Dorian

[Ravenne]

Inspired by and created for my beloved Tedwin: my eternal, beautiful, wicked Dorian Gray. Refined, elegant, and lovely, with a noble bearing and seemingly gentle air. This blend is an artful deception: a sweet gilded blossom lying over a twisted and corrupted core. A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.

In the Bottle:

My first impression was white tea, but the lemon makes a strong second. Then I noticed the vanilla and musks. It took me a second to recognize the musks for what they were. It reminds me of that perfume "White Musk" which I always thought was way too strong, but this is like.. White Musk: new and improved. Just enough to make you think "sexy" without whopping you over the head with it.

Wet:

The lemon is strongest, and I'm trying to decide if it's pleasant. I think it is. Vanilla comes out strong too, also with it's best friend yummy musk.

Dry:

Heavy on the vanilla now, as I'd hoped. The musks are playing second fiddle, but it's a nice background music, a supporting role, like they know they're not supposed to take center stage. The lemon is barely perceptible now. This is a delightful scent! Love it!!

[Balame]

In the Imp: I've never reviewed Dorian!? This must be the day for finding out I haven't written for older scents. Suffice to say, I adore this. I've used it for years and my poor imp is on its last legs, so I may finally have to order a bottle soon. It's popular for a reason. It's the gentlest lemon vanilla tea in the imp.

 

Wet: Then it blossoms on your skin. Super delicate, creamy lemon tea. Exactly. It's really quite heavenly. This is both proper and intriguing, like a sweet intelligent librarian you want to sex up and you find out he/she is a demon in the bed. BUT, he/she is still utterly devoted and enamoured with you. The perfect blend of careless seduction and simple, true affection.

 

Dry: This stays light and fresh with the bonus of seductive, gentle vanilla. Great for sunny days when you don't want something heavy, but still want to be utterly irresistible.

 

Overall: What can I say, I'm an addict just like the majority of other members! Dorian should be a required review for everyone, it's that good.

[ziggystardust13]

This was the first oil I ordered and was shocked at how beautiful this scent is. The description is dead on. I never thought the tea note would be something I would want to wear. I was wrong. Its very wearable. I love Dorian and it will forever be one of my favorites.

[_shell_bells]

I've been so excited to try Dorian. I love musk and tea and I like vanilla as a backdrop. This one seemed to be made for me. And it would be, if it stuck around,

 

Wet it smelled like pure musk to me. Not hit you over the head musk but a nice medium bodied musk. Next came the vanilla with maybe, possibly a hint of tea. More like a suggestion of tea. Then...it just fades to almost nothing. I can still smell a little of the vanilla but not the musk. I reapplied and really slathered it but the same thing happened.

 

I'm hoping the Burts Bee's Body Butter I applied after my shower this morning has something to do with the scent fading and I'll try again tomorrow. It really is a beautiful fragrance.

[Incendiare]

I'm so glad I didn't write a review on this nearly a year ago because I wasn't feeling my fresh Dorian imp. It was so lemony sharp and almost two-dimensional. I didn't get the hype at all. But as my imp slowly aged, I found myself reaching for it more and more even though it was still on the sharp side. I finished the imp before I knew it and promptly ordered a bottle. That bottle has become so smooth, like a fine cup of tea and sugar with a squeeze of lemon. It's so comforting and can be worn virtually anytime of the year. I'd also say that fresh, the musk is what gave it that sharpness, but now it blends beautifully with the sugared vanilla which I couldn't smell at all when it was fresh. If you don't like this one right away, definitely put it away for a while and retry. The wait is worth it.

[KittyHawk]

Add me to the Dorian fan club! It is nothing short of perfect.

 

In the imp, I caught a faint whiff of tea and lemon, but the vanilla and musk take the floor.

 

Wet, the musk is the main player, but the vanilla envelops it and softens it. The tea is mostly gone, but there is still a squeeze of lemon in there somewhere.

 

Dry, this is so gorgeous, comfortable, and nonchalantly sexy. The vanilla and musk are still the main players, but the lemon is still there in the background, barely. It adds a really nice crisp dimension that I haven't found in the other vanilla scents I've tried.

