CrazyPretzel

Imp: Buttery, sharp, earthy, leathery. Tart sweetness of champa. Wet: Tobacco and champa with buttery pumpkin. Feminine but rather aggressive. 5 min: The slight fruitiness of the champa and tobacco blend very well with the pumpkin. Deep, fruity, sexy. Dry: This is a little buttery but not sickeningly so. The carnation is not strong. Tobacco, champa, and tonka are totally brilliant. Tough but smooth and sexy. A definite winner!

Imp: buttery pumpkin, pear, grape. Sweet and juicy. Wet: MMM! Creamy, sweet, luscious. Not too buttery or fruity. 5 min: Hmm, kind of buttered popcorn with just a little pear. Dry: Now it’s delicate and pretty floral tea. Very beautiful!

Imp: Strong, medicinal lavender. Wet: Lavender with a strong green note - fennel? - and something rather unpleasant, like bathroom cleaner. Dry: Now it becomes much nicer! The lavender softens abruptly and there's a cool, aquatic smell, almost like mint but not as strong. This did help me stop having grim thoughts and get to sleep.

In the imp: silky, fruity floral. Wet on me: This is so refreshing! Incredibly I couldn't guess it was a rose blend until I looked at the description. Drydown: Very creamy; my mouth actually waters when I sniff this. The rose is still not dominant. This one blows Tamamo-no-mae away as far as I'm concerned! A lovely floral that I think even non-floral girls would go far as it's sweet and lovely without being too heady.

Wet, this isn't what I was expecting. I'm getting a strong plasticky note - actually, it's making me think new-car smell. What the heck? After five minutes or so, before it's totally dry, I can begin to smell flowers; I'm imagining tiny crushed damp flowers beneath winter slush. It's a very damp scent and slightly sweet. Still odd but it may grow on me. I can detect a faint grassy note. Drydown: Pretty good throw on this girl. I'm enjoying the throw better than the scent when my nose is right by my wrists, actually. The one thing I can say for sure is that I have not smelled any other BPAL that reminds me of this. It is totally unique. It's pretty much as described, in fact; to me this is more the scent of very early spring than deep winter. Charming!

I've been through two imps of this one, one dabbed on me and the other tipped into a votive candle as an offering to the deities of sleep. I can attest to its potency: the night after I used it in the candle was the first night I slept soundly and awoke refreshed in about two weeks. As for the scent, it's tricky to pin down. It's a very sharp lavender at first, slightly bitter, but dries down nice and soft. I can't say what else might be in there.

Dormouse was a heartbreaker for me. In the imp it was bright and lovely tea (not at all black tea - I'm a fan of black tea but some people find the scent bitter) and a fresh scent like pure spring rain. Once it dried on me though, it was hotel soap.

Can't believe I haven't posted a review of this one! Let me start by saying that I am not normally a fan of peach scents. It's not that I dislike the smell of peach; quite the contrary, in fact. It's just that peach scents usually smell kind of cheap to me. I guess I associate them with drugstore body mists or something. Peach just smells very common, in my (obviously rather snobbish) opinion. Fae is NOT just a peachy scent, at least not on me. Peach is in there, yes, but you wouldn't smell it and go, 'Huh. Peach.' Regrettably I find it very difficult to separate the other notes and say which are dominant, how they affect each other, etc. - it's too well-blended. All I can say is that this fragrance is sparkling, refreshing, and yet by no means all lightness and brightness. This is like the little dappled gems of sunlight that make their way through a dense forest to glint on dewdrops on the ground below. That kind of sparkly.

In the imp: sweet, sharp, clear, and green. Wet on me: This smells like something from Seduction in the Panacea series! It's a sweet but slightly cloying, almost solvent-like note. I had blamed it on ylang-ylang before, but could it be sweet pea? This is by no means a bad scent. After a few minutes: Intensely sweet with a sparkly, almost magical edge to it. Very much a fae scent. Beth, how do you do it? The sweet pea is intense. Drydown: Seduction was a fragrance that I initially took a strong dislike to, and then later it grew on me and I ended up deciding not to sell or swap my bottle. If I'd tried Aeval a few months ago I have a feeling I would have found it yucky, but now that my nose has got around that particular floral note (and it's almost certainly sweet pea) I'm enjoying the Aeval experience. Sweet pea is a strong, honey-sweet, almost cloying floral, but if you're a fan then you will love Aeval. The sweet pea here is balanced by sensual creamy notes and it's absolutely delightful.

In the imp: musk like whoa. Creamy, spicy. Wet on me: Spicy and peppery! This is actually pretty cool. It's fine on the back of my hand but burning my nose a little bit where I touched whilst sniffing too enthusiastically, so I think there is cinnamon or cassia in here. Maybe even black pepper. After a few minutes: Still cinnamon, nicely balanced between woodsy and spicy. Also red musk (probably other musks as well but red musk is the only kind I can pick out with confidence). It might be a little too woodsy for me. Drydown: A spicy woodsy fragrance. Definitely evocative of a wild man of the woods. Ultimately I rather like it, though it might be more convincing on the boy than on me. The cinnamon in here is pretty awesome - it's not red-hot cinnamon, more like a fresh cinnamon stick, with a fiery element that smells like a different spice altogether.

