Soupy Twist

Juniper and strawberry candy in the bottle, but the juniper note never makes it to the skin. All I get is hard strawberry candy — an authentically fake note, if that makes sense.

A smooth gradient from lime rind to lemongrass. Very realistic, very Thai. And as all BPAL citrus on me, very gone in 15 minutes.

Peppermint and sugar in the bottle. Goes on like a photographic rendition of a candy cane. Seriously, I'd swear I was eating one. The vanilla comes in after a few minutes and turns this rounder and softer. It burns on the skin, but very briefly — Lick It Again burned for 10 minutes; this was barely a blip. It dries to a round, soft, sweet vanilla with mint on the backside. Just beautiful.

2015 decant. Just what it says on the tin. Starts as the nice cocoa from El Dia de los Reyes and segues into a rounded gold amber. Very well executed, but I'm not fond of amber, so I'll pass.

Dusty, dry, totally accurate pine needles. Not sure if I need a bottle but I feel like I'm wearing a photograph, if that makes sense. Absolutely perfect rendition of a really nice pine tree... in mid-January. When they invent holodecks, they will be calling on the Lab to do ALL the olfactory bits.

2015 version. Pine-sol. Sour pine and a little snow. I love pine and I love the Lab's snow note, but wow, this does not work for me.

Opens as an unsweetened berry tea. The fruit note quickly dissipates, leaving a very nice warm, soft, spicy black tea. Kind of like a simpler version of Villainess's Masala (which I LOVE and you can't get any more, so if you missed that, try this).

2015 decant. Lemonheads candy. Pretty much all I get. Some faint floral after the drydown before, like every other BPAL citrus, it vanishes completely in less than 15 minutes.

Sweet coffee and... scotch? whisky? rum? "Buttery and boozy" is spot-on. You can actually smell the wet cake somehow. But it dries to a dusty cocoa and then cinnamon, which is not as interesting.

Morphers make me want to tell stories, so this isn't like one of my typical reviews. Gorlois is dying, and he is dreaming, and he knows they are one and the same. The duke sees himself approaching his stronghold of Tintagel, where his wife Ygraine is securely barricaded from the forces of Uther, the king who would steal her away from her husband. Dream-Gorlois strides easily through the stands of cedar and juniper which ring his castle, and he is welcomed at the gate. In the great hall, the fair Ygraine awaits him with open arms, and he crushes her in a mighty hug. She helps him to remove his battle leathers, which smell of his skin and his sweat. He orders a servant to add elm boughs to the fire to take the chill from the icy room. Ygraine hands him warmed wine. The spices are so familiar on his tongue that his heart cries out in longing, in warning. Ygraine gazes lovingly at the Dream-Gorlois, the stranger who wears his face, and suddenly she knows, she knows this is not her husband, and she is paralyzed in her terror. The Dream-Gorlois smiles, an impossibly wide smile — the smile of a demon. His mouth bristles with ten-inch fangs. The fair Ygraine is frozen, turned stone, turned to wood, to polished cedar, and the monster raises a taloned hand and begins to rend her into shreds and shavings. Her screams are lost in the beast's roar. It continues to change, to shift, until there is only a red-gold dragon standing atop a pile of sawdust, dripping cherry-sweet slaver onto the stones. A baby begins to cry. Gorlois is dreaming, and he is dying, and he knows they are one and the same.

This is The Witches with a little bit of musk. I have no idea how, because it doesn't contain any of the listed notes of The Witches, but that's absolutely exactly what it is. There is no milk, butter, goat, rice flower, or honey on me. It's cinnamon/nutmeg/clove/allspice and musk.

Sandalwood in the bottle. Goes on as sandalwood, vetiver, and blackcurrant. It's not dreadful as it dries, but it continues into that weird flower-stamen note which the Lab's jasmine tends to turn into on my skin. Pass.

Tangerine and that soft restaurant mint candy in the bottle. Goes on as tangerine and orange, which becomes freshly-squeezed orange juice. Morphs into powdered anise, almost like anisette cookies. Absolutely delicious. It softens a little bit as it wears, which might be the lavender but to me is more like the roundness of vanilla.

Juniper and camphor (think "dentist's office") in the bottle, but neither is harsh. There's definitely that "snow in the back of the throat" note. Goes on with a bit of eucalyptus. The snow note develops a sweetness and a little more pine comes in. It's very round, not harsh at all. Some tea comes in after a few minutes. This is absolutely lovely. Sweet and bright. I think it's almost like Skadi without the actual berry note, but similarly sweet, or Arcana's Winter Wolves but with more fruit and less pine. I may have to get a bottle of this, since I missed out on Skadi.

