Aldercy

Pink Snowballs is very like Snow White, but a little more rich and womanly on my skin. While SW went thin and plasticky, Pink Snowballs stays true. Snow (a slightly minty variety-- but not very much, or it would have turned me off)... ice cream... and a musky floral that smells pink, but doesn't really smell like rose to me. I like this blend quite a lot.

Argh! This is amazing milky coffee (seriously, the ideal coffee scent-- perfectly true to the real thing) for about 4 seconds. And then it's vanilla plastic. Plasticky plastic plastic. WHYYY?

Alecto smells like a charcoal fire... and Cajun spiced meat sizzling on a cedar plank. Wow. Um... it's not revolting, but I don't want to smell like it! People would be forever asking me if I'd just left a BBQ. On the other hand, I can't stop sniffing it because it's just so fascinatingly weird.

A very appropriate name! I knew pennyroyal was painful to me, but I had to take a sniff anyway. Yep, I don't even get an ounce of lavender... it's all the harsh, sour chrome of dental instruments and musty, disintegrating, poisonous greenery... *shudder*

Where is all the myrrh? Athens is almost all piercing, sweet alcohol and heavy, goopy, dark honey to me. Very strong and rich. I just don't think I can pull of something this seriously alcoholic.

Musty, dry verbena, old wood, crystallized, slightly boozy honey and a hint of sandy rose. Given those notes, I'm surprised by how cold it nevertheless is. I would expect this bone dry, desert scent to be hot, but it's too ancient and emotionless to be warm. Like the stale air of a sealed tomb. It's interesting and powerful in that it brings to mind lots of mental imagery, but I couldn't wear it as a perfume.

I had high hopes (I don't know what I expected, now that I try to remember), but Black Cat is mostly oily red rose and sharp, witty herbs. It's a little strong for me, I'm afraid, and doesn't call to mind the feline sort of attitude I had wanted.

Oddly woodsy lemon amid a swirl of heady, hothouse florals. It reminds me of a steamy Central American market. It's actually not very strong... a low, pulsing sort of skin scent, but it doesn't personally appeal to me.

Lots of cleaning fluid reminiscent lemon, something sharp and medicinal like eucalyptus... maybe a tiny bit of rose? I don't get a lot of lavender, at least not compared to Somnus and Oneiroi, but I can see how its herbal sharpness might be lost in the eucalyptus for me. Mostly a harsh lemon, though, which just doesn't do anything for me.

Sometimes I think this is a little plasticky (accompanied by a bit of almond), but most of the time it's a very gentle snowy floral. I'm hoping the plastic will fade with a little age, because Snow White seems like a good traditional (but still interesting) staple. I think it would be good for almost any time of year, actually. Cool and unassuming.

This is one of those genius scents that is foody and not foody at the same time, much like Cake Smash (though it smells nothing like it, they just share that quality). Black, bitter chocolate swirled with rich, broody vanilla... definitely musk, a hint of incense (plus a drop of mysterious ginger during the wet stage?)... and something green and alive hovering around the edges. I love that last addition-- it adds a certain eerily pleasant edge to the scent. I think I may be able to smell the bluebell in there. The chocolate settles and fades as it dries, but I still get dusty, dark hints of it. It eventually turns into a scent that really has no category, but it's interesting. ETA: ... and now it suddenly smells like grape? I hope that goes away! I agree that 13 is a real morpher, and I don't say that about many scents. Yeah, this ends up drying to grape for the remainder of the wear time, which I greatly dislike. Maybe it would be okay in a scent locket (if I had one), but it looks like this one might have to go.

Ozone soap. "Fresh rain" kind of scents are perfectly inoffensive, and do smell pleasant to me, but it's just not what I'm looking for from BPAL usually. This dryer sheet smell can be had from dryer sheets. Almost exactly like Lightning.

Warm, chewy, dried apricot and an airy dusting of mellow spice. The spice does not smell strongly of clove specifically to me. This is not overly sweet or traditionally "foody," but it is inviting and edible smelling. It's very rich and deep without anything cloying to interfere. I don't expect it to last long-- fruit scents never do-- but I like it.

