Lucchesa

I love violets, but I don't always love them in perfume where the scent can take on a maiden aunt vibe. But I like this blend a lot. Besides violets, and the earthy notes of patchouli and moss, I got what smelled to me a little like bergamot and must be the red currant, which brightened the blend up for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on my sponge-like skin at all.

This was a frimp from a generous forumite -- thank you! It's a keeper!

I had to look up redoul on Wikipedia -- turns out I could just have looked at the first review. A Mediterranean shrub with poisonous blackberry-like berries. I don't get dusky blackberry here -- and frankly, I would be thrilled with more blackberry scents in the catalog -- but something brighter. More like a salmonberry than a blackberry. This is not as heady and dark as the only other apiary scent I've tried, Deadly Nightshade Honey. On me it has a springtime vibe; I would wear Deadly Nightshade Honey in winter but would only wear this in winter if I were longing for a taste of spring.

This lasts forever on me, which is incredibly rare. I put it on around 11 last night (I know, I know) and can still smell it at eight in the morning. A fantastic choice for any situation where you want to smell fantastic all day but won't have the opportunity to reapply. An Alpine meadow hike? Wandering through Monet's garden? Perfect.

I finally tried my imp of Hermia, and in the imp I frankly couldn't make out much at all. But this bloomed on my skin and lasted quite a while as a skin scent. I don't get a distinct pepper note, just a brightness that goes beautifully with the sweet honeysuckle and golden amber. Not sure exactly what passionflower smells like but I will have to seek it out in more blends because this one is A. discontinued and B. lovely, lovely, lovely.

Whoa, oleander! That was the dominant note on me, wet or dry. Not a problem - I don't adore oleander, but I like it , and if it's going to let a scent last a little longer on me, I'm all for it. Especially when there's mandarin involved, and creamy magnolia. (I couldn't identify any specific spices.) I applied it several hours ago, and although it's totally a skin scent now, my wrist still smells terrific. This wasn't dark or smoky on me -- I was a little worried deep musks would translate into problematic black musk, but they did not. It's sort of sexy and confident. Very nice!

Tuberose usually ruins a scent for me, but I was hoping that if it was listed that far back in the credits, it would behave and not hog the stage. And for the most part it did. I know it's there, but it's not dominating ruthlessly. Pear and plumeria are so beautiful, and the rose takes prominence as it dries down. This is a lovely, feminine scent. I wish it lasted longer on me, though.

Where I would wear this: a garden party in April

 

I have always gotten great service at Pilot Vials: http://www.pilotvials.com/Roll-on-vials.html

Thanks for the recc! And to make double extra sure - their rollers work with BPAL bottles? I have zero desire to decant into new bottles.

 

The ones that LuneNoir recommended above that definitely fit the 5ml bottles look like they're back in stock;

https://www.gotoilsupplies.com/stainless-steel-metal-roll-on-inserts-caps-for-5ml-to-100ml-boston-round-bottles/

This is another scent that becomes quite nice after about an hour. Unfortunately, the drydown phase is obnoxious on me -- something like lemon Pledge mixed with mosquito repellent. Now it's a gentler lemony incense, but I'm not going to go through the bug spray thing again. I'm super glad I got to try this, but I will pass it on to someone who can appreciate it more.

My review could almost be identical to Lucycat's. I got the pencil shavings both in the imp and wet, and only after a long drydown did I begin to be able to make out the frankincense and sandalwood and the faintest hint of coconut. Not that I wanted this to smell like a pina colada; faint was just right. I expected a bit more of the lab's snow note in the "tuft of coconut-white snow" but it is nothing like, say, Tres Riches Heures. After about an hour and a half it is really, really pretty, but I'm not sure I'm that patient.

In the imp, the sharp note other reviewers have mentioned in Allison Gross smelled sour to me, as if she had put all her herbs and flowers into a cauldron to ferment. The sourness didn't last on my skin, but sadly neither did much of anything else. I got the teasing promise of a lovely, grassy floral, but it faded down to nothing within half an hour. Slathering might help, but I think I"ll pass this on to someone whose skin will treat it more kindly.

Aquatics are not my thing, generally. This was a frimp and when I saw it was recently discontinued, I decided to try it. And at first it went well -- much brighter than I expected from the description. I think lovers of aquatics would really like this. But as it dried down, I got more salty seaweed smell combined with a soapy feeling that together started to turn my stomach, which was already not doing so well with my simultaneous test of The Chicken-Legged Hut, and I had to wash it off. Oh, well.

As I vegetarian, I should probably never have tried Chicken-Legged Hut. But I saw it was getting discontinued, and so many of the reviews said they got absolutely no chicken at all, so I was curious to try it. Well, maybe I have an overactive imagination, but I got chicken pot pie and it freaked me out and I washed it off my wrist. No, thank you!

The King of Hearts morphed on me quite a bit. I didn't get any cherry at first, but wet it was an almost citrusy, bright lavender with hints of rose. In drydown, lavender remained the most prominent note, backed up by rose and rosewood, though it is never as woody on me as Queen of Hearts. Eventually the musk started peeking out, and now, an hour and 45 minutes after application, it is mostly cherry over a musky base. It's very pleasant to sniff my arm, but there is no throw on me at all. Nice, and I'll wear the imp, but not a bottle purchase.

