Victory

As soon as I applied Sundew, I came over to the review thread to look at the notes because it was somehow so familiar. There is a slight resemblance to Et Lux Fuit, which makes some sense to me, since they are both golden floral scents. There's an initial almost-sharpness that fades away and a gilded (not metallic, but very golden) aspect to it. It is indeed floral, but not a screaming power floral that I so loathe. Yes, when I noticed others had mentioned fresh laundry, I do smell a resemblance to Dirty. For all the golden-ness and florals, Sundew isn't a warm scent. It's like looking through the window on a brilliantly sunny day, opening the door and realizing it's the middle of the winter and it's freezing. So, like the description, it's deceptive. I remember working in the national forest and rubbing sundews' dew on my mosquito bites because it was supposed to help- so they're not all bad!

I really love Castitas. I love BBW's rice flower and shea lotion and every time I see an oil with rice flower I get it, hoping for something similar and this is so close. I don't even know how to describe the scent- it's like cool sheets on a hot night, a mother's hug, stretching out in warm bath waters. It just hits the part of my brain that says yes. I wear it as a perfume oil, and sometimes yes it does feel a little one note-ish so I layer it with other oils. But I just love this so much and I'm so happy it comes in the giant bath oil container so I won't run out.

Wet, this is all apricot. I love, love, love peach, and the apricot is quite similar so this makes me happy. As it begins to dry, there's a sort of skin musk-y note that comes out that I don't care much for- I think it is the orange blossom + white musk muddling together to make a sort of orange musk. The muskiness swallows the apricot and the orange blossom steps forward. Orange blossom is a floral yes, but I tend to think of it as a skin scent rather than a florally one. Later on the musk peeks its head up, although it doesn't smell like a white musk to me. Pale maybe, but not white. Finally, the apricot comes to the fore again, delicate and lovely. I wish there wasn't that skin musky stage because it dampens the whole experience for me. I will keep the imp and hope that putting some age on it will help. Fortunately, even if it doesn't I have Aglaea, which is one of my favorites and is a cousin to Katharina.

I was hoping for the dry grass note of Hay Moon/Coyote + fur, but I got men's cologne. There is indeed a green grass note, which is nowhere near as bad as I had feared (I was thinking lawn clippings, yikes!) and is actually quite good, but when the oil dries, it's all outdoorsy cologne. I'll keep this in hopes that aging does some wonderful things for it, as aging so often does.

I was so excited for Comforting Plush Comapnion when I saw the notes. Honey is my most loved note, I love vanilla, rose is either ok or invisible, but plum. Plum is either total win or total fail. Midwinter's Eve and Prunella's plum was really stemmy and vegetative- not a win, so I was really apprehensive. And while the oil is wet, it's a sweet sugar plum scent. I keep nervously waiting for it to get vegetative, but it doesn't happen- hurray! As the oil dries, the honey comes out. Maybe it's because I read reviews before I sniffed the oil, but I do smell a nuttiness to the honey. Something is making the honey a little sweeter than it normally is on my skin (honey is a sweet note, yes, but it's not particularly sweet on me). Maybe it's the vanilla. Honey also usually lasts longer on me than it does here; unfortunately, Comforting Plush Companion tamps off in a couple of hours. I do like this, and I'm hoping that with some age it might last a little longer on me and the honey will become stronger.

Pink Snowballs is pretty much purely snow on me. Rose is such a weird note for me- much of the time, I physically cannot smell it. I was hoping that Pink Snowballs would replace my loved layering combination of Peacock Queen and Antique Lace, but I just smell the snow. I think that the snow is much more like Snow-Flakes than Snow White, since I get a sparkly tingle of mint that never ever shows up in Snow White. The vanilla never really shows up separately, but I think it may lend itself to making the snow more like Snow White as the perfume dries. I find that I prefer Snow White to Pink Snowballs, but Pink Snowballs might be really nice as a layering oil and it's a nice snow note on its own.

