abejita

This is a scent that I should dislike. As my likes with BPAL have evolved, I've migrated firmly away from the fruity (with a few exceptions-- none of which are apple) and I've never much cared for cold scents.

 

This is it.

 

This is everything I dislike, made good. It smells like snow, glass, and apples. Really. The sweet/tart of the apple is utterly not candylike. It's crisp. The air/snow is crisp as well. And there is definitely something crystalline about it, though not mineral. This is a BPAL classic and I'm so glad to have it.

Wow, these labels are so much prettier than last years!

 

DXXXII = 532

 

This smells so familiar. I swapped away my bottles, so I can't do a side to side, but I recognize some notes in common with Hungry Ghost Moon and Tamamo No Mae. There's a high, effervescent gingery-candy-fruity note, as well as something deeper tying it all together.

 

This is very nice, but it's not the kind of scent I would reach for. Off to the swaps!

This one lived up to my expectations in every way. It's dry, warm, and clean. There's something comforting and lazy about it. It makes me think of fat bumblebees and buzzing cicadas. I'm not getting the insect repellant thing other people are mentioning at all. This isn't a huge smash hit, but it's different enough from my usual scent stash that I will hold onto it and wear it. I'd really love to smell it on the boy, though.

I don't know what it is with me and myrrh lately. It sees like anything with myrrh is just extra special good. This is a clingy skin-scent, the kind that sends bursts of scent as your body warms. I get mostly the myrrh/amber/vanilla/wood thing, but it's very warm. Something about it reminds me of the texture and heft of chamois cloth. The spicy carnation adds just the right amount of bite to the whole thing. It's another of my beloved golden scents, with a burst of red from the carnation.

 

I predict that this will work on 1/2 the folks who get it, and they'll be madly in love. I'm one of those people. Try this if you like O, L'Estate, and Haloes. Or try it if you wanted to like any of those, but they just didn't work out on you.

I can't believe no one's reviewed this yet.

This spray is much like the L'Estate oil. Just subtract the florals and add spice. It has the same dizzyingly bright, sunny, high noon at high summer feel to it. I usually balk at citrus, but the orange rind is perfect here, especially coupled with the ginger. I've never tried any of BPAL's room sprays before, and if this one is indicative of their quality, I'll be buying more of them.

My only small regret is that I like this so much that I wish it had been the perfume instead of the room spray! I love the perfume, don't get me wrong, but the spice and resin here is strikingly beautiful.

The comparisons with Haloes are very apt here. Where they differ is that Haloes is drier and woodier, while L'Estate has a more fuzzy, earthy kind of warmth. I've discovered that, while Egyptian Amber will always be my one true love, Nepalese amber is a close second.

 

The two ambers meld beautifully. The synesthesia is fun, I perceive the ambers as having a nubby texture, like raw silk. The sunflower reminds me of one of the top notes of Et Lux Fuit, which is absolutely fine by me. I am not the hugest fan of lily, but I'm finding that in blends like this I enjoy the note. The golden musk seems to make this scent heat up, melding it to my skin. This isn't just the pinnacle of summer, it's high noon at high summer, reveling in its glory.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet. It's one of my all-time favorites.

 

I originally got this as a decant in a 2ml shortie, on a whim. It was decently aged. I'm not a citrus fan in general, so I figured I'd try it and then pass it on. I didn't even try it for a very long time. I just more or less forgot about it. I picked it out of the box one day and gave it a go. Of course, I put it on while I had the laptop in my lap and spilled about 25% of it just below the keyboard. When I quit cursing over having spilled oil on a computer, I inhaled. Instant love. The citrus was subdued, not at all dominant. Myrrh and almond have always been two of my favorite notes, and together they meld beautifully. Couple that with the Snake Oil, and it's all beautifully sweet, dark, and smooth. This has become my surprise favorite of the Snake Pit, and has a place on my all-time Top Ten list.

 

This oil and Shub Niggurath are the ones that have garnered the most unsolicited compliments on me.

In short: This is everything I wanted Litha to be... and more.

 

I am absolutely astounded at how much I love this blend. I have been searching high and low for the perfect honey blend. Litha was a jumbled herbally mess on my skin. O smells nice on me, but is much more amber/vanilla. Osun smelled like old honey powder, in a bad way. Honey Moon was just unremarkable flowers with a faint honey backdrop. Hony Mone has too much flower and powder. And every other honey blend I tried just wasn't THE honey I wanted, no matter how much I liked the scent otherwise. I even looked to other brands and the closest I managed to get was Arcana's Queen of Crossbones, but it wasn't quite what I wanted.

