tajana

In the Imp: The tonka/benzoin leap out at me, as well as a bit blackberry. I had no idea what notes were in here before I tested it, and I was surprised something so foody had a male name! Wet: Woah, it's nutty. I guessed there was hazelnut in here, it smells like roasted nuts! But I guess that's just the benzoin and tonka conspiring to create a smoked, vanillic tone. After that initial blast dies down, berries, a hint of citrus, and some lilac cologne peeks out. Nary a trace of myrtle to be found, thank goodness, but there's a hint of foliage at the edges here. I'm really dissecting this scent for all its worth, but truth be told if I just stop sniffing and wondering, it smells like some kind of weird cookie. It's complex (huff, huff, sniff!) but for all that complexity, the end result isn't exactly sophisticated! Dry: Lilac cologne and lime are what dominates the throw for a little while, but it smells like nutty caramel is swirled in there, and a smear of blackberry jam over some dark green leaves and a hint of wood. It smells like an friendly, young, but decidedly old fashioned gentleman having a breakfast picnic. I imagine he's wearing a ruffly white shirt and there's a spring breeze. Ahahahaha. This fades down to a sweet, agreeable perfumey scent after some time... the lilac musk is super dreamy. It's curiously androgynous, but rendered a bit girlier by my skin's tendency to turn up the dial on the creamy sweetness. Overall: This was a LOT of fun to test, thank GOODNESS someone took it upon themselves to frimp me with this. Lysander exemplifies what I love about a new package of BPAL: surprises, and involved, fun olfactory adventures. It's not necessarily a perfume I want to wear around because the opening stages are so weird... but I don't want to let go of this imp... it's so FUN, damnit! I will probably be wearing quite a bit of this at home, and maybe I'll work up the courage to wear this any old where. I reaaally want to try this on my boyfriend now... a scent like this will either be a trainwreck or pure magic on him!

Wet: ROSEMARY. Rosemary, when it's the focal point of a scent, just makes me think of what I associate rosemary with most strongly... roasted chicken. The bay doesn't dispel this very savory, in-the-kitchen feeling. There's an undercurrent of something darker and cologney to it, but only if I try really hard to notice it. Dry: A fleeting bit of lemon pokes through the thick rosemary and bay on the drydown, and by god, that squeeze of lemon just enhances the feeling that Nero isn't really perfume at all, it's some sort of liquid seasoning you'd slather onto grilled or roasted chicken. I can practically TASTE the chicken. Aaaaah! I can't tell if there are peppercorns in here, or if I'm just mentally adding them because they belong to this smell. The strength of scent memories can't be escaped. I let this sit on my skin for a while longer, and eventually the herbs balanced out more with the pine... so, it's either dinner in the woods, or it's Christmas dinner. Not a big improvement. Overall: It smells almost like masculine cologne, but mostly it smells like seasoning for a chicken. One of the weirdest and most evocative BPALs I've tried to date, but I don't think that this is quite what it was SUPPOSED to smell like.

Wet: Starts off a bit green, but the green almost instantly softens up to reveal a soft floral. Within a minute or two that kind of just mashes into this sweet coconut musk. I'm not getting anything spicy or winey or dragon's blood-sy out of this, which I was expecting... Dry: Baby powder at the beach. A dusty smell that I can parse as being composed of some floral (orris) and musky tones, but which mainly just comes across as bland powder mixed with coconut flakes. Surprisingly, I did not not get anything "red" that I've gotten out of any of BPAL's other "blood" scents for a while. About an hour later, I caught a few wafts of something like dragon's blood and coconut, and realized it had to be Blood Pearl. Overall: I was pretty hopeful about this because I like coconut, but this just falls flat on my skin.

