sunshinedaisybliss

I don't think anyone has reviewed it yet, VioletChaos! I had the same situation with Sojourn Down the Midway, so I sent a PM to a mod (I think it was Shollin) and she set up a new topic under 'The Kitchen Sink' for me so I could post a review. I think the Bacon room spray proto would go in the same area, so you could do the same thing

As others have already said, the Yule Limited Edition blends are really the very best when it comes to wintry, cold/snow scents.. which means you might need to go hunting around the For Sale area! But usually they're not too hard to find My suggestion would be The Waltz of the Snowflakes - the description is 'The Snow Queen and Snow King greet Klara and the Nutcracker Prince as they journey through the Enchanted Forest: vanilla-laced snow, graceful and sweet, with fir needle and black pine bark.' and reviews are here. Some people commented on the fir and/or pine notes being a bit strong, but I actually don't like fir/pine smells at all and I loved Waltz.. it wasn't pine-smelly at all on me, just a gorgeous soft and clean misty snow smell, like a cool winter's night in the mountains. Snow White is one of my most favourite BPALs (although I only like the '04 and '05 versions).. but honestly I have never thought of it as a 'winter' scent because it just doesn't smell that way to me. But I'd say it's definitely worth trying if you haven't done so already.. because it's just lovely and maybe for you it would be more winter-like If you feel like going rares-hunting, you could look for Frost Moon '04 (a blend of traditional lunar oils frozen with winter mints, shivering eucalyptus, clear lotus, a gust of wind, and a midnight aquatic note) and if you'd like something with a floral tone, there's Snow Moon '05 (the first flurries of snow touch the land, and the earth itself becomes quiet. A scent of purity and silence, soft with falling snow, as dark as Midwinter: an icy flurry over the winter blooms of narcissus, pansy crocus, dahlia, tulip, chrysanthemum and white rose, with a hint of fir and birch). Oh, and Ice Queen (a majestic blend of precious pale musks, brittle winter blossoms, spruce, and frozen winter fruits) - she's beautifully cold. You might also like to check out the 'Snow Scents' thread here, and the 'Winter Smells and Scents' thread here. Hmm.. maybe also the 'The Smell of Night' thread - maybe you'll find some inspiration there! edited for spelling goof-ups! .

I bought this for a couple of reasons.. one being curiosity, and the other being the words "Through this liquid talisman, your possibilities are limitless, and reality is yours to create." I'm a big fan of creating my own reality, so BTC was a must-buy. Scent-wise, it's not really my thing at all. On my skin, it's a lemon-lavender-herbal-rose blend that has quite a lively tone - it definitely has an energy about it. But the lemon is quite sharp, and the rose (dark pink rose, maybe?) is amping on me as it always does. It dries down quite nicely after about 30 minutes, and loses its initial sharpness - I think there might be a hint of a light coloured musk in here - but still.. mainly a lemony-rose. So it's not really something I will enjoy wearing as a perfume, but.. I am willing to spend my day in a lemony-rose haze of stinkiness if it gives me positive fearlessness and expansive courage, and bolsters my spirit. I'm going to wear it all day at work - today being a particularly heinous smorgasbord of meetings, budgets, cat wrangling and deadlines - and maybe it will give me some strength. And if not.. well, reality is highly overrated anyway

As the previous reviewers have said.. this is nothing like what I expected. I don't know what I expected really though.. I guess I was more focused on the 'bog' elements, and the 'Dank' of the name, so I figured this bath oil was going to smell like some sort of murky pond or dark bog. But nope - it's really not dank or boggy or murky at all.. it's lovely! There's certainly some dark, bog-like elements here.. the oakmoss is particularly prominent, and there's a lovely dark/damp forest-like vibe about the fragrance, but what makes this bath oil really sing is the smooth waxiness of the calla lily (truly a stand-out here, anyone who loves the calla lily smell must try this!) and the bright golden soft-sweetness of the marigold. There's also a slight hint of spice in here somewhere. This actually reminds me a lot of the smell of California Poppy hair oil (is that stuff even still around?!?) - it's warm, snuggly, rich and voluptuous, with a golden sweetness. Over time, the lily becomes the most obvious note on my skin.. but that's OK - it's just such a lovely smell, one of the few florals I can tolerate in my perfumes, and it's balanced nicely here by the darker notes so it never crosses the line into FLORAL territory. I think this would have been a huge hit if it had been more widely released - I'm guessing by the lack of reviews that a lot of people passed it over because of the name/description.. but really, it's just so much better than I was expecting. I only have a little decant of it, but if I see this for sale I'm going to snap it up! Thank you to Absinthetics for the tester!!

