laslibres

This spring, I think I will be wearing... Ostara (bergamot and resins...this is more summery, though) The Hesperides (apple orchard scent) Flower Moon (huge piles of flowers and gobs of honey) Hanami (it's cherry blossom time!) Garden Path With Chickens (just like walking in a garden) Gennivre (mint and tea, will be very cooling when the warmer weather rolls in) June Gloom (also cooling...dewy herbs) Mag Mell (picnic in the grass! Also has a note that just smells like sunshine) Evening Cicadas and Red Peppers (I don't always like florals, but I LOVE this one) Josie (fancy garden party scent) Lulu (very clean and fresh, gardenia-ish) Santa Eularia des Riu (it's the smell of a bright, open, airy room) Pomona (fruits and blossoms) Lots of floweries.

This is, uh, ROSE. And more rose, and also sandalwood. Erk. On me...okay, maybe it starts out being not so bad...I smell a little jasmine and honeysuckle, and some clove too. The rose is giving some of the other notes a chance to play, although it still wants to be the star. And I don’t know why some BPAL roses always smell like they have a faint mist of bug spray hanging over them, but this one kinda does. Arglefnarg. Going to go put on Whip as a rose antidote, brb. Okay, you know what, actually? As this wears on it's not so bad. This is one of the least old-lady-like roses in the BPAL pantheon, and the clove adds a nice touch of sweetness. I can still pick out the honeysuckle and maybe nectarine, too. If rose is good on you, you need to get you some Hilma. It is not good on me, however. But I can see how it could be totally awesome on someone else.

Gardenia and geranium! I wasn't expecting anything this fresh and clean from The District, and I dig it. On me, the bergamot comes out, and something that might be tobacco flower, but I haven't tried that before so I'm not sure...it's kinda like white flowers with a bit more smokiness and woodsiness to it. Okay, so tobacco _flower_ I can handle, just not tobacco itself. The scent goes through a brief phase of AMPED BERGAMOT on me, and that's a little disturbing, but the bergamot settles down and the florals come back. This is very fresh and dewy and floral, and I sometimes really like scents like that when I'm in the mood for them. And then there's the tobacco flower makes it a bit deeper and more complex. This scent is very interesting! I like it a lot, I don't know if I like it enough for a bottle, but it's quite good.

Oh, wow. Cinnamon and red ginger, possibly cassia...like Saw-Scaled Viper, except without the lemony-gingery-ew that that scent has in its early stages. On me, yep, more cinnamon...like the filling in a cinnamon roll, except a _sexy_ cinnamon roll. I'm really not sure how else to describe it other than that. And DIRT! It's got a sort of earthy-woodsy-dirty quality. Bit of a flowery scent as it wears on, too. Gets a bit more powdery and woodsy the longer it stays on...smells like maybe there's cedar in this, also? This does smell a lot like Saw-Scaled Viper, or Priala...so it's kind of a dupe of things I already have (what can I say, I have lots of sexy cinnamon roll scents), but it is very very good and is a must-try if you like cinnamon.

Super-fruity! I'm pretty sure I smell lychee in the bottle, and the citrus and quince come out on me (do you know, I actually went around sniffing quinces in the supermarket, to make sure I could identify the note, since it’s in a lot of BPALs?). I think I get a little green out of it too, but no florals or dragon's blood, which is fine. This is...Lifesavers. Or gummy bears. Except it's really EXOTIC gummy bears! The gummy bears would be purple, red, and orange, I think. And I would swear that I smell actual peach and plum, not just blossom, but I get them confused sometimes. Yup, fruity candy. The list of notes certainly SOUNDS complex, but there's nothin' complicated about Fire Pig. Sometimes you just need straight-up candy smells in your life.

