TrailerTrashPrincess

this is RR '07 oh... my goodness! i generally don't care for roses in my perfume. they're sometimes nice in candles or tarts... and i don't especially care for cut, florist roses. that being said, this is beautiful. this is what the roses in my imagination, my dreams, smell like. beautiful and pure and dew-kissed. yeah, it sounds corny... but this is SO pretty.

this is PQ '07 and it is the most perfect dark, dark blood-red rose. a hothouse rose, with exceptionally sharp thorns and fragile leaves. not particularly something i'd ever choose to wear... but beautiful.

bought a bottle, never bothered to open it until today when i was decanting some out for someone else. sniffed from the bottle: cream and pears on me: cheap waxy vanilla candle i've tried several pear-based scents in the last year and all of them have turned *off* on me in one way or another. and the Lab's vanilla almost always turns to plastic on me. this is why i hadn't bothered to open it, i was afraid it wouldn't work. and it didn't. ADDED Dec. 10: wow! so few people have reviewed the other scents from this collection, but everyone and their uncle has reviewed this one! sniffed from the bottle: coconutty suntan oil (eww) on skin: coconut or pina colada scented cheap candles where you can smell the wax just as much as the "scent"

initial sniff: creamy skin-musk or white musk with soft woody/sandalwood notes drifting about. on me: something quickly turns into cedar. i never do get any cigars or tobacco... or leather. but i do get a bad, nasty headache.

dry dusty stale woody cinnamon stick that was briefly dunked in a strong cup of coffee with lots of sugar and french vanilla creamer. an interesting scent, but not *me*

not to borrow someone else's review, but that's dead-on as far as i'm concerned. on me, this keeps varying between powdery-violet-chemical and earth-rich-Death-Cap-Asphodel one sniff i'll think i like it. second sniff it smells like cheap dusting powder. i honestly never realised pansies *had* a smell...

to clarify before i go any further, this is the '07 blend. i know i didn't buy last year's and i don't think i ever even tried it. why'd i buy it this year? i have no idea. sniffed from the bottle: fireplace - complete with fresh wood and stale ashes. on skin: quickly becomes something Smut-y with foresty tinges -- but that doesn't last long. within half an hour all that's left is what i guess is the red musk -- which must be one of the musks in Smut -- and maybe the teensiest bit of worn leather (not that fresh, overwhelming leather scent, but the one that remains forever, faintly, on that beat-up leather jacket). somehow this smells very clean - very honest - to me. i had expected to hate this and instead i find myself considering purchasing another bottle.

in reading the description now, i honestly have no idea why i bought this. that being said, i've tried this a few times over the last couple of days, trying to form an opinion and i still haven't. so on with the review! sniffed from the bottle: coffee grounds. or, specifically, the scrub i make using used coffee grounds, olive oil, sugar (raw, brown, regular white, doesn't matter) and a tiny drizzle of a fragrance oil called either "chocolate delight" or "swiss miss" depending on which company i bought it from during any given month. on skin: most of the chocolate and sugar have gone away and now this smells like i've stuck my nose into a tin of fresh ground coffeebeans. i'm not registering any cinnamon, but it might be there just slightly grounding the coffee. i'm also not getting any cocoa - hot or otherwise - or brown sugar. after about an hour this turns into the bitter coffee, toffee-ish scent that Misk U is on me for the first few seconds, with the faintest waft of pecan spinwheels. overall okay, but not for me. edited to add: this sucker has some staying power! and not only that but it has some impressive throw! when i wrote out my review in my notepad the other night, i had slathered pretty well, to get a good judge of what was going on. but tonight i put on just a teensy drop - to make sure it was still what i remembered, and that the review was still accurate from my experience. with my hands on my keyboard and nowhere near my face, i still keep smelling this. it isn't changing anymore, still a bookish coffee-toffee-pecan sort of smell. Misk-U lovers should really enjoy this. editing yet again to add... i tried a droplet of it again the other day and i kept smelling something really familiar but couldn't place it. just figured it out - it reminds me of the smell of Ojon hair products.

i, too, ordered two bottles of this, unsniffed... and got the two nifty labels. LOVE the parchmenty one b/c it has the scent description on it! to note, i LOVE the Black Hellebore blend. sniffed from the bottle: styrofoam and celery? oh this does not bode well at all... on skin: the suffocating bitter smell you get if you inhale whilst either pouring or drinking from a cup of club soda or sparkling water, plus styrofoam and celery. so maybe it is a freshly poured celery soda in a styrofoam cup. either way, not for me!

