lizabelle

Wet on my skin this is dreadfully sharp, and I was worried it would be another no from me, but then it morphed and it's glorious. This is a different almond note than I've ever smelled before--not the sweet cherry-esque marzipan note that I recognize, but one that is deeper, darker, and truly buttery. It almost verges into baked goods territory! Underneath is dark spice and musk warmed by the almond to be creamy and borderline-sweet. It's faking my nose out a little and making me think there's vanilla, actually. I love this and definitely need a bottle.

Very, very ripe apricot here. It's borderline syrupy, and very strong. I smell the black patchouli, which I'm starting to consistently recognize between scents, but it's surprisingly quiet in the background as an earthy base. This one is nice, but I'm not immediately thinking to myself that I need a bottle. Definitely a must-try for fruit lovers, though.

I had no idea what to expect from the notes, but on me this is surprisingly foodie. It's fruity like a cobbler rather than plain fruit, and there's something spicy and bready adding to that. Maybe it's the mango+lemon+cassia and sandalwood+sugar that are doing it? Again this sample looks slightly aged, so that might have something to do with it too. It's much lighter than most "gourmand" scents, and I think it would be wearable even in summer since the sweet notes are tempered by tartness. This is a fun scent, and one that I'd love wearing in spring and summer. Adding it to my list!

Hmm, I thought I would love this one. I do like it, but there's something kind of musty about it that's keeping it from being a love. My sample is a bit older, so the patchouli has intensified, and I'm wondering if that's it. It never gets smooth or creamy on my skin, instead staying as dark, dirty patchouli with a slight overtone of coconut. It's actually kind of dry on me. Over time the coconut amps and I actually get a bit of the husk, which is surprising. It's still pretty dirty and musty, and unfortunately this isn't a favorite.

This is beautiful. It's very well-blended, to the point that it's hard for me to pick out any notes other than red musk. It's powdery in a warm, soft, sexy way, and whatever else is in here is softly spicy and just a touch sweet. It reminds me of sheer fabrics, warm nights, and red-orange. It's everything it aspires to be and I need to get myself a bottle.

The notes in this looked promising, but then I was expecting the roses to take center stage. There are five of them, after all! Instead what I get is a sharp mint/rosemary blend which is not all that pleasant, plus a sharp fruitiness that could be lemon or "grape spirit" (not quite wine, I guess?) or both. All these notes actually manage to smother not just the rose, which I amp, but the orange blossom, which I also amp. I'm actually kind of impressed, but I will also be scrubbing this off.

This is definitely soapy, but sweet soapy, like a laundry detergent with way too much scent added. It feels soft but also somehow heavy, maybe because of all those flowers. Maybe it's the blend, but they smell artificial to me instead of like real, living flowers. This is especially sad because there are few things I like smelling more in the world than sweet peas in the summer--they absolutely cover several fields near where I live, so I'm very familiar with the scent. This is not it. I do get something like pear skin, which is lovely, but the rest of it can't seem to get out of soapville even once it settles.

This is really pretty. Sweet, fresh blackberries over dry sage. There's definitely some green tea in there too but it's a background player. The blackberries are nice and juicy and even as the other notes turn drier they remain fresh. For some reason this is reminding me strongly of a forest on a cool day--it has a soft green quality to it despite the richness of the berries. It would also make an amazing tea! Drydown is a whisper-soft blackberry musk. Probably not a full bottle for me but this would be first on my list of recs for fruit lovers.

Green! So very green, which I suppose shouldn't be surprising. Even the lavender note smells kind of green, almost more like the stem than the flowers. All the notes here are very dry and herbal, with some borderline-woodiness in the background. It reminds me of moss, but the living stuff instead of the perfume note. The mint is subtle and actually quite sweet, which I like. This definitely has similarities to LUSH's Angels on Bare Skin, which I used for about two years. Sits very close to the skin and eventually settles down into a vague herbal "clean" smell--not soapy, but cool and pleasant.

Apparently lotus goes to bubblegum on me, which I didn't realize until now. I have smelled this with at least one other BPAL scent, though, so at least now I know. There is some cool mint in there but the lotus is overpowering even the juniper, which to me is shocking. I'd love to see if this changes over time but the lotus is so strong it's turning my stomach and I have to scrub it off.

