mari4212

Frimp in my latest order. On me, for the first ten minutes or so, this is incredibly noxious. I'm guessing that's the vetiver, and it definitely does not like me. The first time I tried this on, I was wondering if I was going to need to go wash the oil off, something I've only done with two other oils before. Luckily for me, the wet stage passes quickly, and the vetiver goes away and doesn't come back. What does stay is a very light rose, with a juicy-green water smell, which is probably the cactus flower. Dry-down is okay, but nothing spectacular for me. I think, as far as a green rose, I'd do better going for Two, Five, and Seven, which skips the vetiver stage and produces a stronger bloom on me.

Tombstone was pure rootbeer on me as well, and I think it would work well for a boy. White Rabbit's already been suggested, and that was very gender neutral on me as well, with a peppery kick to clean linen scent. The Lion and Haunted both worked nicely for me as amber/spice, not overwhelmingly heavy, and relatively gender neutral, though they might be a bit old for young boys. My other suggestion would be to look for some of the more gruesome sounding names, because from what I remember of boys of that age, the grosser it sounded, the better. For young people and boys, I also tend to think about green scents and citrus notes, so you might look for scents along those lines. They're not my forte, so I'll leave recs to those better at it than myself.

*grins* I've worn this about three times, and I can tell it's going to be one of my "I'm having fun" perfumes. Great to wear when you're just going to be hanging out with friends, and so on. The first half-hour or so is a very straight root-beer scent, which must be the sassafras kicking in. After a while the vanilla shows up and somewhat mutes/modifies the root beer. It goes from straight root beer, through to vanilla-flavored root beer, and then the vanilla dominates, and I get mostly vanilla, but with a fun background note of that sassafras. The basalm and ceder never show up to my nose.

So, looking at the scent description and the reviews, that one was a more fruity/herbal scent? I would suggest looking through the berries rec thread here. I'm not seeing a more herbal rec thread, but one I've often heard recced as being somewhat herbal is Aeval: A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it's gotten good reviews, and it has the same sage note in it that Bewitched has. Tonka and Vanilla smell very similar, and both tend to be good sexy/sensuous notes for a lot of people, so you might also look there. And avoiding scents that list patcholi, nag champa, or dragon's blood will probably help you skip the headshop scent.

Automatic rec number 1: O. Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. On me, it's a sweet warm scent, but not overly heavy. And it's a scent I've seen recced a lot on the board for being seductive. For anything else that you might like, I'd want to know more about what notes/scents you like. Because in my experience, what makes a scent sexy is that you personally like it and feel attractive wearing it, and that attitude transmits itself very clearly to all around you. So for me, my all-time "I smell good" scent is Chimera, which is warm and spicy-sweet. Not as classically sexy as some others, but it works well on me.

Oh, this is just lovely. I've been trying out a few different rose scents since I first came to BPAL. With this last imp pack, I was debating between this and Harlot, and ended up switching to this one in the last minute. ...That was a very smart decision on the part of my gut. Really, I should have tried this one out a year or so ago, given how much of a church girl I am. At first it blooms very strongly rose, almost single-note rose for a half hour or so. That seems to be standard for me and rose blends, as both Marie and Two, Five, and Seven did so as well. But while Two, Five, and Seven dried down to include a very green/grapey note as well, and Marie muted down almost entirely, this just softens, and adds in the woody incense note that I loved from the rare times we'd pull out the thurifer at church. My one complaint is that the rose dies back a bit more than I'd want when it's on my skin. I'll have to try a bit on my hair as well, to see if that will keep the rose stronger longer. Unless something else from my new pack knocks this out of the running, I know what I'm wearing Christmas Eve!

Wet on me, and for the first few hours, this is tart green apples, the smell of them as I'm slicing them up to put into a pie. Very juicy and crisp. No honey, no ylang-ylang, no rose. After a few hours, this turns into the same creamy-soft rose that I get in Maiden, with a tiny bit of apples remaining underneath. It's a nice scent, but not spectacular on me. I could wish for a more rose and to smell the honey. But I'm just as glad I never got the ylang-ylang.

By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla. Snake Oil is one of those object lessons in listening to the other forum members. I got my imp of it about a year and a half ago, after reading all the comments on how it was fantastic vanilla spicey greatness in a bottle. I tried it once, wrinkled my nose, and wondered whether the majority of the forumites were insane. (Okay, so the answer to that is yes, but in a good way.) It wasn't awful, but it didn't do anything for me. So, remembering how much people were emphasizing aging Snake Oil to make it smell better, I figuratively tossed the imp onto the back burner and forgot about it for about six months. Tried it on again then, and I was still shrugging. It was better, but still not this liquid gold that I'd heard about. After that, I'd try it every few months, waiting for this incredible transition to occur. Finally, I pulled it out last week to try again. Yummmmm. I was finding any excuse possible to bring my wrists past my nose to smell it. This last batch of waiting seems to have done it. Snake Oil still hasn't knocked out Chimera or Mouse's Long and Sad Tale out of my top two, but it's definitely hit my personal top five in terms of scents. I just have to buy it and then forget about it for a year and a half first. At least, for an imp. It'd probably take longer for the bottle to age to the same level of greatness.

