myth

Woodiness and earthiness, as it dries distinct vetiver emerges. There's also a sweetish note, and some spices. Why do I want to say nutmeg? This one fades bizarrely fast on me; usually the dark scents linger forever, but a few minutes after application and I have to sniff closely to smell it, because I'm getting zero throw. Overall impression is smoky, woody, a tad earthy, resinous and dark, but with just a touch of sweetness and spice. I actually like this one a good bit; I enjoy the darker scents.

Herbal from the vial, coming in with something green and soapiness on my skin. Fresh detergent smell, overall. This does not register to my nose as lavender, for whatever reason. I've never tried the released version.

Vetiver, wood, and alcohol? Ew, starting to smell like an ashtray as it dries. As it becomes more ashtray a perfumey floral also emerges, and boy is this foul. I even usually like vetiver, but this one goes so very very wrong. A faint background of something that smells like a cloying perfume [eau de cheap 'ho] and lots of dirty ashtray. So nasty I have to go wash, I can't let this one play out.

Ew, perfumey hairspray musk. Based on some of the other reviews I thought this one might be good, but no. I don't get any spices or incense in here, just hairspray musk and floral perfumeyness. Some kind of big, cloying florals in here, definitely. Headache-inducing.

Skittles. Lime, fruitness, sweet and just a bit tart. Not too dry and biting like citrus can be. I can see why this one is loved by citrus lovers; it's a bright, fun scent. As it dries I begin to get the woodiness that other reviewers mention… I'm not sure it smells entirely like sandalwood or bay to me, but yeah, I'm getting something. I actually like it better now! It reminds me of being inside a Pier One or World Bazaar, and despite not being in any way aquatic or salty it makes me think of being on a boardwalk by the sea on a sunny day. I didn't expect to like this one, but I kind of do. Way later all that is left is a lingering muskiness.

A very realistic rose scent from the vial, dewy and fresh, with a bit of cut stem in there. On me of course it turns powdery instantly, and the green aspect amps. Floral *and* green is double doom, so it's always fun to see two doom notes trying to death match each other. Green seems to be winning this one, but powdery floral is on its heels. Somehow both of them manage not to soap, and this stays identifiably rose, albeit a heavy cloying one, in contrast to the light dewyness I get from the vial. As it dries further I do begin to pick up some sourness that could be the Dragon's Blood other reviewers are getting, which always kind of smells like hairspray to me. Getting worse as it dries, and it wasn't for me to begin with.

Vetiver! Very woody and smoky. A bit of a BBQ feel, yes, smoky and a touch sweet. From the throw I get sweetness, up close more smokiness. I actually kind of like this. Not sure it's something I'd wear, but yeah, the campfire smell appeals to me. Too bad I hate camping, otherwise I might have a reason to wear a scent like this.

This smells like my grandmother's makeup drawer. A combination of old-fashioned, gone-over perfume, chalky powder, and that peculiar nasty smell ancient lipstick has. Gross. There is an extremely aggressive floral of some kind in here. Beyond that I have no idea. It's giving me a headache.

From the vial, peppery cologne, sharp and nose biting. Cologne amps like crazy once on, quite sharp and unpleasant. As it dries, the insanely amping cologne begins to turn into insanely amping perfumey florals, and this goes from awful to awful + headache. Washing this one off.

Lots of peach from the vial, it goes on skin peach and floral, and then the floral begins amping like mad and is soapy. Something green and bitter comes into the mix, and adds extra soap. Peach is a faint and fading memory. How disappointing; for a minute I thought this might be good. Within two minutes on my skin it is all perfumed soap.

Green and soapy like Irish Spring at first. Dries to soapy aquatic over a woody base. There's something slightly salty in here too. The opening is obnoxious but it closes much calmer, with an appealing fresh-sawn wood smell in the mix, plus salt and a now fainter aquatic that is still a tinge soapy. The end is way better than the beginning, but still not my type of scent.

Very herbal… lavender... sage too, I think. And a woody quality in the background. This is ok. Herbal scents aren't my favorite, but usually I find BPAL's lavender quite harsh, and this isn't really, it's much softer and nicer than usual, and not paired with any floral notes or anything else I can't wear. The woodiness is quite lovely. I might wear something like this as a sleep blend, but it's not something I'd wear as perfume. This actually continues to soften and sweeten as it dries until the throw is quite lovely indeed. Sniffing up close it's still pretty herbal, but the throw almost has a vanilla tinge to it, and the overall impression is quiet and meditative. I might have to look for a decant of this, I kinda like it, and would wear it for sleep/calm if I had some.

