sunlitgarden

Mmm, vanilla pumpkin heaven! It smells kind of boozy in the bottle, but not on my skin. It's really what I was hoping for from Pumpkin Latte 2010 when I first tried that, but that ended up just smelling like I'd spilled coffee all over myself. This is sweet and really makes me think of a baked good, without being SO foody that I want to eat myself. More like, sitting in a cafe in fall with all their yummy treats around. It also makes me think of a maple bar donut, if it were made with real maple syrup. (My partner's reaction when I entered the room after having put it on several hours prior: "I smell... maple?")

2012 version: Samhain smells very sweet on me. It reminds me a lot of honey - it doesn't smell like the BPAL honey note, exactly, but like the taste and sweetness of actual honey. That, plus a nice balance of spiced apples and wood and occasionally, very faint bits of patchouli. I can't tolerate too much patchouli in a blend without it becoming overwhelming to me, but it's really barely here. The overall scent on my skin isn't heavy at all, but it has lasted all day. This is a fresh bottle - it may change with age. I love it as is, though! It's really a wonderful fall scent, but since autumn scents are my favorite, I think I can happily wear this all year.

I haven't tried Drink Me, but Eat Me doesn't work on me either. I was disappointed. Have you tried Clockwork Couture: Male? (Leather, vanilla-infused sandalwood, East Indian patchouli, bitter clove, galbanum, and iron filings.) It's not super easy to find now, but I think easier than Female, anyway.

I haven't actually tried either of these yet, although I'm interested in both: The Sportive Sun (Heliotrope, amber, almond flower, frangipani, cedar, and calamus) and Et Lux Fuit (golden amber, heliotrope, vanilla musk, carnation, daisy and sunflower bouquet, neroli, lemon peel, ylang ylang and honeycomb). Both are old LEs but I see them come up on sales/swap pages from time to time.

I realized I forgot to put the new RPG scents in there! I'll do that in the next day or two, whenever I get to it.

Hopefully this will work in Excel (I saved it using OpenOffice, but in xls format, so it should hopefully work.) Everything up through Anniversaries should be in here now, although I didn't add the exact dates for many of the Lunacies and such, because honestly, I really didn't feel like looking them all up. The more recent scents should all be in chronological order, but scents from before 2007 or so may not be. (Since I started using this spreadsheet a couple years ago, the new scents have just been added onto the end.) I'm gonna scrap the Google Doc for now because it just is too slow for a document of this size, it lags when I try to scroll through it. http://home.comcast.net/~marysiachan/BPAL%20Spreadsheet.xls

I've been working on updating the spreadsheet, I have through the Weenies added. I'll hopefully finish getting it up to date tonight and then upload a new version.

Galbanum was not a note I was familiar with, so I went into this with a totally open mind. Unfortunately, I reacted quite badly to it. It's a strong, vegetal smell, that reminded me immediately of a compost heap. Others, who are not as familiar with composting, might not have such a bad reaction, but it smelled like rotting plant matter to me. I am now wondering if this was an ingredient in a few blends that went "composty" and bad on me, and am considering it a death note.

I am not a fan of vetiver, for the most part. But this vetiver SN, on its own, was less objectionable than many vetivers I've smelled in blends, leading me to wonder if it is less the vetiver itself, and more its combination with other notes, that I find so distasteful. I have smelled a vetiver oil from a local medicinal shop as well, and that oil was much more burnt and ashy smelling than this. The Haitian Vetiver SN smelled strong, deep, smoky but planty and earthy. There was a definite "mesquite barbecue potato chips" scent to it though, which kind of precludes me wearing it as a perfume. But I can see how it would be a good ingredient in atmospheric blends.

2012 version: This scent is pretty consistent on me from bottle to drydown. It's a sweet cherry, which smells somewhat like artificial cherry but not in a bad way, if that makes sense. It's like a cherry lollipop or cherry soda. It's not very boozy on me, although as it dries it starts to smell a bit more spiced and warm, which I imagine is the brandy note. I pretty much love it and am glad I got a bottle this year.

