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This was a lab frimp. It was both intriguing and frustrating. In the imp was the promise of cassia and strong wood with the problematic touch of lemon. Lemon scents rarely work well on me. I always wind up smelling like a love child of Dawn dish detergent and Lemon Pledge. Nonetheless, I'm committed to trying every BPAL that comes my way, so I put it on. Wet it hurt and stung. My skin at the crook of my arms had an adverse reaction to the cassia and made two big welts. Yet the scent virtually disappeared. Literally within a minute of putting this on, it was completely gone. Nothing at my wrists, nothing at my arms except the uncomfortable burning. I can't tell you what it smelled like when dry. My skin ate it whole and got indigestion. Clearly not a blend for me.

Oh, Chuparosa, I wanted to love you, but alas your love is for someone else. This was a lab frimp with a recent order, and it should have been magic judging from the scent in the imp. Heady rose, honeysuckle, and something both woody and spicy that made me think of cassia. Wet the spicy note hung out with the florals, preventing them from being overly sweet, and there was a strong scent of crushed honeysuckle leaf and vine. Very green and fresh, very nice with the powerful floral. Unfortunately, as it dried, that was all that was left, a very strong, sour crushed greenery that smelled like I had been abusing the honeysuckle vines with my weed whacker and then rolling in the sappy carnage.

This was a lab frimp with a recent order. I had been wanting to try this for a while now, so I was pretty excited! In the imp there's a lot going on. It's an intriguing blend. The florals are sweet and swampy, lily, magnolia, gladioli, a hint of carnation. I really love the lab's dirt note, and it's fairly prominent here. I'm not getting the booze notes which surprises me since they're usually pretty prominent. Wet the dirt comes out more strongly in the crooks of my arms than on my wrists. On my wrists the florals are sweet with a hint of decay. It's very evocative of its name. I'm a little concerned it could go cloying, but it doesn't. If this has a weakness, it's in the lasting power. After just two hours, it's very faint. When it first dries, it's a lovely, intriguing white floral with the complexity of earth and moss. After three hours it's gone completely. I'll really enjoy the imp, but I think that will be the extent of it. I like my fragrances to last a little longer than this.

Honey Moon contains five different honeys, ranging from pale and sweet to deep and heady, with hints of jasmine, white gardenia, Hawaiian white ginger and thyme. This is the first of the moons I've found myself drawn to, and it doesn't disappoint. If you had told me a year ago that I would actually be able to differentiate honey notes in anything, I would've thought that was crazy, but I honestly do smell several different honey layers when I open the bottle, from sweet and sexy to herbal and the faintest touch of beeswax. There's a cherry cordial kind of sweetness, too, surprising since nothing like that is listed. When it's wet, it's lush honey, both the beeswax sweetness of The Lights of Men's Lives and the more herbal honey of Yewberry Infused Honey. If there's any floral, it's all blended together so well it just leaves a fresh, white impression overlaying the honey. As it dries, the herbal honey takes front and center. It stays skin close and soft. I don't worry that I'll overpower anyone else with a cloud of scent. It's formal enough to stand up to a business function yet soft enough for after dinner intrigue, if you care to invite someone to invade your space. I'm very pleased with the purchase. It's different enough from the other honey scents I own to stand on its own and be reached for on those days I want a little mystery in my life.

Sometimes you read a BPAL description and hope with all your heart that it will deliver exactly what it says and that your skin chemistry will cooperate. And sometimes it happens just so. In the bottle I was a little concerned. It was more rose than anything else. While I adore rose, I already have more rose blends than any one person should at one time. The rose had some stem going on, a touch of strawberry, and that was about it. Wet the marshmallow made itself known in a glorious fluffy burst of puffed sugar goodness and dragged strawberry along to play. It was dizzyingly sweet without making it into cloying territory. It was pretty much exactly what I had been hoping for. The rose came out more strongly in the crook of my arm than on my wrists. Even so it didn't dominate, but complimented. The throw was medium, the staying power around five hours before it began to fade. After the fade, a faint vanilla/marshmallow/strawberry sweetness lingered with a touch of red rose at my elbow. This isn't a sexy, va va voom fragrance. It's fun and playful and kind of comforting in a sugary dessert kind of way. Foody without being overly gourmand. If you're afraid of rose, you don't really need to be with this. I usually amp rose out the wazoo. It behaved itself very nicely in this blend.

