Northernskygal

Hmmm.. I don't know about this one.. I smell the leather fairly strongly. The cocao is there.. but it is almost like.. a dusting of cocao powder on leather. It smells a bit sour to me.. stupid patchouli.. always has to ruin all of my fun.. There is no flowers.. and not really any incenseyness happening either.. just.. sour dusty cocao on leather.. I will be making Eindwarg (my lovely boyfriend) try this on today.. as I think it might be wonderful on him.. hopefully he will pop up with his review later.

Carnal is... tart on me, really tart. It is candy-like but.. a dry candy.. a sweet tart or something.. The mandarin and fig combo is good, it is really kind of.. unusual and uplifting.. sadly, I get this kind of.. powderyness from it. .. like one of those giant chewy sweet tarts.. it smells like that.. only better, due to the fig.

NOTE: I am not.. repeat.. not a fan of florals normally.. I like to smell like food.. not flowers Just throwing it out there, as I am sure that bias influences all of my thoughts of floral blends. Moving on.. Poisson d'Avril is very pretty. It smells.. clear. To me, it is not a vibrant garden but.. if you had a smell for like.. a glass etching of a garden it would be this to my nose. It smells.. perfumey. Which I know sometimes around here has a negative connotation and.. it's not bad exactly.. just.. I don't think this blend will mingle with my skin and be just.. subtle pretty. To me, this wears outwards 100%, it doesn't cling at all. I only wish that I got a more.. sutble, actually walking through a garden floral blend here, instead of a.. really fancy department store floral perfume. It does smell like that perfect spring/summer day though.. maybe taking a road trip with a friend.. driving around with the windows down, singing along to your favorite song at the top of your lungs.. maybe stopping by a gorgeous field of wildflowers and stretching for a bit.. this is like the more mature, complex cousin of say.. Roadhouse.

In the imp I get... burnt peach.. yikes! Once on my skin it becomes a.. perfumey peach. I think all the flowers make it smell a bit.. wonky to my nose. I don't know.. this one is hard for me.. I like the peachy/tangeriney hint I get but.. all the flowers mixed with it.. the fruity part is so bright, while the floral part feels a bit.. oppressive somehow. Jasmine is a big iffy on me in most cases so maybe that is the culprit here.. It is a unique scent, and I truly am sure on the right person this would be absolutely stunning.. on me it just smells weird.. not bad just.. bizarre..

This is a so bright.. so cheerful so.. beaming. It is crisp and.. tart and.. it makes me smile. I actually cannot pick out any note by itself really. Peacocks isn't exceptionally floral.. or really overwhelmingly fruity. It has that.. clean scent that I get from a lot of blends with ozoney notes.. without the sometimes.. piercing nature of them. I smell like the happiest girl on the most beautiful warm sunny spring day. Full of life, energy and brightness.. this would be a great scent for when I need to get stuff done! I am pleased as could be with this blend.. truly just wonderful.

This smells drinkable at first.. not edible.. as it isn't chocolate or candy.. it is drinkable.. like a fine gourmet after dinner drink (non-alcoholic). It starts out all hazelnut/vanilla/honey goodness. Delicious. Sadly, the sandalwood comes out to play next, the amber tries to drown it out but.. my body amps sandalwood like woah and.. I end up with a.. sharp scent. Through BPAL I am learning to not hate patchouli (none present in this blend, just making a comment).. and I truly am making progress.. sandalwood though remains a foe of mine in the scent world. I am sure someone will love it, I consider it my new task to find it a good home.