House of Night is an oil that frightens me when I'm not wearing it because I have bad memories, and then when I do wear it, I think, "oh, it's not as bad as I thought." Wet, there is a sharp evergreen note cutting through some unfamiliar, nondescript florals. It's this evergreen note that I remember and that I really don't like. I don't know what it is; I've smelled fir in Hexennacht and pine in other scents and it doesn't smell like that. Whatever it is, it's a Do. Not. Want. It does cut out as the oil dries, and there's something almost vanillic that comes out. Dry, House of Night smells really familiar. It's a sort of vanilla-floral-type scent, I guess, but I can't quite pin down which scent it smells like. I can't ever get over the evergreen- it ruined the scent for me. The totally dry scent is nice, but not worth going through the wet phase.

To preface, moonflower amps on me and anything with moonflower smells pretty much like the other moonflower blends. So on me, Blue Moon is quite similar to Nuit and Midnight, it just doesn't last as long. But Blue Moon is really beautiful, and creates a wonderful mental picture for me. I smell moonflowers floating on a very still pool of water in the moonlight. It makes me think of glass-surfaced water without being an aquatic. The light reflecting off the surface is silvery blue, and if I focus, I can smell florals, like there's a carpet of flowers surrounding the pool. I imagine a ring of trees standing dark against the deep pool. Blue Moon is such a nice oil, it's unfortunate that the throw gets so soft and fades away.

It has taken me about two years of aging my Shub-Niggurath imp to get the gingerbread part of "evil gingerbread". I think the evil was apparent when it was fresh. Fresh, Shub was really sharp and not to my liking. I think part of the sharpness came from the gingers, which often add bite to blends, but also from the herbs. I had my Gingerbread Poppet, which I loved, so I shelved Shub. Now that GP has passed its prime, I turned back to Shub and- it's nice. It's not at all what I remembered. I still prefer the GP at its peak to the gingerbread of Shub, but now that the gingeriness has left GP, I may get some wear out of Shub. Hurray for aging!

I've always loved peach, so this was a no-brainer for me. Peach Moon reminds me very much of Tamamo-no-Mae- not identical, of course, but very close sisters. If you never sniffed Tamamo-no-Mae and wanted to, try to get your hands on Peach Moon. Peach Moon is very much a floral with a faint breath of peach wisping around. I'm more familiar with the peach fruit-note than the peach blossom-note, and while I definitely prefer the fruit note, the blossom is very lovely, too. It's a cool, sort of airy note. I'm not a floral lover, but this one worked for me. It's not at all cloying or heady, which is perfect for my sensibilities. (Jasmine works out just fine on my skin, so I cannot comment on any screaming or cloying or cat-pee aspects, sorry.) As the oil dries down, the florals recede a little and the musk moves forward. There's an aspect to it that sort of makes me think amber, even though it isn't. I think it's my brain interpreting the "moonlight" as light, and it traces that back to amber. I'm not really sure. The white tea, which has been present this whole time, is more noticeable now, and it blends nicely with the peach blossom. I'm not sure that I smelled the ho wood so much as it provided a base. I agree that this is a very elegant, sophisticated blend. It's the kind of blend that I look at my fancy dresses and think, yes, but is it fancy enough? At the same time, I think you could wear it to work our out and about when you want to put on some real mental poise. Very lovely.

When I first sniffed this when the bottle was cold, the snow and mint were about an even mix, then when the bottle heated up it was snow with faint mint, but now that the oil has settled, this is really menthol-y. I was prepared for mint, but I don't care for menthol. After an hour, the scent cuts out almost entirely, and finally comes back with the snow note and a faint mint. It makes me think of a winter storm, aptly enough- the punch of menthol is like the frantic flurry of snowflakes, then you run inside you don't see the storm/smell the oil, and later you look out the window and see the pristine drifts of snow, glittering with the sun. I wish that the snow note was more prominent throughout the phases, and that the oil was stronger and lasted longer, but I think this will get a lot of use anyway. I get a headache most days, and I think this will be good for that. Edited to say, I find this to be much less sweet than Snow White, a little less sweet than L'Inverno, but sweeter than Perchta, which has no sweetness at all. Just for comparison's sake.

