Monday

Patchouli, ylang ylang, blood orange, and vetiver. Wet: This starts out as patchouli and orange. There's a hint of vetiver but it's really hardly there at all. Dry: Lot's of woodsy patchouli with some fresh orange. Something patchouli lovers should definitely give a go. Overall better than expected but I'm not much into the labs patchouli note it's too...sweet? I can't really explain why that note irks me so much but Bpal blends with prominent patchouli are just not for me.

VIII This is one very full bottle! It's basically SN strong clean floral. I get pure lilies out of this (I've checked Cottonmouth as it smells a bit similar and it might just be Calla Lily, but ymmv), very enticing and summery. A little of this Chaos Theory goes a long way, a very long way. It's gorgeous but I'm not sure if I can handle the boldness of this scent. Sign me up for the I'd Like To Know What Exactly Is In Here-list as well.

Wet: Fresh cut chrysanthemums. Must be the combination of chocolate with lettuce? It's rather a sharp green spiky scent combined with chocolate, yuck. Drying down: Wilting lettuce covered in sugary chocolate, this isn't changing for the better yet. Dry: There's a distinct yellow feel to it, the chocolate is getting a bit waxy, the green notes are still there. The Last Unicorn now equals a jumble of trampled greenery with added chocolate on my skin. I really wish I got the coconut and orris combo others get. Maybe I amp lettuce?

Wet: Nose tickling flowers. At the same time it's light and sophisticated. It reminds me of Cristalle by Chanel. It warms up a bit when it's drying down. There's a muskiness emerging which is probably white musk, I have a bit of a blind spot considering white musk so ymmv. The florals go from greenish/white to slightly sugared and powdery. There might be some gardenia in this. I'm not getting jasmine out of this. Dry: It's a lot more powdery now. The powder-note reminds me a bit of the bergamot in Bernardino Dotted Blue. Weisse Maus v4 has got a decent throw. Nice, sophisticated, a little old fashioned. I think I'm going to hang on to this decant.

This turned out way weirder than I had expected. Gypsy starts out as dusty sugary spice with a side of squashed bug. Where is that odd scent coming from? It smells as if the sugar has been stuck in a damp jar for about 50 years. When it dries down the squashed bug smell subsides and it fades dramatically. All that's left is a whisper of spicy sugar on my skin. Well darn!

They were discontinued last year.

This smells of...frankincense. Ah, olibanum is frankincense . Why u no say so? Frankincense goes to soap on my skin and not in a good way.

Shadow Witch Orchid is (discontinued and very hard to find, like really hard to find) imo one of the best orchid scents out there. Bpal orchid scents where the orchid really takes center stage are rather rare. Other Bpals with orchid: GC: Manhattan - sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid. Rather hard to find LE: Clockwork Couture Female - Leather, golden amber, vanilla orchid, Spanish moss, Oxford clay, and tonka. A bit easier to find LE: Celeste - Madagascan vanilla bean, vanilla orchid, orris root, and saffron. A luper from this year: Lady in Speckled Pink Kimono - Peony blossoms and vanilla orchid. *very pink!* There are also some prototypes with orchids but I have no idea how difficult they are to find: Black Orchid v3, Black Orchid v5 are some of them.

On my skin wet: Yep the Banshee Beat patchouli. Only more masculine and without all the hemp. Very woodsy but still kind of fresh. Drying down: There's something smothering the freshness I think it's the tobacco. Dry: Powdery patchouli and tobacco. It is reminiscent of Expressive Head. I liked the wet phase but the end result isn't something that I would wear. Oh well, can't win them all.

I get mint, anise, something perfumey (possibly the tea) and cognac. Just like Boneshaking Antique Velocipede this is one of the weirder blends of Bpal. The notes work surprisingly well together though. Noisome Clockwork Tin Locomotive ends up as sweet cognac, anise, a hint of rum and a curl of vanilla. It's warm and spicy. Actually not as weird as the notes suggest.

This label is so cute. It's a giant bat (well duh) flying over some tiny people in what appears to be a jungle. The scent is pretty much as described. Orchid and incense. It's a purple and smoky scent not smoky in a tobacco way but definitely the incense way. Very feminine and grown-up. There is a slight aquatic or airy feel to it that adds to the jungle vibe of Great Vampire Bat. It's the label translated into a scent. Not sure if it's a me scent though.

Awww this is such a cute butterfly. Out of the blue butterflies this year this one is the winner for me. On my skin wet: Bergamot! A lovely fresh earl grey-like bergamot entwined with violet leaf. Definitely violet leaf and not the flower which goes iffy on me sometimes. Violet leaf has also surprised me in the Vampire Bride, it's nicely light and aromatic. Dry: There's a bit of powder amping I think it's the lily of the valley. It's not as powdery as Two Barred Flasher though, the bergamot is still on top of all the notes. The patchouli comes through as a hint of wood when it's fully dry. I'm not getting any chocolate. Obviously this bergamot works better for me than the one in Two Barred Flasher. Bernardino Dotted Blue is slightly unisex, I would wear it but I can also imagine a very sophisticated man wearing it. It's a pretty red oil in the vial.

Meh indeed. Starts out a gorgeous blueberry, then quickly degenerates into a sweet blueish powder. I usually don't mind powdery scents but this is somehow not a nice powder. Not for me.

Giant monster musk? Cutesy, cuddly fuzzy musk! At least that's what I get out of this. It's not red musk or white musk actually it has that bit of lemon that black musk has when it's fresh. There might also be some amber in this. Very smooth and pretty.

