abejita

I love the scent of cherries—all kinds, from tart to sweet—but I am sort of picky about what I like them paired with in perfumes. Something about the dried cherries and blackberry wine just marries so well, making both even better. This is a multi-layered scent that goes through most of the notes and then dries down in an interesting mix of silk/leather and dark, rich fruit (the rose is somehow part of the fruit), and a velvety resin base. I love it.

The description is exactly what you get. Lilac backed by light vanilla and a hint of resin (the benzoin). I am not a big florals person, but I dearly love lilac. I’ve tried a few blends with lilac, but they’ve always been coupled with other notes that just aren’t me. Vanilla one of my all-time favorites, and I am not disappointed by this blend. I’ve found my lilac, and this is it!

It starts out with bright, tart, luscious guava. The dry down is where the slightly more vegetal fig and the smoothness of the vanilla cream come out and balance that loud tartness. Love it, definitely a keeper.

Mine just came and this is so aptly named. The scent is a light and bright haze with delicate notes. It reminds me of some of the Shunga Vulvas from the last couple of years. It's like Triumphant Vulva has collided with Abalone Vulva, and there is some scissoring going on. In a good way. With stars. The gardenia is creamy and not overwhelming, and I'm happy that I'm not getting any indolic character to it. The orris is delicate and adds sweetness and texture, but isn't coming off very powdery. The white amber and vanilla (and it really is a "sheer") vanilla are giving me that starry vibe. I think the tobacco flower leans that way as well. The coconut meat gives it some body. I don't detect the violet, tuberose, or mugwort, and I do know what all those things smell like. Love it.

I agree with one of the reviews above me. If you took BPAL and layered it with BPAL... yes. That would be this. It starts out as rose-incense-musk-snake oil. The resinous incense-y notes are dominant, with a spicy rose right behind it. The Snake Oil takes the back seat, but it is coming across to me enough that I think with aging it will emerge as much stronger. When I get a Snake Oil variant that I can't smell the SO at all, it doesn't usually improve with time. When I CAN detect it, it does tend to deepen and emerge more with age. Even un-aged, this is a keeper. I think it will only get better.

I agree with the review above--straightforward, as advertised. It's not a dry cacao, it's distinctly fudgy. I think I am getting more throw than they are, however. I have on a very small amount, and I can smell it without bringing my wrist to my nose. I have gotten pickier about chocolate scents as time has gone on, but this one is definitely a keeper for me.

Perfectly balanced. The dried cherry is distinctly dried and has a concentrated, almost jammy cherry feel to it. The spun sugar brings out the cherry even more, and the incense draws it away from being overly gourmand. It's dark, sexy, and it's a keeper.

I love red amber so much. It's almost always paired with other notes I dislike, so I was excited to see it in a scent that appealed to me. I can immediately detect the red amber. The musk is sweet, but not nearly as heavy and perfume-y as red musk often turns on me. Saffron and honey always go well together, giving a bit of richness and spice to the blend. It does read as smelling "red" to me, which is a nice trick when not relying on fruits or roses to lend it that vibe. As it fades, the red amber and musk stay dominant on me, with the honey/saffron combo going faint. I think that might balance with some age. I'll be wearing this one a lot.

Sniffing this in the bottle, my first impression is that it's bright and deep at the same time. On my skin, it unfolds into something lovely. The skin musk, orris butter, and pale amber notes sort of make a chord together, all light and clean but not at all sterile or high-pitched. The rose and vanilla seem melded together. I wonder if people who are hesitant about rose might like this one. The rose has a very velvety feel to it, and I don't parse this as a floral dominant blend at all. The spun sugar adds some ethereal sweetness. It's a scent that feels like it has a lot of texture to it, somehow. I'm definitely keeping this bottle. Love it.

Burnt honey! It smells like bochet-style mead (which is, of course, made from burnt honey), without the alcohol. I can detect some creaminess and muskiness from the milk and ambrette, but the dark, caramelized burnt honey is the star of this show. It's beautiful, and I love it. If you've had trouble with honey notes, then this one might be something you'd like to try. It's not at all floral, and the sweetness is heavily tempered. As it dries down, I get more of the milk, and I think it keeps the honey from edging into "charred" territory. I haven't smelled this particular honey note in anything BPAL has done so far, and I'd love to see other iterations of it. The milk note is one that works well on my skin, but it does smell like the same note I've seen others complain about going "sour" or "off." So that's a consideration.

One day out of the mail, this reminds me of a mix between last Halloween’s Pumpkin Booze and The Magician’s Wand. The sandalwood is sunlit and golden, and the pumpkin is sweet and gourmand-but-not-foodie. I’m definitely holding onto this one. It’s lovely to wear now, but experience tells me it will age into something even lovelier.

I think this one will need more time to rest and come together. Right now, it’s strongly dominated by apricot, with the peach coming in second. I can detect the resins and rice milk, but none of the cardamom. This scent has one helluva throw.

Can the entirety of my review be “Beth! Why didn’t you do this ten years ago so I could have it already aged?!” More seriously, it’s lovely. It’s wearable and enjoyable now. The Smut and the Snake Oil meld, yet are still distinctly recognizable. It’s dark, rich, resinous, musky. I am going to break my no back-ups rule. I have a bottle of Smut from... 2006? It’s well over 10 years old. It’s so fucking gorgeous. I have Snake Oil from 2005, and it’s a goddamn treasure. I confess I’ve been tempted to mix them before, but now I don’t have to.

This scent is more than the sum of its parts. I almost passed on trying it at all. Orris is okay, but not something that draws me in. Lotus is often just straight up bubblegum. But I read the reviews, and I remembered how much I like Beth's pink musk and how she interprets "pink" in general. It's pearlescent, delicate, exquisite. Something about this one has texture. Usually, a fragrance that feels so strongly textured is velvety or heavy, but this one is hummingbird feathers and dewy flower petals. It's fresh without being soapy or ozone-y. It's one of Beth's lovely spring-in-a-bottle scents without being a field of wildflowers. It's floral but not floral. I'm getting a bottle.

This is my favorite out of the 13s, far and above. I haven't tried them all, but I've been ordering BPAL for 15+ years now, so I've tried a fair spread. It starts out high-pitched, but not screeching. I agree with doomsday_disco about the almost citrus-like quality of the initial sugar. As time goes on, it gets darker and darker, until it smells very turbinado/brown sugary and warm. The longevity is far better than I expected with a perfume like this. Just moving around about the day, I'd often get a whiff of something lovely, and realize it was me, and I tend to apply lightly. There is something like Smut going on here, but obviously without the musks. It's that dark and sexy sugar that comes out as the scent morphs during the day. I do agree that it would be good for layering. I have some old single notes that I don't often wear because they just don't appeal to me on their own (Spanish Carnation, Mandarin Orange, Siberian Musk, especially), and I think this will make them much more wearable. I will say, though, that I'll probably wear this one plenty on its own. It's that good. I love how Beth can take something like sugar and put together so many variants.