PrinceofcatS

I'm one of those people who thought this would be a lot darker than it was and was surprised to find it was not. I'm not horribly disappointed, but I am a bit - I adore the scent as it is, it's one of the best BPALs I've ever tried, but I also got it because I wanted ~~~a vampire scent~~~. This goes on sweetly dirty and herby in a very green way. I recognize the dirt from my adored Penny Dreadful; a little spicy, light and almost fluffy and glorious. There's a "perfumey" note in the background that I couldn't identify when I first wore it; it might be a sweetness in their dirt scent, might be one of the herbs, might be the most I get from the wine note, which gradually adds a deeper, richer sweetness, but is never boozey to me. This scent feels complex in that there's clearly a lot here but it's well-blended and very beautiful. It didn't have great lasting power on me, but i've been having a chronic dry skin problem lately. This does evoke the sad, wistful romanticism of Nosferatu the Vampyre to me, but I don't find it a very dark or sexual scent.

I bought this as a bottle so I might be responsible for anyone who received it as a frimp around the same time, and you're all welcome, because I love this scent. I had this as an (aged) imp a friend gave me and it was dominantly white rose on me with maybe a bit of grass and some other light stuff to smoothe it out, so I tested my imp against my brand new bottle. They're mostly the same, but the bottle is a tad fresher with a slightly stronger lily note that is acutely sweet and almost fruity-sweet, especially at my throat, where I've noticed all the sweet notes in anything seem to amp a lot more than on my wrist. So this one gets a bit stronger of a white rose note with age and its lily note gets less sweet, but mostly stays the same, which is nice to know. The white rose note is probably my all-time favorite rose from BPAL; I find it less sweet, a bit tart, and more understated, but not necessarily weaker, than their other rose notes. It doesn't overpower the other notes in this scent but it's definitely there. I don't amp rose, I don't think, so I don't think that's why it stands out to me. This is such a lovely springtime scent and I'm glad to have a bottle of it. I wish it were a bit stronger as a lily note, as it's one of my favorite flowers, but the search for the perfect lily note continues!

Soap! D: I'm so distressed, it's really rare for something to go soapy on me, and it happened with several of the things I just ordered. But I wanted this to be an early spring lily scent so bad. There's a really sweet lily kind of smell underneath the soap eventually, and then a couple of hours later it's more that than soap...but by then it's mostly faded away. This was a huge disappointment; I was looking forward to this scent like you wouldn't believe.

This literally smells like toothpaste in the imp. It smells that way when it goes on wet, too, and though the toothpaste impression fades, the mint doesn't. It's crazy! I expected smoke because everyone else said that but I get this bold crips wafting mint and a quickly developing blue lilac. After it dries down I still get some chill from the mint but the lilac dominates and the roses and osmanthus float beneath it. If there's wood in this scent, it's very distant and just adds a nice complexity to the base of it. I think the aquatic note i always get from tea rose bolsters the lushness of the blue lilac and then the white rose is also there. Osmanthus is hard to explain to someone who's never smelled it before. It's like an apricot-honey smell but it's a flower and it smells like a flower. If you don't like fruit scents it can really throw off a floral! I used to really hate it but it grew on me really quickly. Osmanthus and white rose come out more later in the drydown and it starts to get a scent that reminds me of what Mata Hari used to smell like on me - I think it's the interaction of the wood notes finally coming into play and rose. I honestly thought I amped wood notes. Apparently not even close. In this past order I also got some forest scents and the forest parts of them all utterly vanish on my skin. By the end this is some kind of wood base, bit of rose and osmanthus. Osmanthus seems to be used a lot to evoke otherworldly atmospheres? I think it works really well for that purpose and it's so pretty here. I think tea rose and white rose are some of my favorite rose notes from BPAL, I adore lilac and really wanted a lilac scent, and I am coming to adore osmanthus, so for these flowers to dominate this scent is a plus. That toothpaste smell at first is REALLY offputting for me though, and I wish it were mostly lilac for longer (but I didn't expect to be able to smell any lilac at all in this blend, so that I did is a point in its favor). I like the woody flowery scent it's drying into, but the period when it was lilac and rose was the best one. (...I should look into Les Fleurs du Mal, huh.) This one has been complex and develops a lot and is a very unusual group of flowers. I also feel like the lilac evoked memories from being at my omi's house over the summer when I was a child, and that, overall, this really does have a haunting Victorian feel. But it's really weird to me that everyone else seems to get "WOOD!!!! and then it is some flowers later" which was the opposite of my experience. Still, Victorian parlor with rich polished wood and velvet seat cushions, flowers everywhere, and a faint, mysterious chill - is it from the flowers? Or is it Something More... That's this scent for me and I really love it. It's easily one of the most successful imps I've tried recently.

