SurrealReality

I was not looking forward to this one at all as leather is not a smell that I enjoy. Really only got a decant because I'd decided to try the entire Wild Hearses set. General Impression: Slightly sweet, deep, rich, atmospheric. Notes I can smell: The lab's dead leaves note, tobacco, and pumpkin. The lab's "dead leaves" note is the strongest note here. Odd since it's not listed, but I see that I'm not the only one who got that impression. I hate leather so much that smelling it often makes me feel a bit queasy, yet somehow this particular leather note doesn't smell like leather to me at all. Instead, it smells like a deep, rich, and somewhat sweet tobacco. I guess if I concentrate, I can imagine some part of this note as leather…. but I have to really search my soul to find it. This pumpkin note is what I wish all pumpkin notes would aspire to be. It's somewhat sweet but not gourmand, vegetal, a little buttery, and also a little smoky with a tiny dash of cinnamon. If I hadn't gotten a decant set of Wild Hearses, I definitely would have skipped this one. What a tragedy that would have been! This is my favorite of the set by far. It may even be my new favorite atmosphere spray! It does make me wonder though.... what other amazing scents have I missed out on due to frightening notes?

General Impression: Slightly sweet, resinous, powdery. Notes I can Smell: Snake Oil, a microscopic drop of Dorian, and a minuscule speck of moss. All I can really smell here is the Snake Oil. Dorian is so far in the background that half the time I think I'm just imagining it. There's no mud, but I think there maybe a hint of green moss. Very faint though. This is a bit disappointing. I like Snake Oil, but Dorian was what I was really looking forward to here. If you're a huge fan of straight SO though, look no further.

General Impression: Slightly sweet, fresh, bright, tart, citrusy. Notes I can smell: Lime and citron with vague hints of other notes around the edges. The only notes that really pop out here are the lime and the citron (with the lime securely in the lead). They're both fresh, but unexpectedly sweet notes. I cannot smell the white musk as a separate note, but it seems to be giving the lime a slightly fizzy quality. In the background, I can smell a hint of rum and perhaps black pepper (but I have to really concentrate to notice). I like lime. But I don't like it THIS much. I wish the other notes were more apparent.

The other reviews describe a more nuanced scent than the one I am experiencing. All I can smell is eye-watering bonfire smoke. The kind that forces you to play musical chairs while sitting around the bonfire in a futile attempt to escape the fumes. I am actually a big fan of BPAL's industrial scents, such as Wasteland World and Smokestack, so this was disappointing. If you buy this, may you have the experience of the other reviewers and not mine.

I was hesitant about this one because maple syrup and I don't really get along. Too sweet for me. But I decided to give it a try anyway. General Impression: Very sweet, rich, gourmand. Notes I can smell: Bitter-sweet coffee, fluffy pancakes, butter, maple syrup, and a light cinnamon sprinkle. As expected, this is a very sweet scent. However, there is less syrup and more coffee than I had anticipated, which helps to cut the sweetness a bit. I would say the coffee is the strongest note (and it is a strong coffee). A pat of butter melts over the pancakes, blending in with the maple syrup. Delicious and very realistic, truly smells like I could actually stick a fork in them. There is also a hint of cinnamon coming from somewhere. Very mild though. At first I thought one bottle would be plenty. After having used it a few times, I'm gonna need at least two. If I were more into super sweet gourmands, this would be a panic and buy ALL the bottles type situation.

The second I saw this scent, I was hoping for a near-dupe of the elusive Snake Oil Jelly Doughnut. With SOJD on my right hand and Snakes in the Berry Sonker on my left... Snake Oil Jelly Doughnut Notes I smell: Sweet fried dough, raspberry jelly, and Snake Oil. Snakes in the Berry Sonker Notes I smell: Light flaky pastry, blackberries, raspberries, white sugar, molasses, and Snake Oil. Note by Note: The fried dough of SOJD is so much richer than the flaky pastry note in Snakes in the Berry Sonker. They are not similar at all. The berry note of SOJD is a sweet raspberry jelly. The berry note of Snakes in the Berry Sonker is considerably less sweet and I smell more blackberry than raspberry (no blueberry at all). It's more like lightly sugared baked fruit than the sweet, sticky jelly of SOJD. The blackberry in Berry Sonker is adding a tartness that does not exist in SOJD. The Snake Oil in SOJD seems more resinous and sweet, while the Snake Oil in Berry Sonker seems more spicy and dry. That could be due to age, but it could also be due to Snake Oil reformulation (I vaguely remember a reformulation announced, I don't wear SO by itself so I didn't pay a whole lot of attention). I don't really smell the vanilla ice cream that's supposed to be in Berry Sonker, but I do smell a white sugar note along with the molasses. The white sugar is very prominent, the molasses much less so. SOJD doesn't have any comparable notes. Overall, SOJD is richer, deeper, sweeter, and creamier than Berry Sonker. Snake Oil Jelly Doughnut has pretty good throw and lasts all day. Berry Sonker is a much lighter scent and does not last nearly as long. I was really hoping these would be more similar and I'm surprised they're not. That being said, I do love both. If I had to choose though, it would be SOJD every. single. time. Looks like I will continue to use my bottle very sparingly for the foreseeable future.

