sunshinedaisybliss

Oh HELLO THERE powerful Sumatran patchouli! I love the way you have filled the air around me with deep, dark patchouliness! (that is so a word ) Once I get over the intense blast of patchouli, which quite literally almost made my eyes water, I find the lovely woodsy-ness of the copaiba and pao d’arco are in there too - together, the woods and the patchouli create the atmosphere of a deep, dank, dark forest. The kind of forest you have to cut your way through with a machete to get through to daylight Further on into the drydown, the lovely cacao and bourbon vanilla come out - a good thing, too, because without them I think La Mano would be just a little too much of a good thing.. I mean, I like my patchouli and woodsy smells - but this one goes to eleven. It's reminding me a lot of Banshee Beat - not that they smell the same at all.. but they both have that gnarly oomph to them. Ooh - and also Lucy, Kissed with that snarly dark lush patchouli it has. I'm also reminded of Panther Moon - although not a patchouli blend, it has that lovely enveloping darkness to it. I like a bit of oomph and enveloping darkness I think the cinnamon is just lost in here - I can't really pick it up on its own, but what I do smell seems more like a sweet kind of cinnamon than an obviously spicy one. And the tobacco only really comes out on my skin after I've had La Mano on for almost an hour - it took that long for the patch/woods to mellow out enough! I'm liking the tobacco here - it's pretty soft and.. slightly damp smelling, but it adds a nice warm glow. This is going to be even more awesome a year from now after it's aged a bit. If you're scared of patchouli.. then walk away now my friend, for this one will frighten little children and almost certainly make babies cry. But if you like your patchouli to be all gnarly and pulsing, and you don't particularly care about scaring people.. then this one's for you. edited for spelling fail. .

YUM YUM YUM!! I'm LOVING this one!! Mastermind has some of my most-loved notes in it.. leather, black amber, oudh, and bourbon vanilla - it was only the jasmine that I was worried about. Oh, and the mention of 'cologne' - that almost put me off. But oh happy day - I'm not picking up any jasmine at all here, thankfully my skin has decided to dispose of it completely! And cologne? What cologne?? Something in here smells like a bit like dark chocolate when I first apply it - I wonder what that is! I suspect it's all those dark notes mixing with the bourbon vanilla, but I'm not complaining because it smells divine! I can pick up the leather (warm and 'new' as opposed to worn), the black amber is dark and dusky, the oudh is adding a lush smokey vibe, and the orange blossom is just adding a faint touch of sweetness. On full dry-down, this actually reminds me very much of Hellion.. but I tend to amp plum, so I guess that's why I can smell it so strongly here. I do think that Mastermind has a strong similarity to Hellion.. but where Hellion on me was very golden and warm in tone, Mastermind is more dark and definitely devilishly handsome. So far, this is my fave of the Grendel scents. I just might need a bottle

Damn you, lilac, why can't you behave on my skin? And frankincense.. why do you have to turn into lemon sometimes? You two have completely ruined Exorcist for me.. I can smell the lovely resins and the dark musk trying to come forward but nope - the lilac mixed in with the lemony-frankincense are not pleasant at all on my skin, the whole thing ends up smelling like a cheap Avon perfume. Sadly, this is not a winner for me.

Mmm.. I'm loving this one! On my skin, it has a similar feel/tone to Spanked.. slightly spicy, soft and dusky, warm and snuggly. I almost didn't bother trying this one, because I was worried about the floral notes (the tuberose and pikaki, especially) - but I'm happy to report that I don't really notice the florals in here at all. What I do get is a lovely soft vanilla (not sweet) with a rum tinge, a gorgeous earthiness from the patchouli, and a slight spicy kick from the pepper, clove and caraway.. but it's not SPICY as such, it just has a hint of brown spices. Golden amber is fast becoming a favourite note for me - it doesn't go as uber-powdery as some other ambers on me - and in Avenger it lends just a hint of golden softness that's really lovely. So although I was expecting this to be a bit more kick-ass with that pepper/patchouli/clove combo, I'm not at all disappointed.. this is working really nicely on me! If you enjoy dusky, semi-spicy blends then I would definitely recommend giving this one a try

You could try Antony (reviews here) - the notes are ambergris and frankincense with sage and basil but I find it has a very dill-like smell to it. I also remember picking up a dill-like smell from Black Cat. You could also check Envy, Loup Garou and Delphi - those all had a hint of dill to my nose. A lot of people mention a 'dill pickle' smell to certain BPALs, but I'm not sure that's what you're after! Dill itself is not something I've encountered in many blends, so good luck in your search!

