theseagrows

this has a very "vintage perfume" feel to me. it starts off with a oudh, patchouli and a hint of something floral sweet, probably star anise and narcissus. it has a damp wood type smell underlying it all. a bit later the leather comes out along with tea and then champaca. it starts off kind of like a resiny wood and morphs into a leather with sweetness scent. the cedar is turning slighly weird on me, but not too bad. i don't get tons of rose in this, but i guess it is there. i love the leather with the floral, it's very interesting. i've tried other bpal rose/leather blends that don't work on me but this one seems to be working, yay, though it is not super rosy, in case i am giving the wrong impression.

ohmigod I looove this. it's a creamy coconut scent with hints of the ginger and orange pekoe. it's very warm and sultry and a little bit sweet. I cannot stop smelling my arm and I need a big bottle!!

oh wow I love this! I love neroli, orange blossom and honey and that is just what this is. slightly honeyed neroli, so lovely. sometimes bpal's honey note can be strange on me but it behaves here, thankfully. it's still warm in California (mid-October) and this seems like a perfect scent for a warm summer night. perfect for tonight.

The fiery, volatile scent of cinnamon, thickened by myrrh, honeysuckle, and copal. this starts off kinda foody, like cinnamon gingerbread or something. a minute or two later the cinnamon gets even bolder and spicier and less foody smelling. after a few more minutes i get a hint of copal. this is very fall-like, due to the cinnamon. i really don't seem to get much honeysuckle either and the myrrh seems fairly subtle, but sometimes i am not good at picking out myrrh either, so. it's definitely a warm, spicy fall scent-very comforting.

i am not a big snake oil fan, it just doesn't work for me, but i sure do love a lot of the snake pits! starting off i get a musky scent with slight baby powder, which is how snake oil smells on me, but more baby powder, with a slight nuttiness from the almond. this isn't a sweet-cherry almond, but rather a dryer, nuttier one. the myrrh comes out a little later and the almond gets much nuttier. i sense no mandarin in this. this is like nuts and baby powder on me with a strange sharpness that burns the nostrils. it just doesn't work for me unfortunately.

I love a lot of BPAL scents with phlox, so I knew I had to try this. it's a light, pink-white floral that is mostly reminiscent of lilac, like a softer, subtler, slightly sugary lilac. this is a perfect springtime scent, smells like a bouquet of flowers!

i just sprayed this around the room and it's a light, fresh floral scent. i think it'd be perfect in spring or summer. it's mostly mimosa, iris and white musk, from what i can tell. i don't seem to get much vanilla or benzoin really. a very pretty, ethereal scent, very evocative of delicate butterfly wings and springtime gardens.

this starts off with a blast of orange blossom and then I think I'm sensing the ambrette and hints of tonka and sandalwood. the sandalwood goes a bit sour on me as it often does, but not too bad. it's mostly just orange blossom as the dominant note though. almost an orange blossom single note.

Blackened vanilla absolute with tobacco leaf, Ceylon cinnamon, orange-bark myrrh, and orange blossom. this is very orangey in the bottle, then on my skin it's an orangey vanilla with tobacco and a hint of cinnamon. it's very suited to the transitional time between late summer and early fall. I seem to amp the orange even more over time, a bit too much for my liking unfortunately. however, after being on my skin for about half an hour, the vanilla and tobacco come forth more and this is so pretty. it is reminiscent of two other BPALs I own yet still unique- bakeneko and the thirteen from October 2006. this one was the star of the four butterfly scents I tried, definitely.

damn, this one starts out pretty sour on me, i think due to the combination of frankincense, pepper and vetiver, which my skin seems to be amping. why oh why am i not amping the lovely saffron, iris, honey and clove?! i'd probably like it much better that way. yeah i am getting pencil shavings (thanks frankincense, and maybe vetiver) with a little bit of black currant and pepper. it ends up being mostly black currant and frankincense and it still has that pencil shaving-scent that i often get with the BPAL frankincense note, unfortunately.

starts off all oudh and patchouli. hmm, i was hoping for more vanilla and champaca, but oh well. i am definitely getting that pencil-shavings note from this...which can happen with BPAL's frankincense, sandalwood and patchouli notes. must be the patchouli or pepperwood if i had to guess. after a few minutes a woody sweetness comes through-maybe the copaiba balsam? gee i seem to be amping every note but the 2 i was most excited about. this scent is very earthy and woody, with a bit of dampness, and it's a bit too earthy for my tastes.

immediately i smell red musk and i think what must be saffron and chypre. something kind of leathery-green that unsweetens the red musk a bit, which i like quite a bit. later on the red currant comes out sweetening it up more, along with vanilla. that note that i read as leathery is just gorgeous but subtler than leather often can be. so glad i tried this one! gonna keep my imp, for sure

hm i definitely get rose and something soft and honey-ish though it doesn't seem like straight up honey. there is also something a bit sour here. depending on the blend, bpal's rose notes can go oddly sour on me and other times they are beautiful and make up some of my favorite scents. anyway, this is one of the more sour ones. unless it's one of the other notes causing this, but it doesn't seem like it to me. i get something almost herbal and piney?! not sure if that's the mastic, but i do seem to remember that scents with mastic don't seem to work for me. though i usually think of it as a sweeter note than this, but maybe i got notes mixed up somewhere, which happens with me, sorry. so yeah, oddly this is a slightly honeyed piney-rose on me. not really my cup of tea but always glad to try new scents, especially rose scents!

