Aldercy

The bottle I got is vintage 08, and this seems like the kind of blend that has probably benefited from aging. It's flaunting a little more patchouli than I am usually okay with, but it works in the context of this scent. It's a deep, dirty, rich scent, but not overly serious. The Wild Men is pretty much sweet, smoky, spiced sex in a bottle. Yum. Very complex and faceted. It leans toward masculine, but that's okay. Reminds me of The Hell-Gate of Ireland a bit... I think it's the musky clove coppery vibe.

Sweet tarts and evergreen! And, yes, I get the bubbly texture others have mentioned, at least at first. It's bright and happy and slightly alcoholic. Crisp, sophisticated, sweet-- but slightly mad. I get a similar feel as from Bon Vivant.

It's definitely a note that I would like to see more of! Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener (sassafras, vanilla extract, oak leaf, CO2 butter extract and onycha) was much more oaky than I expected. It's like oak leaf/wood with root beer. A very unusual scent, but really nice. Hand of Glory (beeswax, dry leather, black pepper, saltpeter, nutmeg, Mysore sandalwood and oak bark) is, admittedly, more beeswax than anything, but there is a nice bit of wood in the background. I also somehow got a distinct oak note from Juke Joint (Kentucky Bourbon, sugar and a sprig of mint)-- it started out very alcoholic and sharp, but mellowed into aged spirits in rich oaken barrels. But that might just be me.

I smell like tin foil! No, really, I smell like ozone. Straight metallic scents, with nothing else to ground them, usually just turn to to tart, fresh soapiness for me. There's really nothing wrong with that, and it's actually rather pretty-- bright, dewy, with a silken, mirror-like texture-- but not very different from, say, Lightning or Tempest on my skin. It is one of the better fresh, ozone, metal scents in that it's not overly "perfumey," but if someone else out there can put it to better use, I should probably let this one go. Not my style.

I was thinking I was maybe being silly for getting another cake scent. I already have Cake Smash and Huesos de Santo, and don't wear them enough despite liking them. But Teatime in Roswell is very different, and really not in the same category at all. There is a little cake (more of it in the bottle than on the skin), but I would say that the foody part of this blend is dominated more by the biscuits (I'm assuming the English version of biscuits here). Like grainy, brown digestive biscuits. With a a sugary vanilla drizzle. But that's still not the heart of the scent. The cucumber (which is a little floral) and a citrusy tea are much more prominent than I expected. So the result is... cool vanilla cucumber-- a strange, but not unpleasant combination-- and weak tea with just a hint of the denser, warmer food notes beneath. It's very light and breezy. I agree that it makes for a good "spring" foody scent. It's not rich or heavy. ETA: It has a short-ish lifespan of about 3 hours, but that's not always a bad thing in my book.

Peanuts??? In the bottle, The Harp smells like perfumed pad thai. No, seriously. Do I have brain damage? I keep sniffing and sniffing, and the impression of spicy peanuts is not dissipating. I will hazard a skin test... So far, the same. I am getting a little bit of the cedary, sandalwoody pencil shavings others have mentioned now though. A few minutes later: musky pale sandalwood aaand... yep... hot, foody, spiced peanuts. zankoku_zen, I will toast to that Epic Lose. ETA: After 20 minutes to half an hour, the peanut associations do go away. Now it's sweeter, warm and a little powdery (but sandalwood often goes powdery on me). Much more "normal." It still doesn't excite me, but at least I don't smell like exotic food.

Snow, Glass, Apples really probably shouldn't work on me, considering "thin" apple scents don't, but this one seems to be a rule-breaker for a lot of people. It's so cool, playful, and clean. Slightly effervescent and champagney, with that distinctive BPAL "slush" note-- but the slush also has a bit of pale, subtle muskiness in it. The apple note is light and crystalline, and not at all fake air-freshener apple. It does fade really quickly, even with a liberal application, but it's lovely while it's around.

Ohhh, the Neverwhere labels are delightful! Not at all what I pictured, somehow, but very fun and rather creepy.

