urraca

This is a difficult scent for me to review because not only, as some have said, it is a morpher that changes while you wear it, it also changes on me from wearing to wearing. This morning when I put it on I got a sweet rose with a little amber (amber-gris?) behind it that took turns with a green, leafy (as opposed to dried) tobacco scent. It dried down to a warm rosey-scented tonka/vanilla. It didn't have much throw but it did last a long time. Reapplying a little this afternoon to review it, I get a strong rose scent mixed with what must be the balsam, a slightly astringent scent that is a great foil for the sweet rose. I wonder what this will dry down to....

Rats. This starts off as very pretty sweet pea and then morphs into sweet pea and plastic. I wonder if that is the water lily.

It's hard for me to describe this one. I think it is because it didn't really work on my skin. I think whatever is used to create the illusion of milk and of ginger just doesn't work with my chemistry and ends up smelling --- odd. Milk and honey usually work beautifully on me. I didn't get any honey from this and possibly it is a different milk note than I have tried before. Too bad.

This is so beautiful. I missed it during the forum-only sale due to dopey newbieness but was able to purchase a bottle from a forumite I got it for the freesia but even though I don't get any of that at all, I am delighted to have it. It starts slowly and then bursts into a full-bodied rose and orchid scent. The orchid later drops back and the lotus comes forward giving the scent a wet but not fully aquatic feel. The lotus isn't overly sweet and I do not get any "bubblegum". The whole scent is quite subtle and only lasts a few hours. I don't find it girly at all. It is feminine, but adult. It reminds me of a woman, oh say exactly my own age!

Rats, my first lunar oil and I can't say I like it very much. I don't get anything I can identify as ozone; it is mostly a fresh clean smell that smells kind of artificial. It reminds me of something I've smelled before, but I can't put my finger on it.

I really liked this one. It is fruity the moment I put it on, but it's not a scent I can immediately identify as pear. That fades quickly in any case and I get a somewhat tropical sweet heady floral mix. As someone else noted, I also get a faint cocoanut vibe from this. I believe it is a mixture of the tuberose, plumeria, and magnolia that are coming out most strongly on me. This may be a big bottle purchase. But man, is it ever soporiphic. I haven't been feeling well lately so I don't know if it is a virus or La Belle at work but I spent all afternoon in bed and can't wait to get back. This is the bouquet of tropical blooms Malificent put by Sleeping Beauty's bed to keep her asleep --- and give her nice dreams. :

Oh, this is fun. It goes on sweet and juicy bubblicious bubble yum bubble gum. I didn't think I would enjoy this nearly as much as I did. I don't get any cherry or orange lollies though. The scent goes straight to spice after a very few minutes. And I don't like spice because it smells bakery on me. I go from preteen to grandma in five minutes. But I'm so glad to have a chance to try this. I should add that this was drop down my ten-year-old son's favourite BPAL of all time.

A frimp from my wishlist from the psychic lab. I'm so glad to be able to try it. The moment I apply it the combination of red currant, jasmine and lemon makes this a very tart scent, which is really quite interesting. I apprecate the way the lemon adds a sour note without really smelling like lemon. Soon however the rose comes in, possibly with some of the other flowers, and the scent sweetens up. I get a hint of violet as well. This stage is lovely too but so different. Unfortunately the scent doesn't have much throw and doesn't last well on me so while I like it, I don't love it.

This was a lab frimp and I really like it. It is the first tea scent in which I can actually detect the tea. It seems almost a miracle that Beth can make us smell like tea. First on I smell both black tea and Earl Grey tea. The tea fades and the leather comes through. It morphs from being a old book leather scent into something more like saddle leather. Really nice. But it fades quickly, alas. I wouldn't have bought this because, although I love the way Beth's masculine scents smell, I don't want to smell them on me and I don't have a suitably compliant male to slather them on (I guess I should channel my inner Wanda). But this one really is "wimpy" enough for me to wear. It is a perfect evocation of its subject and worth smelling for that alone.

