Dovahkiin

I had to work up the courage to try this, because it really does smell SO powerful in the imp I was afraid it was gonna knock me over. It doesn't smell bad at all, I was just worried about it turning weird on my skin and being unable to wash it off. The thing that stands out most to me in the imp is the sandalwood. While wet on my skin, it's sharp and fierce and strong. The rosewood and sandalwood dominate. It's woodsy and biting, and I love it. It's much sharper while wet than it is dry. As it dries down, that fantastic red musk starts to emerge. It smells like the same furry red musk used in WILF - another scent I totally adore. It's warm, shaggy, and comforting. The woods back it up perfectly. I would almost call this a hybrid of WILF and Western Diamondback - WILF's wonderful red musk coupled with the warm, dry, sweet dustiness of Western Diamondback. Once it really settles down on my skin, it mellows out a bit. The musk edges towards sweetness without becoming straight-up sweet. The woods are dusty and warm. It's both subtle and commanding. I feel very comfortable wearing this... very natural. A perfect low-lying, skin-hugging scent. I really enjoy it. It is so incredibly animalistic I was a little taken aback. But not only is it completely feral, it's also delicious. I haven't been so enthralled by a scent in a while. It just smells so good.

From Perversion, I get shockingly authentic chardonnay and tobacco, with maybe just the tiniest bit of leather. This conjures up a very specific and unsettling image for me that I find far too personal. It smells like a man with alcohol heavy on his breath, cigarette smoke thick in his clothing and hair. The leather jacket he's wearing is old, dingy, and smells more of cheap cologne than it does of leather. His face is weathered, tired, yet strangely familiar. He leans in too closely when he speaks to you. His staring eyes are red-rimmed and glassy. He won't go away. I find this scent fascinating because it scares me, honestly. It makes me very uneasy because of the powerful and specific connotation it holds for me. I will probably never be able to enjoy it for that reason. I can definitely see what others love about it - when I clear my mind and focus, I do smell a bit of cool, creamy coconut underneath the heavy booze of the chardonnay. It doesn't change much on my skin over time - If anything, I would say the smoke just gets heavier, and more cloying. It's a very unique combination of scents, but way too overwhelming for me. It makes me feel anxious, and causes alarm bells to go off in my head - that what I'm smelling means fear, confusion, maybe even danger.

Yep, this is almost purely jasmine. No big surprise there. I don't LOVE jasmine, but I don't exactly dislike it, either. I liked it a lot more when it was freshly applied. It was very a very sweet and heady jasmine scent. As it dries down, it turns a little sour, as others have mentioned. There's a bit of an powdery scent in the background and something just a little bit peppery, in the way that black pepper sort of tickles your nose when you smell it. I don't smell any fig, vanilla, or oak, which is unfortunate considering those are the notes I was interested in. Ah, well.

I got a decant of this and none of the other Pumpkins this year purely because this one's description implied it was heavy on the vanilla, which I love. Right off the bat, I get that spice-heavy pumpkin note that is so prevalent in the Pumpkin V of 2009 and Pumpkin Latte. That pumpkin note doesn't play nice with my chemistry and amps itself into some horrible artificial spice, so I'm hoping this goes better than my tests of the other two went. I can tell the vanilla is helping to tone down the sharpness of the spice, and adding some nice, creamy depth to the scent. After a few minutes, it starts to remind me a lot of Chimera - a very sweet cinnamon scent. It's not the same overwhelming potpourri spice that Pumpkin V '09 and Pumpkin Latte morph into on my skin, which is a big relief. The vanilla is definitely there, and it's buttery and quite rich, almost making my mouth water. This is similar to how I wanted Pumpkin Latte to smell on me - creamy, spicy, sweet pumpkin and vanilla. I like this a lot - it's very foody, and therefore right up my alley. It smells like sweet pumpkin cake with a drizzle of rich vanilla glaze, something like what they pour on cinnamon rolls. Anyone who thinks that sounds delicious really ought to try this scent. About 15 minutes in, it has become much less like Chimera and more like its own wonderful thing. The different vanillas are coming through, and I swear they are creating a scent sort of like cream cheese frosting. So now this smells like a pumpkin roll cake, with lots of yummy cream cheese frosting. It's much better than I had dared hope, considering my track record with BPAL's pumpkin. I can tell this is just going to get better with age. I definitely wouldn't say no to a bottle of this - for the time being, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of my decant.

This review is for the 2010 version. I had SUCH high hopes for this. I love every single one of the notes in this blend. LOVE them. And if they had come through on my skin, I'm sure I would have loved the blend itself too. However, I might have to come to terms with the possibility that BPAL's pumpkin note and I do not get along. I did not smell anything except a very generic, potpourri-esque "spice" smell in this blend. Not even pumpkin! Just overwhelming, artificial spice. I left it on for at least an hour, hoping something would make an appearance - coffee, pumpkin, vanilla, anything! - but it never changed. It pretty much smells identical to Pumpkin V (2009) on me. I don't get anything but spice from that one as well. Such a shame.

This review is for the 2012 version. I have to confess that I do not like the smell of this in the vial at all. It smells like sour fruit, stale bread and celery - not what I expected at all. I really didn't want to put this on my skin, but I had to give it a fair chance. I put on a very small amount... and MAN, it's strong. On my skin, it's registering as very sour fruit - think lemons and unripe oranges, but without the all the acidity of citrus - or like a sour, unripe kiwi. Something smells like it's burning, but I don't know if I would identify it as sugar. There's a thick undertone of something my nose picks up as "bready" and it's sort of choking me, making the back of my throat feel all dusty and puffy. Ugh, this is not going well at all. A few minutes later that celery-esque smell is coming out more, which is exactly the opposite of what I had hoped it would do. This is just... not good on me. Not good at all. I get no warm brown sugar, no caramel, no candied fruit... It's like charred celery soaked in lemon juice. I'm jealous of those of you that get yummy, toasty brown sugar from this scent.

