MonkeysInk

This one smells so so so green to me, like some kind of luscious green tropical fruits.  I read all of the reviews that say pineapple and rum, but I just don't get that at all - it almost smells like a Luper-esque mix of fruits to me.  My skin eats it up and I'm left with almost nothing by the time it dries down.  If I sniff very closely, I get a whiff of what might be some greenish raspberry?  

I wanted so very much to like this one, but it's just not at all what I expected it to be.  I bought it from a swap and it's fifteen years old at this point, so I guess aging has been less kind to this than to others.  I will use it up and enjoy it for what it is now, but it is not one I will hoard or seek out a replacement.

Found an old imp in my stash and I don’t think I’ve ever tried it.  If I had to guess, it’s at least 10 years old and probably older.  I’ve also never tried Dorian (blushes…) so maybe I need to try that next.

In the imp, this smelled like lemony tea and bright leaves.  On the skin, this smells like cedar.  Lots and lots of cedar.  It smells sweet and fresh, but all I get is that very bright woodsy note.

I tried an extremely old imp of this - if I had to guess, I’d say it’s around 10 years old.  When I opened the imp, it was a blast of lemongrass.  

I tipped the imp over and…nothing.  I waited and waited and waited - the perfume had turned into a syrupy texture that very slowly oozed out.

On the skin it was straight lemongrass that faded almost immediately into a very faint, slightly feral musk.  Within a few minutes, the scent had totally faded.  

I have no idea how long I’ve had this imp, but I will guesstimate around 10 years.  I have worn it several days before writing this review.
 

Wet, it smells like pine trees and a man’s cologne.  
 

As it dries down, it gets a little fruitier and there is basically no throw - I can only smell this by pressing my nose to my skin.  I like to put perfume in my hair and even today after several days of brushing the imp’s wand through my hair, I can’t smell anything.

I was hoping for some of the fruity, woodsy goodness listed above, but perhaps my imp’s day to shine has come and gone.
 

I bought this one from the Swaps some time ago.  I always expect citrus scents to fade with age, and this one has not.  It’s gotten more sugary, but it is still quite lemony and tangy and delicious.  I am nearing the end of my bottle and desperately hope this one (or something v similar) will make a comeback.

It’s like a lemon cooky or a lemon candy or lemoncello sorbet - it’s not sweet, but you know it’s meant to be a dessert of sorts.  If you’ve had one of those half-lemons filled with lemon sorbet, it smells like those taste.

I have had the bottle for a long time and rarely used it, and I am now trying to work my way through my stash rather than succumbing to the ever-present temptation to buy New & Shiny BPAL.

Something in this blend smells like a Lunacy - it’s a watery herbal-floral blend and I have a hard time parsing individual fragrances from it.  It’s always been like this, which is why I haven’t used it - it smells like one big blobby scent rather than my nose being able to pick out individual notes.  I read back through all of the previous reviews and have sniffed and sniffed trying to pick things out, but alas, it continues smelling like one inseparable thing.

It’s fine.  I’m going to use it because I have it, but it’s not a favorite nor did it get better with age. My youngest says it makes my hair smell nice when he hugs me, so that’s the best kind of review.

I get apple blossom and neroli and orchid, with a little sandalwood in the background.  This smells like expensive department store perfume in the best way - it’s floral and interesting and long-lasting while still still unique and complex in the way that BPAL does better than anyone else.

ETA: I have been wearing this every day this summer and it’s been just lovely.  It stays close to the body and doesn’t feel overwhelming for long, hot days but still manages to be delicious and sexy and complex.  I’m almost at the end of this bottle and will miss Miss Addie when she’s gone.

I bought this directly from the Lab when it was first released and I did not love it.  It was very sharp, it was very loud, it felt obnoxious to wear it.  I have opened it a few times since and still did not feel like it was something that I would feel confident wearing.

Today, I found it in my collection and decided to try it again.  It's probably been three or four years since I last opened it, and today, it hs transformed into something very wearable.  There is a lot of lavender, some grounding from the resin of the elemi, and a very light waft of sandalwood.  When I first put it on, I thought I'd put on too much and was going to overwhelm my family (I'm writing this during Covid shut-down) while we were home together all day.  Quite the opposite - within a few minutes, the scent was close to my skin and felt really sexy and unexpected. It's definitely what I would describe as a masculine scent and on the verge of being commercial, but somehow it's not.  I really love this, I will definitely be wearing it again, and I think that I'll make some bath salts with this as it would make a very relaxing scent to soak in.

I am writing this review, fascinated that this perfume is now 12 years old.  It smells light and less floral than I suspect it did when it was younger.  The incense has moved further forward with orchids behind it.  It’s lovely like flowers at dusk, lit by a barely smoking tiki torch.  I diluted a bit in my palm with some liquid coconut oil and drenched myself in it, and it’s just perfect for a warm summery date night.

I am a gin fanatic, so I was excited to find this imp in my stash.  

There is a gin called St. George Terroir that was made to taste like the things the creators loved about California.  I'm not sure if Beth was intentionally imitating the scent of this gin, but if not, I hope that she'll buy some of it and try it, because St. George and Bagpipe Dog are very similar.  It's one of my favorite gins because the fragrance and taste are so distinctive and stay very green, never straying into sweetness.

Anyway, back to the perfume: I agree that it has the fizzy quality of other alcohol-inspired scents, but it goes away quickly.  There is juniper and pine with a whiff of lime.  This scent stays very lush and green and unisex.  I love it and am sad that it's too late to buy a bottle.

Rich champaca and peppery bourbon vanilla.  Green tea came much, much later.  The throw was moderate.  This one was nice, but not one I would reach for again as it was pretty intense for work.