Oh happy, happy, joy, joy. I discovered I loved amber just as I discovered I loved BPAL so Brisingamen was a must-order for me. When I tried it on for the first time during TOM I was just crushed because it barely smelled like anything and what it did smell like was not nice --- inferior bathroom cleanser. But I tried it on again today and it is pure ambery buttery sugary yumminess. The myrtle, apple blossom, and carnation ride on the top and prevents it from becoming too sweet but they don't stand out as distinctive notes.

I get the lily, I get the myrrh, and even the mandarin but over the long haul, this is mostly about the rose, the sandalwood, and the amber on me, three of my favourite scents. I am delighted they work so beautifully together.

This is so beautiful. In the vial I get a hint of butteryness, of all things, but once on the scent is pure pink grapefruit. The grapefruit recedes softly, leaving behind lily of the valley at the head backed by crystal, salty water. Neither of these stages is remotely sweet, which is what I like about this scent. BPAL is what turned me onto aquatic scents and this is a beautiful example of them. I had never even really heard of aquatics as a category before BPAL. And since this hasn't appeared in any of the other reviews so far, I thought I'd close with the quotation that gave the name to this scent: Revelations 15,2 "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. "

This was a kind lab frimp that enabled me to perform a red musk experiment. I don't like dark/black or white musk so I have been avoiding all musks, but now I have had a chance to try red musk. It goes on exotic spicey which, as usual makes me smell like baked goods. Not crazy about this. But the spice fades and I'm left with --- well, I guess that must be red musk because it sure isn't saffron. And you know, it's not half bad. None of the usual musk sharpness I dislike so much. This fades very quickly though so I'll probably swap the imp, but I'm delighted to have red musk as a possible note on my list. Maybe I can order Spellbound now...

I bought this for the name since this is where my family is from. From the other reviews I expected something light, floral, and aquatic, maybe like Dirty or the Unicorn. What I got was quite different. Once on my wrist, Prague is a sweet heavy floral, very lovely. It connotes an old European capital much better than a light floral would and to me connotes Prague's beautiful art nouveau architecture. Come to think of it, crocusses, when you get enough of them to sniff, do smell rather heavy and sweet. This scent is a wonderful evocation of the Prague Spring of '68. Unfortunately, oh woe, one of the lilies goes soapy on me after an hour or so, pure white soap. This is my first experience with the dreaded soap smell. Late, late in the drydown it goes back to lovely again, but the soap will probably prevent me from buying a bottle of this. Still, I'm delighted to have tried it.

Another fabulous rose scent, hooray! This starts out very rosey and very green. The green fades quite quickly and I'm left with a bouquet of fabulous red roses. It's not just rose though because bubbling up from underneath the flowers comes an almost boozey smell, like fortified red wine. Two, Five and Seven is roses and sangria, light on the fruit and if there weren't already a scent called Madrid, this would be perfect. A great scent for someone who liked London but wants something a little loopier.

This was a lab frimp and I'm delighted to be able to try it. My first surprise was how sweet this scent is. I expected something much darker but the myrrh and patchouli don't really turn up on me at all. This goes on with very much the spicy scent that is in Morocco and Silk Road. I know this will thrill many, but alas that spicy scent does not agree with me because I find it too bakery-like. This is certanly the best of the three though. An hour or so into the drydown however the spice retreats and the woody notes, cedar and sandalwood come forward in a delicious way. This is my favourite part of the scent. It had some throw but needed repeated application throughout the day.

The myrrh comes to the fore the moment I put this on. It is the same dark myrrh that is in Darkness and Wicked, and I like its sweet/smokey scent but I do find it a little headache-inducing. After a while, the myrrh dies down and the jasmine joins it. It is night-blooming jasmine rather than the "real" jasmine that is in Wicked and this makes a huge difference to its wearability since Wicked went slightly plastic on me for a while. The jasmine here is a lovely sweet scent that blends beautifully with the myrrh. The rose remains softly in the background. After the myrrh dies down it isn't a very strng scent, nor is it tremendously long-lasting. But I like it!

Yes, I get doughnuts, minus the grease, from Morocco and from Silk Road.

