Ishtar

Both in the imp and on my skin, Dragon's Hide smelled softer than I expected. I have been a little weary of leather since applying way too much Perversion one day and gettting almost queasy from it, but thankfully the leather is not overpowering at all here. I am not getting any smokiness from Dragon's Hide, which from beginning to end smells like a straightforward blend of, well, dragon's blood and leather. Very nice but not quite as deep and complex on my skin as most BPAL scents. This imp is headed to the Swap pile, as I am sure that it will blossom into a much more multidimensional scent on someone with the right skin chemistry.

Czernobog is a scent that has always scared me - yes, scared, for it has vetivert and, well, vetivert is just plain evil on me. However, since the Lab very kindly added an imp of it to my latest order, I decided to be brave and try it anyway. Bracing myself for sharp, gritty, bitter vetivert, I almost could not believe my nose when I smelled a nice, fresh, classic cologne a la Roger and Gallet in the imp. Definitely a much more promising start than I expected. I dabbed the tinest bit on my arm and quickly had to come to the conclusion that my skin does not always hate vetivert, after all! Huzzah! This is a very nice blend that dries down to a fresh, almost pine-y scent. On the masculine side, but not so much so that I could not wear it. It reminds me of a softer Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme, which I used to wear when I was a teenager. As unexpected as this is to me, Czernobog is a keeper!

I was very happy to see that the Lab had thrown in an imp of Anubis in my latest order. It is not a scent I would have ordered based on the notes alone, even though Yinepu/Anubis is one of my three patron Gods. In the imp, this blend is surprisingly fruity and resiny, with a bright, fresh, almost minty note that lingers in the background. A very pleasant surprise, as it smells much more wearable than what I expected. As soon as the oil touches my skin, it goes through a very brief "thick honey" phase, then morphs almost instantly into a warm, soft scent in which the resins and the herbs perfectly balance each other. Most of the initial sweetness disappears after drydown. Once dry, Anubis proves to have great throw, yet never becomes overpowering thanks to its softness. This is a dignified scent, but there is nothing foreboding about it. To me it primarily evokes Anubis's role as a psychopomp guide of the souls, much more than any funerary connotation. A great gender-neutral blend.

Being originally from the Mediterranean, I was very much looking forward to trying Santa Eularia: Herbs! Jasmine! Lavender! Orange blossom! Woohoo! Alas, Santa Eularia turned to soap as soon as it touched my skin. And stayed that way. Soap, soap, soap. At least I smelled really clean! But not exactly what I am looking for in a perfume... *le sigh*

During the early stages, Phantom Queen is mostly orchid and apple blossom. It is sophisticated yet fresh, so fresh that I wondered for a while if white musk might be present in this blend. At some point into drydown, the apple blossom morphs into a full-grown apple and Phantom Queen becomes comparable to The Hesperides without the caramelly sweet note. Absolutely delectable! The Hesperides is one of my favourite cooler weather scents and Phantom Queen is just perfect for these Indian Summer days when you do not want anything too heavy but you are already looking forward to Autumn. A definite keeper and bottle-size candidate!

Nuit evolved in a very interesting way on my skin. With most other floral blends, the "higher", freshest notes predominate during the wet stage, then die down and give way to a warmer, mellower scent. With Nuit, it was the exact opposite: it started off quite warm and rich, all incense and moss, then progressively became cooler, crisper, more etheral, finally dried down to a cristalline white musk scent of absolute clarity. What a fascinating experience! It was like watching the night fall and staring at the pure, unpolluted sky studded with stars. Wow. I did not even register the notes in themselves, not even how much I actually like Nuit as a perfume, because I was so mesmerized by the experience itself. I saw a dress in a window display this morning that immediately reminded me of the Goddess Nuit: body-hugging, deep navy blue embroidered with gold and silver stars, it looked like something She may have worn. It would also go very well with Nuit the fragrance