Given that I adore carnation in general and Alice in particular, I was sure this was going to be a bottle buy for me. Which is why I try to test imps first. This was sweet boozy fruit in the imp and remained so on my arm. For me, a more accurate description would be "Carnation, posies, and white amber drowned out by inky treacle, sandy cider and wooly wine." It's not unpleasant; it's just not what I was hoping for in a regal Alice. It doesn't morph on me much at all and is lasting pretty well with low throw. Definitely more of an autumnal scent in my opinion. I may wear it to have drinks for a friend's birthday later in the week, and I'll keep the imp because it's Alice, but a bottle is not in my future.

I wanted to try Old Demons of the First Class because I love the Marchen series and it sounded so interesting. Neroli and tonka are usually good on me, but musks can be rather iffy, and I wasn't sure what color Siberian was -- this is the only blend in my collection to have it. In the imp, it was smoky and spicy, and wet on my skin I began to be able to smell the neroli and clove. I was really enjoying it. Then it dried, and all that was left was musk and harsh black pepper.

Retested in 2021 because my tastes have changed and I wanted to try this aged.  I am so glad I did.  I now know I'm a fan of Siberian musk and opoponax, and together with the clove these are the main players on my skin.  There's a little neroli for a breath of citrus, but mainly this is spicy musky dark resins, a little sweet, perfectly unisex and perfect for this damp chilly autumn day. 

Wet, this is a rather high-pitched floral, not at all sweet or candy-like. As it dries down it becomes mostly lavender with a hint of rose and wisteria and the musk and sandalwood grounding it, with an overall cool feel on me. It's lovely but not the most distinctive BPAL floral; I will definitely keep it because I love the poem.

Leather is a really iffy note on me, so I worried about it being the first listed note in Les Infortunes, but I love the idea of leather and I love all the other notes, so I thought it was worth a try. And it was! Generally, if leather is going to be awful on me, it's awful right from the imp and stomps all over all the other lovely smells. But here it was a generous supporting player, letting the orange blossom and rose and amber come out. For me, this was not a particularly masculine scent at all. It's sexy and beautiful. I'm so happy to find another leather scent that works for me.

I'm so glad I'm not the only person who got chocolate from this, because I'm not always good at picking out scent notes. But this is the milk chocolate note I wanted Bliss to smell like, with maybe some fruit and florals along for the ride. For me it was like one of those chocolate covered cherries in liqueur, and fairly long-lasting on my sponge-like skin. Not at all what I expected from a Rappaccini's Garden scent. Red velvet cake, though -- nice pun, Beth!

Chimera! It's like Inferno, without the big red skin welts! I don't know why I can wear this and not Inferno, but I don't care. I will just accept what the universe gives me. The honeysuckle reads like honey to me more than flowers. Myrrh can be an iffy note on me, and I still haven't figured out what copal smells like, but this is lovely, warm, spicy, maybe even a little almondy. It is going to be fantastic to wear this fall. It smells so good I actually licked my arm a bit, which was a bad idea, but that's how yummy this scent is.

Horreur Sympathique reminded me at first of Bess -- the grapiness, I guess -- although it is less syrupy and medicinal than Bess, and I like it better. The blood musk grounds it nicely on my skin, and the play of other notes is quite lovely. I was hoping the carnation would become more present and identifiable, which it never did; on the other hand, I was worried that the benzoin would ruin everything, and it was imperceptible to me, so that's a win. It has a little throw -- I thought it was wearing very close to the skin, but I kept getting nice wafts of Horreur as I was walking the dog. Definitely a keeper!

I need to stop trying things with names like The Ghost, Phantasm, Cheshire Cat... They just fade away like their names suggest. If you like white florals, The Ghost is really pretty. For about 10 minutes. Then poof, it's gone.

Deadly Nightshade Honey is the first apiary blend I've tried. In the imp, there is a harsh herbal smell which softens as soon as it hits my skin. For quite a while it maintains a dominant herbal note, something sharp and green playing off the sweetness of the honey. Then the balance shifts and after a couple of hours it is almost all honey. This is really interesting! Season-wise, it seems like a May-June smell, although it also plays well in the punishing late summer heat we've been having.

Eros is like a gentler Delphi. The myrrh is not too pronounced, and the sweet resins are softer than Delphi's incense on me. I'm not sure I can really differentiate the lilac here, but it adds to that gentle feel. A lovely blend, but not long-lasting on me; I will enjoy the imp but don't need a bottle.

Hellcat is a strange little morpher on me. Wet, it was all the hazelnut almond rum buttercream amaretto Frangelico marzipan goodness I was hoping for. It smelled exactly the way I expected it to. Not that I want to smell like a girly hazelnut liqueur cocktail all the time, but yes, I want that option, and I can't wait to wear it during the holidays. But the drydown surprised me. It got, well, dry, and the notes merged into something that on my skin was a lot like - leather? I wonder if that's the "bite"? I still like it a great deal and appreciate the sense of humor in the way the scent and its description play out perfectly on me.

Greed is not for me. Did anyone else have a skin reaction to this? No welts or red spots, but the area where I applied it definitely felt itchy and warmer than the rest of my skin -- still does, though I scrubbed it off an hour ago. It must be to something unlisted because I have tried all these notes in the past with no trouble. Fortunately I wasn't loving the patch-oakmoss combination anyway, but I would have liked to see how it developed.

If Grief were a color, it would be a very pale, silvery lilac shade. If it were a sound, it would be a whisper. I love lily of the valley; here it is perfectly blended with the hyacinth and the other floral notes I'm not familiar with (though hydrangeas are blooming all over Seattle right now, so I will have to take a huff next time I pass a bush). Light, pretty, gentle floral -- very like what in my grandmother's lexicon would have been a toilet water, or eau de toilette. A skin scent perfectly appropriate for all those springtime occasions when you're not actually supposed to be wearing any perfume.