filigree_shadow

Clean-smelling gardenia. For me, gardenia is definitely the dominant note, but it's softer than gardenia usually is. It's a bright, very white-smelling scent. I honestly can't get past the "clean" associations, though. Smells like freshly washed linens to me.

Add me to the list of people who tried this with half-hearted expectations and ended up with a pleasant surprise.

 

The imp sniff was a sort of bitter, planty dark fruit scent. Intriguing. On, it smells like a dark, leafy fruit scent. More complexity than I expected -- it smells deep. The grape worried me when I read the description, but it's not bad at all. Mostly it just seems to be making the scent smell a little juicy, but not really grapey or like wine.

 

This scent is very BPALy. It seems to be reminding me of other BPAL perfumes I have known and loved. I really like it. Very good throw, too, and long-lasting.

I really liked the imp sniff for this one, so I slathered it all over the back of my hand to do this test.

 

It's really big on apples for the first few minutes, but then it settles down a little bit. Still has a tart, crisp apple scent, but I can smell the caramel better. It smells quite creamy underneath the apple.

 

It's a sweet, happy scent. A little musky, but mostly playful.

 

This one's not going straight onto my bottle wishlist, but I will definitely keep the decant and try wearing it a couple of times to see how it works for me.

I only smelled bubblegum in this for the first few minutes, and I wasn't particularly thrilled with that. It didn't last, though, and the scent that came afterwards was good enough that I decided to do a bigger test. (I wasn't sure I'd like this one so I just did a tiny test area at first.)

 

Once again, a big blast of pink bubblegum at the beginning. (Not artificial-smelling at all -- very true to a bubblegum scent.) Then that fades out but leaves a lingering sweetness over the top of a slightly metallic scent with a hint of leather. On me, the throw on this is barely there. I have the crook of my elbow plus the outside part of my arm covered in this oil, and I can still barely smell it. I like it, but for some reason it's quite faint on me.

Hmm. Vetiver and wine, plus a rather chemical-smelling haze. Eek. My skin has some problems with wine scents fairly frequently, and I don't think it likes this one. It has that acidic, bitter scent like wine after it's gone off. This one's not gonna work for me.

Rose otto tends to be good for me, and it's good in this. That combination of rose and calla lily smells particularly sophisticated to me. I think maybe that's partially due to the sage as well. I like the musk with it, and it seems like I can smell the barest hint of coconut.

 

So, mostly rose, but an elegant, musky rose.

Straight away, I smell a dark, honeyed peach. Then the honey seems to mix up with patchouli and deepen, and the peach gets sweeter.

 

When it's dry, it mostly smells the same as when it was wet: A thick, smooth scent that's a little dark but has a peach kick. I like this one!

Powdery soap. What the hell? How in the world does my skin make a powdery soap scent out of Parthenope? But that's honestly what it's doing. I don't seem to be getting moss or musk or oakmoss out of it -- I thought this scent would be much earthier. But, no. Softly scented sweet jasmine soap. The only way it morphs on me is that the floral notes get more heady, which isn't actually a plus for me.

I smell a sweet berry scent straight off, and then it turns into something that reminds me a whole lot of Dorian. I guess it's the tea and white musk. The florals that are in this are staying in the background quite nicely and really just adding a feminine touch to the scent.

 

I find this scent highly appealing. I'm not convinced I need to rush straight out and order a bottle because I'm a little worried that because I wear Dorian so much, if I started wearing this one it just wouldn't smell quite right to me. I'm going to try wearing it a couple of times and see how it goes!

Carnations and dry spices. Mainly clove. That's pretty much it, for me. I don't think I can smell any patchouli in it.

 

I'm not carnation's biggest fan, mainly because I don't tend to like spicy scents. The spices in this seem to be amping up the characteristics of carnation that I don't like.

 

Well, I didn't think that all of the ladies of the Grindhouse would be hits for me, but I wanted to try them all anyway. Unfortunately this is one of them that isn't going to work for me.

I'm not sure how I feel about this scent yet. Out of all the Wunderkammer, I expected I'd like this one the best based on the notes, and so far I don't think that's the case. (But, to be honest, I'm really loving the Wunderkammer as a whole way more than I thought I would, so... tough competition.)

 

Red musk is my favorite musk, but in this it seems drier than it usually does. Not as deep, and not as red. Kind of hazy. I think the parchment is making it seem dry, and the incense and brimstome are contributing to the haze.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like it. It's just not what I thought it would be. I think I'd have to test this a few more times to get a feel for it.

Hee, the mental image on this one is perfect. As soon as you sniff the scent you can completely imagine a shrunken head. It smells like very sweet leather, but also dried-up because of the herbs. The fern gives it a shady forest kind of feel, and it actually smells quite good with that leather scent.

 

My husband is so in love with leather scents that whenever I try to wear one I feel like I'm invading his territory, so I probably ought to hand this to him and see how he likes it. I know I like it.

Wow, this is awesome. The blood orange in this scent is fabulous. It is soooo not the in-your-face orange scent that I've smelled in other perfumes. It's just lightly playing around the edges and sweetening up the scent. Combine that with the gorgeous scent of lilac and resins, and it's definitely a winner.