How very comforting to read another review mentioning a fish smell! I seriously thought I was going crazy the first time I tried Nanshe because it distinctly smelled of anchovy... even on my skin... admittedly, I am from the Mediterranean and I love my anchovies, but not in my perfume! This olfactory mystery was so puzzling that I tried Nanshe again yesterday night. Bracing myself for a whiff of anchovy, I found that the fish smell was less strong than the first time, but still present. This time, however, it disappeared quickly after applying. It turns out that when Nanshe is not doing strange things with my chemistry, it smells almost like straight lemongrass on my skin. I am a huge fan of lavender and was looking forward to it appearing, but it did not show up. Nanshe definitely kept its promise as a Somnium blend: I can remember at least two, maybe three, of the dreams I had last night. They were quite vivid and while this is not a bad thing in itself, it made for a rather chaotic night during which I woke up several times.

Being strongly attracted to all things Kemetic, I have been collecting dutifully the Egyptian-themed blends and I was very much looking forward to trying Nefertiti. I must admit that I did not know what to think at first. What I smelled was a nice mix of florals and herbs, maybe a touch too aquatic for my taste but not unpleasantly so. It was light, slightly green and, to be honest, I did not find that it had a lot of personality. A little underwhelming for such a prestigious Queen. No sooner had I come to such a heretical conclusion than the great Queen decided to prove me wrong and I am happy she did! Twenty minutes or so into drydown, Nefertiti started morphing into a much more interesting scent, rounder and creamier, a smooth blend of greenness, herbs and florals. Once it settled down, it reminded me of a softer Hamadryad without the cinnamon. Truly seductive and worth reapplying often, as it is unfortunately quite light and fades quickly.

Love Me is all cinnamon and spice on my skin, especially right after applying. It is not until the complete drydown stage that its different layers are revealed. Now that the fire of the spice has died down somewhat, I can see the cola/dragon's blood comparisons that other reviewers mentioned. Love me is a really, really nice spicy scent (I love my cinnamon!), but for use as a perfume, I prefer its similarly-intended Gallic relative French Love, that has the added bonus of complexity and smoothness.

It is not often that a BPAL blend smells artificial to me, but it is what happened during the first half-hour of wearing La Belle au Bois Dormant. A big, bold, unapologetic artificial fruit note. Hrm. I do not think we are going to get along. However, after wearing it for a little longer, the blend opens up and I can now smell some individual notes. The pear, always elusive on my skin much to my despair, is long gone, but I can recognise the plumeria and the magnolia. Added to the tuberose, they make for a really sweet floral reminiscent of Black Dahlia. Not bad and definitely a pleasant surprise after the overwhelmingly artificial first stage, but not one of my favourites. If you like sweet florals, I would definitely recommend that you give it a try, though.

I love Kumiho, I really do, but... on me it smells *exactly* like Shangai. Tonight, I applied both to make sure that I was not imagining things and I honestly cannot smell any significant difference between my two wrists. Kumiho might be a touch drier and less sweet than Shangai. I hardy get any ginger from it; it is all tea and lemon. I love them both, but since I have a bottle of Shangai, I may not need more Kumiho for a little while...

Honey blends usually work well on me, I love fig and cloves and since finding BPAL, I realised that patchouli can smell delicious... needless to say, I promptly ordered Hetairae when it got released! The honey is by far the most prominent note on me in this blend and, as is sometimes the case, it goes slightly sour after a little while. Which I actually do not mind... unless it is underscored by another sharp note and that is the role that the clove seems to be playing here. The fig adds a touch of earthiness but mostly it reinforces the sweetness of the honey and the ylang-ylang. The result is a very sweet yet sharp blend that never really found its pace on my skin. Not unpleasant but lacking balance.

Grog came as a freebie in my last order and gosh, it is wonderful! The rum note fades quickly on me and gives way to a definite butteriness that I find delicious, but I can see how it would be a bit too much for some folks. Very reminiscent of a lighter, less layered Midway... including the unfortunate plastic smell that shows up halfway through drydown and thankfully ends up going away. I was intrigued by Grog, even though I do not know if I would have ordered it. So I am very grateful that I got to try it. I may not need more than an imp of it, though. This is not an everyday kind of scent to me.

