splendidissima

I've liked all the Blow Molds, and I like this one too! It's mint-forward on me - a creamy sort of mint, like the inside of a peppermint patty, not like icy slush - and then there's a slightly dry semi-dark cocoa, like maybe you've bought some dark chocolate cocoa powder (which really isn't all THAT dark - not milk, but not too far past that, either) for baking. I'm not sure I get the amber as much as just an overall warmth, so it's not a cold scent - actually very cozy! Sort of like you've just got out and opened up the ingredients for baking chocolate-mint cookies, but you haven't baked them yet, while you've also got a fire or a candle glowing in the background.

I've really liked all the Blow Molds, honestly! This one's so intriguing - creamy white chocolate, bright green tea, warm cozy amber. I would absolutely eat this!

Oh, I never reviewed this! I love this one. It's a gorgeous sweet creamy amber - like a vanilla creme dessert + a hint of lemony amber. Beautiful!

I like this one - though we seem to be continuing a sequence of...every hair gloss I try isn't quite, in some odd way, what I expect it to be! Never in a bad way, just...for instance, Pumpkin Buttercream, which I thought would be lighter and sweeter, went all dark toasted smoky sugar, and the Peach Honey Cake is just straight heavy peaches in syrup (no cake), and this one...

...this one's full of dark tart berries, purple and shadowy, and then, under that, there's this...sharp/bitter note, like tannins from the tea? I don't really get any sugar at all, unless it's keeping the tea from being even more dark! I think this tea has steeped for quite a while and is very black - which is not a bad thing, because I like black tea, and the contrast with the berries is intriguing! This feels very witchy, potion-y, good for fall. I keep reaching for it because it's so interesting!

Frottle from the Lab, 2024!

Hmm - my first thought was, honestly, Irish Spring! And then it gets ever more dark green and wet, like a jungle in a downpour. I don't dislike it, but I might like it better as a bathroom or spa scent, or maybe in a lotion, versus straight perfume on me - it's that clean green soap association!

Warm and autumnal! Lots of spiced ale, plus the Lab's hay note,  dry and golden. It does feel like a late-summer-edging-into-autumn moment: sun-heated air, lots of golds and browns, a dark brown ale to sip as the sun goes down. No real sweetness except for the little whisper in the hay, the way grasses can be a little earthy-sweet. There's not a distinct booze note as much as just the scent of malty brown beer and some autumn spices, something like nutmeg or allspice.

Good throw, too!

Primarily, especially at first, a big strong sweet peach, drizzled with sugar syrup! That's the loudest note for quite a while, and then, after drying, it's sweet peach + a swirl of coconut, plus something else creamy and a little starchy that I'm guessing is the rice. Fun and summery!

Oh, gosh, I don't know if I want to be first, because my experience is...perplexing? *laughs*

It goes on very grapefruit, which is fine - I like grapefruit, though it's not my absolute favorite! But at first that's all I'm getting, with maybe a little whisper of something...else? amber? dragon's blood?

After about thirty minutes, I entirely forgot I was testing it, and I was watching a travel video on YouTube, and I suddenly thought...ooh, something smells good! Oh, wait, that's me! I think the vanilla and amber musk and angelica seed decided to pop in and temper the grapefruit into something really lovely and complex. There's some sweetness, some amber, something lightly summer-herbal (like the way the old BBW Lemongrass Sage smelled like the end of summer, if you remember that? It's not either of those notes but it has that....faded shimmery sunshine feel?)

About twenty minutes after that, it is soap.

I have no idea what's happened. It's a very pretty soap, fancy and luxury and probably herb-infused, but it's still soap. Something has kicked in and stampeded over everything else. This is dreadful, because I love that previous stage! I do have a scent locket, so perhaps I'll try it in that.

I have such a weird love for this - how have I not reviewed it??

