Caper

Whoa! I was afraid of the plumeria and I have no idea why. This is a delicate incense-y orange that vaguely reminds me of Nadie Se Conoce the Pickman Gallery scent, but this is less foody and it doesn't have the caramel. This is really amazingly good. I was randomly testing decants to find some GC loves for my next order and this just shot straight to the top.

I have no idea what is going on here, but it might have something to do with a slightly stuffy nose and the fact that I've tested something like 20 scents today. Something in here smells like fish. It isn't aquatic at all. It's fishy, like the counter for cleaning fish at the pier. I'm going to have to pass on this, even though the notes sound great.

The ambergris is nicely smooth and holding this together. It starts off really bright with the eucalyptus and turns lightly lemony. Overall this is nice, but I don't think it beats out Country of Eternal Light (icy wind, depth hoar, and frost-limned lichen) and I have a bottle. Good stuff.

I wish this had a touch more mandarin and it would be a winner. As it is it is mostly musk and not terribly interesting. I'm going to keep my decant, but pass on a bottle.

Minty, snowy, and sweet? I really kind of love this one. I kind if expected something red or orange for the flame, but I think it is something light instead. It might be a white musk making it sweet and slightly mellowed, but I'm not sure. There is something holding it together after the mint burns off and I like it. It sort of reminds me of A Torrent of Light.

I always avoided this because leather doesn't always work for me. This is awesome though. I think it is the cardamom and patch. It is a gentle soft worn leather rather than the black new car stiff chemically leather. Really really good.

Sugar plum snowballs with a touch of currant and cardamom! It has the same sickly-sweet smell as Yellow Snowballs, but once it is on it is delicious. I bought this one blind because Yum! and it is good. Fruity, a hint of spice, and slush. Good stuff!

Weird buttery off-ness for me. The pom and mint almost save it, but the too rich rancid butter takes over. Not for my chemistry,

I ordered this unsniffed based upon the reviews, and my own desire to try something different from my usual proclivities. Somehow, this vaguely reminds me of Oak Leaves and Kyphi, but only at first and only vaguely. It does seem a touch more floral than I might have predicted, but it all comes together in a way that really makes me think of fall. I like it, although I think if I ever get around to purging my collection it might go relatively early, but I do have others I like less.

Yum! This is just what is says, a beautiful vanilla mint. I bought a bottle unsniffed because I know I like the Snowblind perfume oil, and I love mint this time of year. I do get the cake that previous posters have mentioned. I think Boo is the classic yellow cake scent to me (although the bath oil had a nice noticeable amount of linen) and I feel like this is maybe 1/10th of Boo. There is a warm rich vanilla, but the mint really keeps it from being too strong or overpowering. Nicely done!

If you ever hoped The Most Magnificent Christmas Tree was an atmosphere spray, then you should buy this. It is a warm pine and spruce. I do get a touch of snow, but not much stone. I it.

This is likely going to be the sixth phoenix I buy in a bottle. The frankincense is just really good, and the cinnamon is spicy, but not sweet, so yay for everything except my wallet! The cinnamon in here is like a cinnamon stick, not so stong and dominant as it can be ( red-hots, it isn't!) and I think it tempers the frankincense.my only hesitation is that Midnight Mass is already an awesome frank blend, and I have two bottles (2005 and 2006) that are just amazing. I might cut this one if finances are too tight, but you all should buy it! Because it really is that good!

This is gorgeous, velvety myrrh with a touch of other notes to give it complexity. This is what I wanted the SN Myrrh to be, because generally I adore myrrh, but not in the SN! This, however, is a bottle for sure.. I thought it might be like Midnight Mass, or Cathedral, but this is warmer and deeper than either of those. Love. love, love, love.

I second the first review! This is lightly fruity, but not too sweet. The blend is warm and plum-dominant. It reminds me if hazy summer days eating plums warm off the tree. The fruitiness fades and the stone moves forward. This reminds me of Moon of Horses after the wine fades. Another phoenix bottle I think!

Whoa! Ugh, sharp and strong and bitter. Green and smoky? A vague hint of clove and orange at the end. This is the only fail out of all the phoenixes for me.

Lovely! I get the vaguely floral honey note too, but rather than powdery honey, or sharp greenery, it is a seamless gentle green sweetness. I'm really not sure why this is working so well on me, it should be okay with a tendency towards powder (I only added the decant because it had no complete death notes and a full decant set was easier than typing all the names on my phone ) but it is so much better than okay! Like several other oils in this update, this one is proving the exception to my usual notes of doom. I love the sharpness of the spikenard, and how it mellows with the honey and myrrh into something sweet and TOTALLY NOT POWDERY! Yay! Bottle of this one too, please! FTR- I loathe jasmine is all forms and this isn't hitting any of my jasmine buttons.

