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BPAL Madness!

heartbeast

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Posts posted by heartbeast


  1. This starts out a little sweeter than I usually like, but very quickly the bay steps up to ground the blend and render the scent spicy and slightly sweet without being foody. It really lasts for me, all day, and today it was perfect for our first chilly fall day. :heart: Non-foody foodies are one of my favorite BPAL tricks, and I love this one!


  2. Wearing this makes me smell like I just took a shower. And I did just take a shower, so now I smell like I just took 7 showers.

    I'm not sure I can top that. :lol:

     

    This is a lovely, clean and fresh smell. You know those laundry products that claim to smell like a fresh ocean breeze? This is what they're shooting for, and missing. That is the source of the similarity, and that is where it ends. This is a definite favorite, and really nice on a cool, bright and breezy day with just a slight threat of rain. :heart:


  3. This is my second light masculine blend in two days that seems to have aged into a beautiful fresh unisex scent. (The first was Mr. Qubit.) When I first put it on, it reminded me of Benefit's discontinued "Bathina" body balm--a scent I like, but not what I was expecting from the King of the Fairies! :lol: They have the bergamot and the white musk in common, so I think that's what was going on. Anyhow, I found Oberon to be ideal for a cool fresh fall day with the threat of more rain hanging over the cleanliness from yesterday's storm. I'd say the juniper dominated a bit after the drydown, but all in all it was just a smooth, fresh and subtle blend. :wub2:


  4. I haven't worn this in some time, and never reviewed it, so I decided to do both today. I was afraid it would be too masculine, but it turned out to be quite unisex and ideal for a rainy day! It's a lovely crisp ozone scent that's so fresh and slightly austere. This might sound odd, but its aesthetic matched not only the rain, but also my hands: I have a pale grey cream polish on at the moment, and today I wore a silver ring in a very spare, art deco-ish style, set with a large smokey topaz. It was just such a neat pleasure to look out at the rain, look down at my hands, and catch a whiff of Mr. Qubit! ^_^


  5. I can think of two that I liked, but unfortunately they're both old LE's and quite rare: June Gloom, which was a seasonal LE several years ago, and Chiroptera, which was one of the Oblation collection. I recall reading that Bat Woman from The Salon was very similar to Chiroptera--also discontinued, but more recently, so you might have a hope of finding it. All of them are worth looking for, you never know!


  6. You know...there are those who believe Anne Bonny and Mary Read were lovers. I'm not sure how anyone could ever say for sure that they were or weren't, but they were close associates and, fwiw, it appears that they did share a man. Which is nice for the bi-and-poly crowd; throw in Calico Jack and you've got the whole triad! :lol: (You could even make a case for Mary as trans; the tendency is to interpret historical female cross-dressers as doing so for purely utilitarian purposes, but what the heck do we know? Modern trans identity has a particular cultural context; similar people with similar feelings in the past would have handled those feelings with the resources that worked in their own time and place.

     

    Uh...Queer studies scholar stepping off; why am I typing this instead of the paper I'm supposed to be writing??)


  7. I want to give a special shout-out to aged Dionysia. My skin has a tendency to amp one sweet note in some blends in a really flat, monochromatic way, and when I first got Dionysia it was the raspberry. It was pleasant, but no big whoop. I tried it again about a year later, and the incense really stepped up in the blend, along with the plum, and the raspberry played much more nicely with the other fruits. Wow! So smooth and complex! It's now one of my favorites. :wub2:


  8. Two lavenders that are smoky in a metaphorical sense (by which I mean muted, sophisticated and a little sultry): Paris & Yvaine. I love lavender but it usually has an herbal sharpness that I associate with soap or aromatherapy blends for relaxation. Not what I want when I'm aiming for sophisticated and/or sexy. I never imagined before that a lavender scent could pull that vibe off, but those two do.


  9. I love Szepasszony for exactly the mood you're trying to convey! I'm also going to chime in on the Manhattan love, and Yvaine to a degree, although to my nose Yvaine is definitely more at the approachable end of that spectrum; the lavender is almost cuddly though not as much as in, say, Lilith Victoria (def. not what you're looking for, IMO). Same idea in other lavender scents: Paris, though that conveys a smooth sophisticated elegance with it too, and Pontia, which is just a little more remote in tone than either but still has a similar vibe. (Why yes, lavender has been my go-to note this summer; why do you ask?;))

     

    Also, this might seem like an odd choice, but to my nose Doc Constantine is very unisex and conveys a similar feel to Manhattan. I'd say it's just a touch sexier, but still very no-nonsense.


