KittyHawk

Bottle: smoky vanilla and tobacco with a hint of honey and a bit of pine. Wet: Sticky, dark, and gritty. The pine pitch is surprisingly nice and the patchouli is kept in check. It’s so well-blended that I can’t pick out the individual notes anymore, but the overall vibe is sexy and just a bit dirty. Dry: The skin musk, honey, and pine pitch are all still going strong, but any initial sharpness is long gone. This is resinous, earthy, comforting, and enticing! Even if patchouli is a bad note for you, I urge you to try The Illustrated Woman. It’s one of those blends that encapsulates Beth’s prowess and proves time and again why BPAL is the pinnacle of independent perfumeries. A masterpiece, truly.

Bottle: Sweet gardenia and a touch of incense. Wet: Lots of gardenia, but it’s more of a foody gardenia that’s very heavy on the sugar, as opposed to a heady floral note. Gardenia is one of my favorite notes, but it’s a bit strange here and not what I was looking for. The incense is VERY light, but it grounds the sugary gardenia and Dry: Huh, I’m baffled. I’m getting a bubblegummy lotus note now, which must be the vanilla orchid. It’s a hit or miss note on me (hit in Regan, big miss in Opuhi), and while it’s a bit waxy here, I enjoy it. I’m surprised that I enjoy this blend so much, despite the fact that none of the notes are doing what I expected them to. This is a tropical blend alright, but while most of the Atomic scents are best suited for daytime, Marae is what you’d wear for a midnight walk on the beach or a luau at dusk. Very pretty and evocative.

Sea moss is one of my death notes, so I wasn't too hopeful about Banded Sea Snake, but I thought the Snake Oil base might keep the moss from beating everything else into submission. Let's just say the sea moss took a mallet to the other notes and left them for dead. Aquatic notes just hate my skin, and unfortunately, this is no exception. I bet this is a stunning blend on an aquatic lover, but it is not a snake for me.

Golden amber, vanilla musk, myrrh, cedar, carnation, and red sandalwood. Mmmm, Inez is dominant on the myrrh, red sandalwood (which seems like a beautiful mix of sandalwood and red musk, hooray!), and carnation on me; it's incredibly rich, warm, and inviting, perfect for fall sweater weather (or the two weeks of winter we get down here in Florida). This is exactly what I imagined Morocco would smell like, but better! It's sophisticated and intoxicating, yet something just about anyone could pull off. I wore this with jeans and a Threadless shirt the other day and felt woefully underdressed because I smelled so regal and looked so... disheveled by comparison. Inez is a bit heavy for hot weather, but it is perfect for chilly, blustery days. If you like Queen Alice, chances are you'll like Inez too.

Mmmm, red musk and pretzels! This really is a sexy foody blend. It's salty, dry, woody, and a little bit sweet. I have yet to try any scent that is even remotely like Elephantine Colossus; it's unusual and delicious!

This is so, so good. VU starts out with a blast of cherry when I first apply it, but it's a nice, juicy, realistic cherry, not the cough syrup cherry that I've found dominates some BPAL cherry blends. It wears off quickly, though, and I'm left with a beautiful sugary candy note with a base of fluffy marshmallows! It's somewhat reminiscent of Plastic Pink Flamingo, actually. While Midway didn't work on me (perhaps I should clarify: Midway disappeared on my skin immediately after application so I really have no basis for an opinion of it), I can understand the comparison. This smells like a young girl at the local fair chewing on a candy necklace in one hand, with a big cone of cotton candy in the other. She's just about to step up to a midway game at which her boyfriend will try to win her--you guessed it--a kitschy velvet unicorn painting. Velvet Unicorn is particularly special to me because it's the first BPAL blend with sugar that I can successfully wear (all others turn to rancid plastic--I'm lookin' at you, Sprinklecake!). I am so happy to have a bottle; it will be going into heavy rotation this summer.

Cairo is downright strange and not even remotely what I was expecting. It begins as a true lemon scent. It's not sharp or pithy; it's quite nice, actually, but I'm wondering where the incense is hiding. It keeps getting sweeter as it sits on my skin, and now that it's been on for about two hours, it's all peach. Peach? Where did that come from? All in all, Cairo is pleasant enough, but not at all evocative of its namesake. Too bad.

