ktesedale

In the bottle, this smells very strongly of apples, with just a bit of something else. On me, the tobacco scent comes out incredibly strongly, with a bit of sweetness and apple over it. No tea at all, and the tobacco is definitely the main scent, not the apples. Sadly, not a fit for me, I was really hoping for more apple.

I'm very out of practice with reading notes, but I just got this scent and had to leave a review. I had a very different experience - in the bottle, the rosemary was the primary scent, very sharp. Wet, still almost pure rosemary, with maybe a bit of the lavender. It might have given me a headache if it'd stayed like that. After a few minutes, it was a gorgeous sweet floral, very complicated - a mix of rosemary, lavender, and a bit of blackberry. The bergamot was undetectable. I couldn't directly pinpoint the musk, but I'm pretty sure it gave a nice base to it, keeping the scent from going too sharp. It was honestly a terrific floral scent, I really liked it. I wish it'd stayed like this for the rest of the time, but it quickly morphed after about a half hour to a bitter floral with a hint of baby powder and soap. Very disappointing, because I loved the just-dry stage quite a bit. Apparently a bad match for my skin.

Hey all - I'm mainly on LJ, instead of here, but I kind of felt like I should post something since I'm participating in the Switch Witch for Spring 2007. I'm a total geek and dork - I love computers, roleplaying games, crafts, and pets. I have three cats, and I hope to get a dog soon. I love the community here - it really impresses me, how kind everyone can be, despite the occasional bad apple. I'm high strung and nervous a lot of the time, but I like to relax, too. I plan to fill out some of those quizes in the Switch Witch thread, but I haven't really had a chance yet!

Like shelldoo said, this violet is very similar to Sybaris on me at first, but slowly the sugar starts to come out and takes it the scent in a different direction. Faith is light, sweet, and girly, and I think I might have to get a bottle, despite not normally loving florals - there's something about this scent that makes me happy and wistful. I highly recommend it, if you like sweet scents or violets.

Huh, I'm not much of a floral fan (there are only a few that I really like), but I'm surprised at how much I like White Moon! It's a sweet and light floral, not heavy or heady like some of the others. There's a faint touch of greenery in there, too. When it's wet, it smells powdery and a little bitter, but when it dries the sweetness comes out. I'm not sure I'd ever wear this, at least day-to-day - but I could easily see wearing this to a posh play or a funeral - something you get dressed up for, but is serious. Since I don't go to those sorts of things often, I think White Moon will have to find another owner. I'm glad I got to try it, though, and I love the label (and matching t-shirt, which I got!) of it.

Dragon's blood usually smells like a flowery-cherry combination on me, and the scent Dragon's Blood was no exception. It's a lovely scent, and I'm happy with my imp of it - I sometimes use it to give a kick to other scents - but it's not something I would ever buy a bottle of. Still, it's very nice to get to try it on its own, and if you're new to BPAL and dragon's blood, I really recommend trying it out!

In the vial, this is a bright, sparkling orange scent. Wet, the orange and mango really are prominent. Dry, musk comes out a lot on me, so that was the primary note in this one. But the orange and mango kept it from being too musky, and the sandalwood added a nice bit of grounding. This is a lovely scent, in the same category as Fae (though more fruity than floral), for me. I like them both, but I'm not sure I need bottles of both of them. Hmm. I'll have to determine which one I want to get a bottle of!

In the vial, this is a delicious sweet vanilla/amber. I can just barely smell the sweet pea, but I think it adds to the overall sweetness. Wet, this is waaaay too sweet. It's almost sickening. This only lasts about five minutes. Dry, I very briefly get a lovely mix of amber, vanilla, and faint floral, before it turns into a sweet baby powder. *sigh* I was hoping this amber wouldn't do that, since it smells so good in the vial! Not a huge surprise, but not what I was hoping, either. People who can wear amber might still love this, though!

In the vial, this is a rich green scent, with a faint touch of sweetness. Wet, this is a gorgeous sweet herbal. It's like sap. Dry, the fig comes out. Usually I love fig, but this came on very, very strong - and not that complex. The lovely greenness disappeared, and all I was left with was the sweet fig. I liked it well enough, but it's nothing spectacular. If it kept some of that greenness on my skin, I'd want a bottle, but this imp is off to swaps! Still, any new fig blend is good in my book!

I'm a bit surprised how much I like this scent! In the vial, it's sharp and metallic-smelling - and mineral-like. Wet, I can still smell that sharpness, but I also smell a strong vanilla. Dry, this turns into a gorgeous creamy scent. This is what I'd hoped Antique Lace would smell like - creamy and rich and warm, instead of the cooler, more plasticky (on my skin) Antique Lace. Despite that warmth, though, it's not foody at all. I think it's the 'mineral' like scent that grounds it. It has surprisingly good throw, too, despite being a 'gentle' scent. I think I'm going to have to get a bottle of this one!