got this as a frimp! this goes kind of sour on me, i'll say right off, because it pretty much happens right off. plum tends to turn plasticky on me, but i think the rose geranium is the culprit in the sourness this time. (both can turn sour, rose can be wonderful or horrible on me and i am just not really a big fan of strong geranium) i do smell some blue/purpley musk, maybe a hint of jasmine and patchouli. oh now the plum is coming out, after about 10 minutes, and turning plasticky as usual. so this is a dark-sour-plasticky floral on me. the notes sound lovely, if your skin can do them, but my skin just can't :/

this starts off with red musk which slowly gives way to tobacco, nutmeg, orchid and hemlock in the background, but it's pretty red musk prominent overall. it reminds me of smut a bit, but just the red musk. and i haven't tried smut in a long time so i could be completely wrong anyway the labdanum comes out more giving this a kind of leathery quality (at least, i think it's labdanum) along with the musk, it's gotten more unisex/masculine now. also the nutmeg and orchid seem to have disappeared and the hemlock is more prominent adding a slight herbal/greenness way in the back. i like this but don't love it, however, i think i'd like to smell it on my boyfriend.

i got a sniffie of this in a swap, yay. it starts off as nose-tingling lilac tea and ginger. it's very springlike and reminds me of fresh flowers in a garden drenched in spring rain. some more florals come through, i think probably the wisteria and delphinium as they are bright and springlike. i do not seem to get much musk or lavender. after being on my skin about 20 minutes, i think the musk comes through, grounding the scent a bit more. this is a nice bright floral for spring, for those who like that kind of scent.

this starts off golden and a bit fruity from the apple blossom. i definitely get beeswax, olive blossom and gunpowder with maybe a hint of chamomile and sampaguita. after awhile the sampaguita amps up a bit and it's mostly that and apple blossom with a beeswax background. this is an interesting scent! some of these notes can be bad on me but they work in this, however, i was really drawn in by the olive blossom, but this is more of a slightly smoky appley-jasmine on me. it's nice but not something i would wear very often so i will probably swap.

starts of sweetly, effervescently herbal and green. i definitely smell the anise/licorice but it is not overpowering. after awhile the sweet effervesence calms a bit and it's a cool, green anise. something in this seems almost fruity-like, but in a subtle way...not sure where that's coming from, but it's there. like not quite ripe fruits or berries with some unripe greeness.

i've been dying to try this for years and finally got my hands on a bottle. i am not really a foody-scent person, but i love violet, and i thought white chocolate might be a bit more like the chocolate lush scents (which i can wear.) this seems like rich chocolate with hints of violet. probably too chocolaty for my blood, but i am going to see how this smells after a few hours. luckily, this chocolate actually works on me, even if i am not super keen to smell like food. foody scents often go plasticky or just weird with my skin chemistry, and this does not. it's very true to it's description, though i wish the violet were stronger and the chocolate were a little less bitter and less realistic. however, i think on the rare occasions when i do want to smell like chocolate, this is what i'd be picking up. ETA: finally after a half an hour the violet becomes stronger and the chocolate is less bitter. it's like faith with a soft white chocolate, which i like a lot. i sold off my faith bottle and this is a nice replacement.

I tried this as a body moisturizer tonight and I love it! it's a beautiful, soft black tea and vanilla orchid scent, and luckily the vanilla note is not too foody for me. after awhile the black tea fades and it's pretty much vanilla orchid. I like the subtlety of this a lot, it's nice for a warm night like tonight.

i love this scent so much that i got the hair gloss! it's just like the beloved dorian scent but you can smell it wafting around as your hair moves around your head. so lovely.

i get a slight tartness from pear but then it just blends seamlessly with the vanilla. it's pretty and the vanilla is the stronger note in the end, but the pear keeps it from being too foody or sweet. tart + sweet...very nice! it seems like a soft, comforting fall or winter scent (for me.) and thankfully it's a foodie i can handle.

at first this is like a soft grey musk with iris/orris root, and i too, swear, violet like milo mentioned. then the magnolia comes through and is very subtle. this is a light, elegant scent that is perfect for spring. it's like spring in a bottle to me. i love iris/orris root so i am digging this. i just looked up orris root and it says: Fabienne Pavia, in her book L'univers des Parfums (1995, ed. Solar), states that in the manufacturing of perfumes using orris, the scent of the iris root differs from that of the flower. After preparation the scent is reminiscent of the smell of violets. the more you know the magnolia does go a bit soapy on me, which is my only complaint, but my skin chemistry is picky so it's to be expected. i think i'll keep my decant to wear in spring. eta: we FINALLY got some rain in california and this seemed like the perfect scent to wear today. today it doesn't seem soapy at all. just a subtle magnolia-iris with the beautiful musk in the background. miiight need a bottle now.

i think i'm getting soft woods and ambergris at first. this reminds me of something SO MUCH but i can't place it yet. it seems kind of "watery" yet not aquatic or "fresh", very evocative of ambergris in a theoretical way. probably literally too. there's something that reads a bit salty here to me too. i just realized that this reminds me of an amber rollerball hippie perfume i had in high school. i like how nostalgic this is for me, just not sure it's something i would wear a whole lot but i like it.

this is a spicy vanilla floral-oriental. like butterflies and jewels attending, it's very reminiscent of BBW's sensual amber, and even more so. it's a dupe for it on me. also is in the same vein as gaultier's classique, which i used to wear in college quite a bit. this reminds me of my younger 20s self when i first got to san francisco and was going out and having a great time. for that alone i really like this, nostalgia wins! i do not get tuberose from this at first, just but vanilla musk and mandarin primarily. it's very spicy-sweet and suits ava's age and character well, i think. after awhile i do get a small hint of tuberose though it doesn't really read as tuberose, it's definitely floral. this one has alotta throw on me, and i do really like this especially for the nostalgic value for me personally. i'd wear it going out dancing, because these are the kind of scents i used to wear when i went to goth clubs and got dressed up.