jehrichardson

Soft, dry, warm soil. Potatoey - it has that slight vegetal tang with the earth. After a bit, the soil fades and we get musky resins. It's really quite lovely, but as I'm not a fan of smelling like soil unless I've been rolling in it, I'll pass on this one. Outstanding concept, however, and very very well played.

There's something about amber that I kinda love, kinda hate. Like honey, it's got an amazingly rich aroma, plays nicely with others, but has a sharp, odd highnote to it, with a shadow of bitterness. Thus, I generally enjoy amber + vanilla, amber + musk, amber + copal etc. The sweetness rounds out the odd chemical high note, balances the bitterness, and cuts the sharpness. Haunted is the perfect amber. Everything that is great about amber is here. Everything that is great about musk is here. It smells like sex on wheels, debauchery, luxury, victimless sin, indulgence. It's close to the skin, soft, and private. On the bottle list with you, my dear! :D

Grapefruit heaven! So fresh and clear and delightful on a bright winter's day. Given a moment, the tea and ginger poke their noses in - but they can only play a subtle role here. Grapefruit is apparently a diva. This is obviously, however, not JUST grapefruit. I think the apple blossom plays up the floral citrus tones a bit, but it's subtle. After a few minutes, the citrus fades dramatically and what is left is a lovely clean and fresh scent. I'm not convinced that I want a big bottle of this - but it would be wonderful as a winter pick me up, or a summer refresher. Hmmm... ETA: UGH! Given another few minutes, and it's soap baby. A nice one, true, but soap nonetheless. Maybe I can use the imp as a room scent??

Oh, now this is a good one! It's like O, but softer and sweeter where O is a bit sharper and brighter. It's extremely well blended, and sexy as all git' out. On the bottle list with this one!!

Lovely! The peach doesn't have that overripe winey/fruitdrink component. The galbanum and amber fight back the florals creditably. Woo... I can't smell the vetiver. Thank goodness, as it generally turns into Deep Woods Off bug spray. I don't think I'm going to be upgrading from imp to 5ml, but this is really quite lovely and gives me hope that not all fruit scents are cloying, and not all vetiver is bug spray.

Just smells like floral perfume. Not extraordinary in the slightest. Pleasant, floral, heady (ylang ylang), sweet. The herbal note is a lovely touch, but still... Meh.

First impression was burnt plastic. Auspicious beginning, eh? Instantly changes to cinnamon on the skin. I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon, so I'm a bit 'meh' about it. Certainly not unpleasant, but not for moi.

Crazy! I was worried about this one - sarsparilla = root beer = gedditoff gedditoff!! Wet and dry, this is lemon. Rich soft lemon. This is what lemons dream about when they are babies. This is the lemon that lemons want to be when they grow up. Do I get any of the other notes? Musks? Nope. Cactus flower? Nope. Cubeb? Nope (I don't think so, Google tells me this should be peppery). Galangal? Nope. Tobacco? Nope. Pink pepper? Nope. Sarsaparilla? Nope. Luckily I love it! Yummmmm

Well then, not what I was expecting. Wet, this is mostly walnut. I didn't know that I knew how these smelled, but I suppose you're supposed to learn something new every day. After a while it gets a bit sweeter and richer, but the walnut is crazy strong, and it turns out I don't really like that note. I'm not really a fan of nuts (insert lame joke here). I'm hoping that a bit of aging, plus a couple of hours of top-off time might get rid of those walnut notes a bit. Will re-review then. As it is right now, all the rest of the notes are just a sharp and chemical backnote chorus to the walnut. Boo... ETA A Bit Later: Okay, the sample I swabbed on my skin smells a lot better now. The walnut has mostly gone away and I'm left with some nicely spicy and soft woods. This might be a 'have faith for half an hour' scent. The bottle smells much better too. I left it open for one hour (in a bowl, attempting to avert tragedy) and much of the walnut's boastfulness has faded. It's still there, but I can at least smell some of the other notes too now. I'll retest a skin patch tomorrow, today's nose is a bit blown. ETA A few Days Later: Okay, the bottle has now had three hours with the top off (in a bowl, of course). The walnut is almost totally gone when smelling the bottle. There's a light whiff of it when applied to skin, but it's very very faint. Now it's strangely spicy woods, earthy and crisp. We're almost getting to the point where I could stand to wear this!!

Lime! Then jasmine. Interesting combo, and y'all know I love me some citrus, but the jasmine is just too loud, too big. Tuberose = jasmine to me, so no big help there. Lotus = bad funky usually, but I can't smell it here, so that's actually a relief. I like it - but jasmine's too powerful for me. Thanks for the frimp tho!

Spicy musk. Patchouli follows with it's minty, licorice tang. Ugh... here comes the vetiver - bug spray in all its glory. No citrus.. none of the other notes. Musky patchouli and bug spray. I'm sad - I was excited for the citrus and the complexity. Sorry lab, it's a clunker. A bit of a relief... we can't like all of them.