At first, slightly sour berries (for me, blackberry=sour).. a hint of booziness, musky redness. On full drydown, the darker berries have taken a back seat to the sweeter ones (strawberry, blueberry), the booziness has gone completely, and the cherry is the star of the show. Where's the apricot? Dunno.. it never showed up. In the end, I have musky cherry with a hint of blueberry. Which isn't a bad thing at all, really.. but the middle stage with the lovely sweet rich berries was nicer

Err.. no, not my thing at all. The elements I was hoping to find (blood orange, ylang ylang and tonka) are lost completely in the blazing white light of the chypre and florals. I can't actually discern many individual notes I can smell the violet leaf and also the rose, but that's about it - it's just a sharp, strong, perfumey mix of smells that I don't like at all. Oh wait.. the bergamot - that's pretty strong. It has a real old-fashioned vibe to it. But that's just me - I knew this one wouldn't work, but I wanted to try it anyway. I actually ended up washing it off, because the smell was just way too much for me.. it was like getting into an elevator that's just been vacated by one hundred ladies who had doused themselves in their favourite Avon perfume before leaving the house on their way to Seniors' Night at the bingo hall. I feel bad saying that, because this is a beautiful perfume creation in its own right, but it's just totally not my thing PS to be fair, after washing this off my skin - I checked my arm and there's still a hint of Donna left behind.. and it's actually quite nice now. It's like a mix of baby shampoo and soft florals, nothing like it was at full strength. Still not enough to make me want to wear it, but definitely not the Eau de one hundred Avon-wearing bingo ladies that it was before

This painting has long been a favourite of mine, so I was really excited to see how Beth translated it into a perfume! And.. I am not disappointed This one took a little while to settle in to my skin - at first it was a strange mix of woody, herbal-y, citrusy smells that was a little sharp.. but 10 minutes later, oh.. it was much better! I think it hit its best point for me at about 30 minutes in. So you really can't go wrong with chocolate and orange, but this is so much more than just your regular choc-orange thing.. the richness of the king mandarin paired with the lovely dark cocoa absolute is sublime here.. it's everything it should be - rich and deep but not at all foody nor overly sweet. And the combination of the woody and green tones with the tonka and galangal produce a gorgeous earthy smokiness that sits just under the sweetness of the mandarin/cocoa duo. Much like The Tree of Life itself, this perfume unfolds more layers of interest as it goes - it changes tones but overall stays pretty consistent. Over time, the mandarin does fade a fair bit which leaves the beautiful ash bark and the wood and moss to play more of a lead role, but the mandarin is still there.. just a lot more subdued. It definitely has an 'alive' feel to it - I'm reminded of how a forest smells.. just kind of alive. Tree of Life doesn't have a lot of throw, it's one of those 'lean in to enjoy' kinds of BPALs, and I found it faded fairly quickly on my skin, but it was completely enjoyable the whole time it was there.

This scent has beautiful, glowing tones of red, orange and gold to me - it's got a lovely sensuality about it.. velvety, musky, slightly powdery, and quite intoxicating. There's a lot of complexity to this perfume - on my skin, it comes up with a really interesting interplay between the red musk, the red amber and the sandalwood - those are definitely the main players for me, but the frankincense is present too.. just not as obvious. The red musk is soft and warm here, which is good news for those who have trouble with red musk when it's in full-on strength mode. I don't really pick up anything floral or green, and I probably wouldn't have detected the tobacco note if I didn't see it listed, but I'm thinking it's that + the golden musk that's giving it the gold tones I can feel. After it has fully dried down, Hygeia ends up smelling like a dusky incense on my skin.. a red musk/sandalwood incense. But there's a lovely subtlety to this - it's one of those BPALs that just kind of absorbs into my skin, so that it isn't really obviously a perfume - it's just a lovely scent cloud around me. I can't really see myself reaching for this one very often, but I do enjoy testing Beth's Salon blends because they are always something a bit special.. and this one is no exception. PS does anyone else see a similarity to Crowley, in the 'red' tones of Hygeia? I know that's a very unlikely pair to put together as being similar, but to me they share the same kind of red warmth.

