cinderfallen

It goes on smelling like a ritual. I smell singed lavender, ashes, incenses, and it's smoky, herbal, and extremely evocative of an asian temple, and I've been to a couple. Or a spa. A soothing sleep blend, perhaps. It's quite business-like and purposeful in tone in that way--"you've put me on, now it's time to get to sleep!" There's a bit of an asian bitter herbal medicine tinge to it, which I think is because of resin of the opium or the labdanum. As times goes on, the smokiness and ash fades, and the lavender turns almost citrus-like, and the champa offers a sugary grittiness. These and a swirl of opium becomes the main attraction of the scent. Reminds me of a lavender-floral Event Horizon with a stately sandalwood backbone.

Muse, for sure. Super kapow! sparkling.

Lady Una, a bright purple.

This smells like an incense pastry drizzled with honey. I get a lot of incense that reveals itself the longer it's on, actually, with the slightest tinge of foody.

There's a blast of apple at first which smells very much like the fresh note in Rose Red, crisp and clean and sweet, but the longer I wear it, the more the apple fades and the poisonous elements warm up and take over. I get mostly oleander, a sweet-smelling, pointed floral, the same as in Hell's Belle. I think the opium serves to warm up this scent and provide a good, almost sticky-resinous base and provide a very slight smoky presence, and the hemlock is a slightly herbal. I can see this amping into poutpourri if the opium doesn't work enough to ground this. I really like this on drydown--sweet, but not too sweet, slightly resinous, and evocative of an apple without going ever into fruity candy territory. Hours and hours and hours (almost 12) later, I have something that smells like peach or apricot! This must be part of the apple bouquet!

Sigh. I love this scent so much--sweet and clean and green and prettyyyy. Unfortunately, when it hits my skin, it loses that freshness and turns into an air freshener, flat and muddled sweetness.

I absolutely love this scent as it smells exactly like Asian persimmons (kaki). It's the mild, almost buttery-sweet kind, firm but tender--not the liquid, thin-skinned, slurpy kind--with a little, smooth, crunch-jelly-like sac in the center of the fruit when you bite into it--and man, this smells exactly like the fruit. A little citrus edge, but I don't detect any overt floral. Just persimmon goodness. Love in a big way.

Oh, this is lovely! I think the imp is fairly aged? The myrrh and tuberose create this amazing, full-bodied aura that swells out, rich and sweet, especially with the addition of the honey, carrying with it the sharper, restraining influence of the cognac, and the sweet-herbal geranium. The red patchouli and myrrh, as well as geranium are especially good choices to tone down what could have been an overwhelming fragrance with its lightly herbal notes. The warmth of this scent simply radiates. Other words that come to mind is, "a cloud" or "diffused" or. yeah. Nice. Soft honey and myrrh hit my nose first on drydown, like sticky honey diffused to silk in warm water, with that rose-like, plant-like aura of geranium's presence only implied. The patchouli only gives body to the scent and is never noticeable. Really gorgeous, extremely sexy, and sweet--but not too sweet. This is what a woman smells like in fantasies. I want a bottle that smells exactly like this.

This smells exactly like Snake Oil on me, but with a slightly citrus-powdery twang. This is super aged. I must really amp amber as I instantly recognized the same note--what I was mistaking for vanilla in Snake Oil. Sweet yet has a note that has me thinking of citrus cleanser--the black musk perhaps? Or another note? On full drydown, actually, it's not so bad. Mostly spicy-sweet amber, though, with citrus/almost tea-like something airy swirling over it.

Bluestocking, thank you so much for identifying that citrus as orange blossom! No wonder Versailles turns to powder on me--just like Jezabel. Citrus tang, a little jasmine, strong, middling scent. And then the slow slide into powder while the jasmine struggles to keep afloat. And...then the powder fades away? WHAT. An aged imp, this smells like weak tangerines with the richer sweetness of jasmines. However, overall kind of weak. Wouldn't mind trying a fresher imp. I wonder if this means I can try revisiting Jezebel? I loved that scent to pieces until the powdery turn so early into the initial application.... Or did the powder note just get overshadowed by the other elements? Hopefully not....

There's the pear. There's the vanilla. Yup. The vanilla isn't rich or decadent, more icing vanilla and some pear glaze. I was lured by the rarity of pear notes in the catalog, but ultimately, it's not very exciting.

It's apple full blast at first, followed by a ton of guava+passionfruit and spicy carnation--so much carnation that at I was initially afraid this was going to do the craftstore candle route. Nope the tonka must give enough grounding because the scent reins itself back and becomes a really clear, creamed fruit scent. My pulse points make the scent a lot more vanilla while my cooler forearms retain that crisp fruitiness--probably due to the carnation which gives that edge. I think the combination of sweet pea and sugarcane is acting almost like honey in this, giving a soft nudge to cushion the fruitiness. The apple recedes enough that it's reminscent of apple peel, and the end of each fruity waft is softened by that tinge of cream. I love that this a very soft scent, not too much of anything, and not too little girl at all. I get wafts of soft cream, gentle carnation, and very blended + harmonious fruits. Lasted for hours and hours.

This was very briefly lilies on me and then turned into a lot of woods, faintly sweet.

I remember being super disappointed when I got my bottle of (fresh) Morocco because I was like, "WTF this smells exactly like Antique Lace." For what it's worth.

