edenssixthday

Sagittarius 2008 – Dandelion is usually so sharp and bitter and intensely green on me that I was surprised at how subtle this blend is and that I could barely smell the dandelion. It’s a green scent, but very soft and subtly so. This is predominantly a fig, sage, and chamomile blend. It’s very subtle, stays incredibly close to the skin, and is a very calm, and relaxing blend. It doesn’t really strike me as Sagitarrian, but that could just be due to how it works with my skin chemistry. There’s almost no throw and it fades quickly.

Lady Luck Blues – This is a highly floral scent, very high-pitched and almost ethereal – if it’s possible to be both simultaneously! The vanilla flower and peony are the dominant notes, and when I first apply, the plum gives it a wonderfully ripe, juicy scent, but that fades very quickly on me. After about 30 minutes on my skin, the florals begin to blend into one another so well that aside from the peony, they are completely indistinguishable. It’s a pretty scent, but kind of generic in my experience. The throw is light and the staying power is well below average.

Beaver Moon 2007 – I expected this to smell a lot like MB: Bloody Mary, and I was surprised that it was quite different. It reminds me of a creamsicle, but with cherry instead of orange. The cherry note is very strong in this blend, and has a definite maraschino cherry scent as opposed to a fresh-off-the-tree cherry or sugar-sweetened cherry scent. It’s blended with the vanilla cream note so gorgeously and smells positively divine. As the scent dries, the strawberry starts to peek out, which thrills me to no end, since BPAL strawberry is one of my favorite notes. Unfortunately, it’s about this time, as well, that something (the vanilla?) in the blend starts to turn a bit plastic-like and before long, the whole scent smells like Strawberry Shortcake (the plastic doll, not the dessert) and not long after that, it’s faded completely. Not my best BPAL experience, but definitely a typical “foody BPAL” experience. I imagine it would make a fun room scent, though!

Deep in Earth – I was really curious about this blend because rose geranium is my favorite scent of all time, and graveyard dirt is probably my least favorite – or at least among my least favorites. I am astonished at how this scent smells on me. Yes, it’s very “dirty” and the moss scent is even heavier than the dirt, but the rose geranium adds the most gorgeous touch to this blend, pulling together the dark, heavy moss and dirt notes with its gorgeous, relaxing, herbal fragrance. I still don’t see this as a blend I will wear as perfume because of the heavy dirt scent, but I am delighted to see that even dirt can smell good when rose geranium is involved. I’m so excited that Beth is using more rose geranium lately.

Farewell to False Love – I don’t generally like lavender and this is a predominantly lavender scent. In fact, when I first apply it, the lavender overwhelms everything else. After it dries down, the lavender fades a bit and I can smell the violet, which is soft, sweet, and slightly powdery. I would put this scent in the same category as Yvaine, given its lavender nature combined with the powdery violet. I occasionally think I can smell the narcissus, but can never really be certain. This is very much a skin scent on me and it doesn’t last long on my skin.

Valentine of Rome – This is a beautiful, resinous blend that’s slightly spicy and is very Eastern in its nature. It’s predominantly myrrh on me, with a hint of the blood accord and cypress. It’s a strong scent and one that definitely gets noticed. It’s very spicy and sexy and really gorgeous. Strong throw and wear length.

Parentalia – This has some of my favorite notes and some of my least-favorite notes, so I was really curious to see how this scent would pan out on me. It doesn’t pan out at all! It’s a cacophony of scents – woods, resins, florals, and herbs – clashing together in what smells like an olfactory battlefield on my skin, each note vying for top dog position. The notes don’t begin to blend well on me and each one is singularly identifiable. I can’t really describe it except to say it’s just a really weird scent on me – very woody, floral, resinous and herbal. I think it’s more masculine than feminine, but I probably wouldn’t wear it even if I were a guy. The throw and wear length are moderate.

The Clod and the Pebble – This is nothing if it’s not a dirty hippie scent. It’s heavy, heavy, heavy on the patchouli and woods. It’s a highly abrasive scent and something I’d expect to smell when walking into a head shop or when getting my fortune told. I don’t care for this blend at all, but I imagine those who love patchouli won’t be able to get enough of it. Throw is average and staying power is quite long.

