Jilara

I had gotten an imp of this in the original 2008 incarnation, and was sorry I hadn't gotten a bottle. Now I have a chance again! Wet, it's an aquatic pine and juniper...the seacoast of Ireland? It's a fresh blast of rain and woods. Drying down, vanilla comes out to blend with the pine and juniper, reminding me a lot of Thanatopsis, but with the slight background of citrus that must be the bergamot. Not so aquatic, now. Dry, there is a distinct tang of bergamot blending into the pine/juniper, that somehow makes me think of autumn, and a slight creamy floral that wafts in and out, indistinct as to exactly what flowers I'm smelling. The creamy quality might be the vanilla and benzoin. As the day goes on, the woods start to fade and the florals linger. Seven hours after applying it, I can still smell roses and plumeria---a surprise since they weren't distinct earlier on. The citrus is entirely gone, at this point. Still the vaguest hint of pine, but it's almost all floral, at this point. Maybe I'm remembering it differently, but I recall 2008 as having a stronger floral backbone. This is very pine/juniper forward, but I rather like that. Not hoarding, but still very happy to have this revival of Ragged Wood allow me to restock with a full bottle. It's a gorgeous scent, and very evocative of Ireland! (Well, if you ignore the fact that plumeria isn't very Irish...)

This is SO different from what I was expecting! I expected something closer to Faith (which I love), and this is so much more adult and sophisticated. Wet, it has an almost foody note at the ver first. I started to wonder a little, because I thought of cupcakes. But that went away, and there was an earthy slightly green note to the violet. Not like your standard violet. Very down-in-the-leafmold violet. Drying, the violet leaf quality goes away, but there is still this rich, voluptuous darkness to the violet. Musky violet? Maybe. That lingers for a couple hours, when sweet and sugary violets finally come out to play. Finally, I get a whiff of a little Faith-like violet. The musky quality is still a rich background note, but the top is definitely sweetly sugared violets. Gorgeous and sophisticated, definitely a violet that would be great for those of us of uncertain age.

Wet is almost all light aquatic, very spring rain, very fresh. Bamboo is in the background, and comes out in the drydown. It stays light aquatic with bamboo for a couple of hours, then starts to have the white chypre background come out. At that point, it starts to go into a phase that reminds me of some light youthful commercial perfume. I'm thinking maybe the old Avon Sweet Honesty? Background of bamboo drops out at this point. Light and pretty, very youthful.

Hmm, I smell like I've been in the kitchen, baking all day. This one is sweet and light and very ripe banana. The banana is fresh, not cooked, and there is that creamy banknote with the graham crackers in it. It's a comforting, homey scent. It's a good neutral for when you don't know what you want to wear, scent-wise. I spritzed it into my hair for going ice skating, as I wanted something foody for that. It doesn't really linger long, just a few hours, even with a ton of it in my hair. It fades back to a background sweetness and creaminess, even when I put my nose to my hair, a few hours later. Still, I think this is going to be one of my favorites.

When first spritzed on, this really catches the gooey marshmallow/chocolate/cookie goodness. That lasts for maybe a half an hour, then it's whoa! bitter dark chocolate with a heavy undertone of coffee. It reminds me of a more chocolate-heavy version of Miskatonic U. As time goes on, maybe 18 hours later, it becomes all coffee, strong dark brew. And wow, it has lasting power. I was still smelling the coffee 36 hours later. Had to find a harmonizing note, so I used Honey. But wow, it lasts and lasts. Don't wear anything floral with this one. It will dominate it into submission.

Oh sweet banana cream pie, how do I love thee? So good I want to eat you up, but can't. In the bottle, definitely creamy banana. But wet....ooh, the blossoming of banana goodness! The banana is well blended with cream, and becomes so delicious. On drydown, the graham cracker crust comes out, and balances nicely with the banana cream. I had my husband sniff me and he said it was a great way to torment him, making me smell good enough to eat! Over a couple hours, the banana fades out and leaves a base of cream pie. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to last more than about 4 or 5 hours on me, but those are GOOD hours!