In the imp, wet, and in the early dry phase, this is grape. No, not grape, O HAI THAR GRAPE! Fake, fake grape. And while I am one of those unfathomable people who likes fake grape- grape soda pop, grape gum, you get the idea- I apparently don't like it in perfume. This isn't black wine, it's fake grape. As it continues to dry, I think the plum blossom must intercede, because the grape becomes a little less fake and a little more wine-y. Then some florals start to fade into the picture, but they never move up from the background. There's a musk (not what I would consider blood musk, especially since I have Blood Moon's oh God no almost metallic-ness in mind when I think of blood) providing support for the background florals. Maybe it was because I was reading reviews as I was smelling, but the oil began to smell a little power perfumey to me, which I HATE, so I stopped sniffing for a while. When I smelled again, all that was there was a spiced honey. The spiced honey doesn't smell a lot like Mead Moon, but it makes me think of it all the same. Honey is my undying note of love, so I'm happy that it ends with this. The honey sticks around a long while, which is win, but I'm just not sure that I'm willing to go through all of the other phases to get there when I have other honey perfumes.

I got to take a sniff of VeronikaGalt's imp at a recent Meet 'n' Sniff- thanks! To me, sniffing the oil in the imp immediately threw a strong picture up in my mind. There's thick snow, the air is silent and very cold, and right before me, in the bright moonlight, is a huge tree with dark bark. The oil really provided an amazing snapshot of winter, which I can still see in my mind now. Reading the notes is scary, and I'm glad I didn't know them when I sniffed (other than the juniper, which is pretty apparent) or I'd have skipped it. It's an amazing oil, really.

Apparently my review of Spooky was eaten because I don't see it anywhere, and since I know people will be wanting more reviews now that it's been resurrected, I will repost. I'm a big lover of BPAL's rum note, love vanilla, like the coconut, am indifferent to cocoa and am wary of peppermint, so I was happy that I got to try someone else's Spooky, just in case it was a fail. But it's really delish. The peppermint starts out strong, alongside a whisper of rum and a breath of cocoa, but dies off pretty quickly, leaving me with oh-so-yummy rum and now-present coconut and vanilla. If you're a lover of the rum note, this is really yummy one to add to your collection.

In the imp, wet, and as the oil begins to dry, Intrigue is an intriguing (sorry, sorry) blend to try to pick apart. I can't really discern any of the notes. It's a tan, almost furry scent. Maybe it's the date palm, woods and a smidgeon of cocoa providing some color? I smell a faint coconutty scent but the palm note is distinct from it. Much later, the fig pops out, and it's perhaps the clearest fig note I've smelled from BPAL. It's such a lovely fruity note here, and I'm not always a fig lover, but it really works. The other notes die down under the fig, just providing a whisper of support for it. The furry scent is warm and makes me think of a cloak around me, and the fig is cooler. The woods aren't very woody to me, the cocoa isn't chocolatey, it's warm, it's cool... Intrigue has many secrets and contradictions.

