Hesper

I'm getting piney bourbon vanilla out of this. I want the plum and salt and benzoin you're all getting.

Imped from Ajevie, FS'd as I love having variety.

A little dewy and ozonic, as though it's rainwater collected from the tips of mountain juniper and kept in a shining glass flask to wash in a holy place. Elderflower offers just a hint of something behind that aerial cleanliness, and prevents it from feeling too Irish Springs soapy: sweet intuition darting through the pure logic and intellect of the scientist, flickering in and out as the scent warms up. It takes on a little syrupy quality reminding me of my bottle of elderflower liqueur, til the place it takes me to is a forested mountain clearing blooming with flowers and welling with the uprush of a spring. I love having an ozone I can wear! One more for my None Gender half of the collection.

A Reddit user swapped me an imp of this for the Ars Draconis imps I had that just go cherry rest stop soap on my skin, and I loved it so much I immediately full-sized. The leather and spicy carnation are my influences here, with white musk and that gorgeous vanilla that balance it out. The sage and cedar never quite come out for me; but the leather + musk + vanilla + carnation and a shadow of lavender underneath is literally perfect. Nobility in a bottle, a knight in white leathers, a falcon in the gloved fist. This is probably going to become my "signature" with Fallen resting In Memoriam, lol: it's so prettily androgynous and complex. 10 Antichrists out of 10!

The gothic vampire wine scent of my dreams. Dark, lush, red red red, fruity-smoke and intoxicating. 5 vampire larpers out of 5. I need to go more places worthy of wearing this.

It definitely opens up as green stems and flowers snapped and bleeding sap from the force of May rainsqualls: a white floral with the freshness of rained-out air, as well as that greenness to balance out the cleanliness of the scent. It's very pure.

It dries down to an interestingly...hollow-feeling, slightly soapy white flower-and-musk combination on me. Like there's a hole in the middle of the scent, somehow. Like the glamorous lady in the woods turning around to reveal her hollowed back...Is that the treachery?

I like the opening, the end is baffling. I'm probably gonna destash this one, as I prefer darker notes in tandem with my whites, and I would have liked more electric intrigue to this, but I'm glad to have tried it!

Oh, I LOVE this. Moonflower is palely sweet and refined, and the orris adds a smoky quality to it--like the thin trails of incense smoke, not bonfires or cigarettes. I'm obsessed. I NEED a bottle of this. Oh, NO, how am I ever gonna find a bottle of this?!

Are there any blends with the same white rose as Asses Plus Long from the 2021 Lupers? I LOVE how dewy it is, and how it smells like how velvety soft a lush rose petal would feel...

Clean, slightly cologney soap. A hint of the same salty air I get out of Calico Jack, but I think I may have to give up on oceanic scents ;-;  they just do not want to give me what I want from them. Orange blossom usually sings on me, and it isn't even coming through here.

Spellbound on me comes off as a sweet cherry cola. Given some time, the amber emerges to mellow down that sweetness, but I wanted roses...!

In the bottle, it's...mostly coconut. A strangely sharp, unpleasant coconut: I can detect orris powderiness in it, and something…weirdly herbal under it? Where are my roses? As it warms on my wrists, the coconut mellows out to something a little less piercingly artificial. The musk comes out now, and I do start getting pale white impressions from it—rounded, soft pearls, for sure, but no roses and no diamonds so far...

A little too pale and dull for me, and that unpleasantly bittersalt green lingers underneath it. Rotting rose stems and muddy pearls floating in coconut soup…

Actual rose emerges later, a powder-drifted floral sweetness. An ethereally uplifting,  pink and delicate rose—but after the rest of the scent, it’s neither pretty enough nor unique enough for me to like this perfume very much. A pity; I love the original fairy tale, and it’s such an evocative series of notes, but I far prefer the velvety petals and richness of Asses Plus Long (picked as a comparison for being another "gem" rose).

Now here’s a sexy aquatic.

Alright, I live on a boat with my father who's a rabid Calico Jack fanboy, so this would have been a hilariously worthwhile frimp for the Lab to pick for me even if the scent were subpar. (Did someone divine about this? It's almost TOO funnily perfect...)

But it’s not. It’s dashing as hell.

It starts citrusy bright, green & crisp from the bottle. As it dries, you’re casting off from an island of citrus trees, carrying off a crateload of fruit against the scurvy—now salt-crusted leather starts to dominate the note, musky and worn with the sweat of working the deck. The sea air is bracing, a refreshing breeze blowing over the sails and filling the flag, during the heyday of the Calico bunch—before that fateful day when Bonny and Read were the only ones prepared to defend a drunken revel of a crew.   

Incredibly masculine, even though I’m not particularly attached to gendering scents (why shouldn’t men smell like sweet white moonflower?). This absolutely is the scent of Calico Jack, a bright citrus cologne overthrown by actual sweaty musky work, debonair and dashing rogue and total dandy fool. It’s fantastic. I don’t know how wearable it is for me—feeling sweaty and grimy is a Problem for me—but I adore the frimp, nonetheless.

