edenssixthday

A twisted teatime tart: apricot and sweet clove. March Hare - Wow, fruity and spicy! The apricot note in this is immediately evident, followed by something slightly spicy that at first smells like cinnamon, but which reveals itself upon dry-down distinctly as clove. What a fascinating combination of scents! Incredibly fresh and fruity, March Hare doesn’t suit me as a winter scent, but I’m hanging on to it and will be much more likely to try it again in the spring and summer months. March Hare has a pretty light amount of throw, but it seems to last for a reasonable amount of time, although the apricot fades more quickly than the clove as time goes by.

Tiger Lily - Oh, I like this! This may be bottle-worthy. It is softly sweet, floral, feminine, and really pretty. The description is basically “honey lilies” and it’s just stunning. I can’t usually wear scents with honey in them, but I don’t smell the honey in this at all because it’s blended in so well with the lily. It’s a truly fabulous blend. It’s very much a spring time scent. When first applied, it has way too much throw, but it fades during dry-down, and after about 15 minutes, the scent begins to stick very close to my skin. The lasting power is moderate. This will be worn again and again.

Tweedledee - I smelled this in the bottle at Convergence and knew I was going to like it, but I had no idea how much I was going to love it until I actually tried it on my skin. In the vial, it smells like bright, crisp, sweet, orange. Once it’s on my skin, the orange blends with the other notes to become almost creamy. In fact, when I first applied it, I had dabbed about six different blends on my skin (since I got a package from the Lab today) and they all smelled wonderful, but the Tweedledee is the one I kept going back to: “Which one did I put right there? I have to figure it out. It’s gorgeous!” Once I figured out which oil I had dabbed on that spot, I grabbed the imp and put the oil in several other places on my body. It’s gorgeous! As the oil dries down on my skin, the pepper note stands out a little stronger, giving the kumquat a bit of a kick. The white tea is also nice and makes for a really subtle background for the other notes. It’s a touch powdery, but that’s what orange blossom always does on me. I just can’t get over the kumquat note. I love it and I wish Beth would make more blends using this note. When I lived in San Diego, the neighbors across the street from me had a kumquat tree, and there was a flock of about 20 or 30 wild green parrots that would occasionally land on that tree and eat the kumquats right off it, dropping the bright orange peels on the grass below. They wouldn’t fly away until every single kumquat on that tree had been eaten. Whenever they were going crazy with the kumquats, the scent of sparkly citrus wafted through the air. Tweedledee reminds me of watching (and smelling!) those crazy parrots eating the kumquats on my neighbor’s tree. The throw and the staying power aren’t what I would hope for, but who cares? It’s lovely enough that I won’t mind slathering and reapplying! I am very tempted to order a bottle of this!

Jabberwocky - Air freshener much? Holy moly. This smells exactly like those little green pine-tree shaped air freshener things people hang from the rearview mirrors of their car. It’s just nasty. Add to that the nose-clearing almost camphor-like scent of eucalyptus, and you’ve got one pungent scent. I didn’t think I could smell any of the orange in this blend, but once I put my mind to it, I was able to discern the slightest hint of fresh-squeezed orange juice. As the oil dries, the pine and eucalyptus scents begin to dissipate, and while the orange doesn’t get any stronger, I’m able to smell it more easily without the pine/eucalyptus blocking my senses. After about an hour, I can hardly detect the evergreen scents, and there’s just the tiniest hint of sweet orange juice on my skin. It’s much more bearable at this point, although it’s still not a scent I would ever choose to wear for fragrance purposes. I could see burning this in my oil burner at Christmas time to replicate the scent of pine trees and boughs in my home.

Drink Me - When I was 20 years old, I made my very first foray into season holiday candy-making. I decided I was going to make toffee. I had all of the ingredients cooking in pot on the stove, and I was stirring away with a spatula, watching the temperature on the candy thermometer rise. One of my roommates, peered into the pot and he said, "What's that white stuff?" Sure enough there was white stuff in it. I pulled out the spatula, and the plastic spatula had melted and was being swirled in with the toffee ingredients. THAT is what Drink Me smells like -- it smells like almost-toffee made of lots of sweet sugar, thick butter, and cooked plastic. In the vial, it just smells like pure yumminess, but as soon as it touches my skin, it takes on that awful burnt plastic scent that I often get from "foody" scents. It sticks very close to my skin but seems to la st for several hours. Sadly, due to the scent, it's not for me.

