marared

This scent is either honey OR it's spicy carnation. I love it, but it's weird how it flips between the two scents with very little overlap. It does not smell anything like Morocco to me - Morocco is more of a very slightly floral sandalwood, and this is a hell of a lot more sweet and floral, although it is not *obnoxiously* floral. I do not smell any ginger, and occasionally I get the slightest whiff of the tea, but I have to be actively trying to smell it to notice it. I think I would have liked this to be a little more ginger and tea and a little less amber and honey, but that's the nature of those scents; they just take over eeeeeverything. I still like it. I sprayed some on one section of my hair about fourteen hours ago and I can still smell it, but it doesn't leave a HELLO TRAIL OF VAGINA TREASURE floating along behind me.

This is everything I hoped for and more out of a vetiver scent. It's obnoxiously woodsy right off the bat - far more wood than vetiver - but it mellows out very quickly. It's still woodsy, but becomes much smoother - it hovers between powdery and resinous but remains delicious. There is even just the *barest* sweet undertone to it after 10-15 min. If you're a vetiver-hater, this will not change your mind, because it does lend a noticeable smokiness to the overall scent, but if you're curious and want to give it a try, or want a vetiver that isn't thick and scorched, this would be a good scent to try. I'd label it definitively masculine, although that's never stopped me!

This is only vetiver-y for a couple of minutes on application; the smokiness dies away quickly, and the oudh/musk turns to powder. Fortunately, it's not the obnoxious sort of powder that comes from frankincense or amber, it's a far richer resinous powder... but still powder. Kind of like high-class deodorant for men.

Soft, delicate, fresh green bamboo on first application, but the vanilla sandalwood kicks in as it warms up on my skin. Very barely floral. Not a lot of throw. I need dis.

I've had this in the closet for a couple of months and finally took it for a test drive. This is a ridiculously mellow blend. Very very masculine, but like a calm lumbersexual with big hands who doesn't have anything to prove. If you want to try patchouli but you're afraid of it, this is a good place to start. It's so smooth, like it's had several years to age. The leather and the wood is finely balanced - none of the three notes compete with each other at all, and the honey is just a bare hint of underlying sweetness. I tend to amp BPAL's honey, and this one behaves really well. I might need more of this.

Smells like O with apricot. I don't get *any* lavender out of this. The blood orange musk is most apparent in the bottle and when freshly applied, but after 10-15 minutes, it's apricot and amber (which my skin likes to amp a bit). Warm and sweet just like O.

Cool herbal patchouli, just a little sweet. Reminds me a little bit of Penumbra with less musk. I really like this. I'm not sure I like this so much I need to go out and hunt down a bottle, but I might change my mind...

I was hoping for this to be a cousin of Glasgow, which is one of my favorite GCs (at least when it's fresh and you can still smell the blackberry), It's very slightly sweet, but not disgustingly so. It almost comes off as a dry, dark, dusty grape, and it gets more syrupy on the drydown. It's not bad, but I would have liked this better with more dead leaf balancing it out.

I liked the cardamom in Unicorn & Ram, so I was curious to see how this was. On me, it's pretty much single note cardamom. There's a very dry aspect to it that I suppose could be described as leaves, but yeah, straight up cardamom. I like it, mostly because cardamom is apparently about the only BPAL spice that does NOT go sour on me, which is sad-making because I love the smell of dessert and savory spices. If I think about it, I get the aquatic-men's-cologne vibe that other people have mentioned, because it *is* fairly high pitched, but not particularly *sweet* per se.

Very figgy right out of the bottle, and very loukhoumy when it's dry. There's a weird final note when it's fresh that's ... kinda nasty. I'm gonna stick this in the closet for a few months so it can smooth out and see if it improves with time.

I'm a little iffy on BPAL's leather, but this is not strongly leathery at all. It is indeed a touch sweet - cardamom musk with a hint of leather. I bet this would be great layered with a coffee note.

Very definitely smells like the vanilla in Love's Philosophy. Wrong kind of sweet for me, alas.

