Christine Daae

In the imp, this is sweet fruity deliciousness with a bit of something-or-other grounding it. First of all, who ever thought I would describe something fruity in a good way, and second of all, aren't I great with notes? Once on, this reminds me very much of some other BPAL I've tried, but I can't put my finger on it. Ah! It's the gardenia from Sacred Whore of Babylon again, which is one of my favorite BPAL notes, though it definitely takes over a blend on my skin. Gardenia has an almost-fruity quality on my skin, while still being heady and white and perfumy (in a good way!!). This is definitely primarily gardenia on my skin. I really love gardenia, but I wish I could smell some of the other pretty notes in this. After a while (about half an hour) the pomegranate starts to come out. I think I also detect some of the other fruits, but not very much. Sigh. As much as I like gardenia, I can pick up almost any perfume with any gardenia in it and it will turn into something very similar to this. As such, I don't think I need more of this.

In the imp, this is all orange and resiny, but it's a sweet orange rather than a tart orange. I don't really know what copal smells like. I got this imp after seeing an awful lot of squeeing about it on the forums, even though from the notes, it doesn't sound like something I'd like. Wet on my skin, this...smells a lot like the early stages of Lucy Westenra to me. Lucy is one of my all-time favorites. Hmm... As it dries, the plumeria comes out a bit more, still playing second-fiddle to the sweet sweet orange, with hints of resin and incense behind it. This is sort of clean-heady, dirty-sweet...it's a dichotomy in a perfume, and I really like that. Now that I re-read the description, I can see where the dichotomy comes in (light within darkness, warmth in the cold...). This is...this is something I'd like to wear in hot weather when I want to smell pretty but different. This is something that I sort of wish I'd had when I went to Hawaii. After an hour +, this dries down to something lovely and incensey and sweet, with the tropical blooms blending in to just make it even more gorgeous. I...may have to put this on my list of bottle purchases, if my fiance likes it half as much as I do.

In the imp: Pretty much just dragon's blood. This is another imp I got in search for the perfect vanilla...and I can't smell the vanilla at all... Wet, on my skin, it's that slightly-floral, slightly-fruity, mostly-incensy dragon's blood note, which really defies description, for me. Coming through that floral/fruity/incense is the pretty, honeyed vanilla. I think this, unless it goes horribly wrong with my chemistry, might be the closest thing to my perfect vanilla once the initial DRAGON'S BLOOD!!1! blast calms down. It...actually, it reminds me a lot of the earliest stages of non-aged Hollywood Babylon, before the red musk takes over (the stages/age I really liked!). It's fruity and vanilla-y and yummy. EDIT: So apparently this oil turns my skin bright yellow. Huh. Might be swaps-tiems for this after all.

In the imp: Cedar! Smells like wood shavings, mmm-hmm. Another one I got in search for the perfect vanilla in which I can't smell any vanilla (gar!). First applied, cedar is still the dominant note, with a bit of some warm, creamy vanilla underneath. And I do detect a bit of the sassafras! Hello root beer! The cedar tones down a little bit, but is still the base of this scent. The sassafras lends a sharp sweetness, and the vanilla smooths the whole thing out. I don't know if I'd be able to pick out balsam if it jumped up and down and waved at me. This isn't as vanilla-y as I expected/hoped, and it's a tad masculine on me. Off to the sale/swap pile with ye, Tombstone!

Smells like laundry detergent in the imp. Laundry detergent and carrot soap or toner, whatever it is that Burts Bees makes. I am definitely getting a Burts Bees facial product vibe from this. Wet on my skin, it smells fresh and clean and soapy, but not in a floral-soap kind of way (it's not the rose or the orange blossom that are doing this, is what I mean). It's...not really what I expected? So on the outside of my wrist this stays true to the wet stage - odd and soapy. On the inside of my wrist it's definitely sweeter and more floral. I can detect the lemon balm and the orange blossom on the inside of my wrist, and I actually really like the scent on the inside of my wrist - closer to what I imagined from the ingredients - but I really don't like the scent on the outside of my wrist. Hmm. This is a conundrum. Off to the swaps pile, l'ecole des filles - I don't have enough room for things that are finicky with my skin chemistry!

