tajana

Aizen-Myoo! Super bright and sparkling yuzu (citrus), a strong energizing cup of black tea, and soft, sweet and cheerful cherry blossoms. Epitomizes springtime and exuberance for me.

Ah, Loviatar! At first, it's almost straight-up leather. Almost bright in its crispness, like the snap of a whip. There's something sweet at the edges and underlying it, but the scent doesn't fully round out until at least half an hour later, when it becomes sharp leather atop a bed of slightly spicy and lightly sweet red musk and soft, warm resins. There's lovely myrrh in here and I'm liking this black amber, it's not at all powdery. There's not much waft but this scent has some staying power. Simultaneously sharp and soft, and devilishly sexy. Mmmm. For kicks and giggles, my boyfriend's impression: wet on my skin it smelled like freshly sliced cucumbers (lolwut?), it dried down to "kind of sexy, actually" leather, and finally to really nice incense. This is a definite keeper, and I like it more and more every time I wear it.

This is for the 2006 version: I bought a decant of this having seen only the scent description. For some reason I didn't check out the reviews. I really should have! As soon as I opened the imp I knew this wouldn't be for me. Jasmine! My nemesis. On the skin the initial impression was of laundry detergent and jasmine. Oh dear. Jasmine ruins any blend for me: the slightest amount broadcasts itself loud and clear, drowning out all other notes and warping itself into a nasty rotting monster rather than a flower. I didn't wash it off though, because I wanted to let it develop. Even though I knew I wouldn't keep it around due to the jasmine element, I wanted to see all those other notes come out! I didn't get any candies or foods from this, but the character of the floral changed twice, both times distinctly. First, miraculously, the jasmine dissipated, and it became less detergent-like, but still densely floral in a generic way. Then, to a scent strongly evocative of the desert: definitely cactus blossom, with other desert flowers and smoky tobacco... the final stages of this scent (after an hour or more) aren't that bad, but this is still too floral for me.

Instant favorite! I was excited to try this one, and it did not let me down. Penny Dreadful, when I take a deep whiff of my wrist, is rich and warm, earthy and spicy... there's some nice patchouli in here, and some tasty spices... gingerbread dirt! Yay! I love ginger, and it's incorporated into such an unexpected way here; the spices would be delicious if isolated but with everything else this scent has going on it's not foody at all. (I loved Shub, but it really did make me smell like a giant ginger snap; this has a similarly round and rich spicy-ginger note, but with added earthiness and complexity!) The throw is huge! But it's not aggressive...it's very soft, with a definite floral element but it's neither sharp nor heady nor soapy, just very soft, like crushed petals in a garden, and the floral notes disappear almost completely after a while, so there's nothing to fear if you normally stay away from flowers. The waft also has a slightly smoky, almost dusty (not in a bad way) quality and a dose of soft candied spice. This is really wonderfully executed! I love love LOVE it! My imp will not be enough... I NEED to get a big bottle of it sometime soon.

Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon! When I first started getting interested in BPAL I assumed I'd enjoy smelling like cinnamon, but since then I have learned that I'm actually quite picky about what my cinnamon is paired with. In All Night Long, I get almost pure cinnamon, like a canister of powdered cinnamon straight from the spice cabinet. Very natural smelling, not like gum or candy. There's something lurking within the cinnamon, some other kind of woodsy note that smells like it could be cedar. But still, it just smells like cinnamon from the spice cabinet. I can practically see and feel the texture of it. Not sexy at all, I'm afraid.

The first BPAL I've tried with a definite green tea presence. (I've tried black and white tea before.) The Dormouse does smell like bright, crisp light tea with garden herbs. The peony is subtle and melds with the green to give it little splatters of floral color to cut the greenness. It's pretty, but not terribly interesting or terribly beautiful. It reminds me of nice lotion. It's still nice enough that I'd keep it around for spring and summer, and it has moderate but subtle throw when it's around, but the problem is that it fades very quickly on me!

Woah, this is STRONG! A tiny tiny dab expressed itself very fully with aggressive throw. A sweet slightly grapey note (chardonnay) blended with a bit of tobacco, over a hint of coconut and a vanilla-esque base at first, occasional peeks of sharp leather coming through to temper the sweetness a little bit. I wish the leather was more aggressive, actually: it's the only pervy aspect that really comes through; I don't really get "booze" out of this. It has a powerful presence and is sweet for at least an hour and a half, and I just can't reconcile perverse or sexy with sugary sweet. As time passes it becomes more of a sweetened leather-tonka scent with a touch of tobacco, which is more to my taste, but still too sweet! I'm impressed by its throw and lasting power, and if Perversion's wine and tonka was just toned down a few notches I would love it. I'll keep the imp around and see how it layers with slightly more masculine blends to femme them up a little. I bet it would be great layered over Tezcatlipoca, actually... mmm, I'm practically salivating at the thought. ETA: Nooope, there's no hope for me! Too sickly sweet, and the wine note is just really disagreeing with me, even when I layered it.

