mryan66

Ever since my beloved black lace was murdered by the apple changeling I have not liked anything "Lace" still its the idea and the name that gets me every-time, so of course tattered lace ended up joining her spinster sisters. However, a few weeks in the corner improved her greatly. When I first open the bottle I got my ultimate note of death, some stale lemony thing. I hate lemon! All citruses are supposed to function perfunctorily and humbly as brief top notes, so why does LEMON always mange to stick around and ruin everything? I braved that and, after applying it, i was intrigued at what it morphed into, but the scent seemed so week it wasn't worth snorting my nose into my face to try and figure it out, so I left it. Lo and behold, two weeks later, a miracle. Like so many bpals, time makes all the difference. The scent had become ten times stronger[though still not as persistent as the original black lace.] It's a white, bone dry scent to me, very reminiscent of old brittle linen. The vanilla is amazing, not cloying, but a sort of dusty, rich vanilla tea scent, its very much like antique lace, but earthy where that one was sweet and powdery. The lemon pretty much gets its butt kicked, and quietly integrates itself into the big picture.I kept trying to figure out what it reminded me of, and voila. I used to play with the fancy hand made lace doilies on my Great grandmas furniture, and they had that smell exactly; the ghost of furniture polish, spilled tea, wood dust and old cloth. Awesome. Ten out of ten for the scent, five out of ten for throw.

Wow, I was surprised at this one. For some reason things that have hippie names always hate me, but I was compelled to try this because I am desperately looking for a good ‘moon’ fragrance. Its gorgeous, and not only that, but it lasts forever without going through a lot of changes. The ‘Moon’ is a bright soft may moon, not pure white, but tinted gold, and the rose, oh the rose! Rose has always been vicious on me; my chemistry has never been good with ostentatious flowers, lilies, orchids, etc. However, this isn’t a pampered show rose, but a wild rose humbled by its occupation in an antique cottage garden, among night blooming stocks, sweet peas, sweet William and pinks all caught in a cool breeze. This scent truly evokes a late spring evening, when the ground is still warm from the sun, but the first stars are just showing in the sky. Absolutely lovely. for anyone timidly venturing into the scary realm of rose scents this would be a great place to start and stay awhile.

Well,this a weird one. This was a gift, and I appreciate it because she sent the bottle, and the bottle is lovely. I can’t say this scent isn’t intriguing, but I think it’s more of an experiment in olfactory whimsy than something I’d wear everyday. First sniff out of the bottle is lemonade and sweaty baby feet, not entirely unpleasant, but really odd coming from a perfume. After application, and as it dries, it’s straight up warm tortilla chips, not gross and foody really, but comforting. After a while flowers start mixing with the warm corn, earthy and peppery like chrysanthemums, hibiscus or camellias. The whole fades away into a vague cinnamon woodiness; flowers sitting on an old wooden table in the sun. I don’t get any fire from it, though it is a super ‘warm’ scent. No smoke or ash, just a rather odd déjà vu moment from deep summer. Baby feet, flowers and tortillas aren’t necessarily a bad combination.

I was hoping this would be awesome, and it is, though not in the way I was expecting. This is one natty scarecrow. If I wasn’t married I would date this scarecrow. Wet, it’s a very clean men’s cologne [smells a little like ‘Clean men’ in fact.] As it dries the outdoor elements take over, but it isn’t the dried dusty withered autumn smell I was anticipating. It’s more like fields of the midwest in late June, sweet hay, clover, fresh wind, wildflowers and old sun dried denim. The final fadeout is a clean bright breeze mixed with straw and aromatic wood; a beautiful scent, not creepy at all. I was bargaining for jeepers creepers, but ,oh well, I love it anyway, and will be looking into a obtaining a whole bottle ASAP.

