CordeliaSeduced

My first lunacy, and a complete impulse buy--normally, I would never gravitate towards anything with "decomposing organic matter" listed as a key note. I'm glad, however, that I didn't stop to rationalize this one: I love it!

I don't get any dirt out of this whatsoever. Rather, my immediate impression is a very clean, mottled floral and possibly a very dark fruit...so dark, it hardly registers. Upon applying, the floral grows stronger and stronger. I might not be the best basis of comparison, because I appear to amp floral to new heights, but for most of the time I was wearing this, very little else showed itself. After a few hours, the fruit came to play: it's a deep, dark fruit that is by no means sweet but not tart, either. Like taking a whiff of air just above a fruit bowl full of apples and berries--perhaps you're smelling the plant matter around the skins, rather than the juicy flesh of the stuff itself.

On the finish, there's a dusty quality. Most perfumes finish off powdery on me, but this was distinctly and wholly different and I can only call it "dust"...maybe dry earth, and perhaps the rot that was described initially. It doesn't strike me as rotted, however, as this is a very clean scent. Very clean. In the bottle, I dare say almost sterile.

All over, I definitely enjoyed this scent and am thrilled that I ignored my better judgment and ordered it. I only wish I had purchased the matching shirt (or wore tee-shirts) because this label is just too adorable!

This might be the first BPAL blend I've tried that doesn't morph radically depending on its application stage. It smelled basically the same in the bottle as it did on my skin--pure and elegant rose with soft, powdery incense.

After drying significantly, the resins are more pronounced, but it takes a seasoned sniffer to figure them out and I still got strong whiffs of rose if I changed positions or made a brisk movement.

The scent lasted a fairly long while--about five hours, with enough throw to keep me happy without being overpowering to anyone around. I'll be interested to see if the resins age differently in this blend, and how it does in a scent locket: I like this scent, but I seem to be amping the rose over everything.

This was the first 'odd duck' scent I've really tried...

In the imp, all I could smell was candied almonds--very similar to the honey almonds I used to buy off street vendors when I wasn't so averted to junk food. I'd give my right arm to smell like that. This was also the first oil I tried that wasn't clear or yellowish in tone--this has an interesting pink tint to it, which gave me the impression that there was some spice I wasn't getting on the initial sniff. That's what came out when I put this on.

It was very light, but my skin seemed to suck in all the honey-almond and leave a strange combination of foody spices that remind me of a dessert I order at a local Indian restaurant. It's not bad, but it's not something I'm used to catching whiffs of on myself. It lasted about an hour and then completely faded.

I actually really like this scent, but I think it might not agree with my skin...? I'd love to try it in a locket, however.

Also, it didn't 'react' with my skin, but the crooks of my arms itched a little bit after applying. But no reaction with my neck, wrists, or cleavage (where I normally apply perfume)...

I'm going to have to agree with everyone else on this and say this smells very much like jam. Both in the imp and wet on my skin, this is a warm red currant, very juicy and somewhat sticky. --also very sweet, which gives the illusion of smelling a preserve or a compote as opposed to straight-up fruit.

On the dry-down, it began to smell a little like grape bubblegum, but not obnoxiously. There was something very dark green behind it all, which was what ended up on my skin after all the fruity perfume died away. It wasn't terribly long-wearing on me, and while I could definitely smell it on myself, I don't think anyone else could.

I do very much like this scent, but (believe it or not) I find it a little masculine for me.

I dabbed this onto my wrists and neck before walking out the door this morning without really sniffing it first. I was wearing a moderately bright print, and most of my other perfumes are either spicy or boozy so I thought testing this might be my best bet. Somehow, I thought I smelled peach...?

Wet, it was very light and almost airy fruit, yet somehow very green. I still thought it was peach, but peach mixed with something mossy or leafy. Upon drying down, it became more woodsy, and I realized the fruit was indeed apple.

Hours later, I was still getting whiffs of it every now and then, so it had a decent staying power on me. Light enough to wear all day without giving me the inevitable midday "oh dear lord, why did I put this on?" that I get with most scents, but still strong enough to cause me to be accosted by horses during my break.

This is on the list of being considered in bottle-form. I think this might make a lovely fall scent.

I'll admit, I'm a pomegranate junkie. --though I often forget what it smells like and have to stop and ponder the source of bubblegum before remembering. That being said, this only smelled of bubblegum in the bottle, also aided by the lotus (which I wouldn't be able to place on its own, but I've heard similar bubblegum rumors). I could smell the hyssop ever-so-slightly, which gave me a small fright: I was hoping this would be little-to-no hyssop, reminding me as it does of my days of working a spa.

Luckily, I got none of it once it got on my skin. Wet, it was a beautiful red blend of tart fruit and full-bodied wine. It appears I amp wine like mad, so after a while this started to smell exactly like a pomegranate Cabernet that I used to buy. Completely dried, I got a small hint of something possibly greener behind that, but it was only after the perfume began to fade considerably.

I could smell this all day, but no one else seemed to really notice. ...I'm actually a little disappointed that I didn't have the foresight to buy a back-up bottle, because this is something I'd probably wear a lot more of if I wasn't afraid of running out in less than a month.

I was terribly excited to receive this as a frimp, though I couldn't remember why. Once I opened it, I remembered: I have a mint weakness. In the bottle, I get a very clean mint and not much else. With my mother's perfume allergy I was afraid to put it on until I checked the individual notes, but it sounded 'clean' so I dabbed some on. Instant love!

