sophia_helix

I wasn't crazy about this in the bottle -- soapy florals -- and it was worse on. The myrrh was overwhelming and unpleasant, and the whole thing had that strong "perfume" smell that doesn't work for me. I never know how to describe that, but when I stop being able to identify individual notes and the scent becomes very rich and heady without one dominating element, I usually wash it off. I buy BPAL because I like being able to tell what I'm wearing!

In the bottle: Green and sweet. I never seem to be able to pick out tea notes, no matter how strong; I think my nose is broken in that regard. Wet: Mmm, this is so wonderfully green! I think I may have found the floral/green scent I've been searching for. Like Rosalind, it's very sweet and light, but the floral note is actually like real peonies, instead of the somewhat artificial, oversweet berries in Rosalind. There's a slight heady heaviness beneath it, which I guess is the tea doing its thing, not that I would be able to tell. Drydown: Alas, just like Rosalind, this lasts all of an hour on me. But it was wonderful while it did last, all green and fresh at first, drying down into that peony sweetness, and I honestly didn't put on very much because I wanted to hoard my half-full imp. I'm very tempted to get a bigger bottle, and either slather it or try it in a scent locket or my hair. I was just too pleased by the initial thirty minutes of this to give it up.

A frimp from Rheliwan -- thanks! In the bottle: Sweet and musky. Not so much with the amber. Wet: This is... clean? Really oddly so. Astringent clean with something like oranges, reminding me a lot of Bed of Nails. I am very confused. I mean, I like clean scents very much, but this isn't what I was expecting. Drydown: Clean fades within a few minutes, but the sweet scent of oranges remains. And, as I often find with Beth's perfumes, a hint of anise is sneaking in. I really wish I knew why that happens, but then, maybe it's my nose. Eventually it boiled down to a sickly-sweet musk, with a hint of powdery, sour amber. I always think I like amber, because I love O so much, but it's very rarely worked on me in other blends. This is no exception. This really reminds me of some kind of candle, maybe "vanilla musk" or something. It's rather foody, but foody isn't usually my thing, so I think I'll have to give this a miss. Dang. I'm really having a run of "miss" scents. ::is disgruntled, until she remembers the hordes of imps on their way to her:: Update: Woke up this morning with this still on. I had my wrists near my face, and I was wrinkling my nose because there was this cloying sweet smell I thought was from my roommate's shower or something. No... still Haunted... and after my shower and two handwashes I could still smell it. Of course.

I've already tried O and La Petit Mort -- just needed this one to complete the BPAL Sex Trilogy. *g* I also gave it two go-rounds (applied more later in the day) because it did some weird stuff. In the bottle: Sweet...spicy...a touch of amber but not much. More the vanilla-spice, which is, um, a sweet spice? Not cinammon, but not pepper. Wet: Oh, dear, there's that sour note from La Petit Mort again. I know it's meant to be a skin musk, but it just smells unpleasant to me. Still vanilla beneath. (When I applied more the second time, I didn't get any of the sourness; just exactly what it smelled like on the final drydown.) Drydown: Well, on the first drydown it was very strange. The spicy vanilla faded, turning into something more like powdered sugar, with a weird hint of anise. None of the amber I loved so much in O. It got a little spicy later on, but I felt very odd wearing it. I couldn't quite decide if I liked it or not, since it wasn't a scent that stood up and screamed THIS IS YOU!, but it wasn't unpleasant either. I just felt...odd. When I reapplied it a few hours later, the drydown was better. Still no better way to describe it than the lab (spices sugared with vanilla), but it was richer and deeper. It reminded me more of department store perfume (my dad asked me if I was wearing some perfume I've never heard of), but only in its complexity. I still liked it. What it felt like, I think, was wearing someone else's perfume. A scent that seemed really nice, but when it went on me, it wasn't my skin. I'll probably hang onto this imp, because it's interesting, but it doesn't have signature sexy-scent potential like O did. Too bad!

