Loligo

This is like annointing yourself with black patchouli and then rolling around on the forest floor -- definitely a damp, woodsy, evergreen sort of experience. Interesting, but not for me.

Um, it's sawdust. Soapy, sour sawdust... plus some musk. I don't smell any coconut at all, at any time. No, wait, I've had it on for about four hours, and now I'm getting a tiny whiff of it. I've long suspected that orris had it in for me, now I know for sure. Blood musk is an ifffy note, too; it's nice in Blood Moon, but I can tell that the other ingredients there are working kind of hard to restrain it. I'm so disappointed, because the good reviews for this one sound gorgeous.

Too. Much. Peach. The peach is seriously cloying -- sweet and kind of fake and LOUD. Three hours or so after application, it finally becomes a sweet/tangy grace note for the amber and myrtle, but that's way too long to wait.

As usual, I cannot smell the lily of the valley AT ALL. This note might as well not exist for me. But the rest of this blend is lovely and elegant even without it. At first, everything smells sharp and separate, not well-blended at all, but it soon settles down to a warm, dry vanilla-sandalwood, with hints of opium and mandarin adding roundness and piquancy, respectively. It makes me think of Art Nouveau furniture and textiles.

On me, this starts out smelling like that instant powder mix for lemon iced tea. Then the tea note warms up a bit, as tea does on me, and I can start to pick out the other individual notes. It smells pretty much as described, but it just sits on my skin, it doesn't really blend with me. I tried it on my husband, and on him it smelled like iced tea and bug repellant. I wish I knew which note turned to Deep Woods Off! on him; I'd make sure to avoid it in any scents that I plan to give to him as back-up. (They're all for me , but sometimes I'll take a chance on something that might be iffy on me if I think it might work on him, too.)

Yum! This is creamy, nutty rum, from start to finish. There's also a drier note, too -- something slightly resinous, with tons of throw. Might be the mead. Anyway, this blend isn't nearly as sticky-sweet as I feared it might be; it works really well on me.

When I first apply it, it smells like cheap men's aftershave, with that same plasticky "band-aid" note that I get from Laudanum. It takes about an hour to get to the beautiful smell that wafts up from the imp even when it's closed: a smoky, aromatic sweetness with hints of cherry/almond.

When I first applied it, I got a bizarre and very strong burst of dill or some other herb, but that lasted just a few minutes. What remained was a juicy, tart/sweet berry smell, almost like cranberry. The berry note acted strangely -- I could hardly smell it up close after the first hour or so, but I could smell it in the air around me. Unlike many people, I didn't get a candy impression from this; instead the fruit scent seemed quite fresh.

Wet: Holy cow, it's vanilla-almond playdough (how is the brand name spelled -- Play-Do?). Dry: It takes about half an hour for the fake smell to burn away. Afterwards it's a beautiful creamy vanilla/ almond/ coconut/ pineapple blend, but if I put my nose right to my wrist, there's something musty underneath it all.

Wet: Hairspray, hairspray, hairspray! Dry: Hairspray with great throw! Hairspray that clogs up your nose, leaving you unable to smell anything else around you! Eventually that chemical smell dies down a bit, and I can sort of pick up the forest/berry smell that other people mention. This blend is further proof that I need to run far, far away from anything that is supposed to smell like snow or water.

Someday I would love to smell that "cold" note that everyone keeps talking about. On me, any scent described as cold or wet inevitably turns hot and soapy. So does this. Luckily, there are enough other notes in this one to make it workable anyway. It smells like what I imagine a swanky Xmas party from the previous century might have smelled like: elaborate flower arrangements and decorative winter greenery everywhere, with candles burning, and a roaring fire in the fireplace.

Like many others, I got strawberry bubblegum from this at first, with a faint plastic-y edge. Later it develops almost a waxy, candle-like note -- maybe from the honeycomb? It adds an interesting dimension to the sugar and fruit, because it smells natural, not fake, but it's not something you expect to smell in a perfume.

I was expecting something similar to Snake Charmer, but this turns out to be much dryer and simpler. Tobacco and cassia (smells like a very dry, woodsy version of cinnamon) are the main notes on me. There is a sweetness to it, but it's sweet like pipe smoke, as opposed to the more syrupy sweetness in the background of Snake Charmer.

An instant BPAL top ten. This is so golden, yet cool, smooth, and ethereal. I cannot believe how well this captures the image of the Biblical passage. It begins with lemony, vanilla, and rose-floral notes highlighting the amber, and dries down into the most perfect, refined, elegant amber ever. There's a brief stage in the middle where there's a nose-tingling "perfumy" quality to it, but never enough to make me sneeze, and it doesn't last too long. And amber isn't always a winner on me, so I'm doubly pleased with the success of this.

I loved the first hour of this scent: smoke and pine were most prominent, but the toasty brown sugar smell was there, too, and the combination was just so evocative -- you could just *see* the hearth, and the Christmas decorations, and the old-fashioned sweets. It was like every Christmas scene in Little Women, distilled into a bottle. I wish the smoke and pine had lingered longer, though. Later in drydown, the sweetness got a little cloying and one-dimensional. I'll have to try this again when I'm not slightly sick to my stomach.

