greenranger

In the imp and wet, allllllll caraway.

 

Dry, warm and spicy, but not sweet spicy at all. I get no flowers, just dry, warm, spices.

 

Once it has had some time on my arm, the caraway steps back and the whole scent blends a bit better. It's interesting, and I'm wanting to see what happens to it with some aging, as amber never really shows up on me until the oil has had a few months to develop. It isn't like anything else that I have sniffed, but, I don't know if that is enough.

 

 

This is a very interesting scent...and I'm not sure if it is love or hate right now, but, I suspect that it will grow on me.

 

If I didn't have a note list, I'd be completely and utterly wrong on my guesses. I'm smelling mint and pimento berry...and musk? It sure as heck doesn't smell like just three notes. It smells complicated.

Oh, yum. I need to track down some tangerines, as I'm craving them now.

 

It swiftly becomes about more than just juicy ripe tangerines, although it is still a really delicious scent.

 

This is the second one out of the Ares scents that I may need a bottle of. I knew they were going to be dangerous.

A scent with bright and sharp bits on the upper end of a longer smoother scent. Spears, huh.

 

Lots of wood, some leather, and the tobacco and cognac seem to be just there for texture and color. It's a pale oil.

Myrrh, how I do love thee.

 

I hardly get any sharpness. I get loads of myrrh laying a sweet resinous foundation for just enough of the tobacco and rose geranium. I don't know wenge, but, there's a bit of woodiness that might be that.

 

This, I may need a bottle of.

Energetic and spiky in a sort of bang your sword against your shield sort of way.

 

Wet, lots of juniper, oakmoss and PATCHOULI.

 

Drying it starts to smooth out, but, this is an assertive take no prisoners scent, still.

 

Dry, it gets smoother still, and the resin finally shows up and begins to sweeten the scent, slightly.

 

I can't smell any cocoa, but the oil is a rich dark color.

6 imps?

 

That isn't much of an investment to worry over. You will either like them or not.

 

For the rest, here is the quote from the lab and the link that matters to me:

 

"We believe in compassionate consumerism, and in giving as much back to the community as we can through charitable contributions, volunteer work, and by supporting fair trade and self-sustaining growers whenever possible. We participate in the Green Power for a Green LA program at work and in our homes, and have participated in fundraisers for many fine organizations, including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Orangutan Foundation UK, AIDS Project Los Angeles, Covenant House, the Red Cross, and the Humane Society.

 

With the exception of our honey-based products, everything that comes from BPAL is vegan, and we abhor animal testing. All products are tested on staff, family, and friends. "

 

Aaaaand, the quotes you dug up are likely to attract some attention.

To me, this is a silvery shimmery incense blend. It's slightly sweet, and has just the barest hint of flowers far in the background. It seems cold and silvery, rather than warm and golden like most incense blends smell to me.

It also seems a little distant and reserved, or maybe it's just calm? This could make for an interesting sleep blend, but, it isn't really one I want to wear out for most occasions. If I were dressed as the Lady of the Moon, or the Queen of Night and Dreams, then yes, it might be perfect.

A very fertile smelling scent will all sorts of green growing things, with coriander hanging around behind.

 

After a while, it starts to smell like a farmer boy. A really idealized farmer boy who has been out in the garden working hard harvesting radishes and sprouts and green things because he smells of them. Have you heard that country song, "Good Directions" about the guy selling turnip greens on the side of the road who gets the girl in the end? If he smelled like this I might turn around and come back too.

 

I don't know if I need to smell like this, but, scents like this just break my heart that my guy's nose is too sensitive and can't deal with BPAL.

A blanket of warm tropical florals, shot through with powerful strands of tart citrus.

 

It settles down into a warm tropical floral with a bit of zing. I like it, but, I'll have to wear it more to figure out how much.

I'm a little wary of blue musk and orchid, and the cucumber? I thought I could smell that in the bottle and I became very very worried.

 

It hit my skin and changed utterly and completely into something else, almost as it it inverted or turned inside out. I smelled sharp lavender and sage, and then they softened and the cypress, frankincense and musk came out to play. There are notes here that I just don't know well enough to pick out, and the whole thing has begun to blend together.

 

It's a cool scent, and seems slightly shimmery? Like there's some atmospheric shimmer between me and the scent, the same thing that causes stars to appear to twinkle. Very appropriate for a wintery blue moon.

 

It's a very cool scent, to the point where the point where I applied it seems cooler than the skin surrounding.

In the bottle this smelled dark, dark, dark...

Vetiver, and musk, and just pure darkness.

 

On me, it's still very vetivery and musky. Vetiver is usually ok on me, but, this is strong vetiver even for me.

 

Drying, it begins to seem more mellow and smoother. I suspect the opium and tonka are warming up and mellowing things out. Slightly.

 

I usually like the darker, smokier blends, but, I may have actually found the limit of what I can comfortably wear.

 

I won't let go immediately, as I am curious about what a few months aging will do to the scent. However, I really don't think I'll be wearing this.

This smelled elegant, stylized and yellow...

 

I'm still thinking about how I feel about smelling this way, but, it seems a really good representation of Giallo.

I was worried at first, as the rose attempted gamely to take over. The scent in general seemed to heat up, like the nectarines, roses and honeycomb were either rasing their own heat by battling it out, or lying exhausted in the sun.

 

They do settle down, very gradually. Apparently the wheat arranged a truce or something.

 

Once everything clams down, over an hour and a half in, it's a well blended rose/nectarine/wheat/honeycomb scent. It is still a warm scent; Nothing here is cool and wet with dew, that's for certain.

