undream

An embrace: black poppy, lavender, thick black incense, black amber, rose geranium, Brazilian rosewood, and benzoin. this is a dark purple scent full of sweet, candied fruit. an hour or so in, the incense unfurls out into the throw, and it is beautiful, but the overall heavy, syrupy sweet scent of this is just a bit too much for me. off to a better home!

pale, fresh & beautiful in the vial, sweet & powdery on the skin. i don't get any rose at all, not at first, instead picking up a subtle soapy note (a lovely soapy note, like an expensive all-natural, exotic floral soap, and i'm wondering if this isn't the musk?) which warms up into the rose. there is also a spicy note coming out now, &i am so pleased as i love spicy rose scents . . . someone else here described this oil as a "soft, powdery rose touched with skin musk and a light dusting of spices," and that is pretty much spot on. i am unsure of whether or not this one is a keeper for me just yet, but i am in the middle of reading a gorgeous fantasy novel full of thunderstorms and otherworldly curios, courtesans and alchemists, high magic, &this scent, i think, will be an appropriate companion as i curl back up into the story, tonight. beautiful.

this was almost cologney to me in the bottle(!), but on drydown, oh my lord. this is so beautiful. i do agree that it's somewhat tropical-feeling? there's something very humid and lush about the florals in this one. i'm also getting a very spiky, spicy scent right up close to the skin that i can almost but not quite put my finger on, but it reminds me so strongly of autumn, whatever it is. after some time, i do pick up the greener notes, and just. ungh. this is doing so many lovely things on me. <3 all in all a gorgeous floral blend, and because it so strongly reminds me of autumn i am definitely tempted to keep this one & make it my signature scent throughout this fall season. i think e pluribus unum and i will have to spend a little more time together before i can really decide one way or the other, but so far i am quite liking this relationship. ETA: okay. a few hours later, &we both sadly decided we should see other people. as beautiful as this oil is, it just hits a certain point and turns a little unpleasant on me. alas.

ok. i cannot even begin to pretend to know what notes i'm getting here, but this oil is so beautiful. i was really anticipating trying this one, because i adore rose, and while i never actually got any obvious rose, i am loving this. in the bottle it seemed to me to be that all-encompassing general bpal smell? which is amazing in itself, right? but once on the skin it bloomed into this lovely, almost humid bouquet, morphing on drydown into an absolutely gorgeous dusty floral. le sigh! i really wish i could do this oil justice with a more articulate & accurate description, but suffice it to say that i believe the last rose of summer and i might be together for a long long time. <3

i was so nervous going into this one, because i'm not a huge fan of lemon, and as much as i adore jasmine, jasmine does not adore me. however, i love rose, and i can't help but want to try each and every bpal rose scent i come across. this one was no exception! huge thank yous to obsidienne for being such an incredibly generous swapper (&a pretty amazing e-friend). oddly, my fears about specific notes in rose moon turned out to be unwarranted; this oil was largely sweet & powdery both in its wet stage and on drydown. the rose briefly bloomed somewhere in the middle there, but for the most part all i got was powder powder powder(!). it's a lovely oil, and i am SO glad i was given the chance to try it (miss m; ♥), but i have so many other rose oils that are more complex and, i think, work much better on me. so! i think it will be off to swaps with this little darling . . .

when i first smelled this one in the imp, i immediately thought of wafer, the kind of wafer you get in chocolate candy bars. once on, there is definite cocoa here! it's lovely, soft cocoa that become more of a dusty cocoa on drydown. i haven't been much in a "foody" mood of late, so i'll likely be swapping this one out, but still; it's really beautiful, and i am so glad i was given the chance to try it.

sweet & incensey. i did not even know that there was leather in this until i read the description, after which all i could think was how the hell did you miss that? :/ i love leather!! up close, this oil has a dangerous & sharp bite (that i am beginning to suspect is myrrh?) that almost had me writing this one off, but oh my god, the throw? is soooooo beautiful, &i mean, like, roll your eyes back gorgeous. sensual, warm, slinky, and more importantly, mine. definite keeper.

powdery with a sharp bite, sweet and almost dirty. the throw is gorgeous, but i'm just not feeling the overall scent. off to swaps.

oh, this is lovely. wet, i get the amber and orris (a lovely floral), but the citrus peeks out once it hits my skin. drydown morphs into a subtle sweet scent with a bit of citrus. my reigning thought throughout all of this was, "this is nice." however, i don't think it's really me? i may give this one another shot, because it really is beautiful, but i'm suspecting i'll be swapping this out to someone who can connect with it better than i apparently am!

