filigree_shadow

This scent is straight tonka and vanilla on me. And probably a little bit of sandalwood and amber because it's "perfumey" underneath. I don't smell any apricot. No ginger, either. Happily, vanilla and sandalwood combinations are some of my very favorite scents, and this one is lovely. Very, very pretty. It seems there's a bit too much vanilla in it at the very beginning, but after it warms up that's not a problem. It smells innocent and happy and feminine. Onto the bottle wishlist for sure.

From a distance, this smells mostly just like fig on me. Close up it's sweeter, I guess from the date and currant although I wouldn't have been able to say there was currant in it because I can't identify it. Just a sweetness. I'm not sure what the black herbs are in this, but this fig scent does seem a bit gritty so I guess that's what's contributing to it. I like this scent a lot and always have.

Dragon's Hide is very lovely. On me it smells strongly of dragon's blood at first, but when it's dry it's mostly leather. But it's sweetened up considerably by the DB, which makes it seem much more interesting to me than a straight leather scent. Also the smoke comes out more later on. My husband wears quite a few BPAL oils with leather in them, so I'll be passing this over to him to see how he likes it. I know I'd like it if he wore this.

This is a pleasant, soft floral, and it definitely smells watery and green. It's a pretty scent. The floral part of it doesn't smell a whole lot like peony, so that must be tulips. It reminds me of springtime. For some reason it's very light on me, though -- I swiped the imp wand on my arm about six times but it's still not very strong.

Strangely this one doesn't work on me, and I kinda thought it might. It has floral notes I sometimes like, and I pretty much always like pear. But the plumeria definitely seems the strongest in this scent, and that's a flower I don't get along with very well. The pear and the "evening dew" are nice and I enjoy those, but the floral notes are just too strong for me personally.

Hey, this is really nice! I am very pleasantly surprised. I avoided this one because of the cedarwood, but apparently I just never smelled cedarwood in the right combination before. It smells great with the raspberry leaf. I can't really smell any vetiver, and I can't say I know what olive leaf smells like, but the combination of those sweet dry leafy notes with the cedarwood is awesome. It does smell a bit masculine, but I'd wear it anyway. It's great.

I usually don't like almond scents very much, but I like this one. It smells really good with the neroli and orange peel. I don't think I can smell any rose or the spices in it, at first, but after the almond backs off I think I can start to. This isn't the type of scent I would have expected to like, but I like it. It smells cute and kind of sweet. It's a lovely combination.

Quietude smells like herbs (lavender) and citrus (seems like lemon). I probably would have liked this okay but I tried TKO and loved it to bits so this one just isn't going to be used by me as long as that one's around.

I thought this one would smell mainly like roses, given the name, but it doesn't. It smells spicy to me. Red. Maybe it's cinnamon. There are probably some floral notes in there too, but to be honest I can't smell a whole lot under the spice. Also I never want to wear this oil because of the name. I know, I know, I'm a dumbass. But whenever I see the name on the imp label for some reason I think "chupacabra" and I'm sort of repelled.

This smells like sweet pea. Not quite as sweet as sweet pea usually is, but it's... well, I just don't like sweet pea. And, you know, there are some scents that just don't suit me as a person. There are other scents that are so utterly wrong for me that if I wore them I'm pretty sure people would laugh at me and ask me what in the world made me think that I could get away with wearing such a scent. This is one of those ones. It belongs on someone who is most definitely not me.

All right. If this had blend had every single one of those notes except jasmine, I would probably like it. Even with the jasmine, I sort of like it. It has what I think of as a traditional perfume scent -- not the kind you wear during the day but the kind you wear in the evening. But it's that damn jasmine! It's practically pointing and laughing at me and may as well be jeering. Stupid jasmine. I WILL GET YOU ONE DAY, JASMINE. THIS IS NOT OVER. *runs off in a dramatic snit and then sits in a corner and pouts*

I smell some lotus at first (on me lotus doesn't smell just like bubblegum, it smells like bad bubblegum, the kind that's been chewed too long and is now sort of hard and gross). But after about 20 minutes it's not very strong at all. Mostly what I smell is myrrh but it's a little sweeter than usual. The sandalwood is a nice touch. It's a pretty scent. I feel bad saying this, but I wish that this was called something other than Black Lotus. I kinda burned myself out on lotus scents after I got Lotus Moon last year, and when I see this imp sitting in my imp box with the word Lotus on it, I never feel like putting it on. Maybe I should cross out the "Lotus" on my imp label and write "THIS IS THE ONE THAT SMELLS LIKE MYRRH" on it so that I have a chance of wearing it sometime.

Whenever I wear the oil from this imp I wonder why I don't wear it more often. It's really sexy and pretty on me, and I like it a lot. The juniper is not even noticeable to me (which is good because it's the only note in there that I don't usually like). The red musk is not as musky as it usually is, and the sweet floral notes are perfect with it. Also, I highly recommend letting this one age for a little while because it gets sweeter and more pretty as it ages. It's really lovely. I'm not sure why it's not more popular because to me it seems like it's the type of scent lots of people would like.

When I first started wearing BPAL I thought I wasn't interested in floral scents, and this was one of the first ones that changed my mind. It's not what I think of as "floral." It doesn't smell like flowers I'm familiar with. This one, for some reason, becomes a bit powdery on me, and it's not really the kind of floral scent that I like. I can't really do a proper review of it because to be honest I have no idea what most of those notes smell like. But I'm definitely glad I tried it. It made me realize that I like moonflower.

