tajana

I usually love lavender, lotus is great in moderation, and spices are great! So, when I slathered on some Paris I had high expectations. When first applied, I get herbal, clean-smelling lavender. Within moments, the lotus amps up and mixes with the lavender. It has a slightly aquatic, genuinely pretty aspect, but it's so strong that it colors the whole scent with bubblegum. A shame! There's just a faint hint of spices here, I think nutmeg. After a few hours all I can sense is a bit of bubblegum lotus dusted with nutmeg. It also has a powdery quality. As usual with very lotus-heavy scents, I still find it oddly appealing... despite or because of... its bubblegumminess. Still, though, I'll be reasonable and pass my imp on to a new home.

Wow, I've been having good luck with florals lately. Maybe my tastes are shifting a bit? Anyway, Noche Buena is very good indeed! At the outset, it has a fruity tone, perhaps apple, perhaps a squeeze of some sort of citrus, perhaps it's just the sweetness of the floral medley... but it's nice and tart and offset with a bit of fresh, vibrant green, so in the opening stage it calls to mind the ridiculously cheerful feel of one of my favorites, Aizen-Myoo, without actually sharing any notes in particular. It is really lovely. The sage doesn't really stand out to me. As it dries down, the greenness stays true, like the green stems of flowers that were cut just moments ago. The florals bloom, and it's a bouquet of greatness. Lush, sweet plumeria (I was just sniffing some plumerias the other day at a greenhouse!), fresh lilies, velvety tuberose, a touch of chrysanthemums... lots of florals that behave on me, none that amp or warp! After hours of wear on the skin, the flowers have died down and melded with the incense for a light, close-to-the-skin, pleasantly smoldering scent. It's very nice, and feels appropriate for spring and summer, yet I'd totally wear it in winter if I needed something jubilant and bright. I don't usually want to smell like straight-up florals, but for days that I do, I can reach for Noche Buena. This is definitely a keeper.

For some reason I let a partial frimp of this roll around untested for a while. When I finally popped it open and tried it on, my initial reaction was unpleasant. Wet, it's aggressively herbal and green, with a surprisingly strong parsley note and a lot of mossiness. It calms down as it dries down. The chamomile and gardenia get stronger, sweetened with a bit of honey, but not too much. After a while the sharp green edges melt into increasingly powerful frankincense. Its smokiness goes strangely well with the fresh grassy and floral notes. After a couple of hours have passed it's resin incense with strongly herbal undertones and a drop of honey. It really is summery, but in an unexpected way... yellow-green meadows with wisps of religious incense. I like it more than I thought I would!

I was frimped generously with a partial decant, and for days I didn't even test it out of fear. What if I loved it? It would be too hard to find more. One morning I just decided to dab some on and see what Hellhound was about. I hadn't read the description for a while so all I could remember being in it was vanilla, brimstone, and some kind of booze. Applied to my wrist, there's a strong top note of high john essence I've come to recognize but still can't quite accurately describe (there in Magus and High John the Conqueror). Within a few seconds it smells like herbal bay rum. Then, vanilla infused bay rum. There's a bit of extra spice to this too, a bit gingery, which I love. After it's been on the skin for a while it starts to smell quite smoky, which I'm guessing is the "brimstone", melded with tobacco. The tobacco is kept in check by the vanilla and bay rum, so it stays an interesting and oddly good note, rather than spiraling out of control as it's done at least twice on me in other BPALs. I was hoping this would be just another vanilla blend, but, no... it's actually really nuanced (but cohesive) and very good. I bet this would smell great on a guy, too. I haven't smelled any perfumes that remind me too strongly of this. It lingers for a long time as smoky, vanilla-tinted bay rum. So, yeah... tragically, I do like this... I like it a lot. ETA: You know, this sort of reminds me of Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener, especially after a few hours of wear. o_o;

