Acedia

I was so disappointed with this one! The description makes it sound absolutely divine, but on me it just smells like floral baby powder. And I hate baby powder.

I got this as a frimp today (yay!), and I love it. It's citrus-y, but not your typical citrus -- it's green but not lime (it's richer and lacks lime's high-pitched fizziness), and not sharp. I get shape impressions from scents, and this one is shaped like the inside of a bowl (rounded and hollowed out and kind of echo-y). Not at all powdery or cloying, but clear and fresh green, like a dark green glass bowl. Wow, this is really bringing out my synesthesia! I really like it, and I'm so glad I got it as a frimp, because the description and the notes wouldn't have grabbed me. I don't smell the tea (though, to be honest, the only one of the Lab's tea scents that I actually can smell the tea in is White Rabbit, which is like "All Tea All the Time," so maybe the tea in Aizen-Myoo is too subtle for my nose).

I got this as a frimp from the Lab, and holy cats, am I grateful! In the imp and wet, it smells just like lemon poundcake on me (I get that the lemon must come from the mandarin, but whither the poundcake? ). It soon becomes a warm, only-vaguely-lemony sweetness that is just divine (this might be the tonka, but I'm unfamiliar with that note...it could also be the cocoa/tobacco blend, but I can't distinguish either one of those scents discretely). If I sniffed this without knowing its name, I would never have thought of violent, martial imagery -- it's such a warm, comforting scent. I love it and will consider buying a big bottle. Yay!

My first LE! In the imp: I smell caaa-aake! /singsong On me: Everyone who likened this to Eat Me was spot-on. It's less sweet than Eat Me, though. It's also giving me a synesthetic impression of a block of dark brown with a thin horizontal yellow line in the middle. I think the dark brown is the incense/batter blend (they're so well-blended I can't sense a distinction), but the yellow line is something bright and sharp that I can't place. Overall: it's such an interesting scent, one of the Lab's many creations that smells unlike any perfume I've ever sampled. It's actually so non-perfume-like, I don't know how I feel about wearing it. Maybe I'll turn it into a room spray.

On me, this is a strange one. In the imp, I just smell generic florals. When I put it on, the scent goes through a weird phase in which it literally smells like violets on the right side of my nose and ...(something else unidentifiable) on the left side. Maybe that's the grave loam? It smells darker and herby. Then it goes through a long phase of pure, sweet (make that SWEEEEEEET ) violet. Finally, the violet settles down and another floral (ylang ylang? I'm not familiar with that single note) emerges, thinly resting on top, like a layer of dust on an aging bouquet. Overall, it's a sweet, sweet floral. Sadly, I don't much like sweet, sweet florals (ehh, I'd give it a B-), so off to swaps.

Gomorrah smells just like White Rabbit to me, except without that thin powdery line that ruins White Rabbit and makes it fade in seconds. In other words, it smells like warm spicy tea (not quite like chai but similar), slightly sweet, very reddish-brown. Just....mmm, a very warm, amiable scent. (Warm both in temperature and in temperament.) It also makes me feel more grown up and "together" than usual -- a good scent to wear to work. Its throw is average and it lasts a good six hours on me. Definitely a keeper.

I first got this imp about six months ago, and put it away after one sniff -- too herby and prickly. But, boy, am I glad I gave it another try today. At first application, it's all green plants and herbs -- I don't smell the ginger or fig. But after a while, it becomes slightly sweeter as it ages on my skin (maybe that's the ginger) and always very clean and fresh. It's unisex, too. I'd even say it smells kind of....magical. Maybe like an apothecary in a medieval town that sells folk remedies and maybe a few more potent charms in the back, or maybe even like someone otherwordly. (I'd have to say that the Apothecary smells more like my idea of a fairy than Dana O'Shee or Fae.)

