bridgetvoid

And thou shalt be the first of witches known; And thou shalt be the first of all i' the world; And thou shalt teach the art of poisoning. The silent and mysterious sister to Haute Macabre's As Above, So Below collection, Aradia. Our homage to the mother of the Witches casts her spell around you, wrapping you in her enchanting embrace. With forward notes of midnight invocations, and a subtle undertone of lingering enchantment. A veil of smoked patchouli, sweet oak, and opoponax sweetened by bourbon vanilla. Oh man, this is the first time I've been the first to review something! intimidating! (even moreso because i have a cold). I was so psyched that I was able to snag a bottle of this and i've been watching the tracking number like a hawk. In the bottle this was straight up patchouli, dark and musky. In general it sort of have a similar vibe as As Above & So Below have, were they are dark and sensual while being fairly unisex...they smell and feel complex and deep even if only one not hits your nose when you open the bottle, you know that you've just begun to scratch the surface of something wonderful. on - the second i put this on, something sweet appears though it's hard to tell what it is. it's not obviously the opoponax, vanilla, or oak. It's not overpowering and it weaves in and out of the fog of the patchouli in perfect harmony. after about 10 minutes i could really smell the sweet oak emerge and it is great, it reminded me of being in a woodshop or a barn in winter, when you can really smell the wood and sawdust, the note is very distinct and to me very homey as my father used to be a woodworker. (this isn't meant to sound offputting, it's actually really pleasant and homey) 20 minutes in: ok so for me, even with a cold but too eager to NOT wait to try this out, it's great. The oak has retreated a little bit to share the stage with the opoponax which is also woodsy, but warmer and richer. Overall this scent very woodsy and warm without being overbearing. I haven't gotten any of the vanilla yet, or if i have it's very faint. The main stage definitely seems to belong to the patchouli, sweet oak, and opoponax. I feel like it's still morphing as time goes on, but yeah, overall it's got that same dark and sexy smell that I tend to associate with the Haute Macabre scents. edit - 3 hours later and this has settled down to a warm and musky vanilla, i can barely smell the patchouli anymore, but it's still really gorgeous.

i'm so devastated, for some reason this starts off like a warm lovely amber and then turns into straight up ammonia

sexy incense with mild pine undertones.

huh. usually i can tell if i'm going to like an oil right away as things don't tend to morph too much on me OR i just don't have sophisticated enough of a nose for it. in the bottle - chocolate. sort of a dusty crusty chocolate like burnt brownies. on me - woah burnt chocolate for days HOWEVER and this is where it seemed weird for me, up close it smelled like burn chocolate, but the throw was totally marshmallow sweetness, very soft and very pretty, not overwhelming or cloying at all. a bunch of hours later and it's just turned into a really soft and pretty scent.

i was so excited for this but i get straight up plastic chocolate metal and not much else.

i can't eat chocolate due to allergies but lately i've been on a huge "i want to smell like chocolate all the time" kick. Bliss is -perfect- it smells like sweet, warm, milky chocolate. absolutely delicious. however, it has no throw and lasts about 3 minutes on my skin before it's gone.

this is the -weirdest- scent experience i've ever had with bpal. i got this for my husband and it had the most bizarre reaction to his skin in the bottle - very sweet coffee, i was hoping more cafe du monde, this was more like thai coffee. very yummy but very sweet wet on skin - woah sweet. sort of that cherry almond marzipan thing going on drydown - ok now we're talking, delicious coffee. still not what i was hoping for but yummy 2 hours later - CURRY POWDER LIKE WOAH. seriously my husband smells like a restaurant.

this smells subtle and pretty in the bottle, sort of nondescript sort of watery and perfumey if that makes sense. on me - straight up celery. dry down - sweetened celery? it's so close to being awesome but it's celery.

