monsteralice

The Apothecary is pleasant enough, but it's not one of the "OOOOH, I love this" scents. It will probably end up in the swap pile. Wet: Very green, with a slightly sweet edge. Not perfume-y. Dry: It dried very fast. The grass note is strong and it smells very clean and a little dry. Reminds me of an herbalist's cottage, with bunches of dried herbs hanging from exposed beams and maybe a stuffed crocodile. Finish: The fragrance is very light. The scent clings to the skin. I was going to say that there is almost no throw, but I do get a waft if I move my arm precipitately. Sweet without being flowery. Duration: Good for at least 4 hours. Also tried it on The Tall Guy; I liked it better on him than on me.

Wet: Strong sandalwood with a touch of rose and incense. Dry: Rose got stronger as it dried. Resins came up once it dried. There was something a little bitter just at the edge - maybe that was the moss? Finish: Nicely blended scent. Smells the way I imagine the sweet paste used to anoint mummies must have smelled. Duration/Throw: Medium throw. Spicy scent was still present after 8 hours.

A keeper, but not the top of the list for a bottle. Wet: Definitely smoky, with wine note prominent. A green incense smell in the background. Dry: Smoke gone, wine no longer prominent. Incense dominates. Finish: Stays the same as when dry, but a rounder scent. Notes blend somewhat, but can still be picked out. Duration: Stayed strong for about 4 hours, then gradually faded over the next four hours. Throw low to medium.

Wet: A wake-up scent, strongly lavender. Dry: Sandalwood and something sweet come out. Lavender is still there in the back. A bit of incense, no discernable tobacco. Finish: Lavender and sandalwood retreat, leaving the resin and incense. Duration/Throw: Medium throw after it dried. Lasts a couple of hours, then needs reapplication. By 7 hours only the resins were left. This is a keeper for me, not surprising since I like all but one of the listed notes. I like the eye-opening lavender start.

This is lovely. If it was still available I'd be placing an order for a bottle right now. Alas, I'm nearly a year too late to BPAL for this puppy, so I'll just enjoy my imp until it is gone. I think this may be my perfect rose...sob... Wet: Strong rose with a spicy background. Can pick out the resins as an incense note. Dry: The scents blend and the rose pulls back a bit. The effect is a spicy, incense-y rose, but it seems natural, like one of the roses bred for scent. Finish: Rosy spice. Throw/Duration: Good throw, about a foot away from my body at the 2-hour mark. Still strong after 8 hours.

Wet: Sweet and flowery, with a hint of something sharper, but unidentifiable. Dry: Strawberry backed up with flowers. A very nice scent. Finish: Stayed the same for hours. By the 9-hour mark most of the strawberry was gone, but the flowers were still there. Duration/Throw: Good throw, still getting occasional wafts 3 hours after application. It was strong a few inches from the wrist at the 3-hour mark, faded gradually during the 6 to 9-hour period. I like Maenad more than I expected from the description (but it didn't make me feel like I should run wild ripping men's heads off.) It's in the running for the big bottle purchase.

Wet: Rum, strongly so, then toasted almond with clove. The individual notes come sliding in like train cars to the platform. Not sure what sassafras smells like, so I can't pick it out. Dry: The scents blend nicely, with almond to the fore. The clove makes it pleasantly spicy. Rum moves to the background and stays there. Finish: The almond blends in, for a round spicy scent. Duration: Lasts for a few hours, then retreats to nose-to-wrist level. Completely gone by 8 hours. I did not expect to like this one, because I'm not fond of the rum scent other than in a glass. However, the rum blended in well enough to make for a very pleasant perfume. I'll definitely use the imp, if not get a 5 mL.

A very evocative scent: as soon as I opened the imp I remembered what it felt like to be 5, sitting under a backyard tree and playing with flower-scented dolls. Thus the power of scent... Wet: Fruity, then a slightly plastic rose. Very strong, almost made me sneeze. The fruitiness must be the wine note? Dry: The plastic tone disappeared entirely, leaving a very sweet and slightly fruity rose. Much girlier and less aggressive than Whip. Finish: The wine note made itself known at about the 3-hour mark, as the sweetness receded. Drinking red wine in a rose garden. Duration: Lingers nicely. I'm still getting whiffs at the 8-hour mark. Very pleasant scent, but it's not me the adult and I don't want to wear a scent I associate with being 5. Off to the swap box it goes.

Wet: Very piney with an earthy note. Definitely a cold feeling, even though I usually associate pines with warm weather. The earthy note is almost like oak leaves, with that sort of astringency. Dry: Pine blended with something warm and sweet. I can't pick out individual scents but the effect is slightly spicy. The throw is good - I don't need to have my nose against my wrist to smell it. Duration: It didn't last as long as some other BPAL scents. A reapplication at about the 6-hour mark would have been nice, but I didn't bring the imp to work. This is really nice, even with a (relatively) short duration. Definitely a keeper.

In the Imp: Rose Wet: Heavenly, strong, red rose scent Drydown: a little fainter than the wet scent, otherwise the same After 9 hours: The scent has faded, but I still get faint whiffs. Still very strong when I sniff my wrist. Alas, no leather. I've been comparing the scent to my leather coat all day, and the most I got from the perfume oil was a hint or two of leather early on. I haven't tried enough different BPAL scents to know if I either a) amplify rose, or absorb leather, so YMMV. I have a few other rose scents in my 1st set of imps, so I'll try to pick one favorite and swap the others. Well worth trying if you like the scent of roses at noon on a sunny day in the garden.

In the imp: incense-y without being spicy Wet: a nice warm smell, less of the incense note Dry: A sense of warmth, rather than light. It's like the loose resins I use for incense, not stick incense. Very restful and calm. Duration/Throw: The scent stayed the same and clung close to my wrists thoughout the day; I had to get within a few inches to smell it. It lasted forever though - I had to wash it off after 24 hours, so I could try another imp. I don't think this one is it for me. I like resins, but it's a little too calm for my taste - I think I need something else with them. I'll try it again in a week or too, but at this point I think I'll swap it out.