Magpie

Hmm, I don't think I reviewed this before, when I first got it, so apologies if this is a repeat. Upon revisiting, I wondered why I had left this for so long without wearing it. It's really rather beautiful. So...Tintagel: A Blast from the Past. This is lovely, a warm woody berry scent. Very...I don't know...English is a strange way to put it, but it is evocative of a hedgerow on a summer's evening. It's a really beautiful scent. In the imp it is quite woody, but the sweetness of berries comes through. On, the berries amp a little too much on me, making it smell slightly artificial, but still lovely. I'd definitely recommend this as a warm, comforting, fresh scent. I can definitely smell the wood coming out individually, but I identified it as pine or yew. It's like a sweeter version of one of my favourite scents, Yew Trees. I don't really get spices much: it's too gentle on me for that, except for the occasional sharp scent of berries. I also don't really associate this with a time of year, but just with a lovely, warm sense of comfort. It's actually a lot nicer than my memories of visiting Tintagel, which mostly consist of awfully high winds almost blowing six-year-old me off a cliff! It's green ruins now, with the sea striking the rocks far below, but this is nice because it evokes a time before that, perhaps a time that never was. It certainly, for me, evokes the Hallowe'en and Christmas celebrations I attended at Brancepeth Castle in County Durham, with a roaring fire, brush on the floor and warm mulled wine. Tip-top ratings on this one. I was lucky enough to get this from someone who loved it but found the juniper set off her allergies. I'm deeply grateful I have no such problems.

This is a scent I've wanted to try for a very long time - in fact, it almost made its way into my very first BPAL order. I love forests and going to the Black Forest in Germany was amazing for me, as we were staying near it and drove through at night, at sunset and just as dawn was breaking as well as taking multiple walks through bits of it. A scent that smelled like a proper deep forest is intensely desireable. I finally got round to ordering this scent, and I'm glad I did. On first smelling this, I was mildly disappointed, because it just smelled like pine, very basic, could easily be mistaken for a decently realistic pine-scented cleaning material or air freshener. It reminded me of Slobbering Pine in its slightly one-track scent, which is all very nice but not really the proper scent of a forest for me. So I put it away and only got round to trying it today. Well, it's lovely! It's a dark, living woodsy pine smell, like the actual smell of pine trees, not just the needles, and the juniper and cypress make it a forest, not just a single tree. I think it really catches the slightly dangerous scent of being so deep in a wood you can't hear the traffic any longer. It reminds me a lot of The Yew Trees, which I adore (I wander around squeeing "I smell like trees!") and also of Robin Goodfellow, though that reminds me most of wet holly. As it dries, it doesn't really lose the slightly wild edge, and doesn't change much. It lasts for a really quite decent amount of time, but doesn't have huge amounts of throw. It settles down nicely quite close to the skin, though, after a while. One caveat, though: My friend smelled it and said it smelled like toilet cleaner. I get a slight hint of that but I think it's mostly just that pine scents now trip off the 'artificial scents' thing in most people's brains, and I think this actually avoids that association really well. Definitely a thumbs up on the Black Forest!

Again, my experience of dragon's blood scents is positive - I loved 'The Bloody Sword'. I find this scent lovely and sweet, but very strong. It goes vaguely soapy at first on me, and powdery about an hour after application, but still individual and sweet. At some point I should really get some Dragon's Blood on its own to compare with my various derived scents, but I can definitely tell that it's tempered by vanilla, which is a lovely combination. This is a much more energising than I'd expected - I'd been expecting a softer, more neutral scent, but this is a glorious fruity, fiery perfume. Definitely a keeper, though possibly a bit strong for me to wear for everyday.

