theseagrows

oooh i like this. it's very light and pretty. on my skin, it's reminiscent of ebisu making love as two octopuses look on. it smells almost identical!! maybe that's my skin chemistry though. i don't get any vanilla, but mostly rice wine and white musk. perfect for the coming spring!

i kind of like this one, it's a sexy amber-musky rose...and i think the "golden" musk makes these roses seem more yellow than red, but maybe a little deeper. like a red rose. luckily, the red currant is subtle and/or non-existent, because sometimes currants turn plasticky on my skin. the orange is pretty subtle too-it's just a tinge of brightness in the background. i quite like this one!

this smells kind of like an incense stick with a touch of fruit added. i think i am mostly getting black currant and honey. this smells musky and musty, not exactly a red musk, but it doesn't smell like white musk to me either, a more "dirty" musk, and less clean, like i tend to associate with white musk. it's mildly unpleasant and not that remarkable with my skin chemistry. usually lupercalias are among my favorite scents, but i am having little luck with them this year!

wow, this is not what i expected from the notes at all. at first, this smells just like shampoo, a lot like head and shoulders smells, actually. it's basically a clean, aquatic floral scent. after the drydown, it becomes a little more interesting: the orchid, jonquil and plum musk become more apparent. it's very "perfumy" and i kind of like it, but i am not sure if i would wear it much. i'll add it to my re-try list.

hmm, i'm not completely sure of the notes i'm smelling here...i definitely get the vanilla-infused amber, beeswax, oakmoss, tonka and black pepper. i can't really smell the orange blossom, but it seems like there is something slightly sweet deep within this scent, so maybe that's it. i kind of like this, but something is turning a bit plasticky on my skin...i think beeswax can go wonky on me, so maybe that's it. i will have to re-try this again at a later date.

wow, newer bpals are not working for me! at first this is straight up hay, i guess. it's kind of foody-nutty smelling. i think i sense a very slight hint of mint in the background, but it doesn't register as mint, but rather as something slightly wet or bright in all the dryness of the hay. after drying for a bit, the oaklmoss and skin musk seem to come out more, but now the scent has faded A LOT, and i can barely smell it anymore!

this seems like a yule scent to me...it smells a lot like apple cider. i think i am mostly getting fig and nutmeg, which are the notes i hoped would be more subtle, actually! i love carnation and green tea, and fig if it's not to sweet, so i thought this might work, but the nutmeg is so strong that this scent registers as way too foody for my tastes. after it dries down a bit, it turns to a plasticky-fruit scent. off to swaps!

hrm, this is an interesting scent...and i know it smells very similar to a BPAL scent i've tried before, i just don't remember which one. maybe it's the beeswax? i tend to avoid the beeswax/candle scents, but this one has a lot of notes i like, so i decided i couldn't pass it up. i think this is mostly beeswax, violet and myrrh on me. it's VERY powdery. i am assuming parma violet is even more powdery than regular violet (if there's a difference)? or perhaps the beeswax exacerbates the powderiness. i normally don't mind powdery violet, but this is SO powdery, that i'm not sure i'll be able to wear it.

damn, this smells like sour-booze soaked flowers on me. i was hoping for more iris and vanilla, but i seem to be getting lily? i think which, combined with the other white florals, is turning quite sour. i often have problems with white florals, and this is no exception. it kind of smells like perm solution on my skin...wtf skin chemistry?!

this is very soapy and perfumey. i wasn't sure about the swedish blossoms, since i am not familar with them, but i tend to love vanilla orchid, so i figured i'd try this in hopes that it was mostly vanilla orchid! it is a vanilla orchid, but it seems a lot sweeter than i expected, for some reason. if it were less sweet, i think i could wear this.

i love the original maiden a lot, so i was delighted to try this one as well. i have not tried them side by side, but after trying this one, i have to say i love them both! if memory serves, this one is a bit spicier and heavier on the honey-carnation than the regular maiden, which is tea-rose/carnation with less honey. yummy scent, i would love to get a bottle someday!

at first i get a very earthy, kind of stinky musk from this...it's kind of unpleasant. wtf, skin chemistry?! then as it dries down, i think i'm mostly getting the fruits and florals. it's basically a fruity-floral on me. i was hoping the dorian would stand stronger, because it works well on me, but alas, my skin must eat it up.

i think this scent is all musk, lily and wood on me. woods often tend to smell weird on me...they can go kind of sour, and it is no exception with this scent. the sourness overpowers, and yeah, this just doesn't really work on my skin.

i think i'm pretty much getting sugar cane, tonka and guava or passionfruit here. at first it smelled like a sugary pineapple scent, but maybe that was just the apple. this is very sugary and sweet, and as often happens, fruity/sugary scents turn very plasticky on me. not a very me scent, but i was intrigued by the carnation and vanilla cream notes...but sadly, i can't smell either one.

