Circaea

I agree with Mellifluous on the men's cologne impression. Medical Procedure is too strong and manly for me. A lot like Minamoto No Yorimitsu Cuts at the Earth Spider (which shares the tobacco flower and sandalwood notes), but whereas Minamoto went manly soapy sandalwood, Medical Procedure goes manly aftershavey sandalwood. Which is a shame, because I love sandalwood when it's soft and warm and sweet, but not when it's high and sharp and piercing. I need to learn to steer clear of the tobacco flower. (Going off to add it to my notes of doom.)

Calligraphy Practice goes straight up sandalwood on me. Very nice, very reminiscent of Dancing Koi. I like it a lot, but it's too much like Dancing Koi to make me seek out more.

Pretty, fruity, sweet, and as someone else said, uplifting. Sniffing this makes me smile. Reminds me of Fire Pig, but whereas that scent turned just a little bitter and somewhat powdery, this one stays sweet and happy. I might want a bottle of this.

This went so sharp and boozy on me, like 180 proof rum. What the hay? Where's the coconut? I'll have to retest another time. This is sooo not working for me, in the imp or on my skin.

Sweet sugared strawberries resting on a cotton candy cloud, at first breath. This is fruity and childlike. As the others have noted, there is a tart or sour note underneath that comes out in a few minutes, reminding me of Sweet Tarts, and it makes my mouth water. It's quite likeable, but I don't see myself reaching for this one. I just can't think of an occasion or mood when it would occur to me that I want to smell like strawberry candy.

ETA: the final drydown goes slightly boozy, like Aremata Popea. I don't think I will be wearing this again, unless it mellows with age.

Update: Four months later, the sour note (orange blossom?) has mellowed and the cotton candy has blended into a vanilla sweetness that comes off a little more grown up. It's still fruity, fresh and playful, but it has some kind of I-dunno-wut that is reminding me of the Asian blends like Tamamo no Mae, Holiday Moon, Enlightenment of the Courtesan, Lovers in a Ricefield. Maybe it's a ricelike note? Anyway, I have changed my initial ambivalence to flat out love, and I've bought a bottle from a kind forumite.

I've been wanting to review this one for a while, as it's fast rising to be one of my top ten, and it's one of the the few (3) that I have a back-up bottle of. It goes on fruity, like pear juice to my nose. Then the soft vanilla sandalwood comes forward, drying it out. There is a creaminess from the rice and a spiciness from the nutmeg, and all in all this is just a pretty, sweet, spicy, creamy fruity asian blend, like I loved in Hungry Ghost Moon, Tamamo-no-Mae, Beanman and Bean Woman, Enlightenment of the Courtesan, and... do I detect a pattern here? Oh, well. This is just my kind of thing, and I'm glad that BPAL does it so brilliantly.

Ah, sad. This goes on sweet and cakey: red cake, too, which is all kinds of yummy. Then the wine comes out, and it's all I can smell. As I huff, trying to get back the cake, or detect the Dorian, dried leaves, crushed flowers, smoke or Snake Oil, my heart starts racing. I think I'm allergic to something in this.

Knockout Drops for cheer.

Habu for comfort.

source: frimp, of unknown age, but the label looks new.

Wet: Sweet bubblegum sugar rush! I'm back in junior high. Sigh, there's my crush, James. He's so cuuuuute! He's looking me! Better put on some shiny lip gloss! James 4ever.

The bubblegum and fruit candy only last a few minutes. Now the scent is getting spicier, dryer. Still candylike, still sweet, but spicy and dry. Not powder, though. It's teasing and unsophisticated. It makes me feel playful. I do get the cinnamon note, but it's not harsh or overpowering. I don't smell "women's perfume" in this. It just stays light and candylike. It's a win for me, even if it's not at all age appropriate.

I enjoy seeing people's *shock! horror!* faces when I tell them I'm wearing Glowing Vulva, but that's just me...

 

I think you can wear whatever you want if you use light application, but you can wear something like Dorian to work. It's creamy-lemony-tea is light enough to not irritate anyone around you.

Agreed, I think it's funny watching people's pearl clutching reactions. I've never worn something based on whether I think those around me can't handle it on a "You smell like a slatternly tart" level (which I've never been subject too even with heavier scents, fyi), but on an, "I'm allergic to strong florals and/or x note" level, sure. If you want something not in people's faces then go with light scents that don't have a strong throw (though in my experience since BPAL uses oils even the stronger scents only have decent sillage at best, and I'm a slatherer). Generally anything fruity, delicate florals/herbs, or even resins. The gentler musks would probably be white/"pale", Egyptian, and Arabian. Aquatics would do nicely as well since they're generally "clean" smelling.

Aquatics can trigger sinus headaches in some people (I can't wear BPAL aquatics). Same with some florals.

I tend to avoid musks and patchouli at work, and anything that might distract or annoy people who don't care for those kind of scents. I like citrus, mint, herbal, or light asian-inspired blends. Gennivre, Lick It Like You Mean it, Lemon Scented Sticky Bat, U, Tombstone, Absinthe, Lights of Men's Lives, Hand of Glory, Yemaya, Fire Pig, Squirting Cucumber, and my favorite Knockout Drops are all scents I've kept at work.

I imagine that in class, you are sitting even closer to other people than one does at work, so I suppose that I would pick scents with a low throw, or a softer dry-down if I were still in school.

Paris: lavender, softly underscored by lotus and spice.

Hell's Belle: Oleander with wet, sweet mandarin, lush magnolia, a rush of deep musk and a touch of spice.