sniffed from the bottle: my first thought was "chinese food?" but i knew that couldn't be right, so i kept sniffing, and then i got chinese food and an xmas tree. on skin: xmas tree and mentholyptus-y stuffy head clearing mediciney ick. sadly, no dirt. no snow, no leaves... and this most certainly needs a new home

this one...some of the notes frighten me (mango, tamarind, almond milk, cashew, coconut, cedar) some intrigue me (mogra, supari, raisins and spikenard) and some i know i like (Lotus root, cardamom, clove, rice flower, and incense crafted from aloeswood, red sandalwood) so i'm a little nervous, because this could go in several directions. sniffed from the bottle: joss sticks (unscented incense), cedar and toasted coconut and i'm very unwilling to try this. but i have a bottle, so i must try it. on skin: first thought is that it reminds me very strongly of Greed (the oil, not the sin) but perhaps slightly fresher - or cleaner. after an hour it hasn't changed much - end result is how my hands smell after a day of running a cash register and handling countless paper money and coins.

another one i don't remember ordering, but my receipt says i did! sniffed from the bottle: black cherry kool-aid powder on skin: cherry kool-aid with lots of sugar. i get nothing even remotely pomegranate-like.. but lots of generic "berry" and artificial cherry flavour. (not the evil almondy-cherry, but like lollipop cherry) ...i will say it gets more interesting as time goes on. this is nice and all, but not for me.

sniffed from the bottle: my first thought was frozen grape juice. on skin: the grape juice has become something else - maybe wine, maybe some exotic berry (i don't drink much wine - unless it is kosher) but whatever it is, is mulberry-ish on me. and the smell of cold. not minty-cold, but like frozen, arctic, unbearable cold. end verdict: reminds me of a candle i bought from a local winery that's made with leftover bits of grapes... very strongly scented but not all that complex. pretty, but not for me.

i don't remember adding this one to my cart, but my receipt says i did! so on with the review: sniffed from the bottle: ashes and violets on skin: oh, my skin apparently loves the ashes and charcoal and all those ashy and burning smells , those get amped right up! but soon following i get a burnt sugar ~ not quite caramel ~ that quickly turns to plastic...followed by a few minutes of a creamy lily sort of flowery smell, ending on a chalky violet-candy note. this blend makes me dizzy, it changed so much and so quickly. overall: not for me!

i didn't buy all of the Yule blends, i skipped ones i knew i'd dislike. but this one - i wasn't sure what most of the ingredients smelled like, so i took a chance. sniffed from the bottle: smells like the giant chrysanthemum i got when i was in 4th grade, right before i got to come home from the hospital. (bad hospital memory. pretty flower. someone had glued googly eyes on it and a pipe cleaner smileyface) something also reminds me of Roadhouse (the oil. not the movie)... a green, grassy, dandelion sort of smell. i generally associate plumeria with cloying, artificial, overly scented B&BW type products or air fresheners - i don't think i've ever smelled a real one. but if that's what i'm smelling here...it is very pretty! such a womanly, feminine (did i spell that right? it looks odd...) blend this is - without smelling pink or sweet. just fresh and wholesome. anybody remember the fragrance April Fields? i get *very* strong scent-memories of that perfume from this oil. all in all, very nice!

sniffed from the bottle: immediately makes me think "brown sugar and maple oatmeal" (which i like, so that is a good thing) but the maple isn't quite right. something sweet and edible - almost Misk U-ish. on skin: still with the Misk U feeling, but without the bitter coffee/sour/peanutbutter type note it has on me. i don't get olive oil (thankfully) but i do get the beeswax -- although more like clover honey -- and something that might be amber but without the baby powder. i like it, surprisingly. reminds me of a scent you'd find in a high-end, pricey, boutique candle. subtle, classy and wealthy.

sniffed from the bottle: honey and...menthol? no, that's not right. woods. maybe lemongrass or citrus peel? (the zest)... on skin: it doesn't change much, but it does develop more...more scents and notes blend in. i get the overwhelming feeling that this is too masculine for me (not that it is a masculine blend, just that it is too much so for me) 30 mins later: i don't know what olive blossom smells like, but that may be when the dominant note is now... an unusual almost-floral, with hints of gardenia (the good one, not the B.O. one) i still get wafts of dark honey and lemongrass... but no patchouli. end verdict: i like this a whole lot more than i thought i would. complex and interesting but supremely wearable.

