Ailine

This went from oranges with a sandalwood chaser to gardenia powdery ick on me. I hate it when good oils turn bad on my skin. I love it wet, but I had to wash it off once it dried. My chemistry just really amps up gardenia.

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD Thy soul shall find itself alone 'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone; Not one, of all the crowd, to pry Into thine hour of secrecy. Be silent in that solitude, Which is not loneliness - for then The spirits of the dead, who stood In life before thee, are again In death around thee, and their will Shall overshadow thee; be still. The night, though clear, shall frown, And the stars shall not look down From their high thrones in the Heaven With light like hope to mortals given, But their red orbs, without beam, To thy weariness shall seem As a burning and a fever Which would cling to thee for ever. Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish, Now are visions ne'er to vanish; From thy spirit shall they pass No more, like dew-drop from the grass. The breeze, the breath of God, is still, And the mist upon the hill Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken, Is a symbol and a token. How it hangs upon the trees, A mystery of mysteries! A shuddering white scent, of ghostly breath and stony silence: dry tea leaf, linden blossom, papyrus, orris and coffin wood. This smells just like Maiden, minus all that nasty nasty carnation. I am so totally and completely thrilled by this discover. I am terrible with reviews; to me this is lovely unsweetened black tea with an underpinning of white woods (the kind that have fallen off the tree but aren't totally dry and dessicated yet; they still have a touch of life to them) and a smidge of greenery. Absolutely wonderful.

I love Severin for the twenty minutes it lasts on me. It burns down quickly to nothing, but while it's around I get lots of lovely tea. I'm contemplating layering my imp with Dorian to see what that would do to it. Sometimes I feel like Dorian loses the tea too quickly in a sea of vanilla fougere, so maybe this would be an excellent use for it.

This oil, along with Dorian, is the one I turn to for day-to-day wear, especially for the office. It's warm and sexy but since it stays close the skin, it's like my personal little cocoon. It is quite similar to O, but with the added lift of what I think is ylang ylang; that gives the O-like creaminess almost a "bright" feel to it. This is a big bottle scent.

I received a decant of Old Morocco in an imp lot off eBay; I don't know how much it's been reformulated but the descriptions are similar enough to give me hope. I love this. I spent fifteen minutes sniffing my wrist and wracking my brain trying to remember what this reminds me of, and I finally got it. Back before I found BPAL and was wandering in the desert of commercial perfumes, one of my favorites was Dior Addict. While I wasn't overly fond of the strong neroli and mandarin notes, they quickly faded leaving me with many hours of sandalwood and tonka goodness; things got especially good around hour 5. This oil is like jumping directly to hour 5, nothing but sandalwood and vanilla and gentle spiciness, and no waiting for the yicky citrus to die away. I feel the need to buy this in bulk.

This smells exactly like a tea blend I bought several years ago that was Earl Grey and rosebuds, which makes me extraordinarily happy. This was a frimp from an order where I had ordered an imp of Moon Rose, which I found overwhelmingly strong. I was beginning to despair that rose was not a friend when I found this in my box and decided to try it. I love this rose. It's so calm and quiet and elegant. Two thumbs up.

When I first put this on, I got a big whiff of the opium, which I love, especially in Belle Epoque. Then I got whacked with the civet. Oh my. This oil makes me want to tell people, "Really! I'm not That Kind of Girl! I promise!" It's dirty raunchy sex in a bottle. Unlike Snake Oil and Le Petit Mort, which strike me as a more...refined sexuality, what with the seduction and the teasing, Debauchery is like wearing a giant flashing sign advertising the fact that you're horny and could care less who takes care of that problem for you. After ten or so minutes, the civet stops attacking, but I'm still left feeling deeply uncomfortable. It's just so animalistic, and the opium, which in Belle Epoque feels indulgent and elegant, here just amps up the rough animal sex aspect. Into the swap heap it goes, but I did enjoy trying it, even if it did freak me out a bit!

This is a really different sort of scent for me (I mostly wear florals and musks), and it's really interesting. Wet, blast of cinnamon. And it tingles where I swiped it! After a few minutes, the cinnamon decides it's done assaulting my senses and moves just a scootch to the background, allowing the woods to come out. I smell christmas tree, and berries? Maybe that is the dragon's blood people speak of. I don't get leather or wine at all, just a lovely outdoorsy Christmas scene. I really like this, but I am not sure if I want to smell like it, if that makes any sense. I'm going to keep it around for a while, I think, because it makes me happy, even though I feel it's not something I can wear out and about.

God I love florals. And this is such a classic floral to me. It's the most traditionally "perfumey" smelling oil I've smelled from BPAL, but it's not harsh or overwhelming like department store florals (Estee Lauder florals, for example - everyone shudder with me). Even though I love me some florals, I've had issues lately with almost all the flower components in this. Rose by itself gives me a headache, jasmine is overwhelmingly strong, and carnation can make me feel a bit ill. This blend is so well balanced it's like all the best aspects of each of these somewhat problematic flowers have been brought out. This is what I would wear when I have to go to a function where I have to play up the properly brought up young lady aspect of my personality. It's like an invisible reminder of propriety and class and grace. Bottle. Maybe a big one.

Carnation and I seem to have issues. I absolutely love this wet, but the drydown is a ride on the icky carnation train, and I just can't get on board. Good news, this oil has shown me that tea scents are fabulous. Severin, here I come.

I admit, I was suckered by the name and description. So romantic. Wet, this was ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE, oh and rose. Did I mention the rose? I think I might have put too much on; a tiny dab would be enough. After an hour of the lovely but overwhelming rose overload, the rest of the notes come out to play, and this becomes a beautiful soft perfume. I need to play a little with the amount, but this was a big hit.

I guess I'm just not made for these honeyed, foody scents. On me, this was Alice minus the carnation, and just like Alice, it felt overwhelmingly sugary sweet, like gobs of sweet grocery store icing. I do like this more than Alice, but it's absolutely not me. Sigh.

I need to find a boy to wear this. On me, it smells like really expensive incensey soap, which is nice, but it dawned on me about two hours in that I really identify this as a masculine scent. I do enjoy wearing it to bed, though. The sheets pick up the barest hint, and then I have lovely incense-scented dreams.

Oh man, when y'all said evil gingersnaps, I didn't think y'all were being serious. I feel like the Gingerbread Army of the Goat with a Thousand Young is chasing me down. According to a co-worker, wearing this oil, I "smelled like a pumpkin pie that has gone through hell". Hee. I...really don't like ginger, I've discovered. That's my main problem with this oil. If you love ginger, I'd buy this by the truckload if I were you. Me, I'm glad I got to try it, but it is just not for me.

When I received my imp order from the Lab, I absolutely could not remember ordering this oil. In fact, when I went and read the description, I was totally confused as to why I had ordered this in the first place. Well, I guess my subconscious knew what it was doing, because this is wonderful. Wet, I get the white tea, with just a hint of the spiciness underneath. As it dries, the tea drifts to the background (but never totally fades), and the carnation and rose linger for a surprisingly long time. I think this is going to be excellent for spring and summer wear because it is light and fresh while still having a presence about it I find lacking in a lot of intentionally light or summery perfumes. This goes on the 5ml list.