sisterbastard

First impression: Floral and foresty, but also dark and clean. So good. Surprised to enjoy floral so much. Wet: Can't identify the most forward scent. Like rose, but really clean. Other flowers take a backseat to it, but they're still there. It's complex. Dry: After about an hour, the dark, night-time feel that I love fades and just leaves sweetness behind. A little too sweet at that point. I would prefer some more grounding. I don't get anything masculine at all from this one - it's pure floral, but nice, like walking through a wild garden in the very, very early morning, when it's still dark and there's dew on the ground. I'll be revisiting this one for further notes, though. I don't think I'm getting everything I can from it. ETA: I suspect my skin amps really sweet notes. I can't smell the juniper or patchouli in this at ALL.

First impression: Hmmm. Indistinct flowers, and it's a little cold. Must be the metal. Wet: It's not my favorite scent from the vial, and I don't feel properly able to articulate why or how. Dry: Oh, no. Oh, no. This smells like cat pee on me until it dries down, after which it smells like cat pee in a litter box. My skin is amping something really unpleasant. The iris? The oudh? Washed off pronto. I wanted to love this one, but unfortunately, it's a hard pass for me.

First impression: Received a decanted half-bottle as a gift. Opened it in November for a sniff. It read as an overwhelming patchouli punch in the face followed by an instant headache. Put it away until February, when I had the nerve to try it again. Wet: Can totally pick out the fig and bourbon through the patchouli now, but no ability to recognize the other scents. Doesn't feel as much like a patchouli steamroller it did at first. Dry: Took the plunge and wore it for a day. Way more throw than the others I've worn recently. WICCA SHOP 1,000%, but nostalgic and nice. As it warms the fig softens and comes forward on the nose, and there's a bit of a raisins-and-honey smell feel. Very organic, earthy, and pleasant. After a few hours of wear: love it. Am buying backup bottle.

Oh, Morocco. What to say about you, you beautiful, elusive minx. First impression: One of the best things I've ever smelled, I think. Vanilla perfectly balanced by spice and dry woods. Gorgeous. Wet: Spices and sandalwood to the forefront wet; just a hint of a rougher edge, but not much. Why am I getting vanilla? There isn't any vanilla in the notes. Dry: (I'm sticking by my vanilla mis-translation.) Dries to an incredible spiced vanilla: beautiful, balanced, warm, comforting like a blanket straight out of the dryer. Can't stop sniffing my wrists, and honestly my imp is almost gone and I've already ordered a full bottle. That's how good this is. How much of it is due to the sandalwood, carnation, cassia, or anything else, I have no idea. This is a terrible review! But Morocco is life.

First impression: I got a small decant as a gift and sniffed this without consulting notes, and honestly had zero idea what was going on in it. Like, none whatsoever. I liked it, though. It smelled warm and brown in a late-summer kind of way. Wet: I don't get the burst of really fresh orange that the reviews mention, but this could be because the oil has already had a couple of years to age. I get a nice mellow fruit in the middle, bolstered by a fresh, grassy sweetness on top and smooth tobacco underneath. Dry: Dries orange and brown. No, seriously, it smells the way the butterfly looks, on top of also smelling like a wonderfully hot, late summer day - August, when the grass is dry. I'm not sure what happens to the tobacco - there's something sweet and almost creamy about it, like it gains some vanilla. Not much throw, which is fine with me as long as it has some staying power, which this definitely does. Keeping this one. Hay absolute isn't my #1 favorite note, but I adore orange and tobacco, so the balance is really working for me.

First impression: Holy mother of rainforest. This is...sharp, and bordering on unpleasant. Wet: Bright and fresh, but with some heavy floral. The amber smells dark and a little sharp. It's a lot to take in, but if I slow down I can smell a lot going on in it. Dry: First 10 minutes: almost immediately warms and sweetens. Floral is almost cloying and the amber is spicy. There's a thin top note, hard to pick out - the "mountain air"? 1 hour in: this has morphed into something fascinating. Sweet, but more the sweetness of amber than flowers. There's more fruit, but it's something like...warm mango? Still hitting some fresh notes, like a little bit of salt. I'm so interested in this. Not much throw, though, and seems to be fading quickly, though hard for me to tell. This was a surprise delight, and I'll definitely be reaching for it more often. I would like a full bottle at some point. I love the substance of the combined resin and fruit. This is complicated and unique. Downside: only seems to last about six hours on me before it fades to a very close-to-the-skin resin. Still, though. A+.

First impression: In the bottle, something tangy and chemical with a little sweet cherry. I impatiently sniffed it right after bringing it in from the mail, though, so this doesn't really mean anything. Wet: Really hard to read from the vial, especially before it warmed to room temp (after which the chemical tang was gone and it was just a little sharp and fruity). Dry: On the skin, wow. This is all pretty fruit and dark flowers (a helpful assessment, I know!). It's sweet, and the sweet clove adds a little spice, while the cherry warms the middle. It's honestly delightful. After the first hour or so, it fades to more of a skin scent - really pleasant if I glue my wrist to my nose, but otherwise can't smell it much. But I like it, and am definitely keeping it.