 

 

For the first couple hours this was mostly ROSE and incense. About two hours in I started to smell something a little smokier, and the rose began to fade.

 

At about hour three I have a dusty incense scent with a bit of smoke and a hint of rose. One wrist is more dusty than the other. The wrist that doesn't have the majority of the dust has more myrrh.

2009 version.

 

After this has had a few hours to settle in on my skin, it's nice. It's cocoa and spices.

 

For some reason, there is some rough woody note that is interfering until it gets to that stage. I'm amping...something? It's not love straight out of the bottle, but, there are lots of folk who do love it so that's not a real problem. I will hold onto it for a while in the hopes that it will mellow, though.

I'm so glad I got to try this, since I had thought that it was forever beyond my reach!

 

This is the new 2009 batch. I've just opened the box and can't wait to try it.

 

I can smell the alcohol, and to me that gives it a more perfumy feel than many BPAL oils have, at least at the start.

 

The vanilla and cognac are the most apparent on me, though I can smell the tobacco and incense. I like it, though I suspect that love will come much later, after it has had a chance to age, and after it is no longer available again. =)

~edit~

Y'know, this is doing the strangest thing...when I sniff my arm I smell almost nothing at all, but, there's this utterly enchanting scent somewhere around me...

I think that I am beginning to see what all the fuss was about.

 

 

Apparently my skin amps completely different notes. =)

 

In the bottle, I could almost smell swirling winds. Seriously.

 

On me, the flowers come out to play first. This is probably one of the few times that I am happy to get as many flowers as this has. I can't really pull out the seperate flowers, except maybe gardenia, and I am not truly certain that that's because it is stronger, or maybe having a gardenia bush in the yard when I was growing up made me more familiar with the scent.

 

Drying, this is a fabulous floral scent. I can smell the sandalwood in the back giving just a bit of earthyness to it. The musks and oakmoss are playing support really well.

 

I love this. I am happy to have my bottle. I'm not usually a floral seeker, but, this is wonderful to me. The strange thing is, this really does seem windy somehow; As I am smelling this, in my head I am picturing silk scarves being twisted in the air by a whirling wind.

 

 

In the bottle, I thought that I smelled snow, or some watery note, and I worried.

 

On me, though, it warms up fast. I smell spicy greenery and musk. There might be something dewy and wet somewhere in the background.

 

 

Hod resurrected 2009

 

I smell carnations right away...carnations and something smooth, sweet, resiny and almost creamy. There may be vanilla and almond in this, maybe. It's stopping short of being foody, on me at least. I think there's something in the resiny part of it that is flagging this to my nose as not edible.

 

Drying, I can tell that there is definitely something vanilla in this. The almond part has faded. The vanilla is beginning to overpower the carnation.

 

I do like this. I can see what the fuss was about. I am very happy to have gotten to try one of the scents that I thought was forever beyond my reach.

This is a smooth, polished, calm scent. The scent notes do not stand out individually. They meld into a lustrous smooth polished whole.

I get no ripples or bumps. With as many spices and woods, the orange and the patchouli, smooth wasn't really what I was expecting. I was expecting warm, orangy, spicy and resiny...and it is, in a very, very smooth way. A polished smooth coppery orange substance. Very lovely, and very much not what I expected from those notes.

Sweet, sweet, sweet. This is a fruity sweet scent that is reminding me of something from very very long ago that I have forgotten. It's so familiar...and yet not. Maybe I only encountered it in a dream?

It's a white, sweet, rounded scent. It's full, and luminous, and It's reminding me of a place my parents took me on vacation during summertime when I was about eight?

It's also vanishing really fast on my skin.

On a piece of paper, it lasts longer. It's also less fruity sweet, and more...elegant...? Smoother, more grown up. I'll have to wear this in a locket. It vanishes too fast on my skin, and I prefer the version I get without my skin chemistry playing havoc with it.

It's still familiar from somewhere....

With a little bit of trepidation I try the Tin Phoenix. Some of the listed notes don't always play well with me.

A white scent, and there's a slight sharpness to it. Maybe not so slight; there are definitely some high sharp things going on. It's airy and high. I can pick out the lemongrass, but, it isn't too TOO far forward. Yet. Darn, there it goes.
Darn skin chemistry. Lemongrass sharp enough to cut myself on.

Dabbed on a piece of paper, the scent stays more blended: white, airy, and crystaline.

In the bottle, I smell Lavender.

On, as my skin warms it it blends into a silvery, almost bubbly(?) scent. It seems high and shiny and bright. Like the other metal phoenixes that I have tried so far, I can no longer pick out individual notes. I can feel and smell this almost bubbling off my skin into an airy light scent.

After it's dry and has had a chance to settle a little, I can smell something a little more grounded on my skin if I get really close.

This is a shiny scent, an airy scent, and the far drydown has just a touch of earthyness...not dirt. I can't do dirt on my skin, but this? This is magical. Shiny silvery magic!

This smells like iron...

or possibly steel.

On my skin I can also smell the myrrh, but the myrrh loves me. It's a colder scent than I would have expected from the list of notes. I'm not getting warm spicy resin. I'm smelling metal. It's smooth, solid, dark, metal.

The images I am associating with this are steel swords. I have been to booths at the Ren Faire, or at SCA events where people are selling very nice swords and knives...or nice solid armor that someone actually pounded into shape. This isn't so much the scent of the heat and shaping, but, of the finished solid form. This is that gorgeous damascus blade as you handle it and test the wieght of it.

To be clear, I ordered this partly because I thought all those resins and spices would love my skin and I would love them back...and they do and I do. However...as a scent this is a really wonderful interpretation of a gorgeous piece of patterned, layered steel.