olympia301

Thank goodness someone made the comparison between Dreamland and The Brides, I was thinking I was nuts. Both of them are gorgeous florals for people who are ambivilent about florals. I think the Brides of Dracula is a bit softer and very subtle, it smells so different on my skin than it does in the bottle, even better. If you have any inclination to try one of the Order of the Dragon blends, choose The Brides of Dracula, you won't be sorry.

Wow, this one is a real beauty. It starts out with an apple-like opener which is stunningly snappy and just like an apple. It's heady. I just fell in with the reverie here and let the autumn thoughts flit through my head. Then the perfume started to peek out, and a beautiful sophisticated almost silk blend that is as well. I just think this is a pretty pretty blend and is really up my alley more than heavier ones which are about this time of year. For all you lighter peeps, Punkie Night is highly recommended. It's a gorgeous scent which reminds me of the best of Hungry Ghost Moon (a real winner and very silky to me) and Hesperides (without the birch). Punkie Night is memorable.

It's hard to know what to say about Tavern of Hell. All of it is put together so well that there is no way you can pick out one particular ingredient and go on about that. I love the wet phase the best of all when the "booziness" is sharpest and the hint of perfume rises in the background but isn't all there is...yet. When Tavern is dry, that is a very perfumy blend, but with this one, the top, middle, and bottom notes are very very well done. Tavern is a real good one.

Very pretty. Reminds me of Harvest Moon 2005 in that it is stronger and more perfumy than some of the other lunacy blends. This one is perfect on a cool September day. It really does remind me of the volatile smell of chrysanthemums and dries down to a very immediately recognisable sense which is quite comforting. I can well imagine many BPALers are deeply in love with this one. Just right for this time of year.

One of the new Wanderlust's for the Fall 2006 season and beautiful. It's sort of a departure for BPAL, it's very perfumy and difficult to pick out each note as you can with some. They blend together as if they were made for each other. I get the impression of all the things that others have mentioned, and also a good shot of lavender...but better. Like the best part of lavender without all the rest of it. This is a remarkably beautiful blend, it radiates and lasts for a very long time. It's a bit masculine, but certainly not unfit for a woman. I really give this one a hearty thumbs up. This time around the Wanderlusts really have captivated me. I imagine there are some similarities among them BUT each one stands on it's own. Pontarlier, Port Royal, Manhattan, and Lyonesse are not to be missed.

It starts off as a Real buttery, sweet, foody, heavy blend. Butter on top of sugar on top of butter and caramel and...you get the picture. It was a Gluttony sort of thing. Everything piled on at once. Made my head whirl in a good way but...could I live with it? The answer is: yes. Cockaigne does a hard turn into fruit just when you need it to. Amazingly enough I start to smell cinnamon and apples, maybe this is where the spiced plums come in. This sort of a refreshing acid cuts through the butter at the point where it is all starting to dry and stays with this blend for the rest of the time you are wearing it. A delightful scent, it lasts a very long time and just tickles your sense of smell in all the right places. I am definately going to be getting a 5ml of Cockaigne. Highly recommended! The icon is a tiny detail from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "The Land of Cockaigne". It is an egg which has sprouted feet and is walking around despite its having been eaten already and the knife is still sitting inside from the meal! I used to think that it looked like and egg smoking a cigar when I was a kid. Every kid loves Pieter Bruegel!

I have attempted to enable friends with The Unicorn but (unbelievably enough) I have never tried it myself. It's the Linden Blossom in it. Very fresh and there is a hint of jasmine in the mix. I can indeed imagine I smell linden blossoms here and it is a white and aquatic flower mix which is fabulous for the romantic in you. It is not too strong so I would recommend a scent locket and a liberal dousing on a cotton pad for those of you who fall in love with The Unicorn. The Unicorn is fresh and vernal and young and tender. Very nice. ADDED April 1: This one wasn't me, very pleasant but not one I would wear. However, I bought it for a friend of mine who is really in love with linden and she loves it. I think I may have enabled another person.

