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This is incredibly bitter on my skin, just like yuzu. I like sweet and sparkly grapefruit notes but not this kind. It smells acidic. Urgh. There's something weedy and acrid in it, too. It reminds me of Aizen-Myoo, which is one of my least favorite scents. My skin just doesn't like notes like this at all.

This a pretty scent -- it smells like meadows of flowers. It's calming, pretty, and soft. There's an overtone of some floral note that's a bit too sour for me, but it isn't bad. This isn't my favorite floral, but I don't object to it as much as I object to most florals. It smells very natural.

Mostly the marine notes, but they're not dark and murky. It seems quite light, almost too much. It reminds me of fizziness. It's definitely in the marine/aquatic category, but it's not as heavy or as piercing as many of the other aquatics are on my skin.

Lemongrass is almost always a note that ruins a blend for me, partly because I my skin seems to amp it outrageously and partly because I don't like it. This seems like mostly lemongrass and lime to me with barely a hint of anything else. There's a tiny weeny amount of coconut. This is the kind of scent I like in a wax tart but not as a perfume.

This is a spicy leather scent, with a really nice incense over the top. It does smell masculine to me, but not too much. Over time it's mostly leather and incense, but not in a loud way. It's soft. I think this scent is on the comforting side. I'd probably like it better without the pepper and pimento, but they're not bad. They give it an interesting twist.

Oddly sweet and resinous. And something like eucalyptus. It's a bold, kind of sharp scent. It's the sort of scent that seems medicinal to me because it smells like Vick's Vaporub. With cedar. Not really my kind of scent at all, but my dog thought it was very interesting and worthy of about a minute of concentrated sniffing.

I think this would be a great scent for people who like pine and evergreen wood scents. It has a sweetness to it that balances out the wood scent nicely. It's full and rather bold. Pine-ish scents sometimes smell like cleaning products to me, but this one doesn't. It smells earthy and natural. ETA: I want to amend my review to say that this oil is really lovely when it's dry. Sweet and woody and a little bit creamy, too. If you're unsure about it while it's wet, give it a chance. It lingers on the skin for quite a while and is surprisingly soft and comforting after a couple of hours.

I think Lear is my least favorite of the Illyria ones. It doesn't smell as soft and refined as the othe ones. There's nothing gentle about this -- it's harsh and herby. The cedarwood is pretty nice, but I don't like the blue sage and bay leaf. I know this is supposed to be for a man, but I don't really want my husband to smell like this.

This is really strong and has way too much eucalyptus in it for my liking. To be honest I always avoid all the notes listed for this blend, so it really didn't stand much of a chance that I'd like it. And... I really don't like it.

The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetery loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead. Dirt notes usually amp like crazy on my skin, so I was expecting to get nothing but "cemetery loam" out of this scent. Strangely enough, juniper seems to be the most dominant. It does smell earthy and like a forest. The juniper's a little too strong for me personally, but I like this scent a lot better than most of the dirt scents.

This is a very odd scent on me. It smells like a combination of weird old-lady powder and hair spray. I am extremely not fond of this. I don't even know which note is being objectionable here, but I suspect it's the carnation and lemon combination.

Woah, that is one floral floral. It smells almost like a carnation single note on me. The rose is there but it's really subtle. Unfortunately neither of those are my favorite notes, so this one isn't working for me.

This is a darker violet than most of the BPAL violet blends, I think. I like it with the sandalwood. It seems like it's kind of earthy -- not in a dirty way, but in a grounded, natural way. It doesn't smell creamy or dewy or like petals like some floral blends do. It just seems wispy and darker. In all the BPAL violet blends I've tried, the violet seems to be really strong on me. I think it's prettier than some other florals, so I'm not really complaining, but since they all kind of smell the same on me I think I better just pick one favorite violet one. I don't think it's this one. I think it's probably going to be either Sybaris or Morgause.

Smells like wine and herbs. The wine is quite strong, but it kinda smells more grapey than winey. Like grape juice that has a little bit of alcohol in it. It doesn't smell bitter on me the way it apparently does on other reviewers, but it does smell... strange. There's nothing really bad about it, I just think this isn't my kind of scent.

A dark smoky scent -- the lavender is a little too strong for me personally, but lavender usually is not a problem at all on my husband, which is handy since I think this oil will smell a lot better on him than it does on me. This does seem masculine to me, even though I often wear dark smoky scents myself. The only thing I don't like about this scent is the lavender, which is distorting that lovely wispy smokiness a tad. I'll hand this one over to the hubby and see how it works on him.

A pretty, sweet floral. The gardenia is pretty strong on my skin, but the lilac is giving it a run for its money. Although I like lilac, there are some other BPAL blends with lilac that I like better than this one. However, this isn't bad at all. It smells soft, like petals. Pretty. Feminine. I like it.

This oil is green, which I think is cool. However, I don't really care for the scent of it. It smells like burnt herbs on my skin, kind of sharp and acrid. It's interesting, but not something I'd wear as perfume.

There's a cold note in this, and it's coming out strongly on my skin. (Unfortunately.) Until the cold note came out, I smelled a lovely sticky pine scent -- not the dry woody pine I usually smell, but a deep earthy pine. (Not to say it smells like dirt because it doesn't. Just resinous and sweet and natural.) I'm surprised this isn't more popular than it appears to be -- I thought that a lot of people liked the pine scents, and this is one of the best ones. It definitely smells good on my skin, and the cold note isn't as strong in this one as it is in the cold foresty Yule scents. The pine in this doesn't smell like cleaning products or astringent; it smells very natural. Like I said, I think this is one of BPAL's best pine scents. I'm sort of waiting for it to catch on among fans.

The scent of a Cosmopolitan cocktail. Fizzy and sweet -- smells a lot like a tart lime soda. I thought it would smell boozey, but it doesn't seem to. It's kind of a carefree, fun scent. It smells happy. Would be great to wear in the summer. I like this one a lot better than Swank or Twenty-One.

This smells wispy and sweet and has a nice wood undertone. Something about this scent smells like a tea party to me, even though I've never been to a tea party. It doesn't smell hazy or smoky or anything, but it definitely has kind of a ghostly quality. Soft and gentle. It smells old-fashioned to me.

The verbena seems fairly strong at first, and then the rosemary and lavender come out. It ends up smelling like a sweet herbal scent, slightly medicinal -- the lavender and verbena are most prominent.

This smells like bitter coffee and soap on me. I've tried it a couple of times and it just isn't working on me. That's okay though -- I have yet to want to wear anything coffee-scented as perfume, so I didn't expect this one to work. ETA: I received a new imp of Mata Hari in December 2021, and it actually smells really nice on me! Not bitter at all, and not soap. It smells like a dry woody scent with a bit of round rose floral and deep fig. I am really enjoying this now.

Overly floral and way too much jasmine for me. I like the tuberose and lime combination though. The lime's sorta cute. Actually now that it's drying it's not quite so bad. I kinda like it. It's turning into a very pretty scent.

Odd. This smells minty AND powdery on me, and it's a very strange combination. It's a soft mint, not a piercing one, and the florals are pretty gentle. It's nice, but too floral for me.

Very strong on the apples in this one. There's some wood underneath the appley scent, but not much. I think the scent is pretty but it smells an awful lot like that Salon Selectives shampoo I used about 15 years ago, so I wouldn't wear this as perfume.