veronicafranco

eeek, my turn! yesterday i had a phone interview that is now leading to a face-to-face campus tour + teaching demo + second interview on tuesday the 1st. i teach college level foreign languages, so not your typical office thing. have decided that this interview, i'm going to be a little more ME than last time (8 years ago) and not wear my old Interview Suit, but something like a little tailored black dress + classy scarf + heels etc. so i'm going for very professional and elegant, old-world-lady-ish, but not stuffy. (figuratively or literally - it will probably be 90F or so on tuesday here.) no scent at all is out - i want a little something - part of the aura, as mentioned above. gender neutral is out because i am uber girly looking (and in a profesion where it's certainly no problem to be a woman). i'm 37, so not going for too young or too mature. with all this in mind, does anyone say no to sparing application of brisingamen? (unrelated to my own question - high five to those of you who use different scents to get into character for acting. life has moved me on from theater in the last 15 years or so, but i still adore it and hope to go back to it when my kids are bigger... anyway, i always used to pick a scent for each character i played. so fun, and effective too!)

hah! i was thinking halloween thoughts yesterday, too, whiterose. but i have to admit, i did it backwards (costume first, bpal second)... heh, i'm still learning!

The scent of sexual obsession, slavery to sensual pleasure, and the undercurrent of innocence defiled utterly. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. mmmm, honey! sweet floral honey. vanilla and amber are singing backup, along with a hint of dirty that comes and goes, but overall, this is a luscious honey on me. i asked my friend to smell my arm, and did she like it, and she said, "oh, yes, it's pretty - smells like baby powder." note to self - vanilla can, in fact, be your friend. it's vanilla plus sandalwood that gives the headachey candle-store effect for me.

ooh. this one is exotic, sweet, buttery and warm. when wet, after the fleeting and wacky cherry phase some others have mentioned, it's awfully suntan lotion for a little bit, but after that i like it. i definitely get the amber, almond, and musk (hey, everybody! i'm wearing a blend with egyptian musk and it's ok!! woot). lotus and i have not met before, but i gather that's the sweet floral that emerges more and more as it wears. the saffron and cardamom are very blended (huh, hence the name blend, i guess) rather than standing out to me as single notes. this is quite sexy. not 100% my style, at least not this first time i'm wearing it, but i'd wear it to play the right kind of character (some day when i get to do that stuff again) or dance a certain kind of solo.

hmm. this one is weird, yet undeniably compelling. wet, the myrtle is medicinal and offputting - but only right next to my skin. the throw is immediately of soft, sweet amber/carnation, which i quite like. if i'm average temp, not much more happens as this one dries. it smells pretty but kind of bandaidish (also in "color," to me - it's kind of pale peachy pink, matte and opaque. not golden. i'm a weird one, what can i say?). but if i'm warm, like right after i get out of bed, when i'm going to exercise (or today when i knew it was gonna be 100%, so i slathered a bit), it's sweeter and spicier and happy second-skin-ny ahhhhh. when i reapply over a preexisting layer of this, the second round is sweeter, faster. as i'm on my quest for The Perfect Everyday Amber, not sure i need all the amber ones i like just now, i will hold off on a bottle for the time being, but this really does smell good on me when i'm toasty. eta - later that same summer.... my 5 ml should be arriving today! eta - january, 2010 - typical fickle bpaler, i have fallen in and out of love with this one and just not worn it for a while. tonight i got a whim to put some on and see how it had aged - sniff... that smells like the brisingamen i remember. but hey, what's this new sweet/bright floral (i see why some posters have mentioned rosy)?! i think it's the apple blossom and i am a fan of it. i'd considered parting with this one.... today i am considering not.

well, that's crushing. almost everyone else gets to smell sexy and sophisticated, while i smell like a classy old man. on the plus side, if not for this blend i might never have heard of the antikythera mechanism, which is amazing. ADDED Aug. 4: [separate review, this time about what it smells like on the bpal-resistant prince who received a lil imp stash for his birthday, like a month ago. i separated out antikythera mechanism and aelopile and recommended he try those first] me (admiringly): what are you wearing? prince: ...the machine? me: that smells good on you. (encouragingly) do you like it? prince: yeah, but it smells like... food. heh. boy, do the delicious woods come out on his skin. wayyyy nicer on him than on me. i'm a little pouty that it doesn't smell like that on me, but ... interestingly, after the baby fell asleep on his chest, she smelled like yummy teak and oak too. like once it's developed on someone's skin, the developed smell is what will rub off on other people. will keep this in mind for some other kind of evening. so i told him that aelopile also has a nice wood fragrance and that i like those. puerile double entendres re me liking wood ensued... eta - i keep making my husband sound like a big lug. he is actually a complete and utter genius, just not about fragrance and not when it involves foreign words.

