LiberAmoris

Death on a Pale Horse smells so clean and fresh on me that I have a hard time imagining it in the terms of its inspiration---until I remember that it's death on a pale horse, and then everything falls together. This is indeed something dark traveling on something light. The musk and mint and lavender are surprising and uplifting, herbal and bright. At the other end of the scale, the patchouli and vetiver keep this balanced with their bass notes. There's tension between them, and the citrus helps buoy the conversation, while the calla lily refines it. This may not be something I'd reach for often, but I'm really intrigued by it. I think I'll be passing it on to one of the BPAL-wearing men in my life for further testing.

Yeah, Bien Loin D'Ici smells less like Smut to me and more like a supercharged Sed Non Satiata. Actually, what it smells like, and it took me about a month to suss this out, is a mingling of the Chinese Bee & Flower soaps Jasmine and Sandalwood. So good. As much as I love the way this smells, it's the kind of blend I'm more likely to use in my incense burner than wear. It's incredibly incensey, almost amazingly so, and the smell of this in the air around me is just such a great balance between incredibly calming and incredibly sensual. I would buy a bottle just to use for that purpose alone.

Squirting Cucumber is exactly what it purports to be---fresh, crisp, almost aquatic cucumber with lush summertime grass. It's green and light and very evocative! I can imagine this would be fantastic when the weather is humid and hot---a couple dabs of this stuff and I think I would feel much refreshed.

I love lilies but almost none of my fave BPALs have lily as a prominent note. But I quite enjoy Voodoo Lily. Go figure. It reminds me a smidge of this perfume I had when I was in grad school that was orange and lavender, with lily thrown in. So perhaps I'm responding more to the scent memory than anything else. But it works for me. I'll definitely keep the imp and enjoy it!

Beth's apple note is so true and amazing and Poisoned Apple really shows it off to advantage. This is definitely evil apple, but what I like most about it is that it really feels like apple freshly plucked, with the sharp smell of the broken stem and the faint lingering smell of the soil and even the air around the tree as the neck's been snapped from the branch. It's very visceral. To me, this is every bad apple, and there have been a few of note. I'm not sure I would ever wear this regularly, as the apple note astounds me but never ends up being something that I turn to when I'm getting ready to leave the apartment in the morning, but I'm so glad I got a chance to try it. For people who love apple, this is a must-try.

Pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk. Croquet is awfully springy and pink and fun. It's like a gourmand pink lemonade that leaves a lovely, refreshing aftertaste. When I first applied it, I thought that I would definitely keep the imp, but an hour or so later I'm thinking I might need a bottle. Like Titania, this just feels like a head ornament from a Midsummer Night's Dream----all flowers and fruits and twined up bits and bobs of natural things, working together. Croquet just feels fun and playful and free of motive. It's the kind of blend I would bring on vacation or wear when I need a lift at work. Mostly I pick up on the nectarine and lime/grapefruit, with the rose and sage poking through from time to time. It does smell creamy, which is hard to explain but quite nice.

Ostara is totally spring in a bottle! It smells like strawberry cream with roses and armfuls and armfuls of wildflowers. And it's so fun and light-hearted, which I'm kind of enjoying as a foil to the heavier scents I normally wear. I can't wait until the weather warms up just a smidge---I'll put this one into heavy rotation.

Mmmm, roses and cream! Like Faith, Hope merges a floral with the yummy creaminess of Antique Lace, and it's a combination that's just beautiful. This is the kind of blend that I find myself turning to when I want something simple and unabashedly floral. There's no beating around the (rose) bush here, this is straight up rosy bliss!

Like a lot of people have already said, Faith is like Antique Lace plus violet. It's a total comfort scent for me, something snuggly and floral-creamy that makes me want to curl up on the sofa and read a book. It's also perfect for the transition between winter and spring somehow. As it fades, it evolves into just the most lovely milky violet, the equivalent of a sheer purple that just hangs on and on. I'm so glad I got a bottle!

Brown Jenkin is so good. I love coconut, and it's just perfect here, dry and warm and slightly tropical. I even like the orris in this blend, and orris is normally a no-no note on my skin. And the musk and the incense...so gorgeous. Definitely going on my bottle list for the future. It's like wrapping myself up in a warm cream-colored fisherman's sweater that recently been worn by a good-smelling man.

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS Crushed roses and blackcurrant tarts. I get loads and loads of roses from The Knave of Hearts, which is never a bad thing for me, as I love Beth's rose notes. The buttery baked tart note is secondary, and the blackcurrant is pretty subtle. I like the currants with the roses, and the tart is fun and yummy, but I just don't think I'm digging the combination. Sometimes the buttery blends are just a little too much for me, a little overwhelming when they're so close to me on my skin. This would be great in my oil burner, though.

The Dodo is a much stronger blend at first than I anticipated---loads of red musk and cassia make it feel heavier at first sniff than it ends up at the drydown. As it dries, I catch hints of the lemon, sugar and mango. They definitely temper the blend a bit and make it lighter and sweeter and more free-spirited. I like the way the red musk is backlit here by the other notes, but I don't think this is the best red musk blend for my chemistry. I think it might be the mango that's the culprit---I love the taste of mango but the note has never worked quite right on my skin. But I'm awfully glad to have tried The Dodo, and know just the person to pass my imp on to!

Oooh, so pretty. 51 is polished and well-blended. It would be perfect for work, as it’s very light and nearly elegant. My skin picks up the honeydew and freesia the most, but it’s also got a great, greenish glow of a drydown that seems to be powered by the musks. I really like it, I just wish it stuck around a little longer on me. Even so, I think I might put this on my bottle list! It's one of those blends that just makes me feel happy.

