LyndaM

I LOVED Fae in the imp, I just knew it was going to become one of my top 10. But alas, the peach note turned fake and plasticky(!) the moment it hit my skin. I was impressed that the peach stuck around through dry down, which would have been great if my chemistry had allowed it to be a true peach note. I'm envious of those who can wear this, and I will definitely try it in the burner or as a linen spray or something. Incredibly sparkly and light, probably the most ethereal and lovliest of all the imps I've sniffed. It truly lives up to it's name.

I love the myrhh and rose combo, but the jasmine won't cooperate and makes me headachey. I don't care for jasmine, which of course makes my skin amp the hell out of it to be obstinant. This would be perfect for those who love jasmine, and the myrhh adds an especially interesting and nice touch. It's a good quality oil, but not a keeper, hopefully I can find it a better home.

I wanted to love it, but citrus, amber, and jasmine rarely work on me separately, never mind together. Wet, all I could smell was the citrus, which my chemistry immediately turned to cleaning product. After that, the jasmine and amber came out to play, and it went powdery and headachey. It was definitely worth a try, and I can see how those whose chemistry cooperates with these notes would love it. It's complex and multi dimensional, and morphed more than the average BPAL does on me.

I really love the floral note in this (maybe lily or lilac?), but Dragon's Blood never, ever works on me. I like the overall scent sniffing from the imp, but DB turns to a horrible plastic berry scent immediately on contact with my skin. I keep trying, though! The Dragon's Blood was much stronger than the floral in the imp and wet, I only really detected the mystery floral and a hint of something else (honey?) on drydown. Nice, but not on me.

Phantom (strangely, since it isn't listed as a note) smells of violets to me, and gets very powdery on drydown. I love roses, but for some reason I'm only getting the barest whiff of them, here. It's also pretty light with my chemistry, and I prefer more oomph. Very nice, unique and pretty, but just not what I was looking for.

It pains me, but I have to finally admit that amber doesn't agree with me. I adore roses and love musk, but the little bit of amber here makes this go all powdery on drydown. I loved it wet, though. Update nearly 2 years later: My tastes have done a complete 180. I adore Black Rose and I adore amber.

Moon Rose is a lovely, light aquatic rose. I like it, but I prefer my roses to have a more 'red' vibe, a la Persephone or Whip. It's just too light; when I want to wear roses, I usually want it vibrant and loud, like red American Beauties, not soft sweet rose. Moon Rose is much lighter than Lucy's Kiss imo, which is the lightest rose scent I will wear. It's certainly beautiful, but just not me, which I never thought I'd say about any BPAL rose! It might be really nice for those who don't like the darker or more 'in your face' rose blends.

I absolutely love Szepasszony, it is very similar in feel to my fave from the early 90's: New West by Aramis. Of course the lack of alcohol chemical yuck, and use of natural ingredients makes 'Szeppie' (as I call her) far superior, but I really enjoy the similarity. I wore New West daily, back when my husband of 10 years was my brand new sexy boyfriend. My gruff manly-man actually got teary eyed when he smelled Szepasszony on my wrist, and suggested that I order a big bottle(!). That's a first for him. I'll never be without Szepasszony, it brings back some of the most exciting and happy times of my life. I'm worried that it will be discontinued as I rarely see anyone taking about it, I'd better get out there and tell people how great it is!

In the imp and wet, this was really green and astringent, almost medicinal. During drydown, I started getting the neroli and rose, and fully dry it was strong herbal green, with rose and just a touch of neroli in the backround. I'm not very adventurous; and I wouldn't have thought I would like this blend much, but something about Catherine intrigues me. I could not stop sniffing my wrist the entire time I wore it. It's just so different from anything I would usually wear, and I might be in love. I'm fascinated and it's growing on me quickly. Luckily I have two imps of this, I'll get to slather and fully test it out a few times. I have a feeling I will be needing a bottle; Catherine is both incredibly unique and wearable at the same time. The essence of BPAL, to me.

