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BPAL Madness!

picturesofmeghan

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Posts posted by picturesofmeghan


  1. absolutely beautiful. well blended, and i don’t get any of the notes I was worried about- no powder, no heavy jasmine, and the vanilla behaves. i tested right out of the mail bc i have no patience, but the scent has developed a bit more,  and i can safely say i love this.

     

    i do get sandalwood - i don’t know if it is ‘rose tinted,’ as in the flower - i believe it is more like the color. it’s a silky, sweet soft scent with some darkness; the almond blossom doesn’t give the deceptive cherry scent,  but instead gives the impression of a light fruitiness. i would not call it fruity overall, but mixed with the ethereal white amber produces a ‘glow’ similar to ‘rose quartz bedroom.’

    the darkness is there in the softness - it’s hard to explain, but this is such an alluring scent that captures what tomie is without beating you over the head with any one quality. it’s subtle. I ordered this despite being iffy about most of the notes, simply bc i love junji ito and tomie in particular, and it’s such a fitting tribute. tomie is not outwardly a monster by any means - this is a scent that suggests a darker nature but does not define it specifically. it’s somehow more autumnal than spring, and the glow makes it one that i keep returning to sniff my wrist.

     

    edit to add - when this is wet, i do smell the dewiness that is referenced in other reviews. also want to note fiance and i both found something nostalgic about this, and neither of us can pinpoint what it is 

     

     


  2. i really disliked this when i got it - i got dryer sheets. cherry blossoms, plum, and pink musk are favorites of my mine, and i tend to love incense smoke as well, so i was pretty disappointed.

     

    i pulled it back out and the pink musk & plum are getting stronger. still a little dryer sheet-y, but i’m hoping it will continue to develop. glad i held on to it. i’m not sure what it is that is rounding out the scent at the end that gives that soapy feel,

    but i’m hoping that the aging continues to temper it.


  3. not sure how i feel about this yet - didn’t rest it but couldn’t resist trying. sweet, almost butterscotchy in the bottle (must be the honeycomb) and i smell the bergamot too. interesting blend on the skin, not much incense or smoke. i think i’m getting a lot of the frankincense (woodiness?) and honeycomb and bergamot,

    so i’m hoping for the incense, lotus, and green tea as it settles 

    will update but wanted to get something in here

     

    edit - into wearing it.. some smoke ! yay  


  4. Without rest, this one almost comes across as minty. I think it’s the hinoki / tonka / mandarin together. i’m not sure how i feel about it yet.

    something about it reminds me of pleasure boat. will update more.

    sweet but not in a candy way 


  5. this one is beautiful! the cypress hinoki comes out a lot for me, then the tea and bamboo. it’s very spa like. i don’t get plum or citrus at all. 

     

    it’s very unisex to me - soft enough that i can wear it 


  6. absolutely beautiful. the honey is like past lupers - the one from last year w the lotus and the candle - it and the cherry blossom form a creamy, soft base. the rose and cherry mingle together to create the perfect pink glow. i usually don’t like rose but like this. the cherry is not almond cherry. 


  7. this is a sugary, clean, pink cherry blossom. 

    it reminds me a little of kamisuki. 

    on the skin, i get the strawberry, which smells candy but with a little bit of a realistic tang, and then the cherry blossom second, which makes this sweet and girly- i honestly love pink scents, and this is absolutely one of my favorites.

     

    the strawberry quiets down after a while and the scent melds together more. it’s not too teenager pink; i feel happy wearing this one 💖

     

    i don’t really get the white musk - white musk usually doesn’t work well on me, but this scent is softer and i think the musk may come through in a clean way instead of a ‘glittering’ way (that sort of white musk tends to give me a headache)


  8. I got both this and the peach/plum HG - they are on totally different ends of the spectrum.

     I think this one may need to sit a little longer, and will probably deep in with age, but right now, I can pick out the labdanum first. It makes the plum feel much darker. The honey and lemon amber are there just to add sweetness and a slight tang. I’m generally not a honey person, but I don’t mind it here. the citrus is not noticeable on its own; it accents the plum

    right now on dry down - this smells to me like a plum coated labdanum with a fruity sweet tail, slight tang at the end. It definitely feels like a more mature heavy fruity smell, where the peach/plum one reads more sweet tart and light to me. 


  9. I was very afraid of this one, aside from the white musk, all of the other notes are amazing, but white musk usually gives me a horrible headache. i love aquatics and shunga, so i had to try it, though. In the bottle, the smells cold and salty.

    i would say this does come across a little detergenty on the skin - i don’t know if it’s the blue musk and flowers together, but it does give off the idea of night to me. it isn’t a super bold scent, though. 

    as it dries it actually gets nicer, a little more complex and more blue- It’s very clean smelling, and i am happy i don’t get the shrill white musk i was worried about. i haven’t found many aquatics that smell like the ocean itself- this isn’t an ocean smell, but it’s a salty clean and i appreciate it. i do think it could be unisex, and i may ask my fiancé if he likes it as well.


  10. in the bottle, the orange and peach come out the most. They blend together and remind me of, if anyone has ever done this, putting orange juice in a fruit salad to make sure it stays fresh. It is very citrusy on the skin, and the sandalwood / labdanum around the edges almost feels like clove, but not the full spiciness

    of clove. it’s very different- i do like it more than i expected.


