tajana

Fascinum was a colossal disappointment. On my boyfriend, it smelled like soap. Still, I figured it was worth a shot on me. I dabbed some on and was horrified that it immediately turned to soap. I can't place what brand, but it is certainly a very familiar scent. A little citrusy, a little spicy and cologney. I kept sniffing at it, hoping that it would suddenly get better after it dried, and while definitely smelled some inimitable saffron spice and great cedar wood (I totally wanted this for the cedar), they were only bit players embedded in the soapy mixture... I have a feeling "golden" musk smells a lot like plain old clean white musk on me. Which is great with some perfumes, but with the litsea cubeba (google tells me it smells like lemongrass or possesses a violet-like fragrance) it contributes to the clean but soapy impression. Eventually amber rises to the top, and like most ambers on my skin, it turns the whole thing to indistinct "golden" powder. Oh, amber, why are you always rebelling against me?

When I first apply it, it's all backwards: the base notes are hitting me before the lighter elements. All I get for a few seconds is patchouli, deep patchouli, further darkened with burnt vetiver, and then it's pierced by a sliver of dry white sandalwood and a breath of hazy white musk. The lavender and mint kick in like a sudden gust of wind, fused together into one sensation of herbal chill. I never get any discernible citrus for certain but it might be contributing to the sharp freshness. All in all, the progression seems quite appropriate for "death". After a while on my wrist, the floral notes kick in and meld with the lavender and pale blend of sandalwood and clean white musk, cutting through the subdued but dark vetiver/patchouli base. The result is a lovely man's cologne, clean but slightly earthy, light but solemn. Tragically, the perfume faded faster than I expected, and clinging close to my skin was little more than oddly bitter vetiver, geranium bourbon, a wisp of sandalwood, and the feeble remains of floral cologne.

Kathmandu smells really pleasing to me in the imp. Nice and woodsy. Freshly applied, it's a wee bit of saffron and cedar, but mostly jarring eucalyptus/menthol. Very cooling and strange, but if I keep the name in mind it makes more sense... gives it an outdoors, high in the mountains kind of feel. The lotus note is really lovely, it's light, a bit watery, and sweet. Too much lotus can be bubblegummy, but there's not enough of it here to give that effect. It just gives some unique floral balance to the dry woods and incense. Love the cedar and sandalwood, but the mentholated note is bothersome... it sticks around through the drydown, and it blends very strangely with some incensey smell I can't really parse (chiuru bark and spices, maybe). It's light, crisp, and almost wearable, but my sister had an extremely negative reaction (she said it smelled like a weird herb and car shampoo, ie. horrible) so I won't be giving Kathmandu another shot.

In the vial it smells tasty and chocolately. I love cocoa as a supporting element, but not as the main attraction, so I hoped that the sandalwood and myrrh would be louder on the skin. Freshly applied, it's very chocolatey, but the vanilla is subdued enough that it doesn't do the over-sticky-sweet thing that Boomslang is wont to do on me. As it dries down the sandalwood and myrrh amp up higher, but they're still very much fused with the cocoa and a touch of vanilla. It smells pretty much as I'd expect it to from the notes... really soft, warm, and unassuming. I like it well enough, but since I have a few more complex and less sweet cocoa scents around, I won't be revisiting my imp. I'd be more inclined to keep this around if I could subtract the vanilla and add another wood note or some spice. ETA: Yeeepppp... several hours after my initial application, it's almost interchangeable with Boomslang. Chocolatey-vanilla with something else lurking beneath the sweet surface. It would smell great if I actually wanted to smell like a delicious dessert, which I don't. Phenomenal lasting power, though... still going strong after eight hours.

Oh dear. I expected incensey goodness, but instead got nauseatingly sweet grape candy and a high, sour, sharp, floral powder. As it starts to dry down it gets even mustier and stays rather grapey. I really like patchouli but it's just not blending well with anything else in this particular blend. Not for me. On the bright side, it faded down fast so I didn't wash it off, and after an hour I noticed that it smelled much nicer: rich, earthy, glorious patchouli with a sweet touch of purpley grape. If I could skip the opening stage, I would definitely keep this.

