Brianne

This is less foody than the other 13's in my opinion, there is something slightly dryer and more incensey in this version. It's like dry cocoa and a general incense smell backed by the faintest apple scent.

I was sooo worried about this one. I have about a 90% miss rate with cardamom, which has a tendency to make me feel ill (literally, physically ill for some reason, but only in perfume form??). Everything else sounded lovely about this scent. It goes on very strong cardamom. Almost immediately settles into a warm chai with carnations. Delicious and it makes me nostalgic for Autumn days and visiting our Renaissance Festival and smelling the food, and the incense and the flowers around. Nice combo it is! This is love for me, I bet this will smell so amazing aged!

This goes on like soft gardenia and white tea. Very feminine. I get a little "chrome" which I'm reading as ozone - clean and bright, making the gardenia and tea more unisex and less feminine. If you've ever smelled Elariia's White Tea with Bergamot scent, this smells very similar. It's clean, fresh, unisex - definitely not sweet or "warm" smelling as I was expecting with the vanilla musk and ambergris. I think this is a really pretty scent, though perhaps too "clean" for my own personal tastes, I do see the appeal in this blend!

Resin lovers, check this out! Ambergris and frankincense. Rich and golden ones with a touch of amber. Unfortunately for me, ambergris is usually a bit too masculine on me, and that's the case here. Lovely and golden otherwise, I have no doubt this one will probably strike a chord with resin fans

I don't get dirt and I barely get mint here (so if you're afraid of the mint, you need not worry!). What I DO get is grapefruit though. A pale grapefruit, like the one in Boabhan Sith. In fact, this reminds me a great deal of Boabhan Sith - it's light, has a flitting, pale fruit note, and is very crisp as well.

Ooh CINNAMON! Yay CLOVE!! Yum VANILLA! And.... and... oh pine sap? Cinnamon and clove are two of my faves (Three Witches is one of my fave BPAL scents). Paired with vanilla? Yes please. But then I saw pine sap in the description and my heart sank because I know that pine and I do not usually get along. Pine has a way of ruining things for me. THis goes on just as delicious as I thought it would - beautifully spicey and yet foody cinnamon and clove and vanilla - smells like some sort of spiced cake or something. Where's that pine? I know you are just waiting to ruin my day! I just sat and waited for the other shoe to drop on this. This smells too delicious to work on me. Pine is luring me into a false sense of security by waiting until the last minute to go berserk on me. But you know what? It never shows up. Pine doesn't ruin this for me. The end result is a new fave for me - it's Three Witches with vanilla frosting - how awesome is THAT? *hugs imp of Pickled Imp* I MUST buy a bottle. Or two. Or three. *wants to swim in it*

Holy lavender and hemp batman. It is like being beat to death with lavender and hemp at first! Totally not my cup o tea (bag o hemp). Thankfully that settles down a little bit, but this is SO herbally. If you love super herbally scents, this is so for you. It's like opening a drawer full of fresh herbs (a large drawer). I'm a big lover of anise and it was primarily the reason I got this blend. Unfortuantely it barely shows up on me, mostly drowned out by the herbals. If you love herbals, you will enjoy this one. They really aren't for me though, so this isn't quite my kind of scent.

This is THE scent I had the most hopes for out of this update, because it contained so many notes I adore. Basically all of it except for the hyssop are LOVE notes for me. It goes on like almost straight powdery lilac though, and I think it smells a bit like baby wash. It's gentle and feminine. After a while I start to get a lovely musk, but nothing else ever shows up here. No tobacco, no coconut, no tonka. I really want to love this one, but it's just a very close lilacy skin scent for me and not much else

What the hell was I thinking when I bought this? I saw Rosicrucian incense and just thought... oh okay incense. I like incense. It never really dawned on me at the time that Rosicrucian (rose cross) would most certainly have rose in it. And I hate rose. Sure enough, I got it and opened it up and went, "DUHHHHH ROSE CROSS! *smacks forehead*" as I was assaulted by rose. It is what you would pretty much expect (unless you are me and just did not think about it lol) - it's rose incense. But strong on the rose. I will say this, I think it's one of BPAL's nicer rose scents, it has a more classic feel to it. It makes me think of my great-grandma's house which always smelled of roses, and those little Crabtree & Evelyn rose hand soaps they used to make (still make?) that in the late 80s could be found in the bathroom of most well-to-do women. It smells almost purely of rose - it's more clean than incensey. If you fear rose, stay far away from this. If you love rose, do definitely give this a shot!

