BlueberryPie

ON ME: To start with, this smells almost exactly like a musty dungeon. I suppose I should stop being surprised now that Beth can create a smell that so perfect encapsulates “old, old stones”. My old highschool was basically a castle on top of a cliff, Harry Potter style, and we had a legitimate dungeon where we held art classes. This scent honestly reminds me of going down rough stairs hewn out of stone into the art classrooms. It's certainly atmospheric. However, as it dries, this turns to....uh, oatmeal on me. A bowl of cold oatmeal. I’m not sure why it happens, but it is rather amusing. It’s not a BAD scent, per se -- definitely not as bad as Hungry Ghost Moon turned out on me, but it’s not exactly what I was looking for either. SCORE: 3/10

Well, that clears things up. What turned me off of Roadhouse wasn't the tobacco note. It was the hemp. Something about it makes me nauseous. This blend was very disappointing, considering the hype. I wish I'd gotten more patchouli and vanilla, as I'm sure I would've loved that, but hemp is clearly a Note of Doom for me. Oh well, that's one more ultra-rare bottle I don't have to worry about finding more of. SCORE: 1/10

ON ME: Oh my god, THIS is what dragon’s blood resin smells like? My god, what have I been missing out on? I’ve been staying away from that note because blood doesn’t usually work on me, and resins make me nauseous, but this...my god, this. This was what I’d hoped BPAL’s strawberry note would smell like, sweet and fresh and juicy (though this is more on the sugary sweet side than the accurately strawberry-like side). At least, I think it’s the dragon’s blood resin that’s doing that. I’ve smelled BPAL’s rose before, and this isn’t it. And this definitely isn’t how red wine smells -- at least, not real red wine. Must. Try. More. I wouldn't say this is my favourite ROSE blend, per se, because it doesn't really smell like roses to me. But this definitely got me intrigued in dragon's blood resin. SCORE: 10/10

ON ME: Damn, I was really hoping I’d get a lot of vanilla and apple blossom in this one. Instead, I get a lot of mandarin, something green, and not much else. At least I’m not getting any tobacco, which is a relief. Sadly, I still can’t tell exactly what BPAL’s opium note smells like. This blend does turn SLIGHTLY chemical on me, the way Hungry Ghost Moon did, but not quite to that extent. I can ignore the bitter, medicine note in this if I wanted to - there was plenty else to draw my attention. But I’m pretty sure it’s not the opium that was doing that -- the reason I didn’t like the Forest Reverie was because it turned very, very sour on me for some reason. It contained opium, and while it didn’t work on me, it wasn’t bitter and chemical the same way this and Hungry Ghost Moon is. It’s kind of frustrating. I wish I knew what kept doing that. I’m going to say this scent isn’t really for me -- it’s not terrible, but there’s no reason to put up with the weird chemical note in this when there are so many fantastic blends from BPAL that doesn’t have this problem. SCORE: 4/10

ON ME: I only got a sniffy with very little left in it to test. Either there simply wasn’t enough to slather, or this is a very faint perfume, but after wearing, I still can’t say what I feel about it. Mostly because most of the time, I can’t even smell it. Every once in a while, I’d get a generic perfume smell wafting up to my nose, but in general, this was just a whole bunch of nothing to me. The only note I can remotely identify is rose and amber, and only because those two are my favourites, so I’m pretty sure my nose if fine-tuned to them. I don’t think I can be bothered to hunt down a full decant of this. SCORE: 2/10

Like the description said, this was nothing but resins. It's one of the only BPAL perfumes that smelled like a perfect single note on me, and didn't morph at all during the entire duration I had it on. This has the perfect name -- this is exactly how a church smells like in my imagination. Sadly, I don't think it's really me. I love the scent, don't get me wrong, and I want to beg a friend of mine to wear it every day. But it just doesn't quite fit with my image of myself in my head. Alas. I wish I was the kind of person who loved this perfume. SCORE: 7/10

The closest point of comparison I can think of to this is The White Rider. They smell very similar to me, which is weird, considering The White Rider smells exactly as its description -- "white leather and sandalwood". Mandrake is somehow darker than The White Rider, a bit more dirty and rooty. But otherwise, they are scents in the same general category to me. And while I didn't dislike The White Rider, it was never a scent for me -- personally, I just gravitate towards girlier scents of the fruity, sugary sweet persuasion. So while this isn't a bad scent by all means, if you're into this sort of thing, it's not really "me". If scents are a colour, this would be a dark mossy green, mottled with brown. SCORE: 4/10

At the start, this is the indistinguishable foody-ness that a lot of other reviewers got on me. I can smell the buttered toast (and I'm still amazed that this is a scent you can recreate in perfume-form), but I can't tell anything else apart. It's warm and delicious and I thought I'd love this... And then the dry down happened. I'm not sure what note is doing that, but this turned bitter on me, almost like the way Hungry Ghost Moon did. It almost smells like an almond note, but not a natural almond -- it's a strangely chemical almond that is how I imagine cyanide would smell like. Which is amusing, given the context here. It's not QUITE as unpleasant as Hungry Ghost Moon, but it still bothers me. Given how much I love another foody scent in the same collection (Eat Me) and how well that one worked on me, I think I'll just stick with that instead. SCORE: 4/10

