lady_pandora

OK, so imagine it's March or April, and green is starting to replace winter's grays and browns. It's raining. The whole world smells like fresh rain and green growing things. The sky is gray, but it only serves to make the green grass, the pink redbuds, and the white dogwoods stand out brighter than they would against a blue sky. You're feeling exhilarated and have the sudden urge to go dancing madly in the rain. If this feeling came in a bottle--which BPAL would it be?

Persephone Had to get this in my first set of imps, as Persephone is one of my patron deities. In bottle: Smelled like cough syrup to me. Wet: Juicy pomegranate at first, turning to 90% rose in under a minute. Drydown: Continues to be mostly rose, but with a tart/bitter undertone probably attributable to the pomegranate. Overall effect is a bittersweet rose scent, perfect for the Goddess in question. The rose might represent her flowery, springtime aspect, with the hint of pomegranate foreshadowing her other, darker aspect. The Verdict: This is lovely. I'm not sure if it's "me" enough to become a signature scent, but it suits its namesake goddess well, and is likely to get used in ritual a lot. ETA: The more I wear Persephone, the more I like it. And the more I wear it, the more I can pick out the pomegranate note and appreciate the scent as a whole. I think the trick is that I have to apply it a little more generously than some other BPALs. Two drops of O, on me, can overwhelm a whole room, but with Persephone, I need to apply a little more oil if I want to smell all the notes and get some staying power. This may be inching into big-bottle territory after all.

Thanks to all of you! Midnight sounds closest so far--I need to look into it!

I hope this hasn't been done already--I paged through lots of topics and didn't see it, but I can be ditzy sometimes. My girlfriend wears something called Night Queen. It seems to be a floral with a touch of aquatic. I don't know exactly what's in it. If there's anyone out there who's familiar with Night Queen, I could use your help. I want to surprise her with some BPAL, and I'd like it to be a little similar to NQ so there's a higher chance she'll like it. Thanks!

This didn't smell good to me in the vial. Not really bad, either, though--just kind of "and why would I bother wearing this?" I didn't even mean to put any on, but I spilled a little bit on my fingers. A little while later, I had my hand near my face and wondered, "What is that YUMMY smell?" I figured out eventually that I must have spilled Block Buster on myself, and that clearly it loves my body chemistry. It's really sweet on me and a little fruity. I didn't even notice the cinnamon everyone is talking about, oddly enough. I might order this next order. I haven't made up my mind. It smells great on me but there are other scents I prefer.

I'm excitedly awaiting my first shipment of imps--but my friend Sionnain was nice enough to let me try some of her imp of O. This is one of the ones I had ordered, so I was hoping I'd like it! I opened the bottle and it smelled like baby powder. Didn't seem too auspicious to me, but I figured I'd wait and see. On me: It went 99% honey. I used to buy this St. Ives facial cleanser or body wash or something, which was discontinued way back in the mid-nineties. It was honey-scented and I LOVED it, and it loved my skin. I wanted to eat it out of the bottle! That's EXACTLY what O smelled like on my skin. No vanilla, only a hint of amber, and gobs and gobs of honey, and it took me right back to being 18 and smelling like the other stuff. Yummmm. I was sniffing my wrist all night--and all night, it stayed honey and stayed strong. I can't wait till my imps come and I can have more of this. An added note: Adding a little amber essential oil on top of O, on me, has the effect of bringing out the amber and giving the scent a different but equally delicious character. ETA: 2 icons. One represents the "enslavement" theme of the novel O is based upon, and the other represents the warm, languid, comfortable feeling I myself get from this scent.