tajana

I usually go for something to counteract the heat (Hungry Ghost Moon, Aizen-Myoo, Ultraviolet), but for something that works "with the heat", I immediately thought of Hell's Belle: "Sweet, smoky and sensually wicked. A thick, steamy scent, truly sinister in its voluptuous sexuality. The perfume of a demon's favored consort, or of the devil herself. Oleander with wet, sweet mandarin, lush magnolia, a rush of deep musk and a touch of spice." The mandarin gives it a fresh top-note, but the combination of sweet magnolia, musk and spice make it a touch heady and very sultry... just like the lab description would lead you to believe.

I got this as a lab frimp and had no idea what it would smell like, but the color of the oil was fantastic. After I popped open the imp, it strongly reminded me of cinnamon candy, like red hots or "sizzling" jelly beans, without actually packing any heat. I applied a dab to the back of my wrist and instantly remembered that dragon's blood has that crazy color, and indeed it smelled like dragon's blood. Sweet and floral, slightly resinous, with lilac and whatever else goes into dragon's blood. The cinnamon red hots candy stays prominent, but strangely devoid of heat, like the sweetness just drowned out whatever bite it has. Weird, for a scent called wrath! After I looked it up and saw that the note description had cloves and black pepper I felt like my skin had cheated me. I didn't get much of either out of this scent! It lasts for a while, but it's not much more than nondescript red candy sweetness on me.

I was hoping for woods with a bit of flowers, but instead I get just a bit of rosewood around the edges of a big bouquet of lilacs, lilacs, more lilacs. It smells almost minty. It's not what I expected at all, but I sort of like it, because, well, I like lilac. After it dries down, lilacs, fragile dried roses, and a bit of dry, dusty dark wood. Teak and rosewood are particularly distinctive wood notes, and I definitely recognize them here. I wish they were a little bit stronger, because after an hour or so, it's almost all floral, mostly rose. Rose "turns" on me a lot of times, but it doesn't here, it behaves very well. The throw is light but the lasting power is very good. It does have kind of a creepy feel, and evocative of the concept, but I can't imagine reaching for this often.

Huh- I did not expect to like this at all. Apricot is a surprisingly pleasant note (for some reason I was expecting this to smell a lot like Fae, all over-sweet peaches and kind of yuck). It's bright and sharp, and also fresh, vivid, and tangy-sweet. I'd guess there's a dash of lemon in here, too. It melds well with the orange blossom, and this particular fruity-floral combo does indeed smell "willful" and "lovely", especially with the addition of the strong white musk component. I've become quite fond of BPAL's white musk: it's a light "skin" scent that's clean and airy yet a bit creamy-sweet, and here it really works to anchor the other notes. I'm not sure what to do with my imp yet because despite the fact that part of my brain says "hmm, no, too generic, I've smelled body sprays and shampoos like this", there's something strangely appealing about Katharina.

I think I tried this scent before, but I guess I never reviewed it. I got it as a lab frimp and decided to give it a shot again because I couldn't really remember what it smelled like. Freshly applied, it's really lovely. I am not generally a fan of florals but this is totally appealing. The ginger is wonderful at first, and blends beautifully with the soft white flowers, and it's almost creamy ginger, kind of like the way I wished Sudha Segara smelled, but it burns off fast and the ginger is indistinguishable in a haze of light flowers, orchids and lily-of-the-valley and other things I'm not well-versed enough to pick out. There's a touch of green to this as well. But it's a really frustrating scent because it is so very light! It stays so close to my wrist that it's not even worth applying. I feel like I'd need to dump out the whole imp on my wrist for the full effect. It's great, but faint. I wish my fresh laundry would smell like Pele.

Jasmine usually turns to a horror show on me, but tea leaf, leather, ginger, and bergamot are usually winners on me, and pink musk sounds like it can't go wrong! So, I was really intrigued, and a little worried, by the prospect of Hua Mulan. Miraculously, the jasmine does not turn into a monstrosity. It's actually recognizable as a jasmine flower, quite soft and pretty, not headache-inducing at all. Wet on the skin it's quite gentle, a light bergamot tea with flowers, and a tiny bit of zing from the ginger. It's almost fruity, somehow, and I'm wondering if perhaps the pink musk is responsible for that. It's very clean smelling. This scent has just a snap of leather, not nearly as much as I would have hoped for! For a "warrior", this sure smells gentle. On the dry down it's a pale floral musk with a subtle fresh leather edge. Decent throw, but a relatively fast fader.

