kajacana

Obatala is an amazing coconut scent. You might try layering it with something fruity/floral to add a more tropical dimension... maybe Titania? Son of BiggerCritter is awesome and beachy, but fades very fast on me. Your mileage may vary. (Also can be hard to find since not many bottles were made -- I think only 100?) Elegba is coconut/tobacco/rum, which, depending on your chosen beach activities, might be accurate

In the bottle: Straight-up marshmallows. On skin: Marshmallow vanilla cream. Like fluff, only perfume! It's definitely sugary, but as it wears it's almost like there's a light musk in there that's keeping it from just smelling like food. (If you've got these to compare.... to me, Stekkjarstaur is on the spectrum between Boo and Edith Cushing, both of which I also love. It's not as in-your-face buttery/cakey as Boo, but not as musky/perfumey as Edith. It's somewhere in the middle.) This is a really awesome vanilla scent and if you have any desire whatsoever to smell like vanilla or marshmallows, please do yourself a favor and try this.

How have I not tried this before?! It's mostly peach, with a breath of light florals, grounded (but not overwhelmed or darkened) by the oakmoss. I'm not typically a floral perfume person, yet I love this, if that tells you anything. It's more fruity than floral, but the flowers help keep it smelling like perfume and not candy. It's sweet, light, and gorgeous. This would be a perfect scent for summer and even though I just tested it for the first time ten minutes ago, I already think I need a bottle.

You can actually smell the garland. It's tart cranberries on an evergreen garland that isn't fresh anymore, it's been sitting out and has dried up and only the softest hint of pine scent remains. I honestly think it's more garland than cranberry on me at first. But it sweetens up as it wears, and takes on more of a juicy, red quality, with something sliiiiightly soapy in the background. Really happy to try this and will keep the decant, since it's not often a cranberry scent comes up!

This is all berries on me. I'm not getting any yogurt or oats at all. It reminds me of a "wildberry" or "mixed berry" scent; no specific fruit stands out among the rest. On my skin, it's right on the line between a nice, sweet, candy-like berry, versus a super-artificial berry that you might find in a car air freshener. When my nose picks up the sweet candy side of things, it's very reminiscent of Bath & Body Works old Sun-Ripened Raspberry scent, but I'm still getting hints of... slight soapiness? Car freshener chemicals? It's weird. I'd love it if it stayed in the sweet, Sun-Ripened Raspberry range, but there's something about it that I'm just not digging. Really glad I got to try it, though, and will hold on to the decant -- maybe this will work better in a scent locket.

Hey, we are really similar!!! Ginger and honey didn't show up in my list, but I love those too (though pure honey tends to go baby powder on me, and I do better with things like honeycomb or honey mead).

I love this idea! I'm not organized (or patient!) enough to figure out the stats for my whole collection, but I thought of 15 favorites off the top of my head and tallied up the notes in those. I wasn't very precise... I know there are differences in types of amber, types of musk, types of milk, etc., but for the sake of this experiment I just lumped them all together. In order of frequency, out of 15 oils, here are the notes that appear more than once: Amber: 6 Cream/Milk: 6 Musk: 6 Vanilla: 5 Sugar: 3 Patchouli: 3 Coconut: 3 Oudh: 2 Tea: 2 Water: 2 Wood/Bark: 2 Rum: 2 Very interesting! My list leans craaaaazy gourmand, which is not at all a surprise. I'm kind of shocked that patchouli shows up three times (Sumatran red in So Below, aged in Mary Read, white in Edith Cushing -- so all over the map there).

Sugary dark chocolate with marshmallow. I'm also getting the faintest hint of coffee. It's foody, but somehow... elevated? Like, this isn't a bag of mass-produced cookies that you buy for $3 and eat straight from the bag in the car and wipe the crumbs on your jeans. This is a perfect pie that took hours to make and is the elegant centerpiece of the holiday dessert table. Basically it smells really good and if you're a fan of chocolate scents, you need this.

2015 version, first year I've tried. A little green, a little sweet. Definitely getting the olive oil (as it dries, it smells like The Body Shop's olive scent). After it dries, it's like a beeswax candle glowing over a table set with fruit and pastries. Really well blended, and hard to distinguish individual notes. Pretty!

