lilwhiterabbit

Eden is one of the GC's I haven't tried yet, so I'll give it a go. I'm tempted by Hetairae, just because everything else in it is a note that would work beautifully on me. I suppose it would depend on how strong the ylang ylang was. Of the rest of the list, I haven't tried Milk Moon, Libra, Freak Show or The Horn of Amalthea, so those are definitely potentials. Berry Moon I remember as definitely being very berry (mostly raspberry on me) and Cupid Complaining to Venus was a lovely blend of apple and peach, with some sandalwood, so not quite what I'm looking for. Hony Mone was all herbal and awful--I bought a bottle untested and quickly swapped it away! At any rate, thanks for all the suggestions. You've given me a lot to go on!

I'm looking for blends with fig and honey together. So far, searching on my own hasn't turned up much of anything and I definitely want these two notes combined. Bonus points if there's musk involved somewhere. There are only a couple of notes I can't wear (mint, ylang ylang and vetiver) so pretty much anything else goes. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I can't decide what I think of this. I'm a big fan of chocolate. Like incense. Love honey. Love lemon and rose. Saffron adores me. This should work on me, but I'm not sure it does. There's something odd and powdery about it, and I can't seem to put my finger on what's causing it. I'm having the same problem with this version of 13 I had with the 2010 version of Gelt; it smells like old chocolate someone dropped behind the couch that's sat there for half a year someone found while vacuuming. I'm wondering if it's the particular cocoa note used in the blend, because it only seems to occur with certain chocolate blends and not with others. The last version of 13 was rich cacao goodness on me. This one smells more like ovaltine. It's sort of like playing chocolate roulette.

Confession time; I wasn't expecting to like this scent. I ordered a decant of it on a whim to round out my order because I didn't want to purchase only a single decant of this cycle's 13. I'm not a big fan of grape or wine scents, and I tend not to like boozy notes. The only reason I picked Moon of Horses to add to the order was because I liked the name. There's no booze in Moon of Horses and the grape isn't the cloying, overblown scent I'd learned to dread. As other people have said, this grape is green, and sweet, and warm. There's something summery about it, and almost aquatic. The olive leaf is especially strong on me and, like others, I smell something like hay and smoke. I don't get any cinnamon, which is another note I don't particularly care for. All in all, Moon of Horses is very surprising. It's warm, and wet and sweet and green, and I sort of wish I had more of it. It's nothing like I expected.

