bodegaselkie

I couldn't wear Hellcat for very long, because it smelled like cherries in the bottle and stayed that way on my skin. I wanted the warm, rummy, buttercream smell other people got but instead -- cherries. I was so disappointed.

Greed was almost all patchouli and musk on me -- notes I like, but not in this strength. I had to wash it off after a few minutes. Greed is very masculine, very rich, very potent and very not for me.

Peach? Imp didn't smell like peach to me -- in the bottle or on my skin. It was more like candied grape on leather. That's weird, because amber, patchouli and musk tend to work well on me -- but in this case they combined to a sickly sweet grapey smell backed by, as I said, leather or tobacco, something like that. Off to swaps.

Milk Moon is the scent I expected Dana O'Shee to be. I once knew someone who had a standard offering to the fairies that consisted of cream and Irish whiskey -- this smells just like that, with honey added. I'm madly in love with Milk Moon and can't stop sniffing my wrists where I put it on. I put on quite a bit, and admittedly I've only had it on, but it's not fading so far like I expected it to. The throw is also pretty good. Mmmmmm.

The Dormouse is lovely, very light and clean. I agree with those who have said it smells mostly like green tea and especially white tea. But it's that perfume-tea scent, more than the scent of tea in your teacup. As with others, it fades off very quickly. I applied this twice before I left the house today and it's very faint now, though I can still smell it at the site where it was applied. The Dormouse is really nice, but not very "me." Oh well.

Ohhh... wow. I wasn't expecting to like Desire this much, but I put it on and within seconds I was like, "I want to smell like this ALL THE TIME." But it's fairly soft, so I went to put on more, and a few hours later I'm ready to re-apply. Freshly applied, Desire smells like many of its elements to me, particularly the musk, patchouli, teak, vanilla and apple. Apple *always* fades quickly on me. The patchouli and teak faded soon after, and what remains is vanillamusk, which is also delicious. I wish more of the notes stuck around, but I'll have to try this again when I'm not at the tail-end of my menstrual cycle to see whether it's different. Either way, I adore Desire and hope to get a bigger bottle at some point.

Delirium reminded me a lot of Eve, especially with the apple-rose combination. I liked the addition of lemon in Delirium. This smelled clean, crisp, warm and fresh all day on me, fading but never really changing as I wore it. One thing I like about it is that apple, to me, is like a combination of lemon and rose -- apples and roses are genetically related, and apples have that lemony tartness to them. I don't love it as much as others, though, and it's not a scent I want to smell like much of the time. I do like it though, so I might keep it to use in soaps or other bath products. This is a great bath-time scent, I think.

I could have sworn that in the bottle Lilith smelled like acrid spices, and I was looking forward to trying it on, but then it turned out to be all red wine. I swapped away my imp of Kali because, even with all the other notes in there, the red wine note just jumped out (and, in Kali's case, gave me a massive headache). I don't like how the wine note smells on me anyway, so having it dominate all the others (especially when I LIKE myrrh, musk and attar of rose) just isn't making me happy. It's all sweet and fruity -- TOO sweet and too fruity, and not at all for me. And it doesn't really fit with my impressions of Lilith, either.

In the bottle Black Forest smells much like everyone has said - pine. On me, the woodsy scents fade almost immediately, and the black musk and ambergis come out. At first I feared it would go powdery, but no, it stayed warm and musky and soft, with the woods in the background. Unfortunately, I was hoping for a strong, piney, walk-in-the-woods kind of scent; I already have a favorite musk scent right now -- Corazon -- and Black Forest faded on me within a few hours. I'll probably swap this, since I don't have time to reapply a scent I'm not crazy about every few hours. A note: several of you were talking about amber in this scent, but amber and ambergris are not the same thing. Ambergris is substance harvested from the intestines of sperm whales which is normally used as a fixative in perfumes. There's some information in the thread on the ambergris single-note, which is here: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=1025&hl= And, of course, it's on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

Has no Hanna has a very similar smell in the bottle as on, for me: ylang ylang and jasmine, with a slight green undertone. It reminds me a lot of Eve without the rose and apple, but a touch sharper. Has no Hanna feels so simple and beautiful to me, and reminds me of the golden-white rays of the sun -- that simple, abundant, positive energy. ETA: I found a "Has No Hanna" incense on another site, and it apparently contains "Gardenia, Rose, Tangerine, Yarrow, Marjoram, Melissa, Mint." I wonder how similar this oil is to that? Yarrow would give the "curry" smell one person reported noticing, and the gardenia might account for the prominent white floral most of us are noticing.