In the bottle: Carnations! Pretty much pure, single note BPAL carnation, with a decidedly soft pink cast. Wet: Fresh cut carnations, instantly overwhelmed by a surge of dusty pink sugar. I'm reminded of a piece of fresh, sugary bubblegum, right out of the wrapper, covered in a soft pink dust. Dry: The carnations sweeten up and lose their spicy edge. I'm left with an uber-girly poof of sugared pink. Floral only the vaguest sense, this smells more like candy to me. It's all cotton candy and unabashedly girly pinkness, with nothing weighing it down. The throw is pretty powerful, and it lasts and lasts. Pink pink pink that won't let up. Overall: I was inspired to snag a bottle of this unsniffed after the success that was Hod. Both are carnation-y as it gets, and yet they're very different. While Hod plays up the spicy aspect of carnation and offsets it with rich creaminess and a bit of resin, making for a comforting, ageless scent, Pink Moon takes a super teenage sugar high approach to carnation. It's not bad, but as with Plastic Pink Flamingo, the scent ends up feeling kind of vacuous. I wish there was something more herbal, sharp, or tangy to offset the pleasant pinkness, because as it stands, this just doesn't capture my interest.

Wet: In the imp it smells like sharp wood that makes me think of splinters. Fresh on, there's wood, alright, with a leafy-grassy-herbal overtone. However, there's also a cold but sweet mentholated blast, similar to the one I also found unwearable in Kathmandu. Dry: After just a few minutes, the menthol backs off, thank goodness. It feels like there might be a bit of mint in here, too. The cold notes fade out with time. Some evergreen notes at first, probably pine, and then eventually a dusty, white sandalwood dominated scent with an herbal background. The herbal notes aren't agreeing with me very well. This scent feels stiff and very dry, almost powdery. Overall: I don't like the wet stages, and the dry stages aren't thrilling me. This feels masculine in a mass produced, generic way. This has woodsy, natural notes in it, but somehow the combination ends up feeling a bit fake. Oh, well, can't win them all.

Wet: Mostly lilies and cypress, with some other stuff hiding in the background. The lilies, as usual, are halfway between floral and green in nature. There's also a hint of something a bit sour. Dry: The cypress backs off a little, which is good news... I've found that cypress tends to amp unreasonably on me. The oak acts as a deep wooden base, but what mostly comes through is a leafy scent with a high floral edge. It smells like fallen autumn leaves, crushed and then dampened by rain. It's realistic smelling, but perhaps a bit too true... I smell like I just rolled around in a pile of dead, wet leaves. The effect doesn't stay long, though. Within half an hour I have to press my nose up to my wrist to sense a light woody-green, faintly floral smell that wouldn't be out of place in you standard bar soap. Overall: I was interested in this for ages, so I'm glad I finally got to try it and satisfy my curiosity. Ulalume is a pretty realistic take on the scent of a forest, and the lilies give this a feminine touch, but I prefer my vegetative smells to be alive rather than decaying.

I wore Cheshire Moon last night to ring in the new year with something fun and celebratory. I was glad to see 2009 go! On the first day of the new decade, I'm wearing Tristran. It just feels right.

Wet: This smells surprisingly... distinctive. But not in a pleasant way. It's harsh and cold. Cypress, sourish myrtle, high florals, smashed greenery, and dusty smoke. It smells dark and shadowy. Dry: The woods are light and cutting, and actually seem to back down with time, or at least blend into the florals to create a powdery aura. I can pick out some violet in here, but apart from that it's difficult for me to tell. There's definitely at least one sort of flower in here that's disagreeing with me, or at least the combination of everything doesn't work for me. House of Night is blending into a sweet-and-sour, smoky floral powder that makes me sneeze when I sniff too closely. Overall: Well, I think it fits the poem. Tons of heavy shadowed foliage and flowers. But I have no desire to wear it. This perfume is just too dismal and musty for me, it smells antiqued, ghostly, and unsettling/unpleasant.

I second the rec for Ultraviolet, it is extremely cold smelling. Eucalyptus, mint, violets, and neroli. On me, it starts out with a gust of ice queen chilliness, and dries down to frosty sugared violets. It doesn't work with everyone, but I think it's worth a try. It's a very striking scent.

Wet: I'm taken aback by how delicious this smells. I'm usually bored by the super-vanillacentric smells, or else turned off by their excessive sweetness. But this smells like creamy vanilla spun sugar and marshmallows. There's a hint of freshly startched cotton, and against all my predictions, I want to roll around in it. Dry: A caramelized sugar overtone sullies the whiteness, but it stays pretty good for a while, and I start worrying that I'll have to track down more of this. But then... things go downhill. After twenty minutes or so, it's fully settled down and it's turned for the worse. The cream comes out, I think. Only it translates as curdled milk and butter. The cotton note amps up simultaneously, and it's weird when it's so prominent, like some sort of fabric softener. So, greasy butter smeared laundry with some tasty vanilla confection off to the side. Hrmph. Actually, as time wears on, the tasty vanilla is getting kind of... plastic. Overall: Starts off delicious, ends up yucky. Oh well.