This starts out fruity - it reminds me of Pomona for the first ten or fifteen minutes. Once it dries down, though, it turns into a lovely warm and fuzzy resin that's only slightly sweet; I don't think I could even tell you this had an element of vanilla. There is not a whole lot of throw, but it sticks around; I could smell it on my wrists for several hours even on a sweaty day at work. I don't smell a whole lot of coffee, especially not after drydown. The vetiver is not burnt or smoky or even particularly noticeable, it just helps nail the scent down and keeps it from being too sweet or icky. The myrrh pokes its head out occasionally, and this was the note I was worried about, but it doesn't go to powder on me. I think I would call this a cousin to Mad Meg, without the mandarin or the cinnamon. Edit to say that with a little time and full drydown, it smells like a soft dark woodsy vanilla.

Loud, heady, powdery opium that smells like floral soap on me. Cannot really smell the vetiver. Tried to wait for the drydown, but had to go scrub it off. NOPE.

A decant has been sitting in my box for the last three years, and I don't remember what I thought when it's fresh (I did buy it because I love vetiver and oakmoss), but boy do I like it now when it's aged. I can only baaaaaarely detect the pomegranate - there's a slightly fruity blast when it first comes out of the imp, but it vanishes quickly. It's milder than the SN Haitian vetiver, but it's still smoky, and I guess if vetiver smells like bacon to you, there's a hint of bacon, but I don't really get that on my skin. It's just lovely aged vetiver mellowed out with a hint of wood and barely any fruit. I'm pretty sure I need to track down a bottle now.

TRICKSY BATH OIL Patchouli, aquilaria aguillocha, and Manuka honey. This one is whoa-patchouli, tempered and sweetened a bit by the honey, but it's still distinctive and persistent. I used a little bit in the shower last night, saw how thick the oil was (doesn't spread well directly on skin - obviously that's not what it's meant for, but we were just testing!), and spent several minutes washing it off. I still could smell faint patchouli for hours afterwards. I like it, but I would be cautious using it around anyone who *doesn't* like patchouli!

This smells like Copper Phoenix with patchouli, and the orange gives it the same high-pitched gack that I didn't like in CP either. I'm going to pop it in the closet for a year or two to see if it mellows out with time.

DIONYSIA. Everyone loves it on me and raves about how good it smells, and when they ask what's in it, they say, "Patchouli? Huh. I HATED patchouli until I smelled this." Patchouli is also one of those things that gets much smoother and sweeter and less hippie-dirty as it ages, so if you find a blend you like but the patchouli is a little strong? Put it away for at least one year, try it again, and give it one more year before you decide for sure.

The only rose I can wear that doesn't turn into freakishly loud ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE is Moroccan rose, and even then I have to apply cautiously. I mostly get my rose fix from The Body Shop's Moroccan rose body butter.

Peach V has a lot in common with Peach Moon, I think - minus the jasmine and the wood. It's light and sweet without being excessively fruity right off the bat, and over time on the skin it gets deeper and richer with the honey. Neroli is sometimes slightly bitter - this is not, not at all. It's a wonderful summertime scent.

I smelled Coldie's in Atlanta, and it was totally peachy fruit punch on me.

I smelled Coldie's while in Atlanta, and all I got out of it was slightly fruity cedar, maybe a bit of vine. I think I'm just excessively sensitive to cedar though, because it's an amp note of mine.

I don't have any recommendations, but I loooove TokyoMilk Dark and look forward to the day when I can afford bottles of Everything & Nothing and Bittersweet. I think #62 is called Tainted Love, which I remember liking pretty well too. For alcohol-based perfume, it's really nice and long-lasting, and doesn't SMELL like alcohol like other brands do.

No one's ever said a peep to me about bottles, loose imps, or even a quart bag full of imps. Honestly, there's been more than one occasion when I forgot to take my baggie of travel-size liquids (shampoo, lotion, etc) and nobody said anything about it either. (but they DID open my *checked* luggage to examine a bottle of beer that was a gift...)

This is a pretty, soft, inoffensive patchouli that's been gentled by the amber and honey. If you want to try patchouli but you're afraid of the loud dirty boot-wearin' kind, this would be a good place to start. It does grow progressively a little dirtier with time and warmth, but it's not nearly as forceful as #occupywallstreet or Banshee Beat. I do get the hints of wood other people mention, but I really have to huff my arm and think about it before it becomes noticeable. I like it, it just doesn't have quite as much personality as other patchouli blends. Edit: this does strongly remind me of O, without being as *sweet* as O.