tinyvulture

At first, I smell dragon’s blood and complimentary spices like cinnamon and ginger – a very ‘potpourri on Christmas Eve’, kitchen-y, cozy scent. And then…I smell vetiver. Now, normally, I am a huge fan of vetiver. Can’t get enough of it in those woodsy, outdoorsy blends. But it doesn’t belong in my holiday kitchen. It’s jarring to my sense of smell, mixed in with all these spices. It seems dull and heavy. Oh well -- can’t love ‘em all! Note -- after about 5 minutes the vetiver has calmed down a bit and is mingling more evenly with the other notes. But still, the vetiver-cinnamon combo isn't really doing it for me.

Oberon has reminded me to give the GC’s some love! I was in no particular hurry to try this scent, thinking, as I do with most GC’s, “oh, it will always be there to try…some day.” I sometimes forget how pretty and lovely they are! This is my new favorite orchid scent. The orchids are in full bloom, gorgeous, and they’re livened up by a squirt of citrusy bergamot and a sprinkling of juniper berries which, for some reason, always reminds me of a party. It’s the gin and tonic association I guess! So, to me, this is a festive, fun, flirtatious scent. Reminds me of the holidays, New Year’s Eve, that kind of thing.

soft and charming, Brisingamen is mostly amber, similar to Haunted, but with gentle whispers of carnation. warm, golden, sweet, and powdery, very classy and feminine. it’s not one of those over-the-top scents that turns heads when you walk into a room, but it smells heavenly up close.

grapey, woodsy, smoky and buttery are all descriptive words that come to mind when i first apply this. i had a bottle of ’04 and, from what i can remember of it, this is similar yet different (’04 was nutty, like walnuts). i haven’t tried any of the other years. anyway, i’m wishing i’d grabbed a bottle of this when it came out, because i love autumn scents, and this screams autumn. it’s in the same family as hexxennacht ’08, but i like this better because it’s not powdery. over time, the fruitiness of the wine fades, and i’m left with the gentle warmth of smoke and animal musk. beautifully blended, the encapsulation of a season.

This is mostly violet on me. A strong, heady floral perfume. The red currant in the background is unmistakable. I love its tart fruitiness. And there’s also something soapy and lemony that clears your head. Not catching any patchouli or moss at all. I’m a fan of violet from time to time, so I’ll keep this imp to wear when the mood hits me, although I don’t think a bottle is needed.

i love all things tiki, so i had to have a bottle of this. first off, i adore the label! at first sniff, it’s like i’m sipping a pina colada poolside at a polynesian resort. reminiscent of manila (minus the banana) or shango (sans melon note), it’s totally tropical and fruity. the coconut and pineapple stand out for me. there’s also a good dose of vanilla and florals. i think i will enjoy this year-round. it’s perfect for humid summer days and, come winter, i will apply it whenever i can’t take the cold anymore and need to close my eyes and imagine a tropical paradise.

This starts off as a boozy cherry scent, like a children’s cough syrup. It reminds me of The Red Queen without the wood note. The licorice note must be red licorice, since I don’t smell any black licorice at all. The initial strong whiskey note starts to fade after a couple minutes, and now I’m smelling burnt sugar and cherry, as well as the greasepaint. For me it evokes Halloweens of my childhood -- the various candy scents that rise from a pillowcase full of goodies, and the scent of the face paint we used to complete our disguises. This is how I hoped Sticky Pillowcase would sell. It’s not something I will wear everyday. I have to be in the mood for it. I’ll probably start wearing it a lot in the fall. Definitely a bottle to hang onto.

I never tried Pinched With Four Aces, so I can’t say how this compares. For me, it’s a cousin of MonsterBait: Ventriloquist’s Dummy and Red Lantern. There’s a strong caramel note and dry, polished wood – most likely cedar. I don’t see caramel listed in the scent description. I’m guessing that the boozy sweetness of Irish cream, mixed with sweet tonka, has somehow morphed into what my nose recognizes as “caramel.” I don’t smell any coffee AT ALL – weird. After about 5 minutes, the pipe smoke is finally noticeable, and it’s squashed some of the initial sweetness. It’s really nice now – complex and not as foody as it initially was. Glad to have a bottle – it’s a keeper.

first impression: clove cigarettes! my husband agreed, saying, “there are a LOT of cloves in that perfume.” it’s a very sexy tobacco scent that can go either masculine or feminine. the cedar note is nice, too, although it takes a backseat to the cloves. and i also keep thinking i smell carnations. as someone else said, it’s very similar to Lush’s Chai shower gel. really glad i ordered a bottle unsniffed.

