Zorra

I love vetiver, but there seems to be a hint of tobacco here and I simply can't bear tobacco.

Am I the only one who gets a cinnamon note in this one? It's probably part of the fur note. The first time I was wearing this I made a note that it's a sweet rose, but the sweetness is cinnamon, I realize now. I get a little mint, for the snow note I guess. But since I realized I smell cinnamon in this it's stronger than the rose!

It's aged now of course so it probably smells different from when it was fresh. But when I put this on there's a blast of jasmine. It wasn't until I looked at the notes again that I realized jasmine is not a not. Well, apparently one of the other notes has jasmine as a component, and I now have full proof that I amp jasmine. I went back to sniff the bottle again and there's no jasmine when I sniff it. But on my skin, hardly anything else. I'll see if it morphs during the day. 

I once camped in the wild in a field of  some unknown herb on a height in the north of Spain. I think this smells like that herb on me, though it's many years ago. It reminds me  of it, for sure, which makes me feel very happy when I smell it. Obviously a very good scent for a Cancer person. Oddly, I don't get violets or star jasmine or even a clear lemon balm, which are all scents that are usually very  obvious on me. Maybe it's age, or maybe it's just that I need to smell the herb which I can only imagine to be mugwort - I need to smell other  scents with mugwort to be certain.

This was one of my decants in 2012 and I remember it was very sweet to my nose then. Too sweet for me. Today Facebook showed me I wore the scent on this day in 2012 so I decided to try it again. And the candy sweetness is much less now.. There is the darkness of the plum and still some sweetness of the black currant, the musk and neroli dance together  and the jungle orchid winds through it all. I love grapefruit  and I do not really get it here. It might be ageing, but it might be just that it blends so well I can't pick it out.  I am glad I still have the decant.

I should add that after an hour it got a bit too  much for me. I think 'it' is the black currant note. I seem to have a low tolerance for currant notes, the same low tolerance I have for most synthetic notes.

On 12/28/2016 at 1:19 AM, LizziesLuck said:

Wet: Wood - No...cardboard? Hazelnuts!? WTF am I smelling??

After looking at the notes, I am smelling lily (cardboard on me), sandalwood, and the vetiver (which is sometimes nutty on me). Something green peeks through. Something herbal, maybe the lavender? Not identifiable as lavender though. This one is perplexing and intriguing.

I tried Death on a Pale Horse this morning and I had sort of the same reaction: "I am smelling something that shouldn't be there! A hazelnut note?" I did not think of cardboard, but I'd say that might cover it just as well. I did not have the comfort to recognize reactions I have to notes that are listed. In fact I did not smell any of the listed notes, just that odd nuttiness. I left it on for only 20 minutes or so and then washed it off. It was not at all what I expected from the description and what I got I did not like at all.

April 2023: I tried this again not realizing I had already written a review. Today I would desbribe what I smell as maybe helycrisum? It's still a scent that I cannot explain from any of the notes, nor do I smell any of the notes. Maybe I have a mislabeled imp? Maybe this one is just very weird? Again I washed it off after 20 minutes. I might like what it smells like on another day. But not today.

Sniffing the bottle I smell a dark chocolate or  cacao note, once on my skin the chocolate/cacao disappears and it turns into a herbal lemon note. I should add that I seem to be amping this herbal lemon note,  because it seems to dominate a few other scents I have. On someone else the chocolate might still be there, which would make it more interesting.

It started out wearable, but after a couple of hours I  had to wash it off because I could not stand any more tobacco. I am learning to wear scents with tobacco, but we're still not friends.

When this was new, the jasmine was quite strong. Nine months later it has become the softest jasmine I have smelled in a perfume. It smells like a magical summer night. I think it's the benzoin and orris  that make the jasmine softer, while the honeysuckle and red mandarin make it a bit sweeter without really becoming sweet. Plum gives it the darkness that makes me think of night when I smell this. But in fact everything is so well  blended that I don't really pick out notes, I just smell that it's very, very lovely.

I am wearing this today because it has a nutmeg note which I recently discovered is in several scents I love, and because in a facebook post someone asked for wood scents and Gnome came up more than once. It must be a different gnome. I smell like gear lubricant, a luxury, effervescent type of gear lubricant with hints of ginger and peppercorn,  but I can't make wood of this. It is nice, but I don't think I'll wear it often.