Ok, so... Fairy Market... I didn't search for this too earnestly because I'm very picky with floral blends, and fresh or grassy blends, too. But then I got to try it. This. Is. Wonderful! Freshly applied to my skin, it's sugary delicate pink flowers and a tiny hint of creamy, marshmallowy goodness, fresh but girly. As it dries down a bit the bright green grass note shines through, wet and dewy... not like the harsh smell of freshly mown grass, but like the smell of a wild clearing where the plants grow freely. The grassy backdrop really enhances the flowers, which spring up delicately in shades of soft blue and lavender and pink. The creamy, marshmallow sweet candy smell is delicate and faintly fruity, faintly vanilla-tinted, and makes the throw of this scent smell quite delicious, but not in an overbearing way! There are whiffs of delicately sugar-coated lavender and... gah! I find it difficult to elaborate on this coherently. After it's been on the skin for a while the warm, golden incense shines through a bit more, balanced with misty floral notes. In summation, it smells like glitter and creamy candies strewn over a flower-coated meadow in mid-morning. Unfortunately, this seems to be one of those fickle scents on me. It needs to be slathered to come through, and even then, it often poofs all too quickly. I may eventually get a bottle, but it wouldn't be the most cost effective of purchases.

It starts off with pretty much all honey. As it dries down, the honey darkens with shades of musk spiced with a dash of carnation. The magnolia blooms later, lush and sultry, ushering in a strong sandalwood note with just a bit of smooth patchouli lying beneath it, but the honeyed skin musk remains the heart of the scent. I half expected this to go powdery and weird, what with the prominent honey, but it doesn't! It's just a dark, sensual, complex musky perfume that invites you to lean in and take a deeper whiff... after an hour it's dark amber-colored (not the resin, just the color) honeyed musk, cut with a bit of dry earthiness, swirled with a heady, intoxicating floral. Even later on I get way more of the sweet and warm, enveloping sandalwood... mmm amazing sandalwood. It smells expensive. It isn't overpowering, mainly because it has barely has any throw to speak of (it seems to have a bit more throw when I put it in my hair). It doesn't morph much but fades in intensity over time. It's sophisticated and a bit sexual... it shouldn't be an every day scent, but I'm often tempted to reach for this.

Wet on the skin, it has a cool, herbal touch... I couldn't determine what it was... it was very light, which makes it difficult to isolate, but it made me think of either eucalyptus and possibly a touch of sage. Mostly, though, it was lavender, lavender, soft purple lavender, feeling gentler and less sharp than it usually does. As it dries down the lavender infuses an amazing accord of marshmallow magic. Seriously, it smells like lavender rolled up with tons and tons of fluffy, pillowy marshmallows. Astonishingly, it does not go nauseatingly sweet on me. It just smells lovely, soft, and sweet, a simple but irresistible combination. I kept my wrist pressed to my nose and didn't want to stop inhaling, but I did fall asleep before too long. In the morning, the lavender has burned off, and while there's no throw to speak of... my wrist still smells like marshmallows. I will keep my decant handy for important nights that I can't afford to be an insomniac during, and when I can afford it I'll get a bottle so I can put this on my pillow and on myself whenever I want. It's am amazing smell, easily in my top 10 now... I love it to pieces, but it is so "bedtime!" that I obviously won't be wearing this any other time. ETA: It's past 1pm now and when I huff my wrist, I still distinctly smell like delicious marshmallows. I cant' bring myself to wash this off, though.

I tried this a while back and sold/swapped it away... I was frimped with this again recently, so I decided to give Sri Lanka another try! Wet it's mostly patchouli and dry sandalwood with even drier cedar. As it dries down the woods stay very dry and austere, and the patchouli stays relatively low, but the myrrh swells up and adds resinous sweetness further on into the dry-down. A little bit powdery, a little bit smoky. I'm also getting tiny whiffs of frankincense (olibanum?) here and there. I like the smell, but not as a perfume to wear on the skin... it feels like a smell for a place, not for a person.

