kmasden

This is really interesting and nice. Woods seem to amplify on me, which I don't love, but I like them here. They are sweetened with just a touch of mandarin and the lily and peony really give it a nice buttery base to lay on. I'm not sure I'm getting the laurel and I don't really detect the pepper standing out but am mostly familiar with black pepper not white, so that could be why (and my fairly newbie nose of course). This is one of the best I've tried as far as a scent that has wood notes.

I didn't read the notes before trying this so I was quite surprised to hear it contained rose and that people consider it a light scent. This is all spice on me. Almost clove spice in a way. Now that I am looking for the rose, I can smell it, but very well blended with the carnation and slightly sweet. The spice is the strongest note for me here. Very sexy.

Wow, I can't believe I got the same oil as everyone else. This is proof that my skin chemistry does wild, weird things. I didn't get aquatic, I didn't get pine. I got cheap cigar ash...not cherry tobacco, not tobacco leaf...but ash. I think perhaps I am not acclimated to bay rum yet, so it might not be appreciated by my nose and I have bad memories of my stepfather smoking said cigars with the windows rolled up while we were on vacation, but this is really all I got from this. Tried it twice and once on the BF and just couldn't get behind it. I would love to smell it on someone else!

I haven't yet let myself wear rose scents, as they tend to make me ill, but I have liked every one of the bpal rose scents and suspect I soon may be a convert. I really like this. It does have a little rose, but not the overpowering rose my skin makes of other rose scents. It's rather confusing as it's a sweet fruity wine, with the heady scent of a crushed rose petal right under your nose. And it lingers. Nice.

Oh, I wish I could smell the booze in this. I love boozy scents. This is really nice. Fresh and crips - the oils of mint leaves crushed into sugar, sweet mint. I don't get the bourbon note at all...just sweet mint...I like it, although probably not a keeper as it's not as interesting to me as some of the other blends with a hint of mint.

Deep herbs and apple with black amber. Verdandi is lovely. At first and while wet it is green apples to me. Tart, but not overly so. Juicy and green without the puckering tartness. Then it warms with what I believe is amber. I'm searching for the herbs, nuts or spices that others have mentioned, and I don't quite find them. Drying down it goes from tart green to dried apples, and then to a lovely sweet amber. Very nice.

March Hare was probably the first blend that stated clove as an ingredient that I could actually wear. For some reason cloves hate me and overrun everything else in the blend, but in March Hare, they were light enough not to intrude. The predominant scent is the Apricot, nice and juicy, but am afraid becomes too artificial smelling on me. I have yet to discover an Apricot I can wear, but for two scents that are normally horrific on me, this melded together nicely in a fruity, slighty earthy spiced clove scent. Not on my list of 5ml, but certainly a nice blend.

I'm still not sure when the new formulation of hellfire came out vs. the old. Eeep, I'm bad! What I can say, is I recently bought a 5ml of this from the Black Broom and I am in love. Slightly sweet, very smokey, this is tobacco smoke on me, not from a cigar, more from a pipe. It is warm with just a hint of sweetness from maybe a fruity tobacco. Dries down to a lovely smoke scent that says sexy man or wild woman. I prefer wild woman from me. Drinking scotch and smoking cigars in a big leather chair in front of the fire. Very sexy.

Ohhh, I am in awe. This is soooo lovely. Shelldoo said it reminds her of the lion, she's right. And alongside with it, Sin, which is, in my opinion, the spicier verson of the Lion. Dry, this was so herbal I was taken aback. And worried. I didn't get a 5ml, just an imp, but had been regretting my decision. When I first smelled this, I was disappointed, but soon it was morphing, from the herbal notes being primary, to them sliding alongside a spicy, maybe even slightly woody goodness. On drydown it is just exotic sexy goodness.

Ahhh, I'm loving this. I read that someone said it seemed like more feminine version of Haunted. I was thinking the opposite, although for the life of me can't figure out why. The amber is beautiful and the apple blossom definately is a note that gives it a unique scent. I don't really find the carnation, which usually is a bit spicy on me. It almost seems to smell like fresh tobacco leaf to me..which I guess solves the masculine part...it has a slight tartness for me as well...but with the soft sexiness of amber, it's really wonderful. I really like it and will probably be adding a 5ml to my collection.