to me the chocolate in this smells exactly like going to neuhaus or some other chocolatier, very rich and not sweet at all. the floral scents mix really well together and are way more at the forefront than i was expecting. on dry-down it sort of reminds me of joyva raspberry jelly rings, which were one of my favorite candies in the world before i stopped eating chocolate (i'm allergic to it, but i can still wear it as perfume apparently so now i'm gonna be trying ALL the chocolate scents)

in the bottle this just smells SO good to me. rich dark coffee and chocolate with a slight undercurrent of cinnamon. however when i wear it the cinnamon amps like woah and reminds me of altoids. i think i'm gonna have to get a scent locked for this one because i adore it in the bottle.

when i first smelled this i felt like "Woah dragon blood" vert sweet and yummy but not what i was expecting on skin it pretty much instantly morphed and the beeswax took center stage and it turned into something dark and smoky and sexy. it's gets a little softer and perfumy after a while, but it's a keeper. it sort of reminds me of Blood Moon 05

the honey and sugar are light and sweet, however over time the lemon becomes a little acidic and overpowering. this one totally changes depending on when i wear it during my cycle, at some points it's spun sugar and honey, other times straight up lemon that has almost turned.

red musky, baby powder, and incense. it's very sweet and gentle. I'm wondering, based on reading other reviews, if this doesn't age super well, or gets softer with age, because I definitely get a resiny incense scent going on, but very soft and very gentle. i spent way too much on this and honestly don't think i can justify keeping it

I love this one, just straight up vanilla ice cream. not too cloying, not too sweet, just a really simple and delicious vanilla with a hint of warmth. I honestly wear this one to bed a lot OR mix it with Stekkiarstaur when i just want to feel totally overhwhelmed by vanilla-y goodness.

this was very foody on me and unfortunately the cinnamon (?) or the wheat didn't work for me at all.

I absolutely love this scent. When I first got into BPAL 100 years ago I was all over snake oil, but I think this has usurped it as my go-to scent that will work pretty much anywhere at any time. the honey makes it just a little softer while not taking away anything from snake oil's awesomeness

I really wanted to love this, which i don't, which i think is because of the goat's milk. Don't get me wrong, this is a gorgeous scent, but something about it didn't totally click with me. It reminds me of a warmer, more maternal, less vampy version of Eat Me, if that makes any sense? in the bottle - mild, milky, sort of dark on me - SUPER WARM, i think this is the goat's milk coming through? it becomes way more complex and way more foody So yeah, I like it a lot, I thought I was going to end up hoarding it, but alas, that is not the case.

I used to live in Hollywood and there was this frozen yogurt place that I frequented called Frog. The frozen yogurt was ok, but what really did me in was that they had this delicious marshmallow topping that was just delicious, and this reminds me of that. Syrupy marshmallow with the faintest hint of mint. Delicious and totally one I'm going to hoard.

to me, this smells exactly the same on me as it does in the bottle, straight up fizzy gingerale.

This is what every head shop or goth club has ever smelled like, in my head at least. This is essentially what I've wanted every patchouli heavy oil to smell like, it's really great, gritty but not dirty, dark but not overwhelming, woodsy and earthy and somehow honest. I totally can't wait for the oil to come out now. It kind of reminds me of the Venice Boardwalk minus all the burning sage.

I actually got this by accident, but OMG what a wonderful accident it was. I know the foodie scents come with a "don't eat/drink" disclaimer and 99.99999999% of the time I just roll my eyes at it but this is just....this is just some next level awesomeness. I am allergic to chocolate and cinnamon, I can smell them both, but I can't ingest them, so this hair gloss just makes me so incredibly HAPPY that I can't even begin to explain it adequately. It smells, for lack of a better word, real, like the thickest darkest pot of drinking chocolate you could ever dream of laced with coffee. I don't really get any cinnamon from this at all, which is fine because the chocolate/coffee blend is just amazing on its own, I'm guessing if this were the oil I'd amp up the cinnamon and not be able to wear it, so this is just perfect.

This is actually the first bottle of BPAL I ever owned, thanks to a friend who went to Convergence. It is, by far, the best pumpkin scent I've ever smelled. It reminds me of pumpkin pie and mulled cider combined, but in a soft and non overpowering way. Everything just is balanced perfectly, it's heavenly.