what a classic review.. and pretty much what I think too! Cleric v2 smells like a glass of ENO. Or like Aspro Clear dissolved in water. There's a strong citrus note which I can't identify as one thing.. it seems to be a mix of lemon and grapefruit and perhaps mandarin - so it just might be pink grapefruit - and that's about it really.. maybe a hint of vanilla and musk. And I do think there's some sort of tea in here. So that's it for me - lemony tea. It's a nice clean/fresh smell, and if you enjoy these soft/sweet lemon-y scents then more power to you, but it's just not my kinda thing at all. And it's almost completely gone from my skin within 15 minutes! Boo!!! Thanks to Absinthetics for the tester

This is a really interesting and complex blend - one of those BPALs that keeps you coming back for another sniff because it keeps changing I was a bit shocked when I first put this on.. there was a really strong fresh green tone that I wasn't expecting - like laying face down in a field of long grass. But it only stayed like that for about five minutes, and then all the sweet smells starting coming out. Sweet.. as in, candy-like without being obviously candy. It really does remind me of the lane at the carnival where all the games are - there's a hint of plastic or rubber, a wisp of smoke, a suggestion of cotton candy and lollipops and fizzy drinks. After a short while, a lovely warm musk comes out, and changes the scent completely into something warm, snuggly, yummy. And then it changes again and I swear there's an aquatic, kinda salty note in here, and maybe a touch of metal. The one thing that stays consistent through all the changes is a good helping of something that's got a really strong energy.. like fear, noise, excitement, competition. You know those tragic but hilarious scenes at the fair where there's a kid with a big wad of cotton candy on a stick in one hand, some creepy stuffed toy tucked under his arm, remnants of unidentifiable food down his t-shirt, and sticky sugar on his other little hand that's tugging at his Dad's shirt while he stamps his foot and chucks a tantrum with tears streaming down his face because he couldn't win the prize on the top shelf? Yeah.. Alley of Games smells like that. eta: thank you to Absinthetics for the tester! .

I've had this on my skin for five hours now.. and it's only now that I'm enjoying it Unfortunately, I'm finding that Chimera v5 has a strong overlay of something that smells like fly spray - it's almost a menthol kind of fragrance, not minty or sharp though.. just kind of menthol. There's a nice dryness here that I think is sandalwood, something slightly nutty, and a touch of sweet spiciness, but.. ick - fly spray

Here's where I'm at with Eat Me v6... Things to go YAY about: Nice rich dark fruit/berry No cat-pee effect from the fruit/berry Yummy vanilla-cake-o-rama Things to go BOO about: Nutty overload! Overpowering fruit/berry This is just a bit too nutty for me. And now whenever the word 'nutty' comes in to my mind, I think of that scene in the Austin Powers movie where he pours himself a big mug of Fat Bastard's stool sample: So yeah - everything that's good in Eat Me v6 eventually gets overtaken by the almighty nuttiness. When I can get past the nuts, I can smell a gorgeous vanilla cake and lovely rich dark red berries, but BOO to the nuts. And I know you want to see this now, so you here go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxD2VmZiLJ0

