nineveh

Bringing the light of good fortune to the dark of the year! Coconut-infused white chocolate swirled with a mélange of New Year's blessings: smashed pomegranates, a slice of vasilopita, black-eyed peas, rice wine, a bunch of leafy greens, twelve sweet grapes, buckwheat, almond cookies, and glazed doughnuts. That note combination was too unusual to pass up even though sticky dessert scents typically end up a disaster on me. 13 is sweet but not sugary, thankfully. The pastry notes are prominent but kept from going overboard by the tartness of the pomegranate and the vegetal aspects. The end result is mild and easy for even me to wear. I can pick out most of the notes but everything is balanced harmoniously. It's too light to use in colder weather (gotta wear my heavy resins while I can) but it'll be great for spring.

Inspired by the moment in time frozen in this photo - my fairy child, laughing and playing amongst gargantuan flowers. An ethereal, iridescent, twilit scent, sparkling with mystery and innocent joy: white patchouli with provence rose, delicate freesia, pink tuberose, jasmine sambac, orange blossom, butterfly musk, vanilla orchid, and delicate spices. This shouldn't work on me at all. My typical experience is that rose takes over anything and turns into olive oil, jasmine turns into headachey perfumey soap, and orange blossom goes chalky and sour. I didn't consider buying this one at all until I read the reviews, but now I'm glad to have a bottle. It's sweet and playful and girly, three adjectives which I definitely am not, but sometimes I get in the mood to wear perfumes that are antithetical. It's very well blended. I can't tell what I'm smelling, though I'm getting hints of the musk and soft spices of Morocco. The flowers give an overall impression of sugared strawberries. And yes, it does smell more like a mainstream fragrance than the typical BPAL. The closest I've experienced was Flowerbomb, but whereas that was way too sweet for me, BFaJA is wearable and lovely.

A straightforward but very satisfying rich, dark amber. It's a little powdery but not enough to scare me off. It's pretty similar to Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan minus the spices, and a hint of Hem's oodh incense (a deep but soft wood, one of my favorites). I like this one a lot. It's pleasantly sweet and easy to wear.

I'm having a very odd experience with this one. I love plum, vetiver, and tobacco. White sandalwood and pine are okay but not something I gravitate towards. I still don't know what bourbon geranium or ambrette seed smell like. Wet: carrots? Then piney carrots. Then pine and vetiver, but faint. Then the plum comes out, but it's also charred and rubbery. On top is a watery vegetal scent (is that the geranium?) that's washing out everything else. What the hell is going on? As it dries, La Notte seems to be mostly a thin, shadowy scent. The plum here is definitely not the hard candy of Bordello's plum. The rich sweetness of the tobacco is finally detectable, but still in the background. I was hoping for something more "solid" I guess. When completely dry, it settles into a somehow distant tobacco tinged with plum and just the slightest bit of vetiver. I'm not sure if I'll ultimately keep my bottle but I think La Notte will be appreciated by fans of tobacco and somber nighttime air scents.

The 2006 version hasn't budged from my top ten since I tried it seven years ago. Its sparkling grapefruit and soft vanilla musk make it my favorite for warm weather. I wouldn't have minded another bottle of the same or similar formulation if that's how it turned out, but the 2013 version is completely different to my nose. Wet, this is orange cake. Then that fades, and the joss paper/hell money and ginger are most prominent. Something creamy but not very sweet behind that, maybe the rice wine mixing with the vanilla or musk. The base of woods and resins is shadowy but subdued. The 2006 version is a sweet, refreshing citrus, whereas the 2013 version is deeper, smokier, and spicier. It's like the notes that weren't discernible in the 2006 version are at the forefront of this one. This doesn't unseat my love of the original, but it'll be good when I'm in the mood for something darker but not heavy.

White amber and mimosa with tendrils of Italian bergamot, myrrh, green tangerine and green patchouli, sheer coconut, quince, and vetiver. Wet, this is quite vetiver-heavy. I like vetiver when it's green and grassy, like in Atlas, but unfortunately Desmonema's vetiver is the smoky kind. Once it's try, it really transforms. The vetiver vanishes, revealing a soft, sweet amber (white amber is my favorite) and bergamot. It's nearly identical to Deep Steep's Grapefruit Bergamot body butter, if that comparison is useful. There are other elements in the background adding substance and grounding, but they're too well blended for me to pick them out. I like this a lot even though the wet stage is somewhat overwhelming. A sweet, green citrus scent that's not high-pitched or vegetal.

