lady_pandora

I remember some people saying Lilith smelled like grape juice. However, it was very, very myrrhy and musky on me, so I can't really tell you whether it'll smell like grape juice on you. *shrug*

I really like Marie. It has violet and rose--the rose is very subtle. The best word I know to describe it is "flirty".

I haven't tried any Demeter scents, but I got a lot of great responses to my post about my quest for a spring rain scent. This may help? http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=13508

All right, I give up--it has to be Szepasszony! I was considering getting that anyway, and it being suggested here is a fun bit of synchronicity. And I never object to people quoting Cavafy, either. I'm not very familiar with him, but all that I've seen is haunting.

In bottle: cough syrup. Wet: cough syrup at first, fading to a generally boozy note, with the roses and myrrh starting to appear. Drydown: The rose and myrrh continue to play off each other beautifully, the myrrh keeping the rose from becoming sweet, and the rose keeping the myrrh from mustiness. About 30 minutes later, the musk begins to rise up, and the scent begins to "throw". The throw is mainly musk on me. If I put my wrist to my nose, I smell myrrh and rose and booze. If I put my hands at my sides and just let it waft up, I smell musk. This is a beautiful blend, a little complex, with all the notes working perfectly together, and is a great testimonial to Beth's genius. But I don't think it's for me. Oddly, I just don't feel somehow *old* enough to wear this. Lilith is quite heavy and wants to be on a middle-aged seductress. I'd need to be Mrs. Robinson--or at least Stifler's Mom--to pull this one off. Instead I just feel like a little girl playing dress-up in a grown woman's perfume. And I'm pushing thirty. I was also hoping this would be a good going-out-dancing scent. But I think it's too languid for that. This one isn't for dancing; it's for reclining on your red velvet chaise longue while hunky slave-boys feed you grapes. ETA: icon. ETA2: This is now one of my favorites. I gave away my first imp and a few months later started longing for it--so I bought more, and have been going through it like it was going out of style. I guess my nose must have changed, because this is now one of my all-purpose sexy scents.

Chose this on a whim to round out a pack of imps. I didn't really expect to fall in love with it; I mostly picked it because I've had a mild obsession with Marie Antoinette since I was a little girl. However, Marie really agrees with me, and I like it muchly. This one doesn't change much on me from bottle to wet to dry. Pure violet, with the rose sneaking up slowly throughout the hours. A lovely, flirty floral for spring, without being obnoxiously innocent. ETA: icon.

Free imp from the lab. This is almost viciously sharp in the vial, but once I put it on, it settled down to a mixture of orange and floral. I was hoping the raspberry would come out to play--I love raspberry, but instead the floral vanished, leaving only: Orange orange orange orange orange. I smelled like SweetTarts. I don't dislike citrus, but it's not really "me". This is way too orange for me, and alas, I never detected the raspberry. ETA: I like Akuma much better now that it's ludicrously hot! A few days ago, it got up to 90 and I found myself thinking, "Gee, I'd love to be wearing Akuma right now." So I did, and enjoyed it muchly. It is still 90% orange on me, but when it's hot, I don't mind all the citrus, as it reminds me of dreamsicles and orange sherbet and other refreshing fruity things. After about 8 hours, it turns into something that smells a lot like a very faint Persephone. It's probably the raspberry coming out--I've been told that Persephone smells like raspberries on me.

This went on smelling like roses and pears, but after ten minutes, something sweet and cloying and vaguely foody rose to the surface and took over. It almost smells coconutty. Way too sweet even for me, and way too innocent. ETA: Tried leaving it on a little longer. The sweet note--maybe it was the magnolia?--passes after a while, and the plumeria comes out and smacks me upside the nose. I liked the original roses and pears--and the too-sweet note--better, as I do not like plumeria much due to personal associations. Alas. I probably wouldn't have ordered la Belle had I noticed it had plumeria, but I was too busy being thrilled that there was a BPAL named after the Sleeping Beauty.

