Frimp from the lab. I absolutely love Midsummer Night's Dream and have always wanted to try this. Unfortunately, it was rather disastrous.
In the imp: Faint sweet floral with a harsh chemical undertone.
Wet: YO, something went terribly wrong immediately. I don't know if it was the green note (?) or the pansy or the carnation (which hates me) or what, but I got almost no floral and a kind of awful wet swampy chemical smell. Husband said it was like bathroom air freshener from the eighties! Thankfully it didn't cause a headache, but this is really unpleasant.
Drydown: After a while it seems to get a little sweeter, but that awful chemical note remains, and I can't tell whether the perfume is sweetening or just fading. Weirdly, it also wears off very quickly but the nasty note hangs on and on and is really difficult to wash off. It smells something like floral hairspray.
Verdict: NO NO NO NO NO cat. Like someone else said, I wish I knew what notes were in this so I could avoid them forever, because something in this really doesn't go with my skin. I think it's probably a green note, beause those really really don't work on me, but usually they don't smell like some kind of awful spray.
Source: Love-In-Idleness
Frimp from the lab.
In the imp: Bubblegum, candy.
Wet: A blast of raspberries soaked in orange juice. Can't smell the neroli, so I think my skin, which amps citrus, is cranking the orange to eleven and drowning it out completely.
Drydown: Turns into fake sharply-sweet candy -- Sweet Tarts is about right. I don't know why someone would want to smell like this, really. It also fades insanely quickly on me -- within about half an hour it was almost impossible to smell.
Verdict: Glad it was a frimp.
Source: Akuma
This was a really nice surprise for me, because I thought it might be too boozy, but it's a great scent.
In the bottle: honey wine and maybe grape, or cherry. No pom.
Wet: The pom blooms on my skin and overpowers everything else for a few minutes -- I amp pom and love it. The pom mixes really well with the wine. The BPAL pom note often goes too tart on me, but this is a very dark sweet version. On me the pom keeps the sweetness other people mentioned in check and I get some incense, and the balm I think adds a really nice hint of wood. This scent is dark, complex and well-blended. Not flowery, and not that fruity either: it's rich dark red wine with dark berries, maybe mahogany. It glows like a ruby. I know I'm emphasizing the wine but it really doesn't smell that boozy. It's maybe more like the flavour you get in a red wine reduction, very rich.
Drydown: Doesn't really morph at all on me. It gets a little sweeter and more of the incense comes out. It has GREAT throw -- my husband smelled it a few feet away from me outside on a windy day! Lasted a fairly long while, too. It's a great fall/winter scent.
Verdict: I'm just sorry I didn't get two bottles.
Source: She Crushes for Dead Men Deadly Wine
Lightning + stormclouds = ozone and aquatic Death Notes, but Mary Shelley is one of My Girls, I love the GC Absinthe and really like the new Inspiration line, so I decided what the hell.
In the bottle (I know, I know we don't get the perfume for the labels but the Inspiration ones are SO GOOD. Dying for the T-shirt): I smell mostly mint, maybe some wormwood. Thank God it's not sharp. Most BPAL mints drown out every other note on me, so I'm probably amping the faint mint note in this.
Wet: Thought this was disaster when I seemed to smell celery. Husband, when applied to, reassured me multiple times it was not celery. (He thought it was "floral and sweet, kind of nice, not great.") Fortunately the celery? didn't stick around long. I definitely got all the mint, anise, sugar, wormwood, laudanum, absinthe, fennel, &c &c. notes, but faintly. It's really not that strong at all. Thankfully it didn't turn to screaming green on my skin, nor did the ozone note give me a headache. Rather pleasant surprise on both counts.
Drydown: On me it sweetens up and gets rather faint, and more mint comes out. It's a cool smell, not sharp at all, more a soft floral with faint mint, and would be a good summer perfume. Pretty, but fades fairly fast. It does smell more like a cologne than a perfume, but it's not sharp. I do like it. I agree with everyone else that after drydown there isn't much absinthe, so if you get it for that, you might be disappointed.
Verdict: Don't know if it would be bottle-worthy for other people, but I like finding a mint/green scent I can actually wear. I was expecting more absinthe and 'Victorian oriental' notes, but it's rare for me to find an ozone/aquatic or green or mint scent I can even tolerate, so I'm actually sort of pleased with it.
Source: Mary Shelley
Review of the 2012 bottle -- I have a decant from (I think) 2009 and really like it.