In the bottle it's tart green apple, just like a Granny Smith when you first bite into the skin. There's something kind of fizzy about it that reminds me of a good ginger ale without the ginger bite. It's got just a hint of bitterness, too. It's the bitter I associate with apple peels. Very nice! Wet it takes on more of a candied quality rather than smelling like natural apple flesh. It's still delicious but not as much like fruit. I can't detect any musk at all. As it dries, something kind of dry and powdery comes into play. It retains its apple candy goodness but loses the juicy quality. The throw is strong, and the staying power lasts for several hours. Sadly, I never got to try Snow, Glass, Apples as anything other than a soap fragrance. This reminds me a little of that without the complexity. I think it's a great, fun summer fragrance I'll be wearing a lot.

This was a frimp with a recent order, yet another one of those that fall into the category of, "I'd never have ordered this on my own, but damn is it good!" In the imp it smells pretty much straight up like a martini. Booze notes aren't always nice with my skin chemistry, so it was with caution that I tried this, just a tiny swipe across each wrist. Wet it was pretty magical. Fresh, crisp, clean and effervescent. A clean herbal scent with a hint of juniper and dry lime. A suggestion of gin without screaming GIN. It didn't morph when it dried. On me it stayed a skin scent. There was never much throw. However, whenever I managed to catch a whiff, I felt refreshed and energetic. Like Embalming Fluid, this is a terrific hot weather scent in my opinion. Refreshing without ever overpowering. Slightly sweet without cloying. Best of all, while it is a little boozy, it doesn't amp too high on my skin or make me smell like a sloppy drunk. I'd definitely wear this to a party or for a casual night out when I wanted to smell good without attracting tons of attention for it. Very nice!

To inflame with lust: MIAIPHONOS Clove, anise, mandarin, and cumin. I bought this one with a little more trepidation than the Nymphia. Anise in candy can sometimes really overpower everything else, as can clove, and I hate spice drops gum drops. Anyway, I decided to have faith in the confectioners, and I'm very glad I did. This is a bold candy. The cumin gives it a real depth and complexity, a small touch of savory and a suggestion of Indian food in something quite sweet. The only flavor I have trouble picking out in this individually is the mandarin. It seems to make an appearance more as a juicy quality than a citrus flavor. The clove is strong enough to numb the tongue very slightly, and the anise keeps it from completely overpowering the entire lozenge. It's not strong enough to taste like straight up licorice. This is how spice drops could taste if they didn't get so heavy handed with the clove. I do have a complaint about this candy that I didn't have with the other offerings. The plastic wrapper has stuck to every one I've opened in tiny little slivers that you can't really see. It winds up coming off in your mouth, and you have to find it on your tongue and pick it off. The other candies seemed to have a more thorough coating of the tapioca powder to keep this from happening. I recently had a sore throat. Happily, this candy also worked well to numb it down and cut down on the coughing, allowing me a better night's sleep until it cleared up, better than an actual cough drop because it wasn't harsh. I made sure the cold was cleared up before tasting this with an eye toward a review.

This was a frimp fresh from the lab. I really should not have even tried to put this one on, because pink grapefruit is always bitter yuck on me, and the lab's lavender note goes to old gym socks on me. In the imp, it's a nearly overpowering bitter citrus blast, like floor cleaner. Wet it's grapefruit and gym socks. The dry down didn't get any better for me. I wound up washing this one off. If you like citrus and it likes you, go for it. It's very, very fruity.

