biocarolyn

This is so pretty. It lost a death match with Moon of Ice for me, with which is has much in common. But this is sweeter and more floral. Cold, still, but very pretty...

So sad, this is masculine dryer sheets on me. That almost never happens with acquatics for me, but this one just doesn't work...

I love the smell of autumn and keep seeing Samhain mentioned as a popular fall scent, but I'm not a big pumpkin fan (well, the SMELL of pumpkins anyway, I do love Jack-O-Lanterns!) so I'm a little leery of putting this one on my "to hunt" list. So how strong is the pumpkin in this?

I agree- I am NOT a fan of the pumpkin note, which always goes sickly sweet and OFF in a bad way on my skin. I've smelled three years of Samhain and never noticed the pumpkin note being even remotely prominent (or even noticeable, really). I get some fir (but not pine trees attack), resins, spices, and apples mostly. Warm, earthly scent and not something I'd call sweet or buttery at all.

Damn this is strange. In a very good way. Wet this is super smoky, heavily green leather. As it sties, the smoke goes away and the green plant-y scent comes out. It starts to smell like leather And wet ferns. It is the oddest scent but somehow I can't stop sniffing my arm and I can't explain why. It smells good...odd, but good....

Beeswax, clear & strong. I also get something that smells a bit like Cassia or cinnamon or something. Sadly, the sweet milky cream goes sour, bad to awful on my skin. No blackberry in sight. Sigh. Such potential, but not for me.

I'm of two minds when it is hot & sticky- one is to wear something light and try to feel cool, and another is luxuriate in the sort of sleepy slowness that kind of heat brings. So the scents are different:

Light & ethereal:

Autumn Coolness - love the bamboo in the summer heat

Boo Bam - as above, but cleaner bamboo

Christmas Eve on the Moor - almost aquatic, lots of air

Lemon Scented Sticky Bat - loving this right now! the "ice" part amps on me as I wear it

Metal Tiger - metallic always feels cooling

Moon of Ice - this is ICY COLD on me, without being mint

Ochosi - such an airy, clean, clear scent

Pele - smells tropical, but light

Planting Moon - summer garden

Roadhouse - dandelions and beer

Sea of Glass - so ethereal, light and clear

Snowball Fracas - another one that is SO ICY on me

Velvet Tiki - more tropical goodness, but a but heavier than Pele

Summer Slow & Hot:

Banded Sea Snake - this is my "summer" snake oil

Berry Moon 2009 - the berries and honey musk in this are perfect

Crib Girls - lots of honeys read "hot summer" on me, and the cubeb in this is lemony so it feels lighter

Fae - scary fairies. fairies carrying really sharp knives, but hiding in the summer forest

The Jersey Devil - but I spent my summers in the pine barrens as a kid, so...

Lawn Gnome - currant is yummy here

Opuhi - The foodiest vanilla I can stand- sweet, summer syrup

Ushi - so JUICY

And a different leather and smoke to me is Shrunken Heads. Really an experience, worth searching out a decant. On me the smoke burns off eventually and it ends sort of leather-wet fern like, but in bottle, wet, and early dry down i get LEATHER and SMOKE.

Of Cthulu, R'lyeh, and The Deep Ones, to my nose Cthulu is the darkest.

Hurricane is definitely an option, or Undertow, or Olokun...another more difficult-to-get option that really feels Ursula-like to me is the LE "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife," which was described as seaweed, honey, white mint, and ambergris. I couldn't smell the mint, to be honest...you could also try to get your hands on Banded Sea Snake.

I was staying far, far away from this when it came out- now I know I missed something lovely! The patchouli skeered me

A couple of years later, I have learned never to refuse to try a BPAL blend, no matter what my preconceived notions are. I've also learned that I actually kind of like BPALs patchouli note, which does not smell like "stinky hippie" patchouli to me LOL. Not that hippies are stinky per se, but just that there is a stereotypical patch smell that is probably hideously synthetic and was my only experience with patchouli prior to BPAL. So.

This blend is about 40% dirty patchouli when I put it on, almost gritty. However, the red currant and molasses appear quickly and brighten it right up. Red currant is a note I love (never met a bright tart berry I didn't like) so I really enjoy this- but I'd characterize this as a patchouli-current blend sweetened by something warm (the molasses). The vanilla cream never appears for me, except maybe as a mood to warm up the sugar. Very nice, not your typical summer fare but totally appropriate for the season to my nose, even going into fall.

This is so airy and light, really feels almost fluffy!

