Minh Scent

I LOVE Antikytera Mechanism, so knew I was being risky with a flanker. Why mess with perfection? However, I thought spice would go well with the classic vanilla, tobacco and wood. It does and happily I get no pumpkin (ack! a vegtable in my perfume?!) others mentioned. The spice is not overpowering. 

This definitely needs to age, as it is not as smooth as the original.

I have tested this four days running, including two full days at work. It is a heavy morpher and judging from the comments above, very fickle to skin chemistry. Testing advised before commitment!

For me Utter Sophistication starts out with unexpected popcorn and butter notes (giving me the same smile as the surprise nut note in Spider Witch), chased with light lavender and sexy Snake Oil. Dorian then appears and I am enjoying that, with a slightly salty, lavender twinge. So pretty! I think we are done...but to my surprise way late in the dry down, I get woody vanilla doused beeswax! Usually BPAL's waxes enter early and don't stay around as long as I would like. This is the opposite. I haven't been so head over heels about a Lilith since (Not) So Pentitent (Mini) Mag (still #1 in my books).

Utter Sophistication gets the Minh Scent 2019 favorite perfume of the year (across companies) award!

Creamy, soft, not too sweet. The lavender is delicate, as is the tea. This is a cozy perfume and would  be non-offensive for those low-scent tolerance situations.

As someone who prefers aged Snake Oil, this is not catching my attention. I love the wet phase, when I get the lavender, but then it goes sharp on me and rose water is too light too seduce me as it usually does. Very little sweetness.

However, this is going in the cellar and will deserve retesting, judging from previous SO flanker experience.

Hmm..there is a note in here that reminds me of a cross between Snow White and bpal's champagne note. That must be the musk. The mint is quite strong, so strong that my eyes tingle a bit. It takes a while for  the florals, mainly lilac, to develop. It is a strange combination. I like it, but not as much as The Last Unicorn, which also has unusual note interplay.

ETA I get chocolate in the final drydown, which is interesting, as it is usually a top note. 

Lovely, slightly sweet patch and vetiver.

Very foody chocolate cake and jam.  I smell something liquor as well. 

On me, this is Pomegranate Tobacco, not Tobacco Pomegranate. Starts out very fruity and the pomegranate is evident through drydown.The tobacco does pick up after time, but it is not tobacco forward on me. It more reminds me of the use of tobacco in some of the Laces, rather than the heavy play in Antikytera Mechanism or Dead Leaves and Tobacco. The oud is woody- no poo to my nose- and gives the perfume a good background base. 

This looks like it might be an unreleased ETSY scent.

This is cuddly lavender snake on me. The oude gives it a dark, lush depth.  I get a bit of oakmoss slinking in, but not the geranium or violet leaf. As a big fan of SO, I have quite a few of its variations. This is one of my favorites.

This is such an unusual beauty. I don't get zombies or swamps at all, but a cooling, seductive freshness from the chypre  and lots of one of my favorite BPAL notes- dandelion! Can't remove my nose from my braid!!

Hmmm. I keep trying this one, because it sounded like a win-win, but like Milo, not sure what the fuss is about. I would say it is "pretty" and the chypre plays nicely with the vanilla. Probably my lack of enthusiasm is because I already have a vanilla  HG I am ultra-gaga about- Antique Lace - and everything pales in comparison.

That being said, if you need a lovely, versitile vanilla, go for it! It is like Antique Lace Lite. Nothing to kick out of bed!

How did I not review this? With the wax and the neroli/tuberose, it was love at first sniff in 2015 and a year later, I had to search for a second bottle replacement and then a third partial! BPAL wax note is one of my favorite and it this perfume, it is the centerfold amongst seductive white florals with hints of honey and orange.

I got this based on the majority of reviews that this is soft grasses and a nonfoody vanilla. That is exactly what I am getting and love it!

Starts out very creamy with a salty note. (I tried it three times, and yep, there is a salty note in the beginning which quickly disappears.) The flowers soon come out.  They are neither lotus not cherry to me, but something nondescript, yet still very pretty.  (I know what  real lotus smell like and that is not this; also, I have been around many flowering cherry trees and I do not get a scent from the.  Maybe the American variety?  But I accept-happily- any note interpretation.) Dry down is a creamy and gently floral, with a gorgeous honey note. I am not picking up the teak.  Late dry down, I get almost a waxy quality, which pushes the scent up a few notches for me.  It is indeed rightly named, as it is an elegant scent. Beautiful!

This starts off as a beautiful wave of honey, very similar to the one in GC Honey Hair Gloss. (I am on my second bottle of that,  so a fan!) I cannot pick out the hay absolute, but suspect it might be what is keeping the honey from being too sweet. There is a soft grassy shadow,  but definitely not hay to my nose. Drydown is a gorgeous honeyed amber with very light nuances of green. I am delighted!

I adore Meditation Buddies, and since this has similar notes (and I bravely resisted a backup of MB), I had to try this.  The two scents are in the same scent family, but where MB is more ethereal,  Ubi Beni, Ibi Patria has a bit more substance form the sweet vanilla vibe of the cookies.  It is not overly sweet .Funnily enough,  although MB seems more "delicate"  as I death matched the two twice this wee, MB actually lasts longer. The Florida Water and light rose  notes are so lovely!

This is mostly lovely, powdery orris and violet on me, with just a trace of frank.  Since I love all three of those notes, this is a win-win for me.  Delicate and classy. 

This might be my favorite of the collection.  This is one of those "whoa!" perfumes for me in that it smells so atmospheric...having been in the Cathedral, this is what it smells like- incense, candles and stone.  The lavender confuses me a bit at first.  On my skin, this is the first note that comes forward, but then, yes, it does become a more incense, smokey lavender, and then the other notes come out as well.  Beautiful!

This is a beautiful and realistic coffee on me, with a strong vanilla background.  Certainly one of the more lip-smacking coffee perfumes I have met. It only lasts about 30 minutes on my skin, but reapplying is never an issue!

On application to my hair, the scent starts with a lovely blast of tobacco, cinnamon and a bit of ginger. which transforms into a beautiful red musk.  The first day I wore this, I got ALL musk- classic beautiful BPAL red musk.  Two days later, the tobacco has really come out, although it is still predominantly a musk scent..  This is gorgeous and long lasting!   If these notes are your jam, I highly recommend it!

The peppermint helps this from being too sweet. Like others said, there is an initial blast of mint and then it settles. I get too much baked goods at first, but it calms down to a more enjoyable vanilla. Interestingly, the mint peeks in again, making it altogether very pleasant.

This is one if the more unusual scents I have enjoyed from BPAL. (Unusual wearable, not unusual Gore Shockesque!) I am not used to so many things going on at once. The only thing that bars complete enjoyment for me is that the toffee is a little too sweet. This is something you want to wear home when you can keep your nose to your wrist and enjoy the morphing.

Blood Kiss with Snow White  is a brilliant idea! The sexiness of cheeries, vanilla and vetiver with the prettiness of a snowy dusting. Actually it is almost a blizzard, the Snow White quite strong. 

If you are a fan of evergreen forest and incense, here's your HG! The pine and resins are a harmonious combination and pleasantly on the stronger side. I don't pick up any smokey vibe. Lovely!

Interesting, this one. I was expecting an incense-heavy perfume, but it is quite light in the resins, with more focus on waxy candles to my nose. Very pretty scent.