Tulliver

In the bottle: Lovely sharp ginger. This bodes very well indeed. Wet on skin: Oh my. This is just like McVities Ginger Cake. Exactly the same - and believe me, that is an EXTREMELY good thing indeed. Wow, I could just sit and inhale this forever. Dry: This one's a slow dryer for some reason. Sadly, as it dries, it loses a lot of its strength. Still very much gingery but there's a sweetness to it as well - sugary cake. It's good - it's VERY good - but it just doesn't last, very sadly. However, it's too good to cast aside because of that. It simply requires extra applications or - even better - a scent locket. This is a keeper. In fact, this may even be a case of ordering another bottle. I've found my scent for Boxing Day, I think. And colour me well and truly converted to foody scents, thanks to this year's Yules.

In the bottle: Ooooooh, lovely pomegranate with maybe just a hint of something else - something a little smoky perhaps. Wet on skin: Sweet but not TOO sweet. Definitely pomegranate, but there is that bitterness there too - I have no idea what it is, but it works. It works VERY well indeed. Dry: Bah. My skin just eats this up. After only ten minutes all I'm left with is the merest hint of a sweet fruity smell. It's absolutely lovely, and I'll definitely keep my bottle, but it doesn't live very long at all. Maybe it'll do better at a different time.

GLORIOUS chocolate, from the instant the bottle is opened. Absolutely incredible. Sniffing a little closer I can just about pick out the coffee but it's very faint. There's no sign of anything else yet. Wet on skin: Wow... WOW! The chocolate doesn't recede even slightly, but the coffee perks up a little (pun unintentional I swear), and the cinnamon starts to come through after a moment or so. Oh my word... this is utterly incredible. Dry: The chocolate is a little sweeter and less heavy, and it mixes wonderfully well with the coffee. It's chocolate, coffee, cream, JUST the right amount of cinnamon and it's another one I feel may need backing up with an extra bottle. Foody scents? Me? Don't be ridiculous!

In the bottle: I'm one with the "wintergreen floral" assessment. This is lovely LOVELY hellebore and very little else. It's wonderful and highly evocative of the season by grace of its purity of scent. Wet on skin: Still wonderfully green, but not quite so much as in the bottle. The floral comes out more on the skin and it has an incredible throw while it's drying. Dry: This actually dried really quickly on me which tells me it's not one of the thicker oils. But the scent doesn't diminish even slightly when it's dry. It's beautiful. A real, true hellebore with just a HINT of perfume, but no more than it needs to make this perfect. This could very well earn itself a backup bottle. I'll take the next week or so to think about it.

Oooooh... this smells of honey and pastry and spicy caramel in the bottle. It's utterly delicious. I'm really enjoying discovering that I like the foody scents. I NEVER thought I would. Wet on skin: Much the same as in the bottle. Definitely the sufganiyot - it has to be even though I've never seen, smelled or tasted the real thing before. But I can get the beeswax too, lurking in the background. This was the note that made me unsure - I thought if there was a killer in this it was sure to be that. I was wrong. Oh, so very wrong. Dry: I think I get the olive now, as the sufganiyot recedes. It never goes away though and remains the main note with the beeswax still very much present also. The throw is wonderful and it seems to be lasting fairly well. This will definitely be worn a good bit over winter. It's so warm and cheering.

Egg Nog. Hmmm. Of all the Yule scents, this is one of the ones I most looked forward to testing. Not because I felt it would smell best on me but because I'm starting to realise that food-scented perfumes can really be a Very Good Thing. Plus, previous reviews really had me worked up about it. In the bottle it's all boozy goodness. I get the brandy with a little sweetness in the background. Wet on the skin: Oh sweet holy boozy custardy heaven! This is GORGEOUS! It's very light - in fact it's so light I fear it won't last long - but it's utterly wonderful. I've never drunk egg nog - It's not done so much over here - but if it's anything like this smells (which, apparently, it is), then I'll definitely be wanting to try some. Dry: Custard and nutmeg and still hints of the brandy. Oh, this is incredibly lovely. When I first started trying BPAL, I pretty much scoffed at people who were squeeing about foody scents. After all, THAT'S not a perfume, now is it? Ahahahahaha. This is definitely going to be a multiple bottle buy. It's utterly incredible and, while its short skin life is a shame, it's just too good a scent to let that put me off.

Oooooh... I like this. In the bottle, I wasn't so sure. It's an odd scent - like a kind of fruit tree leaf - but it smells slightly alcohol-y, too. Wet on the skin: The alcohol is still there, but only for the shortest time. I don't know WHAT I'm smelling. It's a feeling rather than an ingredient. It's cold, yet warm at the same time, like being outside in the dead of winter but all wrapped up warm. You know it's cold, but you're well protected. Dry: Much the same as wet. It doesn't morph much on me at all. But I love it. It's cold and dark as it's supposed to be, yet still remains oddly secure and protective with the sensation of warmth through being well wrapped and insulated.