  10. Not really contributing to the current conversation, sorry, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to Manhattan. It's crisp and fresh for the hot hot weather (for us) we get here in SF from late August through October, yet it has that feel of sophistication that I associate with fall fashions. :P I can't wear most of those clothes until November, but at least I can smell classy!


  11. Oh wow. This is a new favorite. :D

     

    It's funny, when I first put this on, I absolutely didn't get the wet slap of patchouli that shriekingviolet describes, but I happened to be wearing arm warmers and so I didn't put it on my wrists like I usually do. Later I took them off and put some Clémence on my wrists, and I got that patchouli then--but it didn't last long. I've noticed this, scents smelling different on different parts of the body; I think my body heat just morphs a scent really quickly in some places. Anyway, at first the cardamom and clove utterly dominate the blend, with the carnation giving it a sweetness that's almost honey-like. I can't really pick out the patchouli and pepper, but I know they're there because without them this would be too sweet for me; they give the scent depth and backbone. But that carnation, oh my goodness! When I was in my big victoriana phase I used to wear Crabtree & Evelyn carnation single note, but BPAL's carnation tends to go a little powdery on me, and I've liked it best in blends where it doesn't stand out. But this! As the blend settles down, it becomes the most predominate note. It's that lovely floral with a slight spiciness that I remember, very true to the flower, with the spice oomphed up and the patchouli making it sexy. So good! Very late in the day, it does that greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts thing that so many BPALs do; it morphs and settles in to the skin like the most sexy, indolent spicy body dusting powder you ever smelled, slightly incensey. My my my.

     

    This is like the indolent, pampered love child of Spanked and Bengal. It's more ladylike than Spanked, more sophisticated than Bengal, and more ladylike, more sophisticated, and less foody than Three Witches, but it's definitely in the same family as all three of those. If you love them like I do, you will love this too. :P


  12. Red musk, bergamot, black currant, mimosa, orchid, patchouli, and lotus root.

    Wow, wow wow wow! wub.gif It's so awesome and such an honor to get to be a part of this project, and how Jenn managed to create a portrait that is so incredibly flattering and yet looks so very much like me, I will never know! I'm going to be a toothless old woman petting that portrait. :lol:

    On to the scent: At first it's all red musk; very reminiscent of Scherezade which is one of my very favorites, but more of a warm red than a savory yellow as Scherezade is made by all the saffron. I've noticed, if I dab this one on it stays predominately red musk all day, but if I apply generously and particularly in places that generate a lot of body heat, it goes through all sorts of gorgeous stages. Within an hour, the flowers bloom out in a big cloud that is so achingly beautiful, the first time I experienced it I actually burst into happy tears (which also, of course, had to do with how flabbergasted I was that this was going to be the stuff with my picture on it!). Later in the day, the sweetness of the currant and the lotus root come to the fore and the bergamot keeps an edge on them. (Although it's a very different scent, the way the bergamot asserts itself in the later drydown reminds me very much of Ides of March, also one of my favorites.) The patchouli is just barely evident to my nose, anchoring the whole thing with a faint warm earthiness. It's like when there are two low instruments playing the same line of music in unison and one is slightly brassier than the other, you almost can't hear the deeper one but you know it's there because it makes the sound richer--that's how the patchouli interacts with the red musk. I am very excited to see how the patchouli in this will age, though! The next morning, the sweet, soft skin musk still lingering in the crook of my arm is a thing of such barely-there beauty, in some ways it's the best stage of all. :thud:

    I am beyond honored to be associated with this scent. :bow:


  13. Straight out of the bottle, I got a delicious smoky purple scent--the lavender and violet dominate on me, and it's a nice soft lavender, too, not a sharp herby one. I am normally not a slatherer, but I loved this one so much and it was so soft that I put on quite a bit more than I usually do. True to the theme, it made a normally articulate woman run around the house flapping her arms and shrieking--with joy. :D I'm glad I was home alone!

