astarinel

I had my fingers crossed for this one, but it didn't end up working for me. Rose is not a good note for me generally, as it can amp and take over a scent and turn it a bit soapy. This goes on very heavily marshmallow, pink and chewy and sweet, but the marshmallow and rose combine to do something very dry and powdery. I never really detected any strawberry or vanilla or cream, just a sugary marshmallow rose that's very pink and girly and powdery. The drydown was pure powder, but it fortunately didn't last too long on my skin (which seemed true of many of the scents I tried in this series, for me).

Tart green apple. There honestly isn't much to say about this one other than that. It goes on very bright and almost sour, but as it dries the apple softens into more of a fleshy soft apple scent which is I guess the musk blending in, but I don't get anything musky really either. It's very simple and not overly sweet, but I have a lot of apple blends that are more complex and interesting to wear, in my opinion.

This goes on super fizzy, but as it dries the fizz scent really dissipates and leaves behind the fruits and florals. The florals are dominant for me in this one, but the pink jasmine doesn't smell like regular jasmine to me, and isn't the star player. I get a lot more honeysuckle. The fruits are kind of in the background, and a little indistinct. I expected the plum sugar to be more juicy and plummy, and it isn't. Overall this scent is a light purple floral with fruity undertones, airy and sweet and girly. It's not really my kind of scent, but it's pretty and doesn't have a ton of throw.

I'm happy that this is definitely prominently fruity. I love raspberry notes and there are so few of them! This is darkly purple fruit and berries with a bit of resin and incense. Very purple, not overly sweet. One of my favorites from the OLOP update!

So, I tried Smut way back in '07 when I first got into BPAL, and I remember there was a lot of excitement and hype about it at the time, so I expected it to be awesome, and I was crestfallen when I absolutely hated it. However, in the years since, my taste and nose have changed a bit, so I thought I'd try a decant of this year's Smut to see if it was me or the scent, and I don't know if this year is different or I like different scents now or what, but I don't hate it. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. The musk is definitely dark, which is usually bad for me, but the sugar and sweetness seem to keep it from going powdery. The sweet aspect of the scent fades as it dries, leaving a dark and pretty dirty/sexy musk behind.

At first this was all OH HAI RED MUSK and I was all ONOES RED MUSK but after I put it on the red musk seems to have chilled the hell out which I appreciate. I generally can't wear red musk blends, but there are a few where the other notes actually bring it into balance on my skin, and I was hoping this would be one of those. I can definitely smell all of the notes, and I can smell the mint in particular much more strongly than I expected to, along with what I guess is the elemi (citrussy/piney). I was hoping for a bit more of the tangerine and honey, but my skin seems to just eat them up. This is interesting and definitely not what I was expecting, but also not really for me.

That is definitely patchouli. I am not much of a patchouli person, although I enjoyed Banshee Beat and have bottles of blends with it as a background note, scents that feature it prominently just never really end up appealing to me. This one reads like the patchouli in Occupy to me, which is not really a good thing. I found that one sort of overwhelming, and it's doing the same thing here. It's dark and rough and a little woody, and the other notes, despite being favorites of mine, never really come into balance with it. Patchouli-lovers, this one's for you.

I find this a little... flat. It's golden, definitely, but the orris and ambergris are giving it a bit of a tang and soapiness that I'm not overly digging. It's definitely powdery and wears very close to the skin, and seemed to fade away pretty fast on me generally.

For what it's worth, my decant is very sludgey. It goes on very strong on the cocoa note, which is definitely bittersweet and not sugary, backed up by creamy vanilla and a little touch of lemon. It's this strange sort of gourmand scent that stops short of being actually foody, with the oudh and florals peeking out in the background. As it dries the foody aspects are the ones that fade away, and the rose in particular starts to come out. It's interesting and really unique, which I don't find myself saying often given the sheer amount of perfume I've tested over the years, but it never really sings on my skin. It's definitely worth a try if your perfume niche includes gourmand but not sweet and foody.

Surprisingly green and fresh and grassy. I guess I was sort of looking at this hoping that the notes I liked (beeswax, honey, and currant) would outweigh the notes I don't really (hemp and honeysuckle), and unfortunately for me it's exactly the opposite of what I wanted. It's a light, green, fresh scent that is definitely dominated by the hemp while wet. As it dries, the honey comes out a bit more strongly, but it's still just not what I was hoping for given the note list. Hemp being the first note is not an exaggeration, here.