Hiya PixelTreason Welcome to the forum! Oh yeah.. if you like the foody ones, you're going to love Halloween time!! You had better start putting some pennies away now, in preparation Candy Corn Coated Candy Apple was actually from last year's Halloween series at the Black Phoenix Trading Post (scroll about a third of the way down that page and you'll see it) - so it was a Limited Edition, and no longer available. However.. I found a bottle for sale here, and if you look through the 'For Sale' topic you can probably find a decant (an imp-sized sample) if you'd prefer to try it before grabbing a whole 5ml. Last Halloween was like a foody-lover's feast - but sadly those things are always limited editions. Really though, there's not much you can't find if you dig through the For Sale area, so don't give up on finding something even if it's no longer available. Eat Me is an interesting one, because it has the cake and also the currant/berry notes.. so the trick there is to work out which it is you like (the cake or the berries) or whether it's the combination of the two.. that will help you decide what other similar things you might like to try. Molls has given you some excellent starting points in those links she posted, but if you spend some time in the 'Recommendations' topic then you will be able to look through pages of recommendations and suggestions for just about every kind of smell you could ever want! Probably the best collection of foody-related scents are in The Mad Tea Party line, but there's some good ones scattered all through the General Catalogue. And yes, the website can be a bit overwhelming.. just start at the top of the menu on the left and work your way through one collection at a time - if you take notes of the ones that catch your eye, you can come back here and then read the reviews to find out more. But back to Halloween - it won't be long now, and they should be here.. so maybe just browse around for now and wait to see if anything tempts you when the Weenies get here

Hmm.. I really love Lucy, Kissed - diabolical voluptuousness, a siren song from the grave: juniper and yew brushing against blackened violets and funeral roses, red musk and hot blood, veined white marble and icy, brittle musk, all pulsing with the sinister, hypnotic scent of patchouli, amber, oude, and cubeb - it was an LE from the Trading Post back in '09, so it's a little harder to find, but if you think your Mom would like that sort of thing.. it really is one of the most impressive patchouli blends I've found in BPAL - the patch is definitely there, and it's beautifully deep and earthy, but all those other notes just take it to a whole new level (don't mind the violet or rose - I'm not into florals at all, and this isn't a 'floral' blend). I would definitely recommend hunting down a decant to try There's been some pretty awesome LE blends starring patchouli over the years (Panther Moon is one that comes to mind) but chasing them down can be tricky.. so here's some that I like in the GC (you'll notice a theme here as to how I like my patchouli but really these aren't all as evil as they sound!): Vixen - lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker’s perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli. Sin - thoroughly corrupted: amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon. Depraved - a salacious, lecherous, leering scent - dirty and dark, slapped with a wet sweetness. Earthy black patchouli swelling with apricot. Goblin - dab a bit behind each ear, and you'll be instantly inspired to alter street signs, shake fruit from your neighbor's trees, and hide your roommate's car keys. Black coconut, gnarly patchouli, and sweet benzoin. Desire - the overwhelming agony of passion crystallized into a singularly dark and magnetic blend: bittersweet neroli, black patchouli and black musk, gilded by apple, bergamot, blood red rose, teak, and vanilla. And of course my absolute favourite.. Banshee Beat, which you really should try and get hold of because it's just drop-dead gorgeous. Here's a tip - if you want to find blends with a specific note in them.. use the Advanced Search function - type in your note (eg 'patchouli') in the search box, leave the 'Match' option set to 'any words' (don't check the 'Search Titles Only' box), leave the author and date fields blanks then in the next 'section' line - check the button for 'Forums', then in the box next to 'Find in forum' just scroll down the list until you find 'Reviews' - highlight that, and then just underneath there where it says 'Display results' - check the button for 'As posts'. Click the SEARCH button down the bottom, and it will now bring up every post in the Reviews topic that mentions patchouli. Oh.. and I personally find that BPAL's various patchouli notes definitely benefit from a bit of aging, so if you get some that don't smell too great when they're brand-new fresh.. don't give up - put them aside for a little bit and see if they mellow out. Hope that helps!

