urraca

What they said. This is a beautiful, sweet rose that stayed true from the moment it went n my skin and lasted a long time. I didn't detect any powderyness but I do agree with those who spotted a bit of sandalwood at the base of the scent. It works very well. I think I like the crisper roses of Penthus better, but I will enjoy every bit of this imp!

In the imp I get a milky greeness. Wet on skin the greeness fades quickly and I get a lovely milky honey scent that lasts and lasts. It is just gorgeous. There is a freshness to it which suggests the linen, but I don't get the tea, pepper, or ginger. Still, an absolutely beautiful combination. The dry down on me is very similar to my nose to Queen Mab with which it appears to share absolutely no notes. Oh, the mysteries of BPAL!

At the beginning, green mintyness which segues into minty greeness. The mint fades as the lavendar joins in and the lavendar is then gently nudged aside by the lime, which has that slight coconutty smell real limes have to me. All of these shifts are very subtle and no note hits the others, or me, over the head. Drydown is strong, totally unexpected, completely unmistakeable lily of the valley on me. This surprised me since no one else seems to have had that impression. A lovely scent in general, but alas it fades on me much too quickly. I will save it for occasions when I am feeling especially envious. (Not quite an envy face, but at least it is green!)

Sweet, sweet marzipan in the vial but all the almond vanishes the moment it hits my skin and I'm left with a smokey, incensey blend that must be musk blended with myrrh. I wish I had a better understanding of what myrrh smells like --- I read the single note reviews for myrrh seeking enlightenment but it didn't come. That may be because dark musk quickly dominates everything else in any scent I wear with it. This was fine, but I'm just not all that fond of musk.

I just tried a bnch of violet perfumes. I found Saturnalia was very vetiver and The Raven was very musky on me but Sybaris was almost a pure violet smell. Yum!

This went weird on me. I think I know why. A week or so a friend asked me to try her favourite perfume (not BPAL) which she described as spicy. Erp, I said, it's kind of foody. Kind of like uncooked cake batter. And not spice cake batter either, which might make some sense. Flash forward to New Orleans. When it goes on the lemon is the strongest note, on top of something that might be the jasmine and the honeysuckle. But not ten minutes later it has morphed into that odd cakey smell. I think it must be the spice that disagrees with me. I've never seen anyone review a scent as going batter-y on them. I wonder if this is the scent that some describe as playdoh? Anyway, I have learned something about spice which is: No.

This one goes on orange oil and finishes patchouli. Neither are scents I would have thought I especially liked, but the whole is really greater than the sum of its parts (thanks again, Beth!) and together they really work, each tempering the other during its moment in the sun. I think this would be especially nice in the winter so I think I'll save the rest of my imp for a while. Then I can also experience the wonders of aged patchouli. The relationship between the orange and patchouli made me think of the relationship between the violet and vetiver in Saturnalia though the patchouli is less dominant on me than the vetiver was. A few hours into the dry down, I got a faint almost burnt rubber smell --- not string enouch to be horrble, but it was curious. Is this a patchouli thing?

Judgung by the relatively small number of reviews Penthus has had, it seems to be kind of underappreciated here and I think that is too bad because I found it simply gorgeous. I smell a complicated cool (not sweet or cloying) rose, sharp out of the vial but softening quickly that stays true to this softened scent throughout. It lasts a long time and has a good throw. I've never tried a salty/aquatic blend so I'm not sure what I should be expecting from that. I have read though that calamus is an aphrodisiac so maybe that is one reason I like this so much --- I'm falling in love with myself! This is a sophisticated, adult, summer scent. If you like rose at all, try it.

Lovely lab frimp and since I've never so much as sniffed a mint julep, I don't know what to expect. Wet on skin it remains very true to the vial, an almost medicinal smelling mint, like I would imagine some kind of nineteenth-century physick. The sweet kicks in and the medicine tones down quickly as it dries and that scent remains true throughout. Now I get kind of a barbershop smell, from about fifty years ago. What I am describing may not sound good, but it is just delightful. Juke Joint is a man leaving a barbershop after a cut and a shave on a hot summer day. Wait a minute, it is Jimmy Stewart or Spencer Tracy, or maybe even Humphrey Bogart leaving a barbershop, and the barbershop is in LA. Well hello sir, I believe I *am* going your way.

