mari4212

Wet on: Carnation! Sweet and mildly spicy.

 

Initial drydown: Still mostly the carnation, with perhaps an extra touch of sweet from the honey and spice from the cardamon. This is essentially carnation accentuated with more of itself.

 

Later drydown: second verse, same as the first: this doesn't mutate much on me. Not a super-strong throw, after the first five minutes, but it's present and lovely.

On, wet: Hello almond! This is an almost cherry almond, and on wet it reminds me of Fruitcake, the imp-with-purchase I forget how many Christmases ago.

 

Initial drydown: The cherry undertone dies down, and there's a bit of rose peaking through. It's not a heady, overwhelming rose, it's a bit softer. Very much the rose petals, beginning to dry out for potpourri. I'm searching for it, and I get a hint of drier spice right at the tail end.

 

later drydown: soft rose and spices, with maybe a hint of fig in the very background. The almond dissipated faster than anything else.

 

For me this ends up being a rather gentle scent, after the initial kick of almond. I want to see what happens as it ages a bit, and on a slightly cooler set of days to see if that changes how fast the almond goes away. As it is, this ends up being a softer, more backdrop scent than the other one I picked up from this series.

On wet, straight after arrival and rather warm from the heat of the day: red fruits. This smells a bit like pomegranates, which I think is the strawberry and blackcurrant together. It does have some pretty strong throw at first, so I wouldn't wear this in a confined space or a crowd.

 

Initial drydown: the red fruits have stepped back a lot, but are still present. Sandalwood is coming forward, along with an almost coconut wood backing.

 

Later drydown: In this heat, my skin is eating through this one quickly. It ends as a soft skin musk with a touch of warmth from the sandalwood.

Wet on skin: there's a strong classical perfumey edge to this at first, which I think is a mix of the oude and the orange blossom floral. This is a bit sharper than I normally like my perfumes to be.

 

Initial drydown: VPD loses the sharp edge that was making me unsure of it, and the amber kicks in to mellow out the other notes. Now it's more of a rounded perfume, with a bit more sweetness to it.

 

Later: This softens with the amber as it goes. I'm still getting flashes of sweetness from the orange blossom. Overall, it's really hard to pick out individual notes on this perfume, they all blend into one another.

Wet on skin: Lemon is the most prominent note, a very straight lemon that doesn't go cleaning supplies or super foodie. That's probably the verbena, possibly also the neroli and elemi giving more citrus notes.

Initial drydown; lemon is still most prominent, but there's something else smoothing out the undertones; the ambergris is coming out a bit more and adding some depth and almost creaminess to the scent.

After an hour or two: the ambergris has taken center stage, and what a lovely stage it is. This stays a light and sweet skin-scent throughout, without much wafting. It's very similar at this stage to Lyonesse, with just a hint of the citrus remaining.

Wet on skin: So my mother, when I was a child, had a bunch of perfume bottles shaped like women in various ethnic clothing from around the world. I never knew what scent was in the bottles, but I loved looking at them and playing with them. Wet on the skin this smelled exactly like those bottles did: golden and perfumey, with no one note I could pull out. I'm betting that in this case it's the iris note playing out.

 

Initial drydown: This has softened and sweetened the way most vanilla scents do on me. The initial "perfumey" note has faded a bit, and I've got something soft-edged and golden from it. There is a trace of powder, and very soft floral notes, but nothing is intense or strong. This will be a great skin scent, and it does feel sophisticated and classic.

 

Later: This fades down into a sweet powder scent as the day goes past. I think I'm catching hints of the orange blossom at the end.

On wet: earth and pine trees. Letting this one sit and age about 8 months before I tried it, I think the patchouli starts strongest, with the green of the coffee beans coming in a bit.

 

Initial drydown: Still strongly patchouli, with a hint of sweetness that is probably the vanilla. The earthiness of the patchouli stays very close to the skin, the further out I smell it the sweeter and creamier the scent becomes.

 

Later drydown: After a while, the patchouli fades, and what is left is a soft, somewhat musky scent with a bit more of the spices that were hidden until now. It's a very soft and light take off of something like Snake Oil.

