olympia301

Osmanthus, Damascus rose, violet, delphinium, white mint, palmarosa and white sandalwood. Right out of the imp it's an herby "high floral" wet with hints of a clear minty sort poking through. As it begins to drydown, you realize the mint is entwining with violet to become greenish and cool. This is all padded with the more traditional florals to keep it from becoming too astringent and bring it back to a softer beauty. Finally things dry down to an invigorating progression of serious flowers with violet as the lead and the others lending their prettiest aspects in support. Utrennyaya is a fragrance which becomes more than the sum of its parts. It is a blending which is its own entity. When dry it becomes impossible to distinguish each element (save for the violet) and the scent becomes harmonious new chemistry. Once again, like Vechernyaya, it is an adult and sophisticated fragrance, sure of itself and able to be classified as "cutting edge". I would put this in the perfume collections of connoisseurs as well as young perfume collectors, and I would say this stands up with the Great Houses of scent.

Overcomes poverty, illness, and bad luck. Drives off despair and grief, and enables you to find hope and joy in life again. (The anthelion is a spot on the parhelic circle (the white arc through the sun and running parallel to the horizon), where the Wegener arcs, the Hastings arcs and the Tricker arcs cross the parhelic circle and increase the brightness. It is a visible band of ice crystals which we don't notice until the sun hits it just right.) As perfume, Anthelion is just gorgeous. I smell a strange assortment of things in it and they are all crazy good. I detect: clove, menthol (in the most attractive way), some sort of floral, some sort of candy. It's all wildly attractive and smells like the Lab took the best "defining" idea from each era of Great Perfumery and put them together in Anthelion. Just as scents go, it's the list of the academy award winners the most important one for each decade for the last 50 years. As for what it's good for, that is equally ambitious. I can tell you I needed that just now. I got a nasty shock and was reverberating from it. Anthelion made the pain of living through it go away. So, I can say that I have tried it and it does work. It works in subtle ways like all good natural cures, you don't get a sock in the jaw and a thundering voice from the heavens, you get a gentle hand on your head and a kindly ineluctable giving of the heart. That's what I have found in Anthelion. I give it a hearty recommend as either a thing of aesthetic beauty or a powerful part of the magic ritual. I may not practice but I do believe.

Infuses you with wild bursts of creativity and artistic inspiration. Caveat: this blend possesses a hint of 'Rock Star' debauch. The biggest note here is lavender. Very pleasant, with just a kiss of jasmine, and a sort of a small fruit scent in the background to keep the lavender from getting too ponderous. Perhaps I smell vanilla in this blend, but waaaay in the background. When I put my hand further from my nose, I get the fruit and jasmine much more strongly, they do outdo the lavender quickly and make for a winsome combination. As it settles down on your skin the lavender takes a back seat, and it becomes the agent for harmony, as a skilled hand will get lavender to do. I have been told that this TAL is for aiding creativity and it does smell like the kind of thing that would clear out all of the day's demands and help you listen to that part of your soul which can dream up things you would love to do. Hymn to Pan is only spoken of once in a while, in hushed tones of reverence. Happy I got to try it. Now I think I'll go off and paint!

Three white musks with poppy and patchouli. Right out of the imp I can smell the musks as cold as Ice 9 in deepspace. The musks are softened by a slight edge of poppy and warmed to the wearable by patchouli. This is an astringent scent with a very perfumy, grown up heart and huge sophistication. I would recommend this one for work or for a date with someone whom you want to impress, wearing your best clothes and for special events. Vechernyaya has huge staying power. Hours later you can still smell it. I would say this is a new avenue taken in BPAL scents and is a huge success. Vechernyaya is a fabulous evolution.

Euterpe glanced her fingers o'er her lute, And lightly waked it to a cheerful strain, Then laid it by, and took the mellow flute, Whose softly flowing warble filled the plain: It was a lay that roused the drooping soul, And bade the tear of sorrow cease to flow; From shady woods the Nymphs enchanted stole, While laughing Cupids bent the silver bow, Fluttering like fays that flit in Luna's softened glow. The Giver of Pleasure, Euterpe is the Muse of Music and Lyric Poetry. She is Delight, and her name means "Rejoicing Well". She is credited with inventing the aulos, and is most often depicted playing that double-flute. Her scent is the joy of performing, the euphoria in song, and the passion inspired by all music: carnation and white poppy, honeysuckle, lemon, iris and white musk. Very pretty and somehow subtly floral, Euterpe has been blended so well that none of her parts outshine the others. True you can smell the carnation a bit but the rest of the mix has become a new entity.This is a close to the skin variety of floral, with a somewhat silk like scent. I would highly recommend a scent locket for wearing this though it doesn't vaporize, it does tone down quite a bit and you would want to be able to smell it distinctly. Though vanilla isn't listed as a component of Euterpe, there are parts of it that give me a creamy vanilla-like portion to this blend, and I have to say the same thing to all the cassia lovers out there....don't pass this one by if you are a fan of Red Phoenix. There may be no cassia in Euterpe but there is something which reminds me of it. Euterpe has a bit of a girly edge to it that I find attractive, not bubble gum like, but in a profusion of flowers in harmony. I would definitely say that if you have a chance, give this new muse blend a try.

Alice, Velvet, Kumiho, Snake Oil, Severin, Jailbait, Whitechapel, Boomslang, Trick or Treat, Snow White, Rose Red, Pink Moon 2005 (I think), Hungry Ghost Moon. There are more but this will get me started.