Shrunken Heads is scent deja vous for me - I've smelled this in a different BPAL scent but cannot put my finger on it. It's so similar to something else... maybe something I own even? But what? I can't remember! The leather is pleasant in this but really takes a back seat to the green, slightly sweet scent here - it's not as sickly green like Manila was on me, but instead is rich and deep and robust. I just can't describe this one any other way - it seems so appropriate for the idea though!

When this goes on, it smells like my shampoo. It's sort of vaguely fruity but in a way that makes it impossible to put your finger on exactly *what* fruit you are smelling. It's light and generally pleasant. After a minute though it starts to deepen a lot, and the myrrh, amber and redwood come out. The fruit is now "fig-ier" as well It's all well on me until the redwood becomes incredibly aggressive and makes this too woody for me. Now it's sharp and stringent almost with deep wood and a touch of green fig. Even though it's too woody for me for that phase there, I think that this might age well and so I'm going to hold onto it - I think I could grow attached to it if I give it a little time!

Mmm goes on like sweet, honeyed sandalwood. The leather is remarkably restrained in this scent - I get it, but it's more a sandalwood scent than a leather one, which doesn't usually happen with me and leather. ON ME this scent is like the male cousin of MB Underpants. It has the same sweet sandalwood on me, but instead of the sugary saffron, this has a leather base. If you are a fan at all of sandalwood, definitely try this scent - it's a beautiful sandalwood scent, not too complicated and the sandalwood is front and center. Love this one!

Dark musk indeed! Dark musk is the only musk that is just usually a miss with me, as it tends to go too powdery on my skin. This goes on very dark and deep, but instantly lightens up and becomes powdery and resinous (very much like Schwarzer Mond on my skin). For the most part this stays pretty much the same on me, it IS very similar to Schwarzer Mond on me, only I would say slightly spicier than SM was (must be the oakmoss!).

OMG it's the dreaded peanut note from Smut!! *hides under her bed* Thank goodness that eventually fades, but what is left behind isn't very Snake Charmer like on me. In fact, despite the peanut note being gone, it's still quite a bit like Smut to me. Deep red musk and a sharp woody and slightly floral undertone. I don't know if I like this or not yet. Right now I only feel so so about it, but part of me thinks this will mature into something a lot nicer and richer ultimately. Might have to get a bottle just to store away!

Why must you be so hateful pine pitch?! This goes on like a giant pine tree and it's loud and obnoxious and generally not my cup of tea. I am so HAPPY to report though that changes and it becomes much more subtle while a truly GORGEOUS skin musk and smokey vanilla creep in. It's very warm and slightly honeyed with a touch of tobacco, but mostly that skin musk that I adore. Holy crap this scent is awesome. I think everyone who said that it will be the "hit" of CD is probably right - this is a real winner right here, I must MUST stock up on bottles before CD comes down, that's how awesome this is.

I know some people are not that fond of red musk, but I think it is simply divine. This goes on like warm, sweet red musk and it's totally gorgeous. For now, my fears about the rose are quelled. The floral starts to creep in, but it's the light magnolia that I smell right now, not the rose. I *barely* get the clove and it just lightly spices the red musk, and the other notes don't seem to be coming out to play much. Which is fine by me, because the red musk is just lovely all on it's own. Unfortunately, that doesn't last long and suddenly it's soft florals which fade quickly. I don't know what happens, but it's like my skin noms up the red musk and leaves me with some florals which it also quickly noms afterwards :/ I can smell the musky florals if I put my nose directly on my skin and give a big whiff, but otherwise this has disappeared on me.

