ajansuz

In the bottle: The red musk and the honey are what really jump out at me, but I'm also somewhat congested, so my sniffer isn't completely up to par. Wet: This is really beautiful, but I used WAY too much for testing. The throw is nearly overwhelming with something in it actually burning the back of my throat. As this has never happened with any of the notes listed in this to me before, I have no idea what's doing it. It's almost like a tobacco note. Dry: Lasting power and throw out the wazoo. That tobacco scent still lingers. This is much more perfume-y than I associate with most of BPAL and BPTP scents. I'm not saying that as a negative. It's not commercial or artificial, just wow, knock your socks off strong. Sadly, I never did get any individual carnation scent out of this, which I was hoping for. It's still beautiful. I just need to apply way, way less of it next time.

OMG. This is just divine. On my skin, the ylang ylang and sandalwood are the most prominent. Nothing else jumps out individually. It's not overly sweet, just extremely sensual, a little woodsy, and more sophisticated than a lot of ylang ylang blends tend to be on me. My husband adored this. It made for a very nice Valentine's Day. Throw is medium. Staying power maybe around four hours or so before it mellows down to just a hint of vanilla close to the skin. My biggest regret is that there's not a lot of it. This is a fragrance I'd slather like there was no tomorrow if I had more of it. I will enjoy this while I can and probably use it all too quickly to see how well it ages.

This was a generous lab frimp. I'll start by saying I love me some evergreens, so I was expecting good things when I saw the name. In the imp, pine hit me immediately, but there was something kind of off underneath it, a little too sweet. Wet: Oh, hello, black musk, my nemesis. That was the "off" smell. It immediately overpowered the evergreen. Dry-down: Baby powder and tree resin. Skin chemistry, why do you hate me so?

In the imp: Straight up frosted pop tarts. Wet: Fig newtons instead of pop tarts, or possibly even porridge with fruit bits in it. Dry: Spiced fig newtons. It's a pity I don't enjoy smelling like food, because this is about as close to a cookie interpretation as I've ever smelled in a perfume. If you're a lover of foody scents, give this one a try. I think I'll be using this one as a room scent instead.

In the imp: Very sharp, an almost oily tar scent that bites the nose. I was more than a little nervous to put this on, wondering what it would turn into on me or whether it might burn my skin. It smelled like it could. Wet: At first, this was extremely unpleasant on my skin. That oily, tarry odor became nearly overwhelming, almost like burnt rubber. Fortunately, within a couple of minutes that went away. Suddenly it was all incense, smoke, and something amazingly seductive and spicy. I could definitely pick out the clove at this stage. Dry down: It had almost a wood note to it and something earthy and grounding. Usually, I can pick patchouli out in a blend in a heartbeat, especially the way my skin amps it. This wasn't obvious patch at all, just an earthy low note to ground the brighter citrus. I also usually hate citrus. This didn't become obviously screaming orange anything. The throw was good. It lasted around six hours or so before finally fading away. My husband said it was sexy and incense-y, and when I told him what character from the novel inspired it, he looked a little dumbfounded. If harpies smelled like this, people would seek out their company and bask in it.

When I tried this, it was a frimp fresh from the lab. In the imp, pepper, ginger, butter and tea. Much more spicy than sweet. Wet: Very peppery tea. The ginger fades in and out without ever truly asserting itself. Thankfully, the butter doesn't show up on my skin. Dry: Generic sweet tea with pepper. Not unpleasant, not anything to write home about. Most tea fragrances from BPAL haven't worked well on me except for a couple of the white tea ones. This was a little too foody for my liking and left me with the impression of drinking tea while eating pastries with a full pepper shaker sitting close at hand.

In the imp: Fairly light and sweet, more floral than fruity. Wet: Something in this smells like gardenia on me, and I was worried because gardenia will send me into headache territory every time. But it always manages to skirt just shy of that, even as it dries and whatever this floral note is amps further. Dry: This is a very weird one for my body chemistry. On my wrists, it's that almost sickly sweet floral, nothing else. In the crooks of my elbows, it had a grassy, green-ish edge to it, fresh and a little juicy but more like stems, not fruit. Behind my ears is where it was strong incense, to the point my husband said it was reminding him of Catholic mass as a kid. I like it. If my wrists smelled like my neck in this, I'd like it even more. Not really a bottle purchase for me, though.

Very sweet, light, sugary and fruity. I can't pick out any specific notes in the soap, and although it lathers very well and makes my shower smell sweet, none of it lingers behind on my skin at all. The bar is pretty. I loved the metallic purple dusting along the top of it and the embedded "plums".

