leptonpyr
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I would agree that the citrus leans quite clean. The blood orange is very bright, mouth-puckeringly tart, and vivid. It's almost juicy. After the citrus opening relents a little, there is a touch of woodiness, but I'm not getting any oud from this; it's reading much closer to cedar to me. I would say the blood orange is the main player here, with a faint, pleasant backing of dry woodiness. It's very nice, a lovely summer scent, and I am learning that I adore BPAL's blood orange note. Very clean and refreshing. It's there and gone quite fast, as I'd expect for such a citrus-dominant scent. After 4 hours on me it's gone mostly without a trace; low-to-average throw.
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On me this is ALL about the fruit, I'm not sure I can detect either the florals, woods, resins, or spice. Right away I get a tart, sour crush of salted yuzu, with many other fruits slowly revealing themselves underneath, although it's hard to pick out precisely which ones -- some red fruit from the plum and cherries (and it's really more of the fruit than the blossoms here), maybe some sweet red wine, the honeyed, velvety texture of apricot. I know that peony accords can incorporate raspberry or lychee notes, so it's possible the peony is contributing here. If I squint, I can *maybe* detect some fresher florals peeking through. It's really nice on me for the first few hours, but does start to go a bit sweeter and more syrupy than I'd prefer after that. Overall, it's a really fun, refreshing blend for summer, and I'm enjoying it a lot in this heat (I haven't hit the syrupy phase today yet lol), but on my skin the full complexities of the listed notes do not come through. I would say about average throw and longevity for BPAL, maybe a little longer than average, about 5-6hrs.
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Peach Pulp and Lapsang Souchong
leptonpyr replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This didn't go as hard on the lapsang souchong as I'd hoped. I was hoping for a really weird smoky, barbecued peach, but it's mainly just peach, with the faintest breath of black tea and maybe the ghost of a whisper of some smokiness. It's a really nice peach, and it felt lovely and refreshing on a summer day. The peach is indeed velvety, almost syrupy, with a slight tartness and a bit of astringency from the tea. It's perfect for the heat, and I'll be reaching for it again this summer, but it's more like a watered-down glass of peach-flavored iced tea than lapsang souchong. Very low throw and short longevity, almost completely gone in about 4 hours. -
I too doubted and was pleasantly surprised. I expected the red bean paste to dominate and be a little too heavy and sweet, but this is a perfectly well-balanced blend and the overall effect is lovely in a way I could not have anticipated. Each time I sniff I can't tell whether the wisteria or the red bean paste is more forward, they seem to be rather perfectly balanced and equally present for me. It's a really pretty, light, springy wisteria that reminds me of catching a drift of blossoms on a passing breeze, woven together with a mild, chewy, almost nutty-earthy red bean (I think there's something about the nutty-chewiness that reminds me a lot of BPAL's rice accord, so if you're a fan of that, you may enjoy this one as well). The bean paste seems to keep the wisteria fresh and a little earthy rather than cloying. Red Bean Paste & Wisteria is very much 2 great smells that smell unexpectedly great together, keeping with the theme. Very low throw, I can't really smell it unless my nose is quite close to my skin. Not sure about the longevity, I'm writing this within the first hour of putting it on. (Based on my experience with other BPALs with similar notes, I imagine it'll be short-lived, but I'll report back if I'm surprised again.)
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Ada Lovelace opens with a bright and bracing black tea accord, slightly tannic and entirely lovely. It's like one of those loose-leaf teas that are so high-quality they almost smell floral, although that could also be the bergamot, which is subtle but providing some bright, citrusy lift. I think the mahogany accord is more of a grounding base for the tea and bergamot than anything that smells truly woody; it has got a smooth, slightly creamy feel to it. After a few hours in, I start to detect something slightly powdery under the tea, which makes me wonder if amber is part of BPAL's mahogany accord. For those of you concerned (or hopeful) about the silver or the lightning, I did not get anything metallic or ozonic. There might be just the smallest cool mineralic touch, but I'm not entirely sure if I'm projecting that because I'm thinking about the listed notes or if my nose is really detecting it. Overall it's a smooth, warm, bright scent that has a very calming and grounding effect on me, as BPAL's tea fragrances tend to do. This is kind of more what I would have liked Dorian to be--all crisp, full-bodied black tea, with a hint of citrus and no sugar. I'd recommend this one to fans of BPAL's black tea accord! I think it had a bit of throw within the first hour or so, but then receded much closer to my skin. Average longevity on my skin, maybe 4-5 hours.
