Eemia

I love apple scents and this has a really gentle vibe that appeals to me. The apples are mild and almost watery. There's no bite in here whatsoever. And luckily it doesn't turn syrupy or overly juicy. There's an earthy, floral undercurrent that feels very natural. Overall this is really subtle and sits closely to my skin. I get a touch here and there of a clean, whispy pinkness but like the rest of this blend, it's understated. The apple isn't prominent once it dries down and I'm left with a pretty, sheer floral. I've worn this several times over the summer so far and I really like it.

Easily in my top ten. It's not the overtly sexy, heavy vanilla that I usually go crazy for but... who am I kidding? I can get on board with just about any vanilla. This is lightly floral and fruity and sort of golden. It's like peach liquor vanilla at first, definitely has an expensive alcohol type of feeling. The vanilla doesn't feel sweet on its own. The underlying sweetness seems to be from the peach and the amber, and it's not gourmand at all. It's airy, gentle, and fresh. The florals lift this up a little and filter out the potential heaviness. It makes it smell perfumey in a way too. The first impression I get from this when I put it on is that it's a fancy eau de parfum I spritzed on from an atomizer. It's so well blended and rounded out that it practically could be. And it finishes out as the most amazing, peach-musk-sweet-glowing-skin in the entire world. Mmmmmm. Just so good. It sits closely to my skin during the dry down and the sheerness of the peach continues to be beautiful. This is one of those scents that I fell in love with immediately when I sniffed it in the bottle and it makes me sniff my wrists and arms all day long.

This is so warm and sultry, kind of flies under the radar at first since it sits so close to my skin. It's slightly sweet in a non-goody way, fuzzy and very tonka dominant. No harsh edges. I get an underscoring of musk and hints of floral but mostly this feels like a sexy, earthy toned blend, all browns in my mind. There's a spike of lime initially too but it fades quickly and just makes this feel even more tropical and grounded to me. As it dries down it reminds me of some of the Lab's fougère scents like Dorian, and His Station and Four Aces . I think it's the muskiness of the lilac that brings up those similarities. I love how sensual this is. It's definitely one that gets me compliments too.

I love this one so much. It's so mellow and soft and soothing. It just feels comforting. Usually lavender is my comfort note but this blend really is amazing. It's a light, creamy, milky sandalwood with the palest hint of sweetness. Maybe there's some sort of pale musk in there in the dry down but it stays very creamy throughout the wear time. It has the feeling of a skin scent because it sits so close and just melts into my skin, but it's slightly stronger than that. I can smell it wafting around me. Nothing overpowering, but enough to easily detect it. I would wear sandalwood everyday, it's one of my favorite scents ever, so this one moved right on up to the top of my rotation once I discovered it. So beautiful.

This only lasts about two hours on me but it's worth reapplying. It's delicate and pretty at first, all mandarin and mango underscored by a clean, soft musk. The fruit smells natural, but not overly juicy or sweet. The mandarin smells very similar to King Mandarin single note, which is one of the best scents I've ever worn. The mango melds with it so that it's not entirely citrus. Shortly afterwards the fruits wear off and it's all musk and sandalwood, but the lightest, most gentle version possible. The sandalwood isn't even very woody as it usually can be on my skin. It's more of a little something that just adds depth but I can't put my finger on if I didn't already know it was sandalwood. The throw is as mild as the whole fragrance is so I have to slather it on everywhere to really notice it. Still, it's a great scent, especially since I love the mandarin note so much.

This is so fresh and uplifting and shiny. It has a little bite from the white tea and eucalyptus but at the same time it's watery and smooth. I could smell this on my hoodie the day after wearing it and the way it clung to my sweatshirt was just amazing. I fell for it a little more than I already had. Initially there's a lot of white tea so it's tart and a little green. The eucalyptus doesn't compete too much, it blends with the tea and just makes the whole blend a little brighter and more crisp. I don't always go for the fresh/clean/citrus/lemon blends but this really has me in a vice. I think it's the ambergris. It just adds this gorgeous, sensuous undertone. It's not sweet exactly, but similar. It all becomes more of a lightly masculine cologne with hints sexy resin later on. I don't know how else to describe that strange base other than as a resin. Regardless, it's amazing.

