Jump to content
Post-Update: Forum Issues Read more... ×
BPAL Madness!
Sign in to follow this  
  • entries
    15
  • comments
    0
  • views
    1,451

March

Sign in to follow this  
windbourne

402 views

🐇🐰 Whew.

Okay, let's just hop back on this horse and go. :)

 

March 1: The Air and The Ether -- This little guy is a white amber bomb that only settles into a soft ambergris and, as promised, a very light hint of lavender, after almost an hour of sweet and shimmering white amber. It's ...okay. White amber is a note that I am often a little sensitive to, sometimes to a point of nausea. This didn't quite hit that, but it was a bit of a narrow squeak. Late drydown is largely ambergris, as is usually the case with that note on my skin. This is definitely a nice one if you like white amber, maybe not so much if you were hoping for something bright and airy instead of clear and crystalline and sweet. (eta: 3/4 -- I picked up a low partial from Ajevie, and it's *much* stronger on the lavender and I like it a lot more than my previous decant. So there may be some batch variations present.)

 

March 2: Gingerbread Dog -- I expected to like this a lot more than I do. The pecan & saffron are very weird with the gingerbread on me and it reminds me a bit of a savory pecan pie, which is not quite the vibe I was hoping. It seems the only nut scent I reliably like is still hazelnut. Also, I swear there’s a hint of red ginger in this year's gingerbread and that’s one of my least favorite notes of all time. It lasted a moderate amount of time and didn't have a lot of throw. But ...man, I was not expecting that pecan note to be so hefty.

 

March 3: Chocolate Cat -- The vetiver in this is likewise a bit stronger than I expected and goes a bit peanut buttery with a background hint of hairspray, which I do not love. I'm inclined to blame the musk. The honey is likewise not being especially pleasant. It isn't the ultra-thick honey, it feels sort of...antiseptic is the word popping into my head, so I guess it'll do. It's too clean for these notes. I was expecting something thicker and richer and definitely sweeter, and it's not hitting any of that. I kind of like the drydown, as the cacao comes out a bit more and it does get a bit sweeter, but not enough to buy more. Hroom. I'm a little disappointed, tbh. I expected this series to be much nicer on me than the decants I got are indicating.

 

March 4: Marshmallows, Gumdrops, and Peppermint Canes -- This is weirdly indistinct on me. The mint isn't very forward, but honestly, at first, nothing about this is. It takes almost fifteen minutes to smell like something other than a sweetish, very slightly mentholic blur on my wrists, and I wasn't shy about application. As it dries, I like it more. It develops into a sugary gumdrop fragrance with a fluffy sweet marshmallowy vibe, but like, really good marshmallows, guimauve not staypuft. ;} The clove and anise are soft and candied. ...the whole thing is soft and candied and dreamy, soft and vintage in a faded pastel way. It has no throw and poor lasting power, but it's a pleasant wear after it gets pasts the 'I just puffed sugar dust on my wrists, I guess?' point.

 

March 5: The Garden of Shut-Eye Town -- IIiiii thought this would be a charming and understated sleepy blend and underestimated the power of the florals involved. I had to wash it off not five minutes in because something or some combination of things was making me feel very ill. It's interesting. I have a tea blend that contains many of the more herbal notes (lavender, passion flower, chamomile, lemon balm) without the more floral wisteria, poppy, or cowslip. It does include valerian root, and it knocks me out pretty darn quick. In the vial, this perfume smells surprisingly similar to the way that tea does when brewed. However, on my skin, it's a lavender-tinted Flower Power Party and...yeah. Not good. I picked up decants of all of this series except The Shore of the Lollypop Sea expecting to feel like I would need full bottles of more than one. Instead, I ended up with a low partial of one and will be chucking all the rest of my decants at friends or swaps.

 

March 6: Gingerbread Sticky Buns -- Surprisingly yeasty. Sharply cinnamon and ginger -- and again, something like the red ginger note showing up in my nose, like a warm, slightly skanky ginger note rather than a sharp, bitey or rooty ginger note. Somewhat sticky icing-like note. Overall, not to my tastes. More throw than I liked, relatively low lasting power.

 

March 7: Upslope Fog -- I like Upslope for about thirty seconds and then the stone note comes in and I can’t handle stone notes at all. It’s a funky combo of too sweet (NCD’s was worse for me in that way) and almost metallic? Anyway, that does eventually fade a little and it becomes a slightly muddled outdoorsy scent. I can smell a hint of the misty note I love, but mostly it’s a bit buried under the rest. I think I missed the craggy stones in the scent description when I picked my decants. 😂 For more on my thoughts about stone accord, see my distaste for Inganok Jewelers, 13 Hours, and Night's Bridge. Just...pleh. (This was originally written a few days ago. I did test it again, and lasted even less time. Knowing what it was about, I washed it off after a relatively short amount of time.)

 

March 8: Sea Smoke -- Sea Smoke is pretty much Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife without the honey and with a little bit of ozone substituting for the barely-present mint. That one is much sexier due to the honey, but the later drydown for me is almost identical. Otherwise, this is BPAL’s ambergris & seaweed, straight up. I like it, but I like DotFW more. If I didn’t have that I’d totally pick up a bottle of Sea Smoke. If you were ever 👀 about DotFW, get some of this and layer it with something that’s a slightly skanky honey and you’ll have a pretty good approximation. This lasted quite a long time, and the throw was mild, but if DotFW is any indication, it'll get stronger over time.

 

March 9: Cerise Fog -- This reminds me of a juicier, somewhat sweeter Akuma. The amber is golden and sweet and brightens and smoothes the scent in ways the neroli fights against in Akuma, though they definitely share the orange citrus + raspberry and a sweet, candy-like quality. Later on the sugariness really amps up and it mostly reminds me of flavored cotton candy. Curiously, after a few hours the amber becomes more prominent and I realllly like the way it lingers. This is going on my wishlist for later purchasing.

Sign in to follow this  


0 Comments


Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×