Eat Me - This is a strange little oil. It definitely smells "foody", but I can't for the life of me figure out what's in it. I know that the scent description is "three white cakes, vanilla, red currants and black currants," but I'm having difficulty reconciling the scent on my skin with the scent description. I smell what seems to be more of a buttercream with a hint of soft but dark chocolate/vanilla blend (I DO detect the vanilla in the scent!) and it's warm and creamy. I don't smell any currant for the life of me. Currant is usually very strong on me, and it's a scent that I either love or hate, depending on the particular blend, but in this instance, I simply do not detect currant at all. Eat Me is definitely a gourmand scent and I'm not particularly drawn to it as a perfume for that reason, but I think it might smell really nice in my oil burner. I'm wondering if I use it in the burner if I'll be able to detect the currants then? The scent has virtually no throw (I have to sniff my skin very close to smell it) but it easily lasts 4 hours from the time I apply it to the time it fades (which for my dry skin, is pretty good staying power).

White Rabbit - pure honey-sweet black tea with perhaps a touch of lemon. While I love drinking tea, I'm not a big fan of wearing it, so needless to say, The White Rabbit isn't exactly my "cup of tea." It faded on me fairly quickly, and had a moderate amount of throw, but I couldn't stand walking around smelling like tea. I have already passed it on to a friend who enjoys tea scents.

Two Five & Seven - If you love rose, this is a pretty rose scent. With a multitude of various rose scents, this is all rose. It's not an aromatic, heady rose, but it's soft and delicately sweet. On my skin, it has a modicum of throw and the staying power is moderate. I think this would be a gorgeous scent to mix in with an unscented shower gel. This is a very pretty rose, although not my favorite among BPAL roses. I have a couple of favorites, and whenever I'm in the mood for rose, I am drawn to my favorites, so I don't know if I will keep this, although it certainly is pretty.

Cheshire Cat - When I first encountered Cheshire Cat, it was during the era when it was discontinued. I fell so in love with it that I actually said I’d seriously consider turning in my entire BPAL addiction for a life-time supply of the then-sadly discontinued scent. As soon as it became available again, I bought a 10 ml bottle of it. (I know now that was a crazy person's idea. I've discoverd better BPAL since then. It is so springtimey fresh and fruity. The red currant and chamomile are the strongest notes on me with the grapefruit lending a little sparkle to it. It reminds me a lot of what you’d get if you layered Bath and Body Work’s Grapefruit Jasmine with their Red Currant and Thyme Tea scents. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Unfortunately, the throw is really light and it disappears from my skin pretty quickly. Good thing I have a big bottle!

The Unicorn is a soft, ethereal blend. I could hardly smell it in the vial and I could barely smell it on my skin. It had the tiniest touch of pretty floral and woodland notes, but trying to catch a whiff of them on purpose was like trying to reach out and take a handful of morning fog. The scent would occasionally waft past me, but by the time I noticed it, it was gone. It’s a pretty scent, but I prefer scents that are bolder, stronger, and which have more of a presence. I passed it along to someone in the hopes of enabling her to BPAL (and she has become an addict herself since!)

The Caterpillar - I thought for sure I was going to hate this blend due to the jasmine, vetiver, and iris notes in it. I was very surprised that I’m not only not completely reviled by it, but I find it kind of nice – not wholly amazing, just “kind of nice.” I can hardly detect the jasmine, the vetiver is behaving itself nicely in this blend, and the bitter scent of the iris is faint and non-intrusive. When I smell this blend, I mostly detect incense backed up by sweet florals and the tiniest hint of earthy, green moss. I don’t detect the patchouli at all. It’s definitely not something I would choose to wear over my favorite BPAL oils, but it’s really not bad like I expected it to be. It’s kind of hazy, lightly floral and very lightly sweet, but not in a foody over overly-floral way. I’m very impressed by the intricacy and complexity of this blend.

The Mouse’s Long and Sad Tale - Oh wow, this is gorgeous: it is an incredible blend of vanilla and amber. I don’t detect either the sweet pea or the sandalwood in this, which is strange since sandalwood usually goes full-volume on my skin. It is a very warm oil and not something I would wear on a hot summer day. To me, it’s more of an autumn scent, or something I’d wear during the cold winter months to keep me warm. I’m going to hang on to it and try it again next fall. Both the throw and the staying power seem about average on me.

