whitsunweddings

In the imp: Kinda lemony-herby green-ness? Wet: Sharp lemony herbals. Dry: Really nice honey with a musty, fuzzy herbal note in the background.

Bergamot, clove, hazelnut, pecan, lavender, tonka, and thyme. In the imp: Toasty nuttiness with bergamot. Wet: Reeally strong bergamot with a wee bit of lavender and thyme in the background. Dry: Yummy bergamot with hints of herbs and nuts. My skin amps clove (yay!) and this became more prominent after about ten minutes, resulting in a really interesting mix of bergamot and clove with snatches of herby lavender. I really liked smelling clove in a context that wasn't 'christmassy spices'. Srsly contemplating a bottle purchase.

In the imp: Sweet cherries - very ripe - and honey. Wet: A mix of cherries, cherry blossom and honey. Nice. Dry: Yep. Very fruity, kinda sour.

In the imp: The PATCHOULI-pillar. Wet: Incensey jasmine. Dry: That's it, pretty much. Meh.

In the imp: Toast and anise. Wet: Toast with very anisey tea. Definitely getting some sugar too. Wowsers! Dry: Toast and very sweet anise. This isn't a scent I'd usually go for - I abhor anise - but this scent is so very relevant to me (I live off toast and cups of tea) that I find myself wanting a bottle anyway.

In the imp: Alcoholic red gummy lollies. Wet: Amaretto and sweet red candy. Dry: Pretty much the same. Meh.

In the imp: Blood musk and flowers. Quite fruity and sweet. Wet: Musky orris. Dry: Weird. I tried this on last week and got coconut, but none at all today. Dry, this is pretty much just orris. It's a nice enough scent, but feels quite juvenile on me - you know, like the cheap body sprays they sell at the supermarket for teenage girls?

In the imp: Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper! I'm thirsty just sniffing it. Wet: I get rose, cherry, and myrrh. Oh my god, delicious. Dry: Powdery rose. Such a shame - if it had kept its wet scent, I'd roll about in the stuff daily. Alas, alack.

I've been looking for a decent lily scent for aaages. In my family, we don't have a christmas tree, but we presents under a table with a big vase of lilies on top. So, to me, it's a very scent, reminding me of Christmas and the summer holidays. In the imp: Lilies (duh), maybe something a bit green. Wet: Mmmm, lovely creamy lilies. Very fresh and clean. Dry: Yup, pure fresh lilies. It's a lovely scent, though very mature. I won't be buying a bottle, but I'll keep my imp around for days when I need a pick-me-up.

Bleeeeugh. In the imp: Very cologney. Pine and juniper, fo' sho. Wet: Cypress and pine. Dry: Sort of a sour pine smell. The musk is sort of nice, but overall this is waaay too masculine and really gross. I had to wash it off after ten minutes both times I tested it.

In the imp: Lily, sandalwood, maybe some mandarin? WetL Lily, madarian, and opium. Lovely. Dry: All the notes combine to make one really lovely sweet scent, though I do get vanilla and opium the strongest. I don't think I'll be getting a bottle, but I'll keep my imp for days when I want something pretty.

In the imp: Spicy, woodsy citrus. Wet: Spiced bergamot with a bit of rose. This is a lot like Libertine. Dry: Powdery rose, all over the place. Bah humbug!

In the imp: PATCHOULI-us. Also peanuts, weirdly. Wet: A mix of patchouli, amber, frankincense and cedar. I think the latter two combine to make that peanutty smell on my skin, which is unfortunate, as I'm allerigc to them and thus don't enjoy the smell at all. Dry: Mostly frankincense and amber, with a bit of patchouli and cedar in the background.

In the imp: Cherry blossom and citrus. Wet: Yup. Mostly cherry blossom. Very fresh and clean. Dry: I don't really get any black tea, which is a shame. This is just citrus and cherry blossom on me. This is probably the most perfumey BPAL scent I've tried thus far, though I probably think that because I used to wear the Body Shop's Cherry Blossom scent. Also, this faded very fast - I put some on at 3pm, and by 6 it was barely there.