(still a little amused that I wore Injured Dickchest to work without knowing it...I grabbed an imp and put some on without reading the name or the notes.)

Somehow I have an imp of this that I just found - probably a gift from a generous forumite.  Ten years after its creation, I’m finally using this and wow, is it amazing.  It smells of cinnamon and allspice and something shiny - it’s like a gorgeous warm, pie pulled from the oven with that beautiful glowing, shiny top.  
 

I am soaking in a bath after a long, cold, rainy day and this is the perfect comforting scent to immerse myself in.  🧡

This smells like cake and flowers.  I never got any lavender, just sweetness and florals.  It reminds me of of a friend showing up with a cupcake and flowers for your birthday - not too much sweetness, not too many flowers - everything in the right proportions.

For my taste, it’s a little foodie, but I knew that going in and wanted to try it anyway.  

In 2020, this is a dry, yellow scent with some clean musk behind it.  It has very little throw, but is really lovely and soft and I keep sniffing my wrist.  I can smell ginger and amber, but the florals seem to have long faded away.

I did not read the review of this before I opened the imp, so I didn't realize it had pumpkin in it until I came here to write this review.

This was all caramel and vanilla and honey for me.  I strongly dislike caramel and honey smells rather meh on me, so I was pretty disappointed by the scent.  I went ahead and put some on, hoping it would morph, but by mid-day, it smelled exactly the same.  (Why is it that a scent I don't like stays on forever and the ones I like get eaten by my skin?)

Once I read that this had pumpkin in it, I might have called it pumpkin caramel cheesecake or pumpkin caramel tart - something very foodie with a heavy, heavy drizzle of caramel on it.   For me, this was a bust.  If you look sweet, foodie scents, this might be one to consider.

2015 version in 2020:

I didn’t read the description before I put it on, and I was convinced the primary note was sugared mango after I wore it for a while.  
 

After looking at the description, I can definitely separate out the fruit and the apple blossom and the sugar.  I don’t get any pepper, just leafy, sugary fruit.  Very nice, but faded quickly and was not one that would tempt me to find a bottle as it just didn’t have enough staying power.

This was pretty with a sweet apple scent as it went on, but my skin ate it and it didn't even make it an hour before there was just a whisper of flowery sandalwood left behind.  I would describe this as light and ephemeral.

This is a delicious, amazing grapefruit fragrance - like all grapefruit, all the time.  The other citrus comes through nicely, too, and it's all just totally fantastic.  This reminds me so much of the late-80s Body Shop grapefruit bar soap.  I got an imp from the forums and now I want an enormous bottle.  

Sadly, it does fade fast.  😥

I realized that I never put this in the tub to soak, so I’ve started using a few drops as body moisturizer in the shower. It’s mainly musks with some very faint floral undertones.

Morocco is my go-to daily wear perfume, and the combination of the two is heady - all the swirling warm musks is delicious.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I bought this in a swap In 2008 and never opened it until today. It has a delicious clean, outdoorsy smell that is very unisex and fresh. I get some woods, but they’re white and in the background - like polite, well/behaved trees waving hello. Here in North Texas, it’s just starting to get cool and this is the kind of scent perfect for our October days. It’s fall without being heavy or overly spicy, it’s cool outside without being smoky or dark. In short, I love it and I wish I had more than a single imp.

I'm totally in for a book swap!

2017 Version:

I put some on just before getting in the car with my kids. My four year old yelled "Mom, you smell like marshmallows!" They're his favorite treat, so this is high praise.

I get delicious vanilla with a soft ivory floral underneath. It's sweet but not foodie and hasn't tended toward plastic. At the end of the day, I get old, gauzy lace - like a doily in an old library...there's something a little dusty and book-ish underneath.

When it was announced this was available, I bought some without even reading the description because I knew it was such a cult favorite. It totally deserves the hype it has gotten for so long.

This is so amazing, even hot from the mailbox. I stood in front of my house and sniffed and sniffed this one - it reminds me of something that my great-grandmother used to wear (Chantilly, maybe?) in the most perfect of ways. I'm going to let this settle for a few days and then try it again, but if it smells like this even under the worst of conditions I can't wait to see what it's like when it's had a few days to cool and settle.

ETA: I went and read the scent notes and reviews of Chantilly, and I suspect it's the jasmine and musk in this that's giving me that scent memory. Part of me wants to go smell Chantilly somewhere to see how close I am about how similar they smell. Another part of me wants to continue letting Miss Addie give me this memory without spoiling it with whatever contemporary Chantilly smells like. I'd be curious to see if another BPALer has the same association.

I used to volunteer at my produce co-op, where we'd wait in the morning air for the truck to arrive with the crates of vegetables. We'd open the back of the truck and this blast of cool veggie-scented air would spill forth.

That's what this smells like - lettuce and squash and fig all rolled together. As it dried, I got some of the cream, but it's mostly vegetables.

This is not a scent that I would reach for, although I'm thrilled to have gotten it as a gift from a sweet Forumite so I could try it.

2020 edit: going through old imps and found this one again.  Still smells like green veg, but now the honey and cream are screaming loudly to be heard.  It is now a weird, sweet creamed vegetable scent that I do not enjoy at all.  It’s so interesting to find imps that I’ve already reviewed and try them again to see how they have changed for me.

This smells like green and white florals (is there green floral? If so, this is definitely it.) and clean, outdoor air. This didn't have much throw or last very long, although it was lovely for the short time it lingered. This is one I think would smel especially lovely spritzed onto my hair, to have the fresh, clean smell follow me around.