Hmm.. reading those previous reviews is interesting, but on me - Mary Celeste v4 is pretty unexciting. I am definitely getting a strong aquatic tone from it - the overall smell is salty and dry, a bit like the top note in Pirate Moon. There's a bit of a peppery or possibly smokey feel to it as well, and my guess for the wood note would be either a pale oak or a blonde ashwood - it's definitely not a dark wood. There is a slight hint of creaminess, but it's hidden underneath the salty aquatic to the point where it's hardly noticeable unless I really pay attention. Overall, this ends up smelling a bit like a sharp, salty cologne - it's like standing on the beach on a cold winter's day when the wind blows sea spray right in your face - kind of fresh and bracing. I was going to say it's like getting your face licked by a walrus, but I thought that didn't sound quite as appealing as the whole standing on the beach in winter thing. Mary Celeste v4 is totally not my thing at all, but I'm glad I got to try it - thank you to the lovely nursekins for the tester!

Hmm.. what an interesting blend! When it first goes on, I pick up a definite citrus note - like pink grapefruit. Then the violet and green/forest elements come in.. this is when it all goes a bit bathroom-cleaner-ish on me for a little while, until the musk and amber come out. There's an undertone of something slightly unpleasant on my skin - it's not a specific smell, it's just a kind of.. off smell (I think it's probably the violet and lily, which are known fiends on my skin). This is definitely not my kind of thing on its own - it's too smelly, in a bathroom cleaner smelly kind of way. But I'll experiment with layering other RPG oils and see what happens!

I have no idea why this is happening.. but on me, Half-Elf smells almost exactly like Banshee Beat I am getting a really strong vanilla vibe, which I think must be the oud interacting with the sandalwood and musk. And a gorgeous sweetness that I could swear is a dark patchouli. Half-Elf to me is woodsy, musky, and rich - normally I can find individual notes in my BPALs but I'm just not getting that with this one. It dries down into a beautiful warm scent and I'm kinda loving it. But seriously, if I didn't know what it was.. I would think I had Banshee Beat on.

Thank you to the lovely saralaughs for passing on a tester of this to me! Sabrina smells soft and creamy and warm and lovely, and slightly delicious. Like puppy's breath It reminds me a little of CD023, but it's not as strong or as dusty.. it has a similar strawberry-like vanilla tone though, and the same kind of soft/dusky sandalwood but they're not really the same scent. It also reminds me a bit of Kitty from the Courtesan series - but without the honey and orchids (and Sabrina is much softer and creamier). There also seems to be a very very soft musk in here, but it's not going powdery on me at all, and there is something slightly spicy but not in a noticeable way. If this is what the final version of Sabrina will be like, then I'm sure she's going to be very popular. This is one of those 'my skin but better' kinds of BPALs that's just really.. well, nice.

Try the bath oils - a little bit in the shower or bath will deal with the chlorine smell.. I find Snake Oil bath oil works the best

I try not to read previous reviews of the prototype blends before doing my own, because I can be influenced by what other people say! But even before I came to this thread, my first thoughts upon applying Morocco v2 was "this smells like TKO!" And yes.. it does smell like TKO. But where TKO is all fluffy clouds of lavender marshmallow softness, Morocco v2 is lavender sitting under a top layer of an amber-like creamy glow, with a dry muskiness. Maybe it's black amber, I dunno. There's also a slight spice element - it doesn't smell spicy as such, it just has a kind of spicy tone about it. And there might be a hint of vanilla here - it's a bit hard to tell. There's a top note that I've smelled before, I know it.. but I just can't place it! I hate when that happens but I'm picking up a slightly camphoric, balsam-like edge when I take a really big deep sniff. The longer it stays on my skin, the less it reminds me of TKO - the initial lavender aroma fades in the dry-down quite a lot and eventually Morocco v2 becomes a creamy, softly spicy scent with a nice complexity. It's one of those BPALs that you want to keep huffing on your arm, because it's just that nice. BIG hugs and thanks to the very lovely mimers99 for generously frimping me a decant of this one

