edenssixthday

Hilma - This is a really pretty, spicy fruity-floral scent. The heady florals are tempered by the dark black tea and the sweet nectarine. I don't smell the cedar at all, but the clove really gives it some kick. It's very pretty with tons of throw and lasts a long time.

Josie - I thought I'd hate this blend, considering the likelihood of any of the notes to actually work on me. Surprise, surprise! It works well -- GORGEOUSLY well. No single note overwhelms the other. They all blend in harmony and unison. The amazing thing is how the headiness of the magnolia keeps the juiciness of the peach from being too sweet, while the juiciness of the peach keeps the sweetness of the honey from being too sticky and cloying, and the warm, smooth flow of honey keeps the magnolia from being too heady. It's just awesome how this blend works, and this is one I can actually see myself wearing year-round for just about any occasion. I really love it and am glad I decided to give it a shot.

Flora - This is a very fruity-floral scent. It has a heavy apple scent, which surprises me since apple blossom never smells like apple on me and usually smells like soap. The tuberose isn't as strong as it tends to be on me and blends gorgeously with the other fruit notes, and I love the addition of the orchid to this. The amber and sandalwood are very subtle, but provide a really nice base for the flightier fruits and florals. It's a pretty scent, but doesn't last very long on me for some reason, which is a bummer.

Faunalia - I don't usually like forest blends or animalic musk blends, so I thought I'd hate this one. Surprisingly, I think it's going to become my #1 most-worn scent this winter! It just works so gorgeously well! It's heavy on the heavy, velvety, animalic musk, reminding me of Ivanushka or Buck Moon. The forest scent is very wintery and reminds me of what it would be like to be covered in heavy animal furs while riding on a sleigh at night through a snow-blanketed forest. I can't begin to say how cozy and warm and comforting this scent is. Every time I go to test a new Yule blend, I end up putting this one on instead because I just can't resist it. It's also got incredible staying power. I put some on last night before bed and 13 hours later, I could still smell it on my skin. It didn't waft at that point, but my skin smelled so gorgeously wintery and musky. I must get a bottle of this before the Yules go down! Maybe a backup, too.

Pink Snowballs - This is all vanilla and red rose, and smells almost exactly like Arcana's Rapunzel, which I adore. While Pink Snowballs smells deliciously sweet and pretty when it's wet, on me it dries down to a dusty layer of plastic and then completely fades within a few more minutes. It's a total and utter FAIL on me, which is sad. I'm sure it would work quite well in a scent locket. Normally my skin loves rose and vanilla. Not sure what went wrong with this one!

Nes Gadol Haya Sham - Wow, this is a rich and highly complex scent! The strongest notes on me are lemon verbena, frankincense, patchouli, and myrtle. It's got an aspect of it that is bright, but that's on top of a darker, deeper, richer and more resinous layer of notes, which is on top of another layer of notes that more floral and herbal. It's a really unique and interesting scent -- not one I'd wear often, but one that seems like it could fit almost any mood or occasion. Very unique, very interesting, and very pretty.

The Season of Ghosts - I couldn't have been more excited to see a scent with three of my favorite notes in it -- rose geranium, frankincense, and blood orange. It smelled differently than what I expected. I forgot that blended with "lighter" scents, frankincense is very dry and dusty on me (as opposed to ultry husky, deep, and sexy on me when it's blended with heavier/darker notes), almost in the way white sandalwood is dry and dusty. But the blood orange sweetens it up and both it and the bergamot give it a nice citrusy zing. The lemongrass and rose geranium provide a healthy herbal quality to the overall blend, and the rose geranium mellows out the bright citrus notes to keep it from being an upbeat, happy scent. It's not a happy scent at all -- it's pretty, but definitely has an overtone of sorrow and sadness about it...like standing at the gravesite of your beloved one on a bright and sunny, yet cold and windy winter day.

