Missy_killer

In the bottle: This smells like purple. A dark, almost black, blue-based purple. There's a strong smell of lavender and some fruity black currants. On: Hmmm... I don't smell anything at first. Then the strong lavender comes out again. It's not a sweet one either, this is a herbal and "leafy" lavender. A couple of minutes later the fruitiness emerges. Is it fig? I honestly have no idea what fig smells like. But it doesn't smell like currants, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it's fig. The staying power isn't the best on me. After an hour I smell the currants, but by then it's already very faded.

In the imp: What? What is that? It doesn't smell like any of the listed notes... Very sweet and almost green. Fruity? Floral? On: Slightly smokey and still quite sweet. I smell more chamomile than vanilla. It's kind of like a non-woody Araña. It's odd that I find this "fresh" even though it's certainly smokey. And it does not smell like sour camp fire either! After a little while it almost has a soapy feel to it. The vanilla seems to be shy, it only came forward for a couple of seconds. It goes a little buttery for a couple of seconds and then it smells heavenly! Like Lush's American Cream! It stays very close to the skin and doesn't have the best staying power.

In the bottle: Amber and coconut, with a bit of musk to deepen the scent and making it less sweet. On: Amber jumps at me first with its usual honey-like sweetness. coconut isn't far behind but it doesn't smell like coconut, if that makes sense. When I think of "coconut" I see a white and creamy smell, very foodie and sometimes it does smell like sunlotion. This, however, doesn't smell like any of the usual stuff. This is dark, but not even toasted. I have no idea what's going on. Another odd thing is that when I sniff close to my hand I pick up chocolate, and I have not a single clue where the chocolate is coming from. Also I am accompanied by vanilla. I would like to say that So Below is a lot sweeter than I thought it would be, it's a happier scent than what I assumed by reading the notes. It's very foodie, but at the same time not. My mother said it smelled like the perfume some Africans are wearing, it's spicy and heady but it doesn't smell bad or gives you migraines. She also made a comment that it smells like incense. Two or three hours later and the sweetness has dried up, the coconut is huskier and the vanilla has come out more. I would say So Below is gorgeous, but i'm not sure I need an entire bottle of it.

2013 version In the bottle: Menthol, eucalyptus and citrus. Reminds me of non-licorice Absinthe and Lavina, the creature. On: A nice menthol, but not as strong and minty as I would like it to be. Slowly the citrus comes out more, but I really wish it would go away! I'm on the lookout for the perfect MINT, and this does not seem to be it A couple of times this is verging on smelling like cleaning fluid, and it does smell fresh and clean. It's just not what I wanted out of this. Oh well.

In the bottle: Menthol and red berries, quickly sweetened by a more sugary mint (candy cane?) On: Bright mint/menthol that clears the back of my throat, probably a great scent for when you feel a cold on its way. After about a minute it smells like an exact dupe of Lush's Snowdrop bathbomb, which funnily enough is citrus and mint and nothing else. I don't get any currants or plums so far. I've tested Lavina twice since I got her, and both the reviews I've tried to write ended like this. She doesn't morph, she doesn't do a lot of noise either. She's quiet and close to my skin, nice and friendly. Minty and citrusy.

In the imp: A cakey bakery scent followed by some sweet alcohol and Christmas spices. On: Immediately mulled wine, the very sweet and spicy kind, closely followed by what my nose believes to be nutmeg. And then the alcohol comes back to play some more with us. The vision in my mind says: Rum-infused mulled wine with the last, stale gingerbread cookies of the year. The ones that are so old that they're almost chewy instead of crispy. I wasn't so blown away by this as I thought I would be. This has been on my wishlist pretty much since I joined BPAL, but I almost feel underwhelmed. Maybe it is because I had already found my favorite Yule bpal by the time I tested this? I'm not sure, but I don't need to keep this one

In the imp: A sweet and bitter smell. I would say it smells more like grapefruit than lemons, and with heaps of sugar to help it out. On: This is so well-blended! I get a citrus-vibe from it but I can't say exactly what kind of citrus it belongs to. I don't get any tea or peach whatsoever. It is just a light and fresh citrus and sugar perfume. I will def keep this, I don't have many light perfumes that I adore, but this smells amazing! Edited to add this was from 2008