The cream and foodie combo in this just goes crazy bad on my skin. I have issues with those notes but I was hoping that I'd have luck with this one because I love mint and it just sounded so delicious in the description. But even in the bottle it's just heart crushingly awful. It starts out as heavy, rancid butter with a musky undertone and a thin sourness that's either coming from the pomegranate or the cream. It's heavy and feels like I've smeared expired lotion on my wrists. I wish I could make out some of the sweet cookie or mint in here… but nothing of the sort appears. I try to give most blends a fair shot on my skin but I absolutely couldn't do it. Had to wash this off after a few minutes. Unfortunately my bottle is getting passed on.

This was instant love from the minute I smelled it in the bottle. It's like nothing else I've tried before, but I feel like I've had it forever. It's sweet and sun warmed and beachy, all while being incredibly feminine. It's definitely flirty but with a blushing cheeks, coy glances type of vibe. It's mellow, silky smooth fig milk at first, naturally sweet and without any sourness. My skin wants to conjure up a vanilla in there somewhere because of the orchid, which is all light petals and creamy budding floral. The orchid is actually very prominent on my skin. I picture pale pastel blooms with dew clinging to it. It just smells so very real like that. Ylang Ylang is always golden and fleshy in my mind but it's quiet in this. It adds that roundness and makes everything feel weighted and full bodied minus the floral domination. But despite the weight it's not heavy or cloying. It's seamless, lush, and clings closely. It's a lean in to enjoy it type of fragrance but I still get whiffs of it whenever I move around. A nice balance. This is leaps and bounds more than I was expecting. I love when one turns out to be insanely better than I could have hoped for. It's beautiful and I am LOVING it.

A youthful, sweet citrusy floral with an undercurrent of very soft powder. It's a light, uplifting scent. It's fresh and translucent and just so very pretty. It's pink grapefruit at first, very natural but sweet. It doesn't have an astringent quality at all but it has a little bit of a citrusy sting. It mixes with the florals really well and keeps them from being too prissy on my skin. They're not soapy in the way lilies can be, but they have the same white, clean type of feeling. I get hints of a greenness in there as well that I'm guessing is the neroli, which always has a pale green, unisex quality to my nose. I like that addition to this since it prevents it from being too over-the-top feminine. It edges into something more powdery and snow like after a couple hours and it starts to remind me more of the familiar bpal snow notes that I love so much. It has a very minimal amount of throw and I can really load up on this one whenever I wear it.

This is like sparkly grapefruit snow. It has a pretty little citrus tang and the grapefruit has the perfect amount of fuzzy sweetness. Nothing bitter about it. I get a greenness in here that's more than just the mint. It's like flower stems or some kind of fresh green musk. The mint itself is so faint in here that I barely notice it, probably because the brightness of the snow is first and foremost. I love snow notes so I couldn't be happier. It becomes more fruity and mellow as it wears down and I get a jelly/syrupy jam quality showing up on my skin. I was worried the blackcurrant would be sour but luckily it doesn't turn on me. The orange blossom is gentle and powdery and it tempers everything so it feels less like a spike of sharp fruits and snow. A fun one, and definitely a really nice grapefruit blend.

Nooooooooooooo! I think I need more O's in there. Sigh. Everything in here should work beautifully on me but that damn honey is gumming up the works. Once in awhile I can do honey but usually it's a strangely sour musk fest on my skin, the exception being a few fragrances where the other notes effectively drown it out. I'm learning to resist anything with honey listed in the description but this was too hard for me to pass up. Unfortunately it's a mildly nutty, honey dominant scent with a little bit of a sweaty sensation. Not a pleasant sweaty either. More of an oily, body odor type of sweat. I think the herbal quality mixing with the other notes is just turning on me. No hint of tobacco or earthiness. There's a general, pervasive sweetness as well. I left this on for about an hour then had to scrub.

Strong, dry sandalwood with a faint tang of mint. It's very woody and robust, sort of masculine too. I gravitate to sandalwood and this is one of the most intense versions I can remember smelling in a bpal. It almost comes across as a single note. It has a smoky quality that's just stunning. No creaminess or sweet tone like in Tushnamatay (one of my all time favorite sandalwood blends) or Vasilissa. But sexy and stark and amazing. The plum doesn't really develop much on my skin but I get a little juiciness and a touch of a fruit note after awhile. I wouldn't have guessed it was plum if I didn't already know it was in here. Usually plum pulls super sweet and candy-like on me or it goes sharp and it doesn't do either in this one. It's more of a mellow wash underneath everything before it disappears. It all becomes bone dry light woods at the end. The hyper-woodiness in this really won me over. Perfect for my frequent sandalwood cravings.

