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Hmmm... this one is interesting. It wasn't what I thought it would be ---- at all. At the beginning, I thought it smelled like sweet tea. The tea part disappeared and now I have this sweet, almost fruity, smoky scent. But I know it's not. I don't know what it is. But I keep sniffing it!

When I first apply it, I get smoky bacon. In fact, for about the first hour, the bacon aspect has toned down quite a bit, but I still get the smoky, ashy part of the blend. This mean little elf really is just bacon goods.

You can definitely tell the similarities between Torture Queen and Bed of Nails --- it's almost the same thing, except Bed of Nails is softer, less floral and slightly more metallic. I feel like for those reasons that BoN is like the masculine version, and Beth brought it back this time around as a female in Torture Queen. On the other hand, if Torture Queen mellows out with age, it will be such a pretty scent. I love Torture Queen but it can be so aggressive.

This one is a soft perfume, with a nice dirt note... but after two hours, the perfume goes powdery and the dirt disappears. So it ends up being perfume and baby powder. Grrr...

This one is such a bitter incensey smell --- it's got the smoky edge, but also almost something... metallic among the resin. It's sort of ominous... like the end is near. Yup. Not my style at all. But huzzah, I have finished the Maelstrom scents. I think.

This one is indeed a nice somber, demure, sophisticated floral. It makes me think of funeral bouquets --- it's got plenty of white floral. Pretty. Somber. It's name is very appropriate. ADDED Feb. 4: There was a sharp bitter tinge to this blend on wet (very similar to the bitterness in Moon of Terrible). On the drydown it fades and I can smell more of the grapefruit and violet. It's a sharp, almost salty blend on me. I'm not sure I like violets, since so many BPAL blends with violets listed as a component smell sharp to me. Pass.

For me, this is really like smelling cocoa powder. The amber turns powdery, but mixed with the cocoa it just makes it cocoa powder... and maybe a hint of hazelnut. It actually makes me think of making hot chocolate. This scent is soooo bad for the waistline. Mmmm... hot chocolate!

This one, oddly enough, is a sweet jammy scent. Tasty, but not my cup of tea.

This one is... interesting --- it's like polished wood and leather. It's a sweet blend, probably because of the honey, but decidedly leather blend. I think the sweetness makes it seem more feminine. And yes, this is the blend of a woman that would paddle any man's behind.

Mmmm. I think this might be a new favorite. Take cocoa and mix it up with some chai spices. Oh yeah, it's very fragrantly chai. And chocolately good. I wasn't crazy about the original 13, but I might have to try some of the others!

Lots of love to delphinine for sending me some of this.... This one on wet was had a very aggressive dragon's blood note, I smelled the characteristic sweet/spicy, but underneath, there was something 'rocky' and 'old', and a very masculine presence to it. I get the feeling of an old, deserted building who has so many memories to it....

I have to agree with filigree_shadow. This doesn't smell like candy corn to me ---- it does smell of sugar cookies, and sweets and maybe that hint of rum. It does get a bit plasticky after thirty minutes, but after two hours it burns off. I get this nice brown sugar overtone from it. Very very fun. But if I'm completely honest, a little too sugar coma inducing for me.

And again... totally another scent I had and I forgot to review. This one was a weird one for me --- it was wool and wax and sweetness, and something that was offputting. It also made me think of the term milquetoast.

Hmm... I believe I tried this one and didn't review it. According to my notes, this was musky coconut. No surprise there. I think I was hoping for more of the iris to come out. ETA: So I tried it and from my impressions --- yup, musky coconut. I get a teensy bit of the iris, and at the beginning it was a bit powdery. If you like coconut and florals, I would suggest this blend to you.

This one was a fruity boozy Hawaiian punch/Kool Aid mix. It was fizzy and sweet. Unfortunately, it has dried down to Sweet Tarts (I even get a hint of powderyness from it). I like to eat Sweet Tarts, I'm not sure I want to smell like them...

