tealeaves

In the bottle: a bright, spicy citrus, sweetened somehow. I get a lot of lemongrass, maybe a little blood orange, and ginger, but it's a candied ginger, not a fresh one. It reminds me of spiced gingerbread cookies a little bit, or Constant Comment tea - that strong, citrus-y, spicy blend. Wet on skin: citrus punch! The lemongrass takes over, and strongly, with a hint of fresh spice from the ginger and maybe some bergamot in the mix. No frankincense or rose geranium, really, nor do they temper the citrus. As it dries down, the sweetness returns, with a foodie-like lean, reminiscent of lemon cookies and sugared ginger. Just the tiniest touch of smoke from the frankincense and a slight hint of lemon zest-like bitterness. I'm not sure about this scent burning away sorrow, unless its just using its brightness. The dramatic transformation is odd, and I'm not loving either of its iterations. However, it is oddly comforting, and while the scent is too food-y for wear, for me, I could see it as a good room scent in the winter. It reminds me of curling up with a hot cup of ginger tea and some fresh-baked spiced cookies.

A really interesting scent, and not quite what I was expecting! I think I expected a bright, clean floral, sweetened and softened a little by the incense. That's more or less what I got, but not quite. Wet on the skin, it's very clean and bright and somewhat soapy-sharp, as the other sniffers noticed. It definitely leans aquatic, a cool green floral. Not necessarily jasmine, and no violet to speak of (although I don't know what violet leaf is like on its own) but floral. After it's dried down, the sharp soapy quality fades and the incense comes out, mellowing the aquatic floral and warming it ever so slightly. It's less an incense note and more how the incense affects other notes. Overall, it's nice - a cooling floral scent for hot summer days, perhaps?

This scent goes through such an odd permutation on my skin! I snagged a decant because I love woodsy scents and rose, and it seemed like a straightforward blend without mystery ingredients that my novice nose would be stumped by. However, it seems like this blend has some tricks up its sleeve! Wet, it's very rose-forward, grounded somewhat by the heartwood and softened by the vanilla, although I couldn't pick out any specific vanilla notes, more its effect on the other notes. On the drydown, it went very wood-heavy and floral notes all but disappeared. The throw also all but disappeared, and I basically had to rub my nose into my skin to pick up the scent at all. Dry, instead of a woodsy rose it's a rosy wood, and the vanilla rounds out and softens the scent instead of sweetening it. I'm not sure if I'm sold on it - I would have liked it to be a little more rose-forward once dry, but it's not unpleasant.

I must have the strangest skin chemistry in history, because the scent I'm getting is completely different from all of the other reviewers! I tried this the day after I tried Black Moths, and despite the many ingredients the two share (patchouli, purple fruits (Black Moths has plum and blackcurrant), opoponax) the scents are night and day on me. Where Black Moths was sharp and musky, Insects is sweet and warm. Both scents are dark, but in Insects, the honey sweetness of the neroli and opoponax comes to the front, darkened by the patchouli. There's nothing sharp about it while wet. As Catcircus mentioned above, 'sweet rotting plum covered in honey' about covers it, with a sensual shadow cast over it. It dries down into a darkly sensual scent, like drinking sweet, dark, heady wine naked on a fur rug. It's exquisitely well-blended, so that I can't pick out individual notes as it dries, but it does gain a sharpness from the patchouli. I'm not normally a fan of sweet scents, but this is wild.

This is such an odd, confusing scent for me. Wet on the skin, it's dark and sharp and foreboding. I can only guess that it's from the patchouli and vetiver - I suppose it's not a good combination on my skin! There is a bit of dark fruit sweetness to take just the slightest edge off, but I don't get any of the other notes. After it dries down, it morphs utterly into a soft, warm floral - the rose comes out and it's a smoky, dark one. However, it fades rather quickly and has absolutely no throw. The final stage of the scent is absolutely lovely, but I think the initial sharpness of it and the lack of throw makes this one for the swap pile.