Ohhhh noooooo! Juke joint turned immediately to powder on me -- not baby powder, but old-lady-perfume powder. I'm having trouble getting rid of the scent now, despite washing it off, and it's making me sneeze up a storm. I was SO looking forward to this one!

Oh. My. Gods. Corazon is amazingly lovely. On first application today, it was a little overly fruity, but melded into a warm, warm, gorgeous blend of the musk, amber and mango. Later on, I reapplied, and the sage was more dominant for a long time, and then the mango popped out again. Eventually it fades to ambermusk, still warm, still golden-red. I'm so glad I got it!

Baron Samedi doesn't smell at all like bay rum to me, but I like it anyway. On me, the almond takes over and turns very buttery, and the rum and spice add to it -- sort of winding up smelling like buttered rum, actually. It's slightly masculine, but I don't mind some of the masculine scents (I adore umbra). It's also quite sexy, but I'm during that portion of my cycle when *everything* is quite sexy, so take that with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, it does fade very quickly on me, so it needs to be reapplied every few hours.

Delphi is one of the first BPAL scents that really evoked a sense of place for me. I've never been to Delphi, but I dream of one day going there. This evokes, for me, laurel wreaths worn on the head, and honey wine. Sitting outdoors in the hot Grecian wind, blowing through the bay trees, and then going into a temple where more wine and fresh bread have been laid out as an offering. At first, the bay/laurel and honey do not blend well on me, and I get that sour smell some have noted. But BPAL's honey scents work beautifully on me, and before long this had meshed very nicely and I couldn't stop sniffing myself. After a couple of hours it developed a yeasty smell, which I attribute to the "honey wine," though it also reminded me of bread. Delicious... I can't wait to wear it again!

On me, Danse Macabre smells almost immediately like a huge wood-based bonfire in the distance... and stays that way. I love the smell of woodsmoke, but this is so consuming that it actually scratches my throat a little. I like this scent on rainy days, and will keep the imp but probably would not buy a larger bottle. Still, bottled bonfire smell? I like it.

Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of praise for O. I am exceedingly fond of amber and honey, especially as BPAL does them, and while I am traditionally not a vanilla fan it blends well in O. O stays true on me, sliding in and out so that sometimes the honey is more dominant, and sometimes the amber is more dominant, but it doesn't fade to baby powder as many have said of their own experiences with this scent. And it lasts and lasts and lasts on me. A bonus is that my boyfriend, who doesn't really like perfumes, sniffed this one on me (after several hours of wear) and said, in his least cynical tone, "You could wear that one sometimes." That's as close as he gets to saying he likes a perfume.

After reading how strong Jabberwocky was on so many people I was hesitant to try this, but was surprised when it faded down quickly on me. In the bottle and wet, it's extremely strong, with that eucalyptus/Vicks smell. Within minutes it had faded to a subtle, creamy, orangepine scent. It was OK, but really didn't suit me.

I love this scent. It begins very wet and earthy on me, and over the couse of several hours it transforms so that the earthiness fades to almost pure rose. Quite echanting.

In the bottle this smells mostly of magnolia to me -- that dusky velvet white scent. On me it makes me think of night-blooming flowers, of glamour, of the stories of the Black Dahlia. I like that this is a dark floral and most of the flower notes stay true for the first few hours, although I wish the amber was more prominent. After many hours, this sweetens on me and reminds me almost of that perfume called Poison, but much wispier. Kali reminded me of Poison too, but was much much too strong for me. I'll keep the imp and use it for those occasions when a "traditional" adult floral perfume is appropriate, but I probably wouldn't get a larger bottle.