This one starts out strong and just beautiful. Its almond opener is a cross between almond and anise to me. One of the prettiest I have ever been in the middle of. Once it dries, Uruk turns very masculine on me. It would be fabulous on a man, but it's a bit much for me. I think I am going to try this one out on the husband and see how it goes on him. It really is a blend too good to just say "too manly" and let it go. Real nicely done.

Just gorgeous. This one reminds me slightly of Eos or Asphodel and I think there are flowers in here. It is a very light and airy blend, even if it is a voodoo blend which I usually see as being pretty earthy. It rides close to your skin and has a bit of a cinnamon and a bit of a drop of jasmine I think. I would wear this one for the prettiness of it alone, not to mention the nifty things it does for your love life.

At first I thought this blend was misnamed. It was so sweet, lemony and lilting it couldn't be the scent of such a robust city as New York! Well, this is a surely the true and attractive side of Manhattan. I can indeed smell the leather, put in with a deft but knowing hand, the dry sophistication of Manhattan is a real turn on. It does say Power, understated Power. I suspect there is a part of a drop of cassia in here which really makes it. I don't normally like cassia but this is done as it should be. I really like this blend. It is light, and I would love to put it in a scent locket. Real real attractive.

I add my voice to the throngs which give Lyonesse a big thumbs up. A gorgeous and sophisticated woody scent. Very much like Morocco but a jot more marine in the best way. It's well mannered in that the throw isn't too intense but it is in evidence on your skin and about your person for a very long time. I don't get much vanilla from it but I do get richly bound leather volumes, a sort of attractive dust, wood, parchment, beautiful flowers faintly in the background. The amber is lovely, subtle but in evidence. Lyonesse is an instant favorite. The icon in the Lynonesse islands, or what is called Lyonesse these days.

Fruity, honied and sweet but with an undercurrent of jasmine....just a drop to make it perfume. Try this one out even if you are not a florals person. I bet you will change your mind. Real well done.

I am getting jonquils out of this one. Very pretty and vernal. There is a lavender like backdrop to it to keep it from getting too frilly. I can smell greenery and lilac. This one is long lasting and well worth investigating. A real hit. The icon is the landmark from the real village of Pontarlier.

This one reminds me more of Severin than any other blend, at least the tea and lemon part really do. There is a clean and musky element under it all which makes me say "man's blend" in my head. It doesn't remind me of Dorian much, not as sporty as Dorian. It's well mannered, not overwhelming, and the bottle looks great.

Lemon verbena or lemongrass or litsea first and foremost. I think it's litsea because it is a different smell when you breathe out vs. when you breathe in. There is a woody backlash on the breathing out. I do smell the coconut and apricot flower but somehow they are fighting with the lemon smell and that is causing a bit of trouble here, once again especially when I breathe out. Strange. On the other hand, breathing in is a delight. The apricotty elements are in harmony and really sing with the lemon parts. Again, this could be in my head and in what I pick up versis other people. I am beginning to believe that I have to be very careful around lemon smells because maybe I am very very sensitive to them. Carnival is wonderful when you catch it on the fly, in other words when your hand brushes by your face and you smell it from a distance. The throw is very mild but it is the perfect strength for the blend. It would not be good if it were real strong, it is very good as that wisp of a scent which flits through your mind and then vaporizes. A real natural tease.

I was really looking forward to Mme. Moriority, more so than any of the other bottles or imps in my order. I love the label, of course, the concept, the name, and from the descriptions it sounded like it would be perfect for me. I can smell the subtle red musk, definitely a cedar/menthol sort of combination. I don't get any vanilla from it and I would not guess that it was part of the Snake Oil family. What it does on me is amp the volatile menthol part and that overwhelms the rest of it. No plum or red fruit comes out at all. It does remind me a bit of Smut (as I remember Smut), but the overriding note is the menthol/cedar smell. I don't peg that as patchouli (or patchouli leaf) thought I do understand how it could be. I am not familiar with patchouli leaf. Sad to say I think it's my nose that does not get the rest of it. Different people will pick up different parts of a perfume and I am overwhelmingly picking up the menthol type elements. I think this is one of those times where I am blind to the whole in the presence of one component which outdoes everything else for me. I'm not making icons for CD because the images were so well done by Macha that they can't be improved on.

