Jazzi

Welcome! I am so excited because I get to recommend Wilde, which is one of my favorite scents, and one that doesn't get nearly enough love. Its described as "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," and you can find the reviews of it here. ETA: Rumpelstilzschen also looks like it has some of the notes you're looking for: "Firewood and ash with an oddly otherworldly blend of patchouli, cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, tonka, vetiver, and myrrh," with reviews here.

LadyWench pretty much summed it up for me. In the bottle, it's lovely, so creamy it's almost buttery, with a big helping of maple. On my skin it immediately goes to CINNAMON AND MAPLE, both scents screaming at you. I love a big throw, so I wouldn't mind this phase normally, but putting it on immediately before getting in the car was a mistake. I had to roll down the windows and the s/o complained that it was "too much spice." Once it finally settles down (over an hour in, probably), it's a lovely, warm maple scent. Unfortunately the creaminess that I got in the bottle never really returned, and that's one of the notes I was hoping would really shine in this blend. Spicy-foodies will love it, but with so many other delicious Yule blends, I don't think I'll be springing for a big bottle.

Oh, so that's what it is~! I put it on and it is ALL SPICE ALL THE TIME. Then it dries down and I was sniffing my wrist wondering, "Is there some sort of floral in here? My stupid skin amps florals like crazy. There is one flower that is supposed to be keeping the peace in the background and my skin is making it scream at me." But no, it's honey and it's supposed to be there! I knew it didn't smell quite like a flower, nor like sandalwood, which was the only other thing I could think to compare it to. It's very sweet and pleasant, and I'll probably keep my imp, but I don't know if I need a big bottle. :/

Two days ago, I put this on and it seemed like the sinus-clearing MINT would not settle down. Tonight I put it on and it was barely a whisper before (as stated above) the warm, musky vanilla came to the forefront. There is a hint of mint in the background, but it isn't as strong as I expected. Overall it's a pleasant blend, and I'm glad I got two decants, but I'm not sure whether or not I'll spring for a bottle, since I plan on moving across the country in 8 months and I am trying to downsize my collection of stuff. Then again, bottles are very small, and I am getting quite a bit more Christmas money than expected this year ...

In the vial, this is way too strong and sharp for my taste. The minute it goes on, it is all Pine-Sol ... Then it starts to warm up and turns in to exactly what the description states. You get the pine up front, a chilly bit of winter air, a slight nip of peppermint, and cocoa beneath it all. It's really amazing to note the amount of depth and interest contained in this one scent. Even though it really isn't "my thing," I was going to keep it ... Until my skin chemistry caught 'hold of it and managed to turn it into something over-sweet and floral, as it does with all good things. I'm going to let it settle a bit and then give it a full-day test after I day-test my other Yule decants before I decide whether to swap it away or not, though.

I'm only recommending GC scents because those are the only ones you can get in imps. Queen is strong, independent, and feminine. It's recommended for wear on stage. Anne Bonny is a female pirate. She's got the above qualities, is also recommended for wear on the stage, and speaks to your love of Captain Hook. Speaking of which, the Black Rider is a character similar to Captain Hook, so he might catch your fancy. Then there's Calico Jack, who pretty much is Captain Hook. The Witch's Garden combines your love of the outdoors with your love of fantasy. I'm trying to resist recommending it because it's so common, but it's so common because it's so well-loved, so ... Dorian somehow reminds me of both Sherlock and the Doctor. Maybe it's because they're all British? Belle Epoque is also calling your name. I tried to think of a Tinkerbell scent, and that's what came to me. It's decadent, feminine, stubborn, and a little bit spoiled. It's also the scent of a highly creative era, so it seems perfect. Let's see ... Aperotos Eros for a love that is "strong as death and cruel as the grave" Hetairae, Jezebel, Sheol, and Anne Bonny for stubborn, dangerous women who are full of life and never do what you expect of them. Oh, and Hell's Belle, because ... well, just because. (For some reason the list tag is not working but I'm just going to leave it there.

