edenssixthday

Pomegranate II - This is a very bright, sweet citrus scent. It opens up with a blast of sweet lime, grapefruit and lemon verbena. It's just so bright and fresh and summery! About 30 minutes after I put it on, I got caught up in a wind gust, and it swirled the scent all around me, and that's when I really smelled the pomegranate, which deepened the scent and kept it from being too bright and sparkly. It really gives some depth to the citrus and rounds them out quite nicely. Sadly, it faded pretty quickly on my skin, although it seemed to last longer in my hair. Very, very pretty summertime scent.

Pomegranate I - This is gorgeous. It's a beautiful, sweet pomegranate. The benzoin is far beneath the pomegranate, but gives the scent warmth, depth, and texture. And then there's the jasmine... jasmine can sometimes be scary on me, and it's pretty strong in the bottle, but it turns out to be balanced beautifully with the other notes and once it's on my skin, it harmonizes perfectly with my skin chemistry. This is a gorgeous fruity-floral scent that I just can't get enough of. It really packs a punch (a pretty punch!) when I first put it on, but once it dries, it has a pretty low level of throw and the staying power seems to be slightly below average. I it.

Oh, I love this! It's heavy on the black musk and rum. The vetiver is light and when it dries, it gives the overall scent the most awesome dark smokiness. The black currant does not turn to cat pee on me (!!!) and is barely discernible. Overall, this scent is darkly musky, darkly sweet, darkly earthy and herbal, and darkly sexy. I would definitely call it unisex. It has really good staying power and a light, but really, really sexy, amount of sillage. Bottle worthy? Oh yes.

This opens up with a heavy blast of warm, beautiful oak and a bit of earth and sweetness, which must be the booze. As it dries down on my skin, the earth note fades a lot and the wood note gets stronger and is given depth by that gorgeous booze scent. I have no idea what booze this is, but I would guess it's not scotch or whiskey, as they don't smell good on me at all, and it's definitely not gin, wine, or champagne. Beyond that, I have no idea what booze could be. There's a bit of greenery in the scent from the "cemetary weeds" note. It's fairly faint and gives the scent an even greater sense of earthiness. Overall, it's a really, really pretty, organic scent full of woods, sweet booze, and a nice bit of earthiness to boot. I'll definitely be wearing this one again.

The Wild Swans At Coole - This scent is a fresh, sweet-water aquatic that's fairly masculine due to the chypre, but there is a touch of pretty, feminine florals, although to my nose at least, they come off as slightly high-pitched. It's very clean, fresh, and airy, and reminds me of my annual autumn trips that I took in my 20s to the Boundary Waters region in northern Minnesota, where you find crystal clear lakes that haven't been touched by motorcraft, amidst hundreds of miles of pure, fresh air and millions of trees that are beginning to turn to brilliant colors in the cool temperatures at night. It's an incredibly evocative scent. It has good throw and the staying power is about average.

Nothing Gold Can Stay - From the scent description, I expected green leaves and tea, two notes that rarely work for me. Instead, I don't smell greenery at all. I smell the most gorgeous amber I may have ever encountered with a little tang from the ginseng. I can barely detect the roibos, but it is in there, far beneath the other notes, giving the scent the slightest touch of tea-like scent. This doesn't remind me at all of dewy green leaves but rather the scent of warm air blowing through early-autumn trees. It's not the scent of the trees, but the scent of the wind and everything it carries with it. It's really pretty, but sadly on my stupid skin (which eats up so many fragrances), it has little staying power.

Encroaching Madness - "Old foul, bad yellow things." You know what else is foul and yellow? Urine. That's exactly what this smells like when sniffing it in the bottle. It's so gross it's retch-inducing. I wasn't going to skin-test this one, but then someone in the Seattle Will Call thread mentioned how funny it would be if Beth made a scent that smelled horrible in the bottle but lovely on the skin, and I thought... hmmm... yeah, what if? So I hitched up my britches and jumped right in. And wouldn't you know... it actually smells gorgeous on my skin. I mean, so gorgeous that I couldn't stop huffing away at my skin, partly because I couldn't get over how something so god-awful could become so pretty, and partly because it was just so damn pretty. On my skin it's fairly light. I don't smell the honeysuckle at all (thankfully, since it's not a good note for me). I'm not sure what hydrangea or helichrysum smell like, so I don't know what was doing what on my skin, but it is a gentle floral that is very sweet and incredibly feminine, pretty, and soothing. It's such a gorgeous floral that I'm tempted to find a bottle, or at least a partial bottle of my own. And if I wouldn't have built up the courage to try it out, I'd have never known how pretty it would actually turn out to be. It may smell like urine in the bottle, but on my skin, it's really, really lovely.

Calaveras - This opens up with a warm, dry, peppery chocolate with a really strong twist of tequila. As it dries down on my skin, the booze note almost disappears (but not entirely) and I'm left with the dry, peppery chocolate scent. It's certainly not a sweet chocolate, and yet there's something in here, probably the cajeta, that's sweetening the overall scent up to the point that it's cloyingly sweet over the smoky pepper-and-dry-cocoa notes. I'm not much of a chocolate person and I generally don't like pepper of any sort in my perfumes, and the cajeta is just way too syrupy sweet for my taste, so I'm afraid this one is not for me.

The Unsteady Governess - I really like this scent. It's the same white tea found in Yurei, and the violet is soft and sweet without being powdery and smelling like your old Great-Aunt Edna. I was so glad to read the previous reviewer's comments about the bergamot and Earl Grey tea, because that was my experience, as well. As the scent warmed up on my skin, it took a distinctly bergamot/Earl Grey flavor, and smelled even prettier than it did initially. It's very simple and very pretty.