  11. this is beautiful- it is up there for me. in the bottle it’s peachy apricot- more realistic to me

    than peach v from last year. on my skin, creamy fruit - i don’t love coconut, but it just seems to add to the fruit and bolster the cream while keeping it light - it is almost tropical. i think the tea also contributes to this. as for the sage- beautiful - i can pick it out more as it dries. i don’t have anything else like this that has worked on me, so this will be in heavy rotation for spring.

    it’s really well blended- i am so happy with this one!


  12. this is my top pick. it reminds me a little of dalliances by candlelight, but the honey isn’t like regular BPAL honey and instead adds a sweet, vanilla quality. i can’t pick out the lotus well, but it goes on soft and spa like, so i imagine it is in there. it blooms into a sweet, smoky, candlewax. my favorite so far 


  13. sadly this didn’t work on me. in the bottle it is beautiful- it reminds me of a view of cascading cherry blossoms. it is sweet, bordering on sweet tart, and based on bottle sniff, i would have backed it up. sadly, my skin doesn’t work with it - my fiancé said it smells like something is missing. i do this with a few scents - they smell hollow? on him, it smells like it does in the bottle ??? so it is definitely me.

    if any BPAL does this on you, this may not work. vanillas and blackberry tend to do this on me 


  14. i had a similar experience to @Fletchkat in the dry down - In the bottle, they smelled amazing and I was so excited to try it on. But the plum/opium mix it opened with went sour on me. Then, I got the same dry down as fletch explained - half dead smelly flowers.

     

    i’m waiting to see if this morphs a little, but it’s so far a no go for me 


  15. I didn’t get many of the Halloween first time around, but I did get mouses long sad pumpkin- 
    This sat a while, so now I can review it well. When I got it it was extremely pumpkin with a little bit of a sugariness to it, almost similar to a lip smacker that exist in 1 million years ago in a sugarplum scent.  In the bottle I still get very strong pumpkin spice. Wet on the skin, it is very pumpkin and then evaporates slightly into that sparkly scent similar to the bonnebelle sugar plum (Which didn’t smell like plum to me, it was a glittery mauve color, closer in scent to cherry chapstick but with a sugary depth). This has both that quality as well as some thing that borders on a warm spiciness with a carbohydrate background. i don’t get sweet pea or any of the mouse elements.  my fiancé says he smells basil; he only chose pumpkin when prompted. this is pretty strong and i’m not totally sure how i feel about it. 
    If you want strong straight up pumpkin spice, I would go for this. If you’re looking for mouses long sad tale with a tinge of pumpkin, I do not think you will find it here


  16. i am a big fan of aquatics, but not lavender. 

    (but i almost always agree with @doomsday_disco!) 

    in the bottle, this scent has a lot of lavender- not a super sweet one, though I am pretty new to BPAL, and I can’t really pick out specifically with a lilith lavender smells like, but a more herbal one. this lavender was stronger when i first got the bottle, but after settling a few weeks, it’s mingled more. 

    wet- i get fresh, realistic lavender floral- green almost like when you break a piece of grass, followed by saltiness and rain like water.

    when i tried this initially, the lavender went on sharp and astringent and faded off to reveal a scent much like the past lilith ‘a vast similultide interlocks all.’

    as this dries after resting, the scent feels like a colder rain- purple tinged storm clouds, the ambergris making it soft and salty.

    while i like simultitude, it almost borders on soapy. after resting, this scent does NOT edge towards soapy. it’s almost sweet, and somehow cold because the lavender’s astringency balances out somehow as it burns off. it does get lighter and more aquatic, and it wears close to the skin. 

    all in all, i’m very pleased with this scent :) 

     


  17. in the imp- green and shampoo- like to me.

    wet- dense, green, sharp, with a fig undertone and apple around the edges

    as it dries, the dense feeling dissipates and seems to be replaced by green apple and hair conditioner(?), and sandalwood is coming out a little. the green fig is still at the base, and i think that combined with the sandalwood is where the conditioner feeling comes from. florals start to come out more as it sits - i think the sweeter is hibiscus and the one that’s ‘too much’ to me is the lily lol...

    overall i don’t like this on me. :( it just doesn’t work 


  18. it doesn’t smell like real strawberry to me.

    it smells like artificial - syrup or candy or shampoo. it’s not a bad thing. 

    in the background, i get a slight sharpness from a green leaf.

    i don’t love this, but i don’t dislike it either. it’s kind of a ‘whatever’ - i got it to go with HGs like party tricks or kamisuki, which i think it will pair well with (i’m pretty confident it’s the same strawberry used in both of those), however it hasn’t been my first choice with either so far.

      


  19. in the imp- almost a citrus saltiness, but barely anything there 

    wet - SOAPY - i asked picturesoffiance to help here - he said something like snuggle at this stage..

    as it dries, both of us thought the site kind of dissipated into a lighter version of a typical aquatic perfume. We both read it a little differently though, I got the salt separated from the aquatic, but he got a lot of floral initially (he couldn’t place it)  and a sharper note that he said reminded him of clinique happy..

    as it evolved, i did see what he meant- I got the aquatic element is much lower in the mix, with flower dominating and a sharp citrus bouncing off the whole thing, which I’m assuming must be the bergamot (which was the only thing i could find in common with happy).

    it’s settled now - he called this ‘irish spring’ and i kind of agree - it also has low throw and longevity.

     

    not awful, but i really wanted to love this. I have yet to found good aquatics from bpal that I really love, aside from sturgeon moon

     

     

     

     

    side note: 

    there’s a note present here that i’ve noticed in a few things- hair glosses esp - a weird ‘empty note’ - if that makes and sense. it floats above and it’s barely noticeable here,  but it’s mixed into other notes 

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