Richly sweet - if molasses and rum were made from flowers. I'm not generally a florals gal, but this is nice. Very nice. This might be the floral for non floral lovers out there. The copal, "labdanum", and tonka are really doing an excellent job here. I likes.

At first flush, too fruity. Fruit perfume = stale fruit juice to me. Calms down a touch after a bit... and turns into sweet patchouli. It's quite nice - I never knew patchouli could be so sweet... but there ya have it. Then, it just kinda disappears.. or perhaps my nosie is tired. It's nice, but it's a likes it, not a loves it.

Bzz bzzz bzzzzzz... Honey! Beeswax! Nectar and pollen and.... Loves it. Keeps it. Hides it. Mine!

Oh, it's good. Very good. Complex too... mmmm... We start with snow, sweet hay, and the warmness of copal and swamp tea. I'm thrilled to see the swamp tea note - I love that stuff. Now, the cedar swings in - very faint, but giving this a bit of bite. Giving it teeth, as it were. The pine emerges too, very delicate. After a while longer the herbs come in.. It is easy to imagine American woods and American meadows with this one. It's absolutely gorgeous. Loves it.

This is lovely - smells like a clean and bubbly soap, but doesn't smell soapy. Sweet with a nice balance of herb and floral with a bit of a resinous underpinning. After a few moments, the resins start to pull up ahead a bit and the whole thing turns green and fresh. It's extraordinarily well blended, pretty, and seriously sophisticated. Loves it.

I smell like I've spilled artificially flavored pomegranate drink on myself. UGH Sorry lab, it's a clunker on me. Smells too sweet, too fruity, too much like a Coke product. I do get the roseyness in it too ... but it just smells like I was wearing rose oil when I spilled fruit drink on my pants. I don't have many bpal clunkers - this is actually a bit of a relief. We can't like 'em all, eh?

This is very nice. It wobbles somewhat between apple and rose, rose and apple. I'm not getting any lemon at all. This was a frimp from the lab (THANKS!) and it was one I'd been eager to try. Yay! The effect is similar to that of Victoriana soap that you get in overly fussy knicknack shops. Thus, I will not be making the jump to a big bottle. Or will I?

Pine! Eucalyptus! Orange! The orange, as others have noted, is a delicate back note with some really quite pushy neighbors. This is gorgeous though, slather it on when you get a cold! Brighten up the house for the holidays! This isn't one of those elegant BPALs that is well blended, rife with subtletly, and morphing from one moment to the next. This is about a subtle as a wheelbarrow full of bricks. It is direct, and it smells AWESOME! It is happy, and bright, and clean, and fresh! I'm thrilled to have a bottle of this. I'm going to go sprinkle some around the house, then anoint the bathtub. I might leave it in the bathroom for dropping a bit of oil in the bowl to cut through lingering biologic odors. I'm going to add a drop to my hairbrush, and a drop to my sock drawer.

This is very sharply herbal, with backnotes of hay and straw. After a moment of settling, the turpenes emerge, those sharp and biting pine and wood notes. Given another moment, the complexity of the spices emerge. This is a nice scent, but not one of my favorites. To me, the harvest is sun warmed, golden, comfortable, and cozy - with a echo of the bitter sweat of hard work and the musk of healthy excercise. Somehow, this does not capture that. This seems like a thin harvest in a hard year, with acrid dry winds and meagre portions seasoned with sharp herbs. I'll test this again after some aging - perhaps we'll get some of the warmer, richer notes that I prefer. All tolled, this is a 'meh'. There's potential... but this just might not be one for me.

Sharp sharp honey. Crazy, acrid, sour, bright, honey. Bitter and floral and rich. This smells like honey on steroids, honey on the moon, a honey explosion. It's good.

Hm. Can't honestly say that I think this helps me sleep better, but dang - I smell better while I'm doing it! Jasmine and Lavender and Rose, oh my! That having been said, this is the only jasmine scent I have that isn't too heady. This stuff is delectable and gorgeous. Mmm!

When I first smelled this, it smelled awful. Rank and flat and sweet. Now, it is better. I do get the lavender, and consequently can identify the lotus portion of the scent. I think I do not care for the lotus, but it thankfully mostly disappears on the skin. I'm going to age this for a bit longer, then have another go! I really want a close to single-note lavender. Mmm!

Mm. This smells naughty. Honey and musk and vanilla. Debauchery and pleasures of the flesh. Mmmm! Thumbs up from this humble reviewer!

Jasmine, with jasmine and a side of jasmine. I think there might be some jasmine in there too. Of course, that is nicely set off by the back notes and top notes of jasmine, but that could be jasmine too. Okay.. to be fair, the jasmine is lovely, as it always is. It's generally too heady and floral for me, but I do like the occasional whiff. I'm not getting the myrrh or rose at all. This is a nope.