Call it chauvinism or power of suggestion, but I just knew that French Love would work well on moi and it does, indeed! Now that I read the other reviews, I recognise that wonderfully warm, spicy base note as being dragon's blood, mais bien sur! There is definitely something reminiscent of Dragon's Milk in French Love, but the sweet, floral spiciness of it also reminds me of Follow Me Boy. This is a well-balanced, warm, happy scent. It is effortlessly seductive, alluring and a bit naughty without ever being lewd or over the top. I can see it becoming one of my staples. As for its Voodoo properties, wearing it makes me happy, and happiness is attractive, isn't it?

Fallen could have been one of the BPALs that got away: it had been on my wishlist almost since the very beginning but I never got around to order it. So last time I placed an order, I decided that it was high time to give it a try. I guess that my eye got caught by the musk, the amber and the violet, three of my favourite notes. I was a little nervous about the vetivert (it usually turns downright nasty on me) but I should not have worried. For on my skin, Fallen is perfectly unoffensive, unobtrusive, dare I say it? -unremarkable. From the description, I would have hoped for something with much more personality. It is not a bad scent on me by any means, it just lacks oomph and character. It would probably make a nice bath oil, but I think I will give it as a "beginner's imp" to one of my friends who needs a non-threatening introduction to BPAL

Another poor soul here on whom Midway turned to plastic It starts off extremely buttery and caramelly (all good things in my book!) and then, Bam! Plastic. Curses. Having said that, it is not so plastic-y that it is unwearable but it certainly is a bit of a disappointment, especially when it is so close to be perfect for the first minute or so. I am keeping my bottle nonetheless as I think Midway will be stunning in candles and bath salts

I have had Euphrosyne for a little more than a month now and I probably tried it twice or thrice. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about its description until today and I must say that I am *very* surprised at the notes in it. That, and a little taken aback to see how far off I was. When I ordered Euphrosyne, I was expecting a nice, light floral with the added warmth of vanilla. When I applied this morning, what I got was a bold fruity fragrance with a hint of spice that was quite a bit heavier and sweeter than I intended to wear today. Now that I read what is in this blend, I realise that what I mistook for fruit and spice is actually the rose and the gardenia combined with the slight sharpness of jasmine. The sweet note must be the vanilla. It does make sense, but I do not get along too well with gardenia and I am afraid this imp will have to be given to someone who will love it more than I do.

Eris sounded like an interesting concept for a scent and grabbed my attention right away. Plus, I love mimosa, so I definitely had to try it! Even though the smell in the imp is a little sharp, quite possibly because of the mimosa, it was not even remotely as jarring as I would have expected it to be. Once on the skin, it mellows down very quickly and turns out to be quite nice and fresh: a jaunty mix of red fruit, watermelon and mimosa. Mimosa can sometimes go a little sour on me, much to my despair, but I am happy to report that this is not the case at all here. This is a very nice scent that I would recommend to anyone looking for something a bit different in the fruity/floral family, as well as mimosa lovers. Just be aware that Eris is not a discordant, chaotic scent in spite of its name

Oh but... this is just delicious!!! I put off ordering Elegba for a while, fearing that it would be too masculine. Then I decided that the coconut would probably make it more manageable than some similar-sounding blends like Santo Domingo, so I went ahead and I am sure glad I did! There is not much I can add to the other reviews... the three listed notes are quite recognisable, sweet rum first, then coconut and rich dark tobacco. Lovely, buttery and exotic. Yum!

I fell in love with the description of Eden when it was released: so many fabulous notes in one single blend! In the imp and just after applying, the almond does its usual "now you smell me, now you don't" routine: for the first ten seconds, it lends an overpowering medicinal smell to the blend but it evaporates almost immediately and gives way to a very interesting sweet greenness, or maybe it is a green sweetness? The most prominent notes on my skin are the fig (as always with the BPAL fig, it is a darker, earthier note rather than a straigthforward fruity one) and the fig leaf, which is what I was most looking forward to. Coming from a part of the world when fig trees naturally grow, I am in love with the green, yet milky, yet earthy, yet fresh scent of the leaves and it is what I am actually looking for in fig blends. Bingo! The slight sourness of the honey plays up the greenness quite nicely, while the sandalwood grounds the whole blend beautifully. The coconut is present but probably in small amounts as it stays in the background, even though it is a note my skin tends to amplify dramatically. A very lovely blend, admirably balanced and that features my beloved fig leaf notes. Joy. I must admit that the first time I tried Eden I found it nice but not outstanding. Now that I am trying it again, it is really growing on me. Highly recommended.