In my opinion this is one of those scents that defines the magic of Bpal. It’s neither pretty, friendly, or even approachable [you can approach, but beware] It’s is the most awesome batch of deceptive creepiness ever whipped up. On first whiff its just a harmless mix of spicy flowers and summer fruit, but on application it gets crazy; Squishy , sticky jelly cookies [apricot to me] gone stale, and something boozy, like fermented apple juice, sort of a wine smell, but slightly evil. I can definitely smell the carnations, but again, they aren’t in a pretty bouquet; they’ve had their heads plucked off and are languishing amid the cookie crumbs. Over all this is a coating of dust. I never could define exactly what ‘dust’ smells like, but this is it, an almost imperceptible sensation of suffocation; the microscopic detritus of all things dead and gone, but, with cookies! When my sister and I were little we used to leave ‘offerings’ for our dolls so they would stay in their places at night. That is what dollhouse reminds me of. This is a WEIRD scent, and I would wear it all the time, except, unfortunately I didn’t discover Bpal after this inquisition had passed, and all I have is an imp, which I will greedily covet forever [or until I find a bottle.]

Sadly I can only review this one through memory, since I lost the bottle in May, while taking my daughter to the airport. I started out really ambivalent with this one, it just didn’t seem all that exciting, some purple, some smoke, yeah yeah. Fortunately, my efforts to ditch it were unsuccessful, and after it sat unloved for about two months I took it out and started testing it again, and lo and behold, this was NOT the same stuff. First of all were the reactions I was getting from my two daughters. They could tell from all the way across the house when I opened the bottle, but neither of them smelled the same thing; the general opinion was that it smelled like cinnamon bread baking in a brothel full of purple flowers and smoke stained silk curtains. Wet, it’s definitely tobacco infused fabric, wine and faint gardenia, but these aren’t too overpowering because they are tempered by cold night air, and a beautiful, deep dusty purpleness. This lasts for quite a while on the skin, and then its cassia and nutmeg mixing with the smoky purple, and soft night blooming flowers [i think I did smell a little jasmine] at this point there is a faint woody element too, something aromatic I can’t identify, but wet like its been rained on. I don’t smell anything particularly green though, like other people have, maybe just a bit of crushed grass or stems. After a few hours, what’s left is a cold, faintly sweet smokiness over an earthy night garden. So, overall, this is a dark, smoky, earthy purple scent, laced with night flowers, with the night air sort of adding a melancholy feeling to it. I would guess, the longer this one ages, the better it gets. If you get it and don’t like it, don’t give up on it! I can’t wait to get another bottle of this; It’s haunting and weird, and absolutely magnificent. I hope they don’t discontinue it before September.

So far this is my favorite for light scents. Absolutely gorgeous! Everything this is supposed to smell like, it smells like on me x one hundred. Being a tea monster, this stuff had me hooked from first sniff; It's puerh,and very strong. To me this is a really complicated scent, I can see how it might be an epic fail on the wrong chemistry, but what I get is transportive. It reminds me of the tea parties we had as little girls, only more sophisticated.[This one sans the selections of plastic pastries and Kool-Aid "Tea"] IN BOTTLE-Puerh tea, well aged WET ON SKIN- Puerh tea spilled on a pile of fresh white linen, little tea cakes and lemon bars. TEN MINUTE DRY-DOWN-faintly grassy, the first pale green spring grasses crushed underfoot, and, tea still but now the tea is just wafting around in a crisp,vanilla flower breeze. The linen is still there too. FINAL DRY-DOWN- this was a mystery to me for a few days. Wearing this , i was haunted throughout the day by this powerful white citrusy vanilla thing. It was so familiar to me but I couldn't place it. I finally asked my daughter if she could figure it out, and voila "Hey, it smells like those giant white flowers we used to steal from the trees in front of the library-magnolias?" That was it! I've been hoping for the perfect magnolia scent forever, and always get some hideous chemical simulation that gives me a headache. The magnolia in white rabbit is perfect, fresh and sparkling, and completely believable without being overpowering. I don't know if this element was intentional, or if it's just a happy accident,but, what a great way to end a lovely, enchanting brew.