Selune, the Moon Goddess, fell in love with a beautiful shepherd named Endymion. She appealed to Zeus, asking him to cast Endymion into everlasting slumber so that she could be with him for all eternity. Her wish was granted, and every night the Goddess visited her love as he slept. A sweet, wistful blend of d’Anjou pear, Lily of the Valley, bois du rose and white musk. Oh, my goodness, this is so beautiful. I used to say I hated fruit scents, but Beth is making a fruit lover out of me over time. In the imp it was shockingly sweet. I was slapped across the nostrils by white florals and a little frightened. I hadn't read the notes, and it was as heady as gardenia which manages to go headache inducing on me. I shouldn't have worried. Wet I got a blast of sweet, juicy pear to the point it made my mouth water. The rose and the lily are very well blended and complemented rather than competed with one another. The pear held its own against them. It was sweet and bright and more complex than one might expect. It's a floral fruit. Thankfully, nothing got soapy like some have reported, but all of these are notes that I know play very well on my skin chemistry. As it dried, it wasn't much of a morpher on me. The pear and the two floral notes stayed pretty balanced. My wrists amped the florals the most, rose and lily. The crooks of my arms held onto the pear. The throw overall was medium. I kept getting these lovely whiffs of pear as I move around. It lasted a few hours which surprised me since my skin pretty much inhaled the pear in The Vine after less than an hour. Another serious bottle contender, like I don't have enough rose blends yet.

Namaste was a frimp, and all I could think was why have I never tried this before? It's all notes that play nicely with my skin and...yeah! Let's get to that review! In the imp, my nose read the lemongrass as grapefruit, a sparkly, tangy grapefruit minus the bitterness that usually makes that a no-starter for me. The jasmine was very obvious with rose right under it. Strong sandalwood. This smells almost exactly like some solid perfume from India I had years ago and loved to pieces except that it never lasted more than an hour or so on my skin. Wet it was pure magic. Sandalwood came out more strongly for me than it ever has with any other BPAL. The jasmine didn't get too sharp and still had rose partnered with it strongly enough that it didn't dominate. The lemongrass stopped smelling like grapefruit but also wasn't screaming lemon which will just kill any love I have of anything involved with it. It was a bright, sparkly citrus that blended really well with the wood and floral notes. No patch that I could detect. Maybe it was grounding it all a little to keep it from being too sweet, hard to say. The dry down was also a good stage for me. Nothing morphed strangely. Instead it all just settled in. It was exactly like I had always wished the solid perfume would be, staying around with decent throw. This blend definitely made me feel peaceful and happy. It's different enough from everything else I currently own that I'd be insane not to snag a bottle. On my skin chemistry I'd give this a 5/5.

I received this as a frimp. In the imp, it's a blast of pink Bazooka bubblegum. Exactly the scent you get when you first untwist the paper wrapper. Crazy! Wet, bubblegum blast with something kind of plastic-y. I'm transported back to sixth grade when all of us were wearing Bonne Bell Lip Smacker lip glosses in bubblegum and cherry flavors. Then, owwie! Contact dermatitis! I can't even smell it yet, but there has to be cinnamon in this. It's the only thing I know of that burns my skin like that and makes red spots. I have no idea what this might have done on me in the dry down. I had to wash it off before it gave me hives. Not a huge loss as a woman in her 40s doesn't need to smell like this. Still, it was a fun little fragrance while it lasted and brought back some good memories. If it wasn't for the name, I'd have no hesitation in sending this to my eleven year old niece. However, I don't think my brother-in-law and sister-in-law would see much humor in her aunt giving her a perfume called "Jailbait."

