savage_rose

Sweet and spicy. Perfectly balanced, and the sweetness undercuts the pepper and patchouli (two notes that can easily overpower a blend). It smells like a wild bacchanal, festive and yet slightly menacing. I am so surprised by what a great blend this is!

I would not have known that this was a Snake Oil blend by first smell at all! At first it's all white floral, sweet yet sophisticated. But over time the Snake Oil comes out, adding a gentle warmth. This is definitely one of my my favorites of the Snake Pit.

On me, this isn't dark at all. It's sweet and seductive, and a little spicy. Just a hint of airy incense. I don't always smell "colors" with BPAL, but this one smells very hot pink-magenta to me. I like it a lot, but it is not what I was expecting.

In the bottle it was almost all lavender, but on it seems perfectly matched with the vetiver for a cool, crazy sharpness. I can barely detect the cocoa, but it smells like the dry, unsweetened kind--very bitter. This scent is so complex I don't think I can adequately describe it. But it's sharp, herbal, alert and mellow, and it's the kind of scent that will have people sniffing you over and over, wondering what smells so very good and yet so very strange.

It smells like incense on me. Incense and a touch of leather...smudging incense, with a touch of sweetness. Really nice, and one of those scents that can go either way, masculine or feminine, depending on the sniff. Very nice.

At first I smell the olive leaf most strongly, very green, and then it gives way to a salty green smell, and yes, that hint of mystery mint. And the whole lovely scent is undercut by the warmth of snake oil, like the ocean and its sandy beach alongside. A beautiful scent, and slightly contemplative.

It smells a little like a cherry-citrus wine spritzer in the bottle, and on smells like a very light, tart cologne (there's a hint of flowers, maybe it's a garnish). It's very bubbly and effervescent. Light and lovely.

Smoked almond in the bottle (don't go powdery, don't go powdery). It smells like the masculine equivalent of Hecate. On, it does indeed powder out. It smells like smoky almond baby powder. Sigh. It smells so lovely in the bottle though, maybe if I slather it on less almond will absorb into my skin. Or maybe I can use it as a room scent. Sigh.

I can't believe I never reviewed this! This is one of my favorites from the series, but is not very wanton. Sweet floral with a sharp undertone I can't quite make out. This is definitely pre-vampire, white dress, "Ooh I do so love Arthur and my dear Mummy" Lucy. White dresses and the innocent act, all the way .

On me, Jack was so overwhelmingly PUMPKIN! that I had trouble smelling anything else--in the blend, for an hour afterward, etc. Pumpkin Queen, on the other hand, is much lighter and sweeter to me. It smells like delicious, gently pumpkin pie cookies, crumbly and sweet. It's such a wonderful blend, and certainly my favorite containing pumpkin.

It smells like earthy incense to me...with a somewhat creamy, neutral kind of scent, vanilla maybe. Very stable, light, and a little sexy. And it morphs a bit. Sometimes it smells a bit dusty, sometimes creamy. And I just caught a whiff of Dragon's Blood. Lovely.

Ahhhh...wonderful. Smoky, sweet, floral...seductive, but not self-consciously so. I smell the ozone note that someone else mentioned, but on me it's just another layer to a lovely, complex scent. It makes the floral present but not overpowering...I love this.

LEMONHEADS! Lemonheads when you bite into them, and it's a rush of citrus and sugar. A hint of floral behind it, but it's so faint I can't tell what it is. Lemon lemon lemon lemon...but a good lemon, essential oil lemon, not Pledge or dishwashing detergent.

This is all lavendar and balsam on me: it smells like a really, really lovely shampoo. Lovely and comforting, sweet and feminine without being too girly. And actually, not very sorry for anything...it doesn't really embody this Heroine aspect to me, but it's gorgeous all the same.

This blend started out as a sloppy floral...kinda clumsy and unbalanced. And as it dries, it screams "licorice", and I totally get the root beer note that someone else did. Now I don't like drinking root beer, but it's an interesting scent. Although even that seems to be fading away into...nothing? I don't know about this one. It does remind me how I feel after flying into a rage though: embarassed, and very silly.

For some reason this smells like Snake Oil on me O_o. Vaguely floral Snake Oil. I'm not sure how this is possible, but there's possibly magnolia, and then...Snake Oil. Very strange.

Sweet, perfectly balanced floral...I can smell the jasmine, rose, and lavender, but only if I'm concentrating on each individual note. This reminds me a lot of one of my favorite perfumes when I was little, the drugstore favorite L'Effleur (sp?), although this is a lot nicer. Sweet (not overly so), with a powdery impression that is all boudoir and not "notes going poof". A cool, crisp blend...well done. ETA: And oh my...after 2 1/2 hours, it's become this lovely musky floral, warm and deep and dead sexy. It's incredible. I am going to have to get at least a bottle of this, yes oh yes. ETA: And it's just now fading! Wow, THAT's staying power. 8 1/2 hours.