When I first put this on, I thought, "Yum, it smells like O except with roses." A few minutes later, I realized it really didn't smell like O at all, but that it did have a warm musky note in it that reminded me vaguely of O. A few minutes later, something sweet and fruity, sort of berryish, appeared to complement the rose nicely, with the musky note continuing to warm it up from underneath. However, the fruity note vanished as swiftly as it had come, and left Psyche smelling like roses, baby powder, and musk. It reminded me of my grandmother. I don't mean it smells old-ladyish; I mean it literally smells like my actual grandmother. She's always worn Chantilly, so I thought maybe they had notes in common. I looked up Chantilly: "This fine fragrance contains lemon, neroli, carnation and is accented with vanilla, leather and tonka musk making CHANTILLY is considered a classic fragrance." I think it may be the floral/musk combo that makes me think of Chantilly. This reminds me too much of my grandmother for me to wear it; I love her to death but don't want to smell like her. Seriously considering mailing my imp to her, actually.

OK, so imagine it's March or April, and green is starting to replace winter's grays and browns. It's raining. The whole world smells like fresh rain and green growing things. The sky is gray, but it only serves to make the green grass, the pink redbuds, and the white dogwoods stand out brighter than they would against a blue sky. You're feeling exhilarated and have the sudden urge to go dancing madly in the rain. If this feeling came in a bottle--which BPAL would it be?

Persephone Had to get this in my first set of imps, as Persephone is one of my patron deities. In bottle: Smelled like cough syrup to me. Wet: Juicy pomegranate at first, turning to 90% rose in under a minute. Drydown: Continues to be mostly rose, but with a tart/bitter undertone probably attributable to the pomegranate. Overall effect is a bittersweet rose scent, perfect for the Goddess in question. The rose might represent her flowery, springtime aspect, with the hint of pomegranate foreshadowing her other, darker aspect. The Verdict: This is lovely. I'm not sure if it's "me" enough to become a signature scent, but it suits its namesake goddess well, and is likely to get used in ritual a lot. ETA: The more I wear Persephone, the more I like it. And the more I wear it, the more I can pick out the pomegranate note and appreciate the scent as a whole. I think the trick is that I have to apply it a little more generously than some other BPALs. Two drops of O, on me, can overwhelm a whole room, but with Persephone, I need to apply a little more oil if I want to smell all the notes and get some staying power. This may be inching into big-bottle territory after all.

Thanks to all of you! Midnight sounds closest so far--I need to look into it!

I hope this hasn't been done already--I paged through lots of topics and didn't see it, but I can be ditzy sometimes. My girlfriend wears something called Night Queen. It seems to be a floral with a touch of aquatic. I don't know exactly what's in it. If there's anyone out there who's familiar with Night Queen, I could use your help. I want to surprise her with some BPAL, and I'd like it to be a little similar to NQ so there's a higher chance she'll like it. Thanks!

This didn't smell good to me in the vial. Not really bad, either, though--just kind of "and why would I bother wearing this?" I didn't even mean to put any on, but I spilled a little bit on my fingers. A little while later, I had my hand near my face and wondered, "What is that YUMMY smell?" I figured out eventually that I must have spilled Block Buster on myself, and that clearly it loves my body chemistry. It's really sweet on me and a little fruity. I didn't even notice the cinnamon everyone is talking about, oddly enough. I might order this next order. I haven't made up my mind. It smells great on me but there are other scents I prefer.

I'm excitedly awaiting my first shipment of imps--but my friend Sionnain was nice enough to let me try some of her imp of O. This is one of the ones I had ordered, so I was hoping I'd like it! I opened the bottle and it smelled like baby powder. Didn't seem too auspicious to me, but I figured I'd wait and see. On me: It went 99% honey. I used to buy this St. Ives facial cleanser or body wash or something, which was discontinued way back in the mid-nineties. It was honey-scented and I LOVED it, and it loved my skin. I wanted to eat it out of the bottle! That's EXACTLY what O smelled like on my skin. No vanilla, only a hint of amber, and gobs and gobs of honey, and it took me right back to being 18 and smelling like the other stuff. Yummmm. I was sniffing my wrist all night--and all night, it stayed honey and stayed strong. I can't wait till my imps come and I can have more of this. An added note: Adding a little amber essential oil on top of O, on me, has the effect of bringing out the amber and giving the scent a different but equally delicious character. ETA: 2 icons. One represents the "enslavement" theme of the novel O is based upon, and the other represents the warm, languid, comfortable feeling I myself get from this scent.