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!

This past summer, I was looking for some warm-weather scents, and in the middle of my browsing, I saw Horses listed. It didn't sound like a warm-weather scent, but I knew from the description that I needed to check it out. I've sometimes been disappointed when I've bought scents based on the imagery evoked in the description/inspiration on the website. Sometimes I lean too heavily on that, and don't look closely enough at the notes to think about whether they'd actually create a scent that could work for me. In this case, though, I looked at the notes too. Amber is my absolute go-to. Beeswax? I love it, and love honey notes in the scents where I have them. Fire? Hmm. Could be anything. Could be interesting. I did something unusual for me, committing to a whole bottle of something I'd never smelled because imps weren't available. I'm glad I did. This perfectly matches the description and the scent works so well for me. On me, this scent is hot and dry, lightly sweet and slightly sharp--like woodsmoke even though it doesn't smell like woodsmoke. To me, it's a bonfire on one of those winter nights that's cold and crystalline and dry, breathing in wisps of smoke and feeling the flames warm your skin.

I got an imp of this as part of an order that was a quest to find some good summer scents. In the imp: huh, it's a perfume. I don't get a lot of differentiation of notes in here. Nice enough. There's some musky, floral stuff going on, that's about all I can tell. On me: Oh. Wow. Those flowers are leaping out now. I'm getting what I know to be ylang ylang, which I love in general, but there's something about it--an almost fruity creaminess I'm not used to from pure ylang ylang that almost makes me think of gardenia. And there's a skin musk in there that makes me think a bit of Sed Non Satiata. I feel like I put it into the same category with that scent. It's warm, sexy, but not seductive-sexy. To me, it's cuddling naked after sex with a long-time partner on a warm afternoon with the windows open to let in the smell of flowers. I could see this being My Summer Scent. I adore it. I want a bottle.

When I first put this on, it was mostly sandalwood with some lemongrass. After about 15 minutes or so, the rose has started to come out, making the whole thing a little more rounded. All I can think of is, "I smell like a hippie." Not a head shop hippie, but a Whole Foods hippie. A yoga class hippie. I have in my mind this little spa with hot tubs and massage therapy in Northampton, MA where my husband and I have gone on dates. I smell like I belong there. This is very much NOT a scent for me to wear in general, but I think it would make a marvelous scent to add to a massage oil or a bath when I just want to relax and pretend that I AM, in fact, at that little spa and that I have time for things like going on dates on the other side of the state.

I tried an old imp of this (from the amber imp pack) today, as I'm working my way through old stuff I never wear to see how I like it. The description sounded just lovely, but I was really disappointed. Wet, I got mostly sandalwood. It was a rather sharp sandalwood, but the edges of it softened pretty quickly with the amber, and I got a bit of the rose. Oh, nice! Not my favorite, but not bad at all. But then, gradually, the rose got more and more obnoxiously present until it really overwhelmed the sandalwood and amber. While I've been known to wear a little rose, it's usually a sweeter and more powdery rose (think a culinary rosewater scent). This was a much more perfume-y rose that just did not work on me. It's a scent for rose-lovers, not one for amber-lovers--at least, as it behaves on my skin. Boo.

So this is my review of this scent from six years ago. I don't think I ever touched the imp again after that, until today. Today, I have tried it again. The peach is still the most obvious, in-your-face note up front, but I'm getting a bit more of the amber and sandalwood, with a whisper of the heliotrope. It no longer seems to have the same longevity that it did six years ago, as after only 30 minutes or so, it's faded significantly. I'm finding it very pleasant, though, and may consider wearing it more often this summer. It no longer strikes me as cloying, and it seems better balanced.

When someone compared this to Habanita, I was excited. That's my favorite non-BPAL perfume. Like most people, I'm finding that in the imp, the leather is really prominent. It also seems that my skin amps leather, as I'm not getting a lot of other distinct notes as I wear it. I do like it, but I'm not getting the orange blossom or other florals or the amber, really. There's enough other scent to take the edge off the leather, and make more pleasant than a pure-leather note, but nothing that adds a lot of character of its own. There isn't a lot of throw on me. It's OK, but not one I'm going to want in a full bottle. EDIT: OK, I just realized I reviewed this...FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. OMG. I have had the imp that long? I just...wow. Or maybe I got another imp at some point? Anyway, yeah, my opinion hasn't changed!