Papyrus, vanilla flower, Egyptian musk, African musk, aloe ferox, white sandalwood. Hmm, in the imp this is incredibly light, a barely-there breath of gentle flowers on a fresh, clean breeze. I got a vaguely baby-lotion-like connotation, but it gets less so while on. Weirdly enough, the main note I get is an unidentified fresh floral, but the description doesn't really have much in the way of the usual suspects for the sort of impression I'm getting. On, it stays at the same lightness. It has little to no throw, so it's the sort of scent I'd wear if I wanted to smell nice but not be obviously wearing 'perfume!!!!' Very close to the skin, lovely and sweet and clean, this is a beautiful-smelling perfume that hasn't morphed much at all on me, except that the delicate floral (which is very gender-neutral for a floral) has softened to allow vanilla and light musk. I certainly don't get any sense of 'green' from it. What does strike me is its extraordinary gentleness. It smells comfortable and kind but somehow dispassionate, pretty much perfect for the characterisation of this funeral director. Where Mr. Jacquel is businesslike and slightly dangerous, Mr. Ibis is quiet, with melancholy, sympathetic eyes. Normally I amp sandalwood until I can't smell anything else, so I avoid any scent with it in the description like the plague. I decided to try this one, though, and I can't really smell sandalwood at all, which is a point in Mr. Ibis' favour for me. Overall: gentle and comforting, muted sweetness, very pleasant, clean and fresh as a smell, but it is very subtle and will probably not have much throw. I love it, overall, but it might not be for everyone.

This is one I wasn't sure I'd like, because dark spicy scents aren't really my sort of thing. In the imp, this smells mostly of cloves, though the ginger's definitely coming through, and I had a moment of reconition with the patchouli (my olfactory senses not being enormously refined). On wet, the cloves stay dominant for a while and then mellow a little into the coffin wood. Yup, I can definitely smell wood, the teak kind rather than cedar (which goes a bit odd on me). The Count starts dark with a hint of the feral, but more sopisiticated than I'd expected. I dislike vetivert, so I'm glad to see it isn't in this one. It's got softer on me after a few minutes, drying a little dusty and hollow, but with an edge underneath. The wood scent isn't mannered, but still not as feral as I'd have thought. This scent, when it warms up on me, becomes hot and arch (I suppose that's the ginger), slightly disconcerting. Overall: good. Very good. It's one that is cloves incarnate, and won't suit my mood a lot of the time, but I'll still probably wear occasionally. To be honest, it's so good that despite not wearing it much I would, as with Dr John Seward, buy a bottle just to sniff it. Dammit, I want the lab to reissue these at some point! I came along far too late to get them, and if they reissued them, I'd get the whole set in bottle form without a thought. The male scents are so individual, like this one couldn't be mistaken for anything else, at least not in my mind.

I got this for my boyfriend but since he likes it so much and is getting a 5ml next order, I figured I could try it and review myself - just a leetle try So, in the imp it is very much sandalwood, cedar and a bitter, bitter incense. It made my nose curl a little. On wet, the slight flatness of the ceder is very much in evidence, and it spreads and becomes less bitter, but it almost feels like fresh-chopped wood. It fades out a little as it dries on me, and the incense notes have almost disappeared, but it is a lot less sharp than in the imp. Very...hermetic...which is precisely what I was hoping for. Very nice on, warm and woodsy with incensy overtones. I still prefer Yew Trees as my wood scent, but this is a lovely ceder/sandalwood scent. Disclaimer: as I said, I bought this for my boyfriend, who absolutely adores it. It smells much richer and warmer on him, a lovely masculine scent. It really does smell like some oldschool kind of magician, with ancient tomes and robes that have picked up the scent of the incense burned in rituals. The incense sticks around a bit more too. So, on him, 100% success rate and he is getting a 5ml next order.

Marzipan. Yup, I smelled this and said 'This smells precisely like battenburg cake'. In the bottle this is marzipan all the way, and while wet. However, almost immediately it changes to being a slightly heady, innocent light little floral. I can definitely smell the carnation, which is nice, as I like carnations. The milk doesn't seem to make much of an impact, but the honey and bergamot blend prettily. Very appropriate for Alice, I suspect overall, though a bit faint (I ended up slathering this on because it went over my fingers when I opened the imp, and I can hardly smell it). As it dries and warms up, I can smell the honey a lot, but tempered slightly by the florals, so it's just on the verge of being overpowering. The milk may even occasionally come into play at this point, just as a background warm, comfortable scent. Like warm milk, where it gets slightly sweeter. EDIT to add: It's weird but I keep catching the scent of this randomly and it really reminds me of soap, like nice, vaguely sweet soap. Very clean smelling. This fades loads after a while but is very pretty.

