filigree_shadow

I usually like BPAL's vetiver notes, but not when they're center stage. I like them to be in the background. This one's not really in the background. I mean, I still like the scent of it, but I am very particular about the fragrances I wear in public because I'm around people all day long. The sweet powdery dragon's blood is definitely there, but the vetiver is still a little too strong for me. It's one of those scents that I like just fine, but I'm afraid other people won't like it, and I can't take that chance.

I wanted to try this because of the rose and sandalwood -- sometimes I have a lot of luck with that combination. It didn't work out for me this time very well. Whatever wood note is in there is way too sharp when it's wet. It smells like cedar/pencils plus a fairly blechy rose. I was not impressed. Then I forgot about it and went about my errands and then decided to smell it again about an hour later. (I had only put a bit of oil on my arm as a test, so unless I purposely sniffed it, I couldn't smell it at all.) The scent on my arm an hour later made me say, "Wait, which one was that? This smells really good. I wasn't testing one that smells this good."

I had to put on a new test spot to make sure I was smelling this oil. And yep, it did the same thing again. Just awful when it's wet, and then dries down into a very lovely soft rose+sandalwood. I dunno if I can put up with the wet stage, but the dry stage sure is nice.

I only have a tiny amount of oil left of this, and it's very old at this point so all the top notes probably aged out of it long ago. Which is probably why I'm left with a powdery lilac wood scent. Two drops of oil in a clear glass vial = ages very fast. I think this poor oil is past its day. Should have reviewed it a long time ago. I remember liking it.

I usually don't mind aquatics, even though I don't really wear them much, but this one is not for me. It smells like salty weird coconut hair spray on me. And yes, I know it doesn't have coconut in it and I have no idea why I'm making that association. Perhaps I am familiar with some kind of awapuhi-coconut scent from somewhere else so I'm leaping to coconut when I smell awapuhi. IDK. Alls I know is that this is not the perfume for me.

Unfortunately, I did not have much of this oil to test. But from what I can smell of it, it smells mostly like berries and patchouli on me, which is a very pleasing combination! Heliotrope is one of my favorite floral notes, and I honestly can't remember ever finding bergamot offensive either. Pom tends to ruin a blend for me because my skin chemistry makes it smell like bathroom air freshener, which is a big thumbs-down. But it's being drowned out sufficiently in this that I don't feel like I'm in a gas station bathroom at all. I wish I had more of this to do a full wear.

I'm often iffy about strawberry scents because, to be brutally honest, I am in my 40s now and to me strawberry scents smell like they are made for young girls. I think it's because when I was young, like 12 or 13, my mom wouldn't let me wear "perfume," but I could wear things like those horrid lip glosses that were fruit-flavored, or fruit-scented lotion. So now I associate strawberry scents with being a kid.

Strawberry Moon is pretty -- it's not too sweet like candy, and the grassy/dandelion notes are a nice touch. That gives it just a little bit of a grown-up twang. I like it a lot, I just don't think I'd ever actually wear it.

Very purple. Kind of a round, bright purple. Not a musky sexy purple like in Queen of Spades, and not a dazzling bright purple like Midwinter's Eve, either. In between. A little bit of floral, but nothing overly heady at all. It's a pleasant, friendly daytime scent.

I had very high hopes for this based on the notes, but it smells weird on me. It smells strangely high-pitched and acidic at first, and then what it settles into is fig and pear. And those two notes... kinda don't go together very well.

I'll just stick to Freak Show for my BPAL fig scent. That one works a lot better on me than this one does.

Kinda smells like floral bubblegum. Some heady flower that disagrees with me (either jasmine or something that is too jasminey for my liking), plus something like lotus.

Sadly doesn't work for me.

Somehow this got lost in my BPAL box, and I didn't try it until today. It smells like sweet candy with chocolate coating that has some pepper in it. That description sounds kinda gross, but believe me, the perfume smells wonderful!

This one is very nice. Not sure whether I'll go straight for a bottle hunt because I feel like I already have a couple of chocolate/cocoa loves, but I feel very happy wearing this and catching whiffs of it.

I had given up ever being able to try Black Widow, but one of my friends is exceedingly awesome, and she let me try it.

I wanted to try this because patchouli, sandalwood, and myrrh are all great notes on me. Wasn't sure about the jasmine and wine, but people kept describing it as a dark floral and I thought that sounded great.

Unfortunately, though, it didn't work on me. It was a little pungent and discordant. I think the jasmine pretty much messed it up for me. What a pity. This is one of those disappointing cases in which I love the name, should have loved the notes, waited forever to try it, and... BUST. This is not the first time that diabolical jasmine has done this to me, and it won't be the last.

I got to try this one thanks to a lovely and extremely generous friend of mine.

