porcelina

sweet peach white tea! another peachy surprise for me. the white tea keeps things dry and light so the peach does not become sticky and cloying. this is beautiful and wearable and would also be beautiful as an atmosphere/linen spray. it is bright and makes me think of summer.

a gorgeous and classic honey/tobacco/red musk combo over a juicy peach background. peach is not normally something i wear but the supporting notes here make it very wearable, sweet and sexy. it's almost boozey in a way- a really good way since actually some of bpal's alcohol-inspired notes do not really like me, even when i like them! this strikes me as a late summer scent. it's one of the best peaches i've tried, honestly.

i really like ondine's description of "japanese violet incense." that is kind of exactly what nevar smells like. it's actually really lovely but this is just way too floral for me to wear. it is definitely a purple scent and is dry and smoky and pretty, but the floral notes are kind of giving me a headache.

Brown sugar and ginger root with smoky clove, bourbon vanilla, cardamom, and Indonesian musk. the clove really dominates mopsfledermaus, as it usually does for me, but it has a background of sugary sweet vanilla musk and is really yummy. it's like a sexy perfumey gingerbread. it's very powerful and a little goes a long way and i am slightly worried about getting a headache from the overwhelming spicy sweetness... i really like it though. a great scent for fall or the holiday season (it evokes gingerbread and holiday baking without screaming "CHRISTMAS!!!!" or being super foodie).

i had no idea what to expect from little egypt and i still wasn't sure about it in the bottle, but on my skin, i really like it. i love the myrhh and the honey adds a lot of sweetness. there is a gentle spicy resinousness that i really enjoy. i thought the "sweet flag" would be grassy or planty but it actually is spicy and dry. weirdly, i also get the cola note that catseyes mentioned (i don't know if i would have thought of it on my own, but now i get it) and that just makes me like it more.

lindworm was a must-hoard as soon as i smelled it. i love the smoky leather note combined with the crushed grass- smoke + grass is always a winning combination for me, and the leather makes it even better! i don't know why the leather is "green" but it definitely smells very green thanks to the fresh grass and herb notes. i am happy that i have a couple bottles of this. for some reason i feel like it's perfect to wear to the renaissance faire.

india ink is sooo beautiful and i feel so happy to have a bottle of it but also SO greedy because i still want more. it's a beautiful, crisp, papery scent with a spill of pitch black ink. it's peppery, dry and surprisingly complex. i don't think it would be to everyone's tastes but i just love it! there is a dry woods/resin character that really appeals to me. it is more layered and complex than you'd expect a single note to be and i agree that it really is very wearable.

i am testing so many leather scents today and i don't mind one bit because i don't think i have met a single bpal leather note that i haven't loved. this is another soft, well-worn leather and i love it combined with the warm, cuddly musk. PLUS there is the sweetgrass note that i adore (reminding me of cd: alley of games v4, one of my favorites). there is just a hint of beautiful wildflower and a gentle touch of balsam. hochelaga is really fantastic... i need to put it into my regular rotation.

in the bottle, i'm getting ALL almond out of haute macabre, and i am crossing my fingers that the almond does not ruin it for me because i love pretty much all of the other notes. unfortunately, once it hits my skin, i'm still getting 90% almond. as it dries, more of the leather comes out and it is a really lovely leather scent, like soft and well-worn black leather, i think, with a gorgeous earthy patchouli in the background and a lot of vanilla (the vanilla/leather combo makes me think of tombstone). once it is fully dry, the almond no longer dominates but combines with the vanilla to create a delicious creaminess (not foodie though). this is really good stuff.

oh my god this leather and cinnamon combo is fantastic. the leather note in hatta is probably my favorite bpal leather- warm, worn brown leather. i think the cinnamon/leather combo here make hatta a cousin to spanked, with its black leather and cardamom notes, but hatta is cozier, cuddlier and friendlier. hatta will hug you, not spank you. it is a warm, delicious, very wearable leather perfume. i can't stop sniffing myself. mmmm.

so at first i open the greater horseshoe bat bottle and i think, "WHOA this is amazing, how have i not reviewed this yet?" and then it touches my skin and i immediately reconsider and think "i've made a terrible mistake." so then i let things settle down and hmm. first of all, apply sparingly because this stuff is POWERFUL. the labdanum and rosewood dominate at first but as it dries i smell more of that wonderful beeswax note. i'm not getting a lot of tea. it becomes very wearable once dry (but like i said, it's strong stuff so a little dab will really go a long way). i love cinnamonmel's description of "bumblebee fur" because it's such a cute image and it really does capture the warm, fuzzy sunny sweet scent i get from this bat.