another frimp from the lab! interesting to try too, because i probably never would have chosen this one... i am sort of liking the combination of lilac and leather, but the plum doesn't really work for me. for some reason, my skin chemistry turns bpal's plum to plastic nearly everytime. i end up smelling like a scented strawberry shortcake type doll when i try scents with prominent or heavy plum. however, after this soaks into my skin a bit, the plum hangs back a bit more and it's more like a spicy floral with slight plum? i'm liking it better now...not sure i would wear it much though.

i got this as a frimp from the lab...it's a sour aquatic on me, i think it's the white rose, but i'm not sure...some white florals turn weird on me, and this one is doing it too. too bad, it sounds like such a pretty scent, but it just doesn't work with my skin chemistry at all.

hmm, when i first put this on, it was all woods and i wasn't too sure about it. however, after awhile the vanilla made itself known a bit more, along with the honey and ambergris-it turns to a very warm, spicy scent. i really can't detect any rose at all, but i suppose it's there, in the background. i like this scent a lot, i just don't love it as much as i expected i would...but maybe that's because i was expecting more rose and i've been in a big rose mood lately! i'll try this again in a few weeks and see what i think then... eta: retried this on 4.20.11. now it's straight up vanilla and sandalwood, kind of smells cocoa-y and it's very faint. ahhh! i think maybe i'll wait and try this AGAIN later on.

i pretty much love every note in this, except i was unfamiliar with what mate might smell like. this is pretty much an orange blossom vanilla on me. BPAL's orange blossom smells different on me than other orange blossoms i've tried-it's sweeter and a bit less sharp? i guess. this reminds me a bit of vice, which i think is orange blossom, cherry and chocolate, but it's lighter and softer. i really like this a lot, but the orange blossom tends to turn a bit too sweet and plasticky on me, so i remain undecided for now. i will have to try it again in a couple of weeks.

let me preface this by saying that i love rose and carnation, and i love alice and maiden and scents in that family, so i pretty much knew i'd like klara as well. in the bottle it's a slightly sugary scent with a hint of carnation, but i can't smell much else, much subtler in the bottle than alice, and on my skin as well. it kind of reminds me of a cross between pink moon 07, maiden and alice, and parts of it remind me of all 3. i really like this, and my only complaint would be that it doesn't have much throw on my skin, and i wish it were a bit stronger. all in all a lovely scent though

at first, the grape is way too prominent for my tastes, but once it dies down ,this is quite nice. i often like BPAL's smoky notes, and it does me good in this scent. after drying it's kind of a smoky-musky-rose with maybe just a hint of lily.

i've had a decant/sample of this for a long time. i'd sniff the little plastic bottle and think eh, i'm not in the mood for this kind of scent...i am not a foody scent person, but i do like vanilla, but it smelled a bit to caramely or hazelnut for my tastes. tonight, i finally decided to try it, and i was very pleasantly surprised. the vanilla is beautiful and soft and there is something that smells like moonflower to me. to me, it's a very pale, white, subtle scent with a shy hint of sexiness from white musk...so even though that isn't listed- i get moonflower, vanilla and white musk and it's absolutely beautiful.

hmm, the fig in this is more fruity than i had hoped. some fruitier scents turn a bit plasticky on me, and this does too. it kind of smells candle-ish on my skin and kind of unremarkable. it's like an earthy-fruity scent, but not really what i think of as figgy, necessarily. my skin chemistry can be wonky with fruits though, so that's probably the explanation for this.

this scent is much less intriguing than i thought it would be, and i think it's because the vetiver is too strong. i don't mind vetiver sometimes, but i was hoping for more tea rose and amber. unfortunately this smells like powdery pencil shavings...which i guess is just the vetiver and amber. i can't smell the tea rose or lavender at all i do like amber but combined with the vetiver, this just isn't working with my skin chemistry.

this scent smells very orangey in the bottle, however on my skin, i can detect no orange at all, but rather a very sexy amber scent. i think golden amber is the most apparent, for the most part, with the other notes as supporting characters. i had feared that the lilac or frankincense might overpower this, but luckily they do not. this is a very warm, sexy scent and i like it quite a bit.

Dry, dusty rose petals, candle smoke, frankincense, and saffron. ooh this scent is very gothic. it makes me think of withered old mansions full of cobwebs and candleabras. like an old black and white vampire horror film! it smells like candles and dusty roses, but i also sense something very slightly watery here, not completely dry, like the description. the saffron adds a nice oomph, and luckily the frankincense is subtle or undetectable, as it can sometimes turn on me. i'm happy to find this scent...it reminds me of gypsy queen but less musky. the first rosy scent that has wowed me in awhile!