It's got that yogurt note, which I love - tangy cream - but chilled somehow, which actually tones down the tang, and sweetened - I think that's the cake batter aspect. Layered atop that is...well...it's exactly the scent when you open a bag of gummy bears: fruit medley, slightly artificial, full of nostalgia. I don't know how Beth does it, but it's exactly that! The two layers go together in this delicious creamy yogurt fruit (slightly kid-artificial fruit-snacks but so fun!) scent - perfect for summer! (I can see how it might not be for everyone, but it's just such a delight; it makes me smile.)

A big warm spiced scent! This feels very classic BPAL to me - actually it does remind me a lot of Bastet, and not just for the cat association! It's that warm spices + almond swirl that's surging up at the forefront. But this Large Cat doesn't have Bastet's lotus or cardamom notes - that's been replaced with toasted dark gooey marshmallow and dates and a deep rich vanilla, so there's extra sweetness, but not candy sweetness; the "toasted marshmallow" really is a good descriptor!

This is going to be lovely for wearing when the weather finally cools off!

Mmm, warm rich spice, very autumnal! I primarily get warm baking spices and a baked note that made me think of not-overly-sweet pie crust but I think is in fact the bread + roasted pumpkin. (Or something like scones? You know the sort of dough that's got, like, a hint of sweetness, it'll go well with jam on top, but not like a dessert level of sweetness? It's like that.) Not much cocoa (I actually forgot that was in here!), and not much wool or oak (which I'm fine with, because woods aren't always my favorite). Absolutely cozy and cuddly and friendly, like you've been baking in an autumn kitchen with a cat sitting on a bar-stool next to you, purring.

Oh, this is lovely! Fluffy sugared coconut, warm and sweet. It's not at all suntan lotion; it's more a delicious gourmet dessert, like what Little Bird said above about a coconut sweet cream. It's exactly what it promises - and I love the art! I keep sniffing my arm. ❤️ 

Delicious! Pineapple, pistachio (which is a little cherry-ish and also nutty), coconut, orange, + mini marshmallow fluff! This is basically exactly what my grandma used to make, and exactly what it sounds like - so if that sounds good to you, you'll probably like it!

I really love ginger and shortbread, and sometimes the dead leaves note work (the maple one was great!) and sometimes they don't, so I took a chance on this!

Unfortunately, this one has a very strong DL note - I basically get overwhelmingly that, plus a sharp ginger, and maybe a little whisper of dark sweetness, like a brown sugar. Maybe I'll see what more ageing does!

Frottle from the Lab last year ('23)! Fizzy champagne, plus...lemon and ginger or ginger ale? I can see how this could be a tiki drink - or possibly veer into cleaner, with the lemon note. Interesting! - also very light on me.

Such nostalgia! Fruit roll-ups, gushers, fruit snacks! With a little hint of pepper to make it more intriguing. This is very fun, even if it makes me think more of childhood fruit candy than anything naughty!

Tart rhubarb - which I like! - plus some crumbles of golden cake and a little drizzle of cream. I would like it to be a little more balanced between all the notes, but this is fun and I don't have anything else quite like it!

I think I've also got the booze-forward version! Honestly, that's...mostly what I get? It's like...a small, shy, demure apple got drenched in brandy. I'm not mad about it - I like the brandy note - but I wanted more apple; I love the Lab's apple + something else scents, usually, and this one feels less balanced to me - it did go the way of some of the last New Year's, maybe, if that's what I'm thinking of...the Inebriated Birbs route, as mentioned above!

This was actually my first-ever BPAL hair gloss, so...I have conflicted feelings! I've had this for a while, and kept putting off writing a review. But I suppose I should!

I *love* pumpkin and sweetness, especially sweet vanillas, so I was really hoping for...some sort of sweet pumpkiny frosting, like the name promises! It finally tempted me into buying a hair gloss, because it sounded like exactly the things I like!

Alas, I am one of those who got ALL the smoke. It's sort of a sweet smoke - caramelized - I absolutely agree with Tiobe's review above: this pumpkin got rolled in sugar (maybe dark brown sugar), and then set on fire, or roasted in an oven, or something. There's still a hint of sweetness and a hint of pumpkin, but if it's sugar it's a dark burnt sugar, and it's hanging out at a nighttime witches' party with a bonfire going.

