filigree_shadow

I don't get this scent. It's supposed to smell like sandalwood and cedar? Well, I don't really smell any cedar, that's for sure, and I didn't think this is what sandalwood smells like. It does smell "white," though, so there's that. But mainly because it's a bit powdery on me. I like it, but I find it confusing. I keep thinking it should smell like something else and being surprised when I sniff it.

This is very floral on me, but light. It's unusual because although I pick up on that aquatic scent that other people have talked about, the floral part of it actually smells like dry flowers, not wet ones. Some sort of pretty purple flower.

Hunh. If this is supposed to smell gross and swampy I think it missed its mark. It smells a lot less wet and murky than most of the "swampy" scents I've tried. In fact, it smells a bit fizzy, in a detergenty kind of way. Plus, chestnuts (but it seems like that nutty scent was only when it was wet). It's a little odd. Not bad, just odd. Something about the scent reminds me of the washing-up crystals you put in a dishwasher.

Gorgeous. I love copal, and I think this scent is fantastic. It doesn't smell like copal incense -- there's no smoke to it -- it smells like the sticky, rich resin. Sort of like a golden, sweet patchouli-ish scent. I noticed that in a couple of reviews other people mentioned a cologne-like scent, but I'm not picking up anything like that on my skin. I've worn El Dorado four times since I got it, ignoring all the other scents I got at the same time, and when my imp runs out I'll probably get a bottle. Whenever I wear it my husband keeps telling me I smell awesome. Also, it lasts for-freaking-ever. One day I put some on at around 5 p.m., and I could still smell it on my wrist the next day, after I'd showered.

This is my favorite scent of Marchen so far. It's all soft and pink and lovely. It reminds me of Velvet Unicorn, which is also a recent favorite of mine, but more sophisticated. I generally can't tolerate jasmine, and I can't pick it up at all in this. I can't imagine this scent being objectionable to anyone. It's sweet and soft and feminine, and I think it's absolutely beautiful. My husband really likes it, too. I've used up half my imp already, and I'm going to add a bottle of this to my next order.

This smells exactly nothing like I thought it would. LOL, I always love it when that happens. Total surprise. I got it because I love oppoponax and I wanted to find out what it smells like with rose. I wasn't sure if the olibanum would be too overpowering, and I didn't know what elemi is so I sort of ignored it, and yew is usually a wood that's usually okay on me. I smell oppoponax, yes, but no rose. It's a sweet, sticky, dry wood scent. After about 30 minutes if I really sniff at the spot where I put the oil, it seems like maybe I can smell a little bit of rose, but it's not really there at all for me. This seems mostly like opoponax and yew, with some sweet smoke.

I've worn this a couple of times since I got it, even though I don't like the wet stage very much. I'm not a fan of grassy, herby, or green scents, and that's what it smells like at first. It's not soft grass, it's sharp. But when it's dry, it's lovely on me. Soft, floral but not in-your-face floral, pleasant... like summertime in a meadow. I keep being surprised at how different the wet/dry stages are because I think this one is the biggest morpher I can remember. I never met Pa-Pow, but I love my own dogs tremendously, and smelling this scent makes me think of the very special bond between a dog and his/her person. I love it just for that reason, but I also like wearing it and being reminded of my little furbabies.

On me, this smells like Morocco (without that weird plastic thing that Morocco does on me occasionally) plus light tobacco, musk, and a soft unobtrusive spice. It's very pretty and sexy, and it's spicier now than I remember from the last time I tested it. I had been thinking it was smoother, kind of creamier than this. I think maybe the vanilla in it was stronger when it was fresh. I've had a decant of this for a few years, but I've never worn it. I tested it once when I first got it, but the rareness of it made me feel like I never had a special occasion that was special enough to wear it. So I never did. If I had a bottle, I'd definitely wear it.

Why oh why can't this be stronger?? I LOVE the scent of this. It smells like a sweet, delicate, soft rice milk on me. The plum blossom with it is absolutely great -- just gives a slightly feminine quality to the softness of the scent. But I can only smell it when my nose is three inches from my skin! I put some oil on, loved it, and then put more oil on, and it's still so faint that I can't smell it at all from a distance. I like it so much that I'm willing to wear it as a "skin scent" perfume, but it would be a serious favorite if it were stronger.

