zombie_striptease

This is such a beautiful scent! Aquatic and mellowly sweet in the imp, it only has a minute or two of sharpness on my skin before it waters down to a light wildflower scent. Though now that I sniff again... there is an impression of dryer sheets . Oh, but I would love my laundry to smell like this! We're just starting the cold rainy season here, and this scent just blends right in with the smell of rain coming through the windows. Now I can smell like Oregon winter all year round!

This imp was a gift from the wonderful HoneyHoneyNY, and boy, what a gift! In the imp, it's deep and slightly sweet, oddly familiar, like some perfume I may have smelled when I was a small child. It actually smells a bit too perfumey, and I worry a bit about how it'll go on my skin. I needn't have worried. Whatever tiny bit of mint I may have smelled in the imp is gone immediately on my skin, and it leaves behind the incredibly rich soft fragrance of what I can only assume is ambergris. It seems very out of place on me for a few moments, but then meshes warmly with my skin and rounds out beautifully, anchored by the mosses. It evokes a marsh on a summer night, when the ground is still warm from the day's heat but the air has taken on a misty chill. It's deep and aquatic and unfortunately too unique to describe well! Mostly it's just absolutely gorgeous. This is my new everyday scent, definitely a big bottle! Thanks again Honey!

This queen did some interesting morphing on me. In the imp: All cherry. It's a nice cherry, too, not an artificial/cough drop sort. I've had trouble with fruits before, though, so I'm dreading what my skin may do to it. On wet: It's still cherry! Yes! Though now it's starting to smell like.. Tootsie Rolls? Huh? I suppose the semi-cocoa smell is the woods coming out. They're warm and smooth, and are starting to dry out and seperate from the cherry note again. Dry down: I'm not sure what-all woods are supposed to be in here, but almost all of them have fallen beneath a cedar note. I guess it's one of those notes my skin amplifies. Good to know. So now I mostly smell like cherry and cedar, which is a strange but pleasant combination. It's warm and red without being the least bit spicy, just mellow and sweet. Very nice. Conclusion: A well-crafted scent, but not really suited to me. I realized with this scent that I much prefer my woods to be cold, as strange as that may sound. If I want a sweet-ish cedar scent I'll head for Alecto. Though I'm very happy to learn that Beth's cherry note stays nice on me . I'll definitely be adding more cherry scents to my list now.

Oh, I so wanted to like this one. In the imp, I could smell mostly spices with a touch of almond threaded through it. I rather hoped the almond would come out on me, but alas, no. As soon as I put it on my skin, one of the spices must have gone badly with my chemistry because I was suddenly overcome by a sharp sort of old lady's perfume smell. It was pungent enough that I could barely even make out the other spices anymore, let alone the almond or honey. I tried to wait it out and see if it would tone down or go away, but after about an hour it was still just as bad and I had to wash it off. Phooey.

Despite my past difficulties with foody smells, Jack works incredibly well on me. It's very very sweet and buttery, as other have mentioned, and the peach comes out beautifully. It won't be an everyday scent, but I imagine it will be just perfect for those chilly Autumn days once they get here. In the imp: Sweet and buttery, almost syrupy. It smells like some wonderful baked goods cooling on the windowsill. On wet: Wow, peach! I'm not really getting any pumpkin yet, but this is a really good peach cobbler scent. My mom's nose was around to give an opinion, and the first thing she smelled was cinnamon. I'm getting bits of clove here and there, but mostly it's still the overwhelming SWEET BUTTERY PEACHY. Dry down: A bit mellower, the nutmeg has come out to visit. I catch a whiff of something like pumpkin now and then, and also candle wax? but it doesn't ever stay for long. The peach is toned down but still very present. This is such a warm cozy scent. It makes me want to put foody things back on my list again... Conclusion: The imp is a keeper. I don't know that I'll use enough to need a big bottle, as it's definitely very seasonal. I don't think I would want to wear this anytime past April at the latest. But it's good for now, and I'm also tempted to try this as a room scent. Nice work, Beth!

This scent isn't for me, but my mother loves it. Hmm, maybe she'll come into the BPAL fold... In the imp: Spicy, with a sort of dirty/chemical smell that makes me wary. The oil itself looks fairly noxious, tinting the imp's lid red, wand and all. Should I really put this on my skin? Wet on: Slightly bitter at first, the spices are too overpowering to single out. That dirty smell is still there, and my memory is starting to kick around, trying to place it. Dry down: It settled down a bit upon drying, I can actually smell each of the spice notes, none stronger than the other, and I've finally sort of identified the other smell as a dirty floral smell, a scent shared by several flowers I don't much care for. Maybe a lily of some sort? I eventually wandered over to my mother and waved my arm in front of her nose, warning her it wasn't as nice as the Jack I'd waved before her earlier. To my surprise, she immediately perked up. "Mmm," she said,"I like that. Gardenia." I started to explain that no, there isn't any gardenia in there (that I know of), just cinnamon and clove and pepper and such, but even as I say it I recognize that she's right. It does smell exactly like a spicy gardenia. Which is one of my most reviled flowers and one of her favorites. Is this what dragon's blood will always smell like on me? Crap. Maybe I'd better revise my wishlist. Conclusion: Not for me, even though it actually balances quite nicely on my skin. I think it must be some great joke of the universe that scents I don't like blend really well with my chemistry . On the bright side, my mother has been craving her old White Shoulders perfume lately and now has something even better . I guess it all evens out in the end.