This is so unbelievably delicious that I'm sad I only ordered one bottle. I smell a lot of pine and juniper, and there's something sweet to it overall. At night I often layer this with The Most Magnificent Christmas Tree and sleep better than I have in months before getting it. You'd think the evergreen would be a bracing wake-me-up. Instead it's a calm, drowsy, curling up and napping deep in the snowy forest scent. I'll be very sad when I've used it all up.

In the bottle for me this is mostly heavy leather with a spicy, almost peppery note and sweet tobacco leaf. No sign of coffee, which is OK by me. I like the scent of coffee. I don't particularly want to smell *like* coffee, and it's not a note my body amps. Wet: Strong leather, like a favorite pair of older boots, not fresh leather. Carnation! Tobacco! And something that makes me think of tonka, a little dry, almost vanilla-y without being that foody or plastic vanilla. Dry down is when this totally shines on me. It's gorgeous well worn leather, spicy carnation, and sweet tobacco. My husband always comments when I'm wearing this. "You've got that spicy one on again. I love it." And I do find myself wearing this one a lot. I get complimented in it a lot. It's not a sexy scent, IMO, but a very confident, comfortable, in-your-own-skin scent. Throw is good and duration is really good. Once it finishes morphing, it stays true for hours. The coffee never did show up for me, and I've never had anyone else point out the coffee note in it, although a few have mentioned leather or carnations. I have looked and looked through BPAL for a good perfume where the carnation shines and doesn't fade or disappoint. This is it for me.

Rose Red 2010 was my go-to rose perfume until I bought Peacock Queen 2011. I still love Rose Red, with its greenery beneath the floral, but Peacock Queen has to be the purest, most true to nature rose scent I've ever had the pleasure of wearing. It's not a morpher on my skin chemistry at all. From bottle to skin, the scent stays the same, lush, fresh, gorgeous red rose. The throw is phenomenal. The staying power is for hours and hours. When I sleep in this, my bed holds the scent after I'm up and about. I love it. No soap. No grandma associations. Just grand and glorious rose. 5/5

In the imp: Green and herbal with a hint of white floral. Wet: Ouch. Amping white floral like crazy. It has a definite gardenia or magnolia vibe going and smells straight up perfume. At the crook of my arms, the grassy, almost sour wood sorrel scent is stronger, and there's an aquatic quality to it. But my wrists are nearly headache inducing. Dry down: There's not much morph to this at all. It stays dangerously sweet white floral, and there's not enough of the green herbal underneath to cut that for me. It's super strong on me with an obnoxious throw. This scent might be really pretty on the right skin chemistry. On mine it's too much like a cheap floral perfume that young teens might wear, and eventually it also goes soapy.

In the imp: Way too sweet berries and something a little tart. Wet: Like I've been holding a handful of strawberry and orange Pez in a sweaty palm for a little bit too long. Dry: This is pure Pez and dirty honey on me. Yuck.

This was a frimp from the lab. In the imp: Both sweet and medicinal, a greenish herbal on top of white florals. Wet: Hello jasmine! And possibly lily, too. I get a hit of lavender, but it's not the nasty, musty lavender of Gaueko that makes me nauseated. It's the clean linens small of fresh lavender flower pouches in the drawer. There's also a hint of rose. Dry down: The rose goes a little soapy, but not so soapy that it smells like I just washed my hands. This scent is reminding me tremendously of some solid perfume from India I bought several years ago. I loved that so much I used every last little speck. It's playing very nicely on my skin, a beautiful floral that's not overwhelming and just herbal enough to keep from being cloying. I'm not a spiritual sort, so I couldn't begin to tell you whether the properties of the oil are as they say. As far as I can tell, it just smells lovely, and I enjoy it on that level just fine. Low throw, kind of a skin scent that only lasted about three hours.

In the imp: Sweet, almost sickeningly so. It reminds me a lot of Bordello, which worries me because that went straight up cloying on my skin. Wet: Something is going plastic in this. The berries are sickeningly sweet and there's something burning my nose. Oddly enough, in the crook of my arm rather than on my wrist, it's almost straight up sage. If my wrist smelled like my arm crook, I'd like this much better. Dry down: The plastic sticks around on my wrists. But the crook of my arm smells gorgeous, like an herbal forest floor awash in ripe blackberries. Medium throw overall. I can't say I hate this, but I can't say I love it, either. It's very meh with my skin chemistry. I'm just not a big fan of fruity blends.

In the imp: Very strongly medicinal, to the point I involuntarily jerked my head back from the scent. Orange blossom lay faintly beneath that. No rose at all in the vial. Wet: Orange blossom and rose both tend to amp on me. This is no exception. There's an almost menthol odor beneath both, but that very quickly fades away altogether. Dry down: This is smelling a lot like Jezebel on me without the sweet honey. The rosemary is completely gone. It's orange blossom and rose in equal measure. Unfortunately, after about an hour, the rose goes soapy, so now it smells like decorative bathroom soap. It's a pretty, pleasant scent, but if I wear perfume I want to smell like perfume, not like perfumed soap.

