Wwindy

Whoa, what a blast of clove and carnation! Very heady, very rich. The clove is ... sweeter? mellower? more rounded? than it is in Smiling Spider -- I think that may be the patchouli in there smoothing things out. The throw is entirely clove and carnation on me, though; the patchouli and pepper seem mostly to be working behind the scenes. Close to the skin, the tea and cardamom notes strike my nose as oddly sour, but fade fast. The gorgeous clove note sticks around longer than anything else. (ETA: Hmmm, I forgot TSS had patchouli too -- my nose must not be good enough to pick out what's making the difference here!)

Kinder, gentler Snake Oil! Call me crazy, but that's all I can think about Inez right now... On me Inez is almost entirely vanilla shaded by musk and a touch of amber. I got a hint of the woods and possibly the faintest ghost of myrrh from applying to drier areas of skin (like the backs of my hands), but those notes faded very quickly. Overall, a lovely, warm, sexy vanilla. Nice!

Awwwww, phooey. I'm a Leo and I adore amber and frankincense, but this blend doesn't work at all for me. You'd never know from sniffing it on my skin what the notes are supposed to be -- what I get is a weirdly strong cherry smell mixed with something sharp and herbal. I'll retest another time, but I'm not optimistic this one will ever play nice with my chemistry. Woe!

A luxuriously soft, elegantly draped black cashmere sweater of a scent! The initial stage and subsequent throw is mostly clove -- but not sweet or foody in any way -- while closeup sniffs give all musk and wood. Very dark, very warm, very much giving the impression of poise and style... yet somehow working for me even on this hot June Friday afternoon! Just gorgeous.

Many years ago I was spending a weekend at a rural campsite, and late one night I was out in the woods when I started catching whiffs of the most incredible smell. I couldn't figure out what it was! I kept trying to track down the elusive smell, and eventually I wound up walking all the way around the lake to discover a pipe-smoking friend indulging in his most treasured "for special occasions" pipe tobacco! Riding the Goat smells exactly like the pipesmoke that was so good I followed it all the way around the lake, except smoked in an old-fashioned den with wood panelling instead of by the lake. I do get the odd sour note mentioned by some reviewers near the beginning, but on me it's more like a pimiento sort of sharpness; that fades quickly, and after that it's all sweet woody pipesmoke. Yum.

This blend is such a tease! On first applying, I got a gorgeous burst of effervescent, glowing mead... which vanished, almost instantaneously. I don't think I've ever slathered so much on an initial test, and still -- my skin just drinks this stuff up as if it were... uh... tasty sweet alcohol or something! I tried reapplying heavily mid-day; that time around, my results were slightly less sweet, with more of a prominent ivy note, but also a slightly plasticky element. And then -- poof! -- gone again. Come back, Litha, come back! Sniffing my decant seems to be the best shot I have at actually checking this blend out, so: In the vial, Litha reminds me a bit of Chimera (the cinnamon in that hardly shows up on me at all, so it's probably the honeysuckle + copal combo that feels familiar) or No. 93 Engine (not sure what's pinging that comparison, but my nose is insisting there's something in common). If only I could get it to stick around on my skin and share its loveliness...

What a quirky, offbeat scent! Without the note list in front of me, I don't think I'd ever successfully identify the elements here. The herbs here seem very green on my skin -- the thyme and verbena smell like crushed leaves and stems rubbed between the fingers, rather than dried plants. The thyme is, as previously noted by many reviewers, crazy strong and extremely distinctive. You might not be able to pinpoint what it is, but it stands out! After drydown, I'm getting predominantly the thyme, followed by the green aspect of the verbena (rather than the lemon -- much to my relief, I get virtually no lemon). The lavender and almond are very subtle; my weirdo left side chemistry brings those notes out a touch more noticeably in the crook of my left elbow as compared to my right, but they're not particularly strong even on the left. It's very difficult to describe this scent coherently. Am I getting occasional moments where it lurches precariously into bug-spray territory? Yep. Veering from there into kitchen prep time? Yep. And yet somehow it still works! Intriguing. I got my decant from the inimitable tartchef, who's enabling my search for not-overly-citrusy "wake up" BPAL. This one definitely does the trick! I smell crisp and herbal and ... could that possibly be the scent of alertness? Woohoo!

I ordered a bottle of Pirate Moon when it first appeared and swapped it away soon thereafter. This blend was just too thin and sharp on me -- all I got was acrid astringency, with no presence at all from any of the richer notes. I have to admit I'm curious about it now, though... I wonder if it would have aged into something nicer if I'd hung on to it!

Super-sexy chocolate incense goodness! This is a tasty scent, in all senses of the word. I just wish the chocolate lasted a bit longer on me -- it seems to burn off a lot faster than the spicy incense-y Snake Oil part. I also think this blend would be a bit much for everyday wear, especially for work; Wulric is a more laid-back, relaxed choice along the same line, at least for me.