Wet: Green but gently woody. It just smells like bright green leaves and springy twigs, herbal but not overmuch. Absolutely lovely and alive smelling. I'm guessing that's coriander, mint, a hint of lemon, and woods conspiring to create that effect. It's only slightly sweet, definitely airy and refreshing (crisp coolness from the mint), and has a gently, barely there floral accent courtesy of rosewood. Off to a great start! Dry: I've never tried a scent with redwood before, but I am getting some truly lovely, interesting woodsiness out of this that I'm blaming on redwood. The rosewood and white sandalwood add to the beautiful bouquet of woods, which are smooth and not at all sharp, and are meshed perfectly with an earthy hint of patchouli, a fresh infusion of greenery, and a gently creamy quality from the tonka. It makes me think of a late spring day in a deciduous forest, but it's not too literal: it has a subtle sweetness and smells recognizably like a perfume rather than just a scent experience. After a long while on the skin, it's a fresh woodsy smell, with residual hints of cool mint and green. Not much throw, and not the best lasting power on the block either. After four hours all that's left is skin-close tonka and warm wood. Overall: I've been on a light, airy but herbal, outdoorsy scent kick, something that would remind me of meadows and forest clearings, but all of the ones I've tested have been lacking. THIS is what I've been looking for! It's breezy, androgynous, and young. I've got my hands on a little bit of this, but I will certainly be upgrading to a full bottle before long. This is gorgeous. It's not a loud scent with a lot of throw, but it is memorable...it smells quixotic yet exquisitely comfortable. The copy for this is perfect: "dust on your trousers, mud on your boots, and stars in your eyes". :love!:

Hm, speaking of root beer... Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener! Total root beer. Another somewhat foody scent that might work would be How Doth the Little Crocodile... it progressed from girl scout cookie thin mints in the bottle, and once applied turned to mossy chocolate bark and then to a greened up cedar-vanilla. Kind of tasty without being girly. I think I second the rec for Schrodinger's Cat, too... I'd definitely include a citrusy scent in the set, and that one has a fun name to go with it. Tweedledum would also be a good alternative, it's not citrus, but brightly fruity without being patently feminine. The School-House is an LE that popped to mind immediately... not for the name, but for the dandelion field scent that totally reminds me of childhood. If you don't have access to that one, for some reason I thought Ochosi had a similar vibe. The slight soapiness that might be implicit in a light, grassy or even aquatic scent seems like a good and wearable option for a young boy. A Blade of Grass is startlingly realistic crunchy leaves and recently mown grass on me... kids might get a kick out of that.

Wet: Strawberry bubblegum (I guess that might be lotus), with an added squirt of sour light citrus and perhaps a touch of cherry. This pretty much smells like a piece of artificially flavored, sugary bubblegum tastes when you first start chewing, but there's a fleeting hint of green herbs and some spice lurking in the depths. Dry: It stays intensely sugary and juicy for a while. A hint of cinnamon occasionally shines through, but this is mostly pink bubblegum and rock candy with some tartness to cut the sugar. It has a fair bit of throw while it lasts... but it really fades fast. Overall: I can see the appeal, but I can't see myself wearing this around. Off to the swaps.

Wet: Clean, bright lily of the valley and a smack of strong rose... the sort of rose that instantly turns acrid and sharp and wrong on me. There's also a hint of depth from the incensey notes that's just starting to express itself. Dry: Rose and churchy incense. The rose smells pretty unpleasant, but not totally awful this time, perhaps because it's dried out a little by the ecclesiastical smelling incense. The frankincense is the strongest note, but overall, this turns into a dusty churchy rose powder. Overall: Not a match for my skin chemistry or personal preferences, but I think it hit the concept spot on. It really brings back childhood memories of going to church.

