BoneBone24

Specifically: graphite, pencil shavings, charcoal, chalk, newsprint paper, oil paint, that grease you use on a printmaking press, kneaded erasers, lithograph stones

Does anyone know of any BPALs that smell like these things? I'm feeling nostalgic for my years in art school and would love to find a scent that captures those memories!

Wet: Fruity! & Tropical!

Drydown: Mainly banana with a hint of mint. Perhaps some pineapple too. Definitely tropical, but surprisingly reserved.

Dry: Light, tropical musk with a touch of banana...10 hrs later it becomes crazy sexy all out-of-the-blue-like. At this point it actually resembles Defututa quite a lot!

6.5 out of 10 bones

Wet: Sweet and cool.

Drydown/Dry: Vanilla/tonka with pale mint or eucalyptus. Sweet, creamy, cool, and fresh. There's something soft and pillowy too... maybe tuberose? or a pale musk?

Snow white is really well blended and rather lovely. At no point do any of the notes go plastic or soapy or vanish or anything else that notes sometimes do. It's definitely a crowd-pleaser-type scent. I might have to gift a bottle or two of this to potential BPAL converts come the holiday season.

9 out of 10 bones

Wet: Very light at first, clean and peppery.

Drydown: Clean and soft...sort of like tissues? Then, lightly incense-y, which really adds a sense of atmosphere to the blend.

Dry: Clean smoke and candle wax with a touch of peppery parchment. It fades rather quickly unfortunately.

7 out of 10 bones

Wet: Floral opium

Drydown: Deep, languid opium paired with heady florals. The lily goes a bit powdery and clean for a bit, but it doesn’t last too long. It's surprisingly sweet.

Dry: Sweet, opium-drenched flowers. Sleepy, sexy, and resinous. Very similar to Darkness, just with an extra touch of sweet florals.

Edited to add: Retesting this a year+ later, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that this smells much fresher/less heady now. The powderiness is gone, the opium's toned down, and the florals smell sweeter. Try aging this one y'all!

6.5 out of 10 bones

Wet: a mixture of berry juice and green tea

Drydown/Dry: Juicy fig tempered by robust, earthy patchouli. Purple, pink, and brown. Speckles of green tea and mango break up the sweet heaviness of the fig and patchouli. It's odd, because the fig and patchouli are easiest to identify, but the mango and green tea seem to actually be the ones in control of this scent. It's surprisingly fresh!

Original imp

Wet: Fancy shampoo.

Drydown: Smoky and tropical. There’s something sort of sharp that I’m guessing is the seltzer. Sweet, clean flowers.

Dry: Clean, tropical flowers. Similar to Pele, but a touch more complex.

Aged (9 yrs) imp

Wet: Light & cheerful – a little sweet, a little bright. Happy flowers with a zippy hint of fruit.

Drydown: The zippiness of the fruit becomes more bold. A touch of smokey, headiness comes out, but overall it remains bright and almost effervescent.

Dry: Zingy pineapple & apricot seltzer over lush, tropical florals. Just a hint of smoke and resin sit in the background, grounding it out. It smells like defututa before becoming defututa 😆

7.5 out of 10 bones

Wet: Sharp pine

Drydown: At first it’s mainly menthol/eucalyptus, but it grows softer and sweeter as evergreen notes come forward. Possibly juniper and cypress. Maybe some mint too.

Dry: Still soft and woodsy but now warmer. Spicy autumn leaves and light herbs join the cooler woods. I’m getting a hint of a deeper wood note too, maybe oak or cedar. Refreshing and uplifting.

Lovely woods all around. It starts out cooler and wintery and ends up warmer and autumnal. Two thumbs up.

Wet: Sweet and creamy with a bolt of sharp iris

Drydown: A deep and creamy pairing of coconut and hazelnut with a hint of glittering iris. Gorgeous and quite sophisticated

Dry: Silky and sexy coconut froth with a dark shot of iris. Deep and cool and seductive. Unfortunately, the coconut fades quickly and what is left is a pure iris note that is a little too sharp for my liking.

This started out so so good, but once the coconut faded the iris went crazy sharp and gave me a headache. Sadnewsbears.

Wet: A light and creamy floral

Drydown: Light rose and something powdery. A touch of lemon balm comes through and the rose begins to blend into the other florals as they begin to bloom

Dry: A fresh, complex floral with powdery rose at the top. Classically feminine and well-suited for summer.

3 out of 10 bones

Wet: Slightly spicy

Drydown: Light spice over what i can only describe as an herbal musk. Sweet glowing amber enters the mix and settles in as a top note.

Dry: Spiced pear, muffled amber, and smoky poppy. Warm and soft with a touch of green.

