porcelina

i basically adore this. it is fall in a bottle and i want to go pick out a pumpkin and carve it while drinking spiced apple cider and watching a scary movie. that is what it smells like to me. i need a 5 mL now.

it's like a manly cologne with saffron and rose. alas, not my style.

bottle: this is hardcore pumpkin.

wet: still pure pumpkin.

dry: pumpkin with a background of pleasant greenery.

overall: yet another brilliant fall scent!

bottle: all i get is almond.

wet: ...yeah, almond.

dry: oof. almond with something dusty and bitter that makes me sneeze.

overall: really, this is just all right.

bottle: really wet, pleasant florals
wet: this is a beautiful floral. it's wet and juicy. the water notes are so clean and i feel like i'm standing and sniffing a fresh bouquet.
dry: still fresh and wet and pretty!
overall: as someone who normally cannot abide anything flowery (there are a few rare exceptions as far as BPAL goes), this is really, really gorgeous! perfect for spring.

this is very light and refreshing. very wet, not oceany aquatic but like a cool pond in a forest surrounded by little flowers. it's pleasant, but not something i'd wear.

bottle: why does this smell like sushi?!

wet: salty flowers.

dry: salty flowers.

overall: this does nothing for me... so much so that i can't think of anything else to say about it.

tintagel is a warm, herbal dragon's blood which i think is perfect for fall. i get a kind of cinnamon/clove spiciness but no wine which is WEIRD because in any other wine-based scent that would be all i'd smell. it gets warmer and spicier the longer i wear it. mmm.

this was a freebie for me and wow, is it good! i love dragon's blood and honestly that dominates this scent. it's very sweet and smells like incense in a good way. i really can't pick out many individual notes but whatever it is, it works on me.

i really can't tell the difference between patchouli and sandalwood. they both smell like pure BO to me. i get the hot and dry thing that a lot of people bring up with the coiled serpent, but it just smells dirty to me.

bottle: light, peachy floral aquatic- just like the description

wet: mm, pomegranate- but with an unfortunate backdrop of heavy florals

dry: as it dries i definitely get the 'autumn breezes', but it's still too floral and it smells old lady-like to me :-/

overall: i like a lot of the notes but it's just too damn flowery. it is also way too subtle and faded to nothing after less than an hour. however- whatever the 'autumn breezes' consist of, i want more of, now.

Bottle: Shub smells like... pumpkin bread o_O Luckily, I adore pumpkin bread.

 

Wet: Eep, now it smells like stinky feet and pumpkin bread. I don't think I like "dark resins." The ginger is tasty, though. Uh... as it dries I'm getting a weird popcorn vibe. Yes. I am strange.

 

Dry: The popcorn scent intensifies; clearly there is something wrong with me.

 

Overall: It's popcorn, incense and ginger candy. I want to like this, I really do, but just... no.

Bottle: OOOH. Seance is amazing! I guess what I smell is just the rosewood.

 

Wet: All I smell is the rosewood and I really intensely love it.

 

Dry: It just keeps getting better. Mmmm.

 

Overall: I'm in love with this. *I* don't want to smell like it, but I want my room to!

Bottle: Fruity winey salty aquatic goodness.

 

Wet: This is what started my love affair with wine notes in perfume. Well, that and the fact that I'm a total wino. This is gorgeous. The salty sea thing it has going on is brilliant.

 

Dry: More of the same. Less green, more salty, though. In the latter stages, this starts to go really laundry detergent on me. I don't know why. I wish it would always smell like it does when it's wet!

 

Overall: I love Caliban, except for when I've been wearing it for an hour or two and I start to smell like a box of Tide.

Bottle: Green grass is predominant, with a little tea and the barest hint of ginger. I don't feel like i'm in The Apothecary. This is a picnic in the grass!

Wet: I still get mostly grass, but there is more tea now and it is starting to remind me of The Dormouse.

Dry: Herbal tea, and, when I breathe in deep, it's rounded out by the fig. The fig, oddly, becomes very prominent later on as this dries more fully.

Overall: This makes me feel a little sneezy. It also reminds me too much of The Dormouse, which I greatly prefer.

Bottle: Roses. Dry leaves. Dirt. Wow, this is remarkable.

 

Wet: The roses don't smell dried to me, they smell fresh and wet. There's a teeny bit of oakmoss and DIRT!

 

Dry: The scents dry out as the oil does, becoming more dusty. I wish there was more dirt. I like the dirt note more than I probably should. It fades down to a beautiful soft rose at the end.

 

Overall: Really, I don't know if I can pull this off as a personal scent and it unfortunately appears to fade quickly, but in terms of sheer technicality it is marvelous how much it smells like it's supposed to. I'm just glad Zombi doesn't actually smell like a zombie. They probably don't smell this good.