In the bottle: Slightly sharp but not unpleasant, and wood/balsam rather than flowers or incense. This is a rather thick clear golden oil that's even a little sticky.
Wet: Spicy, faintly floral, woody. I do pick up hints of the rose and lily. I think the spice is caused by frankincense, maybe balsam fir. There's a forest-y smell that isn't green (on me, the BPAL green note turns to ugh), a little like pine or fir. Almost no incense. Not exactly a floral scent, but I'm not really getting any resin either.
Drydown: This fades fast, but lingers. As it dries I get more of the wood and frank, and then the flowers peep out again near the end, before it gets very faint, which happens on me after maybe about six hours. Really doesn't last as long as I expected.
Verdict: I do like this scent -- it's a well-blended rose/spice/wood/forest mix that's very pleasant, and fitting for the winter holidays. It really doesn't remind me of midnight mass, though -- more like Advent Sunday, maybe: quiet but not somber, certain of coming joy, peaceful. I think as this ages the incense comes up, and there isn't as much pine/fir in the older versions.
Source: Midnight Mass
A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense.
Trying out unused frimps from the Lab -- this is several months old, I think.
In the imp: A kind of fresh soapy smell. Yikes?
Wet: WHAM high white florals hit me in the face. This usually causes a headache instanter, but not right now. Maybe the frank and sandalwood are toning down the flowers. Rather pleasant, actually.
Drydown: The wisteria and lily really aren't mixing well. I can't smell rose at all, which is odd because my skin amps it. There's a very weird almost bitter undertone, which might be the sandalwood, because my skin amps that too. The scent isn't not soapy or sharp, but really not what I was expecting. If anything this is a kind of flowery incense, not a floral. (Husband says it smells more flowery to him, less incense, but he also gets the bitter scent.)
Dry: Almost no throw and the bitter note, whatever it is, heats up. Not soapy, but it's biting and unpleasant.
Verdict: Total miss for me. It's a shame that right-out-of-the-imp smell didn't last because I really liked it.
Source: Seraphim
Miracle of miracles, this is one of the few BPAL "high" white florals I can wear without an insta-headache, so I like it a lot for that alone.
In the bottle: Very sweet, light and feminine floral. I really liked the comparisons to a wedding bouquet and Easter lilies. It's maybe not that sweet, and slightly sharp.
Wet: Sharpens a little bit more, but it's not soapy or perfumey. This is definitely the All-Singing All-Jasmine show. I get maybe a little of the orris root or the amber, which seem to be weighing down the florals a bit and adding a powdery note. This is slightly girly and "juvenile" for me -- it feels like perfume for a young girl. Pretty, but simple.
Drydown: More of the same, maybe a little more powdery. This warms up into a nice juicy strong jasmine scent. Fades rather quickly. I doubt I'll ever get my hands on the BPAL Jasmine SN, so this appears to be a nice substitute.
Verdict: If you like jasmine, this is for you. If you despair of ever finding a BPAL white floral you can wear pain-free, this may also be for you. I'm keeping this, but might try it in a scent locket to see if it lasts longer, or layering it with a resin to see if I can bring out the other notes more. This could be a nice BPAL starter scent for someone (someone who doesn't get that cat-pee effect, needless to say).
Source: Corinna
In the bottle: Very faint florals.
Wet: SOAP. Overwhelming sharp headache-inducing soap. It's exactly like Farenath said, like someone took all the stems, leaves and thorns from a field of wildflowers and crushed them all up, and then made them into powerful soap. Obviously there's some really intense green note. I wouldn't have gotten this if I'd known that. (My fault for not checking reviews first, I guess.....) Maybe it's the heather, or the thyme.
Drydown: Soap soap soap. It doesn't morph at all, no jasmine, no wisteria, no honeysuckle, no nothing except very sharp green soap. Husband said it was like a mix of Ivory and Irish Spring.
Verdict: Total miss. Kinda heartbroken as I'd waited a long time to get this one....Hope the green or the soap will die down as this ages, maybe.
Source: Jasmine Cottage
I was disappointed in this because I wanted a big ripe gorgeous peach smell, but it's still a pretty scent.
In the bottle: Sharp chemical artificial florals. Yikes.
