tacey

I'll blame chemistry for this one. Havana started off with an interesting green & brown scent -- date palm, perhaps? Then a bit dusty -- leather? and something sharp I'll pretend is the snake root. And then it turned to tobacco, strengthening FAST to fully smokey tobacco in the 2nd or 3rd hour of wear.

Hymn is just perfectly named -- truly evocative of the best moments in worshipful singing. Beautiful rose, clear un-smokey incense, and soft woods. Just a bit of lily, and a beautiful throw. I'm now on a mission to try all the rose/incense blends, but Hymn will certainly always have a place.

I may just not be an advanced enough sniffer to fully appreciate Black Tower. It'd definitely growing on me through the day. I get the cypresses and incense at the beginning, with the incenses strengthening and going smokey later in the day. There's a hint of sweetness to the incense. But the rest of the notes make no impression. I can't say it evoked the poem for me, but I did like it.

I seem to be in the minority here, but on me, Scherezade is a light, spicy blend with no throw whatsoever. I couldn't tell I was wearing it at all (even right after application) without sniffing right at my skin. Pretty, but I was disappointed to get so little scent from it through the day.

Penitence is a beautiful incense blend -- completely clear, utterly without smoke. I also get woods (pine? cypress? couldn't tell you for sure), and a touch of sweetness that I'm not sure what's contributing. Beautiful, inspirational.

This is the easiest review I've ever written: Delight is pure rose on me, start to finish. [sigh]

The Jersey Devil doesn't have any emotional resonance for me, so I shouldn't be surprised that it doesn't speak much to me. There's a bit of berry early on that vanished quickly, and then all pine. This is apparently a highly evocative blend, to judge from the reviews above me, and it's my misfortune to have no relevant experiences for this to call out.

Oooo, NeuroticaGirl, you have some great ideas! I especially like the Raven (I never thought of that at all!) and the Strangler Fig. I considered I Died for Beauty for the Prince in the dungeon, but I like your pick of Love's Torments better. And I really wanted Grand Guignol for the father's toasting at the celebration feast -- I only cut that scene to keep the total # manageable. I think I'm going to be tweaking my list again! Thanks for the list of the apricot scents, too. I think I knew most of them, but you hit a couple I'd missed. This is such fun! Tacey

Because of this thread, I was inspired to create an intro-to-BPAL gift for my sister (for this Christmas) based on the Disney Classic Sleeping Beauty. (Grownups can love it, too. ) At one point this list expanded to 18 imps, but now I've got it "narrowed" to 12. I was trying to capture the story with both scent and name, while respecting what I know of my sister's preferences. (Apricot and vanilla, no cinnamon. I have a vague feeling she opposes lavender. More to the sweet/light side than heavy or dark. Although BPAL changes many minds...) Here's my current list, along with the concept from the movie it should suggest: Title: La Belle au Bois Dormant (A gentle, lovely scent, slightly soporific, but beautiful in its quiet repose. Plumeria and white pear, Damascus rose, tuberose, magnolia and evening dew.) Fairy Godmothers: Fae (A brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss.) Maleficent's Curse: Malediction (Evil incarnate. Revel in your dark side with this romantically cruel scent. Contains red patchouli and vetivert.) Birthday Cake: Eat Me (Three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants.) Prince Philip: Wilde (alt: Saint-Germain, Wolf's Heart) (A sophisticated traditional gentleman’s cologne, with just the slightest taint of patchouli’s passion, tonka bean’s decadence, the philanthropy of bergamot, moss’ cynicism, the sharp wit of lavender, and the hopeless romantic longing of jasmine and thyme.) Love at First Sight: Maiden (A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose.) Touch the Spindle: Blood Amber (Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin.) Enchanted Sleep: Nocturne (alt: Midnight, Twilight, Oblivion) (An olfactory serenede. A somber, contemplative scent -- dreamy and subdued. Deepest violet touched with lilac and tuberose.) Briar-Covered Castle: Spellbound (Perfectly enchanting! An irresistibly sexual, utterly rapturous blend of three roses, radiant amber, and sensual red musk.) The Dragon: Jezirat al Tennyn (The Dragon’s Isle: smoke and fire, earth and wind. The rage of the elements blasting over a primordial paradise.) Sword and Shield: Great Sword of War (Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict.) True Love's Kiss: Aglaea, the Gratiae: Splendour (Three golden ambers, bright musk, peach wine and myrtle.) I'm also including a copy of the movie (probably) and a set of un-themed imps based on her favorite notes (apricot/vanilla). It's been tons of fun putting together -- I hope she has at least half as much fun receiving it. I'm not ordering for a while yet, so tweaks and suggestions welcome! Tacey

Nuit Oh, Nuit, how could you!? I was soooo excited about this one -- night-time flowers by the water! How beautiful! Instead, all I get is JASMINE. Start to finish, just the QUEEN OF FLOWERS, JASMINE. I'm going to have to quit buying things with that note, at all. [sob]

Yggdrasil The World Tree, and yes, this could be her (it? him?). It's not a leafy green tree in summer, like I expected, but it is quite clearly a winter-sleeping tree, overgrown with dormant herbs, resting before spring. I'm new to scent, so myrrh is the only note I recognize, but I think they're all here -- there's a sense of separateness to the scent, although nothing unbalanced. Very quiet, gentle scent. A new style for me, but I like it very much.

