Assimbya

From this I get a sweet rose vanilla, with an indefinable hint of something almost fruity, and some depth that I think must be coming from the cognac and silver; fortunately no alcohol note, which I was a little worried about. I definably get something powdery and doll-like as other reviewers have noted, and I'd say that for me the vanilla-lace note is the central one, though I can certainly track the rose. This skews quite sweet on me, sweeter than these notes might as a perfume oil where they'd have my skin chemistry to contend with, and I'm finding that some days that sweetness is too much for me, and the overall effect too youthful. But on others it feels pretty and just right for what I want - it particularly pairs well with my floral-vanilla perfumes (absolutely perfect match for Millarca from the Carmilla collection) without overpowering them, which is rather what I hoped it might do. I'm not in love with this as I am with the Peacock Queen HG (stupendously beautiful! perfect rose hair gloss!), but I'm enjoying it and happy to have it in my hair gloss rotation.

I was playing around with looking up this question on my spreadsheet recently, so was glad to find this very old thread! I think it's an interesting way of looking at preferences and would be curious to read others' answers; I'm keeping the number of favorites I'm pulling from high to better see trends. Unsurprisingly for myself, something like 85% of my favorites out of the scents I've tried so far are florals of some variety. The exceptions are a small group of fragrances which I find to each be doing something very specific and unique (ex. A Robe All Red with Dripping Gore; Seven Inches of Blood; White Rabbit). But the 12 most common particular listed notes among my favorite BPAL perfumes: Rose (17) - this is a staggering number to me! Some of these are really rose-centric blends and others are ones from which I barely pick out the rose at all, but it's still a lot. Musk (16) - keeping this one broad since musks are often labelled so idiosyncratically, but it was pretty evenly divided between white musk, skin musk, and red/crimson/blood musks (more of the latter than I expected probably because of all my vampire scents), with a couple of black musks. The scents that were right on the edge of being included in the favorites list also mostly had musk, so this number/proportion could get higher over time. No Arabian or Egyptian musk scents made their way into my favorites. Honey (13) - higher than I expected! It's a note quietly present in a bunch of blends, as well as those that center it. Amber (10) Vanilla (10) - when I started wearing BPAL I had no idea that I would like vanilla as much as I do now! Jasmine (6) Honeysuckle (5) Osmanthus/Olive blossom (5) Tea (5) - all types Milk/cream (5) Sandalwood (5) This was a really fun exercise! It's certainly skewed by how frequently certain notes show up in the catalog - I've tried a lot of sandalwoods which really really didn't work on me because BPAL has just so many, but it's good to remember that there several which in fact work very well. A number of my very favorite floral notes don't make it onto this list because I have only a couple of favorite perfumes with those notes (lilac, orange blossom, magnolia), but I love those few very very much. It's interesting to see which flowers do make the list, though some of that is certainly about what has happened to make its way to me or what shows up in blends that tend to intrigue me. Similarly, there also are a number of others kinds of notes which I think of myself as being really into because I have a couple of favorite blends which really showcase them, but in reality I only really wear them in those perfumes. It confirms that my taste skews very much to classic florals and musks, often with an amber base, but I do clearly really like some gently gourmand notes when paired with non-gourmand elements. I'd be curious to try the exercise again over time, and see if my list of favorites shifts with more familiarity and length of wear - I wonder if I'm including here a number of perfumes which are more similar to one another, and if my opinion about them will change.

I got an imp of this both because I am searching out rose/jasmine combinations and also looking for a frangipani heavy scent. Unfortunately I don't think it's quite for me on either count. On me the rose is the strongest note, and it seems to be the same rose note that shows up in a number of the GC blends - Fleurs du Mal, Lucy's Kiss - and which goes a little sepia-toned on me, with a hint of ammonia. It's a rose note which reads to me very much as the idea of rose perfume rather than rose itself; not unpleasant by any means, but a little disappointing to me by contrast with the much brighter, more intense rose notes in other BPALs. I can also pick out a dry jasmine, and fruity tuberose. The frangipani is quite subtle on my skin. This is a reasonable floral perfume with nothing objectionable about it, but it's just not exciting me. I'll probably keep my imp, but I'll continue my quests for a frangipani scent and also for a creamier jasmine.

I was a little wary of this, as heavily fruity blends often don't work on me, but Aizen-Myoo is lovely and I'm glad I ended up with a free imp of it. The citrus notes are very fresh and bright without being overpowering, letting the cherry blossom shine beside them - this is a distinctly cherry blossom scent without being cherry, which is delightful. I would agree with other reviewers that the tea note feels more like green tea than black tea. Overall it feels floaty and gauzy and cheerful. This isn't enough my style for me to want a full bottle of it, but I will use and enjoy my imp.

