fenharel

I put this one on and almost fell out of my chair, it's so gorgeous. In the bottle and wet on the skin the myrrh dominates. It's sweet and powdery on it's own, and the vanilla lends even more sweetness. It's soft and fluffy and dark and rich, like a cloud in a black night sky. The rose lends it a soft sophistication - I can sense her standing off in the wings, quiet and self-assured, content to just be there without taking center stage. The rose is not a standout or easily identifiable note on my skin. Does anyone else think ambrette seed smells a little bit like oudh? Because that's the vibe I'm getting from it. As it dries down it transitions into pure, sweet, baby powder puff myrrh with a spine of rich patchouli. A beautiful scent.

got a frimp of this with my most recent order. it's really, really nice. it's fresh and clean and sophisticated and green without being too wild or dirty. it makes me feel like i'm sitting in a room at an upscale mountain resort, with the windows open and fresh linens and a cup of white tea and nothing but green outside a far as the eye can see

a thick, molasses-like combination of patchouli and tobacco, shot through with powdery woods and sweet bourbon vanilla. cozy, cuddly, and warm - but fortifying. i wear this one on cold days.

relatively simple, but absolutely lovely. three notes that work together in harmony - none overpowering the other, just complementing. the lavender is strongest when you open the lid and sniff the bottle, but it mellows out on the skin. the jasmine is not cloying - it's a herbal/tealike jasmine. in fact, while wearing this fragrance, i felt like i was drinking a cup of jasmine tea in a room with champaca incense burning, a window open to the lavender garden just outside. it doesn't change or morph very much while on the skin. it's beautiful, calming, and serene.

a really complex scent. somehow all at once green, fruity, resiny, and sweet. in the bottle and wet on the skin i get a very sharp, green, herbal kick - but backed by something heady and rich. as it wears, the honey and tonka emerge, warm and golden. oudh is a note that always gives scents a 'high end perfume' feeling, to me. this smells like a fancy, sophisticated perfume with a witchy twist. it's distinctly BPAL. my first forum exclusive. yay! <3

Probably my all-time favorite BPAL, as of yet. It's sweet, warm, beautiful, and calming. wet it's all beeswax, honey, and vanilla. it is a little sharp wet. but once introduced to body heat it begins to blossom. the honey is rich and golden and i can smell the flowers the honey came from. the beeswax is soft and pillowy and rounds out the whole scent. and the vanilla is pure, creamy sweet. there's a skin musk to it as well, like the scent of skin after a day in the sun. i don't know what the throw is like in regards to how well other people can smell me, but in terms of how well i can smell myself it's ideal. i often feel like my skin eats oils and i can hardly smell them. but this is one that radiates off me and wafts up and i'm just surrounded by this lovely cloud of scent. i will never be without a bottle.

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this is my favorite out of the three DL scents I got. The pink peppercorn in it is similar to the one in Fake News. it has that tickle-your-nose, sweet-but-spicy quality to it. Combined with the DL note, it is truly lovely and innately autumnal. A relatively simple scent, only two notes, that does not morph or change on the skin. Beautiful on it's own but I'm very much looking forward to layering it.

Never used the old version, so can't compare. Bought this from a swapper on 10/19/2017, label says 2016 so I'm guessing it's a little bit aged already. I absolutely ADORE this one. Reminds me a LOT of Snake Oil for the first hour or so - the red musk, vanilla bean, and patchouli leaf are strong while the fruits stay in the background. As it dries, the fruits come forward - sweet, juicy, and sexy. I'm usually not one for fruity scents but the combination here is perfect. This fragrance is sophisticated and sexy. It's definitely one of those BPAL blends that evokes the feeling of a high-end expensive perfume, only even better. I work in high-end luxury retail and this will be a workday staple for me.

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Just opening the bottle, the apple in this is SWEET and SHARP. A true candied autumn apple. Once on the hair, it softens a little bit as the patchouli becomes more present. It gives the sweet, crisp apple a light herbal kick. Overall it is much heavier on the apple than the patchouli. It's not the strongest hairgloss I've used, but I would catch whiffs of the scent as I moved around throughout the day, and it lasted fairly long.

Moreso than any other BPAL scent I have in my collection right now, in the bottle and wet on the skin for the first couple of hours this SCREAMS incense/new age shop, in the best possible way. the patchouli is a more fresh and herbal variant, the red musk is sweet and creamy, and the opium lends a spicy sharpness. as it wears on the skin, the vanilla and lilac come to the forefront. it's sweet and creamy and almost baby powder-y in a way i don't entirely mind. it reminds me a bit of Fake News in that it's sophisticated-hippy, but the overall feeling is very different.

i loved this one so much i bought a bottle after using my imp once. it morphs SOOO much on me but i love it absolutely every step of the way.