Wet: Still pretty sharp, and I get that Herbal Essences note. Thankfully it died down pretty fast, and the scent didn't ever go soapy on me, but the 'shampoo' left a bad aftertaste (aftersmell?). I think this might be the chrysanthemum, which seemed to be softened later by the musk. The tea note was really strong on me at first, but then the peach blossoms started coming out fairly soon. A very light scent, in several senses -- if it were a colour it'd be pale pale pastel yellow.
Dry: Semi-sweet, pale, and quite faint. This is definitely more a light crisp floral than a heavy sweet fruit. It doesn't give me the headaches that typical light florals often do, but I think this is because it's more like peach tea, or white tea with a trace of peach syrup. Almost no throw, although it did last longer than I thought -- my skin seemed to eat it in about an hour and half, but several hours after that I was still getting faint little whiffs every now and then. Little Bird called it "perfume-sharp" which seems right to me -- not unpleasantly sharp like soap, but not what I wanted.
Verdict: Not a total miss, but not something I'll be wearing all that often, either. Maybe part of the problem is testing it in November -- it's definitely a spring/early summer kind of scent, or early spring.
Corollary: I don't like mums any more as perfume than as actual flowers, ack gag. I'm not that fond of carnations either, and now I'm a little nervous about Flor de Muerto, which sounded intriguing....
Source: Peach Moon
This was part of a birthday present to myself -- I almost didn't get it, but decided at the last minute, what the heck. I love Proserpine, and Swinburne too -- this is one of my favourite poems.
In the imp: I can really smell the bourbon and the vanilla. Uh-oh. A kind of medicinal but sweet scent. Rather sharp.
Wet: WHOOM sandalwood. I didn't smell quite like a stick of incense, but it was close. Then I read "pencil shavings" in the forum reviews and it was all I could smell. :-/ Husband said it smelled "flowery, maybe incense-y" and not at all like pencil shavings. I kept smelling pencil shavings. Definitely a kind of woody smell. As another reviewer said, it's kind of dark resin/wood, rather than the bright frank. It was a little sharp, but not too bad.
Drydown: This got a lot sweeter, and less sharp, but also a lot fainter. It sticks pretty close to the skin. I don't think I ever got the bourbon (yay) and the vanilla did sweeten the resiny darkness, but it didn't really pop out, which was nice -- it's not a foody vanilla at all, maybe more like vanilla extract. This really wasn't what I was expecting, but it's all right. It might make a nice winter scent. Seems sweeter from a distance, but sharper and more like sandalwood/resin close up.
A few hours later: All gone except for a kind of residual sweetness.
Verdict: Nice enough but I don't know if I needed a bottle. Then again, it's one of those special limited editions I'd wonder about forever otherwise and spend time and money chasing down at least a decant of later. I might try it in a scent locket (if I ever get one), since my skin amps resins (part of why I like them) -- if this was just a little sweeter, I'd really like it. As it is, it's a little too harsh and dark for me to love it. And it fades really fast.
Source: Hope and Fear Set Free
Oh dear, I should have learned my lesson about this kind of blend from Two, Five and Seven, but what with the gorgeous artwork and lovely poem and me being a rose fiend, I was smitten. This just didn't work on me, and it's due to my amping green notes and turning them into bitter bitterness. SIGH.
(I know we don't buy the bottles for the labels but seriously this is just one beautiful design, down to the lettering.)
In the bottle: A very sharp green sort of chemical smell. Uh-oh.
Wet: A very very GREEN note. Husband said I smelled like celery. Husband was invited to revise his opinion. Repeatedly. He never did. I didn't smell celery myself, and thought at first the smell was a bit pretty, but on me it's definitely some kind of tangy green leaf with a sweet undertone. No red, no dry leaves, not really even any rose, other than a mild sweetness.
Drydown: The celery? note died down a bit (Husband: "Some") and the blend got sweeter, but more like generic flowery perfume, not red roses. After a while it was sweet powder underneath a green note. It's pretty strong and has a lot of throw, and lasted a long while, but on me this was not a good thing.
Verdict: I'm going to let this one age a while in the hope the dry leaf will come out and the green subside, at least a little bit. I love autumn, and roses, and this sounds like such a beautiful scent (on people whose skin doesn't hate grass. Damn).
Source: Harvest Moon 2013
Chilly/white/creamy/snow/flower scents usually aren't my thing, but I got this as part of a Yule set last year. 2012 version.
In the bottle: YO peppermint and vanilla. Smells a bit like a milkshake.
