Em-

OMG...this is the first lunal oil I've tried and it is the most absolutely amazing scent... like a couple of others above I got a teensy little taste of this as laganappe from Shay in an eBay auction (which is so amazingly cool, might I add...). I missed out on the April lunar order, but thank goodness I already have an imp lined up from a swap, because I am going to need something to hold me until I can snag a bottle(s) here, because this scent is incredible... In the vial, it is a decadent, creamy, buttery potion...on my skin, it lightens just enough to not feel *heavy* on a hot summer day. I can still smell the cream, but the butter lifts and the light mint (like fresh mint in a garden, as opposed to the sweet peppermint smell of Spooky) and coconut start to come out. It reminds me a bit of a coconut cake I make with coconut milk as the only liquid - it has that same rich denseness about it. Every time I catch a whif of this, it gives me little shivers of delight. Oh how I want more...

This is an incredibly fruity scent on me (which I suppose is kind of a duh statement, but there it is...) In the bottle, I am not sure what I smell, but it's not quite pumpkin. Wet, it is all fruit - at first it was more like apple or pear, but then I started to smell the pumpkin and a lot of the peach note. Unfortunately, I am not getting much of the spice at all - it is not a pumpkin pie/bread/baked good smell for me, but very "fresh cut jack o lantern" with other fresh fruity smells which must be the peach, and an almost apple cider note. I really *like* the fruit, but I would like it to have more of an anchor - spice or rum or brandy or something would help this party a lot. I do really like the scent. It is very evocative of early fall and going to apple orchards and pumpkin picking and the scent of bonfires and cider and caramel without necessarily trying to cram all of those scents into the bottle. I think it will make a smashing perfume for September and October and possibly a room scent as well...probably not a 5ml purchase, but definitely an imp I'll keep around. Edit - I really need to wait more than a few hours before writing these things - at about 8:00 last night, after I thought Jack had already completely taken his leave from my wrists I sniffed and lo and behold, there was the creamy icing scent that others have posted about...the intense fruityness was mostly gone, so it was almost like a very faint carrot cake. Crazy how these oils morph over the course of a day...

First off, thank you to requiminblack for parting with some precious... I have to admit that my first thought when I opened this imp was...hunh? It didn't smell like much of anything to me and was, if anything, a bit chemically. When I sniffed the applicator and actually put a bit on, though, it was immediately *GINGERBREAD!!!* Amazing, wonderful, perfect gingerbread. How does Beth do that?!?!?! An hour or so later it is still true, yummy baking gingerbread...I feel like it is December and I'm baking Christmas cookies. Truth be told, this is probably not a scent that I will wear year round. One thing that this whole BPAL exploration is teaching me is that while I think of myself as liking "foody" scents, I tend to prefer scents that evocative of ingredients mixed with other things, as opposed to the finished product (Spooky is something of an exception, but then again, once the OMG-thin mint!! stage is over, it smells more like a mixture to me than a specific baked good, but I digress...) Gingerbread Poppet is a scent I can definitely see myself reaching for in late October, when the leaves are drifting in the streets and the skies are shifting to gray and I want something warm and spicy to remind me that there are wonderful days to come yet in the year. Oh, and if it comes back again, a Poppet is absolutely sneaking into my shopping cart!

Spooky has to have the most apt description of any BPAL blend I've encountered so far (not all that many to be sure, but whose counting...) Spooky is like a holiday party...the Peppermint? It's that friend that you really like and you hope that they will show up, but at the same time you are a little nervous that they might kind of freak out your other friends. So when Sir Peppermint shows up, parties hard for about an hour, dancing a lot with Ms. Cocoa, but then leaves for more exciting digs, it's cool to see him, but him leaving is really not such a big deal. Especially because when he leaves, Coconut and Buttered Rum and Vanilla really start to get their groove on. Cocoa sticks around, but she is quieter after Peppermint takes off...gets a little shy - he really brings it out of her, and now maybe she's had a little too much to drink in that quiet sort of way...but the rest of them, they stick around and just hang out. Maybe they are talking politics, or music. They are definately getting sloshed on your liquor, cause, at leaston my wrists, they stick around five, maybe six hours. It is a *really* good party.

From the moment I read the decsription of this scent, I knew I had to try it and I knew that one way or another, it would break my heart. When I got hold of an imp, thanks to an accident of good timing, I was estatic. And my first whif from the imp was everything I hoped it would be...so sweet and rich and full of goodness...it reminded me of exactly what it must smell like in a Mexican bakery on del Dia...and I just knew right then and there that somehow I was going to have to find a bottle of this amazing elixor... I thought that was going to be the heartbreak...then I tried it on...in some horrible alchemical joke, the moment this blend hits my skin, the wonderful sweet food evaporates and all that is left are the funeral flowers. And that, ladies, is how this oil broke my heart, but saved my wallet. Luckily, the flowers do still smell lovely, and there is a hint of sugar left in them, and, thankfully, they do not trigger a migraine as so many florals do for me, but I was hoping that they would stay in the background... Ah well...it is still amazingly lovely to sniff... I have to update this to say that on subsequent wearings, I am coming to absolutely adore the richness of this oil...once I got over my initial "ew, it the flowers" (I swear, I love flowers in person, just not so much in bottles!) I really started to appreciate the complexity of the layering here - over the course of the day the florals come and go, as different scents come forward - the bakery, the procession through the village...this scent reminds me very much of Ray Bradbury's story about Del Dia, which is just lovely. I can imagine slathering myself in it for a visit to one of the tombs he described. This may well start to become one of my favorite scents, which will lead us back to the *original* anticipated heartbreak...

