Theravada

I didn't order this one because the notes in it sounded entirely too sweet and floral for me. But after reading all of these wonderful reviews, I bought an imp decant from someone and WOW, this is yummy! I actually like this one more than Samhain. It reminds me of ribbon candy, chocolate bon bons, and incense smoke. It's very complex, mysterious, and playful. This is one of those blends that is so hard to describe because it's utterly unique. But I can say that I liked it so much I went on a hunt until I found a bottle of my very own! Yummy I hope we see this one agian next year, because it is such a beautiful masterpiece.

This one is REALLY good! Imp reminds me very much of Siren, but without the ginger. So if you like Siren, you'd probably really like Imp. Especially if you don't enjoy ginger. This one reminds me of the soft, fuzzy skin of a warm, ripe peach. The peach note and the golden musk combine into this brilliant, golden sweetness and the amber and patchouli ground it nicely so it's not an overwhelming or cloying scent. Fantastic! ETA: This is also similar to Depraved, as Sarada notes below. As far as choosing between Siren, Imp, and Depraved, I decided to go with a bottle of Depraved. Imp is really lovely, but I like the strong patchouli scent in Depraved better. But if you want it heavier on the fruit, try Imp or Siren. All three are nice, lush scents that stop short of being "foody".

This one is very foody and decadent. If you like thick, foody scents like Gluttony, Jack, or Centzon Totochtin, odds are you'll like Hellcat. That is, unless you're like me and can't stand almonds! This one is very, very strong on the almond note. Otherwise it's really yummy and makes me feel like purring.

I really thought I'd like this one. I love incense notes and cinnamon. Although I wasn't very familiar with violet, I'd heard it compared to lavendar, which I really like. These three notes just did not work well together on me In the bottle I mostly smell the dry, smokey frankencense and a strong sweetness which I guess is the violet. The cinnamon is very subtle. On, this stays very true to what I smelled in the bottle, except the sweetness intensified!! I'm shocked at how sweet this one is! I guess violet can do that, and now I know I'm NOT a violet fan. And no, they don't smell like lavendar at all This would have been really nice with some other floral note besides the violet. It just went way too sweet, and I really can't see this as a men's fragrence at all. I'm really kind of sad about this one.

After hearing Phaedrine describe the heavy sweetness of this one and reading some of the reviews, I knew Kali was not a scent I'd ever order. But it came as a freebie in my last order so I tested a tiny dab of it just in case my preconceived notions proved wrong... Nope! I was right. VERY sweet, very floral, and very much not my idea of what I want to smell like. Thanks Lab, but off to swap with Kali.

In the bottle this was very sweet, almost like candy. I tried it on to see if that would tone down a bit, but it stayed really sweet even when dry. It did become a bit more dusty, which is probably the amber and patchouli. The floral notes emerged quickly and strongly but blended very well so the individual notes were hard to distinguish. This is very feminine, sweet, and whimsical...and very much not my style at all. But this was a generous gimp from the lab, so I was happy to be able to try it. Now I'll just pass it along to someone who can actually enjoy it, because this really is pretty and the right person is going to love it.

Minty, green, medicinal. Very, very interesting and unique scent. But honestly, this isn't something that I can picture myself wearing and it's a bit wierd as a room scent, so I think I'll be swapping this one.

This is one of my new favorites! It's so warm, creamy, and fresh smelling. I wasn't sure if I'd like it because none of the other blends with honey have worked for me, but the honey in this blend is not strong at all. Ginger is one of my favorite notes though, and the pepper/spice of it is softened by the milk and sweetened by the honey. Perfection. This reminds me a lot of B&B White Ginger and Amber, but without the icky alcohol smell I get out of B&B products. This scent is so smooth and yummy, and I've made a lotion with it that is perfect right out of the shower. Any_old_actress described this as "happy and clean" and that's such a great description!! I completely agree. ETA: Got a 5mL of this one. Love it.

This was my first fig scent, and I'm not too sure that fig is a note I'm going to try again. I was really excited about this one because I love cocoa and wood notes, but the fig overwhelmed everything. The heavy wood/fig scent was vaguely plastic smelling to me. Luckily, Phaedrine loved it so I gave it to her! Just goes to show that while reviews can be helpful, everyone's reactions to BPAL blends are so unique and personal.

Unfortunately, all I got from this one was soapy violets. Sad, because I'm usually a fan of musks, but not entirely unexpected because I don't really like florals.

