Frimp from the lab. I absolutely love Midsummer Night's Dream and have always wanted to try this. Unfortunately, it was rather disastrous.
In the imp: Faint sweet floral with a harsh chemical undertone.
Wet: YO, something went terribly wrong immediately. I don't know if it was the green note (?) or the pansy or the carnation (which hates me) or what, but I got almost no floral and a kind of awful wet swampy chemical smell. Husband said it was like bathroom air freshener from the eighties! Thankfully it didn't cause a headache, but this is really unpleasant.
Drydown: After a while it seems to get a little sweeter, but that awful chemical note remains, and I can't tell whether the perfume is sweetening or just fading. Weirdly, it also wears off very quickly but the nasty note hangs on and on and is really difficult to wash off. It smells something like floral hairspray.
Verdict: NO NO NO NO NO cat. Like someone else said, I wish I knew what notes were in this so I could avoid them forever, because something in this really doesn't go with my skin. I think it's probably a green note, beause those really really don't work on me, but usually they don't smell like some kind of awful spray.
Source: Love-In-Idleness
Frimp from the lab.
In the imp: Bubblegum, candy.
Wet: A blast of raspberries soaked in orange juice. Can't smell the neroli, so I think my skin, which amps citrus, is cranking the orange to eleven and drowning it out completely.
Drydown: Turns into fake sharply-sweet candy -- Sweet Tarts is about right. I don't know why someone would want to smell like this, really. It also fades insanely quickly on me -- within about half an hour it was almost impossible to smell.
Verdict: Glad it was a frimp.
Source: Akuma
Lightning + stormclouds = ozone and aquatic Death Notes, but Mary Shelley is one of My Girls, I love the GC Absinthe and really like the new Inspiration line, so I decided what the hell.
In the bottle (I know, I know we don't get the perfume for the labels but the Inspiration ones are SO GOOD. Dying for the T-shirt): I smell mostly mint, maybe some wormwood. Thank God it's not sharp. Most BPAL mints drown out every other note on me, so I'm probably amping the faint mint note in this.
Wet: Thought this was disaster when I seemed to smell celery. Husband, when applied to, reassured me multiple times it was not celery. (He thought it was "floral and sweet, kind of nice, not great.") Fortunately the celery? didn't stick around long. I definitely got all the mint, anise, sugar, wormwood, laudanum, absinthe, fennel, &c &c. notes, but faintly. It's really not that strong at all. Thankfully it didn't turn to screaming green on my skin, nor did the ozone note give me a headache. Rather pleasant surprise on both counts.
Drydown: On me it sweetens up and gets rather faint, and more mint comes out. It's a cool smell, not sharp at all, more a soft floral with faint mint, and would be a good summer perfume. Pretty, but fades fairly fast. It does smell more like a cologne than a perfume, but it's not sharp. I do like it. I agree with everyone else that after drydown there isn't much absinthe, so if you get it for that, you might be disappointed.
Verdict: Don't know if it would be bottle-worthy for other people, but I like finding a mint/green scent I can actually wear. I was expecting more absinthe and 'Victorian oriental' notes, but it's rare for me to find an ozone/aquatic or green or mint scent I can even tolerate, so I'm actually sort of pleased with it.
Source: Mary Shelley
This was a really nice surprise for me, because I thought it might be too boozy, but it's a great scent.
In the bottle: honey wine and maybe grape, or cherry. No pom.
Wet: The pom blooms on my skin and overpowers everything else for a few minutes -- I amp pom and love it. The pom mixes really well with the wine. The BPAL pom note often goes too tart on me, but this is a very dark sweet version. On me the pom keeps the sweetness other people mentioned in check and I get some incense, and the balm I think adds a really nice hint of wood. This scent is dark, complex and well-blended. Not flowery, and not that fruity either: it's rich dark red wine with dark berries, maybe mahogany. It glows like a ruby. I know I'm emphasizing the wine but it really doesn't smell that boozy. It's maybe more like the flavour you get in a red wine reduction, very rich.
Drydown: Doesn't really morph at all on me. It gets a little sweeter and more of the incense comes out. It has GREAT throw -- my husband smelled it a few feet away from me outside on a windy day! Lasted a fairly long while, too. It's a great fall/winter scent.
