Nia

The description sounded very promising. Unfortunately, on me it smells at first of green grapes (the champagne, maybe?), a fresh and at the same time sweet smell, that goes away to leave an unremarkable musky sweetness. The whole morphing process doesn't take more than a few minutes.

I assumed that nine woods and nine leaves meant some cedar, cypress, or something of what gave me a sinus headache in Odin, so I wanted to get this one out of the way and on the swap pile. Surprise, surprise: the scent is a lot more herbal than woodsy, and there is no bitterness. I upsets my sinuses a little bit, but it is probably because they still feel bad after the Odin.

I loved the myths around Yggdrasil as a child (yes, I was a geek even back then) and this feels really lovely. Grounding, comforting, a bit severe, but that's fine. Lacking any aromatherapeutic or ritual oils, this is what I would use if I wanted a self-confidence blend.

I got this one on impulse, seeing that the description didn't mention anything that goes very wrong on me.

On imp: Just manly, with a buttery undertone.

Wet: It gives me a headache, more specifically a nasty tickle on my sinuses.

Dry: Cheap man's cologne. Ick.

I have no idea how Beth has managed this, but it smells like a Mediterranean forest with plenty of cistus. It brings me back to my childhood and the weekends on a farm.

This is supposed to bring no comfort? ha. Maybe it's supposed to smell scary if you have never climbed a pine tree surrounded by cistus and near a house where burnt lavender or incense was their idea of room scenting. Seriously, I'm getting a craving of fre range eggs.

Anyway, if my childhood memories seem irrelevant to anyone reading this review, think of Scales of Deprivation as a window into one wonderful Mediterranean forest. A misplaced Wanderlust blend, if you like.

My poor nose is tired, but I'm trying to figure out, using my previous reviews, why exactly Terpsichore didn't work on me, and both blends contain sweet pea. Desdemona, which didn't work on me either, also contained sweet pea, but it had carnations in common with Terpsichore. I find that liking a carnation blend depends a lot on what it is combined with.

This one feels floral and fresh, not old-ladyish or overwhelmingly floral at all. The floral aspect is the most prominent one, so I seem to be going through the same as ariansdreams: the sweet pea swallows the other notes. I would like it to be a bit more warm, with a bit more tonka, but it is delicious as it is, and it has a lot of thrown. Yay!

I'm testing this as part of a mission to see if what makes me dislike Euterpe and Terpsichore is the iris, as both go horrible on me and it is the only think they have in common. Raven and Terpsichore share neroli, but I like neroli; Raven and Euterpe have dark and white musk respetively, but so many blends have musk, and it normally goes well on me.

That's it. This smells exactly like Terpsichore with added violets. I can imagine that every time people say "florals don't work well on me" they mean lilies and irises. I loooove violets, and a blend with violets on it has to go really and truly awful on me to make me part with that imp.

After a few minutes, when it is dry, this smells like violets somehow deprived of their sweetness. It's not going to be a favourite but it was good for an experiment.

This one has a mixture of the old-ladyish (which to me means a sickly-sweet floral; something like sweet and powdery jasmine-rose), probably from the iris, and a bitterness that I can't only blame on the poppy. It reminds me of something Avon did in the 80's, it's _that_ bad on me.

carnation-honeysuckle-lemon-musk sounded like a dream blend. Shame the poppy and the iris had to come and spoil the party.

Baoban Sith = Guerlain's Herba Fresca.

I really want more angelic/biblical blends to work on me. I really do. I like blends with calla lily, with wisteria, and with rose. I like sandalwood (red and golden work best on me, though) and frankincense (although I haven't had much luck with BPAL incense). This one should work. Please.

On the imp: the cologne-y scent doesn't sound promising.

Wet: Weeeeird. This is Vicomte de Valmont's good brother, the one who wento to a monastery. This is definitely a male scent.

After a few minutes, the first impression remains. This has all that's good about Beth's more masculine scents, minus the implied sexuality (leather, musk, spice). It doesn't work on me at all, not because the scent turns soapy or bad, but because it's just not-me, in the same ay that I love Belladonna but I prefer it on The Boy. I hope he likes this one.

Blends that have anything at all to do with Christianity and purity normally turn awful, really awful, on me. It's normally the fault of some lily or other.

This one seemed safe enough as the only lily mentioned in the description doesn't turn soapy on me. Alas, the final result is very green, and soapy enough to make me smell like a very good fabric conditioner.

I'll still have to make do with Bathsheba as my only biblical-themed blend.

On imp: this does smell golden! There's something like amber and ripe sweet orange.

On me, it just goes a bit spicy, like a freshly cut orange with cinnamon on top. Then, after a minute, most of the freshness leaves and I'm just left with the spices.

It's a very uplifting smell, something surprising in a blend so "heavy" with warm notes.

I have used TAL Block Buster every day for the last week or so, and this is weird because it smells a lot like that. Really a lot, only sweeter: the honey-patchouli-mint impression I get from Block Buster has less mint, more vanilla.

I only have half an imp and I wouldn't like to use this as a perfume (because of the smell and because of the significance), so I might use it for ritual purposes on the Solstice this weekend, or wait for a similar occasion.