*snip* For your environmentalism, love of the outdoors, garden, Wicca, and the color green, I'm thinking Strangler Fig. I'm also thinking Norman for the "pine needles and ectoplasm," a combination of earthy and fantasy, and I can't resist recommending Druid. Finally, Frumious Bandersnatch, a fantasy creature that smells like fruit and flowers. Miskatonic University is screaming your name. Ulalume and Grief are supposed to smell like flower shops, so you can at least smell like a florist, even if you don't actually want to be one. I'm also recommending Rose Cross and Hymn because I found your statement about leaps of faith to be compelling and had to try to find something for that.

This is making me crave TTLB soooooo baaaaaad. ;-; Is anyone else familiar with the incense sticks called "Fizzy Pop"? If there were a BPAL scent comparable to that, I would probably spend entirely too much money to acquire it.

Even though I'm not huge on roses or florals, I really like this scent. It was too sharp straight out of the bottle--a very prickly rose. A moment after it goes on, though, it sweetens right up. The rose is still dominant, then the lemon, but the apple is there in the background. Unfortunately, it's wavering right at the point of turning to either soap or powder, and since my skin chemistry is the best it's been in a while, I'm worried that this won't be wearable for me. So I guess it's off to swaps. I'm starting to feel like "my" scent, when I find it, will be floral--and that frightens me, since most of the people around me hate florals.

I didn't mean to skip you! I just don't usually look at incensey scents and didn't know good my recommendations would be, but I don't want you to get overlooked. So let me try this anyway. If you don't already have Anne Bonny, I'd be shocked, but I have to recommend it. It's named for a pirate and generally agreed to be one of the most incense-heavy, hippie scents BPAL makes. I'm also going to recommend Urd for the hippie/incense-y nag champa and patchouli. Finally, Port Royal again for pirateyness but also for your love of traveling.

Misk U is the usual recommendation for English majors/book lovers, but somehow it doesn't feel right for you. I'm going to recommend two that combine "books" with "classic rock" instead: The Book from the ParaNorman collection, which is old books and leather, and Trevor Bruttenholm from the Hellboy collection, which is old books, bay rum, and incense. I'd also recommend two tea scents, Embalming Fluid, which reminds me of what Sherlock would smell like while on the job (aka while not "between jobs," unbathed, and intoxicated) and Dorian, which combines your love of tea, your love of books, and your love of British things.

In the bottle, this is all light, juicy fruits. I could get a bit of floral beneath that and, oddly enough, a hint of spice which must be the "autumn breeze." That's what I thought I wanted, so I put it on ... and the fruit disappeared, of course. I'm definitely getting rose now, very clearly rose, not just "something flowery." If the fruits are there, they're only there as sweetness. The aquatics are still in the background, and there is increasingly something that registers as "spicy floral." I don't know what myrtle smells like (I've heard "resinous," so maybe it's that, but also "bayberry," which doesn't help because I don't know what that smells like, either). Melilot is supposed to smell like "new-mown hay" fresh or like "tonka bean" or "vanilla" when dried, and I can definitely smell some of that. It's very floral for me, but I think I like it. I'm just worried about the drydown, as it seems to be fading and turning almost plastic-y on me, and that's something I definitely do not want.

Why did it not occur to me that star anise and anise would smell similar? Licorice has hugely negative connotations for me, so after I got past the "mmm, cherry blossom phase," and into the "ohmygodthatsmellslikelicorice" phase, it went straight to the swap pile. That's just personal bias, of course. The scent itself is very light, clean, and sweet without being cloying. I think it would be great for spring or for a sunny day in the middle of winter. For someone else, of course.