I couldn't place this at first - it's my first unsniffed 5ml, so I was a little nervous. Unfortunately my olfactory discernment is somewhat dulled at the moment due to a cold that came at just the wrong time, but I just got shock of florals from the bottle when I first sniffed. I resniffed when I returned home and realised that, just as inurbanus says, wet and in the bottle, it is the exact smell of a florist shop to me, which is wonderful as the inside of a florist shop is one of my favourite smells in the whole world. It's also a lovely fresh floral, which is a relief after my beginning floral binge became a dislike of florals that cloy too much. So far so good. As it dries, the freshness does die down somewhat and it becomes a warmer floral, though not cloying, more wistful. I can definitely smell the beeswax. Unfortunately, it has by this point (about twenty minutes after application) faded beyond my limited sense range at the moment, so I can not say how this develops further. Pretty overall, beautiful upon first application, but fades to become a little less interesting. Still a keeper, though, I suspect.

In bottle: vanilla yum yum. I was worried that it would be a cloying, thick vanilla, like French Vanilla, which I like as a scent but find just too much after a while. Instead, it is lovely and creamy and sweet. On, wet: Other notes come out and the vanilla lightens up to let them through. Blended nicely, though, so it isn't individual notes to a huge extent. However, after a few minutes the menthol-y minty scent begins to show through. It's actually all right, but not as nice as the vanilla version. Drying down: The mint slips back underneath and leaves a beautiful vanilla, gentle and not cloying. It's changed a bit since the initial vanilla note, but in a good way. I know what people mean when they say it's not really foody any more, as far as a vanilla-and-cream-based scent can stop being foody - I suspect the saffron tempers it a little. Overall, I smelled this and thought "five ml" (I got it through a decant circle), which is suprisingly impulsive for me.

Hmm...thanks, ivyandpeony, that's really helpful! It's nice to have a fellow honey-lover's opinion. Good call on the Jezebel, which is sharper and zestier than BoD but is certainly another option I kind of gave Jezebel a rest after trying it once because the imp leaked all over my other ones when I was none too careful about keeping it upright, so despite my whole box smelling of her, I'd forgotten what she smelled like! I think I've tried Khajuraho and found a fruity or floral note I really disliked in it, but the others may well be sneaking their way into my next order Thanks again for the advice!

I've held off on trying this one of my decants because it unsettled me a little. I can smell the very faintest hint of incense and florals, but really hardly obvious. There is defintely a slightly woodsy smell to it, not quite sure what it is, and overall dry and dusty. Well done to the lab on encapsulating the smell of old stone buildings with a slightly sinister hint. If it was even colder, had a touch of chilly wine and a slight hint of varnish, overlaid with a bit of inappropriate fresh florals, it would essentially be the smell of churches I have been attending for most of my life. It all meshes together nicely, as well, so it becomes difficult to pick out individual notes. There's one note I really recognise, but I can't place it. Very little throw, but it shouldn't have much throw. Drying improves it and melds the scents together better. So ancient and so dusty, so much space filled with air that hasn't been stirred for centuries... Some people have smelled vetiver in it, but I can't really, which might just be how it plays on my skin (I tend to pick out the sweeter notes and I dislike vetiver-heavy scents).

