upsidedown

Old Venice is all red flowers and berries and memories of my Italian family, rich, sweet, heady, and just the slightest bit tart. I'm definitely getting the plum, the currant, and I keep thinking I smell figs, against the gentlest most unobtrusive floral backdrop. Images of summer nights and golden skin and again, red flowering plants and berries and fruit. I doubt this is something I would ever have ordered for myself, as neither fruits nor heavy florals are my usual taste, but I recieved this as a freebie and I'm really, really impressed; this is beautiful and evocative.

ooooh.... giddy with anticipation time! Some of these look really amazingly incredible, namely, Queen of Sheba, Djinn, Nephilim, Kali, Scarecrow... all of them? Well, 19 added right to my wishlist, anyway. & moonflower notes! (I've had moonflowers growing in my garden since I was a little girl) whee, thank you thank you thank you!

Unseelie sounded really wonderful, I was looking forward to trying it, but, alas, I don't think it's for me, or at least, it wasn't today. In the bottle, I get a very particular floral smell that smells exactly like a little glass heart full of amber colored perfume I was given as a child. I probably still have that somewhere - I'm positive it's the same scent. While there's nothing particularly bad about that, I had a feeling it might be a little too overpoweringly floral for me, and unfortunately, I was right. I put a little on and immediately felt like I was being suffocated in all these cloying, sickly sweet, floral smells, and my first thought was, ugh, icky old lady perfume. After an hour passed and it still wouldn't lighten or morph, and with a headache growing, I tried to wash it off but I can still smell it lingering slightly in the air around me. I may try this again at some point, but I don't think these pretty girly floral scents really work on me.

Velvet is positively divine; I never knew "perfume" could smell this wonderful! On me, this is all bittersweet chocolate, not at all like a chocolate bar, but instead dusky and rich and wonderful. I also got wafts of incense, which I imagine was the myrrh doing its thing, but a few hours in those were replaced by a very gentle vanilla that just smoothed the whole thing up and lightened it a little. Rooms scented with too much incense have a tendency to make my throat constrict, which is a pity, but this does no such thing. Now, nine hours after applying it, my wrist smells a little like something approaching cocoa butter, but more layered and mysterious. I'm in olafactory heaven here, Velvet is amazing.

I can't figure this one out at all. It's not at all what I expected, but, then, that's not a bad thing, nor does it necessarily mean anything at all. I consider Strength to be my personality card as well, and it's the card that goes along with my sun sign, Leo, so it doesn't surprise me that this reminded me just a little of that scent - the slight fruitiness initially, and something in the drydown strikes me as similar, although I don't think this is sandalwood? I also felt the hit of green right after putting it on, but really I still know as little about this one as I did when I put it on this morning. It's nice, and I'm intrigued; I want to know more, I want to learn its secrets, I want to wear it another day and see what else my nose can pick out.

I expected to really love this one, but I hadn't thought to factor in the neroli - whoops. Naiad smelled like lemony cleaning products on me for the first hour of wearing. True, after that it did fade into a lovely lotus deepened with a hint of lavendar, but Old Paris smells that way almost the entire time. I will try this again, but unless my body chemistry was just being entirely up a wall today, I doubt it's something I'll be buying a bottle of.

I'm a complete lavendar freak, but I'm also very picky about the tone of my lavendar - as soon as it takes on even a hint of astringent bitterness or a falsely sweet twinge of powder, forget it, it's coming off. Wet, Old Paris was extremely strong, bitter, and basically everything else I dislike about some lavendar scents, but that was brief enough and more than worth the wait for the drydown, when the lotus smoothed out the whole scent beautifully. I kept thinking I also smelt something just a little sweet, just a little spicy in the background, but it dodged all attempts to be identified and made me wonder if it was even there at all. This melts right into my skin and makes me feel mysterious in that sort of cool, icy way. I think it's my favorite that I've tried from BPAL so far - this is near perfection in a little vial. (sigh, if only it lasted longer! )

I've never been a fan of roses, and thus, Eve never even made it onto my enormous "to try" list, but the lovely folks at the lab threw it in as a freebie imp with my first order so I gave it a try today. I must say, I was impressed - that I liked this at all is something considering my immense dislike of most rosey and fruity scents. Started out sweet and girly and just a little powdery, putting me in mind of frilly dresses and pink, pink, pink. As it dried down, though, a slightly tart, slightly acrid smell started to overtake the sweetness, perhaps the apple, or maybe it's honey that doesn't work with my body chemistry, which would really be a pity, as this one also irritated my skin a bit, although not enough for me to wash it off. All in all, this is a beautiful, feminine scent, but perhaps not for me - light and sweet isn't my usual taste, and something in my chemistry just threw if off a little.

As a Leo I knew I had to try this but I was worried about not liking it, having tried Soular Therapy's Leo scent and finding it overwhelming and headache inducing - far too much citrus packed into it, basically. I needn't have worried; the lime and orange give Leo just enough tang but they're tempered beautifully by the sandalwood. I wore this to work today and walked around with my head held high and my hair down and unruly in typical lion's mane fashion, and felt damn good in my skin, all in all.