lokelani

To me this smells exactly like iced green tea with lemon, with flower petals floating on top. It's a perfect summertime scent.

Another winner! I was a little concerned about this scent -- sandalwood can be overpowering on me, and I wasn't sure how the star anise would work on my skin. But the white sandalwood seems to work well for me -- it's much lighter than the red sandalwood, I think. In this case, it sort of grounds the scent, and gives it more of a...grown-up feel, than the cherry blossom & star anise alone might have. Kyoto is sweet and fresh without being "little-girl" at all. And all the notes are so well blended that they feel like they've always belonged together. This scent settles into almost a second-skin scent for me, and remains with me for a long time -- the other day I put it on before going to work and could still it on my wrists by the end of the day. It's just lovely. This scent has entered my top ten list and climbed to the top of my "must have big bottle!" list.

WOW. Ginger ginger ginger. Strong, real ginger. With something a little incense-y behind it, and something --- nutmeggish? Clove, maybe? Anyway, it’s fabulous. I LOVE ginger and this is GINGER in all its glory. I can see myself wearing this a lot in the fall – it strikes me as more of a cold weather scent. Shub-Niggurath and Jack will be battling it out for my scent-of-choice this Halloween!

Delicious. Starts out pure chocolate; after a few moments something a bit lighter insinuates itself in there – I’m pretty sure that’s the white tea. Next is the tangerine and/or mandarin, and then just a hint of floral makes an appearance. A bit later on the chocolate sort of winds its way back in there. A very complex scent, but lovely in all of its stages. I am so glad I ordered a bottle of this!! Great stuff.

This is absolutely lovely. Really beautiful. What I get is mostly the wildflowers – a very soft floral. I can imagine springtime in New England when I smell it. I’m so pleased, because I was a little afraid the woodsiness would overwhelm the florals – I’m not crazy about very woody scents. But hooray! The florals have prevailed! Happiness. It actually reminds me a bit of Flower Moon, but it’s less overtly feminine and flirty. It's softer and more -- contemplative, I want to say, if that makes any sense. I’m in love. Shoot, and all I have is an imp!! I really wasn't sure I'd like this -- now I will have to search for a big bottle. It's a quest! Off I go...

Um...yeah. Well, I agree with what many folks here said -- "empty" definitely comes to mind. Someone mentioned vetiver -- yeah, that might be in here, but I couldn't even venture a guess about the other notes. I've never smelled anything quite like this blend. At first I was quite excited about it, but after a while -- it did, it started to creep me out. I don't know if it's the assocation -- I do like Lovecraft very much, and have been rereading his stuff lately -- but I don't *think* that's it, because I don't get as creeped out reading about Yog-Sothoth as I do wearing it! It doesn't morph, exactly -- I think it remains pretty true, it's just that my perception of it seemed to change a bit. It didn't seem so "clean" after a while -- something very disturbing crept in there. Yikes. I will try it again tonight, just to see if it was a weird random reaction. Otherwise I think I'll swap my imp. Because as intriguing as it is, I really don't see myself wearing it. I *do* wish I could smell it on someone else though, to see if it behaves the same way on them. Unfortunately, no one I know is into perfume that much...maybe I could "accidentally" spill it on someone? LOL.

I bought an imp of Marie because I love violet and rose scents, and I was not disappointed. I've tried to figure out which note is dominant, but it's impossible -- the violet and rose blend so well in this scent that they create something brand-new between them. It's lovely and, as others have said, just a little bit naughty, something that I don't usually associate with either violet OR rose -- ah, the mystery and delight of Beth's alchemy! It's quite robust and has great staying power as well, which isn't always the case for me with floral scents. Marie went right on my top ten list, and I think it's highly unlikely that it'll ever leave. In other words: it's love.

Kumiho is currently my favorite scent. It smells so delicious and light -- so lovely for this time of year (mid-summer). I really have to tell myself to wear other scents, because even though I love all my little BPALs I love Kumiho the most. It's a perfect blend of ginger & white tea (I am a ginger FIEND). The funny thing is the first time I sniffed it I thought "nice, but I don't love it," and I put it aside for over a month before trying it again, and WOW. In sum: Kumiho is just perfect for me. We are going to ride off into the sunset now and live happily ever after.