From the bottle and wet on the skin Melisande seems to be just jasmine. But after a while the jasmine has used up her initial enthusiasm and gives space to the mimosa and they get along very well! The violet makes the blend darker, the vanilla gives some sweetness to it and the musk adds some mystery. I have had this bottle for a year now and time definitely has added depth to it. It has  become a scent I want to wear again the next day.

To me this smells more like vanilla and ginger than vanilla orchid and ginger. It is a warm softly glowing scent that helps me make it through chilly gray wet days.

In the decant I smell a blueberry note and a cream note. On my skin the blueberries leave within half an hour, leaving me with the cream note. I do not like a cream note. Unfortunately, cardamom never showed up.

Judging by the name I was expecting a scent with a strong woody note. I was not expecting to get such a candy sweet rose from it, right from the start! This is not the flower rose, it's rose candy! I know a lot of you love the candy sweet scents, but this is not for me. 

I recently obtained a partial bottle of this and it's probably no longer what it was when it was fresh, but I really like it as it is now. Roses and Lilies with a spicy undertone. 

I can't believe I never wrote a review for Black Lily. It's been a favorite for so long! When I was new to BPAL (2009?) a friend sent me 50 used imps, so I could find out what I liked. My first love was Tiger Lily but I soon found out it was discontinued. So I started a search for a lily scent i would love just as much. In the end Black Lily was the winner. In fact I think I love it even more than I loved Tiger Lily. Black Lily is a soft lily, 'grace in shadow' is a good description. It is a velvety lily. I would say it's a dark and mysterious lily, but I am not entirely sure if that is not because I know it's called Black Lily. Compared to other lily scents Black Lily is a very sophisticated lily. You could wear it to the opera (I do wear it to the opera). You could wear it to a reception at an embassy. On the other hand there is no reason not to wear it when you go for a picnic on a late summer afternoon. 

If you are not a fan of lily scents, try Black Lily. She might win you over.

This is a strange one on me. From the imp I don't smell much, just something fruity kind of fresh. On my skin at first I smelled nothing, so I applied more. Then it was the same fresh fruitiness that I got from the imp. And then the fruitiness seemed to decide to a soft cinnamon apple? Well it must be the prickly pear, but why is my mind translating it to soft cinnamon apple? I can't blame it on any of the other notes, it must be my weird nose or mind. Or perhaps it's the age of my imp?

It is a nice scent, I would take the imp with me on vacation. But I don't expect I would want a bottle of it once I finish the imp.

Seraphim is a scent I have liked ever since I had just discovered BPAL 11 (?) years ago, but somehow always forgot to wear. Now that I rediscovered it I can't stop wearing it. Fortunately I have three imps. Seraphim is plural for seraph which mean burning one. That is not what Seraphim (the perfume) smells like. It is, however, a very angelic scent, a majestic angelic scent. The calla lily is the most obvious note but the frankincense and sandalwood make it majestic. The rose cannot compete with the lily on my skin, something I have noticed with other scents as well. The wisteria I cannot point out, but it's there. This is not just a lily with a  frankincense and sandalwood base, there are other flowers in the game. But most important about this scent is that it's a majestic angelic scent. When I have finished my imps I WILL buy a bottle. I won't forget about Seraphim again.

The first thing I smelled when I tried this from the imp, was neither of the notes, it was jasmine! Once on my skin it disappeared, but after a couple of hours the jasmine returned, not a screaming jasmine but a soft and well-behaved one. I wonder if the jasmine I smell is part of the narcissus note. In the early stages I smell a crisp green rose, but like the jasmine it is well-behaved and shares the stage with the other flowers. This is a very floral scent, and the different flowers blend with each other perfectly so that none of them is trying to steal the stage. Seeing what I have just written that doesn't sound much like pride, not trying to steal the stage? But it is what I smell. Pretty non-competing flowers. 

I only have the imp, but I think I may need more. Strangler Fig is indeed rooty and woody and part of that is a fig note, but it's the fig wood, not the fig fruit. It doesn't smell very green to me, but compared to other scents with a fig note (which mostly feel dark purple to me) Strangler Fig could indeed be described as dark green.

One last edit: I put this on in the morning. In the evening the fig note is the only note I can still smell. I am sorry the other notes have left, I miss the woody and rooty part.

