starcr

In the imp, it's pure almond, and when I first put it on it stays that way. The almond quickly fades into a generic perfuminess, which alarms me, but then that in turn gives way to the myrrh. There's still just a hint of sweetness and almond still lurking behind it. I can smell the musk just occasionally, too. The longer I wear it, the more balanced the scent becomes. Verdict: I had to give it about an hour to settle out, but once settled, I like it very much. The more I wear it, the more I like it; I can't stop sniffing my wrist. This may just go on the "get a bottle sometime" list.

In the imp, very fruity. When I put it on, it goes through a series of changes very quickly: straight-up mint to fresh green grass to a sort of apple-y scent to a generic sweetness. Sometime in the next hour, there is a more gradual transition to a darker (even a bit stinky) note that must be the skin musk. That seems to be where it’s settled. Verdict: In some ways, this is maybe the most interesting BPAL I’ve ever tried. It’s more than just a scent; it almost tells a story, the way it progresses from clean and fresh through appley temptation to the almost sexual scent of the musk. Unfortunately, I’m looking for a scent and not a story — and I don’t particularly care for the musky note anyway. I don’t think this is a keeper for me.

In the imp, this smells a lot like Belle Epoque, which is what I was hoping for. Orange with an undercurrent of sandalwood. Unfortunately, on me it quickly turns into… baby powder. It’s not quite Love’s Baby Soft (is my age showing?)–there’s a sweet note lurking beneath it–but think in that general direction and you’ll get the idea. After an hour or so, though, I start smelling honey and just a hint of rose. It’s not evident if I sniff right at skin level, but I can smell it in the air around me. Verdict: I’m on the fence about this one. I’m not that fond of the Baby Soft bit, but I love me some honey scent. Then again, if that’s all I want out of it, I have a bazillion other scents already that will give me that; do I need another? This might find its way onto the “for someone else” pile too, not because I dislike it but because I know I’ll always reach for something else first.

In the bottle — Hel-LO Irish coffee! (Did I test this one on St. Paddy’s Day? Yes, yes I did.) On me, the coffee part of that dies down, and unfortunately the “Irish” note mixed with the other things the coffee had been masking smells a little like cheap Irish cream rather than the good Irish whiskey that I prefer in my Irish coffee. There’s sometimes a bit of a bitter note in the mix too, though sometimes it gives way to sweetness. Verdict: It’s by far not the biggest disappointment I’ve had, but I don’t like it nearly as well as I had hoped either. I think this one’s going on the “maybe it’ll work better with someone else’s body chemistry” pile.

In the imp, this one smells strongly — too strongly — of buttercream. On me, that softens, fortunately. Almost immediately the almond starts coming out. After a little bit, I’m getting something that makes me think “vanilla”, though it isn’t vanilla exactly (maybe the rum), and a bit of a powdery note in addition to the almond. The buttercream has faded into the background. …And then it just kind of fades into generic sweetness. Verdict: Pretty nice. Not something I’m probably going to wear horribly often, but not bad either.

In the imp, this one’s very sharp. It’s not a scent I associate with incense; it almost hits me as a floral, although a really heavy one. On me, it turns into… exactly what the description says. When I burn incense at home, it’s a custom loose blend of frankincense, bay leaf and cinnamon stick burned on a charcoal disc; this scent is very reminiscent of that. A little spicy, fairly heavy, a touch of smoke. Oddly, Hubby said it smelled sweet and fruity to him, though. Verdict: It doesn’t top my old favorites, but I certainly do like it very well.

In the imp, the scent is actually a lot more subtle than I had expected. There’s rose, yeah, but it’s pretty light. And a hint of… is that rye? Er? On me, the rose comes out right away, but is not overwhelming. As it dries, that dribble of cinnamon shows up. Unfortunately, the scent also seems to fade really quickly. Verdict: I really like the scent… But I wish it would stick around a little longer.

This is pine. Ye gods is it ever pine, especially right at first. As it dries, the scent softens into a more general woodsy scent that, while still dominated by the pine, isn't overwhelmed by it. Not my favorite, but not bad either.

A heavy scent, fairly masculine. (Maybe Hubby should try it.) Almost musky, but I think that's just the way the tobacco and the honey mix. A smoky scent, but without actually smelling of smoke, if that makes sense. The longer it stays on, the more prominent the honey becomes, which I like since that's one of my favorite BPAL notes.

Blood Pearl reminds me a little of Manila--not the specific notes, but the general feel. Tropical, with a touch of woodiness underneath it. Quite coconutty. It's not my new favorite scent, but I certainly like it well enough to keep it around. Unfortunately, though, it didn't seem to have much staying power on me.