Oh. My. God. I didn't think it could get much better than Purple Phoenix as far as plum scents went. I was so, so wrong. This...This is perfection. The florals in this are a lot lighter and gentler than Purple Phoenix -- it never overpowers the plums, it just supports it and buoys it up like it should. And then it slowly fades away and leaves a beautiful sugary plum scent that just...oh god, how do I even describe this. I am in love. SCORE: 10/10

Mmmm, plums~ I'm so glad this note decided to come out for me. It's the main reason I got a decant of this. And it is, indeed, a beautiful floral plum scent. Sometimes, depending on the weather and my chemistry, the florals come out a little too much and I don't get much plum until very late in the dry down, but usually, it's a very balanced scent. I mostly just like it for how sugary the plum turns in the dry down, while still retaining its distinct fruitiness. Whereas Goblin Market was strangely herbal, and Perversion was very musky, this was just a very nice, somewhat dark floral that dries to a sugary sweetness that I just can't get over. God, my nose has a sugar addiction. SCORE: 10/10

The perfect scent to wear to your next bondage ball, dungeon adventure or sojourn to your favorite pleasure dome. Smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka. This starts off as a very pleasant sweetness with an underlying current of musk (and a very sweet musk too). The whole blend was a lot lighter and prettier than I thought it would be. The tobacco and leather notes really scared me away from this -- both perfumes I've tried with those notes before didn't work on me at all (Roadhouse and The White Rider). This is almost like Lust mixed with syrup -- they both have that delicious musk note, but Perversion is a lot sweeter. As it dries, the musk slowly disappears, until I just get a very warm kind of sugariness behind. It's nowhere near as complex on me as on other people, but I still love it. What can I say? My nose has a sweet tooth. This is very much everything I'd hoped Goblin would be. Except whereas Goblin was honey sweetness with a weird sort of herbal tone to it in the wet stage, this just has very nice musk. SCORE: 10/10

In the VERY wet stage, this smells dark and sinister on me, and I don't get any fruit at all. I discussed with a friend who'd also bought this perfume what it could be, and he guess nutmeg and black liquorice, which confuses me because neither of those things are in the description. However, once it dries, it turns into a very sweet candied apple on me. I don't really get any other fruits, just apple and sugar. But I still really like it. I just like fruity, sweet scents. (That, and fooody scents.) The dry stage of this smells almost exactly the same as Princess & Playtime from Lou Lou's, so it's good that I know what to replace this with when this bottle runs out. Score: 7/10 (Mostly for the weird wet stage.)

Wow, this is....probably the most unique perfume I've ever tried in BPAL's catalogues. And I'm not sure I like it. I don't get the foody or cake-y scent that other reviewers have gotten at all. I get rice wine, ginger, and lots of woods. It's...hard to describe what this scent is like. The best I can come up with is...you know those little gel capsules you can take your medicine in? It's like if you opened one of that and took a sniff, very bitter and medicinal and almost chemical at times, except with the OCCASIONAL very faint whiff of grapefruit. And there's a strange musty smell when it's wet too. I feel like a hypocrite, since I got into BPAL because of it uniqueness, but I'm not sure I really like this. It's just not me...and frankly, I can't imagine who it might be for. This must morph very different on different people, because all I get is bitter, chemical medicine. Like a particularly dirty Chinese hospital. Score: 3/10 ETA: It figures that the only perfume with staying power I've tried on in days would be the one that's absolutely horrible on me. Dry, the occasional whiff of grapefruit disappears (which was the only saving grace of this perfume), and I get nothing except bitter, chemical medicine. This is the first BPAL perfume I've tried that just managed to get worse the longer I wore it for. I'm revising my score to a 0/10.

Wet, there's a strong mint note in this for me. But a mint note that's somehow very sweet, instead of being cool and refreshing. Like cheap mint candy. Unfortunately, I don't get a dry stage at all. This pretty much completely disappears on me after 30-45 minutes. I think it's more my fault, though. I tried on Harlot's House yesterday, and that one disappeared quickly too. And so did Belle Epoque, the day before. I think it might just be because my chemistry is going wonky due to girl-part issues. So I'm gonna have to retry all of these in a week or so. I really hope it gets better when I do, because this sounds so good on other people. If the mint eventually calms down and I get more of a rosy, spicy scent, like some other people do, I think I'd really love this. I think I'm gonna refrain from scoring for now and wait until I have a normal chemistry.

My nose must be crazy, because I swear I get a rose note in this. But then again, the only rose scent I've tried so far is Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds, and it's rather faint on me in that one. So maybe my nose just hasn't learned what roses actually smell like yet. I wish the white tea note would come out more on me, because I love tea scents. But overall, this is just a very floral scent on me, with the faintest whiff of sandalwood. Which isn't a bad thing at all. I enjoyed this a lot. I thought I was going to think it was generic at first, but there's something about the subtle freshness to the florals, something tempering it down and making it not piercing or cloying that really made this blend for me. I'm now wavering on whether to get a bottle of this. The main problem I have is that my skin eats this up, so after an hour, there's almost nothing left. And I want to get a bottle to see if the problem improves when I slather, and I can't slather properly with an imp. I'm too paranoid about using anything up. (I have so many almost-empty imps at home that I refuse to use.) Score: 9/10