Amaranthus

Fae reminds me of this print that decorated my bedroom wall when I was a child: The scent features glowing peach against a shimmering background of bergamot, oakmoss, and white musk. The peach note is softly luminous. It is not a dripping, juicy fruit scent. It is the warm glimmer of a firefly. The oakmoss, bergamot, and white musk sparkle. The perfect scent for a midsummer night.

Banana incense! Yes!

Bilquis smells like a straight forward blend of honey, almonds, apple, fig, and myrrh. The warm musk comes out on the dry down. This evokes ox blood colored bedsheets in my mind, an excellent representation of the character Bilquis. My bottle is somewhat aged. I liked this perfume better when it was fresh. It reminded me of a more lascivious, less tropical version of Eden from the Wanderlust line. The fresh version of this perfume had all of the sultriness of the aged scent, but with a contrasting brightness of red apple. The aged perfume is still very nice, a thick honeyed almond myrrh scent. I smell the rose otto more in the aged perfume. There is still a scent of apple, but it is more like the scent of apple perfume left on a pillowcase, rather than the bright scent of fruit. I like this one a lot and I am considering ordering more of it.

Harigata II opens with a really good creamy coconut note that smells exactly like Lush's Trichomania shampoo. The amber smells like soft clean skin. Hazelnut adds depth and warmth. The anise is not too strong. It adds a clean tea-like quality to the scent. Harigata II is so good. Definitely my favorite of this year's Lupercalia scents, and also my favorite coconut scent.

Coconut and mango form a creamy tropical smoothie scent against a sugared background of apple blossom, white rose, freesia, and cucumber. A soft lavender note peeps out occasionally. Nymphia dries down to a candied white rose scent. This smells like ambrosia. I mean that it smells like delicious fruit salad, but it could also be the nectar of the gods. Nymphia would be the beach drink of the gods. Nymphia is an excellent mood booster. The combination of bright, uplifting notes and the many compliments I have received on this scent certainly keeps me in good spirits.

Something about this scent makes me think of sexy red velvet cake! In the bottle it smells like a fluffy cotton ball daubed with vanilla. On the skin, the musks come out a little more. I am somewhat disappointed that the raspberry and pomegranate aren't a little stronger. The red musk and red sandalwood smell wonderful. I do not get a strong patchouli note. The frankincense is just there adding a little bit of resinous warmth to the blend. This dries down to a really nice smoky vanilla musk with a clean linen undertone. I'm hoping the fruit notes will come out a little bit more as the perfume ages. For now, I give it a four out of five.

I love this! In the tub, it maintains a strong scent nicely even through a super long bath. Applied to directly to the skin, it has a silky texture that soaks into the skin without a greasy residue, leaving behind wonderfully soft skin with a touch of pretty fragrance. The scent is wonderful, a perfect blend of white chocolate, amber, and cool mint, with just the right amount of honeysuckle. If this came out as a perfume oil I would snap it up in a heartbeat. This reminds me of softer Joyful Moon, if you take away the rose and add mint.

This perfume is wonderful! It smells like thick golden honey with a nice balance of mint and apple blossom. The perfume lasts for hours, leaving a warm honeyed glow long after the blossoms and mint have faded away. Love it!

This is my favorite honey note in any BPAL yet. It smells like fresh dripping golden honey. I opened up a jar of honey to compare the smell, and the honey note in Door smells almost exactly like my jar of honey. The honey scent stays true on my skin. Win! Chamomile and tobacco blossom add a soft haze. Cistus smells like something between tree sap and ambergris. This is an instant favorite. Medium sillage, several hours of wear length before Door needs reapplication. This would be a great blend for those who like to wear soothing scents to improve sleep.

I love the scent of violets, but they often turn dull and powdery on my skin. In this scent the violets stay true. In Nocturne violet is the main note, enhanced by equal amounts of lilac and tuberose. The lilac takes the powdery edge off the violet. Tuberose often smells like very nice soap on me, but in this blend tuberose smells like jasmine without the sharpness jasmine sometimes has. As the scent wears off it leaves a sugary sweetness behind. The overall effect is a tranquil blue floral. When I have worn Nocturne, I have noticed faint traces of it in the air, but it is not a heavy or overpowering floral. I tried this along with other violet blends- Le Serpent Qui Danse, Queen Gertrude, The Raven, Sybaris, and Violet Ray. Of these Nocturne is the one that best maintains a fresh, true violet scent. If you want to smell like violet flowers then of all these Nocturne is the one I would recommend.

