warriortwo

I had high hopes for this one, but it dries down to rose, or something I perceive to be rose (lily? geranium?). Rose always takes over any blend, and while I like it occasionally, I get tired of it quickly. It reminds me a lot of Bee & Flower soap which I bought many times when I was young, and often stuck in a drawer because the wrapper was too pretty to discard.

I also get an indolic scent from this fragrance. (I love jasmine, but this isn't it.) The scent starts off almost fruity, but quickly turns to something resembling a creamy floral. It kind of reminds me of gardenia. I can smell the tea and the sandalwood and I think they're creating this artificial floral in combination together, but they're not vibing in a way that I enjoy.

I get the same thing everyone else does, but I will add that this to my nose is a very modern masculine blend, something in the realm of Cool Water or Acqua di Gio (not that it smells like either of those, but definitely in the bold aquatic category). Funny that almost all the Phoenixes read masculine to my nose.

A frimp that I never would have tried on my own, what a shame! It's so beautiful that I've got shivers down my spine. I'm more of a resins and incense person, but I never stop hunting for florals I can wear, and I think I've hit the jackpot with this one. A sparkling clean fruity-floral.

So many scents conjure a direct connection with something that turns me off: too-much-like BBW scents, air-freshener scents, scents that remind me of commercial perfumes (none of which do it for me--the tang of alcohol fixative always screws me over), scents that remind me of particular people, scents that are too soapy/shampoo-y/lotiony, scents that smell like cleaning products--there are so many things that can turn a perfume wrong for me, that I rarely find any scents without a negative connotation. So I would not say this is "ordinary" by any means--it is something completely unique to my nose. 

This one smells like sex. I've never tried the Smuts, but I would absolutely describe this as smutty, and I wonder if the actual Smuts are like this too? The molasses is giving the honey a dark and dirty vibe. Now I'm curious about those Smuts!

I have always been drawn to forest scents, especially pine, and they almost never work for me. Often they veer too much into "man cologne", the kind that guys slather on liberally and then sit next to you on the bus. Golden Priapus might be the first pine that smells fantastic on me. I get all the delicious foresty vibes, but softened with vanilla and lightly spiced with juniper and rosewood. I've tried other vanilla-pine blends and this one beats them all. Gorgeous.

Good lord, this is beautiful.

I got a massive haul of decants and imps from a longtime collector, and so far I've been having bad luck with musks, oudh, and "rain" notes, so when I pulled this out I wasn't sure I should try it. Now I'm enveloped in a gorgeous lavender storm cloud. The Lilith lavenders are some of the softest and most wearable I've ever tried.

So far, I am getting dirty diaper smell. A combination of baby powder, warm plastic, and something sweet and decaying. It's been on for about 15 minutes and I'm about to go scrub it off.

I got an imp of this from a massive destash, so it might old. It could also be my body chemistry.  Since this has hundreds of glowing reviews, I am wondering if I should try this straight from the lab to see if it behaves differently.

ETA: I just remembered what note usually does this to me--it's sage. Something I love in its natural form, but smells sickly on my skin.

This one is delicate and powdery on my skin, but much stronger on the toothpick, which makes me wonder how it would behave in a scent locket. None of the notes listed pull forward and announce themselves, instead dancing together in a soft swirling cloud of herbal/floral sweetness (sort of like lavender, or heather, maybe). I imagine this is might be a favorite of the Yé-yé girls of the 1960s: youthful, feminine, and effortlessly chic. I'm hanging on to this one!

A blast of patchouli (one of few BPAL patchoulis that smells like true patchouli to me) with an overlay of sour decay. The "decay" note reminds me a bit of chewed up tobacco, or of a smoker who smells of old aftershave.

This one is tough to describe, probably because I'm not familiar with many of these notes. I get a sense of Christmas right out of the vial. A hint of spice. As it dries down, the olive blossom ramps up and reminds me of a scented lotion or shampoo from the 1970s. It also feels faintly middle-eastern. Frankincense usually reads as "incense" to me but that's not quite the feeling here, though there's a tiny bit of oomph to the blend. Overall, this is indolic to me.

