TheOneTheyCallLuna

Boo reminds me of when I met my boyfriend. I was initially taken with the idea of him, and had a total crush. But then a misunderstanding caused me to find him incredibly irritating, until he finally won me over and we fell in love and, as they say, the rest is history. I really wanted to love this blend - I went so far as to buy a bottle unsniffed. But when I first smelled this in the vial, my nose wrinkled and I said, "Blegh!" Front and center, there was that weird burnt plastic note that ruined so many otherwise winning fragrances for me, most notably my otherwise beloved Monsterbait: Underpants. Underneath the plastickyness, I could detect a delectable vanilla creme, but it was getting a smack down from plastic. Then I put Boo on and said, "Hhmmmmmm.....maybe...maybe...NO!" The weird plastic note was still predominant and now accompanied by a freakishly realistic tangy sour cream note. Something was reminiscent of Milk Moon, and as a vegan I was super nonplussed with the realistic quality of that blend. Cream blends to me, however, usually evoke more soy based, vegan-friendly associations (lol) for some reason, but to me Milk Moon smelled like straight up cow's milk right from the udder. But as I kept wearing Boo, this funny thing happened....Even though at first this smelled totally bizarre and kind of bad, really, I could not stop smelling myself. I was driving my car down the street with my wrist plastered to the side of my head. I was walking down the street aggressively huffing myself like a total freak show, and after a while I realized that Boo finally smelled really freaking good, even though, in all honesty, in the background it still smelled a little funky to me. I was totally mesmerized by it, nevertheless, and compelled to continue smelling it constantly. Even over several other new scrumptious blends I was testing on the same arm, I found myself coming back most often to visit my strange little new friend, Boo. The vanilla cream in this blend is absolutely to die for when this blend finally settles down for me. The sourness of the cream note, and the initial odd bitterness of the cotton note (could it be the lab's cotton note to blame for my disappointment and frustration with MB: Underpants?) calm down and add complexity to the background of the blend...much in the same way that the saffron in Love's Philosophy lends depth to an otherwise pretty but bland vanilla blend. Anyway, I'm glad I finally decided that I like little Boo, especially since I ordered a bottle unsniffed based on my past love for the lab's cream note. I should add that my boyfriend thinks this smells heavenly on me from start to finish and doesn't get my reservations about its early stages at all...so maybe this is all down to my wonky nose. To my busted olfactory senses, this blend takes about five minutes to get to where I like it, and about ten to twenty to get to where I love it. The good thing about that is Boo lasts for-ever! I put some on yesterday afternoon, and it still had mad throw on me this morning! At the end of the day, when Boo gets to its happy place, its a creamy vanilla frosting and fresh soft cotton scent that's incredibly wearable and appealing. I'll be hanging on to my bottle of Boo and huffing myself like a crazy person for the forseeable future. I can actually see myself reaching for this blend quite often!

In the words of Veronica Sawyer, "Heather, my love, there's a new sheriff in town!" The second this blend hit my skin I knew I had found my new number one BPAL. Pumpkin Latte veritably annihilated previous reigning pumpkin champion Pumpkin Cheesecake and snatched its title away in the very first round! My boyfriend took one sniff of my wrist and started contemplating which of his belongings he was going to sell first in order to buy me more bottles of this. I have never seen him have such an instantaneous and dramatic reaction to any BPAL before and he loves all of my BPAL fragrances, but this was just ridiculous. He was practically ready to sell his organs on the black market to get me more of this stuff. Pumpkin Latte is exactly THAT. GOOD! In the bottle, this baby smells great - slightly spicy, certainly foody, with a base of rich espresso rounding it out. The real magic occurs, however, when this blend hits my skin. Then this blend becomes the perfect balance of spice, sweetness, and depth minus even the remotest hint of anything cloying or plastic, as sweet and/or foody blends can sometimes do when combined with my skin chemistry. I can find no flaw whatsoever with Pumpkin Latte. It's so perfectly balanced...foody without being too much so, cinnamon-y and spicy without smelling of Red Hots candy, rich with a subtle coffee aroma devoid of any bitterness...totally wearable with great throw and longevity. After reading the reviews I was ambivalent to buy this blend, thinking it would probably have that weird, disheartening cloying and/or plastic top note that has ruined so many otherwise wonderful sugary/foody blends for me, but this is absolute perfection without reservation and beyond reproach. Perfectly balanced parts of WIN from Gluttony + Chimera + espresso + pumpkin = Pumpkin Latte. Heaven. 10 out of 10. Brava!

Slinky jasmine...this just reeks of a hot southern summer's night with the window open and a gentle humid breeze blowing in the fragrance of blooming jasmine flowers just outside. It's not me at all, but it's oh so nice!