This was given to me as a free imp - it's not one I ever would have gotten for myself, but I love white musk and was willing to try. Wet this is dusty, herbal, and slightly woody on me - primarily sage, with a strong note of cedar and some hint of extremely dry, non-floral lavender. As it dries, the leather absolutely takes over on me, and I find myself unfortunately reminded of car seats with a cedar air freshener. If I really search for it I can still get a little of the sage. On me I get absolutely no musk, vanilla, or carnation. This would have felt way too masculine for me even if the notes came off in a more balanced fashion on my skin, but as it is the amplified leather note is really quite unpleasant by my taste.

I got this just before the Halloweens went down in longing for a good orchid blend! And I think that it may be what I was hoping for. Wet on me this is primarily almond - I can see the comparison to cherry above, but for me it feels like the same almond note from Hecate, with the cacao adding a powdery bitterness. It transforms almost completely as it dries into a dark, silky orchid, headily perfumey but with a gentle throw, fuzzy and sweet with musk, only a hint of the almond and cacao. The dry down stage of this feels very elegant to me - I would feel good about wearing it to the opera. It fades pretty fast on me, though I'm hoping that might change with aging.

Apparently my skin chemistry is opposite of all other reviewers' on this one and I am not pleased about it! On me, Jennie Rogers is primarily tobacco leaf; when wet there's some peach and a pretty hint of the vanilla chypre, but those fade quickly, and it's just tobacco with the peach as gilding. I get no rose, jasmine, or bergamot. Unfortunately, as I strongly dislike tobacco, this is very definitely not for me! I scrubbed it off rather vigorously within 10 minutes. Wish I could trade experiences with those above who wanted tobacco out of this and didn't get it!

I definitely second @roseus's beautiful description of this as "looking at the sun glittering on the sea in the distance on a cool, crisp day"! It's a very distinctly blue scent to me; the well-blended combination of mint/spruce/eucalyptus is the central note on me, but it's distorted, edges blurred by the salty floral notes like ripples of seawater. There's a nebulous fruity quality which might be from the musk or lotus, which intensifies as it dries but doesn't ever overpower the scent. It's less earthy than Ogygia, more a fantasy of perfectly blue sparkling water than Ogygia's more physically grounded island. Though I often amplify astringent notes, the mint/spruce/eucalyptus combination stays soft and gentle on me, balanced nicely with the other aspects of this blend. Celestial Beings feels like it comes right up against the boundaries of a very conventional aquatic scent, but veers slightly to the left into something lovelier and a little stranger, while at the same time remaining very pretty. I like this rather more than I thought I might, though I don't think it's one that I'm likely to wear often and so I probably won't need more than my decant. I think this could be a nice transition scent for someone moving from mainstream fragrances into BPAL - it's more unusual and distinctive than, say, Embalming Fluid, but maintains a friendly bridge to general aquatics.

Thank you so much @ShadowEtienne and @Failmingo for these very thoughtful suggestions! Reading reviews, The Hound and the Milk sounds so beautiful - I tend to get scared off by coconut notes maybe because of sunscreen/lotion associations, but that's really not fair of me and this sounds like a gorgeous blend! I'll keep an eye out for it on the forum. What a trial to have a beloved who cannot stand jasmine scents! My sympathies with that one. I've heard so many wonderful things about Tomie that it may be time to try it even if it isn't a "true" jasmine! These are both wonderful places to start, I appreciate you both. I may also try imps of Delight and Nyx, which are both GCs which haven't yet crossed my path to this point. I love that a lot of these also have rose - one of my recent jasmine experiences was finding a stunning bush of it beside an equally beautiful pink rosebush, and I wanted to remember the experience of those two scents together forever.

Reviving this very old thread! I have recently been lucky enough to have some glorious experiences smelling freshly blooming jasmine, and have been experiencing this very specific almost creamy smooth jasmine scent from them. I have a number of BPAL jasmines I really enjoy (Twilight, Cold Moon 2024, The Presence of Love), but the jasmine in them tends to be a sharper note, either perfumey or more herbal. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a creamier jasmine scent! Most of the obvious suspects seem to go other directions on me - Poinsettia Gown goes unfortunately soapy, and Vasilissa is very sharp on my skin. Eos looks like it would have been a great fit, but unfortunately long ago DC'ed! I'm considering Delight, as I'm also seeking out a good frangipani, and I wonder if that particular floral might soften the jasmine too.

