badseed1980

I got this with a gift card my awesome manager gave me for the holidays. Every single note in this appealed to me. The neroli pops out the most for me, which I love. As time goes on, the other notes come out to play more, with the amber and vanilla particularly adding warmth and richness and the brass note like a high, clear shine over it. This is an absolutely glorious scent for the time of year when the light is getting stronger but it's still chilly.

Got a frimp of this with a recent order. I can smell the tea most clearly. There's a hint of crisp citrus as well. The musk is a very soft background note. It really is a lovely, clean smell without smelling soapy! I feel like it would make a great scent for a shower gel, or a light lotion to use in summer. I can see myself wearing this more regularly when the weather warms up. It's not one of those scents that feels like it was made for me, but it's pleasant and light and uplifting.

I got a frimp of this with a recent order. It's not one I would have ordered for myself. It smells NOTHING like what the listed notes would suggest, to me. It's very floral. Someone on the BPAL website described it as smelling like lilac, which seems almost right, but it has a weird funk underneath the initial light floral smell. It almost suggests rot or something. That kind of ruins it for me. I'm washing this off. It makes me sad, because I like it initially.

Wow, no one has reviewed this yet? Not one person? I'm NEVER first. I got this one because I love amber and beeswax, and Peru balsam is in my ride-or-die, No. 93 Engine. I like the warm, earthy, vanilla-y scent it adds to blends. In the bottle, it's very sweet in a weirdly fruity way. It almost reminds me of pear? On the drydown, there's something almost aquatic about it, and I can't for the life of me think of what it might be. Is it reminding me of Lyonesse? That could be it. Lyonesse has vanilla and amber, and vanilla is similar to balsam of Peru. After a while, the warmth of the scent comes out even more as that aquatic note quiets down. If you look at the painting that inspired this scent, I think that they did a good job replicating the feel of it. The scent description made me think more of golden notes, but the picture is mostly greys highlighted by gold, and that's what this smells like to me.

Wow, I'm not sure I can even try this one on. First sniff of it in the imp is...stinky. Like, you know the smell of Bradford pear blossoms? Sort of rotting meat/fecal matter? I'm getting something like that. It's going to take me a while to get past that.

Got a frimp of this today. A lot of the rosy blends from BPAL don't work terribly well for me, but I like this one very much in the bottle. It starts off smelling very much like a bottle of the culinary rose water I use in baking sometimes, which to me is fresh and clean and perfect for late spring. It starts turning into a slightly dustier, dried-rose scent as time goes on, but still more purely rosy than anything else. It's actually very nice. I can see adding a drop of this to unscented lotion.

Woof. I am in love with this scent. To be clear, it's not something that smells like ME to me. I got it because the scent that smells more like ME than any other is No. 93 Engine, and this was another Steamworks scent with citrus that sounded golden and glowing to me. Up front, it's all lemon and maybe some grapefruit, but then later on, the other notes come out to play. To me, this is a very masculine scent. But unlike most scents that strike me as really masculine, wearing it doesn't feel like wearing clothing that doesn't fit right. Instead, it feels like there is an incredibly sexy man standing right behind me with his arms around me, all warm and strong and flirtatious. So I like wearing it just to smell it myself, though I wouldn't wear it out anywhere. Pity my husband isn't that enamored of it: he's been seeking a scent that I will adore to wear in his beard, and most of the ones he's tried have been meh, but this is super hot.

In the bottle: mostly neroli up front, which I like. Looking forward to wearing it. On me: the neroli fades into something much more demure. I’m having trouble picking out individual notes. Sometimes I catch a little frankincense. It’s green and fresh. The verbena comes out more as it dries down. It’s not a sharp “lemon Pledge” smell, and it gets a little sweetening from the neroli, which is coming back a bit in a softer form, turning it into almost a lemon candy. I’m really not getting much lavender at all. It smells like…a nice beauty product? Something I wouldn’t mind having sometimes in a lotion I put on at bedtime, though not necessarily something I want to smell like all day. Over time, it becomes relatively pleasant but unexceptional, with very little throw. Take 2: the neroli never hit me as hard this time. The verbena is strongest, but there’s a cool herbal-floral backdrop to it. It reminds me of standing in the shade in an herb garden on a warm, sunny day. It’s cool and pleasant and somehow neutral. Again, a nice scent for a soap or shampoo or something, without actually being soapy. But then the frankincense REALLY comes out. Not sure how I feel about this.