2005 version: I can't believe I finally found a BPAL too foodie for me. This smells *exactly* like gingerbread cookie dough... and that's the problem. It literally smells like I smeared dough on myself. The raw flour & butter smell is so strong (my skin tends to soak up spices). I wish I had ordered Three Witches instead. Anyway, the throw and lasting power are both quite strong, as well.

This is my favorite herbal BPAL so far -- now I can get rid of those imps of Arcana and Calliope. This starts out with a citrus zest burst; not sweet and juicy, but dry and effervescent. There's also a piney/herbal note that might be rosemary or bay. After several hours it dries down to a faintly herbal amber, with something sweet to it. Very fresh and energizing.

THe only pumpkin blend I've tried prior to this was Jack, which was just TOO overwhelming in its sweet butteriness. So I was kind of worried that I was going to be throwing my money away in this decant circle. #4 is the first one I've tried, and wow, I hope they're all this good. Earthy, sweet, spicy, a little smoky, smooth... outstanding. It makes me think of a pumpkin curry, maybe.

This is somehow damp yet smoky at the same time. It makes me think of really rustic camping, lying huddled & freezing under wool blankets that are permeated with the smoke of years of campfires. Evocative, but not really what I'm looking for in an everyday perfume. I've tried this twice, and each time I get distracted by other things during the middle drydown, so I can't describe how and when this turns from the vetiver/patchouli/smoke of the first stage to the warm thyme/plum of the far drydown hours later.

I have no idea what sea lilies are, but if I see that note in anything else, I will snap it up immediately. I get a faint salty tang from this that I *never* get from supposedly "marine" perfumes, which just end up smelling like detergent on me. Peony and sage are the most prominent notes at first, but within half an hour sweet pea and cucumber have moved to the top, with that gentle ocean scent whispering around the edges. So unique and lovely. The sweet pea is just a *touch* too strong for me to want to buy more of this, but I'm so happy that I have this imp.

Even though i had this on my wishlist, I was scared of it. Pine? Patchouli? Vetiver? So it sat in my imp box for quite a while before I tried it. And indeed, it started out with a pine-patchouli death match, but just 15 minutes later I started having the famous "OMG what is that gorgeous smell -- oh, it's MEEE!" experience. This smells like clove & vanilla incense drifting through a clearing in a pine forest, with occasional hints of lime. Unique and beautiful. Now, six hours after applying, I'm starting to get the sassafras/cola smell that underlies so many of the Voodoo blends; I happen to like that smell, so this isn't a problem. Seems *very* long-lasting so far. Also, until it went cola, it smelled like a less-musky version of Blood Moon, which I just tried yesterday.

Despite my fond childhood memories of the violets that bloomed every spring in the wood near our house, I just have to accept that violet is not a great note on me. I'm keeping Numb for linen spray and Wings of Azrael because it's so haunting and ethereal, but The Raven has got to go. It's a rich, deep, musky violet, and it's making me a bit sick to my stomach -- probably the fault of the dark musk. It's also going a bit soapy. I don't pick up the sandalwood or any of the other floral notes, not that I'm that great at identifying them.

This is a *very* subdued scent on me. It starts out smelling like sawdust and a light, warm musk. The sawdust quickly mellows out to a faintly spicy note and the musk sinks into my skin. If I use my imagination I can pick out the cinnamon and vanilla that other people are talking about, but this is mostly a "second skin" scent on me, and I tend to prefer things a bit more dramatic. I'll probably keep some, and use some to swap for the many, many Yule LEs that I want and can't afford! ETA: 24 hours later, my appreciation for this blend has increased. Most BPAL blends stop developing after two, at most three, hours on me -- from there on out, it's all fading, either quickly or slowly. But this, four or five hours later was still getting spicier and sweeter, and it's still perceptible the next morning. Impressive!

I love the first hour of this scent: it's simultaneously rich and yet crisp and clean. You could wear it to work and feel professional yet sassy at the same time. I don't get a booze note at all, just pomegranate with something tart and sparkly added to it. The effervescence only lasts an hour or so, though; the pomegranate lingers forever and is quite nice, but it gets a little muddy. I'll be hunting for The Hamptons and 21, and if they stay tart and clean longer, I'll probably swap this away.

I'm not sure how many amber necklaces I own -- probably at least eight (it's a Baltic heritage thing). So I had high, high hopes for this one. Alas. I don't dislike it, but it sure ain't The One. It reminds me of my grandmother and her friends, but not in an old-lady way: they were all refugees who came to the US after WWII with pretty much nothing, and when I was a kid they were all stout, hearty middle-aged women who still loved to party and finally had the money to do so in style. That's how this blend smells to me -- rich and earthy, but also sensible and old-fashioned. In terms of the actual notes, it starts out amber and apple (and probably myrtle, which I can't identify, but may be what gives this the old-fashioned smell), and turns pretty quickly to amber and carnation, which is a fairly pleasant but not in the least bit sexy smell on me. Also, this is one of those quirky blends that actually smells *better* on me during TTOM -- much smoother.