the lovely tartchef gave me a lil sample of this one! my first LE. a girl always remembers her first. just read the description, and i'm really scratching my head. when i first put this on, it smells pretty in a vague, shampoolike way. head and shoulders. when all the way dried down, it smells like sweet dragon's blood. i think, from the rest of the stuff i got today too, i must be having a wacky bpal day and should cellar most of what i got and try again later.

hmmm. i tried this because i am exploring lots of amber blends - knowing that fruit sometimes surprises me in a good way, but i rarely like vanilla in perfumes at all. of course, it's therefore mostly the vanilla that i smell. ("vanilla bean" does smell a lot nicer on me than the "smoky vanilla" in defututa, which is too strong for my taste.) after it dries for a while, the amber comes delicately out, which is nicer. i never get more than the faintest hint of sandalwood - too bad, as i think i would like it in this blend - and after several hours, i finally get a peach note which i like. overall - this is pretty, sweet and gold and soft and girly, just not especially me. if you tend toward the sweet and foody, i think you'd really enjoy this one.

in the imp, then on - STRAWNG sweet beeswax and resins. heady and sweet. i do really like the warm, golden, intense smell, but not sure i want to smell like it? ya know? i tested again the next day, and found i prefer this one if i only wear a drop instead of my usual press-the-length-of-the-imp-wand-to-the-arm thing. when old and faded on my arm, it's a lovely warm honey scent. big kudos to beth on this and phoenix steamworks, the other of this series that i've tried so far, for making perfumes sooooooo different than any others i've ever smelled, but still so pleasurable.

this is possibly my very favorite everyday scent. i like it in all its forms - wet (warm, sweet lemon) and dry (rain at first, more and more amber later, ginger peeking through). when very dry, this becomes the elusive "my skin but better" that i've seen others post about. love!!

lmao because this is just beautiful on me, actual bible reading type that i am. i would never have bought this - when the lovely kelp frimped it to me, i thought uh oh, this one is destined for some friend or coworker.... even if i were "that" kinda girl, i'm not big on fruit scents... but sniffed it anyway. liked. put on. liked a lot. on me, this smells like dark, incensy, spicy fruit. doesn't change that much from imp to wearing. i get the fig and the currant (the latter, especially after an hour or two.) it's a bit like a darker cousin of les bijoux, which i also really like. and now that i've determined fig is a good thing, i must have some hetairae...

in the (fr)imp and dry - huh. sugary coconut rum. i don't get any tobacco (which is ok by me). i have to say, it's cool that a perfume could smell just like something i'd enjoy drinking... but this is one i almost didn't try on, and am now sure i'd never wear. i passed it on to a friend who liked smelling the micro-drop of it i'd put on my wrist. chacun à son goût!

In imp - Ooh. Ylang ylang + honey = sweeeet. Like call the dentist sweet. On, wet – pretty much the same. I do detect a soft, resinous warmth in the background, which nicely gains depth as it dries. I’m pretty sure I’ve smelled an ylang ylang incense that smelled just like this. I think it’s too sweet to wear, though. After a long time, it smells much like the sweet, incensey afterglow of Les Bijoux on me…. Not a bad thing.

In imp – very sweet, floral, and I can smell the sandalwood, but hard to identify the separate components. On, wet, more of the same and quite pretty. As it dries, I can sometimes smell a hint of what doesn’t work on me in Othello (rose/musk ickysweet combo), but also the nice osmanthus and orchid, and the jasmine is making it extra sweet but not overpoweringly so. Not 100% sure about sandalwood in this kind of floral, which on my skin is almost giving it a hint of deodorantiness. Alas, it doesn’t feel shadowy or fierce on me. Unless my slight headache is due to it – but I think I just woke up with an impending seasonal allergy thing. I definitely like it enough to try it again, though.

My first ever bpal… In imp – a sweet cinnamonish smell, but not as nice as cinnamon - maybe cassia? And a slight hint of cleaner-y resin/incense. Huh. Will still see what the fuss is all about ;^} On, wet, much the same. As it dries, it has a nice warm feeling to it (the smell, not the actual temperature of the oil on my skin) but I am still definitely not getting “panoply.” Just cinnamon and incense. Eventually I am detecting something more peppery and a fruity note, maybe mandarin. Like 2 hrs in, it has a nice phase where the mystery spice has faded, leaving an interesting well-rounded and blended goldeny smell. But after a while I am left with the mystery fruit and the unidentified resin-i-don’t-love. Meh. At that point I washed it off.

