Assimbya
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This is a smooth, delicate, honeyed floral, and really lovely on me. I get the liquid translucence which for me is characteristic of bpal's white honey note specifically, along with a restrained osmanthus and subtle jasmine; the orris and amber for me create a organizing base rather than being so prominent as notes unto themselves. I like this a lot, and it fits squarely into a family of bpal's honey + florals which consistently works really well on me. However, it's very light, with almost no throw, and fades rather quickly. For this reason, it's one I wear pretty much only at home, when I can reapply and smell right up against my wrist. I am wearing it right now for a rainy morning alone indoors and am enjoying its understated elegance without distraction, but will certainly put on something a little more vivid when I go out later today.
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Definitely a subtler, more delicate scent on me. I get a lot of agave, which is a thinner, sharper sort of sweetness than the lab's lush and perfumed honey note, and some pale, cool-toned florals, I think primarily ylang-ylang. As it dries I get the dry earth in the background gradually taking up more space. I don't know how bpal gets the sun-baked quality but it feels distinct to me, with the dirt note dusty with that warm heat from the sun and a light herbal quality. The dustiness of this almost makes it feel like it should be tickling my nose, and the sharpness edges on uncomfortable for me. It's a sophisticated, complex scent that I find really interesting, but not precisely pleasant to wear; I was hoping for a lot more florals than I got on this one.
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Soft, clean, pretty floral, very similar to Hanami to me. This goes on largely plum blossom and white musk, with a little hint of sharpness that I could see reading soapy but doesn't strike me in that way. The lilac and cherry blossom both come out on drydown, and it's a very balanced blend of the notes. Distinctly floral but at a little bit of a remove, like a painting of the flowers rather than the flowers themselves. After a while it turns mostly into cherry blossom, and it's a really lovely, pink, pretty cherry blossom. I like this, and will definitely keep and wear my decant, but I don't think I'm in love enough to get a bottle.
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Lovely date and hyacinth blend, the sticky-sweetness of the dates and the sharpness of the hyacinth complementing each other very well. As it dries I get some sweet violet as well, and a woody, sun-dappled skin musk underneath very slightly reminiscent of Like the Very Gods, though the date and hyacinth remain the main notes. This evokes a hazy spring afternoon in the Greek countryside, Apollo and Hyacinthus under a tree together eating dates. I don't get much of the other notes, and would like them (especially the lilies!); I imagine the amber in particular might come out more with age. This is really lovely and balanced; I like it a lot though would personally prefer if the dates were a little quieter and the florals more intense.
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Unfortunately I don't think my decant of this one has aged very well! On initial application I get a lot of grass, some fresh, very green wildflowers, and a hint perhaps of citrus, but on drydown it quickly goes waxy and indistinct, which I've noticed is a pattern for bpal florals aging poorly; I get a faint pleasant scent if I smell my wrist directly, but little else. I haven't been able to notice much of a pattern as far as which age well or not; I wonder if the fresh greenness of this one (perhaps leaning on top notes?) lead it to age worse, but have no actual idea.
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Dildo, Boxes with Lubricants, and a Plum Blossom Twig Hair Gloss
Assimbya replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Hair
The grapefruit definitely dominates this one on me - it's a realistic pink grapefruit, with both the slight bitterness of the rind and the sweet brightness of the juice present for me. I get a little apricot in the background, and some soft florals; maybe more plum blossom than honeysuckle, but it's hard to quite distinguish under the loudness of the grapefruit. It feels very clean and cheerful, and goes in my head into the category of bpal scents which could almost be commercial perfumes, but with underlying complexity and realism which set them apart; I do think it would be very likable and palatable to many people, a good bpal gateway scent. The throw and longevity are lower than most of my other hair glosses, which might be just the inevitability of it being a citrus scent, or may improve with age. I like the scent of grapefruit a lot, and find this nostalgic (my first perfume as a child was that Crabtree & Evelyn grapefruit eau fraiche from the '90's - does anyone remember those?), but I do wish the other notes came out a little more; I don't tend to want to smell so purely of citrus these days. I'm going to keep my decant around to see both if a little more aging brings out the other notes and also how I feel wearing it in especially hot weather, when I imagine it could be quite refreshing, before I decide whether I want a bottle. -
This is a straightforward but lovely white tropical floral; I have never smelled Flor de Maga proper in real life, but concur with previous reviewers that this note feels closest to a jasmine/hibiscus combination. It's bright and sweet, more citric and humid as it goes on and softening into more of a recognizable white floral as it dries down. It's rather similar to the newer fundraiser perfume Night-Scented Orchid; I was happy to be able to pick up a decant of this one in my quest to experience every kind of floral note possible, and I'll keep this around, but on balance I think I prefer Night-Scented Orchid.
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To me this one feels extremely similar to A Robe All Red With Dripping Gore from the Sorores Genita Nocte collection, which is not surprising because there is considerable overlap in notes. Especially when wet, I get a saffron/amber/red musk/honey combination so similar that I could mistake one for the other, though the lab's recognizable white amber note has a silvery, liquid quality which differentiates it from A Robe All Red...'s red amber if I look very closely for it. As it dries I get some more complexity from the other resins, and the orris in particular adds a lovely smoothness. I enjoy this quite a bit and will keep my decant around but, as I already have a bottle of A Robe All Red, I won't need one of this.
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The Persephone's Ascent perfume oil is an absolute favorite of mine, so I was so pleased to see a hair gloss version, and, as I hoped for, it is as beautiful as the perfume! I've already reviewed the perfume, so I don't have a ton to add; on me at least the hair gloss is slightly lighter on the cream and vanilla notes, and the honeysuckle nectar is slightly more prominent; it's somewhat sheerer, more green floral and less gourmand. A perfect springtime hair gloss scent, with medium throw and longevity as far as bpal hair glosses; it doesn't give me a floral cloud like, for example, the White Lilac & Moss lunacy HG from last year, but I catch hints of it throughout the day. Delighted to have this!