I am just shocked. I love every "earth" scent I've tried, but... ... this literally smells like sweaty male armpit to me. And I seriously can't even describe what a bad sort of sweat it is. This poor guy has been wearing the same shirt for a year. And he may have the plague. It smells so realistically and foully human that it's actually quite amazing. Also, I think the "bread" and "wheat" others are referencing is for me translating to "sickly sweet, yeasty rot." I'm afraid I really, really can't bring myself to put it on. I'm so glad I didn't spring for a bottle unsniffed like I was contemplating. Very rarely have I had such a strong reaction to an oil. I can't blame it on skin chemistry, as I have very deliberately not touched it, but I guess it's a strange case of nose chemistry.

Anything with a heavy dragon's blood component will stain me pretty spectacularly. Thinner, pinkish ones like Dragon's Tears blend in alright, but aged, sludgy Serpent's Kiss makes me look like I'm bleeding from the throat!

This is amazing. One of the Holy Grails of foody scents (and I've gotten pretty picky about foody scents lately). It's a rich, bubbly pancake/waffle/funnel-cake batter with melted butter (not the weird, rancid, plasticky butter note I sometimes get but real, warm, golden butter), a puff of powdered sugar, and maple friggin syrup. I don't get a lot of berry, but there's some dark, smooth jam notes in the background. It's not grossly sweet either. It's well-blended and subtly delicious. I will treasure my decant.

Sweet, sweet blackness. The opium and honeysuckle form this sticky haze of warm, sleepy sweetness, and the vetiver blows in, adding a pall of smoke to the whole thing. It smells old and deep and somewhat unhappy. Nevertheless, I've lately been starting to "get" vetiver, and I quite like it in conjunction with the opium.

Ded Moroz is mostly fuzzy moss and minty snow on me, but I'm really fond of it despite sometimes being turned off by mint. It's a natural, herbal mint, not chewing gum or toothpaste, and it's thrown in with this clear, crystalline slush note that I find really nice. Combined with the delicate moss, it brings to mind a hazy glade or woodland stream with new spring sprouts of greenery poking through the last bits of melting snow and ice. Any BPAL that conjures a strong mental picture like that is usually a winner. I also get the wood notes, but they're very soft and subdued. Nothing harsh. And I don't get the slightest bit of amber or rose. This was the only Yule that warranted a bottle. EDIT: I like this more and more every time I wear it. Six weeks later, and I think the amber has blossomed, especially after a couple hours of wear time. This lovely swirl of warmth gradually, gently appears under the snowy moss, and it's just lovely.

Green tea pocky! For real. Like that odd green mousse with a hint of dry biscuit. There's also definitely a spike of lemon. The chocolate is almost not there. What is there is creamy and liquidy. Like a faint touch of chocolate syrup. Very interesting scent experience, but this one isn't particularly wearable for me.

I smell me some coconut and sex. It's light, but very suggestive. There's some ambergris in here for sure, which adds a more musky murky quality to the coconut, keeping it from getting too clean and tropical. And it definitely becomes a more complicated scent on the drydown-- whereas the orange blossom is pretty prominent in the beginning, making for something kind of perfumey, it settles into something more odd and ethereal with a little time on the skin. Not sure it stands up to my favorite vaginally-themed scent (go Giant Vulva!), but it's a nice blend!

I don't know if my skin chemistry is just fluctuating since I stopped a certain medication, but this rose blooms like no other on me. Whip is all-rose-all-the-time, yet it has none of the thin, metallic, watery, perfumey, icky qualities that most heavy rose scents do for me. Usually I need lots of spice to make a rose note work. But the rose in Whip is absolutely fantastic. It's deep, velvety, almost foody in its warmth. It just has a beautiful texture. Maybe the otherwise undetectable leather is actually lending something to the underlying structure of this blend to give it these gorgeous, powerful qualities, but I just really don't smell leather. I smell the sexiest rose ever.

