sarahmarie

I didn't buy a bottle of this because I have Skadi, Talvikku, and Jolasveinar and I figured I was set in the snow-and-pine department. But I did get a partial imp of this, and I'm glad. It has that same snowy-piney goodness of the other guys, but with new and different company. It turns out, I really like the snowy-piney scents, as they are very evocative for me. This one has a more...feminine feel than some of the other ones, less room-scentish and more *perfume*. (Not that all of the above aren't beautiful as perfume, they're just more..foody or atmospheric to me, where as Frau has that musk-and-floral thing going on that makes it feel more traditionally like a perfume.) I haven't decided if this one stands out enough as a good match for my skin chemistry that I should get a bottle, but I am definitely going to enjoy my imp.

On me, this was almost perfumey-green at first, the way some green scents go on me. It was pleasant, but a little bit too perfumey for my tastes. After an hour at the chiropractor's office, I smelled my wrist again - and got a perfect kiwi scent, complete with the sort of tongue-tingling tart...spikiness? of the *flavor* of kiwi. It's awesome. I want to wear it again and look for that wasabi note, since I didn't really pick up on it and would actually really like it to be wasabi-y. I'm not sure how "me" it is but I'm going to hang onto my decant at least for now, just to enjoy that kiwi goodness. But yes, this one is definitely interesting and I recommend if you like fresh, green, and KIWITASTIC scents!

Like rotting leaves, earthy and full of roots and plant material. There's a sweetness to it, but the prevailing scent on my skin is that of autumnal ground. I love that, because I love the fall and this is extremely evocative of the season. That said, I won't want to wear it much and am happy with my decant.

After a few minutes on my skin, this guy is really cool. I don't know if I'll ultimately like it or not, but it's really interesting! I smell fresh carrot peelings. maple, apple, and oats! Oats! It's so weird! Oh, and there's the hay. This scent is very fun, for sure. The drydown leaves me with a sweet oatiness, which is really likable, but there's also a sharpness on my skin that I don't particularly like. I'll have to give it some time and another try to be sure how I feel about it.

I have never had luck with a pumpkin scent, but this one is SO GOOD. It's smooth and sweet but not sickening - it's a grown-up sweetness. I really like it, and I think I need a bottle of it.

Oh oh oh. Um. I am taken aback! This is pretty great! It's light in terms of the weight of the scent, but perfectly evokes a windy, autumnal darkness. It reminds me of Alecto, but without the heavier sweetness and foodiness of that scent. If you have ever liked an airy, woodsy scent, you should definitely try this one. It's amazing.

I didn't expect to, but I really, really like this one. It's sort of...ethereal, very much a garden at night sort of feeling. It's very hard to describe, and isn't something I would normally pick out...but I think I might want a bottle of it. It's pretty and clean like soap, but without being actually soapy or sharp like many scents of its ilk are on my skin. I'm sorry, I know this review is lacking, but I'm having trouble finding any specific words to describe it!

Mantastic! I believe I sniffed this and said something like "whoa holy manliness!" It's quite powerful, quite in-your-face, and very, very fitting for Brom Bones. This little review is based on a bottle sniff only, I had limited skin space to test on and um there you are.

Okay, all I get is strawberry goo - or, more accurately, strawberry pop rocks is what it makes me think of. It's pink like whoa, tart and sweet, and totally not me. If you like strawberry candy, though, I would totally steer you towards this guy. It's fun, it's just not what I want to wear.

These are cold, sexy vampire apples, indeed. In the bottle, it's very appletastic, with a little ozone-type scent and something that is reminiscent of musk, but isn't particularly musky to my nose. It makes me think of the other apple scents I've tried, but it works so much better on my skin than any other BPAL apple I've experienced. It's bright and just the right balance of sweet and tart, with a cold, cold heart. As it dries, it becomes very light - I have to sniff my skin now, a few hours later, to smell it at all. It's gentler, less apple-y, and it is reminiscent of Snow White in its cool softness. I love the cobalt blue bottles and I love the label...and the chapbook, oh my goodness. I'm really glad I got a bottle of this.

This is the first time in a while that I've been able to wear a blend that features amber and myrrh. I am so glad that it works on me! This is a really great scent. I've tried it on a couple of times at Healthy Living in Burlington, VT, and loved it both times. I succumbed and bought a bottle of it today. Wezwanie/Hold is very hazlenutty, but not in an overpowering way. The hazlenut has the forefront, but it's warmed and sort of...spiced by the amber and myrrh. It's not overly sweet on me, just a bit - mostly it's warm and comforting and gently sensual, and it wears well and feels right even at a time of year when this isn't the sort of oil I'd generally find myself reaching for. I am really digging this scent, people, and I encourage you to go find some and put it on.

This is a pretty awesome, extremely distinctive scent. It's not something I expected to like, since metallic, ozone-y things generally wear very sharply on me and bother my headaches...but I'm really glad I tried it, because Steamworks really didn't have that effect. It's metallic, but in a bright way, not a sharp way. It's also beautifully blended with notes that make it warm and bright and interesting rather than cold, sharp, and piercing, which is how similar scents have made me feel in the past. It's perfumey, but not in the way I don't like. I think it can be interpreted as feminine or masculine, and works very well either way. This scent is unlike anything else I've tried. Even if you've never liked a metallic scent before, I suggest you give this one a try - it's really quite something!