Well, this is a first for me. When I first put this on I could smell a little bit of dirt in it but not much. An hour later, I can smell just the barest hint of a dirt scent, and it's not offensive in the least. Just sweet. This is remarkable because normally anything with dirt/earth/soil in it amps that dirt note tremendously so it's all I can smell. Apparently this is the exception to the rule! I think this is a very pleasant scent and I enjoy it a lot, but to me it smells like a man's cologne. Something familiar to me, but I don't know what it is. It just smells sort of generally manly. The leather isn't dominant but it's there, the spices aren't overwhelming but I can tell there are spices in it... it smells like a good scent for a guy. A little bit rugged and a little bit sweet at the same time. I'll let my husband try this one and see how he likes it.

The one I'm testing right now is the 06 version, but I used to have a bottle of the 05 version and as far as I can remember this one smells just like that one did. The poppy is the strongest note on me, followed by something sweet. I'm not quite familiar enough with the rest of those floral notes to be able to pick out what I'm smelling, though. Maybe hyacinth? The champagne isn't distracting or overwhelming at all. It smells extremely perfumey to me, and also pretty much just like an opium den. (Or what I imagine that smells like, anyway.) The other florals in Stardust make it more wearable on me than poppy perfumes usually are. (Sometimes I get a weird band-aid scent out of poppy.)

To me, this smells like a cold, sweet evergreen and juniper scent. Unfortunately I can't say much else about it because my skin totally amps cold and evergreen notes, so if there are any other notes swirling around in there, I really can't tell. It's quite pleasant, but my all-time favorite scent that's similar to this one is Snow Bunny, and so far I haven't found anything that tops Snow Bunny!

This smells like soft ozone. Don't think I've ever smelled soft ozone before. It does smell dark, but instead of that metallic sort of twanginess I usually get from ozone, this smells sweet and ... dry? Weird, right? But yeah, a little dry. It was kind of ew when I first put it on, but after about 10 minutes or so it developed into a surprisingly pleasant oceany scent. I really like the sweet notes with it. My husband (who generally likes aquatic scents) says he likes this one on me.

Red musk is the sexiest of all musks, in my humble opinion, and it's really difficult for me to smell anything that has BPAL's red musk in it without thinking the word sexy. Also, often with other musks I can usually tell they're there, but I can't really tell the difference between black musk or gray musk or plain musk. They're just sort of musky and nondescript to me. Not red musk. Red musk is very distinctive, and I can always smell it in every blend it's in. I can definitely tell this has red musk in it, but after about 20 minutes or so it's a lot lighter on me. (Often when I wear something with red musk in it, that's the last note that clings to my skin -- the one note I can still smell on my wrist when I get up the next morning.) I guess the other notes in this blend are getting louder and drowning out the musk a bit. I can barely smell the rose, but I'm pretty sure I can detect some magnolia. Also it's sweet, but I'm not entirely sure what the sweetness is from. Bare hint of clove. I might have been happier with a little bit more clove in this one, but it's fine. Vanilla bean? Erm... maybe? I can't pick that out at all in the beginning, but after the scent warms up I think I can smell some vanilla bean. Everything in this that is not the red musk is blending together beautifully and really balancing out the scent. This is very nice.

I think Holiday Moon was the first BPAL lunacy blend I ever tried. It had just come out right before I discovered BPAL, so there was a lot of it available for swap/sale. I had no idea what notes I liked back then, so I thought I might as well try it. I liked it back then. I like it now. I know enough about my perfume taste these days to know that I never reach for scents like this, but I honestly do like it. It smells fresh, a little watery, and a little bitter. Green and kind of clean. Although it's not personally for me, I would totally not object to smelling this on someone who's sitting next to me. The tea and bamboo are very complementary notes, in my opinion, and the scent smells well-balanced.

Shoot. I missed the "upturned earth" part of this description before I put it on my skin. If I had seen that, I would have tried a much smaller test area. As usual, my skin amps the earth note like CRAZY. I'm testing 4 different BPAL oils right now, and as soon as I put Madeline on my arm, all I could smell was sweet, sweet dirt. I can't smell a thing from any of my other test areas. That said... this is better than Zombi. Way, way, WAY better than ones like Graveyard Dirt or Premature Burial. Queen of Clubs and Zombi are probably the only perfumes with a dirt/earth note that don't make me dive for the soap next to the sink, and Madeline is better than either of those. I like that dry sweet ivy note with it, and the floral notes are very pretty. Anyone who likes florals with earth notes really ought to try this.

