Aldercy

Ginny is one of the best scents I've bought all year. It's not totally what I expected based on the notes. It's much spicier and darker than they might suggest, but so, so good. It is very closely related to Priala, the Human Phoenix, but more mellow, without the need for aging. It's a softer version of Priala, but with the same earthy cinnamon-and-smoke vibe. The tobacco flower is more like the French Tobacco SN than the tobacco flower or nicotiana note I'm used to encountering in BPAL. Overall, it's a bold, thick liqueur of a scent. Lingers close to the skin. I bought it and then couldn't help but wear it three days in a row (which almost never happens). Edit: I noticed the other reviewers mentioning that Ginny seems to feel paradoxically both "airy" and "deep." That's very true, and it's a rare quality in a scent. It feels like being outdoors-- somewhere dry and golden, but still fresh-- and also like being snuggled by a fire in an old parlor. Strange and intoxicating.

The scent of frozen Type O negative. Amazingly complex for what could be considered a blood single note. I was a little worried about it, but had to try (I mean, I devoted a lot of time to staring at Tom Hiddleston licking that red popsicle well before this scent came out. Instant purchase). Turns out Blood Popsicle has some heady fruitiness-- not like any particular fruit, but it's certainly "red" and kind of syrupy-- with something like blood musk, and a touch of tart smoke. It comes across as both foody and feral. Sweet but strange. There's nothing about it that strikes me as cold or icy, but there might be a hint of salt water in the background. Not exactly like anything else I have, and not exactly like the blood notes I've come across in BPAL before. Attractive, but in a way you can't put your finger on. Surprisingly wearable. I think it will be really nice for late summer and early fall.

I'm really finding myself wearing A Thought and a Legend a lot since I got my decant. It's a thick, molten rose scent tempered by a delicate patchouli-- not overly earthy or raw. I've wanted to like rose/patch scents before, but they never worked out. I think the oudh (one of my new favorite notes) is what's acting as a nice bridge between them here. The saltiness of the "sea-kissed" element does not actually read as aquatic to me. It's salt, for sure, but it's kind of blended with the candle note and the patchouli into a lovely, warm, crystalline salty-sweetness. The scent as a whole is very complex. I'm surprised that this is going so badly for so many people, but it seems to really blossom with my skin chemistry.

This reminds me of Haunt's Winchester scent ("worn brown leather, sweet tobacco leaf, incense, amber, labdanum, and smoldering woods"). The notes are only in the same sort of family, but there's the same dark, dusty old cabin fragrance about them. Village Legend Lives Long is very furtive, very dry. With a powdery black resinous quality. It brings to mind shadows, abandonment, dead magic. Evocative and well-blended, but I don't think I need more than a decant of it. It's not "pleasant" or "pretty," and it would be the kind of scent I'd be hesitant to wear much around others.

A thick, dark-ish caramel apple scent. The caramel has a warm, bubbly, faintly scorched quality to it, and the apple is a rich autumn apple note, not green or sharp. The dry, earthy oak bark is there as well, and the apple blossom is just a very slight wisp of white floral spun through the rest of the scent as a kind of highlight. It's just about what I was expecting and hoping for, so I'm glad I bought it.

