Llanval

Like lying in an open grave in a grassy field, watching black pine trees sway against a dark night sky. So, basically Perfect for me. The slow emergence of the cedar, herbs and flowers turns this from just lovely dirt into a true, atmospheric stunner. If you like dirt and cedar and you're not afraid of vetiver, give this a whirl! Though, I do personally wish the vetiver was a little stronger. I find it has good wear time (4-6 hrs), and doesn't have huge throw, so you won't be leaving a dirt trail wherever you go.

Phallus Acrobatics is a beautiful cloud of strawberry/blueberry sweetness, with equal support from the cream and honey dust, like the most perfect arrangement of berries and whip cream on a stack of pancakes (just no pancakes). I feel like the fruity-floral aspect of this scent is sort of clobbering the cream a bit. But at the same time, the pull between the sweet/sharp fruityflorals and the smooth cream almost makes this scent into a fairy-tale bouncy house, lol! Every bounce brings you something else, its delightful and a little odd. You never know where you're going to land. I don't need a bottle, but I've very glad I got to try this one.

I also get black cherry vanilla from The Red Ribbon. A shiny, bright black cherry lollipop or lip gloss is exactly the vibe of this scent....which is tragic because that's not what I was hoping for. I was hoping for something a little similar to last year's Famous Kabuki Actors In Imagined Scenes of Lovemaking with the really good goat milk note, but everything is being trampled by the very fruity red musk. I haven't had red musk go fruity on me before, but that may be because I have no other scents with so much red musk. I'm glad I have two decants just in case all the other notes I was hoping for start to sing louder than they do now, so I think I'll put these decants in perfume jail and see what happens just before the Shunga come down. Throw is only medium on me, but it has decent staying power.

This is like a magic trick, if magic trick were designed to annoy rather than delight. The magic trick is that for about 5 minutes, this is the best most intense vanilla extract and marshmallow fluff note I've ever smelled. BUT THEN, oh then, with a snap of the fingers, all the perfect vanilla marshmallow clouds get blown away, leaving behind.....a 90s barbie doll head instead. And then I can't smell it at all. Since I don't want to smell like my childhood toy-box, this is a pass for me. But I'm very sad about it, lol. Maybe I'll try the NAVA Moonstone mentioned above.

Gingerbread Campfire 🔥 is EXACTLY what I was hoping for. Billows of sweet, sweet wood-smoke with a hint of gingerbread/yuletide spices lurking under the lovely clouds. It honestly smells like a magical campfire - and any one who knows me, knows how much I love things that smell like campfires of all stripes and types. So glad I took a chance on this, as it has a beautiful dark core of crackling flame that sticks around through the sweeter wood-smoke, unffff! I am also very excited to layer it under Chibi Skull, the 2021 patchouli and balsam duet, and Gingerbread and Leather! Can't wait to see how this ages, perhaps blunting the smoke a bit to bring out the delicious gingerbread lurking right under it. Really glad I snagged this, it's such a beautiful sweet yet oddly dark wood-smoke, I'm just

Cognac-Stained Sheet Ghost is so so close to magical for me, and it bums me out so much it falls just a little short! I love this, it's a thick beam of sunlight heating old lace in a lonesome room furnished in nothing but antique cedar furniture. The balsam is almost undetectable, but adds a beautiful sun-warmed cedar chest vibe to this scent, something that really makes this sheet ghost stand out. I would love this to pieces if the throw wasn't little better than a whisper. As it stands, this scent is ghostly, lonesome, and full of the idea of sunlight. It's the smell of idealized sunbeams. Dust and disuse but not in a bad way, in a 'this room's occupant only visits in silence, out of the corner of your eye', kinda way, lol. Again, poignantly lonesome, for some reason. If I could smell this all day, even a little more, I'd be shouting abt this one from the rooftops. As it stands, I'll stash it away for a few months to see if time gives it the throw I was hoping for. Maybe this is meant to be a sleep scent for me.