This review is for the 2012 version. My initial impression was of banana saltwater taffy. VERY sweet. If I sniff it and think that it is meant to emulate the scent of pears, it smells more like pear... But honestly, it comes across as pure banana taffy to my nose. On my skin, it doesn't seem to change much. It's a bit softer, but still powerfully sweet. Still, all it smells like to me is taffy, though it's not as assertively banana taffy as it was in the imp. After a few minutes, it is very reminiscent of the sweet syrup left at the bottom of a sliced fruit cup or can of fruit cocktail. The sweetness of light corn syrup mixed with various mild fruit juices. I want to emphasize that despite it being very sweet, it's not hyper-sugary. Those who have described it as "syrupy" are spot-on. The words that immediately come to mind are smooth, mellow - and of course, sweet. It smells like corn syrup and fruit juice and taffy. It changes a bit when it has sat a while longer on my skin. There's something behind the fruitiness that's very nearly powdery, but not quite. Like an almost-powdery vanilla. I'm not getting the "kindly older lady" sort of vibe from this scent that other people seem to get. To me, this smells more like a young child's scent - like a little girl who just ate a fruit cup and still has some of the fruity syrup on her hands, mixed with the scent of clean skin and hair. It's sweet without being cloying, syrupy without being sticky. It's nice and calm. However, while I find it a pleasing scent, I don't know if I want to smell like it myself. For moms out there who have kids curious about your BPAL, I think this would be a great scent to let your little one try out. Something about this scent is so evocative of the calmer moments of childhood... it's really very pretty.

In the vial I smell sage and leather, in that order. There is the tiniest whisper of warm sweetness in the background, which has got to be the Snake Oil. For the first few minutes on my skin, it's the reverse - sweet, worn leather, slightly dusty, and sage. The Snake Oil sweetness is stronger while wet. As it dries down, it's warm, dry, herbal - almost medicinal. It's very evocative of the Old West, so it's very aptly named. I can smell a lot of heat and dust in this scent - it's pretty amazing how dry and desert-like it is. The medicinal stage is short-lived. A while later, the sage, leather, dust and SO seem to swirl around each other, nothing really taking the forefront, everything just coming together perfectly. After a while, it sweetens up considerably, with the Snake Oil pushing through. The sage fades, the leather sits behind the Snake Oil, but I can almost feel the dust at the back of my throat it's so strong. I think it's awesome. I get a bit more vanilla from this than from regular Snake Oil, and the sweetness is really very redolent of root beer to me. This is how it settles down and stays on my skin - root-beer sweet, warm, and dusty. This is a scent ideal for sweltering heat, despite its inherent warmth - it's just so strongly Western that it seems made to be worn in summer's dog days. That's not to say I wouldn't wear it any other time, as I can imagine the heat of it being quite comforting in colder weather as well. I'd say the throw is medium. I didn't slather it on, because I think it could easily get overwhelming - I swiped the imp wand across each wrist a few times, and when I move my arms around my face I can catch small wafts of the scent. I think fans of leather will love it, as will people who want something sweet, warm, and very dry. It's definitely a scent that edges towards the masculine side of the spectrum, but I think it's wearable by anyone (granted, I don't think people should limit themselves to "masculine" or "feminine" scents). I'm really glad I got to try this, I will enjoy my half-imp greatly and probably grab a bottle if I can ever find one.

In the vial, this smells like a super-tart, crisp Granny Smith apple. There's the realistic apple scent up front, and a teensy bit of sweeter, Jolly Rancher candy type apple scent. On my skin, it starts out as pure green apple, very tart, slightly bitter. I was half hoping it would stay this way, it smells like a really good green apple single note. Then I get the candy shell, and it smells just like a red-glazed candied apple - yummy! However, pretty soon the cinnamon makes an appearance, and as much as I generally love cinnamon, this isn't the good kind. It veers off dangerously into cheap autumn-themed scented candle territory, like a really bad spiced apple candle. I'm also getting somewhat of an odd, pink sugarless bubblegum type scent mixed in. It makes me a little sick to my stomach, it's just too cloying and artificial. I really wanted to love this because I love apple, but the bad-candle/Extra brand gum association is just too much for me.

Man, I wanted so badly to like this, but it immediately goes all sharp, bitter florals on my skin and stays that way. It smells very interesting in the vial, though. Sweet, non-spicy pumpkin, vanilla, and fruity guava. It's a shame this went weird on me.

In the imp, I get airy floral iris and very sweet coconut. Wet on my skin... warm coconut meat and hazelnut, with fresh iris in the background. The hazelnut warms the coconut but the iris keeps it crisp. The drydown: The iris and white musk are emerging and pushing front and center, the hazelnut dies down but the coconut lingers. After a few minutes the hazelnut reveals itself again. The notes – coconut, iris, hazelnut, white musk – seem to dance around each other, and take turns dominating the scent. Overall, very light, smooth, and versatile. The blend of notes is very interesting – the coconut and hazelnut soothes and calms, the iris and white musk invigorate. It is as once sweet and warm, fresh and floral. I really, really like it. Unfortunately, as others have said... This turns into a strange, powdery, soapy floral when it's been on my skin for longer than five to ten minutes. Such a bummer. One of the scents I like most so far, and it didn't work on me!