RoseThornAndOak

Oof, this is gorgeous. Alkemia used to have a jasmine tea blend called Haiku, which was really nice, but it was just missing something. However, I might want a backup or two of Happy Couple, it's an on point jasmine tea. It goes Play-Doh for all of maybe 10-15 minutes, then quickly dries down to a beautiful floral tea with maybe a super light Earl Grey (not sharp or tannic, just fresh and light). Not much cucumber, however there is a bit of greenery in the opening and an overall cooling vibe. Perfect on a Spring or Summer day. Where Lazy Daisy failed on me (the cotton/linen note), this stepped up and worked beautifully. I wish there was a bit more bergamot, but absolutely love this just like it is. ❤️ Edit: Tried again. More of the jasmine today. I still love it but probably won't be hunting backups. I'll be okay. Still lovely. Aged two years: the jasmine and play-doh have calmed down considerably. This legit smells like jasmine tea. Beautiful!

This briefly went into a pretty, soft, vanilla musk on me, similar to Antique/Vanilla Lace. Then the white musk went to soap, tramping on the pretty bits of lace. I smell clean at least, lol but was hoping for a bit more complexity. I'll age it, but will probably be reaching for Vanilla Lace more often.

In bottle pretty, juicy red musk. Skin chemistry sours it a bit as with most fruits, drydown red musk with some florals and subtle spices thrown in. If fruits go wonky on you I would look for a different blend, but if they work I could see this being a nice, effervescent, juicy musk with ligh florals and spice thrown in for sophistication. Not for me but glad to have tried it!

Ehhhh this didn't work on me at all. It starts with a blast of pink yummy bubblegum, reminds me of hating softball and all the preteen shy awkwardness that went with trying and failing to socialize with a bunch of spoiled pre-bimbos. No you twat, I'm not kissing your dirty shoes. I'm going to the snack stand and getting bubble tape! lol. Yep seriously this is such a realistic bubblegum it will invoke memories of youth, no joke. On my skin Bubble Tape tonsil honkeys Big Red *hard*. Stop it y'all, it's getting to hot in here on my elbow. Just no. The duo give me this sour-puss look for the remainder of the afternoon, sulking. I knew I shouldn't have invited them over. They've now decided to play "Let's Get Sticky and Twisted" in my hair, so off they go, and I could swear one of them smoked a wet cigarette earlier and is desperately trying to cover it up with a "clean" smoke smell dispelling candle but dude I'm not buying it. Bunch of brats. And screw you Bubble Tape for laying Big Red on me and losing your innocence in such a based fashion in my elbow house! They did it on my elbow! In my hair! What's this world coming to? So sour smoky pink cinnamon bubble gum febreze screw you chemistry basically.

Pele was love at first sniff many years ago, but it faded so quickly I never went for a bottle. I retested it recently, and decided on a full because it's just too gorgeous to not have around. It is the lack of base notes I think that makes this blend fleeting, however the crux of the elbow provides pretty decent wearlength, more than before! Also the Lab filled the bottle up high. Thanks Lab. Lush, tropical blooms, straight up. It reminds me of jasmine mostly, or what I want jasmine to be, not powdery, just petally, dewy, tropical evening blooms. It's so beautiful. I had a little plastic solid perfume locket when I was a little girl, and it had a scent similar to this, sweet and innocent, gorgeous florals. I loved that little thing. Perfect for Spring/Summer. This would layer beautifully with dirt or green notes. If this was a color palette it would be blue, purple, white, with a little bit of green. Try Pele if you like Grief, Mab's Court Gardenia, Bluebonnet SN, Alkemia's Haiku, Paradisiaca, or Blue Ridge Skyline, The Little Book Eater's Claire Fraser, or Deep Midnight Perfumes Highclere.

I'm trying to figure out what the heckedy heck lotus smells like. I get a blast of lavender in the opening, very nice, drying down to something spicy. What spice is this? No idea. Posh Spice. Sophisticated chill spice. I think I get the bubblegum others get from lotus, it's not overt, but reminds me of the sugar dusting on bubblegum, soft and sweet. I like it! Fades after a few hours, but pleasant and classy.

So oddly enough, the longest lasting note is one of the florals. This starts out and stays like a quintessential BPAL blend, similar to what your box of imps smells like, a smorgasbord of powdery, heady floral honey and darker resinous and wine notes. It's pretty but just kinda meh. The next day, this gorgeous floral similar to Wildberry Lilac (my signature scent) shows up and it's gorgeous! If anyone has smelled Wildberry Lilac incense, this is what the final final (8 hours later) drydown is like. I would describe it as lilac but much less powdery and more voluptuous, almost a tropical bloom. Gorgeous. I'm curious which note is doing it, possibly the hibiscus? Slippery Poppy Tincture does something similar. I'll have to scope out more of the flowers in this blend!

