rhubarb3point14

I get the oddest, most incongruous strawberry-wine or blood-orange juice scent when I first apply this. It's AMAZING. It smells like a memory of summertime. With the matcha and yokan, I would have expected a more alkaline sweetness, but instead I'm getting this wild summery juiciness. Then it dries down to a faint skin-scent of fruity incense. Like many others here, I wish it stayed a little stronger over time, but I adore this enough that I'm willing to slather.

I bought this because I love BPAL's licorice note, and I am not disappointed. This is fairly similar to Tanuki no Senkimochi, one of my all-time favorites. The main difference is that there is gentle well-aged patchouli instead of myrrh, and it lacks the fuzziness of TnS's brown musk. Very somber and ancient-feeling, yet soft and hopeful.

Love this one. It's strawberry, but cool and green and herbal instead of sweet. Very refreshing for summer.

There is a wonderful punch of greenness at the beginning of this that I think is the Parma violet. Then during the remainder of the wet phase, it’s mainly orange blossom and beeswax. Finally, it morphs into a blend that is mostly myrrh and spicy furry musk and leather, with a smidgen of the orange blossom left in it. It's fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. My only complaint is that my skin absolutely gobbles it up, and it doesn't have much staying power on me.

I had high hopes for this, because at first I could smell a smoky, bonfire smell. I love smoky smells, but often my skin eats them. Unfortunately, my skin did eat the smoky smell, and I was left awash in red musk and head shop. I've kind of overdosed on red musk lately and am starting to really dislike it, so I think this scent isn't for me.

I love Troll. It's a scent for autumn -- it smells like piney woods and campfires, and it's got the dark musk that works best on me. I often can't wear pine scents (Jabberwocky was an unmitigated disaster on me; it smelled like foody floor cleaner, which is disturbing to say the least), but this one really works, probably 'cause it's so dark and smoky-spicy.

Unfortunately, this is foul on me. I really do think orris hates me. It smells like a combination of old-fashioned face powder and one of those swamp flowers that has an undertone of carrion. So, um, not my thing. On the bright side, it has very little throw, so even though my wrists smell offensive, I can't smell it very much.

I feel terrible for those of you who are getting pickles and whatnot, because this is amazing on me! It's sweet and tobacco-y, but it doesn't amp crazily on me the way BPAL's usual tobacco note does. It stays well in control. That old furry touk, I suspect, is made of the furry brown musk that I love so much in Tanuki no Senkimochi, because to me, this scent smells like Senkimochi minus anise, plus pipe smoke and coffee. Comforting, warm, happymaking, and all-around GLORIOUS.

It's interesting that someone upthread compared this to Harvest Moon. I tried HM 2012 earlier this week and loved it... and then tried Queen Alice and loved it! But even though they are the same "feeling," the specifics are all different, at least with this year's HM. HM 2012 is very bright and autumnal and spicy on me, whereas this is cidery and winey, and the only spice comes from the carnation. I usually have all kinds of trouble with apple and wine notes, but Queen Alice is wonderful anyway. Go figure.

This is bright and spicy and autumnal on me. I smelled a little bit of fruit right at the beginning, but it’s mostly woodsy spices once it dries down. Its one minor flaw is that it is just a teensy bit sneezy for me because of the chrysanthemum. Overall, I think it's great! I've been congratulating myself all day on smelling awesome.

"Eerie" is exactly the right word for this. It is melancholy and quiet and starry. Cold and humid at the same time. It smells (my friends and I decided) like Savannah, Ga. I'm not a floral person, but I absolutely had to have a bottle of this because there is nothing else remotely like it, and it's hauntingly gorgeous.

This fragrance is my preciousssssss. Everything about it is right. The combination of the anise and the brown musk and the myrrh... SWOON. I wish it was general catalogue. I should have gotten a backup for my backup.

Blargh. I was hoping for mostly smoke and hearth-iness, but what I got was potpourri and stewed fruit: oranges, grapes, apples. I really don't wear those notes very well, so the end result was a headache. :-/

I had a few moments of real unhappiness with this one while it was wet, because it smelled like PEANUT BUTTER. But when it calmed down, it became rich, spicy, vaguely aquatic (!?) and maybe a tad smoky. Really pleasant on me. I like it a lot -- my only complaint is that it blends in with my skin a little too much. At times, I can barely smell it.

This may be the wittiest scent BPAL makes. It smells exactly like opium-laced birthday cake on me. So wrong, and yet so right.

This goes catastrophically wrong on me, to the point where not a single one of the supposed notes in it is recognizable. On me, I swear to you, it smells like a peanut butter and rose sandwich!

Several thoughts on this: • It is a partner scent for Black Pearl. • It actually smells JUST like a tiki bar. It’s like you’re there, surrounded by the wood carvings and drinking something out of a coconut. In my imagination, I can even almost smell a little bit of butane from the pu-pu platter. That’s how realistic of a sensory experience it creates. • It is the most retro scent I’ve ever tried on. It smells like 60s beach culture translated into scent form. • The ironwood reads as sandalwood/cedar on me. I wish I didn’t amp these woods so much. It is almost, but not quite, a dealbreaker. Overall, I like it a lot. It started out smelling like a coconut seven-layer bar, and then there was an unsettling period about one hour in when it smelled like the aforementioned bar cookie sitting in a hamster cage; but it ironed out in the end and became very appealing. The lemon blossom is beautiful.

Ooooooooh, yes. Very anise-y on the front end. And then furry-spicy-musky. Outdoorsy. Teeters on the edge of being too animalic, but isn't. There is almost a root beer note in there somewhere. I really, really like this one! It matches very well with my natural scent. Think I'm gonna get a bottle.

When I first put this on, I was pretty worried, because I got a strong cedar note -- my usual #2 pencil/hamster cage issue. And there was some dry, dusty, unsweetened cocoa, not unlike the cocoa note in How Doth the Little Crocodile. But then that faded and… Whoa! It disappeared completely, just like Gomorrah does on me! I assume that’s the date/palm component. I asked my husband if maybe I smell like dates naturally, and that’s why they disappear on me. He said he’d have to think on that. Anyway, eventually I started to get a fig note (more dried than fresh, but not over-sweet), so I can smell it again! It’s still very close-to-the-skin for me. I put extra on, but it remains very subtle and warm and skinlike.

This smells like strawberries and cream on me. It is GORGEOUS. I can't stop sniffing my arm.

My number-one BPAL for sexytimes is definitely Calico Jack. Second is Mad Sweeney, third is Dorian. RRRAAAWWWWWRRRRRR. These are all for me, by the way. I like androgynous scents, and my husband doesn't wear fragrance anyway.

Gaaaaaaahhh, I wanted to like this, especially because of the lilac, rosewater, and opium notes. But every absinthe- or wormwood-related scent I try does exactly the same thing on me: It makes me smell like dust and soap. If anything, this was worse than any of the others.

I was hopeful, because this started out very similar to the lovely, lemon-piney Nero on me... but then, like many cedar and sandalwood scents, it eventually left me smelling like a balsa-wood airplane.

Augh, Bliss is REALLY not for me. It does smell like milk chocolate, but... well, I don't really like milk chocolate. And it only took it five minutes to start to give me a headache.

This started out promising -- very sharp and limey and astringent. But unfortunately, I tend to amp white sandalwood to the point where it's physically painful in my sinuses. After about half an hour, that woody sharpness was all I could smell. I was wary of the patchouli, but never smelled much of that at all. It was lime and geranium and then... SANDALWOOD SANDALWOOD SANDALWOOD. I can imagine this being really intriguing on someone else.