Sweet candy fruit at the start that gives way to smoky, woody marshmallows. Sadly my decant must have leaked at some point without my knowledge, because there's barely anything left, but I would definitely wear this on a regular basis if I could. It's sweet and, yes, a little fuzzy. I'd totally believe it as a cozy-sweater kind of scent, so I can easily change that to a making-the-cozy-sweater scent!

Wine and honey. Way too much honey, actually--I'd be happier if there was some more tartness or spice to ground it. For the first 20 minutes or so it's almost sickeningly sweet, not helped by its large amount of throw. Over time the wine does come out as the main note because I seem to amp it, but I much prefer Blood Kiss as a honey/wine blend because of the other notes. I get no myrrh or flowers at all until much later, at which point there's a faint whiff of something spicy and a little powdery. I wanted to love it but this is not a favorite for me.

Wet this is shockingly spicy, to the point of being offputting even to me--there's a lot of cinnamon there, and definitely pepper. As it starts to settle there's also some orange, which is actually very juicy and nice. Eventually some rose comes in, and then some strangely watery jasmine. When it finally settles down what's left is...watery oranges? I doubt this is what it's meant to smell like, but sadly it's weird on my skin.

For whatever reason this refuses to blend together on my skin. It starts with a blast of ylang (enough to make me hold my arm away from myself), then settles down into honey and not much else. If I get really close to my arm I can smell myrrh as a spicy, dusty note in the background, but it's colder than the honey and doesn't really seem to go. Not for me.

Oh, no. The neroli and frankincense are doing something very strange on my skin, and it will be scrubbed as soon as I finish this review. It's super powdery and artificial-sweet like an air freshener, then fades over time to strange, old-fashioned powdery soap. There's definitely fruit there but it's dried and completely fails to balance all that powder. Neroli is almost always nasty on me, so I blame that.

This is so pretty. The honey note here is light and borderline-sparkling, with a lot of floral undertone and some fruitiness. It's well-blended enough that all that just smells like natural parts of the honey rather than individual notes. There is a little extra apple there, though. I do smell the resins mixing with the honey, adding just a little spice and extra warmth. It's subtle and springy in the best possible way. Definitely a full bottle for me.

This is throwing me for a loop, because unless I smush my nose into my arm all I smell is a very fresh, green apple. Which is not a complaint, because I love how the lab does apples. When I really get in there I smell something like a very expensive ocean-scented candle (it's nice, not like the cruddy ones you find in a supermarket), a gentle, crisp floral I'd believe is hyacinth, and just a touch of spicy fir. Yes, I've finally found a conifer note that doesn't hate me and turn into an entire forest! The jasmine is very calm in this but there is a chilly sweetness curling through it all. Over time it does amp a bit so it's more of a seawater/fir blend with some soft, crisp florals. It's definitely aquatic, but not in a way that goes to soap on me. I don't know that I'd wear this regularly, but it's an interesting scent! It's also pretty much the only scent with a conifer note that I've ever liked.

I'll admit that before this perfume I had no clue what ambergris smelled like. After looking it up I'm pretty sure that's what's making this scent so interesting for me--there's a soft, almost-salty resinous note tying everything together that's absolutely amazing. I get a lot of vanilla and muskiness, with a shockingly-behaving amber note and a deep salty-mossy base. I don't get a lot of sandalwood out of this, but I'm not too upset because it's lovely as-is. To me this is nicely balanced between being overly cool or warm; it's sort of beachy, but in a "sunny spring day with a breeze" way rather than a summery way. This is unlike anything I've ever smelled and I definitely need a bottle.

There are two "bad" notes (for me) in here, but actually this one is behaving pretty well. I even like it, and quite a lot at that. The leather is definitely present, but it's the same subdued leather as in Whip, almost a suede. In fact this reminds me very much of Whip, but sweeter and more powdery. The floral side of things is mostly orange blossom, although I do amp it so it may just be hiding the other stuff. The amber is surprisingly behaving and just provides some warmth and lightly powdery spice along with the incense. This reminds me of that perfume I have in my collection with flowers and leather (Hermes Kelly Caleche, for those curious) much more strongly than Whip does, although it's sweeter and has less fruit. There's an animalic bite lurking in the background that could easily get louder with some extra heat. Because it's so similar to something I already have it's probably not a full bottle, however the one it reminds me of is a top-five favorite! This is very well blended and quite lovely, definitely a "classic" kind of perfume.