The Black Temple Burlesque Troupe - Black musk never has worked on me, not once. But it smelled so good in the bottle that I just had to try it. It smelled gorgeous when I first put it on -- a dark, heavy, sexy, musky chocolate. It smelled soooo good... but while the black musk actually behaved for the first time ever, the chocolate had to go and quickly turn to the scent of Play-Doh on me. Makes me so mad! I could wear this in a scent locket and really enjoy it, though, and I might just do that.

Mother Shub's Toothsome Banketstaaf - This opens up with a blast of flakey pastries and cherry, but the cherry quickly tones down and an almost sour apricot becomes the prominent note. It actually blends quite nicely with the buttery vanilla of the pastry and reminds me of a lovely apricot and vanilla sugar scrub I used a number of years ago. I'm very surprised that for a foody scent, this scent doesn't go "off" on me and stays true. I'm not much of a foodie, so I'm not sure if I would ever choose to wear this, though. I think I'd prefer this scent as a soap, scrub, or shampoo scent -- something that's wonderful, but doesn't stick around all day. Mmmm.... or it could make a nice oil burner scent. I'll have to give that a shot in the coming days!

Mother Shub's Pfancy Pfefferneusse - I'm not a foodie, so I didn't have high hopes for this one. It smell like buttery plastic and quickly turns to the scent of spicy, burnt plastic with a buttery undertone. Definitely not for me.

Now Winter Nights Enlarge - I was hoping that there would only be traces of caramel that would dissipate quickly, as caramel is one of my worst bpal notes. I opened the bottle, and ALL I smelled was caramel. Lots of gross, gooey, sticky, nasty caramel. Blech. Still, crazy me, I had to put it on to see how it really smelled. While it opens up as a CARAMEL!!!! scent, within minutes, the caramel was completely gone and what was left is this amazing husky, hippie-like patchouli scent sweetened by the vanilla/red musk and the honey, with a hint of nutmeg spiciness and champaca and petitgrain earthiness. Ded Moroz will always have my heart for my favorite wintery scent, but I think that otherwise, this one may be the surprise hit of this year's Yules. I just can't stop wearing it, even though my husband hates it and keeps asking, "What's that stink?" when I have it on.

Ysabel - I'm afraid this one doesn't quite do it for me. I'm not a fan at all of carnation, which is spicy in an unpleasant way to me. Add the clove to it, and it really brings out the spiciness of the carnation. I normally adore rose, but the rose in this blend is turning slightly soapy on me for some reason...perhaps it's the combination of rose and the musk? Sadly, this one's just not meant to be for me.

Mme. Lilith, Fortune Teller - I didn't think I'd like this scent. It has too many "iffy" notes in it for me. Turns out, it's GORGEOUS. I absolutely adore it. At first whiff, it definitely reminded me of a younger, more innocent Mme. Moriarty. The pomegranate and incense are the strongest notes on me, and I'm actually surprised to read the ingredient list and see there's no pepper or other spice in this blend, because it feels lightly spicy to me. The coconut is subtle and blends wonderfully with the fruit, musk, florals, and incense. I just adore this and wouldn't mind having a full size bottle.

Snooty Rose - Rose and plum! Yum yum yum! This scent is awesome! It's got the gorgeous depth of the same red rose from the Yule blend "Red Rose" and it blends gorgeously well with the bright, fruity, juicy plum. Once it's warmed up on my skin a bit, the sandalwood becomes noticeable and it provides the most lovely dry, woody base for the other notes, keeping them grounded...and from being too snooty! It also takes on a bit of a tea rose scent once it's totally dried down. Oh, I really love this. This is bottle-worthy! I'm putting it on my wishlist right now! I could seriously see this becoming a signature scent. It's that gorgeous and unique and lovely.

St. John's Eve - Aside from the "summer bonfire" note, I love every other note that's in this blend. So of course, the only thing I can smell is the summer bonfire. It's very, very smoky. It seriously smells exactly like my clothes smell after I've been hanging out all night by a campfire. It's absolutely amazing as a dead-ringer for campfire smoke, but it's not something I'd wear as a perfume. I really wish I could have smelled more any of the other notes.