Wet on my skin, it's light and heavy on that "green mandarin" note and freesia. As it starts to dry down I get more of the honeydew melon, contributing to a scent that does smell really airy, luminous, dewy and green. The other notes melt together, and it's hard to pick out one over the other, nothing really takes dominance. It's floral (freesia, mostly) and cleanly musky and a touch fruity, very light and appropriate for wearing during the summer. After an hour it's musky, a little sweet, and a little powdery: all white musk and amber with a touch of guava and wood. It smells nice, but definitely the most "commercial" out of all the BPAL I've ever tried! I'm not in love with it, but like a ton of other people have said, it would be good for enabling new people who do like department store perfumes.

Vice was a frimp whose list of notes didn't sway me one way or the other, but I gave it a shot, as usual! Freshly applied, Vice really is deep, dark, chocolate... bitter, not at all sweet, but reads like a chocolate bar to me, not like cocoa powder. The black cherry became more apparent as it dried, but so did the orange blossoms. The orange blossom amps up, and it just doesn't go well for me. The dark chocolate goes dusty with musty orange flowers, and the cherry adds a plastic tone. Nope. I'll pass on this one.

Umm... that's a tough review to follow! I am a huge fan of cedar and carnation, and often quite pleased with cloves, pomegranate, most incense, and many musks. However, roses often end up really awful on me. Nonetheless, I sprung for a decant of Ysabel. Freshly applied, there's a lot of velvety rose, with a bit of carnation on the side. The flowers are really lush and true, and for once rose behaves beautifully on my skin. Dark, resinous incense rises up after this starts to dry down, and it really takes center stage. It's the perfect accompaniment to the rose. The cedar and clove add a bit of extra bite, but not too much, as they are tempered by smooth, subtle musk and the faintest hint of pomegranate. After a couple of hours, it's mostly womanly red rose melded with clove-spiced, smoky musk. It's hard to for me to say much more about it, since it really blends into one cohesive scent that definitely feels "crimson" in character. Very regal. I could definitely picture Queen Isabella herself smelling like this.

Freshly applied to the back of my wrist, this is all bright, juicy mandarin orange! Unfortunately it almost immediately warps on my skin... lately I really have not been wearing orange notes well, and since the wet-stage is all mandarin it just doesn't smell very good at all. But as it dries down the mandarin orange settles down and blends with all the other notes and the effect is truly lovely. The sweetness and tanginess of the mandarin wind through a bouquet of lovely soft flowers (I mostly get the lilac and cherry blossom, mmm cherry blossoms, my favorite floral!) with a fresh, wet quality from the bamboo. The plum blossom is more evident after a little while longer, and as the orange fades, the plum blossom kicks up and fills the gap with its almost-fruity quality (but not as fruity as the plum blossoms as Lovers in a Ricefield). I'm often averse to straight-floral blends, as they often give me headaches or just smell kind of blah on me, but the florals here are soft, cool, and gentle, and they're strewn across a strong base of smooth but dry sandalwood. It's really nice, one of my favorite floral perfumes so far. But besides the brief wet phase of orange (it just goes sour and... off on me) Jingu has almost no throw on me, so I'm not keeping it for myself.

I wanted to try this if only to better get to know BPAL's apple notes. I was curious, but I can't say I was that hopeful, even with the glowing reviews some have left. It's all ripe, ripe apple in the imp vial. On the skin, it's ripe red apple with a dark, waxy leaf green quality. Much nicer than I expected from the almost crudely plain scent out of the imp. It all goes downhill from there, though. There's a faint floral note that gets mixed up in the dark green note I liked so much, and the apple gets progressively sweeter and mushier. And then... opium. Why did I ever want to try this scent, knowing that it had an opium note? It's not particularly strong, but it adds a poisonous, oppressive powdery-floral-smoke undercurrent that has never once worked out well for me. It doesn't morph much over time: it just fades to a weaker version of lots and lots of red apples with a bit of opium smoke and greenery. Not for me.

I wanted to get this because I love the way a forest smells, but haven't found the perfect foresty BPAL yet. Black Forest isn't the whole package, but it's quite nice for a while. Natural pine needles, sweet juniper, and woody cypress, in that order. It gets sweeter, muskier, and softer as it dries. It doesn't take long for the dark evergreen goodness to disappear in a cloud of slightly sweet powder with a slightly sour edge. Black Forest is probably drying to powdery doom on me because of the ambergris and black musk combo: don't have much experience wearing the former, but the latter occasionally turns on me. There isn't much more to say about it. I definitely prefer Thanatopsis for a good earthy pine/juniper perfume.

