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Graphica

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Blog Entries posted by Graphica

  1. Graphica

    The Apothecary

    By Graphica,

    Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig.

    in the bottle: Tea and herbs. Nice, actually. I'm hoping the tea scent lasts longer for me in this than in Embalming Fluid.

    on wet: Mostly tea. The herbs have gone.

    drydown: This is interesting. The tea no longer stands out enough to distinguish; instead I'm getting a well-meshed clean scent that reminds me of having just stepped out of a shower after using a nice, expensive, french-milled herbal soap. It doesn't smell soapy, just clean. Seriously -- clean. If I had to define the scent of clean skin with a scented oil, this would be exactly it.

    one hour later: Still clean, though there's some light sweetness asserting itself. I don't think it's a particular component (or maybe it is -- perhaps the fig?), but rather the sum of the whole. The whole thing is very light in a way which makes me think it might not last the day.

    end of day: Still here. The herbal effect went away and left me with a sort of light, sweet tea thing. Not sweet tea as in sugar added, but more like a cup of non-tannic, delicate tea with ... or, near ... it's really hard to describe. Just ... sweet. And light.

    compared to official description: I didn't really get the ginger, which is a shame. I'm thinking now that the fig contributed to the sense of sweetness, but I never once thought "Oh, that's fig!"

    notes: The final result was a tad too sweet for me. I like how light it was, though. This might be a good one for the locket.

    added to forum reviews
  2. Graphica

    time for new toys

    By Graphica,

    Well, ok, I haven't reviewed -- or even tested -- all the imps I have (though I've smelled them all), but I'm ordering a new set.
     
    My SO and I went to a wood-working store with lots of exotics, and after following his nose to a stack of Spanish cedar, commented that any perfume that contained that would drive him wild.
     
    Alrighty! Ysabel, here I come. His comment is probably the only thing that could convince me to try a perfume with rose other than Les Infortunes.
     
    I'm also getting:
     
    Lampades
    Ulalume
    Black Opal
    Wrath
    Yggdrasil
     
    Can't wait!
  3. Graphica
    I have enough imps -- and plan on getting enough more -- that I should really start figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. I've learned that some things I like to smell don't necessarily work well on my skin (no surprise), and so far, nothing I dislike actually works on me (again, no surprise). Other conclusions follow. (This is an entry that I will be coming back to and modifying over the years.)
     
    avoid these elements:
    Dragon's Blood
     
    elements which may work very well for me, but which I need to try in other combinations before I'm sure:
    wax
     
    look for these elements specifically:
    tobacco
    leather
     
    these may or may not be deal-breakers in that they're scents I like (or don't dislike) but that amp to a point where they thuggishly take over a scent:
    amber
    sandalwood
  4. Graphica

    Velvet

    By Graphica,

    Envelop yourself in the soft, sensual embrace of gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh.

    in the bottle: Cocoa! Dutch-processed with a touch of vanilla. Hint of sandalwood. Something (or some things) else that I can't identify: smooth, a little smoky, a little sweet. Also, a creamy sensation, maybe the vanilla again.

    on, wet: Cocoa and a bit of sandalwood. After about 10 seconds, strong suggestion of smoke.

    drydown: This will sound strange, but my left wrist retains the cocoa scent, where my right has gone completely smoky. And not just a little smoky, but full on sitting-in-front-of-a-wood-fire smoky (with a hint of vanilla). The cocoa-y vanilla scent on my left wrist is starting to seem a little food-like to me. Overall, I prefer the smoky effect.

    one hour later: Sandalwood and vanilla, both wrists. A ghost or two of scents in the background, but almost completely hidden by the sandalwood.

    end of day: Sandalwood and vanilla. Enduring scent, not unpleasant, but nothing like what I smelled in the bottle or through drydown. There remains a hint -- just a suggestion, really -- of other scents way in the background that are completely homogenized, but which lighten the sandalwood and give it a certain dusty sweetness.

    compared to official description: Not sure I'd recognize myrrh, as I'm positive I've never smelled straight myrrh, and would therefore have trouble picking it out of a lineup. I know the lab doesn't necessarily list every component, but as the only three listed are sandalwood, cocoa vanilla, and myrrh, I'm wondering if the myrrh carries the smoky effect, since that's the only thing in this blend that stands out to me other than the other two listed.

