nineveh

That note combination was too unusual to pass up even though sticky dessert scents typically end up a disaster on me.

13 is sweet but not sugary, thankfully. The pastry notes are prominent but kept from going overboard by the tartness of the pomegranate and the vegetal aspects. The end result is mild and easy for even me to wear. I can pick out most of the notes but everything is balanced harmoniously.

It's too light to use in colder weather (gotta wear my heavy resins while I can) but it'll be great for spring.

This shouldn't work on me at all. My typical experience is that rose takes over anything and turns into olive oil, jasmine turns into headachey perfumey soap, and orange blossom goes chalky and sour. I didn't consider buying this one at all until I read the reviews, but now I'm glad to have a bottle.

It's sweet and playful and girly, three adjectives which I definitely am not, but sometimes I get in the mood to wear perfumes that are antithetical.

It's very well blended. I can't tell what I'm smelling, though I'm getting hints of the musk and soft spices of Morocco. The flowers give an overall impression of sugared strawberries.

And yes, it does smell more like a mainstream fragrance than the typical BPAL. The closest I've experienced was Flowerbomb, but whereas that was way too sweet for me, BFaJA is wearable and lovely.

A straightforward but very satisfying rich, dark amber. It's a little powdery but not enough to scare me off. It's pretty similar to Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan minus the spices, and a hint of Hem's oodh incense (a deep but soft wood, one of my favorites). I like this one a lot. It's pleasantly sweet and easy to wear.

I'm having a very odd experience with this one. I love plum, vetiver, and tobacco. White sandalwood and pine are okay but not something I gravitate towards. I still don't know what bourbon geranium or ambrette seed smell like.

 

Wet: carrots? Then piney carrots. Then pine and vetiver, but faint. Then the plum comes out, but it's also charred and rubbery. On top is a watery vegetal scent (is that the geranium?) that's washing out everything else. What the hell is going on?

 

As it dries, La Notte seems to be mostly a thin, shadowy scent. The plum here is definitely not the hard candy of Bordello's plum. The rich sweetness of the tobacco is finally detectable, but still in the background. I was hoping for something more "solid" I guess.

 

When completely dry, it settles into a somehow distant tobacco tinged with plum and just the slightest bit of vetiver. I'm not sure if I'll ultimately keep my bottle but I think La Notte will be appreciated by fans of tobacco and somber nighttime air scents.

The 2006 version hasn't budged from my top ten since I tried it seven years ago. Its sparkling grapefruit and soft vanilla musk make it my favorite for warm weather.

 

I wouldn't have minded another bottle of the same or similar formulation if that's how it turned out, but the 2013 version is completely different to my nose. Wet, this is orange cake. Then that fades, and the joss paper/hell money and ginger are most prominent. Something creamy but not very sweet behind that, maybe the rice wine mixing with the vanilla or musk. The base of woods and resins is shadowy but subdued.

 

The 2006 version is a sweet, refreshing citrus, whereas the 2013 version is deeper, smokier, and spicier. It's like the notes that weren't discernible in the 2006 version are at the forefront of this one.

 

This doesn't unseat my love of the original, but it'll be good when I'm in the mood for something darker but not heavy.

Wet, this is quite vetiver-heavy. I like vetiver when it's green and grassy, like in Atlas, but unfortunately Desmonema's vetiver is the smoky kind.

Once it's try, it really transforms. The vetiver vanishes, revealing a soft, sweet amber (white amber is my favorite) and bergamot. It's nearly identical to Deep Steep's Grapefruit Bergamot body butter, if that comparison is useful. There are other elements in the background adding substance and grounding, but they're too well blended for me to pick them out.

I like this a lot even though the wet stage is somewhat overwhelming. A sweet, green citrus scent that's not high-pitched or vegetal.

A sweet lemon/green scent, very natural and fresh. It smells similar to what I remember of the long-discontinued Mantis with the lemongrass of Skytyping with Chemtrails. I can't smell any coconut.

 

Overall, it's a bit too green for my tastes, but would be a good choice for those of you who are after a dewy, grassy scent for warm weather.

This is so good! Dark, damp, sticky green/brown, sweetened with rich brown sugar. It almost has a spicy edge, but not quite. It's also incredibly strong, so my bottle will assuredly last forever. Great for layering, but full enough to wear alone.

 

I just tried layering it with Madagascan Vanilla Rum, and they go really well together!

Buttery coconut and champaca zapped with lime and mint. Damp, sweet, and refreshing. When it's dried down, it loses some of the green bite and becomes creamier.

