miss_rynn

I really, really don't like strong mint scents. They just don't work for me. Given the reviews, though, I thought I'd take the chance. And I am certainly glad I did! The mint adds a very soft freshness to a delicious vanilla aroma. It doesn't smell so much like cake to me, but more like a vanilla *sponge* cake. It's more of a light, airy cake smell. I adore it, and I'm a little sad I waited as long as I did before trying it, because MAN it's a nice scent, and I would love a second bottle. It doesn't last or linger as a room scent as a lot of the other sprays, but it's still amazing for a quick room scent pick-me-up.

This is like the child of O and Jezebel on my hair. It's got the same O honey and amberish thing going on, with the muskiness I pick up from Jezebel. I towel dry my hair, spray two pumps on my hands (and this one is more like a spray than a stream), rub my palms together and work it through my hair mostly underneath and at the ends rather than the top of my head. My hair is fine but I have a lot of it, and it tends to get greasy after a day or two, but when applied to the lower part of my hair it doens't come across as greasy at all. The scent lasts noticably for one day, but I can still catch drifts of it on the second and third day. I was a little worried to try this, as the Honey HG goes on a little ashy on my hair, but it really is quite lovely. Languid rather than smutty.

On me this is all pecan all the time. I find it quite bitter, but I think that's because it smells like fresh pecans, rather than the kind you buy in packets at the store. It's a very strong scent, but not quite my cup of tea. Any nut fanciers will really like it, though!

I really like this! I agree that it smells a little like stale booze, but not bad stale - it smells like you've just finished a christmas dinner with friends. It comes across as sweet mulled wine to me, as if there's a pot of it on the stove. It's a great comforting scent rather than being overy foody or boozey. Lovely!

I tend to amp any alcohol scent like woah, put this is really, really nice. It smells like something between gingerbread cookie dough and shortbread. Very much a cookie scent, with a touch of spiced rum to give it a really Christmassy feel. I think it works so well because it's a very subtle scent - it's great if you want to add a bit of sweetness to your life without the need of a strong perfume.

So very much sweeter and softer than Saw-Scaled Viper. Pretty much as advertised - it smells like you've been baking in the kitchen all day while wearing Snake Oil. The gingerbread is warm and sweet and lightly spiced, not screaming dry ginger, and more like a gingerbread cookie than a yeasty loaf of ginger and bread. It does turn ashy on my skin after a while, so I suspect that there's an extra vanilla note in the gingerbread part of the scent (the vanilla in Snake Oil doesn't turn ashy on my skin). It tends to round out the sharpness that can be present in fresh Snake Oil. It's actually not too rich or foody - the foody notes are tempered by the musk and spices in Snake Oil. Highly recommended!

This is fabulous! It starts off with a bright apricot note without being overly fruity, and dries down to a skin-like honey and sandalwood. I find that a lot of the bath oils tend to be a bit too over the top for me, but this one works really well. It adds to you own skin scent without clashing or being perfumey. The orris tempers both the woodiness of the sandalwood and the sweetness of the honey. It really is a lovely bath oil.

This is way, way better than my expectations. The released version is lovely for about 5 minutes, then turns into a bitter, ashy mess. The prototype is an entirely different beast. It's a masculine sweet scent on me. I amp leather out the wazoo, so I suspect what I'm getting is a background of the book leather. I also usually amp coffee like woah, so I am delighted that it's behaving itself. The leather gives it a similar character to Dorian (though not as sweet or citrussy). It smells like a young, dashing scholar who has just spent a few hours pouring over arcane tomes while drinking sugared coffee. This is AMAZING.

I get a nice, fluffy kind of coconut, with a hint of sweet cinnamon. I found that the released version was a little too harsh and rough on me, but this is a nice and subtle scent. Foody, but not exploding with cake.

I'm not a huge fan of fruity scents, but this is lovely! The honey note - particularly while it's wet - is very similar to the herbal-sharp honeys of Rappaccini’s Apiary. On the dry down the apricot blooms, but it's not a thick, gooey, over-ripe apricot scent; it's more a lush, fresh apricot. It is really true to being a white apricot rather than a yellow apricot - white apricots are fresher, more delicate and less cloying. Pairing it with a lighter, brighter honey than the thick, rich honey notes in scents like 'O' makes this an utterly brilliant pairing of notes. The barest hint of cayenne grounds it, and stops it from being overly sweet.

Absolutely no chocolate. An almost floral, slightly sweet scent with a base of BO and a slight tinge of pepper. Son, I am disappoint.

I'll freely admit that I only got this because of the tentacles. A girl can never have too many tentacles! This starts out as chocolate and prunes, with a floral back. I know that sounds weird. I normally associate prunes with constipation (what can I say?), but I have to say that the prune-and-chocolate combo works really well. As it dries down the chocolate fades, what is left behind is a heavy but not overpowering prune/musk/floral scent with a touch of something herbal and sharp. Basically it dries down to a very complex perfume on the skin that is a little sweet, a little green, and on the dark end of the scale. A nice, grown up sort of a scent.