I had looked past Perversion for several months, thinking the tobacco and rum would go sickly on my skin, but I've been on a leather kick lately. Given all the hubbub this scent gets, it shot straight to the top of my MUST TRY NOW list. My imp must be heavy on the chardonnay and the tonka; I get very little leather and no tobacco. I'm not too surprised, since there seems to be a big variation among batches. It's a very dry, sweet, and sophisticated scent - what a cultured lady might wear to a fancy dinner party (though perhaps her lipstick is smudged and her hair a bit askew after an impromptu romp in the linen closet...). I'm tempted to get a bottle of this eventually just in case it turns out to be a the super-sexy leather that everyone clamors about! Still, even heavy on the chardonnay and the tonka, it's a nice scent, just not the perverse descent into olfactory BDSM I was hoping for. This will be in my next GC bottle order for sure.

Yarrr, this Anne Beany be tasty! My bottle must be a bit butterscotch-heavy, but you won't hear me complainin'. (This is coming from the girl who wrote her undergraduate creative writing portfolio with the help of sporadic shots of butterscotch schnapps.) I get very little cheesecake, which is okay, because the Lab's cheesecake note often turns to plastic on me. Anne Beany is all boozy, boozy butterscotch with the barest hint of cake. This transports me right back to my undergrad nights of feverish writing and stargazing on the roof outside my bedroom window in the dilapidated old house my friends and I rented just off campus (A2 represent!). After a few hours this veers into slightly plastic territory, but the rest of the time it's so delectable that I'm willing to overlook it. Foodie lovers, rejoice! And also, Go Blue! /end nostalgia

Ugh, all I get is sharp, herbal green. No florals at all. I was hoping based on earlier reviews that the sharpness would burn off after awhile and the florals would come out, but I'm having no such luck. I'm so disappointed in this blend and my skin chemistry for making it so horrid.

Bourbon, tobacco, dry bone, bay rum aftershave, and sleazy cologne. Isaac blew the doors of BPAL wide open for me. It made me questions everything I thought I knew about the notes I can and cannot wear. Before Isaac, I hated boozy notes; tobacco was sickening; masculine blends were too dark. I never would have sought this out, but a kind forumite sent a sniffie of it along with several CD testers I was looking for, and I'm so glad she did. Isaac opened up a whole new category of BPAL for me, which I had shied away from until now. The base of cheap men's cologne is very reminiscent of Old Spice, but mixed with the strong booze, the dry bone, and the tobacco, it is so unusual and SUPER SEXAY! Isaac the Living Skeleton is what The Most Interesting Man in the World would wear, about which he'd surely say, "I don't always wear BPAL, but when I do, I prefer Isaac the Living Skeleton."

Belladonna starts out as a lush pine blend but quickly morphs into a very subtle creamy, light floral swathed in eucalyptus and a bit of wood; how strange, yet so wonderful! Like Dani87, I'm having flashbacks of my junior high Noxzema routine, but I like it. I'm really shocked that I like this. I bet this would be fantastic for layering. I wouldn't be surprised if I reach for this on a weekly basis.

Mmmm, this is a nice androgynous blend! It's in the same scent family as Crowley and Tombstone, but it brings a few different things to the table. The black vanilla and tobacco are the strongest notes on me, but I get very little wood. I wish the teakwood and oak were a bit stronger, as this eventually becomes fairly one-dimensional on my skin. After about 30 minutes, the tobacco is gone, and within an hour, the vanilla's gone too. Where did you go, notes? The concept is fantastic, but my skin chemistry just flattens the notes into submission. I can see why this is so popular; I just wish it blossomed on my skin the way it does for so many others!

This is such a fun blend! Right off the bat, the tangerine cream steals the show. As it dries, the sandalwood grounds the citrus and keeps it from getting too sharp, while the benzoin gives it a sweet pop! I don't get much ambergris from this, yet it's still a very seaworthy blend. Lilith vs. the Giant Crab is so sweet, shimmery, and delightful. So glad I was able to snag a bottle of this; it's perfect for summer!

Hollywood Babylon and Scherezade are beautiful red musk blends, too. I hope you find a winner!

Hmmm, that's watermelon and mint, alright! This smells like The Last Unicorn redux. There's no oakmoss or lilac here, but the two do go together. This is a perfectly pleasant scent, but not one to upgrade. But if you're on the hunt for your perfect melon scent, this one can't be missed!

