cinnabar

In general, the more listed notes something has, the more "perfumey" it smells, to me. Something about not being able to pick specific notes out of the jumble, I think, which I never can with commercial perfumes even if I'm looking right at the list of notes. Base notes of white/"pale"/"crystalline" musk, white or grey amber, white sandalwood, and white patchouli also often give me a "perfumey" effect, especially in combination, and so do "orchid" and "aldehydes." From the GC: - Shoggoth (citrusy floral over white musk) and R'lyeh (citrusy aquatic over white musk) had very perfumey drydowns for me. - Hades and Hunger immediately made me think "Wow this sure is a Perfume!" even wet; the note they share is "black narcissus," whatever that is. - Oberon was "old-fashioned traditional perfume but with juniper on top." (It has orchid + white musk.) - The Caterpillar, on me, was almost an exact dupe for Yves Saint Laurent Opium - very "Floriental." For LEs, you've already mentioned Ava and others have named Coin Trick (metallic aldehydes reminiscent of Chanel) and Zorya Polunochnaya (which is simply fantastic dry.) I would add Privilege (which is cool and green, not sweet despite all the flowers, and somehow makes me think of Calvin Klein), Dolce Stil Nuovo (complex rosy white musk), Swift as Light... (vanilla + white musk), and Butterflies, Flowers and Jewels Attending, which I got a decant of recently and was annoyed to discover really is as good as everyone says. Of all of these, BF&JA is the most distinctly "Fancy Perfume, For Her" besides Ava. Then there are a few older Lupers/Shungas (Snowy Mountains and Kingfisher, Sumai no Sechie, Street Festival, The Sorrow of Love) that also make me think "traditional perfume." These might be hard to find now though.

When you said "reminiscent of dirt, freshly wet" my mind jumped instantly to Dee. That's literally in my comments for it: it smelled like dirt ("but NICE dirt") when wet, and then dry was the most lovely, sniffable woodsy cologne. I also think it's quite broadly popular, so if you don't like it you won't have trouble rehoming it. And it's a common imp to find on sales/swap pages too, if you want to try it for low cost first. So that would be my recommendation.

At first, on my skin this smells overwhelmingly of something sharp, kind of... tickly and arid. I'm not very experienced with perfume and perfume notes (in fact, this is the first BPAL imp I've ever tried), so I don't know whether this is the ivy or the sandalwood. At a guess I would say sandalwood, but other reviewers seem to be smelling ivy first. While it's not unpleasant, it's kind of sterile-smelling, like an air freshener. Or a new wooden box, which I suppose is the point of the title. After an hour or two, though, it smells very different. Not as sharp or astringent at all: softer, a little bit sweet, still very fresh. More what I imagined a 'green' scent should smell like. Whatever the first note was, this must be the other one. Or maybe it's the 'powder' that others have noted, although that seems to be a complaint and I quite like this. Either way, I didn't like the first part and do like the second, so if I can learn which is called what, I'll know what to look for or avoid in the future. Overall, I don't think I'll keep this vial, but it's been instructive.