edenssixthday

Champagne & Cigars – I have not yet encountered a single BPAL champagne scent I didn’t positively adore, but this is by far one of the best. It’s the scent of fizzy, dry champagne blended with the wonderfully warm tobacco-and-smoke scent of celebratory cigars. It’s a scent I see as highly gender-neutral because the smoke and tobacco balance out the sweetness of the bubbly. I don’t know what else I can say about this without sounding like a raving lunatic because it’s just awesome awesome awesome!!!

The Torture Queen - White amber, vanilla musk, ambergris -- what's not to love? I thought this would be a stunning scent. Sadly, when I tried it both when it first came out and again recently, it didn't work at all on me. The chrome note overpowered everything else in the scent and the white amber smells a little too "dusty", so it basically smells like a dust-and-metal scent on me, way too industrial for my taste, especially when I had expectations that it would be more vanilla-musk and warm-ambergris pretty.

October 2010 - This smells exactly like the 2007 version, only for some reason I like it more -- probably because while I tend to not wear dry, leafy scents, this smells exactly like the air outside right now, which is full of the scent of fallen-but-not-completely-dried-out leaves, and a chill in the air portending the winter to come, and the first scents of woodsmoke from chimneys being used for the first time since early spring. It's perfect for this time of year. Absolutely perfect.

AF8 - This is gorgeous. It feels like it could be a prototype for one of The District blends. I smell a wisteria-like floral as well as peach, maybe a hint of magnolia, and possibly a drop of sweet honey. It's a really beautiful fruity-floral scent on me. It's quite strong and if I were to wear it around other people, I'd have to apply quite sparingly, but I'd still be the best-smelling person around.

Horse Chestnut Honey - I have no idea how horse chestnuts differ from regular chestnuts, but I love regular chestnuts in all their wild variations, but I don't like the way this scent smells. The horse chestnut note -- or maybe it's that note combined with the honey -- smells strikingly similar to wet dog. There's something sharp and acrid, and I think that may be the honey note, since there are some honeys I simply can't wear. Sadly, this one is a no-go for me.

Eight Views of Actors in Their Dressing Rooms - I love about a third of the notes in this, am indifferent to another third, and dislike the last third. So I wasn't sure how this would turn out on me. Sadly, the neroli kills it for me. The citrus top notes layer beautifully over the deeper, warmer, labdanum, tonka, and ambergris. The tuberose sweetens it up in a really lovely way, but damn that neroli is just stinky and rarely, if ever, allows a blend it's in to work on me. It's so close to being awesome, though! I would definitely recommend this to people who like warm notes like tonka and ambergris and sweet, bright citruses.

Halloween: San Francisco - I was really looking forward to trying this as I spent much of my growing-up years in the Bay Area and remember many Halloweens in San Francisco. My scent memory is very different from Beth's, and this scent doesn't whisk me back to my Bay Area childhood at all. However, it's lovely. It's a very clean, salty aquatic scent -- the scent of salty ocean mist wafting through the air as opposed to the murky scent of a heavy ocean aquatic. There's definitely a green leafy aspect to this scent. It's as if someone blended Blade of Grass and Sea of Glass, only lighter and mistier. Very pretty, very clean, fresh, and almost sporty.

Halloween: Brooklyn - In the bottle, this smells of high-pitched florals and little else. It took me a long time to get around to testing it because those florals scared me off. When I put it on my skin, however, other notes come into play and while the florals are still fairly high-pitched on me, I can also smell fresh air and clean greenery. I've spent time in Brooklyn and this does remind me of the scent of a small park in the middle of the city, with flowering trees and slightly trampled grass and maybe even a bit of the smell of city and cement around the neighborhood oasis. It's quite an evocative scent, and one I am guessing will be much-loved by those who enjoy clean, fresh tree-and-greenery type scents.

The Byronic Antihero - On my skin, this is much nicer than it smells in the bottle. In the bottle, it smells like a heavy men's cologne, but on my skin, it warms up to something much nicer. It kind of reminds me of what you'd get if you crossed a very masculine Chrysanthemum Moon with a non-leathery Rivet Goth. There's a note in this that reminds me strongly of the opium note in Mum Moon and it blends beautifully with the patchouli. I don't smell the carnation at all, unless it's a different carnation than I'm used to, as it usually goes quite spicy on me, but doesn't in this scent. This is a scent that I would love to smell on my husband, especially if I were wearing Mum Moon, as I think they'd compliment each other beautifully. It has really strong throw and quite long staying power.

Victorian Garden - I amp lavender, dislike BPAL's lavender note, and this scent is no exception to my general dislike of lavender scents. It's mostly lavender with other herbs that smells slightly like an apothecary's tincture. I don't smell the honey at all. Pass!

Golletes - This smells like a strawberry-glazed donut with lots of sprinkles on top. It's cakey and strawberry-sweet and sugary. It's absolutely delicious! There's also the teensiest bit of the same tasty sour-milk scent I get from Velvet Unicorn.

Dungeon Crawl - Many, many thanks to Sarandipitee, who let me try this. I mostly smell the wet stone and it kind of reminds me of the stone note in Shanghai Tunnel, only not as damp. There's a hint of metal and smoke and a wee drop of copper-tinged blood. It's a highly evocative scent and I'm so glad I got to try it.

Steeplechase Park Atmosphere Spray - Oh wow, this is AWESOME!!! :wub2: I don't usually like foody scents, but I love Midway and am so sad that it doesn't wear well on me, and this smells almost exactly like Midway with extra deep-fried-funnel-cake-goodness and a bit of ginger spiciness, so even though I can't wear Midway, I can spray this and revel in its deliciousness. It is really, really, really awesome. Quite possibly my favorite atmosphere spray ever, which is saying a lot considering I'm not a foodie!