Ohh, i wish i had a better nose to pick out all the different scents. My first whiff of this I think was the patchouli, deep and a bit earthy, within a few minutes, the honey. I don't know if it's mixed with the ylang, ylang and that's why it's so sweet or not (or is that the fig) I just know that it smells so much like Lush's discontinued bnever to busy to be beautiful shower gel that I just received. Very honey. It stays that way to me, mellowing a bit, but that sweet, rich, honey smell. It's a scent I am still having to get used to, but not one I'm ready to give up on. I think it is one that I will appreciate over time. It really is very beautiful and I think even elegant and luxurious. ADDED April 14: LOL Andrabell! I can't help it - I love smelling like dirty sex (although I'll hush about the day old part LOL)...and every time I see your Ron Jeremy avatar I just crack up...all I can hear is a lilting "yooohoooo" in Ron Jeremy's voice! I find Hetairae is the only honey blend I've tried thus far that actually stays true. Jezebel and O don't work on me at all....and yet this, does okay.

I was at Black Broom trying scents and the lovely Forest recommended Villian. I didn't care for it in the bottle but gave it a swipe. After about 20 minutes of looking around I kept sniffing my arm - drat, can't remember what I had in that spot. Forest smelled it and said that it was Villian. OH MY GAWWWDDDD! I hate lavender, I hate citrus. I AM IN LOVE WITH VILLIAN. I had no idea before I read these reviews that it was masculine or lavender or lime. All I know is it is this soft, powdery, sex and snuggle up time in a bottle. I have slathered myself in it now for a couple of nights. Don't know if I could wear it in the day because it is sooo relaxing for me. It is truly beautiful. I can't imagine a man smelling like this although I can kinda remember maybe some scents for men that have a similiar feel. But I always have liked mens scents. I'm going to be now, me and my Villian...I am blown away by how much I love this.

A beautiful rosy scent. Unfortunately for me, rose dominates and on the late drydown, it was just plain old rose.

I'm actually not going to read the other posts on this one and just go my own way. Normally I read the posts and can think about what notes I noticed and what did what. First let me say - hate mint, hate lavendar. Don't want anything that smells like them. Got this as a freebie from a generous swapper. ENVY IS FABULOUS This has changed me. On me it is beautiful fresh spring..herbs, flowers, you name it all in the blooming stages with a touch of refreshing breeze (a la mint). It is such a beautiful yet complex blend. Everytime I smell it I smell something different. I really can't believe I love this so much. If you think mint isn't your thing, if you are afraid of lavender, but you also aren't a real "heady" perfume person, try this. I must have big bottle!

Undertow is a perfect example of my mind connection with scents. First off, I am loving the aquatic scents and Beth's mint blends. Both are absolutely divine - she is getting the balance sooo well. The first minutes that I wore it, it was quite lovely, very fresh and aquatic and nicely balanced with the mint.... Within about 5 minutes I couldn't get a visual out of my head of a dead guy in the water - minty fresh. I know that sounds creepy and bizarre, but I almost revolted against the scent because the visual was so strong. On the positive side, that does mean that it smells truly oceanic with a crisp almost biting breeze of mint. On the other end of the spectrum - i need to be careful about the feelings some of the oils evoke....very powerful stuff in my opinion.

Rose scents are not my thing. Actually I should take that back, because I love the smell of roses, but went through a period in my life where I wore "tea rose" and then of course knew some old ladies that wore roses and somehow it just turned me off of wanting to smell like a rose. That said, Zombi is gorgeous. It is such a deep and earthy rose. I really feel like I can smell the moist dark dirt that a lush red rose is growing in. Reminds me of Northern California, moist, crisp air, with dark, mineral rich dirt and deep red roses. Although I won't yet wear the rose scents, this is on my list of "if I ever do..."

I find that funereal oils tend to be too heady for me, which makes sense in my mind as I have some connotation with what "funereal flowers" and such should smell like, don't ask me why.... For some reason, twilight was very soapy right from the get go. I'm still learning what my skin does to scents and I'm not sure what brings out a soapy smell for me. On drydown, there are a few scents that smell like, well, I don't know, I want to say "plaque" or something just very weird. I know it's not the scents themselves, but their reaction with my skin doesn't fare well. I think I am noticing that both oakmoss and honeysuckle have this affect. Too bad as I find the funereal oils lovely, yet most of them just don't seem to end up being something I can wear. I actually think I need to try these as room scents, because the flowers are certainly beautiful in them.