In the bottle: Sharp, citrus-y flowery and bright. Wet on skin: Much the same as in the bottle. It's a lovely, cheerful "yellow-orange" scent with maybe just a hint of greens and whites. Dry: Lemony, orangy, gardenia. This is one of those rare blends where the patchouli doesn't seem to show itself at all, but then there is so much in it and to it. It's lovely. I could wear this in summer or winter alike and it wouldn't seem out of place. I keep sniffing at this. I can't help it. I don't think I'll be going for a back up bottle, although I'm not totally sure at this stage, but I do like it a great deal.

Oh my, this is wonderful! It morphs VERY little on my skin, staying the same beautiful creamy, warm vanilla it was in the bottle right through to dry down. I can pick up on the ginger, and it makes the vanilla even deeper and more rounded. I don't wear a lot of vanilla blends. Not that I don't like them - I do. But I spent years wearing a lot of vanilla and with BPAL I wanted to try some of the "newer" things that I'd never have considered trying beforehand. I may have to make an exception with this Haloes, though. It's wonderful. It's already top of my BPAL vanilla-based blends, I think, just based on the first try. Edited to add: After 12 hours, this is STILL strong on me. It's not totally surprising since I do amp Vanilla, but it's a spicy vanilla. And it's been on my wrist under a long sleeve and even inside a coat at some stage. This is VERY strong. Although I see that Rhowan didn't have the same experience. Meh.

I've changed my mind on this. My first reaction on trying it on my skin was not exactly positive. I have no problem with moss, or with the slightly "muddy" notes in some scents. For some reason, however, in this one it didn't seem good. So I washed it off. Then I sniffed the bottle again and - well, it smells a lot cleaner in the bottle. There's an almost sharp note in there which I hadn't noticed before when I'd tried it. I thought I'd give it a second go. I'm SO glad I did. After that one false start, this actually smells wonderful on me. It's still mossy and slightly "muddy", but for some reason it's now the GOOD sort. As it dries, the florals come through, but I can't separate one from the other - not even the bubblegummy note of the lotus which is usually extremely loud on me for a t least a while. It's a wonderful blend of them all. It's NOT a light scent. This has already been mentioned in most of the previous reviews. Even with the florals softening the edges a little, it remains fairly dark and deep. The throw isn't immense, but it lasts for a LONG time. I'm liking this and I'm SO glad I tried it a second time rather than sending it to swaps and sales.

Having finally given in to the BPAL/BPTP lure long after these blends were withdrawn, I only have a couple of imps from one or two of the blends. This is the one I tried first, and the one I have most of. I love lavender. Absolutely love it. Always have. My dad has a large lavender bush in the garden and, since I was ten years old I've never been able to resist picking some off it every time I pass and crushing it in my fingers. I still do it. Sadly I don't have such constant access to the lavender bush anymore. With this, though, I don't have to worry about that. At least, not at the outset. In the vial and wet on the skin - such beautiful lavender. Absolutely gorgeous. I could easily fall in love with it. Sadly, though, as it dries down it turns to furniture polish on me. I don't know which element of its makeup is making it do that, but there it is. I still like it and, to be honest, I'll still wear it around the house. Just not as much as I'd have liked to.

This... is really weird. Not BAD weird, just very very odd. These are all notes which I've long been able to identify, and it contains three of my all-time favourite flowers (I had two of them in my wedding bouquet), but in this blend I can't separate them at all. There just MIGHT be the occasional waft of pear, but it's still fairly indistinct. I do like this, very much. This isn't the right time of the year for wearing it - not all blends have a seasonal smell to me, but this one definitely does. This one's for wearing in the spring and perhaps into the early summer. I just get a fairly faint (but not short-lived by any means), sweet blend which SEEMS to be mainly pear, but only by a nose (if you'll pardon the pun). It's lovely. Maybe too delicate and sweetly feminine for me, but it is very lovely indeed.