Wet: Weird. It really DOES smell fuzzy, hairy, and purple. Maybe there's violet leaf in here? And actual violet flower. Gardenia too, maybe. Fruit for sure, grape and maybe even apple, perplexingly. The result does smell rather purple and unpleasant. Oh, there's fresh lily at the center of it all, with the healthy dose of "fresh cut green stems" that I usually get from lily fragrances, but there's a lot more going on than I would have expected. Dry: There's still this weird fuzzy feeling that I can't quite place and is frankly weirding me out. The greeness of lily fades, leaving me with the visual image of purple flowers with hairy, light brown stalks. Within twenty minutes it gets less weird and more of your standard white floral, not heady at all. Before much longer it's poofed into light, clean floral powder without much throw. Overall: Not as cloyingly sweet as I feared from the description, but after the initial burst of weird, it turned rather forgettable.

Wet: A tart fruity smell, mostly blackcurrants and plum. I'm guessing quince might be responsible for some of the fruitiness as well. This is pretty straightforward so far. Dry: Continuing fruitiness, primarily prune/plum. The ginger is only a slight spicy quality lurking beneath the surface, and is only identifiable as "ginger" rather than "generic craft store spice" if I huff closely. Yeah, craft store candles aren't a good thing to think of when whiffing a perfume. After a while this reminds me of a particular plum spread I've eaten before, spiked with a bit of booze. Rather delicious and reminiscent of something you'd find filling a cookie or pastry. I didn't get any trace of booziness until at least thirty minutes after application. The throw in this is pretty strong. Overall: Not too different from Frumious Bandersnatch. Unfortunately this reminds me first of cheap candles and then of jam. I'm not a big fan of straightforwardly fruity fragrances, so your mileage may vary.

Wet: I slathered on a fair amount, but this is still pretty faint. Cypress, mostly, with some florals, mostly rose. Dried rose seems to behave better on me than a lot of other rose notes. Dry: As this dries down, the patchouli deepens the cypress, and the fig steps in to sweeten things up, but stays relatively subtle. The rose and probably the cyclamen are still present, but the floral aspect is secondary to the woody one. Tonka strengthens slowly but surely with time, and in its death throes, Nemesis is primarily tonka with undertones of cypress and the faintest hint of patchouli, tart rose, and round fig. Ginger never showed up to play, which is a pity. Overall: Not bad, but it's just another wholly inoffensive, well balanced floral-woodsy fragrance. I'm sure I'd like to catch a whiff of this on someone else, but it's not really shining on my skin or capturing my imagination.

The scent of warm, glowing jack o’lanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove. In the Imp: So buttery that I'm afraid to put this on. Wet: Buttery, buttery pumpkin with fruity peach. I only dabbed a tiny bit on, so it actually smells kind of good, really tasty. But if I had applied any more, the increased potency and throw would make this seriously nasty. Dry: I usually don't like peach very much, but swirled up in the dry spice of clove and delightfully strong nutmeg and autumnal pumpkin, it's very nice. The intense, almost nauseating butteriness has eased up, but this is still very much the smell of a pumpkin dessert or pumpkin candle. Lots of throw, tenacious lasting power. Overall: The initially assault of buttery doom actually lifts to reveal a pleasant enough scent, but it's too straightforwardly candle-like or dessert-like for me to want to wear it as a perfume. I can see why it's popular, but I won't be keeping Jack around.

Wet: The first impression I get is yellow-orange, light and tasty, almost like sweet citrus. As I take a deeper whiff, it's easier to decipher. Bright, sweet, creamy fruitiness with an herbal and grassy overtone. Dandelion, sage, and fig are definitely here. Dry: This is so well blended. The sage, dandelion, and chamomile are all distinguishable if I huff, but they're just this great garden-y scent that floats over the spicy fig. This smells pretty much like the same fig in Strangler Fig: the creamy, sticky green-brown fig that lends itself well both to the dry spiciness of clove and the grassy, herbal notes. The dandelion in particular is delightfully true to life. I have no idea what balm of gilead smells like, but maybe that's adding to the character of the fig. After a longer while, it's just sunlit fig spiced with clove. Overall: This comes off as a more complex rendition of Strangler Fig. Also, where Strangler Fig has a tendency to go powdery, this one remains juicy. I love this and will cherish my decant. I wouldn't mind acquiring more of this, either.