Tombstone was the first thing that came to my mind for JD

Hi Asinya Well.. those are both really interesting stories for the smells you're trying to find! I can think of several Limited Edition blends that would probably be just right, but they can be hard to find since they're no longer available.. so I'm going to stick to the general catalogue of BPAL. So let's see - for your impish forest troll, how about: Bayou - A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms. Goblin - black coconut, gnarly patchouli, and sweet benzoin. Ekhidna - mandrake, dark myrrh, seaweed, swampy moss, black pepper, pimento, opoponax, tobacco absolute, and tarry clove. And of course.. there's Troll - this is a gruesome blend of ghastly greens and blacks: vetiver, pine pitch, troll musk, black basil, clove smoke, and scorched cumin. For your Swedish Huldra: Imp - devilishly playful: white peach, amber, golden musk and patchouli. Nocnista - her scent is that of a lightless fir wood, nighttime air, wet forest mosses and upturned earth. Bewitched - deep, luscious green and berry scents that evoke images of woodland witchcraft and the raw power of nature: blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and dark musk. Fae - a brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss. The Forest Reverie - a sunlit ancient forest, dotted with wild roses, grape vine, and queenly lilies, clothed in swirls of opium smoke. I'm also thinking that you might enjoy one of the Black Phoenix Trading Post's atmospheric sprays (for scenting your rooms and linens) - Fae Forest: Mist-shrouded woods: Siberian fir needles, white pine bark, aspen leaf, wild lily, bergamot, wood violet, thimbleberry, sun-star, golden bell, snowdrop, heartsease, and bloodroot. I've probably interpreted your request too literally, but perhaps you'll find something amongst those suggestions that will pique your interest Since you're international, to save yourself the cost of shipping from the Lab if you just want to buy imps.. I would suggest looking through the 'For Sale' section here on the forum - you'll find people selling imps at very fair prices and with reasonable postage costs so that's a great way to grab a whole bunch of things to try, without having to spend too much. I hope you find what you're looking for! Edited to mention.. this post would be better in the 'Recommendations' topic - but don't worry, it will get moved by a forum moderator if that's the case

Hmm.. I'm pretty sure these would have all been mentioned already in this thread - but for pure coconut/vanilla I don't think you'll get better than Tiki Princess.. it was a forum-only blend, so you'll need to go hunting for it but it shouldn't be too hard to find a decant to try. And from the GC.. have you tried Obatala? The description is 'Obatala’s ofrenda is soft, white and pure: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water.' so there's nothing musky/dark or heavy in there at all - it's a lovely soft, slightly milky/creamy coconut with a beautiful clean, cool feel so it's not overly sweet or suntan lotion-ish at all. You can check through the reviews here but I'd say it's definitely worth a try. Oh, and personally - Black Opal doesn't really hit me as a coconut blend (although there is a coconut-ish smell to it), but it is a lovely clean/soft vanilla. Another one worth considering is Black Pearl - the notes are 'Coconut, Florentine iris, hazelnut and opalescent white musk' - so this one has a musk but not a dark one, a floral feel from the iris, and a bit of interest via the hazelnut (which on me isn't like NUTS at all, it's soft and nice).. reviews are here.. it may be worth a try

I can't think of anything in the GC with freesia, apart from 51.. and Mad Kate has already been mentioned, but here's some from the LE/unimpable lot that might be worth trying if you can hunt down a decant - Nymphia (LE): White rose, apple blossom, spun sugar, mango, cucumber, freesia, coconut, and lavender. Reviews Octopus and Abalone Diver (Lupercalia LE): Ambergris accord, water lily, freesia, sea spray, molluscan seashell accord, and driftwood. Reviews Peacocks (Salon): Asian pear, white musk, bamboo pulp, violet, ambergris, sugar cane, night-blooming jasmine, plum, freesia, and moss. Reviews The Smilin' Servitors' Hyperdimensional Holiday Hits (LE): freesia, eucalyptus, and yuzu, with sicilian lemon, massoia, opoponax, night-blooming jasmine, white bergamot, and copaiba oleoresin. Reviews Jasmine Cottage (Neil Gaiman's Good Omens): Camellia, jasmine, heather, orange blossom, osmanthus, wisteria, thyme, angelica, freesia, granny’s nightcap, and English wildflowers. Reviews Sunrise With Sea Monsters (Salon): Ocean mist, kelp, ambergris, amber, white pear, osmanthus, freesia, and seafoam accord. Reviews The East (Neil Gaiman's Stardust): The scent of the winds beyond the wall: bluebonnet, passion flower, freesia, jasmine tea, mint, thyme, and redcurrant. Reviews To search for a particular note, the easiest way is to go to the Advanced Search option, type in what you're looking for (eg freesia).. select 'Forums' and then choose 'Reviews' from the topic list, then check the button that says 'Display results as posts' - that will bring up any reviews that mention your word. Hope that helps! edited to fix a busted link

This is definitely the one I like better out of UOH2 and UOH34.. this one has a nice soft patchouli and something kinda warm and snuggly behind it (where UOH2 was over-the-top hardass patchouli) - it dries down to a really lovely creamy patchouli with a touch of powderiness. There's a top note in here that's a little bit sour to my nose, but it comes and goes (the top note, that is - not my nose). I feel like a traitor for straying to these prototypes, I should have known they wouldn't be as splendid as my beloved Banshee Beat. But still.. UOH34 is nice in its own right, and if you're one of the people who found Banshee Beat just Too.Much. then this one is probably worth a try.