 

Enter Mead Moon. Oh honey perfection. My love, my darling. It's rich, it's golden, it's sweet, it's intoxicating. The other notes are present, but they are a supporting cast that rounds out and completes the honey. It's not skewed towards lemon, herbal, or spice. It's a perfect balance.

 

I am going to ask people going to Will Call to pick up more bottles for me. I never, ever want to be without Mead Moon.

 

Oh, yeah, fairly strong throw and normal wear length.

 

10/10.

The beeswax absolute makes this blend for me. I like all the notes very much as a rule... except peach. I'm not a peach hater, but I do tend to amp it beyond reason. I was hopeful, though, because spice is usually the only thing to temper peach on me. The carnation and cardamom cut through the peach and the beeswax binds everything together in golden smoothness.

 

This oil really evokes summer to me. Not the dry, unbearable heat part, but the bright, abundant part. I wouldn't consider this a primarily fruit blend. It has a fruity component, but it's over all so very well blended.

 

I don't get the Tamamo No Mae similarity (I so did not like that blend), but Tamora is the closest. I like this better than Tamora, though.

I'm getting more honey than anything else, followed by patchouli. The fig gives it roundness, lushness, and the almond is very gentle. It's so warm and intimate. I'd love to have the scent as an oil.

I lived in a Hare Krishna temple for several years. Champaca flower smells nothing like nag champa. The Hindu temple smell is a combination, probably, of several types of incense and the ghee lamps. Where I lived, we used a lot of keshar chandan incense as well as nag champa.

 

In the bottle: Musk and osmanthus. Very flower/musk. Hmmm. Not a huge floral fan, so this isn't promising.
Wet: Flowery flowers. Dammit. It's all osmanthus at this point. Damn its apricotty fruity flowery self. I was hoping for a honey-musk-vanilla-spice kind of thing. But this is all floral, all the time. I think that osmanthus just does not appeal to me. It seems to overtake a blend, unless there are a lot of other bold notes (like Dark Delicacies). I can tell now that it's why I didn't care for Itasô Kansei Nenkan Jorô No Fûzoku and Shoggoth.
Dry: Fruity, floral. There is some honey here. The osmanthus is finally mellowing and I like the blend a whole lot more. It ends up smelling like a very mild apricot/peach blend with a bare hint of gold musk. I don't dislike it the way I did wet, but I don't think I will hold onto it.

In the bottle: Creamy vanilla. I can tell this is going to be really nice.
Wet: A face full of creamy vanilla. There is a hint of Black Lace here. I think it's the same vanilla. The cream is also very apparent. Saffron is just a breath.
Dry: This is more or less what I wished Underpants had been. Underpants had a really high-pitched, hairspray kind of note to it that just killed the blend for me. The blend is fairly simple and straightforward. From the notes, I feel like it should be a seriously foody blend, but while that gourmand element is there, this is not a foody like, say, Día de los reyes. I am a vanilla lover, and this is a great vanilla. Saffron is always a winner, too. Cream, though, is hit or miss (though when it hits, it hits BIG). I am pleased to say that the cream in this blend is just gorgeous. No sour milk or buttery weirdness whatsoever.

I predict that this blend will be wildly popular.

On me, this is primarily a honeycomb, currant, and gardenia blend. It's a very good mix. It reminds me a bit of Sacred Whore of Babylon. It's pretty, very feminine, and playful, maybe a little whimsical. I don't really get the connection between the scent and the painting, but I like it nonetheless.

In the vial, I was a little worried because it seemed bitter and woody. But on my skin it's so warm and rich. I agree with a lot of the other reviewers in that there's food notes to this, but it's not a foody blend at all. I'm surprised that I don't get the apricot, really, since that note usualy amps on me to dizzying heights. It's a golden woody and warm tonka/vanilla scent on me and very evocative of its namesake.

This smells exactly like a liqueur I drank a lot in Spain: Crema Catalana. It's sort of a creamy egg liqueur with a touch of warm spice to it. It's light and a little rich at the same time, and very pleasant to wear.

For me, this is all light, puffy, and sweet. I like it, it's very much a marshmallow poof, but it just isn't me. I guess I prefer my marshmallow toasted. It reminds me very much of Midway, and I traded that one away as well. Off to the swaps.