i went into this one blind, and oh my god. i love this oil as much for the imagery that it evokes for me as for the incredible scent of it. i swiped some on before heading to bed (i usually read for an hour or two before finally falling asleep!), and oh my heart; i could not keep my nose out of the crook of my arm. caliban immediately made me think of lying down upon the forest floor during a gentle midnight rainstorm. it is sharp, wet, leafy and . . . not dirty, but there is a definite feeling of wet soil in there. i briefly thought i was smelling cedar; it had the same masculine cologne type scent that cedar sometimes gives me, but it was brief and even still somehow more complex & lovely than what i usually get from the more masculine scents. it changed somewhat over time, becoming a little dusty, a little more dirt-y (in the cleanest, most lovely way imaginable) and there was something in there that was almost sweet or floral (the wine? i'm thinking), but it never entirely lost that dark, beautiful aquatic feel, and just UNHH. love. LOVE. i think i might need a big bottle of this, for sure.

i was thoroughly expecting a similar experience with hamadryad that it seems early reviewers had (lucky minkies!), a beautiful cinnamony, woodsy floral that i could not wait to get my hands on. to my great sadness, however, i appear to have come into possession of the latter version of this oil, and it is ALL wintergreen/root beer on me, both wet and on drydown. granted, about an hour after i apply it, it settles into a kind of subtle powdery floral, which is quite nice, but i can not in any way stomach the initial scent. ugh. definite swap pile.

though it's not exact, all i could think of while wearing this was love's baby soft. juliet, on me, is just a very sweet powder. innocent & shimmery, pale & youthful, but ultimately too sweet&powdery for me. off to swaps.

dark & biting, a sharp herbal scent that hits me way high up in the nose. this one is so peculiar, &i'm really not even sure how to describe it. it is cool & prickly, dusty, and again, biting somehow. i like this one somewhat, but it's not really me? i may give it another try, but it's likely off to swaps for sheol.

i looove wine notes, but on me this was just a very sweet grape. and a very sweet, very juicy spice. the spice gave it a lovely, exotic spin, but after some time the spice slinks away &it's just me and grape. interesting and unique, but ultimately too sweet/grapey for me.

as i tend to do of late, i tried queen mab without first (re)reading the description. first on, i swore there was honey in this! it has the same golden, foody scent that honey notes always give me (&that usually does not sit well with my tummy). after a while, it settles into a gorgeous subtle, sweet floral. i never would have guessed there is jasmine in this either as a) everything is so well-blended that it was hard for me to single out any one note, and jasmine always turns badly on me (despite how much i love jasmine!), and the florals in this did no such thing. success! i'm still a little on the fence as to whether i will keep this one or not, but - even though i know it's not actually honey - the honey scent in this is totally (&very uncharacteristically!) romancing me. not to mention the gorgeous floral drydown. we will see, but! i think we'll be friends.

a beautiful, sweet floral; i couldn't pick any single notes out other than rose, &not having read the description beforehand i was unsure of what else i was even supposed to be smelling, but la belle is lovely, calm, innocent. sadly, it turns unpleasant on me, after too long. i'm not sure what it is in this that dislikes me, but it dislikes me enough to put this one in the swaps pile. le sigh . . .

this one could not be more perfect in both name and description. in the imp, moon rose is such a delicate, translucent thing, all pale moonlight & ghostly flowers. once on, it sweetens into a definite rose, light and, again, so delicate. dewy. after a time, however, the rose disappears & this one morphs into something i can't really identify but which makes me feel so sad; some sort of scent association with a time/place i can't exactly recall just now. that alone was enough for me to re-home this one, but then it went on to morph further into a very potent soap scent. not exactly unpleasant, but very much not me. still, i am so glad i got the chance to try this one! i can't resist the lab's roses . . .

This. So right on. I've taken to trying on oils now without looking to see which notes they offer beforehand; with Anne Bonny, I kept thinking leather! the sharp bite of herbs! some kind of sweet booze!? I may have been a little off on nailing my exact notes with this one, but still! Anne Bonny just does incredible things for me. Dark & sweet with a fresh, loamy bite. So so good. A definite new favourite. <3

i, too, got only baby powder with this one. a very lovely baby powder (baby powder is a nice smell!), but not something i really care to often smell like. too, up close to my skin, it was more a baby powder gone wrong somehow? a kind of. dirty baby powder. not exactly unpleasant (believe it or not), but again, not something i really care to often smell like. off to swaps! maybe the next lucky girl will get the tobacco&leather that i coveted.

