Lucchesa

I really don't know what black iris smells like. For me, this went on in a blast of lavender, like so many lavender blends. Then it settled in to be a wonderful resiny herbal. From this mixture, I would say black iris smells green? The lavender-frank combination was what I was really interested in, and it is lovely, dry, a little sharp, herbal from the chamomile, but like so many lavender blends, my skin eats it up in short order.

Cardamom is my favorite spice note, and this is exactly as advertised. In a word, yum! The cake note in Eat Me is awful on me, but pumpkin cake is quite lovely, and I want to bathe in vats of cardamom cream. For me the cinnamon definitely took a back seat to the other notes. Average wear length on my skin.

2017 version, and the only one I've tried

Calavera Catrina was surprisingly bright on me. The dead leaves were in the background, and I did not get the harsh, weird marigold smell that ruined Biwa for me. Instead, it's an unusual (in a good way) herbal floral, with light roses and mums and chamomile. I don't get a lot of bourbon vanilla; I wonder if that will become more prominent with aging.

Whereas October and Samhaim conjure up an autumn day in the northern latitudes, this is a sunny October afternoon and reminds me that people have picnics and parties on the Day of the Dead.

Aluminum Phoenix is not for me. The opening is juicy with berry and mandarin, but the white musk, which tends to be high pitched on me, quickly begins to go soapy, as it did on VetchVesper. I was really hoping the smoky myrrh infused oudh would deepen and darken the fruit, but no go. Good wear length, though.

How about a smoky myrrh-infused oudh scent, Lab?

2014 version

Samhain is a mysterious and wonderful scent. It doesn't smell like any one thing to me. It is not at all foody on me, nor aquatic (I worried about that "damp" bit. It is smoky and dark and sweet and spicy, but not like a pumpkin pie or an autumn-spice candle. It lasts a long time, and although I rarely get throw with oils, Samhain gives me variable wafts of gorgeousness -- sometimes cider, sometimes evergreen, sometimes bonfire smoke. It's incredibly evocative and I love it.

I had been given a tester of 2012 Samhain, just enough for one wear, and it was very similar in its effects. I think I will need to get some every year!

Zorya Vechernyaya is a red musk blend I can wear. (Happy dance!) I generally amp red musk to the exclusion of everything else, which means it has great throw on me, but with the plum, the incense, and the one-two punch of vetiver sandalwood, there are enough other strong notes here to keep it in check. I frankly do not perceive any orange blossom or jasmine at all. Sexy, dark, a little smoky, a little jaundiced about human nature in general -- I had almost written this one off because of the primary note, and I'm so glad I didn't!

Pride goeth before

me, announceth my presence:

overweening rose.

Lime aftershave, steel and the oil my father used for cleaning his shotgun. If that sounds repellent, it's actually quite wonderful. After a while the softness of the tweed emerges, and it already has a clean feel that may be the linen, but it's not soapy on me at all. I like this much more than I expected to. It's unisex and would probably be fantastic on the right gent (mine is utterly uninterested in wearing scent, more's the pity), but on my skin it's sexy in a clean, strong way. It makes me feel competent, in control. Adding this to the already overlong GC bottle list.

I really wanted to love this, but my skin is amping the oudh to the point where I cannot smell anything else. No incense, no bourbon vanilla, no myrrh. I gave it a second test last night after letting it rest a couple weeks, and the result is unchanged. Good throw and wear length, as is always true when I'm amping something I don't want to, but I just don't think I can wear this one. Damn you, skin chemistry!

In the imp and wet, Athens is a honey-forward scent, with myrrh in the background and just a hint of red wine which is all the red wine I can usually take in a blend. As it dries, the myrrh becomes more assertive, and after an hour or so they switch places, so it becomes primarily a myrrh scent with honey backing it up. Resiny, drily sweet but not sickly in the least, not floral or alcoholic on me. I quite like this!

ETA I spilled most of that first imp, and a second imp I was frimped, which seems a bit darker in color, is much more about the red wine on my skin, and I like it less.

London is all venerable tea rose on me, and I'm beginning to understand that tea rose is the rose note that doesn't work on my skin. "Venerable" translates to old lady, apparently. I think I smell some myrrh -- could that be the black twisted part? At any rate, this one is not me. If you like tea rose, give it a whirl!

2017 Dorian, kindly decanted me in a swap (thanks, Cinnabar!!!):

A musky cloud of

sweet vanilla tea, all day.

Do believe the hype.

This may be my favorite GC leather scent (and maybe I should buy a bottle before the price goes up!). Wet it is a little cologney. I like a lot of unisex scents, but some (Vicomte de Valmont, Villain) strike me as "too cologney," which may just mean they smell too much like Brut or whatever my dad wore in the 70s. So, Black Rider starts out like it might go in that direction, but it dries down into this dark, chewy, resinous deliciousness. It made me feel badass. Like that cartoon, Rose Is Rose, where her alter ego wears biker's leathers? Like that.

Hi, Francesca! In my case, getting oil on my fingers is something I just shrug off. It doesn't inevitably happen, but sometimes it does. And some of the imp caps are so tight that I apply so much force getting them off that tiny droplets spray everywhere -- I've even gotten oil in my eyes. But it's a small price to pay for the magic that is BPAL. Some of the forumites who've been around longer than I have may have suggestions though.

As far as blending -- they're your oils. You can do whatever you want with them! There's a whole thread on layering BPAL, which is basically the same thing except you're not mixing them in the bottle, just on your skin. One member recently posted about her experiments in making her own Lab Rat blends (Lab Rat was an LE with the scent description "All the things!"), combining various imps into bottles. http://www.bpal.org/topic/91523-inspired-by-lab-rat/ Not heresy at all. Enjoy!

