ramblingrambler

Vetiver should have ruined this for me, but thank all things good and righteous, it behaved itself and made me rejoice at this scent. Tombeur is warm, sexy, and soft. It doesn't scream "look at me," but it purrs "ravage me" in the dead of night. Slinky, sultry, and full of sex. Yes, yes, yes.

Mmmmm. Leather Snake Oil. This is Snake Oil's sexy, leather-clad cousin. To be honest, I prefer Snake Skin to Snake Oil. The leather really tempers it for me. I'll be buying several back up bottles. Because dayum.

This is... Smut? I wonder if I got a mislabeled Smut, because there is *no* fruitiness here. I was super excited for the cherry, but there's none to be found. Don't get me wrong, I love Smut as much as the next person, but the addition of fruit sounded even more devilishly delightful. Ah, well. I'm keeping it, but I'll be layering it with Incubus/Succubus for the fruit (try it out; it's yummy!).

Oh, goodness. I think this might replace Red Lace as my favorite BPAL fragrance. They're nothing alike, I know, but Blood & Judgment is so incredibly good. I have two bottles stored away for aging, and I just resurrected one today. It's delicious. In the bottle, it's slightly peppery leather with a sweet undertone. Wet, however, it's almost a leather single note. I was worried it wouldn't fade and bloom into other notes, as leather stayed prominent for at least 45 minutes, but afterward... Oh. Oh, my! It is the most delectable soft brown leather background to a gorgeous sweet, soft bouquet of Tonka, almond, and amber in equal proportions so well blended! It is so worth the 45 minutes of pure leather to get to the six hours of pure bliss. Extreme dry down reminds me slightly of Dorian's dry down: a soft cloud fading into wisps of nothing.

Mrs. Grose is heavenly on extreme drydown. I wish she would begin where she ends. I am in looooove with the last hour or two of wear. The first two hours it's very strong black tea followed by what I think is rosehips? Only about six hours in does the spice come out. It's soft, barely detectable spice, but it's there. And just as suddenly, a few hours later, it's gone. If you're a tea lover, this would work for you. I'm only so-so on tea (Tea & Music is my favorite blend), so I'm a fan when other notes appear to give it some depth and intrigue. I've had her for a long time, so I'll keep her around for some more to see where she goes.

This is one of my very favorite BPAL scents, so much so that I have hoarded the precious with five back-up bottles. I think it's time for me to let some go, as my collection is sprawling, and I'm only to the bottom of bottle #2. Eeep! :x This scent makes me feel frisky and playful and gives me confidence I don't usually have in my daily life. This makes me feel like a well-respected, fancy lady wearing a power-suit... with lacy, racy red undergarments underneath, just waiting to get home and let her hair down. Heeee. My bottles are six years aged, and though the scent is slightly different with every year, it's still just as good. Now it's mostly a crisp linen with musk and patchouli... and a tinge of vanilla and fruit. It lasts for four to five hours but wears strong the entire time. Love love love Red Lace. I want to hoard until the cows come home, but now I'm thinking about letting someone else out there love it with me... there can't be too many of these floating around any more, eh?

On me, this is all honey, all the time. I am notorious for amping honey notes, but it takes about three hours before anything else displays itself, and at that point, it's white tea (love), but the wear is mostly over by then. White tea visits for about an hour and a half, and then it's honey again. Honey lovers, especially if you amp it, will love this. For me, I have to let it go, because I wanted more white tea. It was beautiful and crisp when it was around. ETA: I gave it another go because I had used it fresh from mail like we're not supposed to . Having sat for a week, it was glorious. Pure and simple beauty. I've been using it daily because it's a phenomenal spring/summer scent, and I'm already about half-way through the bottle. It's delicate and well balanced and so refreshing. I liked it so much I bought a backup bottle to age and bring out next summer!

Mmmm, I love this. It's a deep, spicy, sweet, musky scent. I'm all aboard this perfume train! On application, it's all deep musk with just a hint of sweetness. Dry, it is predominantly musk and leather, still with a whisper of sweet spiciness. As it fades, it becomes almost ghostly... dark but powdery. LOVE.