Mmmm! Definite bottle! I love this, a ghostly soft floral perfect for spring and summer days. I was very happy not to find any jasmine here. I can't really identify the flowers, but I'm getting a sense of violets. And maybe lilac? Me likey.

Oh, dear. Gluttony immediately turned into rancid peanut butter on my skin, just like Hellcat. Except this is much sweeter. I ususally love sweet scents, the sweeter the better. But the sweetness can't cover up the bad PB thing going on here. Hazelnut = my BPAL nemesis. I was so sure I would love this, I ordered a 5ml unsniffed; my very first lab bottle order. Bad call.

I was excited to get ahold of an imp of Hellcat, I love sweet/foody/boozy, and had high hopes. Alas, my hopes were dashed when I realized that Hellcat smells exactly like rancid peanut butter on my skin. Bummer. Apparently hazelnut and I do not agree.

Hamadryad is in my top five, and I'm always surprised to see folks saying that they smell apple in it. I just get the cinnamony wood. Now Hesperides was another story, it was too apple-y for me. I often wonder if people have them mixed up, cause apple? In Hamadryad? I've just never caught it.

Hmmm...the first time I tried Dorian, I liked it so much that I put it on the bottle list. I've had great luck with tea and musk notes, not to mention my true love, vanilla, is present here. I put it on again a while ago to refresh my memory for the review, and it's turned into lemon furniture polish. Strong and medicinal lemon furniture polish. With extra super double lemon, for that 'just polished' shine. I'm not getting any of the sweetness this time, and the tea seems to be MIA. The lemon mucked it up right through drydown. Hopefully I'm just having a wonky skin day, I'll try it again in a few days and update. But I'm beginning to think I was having the wonky day the first time, when I loved it, which would be a shame.

Another winner! I'm loving the Mad Tea Party collection, so many of them are working out so well for me. In the imp it was very green, and I was wondering where the rose was. On my skin, Two Five and Seven immediately bloomed into pure rose, I only get a brief whiff of green while it's wet. My skin amps florals and in this case I feel lucky! This is a light, 'pink' rose scent to me, perfect for daytime wear, as opposed to London and Whip (my night-time picks), which seem like darker and heavier roses, more deep red than pink. I will definitely wear this often. I have a 10ml coming from swaps, I'm happy I got the chance to snag it without the wait. I do wish it lasted longer; I plan to use a lil' of the precious to make a small amount of lotion for layering, to hopfully increase the staying power. Aside from that, it's perfect. Edit: Something weird has happened with Two Five and Seven. It suddenly smells like hairspray on me, all the time, wet and dry. Like the Aqua-Net I used in the 80s to support my big hair. I don't know if my bottle has gone funny, or my chemistry has. I loved it so I'll keep trying, but I'm very sad. Maybe I'll order a fresh bottle...

On my husband, this smells very similar to Drakkar Noir. Delicious and we both love it. It's just a leeetle too masculine for me to wear, but perfect on him. His favorite BPAL thus far.

It must be DSH then, as the label is a round sticker with handwriting. Thanks everybody, mystery solved! It's a shame DSH is so damn pricey...I'd rather spend my money on BPAL. A lot more oil for the $$, plus BPAL is like buying from friends.

I'm starting to wonder...I just found out DSH has a fragrance called Ceylon. I'd hate to review it here and find out it isn't from BPAL! Does anyone know what DSH labels look like? But, BPAL does have Ceylon on the up and coming list on the main site (thanks for the link quantum!), so who knows? If I were better organized, I could ask my benefactress. It really is a great scent, a definite purchase if it's BPAL and goes live.

Has anyone heard of Ceylon? I got it as a frimp in a swap (I can't remember from who, forgive me fairy godmother!), I've done so many swaps the last couple of weeks it's all a blur. It doesn't have a lab label, just a little round stick on. I can't find anything about it in the search engine. It's a beautiful golden oil, thick and slow to dry. Very spicy, cinnamony goodness. Maybe it's a Wanderlust prototype? Me likey, very much. Must.have.more.

