fashionfaerie

Is one bottle enough?! I wear this pretty much every day, because I work in close proximity to others, yet can't bear to go without perfume. It's a subtle, quiet, sweet skin scent, and, with my chemistry, actually reads more like honey than the honey scents do (they go tart on me). Just gorgeous.

If I get back home late at night my neighborhood smells like Angel's Trumpet from a massive vine down the street. It's a beautiful smell on its own merits, yet it has special meaning for me because it also smells like home. So at a recent will call I sought out anything with Angel's Trumpet, which currently is Yorick and The Harlot's House. I especially liked The Harlot's House, because the floral accord definitely does smell like Angel's Trumpet and/or osmanthus, both of which I love. The floral aspect is on the green side - I'm probably getting the tea, too - yet it's not particularly sour or sharp, and eminently wearable.

Caron has a gorgeous fragrance called Parfum Sacre, and the frankincense/myrrh/rose combination in Cleric reminds me of that a little. Those notes, along with narcissus and amber, are favorites of mine, so I adore this! I experience it as a true balance of florals and resins, with neither getting the upper hand. I've about used up my frimp, so it will be a full bottle at the next Will Call....

When I was brand new to BPAL, Osun made my first shortlist of likely winners to sniff, though in the bottle, it smelled so tart to me that I ventured no further with it. Then last night I smelled the new Venus bath oil from the Trading Post, which is insanely beautiful! It wasn't available for purchase yet, so I asked which GC scent might be similar. The answer was Osun (apparently, rose and honey are two notes they share in common). This time I tried it on, and still just got a very tart rose and lemon verbena. But will call was packing up, so I took a chance and bought it, anyway. Two hours later, it hadn't evolved, and I was wondering if I'd made a mistake. But when I woke up this morning, the most gorgeous honey/rose/lemon verbena scent! For whatever reason, the honey takes a LONG time to emerge on me in cooler weather. In the heat it's a quicker evolution, though much less quick than with other BPALs I own. It sure has some staying power, too. So I guess the wisdom of not writing any scent off too quickly definitely held true for Osun. It's a new favorite!

Good GOD! Just out of the imp, this is one potent, lime-y floral! At first I get heady, insane amounts of tuberose, and then the jasmine comes in. Once the lime mellows out, it smells like my memory of one or another vintage white floral perfumes I loved as a teenager, maybe Jungle Gardenia? plus a head shop smell that I think is the lotus. It's certainly not something I'd reach for every day, yet once in a while I'm in the mood for a giddy, borderline obnoxious tuberose scent, and I've found that in Muse!

This one surprised me, because it smelled very strong and almond-y in the bottle, though as others have commented, it can be pretty subtle as worn. I find it to be just the thing, actually - I like some of Beth's more potent almond scents on their own terms, but they're not really for me. Dana O'Shee is just kind of hard to object to. I find that I reach for my frimp when I want to wear a little something, but can't deal with a scent that's going to challenge me. Damn - just realized my frimp's almost empty. Guess it needs to be on my full bottle list....

If I had to choose one favorite perfume note, it would be amber. And somehow in all this time I had missed The Lion. Fortunately I got a tip last night, and tried it out. Lovely! In the bottle I actually smell more cinnamon than amber, though on my skin the cinnamon accents the amber and not vice-versa. I also get a bit of something hay-like as it progresses. I find it a really soft and easy scent to wear, and while I haven't gotten an outside opinion on this, my sense is that it stays relatively intimate and doesn't have the sillage of many other BPALs. It's a simple enough blend that I look forward to seeing how it plays with others. So far, I've found that it's lovely layered with Spellbound.

I love that BPAL offers rose scents that take advantage of the different directions you can take with rose - green, spicy, sweet, tangy, fruity, powdery, etc. While I've liked a number of them, Spellbound is the one I like most as worn. It goes on strongly rosy, then the rose mellows as the amber and musk emerge and warm it up. It layers nicely with something spicy, too - I've liked it with the spicy amber of The Lion and the spicy spice of Sin. For me it's a favorite BPAL, if not my very favorite.