On my skin, Fetish.Goth is all about the leather and latex. It's exactly as described.. slick black leather and wet latex. The leather is shiny, slightly sharp, black and menacing. I usually prefer my leather in BPALs to be the soft/worn/snuggly variety - the leather + latex combo here is definitely not soft and cuddly! But then.. nor should it be, what we have here is an absolute perfect scent match for the 'fetish goth' style. The skin musk warms up after a few minutes, and it does cut through the sharpness of the leather a little bit but I find it to be a slightly odd companion to the leather/latex, for me personally I think a darker musk would have worked better (I'm not a big fan of skin musk). The patchouli and opoponax together deliver a dark, slightly peppery bottom layer that isn't quite clove-y.. isn't quite spicy.. but it's along those lines. The myrrh isn't really a strong note on its own - it's kind of like a cloud hovering over the top of everything.. it's there but it's not obvious, although it does add a lovely smokiness through the dry down. Fetish.Goth is a really voluptuous, multi-layered blend that's very true to its description and also the persona it represents. Right now the leather/latex is a bit too black and shiny for me, but perhaps with a bit of age its sharp edges will soften up.. and if they do, I think this will be really special.

So... when it comes to BPAL, rose is not my friend. But I have learned that if it's a dark rose or rose combined with dark notes.. sometimes it will work - Lucy, Kissed being a stand-out example. I figured rose-infused opium tar should be pretty dark, so I gave Vamp.Goth a shot! This might sound weird, but when I first applied Vamp.Goth it was really sweet - almost like bubblegum kind of sweet. Opium can sometimes go very sweet on my skin, so I guess that's what's going on here.. but it's not a bad thing - it's actually a lovely sweetness. Over time, the sweetness fades as the rose note develops - it never quite becomes ROSE on me though - which is a Very Good Thing. The opium tar and leather combination is really interesting - the leather never really comes out in full force for me, it's more a background kind of thing. The opium is the star of this show for me, with the rose kinda dancing along the top of the lovely sweet/smoky tone of the opium every now and then. I agree with previous reviewers - this one is likely to age beautifully.

Oh my.. this is lovely! As a diehard anti-gardenia person, colour me shocked The stars of this show is the mandarin and orange flower, which combine with the amber to produce a beautiful waxy/creamy orange tone that's perfectly balanced between dry and sweet. The sweetness of the spices provides a beautiful foundation for the creamy orange - there's really nothing here that isn't working beautifully for me. There's a vanilla-like tone to this which reminds me of the boozy vanilla in XCDL13, but since vanilla isn't a listed note I can only surmise that it's the amber producing that vanilla tone.. or maybe there's some vanilla-like spices in the mix. And the gardenia? Well.. normally this is a note of certain death for me - it usually goes sharp, sour and cat-pee like on my skin. But not here.. it's soft and subtle here in a similar way to how the jasmine in The Girl is. Actually, Cabaret Goth reminds me a little of The Girl - but CG is definitely orange, where The Girl (in my mind) is pink. It also reminds me of the creamy orange in Lilith vs. the Giant Crab, although CG is more complex and less sweet. Glowing, creamy, soft - this really is a beautiful scent.

You can actually still order that one from Starring! Fragrances - it's in their 'Single Note Scent-sation' section - in the 'Fruit Stand' collection. You can order it here Bones Trombone is probably the closest to a lemon curd BPAL that I can recall, although it does have other notes in there along with the lemon.. it's very yummy. Lolita was super-lemon on my skin.. but it's lemon verbena rather than the sweet type of lemon I think you're looking for.

I'm really happy with Bones Trombone, because the lemon actually behaves in this one! Unlike in Knockout Drops, where it was very loud and a big bully to the other notes. Considering the mix here, I'm finding this clown to be surprisingly un-foody - I think the credit for that should probably go to the hemlock, for keeping it real and balancing out all that tooth-achingly sweet stuff. YO hemlock, you're a good little fellow The blueberry marshmallow cream is, as you would expect, completely delicious smelling - again, not too sweet - I really like it. I'm not getting any pie crust really at all (this is a good thing), and although I can smell a top note that has a definite citrus edge.. it's not overly lemon-y at all. I keep having to remind myself that although I love the way these foody BPALs smell, I rarely actually wear them as perfume. But I dunno - I actually might wear this one, because it's just in that little groove in between yummy-smelling and foody-smelling.