Wet, it smells like orange zest and a tiny bit of carnation spice over patchouli. A little bit of noticeable throw, which is primarily bright orange over darker patchouli. As it dries down the ambergis comes out more, adding a bit of saltiness and its usual powdery oddness... ambergris doesn't really play well on my skin. The orange quickly dissipates and I'm left with mostly patchouli and a bit of ambergris. It's worth noting that this is completely different on my boyfriend. On him, it's all peppery carnations and sweet oranges! Spicy and juicy and bright, but it's quickly tempered with the strong grounding presence of patchouli. It's really nice.

Oops, looks like I never reviewed this one. I tried it a long time ago and liked it, more or less: it smelled like cinnamon rolls. Well, either my tastes changed or only fresh Chimera works on my skin, because a slightly more recent test was much worse. Upon opening the imp I was already worried: a sickly sweet smell. Cinnamon rolls, alright, but ones suspended in a vat of honey and general sweetness. On my skin it was also too sweet. Cinnamon is in there, but the copal is just a grounding presence. Honeysuckle amps WAY up and I just have to wash it off. I wish I could also throw a positive review onto the pile... if only honeysuckle behaved itself. ETA: Oh my. I got a scent locket and it's SO much NICER that way! I keep getting wafts of myrrh and copal tinted cinnamon. Warm and comforting and not too foody!

I often gravitate towards warmer/darker or heavier scents, but I like to have some light scents around too, particularly for spring and summer. Maiden is one of those light smells that passes the test! Pretty, light, but with a twist. This scent expresses itself pretty simply on my skin: rosy white tea with added carnations for spice. I LOVE tea, so I enjoy smelling like it, too! The tea is light, bright, and crisp, and has a gentle aspect like a real cup of white tea, tempered with rose. I dislike heady, loud rose, but this one is very well behaved and feminine. Spicy carnation, one of my favorite flowers (and I have few that I pick out as ones I really want to smell like), rounds this very balanced scent out nicely. The tea gives this a chilled aspect that would be perfect for spring and summer. It's just the loveliest scent!

Ultraviolet was one of my first unexpected loves, and Utrennyaya shares the mint and violet, so this blend needed to live up to some high expectations! It smells pleasant enough in the imp, all light and tasty mint melded with a swirl of gentle flowers. On, I can certainly feel the violets and the mint. It doesn't smell bad at all: very pretty. Pretty mint, pretty mess of flowers (I can identify rose and violet but the others are unfamiliar to me) with a definite green element. It fades pretty quickly, but most importantly, it's just not me. It's an interesting scent if you pay attention, but I feel like the overall effect would actually just come off as very traditional and a bit like soap/body wash/lotion. On the bright side, the white sandalwood note behaved on my skin and I'm sure this would smell lovely on the right person.

This was a frimp that I was hoping to try ever since I saw the note description. In the wet stage, ALMONDS! Pure almond. Queen of Sheba was also total almond on me, but Hecate's almond has a buttery instead of a powdery finish. It's much like Bastet's almond note to my nose, but much, much more prominent. For a brief time, it's still all delicious almond, but in a gradual, linear way, the scent unfolds. A deep, musky element is the first to emerge. Dark musk seems to have a quite dry aspect on me, and its presence nixes the foody aspect. Still later, the warm scent of myrrh takes on a bigger role and for about two hours this scent is of incense smoke and dark musk blended with buttery almond, mmm. However, after two or three hours... it smells a bit like... marshmallows! Not in a bad or artificial way... it smells comforting and a bit cute. Not really reflective of its namesake, but whatever. Myrrhshmallows! I'll keep the imp around, and perhaps someday I'll buy a bottle. This would be *great* for layering because it's simultaneously a straightforward scent and one with some 'depth'.