This is such an interesting example for me of how reactions to scents are so personal - I like this one quite a bit (and it's really grown on me the more I've worn it), but my experience of it is really quite different from most of the reviewers here. Though the throw isn't too much, I find the overall experience of the scent really quite intense, in a way that I find elegant but also quite distinctly sensual. I feel similarly about Like the Very Gods, which I agree belongs in the same family - both of these scents are quite enthralling to me, but a little personally overwhelming; I don't feel comfortable wearing them to work, or to other settings which require external focus. I think this must be something about my relationship with heavily skin musk/"your skin but better" scents, that the way these scents offer a sweet, perfumed fantasy of embodiment really pulls my focus in a way that more classic florals, in which there's a sense of the scent more differentiated from my body itself, doesn't quite. I'm curious whether anyone else has the same experience! To get more specific about notes in this one, on me it's predominantly sweetened amber, skin musk, and orris butter. The rose is present but subtle on my skin (though I really don't ever amplify rose, so that's unsurprising), and so is the vanilla, though from some of my other vanilla blends I'm learning that may change with aging. The dominance of the amber and musk gives this a quality related to commercial perfumes, but it feels substantial and textured in a way that's distinctly BPAL. This works for me as a Grace/Charites perfume - it makes me think of them welcoming Aphrodite after she rises from the ocean, the sense of curves and body beneath billowing tunics in the Botticelli that the Lab uses for the labels on these.

I ended up with this one somewhat serendipitously, but am so glad I did, because it's stunning and exactly right for the height of spring. I've been on a bit of a honey notes kick lately, and this is such a wonderful showcase for them - the description of the flowers as "coated" in honey feels viscerally accurate; there's truly a sense of the smooth and sticky texture of the honey enveloping the floral notes as it goes on wet. Particularly at this stage the flowers are very well-blended and it's difficult to pick out individual notes, sort of like looking at a field of brightly colored wildflowers, blurring and made indistinct in the yellow sunlight. As it dries it feels sort of like the honey starts slowly to drip off, and though it remains definitely present, I can start to pick out individual flower scents, even if perhaps not all of them. I feel especially taken by the daffodil in this one, though perhaps it's because I recently had an experience of smelling a field of daffodils very distinctly after not previously having quite noticed them as their own scent; the feeling of that experience is captured so well here, along with beautifully elegant wisteria (a scent I'd like to experience more in perfume!) and some clean, creamy jasmine and honeysuckle. I can't distinctly identify the other florals here, but perhaps with time I will. Overall it's a wonderfully joyous blend, while also feeling somewhat mature; there's a sense of a defined, adult sexuality without being as blatantly sexy as some of the skin musk scents are to me. It has strong longevity (even this bottle from over 15 years ago!) and moderate throw; to me it feels appropriate to wear in a lot settings, but where I do it's like getting to bring a field of flowers with me. What a lovely experience to be given by a perfume. An interesting skin chemistry note - on my partner, who tends amplify sweet notes, this is a nearly unwearable mess, with the honey becoming cloying and drowning out the flowers. The Lab's honey note has very consistently worked on me so far, keeping a defined almost resinous edge to it; sometimes I lament my astringency-intensifying skin chemistry when it makes blends too acrid, but here it's a lovely good fortune.

Ended up with some of this one mostly because my partner wanted to try it, but I was curious too - it sounded like a balance of notes which could really go either way on me, but dragon's blood and honey historically work well with my chemistry so I was hopeful the balance might tip in a direction that worked for me. Unfortunately, it tipped otherwise - on my skin the amber here rather takes over, and combines with the kush and Arabian musk into something sharp, heady, incense-like, and more New Age shop than sexy for me. I get barely any honey, just a hint of red currant, and no dragon's blood whatsoever. I don't get the sweetness other reviewers have described, though I can get something must close to it from the bottle scent. Since I have other beautiful honey and/or amber scents which my skin much prefers, that's okay, though I would have enjoyed the scent I had hoped this might be! I'm learning that the notes which the Lab refers to as Arabian and/or Egyptian musk seem for the most part not to come off so well on my skin, despite almost every other of their musk varieties pretty consistently working well for me. It makes me curious about the differences between those accords.

