lilacea

This may very well do as a Pinched With Four Aces replacement! It's soft on the cinnamon for me initially, soft on the pine too (it's not "woah pine" more the suggestion of pine). Lovely creamy vanilla, and sweet clove. The dry down sees a little more of the cinnamon amp up, while the pine fades away. It is a lovely dry, husky cinnamon cream.

Hand of Glory is, for lack of a more eloquent turn of phrase... fucking scary! Oh boy, it is not for the fainthearted. Heavy beeswax (I didn't even know you could make beeswax smell this stong), lots of leather, a touch of pepper. It really reminds me of something dead. You know what it reminds me of? It's the kind of smell you'd imagine in the movie Hostel, where they visit the torture museum, dank and dark and dead. Edited to add some further impressions: for all the initial scariness of Hand of Glory, this really does mellow down into something quite wearable! Once that initial blast of omg in your face beeswax and leather subsides, there's the subtle spice from the nutmeg that comes out, and a kind of honeyish vanilla sweetness. The leather and beeswax does stay on though, so if that's not your thing you might want to skip it altogether, but it becomes softer and a bit more bearable as time wears on. This is one blend that I think ageing will really do some justice with.

Mmmm, for someone who normally can't do berries, or red musk, this has turned out suprisingly well! It's gorgeously blended, so there's not that heavy element of all those red notes that normally amp on my skin. Now this is what I was hoping Opuhi would be. It's fresh, yet sweet; effervescent, yet strangely grounded. Slightly musky, but delicious. Oh, yeah, did I mention blueberry? It's a lovely blueberry at that too, not too sweet, more like dried blueberries. A definite fruit perfume for those who usually can't do fruit.

Wet, first thing that smacks me is the vetiver, sour and sharp. Not a dirty vetiver like it can sometimes be though. Once on the skin, there's that distinctive coal tar smell, perhaps with a hint of birch. The drydown sees something like oakmoss come out, but it is subtle, and for a scent named for industrial waste, it is remarkably clean smelling. Kind of like freshly scrubbed skin after using a coal tar soap. A touch of vetiver remains in this clean phase, just kind of murking it up. Odd, but alluring.

Wet, this is super resinous and oh boy, is it sweet. I get something like jasmine once it goes on my skin, then the patchouli starts to show it's head. Once it warms on my skin, it is warm, sweet, resinous, deep and very oriental, very head shop. I think I detect some tonka or something similar here. The dry down is like a lot of the other snake pits, with a little more emphasis on nutmeg and vanilla (I don't know if I'm imagining this or not, most of the snake pits I've tried don't wear very well on my skin and tend to get washed off after only a few hours). Champaca gives it a warm, sweet, almost effervescent quality. For lovers of sweet incense.

Ashlultum is a gorgeous, young smelling perfume. Mostly pale musk and tonka on my skin, with delicate floral aspects. Slightly warm, a little spicey, the lilac is subdued but adds just a slight pale purpleness to the overall feel (which for me is a very good thing, as lilac can amp screachingly on me sometimes). A touch powdery, but still fresh. If I had to describe this one in one word, that word would be pretty. Seemlessly blended this one is. ETA: its dry down is like girly Dorian, it is actually making me feel quite tickled.

Sadly on me, this was all sour and sweaty. Musty and herbal, dry and hempy. It smells like someone's been growing something they shouldn't, and the sweat and sour body odour of the stinky gardener. The fennel was pretty sharp, sharper than I enjoy my fennel usually. The pomegranate did its usual trick of going sour on my skin, which just added to the piquantness of the whole thing.

This has to be one of the softest BPAL leather scents I've smelled. Plus, it is dead sexy. It's warm and soft and slightly musty. There'a hint of white musk and perhaps something slightly herbal like patchouli or lavender. The tonka just rounds everything out, making it smooth and sexy and just a touch grainy. There's a touch of that slight anise note that sometimes comes up in the linen blends, but this dissapates once it dries. Overall impression is of warmth, woodiness, comfort; like snuggling in a crisp doona in front of an open fire with a sexy man by your side.

First sniff is kinda petitgrain and white grapes in the vial. On my skin, there's a soapy citrus element, and something just a touch sour. There may be a teensy bit of violet leaf here. The dry down is when it sweetens up, and turns out that berry smell. I'm not a big berry fan, so I have no idea what it is. It's a touch too sweet for my skin, but on the right person I imagine it could be a pretty and balanced berry scent.

Why is Will Call called Will Call? Where does that come from? I've always been curious about that.