I love this scent! It's the scent taught me just how fantastic fig is. In the vial, this smells very sweet - the honey and coconut come out a lot. Wet, it's like being hit in the face with fig. I've since discovered that fig amps up really strongly for the first half hour or so, but the first time I wore this, I thought it would go straight into the swaps - fig is nice (well, great!), but it's a little overwhelming to have nothing but fig. After it dries and settles a bit (as I said, about a half hour), it turns into this lovely sweet fig scent, with a clear coconut topping and a green/spiced scent holding it down and keeping it from being cloying. It morphs a bit, too, sometimes the coconut comes out more, sometimes a bit of almond or sandalwood instead. I love this scent, and I always forget how much I love it. I really need to get myself a bottle of it. It's definitely in the top ten general catalog for me, and is the second best fig scent I've ever tried (Treat #2 is the best). But it's very foody, so if you're not a foody person, I do not recommend it.

Hmmm... I usually do well with all of the notes listed in this scent, but it just doesn't work for me. I think the jasmine might actually be night-blooming jasmine? Because it smells like that harsh scent night-blooming jasmine has, and I really dislike it. In the bottle, this smells sharply of (what I think is) night-blooming jasmine and lemon. I shudder, but try it anyway, because no one else mentioned they thought it might be night-blooming. Wet, this is pure lemon - I was worried I'd get the Pledge scent, but thankfully, it died down. Dry, the florals come out - I really, really swear it's night-blooming! Really! I can't smell the sandalwood, and only barely smell the lemon or bergamot. It's mainly jasmine on me. I didn't like it - I prefer my jasmine to be sweeter. Still, I'm very grateful this scent came back, because I really, really wanted to try it!

I can't stand patchouli - in fact, it's one of the notes that will completely kill a blend for me, and I never really order anything that has patchouli in it. I might have to revise that decision, though, because for some strange, crazy reason, I love this scent! Thank you, Lab, for the frimp! The patchouli doesn't really stand out as an individual note, on my skin - it blends in with the 'earthy' fragrance others have mentioned. It's a very, very well blended scent, to my nose, and it is indeed very grounding. As others have said, it's not really a 'going to a party' scent - but it works perfectly as a 'Saturday with the friends' scent. I am utterly shocked at how much I like this scent. Now I have to decide if I'm willing to try other stuff with this note...

All flash and glam: white wine, heliotrope, d’Anjou pear, and lotus. Sweet, sweet, sweet! I was very happy to see this scent come back - I love sweet scents, and many people said it was a terrific sweet scent, but I started buying from BPAL just after it was discontinued. In the bottle, I can really smell the pear, and a sort of general sweetness, but not individual notes. Wet, bubble gum! Pure bubble gum, in fact. Ugh. Dry, though, this changes and is wonderful! It's still very sweet, but now the pear comes out, with a faint, faint floral touch. No alcohol scent (which isn't a huge surprise with my chemistry). It lasts forever, too! I love this one, though the wet stage is a bit too strong. I'm also looking forward to aging it a bit and seeing if it will take the edge off a tad. Still, an excellent scent, and I'm very grateful that it came back briefly!

I like almost all the notes in this, but I didn't have very high hopes, unfortunately, as green tea tends to go very much like a sharp almost herbal lemon on my skin, and that's what I got from F5. Very, very citrusy, very lemony, very little anything else. It's nice enough, but it's nothing I would wear often. Also, I had a hard time telling the difference between this scent and Embalming Fluid in either the bottle or on my skin, and they have a *lot* of notes in common. So fans of either should try the other one.

Last year's Lick It is one of my favorite scents, and I always use it whenever I can't decide what to wear. So I was really looking forward to this year's version. In the bottle, they smell the same - almost exactly, in fact! Wet, they're still very similar, but the sugar is coming out faster in this one - very sugary, not so vanilla or minty. Dry, it's very, very sugary, with only a hint of vanilla or mint. I really have to be searching to find either of those notes. This is not what I wanted or was looking for, alas. I think I'll stick to hoarding last year's Lick It instead. If you really like sugar scents, though, this might be for you!