I adore this! It's just amazing on my skin, surprisingly sexy. It's not one I would've expected to be reaching for when I want to feel alluring and make guys fall to their knees but it works. I shied away from trying this for the longest time because of the juniper and cypress, which I thought might go too high pitched and sharply green. But my love of pine drew me in and it was just instant perfection. I don't notice a typical pine needles note in here, more of the dark depth and shadowy vibe of pine itself. It winds around the sappy, grey sweetness of the ambergris and smells so silky and mysterious. There's a greenness to it but it's not easy to place. It's more like an impression of natural, diffused green shade. I like the murky quality that makes it complex and cuts some of the sweetness. After a few hours it has an understated, warm cologne aspect that continues to be gorgeous. This is one I slather on my wrists and wear in a scent locket so I can just smell it wafting around me all day. I keep imps of it in my purse too, just in case.

I get the same Snow White feeling as other reviewers did. It's Snow White without the creamy floral aspect. I love the sheer, translucent quality in here and how it just seems to shimmer on my skin. I'm a die hard lover of anything snow related so this was a sure bet. But it's always nice to have something live up to high (make that impossibly high) expectations. It's just pure, light, airy, cold snow that's almost glossy, but still minimal. So pretty and dainty. Stays close to the skin and becomes a touch sweet on the dry down. Beautiful.

Lots of bright green mint at first, the wintergreen type of mint. It's cool and sharp and slaps you right in the face with its perkiness. I love mint in just about anything, combined with just about any note so that was all great with me. I don't get anything else from it for awhile and then it suddenly morphs into a gentler, creamier, muted version of mint with something odd underneath. To my nose it wavers back and forth between some kind of yellow cookie base and butter that's about to turn bad. For whatever reason my chemistry goes crazy when it comes to bpal cake or cookie notes, anything that hints at a butter based or dairy note often turns into a sour, almost rancid smell on my skin. I get images of food about to spoil and I've learned to avoid those fragrances now. So it's surprising for it to pop up in this one, even for a brief amount of time. I'm wondering if maybe it's a cream aspect that's causing the issue here. Granted it's only a small portion of this scent and even then it lurks underneath the mint, but it's enough to make me cringe a little. Happily the stomach roiling is short lived and this goes right on back to a gentle minty sweetness. I notice a thick, warm, yellow, cozy note in the dry down that has a tinge of musk. Nice. So… I love the beginning, get a little squeamish sometime during the middle, and go back to a happy place at the end. I think I might try pairing it with another scent and see if that helps temper it somewhat. Maybe it'll be fantastic with a heavy vanilla scent.

LOVE. Just, love. This was my head over heels Yule this year. It's a creamy, sweet, soft scent that has the same sensual aspects as a heavy vanilla fragrance, minus the vanilla. This snow note is so beautiful and round and white, cold but not icy or sharp. I get breaths of a feminine floral and the faintest almond. I would have thought the creaminess combined with the almond would translate as marzipan on me but luckily they stay separate and this smells like more of a wintery, young floral than anything gourmand. It stays sweet and milky throughout the wear time and sits closely on my skin. No powdery or musky dry down. This scent type usually can feel cloying but this is fresh and light. I think I had a sappy butterflies in the stomach moment with this one.

This smells like candy. The lick-your-wrists type of candy smell that's not overly sweet but still juicy. The fruitiness doesn't stand out as any particular thing on me, it's more of a general, synthetic fruit mixture that reminds me of these throat lozenges that come in a cute old fashioned gold tin that a friend sends me from Germany. Anyways, this has a nearly medicinal undertone to it that must be from the licorice. Strangely the licorice isn't playing up in here at all like it normally does on my skin. It's more of a licorice vapor rather than a solid licorice or anise note. It's only there as a faint undercurrent. This is my least candy-like of candy scents and I love the dry down too. It's almost a little floral in the way some of the snow notes dry on me. This is definitely the sexiest of the Snowballs.

Heady, lush, and uplifting. Just like falling into a pile of fresh flowers and taking deep breaths of the petals. It's clean and very new, just as a freshly cut bouquet would be. Sort of green tinged and a touch bitter. Sometimes it's nice to wear something like this and just feel so incredibly feminine. It's a very strong scent so a tiny dab was enough to last me several hours and it never fades into anything different on me. No morphing whatsoever. Just a simple, pretty blend of florals with the rose as the stand out. I don't get any of the snowy coldness I was hoping for but it's lovely nonetheless.