Wet it's a lot of myrrh. Myrrh, myrrh, smoldering myrrh, with cinnamon spice. A bit like Chimera plus smokiness, minus whatever made that one smell like a baked dessert. When it dries down the cinnamon bark (definitely makes me think more of rolled up sticks of cinnamon bark rather than any other form) strengthens and I swoon a bit. The smoke rises, and it's blackened and dark and vetiver-y, it adds a bit of woodsmoke-esque edginess to the resinous dark myrrh, which is quite dry and less sweet than many of the other myrrhs I've smelled in BPAL. I'm sure a lot of people around me would read this as "powdery" (grumble, grumble) but I'm enamored with this, to me it smells like smoky incense studded with dry cinnamon sticks, with a lovely smoke and gold throw. The cinnamon eventually becomes just a whisper, but the effect of that dry cinnamon bark aspect on the myrrh lingers and keeps what would otherwise come off as a single note interesting. I have only a little bit of a partial decant to play with, and I think I really need to look into getting more! It's so warm and smoky and purr-worthy. ETA: I think I will wear this a lot during the colder months. It's great to have a spice perfume that's NOT foody or very sweet. The myrrhs are really intoxicating here, and every time I dab this scent on I have to fight to stop gluing my nose to my wrist. It goes through a not-so-awesome moment soon after it's wet, but after it is dry it is just too good. The waft is subtle, but warm and enveloping, and I don't get powder from this at all, just a smoldering, ridiculously compelling dark incense scent with the tantalizing suggestion of woody cinnamon bark. Awesome lasting power, too.

Starts off with citrus, all swanky grapefruit and lemon zest squeezed into chilled white tea. As the astringency of the citrus smooths out the sprig of cold, luminous mint comes into focus, harmonizing with one of the strongest white tea notes I've yet to smell in a BPAL oil. This doesn't smell like a mere tasty iced tea drink, oh no. It's got a lovely dose of sharp black leather, too. This is a relative of Severin at this point, but more feminine, expensive, sleek, and domineering. About ten minutes in the orchid comes forth with an elegant flourish, blending perfectly with a kush and teak wood cologne. The leather gets stronger as the citrus-mint tea gradually fades, but it retains a cool and fresh quality. The lasting power is pretty weak, but that's par for the course with citrus-tea blends. I can't speak as to how true this is to the spirit of Manhattan, as I've never even been to NYC, but I can say that this an urbane sort of perfume. I really enjoy it, and my imp will be in heavy rotation as long as the weather stays warm.

I wasn't sure whether to be excited or worried by Theodosius. I love tea, but jasmine hates me. The jasmine fear was enough to keep me from buying any amount of this, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to try out a little sample! Wet on my skin, though, I don't really get any hint of jasmine. Just soft vanilla and creamy "pearlescent" white musk... only the soft whiff of bergamot keeps this from smelling super girly. As it dries down the fougere peeks out just a tiny big, but this hint of dapper gentlemanliness is squashed by pearly soft white vanilla musk, infused with a splash of black tea, and on me this smells like an even girlier Dorian, if that was possible... Dorian, on me, smells extremely girly... you couldn't convince me it was androgynous, let alone masculine. Theodosius is even creamier. The jasmine finally shows up after about half an hour, but it's just a slight flavoring in the tea rather than something potent enough to spiral out of control and ruin everything. It finally dries down to a whole ton of creamy vanilla musk with an occasional hint of vague floralness. Not nearly as much tea as Dorian. It doesn't smell bad, just kind of... boring. I guess I'm safe from this particular CD perfume! Phew!

I didn't expect to like this so much! Lolita freshly applied surprised me. I must have mixed it up in my memory with another perfume because I expected bubblegum, but instead I got zingy, almost spicy citrus tempered with a vanillic, slightly cherry-ish tone... heliotrope? As it settled on on my skin it was alll lemon verbena and sweet orange, with soft almost powdery blossom notes and a touch of honey... definitely orange blossom and honeysuckle in the spotlight. It all smells like golden syrup and zesty orange hard candy. It dries down to mostly orange blossom, heliotrope, and honeysuckle, in that order. The magic is fleeting... in under an hour, it goes a bit powdery in the way that orange blossom is sometimes wont to do on me, the zesty citrus qualities are gone, and it's just a faded whiff of bland skin-close powder. It's a bummer because this really doesn't have very much lasting power on me... I wish I could trap it in the opening ten minutes and just keep it from developing further. (Well doesn't that sound creepy and appropriate for this particular scent.) This isn't at all similar to what I usually gravitate towards wearing as a perfume, but I kind of adore this. I'm confident that once I use up my imp I'll crave more, against all logic... and the imp will be gone fast, since this is a "reapply! reapply!" sort of deal. Bad news. Another issue besides lasting powder is that it's pretty sweet, and anything sweet with a fruity bent my boyfriend reads as "juicy fruit hyperglycemia". Can you tell I'm trying desperately to convince myself that I should just move on? Maybe I'll try it in a locket.