Uruk is a scent whose individual notes are quite distinct but never clash. They parade past one at a time, really letting you get a good sniff. In the imp, I smell a strong almost boozy almond. It smells the same as the one in Bastet, which disappears instantaneously upon contact with my skin and also did so in this blend. It's too bad, since I love almond so much, but I like Monster's "opening the curtain" idea. Yes, it does that. Next comes out the jasmine- I don't have problems with jasmine other than not being a floral-lover, but here it's creamy and white and lush and unmistakable. The Bastet comparison comes to mind again, maybe from the saffron combining with the florals. I guess it's apt- they're both desert scents. Then there is a spicy sweetness, which I think is from the cinnamon leaf. I haven't smelled cinnamon leaf before, but I like it. I still have a horror of cinnamon from Three Witches and The Lion, even though it's an integral part of Gingerbread Poppet, which I love. This cinnamon note is more subtle, and the sweetness is wonderful. The incense may be adding some sweetness also, since many of the Lab's GC incenses smell sweet to me, even if they are described as dark or intense, as opposed to the LE incenses that really are dark.) Then there is a brief flash of a different, fresh floral- the river lilies- followed by the red sandalwood. Sandalwood is often very dry, and here it desiccates the scent, reinforcing the desert scent. Uruk has no throw at all and a wear length on the shorter side- about three hours before even smashing my nose flat into my skin yields nothing. I do like the note parade though; it makes this scent interesting.

Hallelujah, a scent with Snake Oil that isn't all Snake Oil! When I read the notes I was really concerned since Snake Oil is really unfortunate on me and drowns out other notes in a blend, but it doesn't show up at all. All I smell in the bottle, wet, and dry, is the cream cheese frosting. I agree, it is very much like Beaver'Versary. For about five seconds after I apply the scent to my skin I smell what must be the Doc Constantine, but it's almost immediately swallowed up. The cream cheese frosting is delish (I for one hope the SO, Dorian and DC don't ever show up in my bottle) and I'm very pleased. I think I may like this a teeny bit more than Beavery'Versary, but since I do have the Beaver, I don't need a second bottle of this.

What a swirling, morphing scent! The Miller's Daughter is predominantly a sour-ish rose scent, but the other notes flit around showing up and then disappearing as soon as I look for them. The gold is a really interesting note- I smell something metallic, but it's not a note that says "I am METALLIC!" but rather looks coyly at you and hints at it. I don't care for the scent of metal, but this is very cool. The amber actually never presents well, but sort of backs the rose up with a sense of gold (in this case, the color and warmth and light, not the metal). The aquatic also backs the rose up rather than taking center stage. The straw pops up fleetingly, smelling a bit like my beloved hay note. It's all actually a very coherent, seamless blend. Each time I sniff I smell something different, but it's not jarring, it's more like a continuum. It's an interesting experience.

L'Autunno atmospheric spray is an excellent fall-leaf scent. It is a little bit vegetal at first- more crushed living green leaves than fallen dried leaves, but as it dries, the leaves seem to age and dry. My nose doesn't detect any of BPAL's smoke notes, so I can't speak to that, but I don't smell the tea or patchouli individually. I sprayed it too much (cough) and as I walk past my bedroom, I smell bug spray. I wish that I smelled the bonfire smoke or the tea. I feel like this atmosphere spray needs something, nice as the leaf-smell is. Unfortunately, as much as I love autumn, the L'Autunno set didn't work nearly so well for me as I had hoped. Edited to say that I spoke too fast- apparently I needed the whoa too much spraying to get all the notes. I'd sprayed at maybe 2 in the afternoon, and when I got in bed, the leaves had burned off and left the tea. It was wonderful. When I woke in the night, the bonfire smoke had taken over, and this morning the leaves were back. So I guess I have to really spray and wait to get the full experience.

My skin loves apples, and any chance it gets to make those apples apple cider it takes gleefully, so I thought, the heck with it, I'll get an apple cider perfume. To me, this has great similarity to Agape- Agape is mostly apple and cream on me, as is Lambs-Wool. I smell a smidge of spice, enough to take the crispness off of the apple (in terms of apple crispness, my arsenal goes Punkie Night's wet stage, Agape, this, and then L'Autunno, for those interested) but not really enough to make cider and not enough for pie. The milk sits behind the apple, cooling it down. Rather than a warming autumnal drink, I could see this as a summer drink with the very first apples of the season. Actually, I wonder how well L'Autunno and Lambs-Wool would layer, if that would indeed make a pie scent or a milky cider. I do like this on its own, though. I'd have never thought cream/milk would go so well with apple, but Agape and Lambs-Wool have made me a believer.