What a beautiful scent! In the bottle: rich, foody, sweet. Initial application: The vanilla immediately leans more perfumey than foody on me (looks like I'm in the minority there), and I'm definitely getting the oudh, which I love. It's almost reminiscent of So Below, only it's lighter and softer. It's like So Below's younger cousin! Drydown: Ah, now I see the comparisons to Morocco -- only Edith is sweeter and more vanilla-y (and it's still that perfumey vanilla musk for me; it doesn't smell like a cookie or anything). I really like this

I sprayed some into my hands and then ran it through my hair. Initially it was all spices, but as it dried it became all about the peach. Delicious, juicy, candy-like peaches, with just a bit of pie to keep it from going full-on lollipop. Sweet, foody, wonderfully peachy, and really really good!

I get the Pez candy quality that others have mentioned, but ONLY when sniffing directly from the bottle. Once this oil is on my skin, it's pure orange marmalade on a buttered biscuit. It's fruity without being Jolly Rancher fruity; bready without being a straight-up loaf of bread. It's foody, light, close to the skin, a big waft of baked goods with a generous hint of something orange. I like it

Maybe try Hellcat? It's one of my favorites, a GC from the Diabolus section: hazelnut, buttercream, honey mead, rum and sweet almond. It's sweet, strong, and foody. If you end up liking Snake Oil and feel like tracking down some limited editions, try... Womb Furie (a Lupercalia scent; those are usually released around February and this one has come back a few times) - Snake Oil and three types of honey Boomslang (from the Snake Pit section of the old Carnaval Diabolique, which might be returning in the not-too-distant future) -Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk.

Total almond/cherry in the bottle. Marzipan while wet on skin, and as it dries it turns into... cola? It's like those little gummy Coke-bottle candies, or a Dr. Pepper LipSmackers! Weird! As drydown continues, the LipSmackers and Coke gummies disappear and the leather emerges. It's definitely a soft, worn, brown leather. The sweetness of the vanilla and amber comes out soon after that, and mellows out the leather even more. After drying on my arm for several minutes, it's mostly suede and amber, with a hint of vanilla. It stays close to the skin. I really love this scent, and I'm so glad because I also love the story behind it! (Hint: I tested the 13 from Nov. 2015 on my other arm, and these two smell REALLY good together.)

Hi! I second the above link. You can also head to the Reviews subforum --> Limited Editions (scroll down) and find threads for each of the current CT series. I ordered Oriental and Gourmand this round. My Gourmand is spot on what I expected (toasted nuts & chocolate), while the Oriental reads more in the floral category to me. Take the chance; it's fun

This starts out on the skin as bright, fizzy, sweet ginger ale, which I really like. I used to have the ginger ale perfume from Demeter, and when freshly applied, this smells almost exactly like that. As it dries down, though, the smoke and gear lubricant emerge, which turns the blend much darker. The delicious soda aspect all but disappears, and I start to smell a weird spicy candle burning in a mechanic shop. Not too pleasant. I wish this one stayed in the ginger ale phase, because once it dries it's really not for me. But I will say, it's unique and intriguing, and it would work perfectly for someone who likes a slightly foody/slightly metallic combo in their perfume.

In the bottle: Nuts, and maybe the tiniest hint of chocolate. On skin: Smells a lot like Wezwanie/Hold to me, which includes hazelnut, so maybe it's hazelnut? It smells toasty! There's something in there that's rounding out the blend really nicely, which I'm guessing is chocolate, because I think I'm getting a very faint whiff of cocoa. It's not sweet, though. I'm picturing dry roasted hazelnuts lightly dusted with cocoa powder. I like it a lot!!

In the bottle: Sharp. Almost lemony. On skin: Floral, probably white. Maaaaybe lilies? Loses its sharp quality almost entirely, and Im not getting lemon anymore. Kinda soapy, though, which is not necessarily a bad thing -- it smells light and clean.

Nothing too exciting, but here are some BPAL photos from my instagram (@kajacana) : [EDIT: thank you nathanielhebert for the image tech support!!] So Below Talvikuu '12, Boomslang, All Souls '14, and Morocco Wezwanie/Hold and The Lion Samhain '13, Night-Gaunt, Hellcat, Hesiod's Phoenix (misspelled label!), and some imps Milk Chocolate Coconut Cardamom Rum & Ginger Truffle, Bezoar, The Apothecary, and Octopus Speaking of Octopus, that's a classic case of Bought It For The Name/Label Art (and Keeping It For The Same Reason!)