On my skin wet: Very tart citrus. It's a rather light scent the lilies are right behind the citrus making it smell like dishwashing soap. On my skin dry: It almost disappeared already. I don't get any vanilla at all or booze for that matter. They would help the scent to stick around. This is a nice but rather unassuming scent. Far too light for me to buy a bottle of.

In the imp: soft vanilla with a hint of coconut and dirt. On my skin wet: This is sweet. Mainly juicy coconut, vanilla and a slight hint of dirt. I'm sure there should be more dirt in this. It's not a mushroom for nothing, right? On my skin dry: Very lifelike coconut, it reminds me a lot of the coconut in Death Adder which is one of my favorite scents. The dirt is grounding it but it isn't very strong. Very yummy! I remember when I first got into Bpal I got an frimp of this and actually threw it away because it smelled so much of mildew I thought it had gone bad. It must have been an aged imp, this one is lab fresh and smells divine! Bottle-worthy!

I love this one! I find it difficult to describe Ruddy Daggerwing so bear with me. It starts out with a rather sharp burnt coffee note. Underneath that is something amazing! A perfumey orange note . I'm definitely getting a lot of ebony too it's reminding me of the Antikythera Mechanism. The sharp coffee note lingers for a while wrapped around the awesome other notes (that I can't describe other that 'awesome' and 'orangey' ). There's chocolate in this? Not getting any chocolate here. Ruddy Daggerwing is the winner of these butterflies for me. It's got lots of throw and lasts forever. Gorgeous! *Edit* The chocolate came out after resting the imp a couple of days! Yummy! The sharpness of the coffee note also calmed down a bit.

Yep that's jasmine but there's also orange, they make a good combination. This isn't the jasmine I got from Bayou (blech) but more like the jasmine from Love Me. Keeping my fingers crossed that the jasmine isn't going to amp hugely when it dries down. I'm really liking the orange scent in this. It goes on all heady jasmine and fresh orange. The 'bog wood' is appearing on dry-down if that is the woodsy note I'm smelling. The vanilla also comes out when Ceanothus has dried down. This might be a good one for aging. Good throw. Well what do you know a jasmine scent that I doesn't make me want to scrub my skin off.

This is nicer than I had expected. Thanks to Absinthetics who recommended that everyone should at least try Juniper Hairstreak! I dislike cucumber and wouldn't have picked this scent if you hadn't prompted me to try it. On my skin wet: Sweet mint and a slight watermelon scent. The mint is the same as the one in Juke Joint which is one of my favorites. So far it's a pleasantly soft scent. The orchid is blending very well with the juniper. The cypress is arriving late at the party and comes through when the oil has almost dried up. On my skin dry: Ozone is melding with the mint making it a bit sharper. It actually smells cold and airy like a yuletide scent. It's still sweet. There is a green note that is ruining it for me when it's dry though but I can't pinpoint it. This is a nice scent, there's something for everyone in this.

Passion butterfly starts out with a lovely comforting scent resembling bergamot. At this point it reminds me of The Butterfly from The Last Unicorn which is quite fitting I guess. As the first blast of mandarin, petitgrain and grapefruit calms down the blood orange makes an appearance. Not a lot of mimosa in here. It's an astringent but uplifting and bright scent.

In the decant: Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat On my skin wet: Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat On my skin dry: Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat Conclusion: This is Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat disguised as a butterfly. I disliked the lemon scent in LSSB because it didn't smell like actual lemon but of lemon-detergent, Sphaeromachia Gaumeri is so similar it's freaky. Anyways if you missed out on LSSB this is your chance. Sphaeromachia Gaumeri is a bit disappointing though as the notes suggest something more unique.

Wet: This smells of something we call salmiak here. I googled the english translation of it but all it seems to come up with is Salammoniac. Basically: salty liquorice powder. Where is all that salt coming from? Must be the leather. It's giving me a headache combined with the lilac that is coming through when it starts to dry. It has a distinct ammonia scent to it. Dry: Yup it's the leather. The lilac fougere is very nice. The über-sweetened liquorice/leather really isn't. It's not a bad scent at all once it's dry. I can get why people like it but the decant I have of it is enough for me right now.

Blam, hit in the face with an almond cake! That's basically Tanuki No Kanban wet on my skin. Definitely foody, definitely almond. Yummy! There is something tart and perfumey coming out from underneath the almond cake when it dries down. Could it be the persimmon? I've no idea what persimmon smells like, I like it so far though. Once it's all dried down Tanuki No Kanban sits comfortably between perfumey and foody. It reminds me a bit of Bread-and-Butter-Fly.

Ooh this starts out really nice. Powdery black musk with hints of sage and oakmoss. I'm getting a bit of a The Girl vibe from it. However it dries down to powdery black musk with bugspray and sour oakmoss... This could have been awesome but it does feel rather flat and unbalanced. This is the third time I've tried Jibiki Danuki. I keep hoping for a different outcome because Jibiki Danuki is really nice wet.

On first sniff: Blech! Something in this turns my stomach. It smells of very sweet sugary furniture polish. I don't like this blend at all when it's wet, it goes on all sweet pungent anise. It dries down to something a bit more tolerable. There's still the slightly pungent wet-wood smell but it's accompanied by a sweet powdery anise. Dry it's a cuddly anise with a hint of brown musk. The smoky woods come peeking through after a while (about 10 min later.). This is (thankfully) a morpher it starts out rather jumbled and feral but ends up a nice sophisticated unisex blend. It reminds me a little of The Night Hag. My advice would be to give this a bit of time to settle on your skin even if it doesn't smell all that good at first.