In the imp: Strong, boozy, cherry almond. I'm scared, because cherry usually goes sharp and plastic on me. Wet: Almond, really strong, bitter almond, rose, and some sort of musk. Much nicer than I thought it would be. The cherry is nowhere to be found. Dry: Beautiful. Sweet almond, a hint of rose, and rich amber. This was very strong and stayed strong for hours. After about five hours, it's still going strong with a lovely amber on my skin. I really like this a lot. Much more than the imp promised.

In the imp very faint woody floral. Lily with something a little astringent. Wet this is so faint I can barely smell it, even after a fairly liberal application. There's no real drydown to speak of. My skin ate this completely in less than ten minutes.

I've seen other reviews of other BPAL scents mentioning "ashtray", and I never got that for myself until I opened this imp. In the imp it was pure ashtray. Wet it was ashtray with a wadded up, chewed piece of Fruit Stripe gum sitting in the ashes. Dry down most of the ashtray faded. It's astringent wood, herb, and something kind of cloying. I suspect fig is the culprit. It never does well on me. I don't even know if layering can save this with my skin chemistry. It's in the bottom three of the RPG's for me, along with Halfling and Gnome.

Cleric was my favorite class in my D&D days, so I was pretty excited to see the scent interpretation of one from BPAL. In the imp, it's really impossible for me to pick out any single note. It's sweet incense but not as church-y as I expected. Wet, the incense impression is even stronger. I can definitely imagine a cleric smelling exactly like this, particularly the robes. Dry down unfortunately I'm amping too much Frankincense, which is often the case when it's in a blend. It goes sharp and high almost to headache inducing proportions. It's still beautiful, and I'm hoping age may settle that down a little bit. I'm super curious how this will blend. Of the two really incensy RPG scents, Mage is winning out for me so far.

Third time is the charm. After having to wash off two new RPG tests today, I was a little leery. I shouldn't have worried. In the imp, this is soft, sweet, and gorgeous. A floral musk. To me it smells a little like heliotrope. Wet, almost identical to the imp scent, a sweet, floral musk, very pretty. Dry down, I really amp the floral in this, which I don't mind because it's pretty. I'm curious to see how this layers considering how strongly the floral is coming out. On me at least, it's way more flower than musk and not at all what I'd consider neutral.

In the imp, sweet buttery pastry with a swirl of jam. Much yummier than I expected. Wet for all of around 15 seconds it smelled almost exactly like the caramel popcorn balls our neighbor used to make around Halloween when I was a kid. Then IT hit, a plastic cherry note of doom. This is the second RPG scent I had to wash off, Gnome being the first. The plastic cherry note burned my nose and the back of my throat and only got stronger as it dried. I'm not a big foody lover anyway. Whatever is in this did the same thing Drink Me did on my skin. DNW.

In the imp, this was all sparkling, fizzy citrus soda. Wet on me that went straight up lemon Pledge or Dawn dish soap. Dry down it stayed lemon Dawn dish soap all the way. No hint of smoke, pepper, or anything I hoped this would be on me. This is hands down my least favorite of the RPG scents I've tried. Very disappointing.

I've been wanting to try this pretty much ever since I read about it last year and then kept getting distracted by other scents first. What surprised me was how light it smelled to me in the imp, almost a touch of lemony/citrusy pine with patchouli and something kind of bitter lurking beneath it. Wet this turns really lovely on my skin. It's the same pine I adore in Golden Priapus, high and light. The vetiver is little more than the impression of smoke, with a very earthy patchouli grounding the whole thing. The spices so far are faint. I'm glad. I like clove only in tiny doses on my skin. It can burn or go spice candle, and so far it's not at all. Dry down, the pine is playing very nicely with the earthier tones. Whatever musk is in this is playing really nicely with my skin, no baby powder, no animal in heat, just something a little feral. I love this scent more than I expected to, and I expected I'd like it quite a lot. I can't wait to layer this with Tricksy bath oil.

In the imp, it's dry sandalwood with a bitter, herbal note beneath it. There's something almost medicinal, or minty. I wasn't crazy about the thought of putting it on my skin thanks to the bitterness. Wet, this went straight to generic men's cologne. It wasn't a horrible smell, but way more masculine and commercial than I care for. I didn't think it would smell good on my man, either. Dry some of that impression went away. It's still very masculine, much more masculine than I'll wear. The tea makes it refreshing, giving something of a minty quality without the actual bite of mint. The musk is sweet and light. I'll try blending this with some of the other scents, but I can't see wearing it alone.