Wet: oh my God, the dread Play-Do smell, and I get a whiff of cat pee undertone - husband didn't smell it, though.
Drydown: The Play-Do smell receded, and I got a little bit of fake coconut and pineapple, but then the Play-Do came back again. A really synthetic, doughy, sorta-sweet chemical smell.
Verdict: Total miss.
Source: Snow White
Roman apple festival! I love BPAL apple notes, I love Rome. 2012 version.
In the bottle: Artificial fruit candy. Woe.
Wet: Artifical fruity candy smell with chemical undertones. Woe squared. Husband: "You smell like cherry-orange-lemon Lifesavers in the pack." No berries, juices, blossoms or nuts, either, unless the nuts are causing the chemical smell. I don't get the nail-polish acetone smell, just something really....candied and fake. To me it smells like air freshener.
Drydown: Candy-scented air freshener with a chemical aftertaste. Ack! This also fades very quickly, which might be a good thing for me.
Source: Pomona
I had a small imp of this for a while which I wore sparingly, was really sad I didn't snag a bottle before it was discontinued, and finally got my muddy little paws on one recently, years after first trying it. It was a bit surprising in the bottle!
In the bottle: Chemical sweet cherry medicinal kiddie cough syrup. Yargh.
Wet: A sweet, yet musky, fruit smell -- with a little bit of spice. No idea what that's from. I don't actually smell pomegranate, which my skin amps like it's my job. Definitely dark fruits: plums, berries, maybe blackberries, cherries? dark grapes? Maybe cranberries and raspberries. A lot more spicy and musky than I was expecting.
Drydown: What the hell, I keep smelling something like PEPPER. Husband said he didn't think it was peppery but could see how I thought it was (what?) - more "spicy." Maybe this has cloves in it, because whenever I wear the BPAL clove note I turn into a kitchen cupboard. The musky amber/incense is really a nice combination with the fruit, though.
Hours later: I don't get the amber-to-powder, thank goodness. The scent gets a lot sweeter, the peppery note disappears (HUZZAH). Still a bit incensey. This really is a sort of dark, sweet, smokey autumnal smell -- if it were a colour it'd be a sort of deep glowing burgundy, like wine in a glass. It does fade fairly quickly, but it's really nice. As someone else said, this is the Iron Queen, not the flower-gathering girl. The resin/sandalwood/incense/musk/whateveritis (so not a perfume buff) gives it real maturity and depth. It's not quite sad - it reminds me of the last stanza of Keats' "To Autumn":
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Source: Hymn to Proserpine
Bought a bottle of this at the late, beloved, lost BedlamBedlam (GOD I miss that store, it was like two blocks away from my house).
In the bottle: A very weird sort of chemical cherry cough syrup. Eek....
Wet: Blast of honey at first! Thankfully, that settles down. Also, a bit of licorice, which on me is probably the clove. I don't get much wine, or vanilla. I do smell a bit of the musk. This is a sweet, dark blend with bite -- maybe that's the vetiver, which ordinarily I don't like, but I think the wine and honey and vanilla and other sweet notes are stomping it down. This perfume is very mature, subtle, rich but not overpowering -- it seems very well-blended, or at least it's behaving that way on my skin. It's a kind of date-and-dinner-out, winter evening, grown woman perfume. Maybe a little more dark and musky, and less fruity, than I usually like, but it's good. It would go great with FMP and an LBD. I feel underdressed wearing it in jeans and a sweatshirt!
Drydown: Wow, this has real staying power....hours later, and after a walk during which I got rained on, it's still pretty strong, and hasn't morphed a lot. Maybe it's gotten a little sweeter. Not quite my thing, but it's a really interesting mix of sweet and musky with a little edge.
Source: Blood Kiss
Still searching for my perfect BPAL lavender (my favourite scent) and yeah, this ain't it (I have TKO, but haven't tried it yet, LOVE Erebos - if only it came in oil form!).
Diabolus: A classic Victorian men's cologne: a lavender fougere, with hints of lilac, lime, and citrus musk.
In the imp: Very faint overall, and a very faint lavender smell, muted by some sort-of flowery, clean, fresh, watery smells. This smells very fresh and springlike to me, not villainous, but not that girlish, either. It's sort of neutral.
Wet: Lavender, but again, it's kind of masked by the other notes -- I'm guessing the lime and citrus, because I amp those like crazy. Apparently a fougére is kind of woodsy, or herbal? I'm definitely getting that here, although it's not very green. It doesn't smell much like men's cologne to me, either. Almost soapy, but not quite.