I was contemplating buying a bottle of this unsniffed, but I bought an imp of it first instead. Well, I should have jumped straight to the 5ml! This is my favorite of the Come and See series for sure, and really, one of my new favorites overall! The first time I wore this it reminded me a lot of Crowley, but it's not as sweet and it's $10 cheaper! (And I like it more than that perfume now!) Like Crowley, it's an ostensibly masculine scent that didn't fare too well on my boyfriend's skin! It did however, smell great on me. Wet on the skin, it's a rush of carnation and leather. Yummmm, carnation! After a minute I notice the underlying complexity: along with the wondruous duo of carnation and sexy leather, there's herbal sage and sharpened, cooling lavender, a bit of softening and sweetness from a not-too-pushy warm vanilla note, and a base of cool, clean musk. As it dries down cedar really shines, and it combines forces with the carnation note to create a lovely, natural spiced floral-woodsy scent that harmonizes divinely with the leather and herbal notes. I wouldn't mind even more prominent cedar, but then, I'm a cedar fanatic. After it spends some time on my skin, it predictably goes through a phase of being quite archetypally "cologne" like, but it smells like goood cologne. Sure it's on the masculine side of the spectrum, but my girly chemistry sweetens it up a bit and it also smells pretty and clean and irresistible. It eventually dries down to what more or less amounts to some gently vanilla-sweetened leather musk with an occasional whiff of spicy cedar. After a lot of time passes (i mean, hours and hours here... lasting power is pretty great) it's all vanilla, but that's what reapplying is for and my decant is significantly aged so I'm not sure how fresh Bow & Crown would behave. This perfume is SO well blended and seamless, and it features a ton of my favorite notes! It's the kind of thing I could wear every day. It's beautiful, powerful, and definitely has some sex appeal. I aim on getting a 5mL at some point for sure!

Aelopile fresh on the skin is verbena, verbena, verbena, and a bit of bitter citrus, mostly grapefruit and lemon, as far as I can tell. The oud gets stronger after a little while... oud is a unique wood note, earthy and kind of musky/animalistic somehow, hard to compare to other woods. Cedar is in slightly spicy, fresh form here, and it's on even footing with the oud, brushed by the verbena/citrus. The amber melts into the gaps, and it's high and a bit powdery on me. Somehow all of this comes together to form something that smells like the accompanying illustration and description! It's somehow metallic and cold. After the citrus notes burn off it's mainly oud and labdanum (I didn't notice it was there at all until an hour after application) glazed with translucent, barely sweet amber. An interesting scent experience, but not something I'm personally inclined to wear.

This is a really, really great perfume. In the imp it smells light and sweet: a really promising blend of resinous and "incensey" smells and honey. Freshly applied, it's already complex and mechanical and golden, vibrant and warm and gleaming. Tart lemon balm, sweet honeyed beeswax, and balsams swirl together to create a cheerful, almost candyish smell, punctuated by a bit of sharp, somewhat peppery bite and herbal white sage. After it sits on the skin for a while, those top-notes lighten up just a bit, a bit of a woodsy note peeks through, the frankincense wafts beautifully, and the sweet benzoin and soft balsams and exotic resins really take center stage. Fantastic scent. It's hard for me to pick it apart more and analyze it because it does not morph much at all after it dries down, it just very slowly fades (lasting power is very good), and because so many of the notes are unfamiliar to me. The overall effect is really beautiful. A golden honeyed, sweet, zingy, resinous scent. Unique, very evocative of the "steamworks" theme, and a new favorite of mine for sure. I think it's really gorgeous. In an attempt not to be too hasty, I'll use up my imp until it's dangerously low before buying a bottle, but I really think this'll end up being a 5mL buy. ETA: Would like to mention now, about a year later, that this is one of only two scents I have a back-up bottle of. It's just that good.

Fascinum was a colossal disappointment. On my boyfriend, it smelled like soap. Still, I figured it was worth a shot on me. I dabbed some on and was horrified that it immediately turned to soap. I can't place what brand, but it is certainly a very familiar scent. A little citrusy, a little spicy and cologney. I kept sniffing at it, hoping that it would suddenly get better after it dried, and while definitely smelled some inimitable saffron spice and great cedar wood (I totally wanted this for the cedar), they were only bit players embedded in the soapy mixture... I have a feeling "golden" musk smells a lot like plain old clean white musk on me. Which is great with some perfumes, but with the litsea cubeba (google tells me it smells like lemongrass or possesses a violet-like fragrance) it contributes to the clean but soapy impression. Eventually amber rises to the top, and like most ambers on my skin, it turns the whole thing to indistinct "golden" powder. Oh, amber, why are you always rebelling against me?