Mmmmm, a beautiful cocoa wrapping itself around a gooey middle repleat with creamy buttery toothsome stuff. This is glorified Velvet. I say that because I detect a drop of sandalwood or some resinous charm lurking in the heart of Candy Butcher. This is a treat for the sophisticated perfume lover. It's a fresh and quirky take on what would otherwise be another foody scent. If you didn't "get it" the first time, think confection not to be eaten with your mouth but with your nose. Then things change and Candy Butcher makes perfect sense. A sharp departure from the expected by someone who knows how to take the idea off-road.

Ravenous. It's the prettiest and deepest and longest lasting orange there is. Just beautiful.

I think Follow Me Boy may be a ylang winner, too.

Harvest Moon immediately reminded me of Hungry Ghost Moon, but it's fuller and warmer, if that makes any sense. Both of these moons are pleasantly astringent, refreshing, and "grown up". They seem made for a woman who knows who she is and enjoys herself. Harvest Moon is certainly not cloying. It is not redolent with warm spices and fruits like the other Harvest Moons I have smelled. I do smell a sharper fruit smell especially in the introduction, a perfumy "middle", and a lingering but never intrusive background. To me the apples combine without a hitch with the rest of the parts of the blend and become greater than the sum of the parts. This is a very very well done scent. A great portrait of an August harvest, even to Western senses.

A beautiful smelling blend. I get the impression of lilacs but it is not a floral, very perfumy to me, with more than a shot of ozone. It would be excellent as merely a beautiful scent, and it does make me rather happy to smell it on a midsummer's day. There may be a hint of musk in the background, because it does last and assert itself, but it seems more like a white musk rather than an earthy red or black. The blend is incorporeal, lighter than air, and as if it is infested with spirits. Very fine.

Fruity was my first response, there is a rosiate edge to this, but the underlying herbal and sort of "voodoo" base for this one over-rode rose for me, much as it did in Black Cat. Temple of the Loas is overall beautiful in an exotic way, and it has great staying power as well as charm. I have not tried it as a real magic oil, but I do enjoy it as a real pretty scent blend. Thanks to the gracious forumite who sent me such a rare item.

Quaint and old fashioned. Very natural smelling, rooty and well blended. This is one scent that is better the closer you get to it. I think it is very masculine, comforting, almost "wooly" but in a good way not the wet wool way. I think there are a lot of time honored ingredients in this and it reminds me of old perfume bottles and faded sepia photographs of men with moustaches and stern looks who were actually quite tender in real life.

Kumiho, Alice, and Maiden are clean and feminine. Dorian is sporty (at least on me) very clean. So is Dirty. Sudha Segura isn't particularly bracing, but it is a warm tea-like scent that can really be wonderful. If your skin takes to them, Embalming Fluid and Wilde are tops, too.

I really liked Storyville and thought that one would turn out to be my favorite out of all of the convergence blends...well I was wrong. As good as Storyville is, and it is fabu, I actually like Voodoo Queen more. I don't know where I got the idea that Voodoo Queen was too herby and loud, because it certainly is not that. I would say it is a resinous blend, and nice addition to the Snake Oil/Charmer/Voodoo lines. It has a great character and yet it is attractive, not merely attention getting. Pungent, very well blended, somewhat heartbreakingly pretty and sweet under that "I can take it" exterior. All that sounds pretty much like it's contradicting itself, but honestly it's not. This is a blend of great and peacefully co-existing extremes. It is more closely related to Perversion than Snake Oil or Charmer. Perhaps there is a bit of coconut in here. It is long lasting and the perfection of Perversion to my nose. Perversion is great, but somehow Voodoo Queen just did it one scintilla better. That's my taste talking here, though, YMMV. In anyone's book a winner.