Tanin'iver This is the first of my Dragon's Blood explorations. Wow -- sweet, spicy, intense. If this is a dragon it takes courage to ride it. I think the sweet is partially from the pomegranate, partially from the DB. There's just a breath of patchouli (which is good -- I dislike strong patch), and a touch of something bitter (wild guess: maybe the blood musk?). This is just too much for me. And, oh no!, there's a skin reaction coming up after a couple hours. Noticeably reddened and way itchy -- lasted thru the next day, too. Tanin'iver will not be ridden by me...

Dragon's Heart This is the second of my Dragon's Blood exploration, and it's utterly unlike the first (Tanin'iver). Dragon's Heart started of so strong and deep -- really just like the description. I even saw the black current flutter by, just briefly. Then, maybe an hour in, I notice this...generic perfume smell. Huh? What's that? It's lilac, is what that is. Straight lilac, with nothing held back. And lilac it stayed the rest of the day. Ack. I see other people get lilac from DB sometimes, so apparently that's what happened. It really started off to do something interesting, though. Sigh.

Engine No. 93 I'll say right off I don't understand this one. I don't recognize any notes, although there seem to be a lot of them. The first couple of hours I think were dominated by one particular note -- sharpish, sweetish, kinda metallic but that's not really it... and then the blend smoothed out and some other things (see how helpful this is going to? I'm sorry...) came forward. I think I'm just going to set this aside for a couple of months and see whether I understand it any better later on. For now, I'll just say, it's interesting, but challenging.

Morocco A beautiful amber. Warmed up slowly, but once it came out, lingered. A hint of spice, sweet when I compared it to Brisingamen. No florals, but just pefectly simple on its own merit. Dry like the desert it suggests, warm without the slightest hint of powder...golden.

Versailles This was so complex on everyone else... On me, rose. There was a brief (like, several seconds) flash of lemon on application, followed by jasmine (nice jasmine -- not the screechy Queen Jasmine I've seen before), but then...rose powder. Not amber, which I love. Nothing like the evocative blends elsewhere. I'm sure it's gorgeous on the right person, but, sadly, not on me.

Nephilim Patchouli Nothing else for me...straight patchouli from beginning to end.

Frumious Bandersnatch PLUM! Lovely, fruity, bright purple, plums! It turned spicy later, so it was SPICY PLUMS! This is just a fun blend, befitting something named Frumious Bandersnatch. It's sweet, it's fun, it's humorous -- don't take it too seriously and let the Bandersnatch have his way with you... No florals for me, although I won't swear what kind of spiciness this is.

Masquerade This was disappointing but informative. Now I know -- patchouli can overwhelm a blend and drown out everything else completely. I got some ambergris on application, then patchouli during dry down, followed by more patchouli, winding up with a soft breath of patchouli late in the day. I disliked the initial patchouli (dirty, sharp...all those things), but that final breath was lovely. Too bad there was nothing else left by that time...

Huh. I thought Snake Oil was generally considered to be patchouli-heavy. Must vary more than I realized. So many great recs -- I think I've decided on the Temple Viper, and I'm still debating Black Mamba (ok, not technically part of the Snake Pit). Not patchouli there, but jasmine ...prolly just have to risk it. Thanks for the great thread and tips -- and if anyone knows how to tell whether Snake Oil will go vanilla or spicy or patchouli I'd love to hear from you ...

I'm a new BPAL-er and I've never tried Snake Oil, but I'm already learning that I can't wear patchouli. It's all I can smell in any blend it's present in. So, do any of the Snake Pits hide the patchouli completely? So many of the other notes sound good, but the patchouli scares me... Thanks!

Brisingamen So that's what amber smells like! It's gorgeous! This glows, enwraps (enraptures?), and transforms. I don't detect any florals, but the amber alone is so layered and beautiful it doesn't need anything more than those 5 ambers it claims. I did think I could smell something else, a little beside the amber -- a touch of sharpness and the occasional waft of incense -- myrrh? Surely not myrtle (I don't know what that smells like, though). Perhaps a bit powdery right at the beginning, but so smooth and warm right afterward. I'm going to be wearing a lot of this one.

Black Opal Vanilla. Subtle variations from dry vanilla, to sweet vanilla, to spicy vanilla, but always vanilla. Faded quickly but lingered at that no-throw stage.

The Grindhouse (decant) Oh, I like this one! This is just lovely -- it's rich without being sweet or foody, it's exotic, it's so well blended that I can't identify a single one of the floral notes. Besides the florals, there's red musk (yep, now I'm sure I know musk when I scent it), clove-y spice, and a hint of vanilla. The image in my head is a color -- a transparent, dark red, whisping to smoky swirls at the outside.

Brides of Dracula (decant) A sexy concept that didn't quite come off for me. This blend didn't start out all that floral -- there was some spice, something I think was the white musk, maybe some honey -- but it did head there through the day. The florals strengthened as the day went on, and while this lasted pretty well, it wasn't the complex, subtly threatening blend I'd hoped for based on the description. It's not exactly simple -- there's more to it than just flowers, and I can't even identify the flowers, so there's clearly some magic going on, but it didn't have the threat or the surprise that the imagery would seem to demand. A decent floral, with some musk and something else hanging behind. I'm not likely to remember it for long, though. [shrug]