In the bottle, I'm getting...Pinesol. And then it goes to diner burger grease on my skin, mustard and hot beef and all.

This is NOT what the imp I had of Faustus did all those years ago when I first discovered BPAL did. Could this be a poorly blended frimp...?

Oh, this was one of my out-there choices for myself, an experiment—the fruits and heavy woods scared me, and I wasn’t familiar with labdanum enough to imagine how this would smell.

Now that I've tried it, I am obsessed.

Medea starts wet as dark, rich pine resin, sharp and deep, touched by a carefully light hand of sweetness that just illuminates the dark. Labdanum’s honeylike, leatherlike aspects, earthed by myrrh, blend incredibly well into the pines: like a candle borne through the dark forest, making one’s way to the rite. Myrrh earths it all. Dark, but never bleak. Cool, with flashes of purple fruits on the offering plate that never turn jammy or cloying; the body and complexity of this scent is gorgeously intoxicating.

As it dries, the florals emerge like gathered herbs, never becoming overly sweet, never fighting back against that masterful hand that bore them here. The resins thin out to a wispier scent, incense clouds trailing up to heaven as the darkness gathers round you, sweet with power, dark with rage.

This is a scent to throw Selene from the sky with, so that she can’t witness your wicked works.

I LOVE Medea, as I really should have expected given my love for the sorceress herself. What a gorgeous, witchy scent.

Yes, I do keep calling it Asses Plus in my head, because I’m twelve.

One of three Luper releases I’m lusting after (the other two as yet unpurchased: Nocturnal Palace and Cascading Silks), Asses Plus caught my attention as a relatively simple scent: yes, I love the complexity of things like Medea, becoming a whole fragrant experience on skin, but while learning what I enjoy in a perfume, it’s nice being able to pick some things out and say “yes. that. that is the good shit.”

Or eye warily. Jasmine, I am looking suspiciously at you.

Asses Plus Long opens in the bottle as an indeterminate vague sweetness, pale and enticing. It’s a little frightening to dab on: what if it’s too sweet? What if I actually hate rose as a main note?

There’s no need to fear any of that.

The opal nature of this rose retains the sensuality and clarity of the flower, without becoming overpowering; the most vivid impression I get is of the soft, luxurious texture of white rose petals, silky under stroking fingertips. It remains pale and light as the scent deepens, soft and lush. I agree with romantic as stated above.

Vanilla and benzoin come into play as two ends of a spectrum of light: from moment to moment the undertone on which the white rose petals drift shifts from high clear vanilla to darker, warmer (almost boozy: I love the intoxicating whisper here) caramel benzoin. I am reminded of the play of fire in an actual opal, the way a white bead will suddenly dazzle in the sun, shot through with reds and blues that were hidden up til now. How in the world did Beth capture such a thing in scent? Absolutely magical.

A dynamic scent, but it doesn’t seem inclined to morph into anything else: it just shimmers and shines. Applied on moisturized skin, the scent holds up better than much of what I’ve tried so far.

Gorgeous, crystalline without being cold, bright without being glaring, sensual without being cloying. Asses Plus Long sparkles. I’m very glad to have blind-bottled it: an opal for my little jewelry-chest.  

I really want to like this! It was one of my imps I was most excited for, and the Lab was so generous as to upsize it to a bottle (<3). Plumeria is one of my favorite flowers--I keep a bowl of fresh-fallen plumerias on my bedside daily, I'm that in love with them--and sweet orange, plumeria, and incense are exactly the notes I want out of a heady summer perfume...

In the bottle and wet, this is...artificial orange. Oh, I'm scared. Candy-sweet, pure orange, cloying like medicine. This is the Emergen-Cs my fundamentalist friends used to force me to drink when I was playing in their yard.

As it dries down, it calms down to a more natural sweet orange scent, balanced out by a certain creaminess: the plumeria disappearing into it like milk into tea, smoothing the drink but losing that essential milk-ness quiddity. The copal, I assume, is mixing these things together, but orange overwhelms the actual florality on my skin, which is rather disappointing. I wanted plumeria to be the main scent, and even once it calms down, it's not...complicated by anything. Incense smoke and crushed blooms are nowhere to be found; it's just a light, pretty sweet orange smell.

I like it fine, once we're past that frightening artificiality. It's just not the heady, sultry, complex plumeria perfume touched with orange and smoke that I expected it to be. Altogether light without the challenge of darkness, no trials of the gods or sacrifices here. Maybe aging will do something for it...?

In the meantime, I will continue searching for excellent plumeria smells that I can carry with me, unlike my bedside dish of flowers.

My first review!

I purchased a decant of V'al 2020 as well as a blind bottle during my "favorite GC is discontinued, WHAT DO I ACTUALLY LIKE" spasm. The decant arrived first, and has had time to rest in my cool wooden chest, so I'm testing it today.