Wet on my skin, there is a slight bitterness to this which is nevertheless very dark and sexy. Dry, Samhain is a deep dark woodsy apple scent with a ghost of pumpkin drifting in and out. I sure hope this returns every year. ETA: My strongest first impression was of apple, but after a few hours the patchouli became the real star of this blend. It's rich and luscious, almost cocoa-y. And I could still smell it distinctly on my wrists the next morning!

In this soap I can smell the pure pumpkin note from the BPTP Pumpkin soap along with juicy apple. Lathered up, some wonderful woodsy and spicy notes come out. Like all the Trading Post soaps this lathers like a dream, and the Samhain soap is actually pretty scrubby, to my surprise - enough so that I didn't end up using the sugar scrub I'd brought into the shower with me. My favourite of the Halloween soaps so far

In the bottle it's sweet and clean-smelling, a very delicate sugary floral (but not so delicate that it's difficult to discern). Wet on my skin, a strong green grass note comes out. After a few minutes: Wow...is it possible for a scent to be both creamy and grassy at the same time? Because that's what this is like! Drydown: Very light sweet incense and sugar cookies mixed with fairy dust. This is a lovely sparkling scent and I am SO GLAD I have a bottle of it.

SueDonym generously put in a sample of this soap along with my decants in her Haunted House decanting circle It's soft and moisturising, lathers wonderfully and has a really nice fragrance: almost pure pumpkin with just a teeny-tiny suggestion of spice. Makes me think of raw pumpkin cookie batter. I'm glad I have a whole bar of this on the way!

The last of the decants from Ahania's int'l sniffing circle. This oil is a beautiful nearly-ruby shade of red! In the imp: red fruit, gardenia, a little musk. Wet on me: violets like the violets in Lucretia (where the heck did the fruit go?) and honey. After a few minutes: Spicy violets and honey. Drydown: Violets, spice, and honey, and the gardenia comes back. After a while, when the violets fade, I can smell strawberry, and I know that I wasn't going totally crazy when I smelled red fruit in the imp. This is very pretty but it's a fast fader on me, and I have Lucretia for my sexy-violet scent, so while I'm glad I got to try this I'm not going to pine for it (unlike Crumpet Rebellion and Voodoo Queen!)

In the decant: slightly sour red wine and a deep clay note that's like cocoa (dude, I dunno). Wet on me: The sourness fades pronto and it's smooth and velvety and chocolatey and just a little wine-like. This is like a less musky, more foody Hunter Moon. After a few minutes: Smooth and somehow earthy without a strong 'dirt' note. This is very beautiful and extremely wearable, IMO. Drydown: A hint of amber (boyfriend's nose reads this as 'Soap. Nice soap.') with a smooth clay scent (quite distinct from other blends with an earth/dirt component) and nothing at all sour or vinegary. It's rich and soft and much more Bewitching Bedroom than Chilling Cellar on me. Awesome!

In the decant: very much a Rappaccini's Garden-type 'green' blend with something that smells like melon. Wet on me: Berries! Light, sweet, and juicy. After a few minutes: A slightly woodsy note comes out. It's a sinuous green scent not unlike the Twisted Oak Tree, but with fruit in place of TOT's earth/moss. Drydown: It reminds me an awful lot of Strangler Fig but less 'dirty': think the green notes from Strangler Fig along with a berry edge. Fun!

Another one courtesy of Ahania's sniffing circle In the decant, this smells like a muskier, more seductive version of Velvet. Wet on me: The resemblance to Velvet becomes even stronger, so I'm hazarding a guess that this might contain sandalwood or cocoa (very light cocoa) - almost certainly myrrh. It's slightly bitter. After a few minutes: I can smell a slight burning note, like smouldering incense. Some spices start to come out more distinctly: maybe clove and cinnamon as others have mentioned. I like it much better now that the bitterness has faded and it's less like Velvet, which I really didn't care for. Drydown: warm spices and musk. This is very nearly a foody fragrance on me, like incredibly dark gingersnaps with a generous quantity of spices. Very sultry, sexy, and spicy!

I guess I've really got a thing for mossy scents, because this is the latest in a slew of BPAL moss scents that I've just gone wild for! In the decant: green, woody, spicy, unisex. Wet on me: damp earth a la Shanghai Tunnel or Singing Moon and a very refreshing green note. What a combo, dirt + super clean! After five minutes: Still a happy combination of two opposite but complementary scents: rich, warm, almost spicy earth and crisp, cool, wet green leaves. Drydown: A green earthy scent uninterrupted by florals. Very reminiscent of Singing Moon, one of my all-time faves. Unisex, attractive and mysterious. Wonderful!