I tried this scent with no idea of the notes in it, so this will be a little funky, I think. In the bottle: Sweet floral, with a rich note beneath, though not musky. Wet on skin: A pungent sweetness now, more piercing and insistent. No spices, however (which I see there might have been now that I read the reviews). Maybe powder, just a touch? Drydown: I am still really not sure about this one. It dried down into a complex, heady scent, somewhat powdery but in a good way, like a rich woman's bathing talcum. There was something...cheap...about the way I smelled, and my husband said it was like I'd just been oiled and pampered all day in the harem. I wish there were more true rose notes, but instead it's quite perfumey, although not in a gross department-store way. It just feels very deliberate and sensual, and not my personality at all. I may hang onto it for those rare days when I feel like seducing someone in heels and red lipstick, and being very obvious about it, but otherwise I'm not sure when I'd wear it.

I turned this one down at the BB in June because I didn't like the bottle's smell, but I figured I'd give it another go-round on my actual skin. In the bottle: Yup, still not quite right -- watery and a little sour. I can vaguely pick out ginger and creamy notes. Wet: Yiiikes, soap. A gingery sort of soap, but still. Drydown: I gave this two trials, each time hoping it would warm up to something better, but the soap was still strong. I think the cream notes are what don't work on me, given my failures with Dana O'Shee and Snow White, but the ginger just isn't pulling its load either; it isn't the hot, spicy ginger I'm looking for, or even something soft and comforting, but just lies there in the middle of the watery, soapy cream with only a prickly hint of itself. The scent makes me think of dishwater with pale yellow suds floating in it, full of someone's dishes with bits of gingerbread stuck to them, which is not what I'm going for. Alas, another for the swap pile.

In the bottle: Huh. Definitely the ylang-ylang -- I recognize that incense note -- and something else sweet, but it's hard to place this exactly. Wet: There's a sort of sourness to this like, yes, sweaty skin. I think I got that note in O as well. It's not unpleasant, just unexpected with the sweetness. Drydown: This eventually dried down to something pleasantly, undefinably sweet. The ylang-ylang kept a nice richness to the scent, but I wasn't getting the drives-you-wild thing O did for me, probably because there's no amber. The musk was sweeter, less feral and wild than in O, too. I guess O feels like the "before -- and building" scent, and this is the "after" scent? Whatever the case, it's pleasant enough to keep, though not enough for me to buy a bottle.

In the bottle: Oh my god, chocolate. And not just any chocolate -- it's cake batter. No idea how she does that. Wet: And even more bizarre: the cake batter becomes BAKED on my skin, turning all warm and toasty. Amazing. Drydown: Alas, the drydown turned sour and nasty, and just a bit metallic. My old roommate R. and I both tried it on, and both ended up having to wash it off because the sweetness was gone. Someone sent me another frimp of Dragonfly Blue's Almond Truffle oil, which is a chocolate that actually lasted on me, so I think I'll be sticking with that.

A quick review, since I just dabbed this on before swapping it away. On me, the incense became dirt, which I didn't like very much. There was also a horrid, strange undertone of spearmint, almost like toothpaste. That lasted for about twenty minutes before turning into something spicy/woody, but it was a very subdued and uninteresting scent. I couldn't really pick any individual spice or wood notes out, and it just sort of felt brown. Not nutty like Hamadryad, or piney like Dublin, just...flat cinnamon wood. Not a scent that really snapped or sparkled on me.

