synique

My husband last night said that Stardust is very close to Shalimar. Granted it was the 05 version that I had a wee bit of, but it's possible that this year's version would be close.

~Jen

Lots and lots of caramel, but it doesn't go the burnt route that the Mitzvah caramel did. Just a teeny touch of green apple, and very little butterscotch, but that may have just melded with the caramel.

Lots of throw - enough to make people wonder where that luscious caramel smell's coming from.

Oh what a great idea, Juniperus Intrepidus!

She loves reading, and after the Wizard of Oz books and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Great Glass Elevator for her brithday, I can continue to encourage her.

Thank you so much!

~Jen

Christmas shopping for my maternal outlet - a 9 year old girl (junior bridesmaid from my wedding in July) who's vastly intrigued by my box of BPAL. Since she's not really got a mother figure in her life (huge backstory to this, but anyway..), I'm pretty much her source of introduction to the "girlie" things in life.

After her going through my BPAL box on the day of the wedding, and her requests to get to pick a scent when she comes to visit, I've decided she needs some of her own. My list of possibles include Alice, Desdemona, Juliet, Katharina, Antique Lace, Dana O'Shee, Sudha Segara, and Zephyr, but none's really hitting just the right note.

Other bits of possibly useful info: 9, rising 10 (please nothing that really falls into the sexy category), Leo, and hardheaded as all get out. Things she's tried from my box that she likes: Antique Lace and Alice, but she says they're too pretty to wear every day. I was contemplating Katharina, based on the "willful" description.

Help?

~Jen

Vechernyaya was a lovely white musk on me, as was Zorya. Aeval's another nice one.

Unfortunately, my favorite white musks are LEs - Night's Pavilion and the Evening Star.

~Jen

My skin chemistry has a love affair with white musk - and it loves Night's Pavilion, turning it into a lovely lovely lovely white musk with very minor floral and aquatic accents with a gilding of frankincense.

I think LiberAmoris described it best:

On my skin, I smell the 'starry' notes---the white musk and the osmanthus. The frankincense doesn't overwhelm in this blend or even come across as itself. It's almost as if the frankincense lowers a veil over the florals and blurs them, tones down their strong 'white' scent, and makes them glimmer duskly.

I wasn't too sure on ordering this one with the frankincense, but I'm utterly glad I did. Another gorgeous one!

A second for Mitzvah - it's definitely creamy caramel, and yes to Gluttony too - more yummy caramel notes, but if I'm remembering correctly, I got a bit of chocolate with it too.

Yum. Too bad I can't wear either.

-Jen

Add Chimera to the list. and to reverse the original idea - Black Opal on my boy knocks me (and other girlies) off their feet.

-Jen

Everyone who's sniffed my bottle of Lump of Coal has been awed by how well Beth liquified brownies into a perfume.

The *perfect* chocolate scent for me - warm and ooey gooey yummy, but not overly sweet.

Love. A lot.

-Jen

In bottle: Coconut, dear goodness, it's coconut.

Application: still coconut

20 minutes drydown: buttery vanilla with a touch of caramel and a whiff of cotton candy. Begin arm-gnaw process.

2 hours (approx): Caramelly with a bit of the buttery vanilla and a little bit more cotton candy. Still arm-gnawing.

I initially resisted buying this one, due to the super foodiness, but so glad that I caved and decided to snag this one. I don't have the OMGHAVETOHAVEIT response that I did with Bearded Lady and Snake Charmer, but this is a damned fine smell.

-Jen

Delirium was quite the lemon scent on me. There were hints of apple and rose, but lots and lots and lots of lemon.

Was gorgeous, just not what I was hoping for!

-Jen

This is an absolutely gorgeous blend - where I'm essentially wearing apple cinnamon herbal tea as a scent. Lots of cinnamon to start with, which faces to lots of apple with a small floral bit. I really get the idea of the Celestial Seasonings Apple Cinnamon tea.

Love!

Aeval starts out a very green light musk - the sage, I'm guessing, and as it dries down becomes a lovely creamy light musk, with a wee touch of a floral. Itty bitty wee - so not very floral, but just a whisper.

This is reminiscent of the Body Shop's White Musk, but with more depth. Lovely!