Given my recent love affair with BPAL tobacco and leather accords, I had to try this when I read the description. It doesn't disappoint. In the imp, tobacco is the dominant note, the same tobacco in The Tata and The Antykithera Mechanism. There's something sweet alongside it, sidling up and making nice. I'll assume that's the date. It's not a note I'm familiar with. Wet the tobacco still dominates, and the sweetness is even sweeter. It almost makes me think of chewing sugar cane, that rich scent that comes along with it. I like this a lot, very casual but also assertive. It's not until it dries that the leather makes its presence known. It's a comfortable older leather jacket a little beaten at the elbows, not new leather. I have no idea what snakeroot smells like except to say there is a vegetative note in here that's fresh and a little sappy. It's a nice contrast to the more grounding notes. This is unisex on me. I don't feel it leans either masculine or feminine. If tobacco and leather work on you, and not every fruit turns to a note of doom, I'd suggest giving this a try. Throw is minimal. It's really more a skin scent. On me it lasted a good eight hours or so before it was faded enough not to smell anymore. I have some really stunning tobacco blends in my collection right now, so I'll be giving this a pass. Once my LEs run out, I'll be running to it.

This was a frimp recently arrived. In the imp I got a strong blast of lemon, almost Lemon Pledge territory, which has never done well on my skin. However, except with a few notes that I know for a fact to be headache inducing on me, I'll give anything a skin test. Wet at first it's loud, loud lemon overpowering everything else. When it starts to settle down it's a light ginger ale, similar to Gnome. The lemon morphs to Pez. When it's dry, it's cheap ginger ale and Pez. I would've loved to smell like this when I was around 9-12, not so much now. Sadly, Bon Vivant is not for me.

In the imp this smells exactly like the BPTP Honey Pumpkin Stout bath oil, rich, buttery, and spicy pumpkin ale with a touch of sweetness. It's a delicious fragrance, but it worries me because the cinnamon in that is strong enough to trigger contact dermatitis. When I put it on, sadly that was exactly what happened. Swollen, itchy red spots everywhere the oil was applied. If you have a skin sensitivity to cinnamon, be careful with this oil. There's enough of it to get you. Unfortunately, I couldn't let it stay on to see how it would dry. I was really enjoying the scent. It would be something nice to wear in the autumn or early winter.

In the imp it smells like teak and cologne, a fairly sharp men's cologne with a strong wood note. Wet it did something horrible for about ten minutes. It smelled exactly like being in the dentist's office with a helping of latex band-aid on top of that. I was really tempted to wash it off. However, I was heading out and in a hurry, so I refrained. As it began to dry, there was a little pine, a little moss, and something sweeter and more incensey. OK, that was much easier to tolerate. I was happier with that stage. It's the dry stage after several hours where it really shines. The moss note grounds it. There's teak wood again, and a rich, resinous scent that reminds me of a sandalwood necklace I used to own. If there is musk in this, it's one of the lighter ones, not black, brown, or red. There's almost no throw. I just occasionally get this nice whiff that reminds me I do have perfume on today. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays with Thief and maybe Fighter.

In the imp, it's hard to smell this at all. It's very light and a little ozone-y. It makes me curious about how it will smell when it hits skin, since nothing jumps out or seems dominant. Wet I get cucumber and white musk. It's a little sharp and high, but it settles down pretty quickly to something quite lovely, a light musk with herbal undertones. It's much stronger once it hits the heat of skin than in the imp. The throw turns moderate. The musk lingers and settles in with cucumber and something that smells a lot like oakmoss to me. As the hours pass, all that remains is whatever is registering as oakmoss and a little musk. Good staying power. This is something complex enough to stand on its own and likely to play nicely with some of the other RPG scents.

In the imp, this is rich humus and dry spruce needles. It smells very much like a forest floor with a similar dirt note to Zombi. Wet for a while the dirt is pretty strong, overpowering anything else. It also smells damp and a little musty, like wet wool. Not liking it very much at this stage. It dries into something fairly surprising. I'd say this trends more masculine than unisex. It's not quite cologne, although it has that quality to it. The evergreen comes up enough to keep it fresh and natural rather than chemical or perfumey. It doesn't have much throw, but it lingers for hours. It's not really me; however, it's not unpleasant. It's a good interpretation of the class and might do better blended with something else.

