Nepthys

I want to love this. At first whiff it did smell like cheesecake with a syrupy note. But then it morphed into an old candy scent that is exactly - I mean, with unerring and chilling accuracy - the scent of my favorite video store, a dusty old shop stacked to the ceiling with ancient videotapes and candy. It's a scent that's always struck me as a little musty and creepy, like Miss Havisham's video shop, so I've had a hard time striking that association from this scent. I did discover that if I layer this with Gingerbread, it smells more authentically like a warm kitchen of freshly baked goodies so I may just not wear it alone.

How I've lived without this for so long is a mystery. It is so good. The "dry woods" in the description put me off, suggesting Cathedral or some other woody scent that just didn't work, but this is perfect: cinnamon and nutmeg on top with just a hint of tree bark and flowers. Divine. It goes on with the perfect mix of sweetness and dryness and then warms up and gets even better. An immediate big bottle on my next order.

I don't get any beer in this at all - or any sleaze. This is a childhood smell of dandelions and hot sun.... later a heavy rose (????) comes out and casts an old-lady pall over the original brightness, and somehow the combination is just very weird and disturbing. I wound up washing it off, not because the scent itself was unbearable, but because it was somehow emotionally upsetting.

Color me disappointed. The 2004 DDLM has been one of my top 3 BPAL scents and it somehow didn't occur to me that the 2005 version could be terribly different. On me at least, this is. That festival candy-sweetness is gone and dominating in its place is that dry cactus note that comes out in Santa Muerte and 13. When I first sniffed it and put it on, I couldn't even recognize it as a cousin of the old DDLM. But as it dried down, it did take on the old scent - albeit quite a bit drier and more subtle. This is the wry & quiet ghost of last year's louder, more insouciant blend. While I do like it, I'm not smitten as with last year's.

I'm so glad we were given such a long window to order the Halloween LE's, because now that I've tried this and fallen in love, I need another bottle. This is bewitchingly gorgeous. I don't get the boozy note others have; instead this comes out of the bottle smelling like cinnamon fried cake and then dries down to add an autumn night/burning leaf smell. Oh, it is so beautiful. If I was a billionaire, I'd order it for everyone. Funny, while Samhain reminds me of autumn itself, this is a much more Halloweenish scent.

Mmmm. I really like this and never even noticed it in the catalogue. It was a frimp and a very nice one at that. On me the violet comes right out - and I like violet so I was pleased. Then it turned powdery and began to smell like a mix of lavender baby powder and bubble bath. That might sound sickeningly girly, but it was actually very enjoyable, perhaps because the sandalwood gave it a little depth and saved it from being too over the top feminine. This makes me think of angora sweaters, pearls, soft and girly things. Quite nice.

I've worn this every day since I got it, because it's just stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately allergies have impaired my sense of smell, so I got used to it before I could really experience the full impact of it... That said, on me this begins as a wet, tart apple with a quieter note of pear, almost bitter; then a sugar-floral sweetens it up and then gradually, a deeper wine scent warms and finalizes it as the very best autumn scent ever. To die for. Holy Grail of nostalgic fall utopia scents. However, and I don't think this is my nose being wonky, the potency of this really varies. Some days just a dab is more than enough, other days multiple dabs fade into the woodwork. I accidentally doused myself in this one night and left scent trails that had people commenting, "Something smells beautiful..."

I'm afraid this doesn't work for me. First off it smells like regular Snake Oil laced heavily with dragon's blood, of all things - then as it dries down, the coconut comes through, and finally the plum. A more exotic spicy note comes through after about twenty minutes, but it doesn't save it; that heavy dragon's blood scent overrides it and weighs this down. I can see where other people would love this but somehow on me it's musty and heavy.

This is a very pretty scent, light and not candy-sweet, though it is sweet. On me it was just a vanilla-peach with maybe a jot of amber; eventually it gained a little more gravitas through a woody note, which must have been the sandalwood, though it didn't exactly smell like it. It's a bit too girly for me; also, I'm still haunted by a bad night of peach schnapps at 14 that makes any peach scent a bit dicey for me. But that's not Tamora's fault and overall it's a lovely scent.

On me this was straight dragon's blood. Eventually it dried down to emit a hint of a fusty sweetness and it ended up being kind of old-ladyish on me. I'll stick to using it for candle dressings from now on, as the Lab has too many other love scents I prefer.

On me this is very close to Lush's Karma - not a dead ringer, but a sibling. The orange and neroli are quite strong and attractive in an odd, unconventionally way, but it's a sharp enough scent that I prefer the vaguer throw to sniffing it directly - then it's a bit too much. I'll use my imp but I don't think this is a big bottle for me.

This is lovely, but definitely more suited for the oil burner than my skin. This is the scent of a rich shadowy bedroom, complete with canopy bed and antique furniture, in an old mansion; luxurious and stately and very classic. And that's how it smells on me for about 20 minutes, before the rose hijacks everything but the sandalwood, and turns this into a rose-dominated Cathedral. Rose and I don't get along, so I'll pass on this.