So, so, so excited to try this one~! I love apple scents and dragon's blood. My first sniff of the imp smells like big, bright, juicy red apples. Next I get florals, ew, but okay. No hint of the dragon's blood yet. On my skin, it's like a battle between yummy apples and less-than-yummy florals. I'm really going to have to develop my ability to discern between flowers because all read as "white" and "flower shop/funeral parlor" to my nose. The apple is delicious enough that I might keep it around anyway, though, so ... Hey, wait. Where'd it go? I was just about to comment about how there was some sort of warmth in the background, probably musk and dragon's blood, and now there's virtually nothing left. It's just a little bit of floral musk I have to press my nose to my arm to smell. Disappointing. Re-applying to see what happens. Again, apples with something I don't like as much in the background--floral and musk, maybe? I'm not sure how I feel about musk just yet. Actually, the more I smell it, it's definitely floral, and it's not that I don't like it. I just wish it would go away and leave the apple alone. Or ... Apparently this is a scent I'm having trouble making up my mind about. I'm starting to like the florals there. They make it smell like a real, fresh apple skin rather than a Jolly Rancher. Even if they do tend to take over. 3/5 for me. I'm not quite sure if I'll keep this around for spring (it's definitely not a cold weather scent) or pass it. Probably the latter.

My imp is from '08, and milo got it exactly right: "creamy amber musk with a dash of spice." At least, that's what it is in the bottle and wet. I would have eaten this in those stages. Now it's dried and it's sweet, powdery, sort of generic, maybe even old-lady-ish. My skin chemistry definitely does not agree with this one--but that means I can swap it for something that'll work better!

Now 3 years old, the 2009 blend is pure spices on me. Cinnamon is dominant, but other pumpkin pie spices are also present. There is a hint of vanilla, but not much in the way of actual pumpkin. (I put it in my cat's food every day, so I'm very familiar with that particular scent.) I like it a lot, but it kind of reminds me of a candle store. 3/5 for now, but I have a feeling that my S/O is going to love it, so I'm wearing it to pick him up at the airport on Friday. We'll see what I think of it after that.

Dorian and Miskatonic University come to mind. The two 'weenies I have (Pumpkin V '08 and Devil's Night '09) are also really foody, warm, and unpretentious, but I'm not sure how easy those would be to track down.

This might seem kind of ridiculous, but how do you apply it to your hair? Do you like apply it to your scalp (I've heard other people suggest this)? Or do you literally move the little wand through your hair? I feel weird doing the latter because I'm worried about the remnants of my shampoo/conditioner contaminating the perfume, or the smell getting covered up by any hair products I may use (I don't use them often, but still). I also heard once that perfume can do serious damage to your hair, and since I'm trying to grow mine out, I'm a little paranoid. That may just be the alcohol in mainstream perfume, though, in which case BPAL would be fine.

Sometimes I get a bottle of a scent, test it with the BPAL buddy (without peeking at the notes), and then get online to write a review and wonder if I somehow got the wrong perfume. She's a supertaster with an extremely well-developed nose, thanks to a mother who works in the perfume industry, and I have an absurdly acute sense of smell, so it's very rare for us to miss or even misname notes, but this time we both seem to have missed out on most of this blend. Orange? Rose? Honey? The imp I just purchased from MuskWitch is so strongly and cleanly sandalwood that we would have sworn the only other note it could possibly have in it is vanilla. Now that I've read the other reviews, I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't get any of that fruity-floral complexity, but that doesn't stop me from loving this scent. It smells exactly like a sandalwood fan that I owned when I was a little girl. I'm literally sitting here with my nose to my wrist (3+ hours after application) searching for any other notes but I can't find them. On my testing buddy, whose chemistry does wonderful things with musks, it was much sweeter than it is on me, which must have been the honey. Otherwise I would start to wonder if I might have accidentally gotten a single-note sandalwood. I'll have to sniff the bottle again tomorrow and then maybe let it age (if I can resist) to see what else I can discover.

I just got an imp of Jezebel in the mail this week. On both me and my BPAL-testing buddy, it is pure sandalwood. No fruit, no florals, just sandalwood--and probably the best sandalwood note I've ever encountered anywhere. It smells like actual wood, not like a woody perfume, if that makes sense.