I was sort of wondering if this would be comparable to Fresh and Blooming as a Rose, which is white rose, white amber and snowflakes, since I loved that. While it has a bunch of similar components, this is very different. It's not the ice note I've tried from BPAL before, there's no evergreen to it and it's not SUPER strong when it goes on. There's a mintiness here, but it lacks some kind of sweetness and there's something that definitely feels like an icy rock - and it definitely smells pink! I can't figure out how that it is because I don't detect any rose when I sniff for it, but I think it's there and coloring my perception. The amber isn't quite golden but it's not a light white amber either. Against the cold icy rock feeling I get, it makes it genuinely feel celestial. This is my first time purchasing a lunacy scent and I'm glad I tried it.

This is a rather complex and interesting scent! I think I'll end up wanting to revisit this. Wet, this was SUPER piney (well, I guess according to the notes list and reviews it's aspen, but...), and then some berry scent came out. It had a very winter-perfume scent, and it was easily very comparable to The Snow Maiden. Then some honey came out, making it similar but distinctly not the same. As it dries, it hits a golden point where it's strongly damp forest smells, but not too masculine leaning (while still being fairly unisex), with the flowers somewhat recognizeable but not dominating the moss and evergreen notes, berry and honey still predominantly on the top. Unfortunately, that time doesn't really last, and the forest part of it seems to recede. It's still beautiful, but the forest feel was the main thing I purchased it for. (I got a frimp of Ranger and I also got an imp of Arkham during my purchase so I might have more luck with them.) The berry and honey and musk all remind me a lot of Lady Una, even though that doesn't have any forest scent to it. I've planned on buying a bottle of that scent, so I'm going to test my decant and Elf against each other soon to see which one I love more and how comparable they are.

Osmanthus is the fruitiest flower! I feel like the most flowery osmanthus I have is an old LE I bought here on the board, The Snow Maiden (Ylang ylang, osmanthus, spring berries, and daffodil cloaked in hoarfrost), which starts out cold ice and then sweetens up to be mostly osmanthus to my nose, but it's also very prominent in Sanctus (Diabolically otherworldly: golden osmanthus, lily of the valley, celestial musk, and frankincense), which is flowery also from the muguet and a bit lemony and resinous from the frankincense, but almost entirely osmanthus again. Recently bought but haven't put on yet (I've been sick :C) Fairy Bites (Osmanthus and raw honey with lavender, chamomile, white peppermint, raspberry, honeysuckle, thyme, bergamot, and Dracula orchid); Elf (Pale golden musk, honeycomb, amber, parma violet, hawthorne bark, aspen leaf, forest lily, life everlasting, white moss, and a hint of wild berry.) I haven't tried Josie (Heady magnolia and honeyed peaches), but it's also in the GC. Other pretty floral-fruit scents in the GC: Endymion (d’Anjou pear, Lily of the Valley, bois du rose and white musk) Persephone (pomegranate and rose) Juliet (Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear) - this doesn't work for me, but I know it does for others! Kali (cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey) - This was very sweet and almost fruity with an aquatic sort of floral tint to it; I have no idea why, but it's subtle and elegant and almost celebratory. Man, osmanthus is in all my recommendations. Roses, Pearls and Diamonds (Red roses, dazzling crystalline musks, and pearlescent coconut-tinged orris) - This really smells like roses, pearls and diamonds; you can tell there's coconut and orris in there, but somehow this is really evocative of pearls. It's such an amazing and pretty scent. Rapunzel (Angel's trumpet, bois de rose, orris, and wild lettuce) - A beautiful spring scent. Lettuce isn't quite fruity, I know! But I couldn't leave this out. Thalia (Plumeria, pear and white champagne) - The champagne note doesn't work on me, but this worked on a friend of mine and it's lovely for her. Things I haven't tried, but are on my want list: La Belle au Bois Dormant (Plumeria and white pear, Damascus rose, tuberose, magnolia and evening dew) Titania (white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon) Sjöfn (Apples, birch, apple blossoms) - I've deeply enjoyed Poisoned Apple and The Apple of Sodom and I am eager to try a scent with both the apple note and apple blossom. Fae (white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss) Croquet (pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk) - I actually got this as a frimp recently but haven't worn it, but a friend of mine adores it and finds it a lovely, fruity citrus with some rose and woody notes. It smells like that in the imp and I'm looking forward to trying it.