6.5 out of 10 bones

Wet: Gummy bears

Drydown: At first it's still plasticky gummy bears...then it's more of a pretty gummy bears. If I try really hard I can pick out the banana, pomegranate, and apple.

Dry: Spicy fruit salad...with gummy bears.

2 out of 10 bones

Wet: Sweet flowers and dragon’s blood

Drydown: Poppy comes to the forefront. It’s languid and enchanting. Musky, spicy dragon’s blood darkened by sweet opium clouds.

Dry: Hard to pin down. Sweet, clean resins and cool glowing florals.

6 out of 10 bones

Wet: Chocolate covered cherries

Drydown: Somewhat tingly like cough syrup but at the same time it’s also soft. Spicy tobacco softened by light florals and a hint of chocolate. Smooth, tart wine adds a touch of cherry-like sweetness in the background. The rose is adding a surprisingly clean vibe to the mix.

Dry: Light, clean, sweet, and smoky all at once. Mostly floral at this point, but in a nice non-heavy way. I can detect the rose more than anything else. The darker notes are all blended together as one sweet and spicy supporting note. I think the balsam is sort of tempering the rest of the scent so it doesn’t go too floral or too sweet or too anything else. Well blended. Feminine and soft.

6 out of 10 bones

Wet: Spicy musk with a splash of lemon juice.

Drydown: Subdued red musk, sandalwood, and cassia mainly. It sounds like it would belong in the angry-spicy category but there’s a bit of a lemony tropical vibe in there too brightening it up. It smells half like a new age shop and half like a scented candle store when its summer candles are on display.

Dry: Cinnamon tea over a base of surprisingly soft red musk. Becomes softer and less spicy over time.

This one really surprised me! I wasn't sure what to expect from this grouping of notes, but for some reason I thought it would either be more fruity or the red musk would amp like crazy and ruin it. Instead, I got a lovely spicy woody familiar-ish scent made unique and intriguing by the slightest hint of tart juice. This is the first blend I've come across that I can say I really enjoy the red musk in. Well done.

9 out of 10 bones

Wet: Citrussy herbs with something dark in the background

Drydown: Clean citrus and herbs over a smoky, naughty base of whiskey and coriander. Smooth, smoky ylang ylang bounces between the foreground and background stitching the two together. The lavender fougere peaks out a bit and is quickly consumed by the tart and spicy cloud of smoke as it twists and twirls its way into the seedier parts of my mind. oh, this is a wicked scent indeed.

Dry Next: This tall dark stranger doesn’t fool me. Sure he’s presentable in his ebony suit and crisp white gardenia shirt. His smile is bright and citrussy and his manners are as proper as a gentlemanly fougere. But his eyes are stained with tobacco and his breath soaked in whiskey. He leans in to pour poisonous absinthe-spiked whispers into my ear with that deep and glowing ambergris voice that never fails him. Oh yes, I’m on to him. But that doesn’t mean I won’t let him get his way...

Final Thoughts: John Hamm lathered up and waiting for me in a clawfoot tub.

10 out of 10 bones

Wet: Definitely apple and cinnamon, with something else too...

Drydown: Still apple and cinnamon plus a woodsy element. Possibly a soft evergreen and a woody herb like thyme or rosemary. The notes seem to be fighting for dominance. Sometimes it’s more woodsy fresh with a touch of spiced apple and other times it's more apple cider sweet over a base of soft woods and herbs.

Dry: Cinnamon, evergreen, clove, apple, rosemary, and maybe a sweet blossom of some sort, in that approximate order. The notes become softer and more blended as the day wears on. The overall impression is festive and content.

Fantastic! Deliciously sweet, spicy, and fresh, but not too foody. Autumnal and happy. I want to slather this stuff all over myself and will probably do so as soon as I get home. I haven't purchased any bottles yet, but this is definitely going on my short list of blends I need to stockpile.

7 out of 10 bones

Wet: Light lemon and sugar. It reminds me of the sludge that you get at the bottom of a cup a tea if you had added too much sugar and most of it didn’t dissolve.

Drydown: The lemon takes on a slightly herbal quality. It’s a subtle, gentle lemon, not in your face. Same with the sugar (which is impressive because on my skin sugar usually smells like SUGAR!). There’s a soft musk in there too, which, when combined with the lemon and sugar results in a vague overall impression of lemon cookies or lemon meringue pie.

Dry: Oh! It’s tea! and vanilla too! The lemon is pretty much gone or has morphed into a tangy herbal undercurrent rather. This is primarily a perfect cup of tea with vanilla creamer and two cubes of sugar. It’s gentle and sweet and has a nice throw. As the day wear on the lemon returns and it ends as a light vanilla-lemon musk.

On me this is too sweet to be considered masculine, or even gender-neutral, but not so sweet that I can’t bear to wear it. The foody elements are all behaving, which is quite impressive given my skin chemistry. I can see why so many people like this so much.