Holy hell, this does smell like Potion! I really like the spicy sweetness of carnation, and Pink Moon 2007 is a carnation-centric blend for sure. The phlox gives it a little sweetness and lift that makes it feel springy and fresh and truly pink. It lasts a good long time on me, for a floral, and lingered in my hair for a full 24 hours.

I really love Dark Delicacies. I've been wearing it for like the last three days straight, and I don't normally do that, so I know I'm in love. It's so smooth---the patchouli and coconut inform the blend, but they're buffed down to an elegant and sensual undertow. The orchid is perfect here---with just enough floral crispness to give the blend an edge, but not so much that it becomes a predominately floral blend. The resin helps too, providing a depth and smoky sillage that puts it firmly into the 'come-hither' category for me. It's vampy, it's upscale, and it puts a little swing in my step when I wear it.

Sloth is an indolent mix of vetiver and myrrh. It comes off a bit powdery on my skin, and the vetiver is surprisingly well-behaved. It smells heavy and languorous, like a long, dark sleep. Not something I'm likely to reach for, but a great capture of the 'sin.'

Whiskey is something I love the smell but not the taste of. It reminds me of youthful nights spent at the bar, leaning into people that have a little bit of it hanging on their breath (in a good way!). So even though Mad Sweeney might not be the kind of blend I reach for every day, I'm glad to have it around because it smells just---JUST---like Irish whiskey and oak. And that makes me happy. Straight out of the bottle it definitely is alcoholic. It hurts a little bit to sniff, just like the real thing. But after a few minutes, it's like caramelized oak on me, or like a summer fire when someone's burning loose branches. The whiskey's still there, but it's in the background. The oak note is really the star at this point. This is the kind of BPAL blend that I think I would best appreciate on someone else's skin, as it doesn't quite feel like 'me'. But I would love to be close to someone who wears it well!

Holy crap, this is so good. As others have said, Abhisarika is a floral living large. I love rose, so this is like my happy place. The rose is so pretty here, and Damascus rose must be the kind that always seems to have a dark halo around it to my nose, like there's the slightest hint of leather or something, which dissipates eventually but leaves a bit of darkness in its wake. The orchid is lovely and doesn't overwhelm as it can in other blends for me, the musk is heavenly, and the cream accord is so subtle---not at all like the milk/cream note I know from other blends. It's much softer here. Beautiful stuff.

Virahotkantita is all about the blue lilac. That note is so gorgeous and it's here in large amounts. It's definitely the most prominent note in the blend for me, which is a good thing, because I love it. The only other notes I pick up from the note list are the lily, the frankincense, and the cedar. Overall the blend's not stellar with my chemistry, but because of my great love for lilac, this is one I'll keep and enjoy.

Kalahantarika is really unusual---there's that astringent lavender, unmitigated in this context, and it is sharp---much like the inspiration for the blend, in which harsh words are spoken. But as the lavender cools down, it also seems to regret its sharpness and the other notes come forward like a chorus of repentent thoughts---and they are such lovely herbal-resins, plus the jonquil (narcissus). The result at the drydown is a really pretty, mellow lavendered resin with just a hint of the floral narcissus, and it's so gorgeous. It's the kind of thing I'd definitely reach for as a sleep scent, or if I needed to wind down after a long day. Definitely worth the wait for the sharpness to recede.

I wore Chintamani-Dhupa today at work and I kept thinking I smelled incense burning---but it was me! I have no idea what's in this, but it really is a honeyed incense blend, subtle but searching. It's also tremendously relaxing. I can feel my blood pressure drop just smelling it. It's like being somewhere else, somewhere meditative. I loved the Lupercalia series last year, and this year's additions are just as wonderful.

Vasakasajja is definitely the kind of blend that blooms on the skin. It's pretty in the bottle, but on my skin it's like a tropical flower unfurling. Strangely, I get a melon note from this, and I'm not sure what combo of the notes could be coming across that way, but it's nice all the same. I love the tonka, vanilla, and skin musk here---they're so warm, like flushed skin. Very pretty, very seductive, but eminently wearable to work. Definitely a keeper.

Dolce Stil Nuovo is another unusual lavender blend. Here it's married to the amber and white musk in a really nice glowing way. I don't smell any jasmine here, nor really any rose. The vanilla flower and carnation are just wisps and hints at the edges. It feels cool and elegant. There's a similarity to Lyonesse here at times that I'm quite happy about.

The Oblation is a pink, happy blend on me---reminiscent in that color association of Pink Moon, though not nearly as sweet by a long shot. The lavender here is really ingenious, perfectly blended to play its astringency against the sweetness of the honey. In fact, it’s hard for my nose to tell where the lavender ends and the blackberry begins, which is kind of amazing, I think. There is something innocent and youthful (perhaps even naive) about this blend that aligns wonderfully with the feel of the Swinburne poem. Something to wear on the rare days when I’m not feeling bitter about love!

Kanishta is sexy stuff. Of the new Lupercalia blends I've sampled so far, this is the one that stands out as overtly sexual, almost predatorial---but winningly, like a sexpot with a magnolia flower tucked behind her ear. I'm a sucker for patchouli, so maybe that's what's working on me here. But the whole combination of the patchouli with the jasmine and opium and magnolia and kush---is just wonderful. I love the way the earthy patchouli and high elegant florals collide and collude here. Gorgeous blend. If this is the Other Woman, she's really quite something to contend with.