fathom

In the imp: Like Intrigue's little sister. A dark fig scent, but with a warmer, friendlier undercurrent. Wet: Dark fig. Dry: Still similar to Intrigue, which is good, since that is one of my favorite scents. The woody notes of Intrigue are missing, though, replaced with a faint herbal scent. And the cocoa is replaced with blackberries. Or blackcurrants. Delicious. I think this would work as a good lighter version of Intrigue for me, when I want to wear Intrigue but it seems too intense.

In the vial: Espresso with a little chocolate in it. And something else, maybe the rum? Something sharp and boozy. On the skin: The cocoa/coffee topnote is still predominant, but there are some other interesting elements as well. I smell something that I think is anise... although that isn't mentioned in the description. After about 15 minutes I start to smell the red wine more and more. And some incensey note, like a cedar incense, starts to appear. After a few hours, I smell the cedar incense scent almost exclusively. This is a pretty long lasting blend, in the end. I got this because it seemed similar to Intrigue, one of my favorites. I think it is like Intrigue, with liquor scents in place of the fruity notes. Not an improvement, I don't think, but then I don't like the smell of wine or liquor in general. * * edited to add: I am actually growing more fond of this as the day wears on. This is a pretty intense scent on me, and I think it took a few hours for me to get into the groove with it. I like the way the incensey-ness is blending with the warm cocoa scent more and more.

I bought this one because the description and the cause appealed to me so much. However, it didn’t really work for me as a scent. To me, it starts off very berry-scented, even a little Kool-aid-ish. Then the red musk shines through, and it gets more peppery, but not losing the fruitiness. I usually like fruity scents, so I was surprised that this one didn’t work for me. Very warm and red, but not really my thing, I guess.

On me this scent is nicely clear smelling. A green floral, with a definite lily-of-the-valley note to it. A very refined scent, it reminds me of croquet on a stately lawn, a sunny summer day, with gin-and-tonics in hand. It’s a light scent that isn’t too girly or immature.

Bright on top, with complex shadows underneath. In the vial and in the first few minutes on my skin, the topnote is almost entirely bright aquatic flowers. It’s brightness is similar to Sea of Glass in some way, but there is a warmer overall sense to it. A warm wood note really comes through after about ten minutes, though the woodiness never overtakes the flowers. I keep my imp of this at work, in a drawer of my desk. If I am feeling tired or demoralized I put some on—for some reason this scent really makes me feel better emotionally.

The forks of the road: an in-between place, sacred and tangibly magickal in innumerable cultures and faiths. This scent is dark with mystery, taut with power. A chill twilit garden of blooms over dry earth and mosses, heavily laden with incense and offertory herbs. Because I love the smell of mosses and sunbaked summer earth, I was really excited by the description of this one. It was hard to put my finger on the scent in the vial—it seemed like it needed to be on skin to really express itself. Even after I put it on, it kept perplexing me. For the first hour after I put it on it smelled too dry and sharp for my taste. After an hour, the dryness started to fade and it smelled like dry ground ten minutes before the rainstorm. I could smell a hint of frankincense, I think, and a lot of dry earth and moss. Overall, after drydown it continues to be a bit sharp of a scent for me. I am leaning towards not liking it, but I might need to try it again another day before I can come to a final verdict. Perplexing.

Mmmmm… very inviting and thickly delicious. Sweet, round, purple scent—the coconut doesn’t overpower the other elements to me. The hazelnut and coconut together, I was afraid would add up to a very foody scent, but it didnt. The nuttiness of those two are perfectly balanced by the iris and musk. Unique, really... To me it feels very, very deeply sensual. I love it— it is one of my top five favorites.

This one smelled great in the imp but didn’t work on me at all, sadly. There is some element in it that doesn’t agree with my skin or my nose, and ends up smelling very sharp and acrid on me. The same thing has happened with other sugar and honey scented things, like Fresh Brown Sugar and Demeter Sugar Cane. With mainstream products, I always thought it was the effect of a cheap ingredient, but now I think it must just be my skin chemistry. Sadly, it seems I am not destined to smell like sugar… I'll try this one as a room scent, I think.

Fabulous, unusual, and my favorite BPAL scent I’ve tried so far. Out of the imp, I smell dark chocolate and coffee. On the skin, it starts out very strongly cocoa scented, but not a sweet chocolate: rather, the scent of an unsweetened chocolate like you use in mole sauces. After the first wave of cocoa calms down, it is a really dark wood scent. As it wears, the rich fig scent comes out more intensely for me. I definitely smell the “black palm” in the description, too- an element of it reminds me of the sweet-dry scent of wild date palms in the oases of the Anza-Borrego desert south of Indio. I agree with other posters that it is a very grown-up scent. Mysteriously female without being the least bit flowery. Powerful and independent, and devious, somehow. Definitely a complex scent. It is the inside of an ancient teak box in a dark room in a colonial library in a tropical country. I love it, and I ordered a big bottle.

Shockingly sophisticated-- this is a French perfume of the old regime. I love Les Liasons Dangereuses and was hoping a scent named after the Marquise would smell like this. Very floral, but not in a lighthearted way: just the thing for manipulating naive youth. Wearing this, you would be at home walking through the formal gardens of a Loire Valley chateau on the eve of the revolution. The peach, for me, blended well into the overall floral scent, and didn't really stand out very distinctly. I didn't pick up any shift in the scent from the imp to my wrist, or during the drydown either. It is a really lovely, heavy bouquet aroma that lasts forever. I could still smell it on my wrist the next morning when I woke up.