The notes in Centzon Totochtin by themselves wouldn't have drawn me in, but I wanted to try this because I really like the other two Aztec excolo scents I've tried (Tezcatlipoca and Xiuhtecuhtli) and I'm fascinated by their mythology. In the imp I can smell the cocoa, rum, and wine. The wine scent floats highest to my nose and I got a little worried. But, wet on the skin it's really bitter cocoa, almost coffee-like. After a minute I can smell the sweet rum and some of the red wine sweetening up the cocoa, and I could swear there's a hint of roasted hazelnut here too. There's something kind of smoky about this scent, it's making me think of vetiver. That really tempers the sweetness of wine, which usually spins out of control and into sticky grape juice on me. I'm unfamiliar with the BPAL blood note but there is a sharp, tangy edge to this scent. After 25 minutes, close to my wrist, it's almost sickeningly sweet and yes, a little bloody. Violent yet decadent? But the throw is pretty intense, and it's got an intoxicating quality: it's a swirl of dark, smoky, unsweetened cocoa blended with dry wine and rum. Three hours later, it's softer but still definitely there, and it's mostly an unexpectedly good rum note darkened with smoky dark chocolate, perhaps a tiny touch of cinnamon, and a bit of something "red". The overall effect is rich, but the lack of sweetness keeps it from being too foody. Interesting, and quite warm and comforting. I've come to like it a lot! ETA: This is one of those temperamental scents that goes bad on bad skin chemistry days. One day I wore it and my boyfriend remarked that it smelled like "Christmas cookies". The next time I tried it, it smelled like "Campbell's tomato soup and black licorice". Um, no thanks.

Kyoto in the imp smells vague and floral. On the skin, it's an explosion of licorice! I don't like the taste of black licorice, and I don't particularly like the smell of star anise. I expected a cherry note based on some of the other reviews but that's not so on The anise tones itself down to let the sandalwood poke through, and then the cherry blossom. I love cherry blossoms, but this licorice flavored edition just isn't doing it for me. The sandalwood and cherry blossom duo is pleasant but demure... it would be soapy, were it not for the strong twist of star anise. The licorice, by the way, is the only note that seems to have any throw on me. The licoricey anise tones itself down very gradually over time until nothing remains unless I huff my wrist to get a ghost of pretty cherry blossoms underscored by pale sandalwood.

I bought this on a whim, just because I've been on a lavender kick. However, there is so much more to this blend than lavender. In the bottle, it smells something interesting. It smells wild and magical, somehow... there's just something about that combination of cool pine and natural soft lavender, with something darker underneath it. Freshly applied, the pine/evergreen note strengthens. At this point I was just totally blown away. It smells really beautiful. I am a big fan of the smell of pine and other evergreen plants in nature, but in perfumes it rarely works out for me... something always goes wrong and it ends up smelling like Christmas or potpourri or pine-sol. Not so here. Just, WOW. Beautiful dark green sap, with the most perfect cooling, purple lavender note harmonizing with it perfectly. I think there's definitely some sort of balsam here that adds a richness and sweet warmth... I'm no expert on balsam but based on my experience with Bezoar I think there must be some of that in here. This smells so calming and serene and regal so far! As the scent dries down further the evergreen note dims, the lavender stays strong yet soft, and the balsam (I believe) note melds with what I think is sandalwood and frankincense. Guh, the wood note behaves divinely on me, it's light and airy and smooth. I'm not usually a big fan of prominent frankincense as it tends to go out of control on me but it really stays in check here... it reminds me of the straight up frankincense note that was in Anne Bonny, but it's so much more well behaved here, it's just one note among others. I think there really may be beeswax here... there's a note in this that reminds me vaguely of Hanerot Halalu. After a while I'm mainly getting a resinous blend (myrrh?), like an earlier reviewer said, a lighter Schwarzer Mond... without whatever weird soda-like note and bitterness that ruined that scent for me, and with lavender, balsam, and maybe a touch of vanilla added. This stage isn't as drop-dead gorgeous as the first half hour but it's still really great, and it smells like classic BPAL. It's deep but not heavy, light and shadowed, cooling yet with undercurrents of warmth... I can picture wearing this pretty much in any season in any weather. I need to try this a few more times! *I* think it smells really beautiful, but I'm wary of resinous blends as sometimes they indeed turn powdery on me, and couple of times somebody said I smelled like baby powder when I was wearing something I thought smelled dark and resinous and complex. Sooo the jury is still out on whether or not I'll keep my bottle of Hermes... it was a pleasure testing him out, now I just have to test out the reactions of my boyfriend, family, friends, and general public. ETA: I've since tried No. 93 Engine, and these two blends do indeed share some common blood, but No. 93 Engine is warmer and brighter. They're quite different in feel (I agree about the "mythical" atmosphere!), but still close enough that I won't need both... wellll, I'll keep a bit for myself!