I got this as a frimp in one of my recent orders, but I avoided trying it until now because of the disappointment I felt with Choke Cherry Honey. This is sweet, to be sure, but it's a light and bright sweetness rather than a heavy, sickly sweetness. It's obviously a honey scent, but there is a green component to it, something like crushed leaves and stems rather than herbal. I'm getting some weird scent memory of this that I can't pin down, but I have dim memories of one of the tropical islands I visited as a child, but also as a spa-like beauty treatment. Maybe somewhere between a fancy sun screen lotion and a botanical moisturiser? I know that sounds odd, but it has that fresh and clean but also sweet feel to it. There is a faintly bitter undertone that acts to ground it. This is seriously impressing to me, and despite my bad reaction to Choke Cherry Honey I think I'll look more into the honey series.

Turns to ash on my skin. Bitterly disappointed. Poop.

This smells super similar to Hony Mone on me; kind of a sweet fruit and herbed honey.

I'm surprised this hasn't had more reviews - it is definitely my favourite of the 2012 Yules. It has a herbal/resin scent that isn't overpowering or sneeze/headache inducing over a rich and sweet almond. To me this comes across as almost nougat incense. It's not too sweet, not soo herbal, not too dark, and certainly not too bright either. This doesn't scream Christmas to me - instead it's a scent I will wear all year round. Delicious.

This smells to me like salty lillies. It's not a soapy aquatic, and it's not really an incense scent either. I think I like it as an oddity rather than something I'd wear frequently.

2012 version! There is a hint of sweet, stewed pear. It feels a bit like the way that a pear extract for cooking would smell. It does have a floral feel (which I think is a bit like how apples can smell like roses), but it's mostly a thick, drippy, musky vanilla. If this reminds me of anything, it's Antique Lace. Take that with a grain of salt, however - the vanilla/foral thing of AL was never something I much enjoyed, so my memories may be a little sketchy. Regardless, it smells like an old-fashioned lady's vanilla perfume - very Victorian in feel.

This is lovely. I'm always a little scared of tea notes, but the tea in this is subtle and grounding, not full of the s mell of tannins. It starts of smelling like dried mango - not too juicy or fresh, but preserved and concentrated, like dried apricots - followed by a nice, warm, fruity pumpkin note. As it dries down it gets a little spiced, more like pumpkin pie than chai. It settles to a warm, soft cardamom scent on my skin with a whisper of clove and warm, roasted pumpkin way in the back. This isn't overly buttery or overly spiced - it's a great subtle foodie scent for people who like gourmand scents but don't want to smell like cake.

Tart and effervescent. It's bordering on unisex/masculine; a rather dry, sharp and fresh scent. It has the same fizziness that some of Arcana's perfumes (Joy, some of the TSG scents). This is not a sweet girlie scent - it's a bit like Pumpkin Princess's male cousin; none of the heady spiciness of Pumpkin Queen, but with the same kind of pumpkin core.

I got into BPAL just after the original carnival scents went down, and I was always sad that I had missed out on Shill. I really, really wanted to try it. This one seemed to be the closest I was going to get, so I snaffled a bottle as soon as I could. This was not a mistake! It initially smells like candy with a bitter smoke note (a bit like burned popcorn), but it soon settles down to a sweet, fairly subtle sugar vanilla. Subtle in that it's not a screaming cupcake kind of a foody scent. The vanilla in this reminds me of Lolita Lempika's "Lolita" perfume, even though the two scents are nothing alike. It's a foody vanilla with a sophisticated, cool edge. I was scared the sugar in this would turn over powering (like in Bread and Butterfly) or ashy (like a lot of sugar/vanilla scents can on my skin), but it plays nicely indeed! I think I'll still need to apply with a light hand, but this is a very nice, fluffy scent without being too sickly.

Under a nice sheen of butterscotch, it's all headache inducing patchouli and vetiver on me. I can't stand vetiver, as it makes me feel ill, and I'm pretty sure that is what I'm smelling more than patchouli. I can see why this would work on someone who likes both sweet and earthy scents, but unfortunately it is not for me.

From Etsy (and I'll take all the Pecker I can get ); Quite a masculine, woody Dragon's Blood scent. It has the same dryness as Velvet, and the same woody/vanilla note to my nose as Tombstone. In fact, it's very much a Tombstone scent with Dragon's Blood instead of sassifrass. This is actually quite lovely and subtle, and I expect I'll wear it often.

I like this, and I don't like this. The peach note combined with the myrtle (I'm guessing) gives this a slightly under-ripe peach smell, which is made more pervasive by the musk. Musk is often used in detergents to make the scent "stick" better, and I think that's the vibe I'm picking up from the musk in Aglaea. It doesn't *smell* soapy, but it's triggering scent memories of soap and detergent. I love the amber base to it, though. I think that if I could get a muskless version of this, I'd be in love.

I think I want to get a bottle of this. The dragon's blood isn't as syrupy sweet on me as it is normally, I expect because it's nicely tempered by the clove to help ground it. The cherry is there if you look for it, but the myrrh keeps it from being too bright, sweet or candy-like. This feels to me like a masculine cousin to Dragon's Milk, possibly because it reminds me of my brother (who wears a lot of clove scents). It clings to the skin, and adds a subtle spicy-and-sweet note without being overpowering like a lot of Dragon's Blood scents can be. It doesn't smell at all 'fussy' or over-complicated - it is fabulously well-blended and smooth. I am seriously, deeply impressed.