strahlend

First impression is of cold pine and grapefruit. It smells perfumy to me, but I like grapefruit so I want to give it a try. Skin Test – this is a lot of pine-mint. I'm not getting lemon or grapefruit or vanilla. Just minty slush with maybe a very slight citrus in the way, way back. After a while - the yuzu comes out and smells very nice with the slush. Eventually the yuzu is the note that hangs on and lasts longest.

Sniffing the decant – This is unusual. It's making me think of winter in the desert. Or Egyptian winter incense. I think it's the sandalwood and white musk (which I associate with white and egyptian scents) combined with the cool feeling notes I'm picking up on. Skin Test – At first this smells high pitched and white. I'm getting the impression of crystal blue musk (maybe the white musk with the amber), a touch of soap, a bit of ice and the slightest hint of mint. After a while - it softens up into a more gentle musk scent with just a hint of cool air and maybe a touch of pine. If you like winter scents but find them to be too heavy or sharp, this might be what you're looking for.

I agree with bluelena completely. There's a very clean, dryer sheets type of element with the dirt in this scent. Which is also how I interpreted Worm Moon. I think the lilac is coming across as lavender to my nose, it's just a faint hint in the background.

Skin Test – Strong ginger scents like this (and War) don't appeal to my nose from the bottle, but I've learned that on my skin they really change. At the start though this smells like the worst parts of the vitamin area at a health food store. It smells sour and like vitamins. After just a few minutes this has changed completely. Now it's sweet and herbal in the best possible way. Like walking into a new age shop that has incense and herbs and sweet grass. I don't get pepper specifically, but there is a bit of incense and spice in the feeling of this scent. There's a bit of sweetness in here as well as one of my favorite notes, neroli. The ginger is still present, but it has lost all of its sour pungency and turned into something like delicious ginger chew candy, which is mixing great with everything else. The turnaround is quick and amazing and the end result is so unique and wonderful that this is going on my multiple bottle list for sure. Edit to add: This has turned out to be my favorite Yule of '11 and has turned out to be my favorite new scent of this year. This stuff is FANTASTIC

Cool, minty, spearmint lends some sweetness. This really is more of an icy wind scent than a frost or snow scent, there's a ethereal lightness to it. I wholeheartedly agree that it would be very refreshing in the summer.

I can't smell anything in particular through the overwhelming sense of high pitched Shrieking Florals. Not for me.

2011 version In the decant it smells very light. Mild resins and vanilla. Musky, warm, vanilla with a slight feeling of herbs. On my skin I get a beautiful warm vanilla with sweet lightly incensy resins, however, an unpleasant sour note shoves its way to the front of the line - rockrose. After a few minutes the scent mellows out and it's back to being vanilla resins. This scent makes me think of high quality vanilla dusting powder.

This scent is simply amazing, it's affecting me on a visceral level and I'm having a hard time describing why. As soon as I sniffed it I was reminded of a couple different atmospheres from my past. The usual descriptors - cool, minty, wintergreen, fresh, etc... do not do this scent justice. It has a mildly herbal feel to it with the mints and light musk that make this scent feel refreshing and soothing. It reminds me of the kind of scent that would be in an expensive spa. I would love to have a large quantity of this to use as massage oil.

Green, mildly soapy, somewhat floral, --- better than those generalizations make it sound. On my skin this reminds me a lot of the sweet and floral-ish aspects of Snow White but with a more cool "green" backdrop. It really is quite lovely.

First Sniff – this smells exactly like beeswax. Skin Test – honey and a hint of pine also incense maybe, that could be the oak bark I think. My initial concern is that this may be a bit more honey than I usually feel like. Warm honey, resin, a bit of pine, hint of wood. I keep feeling like there's dragon's blood in here, but maybe that's just because the oil is that reddish color. This is another scent from this years Yule update that I'm really liking but not necessarily in LOVE with because to my nose it sits in the middle ground. If I wanted sweet and warm I would wear Dragon's Milk, if I wanted honey I would wear one of the multitude of light and fresh honey scents. While this scent reminds me of scents I like it doesn't firmly rest in either camp or distinguish itself.