Oooh, wow. This is extremely masculine. Fortunately for me, I have no man to give it to so I shall simply have to wear it myself. What hardship! In the bottle, this actually doesn't have a clear scent at all. It's a bit - pardon the choice of word - but "sludgy" in a nondescript, can't be identified way. On the skin though, and the patchouli is INSTANTLY there, eliciting mad squeeage from me since I adore it. It's dark and deep and very heavy. But almost immediately it's joined by something else that gives it depth. I'm not completely sure what it is, but I THINK it could be the leather. Now, leather doesn't always work on me (Highwayman still makes me sob), but when it does it REALLY does. This would be one of those happy happy occasions. Drydown, and some of the other scents are now dancing around a little. The patchouli is ALWAYS there and it's a superb base. But the ginger in particular is now coming through and... oooh, it's almost swoonworthy. This is LOVELY. And the clove is there, too. No definite musk yet, but there's just so much of the scents that ARE there, it's hard to tell. I don't really get the neroli either. Dry - This doesn't live long on me. This actually depresses me since it's a wonderful blend - very very possibly up there with Umbra on a par for masculinity and all-round sexiness. I love this. I absolutely ADORE this. It's toe-curlingly good. *sniffs more*

Mmmm, lovely. Tea and verbena and sandalwood and something just a little grassy but not overwhelmingly so. It reminds me a little of both Embalming Fluid and The Apothecary - but it lasts a good deal longer than either of them on me, which is a Very Good Thing Indeed. I'd have got this anyway since, while the misspelling of his name on the bottle makes this Literary-Nazi Virgo twitch (sorry, but it does *shamed*), there was no WAY I couldn't set out to collect the entire Order of the Dragon series, whether I liked it or not. Happily for me, they're all hits so far. In fact this is only beaten to "best blend in the series" by Wilhelmina Murray - which is how it should be. *grins* I love it mightily, superfluous "h" or not.

This is a gorgeous, dark, gothy rose. But, if you think "gothy" in a Dark Victorian kind of way, then you'd be mistaken. This is timeless - both ancient and modern. It spans the ages and I'm SO glad it does because, while I'm more than fond of Dark Victoriana, I do get frustrated when it's the default setting for the word "gothy". This doesn't morph a whole lot on me. It's very definite rose - and it has a perilous moment during drydown where it ALMOST turns soapy on me, which VERY few roses do. But it redeems itself and behaves again. I can smell the amber - barely, since I do amp rose in a glorious manner. But it's there and it's rounding off the rose scent in a beautiful way, deepening and softening it. I adore this. It's soporific, seductive and totally addictive. Plus I'm a totally unapologetic Thin Lizzy fanatic so just the name makes me squee anyway. I'm highly remiss in leaving my review of it so long, but all is remedied now.

This was another frimp from the Lab with my last order. I'd ordered a bottle of it before I got the frimp and, I must admit, on first try I regretted ordering it. Now though... I've tried it a couple of times and either it or my nose has changed. It won't ever be in my top 10, I don't think, but I'm glad there's a bottle on the way now. It WILL be used. This will definitely be a daytime scent for me, and it loses its strength a lot more quickly than I'd like - fading to nothing in a couple of hours at the most. But I like it. I do. In the imp it's a warm, sweet smell - almost foody. I don't know what it is, but there's no hint of citrus or flowers at all. I think perhaps it's a mix of the tea and ginger with maybe the tonka - I'm still not sure how tonka smells, I'm afraid. On my skin, wet, it's initially the same as it is in the imp, but the grapefruit tang comes through fairly quickly. The florals only start to make themselves known as it dries down with the iris taking prominence over the jasmine and honeysuckle. Actually there's no sign of the honeysuckle whatsoever on me, which is a shame since it's one of my favourite floral scents, both in perfumes and especially in nature. I do owe Vampire Tears an apology, though. This is nice. In fact, it's REALLY nice. And, now I have my C'n'S for my next order, which contains a bottle of it, I'm more than happy it's on its way.

I got this as a frimp from the Lab with my last order, and it's the first of the blends from Picnic in Arkham that I've tried. This is... well, it almost perfectly epitomises "bittersweet". In the vial and wet on the skin, the bitterness is almost enough to make me wince, but that's only very short-lived because the bitter soon turns to more of a sourness as the grapefruit explodes into prominence. I must say I'm not a fan of the fruit unless it's pink grapefruit - but the scent is truly glorious. The sweetness only starts to come through as the scent dries on my skin, but it doesn't take over. It takes the worst of the "edge" from the grapefruit - which IS strong - and just nestles itself around it in a mix that works so very very well indeed. I wasn't sure about this one - left to my own devices I would very likely never have even tried it. But now I can see me investing in a bottle of it for next spring. It's a really light, cheerful blend (even if it's not supposed to be). I like it a LOT more than I thought I would. It's light, but the throw is good, and I got several compliments today while wearing it. Thank you, Lab! Yet another to add to the ever-growing YES! list.

I get no mint from this. That probably accounts for the fact that I don't find this a particularly cold or even cool floral. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm finding it rather warm. Yellows and creams rather than whites, although I CAN get the navy blue of the sky in there - just about. I don't dislike this blend. I LOVE florals in general and I do like this. It comes across to me as something very opulent and hot-house flower-y. Perhaps that's what it is. The florals are all in the hot-house being kept beautifully warm while it's dark and cold outside. You know the cold's there, but it doesn't get in, somehow. So yes. I do like this, I really do. But there are many florals that smell so much better on me. This... it's not bad. But it's not brilliant. Room scent, I think. That'd be lovely.