The shea is fairly recognizable, with a lot of green scent on top. It brings to mind green ferns, or light green living growing things. There is nothing dark about this to me- just bright green spring new growth. It is sort of soapy feeling, but not in a bad way- very fresh, clean. This is a just-showered kind of scent. I can't really get any of the smell of spruce but since it is an evergreen I imagined something piney- nothing pine-like to me here, at all. Whatever wood scent that is here is more the feeling of wood rather than the actual presence of the scent to me. New twigs with the bark peeled off, not dry old pieces of lumber.

This smells like lemon and the ice note from Moon of Ice. The lemon is sharp when you put it on, but it burns off and I get lemon ice. Totally delicious!

Cottony and drowning in red musk on me, but then I think I amp red musk somehow. Tiny hint of sandalwood & pomegranate in the background. Interestingly, as many people described this as morphing, on me it stays identical, from sniffing the bottle through drydown. Really nice though...

This is a real surprise for me. I'll be honest, I tried the imp for the concept, not the rose. I'm not a big rose fan- the smell of roses is objectively beautiful to me, but just not how I picture myself smelling. I don't know- it seems so delicate. I like Rose Red, however, and it seems like I'm liking the lab's rose notes that are described as wet or dewey.

On me, neither scent predominates. I don't really particularly amp rose or leather, but many of the reviews said this was all rose to them. On me it is like those persistence of vision images? Where the image goes "redgreenredgreenredgreen" really fast and your eyes get kind of dazzled? Like that, except I get roseleatherroseleatherroseleather. Well, make that in all caps and you'll be closer. This is a blend with some THROW. And still going strong after 8 hours! I found a bottle in swaps, so I'm thrilled!

Thanks to Monday for frimping me a decant of this. I never would have tried it, and I would have eternally regretted that.

So- do I not know what patchouli smells like? Seriously, I have smelled many hippies who claimed to smell of patchouli, and they certainly smelled of something but it wasn;t this!!!!

I think it is the vanilla. This is a gorgeous, warm syrupy sweet vanilla but I guess it is the patchouli that tones this down so it does not give me a toothache. This is really close to Snake Oil on my skin. If you told me t was one of the Snake Pit scents, I'd totally believe you.

Yum. Also, on sale on the Urban Outfitters website. I just spent more money

So cool. I'm a bit of an odd duck, since I love cedar, so take this all with a grain fo salt. I do agree that this cedar is a bit different than in many other Cedar blends, and the frankincense takes over completely on the drydown. So it feels very incensey and old and dry.

Heady, feminine white sensual floral. But not screaming floral somehow- floral for people like me who don't love floral. Pele is absolutely beautiful, perfect for hot muggy summer days. Pikaki, ginger, hibiscus, and sand. I definitely smell sand. (Don't ask me what sand smells like, but it is here.) This smells like incredible perfect vintage silk lingerie. Vacation in a bottle.

This is so realistic! I smell exactly the description... Wood, something thick, murky, and aquatic, and a hint of wood smoke. It's a quiet, settled smell, probably from the wood and fire which reads campfire to me. Although all my campfires have been in warm weather, and this is mist definitely not warm weather. It is chilly and damp. It smells like the weather is like that line in the beginning of Moby Dick, when he says, "a cold, damp November in my soul."

Seriously, how does this happen? So. Cool. And it smells nice, too.

When I first started getting into BPAL, people warned me that my tastes would change over time. I thought that was a bit odd, considering the things I like, I've liked for as long as I remember. What I didn't understand was that it wasn't that I'd stop liking many of those things, just develop a new appreciation for other things I never liked before. I don't know if this is a natural growth process, but I suspect it is a testament to skill involved in the creation of these scents- they make you like things you never knew you'd like.

My note of doom was red musk. Everyone raves about it, and I. didn't. get. it. At all. I don't know what it smelled like, but it wasn't good. But then there were blends with tiny hints of red musk that I liked, and I wondered what was going on. Way back, I tried Mme Moriarty and it was too much. And I was so disappointed because the other notes were wonderful but the musk tried to eat my head. ACK!

So I thought, as time passed, that I should try this blend. Even though it says sugar and sugar & I do NOT get along. Pomegranate, orange blossom, honey myrtle, and incense are good though. In the bottle, I smell pomegranate like in The Fruit of Paradise. Very similar note, but on my skin it is lighter from something here- the scary sugar? The orange blossom? I definitely get some orange blossom when I sniff my wrist. Pink musk seems to be hiding, but present making this rounder and fuller. Coconut was the other prominent thing in the bottle, but my skin eats it and it is 99% gone. I am not sad about that, though...it lends a summery feel to this, but isn't identifiable once it sits on the skin for a bit.

