olympia301

There are two ways to pay for your purchase at BPAL. Is there any advantage to either or are they equal? Just curious.

Velvet. The chocolate/vanilla makes it gourmand to me. Myrrh is the other ingredient they list but...who knows what these formulae are all about? They just smell good.

Feminine, that is the only word that you could use in relation to Blood Amber. It would have to come in a pink bottle if it were something from Avenue de l'Opera in Paris. I can imagine Manet's Olympia would wear it. Though there isn't any rose in it, I carry away the impression of roses from Blood Amber when I think about it. And clean skin, like a beautiful woman who has just emerged from her bath. Amber and Dragon's Blood seem to blend seamlessly and become another entity entirely due to some magic chemical affinity. Blood Amber lasts and lasts. I don't think I would ever need more than an imp at a time of this.

Got this one from a swap. I had opened it and smelled. It smelled bad. Ugh. But, You have to try them on, right? After it hit my skin...Pure Bliss, go figure. The parts of cedar I love are here, the parts I hate are not. Lots of chocolate with vanilla winding its insidious way around here. I am told there is sandalwood in it all, it is overpowered by everything else, or it was put in with such a delicate touch that is just serves to keep it alive on your skin without intruding. Blended in perfectly. The myrrh? I never smelled it so well woven in with another smell. True genius to recognize the relationship between myrrh and chocolate. There is a set of sub smells which do relate, they were found and together they are so much more luxurious than merely the sum of the parts. I too love this smell. (somehow there is a remembrance of Wilde, the part I fell in love with, here but it just gets better on my skin, unlike Wilde). I really love this smell. Mmmmmmmm.

A scent with vetivier is good for the dreary days of January, makes me think of all the plants which are hybernating under the earth's surface resting and waiting to spring forth. Lex Taleonis and Saturnalia are in that category. I also like them for the oriental quality of vetivier, and winter is the time to wear them.

Loved it. Put it on and thought,"This is what I have been waiting for!" During drydown it was entirely unique, not too sweet with a melange of indistinguishable scents that had me sniffing and sniffing. There was dignity and citrus. It was a bit astringent. I don't care if it is for men...This was great. Then, about 45 minutes later-HAMSTER CAGE! What?!? It started to smell like cedar. I can't stand cedar. I re read the description and there was no cedar in it so it must be my skin chemistry that made it go all wrong. For the right person this would be the living end of perfume, throw all the others away and give me a 55 gallon drum of it and let me love it. Alas, my love affair ended after a brief 3/4 of an hour. I was just as heartbroken as if it had been the real thing. I will be giving this a try again. Like a jilted besotted lover crawling back to the guy who broke her heart. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Who knows, it might last this time. Ammended to add: One very attractive aspect of Wilde is it reminds me of a favorite scent I had long ago, Kiku. Kiku was made by Faberge (a company which was merged with some conglomerate and disappeared...they made some wretched perfumes like Tabu and Tigress and one gem which was Kiku). I think Kiku was real bergamot and an incensy backdrop and it was more "artificial" smelling. Ammended again to add: I tried Wilde one more time. The same thing happened. This time when it started to "turn" I noticed I was sub consiously trying to stop the nausea from ruining my day. That is a bad sign. Better stay away from Wilde. Boo hoo. It is such a lovely starter.

If any scent convinced me that Beth and BPAL are geniuses, this one is it. Sea of Glass smells just like I would imagine a sea of glass would smell. That was not a non-sequitur (even though that was a double negative). How the hell you can capture a complete abstraction and present it in a bottle in a totally different medium is a preternatural act. Beth is a great artist. I believe she is on the same footing as anyone you find in Art in America or on the walls of contemporary art museums anywhere on earth. That is a very big statement. I mean it. Beth's medium is scent, their media is paint and the like. Sea of Glass convinced me. Moreover, it's the perfect marriage between the work and the title. Grapefruit and lily of the valley. The more I sniff it, the more I like it. Real good for Spring and Summer (the aquatic nature of the musk she uses and how the florals skitter across the head note of it all). I am in awe of anyone who is so able to use such disparate philosophies of smell and pull them all off equally well. Just shows someone who really understands and can control her craft beautifully. ETA-How I did a 180 about this fragrance. It's the grapefruit dancing with the Lily of the Valley. Yesssss.

This one was full of some Indian jasmine like you find in some Indian incense. I really don't like it at all, overpowering and rubbery almost fishy. Some folks like it, I don't. The jasmine ruined it for me and I had to wash it off. This probably had to do with my body chemistry, I am sure it was produced with much forethought. Too bad, it was a great idea, but for someone else. ADDED May 8: Very much like "O" but even more cloying. Heavy white florals overpowered everything within 10 feet of me. Maybe there is a message in here, the overwhelming power of the Catholic Church and its effects on women, what we are supposed to be like. Gad zooks, no wonder some people are neurotic!

I just got this, and it was THE ONE scent I was itching to try. The second I tried it on, I started to think,"It smells like something...like...something I've used before...it's...it's...it's..." This thought has been driving me crazy all afternoon. I finally have it-- it reminds me of Dior's Poison. That's what makes it smell so "purple". This would be a fabulous scent for someone who could wear highly complex dark blends. I am not one of them, alas. The bottle is wonderful, the ingredients are out-of-this-world but coming together on my skin is emminently forgettable, confused and sad. I gave the bottle back to the person I got it from (who loves it and can wear it). Oddly enough, I have received a lot of good things in return for that. Maybe it's Queen of Spades karma, I hope so.

Got this as an imp in my first order from BPAL. I had ordered Saturalia because I was pining for violet. Ultraviolet got sniffed (after my nose was ruined by smelling everything else), and I thought it "nice, ok, a good freebie" in the bottle. However, I tried it yesterday after my bath. This was exactly what I was looking for. Not as heavy as Saturnalia (which is perfect for late winter when you WANT violets but you can't have any). The lightness is because there doesn't seem to be a lot of fixative to Ultraviolet, but plenty of violet.* Somehow the violet they use doesn't go away (it's a fair stayer in my experience in general). The immediate mint came as a bit of a shock to me. "Whot? Violets and mint? Is this a breath freshener? Dear me." But, I quickly came to see the connection between the two. If you have ever smelled the leaves of a violet after crushing them, there is a definate volitile smell to them, hence the whole plant. I was converted. With just a twist of candy to boost the violet, I was thinking of my faithful pink violets in the front yard. They positively stink when they are "on" in March or April and blooming madly. This perfume does not stink, it is beautiful. I love the cold counterpoint to it, like April which can be the cruelest month when violets bloom and sometimes are blasted by a freak snowstorm or really cold day. I also love the intellectual nature of this scent. Nothing scentimental about it (despite what people say about violets). This is a real winner for me. P.S. This is the first day of spring, 2005 and I am celebrating by wearing Ultraviolet. The drydown has a remarkable similarity to Arpege (back in the day when they really made Arpege). This is a great compliment to a great scent. I love it's staying power. Mmmmm. *I think that fixative is what keeps a perfume lingering on your skin. Some natural ones that I know of are: musk, vetiver, oakmoss, ambergris, and patchuli. They are a double edged sword, they do keep a perfume going BUT they add their own note to it, and it often dominates. So a skilled perfume maker has to put topnotes and mid tones with it that compliment the fixative (bass note) to make a good blend.