This scent is orgasmic. It reminds me of O, Le Petit Mort, and Womb Furie, but it's not a dupe for any of them. The honey is intense, but clear and slightly fruity. The warm, swirling musk is rich and comforting. It's ridiculously sensual, but not aggressive. Perfect, perfect, perfect. I feel precisely as if my hair has been loosened (if not soiled) in mid-orgy. ETA: This lasts SO MUCH LONGER than the other hair gloss I have (White Tea & Sage). I know this is a stronger scent by nature, but it's a huge difference. WT&S is completely gone less than half an hour after using it. Hair Loosened and Soiled in Mid-Orgies lasted for 36 hours, in different incarnations. The development seems to go like this: Application: Amazeballs. More foody than it later becomes, I smell something like sweet almond and myrrh in with the whipped, frothy honey. Strong enough to turn the entire bathroom into a magical wonderland for awhile. Drying (I put this on freshly washed wet hair, let it sit for awhile and then blow dry it): Also wonderful. The heat seems to burn off that initial almond smell and really excite the musk instead. I could see how this part could (could) be baby-powdery to an untrained nose. Because the musk is quite dry and "fluffy" and a bit reminiscent of a light amber. But it's crazy sexy. I mean CRAZY SEXY. The next 24 hours and possibly beyond: This is not a constant companion. It will not overwhelm whatever BPAL you choose to put on for the day, and I don't expect anyone would notice it unless they were close enough to give you a hug. But it's there. Several times an hour, I catch hints of sweet golden awesome. I was wearing a very different sort of scent as a perfume today (The Passionate Shepherd to His Love) and I pretty much just smelled its lovely green innocence but then every once in awhile... sneakily... BAM. Sexy hair smell. Next Time Washing Hair: Hot water hits hair and the scent of the initial application stage explodes all over the shower. This is one of those rare things that I love so much it makes me panic slightly because I feel that I must use it every day for the rest of my life, but how can I make that happen? I need to buy ALL OF IT.

Hm. I was really hoping for lots of resinous red amber, benzoin, oak, and mellow, ultra-aged patchouli, but... I'm getting everything but that. I'm getting a flat red musk, sharp herbal geranium, cedar, and a rather cheap, headshoppy patchouli. I don't dislike any of those notes (or I wouldn't have bought the scent, obviously), but they seem to all be the worst versions of themselves here in Sic Erit. It's really... pretty bad on me. Very one-dimensional and just... brown. A little musty. I'm considering washing it off, which I almost never do. I let it settle for several days after receiving it, knowing it would probably need it the most, but I'm thinking this is either just not for me or it needs to age A LOT. I may give it a couple months to see if it shows any signs of deepening, but otherwise I think it needs to be re-homed.

Bourbon vanilla, custard accord, white rose, cocoa absolute, oudh, lemon blossom, and skin musk. Head's up, everyone! Delight & Consternation is one of those BPAL oils with chocolate sludge, so be sure to mix and roll well! The sludge is not a huge percentage of the blend (like Boomslang), just a couple of millimeters at the bottom of the bottle. But it will smell different if you don't mix properly. So... I love this. Immediately. The chocolate note is dry bittersweet cocoa powder with a hint of aged woodiness, maybe from the oudh. The balmy lemon blossom (very subtle-- creamy and fresh, but not strongly citrusy) blends well with the custard to make a kind of faint, mellow lemon curd impression. It reminds me a little of the custard/orange/floral thing going on in Huesos de Santo, though more gentle. But this is all clean and distinct from the cocoa somehow: they don't clash at all. The white rose takes several minutes to make an appearance, and it's a soft, almost honeyed rose. The skin musk and vanilla are both very lacy and delicate and stay in the background. It's an unexpected combination of notes, but they are incredibly complementary. Delight & Consternation stays pretty close to the skin. It's not exactly foody or even overly sweet despite having several gourmand notes. The oudh and musk keep it grounded and give it a hint of sexiness. It's very unique, and I'm so glad I bought a bottle! ETA: Okay, I see the cocoa sludge is not universal! Mine is very noticeable. When I overturn the bottle, it cascades down the sides, leaving streaks and globules floating around like a lava lamp. When I roll the bottle for awhile to mix it, it gets cloudy enough that light doesn't shine through. It will be interesting to see how everyone's individual bottles vary.

Watery rose, but in a weirdly good way? I don't normally care for aquatic notes, but there's a certain bright, tart water note (which is not just some generic, commercial impression of "freshness," but actually smells like fresh water) swirling around super creamy resinous black rose. The myrrh, benzoin and wood are blended together very, very thoroughly as a base for the dark, almost gooey rose note. Strange, sexy and uplifting at the same time! I thought I wouldn't need a bottle of this because I have quite a lot of rose scents, but this is appreciably different from any other rose BPAL I've tried. Perhaps I will need to buy this before the Yules come down...