Oh my gosh I forgot to review this! Hanksite is a fun scent. It reminds me of Reeds Ginger Beer crossed with Jarritos Mandarin Soda, which to me always had an earthy/orange peel/gritty type taste. So this is mostly bubbly, earthy ginger beer with a but of citrus. I don't get much fougere/green aspects, other than the slight earthiness. Vetiver isn't going peanuts on me either, it's lending to the dry earthy/natural feel (not like graveyard dirt, more warm, desert-like). I feel like it could be brighter and I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, its just out of my comfort zone enough to be playful and fun and unique. I really like it and recommend it if you like ginger and fizzy blends. ?

I wanted to love this, but it might have to be a locket only blend. It starts out very pretty floral red musk, similar to Moriarty w/o currant and plum, but sadly this does what some musk and oud blends do (especially black musk) and went burnt/toxic/acrid. There are many ouds and musks that don't do this, but more and more I have been noticing this in not just bpal blends but from other perfumers. Jiaolong did the same thing, as well as Colemanite Phoenix, oddly enough. It's sad, really. You can detect that note in the vial sometimes, but it just goes crazy once it hits the skin. The next day this was a gorgeous floral musk again with nuances of sweetness and spice, but overall this scent was a dissapointment on my skin. I'll probably hold on to it for the locket and see how it develops from there. =[

This was mostly bubbly champagne and honey on me! The champagne was a bit bubblier and brighter wet on skin, but the scent largely stayed the same start to finish. This didn't come across as fruity, just more about the fizzy aspect. I'll be keeping the imp!

Fresh frimp from the Lab (in an imp pouch, no less!), two weeks aged. This was one of the first BPAL'S I tried back in 06-08 somewhere, and its vaguely familiar from what I remember. It has a very bubbly aspect to it, like Bon Vivant or what's the other one? London? No, hmm one of the Wanderlusts I think. It smells like champagne, pretty flowers, and dryer sheets to me, an odd mix indeed! Something in this is making it go sour on my skin, probably one of the fruit notes (dangit again skin chemistry Arggghhhhhhh!), but I'm not ready to part with it because I love the champagne note! I'll try it again in a scent locket. For fans of Bon Vivant, Lazy Daisy, The East, Deep Midnight's Lace Parasol

I got this as a frimp from a forumite (aren't they the bestest? ) Thank you so much! I get the spice, too. It's spicy in the way carnation or ylang ylang is. Very reminiscent of clove. I don't get lilies at all, not in the way that I am used to in lily dominant blends like Lush's Death and Decay (or the Queen Bee Apothecary dupe: Grim Reaper) or my favorite lily blends from Deep Midnight like Last Breath or Mourning Glory. This is almost a completely different flower! No funeral lilies, if you were worried! It's taking on a Yorick like papery note, which I was fond of in Yorick, but it is going sour here sadly. Irghhh. This will be a pretty carnation like blend in a locket for me looks like, but I won't need to seek out a bottle since I have a lot of those. Still, I like this enough to keep because it is unique.

2 weeks straight from the lab frimp, in first ever purple velvet imp pouch! ❤️ Thank you Lab friends! Debauchery is an almost vetiver musk on me, kinda dirty smelling, the vetiver smells nutty yet softer than usual. I do get a bit of opium. When I sniff close I get a Spencer Gifts type incense note. I'm getting flashbacks of being a teen in the early 00s, buying cheap ankh necklaces, claw rings, and incense and rocking out to Opeth, Lacuna Coil, Stabbing Westward, and The Queen of The Damned soundtrack. No sh*t, man. That's freakin' wild dude. I like it. These things are usually best aged, so I'm definitely holding on to and enjoying the imp so far, especially for the memories. Oooo hours later, I'm getting something powdery sweet, in the way that incense or dragons blood can dry down sweet. Nice! June 30 retry: About the same. Vetivery red musk. It's alright, but I like other red musk blends better so won't be upgrading to a bottle.