This is lovely. This is FAR more lovely than I expected it to be, and I fully expected to like it. I don't get the pickle smell that's been picked up by a lot of people - but then I think by pickle they're talking about what I'd call a gherkin, and not a pickled onion. And I THINK I know the note they're picking out. To be honest, when I first sniffed at this in the bottle I wasn't overly hopeful. It smells a little sharp - with perhaps a slight sourness to it. However, not to be deterred, it was duly applied to the wrist. And OOOOOOOOOOH! I immediately got the feeling of wonderful, soft brown fur. I wanted to wrap myself in it and keep warm - which is a little difficult with a liquid, but you know what I mean. The leaves are there - a little dusty after a while, which is a lovely touch. I'm surprising myself with the leafy/woodsy scents. I really didn't think I'd like them as much as I'm discovering I do. Ivanushka is no exception. I really like this and it will definitely get plenty of wear from me over the coming months.

Ohnoes! *weeps* I really wanted to like this. I love all the separate bits that comprise the blend. But dandelion and sage (together) do really odd things on my skin and it's not nice. It's sour and peppery and I can't get round it. I'll give it one more go in a few days but, for now, it looks as though this one is going on the sale/swap list.

This is truly glorious. There's a rounded warmth to the scent in the bottle that disappears as soon as it goes onto my skin. Once there, whatever was rounding it off disappears and lets the linden come through VERY sharply. It's absolutely wonderful. On drydown, the linden is still unmistakably there, but the tea comes through, too. It is very reminiscent of my much adored Embalming Fluid but has a VERY slight background bitterness to it. This is special. I'm fond of the entire Demon range - I think it's a wonderful series - but this is truly lovely and possibly stands out. At least it does until I try one or two of the others. I simply can't recommend this one highly enough. I hope to be able to get a good bit more of it since I know it's going to be used a lot. Top 10 without a shadow of a doubt.

There is something in this which comes out in the bottle and wet on the skin that makes me actually grimace. I don't know what it is - maybe the skin musk? I just don't know and I can't tie it in with any of the listed ingredients other than that, and even that's only a doubtful maybe. Whatever it is, though, it soon disappears as the blend dries down and ooooh my... the wait is SO worth it, much as the wait of the Heroine herself, no doubt. The orchid in this is GORGEOUS and the vanilla has a beautiful edge to it. It's clearly defined rather than a gauzy haze, which is how I usually experience vanilla. There is a definite fruity scent to it as well - I get a very obvious peach scent, which is rather lovely. It's all there but it's all mingling incredibly well - at least those three notes are. I'm still not completely sure on the rest, and peach isn't listed so I'm not sure just what it is I'm smelling that is so similar. Maybe somebody can help me out with that one. I didn't think I was going to like this one on first sniff. But it's very special indeed. Heady, warm and luxuriant, this is most definitely a special occasion blend.

Ahahah. It would appear that I amp eucalyptus. Oh my, yes. Piney menthol... mentholly pine. There is a VERY occasional hint of orange, but the poor thing stands little chance and is soon put back in its place by the eucalyptus. If ever there was to be an Enraged Koala Musk, this would be very close to the final product, I think. I don't dislike this. FAR from it. However, I doubt it'll be getting much general wear. But I WILL keep the bottle (I got it on an eBay auction as part of a group of 5mls where I was particularly after two of the others in the group). I have a feeling this will prove very useful for the upcoming unavoidable winter colds. And I think it'll make a really lovely room scent. So yes. I do like this, perhaps even more than I realise myself.

I'm not in costume since I'm not going out. But callers to my house for Trick or Treat were greeted by me in my Treat BPTP t-shirt, REALLY lovely witchy hat, courtesy of my local Sainsbury's, and Samhain '07 on which I'm currently utterly fixated. I just cannot get enough of this one. *sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiffs deeply*

Firstly, I LOVE the label for this one, I really do. Sniffing in the bottle... definitely chrysanthemum combined with ginger and perfume. Gorgeous! On the wrist wet: SPICY 'MUMS! Oooh, my. How lovely. The ginger and the florals mix so well together, and the smoky incense is starting to make its presence felt even before it dries down. On drydown it settles back into a really lush, heady blend of chrysanthemums and expensive smoky incense tentrils. I truly believe I could just recline and do nothing all evening except inhale this one... which is sort of the whole point of the name, no? It lasts fairly well, although not madly long. This could be because of the time of the month that I've tested it, though. Not that it matters. Sometimes other things are far more important.