This is another one I figured would work well on my husband, so we did parallel reviews. In the bottle: Surprisingly citrusy, more like orange or grapefruit than lemon, with something more resiny in the background. Wet on me: Wow, a very CLEAN citrus. I haven't been able to try Kingsport yet, though I've been dying to, but this is definitely my sort of ozone-clean scent. Not quite sure about the citrus, though, since that's almost hauling it into cleaning product-esque. No metallic scent. Wet on him: Still the orange, but no clean. The resin notes are stronger. No metallic on him either, which is strange considering Tintagel was all about metal when it was wet on him. My drydown: Within about fifteen minutes, the super-clean stage was over, sadly. Instead I got a serious wood scent for about five minutes (and I mean, wood like smelling fresh-cut planks), and then it morphed down into an indefinably spicy, woody men's-cologne scent. WTF is up with me and CN scents turning into cologne on me? I don't know if it's the notes I pick or what, but every time I end up sniffing my wrist and thinking "I'd totally do me if I were a man." His drydown: He ended up with cologne too, thank god, although his was different. Where I got a warm, orange-smelling cologne, he got something with more spice and resin. I wasn't actually all that wild about it (it was nice, but not the best scent ever on him -- Dublin's pine was nicer), but he insisted he loved it, it smelled like his dad's European cologne, and he wants a bottle. Well, after alll the money I've spent imp-swapping in the last few months, who am I to deny his first request for his own BPAL? We're going to split a bottle of Dublin, and it looks like I'll have to pick up Bed of Nails for him too. I guess the couple that smells good together, stays together?

A brief review -- I tested a dab of this quickly before swapping with a friend. On me, all about lemon, and the kind of lemon that I hate. Both Szesspazony and Embalming Fluid were a sickly lemon, and this was no exception, although it did turn more like lemon iced tea on me. A fake, over-sweet kind like canned Arizona tea, and not at all something I was into. Dunno if it's lemon or tea scents that don't work for me (although the lemon in Storm Moon is wonderfully refreshing on my skin), but if lemon is a problem for you I would avoid this. Luckily, Severin ended up my friend's favorite scent, so at least she's enjoying it.

I passed this up at the Black Broom for Venice, back in June when I knew zilch about BPAL. Venice failed horribly on me (evil, evil orris!), and I've been yearning for Dublin ever since. Yay for getting an imp in a swap! In the bottle: Definitely piney, with a hint of sweet rose. Wet: PINE attack. Yikes, it's a little like a Christmas candle... Drydown: ...but over the next few hours it became heavenly. I have this in my "to-try" notes as "sweet rosy pine," based on reviews, and that's exactly what it is. The rose softens up the pine into something soft and sweet, without losing that wild, woodsy tang. It feels green and lovely, and the rose lulls me while the pine is invigorating, if that makes sense. I don't think the throw was great, but that's my only complaint. Otherwise, my husband kept sniffing me, my mother kept telling me how good I smelled, and I definitely need a bottle of this. My imp was labeled "Old Dublin," though, so I hope the formulation hasn't been radically changed!

This sounded wonderful in the description -- I loved the tobacco in Hellfire, and I've been looking for something else similar for a while. In the bottle: Spicy, strong tobacco note that's more like cigars than pipe tobacco, and something indefinably green, though more medicinally so than herbally. Wet: Woof, tobacco! Followed by the heady tinge of opium beneath. Still the chemical green between the scents. Drydown: This got spicier as it dried down, definitely the rosewood coming up, but I couldn't shake that medicine smell. I mean, duh, that makes sense, but it wasn't pleasant at all, and was ruining the scents I did like. After a few hours, though, it was a more likeable spicy-cologne smell, which is when I decided to try it on my husband. On him: Nice when wet, spicy and resiny, and I was hopeful... but on drydown, the medicinal smell morphed into something very brown-smelling. I couldn't place it, until he said it smelled like motel soap! And yup, that was exactly it. Cheap, harsh brown soap, with a hint of cigar. No thanks! We were both very disappointed, because this sounded so promising, but I think we'll have to try something else in the CN line. Boo.