In the imp, Silk Road smells like walking into my favorite tea house here in Columbus. They have a super varied menu of teas from everywhere and the scent of all the flowers and spices and.. it is very similar. This is a fairly light scent overall.. I think it would take more slathering than even I do to make this one overpowering. This has sort of an uplifting vibe to me, maybe because of the good memories I link to the tea shop, which I link to this.. or maybe it is just a happy blend. There is no dark notes in it that I can detect at all. I get a hint of cinnamon but.. my arm isn't on fire, as cinnamon tends to make it so.. I am pretty happy about that. It makes me think of remedies of old, you know? When people used herbs and flowers and balms and.. grains and.. it makes me think of the medicine man/woman somewhere.. this would be what their place would smell like. It is nice.. peaceful and uplifting. It will be a scent that is worn totally for me though.. not to be smelled by the other around me but.. just truly for myself.. like.. a secret that keeps me happy all day.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! I must have owned this for near a year now.. and I love it so dearly. It smells like I went into a fancy chocolate factory and dipped my wrist in a vat of melted milk chocolate. I am a foody.. very much so.. and this blend it just.. intoxicating. I also can't believe I haven't bought a large bottle.. or three of this yet.. as I sort of want to bathe in it.. literally. If you are a foody.. or think you might be.. get this one.. it is a slice of heaven in a bottle.

Wet on my skin, Hollywood Babylon smells exactly like the red life saver candies! I swear it! It isn't bad.. as the red ones were always my favorite, though I do admit it was maybe.. a bit.. off putting.. at first. The musk starts to make itself known, taking away the edible part of the scent and making it more.. grown up.. mature smelling. The amber does it amped on my skin.. a lot so.. on me this kind of ends of being a very pretty amber/cherry/musky blend. There is just a hint of heliotrope, which helps the scent from becoming too heavy. I think this scent captures the feeling of the title and description just.. so perfectly.. this is the scent of the little girl who went out to Hollywood to become a star.. it is bright and.. hopeful.. and then it also has a darker.. sadder side to it.. It is a very pretty blend, though it is a bit more on the meloncholy side on me, so it most likely won't be worn very often.

I'm not gonna lie.. I am scerred of patchouli, mosses and vetiver... but I usually love carnation and iris so.. maybe.. In the imp it is a dark, sharp scent. It smells.. black.. you know? The bergamot and neroli take it this really.. piercing sort of direction, though the patchouli helps to keep that mellow. This smells like.. a head shop that has been melting crayons.. that has some fresh cut flowers in a vase near-by. The carnation is just.. drowned out by the jasmine in the blend, sadly. I really do get a melted wax smell from this.. I blame the vetiver lol This would be great maybe on a woodsy person.. it smells outdoorsy to me. It is maybe a bit to sharp for my liking.

... A vivacious, dazzling, merry scent: honey, ylang ylang, apricot, ciste, blood orange and gardenia with earthy, warm tonka. Thaleia tickles my nose! I think it is the blood orange/gardenia combo, it is so.. bright and unusual. I sadly get little to no honey or tonka. This is primarily a fruity floral on me. I smell.. like you could lick me. The fruit in this is so ripe and perfect. After about 5 minutes though.. this gets a lil.. funky on me, and not in a good way. It's a fun scent, just not something I need to keep around.

In the imp Voila is rosey and woody. As soon as it hits my skin the roses explode. There is something.. I'm guessing either the moss or sandalwood maybe.. that keeps it smelling very.. real.. This is a very elegant blend, very feminine, very.. sophisticated. This is.. the finest rose scented soap produced by the most luxurious line. It is really wonderful, not overbearing, but also not wimpy. On the right person, this would be an incredible blend.. on me.. it smells great is just.. feels weird. I would love to be around someone else who was wearing this, if I were to try and wear it though I feel like I would be wondering who had on such lovely perfume.. only to realize it was me.. a nice scent, no doubt, just not the right fit for me.

In the imp the Parlor is pear, but like.. artificial laffy taffy pear (yes, I know they never made laffy taffy in a pear flavor, though it would be yummy... if they did, it would smell like the perilous parlor does in the imp). On my skin it retains that.. candy pear scent, though the vanilla comes out a little bit to add a touch of creaminess. This ends up smelling.. perfumey.. like pears dipped in perfume. It's actually a really nice end result though. It has a little bit of a powdery dry down on me though.. sadly..