Oh, wow. This is one of the loveliest jasmines I've ever smelled, and jasmine is basically my favorite smell ever so I've sniffed quite a few. This is very close to what I remember my dad's jasmine plant smelling like as a child--cool, sweet flowers that I loved to more or less stick my head into to smell them better. The honeysuckle is a perfect match for it and keeps it cool and not too indolic, although there is just a touch of it at the end of the sniff. Very heady, definitely evocative of a moonlit walk somewhere humid with flowers all around. Decent throw but it manages to not be completely overwhelming. From a distance there's some a citrus-green bite but up close it's all flowers. I adore this and it's going in my cart immediately. ETA: The final drydown, right before it's about to disappear, is dried jasmine that's slightly papery, like it's been pressed in a book. Absolutely gorgeous from start to finish.

Wet this is borderline men's cologne, but luckily it veers right back out of that and goes to a fruity-green mixture. There must be some guava or something because it's sweet but also watery--it conjures up an image of a river winding through a lush forest. Over time more of the florals come in, although they're surprisingly subtle. I'm guessing plumeria and tiare. There's definitely some banana and coconut in here; it's creamy without actually going gourmand. There's a solid green base to ground everything, and for once the amber is quiet and not killing it for me. Honestly, my nose gets a bit confused with this, as tends to happen with any scents with "too many" notes. (Of course "too many" varies by the day, scent, angle of the sun...) I don't think I would wear it much, but as usual I have to appreciate the thought that went into this scent. It delivers exactly what it promises.

I had to know what Cthulhu smells like, but I guess Cthulhu smells like...limes? And then something sort of green and slimy, and then a dryer sheet. Occasionally the lime will float in and out of the soapy drydown, which I suppose is more tolerable than smelling like I bathed with laundry soap. Approximate time between all that was maybe five minutes. Aquatics don't like me, and this one in particular has a very strong soapy smell. No, thank you.

This is so...odd. Delightfully so. Wet it's like if you took red wine, made it bubbly, and then somehow solidified it into gummy candy. Over time it gets deeper and more sour than sweet, which I actually like--I was a huge fan of fruity sweetness as a teen and now I never want to smell that way again! The berries develop to be rich and downright jammy, which is lovely. In fact the drydown is reminiscent of cooking your jam berries down with a bottle of good red before canning. I seriously thought I was done with fruity scents, but between this and Manic I am A-OK with smelling like pie. Maybe a full bottle is in my future.

Sweet, light, sparkling, and a touch otherworldly. This is what I was hoping Dana O'Shee would be on me, but my skin eats that one and it was a no. This one is quite the morpher and more than the sum of its parts--it smells milky, with some grains and/or woods, musky honey, and a hint of sweet peaches. The peach note is alternately like the clean skin of a peach and the juicy center, which is utterly gorgeous. There's something sweet, creamy, and cold in the heart of this scent that's really giving me the ethereal vibe. It's like walking into a sudden cold patch in a warm meadow. I really love the way this acts on my skin. Sadly this sits extremely close to the skin on me, but it's so nice I might have to get some and age it or something. ETA: Like some kind of magic spell, this both gets stronger with time and leaves a trail. It's not a "big" perfume, but I'm smelling it from literal feet away after moving around a bit. I've had it on for roughly six hours now and it's only faded slightly. So definitely a full bottle, then!

Oh no, my skin eats this. It starts out as a gorgeous white floral with a good mix of muguet, plumeria, and something else. Others have suggested gardenia, so possibly? It sits close to the skin and is very pretty but verges on indolic, which I personally like in a white floral (definitely preferable to soapy). It gets more indolic as it settles, but then I turned my attention elsewhere and the throw halved itself. In the drydown it's a very soft, pretty wisp of a floral with some spicy ginger, which I didn't get until now. Because of how little throw this one has on me I don't think it's a bottle, but it is lovely.