Wet: Strong buttery rum

Drydown: Buttery coconut rum. More in control now. A subtle smokiness enters, replacing the butteriness.

Dry: Buttery coconutty rum plus that my little ponies note I got from Grog, except this time it’s scented my little ponies rather than plain ol’ rubbery plastic my little ponies. An improvement I guess?

This confirms that regular rum is not for me (as opposed to Bay Rum which is nom nom nom). I was pleasantly surprised with the coconut though, usually I can't really identify it. I was curious what my husband would think since everyone always says that men love the foody blends...he violently frowned and said "vanilla?" as if it were a disgusting word. I think we were on the same page.

5 out of 10 bones

Vaguely fruity with a touch of spicy soap. There's a decent throw that smells musky, which I'm guessing is from the honeysuckle. It's very very light and doesn't morph at all. My imp actually leaked a bunch as I opened it and even with it all over the place it's still incredibly light. The paper that it dripped on smells the same as it smells on my skin minus the soap part. I keep waiting for one of the notes to amp but it never happens.

Hi, I'm a teen girl who plays piano, French Horn, and Mellophone. I LOVE reading, and I love watching Doctor Who, Star Trek, and anime. I am short, with light brown shoulder-length hair and blue eyes.

I am on a FIRST robotics team, and I plan to go into Engineering or Music in college.

I listen to bands like Pink Floyd, Apples in Stereo, Belle and Sebastian, and a lot of old-time music.

I wear a LOT of skirts, and I LOVE vintage clothing!!!!!!!!!!!

I could live in the 50s.

People say that I am very intelligent, caring, nice, and passionate about my interests. I don't like people who insult or bully others. I hate snobbish people, and people who think they're sooooo cool...

I am a vegetarian, and I love learning about herbs. My favorite scent is rosemary, and my favorite sound is ratchets.

 

Any recommendations? I'm new to BPAL and haven't bought anything yet.

I'm going to second the Bess recommendation for a solid rosemary scent. I'll add in Gnome, which is part steampunk part soda shop, and Verdandi, Absinthe, & Tenochtitlan as a cross-section of some unique herbals.

Bess - rosemary, orange flower, grape spirit, five rose variants, lemon peel, and mint

Gnome - effervescent golden ginger and black peppercorn with sarsaparilla, gurjum balsam, nutmeg, gear lubricant, and smoke

Verdandi - Deep herbs and apple with black amber.

Absinthe - wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and the barest hint of lemon

Tenochtitlan - Amber, hyssop, coriander, epazote, Mexican sage, prickly pear and Mexican tulip poppy

Dry: Sweet honey and wine

Drydown: Sticky, golden honey sings as the dominant note. The wine fades into the background and the flowers come forth a bit. I’m not sure what type of flowers these are but they are light and blend nicely with the honey. After the first 30 minutes the smoky spiciness of the myrrh comes forth to become the main supporting note to the honey.

Dry: Golden and glowing. Sweet, smoky honey with tart wine and spicy myrrh adding a wonderful depth. Barely-there soft floral notes acting as a whisper in the background, which I think helps make the overall scent more sophisticated rather than over-the-top indulgent.

Athens is for a feminine yet assertive woman who knows how to get what she wants. A perfect scent to be wined and dined in. I like this a lot!

Wet: Sweet ozone.

Drydown: Dripping wet menthol and a touch of something sweet and smokey. I'm definitely getting the impression of a lush rainforest right before a thunderstorm breaks overhead. With menthol as the primary note this is teetering on the edge of medicinal but the smokiness seems to be keeping that in check.

Dry: The menthol dies down and what’s left is the sweet smoky note, which is more of a floral smokiness than burnt wood smoke. In the background is a touch of clean menthol and what smells like patchouli. All of a sudden it's overwhelmingly floral.

The first hour was pretty awesome. It conveyed everything I imagined reading the description, minus the earthy element. After that the floral(s) took over and it was no longer for me.

4 out of 10 bones

Wet: A luscious and juicy rose.

Drydown: Sweet wine paired with bright red Dragon's Blood

Dry: The red musk starts to amp on my skin to the point where the other notes disappear and all that's left is super musky Dragon's Blood. It's quite strong and long-lasting.

This just isn't me.

2 out of 10 bones

Wet: Soft amber and dry grass or wheat.

Drydown: Still primarily amber and dry grass. There's a touch of something bright in there too. Possibly the woods? Sniffing at the wrist is quite nice, but if I take my wrist away the throw is quite powdery.

Dry: Cuddly, cuddly musk with light amber and dust. Perhaps a soft touch of suede is contributing to the cuddliness. Still a bit powdery. Sweetens as the day wears on.