I was curious about Enraged Groundhog Musk because it featured cardamom and black cherry, but freshly applied, it's buttery musk. Eesh. Not a promising start! As it dries down it gets a little more complex and a little less buttery. The cardamom establishes itself after a minute or two, lending a welcome dose of spice, and the vanilla gives it characteristic sweet creaminess. Cherries make brief appearances here and there, adding moments of really vivid black cherry, covered in a bit of dark chocolate. But the moments of fruitiness don't really punch all the way through the dense caramel vanilla musk. I smell like a cardamom-spiced, caramel drizzled chocolate chip cake with a bit of cherry turnover filling. With a musky base. This is just WAY too foody for me. I almost washed it off, but I left it and after another hour or so it faded to a really pleasant, cardamom and caramel flavored soft musk. It sticks around for a while, too. If I could just skip the opening foody stage, I would keep this.

There were some great reviews for Haunted, so I really wanted to give it a shot despite my patchy track record with the listed notes. In the imp and just applied, it's so pretty. A warm, sweet, golden amber. Simple and heartbreakingly beautiful. As it dries down, though, my worst fears are confirmed. Muskiness is identifiable for just a brief second, and then the dark musk and amber disappear. Nothing but extra-sweetened baby powder. Various ambers and also occasionally dark musk blends have turned rather powdery on me, so I guess I half expected this outcome.

Smells nice and citrusy out out of the imp. I had long forgotten what notes were in Spider, but the lime really leaped out at me. Freshly applied, it's really bright: mostly lime and bergamot, with the bite of freshly grated ginger. As it dries down it gets really green and herbal, cool and refreshing. I have no idea what artemesia smells like but I guess that's what's adding this scent. Really herbal, almost vegetable-y. There's just a vague hint of something floral, it works really well to make this perfume smell well rounded. There's a great base of vetiver underneath it all that really holds it together, adds a bit of "refined dirtiness" (aahh, I can't explain it) that really meshes well with the greenery. The nutmeg only comes out when the perfume fades down and clings close to the skin... the lasting power isn't that great, sadly... I'll try it in my hair next time. It's definitely a masculine scent but I quite like wearing it too. It's a very well blended, pretty expensive smelling perfume, and has a great, sprightly, kind of mischevious/dastardly vibe. (Randomly, I strongly get the impression of a pale green color from this scent.)

Wow, the Warrior Queens have gorgeous labels! It's almost enough by itself to make me wish I had ordered a set instead of a few decants.

I just realized I never posted a review for this! (I have a strange fondness for posting reviews, and I haven't had the opportunity to test very many new smellies lately...) Anyway, Shango was a frimp that I was quite curious to try, as I had seen a few raves from Shango sprinkled around in the past. I never sought it out myself because excessively fruity perfumes don't always sit so well with me, and banana made me especially wary. Shango is certainly a unique scent, right out of the imp... On my skin it's a swirl of fruit, emphasis on the banana, pineapple, and apple. It's not a typical tropical fruity smell, though, because there's a dusky, spicy quality to it. The chili pepper is really prominent and really life-like, which is interesting and unexpected, but odd. When it dries down it's just "potpourri" to me (it's just what I'm reminded of with certain combinations of fruit and spice)... a brown, somewhat powdery, almost musky scent of chili powder, sugar, and fruit.