Obviously this is a rose scent, and it's a pretty one. Not too green, and a bit soft. I'm picky about rose scents, and with all the different roses in here I figured one or more of them would be the kind I don't like. But... I guess not. It's a very pretty scent, particularly after it warms up. Sweet, innocent, and pure. Not soapy or artificial-smelling at all. Just extremely lovely.

Hee, I thought I read somewhere that Plunder smelled like chai, so I swabbed a whole bunch on the back of my hand without reading the notes, thinking I was in for a Sudha Segara-like experience. Uh, whoops! This one's very spicy. But when I say "very spicy" I mean "has lots of different spices in" rather than "will make you think you are on fire." The spices are gentle rather than raw. It seems like I can smell all the different ones in here, and it's quite interesting. Normally I can't wear anything with cassia in it because it's far too bold for me, and usually cinnamon is too strong and drowns out the other notes. Not in this one, though. Not at all. It's mild and quite pleasant. The sandalwood and tobacco make it seem even more exotic, to me. Hmm. You know, I'm not usually in the mood to wear spicy scents because I'm just not a spicy sort of gal. And just by looking at the notes I would have thought I wouldn't like this at all. However... I like this. Maybe it'll be my one spicy scent in my whole BPAL box. I think that if I was ever going to have one spicy scent, this would be it.

The first time I tried this, it was before I was familiar with earth notes. I sniffed the oil in the bottle and thought it smelled pretty, so I put a bunch of it on my throat. And then for the next two hours I was confused because I smelled dirty and I didn't like it. Thus began my avoidance of earth/dirt notes. I kept the bottle, though, and I'm trying it now again after about a year and a half. It's actually quite pretty with the currant and rose, and the earth note is the softest I think I've ever smelled it in any BPAL scent. It's too bad that I don't get along with earth notes because this is the prettiest blend with earth notes that I've tried.

This scent is so wonderful. It smells like snuggling up with a delicious hot drink on a cold winter's day, with a few cookies sitting there next to the coffee mug. It's such a comfort scent. I really love this, and it's the perfect winter scent for me. I'm going to have to make a special order before the Yule scents come down just to make sure I get a bottle of this. Maybe two.

Wow! Very, very sweet. And a little bit chalky right there at the beginning, kind of like those sugary candies that have that powder in the bottom of the bag. I don't smell any flowers in this, or charcoal/chimney dust. Just a very sweet candy scent. It's kinda cute.

In the decant circle I was in for Yule blends, I tacked on a decant of this at the last minute. At first I wasn't going to try it because there's a few no-no notes in there, but I was sort of swayed by the mention of tuberose. So I decided to give it a go. Well, I guess I could have passed on it after all. The sage in this one is just too strong for me. (Sage is one of my no-no notes.) Gives the scent a dry sharp-ish herbal scent that's pretty much exactly the reason why I avoid sage. I like the flowers in this, although the plumeria isn't my favorite. But the sage will keep this from being the sort of floral scent that I like to wear. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

This is very pretty. It reminds me of a sacred scent, which is appropriate. I think it's the olive oil and fig that makes it smell that way to me. The amber makes it pretty, and the beeswax apparently does not do that weird play-doh thing to me that honey does. Chanukkiyah is certainly a winner for me out of the Yule scents. It's pretty without being overly foody or overly feminine. I like it a lot.

This one doesn't smell right on me. It smells like bubblegum right at first, and then it goes all weird. Okay, don't laugh, but it smells like a dentist's office. Your guess is as good as mine about why that is, but the very instant I get my nose close enough to my arm to smell this, I get a mental image of the dentist's office. Maybe it's because of that horrifying fruit-flavored stuff they make you swish? I don't know. But I do know I definitely can't wear this as perfume. It smells much better in the imp than it smells on my skin, so I'm sure it's just my skin chemistry up to its usual dastardly misdeeds.

Up close, it alternates between a lemon scent and an orange scent. From a distance (for example, the distance from my nose to my arm when my arm is in its normal position) all I smell is lemon verbena. It's kind of a bright, fresh lemon and not a cleaning-product lemon. But, yeah. Lemon. Heliotrope is one of my favorite floral notes, and I wonder if that's what's making this lemon verbena smell a little brighter than it usually does to me. I'm just too old and jaded and crotchety for lemon scents, though, so although I think this scent is pretty enough, it's not one I'd wear.

I've put off this review for a long time because I don't like writing bad reviews. Unfortunately, I have no choice here. Vetiver usually smells good on me. Kind of like a husky, reedy, smoky, tall grass scent. And I almost always like violets. However. This combination? Smells like band-aids on me. Except sort of worse. My husband sniffed it and said, "Disgusting." I honestly have no idea what my skin is doing to this oil, but I do know that it hates Saturnalia for some reason. I think there must be a couple of different kinds of vetiver that the Lab uses because it seems like I can remember having a problem with vetiver on another occasion and being surprised. Whatever this one is, it's the one that doesn't work on me.

First I probably should say that I really like all the Orisha blends. A couple of them aren't my personal taste as perfume, but I can still appreciate the artistry and respect that went into them. They're all very well done. This one smells mostly GREEN to me at first. And yep, that has to be all caps. It's a bold scent. I think it smells great with the shea. I normally don't like green scents all that well because they're a little too harsh for me, but the shea balances out the herbs. It kinda reminds me of aloe a little bit -- green but smooth. As it dries, it gets less green but stays sweet, and it seems like there's some sort of water scent. Not like a pond or anything, more like rain. It's the type of scent I'd have to be in a particular mood for, but I do like it.