 

When it's dry, it seems like it's mostly a dry, resiny, and lightly lilac scent. I definitely want to try wearing this a few times after doing this test. I think I might like it a lot.

I agree with ifinena that this scent reminds me of Gingerbread Poppet. It has the same sort of spices in it, and it's about at the same level of spiciness, except this one's a bit spicier.

 

Strangely, I get no huge overpowering blast of either cinnamon or clove out of this (like I usually do with those notes). Both of them seem to be rather gentle. I think they smell very good with the vanilla. Can't really detect the pine sap, but something about the scent seems deep, so I bet that would be it.

 

I honestly don't wear spicy scents all that much, but I definitely enjoy them on other people. I'd love to smell this scent on someone.

Well, it seems like I smell mostly fennel and/or anise (those two smell very similar to me), and it's also sweet. To me, this translates to licorice. It's not the exact scent of licorice because it's also dry and a little herby, but it's close enough that I don't think I'd want to wear this as perfume. I'm just not a big fan of fennel or herb scents.

 

But! I think this is a very unusual scent, even for BPAL, and I hope people who are looking for something unusual will give it a try. It is totally not offensive in any way, and I know it would be very at home on the right person.

The violet and mint combination is very pretty and clean-smelling. This is indeed a refreshing scent. It smells a little bit aquatic, but not too much at all -- that just adds to the clean-smelling part of the scent. There's the hint of something slightly boggy underneath it, but instead of dragging down the bright part of the scent, it seems to just make it more interesting. This scent has a lot of sparkle.

 

I like this one.

Teeth-clenchingly sweet and stinging jasmine. With a vague hair-spray-like aura.

 

Zero moonflower, sandalwood, black currant, or cardamom.

Now, if it had smelled like that combination, I bet I would have liked it. But oh no, not on my skin. On me, it's just jasmine.

Psyche may as well be a lavender single note, as far as my skin is concerned. Kind of a powdery, herbal lavender.

 

Sniffing it is making me sleepy. Seriously, this reminds me a lot of the Somnium blends.

Very pretty. The rose in this is exactly the sort that I like -- soft and velvety and not overpowering. The aquatic notes make it smell dewy, and the dry breezy notes give it a delicate quality that I like a lot. I think the velvetiness I get from it is probably from the peach blossom, and I think it's perfect.

 

I would put this one on my bottle list straight away except that after about half an hour I can barely smell it. That's too bad, because I really like it.

Lavender + jasmine = sharp floral. To me, anyway.

Not altogether bad, however. Which is weird, because I usually don't like those two notes at all. But this smells like a blue, sort of sweet jasmine. I like it better than most other jasmine blends, which are far too heady for me.

 

It's not the sort of scent I'd wear as perfume, but it's the type I'd like as a linen spray. It's smells pretty and crisp.

Yep, gin. And maybe a little juniper. Something sweet that reminds me of the Lab's Yule blends, so I'm gonna guess juniper. A slight hint of some sort of berry.

 

I've been testing a bunch of Tiki scents in the past week or so, and this reminds me of some of them. I bet if you layered this with one of the fruity BPAL scents you could sort of make your own Tiki-like scent. LOL, Tiki home brew.

Vetiver and ash. That's what it smells like to me. But it's not Sloth-like dank and musty vetiver, it's much smokier. It also smells... fresh. Fresh vetiver? Weird, I know. But that's what it smells like to me. It seems like there's some sort of gentle spice in there as well that's crisping up the scent a little bit. A slight metallic twang to it, too.

 

I'm not normally a big fan of these bonfire/smoke sorts of scents, but I think this is a good one.

This smells like a very traditional perfume to me. Maybe a little old-fashioned. But I kind of expected that something with narcissus and rosemary in it probably would smell that way. I can't say I smell much citrus scent in it -- mostly narcissus and ozone.

Don't get me wrong, I like it! It smells like a very good traditional perfume. A little bit haughty, and definitely on the elegant side. It feels like quite a sophisticated scent. The more I sniff it, the more I like it.

At first it smelled like a soft, almost creamy mint scent, and then the citrus in it kicked up and sweetened it up a lot. It still smells creamy to me -- like vanilla -- but with that super sweet fruity scent over the top. Sort of reminiscent of a Pink Sugar kind of scent. I don't smell herbs or lemongrass in it at all, which is a plus, for me.

 

Grapefruit is sort of a love it or hate it note for me, and in this one I love it. It smells clean and sparkly. Overall, the scent smells very pink to me, and very appropriate for springtime.

 

And now I'm kicking myself for not getting a bottle of it. I considered it fairly strongly at the time, but I just felt too broke to buy a bottle. But maybe I can hunt some down.

Eek. Woah, that's strong. I shouldn't have put on so much.

 

At first it's an incredibly sharp cedar scent, but then it's patchouli and cedar. I'm very picky about cedar and I like it only in a couple of blends. In this one it's just too much for me.

 

When it's completely I dry I actually enjoy it quite a bit. It smells like a dry, woodsy patchouli with a hint of spiciness. But I don't think I can get through that wet stage.