I can definitely identify all the flowers here. Familiar sweet pea and gently spicy carnation, along with aquatic water lily. It doesn't smell unpleasant- these are all flowers I like. But flowers alone can't carry a perfume for me- it's missing an element. Without any other distinguishing notes, it smells too simple and not me at all. It's light but not refreshing. Very girly, innocent, and unassuming. There's no twist. Carnations usually have a bit of zest but it's diluted in watery lily and pillowy soft sweet pea. It smells like something a fairytale princess would wear. I'll try and swap this one to someone who will appreciate it more and stick to Maiden for my light, floral fix.

I love the taste of cinnamon, but I'm learning that cinnamon in perfume blends is trickier. It needs to be paired with just the right notes to work well on my skin. Unfortunately, cinnamon + peach and orange = potpourri on me. I love patchouli and incense and orange, and for a little while I thought I might end up liking this blend anyway, but after the potpourri-esque initial stages it just faded into something unremarkable. Not bad, per se, just... not very good. It's just not for me. It turns out that I don't like the smell of peaches on my skin at all, and the peach + cinnamon combination just felt unpleasant and craft-store like on my skin. As time passed and the fruit grew less distinct, the incense and patchouli were still present, but as grounding elements to this generic-fruity sweetness. It has pretty good lasting power, though, and would probably smell better on someone whose skin amps these notes differently.

This is like Bathsheba... but much, much sweeter. I got this imp for the Amaretto, but got only the barest hint of it. Instead, I got pure, intense CANDY FRUIT. Like hard candy. It reminds me of Jolly Ranchers. There isn't much else to say about it. Just powerfully strong, cheap candy. It doesn't smell perfumey, it doesn't smell pretty, it just smells like somebody melted a giant vat of high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and artificial flavorings. Nothing else! The plum aspect is particularly strong, as I recognize it from Bathsheba, but overall, this was just too much... I waited for it to dry down, but I had to wash it off, because it was all candy, all the time.

I thought that I would love this. Almond, neroli, nutmeg, orange peel... it sounded like it would be great. But, from the moment I put it on, things started going wrong! The rose here was especially strong. Rose isn't always my enemy: it worked very well in Maiden, but here it really dominated almost everything else. The notes I hoped to smell here were detectable, but besides the rose, there was something overwhelmingly wrong, almost rancid about this blend on my skin! The rose's influence on the sandalwood results in a damp, strong, heady smell. So, in summary, Seraglio was full of promise, but ended up as moldy wood and nasty roses.

Oh, yum! I got this as a frimp, and I am so lucky that I did! This scent is in my top two for sure. This is my first experience with BPAL red musk and now I'm sure that I love it! On my skin, it was beautiful, delicately earthy patchouli and this sensuous red smell... spicy, gently sweet, and definitely sexy. I detect a bright touch of bergamot as well as the sweet, clean scent of lotus (a bit different from lotus like I've tried in Bastet; perhaps because this one is lotus root) that brightens this up and keeps Marianne from being too dirty. There's some other soft floral notes in there rounding the scent out, and the currant, thank god, is almost lost in the mix: there's just a touch of fruitiness, which largely dissipates as the hours wear on. And wow, does this oil last and last and last... even after ten (!) hours and using just a dab of oil, a noticeable hint of scent remained: rich and spicy patchouli melded with red musk, sweetened delicately by lotus. So good!

Of all the BPAL scents I've tried this is the one that changes LEAST from imp to dry on the skin. Gingersnaps, delicious and warm, from start to finish many hours later. Not much else to say: I don't really get any other resins or herbs, just spicy ginger cookies. Not that I'm really complaining: I love ginger. This scent reminds me of curling up under a blanket with a mug of hot tea and fresh ginger things. I put some Shub my neck and that I could smell it wafting up throughout the day. Very foody, very spicy. It's a great scent to have around during the dead of winter and around the holidays. I'll hold on to my imp for sure, but it's too foody for me to wear on a daily basis. EDIT: I've worn this a few times since my initial review and I've found that Shub is particularly susceptible to changes in my skin chemistry throughout the month. Sometimes it's gingersnaps, sometimes it's dry spices and ginger, with a prominent, dark resinous note that really ties it all together. Mmmm.

Straight out of the imp, juicy plum and spicy carnation. As it dries down the plum and carnation swirl into a pleasant, sensual musk... but simultaneously, the plum gets louder. The carnation in this smells lovely, but the plum is SO sweet! Later on the plum calms down a little and the scent actually seems to have a pleasantly creamy element. Two hours later, and for several hours after that, the scent stays much closer to the skin, and it's much subtler and more sensual; the sweetness of the plum is less overtly fruity, and the carnation's floral touch is much softer. It's a pretty smell, but the noisy opening act and the very light finish (I really have to hold my wrist up to my nose to sense it) mean I'm not going to hunt for a larger bottle. I'll probably try this scent in a couple weeks to see if I have better luck with it on another day.