Anactoria 2008 – I don’t know what 1/3 of the notes in this blend smell like as individual notes, so I’m probably not a good reviewer of this blend! Still, I’ll try. Overall, it’s a sweet, resinous blend, juiced up with a bolt of red currant zipping through it. I love the way white honey smells on me and while it’s not dominant in this blend, it adds a lovely, soft sweetness that tempers the ripe, juiciness of the red currant. The amber is subtle, but provides depth to the scent and the musk is even more subtle and barely discernible to my nose (which often does not smell lighter musks at all). Overall, it’s a very pretty scent, a slightly resinous, sweet, juicy blend, but definitely not your typical fruit-type blend. It’s somewhat of a subtle scent on me, although it lasts much longer than I anticipated. Anactoria 2010 – I don't know if this blend is different from 2008 or if it just smells differently on me since my skin chemistry has definitely changed since I tried the original version of this scent, but it's more of an amber and kush scent on me than the original version. I don't smell the red currant at all, and the honey is much lighter, while the musk is stronger and more masculine than the 2008 version. It's more of a lightly sweet, wood-resin blend to me and doesn't have any of the juicy sweetness of the 2008 version.

Love’s Philosophy – I wanted to love this one so badly. It sounds absolutely divine. In the vial, however, it has a pungent, sour smell, kind of like baby urp, only sweeter. When I apply it to my skin, it’s instantly spiced up by the saffron, and I love how unique it smells – it’s all vanilla and saffron initially. However, as it warms up on my skin, the cream note creeps forward and it’s evident that the cream note is the one that gives it the sour smell before I apply the blend. This is also the point when I notice the overall scent starting to turn to plastic, something vanilla does on me on the rare occasion – not often, but often enough that I know it’s the vanilla in this blend that is the plastic culprit. It kind of smells like plastic ice cream for a while, but it eventually loses the ice cream flavor and smells like plastic, just plastic. I am going to take the rest of the decants I bought and use them in my oil burner. I have a feeling this is going to make a freaking DIVINE room scent!

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love – The ivy, which is not one of my favorite notes, is the dominant note in this blend. It’s joined by the very green scents of the heather and clover, tempered by the husky tea rose and spiced up just a tad by the carnation. It’s a very green, outdoorsy scent and reminds me of the rolling green hills of Scotland with the stone barricades built around them. It’s a bit too green for my personal taste, but I imagine those that love greenery would really love this blend.

Her Voice – This starts off as a screaming floral, high-pitched in every sense of the term. As it dries down, the florals settle down a bit and I can smell the beeswax as the dominant note. The carnation gives it just the slightest hint of spiciness, but there’s something in here – one of the florals – that is bitter and unpleasant on me. I think it’s the tiger lily. I imagine that fans of strong florals could potentially love this one. The throw is strong and the staying power is above average.

Longing – This is another favorite of the Lupercalia 2008 update. Rose geranium is my all-time favorite scent in the entire world, so I was ecstatic to try this blend. This blend opens with the gorgeous scent of rose geranium and cinnamon – a combination I would have never guessed would smell so good! The entire blend is very musky, in a soft way that reminds me a bit of Buck Moon, and there’s the distinct scent of bay rum sweetening up the whole thing. I don’t really smell the rosewood or the frankincense in this blend as distinct notes, but I can tell they are darkening and deepening the overall scent. This is just a gorgeous, unique, and stunning scent and really well-crafted. The throw and wear length are both quite strong.

Khajuraho 2008 – “Cuz yer a ho!” Ha ha. Okay, anyway, this is AWESOME! It smells 100% totally and completely different on me than the previous versions of this blend. The 2006 and 2007 versions smelled very similar to each other, with slight differences in my experience of them. I honestly thought 2008 was a new formulation, until I checked the notes against those of the previous years’ blends. Same notes, but a dramatically different scent experience for me. This is my favorite of all of all three years. Even the honey in this blend doesn’t make it go south on me like honey usually does. When I apply this, it opens up with the scent of champaca flower, but that only lasts half a minute before the date palm completely drowns out the champaca. The date palm continues to be the dominant note throughout the entire life of the blend, with the white sandalwood and tuberose showing up right behind it and the vanilla bean pulling the scent together with a gorgeous sweetness that I don’t remember the other versions having. This is a beautiful, beautiful blend and I am so glad that I decided to try this year’s blend instead of assuming it smelled like the previous versions. The wear length and throw are both quite strong.