:keeps fingers crossed that gardenia doesn't go absolutely insane on me: In the imp, Mad Kate smells like.. currant. That is the most noticeable note to my nose. Honestly, within seconds, this becomes a heady freesia/gardenia. The rose geranium is peeking it's head out as well. The currant makes a cameo but dissapears again fairly quickly. There is a slight creamy smell, I chalk that up to the vanilla, though it isn't strong, and I can't exactly pick it out, it gives it all a fancy sweetness. This smells nice, it is just not as.. unusual as I like my BPAL to be. Though, I am happy that the gardenia didn't eat everything else so, points for that!

#20 Love Oil smells like.. almond, cherry and.. maybe lavender. The first sniff from the imp is very sweet (the cherry and almond). The second sniff is more.. astringent, which is what I am guessing to be lavender. On my skin it becomes powdery and rosey. The almond and cherry have virtually dissapeared (maybe my skin was hungry.. ) All I have left is this dusty rosey lavender scent. This smells mature and I think I am simply to silly to wear this that often. It would do well on a CEO type of woman.. very strong and intimidating. It smells a little spicy, just enough to keep it interesting and prevent it from becoming a pure, overpowering floral.

In the imp Ulalume is exactly what it is described to be.. woods, herbs and aquatics. The wooded notes are really kind of.. sharp for me in this blend, though the herbalness keeps it in check a bit. I am intrigued, as I normally don't do woody/herby blends, though I tend to be a fan of aquatics. On my skin the aquaticness of this blend keeps it really clean smelling. This is not a deep dark scary forest where a wolf is going to eat you.. this a somber forest, where maybe a lost soul wanders in the shadows. This is a clean, pretty, sorrowful scent.

In the imp Lolita is.. spicy lemon, which was a little off putting to my nose upon first sniff. Once on the heliotrope, honeysuckle and orange blossom really make this much more.. welcoming. I smell mostly this gorgeous mix of the lemon verbena and the orange blossom (I have an affinity towards orange blossom so I am guessing that is why my nose finds it so predominant). The heliotrope and honeysuckle are there as well, keeping it all sort of lovely. This is sweet-ish but it is definetly spiked with a.. sliver of pure sexiness that cannot be denied. I use to have an orange blossom based scent that I picked up at Bath and Body Works that I loved.. but one day my boyfriend told me it smelled like Fruity Pebbles cereal and.. let's say it hasn't been used much since Lolita will be the perfect replacement as it still has the orange blossom goodness I love but is holds a certain sexiness that the BBW scent just didn't have. I will need a big bottle soon I think.

In the imp... Yikes! It smells like.. a tree based.. soap.. I am not going to lie.. I thought this would smell wonderful right off the bat, based on other reviews ... I know I sometimes have a hard time with wood notes, but it didn't seem like the oak was super powerful on anyone else. It smells.. weird. A couple of minutes later though it starts to chill out and some of the other notes can be detected. I get primarily sandalwood, lily and ginger (I think the white variations of both the sandalwood and the ginger makes this a really.. unexpected scent.) The tonka and vanilla try to make their presence known, though sadly neither of them truly come through. This does smell white.. though it almost reminds me of a clinical sterile white.. not a warm glow white. I blame the oak and the sandalwood, as I do crazy things with woody notes..