Sweet white florals. Linden is the first thing I notice while sniffing in the bottle, but on my skin, a very clean white rose starts to appear. There's some sort of melon there too. Soft and not too perfumey, but with a delicate pale floral sweetness. There might even be some white sandalwood in there just to ground it all. Dirty, to my nose, is a very young smelling perfume.

This is green and bright orange smelling, it's reminding me of a flower I can't put my finger on at the moment (might be daisies, I can't think, but I have this mental image of these flowers I used to pick as a child, but that's not going to be of any help in reviewing this until I can remember what the bloody hell they were). I'm picking up a kind of verbena and lotus-y vibe from this. It is a very sharp herbal green smell, like pulling up handfulls of grass and snuffing them. Almost sap like quality.

I've recently started some volunteer work at my local cat shelter, and I'm wondering about what perfumes I'm wearing and if they might be affecting the cats in any way (given that cats have super senses of smell). There are rescue cats there that are very nervous, and I don't want to be freaking them out, sending off the wrong signals or giving off unpleasant odours from anything I might be wearing (because it's already scary enough for some of them with out added stimuli). I know some of my cats at home are a little hesitant about leather smells (they screw their nose up when they sniff it), but are there any notes in particular to avoid around animals? Conversely, are there any notes you know of that might be comforting to cats?

AFAIK, all cats are allergic to essential oils to a greater or lesser degree. Dogs and (Don't ask me why I know this) guinea pigs aren't. I wouldn't wear perfume to work with animals - save it for afterwards when you smell only of cat Yeah, I've knocked off the perfume around the kitties, but I usually put something on at the end of the day, because after you've cleaned out about a hundred litter trays, you don't smell too good .

I have a bit of a confession to make... I've been into BPAL for about the last 12 to 16 months, and I've never actually finished an even an imp of anything (although I did once tip an entire imp of Bengal into the bath once, if that counts as finishing something ). I'm so not a slatherer. I'll apply oils probably twice a day, but nothing seems to be really getting used up . I suppose it's not such a bad thing as I always have my favourites on hand, but even then, I still stress about running out of stuff.

Chicks in leather pretty much sums this up. First siniff is woods and leather, and an almost linen like note is present too. On my skin, yup, who'd have thunk it? Woods and leather. For someone who normally amps red fruits and honey to an alarming degee, I smell very little of these notes here. There's a touch of generic "perfume" around the edges, but it's mainly leather and wood. Pretty, but I enjoy my leather a bit more on the masculine side. This is girl leather.

You've seriuosly got to try and hunt down some A Bachelor's Dog, it is gorgeous leather and tobacco, with the softest musk. Droolworthy.

Out of all the dogs I've tried, this has to be the sweetest and most perfume-y. But having said that, it's not at all ladylike and still pretty masculine. Sweet tobacco is the first thing I notice (reminds me a lot of night queen incense), the tonka comes out on the skin and gives this a musty round sweetness. It's very close to the skin, this blend, and oh so soft. The tabacco is reminiscent of Herr Drosselmyer with it's slightly anise touches, but less pungent.

This is a very strong, sour teak, the rose is gorgeously subdued. Woody with a hint of sweetness around the edges, it reminds me of rosewood on the drydown. The cedar adds a little more woodiness and keeps the sweetness of the rose from dominating on my skin. It has a very old fashioned, almost antique feel to it. Edited to add: alrighty, after a while wearing, this has dried down to oakmoss, plain and simple, almost like oakmoss single note. And again today, something new has popped up. Valerian!

Thanks for clearing that up. I was just so puzzled that I couldn't find it!

I've been searching for a while now, and I can't find a review thread for Wolf Moon 07 . If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful.

Does anyone have any GC suggestions for Riding the Goat? I've fallen in love with the tobacco and the resinous, polished amber feel this has. The Antikythera Mechanism has a somewhat similar 'feel', but I think it's the amber that I love so much in Riding the Goat, and I'm just not sure where else you could find this gorgeous amber.

Wet, this is JASMINE, ZOMG, FREAKIN' JASMINE! (yup, the jasmine is shouting, that loud mouthed flower that it is). It does calm down a little, but this blend does stay pretty yellow. The lemongrass is next to show its head, keeping that yellow feel. There's a touch of powdery rose here too. I can't tell you what the dry down is like because I had to wash this off, the jasmine was just waaaaay too bad on me.

Although the notes don't really line up that well, Jade makes me think of The Phoenix in its overall feel.

Very soft and pretty for such a manly sounding scent. Softest white musk, kinda like a China musk, very soft leather and slightly sour tobacco. Powdery and close to the skin. I'm getting touches of something almost lilac, very faintly behind the tobacco.