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This starts out on me as a very wet, green calla lily; it has this substantial, almost fleshy quality which sets the range of lily notes apart from other white florals, and which I think particularly shows up in the lab's calla lily specifically. There's a hint of honey at this stage, but not much; it's basically a calla lily single note, very fresh and alive. More honey starts to show up on dry down, and then, maybe an hour into wear, something comes together and I get the honey and amber clearly and elegantly, almost like a golden veil has fallen over the lily. They are delicate, perfumey versions of the amber and honey notes, not too sticky or overpoweringly resinous. Something really gorgeous happens there in the combination of the three notes, and it feels like the lily itself gets more complex, like maybe there's the more classically floral stargazer lily note as well as the greener calla lily. I just couldn't stop smelling it at this stage, found it totally beautiful and preoccupying. The throw is pretty low but it's distinct, and that beautiful drydown stage lasts for hours. I had high hopes for this one, and it has most definitely fulfilled them. I'm holding off on buying a full bottle until I've had a chance to try the lily-centric Flower Moon scents and compare, but I fully expect to be getting a bottle soon enough. Definitely recommended to lily fans and a wonderful addition to the lab's family of floral + amber blends.
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This is, unsurprisingly, extremely similar to the Matthew 18:6 perfume oil, which is also honey and champaca (in that case also with sandalwood). As I love Matthew 18:6, which is my favorite champaca scent, this is good news for me! The honey note in this hair gloss has slightly more astringency than in Matthew 18:6, and as a scent the hair gloss feels overall a little less balanced, but it's still beautiful; luxurious and sensual. If you like BPAL's take on these two notes, go for it! I'm not sure I'll end up going for a full bottle of this - I already have Hair Loosened for a honey-focused hair gloss, and that one is just so wonderful and complex that I don't know how often I'll want to choose honey champaca over it. But I'm glad to have my decant, and look forward to pairing it with Matthew 18:6 for a full champaca experience.
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2026 version. I see why many people have loved this; there's something very special and particular about it, and I think it's a beautiful showcase for the saffron. There's something almost uncanny when wet, the way the earthy-body heat quality of the saffron almost tips medicinal to my nose (I can see people have a lot of different comparisons to describe this quality, it seems a little ineffable) and is faintly unsettling in combination with the creamy vanilla. But on drydown the whole melds together into something truly beautiful. It's the fantasy version of making saffron ras malai over the stove, but all the complex facets of the saffron take it firmly and decisively out of the realm of the simple gourmand. Confident without being overpowering, with solid longevity. I love bpal's saffron note, and adore it particularly in A Robe All Red with Dripping Gore, but I think Love's Philosophy brings out different elements of it. I want to spend more with it, and with the rest of my Lupercalia decants, but I think this is likely to be a bottle purchase for me.
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Agreed with the above reviews - this is a bright, cheerful apricot when wet, with all the delicate facets of that apricot: golden fuzziness, sharp juice, almost osmanthus-like floral quality. The bergamot adds a citric perfumed feeling which makes it feel more pulled together as a scent. On dry down, I get creamy musk, I think the same one from Glowing Vulva (at least the hair gloss version, which is all I've tried); it's smooth and sensuous and calming. The vanilla is subtle; I can track it, but probably wouldn't identify it as such if I wasn't looking for it; I wonder if it might come out more with age. This is a very lovable, appealing scent that I think would feel equally appropriate across many settings and moods, and I think will be perfect for the summer. I don't wear fruity scents all that often, so will have to see how frequently I feel compelled to wear this one before deciding whether or not to go for a full bottle, but it's certainly a contender and I am very glad to have a decant.
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I would call this a sister scent to The Woman Behind It from this Halloween's Yellow Wallpaper collection; though they share few notes in common, their sensibilities are very much akin, which feels appropriate to their respective source materials (my review of Woman Behind It is here). While Woman Behind It reminded me of dried flowers on a vanity, this reminds me more of dried flowers within the pages of a diary, smeared with ink from being enfolded there while the writing was still wet. Violet is the most prominent note here to me (and I'd say for me it seems like the flower rather than the leaves); violet is pretty low on my list of florals, and in this blend it does indeed have the prim, candied sweetness which often turns me off it as a note; this is complicated and made more interesting by the dark sharpness of the ink note, which is distinct without being overpowering. (This is a combination which also occurs effectively in the recent Black Butterfly Moon, but there are many other notes which distract from the violet-ink pairing.) This has more substance than The Woman Behind It; still a ghost, but one who might have the capacity to rattle at the windowpanes. Like that other scent, it's not for me, but I appreciate it as an effective evocation of this moment in the novel, and will for now keep my decant.
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Cool, removed, pale, contained; I definitely agree with @wilhelmscream's identification of this as ghostly and something that might belong in the Evening with the Spirits Collection. There's a sweet, powdery, iris-rose-vanilla combination (iris definitely getting first billing in that list!) which reminds me of dry, crumbling flowers on an antique vanity, but which is slashed through with a sharply herbal lavender. The ambergris didn't come through when I first received my decant but now, after a few months of rest, it gives a slightly salty undertone, just to the left of living flesh. Very much Victorian femininity, and its sharpness fits that sensibility too, a pointed, cutting word alongside the almost cloying sweetness of that particular performance of social gender. I appreciate and admire this, but I rarely find myself wanting to wear it; my taste inclines towards fresher flowers than this, and a more exuberant and overflowing idea of femininity. But I'll keep my decant around, at least for now, for those moments when I want to sit with this sensibility.