Basic idea: Lightly sweet, fruity, pink, resinous, earthy. Notes I can pick out: Lollipop (sort of), bubblegum, and snake oil. I figured this scent would be a sugar bomb, but I was wrong. The lollipop component here is really lovely. I don't usually go for lollipop notes because they're generally super sugary and tend to hog the spotlight, but this one is very different. It actually smells way more like a fruity drink to me rather than a lollipop. It's slightly tart and less sweet than any other lollipop note I've smelled and there's something light and almost aquatic about it. It smells like several flavors combined. If I had to guess, I'd say sour cherry-watermelon-kiwi, but I can't really tell. I'm very impressed with this note. I also smell something like bubblegum, only not as sweet (maybe it's meant to be a blowpop?). The Snake Oil isn't as strong as the lollipop/bubblegum, but it's still very noticeable. I really only wanted to try this because I'm on a mission to try all of the Dangernoodles, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't really think it's my thing, but it's very pretty.

Basic idea: very sweet, gourmand, creamy, rich. Notes I can pick out: vanilla frosting, white cake, cotton candy, a little cardamom, and a hint of something pleasantly sour. Wow this is sweet. The vanilla frosted white cake is by far the strongest note and it's very rich. This is the kind of cake you take a few delicious bites of and then push the plate away because it's just too much. The cotton candy is also a fairly prominent note and of course only adds to the sweetness. The cardamom is far weaker and softer than I imagined it would be. I wouldn't even call this scent spicy. There is also a hint of something sour in here... to me, it smells like cream cheese, but that doesn't make much sense because confetti cake generally doesn't have cream cheese frosting. Maybe I'm actually smelling the sprinkles in the cake? Whatever it is, I'm grateful for it. It's the only thing in here that tempers the sweetness even slightly. So anyway, yeah. Far too sweet for me. To be fair though, I expected it to be too sweet based on the notes. I only tried it because everyone seemed to love it so much.

Basic idea: sweet, gourmand, resinous, earthy. Notes I can pick out: milk chocolate and snake oil. This chocolate note is amazing. It's the perfect creamy milk chocolate. I don't get the Boomslang reference though because the cocoa in that doesn't smell anything like the chocolate in this. I was hoping for an even balance between the chocolate and the snake oil, but I really should have taken a hint from the name. It does say mega-sized chocolate bar after all. This is about 3/4 chocolate and 1/4 snake oil. It took me a while to decide, but I think this is just too much chocolate for me.

In my mind, I always thought I should love apple notes. I love pear notes. I love to eat apples. So why didn't I want to smell like apples? Regardless of the reason why, I had finally come to accept the fact that apple notes just do not work for me. So, when I received a tester of Caramel Apple SO as a frimp, I didn't even bother to try it. Just tossed in my "to frimp" box. Then one day, I guess I was bored and decided to give it a go. It took me completely by surprise. I love this so much that I wound up with backups. Basic idea: sweet, fruity, resinous, earthy, gourmand. Notes I can pick out: caramel, snake oil, and fresh apple. The caramel and the snake oil are evenly balanced. I know caramel + snake oil sounds heavy, but it doesn't come off that way here. The caramel note itself is somehow lighter/softer than other caramel notes I've smelled from the lab. The apple is the weakest note, but not by much. Green and very tart - definitely a granny smith. I don't know that I'll ever find another apple scent that works for me again, but I'm happy to have found at least one. For the record, I have tried Coral Snake and didn't like it at all (totally different apple note in that one).

Waaay back in... probably 2011 or so, my taste in perfume changed pretty drastically. My collection was nothing but gourmands and one by one, they all started to smell too sweet to me. Cloying even. I was confused and didn't know what notes to look for anymore, so I withdrew from this hobby for a while. When I came back, Love was one of the first scents I tried. It was the one scent that helped me to understand what I was looking for. It's sweet, but not all-out gourmand sweet. Basic idea: sweet, gourmand, creamy, fruity, floral, pink. Notes I can pick out: marshmallow, vanilla, strawberry cream, amber?, and sugared pink rose. The marshmallow is definitely the strongest note. It's not a melty marshmallow or marshmallow fluff. This is like opening up a bag of fresh marshmallows - sweet, sugary, creamy, and just a touch powdery. There also seems to be some sort of amber in here, but then again it could just be more of that marshmallow powder. Who knows. Whatever it is, it's helping to keep this scent from becoming too rich. The strawberry is prominent - considerably more than a hint. I don't recall the lab using this particular strawberry note before and I really like it. It's much too realistic to be described as a lollipop, not nearly sweet enough to be called a jam or a syrup, and too creamy/not tart enough to be thought of as fresh. So I'm just gonna call it strawberry cream. The rose is also fairly prominent, but never takes over the scent. It smells like a softer, sweeter version of the pink roses I have growing in my backyard. I don't know crap about roses though, so I couldn't say what kind they actually are. I just know they aren't tea roses because I don't like the smell of those at all (reminds me of a certain shitty perfume my mom wore throughout the 90s). So anyway yeah, Love became an immediate favorite. After finding this scent, I knew I was looking for gourmands with a little something extra to cut the sweetness a bit. 💘