 

As others have mentioned, this seems like a warm-weather scent, but I've been enjoying it a lot during this recent rainy period.

Primarily tobacco with herbal spikes, softened and sweetened by musk and vanilla. It's a mix of contrasting textures, but overall feels relaxing. On me, this has the airy greenness of Halloween: Los Angeles combined with the dusty sweetness of The Night Hag Visiting the Lapland Witches.

 

I guess this would be too close to a traditional masculine fragrance for most, but I really like it and am glad I risked a bottle.

I've been wearing this every day since my bottle came in the mail. It's that good.

 

It starts off fairly balanced, except for the coffee bean, which never shows up. To me, osage-orange smells like a combination of true orange and citrus rind, juicy but not sweet.

 

The overall effect is alcoholic/perfumy but not in a bad way. I'm glad it has this aspect to keep it from becoming too sweet or too gourmand. It reminds me a bit of Serge Lutens Fumerie Turque when wet and Chergui when dry.

 

Thankfully I never get any meat or bbq, just a shadowy green/brown scent that's dark without being heavy or overwhelming. Great stuff.

Lots of opium at the forefront, then something herbal, and just a hint of plum in the background. If you thought all the notes sounded great but were scared off by the vetiver, this might be worth trying anyway because I'm not getting any vetiver from this at all. Kind of disappointed there, since I love vetiver.

It feels dark, but not thick or heavy. Shadowy, I guess. I almost really like it but the opium is going sharp and chemicalish on me like it always does. I was hoping that it wouldn't be so prominent. I'll hang onto my bottle for now and see what it's like in a few months.

Dracul (Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom) reminds me a bit of Old Spice, and was one of my favorites when I first got into BPAL.

I was going to pass on this, since I don't like chamomile and am not really into evergreen scents. Then I saw people mentioning the need for backup bottles, so I made this a last-minute addition to my order. Very glad I didn't miss out on this, because I think this is my favorite of 2011! Well, maybe tied with Atlas.

 

It starts with prominent nutmeg and woodsmoke, and dark forest notes in the background. This smells pretty close to what I wanted from Halloween: Los Angeles (on me, all light green notes and no staying power). The nutmeg/sandalwood combo also reminds me of Obsession for Men (though I don't find either perfume to be particularly masculine), but with a deeper, more mysterious feel. Even the dusty chamomile has a necessary role in this, and for once I don't have a problem with it.

 

The smoke and sharpness of the evergreens become more subtle on the drydown, making this ultimately a comforting fragrance, even though it still evokes the colors and setting of the painting. A perfect scent for rainy weather or cold nights!

I've never liked apple perfumes (sickly sweet craft store nightmares on my skin), but for some reason, the description tempted me. When the reviews started going up, I caved.

 

It's at its best when it's first applied and the apple note smells freshest. It loses the sparkling bite once it's dry, but overall is still lovely. I've had this on for a few hours today, and it's still noticeable. For the first hour, the apple balances with the cool vanilla and soft musk, then fades to reveal the creaminess of the florals.

 

Fruity florals aren't my usual thing, but I really like this, oddly enough. I'm sure it'll get lots of wear in the spring.

While wet, this is very disappointing: a thin scent of plastic and pencil shavings. Once it's completely dry, however, it blooms, becoming a sleek, dark, woody scent softened by cocoa and sweetened slightly by vanilla. It strikes me as quite sophisticated, more a high-end fragrance for someone who works on Wall Street than a protester cliche.

 

On my skin, it doesn't smell at all similar to Banshee Beat (I get a lot of vanilla from that), not even the same kind of patchouli. I was kind of worried about that, but I'm glad to find out that having a bottle of each isn't redundant.

Appropriately enough, this is similar to Three Gorgons (Egyptian amber, mandarin, tangerine, black pepper, tobacco, and vetiver) but I like this much better!

 

Egyptian amber has always been a problem for me, a shriekingly sharp powdery note that not even four years of aging could make comfortably wearable. I eventually gave up on my bottle of Three Gorgons, even though I enjoyed all its other aspects.

 

So instead of Egyptian amber's horror, Pallas Athene opens with the amber sweetness that I recall from Lyonesse. The cumin in the note list scared me, but I don't get any here, just a very gentle and pleasant spice that complements the mandarin. I wouldn't have guessed that cedar was present either.

 

Now that it's been dry for a bit, it actually reminds me a lot of Pinched With Four Aces, since both have that soft but prominent cinnamon bark note. Both are cinnamon bark + warm, sweet backing notes to me. Well, I guess amber is tied with cinnamon here for taking center stage.