I've wanted to try this for about 6 years now, and I never had the chance. Well, I'm probably happier to find out that it's not a winner on me than I would have been if it had been true love (because the chances of ever getting any more are slim to none).

This is one of the least civety of the BPAL blends that have civet in them. At this point, I can't smell any rose in it, but I can definitely smell the patchouli, and it's "perfumey" (which is how I usually describe poppy).

It's a fine scent, but I think I grew out of my civet phase. For someone who likes BPAL's civet note (that the Lab doesn't seem to put in much of anything anymore), def try to find some of this.

I'm really surprised this one wasn't popular, even as a perfume. BPAL's dragon's blood note is exquisite, and this blend is amazing. If you like dragon's blood with a soft floral note (not exactly sure which floral note -- but it makes me think of something dry and white), try this.

I have a bottle of the resurrected one, and at this point it's quite a few years old. Aged, it is . Very, very nice.

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed, thinking that for sure it would work on me. I love all those notes -- not a deal-breaker among them. And Pinched is one of my favorite BPAL perfumes, so I was giddy with anticipation for another coffee blend.

This one, though... well, it didn't work. It's not bad, but I can't really smell the coffee as much as the tobacco, and the orange gives it an odd twang. It smells better in the bottle than it smells on me, so I think my skin chemistry is the culprit. I'll be happy to re-home this one, though -- someone should adore it!

I'm normally not a huge fan of citrus scents, but this one is so soft with the vanilla cream. It's not in-your-face lemon or tangerine, but it smells sweet and soft with a tangy fruity overtone. Very cute, and definitely pleasant! I like it a lot.

Well, I like it, it's just very soft. I can barely smell it. I slathered a bunch of oil on my wrist and couldn't smell it very much, so I put more on. Still can't smell it very much. It's a dry musky sandalwood scent, and it's really nice. Just too faint to smell.

Rosy incense. Very pretty. Not the sort of thing I generally wear as perfume, but very pretty.

This is one of the ones that has some notes in it that I usually avoid (rum, frankincense), but has other notes that I love (leather, vanilla, champaca), so it's worth trying because you never know which notes will be stronger and which ones will be barely there.

I gambled and lost on this one. It's a sour-smelling rum & ambrette, I guess. I don't smell leather or vanilla or champaca... it's mostly boozey. It's not for me.

I didn't look up the notes before I put this on, so I had no preconceived ideas. I put it on and sniffed it, and all I really smell is "dusty clove." I wouldn't have been able to place black currant. Clove is for sure there, but it's not so strong as it usually is on me. And I'm not sure what the dusty part is, but it's definitely dusty.

Interesting scent.

Very pretty, gentle peach scent. The gardenia is not too strong at all (I dislike gardenia, so if I like a blend that has gardenia in it, it must be very subtle), and the pink musk is a nice touch. It smells light and playful, and quite feminine.

This is a good one.

I will automatically try anything that has plum musk in it, and actually that note line-up reads like it should be a sure-fire win for me. For some reason, though, it's not. It doesn't really smell much like plum musk or patchouli (my favorite notes in the list)... it smells more like violet leaf and cypress. It's a dry, rather woody, sort of planty scent. I guess I can smell a little bit of plum, because I smell something that smells like a bright fruit and doesn't smell like violet. But it's not strong enough to save the blend for me.

I like this a lot -- none of the notes are particularly strong, they're all blended together very well. The tobacco and myrrh are a nice, dry, perfumey sort of scent, and the leather undertone is very grounding. Sometimes honey smells like play-doh on me, so I'm a little wary of it. It's fine in this one.

Yep, I like this one.

Interesting. It doesn't smell like chicken feet (which I imagine smell horrifying), but it definitely smells like that dry, something's-on-fire scent that BPAL does so well. Slightly burnt herbs, and a very dry, smoldering kind of scent that is slightly disturbing but comforting at the same time. I think there might be something like vetiver in here -- not the dank dark musty kind, but the kind that smells like smoky grassy reeds. I'm picking up on that nutty scent others have mentioned, too, but it's not overwhelming for me.

This is a very pleasant scent. It's not the sort of thing I wear as perfume, personally, but I definitely like the scent.

This is one of the very few forest/pine/evergreen-type scents that I like and would wear. Someone in a previous review on this page mentioned Snow Bunny, and that's one of the other ones I wear. This is very pretty -- it smells natural and pleasant and outdoorsy (without smelling like soap or cologne), and the white rose is a wonderful touch. It adds just the right amount of floral to it. I understand why there was much gnashing of teeth when Dublin was discontinued.

This is a nice scent, mainly mango and fig. The patchouli is a nice touch with it.

I've had this particular imp for quite a while, and although patch scents usually get better with age, I'm pretty sure I liked this better when it was fresh. That's an odd experience for me.