sunlitgarden

Michi bought this bottle in 2012, and it smells good on her. I've never tested it on myself though, and our skin chemistries can make scents smell pretty different on us... I'm kind of scared of patchouli in general, but in the bottle here, it doesn't smell too strong or BO-ish. It's a little bit like incense with creamy, sweet orange blossom that's kind of reminding me of a Creamsicle. On my skin: more Creamsicle-ish orange. This is not just smelling like the orange blossom flower, but the fruit. There's a bit of the "stinky" smell that I sometimes get from white florals when I first apply this, but it's not too overwhelming. Drying: Mostly still sweet, creamy orange blossom. If the patchouli is here, I don't smell it. It might just be giving the scent more of a "grounded" base. I've actually tried/reviewed several scents with patchouli in the past few days where I don't mind it. Maybe there's just one particular kind of patchouli that I dislike... I'm not sure. There is definitely one type that smells like BO to me - but it's not here, so yay!

In the bottle: Sweet, fruity, "red" if I were to associate it with a color (the oil isn't red though). I mainly smell the honey and pomegranate and maybe some plum. On my skin: This is very sweet, though it's fruit/honey sweetness rather than sugar. Still a "reddish" color association. To me, osmanthus smells a lot like apricot, and I think here it's adding to the overall fruitiness. The rose starts to come out a bit as it dries but it's not the star player here. Myrrh is not smelling bitter like it sometimes can -- it's giving the scent a bit of powdery quality (though that might also be from the honey, I'm not sure). Drydown: powdery, soft, gentle, still a little bit fruity. Overall, this scent seems to be working well with my chemistry. It smells nice, but it's not one of my all-time favorites.

In the bottle: This reminds me of a "traditional" perfume that you might find at a department store. I think that's mainly because of the amber -- often times scents with amber make me think that. It isn't a bad thing, though -- this smells good. If I had to give it a color association, it would probably be a dark wine-red leaning towards brown. It smells a little bit fruity, thick, almost sticky and almost alcoholic. Tamarind is a note I'm mostly familiar with in Mexican soda and in the dipping sauce for naan at Indian restaurants, and this scent does have that same sort of thick, sticky-sweet sort of quality. I can also smell the patchouli, which is usually a note I avoid, but in this oil it's in the form I can manage - it's more of the dried-grass type than the strong type that I associate with BO. On my skin: still that sort of purplish-brown fruity syrup sort of scent. The fig is behaving; it can smell overripe and rotting on my skin, but this time it smells pretty true to the fruit. I can still smell the amber in here giving it that sort of "perfume" quality, and it's on the sweeter side. This is reminding me a little of Bath and Body Works' now discontinued Brown Sugar and Fig, which is a scent of theirs that I used to really enjoy. I had almost forgotten what a fig note is *supposed* to smell like -- hopefully this is a sign of changing chemistry that means I might be able to wear fig now! (I'll have to keep trying.) As it dries more, it starts to smell a little bit green and stemmy. To me, fresh figs have an aspect of this "greenish" taste, which I'm actually not too fond of - I prefer dried figs. I'm also starting to get more patchouli at this point. It's recognizable, but it's behaving, and is still leaning sweet. Sometimes tonka can have a slightly unpleasant "burnt/stale" quality on me but it's not doing that here, thankfully. I think it's just adding to the overall sweet base of the scent. There's a stage in the drydown where the patchouli is more prominent, and I don't like that stage as much, but it eventually retreats again and I am left with a soft, almost powdery, amber-tonka base with a bit of that purple-brown fruitiness still present.

Stollen is one of my favorite Christmas foods! So I had to get a scent based on it. In the bottle: Boozy almond, primarily. Kind of smells like an almond/rum extract. I can smell a bit of the orange peel in there, too, but it's not as strong as the rum and almond. On my skin: There's more of the candied orange peel here now. Sugary orange, almond (the almost cherry-ish extract kind), rum. It's on the sweeter side, with a creamy base tying it all together, so it's more like a rum cake with frosting than a cocktail. Drying, the orange zest fades, and it's smelling more like marzipan cake now - creamy sweet almond and rum. After 1+ hours it's lighter, but if I sniff my wrist it's slightly spiced, creamy, and rich. This and Mother Shub's Spiced Lait de Chèvre have ended up as two of my favorite foody blends - yay Mother Shub!