Gorgeous! I tried Thalassa because I thought I should start experimenting outside my usual resinous BPAL comfort zone -- I figured the frankincense would help ease me into an aquatic! I'm not detecting the jasmine or almond at all as individual notes. What I'm getting is a very true "beachy" scent. It isn't quite ocean -- more like being on the sand with the waves crashing nearby. I think where the jasmine and almond come in is just the faintest hint of wearing sunscreen, but that might be my imagination and/or too many summers down the Jersey shore. Anyway, I'm very happy with this -- it's very different from my usual range, and it must really be working for me since I got my second-ever completely unsolicited BPAL compliment today!

I really wanted this one to work, even though I was nervous about the fruit and floral notes! The first time I tried it, it was a giant jumbled muddle -- I think I must have hit a bad time of the month to test a complex blend. The second time, I was interested in the wet stage and starting to enjoy it. The jasmine was behaving itself nicely, much to my surprise. And then... the orange pulp reared up and smacked me upside the head for no good reason! Industrial cleaning solution all the way. Even my husband, who is not a particularly discerning sniffer, said "Chemical-y cleaning stuff!" right away. *sigh* If you're good (or even just ok) with the lab's citrus, this could be a gorgeous blend. Not for me, alas.

Oh no! Sleep, M, sleep! :waves Jedi hands: (Need me to come over & do the Magic Baby Dance again? ) Yes please! She actually does fine as long as someone is holding her/paying attention to her -- it's just when we get to 3am or so and I can't cope with being upright any longer that we hit the real trouble... Hmmmmm. Herbal, cloves and cider, or bamboo/tea -- all of those I could definitely deal with. You even make the Green Phoenix sound pretty good! I'll start decant-hunting. Thanks for the suggestions!

My baby never sleeps and thus I need anti-TKO in a big way... but citrus (and most fruit in general) is terrible on me. Anybody have good "perking up" scent ideas for a resin and spice lover who doesn't do well with sweet, fruity, or foodie blends?

Plunder! "The scent of a pirate's bumboat, overflowing with stolen wares: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg."

In theory I agree about the Apothecary being great for this weather, but my skin seems to just suck those light tea scents right up -- Apothecary and Gennivre just disappear on me. Alas! I've been enjoying Dragon Moon (the recent vintage) on hot days, and also Diwali.

I saw several recommendations for this one over in the "what to wear when it's blazing hot" thread, so I figured I might as well try the frimp I had floating around. This blend is indeed very pleasant, and very clean. I get mostly tea and greenness -- there was a hint of ginger on initial application, but it didn't really stick around. Unfortunately, my skin seems to eat these kinds of scents for... well, for high tea, I guess (except without the scones and clotted cream and jam and all that good stuff!). There's not much of what I would consider "perfume" going on at this point; the effect is more reminiscent of having used a nicely scented but unfamiliar hotel soap. I might go for the Apothecary if I had an interview or something business-related on a hot day, but it's probably not something I would choose for my own aesthetic pleasure.

On initial application, I get a lot of citrus out of this. Weirdly, depending on where you sniff (left wrist, right wrist, neck, general throw) the citrus is either very sweet or has a very sour edge to it. I know, sounds crazy, but I asked my husband to smell a couple of spots and he actually thought there were different blends each place he sniffed! As Aelopile dries down, the good stuff (the resins and woods, as far as I'm concerned! ) does intensify and the citrus backs off a bit, although it continues to make intermittent appearances. Unfortunately, something about the overall impression reads as classic men's cologne to me, and I just can't get over the random morphing citrus.

Sometimes it's really hard to describe the play of notes in a BPAL blend, but this one is easy for me (me = some combination of my skin chemistry, nose, and brain! ). It's a hint of smoky incense-y sandalwood plus a handful of white-to-pale-yellow Hawaiian flowers. I'm not really detecting anything else, but the overall effect is very airy and pretty. I'm not a floral fan in general and have been wondering what to do this summer when it gets too sticky hot for my beloved resin/spice blends -- if you're in the same boat, Tupapau might be worth trying!

Oh, drat. This is gorgeous. It's definitely got a message of HELLOOOO RESINS!, but in a sweet, somehow gentle, ever-so-slightly florally tinged way. It doesn't read as headshoppy or hippie at all to me throughout most of the wearlength, and I would therefore be much happier about wearing it to work than some other resinous/patchouli blends. (Except obviously I won't be doing that, because why waste a single precious drop on work, right? ) The final tail end of the drydown is a little patchouli-heavy, but I do that to a lot of blends -- my skin seems to hold on to patchouli longer than anything else. I suspect a mid-day reapplication would take care of that problem, anyway. *sigh* This is the first time I've fallen for one of the really hardcore sought-after blends. Just watch... next it'll be Minotaur or worse! Well, I'll enjoy my decant while I have it!