This is a very naughty and mercurial bard. I like! In the imp, it's fairly straightforward, a spicy honey. The bay rum is heavy on the bay, and there's a freshness to it that has a playful quality. Wet, I can easily see where some say this is a more masculine O. The honey has that deeply sensual quality to it that I associate with O. The bay comes on strong, more bay, less rum, and the wood note comes out to turn this even more toward the masculine. As it dries, bay rum really dominates. I was somewhat disappointed at this stage as that's not one of my overall favorite fragrances. However, it isn't done! After several hours, the honey reemerges, not in its O incarnation but more like the honey from Yewberry Infused Honey. It has that lovely herbal quality I enjoy so much in that blend. The throw is medium, the staying power impressive. Bard is complex enough to stand on its own merits. I'm curious to see how it will blend with some of the other RPG imps, too. Of the class interpretations, this is one of my favorites. Very true to its namesake.

I was tempted to leave it at that, but that's not very helpful, is it? OK. In the bottle, this is exactly as stated, a spicy, dry chocolate. Very foodie to the point that it reminds me of a dry rub I make to season pot roasts. I use most of the listed ingredients minus the vanilla. Annatto has a lovely, rich nutty presence, just a little on the bitter side and a very nice complement to cocoa. The pepper in the blend is just a hint of spice, enough to tickle the nose. It's also a touch smoky, not quite like chipotle but close. I had a bit of concern since I have a skin sensitivity to cinnamon, but this didn't just explode cinnamon at me when I opened it, so I thought perhaps I'd be safe. I applied it fairly sparingly to my wrists and the crooks of my arms. If cinnamon will act up, that's where it will do it. Thankfully, I had no reaction, no redness, no itching. There's not much morph in the wet stage. I smelled like I do when I'm making the roast rub. It's not a sweet scent, and even when the vanilla begins to make its presence known, it's not a sweet vanilla. Think the vanilla of Tombstone, not of Lyonesse or Gypsy. On dry down it gets a little bit of an incense quality to it, something about that smoky pepper. This stays a skin scent for me. I have to put my nose right on top of it to get the fragrance. I found myself doing that for a large part of the day. It's delicious. The cocoa stays assertive and maintains its presence without fading. It's all blended so well that you can pick out individual notes without having any one overwhelm the others, and at the same time the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I know it's not listed, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a little copal hiding in here somewhere. I wouldn't consider this a date night seduction kind of perfume. Wear it when you're heading out for a casual night to throw back a few beers and maybe eat hot wings, or perhaps when you're going on an outdoorsy sort of adventure. It's a rugged, unisex scent that I think wouldn't be offensive even to those who are otherwise sensitive to perfumes.

I received one of the bottles with lots of sludge, nearly the bottom fourth of it. After much rolling, the oil looked black with light behind it, none even managing to make it through. For all of that in the bottle, the cocoa registers as little more than a dry, woody sort of note beneath a strong floral with rose predominant. I smell no lemon or custard whatsoever, although I can detect the skin musk as one of the more perfumey notes. It's really pretty and feminine, just not what I had expected from the description. Wet on me, for about a hot minute I can smell the cocoa. It's a dry, bitter chocolate, and I have a moment or two where I think it's going to deliver on what it promises, soft, lemon custardy goodness. Then rose and skin musk happen. A lot. I'm a rose lover; however, this white rose is different from its red cousin. Rather than being a true floral on me, it's a more chemical-y perfume floral, and therein lies the problem. On the dry down I'm taken right back to my eight year anniversary in 1998 when my husband bought me a bottle of Romance by Ralph Lauren. Dead ringer for that perfume on me. I checked and discovered they share several notes, but man, I really wasn't expecting a clone. I wish my skin chemistry didn't so often make skin musk a heavy perfume scent rather than what it's supposed to be. That's not to say this doesn't smell good. It does. But it's not at all what I was hoping for or expecting. Romance is a date night, elegant floral perfume, not something you can wear casually or to the office, and the throw from this is every bit as strong as I ever had with that. Once it gets to that point, it doesn't morph at all, and it lasts for hours. I could still smell it on my wrists the next morning, and I did not slather. Through the years I've moved away from those types of fragrances. This is one of the rare ones I might actually rehome so that someone else can enjoy it as it ought to be. This was my only Lupe disappointment this year.