Bedbug - This smells exactly like gingersnaps! Foody in a deliciously spicy way and nothing at all like an icky bedbug. ETA: There was another note in this I couldn't identify -- it didn't seem carmelly or butterscotchy to me at all. I finally decided it smells like molasses. Or maybe sorghum. Probably molasses. Mmmm.

Coney Island Creek Atmosphere Spray - This is a lovely, dark, clean, salty aquatic. It's really lovely.

The Madwoman - This is a dry scent, full of beautiful white sandalwood and dried leaves, quite possibly tea rose. I don't smell the "ragged cloth", but there's something slightly vanillic in the blend -- perhaps that's a linen note I'm detecting? Overall, I was surprised at how much I liked this since I don't usually like dry, dusty type blends, but it wasn't anything like that at all. It's very pretty and feminine. For me, it's not worth a bottle, but it's still very pretty and I'm glad I tried it.

CD: Misfortune Teller v3 - This is a gorgeous scent. Very similar to the released version, but lighter and sweeter. The released version is heavier and darker. This version is more of a sweet, fruity, red musk scent, whereas the released version has the sweet, fruity, red musk scent but also is much heavier on the patchouli and plum. I love this, but I love the released version even more.

Old Demons of the First Class - I wanted to try this for the Siberian musk, which is one of the best single notes I've ever encountered. However, black pepper and neroli completely destroy this scent for me. It is a darkly musky scent, sexy in a dangerous kind of way, and the clove isn't overpowering at all as it can so often be on me, but oh, that black pepper and neroli are just awful. Both are on my "notes I dislike" list, and if this is any evidence, they're going to be staying there.

Blue Pumpkin Floss - To me, this smells just like the proto -- full of super red-hot cinnamon, too little pumpkin, even less sugary floss, and absolutely nothing blue (which is probably good, since BPAL's blackberry turns stanky on me, as much as I love it in theory). Underneath the spice, I can definitely smell the pumpkin and the sugar, but there's just way, way, way too much spice on top of it for me to enjoy it. Without all of that spice, this would have been a major hit in my universe, but the massive amounts of cinnamon just ruins the whole deal for me. Beth, please, please, PLEASE release a less-cinnamony version of this with the 2011 Weenies!!!

The Heraeon Of Argos - This is, of course, my favorite of the pomegranate blends this year and one of my favorites of the whole Weenie series. It's amazing that I like this, as it has two notes that usually are awful on me (apple blossom, fig) and one that's "iffy" (pomegranate), and one that I know nothing about (willow bark) and another that I enjoy but which never "wows" me (almond). Somehow, the combination works really, really well. It opens up as a really bright, apple-juicy pomegranate scent, and I'm absolutely positive I smell cranberry juice in there, too. The fig remains in the background, thankfully not ruining the blend, as fig has been known to do. I barely smell the almond -- it definitely doesn't come across as that sharp, cherry-like medicinal almond top-note that I've encountered often in BPAL almond blends. It's more meaty, like the actual scent of almond nut. The apple blossom brightens up the scent (and doesn't go soapy on me!) The outcome makes me think of what the scent of an orchard harvest celebration in late-summer/early-fall would smell like. It's really, really, really pretty -- juicy, crisp, fresh, and grounded.

Halloween: Los Angeles - This scent reminds me of a time when I was about 8 years old, and I stood in my grandparents' front yard in Riverside County and watched the hill behind them burn. The scent is beautiful. It smells exactly like LA in the fall -- slightly charred dry grasses and warm air, maybe even a hint of hot asphalt.

All Saints 2010 - This smells completely different to me than the previous versions, and it's my least favorite. The rose in it is very, very heavy, and white florals -- the lily of the valley in particular -- give it a high-pitched, cloying sweetness that is just not a good scent for me. I barely smell any of the incense notes, and the frankincense and myrrh don't warm up and glow on my skin with this version as they did with previous versions.

A Howl In The Darkness - On me, most of the notes don't come through -- it's predominantly an ozone and verbena scent with a hint of pine in the background. Very fresh, crisp, pretty, and totally gender-neutral.

Dawn: Cernunnos - This is really, really, REALLY gorgeous. I mean, it is truly awesome in every meaning of the word. This scent is so full of "win" notes (except for fig, ick), and it's amazing on my skin. Thankfully the fig doesn't ruin it! It's very woody - all sorts of delicious, warm wood notes, but mostly sandalwood (the most awesome sandalwood!) -- and very herbal. But it's a million times better than what I'd ever think if I heard the generic term "woods and herbs." The fig (!) and myrrh both give it a bit of sweetness that warms the whole thing up and keeps the woods from being too dry. OMG, I really, REALLY love this!!! I think that may be the first time I've given a BPAL scent THREE "wub" icons. that's how good it is.

The Decrepit House - I agree with Little Bird that this has an Antikythera Mechanism vibe to it, but nearly as sweet. It's very heavy on the black musk, oakmoss, and pathcouli. It's definitely a woody scent, and very dark, heavy, almost scorched in its pungentness. I feel like there's got to be vanilla in it, but that could be because of the AK association I have with it. It's a bit on the cloying side for me, but I still kind of like it. I think I would wear this if it weren't so heavy on the black musk, which rarely works well on me. Still, it's tempting, because it's *so close* to being awesome on me.