Aveya

I was REALLY excited about wearing Red. My preconceptions were for a vibrant, bold, tangy, fruity scent. It's a lot more delicate than that for me. It is fruity, in a tart dry sort of cranberry way (not my preference when it comes to fruity- I want juice smacking me in the face). The tang is certainly there- the spicy pink pepper excited me when reading the description a LOT more than it should have. It's just a touch, and only adds an extra little fizz to the blend. The scent didn't last very long on me, it didn't have much throw, in fact half the day I didn't even realize I was wearing it. I tried it twice within a month and it's just a no go. It's pleasant and soft, and I think it really does fit Red a lot more than you'd think. Something about it is kind of.. dopey. Like that air-headed athletic girl trying too hard yet missing the rock in front of her. It's quirky, cute, and I think if on the right skin chemistry could bloom into something really pretty. Because apparently, my body EATS cranberry. I could hardly tell it was doing anything <-<;. Off to swaps to hopefully find a more appropriate owner.

I love the comment that Crawdad is a blueberry roulette. It's so accurate it hurts. For me? It was Squash and Blueberry. Did you know Squash is apparently an absolutely beautiful smell? It adds a curious soft squishy butteryness to everything. I've tried to break down the glory that is Crawdad into individual notes, but I'm not even going to fib. I have no idea what half of the notes in this are even supposed to smell like. What I will say, is that this scent was my first ever bottle purchase WAAAAY back when, that a friend was telling me about and ended up buying for me because I thought the description was too insanely creative to pass up. I had no idea about perfumes AT ALL. When this stuff touched my skin it exploded into a beautiful prism of scent. Since then, I've been actively searching to find scents similar to Crawdad so that I can have a chance to figure out what these notes are that are making me feel so amazing. I've come to the conclusion after years of collecting that it's not one individual note. It's everything working together in a harmony that only Beth could whip together. It's juicy and slightly effervescent. It's deep, like a blue slow moving river bed where you go crawdad hunting . It's bright and fresh, and yet mellow and chillax. It's contradictory in itself but works together seamlessly. This scent has never morphed on me or changed. And since I've purchased it, it has remained true to the day I opened the bottle. It must work WONDERFULLY on my skin because the reviews from family, friends, coworkers, strangers, has always been extremely positive. When my younger sister was SAD that my bottle of crawdad was more than half empty, I was a bit depressed. It's the reason I finally joined the forums myself- to trade for more. Along with other goodness of course. I get claustrophobic fairly bad in my life- little things make my chest feel tight. And Crawdad feels like a wide expanse around me. With firm edges but a clear, uninhibited very calming blue center. /end hippy. The scent has INCREDIBLE throw. You just need a drop and you're good to go. The plus side? even with the crazy throw it's not overpowering or annoying. You can smell it, but it smells so good no one ever minds. I do get positive comments on occasion when a coworker walks behind my desk, wondering where the delicious smell is coming from. It's almost impossible for this scent to overpower. And boy does it have STAYING power. A few drops in the morning and I come home with a lingering remainder still drafting close to my body. It's been a long lasting investment. It's wonderful. You should try it out, if not just for the sensation of one of Beth's more curious creations. Not to mention one of the first scents Lilith inspired her to make

I had only come across carnation in passing with other notes (and noted it was the first floral that didn't go *Poof* powder on me), and even though I lived in Ohio where it's the state flower, had never paid attention to the smell. So I was just HOPING this would be a good investment. So all the below should be treated as an average untrained joe sniffing away In Bottle: It smells like pine. Wet on skin: Rose. Dry on skin: Holy f'in delicious baby of vanillarosewhatisthis OH THAT'S what Carnation smells like. Duh. It is delicious. It is natural, light, but deep and gently floral. It reminds me of Rose and Violet in the way that it doesn't powder like evil florals. It's spicey in a sort of nondescript way for me. It smells raw. Like I crushed the petals of a carnation in my hand. Red and Green all at once. Bold. Vibrant. Really, just read the lab description. I hope they add a "Sugar" SN so that I can layer it with Carnation. I think I would pass out with glee. Great throw- not overpowering but noticeable. Probably noticeable enough to annoy the overly-smell-sensitive co-worker. Might just wear it when I feel like being a tad bratty.

I've had this imp since 2010, and never got around to testing it until now . So, long-aged untouched imp. In the imp, it's very crisp apple and a little overwhelming pomegranate and almond combo. I have my SO sniff everything so when I shoved it in his face, he sort of freaked out that it was so strong. Muh bad. Wet on skin it instantly toned down. I usually love apple blossom, and in this it's quite lovely. I usually dislike Pomegranate, it tends to be too acidic for me, but the apple blossom tempers it very nicely. I also am immune to almond, I generally like it, but have a habit of not noticing it when it's not a front runner. Then, I have no clue what willow bark smells like, but I want to give it credit an overall light cleanness in the scent. I think this is working perfectly on my skin- but I'm not a light innocent floral kind of girl. Pity. Overall, this is a very girly, soft, pretty, clean scent. For girls who want something almost virginal, this might be it. It has a nicely balanced combo of floral and fruit. I can not stress how clean it smells to me, nor how feminine and innocent. I think some girls would LOVE this scent. Edit to add: While this scent is supposed to be more for Hera, it reminds me of the Roman Goddess, Diana.

