edenssixthday

Black Moon - This is what I was hoping Blue Moon would be! It’s deep and heavy, yet has a bright and playful aspect to it. Whenever I wear this scent, I get the mental image of a dark and brooding poet who skips down the sidewalk when he thinks no one is looking. I don’t know what some of the notes in the scent description smell like on their own, so I can’t review the individual notes well at all. I do smell a touch of cucumber, but it’s not a watery cucumber scent like Blue Moon is. The pear is definitely present, but combines so well with the other notes that it’s not nearly as bright and crisp as pear usually is, but it still lends the blend a “upbeat” quality, keeping it from becoming too heavy. I am totally digging the orchid in this blend, and I'm simply blown away that the jasmine, which normally amps up on my skin, is completely undetectable in this. The notes blend amazingly well and it's really hard to distinguish any single one from the others. It's just such a superb combination of scents! Black Moon is strong, yet feminine and deep and dark, yet a bit frisky. I adore it. It’s one of those scents that I have found is absolutely perfect whenever I can’t figure out what type of scent I want to wear that day. It always suits my mood. The staying power is like WHOA!!! (especially for a lunar oil, most of which fade on me quickly), although it only has a moderate level of sillage.

Allegory - Cedar and juniper don't ever, ever work on me, and this is no exception. All I smell are the dry wood notes of cedar that remind me way too much of pencil shavings and the sharp, green, wood notes of juniper that don't appeal to me. Neither the orange nor the civet are noticeable past the wood notes. The throw is slightly above average and the staying power is well above average (as most notes I dislike tend to last and last on my skin! Murphy's Law, I guess.)

Chaos Theory 3: XXVIII (28) - This is very similar to the ultra-sweet grape juice scent that I smell in Tum -- it's kid's grape-flavored juice served during snack time at preschool. It is so sweet and so icky that I had to wash it off. And I could still smell it on my skin after I washed it off -- but at least it didn't have much throw after one good scrubbing. I'm definitely passing this along, hopefully to someone who loves grape. Previously reviewed by Mountaingrrl.

Azazel - This is a very herbal scent, clean and bright, and reminds me of an aromatherapy oil. Lemongrass is one of the only "lemon" notes I can wear well. This blend is no exception. It's predominantly lemongrass and lavendar, and while I can't distinctly smell the sage, I can tell that's what's keeping the lavendar from being overbearing to me. It's a lovely scent, and while it doesn't fit my preferences for personal fragrance, I think it would be a really good scent to wear when you want to clear your head and relax -- a good meditation scent. The throw is light, and the staying power is about average.

Decadence - This is a gorgeous scent from the first whiff in the vial throughout the life of the scent. It opens up with almond/orange/cream top notes, but as the blend begins to warm up on my skin, the slightest hint of cinnamon becomes noticeable. As the oil dries down, the almond disappears (as it always does on my skin) and the cinnamon starts to become more noticeable and eventually becomes the dominant note, although I can still smell orange and cream underneath. One of the other reviewers noted that on drydown it was "spiced creamsicle" on her, and I really couldn't say it any better myself. It has a moderate level of throw and the staying power is a little below average, but wow, if this were ever released as a 5 ml, I'd buy it up in a heartbeat! It makes me so sad when I fall in love with a hard-to-find unreleased blend like Decadence!

Bitter Moon - This is so pretty! It’s predominantly hibiscus and blackberry and peony on me. I’m surprised the vetiver doesn’t come through more strongly. This smells like it would make a really good flavor of herbal tea. Yum! Sadly, It disappears off my skin the moment the oil dries down. I’ll see if it works better in my scent locket, and if that fails, maybe it’ll make a nice room scent. But sadly, like so many of the lunar blends, my skin eats it up only minutes after I apply it.