And Mr. Syn loves to wear this one as well!

I absolutely adore Zorya. Had this been the first BPAL scent I tried, I probably would've stopped here.

However, it's a gorgeous gorgeous light musk, with a complement of luxurious spices and floral - fortunately, not overly jasmine, since a lot of the BPAL jasmine blends go to Jasmine Level: Painful on me. I get more iris than jasmine as well.

Lush, definitely, and elegant/refined, but also works with the blue jeans, so it's multilayered in both its scent and its style.

Smells lovely and chocolatey in the bottle; on skin, starts as chocolate easter bunny moving to chocolate orange and then to teas/florals/fruits with a whisper of chocolate

First thought on application: "I AM A CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNY", followed by "I'm going to gnaw my arm off."

Absolutely gorgeous with a strong punch of coconut in the bottle.

On my skin, it stays coconut/almond/milk shifting to fig for the first 2 hours, then very figgy, but keeping the milky almond. It's luscious, but alas, fades fairly quickly after the first two hours.

It's under the Bewitching Brews - snipped description: A gossamer scent, as light as a spider’s footfall, touched with sighing mists: pallid flowers, dusty woods and soft herbs. (Gender neutral)

I received this one in a recent package from the Lab too. Yay for Lab-gniappe!

-Jen

Chaos Theory XCI (91)

In the bottle: Vanilla-y with a hint of cinnamon

Starts out vanilla and very very barely cinnamon, dries down to something very similar to how Mi-Go does on me. A bit later, there's a mix of mango, pineapple, and pear, with a touch of vanilla and possibly some honey. After a while, becomes a very creamy honeyed vanilla fruity yumness (yes, that's a technical term). Think Mi-Go plus Dana O'Shee minus the grain plus the barest touch of cinnamon. Later on, even, it's shifting between the fruit and the honey vanilla - a true fractal joy.

Mine loves Dorian and O. Really really likes both, but O works in magical ways.

-Jen

Smelled very sharp to me in the vial and maintained this edge for a little while after application. On dry down, it becomes a lovely juicy mango with white musk, touched with the mandarin and sandalwood.

It's not a cloying sweet, but a delicate one. The scent overall is pretty delicate and fades rather quickly.

My boy has a fondness for Dorian and O. In fact, O served as inspiration for a evening of hijinks, since the next morning, we were having breakfast and he asked what I perfume I was wearing. "O, I take it you liked it?" "Yeah, cause I was just intending to snuggle, but that smelled awesome and rawr."

-Jen, who gets along nicely with ambers, honey, and vanilla

Hellcat smells like a dessert that's more savory than sweet on me - there's very little if any sweetness to the scent. It's very nutty - almost like an amaretto cheesecake. It's also very rich, and just a wee bit boozy. If Hellcat had a coffee note, it'd be a total dessert scent without being stickysweet.

Very yummy.

Imp is all sorts of playful - but there's a darkness to the playfulness. The white peach is a slightly tarter sweet than the normal peach - it's a bit crisper, not as sticky sweet, and then a bit of amber and golden musk. The patchouli is only apparent when it's wet on me, and vanishes on drydown.

It's a very yummy scent - reminiscent of Aglaea, but sharper, crisper, cleaner. If one takes the analogy to the act of biting into the peach, Aglaea's peach is the very juicy and ripe one that resists not at all, covering one in stickiness while Imp's is a bit firmer, not nearly as ripe and less cloyingly sweet.

Tiger Lily was a nice balance of lilies and honey for me. It wasn't overly sweet, but there was a very golden sensation when sniffing this scent; I guess the best way to describe it was that it was a very warm and floral sweet. The lilies aren't the cloying stargazers, but instead a stronger daylily scent.

I like Tiger Lily, but not sure that it's really something I'd pursue as a bottle.

Alice on my skin essentially is a delicate and creamy floral. Mostly carnation, with a bit of rose, and the bergamot gives it an edge to save it from utter sweetness (think of the edge in Earl Grey tea, and you've got the idea!). The milk and honey lend a sweet creaminess, and Alice is definitely one I'd be interested in purchasing a larger bottle of. Not much throw from what I can tell, but altogether a very nice scent.