To me this is the belle epoque in Madrid: lush, beautiful, and optimistic but darkened by a hint of tyranny and despair. In the vial I smell a vibrant floral with no single note dominating. Wet on skin the lily of the valley jumps out first but, oh this is wonderful, I feared with lily of the valley is was going to be all Diorissimo/Muguet des Bois but Beth has managed to restrain the lily so it does not dominate at the expense of the rest. I can smell the mandarin just behind the lily and as it dries down the sandalwood and vanilla come forward anchoring the scent. It is just gorgeous and the only problem with it, as several have said, is that it fades to quickly. Maybe I need a big, big bottle so I can slather or figure out a way to extend it.

Still on my quest for the perfect violet.... In the vial this was strong, heady, sweet violets. So far so good. Wet on skin, the violet is in the foreground backed with other indeterminate (to my newbie nose) florals and deeper in the background still, a faint incense base. As it dries down, the other florals retreat altogether and the incense gets stronger and stronger. I can distinguish both the sandawood and what must be the dark musk. And you know, I think I have learned something very useful from this scent which is that I probably don't like dark musk; it is the generic strong perfumey scent for me. I can tell it really is expertly blended though, with neither the sandalwood nor the musk dominating. The violet stays on top and as I move around, I keep getting lovely wafts of it. Strangely, when it dries down it is the same vanilla violet I loved in Sybaris, but very faint. The Raven really is Sybaris's darker sister, as some have said, but I think I likt her lighter sister better.

This one on me is all about the violet and I am very happy because I was looking for a very violety scent. In the vial it is violet, and wet on the skin it is, well, violet, though at the beginning there is almost a faint whiff of something sharp like turpentine, though it is not strong enough to be disturbing. As it dries down, more violet followed by violet. Strangely enough, at the very end, several hours later the violet cuts out and that is when the tonka bean turns up. I suspect the tonka bean was lying there all the time, working hard to prevent the violet from turning powdery. t is not powdery at all, just warm and wet smelling. I have an urge to slather this one, so I think I may be looking at a big bottle.

I love violet and I love vetiver, so I was very curious to see how they would mix. In the vial it was sharp, pungent, fesh vetiver with a hint of green tea. Wet on skin the vetiver is still dominant on me but echoes of violet start wafting through. And that is oretty much how it stayed through the drydown. The vetiver dominated while the violet was just an echo in the background. Strangely enough, the smell that wafted up to me (this has a lot of throw) was vetiver but on my wrists I smelled more of a flowery smell. I would have preferred more violets but I do love vetiver, so this is a keeper. I think of it as a very masculine smell and I've been known to follow boys wearing the stuff down the street so, yes, I do get the licentious part. But if I follow myself down the street, I'll start going in circles....

Yum this is lovely. In the bottle it smells like a strong, sweet, fruity liqueur. Wet it is a heady floral with something sharper, probably from one of the floral notes I am not familiar with (orchid? osmanthus?). It is well-blended though and no single floral note dominates. As it dries down it has almost a vanilla-ish honey-ish quality (good florals do that on me. I wonder what vanilla and honey would smell like on me? Flowers, maybe?!). It has a big throw for a long time. There is a faint incensey quality, possibly from the musk and I can smell the sandalwood at the bottom reining the whole scent in.

My very first review of my very first sniff of my very first BPAL imp, so please be patient with me! In the bottle: sharp, green flowers Wet on skin: The green vanishes quickly leaving behind a lovely, full floral smell with something tart standing behind it. twenty minutes later: the tartness fades leaving a warm, rich floral smell several hours later: This is just lovely. It a dark warm purplish scent that somehow makes me think of violets though there are no violets in it. It is soft, but it is true that it would be overpowering with more throw. It is a powerful, private scent that makes me think of sitting alone in a garden by night. I don't get sadness, though. For me this is a happy scent. I can't stop smelling my wrist. If all BPAL is this good I am in biiiiiiig trouble!