My notes for Penis Admiration are "creamy, spicy lilac" (Lilac, ho wood, smoky vanilla, galbanum, and tonka.)

How can something with honey, brown sugar, and tobacco leaf smell so not sweet? In the bottle it's gentle and warm, a bit orangey, and the saffron is giving it some bite. On me, it's sharp, dessicated, spicy, sort of powdered-gingery. Must be the saffron and orange blossom going bitter on me. I bought this for the name (yeah, I'm immature), and I'm keeping it. I just hope it ages or my skin chemistry changes, or I find something I can layer it with. The honey note that was so bad on me in O (I got stinky socks) is trying to come out, but it's a background thing, not the main scent. The main scent right now is bitter powder.

Will come back and update this review if I notice any changes.

Knockout Drops has lemon meringue as one of the components (also vanilla, mint, white chocolate and absinthe).

2011 version. I will concur with the reviewer who called this heartbreakingly beautiful. Sweet, but delicately demure coconut and something else, something too pretty to be edible... Something indefinable, as if the Lab had bottled an angelic prayer or an instant of true adoration...

And then, my third or fourth wearing, this one turned to burnt power cord on me. I wear it in a scent locket now, with a sensation of unworthiness, as if I have failed some moral test. Ah well, there's always my friend Debauchery, which actually smells good on me. (You, my civety friend, know my true nature.)

Some BPALs smell different to me every time I wear them. Knockout Drops is one of those. Different each time, but always uplifting and happy. Sometimes it's the minty freshness. Sometimes I get sweet fruit, almost a pink grapfruit. Other times it's mostly Absinthe. Always the rich sweet backdrop of white chocolate and vanilla. And something that reminds me of the fougere of Dorian.

Not every BPAL has aromatherapy-like effects, but Knockout Drops always picks me up when I'm low. I keep it on my desk at work and slather it throughout the day. To me, it's the perfect antidote to seasonal affective disorder, and I'm loving it this winter.

Explain please: "young smelling" ? (I wonder if we're going to end up with a thread for the term, along the lines of the "old lady perfume" thread.)

I can understand dressing too young, or acting too young, but what does too young smell like? (It's probably a subtlety that would be lost on your guy, anyway.)

If Katarina smells good to you, and makes you feel attractive and confident, why not wear it? (on a related note, a study of some kind somewhere not too long ago revealed that subjects perceived women as being younger than they were when the women were wearing citrusy smells. So if you wanted to smell young, you could go for Lemon Scented Sticky Bat.)

I love Lantern Ghost of Oiwa. It's pretty and sweet without being overwhelming. Sometimes it's better to go with the light touch for a first meeting (which is also a first date.)

Whatever you choose, I recommend giving it a trial run the day before the date, to make sure it's a good time in your cycle or that the scent didn't go off.

I have a decant of the 2009 version. Wet, it's foody, like cookies. Dry, it goes all beautiful spices: cloves and cinnamon mostly, with a smokey background, restrained and grounded by something that smells a bit like leather straps. Very hot, and sexy in a direct, aggressive way. It doesn't tease or entice; it grabs and growls, "c'mere, you." I could wear this to a club, but probably not to the office.

I'm leaving it on my wishlist, to remind myself to get more.

I'm not a fan of red musk, so let that be taken into account. To my nose, The Soldier is a lot like Incubus, minus the mint, or Mme Moriarty minus the fruit and tobacco. The tea and leather seem very much in the background, or maybe I'm just super sensitive to the musk notes, but this comes off as sweet buttery musk, and it's making me a little uncomfortable, like I'm trying on someone else's life. In other words, this one isn't me.

Exorcist reminded me of something woodsy, like Cathedral, layered over a dark, citrusy floral. Not so sure about this stage; it's like it has two clashing personalities. After about an hour, one of the personalities has been exorcised, and it has settled into a beautiful smoke, like a light clean-burning clove incense. I like it a lot.

I'm a sucker for tea and grapefruit, so I knew I had to try this. So it went on my wishlist, and, joy, I was kindly frimped a bit of it (unknown age).

Wet, it's grapefruit and something pleasantly apple-y. Light, but so nice. It dries to a light, faintly powdery ginger, but not the throat-seizingly dry kind. This is a serene, cheerful and pleasant scent, so appropriate for work or really, almost any situation. I like this, and would be happy to get more imps or a bottle someday. I will leave it on my wishlist. (thanks, kind frimper!)

I must have tested Dorian four times or more before I finally fell for it. I think it's a matter of a little aging - to soften the sharp cologny edges of this wickedly clever and persistent little scent.

I have no idea what fougere is, although it sounds delightfully Victorian (the perverse, decadent Victorians, though, not the proper ones who covered their piano legs out of prudery.) I love tea blends, though weirdly enough, they never make me think of tea when I'm smelling them. I just know that if tea is one of the notes, I will be happy. And vanilla, when it comes off right, is always both comforting and sexy. Plus I adore citrus.

And that's probably why I kept trying this one. If you found it too strong and too "men's cologne" at first, you might like it after a year. Mine (bought from a kind forumite) is that old, and it's just right. There is an initial citrus, and then the pretty sugared tea effect, all grounded by the three musks, which ensure that Dorian will last and last. This is very civilized and sophisticated, self-satisfied, and quite androgynous; at home anywhere, but always uniquely disturbing and attractive. Like its namesake, it will be unforgettable, and may have lasting consequences once it enters your life. Wear with insouciance, and a little, knowing smile.

Banshee Beat, about an hour after applying, is the sexiest thing I own. I love Perversion, too.

I liked Aelopile, from the GC. It's citrusy and clean, and it was too masculine for me to wear.