The Forest Floor

I've decided that this is definitively "Dr. Pepper Dryer Sheets", something more of a "Vanilla Dr. Pepper Dryer Sheets" when on. I don't mean that in a bad way, I like the individual scents of dryer sheets, Dr. Pepper, and vanilla... put them all together into a curiously delightful scent with a distinct nostalgic quality (well, nostalgic to me, since I almost never drink soft drinks but Dr. Pepper was childhood favorite of mine.)

This scent reminds me of coquito, a booze-less and very faintly gamey coquito. I love coquito and it always makes me think of the absolutely amazing holiday parties thrown each year by one of my dearest friends' parents (they are Puerto Rican and always served a variety of really wonderful traditional Puerto Rican dishes and goodies at their annual holiday parties. Alas- they have now moved to another state! No more Aguayo family holiday parties for me unless I want to fly across the country!) Their recipe for coquito included coconut creme, melted vanilla ice cream (!), rum, and some nutmeg and cinnamon. I just love that this scent brings back good memories for me... Anyway, I do amp the cinnamon in this, and I like the cinnamon, I do. It starts to tame down somewhat after a while (like an hour-ish?), but I wish it was rather quieter for me from the get-go so I could enjoy more of the creamy delicate sheep's milk and sweet delectable coconut for longer. Awesome holiday scent for me though!

Ded Moroz you guys! I've not been pursuing BPAL long enough to be familiar with a whole lot of past scents mentioned here and can't make good comparisons or anything, but for me, Ded Moroz is the epitome of "a winter forest". And since it's included in the currently available Yules I thought it was worth mentioning here. (Edited to fix grammar error)

I'm not sure if there is already topic for this... I think I read that 3-letter words like "gym" are not searchable.... Anyway, what are some good BPAL scents to wear to the gym? I take a lot of outdoor walks too, and I feel like I can just wear whatever suits my mood and the weather and the season for outdoor activities, but I need to find a couple of good scents (preferably GC) to wear to the indoor, sweaty, and sometimes fairly social environment of a gym. I would love some input and recommendations for things to try that you guys think would work well for that. I'm thinking clean, bright smells that are generally regarded as pleasant/unoffensive with medium throw and several hours wear length. I've mostly been wearing Alice on gym days lately, which is ok, but it isn't what I am looking for. And I have Claircognizance, which has a nice, clean, fresh-linen type scent, but I'd like something more unique and fun, and from the general catalogue. I thought Snake Oil was nice until someone told me I smelled "like a baby", haha. I've learned that some scents behave badly on me when I'm sweaty. Red musk is a huge no-no! If you go the the gym, what do you wear? What are your thoughts, experiences, and recommendations? Thanks for any insights!

...so much softer than I'd imagined. When I went through my order of 6 or 7 scents, opening bottles and smelling them, I came to this one last or next to last, and when I sniffed the bottle, I couldn't smell anything! I had to come back to it later when my nose wasn't spoiled by so many other stronger smells. Palmyra is lovely, warm, and soft. Goes on like smelling like incense. After I've been wearing it a while, or it's just dried down, I start to get an almost gamey kinda note from it… something with a very faint kind of animal funk to it… like wet wool? Not really, and it isn't unpleasant, it's intriguing. I can't place it. I re-read the description… OH- it's leather! OK then. I like that, it adds another dimension to it. It is primarily sweetly incense-y. And although I thought it was so faint on my first sniff of the bottle, it's not really a delicate scent, just a very smooth one, with a regal and restrained power in it. This one is really nice and I like it.

This one is a lot sharper, louder, and darker than I imagined it would be. I get an impression of a deep dark purple or blackish purple, kind of like the color of typical eggplant skin. I'm a bit of a noob and can't pick out what note or combination of notes is coming across as sort of shrill to me, I'm guessing the violet and/or the plum, but I'm pretty sure I'm not getting the black amber at all. Several other scents with black amber have a soft soothing quality I'm not getting here. I want to love plum scents because I love actual plums, but I guess I enjoy the note more when it's cast as a supporting role than the star of the show... unless that's the violet doing that. I really can't tell. Eventually, the scent starts to calm down some, after about an hour on, but it doesn't morph drastically, it stays powerfully "plummy" but is just a little less shouty about it. I like it ok and think I will wear it on occasion (I wore it the other day actually)... but I don't love it or feel particularly attached to it. I will even have to avoid it on days when I don't feel well or feel like I might be prone to headaches.

A mournful, poignant scent, thick with foreboding. Soft golden amber darkened with a touch of murky black musk. I love this one, it's so soft, warm, and soothing but also dark, profound, and mysterious, quiet but powerful... it has a shadowy luminous golden mood, perhaps like what a smoky quartz would smell like if a crystal had a smell... (maybe the color of the liquid in the imp is giving me that impression?) In the vial there is an unexpected sharp edge to it- my nose doesn't say "lemon" but I can see how others make the association- which promptly disappears within a minute or so of being on. After that, it's just a perfectly blended, darlky beautiful and warm scent that feels both very natural and lovely yet otherworldly... evocative of things from the past... unlocking a delightful attic haunted by long lost heirlooms and amber-hued treasures from days gone by... old sepia photographs, yellowed antique letters, poems, sheet music, and journals with frail pressed flowers between the pages, a decaying ribbon tied around a dry lock of hair found in a tarnished gold heirloom locket.

Well this is my first review.... here goes nothing! I got to try this at Dirty South Lunacy after drooling over the description online for a month, and boy was I impressed! On one hand I do have to agree with the comparison others have made to Alice, but on the other hand it hardly compares at all... perhaps it is her evil twin, a much bolder, witchier Alice. And there is a spicy element to it, somewhat peppery, but more like tart- tangy, zingy, puckery... it actually reminds me a lot of certain herbal teas, I'm thinking rosehip tea (haven't had that in years) and lemon zinger. It's sort of sharp but unique and yummy. And along side this fascinating tart thing it has going on I can definitely smell the warm, creamy, honey-vanilla-soft floral layer. When I put it on, the spiciness is in the foreground at first, but it all mellows together after a little while. After a few hours it becomes even softer (not too much fainter, more like the scent itself softens and blends) and somewhat "drier" I guess you might say...something about it starts to remind me of potpourri. A very unusual potpourri. A sassy young medieval witch's potpourri. I still quite like it at this stage. It's a fantastic, distinct scent with a lot of personality and it's really fun. Glad to have it!