Midnight Kiss! yes, that one is perfect indeed. Haloes and Black Lace together is very nice and long lasting.

I don't know about Pearl Diver but I love Velvet and Dulce en Fuego! I suspect that Pear Diver would go great with Cathode or Embalming Fluid. Anyone else got a thought on that?

This one is like what citrus smells like in heaven. All of the good and heady parts with none of the woofy parts. Really really beautiful.

A beautiful melange of notes with amber (mmmmm, really good amber) and myrrh (mmmmm, really good myrrh) and honey. I thought this one was just "damned beautiful". Odd to say that the hazelnut keeps on stealing the show. Just when I am ready for it to simmer down and step aside so I can admire the amber, it continues to hold center stage. I think hazelnut is really one of the most insidious and long lasting things you can put in, well, anything (it is particularly long lived in coffees). So, I am not surprised when this one just started out with Much Hazelnut and then finished up as Much Hazelnut on me, and that was sort of too bad, because the background is exquisite. This could just be my nose picking up Hazelnut over everything else, or it could be some form of hazelnut-a-phobia on my part. The rest of it is really really pretty, and goes with the picture beautifully.

Black Lace is one of the most beautiful BPAL's I have ever smelled. I do smell the cotton and a haunting vanilla which is strong and uncharacteristically long lasting (which is a good thing). The booze is there in the beginning, but it lightly fritters away. The whole thing is lashed with musk and lasts for hours as a good strong fragrance. I really love Black Lace and am glad I hunted it down and was able to buy it.

Me, too. Orthodox resins, clovey and well blended. I loved the drydown on my skin. I didn't get orris either, but I don't feel so bad because that seems to be a normal reaction. I actually believe that the orris is in there but it blends with the other stuff so well, and it's not a jump out and look at me kind of fixative; but you know it's there.

I am in love. This is one scent I would urge anyone who is interested in BPAL to get and try. Wow. Many thanks to ETDQ for the decant and I will be buying at least one bottle. I think there is a quiet citrus component with this one, and it is done with such deftness that I only get an impression of it. The vanilla is flawless, and there is a clean sort of musky part to it as well. It doesn't scream at you when you put it on, but it seems to become more noticable as time goes on. I keep on thinking "The Mouse's Long and Sad Tale" here but this is really perfect, complex but seemingly simple. If I were to take a trip down memory lane like Clover did, I would have to say that I fell in love with Faberge's Kiku long long long ago (it was the only truly wonderful scent Faberge ever made). Haloes reminds me of Kiku. It isn't the same, but it is somehow similar.

I really loved this 2007 rendition of Egg Nog. Beth outdid herself this year. The nutmeg is right on, and the cream and vanilla are exquisite. I have to say that it does disappear, but that is what scent lockets are for and I am going to get me at least one full sized bottle of this Yuletide treat! Mmmmm.

Wow, that is great, shell! BTW, lucky you but boy...you didn't stay out there long and taking what looks like a red-eye back, UGH! I am sure it was worth it though!

Nothing beats Snake Oil for me. But I like Boomslang very much and have a bottle of it and might go for at least another one.

This is going to sound crazy but...I love London with Grog! No kidding, roses and rum and butter...it's the berries. I love London with The Lion, too. And I love London with Jack. You could make a case for these British names going well with...London. Somehow they do. I think London is an exceptionally versatile BPAL. It goes beautifully with so many other BPAL's and it is stunning on its own, just as a perfect perfect rose scent. It's one of my favorites, too, for exactly those reasons.

October and The Death of Autumn were and are wonderful. Really define this year's BPAL Halloweens. Don't miss them.

This one is really really beautiful. There is something in here which reminds me of Hungry Ghost Moon (of all things) it's a beautiful green note of some sort which keeps the rest of the runaway cherry and cream and vanilla from becoming too very very. I love this one and am so glad I got at least one bottle (not to mention the shirt, too). Mmmm. A classic.

Got this as an imp and boy is it great! I love that dusty musk that Beth uses and she uses it so well in Midnight Kiss. Can I afford to fall deep in love with this? do I care? Mmmm.

Beautiful and funny (The PEARilous Parlor). I just love the complexity which is brought out in the pear in a sweet and attractive way. It has a small amount of throw and I think that is just right for such a sweet scent, if it were "loud" it would run the risk of cloying, as it is the strength of it is just perfect and it is a beautiful treat for anyone whom you would want to let into your personal space. Really good.

This one reminds me of the cassia note I was getting so much of in the Chaos Theory II series. I don't really get a lot of green from The Ghastly Garden, a whiff of vanilla maybe. It's a very good one, not perfumy to me and very very BPAL-ish...I don't think you could guess that anyone else had made The Ghastly Garden, and that is a compliment.

Very stone like and mineral, and then again woody and herbal. I am thinking about labdanum a lot when I wear this one. Unisex, not very feminine I don't think. Heavy furniture comes to mind, like...A Forbidding Foyer!

Somehow I don't think that the description of this one from the website is a good description. This is a beautiful perfume with great throw and lasting power. It is sweet and, well , very perfumy! Not a floral more like a powder. Very likable.

What Anna D. said. This is really well done floral perfume, but please don't think "Floral, oh no!" It is gorgeous and everything is so well blended together that the whole is really better than the sum of the parts. I do need a big bottle of this and I am very sorry this isn't a permanent part of the GC! It's that good. So if you are interested in owning something which is a wonderful LE, The Atrocious Attic is pretty amazing!