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My darling husband bought me a bottle of Black Lace for Christmas! Awwwwh! I love him! He knows what I need... Wet this really reminds me of Sed Non Satia, which must be the cognac and musk. It's a little nutty but I hold on, because I know that note blends well on the drydown. TRUE. This scent is Antique Lace's sexy sister. PERFECT. A little darker, deeper, and boozy-er. I LOVE it!!! Edited to add: DH is putting a few drops of Black Lace into his beard oil. It is delicious on him as well...

This reminds me of VO5 extra body shampoo with some Body Shop Dewberry on top. It is a combo that reminds me of a friend from Jr. High.

Whoah. Flowery. I really love all the notes listed, but there is just nothing here to ground them for me. I smell nice and clean and fresh, but I prefer dark and dirty...

I was gifted this today. I never gave this blend a 2nd glance from the description, since leather and woods often go bad on my skin, but this is warm and mapley, slightly smokey, and so smooth. I love it!

I am sure this is the skin scent that eminated from the girl in the market pitting yellow plums in the book Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Suskind: (1985, p.43-44) This IS divine... Upon application the lily and apricot open up like a golden trumpet, dripping with sweetness, and not overly floral; it is almost citrusy, the way they combine. I tend to shy away from scents with dominant top notes, but these are charming, and there is depth to them almost immediately. The drydown is an exquisite skin scent. The woods and tonka are so subtle and in such harmony, they are like a musk. This is the way I love woods...(I usually cannot wear them because they are sharp and "pencil"-y). It does not seem "applied" to my skin. It feels like a glow, like a fresh life, like a soul. It smells... like the top of a clean baby's head... I feel like Haloes is the golden sister to Antique Lace (which I see as a dusty light purple scent). They are similar in the way they have an intensity while wet but mellow into a calm creaminess. She's quite Fae-ish in the fleshiness of the scent, but I grew weary of Fae's bright bergamot. She is really what I wanted Tamora to be. There are also many similar characteristics to Lyonesse (but less aquatic/soapy) and Mouse's Long Sad Tale (in it's ambery sweetness and non obtrusive florals); but I love her more... I bought 2 bottles unsniffed (never EVER done that before...thank you, Lisa!) and I am so glad I did.

Dana O'Shee, and I'm thinking Haloes is going to be on this list too (squee!).

This smells like the love child of Lurid and Black Forest. I do very much like it. It smells like hunting for X-Mas trees in TN where the ground is often soft and decomposing but the air is crisp. There is a delightful light sweetness on the drydown, and it is not as sexy as Black Forest. I love the earth note...it really hangs around.

I usually don't do grassy florals, but the candies and incense gave me hope that this Fairy scent would work for me. It is a little sharp, but reminds me a bit of violets, which makes it a more Victorian floral, which I do like. The candy and resins round out the florals nicely. A keeper, but not a top 10-er for me.

Three Gorgons for incense and orange, and Lyonesse for a creamy lily.

Beaver Moon reminds me quite a bit of Eat Me, but it is brighter...more tart. Love the vanilla cream: sweet and deep.

This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress. Prior to BPAL, the idea of smelling like pine brings up bad memories of Pine Sol janitorial buckets cleaning up puke at the elementary school, or those yuckie trees that they hang up in cars. ...but, DH loves juniper scents mixed with sexy musk so I had to hunt down some Black Forest. I am getting to it first, though, of course! Inital impression is PINE but quite natural, like rubbing evergreen needles between my fingers and smelling that. Not fakey. The throw is kind of like the green-soap smell of the tattoo shoppe, but that's fine by me. It dries out quicly and the ambergris really makes her presence, nice and strong like in Lyonesse. Dried out, this is way too sexy! It is giving me strange fantasies of being helpless, lost in the woods, then wrapped in the arms of a centaur! Mmmmmm.... Roll me on the wet forest floor... The musk and ambergris combine to make a deep, sweet skin scent with this breath of the forest wafting on top. Oh, yes...he WILL wear this! Please, if I can get over my pine hang ups, you can too!

Let me just jump on this bandwagon cuz I am instantly hooked on Shub. This is even more than I expected. Really, it is everything wonderful about BPAL all wrapped in one. It is creamy, sexy, spicy, "you've never experienced anything foody like THIS", dark, dirty, and "OMG you smell soooo good" (from strangers!). Ginger is usually a note I stay away from because it can be too lemony for my tastes. But this ginger with the sharp resins brightens up the sweet, deep, musky base. It's perfect. DH says I smell like everything wonderful during the holidays when it is wet, but it dries out to dark, sexy, almost murkey skin. It's like Bengal, Chimera, Snake Oil, Sin, and Gingerbread Poppet all together, but so, so, so much more! It's drydown reminds me of Black Phoenix. Mmmmmm. Yup. Love myself! This could be my #1. I am so glad that I don't have a spicy big bottle of BPAL right now, cuz I need to justify Shub(s!) in my next order!

Kabuki!

I tried a whole bunch of 'em and I still like just straight up Snake Oil the best.

2, 5, and 7 has a very true grass note, if you can do roses...