Why hello there, ylang ylang! Nice to meet cha! I can tell there is something else in this blend, but I have no idea what it might be. This is predominantly (like 99% at least) ylang ylang anyway. I have no idea as to its effectiveness because my boyfriend wants to have sex with me all the time anyway. If I ever find out if this actually works for reals, though, I'll come back and edit this and let you know. It smells like ylang ylang, though, and I like that, so I could see myself wearing it for sexy time just for the hell of it... My one word review: ylang.

Oh noes...I totally thought I'd reviewed this one already but it must have slipped my mind...conveniently, because I probably just didn't wanna come in here and cop to what this amber blend does to me...it turns into dill. I love amber, too, but actually...this one smells like dill pickles to me in the bottle, too. I have no idea why. Amber dill pickles, but still. Pickles.

I had no idea this had magnolia in it until I looked at the listing of the scent notes. I get mostly loud, take no prisoners, no holds barred, herbal, freshly plucked outta the garden blue lavender! If I concentrate when I smell it on my skin I can pick out the magnolia (at one point in my late teens I wore this single note magnolia oil sometimes...) but it blends so superbly with the lavender that it just serves to embolden and enhance that one note! This is gorgeous! I love lavender, and this is about as good as it gets...it's like lavender single note on crack! Huzzah!

This one is just too perfumey for me. It's a nice perfume, but it very clearly screams perfume, and I'm not into that sort of thing...I'd rather smell like banana cream pies or malevolent long-haired Japanese ghost ladies or incense and cakes or something....but if you're more into smelling like an actual classy lady than a wiccan bonfire ceremony then this is a very good choice! Lol. Uhhhhmmmmm....yeah! (I notice other reviewers compared this to Faiza, and this is almost exactly how my review of that one turned out though I don't remember how it smelled, so there's probably something to that! If you like Faiza, you might wanna check out Giallo!)

This is a radioactive lime green glowing blend...distantly related to blends like 51, so if you are into that one then snap this baby up while you can. This is softer, prettier, and girlier than 51, in my opinion, while being somehow less perfumey, and I like it a lot better, actually. This is not my usual genre of fragrance, but of this genre I think that this blend is the best by far and I'll definitely get some wear out of it!

This one smells absolutely amazing on both my boyfriend and myself - it's completely unisex! It's totally reminding me of another BPAL blend that I own but can't quite place, and it's clearly going to drive me crazy until I go resniff all of my decants to figure it out now... Damn. I'll update this if I figure it out... Anyway, this is whispy lemon musk and crunchy pine needles with a soft, almost imperceptible undertone of patchouli. Very understated and classy. Sophisticated and complex. I really love this and so does my boyfriend so we will be nabbing a bottle while we can!

This is light and fresh and clean and ethereal smelling. A perfect pick for a hot summer day! In the same scent family as Kumiho, Phantasm, Shattered, Glitter...that sort of fresh wispy ethereal vibe going on. This is definitely a unique twist on that theme, however...not too citrus, nor too minty, just nicely balanced and, I think, really captures the whole energy of the J-Horror theme quite well. I likee!

Guh, this smells awesome on me from the get go...delicious, rich, creamy banana cream pie all the way. Alas, it does nasty things with my skin chemistry and eventually turns to cloyingly sugary plastic with a bit of banana. Bummer.

This smells awesome...foody, rich, chocolatey, and a bit nutty. This smells like the coconut haystacks (raw shredded coconut with dark chocolate melted into it) I buy in bulk at my food coop, and seems to me to be a distant relative of White Chocolate with Marshmallow and Coconut. I get a similar vibe from B-Horror, but darker. This doesn't turn cloying on me at all, or plasticky and stays true all the way through the drydown, not morphing too much. This blend is a real winner for me and my favorite of all the Summer Blockbusters so far...

OMFG! This is licorice! Maybe I shoulda done my homework before buying this decant because I put it on and was not expecting black licorice and vanilla, but that's okay because I LOVE LICORICE and I love this and it's a wonderfully pleasant surprise! Thankfully, this doesn't go cloying on my skin at all and stays rich, true, and deep all the way through the dry down. Yum! This is rich, creamy, black licorice and smooth, sweet vanilla and smells amazing on me. Very unique and I can see why it's so sought after! A+

Mmmmm brown parched grass, dried flowers, and crunchy leaves with just a touch of green clovery moisture underneath. Gorgeous. This is sweet and warm and desolate and dark at the same time. I love this blend and I'm really glad that I got some! It really captures the heat of late summer.

This is not at all what I expected...I was hoping for toasted almonds and almond milk with some sasparilla and tobacco. What I got smelled way too sharp and masculine on my skin, not nearly as creamy and heady as anticipated. On my boyfriend, however, this smells just heavenly, and then far into the drydown I think that maybe this is something I could really wear and love. Like Tombstone, I think this is one of those blends that I will always love smelling on other people and be perpetually seething with jealousy that I cannot for some reason pull off on my own skin. *cue sad clown noise*