Smaragdina

I somehow, magically, managed to snag a full bottle of the original Black Lace. Unsniffed, because I've seen so many people sing its praises and because every note sounds like HEAVEN on me. It does not disappoint. It's such a strange scent, though! In the bottle it's cottony, powdery incense with a sharp note that's similar to Hellfire. Nothing special. Wet, the same. It's faint on my wrist and rather conventional. But as I go about my day I get the most magical whiffs of this deep, rich, gorgeous golden vanilla scent. I don't quite know how to describe it. The vanilla and deep golden musk and incense are on top, the tobacco is sweet and grounding, and there's flashes of cognac and dusty stained linen. The sweetness mellows and grows thoughout the day and it ends up as this lovely round warm sexy musk/vanilla. On my wrist up close, it's still golden powdery-sweet; it's nice. But the actual scent...dear god. It's almost like Morocco, if Morocco traded in the spicy sun-kissed exoticism for a corset and velvet opera gloves. It's that same sexy, musk-tinged, luxurious warmth. It's dark and sweet and romantic and all victorian elegance. It's tea in a gorgeous gothic English mansion, where the widowed lady of the house serves you crumbling molasses cookies and cognac on her fine china and monogramned linens gone yellow with age. Her black mourning dress is long-skirted and high-collared, with jet embroidery; her pearls are lovely. She's younger than you might expect and beautiful behind the veil, in a librarian-esque sort of way. If it weren't for all her dignity and propriety you'd wonder, for a moment, if those rumors about cyanide in her husband's tea were true. You'd wonder if she's trying to seduce you. Steal your inheritance and ruin you for every other woman. And you wouldn't mind. That's the smell of Black Lace. It's utterly WONDERFUL. Oh, and it lasts forever too. I have found my holy grail.

In the imp – pale, ghostly, barely-there dried rose. Wet – Wet rose! Drydown – Rose, rose, rose. It never really changes, and sadly never reaches the mysterious, wistful frailty that I got in the imp. It’s just all rose, all the time. Pretty, but I only see myself wearing this once in a while. It’s too one-note compared to all my other scents.

In the imp: Rose. Perhaps there’s some spice underneath, but the rose is clearly dominating. Wet: Pure rose. After Séance and Whip I’m starting to think that I amp rose like nobody’s business, and I’m worried. Drydown: Five minutes later and the rose fades to the background (yay!) as the incense-y musk takes over. This is nice, but fainter than I’d like and nothing special (Mom could smell nothing on my wrist). Aw.

In the frimp: pale incense and just a hint of…hmm, I can’t tell what that is. White wood? Wax? Something powdery and golden. I’m not sure what to make of this. Wet: Aha – it’s leather! It’s white, soft suede, in fact. I get the musk and some kind of sweetness that almost reads as tobacco, but this scent is very well blended and it’s difficult to pick out individual notes. Drydown: This is LOVELY, especially as the bourbon vanilla comes out. But it never really comes into its own. I wish it were stronger (I never thought I’d say that about a paladin!). I feel like it needs to be layered with something. *Cue massive binge on all the RPG scents to see which one can carry Paladin to the Big Bottle list*

Preconceived notions: LEATHER AND ROSE. *dead* I ADORE both these notes. This sounds like it could be sex in a bottle. In the imp: Pure, luscious, rich rose. Wet: Red rose, dark and rich. Perhaps the leather is responsible for some of that richness, but I can’t actually *smell* it. Drydown: Same. I’m disappointed – where’s the leather?

Preconceived notions: First BPAL scent ever (roommate needed an extra imp to round out her order and asked me what I wanted). I’ve got no idea what to expect. I’m hoping for something nice and everyday-clean scented. In the imp – clean, pale aquatic. Wet – Nice, sweet aquatic. Pale green and blue. I can’t pick out any notes; it’s sorta dish-soap like, but in a very nice way. Drydown – The sweetness comes to the fore, but it’s still nice and clean, not sugary. I’m thinking of sweet lemons for some reason - must be the bergamot. Nice, but nothing to write home about.

Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen. Preconceived notions: I’m guessing/hoping this will be sharper and spicier than Dorian’s “cup of milky chai” coziness, which – while lovely – was too simple to really be ‘me.’ In the imp: Huh. Clean, white spiciness – that’s the ginger and black pepper and linen, I think. Lingering tea note? I like this so far. Wet: Now I can smell the honey. It’s a real pure honey scent, still on the comb. There’s some ginger/white pepper spiking through it, and occasional flashes of clean linen and…is that the tea? It’s too faint for me to be sure. Dyrdown: This dries to all honey-ginger-cream on me. Which is unfortunate, as I liked the spice and linen and tea notes that peeked out at the start. It fades pretty fast too. I’m going to try this a few times before deciding if it’s “good” or just “meh”...maybe my skin chemistry was just off.

Preconceived notions: I’d almost get this based on the name alone. I’m hoping it’s clean and bright, maybe with some of that “hideous, soulless core” that eluded me in Dorian. In the imp: WOW THAT’S LIME. LIME. LIIIIIIIIIIIIME. *ahem* It’s the super-sweet, super-tart lime of those popsicles that come in the lime/banana/root beer triple packages. LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!! Wet: LIME!!! Drydown: The Ripper doesn’t like to stick around, I see. This vanished within five minutes. I’ll have to test it once again…

Preconceived notions: First BPAL order. I bought this solely because I figured I needed a “spicy” scent to counter all the clean scents I was getting, and this seemed well recommended (after I ordered it I made a note to try Othello if it didn’t work out – I expected it would be too dry and biting). In the imp – dark New Age shop? With red floral? Not as spicy as expected. I don’t like red florals. I’m not so sure. Wet – Oooh, spice! Cinnamon and…clove, maybe? It’s hard to tell. This is straight up lovely spice. Drydown – I went from liking this to loving this the day went on. The spices mellowed out and sweetened. I can smell some spicy unusual floral – that’s the carnation, maybe – but I’m almost getting vanilla? Not foody vanilla, though. This is warm, toasted, uber-spiced vanilla. Like soft gingerbread and clove-spiked cookies – served on a silk cushion, maybe, in the foyer of a sultan’s harem. Equal parts cozy and mysteriously yet approachably sexy. It stays close to the skin and just keeps getting better and better all day. It’s a spicier version of what I imagine Snake Oil to smell like. I usually don’t go for spicy things and I just bought this as a “what the hell” scent, but now I want to wear it ALL THE TIME. It is GORGEOUS.

Preconceived notions: First BPAL order, and apple is one of the very few notes that I KNOW I like. The description of “dark apple” sounds perfect for me (and I instantly thought of the Dark Brotherhood’s poisoned apples in TES:IV Oblivon and had a small fangirl squee). I have high hopes for this. In the imp – APPLE. Wow. Sharp, green, tart apple, like it’s just been sliced. Holy CRAP. (Upon a second sniff the initial uncapping blast has died down and I can now detect something darker underneath) Wet – topnote of APPLE! with…hmm. My nose is pretty shot after testing all my imps, so I can’t tell if the swirling darkness underneath is Poisoned Apple or the residue of something else… By the same token, I can barely smell the apple on my wrists anymore, but I get a whiff every 20 seconds or so from the dab on my collarbone and it’s as bright and strong as ever. Wtf, self? Do my wrists eat apple??? Drydown – Noooooooooo! It’s gone! If I get REALLY close to my wrists I can smell a nice, pleasant dark murky green scent, maybe with a hint of wood, with an overlay of sweetness that I suppose is the apple. But it’s extremely faint. I’m going to have to test this later when my nose isn’t so fried…damn, I really wanted to love this, but it’s just too weak and not enough apple for me right now. Round 2 – Tested this again and was much, much happier. The apple scent this time was red, not green – rich, true red apple, more of the peel than the fruit, absolutely lovely. As it dried the evil green herbs came through. It lasted moderately long, too. I like this a lot. Possibly enough for a bottle.

Preconceived notions: How could I resist trying a pirate scent? This ought to be fun. In the imp: Oh wow. Blast of rich, salty aquatic, followed by warm, almost buttery sweet leather/sarsaparilla. Wet: Wonderful salty aquatic with warm, sweet, earthy notes. Something almost woody in there. Very pirate-y but fainter than I was expecting. Drydown: Salty, slightly boozy aquatic. I can smell the patchouli and leather swirling around under there, but they never really come to the surface. This doesn’t really morph on me. It just stays a salty aquatic with this odd, wonderful warm undertone, and the gunpowder starts coming in at the end, this rich graphite sharpness. This is really interesting. It stays very close to the skin and I find myself wishing it didn’t – this is a loud pirate scent, I want to be able to smell it!