ooh, another snowy, slushy scent, chock-full of pine needles. at first, this one reminds me somewhat of Snow Bunny, with a breeze of floral, girly perfume, although it’s subtler. then the warm, slightly sour animal musk appears, and i’m reminded more of Snow Maiden (although there are no berry notes in Frau Holle). can i ever have enough wintry pine blends? probably… but i nevertheless enjoy having so many to choose from!

the true scent of dirt, undiluted by florals or perfume as with some other BPAL “dirt” blends (I love Penny Dreadful, I’m just saying this is different). it’s like opening a bag of topsoil and taking a deep breath. if this smells like anything other than pure dirt, it would be the occasional breath of mildew or dust, and that’s about it. i’m glad this made a return appearance for halloween ‘08. it can be a spooky and evocative scent... a haunted crypt in an abandoned graveyard at midnight... of course, it also reminds me of working in my little garden on a sunny spring morning. so it can go either way.

I’d been wanting to try Ladon for some time because it sounded like a nice autumn scent, with the apple and dragon’s blood. Now that I’m wearing it, I smell mostly sweet, ripe apples, but also a strong whiff of fresh florals. Must be the hyacinth. The dragon’s blood is another strong note, but it’s on the powdery side. So, this is not what I was hoping for -- powder and florals are usually not my scene. But it’s not bad really. It would make a nice soap. It’s just a bit too floral for me to enjoy as a perfume.

often when i am reviewing an LE, it reminds me in some way of a GC. it didn't surprise me at all to find that there is already a huge thread for this! i went through my reviews this morning and here are my equivalents. the "*" notes ones that were already named in ivyandpeony's awesome comprehensive list. *All Souls = Brown Jenkins *Black Lace = The Antikythera Mechanism Blood Moon = Mr. Jacquel *Cerberus = Great Sword of War The Chilling Cellar = Centzon Totochtin The Clod and the Pebble = Sri Lanka Dionysia = Urd Frederic = Baron Samedi Giant Vulva = Kill-Devil Hexennacht ’08 = Yew Trees The House = Penny Dreadful The Illustrated Woman = Florence (to me, this is the strongest match of all of them, i can't tell them apart!!) Jacob’s Ladder = Lyonesse Krampus = Loviatar *Marae = Euphrosyne MVJBA Spring Training 2008 = Gluttony Opuhi = Sudha Segara Pirate Moon = Blood Pearl *The Pit and the Pendulum = Cathedral Priala the Human Phoenix = Chimera Saw-Scaled Viper = Vixen *Smut = Scheherezade Stranger in Camp = Nocnitsa *Sugar Skull = Kill-Devil Tabula Smaragdina = Rose Cross

this is amazing. i foolishly opted not to buy a bottle, telling myself, “you have enough chocolate blends!” after sniffing this, however, i realize there is no such thing as enough. it’s dry, powdery cocoa – the really good kind, that will make the richest, creamiest, most wonderful cup of hot chocolate you’ve ever tasted. and then there’s the unmistakable, beautiful amber, intensifying the cocoa, melting into it with its golden, liquid warmth until they are indistinguishable. please come back in ’09!

this is probably the most vanilla-riffic blend in the BPAL catalog. i have a huge bottle of non-BPAL single note vanilla, because it’s just such a handy note to blend with so many things. this almost reminds me of it, but of course it’s a bit more complex since it’s BPAL. the amber adds warmth and seems to amplify the vanilla’s innate sweetness even more. then there’s the sweet pea which, i admit, i often find insipid and boring, but it’s so gentle here, it really adds just a perfect little hint of floral. not even a hint, a suggestion. the vanilla is really the star here. it smells, to me, exactly like the vanilla in Black Lace. well, what else should i say? i always adore vanilla. this is lovely.