This dries down to a very light, white/green floral on me. I can pick up the juicy scent of fresh fruit lingering in the background, which keeps the blend sweet instead of sharp. I don't usually like florals, but this one is light and clean, not at all cloying, so that's a plus. I would recommend 51 to someone who was hesitant to try perfume oils for the first time, because a lot of people expect oils to be IN YOUR FACE and this one is definitely not! It's approachable, wearable, soft, and in my opinion scents like this are the perfect gateway to BPAL-Land. If you're a fan of commercial perfume, and you tend to favor light florals, green scents, and a springtime vibe, then you would probably like this blend.

What about Fairy Bites (GC, from the Labyrinth collection)? Osmanthus and raw honey with lavender, chamomile, white peppermint, raspberry, honeysuckle, thyme, bergamot, and Dracula orchid. It's like sweet minty berry chamomile tea, really light and pretty. I'm not a fan of florals, but even with the lavender and orchid (two notes that usually get the side-eye from me), this is a very smooth and wearable blend.

So Below is a frakking miracle. Need more detail? Okay, here we go. In the bottle: Guys, I literally do not know what I'm smelling but whatever it is, it's making me swoon. Something amber-y, I'm sure, because my nose recognizes a wisp of a hint of something that reminds me of, like, The Lion. But there's something more complex about this one, something else there in the initial sniff that makes me go "HMMMMMM YES TELL ME MORE." Initial application: Heavens to Betsy. It's amber, it's coconut, it's soft and sweet yet also powerful (a little goes a long way) -- methinks the Sumatran red patchouli gives it that extra punch, that je ne sais quoi which elevates this blend into something truly unique. Drydown: Not a ton of throw, but I can smell it on my wrists as I type, and I only put on a single dab from the reducer cap. It is ridiculously pretty and I want to hug it but unfortunately I can't because it is a perfume oil and I am a human. ^That, exactly. It's not foody coconut, it's not fleshy raw coconut, it's not suntan-lotion coconut, it's not Obatala coconut... it's darker, more like the shell of the coconut (HOW MANY TIMES CAN I SAY "COCONUT" IN ONE SENTENCE, MY GOD, I'M LOSING CONTROL OF THIS REVIEW). It smells like I'm sitting under a coconut tree wearing sweet amber perfume. (Actually it smells like the ecstatic dance of my soul, but that, I'll admit, is a rather more abstract concept and therefore probably useless to you, dear reader.) Some amber turns to baby powder on me. Some doesn't. This doesn't. It's got a slight powdery quality, if that makes sense, but I'm not getting powder from it. There must be something in the blend to offset the powder factor. I love cardamom but I can't distinguish it in this blend. I'm also not getting any of the usual in-your-face patchouli-ness, which is fine by me (although I don't know the first thing about distinguishing between the different varieties of patchouli). And I have no earthly idea what black copal is supposed to smell like, but the Google tells me it's a sweet resin, and that seems right. So Below is coconutty, resin-y sweetness. It's perfect, I love it, the end. This review brought to you by a really big glass of wine.

Creamy coconut made extra nutty by the macadamia, plus a really beautiful, light amber. I can see how some people might get buttered popcorn from this, but for me it's staying on the sweet side of foody. The coconut in this blend isn't that suntan-lotion, pina colada type of coconut... it ALMOST reminds me of the coconut in Obatala on intital application, but the comparison stops there because the foodiness takes over quickly. I also agree with the above reviews which have said the buttery factor goes away and the scent morphs into something almost spicy after several minutes. It's almost like a spicy coconut cookie. I really like it!

In the imp/initial application: this is EXACTLY the bourbon vanilla of the Trading Post's bourbon vanilla bath oil. A really perfumey, non-foody, rich vanilla. Drydown: the fruity sweetness from the apricot comes out. I'm not getting any cardamom, just this really nice mix of bourbon vanilla and apricot (I'm guessing the "preserved" apricot could translate to "apricot preserves," because it's definitely got more of a jam vibe than a fresh fruit vibe for me.) It softens quickly, leaving that beautiful bourbon vanilla with a boost of extra sweetness. Not a lot of throw, but I could definitely see myself slathering this one in the summer. The cardamom barely peeks out after several minutes, not super detectable but serving to round everything out very nicely.

Maybe Laughter of Loki from the Ragnarok LEs? "Serpentine green musk with fiery red ginger, sweet basil, alder leaf, white patchouli, cistus, and mistletoe." ETA: Can't find a good GC so far, but maybe Dawn: Cernunnos (Terebinth pine, basil, green sandalwood, fig leaf, armoise, lemon balm, cypress, myrrh, black cedar, and juniper) or Cathode (Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints)?