     

    Later it turned into a crisp, slightly peppery herbal/floral, which was nice for a hot day running errands. I was a little disappointed to lose my smoky purple cloud, but it was very pleasant; I was thinking "hmmm, scent locket?" though. But then. Oh, but then. In the middle of the night--that's right, a good 18 hours after I first put it on--I woke up absolutely surrounded by this warm, herbal amber scent. I was dreaming I got a big box of BPAL and had several different scents on, and when I woke up I was like "what the hell is this smell?? This *can't* be the Emathides; it's too warm and spicy!!" But after a while as I sorted out dreams from reality I remembered that I hadn't actually put any scent on before bed, and there was nothing else it could be. It's not exactly the same amber that's in the Ides of March, another favorite, but it's similar and it interacts with the herbs and florals in a similar way. Normally I'm annoyed by my insomnia, but I was so happy to just lie there in that sensual cloud of smell! :D

     

    A very big win here! :P


  14. Wow, this is a pleasant surprise! I was expecting it to be too masculine for me to wear, but on me the good doctor is very unisex. The fir brings freshness, the amber brings sweetness, the musk is perceptable but is exactly as the description says, *sheer*, and the smoke and leather--especially the leather--step right up in the middle of all that fresh sweetness and infuse the whole thing with *spine*. So, masculine, but not in a rugged butch way--this is exactly what it should be: A beautiful angelic blond man with a quirky smile. :P However, it could just as easily be a stern, commanding woman in a very expensive suit with an excellent quality leather coat, shoes and handbag. Her hair is up in a bun that looks professional and elegant, not severe, and as she cocks one eyebrow at you, you suspect she might be a dominatrix in her off hours--but you would never dare to ask!


  15. Back to the topic of silly nicknames for scents...I was having a terrible time remembering the name of "Kajuraho". I kept thinking of it as "that-Indian-temple-with-all-the-erotic-carvings-starts-with-K", until it popped into my head to start pronouncing it "'cause you're a ho". :P Does anyone know what the actual pronunciation is?


  16. Over at the candy factory, several dollops of marzipan suddenly had an epiphany. They leapt off the conveyor belt, screaming "Fuck all y'all, we don't want to be candy!", and ran out to the employee parking lot where they stole a Mustang convertible. They cruised downtown, stopped at a liquor store and got several bottles of cherry wine, then pulled over and picked up some hot-looking roses and honeycombs that were hanging out on the corner, looking for a good time. They drove these lovelies out to the deep dark woods and spent the night getting drunk on cherry wine, burning incense and making sweet love.

     

    Almost turns to powder on my skin, but not quite. Honey and roses tend to do that, but something (the cherry?) keeps it just wet enough to prevent that from happening. Mister Heartbeast said "what is that scent you're wearing today, that smells of honey?" That is the closest he has come to actually complementing a BPAL, usually he either says nothing or just says the scent is too strong (and I'm far from a slatherer), so I count myself lucky. Me, the person I actually wear perfume for--I love it. :P

     

    Note: I had gotten an imp of this, and it was in my "nice enough, but doesn't knock my socks off" column. Nevertheless, I bought a 5ml to go with the Red & Pink Phoenixes, because I have a thing for sets--and out of the 5ml it certainly did knock my socks off. This isn't the first time I've experienced this, and I sometimes get the impression that scents are sort of "cramped" in an imp, that they need a little more room to stretch out and show their stuff. This probably makes no sense chemically or logically, but it's my impression (hee! accidental pun!) nonetheless.


  17. I got a deep mix of lilac and lily of the valley out of this when I sniffed it at Black Broom lo these many months ago, so when I had a chance to get an imp of my own I jumped at it. First on, this was predominantly a not-unpleasantly-soapy lilac. That sort of hovered around for most of the day, but after about, oh, 3-4 hours I started complementing customers in my store on their perfume: "Is that you? What are you wearing? No? Huh." It took me a while to realize that it was actually me, because what I smelled was a divine white-musky scent with a floral undertone. It stayed like that for the rest of the day. I came home and re-read the decription, and was shocked to find that there wasn't any mention of a musk. Was it the combination of the dragon's blood and galbanum that smells like musk on me? Possibly. My skin has a delightful habit of making a sweet musky undertone in florals where there shouldn't be one (see my review of Juliet). Also, yesterday I wore Black Opal and I'm wearing the same cardigan. So that could be it. But whatever made it morph into that musky floral, it sure was yummy! If it doesn't do it next time I wear Dragon's Eye, I'll add a dab of Black Opal. So nice! :P

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