This smells like sweet erasers, the kneaded rubber kind. It's so interesting, I don't know that I've smelled anything similar. And it's strangely comforting even though it doesn't bring up any particular memories. It just has this feeling of being anchored. As it wears I notice a type of creamy malt scent. It's very dry and soft and still inexplicably rubbery. It wears down and finally reveals some of the leather, all still tinged in sweetness. This is one of those fragrances that'll stick in my mind for a long time.

I don't have any other version of the Lick Its even though I'm a mint fiend. This is awesome, exactly like a pastel mint or a butter mint. Lots of dusky, dry, mellow vanilla with a hint of sugary mint. The mint isn't green or leafy like mint tea, rather it's very sweet, hard, and sharp. It all comes together perfectly. I feel like it has such a fun fantasy aspect and I love it for the holidays.

Sweet powdery snow laced with gentle vanilla and something a touch brighter. Cold but not icy or green. The floral is soft and delicate, unrecognizable other than a sense of youthfulness. This isn't heavy or holiday specific at all. It just leaves a vague impression of translucent coolness and a breathy touch of sweetness on my skin. Beautiful.

Snow scents are probably my favorite type of bpal. Do I say that a lot? Well they're my most loved and the ones that are usually make me want to clap my hand all excitedly. Something about the snow note is just beautiful to me and with the combination of blueberry in this one (my number one fruit) the label might as well had my name in bright pink glitter. It starts out with the stinging, crisp snow snow note that reminds me of clear ice and sharp things. Just shy of a cold, astringent sensation. I'm picturing eucalyptus for some reason too. There's a sweet and slightly sour citrus tinge that adds to the sharp quality. But there's also a beautifully gentle, mushy blueberry note that's so damn good but it fights with the sourness and prevents me from completely loving this on my skin. I've always had issues with blackberry going sour and off, almost like it's rotten in some way. I was really hoping that it would just stay far, far away in the background or at the very least just present itself in the form of little hints here and there. Instead it amps in this and clashes with everything else until I can't enjoy the amazing snowy blueberry. It dries down a little better, into a sweet, clear fruitiness. Maybe if it ages long enough the blackberry will just phase out. That's the happy fantasy I'm going to stick with.

In the bottle this smells like straight up, dank and murky vetiver. It scared me. Not that I dislike vetiver but the sheer overwhelming force of it really put me off and I set the bottle aside for a few weeks. But the reviews intrigued me and my bottle is now loved and adored. This is such a stand out and it really feels different. Wet on my skin the vetiver filters out and brown coconut with a sweet underlying earthiness come through. Not an artificially sweet or chemical coconut, like in sunscreen, but a sun-warmed natural coconut. It's a little tropical and seems to just mesh together so smoothly. No sharp edges or harsh notes. There's a rawness that must be coming from the patchouli, it makes everything feel grounded and new. As it sits for awhile I start to notice the bergamot and amber, adding more depth and a golden touch of resinous sweetness. It's still strongly coconut but there's so much else rounding it out that it doesn't feel simple. The dry down is gently smoky, laced in sweetness and borderline creamy. The vetiver is finally more identifiable, adding a woodiness and touch of masculinity that's sensual and sexy. Very long lasting and with a good amount of throw but not overly strong. This is so complex and I would never have picked this as something that would be so incredibly beautiful on me. I want to roll around in this one.

2012 version (I had no idea there was any other version?): Red musk isn't my favorite and it usually amps on my skin to a mind boggling extent but I never notice it in here. Relief. This is pretty and old fashioned in a charming way, very floral and powdery. It starts out as crisp, bright tea note with a soft greenness. There's an astringent quality fighting with a warm earthiness, and I could swear at one point I'm smelling lavender. The earthy portion is golden and skirts the edges of spicy but never settles around resinous instead. It's not sweet but it becomes more smoothly feminine and much more powdery as it wears. Some aspects of the drydown remind me of Crypt Queen but mostly because of the similar dusky, gloomy, faded tones in both fragrances. It's not extremely powdery in the end, staying a couple steps away from baby powder thanks to an interesting cold muskiness that makes this a little perfumey. It's not one of my favorites, it veers too much into the powder-floral genre on my skin, but I like the overall feeling of this and the imagery connected to it.

Creamy sweet almond with a spicy golden undercurrent. It reminds me of another bpal that I can't put my finger on. It's sultry and warm and has a touch of brightness. The rose is familiar and lush, it melds really well with the velvety almond spice. A little heavy but still really lovely. But then it changes from exotic to soapy before sliding right into a bland rose blend. No hints of the earlier complexity and all I can think of is holiday themed candles. Unfortunately I had to wash this one off.