freyasfae

Considering that vetiver can be a death note on me, and cedar can quickly get overwhelming on me, this is quite a nice woodsy scent for me. Nothing overpowers, and it it's a balance of leafy greeness with woods. I even thought it was sandalwood at first, but I think that may be the cedar and vetiver dancing together. Not necessarily a keeper, but does give me hope for more cedar scents on me, in the right balance.

These chocolate-y mint notes have really surprised me as something I like wearing. I usually don't wear gourmands, but have found myself really liking BPALs. This one in particular is perfect because the cedar and oakmoss prevents it from going straight gourmand. Generally, this is a lovely blend of mint, chocolate, and woodsy. Edit: After wearing this for about three hours, the mint starts to veer into licorice territory, similar to what the pennyroyal in Mad Hatter did on me. I can't stand anything licorice, so this will have to go in the swap box.

Unsurprisingly, this is a very green scent, the oil is even green. At first, I can smell more of the notes, but as it dries down, it is mainly about the grass. It actually reminds me of Gap's Grass from the 90s, do they still make that? Anyway, this is a perfect scent for folks who love green grass scents.

I usually can't stand grape, but fortunately, maybe due to the flowers or because this is white grape, this doesn't go dimetapp on me. It was grape-y, the non-Dimetapp kind fortunately, at first, but the peach quickly joined the party. As it dries down the florals come in and eventually the musk. Overall, it's a little sweeter than I like, but this is another lovely BPAL peach scent.

This is very woodsy on me actually - there's a lot more than just green and floral on me, and it definitely has a malicious tinge to it.

In the bottle, this is all green and dark berries, but it immediately goes more berry and less green on my skin, which is what usually happens with berries. It could be a note my skin amps. Because of this ampage, I have to be very careful with berries and dark fruits, but the dark herbal-y green in Baneberry prevents this from becoming an overwhelming sweet dark berry scent on me.

Unlike several of the BPAL violets I have tried, this actually smelled like floral violets on me instead of candy violets. Because of that, the scent has the regalness I associate with violets, but I think violets are like pine for me. I love them as a scent, but not on my skin. Alas, it eventually goes soapy, too.

This was a very subtle citrus on me that went powdery by drydown.

A well-blended floral, spicy scent. I even get a little plum which I think is from the osmanthus. It doesn't morph a lot on me though the sandlawood lessens slightly as it dries down.

Agh, somewhere along the line carnation stopped working for me. Once it dries it turns powderly licorice on me, on almost any scent where it's a note.

A lovely floral, definitely get the sense of sadness, but once it dries down it gets significantly sweeter on me and smells more generic floral.

Soapy in the bottle, but once it dries down it becomes mostly sweet violet on me with a touch of mint. S'alright.

This is now my GC rose! I adore Rose Red, and this is the GC catalogue, all year rose equivalent to it. Whereas Rose Red is a stem-y rose with the coolness of winter, this one is a fresh, green, almost single note red rose. Gorgeous!

Wow, this was one of those incidences where this went drastically in a different direction once it dried down. In the bottle and wet, it's light, milky ginger and honey, then it dries and bam, SOAP! I've seen reviews where BPALers describe something going soapy, which occasionally happens to me, but rarely, but this just goes straight up soapy on me. Pretty in the bottle.

Um, wow, the leather is very much the undercurrent in this rose. It's mainly rose with a hint of leather, but that's what makes it so fun. There's prominent rose, but a closer whiff and it's this naughty, a little dirty bit o' leather. Definitely worth a bottle.

I have two things of Bon Vivant, one is an imp and the other is a bottle. I don't know the years of either, but my imp is very strong on the champagne, the strawberries only sneak in after at least an hour of drydown, and even then are very subtle. The bottle version is much more on the strawberry even when sniffed in the bottle. I was worried it might be too sweet, but this was the inverse of my imp - the strawberries settled down after an hour and it became a gorgeous balance of strawberries and champagne with a little floral lurking in the background. I will probably just collect a variety of imps and bottles of this, just to see how they change. I adore this scent. It makes me giddy and unabashedly romantic just like strawberries and champagne.

Sigh, this was a real morpher on me. In the bottle and wet, I like it so much, it's herby honey with a touch of minty from the hyssop, but it ended up getting anise-y on me during the drydown which I think may have to do with the tonka in combination with the hyssop.

I tried this once and gave it a 4 on my 1-5 BPAL scale, but when I revisited it after experimenting more with BPAL and learning more about the note I like and don't like, and I realized this is spicy lavender on me, which I do not like, I like herby lavender, sometimes sweet, but not spicy. I wish the musk and citrus were more prominent, this is just spicy, powdery lavender on me.

This is actually a myrrh I can tolerate, probably because it's eclipsed by the honey at first, but then mellows down to a light, spicy floral that would be perfect for summer.

Well, I've learned cherry is a death note for me. This one didn't turn chemically on me which seems to happen with cherry and grape. The lavender and rosewood help cut the cherry, but for me, it's still CHERRY.

Oh, this is the sexy scent for the literary man! My partner doesn't like traditional male colognes, but he did like this one, I think because it has some nice florals in it, and considering that patchouli is often a death note for me, I like this on me, too. Definitely a bottle scent.

A lovely soft woodsy note with green notes and rounded out by musk. I would wear this, as would be my guy.

Very fruity, the white musk is a little more subtle then I would like, and I can barely detect the orange blossom which bums me out. It's still a very pretty scent, but very sweet and fruit forward - late spring/early summer type of fruit. My bestie loves white musk and peach (even though this is apricot), so I think I am going to gift her this along with my imp of Fae.

Well, this is telling of my BPAL journey. This was one of the first of my BPAL imp collection, and I originally rated it as 5 (which means need bottle), but now that I have either amassed or tried well over 150 BPAL scents at this point, Alice is not as highly regarded for me. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's delightful - feminine and sweet with a touch of mischievousness from the spicy carnation and a dash of citrus from the bergamot. It certainly feels very Alice, but the initial spice of carnation just really doesn't appeal to me like I thought it would as I love buying and smelling carnation bouquets. I have so many other scents that I would rather wear in place of Alice so I am sending her off to my swap box, but she really is VERY Alice.

It does smell a bit gearish right off, maybe its the teakwood and tobacco, but the gearish element disappears pretty quickly to be replaced with a truly gorgeous scent. I really cannot stop sniffing it, and it has a good throw. I tried this before and was skeptical, but nope, not anymore! That black vanilla is gorgeous. It's sweet without being cloying. I think I am going to try it on my guy, too! It has an almost bourbon quality to it without the booze note, and he loooves bourbon.