Drydown: I'm not getting the shaving cream feel some other people did, but it's close; there's definitely that sharp, clean, just-washed-your-hands toiletries smell. The lavender is struggling through a bit more, but it's more like lather from soap which contains lavender, or something. It's not one of the high white sharp aquatic/florals that gives me a headache, but this is so not for me.
Verdict: Keeping the frimp (thanks Lab!), but really not for me. It also wore off very quickly.
Husbandly opinion: "It smells nice. Kind of powdery. No, not really sweet. Not flowery, not fruity. I can see how some people might think it would smell like shaving cream or soap."
Source: Villain
Yeah, this is just about what happened to me, sadly. I was a little heartbroken, because the musk and amber and woods and even the patch note sounded great.
In the bottle: A lot sweeter than I expected, plus a sharp edge.
Wet: A strong, sharp, UNPLEASANT weirdly sweet scent. It is just about like bad department store men's cologne. Total ugh.
Drydown: A couple of hours later, the 'bourbon geranium' (what the heck) dies down some, and the scent becomes sweeter and less sharp. It's still kind of spicy. I like the aged patchouli -- normally a death note I hate -- but it's pretty buried. Ditto the bark and cedar. The benzoin comes out a bit, not much. I think the musk is tamping things down, but there's a definite Old Spice vibe here for me. The longer it's on, the better it gets, except it also gets more faint (not necessarily a bad thing there!).
Verdict: This has been aging since Feb. and the sweet/sharp/spice effect is still there. Not much complexity or depth at all. Maybe in another year or so....I bought all these bottles together as a set, so I don't want to sell it off, but I am going to let this age for a very long while to see if the geranium/spice at least softens.
Source: Sic Erit
2008 version. This might be the scent that finally makes me learn my lesson about green notes. I amp grass and other herbal stuff like it's my job, making perfumes like Two, Five and Seven a disaster on me, but I've had good luck with some BPALs with juniper and cypress in. I love ancient Rome, I love incense and resins, so I took a gamble....
In the bottle: Something sweet but also really sharp. Licorice! Carnations? CLOVES. Flashback to artsy college friends smoking clove cigarettes which always made me cough. I do smell some beautiful dark rich incense buried under the cloves, but this is not a good opening.
Wet: CLOVES. Clovezilla stomping all over the myrrh and frankincense, probably even the myrtle, absolutely everything else. It's not a sharp headache-causing scent, but kind of sweet-yet-tangy, like fresh-picked herbs. I smell like a spice rack.
Drydown: A little bit of dark pretty incense emerges, but it's very faint and mashed into the tracks of CLOVEZILLA. The CLOVES smell finally does settle down a bit (WTF is causing this? the dragon's blood? the myrtle? some combination?) and more incense comes out, sort of, but it's so faint it's hard to tell if that's really happening or wishful thinking.
Verdict: If you've ever tasted old-time horehound drops, I now smell pretty much like that, except with more cinnamon (which I don't like as a note) and less mint. I am kinda heartbroken here. I might try this in a scent locket or as a room scent to see if the incense comes out more.
Source: Valentine of Rome
10/12/2012 -- I got to test this at the Seattle store! :-) In the bottle, it's definitely quite pink. On me this turned into a very light, sweet, pretty floral; I didn't get much of the musk, dust, wormwood &c. Got faint after a couple of hours, but it's v pretty, so I ordered a bottle. It was lighter and less cold and sharp than I expected from the description -- maybe like Stoker's Lucy "looking sweeter and lovelier than ever." :-)
ETA 2/24/2013 -- revisiting this after it's been settling a bit. At first it was a little disappointing, because it is indeed a very light almost faint scent with very little throw, but after slathering more on (like I need an excuse to do that -- heh) I was happier with it. In the bottle, and on wet, this is for me a very strong citrus, without much musk or tea (surprising, usually I amp tea). As it dries down, it goes through a very pretty flowery-spicy stage, which I wish lasted longer, and then is a very light sweet musk. As other people said, it would be a nice daytime or everyday scent; it's pretty cheerful! I still really like it, and was trying to figure out why since I usually don't like very pretty sweet vanishing florals. I think it's probably because most of those scents give me a nasty headache, but this one doesn't. The sad thing is it's more like a ghost than a vampire bride.
Source: The Vampire Bride