I was deeply, deeply surprised when I tried this scent on. As a Crowley fangirl, I went halves on this with NatCatz, determined to try it on my boyf. It was rather nice on him, quite his kind of scent, but it didn't have the sexiness that I'd expected, much more elegant. I still like it on him, but it fades quite quickly, and he prefers Vampire Tears anyway. So then, one day, as a bit of an experiment, I tried it on me. WOWEEEE! In the bottle it's a lovely spicy creamy scent, not hugely masculine to me. I balked at ordering it for me based on the ingredients, but what really dominates with me is a vanilla/creamy/sweet 'n' spicy mix. It makes me feel sexy and devilish, mischievous and confident. Oh my god, so much a keeper you wouldn't believe. I'm wearing it more often than any other scent - my BPAL rotation has become Crowley - something else - Crowley, where before it was a different scent every day. It fades by about halfway through the day, and the reapplication is never quite as satisfactory...but as it fades it loses some of the spiciness and becomes yummy subtle vanilla goodness (not brash vanilla at all, just lovely). As NatCatz pointed out, like Aziraphale, it smells totally different on me compared to how it does on her (or the boyf). I really shy away from 'masculine' or 'sexy' scents because my natural tendency is towards sweet things/florals, but this pretty much incapsulates the kind of scent I'd like to be able to wear...and suddenly I can! This seems like a very subjective scent, as people genuinely don't recognise it when I wear it, but now I just have to restrain myself from treating myself to a Lady of Shalott/Crowley 5ml order for my 21st birthday. Edit: (as if I haven't squeed about this enough) The lady at the chip shop asked me what perfume I was wearing and said it was lovely. This was weird as she was standing a good three feet away from me in a shop filled with chip-smell, and it wasn't really hugely noticeable to my friends, so...guess it has a pretty impressive throw after all.

As someone who has recently become an intense and fervent fan of Brides of Dracula, I would be very interested to find something along the same lines (i.e. a honeyed floral, sweet and tempting). Nosferatu seems a bit of an unusual one to suggest, djnevermore, but it might be in the dry-down or your specific skin chemistry...I haven't tried Nosferatu myself but have smelled it both on and off someone else. It seemed a touch like Titania to me, but I'm not sure why. I have difficulty telling florals apart. I'd like to find a GC scent that would reflect how Dr. John Seward smells before it dries (it dries to a sticky sweetness, slightly smoky - quite pleasant, but not what I smelled in the bottle, which was kind of difficult to describe, a slight gingerbready note for some inexplicable reason).

When I recently ordered a complete Order of the Dragon decant set from a friendly forumite, I thought I wouldn't like this much, but Mina does appeal to me. I'm a big fan of nice florals, but often find them too simplistic and hunger after something more unusual (perhaps trying to become something more than my usual sweet-little-blonde persona!) but in The Order of the Dragon, I have found that the three 'female' scents (The Brides of Dracula, Lucy Westenra, Wilhemina Harker) have been beautiful, grown-up and complex on me. They all have the appeal of florals, but are more complicated, with a more knowing edge that I feel is entirely appropriate. My only problem is that, to me, they smell very similar, despite sharing few or no notes in common. In the bottle, Mina is mostly sweet but with a slightly complicating undertone. On, it swells into a beautiful honeyed floral with occasional other scents peeping out. I hadn't realised its strength, and have put quite a lot on, but despite my earlier warning signs of a headache (neck aches etc.), this doesn't push me into a headache in the same way as Helena did the first time I wore it. I like, but then it goes through an odd metapmorphosis after its dried, so that I can pick out the myrrh and musk quite strongly sometimes, and then it smells almost aqueous (which is far from a bad thing for me - one of my favourite scents is The Lady of Shallott!) and possibly slightly powdery as an after-smell. It morphs constantly for the moment, different scents coming to the foreground each time I sniff it. I'm really not very fond of 'currant' scents of any kind, so I'm glad that on me, this is hardly noticeable. In conclusion: I like this, contrary to my expectations. It is a fitting part of the triptych of female scents in OotD, though it's a less sophisticated, younger Mina than most modern interpretations would have it. Appropriately, Lucy and the three Brides are more sexually aware, but Mina has an interesting sophistication and is rather less ethereal and otherwordly.