Cheshire Cat smelled OMGAWESOME in the imp, I grinned as soon as I whiffed it. Since I just used up my Aizen-Myoo, I needed a new imp-ful of bright citrus tempered with florals in my life! I've wanted to try Cheshire Cat for a long time. In the imp, it was playful grapefruit turned pink, cheerfully sparring with sleepy lavender and chamomile. On my wrist, it just went all wrong. It was profoundly bitter in a way that grapefruit never is on me, the red currant note smelled sickly and sticky, and then there was just more herbal-florally bitterness, and then the dark musk went powdery in a most discordant way... I wish I knew exactly what went wrong... I really expected to like this but I can't stand to sniff it long enough to figure it out.

Black Lily, freshly applied, is all blooming lily. Just the flower itself... there's little, if any, hint of the rest of the plant. It's a softly sweet floral, full-bodied yet not too heady, with just a hint of high tartness. It has a lovely creamy quality, and I'm not sure if that's just an exceptionally awesome lily note or if there's a dash of something like vanilla hiding out in the depths. This does feel darker than the brighter feel I usually get from lilies, largely because the lily seems to be steeped in a base of dark amber and/or musk, which does, as usual, go powdery on me, but in an appropriately perfumey and multifaceted way, since the floral notes retain their freshness and touch of creaminess for a good long while. Fresh it was really nice, but the dry-down is really nice too, soft and fairly simple, but dusky enough to be intriguing. I like this at least as much as I like the brighter Cobra Lily. Lilies, a floral I can love! I'm picky with florals, as even the pleasant ones often strike me as a bit dull somehow, but this imp's definitely a keeper.

When I opened up the imp I felt a little bit of trepidation. Rose! It rarely goes well on me. Still, I dabbed some on, as I just recently tried some enchanting florals. Freshly applied, though, the rose is quite demure and well behaved. Just a fresh cut, old fashioned rose. It does smell rather wistful... the petals smell delicate, there's just a tiny hint of green thorns, and a slightly powdery, dusty finish. The spices come through as dusty, too. It stays old-fashioned and Victorian smelling for a little bit, and if nothing else I have another instance of rose being rosy instead of deathly on me, but after thirty minutes or so the thing starts to go sour and unfortunate. Oh, well! This is a straightforward rose perfume, so if you like roses, go for it.

Wet, it smells... wet. Damp. It has a chilly vaguely sweet, vaguely mineral quality... when I read the scent description of "damp air trapped in limestone caverns" I totally got what Beth was going for! As it dries down on the skin, the next notes to unfurl are green, leafy, waxy, and dark. Then, floral notes, soft and clean, tropical, and undeniably pretty. The orchid is the only thing I recognize, but it's lovely! I wouldn't call this scent too sweet, but there's a sticky element lying low that I'm tentatively attributing to palm wine, offset by swirls of smokiness, and the prevailing deep greenness. Weirdly enough, after the oil has been on my skin for an hour I suddenly get a distinctly citrusy note that plays well off the damp jungle notes. The tail end of this scent's existence on my wrist is all smoky vetiver, wet leaves, and flower petals starting to curl up... it's a little sour in an bad way, which is really sad since up until the death throes, it's quite lovely. That's certainly the fault of my unforgiving skin chemistry... I bet this'll smell divine all the way through on a lot of other people. It's not terribly strong: I applied generously, but the throw is very light and it didn't last more than a few hours before it was a pale whisper. Apart from the wonkiness in the far drydown, this was really lovely to wear... it was very evocative, a real scent experience!