Womb Furie is exactly what I expected. It's a solid Snake Oil/O combination. A little lighter on the Snake Oil... it's mostly honey and vanilla, with a bit of the grunge from the SO element. Both can be a little funky when fresh, and this is too, but I have no doubt it'll be drop dead gorgeous with some age on it. Sweet and dirty. I'm rather taken with it and will hang on to my bottle.

Strange and powerful. Autumn Moon of the Mirror Stand is completely different from any other BPAL I've tried, and I really have nothing to compare it to. It is boozy, and I'm not sure whether that element will fade or amp with time, but I would like for it to mellow a little. It's sharper in the bottle than on the skin, though. I get a lot of honey (slightly fermented honey) and fruit (mostly soft, mushy quince and nectarine with a lacing of citrus). The vanilla and tobacco play around the edges of this scent, and I think if they would peek out a bit more (as they probably will with a little aging), this would be just perfect. It's already a very wearable scent (the alcohol of the cognac and woozy honey steadily decreases as it dries, I think) though, and definitely unique. It reminds me of sorbet, somehow. Beautiful name, too. One of the few Shunga titles I would have no qualms repeating to a stranger!

I lol'ed wen I got my bottle of Womb Furie today. Hadn't been in this thread to see it. These are a great set of labels all around!

My color impression of this is blazing orange. Almost neon. It's a wild scent. Makes you feel like bouncing off the walls. Very fruity and powerful, with lots of spice-- not foody, comforting spice, but like firework blasts of spice. Powdery leather and patchouli simmer in the background and provide a slightly woody, grimy base for all this craziness. It's definitely fun, but probably not something I can wear with much regularity. Still-- wow.

Amber steers clear of powder territory 90% of the time for me, but Brisingamen is HOLY HELL BABY POWDER, particularly when wet. I can't believe there isn't jasmine in here. But maybe it's the apple blossom and myrtle... Anyway, it settles down pretty significantly after 15 minutes and the amber/spicy carnation combo result in something like a much more girly version of The Lion. It's that connection that keeps me interested, but it still has a perfumey edge.

Snake Oil with vetiver, black coconut, vanilla, and opoponax. At first I was sure this would need more than six months' aging for me to dig the vetiver, but it is not so! I think perhaps it's the vanilla that mellows it more than usual and takes that "raw" edge off. The combination is-- and I know this sounds like it should be awful-- like vetiver frosting. Rich, slightly sweet, frothy icing... that's also dark and ashy, mixed with loamy, musky earth. It's shockingly not gross. It's awesome. The black coconut is, as usual, made of win. I fell in love with it in Red Lantern, and it's no different here. It has so much more body and depth than "regular" coconut, and it's not the least bit tropical. The Snake Oil is certainly there amid all this, but it take a back seat. I think Death Adder has surpassed Australian Copperhead as my favorite of the Pits, and I'm definitely getting a 5ml with my next order.

Wow, Black Death is very Tim Burton. Gorgeous labels.

The embodiment of Victorian funereal elegance. A delicate sugar-spun vanilla cream cotton, stained by tobacco and incense smoke, Indian musk, and drops of cognac. 12/2009 Version. So far, it's vanilla and musk (a la Dorian). There's a dusty grit in the background that I take to be the incense/tobacco notes. No booze (but cognac is one of the few alcoholic notes that is very docile on my skin), and the cotton cream does not result in in a "laundry" effect. It's very subtle and grown-up feminine... but definitely funereal and old-fashioned. In fact, it almost makes me sad to wear it. I can see why this is popular-- it's a classically lovely scent. But I do hope that some of the darker ingredients emerge more with time-- I like the smooth, intimate vanilla (I've been having a problem with it going plasticky on me lately, but Black Lace has not), I just think it would be particularly beautiful with a bit more of that tobacco....

These instructional toys remind me strongly of Cheshire Cat (a certain sweet grapefruit note) with the odd additions of warm chrome and wet concrete. Slightly steamy and cloudy. Citrusy, thick, and industrial. It's a good conceptual scent, but a bit odd for everyday wear.