In the bottle, and upon initial application, I get a sharp, chemical scent, rather like the hairspray/nail polish another reviewer had mentioned. Unpleasant! Wet on the skin, it's much the same, although less chemical, but still with that sharp edge - I suspect it's the benzoin and myrrh not playing well with my skin or each other. It takes a long time for the scent to morph in the drydown; while I'm somewhat better able to pick out the violet and plum notes as the scent dries and deepens, it isn't until hours later that the scent truly blooms with sweet, smoky plum and the dark violet, deepened by amber, that was promised. Incredibly unfortunate, because I love the final incarnation of this scent, but it takes far too long to arrive to that conclusion and at that point it's quite faint and has no throw to speak of. One for the swap pile!

I snagged a decant of the 2015 release. Based on the description, I was expecting a cool, crisp floral. Unfortunately, on my skin it's quite the opposite of 'chilly and bright' as BPAL promises. I've seen other reviewers mention cake, vanilla and coconut, and that's what I get - a warm, vanilla-and-almond-y scent that's reminiscent of fresh baked goods. It reminds me a little of sitting indoors, smelling something delicious baking in the oven while the snow falls outside. It paints a great picture! The wear and throw are both quite good on this one. Unfortunately, it's quite a sweet scent on me, which I don't prefer, and quite the opposite of what I expected from the scent. Another for the swap pile.

In the bottle, it smells like bitter green apple. Wet on my skin, it's an astringent floral, tinged with tangy green apple and a light woodiness, no rose or vanilla to speak of. As it dries, the apple fades and it turns into a woody floral, with maybe a hint of bourbon vanilla if I huff really hard. It's a sort of floral incense scent, reminds me of an occult shop a bit, which is appropriate considering the name and theme of this collection. No throw on this one to speak of. I'm not sure about this one - I don't dislike it but I'm not passionately in love with it, either.

I don't get any of the lavender that everyone else is talking about, in the bottle or on the skin, which is a bummer because I really love lavender. In the bottle the scent is robustly purple, like a sort of musky, dark grape, only it's the artificial grape flavor of candy instead of real, fresh grapes. On my skin it's much the same, a dark purple muddle that I have a hard time picking notes out of. I'm guessing some lavender underneath oudh, currant and fig - I'm getting a heavy, heady sweetness. The best way I can describe it is incense-y, sweet, musky dark muddled grapes. It has absolutely no throw on me and fades extremely fast - looks like this one's up for the swaps.

This one didn't turn out at all like I expected. Caveat: I don't know what most of the ingredients smell like on their own, except maybe frankincense and sandalwood, but the combination of strange scents was enticing enough for me to sign up for a decant. In the bottle it smells strongly of cinnamon. Wet on skin and during the drydown it just smells like Constant Comment tea (which I'm not a fan of) - cinnamon, orange zest and sweet, rich spices. I don't get any of the wine notes that the other reviewers are mentioning, except maybe the cardamom found in spiced wine. About an hour later, it mellows out to a soft, powdery spice scent, but it dissipates almost completely. It would be a good room scent in the colder months if you like the smell of spiced wine bubbling on the stove, but the scent on my skin is too sweet and cloying for me.

I normally like all of these notes, but something about the combination of them is not playing well with my skin! It goes on very strong and masculine and woody, like the sandalwood and the patchouli are taking over. Within a couple of minutes it goes full lemon, less lemongrass and more lemon zest. I don't get the floral notes at all. A couple of hours later, it dies down into a warmer patchouli and sandalwood scent, softened a little by the rose. Although the dry version of this is quite nice on my skin, I don't think I can deal with the initial blast and the hour or so of lemon zest in order to obtain the final result.

I got this as a frimp from a decant circle, and was cautiously intrigued. I'm not really a fan of sweet scents, but I was hoping that the fig would give it a crisp, greener depth and the sandalwood would make it smoky. No such luck. All I get is honey, almond and coconut. It smells like a warm cookie. If you like sweet scents, you'd love this one. Sadly, it's not for me.

This is not what I was expecting at all. From the notes, I thought it would be warm and musky, with some spice, maybe cut a little by the mint. On my skin, wet, it's sweet, like fresh-baked sugar cookies, and a little sharp. It's very strange, I have no idea where the sweetness is coming from - patchouli or skin musk, maybe? Once it settles, though, it turns into a scent that's very cold and sharp, and almost bitter. It's like the spice of the amber and the frankincense is cut down by the chill of the mint and the whole thing goes bitterly medicinal. It almost smells like valerian. I must have very strange skin chemistry - this is not the first time that a scent people seem to love has gone horribly south on me. Luckily I just bought a half imp, because this one is not a keeper.