I got a testable sniffy of this... I couldn't smell much in the vial, so just I slathered on all the remains and hoped for the best! Wet, it's herbal and softly evergreen with a creamy shea butter base. It's fresh, leafy, grassy, with twigs and green wood... fresh, cooling, and sweet, with a gentle creaminess that melds in and softens all the edges perfectly. The throw is chilled and green, a bit "watery", but it works here. After half an hour it's still definitely present close to my skin, but the throw is pretty minimal. It's an interesting green scent, complex, a bit woody, a bit watery in a just-rained-on forest clearing sort of way... it's quite pleasant, but I'm not desperately in love. I wouldn't pass up a full imp, but I don't need a bottle. At the same time, I'd definitely recommend this to someone looking for a unisex fresh, clean, green scent.

A sharp stab of disheartening jasmine, acrid and powdery, and a whiff of something weirdly sweet and pink. But soon, the scent is replaced by sultry, lush magnolias and orchids! It's a luscious, full-bodied, and almost velvety floral scent, but the jasmine sneaks back around the edges, threatening to turn nasty. In the end, it was the rose that leaped out of nowhere to do me in, with its powdery black amber accomplice, to turn this perfume into a mess of sour, stale powder. I loved the brief moments of magnolia and orchid, but this turned into something I couldn't stand to keep on my skin. Drat.

Tons of sweet jolly-rancheresque plum at first, a lot like Bordello! As it settles down on my skin the grapey and astringent wine note comes on strong, adding a distinctively boozey edge to the bonanza of succulent dark red and purple fruit. It's very sweet and hard candy-ish, but the wine, for once, is really expressing its alcoholic quality on me, which definitely makes this smell a bit more adult. Eventually this goes a bit powdery-perfumey with the champaca, and the sandalwood stays quite low in the mix, sadly. The blend of dry incensey powder and uncomfortably squelchy, juicy fruit isn't sitting well with me, but then, I'm not usually one to enjoy a lot of fruit and wine in my perfumes. As usual for scents I don't like (ha) the lasting power is very good and the throw is quite strong. I see the resemblance to Mme Moriarty others have mentioned, but this is much sweeter, simpler, and heavier on the fruit.

It's a little unfair for me to even post a review of this! I got this as a frimp, and with a name like "delight" I wanted to dive in without seeing the notes first. As soon as I popped open the imp, though, I got a bad feeling. Jasmine! I've tried too many BPAL perfumes featuring jasmine (it just FINDS me!) and it's killed the scent almost every time... I think it almost behaved a grand total of two times. Still, it DID almost work twice... so I steeled myself for the worst, hoped for the worst, and dabbed it on. Sure enough, wet on the skin, it was a blast of maybe-floral cat pee, acrid and sour, nauseatingly wet yet powdery. I didn't wash it off just yet, but I kept my wrist far away from my face, and tried delicately taking a whiff after about ten minutes. Unfamiliar floral cacophany, drenched in cat pee jasmine. Eesh. After twenty minutes, the rose bursts through. It's not the friendly variety, it's the harsh, stale, "I hate you, tajana!" variety. This is just disastrous with my skin chemistry. Rose and jasmine are generally harbingers of doom for me... if they aren't for you, chances are you'll find this scent a lot more delightful than I did!

Freshly applied on my skin, I'm all YESSSS because I love cedar, but cedar is typically a bit shy with me (it's a stellar supporting element in a lot of perfumes I try on, but it never really takes over for me). Magus, though... it's a blast of dry cedar! Well, the waft is all cedar and frankincense when it's wet. If I huff it, it's a lot of cedar, but also a lot of churchy burning frankincense, with a bite of galangal and an underlying sweetness. After it settles down on the skin for a while it's almost medicinal and camphorous smelling. Very odd. I'm not exactly sure what high john essence smells like, but I'm guessing that's adding the weird magical potion feel. As the minutes pass by the waft remains spicy and cedary, and it's really only when I lift my wrist closer to my face that I get the full effect of the wizardy potion smell. After it rests on the skin for a while it's less cedary, more sandalwoody, with residual frankincense and subtle, chilled herbaceous notes. I can't imagine wearing this just, out and about, unless I'm going to a creepy ancient library or off to watch a Harry Potter movie, but I feel like I want to keep the imp just for the scent experience. It's kind of comforting, in a weird way.

