Cesare

I wish I loved Wicked. But... Wet: It just smells generically like pricey perfume to me, one of the dark evening scents like Opium or Poison. Drying: I think it's mostly myrrh? There's some kind of pervading tone drowning out the jasmine and rose, and I'm not fond of it. Dry: Baby powder. I'm not kidding. Within six minutes, this dark perfumey oil smells just like an application of Johnson's Baby Powder on me. Later the jasmine comes back somewhat, but it's still mostly powder. Oh well.

My nose doesn't quite match with the lab description on this one. For some reason, I smelled a grape vineyard... the sweetness of the grapes, along with the earthier scents of the vines themselves. It's actually "white peach, amber, golden musk and patchouli." I don't know why I got "vineyard" instead of "orchard", but regardless, I liked this one. It's rich and fruity, even if you can't tell what fruit it is!

Wet: Fruity and flowery sweetness. Drydown: This smells like a perfume I used to have called tropical hibiscus: fruit-flowery, bright, kind of perky-sweet. Very nice. Dry: Within an hour it was just vague tropical sweetness. In two hours it had faded to a faint tropical and powdery trace. I liked it, but it didn't wear all that well on me.

The Dark Side of Air: a high pitched, tangy, clear scent -- light China rain deepened by murky vetivert. Wet: Sharp and a little salty. Almost a briny pickle juice scent. Drydown: Sharp and light. A wood/earthy sweetness counters the salt once it's on, and the salt fades gradually. Dry: This is very different once dry, on me. It loses all its sharpness and becomes a soft, mildly sweet aroma, predominantly wood with a vague aquatic note. I like it, because I enjoy scents that are sweet, but some BPAL scents become too sweet on me. This one keeps a better balance. My guy's reaction: "Smells like trees and citrus." (Upon seeing the Hurricane label) "Like it knocked over all the orange trees in Florida." He liked it.

I'm not usually one to exclaim about what a sorceress Beth is and what magic she weaves with her amazing oils. Don't get me wrong, they're great perfumes, very unique and wonderful. But I tend to roll my eyes at reviews saying things like "It is like unto black magic how she gets these smells into her oils!" That said... whoa, it's seriously impressive how much Zombi smells like earth and dead roses. In the bottle, the earthy odor is strong and really does remind me of a graveyard, while the rose has an almost sickly-sweet smell like decay. Drying down, the earthy tang goes weirdly sour while the roses stay the same. Then it goes back to something similar to the wet scent. This is where I do have to tip my hat to Beth. I don't know how she did it. I really do think once Zombi dries, it smells specifically like dead roses-- dried out, colorless, crumbling to vague sweetness with a hint of earthy rot. Gradually within ten or twenty minutes, the dirt scent fades out and this becomes like old-fashioned rosewater. It makes me think of something my grandmother would've worn back in the forties and kept til today as a reminder of youthful glory, even though it smells pretty damn weak by now. I don't know if this is something I'll ever want to wear, but I also don't know if I could part with it. I'll probably keep it as a room scent, because I find it very atmospheric and interesting in its wet state. Really glad I got this one, just for the experience of trying it. This is a great oil for the BPAL skeptic to smell, because it showcases some of the most unique qualities of BPAL oils.

Wet, Nocturne is a dark flowery-sweetness. According to the lab, this is violet, lilac and tuberose. The floral combination dries nicely on me, and I also detect a cool minty tone which I really really like. Overall I like this one a lot. I would be thinking 'bottle', except that I'd like to see if I can find other scents which feature that cool mint more prominently. I like all the elements of this, I would just like to see if I could get them in a different balance with stronger mint. Is that the tuberose, maybe? It's wonderful.

Wet: White floral, mostly lily. Drydown: Lily blends with the rest of the notes. It becomes a light, cool, white floral. Dry: I'm not thrilled about this on its own-- it reminds me of typical white musks that my grandmother used to wear... it's prettier, but reminiscent nonetheless. Not my style. But here's the thing. When I use The Ghost for layering, the white florals just obliterate the top notes in other blends. Dragon's Bone has an acrid orris note that offends my nose. The Ghost killed the orris and grew white flowers on its grave. The Hermit's berry top note? Gone. White flowers. Here's how well it works: my guy loathes The Hermit with frantic revulsion. I put on The Hermit and swiped over it with The Ghost, then had him smell it. His usual The Hermit reaction is DENTIST'S OFFICE HAK HAK PTUI, but to the Ghost-layered version he said: "It's like an exotic foreign candy, or like the part of lychee fruits that you're not supposed to eat. Lychee nut." The Ghost completely changed the smell from something he hated to a blend he thought was pleasant. So if you get this one, even if you don't like it for itself, try it out with some other blends that you'd like to experiment with, especially if they have a top note you're not crazy about. It might perk up some near-miss oils for you.