I tried this on a whim in an LJ tranasaction and am *so* gld that I did. I was afraid that the cyprus/mossy/woodsyness would be a bit more than I could stand without some sort of sharp cirtus note (a la Nero) to help lighten it... The scent in the bottle did little to allay my fears, but on my skin, this party belongs to that sliver of hazlenut and boy does it know how to have a good time. The woods are way in the background on my wrists. Not only that, but the nut has stamina. Not Blood Kiss -I-can-smell-it-the-next-morning-like-I-just-put-it-on kind of stamina, but it sticks around to see what's for dinner. In reading the other reviews for this one, I am struck by just how incredibly different oils are on different people's skin - I wish I could share my version with those of you who wanted the hazlenut...

Reading the reviews, I thought that I would have to love Vice. Chocolate, orange, cherry...what's not to love? Vice is fairly true to its nature on me - I smell like chocolate, although I'm not getting as much of the orange blossom or cherry as some others, methinks. The question then becomes, do I want to smell like chocolate all day? I am quite surprised, really, given that I have decided that I Spooky, and generally love vanilla, honey and other "foodie" notes, that, I do not in fact want to smell like chocolate all day. (Which I suppose nixes Bliss for me as well...) But, since I have approximately 100 different scents on my wishlist and at least 20 heading my way, I do not have struggle with this agony any longer.

I tried this on a lark. I tend to like masculine scents, as they tend to smell cleaner than feminine scents and to not have the flowery notes that set off my head-demons. Nero is very very pine at first (cleaner, according to MDH, but what does he know), but on a second sniff, I can smell something else coming through. When I first tried Nero on my skin, it felt like a risk, as I was very afraid that something in it might set off a migraine and I was going to be away from the house all morning...omg, I loveed it. It is not something that I would want to wear every day, be it is something that will become a comfort scent for me, I thin. On dry down, the sharp piney scent fades away into something much more mellow...kind of like a big cozy grandpa chair or something. I find it very comforting in an autumn leaves sort of way - I can definitely see myself keeping an imp of this around to wear on fall and winter days when I just need something warm and comfortable, or on those days when you just know that work is going to be hell...

This was one of the very first BPAL scents I tried, thanks to purchasing a decant here on the forum, and I was *so* hoping to love it. Unfortunately, while I like it in the bottle, it goes sour on me quickly. I cannot pinpoint why exactly - I think that perhaps chocolate may not agree with my chemistry, but it smells very astringent both wet and on dry down on my skin. So sad. Edited to add later impressions As noted above, Cerberus was one of the very first (as in the second) BPAL blends I tried, and I swapped it away quickly and never really thought about it again. Then, just yesterday, I received a decant if the pooch as a frimp from a forumite and decided, what the heck, it's been several months, perhaps my palate has matured a bit. I am really glad that I did. Whether it is a matter of me being more prepared to appreciate it, batch differences, age, or what, I really enjoyed Cerberus this time around. I can smell the fig and the cherries and the cocoa seems to be similar to the more unrefined note that I like in Freak Show (as opposed to the fine chocolate notes of Vice or Bliss that I'm less fond of). The darker nutty, woodsy notes really base this and it is, frankly much more lovely than I was able to give it credit for. Cerberus would still not be in my regular rotation, but I think I will be holding on to this little impsy after all...

Blood Kiss is the first BPAL scent that I put on my wrists and just knew was perfect. In the bottle, it is complex, more "perfumey" than I usually wear, in that it cearly has a floral/musk undertone, but the vanilla and wine and deep fruityness balance that for me. And, of utmost importance, it would seem that poppy is not a migraine trigger for me! I love this scent on. It has amazing staying power and just envelopes me in a way that none of the other oils I've tried (only 8 to date, to be fair) have. Hours later, it is a *little* powdery, but I can still smell the richness that was there in the bottle and wet on my skin (this smells remarkably similar to me in all stages, actually). I definitely want at least a 5ml of this one...

When I read the description of Sudha Segara, I knew I had to try it...honey, ginger, cream...not so sure what this ambrosia note will small like, but honey, ginger, cream...oh my! I almost ordered a 5 ml unsniffed, so sure was I that I would adore this oil... On first sniff, what a disappointment. I can barely smell anything in the bottle. Just...sweet, kinda spicy, but not anything to give it any oomph. So I try it on...all powder. Nothing really. It's is pleasant enough, but not special. I so wanted Sudha Segara to be special. Then I tried it again, with a thicker application, and after swirling the oil a bit (I'm working from a half full imp from a swap, so YMMV) and... MAGIC!!! I can smell the ginger. I can smell the honey. I can smell something wonderful holding it all down and making it even more yummy and wonderful and not really foodie, but oh so much like some wonderful place where I can just float away for awhile. Aaaahhh...

I really really really wanted to like this one, because I *love* mint. In the bottle, I thought it was great and couldn't wait to try it - so fresh, so minty, but with that undercurrent... Unfortunately that undercurrent didn't sit well with my brain chemistry and started to trigger a migraine within minutes of application. Later sniffilings confirmed that this imp needs a new home. I'm really hoping it was the "moss" elements, and not the mint elements which were a problem, though, 'cause I want more mint!

First thought in the bottle - Wow, this is strong, sweet, almost syrupy. Silly me didn't actually recognize the almond note until later. Wet - smelled exactly like it did in the bottle. I was hoping for a little more grain and earthiness, a little less nut, but I really like the milk and honey bit. On drydown, the sharp almond, almost amaretto-ness remains, but I'm really growing to like it, although it makes me want to eat my arm... And my hubby likes it, so that's a plus!