I had the great experience of getting to try Haunted on while in Black Broom today. I've been wanting to try it and had just found out my job is ending in two weeks, so feel good shopping spree was in order! Haunted is lovely. Not yet for me, but lovely. I'm still learning notes and finding what works and why and needing to revisit everything I tried when I first started bpal because you can appreciate it in a different way and I think Haunted will be like that. The ambers seem incredible to me. I also get the sweet lemon smell...kind of like lemon powder, not too sweet, not too citrus, just beautiful lemon sitting amongst warm, powdery, glorious amber. It is really lovely. Simple yet so not simple all at once.

I loved Highwayman at first. And I do think it is lovely. I totally agree with the poster who said it was like the guy in the steven king novels. I decided to slather and then drive to work and unfortunately, this was just too intimidating for me. Really what it seemed like was salt. Like herbs that were covered in salt, left to dry. I don't know what was giving me that impression, but I just couldn't get away from it. Couldn't find the gardenia in this at all and have no idea what gives it that very salty feel to me, but unfortunately it has to go to the swap pile. I am in mourning!

This is absolutely gorgeous. Exactly as Macha described. I am loving this. It is so warm, I feel like purring. The amber is lovely, not powdery and the cinnamon is just lightly behind it. Wow, I have a 5ml and want a 10ml. I want to be able to slather this one!

oh joseybird, I'd say we have similiar tastes except for that i've bought bottles from you <grin>. I love, love, love samhain. Have you tried hearth? It's totally different, but to me, those two are scents I'm constantly trying to find likenesses of. In the scents that I've tried, I agree with the posters on many of them, Dia De Los Muertos, Centzon, Totochtin, Cerberus, Dracul. I'm going to extend the thought of gourmand - which usually to me means chocolate - but to anything with a deep, perhaps sweet due to fruit... Tenotchtitlan definately is complex,it's slightly sweet with the prickly pear, balanced with the sage and some florals, it's very interesting indeed. and slightly sweet with the prickly pear, it's not deep or mysterious but very interesting. Blood Kiss to me is complex - It's sweet, not overly soo and has a mix of cherry and vetiver with wine and cloves. It's darker than a samhain type sent. Perversion - rum, leather, chardonnay, tobacco, tonka...it's pretty sexy and complex in my opinion. Mata Hari - roses and jasmine (although I didn't get roses from this) with mahogany, tonka, and coffee...it was too floral for me, but the coffee and mahogany in this were wonderful in my opinion. Some others that are complex and interesting, but not necessarily gourmand are rage, tintagel, highwayman, queen mab, black pearl. Thanks to Macha, I now really want to try the tarots and other oils. I've never gone there because I'm scared of things that don't list the notes, but, well, I guess sometimes you just have to trust!

I know I must just be missing it - but I haven't seen anyone say that masquerade smells like icon and karma (I consider the two pretty similiar). What about hollywood bbs. I love hollywood and would love to find something to go well with it. I think jailbait might go really good with rockstar, and possibly bordello and jester.

Sooo funny. When I first started bpal I thought I couldn't do cinnamon. Felt it overpowered, but now I love it in everything (as opposed to cloves, which don't like me!). This is great. I'm not a huge fan of O, Snake Oil, and Dana O'Shee...they all share a common scent for me, which Chimera also shares, but is saved by the cinnamon. I think this is a beautiful, sexy, powdery scent with a hint of cinnamon sweetness on me. I might add that it has incredible throw. Not one I can apply any closer than an hour or two to worktime because people smell me down the halls!

Wow, this wasn't rose to me almost at all. It was beautiful apple blossom and ylang, ylang with sweetness of honey. Unfortunately, I am a headachy person and this stayed too strong for me, but it really is a beautiful and to me, complex scent. Anyone who likes feminine perfumes should love this. Wow.

I didn't love baku. So far it's the only dream scent I've tried. Unfortunately I was hoping for the best and just slathered this on before bedtime. Eeegads, for me the scent turned quickly into an anise smell, which unfortunately, I just don't love and actually rather hate. I think for someone that doesn't mind this, it's probably great. There is a nice green and grounding lavender to it. Unfortunately I couldn't get past the anise or perhaps the combo of oils made it smell like anise to my nose. Not sure.