Very berry, very fruit punch, very sweet. Smells like... watermelon candy and blueberry. It's a very glittery, bouncy scent. Rather childlike. I was hoping for a slightly "richer," darker fruit scent from Jester, but this is just so damn playful and cute that I can't help but kind of like it. Plus it stays "true" on my skin, unlike the vast majority of fruit and berry notes-- usually they quickly morph to a kind of anemic strawberry plastic scent shortly after touching me. So I'm pleased in that regard. It's not something I would really wear a lot, but I might hold on to it for days when I need a boost.

Yeah, they're not diluted with alcohol or synthetics, but another kind of "neutral" natural oil is used to fill out the essential oil (and keep us all from burning in agony with 100% cinnamon or ginger or whatever), yes? Does anybody know exactly what it is? Or does the Lab even use the same kind for every blend?

For Thanksgiving, I wore Gunpowder.

I like the description of Mata Hari (rose and coffee sounds like it could be an interesting combination), but the scent isn't working for me. Aged imp (old label), and it's pretty much all rose and weird jasmine. Jasmine is generally pretty nice on my skin, but not in this particular blend-- smells like wet powder and old linen or something. I get no woody or dark notes to balance out the flaming florals, I'm afraid.

Oh my. This is instant love. I'm a fan of BPAL's dirt notes, but I think this could even appeal to someone who normally isn't. It's a sweet, gentle earth with dry leaves, brown grasses, tree bark (it smells dead on "outside") with a small jolt of buoyant orange that appears as kind of an afterthought. It smells both fresh and warm at the same time-- the homey food and grubby garden smells don't weigh it down or make it feel stale... the scent remains airy and bright. This makes me feel like I'm living in a Hobbit hole or something. It's so real. I want to sleep in a bed that smells of Down the Rabbit Hole for the rest of my life. Get busy mixing up vats of this, Trading Post!

Apple is definitely the strongest, followed by orange... the result is actually very similar to the orange-peel spiked apple cider of Fearful Pleasure, since the Snake Oil lends some heat and spice to the fruits. The florals are definitely in the background-- I get a tiny bit of plumeria soap, but no gardenia at all. Overall, the Snake Oil is light compared to some of the other Snake Pits, and it's a very pretty, early fall kind of scent. I'll hang on to my decant, but I'm not in hoard mode over this one.

Alchemical Laboratory actually smells mostly like the rose geranium to me, with a sweet spice laid over it. I don't know where that boatload of resins is hiding out right now, but it's definitely not heavily incensey to me. Still, a good scent-- very smooth. Lasts for many hours, too.

I like this better than I thought I would. I tend to forget that jasmine actually works really well on me because it's not a note that appeals to my mood most of the time, but Muse is nevertheless a pretty darn good floral. In addition to the heady jasmine, there's definitely zesty lime and something rather melon-y. Would be good for summer.

Oh, wow. I am going pretty weak in the knees over how good this is. Masculine? Sure, kinda. But I don't mind. Musky juniper, exquisite glowing amber/vanilla (they seem kind of fused to me) and warm, dry, invigorating wood and pine notes. It combines into something just powerful and confident and happy, with no one note really taking center stage. I could stand a bottle of this.

The Miskatonic Valley Yuletide labels are so colorful! I love all the BPAL labels, but they're the most interesting I've seen in awhile!

Wow, I am beginning to really adore tobacco. Ogun is an earthy, hot, dark tobacco with a generous helping of twisted red chili pepper. I'm fascinated by spice notes that aren't "sweet" or "bakery" type spices, so I'm very into the chili. A tiny bit of juniper in the backdrop of black, feral woodlands, but there's no sign of melon or anything else light. Could make for a very strange perfume, and it kind of is, but I think it's very powerful and evocative. Probably pretty masculine by most standards, but so out-of-the-ordinary that it's hard to think about gender distinctions. I'm really enjoying this.

Firstly, let me give a big thank you to orris for not ruining this blend on me with its fluffy, powdery fail. Secondly, King Cobra is very Snake Oil, but less creamy and more serious. The vanilla is really downplayed and, while the frankincense and copal do not really rear up as prominent, distinguishable notes, I think they just lend a certain staid, solid quality to the base of the blend. The peppery smoke of the frankincense appears a little more on the dry-down, but it's still very close to the original SO for me. (Jewelbug, loads of people get wine/grapes/grape soda/grape candy from Temple Viper, so that actually could be a mislabeled decant you have. ETA: Actually, now I'm getting grape from King Cobra, too. Nevermind!)