Courtesy of Ahania's int'l C13/C12 sniffing circle In the decant: red musk, sugar. Wet on me: strong, almost sickly sweet booze note; a slight chocolate scent, strong wood like mahogany. After a few minutes: cocoa, woods, musk, and tobacco. This is really quite sickly when it's wet and takes some time to settle, at least on me. Drydown: There seems to be a strong base of chocolate and wood at first, which is really not to my taste. However, there's a sweet musk, like red musk and sugar, which is very good indeed and made my boyfriend perk right up. Storyville gets better as it dries. What I've ultimately ended up with is much lighter wood and chocolate - like sandalwood and cocoa - combined with a sweet, sensual musk. I won't be mortgaging my house to track down a bottle of this baby, but it has convinced me of the occasional goodness of chocolate and woody scents combined. When I'm feeling rich I'm going to have to hunt down some chocolate and sandalwood body butter or something.

In the decant: mmm, interesting! A little sharp-smelling. I can smell the lavender. Wet on me: How is it that this smells spicy to my nose? It's a strange scent right now, almost a little prickly. I need to wait for it to settle. After a few minutes: Strong and a trifle soapy, but with lovely tea rose struggling to come out. The lily seems slightly bitter on me - I think I have to admit that I really don't do too well with lilies. *sigh* There's a very pretty soft, sweet note in here - the child's perfume from the description? Drydown: And then like whoa it suddenly becomes really nice! The soapiness vanishes *poof!* and I'm left with a very sweet, wistful floral. The tea rose is not dominant -- in fact, none of the notes are really dominant; but the overall blend is extremely pretty. Even my BPAL-challenged boyfriend likes it to the point of wanting a dab for his own wrist. Hooray

In the decant: super sweet and juicy pear! Wet on me: Still excellent pear with a little bit of a perfumey note underneath that stops it being completely edible. After a few minutes: The vanilla becomes heavy and syrupy; I can see why people have compared it to the vanilla in Snake Oil. The pear is still there providing a fruity edge but it's not OMGPEAR anymore. Drydown: This is less foody than I expected actually. It's more of a classic perfume scent; there's definitely warm vanilla and sweet pear in there but I certainly wouldn't say it smelled like pie or anything. It's silky and very pretty, and I think I will need to pick up a bottle!

The incense-tinged scent of forbidden tomes and the musk-laden remnants of infernal servants. In the decant: light incense and quite sweet, 'perfumey' musk. It's a rather faint scent. Wet on me: The musk perks up and this begins to smell slightly cologne-like, reminiscent of October but much lighter. I can smell a bit of paper underneath the musk. Rather spicy. After a few minutes: A slightly musty scent, like the library isn't aired too often. The musk is still spicy and a little nose-tickling; a touch bitter. Masculine. Drydown: The musk is still sweet yet masculine and pretty good; I think I'd enjoy this scent more if it weren't so stale. My nose is reading the paper note as a stuffy-room note and that makes the musk smell slightly, well, unwashed. Not a sweet incense scent; a musky masculine scent.

From SueDonym's Haunted House decant circle - thanks, SueDonym! I'm testing this one first as I think it'll be my least favourite. In the imp: mahogany and a slight boozy note. Wet on me: mildewed mahogany. Gross! Also a warm waft of cognac. After a few minutes: That rot smell is gross and yet there's something compelling about it. I can't stop sniffing it. I can smell a teeny-tiny touch of brimstone now, which is actually probably what's making me sniff compulsively - I really like burning scents. The mahogany and cognac are blending together nicely now, but it's still a very spooky scent what with that crumbling rotten note - which is less off-putting then you'd think. Drydown: Y'know, I generally avoid wood notes but the mahogany is really warm and pleasant in here, and the cognac is one of the best booze notes I've yet sniffed from the Lab. The whole thing is wonderfully well-blended; even the fungal funk has its role to play and I can't say that I think this scent would be better without it, because something would definitely be missing. ! I've got it! I know what this smells like. It smells like shelves of old books with leather bindings that have been exposed to damp. *That's* exactly the sort of mildew scent it is. Interesting, very interesting! I probably don't need a whole bottle of this as I can't imagine wanting to slather it on, but the description is dead accurate and it's extremely intriguing. I'm glad to have my decant and I'd recommend everyone try and snag one if possible

Three of the blends I've tried from the C13 sniffing circle have been merely okay, to my relief... Now it's time to break out the big guns... In the imp: pastry and strong, clean cardamom, like opening a fresh cardamom pod. I really don't get any fruit. Wet on me: The cardamom stays strong and the butter begins to amp. Shoot, I like this better than Knave of Hearts already! It's the spice that does it - it's just incredible. After a few minutes: The butter blends into the background and now it's sugar-'n-spice-'n-all-that's-nice. Seriously. The smell reminds me more of cinnamon and sugar on buttered toast than of jam on crumpets. And there's cardamom. Did I mention cardamom? I wonder where the fruit is. Drydown: At last, a hint of berry! Smells like blackberry or black currant to me, blended with the coffee cake that my mom makes that has cinnamon and sugar swirled and crusted on top and it just melts in your mouth and is sooooo lovely... Well, it had to happen sooner or later - I'm in love with an impossible-to-find BPAL. Must...not...steal...imp...from...sniffing circle... *whimper*