I don't think that my skin chemistry mixes well with this one. I found it very harsh even in the bottle, but it got worse when I put it on. It took me a while to identify what it reminded me of... And then I realized it: wet paint. Occasionally I got a sort of powdery floral, but mostly it was wet paint. It sure did last a long time, though!

When I first applied it, this one was a deep floral. It reminded me somewhat of New Orleans, lush but with a hint of something else I couldn't define underneath. As it dried down, though, the myrrh started to come out. In the end it was reminiscent of Rose Cross and Hymn, incense mixed with flowers. But with some green beneath it. It's not bumping Rose Cross out of its top-three slot in my own personal ranking, but it's pretty nice.

New Orleans: In the bottle, all I smell is jasmine. Maybe a hint of honeysuckle, but it's definitely all light florals. On me, at first the jasmine is again overpowering. As it dries, though, the scent changes. Hubby says it smells like soap to him; I think it smells almost like freshly cooked rice. Thereafter, the florals start to come out too, but that ricey scent is always there too. I'm not sure the components blended quite the way they're meant to with my skin chemistry. If I really try, and if I'm keeping in mind what I'm looking for, I can pick out each of the notes listed in the description. They just don't quite come together right on me, is all. I don't think I'll probably be wearing much of this one.

In the bottle, Belle Epoque first smells a little bitter and a little sour; the mandarin, I would guess. I get a definite earthy note as well, perhaps the sandalwood. On me, it’s mostly… sandalwood! Yes! I’ve had some trouble with BPAL’s sandalwood scents, and am happy to have finally found one that does smell like sandalwood on me. There’s also the orange again, and just a hint of floral scent hiding behind it all. It kind of floats back and forth between orangey and sandalwood. All in all, it’s not going to beat out my very favorite scents for me, but it’s a very good scent and I’m definitely glad I gave it a try.

In the imp, Eve smells like… apples. Mostly, it just smells like apples. I can smell something behind it, maybe the rose or the ylang ylang, but the apple is definitely the dominant scent. It’s a sweet-smelling apple, and I can’t decide whether that’s the natural sweetness of the scent or whether the honey note is playing into it. On me, I can smell the honey almost immediately when putting it on. After a minute or two, though, that melts back into the apple, but having picked it out once I can do it again. The rose also starts to come through more, though everything is still secondary to the apple scent. I like it well enough, but it’s probably not the first thing I’ll reach for all the time. (Of course, I said the same thing about Rose Cross and here I am ordering a full bottle of it. The more I smell this one as it dries, the more I like it...)

In the imp, the dominant scent of Hymn is the lily of the valley. It’s more floral and lighter than I’d expected from a scent with incense notes in it. Unexpected. A little astringent, maybe. On my skin, though, the incense comes out and it smells much more like I expected it to. It’s a lot like Rose Cross, but with a more complex floral tone over the incense… which is exactly what I expected and hoped for, from the description. As time went on, though, it started to get a little perfumey for my taste. But it’s still a good scent.

In the imp, the cherry overwhelms just as it did with Kyoto, and just as with Kyoto it smells a little cough-syrup-y. I can sort of detect that there are other notes under it, but can’t really say what they are. Cherry, cherry, cherry just keeps hitting my nose. I’m a little nervous about this one, but think that like Kyoto, the cherry will probably mellow some when it’s applied to my actual skin. When applied, at first it was a nice soft cherry blossom scent, with hints of other things sort of peeking around the sides. After a few minutes, though, it turned sort of soapy.

Hrm. I’m not sure I know what half those things even are. In the bottle, I definitely smell fruit, though it’s not a strongly specific smell. Some banana and some coconut? Maybe a little floral. Certainly a tropical scent. I don’t know about lush and humid, though. I’d have expected some greenery from the description, but I don’t smell any. On me, the scent sort of rounded out, eventually. At first the coconut kind of took over, but not in a suntan-oil kind of way. It must’ve been mellowed by something, although I couldn’t say what. In a bit, the greenery did start to come forward, and then it was a really tropical scent. Not tropical-drink tropical, but tropical-island tropical. If that makes sense. After a bit longer, though, an earthier, almost smoky smell started to make itself known. Eventually it came to remind me of tropical-scented incense, and that was pretty much where it stayed. It’s really different from anything else I’ve tried from BPAL, and… I think I like it, in its own way.

