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Showing results for tags 'BPAL 14th Anniversary'.
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The bird flutters round us, swift as light, beauteous in color, charming in song. Wild musk with flickers of neroli, mallow, and graceful magnolia, alight with orange blossom and sweet with honey. This one is stunning in its simplicity. It's a creamy (hi, mallow flower), bright (neroli/orange blossom), honeyed scent; sweet, but in a purely natural and non-cloying way, like a stroll through a blooming orchard in which much pollination is taking place.
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His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was beauteous, and his song ravishing: fire-yellow amber, neroli, frangipani, king mandarin, white honey, and saffron vanilla. In The Bottle: King Mandarin, reporting for duty! This has LOADS of King Mandarin and I LIKE IT. Wet On Skin: The honey is coming through now, lending a balance of top sweet and middle sweet. The amber is bringing up the rear, but not intensely. Dry Down: THERE'S the saffron vanilla! I was wondering when she'd show up to the party! Her inclusion has mellowed the edges of the king and now it's become like an adult version of a Creamsicle, the scratch of the frangipani making this scent mature, not in teeny-bopper territory. In All: this sweet scent is light and fun and joyous, perfect for daily day time use, but if layered with, say, "O" or another honey-heavy scent, I think the whole vibe would change and the scent would become waaaay more nighttime ready
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In Paradise, when thou wert born in the first rose, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, thou receivedst a kiss, and thy right name was given thee-thy name, Poetry. Ancient threads of frankincense winding through saffron and orange flower, Siamese benzoin and jasmine sambac, sweet balsam and vetiver. In The Bottle: Light frankincense, a little bit of saffron and the sweet resin of the benzoin bringing up the rear. Wet On Skin: Oh wow! Hi Neroli! Neroli, which I'm betting is the same as orange flower, is now right out front, and I like it! Florals don't often do well for me, but neroli essential oil is a favorite, so I took a chance when I ordered this, that it might work out and so far, so good! Dry Down: This is primarily the orange flower which is now weighted by the jasmine, giving it a really heady vibe. The benzoin is a nice bottom note for the whole enterprise to ground it. The other notes never showed up for me, and the saffron disappeared. In All: a must for floral obsessives and those that like their scents dreamy.
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The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one-the one solitary Phoenix bird. The fable tells that he dwells in Arabia, and that every hundred years, he burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg. Crimson eggshell musk, myrrh, Chinese cassia, and coffee absolute. Full disclosure: Myrrh almost always goes horribly wrong on me. But I adore the other notes so much that I was willing to take a chance. Hopefully all will go well! In The Bottle: This has the sweet, incense-y smell I recall of headships my mom used to go to when I was a small child. I think the red eggshell musk and the cassia are largely responsible Wet On Skin: That eggshell musk is cray-zeeeee. I was expecting the kind of red musk, but lighter, that is present in Smut, but this is entirely different. It's still "red" and musky, for sure, but it's got an almost fruity thing going on with it. It does, strangely, remind me of eggshells, in terms of a thinness and a fragility. I'd like to see it in other scents in the future, for sure! Dry Down: A small amount of the powder aspect of the myrrh is coming through, but it seems to be held in check by the musk, which for me personally is a big relief! Sadly, I get no coffee and no cassia, and I was really looking forward to those. The musk has morphed slightly and is somehow reminiscent of violets (just a little! Not in the soapy way, more in the rough candy way) In All: This is different than I expected but better than my secret fears, too! I like it and suspect it will improve with age.
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The Bird of Paradise-renewed each century-born in flame, ending in flame! Thy picture, in a golden frame, hangs in the halls of the rich, but thou thyself often fliest around, lonely and disregarded, a myth-"The Phoenix of Arabia." Red sandalwood, Arabian myrrh, Ceylon cinnamon, and fig husk. This is a great skin scent. It has less throw than I expected, but that's okay. The cinnamon doesn't eat the scent (I must amp it normally) and doesn't smell like a craft store. The myrrh and sandalwood blend so well that they're hard to pick apart. I can't really detect the fig but it might be the light sweetness of the blend. Definitely a keeper!
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The Phoenix bird, dost thou not know him? The Bird of Paradise, the holy swan of song! On the car of Thespis he sat in the guise of a chattering raven, and flapped his black wings, smeared with the lees of wine; over the sounding harp of Iceland swept the swan's red beak; on Shakespeare's shoulder he sat in the guise of Odin's raven, and whispered in the poet's ear "Immortality!" and at the minstrels' feast he fluttered through the halls of the Wartburg. Night-black feathers of patchouli slick with Oman frankincense, opoponax resinoid, King mandarin, polished terebinth, sweet myrrh, and lavender. I reallly love this dapper glossy raven. the more I wear it, the bigger the love grows. very juicy mandarin swirled with lavender and a touch of sweet pine over dark patch-centric resins. this is a mood brightener for me, each time I've worn it. the opening reminds me of a non-sugared Pere Noel, with the citrus-lavender combo, only here instead of candy and anise, it's dark, rich (but not entirely without sweetness) patchouli with resins and the barest hint of pine. this wasn't at all what I expected (I anticipated dark and brooding) but I'm so happy to have my expectations dashed and blown away. what a beauty!
