lightgatherer

This blend actually worked fairly well on my skin - nice amber with decent berries. The iris, fortunately, was nowhere to be seen. The spices, unfortunately, were also nowhere to be seen. Without the spices the berry and amber blend, though nice, was a bit boring. I wouldn't see every really wearing this.

This was the biggest disappointment I've had in a while. When I first apply it, it smells like unwashed female genitals. Is that the skin musk? That scent dies down after a short while, and the honey and some of the spices come out. Unfortunately, this stage isn't long, and the throw is almost nothing. After a relatively short time, the scent dies completely.

Initially very floral; I'm not certain if it's the incense or the laurel, but it's got a ton of throw. The boy smelled it from across the room and later commented that I smelled like a Glade room freshener. Dries down to a yummy scent (I'm assuming the honey wine). I like the drydown, but it's very faint, and it's not worth the overwhelming air freshener smell.

This smells to me just like All Souls with a little bit of cedar mixed in. Unfortunately, I don't get any of the spices or other notes - just a sweet and slightly fruity incense. I definitely like this, but I don't think I have a pressing need for more since I do have a bottle of All Souls.

This is what I wanted Beaver Moon to be - a delicious, buttery cake scent with a hint of spice lurking in there. I never really pick up on the milk, honey, or wine in this - it's all buttery yellow cake. And really, I'm okay with that. It doesn't ever go plastic on me, it's got a decent throw in the beginning, and it's very nice closer to the skin after that. Finally, a BPAL baked goods scent that works on me, yay!

Initially grape and berries, very fruity. Grape quickly mellows into wine, and becomes the most lovely sweet red wine with berry accents. No ugly stages with this but unfortunately wears off very quickly.

Wow, either something is off with my nose or with my skin chemistry - all I get from this is men's cologne. It's not a bad smell, and I wouldn't mind it on a guy, but it's not something I want to smell like myself.

I didn't like this one quite as much as I expected to. The linen note was a bit florally and perfumey and took away from the other notes in the blend. I do get some nice spicy and sweet notes from the vanilla, honey, and ginger, but they're a bit smooshed by the linen. This is more of a spring scent for when I'm more open to florals. I'll keep my imp, but I'm not sure I'll need more than that.

This is like Blood Kiss on me but less sweet and much, much woodier. I don't dislike The Red Queen, but I don't ever see choosing to wear her over Blood Kiss. Off to swaps.

I had a feeling that I was going to like this one, and I did. Despite amber and I being great friends, I never really got any amber from this. Mostly on me this scent was vanilla tempered with something slightly watery and sweet (I'm assuming the sweet pea). I'm not sure I'll need a bottle, but I'm definitely going to keep my imp.

I get a flash of butter when I apply this, but it melds over pretty quickly into rice pudding. The boy thinks this smells like a vanilla candle so there's probably some vanilla in here that I'm not really picking up on. Mostly to me this is just slightly spiced, sweet, warm rice pudding. This dies after a few hours, so it just means I need a bottle so I can reapply readily.

This scent is a faint one - for about 20 mins after I put it on, I couldn't detect any scent at all. Once the scent started to come out, I definitely liked it - golden, warm, and slightly spiced. I thought it was a perfect match for the day I wore it - a gloriously sunny Indian summer day with a nip of fall that called out the spice craving. Unfortunately, this scent is so subdued I could only smell it when I smashed my nose into my wrist. I think I'll slather it the next time I wear it to see if that helps.

This is indeed cake, but this lacks the rich buttery cake note like in Cockaigne. This is more of a sweet and light cake, like angel food cake. I get a brief hint of the currant at one point, but it's never dominant. This has an incredibly weak throw. It's not a bad scent at all, but I'll keep Cockaigne as my cake scent.

Ginger tea? This smells more like grapefruit tea on me. Eventually, the grapefruit starts smelling more like lemon. The scent is weak, and I never get any ginger. It's not a bad scent, just not one I really like.

On application I got a sharp burst of rosemary that sadly didn't last. The scent almost immediately turned to soap and stayed soapy for a long time. After a while the rose started to peek out, but the rose still had a soapy note to it. Not a terrible scent but one I can give up easily.

Hey, it's Lady Macbeth and Montressor again! I wish I could pick up on some of the other notes here, but the sweet wine smell basically takes over them all. Don't get me wrong - I definitely like this scent, but there's nothing to distinguish it from the other wine scents I like too. Some day I want to try on all three for side-by-side comparison. Ooh, as this wears on the sugar notes come out more - this is so sweet and yummy. This definitely has more wear than my other wine scents. I think I may need more.

Ugh, fake fruit smell. This reminds me a bit of the apricot note from another blend that didn't work well on me, but given that there's no apricot in here, I suppose that's the mango. The smell stays consistently fake fruit until it dies.

This is the first BPAL I've washed off in quite a while. After I put it on and for the first 20 minutes, on me it's sickly sweet floral baby powder. I don't know if it would have developed into anything else on me (like the cherry, cola, almond, and musk notes I read about in other reviews) because I didn't give it a chance. I'm normally very tolerant when testing something new and will wear something I hate for hours just to get all the nuances, but I didn't have the patience this morning - after 20 minutes I went to the bathroom and scrubbed it off.

Oh my gods. This is so good on me. The meade peeks out first, and I get a strong honey note. After that, I get nut and sweet creaminess creeping out more (presumably the hazelnut, almond, and buttercream). The rum stays politely in the background as more of a suggestion than outright booziness. Overall, this is very sweet, foody, and yummy on me. Unfortunately, it fades fast, so I'm going to need a bottle so I can slather and reapply often.

This reminds me of Pannychis at first - there's a definite element of that dry white wine throw. The fruit notes start to peek out after a bit. The floral elements become more insistently floral after a short while and kill the white wine and fruit. While this isn't a bad scent, it's just a bit too floral for me without a musk, wine, spice, or wood note to temper it.

Apple. Lots of apple. Unfortunately, this isn't the apple note that smells like a freshly cut apple - this apple smells like the fake apple in the Victoria's Secret apple shower gel. After a while the rose comes out, and the rose dominates for hours. Most of the scent dies after about three or four hours leaving a slightly fake apple note on my skin. This isn't terrible, but it's definitely not a winner.

On application smells briefly like fake almond flavoring. I was wary, but gave it more time. After the brief initial stage, the almond started warming up and becoming rich and buttery. The honey started coming out afterwards, and I smelled like delicious butter toffee almonds for hours. The spices make a slight appearance but are fairly negligible. My only complaint with this scent is that the throw is very weak. Because of the likelihood of needing to slather this, I will likely want a bottle.

This starts off as a faint sexy scent. I wore this a few days ago and can't recall any specific notes, but it was subtle and warm and sexy. At one point I think I smell patchouli trying to poke out, but the scent goes plastic before the patchouli can really take hold. I end up smelling like dirty plastic. This ends up drying down to a nice vanilla, but for a vanilla drydown I can wear scents that don't smell like dirty plastic.

Department store perfume. I'm not really getting any of the almond or musk on this; if I am, they're very different then I'm expecting them to smell. I'm not getting jasmine either. To me, this just smells like a department store perfume. It's not bad enough to try to wash off, but it's definitely off to swaps.

Rose. More rose. Rose some more. This isn't a bad rose, but it's still just rose and nothing but rose.