Night Thoughts – When I first sniff this, it smells like a flowery pencil shavings. When I first apply, the cedar is the dominant note, but it fades very quickly within the first 20 seconds or so, and the “luminous Eastern herbs” begin to dominate the scent, with a soft breeze of lilac immediately behind them. It’s a very herbal, but pleasant scent at this point. As the blend warms up on my skin, the cedar moves even further into the background, as do the herbs, and it becomes a soft, clear, ozony-floral with just the slightest hint of wood in the background. It’s really beautiful. It faded from my skin fairly quickly, but several hours later, I caught a whiff of it from the clothing I had on when I first applied, and it smelled even better on my clothes than I remembered it smelling on my skin. This is really a beautiful blend.

La Vague - This opens up with the gorgeous scent of peach, and a touch of beautiful floral. BPAL peach is always lovely on my skin and this is no exception. Jasmine tends to be quite dominant on my skin, but I don't smell it in this blend at all, same with the iris (which is usually powdery) and the grape (which usually smells icky on me). It's just a soft and ethereal fruity-floral blend. It's strong when I first apply it and when I touched up at work, I got tons of compliments where people were raving about how good I smelled. However, after 20 minutes or so, it starts to stick much, much closer to my skin. As it sticks closer to my skin, the peach mellows out significantly. It's still the most identifiable note, but the blend becomes even more ethereal and wispy, yet it sticks to my skin for a good 5+ hours, which is quite odd for most of the softer skin-scents. This is a lovely scent that seems perfect for the summer months, and if I weren't trying so desperately to de-stash right now, I'd probably want more of this one.

Lily of the Valley, star jasmine, benzoin, vanilla, plumeria, bergamot, Terebinth pine, juniper berry, and tea rose. The Ragged Wood – This is an absolutely stunning scent. It’s my favorite of the entire Lupercalia 2008 update and the only one I ordered a bottle of. It’s a soft floral that’s dominated by the lily of the valley and tea rose, but right behind that is the crisp bite of juniper berry. This isn’t a typical fruity-floral, though, because the juniper berry is, to me at least, more woodsy than fruity. It’s a floral-forest type blend and very sweet with a pleasant hint of powder. The tartness of the juniper berry fades from my skin before the other notes fade, but it remains a lovely scent throughout its life on my skin. It’s got a short wear-length, but is well worth the reapplication. The throw is strong initially, but becomes more subtle within a matter of minutes.

Earth Rat – Melon-based, coconut-sprinkled fruit salad! That’s exactly what this smells like. It opens up with the strong, strong, STRONG scent of melon. As it settles on my skin, I can smell the lychee (one of my favorite foods in the world! Yum!), coconut, kumquat, and mandarin. I don’t smell any florals, woods, or resins. It’s 100% yummy, sweet, semi-tropical fruit salad. I want to eat or drink something that smells this good! I wish I’d gotten a bottle of it…

Tiki King - This is a gorgeous scent! I was wary of it initially, as black musk never works on me. I was incredibly surprised by how gorgeous and sexy this scent is on me. The dominant note is the ironwood bark, which smells remarkably like a dark sandalwood on me. It blends gorgeously with the coconut, making this scent mostly a woody-coconut scent on my skin over a soft layer of velvet, with the tiniest hint of a floral back behind all the other notes. It's gorgeous and every time I catch a bit of it wafting around me, I sigh and want to go live on a beach in Hawaii. I really love this and think it's going to age gorgeously. The throw is quite strong and the staying power is about average on me.

Beltane 2008 - This version of Beltane is very different from the previous incarnations of it, but it retains the same type of "spring" feeling about it - with all sorts of blossoming and budding going on. Beltane '08 is very green to my nose, and I'm amazed by the mint scent. I normally don't like mint and it usually smells like toothpaste or gum or candy canes on me, but this mint smells like fresh mint leaves - it's soft and green and slightly earthy. The woods and resins in this blend ground the florals, keeping them from being too high-pitched and in-your-face. I just love how all the notes blend together to create something spring-like, yet soft and floral and earthy and pretty all at the same time. This is a really lovely scent, although on my skin, the staying power is very poor, as I can barely detect the scent after only 30 minutes of wear.

