ladybird

Mmmmm, sweet flowery bubblegum! I had very high hopes for this scent - the carnation and sugar made me hope for something like Pink Moon 07 which is one of my all-time favorites, and the pink pepper reminded me of Hermia, which is another of my most-loved scents. So I was expecting a spicier Pink Moon or sweeter Hermia. Instead, the sweetness comes to the forefront and the pepper is hardly there at all. The daisy comes out much more when it dries, but the carnation is still very subtle. There's a fruitiness from somewhere, too, which I think is what gives it that bubblegum feel. It's a fun, girly, pink scent - definitely a keeper!

I was a little scared when I saw the patchouli and musk in the description, because those are notes that don't like me and I don't like them. But I'm happy to report that I'm not smelling those notes at all! On me, Croquet is sweet citrus, mostly lime, mixed with a soft flowery note. The nectarine sweetens and tones down the rose so it doesn't get too overpowering. It's a lovely springy scent!

The Jewish holiday of Passover is coming up, and one of the traditional foods for that holiday is charoset. It's a mixture of chopped apples, cinnamon, raisins, and nuts, all soaked in wine. It's delicious... ...and that is exactly what Coral Snake smells like. Mostly apples, with a few other sweet scents hovering in the background, and maybe a hint of spice. It's a nice scent, and I really like charoset, but I'm not sure I want to go around smelling like it all the time

I too have been hearing everyone rave about Snake Oil, and thought that it was time to see what everyone was talking about. raspberryswirlgirl was kind enough to frimp me a bit of well-aged Snake Oil (from 2005), and so I tried it... ...and oh my gosh, this is what all the fuss is about. Oh my gosh. Deep dark warm complex smoky vanilla sexiness. I don't have a Significant Other right now, but I'm going to save this for when I do

I've finally gotten my hands on one of the mythical Single Notes, and now I see what all the fuss is about SN Carnation is amazing. Sweet and spicy and flowery, with staying power even in a dainty little drop. This is the scent that made me fall in love with Pink Moon 07, but the SN version is purer and stronger. I want more!

I've been looking for a winter floral for a while, and I was hoping for a little more of those 'traditional lunar herbs and flowers' on this one. Instead, I got pine. Lots of pine. Pine, the whole pine, and nothing but the pine. If you like evergreen scents, then this one is most definitely for you. Unfortunately, it is most definitely not for me!

I just got a partial decant of this scent, after searching for ages. Oh my gosh, was it worth the wait. When I was a kid, my parents used to take me to this cider mill on the Connecticut River every fall. The whole place had the most heavenly smell of fresh apples - and if my parents were feeling particularly indulgent, they'd let me get a caramel apple. That's what the first few minutes of Sugar-Slathered Candied Apple smell like - regression to New England childhood caramel apples. On drydown, it settles into a mellower apple scent, but it still has some of the same sweetness. Foody scents are hit-or-miss with me, but this is a definite delicious hit! Time to find a full decant (or maybe more!) of this one. I'm going to want it next fall

Gingerbread!! Real actual gingerbread, with that glorious mixture of ginger and cloves and nutmeg and ohmygosh it smells delicious... ...and disappears in about two seconds flat. But for those two seconds, it's delicious.

Wet: ROSE!! and VIOLET!! And when it dries, it gets powdery, and...well...old-ladyish. I suppose if there were any scent that smelled like old-lady perfume, it should be the one named after an old lady I suspect that my skin's tendency to amp up rose is partly to blame for poor Madame Tracy's failure. But still, this one is not a keeper. Alas!

For just a second, I get a faint hint of what Long Night Moon should smell like. Cool, aquatic, pale misty flowers - the winter floral I've been looking for. And then it goes all wrong. It smells like plastic! It smells like hospitals! Wah! I need to figure out which of the many notes is doing this to me...

Wet: Sweet honey and vanilla, very full and sensual. (Is it just the quotation that accompanies the description that's got my mind thinking in those directions, or is this a really sexy scent?) Dry: A little fruitier and lighter - the blackberries are coming through now. But the honey is still dominant, and it's still summery, sweet, sensual, and other things starting with S. I'm on the fence about whether to keep this one. On the one hand, I'm not sure if I'll ever be in the right mood to wear it. On the other...like Fairy Market, this scent keeps making me sniff my wrist, trying to figure out what it's all about, and trying to get those elusive bits of summer. Mm. I just sniffed again. I think I'll keep it.

Beautifully balanced! In the imp, it smells sweet and peachy, but on the skin it's a perfect balance between peach and floral. The rose and jasmine (usually among my nemesis scents) are staying in the background - the dominant flowers are the more delicate ones. The flowers keep the peach from being too overly sweet; the fruit keeps the flowers from being too perfumey. It's like Titania, but a little more floral. Sadly, it seems to fade pretty quickly, but it's so lovely that I'm going to stick with it and keep it anyway. This is a beautifully light and balanced scent, perfect for spring!

OMG LOVE! LOVE!!! ahem. Right. Using actual words now. This is a gorgeous wonderful scent. It goes on as mocha, warm and chocolatey with just a hint of coffee. Then as it dries, the cinnamon starts to come forward - it really does smell like Mexican chocolate! It even has a tiny fruity note that really really good chocolate has. And best of all - none of the horrible maple-syrup that creamy/foody notes tend to give me! Oh my gosh, I am in love with this scent! Chocoholics, check it out! This will keep you warm and happy all winter

Wheeee, it's a Chanukah scent! With sugar and... ...and WAH. It's got cream in it. tartchef, I had the exact same reaction - it smells just like Misk U and Gluttony, which means it smells like unhappy maple syrup. whimper. No Chanukah present for me from BPAL this year!