It didn't smell like anything special in the imp, but I decided to put it on anyway because I love violets and enjoy cinnamon. For the first few minutes, it was pure frankincense. Frankincense can be good in a blend, but it was straight-up churchy here. I never got any cinnamon out of this, and the violets were almost completely smothered by the frankincense. Smoky and nice, but it's practically a single note on me. I'll pass on this one. If the violet and cinnamon hadn't been lost in the haze, this could have been really nice.

Not what I expected! In the imp, it smells like pine, sweetened with berry-flavored candy. On the skin, it turned to sweet pine. It was hard to place the sweetness, but it felt floral and fruity. Quite delicate, and not the least bit cloying. However, I didn't get any night-time air, dirt, or moss out of this! It was a pleasant smell, quite pretty actually, but in its later stages got to smelling quite soapy. Nice soap, with a lovely soft pine element, but soap nonetheless. It didn't have much throw and lasted only a few hours on me. I sort of liked it, but I'll try to pass it on to someone else. ETA, months later: Trying this out with a new imp and in an entirely different season, I find that I'm smitten. It's true love! My chemistry seems to have shifted a bit earlier this year, and currently it's more forgiving. Since the listed notes for Nocnitsa are so amazing, and the Eastern European inspiration resonates with me, I sought it out for another go. Well, it's pretty much wonderful. A sweet fir forest, dappled light and shadows... the bright lime-y note adds the brightness, I think. When that burns off, I'm left with a totally awesome cold forest air note, a hint of clean moss, and pine and fir sweetened with juicy red berries. The berries are very natural feeling, not candyish, and after a few hours it's a soft berries and fir scent. There may be a hint of cinnamon in here as well. My only complaint is that the lasting power isn't very good. Nonetheless, this is awesome. A wondrous forest scent with a sweet, girly edge.

This was just tragic! I was looking forward to elements of this scent... I love almonds, saffron, cinnamon, incense, and patchouli is often good as well. Alas, as soon as I sniffed the imp I began to feel less optimistic. Jasmine. Jasmine, jasmine, jasmine... my sworn enemy. On my skin, I smelled the incense, patchouli, and other flowers, as well as a little bit of almond and spice, but the most prominent note? Skewed, warped jasmine. My skin warps this particular note to a headache inducing, horrifying hybrid of old lady and wet dog, and amps it to the exclusion of all the other notes in Uruk.

In the imp, this smelled promising. As soon as it hit my skin, it was all downhill. I could definitely pick out the peach, bergamot, heliotrope, and oakmoss when it was wet. My skin quickly amped up the sweetness, and the peach scent began to go awry. As it dried down it turned into a vaguely powdery, sweet and sour kind of smell, with too-strong bergamot and synthetic-smelling peach. The oakmoss was a nice note, but it couldn't save the overall scent. The throw was dramatic, but I don't know about the lasting power: I had to wash it off after an hour. Nice in theory, but didn't jive with my skin.

In the imp, it smells primarily like rich cocoa powder, layered over something soft and warm. Wet, it briefly smells like dark, dark dry chocolate, and then unfurls into a beautifully blended scent. The overall impression is spicy and almost delicious, but not sweet at all. It turns to lovely dark incense and earthy patchouli, with a unique, seductive note that I can only assume is leather blended in, dusted with cocoa and underpinned by a breath of flowers. It's spicy and it inspires lustful thoughts like nothing else I can ever remember smelling. It eventually fades down to a soft, subtle, scent with little throw, but when I lift up my wrist I still get a whiff of something that's just deliriously sexy. I will use my imp again a few more times to see how much I like it on myself, but I think that I would LOVE this even more on my boyfriend. Mmmmmmm.

I thought I reviewed this before. I can see why I didn't, though. I'm heartbroken. Morocco, when wet, is gorgeous. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Spiced sweetness, laced with musk and perfect carnation. I inhale and enjoy. For about all of five minutes. I barely get a chance to appreciate Morocco's magic, because it's gone fast. Almost as soon as it dries, there's nothing left. No throw, no lasting power, nothing but the brief memory of a perfect scent. I tried this three times with the hope of better results, but it's time to give up hope. Morocco would have been perfect, if only it hadn't disappeared on my skin.