DryFrogPills

Frankincense, rose resin, white patchouli, rockrose, and stone. The stone note is very true in this, and cool and lovely. More than anything, it smells like if you lit a thread of frankincense on an ancient stone altar that someone had rubbed down with rose petals the night before. Very atmospheric and evocative, with the patchouli and rockrose not distinct, but rather adding to the air of something serene and sacred. It has a relatively short lifespan on me, perhaps four hours, but it's so lovely and unique that I can easily forgive having to reapply.

[No additional description provided.] This is a gentle sage grounded in a fairly dry, natural leaf note, floating over light apples. I'd worried it'd be heavily foody, but it's not. This'd be good for a kitchen or dining room, or for setting the mood before Thanksgiving - it won't make people terribly hungry, but it has enough savory adjacent notes that it'll blend nicely with cooking food and smell inviting.

[No additional description provided.] Being me, I was worried this one would go unloved, so I had to try it out. Very logical. I'd honestly describe it as October after the Rain; it's very much of the same slightly cologne-y dead leaves note as October, with a touch of wet, cold ground underneath, like an autumn rain fell an hour or so and it's mostly dried down, but not quite all the way. Or like the sort of big cement patios like my grandmother had, with wet leaves all around. It's not a natural scent, but it's one I find surprisingly pleasant and an effective invocation of the ideas it names, even if it's not an exact olfactory match. You definitely have to be okay with atmospherics though.

[No additional description provided.] Tried this one today! It's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, in exactly that order too. I get a slightly vegetal dead leaves blast with not too sharp eucalyptus primarily. The spearmint tends to appear and disappear like a ghost, but it helps keep the overall 'green' feel of the scent. Honestly, I'll probably wear this more in the spring. Even though the notes are theoretically more fall/winter, the impression I get is of daring green shoots shoving up through the dead leaves of the last fall and getting ready to grow like crazy.

I wouldn't call this sharp anymore, but it IS very dark and heavy - the opoponax and tobacco are very rich and almost earthy, with a slight edge from the pepper and red ginger. I find that it's pretty aggressive during the first half hour or so, but it slowly mellows and reminds me of a non-sweet pipe tobacco, while the red ginger glows hot against it like the lit end of a cigarette. It's not a gentle scent, nor should it be with this name, but it's strong and heady and rather feels like having on a heavy protective coat. I can't imagine wearing this every day, but on certain days and moods, it's just right.

[No additional description provided.] Sprayed this over my bed last night. It's primarily a moss scent, with soft hint of dead leaves on the ground and fallen peony petals. It's floral but faintly so? I find it hard to explain. Still, primarily, green moss, slightly sharp, as is the peony, over crunchy, slightly cologne-y leaves. Not a sleepy or soothing scent, seems like a sitting room or study to me.

Maybe a bit more cinnamon than cloves to my nose, but pretty balanced. Just a bit of copal to take it beyond just the spice drawer. Z_z is right, it's very warm, cozy, and spicy. The sort of place you'd want to linger and read a book.

#52 - This is fairly close to classic Samhain in the bottle. On the skin, I can pull out the addition of something bitter, but in a good way, and an additional fruit. I'm still not at all sure what that bitter edge is, and it's definitely /bitter/, but it acts to balance the sweetness I get from rosin and adds a slightly menacing edge in the first few hours of wear that I enjoy. Later, it fades down to a long lasting glow of rosin made edgier by what I'm now pretty sure is currant and apple. The currant, if that is the fruit note, fixes the apple a bit so it lasts longer. Rather than turning into super-sweet honey rosin on me after about an hour and a half like regular Samhain, this stays complex for about two hours, then the fruity-slightly-bitter-honey for about another six, and a very slightly fruity soft rosin even beyond that. I'm happy, since the mood of the original is maintained, and this makes it more lasting and forgiving of my skin chemistry's insistence on amping rosin into overwhelming sweetness and keeps it a complex, moody fall perfume instead.

I got very, very lucky here, I think. Bottle #48: Pumpkin spice cake with ginger syrup and a bourbon vanilla glaze. I could eat my arm. It's primarily the ginger with a warm 'baked' note and the other spices, then grounding it, a rich, creamy vanilla drizzle that's the base note of the scent and lingers. Delicious.

Through sunlit caves of ice, roses unfurl amidst dancing waves of serpentine opium smoke and amber tobacco, golden sandalwood, champaca, tea leaf, sugared lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, leather, dark vanilla, mandarin, peru balsam, and Moroccan jasmine. In the imp: A garden in spring, with pale flowers and a hint of mint. I think that might be how my brain is interpreting the mix of tea, ginger, and mandarin? It's sort of wild-smelling, it's a garden, but not a manicured one. Worn: Yeah, I /definitely/ get something that reads as mint in here when it's on and fresh, even if it's not in the notes. I feel like that's the tea, if it's fairly fresh. There's a wild tangle of soft woods, greenery, and some delicate flowers underneath. There's so much going on here, and it's so blended that I can't pick out much specific, other than ginger. Long term: Once fully dry and over time, I get ginger glowing over ancient woods, rather than fresh greenery. I'd expect to be able to pick out the rose, champaca, leather... sandalwood... but I still can't, it's just, well, it's all wild woods and spice and glorious and atmospheric. A rich mix and well suited to the poem!