Huh. This is.... not what I expected. I smell what I think must be the "autumn night"- I think of it as night air. I can't really describe what it smells like- in some sense, it smells like NOTHING, except it's there. There is a distinct difference between where I applied Devil's Night and my bare skin, so I am smelling SOMETHING but I just don't know what. I also smell a little bit of booze and a little sugar. But no cinnamon (actually, I'm glad, since I've had some bad experiences with burning and whoa-cinnamon amping) and no fires in the distance (major bummer). I'd been wanting to try Devil's Night since it first came out, so I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't smell like what I thought it would, but it's ok because I have another perfume that smells like I thought this would, and also because the "night air" smell is so interesting.

Wow, Under the Harvest Moon is gorgeous. I had almost talked myself out of getting a bottle even though it sounded so perfect, and now I'm sad at the thought of ever running out, even though I will never, ever make it through the bottle. Sometimes the musks make me think of dry laundry soap, but in this case it's actually a good thing. (This is what the soap wants so dearly to smell like. Fabienne from Possets/olympia301 did a podcast that talked about musks being used in laundry soap, which may be where my brain is making the connection.) They're soft, not at all powdery, blue and white smelling... it's how I wanted Blue Moon to smell. The rose is a little bit sour, which cuts through the sweetness of the vanilla bean some, but the vanilla bean is so delicious. The vanilla bean + musks combine to make such a heavenly vanilla musk smell that's so different from the vanilla musk of say, Inez, which makes me somehow think of a cookie. The lavender + carnation is different enough from the lavender in TKO for my nose not to recognize the scent but there definitely is that floral tinge. The waft drifts between the glorious vanilla bean to vanilla musk to floral musk to floral, with the amber and leaves not popping up on my nose radar. I suspect the amber is swirling with the vanilla and musks to create such a delicious smell. This makes me thing of moonlight, and I'm just delighted by Under the Harvest Moon. So often nighttime florals have moonflower, which amps up on me, so this is going to be a much loved oil in my collection.

Wet, I smelled an almost cake batter-y note. As it dries, the spun sugar starts to amp up, and wow is that sweet. I like sweet and foodie perfumes, but wow. Wow. Luckily, after it's dried down, the cream and linen come forward to take the edge off the sharp sweetness and it's much nicer. The scent is still thick and sweet, but it's not so tooth-aching. It's good on its own, but I'm already thinking how well it will layer with other perfumes. Edited to say that time's really helped Boo. It's lost the holy-crap-wow sweetness and now the linen has come out with the sugar and cream. I don't know the linen note per se, but it reminds me of Antique Lace so that is what it must be. Now it is a cross between Antique Lace and Love's Philosophy. And it is delicious.

You know when you read a string of reviews and think, did I get a mixed up bottle because mine smells NOTHING like what's being described? Yeah, me too. To me, Mlle. Lilith smells like sugared darkness. The darkness is the cypress, which actually isn't a note I care for and which I had hoped wouldn't show up. It's not as get-it-off-me awful as usual because it is sugared. It isn't sweet, it's just... like a hard thick sugar coating trying to cover up malevolence (or, to make it a little less abstract, a razor blade). You know it's there, but you keep the candy and take little bites anyway. And it sits inside the sugar and waits. I'm disappointed that the cypress is so strong, as cool as the impression of sugared darkness is, but I'm hoping that with aging Mlle. Lilith will do the magical transformation that Herr Drosselmeyer did- it was universally awful to everyone who smelled it on me or in the bottle for six months, and afterward the cypress mellowed and it is fantastic. I wish I smelled the other notes, I really do.

This actually reminds me quite a bit of Perchta. I mostly smell the snow note (which here almost verges on dryer sheets) rounded out by florals. While the L'Estate spray was quite strong, I flailed my sheets around and still barely caught a whiff of the spray. I'm looking forward to spraying this in midwinter while I watch the snow fall.