tajana

A Rovin' deserves to rank up there with other BPAL icons. As a fan of The Bow & Crown of Conquest, I do love a good carnation-sandalwood-leather combination, and I do love the slap of leather in here. The red musk-leather also reminds me of Crowley, and the overall vibe of the A Rovin' is more femme and floral than either of those. The decadence reminds me of the old Mme. Moriarty, but A Rovin' is not nearly as fruity, and so it feels more wearable to me, with enough dryness to stop it from ever going cloying, even in hot weather. The jasmine is front and center from the get-go, it's a really fabulous example of how magnetic a big, unapologetic white floral can be, and the luscious jasmine stays true through a long portion of the wear time. This is also a great example of a BPAL where you can sniff closely to discover each note, or sit back and enjoy as all the parts converge into a harmonious blend. The honey-dipped jasmine petals are deeply inviting, the 'hay' of the hay sugar plays off the tobacco to weave it in artfully from the more textural top notes to the warm dry-down, the spicy clove-y quality of the carnation flower enhances jasmine's allure and playfully traces its fingers along the leather and sandalwood while it's all enveloped in the crimson glow of red musk.

I love this perfume. It would have the depth and character to serve as a "signature scent." Thankfully I do not need to commit to a single perfume, but if for some reason I had to start over, Winter Night, Figure on the Bridge is one of the first bottles I would seek out. Through the combination of the chilly aquatic "snow" accord and the indigo musk, there's a gloomy, androgynous core, sleek and ozone-clean. It's tinted dark purple with lilacs and the tart taste of plum skin, moody and dark with opium and tobacco flower. Over time it melds together in a way that makes it challenging for me to pick out individual notes, and I do suspect that if you have issues with any of the notes, you might dismiss it an air freshener or laundry scent. But to me, it creates a twilight ambiance, like the first stars appearing in a cloud-streaked sky. It is really lovely.

This is a vampy night-blooming fruity floral that opens up with a ghostly kiss of luminous bergamot and an opium-backed jasmine. Bittersweet berries, slightly currant-y and slightly wine-y, come in next to dye the scent a purplish, dark red color. The perfume settles into a floral incense, though in the end the berries hang on longer than the jasmine does. Based on the label art I was hoping for plenty of that sugared absinthe, but I don't get any hint of absinthe... any spooky glow is coming from the bergamot blossom and the 'white' of jasmine petals.

If you are reading this in time to buy it, and you love lilac, you do NOT want to miss out on this one. This is a heady, slightly indolic and moody, timeless floral with enough mystery to entertain you all on its own, but with an elegant simplicity that plays well with many complimentary or contrasting perfumes. Secret garden vibes, with lush green moss creeping over the cool gray paving stones, branches of lilac heavy with morning dew on a cloudy spring morning. It's heady, true, heartbreakingly lovely lilac in abundance, with just enough moss to provide an atmospheric, outdoor garden sense of place. Creates a gorgeous fairytale cloud of lilac scent that lasts many hours when worn in your hair.

Ultraviolet - freezing cold mentholated violets for ice queens. Good for faking a cool, perfectly collected, detached aura. Bow & Crown of Conquest - badass leather jacket exterior meets cuddly vanilla center. I always wore this for midterms + final exams.

To me, this smells like pomegranate hibiscus tea steeping with sprigs of fresh mint when freshly applied. The drydown gets totally swallowed up by what I assume is the mulberry. As others have mentioned, this starts to smell like generic red candles. Naturally, since I didn't care for it, the throw was immense.

Honeyed frankincense and creamy lilac musk, with a little burst of glossy pomegranate juicing things up a little bit. I would've also guessed there was a touch of vanilla in here. This is the good kind of honey - neither baby powdery nor crotch-y, ahaha. I do not sense much in the way of rose, and I couldn't pick out sandalwood as a distinct note either. All in all I liked this a lot more than I expected, but the scent overall was somehow really... familiar. A scent memory I couldn't quite place, or maybe it just smells like perfume oils I've already tried! Overall this smells a bit sensual, but classic.

This sounded like it would be pretty, but it was a total drag. Awkward apple strawberry bubblegum, artificially flavored and dusted with violet powder and sour, rotted flowers. On me it smelled like something I might expect to find kicking around in Rite Aid's clearance section, collecting dust. I can't speak to lasting power, because the nauseating fake fruit drove me to scrub this off with soap and water. For me this was the only dud in the apple series - even though I don't usually like apple scents, I thought the rest of the ones in this series ranged from fairly pleasant on through lovely.

This one is quite musky on me! Right off the bat I get a fair but of ambrette and clean white musk along with the florals. Unfortunately, I don't like narcissus much, and that's the floral that sticks out most to me here. The throw is surprisingly powerful for what I expected would be an ephemeral scent, and the scent that wafts up is quite pretty - crisp muguet and creamy gardenia musk. But when I take a closer whiff, I get a nose full of uncomfortable narcissus.

This was high on my list of anticipated scents to try, and it was probably the biggest disappointment. Wet, it's very foresty, but off kilter. Oddly alcoholic tones with turpentiney pine and a general crisp decidious leafy feel, and just a tint of underlying fermented fruitiness. The dry down makes me think of wet soil, full of worms, but not in any good sense, especially since there's an odd sweetness to this scent, like a glaze of really weird, toxic honey, which in turn clashes with the hint of nuttiness. Quite frankly, this smelled rancid on me. I barely made it through half an hour before I had to wash it off.

Of all the "dark purple" scents in this Halloween update, this one is my fave. The sage adds an interesting herbal twist that goes well with the black-purple, pruney fruitiness and soft blend of violets and subtle aquatic touches. Gets a bit darker with the dry-down, but neither tobacco nor opoponax nor anything else in particular really stand out, it's more of a dark, damp, just slightly cologney scent, with perhaps a bit of earthiness from the moss. The herbal-floral-smoky-aquatic balance is unusual but still comes off as cohesive and wearable. I don't think I need more of it personally, but I did enjoy testing it out.

Oh boy. I really enjoy some of BPAL's dirty, earthy, soil notes, but a few of them really disagree with me. This is one of them. There are traces of a sharp, funereal white flower and sour pomegranate, but mostly this is the smell of mildew and decay. Had to wash it off.

I didn't even read this review thread, but independently wrote down in my notes, "green bell peppers?!" After the perplexing, crisp-watery bell peppers fade back, this goes to a softer scent that's more traditionally perfumey but still reminiscent of gardening - light grassy flowers, just slightly sweet, anchored with a bit of a soft, slightly wet dirt scent. Ultimately dries down into a generic, slightly powdery scent on me.

After the juicy, opening burst of pink grapefruit wears off - which takes a good thirty minutes on me - this reminds me of one of my GC faves, Meliai - an unusual, fresh honey scent resplendent with sappy green notes as well as a hint of citrus/floral/something tastiness. However, Two Tailed Sogg is an inferior cousin - though the pink grapefruit is nice, this scent overall goes through a phase of being too sharp before degenerating into a sweet, nondescript powdery scent.

I really wanted this to work on me but it was not meant to be. I can sense that on the right person this would be a dark, womanly, luxe feeling perfume, but on me it's mainly about the blackcurrant, ylang ylang, and a bit of jasmine. Unfortunately, this translates to fruity cat pee berries and a sour, nearly rancid powder.