Ah, I was really hoping for the apple and almond to come out in this (they're two of my favorite scents), but it was not to be! In the bottle, I can smell the fruit a bit, though it's mainly pine. Wet, wow, pure pine. Very realistic pine, but a bit sickening. Dry, the lab's 'snow' note is incredibly strong on me, plus the pine. It's like last year's Talvikuu x 1000. It gives me a piercing headache after about an hour. I was hoping it would dry down and give me anything with the apples and almonds, but nope. This one is definitely going for swap/sale. It's way to strong for me, and my skin didn't like it. (As a side note, the label is on upside down on my bottle! I thought that was pretty funny. )

I can't wear amber - it goes straight to baby powder on me. I accidentally bought this instead of one of the other Yules (I was confused as to which was which when I bought it!). I am so grateful I did, though. This is the first of BPAL's amber scents that I've been able to wear. I wasn't even planning on trying this one, but before I put it up for sale I wanted to double check it wouldn't work. In the bottle, it's a warm orange scent - you can smell the bitterness of the rinds. Wet, it's a sharp orange that overpowers, but it quickly dries. Dry, it's a gorgeous warm amber (that doesn't turn to powder!) with a slightly bitter orange scent combined with some sort of sweetness. Very, very faintly you can smell some florals in the background, but they just give it a vaguely elegant air - it's not a 'floral' scent. The saffron and frankincense don't really come out on my skin, but this scent doesn't need it. It's warm and uplifting, though it does make me a little sleepy - like napping on a sunny couch. It's very, very nice, and I'm so glad I made a mistake and got it!

'Airy' is the perfect term for this one - combined with the name, I get the mental image of some ghostly visage wavering in the air. This starts out sweet, but light - it's in no way overwhelming. It's also very well blended - I can't pull out many individual notes, aside from the hint of grapefruit. It's fruity - which surprised me - but it's not just fruit, either. This one is so well blended it's just hard to describe. I like it, but I couldn't tell you why. It's great for a night out or meeting with friends for coffee, but it's not really a 'work' scent for me.

In the bottle, this smells like caramel and cake, with a bit of amber and spice on the side. On the skin, this starts out sweet and foody, with a bit of non-food spice overlaying it, but ends up with a faint 'off' smell - like a cake or cookie that burned just a bit. Probably the tobacco? It's interesting, and I like it well enough, but it's not the purely foody scent it smelled like in the bottle, and it's not one of my favorites.

In the bottle, I agree with slave1 that it smells like a kid's breakfast cereal. I'm incredibly grateful it doesn't stay like that on me, though. Juicy and ripe, this scent is incredibly fruity on my skin. The pepper gives it a faint kick, but you can't smell the tea or orange blossom very well. The kumquat smells a lot like mango, actually, but it's not exact - I could definitely smell the difference between this and actual mango. This scent is terrific for summer, but I admit I'm really looking forward to using it in winter, when I need a bright kick in my day. It's great for work or going out, and it smells terrific right after a shower. I kind of wish this was a soap, actually - I think it'd help wake me up in the morning.

This is one of those scents that matches it's description perfectly - it's an almost equal mix of apricot and clove on me. I never would have believed it before, but I adore it! In the bottle, it smells mostly clovey and general 'fruit' - it's hard to tell it's apricot. Once on, though, you can easily figure it's apricot, and the clove comes out and makes you remember it's not just an apricot lotion or something. It's a strong scent, though, and I only need a tiny bit of it to go a looong way. This one is a good work scent, or even going out to dinner, but it's not really a 'bar' or 'clubbing' scent, to me. I wear it to work a lot, though!

Ah, I adore this scent. It's the parts I love about Red Lantern minus the parts I don't. In the bottle, it smells very sweet and kind of caramelly. On the skin, it starts out with a faint whiff of the currents, but it settles into the cake and vanilla quite quickly. The currents still 'darken' it, though, saving it from being too childish or sweet. This one is a favorite for wearing to work, especially on a wet day (like every day the past couple weeks, *sigh*). It's sweet, but with a bit of substance behind it, and it makes me smile and perks me up a bit.

In the bottle, this smells nutty and buttery. Huh. I wasn't really looking forward to putting it on. Once on, it's very nutty and a bit smoky, but the butter has disappeared. Yum. Not quite what I usually like in my foody scents, but it's good! It stays true to form until the end, too. It disappears after about two hours, but this isn't a scent I'd like to wear for long periods of time anyway. It makes me kind of hungry! This is a very warm scent, and it's comforting, something to wear at home, maybe while with family or cooking. It's definitely not a going out scent or a work scent, though.

Wow, this smells *just* like Jolly Ranchers in the bottle. Wow. That takes me back to my childhood! On my skin, it's still that candy-sweet smell at first. After about an hour, it fades down into a more 'real' fruit scent, but it's still very sweet and candyish. Not really for me - I like fruit scents, and I like foody scents, but I don't like foody-fruity scents.