Smells candy-like in the bottle but like a true fresh berry after it settles on the skin, probably because as it dries, the greeness of the dandelion comes forth. The trace of vanilla rounds out the tart edges of the strawberry. I didn't think I liked it that much at first but after it dried, the dandelion and grass added a delightfully fresh element. Grass notes I've tried before smell soapy but the "dandelion sap" smells really realistic and fresh and not sterile at all, it reminds me of being eight years old and lying down in a grassy field at the park, picking a handful of dandelions. It harmonizes really well with the strawberry notes, which smell like a bowl of finely chopped up strawberries, succulent and brilliantly ruby red, mixed with a spoonful of sugar. I'm salivating at the thought. Totally delicious and summery. Interestingly, my sister, who reflexively hates just about any perfume oil went ballistic for it. She whiffed it in the bottle and said it smelled like gummi bears and ring pops and made her really nostalgic, and then after she put it on it settled down to strawberries and dandelions... she kept huffing her wrist and demanding I give the bottle to her. Even though it isn't cloyingly candylike after it dries, it is still childish, if only for the memories it conjures up. Longevity and throw are about what I'd expect from a perfume this light... which is to say, not very long lived, but the throw is just right while it's around. It fades eventually to soft powdery, sugary vanilla (powdered sugar?) with a bit of "pink" and "green" from residual strawberries and dandelions. I didn't expect to like this as much as I do... as the hours have passed, I've definitely decided that I'm glad to have some of this. The bottle art is gorgeous, too! EDIT: LOL, I still like it, but my boyfriend isn't the biggest fan. He says it smells like "diabetes"... by which I think he means hyperglycemia.

I was hoping for a Hungry Ghost Moon relative with more tea and less citrus, and something light, gently floral, gently spicy and tea-infused to replace the hole Bakeneko left in my heart (the amber went too powdery). The glowing reviews piqued my interest, but I haven't seen a reasonably priced bottle until recently. Fresh on my skin it's soft and peachy. It's pale and light, but pretty. The ginger is just part of the mix, but it's what really holds the blend together and piques my interest. I wish the ginger was stronger, personally. It plays nicely off of the tea note. It's got a soft floral element, and seems quite "creamy", yet its neither vanillic nor milky. The sandalwood never really asserts itself, but the skin musk certainly does. Dry, it's a soft, subtle skin-scent with a delicate, Oriental sweetness. The throw is mild, and if I whiff it up close I still get the impression of white peach tea with sweet, creamy blossoms. Beautiful, yes, but too subtle for my personal taste!

Sado-masochistic holiday cheer: whip leather, cardamom, patchouli and bourbon. I was really excited to try Spanked: cardamom, patchouli, leather? Sign me up! The only note I was apprehensive about was bourbon, but that's the subtlest element of the scent on my skin: it's just a slight splash of booziness, spiced with a bit of cardamom. I was hoping for more cardamom, but no such luck... my skin has a tendency to suck up cardamom and mellow spices out, though! The heart of this scent is patchouli with leather. This leather note is the softest I've smelled in BPAL, probably because of its age: instead of sharp-edged whip leather, it smells more like a buttery soft leather jacket. The patchouli is definitely the most prominent note of all: it's smooth, smooth, smooth, dark and rich, just a bit of sweetness. I tested with just a drop but it lasted for ages and ages: rather close to the skin, but powerful. Ultimately, it's nice but not mind-blowing, and there are sexier leather scents in the BPAL repertoire, IMO... Crowley certainly comes to mind, even Tezcatlipoca... both feature patchouli and leather, and are much easier to get your hands on.

Wet, it's a bitter and bright swirl of citrus: pink grapefruit, lemon, and bergamot, with a sweetened edge. When it dries down the sage is more prominent, which lends a nice herbal note: I'm really digging herbal notes lately. I don't sense much musk, but the patchouli is a really nice base for this scent. But, the rose is rosey and increasingly prominent after a bit. Curiously enough wild rose is more well behaved on me than any other rose I've tried with BPAL. It's not unpleasant but it outweighs the other notes too much. If the rose was swapped for, say, cherry blossom or neroli (or another "blossom", really), I would love Croquet and wear it a lot. It's a lovely citrus-floral, and a quintessential springtime scent.

Wet, it was Dorian's "Victorian fougere" with an extra dose of lavender. It dried down to delicate lily of the valley and lavender with light musk. It smelled like flower petals, mainly, much to my surprise. Then, it morphed to lily-lavender over a warm vanilla base, halfway between Dorian's staighter vanilla and Snake Oil's smoked-yet-powdery vanilla. Just a trace of fennel. It's not unpleasant, but my chemistry does nothing for it, resulting in an really unmemorable scent.

Oya smells very strange. Some notes I'd never expect to sniff together are rolled up into one place, and they're blended so that they would be very hard to discern if I didn't have past reviews to look over. I guess the best way to put it would be a general light incense smell. Now, I know that incense comes in a thousand varieties, but this just smells like, uh, one of them. There's this cherry note, and a plummy presence... two fruity scents which I adore in the right context. But they're paired with a light, sharp, airy notes. There's ozone (very odd paired with the fruit, to my nose) and a medicinal overtone, with some herbs I can't identify. When it dries down, it's similar, but a touch more floral and even more ambiguous. It's not bad, but it's not working for me.