 

in the imp: sharp black tea and clean, floral linen

 

wet: black tea, linen, and the ginger comes in to play. i'm an absolute nut for scents with pepper in them - unfortunately, i don't get any here. it's clean, it's fresh, it's sharp, it's tangy.

 

dry: the longer it's on my skin, the softer and sweeter it gets. after a few hours, it's almost unrecognizeable. soft, sweet honey and vanilla. i think i smell a LITTLE bit of the pepper, because it takes on a slightly spicy quality, like a ginger cookie.

 

overall this perfume is so well-blended it's difficult for me to pick out any particular notes. i love it because it's fresh and clean without being too sterile. it's mild and pleasant without being boring. it's sophisticated and invigorating.

A warm, cozy, cuddly scent. A little bit of a spicy bite up front - that must be the 'warm brown fur.' It reminds me of Goblin, a little bit. Once on the skin it softens significantly to a soft, powdery spiced vanilla. The cedar gives it a solid base and keeps it from being a sweet/foodie vanilla. It's intensely nostalgic for me, for some reason. I like to wear it on rainy days, or before bed. It's comforting but not boring.

it just smells like Irish Spring to/on me flat, sharp, soapy. doesn't evolve on the skin. dissipates after about an hour. i will keep searching for my perfect aquatic

Not as spicy, more sweet, than I expected, but no less lovely. I get a bit of Snake Oil from it - that sweet, full richness. I have a hard time believing there's no vanilla in it. Patchouli too - there is the characteristic herbal sharpness when wet, that gives way to something so deep and earthy. This isn't a scent that's on fire - it's a scent that has burned to ashes, the ghost of smoke in the air. It's very incensey, but complex. Beautiful throw and lasting power. I'll be purchasing a backup.

my friend has asked me to find her a substitute for this perfume: https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Le-Couvent-des-Minimes/Cologne-of-the-Missions-18811.html

 

notes are vanilla, centella asiatica, myrrh, benzoin, camellia, and virginia cedar

 

first of all, i didnt even know centella was used in perfumes!

 

i'm going to recommend she check out Snake Oil, The Small Brown Cat, and Bast. does anyone else have any suggestions? TIA! <3

 

A lovely and straightforward scent. It doesn’t change or morphe much on my skin. It’s sweet and easy.

In the imp: Sugarcane and musk

Wet: honey and vanilla comes out to play. The acacia hovers somewhere between floral and fruity on me, giving the scent a beautiful lightness, keeping it from being too syrupy and gluttonous. It’s a distinctly crystalline sweetness.

Dry: the longer it’s on the skin, the more the musk comes out. It gives the fragrance substance. It’s enchanting. 2-3 hours after application, Good is a soft wast of sugary musk.

In the forest, there is a temple. Long-abandoned to the ages, heavy with the weight of millennia.

 

As you approach, dried pine needles and twigs crunch beneath your boots. Soft breezes rustle the treetops above. The forest is alive around you, sharp verdant green, but the temple calls. Decrepit stone. Mystery and power.

 

Ivy climbs the walls and sprouts through the foundation. Over the ages, trees have broken their way into the temple, crushing walls and towering arches. The forest is *part* of it, within and without. You cross the threshold and in the distance hear the call of birds and the rush of wings.

 

The smoke of holy incense coats your lungs - prehistoric resins burning in rusted pendulums hanging from the ceiling. How did they even get lit? Suddenly, an intense awareness. You have crossed the Veil. The air is very, very still. In front of you, dust mites lay suspended in a lone ray of sunshine. Deeper within, you hear chanting, sonorous and barely human.

 

You follow the sound, compelled, pulled forth like a puppet on a string. The forest recedes behind you - a dream, a different world. The green is gone. Now there is only incense, smoke, and dust. Torches spring to light on their own. You hear the stirrings of tiny feet - bats and mice scattering out of your path.

 

Finally, you emerge into an open chamber. Cavernously large, filled with statues of gods whose names have long been forgotten. Except, perhaps, by The Mage. She sits in the center of the chamber, enchanted silk robes pooled around her. Surrounded by glyphs at the four points, in a circle of glowing green light. The chanting fills your chest, reverberates in your bones. Pure arcane energy cracks in the air as goosebumps rise on your skin.

 

Forward, forward, ever still. Your feet bring you to the edge of her circle. A conjuring, a calling, something massive and terrible... like a child following a firefly, heart in your throat, you step across her ward....