I overlooked this for so long. I received it as a freebie and my initial impression was of unpleasantly strong, sharp mint and pink roses. I set it aside till today. I don't know what has changed, but this is so much more complex and beautiful now. It smells of a minty breeze through pale flowers in sunset shades of lavender, pink, and pale blue. There is a sparkling quality to Utrennyaya, it makes me wonder if there is a touch of white musk in it. As the scent wears on it is deepened by a watery violet note. White sandalwood is often a dry scent to my nose, but while there is a grounding pale sandalwood note, it is not dry. This smell captures the feeling of Dawn on a Summer morning. It is ethereal and pretty.

I admit that I did not like All Souls the first time I smelled it. My initial impression was of nail varnish, flaky pie crust, cheap incense sticks, and dust. I suppose it needed time to settle because today it smells like a plume of incense smoke and warm sugary currant pastries. The currant note is not strong. It peeks out every now and then, but faintly. The pastry is no longer dry flaky pie crust that gets stuck at the back of my throat, but soft baked sugary golden warmth. The incense note smells like the sort where you burn chunks of resin, rather than like an incense stick. I think I smell frankincense specifically, but where frankincense usually has a sparkling texture to my nose, this is smoothly resinous. Every now and then the smell of warm dry wood emerges. As the perfume fades off my skin, the sugar and the incense blend together and smell like delicious candy incense. Maybe what a hippie would smell like after baking. Or a baked hippie. HA! It is amazing the difference a few days can make. I am glad this one decided to like me.

Velvet is warm and comforting. I am slow to use up a whole bottle of anything, so I have had one bottle of Velvet for years. When the bottle was new it was a perfect blend of creamy chocolate, sandalwood, and myrrh. On the skin, the myrrh was the last thing to stick around and it left me feeling warm and cozy. As the bottle aged, the creaminess of the chocolate toned down, so it was more of a dry cocoa scent, but still lovely and warm. These days, the chocolate is still there but it is dusty chocolate powder scent. Sandalwood is the strongest note. I still wear Velvet on occasion, but it's not as nice on me as when the chocolate was more prominent. Something about the scent makes me think of hazelnut. My favorite use for aged Velvet is on my oil diffuser. As a room scent this smells amazing. I love to burn it in my coat closet so my winter jackets have that beautiful gourmand sandalwood smell. I have enjoyed this bottle of Velvet. I may buy more this Winter.

This smells like incredibly expensive perfume that a refined nineteenth century lady of means would spray onto her décolletage out of a delicate nacreous glass atomizer bottle. There is something of an oriental mystique meets western sublimation of sexuality vibe going on here. I enjoy the contrast of the pretty florals, ambergris, and mint against the amber and myrrh. So lovely. I love the mint in this. The mint adds a spectral quality, and takes this from being a nice perfume to being a beautiful perfume.

At first this smells like bourbon geranium, myrrh, and resinous tree sap (but not distinctly amber). Odd Portents morphs into equal parts rose, lavender, and amber incense, with a rich, dark, resinous background. I pick up the blackcurrant as a note that enhances the florals, but doesn't stand out on it's own. The musk is not heavy. Like the blackcurrant, it enhances the overall perfume without taking over. Odd Portents continues to smell amazing for hours. The gorgeous resins stay on the skin long after the florals have faded. They become deeper with time. This smells like the perfume the tragic heroine of a Victorian novel would wear before she ends up wandering the moor as a ghost. After ghostification The Shadowy and the Sublime would be more appropriate, but in warm corporeal form Odd Portents would be the tragic heroine's scent of choice. Dramatic and beautiful!

This is really good! In the bottle it smells exactly like white tea and violet leaf. The violet leaf note smells green and herbal with a hint of violet flower. The white tea is the same as in last year's Peach Moon, clean and refreshing. On the skin the bergamot of the tea develops. I love the smell of bergamot, it is comforting. At this stage the perfume smells like a hot cup of weak Earl Grey. The overall fragrance is clean and lovely, with a touch of mystery. I love The Turn of the Screw, and this scent certainly does evoke the mood of a ghost story.

I received this as an extra in a recent order. Sniffing it, I fumbled and poured half the imp all over my dress. I hung the dress up and for days my room was suffused with the warm glow of this scent. As a room scent the rosewood and lemon peel stand out in a haze of sweet nondescript florals. It is more complex on skin. Fresh on the skin, the dominant note is red sandalwood, with lemon zest and rosewood rounding out the scent. The jasmine, lily, and orris blend into a single delicate floral note. The lily rises above the others occasionally. I get the impression of white roses. The sage smooths the sharp edge of the florals. Ava Maria Gratia Plena dries down to the smell of soft incense. Something about this scent reminds me of clean, warm skin.