This scent is so strange on me. Soooo strange. I love peony, pink pepper, ginger & white tea, and couldn't resist buying anything with ALL of those scents in it, even though I know that fruit can go either way on me -- at times they are much too sickly-sweet. And, indeed, the first time I put it on the fruits were all I could smell, but they weren't as overpowering as they sometimes are, so maybe the other scents were working to tone the fruit down a bit, even though unfortunately I couldn't pick out any of the floral, tea or pepper notes. It faded very quickly, too. So, not as bad as I feared but not something I loved, either. I put it aside for a while. Next time I tried it I liked it much much better -- still very fruity, but more of a sparkly fruit -- that's really the only way to describe it, sparkly. Again, it faded quickly, but I put it in a scent locket and the sparkly fruit lasted nicely in there. So I decided Mi-Go was a keeper. Then I tried it some time later on my skin, and I got a whiff of...poo. Yes, poo. Someone else said this, so I don't feel *quite* as terrible putting this in a review. It smelled to me like a bathroom, with some synthetic fruity-scented Lysol sprayed all over to cover up the nasty smell. Just awful. I tried it in the scent locket again, and got the same thing -- probably just through association, because I think it was my wonky skin chemistry messing with a perfectly nice scent in that way that it sometimes does. Now I don't know WHAT to do with my brains. I know that I liked Mi-Go once, so I hesitate to get rid of it, but when it was bad it was so very bad. Argh! I must have the strangest body chemistry known to man. I think I'll hold on to it for a bit and try it again in a few weeks. If I get the ickiness again then I think it'll be swapped. Why is my skin so confused?

This scent reminded me of Coney Island, where I spent many a happy day with my family in my youth (and occasionally adulthood -- in fact I was just there a couple of weeks ago). Walking along the boardwalk, the sounds of the rides on one side and a view of the ocean on the other, and the smells all around me -- very nice. The only problem was that one of the notes -- I think it was the butter -- went a little "synthetic" on me. I can't really describe it, but whenever I caught a whiff of it it was jarring, and interfered with my enjoyment of this scent. It's a real shame, because otherwise it was lovely (for me the fried dough and the cotton candy smells predominated -- that's a GOOD thing). I traded the imp, because I thought it was only fair to give others a chance to sniff it, but I *would* like to give this scent another try at some point -- I may order a bottle, just to see if it works out better on future tries (fingers crossed).

Chocolate. Pure chocolate. Mmmmmmmm...chocolate. (Imagine Homer Simpson going: "Mmmmmmm....beer." Same basic idea.) I may actually gnaw my arm off. Chocolate....mmmmmmmm...

A heavy, heady floral. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I love floral scents. On me, however, it quickly became overpowering. A very sexy scent -- nothing innocent about *this* floral! I do like the smell, but it just doesn't suit my personality very well. Swap time.

I absolutely *adore* this scent. It smells like I expected Silk Road to smell (Silk Road unfortunately just came out cinnamon on me). It's dry and spicy and a little bit sweet -- almost a vanilla-y sweetness. I can't really pick out individual notes because everything blends together so well. Oh, so pleased! I was a little concerned about this, because sandalwood has the tendency to overpower other scents on my skin, but here it's just part of the happy family of scents. How nicely they all get along! I'm thinking this is almost certainly a big bottle scent.

I was really excited about this one; the description sounded amazing. But on me it immediately turned into cinnamon -- almost a single note. Cinnamon's not bad, but I was really expecting a far more complex scent (and it seems like most folks got that -- my skin chemistry apparently looked at all of those wonderful ingredients and just said, "cinnamon." What can you do? Can't argue with the skin chemistry.) I ended up swapping this.

For me, this is the *perfect* scent. I love carnation, but sometimes find its spiciness a bit overwhelming, and I like rose, but it can go a little too sickly-sweet on me at times. But this scent strikes the perfect balance between the two. Sort of like Beth was saying, "Okay, Nature. You did a good job here, with these flowers. I love your work. Now let me show you how it's *really* done." If I had to pick just one BPAL scent to wear forever, it would probably be this one.

Oh, yeah. A fresh, translucent, springtime scent. If it were a color it would be a pale, clear green. It reminds me of the first days of Spring, when all you can see on the trees are little tiny buds, and the first flowers are making their tentative debut. It's still chilly, but you can definitely smell Spring in the air. I got Amsterdam in late March/early April and when I put it on I was like: "I smell exactly like this day!!" The only problem I have with this lovely scent is that it fades rather quickly on me. But that's okay; I just reapply a lot. I will probably be getting a large bottle of this.

An absolutely gorgeous floral. I guess it’s the stephanotis association, but this is definitely the perfume I’d wear to my wedding, were I ever to have such a thing. It’s too special to wear everyday; I’ll probably save it for special occasions. I wish I could go to an old-fashioned, outdoor tea party -- I'd wear a white frock and have a big white flower in my hair. And I know I’ll wear it occasionally on workdays because I don't get invited to that many tea parties. Wow, this may be my favorite. Beth’s florals work really well on me. Yay Eternal!! Two thumbs way up.

This smells exactly like cold, deep blue water to me, start to finish. Absolutely lovely. It reminds me a bit, not of the Danube...since I've never seen the Danube...but of Lake Tahoe: cool, deep and clear, surrounded by snow-topped mountains. This will be a perfect scent for the dog days of summer. Big bottle for sure.