Frumious Bandersnatch - What a wonderful scent! I love it so much (and the name!) that I picked up a full bottle, despite having several imps on hand. I just adore this blend! In the bottle, I smell sweet, plummy fruit, and when it's first applied to my skin, it remains sweet, dark plum. However, as it begins to dry down, the carnation in the blend takes on a scent that dominates the plum (although I can still smell the plum underneath), and leaves a wonderful, spicy swirl about me. The first time I tried it, I was testing a friend's, and when I noticed the fruit scent was turning to spice, I had her smell it, and she agreed it was getting spicy. She thought it smelled like cinnamon. I thought it smelled a bit like cinnamon, but more like pepper, clove and/or nutmeg. (It was only a day or two later that I discovered the spiciness was actually carnation.) Then, after another 20-30 minutes, we both noticed that the spiciness has receded into the background, and the dark, sweet plum was once again the dominant scent, with just the tiniest hint of . It remained this way until the blend faded from my skin. Unfortunately, this happens way too fast on me, and the scent is gone within 2 hours; however, this is such a pretty scent that I bought a full bottle and will enjoy reapplying and experiencing over and again the stages of the blend as it morphs and changes over time.

Vicomte de Valmont is a very masculine blend that is the most commercial men’s cologne scent I’ve encountered in Beth’s entire catalogue. It doesn’t really appeal to me at all, as I’m not a big fan of mint, moss, jasmine, or rosemary. The strongest notes seem to be the moss and rosemary, and the rest sort of hover in the background. I can say it’s very well blended, and I can imagine quite a few men I know wearing this quite well, but it’s definitely not for me. I like blends that are much prettier.

Casanova - Oh my, what a sexilicious gentleman he is! I don’t even know where to begin reviewing this particular blend. It’s incredibly masculine, but not just masculine, it’s manly. It’s heavy and certainly “rakish” as the description claims. I don’t smell any of the individual notes in this blend. I can’t distinguish any one from the rest. They are all so perfectly blended together. I would have never thought some of these notes would blend so beautifully together! I am in love with this scent and if I stumbled upon just about any handsome man wearing this scent, my husband would have to peel me off the guy! ;-) Seriously, it’s so over-the-top sexy that I recommend every last one of you women out there pick some up and dab some on your husbands/boyfriends. The throw is moderate to heavy and the staying power is about 3-4 hours on my skin.

Nefertiti - When first applied, I’m really not impressed. When the oil is wet on my skin, it smells lightly herbal and has a soft touch of husky myrrh, and the dry scent of arid woods, but it doesn’t really jump out at me. Once it dries down, it becomes really soft and lovely. The woods soften, and the iris is noticeable, although light and subtle. The myrrh continues to lend an overall husky quality to the blend. It’s really pretty. However, it has about zero throw, which is not something I like in a scent. The staying power is good at about 4 hours, but overall, I’m fairly underwhelmed with this blend. It just doesn’t really grab my attention.

Harlot - Valentine's Day meets Big Red! Upon first applying it, I get roses and...wow, cinnamon! 30 second later: CINNAMON CINNAMON CINNAMON! 2 minutes after application: Really pretty true rose scent and the cinnamon has calmed down quite a bit. 15 minutes after application: Rose and something bitter -- almost like the scent of water in the bottom of a vase that's been left to sit a week after the flowers die in it. 30 minutes after application: Soft, sweet, subtle roses. 1 hour after application: Boring, bare skin. No scent left. I actually really like this scent and after I applied it the first time, I was convinced I was going to buy a bottle. An hour later when I got to work and had no scent left, I realized I certainly wasn't going to buy it after all. Besides, the cinnamon left a big red mark on my neck and chest after I applied it there -- and I don't have sensitive skin in the least. I'm really, really sad that this one doesn't last because the top notes of a variety of roses and cinnamon is simply a divine and surprising combination. I may still pick up an imp or two to use on occasion, but I wouldn't spend the cash on a whole bottle right now.