 

I still think I prefer Tombstone, but just by a hair's breadth. This is so lovely for any day, any season, any occasion. To echo so many others, this is absolutely and unequivocally a must-try.

[Unauthorized Cinnamon]

Well, this was a learning experience for me. In the bottle, it smelled sweet, but with hints of something more. However, once on my skin it became indistinguishable from the Mouse's Long Sad Tale I had on the other hand: both smelled like cheap artificial caramel scent. Like something you'd get from a scratch & sniff sticker or something.

 

Verdict: vanilla hates me. It apparently goes awful on my skin, and proceeds to drown out any other note with extreme prejudice.

[Autumnsky]

This is not a proper, thorough review, as this isn't something I'll try on myself...but I ordered an imp for my husband, and...um.... yeah.

 

He dabbed a bit on his chest in the morning...when I curled up with him last night I couldn't stop sniffing him. It lingered all day, and by the time I got to it, it had dried down to a sweet body musk/vanilla tea scent with a ghost of lavendar. Prrrrrrrr.....

 

5ml, stat.

[MercQ]

I was highly anticipating trying Dorian since first getting into BPAL - it's been rocking the top of my list for the entire time. When I got it, I was anxious - what if I sniffed this scent and it wound up smelling like dead lemons or wasp spray or rotten eggs? Would Dorian break my heart in an ironic-yet-fitting way? Find out in the thrilling conclusion of "MercQ Orders a Dorian Imp!"

 

Why I got it: Alll the reasons in the world. First of all I love The PIcture of Dorian Gray and I have a character codenamed Dorian Gray in a story. Also it just sounded so tasty and it has 28 whole pages singing it praises. 28 pages doesn't lie. Usually.

 

Dorian -

In bottle - ….mmmm. Smells like a cool cup of sweet tea. Surprisingly cool.

On skin wet - Oh god. It starts out nice and cool like in the bottle (and for some reason I'm getting lemon along with the vanilla?) but definitely tea. And then it warms up with what I imagine are the fougeres, kind of eliminating the tea scent. I miss the tea. But it's still coming back! I feel it! Come back to me, tea!

On skin dry - This is sweet and nice. The tea comes back but warmer and a little more subdued I can get the vanilla better this time and oh man it is nice. The musks disappear to the back but they're still there, looming. Waiting. I want to eat myself now.

In Short: Well, I had a feeling I was going to wind up going gay for Dorian Gray at some point. It is this point. This is warm and vanilla-y without being too foppish or too over-victorian. Since I realized with Dee that I didn't want to smell like old books, this a more modernly relevant scent that still evokes the same delicious themes. It's young, boyish in a kind of drag way, innocent and will also rape your soul if you let it. Perfect.

[Klolly]

Ok, I am way excited to try the infamous Dorian. I love the librarian comments on this scent (I've always been a bookworm), so I'm really hoping this one works for me.

 

In the imp: I can definitely smell lavender, with a faint hint of lemon. Hmm.

 

Wet on: Still mostly lavender, the lemon is a bit stronger but still faint. There's something soft and dark within. This does seem like a masculine scent but yet on a girl it would seem feminine by association if that makes any sense at all. Oh, I think that soft, dark brown picture I'm getting is the tea. I have tried one other tea scent that wasn't from bpal and I expected this tea note to smell like that one but thankfully it doesn't. Dorian's tea note is suttle. Barely steeped. Just enough to know it's tea and not just lemon water.

 

Dry: The more this dries the stronger it's getting, which is a good thing. The vanilla is starting to sneak out and glaze everything. Just when I think it seems too musky the lemon smacks me across the face and I change my mind. Wow. I really like this and there definitely is something very seductive about it. I will not try this on my husband because I want it for myself. It's like tending the herbs (lavender and whatever else is in a fougere) by a lemon orchard at a convent and then coming home afterwards to my beloved husband to enjoy some serious quality time. Ooh la la.