My BPAL-sniffing buddy and I were raised in very different school systems in very different parts of the country. Nevertheless, the minute we opened this imp, we both instantly remembered getting to "clean" our elementary school desks with shaving cream--because that's exactly what this smells like, shaving cream. It's the same kind my dad always used when I was a kid and the same time I used the first time I shaved my legs because my mom never used shaving cream. Pleasant, clean, and comforting, but not exactly something I want to smell like. However, I am really proud to say that this is one of the few scents which actually smells better with my chemistry than hers. Hers amps the lavender until it becomes an overwhelming, headache-inducing sort of floral. Mine pretty much maintains the scent the way it was in the bottle. It lasts for quite a while and has decent-to-strong throw. I do think this could be incredibly delicious on the right man, but it just reminds me of my dad too much for me to be able to find it sexy. It's a cool, light green sort of cologne and I prefer warmer, slightly sweeter colognes. My imp is probably going into the swap pile.

I purchased my imp from the lovely sunlitgarden, so I'm not exactly how sure how old it is, but I'm assuming fairly fresh from the looks of the bottle and the label. In the bottle, it was lovely, fruity, and warm. It smelled a lot like Jester to me and I was so freaking excited. Then I and my friend each swabbed our wrists. On her, it opened into something beautiful. She says "sandalwood, vanilla, and musk" but it's much more robust than I would expect from that combination. Like an amber color rather than a pale yellow-white. There's definitely fruit there in the background but it's not necessarily recognizably strawberry. On me ... Well, a previous reviewer said it best: So, so, so disappointed. What's worse is that it's starting to go old-lady-powdery on me as I type, as so many BPAL blends tend to do. Some day I will have to figure out what it is with my skin chemistry that has cursed me to this fate. Until then, I'm going to keep this imp to try later in the month (since I don't really know where I am in my cycle just now and the other scent I tried today, Tweedledum, went oddly sour on me). If it doesn't work out, I'll be passing it along as (hopefully) a gateway scent to my friend.

Origin: Part of an imp set I purchased years ago. Probably originated around 2009-2010, so keep that in mind. First thoughts (on the wand): Hmm ... sweet, floral, incense--oh God, what is that smell? It's acidic, almost chemical. Why am I about to put this on my skin? On skin: The astringent scent is fading. Now there's an artificial, waxy smell--like cheap lip balm and something which smells distinctly old. You might smell this in a funeral parlor or in the bottom of my grandmother's purse. The lovely floral and incense-y smells are still there, but fading. Also it's kind of burning my wrist. Dry down: Much better. There's a powdery sort of sweetness on top, very floral, with a sort of rich fruitiness underneath. As time passes, the grape scent is amping slowly, but the overall scent's fading very quickly. It had a lot of throw immediately after I put it on, but I imagine it will be gone within the hour. Verdict: I don't know what dirt is supposed to smell like as a perfume note, but I'm not really getting anything other than funeral parlor here. I know a lot of women who might love this scent, but any trace of wine or earth is alluding me. I agree with the previous reviewers who stated that this is a very feminine scent. It's not at all what I expected when I read the description. That's okay, though, since even if it smelled like wine and dirt and death, I don't think it'd be for me. Leave it to the bolder personalities.

Does anyone have suggestions or a good resource for making your own database? I'd like to have one that only lists the scents I've tried, since anything else is overwhelming for me (I have intense anxiety and tend to get overwhelmed very easily). I'm most interested in having a database which is capable of showing me which notes are most common in perfumes I tend to like. However, I don't know the first thing about database software. If you make your own, how did you learn?

EDIT: I'm trying this scent again, after it's aged for two years, and I'm liking it a lot more. I actually wish I hadn't re-read my previous review, though, because once I remembered "funeral parlor," I can't get rid of that association. It's a very sweet, fruity floral with a lot of incense, but I guess the only time I really smell flowers are in shops and at funerals. It probably is a little generic in that it smells like something you could get at a perfume counter layered over something you could get at a New Age store, but I think that it would be a good introduction to BPAL for people who are having a hard time transitioning from mainstream perfumes. I also think the right skin chemistry could do amazing things with this scent for someone who doesn't associate sweet florals with funeral parlors. Yikes.