2009 Res. version, received the bottle in a swap. Wet in bottle and wet on skin this smells like pine to me. Yeah. That's what I thought too. Then I smacked my head and realized it was "wet" carnation. Thanks to the single note for making me realize that. I put it on skin, and on my boyfriends too because it smelled masculine in the bottle to me. However, on the two of us, it went very different paths. Boyfriend: Ate any trace of cream and left behind the faintest, barest, vaguest "spice" ever. Probably a leftover carnation/cinnamon combo if the other posts are right. On Myself: It got darkly creamy, I was engulfed by carnation and some kind of vanilla yum. I want to say it's Tonka in this, because it didn't get creamy vanilla until a good 20 minutes of wearing it. Tonka is the only scent I've had on my skin that does that. It also has a sort of natural "spice" to it that could explain some of the scents I can't quite hit. But at the same time, there MUST be amber or some similar acting scent that's adding a level of babypowder-ness to the scent. It certainly makes it softer, warmer, more balanced. It takes the sting out of the spice. I wanted to adore Hod. But it morphed a lot on me. From pine, to cream, to sweaty man pits, to plastic, to baby powder. It was a confusing time for us all. It reminded me in some strange way of Diabolical Offspring (Dark Del). The overall feel of that scent that made me dislike it, is the same one in this. Who knew.

I was really excited to try this oil out. I got the bottle through a swap. Skin Test!: It's a very very very very sweet scent. It's rich. In the imp and wet on skin you can visualize big ole' chunks of white cake with sprinkles, thiiiick white icing with sprinkles, and a diabetic coma around the corner. It's delicious in every sinful, amazing, horrific way possible. I did NOT however notice anything fruity, honey, or even chocolate. This was solid solid white cake, white icing, candy sprinkles. Maybe that's how my head choose to interpret it. However, for me and my skin, this did not work. About 20 minutes into wearing it turned into playdough. I'm not sure if I'm misinterpreting a scent or not, but my boyfriend said "OMG YOU SMELL LIKE PLAY DOUGH" and dug his nose into my skin. Not exactly the reason I wanted him to go on an inhaling frenzy. So, despite his love of playdough, this isn't going to be worn on my skin. Oil Burner Test!: So on the warmup, I notice where some may get a "chocolate" vibe from. It's just a creamy sweet cake scent I think my nose tries to fit into "chocolate", but yet isn't quite chocolate proper. Next up in the warming oil is OMG SPRINKLEZ. This is where the "fruity" note is that others have described. It's not actually fruit proper, it's sprinkles. It's the rawest roughest omg SUGARINYOURFACE sprinkle ever. Purple pink mixed with iridescent unicorns. It's amazing (but I could see how that could go SO wrong on skin o_O). The cake is less dramatic, the sprinkles overpower. The icing is so heavy I might drown in it. Melt. This is being kept for Oil-burner alone. With much joy!

I idolized Gobo as a child (first crush? lol) and was so excited to see the Fraggle series added to the lab. But out of them all, I was most excited about Gobo and Red. This scent, overall, is best described as a melted orange Flinstones push-up from when I was a kid. I could never keep up with the melting and always ended up with my hands half covered in orange sticky goo. THIS IS THAT SMELL. It has a creamsicle vibe too, most prominent in the bottle. On skin the cream backs up and lets citrus play. Orange is most certainly the front runner for me, but lemon rind adds raw citrus zing, with grapefruit keeping everything light and fun. As it dries down, it's not too foody to be unwearable. It's fun and lighthearted, and I'm certain people will wonder who has a popsicle- but it's still beautiful and joyful. An easy summer scent to wear for easygoing events and adding daily childhood flashbacks. Now I have to buy a pushup and watch fraggle rock.

I was under the impression that Benzoin smelled like Vanilla (based on other forums and apothecary places I read) but then stumbled across some other sources that said it does NOT smell like Vanilla. That it's more relate-able to amber or copal, because it's a resin. Combine that with black sandalwood (which is apparently a very dark, "dusty" scent) and it accentuates into a masculine mess. It almost comes across as a leather (maybe a recently polished leather? lol). As it dries down I find it does morph slightly. From what I've seen from Tonka (a favorite scent on my skin) it really blooms as time passes. Becoming a sweet, spicy, delicious thing my skin reacts well with. So in this combo- as the tonka pokes out slowly it turns into a sort of sexy man sweat. Which he tried to counteract by rolling in baby powder (sweetness from tonka makes it girly?). It IS a pleasant scent, don't get me wrong. If I sat by someone wearing it I wouldn't crinkle my nose or want to hurl, it's just not as clear a scent with as specific image-invoking concepts as other scents from BPAL. I also didn't find that it was too light as others mentioned. I thought it had average throw for an oil and didn't pollute my house with scent. I haven't had it on too long for this review so can't attest to longevity, but I've worn it once in the past when it was new (and it hasn't morphed much in the bottle since I purchased it ) and it lasted for a few noticeable hours- so it had strong staying power for an oil. I might try it on my slightly feminine boyfriend to see if it blends well with him. But, it will most likely go to swaps/sales because I like him smelling spicy.