A lovely sleep blend that really does hit close to the description. This is an oddly watery lavender, like you've been set adrift in a little boat across a vast sea of lavender, blue-toned chamomile and gentle florals. Nothing stands out other than the lavender and gentle florals, and it lacks the throw and staying power I prefer even for my sleep blends. Still very lovely but not what I was hoping for. This one also should have been a decant first but I usually have good luck with bpal's lavender being quite strong on my skin soooo..... Oh well, c'est la vie! I still really enjoy this, but I think I'll run through my bottle pretty quick as it requires major slathering just to get it last longer than half the day.

i was gifted a testable sniffy by she's a carnival and holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck I am in love!! with!! this!! scent!! wow. Would not have even dared to get a decant because leather is a death note for me, but I got no leather from the sniffy or when I wore it soooooo this might have to go into my cart before the yules come down. Just stunning. Nothing but beautiful gingerbread, clove and tobacco with enough throw in just the few drops I had to test so that I smelled it all damn day. Incredible. I get NO leather, and that makes this a delightful, chewy, smoky gingerbread paradise to roll around in! I think wearing this with my Gingerbread Campfire would be a real fun slap in the face! Can't wait.

This is waaaay more of a linen scent than I was hoping for, but it's not a total disaster, lol. It's a very nice, fresh linen scent, with no laundry detergent to speak of. There's a brighter moss and incense note in here, but the weedsmoke is non-existent for me, and that's literally why I bought it. 😭 Paisley sheet ghost is more like getting a hug from your old-fashioned dad or uncle, blended with a gentle linen scent. But also, weirdly enough, it is wistful and charming. I like it a lot, but it doesn't have the best throw on me, which would make this blend more enjoyable if I could consistently smell it throughout the day. I'm glad I tried it, learned some things, lol. But I wish I'd gotten a decant instead. I'll hang onto my bottle for a bit to see if I get anything other than nice linen, moss and incense otherwise this is heading for the sales page.

I managed to pick up a bottle from the wonderful supreme_cOrt and I LOVE this. Cooling Breeze is like sitting near an artfully maintained pond in the middle of an equally artfully maintained zen garden. Sweet coniferous juniper berries and green tea with a warm sandalwood that isn't obtrusive at all. Very much a clean cooling breeze, with enough depth that it isn't JUST a clean, cooling breeze. I'm really glad I managed to pick this one up - my only complaints are that I wish the throw were a bit more aggressive and that the wear time was a bit longer, but that's what slathering is for, lol.

Just like katharina above, this reads as children's chewable tylenol from the 80's/90s to me. I get no cotton candy vibe from this, and the fruit notes are not fresh. It's very sweet, quite cloying and very long lasting. It projects like hell too. I wore it on my arm and it stayed with me all day, even through the sleeve of my sweater. Made me a little nauseous, honestly. Damn, thought this one was going to be a full size for sure. 😕

2021 version This is honestly somehow a whole rose bush, freshly dew-kissed and root-y, crammed into an imp. Literally perfect. Just a hint a kiss of lemongrass to liven it up. A genuine rose that lingers and unfurls as if you're walking deeper and deeper into a florist case filled wall to wall with the most perfect, freshly cut roses on earth. This is the best true-to-life bpal rose I've tried so far, but I don't need more than an imp. I think I like the idea of roses more than actually wearing them, lol.

Ghosts at Aldershot is like walking into a haunted mansion and immediately being noticed by some dusty-ass Victorian ghosts who are absolutely incensed that I've disturbed their rest. Their revenge is to lob waxy lemon-peppermint candies at my head until I flee the grounds. So the whole scent comes off like an odd, waxy lemon-peppermint that never really quite melds together, with almost no marshmallow. It really does smell like a fistful of haunted candy, so old the wax wrappers have left their mark on it. But also, as Casablanca said above, the candy is steamy, waxy and metallic all at the same time - so it reads very much like weirdly medicinal candy drops. I really really wanted to FS this, but it's weird going on, weird through dry down and weird in general. However, if this is your thing, you'll have a great time with this scent.

