Brienze

I've been going through a box of extremely aged BPAL (kept dark and cool, but most of it dates from 04-05). I've had this imp of The Hamptons since its release. I just sniffed it and got a powerful scent-memory of food, or maybe medicine. I had Mr. Brienze sniff it to see if he could tell me what it was -- he, poor man, thinks all perfumes smell like "flowers and alcohol" if he can smell anything. No help there. But I finally figured it out -- Hawaiian fruit punch! Any booziness it once had is gone, and it now smells exactly the way fruit punch tastes. Depending on how well you like fruit punch, you can take this as a warning to not let The Hamptons sit around unused for three years. =) Edited for inappropriate apostrophe.

I love aquatics, and I love green scents. Holiday Moon is my favorite, and I've worn Squirting Cucumber and Garden Path with Chickens. To me this is almost entirely aquatic -- I don't get any of the overwhelming greeny cucumberyness that others are reporting. It's long-wearing on my skin, and for most of that time it's a sweet, freshwater scent, like a more flowery Olokun. There's the barest hint of saltwater. Wet, I actually do get a bit of something I'd call the Sturgeon... it's not a dockside, fishy, mackrel-sushi smell, just something indefinable that makes me think a lolfish was just there and tagged my hand with "Sturgeon wuz hear". My very favorite part is that the drydown is entirely consistent, with none of the slightly musty, too-sweet powder that other aquatics get when they lose their, pardon the pun, freshness. At night I sleep with my hands tucked under my pillow, right at nose level, and Sturgeon Moon was a pleasure to go to sleep to. It's also something entirely wearable in 102F (38.8C) sunlight, and I can count on one hand the number of scents that's true of. Gets a five rating from me!

I love how this scent keeps me guessing. In the vial, it's sweet grapey wine. On my skin, if I sniff near my skin, it's just cassia. BUT, the waft morphs constantly, and it's all good. Sometimes I get the apple pie scent that others describe, and sometimes I still get honeyed wine. Sometimes I can't really tell what I'm smelling, but it's all good, and it all has warmth and a red/purpleness to it. I can't wait to try this one in an oil burner... all the yumminess of making wassail, without going to the trouble of actually making wassail. It's also worth noting that this is the only BPAL honey that hasn't done very nasty and rude things when applied to my skin, so if you're a no-honey person, you might want to give this a try anyway. Definitely keeping my bottle of this.

In the bottle, and wet: Grass! Grass grass grass grass grass with a side of grass! To me this is a good thing... I love Rosalind, but the berries get in the way of my grass-happiness. This is bright, fresh, and green... it gives the same feeling that Holiday Moon does (no notes in common though, just the bright happy greenness). Drying: The grass mellows out, and various flowers play together nicely. Rose behaves herself instead of climbing all over everyone else, and there's no sign of the verbena going funky on me like it usually does. I don't wear many florals so I can't really pick out which are which. 2 hrs later: The scent lingers, but not for much longer. Unlike Beltane and Litha, it never went powdery on my skin. Yay! I made a booboo and tried this on right as I was going to a movie... usually I wouldn't wear perfume in a movie theater, but I'd just gotten my order and I was excited to try something. It was a very crowded theater... a lunch matinee of The Princess Bride... and none of the people around me gave me dirty looks. So Chickens is very inoffensive to others, methinks. I love grass! And while the florals aren't quite as wonderful as wet Beltane or Litha, they aren't powdery or overwhelming and that's quite good enough for me. Keeping my bottle.

I love Red Lantern, but most of the time I don't really have the personality to carry it off. The Sailor's Den is a Red Lantern for shy, quiet girls. The rum and coconut combine in a way that's similar to the caramelly smell in Red Lantern, and the tobacco and leather are just hints in the background. I don't know what orris is, and it doesn't scream "lilac" at me (nor does it seem particularly "floral"), but I can tell there's more going on in this scent than the individual notes my nose can pick out. I'm disappointed that I can't smell the linen more strongly... I loved Berenice and Dirty. Not much throw, but then I applied very sparingly. This is really well blended -- neither the rum, coconut, nor any other one note knock me out. I agree with others; you could wear this in any situation and not give offense. I'll be keeping my bottle, but I might imp some of it out. This is an "everyday" scent, but I gravitate to other things for my everyday wear.

