wanderingredhead

When this first hit my skin it was a fresh bright lemon/citrus scent. Then it suddenly turned "shampoo-y".

I didn't know the notes when I was trying it on, an experiment I've been trying lately. this is what I said at the time: dries down into citrus "skin" to me it smells like a sweaty child, with a hint of shampoo, like hot skin without the B.O.

 

Looking at the components now, I think that my skin must just be amping up the white musk a lot. It's almost entirely white musk on dry down, with barely even a hint of citrus, and that only if I bury my nose against my arm.

 

I got the imp hoping it would be all lemongrassy and that clearly did not happen, so while this isn't particularly offensive, it's really not me and it's off to the swaps.

At first application I thought of gentle meadow flowers, and leanan sidhe smelled a little "perfumey" as it dried down and sweetened up.

Soon into the drydown however, the sweetness mellowed and became more herby- I thought of chamomile. This has continued morphing a little, now sweeter, now more dry and herbal, but it has a pretty limited range and stays a scent that is best described as "gentle" to me.

I like. It would be a perfect smell for a rainy spring day, when the air is fresh and soft. I'm keeping the imp.

I was very excited to try Honey Moon, because a lot of my favorite BPAL scents have a honey component.

On me, however, this moon was very herbal with a faint thin tinge of honey. The herbs were thin and kind of piercing. Ultimately, very not me.

In Imp, Drink Me was completely buttery, and I could see that the Jack comparisons were justified.

On my skin, the butter cooled off a little to make way for an icky plasticy scent.

The burnt plastic got stronger and stronger until I had to wash it off. ugh.

I will say though, that when not mixed with my skin, Drink Me is a fairly nice. I spilled this imp all over my floor, and traces of the scent are still lingering. On my floor it is a pleasant, deep, sweet and complex scent.

See, if it had smelled like that on my skin, I would have been happy. As it is, off to the swap pile

I tried this without knowing what the notes were. I think I got it confused with Eos, because I had buttercups on the brain for some reason. Anway, this is what I wrote:

 

Very sweet, like jasmine, only more yellow than white. spicier on drydown, veering into headache territory for me.

After a little while it reminded me a lot of lighter, brighter version of Sacred Whore of Babylon. Like the 'Ho as a maiden, or something.

 

Don't know how much I'd actually wear this, but want to try it again a few more times.

in the imp this smells like bananas and bubblegum. The oil is dark brown, so the smell seemed counterintuitive to me.

On me Shango dried into something sweetly tart with spices. The fruits may be the greatest contributors, but overall this is an extremely well blended scent- my (admittedly insensitive) nose can't pick out any individual components.

I like.

In the imp this smells light and citrusy to me.

It smelled pretty much the same on my skin, but with a hint of spices...maybe a little clovey.

I thought "smells like lotion" but I have no idea WHY I thought that.

Dry, it's sharper, sweeter, with less tang and a little bit of dust. It still vaguely reminds me of lotion...come to think of it I thought had that same thought with Port au Prince. Maybe it's the hint of cloves.

 

ultimately it becomes darkly sweet, spicy and woody, but not heavy.

 

I enjoyed this scent although I can't see wearing it all that much. maybe a tad masculine for regular use.

My notes on this read:

very soft, kind of milky, sweet but not cloying.

as it dries it's fresh and creamy at the same time with a hint of lemon.

overall- soft and clean but not soapy.

i like.

When I first applied this, it was fairly purely lemongrass (I LOVE lemongrass) with a hint of earthiness in the background. It's clean and fresh, and clears the mind but isn't biting.

 

As it dried it turned a little soapy, which is probably the jasmine and rose, my skin doesn't really like rose.

It gets a lot stronger with drydown and becomes all soapy white florals and no yummy lemongrass.

After a few hours it faded into a pleasant light floral, but I really didn't like the strong intermediate phase, so this is going to be swapped, sadly.

Danube-

in imp: floral, soapy

on skin: fresh florals, lighter than in the vial. Still vaguely soapy though. Pleasant enough, but not really me. Vaguely reminiscent of Bath and Body Works Cotton Flower soap. To the swap pile.

in the imp, nephilim is very herby, sweet and sharp, with a dry, dirt smell underlaying it.. Once on, the herbs amp up a bit, and the scent becomes thinner, airier, reminiscent of but still grounded by the the thick earthiness. Within a couple of minutes, my skin amps the fig and I'm liking this a lot more than I thought I would. The mentholiness fades into the background, but stays around. The combination of fig and earth with the high sharp menthol is intriguing.

 

I can't make up my mind on this one. Like so many BPAL blends, I feel that I MIGHT like it. Will keep it around for a while.

 

ADDED Jan. 29:

 

This oil confused the heck out of my nose:

At first it's a swirl of earth and menthol- like darkest crimson purple shot through with aquamarine. The two components seemed to stay separate. I didn't have the notes in front of me when i tested it and I wondered if it contained juniper. It was sharp, but not offensive, and almost sweet.