… This perfume embodies her gentler, benign aspect as the capricious Goddess of Dance: muguet and Hawaiian white ginger enveloped by warm, damp tropical blooms. in light of my affinity with pele, this was an oil i just had to try(!). &oh, wow. this smells nothing like i really expected it to. i went in thinking i was going to get that very specific tropical scent - you know, the coconut sunscreen & lush florals combo (despite the fact that there is no coconut notes even in this!) - but what ended up greeting me was easily one of the most beautiful florals i have yet to come across via BPAL. just. gorgeous. i keep attempting to come up with ways in which to describe it, but either i just don't have the BPAL vocabulary or it really is just a thing you need to experience for yourself. after some time, it warms into a very creamy, humid scent, and honest to god it is not a thing i would ever consider a me scent? (beautiful, but moreso a thing i would normally wish to smell around me, perhaps on somebody else for example, as opposed to on me) but something about it is so lovely & so comforting, and i find myself with my nose in the crook of my arm over & over again. i'd say that's a pretty telling sign that this is going to be a keeper, for me.

first on, the madam is a warm & lightly powdery scent, comforting, beautiful. over time it becomes more complex, deeply sweet & sensual, dry, warm & incensy; the dark and smokey dwelling of the resident fortune teller, the light scent of herbs wafting in from her open window at twilight. oh, this is love. i don't get any of the pomegranate or plum notes, unfortunately, but it is just so gorgeous despite. however, i did think that i was out of my mind for repeatedly believing i smelled tobacco in this, but an earlier reviewer mentioned it as well, saying it was the patchouli leaf, so yay!! my nose nails another note. ultimately, a dark & sexy scent. one i will definitely wear on nights i am feeling particularly witchy.

oh, bengal. i had been certain you would be a disaster on me, with your honey note which never seems to settle well with my tummy, and your clove and ginger, both of which can often wreak havoc in my sensitive little nose. but something in me said, "oh ta. have faith! it sounds so very intriguing!" &honestly, musk? cinnamon? peppers?? a recipe for the exotic, &i love me some exotic . . . the scent of this perfume oil, once on, is suuuch a delicious, spicy experience, very much like a potently cinnamon-spiced holiday scent, but brighter somehow. after some time, the honey comes out, warming it sensuously, morphing it into a thick & heady, comforting embrace. it is just. honest to god, it something like heaven. i am astonished with every single note in you, bengal. you largely contain a group of scents that, anywhere else, would induce an upset tummy and an unhappy disposition for me, but in this? in you, bengal? oh, honey. i am in love.

lush & humid, like walking along the edge of a flowering pond in the cool moonlight of early spring. &the throw is amazing; just an unbelievably gorgeous floral that i couldn't begin to describe. (some things are just so beautiful for any such words!) oddly, for the first few moments after putting it on - and eventually, after i have been wearing it for some time - a strange, kind of unpleasant note comes out which reminds me of the lab's jasmine oils; BPAL's jasmine always always always turns into hairspray on me (sob), &while this one does not do so to the extent that jasmine does, it is too close for me to not be unhappy about it. however, i refuse to give up TWO florals i absolutely adore (ohgod, gardenia, heart heart heart), AND the throw in this / mid-point wet floral phase is just so lovely that i am all about giving it a second - and third - and possibly ninth - chance. highly recommended for floral/gardenia lovers!!

wet in the imp, this smells, to me, of baby powder & a subtle berry scent? once on, it becomes a strong baby powder in the throw and an awful peach scent up close to the skin - which is off, i know, as there are no peach notes in this(!), but that is what it smells of! &sadly, it just does not work on me at all. blech. (this is, it should be noted, a case of beautiful oil / bad note; i have never really liked peach scents.) fortunately, after about an hour the "peachy"-ness disappears, and it settles into a soft baby powder smell, which worked beautifully as i put it on right before going to bed, and i have always found the scent of baby powder to be very calming & lulling. when i awoke this morning, i could still smell this long-lasting oil on my arms(!), only a deep golden honey note had developed during the night. lovely, thick and heady, but alas! i'm afraid i can't handle honey scents, either. off to a better home!

I love bats. Love love love them! So naturally I had to try this one. The artwork on the imp label is one of my favourite "bat pieces" which I was thrilled by(!), and my first impression of the scent itself is that it very strongly reminded me of The Ghost? I'm not sure if there are any corresponding notes, and it's possible that it's just been too long since I have smelled that particular scent for me to be remembering correctly, but I swear that something in it reminded me of The Ghost. I suspect they both are just very cool & lush? A chilly and early, dewy Spring night in the garden, under the full moon. (And I love The Ghost, so it's promising!) Unfortunately, once it dries down, Bat becomes something very different and something which does not play well on my skin. An unpleasant kind of department store perfume - the kind that most women might enjoy but which just seems to hurt my nose. Booo! I desperately wanted this one to work - it would have been so perfect, for me! - but alas. Off to swaps it goes.