Just like doomsday_disco, I get pine, stone and what I now know is oud. Thanks to the unlisted oud, this reads as musky pine and stone for its entire wear time. It's not a bracing musk but you can't forget that it's there and it does stomp on the flowers and grasses enough that it really just reads as musky pine and stone. Good wear time and throw, but the musk overshadows the clarity of the other notes here. Too bad, because every note in here is usually something I love and would have blind-bottled. Glad I was strict with myself and only got a decant. Still lovely, still a good atmospheric, but not one I need to FS.

I was really hoping this would read as a fresher, brighter blueberry candy but it really is sugary blue goo. I do get the salt, nice and strong, to cut through the blue good but it does feel like I'm wearing a kid's discarded lollipop, lol. It is is a lot of fun, good wear and throw, that lasts and does become a softer, salt-wave of blue goo as time goes on. Still tons of fun, but without the fresh zing from the blueberries I was hoping for, it won't be a full size for me.

Flame of the Bear is truly something else. When I first picked it up in 2019 it was almost unbearably strong, like sticking your face in the most perfect pine tree ever and coming away with sap in your hair, but that's the fir resin which is wildly strong and deeply soothing. It was a bit much, lol. But now that a few years have passed this is the most magical yule scent I have and I love it dearly. I only wear it from December to Feb but it is truly the most incredible atmospheric yule blend - a perfect winter forest, redolent with resinous fir and pine trees, desiccated bushes laden with sweet berries, and a river of cold, perfect winter sunshine to keep this out of candle territory. I love this, I love this, I love this scent!! Magical, lol. I fuckin' love this yule blend and I hope it makes its way back into the catalogue because its winter wonderland perfection in a bottle!

I don't know the exact provenance of my bottle is, it's either a direct purchase in 2007 or from the lab's etsy page but either way, this perfume is now almost 15 years old and it still holds a scent. It has zero throw but I do smell it and can absolutely tell that this was STUNNING fresh. This is so so my kinda Yule scent to wear and it really does smell like taking a walk through a brisk, glittering, bitterly cold pine forest in winter. I smell berries, pine, cold snow and just a ghost of smashed leaf litter and dirt. And to still be so lovely after so many years?! I am thrilled that my ever growing collection will hopefully hold up as the years pass. Despite it's age and low throw, this is a beautiful scent just chock full of wispy, wistful winter memories of picking out a xmas tree, snow crunching underfoot, getting lost in the fields of trees while looking for the perfect one to take home, the sweet chill of winter air following the tree inside, y'know, all that good shit. I really really hope this comes back into the catalogue for a Yule release because I think this would be a top 10 for me when its fresh.

I do like this a lot, but Asleep in the Deep starts with a big wave of corn chip salt that takes oh idk about 3 hours to fade, laid over salty, waterlogged planks and the typical masculine leaning cologne note found in a fair number of bpal aquatics. the plum is honestly a no-show on my skin, or so quiet it simply lends a gentle waft of sweet/sour fruit. Also, for the first three or four hours Asleep reads very soapy dryer sheet and stays that way. Thankfully it is very high-end, fancy soap but it is still soap, which I am not a fan of. I barely dodged a headache while wearing this in full, and that's very unusual for me 😕 I really wanted to get a solid read on bpal's black plum note, as I'm eying the Marshmallow and Black Plum duet but this didn't give me the insight into that note I was hoping for.