When I first apply it, it's all backwards: the base notes are hitting me before the lighter elements. All I get for a few seconds is patchouli, deep patchouli, further darkened with burnt vetiver, and then it's pierced by a sliver of dry white sandalwood and a breath of hazy white musk. The lavender and mint kick in like a sudden gust of wind, fused together into one sensation of herbal chill. I never get any discernible citrus for certain but it might be contributing to the sharp freshness. All in all, the progression seems quite appropriate for "death". After a while on my wrist, the floral notes kick in and meld with the lavender and pale blend of sandalwood and clean white musk, cutting through the subdued but dark vetiver/patchouli base. The result is a lovely man's cologne, clean but slightly earthy, light but solemn. Tragically, the perfume faded faster than I expected, and clinging close to my skin was little more than oddly bitter vetiver, geranium bourbon, a wisp of sandalwood, and the feeble remains of floral cologne.

Kathmandu smells really pleasing to me in the imp. Nice and woodsy. Freshly applied, it's a wee bit of saffron and cedar, but mostly jarring eucalyptus/menthol. Very cooling and strange, but if I keep the name in mind it makes more sense... gives it an outdoors, high in the mountains kind of feel. The lotus note is really lovely, it's light, a bit watery, and sweet. Too much lotus can be bubblegummy, but there's not enough of it here to give that effect. It just gives some unique floral balance to the dry woods and incense. Love the cedar and sandalwood, but the mentholated note is bothersome... it sticks around through the drydown, and it blends very strangely with some incensey smell I can't really parse (chiuru bark and spices, maybe). It's light, crisp, and almost wearable, but my sister had an extremely negative reaction (she said it smelled like a weird herb and car shampoo, ie. horrible) so I won't be giving Kathmandu another shot.

In the vial it smells tasty and chocolately. I love cocoa as a supporting element, but not as the main attraction, so I hoped that the sandalwood and myrrh would be louder on the skin. Freshly applied, it's very chocolatey, but the vanilla is subdued enough that it doesn't do the over-sticky-sweet thing that Boomslang is wont to do on me. As it dries down the sandalwood and myrrh amp up higher, but they're still very much fused with the cocoa and a touch of vanilla. It smells pretty much as I'd expect it to from the notes... really soft, warm, and unassuming. I like it well enough, but since I have a few more complex and less sweet cocoa scents around, I won't be revisiting my imp. I'd be more inclined to keep this around if I could subtract the vanilla and add another wood note or some spice. ETA: Yeeepppp... several hours after my initial application, it's almost interchangeable with Boomslang. Chocolatey-vanilla with something else lurking beneath the sweet surface. It would smell great if I actually wanted to smell like a delicious dessert, which I don't. Phenomenal lasting power, though... still going strong after eight hours.

Oh dear. I expected incensey goodness, but instead got nauseatingly sweet grape candy and a high, sour, sharp, floral powder. As it starts to dry down it gets even mustier and stays rather grapey. I really like patchouli but it's just not blending well with anything else in this particular blend. Not for me. On the bright side, it faded down fast so I didn't wash it off, and after an hour I noticed that it smelled much nicer: rich, earthy, glorious patchouli with a sweet touch of purpley grape. If I could skip the opening stage, I would definitely keep this.

The notes in Centzon Totochtin by themselves wouldn't have drawn me in, but I wanted to try this because I really like the other two Aztec excolo scents I've tried (Tezcatlipoca and Xiuhtecuhtli) and I'm fascinated by their mythology. In the imp I can smell the cocoa, rum, and wine. The wine scent floats highest to my nose and I got a little worried. But, wet on the skin it's really bitter cocoa, almost coffee-like. After a minute I can smell the sweet rum and some of the red wine sweetening up the cocoa, and I could swear there's a hint of roasted hazelnut here too. There's something kind of smoky about this scent, it's making me think of vetiver. That really tempers the sweetness of wine, which usually spins out of control and into sticky grape juice on me. I'm unfamiliar with the BPAL blood note but there is a sharp, tangy edge to this scent. After 25 minutes, close to my wrist, it's almost sickeningly sweet and yes, a little bloody. Violent yet decadent? But the throw is pretty intense, and it's got an intoxicating quality: it's a swirl of dark, smoky, unsweetened cocoa blended with dry wine and rum. Three hours later, it's softer but still definitely there, and it's mostly an unexpectedly good rum note darkened with smoky dark chocolate, perhaps a tiny touch of cinnamon, and a bit of something "red". The overall effect is rich, but the lack of sweetness keeps it from being too foody. Interesting, and quite warm and comforting. I've come to like it a lot! ETA: This is one of those temperamental scents that goes bad on bad skin chemistry days. One day I wore it and my boyfriend remarked that it smelled like "Christmas cookies". The next time I tried it, it smelled like "Campbell's tomato soup and black licorice". Um, no thanks.