Purple Phoenix - I was sooo hoping Beth would release a purple phoenix this year because I’ve been enamored by the color purple for about 30 years now and I love purple flowers – lilacs, wisteria, violets…you name it. I adore this scent! It’s going to have a place of honor in my BPAL box right next to it’s older sister, Pink Phoenix. The very first aspect I notice of Purple Phoenix is that it has a touch of sweet candy, like a grape Jolly Rancher. Immediately beneath the candy-sweet grape scent is the most amazing combination of so many of my favorite scents – plum, violet, cognac, fig, lilac, wisteria, and myrrh. Gah…this is just incredible!!! It’s candy-sweet, and fruity-floral, and has me swooning in ecstasy because it’s just so absolutely perfect. The uber-sweet hard-candied grape scent fades upon drydown, but that’s when the myrrh begins to really play its card and start to weave a husky, powdery ribbon through the purple notes in this blend. It’s also around this time that the violet and cognac step forward and take center-stage. It’s truly phenomenal. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last worth a hill of beans on my skin. I’m hoping that if I apply unscented lotion (or lotion scented with Purple Phoenix) first that it’ll increase the amount of time I can wear the blend without reapplying. The throw is heavy initially, but upon drydown it becomes fairly subtle. It’s going to be very difficult not to horde Purple Phoenix. Despite having to reapply regularly, I’m very happy with it. Yay for Purple Phoenix!!!

Chaos Theory 3: CCCLII (352) - The first few times I sniffed this in the vial, I was positive I got a bottle of water. This smells like a whole lot of nothing when sniffed in the vial. However, when applied, it turns into a lovely soft, white floral that is full of the scent of a cool, misty breeze. There is the tiniest hint of what I think may be plumeria, but very faint and far in the background. This scent would fall into the same scent family as the unreleased blends Zero, Nihil, and Toxin. It has very light throw and despite being so soft, it lasts a good 5+ hours on my skin.

Yule - When I sniff this in the bottle and when I first apply it, it smells like red berries and bright, crisp verbena blended with wood. Sadly, as soon as the oil starts to dry on my skin, the fresh berry scent disappears and the fragrance begins to smell a lot like pencil shavings and light myrrh, neither of which is a scent I care for. As I wear the perfume, it ceases to morph any more, and for about three hours, my skin smells like nothing but pencil shavings. Once it starts to fade, it fades quickly. I won't be wearing this one again as it doesn't seem to work with my skin chemistry. However, the initial blast of berry is so sweet and pretty that I may see if I can capture that scent longer by wearing this in a scent locket or using it in my oil burner.

The Snow Maiden - This reminds me a lot of last year's LE blend, Yuletide. It's the scent of bright red holly berries nestled in a bough of green holly. That's pretty much all I can smell from beginning to end -- I don't detect the ylang ylang, the daffodil, or the hoarfrost notes. It's all holly and berries on me, and it's lovely! This seems to me like the perfect scent for Christmas Eve. The throw is above average, but not super strong, and the staying power is about average.

Snow-Flakes - Are you sad that Snow White didn't come back this year? Don't be, because if you love Snow White, Snow-Flakes will fill the big shoes she left behind! Snow-Flakes is such a pretty scent. It's soft and subtle and smells like... well, snow! Okay, snow with the slightest touch of mint -- just a hint, barely enough to be discernible. It's a sweet, watery scent that reminds me not of snow-covered trees, but of the air around them. It's the scent of snow silently falling in the dead of night. It's just soo pretty and I can't wait to see if this layers with Mid-Winter's Eve as well as Snow White does! The scent is very subtle on my skin and the staying power is below average. Still, despite it having to be a blend I reapply, it's so soft and pretty that it's going to stay in my collection and be loved well in the winter months.

Lick It Again - I'm not a big fan of mint notes in general, but somehow, combining mint with that "extra jolt of sugar" really does it for me. This is such a fun scent. It's nose-tinglingly bright and minty, and it's ultra-sweet -- way more than last year's Lick It. The sugar doesn't work well on my skin and smells a bit artificial, like plastic, but that's not going to keep me from using this in my scent locket when I need a scent to wake me up in the morning and get me going. It'll also be well-loved by my oil burner. My house is going to smell so delightful if I use this scent to get our home ready on Christmas morning. Yum! The throw on my skin is light and the staying power is about average.

Krampus - This is the first perfume that ever made me wish I'd been born a man. This is the most perfect man-scent. It is warm and strong and well, just so masculine. It's too masculine for me to get away with wearing it often, but I'm not going to be able to resist wearing it on occasion. But if I were a man, I'd wear this every day and I'd know I was the best-smelling man on Earth. The musk and leather are the dominant notes on my skin, but they're not overly-powerful or strong. The wood and dust combine with the other notes to temper them a bit and bring them back down to earth. I think this is the big surprise hit of the entire Yuletide 2006 LE line of oils. I'm bowled over by how warm and strong and manly this scent is. The throw and staying power are both about average.

