk into an enfolding gloom. --Then this wet, sour, freshly-broken-branch-greenness strikes a harshly dissonant chord amidst this harmony of rose and resins. The guiac seems to emerge more on warmer body parts, but even on cool skin it remains just out of reach, threatening to spoil the scent. Colour impression is an exceedingly dark purple-black. Verdict: What a pity, what a disappointment! Miss Jessell would've been such a wonderful blend, if guiacwood wasn't present. Then again, it may be delibrate: I haven't read The Turn of the Screw so I don't know anything about the character Miss Jessell, but if the scent is anything to go by, she is a melancholy, genteel, lovely lady with a biting or fickle side. Evocative, but sadly I won't be keeping my bottle.

Sniffed: A burst of dewy, juicy, pale-green sweetness, backed by a soft pale note strongly reminiscent of white musk. On skin: There are many notes in Titania and I can't distinguish any single one: they are all blending together to make a glorious cornucopia of fruit and florals. Lush, heady-sweet, very wet and dewy, rounded without any sharp edges. These airy notes are anchored by a very soft base note that can only be white musk, even though it's not listed. This base note gives the blend a feeling of gloom and gentle darkness, that contrasts very well with the brighter florals. The sparkling juiciness burns off quickly with drydown, and it becomes musky and soft with fruity sweetness. It has significant sillage for such an airy scent. (Once I was also testing Iago on my other wrist, and that villain was quite drowned out by the faerie queen!) I can only describe Titania as a green-white scent -- indeed, my colour impression is luminous moonstone glistening with water droplets. I'm reminded of Endymion, Helena and 51, and maybe Moonshine and Mist, all of which are similar dewy fruit-florals. (All long swapped so I can't compare them.) Verdict: As with the other Illyria scents, Titania is perfect for its namesake: the Queen of the Faeries glimpsed by night, adorned with flowers and fruit, filled with laughter, regal yet gossamer. It's a lovely, complex fruity-floral perfume, quite perfect for summer. I happen to be greatly lacking in light, summery scents, so I'm definitely keeping my imp.

Another perfume with "globules" is Pomegranate IV (from Halloweenie 2011 I believe) -- it definitely comes from the cocoa note. I need to mix my bottle thoroughly prior to applying, otherwise the cocoa just sits on the bottom!

Another hot summer night Down Under, and I wore Kumari Kandam to bed. So cool and earthy. I definitely wear it more during hot weather, and I think it's my favourite summer scent.

Sniffed in imp, cinnamon floating over discreet green herbs. On skin, cinnamon screaming over vanished herbs. And that is all I can smell. Straight to swaps it goes!

I would add RPG Neutral, Ivanushka, and maybe Coyote.

You might like BPAL blends containing "chocolate peppermint" -- the chocolate/cocoa notes warm and contrast with cooler mint. (I went through a phase where I was crazy for choc/mint blends.) Monster Bait: Tokyo Stomp is the perfect specimen, where chocolate and mint contrast beautifully with each other. Dark Chocolate, Lime and Chocolate Mint (Lupercalia) is similar and also lovely. If you want something more complex, try WILF, which does have a mint touch, though it blends with all the other notes. And I recommend Green Tree Viper too!

I tend to like scents that give a mental impression of the ocean rather than smelling like actual ocean/beach, but I second Calico Jack -- it smells like salt water spray on a ship's deck. I also recommend Caliban (from GC Illyria), which reminds me of the smell of wrack and driftwood cast up on the beach.

Sniffed: Nothing but dirty patchouli. On skin: This is not the rooty, gentle, smooth patchouli of Banshee Beat that I like. This is the glowing, sharp, pungent patchouli that's also in Masquerade, Rakshasa and Omen -- the patchouli that I really don't like. The other three notes are contributing a breath of warm, foodie sweetness, but their voices are wholly drowned out by this dominating patchouli. Truly, there is nothing subtle about this scent: it's loud, brash and unashamed (and unwashed if I may add), quite appropriate for the Occupy Wall Street movement, even though patchouli is doing all the screaming. Over time the scent does settle a bit, and if I huff deeply I can reach down to some gritty tobacco and sweet vanilla and cocoa. But by that time the scent is thoroughly destroyed. Colour impression is dirt-brown with a pink touch. Verdict: What a shame. These four notes sounded so very promising together, but the patchouli had to ruin everything. I won't be keeping this.

Malevolent, dark and shadowy: sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver. Sniffed: Leather upon vetiver. The black musk is so deep that I can't even smell it. On skin: Iago is ferociously dominant, almost vulgar in the way it hits me over the head with its brazen notes. It's mostly a leather and vetiver show, with black musk the discreet base note. Burnt, acrid vetiver is initially prominent, but smoothens out in the drydown and mingles with the smooth, flat black leather note. And there the scent remains, dark and gritty and inorganic. Both notes are quite one-dimensional to my nose: black leather is flat and inorganic, vetiver is gritty and burnt. I get a visual impression of black leather, of both matte and shining varieties, layered next to each other. Verdict: I never expected to like Iago, and certainly, it's way too inorganic, masculine and overpowering for me.