matokie

I'm having trouble making up my mind about Berenice! In the bottle and immediately upon application the musk was very strong for me, as well as the crisp linen. I was in love until the lily unfurled itself, which is just too sickly-sweet of a scent for me. And now it seems to be playing peek-a-boo with the musk and amber, so that one moment I'm sniffing my wrist appreciatively and the next I'm wrinkling my nose. Maybe Berenice is too cerebral for me!

In the imp and when first applied to my skin, Tezcatlipoca smelled so much like yummy Mexican chocolate to me I literally wanted to eat it up. Now about an hour later I can smell more of the patchouli and floral notes, but they're being kept nicely in check by the rich cocoa and leather. This is a fantastic blend, and I can only imagine how good it would smell on a dude if I like it this much on me!

This is my first experience with a Lunacy, as I just received a partial bottle as an extra with another purchase, and I am in love. Singing Moon on me is all windswept grass and lying in the sand on the beach at night and clambering up the highest rock on the island to watch the sun rise. I'm going to wear it in the warm Bay Area weather this weekend just to see what else it does, but I think it will be absolutely perfect for late fall when we get our first cold snap.

I was a little wary of this blend because I was afraid the incense would be too strong, but it works oh so well on me. It makes me think of forested Greek isles, ancient temples and smoking braziers, and yes frolicking women. Woodsy, rich, and very classic.

I'm finding that predominantly floral scents are not working too well on me. Which is interesting because I used to wear them all the time as a teenager. Gertrude is absolutely an adult scent, and yes the violet is pretty darn strong and just way too sickly-sweet on me. I confess I never really liked her character much either, but I was willing to give her scent a shot!

This is pure rose on me. A nice rich rose, not too cloying. I'm getting a little of the herbiness behind the floral, and now I smell the honey now that I know it's in here. Funny how my brain works like that sometimes! This is pretty luscious on me, a very classic scent.

I had high hopes for Nyx, as she is one of my favorite goddesses, and also because I've been finding I like the stronger more incensey scents in my BPAL explorations. Alas, this goes on far too cologne-y on me. It does settle back into the myrrh after it dries, but I don't know that I'll be able to get past that initial strong impression.

The apple was very strong for me in the imp, all yummy and juicy, but the fruit disappeared entirely once on my wrist. It seems to have been taken over by sickly-sweet powder smell, which I confess is a little disappointing. And I wish I could smell the mint and lime!

I smelled the sweet banana when I first opened the imp, and it stayed pleasantly fruity on my skin while it was still wet. Now the banana has almost completely faded and the scent has gone slightly musky, with just a small tug of the tropics wafting my way every now and again. I live in the Bay Area and we're having our first truly warm weekend this weekend, and I feel like keeping Manila on to celebrate!

Like many others I picked this for the name alone, having spent years of my childhood obsessed with Arthurian legend, not to mention Anne Shirley's unfortunate attempt at a reenactment in L.M. Montgomery's book. The Lady starts out pretty soapy on me, thanks to the gardenia, but I'm also responding favorably to the musk. It becomes less cloying in the drydown, and the watery notes really come to the front. It's a sweet and wistful scent, but I don't think I need to seek out more of it.

La Belle au Bois Dormant is very sweet and light on my skin, and at first I wasn't sure I'd even gotten enough on. I can smell the magnolia predominantly, and then the roses, and just now I got a good whiff of the pear. I wore a lot of magnolia in high school, but I might have grown out of that particular flower. I like this scent and I think it is exactly something Aurora might have worn, but it might be too innocent for me. I'm hardly waiting to be woken with a kiss, after all!

Horreur Sympathique smells exactly like grape soda on my skin. The grapes were the first thing I smelled when I cracked the imp, and they got even sticky sweeter on my wrist. I do detect hints of the more musky notes lurking somewhere below, but they're fairly well buried. Don't get me wrong, I do like grade soda, but it reminds me more of being stuck with my brother in the back of the car on a summer road trip rather than first crush in a Napa vineyard. Nostalgic rather than sexy.

I got the mango right away when I opened my Diwali imp, with the incense and spices right behind. Other reviewers have described this as a rapidly-morphing scent and I absolutely must concur. Just when I think incense is the only thing I can smell on my wrist, the fruit reappears. This is an amazing scent, incredibly sexy and warm and complex, and I'll be wearing it for my birthday tomorrow! Not to mention the next hot date I manage to acquire.

Polyhymnia has long been my favorite Muse, ever since I saw a statue of her at the Getty Villa when I was a teenager. I visited the Villa for the first time in ten years just a couple weekends ago while vacationing in LA and was happy to see that she is still in her proper place there and as beautiful as ever. After I got home from my trip I decided I would finally check out the BPAL Web site after hearing my friends talk about it for ages, and there on the Shiny & New page was notice that there was a Polyhymnia scent...that had just been discontinued! I quickly got myself oriented on the forums so I could find an imp and purchase it (along with a handful more, bien sur!). All this to say that I had some pretty high expectations for Polyhymnia, and I am happy to say I love this scent. It is tart and citrusy on my skin without going to the overt lemon that some other reviewers have described. The honeysuckle adds some gentle sweetness for me, and the rich myrrh undertones are really starting to come out now that it's been on my wrists for a couple hours. A little powdery yes, but more in a Lush bath bomb way than in a baby powder way. My Muse, she does not disappoint.

Soon, soon I will have my own imps to try! In the meantime I keep borrowing oils from best friend Aimee. She said I'd like Hollywood Babylon, and she was right. At first sniff I had an extremely strong scent memory that took me back to summer camp in the San Bernardino mountains of all things. I have no explanation for that really, because I'm fairly sure our counselors weren't slipping Egyptian amber into our mosquito repellent. The red musk in this definitely agrees with my skin, and I'm also getting strong hints of the vanilla. I imagine this on someone like Bette Davis or Greta Garbo, and I only regret I didn't have it with me when I was in Hollywood myself two weeks ago.

In a word: Non. French Love started out as too-sweet baby powder on me and then deepened into warm plastic. A close friend described it on her as Barbie left out in the sun, and I have to say that it does remind me exactly of how my rubber dolls used to smell. I'm leaving it on for nostalgia's sake for now, but we'll see how long that lasts. This is my first jab at anything involving dragon's blood, and I'm curious to see if that is the note that's disagreeing with me!

Full disclosure: This is the very first BPAL scent I've ever tried. I have a couple orders of imps on their way to me that I picked out based on their names alone, and I'm a definite newbie when it comes to distinguishing notes and that sort of thing. Kali was plucked at random from my best friend's bag o' imps yesterday, and I have to say that first time's the charm! When I sniffed the imp I confess I almost recoiled from what to me was a sticky sweetness. I think the florals combined with the tobacco gave me pause. But I bravely daubed it on my wrists anyway, trusting the goddess in all her complexity. Utter success. On me the florals deepen into a musk with swirling rich undertones I imagine could be from the balsam and the tobacco again. I reapplied this morning and think it might actually be too heavy for a daylight scent, but absolutely perfect for, say, a hot date. Just this weekend I watched the Bollywood film Sholay, and in it one of the main characters, Jai, quietly falls in love with the widow Radha, whose home he is staying in while he helps her father-in-law. I imagine that Radha wears a complicated scent like Kali that lingers in the air for a moment after she leaves a room, and that it's part of the reason Jai finds her irresistible.