 

 

Overall impressions: this is a grounded and warm perfume, easily approachable and somewhat gentle underneath.

On wet/early drydown: chamomile, with a bit of honey and an herbal spice that is probably the carnation kicking in, with a minty undertone. More of a golden/straw scent as opposed to a green-grass herbal.

 

On for a while: still straw/chamomile with honey, a bit more of the lavender is making an appearance. I think the straw note I'm getting is the thistles.

 

I was hoping for a bit more of the florals, or a slightly stronger honey. But as it is, this is a nice, gentle scent, and rather soothing.

On wet: It's the patchouli dirt scent that I was expecting, with a hint of benzoin sweetness underneath.

 

Initial drydown: The scents have muted and blended together, with the patchouli still the predominant note. It's a sweet, earthy scent.

 

Later drydown: As it dries it continues to mellow and sweeten out. Whereas on the initial drydown the emphasis was on the patchouli, the lingering note here is benzoin/vanilla, with just a bit of depth to keep it from being simple. It ages into a scent I'd love to nuzzle in closer to, with not much throw.

If you found Antique Lace similar, try out Morocco. They don't have any of the same listed notes, but on me Morocco is a dead ringer for Antique Lace, very much a warm/soft vanilla musk.

Really, Shub-Niggaruth is the most ginger-cookie scent I've smelled from BPAL. And to make it better, it's GC and impable.

It might be too heavy for what you want, but my first instinct on smoky vanilla is Antikytheria Mechanism. On me it starts out very strongly smoky, but after the first half hour dies back to a mild smoky vanilla with wood undertones.

 

If what you want is more airy vanilla, I will definitely second Morocco. I get almost no carnation from it, it's more of a straight-up dupe of Antique Lace on me; a warm, soft vanilla musk.

For floral vanilla, have you tried Mouse's Long and Sad Tale? It's vanilla, sweet pea, and amber, and it's one of my all-time favorite scents.

Vanilla-heavy scents oftentimes read maternal, as well as anything baked-goods style, as that hits the stereotype of mother/nurturer baking and feeding people. Morocco, Lyonesse, Tombstone, Boo, all of those work for the vanilla-focused scents. Bread and Butter-fly, Eat Me, maybe Shub-Nigguruth are all baked-goods scents off the top of my head. As well as vanilla-scents, I'd go for sweet spicy scents like Chimera.

Yummy.

 

In the bottle, it's sweet, with an almost graham-cracker scent.

 

On, it's vanilla, copal, and amber that take center stage. It's a creamy-warm scent, sweet and soft, but definitely present. I get wafts every time I move my wrists.

 

This is only going to get better with age. I'm glad I splurged on a bottle right off the bat.

wasn't sure where to post this, does anything ever smell like unseelie? i've heard johnson baby powder but i would like something more refined:) and readily available as well:) any help is appreciated!

 

Looking at the note list, it seems like it's a grassy floral scent. Having not tried it myself, which notes ar dominant on you?

 

For grass and floral notes, you might look at Garden Path with Chickens, in the Salon, The Apothocary in Illyria, Amsterdam or Glascow from Wanderlust, or layering Squirting Cucumber from Rappaccini's Garden over a light floral.

 

If you want something to get across the misty or otherworldly qualities the reviewers were mentioning for Unseelie, try Moonshine and Mist, from Marchen.

can anyone just tell me what if any other kind of readily buyable scent unseelie might smell like? lol. i just discovered bpal like three months ago so am just learning all this stuff. why don't they jsut make it again for a bit i swear im going to get a steamer and expresser myself and make it

 

You might get more of a response to this if you asked in the reccomendations forum. There's a thread there about finding GC (general collection) equivalents to the limited edition scents.

 

As for why they don't just make the scent again, a lot of the time they only have a certain amount of one of the component oils, or they can't get it for a long time. Whenever they make a scent for the general collection, they're saying that they think they have everything in line to keep making that scent for years to come. Especially with the economic downturn of the past few years, they can't make that promise easily, and they've had to stop making scents because they've lost suppliers and ingredients.