I used it like a moisturizer, as we are still rationing actual baths until we are sure the drought is over. Can't wait to put it into bath water, though! It's very creamy, with only a light hint of lime. I thought it might be more stimulating, what with the lime, but it's definitely a more languid lime---key lime pie indeed. And you're soaking in it. Oooh. I want this. Like lingering over a decadent dessert. So creamy lime, with just a touch of crust. I'd have a hard time getting out of this bath. Glad I got it!

This is going to sound really strange, but I get the oddest impression of a fairy tale head shop. Seriously. At once homey and hippie. It's all bright Mary Engelbreit cheery primary colors and cute, but with a hookah-smoking caterpillar in the back. The peach and patchouli walk hand-in-hand, very forward in the initial impression. But there is a strange aura of...sugar cookies? that lurks in the background. It's like an intriguing little booth at the Renaissance Faire, inviting you in for cookies and tarot. But you might want to be careful about staying too long, because it's not quite as homey and innocent as you might think. But maybe that's why you might want to stay... And on that note, after about a half hour, the cookies fade, and the amber blooms, and you get peachy incense, and a hint of something a bit more...adult. Oddly, at this stage, I had a feeling like I had tarried too long, and I needed to get away before I couldn't... I ended up lighting some white plum incense to blend with it, and felt reassured again. By the time the incense had faded, an hour or so later, it was warm and reassuring again, with a slight hint of fruity incense, but not alarming. Interesting. To me, this is a bit more than a mere home and linen spray. It catches something exotic and slightly dangerous, yet fascinating, like a sense you might go to sleep in faerie, and wake up somewhere drugged and complacent. When you consider some of the context of this collection of scents, that's quite appropriate.

Whoah! This stuff is both amazing and powerful. I am glad I tried it in the evening, at home, as I don't want to overwhelm the office. I will start by saying I'm a big fan of Drakkar Noir men's cologne. This really reminds me of those notes, but with an herbal undertone I can't quite place. It could be the nagarmotha? (BTW, I read that nagarmotha is a mosquito repellent, so this might be great to spray on before going hiking.) I got this because I am a vetiver fan, and there is serious vetiver in this gloss. The amber and leather mellow it, so it's not quite as sharp as it might be. There is a slight element of spice that's not listed, but I keep picking up in background. I like masculine-smelling herbals, so this is definitely a keeper. I keep thinking of how fantastic this would smell on Dear Husband's hair, as it's definitely something a sexy guy would totally rock. It would make an amazing expensive-smelling aftershave.

If you want to live in a scrumptious bakery kitchen, this is the atmosphere spray that will deliver it! I sprayed this and was instantly transported to an old coffee shop of my childhood, where luscious pies reposed in old-style pie safes of dark wood with screened fronts---where they baked the pies in the back, every day, so you always had a scent of pie in the air. And of course, one of their specialties was banana cream pie. No chilly pie there, no it was often body-warm and topped with fresh whipped cream right before serving. It's still my gold standard of banana cream pie, and this atmosphere spray captures it perfectly! The banana is really noticeable when you first spray this. Really banana, like baked bananas, and there is definitely a creamy undertone. And behind it all is the scent of warm graham crackers. The Trading Post has really nailed the scent of freshly-made banana cream pie. My husband came into the bedroom, where I had spritzed it, and thought there must be real baked goods present. Over the next couple hours, the banana starts to drop out, but the creamy note remains, along with the strong scent of graham crackers. It definitely has a bakery smell, and is very yummy. And talk about lasting power! The next day, you could still smell baked goods! It wasn't distinctly anything at that point, but definitely the smell of a good bakery, full of sweet treats, vaguely lingering. Dear Husband was disappointed that I hadn't been baking, again. But isn't having your home smelling like a bakery the next best thing?

This is all sandalwood, gloriously heady red sandalwood. It would make a great Lupercalia scent. There is a hint of spice that underlies it, just enough to lend balance. The saffron and honeyed amber notes are so well blended in as to be indistinguishable. It's quite soft and lovely, a fragrance at once mysterious and comfortable. The oil base on this gloss seems lighter to me, but I couldn't swear to it. For a few minutes, there is a lot of throw, then it scales back to just a hinting of fragrance, which is good, because I am wearing it to the office.