Right. I have to like this, okay? There are few things that matter to me more than dance, and the ingredients sound like they all have already made friends with me.

Imp: a bit soapy. No vanilla to be felt.

Wet: Still a bit soapy, probably the iris's fault. The neroli is very strong. The vanilla takes a couple of minutes to come out.

After ten minutes: very floral, oddly sharp, and the soapy note won't leave the rest alone. This also smells a lot like freshly cut green grass, a smell I most definitely don't like.

Not a favourite. Shame.

This one's odd. I smelled it without remembering the lab's description, and I didn't really detect the sandalwood or any "dryness". For the first minutes it was a bit old-ladyish (by which I mean a cloyingly sweet floral blend; think sweet jasmine/rosey). Then there was a tiny hint of soapyness, which luckily went away to reveal a soft but very persistent spicy floral. The sandalwood doesn't come out much, but it is the sparkle that adds mystery to that lovely floral-sweet note.

on the imp, and wet, this smells like roses and carnations behind a veil. Ten minutes later, almost everything is gone. I don't even get the honey, which normally lasts hours on me. There's practically nothing, just a tantalising whiff of sweetness. I could have used up the whole imp in one go, but I sent it instead to someone that I hope will appreciate it more than I did.

Eeekkkk. The hated bitter, medicinal, compostheap-y note of Kathmandu and Sri Lanka is here again. I think it is the cedar. New rule: if a blend contains woods but doesn't say which one, my body will turn it into a mix of rot and Vicks Vaporub.

This time, after a few minutes the rot goes away, and after five minutes more, the whole scent has left too.

I love the idea of a perfume named after such lovely creatures. It's a shame they don't love me back.

on the imp: melon or watermelon. Seriously.

Wet: that's it. melon and a flower.

Then the melon goes away (not surprisingly as it was not supposed to be there in the first place) and a lovely, gorgeous floral remains. No amber, no patchouli.

I need to try more gardenia blends, definitely.

I wonder why cherry essence has to smell like bitter almond. I know that this is cherry blossom, but it just smells like cherry perfume to me. This time, at least it doesn't swallow up whole the other notes and I can enjoy the mixture. I don't really detect the sandalwood as such, it's just cherry with something sober and not floral holding it down.

On the imp: behind the perfume, something bitter that hurts the nose.

On me: the bitter note is amplified. I get something lovely and soft and just a little sweet (the rose & musk, I guess) and then, SNAP! Why do you hate me and bite me on the nose? Who are you? The delphinium?

Once dry, the bitterness is gone, and so is the lavender and everything except a gentle sweetness that has nothing to do with rose or jasmine. Not a keeper.

on the imp: a very sharp, lemon-like scent.

On myself: I need to get all my fresh and lemon-like imps together for a sniffing session because I cannot remember a difference between this and Empyreal mist, Baoban Sith, and Embalming Fluid. It's frustrating that BPAL lemony blends are so mild. There is no tea, just a teasing lemon that hides behind a curtain.

On the imp: uh-oh. This smells like candy. Too much like candy for me. Do I detect grape jelly?

Wet: Still candy. I don't see the ylang ylang anywhere. It starts to become pleasantly like violet-flavoured hard candy (and if you have never tried it, you're missing something good).

Dry: the final result is still too sweet for me. It is pleasant, but it's either a stricly-only-for-bellydance-in-public, or a good layer with something very light and fresh.

Wet: Jasmine. Lots of it. And they smell exactly like live jasmine on the plant, which is a bit different from the essence.

If Eos was "improved jasmine, only too mild", this is real, perfect jasmine, deepened by the other notes. It is as if the same woman had put on heavy make up, a tight black dress and stilettos. I would only wear this after dark.

This sounds great. I'm not preparing a gift, but an introduction to BPAL for an online friend I'll be meeting for the frist time next week. She likes literature a lot and I think I'll show her:

For roses: 2,5,7 OR Othello OR Black Rose OR Harlot.

For lilies: Black Lily.

For floral/amber: Aglaea OR Brisingamen

For manly: Valmont OR Casanova.

For spice: Al-Shairan OR O.

For fresh: Baoban Sith (but Valmont is already a fresh blend) OR Empyreal Mist.

For fruity: Bathsheba or Glasgow or Eve.

For foody: Eat Me or Vice.

I don't think she will be able to smell more than five imps in one day at the most, so selecting from this list is going to be very hard!

This smells like lemon sweets! A friend compared it to a childhood brand of lemon sherbet, The Boy thought it smelled like lemon mousse and I thought it smelled like a lemon cream cake. In spite of all these mentions of sweetness, it's not heavy or cloying at all. It's fresh and absolutely delicious, a "summer scent".

It is a mild, but very long-lasting scent. I could sniff it hours and hours later. It is also very uplifting, almost aromatherapeutic, and it cheered me up no end on a long day.

In this complex mix of ingredients, all I feel is a nice floral with a touch of fresh fruit. It is a bit disappointing, as my favourite BPALs are normally fruit-and-flower blends, but here, the fruit ends up eaten whole by the rose. So, after a fun first explosion, it is a rose perfume with a bit of grapefruit waiving a shy hand from behind.

The good point is that it is amazingly long-lasting, as I could still detect it after about six hours.