kinneret_rising

Just a touch sweet, this duet showcases BPAL's bright orange blossom note. I'm a fan of that note, but I'm not sure orange blossom combines well with this musk. I've had moments of thinking the two complement each other interestingly, and others where they seem to be competing and the musk just undermines the orange blossom's brightness. Still testing this one to see if I change my mind, or if the scent settles as it ages.

This blends honey with the layered, woody scent of oud. I've had a few shocking encounters with oud notes -- on one occasion, I wondered if a bottle of oil had gone rancid, only to have the scent turn gorgeous on drydown. Smoke, earthy, woody oud isn't for everybody, but paired with honey, it goes down much more easily. This balanced combination would make a great introductory oud scent for someone trying it for the first time.

This duet is easy to like. Wet, the cacao is forward and aromatic. As it dries down, the humid black tea note comes out to balance the cacao. The scent has a lot more throw in its wet stage than in the dry one, but it has good wear length once it's settled. A good pick for lovers of bittersweet chocolate.

I'm a honey lover, and I'd been impatient to get my own bottle of Womb Furie after experiencing my partner's 2016 version. They're not identical, but I'd be hard pressed to say which I prefer. I think 2026 is a little brighter. Both are rich, thick honey scents given texture by snake oil -- languid and sensuous. For me, this is a BPAL standard, one I want to always have in my collection.

An attempt to represent the alchemical marriage of opposing principles in scent! It's interesting to experience BPAL's forceful, earthy red musk somehow also smelling ethereal (maybe from the resins). The honey comes through clearly as well. This one lasted several hours on my skin and has relatively low throw once dry. I think if I didn't have to go nose to wrist to enjoy it, I might upgrade to a bottle. It's complex and lovely, but quiet.

Although the notes are not the same, this solar and celestial scent makes me think of Aasimar. It's warm, golden, and airy, and it lasted several hours on my skin without any special preparation (I didn't moisturize first). Lovely and easy to wear.

This scent is well-blended and I'm hard-pressed to pick out notes aside from honey. That being said, it's just a touch sweet and wonderfully textured from the wool/wood/leaves/leather combo -- definitely a unisex scent. It makes me think of being outdoors. Inspired by the intense friendship of David and Jonathan, I think this one could be shared between lovers or best friends.

This is a juicy, fruity variation on snake oil -- still complex, but lighter. It will make a lovely spring and summer scent. I can't pick out individual fruit notes, but the combination smells fresh and alive, and the snake oil provides its complex spicy musk as a foundation. For me it's a nicely balanced scent. I have no idea what "iridescent serpent scale accord" would be -- I'll be curious to try it in a different scent, if it appears again, to see if I can pick it out. I'm enjoying this scent a lot.

Well, I blind bottled this. I love a scent that tells a story, and I couldn't resist one that attempts to capture the story of Isis and Osiris. For me this scent is the perfume equivalent of classical music. I have to give it my full attention -- it's not an easy pleasure; it takes work, but it's worth it. I catch nearly all of the notes at one point or another, wet or dry. The blue lotus is most noticeable wet, and with drydown, the scent integrates into something beautiful and strange: cassia, moist green earth, linen. I imagine myself smelling the Nile basin. It's really amazing, and also not a beginner's scent. I think I may wear it for meditation.

I thought this one was a no-brainer for me! I love all of the notes. I tried it out on a testing strip first and was surprised when I got a delicate lemon scent, like lemon sherbet. I handed it to my partner -- same reaction, lemon. We both noticed if we concentrated, we could start to pick out the intended notes, but a casual sniff just brought us back to the citrusy sherbet smell. I let it dry on the testing strip overnight, and that did the trick -- finally, beeswax, copal, honey, vanilla! So I tried it on my skin and got... lemon Pledge, for about twenty minutes. After that, again, the lovely scent I was expecting emerged... but only for about twenty minutes, after which it disappeared. I think this will be beautiful on someone else. I'm sad it doesn't work on me, because the dried-down state is really nice.

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I picked this up because of the Beanworld label and the celebration of an important First Amendment case. The label is adorable! Love those patriotic beans! I'm a honey lover, but in this case I get no honey at all from this 15-year-old bottle -- except, perhaps, as a sweetness that moderates the bitterness of the tea, without having an independent presence. This is the most forceful black tea scent in my collection so far. The apricot comes out a bit at first, but it's quickly replaced by the ginger root and ginger grass. It's refreshing and does indeed evoke a summer iced tea.

When I first got into indie perfumes, I chose my scents of the day based on what I was likely to be doing and my mood — clarifying scents for work, bright scents when I needed cheering up, etc. Since I noticed so many people wear perfume seasonally, I have started to experiment with that too, and I've been wearing Gloomily, Gloomily as a spring scent. This scent is like being in the middle of a lavender and wildflower meadow in a drizzle. The fact that it's inspired by Eeyore is special to me as someone from Austin, Texas, where our big spring festival is called Eeyore’s Birthday Party -- a daylong outdoor party of continuous drum circles and live music. Not much like Eeyore, perhaps, but very like spring! The main note I can pick out here is lavender, but I suspect the tea and grey musk are part of what of what balances this scent and create the drizzly grey quality. There are florals here but they don’t dominate — I get “meadow” rather than “flowers“ per se. On my skin, with a generous application, the scent lasts 4-6 hours. Love it.