Interestingly, wet on skin this combination smells like what I imagine a single note of the Lab's pipe tobacco to smell like. I can't separate anything out at all. It simply smells like pipe tobacco. Huh. Later, though, on drydown, it loses the single note feeling and has a bouquet of cinnamon, tonka, and fig. I get no leather at all throughout wear, and I'm not sure if the mandrake or broom straw comes out---I imagine broom straw would have a scent similar to hay (none of that) and mandrake to have... I don't even know what sort of scent, but I do know that it's said to be hallucinogenic and anticholinergic (take your choline, folks!), so probably some trippy-ass scent association with swirly-whirly purples, blues, and pinks, and I don't get any of that. Ultimately, this one wont be a bottle buy, but it isn't bad.

Usually I love fruity scents, and this fragrance was one I was most looking forward to wearing. Sadly, the peach does weird things on my skin, and makes the rest of this otherwise delicious fragrance wear strange. It's a white/orange fragrance, if that means anything to you, and these colors are in competition. They're head to head and fighting over who wins.

Oh, man. I wanted to love this because four of five notes are bangin' awesome on me. Unfortunately, the one note that is not awesome on me destroys it. Of course it would work like that. Everything but the balsam peru sings harmoniously together. And then that pesky note sticks out like a sore thumb. And it makes me so sad since I really wanted this one to work. If you're into the rest of the notes and don't have a problem with balsam peru, then it should be a consideration for at least an imp somewhere.

I don't know if I've ever had more of an instant word connection in my head than while smelling this. The first thing that popped into my brain was "FRENCH." I mean, obviously the title's french, but whoa, the scent reminds me of something I would smell in France. It's extremely... well, French. I don't even know how to describe it otherwise. It smells like high-quality perfume.

Very soft, floral, and feminine. Upon application, I get mostly champaca and ambrette with lots of lotus, making it extremely soft and slightly powdery. After a few moments, the cypress and sandalwood come out, adding a tinge of soft woodiness, but it's only very slight. As it begins to dry, it takes on a hint of incense until it fades into a wisp of soft powder again. This is beautiful, but it is too soft and floral for me. Someone will be pleased with this one though.

Unfortunately, the vetiver ruins for me what could be an exquisite scent in the opening. I applied it and thought "Oh no, another perfectly fine fragrance tarnished with vetiver!" until it almost instantly blossomed into something floral and fragrant, using the vetiver as roots to connect it with the earth. This is jasmine and honeyed vanilla, dirtied, that's for sure, with the baser notes... but somehow it works. For me it is less powdery and more soily, earthy, grounded than the above review.

Jasmine works either really, really well on my skin, or it turns into an astringent, sharp note that gives me a migraine. This jasmine worked exceptionally well, and I'm floored at how lovely this fragrance is. On application, this is sweet, sugared vanilla and jasmine, melding into one beautiful, strong, single note. Wow. I wouldn't mind if it stayed this way for the entirety of its wear! About ten minutes in, the anise comes out, and though I didn't think this could get more beautiful, it adds a bit of depth that would make someone tilt their head and say "Hmm, what's that?" LOVELY, lovely, lovely. As it moves into its fading moments, the jasmine stays strong with a slightly smokey vanilla at this point. Anise seemingly bows out long before this point. I'm left with a tinge of jasmine to my skin before it disappears all together. I'm probably going to get a bottle of this, and I'm not usually a floral girl. This one is too good to pass up.

Oh, this is flower and flowers and more flowers! There's a peppery undertone, but I see that as soil under the fragrant, blooming petals. Wow! I'm not a floral girl, so I wont be keeping this, but it absolutely smells like one of my favorite gardens to walk through because the flowers are so succulent and bright. There's a green note in there, too. The champaca and white tea give this a slight haziness... as though there are fluffy white clouds dotting the sky, but you know in your heart the stratocumulus clouds in the distance can come by and release those spring showers at any moment. Love this as an idea, but it isn't for me as a fragrance. Someone will be SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY with this though. <3

On application, it's light, airy lavender with vetiver anchoring it, grounding it. About five minutes in, the ambrette softens the vetiver, and grey musk comes out. As it dries, the notes mingle and entwine, leaving no room to disentangle them. I imagine the rum absolute give this a slightly spicy undertone, but not the usual cardamom and nutmeg scent the Lab does with spicy blends---there's just a slight pop to the scent that otherwise would not be there. The most prominent note to my nose is lavender and vetiver, but they're really tightly wound around the other in a yin-yang way. This is both light and dark, airy and earthy, and really very lovely.