I agree that on me, this isn't a little girl blend. It is very wearable, complex but approachable, and WAY better than I anticipated. Pink musk, I think you & I are going to get along fine...

This is not copper, this is brass. I've never gotten such a strong impression of a specific metal before! Yes balsam and beeswax. Clearly the wax, not honey. I get a strong impression of more, well blended and unidentifiable.

Sorry this is so nonspecific...but all I can say is buy this. No matter what you think you like, at least try an imp. It is just ridiculous. That good.

I had tried this scent because I usually like citrus, and at the time I thought, "eh...bright and clean with the metal scent there too. Nice, but nothing special." I was looking for something to brighten up all this rain we've been getting, so I threw this on this morning. A blend like this is not one that I expect to improve with age. However, either my nose is paying more attention or I just like this better now.

Wet, I get peony up front. That combines with something that wants to smell like grapefruit (lychee?) but isn't quite as bitter. I was hoping for the juicy orange in Carnal (I know, I'm the only one almost ) but that doesn't make much of an appearance on me. I also get a strong hit of the scent I'm associating as metal- it seems like a silver or bright polished steel even. This is bouncy and sharp, great in the morning. Seven and a half hours later I can smell the pine resin and cypress, with some fruit & floral underneath. Very light, close to the skin, but its there. This one is great for work on me.

The dragon's blood and peach are non-existent on me, and although I don't particularly amp dragon's blood, I also don't like it so I tend to notice the smell. I tend to go in phases, but I can see this getting a lot of use this summer...

This is a really interesting and beautiful blend. On the skin, I Get mostly sandalwood, but this is rich and warm rather than the really sawdusty, pencil shaving sandalwood. Underlying this is amber and vanilla, with a hint of herbal something (the marigold?). Really nice. I can see the comparison with Ü- the woody-vanilla combination.

I don't get the scent of evergreens, precisely, but rather the feeling of evergreens. I recognize the ice note from Snowball Fracas and to a lesser extent Moon of Ice. For some reason, even though I understand why people compare this note to dryer sheets/ozone/aquatics, this is a relaxing, centering scent for me. Like when it snows and everything goes so quiet? It isn't gentle, just very cold and quiet like the world went STOP!!!! And then you took a walk in the woods in the snow at night.

OK- so I have had this imp laying around for forever, and I couldn't remember what it was supposed to smell like, but had some vague notion that "mischievous" was the basic concept. I;m headed out to a concert that I am too tired to go to, and work ruined my appetite for it. But I /want/ to go, and enjoy.

So I tried it. What's crazy is my first thought when I sniffed wasn't scent but just lighthearted joy. Then I sniffed- light minty herbalness, with a tinge of something sweet (lotus?) and a background of dry roses. Not my usual thing, but the impression is so wonderful, I'm pondering a bottle. I'm just amazed.

I can understand the association with sex and latex, but I don't think this is what Beth had in mind....On me, this immediately turns to rancid, burnt bandaids. This is sadly the worst experience I've ever had with skin chemistry. I guess I'm one of those people Smut doesn't work on.

I'm so glad I tried this blend. I bought a bottle of CC:Male for my husband, since it had notes of win for him. I figured while I was at it, I ought to throw in a bottle of Female and try it, since I imagined it would be easy to get rid of if I hated it.

I don't always love vanilla, I mostly like it in the background of things. I love the scent of leather, but haven't been able to find one that doesn't go straight to cologne on my skin. Orchid is the only floral I can do, pretty much. So this had possibilities, but the amber scared me. Amber always goes to powder on me.

When the bottle came I sniffed it and it was foody, tooth-achingly sweet. I put it away untested. A couple of weeks later, I figured I better test it just in case.

The leather warms this up and the orchid gets just floral enough. This is gorgeous. It's sexy and intriguing and not too much of anything, with just enough of everything. I love this blend. I walk around all day catching whiffs of myself and thinking, "I smell good!"

I can tell my wallet is doomed.

I'm editing to mention that as this ages, I really can really smell the clay and tonka. There is just something about this blend that is nothing like any other BPAL that I have smelled- the clay maybe? The clay, leather, and vanilla orchid in this are just so wonderful. It is so strange that people have such incredibly varied descriptions...I don't get anything sweet at ALL in this.