Wowsers.. this patchouli is mean - on my skin, UOH2 could almost be a patchouli single-note.. but not the nice soft snuggly kind of patchouli - this is the snarling, dark and earthy kind of patch that scares people The hemp is also very present, and it does interfere with the patchouli quite a bit. And then suddenly, just as I was thinking OMG this is a bit too much kickass for me to wear.. I go in for another sniff, and it's almost gone! How bizarre.. such a massive change in just a couple of minutes. So in the end, I'm left with the remnants of strong patchouli (which dries down a little powdery) and the undertones of hemp with something rather woodsy - like a damp, dark wood. I can't really say that I've noticed much vanilla at all. Given my extreme love for Banshee Beat, I am a little disappointed that this proto didn't live up to my hopes/expectations but I really can't complain because I have Banshee Beat and I loves it - and it's the vanilla in BB that I particularly love. But if you enjoy a good strong patchouli note, then you'll probably love this one!!

_shell_bells - for buttered popcorn, you really can't beat Shill - the description is 'Gloriously innocent and guileless: pure buttered popcorn!' and reviews are here - it smells *exactly* like buttered popcorn. But the bad news is, it's hard to find because it came out as part of the Carnaval Noir series which has long been discontinued. A close runner-up is Trick or Treat from the Halloween 2009 series (or the original 2005 version) - the description is 'The sticky sweet scent of candy corn! Even cornier for 2009! - cuz corny is how we roll at BPAL!' and reviews are here.. that one's more of a candy corn smell, but it still has the buttered popcorn thing going on - and it should be much easier to find than Shill For buttery vanilla, the best one I can think of is a prototype - BTCS (reviews are here) - some people found it more 'butterscotch' than 'butter' and the reviews vary a lot, some mention nuts and/or chocolate, but on me it was a really buttercream-y vanilla. Again, that one's going to be hard to find.. but I really can't think of any other vanilla that's totally buttery.

I'm going to keep an eye on replies to this, because I really like Scent of Angels.. but I find Possets' oils just don't have the quality of BPAL's and that particular one doesn't last long on my skin. And also because every time I try Scent of Angels, it drives me nuts because all I can think of is "which BPAL does this remind me of?!?" - I know there is a BPAL, but I can't place it!

Yeah.. I agree that Halfling has an oatmeal vibe about it - but there's also a slight berry-like tinge and a little bit of spice behind it, so it's not completely oatmeal.. not on my skin, anyway. Cockaigne is another blend that people say smells like oatmeal cookies.. but that also has a wine/berries tone. Dana O'Shee reminds me of oatmeal with almond milk and honey. Oatmeal has also been mentioned in reviews for Brood XIX so that might be worth investigating. But I really can't think of any BPAL that has an avocado note, or smells like avocado - sorry! EDIT: I just thought of something.. one of the Dark Delicacies B Movies blends - That! The Terror From Over There! The description is 'A swarm of chittering greens, smooshy kiwi, and wasabi' but you should check the reviews to see how people found it - to me it was really green and fresh.. slightly peppery from the wasabi, but it definitely has a cool green freshness that's kind of avocado-like. It's probably worth searching around to find a decant, and maybe then you could layer it with something oatmeal-y to get the smell you're looking for .

It's still overwhelming sometimes, even when you've been around a while The tricky thing with prototypes is that the reviews can be in a couple of places, depending on what kind of prototype they are. For the bottles that were sold via the Trunk Show events, you'll find those reviews at the 'Event Exclusives' topic that you've already been to.. but there's also an 'Unreleased Scents' topic here - that's got things that were given out as special frimps, Will Call exclusives.. and even some prototypes as well - so those two threads are kinda muddled up a bit.. if you're looking for something, you should check both topics. Oh, and if you have a prototype that doesn't have any reviews posted yet, you can click the 'Start a new topic' button and then post your review As for swapping your prototypes bottles - that's no problem, you just put them up in a regular swap post like you would any others.