Black lace was the first Bpal scent I received. When I opened the bottle the first thing that came to mind was 'oh no, its ANGEL!' another whiff and angel was replaced by my grandpa; Cigars and brandy. On the skin is when this smell gets busy. Wet, Cognac and cigars still, but the best of, with sort of a rich mahogany behind them, and naughty chocolate sneaking around the edges. As it dries the woody/dark cherry thing hangs on, but the tobacco fades to something softer, some kind of fabric. I guess this is supposed to be the 'lace' I don't get lace, but something more substantial-like linen or broadcloth. As for flowers at this stage, there might be a bouquet of orchids expiring in a distant, shadowy corner, but it’s only a fleeting ghost. It really difficult to describe this scent in notes, I’m not good at that anyway! So this is what I get, poetically; this scent IS viva Victoriana! But more specifically, I get Mr. Rochester in his dark, hot parlour getting intellectually SNAPPED by Jane; “still he looked preciously grim, cushioning his massive head against the swelling back of his chair, and receiving the light of the fire on his granite-hewn features, and in his great, dark eyes; for he had great, dark eyes, and very fine eyes, too--not without a certain change in their depths sometimes, which, if it was not softness, reminded you, at least, of that feeling. He had been looking two minutes at the fire, and I had been looking the same length of time at him, when, turning suddenly, he caught my gaze fastened on his physiognomy. "You examine me, Miss Eyre," said he: "do you think me handsome?" I should, if I had deliberated, have replied to this question by something conventionally vague and polite; but the answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I was aware--"No, sir." At the final dry-down of this fragrance there is a sweet garden smell, maybe Jane at the window in spring, or Adele’s light little girl perfume as she leaves the room. No funerals in this one for me! But I would say it is a dark one. Despite the tobacco and booze, I think this is a predominantly feminine scent. To me it is really reminiscent of angel, only not offensive in the way angel is, having a tendency on some folks to dry down to nasty sex B.O musk [ECHH!!!] or on other people, sleazy, oily nightclub date. Angel should have been this nice, rich and warm and slightly sexy and foody, without making your eyeballs turn into little Xs. Also, this is one Bpal, at least for me, that you actually have to wash off to get rid of [Not that I would!] After washing my jacket and drying it, the ghost was still there. Black lace makes me wish this stuff came in bigger bottles!

Here goes my very first review! It's taken a few days to get this one right because I'm experiencing scent overload. I have probably 30 of these things now, but just want to review the most remarkable ones[iMO] I was sort of expecting to be disappointed by Ulalume, after all how could anyone re-create this spectacular poem as a scent. But this scent, I am overjoyed to report, just nails it, at least with my chemistry, which is really fickle. The first inhalation after opening the bottle was completely disarming, NOT what I expected at all. I got dark fermented autumn fruits and berries-not berries in a green plastic basket either but more like those last potent blackberries left in the middle of the evil thorn forests in late September. Wet, on the skin it retains this mournful fruitiness for about five minutes, then it changes to crushed roots and vines, and sort of a faint, dank greenish watery thing, with undertones of cypress and, I think, pine cones and acorns. The weirdest thing about this smell is how, as it dries on your skin, it actually turns into a dry scent. If your chemistry is just right, it will actually take you through the journey of Ulalame; the cypress in it seems to be the last 'living' thing, for after this is black earth, just turning dry and hard.. this is an awesome feral earth smell, meaning, it seems to evoke the ghosts of all the critters who have just gone into hibernation. Next, dried leaves, SO dry!, yes definitely "Crisped and sere" and dried flowers[roses I think]. Then the whole thing reaches a bizarre crescendo of mildewed rock, marble dust, and dried moss[The door of a legended tomb?] The final dry-down is a soft sweet combination of night air, lilies, and a thing I can't readily identify, like phlox or something. This is indeed a mournful, dark, tricky scent. I wish everyone could get what I got out of it. My only gripe is that it only lasts an hour or so. This is definitely an October scent, and reminds me very much of the forests of the southeastern United States, especially the Carolinas. I went ghost hunting once in Wilmington NC and this is the smell I remember from that evening.