Finally got to try this one! 2 weeks fresh from Lab, in the bottle and wet on skin it smells like what your box of imps smell like, that distinctly BPAL musky, heady floral mix of scents. Drydown similar, but lighter, a pretty slight dusting of powder, floral, and light musk, slightly plummy like Moriarty. Beeswax makes sense, I get a slight honey-like vibe from this. Doesn't last long, but I have dry skin. I'm going to try this on my inner elbow and repost my views in a bit. Edit. Yep, about the same, maybe more plummy and rich. Way way way later next morning, this is a gorgeous sweet floral like Pele. I like this stage the best. ?

I have been wanting a 13 blend for years but just never really got around to it, would forget, or they would be unavailable.. I received the teeniest dab of a decant ages ago, and a sniffie, I forget which iterations they were, and that's it. Funny enough, my first bottle of 13 is finally here, in my 13th year of BPAL fandom. Fitting right? Anyway, this starts out like Fruity Loops sugar, goes cloying slightly sour (thanks, skin chemistry), then dries down to a blend similar to Warm Vanilla Sugar by B&BW, a super nice scent I fell out of love with back in the day. So the beginning and middle stages I don't really like, final drydown is decent. I get the brown sugar/molasses thing Airimir of Gondor mentioned (GONDOR!!!)

I like this! Thanks for helping with the hurricane relief, happy to help. FdM is a perfect Spring tropical floral, but rare and unique. It is green for sure, the stemmy and planty bits being the dominant part of the composition, so if you're not into big, loud florals you might dig this. Flor is like if honeysuckle was tropical and less powdery. It is actually very similar to Solanine The Flower Girl, also received in this order, but more subdued. Low throw and sillage, very much a skin scent. I'll have to try it on my inner elbow as Bluebonnet lasted at least 24 hours there. This would layer well with earthy or coconut blends. It's not my favorite green floral, but I like it enough to keep and play with this Spring and Summer. For fans of Solanine The Flower Girl, The Perfumed Garden, maybe some Rappacinni's Garden blends, Alkemia's Green Carnation.

I received an aged frimp from a lovely forumite and this is gorgeous! Red musk is a player, but I get more of a dry desert sands, musks, and incensey spices from this, very sensual. This is more like what I wanted out of Morocco, which is nice, but goes plasticy powdery on me juuuust enough for me to say skip it. Scherezade never goes powdery thankfully. I'm on a Conan: The Barbarian kick recently and this is what I would imagine Valeria would wear. F*ing badass, sexy, sensual, spices, and musks in the desert wind. Do you want to live forever?

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Straight from the Lab in the bottle it was straight up smokey, creamy rootbeer. Uhhh...Excellent? About a week from then, I tried this on, and it was strong, heady, slightly smokey rootbeer with red musk. I didn't catch much fig, citrus, lilac, or even vetiver (kinda glad on that one). Later on the red musk peaks out and dries down mostly red musk, but inbetween I could smell a bit of chamomile if I searched for it. It doesn't really come off fruity or floral. It's mostly about the rootbeer and musk. It is an odd combination, and I have nothing else like this in my collection. It could be a very distant cousin to The Phantom Calliope. Hell, this could be a Carnival Diabolique blend. Infernal Rootbeer Stand? I'm going to hold on to it and see if it's like Van Halen, where you can't decide whether you love it or hate it. I decided to love Van Halen, so maybe Sissy the Ascendent will go the same way?

1 week fresh from the Lab. I get the dirt note first off followed up by a dry, incense note that makes this blend feel, very, very old. The boney note is dry, and the moldering shroud notes are almost papery like moldering, dessicated tobacco. It's not in an entirely pleasant way, but in a 'wow, this is actually creepy AF' sort of way. This makes me think less of Shakespeare and more of a vampire resting in almost sepian grey, ancient tomb with the walls crumbled to dust around him. Or maybe Gandalf in a library reading ancient texts. Beeswax may have been fused into the walls for hundreds of years. Very evocative. It reads slightly masculine but I still love it. I'm keeping the imp, considering a bottle. ❤️ For fans of Eshe, Antony, Zombi, Deep Midnight Perfumes The Crypt, or Whisper Sisters Haxan, although this really is its own scent.

For being a dirt scent I found this surprisingly light, green, fresh, and loamy. There's an almost crispness to it, too, like how I want the dead leaves note to work in manu Autumnal scents that never work. This is a good replacement, almost a cross between dirt and the Lab's beautiful oak note. ? Although I enjoy Whisper Sisters dirt note a smidge more, I'm so happy to finally find a bottle of this. It embodies more of the dead leaves and dirt you would find in a graveyard and I absolutely love it. Another thing, I'm grateful its not a patchouli dirt blend, as many dirt blends can be. It's fresher, lighter. So good. ❤️ PS : layers gloriously with Bluebonnet single note.