I should have known this wouldn't work for me, but I HAD to take a chance because patchouli is my weakness (and some musks... wasn't sure what a "shadow musk" would smell like though!). Wet on application it's straight up vetiver and lasts without any morphing for the first ten minutes. I wanted to wash it off, but I needed to see what this would do. Around the twelve to fifteen minute mark, the mahogany oudh came out, and though I thought I hated the vetiver alone... the oudh made it worse. :*( It smelled like a BBQ on my wrist and made me want to wash it off. Of course I trudged through---unless I get a migraine, I always stay with the fragrance through its whole journey at least once---and am happy I did. At about 30 minutes in, the patchouli started to temper everything and mellowed it all out. In this stage, it begins to take shape into something workable if you're experiencing the same thing I did, so stick it out to see if it's something you can handle! Throughout the rest of the wear, I get weaker ick elements and stronger yay elements (patchouli looooove). Ultimately, I wont be getting a bottle of this, but I'll probably wear my imp a few more times before passing it on to my father whom I think will like it.

Wet on application this is extremely woody and... almost has a deep vetiver smell, though vetiver isn't a listed note. I loved the woodiness though, so I persevered and am glad I did. As it dries, the white amber revs up and gives it a... gaussian blur... type of feel. Tobacco makes it a smidgen sweeter than I would like, but I think the opium tar tempers that some. As it fades away, the sandalwood and amber remain. It's lovely, if nothing else than for the beautiful sandalwood.

On application, my first thought was "toothpaste on flowers!" I hoped it would morph into something new immediately. Thankfully, it did! About five minutes in, it become more pine-y (unfortunately, that's a death note for me), and about five minutes later it had more of a what smelled like the Lab's "snow" note. Pine receded and out came apple and... coconut? Not the super sweet coconut flakes, but unsweetened condensed coconut creme. I have no idea where that's pulling from since it isn't a listed note. Maybe the tobacco and apple mix for a coconut scent to my nose? Thirty minutes in and it transitions into more of a musky violet where it stays for the rest of wear. As it lingers and floats into oblivion, it becomes a powdery coconut again. Throw's medium and wear-length lasts about five hours.

Like the member above, I, too, am destashing, so I'm doing a mad review spree. Penis Admiration reminds me of looking at, erm, SOMETHING and saying "Awwwh, that's adorable!" because, well, you're not sure what else to say. It's a "cute" fragrance on me. It's mostly tonka, smokey vanilla, and lilac. There's a hint of what smells like marshmallow to me somewhere in there though, but it's the barest, barest of hints. There's no other note present throughout wear, and it's a pretty linear scent for me. I'm mostly through my bottle, but it's time to send it on to someone who might get something else other than "cute."

I love Gluhwein. That's why I purchased this bottle (and two of them, at that!). And it does smell similar in some ways. However, it is lacking the spiciness present in Gluhwein and instead adds a deeper note, perhaps vetiver?, to embolden it further. I can get away with wearing Gluhwein to work, but not this. It's straight up port wine with a deep, dark undertone as a perfume. I like it, but I wont get a ton of use out of it on my body, sadly. HOWEVER... THIS IS AMAZING AS A ROOM SCENT. You will use it *all the time* if you're anything like me. (I don't eat bread, unfortunately, because grain allergies make that tough. Since no bread = no PB&J, I can smell this all day! Yes---this smells like a peanut butter sandwich with huge globs of jelly everywhere. It's amazing!). (ETA: I burn this in an oil warmer. Do not try to make it into a room mist, as it wont do it justice. This smells like a straight-up PB&J sammich, and if you're into that, the kitchen is the best place for this blend. I've had guests ask me if, instead of a full dinner I had planned out, we could just have some old fashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, and I am a-okay with that!)

Cockaigne is, by far, one of the sweetest GC bottles I've owned and loved. Typically gourmand and foodie scents make me nauseated if they have a hint of caramel cream, but I can do this one---and do it often. This opens as a blast of intense buttery sweetness to the face, and then it mellows into a buttery, spicy pastry I'm settling down for coffee with... and I'm ready to devour it. Do recommend to foodies.

Aged incense blend here. I thought aging it might do something for it, but no. It's the same incense-y, perfume-y fragrance I got when I first received it. It's not terrible, the scent, but it wasn't what I wanted when I purchased Beaver Moon 2011. Instead, it smells like I layered myself in incense---not a bad thing, of course---but not what I expect to smell when I pick up my bottle and think Beaver Moon.

Every time I wear my beloved Beaver Moon, I want to gnaw my limbs off. It's delightful. This is a berry cheesecake all the way from bottle through drydown for me, no morphing at all except for the undulating cheesecake/berry back and forth all the way through. Truly a foodie masterpiece.