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Paris Being Admitted to the Bedchamber of Helen
leptonpyr replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Limited Editions
This is very lovely on me, I enjoyed it more than I expected to. At first I thought it might skew too feminine for me to want to wear even if it was very pretty, but something made that okay for me. It was not at all sugary and didn't feel particularly "young" or "girlish", which are not vibes I want to project with my perfume. It's very well balanced creamy tuberose and slightly fruity sweet pea on me (somewhere between peach and lychee), with that almost grape-skin-like tang from the white florals. The silk is more of a smooth, diaphanous sort of texture than an accord I can pick out, and the honey adds a touch of sweetness without ever coming across as heavy. Very refined and lovely, simple but not straightforward. It really does somehow remind me of cool, smooth pink silk. I didn't think I'd want a bottle, but I keep finding myself reaching for my decant again, so I'll give it some more thought before this Lunacy comes down! -
This has CRAZY throw on me. The incense is unlisted, but there's a LOT of incense, some very sharp lily, and spicy-sweet ylang ylang. The sharp lilies die down after a couple of hours, and Flower Moon remains floral incense, with a hint of something sweetly balsamic, on me for *hours*. Seriously, I'm on hour 8 over here and still going strong. The projection's died down since this morning and it's definitely closer to my skin than it was, but it's still very noticeable. I went to try Flower Moon's accompanying hair gloss a minute ago, and I figured I'd reapply a drop of the perfume oil so I could better understand how they complemented each other. Possibly this was a mistake: the little drop of Flower Moon I reapplied has BLOTTED OUT the Passionflower & Wild Plum Hair Gloss. I feel like a walking cloud of incense. Whatever incense accord this is, it would appear I amp it. I wish I'd gotten more of the florals and earth notes! It was definitely a pleasant smell, just not what I'd been hoping for, and probably a bit too incensey for my tastes. I'll give my decant a month or two before I retest to see if it calms down at all.
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Beatrice and Dante is BEAUTIFUL on me, just gorgeous. As a lover of rose who is cursed with skin chemistry that sometimes rejects it, I'm very happy to report that not only is this a rose that works for me, but on me it's a very beautiful rose-dominant blend. It's an absolutely lovely, soft, enveloping sort of rose; I would agree with @OxfordComma that it feels plush and velvety. The note is described as "white rose", but to me this feels like a very soft, pale pink smell. Beeswax comes into play, adding golden warmth and a smooth, rounded texture that complements the rose beautifully. On initial drydown, if I sniff close to my skin I can detect a trace of peppery frankincense peeking out from under the rose and beeswax; then maybe fifteen minutes in, there's a shy touch of powdery orris that reminds me (in a good way) of old-fashioned beauty products, like when orris butter was put in lipsticks or face cream. This feels very lush, soft, and warm---it sort of gives the impression of slipping into a warm bath, scented with rose petals. The warmth in this blend is palpable, with a touch of spice and incense. It's quite pretty and sophisticated. A few hours in, it stays warm and pretty in a lovely musky sort of way. The top-heart-base note progression actually reminds me a good bit of The Moth Fairy; they share a similar structure with a floral opening, beeswax/orris/resin heart, and an amber base. I think this might be the same amber as in Moth Fairy, actually; it really does somehow feel sort of light and luminous. I reapplied about 3-4 hours in, and when I did, interestingly enough I started to get a bit of a sharper, spicier rose, as the myrrh came into play (might also be the saffron? not sure I know how to pick out BPAL's saffron note yet). Myrrh and amber are the last notes on my skin, but to my delight they remained quite rosy! Average throw, surprisingly good longevity on me! It lasted all day, and the rose stayed as a throughline the whole time. This is such a beautiful, complex, sophisticated floral, and it will absolutely be a bottle purchase for me.
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I was really hoping for more of the varied florals, but this is mainly strawberry on me. It first goes on a little fresh and grassy, like the snap of green stems, but the grassy green note almost immediately gives way to a LOT of strawberry, initially a tangy, juicy strawberry, but very quickly goes in a more artificial strawberry lip-gloss sort of direction that I don't really care for. An hour or so in, there's a touch of powderiness, possibly a pansy accord, or part of the silk accord, but I'm not really sure I can pick out any of the other florals. I might be getting the faintest whiff of cherry (not cherry blossom tho), but I might also be reaching here where I am in fact just smelling more strawberry. A few hours in, and I can pick up quite a pretty, pale honey, but combined with this strawberry it's a bit too sweet for me. The base note here is BPAL's lovely skin musk, with the lightest tinge of honey and fruit. I love skin musk, but I might have to flag BPAL's strawberry as a note that doesn't really work for me. YMMV, but on me it reads as a little too young and girlish. Projection is fittingly gentle, but the longevity was a bit better than I expected from such a light blend, got a good few hours out of this one (maybe 4-6?), as it goes through a traditional top-heart-base note progression, which I always enjoy. Probably ultimately not for me, but I'd be interested in seeing reviews from those of you who were able to get more florals! (And if you happen to have similar skin chemistry to me and love strawberry, you'll probably want to pick this one up.)