This is probably the first BPAL scent I've tried that stayed almost the same from the vial to my skin, over the course of many hours. And what staying power! I applied it around 7pm in the evening and it was still strong the next morning, despite my sleeping face-down in the bed all night. I love the resiny scent shared between the dragon's blood and the amber. It's slightly exotic and sophisticated, and reminds me of some smell from long-ago, possibly one of my mother's perfumes from when I was very young, something like that. There's also something astringent about it, which almost seems medicinal -- but that may be particular to the scent-associations I'm getting. Not sure. I like Blood Amber quite a bit, though I find the scent very confusing. It'll take a few more tries before I decide whether this is a "me" scent or not.

Undertow is nothing like what I expected from the name, and I love it to bits but I don't think the scent matches that well with the concept/name. For me, this one is very creamy and minty, and just a bit sweet (the lotus is very prominent on me, as it is in many blends, and I like it on my skin a lot). For this to be the scent of the dangerous sea depths, I would like a sharper edge from the juniper, actually, and the briny smell that is in the background in Tears. As I said, though, I like this one very much... though I wish it would last longer! Of all my BPAL scents, this one fades the quickest, usually within 2-4 hours after I apply it. I wonder if anyone's found a way to increase its staying power!

Kali, the Black One, is the fearless Goddess of Destruction, Creation, Energy [in her Shakti aspect] and Dissolution. Also named Kaliratri [black Night] and Kalikamata [black Earth-Mother], she is the fiercest aspect of Devi, the supreme mother goddess. Kali is a protector Goddess, the destroyer of evil spirits and guardian of the faithful. She, along with her consort Shiva, represent the unending cycle of death and birth, sexual union, creation and destruction. Kali annihilates ignorance, maintains the natural order of the world, and blesses those who strive for spiritual awareness and knowledge of true holiness with infinite tenderness and motherly love. The constant, unending Work of Creation is called the "The Play of Kali". This perfume is a blend of the sacred blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey. Ugh. I wanted to like Kali so much -- I was so excited when I ordered this imp. It's the first BPAL perfume I washed off within hours of wearing. It was just so strong on me, and its dominant scents for me were that cherry-wine note a lot of others have mentioned. It came off like annoying heady candy, scratching my throat and giving me a headache. That said, in its good moments it reminded me of a perfume from the 80s -- Poison, I think it was -- which at a distance reminded me of grapey perfume, but too much also gave me a headache. Alas. I'm so glad this works well on others, because it's a brilliant idea!

This is a gorgeous scent. The cherry-almond note that others have mentioned is present in the vial for me, but disappears seconds after I apply. It fades to a warm, golden glow -- which reminds me of entering a temple. I feel self-possessed when I wear this, and walk with my chin a little higher (when I'm not sneaking sniffs of myself). It reminds me of the way cats sit sometimes, their shoulders thrown back, their eyes open, their mouths curled into the faintest smile. They know they are regal! Bastet is definitely one of my favorites thus far. Its scent lasts quite well for me throughout the day, though if I apply too much it smells to "perfumey" for my taste. As an added bonus, I wore it to bed one night and had incredibly sexy dreams!

Eve was thrown into my first BPAL order as a freebie, but after reading the description I was so glad it was included. I put it on and immediately loved it -- to me it smells so fresh and bright, full of the honey-rose-apple scent it's made of. I'm not a huge fan of ylang, but in this blend it brings more of a sweetness to the mix than another floral element. The rose is especially prominent, and it's the smell of freshly opened rosebuds, a little bit cool even after it warms with body heat. Eve doesn't change much on me from wet to dry, or throughout the day, though it does fade a little bit. It's one of the only perfumes that I can put both on my wrists and over my heart and it doesn't overpower. Very lovely -- one of my absolute favorites so far.

I just got this imp and was quite eager to try it. I put a bit on and as it heated up, it released a wonderful scent that reminded me of sitting down to tea at a patio table in a rose garden -- the roses in the background, but fresh and young, much like the rose in Eve. I am a huge fan of tea-drinking, and especially of Earl Grey tea, which is flavored with bergamot, a component of this scent. Alice was more floral than I had anticipated, and at first I wondered if I would like it, but the sweetness came through and balanced the scent for me. It's also more "perfumey" than some of the other scents I've tried to far, and I feared that would drive me away. So: reasonably strong but not overpowering, a good balance of the tea/sweetness and florals. After many hours it's a bit powdery and faint, but still present. I'm looking forward to wearing this one often.