In the bottle: I smell the fruits and cane sugar, mostly. It's not the "cherry Coke" smell, but something akin to that. Weird that I'm able to smell "sugar" rather than just "sweet". On, wet: Still fruity, with a bit of the grains and nuts coming out... it's a bit earthier (but not in a "dirt" way) and on my skin it immediately backs off from being a fruit scent like Bewitched or Tweedledum. On, drying: It seems to morph a lot, or maybe it's that each time I sniff, my nose picks out a different dominant note. It definitely smells like autumn... a bit of apple, a bit of cinnamon (go figure... maybe that's the spiciness of chrysanthemum actually). To me, it also has the smoky note that I love from Xiuhtecuhtli's drydown. On, dry 3 hrs: No more apples. It's smoky, with a floral-musky residue, and some creaminess. I hate milk notes and creaminess generally, but this is completely different... whoever above posted that it's plant-milkiness had it right on the nose. Duration: final drydown at 3 hrs, seems like it'll linger, just a bit, the rest of the night Throw: Not much. Summary: I can't pick out my beloved bamboo and tea notes specifically in this, but I think they're what keeps Harvest Moon 06 from being too heavy and/or cloying. (Last year's was too cinnamony on me, and the Halloween scents too heavy/dark.) I like the fact that I can smell different notes each time I sniff, and I really like the effect of a fall day with a fire in the hearth and fruit pies cooling on the open window. It was 100F today in Austin, though, so I'm going to have to wait till November to really be able to appreciate this scent. Glad I got two bottles though! Rating: 4.5/5

Wow, I get a very different scent than most everyone who's reviewed so far. I was going to say "it's just like Berenice, but with less musk", only to look up the descriptions and realize that Orpheus has no stargazer lily, but it does have musk as the first note! On my skin, it is just like a less musky Berenice. It's a light, clean, mostly floral (of some sort or another... I'm not good with florals, and it's none of the obvious flowers that I know). I get no lavender, which is good since lavender goes completely vorpal on me and I was taking a big chance with this. It does smell somewhat of "department store perfume", only without the chemicals and alcohol... nice, in other words. I agree that people who like Dirty will like this. Throw is medium for an hour or two, then settles close to the skin. Morphing not at all, which imho makes it even better than Berenice (on me it took awhile for the musk to calm down), plus it's GC! Lasted 4 hrs already; seems like it will be around for a few more, but not strongly. Rating: 4 of 5. I very much like this, but I'm still puzzled that it seems so different from the description and from other reviews. Where's the green?

This was my experience too. The scent is sharply herbal (I wasn't paying attention to specific notes) and has a good "hey! you! pay attention!" sort of vibe. I do my best work when pushed to an absolutely immovable deadline, when I have to get something done and my critical brain shuts up (or just gives up) and lets me get on with it. Concentration dropped me into that mindset without it being 3am the morning that a project is due. I think my mind and my body are used to working at the point of exhaustion, though, because as soon as the scent faded (which only took an hour or so) my interest in plugging away at the work faded too. I didn't experience the "lost time" that happens when work is going really smoothly and I'm getting lots done. I'm openminded, but not so openminded that my brains fall out. I do my best to be respectful, but I don't believe an inanimate object can push me around. The sharp topnotes gave a kick-in-the-ass to my concentration level, but the drydown didn't seem to make any difference. For me, Concentration is an interesting (and decent-smelling) novelty, but is no substitute for native Stubbornness. Scent: herbal/woodsy. sharp. not sweet, but not acrid either.

I'm with you on both counts... doctors who choose this as a specialty are seriously messed up, and you could probably make a lot of money on the Internet with that video. I think they probably find it works better when they don't tell the patient what she can expect before arriving for that test.

I get butter and cocoa from this while it's still in the bottle. On, the cocoa is dry and not overwhelming. I had assumed from the inspiration that the butter was actually buttered rum, but I never really get a distinct boozy note. There's definitely vanilla, though, and as it dries down the vanilla dominates (as it usually does on my skin). The musks from Smut are here, but Storyville is more her born-again cousin... trying to be a good, wholesome girl (thank you very kindly, Mr. Story), but still slutty underneath. She's sweet, but not as temptingly saccharine as Smut. I'm also reminded of what Beth first said about Smut, that it smelled grody in the bottle and we'd have to put it on our skin to really smell it fully. I never had that problem with Smut, but the bottle scent is definitely the worst part of Storyville. It needs a chance to develop, so if you swap for an imp, try it! Don't just let it sit in the imp box and take it out only for sniffing. This has a lot of throw at first, but calms down within half an hour or so. By 4 or 5 hours the drydown is just clinging to my skin. FWIW, I didn't get out of this any of the caramel that Misk U has for me, and I'd relate Red Lantern and Misk U to each other more than either of them to Storyville. My skin amps vanilla like crazy, so to me Storyville is more like what would happen if Antique Lace went on a bender and had a "lost weekend".