Oh, yum! This is good stuff! Wet, it's almost entirely dark chocolate and lavender on me. This is a surprisingly fantastic effect -- surprising not because I don't love chocolate and lavender (I do!) but because I haven't had a huge amount of luck with BPAL's lavender in the past. Wulric does the trick, though! The lavender does start to die back on me during the drydown, and the vanilla comes out. After a couple of hours I'm getting a soft vanilla musk with hints of the cocoa. I tried Boomslang yesterday and loved it, and sampled Wulric today specifically to compare the two. I'm happier with Wulric as an everyday blend, especially for going to work -- Boomslang is indeed Teh Hott Sexxay chocolate fudge cake, but Wulric spares your boss, coworkers, clients, etc. those potentially alarming headshoppy vibes.

I'm a big fan of lavender in general everyday life (like, really big -- lavender soap, lavender deodorant, lavender tea, and lavender chocolate big ). I didn't normally wear it as perfume before I found BPAL, though, and I have to admit I haven't had much success with BPAL lavender blends. I'm not sure why, but something about most of the blends I've smelled so far just doesn't quite work for me. Yvaine smelled lovely in the decant -- unlike most of the other lavender-containing BPALs I've sniffed before, it actually had a detectable true lavender note to my nose. It was pretty on my skin at first, too, although the lavender receded somewhat. However, poor Yvaine only held out a half hour, barely. Maybe. I thought it might have been a fluke, so I slathered mid-afternoon, and... still nothing. No throw, no duration. Pretty if I pressed my nose up against my wrist during those first few minutes, but gone in a flash. *sigh* I'll keep looking... and maybe Yvaine will consent to grace me with her presence in a locket!

So, I was about to make an impromptu purchase more or less purely on grounds of cultural/religious affinity. Then tartchef said, "Don't buy Chanukkiyah, buy Diwali -- it's much easier to wear and you'll like it." And I thought to myself, "Are you MAD? It has fruit in it! And almond milk! And, you know, other yucky stuff which makes me go bleh!" But tartchef is made of awesome and also a very wise woman, and so I did what she told me to. You guys! Hey you guys! OMG, you guys!!! Diwali: The Platonic ideal of mango lassi, accompanied by joyful exotic party smells and a curl of incense smoke. This is sooooo incredibly gorgeous. Why did I not pay attention to this when it came out?!? Oh, that's right, IT HAS FRUIT. And true, it is foody, kind of -- but it's also spicy and smoky and a tiny bit woody, and the mango doesn't really smell like a fresh-cut fruit so much as it does ... well, like I said, lassi. Very sophisticated, very warm and...yes, definitely celebratory. I always sort of laughed at the whole "I want to eat my arm" bit you read a lot around here. Now you can all laugh at me, because I WANT TO EAT MY ARM. Actually, I want to bathe in this stuff. Rawr! In conclusion: 1) Try this even if you think you don't like fruit, because BPAL is full of wondrous surprises. 2) I don't have enough italics or exclamation marks to convey the depths of my squee. 3) Also, tartchef is a goddess... but most of you probably knew that already!

Do woody notes work for you? Glowing Vulva at Ryogoku Bridge ("Cream accord, amber, teak, and lotus blossom") is gorgeous!

Fascinating! When I first put To a Woman on, it smelled much like I had expected The Clod & The Pebble or maybe Pulcinella & Teresina to smell. Both of those were a little too harsh on me, but this is lovely. I don't generally do well with rose notes, but whatever's going on with the rose otto in this blend, it works for me -- not too overpowering, not old-ladyish, not heavily perfumey, just pretty! The throw for some time is very much rose and what I would have sworn was cedar. The rose and whatever is doing the cedar impersonation are definitely predominant for a good long time. After a couple of hours, I can pick up the benzoin (I'm learning to track benzoin by that faint breath of hairspray-like smell!) and a tiny bit of faint fruitiness. It is a "purple" sort of fruit note to my nose, but very delicate; I'm not detecting any of the citrus reported by some people. I'm also not picking up any overt patchouli, and I'm a patchouli lover whose skin usually brings that note out! I think it's just working in the background of this blend. I keep coming back to that one overall impression: Rose and cedar, but soft, rich and well-blended, with a warm, intriguing depth. I'm excited to have a patchouli blend I can wear to work without worrying about overwhelming people!

Well, I'm definitely not getting sexy naked dancing witches. More like cheerful, lightly clad hikers just starting out down the trail, I'd say! On my skin this is a gentle, warm evergreen scent with a touch of amber -- a little soapy, a little generically "clean" smelling. If I put my nose in reeeaallllly close and snorfle, there's a faint trace of the incense. OK, maybe they're hippie hikers. Pleasant, not thrilling. I'll test this again in a couple of days but will most likely be swapping my bottle.