In the frimp – fruity perfume. More mango than orange. Meh. Wet – perfume. Fruit and…sandalwood? Really nothing remarkable. Drydown – department store ‘perfume’ note vanishes, and the fruit becomes more prominent but never really takes off. Definitely more mango than orange, and there’s a spicy note – sandalwood? Not bad, but too generic for my tastes.

Preconceived notions: I got this as an occasion/”why not?” scent. After I ordered it, I read the description for Perversion and got all depressed – Perversion sounded more like ‘me.’ I’m worried that this will be too masculine on me (granted, I got a chance to sample Perversion before my order came in, and Perversion went all coconut and burnt plastic on me, so...) In the imp – dark, masculine. Faint spice/sharpness. More subdued than I’d expected. Wet – Hmm. Oddly powdery, but in a good way, and sweet with some masculine sharpness underneath – is that the tobacco? After a couple minutes the powder tones down. I’m getting a kind of perfume-y incense, and an occasional whiff of sharp leather that’s so bright it’s almost metallic. Drydown – Sweet, smoky incense. Like, actual smoke, but in a good way. As times goes on the powdery sweetness fades even more and the sharp leather rears its head (though the almost unpleasant metallic note is gone now), but the tobacco and warm incense cut it enough to keep it from being too overpowering. This is the scent of an urban fantasy femme fatale. She’s spent a day in the library reading the Necronomicon, and now she’s going to throw on her leather jacket and hop on her motorcycle to go seduce the devil at the bar, and everyone will stare at her and everyone will take a step back because there is something feral and WRONG with that girl. But it’s masculine, so it doesn’t scream sex so much as it hisses danger. I wouldn’t want to smell like this all the time. But damn do I ever love this.

Preconceived notions: This sounds like Heaven. All the reviews about being ravished by a proper Victorian gentleman didn’t help. Easily the most-anticipated scent that I ordered. In the imp – Vanilla tea with something deeper underneath, maybe the lavender? Love. Can’t wait to try this. Wet – Wow, vanilla! Sweet, rich, and very strong. Very foody. Drydown – I want to eat me. I smell like chai. The vanilla mellows out a little after 10-15 minutes or so (thankfully – I like vanilla, but I don’t want to smell like I bathed in vanilla extract). It’s richer, less knock-you-over sweet, and it’s letting in some nice, grounding black tea with occasional flashes of lemon. I still haven’t found the “corrupted core” in the description; this is just sweet, lovely, comforting vanilla tea, getting deeper and mellower as the day goes on. It’s got amazing throw and it lasts forever – eight hours later and it’s still going strong. Verdict - I didn’t adore this – it’s too sweet and foody to really be “me,” and I’m sad I’m not getting the sex-on-a-silver-chased-walking-stick that some people report. But I like it a lot and I anticipate burning through my imp pretty quick.

Preconceived notions: I got this because of the tea note. I’m hoping it’ll work for everyday. In the imp: Oooh. Green herbs and tea. Wet: This is sweet, herbed tea with wisps of very pretty pink floral, bright and utterly lovely. Drydown: This stays the same all day. It’s cheery and happy, but fortunately never becomes overly girly. A real pick-me-up scent. I rather love this, and it's going on the bottle list.

Preconceived notions: I don’t care if this is named after a fairy tale – the Tolkien nerd in me NEEDED this for the name alone. I know I love leather and I’m optimistic about the rest. I’m really excited about this one. In the imp: Rich, mellow black leather. Wet: This is pure, true store-bought leather, rich and sharp enough to be almost acerbic and off-putting. It’s got a grainy texture. I’m nervous. Drydown: The leather mellows out and lets a little amber peek through. This is nice, if a little powdery and similar to Hellfire. It stays like that for maybe two hours, and them bam – amber and sweetness from the tobacco. The graininess is gone! It’s smooth and warm and sweet, with the leather still hanging around close to my skin. Mmmm.