For me, the “ruby-tinged amber sunlight” comes through first, both on my skin and when I try this scent on a testing strip. The scent has a slightly wan warmth and an expansive feeling that makes me think of being outdoors. As it dries, the woods come forward for me, though I never really pick up anything green. I suspect bergamot is in here helping to drive my positive reaction, although I can’t pick it out from the blend — but many of my favorite scents have that note. I love the way scents can capture a feeling or a story, and this definitely smells to me like watching a sunset outside near a fragrant woods. When fresh, it has significant throw, and while it disappeared from my skin after eight hours, after 24 hours on my testing strip, it’s still going strong.

I received a tiny sample of The Donkey’s Tail dripped onto a little cloth heart. I liked Gloomily, Gloomily, which smells to me like a drizzly lavender meadow. For me The Donkey’s Tail also evokes a meadow, but it’s full of wildflowers and strange herbs and is somehow exciting and unexpected. Is it the bourbon vanilla that’s so surprising? I would be tempted to get a full bottle of this if it were available.

From the store description: The new discovery of “Table Moving,” by means of an unseen power from the human hand, has only been introduced into England within the last few weeks; but it would be difficult to dingle out any scientific subject which has with such rapidity, taken so extensive a hold of the popular mind. If we travel by railway carriage, steamboat, or omnibus, this is the universal topic of conversation. From the aristocratic saloons of Belgravia to the “Parlours” of Whitechapel – the Green Park to the Cat and Mutton Fields, “table moving” is all the rage. From the Royal Institution, where the secretary pokes his head through a forest of electrical apparatus, to inform the audience that the facts are established, down to the humblest Mechanics’ Institute, all are full of it, and the tables, to quote the words of the old song – “are all a moving, move, move, moving,” – Every evening party must of course have its experiments; accordingly, gentlemen come provided with very elegant chapeaux for the occasion, and many an innocent flirtation occurs consequent on the proper arrangement of the little fingers of some of the fair operators. As “sweet eighteen,” with her blue eyes and golden locks, gracefully links her little finger with Charles’s, in a retired corner, what wonder if the hat should tremble? And Charles, being of course fond of poetry (his very name is a guarantee for that), cannot resist softly breathing into Lucy’s ear, that exquisite line from Waller, on his fair one’s harp – “Touched by that hand – who would not tremble too?” And after a little more conversation of a strictly scientific character, they feel quite satisfied with the success of the experiment. Mamma, who has been watching the progress of the magnetic influence at a distance, “has no patience with such nonsense, and wonders young men and young women cannot find something better to do.” She forgets that there was a magnetic influence at work about twenty years since, and what little trifles served as conductors then. – Table Moving, its causes and phenomena: with directions how to experiment *** I was charmed by the story that came with this scent, of romance blooming in the presence of supposedly scientific spiritualist experiments. I tried the oil on a testing strip first, and wet, I smelled cool, airy white florals and green apple with a bit of honey. After leaving the strip to dry overnight, I found it eight hours later still going strong, but with the orange blossom forward. On a skin test, for me the orange blossom came forward immediately. This scent has significant throw, and I am smelling it strongly even when my hand is a good 2 feet away from my nose. It’s surprisingly intense and I like it a lot, maybe enough to look for more than this decant.

Both wet and dry, to me this primarily smells like camphor, which is used in incense to clear impurities from a space. I do pick up some green notes, but the astringent, woody notes overwhelm them. It’s too medicinal for me to use as a perfume, but I could definitely turn it into a spray and use it to freshen the energy of my house. Quite bracing!

On Imagination was paired with this poem by Phyllis Wheatley to celebrate Juneteenth: Thy various works, imperial queen, we see, How bright their forms! how deck’d with pomp by thee! Thy wond’rous acts in beauteous order stand, And all attest how potent is thine hand. From Helicon’s refulgent heights attend, Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend: To tell her glories with a faithful tongue, Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song. Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies, Till some lov’d object strikes her wand’ring eyes, Whose silken fetters all the senses bind, And soft captivity involves the mind. Imagination! who can sing thy force? Or who describe the swiftness of thy course? Soaring through air to find the bright abode, Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God, We on thy pinions can surpass the wind, And leave the rolling universe behind: From star to star the mental optics rove, Measure the skies, and range the realms above. There in one view we grasp the mighty whole, Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul. Though Winter frowns to Fancy’s raptur’d eyes The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise; The frozen deeps may break their iron bands, And bid their waters murmur o’er the sands. Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign, And with her flow’ry riches deck the plain; Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round, And all the forest may with leaves be crown’d: Show’rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose, And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose. Such is thy pow’r, nor are thine orders vain, O thou the leader of the mental train: In full perfection all thy works are wrought, And thine the sceptre o’er the realms of thought. Before thy throne the subject-passions bow, Of subject-passions sov’reign ruler thou; At thy command joy rushes on the heart, And through the glowing veins the spirits dart. Fancy might now her silken pinions try To rise from earth, and sweep th’ expanse on high: From Tithon’s bed now might Aurora rise, Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies, While a pure stream of light o’erflows the skies. The monarch of the day I might behold, And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold, But I reluctant leave the pleasing views, Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse; Winter austere forbids me to aspire, And northern tempests damp the rising fire; They chill the tides of Fancy’s flowing sea, Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay. – Phillis Wheatley This was my first purchase from BPAL and I fell in love! I have a hard time picking out the individual notes — they blend so well — but for me it is an airy, dynamic scent. I often wear it for work because it feels both clarifying and creative; it puts me in a focused but expansive frame of mind. On Imagination is light enough to be worn in hot weather, but it also feels substantive and complex. Although it has sweet notes, the airiness is what I notice first, like the olfactory equivalent of standing under a big sky. I put this on when I need a little inspiration.