In the bottle, this is a fruit smoothie, but with a little bit of pepper kick...it's an EVIL fruit smoothie! As it dries, the "evil" bit kind of fades away, giving way to sugary apple and coconut. Bit of pineapple, too...pina colada with apple slices as garnish (mmm, now I know what drink I'm serving at my next party!). Little bit of banana. No pomegranate. And not much pepper, either...I kind of wish the wee bit of spicy that I'd smelled in the imp had stuck around. Because some days you just need to smell like an evil smoothie, you know? But don't get me wrong, Shango is a winner. It's very fruity and fun, even if it is lacking in evil.

This is another one of those "dark ocean depths" scents, like R'lyeh and Calico Jack...it's not light, airy ocean spray, like Tempest, it's much deeper and dark blue in feeling. It's a tiny bit more ozoney than R'lyeh, though...a little citrus-lemony too? It does resemble R'lyeh a lot, though, except with more levity, and minus the seaweedy notes that are in R'lyeh. Olokun is just pure blue water with hints of lemon (tiny, tiny hints). It's a lovely aquatic scent, and I can see myself wearing it a lot.

Sort of sweet pea and leaves in the vial…green, and flowery too. On me: melon? Huh. Melon. Also grass, and soap, but pleasant soap. I didn't put on Yemaya by mistake? Really? This is a similar melon to that, sort of powdery and candylike. There's also a lot of aquatic and ozone in this, as well as leaves and grass, and I think that flower I'm smelling is sweet pea (which I love). The melon was an unexpected touch, but it rounds out the scent really well, making it really fresh and dewy, as the powderiness fades after being on my skin for a few minutes. This is very nice! It's quite girly, it's refreshing, and it reminds me of a Bath and Body Works scent, but more imaginative.

I'm going to get an imp pack - do those still count towards the Haiti relief funds? There are exactly six of the above scents that I don't have yet (Port-au-Prince, Ochosi, Elegba, Osun, Olokun, and Obatala), so it'd work out perfectly. Considering a bottle of Shango too, which I've wanted for a while. For what it's worth, Shipwreckgirl, it's not masculine at all on me, just apple, pineapple, and coconut, with a hint of pepper.

I really like this one...it's kind of southern belle-ish, like I feel Peach Moon and Kindly Moon are too. First sniff from the decant vial: pretty much all of the listed notes are there, fruity honey, peach, and fresh dewy magnolia. I guess I hadn't really smelled magnolia before, or at least not in blends where it stood out, because I hadn't realized I love it! It's very fresh-smelling, and sort of white and powdery like gardenia, but different. On my skin, the dewy flowers dominate the scent, with peach and honey being more in the background. Much like Peach Moon, this scent says, HI, IT IS SPRING AND WE HAVE FLOWERS!...andmaybealsopeachbutwewon'tmentionthat. I think I prefer this to Peach Moon, though...it's fresher and less perfumey. Twenty minutes later: okay, now I smell peach. It's a very sweet peach, and it doesn't really come out on its own until the scent's been on my skin for a while. The magnolias are still there, and are still lovely. I like Josie a lot! I've been looking for a bottle-worthy peach scent, and I think this is it.

In the vial: wow, super-sweet hazelnut! Very tasty. Then on me, a bit of berry something comes out (I don't know what elderberries or bilberries smell of...apparently like this, sort of a cross between blueberries and raisins). The hazelnut dominates, though, and the hay lends a bit of grainy bready goodness. I smell a tiny bit of honey in this, too. Delicious! It smells like awesome cookies.

All of these notes are basically win on me, so I wasn't surprised that this was awesome. In the bottle, it's candied fruits and red musk, and on me that becomes even deeper and sweeter. The musk and ginger assert themselves a little more, and there's lots of plum and other sweet fruits (blackberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, orange? I don't know, but those are the fruits I get from it). Maybe some amaretto if I really huff my wrist. It's a lot of fruit, but it's _exceedingly_ sexy fruit, which is the best kind. This is like Snake Oil after gorging on lots of Candy Phoenixes.