No description available. I guess I'm starting the thread, so I'll have to apologize for being so terrible at picking out notes. Scent Category - woody/herbal/resin/smoky In the bottle - In the bottle this is mostly herbal and resinous. There's pine, I think, but it's not "piney". There's something that I want to call patchouli but probably isn't, because I tend not to like patchouli. It's a deep scent without being dark. It's unisex... maybe a bit more to the masculine side, but not in a cologney way. On, wet - True to the bottle. It doesn't cling to my skin, but the waft isn't that huge either (in a fight between this and the Voodoo Queen on my other arm, Voodoo Queen is winning, even though the way I use my hands puts Doc Buzzard closer to my nose more often). On, dry - There's a smokiness coming out, a bit like a burning candle. Incensey without being at all sweet. There's a bit of waxiness (the smell, not the texture) though I can't swear that it's the beeswax note from Lupercalia. It may well be. Summary - I know next to nothing about Voodoo and hoodoo (I skipped that tour cause I was sunburnt from the cemetery tour already ), but I can imagine this as the scent of a witch doctor performing a ceremony. It definitely has masculine character, and there's no sweetness to the incensy/smoky bits, but it's also not harsh or acrid. A friend and I are scent opposites (she loves patchouli and woodsy notes) but we both agree Doc Buzzard is fabulous. Duration - 4 hrs and going strong, as long as you're inside my personal space. Only really morphed the once, from wet to dry. Rating - 5/5 Of the three C12 scents, this is the one I'll try to imp out the least of, so I can keep more of it for myself!

A nearly-narcotic blend of opiate-touched bark and blossom reflective of the bleakness and solitude of winter, the quietest point of the year : black opium poppy, bamboo pulp, ylang ylang, lavender, chamomile and white sandalwood. First, let me warn that I don't know whether lavender is a bad note for me. I usually don't even bother reviewing scents that I know are bad on my skin (the vanilla in Montresor does me in, for example) because what good does it do anybody to know that if it contains X and X is bad on your skin, it'll be bad on you? Duh. I'm not huge into florals though, and I don't think I've ever had a lavender-containing blend before. On my skin, Sleepy Moon gave the most godawful lavender soap smell at first... I felt like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoons, with this miasma of stench spreading out from me in all directions. The soapiness went away, but it was still nasty in some other variety less easy to quantify. I can most clearly review it by what it wasn't. It wasn't chamomile, or sandalwood, and most especially wasn't bamboo pulp, which I loved in Holiday Moon. The real kick in the ass is that a RL friend tried it on last night, and on her it was a lovely sandalwoody floral. Dammit. I guess take this as a general warning that if you know one of Sleepy Moon's notes doesn't work on your skin, this might not be the blend that proves the exception to the rule. I'm glad that many people seem to really like it, though, so my imps can go on to find more appreciative homes.

That one was a big surprise to me; I figured it was an automatic reject cause I'm not into dirt and I saved it for last to try, but it's really nice. Wet, it isn't knock-you-down-at-50-paces earthy like Gnome, but it wafted definite dirt for about 15 minutes, then mellowed to a kind of wet spiciness. There's no mention of cinnamon in the notes, but that was the impression I got -- and actual cinnamon is very hit or miss on me, since I got Big Red gum out of Three Witches, and cinnamon red hots followed by parsley out of All Night Long. Maybe black orchids are spicy, dunno. I didn't get noticeable patchouli, either, which was fine by me. The Maelstrom seems to be the LE Series Of The Disappearing Patchouli on me, cause it didn't come out on my skin in any of the blends it's listed in. The spiciness that followed the wet dirt gradually fades, and the scent lasts perhaps 3 or 4 hours on me. The waft seems pretty minimal. Rating: 5 of 5 when compared to its dirt-bearing brethren, 2.5 of 5 overall Bottle: probably not, but I'm keeping my imp. I tend to find that the LEs I like are analogous to a GC scent I like, only better. For example, Spirits of the Dead is a better Embalming Fluid, Holiday Moon a better Neo-Tokyo, etc. But the general catalog has tons of spicy scents so there's no need to hoard an LE for the same purpose.

I'm one of the people who was utterly grossed out by this, but my review will be impossible to recapture, now that I'm several days removed from the shock of it. I'm convinced this is a great joke that Beth is playing on us; I'm just not sure how, since there are some people it smells good to before it even hits skin, so it's as much nose chemistry as skin chemistry. The Imp snuck up on me... a cautious whiff got me roses, so I took a great honkin' breath and half a second after the roses hit, I was assaulted with the nastiest substance I have smelled in BPAL since the buttered-salty-popcornness of Shill. It wasn't cognac and I've no clue what it was (I've heard the suggestion that it's roses gone rotten), but it was foul. Of course since IotP is rare everyone will be clamoring to get a sniff of it, and I bet even after the reviews of its nastiness pour in, people will still want to sniff it from lack of believing us, or for the novelty of it or whatever, so it'll definitely fulfill the promise of its name. Unless you're absolutely in love with roses, or with cognac, my advice would be to not worry about selling your firstborn to get hold of an imp. Imp of the Perverse may be good when it's good, but it's really REALLY REALLY bad when it's bad.

Unfortunately, my skin gobbles up Usher so fast that I barely have time to pick out the notes before it's gone. Literally, 5 minutes and *poof*. This is the Maelstrom scent I had the highest hopes for, too. The impression I got from Usher was that it's a perfectly gender-neutral blend; there's nothing at all that suggests to me it would be better worn by a man or by a woman. It's not sweet or floral, but nor is it astringent in the way colognes can sometimes be. Usher is a great blending of notes, and will be fabulous on anyone whose skin can hold on to the notes equally well.