In the bottle: Very sweet, almost too much so. A little almondy, a little creamy. Wet: Ack, this smells like medicine! A sticky-sweet cherry, exactly like the horrible liquid Dramamine I use to get when I was a kid and got carsick. That medicine was almost worse than throwing up. Drydown: OK, the Dramamine smell is going away, replaced by almonds. I can smell a bit of the grains too, like a hearty wheat smell. It's nice, but... Sadly, over the next few hours, this scent totally failed on me. First, I got something quite similar to Snow White, which on me turned into that awful plasticky smell, except it's more like something burnt and plastic than everyone else got. That lasted a while, and then it was just a sickly almond-cream sweetness, not pleasant at all. Farther away it was all right, and maybe it would be good layered with something fruitier, but overall, very much a failure. Sigh.

Did parallel reviews on this for myself and my husband, since this is gender-neutral. In the bottle: Dark and spicy, like evergreens, with a touch of something fruity -- wine? Wet on me: Oooh, very spicy. The juniper rises right up. Wet on him: Wow -- armor! That rusty, metallic smell is the strongest note, followed closely by the sweet wine beneath. My drydown: Spicy, smoky juniper all the way. I really love this; it feels like an autumn woods. There's a touch of sweetness, like clove or cinnamon, that *almost* makes this a substitue for my beloved Samhain. If only the wine stood up to mimic the apple in Samhain, it would be perfect. His drydown: On him, it went very sweet, and he said it mostly felt like the wine was coming through. Maybe a hint of dragon's blood, although I don't really know what that smells like. Verdict: I wish mine had lasted longer, but I'll try putting on more next time. I really like this; it's quite different from the sweet scents I normally try. He wasn't crazy about the alcoholic sweetness, so it'll probably be miiiine all miiine.

I was kind of nervous trying this, after the chemical-sweetener attack that was Pink Moon. In the bottle: Straight strawberry bubblegum, nothing more. Wet: Yikes, it's getting even more like candy strawberries. That's fine for a bubblebath, but I'm not sure if I want to smell like that... Drydown: This had a really interesting drydown. First the candy smell faded a bit, bolstered by a very "perfumy" smell, which I think is probably the ylang ylang. It was a touch soapy, but nice, like walking into an expensive bath products store. Then it dried further became more incensy/rich, which was definitely the sage working on it. Very nice, although not much throw. Half an hour later, I got a sudden hit of something creamy and green, very much like Bewitched or Rosalind, which sadly faded. Currently it's back to a more candy scent, with a wee bit of plastic that has me nervous. I like Strawberry Moon a lot at certain times, and I can definitely see wanting to wear it occasionally. However, I think I'll be satisfied with my one imp, just because I can't trust the scent to stick to the drydown stages I liked most.

In the bottle: Sweet, floral. Damn, I really need to get better at picking out individual notes. Wet: Uh-oh. Same thing as with Pink Moon -- sweet, but with a chemical edge that curls my tongue and makes me think of Sweet n' Lo or children's toothpaste. Drydown: Well, as usual, my-mother-the-flower-nut sniffed me from afar and said "What's that? Smells like sweet peas!" So the throw must be decent, and I think it probably blends well away from my skin. Up close, though, it's just that soapy sweetness I loathe. For a while there, about an hour in, something more real and flowery-smelling broke through -- what flower, I can't say -- but then it was right back to the artificial scent. I think this has got something to do with my nose and how I perceive smells, as other people don't always get that saccharine scent when I'm wearing this type of oil. But I think I'd better avoid anything that screams spring flowers in the future.

I was utterly thrilled to get ahold of this yesterday. I'm another October baby, and it sounded just up my alley. In the bottle: A sharp, woodsy scent, with a hint of sweet apple underneath. Wet: Mmm, cinnamon and clove, like baking pies. But the pine/apple is gone? Drydown: Holy mother of god, this is incredible. The cinnamon/clove scent keeps alternating, somehow, with the pine/apple scent, with a little woodsmoke to tie it together. Sometimes it's sharp and sweet, sometimes it's spicy and creamy, and I am just going into ecstasies and can't stop sniffing. Halloween is just about my very favorite holiday, but it's all tied up with the goth-spooky-dark aspect of it. This just takes October 31st and makes it all about the harvest, like it used to be -- spices and fruit and trees and fires. I still love Halloween, but this scent has literally given me a whole new look at the season. It didn't last quite long enough (no more than a couple of hours), but I didn't put much on because I wanted to save it. I think I'll treat myself to a full slather sometime this fall. Gah. Must find more of this!