So sad. I almost can’t comment on this one, because as soon as I put this on, I only smell the musk, and it’s the kind that goes yucky marshmallowy on me. I want spiiiiiiiiice.... I want the dream Morocco experience that some other girls have! sigh.

Or, on me, dust with a hint of amber. If I try, I can get a combined citrus note and sometimes the saffron. It almost seems like something is missing from the vial I got - though I'm positive the lab wouldn't do that! I wonder if I could layer this with something else… as it dries, it gets faintly sweeter, but my chemistry turns this beautiful-sounding blend into bleh.

Dark evergreen smelling. The color, not the type of plant, although there’s a bit of pininess or juniper to the myrrh here. When I very first put it on, the wine gives it a dark fruitiness, but it just serves to darken the myrrh scent as it dries. The dark myrrh fragrance is actually kind of odd with the honey, on me. Not sure when I would wear this, but it is interesting. Will try it again anyway, I like the concept so much.

This is interesting. I sort of like the amber. When wet, I can smell a tangier sweet floral that I imagine is the passion flower; when dry, it’s just extremely sweet, floating over the amber, and they don't seem to meld at any point for me. I don’t get any pepper at all. I think my skin amps sweetness and eats up spice. Not sure this works on me, because of that. eta - have tried this a few more times and it's growing on me. i've had my lab-fresh imp not quite 2 weeks, but long enough for the notes to mingle much better than before. still not as peppery as i'd wish, but i'm liking it more. and, i think, acquiring a taste for amber.... editing again after another 2 weeks or so. somehow, this one has really gotten under my skin and become bottleworthy. the pepper lasts longer these days. i have come to think of this fragrance having a shape (kinda new for me, most just have colors) - a thick translucent pale golden layer at the bottom for the amber, topped by thinner and thinner layers of brighter gold for the honeysuckle, hot orange for the passion flower, and a very thin hot pink layer on top for the pepper.

In imp – delicate rose. Sooo not manly. On, wet – rose, with something almost rose-water-y, and a vague hint of spice. On, dry(ing?) – kinda powdery, rose, barely spicy. The rose gets almost cloyingly vanilla-y. like pinkish vanilla? But not in a nice way. I think this must be the combo of these roses plus the Arabian musk on me. By the end of the evening I could still smell this – bordering on headache-inducing. I washed it off.

When I first put this on, I smell the honey and caramel. Then it goes through a sharper perfumey phase – I’m guessing this comes from the benzoin – with an almost gritty undertone of slightly-unwashed girly bits. It takes like 2 hours to get past this and into a phase I like – honey caramel, with just a faint edge of spice if I really inhale it. Will try it again.

Oh, no. this is so awful on me. All I get is vanilla and jasmine and a sickly pineapple Dum-Dum fruitiness… it smells just like an overpowering candle the really nice sales agent had at the first place where we bought a house. I was leery of the vanilla, which I usually don’t like, but had high hopes for the rest… oh well!! I couldn’t even hang in there and see if I liked the dry-down on this. After maybe 15 minutes, it had to go… guess I’m just not meant to get all f’ed out.

In imp – sweet, very nice rose, with fruitiness. On – I quickly get the apple and the frank/myrrh – like a drop of rose spreading out, with the other notes at the edges. Candle-section-of-the-home-décor-store-like, but in a good way. I think the honey is just blending into the general sweetness rather than standing out on its own. So far, so good… Dry – the rose has stepped back a bit, letting the rest out to play. I can detect all the separate notes listed in the description, but they blend wonderfully. ok, I guess it’s a bit potpourri or craft store, but the niiice kind you just stand there and inhale. I will definitely wear this one again, particularly in cooler weather. It smells red to me, golden around the edges. Way later, it’s mostly honey and rose – peachy golden. So, the colors of the poem that inspired it. Beth, how do you do that?! This is my favorite so far. Thank goodness I seem able to wear honey and myrrh, both of which I’d really hoped would work on me!

In imp – I can barely smell it. Faintly woodish. On – quickly develops into a nice, warm white floral – like the love child of estee lauder’s white linen and knowing, both of which I always liked. Pretty and soft, will wear it again.

Go figure, this frimp smells better on me than most of the 2 packs of imps it came with. In the imp, I mostly smell the pear (and am not too impressed – not a fruity girl). On, the lily of the valley comes right out instead, with only a slight hint of pear – grounded by the rosewood/musk, nice. Sigh, though – I want to smell brown or golden, earthy/spice/chypre, but generally, the white or pinky floral scents I’ve tried are best on me so far. Is BPAL trying to tell me I’m not as sexy as I think I am? Hehehehehwaaah.