In the imp: rather sharp, greenish note. There's a hint of the scent of my mother's old Avon perfume bottles, the ones shaped like various women in folk dresses. It's a scent I always associate with generic perfume.

 

On wet: That green and sharp note is still predominant, but it's losing the chemical tang.

 

Initial drydown: I can start making out the chrysanthemum in this, with a hint of marigold spice underneath. No vanilla, no rose, and only a hint of the dryness that might be the autumn leaves.

 

After five minutes: if I stick my nose on my wrist and huff, I get a bit of vanilla under the spicey floral. The too-sharp green note is almost gone.

 

It's funny, when I first read the notes for this, I was a little worried that my skin would amp up the rose too much like it often does in blends with any amount of rose. That isn't happening here.

 

It has gotten better as it's aged, I used to not get away from the chemical tang even on drydown. I know rose and vanilla are both notes that become stronger with aging, so I think this is slowly going to age into something glorious, but it'll take a while. Into the aging box, and maybe by next fall this will be ready for normal wear.

On wet: So my mother had this collection of alcohol-based perfumes in bottles shaped like women from different countries. They were old, and all of the bottles ended up smelling exactly alike. For me, that scent is the epitome of stale perfume.

 

Unfortunately, Prunella on my skin wet is a dead ringer for that scent. I'm not getting the plums, I'm not getting the cream, and I'm not really getting floral, just that funky dead perfume smell. Cross fingers that the drydown morphs spectacularly and lets me smell what Prunella really should be.

 

After twenty minutes: The funky dead-perfume smell has faded away, and I'm getting a bit of plum and cream now. Which is a plus. On the other hand, it's now one of the scents that I have to bury my nose into my wrist to even detect.

 

Sorry, Prunella, you really aren't working well on me. Off to swaps.

Sweet floral candy!

 

This is similar in tone to Rosy Maple Moth in being a candy-toned floral, very light and spring-toned. I am getting a trace of the pink pepper that I loved in Hermia.

In the imp and on wet: Sweet-sharp floral. I think the Heliotrope is dominating.

 

Initial drydown: The sharpness is fading, and a bit more honeysuckle is coming out to play. It's turning out rather lovely.

 

After an hour or so: Yeah, the citrus notes are Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Blend. I get a light, sweet blend of honeysuckle and heliotrope. Very pretty, and good for any time I don't want to be wearing anything too heavy or noticeable.

Almond. This one is a very almond scent, going slightly cherry-ish the way some almonds can, There's a hint of cinnamon in this, but otherwise this is a relatively straightforward almond scent.

 

Definitely a keep-the-imp scent, but not a bottle purchase for me.

On wet: Marzipan. This smells like sweet fresh marzipan, the kind my friend makes for me on occasion. I was a bit worried that the almond would go cherry on me, because I'm not fond of cherry scents, but this is staying very true almond.

 

Initial drydown: Still almond, but the amber and a hint of the spices start swirling.

 

Further on: spicy, sweet, amber and almond. The almond and spices make this somewhat foodie, but it doesn't smell like you're living in a bakery. Love it.

On wet: Sweet. Maybe a hint of opium, as it's the note I'm least familiar with, and a bit of soapy lily.

 

Initial drydown: more of the same. I was hoping for the vanilla and sandalwood to make more of an appearance than they have at this point.

 

Later: this fades down to not much after about two hours, without ever really getting much of a vanilla/sandalwood tone. Not really what I was hoping for from this blend.

Yum.

 

On wet, the pine and juniper come out strongest, making for a pine-heavy green scent, with just a hint of something warm and sweet underneath.

 

Initial drydown: after about five minutes, the pine recedes, and the vanilla and amber come out to play, with the pine scent felt more asan after-taste than anything else. I can see where this would smell amazing on a man, but it's soft enough for me to pull off as well.

 

Later: This stays primarily vanilla-amber, with the pine undertones. The only thing I could wish for was more of a throw, as this is definitely a skin-scent. In all other respects, this is beautiful. Definitely more cuddly than sexy on me, though.