This is sooooooo gooooooood. In the bottle, I absolutely agree with the comparison to Y'ha-nthlei without the mineral/coral component that went along with it. Also more salt. Did I mention the salt? My husband's skin really loves aquatics, so I let him play with this first. On him it was deep ocean goodness with very little of the vegetation coming through. It muted down to a skin scent on dry down. Whenever I got close to him, I was huffing because it was yowza, sexy without being sexual, if that makes sense. Wet on me it got really loud at first. I was afraid I was going to be hit with the men's cologne effect I had from Mary Read. Thankfully, that didn't happen. What seemed to be amping the most was the frankincense, which made it a lot sweeter than I usually associate with aquatics. I can definitely detect the kelp in this stage, fresh, not like something that has been baking in the sun on the beach for a while. As it dried, the throw was much stronger for me than for my husband. I also seemed to be bringing out a lot more of the greenery. It's refreshing and clean, the way I like to smell after a long shower. It's not soapy and not detergent. It's more organic than that. I'm very glad I bought a bottle. I still like Calico Jack best on the husband, but for me this has become my new go-to aquatic. As a Cancer, I'd have to say I feel like this is a perfect water sign scent, a little tempestuous and breezy, complex, and oh yeah, did I mention the salt?

This was a frimp, and while it's something I'd never have thought to order for myself, it's a hit. In the imp it's fresh cucumber with a light, sweet floral and a hint of grass. It smells juicy. Wet it reminds me tremendously of some lotion my aunt used to have. I have no idea what it was called. I just know her bedroom always smelled like it, and she always put it on if she had been in the sun a little too long. (She was a big fan of reusing bottles, so nothing was ever what the label said it was!) It was a blast from the past to the point I could close my eyes and see the bedroom in all its old detail, even though it has been almost twenty-five years since I was there before my uncle died and she sold the house. Cucumber lotion, but not in a chemical way. I think it's the floral giving it that impression, possibly lily of the valley. Dry it's cucumber, cut grass, and lily, sweet and fresh, a perfect summer scent. It's skin close. I have to get my nose right on it to catch a whiff. It has decent staying power. There was still a touch of sweetness after several hours. I'll keep and enjoy the imp. I haven't yet decided if I love it enough for a bottle purchase. It was very nice to have the unexpected scent memory. I always had such a lovely time visiting my aunt and uncle at their house on Black Lake.

This was a recent frimp. In the imp it's vivid, bitter almond with cherry and the sweetness of myrrh. Wet it's ALMOND, extremely bitter and sharp. Within five minutes the musk note of doom turns it into myrrh and baby powder. And that's what I'm left with. Baby powder with obnoxious throw. I wish dark musk worked better with my skin chemistry. I can't count how many blends this one note has ruined on me.

This was both a distant and a recent frimp. The first time I opened it to sniff it months ago, there must have been something seriously off with my nose. I was repelled and set it aside, thinking this was one I'd try when I knew I could wash it off if I had to. Then another frimp of it came with a different order. I hesitantly opened the wand cap and just about died. It was golden sweet vanilla and one of the most true to ocean aquatics I've ever experienced. I have NO idea what was wrong with me that first sniff, but I couldn't wait to try this on. Wet it's the aquatic I've been dying for, everything I love about some of the Picnic in Arkham aquatics without going to the laundry soap or Irish Spring phase. This is an extremely clean scent, and the vanilla is hands down one of BPALs best I've experienced. This reminds me a lot of Black Opal, which I'm still kicking myself for not ordering before it was canceled. It's not a listed note, but there's a subtle mineral quality to this, almost like soft clay. When it dries it's gorgeous. A sweet, clean vanilla blended with an exotic salty aquatic. I completely get the golden afternoon on the water association. This is pure magic and has bumped itself up to the top of my bottles to order list.