puellacaerulea

Katharina is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin (in the imp?). It's very sharp and strong (as opposed to sweet) apricot and light musk, with a little bit of orange blossom as an afterthought. On me, the musk amps up fast, though it basically softens and balances out the apricot instead of overpowering it. What I get is basically a grown-up version of a fruity perfume. It has pretty good staying power, with maybe about 6 hours before I need to reapply. This is one of my favorite BPAL scents so far and has become one of my go-to scents in general. I'd recommend it to anyone, including those who are otherwise leery of fruit scents, and I'm definitely getting a bottle once my imp runs out.

Got Ophelia as a frimp with my last order. Many reviews mentioned Ophelia being all rose, all the time, so I was optimistic, as BPAL's roses work on me like whoa. However, I opened the imp, and on first sniff: holy cough syrup, Batman! I'm not sure which note it is that's reminding me of cough syrup (very medicinal, sickly-sweet smell), but I have a hard time thinking it's the rose. Could it be the lotus? I tried it on anyway, hoping the sickly sweetness would fade and the rose would amp up, as it usually does on me. Unfortunately, this ended up not being the case; the (maybe) lotus note just got stronger on drydown. Some of the rose and aquatic notes started to come out, but the cough-syrupy note was still the dominant one by far. For what it's worth, it *did* draw compliments from bystanders in the car with me (suggesting that Ophelia does have good throw, as I only put a tiny dab on my wrists). However, the vaguely medicinal sweetness of the whole thing just doesn't do it for me. Overall, it was worth a shot, but Ophelia and I just don't get along. If you do like very sweet florals, though, you might want to consider it. The compliments I got suggest my reaction to Ophelia is more an issue of personal preference than Ophelia actually smelling unpleasant. Still, I'll probably be swapping this one.

In the imp, Zombi is *very* earthy -- I almost can't make out the rose for all the earth and moss notes. The moss is almost overwhelming; almost a moldy sort of smell (as you might expect from the name). Just after putting it on, the rose notes start to get stronger. As other reviewers have mentioned, it's not a flower-shop sort of rose, but more like dried or crushed rose petals. The earth and moss are still the strongest notes, but the moss is no longer overwhelming to the point where I'm reminded of mold. As it dries, the rose notes keep getting stronger while the moss notes die down. The end result on me is basically a very earthy rose scent -- something that evokes roses in a garden after a heavy rain instead of a florist's. The moss note is there, but is much more subtle and works well with the damp earth notes. It also lasts quite long, almost eight hours on me. After about six hours I had to get fairly up close and personal with my wrists to smell it, but it was definitely there. Overall, I'm not sure yet if I'd buy a full size of this, but it's something I'd wear again. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes BPAL's rose scents, especially if you're looking to try something darker than the usual floral. For comparison's sake, a non-BPAL scent this reminds me of is Demeter's Wet Garden, but without all the additional floral notes.