Swap List - 5ml Bottles: MITZVAH GORERET MITZVAH *May be picky!* (Holy hyssop, red apple, massoia bark, and pomegranate with eight different types of honey that represent the sweetness of life and new beginnings.) Swap List - Imps and Decants: Partials A FIT OF ARTISTIC ENTHUSIASM 1/2 FULL (Electric jolts of mania with the scents of a salt-crusted coffin bobbing through tumultuous ocean waves.) CHANUKKIYAH 2010 (1/2 FULL: Olive oil, beeswax, glowing amber, sweet sufganiyot, pomegranate, and fig.) THE DOLE OF THE KING'S DAUGHTER (1/2 FULL: Red roses, blood-flecked lilies, upturned earth, yew branches, and blood mingled with river sand.) GELT 1/2 FULL (Dry cocoa and golden amber.) JACOB'S LADDER 2010 (1/2 FULL: Golden amber, galbanum, benzoin, ambrette, rockrose, costus and tonka.) THE RUSSIAN DANCE 1/2 FULL (Florentine iris, black tea, labdanum, patchouli, champaca flower, benzoin, and ambergris.) PENDING GC AEVAL (Sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka.) BRIMSTONE (A smoky, gritty blend, husky and gray.) CHUPAROSA (No description of notes, but it's definitely roses and honeysuckle.) MARIE (A blend of sinuous violet and elegant tea rose.) OPIUM POPPY (No description of notes, but reviews describe it as strong poppy with some incense or smoke.) PERSEPHONE (Pomegranate and rose.) QUEEN (No list of notes, smells earthy and spicy to my nose, with something green in the background. Most reviews say it's a green scent, but I'm getting a lot of earth.) SKULD (Ylang ylang, honey, Egyptian and Arabian musks and labdanum.) SNOOTY ROSE (Red rose, oud, plum, bergamot, and red sandalwood.) TWEEDLEDUM (Green mango, fig, patchouli and green tea.) PENDING WHIP (Agony and ecstasy: black leather and damp red rose.) THE ZIEBA TREE (A dreamlike, listless scent, misty and hazed, with wisps of white sandalwood, eddying musks the colors of eventide, shimmering pale resins, davana, lemon blossom, orange blossom, and white peach.) Unimpable/Discontinued LAUREL HONEY (No listed notes; sweet, mild honey with subtle leafy herbs in the background.) PEPPER (Wild English roses, French gardenia, vanilla, honey, golden ginger, blood orange, pine resin, pink pepper, crushed berries, tuberose, bergamot, and geranium.) SAINT-GERMAIN (gilded amber, hypnotic lavender, brash carnation and deep mosses.) Limited Edition ANTHEIA (Grandiflorum jasmine, Damask rose, ylang ylang, gardenia, sweetbriar, and apple blossom dusted by golden amber.) DAWN: PRIESTESS (Damascus rose, jasmine, myrrh, opoponax, white sage, and patchouli.) THE DECREPIT HOUSE (Dilapidated planks of mahogany and cypress wood perched feebly on a grim foundation of long-dead leaves, black musk, patchouli, galbanum, tobacco absolute, fragonia, and oakmoss.) PENDING GINGER SKULLS (Zingy crystallized ginger candies with quince and Asian pear.) PENDING KLARA (Honey dusting powder, mandarin, iris, ylang ylang, tea rose, and carnation.) KYTHERIAN (Black narcissus, purple orchid, neroli, white sandalwood, ambergris, plum musk, jonquil, thyme, oakmoss, and grapefruit.) PENDING THE LADY OF LAKE RONKONKOMA (Balsamic, reedy water, sweetgrass, algae, loosestrife, and lady's slipper.) LADY LUCK BLUES (Honeyed Bulgarian rose, vanilla flower, benzoin, tonka, black plum, peony, and iris.) MISERCORDIA (magnolia, black currant, castoreum accord, lavender, labdanum, amber, rose otto, and opoponax.) THE PHOENIX IN SPRING (Newborn, with flecks of myrrh still dusting its wings, the Phoenix emerges: dandelion florets, cherry blossom, spring wildflowers, and myrrh.) SLEIPNIR (Confections spun of hazelnuts, honey, elderberries, and bilberries with a dusting of hay and a bit of carrot.) SLEEPING NYMPH AND SATYRS (Wild woods, Bulgarian rose, tolu balsam, vanilla absolute, ambergris, honey, and vanilla.) PENDING TEARS, IDLE TEARS (A bittersweet aquatic lifted by white rose, olibanum, amber, orris root, davana, and oude.) TRANSEO (benzoin, orange blossom, cumin, King mandarin, gaiac wood, juniper berry, Calabrian bergamot, Ceylon cinnamon, and blood camouflaged by wine.)

Mmm... light, fresh tea with a zing of mandarin and a hint of violet. This is surprisingly delicious on me. I definitely get where someone else said that the fruit seemed "candied," because I am certainly getting that impression as well. Of all the dances, I wasn't really expecting much out of this one and was pleasantly surprised. I think I'll be keeping this decant. It will be something nice and refreshing to wear on a hot summer's day.

I'm so sad about the Russian Dance. It's nothing but strong acrid black tea, champaca and patchouli on me from the get go and stays that way until it vanishes without a trace less than ten minutes after application. What the hell, skin chemistry? Iris is one of my favorite notes, so I was hoping for a little floral action, and I tend to like tea and incense as long as they aren't overwhelming... I just don't know what happened with this one. It should have worked, but it totally didn't.

As a general rule, vetiver smells like garbage on me. Literally like garbage. So if there's vetiver in this, either something's canceling it out or it's such a small amount as to be undetectable, because there's zero garbage smell. Instead it's a very sweet honey with a powdery, metallic bite. I don't get any of the woodsy smell others are describing either; just honey and metal. It's a very dry scent, evocative of the crone-like Mommy.

Unlike the previous poster, of all the champagne scents for this year, Champagne and Party Hats was the only one I liked. I'll admit up front I'm not generally a fan of champagne notes, and the champagne note in these blends smells more like ginger ale than anything else. Still, the main note in Champagne and Party Hats isn't champagne, it's cake! White cake with buttercreme frosting, to be specific, and the champagne note is more of a suggestion in the background. Really, wearing it smells like you've crashed someone's lavish New Year's Eve birthday party. It's a really fun scent and I waffled too long on buying it at Will Call, otherwise I'd have a bottle (they were sold out before I could make up my mind). If you're a fan of foodie blends and you like champagne notes, I'd give this one a try, if you're able to get your hands on it.