A radiant blend of solar oils: golden amber, saffron, heliotrope, hibiscus, citron, frangipani, frankincense, tangerine, mock orange, and orange blossom. 2009 version: orange! Or rather, I think I'm smelling tangerine...it's sweeter than just regular orange. It gets more flowery as it dries on me, sort of powdery white flowers, and orange blossom. Sadly, the orange blossom does as it sometimes does on me: turns to bitter orange peel yuckiness. Also, the tangerine (or maybe the flowers?) start to take on this fake, plastic quality, which is disappointing. I don't know why orange blossoms smell so awesome in real life, but go completely sour on my skin...curse the gods of scent! *shakes fist at sky*

Dust? Flowers? Incense? Oh, heck, I was afraid of this...the blend having too many different things in it so that I can't pick anything out. It gets a little clearer as it dries...I mostly smell verbena, and sand. It's kind of incensey, spicy sand, though...it's a desert scent. I think I might be smelling some carnation or some of the other floral notes, too, and myrrh. But then, weirdly, it settles down as...chocolate and beeswax. But those notes aren't listed! Argh, I don't get this scent.

2009 version: starts out as sticky resins...maybe amber and pine. As it dries, it turns more smoky, more woodsy-incensey...I'm really not good at separating out different incense notes, and I really should be! I like a lot of incense blends but all I can describe this one as is "woodsy incensey." This one is a little sharp and medicinal, almost, and a little sweet...it still smells a little _sticky_ somehow, like resins too. And a bit of frankincense? I don't know, this is a bit "hrm" on me. I think with a little aging it could be really beautiful, though...but lab-fresh, it's kinda...nondescript, and a little too chemical-ish.

First sniff: aquatics and flowers, a little bit of white (or crystal) musk, very high-end-perfumey. It's a cool, fresh scent...the aquatic makes me think of spring/summer, like spring water or bathing pools, not winter or frost. I can smell the leaves and petals floating on the water too. No peppers, just fresh dewy flowers...actually no, maybe I do sort of smell red pepper in this! But it's not spicy, it's just fresh and sort of salady. It's like if you slice into a bell pepper, that kind of thing. And it's only if I really huff my wrist...it's in the background from the camellias and the aquatic and the leaves, but it blends with them really well. This is a really lovely, feminine floral...I do mostly get dewy camellia out of this, but the other notes add a bit of complexity. This was another surprise winner for me! It'll be really fun to have around during spring.

Can I first just say that I LOVE the label of this, with the little cartoon dog and then the comic-style sound effect "PA-POW!" Hee. Okay, so in the bottle, this is grass, musk, and flowers. Sort of springy and perfumy...on me, these are the same "yellow" flowers as in, say, Garden Path With Chickens, or Et Lux Fuit. There’s a certain floral note they use that smells like _yellow_ flowers, not any other kind, sort of polleny and warm. This is that. I know the musk is supposed to smell like puppy, but really it kind of makes the scent more perfumy and more sophisticated, almost. This is what puppies smell like after they’ve been bathed with fancy dog groomer shampoo. (They hate that.) Sunshine permeates throughout this scent...the musk smells sunny, the grass is sun-warmed, the flowers are sunny and yellow...I really don’t know how the lab manages to make blends smell LIKE SUNSHINE, but somehow they do exactly that, and this is one of those. This is a really pretty and fun scent. I swear, if I walk out on this snowy day wearing this scent, the power of its summery-sunshineyness will melt all the snow.

I was expecting this to be a bit like Angeronalia...one of those winter scents to remind you of the sunnier months to come. But it really wasn't like that at all, except vaguely the same mood. Season of Ghosts is very orangey, probably the orangiest BPAL I've ever tried, and hoo boy, do I ever love that note! It's sort of powdery and juicy both at the same time, and it's sort of a flowery orange, too. I smell a wee bit of rose (?), frankincense, strangely a little drop of honey (???), lots of lemongrass, but mostly ORANGE. Actually, you know what's the best thing I can compare this scent to? An Orange Julius. And I love those, so this is a tremendous compliment. This is turning out to be the unexpected need-a-bottle scent of the Yules...I really haven't tried anything close to this in the general catalogue.