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When a mother sits by her infant's cradle, he stands on the pillow, and, with his wings, forms a glory around the infant's head. He flies through the chamber of content, and brings sunshine into it, and the violets on the humble table smell doubly sweet. A halo of white honey and sweet apple with carnation and ambrette seed. In the decant: Sweet apple! I've tried a good number of bpal apples at this point and I would put the color of this apple as "yellow" or "golden". It's very sweet, but it doesn't really smell quite like a red apple. It's a little fresher and crisper, but not as much as so as a green apple. It makes me think of sweet apple juice or cider. There's a teeny bit of spice, maybe from the carnation. This is a REALLY NICE APPLE. On my skin, the apple smells a little bit "greener", fresher and crisper but overall I would still describe it as "golden". I'm not super familiar with ambrette seed (though I like scents I've tried that have it), and I think to this it's adding a sort of...depth to the sweetness, giving it a thicker texure, in a way that's similar to butter or vanilla without quite being either of those things. Apple rarely lasts on my skin, as much as I enjoy the note, and this seems to be no exception. Once the apple starts receding here, this is starting to smell a bit on the powdery side. It's still quite pleasant, though. It's actually reminding me of something oddly specific: decorative soaps in the shapes of shells or pumpkins or other "seasonal" items that are sometimes on display in people's bathrooms. If I sniff closely, there's a mix in the dry scent of floral/spicy/sweet/powdery. I haven't gotten much carnation in this, except for maybe a bit of "spice" in the decant, and maybe a faint bit of floral now. I like this best in the decant and fresh on my skin. I wish I could get that apple top note to last (if it did I would have many more apple blends), but so far it just hasn't been possible.
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The Glimmer of the Northern Lights, The Yellow Flowers of the Greenland Summer
Kat Conover-Karpuk posted a topic in Limited Editions
But the Phoenix is not the bird of Arabia alone. He wings his way in the glimmer of the Northern Lights over the plains of Lapland, and hops among the yellow flowers in the short Greenland summer. Yellow arctic poppies shimmering in the ethereal dancing lights of the Aurora borealis. I get light flowers and a nice airiness from this blend, without an ozone note that I can detect. Maybe I've never smelled a poppy on its own as a main player (I do collect poppy blends) but this smells just a little different than what I was expecting. Different, but I LOVE it. Light to medium throw. I'm really glad I don't get an ozone note, as those tends to goes to dryer sheets on me. A great addition to my collection. -
Beneath the copper mountains of Fablun, and England's coal mines, he flies, in the shape of a dusty moth, over the hymnbook that rests on the knees of the pious miner. On a lotus leaf he floats down the sacred waters of the Ganges, and the eye of the Hindoo maid gleams bright when she beholds him. Grey musk and ambergris fluttering with orris, black tea leaf, and sooty tuberose. Definitely a fluttery, dusty, purple scent! The orris is powdery candy, maybe also being lent from the 'sooty' tuberose...although I'm not extremely familiar with tuberose. The ambergris and black tea leaf definitely make it slightly fresh as well. More when it's dry then fresh, the grey musk gives it a darker fuzziness, but overall I'd say this is powdery violet like, with a nice black tea note providing the spine of the scent, which is the strongest in the dry down. It's kind of cute. I'll have to try it a few more times before I decide if I need more.
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The Phoenix bird, dost thou not know him? He sang to thee the Marseillaise, and thou kissedst the pen that fell from his wing; he came in the radiance of Paradise, and perchance thou didst turn away from him towards the sparrow who sat with tinsel on his wings. Lyrical palmarosa suffused with white sandalwood, amyris, bergamot, and rose geranium. I'm not familiar with palmarosa or amyris, but I like the other notes, so I decided to take a chance on this blend. Wikipedia says palmarosa is a grass with the oil's scent similar to roses and amyris is a type of resin. In the decant: I mainly smell sandalwood with a rosy floral in the background (though I assume it's the palmarosa and rose geranium and not actually rose). I also can detect a "brightness" from the bergamot, but it's not a very strong note at this stage. Sometimes sandalwood can smell dry and dusty to me but this doesn't really smell like that. It's a strong hit of the "spicy", aromatic part of the sandalwood. On my skin: Fresh on my skin, the "rose-like" notes smell less like rose on my skin than they did in the decant. In fact, I barely smell anything like rose at all. Sandalwood is still the dominant note, but I am also getting a bit of bitterness from the resin (amyris) maybe? After a few minutes, I am starting to smell the bergamot a bit more, or what I assume is it, giving the scent a bit of a lemony note. There's also a faint smell of like dried grass? Maybe that's part of the palmarosa? As it dries down more, this is kind of reminding me of a cross between a tea blend and an incense -- unsteeped/unburned (like sniffing a container of tea and a container of incense, near each other). I like the scent though, especially the sandalwood in the beginning. It goes more from incense towards tea with the "dried grass+lemony" smell as it dries down, but I still get some wafts of the aromatic sandalwood. I was hoping to get more of the roselike notes on my skin though; they're barely there at all, unfortunately.
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But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The searing red blaze that drove the First from Eden: dragon's blood resin, Ceylon cinnamon, and black amber. Oh Gods, *gulp* I've never been first before! This is my first test of a decant that may still need time to rest so I'll edit this if the need should arise, but so far I'm really enjoying this. Dragon's blood and cinnamon seem to be notes that can stomp all over the party for a lot of people, but this is so beautifully blended it's sweet and spicy, but grounded by the amber. It's a little sharp when wet, but the amber really saves the day as it dries down and I can only hope that trend will continue as it ages. I'd call this gender neutral. I'd also call this a full bottle purchase!
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In the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, in the first rose, a bird was born. A pale pink rosebud, wet with the dew of the dawn of creation. A blind bottle purchase because I love fresh roses! I thought this might be a pinker, delicate but still juicy fresh Rose Red, but it's more of a sharp tea rose kind of scent. Perfumey and not my type of rose. Couldn't detect any cold dewy notes. I wish I could've loved it, but eagerly await my other anniversary decants!