The Unicorn made me sad. I ordered it for the linden blossom and I have been longing to try it ever since because that is one of my favourite scents, and it is hard to find. But I don't get a drop of linden from this. Oh dear. It makes me kind of mad at the scent which is too bad because what is there is really lovely and it is the kind of scent I'd be all over if I hadn't had such huge expectations of something else. It is a fruity, juicy, aquatic with bubblegummy overtones (lotus?). It reminds me a little of the Hesperides with another fruit replacing the apple and it also reminds me of Dirty, except a little sweeter and softer. Anyone who likes those two scents will probably like this. Just don't expect any linden. Oh woe and alack. I think I should put it away until next spring to appreciate it on its own terms.

I find this a very difficult scent to review because it is so unusual --- it is a real triumph. The myrrh is very forceful and it is the same myrrh I smelled in Wicked, very different from the myrrh in Nefertiti. This myrrh reminds me of Bain de Soleil suntan gelee, of all things. Since I associate that scent with teenage suntans, it adds a strange set of associations to scents that contain it. It blends with the opium to create a fragrance, like many have said, of candles that have just been blown out. It does create the atmosphere of being in a darkened room after someone has doused the candles, waiting for what happens next. Late in the drydown I sometimes get an unexpected waft of sweet floral narcissus. Darkness is not gloomy, rather it is a dark scent for people who like the dark.

My first bottle and my first LE --- woo hoo! In the vial I smell...nothing. It really has no odour at all beyond a faint alcohol scent. It blooms swiftly on skin though into a lovely, sweet, powdery (in the best way) floral. Jasmine is the first flower to peek out and rose takes a turn too but mostly it is so well blended that no one flower stands out, although the floral scent subtly shifts throughout the drydown of this beautiful scent. The vanilla and amber are subtle too, and they do not dominate the flowers. It is softly sweet, maybe a little like a marshmallow wrapped in a stick of bubblegum, the kind you get in a pack of baseball cards, not the juicy sweet kind. And the label is beautiful too!

In Vinland Beth has captured the smell of summertime in Canada. I've never been to Newfoundland, but this reminds me very much of the rocks and islands of Georgian Bay. It smells like sunshine beating down on trees, wildflowers, hot granite, dried grasses, low-growing juniper and wild berries, blending them all into one heady mixture in which no single scent stands out distinctively. It's a fruit for peole who don't like fruit; a floral for people who don't like florals. Just lovely.

In the imp and when first on my skin my reaction is yick, I'm going to smell like a peach vanilla candle. I shy away from most fruit and berry scents because I am afraid of smelling like a scented candle. But once this is on, the peach steps back and I'm left with peachy flowery O and since O is one of the nicest things to smell like in the world, things start to look up. I'm still a little on the fence about this one --- from time to time peach candle rears its ugly head --- but at the least I'll enjoy my imp. I do find it lasts and has a good throw, though in neither area is it as good as O. I would have liked some more sandalwood from this, which I did not get at all.

This goes on strongly myrrh with jasmine and rose in the background. I believe the jasmine is dominant and it is that which has a faintly plasticky scent at the beginning. The plastic fades after a while though and I'm left with a lovely smokey, incensey myrrh that lasts and lasts and has a good throw. I have really liked two of the BPAL myrrh scents I have tried --- Hymn and Nefertiti --- but I found that neither lasted very long on me. This is not a problem, fortunately, with Wicked. The plastic stage may prevent this from being a big bottle purchase though. I do get the whole wicked Disney character vibe with this scent, probably through the power of suggestion. I kind of like it. Great scent for those days on which I want to channel my inner step-mother.

Gardenia, jasmine, rose, and vanilla are all things I can wear happily but on me this was a weird combination. I get many of the strange things others have noticed. The gardenia is strongest at first and I also get a citrus scent, maybe mock orange blossom rather than an actual fruit. I do not detect any jasmine or rose at all ever, but when the vanilla peeks out, it and the gardenia combine to give, as someone said, that scent of a plastic baby doll. I love vanilla and I've never had it or anything else turn to plastic on me before. So sad.