Verdict: I'm just sorry I didn't get two bottles.
Source: She Crushes for Dead Men Deadly Wine
Still searching for my perfect BPAL lavender (my favourite scent) and yeah, this ain't it (I have TKO, but haven't tried it yet, LOVE Erebos - if only it came in oil form!).
Diabolus: A classic Victorian men's cologne: a lavender fougere, with hints of lilac, lime, and citrus musk.
In the imp: Very faint overall, and a very faint lavender smell, muted by some sort-of flowery, clean, fresh, watery smells. This smells very fresh and springlike to me, not villainous, but not that girlish, either. It's sort of neutral.
Wet: Lavender, but again, it's kind of masked by the other notes -- I'm guessing the lime and citrus, because I amp those like crazy. Apparently a fougére is kind of woodsy, or herbal? I'm definitely getting that here, although it's not very green. It doesn't smell much like men's cologne to me, either. Almost soapy, but not quite.
Drydown: I'm not getting the shaving cream feel some other people did, but it's close; there's definitely that sharp, clean, just-washed-your-hands toiletries smell. The lavender is struggling through a bit more, but it's more like lather from soap which contains lavender, or something. It's not one of the high white sharp aquatic/florals that gives me a headache, but this is so not for me.
Verdict: Keeping the frimp (thanks Lab!), but really not for me. It also wore off very quickly.
Husbandly opinion: "It smells nice. Kind of powdery. No, not really sweet. Not flowery, not fruity. I can see how some people might think it would smell like shaving cream or soap."
Source: Villain
Review of the 2012 bottle -- I have a decant from (I think) 2009 and really like it.
In the bottle: Slightly sharp but not unpleasant, and wood/balsam rather than flowers or incense. This is a rather thick clear golden oil that's even a little sticky.
Wet: Spicy, faintly floral, woody. I do pick up hints of the rose and lily. I think the spice is caused by frankincense, maybe balsam fir. There's a forest-y smell that isn't green (on me, the BPAL green note turns to ugh), a little like pine or fir. Almost no incense. Not exactly a floral scent, but I'm not really getting any resin either.
Drydown: This fades fast, but lingers. As it dries I get more of the wood and frank, and then the flowers peep out again near the end, before it gets very faint, which happens on me after maybe about six hours. Really doesn't last as long as I expected.
Verdict: I do like this scent -- it's a well-blended rose/spice/wood/forest mix that's very pleasant, and fitting for the winter holidays. It really doesn't remind me of midnight mass, though -- more like Advent Sunday, maybe: quiet but not somber, certain of coming joy, peaceful. I think as this ages the incense comes up, and there isn't as much pine/fir in the older versions.
Source: Midnight Mass
This was part of a birthday present to myself -- I almost didn't get it, but decided at the last minute, what the heck. I love Proserpine, and Swinburne too -- this is one of my favourite poems.
In the imp: I can really smell the bourbon and the vanilla. Uh-oh. A kind of medicinal but sweet scent. Rather sharp.
Wet: WHOOM sandalwood. I didn't smell quite like a stick of incense, but it was close. Then I read "pencil shavings" in the forum reviews and it was all I could smell. :-/ Husband said it smelled "flowery, maybe incense-y" and not at all like pencil shavings. I kept smelling pencil shavings. Definitely a kind of woody smell. As another reviewer said, it's kind of dark resin/wood, rather than the bright frank. It was a little sharp, but not too bad.
Drydown: This got a lot sweeter, and less sharp, but also a lot fainter. It sticks pretty close to the skin. I don't think I ever got the bourbon (yay) and the vanilla did sweeten the resiny darkness, but it didn't really pop out, which was nice -- it's not a foody vanilla at all, maybe more like vanilla extract. This really wasn't what I was expecting, but it's all right. It might make a nice winter scent. Seems sweeter from a distance, but sharper and more like sandalwood/resin close up.
A few hours later: All gone except for a kind of residual sweetness.