In the imp, this is a cool, soapy rose. No, it doesn't smell like rose soap, it just smells like soap. Am I having a weird nose day? I don't normally think everything smells like soap. Ah, okay, once I put it on it does smell like the coolest, palest rose imaginable. Ooooh. Pretty. I got this in an imp pack of rose scents to see which one I like the best, and so far this is winning. This evokes the name and the description perfectly - it's like the palest white or pink rose in moonlight, with dew just settling in sparkling beads on the petals. So pretty! There is a little bit of soapiness, but in a really, really good way - like this is a really clean rose. This reminds me, somehow, of my BFF Lauren's house...I don't know why, but I am getting a very vivid scent memory of her house, and I suddenly miss her a lot. Yeah, this one is definitely a keeper. <333

Stephanotis, cyclamen, heliotrope, white rose and gardenia. In the imp, this is a white, gardenia-heavy floral. I looove gardenia. Smells like the creamy, almost fruity gardenia from Sacred Whore of Babylon. Wet on my skin, it picks up a bright, powdery sweetness to compliment the creamy-white gardenia (the heliotrope?). This immediately has a ton more throw than I'm used to with BPAL - almost unwaveringly, I end up having to stick my nose into my skin to really get a good whiff. This is leaving a floaty gardenia halo around the general area where I applied this. The gardenia is definitely the most prominent note, on me. I got this hoping for a bit more of the white rose, but this is so pretty that I can hardly complain. Definitely very white, and a very haunted-bride scent. The scent of Lucy Westenra's funeral/bridal flowers, and the flowers that adorned Christine Daae's Louis-Philippe room. This is definitely going to go on the short list for wedding-day scents, since the scent and the name are perfect for that.

In the imp: hello there, spicy flowers! Mmm. Wet on my skin, this is a very light, girly floral. I do get a bit of spicy bite from what must be the ginger. It doesn't smell too...tropical to me, though? I guess that would be the way to put it. It's a pretty floral perfume, but not anything too different than what I already have. Weirdly this reminds me most of the BPAL green florals - especially the recent green-floral LE's Passionate Shepherd and Her Voice. Hmm. Especially Her Voice, now that I think about it. If I get really close to where I applied the scent I still get a little spiciness, but generally it's just a green-white floral with some creamy undertones.

In the imp, this is somewhere between Rose Red's tart (bitter, to me) freshness and Peacock Queen's lushness. On my skin, this doesn't change much - it's slightly sweeter, very rosey. I don't get much of the twisted, blackened wickedness unless I stick my nose to my wrist and inhale deeply, and even then it's just on the very end of a sniff - something dark underneath the pretty tea rose. This is a bit like Lucy's Kiss only without the spices - a clean, watery rose with just a hint of darkness underneath. It dries down pretty much exactly the same as it goes on. Pretty, but probably not a keeper when I have a couple of backup bottles of Peacock Queen.

In the imp, this is a buttery-fruity cakey smell. Mmmm. I got this in the hopes of finding the perfect vanilla. Wet on my skin, this is primariliy the fruity currant, not much cake or vanilla at all. Drying, it takes on a cakier (?) feel, with the currant still playing at the forefront. I can definitely smell the cake now, though. This is a lighter, less boozy cousin of MB: Closet (which I liked but was a bit too much for me). I was hoping this would be a bit heavier on the vanilla and less cakey-curranty. I think I should probably re-try it at some point when I have less of an expectation going in. Edit: This smells just like B&BW's Sensual Black Currant Vanilla stuff. I got some of the massage oil over the weekend and it is a dead ringer. This is definitely growing on me. Om nom nom.

First of all: congratulations, and good luck! It's one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. I'm really happy for you, and trying to refrain from squeeing all over this post. It might be that I personally associate this sort of feeling with a specific time in my life and the scents I was wearing, though, so I'm not going to be terribly objective about this. Lolita Kindly Moon #20 Poisson d'Avril (and other sweet green florals in a similar vein: The Ghost, Asphodel) Maiden The Unicorn

