diBenjamin94108

Very apple-y, maybe really what a golden apple of the sun would smell like. I was expecting more amber though, and I think it would benefit from more amber. I don't smell ginger, or any note other than the apple, though it is not strictly apple. There is definitely more going on, but it all blends together. It's not particularly autumnal, to me, in spite of the fact that apples are in season in autumn. I like it. I just received it today, and I think I'll wear it a lot.

The Enlightenment of the Courtesan Jigokudayu

I have Laudanum and I like it a lot, but I think it's for autumn.

Of the Lupercalia scents, this one jumped out at me first, but I ended up purchasing it last in my 4-order purchasing frenzy. I have to say, I've only been aware of BPAL for a year, and I would have thought the Halloween ones would be my favorite but no. The 'lupers' have been awesome. This one appealed to me immediately because I love tuberose, and all the other notes sounded good, and in fact the whole combination is really gorgeous -- it would be great in summer or in a hot climate. It reminds me of my lost youth in clubs in Miami. Hot nights, sweet flowers perfuming tropical air. Very luscious, languid, sexy. It's definitely floral but rich tropical floral, nothing demure about it. I'd definitely wear it out at night.

Herbal and woodsy. If anyone is familiar with Santa Maria Novella, this smells a lot like their potpourri. I think it's a very medieval scent. Evocative. My 4 year old said, it smells like a tree. It's very wearable, I could wear it every day. It makes me happy.

Sweet coconut-fruit in the bottle. Wet on skin, it's candy-like, then it settles down into a mellow sweet fruity-floral scent with coconut overtones. It is feminine and young but not childish. The candy moment has passed. Totally subjective, but it makes me think of a young woman on a glamorous beach vacation. (The coconut accounts for that, though it isn't like suntan oil.)

I received Red Lantern a couple of weeks ago, and at first it made me want to hurl. I thought it was totally gross. But something happened... it grew on me, and now, it strikes me as complex and lovely. It's caramel in the bottle, and maybe it's the tobacco that I wasn't liking. It smelled like a dry cleaner--that weird chemical smell. But on the skin, it relaxes and blends, the coconut comes out, but it's nothing like suntan oil. I don't think I've ever smelled coconut mixed in such a way, as a note that is recognizable as coconut but manages not to be that clichéed beach scent. And the caramel is sweet but it's not cloying, it's warm and rich. I don't smell delphinium. That's my favorite flower to look at but I've never noticed its smell. So that's a mystery. Next time I put Red Lantern on, I'll try to smell the currant and amber. Maybe I'll edit this. Anyway I ended up liking it much more than I did at first. If I were to assign a color, it would be a golden brown, glowing golden brown... not red. But glowing like a lantern.

Very sandalwood wet in the bottle. On skin, the leather comes out at first, then it melds with the other elements to create a scent that smells very high end, like a Tom Ford scent at Bergdorf's. It smells sophisticated, dry and unisex. I think it's very beautiful. In fact, I think this might be my new favorite BPAL. I might even buy an extra bottle. I'm really liking these Shunga scents. When I smell Dancing Koi, I imagine walking in the woods in Japan and coming across a small but elegant shrine of dark wood, and walking over a small bridge with bright persimmon colored koi flashing in the shadowy water beneath.

Wet in the bottle, Gods of Intercourse smells like shampoo (nice shampoo). I can't make out any individual note. It's clean and rather innocuous. On the skin it somehow expands and becomes greener. I love gardenia but I don't actually smell it, or peach. Other people have said it's a good spring scent, and I agree with that. It's pretty. Edited to add: I was wearing it yesterday and a breeze blew by, and I smelled peach and gardenia. I could smell it more clearly, somehow, around me rather than on my skin. Very obviously peach and gardenia wafting in that breeze.

Ushi is juicy, big and fruitalicious. My 4 year old said, unprompted, "it smells like mango." But it's more than that. The tomato vine keeps it from being too sweet or childish, adds depth and interest. It's strong, and it lingers. I put it on and went to lunch with a friend, and sat there feeling like I was in a cloud of scent. This doesn't happen very often with BPAL scents. I've given up trying to associate the scent with the artwork in this series, though this is sexy -- mango is a sexy fruit, isn't it? Firm, but it gives, and then drips... so yes, it's a juicy, fruity, but not simplistic, sexy mango scent.

I love this. It's very much like lemon verbena which is lovely. It doesn't seem synthetic to me, it's fresh and like real verbena (which I get in the summer and keep in a pot). I don't smell star anise at all. I'm really happy with this one.

It's remarkable that there could be a scent that smells like cream but apparently it exists. When I ordered this, I thought the ginger and clove would dominate and whatever 'cream' could be there would be in the background, but no. It's got a ginger-clovey scent, of course, but it had round, creamy edges. Hard to describe! I love Japanese prints, and I'm trying to figure out how the scent relates to the print pictured on the BPAL site, as an illustration. I googled it and it's Hokusai, who did The Wave. The series is Kinoe no komatsu -- (Languishing for Love aka Young Pine Saplings), circa 1814. Maybe the cream is an olfactory metaphor for sex. Anyway, I like the scent. It's unusual. Someone else said "comforting" and I think that's true, it's that creaminess that seems comforting. Mama milk. Primal comforting smell. Edited to add: If you forget about the Japanese theme and don't try to connect it to the label art, it smells like chai latte.

My last reply was deleted so I guess I can't give a URL? I don't know... but I have a tea olive perfume that I got in New Orleans and maybe it has to remain nameless, but it's a nice scent... I recommend you google 'tea olive' 'perfumery'&'New Orleans.' Gee... I think we all like scents and it should be ok to share. It doesn't mean we don't love BPAL.

I ordered this because I like the story that inspired it: The Dream Woman. I have it in a book that is a selection of stories chosen by Edward Gorey (Gorey scents would be great). My favorite scene in the story is in a tavern/inn on a windy night. The scent doesn't really have anything to do with that scene though, or really anything else in the story that I could find. I would like to know how Beth approaches creating the scents. That would be interesting. Anyway: in the bottle, it's lavender, with a fruitiness under that. On the skin, when it was very fresh, it devolved into a fruity mess. It was kind of disjointed and incoherent. Is that clean antiseptic scent that both lavender and tea tree have described as 'astringent'? It just seems like a strange (odd?) combo with fruit. One is clean, the other is luscious. They don't 'go.' Now that I've had the bottle for a number of months, I like it better, either because I have formed pleasant associations with it, or it has mellowed and mixed. So now, on my skin, it's fruity and even incense-y (by which I mean something elusive and dark). It's a purple scent. Dark grey-purple. It's as if the lavender gives in to the fruit. Maybe that is the interpretation of the story into scent: in the story, Isaac, the protagonist, is a simple, decent man who dreams about then meets (and marries) a woman who is a down-on-her-luck, possibly murderous drunk. So then the clean lavender is Isaac and the decadent fruit is the woman. Maybe...

Lambs Wool 2010 I was a little nervous smelling this in the bottle because it smells like maraschino cherry juice. But once on the skin, it magically becomes apple-y and then cinnamon-y / spicy. Then, a little later, the apples and spices blend. Yet, it's not too much like a food item. It's really a great autumn scent! I'm very pleased with it.