I’ve fallen head-over-heels for this guy. He’s almost foody, and there’s some note which reminds me of my beloved ‘gingerbread’ in Gingerbread Poppet, Penny Dreadful and Jack. He’s more complicated than this, though. This is quite definitely my kind of man: slightly inconsistent, repressed and vulnerable, but a quiet genius. Unfortunately, I came to Order of the Dragon long after it was gone, through aisling’s decant set. If I had been into BPAL when this first came out, I would have bought a couple of bottles and smothered my boyfriend in it. It’s like all my favourite ‘male researcher’ characters in books, films and TV come together (such as Giles and Wesley from Buffy and Angel, Simon from Firefly, Logan from Dark Angel, etc.) Now for the actual analysis rather than just burbling: In the bottle: There's that gingerbread-y note, which I assume must purely be ginger. It's light, and there's a little more to it than that, but it's difficult to identify. On wet: I can smell florals coming out. To my disappointment, it seems to not be very strong, but my nose gets used to things very easily, so it might just be that I can't smell it much. There's an almost floral/sightly fruity note which must be the champaca flower. Dried: The florals are slightly more dominant, but it's got smokier and subtler. There are no harsh notes as I'd expect from something containing ginger and white pepper but there is definitely a distinctive personality there, which I suspect is why I like this scent. The florals give a very slightly manic edge to the gentleman in question. After about ten minutes, I can smell the more interesting poppy smoke overtones and perhaps even the sandalwood. It starts unusual and then goes in unexpected ways, but John here is a gentleman who I think I'll keep to stick around. I may well go on a hunt for a prized 5ml.

I can definitely see where people are getting the gingerbread from. It kind of makes me imagine zombie gingerbread Earth, wonderfully. Rich and loamy. The slightest hint of florals occasionally. The thing I really love about this scent is that it changes every time I smell it. /sniff/dark, muted gingerbread/sniff/earth/sniff/old buildings/sniff/floral perfume, old and Victorian/sniff/something spicy and mingling. It doesn't have much throw but it lasted for a while. I was really worried that I wouldn't like this scent (because I adore Gothic literature, including chapbooks and bluebooks), but I ordered it on a whim and I am soooo pleased I did. It's deeply interesting and I don't quite know why but I'm inclining towards putting it on my 5ml list.

I love this scent. It's weird, I got it as a freebie and tried it on, not really expecting to like it (I'm very much a floral or fruity girl), but I didn't want another piney scent as I'd recently got Robin Goodfellow. I didn't get pine from it particularly, but wood - not veneered, polished wood, as I got in Anne Bonny and Crowley, but tree trunks and branches. There was a dark green smell like pine needles (though I wouldn't necessarily call that comparable to a typical 'pine fresh' scent) and earth. In the imp, I disliked this, smelling it as acrid, but I got an after-whiff of that beautiful, evocative scent, and I tried it on on the offchance. Luckily, this was what really came out on me and it was subtle and warm, while still interesting and unique. It's really not like anything else I've smelled, which I like. The drydown only became warmer and more complicated. There wasn't much of a throw, but that was OK. I somehow don't really think I want this to be smellable from across the room. It's a private scent.

Mmmm...num num num. I like this scent very much. It's spicier than I usually go for, and in the bottle, the 'bite' was a little too strong for my liking. However, on it has faded into a lovely spicy golden mixture (oh dear, three adjectives - I must like it!). It's very slightly zingy but still surprisingly sophisticated. I like patchouli, so that's a good start, but I also like the way it doesn't just scream 'patchouli!' at me. Instead, the other scents compliment and complicate it in a way that, for my unsubtle nose, makes it difficult to pick out a single scent. It's thrilling and party-ish, but not like the one in 'The Phantom of the Opera', but something laced with illicit sexuality and intrigue rather than just bright and zingy. The only problem I have is that it doesn't seem to have much throw. It's lasted wonderfully, but seems to fade very much on me to a soft scent on the specific places I put it, rather than me actually smelling like it as I walk through a room. I can't even smell it unless I sniff my wrist. Which is happening rather a lot, may I add! Might even be a candidate for a 5ml since I suspect it'd be one I'd come back to years in the future (though I'm not sure how well scents like this would last). I'd like to edit to correct my previous statement: the throw is there, but it's subtle. I was walking across the room and NatCatz wondered what that lovely and interesting smell was.