from description alone i bought three bottles yes, i know i'm crazy. [= but this is BEAUTIFUL! this is like Evening Star and Spirits of the Dead had a child and named it Berenice. those are three of the most beautiful BPAL scents i've had the joy of wearing, and this is all the best of those all rolled into one. since those three are fairly uncommon, older LE scents... for comparison the only GC i can think of offhand that is similar is Black Opal (which i also love) or possibly The Unicorn, but not so much. i don't like mint, i don't like cold weather, i'm an eensy bit afraid of the dark and i dislike snow.... but this is a beautiful, so very hard to describe, pure, clean fragrance. i love, love, LOVE, love this. i dug through all the bottles in my parcel today to pull this one out and i've been wearing it all night. this is amazing, and i MUST buy more bottles. luckily it will be around for a bit... i know this isn't much of a review, but that's because i can't identify anything that's in this. maybe i'm just not that creative or maybe my nose isn't all that sensitive (well, it isn't) but all i can think of is that if crystals (not Krystal!) or glass had a scent... this would be it. *edit: oh! i just noticed, of my three bottles, two have the same label and one is different. two have a beigey-tan parchmenty look, and the other is pale grey with a skeletal tree on it. how many different labels are there, i wonder? *editing yet again to add this thought: if you LOVE this, and/or Spirits of the Dead, House of Mirrors, the Evening Star or Berenice... i suggest you get the new-ish GC blend Epitaph. it has a similar scent/feel to it.

how did i not type in my review? to copy out of my little handwritten review book: sniffed from the bottle: smells like hairspray? on me... hairspray and either civet or jasmine (they smell the same to me. like poo) as time goes by... i get a bit of brimstone or woodsmoke? end verdict: get it off, get it off, oh this is SO not for me!

i've had this for months - soon i'll need to order another bottle. i ordered this to begin with unsniffed and just about as soon as it was up on the site. i've never slept well - even as a toddler i didn't sleep much (i was quiet and happily entertained myself for hours. i just didn't sleep-- so don't worry, my mommy didn't suffer. much.) i hate peppermint. can't stand it. and i don't like lavender (it and peppermint are cousins, y'know). far too many vanilla and "creamy" type scents smell like plastic or play-doh on me. but this... this is like the *idea* of lavender and the *idea* of creamy-fluffy-sweet mixed with st. john's wort or chamomile or some other gentle herby smell. in the bottle, that almost-lavender is the strongest note... but when i wear this (every night on the tops of my hands and in my hair) all the notes blend into a softer (smooshy, cozy, snuggly) blend that isn't necessarily going to knock me out, but it is comforting and relaxing. (it also blends rather nicely with American Cream conditioner, so after i wash my hair and then TKO my hands, i smell quite yummy!) i've also turned this into an alcohol-spray that i keep in my purse - for stressful situations away from home.

i don't like chocolate, but i tried this anyway... and it is brownie batter, complete with wooden spoon. not for me!

i grew up with a garden several acres big... and we grew lots of cucumbers. heirloom cucumbers at that. the scent of cucumber vines heated by the sun and the flavour of a cucumber sliced and munched on while wandering around the garden pulling weeds... fertile, moist dirt. cucumbers. growing vines. everything but the itch from the okra pods and the heat of the sun is in this little bottle. amazing!

from the bottle: honey-plum-roses on skin: ROSES several hours and multiple handwashings later: purple roses. i guess the "purple" imagery is my brain translating the plum scent into a visual. verdict: Lady Luck and i haven't ever gotten on well.

okay, so i was making up a sniffy of what little i have left of this, and decided i ought to review it while i have some on - because i doubt i'll ever wear it again. this is the '05 version and it smells like almond-plastic-pina-colada with a little bit of the VanillaRoma car air freshener (the yellow, tree-shaped one. this is a scent i know well, it was the Muscle Car Scent Of Choice in the 80's, where i'm from) it can't quite decide if it wants to smell like overheated plastic or coconut. or perhaps an overheated plastic coconut? if there was a way to add in a bit of tobacco smoke, Armor-All and some car exhaust, it'd smell like any given Friday Night in my world from about 1984 until about 1992.

i'm not quite sure what happens when a virgin blossoms, but i was a little afraid of some notes in this blend anyway... on first sniff, i get the tea rose and sandalwood and white blossoms, with just the eensiest bit of a dark musk note. on second sniff, it smells like the ocean. not watery/clean/aquatic, but salty and dirty - the real ocean (i *hate* the ocean) it also reminds me very much of another BPAL from earlier this year - it may be the PoF others have mentioned, but i don't feel like digging out the bottle to do a sniff test right now. i wore this blend tonight while doing some bookshelf re-arranging in the library, sniffing it from time to time and... it just isn't me. not at all. final thought: smells like Herr Drosselmeyer's wife.