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I was looking for "a crisp, cold night" scent last winter. I wanted a "cold" scent that was more piney/woodsy than minty. The best I found was Talvikuu and Snow Moon. Snow Moon especially hit the nail on the head for me. I know I wrote this in my review of Snow Moon, but I grew up in the country and the smell of a winter night--smelling the cold air, the woods behind my house, and the fireplaces/wood furnaces in my "neighborhood" (a.k.a. nearby houses on a rural highway) was just the greatest, homiest smell ever for me. Talvikuu was close, but Snow Moon is everything except the smoke smell. I added just a very tiny bit of Brimstone from a frimp I got a few weeks ago and... I got exactly the scent I was looking for. Can't wait for it to get cold again so I can start wearing it. So uh...yeah...Snow Moon & Talvikuu would be my recommendations for cold nights. The Carpathian Mountains is in the right direction for a cold smell, but it has a Ben-Gay menthol smell which takes a little while to calm down. I have Cloister Graveyard in the Snow on its way now and an imp of Snow-Flakes and Black Ice from a Yule decant circle and I'm looking forward to see how they measure up. ETA: I should note--I didn't add the Brimstone directly to the bottle...just to my wrist.

I received a bit of this from my Maelstrom decant circle. When I opened it, I took a big whiff and my first thought was..."FOUL!!!" (I do love using that word) After thinking about it, I realized what it reminded me of and took another big whiff just to be sure. Ya know those Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans that Jelly Belly put out? I think it almost smelled like the Vomit flavored tasted--except less cheese and more rose in the oil (which doesn't help for me...I'm not a fan of roses). I admit, I didn't try it on my arm. I wasn't given much and I figured I'd just might as well save it for someone who's desparate to try it.

Wet: This has a pleasant, not-overly-sweet scent. Complex, but I almost smell Bazooka On Skin: Amazingly, the first thing I think of when I smell this right after applying it is...latex rubber gloves as a perfume (i.e. they don't smell exactly like glovers...but has that essence). The sweetness neutralized a bit. I'm actually still enjoying it, though. Drydown: The latex smell melts into a more complex and indescribable scent. It feels kind of dry, light, spicy, pretty scent. I really like it. I got it this afternoon and was happy to see it hadn't been taken down. So, for the first time, I have bought a second bottle! I haven't even replaced any imps with other imps yet. Ok, in the order I did buy a bottle to replace my imp of Othello (but that's only because the imp's almost out). This was the first time I bought an EXTRA bottle--though I probably wouldn't have if it weren't an LE. Two thumbs up! ETA: I gave my roommate the bottle to sniff...he said, "I smell patchouli..."

I was expecting something more incense-y or spicy, but I was immediately put off when I opened the bottle and smelled nothing but caramel/butterscotch. I'm not fond of smelling like food, but especially sweet baked goods. Granted the sweetness toned down a bit after drydown on my skin and the spices have come out, but it still smells overwhelmingly like the Yankee Candle Co of Hazelnut Coffee--a smell I liked for about 15 minutes before it just became too sweet to tolerate. My body chemistry must like the caramel (go figure). I'll try it again tomorrow, putting more on and wearing for longer...but I'm going to wear it on a Saturday so I can bathe or change clothes if it gets super annoying. ETA: Upon applying it a little more and smearing it around a bit more, the baked good smell has mostly gone away, but it seems like I can still sense that sweet residue underneath currant and spice. I'm still dissapointed with this one.

My first review! And, of course, I'm reviewing this because it's my favorite so far (I have a collection of 33 imps and 7 bottles so far--probably very small compared to most other BPALers). In the bottle: Pine--but not too much of a sharp sappy pine. It smells arid, cold, slushy and a little sweet. Wet: Pretty similar, but I smell a bit more of a woody smell (maybe that's the birch--I don't know many single notes yet). Not too much, just a bit Drydown: I lost the woody smell, but no big deal. The sweet background is tempering the pine a bit. What sharpness there was has now mellowed into this lovely, natural smelling, cold, sweet outdoorsy scent. I abso-friggin-lutely love this scent. When the Yule scents came out, I was looking for a scent that embodied a smell from my childhood. On Christmas Eve, when my family would go to church, it would be night, the air would be cold and crisp, the woods near our house gave their woodsy scent and you could smell wood burning from peoples' fireplaces/wood furnaces (I lived in the country). I tried Talvikuu because it sounded exactly what I was looking for. I liked it alright until my Snow Moon arrived. Snow Moon hit the nail on the head even moreso. This is missing the woodsmoke smell I would like as part of my childhood memory, but it's got everything else just right. I will probably have to buy a couple more bottles of this--it's so lovely. ETA: 10 min later the sweetness has turned into a fruity-ness that has really enveloped the pine (which seems there, but not discernable as a separate note anymore. Ugh...such a great scent. ETA (almost a year later): I recently got a frimp of Brimstone and, with just a touch of it in addition to the Snow Moon, I was able to recreate the scent I was looking for. [sigh] Now I just wait for winter so I can wear it again...

If you're looking for a pure grass scent, Demeter makes one. However, I believe that their Dandelion scent is sweeter and smells, to me, more like the grass scent I'm familiar with.