Honestly, I was expecting to dislike this one because I haven't been a fan of many of the citrusy scents and the reviews here were so love/hate. I pretty much wanted this one for the name, because I the Cheshire Cat! Surprise, surprise! I really like this one! I was expecting the grapefruit to be really sharp and acidic like some of the other citrus notes. But this pink grapefruit is really lovely...just tart enough with a nice sweetness to it. The currant is not a big player here at all. I really like musks, and the musk note here is so perfect! Sweet, powdery, and slightly devious. And lavendar is one of the few florals I can ejnjoy. Pink grapefruit, musk, chamomile and lavendar....what a crazy combination, but it really works well! This is really a great scent. I think I'll be adding this to my list of 5mls to buy. It's so hard to describe. I think this is one of those blends where you really need to test it on your own skin to see how it behaves. But even if you're afraid of florals or fruity scents, don't pass this one by. It might work for you too. I'm certainly glad I gave it a chance!

I can't decide if I like this one or not I really, really wanted to like it...I was looking forward to trying it when I saw the notes in it, but I think I've come to realize recently that red wine is not a note that works well for me. This scent is thick and extremely heady. It is very strong and has aggressive throw. I didn't get the bitter cocoa that most everyone else did. For me this was sticky blood and red wine dregs. Maybe it's just so different and unexpected and I need to give it more time, like Jack. Hrm....jury still out on this one.

I ordered a 5ml of this the day the update went up. I was more excited about this scent than most of the Yule LEs, honestly. Not only are the notes so unique and yummy, it's for the puppies! So I just had to buy it. I'm very glad that I took the chance on this one, because it's wonderful. It's very rich and heavy in the bottle, with the walnut and pepper notes biting through. I was really curious what the walnut note would be like because I am not a fan of either hazlenut or almond. Luckily, walnut is not at all like either. The walnut is very bitter, and for me it is one of the most prominent notes in this blend. The rum, musks and fig bring in a thick sweetness that really rounds out the bitter chocolate, cubeb and walnut nicely. This isn't an overly sweet scent. It is very strong and has significant throw and staying power. I love it

I also got ahold of a decant of each of babykitty's experimental blends. Both have a similar base, it reminds me of the warm, thick, extremely sexual red musk base used in Snake Oil. Very wicked! The one blend has a distinctive mint note to it. It's hard to distinguish what mint it is....but I'm sure it's not peppermint and I would guess it is spearmint. Very nice! It adds a fresh, crisp edge to the thickness of the musk and doesn't have any of the heady sweetness of the vanilla note in Snake Oil. The second blend has the same base but is citrusy instead of minty! It smells exactly like Snake Oil but with a orange blossom note replacing the vanilla note. This creates a whole different kind of sweetness. It's not thick and sticky like you get with the vanilla, instead it is a well-balanced and mature sweetness. Both of these are really wonderful, but my personal favorite is the minty version. It's just so exotic! ETA: Something in these didn't agree with me and made my skin get all red and itchy, so I swapped them off to new homes. Sad

In the bottle: Woah! I usually enjoy vetiver when it plays a supporting role in blends, but the vetiver mixed with the leather in this blend is really wicked! I can't smell any of the other notes yet. The leather in this one is SO strong. I'm really shocked, because Severin is one of my favorite BPAL scents but the leather there is barely detectable. I haven't tried De Sade or Whip....maybe those are more similar to this. Wet:I Still vetiver and leather, but it is slowly mellowing in intensity. No cinnamon....very slight floral starting to appear. Dry: This is much more managable after it has dried, yet it still remains one of the most powerful, demanding, and honestly intimidating BPAL blends that I have ever encountered. As much as I tend to lean towards the traditionally masculine blends and scoff at gender distinctions for scents....this is really a man's blend. I just cannot begin to imagine a woman wearing this one. But a man wearing this would be nearly impossible to resist because the scent is just so demanding.

I have loved almost all of the dragons blood scents that I have smelled, but this is by far the best of them all. Lovely, juicy dragon's blood sweetened by the sexy spiceyness of amber. This is just perfect, and is on the top of my list of 10mls to order. Sometimes it's Beth's less complicated blends that really blow me away.