In the imp I get a cloyingly sweet gardenia, a warm amber and a tickle of patchouli Wet on my skin this smells like candied gardenia.. if that makes sense to anyone else.. it is floral, no doubt but also somehow.. edible.. I get only a breath of rose from this, which I actually was expecting, as my body tends to really amp gardenia like woah so.. Overall this very lovely, it seems to have a pretty decent strength and throw, though on me it is really a... foodie (I blame the amber, I love the scent of it but.. it does tend to be a more.. edible smell to my nose) gardenia, which is pretty, just not something I would really drench myself in. I will keep an imp on hand, though I don't think a big bottle would be needed.. I am just not girly enough to wear this all the time

I promise.. I tried to like this! It went something like this.. :sniffs bottle: Yikes! It smells like Dimetapp (or however you spell it - it was the cough syrup you had to take when you were a kid) Okay.. maybe it just needs some skin to really.. blossom. I like amber and champaca.. and eating plums so here goes. One dot of oil on my inner wrist.. :sniff sniff:.. it smells familiar.. it is... Cooking grape jello! No kidding, on me that is imediately what I thought of.. you know when you have the boiling water on the stove and you are stirring up the jello powder.. that is my dearest Prospero on my wrist. I gave it a wee bit to.. simmer (no pun intended, I swear it!) and.. the cooking grape jello scent is still there but.. it has a more.. winey feel to it now.. like.. a wino cooking grape jello Overall, it isn't a bad scent.. and I actually found it to be one the more entertaining to have my family sniff so, I am glad I tried it, though I will be looking for a new home for it.

This starts off really kind of.. ackward and artificial smelling to me, which is not something I have ever really encountered in my BPAL adventures. I think the notes just needed some time to settle on my skin because about.. 10-15 minutes in, it turns really natural and pretty. This smells like.. (what I imagine) drinking champagne by a row of peach trees, next to a garden at sunset smells like. It is sweet and bubbly and light and.. floral enough to make it ultra feminine without being over the top, a lovely blend, would be especially nice in the spring and summer I think.

I thought Chimera would smell darker, like a deep blood burgandy red.. instead to me it smells like.. fire truck red, you know? I was honestly a lil afraid, as cinamon, despite my love of it, tends to try to eat my skin, leaving it all red and puffy and itchy and.. Chimera doesn't seem to do that though. This might be one of the few cinnamon scents I can wear! It never really reaches a foody place, it is similar to a cinnabun and red hot candies but it never really crosses the line into foodyland. I think maybe the myrhh helps it hold onto an earthiness that is just lovely. This is a unique cinnamon, I love it and want to bathe in it a little bit..

So.. how about I put this on, not knowing what category it is in, what notes are in it.. nothing.. except the name.. which scared me.. Black Hellebore.. I thought this was gonna be dark and scary and.. shortly after putting it on, I caught a whiff of this beautiful floral.. then upon looking it up realized why. This is so super pretty, not full on rose, not quite peony.. this is a subtle floral, most likely because it is more herbal and less floral, if that makes sense. Which is not to say it smells like an herb garden, as it really doesn't have any of that going on either. This would make the most perfect spring scent, it is pretty and feminine and.. strangley addictive...

This is all salt, wood and leather on me, there is no bay rum at all, which might be good, as I tend to dislike boozy scents, though I think it might have sweetened up this one, which may have helped it out a bit. This is a bit sharp, it actually reminds me of this sports bar here in town, it is super old, it was a hotel back in the like.. early 1800's. They tried to keep as much of the old architecture as possible so, you get that old, dark wood smell. This is not a tree wood smell, this is a worn by the waves plank. The leather is interesting here, it keeps it more well rounded I think. Overall, this is a bit too.. strong and sharp for me though I find it to be very intriguing.. wonder if the boy would be willing to put it on...

I am reviewing the 07 version (the only version I have tried). It smells.. like a sweet floral. The cactus blossom is the most powerful note I can detect, which is great, as it is one of the more.. unusual florals, and one of the few I truly do enjoy. There is a hint of smokiness there, nothing heavy or stong.. it is.. subtle, just there enough to be wispy and interesting. It doesn't come off as especially foody to me, just slightly creamy. This is a dry, oh so slightly smokey cactus blossom, it is interesting, sweet, creamy, lovely.. this isn't a scent that would reach across a room and smack you in the face, it is a scent that someone whispering in your ear would want to smell more of..