Persephone is the lush scent of full blown roses and juicy pomegranate. The two scents blend together seamlessly, melding into a scent that is more lovely than either note is on it's own. The rose is all blossom- none of the greenery of stem or leaves. It is a voluptuous rose, rather than a prim rosebud. The overall effect is of a richly saturated velvety pink/red/orange color, a shade you might find in a Pre Raphealite painting. Similar to the color of her dress: Or the clothes of the central figure in this painting by Rosetti:

Joyful Moon! So pretty! In the bottle it smells like creamy French vanilla musk. Although I agreed on smelling it that the vanilla was French Vanilla, I did not know what makes French Vanilla different from any other sort, so I looked it up. From Wikipedia: "The term French vanilla is not a type of vanilla, but is often used to designate preparations that have a strong vanilla aroma, and contain vanilla grains. The name originates from the French style of making ice cream custard base with vanilla pods, cream, and egg yolks." I would agree that this smells a little more like vanilla cream than other vanillas I have smelled. I would say it smells like ice cream, but it is a warm scent. It does not smell as thick or gourmand as custard. On my skin the vanilla and white musk notes are strongest. I smell fresh white roses. If I hold my wrist up to my nose, I smell honeysuckle and a bright green note I do not recognize. Over time the honeysuckle note comes out more. The white roses and honeysuckle blend evenly, with white musk and light vanilla in the background. It is beautiful. On the cotton of my shirt, the scent plays out in just the opposite way. It starts off as white rose and honeysuckle, and fades to vanilla musk. This is going to be a favorite of mine.

This was a generous freebie! It smells like thick, sweet opium tar. As it wears more sweet dark resins emerge, with a rich orchid note floating over the top. This smells like what I would expect a Black Orchid Incense stick to smell like. It smells like royal purple.

This smells so cuddly and warm! It smells like a smoother, softer version of Inez. It is warm sweet vanilla sandalwood incense, and soft worn leather. My boyfriend wears Western Diamondback, and it smells great on him. The smell makes me think of hugging him. I tried some on myself today and it smells great on me too! It made me think of...hugging....myself?

Uhg. This smells like some kind of medicinal ointment, and it makes my sinuses burn. On my skin it smells sort woodsy, herbal, and dark. I don't like it, but it's compelling in the way that unusual features can make a person visually compelling rather than merely beautiful. That is a compliment, even if it doesn't sound like it. The scent becomes a softer floral version of itself the longer I wear it, gradually taking on a velvety texture. There is something darkly magical smelling about this, like it's supercharged with malign intent. I am going to wear this when I am feeling bitchy. I think people would subconsciously know to give me space. PS: The oil itself is a pale absinthe green, very pretty.

I expected this to smell more prominently of mint, but I like this better. Upon application it smells of sugared tea with mint leaves floating in it. The mint becomes a little stronger as it wears, but it is never a sharp or overwhelming mint. After half an hour or so, this smells like delicious vanilla mint cookies! Like gingersnaps with mint instead of ginger! On the dry down the spicy aspects of Snake Oil emerge, creating a cool/warm contrast that I enjoy partly because it creates an unusual sensation, but also because it smells amazing. I expected this to be something that would be refreshing to wear in the heat summer, and it is, but with the rich vanilla spice background I will be happy wearing this all year.

Fresh roses! Delightful! Sometimes rose notes go lemony or sharp on my skin, but this one stays true. The green notes are a pleasant addition. They add to the impression of smelling real roses, rather than smelling a rose oil. Lovely!

Eros is one of those free samples that makes me want to sit down and write a thank you note to BPAL because I like it so much. Instead I will redirect my demonstrative impulse into writing this review. Eros is sweet and bright. Eros smells like red hard candy would taste if red hard candy tasted like I think it should, instead of like disappointing artificial cherry. When I concentrate on identifying the sweet notes I can make out lilac and honey wine, but unless I am thinking about it I only smell red awesomeness. The sweetness is enhanced by a slightly bitter herbal smell of tea leaves. As the scent of myrrh develops the bright candy redness deepens to a plush velvet red. Eros dries down to the scent of golden honeyed resins. If someone asked me to smell this without telling me what it was, I would say it smells like romantic love. Sweet, tinged with bitterness, deepening to sensual warmth. Thank you, BPAL, for the free sample of Eros. It is lovely. I will buy some and wear it happily.