lizardqueen

This is sophisticated and soft on me. In the first hour after application, I get a good dose of coconut, but on me it's not the fake suntan oil coconut, it's just a nice, smooth coconut. The vetiver lurks in the background, and riding on top of that is a mix of the rest of the fruits and florals, which to my nose came out as a sort of lovely light wine scent.

 

After about an hour, I was still getting whiffs of the above from where I applied the scent on my neck, but on my wrists it's just about gone. However, if I put my nose close to my wrists I get a nice, soft vanilla peach scent. Makes me want to experiment with place of application, with slathering, with trying it in a scent locket.

 

Overall verdict: definitely a keeper!

2009 edition

 

Yum! My first impression of this was incensey pomegranate. It warms up some as it dries, adding a hint of spice, and sniffing closely I think maybe I get a hint of pine needles, too? Mostly, though, there's just the pomegranate. No ice note or anything--which is good, 'cause ice/snow notes often go kinda funky on me. I can understand the shower gel comparisons--the pomegranate scent here is not so different in character from, say, Bath & Body Works' Midnight Pomegranate scent--but this is so much richer than any mass-marketed product I've tried. Seriously considering buying a full bottle (which, given my current finances, is saying something... ).

Oh wow. On me, this does what it says on the tin, pretty much: smells like pfefferneuse! I get the standard baking spices, plus some pepper and a bit of anise, with the powdered sugar coating. It's definitely in the same family as the GC Shub -- they're both spicy and reminiscent of baked goods but with a sort of dryness to them, which is to say, not too sweet.

 

This has some pretty good strength and throw, for me. In fact, once it's fully dry on my skin it's right on the edge of being overwhelming. Still, there's something to be said for a little going a long way, no?

 

(I'm fascinated to see the wide variety of impressions thus far in this thread!)

Ohh... and I had such high hopes for the Countess, too!

 

I put this on, and it's immediately a big fat no. I wrinkled my nose and told my partner it smells like feet. That's not quite it, though. It just smells... wrong. I feel fairly certain it's the chocolate plum musk.

 

Once it dries down more fully I get more of what I'd been hoping for: a touch of amaretto, a bit of red musk, some candied fruit. (ETA: sniffing it on my arm again, I'd almost swear there's a bit of leather in there...) It's still not the pure unadulterated joy I'd been hoping for, though. (Maybe I had my hopes up a bit too high? ) Ah well. You win some, you lose some, right?

This smells like a real lily! I wouldn’t be able to distinguish between the scent of a tiger lily and the scent of any other kind of lily, of course, but in the vial and on my skin, again, it smells like a real flower, which I love. I get some spice and a bit of warmth in the vial that fades quite a bit once the oil hits my skin and starts to dry. I received this as a frimp from the lab, and I’m glad to have it, and I’m also glad I don’t love it enough to want to buy a bottle of it, given its impending discontinuation.

 

Indeed, as dry-down continues... uh-oh. It's getting more and more powdery and soapy. I think I might be in Wwindy's camp here: institutional soap-ville, here I come. Thoroughly disappointing, that. I feel like there are lily scents that work for me (most notably Bilquis), so I wonder if it's just specific lilies I can wear, or if I can only wear lily when it's combined with other things, or...? At any rate, sure enough, here I am in institutional soap-ville, and this frimp is heading to swap-town. Ah well...

 

I was intrigued to see the variety of reactions to this scent present in this thread, because for me, Blood Rose very much does what it says on the tin -- dragon's blood, wine, roses. When it's wet I get the cherry cough syrup note that I tend to get from dragon's blood scents in the wet stage, but after that? Dragon's blood, wine, roses. Once drydown is complete the dragon's blood is mostly just there to make the wine particularly fruity, so if you're a dragon's blood fanatic, this is probably not for you. If you like roses and fruity wine with a hint of dragon's blood, though, definitely check this one out. As for myself, it's not exactly me, but it's pretty, so I'm going to keep my imp around.