Herr Drosselmeyer 2006 - This is very similar to last year's version, but it definitely has a few drops more cherry than last year's version -- it's still smoky and leathery and warm and wonderful, but the cherry note is brighter and sweeter and keeps it from being as heavy as last year's version. The first time I tried HD06 was an accident: I was decanting a bottle of it for my decanting group. Then I put on my coat and took the dog outside. As I walked outside, I kept catching the most gorgeous whiffs of Herr Drosselmeyer, and realized I had gotten a touch of it on my fingertips. As I braced myself against the sub-freezing temperatures outside, the scent made me feel warm and cozy, like wrapping myself up in a blanket that smells of sweet pipe tobacco, while sinking into a big leather chair in front of a fireplace. It's such a comfortable scent. Although it's highly masculine to me, I still think I'll wear it on occasion because it's got such a warm, comforting scent about it. The throw is excellent, and this oil should not be over-applied. The staying power is about average on me.

Haloa - From now on, I'm buying any and all of Beth's blends that use the term "offeratory cakes" in the description. First I was knocked over by the yumminess of the offertory cakes in All Souls and now, I'm blown away by the yumminess of the offertory cakes in Haloa. That is definitely the strongest note on my skin, and it smells like warm, sugary, butter cookies. I can so rarely wear bakery scents, that I'm just blown away by how good this smells on me! There is a hint of husky myrrh and gritty frankincense in the background that gives a non-foody depth to the blend, and the wine grapes surprisingly don't smell like the usual BPAL grape note on me, but just give this blend a hint of juicy sweetness, like the cookies have a light, fruity frosting on them. After about an hour, I notice the bright, fruity, and buttery cake scent has dissipated significantly, and this is when the myrrh and frankincense really come to the forefront and do their thing. I smell like soft, lightly sweet incense, and it's an incredibly serene and lovely scent. I'm a big fan! Several people at work today have also told me I smell good, and one girl walked by my desk and said, "I smell wholesome goodness!" This was long after I thought the scent had worn off my skin, so it must really work. I think this would also make a lovely room scent. It's definitely a 10 out of 10.

The Darkling Thrush - I can hardly begin to describe how beautiful this scent is. It's very much a winter scent along the lines of Ice Queen, Skadi, Nuclear Winter and Talvikuu. However, it's so much prettier and more feminine than the others I named. It's the scent of the earth coming alive, melting snow dripping off evergreen boughs, and spring flowers tenaciously pushing their way up through the snow. We had a huge blast of snow a couple days ago, and I found that wearing this scent fit the winter theme of the day, but also kept me from feeling depressed by the heaviness of winter, because while I was surrounded by wintertime weather, I smelled like the hope that early spring brings. I love this blend and I am very, very happy with it.

Black Ice - This is a very cool scent! I thought that the "breath of smoky asphalt" note in this blend would make this stink. All I could think of was the smell you encounter when you're stuck driving behind a paving truck. Ick! So I was pleasantly surprised when I first applied this scent and realized how soft and pretty it is. The scent is definitely wintery, dark and gritty, yet subtle -- exactly how black ice is on the roads. And just as you can't see black ice until you're right on top of it, the same goes for the sillage of this scent: I definitely can't smell it unless I'm sniffing my skin up close because it's just that subtle. It's also very masculine, and something I could see most men wearing very well. I've also found it works well as a "base" for some other scents I love, but which don't have much substance on their own (like Snow White and Snow-Flakes). Overall, I think it's a wonderful scent, and although I don't think I need a bottle, I will most certainly hang on to at least one imp of this.

Kindly Moon - This is such a pretty scent. I'm very surprised by the scent description because I thought for sure I'd find some sort of fruit in the blend, not just fruit blossoms. Kindly Moon smells like a beautiful, pink, fruity-floral blend on me. It's incredibly well-blended and I really can't identify any of the notes in this blend, even those that I know and love well. They all work together with such amazing synergy as to become something incredibly beautiful, otherworldly, and completely new. I get tons of compliments when I wear Kindly Moon.