Verdict: Nice enough but I don't know if I needed a bottle. Then again, it's one of those special limited editions I'd wonder about forever otherwise and spend time and money chasing down at least a decant of later. I might try it in a scent locket (if I ever get one), since my skin amps resins (part of why I like them) -- if this was just a little sweeter, I'd really like it. As it is, it's a little too harsh and dark for me to love it. And it fades really fast.
Source: Hope and Fear Set Free
I grew up in Santa Fe and our neighbour had a huge gorgeous lilac bush -- more like a wall of greenery and flowers -- and there were lilacs all over the city, so they really mean spring and happiness to me. Seattle has lots of lilacs too -- it might be my favourite flower to smell.
IN THE BOTTLE: Ohghod it was v green and sharp. I thought this was maybe another Two, Five, and Seven disaster where I just got blaring green and no florals at all! But, it was a bit more flowery than that (thank God). Even then, this scent had a certain something to it that drew me in.
WET: Still pretty sharp and green, but it settled down right away to a floral. As other people said, this really smells like actual fresh flowers -- not "perfumy" or soapy. There's some delicious note in there -- wood? musk? -- that seemed to be calming the green down. Usually I don't like the sort of high white sharp smells, especially with lots of grass, but this is converting me.
DRYDOWN: The lilac comes out more -- I was impatient for it! This has more staying power than I'd expect from such a light floral, and thankfully after a few hours the greens die way down and the musk comes out more. It's still pretty bright, but not in an unpleasant way. Nowhere near as sweet as actual lilacs, but that might be the green on my skin: for some reason it drowns out EVERYTHING else.
VERDICT: This kind of pretty gentle feminine floral is usually so not my thing, but it's delicate without fading, gentle yet strong, and is really sort of enchanting. It's definitely a wet, green, fresh flowery scent, like taking a walk in the Unicorn's wood after a spring rain. I find it energizing and clean -- it'd be a good morning perfume. Doubt I'll buy a bottle, but my skin usually amps grass LIKE WHOAH, and the sharp-but-delicate floral scents tend to give me headaches, so I'm delighted to find a grassy floral I can actually wear.
I agree that an aged bottle of this might be really beautiful -- one might be worth buying for that alone, to see what it turns into in a year or two. If it was just a bit more flowery/sweet I might get a bottle.
Source: The Lilac Wood
A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense.
Trying out unused frimps from the Lab -- this is several months old, I think.
In the imp: A kind of fresh soapy smell. Yikes?
Wet: WHAM high white florals hit me in the face. This usually causes a headache instanter, but not right now. Maybe the frank and sandalwood are toning down the flowers. Rather pleasant, actually.
Drydown: The wisteria and lily really aren't mixing well. I can't smell rose at all, which is odd because my skin amps it. There's a very weird almost bitter undertone, which might be the sandalwood, because my skin amps that too. The scent isn't not soapy or sharp, but really not what I was expecting. If anything this is a kind of flowery incense, not a floral. (Husband says it smells more flowery to him, less incense, but he also gets the bitter scent.)
Dry: Almost no throw and the bitter note, whatever it is, heats up. Not soapy, but it's biting and unpleasant.
Verdict: Total miss for me. It's a shame that right-out-of-the-imp smell didn't last because I really liked it.
Source: Seraphim
10/12/2012 -- I got to test this at the Seattle store! :-) In the bottle, it's definitely quite pink. On me this turned into a very light, sweet, pretty floral; I didn't get much of the musk, dust, wormwood &c. Got faint after a couple of hours, but it's v pretty, so I ordered a bottle. It was lighter and less cold and sharp than I expected from the description -- maybe like Stoker's Lucy "looking sweeter and lovelier than ever." :-)
ETA 2/24/2013 -- revisiting this after it's been settling a bit. At first it was a little disappointing, because it is indeed a very light almost faint scent with very little throw, but after slathering more on (like I need an excuse to do that -- heh) I was happier with it. In the bottle, and on wet, this is for me a very strong citrus, without much musk or tea (surprising, usually I amp tea). As it dries down, it goes through a very pretty flowery-spicy stage, which I wish lasted longer, and then is a very light sweet musk. As other people said, it would be a nice daytime or everyday scent; it's pretty cheerful! I still really like it, and was trying to figure out why since I usually don't like very pretty sweet vanishing florals. I think it's probably because most of those scents give me a nasty headache, but this one doesn't. The sad thing is it's more like a ghost than a vampire bride.