Krampus Lace was generously frimped me -- thank you, PersimmonSeeds!!! -- and is fantastic. Red musk, though I love its sexy soul, usually just stomps all over everything else on my skin, turning many a lovely complex blend into SN Red Musk. But SUGARED red musk -- this stuff is amazing! It's definitely prominent, that smutty red musk goodness, but it's actually sharing space with a gorgeous aged-O-like vanilla honey and soft leather and tobacco. Not sure I'm getting any cognac, and I never perceive the pink pepper note, but to get this many notes together with red musk on me is a miracle.

I get a little throw (which for me is a lot of throw) just in the first hour. After that it settles into a snuggly skin scent that would be perfectly appropriate for most social situations. So if this weren't such a rarity, I could imagine wearing it constantly -- slathering when you want to channel a demon goddess of eroticism, applying lightly for a day at the office.

Lab, if you're listening: Bravo!!!! And more sugared red musk, please!!!

This is a bright, citrusy blend, higher pitched than I expected. Tart orange and geranium are the main notes on me; I can't really make out the patchouli at all, and the amber is playing backup. Playful and cheerful. Sadly, it doesn't last long on my middle-aged skin.

Champaca is usually a rule-out for me, but I was frimped a tester of this, and it's glorious! Dark and plummy and rich, a little sweet, a little smoky. I doubt I'll ever find a bottle, but I'm thrilled to have gotten to try it.

In the imp, orange peel and carnation. Two of my faves, so yum. As it dries down, I do sense the honey but not the ginger, or maybe I'm confusing the ginger with the spiciness of the carnation. Eventually the orange note fades and it becomes almost SN red carnation -- I should try it next to my SN Spanish red carnation to be sure. It's really nice and these are notes I like, but given how many carnation blends I have, I'm not sure I need more than the imp.

I haven't tried any of the other sufganiyots, and I was a bit concerned about the pastry note, because "cake" as in Eat Me can be a disaster on my skin. In the imp, I get only fruit, an intense berry that almost reminds me of purple Laffy Taffy. It is less artificial on my skin, though, a lovely dark sweet but slightly tart fruit, and then the fried dough emerges to surround it and nom nom nom. A fruity foodie that's not ridiculously sweet.

This made me think of Frostbitten Dorian as well. In the imp it is woody vanilla tea, and it stays fairly true to this once it hits my skin. It's perfectly unisex, and I would be buying a bottle right now except that something in here goes a tiny bit soapy on me about 30 minutes in. Maybe it's the note that spells furniture polish? It's still a gorgeous blend, and I will let it age a bit and retry it to see if that skin chemistry thing persists or not.

So, red musk and I have a problematic relationship. Whenever we're out with friends, like honey or poppy, for instance, red musk is really disrespectful towards them, shouting them down. But red musk's cousin blood musk is a total joy and could teach red musk a thing or two about relationships. In Sanguinem Menstruum, blood musk lets honey speak first, and then the two of them converse for a while until poppy shows up and is allowed to have her say as well. And the conversation is pretty hot, and it goes on a long time.

My husband thought this was "a little chemical-y." So I won't wear it for him. I'll anoint myself with it when I want to feel as powerful as an ancient goddess whose adherents leave offerings of honey and darker things. I'll slather it on days I want to do something apeshit and have it not be my fault because, you know, her cycle. I don't have that excuse biologically anymore, so I'll wear it when I want to channel into that primordial female gloriousness. Maybe I won't wear it a lot, but it ought to be memorable when I do.

2017 version. Pom notes can be overly sweet on me, but this is perfect. Sweet and tart, bright and deep, and it stays true for a long time. No throw, but I rarely get throw from anything. Pomegranate is inherently a richer, darker fruit than, say, apple or peach, and this is a beautiful incarnation of it.

Of all the Yules, this may have been the decant I was most excited about. I wish I could report that it works on me, but tragically, it doesn't. About a quarter of the time, tobacco notes are too sharp on my skin, and this is one of those times. (I'm thinking the "fire-red" part should have given me pause.) So for the first hour or two, it was all sharp tobacco. And of course it has wicked throw!

Eventually it settled down enough for the soft leather and the cedar and musk to make themselves felt. The fig was neither heavy nor sweet, and I never really got any cardamom, which is my favorite note. Although the drydown is quite nice, the sharp tobacco opening makes me glad I didn't blind bottle this one.

ETA totally unisex, and I do think this is going to be magnificent on a lot of people!

Wine can go either way on me, and wet, it went toward grape. So first impression was lots of sweet, grapey wine, and as it dried, the plum and oudh came out and the grape went away, which is fine with me. The oudh is rich and sweet, not the stinky kind at all, and a lovely backdrop for the dark fruit.

A couple of hours later, the wine is still gone, and I thought I caught a whiff of - red musk? Could that be part of the Lab's velvet note? If so, it is very, very subtle, since I usually amp red musk to high heaven. Overall impression: deep, sexy, grownup plum.

I chose this decant for the name, as my younger son is William. Or was -- the name is more poignant now to me since my sweet William is choosing to be Lynn. Tuberose is usually an automatic rule-out for me, but it was not very prominent here. I got mainly soft orris and white lilies at first, but as it started drying down it got actually quite beautiful. The cognac and the honey made it more interesting to me than a pure white floral, and the patchouli helped ground a very ethereal blend. And I was thinking wow, I could wear this one.

Then, like practically every other BPAL with the word Ghost or Phantasm or (insert synonym here) in the title, it faded into nothingness about an hour later. Sigh.