There might just be something weird going on with my noise. In the vial, and when I first put Maiden on, I don't get white roses, or carnations. Instead, I get lily. Almost a single note lily scent that lasts for a few hours. Not sure where that is coming from, maybe it's the concept of white florals that's tripping my nose up there. After the first few hours, the scent dies down a lot, and it's in that second stage that we start getting into a creamy soft rose scent, with maybe a touch of carnation. Both stages are nice, but I vastly prefer the second stage. I could wish that the first stage died off faster, or that the second stage was a bit stronger in terms of throw, but this is still very pleasant. It's a calming scent for me, and a good one to use in situations where some of the stronger/more unusual perfumes BPAL offers might not be appreciated.

For me this ends up very much being green tea, with perhaps a splash of lemon. I was really hoping the honeysuckle would play up a bit more on me than it did here. That being said, it's a wonderfully light, fresh, and clean scent on me, and very cool and calming. Not something I'm looking for at this point of the year, as I need warm cozy scents to distract me from how frigid it's gotten, but perfect for summer.

In the imp, I get lavender and herbs, and I'm reminded of Scales of Deprivation. On me wet, it's instant lemon. But a creamy and soft lemon, not too sharp or astringent in the way that straight lemon juice can be. As time goes on, a bit of the lavender reappears, but it stays very quiet while the lemon remains strongly present. I love this scent for when I need to concentrate, or when I need my brain to stop racing. I've currently got this layered over the very end of Miskatonic University, a scent that ends as lightly creamy on me. I think that's softening Arcana here, encouraging it to mellow into something more quiet and even more calming.

Ummmm. This is one of the scents that never morphs on me. I get hazelnut coffee in the vial, and the same hazelnut coffee on me, for hours and hours to come. This is one of my favorite perfumes to wear when I'm going to be working, or arround a bunch of people who may or may not like perfumes, because it's just a lovely light coffee scent that doesn't waft incredibly much. I can smell it on me easily, but it doesn't overpower anyone else, the way Dragon's Milk can.

This is, alongside Chimera, my favorite BPAL scent yet. I tend to ration both out into seasons. Mouse is my go-to in spring and summer when I just want to feel and smell wonderful, where Chimera is a straight fall scent. As for the smell itself: It's still hard for me to pick out individual notes. Mostly I get the sum of the scent as one discrete entity. On me, Mouse starts out a creamy-sweet smell, with a light floral undertone. The floral aspect lasts for a few hours, but what remains for ages is the creamy sweetness. It's a warm, light, comforting scent that reminds me of wrapping up in the pastel blanket my mother knitted for me years ago, the one that is always present on my bed. This is my go-to scent when I need to feel comforted and loved. Or when I'm in a happy mood and able to comfort and love others, it reflects that feeling as well.

This is another one of the scents I've had for a while, coming on two years (in the imp vial). So I'm reviewing it after it's aged for quite a while, though I don't recall any major shifts in its scent over that timespan. Wet and on, it blooms out to be very cherry, and rather strong. Most BPAL I can smell if I bring my wrist up to my nose, or if I'm moving and the scent wafts. Dragon's Milk, I can smell when I'm sitting still. And for the first half-hour or so, unless I applied it while I was outside, so can everyone else in the room! I've had to be very cautious about applying it before getting into a car or other confined space, because it can give me a headache. After that initial bloom that is almost too cherry for me to stand, Dragon's Milk drastically improves. It softens, the scent becomes less overpowering, and a creamy sweetness becomes the dominant note, with the cherry thrown out the window. The second stage lasts forever on me, all through the day. I love the second stage scent, but since an imp can last me so long on this, I don't have any plans for getting a big bottle of this.

I've been trying out bpal perfumes for almost two years now, but this is my first review. *crosses fingers that it goes well* I got Chimera with my first imp pack, and it is my all-time favorite perfume to wear, ever. I don't detect many individual notes from it, just a warm, spicy-sweet complexity that never fails to make me smile. And it lasts forever on me. *grins* I put it on in the morning, and I'll wake up tomorrow with a bit of it still lingering as a slight sweetness on my wrists. This is the scent that for me encapsulates curling up under a blanket on a porch swing in late autumn, with a mug of mulled cider in one hand, a plate of gingerbread next to, and a book in my lap, enjoying one of the last bits of autumnal warmth before winter hits and its too cold to want to do anything outside. Not that it smells exactly like any one of those things, but it's the same emotions evoked. I'm so glad this was in my first pack of imps, as it solidified my love of bpal forever. This week has been stressful, and this was the scent that I automatically went for to comfort myself, and it seems to be really helping. Nothing like knowing that you smell great for improving your mood.