Ravenous - I am very surprised by this scent. When I first tested it, I was overwhelmed by the strong scent of freshly peeled oranges. As it dried down, the scent of oranges remained, but something red and woody became evident beneath the oranges, lending a resinous depth to the orange scent. It's a scent that's similar to Moxie, but deeper and dryer. I was very surprised when the scent remained on my skin for 4 hours, 7 hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, 14 hours!!! Off the 500 or so BPAL blends I've tried, it definitely has the greatest staying power on my skin. I was also surprised when I read the description of the blend. Reading that there is red patchouli in it didn't surprise me in the least, as the blend definitely had a red wood scent to it. However, I was completely dumbfounded that the orange scent I was smelling was not the juice of oranges, but orange blossoms! Orange blossoms have never before smelled like actual oranges on me -- they smell floral and powdery. Perhaps it was the combination of the orange blossom and red patchouli that created that strong, juicy, orange scent. Either way, this is one scent I'm going to keep wearing. It's a great pick-me-up scent and a very empowering scent.

Psyche is just pretty. Pure, simple, unadulterated pretty. It's very soft and sweet, and subtle. The moment I first applied it, all I could smell was lavender and something else that I'm now guessing is the rose note. The musk tones it down, and I don't smell the frankincense at all, which is wonderful because it's a scent I don't usually care for. As the oil began to dry down, it took on a slightly sour note for several minutes, but upon full drydown, the lavender disappeared, and the orchid note was evident, and the fragrance became beautifully soft, sweet, and subtle. This scent stays very close to my skin, has absolutely no throw, and in fact, even when I have my nose pressed against my arm, I can still barely smell it. I just smell sweet and soft and pretty. This is a perfect scent for work because I can't imagine it would offend anyone. If others could smell it, I think it would just smell naturally pretty, like a walk through a summer garden, and not at all like someone just doused herself in perfume. This blend was a lovely surprise, as I was a bit leery of the frankincense in it, based on just reading the description. I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave it a try.

Desire was almost pretty on me – it has some of my favorite scents, rose and vanilla, which blended together beautifully, but the patchouli note was strong and darkened the soft sweet and creamy vanilla-rose blend, and turned it into something altogether disastrous on my skin. I smelled like a really cheap men’s drugstore cologne mixed with soil. I could smell the potential in it, and I could tell that it was the patchouli ruining it for me, so if patchouli is a scent that works well with your skin chemistry, this might be a gorgeous blend on you.

La Petite Mort - I had high hoped for La Petit Mort, but probably because of the name. I couldn't distinguish any particular notes about it, but it was simultaneously sweet and warm, yet it had an acrid bite to it that prevented me from wearing it more than a couple times before I gave up on it. It has moderate staying power and a modicum of throw, but really, it's unpleasant and I'm glad I swapped it to someone who liked it more than I do.

Lucy’s Kiss is identifiable instantly as a predominantly rose scent. After it dried down, it smells distinctly like tea rose, which may just be due to the mixture of rose and “Victorian spices.” It’s soft, sweet, and delicate and is a highly feminine blend. It’s a nice blend to wear when I want rose, but don’t want the funereal scent of Sepulcher, the naughtiness of Whip, or the fragility of Moon Rose. Great scent, light throw, moderate staying power. This one’s a keeper.

Rapture is one of my least-favorite BPAL oils. On my skin, the myrrh is dominant note, and everything else hides behind it. I don’t smell any rose, mandarin, bergamot, and only the tiniest hint of jasmine, which as usual with BPAL jasmine, is unpleasant on me. It’s dark and dusty and smells like the cork in a pair of old Birkenstocks. Definitely not for me. But I know some people loved it – I passed it on to someone on the forums who loves it through-and-through and was dying to get her hands on more.

Siren is unfortunately another BPAL jasmine that is really close to being able to work on me...but doesn't quite make it. Beneath the jasmine, I can smell apricot and ginger, it smells like a fresh, Southern, summer time, cool, iced punch. Unfortunately, as is typical, the jasmine kills off any of the pleasant notes that I can detect, and makes this an unwearable fragrance in my world. I hope someone else will enjoy this. If you can wear jasmine well, I definitely see a lot of potential in this scent.

Jezebel - I don't get the honey, roses, or sandalwood scent from this at all. It turns into "orange-blossom baby powder" almost instantly. I love it, though! I've been putting it on after my bath at night, and I smell so white-floral powdery-fresh that I just love being around myself! And the scent lasts and lasts. When I wake up in the morning, the soft aroma of Jezebel is my first waking experience, and it couldn't be a more comforting and pleasant way to awake. I will be buying a full bottle of this and I'm going to wear it every evening. Forget the lavender scents I used to wear at night -- this one is even more relaxing and peaceful. Surprising name for such a serene scent.