I sniffed this in the vial, and thought, oh, wow, pumpkin! And then once it was on my skin I sniffed it and thought, oh, wow, cherry! It was kind of uncanny.

 

Once dry: oh, this is lovely. The notes all blend and swirl together, with the only one I can pull out on its own being the smoky vanilla. It's rich, and maybe even a little bit campfire-like. I think maybe the pumpkin is trying ever so slyly to push things into the play doh range, but it's not working.

 

Once this has been on a while, I think I'm getting mostly cherry tobacco. Good stuff, overall.

In the vial and on me, wet, I get an earthy (and I mean that sort of literally) floral scent.

On me, once it's dried, it's pretty much all floral. It's a mixed bag: I can pick out the rose, but there's more in there (and now I've reread the description, and rose is the only floral in there, so I'm pretty confused). It's a fairly green scent -- and on me it's gone pretty soapy. If I put my nose real close to my skin and concentrate, I think I get a woodsy quality, but that's pretty much it. I really, really hate to say this, but this is putting me in mind of Crabtree & Evelyn shops.

I had really high hopes for this one; I expected it to be resiny and spicy and agave-y, but I'm not getting any of that. I'll probably try it again in a few weeks or so, see if maybe aging will make it richer and take away the soapy quality. Though, of course, there's always the possibility that it's just my chemistry.

Note from a couple of hours later: aha, after a while it mellows, and what I think is the copal comes out to play more. I like it much better this way, but I'm not sure I can wait through the hour-plus of Crabtree & Evelyn to get to this point. So, crossing my fingers for the wonders of aging...

(ETA scent description)

2008 version:

 

From this I get primarily brown sugar, with a whiff of the candied fruits. I think I saw someone refer to the scent as being reminiscent of Yankee Candle, and I have to agree. I get a little bit of a burnt sugar scent once the oil has dried completely on my skin, but it's still very sweet overall, and there doesn't seem to be much throw. I really wanted to love this scent, but I just kinda like it, enough to keep my decant (...probably), but not nearly enough to buy a bottle.

 

Indeed, I find this to be a bit of a BPAL Rorschach test: I smell this and think, needs more spice (others smell it and say, aack, too sweet! Others smell it and say, oooh, perfect!). So, even though I don't love it, smelling it has been instructive! Off to try to find something spicy amongst my other Halloweenie decants...

Wet, this reminds me a LOT of Diwali (maybe it's the sandalwood?). As it dries, the florals come out more... and more... and then a little bit more. Rose is up front, with the other flowers behind it, and at the base is the beeswax and sandalwood. I don't get any of the tobacco until it's completely dry, and even then it's still pretty light. I'm not getting the frankincense at all. As time goes on, the rose gets even stronger.

 

It's an interesting scent, but a little too floral/rosey for my tastes.

how bout Snow, Glass, Apples? anything at all? my mother actually fell in love with it HARD and she absolutely hates perfume usually. I feel bad if I can't find something at least remotely similar to recommend to her

To me, at least on my first try, SGA smelled exactly like The Hesperides with an added "cold" note (is that ozone? My nose isn't quite trained well enough, methinks -- it's a little bit minty, little bit perfumey...). At any rate, that (The Hesperides) might be worth checking out.

 

I'm seriously loving my Diwali decant today, and kicking myself some more for not buying a full bottle. Any suggestions for that one?

In the imp and on me, wet: oh, YUM. A sophisticated cherry cordial coated in high-quality chocolate. Absolutely delicious.

 

During drydown: it goes through a couple different stages -- in one, I can still smell the sweetness, but I also get a bit of floral (presumably the orange blossom), along with a hint of plastic.

 

On me, dry: vanilla with just a hint of berry. Oddly reminiscent of the scent of a little toy version I once had of Strawberry Shortcake's cat. It's pleasant, if faint -- but oh, to have the wet stage back again!

 

Overall: not sure what to do about this one. I'll certainly keep this imp around, maybe just to sniff rather than wear, though.

This smells lovely and complex in the imp: the honeysuckle and the jasmine and the lemon and spice all show themselves and twine together.