09 version! So, snow flurries smell like coconut and winter wind smells like ivy? 'Cause that's what it smells like straight out of the vial. But I’m down with that. There's coconut and maybe some almond-vanilla-milky notes, like Dana O’Shee, plus icy greenery. (It IS somehow icy…a little ozoney, a little cold.) The coconut smells a little greeney too, and there's also...maybe some lemon? Plus a little bit of...something else kinda strange. It’s probably a night-blooming flower, but it sort of smells like cleaning product or medicine or something. However, that is a small, miniscule note in what is otherwise a pretty good blend...warm and comforting, good for winter.

Okay, this scent is confusing me. At first, it was all holy caramel vanilla awesome, Batman. A little nutty, a little patchouli-y, and of course, there was that vanilla-infused red musk. But then something weird happened. Some kind of spice crept in that started making it smell...savory. Kinda like pepper, kinda like, weirdly, hops. Kinda like...gravy. It's very weird. I enjoyed gravy with my turkey a couple days ago. I do not enjoy it on my skin. I dunno. It goes through some really good phases, smelling sort of spicy-sexy and a little bit foody but not too...and then...gravy? I think I have to retest this again to make sure I'm not going bananas. Gravy?

I've been trying to track this down for-e-ver...it came out the MONTH before I got into BPAL, so I totally missed it, and it always sounded good to me. And I was right! It starts out kinda grapefruit and berry-ish (I dunno where I get berry from, but I do), a little sugary, and a little bit of...something else. I get hints of wood, rice wine, musk, and ginger, and they all combine to make the grapefruit more complex and more elegant than just grapefruit on its own would be. It smells like Night Gaunt mated with Diwali. It's kind of light, you could almost say it's ghostly, which is appropriate. I wish I could totally slather this on, maybe make it less light that way, but alas, I have but one imp. I love the little bit that I have, though. It's such a beautiful and interesting scent!

Smells like ocean! Sort of planty, a little salty, and very aquatic. Some aquatics are lightish-blue-smelling, or almost gray, but this one is _dark_ blue. Wow, it does smell a little bit like salty sea water! But not in a gross way. And that’s not the dominant note…it’s mostly just pure aquatic and ozone, with a bit of an herbal, flowery tinge. This is so lovely, it’s _deep_ somehow, and cool and calming. I might need a whole bottle. Just might.

Wow, I really can't put my finger on this scent. There is incense, yet, but something else more fruity that adds a bit more...color, I guess. Then on me, some light flowers and something kind of planty-leafy comes out...sort of like palm or papyrus. The incense has a bit of a spicy quality to it, dry, but deep and complex. A bit musky, too. The whole thing feels sort of dusky-red-purple, if it were a color. Now that I see everyone else has mentioned lemongrass/lemon verbena, I can sense that too...it's tempered by the incense, though. Hrm. I really can't figure this one out, but I think it's good! It has that kind of slinky, snakelike quality that Snake Oil and its derivatives have.

Yeah, this is a morpher. In the bottle, it's all fresh-sliced peaches, with a tiiiiny bit of jasmine, but on my skin, those two notes trade places in terms of prominence. A little tea comes out too, and another floral that I thiiiiink is chrysanthemum? So it mostly ends up being florals with a hint of peach, and the florals start out being kinda obnoxious and nose-itchy, but they mellow out after fifteen or so minutes. After the scent has settled, it's pretty nice...I like jasmine, and the peach balances it out very well.

The smoke of Sacred Incense of Apollo twined through laurel branches, bay, and honey wine. This changes a lot from in the imp to on my skin...in the bottle it's a very grapey wine, with honey and maybe a tiny bit of herbal. But then on me, the herbal (and maybe a little bit of aquatic too?) comes to the forefront, and the wine takes a back seat. It's very herbal, deep, and green, sort of masculine-cologney, and the wine grapes provide a bit of fruity backdrop. More masculine than I was expecting. A tiny bit of sour-powdery-weirdness too. Hrm. I'm still trying to figure out if I like it or not...it has an interesting combination of notes, but it turned a little funky on my skin.