 

The next day: This lasted long. I put it on around 1pm yesterday and it was still going at 2am when I went to bed. I am even getting whiffs of the musk this morning. There was a problem, however. After I reviewed yesterday I had my ten year old smell my wrist. She said it smelled like play-doh. I thought the whole play-doh thing was just in peoples heads but if my daughter said it, who's never read a bpal review in her life, it must be true. Besides, I knew she was right because once the vanilla had crept in I knew something was off. I've used other vanilla bpal perfumes and not had this issue so I think it was the vanilla with the musks combined or maybe Dorian has a different vanilla note than the others. Whatever the case, it was disappointing, but not heartbreaking, because I don't think Dorian is my kind of scent anyways, although I'm glad I got to try it.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Klolly

[sabrebabe]

Wow, I think this is my first review! Sadly, it isn't a happy one.

 

In the bottle: very light, slightly dusky, gently musky.

Wet: rich, sugary, a little bit of sweet musk. Too much cream in the tea, perhaps? definitely sugary now, vanilla perhaps?

Dry: Oi! The vanilla is really overpowering now and I can’t smell anything else. I smell like a cookie. Sadly, I don’t care for Vanilla. I had high hopes for this one.

This one goes into the trade pile.

 

My skin amps up vanilla like crazy, but I *hate* vanilla. Unless it's in cookies, but I don't want to smell like a cookie!

[Tamalee]

In the imp - raspberry. Um, why do I smell raspberry?

 

On me - More raspberry. Eventually it turned into raspberry, raspberry coffee, coffee, vanilla coffee, vanilla...

 

Really pretty even if my nose was smelling weird things in it. I really liked it and will definitely be finishing off my imp.

[orata]

God, this smells amazing! Warm, but still refreshing. Comforting, but sexy. Yum yum yum.

 

The whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts, so describing the phases of this makes it sound more simplistic than the actual perfume reads.

 

It starts out with sweet but sharp lemon and clean but light black tea notes. A buttery, faintly musky vanilla comes out as it dries, so it starts to smell a bit like lemon cookies, but still with the fresh-bitter underpinning of the tea keeping it from smelling saccharine. The lemon seems to strengthen again later (or maybe it's just that my nose gets used to the vanilla after the initial novelty of it): the rich, fresh, lemon-tea-vanilla-musk scent is still balanced and going strong a few hours after application. Hours and hours later, the lemon fades out and it eventually winds up on my skin as a sweet, sugary, comforting, long-lasting vanilla.

 

Although all the components I can identify are foody, this definitely smells of a real perfume to me, not a bunch of food slathered on the skin. I guess that's the fougere/musk keeping it from smelling like a tea party.

 

On my bottle list for sure.

[TallGrrl78]

Mmm, Dorian.

 

On me it smells like lavender tea blended with a soft vanilla musk. I get a hint of sweet lemon in this as well. This is hands down my favorite BPAL scent. If I'm going to be having a stressful day, I like to wear this scent because it really calms me down. It's comforting, cozy and just so good. I'd bathe in this if I could but fortunately just a small amount lasts all day on me and the scent stays true.

 

Definitly a scent I would never want to be without. :love!:

Edited August 18, 2011 by TallGrrl78

[Ryokumuji]

How did I not post a review for this one?!

 

I just love it. Initially, Dorian is very lemony smelling with and underlying hint of soapiness that at first I was worried about. Once on my skin though, the soapiness goes away leaving sweet musky lemon and vanilla scent with a hint of tea. I didn't really expect this one to be such a winner. Definitely worthy of a bottle.

[whataboutprom]

Wet, this is so soft it's hard for me to discern the notes. Dorian seems fresh without being soapy clean, sweet and maybe a tiny bit fruity. I hope my skin amps it up, because right now Dorian is just a whisper.

 

I had to go back and look up the notes to try and make sense of this. I guess the sweetness is the vanilla tea and the blossom, which luckily isn't a heady floral note on me. As it dries the musk is coming out very softly. So far I don't get the "corrupted core", but I'm just fine with that. I love that this is sweet but not foodie, fresh but not green or soapy, floral without killing my sinuses and musky without smelling like a wild animal. A refined fragrance indeed!

 

The floral note starts to get a little bit stronger, but I'm having a hard time picking out individual scents now; this blends together beautifully. I wish I could still smell the vanilla, but maybe it will reappear late in the game, as it often does. So far Dorian is going on my possible bottle list.

