Evilynn

In the bottle it's all vanilla extract and marshmallow. On the skin it's a faint, warm vanilla that all but disappears. It sort of rallied on my skin after awhile and I had a warm marshmallowy vanilla scent hanging around for hours. The sillage and throw aren't huge, but as a comforting skin scent it's quite lovely. 

In the bottle I get almond and cherry, on the skin there's also a bit of chocolate to start out. The anise makes a brief appearance, but the drydown is a cherry flavoured marzipan, rounded off by the chocolate, a sort of darkly fruity blend. I can't say I notice much mint or anise after about 15-30 minutes, but since I'm not a huge fan of anise this is fine by me. I've been looking for a dark cherry scent that doesn't turn into bubblegum/scented eraser, and this seems very promising! 

Edit: A couple of hours after application it's turned into the dreaded scented-eraser-from-the-80ies scent that I'm trying to avoid. 

This is from a bottle freshly arrived in the mail, I'm going to let it age for a bit to see if the dry down improves.

I was hoping for cherry with a hint of red musk to make it a more mature scent, but got red musk with the barest hint of cherry instead. I, too, think Smut was actually fruitier on me than this is. It's a dark and slightly dry and dirty red musk with nary a cherry in sight.

I've held off reviewing this until it had aged a few months, since it was a very green woods single note when I got the bottle.

However, it is still pretty much single note oudh on me, in the most screechingly perfumey, headachey way possible. I have never thought of oudh as a death note before, but I think I will, from now on.

Off to the swap pile it goes.

It's so pretty! Not the label (although that's pretty too), but the oil itself, which is teal coloured. I've let my bottle age since March, because it was a weird sharp banana-smelling mess on my skin when fresh.

In the bottle: Herbal, green banana. Damned.

Wet: Banana and grass. I guess it's the green musk (or something in the green musk) that my nose registeres as unripe banana, weird.

Dry: Sharp grass, and a bit more rounded out musk. It's better in the dry stage than when wet, but sadly, I think I need to let this one go.

In the bottle it's all buttery sweetness, foodier than I thought it would be, and no coconut in sight.

On the skin the butter burns off pretty quickly, but this still heads into cookie-territory and is toothachingly sweet, except the cream accord does that sort of goat-y thing that Boo does on my skin.

The drydown was sweet marshmallow with a hint of spiceyness (amber doesn't usually read like that to my nose, but I don't know what else in the notes would account for it). I might let this age a little to see if the goat goes away, and if I can get over the overt sweetness.

In the bottle it's predominantly dandelion and grassy notes. On the skin I get dandelions and something more sharp and floral, which is not entirely agreeable to my nose, but the drydown is grassy dandelions over a gaint warmth of honey, which mostly makes up for the sharp note in the middle register.

In the bottle: Minty lavender, quite sharp

Wet on the skin: Toothpaste.

Drydown: Slightly herbal tooth paste.

Mint is tricky on me. I prefer the taste of peppermint, but it seems like the spearmint and green mints work a lot better as scent on my skin.

I usually like the brass-y grease-y scents (like the RPG Goblin), but the aftershave in this does seem to contain violet, which is the death note of all death notes on me, so off to swaps it goes. Before the violet amped to its vomit-y hell stench (ain't skin chemistry grand?) it was a nice warm brass scent mixed with engine grease.

In the bottle this is mostly strawberry to my nose. On the skin I also get a bit of pickle, and more of the vanilla comes forward. I don't notice much tea rose at all (the only rose I can wear!), but a touch of cognac.

The drydown is some kind of strawberry candy on me. Very pink and not really my cup of tea.

In the bottle this is a sweet but still zesty citrus to my nose, alas the grapefruit note that I love vanishes quickly on my skin and I'm left with something sharp and soapy and rather unpleasant.

This smells predominantly sweet orange and white chocolate(!?) on me. I believe I was frimped my first imp, but upgraded to a bottle pretty shortly since it not only smells fanastic, but is unintrusive enough to be worn to work. It's one of my goto daytime perfumes.

In the imp this smelled aquatic and a bit minty to me, but that impression only lasted for the first 5 minutes or so on my skin. After an hour or so it's predominantly oakmoss, which I amp like crazy, and it's a little too masculine to really work on me, but after another half hour or so the ambergris shows up and it turns into this warm, mossy ambergris scent which is really lovely, although not exactly what I expected. Very comforting, and I'm holding on to my imp.

I used to get delayed dermatitis on my wrists when I first started testing BPAL. It looked a mess for weeks after the initial reaction. I never figured out a specific note, and it went away when I started testing on the outside of my arms instead, but later I had a similar rash on my neck after sun exposure over BPAL. Now I test new scents on my arms for convenience, but for daily wear I apply on areas that will be covered by hair or clothing.