I probably would not have bought this if I had known that cubeb was a lemony-type thing. I think I was just bowled over by the promise of seven honeys. In the imp: Lemon and honey. Quite sweet and (heh heh) tart. Wet: Sweet lemon, with a bit of cardamom. Dry: The same. Not much of a morpher, this one. I noticed that over the day the lemon blended with the honey a bit more, making it more of a tart honey than a specifically lemony one. This was quite nice, for a lemon scent, but the association with Lemsip makes it unwearable for me!

Cordelia is my middle name, so I had to try this. In the imp: Cedar like whoa. Wet: The most planty and green perfume I've ever smelled. Not floral, or woody, or piney, it literally just smelled like leaves. Dry: Peculiar! Musky florals and leaves. After fifteen minutes, it seemed to be mostly green tea and musk, with maybe a bit of violet and lemon. It's a remarkable scent, so fresh and multi-faceted.

In the imp: Sort of like medicinal honey? Wet: Weirdly like fresh feijoa. Dry: I get that it's mint and honey - like I can smell the seperate notes - but it really just smells like feijoa. Which isn't a bad thing at all - I used to rub feijoa juice on my wrists to make 'perfume' when I was little. Half an hour later: Minty honey. Kinda musty Two hours later: Mint and mustiness both gone. Now it's just a generic powdery honey scent.

In the imp: The PATCHOULI serpent. Wet: Yep. Patchouli, all up in my nostrils. Dry: I kinda get some incense notes every now and again, but on me this is almost entirely patchouli.

In the imp: Smells kinda mentholly, actually. Wet: Yup, Vicks Vapour Rub. Dry: Seperate notes start to emerge - I get grape, orange blossom and sweet rosemary. So this is pretty much Catherine but with grape. Half an hour later: Grape grape grape. This faded quite quickly.

In the imp: Anne PATCHOULI Wet: Patchouli, maybe a bit of sandalwood? Dry: Patchouli and lovely sandalwood. Half an hour later: The sandalwood has gone quite powdery and sweet (though it's still lovely). Very strong throw.

In the imp: Plums and opium. Sounds like my kind of evening! Wet: Hmmm, lovely opium with red fruit in the background. Dry: Boo! The opium disappears completely and I'm left with slightly sour plums and berries.

Rosewood and chamomile with bergamot, violet, red sandalwood, primrose and Arabian musk. I bought this in the hope that I would fall madly in love with it, and make a little icon thingy for it featuring Pete Doherty's beautiful (pre-serious crack addiction) face. I'm not quite that in love with it, but it's a nice scent nonetheless. Wet: A boozy, spicy floral. Hey, appropriate! Wet: Spiced, powedery rose. Dry: As above. I've written "not very libertiney!" in my notes. Also, the throw is initially very strong - like, I was wearing this while my enjoying my weekly bowl of porridge, and I could taste this scent as I was eating. I was understandably a bit peeved at this, as eating my bowl of porridge is pretty much the highlight of my week. The rose fades quite a bit after an hour or so, and Libertine becomes more of a spiced bergamot that sticks quite close to the skin.

I just bought this because I liked the name. I don't really like ozone and or florals, so keep that in mind. Bottle: Soapy floral. Wet: Flowers and ozone. Dry: Creamy flowers, some ozone. Nice, but not really remarkable.

I cannot say enough good things about this one. In the imp: Roses, jam and butter. Wet: Delicious jam with roses underneath. Dry: Roses (behaving themselves for a change), with sweet glossy jam and buttery pastry at the edges. It's weirdly not cloying (as foodies often are on me), which the roses are probably responsible for. It's not foody, or floral, or fruity - it's just YUM. I love it so much I've made it my first bottle order

In the imp: Dark polished wood. Wet: Wood wood wood! Dry: Sweet incense (I've never been inside a Catholic church, as far as I can recall, but this doesn't smell like the incense you'd get in a head shop - like Gaueko does - so I'm assuming this is of the more ecclesiastical variety). The wood is still quite prominent. This is a nice scent, but I think I'd perfer it as an atmospheric spray (so my tiny little bedroom in the seventies monstrosity that is my house could become a CATHEDRAL of DOOM) than as a perfume.