I know this is akin to bpal heresy but I must confess: I cannot wear Dorian and I do not enjoy it. when I first started my bpal journey I got an imp in 2019 and had such a bad reaction I no longer know where the imp is, or if i still have it at all. I don't think I'd find it anymore wearable now, BUT paired with Troll, I find this to be a stellar combo that cures what icked me both abt Dorian and abt Troll! This is a quirky, fun charming scent. Troll and Dorian go hand in hand, lifting each other up into heights of sweet pine and vanilla musk goodness. I agree that the tea note is very strong, and does read a little creamy on my skin - the suggestion of sugared, milky vanilla tea. I find this genuinely captivating and am curious to see what age does to these two unlikely but deeply complimentary bedfellows. this is probably the only way I'll ever wear either of these scents. The dry down is lovely, staying in this cloud of playful, spicy, creamy vanilla that never reads as fake or commercial. I also wish the lavender was stronger, that would make this even better, but I know this won't come back to the catalogue once it's gone so I'm probably going to snag a bottle just to see what happens. I'll do a third wear test and decide, but I would absolutely wear this as a daily scent! Update: I've worn this 3 or 4 times since and every time, I find something else to enjoy. I got more smoke/char today and its still fab. I am still shocked I love this so much!! Quirky, unique and oddly joyful. If you don't like troll or dorian, give this a chance!

This one is interesting and so far isn't playing out as I'd thought it might. A Seeing Place opens with the same sweet, cuddly but somewhat bright lavender note in last year's You are Not Alone. And it weirdly kinda just stays there, with this dusty, almost antique lace vibe to the whole affair. It is sweet without being cloying as I don't directly read marshmallow in the sweetness, herbal without being bracing, and grounded by an unobtrusive sandalwood. Rose is somewhere but not at all prominent. No bergamot for me, not even through the dry down. I do really really enjoy this. It's a beautiful lavender speckled antique lace carefully placed in a well loved wooden cabinet. The cabinet holds the ghosts of yesteryear's sweetness, with a little dust and woody redolence. Quiet but never quite disappearing. Enchanting. And yet, I'm not 100% sure I NEED a bottle. Will wait until order day to decide. Edit: Nevermind, this is gonna be an fs upgrade, lololol its STELLAR. My three/four swipe application lasted from 9am work start to 12am evening bong rip. I had to go to the Mall (9th circle of hell) and catching whiffs of this while grinding my teeth in annoyance was so charming, so enchanting i just can't pass on it. I do have to say, despite all the comparisons to ultra femme scents, ball gowns, princess dresses and rose quartz bedroom/pink colours - a seeing place isn't that for me. Lilith's lavender is an absolute champ on my skin, standing firm against the sweeter notes for the duration of the scent's life. On my skin, A Seeing Place is a bundle of impossibly starlit, perfectly pastel purple lavender floating in a sea of dreamy marshmallow cream, set in the finest sandalwood altar bowl you could possibly find. An elegantly restrained lavender fantasy, twinkling with a delightful but never overwhelming mallow sweetness and mellowed by an enchanting sandalwood.

Was not expecting to get Tennis Match vibes from this at all but I did and now, of course, I MUST HAVE IT! Skate Punks opens with a blast of dandelion and clover, sweet, green bright and sap-kissed. It immediately flows into the most beautiful lush green, dew-laden and perfectly chilled florist case while also still reading like you've stuck your head into a real living sweet green hedge, like a box cedar but without the obvious cedar twang. I agree with c0rt that it's not the Lab's snow note, but it is a beautifully clean, chilly, fresh runoff scent that opens up all the green notes to give it that florist case/face-in-a-tree vibe. The clover is also very noticeably clover and has a lovely honey sweetness to it that I really really enjoy. I don't get much dirt either, just a gentle suggestion of earth, and the metal note from the skate board wheels just seems to flicker in and out, sharpening the runoff note. It doesn't assert itself and I mercifully, thankfully do not get any tomato soup vibes from this scent. Slathering it on made me smile - a real smile. And I really really love that. Love it, adore it, so so happy to have found a 'match' for my holy grail miss out, Tennis Match!

this is a yankee candle. that's it. that's the review. if you want to smell like yankee candle's buttercream frosting with a little *hint* of chai spice, this is the bottle for you. fake fluffy buttercream and "spices". no marshmallow. no stick. just pure sugar-shock inducing buttercream. it is absolutely not for me. 😭 i really desperately wanted chai spice marshmallow