White Moon - The first time I ever tried White Moon, I accidentally "slathered" it, and was instantly hit with a strong, adverse physical reaction to it -- headache and nausea. I washed it off immediately, but could still smell the oil on my skin, but in it's now-diluted form, it was much more pleasant. It's a powerful blend -- one of the strongest of all the lunar blends, in my opinion. When first applied, the dominant notes are the purple flowers -- lilac, wisteria and more subtly, violet. It should have been called "Purple Moon"! Upon drydown, the headiness of the lilac and wisteria begins to calm down significantly and the beautiful, sweet, rounded scent of the calla lily becomes noticeable and blends gorgeously with the other blends. The sandalwood isn't strong, but works to ground the scent. Overall, it's a really gorgeous blend. I am surprised it is released in the Autumn, be cause it seems to me to be very much a springtime blend. The staying power is striking for a lunar blend, since most fade on me very quickly. I applied this one last night before bed (I find it a comforting bed-time scent) and I could still smell faint traces of it on my skin in the morning.

Knecht Ruprecht - I am afraid that this blend just doesn't work for me. It's the strong smell of a Christmas tree lot full of fresh-cut trees, which is not a scent I enjoy (despite the wonderful holiday connotations). I don't smell any apple or almond fruit and really detect nothing other than fresh Christmas tree scent. While I think this would make a wonderful oil burner home fragrance for people who love pine scents, it's not going to be happening in my house or on my skin! I'm afraid this one will be finding a new home. The sillage and staying power are both about average.

Jolasveiner - This blend is really weird on me. It smells like a buttery croissant that was dropped in a pile of algaea, and then heated up in the microwave. It's got quite a pungent scent to it that reminds me of what you might get if you blended The Isle of Demons with Cockaigne. Very, very strange. Yeah, it's not going to cut it for me. I'll have to stick with some of my other winter scents that work better on me than this one.

The Carpathian Mountains - I can't wear fir, beech, pine, currant, juniper, grasses, or moss notes, so I knew this one was pretty much doomed from the time it was first updated onto the web site. Naturally, I still had to try it "just in case." It smells an awful lot like Hamadryad on me, but not as strong. It has a definite wintergreen note to it that is probably all the tree notes blending together. Beneath the wintergreen scent is the scent of wet, slippery moss. It's not until the full drydown that any of the "pretty" notes in this blend come forth on my skin, but at that point, the blend is much mellower and not nearly as sharp, and the sweet, rounded edges of some floral notes appear and the blend starts to smell significantly better. Sadly, the sillage is very strong and what I'd consider offensive even in small applications when the scent is first applied and still wet, but when it gets pretty upon drydown, the sillage decreases significantly. The staying power is pretty good, as it lasts for several hours on my skin.

The Winter of Our Discontent - This blend is very husky when I first apply it, but also has a really strong touch of fresh-cut greenery underneath that warm, husky myrrh scent. I'm also completely shocked when I read the scent description that there's no rose flower in this blend, because when I first apply it, I'm positive I smell myrrh and rose (perhaps rosewood smells like rose blossoms on me?). As soon as it dries down on my skin, the scent begins to amp up to a really strong, powdery rose-myrrh scent (as myrrh often does on me) and the greenery notes disappear completely. While I can still smell the powdery myrrh a good six hours later, I never do detect any of the other notes. I am disappointed that a few of them (e.g., the mandarin orange) don't show up on my skin, but that's not to say it's not a pretty myrrh blend. It's just lovely, in fact. It's not fabulous enough to be lusting after a full bottle, but I'll hang on to a couple imps and they'll be perfect when I want a soft, feminine, yet somewhat exotic myrrh blend. coding fix --Shollin

Chaos Theory 3: CCCXLVIII (348) - Ack! Gardenia! And it's a bad gardenia, too. There's something else in there with it... rose, maybe? And a touch of soapy sweet pea? All I know is this is heady and very fragrant and to me, it's highly highly offensive. I had to wash it off before I got ill, but after I washed it off, there was still scent left on my skin, and I identified at least one of the notes blended with the gardenia: it was violet, which I normally love, but this combo was just gross on me. Blech. Last reviewed by harmonyfb.

Chaos Theory 3: MLXX (1070) - It seems I'm bumping into a lot of CT3s in which Beth used sugar as an ingredient -- brown sugar, specifically. This is yet another one. This scent is predominantly a wine and brown sugar blend and I think there may be some sort of curry in it, but I am not positive about that. It's a strange, sharp, tart, and biting scent, yet simultaneously sweet. The throw is light, but the staying power is very long.