I have had an imp of this for several years, but never really used it. I just gave it a try at the recommendation of some lovely folks here on the forum. I'm so sad, though--it's not doing anything for me. I'm actually thinking of washing it off. I tend to love BPAL amber scents, and two that this one has been compared to--O and Haunted--are scents that really work well for me. But somehow, this one is just striking me as very heavy and unpleasant. I can detect some good notes in there, but they're all wrapped up in stuff that is not very nice. It's weird because I'm someone whose favorite non-BPAL perfume is Habanita by Molinard, which is an extremely old-fashioned scent, and I really don't mind a bit of sharpness in some perfumes. On me, though, Brisingamen is unpleasantly sharp, sour, and old-fashioned. It reminds me of some old perfume bottles my grandmother had--ones she bought for the vintage bottles rather than for the perfume, which she never wore. I can get a BIT of the spicy dusty sweetness that other people mention, but it's only a trace, and so fleeting while the rest of the scent lingers. It's possible this might eventually fade into something wearable on me, though. Now, interestingly, I was going to get up and wash it off when I was done writing this review, but it's almost like it heard my thought, and it may in fact just be starting to transform into something a bit more mellow and wearable. OK, Brisingamen, I'll give you a little while longer and maybe sniff some coffee beans before I sniff my wrist again. EDIT: Nope, sorry. it's not happening. The offensive smell toned down after a while, but never turned into something I really liked. I ended up washing it off and replacing it with Haunted, which is SO MUCH nicer on my skin.

I haven't placed a BPAL order in YEARS, but I'm finding that I am starting to wear perfume more again now that I'm working from home. Pretty much all my favorite scents are things I feel are more cool-weather scents, or just plain heavy-sexy. I do a LOT of amber and musk. I need to find something that is summery, but MY summer, not everyone else's summer. Stuff I currently love: Bien Loin d'Ici Sed Non Satiata Palmyra O (but it can be a little sweet) Snake Oil The Lion (but it can be a little cinnamon-heavy) non-BPAL: Habanita by Molinard, and a solid perfume from Hawaii that smells like tiare flower. I vaguely recall a very bitter-green-warm solid perfume I had in college that was fig and neroli. It was not at all fruity fig, but a green fig. (Strangler fig is nice enough, but there's not much THERE there for me). In my cart now: Horses, Lyonesse, Morocco, La Petite Morte. I don't do great with really rose-heavy scents, fruity stuff, or wine scents. I love stuff that is WARM rather than cool. Sun-soaked. I love white ginger. Pele is nice but again, it kind of disappears into a generic wisp of shampoo or something on me. I can wear jasmine and ylang-ylang well, but they are often really heavy. I can wear gardenia-like scents. I'm having trouble thinking of other florals I like. Most resins and ambers and musks work nicely on me. My skin amps honey something fierce, and it can get really thick and heavy unless it has more heavy stuff backing it up. I would LOVE some help finding a summer scent!

Thanks everyone, so much, for your suggestions! I think the recommendation to look in the forums for imps to buy of the scents that aren't offered as imps is a great idea. I am always hesitant to commit to a full bottle of an untested scent (Horses is an exception, as it sounds like pure perfection in my mind, and I've also bought full bottles where money goes to nonprofits I support). I've tried a few of the ones suggested here (#93 Engine is one I really like). I actually have an imp of Brisengamen (got the amber imp pack a long time ago), and should probably give it a serious try. It's been a long time since I did anything but sniffed the bottle. Womb Fury sounds awesome. Inez is one I was considering ordering. You've all given me some stuff to think about, and I appreciate it!

Wow, I am getting NONE of the ginger or the heat in this one! From bottle to dry, over four hours, it's basically just a rather approachable floral. Nothing particularly sensual about it, nothing warm or spicy. The musk is really keeping its head down for me, just providing a slightly earthy backdrop to the florals. It's not at all unpleasant. It's enjoyable enough, but I'm not in love with it.