bheansidhe

This one alters noticeably with age. I have two vials, one bought on eBay as a mixed lot and one received fresh from the lab last week. The older vial was darker and had a syrupy floral overlay. The new vial smelled much lighter and fresher, with a high cherry nose. However, the scents were similar enough that I'll wrap them into one review. I wasn't familiar with bamboo (is that the same as oude?) until I tried Holiday Moon. After that I was able to pinpoint the bamboo note in Dragon Moon and again in Neo-Tokyo. Bamboo seems to like my skin chemistry; green and juicy, almost like a fruit musk (if there was such a thing). In the vial: fruit notes dominate - possibly plum. I also smell ozone and bamboo. On my skin: a surface similarity to Holiday Moon, which must be the bamboo. Neo-Tokyo greens up and cools down on my skin. The fruit notes subside into a delicate wash of cherry blossom. The fresh imp is MUCH lighter and more cherry-scented than the heavily green-oude aged vial. On wearing: both aged and new samples mellow and sweeten. I get faint wafts of "crisp mountain air" and "ozone" off of the fresh sample, along with the cherry and bamboo. The older sample just smells like sweet, slightly fermented bamboo pulp. I don't detect a metallic note in either sample, on drydown or later. I'm lousy at picking out orchid, but I don't think I get orchid either. Verdict: light and sweet without being cloying - a delicate Hayao Miyzaki-style watercolor of urban Tokyo (minus the fish guts and diesel fumes). Fans of Peony Moon might also like this one, more for the "feel" of the blend than for an exact scent resemblance. On me it didn't develop the electricity or urban metallics in the description, but it was a nice scent despite that - very spring or summer.

Snickerdoodles! That's it. Some dry cinnamon cookie. Well, now I know what cassia is (http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/cassia.html). In the vial this smells surprisingly dark and bitter - not bittersweet, but bitter like fresh-ground spices. Wet, the scent resolves into dry, unsweetened cocoa powder. Go smell a box of Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa powder - that's the scent, laid over sweet cake batter. 15 minutes: as ususal on my skin, the cinnamon rises and warms like cookies rising in an oven. The warm cinnamon cookies are still dusted with the black cocoa - I don't smell coconut at all, and the vanilla I detect is the black, thick Madagascar liquor, not thin commercial vanilla extract. This scent is less sweet and less foody than I expected; more a soft, sophisticated spice, or like a tin of dry cinnamon cookies left out for company. 2 hours: dry, almost smoky cinnamon over sugar, with a sprinkle of cocoa. There's now the tiniest hint of coconut, possibly through the power of suggestion, because I keep reading "coconut" in the reviews. The bitterness has subsided, and left behind a smoky, almost woodsy cinnamon bark. Verdict: Strong throw and good staying power (at least 6 hours). This is the first foody scent I've tested that would be good for a man. On me, it dries down to a one-note wonder, like Gingerbread Poppet. It's not exciting enough for me to keep all 5 ml, and I dislike the initial bitterness. But I would love to try layering it, and I also suspect it would be fantastic aged. Allergy note: possibly because of the cinnamon/cassia, this oil raised a red patch on the skin inside my arm where I applied it. The red welt persisted for about an hour. It was not itchy or painful, but if you've had an allergic reaction to cinnamon oil in the past, please test this one carefully until you know how it affects you. I almost NEVER show contact allergies of any kind.

There are gender-neutral scents, and then there are scents that I can't wear because I keep looking around for the gorgeous man who's obviously standing right behind me.... very masculine scents. As with anyone, scents will smell different on different guys. Here's a list of ones I've tried that are too masculine for me to wear (M), and gender-neutral scents that smell good on men (N). Generally manly: Casanova (M) Golden Priapus (M) Jabberwocky (N) Saint-Germain (M) Vicomte de Valmont (M) The Lion (N) Al-Sharain (N) Musky / resinous / smoky / leather: Coyote (M) Sri Lanka (N) Magus (N) Perversion (M) Serpent's Kiss (M) Tombstone (M) Snake Oil (N) Perversion (M) Umbra (N) Depraved (N) Black Forest (M) Dee (M) Fenris Wolf (M) Traditional lime / bay rum types: R'lyeh (M) Jolly Roger (M) Port-au-Prince (M)

