tapestry

I received this as one of several very generous frimps from BPTP. Of the five (five!), this was the most interesting to me. So on it went!

In the imp: Honestly, my nose isn't very refined. I get some medium-level wood notes from this. Nothing outrageous, but I can pick up a hint of bitter chocolate at the end of every whiff I take.

On skin, wet: Cocoa and cedar with a "spice" I can't put my finger on but assume is the black palm. It's rich and deep. I picture this on a man and find myself sad that there's no one for me to jump test it on.

On drydown: I put this on about three hours ago. I did not expect to love it. The fig comes out to play mid-way through and I want to roll about in tumbled sheets that smell of Intrigue. It is definitely a scent to use on a date when you want to -- surprise -- intrigue. I think of this as a seduction scent, something to be used by a honeytrap. All notes meld together beautifully for me to a point where I have a difficult time telling where one starts and another stops. If I huff my wrist, I get this weird-but-not-unpleasant peppery spike -- as in ground black pepper -- but whiff I get when moving about are just gorgeous and lovely.

My final verdict is "ZOMG, love". I hope that this lasts longer than three hours; it's still at a point where I'm catching happy whiffs of myself, but it's also not as powerful as other scents BPAL makes and doesn't have crazy throw.

Another imp I recently inherited. I'm a sucker for spices.

In the imp: Pretty! But mostly the cinnamon bark. Beneath that I can almost feel the clove and honey lurking about and waiting.

Wet on skin: Hallo, cinnamon! It's not overwhelming, just very there. I like it as a start, though, as the skin musk must come into play at this point -- the cinnamon is offet set by a pleasantly "salty" note which reminds me of clean sweat. It grounds the cinnamon nicely, and lets me pick up even more on the honey. Where the ginger went, I don't know.

Drydown: Unfortunately, I don't get to this stage and after a traumatic encounter with Kabuki had a feeling that I wouldn't. I don't have sensitive skin as a general rule, but the Lab's cinnamon causes serious burning and redness for me. Disappointed, in a state of mild panic and not at all surprised, I run-don't-walk to the shower. I'd be sad, but to be honest the Bengal scent was disappearing very quickly to begin with. My roommate tried this at work last week and said she had to reapply constantly.

The verdict: I'd have loved to see what the skin musk did with this perfume, but methinks I'll have to be avoiding any oils which have cinnamon from now on. If this works well on you and sticks around, count me jealous!

I recently inherited an imp of Eve (that somehow sounds wrong). It's one which was on my "to buy" list for awhile, so dumb luck prevails!

In the bottle, as it were: Methinks this one went off due to aging. I get a lot of plasticky-sweet rose reminiscent of girls' toy dolls, with a truly horrifying who-peed-in-the-pool note at the very end. Still, you don't know you hate it until you actually try.

Wet on skin: I stink of faux roses and feel like Strawberry Shortcake's floral cousin. As a reformed tomboy, this is like being put in the corner.

Drydown: Powdery roses. I didn't know what all the BPAL reviewers meant when they included the word powder until this morning. Now I do. Frick. The scent is cloying as hell and eventually dies down, but not enough. When I inhale it sits at the back of my throat and hovers like smog on a Los Angeles morning.

End results: Oh, hell no. Swap pile, Swap Pile, SWAP PILE. I wanted to like this, truly. I'm ecstatic for people who are lucky enough to wear it and wear it well. I, sadly, cannot. I got nothing but faux rose -- no apple blossom, no ylang-ylang, and possibly a bit of honey if I think about how syrupy sweet this stuff is on me. Not even beautiful, deep, fragrant and green rose. Fake rose. Plastic rose. Rose scent to be injected into plastic dolls and mass-marketed to our daughters. And I didn't even get a damn toy out of the deal.

My greatest regret is that I was an asshat and put this on right before work, so I'm stuck with it for about ten hours.