This is very close to what I wanted Rose Red to be like on me. The tartness of the pomegranate doesn't seem to do much but add a sweet greenery to the rose that is like the chilly sap note in Rose Red, but where Rose Red is, on my skin, majority cold green sap, Persephone is sweet red rose and tartness. All the same, I do recognize it as pomegranate, i just don't find it does much besides deepen the rose - which I like! It just smells like a dewy, glistening red rose, fresh in from the garden. I've been planning on trying a bunch of rose scents to try and find the One Perfect Rose, but I already feel like this is a strong contender.

Severely disappointed in this one. It is pure expensive French soap on my skin. I tried to wash it off, which never happens, and has never happened to me with a rose before; it's such a fluke for me that I hope the soapiness goes away with time. EDIT for advice to others: I am pretty sure the fizzy note others have noticed must be similar to their champagne note, and I think that's why this did this on me. If you've tried Bon Vivant and Thalia and they were soapy on you instead of champagney, then you should probably avoid this one.

Prominently brown leather (it's got less of an intense leather scent to it than the leathers in All That I Possess and The Manuscript, but it also feels more like new leather than soft used leather), with both the vanilla and the rose notes growing steadily from the moment this goes on. It's well-blended, but I'd still say the leather comes across the most strongly to me. The vanilla bourbon tar and tonka notes imitate worn old book parchment much better than a regular vanilla, and the actual book impression I get from this is spectacular. I don't get quite as prominent a rose as it seems other reviewers did, but I certainly get roses. (They seem to amp more from my throat than they do on my wrists, so I keep smelling a stronger rose note when I turn my head.) It's very beautiful. I got this because of the statements about how prominent the rose note is and because I love The Manuscript, and it's certainly like a variant on The Manuscript - not more feminine, exactly, because that scent really feels like an Edith Cushing character scent to me, but softer. This scent really evokes the library from Beauty and the Beast to me, which I was hoping it would do.

I wanted this from the moment i saw it when the Lupercalia update went up, but I had reservations about it all the same. I worried it would be too overpoweringly sweet (and I ordinarily adore honey as a note). There was initially some suspiciously baby powdery note lingering around, but this quickly becomes a very delicate magnolia that honestly smells more like a real flower than anything I've worn before. I agree with earlier reviewers that the honey and vanilla notes only seem to enhance the magnolia for me. I've never worn Antique Lace, but this does remind me of white lacy wedding gowns - warm from being worn recently. I can definitely detect vanilla or honey in the background when i sniff for them specifically, but it's really just lazily blooming white magnolias for me. This reminds me of the discontinued scent Eos (which was a skin note, jasmine, buttercup and honeysuckle) - it feels similarly sweet, light, springy florals + warm skin to me - but it's much prettier; that one definitely has a lingering baby products note to me. I really recommend this to anyone who was on the fence about it because, like me, they feared it would be too strongly sweet/have an edible honey or vanilla note, and I would also recommend this to anyone who is equally fearful about a powdery, "perfumey" white floral, because this is soft and realistic and sweet, not particularly perfumey to my nose.