A sweet lemon/green scent, very natural and fresh. It smells similar to what I remember of the long-discontinued Mantis with the lemongrass of Skytyping with Chemtrails. I can't smell any coconut. Overall, it's a bit too green for my tastes, but would be a good choice for those of you who are after a dewy, grassy scent for warm weather.

This is so good! Dark, damp, sticky green/brown, sweetened with rich brown sugar. It almost has a spicy edge, but not quite. It's also incredibly strong, so my bottle will assuredly last forever. Great for layering, but full enough to wear alone. I just tried layering it with Madagascan Vanilla Rum, and they go really well together!

Buttery coconut and champaca zapped with lime and mint. Damp, sweet, and refreshing. When it's dried down, it loses some of the green bite and becomes creamier. As others have mentioned, this seems like a warm-weather scent, but I've been enjoying it a lot during this recent rainy period.

Primarily tobacco with herbal spikes, softened and sweetened by musk and vanilla. It's a mix of contrasting textures, but overall feels relaxing. On me, this has the airy greenness of Halloween: Los Angeles combined with the dusty sweetness of The Night Hag Visiting the Lapland Witches. I guess this would be too close to a traditional masculine fragrance for most, but I really like it and am glad I risked a bottle.

I've been wearing this every day since my bottle came in the mail. It's that good. It starts off fairly balanced, except for the coffee bean, which never shows up. To me, osage-orange smells like a combination of true orange and citrus rind, juicy but not sweet. The overall effect is alcoholic/perfumy but not in a bad way. I'm glad it has this aspect to keep it from becoming too sweet or too gourmand. It reminds me a bit of Serge Lutens Fumerie Turque when wet and Chergui when dry. Thankfully I never get any meat or bbq, just a shadowy green/brown scent that's dark without being heavy or overwhelming. Great stuff.

Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? A blot upon the earth: black plum, Spanish moss, opoponax, davana, vetiver, and opium poppy. Lots of opium at the forefront, then something herbal, and just a hint of plum in the background. If you thought all the notes sounded great but were scared off by the vetiver, this might be worth trying anyway because I'm not getting any vetiver from this at all. Kind of disappointed there, since I love vetiver. It feels dark, but not thick or heavy. Shadowy, I guess. I almost really like it but the opium is going sharp and chemicalish on me like it always does. I was hoping that it wouldn't be so prominent. I'll hang onto my bottle for now and see what it's like in a few months.

Dracul (Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom) reminds me a bit of Old Spice, and was one of my favorites when I first got into BPAL.

I was going to pass on this, since I don't like chamomile and am not really into evergreen scents. Then I saw people mentioning the need for backup bottles, so I made this a last-minute addition to my order. Very glad I didn't miss out on this, because I think this is my favorite of 2011! Well, maybe tied with Atlas. It starts with prominent nutmeg and woodsmoke, and dark forest notes in the background. This smells pretty close to what I wanted from Halloween: Los Angeles (on me, all light green notes and no staying power). The nutmeg/sandalwood combo also reminds me of Obsession for Men (though I don't find either perfume to be particularly masculine), but with a deeper, more mysterious feel. Even the dusty chamomile has a necessary role in this, and for once I don't have a problem with it. The smoke and sharpness of the evergreens become more subtle on the drydown, making this ultimately a comforting fragrance, even though it still evokes the colors and setting of the painting. A perfect scent for rainy weather or cold nights!

I've never liked apple perfumes (sickly sweet craft store nightmares on my skin), but for some reason, the description tempted me. When the reviews started going up, I caved. It's at its best when it's first applied and the apple note smells freshest. It loses the sparkling bite once it's dry, but overall is still lovely. I've had this on for a few hours today, and it's still noticeable. For the first hour, the apple balances with the cool vanilla and soft musk, then fades to reveal the creaminess of the florals. Fruity florals aren't my usual thing, but I really like this, oddly enough. I'm sure it'll get lots of wear in the spring.