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Strawberry Moon: Pink Strawberry and Black Champaca
leptonpyr replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
...Okay, I appear to have had the direct opposite experience of @Larinessa. I bought this decant specifically to try the champaca note, but when I put it on wet it's nothing but strawberry. Very, very berry--it's sort of zingy and tart, but somehow also sweet and candyish? It REALLY gives the impression of a Sour Patch Kid, actually, the way it's both sour-tart and feels like it's covered in sugar. Not my thing. @Larinessa, trade skin chemistry with you? -
The opening of this one is YUMMY. An immediate crush of juicy, jammy berries, strawberries both tangy and sweet, with the blackcurrant bringing a fair bit of tartness. The lime is accenting and accentuating the berries' tartness beautifully, adding an extra citric zing, like lime zest grated over a bowl of crushed berries and blackcurrant sap. Strawberry Moon is having this very fascinating, slightly unsettling effect on me, where I keep getting the faintest whiff of incense, as if I'm catching incense on a breeze in the distance, but every time I go to sniff my skin directly, the incense disappears and all I get is berry. It's beguiling. As it dries down, I get more of the honey, and the blend gets jammier without losing tartness...at first. About 2 hours in, it loses much of its intensity and complexity, and the strawberry goes from juicy and photorealistic to a fainter, sort of artificial-smelling/candy red fruit scent on a backdrop of faint musky honey. Sadly, this goes from "WOW" to "meh" for me. I'll keep my decant because the opening is GREAT, but unless it ages differently within the next month, I don't think a bottle purchase is in my future. (I don't get any moss at all, but I have never once smelled BPAL's moss accord on me. At this point I'm convinced my skin has some sort of moss-resistant properties. Go figure.)
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This has kind of a weird opening on me, but it dries down into something much nicer. Going on wet, the disparate elements don't quite coalesce: I get a really clean scent that reminds me weirdly of apple-scented baby shampoo, then this odd, almost medicinal, sharper bite that I can't quite place. I wish I could be more specific, but it honestly reminds me the most specifically of the smell of multivitamins in a health food store (??), while some light incense is being burned somewhere in the background. The fig is very waxy, green, and sharp, like it's very far from ripening. An hour or two in, the skin musk moves from weird-clean-shampoo to a beautiful skin musk, the fig gets sappier, and it starts to bloom into something quite creamy, with a whiff of pomegranate and a touch of light spice. This stage is very, very nice. Lasts about 4-6 hours overall and stays pretty close to the skin. I'm interested in trying this again in a month or two to see if the opening gets any less weird on me.
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Okay, I'll bite! I'll be the first person to leave an inadequate review, so hopefully someone else sees this and is moved to write up a better one. I have no idea what Unquiet Slumbers is doing on my skin, but it doesn't feel like it's quite having the intended effect. The first note I'm hit with a super powdery sweet musk, tinted with something else I'm finding hard to pin down--something a little sour? Bitter, perhaps? On drydown, I swear I get the faintest whiff of peppermint, something very clean. Throughout the day it just goes poof and becomes 100% powdery musk with something slightly herbaceous that vaguely reminds me of Opal Crown. I'm going to let this one rest and see if it comes together for me in a month or so. In the meantime, any takers for that review gauntlet?
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My skin apparently possesses the legendary alchemical properties necessary to turn the dreaded Erl-King into... Sprite. Not, like, a faerie type of sprite, like the popular lemon-lime soda. I swear to god that's all I'm getting from this, and it's bizarre. No idea which mysterious elements are going Sprite on me, but I definitely get zero rain-soaked earth, zero blackened steel. On me this is a weird artificial-smelling lemon-lime soda, with some fizzy aldehydes definitely present. The scent is quite similar to The Erl-King's Pale Daughter (although that one seems slightly more wearable on me), so if that one worked for you, I think the musk is the same and this one likely will too. I appreciate the thematic consistency of the Erl-King's Pale Daughter inheriting her father's spectral musk, I just wish my skin didn't do... whatever the hell it's doing to it!
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This one has some SILLAGE! My partner said he could smell it across the apartment. It opens with BIG, bold narcissus, like the sensation of sticking my face directly into the center of a flower, bringing to mind gobs of blindingly bright, aggressively scented yellow-orange pollen. The next aspect I pick up on is a waxy smoothness, like big waxy petals, that almost reminds me of smelling candlewax. Apparently ambrette has "exceptional power and tenacity", so I'm thinking it's contributing to the BIGness of this blend, in concert with the narcissus. It's musky, slightly animalic, velvety, with a fruity facet that reminds me of osmanthus. I amp indoles to a truly absurd degree, but if I strain my ear, I swear I can hear the other notes underneath. The narcissus feels almost hedonistically thick, honey-like, but still somehow fresh and floral; the vanilla adds a rich, creamy texture. Saffron is a little hard for me to place in perfume, but I think it's adding to the honey nuance, maybe some aspects of hay and tobacco? Not totally sure about that one. It doesn't come across as either earthy or spicy on me. I'm not totally sure what tobacco flower smells like. Projection and sillage stay powerful for the first couple of hours, but it dies down and recedes closer to the skin after that. It stays quite intense for awhile. I'm really digging On Beauty in all its dizzying intensity, but I'm thinking I won't be wearing this often enough to need a full bottle. @theseagrows is spot-on that this feels like something I'd only want to wear in early spring or late winter. This is spring fever in a bottle, that delirious time of year when it seems that everything's blooming all at once, an inescapable rush of scent an color, and spring finally reigns triumphant over winter. It's a glorious feeling, but wearing it in hot weather would be borderline antisocial behavior, and I'm not really sure I can get away with wearing it to work. Recommended for spring days spent mostly outside & reveling!