I smell some kind of plant that smells like pee. :C But my friend insists I smell like roses and wet bark and that my being outrageously sick has made my sense of smell off, so I don't know.

I'm discovering that everything is much sweeter and amps the feminine notes on my throat than on my wrists. Huh. So, because it's a fougere which means Too Masc 4 Me generally, I never had any intention of purchasing Jareth. But I went to Gothic Renaissance in NYC today, and I really wanted to get something, just to have it to remember this trip to NYC by. Imagine the fortune of this store showing up just a couple days before me!! (I'm in rural Western New York, there's not a lot going on.) They didn't have any GC things I already had on my big bottle list, though I smelled Titania which was prettier than I thought it would be, and sadly none of the Lupercalias they had were the ones I wanted, and the only unimpables they had that I noticed were this and Fairy Bites (which I ordered recently). I've owned Dorian in the past in an imp, but as sweet as the sugary vanilla tea of it is, it's always seemed too masculine for me. I feel like maybe that's in part because when you expect a sugary sweet tea, you expect it to be sugary and sweet, not cologne-y. Somehow Jareth feels more solidly unisex than Dorian ever did, I don't know; maybe I'd like Dorian better now were I to try it again. In any case, this did remind me of Dorian right off the bat. If you've never tried that, picture an almost ambery warm scent with a sharp, almost citrus note and strong tonka (which is a lot like vanilla, but woodier). Fougeres generally also have lavender, but in Jareth this seems to blend with the lilac. This reminded me of the gorgeous golden chypre in Fairytales and Lies, which was one of my favorites of the Crimson Peak collection; chypres and fougeres both generally have citrus and oakmoss in them, so that could account for that. F&L also has lilac in it, so I think that's the other connection. The leather, white musk and oudh notes are so light in this one, they all sort of blend into a sort of "clean" white scent with tonka dominating the blend. I can't explain it, because I didn't get much on my wrists earlier, so I didn't really get the exact notes I was smelling, but from wearing this at the base of my ears today I kept getting hints of this. It's gleaming all right, strong-willed enough to not quite be sweet in spite of the vanillic tonka being the main note, but pretty and so, so enticing. I can definitely see why this would work fantastically on a man, who might, for all I know, amp the oakmoss, leather and oudh more than I do or something, but on me this is so well-blended it's almost more of a feeling than a specific series of notes. For lack of better description, it smells like lilac-colored smoke. I'm generally better at describing perfume than this, but this one eludes me. Now I wish I hadn't given my imp of Dorian to my little brother for Christmas!

Crossposted to London, against which I tried this one. I want to decide which of my ~spiced roses~ I want to buy a 5 ml of, since I love them all but the end result is so similar it seems foolish to put them all on the Big Bottle list. Today I tried Maiden versus London, since they seem the most similar to me. Wet, I was baffled that I had ever thought they were the same. The rose in London is that perfumey, aquatic tea rose note - which I adore - but is so light and gentle and watery, with barely a hint of any of those spices that I think are intended to make it "dark". Maiden, on the other hand, is all heady, intensely sweet rose, dark, almost edible, with the tea note distinct from the aquatic feel I get from tea rose. The carnation is where I think the spiciness and some of the sweetness comes from in Maiden? My imp of Maiden is rather old at this point, though. I don't know what London's intensity is like aged. When they dry down I realize why I thought they were similar: they really are! The spiciness and sweetness in Maiden calms down a bit and the tea note comes out more, which does, to my nose, mimic the aquatic tea rose note in London. London is sweet, dewy, perfect rose; it's more "perfumey" than Maiden, largely because Maiden's crisp white tea and heady carnation notes make it intensely sweet. As they wear on further, the differences become more pronounced - Maiden is darker and sweeter, London lighter though not less rich and rosy; "perfumey" is the only word I can think of, not artificial but smelling like something meant to be elegantly scented with rose. I had thought for the longest time I preferred London, but in some ways I liked Maiden's rose note more, it's more the carnation I take issue with. I don't know. I need to try them both against Lucy's Kiss. I should add that I have an aged (~6 years?) bottle of Alice which I definitely noticed had gotten a headier and darker rose-and-carnation vibe since I first used to wear it. Maiden is very similar in that regard, so I suspect she's lighter and less rampantly maroon-rose-in-full-indecent-bloom when she's young and fresh.