Caveat: I've never owned nor tried a 13 before, so I can't compare this one to any of the others. What I can say, however, is that I loved my decant of this scent enough to eventually buy a whole bottle. On me this smells like the darkest of dark chocolates, almost uncultivated, just barely sweet, with a hint of honey to warm it up. The tobacco and spices are mostly in the background, deepening it, and there's something faintly salty going on, though I can't put my finger on what. Overall, this is a very well-married, complex blend, with dark chocolate as a dominant base note combined with honey. I've only recently decided I like chocolate blends, as long as they aren't milk chocolates, so I may have to try more versions of 13 in the future.

The lilac wood is not a perfume-y sort of lilac--it's very fresh, like you've stepped into a meadow full of blooming flowers. There are definitely fresh green leaves in the background, grassy scents, maybe a cool breeze; it very much evokes the feeling of taking a long stroll outdoors on a cool day. It's still a very light scent, but quite lovely, and a lot more delicate than I was expecting. It surprised me how much I liked it and, while I may not need a whole bottle, I can definitely see myself pulling out a decant for certain occasions.

I suppose I'll have to be the first naysayer for The Unicorn. It's a pity too, because I really wanted to love this scent. I got the chance to try this out at a Will Call and had to duck out to wash it off my wrist. I don't know what went wrong, but there was something in it that absolutely hated my skin, and smelled faintly like wilted cabbage. My guess is that it was the lettuce note, because I've worn all the other notes listed in various blends with no problems (including the white chocolate one). I'm pretty disappointed, though, because I really wanted to love The Unicorn and I just didn't get the light, ethereal sweetness that everyone else seems to be describing.

I'm going to try to review this scent and I literally have no idea where to start. I really can't seem to find the words. I wasn't into BPAL when it came out, and I know how rare it is, and I am seriously kicking myself that I didn't know about it before now. At the same time I'm completely in awe of how lucky I am, that I managed to snag a full bottle of this completely on accident--completely on a *whim*--and ended up with a scent that is so thoroughly perfect for me that I'm left speechless. My boyfriend actually had to talk me into the swap, mind you. He's a Leo. I'm not. I'm a Gemini. He wanted to smell the scent because it matched his astrological sign. I decided to humor him. Leo is warm, sexy nutty amber that just wraps around you and fills the room. It announces your presence and doesn't let people forget you're there. There is something slightly spicy citrus about it, but it's very, very subtle. It reminds me of the pulp of pecan shells, so my guess is it has something to do with the walnut bark, or perhaps the chamomile. Regardless, this is a very regal, take-charge scent. It's very warm, dusky and elegant. It's a scent that *purrs*. I love it. I have to be careful with it, because I want to wear it every day. People I've never met stop me to ask me what I'm wearing, whenever I have it on. People who you wouldn't even think would care about perfume want to know where they can get a bottle. It's fascinating. I've heard people talk about their BPAL holy grail. I think this may be mine.

This and Flor de Muerto are my favorite of the 2010 Weenies. All Souls is a soft, warm, crumbly cake scent that isn't overly sweet and only slightly fruity. The incense note is very light and faintly smoky, with a hint of something floral. If it's rose, it's a very light watery rose and not something full-bloomed. Overall, the blend is very subdued and otherworldly, and it lingers for quite a while. That's not to say it doesn't have a lot of throw or staying power, but it doesn't hit you over the head and demand your attention. It's much more subtle.

The orange marigold, or zempasúchitl, has been one of Death's symbols since the pre-Columbian era. The yellow and orange petals are believed to represent the rays of the sun, bringing joy and light to the souls dwelling in the realm of the dead. These flowers surround Day of the Dead altars to guide the spirits to their offerings. Unlike a lot of other people, I don't get a single floral note from this one. There is definitely a bouquet at work here and it is very lovely and mysterious and sophisticated. I have to say, Flor de Muerto is probably my favorite of the 'Weenies for 2010 and it's one of the more elegant floral blends I've seen from the lab so far. Maybe it's because it works so well on my skin, but I knew from the moment I tried it that I had to have more of it. Not knowing what a marigold note is actually supposed to smell like, I get a blend of florals instead of a single floral note, with just a hint of spice and the subtle smokiness that a few other reviewers mentioned. This is a nighttime bouquet to me and there's something almost... sacred about it. It strikes me as a lot more serious than the "sunny" feeling a lot of other people got from it and there is something heavy and lush to the bouquet. The poster above me described it as "velvety" and that's an excellent adjective to explain the sense of fullness I'm getting. Just a beautiful blend all around.