First Sniff – very clean and BRIGHT. Skin Test – it's bright and makes me think of lemons without actually smelling like lemons. A bit soapy. The amber sweetens this up. Still makes me think of soap though, almost irish spring in its enthusiastic cleanliness. The mint brings it back into non-soapy territory. The amber mint combination keep this scent interesting. After a while this is what I always hope that the pirate smells would be like. It's sort of fresh and clean but there's also a depth to it - I think it's the amber – that makes this really appealing. Edit to add: This scent continued to grow on me and I have a couple bottles stashed away. The more I sniff it the more it smells like a pirate to me. Clean air and water, but still musky, and warm. All the elements keep each other in check. Hopefully there are more bottles out there for me to hoard, I need more of this stuff in my life.

At first sniff – I'm smelling mostly orange blossom with some musky wood in the back. Skin Test – on application this smells a bit soapy with the orange blossom and wood. It's not as overtly orange blossom as Ravenous or Vixen, seems like the green notes (pine, ivy) kind of have a mellowing effect on the orange. It's a very pretty scent and I like it, but I sort of wish the orange blossom were more pronounced. This is a lovely mix of two of my favorite things, green/ivy/cold and orange blossom. Later - well, this ends up a little more on the soapy/green side. This sort of hits a middle ground between these two elements I enjoy. Instead of being a great meeting of great minds this ends up feeling like a half way point between destinations.

If you loved The Macabray and miss it as I do, you'll be delighted with Cloth of Gold. It seems quite similar to me, snowy with a gentle hint of floral.

If it were my first date with someone I would want to wear a scent that conveyed a bit about who I am and what I'm about. So, I would probably go with Snake Oil or Vixen because they're sexy, strong, and a bit unusual... which is how I would want to feel on a date. It really depends on how you want to feel and what your scent associations are. Good luck, and I hope you report back to us with what you decide.

The first several times I sniffed this in my decant I gave it a pass because it smelled like a typical bpal leafy scent, and since I have several of those it got ignored in favor of the more obviously unusual scents in the update. I'm really glad I came back around to give this one a proper test because it turns out I really love it. There's the dry leafy element that will be familiar to anyone who has smelled other autumn scents with leaves listed, but what makes this great is the hint of mint and vanilla that bloom on the skin. The combination is simply fantastic. It's a little dry & leafy, a little fresh and cool, a little sweet and alluring. Bottle worthy for sure & I'll be looking out for a backup or two as well.

Hmm. Might be worth a shot. What is the black opium like, anyway? I've seen it in other descriptions and can't bring up a smell memory of it. I'm testing it again right now and it still seems mainly honeysuckle to my nose. The black opium, how I interpret it, is softly musky in a sort of incensy sweet way.

I would absolutely suggest Anathema (Black opium, with vetivert and honeysuckle). Although the opium and vetivert sound like they might drown out the honeysuckle; they don't, they just support and emphasize the honeysuckle - to my nose.

After reading a post where someone was talking about how great this scent is I obtained a bottle to try. I've had very consistent experiences while wearing it: Starts off smelling like sweet, dark, incensy jasmine Then patchouli comes in and it smells like jasmine-patchouli and I always wonder why there aren't more blends featuring this combination Then it smells like jasmine-patchouli-snake oil and then heads a bit further into snake oil territory And ends up snake oil with jasmine It's quite a lovely experience and I'm glad to have the bottle, I'm hoping to get a back up bottle or two as well.

In the imp this smells like almond cake, if such a thing exists. It strikes me as nutty and buttery and like something I want to eat. On my skin it stays pretty much the same, and it's very potent. It smells very sugary and reminds me of candles made to smell like buttery sweet foods. After it's been on for a while the residual scent reminds me of a similar burnt sugar as Gluttony. I'm surprised to see wine in the notes, I don't smell it at all.

I love patchouli. It's one of my favorite notes and for the last 15 years I've almost always had a bottle of patchouli oil in my perfume box. I ordered this with enthusiasm. Appearance of the oil: there's no dark stuff floating around in my bottle anywhere. When I sniff the bottle: I get patchouli and vanilla, it smells fantastic. When I put it on my skin: any trace of vanilla vanishes and it doesn't even smell like patchouli at first, it smells like someone threw vetiver on a pile of burning tires. After a little while it lightens up enough that I can tell this is a patchouli oil, but I can't detect any of the other notes. And then it's gone! Amazingly enough for a scent that starts out almost offensively strong, after about an hour and half or two hours it just vanishes. Maybe there were mixing problems with this scent, I don't know. It seems like the reviews are more drastically different than usual. I'm hoping that if I stick this in a drawer for a year or two it will mellow out or develop or something. Edit to add: It's been a bit over a month since my original post and it still smells like burning rubber for the majority of the time it's present on my skin. Guess I'll check again at 6 months.