This goes on a lot like Gennivre for me (one of my favorite scents!) as it's all tea and soft florals. I don't get any nectarine at all, but I definitely get that clean, lovely bergamot. Like ShriekingViolet, I get something warm, buttery and slightly nutty here also. I am not sure what that is - the beeswax?? It's gone just as quickly as it appeared though and now I get a little bit of nectarine, but it is pale - not quite ripe yet and seated far in the background on this one. Unfortunately, this one goes all floral on me after a few minutes and the other notes are drowned out by the sharp floral scent that comes out in this one.

Mmmm the patchouli in this is delicious - it reminds me of the one in Mme. Moriarty and in The Lurid Library - in fact, this scent has the same sort of "vibe" that those two have. Lightly fruited incense is what I get from those and what I get from Dionysia. If you're a fan of those other two, definitely try this one! The plum is subtle but beautiful here, and this has a wonderful incense component here. I have no doubt this is going to age beautifully!

I live in fear of jasmine. When I see it in a scent description, I almost immediately want nothing to do with it. There are a couple notes though that can make me try something anyways, and tea is definitely one of those. So I go to open the vial and I'm practically cowering, expecting jasmine to pop out and slap me around -- but... IT DOESN'T. In fact... I don't get jasmine at all, which is so terribly... unusual for me. It's such a dominant note on my skin (and a stinky one on me too unfortunately) that not smelling it here is just a true little scent miracle lol. It goes on as very strong acai berry - I always think acai smells slightly watery and floral almost rather than a sugary, froo froo kind of fruit. The tea is light and very Asian in vibe with that acai. The chrysanthemum is very pleasant and also quite light here, so these make such a subtle, unassuming scent. It's very nice, very wearable - but unfortunately my skin eats this in less than 15 minutes.

When this goes on at first, I got really excited because it goes on just like MB Underpants on me @__@ I mean honestly, smells exactly the same wet. That does change though lol. It quickly becomes woodier and more amber than vanilla (whereas the wet stage is very vanilla). I'm sort of surprised that this scent is not screaming of cedar on me, since that note tends to get a little crazy out of control on my skin. It's actually incredibly subdued here and works well with the amber. I don't get vanilla past the wet stage so for the most part this scent ends up being very ambery and woody with a little bit of carnation in the late life of this scent.

This smells surprisingly like leather on me for a while - I know it's not listed and it likely isn't in there, but the combination of these notes ends up like a sweet, leathery scent. It's less spicy than I anticipated, but it IS spiced and the vetiver isn't nearly as dark as I figured it would be. The result is a scent that is slightly spiced, a bit masculine, and smells of slightly sweet smoke. It's a bit too masculine for me, but I can understand the appeal of this one, it's a nice smokey scent!

Gah I was hoping that rose would be nice here and not drown out everything else. Unfortunately, it is very very very strong me and after wearing it for half an hour, I still mostly get rose and a tiny touch of absinthe. You'd think I'd learn my lesson about rose, but I just keep trying lol.

This was hard for me to get at first, because it kept morphing so quickly on me - from sweet and warm, to super dry woods, to iris and pale woods. Eventually though, it settles quite definitely into a pale, pretty iris with soft and dry woods. It's nice and very wearable

This goes on like pink bubblegum - not the juicy, fruity types but the old generic staple bubblegum that we ALL know I don't get leather in this scent at all, which is strange because leather usually amps on me. I get a nice ambery/musky combo though which really brings the bubblegum into a very wearable stage. I wouldn't think that I would want or need two bubblegum scents from CD, but I love Xanthe AND The Blockhead so looks like I WILL need two hehe!

So sad, jasmine strikes again This goes on like baby powder and then becomes very strong jasmine on me and nothing else. After it's on me a while I start to get the spicy green oakmoss a bit, but it's mostly jasmine on my skin!