About 4 hours later, it became really a really yummy, spicy oriental type scent, that felt bright, not dark, with flashes of spicy wetness. I wrote: Can water be spicy? if so it would smell like this.

I adore it, and really really want to smell it on a crush. that would be... gah.

I just put my two current favorites, Hell's Belle and Sacred Whore of Babylon on each hand and realized that they smell alarmingly similar. HB is sweeter, more honeyed, and Sacred Whore is "brighter", spicier somehow, but they are almost identical.

 

Bear in mind that I do have my period right now and so my chemistry might be amping particular notes out of proportion.

like everyone else, i'm getting lavender/citrus from Sylph, with various herbs emerging as it dries. Someone said Chamomile, and that sounds about right to me.

definitely a different lavender than the other BPAL lavenders I've tried, much lighter, not as smoky.

overall, a pleasant, fresh and light scent.

 

as for intention, I haven't really worked with it much at all, it didn't elicit an immediate reaction to it the way Salamander did.

I do like Sylph though, and I'm keeping the bottle.

Hmmm, salamander.

 

Wet: bracing, with a strange mix of freshness and muddiness. Very interesting.

 

wet on my skin: sweetly astringent with deeper, almost muddy base notes

 

drying on my skin: I already knew I had somewhat strange skin chemistry, but I'm getting something almost floral out of this. Can't pick out any specific notes, but it smells like flowers over a base of mud, in the most positive way possible. I really like it as a scent, actually.

 

General feeling: This does actually invigorate me. It's a very driven, determined scent. the first time I tried it was just before I went to bed, and I felt too worked up to sleep until I got up and washed it off.

I quite like salamander, both for the scent and for the implications. I'm definitely keeping the bottle around for when I need to be productive and get things done. A good errand running, crossing items off lists scent, if that makes any sense at all.

I don't really think of myself as a rose person, but thought I'd give it a try, and it was quite lovely.

 

I got a deep cultured rose scent, reserved and not blowsy. It did strike me as a rather mature scent, not too sweet, but still very rosy and Extremely feminine.

 

On drydown I got a faint plasticky whiff coming out of it, but only if I sniffed very deeply.

 

In summary: I'm not entirely sure what I think of it, actually. I do like it, but the plastic is somewhat disturbing. I'll probably end up keeping my decanted imp, but don't need a big bottle of this.

hmm. I think that my skin does not like frankincense.

I get nothing but Johnson's Baby Shampoo.

Very pleasant bathtime sense memories, but not really what I'd choose to smell like. Another one for the swap pile.

I wanted to smell like vanilla lemon tea! however, my skin turned this into a very blah light, fresh, slightly creamy scent of insipidness.

so sad. Add another imp to the swap pile.

I really liked Psyche when it was wet. It was very distinctly lavender/rose and I thought that this might be a rose scent that I could wear. It gives an impression of cold/dryness.

 

However, on dry down my skin turned it strangely sharply herbal, and I don't like it anymore.

I'm amassing a lovely large swap pile.

hmmm. a light rose with a hint of something else. Not spicy, exactly...maybe slightly musty? I don't know...
Anyhow, not a big fan of rose scents, and this one makes me sneeze, so it's going to the swap pile.

this is a very warm scent. I'm getting mulled wine and black leather and, perhaps through the power of suggestion, plums. I quite like it, although it's maybe a tad too boozy for me to wear as perfume. It would be a lovely room scent, I bet.

This was a frimp from the very generous lab, and I was so excited to see what all the fuss was about.

 

In the imp: warm and sexy, just as I'd heard

 

on my skin: amber amber amber, screaming at me. Amber does not like me and the feeling's mutual. Ah well, I'll send this somewhere where it can be better appreciated.

warm, somewhat sweet, and then it morphs into shampoo. I think that my skin does not like myrrh. *sigh*

This was a frimp from the very generous lab.

 

this comes across as a very well blended scent: light, fresh, and slightly woody.

 

 

Final Verdict: Fairly pleasant, but a little TOO light and fresh for me.

very fruity booze, pretty much dead on depiction of apricot brandy. It brought up unpleasant sense memories of peach schapps for me, so it goes to the swap pile.

This was a frimp from the lab, and I'm so glad I got to try it, because it is DIVINE.

 

The leather is apparent when it's wet, but it mellows on drydown and blends beautifully with the woods. Oh, the woods are just so yummy. It's a very dry scent to me, like a library full of old books and mellowed woods has been kept warm and well ventilated to keep the damp out.

 

Like other reviewers, I found Dee a little too masculine to use as a personal scent. I think I'll keep the imp for cozy evenings at home, and maybe on the offchance that I get the chance to slather it on an SO.

 

edited more than a year later, after a BPAL break. I was retrying all the scents I remembered liking and this has rocketed to my top ten. It's still sort of masculine, but after a couple of hours it sweetens up a lot on me and becomes extremely well blended delicious sweet spiciness. gorgeous.