Source: The Vampire Bride
I had a small imp of this for a while which I wore sparingly, was really sad I didn't snag a bottle before it was discontinued, and finally got my muddy little paws on one recently, years after first trying it. It was a bit surprising in the bottle!
In the bottle: Chemical sweet cherry medicinal kiddie cough syrup. Yargh.
Wet: A sweet, yet musky, fruit smell -- with a little bit of spice. No idea what that's from. I don't actually smell pomegranate, which my skin amps like it's my job. Definitely dark fruits: plums, berries, maybe blackberries, cherries? dark grapes? Maybe cranberries and raspberries. A lot more spicy and musky than I was expecting.
Drydown: What the hell, I keep smelling something like PEPPER. Husband said he didn't think it was peppery but could see how I thought it was (what?) - more "spicy." Maybe this has cloves in it, because whenever I wear the BPAL clove note I turn into a kitchen cupboard. The musky amber/incense is really a nice combination with the fruit, though.
Hours later: I don't get the amber-to-powder, thank goodness. The scent gets a lot sweeter, the peppery note disappears (HUZZAH). Still a bit incensey. This really is a sort of dark, sweet, smokey autumnal smell -- if it were a colour it'd be a sort of deep glowing burgundy, like wine in a glass. It does fade fairly quickly, but it's really nice. As someone else said, this is the Iron Queen, not the flower-gathering girl. The resin/sandalwood/incense/musk/whateveritis (so not a perfume buff) gives it real maturity and depth. It's not quite sad - it reminds me of the last stanza of Keats' "To Autumn":
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Source: Hymn to Proserpine
Miracle of miracles, this is one of the few BPAL "high" white florals I can wear without an insta-headache, so I like it a lot for that alone.
In the bottle: Very sweet, light and feminine floral. I really liked the comparisons to a wedding bouquet and Easter lilies. It's maybe not that sweet, and slightly sharp.
Wet: Sharpens a little bit more, but it's not soapy or perfumey. This is definitely the All-Singing All-Jasmine show. I get maybe a little of the orris root or the amber, which seem to be weighing down the florals a bit and adding a powdery note. This is slightly girly and "juvenile" for me -- it feels like perfume for a young girl. Pretty, but simple.
Drydown: More of the same, maybe a little more powdery. This warms up into a nice juicy strong jasmine scent. Fades rather quickly. I doubt I'll ever get my hands on the BPAL Jasmine SN, so this appears to be a nice substitute.
Verdict: If you like jasmine, this is for you. If you despair of ever finding a BPAL white floral you can wear pain-free, this may also be for you. I'm keeping this, but might try it in a scent locket to see if it lasts longer, or layering it with a resin to see if I can bring out the other notes more. This could be a nice BPAL starter scent for someone (someone who doesn't get that cat-pee effect, needless to say).
Source: Corinna
Roman apple festival! I love BPAL apple notes, I love Rome. 2012 version.
In the bottle: Artificial fruit candy. Woe.
Wet: Artifical fruity candy smell with chemical undertones. Woe squared. Husband: "You smell like cherry-orange-lemon Lifesavers in the pack." No berries, juices, blossoms or nuts, either, unless the nuts are causing the chemical smell. I don't get the nail-polish acetone smell, just something really....candied and fake. To me it smells like air freshener.
Drydown: Candy-scented air freshener with a chemical aftertaste. Ack! This also fades very quickly, which might be a good thing for me.
Source: Pomona
I got this as a frimp in my (TOTALLY AWESOME) six-pack of Disc/LE imps from Etsy, thank you generous Lab! I wouldn't have ordinarily gotten it myself because while I love a lot of BPAL foodie scents, I don't wear them. I do really enjoy smelling them, though, especially the caramel and cider notes.
In the imp: Very caramelly and rich and heavy, maybe with a hint of the wine.
Wet: BAM, there's the honey. And cake. And butter. Oh my. I don't get wine, or caramel, or nuts, or even milk, just BUTTER. HONEY. CAKE. Wow. This is intense. I put just a dab on one wrist to test it for fun and now I can't smell anything else! This would be a great room scent for a winter party, or maybe to dab a little on your neck or pillow as you're going to sleep at night. I don't get sexytimes out of this at all -- it's more a curl-up-in-front-of-the-fire winter or late autumn comfort smell.