I, too, find Snake Oil ambery. I don't know if there is any actual amber in there, but ambers are often composites with patchouli, vanilla, and spices. I think SO fits that bill! Three Gorgons...OMG. I always get complements when I wear it. Amber and pepper...mmmm! Amber just smells like warm, glowing skin but better to me. Definately a favorite note!

Imagine Antique Lace and Smut consumating their relationship on a Victorian book of love poems with dry violets pressed inside. My new favorite...

Frimp from the Lab. Hmmmm... I never even saw it comming... OMG this is FANTASTIC! It is flirty and fun, sexy and delicious. It is what I want department store scents to be like and they never are (Juicy, Princess...I'm looking at you...). She is like Mme Moriarty's little sexy stripper sister. This one is a party girl for sure. If you like Bordello and/or Eat Me you will LOVE Midnight Kiss. She is a bit more complex.

THIS is the scent of Autumn herself. She starts with a biting slap of harsh vetivert and resins. While it is fresh it is also dark and demanding, and it evokes a bright, smokey fire. Drying out I get the distinct crunch of fallen leaves, but with it, also, a feral heat that reminds me of castorium, which is creamy without being sweet, which must be the dark amber. This really smells like a dark, smokey, autumn night...the decaying soul of scorched flora. DH comments that up close it smells like burning leaves but when I walk away there is a sexy, animalistic note. That's the kind of throw I've been looking for... Hours later the dark amber and spices remind me of an even more sinister Three Gorgons. I am very, very pleased. I fully embrace this scent in all of her stages. She is exactly what I was hoping for...Brilliant.

OK, rub it in that you have yours already!!!!!! Blood Countess made me freak out. I am not easily freaked out. I was obsessed with Elizabeth Bathory (the scents namesake) and music from the era, but the scent itself... I couldn't wear it. Oh, hell, I have to try it again now! Sin is dark, hot, dirty, and a little sweet. Love it. Haunted is dark for sure, but smells kind of like puppy-poo-poo on me after a while. Horrible...horrible! I HATE that it does that on me, and it is probably just that I was traumatized by the puppy who is now my dearheart Lestat... I digress... You might like Black Opal. It is "shiny" black, to me. A favorite for the summer because it seems sleek and not heavy. Snake Oil, of course, is dark and sexy.

I procured an imp of the Hanging Gardens because my son is learning about the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. I was sure I had tried it before, on my search for the perfect pomegranate, but I do not see my review, so I must be mistaken... My son, who is 5, reviews it as this: "Pomegranates! Flowers! Fruit! This IS the Hanging Gardens, Mommie!". It is suprisingly not as sweet as I imagined. There is an inital red fruitiness, but then it really reminds me of Ouija with the dry, wispy floral. It dries out delicate and creamy. I really love it!

My man loves Boomslang. He won't wear Snake Oil (which I wear almost daily), but loves Boomslang...go figure! Maybe it is the woods or cocoa. I thought that adding cocoa would make it sweeter, but on him, somehow it isn't. Smells like a dark, sexy man!

A pepper blend that is really peppery! LOOOOOOVVE! Arcana had a scent last year that was pepper and vanilla...Haint; it went all strawberry on me (yeah, I know...where did that come from), and I was so sad to have to swap it away cuz it just wasn't want I wanted. THIS is what I wanted. Not a lot of citrus (thank the gods!), just a little lift for the pepper. The amber is sweet and rich and just delicious like always. Pepper is one of those things that I want to dominate a blend...it is one of my favorite spices. I put pepper on my toast, rice, everything. I want to be crusted in pepper but sweet at the same time. On the drydown this turns all smokey and lovely. A sexy, smoldering scent...deep, with a kick. I MUST have a bottle of this. MUST.

This is strangely thick and sweet and light and clean. The chestnut is creamy, like a nutty coffee creamer, but the flowers are quite soapy. Even dried out, these two aspects are quite apparent at the same time. Not a lot of mandarin, which I don't care for anyway, but it does give a nice lift in some blends. This is not a top 10, but a definate keeper.

The Scarlet Woman, aglow with sensual indolence: red musk, benzoin, caramel accord, golden honey, and spiced Moroccan unguents. Oooh, yeah! This is definitely a Top 10 for me. This really does not smell very much like Smut to me at all (Which I love and have plenty of...it was just exciting to see the comparisons in previous reviews). It does have plenty of red musk, like Scherezade to my nose...but more layered...complex. It behaves much like incense on my skin as well, being heavier when wet and drying out in a smoky way. It is, however, a dryer scent than I expected~like Hecate was on me~suprisingly not creamy despite the sweetness. It is not as caramely as Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil, and so if you are jumping on this baby for the caramel, love her for other reasons; she is sweet like expensive incense, not like candy. I think she is Sed Non Satia's sister for sure. I wore this to a party last night. A friend embraced me, and breathed in Her scent. "Smeeellll heerrr!", he insisted to all of the surrounding people. These were some of the comments: ~you smell like a new baby ~like laying in bed in the sunlight ~like a haram girl ~like a bitch ~like sex ~just edible ~like honey ~nothing could be sexier ~oooh, I smelled that in the air earlier and couldn't figure out if it was something blooming or incense! DH said, "What are you wearing!?!". I gave him my little imp and he slathered it on! Big bottle NOW. I love scents we can share.