Leather, crushed grass, mud, sangre de grado, and crushed lemon candy. awww.. stellans wrote my review already for me! Here's how it went on my skin: Stage 1 - damp, dirt, grass, kinda mouldy smelling. Duration: 40 minutes Stage 2 - yummy soft leather, a slight sweetness, dirt/grass in the background. Duration: from here to infinity. I didn't like the first part very much at all - I almost went and washed it off... I really don't dig dirt/mud/grass smells at all. But the winner here is the Sangre de Grado with its gorgeous resin-y dragon's blood vibe and smoky vanilla-like tones - I think that's what is mixing so beautifully with the leather. Sadly, the mud/grass/dirt business never quite goes away for me - it grows fainter over time, but it's still very much there as a bottom layer all the way through the life of this oil on my skin. Bummer, because that leather/Sangre combination is fantastic. I'm tempted to get a bottle and see how it ages, but.. no.

Holy nasal cleanser, Batman! This little clown packs a punch to the nostrils when it first goes on! The mint is strong and a little sharp, but the absinthe is right there with it - together, they are a powerful combination that I think rather than knocking someone out, would actually have the power to revive someone after a knockout. Once the blast of mint and absinthe dies down, I can really notice the lemon which is tangy and sweet (exactly like the smell of lemon meringue pie as per the notes). For the first 10 minutes or so that Knockout Drops is on my skin, it's all LEMON with the mint-absinthe combo in the background, but no sign of the bourbon vanilla or white chocolate. But lemon always amps on my skin, so nothing unusual there. It's really only after about a half-hour that the lemon finally fades enough for me to notice the bourbon vanilla. And what a shame it didn't come out earlier, because it is gorgeous in here.. it's just completely overwhelmed by the other notes. And I recognise the same white chocolate note from last year's Box of Chocolates Valentine's Day blends - it merges nicely with the bourbon vanilla - they're lovely together, kinda dry and dusky and not overly sweet or foody. So, I would love this a lot more if the lemon would just go away! As it is, my arm smells a bit like bathroom cleaner.. the other notes are just so subtle that I really have to hunt around for them. And for something that started out so strong and powerful, it does fade pretty quickly.

Hmm.. I'm really not sure what to make of this - there's so much going on in this little spray! It's spicy, but with a musky edge.. tangy and fresh from the lime, slightly woodsy and green, and a bit rich from the cacao and rum. The coconut just plays at the edges of the fragrance - it isn't a major player, and I'm not really getting anything overly sweet, so I'm not sure where the sugar cane syrup is at. I dunno - it's not that I don't like it, I just don't know what it's supposed to be - it's kinda confusing. Perhaps it's the pine note that's spoiling it for me, because I really don't like pine smells due to their sharpness. And maybe that's what's bothering me abot Hispaniola - it's kinda sharp, in a HEY sort of way, and it tickles my nose a bit

GRR.. did you mean Harigata II (I don't remember Harikata having coconut)?? If so, then yes - Harigata II is definitely a sexygood coconut! I love the way the coconut blends with the anise, it's just sublime. Haley actually mentioned it up-thread, but a few more raves about its loveliness would definitely be appropriate

SNAP! I was just about to post that And there's also a "Where do you apply your oils" thread, in case anyone was wondering about that too

YES!! There is a huge difference, for sure. In general, I like most of the various styles of coconut that BPAL has given us.. but the black coconut is by far my favourite because it has that beautiful dark tone without the sweetness/suntan-lotion-ness of regular coconut. Death Adder has a magnificent black coconut note, as does Tiki King and Goblin. And I think the black coconut is the best thing about Boneshaking Antique Velocipede. Sadly, the caramel in Red Lantern hated me, but the black coconut in that one is lovely. Oh - and Snake Charmer, another one with lovely black coconut! Aldercy.. I've never tried Antonino, but I'm going to go hunt some down now