At first sniff, this reminded me of a cross between Vice and Fresh's Chocolate-Orange shea butter - but better. The tangerine definitely works with the chocolate, better than other fruits I think, and for a while this smells as buoyant as a holiday, the tartness of the citrus offsetting the sweetness of the chocolate. Then something odd happens. What I could swear is a dry cactus note comes out. This begins to smell distinctly like Santa Muerte. what could cause that? I can't tell. I just know that the lovely chocolate-tangerine recedes under the dryness and that sage/cactus note holds sway for a good half hour. At last the chocolate-citrus returns, along with a muted floral, and this changes yet again into a very complex scent that is such an odd blend of sweetness, tartness and dryness that I could never begin to break it down. It's very pretty but I do prefer the wet scent to the dry.

Oh, I am so in love with this. I don't get all the complex mutations that other reviewers have gotten - this goes on me like sweet almond milk and coconut, with some fresh green sharpening the edges. Then slowly the honey creeps out with what I think is the fig. No sandalwood, though. It stays as that persistent warm green almond milk/coconut, and it has great throw as well. Very aptly named - this is the lush green scent of an innocent paradise. Definitely a big bottle.

The good: I agree that the jasmine in this is tolerable - for jasmine. Peitho is a light, feminine scent that's a breezy floral. I totally get the Love's Baby Soft association and it's a nice one. This isn't a top 10 for me but it's definitely pleasant. Now the bad: I really don't care for jasmine and am disappointed that it (once again) trumped all these other tantalizing notes. What does warm musk and bourbon vanilla smell like? I'll never know. That damned jasmine drowns it all out.

I don't have much to add that other reviewers haven't noted - this is a clean, green soapy scent and I love to wear it in hot weather. I like just-showered scents and this is a great one - in addition to doing exactly as it promises.

Hmmm, not too sure about this one. Straight up it smells like wet tulips, grass and earth. But gradually some less pleasant floral, something a little more old-ladyish, comes out and takes the overall effect from a joyful outdoor garden scent to the smell of a rather fussy, old-fashioned perfume. It definitely smells better off my skin than on it, so I may use this as more of a house/car scent.

This was a freebie and I had no idea what notes were in it, so I tried to guess. I was only half-right; I thought it was pear and some kind of wood, maybe rosewood. I don't get the champagne note at all, though now that I know it's there, I do smell the plumeria at the edges. But on the whole this is a bright pear scent, a very summer day type of perfume. I'll use my imp but it's probably not a big bottle scent for me.

This is quite nice but regrettably none of the amber showed up on me. Instead it came off as an aquatic citris scent, and reminded me of a fresh breeze after a rainfall on a muggy summer day. This is a great scent to perk up with in hot weather .

Oh, this one makes me homesick. I live in Arizona and when I had 2 AZ friends smell this tonight, they considered it an autumn scent - that cool night in a pine forest association. But to me, who grew up in the forests of the Northeast, this is dead-on a spring night scent. It's powerfully evocative of both high school keg parties and Pagan spring rites - wandering through fields by starlight to get to a bonfire, that taboo excitement of a forbidden rite in the woods, wandering away to kiss someone in the dark and smelling the smoke of the bonfire in their shirt and hair. When I sniff this, I'm half-convinced I'm missing out on a witches' Bacchanalia going on in some nearby woods. It lasts a long time - but unfortunately the throw of this is a little too medicinal-piney. After a hour, I need to take a deep sniff up close to get all the lovely associations again.

I swooned when I first opened the bottle and my adoration has yet to cease. My first impression was strawberry honey - then I could smell the sugar note and then slowly the flowers came to the fore, particularly dogwood and what I think is daffodil. It's an interesting blend; the sweetness and innocence of childhood are there, but they're riding over a drowsy, sensual warmth. This is so pink and yet to me it's a languid pink and not, say, the girlish pink of Venus. I've not tried Sugar Skull and the other moons, so I can't make the comparisons other reviews have. Oh, I just want to drown in this. I usually am repelled by very sweet scents, but this is heavenly.

I'm not a big fan of anise so I was wary of this one; it was a gift from the Lab. It turned out to be one of my favorites in that whole order. Cherry and sandalwood, it turned out, balance each other's sweetness and woodiness in a beautiful way. This was so pretty and so fresh, I couldn't believe it. As for the anise... I sort of detected it in there, but it was faint and it worked. This is a great spring scent; it reminds me of walking home from school as a kid in March/April and reveling in that damp flower smell on wet, windy days. I love this on my skin but I think I might also want this in my car.

I love almond but my worst fears were realized with this - which is to say that jasmine flattened everything else in the blend. It started as sharp but interesting almond and then a plastic scent emerged; the jasmine got stronger and stronger and eventually drowned out everything else. This gets relegated to the room scent stash.

I'm discovering that rosewood absolutely takes over any blend on me, and this occurred in Fenris Wolf. Just a smidgen of sandalwood peaked through but on the whole this was a flatly wooden scent on me. I'd hoped my ever-favorite amber would save this but rosewood killed it.

The Hierophant is not what I expected - it's always seemed such a dour card to me and yet this scent is warm, mysterious and regal; something I'd associate more with the Strength card perhaps. Anyhow. In the imp this smelled vaguely woody and dark. But on my skin it turned just gorgeous - a warm spicy cinnamon and wood scent that married my favorite parts of Eclipse and Three Witches and Cathedral and Tushnamatay. All of the BPAL cinnamon scents thus far have been likeable at first and then too much for me; the Hierophant strikes the perfect balance.