In the imp: Cakey, mostly. I think I'm smelling a bit of orangey citrus, and something creamy, maybe an almondy vanilla. It smells much the same on my skin. I'm not really getting anything I would describe as beer, but I am getting a bit of a smoky tinge which may be the incense. Combined with the cake, though, it's making me think of recently blown out birthday candles... although it's more of an ashy than waxy type of smoke. Dry, it's mostly smoke... but I just looked at a couple other reviews, and I agree that there's a sort of wetness to the smoke. It's starting to smell kind of gross, actually... At first, it reminded me of the remains of a campfire after it started to rain. But a burnt plastic type smell started to take over, and is becoming more dominant the more it dries. Not a match for my chemistry, unfortunately.

In the imp: Rose, definitely... and there's something cool, almost astringent as well. There's also a smoothness from the coconut. On my skin, it smells kind of mint/tea-tree astringent. With rose. It's kind of a strange combination. As it dries, the coconut/orris is coming out more... which is giving it a sort of sweet, "dusty" and soft, yet cool impression. It brought the image of a swan to my mind. I think that this sort of note is what I was hoping Wild Swans at Coole would be, but that one didn't work very well on me. Still.... it's kind of... grandmothery :| Not in a bad way, really... but it feels weird to smell it on myself.

I designed it originally so that other people could update it also, because I tend to get busy and forget about some projects that I have (such as this, it's been a few months since I've updated it, as you can see.) Unfortunately, it looks like the sorting got messed up somehow and now it's all jumbled up. The original Hackess spreadsheet was in roughly chronological order, but not all the scents have dates, so it can't really be re-sorted that way.... I'm thinking of just editing my copy and uploading a whole new one since it doesn't look like there have been any significant edits since I last worked on it.

In the imp and fresh on my skin, this is cherry-fruity with a bit of spice, and almond (the marzipan.) It smells like a dessert or a yummy cocktail with amaretto. As it dries, it smells like berries (mostly cranberry) and spices with a creamy sort of base. It actually reminds me of a candle - not just the scent added to the candle, but also the scent of the wax itself. Edited to fix desert vs. dessert typo

Dungeon Crawl is somewhat hard to find, but I find it really evokes a wet, cold stone basement/dungeon.

Gypsy Moth and Milk Chocolate, Coconut, Cardamom, Rum and Ginger Truffle are my favorites.

2010 Version: This really does smell like gingerbread! I swear there's a note in here that reminds me of white frosting, too. It's not quite as rich and delicious on my skin as in the bottle, though. On me, it has a slightly "dry" quality. I still enjoy it, though; the smell is warm and pleasantly spiced. It's like there's a cookie or gingerbread-flavored herbal tea nearby that I keep getting whiffs of.

I find that the tobacco note does tend to have a "manly" aspect to it (although personally I enjoy it.) You and your boyfriend have different skin chemistry, so you may amp notes that he doesn't and vice versa.

I'm pretty sure it does have just about everything. Not all the protos have review impressions, but I've been adding those from time to time. I will update it soon with the new 13, India Ink and Coralines.

Anime Exclusives, Singing Moon and new Single Notes added!

I would say Forever Sunshine is a nutty-floral, if that makes sense. The almond is a pretty strong note (which I like, I'm a big almond fan.)

In the imp, this smells kind of lavendery-perfumey. Not sure what note would cause that. On my skin, there is a detectable amount of peach, but again, there's a very "perfumey" quality to it. As it starts to dry it smells almost... minty? I guess shishito is a hot pepper - maybe it's that? I'm not getting the peach I was hoping for. It's there, lightly, but gets kind of overpowered by that astringenty note....

In the imp and wet: Very sweet honeydew melon. The honey in here is reminding me of the Pike Place Market, just like it did in Ae. Aegypti. I love the honey place there, but I had no idea it would deeply affect my sensory perceptions of perfume this much, making it too weird to wear. O_O

Lovely almond buttery cookie (light and sugary, not a heavy butter), with a bit of fruitiness, I think maybe apricot? As it dries, the apricot comes out more. Apricot cookie with warm spice. Other reviews mention clove and that does seem to be the dominant spice here. I love this - it warms my foodie heart without going sour or weird (which, for my skin, is an accomplishment.) I so wish this was available to buy in bottle form, but at least I've managed to get two imps so far...

This is pretty much a generic dryer-sheety aquatic on me. There's not much to make it stand out except a very faint curry-ish spice. No, I don't know why, but there are a number of spices that are curry-tastic on my skin.