I watched the Tournement of Underdogs before I retried this scent. I knew I had an imp, and today I put it on, remembering it being described as a patchouli scent. So when it warmed on my skin I went 'What? What is this? This shouldn't be there?" I first thought I was smelling some herbal lemon like lemon verbena, but then the patchouli took the scene and I forgot about the strange note. Much later I reapplied a little because I was curious about the odd note, and I also looked at the notes in the description. And suddenly it all fell into place: I once bought rose essential oil that smelled like a beautiful rose from the bottle, but when I put it on my skin I smelled geranium. I think it was in fact attar of rose, a little rose oil in geranium oil. I think that in Rakshasa either the rose is in fact attar of rose, or the scent has a geranium note that is not mentioned. And I wonder why what I smell is so different from what most people smell. ETA: Perhaps I should add that I do smell a rose note as well as a sandalwood note, they are just not very strong.

This is so lovely! The champaca is very present, but patchouli, frankincense and agarwood (not oud, just agarwood) keep it round and grounded and the copal and vanilla add some sweetness. My nose does not detect tea, but I am not a tea lover so perhaps I am just not very good at smelling it. In a way this scent reminds me of Smoky Moon 2012 which has quite a few notes in common. But To My Dear And Loving Husband is softer and rounder and more down to the ground. It is very comforting. 

On 3/4/2016 at 2:04 PM, Zorra said:

I went to a very good performance about the life of Mata Hari and I thought BPAL should have a scent named after her. Then I discovered there was one and a friend sent me an imp she had.

 

I wasn't sure if I would like it, because I have tried some scents with a mahogany note that I didn't really like. I should not have feared the mahogany, for me it isn't there in this scent. What is more surprising, the roses only make a very short appearance. They disappear in no time at all, drowned in jasmine. I even tried layering with A Parliament of Foules because that is like nothing but roses on me. Forget it, Mata Hari made it disappear in seconds. I do get a mix of jasmine with something sweet that must be the tonka and vanilla and perhaps even the fig, just enough to take the edge of the jasmine. But where did the roses go? I mean, if a scent description starts with five roses one does expect to smell them.

 

I am going to leave my imp alone for a week and see if anything changes with a bit more rest. I really want to love this scent because of the memory of that performance.

 

2020 edit to add that I soon loved the scent enough to buy a bottle. This is what I get from it now:

I still don't get rose from Mata Hari. Five roses and I notice none. I still get a lot of jasmine. And, at the start, definitely coffee. I think the mahogany, tonka, fig and vanilla, though I do not smell them separately, are what is keeping Mata Hari from just enveloping me in a cloud of jasmine (with a hint of coffee). I would say that on me Mata Hari is jasmine with something dark below it that never really allows the jasmine to fly. Reading the notes I think I smell the fig note, which no doubt has part in the dark side of this scent. Tonka and vanilla I do not really smell, but I suppose they are responsible for the slight sweetness in the dark. I am not sure if I smell the mahogany. Although I have tried several scents with a mahogany note, I never managed to get a good idea of what that note was in the blend (probably because I did not like the blends).

 

I have had this bottle of Mata Hari for several years now, and I still love the scent. 

Quoting my own post of 2016, which I already edited in February of this year. But I must make my love for Mata Hari more visible now that she is in the #tournementofunderdogs. 

On first sniff, I still don't smell a single rose in Mata Hari. But then I reconsidered and really, the roses are there and it's the roses that soften the jasmine! I do not smell a bright rose, but I do smell a soft jasmine and softness is not exactly something one would usually describe jasmine with. It's the roses that soften her! And then there is the coffee as a dark bitter balance to the florals, and the tonka and vanilla sweetening up the coffee without making this is sweet scent. Mata Hari is not sweet, she is dark and strong with a floral edge. There is a woody base (which no doubt includes the fig note) on which the flowers move elegantly with the coffee. There is no doubt that Mata Hari is one of my most favorite BPAL scents. I can wear her in any season and in any situation. I can take her to the opera or she can accompany me to bed. She really deserves more attention!

I don't know how old my imp is, so I may be missing the more volatile notes. I am glad I don't smell something like orange candy, as I read in a review above. Moscow is a pretty floral on me, with not one of the floral notes standing out. I don't really find a link between what I smell and the city of Moscow, when I think Moscow I don't think pretty floral. It would be interesting to know what the link is. 

I know I have tried The Coiled Serpent before and for some reason in my memory it was a herbal lemon scent. I don't know how it got tagged like that because it isn't at all. 

The first thing I smell when I put it on is not the patchouli that everybody seems to get at once, it's vetiver! Perhaps I mistook vetiver for herbal lemon when the imp was fresher and I less experienced, I don't know. What I now smell is vetiver, followed by indeed the patchouli that everybody smells. They are a good team. They are a wonderful team. Together they are woody, sweet in a resiny way, sweet wood. Goodness, I think I need a bottle of this!