 

I will be buying a bottle of this for sure. It's a very evocative scent. So much so that I felt inspired to write a little blurb

 

In the imp: GREEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!! balsam, pine, woods

 

On the skin: the resins come out to play. i get the dragon's blood and the frankincense strong. the combination is so lovely - the resins keep the greens from being too Christmas-tree-car-air-freshener. It's an enchanting combination of sharp balsam and rich, sweet, spicy resin. the longer you have it on, the sweeter it gets. eventually, after a couple of hours, the green fades entirely and it's pure soft incense. moderate throw - if anyone could smell this on me they made no comments, but i could smell it for 2-3 hours. reapplied on my lunch break. a wonderful pick-me-up. this scent makes me feel powerful, strong, and full of arcane mystique

An instant 5ml buy for me.

 

in the imp: somewhat masculine. citrus and woods, a powdery wood, like sandalwood maybe?

 

wet: oH MY GOD it smells EXACTLY like Lush's Dragon's Egg bathbomb, an all time favorite of mine. It's a sweet, creamy citrus - not astringent - tempered by the rich and spicy amber. My notes say 'Sweet Tarts & incense' which sounds like a weird combo but.... i love it to death? my nose isn't sophisticated enough to suss out the different varieties of musk, but i do smell the musk, and it adds a clean fullness to the entire scent. this is a 'hold wrist to nose and inhale so deeply my eyes roll back into my head' scent. it transports me. it makes me feel happy (which is odd, because it's supposed to be a mournful scent.) it's effervescent gold (the color of the oil actual trips me out because i feel like it smells like it should be so much lighter.) the throw is PERFECT - my coworker standing right at my shoulder remarked on how good i smelled. she said 'earthy, but not overpowering.'

 

dry: lasts 3-4 hours. softens to pure amber and musk - the citrus mellows down quite a bit. sweet and cozy. sun-warmed skin.

in the imp: there is a masculine sharpness to it. the labdanum and black orchid hit hard. the nutmeg lingers beneath and adds a compelling, interesting sweetness.

 

wet: my skin amps the nutmeg and it completely takes over. tempered only by sharp, acrid resins. the combination, with my skin chemistry, is unpleasant and reminds me somewhat of Youth Dew. gave me a mild headache for the first hour or so. fortunately it dries down to a much more pleasant soft tobacco-musk. i don't love this but i don't hate it. it's a truly unique and challenging fragrance. i probably won't wear it often but i will keep it around.

i really expected this one to be STRONGER. throw and lasting power is almost none. i can hardly even smell this when i slather it on fresh. which is a shame, because i love what i CAN smell of it. sweet cinnamon, sharpened by patchouli and sandalwood. chewing cinnamon gum after smoking clove cigarettes. i wonder if my imp is just super fresh and this gets more potent when aged?

ohhh my gosh. this is one of my top 5 for sure. it's so funny - i love patchouli and wear it as a single note all the time, but i didn't even realize this had patchouli in it until i came here and read these posts!

 

in the imp: sweet, spicy, rich golden coconut.

 

wet: i get a super SPICY note for the first couple of hours of this. not even like, the typical spice notes that are in oils. it's literally like.... black pepper. it has a bite. it's rich, it's HOT. it's gorgeous and interplays with the sweet coconut soooo perfectly and i just adore it.

 

dry: the spice mellows and the benzoin comes forth. the coconut is consistent throughout. sweet, warm, deep, soft. cozy but not cloying. one of my favorite things about Goblin is 1) the throw and 2) the lasting power. they are both ideal for me. the best way i can describe the throw is that i feel like the fragrance surrounds me and envelopes me, like a golden aura. it's not overpowering, but it's present enough that myself and anyone standing near me can smell it. and it lasts very well, too. this is one that i can apply in the morning and still smell close to my skin at night, even if i don't reapply midday.

i wanted to love this so much. all the reviews made me think i would. dragon's blood is one of my hero notes, i wear it as a single note all the time and invariably love scents that feature it - same with jasmine. maybe it's my skin chemistry, but wolf's heart just hasn't worked for me yet.

 

in the imp: sweet, soapy dragon's blood. promising. until i put it on my skin, and.....

 

wet: a smothering blast of *baby powder*???!!! you know, it actually smells just like my COTY Airspun powder. i detect virtually no jasmine or other florals. i do smell the dragon's blood, it's just.... buried under a mountain of soap and baby powder.

 

dry: faint incense and a smoky quality. it quite literally smells like i rubbed nag champa ash on my wrist. this is the least offensive phase of the fragrance to me, but i still don't like it.

 

i don't get any spice, unfortunately. the throw is STRONNGG when wet, but thankfully for me it's a short-lived fragrance, wearing from baby powder puff to incense ash to nothing in about an hour.