In the imp: Patchouli and vetiver with something that smells very sweet, like honey. On: It almost disappeared as soon as I put it on. I can't really put my finger on what exactly I'm smelling here... Might be sandalwood and Snake Oil. And just as I think that to myself a shy and very herbal lavender makes its very short appearance before disappearing again. And then Tombeur twists a little. It smells like warm, flushed skin. There's absolutely no notes to be seen here, it just smells like skin - which to be honest does smell weird and amazing at the same time. Especially the warm and flushed element, it does feel like blood is pulsing underneath it, it feels tempting but almost sick (not in a bad way). I'm very happy I didn't get any almond in here and Snake Oil that usually smells like Play Doh on my skin is nowhere to be seen actually. The warm skin goes back, and it smells spicy and sweet. I like it!

In the bottle: Smells like a very light and soft toffee. On: First of all: holy crap I did not expect the oil to be blood red. Secondly; I smell that light toffee again. And then the florals peek out, I hope they play nicely but already it seems like the helichrysum has taken the lead role. Unfortunately Blossoms in Springtime didn't smell like the vanilla goodness I expected and hoped for, it smelled very strongly of florals which I do not care for one bit. I have since testing swapped away my bottle. The only thing I miss is the label art

I received a very generous sample of this a while back from a lovely forumite. In the bottle it smells like lovely sweet and juicy red apples, but it has a second note which I'm not entirely sure what it is. I want to say it's something bread-y or yeast. It doesn't smell fermented or bad, but there is something that gives Apple Orchard a little golden glow. I recently bought a big cabinet (need somewhere to store all the BPAL goodies and my art supplies) and decided this would be a great place to test the atmo, since the cabinet smells like old dusty cellar, which I'm not a fan of. So I open one of the doors of the cabinet and spritz once inside. And oh holy mother, this was strong! It smelled nothing like it does sniffing straight from the bottle, instead it was a really strong, high pitched apple-scented hairspray. I was a little disappointed that it had lost the gorgeous apple from the bottle, but after leaving the room and returning the next day it had thankfully calmed down. It doesn't smell like hairspray any longer but now the cabinet smells like old dusty cellar with apples in it.

(I believe I have the 2009-version since the label is teal?) Bottle: Cognac jumps out first with the incense, smoke and musk following close behind. It smells sour, but not at all in a bad way! I'm very surprised by the lack of tobacco which usually amps to high heavens and ruins every blend for me. On: This is a grown-up smell. A very classy, aristocratic woman should wear this. But I'm shocked by how light and sweet Black Lace is. The tobacco sneaked in almost without me noticing it, but it's staying in the background so I mostly smell the lovely sweetness. I have to say, before I tried this I felt certain that this would fail utterly on me, thinking the musk would be too dark and the tobacco would make this smell like sour campfire-smoke. I'm still completely blown away by how gorgeous this is. Black Lace smells like a sweet and delicate vanilla with just a touch of smoke to keep it grounded and it reminds me so much of a light and clean sister of Mme. Moriarty. After testing them both together I found that they share the same vanilla, but Moriarty is more "dirty" with her fruits and slightly heavier. However, they are both in my top 5 scents and I love them.

In the imp: Oh wow, what does this smell like? My first thought is red apple, and then something sweet which reminds me o something from Lush.. Third sniff tells me that this is perfumey and has something "off" about it. On: Again apple is the first note to jump out at me and then honey. I had to look at the notes here to see f there was anything else that I could detect. The honey has its "golden" smell going on, the rich and sticky kind. I think the "apple" I've been smelling all this time are actually the berries playing tricks on me. I start to detect some spices, maybe pumpkin spice-spices? The spices vanished very quickly and hours later I could only smell honey.

In the imp: Smokey pine and vanilla! Not really what I expected.. I was prepared for an ashtray of doom with vanilla stuck underneath. On: This is not at all what I had expected. The pine is the most dominant note on me, followed by the skin musk and a teeny, tiny dab of vanilla. The mix of this makes my brain think that this is artificial watermelon at some angles. So strange but I like it. The pine continues on being the most dominant note but the Illustrated Woman is very fresh and sweet, not at all what I had imagined this being. I do like pine, thankfully! After a few hours this changes, and it becomes sooo good! I now smell the most perfect man ever. It's a nice and warm scent, with a little spice, and I imagine snuggling my face in his chest, deeply huffing this comforting scent. God damn, this is gorgeous! I'm still surprised the tobacco was nowhere to be seen here, it is almost always very prominent on me, just like honey which also never made an appearance. I'm testing this on my one hand and Black Lace on the other, and while Black Lace smells like a fancy sophisticated woman, Illustrated Woman smells like the perfect manly companion.