NOTE: Though this is a negative review, it's not the fault of poor Montresor, but the mix of Montresor and my chemistry. I uncap it. I recap it. I blink. I uncap it again. You know, I had an elderly neighbor whose house reeked of 1. cats, 2. unclean cat boxes, and a 3. gift shop's worth of fruit potpourri strewn around in an effort to hide 1. and 2...In the vial Montressor hit me with the same reek of fermented fruit-sugar over sulfur compounds. But hey, I've been surprised before, so I gave it the obligatory try. Because, really, it smells like a scent in a coccon; something turbulent and dark, but complicated - nascent - something that's going to brighten and unfurl on my skin. Wet: cherry cough syrup, followed by fermented grapes and cat pee. Drying: cat pee, something sharp, something fermenting, cat pee, and something medicinal. Did someone lock those incontinent cats into an abandoned wine bar? Dry: and how did they manage to pee into my armpit without me noticing? I decided nothing was worth waiting through the sour sweat stage, so I hit the bathroom. It wouldn't come off with thorough handwashing, exfoliating spongage, alcohol swabbage, and vehement cussage. Twelve hours later I could still detect it on my skin, though it had faded to slightly off grape koolaid by then. I've tried lots of scents that just didn't suit me, but were polite about it; Montressor went after me like a blind date grudge match. Since Hellcat, Blood Kiss, and Sugar Skull developed a similar sour reek on me, I'm going to be wary of any "wine" notes in the future. Or is it dark berries? I loved Bewitched, but the intial wash of wet pines, blackberry, and sweet mown grass sharpened up and turned chemical, ending as pleasant berries over musty cat pee. And for some reason Nosferatu became a lovely soft floral, utterly unlike its description and despite its wine notes. The solution, obviously, is to try more bpal.

Five dark, aggressive, furious musks with ambergris bouquet, Malaysian rainforest plant extracts, black amber and orange peel. I've only been a BPAL groupie for three weeks (and have acquired 50 imps - an aquisition rate of 2.38 imps PER DAY. Yes, I've stepped away from the eBay crack pipe for now). This is my first forum scent and my second posted review, FWIW. I ordered this before I'd figured out that ambergris is bad on my skin and musks are hit-or-miss. So I was thrilled to unwrap my little neatly decanted vial (thanks to roostergrrl/wolfgrrl), but I didn't have high hopes for this one smelling great on me. In vial: I smell complex, somehow bright musk with a clear green middle note. Not overwhelmingly heavy or feral. On wrist (dry skin, where scents will go powdery) and in crook of arm (moister skin, where scents stay truer): Not.. not a bad smell. More like a sophisticated commercial perfume than an enraged primate. Drydown: I dutifully sniff every few minutes for the next hour. I never detect the orange peel (and I wouldn't know the smell of a "Malaysian plant extract" if it bit me, though I suppose that's the green note I smell in the vial) or discern the amber. Instead, the musk continues to make me smell like that 80's perfume "Charlie" - that is, overwhelmingly perfumed. The only bright spot is that there's enough musk to smother the ambergris (which goes gaggingly powdery on me). Finally, it goes slightly soapy, though not in a bad way. I went to bed with it still on my arm and it's detectable eight hours later as a "sweet clean skin" scent. This is a great scent. It's just not MY great scent.

Aizen-Myoo, aka "Yuzu Out The Wazoo," knocked my nose out with its dominant note when I opened the vial. I used to love my yuzu incense from Wildberry, so I'm familiar with that scent, though not with kaki or mikan. This was yuzu to the point of bitter - yuzu pith? does yuzu have pith? - but backed by something sweet and fruity. On me: Bright, bitter cherry cough syrup. It absolutely refused to sweeten out or mellow, and developed an undertone reminiscent of sharp sweat. On the one hand, this is the first bPal scent that hasn't gone to powder within the hour on me. On the other hand... it hurt my nose. Sharp, complex, and bright, but too acrid and strong on my skin. This would be a GREAT room scent for me, though.

I don't understand how previous reviewers found this scent lemony or tea-like; the jasmine was overwhelming. It died down after a while, but not enough to make me want to wear this again. I'll make a break for Shanghai right after you.

I picked 13 as the first imp to try out of the six-pack of testers I got from eBay. Not only do I have high hopes for this imp, but it's my first BPAL scent *ever.* In the vial, it smells bizarre and fantastic. White chocolate and tea, with a very pushy bright yellow middle note, like a muddled citrusy-floral, and a bit of tang. I slather it on one wrist and rub briskly. Chocolate.. chocolate... fading. Getting powdery and sweet. Very sweet. Er... extremely sweet. Almost sickeningly so. Hello? It's trying to be a nice light floral-food scent. I can tell it's trying. But each second spent soaking into my skin rapidly devolves the scent into something more like decayed flowers with a candy coating that won't melt on your hands. Chocolate and tea notes are completely gone; there's nothing crisp left in the scent. It's mushy and puddled and overblown. I - I have no idea what I'm smelling now, other than "sickeningly sweet," with an emphasis on sickening; after an hour I'm almost queasy. Begone, foul stank! No luck in this one for me. May my next imp love my skin! Ironically, six hours later there's a whiff of chocolate back on my arm. Too little, too late.