You might find some more recs in this topic thread for generic "skin"-type scents: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=11721 Perhaps aged Illustrated Woman applied with a very light hand?

I get this vibe a lot with the Salon/Retail scents than I do with anything in the LE/GC catalog. I think because these are meant to really be perfumes. These are the scents I would gift to people who are used to upscale juice. Madonna: Hyssop, pomegranate, Angel’s Trumpet, Indonesian patchouli, iris, white orchid, and frankincense. Dark Delicacies: devil's trumpet accord, black orchid, tonka, coconut meat, fruit gums, osmanthus, smoky resin, myrtle, and Indonesian patchouli. I find these two smell very much alike at first--it might be the devil/angel's trumpet, which is a very striking and darkly aggressive floral. They're both supported by an herbal and elegant patchouli, and rounded out by other things that smell extremely expensive. Madonna has a very gentle and refined finish in comparison to Dark Delicacies, which remains a power scent through and through. SCHLAFENDE BAIGNEUSE -- NO I can't spell this. =/: Skin musk, white cream, honeycomb, yellow rose, King mandarin, chrysanthemum, golden amber, honeysuckle, and wide-throated yellow monkey-flower accord. Sweet and gentle and soft, and really pretty--but expensive. The one that has and always will be outta your league. Judith and Holofernes: Skin musk, honey, carnation, French magnolia, patchouli, sandalwood, and immortelle. A few words to really describe this scent is "collected," or "balanced," maybe. Very self-assured, feminine, with a subtle grounding provided by the patchouli and sandalwood that never approaches intrusive. I'd gift this to someone I admired.

This is an extremely elegant perfume. There are a lot of novelty scents in the BPAL catalogue that really evoke the concept, but few true perfumes. I love the execution of this and would really recommend this as a gift for someone who's not into BPAL. Woody sandalwood supports the subtle floral, and the honey is just a touch of syrup to the airy magnolia. It's the same magnolia as in Yvaine, actually and it really works to act as the transition note between the sandalwood and the carnation.

This is quite pretty. It smells very much like Dark Delicacies at first--with the overlap of Angel/Devil's trumpet, white/black orchid, and patchouli, I wonder what it could be? I'm going to go with the Angel Trumpet as the sharp, sinister floral scent that eventually calms down into a softer, sweeter, flower scent with the hint of tart pomegranate. The end result is as aquatic as I'll ever be able to wear for my tricky skin chemistry, very soft and serene. The morph is very aproppriate of the painting of a dark Madonna.

This almost works on me...but it's really wishful thinking. Something has soured/powdered on me but above that there's something that smells almost like coconut and lychee.

I totally mangle the rose, and probably the moonflower as well. Super sharp and sour and unpleasant. It's somehow powdery and soapy and almost moldy at the same time. Wow. It's bad.

This smells a LOT like Khajuraho to me, where all I really get is champaca, a super pink and sugary candy scent. And...that's it, really. Not much of Snake Oil at all to tone it down unless I stick my nose into my arm--and I think that's only because the high-pitched champaca has knocked out my nose functions.

Wow, this is some WINE. A really dark, woody red wine, the kind with lots of tannins is the first thing I smell when I apply, dirtied by something almost skin-like, plus a hint of clove. Drying down, the mimosa rises to the top, which is a very sweet, fresh-smelling thing that floats over the initial scent. Eventually, they all seem to be intermingle, but unfortunately, this specific combination (fresh topnote, rich clove base) is really reminding me of a candle. And not a very good one. Ah well, the intial scent was interesting enough to make up for it.

Seaweed, ambergris, and sea buckthorn berry with exotic herbs, incense smoke, ship wood, and Burmese musk. Male berry cologne, to put it simply. It's rather sharp and bracing, with that "cologne" blast, with an almost minty berry note on top that sweetens it up. It's not anything my chemistry can pull off, and i think it's stuck between a cologne and a candle on me. Recommended for the guys, perhaps.

This is easy to review for me as it went straight to a spicier Snake Oil with lily (as in Black Lily). The very creamy, almost waxy floral base note is still lingering after my shower. Really. I know this was a lovely fantasy floral in the bottle, a bit faint, and quite nice on others--a subdued floral with an aquatic tinge, very proper and pretty, but...I wonder where the heck that went on my skin? ETA: This definitely has a base of golden amber as I've discovered *ahem* that my skin loves to amp this. Which is why it smells like Snake Oil, et. al.

It goes on like orange citrus, a little floral, but nothing too special. A light pretty scent. It's steadily getting a bit deeper, though, not as light and cheerful and actually getting a bit aggressive--in a good way, if this scent had a personality. The sweet orange turns smoother, more integrated with the resins? Which are smooth and creamy, and sophisticated. A huge morph! And yet even as it turns more sophisticated, more light, pretty, sweet aspects turn up in the top notes which are undercut by the sharper orange pulp, and the spicer resins. It really does do a balancing act between two sides as it constantly evolves. I haven't had a BPAL do this before at all! Now I'm getting more spiced orange juice cake.... Wow, I love this. Very pretty scent throughout. It dries down as the adult orange creamsicle scent I've been longing for, where it doesn't smell like candy, but there's a muted orange, there're the sophisticated resins pulling it down, there's a creamy skin musk undertone, and a wonderful complexity of the hint of flowers at the edges. Recommended for those whose skin digs the resins--it'll really rein in the other notes!