In the bottle: Not getting much to go on just sniffing it. Floral (I assume sweet pea), a little something else that's different enough to stand out, but not enough for me to identify it (sage? I have no idea what tonka bean smells like). Wet: More sweetness, definitely sweet pea. A little sage, maybe. Drydown: Within five minutes, utter and complete soap. I mean, NICE soap, but still, soap. I stuck my wrist in front of my sister, and she said "Cherry soap?" My mom said "Honeysuckle soap?" Etc. ::bangs head:: I don't think it's the sage, since Bewitched works on me (though the blackberry overwhelms sage in that blend). Maybe sweet pea? Beats me. Of course, the REALLY irritating thing is that my mom tried it and got instant, delicious sweet pea, and nothing but, because florals love her. Bitch.

Named for the ambitious, vengeful poisoner Catherine deMedici, who used perfumes to perform her dark deeds. A sinful blend of orange blossom, rosemary and rose... allegedly the exact perfume she utilzed in her work. In the bottle: Citrus, with a strong hit of rosemary and a faint sweetness. Wet: The rosemary amps right up, losing the citrus, mainly, and gaining a touch of rose. Drydown: Still rosemary, but now the rose comes into play, giving a strong, musky backnote that makes this very "perfume"-like. The orange blossom comes back too, adding another layer to the heavy base. The rosemary is just herbal and different enough to remind me I'm wearing BPAL, not eau de cologne, but it's a very pulled-together, forceful scent. It gave my sister a headache while we were wearing it, so I'm going to guess it has a lot of throw. It lasted a good, long while on me, the three primary scents remaining fairly well-blended. I can imagine wanting to wear this if I want to seem competent and grown-up; it's very diffferent from the girly-sweet honey scents and clean ozone scents I usually prefer. But it's good to have at least one sophisticated perfume to pull out if I need it!

I didn't intend to pick this one up, but I saw a near-empty going cheap on LJ and threw it in just to try. Hooray for serendipity. In the bottle: Screamingly PINK, much like, um, Pink Moon. Sweet, sweet fruits, a hint of floral. Wet: Was I ever right about the pink. Bubblegum! I think it's the kiwi going to town. But, wait...pepper? Hm. Drydown: The pepper note came out niiice and strong, anchoring all that bubblegum scent down. I'm never a fan for fruity sweetness on the skin (I prefer it in candles, or short-term product like bubblebath), but the pepper really makes this intriguing. That lively, spicy note contrasted beautifully with the sweet fruit. I was interested in the scent, all the time it lasted. I didn't get much floral to this. Eventually, as it dried down, I got a hint of something more somber (for lack of a better word), which I think was the tea and musk. Tea is really, really faint on me, though, so what it really felt like was that the scent had been a happy, bouncing little girl who gradually started calming down and falling asleep in the backseat of the car on the ride home. Scent lasted maybe three hours on me, not a lot of throw (I think; no one to test it on since I wore it to work). I'm not sure if I'll be ordering more, but I enjoyed the experience.

Oooh, just got this in from Carolyn. Thanks! In the bottle: Mmm, honey. Me + honey = endless love. Prior to this, my main honey blend has been Tiger Lily, but this is different. Instead of the sweetness of lilies anchoring the scent, there's the herbal thyme, the slight sharpness of ginger, and a very soft honey instead of a pungent punch. Wet: My skin would like to tell you that there is honey in this blend. Loudly. Drydown: The topnote stayed strongly honey (though again, not exactly the same honey as I've smelled in other blends), but the thyme stayed with it, cutting the sweetness. It sadly didn't last as long as I would have liked, and the end drydown scent was the nondescript "sweet" that I get from certain blends (most BPAL oils dry down to one of about three base scents on me), but since I was mainly in it for a new honey scent, I didn't mind putting on more and getting the wet scent again. I feel like I'm doing a rotten job of describing this, since I'm basically saying "honey honey honey!" but if you like that scent, you'll love this, and if you don't, I think it may be the honey scent that works on you, given the herbs and florals mixed in.