Wet: Oh no. Fresh on, this is spiced, skanky honey. When honey goes bad on me, it's usually just sweet weird powder. This time, though, it smells like, um... sex. Not idealized sex, like, nobody took a shower recently and this is the sweaty aftermath. Dry: The sex-smell lightens up on drydown. The sweet, vanillic smokiness of benzoin glows pleasantly alongside a hint of gooey caramel. That's an OK smell, but it's not nearly good enough to absolve for the continuing wafts of sex. The red musk is very present, and sharply so... this is pretty much lab fresh, and would benefit from some aging. Right now, it just smells vulgar. After forty minutes this has settled down into a generic spicy-sweet resinous musk. Overall: I get the feeling that my review would be less negative in a few months or a year, when this has aged a bit, but for me, it's not worth waiting and hanging on to the imp, since the gourmand-oriental this promises doesn't excite me in the first place.

Wet: Green grass, recently mown. And orange and red leaves... definitely autumnal, but not damp and rotting... dry and crunchy. Huh... this is strikingly true to the official description. Dry: Doesn't change much. Maybe the leaf and grass accords kind of mash into each other more, and the sharper edge of the grass smoothes out. This smells clean, but also crazy authentic... seriously, this really smells like an autumn day. It fades fast, though. It's barely there after an hour. Overall: It's really cool that a smell like this can be bottled and worn, but I guess in the end, I don't particularly want to smell like a pile of leaves on grass.

Wet: Goes on like baby powder. I guess that's the effect of ylang ylang/violet/frankincense blending together. Often like the latter two notes, always hate the first, and can see how their union would produce an ungodly sneeze-inducing baby powder. Dry: I guess there might be hyssop and grave loam in here, but honestly all I'm getting is vaguely floral baby powder, white and chalky and poofing in clouds tinted by the special sourness of evil ylang ylang. After twenty minutes the sweet baby powder has a bit more nuance... the violet is stronger, which is pretty, and maybe I can even catch a hint of loamy earth, which is pleasant, but you know what else is coming on strong, soapy, and acrid? Ylang ylang. Overall: A pretty yucky powdery experience, courtesy of ylang ylang and its conspirators.

Wet: This is like a more guyish version of the eponymous Carnaval Diabolique. Lemon verbena with coconut creaminess and a wisp of smokiness. There's also a healthy dose of fig, yum. The fig really blends into the coconut, which melds well with the verbena. It's an easy combination that smells good and clean, if a touch generic, on the skin. A sprig of herbal lavender makes it smell more androgynous or masculine than it would otherwise. Dry: Verbena and lavender infused coconut with an incense-smoky and musky base. The fig is very much present as well. It gives this a round hint of sweetness, but I never got any plum out of this. After an hour all I can detect is vetiver musk (not an overpowering or aggressive vetiver) with a bit of fig and a trace of coconut. Overall: It's nice enough, but it's not bowling me over.

Wet: Rosewood with a hint of cherry and a good dose of cool lavender. Reminds me of a manlier Red Queen so far. For an instant the scent is pleasant and interesting, but then the redness with the chill purple of the lavender just smells weird and incongruous to me. Dry: As it dries down it reads less and less like rosewood and more like "ROSE", which is bad, since rose is... not so stellar on my skin. It's powdery and a bit acrid, and paired with the lavender especially, makes for a bad-perfumey experience. After it's all dry and settled on the skin, I get mostly sharply powdery lavender-rose with a vague creamy-fruity red musk backdrop. Overall: I can see some potential in it, but it's not for me. The throw stayed pretty strong, so I had to wash it off within an hour to avoid getting a headache.

Wet: GREEN! Like radioactive green tea! Fruity and bright, mostly tart green mango I'm assuming, with a bit of creamy sweet fig to take the edge off. It's fun. Dry: Figgy, earthy patchouli infused with the freshness of green tea and the sparkle of green mango. After a while though, it's just fruitchouli. Not much throw anymore, sits pretty close to the skin. Overall: I'm so torn! I love this for the first fifteen or twenty minutes, it's fabulously green then. But when it sits on the skin for the while, it's just another fruity patchouli. I'm undecided as to whether or not I want to keep this around (I bet this would age perfectly well) or just send it along, as I have similar scents in my collection already.