I can smell lime at first, but after a while it's mostly just leather and lavender. Kind of an even blend of both. I think I can still smell a little lime in it, but not a whole lot. Sometimes I sniff it and think the leather is stronger, and sometimes the lavender seems stronger. It smells very masculine to me -- too much for me. My husband wears leather scents very frequently, so I asked him to try this one. He said that he liked it but he likes other BPAL leather scents better. We're not likely to run out of leather blends for him any time soon (or any time this decade -- that's how many he has), so I suppose it's a good thing that he's starting to narrow down which leather ones he wants and which ones he doesn't!

I really thought I was going to like this one. I love plum and champaca flower. But unfortunately my skin has some trouble with some ambers, and apparently this amber is problematic for me. Prospero smells like sweet fruity powder on me. I'm not very happy about this result. I wish I got along with ambers better. I suppose that's okay. I still have Bordello and Midwinter's Eve (and Bathsheba and Kitsune-Tsuki and Frumious Bandersnatch and pretty much every BPAL plum scent there is... )

Expected an overwhelming floral, but got a lovely tea-floral scent. Yes, the floral notes on this are noticeable, but they're not overbearing on me. I smell tea, loud and clear, with the bergamot and nectarine making it bright and fresh. Maybe the barest hint of the beeswax in there giving it some smoothness underneath. This will be lovely in the summertime!

I like all the notes in Cytherea, so I assumed I'd like this a lot. I do like it, but it's not what I expected. It's much sweeter than I thought it would be -- it smells like sweet patchouli at first. Then some of the drier notes come in and make it smell a bit husky. (Not husky like thick, but husky like... um, a husk. Dry like that.) I was expecting something soft and deep, and instead this smells sweet and woody. The wood part of it seems more subdued after it's dry, and the vanilla is a little stronger. I like it better when it's dry. I'll have to try this a little bit more to figure out whether it's going to grow on me. EDITED 23 Dec 09: I set this aside to let it age a while and see whether I like it better later. I thought it had potential but it just wasn't there yet. Well, I'm still not sold on it. It's one of those scents that I like, and I can see why other people love it, but it's just not a me scent. The review I wrote initially still applies now. Except now it smells a bit more like dusting powder. The dryness and the woody feel is still there, but ... I don't know. I'm just not into this scent, I guess.

Pumpkin with white sage, cherry tobacco, honey, smoky vanilla, cedar, and pine. I like this more than I thought I would, probably due to the cherry tobacco. The white sage makes it a bit too herbal for my liking, though. The cedar and pine aren't very strong in this at all, but it seems smooth under the herbal scent. I know there are a lot of people who really go for the type of pumpkin blend in which the buttery pumpkin scent is tamped down a bit, but I happen to like that buttery pumpkin! So ones like this (and Pumpkin Patch 5 from the original run, and that grassy one from 07) don't end up being my favorites. I like Pumpkin IV, but I don't think I like it enough to wear it over other pumpkin scents I like better (like Pumpkin II).

Hm, yeah... I smell lemon, grapefruit, and yuzu in this. Not really any pumpkin. The yuzu is too strong in this for me. I only like light citrus, and never harsh citrus (like yuzu). This one isn't for me.

Whoa, this one smells awesome. I thought I would probably like it just from looking at the description, and it's really nice. Not too much of any one note in here, it just smells smooth and warm. Very rich. Slightly more foody than I would have guessed. The leather and teak come out more when it's dry, and for me that's a plus. This one's a favorite.

For some reason this smells spicy to me. Not sure why. I'm not sure I like the pumpkin and mango combination all that well. It smells quite fruity to me. Smooth, but bright. I don't think this one is going to be a favorite of mine.

Dusty black wool, tea with cream, black pepper, muguet, and beeswax candle drippings. Ichabod was kind of a strange guy, and this is kind of a strange scent. It does smell like wool, and cream, and a little bit of black pepper. It's sweet and smooth, with a floral overtone. I like the tea and floral part of it, although I wish the cream would back off a little. I think I'll try doing a full wear of this one to see how well I like it for a day.