I was hoping for something similar to Rose Cross oil, and Luna Sanguinem fits the bill. I can best describe it as "creamy red rose" with a very slight undertone of frankincense. I think it's the myrrh and styrax lending the slightly creamy note. Unfortunately, the scent doesn't seem to last long, even applied directly to skin. Really nice right before bed, though.

How many ways doth rose appear? All forms would smell as sweet... Rose scent is definitely a form of infinite variation, and the rose in this is one that reminds me of my favorite tea rose perfume from Coty, back in the 1970s. The leather is very background, just enough to moderate the rose and give it a warmer depth, and seems strongest when this is first sprayed on. The rose scent is bright tea rose (the old rose tea rose scent, not hybrid tea) and very powerful on my hair. The staying power of rose on my unwashed hair was amazing. On freshly washed hair, the rose fades out a bit after a few hours, and it becomes more leathery. I'm complementing it with Rose Cross perfume, though it can definitely stand on its own.

Not getting much rum, except when first sprayed. It goes to delicious vanilla cupcakes almost immediately. Nice to pair with Vice as a companion scent.

My husband has a back that regularly gets unhappy, and I have gotten used to using arnica cream on him. Soooo, I said, why not get some massage oil with arnica, and the added bonus of BPAL magic? Wow, am I glad. His skin DRINKS the stuff, and it makes him feel much better. He says it feels warm, going on, unlike most oils. And I love the scent. An added bonus is that it makes my hands feel good, applying it. I normally have my hands get very tired, working on him (I have rheumatoid arthritis). But using this, I can just keep going, and don't feel it much at all. This is going to be a regular purchase from now on!

So glad the Trading Post brought this back, so I could get some! When I first spritzed it, I thought of caramel apples, that warm smell that they have when freshly made. Without the apples? Does that make sense? I don't get the cotton at all, but it morphs into caramel and cotton candy and vanilla marshmallows and all sorts of sweets and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! My husband says I smell like a candy store. I use a lot, since my hair is long enough to sit on, so that might be why it lasts for 10 hours, or maybe that's just its staying power. Must...Use...Restraint! Then again, maybe not.

White honey, warm musk, and ambrette seed. I was so caught up in the favorable reviews that I forgot to consider the comparison with O. Unfortunately, O does awful things in combination with my body chemistry, smelling mostly like some sort of diabolic cleaning product and toilet mints. Sigh. Hair Loosened and Soiled turned to toilet mints with an undertone of...cupcakes? Um, what? With staying power. And is currently giving me a headache. I so loved the name, and wanted that lovely scent everyone raves about. I suspect this will make a lovely gift to someone special. Waaah!

A squirt was included with my other goblin squirts, and it's wonderfully foody! The banana bread scent has my husband in love with it, and he requested more sprays of it, everywhere! I get something a bit like baking regular bread, too. Or is that beer? And a hint of something that reminds me of the teak note in a couple of the seafaring scents... But it just doesn't last long enough. Must spray more!

Wake up and smell the citrus! I swear, when I first spritz it on, it's grapefruit! All heavy duty grapefruit, slightly bitter. But within a couple minutes, the grapefruit starts to give way to yuzu with a slight soft back note that I really can't identify as mint. It stays that way for about an hour, then fades a bit to a more lime-y note (still hinting of yuzu) that has a soft and icy background. And it has that tangle-taming power I have just come to assume goes with the hair gloss. I have hair below my waist, and five or six spritzes seems to do the job.

Oh love,oh joy... This one has me wondering if I need a second bottle before it comes down. In the bottle, it's very much like Miskatonic U, with that lovely note of coffee I like so much. (Hey, I'm mostly Finnish, and I savor different coffee varieties the way I do wine... Coffee=win for me.) Anyway, this one on skin is incredible! More like a note of coffee flower than coffee drink, though the background is there, giving it a solid earthy backing. And the pine! Warm and rather like pine bark in the sun. My husband smelled me and said this was the best BPAL scent yet, what was it, and I told him it was bath oil, Sudsy She-Wolf. Hmm, do I need him even more amorous? May...be...