In the imp: Sometimes apple, sometimes rose, sometimes lemon. It seems like every time I sniff, the exact balance is a little different, and I can't quite pin it down. Worn: The apple is strongest a few minutes, with the rose rising up behind it to draw equal. Over time, the lemon reappears, making it seem like the apple slices were dipped in lemon juice to keep them fresh, then laid on a plate of fresh rose petals. The rose eventually becomes the central note, with the apple and lemon juice dancing around it erratically. It sounds like it shouldn't work and it shouldn't, but... I'm actually really, really into it? It's never too sweet or too floral, and it's definitely not predictable!

In the imp: Sandalwood and roses and... Christmas? I have no idea why this particular combination makes me think Christmas, but it does. Worn: On me, sandalwood is strongest, with patchouli and rose supporting it. It still smells like Christmas. That said, my skin tends to amp up sandalwood, although only part of the time, so it's unpredictable. Long term: As I wear it, the rose gets stronger and grows more even with the sandalwood while the patchouli hangs back behind. At this point, it stops feeling too strongly like Christmas. It's smooth and pleasant. After another hour or two, the rose wisps away, leaving the sandalwood and patchouli, and the patchouli becomes the dominant note, but it's still a very smooth mix. Long term, the sandalwood gains a slightly musty-sharp unpleasant edge, which is something it does on me at erratic intervals, but I'd consider it a very pleasing scent overall.

Tested from a rather aged imp. In the imp: Green tea and lemon verbena Worn: Something about this combination of notes goes musty in a way that I don't expect it to. This stage lasts for a few minutes, and my gut wants to blame the mix of green tea and neroli, mostly because jasmine doesn't usually go weird on me. Before too long, it relaxes into just being a faintly floral green tea scent. Not too interesting to me, but if you're into green tea scents, this might work!

Disclaimer: champagne and white wine notes go HORRIBLY wrong on me. This proved it. In the imp: Fizzy strawberry booze! Worn: For a few minutes, STRAWBERRY, in your face, not very real, but not super-fake either, odd as that seems. There's a hint of champagne behind it. And then, rapidly, it all goes wrong. The champagne promptly turns sour and chemical on my skin. It's not a note I like. It really isn't. Long term: I had to scrub it. Overall, avoid if you also have issues with booze-y or white wine type notes. I don't think this is a fault of it being a bad scent, but it's sure AWFUL with my skin chemistry.

In the imp: Dragon's blood, more than anything, herbal, crisp, clean. Worn: As in the imp, dragon's blood with some clean herbs under it. Something bitter/sour on the back end, but you have to look for it. Long term: Eventually, this turns sweet, loses the herbal edge. Overall, to me, pretty unremarkable, but I'm not a big fan of dragon's blood.

In the imp: Sea air, leather, and salt. Worn: Yep, sea air! There's hints of leather, water, and wood underneath it, but the crisp scent of air at sea is dominant the whole time. That's my experience the whole time, really, the sea air is always dominant. I'd call it an aquatic, which isn't my favorite, but it's a very easy to wear, pleasant scent, if you want to invoke the sea. It was fine, but didn't do a lot for me. Definitely a very unisex blend, maybe leaning to the masculine.

Tested from an aged frimp. In the imp: Dark, dry chocolate and hints of vanilla. Worn: At first, quite yummy and edible, more foody than I expected. The chocolate is definitely in the forefront. Over about a half hour, it blends down and merges into the sandalwood and the myrrh, although neither is distinct. I'd call it 'soft textured', with hints of something vanillic. It sounds like it should be pleasant, and yet... It's not. There's something vaguely bitter, or sour, that seems to linger underneath and never goes away, taking it from something I should like, to something that makes me keep sniffing it and going '... What is OFF with this?'. I'm gonna assume that there's something that goes weird with my skin chemistry and on me, it's just a definite fail.

Tried this from a fairly aged frimp acquired second hand. In the imp: Pretty much all I get is lily. On: The lily softens, and I get a feeling of dust and crushed green weeds surrounding it. For a minute or two. Then it's... where did it go? Did I not put it on? Long term: If I really struggle, for about an hour I can get the sense of a faint, dusty lily-based floral. After that, it's totally gone. Overall, while the age of the imp might have been a factor, this was the lightest and shortest lasting BPAL I've tried. The scent didn't have any notes that really drew me anyway, so I'm fairly unmotivated to try a heavier slather in a location that might hold on to it a bit more. The best I can say of it is that the feel did remind me of a graveyard lily, or maybe even the ghost of a lily.