In the imp: This is very manly. I smell some gorgeous, spicy men's cologne with.. is that mulled wine? Yum. On: Very strong and manly. I smell the mandarin, clove and patchouli, it almost smells a little like mulled wine but with a citrus-twist. And it is, like I said, VERY strong. Black musk is almost always a death note for me, so I was very worried when I tried this on that it would smell burnt or something other nasty like that. It doesn't, thankfully. I had to wash this off after a while because it amped to high heavens on me and started giving me a slight headache. Now, it didn't all want to rub off so I can still smell it, but more vaguely now. This smells like Halloween. It's dark and mysterious but has a spicy twist.

I'll throw my vote in here for Sticky Pillowcase (candy galore) and Samhain (perfect spicy apples with just a teensy tiny bit of outdoor-feel)!

To my nose: Buttery "pie" kind of smell. It has something tart and sweet going on about it that I would like to think is some kind of berry. Cranberry? Currants? No idea. It reminds me a little of Eat Me actually (which has currants, right?) but this is more crusty and less white sponge-cake. On: Wooooohhh! This is one strong berry-filled bakery...thing..Pie, let's go with pie. I also want to say that I smell something boozy. After ten minutes: Uh, Did someone accidentally put a lot of iron in the pie? Or is there BLOOD in this?! it smells a lot like iron to me, and I don't know about you, but I don't want that in my pie.

In the imp: Strong cakey smell with an undertone of vanilla and some spices. On: I don't really know what I'm smelling here and I'm not sure I like it. It smells kinda like cookies with some dusty pale spices floating around it. For some reason I can't pick out any individual notes, the only thing I DO know is that this is making me slightly sick. The longer I'm wearing it the more I dislike it. It started developing a very sweet smell that I don't care for at all. To the swaps!

In the bottle: This is very, very clean. I smell washing powder and a faint rose soap. It immediately makes me think of a wash-room or someone with an OCD of taking a shower every 15 minutes. I imagine this is what they would smell like. On me: The rose is making itself very present, but it's so soapy and nothing like the gorgeous sweet rose in Love or even the odd lemon-roses I almost always smell otherwise.And then the rose washes away too and I'm left with a pure white soap. When I got this I was expecting chilly and ice-bitten fresh roses, but instead I smell like I just took a very soapy bath. And hey, there's nothing wrong with smelling freshly clean, but it's just not my thing. Suddenly the rose blooms back up, bright pink and surrounded by crisp, cool air, now we're getting somewhere! Five minutes later we're back to soap and this goes on back and forth until, 4 hours after my first application, it smells like newly washed, warm towels. I immediately get reminded my childhood's evenings when showers BEFORE bed were the absolute best, getting a warm towel to dry off, a warm pajamas and then being tucked in to my bed. While the memories are good and I got to see a little bit of what I wanted this to smell like, it's nice but simply not for me.

In the bottle: Lovely orange is all I can smell, and it is marvelous! When I move it away from my nose I smell...coconut? The only "downside" with this is that the scent gets stuck in the back of my throat instantly, so I have this odd feeling while sniffing it or even while wearing it. On: Juicy oranges, almost so real that I can smell the zest too. And that's it, ladies and gentlemen, Kingdom of Sweets doesn't change at all on me. Fresh, sweet, juicy dripping slices of oranges is all. I think this would be wonderful to layer with! I don't get any candies what so ever in this and even if I hoped for that I'm still really happy with what I got, all fresh fruit.