Wow, this is one of those oils that really needed time to "settle" after traveling, I think. When I first received the decant and popped it open for a sniff, I was almost repelled by it. It smelled like STRONG plastic-y, buttery, fake cream. Maybe even a little like popcorn? There was no sign of the peony at all. I stashed it away for later evaluation, disappointed. However, it's been about a week and this is something completely different now. It's mostly peony, the tart dewy peony that I enjoy in The Dormouse. I don't interpret it as soap, but I can see how people easily could. It's an old-fashioned and slightly pretentious floral. The cream is barely there by comparison, just a hint of white warmth underneath. It's not a sweet scent and it's not a foody scent. I like it and will keep the decant for when I'm in the mood for a huge dose of peony, but I don't feel it's unique enough to get a bottle.

2012 Version I was hoping for a more pure fir-and-slush scent, but Talvikuu is a little more complex than I expected. The birch and evergreen are more woody than green, and there's a distinct hint of bubbly lemon. The snow is not quite the icy slush that it can be in some blends. It's the slightly heartier, spicier type found in Snow Moon. This is a nice winter blend, and I'm enjoying testing it, but it just isn't quite what I wanted. I'll keep the decant, but no bottle here, I think.

The Governess is a wonderfully blended scent. While the notes could end up being blandly musky floral, they aren't. It's one of those "traditional perfume impression but made 100 times better" BPAL oils. The green tea is unexpectedly strong. Tea is usually barely discernible to me and easily overpowered by other notes, but this green tea is right there. It's quite vegetal and grassy in character, with a touch of zingy spice. Warm, grainy, perhaps over-steeped. It's really nice, but not fresh in the way you'd normally expect green tea to be. And I find the orchid is stronger than the violet. Creamy and lovely and very much like the vanilla orchid in Clockwork Couture: Female. The musk seems to have become one with the orchid, lending it a subtle sensuality but not standing out on its own as a note. It's not screaming "white musk!" to me. The violet is there for sure, but it doesn't take over. It's a translucent blue violet, sparkly and delicate. As a whole, it's quite ladylike and unabashedly pretty, but still unique. I was transfixed by it when I tested it. There's no question in my mind that I'll be buying a bottle of this. This lasts surprisingly long for a scent of this type. I put it on last evening and I'm still getting whiffs of it this morning about 12 hours later.

This worried me when I first tried it last night. It was blandly baby powdery and sweet and I was kind of cursing myself for buying two bottles unsniffed. But I put it on again this morning, refusing to believe that one of my favorite notes could suddenly be so boring, and I'm happy to report that it's much better. It's still a little lighter than I expected, but it's now displaying the cloudy resinous warmth that I know and love. It's an ancient and mysterious scent, but close and comforting. I think it just takes awhile to warm up and bloom properly on the skin. Aging might help with that.

To me, this is mostly lovely vanilla-soaked suede. It's not a slick "chemical" leather note by any means: it's very natural and blends so well with the vanilla that it almost melts into a single scent impression. There's a a whisper of soft patchouli (and I mean very soft-- it's not a down-n-dirty patchouli at all) and strange, misty oakmoss. Something like old paper in the background. It's really earthy and elegant at the same time. Old-fashioned, but stimulating. Reminds me a little of Tombstone or Western Diamondback but smoother and more aristocratic. It's funny that the description for this scent calls Mrs. Palmer's a "low establishment" because we all seem to find it quite genteel! It's really beautiful and not like any other atmo sprays I have. I'm going to have a hard time talking myself down from buying another bottle or two before it goes away. If this kind of scent family appeals to you, Mrs. Palmer's is definitely hoard-worthy! ETA: This does last FOREVER. I used two spritzes in my bedroom about 18 hours ago and I can still smell it. It's insane!

Wow, the oil is almost black! And very opaque. Unfortunately, on me, this is the "meat on a charcoal grill" kind of vetiver. I do find milder, more buttery vetiver notes to be very soothing and cozy, but this is about as harsh as it gets. I'm hoping aging will make it into something as wonderful as I'd hoped, but at this point I'm glad I didn't cave and buy a full bottle.