Sigh. Another beautiful phoenix. I like cedar, but I only get a mild hint if it with this blend in the beginning stages. That is when I get the almond too, the bitter version, not the marzipan version. There is a touch of orange liqueur maybe? It has a hint of alcohol, but it quickly passes. Damn, this morphs like crazy! BONUS! I have finally found a blend where the fig isn't reminiscent of the Purple Pie Man strawberry shortcake doll from the 80s. I am SO glad that I didn't skip this one out of fear of the fig. It is a sweet, mildly foody, mildly warm blend. I agree with SophieCedar about the candlewax at the end. Something about it is candle like, but not nasty cheap candle, nice BPAL candle. :lol Most definitely a bottle in my next order. :

Um, yeah. This is the amber blend I have been waiting for since I found BPAL. The Lion was close, and my decant is well used, but it never quite made the list for a bottle order. I tried and talked myself out of Brisingamen and Le Lethe. La Lugubre Gondola was too woodsy and dry. This is the warm, sweet, decadent amber blend that I wanted all the others to be. I'm getting two bottles, because I'm sure it is only going to get better with age. Beautiful. Really masterfully beautiful. I completely agree with the poster above that was brought to tears. I feel like I dreamed this as my perfect amber blend, and somehow, it has been brought to life. Eta- I'm going to second joyful girl on the second page of reviews because I feel like there is definitely a batch difference here. I ordered one decant, it was AMAZING!, so I snatched a second one from my favorite decantress, also AMAZING. I ordered two bottles and sniffed one upon arrival and thought, hmmmm, why did I get two of these again? Waited a day and applied straight from the bottle. It is good, don't get me wrong, but it is less *something* than my decants. I'm not getting chemicals and powder, but definitely a more bland blend. I'll do a side by side test and update the results. Update: four test patches. Two decants are very similar, but one has a slight ring of darker oil at the bottom and smells richer. The scent is nearly idwntical. Bottle #1 is really darn close, but less sweet and slightly more powdery, which is odd considering the original decant hasn't gone even a bit powdery. Bottle #2 lacks nuance and is just more ambery than the others. Boo. I'm never going to be able to buy a bottle of the first run I'm sure. I guess I'll just content myself with what I have and probably sell one of my bottles since I doubt I'm going to need both decants and two bottles.

I love this. Dark chocolate, smokey, sweet goodness. It reminds me of The Gorobble (and is why I sold my bu bottle) but is different because of the chocolate. It is good stuff if you like dark chocolate and burnt sugar, which I do!

I really like this. I agree that it is fruity and tart and dark. It fades a bit faster than other atmosphere sprays, but that isn't a bad thing since sometimes those can last for multiple days and I want to spray something new.

This reminds me of Pumpkin #2 from 2012. It has the same woodsiness that, contrary to the first post, totally reminds me of wet dog. I like the woodsiness and nuttiness, and could probably get over my wet dog association, but then the fig jumps up and says, "Remember that Purple-Pie Man doll from Strawberry Shortcake that you had when you were a kid? You smell like that right now. And while it smelled great when you were a kid, and maybe you tried to chew on his hat because it smelled so good, you don't really want to smell like that right now." I tried the fig in Carnal, and it was close, but I just can't get over what I think figs smell like and what they smell like in BPAL. So, no full bottle for me, and I'll probably use my decant before I hope in the shower so I get the nuttiness and then can lightly wash it off before the fig comes out.

I always think of Boo as a pretty simple scent. I love it for bedtime and on chilly days. I grabbed a decant because I thought I might as well. It is probably my favorite bath oil of the Weenies. The cotton comes out a touch more for me in the bath oil, which is perfect, plus the vanilla and sweetness and really, I think simple is sometimes best. I'm paring down my order to what I can afford, and this will be going full size for sure.

Yes to the Spun Sugar Spectre comparison. This is that plus a bit of patchouli. Which is awesome, because I love spun sugar. I will be getting a bottle of this for sure.

I thought this was going to be a sure thing and bought a used bottle unsniffed. Unfortunately, the milk chocolate now just does.not.work on me. It turned powdery and vaguely rancid. I would love a dark chocolate version.

I love amber. Just so everyone knows where I am coming from. This just isn't doing it for me, though I'm not getting the baby powder that others are (I rarely get powder from amber in general). I'm getting something more woody and dense. It smells like old wooden furniture?! It isn't moldy or anything, just a heavy wooden drawer. I much prefer The Lion for an amber blend.