The tea note in here is deep and gets almost a little smoky as it dries. The citrus notes are bright and fresh and a little bit bitter. As it dries and the citrus inevitably fades, I'm left with a complex black tea note. I don't think this one is for me, but it's an interesting, unisex sort of scent. I'm definitely going to pass the imp along to my boyfriend to give it a try. He loved Severin and is still working through a bottle of that, and I think this one might be a winner too.

This is not what I was expecting, and I don't really like it. Sugar cane can be a note that goes weird on my skin, and it's doing that thing here where it's vegetal, almost celery-like. I get a bit of the honey and currant, and it just reminds me of my Tomoe Gozen bath oil only not as nice since the sugar cane sort of ruins it. I don't really get any ginger at all. It gets a little better as it dries and the sugar cane fades a bit, but this one was not a winner on me.

I got a decant of this on a whim, as generally everything with rose spells fail-y doom on my skin, and I use the bath oils primarily as moisturizer. The name was just too awesome to pass up, and I tend to love everything honey. However, just like the previous reviewer, I fortunately get pretty much no rose out of this. It's definitely primarily a creamy floral honey scent that reminds me a bit of the honey hair gloss. Not overpoweringly sweet, and a bit vanilla. I found it pretty light, and it had very little scent after it soaked into my skin. I will happily use up the rest of my decant, but I think that's going to be enough for me. Worth seeking out if you like the Post's products with honey oil, and a lovely moisturizing oil as all of the Post bath oils are.

Was really hoping for more raspberry, but this is pretty much a buttery sugar cookie scent. I use bath oils as moisturizers on the skin, rather than in the bath, and it has the lovely texture that all the bath oils do, but the scent is SUGAR COOKIE and the squish of raspberry is very faint and only present if I huff long after it dries. It's nice if you just want cookies though.

This is definitely my favorite incarnation of Lick It. As others have noted, the peppermint note here is a lot softer and balanced nicely with the sugary vanilla musk. This is cool and minty, especially when wet, but not so sharp that it hurts my nose, and the sweet vanilla note is delicious. This is more like soft minty creamy candies, and less like a candy cane, but I'm not complaining.

Ugh I am disappointed. I always try the Snowballs scents, and they're always amazing in the imp, but they don't stay balanced on my skin. Within about 10 minutes of drydown, they tend to become mostly snow/slush notes. While I do like the lab's snow/slush notes, I prefer them when they're part of a blend. I loved the fruit in this one in the imp, and the lab's blueberry note is amazing, but it's gone so fast. I had the same heartbreak with Yellow Snowballs last year, where the imp scent was wonderful but it turned meh on my skin. In this one, although the blueberry disappears super-fast, the blackberry and lime do hang around a bit, but they're kind of overwhelmed by slush. In the long drydown, after about an hour, the slush finally starts to fade and I'm left with a very pretty chilly blackberry lime beverage kind of scent, but it takes too long to get to this stage.

This is one of those blends where I can smell all the individual notes, but they all still meld together really well. Dark musk is not one of my favorites, it can go a bit strong and sharp on my skin, and unfortunately that's keeping this blend from really being for me. I am glad I tried it however, and I'm going to pass the imp along to my boyfriend, because I find it pretty unisex but still sexy and a skin scent. I don't get the lemony aspect of the musk other people have mentioned, but the cacao is a really nice, slightly bitter chocolate, definitely not very foody. I'm not the biggest fan of tobacco notes, but here it melds really nicely with the other notes. It's not a me blend, but I can see why other people love it, and it's certainly very unique. I'm glad I tried it this time after passing on it a couple years ago and sort of regretting that after it became so sought-after.

Wow, I somehow was expecting this to be a light and pretty scent, I guess because I think of peony as a sort of watery sugary pink flower, but this is much heavier and foodier than I anticipated. The cream note is really, really thick and buttery and heavily dominates the scent while it's wet. It does fade off a bit as it dries, but it really seems like ultimately these two scent types just don't go together well to my nose. Heavy buttery cream + sweet watery flowers = olfactory weirdness, and I just can't get used to it. It might be nice for people who wear creamy and milky scents well, but I am not one of those people.