Basic idea: very sweet, gourmand, creamy, spicy, fruity. Notes I can pick out: sugared cardamom, blueberry syrup, and gourmand vanilla (later becoming cream). The cardamom in this is very distinctive. Immediately recognizable as cardamom, not clove and definitely not cinnamon. It seems sweeter than a lot of cardamom notes though, so I'm calling it sugared. Unfortunately, the blueberry is just too sweet for me. It's definitely not fresh blueberry or blueberry lollipop. It's like blueberry syrup - just about as sugary as a blueberry note could get. The vanilla is also pretty sweet/rich. After about two hours, the vanilla eventually turns into the lab's wonderful cream note (same one from Reflected Vulva, Glowing Vulva, etc), adding a much needed sour edge. At that point, this is gorgeous. Two hours is too long to wait though.

When I read the description, at first I thought "ewwww", but then I realized that the lab probably would not grace us with the scent of an actual infected eyeball. I say probably because they have created scents that smell like mutilated flesh (Gore-Shock) and Christmas dinner leftovers (Day-Old Ham), so you never can tell. Though I wasn't brave enough to purchase a bottle, I did get a decant and I'm hoping for the creamy sweet floral scent that may be implied by the words milky, lilac, and iris. In the decant: Milk! Sour milk! I love milk notes, even when they're a little sour, but this is too sour for me . There's a hint of lilac, but the milk is squelching it. Wet on skin: Total 180! Mostly lilac with just the barest hint of milk. The lilac is similar to the "blue lilac" note in Cave of Treasures and Spirit of The Komachi Cherry Tree. Though faint, the milk note is creamy, a little sweet, but also still a little bit sour (not nearly so sour as it was in the bottle though). Not really getting iris. Although the lilac note is pretty, this scent is nothing special to me at this stage (too floral, not nearly creamy or sweet enough for me). 15 minutes in: So after applying, I was sitting there playing video games with my SO (why yes, I did have a very productive day) when I began to smell something amazing. It took me a second to realize it was this scent wafting up from my wrists. OMG it's gorgeous! The milk note is so creamy, so lovely, sweet (but not candy or pastry sweet), and all of its initial sourness has vanished. It reminds me a lot of the milkiness in Chaste Moon (speaking solely of the 2005 version). The lilac note is still very present - I'd say it's about evenly matched with the milk note - but it's a sweeter floral note than it was in the bottle or when it was wet. Still no iris, but that's okay with me. Oh I hope it doesn't morph too much! 1 hour in: So far, so good! The lilac note has begun to fade, but it's still awesome! 2+ hours in: The lilac continues to fade throughout the day, so this slowly evolves into a milk heavy scent. Around 4 hours in, it's basically milk single note... but with a milk note like this, I'm okay with that. Decent throw and lasted 5 hours or so before totally fading away. Verdict: All of the bottles shall belong to me!!!! Okay, no not really. But only because I can't afford it and because I must leave enough for every other creamy scent lover to try it too! Will definitely be purchasing a bottle and possibly a backup though (and I really don't do backups). Try if you like creamy florals or milky scents in general.

I was hoping the applies and apricots would be fresh enough, and the sugar cane woody enough to temper the foody sweetness of the marshmallow (a note which I love, but at the moment I'm trying to avoid foody scents). In the bottle: Not at all what I imagined. It's definitely NOT fresh apple or apricot. This smells more like warm apple and apricot cobbler with a little bit of marshmallow. There is a slightly sweet, woody... almost spicy note waaayy in the background (presumably the sugar cane), but other than that this is entirely foody. It's sweet, but pastry sweet - not tooth-achingly candy sweet. Wet on skin: Though the apple/apricot cobbler is still at the forefront, the sweet woody note has come forward and is almost as strong as the cobbler. The marshmallow note is in the background. At this stage, it's less foody than it was in the bottle and it smells amazing. If it stays like this, it'll be a keeper for me for sure. 10 minutes in: Hmmm... the woody note is beginning to fade. 1/2 hour in: Mainly warm apple and apricot cobbler and sweet, fluffy marshmallow. The woody note is now in the background. It adds interest and still tempers the foody aspect slightly, but... not enough for me. 1 hour in: The marshmallow is stronger now and toe to toe with the cobbler, while the woody note remains in the background. As the day continued, the marshmallow note became increasingly strong, eventually overtaking the cobbler. Six or seven hours later, it was basically marshmallow single note. This scent lasted impressively long on me - at least 6 or 7 hours. Decent throw. Verdict: Probably a no go for me since I'm trying to stay away from scents that are extremely foody. I would suggest trying if enjoy foody scents. Especially if you enjoy cobbler/pie scents and/or marshmallow.