This is such a gentle, comforting scent - on me it's a light, golden, waxy honey with some herbal sharpness defining and enlivening it. I can definitely pick out the chamomile, which I find lovely here even though chamomile tea isn't a favorite of mine; there's a fuzzy sensibility which feels like it's coming from the pollen and/or tonka but I can't pick those out precisely. This definitely reminds me of a sunlit summery afternoon on a blanket in a field. I liked this one when I first tried my imp quite a while ago, but it didn't make a huge impression; lately I've been enjoying and reaching for it a lot more, and am considering a bottle. It's just so cheerful and soothing, and brightens my mood whenever I wear it. I'm so glad to have skin chemistry which works so beautifully with honey notes so that I get to enjoy it!

I adore this one so much. Peacock Queen perfume oil is stunning, but so far at least it fades pretty quickly on me. This may change as my bottle ages (though I in general have some problems with my skin devouring rose and leaving none for me), but for now I was so thrilled to discover that the hair gloss lasts forever and ever in my hair, with a gentle but distinctive throw. It's a deep, pure, dark red rose, velvety and smooth and delicious. Whenever I wear it I feel happy all day to get hints of rose from my hair. Highly recommended for rose fans, especially those who like me generally do the opposite of amplifying it. Right now this and Laura are alternating as my two everyday hair glosses, and I need to get some more in the rotation to avoid using them up too fast! But Peacock Queen HG is a delightful addition to my routine.

I like this quite a bit, though it's not an everyday hair gloss for me, and I feel like I have to be a little selective as far as which perfumes I pair with it. It definitely feels like it belongs in a set with a number of the other Carmilla perfumes especially, as @LavenderCoffee mentioned, You Are Mine, You Shall Be Mine. Dark but with warmth, a polished wood sensibility without being overpoweringly woody. The notes are very well blended and none of them stand out particularly strong to me, but they create this very vivid, darkly sensual overall picture. I am very glad to have it in my hair gloss rotation, even if Laura has become much more my usual daily hair gloss.

This is very fresh and clean on me, with a feeling of salt spray against rocks. The floral notes are both very light, though I get more lavender than lilac. There's something in this that reminds me of more commercial fragrances, though certainly fresher in feel. On me I don't get a ton of either throw or longevity compared to the other hair glosses I've tried; it gives more of an ineffable atmosphere in my hair. This is very pleasant, but I was hoping for something more intense as both a floral and an aquatic. I imagine it will appeal to many, but it's not for me.

I have been a little bit obssessed with this one; it feels really like the essence of early spring to me. The honeysuckle nectar is sweet and fresh and pale green, gently enveloped by a smooth floral vanilla; the whole has an incredibly lovely creamy sensibility without being at all foody. I don't get the sandalwood really at all, which I am perfectly pleased with. I find it both intoxicating and innocent, deeply joyful. I don't personally experience it as at all similar to Poinsettia Gown, which I found very heady and perfumey. As a lover of Persephone who doesn't like wearing pomegranate and as a lover of spring, I am so very happy to have this one, and it's rapidly becoming a new favorite.

I was frimped a decant of this and I'm glad I was. I was initially quite confused because I looked it up and found the perfume oil, which shares none of the same notes, and I kept wondering where the pomegranate was! Definitely agree that this is a woodier, sharper Snow White; the snow and oudh notes are pretty evenly balanced on me, and the sweet-woody combination works well. I'm wearing it right now alongside White Rabbit, which helps also to bring out the black pepper note just a bit. It's quite pleasant, and is making me curious about the Snow White HG, which previously I hadn't felt so interested in.

This scent made me lose my mind when I first tried it a few months back, and I feel so tremendously lucky that I was able to obtain a bottle. It feels very special both as a scent unto itself and also for me personally, and, though I know it's difficult to find and so my review won't be a help to many here, I wanted to write one just for the sake of reflecting on my experience with it! Backstory here is that I am a major fan of the novel Dracula, and have been for many years; the novel has been really important in my life in a variety of ways, and still has a very particular place in my heart. As a fan of it I've always tried to champion the characters of the Brides of Dracula, who get so little space in the book, and who so often are represented in adaptations in really misogynistic ways. A lot of my participation in the fandom has been about trying to open up the possibilities for what the undead lives of these characters could have been like, as full people rather than stereotypes. So when I learned about BPAL's Order of the Dragon collection I of course really wanted to try the Brides of Dracula scent for the sake of that connection, but I didn't imagine it could really match or live up to my own associations and experiences with these characters; I tried to keep my expectations low. And Brides of Dracula doesn't seem like much for the first few minutes that I put it on - a hint of spice, of sandalwood, faint floral; a little pretty but nothing special. But something happens as it blooms on my warm skin, and it becomes utterly intoxicating. The skin musk is smooth and sensuous and quietly enveloping; it mingles with a beautiful golden perfumey osmanthus and the sharp edge of the plum blossoms; honey and amber are very well-blended in but each give their own kinds of glow to the scent, unearthly and shimmering. It has very little throw on me, but I don't care; I'm happy with this as a private skin scent just for me. And it lasts for hours upon hours, and gets better and better over that time. Every time I put this one on there are a few minutes where I think maybe I've misremembered how good it is, maybe my sentimentality about the source material has clouded my judgment, but each time I am proven right again. What's so special about this, aside from the fact of whatever perfect alchemy it's doing with my skin chemistry, is the fact that this is a scent for Brides of Dracula as I see and imagine and want other people to see them - beautiful and unearthly and dangerous but also with their own dignity and sorrow. It's not the kind of loud, overtly gothy scent that would be fitting to the movie/pop culture versions of these characters. It's a very special thing to know that this perfume was being made back in 2006 when I was developing my own deeply felt relationship with these characters but had no knowledge of BPAL, and that I get to wear it now, nearly twenty years later. I am so grateful for that.