 

On me, when wet and especially when dry, I get HONEYSUCKLE + jasmine. My skin seems to looooooove honeysuckle. My nose, less so. It turns kind of rubbery on me, not enough for me to say "hey, that smells like rubber," just enough for me to say "oh... there's the honeysuckle. Hrm."

 

This might be a candidate for a scent locket, if and when I acquire one...

In the bottle: Spicy, herbal.

 

On me, wet: In its initial stages this has a cherry-cough-syrup-in-an-evergreen-forest quality to it that I find oddly endearing. I feel fairly certain that there's some Dragon's Blood in this (both from the scent and from the reddish color), and maybe just a tinge of musk.

 

On me, dry: an herbal, sweet, just-barely-musky Dragon's Blood. Medium strength and throw.

 

As far as its intended purpose goes, I feel like Wolf's Heart is brilliant. It might be that, at this point, I've developed positive associations with the scent, but I find it comforting and encouraging, and when wearing it I feel strong and secure. In March I spent a week with my mom in the hospital, and I wore Wolf's Heart to bed every night. I still didn't sleep terribly well, but the oil made me feel better about things, and more secure in my self. It's one that I intend always to have a bottle of around.

In the bottle: a cool, crisp, juicy apple. Not tart, like a Granny Smith, but maybe more like a Fuji, where the emphasis is really on "cool" and "crisp." Something green and wet in the background, like a patch of ivy just outside the woods, coated in dew, first thing in the morning.

 

On me, wet: much the same, with perhaps a bit more spice/woodiness, still very much in the background. I'm struck by the extent to which this is a cool scent, compared to the warmth of most apple-y blends I've smelled.

 

On me, dry: pretty much the same. This is fairly light overall, and I agree with Delirium1009's take that this is an innocent apple scent, and I'd say this is a year-round scent, as opposed to many apple scents, which fall pretty squarely in the Autumn category.

 

This is pretty, fresh, light, and sweet -- a nice staple to have around when one wants a scent that's more subtle.

In the bottle: I get primarily gardenia and/or Monoi tiare, I think. Something that says to me "sultry tropical flowers," at any rate. If I take a really long sniff it seems a bit like I get something weirdly like adhesive at the end, but that might just be that I'm huffing too hard.

 

On me, wet: As soon as it touches my skin Marae displays a sharp green note, as if the stems of the above flowers have just been cut. The floral note is still prominent, it's just hand-in-hand with the green.

 

On me, dry: Once drydown begins (i.e. just about immediately), Marae softens, mellows. There is the vanilla orchid; there is the incense. It's light, just the slightest bit powdery and/or soapy, and not too sweet, but still quite feminine. It's not terribly strong, and seems to stay fairly close to my skin. Overall, I think this will make a wonderful summer scent, and I'm quite pleased to have ordered it.

In the imp and on me: this smells like rose incense, plain and simple. When I was a teenager I had a packet of rose incense that I'd bought at some vaguely religious hippy-ish destination in coastal San Diego county. I put the incense in a ziploc bag, in a drawer, and could still smell it across the room. Rose Cross smells, to me, exactly like that incense -- not while burning, but while sitting in its packet in my drawer: I guess it's sort of like rose oil with a hint of powder. I eventually had to throw that incense out because it was just too strong (made me sneeze), and likewise, I don't think I can handle this oil. But if "rose incense" sounds like just the ticket to someone else, I'd recommend Rose Cross quite highly.

[Note: I bought this bottle when the Gaiman scents premiered, or soon thereafter, and I've definitely noticed that the scent has gotten richer as it's aged. However, even though I'm reviewing a year-old bottle, I loved the scent from the start, and all the elements in it now were there at the beginning.]

 

In the bottle: This is foody and floral and very well blended. My nose can pick out the rose otto and the almond, and maybe the honey and myrrh.... maybe.

 

On me, wet: I think I'm getting the apple now, too, and there's a warmth underneath that might be the musk, or maybe the myrrh, or both. If I concentrate I think I can pick out the lily, but really, this is exceptionally well blended.