Tiki Queen - This is my favorite of the Atomic Luau Lounge scents and one of my all-time favorite BPAL floral blend. It is freaking GORGEOUS! It actually starts out a little weird on me while the Monoi de Tahiti figures out if it's going to amp or settle down on my skin. Fortunately, it settles down and lets the other florals mix with it and around it until the Monoi de Tahiti doesn't smell remotely funky on me at all. The tuberose combined with the vanilla and coconut is actually what makes this blend the most kick-ass scent on me. While it's not the dominant note, it's definitely the tuberose note that makes me fall head-over-heels in love with this scent. I wish I could describe how beautiful this blend is, but there are just not adequate words. It's got a strong bubble-gum-pink type scent about it and I have no idea where that's coming from, but rather than detracting from the scent or making it smell young-girlish, it adds sweetness to the scent that really brings out the sweetness of the florals. The scent is incredibly long-lasting. I applied it to my hair one morning, spent the whole day on a catamaran and then swimming in a pool, and right before I showered for dinner, I could still smell this scent in my hair, just as strong as it was when I applied it 10 hours earlier, despite all the wind, sea, and water that it had endured. I have since purchased several more bottles of this and definitely foresee using them all up.

Upa Upa - I drank a lot of pina coladas on vacation last week, and that's almost exactly what this reminds me of. This was actually one of the last of the Tiki Bar scents I tried because when I sniffed it in the bottle, it smelled like spicy rum and caramel to me, and I hate caramel. However, when I finally worked up the courage to try it on, I was delighted that it smells very different on my skin than it does in the bottle. When I first apply it, it smells of pineapple, creamy coconut, and rum and is reminiscent of all those pina coladas I drank while lounging by the beach last week! As it dries down on my skin, the pineapple lightens up a lot, and the spiciness of the rum becomes the dominant note on my skin. The coconut is still there behind the rum, and very far behind that, I can smell the vanilla when I try really hard to pinpoint it. Overall, this is a yummy scent that is incredibly spicy, rummy, and tropical. It's perfect for a summer day or for a mid-winter pick-me-up. After a couple hours on my skin, most of the fragrance is gone, although I can still detect a slight spiciness on my skin.

Opuhi - imagine a beautiful floral Snake Oil without the spices. That's what this is like on me. The vanilla orchid comes through predominantly as a very sweet, sugary vanilla, and the ginger flower is so soft and pretty - it doesn't overwhelm or subdue the vanilla at all. I'm completely stumped by people who got an actual ginger root smell from this since it's entirely a sweet vanilla-floral on me. It's one of the prettiest blends I've ever encountered. I just ordered a full bottle and am wondering if I should have ordered two or three. This will get much use. The throw is really strong, especially upon initial application. The scent stays on me skin a little longer than the average BPAL scent. I have a feeling this is going to age gorgeously.

Luxuria - This is a gorgeous scent! I was curious how red musk would work as a bath oil since I use my bath time to relax and unwind, and red musk sort of revs me up. For me, it's not a great scent for a bath oil. However, since I have extremely dry skin, especially in the winters here in our dry, arid climate, I have applied the bath oil a couple times now directly to my skin as a scented moisturizer. It has wonderful moisturizing properties and the scent lasts and lasts, but not as long as Castitas lasts on me. I applied it before bed and couldn't smell it when I woke up in the morning. Still, it's gorgeous on me. It's mostly a red musk, patchouli and pomegranate scent, but there's a hint of the nutmeg and orange, as well. The scent that lasts and lingers is the red musk and patchouli and could be construed as fairly masculine. It layers gorgeously with Tanin 'iver, too.

Castitas - I thought Winter Maiden was my favorite bath oil scent ever, and then I tried Castitas, which wins by a million points over WM. This is a gorgeous scent - light, sweet, creamy, and a hint of floral. It's a pure and innocent scent and so incredibly pretty. If you're familiar with Arcana's Rapunzel, this smells like Rapunzel without the rose. It layers gorgeously with Rapunzel, too. I took a bath with Castitas at about 8 p.m. and when I awoke the next morning at 7:30 a.m., I could still smell it on me as strong as when I went to bed. Very long-lasting scent and the oil turns the water in my bath silky soft, and I just love this. I love it a lot. It's the first BPTP bath oil that I feel I really NEED a full size bottle of.