This is definitely more of a sandalwood scent than a leather one on me, but it is fantastic all the same. I get a faint sweetness on the drydown that's probably similar to the cologney feel that others get from this blend, but it's still nice to wear. I can totally see Gandalf wearing his unofficial namesake. I have other BPAL leather blends that I'd reach for before this, but this will still become part of my rotation.

Gennivre is a very pleasant spring/summer scent on me--tea and orange blossom are the strongest notes, but the honey and lemongrass are detectable as well. It's light, fresh, and clean, with a hint of floral. I'm glad I have a tester of this, but I don't think I'll spring for a bottle when the Carnaval comes back into town.

Strawberries, sandalwood, and a hint of vanilla. This is such a fresh, gorgeous blend and already one of my absolute favorites. It has surprisingly long wear, too, for a light scent. I applied at 8 AM and at 3 PM it's still going strong. After that amount of time, fruity blends are usually a distant memory, but Kitty sticks around. As another reviewer mentioned, there is a definite tang to this blend (perhaps the strawberries are not quite ripe yet?), but that only adds to Kitty's charms. She's coy, but with a cavalier streak.

I wore Kuang Shi last night while watching the season finale of The Walking Dead; it seemed a fitting homage. Kuang Shi is in the same family of fruity white musk scents like Fae and Katharina, but with a base of sandalwood. Orange is an iffy note on me; sometimes it goes sharp and pithy, but here it's creamy and sweet, like a freshly opened can of mandarin oranges. The sandalwood plays a nice supporting role without getting too strong, and the white musk rounds everything out. I wish the mango was stronger, but overall this is a great blend for anyone who likes light musk and fruity blends with a touch of spice. I'm a fan, but given its similarity to other GCs I own, I won't be getting a bottle (yet).

The orchid is a bit sharp and waxy at first, with an almost minty bite to it . After an hour or two, though, it dries down to a really lovely ginger-vanilla scent. I intensely dislike Opuhi wet, but the dry phase is very pretty. I'm debating whether I need a whole bottle, but it's a keeper for now.

Oh, this is so pretty. The snow note is certainly there, but it doesn't overpower everything else like it does for some other reviewers. It's not the same snow note as in Snow White and Pink Snowballs (the only BPAL snow blends I'm really familiar with); there's a bit of ozone there, but the other notes keep it in check. I'm not familiar with passion flower, but when wet, the main players are the snow note and cherry blossom, while a hint of tuberose adds a creamy texture and mellows the snow note. As it dries, the peach musk comes out but the other notes are still there, though the snow note has faded considerably. It's very evocative of the transition from winter to spring, and this practically thaws on my skin as I wear it. Amazing and beautiful.

There's a lot of rum in that little imp! Huh. This is mostly rum with a little smack of coconut on me; there's very little tobacco there, but I can detect it in the background. I'm pleased to hear that the rum mellows over time, because I smell like I was just declared the winner of a Senor Frog's wet t-shirt contest and doused with pina coladas. It's pleasant enough to smell, but I don't want to smell like an umbrella drink. Say goodbye to these, Michael.

Blast you, sugar cane! This was awful on my skin--plastic sugar. No coconut, no champaca, no ambergris. I took a chance with this one and lost. This was a dupe of Sprinklecake on my skin, which also turned to rancid plastic. I don't think aging will help (it didn't with Sprinklecake), so it's off to a better home.

Juliet is best described as a "young" scent, and one very befitting the Bard's tragic heroine. In the bottle, the sweet pea and the lily are the stars of the show. I get a whiff of the musk as well, but not much else. Wet, I finally get a hint of pear if I really concentrate, but it's well blended enough that it just evokes a girl on the verge of pubescence, virginal, idealistic, and sweet. After a few hours, the musk becomes the star of the show, while the florals recede into the background. After about 6 hours, this has become a beautiful summer floral musk. The pear is the first note to burn away, but the final result is still very pretty. It reminds me strongly of a drugstore perfume I used to wear as a kid, only Juliet is (obviously) superior and more nuanced. Juliet is also very similar to Aeval; if you like one, you'll probably like the other. I think all in all I prefer Juliet, but it's a close call. This is perfect for a warm, breezy day on the water. Well done, Beth.