In the imp and wet: A warm, golden creamy scent: buttercream, if it weren't a food--this doesn't smell edible at all, just sweet and good and rich and smooth. Never mind that if I smelled a food like this I'd shove it in my mouth immediately. It's still not a food smell. Complicated by a hint of spice, a shadow that makes it all the more intriguing and delicious.

On my skin, it's a very subtle, minimal throw: "skin but sweeter", with the cream occasionally glowing a little brighter, the same way candles flare and pop. I'm stuffing my nose to my wrists and elbow and down my shirt to get wafts of it, because it's delicious but I can't smell it from any further away! ;~; My skin is drinking this gorgeous scent down as greedily as I am! It's gone in minutes.

I'm going to run some through my hair and take a walk in the Florida heat to see if that brings it back and gives me the warm lusciousness I'm loving. Alternatively, I really hope the bottle behaves differently, for irrational reasons that defy all my understanding of chemistry. If not...well, I have a brand new scent locket for reasons just like this ❤️ it's delicious, and I adore it.

On 4/2/2021 at 2:31 PM, hhelix said:

@Hesper Fallen, where have you been all my life??? Since you and I seem to have similar tastes based on the imps you ordered, I re-tried the imp of Fallen I’ve had forever. It must have aged well or maybe my tastes have matured because holy cow is it stunning. Now I’m bummed that it’s discontinued and will treasure my imp!

Oh no! 😭 I didn't mean to spread the heartache!

On 3/31/2021 at 9:12 AM, hhelix said:

@Hesper Violet is one of my favorite notes and Beth has so many good ones. I looked back through my notes and several scents come to mind: 

The Raven: Violet and neroli mingled with iris, white sandalwood and dark musk

Nocturne: Deepest violet touched with lilac and tuberose

Morgause: night-blooming flowers deepened by dusky violet, purple fruits and the barest breath of medieval incenses.

and I wonder if you could layer one of them with something like:

Incantation: vetiver, dark woods, crumbling and burnt black sandalwood and a drop of lemon rind.

Which imps did you get?

 

Oh, The Raven especially sounds incredible for the neroli. That may be in the next order... (when I invariably cave and get V'al Hanissim because beeswax and amber are, as S+ has proven, also wonderful on me.)

A bunch of very different things to try! I'm taking this as an Opportunity, lol. I have on the way The Little Wooden Doll (rose-infused amber and soft golden sandalwood), Jezebel (honey, roses, orange blossom and sandalwood), Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds (red roses, dazzling crystalline musks, and pearlescent coconut-tinged orris), Medea (night-blooming cereus, black orchid, black currant and myrtle leaf enshrouded in the incense of Hecate’s cypress and myrrh, and the dark rage of magickal labdanum and intoxicating poppy), Nyx (night-blooming jasmine, warmed by myrrh, lifted by the promise of rose), Xiuhtecuhtli (copal, plumeria and sweet orange and the smoke of South American incense and crushed jungle blooms), and Lightning (the electric tang of ozone, marine notes, and a drop of sharp rain).

21 hours ago, VetchVesper said:

^ Those all seem like good recs. I'd add Moscow, The Caterpillar, and Nyx, and Veil for consideration. 

 

I also really enjoy violet, though I don't get much of it from Fallen. The resins and what I suspect is jasmine come out strongest on me, but noses and chemistries vary, and my imp is quite old. You might try a few darker, resinous jasmine blends though, to see if those strike your fancy. Happy sniffing!

Hey! I thought the same thing about Nyx! Caterpillar also sounds lovely...

Thank you both so much for your help!

 

On 3/29/2021 at 2:39 PM, VetchVesper said:

@ziggystardust13

 

Are you familiar with Elizabeth Arden's "Red Door?" It came to my mind when I smelled Fallen, and has the same notes, along with a bunch of other stuff crammed in there.  Heady, floral, deep. I think Fallen is a little woodier and less sweet maybe? I'm guessing it shares some of those "imperial florals" as well.  Probably jasmine and lily, in the very least.   

 

I can't think of a BPAL analogue of the top of my head.

 

Red Door by Elizabeth Arden is a Amber Floral fragrance for women. Red Door was launched in 1989. The nose behind this fragrance is Carlos Benaim. Top notes are Rose, Orange Blossom, Plum, Violet, Peach and Anise; middle notes are Honey, Carnation, Rose, Tuberose, Ylang-Ylang, Jasmine, Lily, Freesia, Lily-of-the-Valley and Orchid; base notes are Sandalwood, Amber, Benzoin, Musk, Heliotrope, Vetiver and Cedar.

I am not! BPAL is pretty much my only perfume exposure--I don't even really have a sense of what notes work on me, I just know Fallen is simply spectacular (especially aged) on me Bought it due to the description, it's been my only perfume for years.

I have many imps coming to me soon to figure out what I enjoy, so I'll have to hold off on looking at this until I know if I even *like* "sweeter" scents on me, but thank you ~

I just discovered Fallen was discontinued, and my heart is absolutely broken. I love that scent on me: it truly is regal desolation, the barren luminous throne. Any similar oils out there?