gun moll is closer to a traditional perfume scent than most other bpal in my collection. bizarrely, the first thing i smell when wet is moth balls and i think the opium poppy is responsible because i often get a moth ball vibe from opium scents (note that for me this is not a bad thing because i weirdly enjoy the smell of moth balls). i love the honeycomb note because it really does smell like beautiful beeswax and i get a lot of that in the background. the jasmine is present but subdued and everything is gorgeously smoothed out by skin musk as it dries. there is a hint of rich dark fruit but not in a sweet, cloying way. this is a sophisticated, sexy scent to wear with a black dress and red lipstick. i love it.

can i say, first of all, that i love that the deathrock oil is GREEN? it's amazing. i don't have any other bpals with this awesome color. anyway, it also smells really good, too. i think maybe the hairspray/dye components are making me think of bath products somehow, because there is sort of a soapy clean quality here which is really unique when layered with the beautiful resins. it's a sweet and effervescent scent (though not at all like bpal's champagne note) and i'm kind of at a loss for words to really describe it but it smells really good and is really unlike anything else in my collection!

i remember being underwhelmed by Creature Feature when it first arrived long ago, but now that it has aged I LIKE IT. it's just a great big pile of wonderful wonderful bpal musks. no red or white musk to my nose but definitely black musk (it sort of reminds me of haunted, where the black musk dominates the amber for me) and i think maybe the nice cuddly musk that is in ivanushka. this is not giant or monstrous, it's warm and cuddly. i want to snuggle this gigantic radioactive monster. super wearable on its own but could also be very nice as a layering scent for blends that could use a touch of warm musky goodness.

weirdly salty sugary chocolate incense. the chocolate is not the crazy dark, rich cocoa of boomslang or others like it but a sweeter, more edible chocolate. the more i sniff it, the more i like it? i remember having a viscerally negative reaction to this when i first sniffed it but it has mellowed with age and the longer i wear it, the nice it seems to get. i'm not into foodie OR aquatic perfumes but somehow, combined, they work?! i think the delicious ritual incense notes keep it wearable for me... the world of bpal is strange and mysterious. i thought i would test this and then immediately throw it back on the swap/sale pile but i think i'll keep it around.

this is a bottle that i bought, sniffed, went "bleh! not for me!" and forgot about for a year and a half. i am happy to report that the aged cherokee rose is actually a surprisingly pretty rose scent on my skin. it has a fresh green quality with a bright citrus edge that is pretty nice, actually, and reminds me a little of lush's rose jam (one of my all-time favorite scents, despite rose and i not usually getting along). it goes a little soapy after it dries and i can't really see myself wearing this, but it's actually a pretty and pleasant scent for someone who enjoys rose perfumes.

verrrrrry powdery, vaguely masculine cologne. i realized when testing this that i don't actually know what orris smells like, but i looked it up and it is apparently like violets. hm. there is definitely a soft floral component here. it's just way too powdery and floral for me. not a fan.

i was lucky enough to snag several bottles of burning book during my ill-fated, one and only trip to SDCC in 2013. i bought a few because knew i would love it, and i do. it's one of the more complex "single notes" and it really is gorgeous- rich leather, paper and ink and beautiful smoke. it's like sitting in a gorgeous old library with a roaring fire going. it is fantastic for layering with other scents (siberian musk and french tobacco come to mind) but first and foremost is very wearable on its own. this is a beautiful, evocative and sophisticated scent. i really love it.

i remember being disappointed by Autumn Lace when I first tried it (and had bought two bottles unsniffed!), but i am liking it a little more now that it has aged some. it is still mainly linen on my skin, but the fabric has been scented with incense and musk. there is also a dry black tea note that i enjoy. i still don't need two bottles, but it's a pretty scent (just not exactly what i expected) and i'm happy to have it in my collection.

This is weird, and way more perfumey than I would have expected. It is a cool, misty, sweet floral (I agree with BoneBone24 that it is a dry sweetness). There IS a quality here that reminds me of a fog machine? But mostly I think it is a sweet, ozone-y floral.

Smells like my beloved 2008 Graveyard Dirt, which I love love love. A beautiful, cool, damp soil smell, which wears beautifully as a perfume.

I was not expecting to enjoy the scent of Stage Blood so much! It smells like spicy cherry candy. Maybe slightly sticky spicy cherry candy. It's an unexpected treat!

This is probably one of the best woodsmoke/bonfire scents I've ever tried. It's like a variety of woods burning into beautifully-smelling smoke. I really love it. I think I could layer this with Pile of Fallen Leaves to get my perfect burning leaves scent.

Love love love love it. Reminds me of October and a few other bpals that have "fallen leaves" as a note. I think this will layer gorgeously with lots of things. It really evokes cool autumn air and piles and piles of fallen leaves.

Darker than I thought it would be- there is something which gives me a coffee vibe at first, which on second sniff is probably just a caramel/burnt sugar note. It smells very fake and plasticky on me and I don't really like it. I'm just not a foodie scent person!