In the imp, this struck me like a hammer. A delicious, lush, fruity hammer, but a hammer all the same. This is the kind of scent I would like to eat if it were really fruit. It is golden and sunny, but like round, ripe fruits, just shy of the turn to over-ripe. I disliked it in the bottle. On, wet: Pretty much the same, fruity and lovely but almost too lush and ripe. So much lotus. It's pretty much exactly what the name implies - lush fruitiness that's almost unbearable in its sweetness. Gets slightly soapier as it dries. Dry: Soapy, slightly empty. After ten minutes: Actually rather nicer, though its dried to a powdery amber with a slight fruity overtone. Fading into a soft scent where I was afraid of it being very aggressive, judging by the scent in the bottle. Despite my tendency towards the fruity and floral, this is really not one for me. I like the lotus notes, but I think I would prefer them in another kind of blend. This scent is very appropriate for its theme, but sadly almost too faithfully for me. Very pretty scent, though

I have a boy who likes to look dashing and takes a lot of care of his appearance, but he has a fairly simplistic sense of smell (like me), so he doesn't get particularly hyped about BPAL. The only scent I've tried on him was Vicomte de Valmont, which, while pleasant, reminded me really strongly of his deodorant, Lynx Pulse (I think that was the one). So far, the 'masculine' scents I've wanted to try on him have been kind of cologn-y and I can't smell much beyond that (such as Aziraphale). He's quite a charming chap who is also bookish and slightly academic, so any bookish or swashbuckling scents that don't smell too cologn-y would be good. I recently went shares with a friend on Crowley with a friend, and it's lovely, so I want to try that on him. I'd also like to try Dee on him. However, does anyone else have suggestions for non-cologn-y masculine scents?

Warm, cozy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon. (2007 version) I adore this scent. I was looking for a Christmassy scent and between this and Eggnog, I'm all set! In the bottle, it smelled very spicy (though not necessarily in a bad way). On me, it just blended beautifully with the baking smell, lovely and warm and buttery. It genuinely smells like gingerbread, but proper, dark, baked gingerbread, not the stuff you get in the bakeries currently, which aren't spicy enough. It makes me want to eat myself all up, and my boyfriend keeps randomly gnawing on my wrist to see if I taste as good as I smell. What really amazed me about this scent was its staying power and throw. Within minutes of it drying, it became reasonably faint on my wrists, but I could smell it all around me and people could smell it over the other side of the room, though not violently, just subtly. I put it on at around 6:00 last night and it was still there faintly this morning before I showered. It also stayed on my scarf beautifully after I took it off (just tranfer from my neck). In fact, it's still on there, and still reasonably strong, after around 30 hours. I'm astounded I think I shall wear it in the library and make everyone hungry

This one was weird. I loved how it smelled in the imp, sweet but sophisticated, with a musky edge, but I tried it on and even before it had dried it was awful. I suspect this is due to some reaction with my skin, but it become harsh in a way that was just not nice. Something I've inherited from my mum is that sometimes we put particular perfumes on and they just go ick, chemically or overly musky, or just edge and nothing else. It smelled precisely like that. It's a real pity, because it's a lovely scent, but it just doesn't agree with me.

Hm, yes, I was given this by someone who didn't like it on the basis that I adore floral and fruity scents. It's very true to the poem, which, while not one of Keats' best works, is filled with sensuous and gorgeous imagery, almost to the point of cloying (though the scent stops just shy). Warm and appropriate. It does seem very focused on pears, but there are traces of the florals underneath that complicate it. Unfortunately, it both fades quickly (as has been noted on this forum before) and goes quite soapy on me after a little while. This thing of beauty is not a joy forever, but while it lasts, it is lovely.