innocent

Rose and I get along. Lily and I fight sometimes (esp white lilies). Jasmine goes to soap on my skin. That being said, Helena stays pleasant. It's more lily than rose on me, which is too bad, but the jasmine is kept in check. It's a bit sharper than I usually like my florals, so it won't be displacing any favorites, but its still quite nice. An imp to keep around for those days when I feel like wearing a white dress.

The oil is a pretty color, but once I open the vial... AAAAGH VICKS VAPOR RUB ATTACK I actually had to wash it off since it was making me feel really sick (I also can't use mentholated cough drops because they make me sick to my stomach). This is going away at record speed.

Bandersnatch musk, redolent of spicy carnations, wild plums and chrysanthemum. The Bandersnatch is a lovely scent to wear on a crisp fall morning like today (as crisp as Texas ever gets, that is...) the spicy plums remind me of the holidays. It does go through a "craft store" phase, but it's a expensive craft store and the eventual drydown is more subtle. I quite like it, though it fades fairly quickly, and I'll be reaching for it again as autumn draws in. I don't think I'll need a bottle since I have a magical frimp that got here the day after I ordered an imp from the lab - I think two imps will be enough.

A decant from the lovely kikithepirate! I was expecting to love the twins. Rose and violet are my two favorite florals and I almost just ordered the set untested. I'm glad I decided to go with decants instead, because it turns out the twins are not for me. Hope worked better on me than Faith did (Faith turned to Playdoh). In fact, Hope smelled exactly like she was supposed to - like candied roses. I tried to layer the twins, but that failed, so I just tried Hope on her own. She was okay at first, but then the sugar smell began to remind me of chemicals and give me a headache. It's not that Hope morphed oddly on my skin, because she didn't. In fact, when I was delibrately sniffing myself she smelled as good as ever, but just catching the throw when I was occupied with other things made me feel icky. Hope was by no means my favorite rose to begin with (I find myself vastly preferring the freshness of Rose Red or the sultry Gwyneth). I guess I'll be trying Katrina Von Tassel next in my search for rose love. I think I'll be keeping the twins around anyway, because those sugared florals are really something in small doses.

A decant from the lovely kikithepirate! I was expecting to love the twins. Rose and violet are my two favorite florals and I almost just ordered the set untested. I'm glad I decided to go with decants instead, because it turns out the twins are not for me. It must be the sugar note that's giving me problems, because violet and rose generally behave on my skin. Once Faith touched me she began to smell rather... confused. Her confusion quickly morphed to something resembling Playdoh. I even tried layering the twins, since that's gotten such rave reviews, but Faith's Playdoh overpowered Hope's sugared rose. I guess I will beware sugar notes in the future.

This blend is lovely. I was a touch disappointed at first because I got no hint of rose or violet (both floral loves of mine) but the mixture of tea, mandarin and musk is beautiful on its own merits. I'm a little sad I only got one bottle, because this is rather light and I have to slather it, but I'm not sure how well the citrus in this would age, so one bottle is probably enough.

Wet this is glorious. I get cherry blossom, honey (the honey in here is gooooood) and pear. They're grounded by the white sandalwood, which doesn't get dry and acrid here the way it does in some other blends. Unfortunately, it seems to go rather powdery / soapy on me once it dries (though it might just be that the initial test spot is being over whelmed by the more recent application on my pulse points). If I decide I like the dry down this one is a big bottle - it's just so damn good wet!

A lovely floral, heady and clean, when first applied. Unfortunately that stages only lasts for about half an hour and the dry down is soapy on my skin.

Sandalwood (esp white sandalwood) is one of those notes with which I have to be careful. Small amounts are nice, but if I wear too much it becomes very dry and dusty on my skin. I feared for Tupapau. I was pleased to discover that, as long as I only applied it lightly, the sandalwood here behaves itself. This ends up being a slightly fruity, slightly dry floral, very different from the rose and violet blends I usually wear. I quite like it, though its so different from my usual scents that I can't predict how often I'll be wearing it.

Sweet, but much lighter than I was expecting... the stickiness of the honey is diluted in the fresher tea notes. Lady Una sparkles. Looking at the notes list I suspected this one might be a big bottle purchase, now that I've tried it I know it is!

Nothing in Eternal goes funny on my skin. But it contains That Note. That Note is the one that takes a perfectly nice floral (and I like florals) and makes it too sweet? powdery? sad? I can't really describe what it does, but it makes me unable to where the scent. I'm not sure what the florals in eternal smell like alone, but maybe I can compare it to the other florals with That Note and figure out what it is (looking at the other reviews makes me suspect the gardenia). Otherwise, Eternal is a nice white floral, a bit too sweet in a nose-itching kind of way.