Even though this blend is highly touted as one of the classics, I never got around to trying it. It was the leather and chardonnay that put me off. I'm not into leather and wine notes. On testing it, though, I'm finding out why it's so well loved. The leather and tonka blend into something thick, warm, and sexy. The chardonnay stays a bit grape-y in my locket, but on my skin it just adds some complementary sweetness. The rum gives it more depth, there's something very sugar cane-y, rather than just boozy. I've tried it, and now I get why it's so popular. Very, very sexy.

I don't know why I haven't reviewed this yet. It was one of my first bottles, and remains one of my best loved. I have the first version, so it's nicely aged.

 

Basically, the blend is a mixture of several of my all-time favorite notes. White opium, Sudanese coconut, amber, spice. They mix and meld beautifully into a rich haze. I've read other reviews that say something to the effect that this is a non-foody foody, and I can see that. The caramel, currant, and black coconut do that, but the resins and tobacco scale it back considerably.

 

It's very much evocative of it's name. I love this blend and hope it continues to be released every year.

I got ahold of this in my quest to try everything with Egyptian amber (one of my all time favorite bpal notes).

 

This is what I wanted Hymn To Proserpine to smell like. I get the dark fruits, but the strawberry is bright as well. The Egyptian amber is deliciously resiny, almost edible. I think I like my Egyptian amber best with spices and resins, but this is still a fun, effervescent, bouncy kind of blend.

In the bottle: Sweet honey, flowers, fruit. Indistinct.

 

Wet on skin: Rich rose, honey, and a jumble of dark, ripe fruits. Plum and figgy goodness seem to be at the forefront.

 

Dry: I am happy to say that this is exactly what I thought it would be. When I read the notes, I just knew what this would be like, and that's what I got. So, yeah, it's very true to the description. I can detect a wee bit of everything listed, but, as another reviewer commented, it's very balanced and blends together nicely, like a Libra should. Rose is often hit or miss with me, and in this case it is working well with the fruits and honey. The feel of the blend is dark, deep red-purple. It's not a blend I'd categorize as sexy, it's more elegant and classy, somehow.

 

The whole zodiac series has been all over the place for me, but this is one I'll hold on to.

My first impression, in the vial, was patchouli plus. Patchouli, but there's definitely something else there. On my skin, that "something else" opened up into a really lovely scent. The benzoin and coconut do something wonderful to that patchouli. Every time I inhale, I'm struck by the feeling of texture I get from the blend. It's an interesting bit of synesthesia, the blend is the olfactory equivalent of nubby, raw, undyed silk.

 

Coconut-haters, take heart! There is no trace of suntan oil or plastic in this blend, at least for me. And, to the haters of patchouli, this blend has a very different feel than most patchouli blends. No one hates benzoin, so I guess there's no qualifier there.

 

I predict this will creep its way into a lot of top tens, and end up as one of those beloved GC blends that everyone snaps up any time an imp or bottle makes its way to a sales list. I am definitely planning on a bottle and can't wait to see how this one ages.

 

Thank you, Beth, for making it a GC blend!

I am really surprised at how much I like this scent. When I saw the notes listed, I was on the fence about even trying it. The last five notes were what gave me pause. Any one of them in a blend would have been okay, but all together, I thought it would just make it an herbal/floral/cedar fest. Instead, this is a study of balance and blending. The scent is a lovely, dusky purple. Very beautiful.

Dammit. I have never had this problem with cedar before.

 

I usually have a policy with bpal, that even if something smells repulsive to me in the vial, I will still try it on skin and let it dry down. We all know how bpal goes through radical changes on the skin. But with this one, I opened the vial and smelled a sharp, dry, abrasive cedar. I applied a tiny bit, but I couldn't make it through to dry-down. This has never, ever happened to me before, even with a cedar-y oil. I didn't like Monster Bait: Ventriloquest's Dummy for all its too dry woody notes, but at least I could tolerate the oil in my presence. But the Sportive Sun? No. Washed it off before it could dry.

I generally refuse anything with an outright pine note. I wanted so badly to like the Organ Grinder, but the pine made me gag. What was even worse was that, behind the pine, I smelled deliciousness. It's the same thing with Voodoo. I love every note in this, but I can't get past the pine. I have no idea if the pine dissipates on drydown, because I can't even make it that long. Damn you, pine!