I put this scent on before reading the description, and I'm glad I did, because looking at the notes, this should never have worked on me - patchouli, cognac, honey, dark musk are all notes that are iffy on me. Honey especially likes to turn to the smell of feet on me (I swear to you). Plus the fact that the "sexy" blends never ever work on me (O, Snake Oil, Smut, I'm looking at you). In the imp, it just smells like musky honey - a lot like what I thought O would smell like. Despite this, I put it on the first time and on my skin...it doesn't turn into feet, or powder, or BO. It stays the same: sweet, musky honey with the florals just barely making an appearance. I do get an initial hit of the dirty hippie patchouli, but it disappears almost instantly. I love, love, love tuberose, and I can definitely detect it here - it's got such a sweet, heady quality to it that it just goes perfectly here. I can't say I smell much geranium. The honey in this lends the same sort of sweet, glowing warmth as it does in Bengal (another of the few honey blends I can wear). It's not foody, exactly - it's sort of like sweet, glowing skin with honey-scented powder on it. It's less OMG SEX than O is, while still being sensual. The myrrh may be what calms the honey down enough for me to wear this, as I've noticed it's in a lot of the blends that I like. At the very end of this drydown, I get...the same drydown as Mouse's Long and Sad Tale - a sweetened sandalwood. Wha? That's not in the notes, but that's what it smells like to me. Weird! Not a bad thing, either. I'm so glad I got frimped and tried this one, I would never have bought it on my own from the notes, and might not even have tried it if I'd read the notes first. I will definitely be keeping the imp.

In the imp: oh, so that's what pumpkin smells like. Like...butter. On my skin, the buttery spiced pumpkin disappears and I get peach. I don't want peach! I want pumpkin! In the drydown, the peach stays at the forefront, with a bit of the spices and pumpkin in the background. More than anything, this smells like a buttery March Hare on me (peach and apricot smell very similar on/to me). I like March Hare, but it's not really what I wanted from this blend! Another one that's not really "me," today! Sigh.

In the imp: y helo thar, pear and something that smells like cleaning fluid? (Why did I pick a billion fruit blends to try today?) On my skin, that unpleasant association tones down and I'm left with y helo thar pear with and undertone of something vaguely florally and vaguely cleaning fluidy. I wonder if that's the Lily of the Valley reacting badly with whatever else is in here? Lily of the Valley is usually so pretty on me, it would be too bad if that was the culprit. I only get the tiniest bit of white musk in this, and absolutely no rose, it's mostly pear and that weird floral. This would probably be much prettier on someone else.

In the imp: Oh hello there, sharp citrusy ozone. I don't know why I'm even trying this, ozone and citrus always turn into hairspray and furniture polish on me - if Dirty, Szpazzony, Zephyr, and Sea of Glass are any indication... On my skin, this is decidedly more pleasant than I expected it to be, but I still don't really like smelling like lemons. This is like Sea of Glass + lemons. I really liked Sea of Glass before someone told me it smelled like hairspray on me, so now I have that association with it. Actually this is pretty much the same scent as Sea of Glass on me (as I remember), minus whatever floral component was in that. Pass. Not my thing at all!

In the imp: fruity fruit fruit! Lots and lots of fruit. Fruit punchy, sort of, actually. On my skin, this definitely smells like fruit punch to me. Lots of fruit - the flowers are sort of background to the fruit medley. And this has some serious throw. It smells like fruity bubblegum or fruit punch, and I can actually smell it without sticking my nose in my arm (which is not true of a lot of BPAL on me!). The florals start to come out a little bit and give a nice ethereal undertone to the fruity-fruit-fruit. I will either pass this imp along (since I don't wear many fruity perfumes) or keep it (since I don't have many fruity perfumes to wear). Everyone who reccommended this in the sparkly-princess thread is absolutely right - this is perfect to wear around children, it's perfect for a sparkly-princess scent. The fruit is sparkly and light and pretty, with the pale, pretty flowers underneath. I think I may actually keep it - for whenever I want to feel like a princess! (Yes, I am a Disney Princess, thanks for asking.)

In the imp, this is fruity and dark, something dirty underneath the peach. On my skin, the peach first comes to the forefront (as fruits, or anything else sweet, are wont to do with my chemistry), and then backs off a tiny bit to let the other notes come forward. This reminds me of Versailles, a little, or Belle Epoque. These scents don't smell anything alike, but all give off a gilded (and French?) air, to me. Eventually the peach burns off (yay!) and I'm left with something glowing and gilded, and yet dirty at the same time. This is not powdery like a lot of ambers, and the florals are regal and yet understated. Having to wait through the peachy peach phase is a point against it, because once the peach does burn off it's very golden and luxurious-smelling. This really brings across the character, the idea of the scent - and for that, I don't know if it's very "me." Very elegant, though.