 

Edited to add: 45 minutes later, and I believe I have found the corrupted core, and it is... dust and lemon pledge! Oh no, this is terrible. It started out so lovely, but the dust and cleaner notes are not budging. My wrists smell like a dusty public bathroom.

Edited September 4, 2011 by whataboutprom

[DahliaHayashi]

I have tons of autum and winter scents (but since autum is my favorite season i can never have to much ) so I am searching for a more spring or summer scent. especially summer since the sweeter blends are ok in spring as well.

After reading the reviews i thought dorian could be it but my skin decided to do something completely different with it

 

In the bottle: vanillary lemon. i cant smell tea somehow.

 

On me wet: CAKE ?! LEMON CAKE?! where does the cake comes from ?!

 

On my skin dry: Lemon Cake all the way. just cake. no tea. maybe tea cake though

 

After several hours: The first 2 or 3 hours it stays cake and calms down to finally some vanilla tea with something sexy in it.

 

Verdict: I want the last stage all the time because this is gorgeous and sexy but i have to run around smelling like pastry for 2 or 3 hours to get this sexy sweet last tea stage. dont get me wrong the smell is delicious i wanna eat it but i am not sure if i wanna smell like it for some hours. i am scared people start to nibble on me

however my skin really suprised me. cake was not what i expected AT ALL.

I will test it out some more....

[maoric]

In the vial: Faint, sweetened tea.

 

Freshly applied: Musk? and whatever flowers/plants are in the fougere.

 

Drying: Early in the drying it definitely smells like a light cologne. Pretty nice, though not much presence. Now and then wafts of a sweetened tea and musk reach my nose as I type on the computer, though smelling my wrist is mostly citrus. Veeeeeery strongly citrus.

 

Later: Light musk with some tea sweetened with a bit of citrus (thankfully much less than before) and sugar. Going to need to borrow some noses to get outside opinions later, but this would be a very nice change of pace from the usual wood scents I love. The drying is a bit strong with citrus, but afterward the scent is great.

[writergal969]

I tried a sniffie of this when I first began BPAL but didn't like it. I was PIF'd an imp by Dark Alice a few weeks ago and HOMG. I think my skin chemistry has changed. This. is. LOVE.

 

In the vial, it was pretty innocuous. Pretty light and not at all aggressive.Couldn't really suss much out by just sniffing it.

 

Wet: Mmm, tea and the good kind of vanilla. Hint of lemon. Fresh. Creamy. Soft.

 

Dry: HEAVEN. Really, this, for some reason, evokes something similar to The Girl for me (which is nice, The Girl is 1) htf and 2) frakking expensive when you do). I think my skin chemistry has changed with age and medications over time and seriously, I got a warm vanilla with tea and what I feel is maybe skin musk? I never was a big fan of vanilla in the past but this just melds perfectly. Not too big of throw which is what I want for work. I get a whiff now and again when moving and it's just....ahhh! Lovely!

[Ghost of a Rose]

In the imp: Oil is clear, with a pale yellow tint. The scent is a dark, bitter note slightly reminiscent of black tea, with vanilla and lavender. It's surprisingly non-sweet considering all those sweet ingredients.

 

On me, wet: Pretty subtle. At first, I just get lavender, but then the vanilla kicks in and they're pretty equal until it dries in just a couple of minutes.

 

On me, just dried: Now mostly vanilla, with just a hint of lemon under the vanilla. And it's sweeter now, although still not super-sweet.

 

After 20 minutes: The vanilla has overpowered everything else. Sigh. I'm not a fan of vanilla. I love most of the other ingredients in this, but now all I can smell is vanilla.

 

After 30 minutes: Vanilla is still the main note, but now I'm also picking up some honey and creaminess to balance it out. And it has continued to get sweeter.

 

After 1 hour: Vanilla and musk, in that order of strength.

 

After 6 hours: A faint wisp of musk remains.