Lady Macbeth is such a deep, bold scent. Beth did a wonderful job capturing the spirit of this famous Shakespearian female. This scent is dominated by the ripe, juicy scent of currants and a deep river of red wine adds a wickedness to the mix. I would sum this up as wine-soaked berries, very rich and red. Unfortunately, red wine is one of those notes that just does not work with my skin chemistry. It turns really rancid after the dry down phase But if red wine works on you and you like fruity, red scents, this would be lovely.

As you can probably tell from the other reviews, if you like violets you'll probably like Queen Gertrude. This is a very clean, crisp, and proper type floral. It could easily be described as regal and I think it's a fabulous depiction of this character. But I, unfortunately, do not like violets. I don't really like florals at all, so Queen Gertrude is going up for adoption.

In the bottle this smelled SO damned good. Dark, syrupy cherries and heady musks. I couldn't wait to try it. Black Phoenix hit my skin and instantly turned into pure baby powder. I mean, not even a hint of cherry or anything else fighting to survive. My skin just ATE Black Phoenix I am so crushed, I've never had this happen with any of the other blends

Oh my god....LOVE. I want to drown in this stuff it's so perfectly yummy. Warm, sweet, spicey goodness that stays very true from bottle to skin. I hope this one makes continual visits at Yule time.

This was on my wishlist and the Lab added in to my last order as a freebie Ok, Golden Priapus just ascended to the top tier of my list of favorite BPAL blends. It was love at first sniff, and this is one of those blends that stays very true on the dry down. Not very much morph at all. I have to say that I don't really understand the comparisons to Snake Oil.....to me Golden Priapus is the masculine version of Velvet. Which is part of the reason I love the blend so much, because Velvet is my absolute favorite BPAL oil. Where Velvet is all sweet chocolate, sandalwood and incense, Golden Priapus is languid vanilla, pine and incense. They are so very similar, yet just distinct enough to have their own personalities. For those who tried Velvet and did not like the cocoa note, you might give Golden Priapus a try. The sweetness here is not at all cloying. The vanilla is very subtle and the amber and rosewood add a more well-rounded sweetness than just a simple vanilla note would. Also, this is my first pine blend. I usually avoid pine because I was afraid it would be overpowering, but now I'm going to seek out more of Beth's blends that contain pine because this is just so damned yummy. ETA: Skadi reminded me very much of Golden Priapus, only greener. Oh yeah...and purely_cosmetic is a nutter. That's one crazy review, girl!

I was really surprised by how sweet this blend is. In the bottle it was a dry floral with only a slight hint of sweetness, but my skin really latched on to the sweet notes and turned it into something totally unexpected and entirely not my style. I don't enjoy florals to begin with, particularly a cloyingly sweet blend like this. I wish I had gotten some of the earthy or woodsy notes that other people described, but to me this was only sweetness and dusty flowers. I even tested this twice on different days hoping that I just had a wierd skin chemistry day, but it did the same thing both times. Thanks to the Lab for letting me sample this one, but Grandma's getting tossed in the swap pile.

Ok, Jack [2] took around two or three months to grow on me, but now I love it Like quite a few others, I was totally overwhelmed by Jack when I first smelled it. Especially since it was one of the first BPAL scents that I ordered. But I wanted to like Jack so much that it almost broke my heart when I couldn't like it. So I hung on to my imp and refused to swap it away. I kept pulling it out at random times and sniffing it. Slowly I went from 'Ewwww' to 'Hrm, that's so wierd' and eventually reached a point where I was craving Jack. The only down side is now I'm very hesitant to trade off my imps because I'm afraid if I only give them some time I'll grow to love them all Also, I recently smelled Jack [1] and it is nearly identical to the current version. This new blend might be slightly more buttery, but not nearly as buttery as Gluttony for those of you who dislike the buttery scents.

In the bottle this was overwhelmingly almond. But as soon as it hit my skin, the almond note faded away, which is great since I hate the smell of almond oil. I was left with a hot, cinnamon-spiced rum that was really pleasant. It reminded me a little bit of Three Witches + rum. Very nice, but just not what I'm looking for.

I received this as a freebie in my last order, and it's not something that I would have chosen for myself. Often the Lab seems to have some unnatural way of knowing what I'm going to love and adds it to my order, but this time I think Manila was never meant to be.... Bananas. I had to stop right there and put the stopper back on the imp. I can't stand the smell of bananas. Off to swap she goes, where hopefully some fruit loving person will give this blend an appreciative home.