I'm honestly not totally sure what to make of this. Imp: I had a brief moment of wondering if this is mis-labeled, since there was something almost cacao-y about the dusty cream scent of this. Short term: My first reaction was that it was vaguely creamy-soft, which isn't... very useful. On more consideration, I decided that it was mostly the orris, with faint hints of lily of the valley. To me, it feels both a little powdery and creamy all at once, which shouldn't be possible, but there you are. Long term wear: Stayed pretty much the same, settling into a powdery-creamy-faintly floral, kinda sweet scent. It feels blended and is pretty in a way that reminds me more of mainstream perfume than anything else. It's very inoffensive and wouldn't feel out of place on a tween or a grandmother... which means it's not at /all/ my style, as I tend to eschew classically pretty scents. It's been years, and this is without the alcoholic or sharp edge but something about it puts me in mind of Chanel No 5?

In the imp: I can pick out something grass-y, and something I can only describe as a vague... herbal-fruit-y? It's very hard to pin down, but not at all what I expected. Worn: Immediately, oh, there's the hay! It's still fairly fresh, not a dry hay, but like it's still growing wild in the field. The grass is green and mostly fresh too, like an unmown patch grown wild under the summer sun. Now I can cacao and tonka beneath enhancing the sweetness of the grass, but not too distinct or prominent on their own. They're definitely supporting players. Long term: To quote my notes, 'graaaaaaaaaaaaass'. The distinctive hay and being able to pick out the tonka and cacao leaves, and it becomes a slightly dry but still living grass scent that has a good life span. If you like grass scents, this is a pretty nice one, but for me, it'd fall under using up the decant but probably not bothering to get a full bottle, since the long term is rather single note.

I think I got a slightly different feel from this then some of the others. To me, in the imp, this was definitely a quite juicy blackberry bush scent, with soft hints of lilac. That's what I got when I first put it on too, a fresh blackberry note with vague hints of green leaves or a lilac nearby, less like you're in the garden with both and more like you're standing near a cracked window in the spring eating blackberries while the breeze blows the lilac scent in through a cracked-open window. That lasts for nearly an hour, then the lilac starts to lift out into more prominence. It's perfectly pleasant, but doesn't do anything special for me. For those wondering, as I was, how this compares to Glasgow, despite both having only two notes and one of those in common, I found them completely different. Glasgow is primarily heather with soft touches of blackberry, and the heather is prominent to me from the imp to the long term, with the blackberry subtle. It reminds me of a gift shop in England, or attending an outdoor re-enactment event. Echo Azure is all about blackberry bush, with the lilac used to make it a livelier, more centered scent. It's far more of an outdoorsy or cottage garden scent, and feels younger and more like spring.

In the imp: Lavender, hops, and something cooling. Short term: Soft mint on top, then lavender and hops under. It's a glorious minty-herbal and I kinda want to lean into it. Long term: I found the hops to come a bit more to the forefront long term, but the mint and lavender hold their own. It's very cooling and relaxing, and I have a full size bottle sitting in my cart for when I get around to placing my next order (probably when the Weenies come out...). I'd call this very unisex, and while it'd be good for sleep, I think anyone could enjoy it in the summer or hotter weather to take the edge off.

Similar to the above reviewers, I found that this was almost entirely orange blossom, with a subtle grey/ashy grittiness that grounds it underneath and makes it a little more earthy. I had pretty good throw and wear length, and it was a fairly consistent smell, with the orange blossom staying dominant from the bottle to the long term dry down. Out of the four butterflies I tried, this was fair and away a favorite, because while straightforward and mostly classic, it has just that perfect little twist of something quietly different to make it stand out. I definitely expect I'll use the whole decant and may eventually grab a bottle, although it isn't a 'I have to get this NOW' sort of appeal, more like it's a really good, day to day easy scent.

Dry and herbal lavender is definitely the prominent feeling here, but there's touches of the hops and sandalwood. I don't smell mugwort distinctly, but there's an underlying 'herbyness' that I'm fairly sure comes from that. For me, the jasmine and vanilla blend pretty seamlessly into the rest. It's definitely a lighter scent, but it's quite effective - we have waterproof fabric couch covers due to our dogs, and a quick spritz of this took it from 'yes, the dogs lie here as often as the people' to 'a lovely soothing place to nap'. Overall, a really nice bedtime/relaxation scent.

I snagged this off Etsy recently - my first hair gloss! There's less any distinctive notes than a general autumnal forest scent. I've been applying by a squirt or two on my palms worked through my hair, and the primary note is definitely the maple leaves/maple sugar note. I'd definitely say sugar or sap, not syrup, as it seems too light and airy for maple syrup, but it's definitely maple in origin. It's not a super-strong scent, although it clings to my palms, and I tend to get little wafts of sweet-vague-autumn-forest for hours. Expect mostly sweet maple and a touch of deciduous woods under.