I got this one as a frimp, probably because of my history of ordering stuff with amber in it. I never really paid it much attention, but today, looking for a change, I gave it a whiff. I'm a little friendlier to fruity scents than I used to be, as long as they are warm and not cloying. Tamora is one I've come to enjoy a lot. The fruity note in this reminds me of the peachy note in Tamora, but not exactly the same. Maybe it's just amber plus fruit giving that impression. Tenochtitlan is lovely and warm. The herbal notes are not wet and green, but sort of dry and lightly bitter. Not getting a huge amount of any particular herb. I may need to try more blends with sage in them, because sage is also in my usual ride-or-die, No. 93 Engine. Verdict on Tenochtitlan: I am really enjoying this one for the warmer weather!

I feel like I have written praises to this scent a dozen times, but they keep disappearing. Or maybe I'm just losing my mind. Anyway, this is 100% my absolute favorite BPAL scent ever, and I swear it has saved my sanity over the past year or so. It's hard for me to pick out individual notes in this, but I definitely get a resinous warmth and an herbal note that is not fresh-grassy, but dry and slightly woody. This is probably the sage. The beeswax doesn't remind me of the honey notes in other perfumes, but is more like a real, softly sweet, golden beeswax. There is nothing heavy about this scent. It is dry and warm and light, and smelling it makes my head clear and my spirits lift even on really hard days when everything is depressing and exhausting. It's as good as a meditation session. No: better. I don't need to put the work into trying to get my mind right, but instead this perfume subtly nudges it into a better place. I am wearing it...not quite exclusively, but close to it.

Definitely getting some green tea on this, and a little citrus. There's also a slight fruitiness to it, but not a terribly sweet fruitiness. Probably fig and/or lemon. I actually like the smell quite a bit. It's pleasant. But it's not something I want to KEEP smelling on MYSELF.

Oh gods. I'm in love. I just got a nearly-full bottle of this for free from a neighborhood Buy Nothing group. It's amazing. The clove is definitely the most prominent note up front, but even then, it manages not to come across as getting whacked in the nose with a pomander ball. It soon gets balanced out even more by the amber, saffron, and sandalwood which create a lovely incense-like feel. This actually reminds me of an incense that I might blend myself for ritual purpose. There's a warmth and spiciness to it as well as a serenity and depth that are absolutely wonderful. I am so lucky to have scored this!

I bought an imp of this a year ago when I was seeking scents for summertime, as all my fall and winter favorites were feeling too heavy. I've become really enamored of Lyonesse. I love ambers in general, and this one is lightened and softened so nicely by the vanilla and the sandalwood. The lily isn't a heavy one like some of them can be, which is nice. I also feel like the ambergris adds just a hint of aquatic sharpness. All in all, this is one of those lovely blends that's more than the sum of its parts. If it were a color, it would be grey-gold, the color of the light when the sun is peeking out from a clouded sky.

Oh, this was a TOTAL WIN. A friend was selling some of her BPALs, and I called dibs on this one. I love orange blossom (fell in love with Vixen last summer), and have no issues with sandalwood in general. I didn't have much experience with champaca, though I know it's often a component of nag champa incense, about which I have mixed feelings. The sweet incense note of the champaca is sharpened a bit by the bright orange blossom, and given some backbone by the sandalwood. Is it a little bit hippie-ish? Maybe? But overall, the blend is elegant and delightful--a perfect warm weather perfume.

Hadn't worn this one in a long time.The initial scent for me when I sniff the imp is very much that cherry-like almond scent. On me, as it dries, it turns oddly...peachy? I almost thought I'd accidentally picked up my imp of Tamora! It's weird, I don't get any of the cardamom or myrrh. Saffron is a distant whisper. It's just really very fruity. Pleasant, but perplexing!