 

Verdict: This isn't the Holy Grail of an authentic black tea scent for which I had hoped. I only noticed the tea note in the imp, and even then it only reminded me slightly of tea. It is a pleasant and interesting scent though, especially in the first 15 minutes or so before the vanilla takes over. Wearing it in a scent locket would probably preserve those nice top notes much longer. Otherwise, this is too much vanilla to be a 5-star perfume for me. My son really liked it on me, but then most people do like vanilla much more than I do.

 

My rating: 4 stars

[glassdeer]

So far Dorian is my absolute favourite. Sweet but not too sweet, deliciously warm and cozy, and blends so well with my natural skin scent. I mostly get vanilla tea with a background of warm musk, with maybe the tiniest bit of citrus. Very glad to have found this.

[Alethia]

Thoughts: I was a little hesitant to try Dorian as the "three pale musks" make me think of white musk, which always turns to baby wipes on my skin.

 

Wet: Beautiful, beautiful sugar and vanilla with only a hint of tea. I'm swooning over here!

 

Dry down: The tea has mostly disappeared, and I get no lemon, but the sugar and vanilla here is amazing, grown up, and sexy.

 

Dry: Sugar and vanilla. Loving this! The sugar doesn't have the burnt note I get from any of the Sugar Skulls and is pitch perfect.

 

Final thoughts: I wore Dorian for an entire work day last week, and not only was there a good amount of throw (which for me is small-medium) but it lasted throughout the entire workday and when I woke up in the morning I could still smell it on my skin.

 

Verdict: I'll be including a bottle of this in my next order, and maybe a second one to age.

[Morsigne925]

In the imp: I smell the tea and vanilla, and something that almost smells woodsy, like some dried bark I've smelled before in potpourri. It smells a bit like one of those fancy little bars of soap.

 

On skin wet: The sweet smells come out a lot more, along with something a little sharp in the background that makes me understand why this would be a "man" scent - maybe the lemon others are getting from this. I'm still getting some kind of potpourri flower smell thought I'm not sure what it is. Not decided on how I'm feeling about this one - it's reminding me of walking into one of those little gift shops my mom, aunt and grandma like to frequent where they sell small, whimsical dishes and various scented soaps. This is another one I want to try on the BF for sure, so far.

 

Drying: To me the "sharp" scent I was smelling before has calmed down much more, and now I'm mostly getting a lovely sweet tea scent. Overall, I'm really liking this scent - I can definitely see the "gender neutral" aspect of it, as I'm loving it on me, but am also dying to put this on my BF. It's smelling like a big cup of vanilla tea while sitting at a table with some kind of potpourri or dried bouquet as a centerpiece.

 

End of the day: Love love love this perfume. It's definitely on my list for a big bottle

[rhubarb3point14]

Oh, my. Dorian is glorious. Everything in this goes right on me. It's all vanilla-tea-caramel goodness. When I first apply it, I can smell the crisp, airy lavender in the fougere. And as it deepens, I can even smell a little bit of the musk, which is something my skin usually quashes.

 

I don't get much citrus out of this, although many people seem to.

 

This is sexy and comforting and disconcerting all at the same time. Lovely.

[SerendipityHQ]

In the bottle: Generic perfume smell mixed with iced tea and a little lemon. Completely unoffensive, but nothing to go into raptures about. Hmmm.

 

Wet: Nice black tea smell, but with a vanilla sweetness coming out-- After about twenty seconds this turns into the world's most beautiful sweet vanilla smell. No lemon on me- just vanilla sugar with maybe a little lavender waaaay in the background. Wrist glued to nose. Omigod. This is just lovely. I don't think I understand people saying this is a unisex scent- this smells *really* gorgeously feminine to me. This is the kind of smell that makes people want to stick their nose right up to it- not super assertive- just wafting awesome that makes you feel like the sexy goddess of smelling bloody wonderful.

 

Dry: Stays mostly the same, but powdery. Not baby powdery, just dry vanilla powder with a little lavender instead of vanilla syrup. Want to lick this. Only problem is it fades a little faster on me then other bpal. Totally worth a re-application though.

 

TL:DR: Want to lick myself. This is amazing. Buying more as soon as possible.

Edited December 13, 2011 by SerendipityHQ