THIS is the scent of summer childhoods, back when kids actually played outside every day. the precisely mown front lawn that Dad has tried so hard to keep green is baking under the unforgiving sun. you pick the dandelions off the lawn and sing a song about popping their heads off. you can smell the heat in the air. it’s oppressive and muggy. the air-conditioning feels so nice when you run inside for a glass of kool-aid. but school is right around the corner, you can feel it sneaking up. so you race back outside to play some more. a dip in the pool to wash the sweat off, sounds so good. at night you sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow, worn out and ready to do it again tomorrow.

when i read "clove smoke" in the description, i thought, "clove cigarettes!" but it's not really like that. there's clove and there is smoke, but it's not reminiscent of the Sampoernas i used to torment my lungs with back in college . this is a woodsy, smoky, sweet autumnal blend. the dirty, earthy vetiver is sweetened by oozing pine sap and clove, with just a hint of bitter cumin. this troll must be baking up some goodies in his forest kitchen. i can never say no to pine or vetiver -- a bottle is most likely in my future.

This combination of warm ambergris and spicy daemonorops is the first thing I notice, and it’s gorgeous. Then there’s the somehow decadent fruitiness of black currant and a musk which truly is smoky, as the description states. The only thing I don’t like is the candy sweetness of the tonka. It’s quite strong and gives a cloying edge to the scent. Oh dear, it only seems to grow stronger as time passes. Well, it was nice at first, anyway. It's just too sweet on my skin. But I’m telling you, I’d burn Man with Phallus Head incense day and night! Love that ambergris!

I like this a lot! But I gotta say it's not BEST HONEY SCENT EVER, as I suspected it might be from the scent description. It reminds me a lot of Kill-Devil, which I adore, with its honey and sugar cane notes. There's something about that sweet duo that turns almost sweet-and-sour on me, like a lemon drop. I'm also noticing the muted creaminess of the beeswax. I've noticed this is becoming a more popular note, and I always enjoy it. I'm not picking up the musk or (sadly) the copal. The vanilla flower comes out like 10 minutes after application. At this point the lemon aspect fades, and it’s a creamy honey-vanilla blend. I don't see a bottle in my future. Still, I'm happy to use up this decant until I get around to buying my Kill-Devil 5ml.

spicy florals with some oomph! after sampling the light, wispy florals of Tissue and Voyeurs…, i briefly wondered if all the Shunga blends were going to be as delicate. i was quickly shown to be wrong when i applied a few drops of this! i love the bold chrysanthemum note, combined with hot cinnamon and creamy vanilla. it’s very sweet and becomes sort of foody, but not entirely so. the funny thing is, i’m not picking up any amber, which usually amps like crazy on me. oh well, i have enough amber scents. it takes a few minutes for the marigold to appear, but then it has a definite presence. it’s strongly floral at this point, but the vanilla and cinnamon are still there in the background. hooray for spicy mums!

a delicate and romantic scent. the vanilla musk is soft and lovely, a nice complement to the light floral cherry blossoms. i was worried about the moss because it often smells like men’s cologne on me, but it’s not noticeable in this blend. and, happily, i’m not getting the soapiness that other reviewers mentioned. i wish it had more throw, but its lightness is part of its charm i suppose. i won’t need a bottle, but the decant is a keeper.

really lovely, fresh gardenias in full bloom, drizzled with droplets of sweet honey. i thought there’d be some powderiness from the rice paper but i’m not getting any. gardenia lovers, this is your scent! in spite of its prettiness, it’s too light for my taste. it stays very close to the skin and disappears too soon. oh well…i guess you can’t expect a bold, heavy scent when it’s called “tissue”

The salty, aquatic air, sweet lime, and Snake Oil make a fine combination. Fresh and crisp, yet sweet. Normally I can’t do aquatics, and citrus doesn’t like me either -- but there’s something about this that I really like! I guess it shows that I should never say never with BPAL and try every single one of them, even the ones I’m sure won’t work on me! I can’t smell the more violent elements – the gunpowder and blood! Nor are the woods making much of an appearance. I don’t know what else to say, I’m just really surprised by this one. Saltwater and lime, on me, who would have thought? Snake Oil, it truly is miraculous.

I’m just not feeling this soft, sad bouquet; it goes powdery and bitter on my skin and gives me a slight headache. I usually love spicy carnation, but here it’s overpowered by the Easter lilies, which just aren’t doing anything for me. I can’t even smell the rose or chrysanthemum. Sorry, Reaper. Off to swaps you go.

I couldn’t tell you what the floral notes are that I’m smelling. A bouquet of soft, slightly soapy flowers, not really my thing. I do like the herbal, slightly minty notes. The hemlock and ivy, I’m guessing? They make it more interesting, more mysterious. There is something witchy about it. The medicinal quality makes me think of witches’ potions and such. It’s more than just your typical floral scent, but I still don’t think I can do such a strong floral.