    notes: Not for me. Smells like a my paternal grandmother's house, somehow. In fact, I get a strong scent-memory of being put down for a nap as a very small child on my grandmother's bed, and drifting off to sleep with the faint drone of nearly-inaudible adult voices drifting up the steep, narrow stairs and slipping under the thick, dark, heavy wood door. Pleasant, but I'd want my house to smell this way, not me.

    afterthought: I was initially disappointed that this perfume didn't retain its original character, but after rereading my description I realized that there's no reason velvet should smell like cocoa. In the end, I believe the cocoa stayed there but hovered in the distance to give the whole thing a bit of smooth dryness, and that some other element, in addition, pushed the effect over to dustiness. While the hours-later effect was very different from what I smelled straight out of the bottle, I'd have to classify the later scentsation as being more akin to how I'd define velvet (from an olfactory standpoint), since velvet (the fabric) makes me think of dusty places and the satiny-smooth skin of my grandmother's cheek. In the end, this could very well be velvet, at least for me.

    added to forum reviews
  5. Graphica

    what I have

    By Graphica,

    Imps: (bold entries are linked to reviews within this blog)
    Velvet
    Coyote
    Hell's Belle
    La Petit Mort
    Dirty
    Zephyr
    Strangler Fig
    Darkness
    Shub-Niggurath
    Embalming Fluid
    Dracul
    No. 93 Engine
    Antikythera Mechanism
    Centzon Totochtin
    Perversion
    Mary Read
    Les Infortunes de la Vertu
    Dragon's Hide
    The Apothecary
    Lightning
    Queen of Hearts
    Ava Maria Gratia Plena
    The Reaper and the Flowers
    Hairy Toad Lily
    Lilium Inter Spinas
    Dragon's Milk
    The Last Squished Jellybean
    Czernobog
    Tenochtitlan
    Thanatopsis

  6. Graphica

    Zephyr

    By Graphica,

    A gentle white scent, breezes laced with the scent of springtime blooms and citrus. Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla.

    in the bottle: Perfume. This is the first BPAL scent I've smelled that immediately put me in mind of traditional perfume. Feminine. Floral. Strong sandalwood, but without the sense of dryness I usually get. I definitely smell lemon verbena and a strong but light musky component. Bergamot -- one of my favorite scents. I'm a bit put off by the overall perfume-y-ness of it, but I'll give it a go.

    on wet: Immediately, the sandalwood and musk are dominant; all the other scents drop away completely.

    drydown: Sandalwood and vanilla. A really nice vanilla. I don't know if this is a special type of vanilla or if it's just being affected by the surrounding components, but it's a dry, non-sweet vanilla which I like very much. Oddly, the sandalwood is already not as strong, which is counter to my past experiences with sandalwood (where it usually becomes the dominant -- if not only -- component throughout the scent life of the oil or perfume). No hint of bergamot left. :love!:

    one hour later: Okay, still a perfume-y perfume, but not offensive. I'm getting a whiff now of the neroli (one of the few floral scents in real life that doesn't give me a headache). Also, this is the first one I've tried that has throw. That sort of makes me want to wash my wrists, but I'll tough it out.

    end of day: Light floral.

    compared to official description: Simplistically, the throw on this one does make me think of breezes, especially the type that waft the warm scent of Philadelphus blossoms across the yard (nice match to the description since, for us, Philadelphus blooms in late spring, so ... spring breezes). If "white scent" is supposed to mean light and non-heady, again accurate. I would've thought that sandalwood would immediately make a scent not light, but I see that it's described as "white sandalwood." I'm not sure what that means, but it's clearly a completely different scent than the one I'm used to.

    notes: Lagniappe. Not one I would have thought to try because of the floral component. I'm glad the lab throws these in because I do allow myself to be dissuaded by a description. This forces me to take a chance, for better or worse.

    It's a very pretty but light floral. Very much a perfume. I can see the appeal if you like this sort of thing. Overall, it isn't me. It leaves me feeling fragile and withdrawn -- not sensations that I enjoy.

    added to forum reviews
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