There's something a bit aquatic in here and I was expecting this one to go cologney-soap based on my sniff from the vial. It does have a little of that in there on my skin, but mostly it goes sort of golden and sunny, and reminds me a lot of a NA scent... Halcyon, I think, which was Coriander, Lavender, Vanilla, Heliotrope, Tonka Bean, Patchouli, Caramel, Bergamot, so one or more of those notes perhaps. I get hints of a floral, and some fruit for a little while. It might have just a touch of hay. I wasn't quite sure what I was smelling, so I read reviews and then reapplied a little bit over the same spot, and yes, I do get a cold evergreen, but it was kind of getting lost in the slightly soapy aquatic notes this begins with. The reapplication seems to have made those stronger, as well. There might be musk in here too, that could be soaping on me as well. This is an odd and interesting scent. Ultimately the soapy-aquatic makes it not for me, but for a scent with an aquatic note in it, it's not that bad really; those usually do not play well on me at all. It's a bit foresty outdoorsy, and it seems more sunny and gold to me than chilly, but I do get just a whisper of cold evergreen, as though it's one of the last hurrah warm days in late fall, where your skin is warm but winter is on the wind, and the sunlight is pale gold. It starts quite aquatic but dries down more musky foresty, and I vastly prefer the end to the beginning.

Floral, something biting and a touch green, woodiness. The floral is managing to not amp over everything else right away. This is fairly multifaceted, and I'm sort of having a hard time deciding what I'm smelling. There is a floral, but it's not perfumey. There some wood and something masculine, but it's not cologney. There's some greenness, but it's not soapy. For a brief while it smells as I'm sure it's intended to. Then it really gets settled in and the cologne comes out. Once dry, the green has turned soapy, and the throw is like standing next to a man who took a shower with Irish Spring and then slapped on some cologne. The cologne amps unbelievably in the end stages, and this seems to get stronger and stronger, until it arrived at the "get it off!!!" point for me and I had to go wash.

Astringent orange. Quite harsh and biting, like an orange-scented cleanser [but not soapy]. Softening a little as it dries, but also developing a slightly powdery aspect. Getting more cloying as it continues to dry. Becoming more fake chemical orange, like Tang or something. I don't get any sweetness from this at any point, and by the time it is dry it doesn't even really smell orange, it smells like a scratch and sniff interpretation of orange. Unpleasant.

EXACTLY like Bazooka Joe bubblegum… that powdery, chemically, vaguely bubblegum weirdness, dead on. Gross. I also detect some cinnamon as it dries.

A soft, damp and pink feeling light floral from the vial, it immediately turns powdery on my skin and begins amping into perfumey floral of doom. Later it backs off and becomes less perfumey, more powdery floral, something a little green... woody stems, perhaps. Final dry-down is floral floral floral... it's lost its delicacy and is dryer and heavier than it was at first.

Some citrus and powdery cleanness that makes me think of diapers [clean ones!] from the vial. On skin a cologney aspect amps like mad, and it becomes soapy. Manly soap. The soaps rolls back once it's dry, and then I might smell tea. Still very cologney, but much more pleasant now. Masculine, but not the kind I like. I might be picking up on some vanilla, or something a little sweet, also. Looking at other reviews I see they say lavender, so I checked it again and yes, but it's so soft and unlike the usual BPAL face-slapping lavender I didn't recognize it. I think that's what registering as cologney to me. Hmm... coconut... maybe? That could be the sweetness. But it's not very coconutty to me, which, BPAL coconut often isn't, so that may or may not mean anything. This isn't terrible once fully dry, but it's not really my kind of scent.

Dry, astringent citrus. Smells like a hospital, sort of antiseptic + cleanser. As it dries I swear I'm picking up faint honey. Also it's becoming powdery. Not for me.

Mmmm! Dark, woody, resiny darkness. Even reminds me a little of Damnation. Getting a touch of pine/eucalyptus as it settles in. The eucalyptus goes away quickly, but it gets kind of funky and almost animalistic… civet maybe? Something earthy [but not dirt], and increasing smokiness. And perhaps pine tar. On full dry it's quite woody... cedar maybe. I see other reviews say vetiver, and this is a more smoky-woody type of vetiver than what was in Velvet Tiger, so it didn't just scream vetiver at me. But yeah. Also I think there could be patchouli in here too... the combo making the funky earthy scent I get for a while before it dries out and become more woody. This has some iffy moments, but overall is in the vein of things I like, and the dry down is pretty nice. A very dark scent. ETA: after looking at other reviews I had dabbed just a tiny bit more on over the same testing spot to see if I got the vetiver, and I have to say that second application amped the vetiver much more, and it dried down a LOT smokier and with more gritty ash the second time than it did the first. I've noticed vetiver can do this on me... a light application often smells much much better than a heavy one does, and that was DEFINITELY the case here.

Mint and eucalyptus over something funky and almost animalistic. Nauseating. This opens my sinuses and makes my eyes burn, and it smells like minty fresh ass.

Medicinal, electric, and soapy all at once. Has herbal qualities and watery qualities. Bizarre, and kind of interesting despite not being my kind of scent. It's just so odd! Getting a touch of cologne as it dries, still with medicinal herbs and dry bitter/peppery spices in the background, less water more soap. The dry herb and spicy bits eventually disappear into a green-soapy-cologne mishmash.

Super headache-inducing perfumey floral with strong chemical tones. This was awful from the wand, and I didn't test it.

Count me in the Pledge camp. I get zero sweetness or creaminess, and nothing even remotely foody from this. I also don't get coconut. I do get bitter, sinus-clearing lemon/lemongrass. And an almost oily-chemical edge that just... makes me think of Pledge. Totally.

From the wand: soap! On my skin: soapy cologne. Amps and becomes even more headachey as it dries.