Sweet fruit nectar, very green and pink, with just an edge of floral and plantlike sensibility under the juiciness. This is very fully realized but just so incredibly not me; it makes me think about how something that's been really interesting for me in exploring BPAL has been experiencing the way different perfumes seem to evoke different types of self-presentations to me, across all different arenas. BPAL has a lot of different variations on what ideas of femininity or masculinity can be or, or what sexiness or sensuality can be, and having the intensely visceral reaction to a scent of "that's me" or "that's not me" is fascinating. Penetralia feels like a sexiness that is just so alien to my own - this is frothy pink lingerie, clean contemporary girlishness. It seems like an edges towards more of a mainstream body spray type scent, but done with a freshness and naturalness that those products never seem to achieve. I'm sure there will be a lot of people who love wearing this (and I think of some in my life to whom I could give my decant!), but I am not one of them.

On me, this is a predominantly lemon blossom scent - a softer, gentler floral lemon, wearable as lemon notes rarely are for me. As it dries down, a warm, caramelized (but not at all foody) sense comes through which I think is the combination of honey, cedar, and amber. Just a hint of frankincense and ylang-ylang for me. There's something very enthralling about this scent, a way that it's at once sensuous and cozy, and I find myself repeatedly smelling it to try to make sense of the experience. It doesn't personally quite feel like me, despite how well-done it is, but I appreciate it very much. On the other hand - on my partner it totally blooms (really all the notes come out, especially the neroli), and feels all of us a beautiful piece; it's a new rival for his favorite scent. So our household is definitely getting a bottle, but probably I won't be the one who mostly wears it.

I like this one a lot! The combination of notes (clove + honey + dark fruit + floral) reminds me a little of some of the Carmillas (especially You Are Mine, You Shall Be Mine.. and Mircalla), but it has a particular complexity all its own. I've been really obsessed lately with the blooming apricot trees in my area, which have a very unique and gorgeous scent - slightly sharp, complex, with that fuzziness characteristic of fresh apricots? It's so difficult to describe. The Ume note in this perfume isn't quite that, but it's the closest I have experienced in a perfume; it's distinct and I love it. The mogra/jasmine, as others have noted, is quite gentle here, very well-blended with the other notes, lending this atmospheric white floral sensibility. The plum is dark and not too sweet, very balanced with the honey and clove. I'm not noticing the lavender, which I'm okay with. Overall, this feels dark and complex without being overwhelming, predominantly floral but not purely so, and subtly sexy.

It's so interesting how different people's experiences of different scents can be! For me, in contrast to the poster above, this one was so so clearly White Rabbit - the white chocolate note, which is really quite gentle and only softly sweet, adds more creaminess and softens some of White Rabbit's crisp edges (from the pepper, ginger, and linen), but it's really quite close. As a fan of White Rabbit, that isn't a problem, and this is really pleasant and wearable. It's lovely, and I'm glad to have a decant, but for me it's not different enough from White Rabbit for me to need a bottle.

I wish I could drink this one!! So incredibly delicious. I can pick out all the notes on this one (it's even clearly green tea rather than black to my nose! And for me I do get the almond milk specifically, though agree that it's an exceptionally rich and creamy almond milk), and they are all so realistic and fun. I'm not really a gourmand person, and the experience of smelling this but not getting to drink it drives me a little crazy, but it's so sweet and pretty and playful. I don't think this is one I'll wear frequently, so I don't expect I'll be getting a bottle of it, but I'm glad it exists and I'm happy to have a decant.