Yoikes! This sounded a bit warmer on paper. Very accurate to the listed notes: leather and tar in the bottle, which adds pepper on application. Then the salt comes in — this is what I thought the pirate scents like the Jolly Roger would smell like. I feel like I'm standing on the deck of an 18th-century ship in the dead of winter. Not something I'd wear again, but another brilliant technical accomplishment from the Lab.

Ginger and apricot, sort of, in the bottle. Goes on as that jasmine stameny note, the sour one. This slightly morphs into unripe apricot. Just yuck. Scrubber.

A rich cocoa with cinnamon in the bottle. Goes on as that thick, rich, adult cocoa. This soon fades to cinnamon, and then... wait, what the hell, where did it go?! I had to re-slather on both wrists. My skin ate this faster than Embalming Fluid or Plunder. Seriously, five minutes. Two hours later there's a wee bit of that lovely cinnamon left. I'll try it in a locket. To compare to El Dia de los Reyes, there's less sugar and no coffee, and more cinnamon. Still delicious for the five minutes it lasted. ETA yes, this fellow does much better in a scent locket.

Chamomile in the bottle. Goes on as a surprisingly not-harsh grapefruit, almost like you've inhaled grapefruit and you're just getting the smell on the back of your palate. Then a wee musky note comes in, and slowly strengthens. The delphinium and lavender crowd out the grapefruit, and it finishes as a lavender.

Almond in the bottle. Not getting my hopes up. Goes on as a delicious almond-cherry. Continues creamy and soft. Oh, almond, please stay! A little medicinal as it dries. Turns to woodsmoke briefly, but this dissipates and the food note returns in a dusty way, maybe more vanilla. Finishes as a slightly plastic vanilla. I have to try this in a scent locket, but I may have finally found my almond!

Brings peace to the spirit, a sense of calm and fulfillment, and attracts the aid of beneficial spirits. Our Lady needs to calm down. Starts as a watery green, which is nice, but it quickly becomes too sweet, and then too green. It's like I'm drowning in cucumber juice.

You know those crumbly white mints you get in a bowl at the door of some restaurants? The ones which almost look like a tooth or a rough piece of gum with a mint center? Exactly that. It's a good vanilla, with nice longevity, and the mint stays around the edges. Very foody.

I posted this on another thread and people seemed to find it helpful, so I'll repost it here, since this seems to be a good general thread: Re Decant circles: BPAL sells perfume in bottles and samples, called imps. The Limited Editions (LEs), which are seasonal or event-specific, don't come in imps. But not everyone wants to jump in and buy a $23 bottle.... or five or ten... without sampling first. So some kind souls create a decant circle. What this means is that they take orders for bottles, and they will pour out, or decant, samples of each oil into 1ml vials (the standard sample size) so you can test a scent without committing to a whole bottle. The way it works is that you go into the forum http://www.bpal.org/forum/79-decant-circles-group-orders/and find someone who is doing a circle for the set of scents you want to try (like Yules, Weenies, Liliths, etc.). The person will post the bottles she is willing to purchase, and the number of slots available. (I think it's five per bottle.) You post usually in that thread asking for decants of the scents you want. The person confirms your request, and tells you (in a PM) how much it will cost. You send that amount via Paypal. When the bottles arrive, the decanter makes up the samples and sends out packages. Check out the various FAQs throughout the forum for more explanations, and PM the mods with specific questions. They are lovely people.

Pepper and linen in the bottle. Goes on as a sweet peppery tea. A honey note comes in, which changes to a citrus note, and for a few minutes it's Baobhan Sith's younger cousin. Then the honey comes back and dominates everything. And, of course, because it's a BPAL tea and citrus, my skin eats it all in half an hour.

Citrus and musk in the bottle. Goes on as lemony cleaning fluid. This shortly dries to lavender, which then calms down to a powdery mint. Hated the opening, but the mint is okay. Kind of like I got toothpaste on my shirt and didn't clean it off. Way to capture the Mad Hatter, though. This is absolutely him.

Wow, what a morpher. Patchouli and musk in the bottle. I then get, in series, each note lasting about five seconds: Patchouli with vanilla Sweet musk Apple A weird apple juice Teak Powdery rose Musk again Rose again And it settles on the rose. Other than the apple, these are all no-no-notes for me, but I must commend the Lab on the roller-coaster ride.