cfrancesca

First a disclaimer- I'm not a big patchouli fan (there's exceptions especially if it's mixed in with sweet stuff) so please take my review with a grain of salt. Kind of a sharp medicinal patchouli in the imp, but once applied the patchouli softens and in the background I get light herbal greenish hemp, very soft slightly smokey suede and some linen. It's a surprisingly soft, wispy, fresh/clean scent along with the earthy patchouli. This is probably the cleanest smelling patchouli scent I've come across, a tad soapy (I think from the linen note which tends to go soapy on my skin) and perfumey though. It smells like a clean hippie ghost with floaty fabric.

This is a lovely atmospheric scent. I get a blend of crunchy leaves, soft sweet pine, cool breeze and some cedar (which is usually not a note I particularly enjoy but it's surprisingly nice here). I like how everything is well-blended and the woods (mostly pine), breezes and leaves create a very evocative picture of Bilthe Hollow. It's not something I would wear, but I do like how it smells.

This is mostly honeyed jasmine and woods on me, which is good because I was really worried about the wisteria as its one of my death notes. The scent is familiar and reminds me of a few other bpal jasmine wood blends, but this one thankfully didn't turn on me like the others did. I really enjoy jasmine some days and find this blend particularly soothing and femenine, very much aromatherapy. I like this one!

Sour cherry candy? As it dries I get a soft mish-mash of sour candy but I'm not getting any breakfast cereal. After an hour all that's left on my skin is a hint of sour candy and a powdery fruity scent (perhaps that's the cereal?). I admit I was looking forward to this one but it fell a little flat. I also don't get much throw or wear length.

Lots of sugary pink bubblegum and I agree with Melliflous, this has a backdrop of vanilla Antique Lace type perfume. It also reminds me of Faith's powdery vanilla and sugared violets. I'm not getting any of the tanning lotion though, which is a shame becuase I love the smell of it. Sadly this doesn't last very long on me, a couple hours all I have left is soft traces of sweet powdery vanilla. Lovely while it lasts!

I was super curious about this 'ectoplasm' note and my mind had already created how it would smell like. It turns out I was very close! As soon as I apply, I'm hit with the ectoplasm, the closest way to describe it would be like a well-blended mix of a very bright (almost effervescent) green lime-ish and juniper scent, with a softer but slightly sharpish and chemical pine. For a few minutes I get a citrus detergent or cleaner vibe on my skin but it's thankfully fleeting. Once it settles, the others notes start to emerge and I get this slightly creamy fresh linen scent along with ectoplasm (sadly linen notes tend to get a little soapy on me sometimes). I do get a baby lotion-like scent Mellifluous mentioned. So now Norman smells like he has changed into freshly laundered clothes but he still has some spots of ectoplasm that didn't wash off. At this stage, I start the juniper-like note jumps out a little more. As a perfume this goes through a few stages until it settles into a clean and fresh scent with just a little bit of unusual, so if you like those type of scents you should give try this!

This is such an interesting scent. When it was wet I got lots of ink but also smokey almost acrid vetiver type smell, along with some resin and the peppery scent others have also gotten. Once it dried and settled on my skin it completed smoothed out and actually smells so much like ink and paper it's amazing. Not something I would wear but a very cool novelty type scent.

Yummy! I'm glad I took a chance on this one. Mouse Circus started off as a wispy, pink sugary cream scent but as it dries the creaminess and pink subsides and I just get sugary carnival smells - cotton candy, wafts of vanilla (something about this vanilla reminds me of Sugar Cookie 2005), some whiffs of popcorn but it's not very corny, it has more of a salty toasty smell on me, and I'm also getting the hint of sweet watermelon others are getting. It's very close to Midway Resurrected on my skin, the throw is very similar when I compared the two. I keep getting whiffs of different smells one second it's dark vanilla with hints of wood, another sweet/salty popcorn, another whiff and it's creamy sugary cotton candy. This is fascinating and very evocative!

Pretty! I get soft creamy coconut and beautiful, fresh, just-picked, still dewy rose petals. I'm not sure why my nose smells creamy coconut in here, but that's what I seem to be getting from the 'fresh cream' note. I think there's a few different roses types in the petals, they create a slightly spicy rose with a sweet powdery blush. The scent dries to a mostly rose with a creamy background and hints of cold creamy coconut on my skin. The scent is sophisticated, luxurious and youthful with touch of innocence. I was personally hoping for a different, stronger cream note and for the roses to be softer, but they are very close to being heady and cloying (most likely due to the red rose). So ultimately I think it's a gorgeous bathtime blend, but the roses are too strong and the wrong type for me and I fear it could veer into headache-land.

I should really give up on white chocolate blends because they have become such a mess on my skin, but I guess I keep hoping it will magically end up working ...On me this smells like sugar water, cloying white chocolate (not a surprise) with a lovely background of sweet pink florals (they are gorgeous!) and finally some slightly metallic, jammy strawberry. After a little while the chocolate fades, the strawberries get more metallic (I really don't know why my skin does this with some strawberry notes ) and the sugary sweet florals amp a little more. I would've loved this if it was just the florals and a little bit of the pink sugar and vanilla. I prefer the previous Pink Moon releases.

Dark coconut, lots of boozey syrupy champaca and some anise (?). Not what I was expecting, I was really hoping for a mostly coconut blend. It's a nice, unique scent but I don't think I would wear this often because I find the anise and champaca a little too heavy and cloying for my tastes. ETA: After a while, this started to get musky and a little bit like brown sugar on my skin, it's still going strong on the champaca.