She boldly goes forth to meet her lover, heedless of propriety, intoxicated by love, and radiant with youthful, innocent passion: Damascus rose, African orchid, cream accord, and Kashmir musk. When I first put this on, it reminds me of this soap I loved as a child, "Mon Chel" I believe. I was crazy for rose scents, but this is such a subdued rose...it blends so well with the rest of the notes that I think even people who aren't that crazy about roses might really love this. And as it dries, it smells like creamy, warm, slightly spiced rose with other florals...completely, completely beautiful.

Honeyed flowers with a touch of currant. No sandalwood, although something's powdering out on me. But I love it anyway...although there's no almond here, it's got that "woody nut" sensibility to it to me. I think it would rock in a scent locket...honey almond-ish scents just make me giddy with earthly delight. Even if I do want to keep calling it "Spanakopita". Hey, it could be worse, it could be one of the several I keep wanting to call "Kajagoogoo" .

Dressed seductively and sumptuously, reclining in a bed strewn with glorious, sensual blooms, she awaits the arrival of her lover. Her breath is quick with anticipation, and her cheeks are flushed with passion: skin musk, wild orchid, champaca flower, amaranth, tonka bean, and French vanilla. I CANNOT put my finger on this one...at first it smelled like nothing on me ("Hey, am I just so darn sexy I smell like this naturally?"), but now it seems to be screaming FLORAL! POWDER! TROPICAL FRUIT! It smells a little like Super Bad's "Holidays on a Pirate Ship" that I sampled once, but less rummy and more floral. Surprisingly though, it seems to be a hit with the husband. I think I might get a bottle and let it age as well...this did not meet my high expectations, but it met his. Hmmm, I'll definitely give this another try.

I was trying to pick notes out of this without looking at the description, but after failing miserably I know why . It smells like sweet, resinous powdery (but not in the bad way) cologne. It smells so sweetly sexy, sexy in a fun, flirtatious way and not in a "down and dirty" way. It's very complex, and so light yet rich. I'll be getting a bottle of this before it goes away, because it is just that fabulous. It even made my husband involuntarily raise his eyebrow, and get that heavy-lidded look like he was under my spell and ready to become my slack-jawed love slave. Hmm, maybe I'll put on a little less next time .

A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930’s. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. I tried this last year when I first got into BPAL and was not impressed as a skin scent, only as a locket or room scent. So I am trying it again, and reviewing my decant imp of this year's version . Red Lantern 2007: This is how I remember somewhat fresh RL smelling: coconut caramel drying down to this bizarre stale air smell. It doesn't smell bad, just...off. Like an unsweetened, non-alcoholic Pina Colada mix--kinda there, not altogether pleasant, and there's something lacking. Red Lantern 2006: Trying it again, there's a big, big difference. More of the coconut remains, and it's deepened into this...sweet, slightly perfumed substantial scent. Sort of a smoky coconut...it stays really close to the skin, but in that "ooh, he has to get closer to smell it!" way. My husband's ever-brief comments were "Woodsy. Sweet". Yeah, that too. I like it a lot better aged!

This smells like a green sharpness cut with dulled, dried herbs. Very "herb cupboard"like, a bunch of scents mixed together, but there's something sort of medicinal about it...I think it's the benzoin. At first I smelled more herbs, but now I'm smelling more sharp medicinal smell than anything. I can't decide if I like this...sometimes it smells like a clean, sage smell, and then it will smell like Ben-Gay. Yeah. The jury's still out on this one!

It smelled like Perfumed Garden to me outside the imp, but once on my skin, it smelled almost exactly like White Moon. And when I checked the notes, "lilac" and "calla lily" are listed, so it's no wonder that they're very similar (2 notes in this are "blue lilac" and "stargazer lily", very close). I think these are the two notes my skin is just really amping like crazy, although there's kind of a...dirty note in there, like I'm wearing perfume to cover up not bathing (I think that's the cedar). Which totally fits in with the concept I guess (maybe she is depressed and does not bathe regularly?), but it just doesn't smell all that fabulous on me. Maybe someone who doesn't amp these florals would love it, though...I think there might be a lovely subtlety there for the right person.

I tried dabbing this on both my husband and I, and I made the mistake of sniffing too closely and too deeply. I THINK IT SINGED MY NOSE HAIR...ow, the burning. I generally revel in a good, deep inhalation, but that was a killer. A night of perfume debauchery cut all too short by a careless sniff. A lesson well heeded, kids. And don't sniff this until you're at least 21. So, after I (somewhat) regained my powers of olfactory analysis, I realized that it reminded me of something else...sniff sniff. NYQUIL. Not only the alcohol, but something kind of medicinally green. And as it dries...Absinthe, much more pleasant. So yeah, alcohol and something else (possibly herbal). And it definitely loses potency as it dries and sits, but that's a good thing with this one, IMO. Unless you're trying to pick someone up at a bar, in which case this might very well make you irresistable.