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.

I was expecting a scent that would be like incense in a cathedral. But All Saints is a rose scent. It reminds me of a shop on Haight Street in San Fran. I don't know if it's still there, because I moved, but this shop sold gargoyle statues and other goth-y items. One day I bought some rose potpourri there and for a while my whole apartment smelled like old roses. That is what this smells like. I don't get any frankincense or myrrh or anything other than dusty old roses. I like it, but I wanted something more cathedral-y. Maybe I should just get Cathedral.

This is a complex scent. It reminds me of (not smells like, but reminds me of) 1000 by Jean Patou. Dry and sophisticated and chic. This is greener; a dark green. It's got a surface of lime or something sharp like that on top, in the bottle. And maybe a woody scent underneath. When put it on my skin, the sharp top note mellows and blends with the other elements and it becomes richer and more like a luxurious perfume, a perfume that is, maybe, an acquired taste. Not sweet or girly at all, maybe a little bit tough or worldly. (I do not smell gardenia or berry in it at all.) I also do not get a sense of 'slithering' which I think sounds unpleasant. Faiza smells urban (rather than natural), sophisticated (in its complexity), and serious (rather than pretty). Not voluptuous, but dry yet rich. As I sit here sniffing my wrist til I'm dizzy trying to describe it, it is morphing to a slightly sweeter smell but still far from sweet. This is a going-out-at-night scent (and not the the corner pub to watch the game). It's for creating an aura of mystery.

I loved the idea of a perfume that is like a ghost. I didn't read the reviews very carefully, just skimmed them, and I was expecting something more lemony and green, good for summer. After I got my bottle, I wasn't as into it as I had hoped, and my husband said it smelled like his grandmother. It is a white flower - green ivy - aquatic scent. It's not BAD. If this is a ghost, it is the ghost of a young girl or possibly a very old lady, haunting a house in Cape Cod. It's not a voluptuous impassioned Victorian ghost in a room with tattered velvet and carvings. It's rather austere and not at all sexy (if sexy is rich, spicy, musky and/or fruity). More like... "the water off beautiful Nauset, where it pours bean green over blue." So, what I did was, I put the oil in my burner, thinking maybe I'd like it better as a room scent. It is very clean smelling and fresh, good for an early summer evening. After I let it burn for a while, I really did get the 'creeping' sense of it that is in the description. BPAL is really very good at what they do! I just don't want to smell like this particular one.

I got this as a frimp. It's very interesting because it is aquatic or ozonic, but also rich and spicy. Those two styles are usually not found together. The oil itself is dark brown in color; it is the darkest of the oils I have. In the imp I just smell the watery scent, but when it's on my skin, the rich herbal/spicy scent comes out. I do not get grapefruit at all. After a few minutes the two are blended together. I think this scent would work better for a man than for a woman.

Green and melony in the bottle. Titania becomes more peachy on my skin, but it's a beautiful complex peachy-and-flowers scent, not like fruit candy, or synthetic peach 'flavor.' It's fresh and lovely, and when I smell it, I imagine a summer evening... a midsummer night in fact! It lasts about 2 hours; I wish it would go on for longer, as I really love this scent, it's delicious! My husband also likes it, which is rather unusual, as he has allergies and tends to complain about scents. I am new to BPAL and I have purchased 7 bottles in the past month, including the famous Snake Oil, but this one is my favorite so far.

After reading the reviews, I was expecting something more subtle, complex and dark. In the bottle, it smells like cherry cough syrup. Really just like cherry cough syrup, nothing more than that. On my skin, it becomes a bit more complex. I don't smell rose. I just smell a fruity scent with some background notes that make it a little more interesting. On me, if there is the possibility of tipping to fruit, a scent will, it seems. This is not an unpleasant scent by any means, but it's not the dark complex mysterious scent I was hoping for. It is more like Hello Kitty-as-Vampire than Blood Countess. I wonder if time till chill out that cherry scent and make it richer and darker. Maybe it's just that it's freshly blended. Edited May 12, 2011: I've had Blood Countess almost a year now. I haven't worn it, it's been sitting on my shelf. I put some on last night, and more today, and suddenly I can smell gardenia and berry and it's really luscious and voluptuous. It's really much more appealing now.

Honeysuckle, Bulgarian rose, night blooming jasmine, sweet clove, cedarwood, black tea, and nectarine. It is sharp and cedar-y in the bottle. When I put it on, I smell the cloves, and after a minute, it becomes fruity on me. That must be the nectarine. I don't smell rose at all and the honeysuckle and jasmine blend into the fruitiness of the nectarine. And the cloves are still there but it is in no way autumnal. Someone else said it is very womanly and I agree with that. This was my first BPAL scent and I didn't know what to expect, thinking maybe the oils would be like the perfume oils in the health food store. This is more like a perfume, it is a womanly smelling perfume. Part of what is so intriguing about BPAL is the story associated with each scent, and I especially love New Orleans, so I like imagining the world of Hilma Burt, who inspired the scent. This perfume is like a very sultry decadent but sophisticated night--lush, like a soft cushion of luxurious feminine charm. If I were to assign a color, it would be a reddish orange. Edited to add: Hilma has really grown on me. I like it a lot. If you are looking for a complex, fruity, womanly scent that might make you think of steamy nights in old New Orleans, go for it.