I impulsively and blindly bought a 10mL bottle of Fenris Wolf, and I think I'm glad I did! The notes listed looked quite good, and I want to test this on my boyfriend, too. It unfolds in a lovely way, first mostly splintered rosewood and a sprig of evergreen. As it dries down the amber comes out to play, sweet and glowing. I've definitely found that amber is a note I can't wear at all when its fresh, but some aged varieties are very nice indeed. The amber melds with warm musk, and later on a strong sandalwood presence infuses it. The musk has a slightly animalistic quality that I can't quite explain, and it's offset very nicely by the clean amber and crisp wood. After hours wear on, it's woodsy, subtly spicy red musk. I can't vouch for fresh Fenris, but the aged stuff is beautiful in its simplicity. The overall effect is very wild and wolfish indeed, with enough of a wood presence to feel delightfully foresty. It's a bit feral, but also a bit comforting, like having a big, furry, personal wolf guard that likes to snuggle with you but won't hesitate to bite the arms off of your nemeses, hehe. I feel like this would be appropriate at almost any time of the year, and would be equally at home on someone of any gender. It melds harmoniously with the skin, and it feels very natural rather than harsh and chaotic as the description and namesake might imply. When applied with a light touch, its throw is subtle, but its effect lingers for hours. It smells like a classic. ETA: This doesn't smell like much on my boyfriend... he says it starts off oddly plummy and then disappears before long. On me, most days it goes very sweet. The red musk and amber has aged to the point where it's all very smooth, quite sweet, and feminine in an earthy sort of way. I love the hint of evergreen forest that sticks through at the end but I don't know how I feel about the sweetness... it's a bit much for me sometimes.

The original Snake Oil was great wet, but dried down to vanilla and baby powder. Boomslang is similarly not too wearable on me, as it dries down to chocolate-vanilla. Still, I had high hopes for Green Tree Viper. I was delighted to be gifted with a two year old decant... so, for once and for all, if I don't like this, I'll probably never like any Snake Oil variant. It opens with fresh green tea and a dab of mint, which are the perfect accents to enhance and bring out the slight "medicinal" notes that Snake Oil has. There's a faint crisp bergamot presence but it burns off fast. Aged snake oil vanilla sweetens and softens the mint, and I'm reminded of mint ice cream, yum! As it sits on the skin for a while the mint starts losing ground to spicy-resin-vanilla, emphasis on the vanilla. Somehow the resins, patchouli, and spice that I expect out of Snake Oil stay very low in Green Tree Viper, and I just get the impression of "warm" vanilla melting into a bit of cool mint. It lacks the potent, aggressive throw of the other two snakes I've tried, but for a while I was thinking, "Hmm, I like this!" But after a while longer the creamy green ice cream touch wears off and I get slightly powdery vanilla. In summary, like every other Snake Oil type I've tried so far, Green Tree Viper starts out fantastically and goes downhill from there.

Wow, this one smells really lovely at first. Lightly minty tea, brightened with lemongrass, sweetened with a pinch of sugar. As it dries down, the lemongrass dissipates, the mint slowly fades, but to make up for those losses there's a trickle of pale golden honey, and the orange blossoms begin to bloom. Gorgeous: I could not stop sniffing my wrist! I see that a lot of people complained that this was weak and a quick fade, but I was satisfied with the potency and throw. I thought that I was in trouble, that I'd need to cough up the cash to secure a bottle of this perfume. However, after an hour passes Gennivre stops being so well-behaved. Honey has betrayed me yet again! The glorious tea is nowhere to be seen, and the honey, alas, has turned to powder.

Freshly applied it's sharp evergreen, pine with a sweetness that makes me think there's juniper, and a cold sharp edge that reminds me of mint or eucalyptus. The sweet, almost candy-like berries were a definite undercurrent near the beginning, but after half an hour the evergreen is secondary to the fruitiness. As it spends more time on the skin though, things get interesting. Ultimately this dries down into sweet berries with a dash of pine, a plank of light wood... and, unexpectedly, creamy coconut milk! It fades rather close to my skin after a while, but it smells really clean (the pine really hangs on and the berries are fresh, not syrupy) yet also very coconutty. I'm not quite sure what to make of this!