The Aurora Spaceship Takes a Dive - I don't smell much in the way of wildflowers -- a bit, but they're far, far in the background. To me, this smells predominantly like a ton of hay and woods. It's got a fairly masculine cologne scent, in an oddly semi-aquatic way, and I say "oddly" because it doesn't quite fit with the hay and woods. This is definitely not my type of scent. Sorry.

Daphne Honey - This is my favorite of all the new honey blends. It's a gorgeous floral-honey that's almost fruity in its sweetness. It's so pretty and is sweet, warm, smooth, and lovely on my skin.

Laurel Honey - I can't really add anything new. It's light honey with heavy green, bitter plantiness.

Tobacco Honey - This scent is like sniffing BPAL's honey note and the inside of a humidor at the same time. It's sweet, smooth honey combined with the sweet scent of freshly dried tobacco leaves. It's very simple and very pretty. To my nose, it's quite similar to Meliai. Really lovely and gentle, with a nice level of throw and decent staying power.

The Night-Raven - I had such high hopes for this one because it's full of notes that I love. The only one I wasn't sure of was the indigo musk. Sadly, it's evident from the get-go that the indigo musk is destroying this blend. I know this is crass, but this smells like someone just went #2 in a bathroom that otherwise smells really good. It's a weird combination of poo and pretty floral scents. I could cry not because I wanted to like this so much, but because it smells so utterly attrociously like B.M. on me.

The Death-Horse - First, let me say: I am not a lover of Lily of the Valley. I think it's a gorgeous flower and I love filling a tiny vase with clippings of the dainty little bells, but on my skin, it's gross, no matter if the scent is BPAL or from some other company. And so, it goes without saying, that on me, this stinks. It smells like floral must and bitter resin. Even the opoponax, which I usually love, is completely tainted by the poor little Lily of the Valley. Must wash it off now...

The Grave-Pig - Patchouli and mushroom are dominant notes in this. The oakmoss gives it a smooth warmth that is quite lovely, and the fig brightens up the scent without being overwhelming (which is good since fig tends to be a death note, but it actually works on me in this blend). It's very earthy without smelling remotely like dirt. It's more masculine than the type of blend I would typically be drawn to, and I think this would be awesome on almost every guy I know. Four hours into wear time, it's pretty faint and sticking very closely to my skin, but when it's first applied, it has a really nice level of throw. Overall, the scent is earthy, mellow, very pretty.

The Old Goblin - My nose is telling me there's a fruity citrus in this blend. I definitely smell the familiar scent of BPAL's ice note, and the faintest trace of fir, but mostly, I smell a very bright, fruity citrus. I also think there may be a hint of musk in here? It's very pretty.

Moonshine and Mist - This is really lovely! It's got a bit of a perfumey quality about it, but in a really good way. On me, it's very water with lots of white flowers. The water violet comes across more as a water lily than anything. The white sandalwood and warm ambergris ground the scent, while the florals are very light and ethereal. It's really, really, really pretty!

 

ETA: I'm back to add another note that even though this is very perfumey in a commercial sort of way, which is something I'm really not usually drawn to, I think this is a bottle-worthy fragrance. It's so pretty I just can hardly stand it. It has amazing throw (a little goes a very long way) and lasts all day long. I really can't get enough of it!

Crimson Christmas - I like this scent a lot, even though it's not something I would choose to wear on my body. It's evocative and very interesting. I mostly smell blood and smoke with a thin ribbon of peppermint running through it. There's a faint trace of the typical BPAL "snow" note in the background. It's a very strange, masculine(ish) scent, and I like smelling it, but wouldn't want to smell like it (if that makes sense).

Season of the Inundation - I didn't buy this because I don't like earth/soil scents, but someone gifted me a sniffy of it, and of course I had to try it even though it smelled like earth. I am kicking myself now for not getting any! It goes on with a strong earth scent, but once it warms up on my skin, it still retains some of the earthiness, but the balsam, cedar, and especially the delicious, spicy myrrh warm it right up and make this scent absolutely to die for. It is positively stunning, and I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for a bottle or partial bottle of this because my skin absolutely loves it.

CT V (Dorian): CLVIII (158) - Reviewed previously here. This opens up with a faint bit of Dorian, but mostly, it's fresh, bright greenery, yet it's not heavy like grass clippings, but more like light green plant/flower leaves. As it dries down on my skin, the greenery fades a lot and a gorgeous sweet note emerges that the other reviewer noted as honey, and which is so smooth and unassuming that I think it may specifically be white honey. It's a very pretty scent.

CT V (O): CCCXVIII (448) - This mostly smells like O, but without the plastickiness I get from O, and with a faint trace of floral -- pretty tropical florals, maybe tiare? It's a very pretty scent.

SDPU1 - This starts off as lavender, but quickly -- VERY quickly -- morphs into a smoky plum and incense scent with a hint of spice. It's gorgeous. Drop-dead gorgeous.

Jasmine - I agree that this is night-blooming jasmine, as it's one of the two best-smelling jasmine notes on me (the other being star jasmine). It's really bright and fresh, and very much a dead-on scent. Just gorgeous.

Bony Moon - This goes on with a hefty dose of white sandalwood and something very perfumey. As it dries down, it settles down, and while white sandalwood is still the dominant note, I can also smell the pretty herbs, but what's really grabbing me is the amount of fuzzy, animalic musk in this scent. I think that's what was so perfumey upon first application. This is definitely an animalic musk as with Faunalia, Buck Moon, Ivanushka, etc. It's a really lovely scent, although a tad on the perfumey side for me.