I wore this on the same arm as Graveyard Dirt SN, with Yorick on my other arm to compare. Wow this is lovely! Is that magnolia? Tragedy nailed it, bright dirt with Spring flowers. The earth note is kind of light, too and innofensive. It's pretty and feminine, not too powdery, surprisingly clean but all that said, decidedly gothic and romantic. Gorgeous! For fans of Zombi (its lighter than Zombi), Graveyard Dirt, Deep in Earth, Whisper Sisters Fresh Grave or Blood Red, and Deep Midnight Perfumes The Crypt.

This is beautiful! It starts out in the bottle and wet on skin as a cool, crisp floral very similar to carnation with green dewy leaves/grass. Gorgeous. It dries down to a scent more reminiscent of, yeah I agree, daffodil, hyacinth, or maybe tulip or hydrangea, somewhere around there, but with a purplish blue shade. It reminds me most of Grief, but I like this more! The only other BPAL I've tried with bluebonnet is The East, which while pleasant went dryer sheet on me. This stays floral and fresh without veering into that territory and I'm so glad! There is a short stage where if I get in close, I get a plastic, artificial vibe, but the throw doesn't carry it as much. This stage doesn't last forever thankfully. This is an amazing spring time floral. Plus it helps hurricane relief, so it's a win win. It's great on its own and I can't wait to layer it with Graveyard Dirt. I got hours and hours of decent sillage and lasting power when applied on the inner elbow. This might just be my favorite BPAL floral, and I don't say that lightly. ❤️ For fans of Grief, Slippery Poppy Tincture, Pele, Lady of Shalott, or Alkemia's Blue Ridge Skyline.

I like this better in the bottle than what my skin did with it. It starts out a very beautiful light aquatic similar in feel to Sunrise with Sea Monsters or Moana, a bit more of that, I kinda wanna say earthy, less soapy aquatic that is mellower than most. The pearlescent note smells expensive, light, and sophisticated. The orris and driftwood lend more of a dryness than an in-your-face powder, which I appreciate. I don't get much musk, but the pink read like a very light, inoffensive grapefruit. It just kinda, dudded out on the skin and was fleeting, unfortunately. However, I can tell this has potential for greatness, so maybe it will do better with some aging and it will certainly work its magical mermaid shimmer in a locket. Oh, in the bottle, it's fresh, juicy grapefruit, with swirls of aquatic notes, dry woods, sophisticated high-end, nonpowdery light ambers, and beautiful, dewy, soft lotus petal. Yep pink shimmery mermaid! Edit* okay yes, much better on clothes! Love, keep. Wait hold everything. Later, this turned into a sweet sugared dewy lotus in a pond of cool water type of skin scent. It is almost as if it was a lotus version of Hope and Faith. Very, very faint, but pleasant and pretty.

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said here, the other reviews are bang on. Fresh from the Lab I get fresh greenery with a slight perfumey floral edge, enough to lift this from a purely atmospheric blend to perfume level while still maintaining a level of uniqueness. I do get a pollinous poison vibe, almost dusty and dry in a way, perhaps the manchineel "smoke". Not a smokey blend in any way, more of a green dust, but it doesn't make me sneeze at all, thankfully. There is something a bit sinister about it. I'll have to see how this ages. I sort of get the shroomies, they lend a sublte, dry earthiness to the blend. Although it is not my favorite green floral I like it quite a bit and very glad to have it! I think it would layer well with dirt notes, too and this is perfect for Spring. For fans of The Perfumed Garden, Lady of Shallot, Destroying Angel, Gap Grass, Alkemia Blue Ridge Skyline and Summer Dandelions, Sugar and Spite's Meadow, and The Strange South's Antebellum.

In the bottle, a honeysuckle jasmine blend, sweet, and fresh. On the skin it is *very similar* to the strong, sweet, creamy jasmine vibe of The Poinsettia Gown from this past Yule. If you were to swap out the rose for honeysuckle, you would have Eostre. I like them both a lot, there is an almost metallic note that really lifts these two to the next level. Fair warning, they are STRONG and somewhat cloying (Gracious those florals), so a little dab would do you. They both are reminiscent of a high end cold cream, but I wouldn't say they are too powdery really. The cream notes never go sour thankfully like many do. It is more sweet. Just apply very lightly. I was hoping to get a better idea for what Every Day You Play With The Light of The Universe would be like, and wasn't disappointed. I like The Strange South's River Song for a sweet honeysuckle the best, but this is still lovely and I'm sure Light of The Universe will be, too. ?