I absolutely love Alice, the honey rocks my world, and I must get ahold of the other BPAL honey blends. Alice doesn't morph much on me, it's sweet, softened honey with perfect florals from the beginning. The rose and carnation are so well blended, they are like a new note to my nose. This is my first experience with bergamot, but I must love it, because I love everything here. I'm getting a sense of orange blossom honey, maybe the bergamot is giving me that citrus-y impression. I usually hate citrus, but in this it's just right. It blends right in with my skin scent and makes me feel great. Alice is fresh and fabulous, one of my top three favorites. Definitely a daytime scent for me, it doesn't really have enough drama for me to choose it for going out at night. It is stronger with more waft than I expected, which is a very good thing. It lasts about 4 hours, which is good because my skin usually soaks oils right up, right away. I already have a 5ml on the way, and will order a 10ml with my Yule order. Edit: God, I love it more and more. I'm glad I ordered a 10ml, and I need another, as I used up 5ml in three weeks. I have to slather heavily to get a throw that others can detect; I can smell Alice on me but no one else can, the opposite of most of my BPAL blends. I wish it were twice as strong!

I really like this one, I'm so glad I got a 5ml! In the imp and wet, the coffee and jasmine compete for attention. I normally detest jasmine, but after drydown it's a perfect blend. The coffee didn't really linger past drydown either, and that was kind of a shame because I liked it. I do wish the roses showed up more, I might try to layer this over a little London (my layering standby!) to amp it up. Overall, a very nice strong mixed floral with good waft and staying power.

I feel bad, but here it is: I adore both rose and orchid, but the labdanum killed this blend for me. Instant headache from sniffing the imp. Sharp, acrid, and overpowering incense. I went ahead and applied it, hoping for the best. It felt like it was irritating my throat and lungs. It did calm a little on drydown, but I just can't get behind the labdanum. Maybe I'm allergic to it or something, I've never gotten that choking/wheezing sensation from perfume before. Luckily I have many other lovely BPAL florals I can wear.

After reading all the reviews, I wimped out and only tested this on the backs of my hands. Feelin' hot hot hot. My skin didn't react with redness or welts, but it definitely felt warm. I got pure cinnamon out of it, I never detected the other notes. I personally love that spice, but I like it softened for use as perfume. This actually did smell a bit too much like red hots candy; I think I prefer Hamadryad as a cinnamon-y personal fragrance. It is a wonderful room scent, though, I'll definitely use up the imp that way, and I may end up getting a small bottle for days when I want to warm up the house. Edit: This turned out to be vey nice and wearable for me layered with vanilla. It stayed hot, but the vanilla took the 'red hots' edge off. I could also detect the almond and neroli, which I didn't get any whiff of in straight Inferno.

Sweet, soft and gentle. The lilac softens the violet, and makes it wearable for me. It doesn't morph at all (on me at least), it's the same from the imp to drydown. It doesn't have enough staying power for me to choose to wear it during the day, but I'd use it as a really nice bedtime scent. I'll try it a few more times before deciding on a bottle.

I had really high hopes for Whip; I had already ordered a 5ml, unsniffed before I got this imp. Whip makes me think of my wedding day (no, really, and not in the way you are thinking!). I was married at Yule 1995, and this reminds me of the car ride to the reception after the ceremony. Laughing and feeling high from the excitement, me with my huge bouquet on my lap (36 Fire & Ice roses), my new husband wearing his big leather overcoat over his tux. Driving in the deliciously warm car, through the dark and freezing cold night, to the brightly lit hall where our friends and family were gathering to celebrate with us. The leather adds a richness to the rose, it is only detectable as a note when I sniff my wrist directly. The waft is rich red rose. The rose note here reminds me of the rose in London. Both are very red, to my nose. Overall an awesome and evocative scent; I'm SO glad I ordered a bottle. It will be an excellent winter special occasion scent for me, due to the associations; I can't imagine wearing it in warm weather.