Gin

I passed this up because of all the flowers, but after reading all the White Chocolate and Strawberry comparisons, I managed to get ahold of a bottle. Unfortunately, my first instinct was correct--it's flowers, flowers, flowers, dipped in a thin coating of chocolate. Not what I was looking for.

I wembled on Wembley, but I really can't resist anything with pineapple. In the bottle... yeah, it's not good. It's pretty much all bad honey. I was super-excited to see it had arrived but after one whiff of the bottle, I set it aside on the BPAL shelf. When I finally got the nerve to skin-test, it was more pineapple/banana/mint than honey, but overall it's a very light scent and the powdery-sour honey note still hangs around enough that I think it'll be put in the swap box.

Pfancy Pfefferneusse is super spicy on me. It even irritates my skin a little (I think it's the cardamom?). I'd like a little more sweetness.

Gobo leaked a little in transit, so when I opened the package, the most alluring orangey vanilla cream scent wafted up at me. It smells kind of Like Et Lux Fuit, and also a little like Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat. And kind of like Lilith vs. the Giant Crab. But it's more citrussy than Et Lux Fuit, less lemony (and also less salty?) than Sticky Bat, and louder than Giant Crab. The vanilla is a bit dry and ambery on me, which keeps it from being a full-on sugarbomb, but it's still sweet and cute. It fades pretty quickly, though.

I love apple, but usually fruit blossoms = shampoo for me, so I really didn't expect much from Annurca Apple Blossom. I. Love. This. Yeah, there's a bit of a shampoo-scent feeling to it, but there's also kind of a green-apple-Jolly-Rancher-ness, and the balance is pretty much perfect for me. It's shampoo/fruit/flower/candy all rolled into one. I'd have been happy if it was all green apple candy, but the blossomy bit makes it a little more grown up, and I like that.

I liked the old Carnation SN, but in my head, it was always pink and soft and shy (?). Spanish Red Carnation strikes me as being much bolder. In the bottle, it's perfection, but the first minute or so on my skin, it's so spicy that I wonder if maybe I should have chosen something quieter to wear. Then it smooths out, and I want to pour the whole 5ml in a bath and live in it forever (or until the water goes cold). On the backs of my hands it is spicy carnation! but on the underside of my forearms, I can smell some of the greenery, which is pretty freaking amazing, if you ask me. I'm so glad I got to try this.

I can hardly smell the herbs, all I get here is soap--pleasant, French-milled soap, but soap nonetheless.

Katharina smells like peach, musk, and flowers. It's cute and youthful. If the apricot (which I read as peach) were stronger, I think this would be a favorite, but as it is, it's just "nice".

I have a weird obsession with The Wind In The Willows, so when Puddin' put this up on ebay, I had to grab it. Sadly, I like it better in theory. It's aquatic and kind of piney. It's very men's-cologney. I think it's actually pretty close to what I had in my mind, I just don't like it on me.

So, there's honey obviously. The hemlock bit smells green and cypressy? Not my style.

Flowery-fig-grapefruit-musk. It's a weird combination of sour and powdery-candy sweet.

Aw, I thought I'd love this. I like florals well enough, especially peony, but I guess I only like them when they're candy-sweet or blended with food/candy notes. Sadly, the honey is not sweet or strong enough to temper the flowers!flowers!flowers! I just get pink roses, pink peonies, and white lilacs. It's really pretty, and I like it objectively, but it's not something I'd wear.

This is unbelievably fruity. I can't pick out any particular fruit, and I don't get any of the flowers. She fades surprisingly fast, though.

Huh. My skin eats this. I applied a bit too much, but I guess it doesn't matter because it was all leafy and then pretty much gone in a handful of minutes. There's a hint of white musk, but only because I'm looking for it.

I usually have trouble with BPAL pumpkin, but how could I resist this? In the bottle, and immediately on the skin, there's the buttery BPAL pumpkin. However, to my surprise, the pumpkin dissipates and I get vanilla, tiare, and meringue. No guava or red currant to be found. How is this possible? The toothpick I used to test smells a little like pumpkin, red currant, and BO, but it's nothing like that on my skin. It's like a magic trick! AMAZING!

In the bottle, Entangled smells like pickles to me. On the skin, pickles turn to vetiver turns to gingergrass. And then voila! Ginger /grass and honey with a dry edge that smells kind of incensy. I was so sure I'd hate this, I put it in the swaps box but within minutes, I took it back out. It's surprisingly pretty and sweet, especially considering it's pickley beginning.

What?? I can't believe this has escaped my attention for ~6 months! It's gorgeous apple a la Agape and vanilla and a bit of a perfumey edge. I don't smell ylang ylang at all, which is a relief. It smells a little tropical to me, which must be the tiare. Love this.

Even looking at the notes, I can't pick anything out, it's just a soft, quiet floral.

The Phoenix at Dawn is fizzy fruits at first but as it dries, it goes quiet and kind of waxy; the rose is emerging and it smells a bit like Amandopondo from Lush.

I finally got around to trying this--my daughter's been hogging the bottle! Gingerbread Poppet Bath Oil smells like Gingerbread Poppet, obviously, but without comparing the two side-by-side, I do think the bath oil is a little smoother/sweeter than the perfume. Love this.

Black Cherry Amaretto is my least favorite of the Puddins. It smells like boozy black cherries (shocker, I know). It's OK, it's just a little quiet for me.

This is amazing. I can smell a spicy floral (geranium), and the overall feeling is the color orange. As it dries, I think I can smell some of the blood orange and pomegranate, but it still smells mostly spicy-floral to me.

Halloween: Las Vegas starts of with wine. So much wine, I'm almost put off, but then it goes right into cake and smoke, and more importantly, cream cheese frosting. It dries down to ... cake smoke? I think this is an amazing grown-up twist on Cake Smash, but it makes me sneezy. I'll take my sugar smoke-free.

LOVE. I don't think Bake Sale is unique, it smells like a lot of other BPAL baked goods scents, but that doesn't make me like it any less. It's like going to the Summer Summoning Pancake Breakfast and someone's spritzed the dining hall with Sugar Skull atmosphere spray. The pancakes are topped with Mother Shub's Peanut Brittle Caramel Popcorn and then covered with a layers of butter, syrup, and caramel. And when the sweetness starts to stick your teeth together, you reach for your cup, and find that it's full of maple syrup. So basically, it's like the best breakfast ever.

I can't believe I've never reviewed this. Dirty's been a favorite of mine for a long, long time. It smalls like B&BW Plumeria and white sheets on the clothesline and a so-green-it-can't-be-real lawn. To me, Dirty is a close cousin to The Dormouse; they both have a fresh and breezy feeling, but where the Dormouse is a pale pink, Dirty is fuschia. Love it.