In the imp, this one was hard to pin down at first. There wasn’t as much milk and tea as I’d expected, or perhaps they weren’t expressed the way I’d expected them to be. I definitely smell the ginger and spice and vanilla, though. This should be an interesting scent to try. (Which I mean in the best way possible!) When I first put it on–wow, there’s the tea. Very strong, very… tea. After a bit it became more of a honey/milk scent, and seemed to fluctuate between that and the tea for a while. Then after a couple of hours it settled down to a nice soft scent of milk and spices. It’s different, but I kind of like it, really.

In the bottle, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that yes, this does make me think of the seaside. It's not the scent of the beach, but it evokes the feeling of the beach and the ocean. I couldn't say what any of the components are, though. My nose isn't that fine-tuned, I suppose. It's a very sharp scent, though. On me, unfortunately it got very perfumey very fast. I don't know how else to describe it; it just smells like commercial perfume. It doesn't remind me of the beach anymore. It just reminds me of the perfume counter at a department store.

When I smell this in the bottle, I begin to wonder if I've just got the wrong idea of what sandalwood smells like. Because other people have said this smells like sandalwood, but it mostly smells like citrus to me. Then I try again a little later, and find myself more able to detect the earthy notes that do begin to say "sandalwood" to me. Yay! Perhaps my nose was just contaminated by something else the first time around. On me, though, it went back to a sort of sweet citrus smell at first... and then started to smell like bubble gum. And that was pretty much it. After a while I started to think I might smell the sandalwood starting to come out, but it never quite made it.

In the imp, I can definitely smell... exactly what the description says. Green tea, a floral touch, and a little sharpness from the lemon verbena. Pretty straightforward, and a pretty scent. The floral note isn't too strong, so hopefully it'll make a nice change from my current repertoire of "clean, crisp" scents (Veil and Muse, both florals). When I put it on, I smelled... nothing. Literally nothing. Strange. I gave it a little bit and then put a tiny bit more on. After that, I still only got the occasional hint of it, and when I did, I could smell that it was too much--heavy and perfumy. Too little and I can't smell it at all, any more than "too little" and it's too much... This is just odd. I'm going to have to give it another go after I've tested everything else I got in this set of imps to see if maybe my nose was just having a bad day or something. Trying again later: When I put it on, the immediate scent was the same as in the bottle. It quickly faded, though, into something more... powdery, I guess. That's the only way I can think of to describe it. The lemon was certainly gone, and I think what I was smelling was kind of the blend of the tea and the honeysuckle after it was gone. After a few hours, the lemon came back and the powder receded a bit more, but unfortunately the scent was already really faint by that time. (I've been having problems with scents fading quickly on me lately, though, even ones that used to last. So that might be me, not the perfume.)

I had hoped this would be somewhat like Delphi. In the imp, I am not disappointed. It's a similar smell. The combination of honey and wine lurks behind it, but isn't as strong as in Delphi. The rest of the scent... is almost chocolatey. I suppose that might be how the floral components mix with the honey and wine? Quite sweet. On me, at first it smelled almost exactly like Delphi. Which is a good thing, since I like that scent so much, but a little disconcerting. After a few minutes, the wine began to fade and the honey came out really strong, though. And then by... maybe half an hour or so later, the honey had mellowed too, and the scent had smoothed out a bit. Still similar to Delphi, but different in the balance and undertones. I like it.

In the imp: A light floral. The scent mostly makes me think "jasmine", but it isn't a really heavy jasmine. It's more evident that there are other notes in this one than in some other jasmine scents I've smelled (like Twilight), though I couldn't necessarily pick them out without looking at BPAL's description. Almost a tiny bit soapy. On me, it went back and forth for a while between "floral" and "soapy". The floral gave off hints of rose sometimes, but a light rose, not heavy at all. I presume that's the tuberose. Mid-morning or so I kept thinking I smelled just a faint hint of sandalwood, which is odd. I half wondered if I'd mixed up my vials of this and Veil, but no, I distinctly remember the label saying "Muse" this morning. It seemed to last pretty well up until lunchtime or so. I think this is another one on the "nice scent, but not something I'm going to bother with a full bottle of" pile. Edit: On further wearings, the lime comes out more, and I've started to like it fairly well. The citrus blends really well with the floral.

In the imp, this smells very strongly of jasmine, mostly. I don't smell the lavender at all, though I can make out that touch of honeysuckle if I concentrate. On me, it's still a fairly heavy floral. I don't like it, I don't dislike it. The jasmine/honeysuckle combo might be a little bit on the strong side for me. It's a little too sweet, almost tipping over the edge into "decay" territory. But not quite. For being so strong, it didn't seem to last that long; mid-morning it was already fading fast. Not a bad scent, but not one that's exactly inspiring me to wish for a full bottle either.