I love apples, I love roses, I love honey. Eve seemed like a win for me, only it is very faint and very soapy. I'm not sure what went wrong. The ylang-ylang, maybe? Whatever it is, it's not working for me. And, even if it didn't smell soapy, I was hoping for something with a bit more throw. It's so, so faint that its not even in the running with my other rose or apple scents. I was hoping for something bright and crisp, or lush and this is neither. Stupid skin chemistry.

Sadly, the Harp just doesn't work for me. In the bottle it's sweet and green--something halfway between Oisin and Mag Mell, with a warm vanilla base--so I can understand why many people rave about it. I apply it, however, and it vanishes almost immediately. As in, I can't even smell it after a minute or two. I wait fifteen minutes and apply it again and the same thing happens. Some weird skin chemistry must be going on because, on me, The Harp is the magical vanishing scent. Glad I didn't buy a bottle of this! Who wants to wear perfume you can't actually smell?

I think I may be in love with the dandelion note. Everything I've tried it in so far has been brilliant. The School-House is no exception. As someone else said, this smells like when you were a small child, making chains out of flowers at recess. There's a fresh air sort of quality to it, with bleeding green stems and sweet meadow scents. I also don't get any wood at all, but I don't really miss it. This would be the kind of scent that would be at home while laying in a field of grass on a cool spring afternoon, watching the clouds go by.

There's not much I can say about Katrina van Tassel that hasn't already been said. It is dead on a sweet, creamy rose and amazingly light for a rose scent. This is definitely a young scent; there's something guileless and innocent about it. Oddly, I do get a hint of something faintly spicy in the background, but that may have something to do with the white rose note (white roses tend to smell a little peppery to me, for some reason). I think this is the only thing I've tried where cream is a prominent note and I have to say I like it quite a bit.

This is one of the only scents I own where I can pick out each of the individual notes if I try. It's a light, bright peach scent with great throw that isn't overwhelmingly fruity. Or, rather, it's not the sticky sort of fruit familiar in a lot of blends. It smells sort of like a walk through a peach orchard at the very beginning of summer with other scents on the wind. There's just a hint of gardenia and honeyed creaminess. Probably my favorite peach scent so far (and I'm a big fan of peaches), it's bright and airy.

I don't know why I haven't reviewed Bilquis yet, since it's pretty much my go-to scent when I can't figure out what else to wear. It has all the notes I like, and was actually sort of what I'd been hoping Agrat-Bat-Mahlat smelled like (but didn't) so my half-bottle swapped on a whim was a pleasant surprise. What I mostly get from Bilquis is amaretto apple, with a hint of rose and maybe... smoke? There's definitely something smoky about it. It reminds me of what an old-time cabaret singer might wear. There's a hint of foodie-ness about it, but the other notes keep it from being overwhelming. There's also something slightly dirty about it, but in a so-naughty-its-nice kind of way. Sometimes I'll try blends based on particular characters and think they don't really fit my perception of them. Bilquis, however, is dead on. If Gaiman's goddess was walking the streets today, this would definitely be her signature scent.

Yup, I'm looking for scents with both. I've already got both Brisingamen and Poisoned Apple.

Having done this for a little while, I'm starting to discover which notes really appeal to me and have found that I'm inordinately fond of both apple scents and rose scents. Since the BPAL catalog is impossibly huge, I was wondering if there were any blends that had both apples and roses as their dominant notes?

I've had my first allergic reaction to a BPAL oil. I broke out in raised welts and had a rather nasty rash where the oil was applied. What was it you ask? Oddly, King of Hearts: "Rosewood and black cherry with white musk, red rose, red musk and a spark of lavender." I've worn all of these notes before, except rosewood. Is it possible that I'm allergic to rosewood? That strikes me as a very odd thing to be allergic to!

The King of Hearts was a bit of a tragedy for me. In the imp and on my skin I could smell everything but the lavender. The cherry and musk dominated and the rose scent was very subtle and pleasant. There was just the barest hint of a woody scent in the background. I really liked it and thought I would keep it. Then my wrist broke out in hives. I washed it off, wondering if it was the oil or if I'd come into contact with something else that caused that kind of reaction. A week later I applied a few drops to my wrist and, literally, within a few seconds I had hives again! I've never had this kind of reaction to an oil before and I've worn blends will almost all of these notes in them, so I'm not sure what's causing this fairly obvious allergic reaction. The only note I've never worn in another blend is rosewood, but that strikes me as a very odd thing to be allergic to. So the King goes into the swap pile. He smelled so good, but made me itch like crazy!