Comparing this to Maiden, so I'm probably going to post this review to both threads. I want to decide which of my ~spiced roses~ I want to buy a 5 ml of, since I love them all but the end result is so similar it seems foolish to put them all on the Big Bottle list. Today I tried Maiden versus London, since they seem the most similar to me. Wet, I was baffled that I had ever thought they were the same. The rose in London is that perfumey, aquatic tea rose note - which I adore - but is so light and gentle and watery, with barely a hint of any of those spices that I think are intended to make it "dark". Maiden, on the other hand, is all heady, intensely sweet rose, dark, almost edible, with the tea note distinct from the aquatic feel I get from tea rose. The carnation is where I think the spiciness and some of the sweetness comes from in Maiden? My imp of Maiden is rather old at this point, though. I don't know what London's intensity is like aged. When they dry down I realize why I thought they were similar: they really are! The spiciness and sweetness in Maiden calms down a bit and the tea note comes out more, which does, to my nose, mimic the aquatic tea rose note in London. London is sweet, dewy, perfect rose; it's more "perfumey" than Maiden, largely because Maiden's crisp white tea and heady carnation notes make it intensely sweet. As they wear on further, the differences become more pronounced - Maiden is darker and sweeter, London lighter though not less rich and rosy; "perfumey" is the only word I can think of, not artificial but smelling like something meant to be elegantly scented with rose. I had thought for the longest time I preferred London, but in some ways I liked Maiden's rose note more, it's more the carnation I take issue with. I don't know. I need to try them both against Lucy's Kiss.

I'm trying to decide which ~gently spiced Gothic Heroine rose~ blend I want to buy a bottle of: Lucy's Kiss, London, or Maiden - or if I should try more rose blends out and see if any of them tops these. I will say, if you have London or Maiden, you might not particularly need Lucy's Kiss too. This feels like a different rose from either of them - London's definitely the lab's watery, pink tea rose, for one thing - but that might be the gentle spices making it feel almost dry and prim. This also reminds me a bit of the lab's white rose note, which is less sweet and less watery, not super bold, even a little tart. Initially I wasn't able to detect white rose very well in the scents that had it (like The Waltz), but it's both subtle and strong on me now, and I'm starting to find that I prefer it. Like those blends, when I first started comparing these scents, I got less rose out of Lucy's Kiss than the other two. But the more I wear it, the stronger and purer the rose comes out to me. I picture this scent as an elegant but simple vase of white roses surrounded by crisp autumn leaves. It doesn't evoke wantonness or corruption to me, but it's not a fresh, lively rose, either. It works perfectly for a radiant and beautiful woman adored by all who know her who is wan and fading now, the metaphorical petals falling. It lacks the sweetness of the other two, but is still more rose than spice. I'm torn because the white rose is probably my favorite of the lab's roses but I also, as a result, already have more of them, so I guess I need to test this against The Reaper and the Flowers or something. This is really lovely, though. My one caveat is that I have two imps of this: one is a decant from an unknown year I got from the sales board here and the other could be as old as ten years, and the other one is mostly soap on me.

Thank you! I have this already, actually, and I don't think they're very similar, but it is really beautiful. Egle (Märchen): Ocean water, hyacinth petals, star jasmine, and fir. Ends as a beautiful hyacinth/honeysuckle on me. Titania (Ilyria): white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon. My notes call it a "juicy floral." TAL's White Light: I get jasmine, gardenia, and tuberose; no official notes listed. Can't help you with the frankincense part, unfortunately. I have Egle too! It's also beautiful, but also not similar to Christine on me. I'm sorry! I will look into Titania, though; I've been thinking about trying that one.