2013 version: In the bottle: A jumble of leafy, planty green notes, with florals in the background (though I can't pick out any particular flowers at this stage). The ivy is the most recognizable note to me: a green, leafy note that smells kind of similar to tomato leaf. It's fresh smelling and almost dewy, very reminiscent of a green field. On my skin, I'm still getting some greenery, but the florals come out more. It's very fresh smelling still, almost a bit aquatic - but more like morning dew or rain on greenery than like an actual body of water. This is the type of scent that I often find soapy or dryer-sheety, but I'm not getting that effect with this blend. As it starts to dry, I'm getting a little bit of rose as a detectable note, but it's in the background. This scent makes me think of going out into a wet garden and smelling the greenery, and getting occasional whiffs of the rose bush across the garden, rather than being right next to the rosebush and sticking my nose directly into the flower. The greenery eventually gets more "sappy" smelling than just leafy. Late drydown is mostly floral - they're soft florals with just a bit of the greenery left. The florals at this point kind of remind me of potpourri or the scent of a fancy bathroom, but not really in an unpleasant way. They're just kind of inoffensively sweet and pleasant. This scent is very evocative and I really like it - it's one of the "fresh" types of scents that actually works without giving me a headache.

I'm in the process of reviewing all the bottles in my collection that I haven't yet. I bought Happy Baby In a Long Dress new from the lab when it came out, but it's one of the scents that I've ended up mostly overlooking. In the bottle: sweet lemon and herbal lavender. Sometimes lavender smells astringent and almost medicinal to me, but this lavender's not like that; it's more like culinary lavender that you would find in tea or cookies. On my skin: Lemon is by far the strongest note, but it's sweetened enough that it's not too tart and acidic.At this stage, it's like lemonade flavored with lavender syrup. It's sweetened enough to cut the sourness, but it's not so sweet that it's cloying or toothache-inducing. As it dries more, a bit of a soapy quality starts to creep in, but it's more like bubble solution than an actual bar of soap. Since lavender is so often an ingredient in soap, that's probably where the association is coming from. That soapy stage doesn't last too long, though. What remains is a comforting and snuggly sort of lavender. Overall, this is a light, refreshing, summery scent.

2013 version: Khajuraho for me is one of those scents that's very distinct, but hard to break up into components to describe. In the bottle, it mostly smells like a sweet incense. It has a sort of deep, almost musty quality, but in a pleasant way (there are other scents I've smelled with this quality, but it's difficult to describe and I'm not sure what note or combination of notes causes it). On my skin, it smells like the bottle scent at first, but then the sandalwood starts becoming the most detectable note. This bottle is a couple of years aged now and I remember the florals being more apparent when I first got it... it's more of just a sweet incense/wood now. But still smells very good!

This is a scent I had to have from the notes - I enjoy pretty much all of them. Yet when it arrived I sniffed it, liked it, but then it kind of got overlooked for a while in favor of other scents. This happens to me a lot... which is kind of fun when I rediscover a scent later and am like "wow, this is great!" After wearing it yesterday, I can say that Blooming Rose is pretty much one of my highest ranking scents - a "wow, this smells amazing, I don't ever want to run out of this" scent. (Though I will make an effort to use instead of hoard it because I want to enjoy it!) In the bottle, it's mainly a sweet, soft, springy smell of flowers - it's actually hard for my nose to pick out any in particular, it's more like sticking my nose into a big vase full of them. It smells very pretty. On my skin, it's much the same (sweet, springy florals) except the rose starts to be more prominent than the others. I'm still not entirely sure about all the different rose notes (especially the difference between "white" and "pink"), but this is definitely a sort of lighter, fresher, springy, girly rose compared to something like Peacock Queen or even Rose Red - not one of those dark red roses. Rice flower is not a note I'm familiar with on its own, but several people have described it as making a scent smell "smooth" or "creamy", and this scent does have that sort of quality, especially after an hour or two. I can see how some people might get soap from this, in that it smells like a fancy soap might be scented, but fortunately it doesn't have that soapy quality on me. This scent is long-lasting on me, with a sweet, slightly powdery honey base that lasts all day. I think this is going to get a lot of wear this spring <3 Scents that you may also enjoy if you like this (just based on scents I also own): Peony Moon 2013, Weeping Branches Moon, Poisson d'Avril