German Expressionist Horror - I tend to really like dark and heavy scents along the lines of this one, but unfortunately, black musk and dust are both notes I just can't stand, and sadly, while the resins and other dark, heavy notes are absolutely amazing in this blend, the black musk and dust combine to create an awful scent overtone that I just can't get past. I also smell something slightly menthol-like far beneath the other notes in this blend, and that adds to the overall unpleasantness. I have a feeling people who don't mind black musk and/or dust and who lean toward the darker, heavier, more masculine blends could potentially really dig this one. It has great potential for the right skin chemistry.

Ariadne Brunnell - I didn't have high hopes for this due to the gardenia in it, but on my skin, I can barely smell the gardenia. It's actually a subtle scent on me, full of lightly-scented lilies backed up with the slightest wet heaviness of moss. It's got a bit of a powdery and soapy undertone to it, however.

Splatter Comedy - I really thought I was going to hate this -- nothing sounds worse to me than the combination of these three notes combined....so of course I had to try it. It's actually a fantastic scent! I can't get over how much I like the banana cream pie foodiness of this blend, since I'm not typically into gourmand type fragrances. I love how the blood and grease have given the banana cream pie a depth that really makes it work fantastically on my skin. This scent reminds me a lot of Demeter's Banana Flambe, except this one lasts much, much longer. This is a really fun scent. I love it!

All in the Golden Afternoon - The first notes I smell when I put this on are the apricot and seltzer, but a hint of pineapple and tobacco both start to peak through pretty quickly. As it dries down, the brightness fades a bit and the tobacco and amber come out a bit more, grounding the scent and keeping it from being too fruity and bright. It also takes on the hint of a generic floral note. The pineapple takes an odd turn on my skin, though, and it smells a little bit like... vomit. (I really hate when I have to say that, even if it's true!) Without that strange, pukey oddness beneath all the pretty notes, it would be pretty. But it just isn't going to work on me.

The Sluggard - This is a really strange combination of notes, but as odd as it is, it works. I mostly smell pear, gardenia over a woody base with a hint of frankincense and lavender. The scent is quite strong thanks to the gardenia and frankincense. Also, thanks to the gardenia, I can't abide to wear this scent. Without the gardenia, I would likely have fallen in love with it. It's very unique.

Construct v3 - Fresh, crisp, and clean ozone & metal. This is a really amazing clean scent that is gorgeously gender-neutral. I wish my husband wasn't allergic to bpal because I think this one would be truly amazing on him. It's really wonderful. The scent is quite strong, too.

Aperotos Eros - In the vial, this is very heavy, dark, musky, and woodsy. Kind of reminds me of a head shop. But as soon as it touches my skin, something goes horribly, horribly wrong and it loses all of its deep, dark, heaviness and turns to the scent of... um... vomit.

Poe - This is lovely! On me, it's predominantly a smoky vanilla-opium-leather blend. It's a lot more subtle than I would expect with some of the strong notes this blend carries. When I first tried it on, my very first thought was that it will likely layer well with Sacrifice. It's quite lovely and I just wish it had been sold in 5ml bottles!

How Doth the Little Crocodile - I don't think I've ever really liked a BPAL chocolate blend, but I LOVE this one! It smells like chocolate, mint, and vanilla. Normally, that combo of notes would turn to either dust or plastic on my skin, but apparently the other notes in this blend keep it working on me, even though I can't distinguish them in the scent. I didn't think I'd ever like to smell like chocolatey food, but this blend has changed my mind. It's delightful!

Antimony v9 - I don't smell camphor or fish or anything along those lines. From wet to dry, this is prominently sandalwood -- an absolutely gorgeous sandalwood scent. I do detect the slightest hint of coconut husk once it starts to dry on my skin, but none of the other notes that reviewers have mentioned. This is a really lovely sandalwood oil.