When this first arrived, I tested it right away and found it to be sharp, and kinda stinky, so I put it aside for a few days.. hoping things might change. So out it comes again today, and sadly - nope, nothing's changed. The frankincense in this blend is so strong at first that it's overriding most of the other notes. When the frank burns off a bit, the tea is more prominent than I expected, and the woodmoss is very present during too the wet phase. The overall tone for me in the first 10 minutes is fresh/sharp greenery with a woodsy feel. Around 15 minutes in, and that tone changes almost completely - now I can smell the lovely bourbon vanilla (which is deep and rich, rather than sweet).. and the coconut bark is there now too. The opium gives just a little bit of smokiness but it's not really noticeable - it does smell kinda silky at this point. 30 minutes in, and as others have mentioned.. it's faded a lot. I never really do pick up the white cognac specifically, although it does develop quite a boozy tone. Sadly the bourbon vanilla didn't stick around very long. The frankincense is back, as is the oakmoss, so the green-ish tones have returned. This is probably my least favourite of the ".. Lace" series so far - I'd put it on the side of Black Lace because the tobacco in BL reminds me a bit of the top notes in TL and the cognac is very similar. And where Red Lace and Antique Lace have the soft, sweeter/prettier tones I find Tattered Lace has a more smutty personality with the same boozy character as BL. So if you enjoyed Black Lace, I think you'll really like this new one

Suede icecream! This smells like suede icecream!! The most obvious note to me is leather, but it's the soft and snuggly kind.. like a new pair of suede boots. And then there's a lovely clean vanilla mingling with the leather - it seems to be the same (or very similar) kind of vanilla that was in PP v1 - it's not sweet, more an earthy/woodsy kind of vanilla with a slight green tinge. But in v1 the vanilla gave me a sharp, chemical-ish tone - in v3 it's not doing that quite so much, which I'm very happy about! It smells like a cowboy who has bathed in icecream I find that v3 does change a bit through its wear life - it starts off being all about the leather, then the vanilla takes the stage, then the leather comes back, then the vanilla - this sequence continues for a while, until eventually after about an hour.. I've got suede icecream I actually got a Chaos Theory Vanilla bottle that was all leather and vanilla, and PP v3 reminds me very much of that.. except that my CTV bottle was more about the vanilla, and PP v3 is definitely more about the leather. I'm very happy with this, although I do own quite a lot of leather-related BPALs so I'm not sure this is enough of a standout that it competes with my other faves, but it's really very nice in its own right and very enjoyable. Since nobody seems to have invented suede icecream, I'm going to invent a new word instead - I will call this lovely blend of leather and vanilla.. leatherilla

This is a fuzzy little thing.. definitely silvery, it has quite a shimmery feel to it. Although this is very nice in its own right, it's just not for me. The apple blossom is soapy, the anise is weak, and the florals don't give me any enjoyment as individual notes - they're just all kind of clouded together into a soft waxy floral tone. It delivers an almost aquatic feel on my skin, which is kinda weird since I'm not seeing anything 'aquatic' in the notes, so perhaps it's the silvery musk that's giving it that feeling. In colour, I would say this is silvery-blue. I'm sure this would be lovely on someone who can do this kind of blend justice, because it is a pretty scent, but it just hasn't got enough body for me.

This has a definitely spicy tone to it on me.. the leather is really soft, and the musk is snuggly warm, and overall this reminds me a lot of the leather + spices feel of Spanked. But the key difference with Hochelaga is the plant elements - the wildflowers (dry and mellow rather than floral), the sweetgrass (fresh and slightly sharp), the sage (quite herbal and green), the hickory (a nice spicy/woodsy vibe).. and the main one that stands out in this blend on me - the balsam (fresh and after an initial sharpness quite soft and woodsy kinda like Banshee Beat) - those things combined with the leather and musk make this smell like a warm leather jacket that's been hanging outside on a tree. Which I now realise doesn't sound all that appealing.. but think warm musky leather and organic fresh tree smell and you got it In the end, Hochelaga retains a sharp slightly stinky green-ness that I don't really love - the early stages when it was all warm musky leather were far more my kinda thing. But it changes around a bit - at times it's more leathery, at other times more woodsy, so it's hard to decide whether I really like it or not!! A very interesting, multi-layered perfume that I think will really suit people who like those outdoors-y kinds of BPALs.