I didn't expect to like this one, as violet notes can be hit or miss for me, but this was my favorite of the Turn of the Screw scents that I sniffed. The violet here reminds me of the violet in Faith, which I love, and the long drydown ends up being very similar to Faith, with that sweetish violet scent dominating. While it's on and fresh, however, the other notes make this one fairly different from Faith, which is more sweet and vanilla. The tea and musk in The Governess keep this one fresher and a little brighter, which I'm really liking and finding pretty wearable. Although it feels like more of a spring scent than a winter scent to me, I might actually want to find a partial or a few more decants. Basically, this one smells to me very much like the note list, so if that appeals to you, you should try it. Similar violet notes in Faith, Le Serpent Qui Danse, and Sybaris, although the spice notes in the third make it a very different blend overall.

Very orangey and boozey, it reminds me a little of Butter Rum Cookie from a few years ago. This is really delicious, like orange rum-soaked gingerbread, but it verges on too foody for me. I'm impressed with how long the orange note stuck around on my skin, usually citruses fade away almost immediately. It's not incredibly sweet, but it is very much food-like in an almost distracting way. It's also very strong and has a good amount of throw. It's pretty different from the other gingerbready scents that I've tried, but I think I'll stick with my bottle of Gingerbread Poppet which is a little lighter and sweeter.

This is super fruity and bright in the imp, and I was totally excited until I actually put it on my skin. I love fizzy candy scents, Treat #1 and Spinning Metallic Multicolored Pinwheel are two of my favorite scents for summer. In the imp I'm smelling some citrus and berry fruity notes, and something a bit metallic and clean. I am one of those people who amp ozone to dryer-sheets levels, and that's what happened here. There is definitely an ozone component to this scent, and all I can smell now is laundry. Laundry overwhelming. For people whose skin chemistries are more kind to ozoney notes, this could be amazing. God this is so terrible on me I'm going to have to wash it off.

This was my favorite of the NYCC exclusives, and the only one I ended up buying for myself. This had something to do with the fact that my name is Jenn, but only a little. Peony is one of my favorite florals, and I love peach notes, so this was one of the blends I knew I wanted to test. It's very pretty, light, and airy as it first goes on, with the peony and peach prominent. As it dries I get a bit more of the amber and woods underlying the sweetness and giving the scent a little more depth. It's extremely wearable and elegant, with light throw, and it's more bright and pretty on me than sexy, making it a perfect daytime and work scent.

I have bottles of Beaver Moon '05 and '07, and I love them, but I passed on both '10 and '11 because they weren't cheesecake-y enough for me, and the other notes ended up overpowering the blend. I was intending to pass on this one, too, but I saw it out at NYCC and decided to give it a test anyway, and I'm so glad I did. The balance between the notes is just perfect, it blooms on my skin into this amazing creamy apple cheesecake with a touch of spice. It's round and edible and really well-blended, and definitely foody and sweet without being candied or cloying. It reminds me strongly of Beaver Moon '07, with different fruits atop the cheesecake. One of my favorite lunacies in a while. Edited to add: I bought a bottle of this on an impulse at NYCC AFTER signing up for a decant with a circle, and when I got my decant, it smelled the same as my bottle while it was in the decant, but it dried more cinnamon and spice on my skin, so there may be some batch variation there.

For guy scents, my boyfriend loves the spicy leathery musky ones, but he also has a couple that are more on the clean bright citrussy end of the spectrum. I would second the rec for Phobos, and add recs for a couple of the Gaiman scents They have some of my favorite unisex and masculine blends! Pollution - A toxic chypre: radioactive green musk, davana, and oozing white amber. Spider - White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime. Tristran - redwood, tonka bean, white sandalwood, lemon peel, patchouli, rosewood, coriander, and crushed mint. For you: Katharina - white musk with a trickle of bright, sharp apricot and orange blossom. Tamora - Amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom and vanilla bean. Lady Una - Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices. Fae - white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss. My boyfriend and I sometimes intentionally wear scents that go together either thematically (Aziraphale on me + Crowley on him) or share notes (Coral Snake on me + Western Diamondback on him), but more often we just wear ones that both of us like. I have a few he's not overly fond of, so I tend to wear them to work or out with my friends instead. Good luck searching!

This definitely smells like laundry detergent to me. NICE laundry detergent. But still laundry detergent. A sweet, soapy floral, clean and fresh and just a little bit green. I think I just don't recognize the scent of linden blossom, because obviously that's probably the floral here, but it just reads as generically floral to my nose. Sorry flower-lovers, but I suck at identifying flower scents. Absolutely not my kind of thing, but if the description appealed to you you'll probably like this one.