I'm not sure I'll wear this much, but I have a strange urge to keep it anyway. Maybe as a room fragrance? I don't know, but there's something very intriguing about it that makes me not want to let it go. In the imp: Green and somewhat bitter. I smell a bit of something like olive oil, and an astringent sweetness. It doesn't seem offensive in any way, but I can't tell if I really like it, either. On wet: Oh, there's the cedar. It turns very strong and sharp for a moment, and I'm suddenly worried that it's either going to stay that way or get worse. It starts to settle down a bit, though, and while I still smell a lot of cedar, I can also make out the dry leafy greens again. Dry down: This is.. interesting. For a minute or two, I was getting the Eau de BO that others experienced, but it soon vanished into the woodsy scent again. I can't really make out the olive leaf anymore, but then the whole fragrance has sort of homogenized into its own entity, without particular notes. Mostly I smell of vaguely medicinal herbs, though not in an unpleasant way. The smell is mostly comforting and subtle, but true to the name, there's an odd undercurrent of something fiery below the surface. Although it's not in the components list, I can swear I smell a bit of cinnamon now and then. It lends an odd darkness to the scent. I'm about the least anger-prone person you could meet, but somehow I'm drawn to this. Conclusion: Not a big bottle or an everyday scent, but I think I'll hold onto this for a bit before I decide whether to swap. Maybe it'll grow on me...

If nothing else, Undertow should get an award for being the Shortest Lived Scent I've tried yet. In the imp: Slightly sweet minty trees? I'm not sure I smell anything aquatic, but then my nose is still rather novice. On wet: There's a faint breath of mint as I apply it. Little do I know, that's the last I'll ever see of it. There's something slightly green, darker than the mint, and I'm guessing it's the juniper, though I never catch a full on juniper note. Even still wet, the almost-candy sweetness of the lotus quickly rises above everything. Two-minute mark: Is it already fading? Can't be. It's probably just shifting and settling. I'll smell the mint and juniper better anytime now... Five-minute mark: ...Or maybe I won't. It's pretty much the all-lotus show, with an almost imperceptible green base that doesn't particularly resemble either juniper or mint. There's no bite whatsoever. Just sweet. Very faint and rapidly fading sweet. Twenty-minute mark: There's only a bare powder of lotus now, and I have to nearly swallow my arm to smell it. I think it may actually be a figment of my imagination. Or my fabric softener. Forty-minute mark: There was a scent here. It's gone now. My arm smells like arm and nothing else. I'm left looking disapprovingly at the imp. I imagine it looks somewhat abashed. Conclusion: MY SKIN EATS LOTUS FOR BREAKFAST. And juniper and mint, apparently. It's a really lovely lotus scent, but perhaps too sweet to suit my personality. Also, I would have to reapply it liberally every half-hour or so, which just doesn't seem tenable. Oh well, to the swap pile with you!

Since Santa Eularia is the first BPAL scent that even remotely worked on me, I suppose it deserves a review. In the imp: Sharp, concentrated, nose-biting jasmine perfume. Since I kind of hate jasmine, I actually lost my resolve to test it out once I opened the imp. It was basically: *Opens the imp* "Ackk! Jasmine! *cough*" Then, "Oh crap, I spilled some on my finger!" Then, resigned, "Ah, well, guess I'd better try it then." *smears oily fingertip on forearm* I sat and was surly for a bit, trying not to breathe through my nose too much. After a minute or so, I couldn't hold back the perverse impulse to sniff... Wet on: Still some sharp jasmine, but morphing quickly into something much softer. Huh. Wasn't expecting that. Dry down: I... almost can't smell the jasmine anymore. Maybe my nose is just numbed from that first application, but for once, my skin actually seems to have improved a scent. I'm not sure what happened, but it's mellowed into something soft and vaguely sweet; sort of a white chewed gum scent, oddly enough. I don't smell the citrus I was hoping for, but there's a slightly green herby sweetness (and maybe just a whisper of musk?) that evokes thoughts of warm breezes and sunkissed fields. This is much nicer than I was expecting. Two hours or so later: It's faded quite a bit, enough that I have to practically bury my nose in my flesh to get a good whiff. It's still doing it's nice soft sweet thing, though I realize I can smell the jasmine again. It's a subtler and more pleasant jasmine than I've ever experienced before, though, so it's quite tolerable and doesn't take away from the general scent too much. I imagine anyone who actually likes jasmine would find the blend flawless. Conclusion: Far nicer than my first whiff had me expecting, and very educational to try, but still basically not me. Like I said, the jasmine is tolerable, but "tolerable" isn't really the first word I want describing my perfume, you know? Still, I'm glad to know there are scents out there that aren't horribly corrupted by my skin, and very glad to finally have the opportunity to appreciate how beautifully blended Beth's scents are when not confronted by any sort of allergy/conflict. It really is a beautiful scent... for someone else. My imp has been swapped, and I'm sure it'll find a good home.

Bon Vivant! I remember seeing a health article last year about how the scents of strawberries or buttered popcorn make people work out harder and for longer. It's worth a try, no?