Oakmoss is one of the notes that gives old Guerlain perfumes the character that some describe as musty in a bad way. I can see that, though I really like it, so I had to try Omen. In the bottle it smelled earthy, piney, and dry. On my skin it lost its piney edge and became a warm, resinous, powdery scent with a LOT of rose. (I can't remember if rose is listed as a note, but this was the effect it produced on me, anyway). The Caterpillar is one of my faves, and Omen reminds me a bit of The Caterpillar but with fewer floral notes, i.e., no carnation. I liked it well enough to buy a full bottle, and I wear it often, usually layered with one amber or another to draw out its warmth and depth.

Oh WOW! I've smelled my way through dozens of BPALs looking for just this one. It starts off really sweet, spicy, dusty floral (honeysuckle or acacia-ish) on my skin, then dries into warm, sweet, spicy honey. I know that it doesn't have a honey note, but skin chemistry being what it is, I'm just happy to finally get that effect wherever I can find it. Blood Amber has some nuance and depth to it, though it's so mellow and soft that I can see wearing it as my default (better than) skin scent.

I found this one to be a little disconcerting, because I'm used to finding a gentle, watery scent of this sort in the form of a diluted eau de toilette that's sprayed on liberally like, well, water. And this is so concentrated! It doesn't necessarily smell that strong in the vial, but once it's on skin, you sure know it. On me it eventually dries to a soft, powdery, grassy rose. Not what I was expecting, though it's a good surprise, because I can't usually do anything described as aquatic/ozone-y. Whatever "aquatic" this includes seems to be different from "marine notes", though.

The universe stepped in when I got an imp of this at the last Will Call, because with its pinot noir note, I wouldn't have thought the Widow would like me. But, as others have mentioned, the wine note is different from the one used in some of the other scents. To my nose, it's less tart fruit and more mellow and dry. When I was a kid, my mom had a witchy friend who made sachets stuffed with dried roses, patchouli, sage, eucalyptus, and who knows what else. On skin, that's what this scent reminds me of in the best way - dried roses with warm, earthy greenery. These are the notes of a classic perfume, there's nothing odd about it, though as blended by BPAL, it's thankfully free of the aldehydes that usually keep me from getting along with traditional commercial perfumes. I'm happy to have found a rose I can love.

I tried this one at West Coast Will Call, not knowing what the notes were. It just EXPLODED on my skin, and for a minute I thought I'd made a terrible, noxious mistake! But that was just over-application in a crowded situation, because a few hours and another careful application later, I've confirmed that it's gorgeous. Once I saw the list of notes I could pick them out, though it's one of those especially clever blends that's more than the sum of its parts. I think my strong positive reaction is coming a lot from the neroli. I adore neroli and orange blossom and had wanted so much to love Ravenous, but ultimately I just couldn't do such a patchouli-forward scent. Imperious Tiger Lily was today's full-bottle worthy surprise for me, then, and I recommend it especially for those who like vintage perfumes. I'm not saying that it smells old-fashioned to me, but it might to others - virtually every mass-market perfume I like was created before 1930, so I'm pretty sure my preferences are skewed that way....

Imp surprised me by how elegant and crisp it is. To my perception, the patchouli in this blend is drier and less sweet than the patchouli in many of the other BPALs, and such a perfect counterpoint to the peach. On my skin these two notes form a kind of tension, with neither one winning out. Imp plays well with others, too - sometimes I add some extra amber resin and/or a bit of oakmoss if I want its earthy side to really predominate.

Ylang ylang, honey, Egyptian and Arabian musks and labdanum. I ordered this one unsniffed, because there's not a note in it I don't love. And that was lucky, for sniffing it straight out of the bottle, I couldn't have predicted what it does as worn. On me Skuld is a big, strapping Teutonic girl, warm and golden, and not at all retiring. To my nose she's ultimately a honey scent, though goes through an ylang phase that's positively operatic - at about a half hour in the ylang actually made me laugh it was singing so boldly. I experience this scent as cheerful, solar, and optimistic, a kind of lusty "I will prevail!" smell. It's love.