Soupy Twist

(Yep, still testing my way through these years later. ) More vanilla and less mint in the bottle, which is how it goes on. Very brief burn, only a moment, and then there's an odd top sour note — the musk, I guess. Fortunately it vanishes in less than a minute. Dries as a nice balance of vanilla and peppermint, with some of the burn returning. More like the original Lick It than my favorite, Lick It Again. I love this series.

Another vote for Sea of Glass; one of my favorites. Grief: hyacinth (similar to Sea of Glass) Lilium Inter Spinas: mostly lily-of-the-valley Titania: peach and flowers Embalming Fluid: tea and lemon Baobhan Sith: grapefruit and tea

What the hell happened? If I hadn't seen a photo of the label on the Lab's etsy page I'd swear I got the wrong perfume. Ginger with a hint of tonka in the bottle. Goes on as ginger and nutmeg with a sour base. Maybe there's some thyme, and the ginger gets dusty, and it ends up as unpleasant woodsy herbs. There's no chocolate, no sugar, no florals, and no other spices. I must be in the "my skin does not play nicely with this" camp.

Another vote for Titania and Katharina, which are both on my eventual bottle list. While I didn't care for Desire (Ars Amatoria: bittersweet neroli, black patchouli and black musk, gilded by apple, bergamot, blood red rose, teak, and vanilla) because it was too heavy on the rose, you might like it. The Countess of Morcar’s Blue Carbuncle (Dazzling blue musk, white juniper, iris pallida, white oudh, and sugar crystals) was "grown-up Juicy Fruit gum" to me; I liked it a lot but it vanished quickly. Verdandi (Excolo: Deep herbs and apple with black amber) and Apple of Sodom smell almost exactly like Salon Selectives. I was very disappointed with Sjöfn; it smelled really fake to me.

I like citrus and fresh mint in the summer, although my skin devours BPAL's citrus notes so I have to use a locket. I can recommend Baobhan Sith (one of my favorites) and Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat. (all my other summer scents are from other companies, so I can't rec them here. )

Aspen and pine in the bottle. Goes on as mostly pine, shortly dries to wood, which turns soapy. Quite boring. None of the floral or berry notes I was hoping for. I probably ended up with Finarfin and not Glorfindel.

Wore Sea of Glass today. I bought an orchid for my grandmother because she loves orchids, and I handed it to my little one to hold while I was putting on my coat. She started exclaiming how she loved it because it smelled so good — "like the purple flowers outside!" I told her "Those are hyacinths, and it's my perfume you're smelling, not the orchid." She sniffed my wrist and went "oh YEAH, that's it." It really is the perfect exquisite hyacinth.

2011 decant: Fresh apple juice with fragrant dried orange in the bottle. Goes on as as apple juice warmed with an orange slice. The spices come in and continue to deepen towards cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Really lovely, and great execution. Sadly it's gone in an hour or so. Didn't irritate my skin like Inferno did, so there's that.

Is no on the cider. It's a lovely cinnamony baked apple, but frankly almost identical to Pure Applesauce.

wow, this is vile. Nasty foul black musk with a wee waft of fir and balsam. My eyes were watering. I was hoping to get the other notes but I couldn't wait long enough to see if they'd show up. Given the other reviews here I was really looking forward to this, so I have no idea what my skin did to it.

I'd call this "mulled prune juice." The sweetness of prunes which dries into the lovely dusty spices of cider, with hints of tea. Much nicer than I anticipated. Warm and comforting.

Marshmallow in the bottle. Goes on as vanilla-y marshmallow. Oh, this fellow is a charmer. Not quite as foody a vanilla as Possets or Villainess. I'm getting something fuzzy and woolly as it dries, but it's definitely the powdery outside of a marshmallow, which is honestly a little too much for me. I see why he's getting a lot of love around here, though.

Sea of Glass: an absolutely magnificient hyacinth Titania: Peach nectar, pear, flowers, lily of the valley Squirting Cucumber: fresh cucumber and juicy grass Lilium Inter Spinas: lily of the valley

No, but I find this idea completely hilarious and I think Beth should totally make one for a Lilith scent (if Lilith is into PBJs).

A weird, plasticky, artificial cherry blossom — like if you bought shampoo or body wash with "Cherry Blossom Scent." There's a little tea in the bottle, and a brief flash of yuzu as it dries, but mostly that body wash scent. I seem to recall that I wanted to test this for the alleged grapefruit note, but there isn't any.

Egle (Märchen): Ocean water, hyacinth petals, star jasmine, and fir. Ends as a beautiful hyacinth/honeysuckle on me. Titania (Ilyria): white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon. My notes call it a "juicy floral." TAL's White Light: I get jasmine, gardenia, and tuberose; no official notes listed. Can't help you with the frankincense part, unfortunately.

Oleander, iris, bitter almond, tonka, and a bit of smoke.

Fresh tobacco in the bottle. Goes on as pipe tobacco. There's a sharp note — the citrus in the listing — but that shifts until it smells like it's about to burst into smoke on my wrist. About here I decide it's missing some essential sweetness; this is clearly a single note, something which needs to work with something else. I'm not nearly as happy with this as I'd hoped to be. Had to wash it off. My father used to smoke a pipe, and his tobacco was blended and layered. I vividly remember sticking my nose into the canister and loving the smell. This is not that good.

El Dia de los Reyes (Yule 2014 and 2015): Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar. Arabian Dance (Yule 2010): Leather, coffee, hazelnut, tobacco, and Middle Eastern spices. Irish Coffee Cake from the 2015 Will Call, which has no official notes but is buttery, boozy, spicy coffee cake. Blood and Judgment So Well Commedled (Lilith 2015): A little kid’s interpretation of Hamlet’s BFF. A scent of kindness and devotion, friendship and loyalty: soft brown leather and brushed suede with bourbon vanilla, toasted almond, tonka bean, and amber. Pottaskefill (Yule 2015): Salt licorice, birch tar, black pepper, and leather.

Exactly what it says on the tin. Wood, basil, oregano.

Snow, mint, and a bit of eucalyptus. Pine and juniper come in through the middle, and it dries to fuzzy cat-mint. This is almost identical to The Snow at Noon, where that has the sweeter berry note and this has the fuzzy mint note. Wonderful!

I finally, finally figured out why BPAL's almonds never work on me. My skin devours the almond note, and what remains is whatever else is in the scent. And the Lab really likes to pair almond with incenses and musks. In this particular oil, it happens to be combined with vanilla and mimosa. So when the beautiful marzipan vanishes, all I'm left with is fluffy, dusty mimosa blossom. Now I know, and my heart won't be broken any more.

Sigh. Just like every other BPAL almond: a beautiful cherry-almond in the bottle and for the first 10 minutes, and then... it's gone. Fades to sour musk and then sickly-sweet myrrh.

2012 version, so an older bottle: Caramel and burnt sugar in the bottle. Goes on as sugar with a flash of candy fruit. Dries as crème brûlée with cinnamon. I think this is almost exactly what Askasleikir would have ended up as if he'd lasted more than 10 minutes on my skin.

An "old" candy cane in the bottle. Goes on as a dusty, fuzzy candy cane, like it was dropped on the rug. This dries a bit sour, and quickly fades to "stale." It's almost gone in a few minutes, which is kind of shocking. I have no idea how the Lab can take what is essentially the same formulation and have it come out so differently from year to year.