 

Cinnamon burn is different - the skin goes red within minutes, and recovers within hours. And it burns!

I'm working around the issue by applying oil to my clothes (which is what I used to do with perfumes before BPAL). The only problem is it's a little bit trickier to change scents. Luckily enough I've never had a reaction to cinnamon, the only skin issues I've had with BPAL until now (and I've been at it for over 5 years) is that I'll get cystic acne(!?) if I apply oil to my neck.

I wore my beloved Gypsy Moth while being in the sun for too long a couple of weeks ago, and broke out in a rash on my wrists. It subsided and I went back to using bpal as normal, and now they're baaack. Argh. I thought it was the cardamom in Gypsy Moth in combo with the strong sun that did it, but I think I wore a Dorian chaos theory when I relapsed, and I'd tried keeping my wrists covered at all time. I guess I have to lay off using perfume on my wrists for a while.

I wasn't sure what hemp would smell like, but the rest of the notes should work just fine on my skin and in the bottle it's all grassy with a bit of beeswax underneath, yet this smells an awful lot like there's violet hiding in there somewhere, and violet on my skin lives on the barf <---> moat of stagnant water scale.

Off to swaps it goes.

Not an allergy exactly, but the wine notes and almost all the rose notes gives me headaches.

Woah, this is not going to end well! It's overwhelmingly pinot noir in the imp and stays so when wet and upon drydown I get roses, which really isn't a good note on me. I really wish I could pull perfumes like these off, all dark and womanly and mysterious, but instead it's Headache Central, and this is really difficult to wash of too!

Rose is one of those notes that amp to high heaven on me and go all sharp and scary and give me an instant headache, and yet this is all JASMINE DAMNIT. Can't say I notice any tonka in this, or much of anything else really.

In the bottle this is buttery vanilla, but I know the butteriness burns off within five minutes on my skin, so that's not a worry.

The wet stage is pretty much a deadringer for Sugar Skull on me, I suppose it's the molasses since I can usually do rum just fine, and I do tend to steer clear of overly brown sugary scents since they tend to go a little bit strange on me (it's not bad, per se, but it gets a little high pitched). However, I am getting a waft of vanilla when I move my hands around, and I just got my oils and they are cold, so I think I'll let this one age a bit before passing judgement.

I too find it very similar to the Tonka SN, at least when they're both fresh, and I suspect I'll only hang on to one of them in the long run, I just don't know which one yet!

Yup, pretty much exactly like the scent of your hands after peeling a mandarin. It doesn't morph much and it see,s to fade relatively quickly, but it's gorgeous while it lasts, and I think I'll get a lot of joy out of it during the darkest parts of the year (I get SAD, so I'll be happy to use this as aromatherapy)

in the bottle: coconut with a hint of lime

wet on the skin: limey green tea and coconut

drydown: The lime chills out a little and I get some added fruitiness from the champaca + ginger.

Not really getting any mint from this, but I think it might be hiding in the lime/green tea territory. This is not at all what I would've expected from a 'weenie (it's sort of tropical drink meets green tea), but come spring/summer I think I'll wear this a lot as it is really lovely! I do love me a green tea scent.

in the bottle: Buttery sweetness, very similar to the bottle smell of Love's Philosophy and Lovers with Rutting Cats

wet on the skin: Buttery sweetness, just like LP or LwRC. I know this stage burns off within 5 minutes on me though, so I'll wait patiently...Ok, this is a freaking dead ringer for Lovers with Rutting Cats on me so far. Without the moss.

drydown: Foodier than I expected, but very well blended. I can't really make out the rum and the almond is very faint (no cherries, thank gods!), although I tend to amp nuts. I get the vanilla balsam and a touch of clove though.

Foodier than I expected, but pretty much no noticeable almond. If the drydown is nice it gets to stay. I traded away LWRC because it got overwhelmingly Spanish moss on me in the drydown stage.

Hey all,

 

I'm wondering if any of you BPAL experts knows of any oils similar to Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea or Green Tea Lavender perfumes?

 

I've never tried Green Tea Lavender, but I think many forumites have mentioned in their reviews how similar Shanghai is to EA's Green Tea.

I never tried the Green Tea Lavender either, but used to wear EA Green Tea before BPAL, and I'd say Shanghai is pretty close, yeah. If you want a bit more citrus bite Embalming Fluid is in that ballpark too.

In the bottle: Sugary vanilla lemon

Wet on the skin: More citrus and less vanilla

Drydown: The vanilla comes out more and more with time, the ultimate drydown is more vanilla than citrus on me, but it does go rather faint after 4 hours or so.

I really like grapefruit scents and this is a nice mix of lemon and grapefruit on me while wet. It is a little bit sugary when wet, but it's a wonderful warm weather scent and I'm very happy I got a bottle unsniffed!