I get a warm, sweet tonka-like vanilla scent (probably coming from the mix of benzoin and amber), soft creamy woods, with a background of pepper. The scent reminds me a lot of Tombstone and Chimera v5. The pepper, woods and ambergris amp on me after a while and strangely start to create a scent that smells like musky patchouli and sadly turns a little bitter on my skin. I'm not liking this one at all.

For the first few minutes this is all sweet, honey-dripping honeydew, shortly the green musk starts to amp and the blend gets a little perfumey. It's a pleasant fruity scent, but not something I want to smell like.

I get a smokey (almost toasty), creamy, slightly bitter patchouli, heavy woods (they smell masculine and perfumey), and a very faint background of a warm tonka-like vanilla. This is definitely not for me!

I get juicy, perfumey and artificial white peach musk. I'm always on the lookout looking for a nice peach scent and I had high hopes for this one but I just find it too floral, the peach too artifical, and the whole thing goes slightly soapy on my skin. It reminds me of a couple other peach-floral blends that also didn't work, and for some reason I also keep getting a rice wine-like scent in here which is a note I dislike.

This was one of my first bpal bottles and it honestly hasn't gotten much wear until recently. This is really nice! A close to perfect mix of pink, fruity, creamy marshamallowy sugar with a hint of fresh greenery to keep it from going too cloying. I find it a very happy and youthful scent. I really love these type of sweet creamy pink oils. My only wish is that it had better throw, it stays way too close to the skin for my taste. P.S. I've noticed that this oil can get a little plasticky if I apply it in certain areas of my skin. I've had the best luck in my neck and upper arms, on my wrist it got plasticky.

When first applied I get this warm and creamy blend of glowing amber, very soft smokey vanilla and beeswax (it's similar to Hanerot Halalu on my skin) with a slightly spicy holiday-type orange scent in the background, and I'm not sure but I also get soft hints of pine as well. As it dries I start to get a little bit more vanilla, hints of honey and the blend gets creamier but I'm still getting too much beeswax for my tastes. After almost 4 hours of wear most of the beeswax has burned off and it reminds me of the base in Sibyl with the soft and creamy vanilla honey amber and soft hints of orange.

Sorry these didn't come out so good, but here's a pic of my five Yules from left to right: The Last Evening of the Year, The Most Magnificent Christmas Tree, A Wonderful Light, Pale Student of Unhallowed Arts and Winter Heavens (I just noticed some of the lettering on these last two is a little faded).

Unreleased prototype, no notes or description given. I mostly get slightly sharp smokey opium, amber, and some resins from this one. As it settles I also start to get some tobacco. eta 8/7: Testing it again today, I think there might also be some dark musk in here and possibly some woods too. It's a bit too sharp for me to love right now, but I think it will get better and smooth out with some aging. I find it smokey, dark and sexy.

This is absolutely beautiful in the bottle, the most perfect cider scent and everything I've been searching for. Very sadly there's the kind of cinnamon in here that gives me a strong and painful reaction on my skin and amps into a sharp dry cinnamon scent. I'm so disappointed.

On me this is a very smokey, toasty warm blend, with dark dirty earthiness (like a soft blend of patchouli, leaves, and smokey vetiver) in the background. At times the smokiness is like slightly sweet hickory smoke which starts to overpower the other notes for a while. As it dries, I start to get some of the pumpkin rind and it's warm, rich, very foody and I'm also getting some maple. This finally dries to a blend of rich pumpkin with maple, some woods and the strong hickory-like smoke. I find it very Autumnal, just not what I was hoping for.

This is so pretty! I was worried about chocolate and currant but I'm not getting much of either one here. This is mostly sugary sweet fruit blended with soft vanilla, very soft, well-blended tiare and hints of creamy pumpkin in the background. The sugary sweetness of the guava (which is almost watery), light airy amber, sweet honey (no musky honey here just pure sweetness) and vanilla amps on me and that's what I'm mostly left with. Not what I was expecting (I was hoping for more pumpkin) but this is a lovely, sweet youthful playful blend, probably better for warmer weather, though.

On me this is a very sensual, heady, smokey almost boozy red musk blend. I find the notes well-blended at first and they create a heady booze-like note I'm getting (I'm really not sure where it's coming from) I find it intoxicating, exotic, strong, and very sexy. As it dries it the booze-like note starts to remind me of a boozy, kind of foody caramel note, similar to Red Lantern. So on me this is a mix of dirty smokey (almost incense-like) caramel, booze, and then add some red musk with soft hints of dark musk. In the background I get stronger clove, soft myrrh and dirty patchouli, I also get occasional hints of fruit but I couldn't tell it's mandarin. This is really one of the sexiest bpal blends I've ever tried. I'm not getting the vanilla orchid but it's probably smoothing and rounding everything else out. I'm confused by this scent, it wasn't what I expected but it's something pretty amazing, however...it might be a bit too much for me.

Unreleased prototype, no notes or description given. On me this smells like vanilla musk, maybe some florals and a little amber and some woods, maybe? The vanilla is similar to the one in Celeste and Amaterasu v3 but a lot less sweet. There's also a sharp chemical-like scent in here that's ruining the scent for me.

In the bottle: I'm surprised at how and juicy this is, I think it's the closest to a true pomegranate scent I've encountered yet, to me it smells like a slightly boozy, softly spicy, crisp dark pomegranate juice. On my skin it's mostly strong dark pomegranate juice with some patchouli (which is surprisingly very smooth and smells amazing here, it adds a really nice darkness to the blend), oakmoss and soft woods. I actually like it quite a bit and it's very nicely blended, but I was hoping it would be more masculine-type scent (I'm not getting cologne) and that it would have less pomegranate, since I'm not a fan of very fruity scents. I think it smells very appropriate for autumn with spiced dark fruit juice over earthy dark woods.