Drydown: The butter backs off some, and I get more caramel, but still no wine. Lots of butter. This is a very rich heavy sweet scent -- but thank God, not too sickly-sweet (I can't stand very sweet foodie scents). Like caramelized sugar with butter and honey drizzled on top, or something. Yum. It makes me think of Bessie's offer to Jane Eyre of "a little cake" in my favourite book. :-) It would make a wonderful tea-cake.
Dry: I don't think I got any wine ever, which is odd, since my skin usually amps it, but my skin also really amps honey, so the honey note won the cagematch or something. This didn't morph a lot on me -- it did get a little fainter and more spicy, but it stayed very dark and rich. If you're really into foodie scents, you might love this, because it's luscious without being too sweet or bready. On me it had INTENSE throw and staying power -- my husband could smell the scent in a room I'd been in! I don't know how Beth manages to get these amazing apple and cider and butter and cake smells into imps. It's magic.
Verdict: I wouldn't buy a bottle for myself but a friend who loved BPAL foodie scents might love an imp or even a bottle -- I might even put it in a starter pack of foodie scents, or as a demonstration of what a wonderful olfactory experience BPAL scents can be, and wow I'm gushing but this is just. that. good. And you have to bear in mind, I don't even like a lot of foodie scents, especially sweet ones.
Source: Cockaigne
Yeah, this is just about what happened to me, sadly. I was a little heartbroken, because the musk and amber and woods and even the patch note sounded great.
In the bottle: A lot sweeter than I expected, plus a sharp edge.
Wet: A strong, sharp, UNPLEASANT weirdly sweet scent. It is just about like bad department store men's cologne. Total ugh.
Drydown: A couple of hours later, the 'bourbon geranium' (what the heck) dies down some, and the scent becomes sweeter and less sharp. It's still kind of spicy. I like the aged patchouli -- normally a death note I hate -- but it's pretty buried. Ditto the bark and cedar. The benzoin comes out a bit, not much. I think the musk is tamping things down, but there's a definite Old Spice vibe here for me. The longer it's on, the better it gets, except it also gets more faint (not necessarily a bad thing there!).
Verdict: This has been aging since Feb. and the sweet/sharp/spice effect is still there. Not much complexity or depth at all. Maybe in another year or so....I bought all these bottles together as a set, so I don't want to sell it off, but I am going to let this age for a very long while to see if the geranium/spice at least softens.
Source: Sic Erit
2008 version. This might be the scent that finally makes me learn my lesson about green notes. I amp grass and other herbal stuff like it's my job, making perfumes like Two, Five and Seven a disaster on me, but I've had good luck with some BPALs with juniper and cypress in. I love ancient Rome, I love incense and resins, so I took a gamble....
In the bottle: Something sweet but also really sharp. Licorice! Carnations? CLOVES. Flashback to artsy college friends smoking clove cigarettes which always made me cough. I do smell some beautiful dark rich incense buried under the cloves, but this is not a good opening.
Wet: CLOVES. Clovezilla stomping all over the myrrh and frankincense, probably even the myrtle, absolutely everything else. It's not a sharp headache-causing scent, but kind of sweet-yet-tangy, like fresh-picked herbs. I smell like a spice rack.
Drydown: A little bit of dark pretty incense emerges, but it's very faint and mashed into the tracks of CLOVEZILLA. The CLOVES smell finally does settle down a bit (WTF is causing this? the dragon's blood? the myrtle? some combination?) and more incense comes out, sort of, but it's so faint it's hard to tell if that's really happening or wishful thinking.
Verdict: If you've ever tasted old-time horehound drops, I now smell pretty much like that, except with more cinnamon (which I don't like as a note) and less mint. I am kinda heartbroken here. I might try this in a scent locket or as a room scent to see if the incense comes out more.
Source: Valentine of Rome
In the bottle: Very faint florals.