In the bottle: ORCHID. Wet: ORCHID. Dry: It settles into a nice, musky floral, almost sweet. I still smell the orchid, but it's no longer overwhelming. I think the plum musk sweetens and calms it. I don't smell the grapefruit or thyme at all, which I expected to cut through the sweetness and the musk and sharpen it, but those notes died on my skin. It ends up being a warm floral musk, which is lovely, but there isn't much staying power.

I got this as a frimp from the Lab, and I was a bit apprehensive as I don't love sweet fruit scents. I was right - this went horribly south on me. No depth at all, it smelled like a cherry Tootsie Pop or maybe Robotussin. Cloyingly sweet. Unfortunately, one for the swap pile.

I got a half-imp of the 2011 version because I love frankincense and musk and I generally like lily. In the bottle and wet it has a sort of smoky sweetness, like incense and juicy fruit. I'm assuming that's the frankincense and osmanthus playing together. It remains much the same once it dries down, a sort of heady, smoky, sweet floral. The lily is not aquatic at all, which would have been nice to cut the sweetness, I think. As a scent I do enjoy it but it's a bit sweet for my taste.

Disclaimer: I'm not yet familiar enough with all the individual notes to pick out the prominent ones. How does one single out notes anyway? Test a lot of scent, I imagine. Anyway. In the bottle it smells warm and spicy, but on initial application all I could think of was 'mint chocolate'. I have no idea what notes contributed to this but all I could smell was a warm, sweet freshness, with a bite of chill from mint (I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either). After a little while, though, it mellowed into something more like the description - warm spice with sharp edges. Definitely peppery, and I think I can detect a hint of the ginger and tonka bean. It's a very interesting scent, and I'm curious to see how it will shift with age. I only got a half decant of this one, so I will monitor it closely.

I was really excited to try this one as I love tea and light, citrus-y scents. It smelled nice in the bottle, airy and a little exotic, but once it was on my skin it turned horrible. At first it was a confused jumble of notes and after thirty seconds - straight-up BO. I kept sniffing at it and hoping it would mellow, but it just got worse. I smelled like a homeless person. After a few minutes I had to run to the bathroom and wash it off. I'm bummed because it really seemed like a scent I'd love but something with my skin chemistry made it go off in a terrible way.

It's been a bit difficult for me to pinpoint this scent. On my skin it starts out sharply floral, with a dark sweetness to it that makes it difficult to pick out the individual notes. As it dries down, I can smell the rose, and it's a dry and dusty rose, darkened by the incense and sweetened by what I think is the gardenia. It settles well, into a dark, smoky-sweet rose incense but unfortunately has very little staying power. I'd love it if it didn't evaporate within two hours of application!

This smells very sharp and fresh on me - not in an unpleasant way, but it's much tangier than I was expecting. I was hoping that the amber and the rooibos would mellow out the damp leaves, but those two notes hardly show up on my skin at all. Instead, I get something sharp and wet and spring-like - like dandelions or freshly-mown grass, not really autumnal at all. It's a good, clean fresh scent with a zing of ginseng, but not at all what I was expecting, and probably better for spring.

Beeswax, beeswax, beeswax. Sweet, honeyed beeswax with baker's vanilla and just the tiniest hint of smoke to cloud this otherwise bright scent. It's almost too sweet for me, and I wish there was a tad more smoke that came through, but overall it's a lovely warm scent.

This is really wonderful. It's the second Halloweenie I've tried, and I wasn't really sure what to expect as my skin chemistry is apparently crazy and scents never turn out like I expected them to. In the bottle, it was woodsy and spicy, but I couldn't pick out any specific notes. On the drydown, though, it turned into a lovely mix of sweet apples, honey, spice (like spiced apple cider) and patchouli. Good thing I love patchouli. It's really warm, just sweet enough and perfectly reminescent of golden autumn leaves. BPAL really outdid themselves with this one.