distracts

It was cold on Thanksgiving and I wanted to indulge, so I bathed in L'Estate bath oil and wore L'Estate. I was wearing fall-ish sorts of colors (or, well, as autumnal as my wardrobe gets... grey, cream, lime green, and reddish orange) and it matched pretty well. My 9-year-old cousin said I smelled perfumey, which I thiiiiiiink was a compliment. For Halloween, I went as a Starfleet officer (new movie uniform! sewed myself!) and wore Fairy Market because it smelled the cleanest and most spaceshippy and adventurous of the perfumes I like. Christmas, I don't know yet! We'll see when the time arrives. Last year and the year before I went with Lick It One More Time and Dorian, respectively, but this year a new Yule may catch my fancy, or something else entirely. But if not, it will be my Lick It again, because that's a solid and wonderful-smelling choice. For the Christmas masquerade party I'm going to, I'll probably wear either L'Estate, Tomoe Gozen, or Bastet, because those are very summery scents to me and I'm going as "Longing for Summer" with a leafy green mask and green dress.

I had high hopes for this scent but I'm finding it pretty meh. Wet, it smells completely rancid, like musk and waxy leaves. Dry, I get some of the vanilla and spices as well, but it's all very faint and tainted by the memory of the hour-long icky smell. ... okay, dry 6+ hours later, it's beautiful and evocative and exactly what I thought it would smell like when reading the description... but I just can't wait 6 hours for it to reach a stage I actually like, so I won't be keeping this. It DOES last pretty much forever on me though, as I could still smell it 15 hours later.

To me Fairy Market smells extremely clean and maybe a little like soap. I wear it when I want to smell fresh.

Lightning isn't a "snow" scent but it's cold and not-minty... could definitely seem snowy.

Reading this thread has made me want to add a snake to my next order! I've never tried any of the Snake Pits OR Snake Oil (I know, I know, it's some kind of BPAL blasphemy) but Western Diamondback, Habu, and Temple Viper seem like they might appeal. I'm leaning toward Western Diamondback because I like warm, soft scents and with the leather, tonka, and sandalwood that sounds like what it might be. Anyone have any opinions specifically on which are the cuddliest snakes?

I got a goblin squirt of this with my Warrior Queens order, and while I was never too into the idea of atmo sprays before... I have to say I'm loving this one! It's perfectly grassy and rosy and smells very fresh and exactly like standing in a rose garden! Occasionally I will spritz it a few times over my bed/pillows and then when I go to sleep I have the most delightful feeling of drifting off while lying on the grass outside with a blanket of rose petals. And now my entire room has an outdoorsy "fresh" scent that is really pleasant, especially during these recent rainy months!

filigree_shadow is right when she says it smells like grape candy (with a dash of fake pear!). In the vial, it is gorgeous and delicious, but on my skin it just does something so sweet it's sickening.

Initially on me that smells like those candies that look like tootsie rolls except are fruity (I don't know what they're called!). That sweetness really quickly goes away though as it dries, and it gets a bit powdery for a while, and then I can distinctly start to smell the musk and almond. If I'm going to get poetic about it, it smells like a lazy sunny day. Beautiful!

In the bottle this smells gross to me. Very floral and aquatic and I loathe floral aquatics. Wet on my skin it smells a little bit warmer, but still sort of icky and watery. As it dries, the tang of bergamot comes out with something else spicy that I assume is the carnation and honey. And, surprise surprise, it turns into something fabulously sweet and spicy that is probably one of my top ten BPAL scents. I think I may be getting something far spicier than most other reviewers are. It smells to me a tiny bit like Diary of a Lovestruck Teenaged Cannibal in that it's similarly sharp and spicy and delicious. But UNLIKE that one, it doesn't make me sneeze! I barely smell anything powdery at all, not even from farther away. On me this has pretty fantastic throw and lasts quite a while, though it washes off much more easily than most BPAL scents do on me, meaning I have to be careful when washing my hands not to rinse it off my wrists! And actually, I JUST NOW realized what this smells like to me - a hair pomade I used in high school as my on-the-go because it came in a tiny bottle that fit in my purse! It was hot pink and super-goopy and smelled amazing, and whenever I used it people would tell me I smelled fantastic. Alice is a little milkier and less sharp, but generally the same scent.

In the vial, it's just a very strong floral, and I can't really pick out any notes. On me I smell a lot of gardenia, with the heliotrope adding extra sweetness and something else turning slightly bitter on me. It would be lovely if it weren't for the bitterness. I think it might be the rose making it bitter? I'm not sure. It dries down to bitter and watery flowers. Maybe I'll try it again in a few days and see if I still get that bitter note or if it behaves better, because this could be really pretty.

Juniper. That's all I get. Wet and dry, just way, way junipery. Now, on the good side, it DOES remind me of a gin martini. On the bad side... the only part I'm really reminded of is biting back my distaste for gin. Now, if I wanted to smell like a Christmas tree, I would wear this. But I don't, so... On the other hand, I just layered it with The Perilous Parlor and now smell like a fruity/vanilla/cola mixed drink. Really maybe like gin and vanilla coke. Which is not really something I would actually drink, but it smells pretty good.

I have been ignoring this one for a long time because I usually hate rose smells, but decided to go ahead and give it a shot because I was bored and couldn't sleep. And I'm glad I did. When I put it on and for the first hour I can pretty much just smell roses. But whereas most roses smell old-ladyish on me, these smell sweet and sexy. I can't pick out the amber and red musk, but I bet those are what's making the sweetness happen. After a while, this dries down to be a little less intensely sweet, but still not old-ladyish (maybe moving toward middle-aged though rather than girlish!). There's something that smells kind of funky and wooden, which I disapprove of, but it's not so strong that it would prevent me from wearing it. Like everything with red musk, this amps like crazy on me and the whole room is filled with the smell even though I didn't use much. Although it doesn't share notes and thus shouldn't smell like it, for some reason it reminds me of Estee Lauder's Pleasures. Hours and hours later I'm left with lovely red musk and a hint of roses and amber. Weirdly, when I sniffed the imp after I first opened it I smelled nothing. NOTHING. Like I was holding an empty vial. That's the first time that's happened to me and I thought it was very strange.

This smells to me like I'm bathing in a bottle of Fairy Market. I like it, but I'm not normally a floral girl and I come out of the bath smelling like flowers flowers FLOWERS.

In the bottle, this has both the deep foody scent and the florals that usually spell doom for me. When I first put this on it was really floral with just a hint of the grapefruit and no vanilla that I could smell. I was pretty skeptical that it would turn into anything better. Once it dried, though, the vanilla came out and everything was just a beautiful candy-dessert medley. It's very light and sweet. It smells kind of like how Diary of a Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal smells in the bottle, for some reason. On me it has crazy throw – I just used a little bit but I wouldn't be surprised if people five states over could smell me. After 12 hours most of the more exciting scents had left and all that remained was a musky smell that reminded me of Bien Loin d'ici. I've been looking for a more "upbeat" vanilla than Dorian to wear during the summer, and this is almost exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.

This is my first BPAL purchase and review. In the vial: Sugary. lemony. Almost no vanilla of which to speak. Wet on skin: There's a prominent lemony smell which just reminded me of soap, leading me to fear I wouldn't like this perfume as much as its description made me think I would. Dry: Smells exactly like sugared vanilla tea, with the faintest hint of lemon. I bought Dorian to replace a perfume that came from France that I hadn't been able to find again, and while it's obviously a little different (has less throw, is slightly lemony) it's a fairly good analogue. I feel it's probably a better scent for me because it's lighter and airier, and lighter scents tend to suit me well.