Wet: SOAP. Overwhelming sharp headache-inducing soap. It's exactly like Farenath said, like someone took all the stems, leaves and thorns from a field of wildflowers and crushed them all up, and then made them into powerful soap. Obviously there's some really intense green note. I wouldn't have gotten this if I'd known that. (My fault for not checking reviews first, I guess.....) Maybe it's the heather, or the thyme.
Drydown: Soap soap soap. It doesn't morph at all, no jasmine, no wisteria, no honeysuckle, no nothing except very sharp green soap. Husband said it was like a mix of Ivory and Irish Spring.
Verdict: Total miss. Kinda heartbroken as I'd waited a long time to get this one....Hope the green or the soap will die down as this ages, maybe.
Source: Jasmine Cottage
I already really wanted to try this, given the name and the concept, and then got a frimp from the Lab with my latest order. Yay!
In the bottle: BAM the apple knocks you on the head, like Newton. No kidding, I couldn't smell anything but apple for a couple of minutes! This really does smell exactly like a crisp ripe juicy sweet apple. Wow. Seemed more red than green to me, but tart. It's absolutely Essence of Apple. That's impressive.
Wet: On my skin this changes almost instantly into something else -- darker, more floral. It also gets a LOT fainter, even though I slathered it on. The apple note stays on top, but the other notes are getting stronger.
Drydown: There was a sort of alternation from sweet apple to the darker, muskier scent. The apple note still smelled great, but I didn't like the "poison" notes, and on me the two didn't really blend -- separate halves of the apple indeed! Then the apple went away completely and I was left with this faint, complex, dark musky scent that weirdly had an undertone of powder. After an hour all I had was the faint powder, and even that faded away -- almost no staying power on me.
Verdict: Loved smelling the APPLE! in the imp, and I liked the switching from apple to poison and back again, but I didn't like the musk or the powder (think that was the opium and oleander). Great idea, great execution, but the final scent is too faint and flowery and goes pouf.
I saw a lot of people comparing this to Hesperides, which is one of my all-time faves -- to me that scent was a lot heavier and sweeter. I'll try this again and see if it lasts longer (and maybe skip sniffing the imp), but it burns out so fast on me I doubt I'll buy it. I might try putting it in a scent locket to see if I can get that great apple note to last (a girl needs an excuse for an $80 scent locket, right?).
Source: Poisoned Apple
In the imp: Very very sweet, and slightly chemical. A little more "perfumy" than most BPALs, to me.
Wet: Immediately less sweet and less strong -- there was a slight soapy edge at first, which had me worried, but this fades into a quiet, simple, quite pretty scent. It might be good for someone who's not sure if they like rose scents, or a delicate office scent for a woman. I don't get any dust, blackness, wickedness, or boldness at all, sadly. There does seem to be a note which is suppressing the rose a little bit and keeping it from going either powdery or soapy, which is nice, but I can't tell what it is.
Drydown: This doesn't change on me much, except it continues getting ever fainter. Someone said "translucent" earlier and that sounds right -- it's more essence of rose, or preserved rose, rather than a strong fresh flowery smell.
Dry: My skin ate this pretty fast, so almost no throw, but it had good staying power for such a delicate femme scent. I'll keep the imp, and maybe get another one, but I'm not that interested in a bottle, mainly because on me it is pretty much just one note and it fades very quickly.
The verdict: I agree this is maybe more English countryside than London, unless it's a shady little corner of Queen Mary's Rose Garden. Sweet, quiet, maybe easily overlooked -- this is more of an Anne than an Emily or Charlotte perfume, Cassandra rather than Jane. -- Actually now that I think on it this is really kind of a Jane Bennet scent. Sweet, steady, classy, delicate. It's sort of a young pretty perfume, rather "girly" -- which isn't bad, just really, really not my thing. I tend to prefer the more complex "storytelling" BPALs too, and this is definitely not one of those. It's maybe the closest I've seen BPAL come to a more simple "regular" perfume. Which isn't to say it's bad at all, it's very sweet and pretty. I wouldn't include it in a BPAL starter imp pack, but I might suggest it to someone who's put off by the stronger scents and more elaborate descriptions. I also might put it in a BPAL rose imp pack as a contrast with the more complex and strong rose blends, some of which do turn to powder or soap.
Source: London