Perfume oil version. In the bottle: rich, fudgy, almost boozy dark chocolate On my skin: This is one of those oils that's so chocolatey I'm expecting it to be brown, but it's clear. My mom makes a peppermint ice cream pie for Christmas that has a crust of crushed dark chocolate cookies, and this reminds me of that crust. I'm not really getting anything I would describe as a marshmallow note, though (I've experienced it in other scents as a powdered sugar/vanilla type of scent). It's mostly pure chocolate on my skin, and not the rich hot chocolate of Bliss, but more of a dry, dark cocoa powder. This seems like it might be good for layering, though I haven't tried any combinations yet.

Key Lime Pie in perfume oil form: In the bottle: The first impression is of a graham cracker crust, but I can smell the pie filling too. The lime is sweet and creamy. On my skin, it smells like it does in the bottle. What's kind of interesting is that when I sniff my wrist up close, I'm not really smelling the crust and pie filling *together* - it's like I get a wave of crust and then a wave of filling. As it dries more the crust and filling start to merge together more than when it was wet. I like all the pie scents I got but I think that this one is actually my favorite.

In the bottle: Wow! This is yummy! Despite the name, my first impression is a blueberry muffin or scone - sweet, cooked blueberries and a pastry note. On my skin: I didn't really get a crust note in Peach Pie, but I definitely get it here - buttery flaky goodness along with the blueberry. When I first tested this scent about a month ago, it kind of reminded me of blueberry yogurt (though not in a bad way). I'm assuming that was the cream note. It's interesting how much scents can change even in just a month, because it's not reminding me of that now. I have Blueberry Cream Pie on one arm and Peach Pie on the other, and I'm smelling the same sort of pie-spice blend in both of them. To be honest, I prefer the bottle scent to the skin scent - it's much more juicy and edible-smelling. The scent on my arm is more syrupy, cooked, and spiced. But it still smells good, and I'm not getting any sourness from the cream, which is always good! The cream is just adding kind of a "richness" to it, which I think is what it's supposed to be like.

Peach Pie perfume oil: In the bottle: I have a Yankee Candle called Juicy Peach, and the peach in this reminds me of that. I know comparisons to YC are usually unwelcome, but I enjoy some of their scents, including the Juicy Peach. Smelling them side-by-side, the candle is more fresh peach fruit, while Peach Pie has that same sort of juicy peach note in it but has more going on as well. It smells more like there's a little cinnamon and other spices, and it smells more cooked and syrupy than fresh and juicy. On my skin: again, kind of a "canned peaches in syrup" cooked peach smell, with a little bit of spice. I'm not really smelling anything I would describe as crust. When I first got the bottle about a month ago and wore this, a sugary note (like powdered sugar) came out and the overall scent was reminding me of peach rings candy. But after it's settled for a month I'm not really getting that anymore. As it dries more, I'm getting less peach and more of a sweet spiced base. Still nothing crusty.

In the bottle: Mostly cool minty pine, with a bit of a sweet edge to it. Wet: Much the same as in the bottle (cool pine) but the sweetness resolves itself more into vanilla rather than just "sweet". As it wears, there's always a balance between the pine and vanilla, but it seems to shift more towards the vanilla over time. I'm a big fan of evergreen notes AND vanilla, and they combine beautifully in this blend. I liked this blend when it came out in 2010, but didn't get a bottle because it was my first Yule and I was overwhelmed by all the options, and my budget didn't stretch as far as getting a bottle of everything I liked. I tracked one down later though and was glad I did; it's become one of my favorite Yules.

2012 version: I had to buy a bottle after I tried this at Seattle Will Call back in 2012. This has become one of my favorite foodie blends. In the bottle, it's boozy and spiced and just like eggnog with a touch of coffee. It's similar on my skin, but the coffee note is the first to fade once it begins to dry. Then it's a creamy eggnogy scent. Eventually the booziness fades and it's a rich, creamy, frosting-like vanilla that lasts hours and hours.