LOVE THIS, yet also a little 💔. Chibi opens up with a beautiful clearly distinct bourbon vanilla. I DO actually get bourbon and it stays for abt 30 min. Lovely, not fake, and with no odd butter goosh or popcorn butter oil. The mallow flower and cream mouse turn this into a rich, heady mallow pillow but unfortunately it utterly swamps the patch into absolute oblivion. Which makes me cry big sad tears because I love the Lab's patchouli note and I was desperately hoping for even a glance, a glimmer of smelling something close to Banshee Beat/Revenant Rhythm (now that one is my Storyville, lol!) The patch dies a sad death on me and now I am seriously looking at that Patchouli and Canadian Balsam duet, it might be just what I need to salvage this scent. I do genuinely enjoy this, it is beautiful, but I wanted the patch to really have a voice and Chibi desperately needs the patch to pull it down out of creamy vanilla mallow mouse paradise. Without the patch, this is sweet on sweet on sweet and I already have Silky Bat for my sugared patchouli needs. Grrrrrrr

This was big gamble for me, as I know there are notes in the original Storyville that are ☠️ for me. BUT, luckily everything worked out really well. In bottle it's sweet creamy pumpkin cake with a hint of uh....sex. Honestly it's the oud, but there is a slight zap of funk but it's not a bad funk more an 'orgy happened here 30 min ago' funk. I laughed at the review up thread re the bj pumpkin cheesecake and yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah kinda?! There is a sex funk here, no denying it. The minute it hits my skin the oud shushes and isn't really noticeable as oud, just a pleasant zing of odd 'hmm what is that, it's a little funky' lingering under the sweet notes. the red musk and pumpkin play really well together and no one bullies anyone else. It is a little gourmand/foodie when wet as the pumpkin reads more like a creamy pumpkin tart with maaaaaybe a hint of cream cheese swirl but that isn't really where the scent lands. I can see this stage reading as pumpkin loaf rather than cheesecake because there is a baked/crumbly aspect here but it does not last long at all. Under 30 min. Dry, Pumpkinville is (or will be) a stunner. This is a subtle but always present cloud of sweet red musk and pumpkin with a complicated base of what I know is some sort of booze and spices. I can also tell there's jasmine in this but its sultry not stanky and behaves really well. Jasmine is a ☠️ note for me so I am SHOCKED this is staying so wearable for me. It is subtle but I never lose it, and it wears for hours and hours. Verdict: Pumpkinville is a baby. New, unsure and finding its legs. It's sweet, cozy, sexy and yet warm and gentle. It straddles the line between foodie and perfume-y and will be something extra special in a few months/next year. I want the red musk to be louder and deeper, but that comes with age! it is a sweet pumpkin that will grow more and more wicked and intoxicating as this baby ages!! I do NOT need any of the original Storyville but I am so fucking pleased this is so enjoyable and wearable for me. I do wish it had a bit more throw but that may change with time. Also maybe more throw isn't needed since who knows what sort of powers aging will bring to this bottle.

ended up liking this waaaaaay more than I thought I would! Thunder Moon opens with a great big bolt of fruity ozone, the lychee taking this in an interesting direction. The vetiver and rum take all these wild notes and "opens" them up, letting them hang out in a cloud of super clean ozone, with the patch and other darker notes struggling to hold on and show up at the bottom of this fruity-boozey-ozone cloud. Very fresh, fun and almost eye-opening - almost like a violet-tinted bolt of lightning against a plum dark sky. As it dries, the darker notes kinda sorta show up, but not really. I was really hoping for the darker notes to take over and make this truly thunderous and crackling. idk if the darker notes will show up with age, but i'll test it again before the bottle comes down. i wanted patch and vetiver to be readable alongside the cashmere musk, but this stays fruity throughout its wear time. Wear time is abt 4 hrs, and needs reapplication if you want this to be present throughout the day.