In the bottle: White, buttery cookies. Second sniff I get a teeny tiny bit of mint. And on the third sniff I smell a vague hint of plastic vanilla (like Egg Nog) mixed with something very perfumey. I really hope it won't transfer over on my skin.. On: Again, buttery white cookies, but now I smell something fruity with it. It's gotta be the pom that is shining nice and bright. It actually smells pretty good at this stage, thankfully it's nothing like Eat Me (which was a pure disaster). I don't smell any mint, but honestly I don't think mint would have fit in with this - no matter how much I love mint..it does not work with everything. I do however want to say that chocolate is involved somehow. Maybe...white chocolate? To be honest this reminds me slightly of a white cake (vanilla)-version of Monsterbait: Closet! After it has been sitting on my skin for an hour or two, the pom has become more prominent. It's not at all as cakey as it was when wet , but it still have some of those qualities left. Edited to add: After 5-6 hours I could still smell Braving The Ice on my wrist. At that point there was no cake left, only what I could detect as berries and cream. After reading some reviews in this thread, it seems that a lot of people were having issues with this. And that is so sad considering how well this worked on me. Cookies and buttery-smells almost never work on my skin.

version 2013 In the decant: Very hard to pinpoint what exactly this smells like. Vanilla? I would actually want to call it a cheap, plastic-type vanilla that at least I find certain lip balms or scented candles to smell like. It doesn't have that real, rich and creamy vanilla scent, if you know what I mean? I haven't really encountered this kind of plastic-type smell from BPAL before, and it worries me about how this will smell om my skin. On: Smells just like a lip balm I had as a kid with that cheap smell to it. No good vanilla at all. I tend to like cooler vanillas, like coconutty or smokey instead of the warm bakery and buttery ones. But this is neither, this is just bleh. It's trying hard to change its appearance but the question is, will it? As I'm typing this it does however change a slight bit. Some spices are added to the mixture! I would say those are nutmeg with a splash of faint cinnamon. Still, I would not say this is anything for me, it has started to make me a little nauseous actually, which is never a good sign. Washed it off after five minutes.

In the imp: Very strong man's cologne. On me: Men's cologne that quickly sweetens up with a citrus.It's not tart enough to be a lemon, and has some bitterness to it. I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's lime. I can't smell any cinnamon at ALL, which is what I wanted most out of this, I can't even smell the black musk right now, which has a tendency to not work well with my skin chemistry. It doesn't change much from the first stage. I still get limes, but it has found a new friend which is Dragon's Blood. I think that's the black musk, and there's a very weak hint of tobacco too. No cinnamon to be seen anywhere, so this will go straight to my swap pile. very disappointed.

In the imp: This is very nutty and reminiscent of Pumpkin Masala Rooibos. On me: Yep, very true to life nuts, kinda like roasted hazelnuts - but without that bitter burnt smell that they can sometimes have. There is absolutely no sweetness in this for me, and it doesn't change from this stage at all. I can't really imagine when I would want to smell like roasted hazelnuts, so I don't think I need to keep this little decant. I was hoping to get some spices, some nice thick caramel or even some bakery-kind of thing but nope. Pure nuts.

In the imp: Honey and a very sweet flower, must be the sweet pea right? Didn't know that sweet pea smelled SO strong. The next sniff is even more flowery but with bubblegum instead of honey. On: Very sugary and sweet. I can't pick out any specific notes right now actually thanks to the overload of sweetness. After a few minutes I think the sweet pea is trying to break through, backed up by what smells like strawberry bubblegum, but it's still a nice, sweet mess. The longer Pink Phoenix sits on me, the more bubblegum I get. It's a fresh stick of bright pink, strawberry bubblegum still covered with confectioner's sugar to not be sticky. It stays like that on me for two hours before it changes to its final stage which is lovely vanilla and strawberry cream. I would say that if you are looking for a nice bubblegum-scent, go for this one. It smells just like the real deal and the creamy final stage is also very nice! I'm not a fan of flowers so I'm happy the sweet pea didn't stick around. A little bummed about the lack of pear, but it still works out for me. If it weren't for the first overly sweet mess I would try to hunt down a bottle, but I can live with only having this decant. Edited to say that I apparently got a bit of this on my fingers and accidentally touched my mouth...And..it tastes like it smells, with a very soapy undertone. I however DO NOT RECOMMEND trying to eat this, it was just a little happy accident!

In the bottle: Smells very red and thankfully not overly sweet. i would say there is some bitterness involved? On me: Still not too sweet and very red. I've never had, nor smelled pom so I don't know how it compares to the real deal. But it smells pretty good I have to say. The bitterness in it keeps it from going candy-like, which is a plus in this case. I like it, but I'm not sure I'm ever gonna use a full bottle of it. Probably not. After two hours it smells like scented candles on me. Yet another good scent that my skin likes to call candle.