2015 version: In the decant: Florals with an undertone of musk. It has a "cool" sort of feeling, almost watery. The gardenia is definitely noticable, but it's not overpowering the other notes as it can sometimes do. On my skin: Despite all the florals this really doesn't feel springy - there's a definite coldness and it smells kind of aquatic in a cold water way. Wet, cold florals. Not icy, though - this is definitely fall-ish, not cold enough to frost, just enough to make you chilled. It reminds me a little of what I remember from The Wild Swans at Coole, though I don't have that blend anymore to compare. I checked the notes and the only thing they have in common is the muguet, so maybe it's that. Dry: It's more leafy-smelling than floral at this stage. Weirdly, while I smelled the white musk in the decant I haven't really smelled it on my skin. I think it might be giving the scent a bit of a powdery/soft backdrop though.

In the decant: Honey is the main note I'm smelling here, with a bit of tart fruitiness from the currant. On my skin: Hmm, the scent in this oil is a bit on the lighter side, I had to use a larger test patch than usual. Still mostly honey. I'm not really getting the usual notes I associate with cake like cream and vanilla. It's making me think of baklava or another honey-heavy dessert. The currant is detectable but it's staying in the background for the moment - it's giving the scent a bit of spicy fruitiness. I do get a little more currant as it dries. However, the overall scent is still pretty light on my skin. I do like this blend, but it's not really enough of a "stand-out" on me to be worthy of a full bottle.

In the decant: marshmallowy strawberry! On my skin: The strawberry is here, and it's sweet, but it's reminding me of powdered sugar or the sort of "chalkiness" that some candies have like (American) Smarties. A bit later it's making me think of the chewy texture of marshmallows - another "how does Beth do it?" moment. I'm not getting any sort of anisey licorice - this is more the Red Vines strawberry licorice. Also, the cream is not turning sour on me, yay! Eventually, the strawberry part of the scent starts to fade and it's more just vanilla marshmallow, sweet and cuddly. This is really good, but I think I have a slight preference for Battle Fairy in Training, where the strawberry note is stronger. However, this one may well be bottle-worthy as well.

In the decant: Smells almost... eggnogy? Spice and a creamy richness. On my skin: At first, this smells almost like an orange. I'm not really getting much pumpkin here. After a minute or two it starts to smell like movie theater popcorn butter. The popcorn butter doesn't last too long, thankfully, but after that fades I'm left with spices, but the sort of dusty-dry spices that have an edge of staleness to my nose. Unfortunately, this just isn't really working on me. After a while (about 30+ minutes?) the elements of this scent finally start to come together, and it starts to smell like a yummy spice cake. But there are other foodie scents (like this year's Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie) that work better with my chemistry and smell like they should out of the gate, so I won't be upgrading my decant.

In the decant: Foodie cookie-like pumpkin. On my skin: It's the usual sort of "bakery pumpkin" with sweet vanilla. It's not going to curry on me though, that's a plus! Overall, this smells good but it's not really a standout to me. I sold my bottle of Pumpkin Latte a few years ago so I can't compare them side-by-side but it reminds me of how I remember that scent minus the coffee. I like Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie better than this one. But if you're looking for something that makes you think of yummy pumpkin baked goods without being QUITE as overpoweringly foody, this might be up your alley.

Despite being listed as red apple, this one smells a little tarter than the usual red apple (maybe that's the currant?). In the decant it's mostly apple with a little spice. On my skin: Juicy, watery apple. I'm not getting as much of the clove as I would have expected and no vanilla either. Hmm, after a few minutes I'm starting to get a little clove. The big question for me was whether "vanilla bourbon" is the same thing as "bourbon vanilla" but I'm guessing not since I don't really smell any vanilla in this. I'm not getting much of a boozy note either, but I guess the bourbon could just be giving it sort of a warm backdrop. Overall, this one feels more like late fall leading into the Christmas season than early fall. Eventually, it starts almost smelling like a baked or stewed apple as the "crispness" fades. That juicy/crispy apple note never lasts long on me. It's nice but not really something I see myself wearing often. The apple doesn't last too long and I have other scents that I like better for warm clove, like Spicebush Swallowtail.