Thank you, steelxrose!! I thought I was going nuts when I thought this one smelled like Misk U in the bottle I'm not sure if it's the honeysuckle that's giving it the creamy/sweet/foody scent, but it smelled exactly like Misk U to me too - and that made me Very Afraid, since Misk U didn't work at all on me. Fortunately, the creaminess didn't last. On the skin wet, it smells much more citrusy, but still with that honey sweetness; as it dries, the honey/cream/sweet fades away almost entirely, leaving only citrus. It's interesting, and as always I admire the complexity of the lab's scents, but I don't think this one is for me.

I got an imp in one of the farewell decant circles, and just got around to trying it today. It's lovely! I agree with everyone who smelled light, springy, green florals and aquatics. It smells like trees after a spring rain. Linden, maybe? Something very delicate and green, almost familiar but not quite identifiable. It's so delicate that I'm worried it won't last on me, but I'm definitely going to keep it and hope.

I almost couldn't tell what notes were in Antique Lace when I tried it. "It smells...sweet and warm. Like vanilla? Except vanilla doesn't work on me, so it can't be that." Except it does! Antique Lace is the first vanilla scent I've tried that doesn't instantly go sour-sweet and wrong! It dries into a delicate sweet vanilla overlaid with faint flowers, very light and pretty. I think this one's a keeper!

My experience with Tum was funny and sad, all at the same time. It was like some warped parody of the usual BPAL sniffing process: complexity and change over time, but every nuance an unhappy failure. Wet, it was sharp, astringent, and herbal. One of the friends I was meet-and-sniffing with said that she could smell fruit, but I didn't. Dry: Oh, there's the fruit. Rotten fruit. Heavy rotten fruit. Ick ick ick. I know lots of people love Tum, but it was a terrible failure on me. Alas!

Another rollercoaster scent! When I first put it on, I smell lime! Lots and lots of lime. It's a wonderful summery surprise. About 15 minutes later, the flowers start coming out. Mostly rose, but with enough citrus in the background to make me think that this is going to be one of those great summer scents that I've been in search of lately. And then, about 15 minutes after that, the rose and jasmine rise up to swallow the world. Nothing but rose and jasmine, enveloping me in a overly strong perfumey cloud. Oh, bother. Well, I'll wait a little while more. Maybe it will change again...

Oh, weep and wail! Helena loves me not! In the bottle, it smells almost exclusively of rose. On my skin, it takes on this weird sharp tone, almost chemical. Maybe the rose and jasmine aren't playing well together? I don't know what's wrong, but whatever it is, it doesn't go away on drydown - it just stays sour and sharp, with a faint hint of rose over it all. Ugh. Very disappointing!

I have a running joke with an old friend of mine that I'm Hermia and she's Helena, because she's tall and pale and I'm small and dark. So when I saw that there were Hermia and Helena scents, I absolutely had to get them - and I absolutely had to try Hermia first. Hermia in the bottle is extremely subtle - ever so faintly flowery, with a little peppery kick to it. Wet, I get an almost citrusy note - sweet, but not sugary, and with a little refreshing tartness to it, like fresh-squeezed orange juice. And the pepper is still there, giving it just enough of a kick. Dry, it's even more subtle. Nooo, Hermia, don't leave me! I've been waiting for a scent named after you for so very long! ...but I shouldn't have worried. It's now quite a while later, and Hermia has come back. It's a lovely cloud of sweet orangey spice. I'm not sure what kind of scent alchemy has happened here, because there isn't any orange listed in the notes. I wonder if it's the combination of honeysuckle and the powdery tone that amber always gets on me? I seem to have been the first to get orange rather than pink from Hermia, but I don't mind if she's a little idiosyncratic for me. I still love her This will be a great scent for a warm summer day.

By all rights, this scent should be awful on me. I hate musk, and amber turns instantly to baby powder on my skin. But the floral notes work some kind of wonderful alchemy to make Dolce Stil Nuovo beautiful. The carnation and lavender take center stage, and miraculously harmonize with the slight powdery note that the amber brings. The musk lurks in the background, balancing the florals so they're not super-flowery-sweet, and adding complexity and depth. This one is in my Hall of Fame. I love it, and it loves me

Bother. I guess cream is a note I have to avoid. Just like in Gluttony and Misk U, the cream in Bloody Mary overpowers everything else on me. It smells weirdly syrupy and turns the cherries sour. It smelled beautifully cherry-vanilla sweet in the imp...but it turned out to be a disappointment

I got this as a frimp from the lab - I would never have chosen it for myself. Vetiver? Sandalwood? Dark scents? Not my usual thing. So I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the imp and smelled...lemon? The lemon is definitely dominant for me, and the incensey sandalwood only a softening note in the background. But on my skin, alas! All sandalwood, all the time, and only growing stronger as it dried. The lemon faded away almost entirely, leaving only sandalwood and a hint of vetiver earthiness among the incense. Not for me!

In bottle: Mint! Surprisingly minty - I can't smell any of the other notes Wet: Spearmint, with a little bit of floral, and rising sweetness as it dries. The mint is still dominant, though. Dry: Oh dear. It smells like toothpaste. That same dry sweet mint that you get from toothpaste. I'm so disappointed - I had been looking forward to this one!