I got to try Cheshire Cat thanks to my wonderful friend Chin who knew it was on my wishlist and gave me her imp. Thank you! Well, I really, really like grapefruit and this particular one did not disappoint! It is a sweet pink grapefruit we are talking about here, rather than an acidic yellow one. On my skin, there is nothing sharp about Cheshire Cat at all. The grapefruit is nicely balanced by the red current and I can also catch a whiff of usk every now and then. I had to wait until complete drydown to be able to recognise the lavender and the chamomile, both of which impart a mellow character to the blend. This is quite lovely and, while I may have not bought a whole bottle of it had it not been discontinued, it is definitely one of the nicest citrus blends I tried, with the added bonus of decent staying power.

Brinsingamen is simply lovely I am a big fan of amber, so I was very much looking forward to trying this. It lived up to my expectations and then some. Thankfully the carnation is not too vocal in this blend, as it is not a note I care for. It just lends the slightest hint of spice to a scent that is otherwise soft and wonderfully feminine. A very apt scent for Brinsingamen, it is indeed irresistible (at least to me) and will make you feel gorgeous!

The first time I tried Baghdad, it turned heavy and masculine on me. Not that it is inherently a bad thing, but I could not really see myself wearing it. I tried it again tonight and this time I am pleased to report that my nose seems to "get it"! There is definitely something reminiscent of good quality incense in this blend, layered with an amber note that strongly reminds me of The Lion. The elaborate spice mix and the delicate rose lend much depth and interest to this scent. In other words, it is not just another amber blend or just another incensey blend. The amber dries down to a slightly powdery/dusty note. Nothing overpowering or unpleasant at all, though. Overall, this is a very well balanced blend that is delicate and elegant when it could so easily have turned heady or one dimensional. Bravo!

An imp of Vechernyaya was thrown into my order by the Lab and it immediately grabbed my attention. Being a huge fan of white musk, I had been tempted to order it, but I must admit that the poppy scared me off. So I was really happy to be able to try it. In the imp and when first applied, Vechernyaya was quite masculine, not unbearably so, but I still wondered if it was going to work on me. Thankfully, it mellowed out quickly into a very interesting scent in that it had the unmistakable crispness and airiness of white musk as a head note and then the earthy sweetness of the patchouli/poppy combo as a base note. The patchouli and the poppy grounded the musk quite nicely, yet the different notes never really mingled and remained quite distinct through the various stages. After complete drydown, I was left with a softer, more rounded version of the initial scent that was, like others said, a little "perfumey" but elegant. This is a very long-lasting blend that I would recommend to anyone who finds that white musk disappears too quickly on them.

Once again, it was the lovely Chin who gave me this imp. Thank you so much! Before reading the reviews, I would never have thought of pineapple, but now that almost everyone mentions it, this is indeed what I smell. So far this is a tropical scent, very sweet, almost sugary, with an undertone of something darker. It reminds me of a heavier, slightly darker Xiuhtehcuhtli. As the blend settles down, some floral notes and some red berries come out to keep the pineapple company. Now this is beginning to smell really fruity, yet this is not your usual bright, playful, youthful fruity scent. It is counterbalanced by what I think may be dark musk and a strong incense note that was probably there from the beginning but that I just recognized. Well into drydown, for one fleeting moment, Baba Yaga tries to pass itself for a somewhat sinister scent a la Gaueko but come on, let's be serious! Sinister, with all that pineapple going on? Hah! I don't think so! After complete drydown, it fades into a light but lasting blend of fruit and incense. Really interesting. I am looking forward to knowing what the actual notes are!