Preconceived notions: I like sweet scents, and I also like Sundew. I'm hoping this will be like a Sundew variation. In the decant: There's a lot going on in here! There's a "greenery" note for sure that smells herbal and a little minty (oh, I see now that "hints of mint" is written on the notes, I forgot about that), there's a kind of cinnamony spicy note (though it's not too strong), and the overall scent is sweet. What this reminds me of is actually the Cool Tropical room at the university greenhouse -- they have a lot of orchids, some of which have a sweet or spicy smell, and this reminds me of sniffing them combined with the overall wet green smell in the room. On my skin: Uh, this kind of smelled like weed for about two seconds, but that went away. Overall, it's an almost pulpy sticky green scent with the mint cooling it. It's not as sweet as I thought it would be from the description. The skin-scent reminds me of the Cool Tropical room a little less, but that's still the overall sort of impression - humid, green, plantiness. This is the kind of scent I was hoping for with the jungley scents I've tried like Macchu Picchu, but those have mostly ended up smelling cloying and given me a headache. It's the same sort of overall feeling -- cool, wet jungle -- that I get from Goldenrod Crab Spider. I like it, but not quite enough to get a full bottle since I do have a limited BPAL budget. I will keep my decant though.

Preconceived notions: I enjoy a lot of the "sweet florals" so I definitely wanted to try this one, but I was a bit apprehensive that it didn't actually list notes more specific than "flowers" -- some florals are good on me, others bad. In the decant it smells like a sweet mix of florals. There's nothing too cloying in here. I don't smell rose. It kind of reminds me of the Lunar New Year scents or, more generally, some of the "Asian inspired" floral blends. There's a watery peony-like note and something that's a bit tart. On my skin: I can smell the sugar more clearly now. "Petals dusted in sugar" is indeed a good way of describing it. It's almost fruity. Overall, this is a fun scent, but I have enough similar ones that I don't think I need to spring for a full bottle. I will keep my decant though

Note: this is the only one of the dead leaf scents I've sniffed this year. In the decant, this is a very vegetal-smelling leaf. I think this dead leaf accord might contain some Galbanum. It's not a dry, brittle, crumbly leaf, but it's not exactly a wet earthy leaf either. (I actually smelled some leaves this year while raking FOR SCIENCE!) I can smell the resins in the background, but the leaf note is pretty dominant. On my skin: Hmm, it smells "lighter" than in the decant, somehow. Copal tends to make scents smell "bright" to me, and there's an aspect of that here. It's like the sun finally came out and is shining on a wet pile of leaves. There's also a bit of smokiness from the frankincense. As it dries, that vegetal galbanum-y note becomes less prominent and the blend becomes more resiny overall. It's a bit smoky and spicy. I like it better at this stage. It's more like the crumbly dead leaves now. It's kind of interesting how it transitions from the strong vegetal smell to the dusty drydown. Unfortunately, I find the wet stage kind of off-putting.

I wanted to try this one because it has one of my favorite note pairings: rose and honey, along with carnation and vanilla, two other notes I love. In the decant: Sweet honey, and smells kind of lemony. The florals are there, too, and a bit of spice probably from the carnation and/or cubeb. The honey and vanilla cream smell foody, like lemon vanilla icing with some rosewater in it. It reminds me of Alice, which I guess isn't too surprising as they have several notes in common. On my skin: getting that lemony note first off, combined with the honey it kind of smells like... cough drops. It's not astringent or mentholic, but the honey-lemon combination primarily reminds me of those. I'm not getting much floral on my skin at all, it's mostly just sweet honey-lemon. It's soothing and "soft" smelling in a way, but also kind of reminds me of being sick and drinking lemon-honey tea and having cough drops. Later Edit: After several hours of wear, it becomes a lovely sweet snuggly honey, a little powdery but in a "good" way. However, I was hoping for more carnation and rose and the hour plus of lemon honey cough drops wasn't my favorite. I'll be keeping my decant, but I don't think I need a full bottle.

In the decant: The smokiness in here is reminding me of incense -- there's a definite "new age shop" scent going on here. On my skin: The smokiness is pretty strong. Michi says it reminds her of one of the "Dragon" scents. I think this smoky red musk is similar to what I got from Witch Dance. This scent is well-blended, overall. What I think is the fougere is smelling a little bit astringent. Oakmoss is doing its usual thing where I find it "smooths out" the other notes. I often find scents with smoky notes like this to be harsh and bitter, but I'm not really having that reaction here. In the drydown, the smoke eventually backs off and it's mostly fougere + oakmoss. I haven't been able to detect the mandarin at all but I'm sure it's in there somewhere Overall, I got this decant because I was curious, but I don't think I'll need more. But it's definitely an interesting scent.