A long-anticipated swap. God, I love the Mad Tea Party line. In the bottle: Very softly floral, with a tangy note to it. Mainly the rose and the bergamot. Wet: The first time I tried this, it just became more intense, both the sweet milky scent and the tangy bergamot. The second time, I got this wonderful hit of sweet tea, which faded fast but made me think I needed to hunt down a good tea scent (Dorian?) ASAP. Drydown: I was really crazy about this scent for the first half-hour. I didn't get any honey (which is odd, given how much honey loves me), but the milky-sweet roses and the invigorating citrus-like scent of bergamot really got me. By the end of the day... Well, I've started making sure I get any test oil on both my wrists and on my shirt (when I'm dabbing it on my throat), because I get a better sense of the oil (and the shirt-scent lasts longer!) On my wrists, this faded down to a nondescript sweetness within a couple of hours. It was, in fact, that sort of base "sweet" scent that many BPAL scents seem to have for me. I don't know how to describe it, and it's not unpleasant (it says "Hey, BPAL!" which is a good thing), but I'm always disappointed because it means the unique characterstics of a particular oil have disappeared. However. On my shirt? The milk and rose became a total "blaaargh, old lady!" scent, like milk gone slightly bad. (Actually, I told my husband about the "old lady" categorization of BPAL-gone-wrong, and he sniffed my shirt and said "More like 'recently-dead old lady'" ) Whatever it was, it was quite unpleasant, and made me wish I could change my shirt at work! Since I didn't get the old-lady thing on my actual skin, I'm not ready to give up on this oil yet, but I'm really not sure about milk scents on me, now.

Normally I do real-time reviews of oils, but I tried this on quickly when I first got it and it didn't change at all. I love lavendar, and I love mint, and I love astringency, so I hoped this would be a new favorite. Sadly, it's just a hit of PURE pennyroyal, very true to the actual plant, and it's a pretty bitter mint. The lavender only peeks through, not doing much to tone down the crazy bitter sharpness, and I found it unpleasant to wear. Maybe it would make a good room oil, but I'm sick enough of the scent not to want to try. Also, it's totally overtaken my BPAL box, so every time I open it that's all I smell! I need to swap this, quick, before it permeates in forever.

The generous Rheliwen sent this to me. Thanks! In the bottle: Mm, rum and butterscotch. The alcohol is quite strong. Wet: The alcohol remains, but the creamy, sweet butter smell is amplified, along with the nutty goodness of almond and hazelnuts. There's something a little spicy in here too, not quite like cinnamon, but close enough to fool me. It's even a little like ginger. It's overpowering the alcohol pretty fast. Drydown: After a few minutes, the sweet spiciness is the dominant note; the creaminess is very faint and the rum has disappeared. It's making me think a little of Christmas potpourri, although it's only that spicy when I sniff up close. Farther away, it's sweeter and much fainter. Then a few minutes later, the rum is back, the spiciness mellows, and now, ahhhh. I know exactly what this smells like! It's December, and I'm sitting in the Three Cripples at the Dickens Christmas Faire in San Francisco. The lantern lights are flickering, people are talking in low voices, and everything is muted by the soft layer of sawdust on the floor. Inside the pub, I smell the honey mead I'm drinking, and the hot buttered rum being ordered at the counter. Outside vendors are selling spiced almonds and gingerbread cookies, and the smell wafts towards me. Everything is warm and soft and yummy-smelling, and Christmas is coming. I think this will be a room-oil scent, since it's hard to wear as a perfume and fades rather quickly on me, but oh, I need a bigger bottle than my mostly-empty imp!