 

Overall a really great amber/cinnamon blend. Glad I caved for a bottle!

I never would've thought that "vetiver marshmallow" would work as a fragrance, but here we are. The khus is more grassy green than smoky on me, and works nicely as a counterpoint to the mallow, which otherwise would be too sweet. The wood notes work as a foundation and stay in the background. I have to really hunt for the coffee to pick it out, but I can tell that it's adding a facet to the wood.

 

All the elements blend together more as the oil dries, and my drydown impression is a warm, soft, natural sweetness. It has strong throw and great lasting time (I could smell it clearly after more than 12 hours). It'd be overwhelming in this heat, but I definitely look forward to adding it to my winter rotation.

This one needs a lot of adjectives: warm, complex, sweet, spicy, creamy, earthy, dark. It's definitely gourmand, yet unmistakeably perfume. There's a slightly caramelized vanilla above deep semi-sweet chocolate, but the scent as a whole never reads as thick or overwhelming. Maybe the tequila's thinning it out. The jalapenos (the only note to worry me) give it a mild spice, though I'd never be able to identify them. All the contrasting elements are balanced just right.

 

This was what I wanted from Dia de Los Reyes (which ultimately only gave me cinnamon brownie batter). As a bonus, it has great wear length; I could still smell it clearly after nearly 24 hours. I'll definitely enjoy this one frequently as long as the cold weather lasts.

I live on the edge of San Diego, right where things start to get rural and where wildfires have an impact. Objectively, I like the smell of burning brush, but in context of the huge fires a few years ago, it now holds only negative associations.

 

Thankfully, the little smokiness that existed in the bottle never manifested on my skin. Instead I get a vibrant green scent with the slightly spicy bite of sage. It's warm and sweet, maybe with a touch of rain in the background.

 

To me, this is the scent of life on the hillsides after the fires. My skin might be doing something weird with it, but I'm glad I risked a bottle because it's such a wonderful, natural scent.

CCXCIX

 

This is almost entirely a cool, watery orchid, which is one of the very few florals that I can wear or enjoy. In the wet stage, a fresh pine is also present, but it burns off quickly. I can detect the faintest shadow of Snake Oil way in the background only if I search for it. I'm reminded of Dark Delicacies stripped down to its essentials, or the Premature Burial without the smoldering earth aspects. I just wish that Snake Oil had a stronger presence, but that's an easy fix.

My initial impression is that this is a dark, spicy scent. It also strikes me as complex, with opposing qualities manifested together. It's a little bit green and sharp, but also soft and sweetly smoky--this aspect reminds me a lot of Priala. The cinnamon in this is wonderful, and nothing like red hots or cinnamon gum.

I really like the fuzzy undertones of this scent, but the top prickly layer is somewhat offputting to me. I'm still not sure if rose geranium or bay rum work that well on me.

I'd recommend this to fans of spicy dark green/brown scents like Priala, King of Clubs, Mad Meg, Death of Autumn, or Troll.

I'm getting lots of dry, hot amber with a high perfumy note. The walnut bark is very nutty, which is offputting for me.

 

This reminds me of the Lion, but with an herbal/nut note instead of hay. There's also something sweet and dusty going on.

 

I'm having a hard time describing this. I think I like it but the nutty thing is confusing me. I'll try this again later, but wanted to submit my initial impressions.

 

edit: As it dries down more, the amber starts to vanish and all I can smell is powdered soap. Can I blame the chamomile? I don't like how it smells in tea, and I don't think it's working for me here.

In the bottle, this smelled like burning wood and chocolate. Once I put it on my skin, however, it changed into the best parts of King of Clubs and Priala, plus a little orange thrown in.

 

It's sweet, dark, earthy, and smoky, but still oddly light in feeling despite its shadowy nature. Ever hold your hand in incense smoke and feel the soft film it leaves behind on your skin? That's what the smoke note is doing to my nose, which gives the whole blend a velvety, airy quality that's just gorgeous.

 

This ends up being unusually sweet and pretty given the subject of the painting, but it definitely fits the colors.

 

 

This is so soft and pretty! Whatever kind of musk this is, it's lighter than what I usually like, but sweet and mellow. The leather is very soft too, and quite wearable. It's more of an accent note while the musk takes the main stage.

 

I can't smell any tobacco right now, which is too bad because it's one of my favorite notes, but maybe it'll come out with some aging. I wouldn't mind if it never does, though; I love this just how it is.

 

It's been so long that I'm probably completely wrong, but this smells quite similar to how I remember Buck Moon. At any rate, this is definitely one of those scents that sounds a lot darker in its description than it actually is.