I bought this one for the name alone. First impression: Holy. Freakin'. Hell. This is INTENSE. Very spicy and...incendiary, is the best word I can come up with. After a few moments: It reminds me of...what? Bonfires. Dry autumn leaves and smoke. Halloween night. It’s comforting and sort of wild and unrestrained at the same time. That seems like an odd emotional combo, but there it is. Wow, this brings back some good memories…it’s very strong, though. A bit overwhelming, but very distinctive. Definitely not an everyday scent. A bit later: Oh, no. Here comes the myrrh, messing with my fun. Back off, myrrh!! Alas, the myrrh ignored me and took over. I don't know why myrrh dislikes me so. In any event, I won't be able to wear this. Darn shame. Of all the scents this one really stimulated the little memory cells the most, although from the beginning it was maybe a little too strong for me. I think that I might try it as a room scent, though -- if I had some incense that smelled like this I think I'd love it, especially on cool autumn nights. Or I might swap it so that it could meet someone who would really enjoy and wear it regularly. Not sure yet.

At first sniff, all I get is an overwhelmingly dark, spicy scent with some leather in the background -- that would be the labdanum, I think. Whoa, it's like a punch in the olfactory nerve, there. Way too strong for me. Well, we'll see where it goes from here. Okay, this has morphed into a sort of weird “leather and lace” scent – the labdanum and the stephanotis battling it out, I’d guess. I *love* stephanotis (that was one of the reasons I wanted this – I'm determined to try all the stephanotis scents) but the combination of the white feminine floral note and the dark, heavily masculine notes is making my nose and my head confused. It’s not bad – in fact it’s very interesting – but still, it just doesn't quite work for me. I will have to try this again another day. I’m thinking this is probably a swapper, though. Upon second try, I decided this is definitely not for me. I just don’t like the leathery scent (actually, come to think of it, it smells more like rubber. This is reminding me of bike tires!! How random is that?) Ah, well. Away it went into swapland.

That's it!!!! Thank you, Macha, for helping me place the scent! I knew Spooky reminded me of something delicious. I love this scent. A decant was included as a freebie from a very very very nice person, and I will definitely be hunting for more of it. It's a perfect match of chilly mint and warm hot cocoa. Comforting and scrumptious. I could bathe in this stuff, really. I won't, because I don't have enough of it, plus that probably would be a little over the top, but still. The urge is there. Yay Spooky!

This scent is PERFECT. Heh, just when I think I have a favorite BPAL, another one comes along that I love EVEN MORE. Amazing. It smells exactly like the description on me -- strong, sweet black tea, with a little bit of a bite to it -- that might be the pepper and/or the ginger, not sure -- but it all balances out perfectly. It smells very much the same on drydown, which is fabulous, because the love just keeps on comin'! I most definitely will be getting a big bottle of this, and will probably make it into sprays and spritz it all over myself and my apartment. Um, is it coming across that I love this scent? Just checking...

This was very bitter on me at first. I wonder what's causing that? But it mellows pretty quickly, and the patchouli kicks in -- actually, that's *all* I smell right now, which is a shame, as I'm not crazy about patchouli -- thought I'd give this scent a try anyway, because I like all the other ingredients, but unfortunately I'm not smelling anything else. After 10 minutes or so: Getting the honey now, which sweetens it a bit…it’s a little incense-y, but not in a smoky, overpowering way. It’s quite nice, but not really my thing. Yikes, and now I think it’s giving me a bit of a headache – patchouli wreaking its fiery vengeance on me once more. I think I have to face the fact that patchouli and I will never get along, alas. Swap time. Shame.

At first Eve is very bitter on me -- more like an Eve pissed off about her exile than an Eve enjoying the innocent delights of Eden. I wonder where the bitter is coming from? But on drydown it becomes very green, like fresh grass – this smells something like the description of Amsterdam (haven’t actually smelled Amsterdam yet, but have some on its way). A little later it warms up a bit and I can smell something light and floral – rose, must be, but a very gentle rose. It really is lovely, but fades very quickly, so it seems like I only get maybe half an hour of that great early spring garden smell. Shoot. I will probably keep the imp, but will have to reapply so many times that I will probably run out of it soon. It’s too bad. If this scent were a little stronger and longer lasting, I think it would be a favorite.

"O" was a freebie from the lab -- I'd read the description and hadn't planned on ordering it. I am so glad that I got the chance to try it. Of all the scents I've tried, this is the one that seems to "suit" my skin the best -- it just seems to blend in with my skin so I hardly feel like I'm wearing perfume -- it's just me, only much, much sexier. That's the only problem -- if it can be called that -- it's so sexy that I feel strange wearing it to work, like I've shown up at the office wearing very revealing lingerie and nothing else. Definitely a going out at night sort of scent. It's wonderful.