In the imp, it's quite piney. I have high hopes, 'cause I've been questing for a good pine-rich scent that doesn't smell like Christmas potpourri or Pine-Sol. Wet on the skin, it automatically turns to patchouli and golden resin, freshened by pine. As it dries down, I can definitely see where this is heading: it definitely feels like an archetypal "Carnaval Diabolique" sort of scent. As it dries down it's got some decent throw. Smoky tobacco and vanilla darken and sweeten a resinous base that continues to feel very golden and amber-colored. I forgot that there was honey in here, but now that I reread the description that must be the sweet gold bit! It's got lots of character for about an hour and a half, and then it fades down to a vaguely tobacco-smokey sweet skin scent. It lasts for hours and hours close to the skin. If I huff my wrist, I can tell that the sweet musk also has tobacco, patchouli, and vanilla blended together. It's nice, but it's not blowing me away! I wish there was more pine, less vanilla. I'm glad I got to try this, but I don't think I'll keep my decant because I have other oils to fill this general scent-niche.

The orange blossom and vanilla do make me think of a floral creamsicle (not orange as in the fruit, but really creamy), but this scent is full of well, darkness. I had NO idea what black narcissus smells like but I'm guessing it's part of the very bold and dark floral here. There's a sinister, musky-animalistic tint to this despite the extreme creaminess of the vanilla and the brightness of orange blossom. I would have guessed there is some sort of woodsy note here as well. There are aspects of it that I do like... the creamy orange blossom is really nice, but the narcissus or something else is adding a disjointed edge that is really unpleasant and hard to describe on my skin. A bit sharp. With the prominent smoky vanilla, this does remind me of Vixen and Snake Oil.

Fresh out of the imp this is a blast of pure maraschino cherry! As it dries down the cherry deepens into pure dark red cherry, almost alcoholic in its intensity. As it dries down the mahogany really takes over. Mahogany wood is unmistakably at the center, though I also get cedar. The wood is dark, polished, luxe and almost smoky. The cherry colors it red, but doesn't really sweeten it, hence the unisex feel. After a while on the skin the sweet currants and dark cherry reassert themselves and balance more with the woods. I don't know why I passed over The Red Queen for so long! I think it's because somewhere I saw someone recommend it as a scent appropriate for an older woman, so I jumped to the conclusion that this was going to be somehow stuffy or matronly. Not so! It's regal for sure, but in an ageless, classy, slightly androgynous way. I'm fairly confident that this little imp will stay with me until I use it all up: I love cherry, I love woods, and this is a great scent... too haughty for everyday wear, but I'll find appropriate times to dab this on!

This smells a lot like Morocco and Black Opal. I think they share the same light and almost powdery yet cloying/sweet vanilla note. There's not much more to Antique Lace than the vanilla. if I huff my wrist while its still recently applied, I get some light, vaguely pretty floral tones, but there's also something quite sharp. After it dries, it's that sweet vanilla with a faint, clean powdery edge. This isn't particularly potent in terms of throw but it does last a long time on me. I was hoping that I'd like this based on all the positive reviews, or hoping that it would be a great vanilla to layer with things that need a bit of girly sweetening sometimes, but it's just the wrong shade of vanilla for my tastes and my chemistry. I guess I've finally learned and accepted now that highly vanilla-centric scents, no matter how well loved, simply aren't my best bet.

Bon Vivant is just packed to the brim with that too-sweet grapey note that killed Perversion for me. Wine and champagne notes in BPAL don't register as such to my nose, they just seem like white grape juice. The strawberry note is delightful at first, but goes quickly to strawberry-flavored candy, and finally to artifical, crushed up powdery straberry candy residue congealed by grape juice. Too sweet, not for me!

Lots and lots of fresh "splintered" woods and florals, definitely lots of lily and peony! I don't sense any mandarin, but there's definitely a strong white musk in here... not one I really like. "High pitched" indeed... the scent of a crazy grandmother, perhaps. Well, at first at is. The soapy white florals fade away after a little while. The pepper, after lying in wait for twenty minutes or so, goes crazy and stabs all the florals with freshly cut wooden swords, sparing only the pale, sharp musk and a trace of the laurel. This is a weird one!