In the imp: 98% pear with 2% musk On me: The sweetness of the pear disappears, a slight powder scent emerges, and as it dries, the pale flowers come out. After 20 min., there's no pear at all. I sometimes get tactile/spacial impressions from scents, and this smells like the underside of something. That may not make any sense....it smells like it's not the thing itself but the underside of the thing. (I don't know either, man, that's just what my brain is telling me! ) If this scent were a girl, it would be a blandly nice girl, one that never offends but never exhibits any spark of personality, either. Ah, well, I never thought much of Juliet, anyway.

In the bottle and on a cotton swab: sweet, rich, florals and greens. Very vibrant and organic (i.e., like living flowers and plants, not just flower-scented oil). On me: instantly turns to powder. Within a few minutes, it fades to a thin, vaguely floral, scent. The powdery essence fades, as well, but what remains is a very bland violet. This could be one for a scent locket, but I can't wear it directly on my skin.

I wear Tzadikim Nistarim when it rain -- I don't know if the humidity amps the scent, or if it naturally smells damp, but the combination of this scent and damp skin is heavenly (pun partially intended ). It smells clean and warm and very natural, like it's the scent of my own skin but...better. Love it.

This is the only BPAL scent that's made me ill. At first sniff, in the imp and wet on the skin, I can tell it's trying to smell like pomegranate, but there's something festering and unholy getting in the way (and not in the fun way). After a few minutes, the pomegranate imposter is gone, and I'm left with roses gone wrong. I think in tiny doses this might not be bad, but I found that putting two dabs on my neck and one on each wrist was just too much and I was nearly overcome with nausea. Sadly, I put this on before going out for the evening and, being trapped on the subway, had no way to wash this off. An hour later, I was still reeling, and then I discoverd to my distress that mere liquid soap was not strong enough stuff to remove the scent from my skin (maybe it had gotten on my collar or something). I feel like this is Demeter telling Hades that if this is what the Underworld has done to her daughter, he can keep her. Ah, well.

This is going to go down as one that broke my heart. At first it smelled intoxicatingly good, like sweet warm tea but with an undercurrent of something darker and earthier and a little dangerous. Within minutes, though, it turned to men's soap. Which isn't necessarily bad, except that I don't want to smell like men's soap. I'll hang onto it and see if it smells better when it's applied to cloth and/or if it changes once it ages.

This is the most amazing scent I've sniffed yet, in terms of its transformative powers. In the imp and wet: well...it smelled kind of gross, actually. Just like a tavern -- tobacco smoke, alcohol, sweat, and grime. I was extremely leery of it at first and thankful that I got it only as a frimp. After a few minutes: it sort of realigned itself so that the stale tobacco smell was now the refined scent of pipesmoke, and the sweaty unwashed masses were replaced by stolid professors and historians. I remarked to myself that this would smell wonderful on a serious man. Within 15 minutes: it smells completely different! Feminine, floral with a tang, very pretty. There's a story that goes with this scent, of some poor barmaid forced to earn her keep in a dank and dirty tavern, until she escapes with a caravan of scholars and spends the rest of her days in cultivated gardens. ETA (almost a year later ): Maybe the imp has aged, but when I try this now, I get the same morphing pattern; however, the floral stage is now extremely cloying (thick gardenias). And there's now a further stage, where the gardenia is taken over by a dusting of smoke. Not cigarette smoke, per se, but distant smoke. I use this on my friends as their introduction to BPAL's mad morphing technology, because nothing else changes so drastically from stage to stage, in my experience.

A brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss. Hmmm, I don't smell peaches at all, but pear. This is a very simple scent for me: pear and vanilla. In the imp, the pear is overwhelming, but on me the vanilla rises up to meet it. It doesn't change at all as it wears -- the same clean and clear pear and vanilla. It's a little sweet for me, but still lovely. A fresh, happy scent.