I got a frimp of this with my last order, and the notes listed would not have really appealed to me. But it's not like that at all! Oleander smells oppressively sweet to me, and mandarin and magnolia evoke citrus. I like the smell of magnolia, but it smells very lemon-freshened laundry soap to me... Anyway, I put this one, and was dazzled! It's a light floral with a slight musk. I keep thinking tea rose (real tea rose, not hybrid tea, not the "rosey" scents), with a refreshing undertone that must be the mandarin and magnolia. Musk makes it sexy. I think the spice might be giving the slight hinting of carnation. It doesn't seem to morph at all, from wet to dry. It's gorgeous from the first. There aren't a huge lot of florals that really inspire me, but this one is a wonderful musky floral. (I notice others have said that they aren't much on florals, but they like this one.) I will be getting a bottle, when the imp runs out.

"No one does street orgies quite like the Japanese..." -- my husband, checking the label In the bottle, it's very blackcurrent and grapefruit. Wet, Fruit, fruit, fruit, but it does have a background that reminds me somehow of Dragon Moon 2007, which is truly odd, since they don't have notes in common, with a bit of Fire Pig thrown in. There's a green note that I associated with the bamboo in Dragon Moon, but this has no bamboo. A slight bitter greenness that's rounding out the blackcurrent, grapefruit and what must be the passionfruit. I would have sworn to kumquat, but I could see those notes blending into giving that kumquat impression. It stays hugely green and fruity for about the first hour, but the fruit starts to quiet down as time goes on. Dry, a couple hours in, you know there are other notes. It's got a delicious soft floral sweetness blending in, possibly plum honey and sugared violet. Very fruity, still, but with a bitter undernote and floral, that are sooo well blended--highly sophisticated. The lemon balm might be contributing, since lemon balm has a softness that doesn't associate with standard citrus. Some of the notes like vanilla and tobacco just aren't there or me, at least as anything I recognize. Very complex and well blended, and very lasting (still noticable 8-10 hours later). I think this one is going to become a favorite.

2012 version: I actually got this for my husband, but figured I would try it out, myself. Wet, I get briney dust, with a hint of wood. Dust??? Really, it smells like a warm attic in an old house. Drying down, it becomes more woody, and a slight, light floral comes up. Dry, there is still a bit of brine, but the dust has dropped out and the floral is quite strong. Reminds me of...lilac vegetal lotion? It's definitely a light, sweet men's aftershave sort of scent, with just a hint of woodiness. Hmm, even I could wear this. It's not too masculine, but rather like a sophisticated light floral. Thumbs up to the pirate apprentice!

Yes, you are right about that. My point is just that if you are anxious to review the new version of Frederic, go ahead and post it in the old thread and report your post. When the review mods make the new thread (in fact, if they are off schedule creating new threads this will remind them), they can move your review of the new version to the new thread. Or was there something I am missing? This won't help you if you are just interested in reading new reviews, of course. I've also been haunting the forum, waiting for Fredrick reviews. I want to post and read other opinions. I guess we should all just hop on the older version, and let them separate it out later.

I was expecting something...pinker? 2007 had a very pink edge. I was expecting sweet and floral, with a hinting of creaminess. I open the bottle and it's WHOA, HELLO WHITE CHOCOLATE! It smells like White Chocolate and Sugared Violets, without the violet. I put it on. Um, are we sure we didn't decant out of a vat of 13? It's the 13 with the white chocolate base and lots of herbs lurking in the back, making it greener than I want. Not sure I really can deal with this, as it immediately amps up and floods my senses with herbal green chocolate, which is why I'm not always keen on 13, despite the chocolate. Fruit? Flowers? Helllloooo, where are you? It's so strongly amped it almost gives me a headache. Okay, it's an hour later, and it's calmed down a little. I'm starting to get some floral notes. Again, I am reminded of White Chocolate and Sugared Violets, but without the distinct violet. Sweet. Floral something. Phlox? Could be. No strawberry. No carnation. I want daffodils and vanilla, but still not getting any. Still a greenish note. Something slightly dirty, could be tulip, as that's how tulips smell to me. Two hours, and it's fudge, with a cream and sugar background, and a hint of carnation coming out, with a bit of floral. Better. Still too heavy for everyday wear. It's starting to make me slightly nauseous, like working all day in a candy shop. I was hoping it mellows out, becomes more like White Chocolate and Sugared Violets, but nope, it's just going to keep suffocating me in fudge. I really wanted to like this one, but it's just too much.