Guh. This is like the Samhain perfume... but... better. Cuz it makes everywhere smell like Fall. For me, one of the distinctive features is the 'apple' tone to it. Take the fall leaves from L'Autunno but add the apple, almost cidery appleness, tone to it and you get close to what Samhain smells like. And maybe its residues of the Gooey Pillowcase, but there's this candy sweetness to it, like finding candies sprinkled on a cold, autumn day on the lawn which is covered by leaves and sticks. And yes, now I am considering layering Gooey Pillowcase AND Samhain. Cuz I'm crazy like that. ... I also have to mention it gives you the insane desire to jump into a big pile of leaves. Seeing that it was in my bedroom, I had to make do with pretending with a big pile of blankets. Not the same thing. I will have to find a big pile of leaves now.

I think the floral smell that I get, which is sharp, greenish-white and fumey is the narcissus. I think it was very similar to Pride. In this blend however, the 'fumes' aspect is compounded by opium, it's got that fog/smoke quality that I remember from the Poisoned Apple. But in this case the fog/smoke is very murky, very dark. It's more wearable than I thought it would be, but at the same time, scarier because of that. This is what a creature of the night would wear, like a vampire or succubus. It's pretty, and then you realise, it's also scary as hell.

Whoooof. This is patchouli. Dirty hippie kind of patchouli. It makes me think of all the hippie stereotypes - peace, sandals and into meditation and crystal energy. Erm.. Yeah. And I can joke about it because my aunt is a bonafide hippie, complete with crystals.

Ides 2005 This is a very... odd scent to me. It's freshly herbal, with a smattering of citrus and flowers. And it smells like spring. There was an almost fruity/figgy note to it on wet. It's what I wanted Beltane to smell like. I have an imp of the newer Ides. And will compare. Ides 2007 This one again is an herbal springy floral --- but there is a major difference I get more of the amber/cardamom in this blend, which makes it a heavier spring floral in my mind. I can see the herbally springiness of 2005, but it has more .... gravitas, for lack of a better word, in this one. A little more serious, less playful, perhaps slightly more ominous?

Hmm... this one is prettier than I expected. It's this light, lemony sort of white floral with a brush of tea. There's a little cedar in the background, which sort of anchors it, but overall it's wispy and ethereal. Very light, very clean. Fans of Embalming Fluid or Shanghai should give this a whirl.

This one is a musky cinnamon - I think it might also have some dragon's blood in it. Interesting... but it's not what would inspiring as the name suggests....

Based on a Romany incense blend reputed to induce sexual dreams: Somalian rose, Moroccan rose and Bulgar rose with a sultry dribble of cinnamon. This one is a light rose blend with a hint of cinnamon. It's light, sexy and playful. Pretty.

Thanks to the lovely tartchef for letting me try this highly sought after! (Incidentally, this wouldn't have been possible if ifinena wasn't so generous to tartchef, so I feel like I should give her a shout out as well!) In the vial: Cherry... and something that smells akin to puke. On wet: GAAAAAAAAH. Really, it smells like cherry cough syrup and someone up hacking up their lunch. 20 minutes later: So that went away, thankfully, and it's this smoky cherry smell. Kinda like pipe tobacco An hour later: Perfume, cherry tobacco smoke lingers in the affair. It smells like the end of a party night. A wild party night.

This one was definitely very citrusy and cologney at the beginning. It has since dried to this gingery leather with dirt. It's spicy, sharp, but the leather makes it's so masculine. BPAL's dirt note just makes this... well, dirty. If the husband wasn't off gallivanting with the Hessian, I'd try to pimp this out on him.

I have to say that people should take my review with a heavy dose of salt ---- since I got a decant of the oil. In the little bottle, it smells strongly of cocoa. In the bath, it wasn't strongly scented at all. I used about half an ounce, and I could tell because I felt the moisturizing oil, but not the scent. It was a kinda faint chocolate, sweet scent. On the other hand, now I might have to order it from the Trading Post to get the 'full' Gula experience.