I got a decant of the 2009 Dark Delicacies Duets of Horror scent "Christine", and i love it, but it's basically impossible to find, as you can imagine! Even other LE scents that might be easier to find than this would be welcome recommendations. The note list is, "A bouquet of Swedish blossoms -- linnea borealis, hoya, and Phyteuma nigra -- with frankincense and pale vanilla orchid"; but like a lot of other reviews, I mainly get honeysuckle, orchid and frankincense. It's a very soft, green-white floral. Any suggestions?? There aren't a whole lot of GC honeysuckle blends, so maybe someone's heard of something else?

This is all a humid, generic floral. I get "sweet decay and spice" out of this, but no flowers I recognize as jasmine or honeysuckle (both of which I love). I got a few hints of honeysuckle like it was struggling to come through the other notes but it vanished. I'm not really enjoying this at all.

I wonder if they changed this or something. This used to be one of my favorites - musky pear with a light floral, almost a little masculine for me - but I got a more recent imp of it and it's all the listed notes, but... a little soapy. :/ I mean, there's so many other beautiful scents from BPAL that just one not working out anymore isn't the end of the world, but still.

Yvaine is lovely - I've heard Misericordia from the VILF line is similar to that one but I haven't tried it personally. I ordered The Bride last night; all the reviews of it are really promising. @ziggystardust13, have you seen that one?

The Snow Maiden is a discontinued Yule that starts out icy and is almost all osmanthus on me when it dries down - if I get the other notes, they're just amplifying the osmanthus. I think it's very chilly, like icy-covered flowers. I was a little disappointed in it because I wanted more daffodil actually! If you're looking up other scents like Belle Vinu (which I didn't like personally but I wish you luck with it) you might look into trying that - I got mine on the forum here very recently. I didn't get any osmanthus out of Kali, that one was all soft watery lotus and maybe some other aquatic-y flowers over honey and some chocolate on me.

The best tea rose and lily notes have an almost watery quality to them, and that's how this one is! The lily and rose are so light and sweet in this, and the vanilla musk is absolutely the best - gentle and charming, grounding without being heavy or dark (or edible). When I discovered BPAL Alice was the scent I wore the most of, and I have to admit it reminds me of being a teenager, so I tend not to wear it anymore. But this! This is my grown-up Alice. The foody and creamy sweetness is replaced by the soft vanilla musk, and the florals have transformed too. All that said, this doesn't feel like an ~adult~ perfume in the sense that it feels heavy. It isn't powdery on me, it's very sweet and almost aquatic and the musk is light. This captures the feeling of grace and purity so well! This captures Victoria's persona and the way she makes other people feel about her, rather than her personality (inoffensively shallow, average young woman!). I wear this to work every day now, or I feel slightly grumpy, like my vibe is off. It makes me feel how I want to be perceived (pretty, but not in a sex-object way - I work with a lot of crude men :/) and feel like Cinderella singing 'Sing, Sweet Nightingale' while doing manual labor.

I like violet, but find it can dominate a scent in a way I don't like. This is not a fresh, candy violet, though. This is dark and deep violet, purple to the point of almost black, with similarly dark fruits, almost hidden by very dry black incense. This really evokes Arthurian legend and sorcery for me, though it's the wrong sister for that feel. I work really early in the morning and try my frimps at work sometimes. This is the first time I've ever worn something that felt literally wrong in the environment. I shouldn't be here, in retail, in plain clothes, I should be someplace very dark, a large castle, in velvets. It was powerful and weird. I can't see myself wearing this scent a whole lot just because when or where would i? But I'm so glad I've finally been able to try it. I really like this and the way it makes me feel.

I've had this bottle for about 5 years. I got an imp of this when I was young and discovering BPAL for the first time and it immediately became a bottle purchase. Because there had been no notes listed I remember being anxious about how it would work on me, but I really had to have it for the subject matter. It really does smell like being outside - not grass, precisely, but wet dew on green things - and is a beautiful, light, misty floral with some clout to it. I think I agree with the reviewer who suggested jasmine, but on me I think it's predominantly lily. I don't find it commercial, though; to me this is the epitome of BPAL's ability to take typical subjects and make them magical. I think this has herbs in it only such that they take the edge off. I believe this one of those scents that gets less fresh with age, but I still think it evokes misty floral meadows, they're just darker now.