On my skin this is sharp and pungent wood with a sort of green undertone. I wouldn't have thought of pot, but in the initial wet stage and reading ltrittipoe's review I can see where she got that impression. On my skin the green (not sure which note might be the source of that) quickly amps up to being slightly aquatic, combined with this sharp wood it's seeming sort of cologne-like. I want to like this. I feel like I should like this. I like what are called masculine scents, woody-lightly aquatic- sort of cologne scents are right up my alley. Right now though it's just not knocking my socks off. I can think of at least five other wood and/or aquatic scents that I really love in the GC so I don't feel too urgent about this scent. Hope I don't regret that later.

For the first year or so that I was into BPAL I was a 100% jasmine hater. Then The Caterpillar found its way into my heart, then slowly other scents with different kinds of jasmine started climbing into my favorites list. I don't love every jasmine scent that comes down the road, but I've found that many scents that contain jasmine can be fantastic. This is one of those scents. In my decant: I smell the musk, ylang ylang and jasmine. It seems nice but I think it might be striking me more as a spring season scent. Skin testing: This is the softest, sweetest, most happy smelling jasmine I've ever smelled. The musk really is very soft, I would not call this a musky scent. This is heavenly. I do not detect rose specifically. Just a touch of currant that lends a very light hint of tartness. Ylang ylang isn't deafeningly loud like it sometimes is on my skin, it's just blending with this light, fresh jasmine in harmony. A touch of the opium gives these florals a little base to sit on, a touch of vanilla keeps it sweet but does not go into sugary sweet territory. All together it feels perfectly balanced and exceptionally well crafted. Late in the dry down: For some reason it vaguely reminds me of Autumn Moon of the Mirror Stand. The notes are completely different but the notes I made about that scent and this one (light, fresh, sweet, just a little tart) are exactly the same. Very different scents, but with my skin chemistry a similar feel. I feel like this is a scent that is inoffensive enough that it could be worn anywhere & anytime, but still interesting enough to be a delight. Happy to have a bottle on the way! ETA It turns out that after testing all the Weenies and buying several bottles this is the scent that I'm loving the most. It really is so beautiful - it's kind of sweet, floral, with musky warmth while still being light and fresh - it's so beautifully balanced that I feel drawn to it again and again.

I've usually passed up strongly red musk scents because it seems like they show up in one form or another pretty often and I like to focus on the more unusual scents in an update. That said, I do find myself in the mood lately for a red musk scent and I looked forward to trying this one. In my decant it jumps out and says, "Hello! I'm Red Musk!" On my skin while wet the red musk is still dominant with a mild hint of black musk and those musks are mixing nicely with the clove. Sometimes clove is too overwhelming for me, but in this case it lends a welcome counterpoint. I think I can smell patchouli in here, it seems to blend and unite the musks with the clove. I don't notice bamboo, myrrh, vanilla orchid or the mandarin. After some time drying down this scent has mellowed and softened up to a musky warm scent with a hint of spice. It's strong and has great lasting power. I expect that like many other musk blends this one will change a bit as it ages, perhaps some of the other notes will show up. I'm glad to have a bottle on the way, it completely satisfies my red musk niche. I think this will be a treasure now and in years to come.

I've been on the lookout for a predominantly sandalwood scent lately and I typically enjoy ivy as a note, so I was happy to try this decant. In the decant: This is very soft and powdery as white sandalwood tends to be. I'm not able to smell the ivy. It reminds me a little bit of Death Cap but without the earthy almond feel. Skin testing: This is working better on my skin than I had thought it would. Sandalwood is the main scent with the ivy providing a gentle green feeling. Some ivy tends to be sharp but this is different - it's softer, rounder, like green light shining through a stained glass window sort of green note. The sandalwood and ivy are fantastic companions. It's softly woody and completely enjoyable. I put this on a little while before exercising and although the other scents I was testing wore off this one is still going strong and still not powdery. Glad to have a bottle on the way!

The '11 version has managed to eliminate the soapy and/or cologne elements of past incarnations of October. It's totally all leaves with a touch of smoke in the most fantastic possible way. If you've tried October before and liked it except for the soapiness, give this incarnation a chance, it's probably exactly what you hoped it would be.