Kyoto in the imp smells vague and floral. On the skin, it's an explosion of licorice! I don't like the taste of black licorice, and I don't particularly like the smell of star anise. I expected a cherry note based on some of the other reviews but that's not so on The anise tones itself down to let the sandalwood poke through, and then the cherry blossom. I love cherry blossoms, but this licorice flavored edition just isn't doing it for me. The sandalwood and cherry blossom duo is pleasant but demure... it would be soapy, were it not for the strong twist of star anise. The licorice, by the way, is the only note that seems to have any throw on me. The licoricey anise tones itself down very gradually over time until nothing remains unless I huff my wrist to get a ghost of pretty cherry blossoms underscored by pale sandalwood.

I bought this on a whim, just because I've been on a lavender kick. However, there is so much more to this blend than lavender. In the bottle, it smells something interesting. It smells wild and magical, somehow... there's just something about that combination of cool pine and natural soft lavender, with something darker underneath it. Freshly applied, the pine/evergreen note strengthens. At this point I was just totally blown away. It smells really beautiful. I am a big fan of the smell of pine and other evergreen plants in nature, but in perfumes it rarely works out for me... something always goes wrong and it ends up smelling like Christmas or potpourri or pine-sol. Not so here. Just, WOW. Beautiful dark green sap, with the most perfect cooling, purple lavender note harmonizing with it perfectly. I think there's definitely some sort of balsam here that adds a richness and sweet warmth... I'm no expert on balsam but based on my experience with Bezoar I think there must be some of that in here. This smells so calming and serene and regal so far! As the scent dries down further the evergreen note dims, the lavender stays strong yet soft, and the balsam (I believe) note melds with what I think is sandalwood and frankincense. Guh, the wood note behaves divinely on me, it's light and airy and smooth. I'm not usually a big fan of prominent frankincense as it tends to go out of control on me but it really stays in check here... it reminds me of the straight up frankincense note that was in Anne Bonny, but it's so much more well behaved here, it's just one note among others. I think there really may be beeswax here... there's a note in this that reminds me vaguely of Hanerot Halalu. After a while I'm mainly getting a resinous blend (myrrh?), like an earlier reviewer said, a lighter Schwarzer Mond... without whatever weird soda-like note and bitterness that ruined that scent for me, and with lavender, balsam, and maybe a touch of vanilla added. This stage isn't as drop-dead gorgeous as the first half hour but it's still really great, and it smells like classic BPAL. It's deep but not heavy, light and shadowed, cooling yet with undercurrents of warmth... I can picture wearing this pretty much in any season in any weather. I need to try this a few more times! *I* think it smells really beautiful, but I'm wary of resinous blends as sometimes they indeed turn powdery on me, and couple of times somebody said I smelled like baby powder when I was wearing something I thought smelled dark and resinous and complex. Sooo the jury is still out on whether or not I'll keep my bottle of Hermes... it was a pleasure testing him out, now I just have to test out the reactions of my boyfriend, family, friends, and general public. ETA: I've since tried No. 93 Engine, and these two blends do indeed share some common blood, but No. 93 Engine is warmer and brighter. They're quite different in feel (I agree about the "mythical" atmosphere!), but still close enough that I won't need both... wellll, I'll keep a bit for myself!

I was curious about Enraged Groundhog Musk because it featured cardamom and black cherry, but freshly applied, it's buttery musk. Eesh. Not a promising start! As it dries down it gets a little more complex and a little less buttery. The cardamom establishes itself after a minute or two, lending a welcome dose of spice, and the vanilla gives it characteristic sweet creaminess. Cherries make brief appearances here and there, adding moments of really vivid black cherry, covered in a bit of dark chocolate. But the moments of fruitiness don't really punch all the way through the dense caramel vanilla musk. I smell like a cardamom-spiced, caramel drizzled chocolate chip cake with a bit of cherry turnover filling. With a musky base. This is just WAY too foody for me. I almost washed it off, but I left it and after another hour or so it faded to a really pleasant, cardamom and caramel flavored soft musk. It sticks around for a while, too. If I could just skip the opening foody stage, I would keep this.

There were some great reviews for Haunted, so I really wanted to give it a shot despite my patchy track record with the listed notes. In the imp and just applied, it's so pretty. A warm, sweet, golden amber. Simple and heartbreakingly beautiful. As it dries down, though, my worst fears are confirmed. Muskiness is identifiable for just a brief second, and then the dark musk and amber disappear. Nothing but extra-sweetened baby powder. Various ambers and also occasionally dark musk blends have turned rather powdery on me, so I guess I half expected this outcome.