Oof. This one is a nope. Honey is usually a deal-breaker for me, but since Etienne de Boray Oak worked so well for me, I thought this might too. I get a perfume-y lavender clashing with the sharp, sticky sweetness of honey. This one goes in the swap bin!

I love this. I have always loved Jasmine, though it can sometimes be too much. This is still Jasmine-forward, but on me, it has a softer, less in-your-face quality, probably due to the other elements. There is something that faintly reminds me of black tea. Very feminine and definitely "shabby chic" as VetchVesper said. Pale pink and white flowers in a ceramic pitcher.

This one reminds me a lot of hippie incense/goth perfume which is true for a lot of early BPAL GC scents. Growing up near San Francisco in the 80's, the Haight Ashbury was ground zero for picking up goth gear. Right next to the stores where we bought our Doc Martens, black crinolines and spiderweb stockings were old-school hippie head shops which were full of the classic "hippie" perfume oils: frankincense, ylang ylang, patchouli, sandalwood, etc. As a result, all the goths I knew smelled like this.

Bloody Mary doesn't quite read as cherry OR classic patchouli to me, but rather like Dragon's Blood incense. It's too intense for everyday wear, but when I'm in the mood for it, it hits the spot.

This one's messing with my head. I am always on the lookout for mossy, forest, rainy scents, and they almost never work for me. This one really works! Every time I test it, I end up huffing my wrist obsessively. But this is a High Street scent, very Parisian and stylish, and I live in a hoodie and sweatpants. I feel most at home with a cozy lavender or an incensy patchouli. So while I probably don't need a bottle, I will probably kick myself a year or two from now when I realize I should have upgraded. Humph.

Scored a sample of this recently. When wet, it's sharp, sneeze-inducing French Lavender, but once that dries down, the notes complement each other perfectly. I love rose but it nearly always amps and ruins blends; this rose is whisper light, and doesn't overpower, or go powdery or old-fashioned. Definitely a clean laundry scent, but it also has a slightly mysterious, flower-fairy feel to me. I love this and will keep my eye out for a full bottle.

I picked up a leftover of this last year and have been periodically testing it. It can take me a long time to decide if scent works for me. Most of them don't, but I kept testing this one, and recently it just clicked. The lavender is soft. The leather is nice and refined. Every once in a while I get that grass note, but it's fleeting. I could swear there is a touch of vanilla sweetening and softening the blend. Maybe it's my skin chemistry that makes it work so well, but this has become an HG scent for me and I am resisting the urge to put out the call for unwanted bottles so I can hoard it!

The two predominant notes I am getting from this are sandalwood and perfume-y amber. If there is lavender here, it's faint. I can kind of see how the sandalwood could be the "paperback" note. I imagine another perfumer calling this blend something like "Midnight Cashmere" or "Moonlight Amethyst" and describing it as mysterious, sultry, alluring, and so on. Not generally my sort of thing.

When wet, this has a very sharp, antiseptic quality. Almost, but not quite, like Pine-Sol; the image I am getting is snapping a pine branch in half. After drying, it settles into a pleasant, resinous quality. The pine is barely there--it's more like cedar to my nose. I can smell the tobacco, but it reminds me more of patchouli. Very intriguing, this will get tested many times as I could see it becoming a favorite.

This is a hard no for me. The notes are intense--I could swear there is some perfume-y amber in there--and the end result comes off like an overly scented home candle.

(I got this imp secondhand and it looks to have aged.) To me it smells like roses and opium. In fact, it's the first rose scent I've liked. Usually rose smells quaint or old-fashioned, but this has a timeless edge to it. About 15 minutes after I apply it, it smells like dark red roses crushed in the dirt on the forest floor. It's different for me but sexy; I'll play with it more.

ETA: Today, I'm getting much more of a dark, syrupy red wine note. Still love it. Beautiful.