2005 version I'm a giant rose fan, so I was expecting to love the Peacock Queen. Unfortunately there must be something other than roses in here, because I'm getting a sour note along with the rosy goodness. The sour smell seems to fade along with the roses, leaving a sweet musk scent behind. The Peacock Queen isn't bad... but I much prefer some of my other BPAL roses to her.

Rose Red 2007 First off - I love roses. I love rose perfumes. The only rose BPALs I haven't liked are the ones where some other note I dislike overpowers the rose. Roses love me back and stay true on my skin without any hint of old-lady-ness. Wow, this smells just like sticking your head into the florist's fridge - green, floral, cold and a bit sharp. It's very different from the other BPAL roses I've tried, with a strong green note along with the petals. It verges on being too sharp, but never actually goes over the line. It's lovely. I never would have expected Rose Red to be the colder of the two sisters. The only problem I have is that Rose Red doesn't last very long on my skin (normally roses last forever). The throw is light - but I've yet to find a BPAL with very strong throw on me. I'll be buying a bottle the next time Rose Red comes back, but I love some other BPAL roses just as much (though they're very different!) so I won't have to go mad finding more of this one ASAP.

Red Moon is very faint on me - the musk and amber fade into my skin leaving a breath of spicy florals behind. I like it a lot - it's nice to have a spice that neither smells like a giant pumpkin pie nor goes all dirty like the spices in Snake Oil do. I wish this were a bit stronger - but maybe I should take the fact the BPAL red musks smells like me as a compliment It reminds me a lot of the Villainess LE Trauma, which I love. In fact - I think I'm going to go layer the two now.

In the bottle: Buttery cake, I almost don't want to try in on (not a foody girl). On my skin: grapefruit, lemon, ginger, pepper... and a hint of pear. I can just barely smell the cake. This is alright, though I had higher hopes based on the notes list. I like pear, and I like citrus, but this doesn't beat out my favs in either of those categories. Too sweet for me, though not at all cloying once it dries.

Sweet... resins and florals. This -could- have been nice on me, but one of the florals in it is the one that smells of "old lady" on me. Seems like it might be good in the oil burner, so I might try it there.

Yep, dragon's blood and sandalwood. The sandalwood does a great deal in cutting the sweetness of the dragon's blood (which tends to remind me of cherry syrup once it touches my skin). Not really to my taste - I prefer amber when it comes to resins, and honey when it comes to sweet. If you are a DB and sandalwood fan, this is a very nice mix of the two.

Wow. Penitence is really strong on me, with something almost sickly sweet backing the dry scent of incense. I don't know what, or why. It seems like everything I've tried in the last few days has gone extremely sweet on me. Dry, the sweetness dies down a bit, but Penitence remains too potent for me to wear without giving myself a headache.

My arm... smells... like... Sweet Tarts. For me this is a Very Bad Thing.

This starts out with strong buttery pumpkin mixed with strong sweet/sour citrus. The pumpkin fades on drydown. I love citrus, but have discovered that I am not fond of pumpkin. I really like the dry down on this one, but it won't be displacing Envy as my citrus of choice.

I'm begining to wonder if I got a mislabeled decant. Why? Because this smelled exactly like maple sryup on me. No fewer than three people asked if there were pancakes about when I tested this. I can understand getting a buttery feel from the pumpkin... but I have no idea how "pancakes" emerged from the other ingredients. I love all the listed notes in here, save pumpkin, which I had never tried before. Unfortunately this turned out to be very foody on me, and I am not really a foody girl. I have no idea... hopefully someone else will smell like breakfast and I can feel less crazy!

I like florals, and I usually like anything with rose... but there's something intensely sweet in this (I'm not sure what, but I'm inclined to blame the frangipani (since I don't know what that smells like) but jasmine does any number of awful things on my skin, so that could be the problem as well. This reminds me of bathroom air freshener. I'm got many BPAL florals that are far nicer on me.

2007 version: First on this smells like baked goods with a hint of rum, a smell that quickly fades to be replaced by florals. Finally it morphs into something that makes me think of powdered sugar mixed with scented baby powder. Strange. I'll have to test this again, it's complicated and I can't quite get my head around it.

Pears poached in wine fading to pears topped with vanilla cream. Very good. I only have a decant and I wish I had more.

Very faint anise fading to vague soap. No hint of rose water (which I adore). A much brighter scent than I was expecting, almost-but-not-quite-floral. The wet stage is nice, but the dry down is disappointing.