I wanted so much to like this, but it was not to be. In the imp, it smelled lovely -- florals with a touch of spiced wine. Very rich and smooth. Within minutes after application, however, it turned into thick, powdery, grandmother perfume. *MOURN* I wish I knew which note was transmogrifying into powder, so I can avoid it in the future. (I'm getting a headache as we speak. So to speak.) It's not the amber's fault, because the other day I tried Verdandi (amber and apples), and that remained clear, sweet, and strong for hours. Ah, well.

At first, I wasn't sure if I liked this or not -- it didn't smell much like tea to me (especially in the imp), just vaguely sweetish and smokey. But as it dried, I kept bringing my wrists up to my nose to get a whiff and I soon found myself swooning over this scent. It becomes more and more like milky sweet tea as it mellows on my skin, and thus more and more delicious. I also get a hint of chocolate in there, which is always a good thing. It's sweet, but not at all overpoweringly so. The equivalent of two tsps of sugar in your tea, maybe, but not more than that. I don't get pepper in this, but there is a noticeable top note of something high and clear. Not citrus, exactly, but close to it. I also have the sense that this is what I would smell like if I were edible. It doesn't scream "PERFUME AHOY" but rather seems like it's a part of myself, like it blends in so well with my chemistry that it becomes a feature of the natural scent of my skin. If I smelled this on someone else, it wouldn't immediately occur to me that they're wearing perfume, just that they smelled really, really good. I must get a big bottle of this. ETA: My only complaint is that it fades relatively fast on me (a couple of hours, compared to the 12+ hours of some of the other BPAL scents).

In the imp and wet: it smells exactly as described -- boiled grain, milk, and honey. As it dried, only the honey remained on me, and it slowly dissipated until it was gone after only a few hours. For a while, though, there was a period where I couldn't smell anything distinctive but had almost a subliminal impression that something sweet and warm was floating around me. It's quite nice, though. A very soft, modest scent. Good to wear when you want to be quiet and comforting.

I must have a strange nose, because I don't smell apples in this (or maybe they're really faint). To me, this smells like Christmas -- not because it smells like spruce, but because it smells of rich spices (like mulled wine and rich foods) and brings to mind jewel tones and gold. It's quite strong -- I don't need to bring my wrists up to my nose to smell it (unlike Dana O'Shee, which I tried this morning). It also seems like it could be worn by either gender without seeming out of place. ETA: This might sound kind of nutty, but if Verdandi were a sound, it would sound like the high, clear note of a brass bell being struck strongly. It's got kind of a rounded, echoing quality to it. (I'm not sure if this will help anyone know what it smells like, but every time I get a whiff of it, I think of that bell. )

I am a newbie to the world of perfumes, and I can't distinguish many notes yet, but I had to add my voice to the chorus of reviews for this scent. It is so lovely and unusual, and it's the very first BPAL scent I've sniffed. I ordered an imp of it after reading the explanation of its name (which nearly brought me to tears, but that could have just been hormones). After reading that, I was dying to know what the Hidden Just smell like. In the imp: This reminds me of this fabulous antique store I used to visit in my home town -- they imported antiques from all around the world and set up shop in the (refurbished) ruins of a stone barn. So that's my immediate impression upon opening the imp and bringing it to my nose: pale gold sunlight filtering in through small stone windows, illuminating exotic treasures. There's a suggestion of frankincense, but nothing "churchy" or smoky about this scent. On my skin: I detect something faintly fruity in the mix, but can't place it. It's a warm but poised scent -- I can imagine it being worn by a woman of means who has travelled to Mongolia by herself, for pleasure. If a young woman (like me, even though I'm *cough*29*cough*) wore this, it would give her an air of calm solemnity. There's nothing energetic about Tzadikim Nistarim -- I'd wear it when I need to be self-composed and centered. This certainly brings to mind Virtue, but also Wisdom and Magnanimity. It's just lovely. ETA: 3/31 -- I'm definitely ordering a bottle of this. Wearing it today (maybe it's the weather), it smells divine (pun fully intended). Sweet and somehow organic, like a smell bottled as-is from nature. This is my favorite BPAL scent to date.