This is a strange one, but it turns out that I like it! I was hoping to really smell the wasabi, but not so much - it's more of a perfumey tea scent at first, and as it dries, it develops a richness from the honey - but with an interesting edge from the wasabi that saves it from the fate of other tea and honey scents on my skin (generally, turning either really sharp, perfumey, or sickly heavy). It's light and unobtrusive but *interesting* and unique. It's a good one, nice for daytime and work especially, I think.

I love it! And I don't often love the fruit-and-booze scents, so this is particularly impressive. It smells like gin-soaked fruit - a little bit sweet, but light and lively. I honestly thought I smelled pineapple in this, though it turns out it isn't there. It's just a really happy, almost effervescent, vacation-y scent. Very tropical, very fruity, lightly boozy - just right!

Fresh out of the bottle, this is very heady and sweet, full of orchid and gardenia blending to create a richly feminine, tropical floral. 30 minutes later, it is still very heady and strong - I will only need to wear a teeny bit of this one. It's funny, a lot of people are mentioning it vanishing on their skin - but in my case it is very strong and seems to be maintaining that level of strength. 4 hours later it has faded to a lighter, closer-to-the-skin floral, but it has sharpened a bit, too. The jury is out on whether I'll hang on to this one, but it definitely has beautiful qualities. If you like rich, heady tropical florals, definitely give it a try!

This wore disappointingly on my skin - sort of sharp and perfumey, not what I was hoping for. I don't really have anything else to add, since it stayed pretty consistently...not a good thing.

This one smells a bit sweeter to me than the version I have, which is the original Smut. I got a sniffy of it with a purchase on LJ, and it's sitting on my desk making my corner of the room smell particularly nice. This is a strong scent that I have to be in the mood for, but it's *so good* when the time is right for it. Delicious and very sexy.

Sometimes amber can be a bit overwhelming on my skin, but not in this blend. Glowing Vulva is very well-blended and it works very harmoniously on my skin, becoming a soft, warm, glowingly sexy scent that lasts a long time. It's got staying power, but it isn't in-your-face - it's really quite lovely.

The grapefruit/jasmine blend is decidedly awesome, actually - the jasmine gives the scent depth and roundness, while the grapefruit keeps it from being too heavy and floral. It's brilliant, and it smells very nice. I don't know, however, if it's me. I'll hang on to the imp and see how my skin chemistry plays with it over time.

I love this one. It's amazing. It smells just exactly like I hoped it would - autumn leaves all over the place, with a fresh air forest backdrop, and a hint of smoke. It's just beautiful, and it smells incredibly good on my husband. On me, it fades quickly, but while it lasts, it's amazing. I cannot say enough good things about October, and I'm very, very happy about that. I'm an October baby, and I was hoping to feel this way about this oil.

I have tried this one nearly every time it's come out, and each time it just doesn't work for me. It's obviously something I would love to love, but it wears very heavily on my skin and kind of turns my stomach over time. This year's is a little softer, somehow, and a bit fruitier, but still very heavy on me in the end.

Traditionally, Beaver Moon is named thus for a very obvious reason: during this time of year, beavers are hard at work building their dams and preparing for the onset of winter. However, we at BPAL rarely let an opportunity for sleazy campiness pass us by! For your pleasure and amusement, we present this year's incarnation of Beaver Moon: wild cherry with vanilla cream accord, and a hint of strawberry. It's super cherry wet - dark cherry, not tart - with a whole lot of buttery cream. Wet, this is not my style. As it dries, though, the butter goes away, leaving a creamy backdrop to the dark, sweet cherry. It tarts up over time, too, on my skin. Now that it's dry, it's settled down to a tart strawberry-cherry scent that wears a little bit funny on me. Strawberry notes always smell a little off on my skin, sort of vaguely plasticky, and this one is suffering that particular fate. I didn't really expect this one to rock my world, and it doesn't really work with my chemistry - but if you like cream or cherry in your scents, and strawberry doesn't hate you - go for it!

I have worn this one several times and am still not sure about it. I think it's my skin chemistry - the marshmallow doesn't quite set up to smell like marshmallow in the end, it has a little bit of that play dough thing, and it's just sort of not *quite* right. But it's sweet in that white sugary way, and I like it in theory enough to want to keep trying it. I think I will be decanting some of this out to trade for other Inquisition scents, and seeing what happens with the rest of it.

This smells very pretty, but my skin sort of messes with it. The pear goes a bit..well, you know how sometimes you get a mealy pear? It kinda made me think of that. On my skin, the pear is very sweet and combines with the other notes in a way that is very light, but still kind of cloying. I don't think I like it, but I think it's my skin's fault.

The frimp that inspired a bottle purchase! This one is sextacular. It starts off a little sickeningly sweet to my nose - I get overwhelmed easily by sweet, musky scents. But lemme tell ya, if you apply this lightly, it settles down into something really tasty. It is like Mme. Moriarty in that it is a sweet, red musk scent. But there's something a little more...teenaged about this one. I actually just put the Mme. on my other wrist, and am comparison sniffing. Next to Midnight Kiss, Mme. Moriarty smells sort of deeper and spicier, and the fruitness is more subtle. Part of that is aging - I think Midnight Kiss is going to age very nicely - but part of it is the scent characteristics. Midnight Kiss smells like red musk and wine, sweet and sexy, with the other notes giving it a complexity that's really nice and keeps it from being too...rich? Anyway, many words later, I mean to say that I like this one a lot. It has great staying power and a little goes a long, long way. I think it's going to be very popular. Get some, and enjoy!