Wet, I get a very green smell--it reminds me a lot of a green mint tea I drink often, to chase off my blinding headaches. Once it begins to dry, the lime comes out, but it's not an in-your-face citrus lime. Rather, I get almost a lemongrass feel from it. This blend really makes me miss my garden.

This is definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY a bottle buy. Of what I've tried thus far, this might be my perfect year-round scent: cool and refreshing for warmer months, crisp and clean for cooler weather. It doesn't have terribly much throw, but when dabbed on my neck I get just enough of it to keep me cool and composed for several hours.

Sorry if this was covered in a previous post, but if it has, I'd be very grateful if someone could lead me in that direction--

My mother has a severe allergy to something in most perfumes. I thought I'd be safe buying perfume oils since I thought maybe it was the alcohol or another common ingredient, but apparently not. There are a few blends she's okay with--she was fine with March Hare, and she didn't seem to react to Cordelia. But the other night, I accidentally spilled some Bluebeard on my hand and she was doubled over in pain. (She tends to react with violent headaches and sometimes nausea. A really good reaction can put her in bed for days.)

She herself rarely wears perfume and when she does it's an old Avon blend that smells vaguely of lemons and champagne. I thought maybe it was a musk allergy, but the fact that she didn't react to Cordelia kind of scratches that off my list. Is there a terribly common ingredient in all these things that she would be reacting to? We'd both greatly appreciate any answers or speculation--this way, I can avoid ordering anything with this in it (or at least avoid wearing it around her).

Thank you very much!

I don't really know what I was expecting from the description, but this surprised me. In the bottle, I was smelling cake batter, or vanilla frosting. Not the kind of synthetic vanilla you get from a can of Pillsbury whipped icing crap, but the kind of vanilla you might add to a homemade buttercreme. Once on my skin, something else started to come out...I'm assuming this was the saffron, since I've never outright sniffed saffron and thus cannot be 100% certain. In any occasion, it added a depth to the vanilla that I was not expecting. I was slowly getting the impression of vanilla cake batter with whiskey added to the mix...and then it hit me: this smells exactly like creme sherry. Or rather, it smells to me like what creme sherry tastes like--warm and spicy and sweet and creamy all the while cause enough sensual confusion to give me a decent buzz.

Upon drying, it softened to a brown-sugar vanilla creme once again reminiscent of baked goods. I managed to smell it all day, but no one else commented on it, so I'd suspect they didn't get any of the throw.

All in all, I definitely enjoyed it, but am not terribly broken up that I didn't get a second bottle.

When I first opened this imp, I thought I was smelling something else. I knew it had something peachy in it, which made sense, but the strong spice baffled me--then I realized I was actually sniffing March Hare. Strongly spiced apricot preserves is exactly what this smells like.

When applied, the clove really warms up. It's not as strikingly spicy as just opening a bottle of cloves and inhaling, or smoking a clove cigarette--this is a very warm, friendly spice with a sweet edge. Once it dried, very little changed except that it started slowly fading.

I love this scent. My only problem is, as stated before, my skin sucks it up and there's very little throw. Luckily, I remembered to dab some into my scent locket before I left the house, so I could continue to smell it throughout the day (there's something very soothing about it), but no one else noticed it...including my SO, who is an obsessive sniffer.

I will definitely, definitely be buying this in bottle form, and probably seeking out a roller-ball for easy slathering. Definitely a new favourite.

I was very excited to try this one, and I'm excited to re-test later on, since I think this may be a bottle-buy.

In the imp, things always smell sharper to me than they do on my skin. Once it was applied, I got nothing but full-bodied fruit--boisterous plum, dark currants, all mashed up together in some sort of flirty compote smeared all over my skin. Once it started to dry, out came the booze--the wine was noticeable, particularly. Every now and then I'd get a whiff of something else that I couldn't exactly place as amaretto but could definitely interpret as an alcoholic beverage (as could everyone around me!)...

The throw was decent, I think--I could definitely smell it, as could people in my immediate area, and it lasted almost five hours before slowly fading. I'm going to have to re-test this in a week or so to see if it holds up as well with my skin chemistry before buying a bottle. I also might want to steer clear of cars while wearing this, since my SO's family was convinced they had spilled a bottle of something in the back of their car before discovering it was me.

How utterly ironic. This wasn't even my first order (though my name is based off the Kirkegaard heroine, not the Shakespearean namesake of the scent). Anyway, first review:

In the bottle, I couldn't smell much past the musk. Perhaps a little of the cedar, and something sharp and sterile (probably the tea--I have a tendency to connect green teas with my days as an esthetician). In fact, it made me completely forget this contained any florals.

Wet on my skin, it began to unfold into a warm combination of florals. The lilac seemed to overpower everything else, but every now and again I'd get a whiff of jasmine.

As it dried, more of the tea and cedar seemed to be present, but the lilac still sits on top for me. Completely dry (as it is right now) I get a very powdery lemon. It took maybe three hours to reach this state, but it was a fun ride while it lasted...I'd be curious to try this in my scent locket to see if it lasts any longer and ends in something other than powder.

All in all, this scent surprised me: the longer I wore it, the more I liked it. The lilac made it a perfect spring/summer scent that I can definitely see myself wearing throughout the season. This is probably go on my list for larger bottles.