First impression: Fresh, very female, confident. Wet: I can really smell the honey and clove, with a floral backdrop (I suck at recognizing specific flowers). It's very spicy-sweet overall. I like it. Dry: This is a nice one as it dries. The "fiery patchouli" combined with the clove is a really essential rebuttal to the heavy sweetness of the honey, which almost has an herbal quality. I would expect the fig to come out as it truly dries. After about an hour: First the patchouli and clove get even more hot, and then the fig comes out a little to lend it some nice raisiny-ness. As previously mentioned, this is an exceedingly confident and feminine scent. I'm on the fence about the heaviness of the honey, but I like that it's a very real honey. I want to put it in some tea. I'll probably pass this one along, but I enjoyed testing it.

First impression: Like a woodsier Morocco, which is The Dream for me. But the vanilla note is definitely (and unfortunately) hitting me the same way as the one in Tombstone. Still smells amazing, though. Wet: Smells so good in the bottle, especially if I don't focus on the vanilla and let the amber and woods do their thing. Dry: Oh no. Nooooo. It's the dreaded rubber vanilla. I wanted this one to work so badly, but this particular vanilla note hates me. It's very much dry, powdery rubber gloves. I'm going to put this away and let it age for a while before trying again.

First impression: Milder than I was expecting. A little spicy and a little sweet - there's just a hint of the apple blossom, which is lovely. I'm hoping the ginger and vetiver stay quiet, as I'm really not a fan of ginger. Wet: Apricot, black tea, and honey, YES. Everything else...not so much. Maybe a hint of saffron on the edge. I wouldn't object to more apple blossom. Dry: After a couple of minutes the black tea and saffron start to argue. I think saffron is the plaintiff. The honey has noped right out of the courtroom, and the florals are chilling in the spectator seats. Ginger is the bullish attending law officer, and balsam is the judge, sitting above everything with a bit of a sneer. (I don't prefer the balsam note; I think its integrity has been compromised.) Oops, that got whimsical fast. In sum, this one gets a bit too gingery and argumentative for me to wear comfortably. I'll probably revisit later.

Note: This was part of my very first BPAL purchase EVER, in...2010 or something. (And then, of course, it took me seven years to get around to exploring more BPAL, because that is how I roll, apparently.) I absolutely adored it then, and I adore it now. It'll always have a very happy and nostalgic place in my own personal BPAL hall of fame. First impression: Salty and breezy, grounded by a dignified amount of hazelnut and a dark-feeling coconut. Wet: Fresh, bright salt, with coconut floating underneath. The hazelnut is just a suggestion, and I'm not really able to pick out the iris. Dry: Coconut almost hollows out and is lightly spiced by the salt and musk. Remains difficult for me to pick out any florals, which is fine with me. Despite the brightness of the salt, this feels very much like a dusk scent to me - the beach right after the sun has completely dipped below the horizon.

First impression: Spicy, assertive, almost a wall of scent. Wet: Smells like rooibos and black teas, with spice underneath. Rooibos tends to smell papery to me, but not in a good way. It's never quite agreed with me in smell or flavor. Curious to see if fades on skin. Honey is definitely present. Dry: This doesn't play well with my skin chemistry. The musk and honey are drying to a play-doh smell, which is blunt and unpleasant. There's a brief period about 20 minutes in where I can pick out some of the spices and it's kind of nice, but then it fades back into the bluntness...and gives me a wicked headache. Yeah, this one is really not for me. It's the first one I've ever removed with vinegar. Damn, I really wanted to like this - I'm usually all about dry, desert spices. Edited for formatting!

Wet: Oh my goodness. This is very sweet, very buttery, filled to the brim with coconut, rum, and just a little pineapple. Dry: Heavy, warm, indolent, and sooo tropical. I can almost feel the heat (must be the cinnamon?). The pineapple is just barely there, but it's the coconut, vanilla, and rum that are dominating, which is what I want. The rum has a buttery feel. This is actually pretty incredible. Seems to wear pretty close to the skin, which is fine for me for something like this. Good lord, this is fantastic.

Wet: Words like "organic" and "biological" and "fecund" come to mind. It's evocative, at least. I don't like its wet scent much. Vegetable-y in a swamp-like way, sweet, lots of almond. I don't mind almond too much - in fact, its grown on me as a scent - but I don't particularly want almond that's been dredged through bog moss and algae. Dry: Okay, this changes significantly as it dries, and becomes much more pleasant. The almond takes a back seat to the greenery, which is tempered by something else that I can't put my finger on. This one may really grow on me, actually. I think maybe the tempering is coming from the rose people have mentioned above, but it's not a very "clear" rose scent to me. I'm going to have to give this one a few more tries.