 

On me, dry: This is gorgeous. It's warm and rich, sweet and resinous; if it were a color I think it would be gold and/or a deep royal purple. Maybe tinged with burgundy. Good throw, good staying power.

 

This was the first bottle I bought, and it's so appropriate, because I love, love, love it!

That's super-helpful, ivyandpeony! Your descriptions made a lot of sense to me, though of course I'm perhaps even more torn now -- or, more precisely, I have more scents I want to try! (Ah, the trials of BPAL...)

So, this is sort of backwards from how this thread normally works, I think, but I figured I'd give it a shot all the same. I trust that the mods will move it accordingly if necessary.

 

Anyway, what I'm wondering is this: based on the description, it seems like The Passionate Shepherd to His Love may well bear some resemblance to our dear departed Dublin. Since I was a doofus and didn't buy a bottle of Dublin when I had the chance, I'm thinking I may well want to pick up a bottle of Passionate Shepherd while it's available. Any thoughts from those who've tried both?

 

Thanks!

to you heysunshine.

 

I wanted to echo wickedgoddess's recommendation from the previous page for TAL's Lionheart. I suspect other TAL blends would fit the bill, too, but that and Protection are the only ones I've tried so far.

 

Also, not sure where you came from in NY or are now in the UK, but I wonder if the advent of winter at a higher latitude is part of what's affecting you? (I've struggled with SAD at higher latitudes, and I moved to Kansas from New Mexico a few months ago, and while it's only about a 4 degree difference, but I swear I can feel it.) If you think that might be it, could you maybe invest in a sun therapy lamp? (Too rich for my blood, at least at the moment, but they seem like they might be helpful...)

In the bottle and on me, at first: I get warm florals, with the blood orange beneath. It is to scents what magenta is to colors, if that makes any sense to anyone besides me. I have a hard time picking out individual notes besides the blood orange. It's a little intense, but still pretty.

 

Then Patchouli shows up. We usually get along fine, but here she's wearing cheap perfume and shocking pink lipstick, and she beats me senseless -- then, when I'm still dizzy and confused, she takes me by the arm and starts introducing me as her date!

 

(In real-world terms, this is what happened: I was out shopping yesterday, and a saleswoman suddenly said, "Are you wearing patchoil?" I blinked, then said yes...)

 

Impressive throw (I didn't put much on, and the woman was standing a good five feet away from me).

 

So: a floral patchouli. I wanted to like it, but it's very much not for me. Ah well.

I've only ever tried Wolf's Heart, but I love it. Love, love, love it. Soothing and strengthening, and I like the smell, too: a bit of an unusual combination that I have trouble describing, but I like it, and now I have positive associations with it from the effectiveness of the oil. Good, good stuff. (But LQ, how do you really feel? )

I've a question for the folks who use any of the BPAL or TAL oils mentioned to fall asleep: what, exactly, do you do with them? I saw one mention of a little dab on the upper lip, another of just slathering it on, and another (can't remember if it was in this thread or the Bedtime thread) of a drop of oil on a pillow -- so I was curious if these are the methods most people go with, or if others have different methods, or what have you. Thanks!

2007

 

In the bottle: I get flowers, with a hint of sweetness behind. Can't quite pin down a particular floral: maybe Jasmine? Or maybe that's the cactus blossom? (Based on vague memory on the ingredients of my one Aveda perfume...)

 

On me, wet: um... still a flower -- again, maybe Jasmine, maybe cactus blossom, maybe even Gardenia? -- but now with a faint cloud of tobacco behind it.

 

5 minutes later: still mostly floral. It's a complex floral, though, which is kind of putting me at a loss for words...

 

About an hour later: still mostly floral, with whispers of tobacco and -- I think -- dark chocolate. I mostly get said whispers only when I press my nose against my arm. I see what people are saying about it being incensy. I wouldn't have used that word myself, as it's not All Souls incensy, if you know what I mean. Overall, I'm not huge on florals, but this one works on me. It's complex and warm and autumn-y. (Rather stating the obvious, no?) Good stuff.