Bottle: All strawberry.

 

Wet: Strawberry, something green (must be the leaf), a lil bit of tangy grapefruit

 

Dry: Musky with heady berry notes. Yum!

 

Overall: Mania is quite nice, although nothing too special... hence my painfully short review.

Bottle: All I smell at first is the melon, which surprises me. I think I can detect a little bit of tobacco and a teensy bit of juniper. This lingers in my nose for a really long time!

 

Wet: Melon melon melon. A faint hotness, which must be the chili pepper.

 

Dry: Tobacco starts to come out. No more chili pepper. Still an awful lot of melon.

 

Overall: Really, the only thing I smell here is the melon, and in the final drydown, some juniper. It gets 'greener' later on, but Ogun is still too damn fruity. I want more tobacco!

Bottle: Woody and spicy!

 

Wet: Woah patchouli.

 

Dry: Anne Bonny smells like total B.O. on me. Eeep.

 

Overall: I should have known better than to mess with frankincense, patchouli and sandalwood. None of them are good on me alone; why should they be any better together???

Bottle: Wood. Spices. Musk. A green note that must be the kelp- this is the best men's scent ever.

 

Wet: On me this disintegrates into a typical sort of spicy musky men's cologne. It does have an interesting sea salt feel, though.

 

Dry: This is a really deep, complex, musky aquatic scent. It's hard for me to pick out individual notes at this point, but mmm. All pirates should smell this good.

 

Overall: It is worth noting that while this smells good on me, if you have a boy handy, slather Calico Jack on him. I dabbed it on my boyfriend, largely against his will, and it was even better.

Bottle: Omg. This is delicious. This smells like fall. And big, crisp, juicy apples.

 

Wet: This apple note is DELICIOUS. I can also smell the oak and the leaves. This smells like the most wonderful apple orchard ever or like a forest in a children's book or something.

 

Dry: The woody oak really deepens the scent but that apple is still there.

 

Overall: The Hesperides really smells like a misty forest full of apple trees- or lots of oak trees and one great tree full of the most amazing apples (well, they are Golden) ever. This is wonderful, and it deepens and gets warmer and better as the day goes on!

Bottle: Very minty, fizzy and sweet and first sniff- then comes the bourbon. Wooahhh, bourbon.

 

Wet: Ooh, I like this. It's clean and spicy. That sounds a little contradictory, but it is. It smells oddly woody on me.

 

Dry: When the bourbon comes out, it really comes out (as all boozey notes do on me) and unfortunately this is more, "I just drunkenly spilled a bottle of bourbon on myself" than "elegant perfume with an unconventional but well-done hint of bourbon."

 

Overall: If Juke Joint smelled like it does on me on a boy, I would like this better. I keep thinking I smell cedar or something and that confuses me. Ok. It really does smell like cedar to me!

Bottle: Ohh. The cherries- and the wine note, ohmygod, the wine note is GORGEOUS.

 

Wet: The vanilla and honey really come out- it's very creamy. BPAL honey always goes a little funny on me but this seems alright. The amazing wine note is definitely still intact and there is a HINT of musk. There is something a little spicy as well which I assume is the clove. No vetiver (good), but unfortunately I don't smell any more of those great big juicy cherries.

 

Dry: The vanilla, musk and honey are predominant.

 

Overall: Blood Kiss is a dark, sensual scent. I really like it; it's extremely sexy and so lush and creamy.

Bottle: This reminds me of O, only not gross.

Wet: There's the ylang ylang. Annnd myrrh. I ordered this before I knew how much myrrh and I hated each other.

Dry: The "skin" scent is there, and I like it. I don't like the myrhh; it tickles my nose. This would be far preferable without it. On the final drydown La Petite Mort becomes more powdery and very O-like, only it doesn't go rancid on me like that treacherous other oil. The myrrh is way mellowed out now.

Overall: It's nice. I think I'll keep it, although I don't know how much I'll wear it.

Edit: After I tested a few other scents, I came back and sniffed at this again, and I am delighted to report that after about 15 or 20 minutes it deepened into something absolutely marvelous. I love this now! It wears very close to the skin, so only someone who was really close to me could smell it... mmm. I need a big bottle of this, like, now.

bottle: oh em gee. big, beautiful, fresh, lush peonies.

wet: ahhhh. this is gorgeous. i LOVE PEONIES.

dry: ...oh dear. peony moon has gone and turned to plastic. still, i leave it on, hoping i will morph again.

 

well, the plastic went away eventually, but by this point the oil started making me feel so deeply, intensely queasy and headachey that had i not been in my car at the time, i would have rushed to take a shower. i still don't feel completely better. i'm so sad... i wanted to like this very badly; i love peonies! at least i didn't spring for the big bottle like i was about to!