I don't in fact dislike it - actually I kind of like it, especially as a fall scent, and my husband said "something smells good!" after I walked past - but it is definitely not what I hoped I would be getting!

About the gloss as a hair gloss: my hair is both fine and frizzy, so I'm always looking for ways to tame the frizz without flattening it more! This doesn't totally tame the flyaways, but it does leave my hair feeling nice and definitely softer - I've done it on shower-damp hair and also a quick spritz on dry hair before teaching. The one day I bothered to do a little curling, I think it helped hold the curl - it stayed in place really well!

I don't know that I'd buy this specific one again, but I will try other scents!

Frosted vanilla cake, made more complex with a little drizzle of lemon and a brush of olive oil! I I've learned that I really like the BPAL olive oil note on me - a little fruity, herbal, refined, oil-rich. It's primarily sweet cake and definitely foodie, but the lemon + olive oil give it that intriguing twist - just a little more complex than pure cake. I like it!

This is very pretty, in an old-fashioned sort of way! It's like...being in an elegant parlor, eating some type of classic sticky toffee candy, surrounded by white roses. I want to say there's something nostalgic about it, again, not in a bad way - a kind of stately baroque feel, as you sit upon that parlor sofa with good posture and breathe in the scent of roses and nibble your dark-honey-toffee bonbons. It reminds me a little of Parlement of Foules - I think it's that white rose - but PoF is more softly resinous, and this Portrait's more gourmand, with the dark sweetness.

I would say it's *more* toffee-honey than rose, on me, but the rose is definitely there; I do get it wandering in. Good throw!

So fun! Sugar crystals + bright orange - it's like summer in a bottle! It actually feels like...if you remember Meigetsu Ya, from the Yules a few years back, this is like the summer version of that winter scent! It's the same bright juicy mandarin, except MY has that touch of the frost note for winter (which is a sweet-ish frost note on me), and this Pink Moon version, instead of that, has extra crystallized sugar sprinkled all over. It's very clearly sugar crystals (heh, almost a good pun!), versus any powdered or brown sugar types.

I got a backup bottle of MY back then, and I may have to grab one for this too!

Ooh, I really like this! I love BPAL's lime, and there's not enough of it, so I absolutely pounced on this, and it does not disappoint!

It's exactly what it promises: blackberries and lime, sweet and tart, a sort of scent-color of deep purples and emerald greens. It reminds me a lot of the Clown Princess of Crime from the Liliths - that sparkling lime + dark fruit, only here it's berry instead of sugar plum, and no bubblegum note (which I never really got from CPC anyway). It is on the sweeter side, but then the tart lime rind cuts through the sweetness.

It seems to not have a huge throw on me - after initial application, it's pretty skin-close - but it's lingering, if I sniff my arm.

This should be very fun for summer and early autumn!

Snagged from the Lab's Etsy!

I thought I would like this, and I was right! Rum + butterscotch + a creamy note - not sure how to disentangle cheesecake/ice cream here, but it's collectively adding a rich creamy backdrop. I don't get the hardtack crust at all, at least not that I can pick out. You do have to like dark caramelized sweetness for this, but if you do, this is for you!

Very long-lasting, though after most of this evening it's become a skin-close scent - definitely still present, but I have to sniff my arm.

This one's another one that does exactly what it says: sweet chocolate mint! It does have a creamy sort of note, like Andes mints or some sort of gourmet rich mint-chip ice cream that's drenched in flavor, rather than crunchy cookies, if that makes sense? I don't really get a crust note or a marshmallow note, at least not distinctly - I suspect the marshmallow is contributing to the 'creamy' factor.

I do like this more than the Frankenstein Blow Mold, though I overall like both - the FBM definitely has that amber/plastic note, which is *interesting*, but this is a purer sweet mint chocolate dessert.