In the bottle, this smells like Her Voice, almost. Greener and less floral, more of a grassy green than a stemmy green, but still similar. On my skin, this is primarily carnation and rose, with the greenery complimenting the pretty florals. Oh wow, this is so pretty. Again, I am reminded of the springy-greenness of Poisson d’Avril, which is never a bad thing. This is so clear and green and pretty, while still being floral. I am debating over whether I love this or Her Voice more – they’re similar like Rose Red and Peacock Queen are similar, this one is ‘younger’ and ‘fresher,’ and it lasts longer. It definitely evokes the poem to me, which is a good thing. It really does smell, I don’t know if this sounds right, ‘English’ to me. Like well-tended English gardens in the countryside. So lovely. This and Her Voice are duking it out for a place in my top 10!

In the bottle this is very “fresh” and green – like green stems, more than the appley vibe I get from Rose Red. Wet, on my skin, I get the greenery with a hint of the beeswax. This is really pretty and fresh – there’s a similar vibe to Poisson d’Avril here, though they don’t smell the same, exactly. It’s the springy flowers plus the beeswax and vanilla, I think, that’s giving me that vibe. I am really okay with that because Poisson d’Avril is one of my favorite BPALs of all time. As this dries, the vanilla amber and the beeswax lend ‘grounding’ notes to this sweet, green, springy floral. The lily of the valley lends the blend the pretty greenness, the honeysuckle lends a sweetness – really, this smells like what a field of flowers does in one’s dreams. It is so pretty. A hint of spice from the carnation, the sweet flowers, and the greenery just make this such a gorgeous blend. This one has probably moved into my top ten already, just on the first try!

In the bottle, as many have mentioned, this is a yummy, buttercreamy vanilla. It’s very buttery, actually. Wet, on my skin – yeah, I get that wintergreen note, too. It smells a little bit like Wint-O-Green Lifesavers, which I love and can consume by the bagful if left to my own devices. Not exactly what I was expecting from this blend, though. Oddly, I had my betrothed sniff this just after I dabbed a little on the inside of my forearm last night, and he just smelled the buttery vanilla frosting. I waved my arm around and said “but it smells like wintergreen!” and he said he could smell a little of that if he got really close but mostly just the frosting smell. If I let this sit a while, the throw is definitely more along the lines of what I was expecting – sweet, creamy, buttery vanilla with just a hint of something grounding it. If I stick my nose up to where I applied it, I do get the tiniest hint of the wintergreen note, but it fades as I let this one get acclimated to my skin. After a bit, I really, really like this one. The throw is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for, hopefully the weird wintergreen thing will age out of this.

Oh, I'd like to know this, too! I love Gap's Heaven.

For cinnamon rolls, aged Chimera is the thing. Om nom nom. For bread, I don't think I've ever had any BPAL that smelled like bread. Hmm.

In the imp, this is a light, clear, sweet floral - a bit like Phantom Queen, if I recall correctly. On my skin, this blooms into a really pretty floral - I'm realising that I enjoy osmanthus a lot, it gives blends such a sweet, almost ethereal quality. This is really, really pretty - it's light, and sweet, but with a mysterious quality underneath. It's very well-blended in that I can't pick out any of the notes. I will definitely be keeping this imp!

This smells so delicious in the bottle - exactly like Egg Nog! Unfortunately, it turns to plastic on my skin. Beaver Moon 07 did the same thing.

So! I am going to be placing an order before the 15th (backup Yules, dontcha know? ), and I would love some reccommendations for rose scents I might like! I'm thinking of getting a rose-centric imp pack. Rose is my favourite note, ever, in perfume - and I've tried a lot of the Lab's roses. I was wondering if you lovely ladies (and gentlemen!) would have any recs based on my preferences, as follows: Rose Scents I Have LOVED: Peacock Queen Lucy Westenra Alice Maiden Moscow Rose Scents I Have Liked: Iambe Parlement of Foules Spellbound Hymn Seraphim Seraglio Kurukulla Rose Cross Psyche Lucy's Kiss Rose Scents That Didn't Work: Rose Red ("funeral homes" - I think the 'cold' note was the culprit) Persephone ("feet?") Hope (headache-inducing D:) 2, 5 & 7 (also "feet") Zombi (didn't like the "dirt" note) Ophelia ("cherry cough syrup") La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente (I don't know what went wrong) Ouija (too dusty) Thanatos (too masculine) Rose Scents Where The Rose Didn't Show Up On Me: Rapture Mata Hari Eve Delirium Feu Follet Marie The Reaper and the Flowers Rome Venice I can't think of a rose blend that I didn't like, only ones that didn't work on my skin (but smelled lovely in the bottle). So! Any suggestions?