bifemmefatale

The Baron definitely has almonds in the bottle, but they die back immediately on my skin, and out come the spicy cloves of bay rum, but it's smokier than Jazz Funeral. I think there is some frankincense in here, as the cloves smell burnt and resinous, like a lit Djarum. Unfortunately, not a good scent for me, and I had high hopes for it after liking Jazz Funeral and Salome so much. Seems none of the almond scents want to stay almond on me. *pouts*

In the bottle: an unexpectedly tangy herbal, which seems to be the lemon with cedar & osmanthus. On: Oh my. Lovely, lovely lilac blended with wisteria, subtle notes of green tea and a light, pale musk. This is gorgeous. I don't normally like florals that much, but I adore lilac, as we had 4 huge old bushes of it at my childhood home. It's a very visceral connection to Spring, warmth and beauty for me. And bonus! This scent is not so cloying as to smell like my mother or a funeral home. This may be a big bottle purchase.

In the bottle: vanilla sugar and a hint of musk. On: even more sugary. To me, I smell like a caramel apple, oddly enough. My hubby says he gets the tea, but I don't, really, and there's not a hint of lemon, which is a relief, because I really would rather not smell like Pledge. Thankfully, for once the musk is not going baby powder on me, as has every other musk scent I've tried so far, but this is just too candy-sweet to become one of my favorites.

In the bottle: Hellooo almond! Much stronger almond scent than Salome. On: Still almonds, but the spicy myrrh and a hint of the musk are blending with it....OMG, this is fabulous. I think I may have found one of my signature BPAL scents. I'm in love. 15 min. later-Ack!! Musk went baby powder on me again and the almonds are all gone! Ptooey! Wah! Back to the imp box....

I've made Kyphi incense before, and it's heavenly, a blend of resins, spices, honey, wine and raisins. So that's what I was expecting when I traded for this imp. In the bottle: Spices, incense and wine, as expected. On: Spices, incense and....Lemon Pledge?!? The hell? *goes to look up Kyphi recipes* Ah-ha! Apparently, there are three existing ancient recipes for Kyphi, and the Lab is working with a different one than I did. Dioscorides' recipe calls for lemongrass, mine doesn't. A while later, the lemon scent has died down and the incense is coming out, along with....musk and lotus? Something like that. Nice, but I'm not sure this one's a keeper. Fooey.

Not what I was expecting, but I like it anyway. In the bottle: Myrrh (spicy root beer) with suede. On: same myrrh with suede smell, a softer leather than in the others I've tried, like Iago. After about a half hour, the vanilla peeks out, but it just amps the creamy root beer smell I always get from myrrh. I never really get the cedar smell distinctly, which is a disappointment, since I love cedar, but I also adore myrrh and vanilla, and for once the leathery smell doesn't go to burnt rosin on me. I think this is a big bottle candidate.

This was one of those scents described as masculine that I'd hoped I could still wear. Alas, no. Wilde smells lovely, but it's too much a traditional men's cologne for my taste. In the bottle: Bergamot! Citrus peel and lavender, sharp, almost alcoholic and clean. On: Exactly as advertised, a traditional men's cologne. The bergamot, herbs and patchouli blend into a clean, manly, elegant scent. This is not your father's Old Spice; this is the scent of a man who wears Armani and gets his nails buffed. Brian Kinney should wear this. Much later: the jasmine finally comes out at the very end, on top of the lingering bits of patchouli and bergamot, bit it's very subtle and never smells anything other than male. I'd love to smell this on a guy, but my hub is very anti-colognes. I'll be trading this.

Kali was a "frimp" (free imp) with my first order. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, beacuse a) it sounded like it had waay too much going on, and I hate rose scents and the Lab's are often overwhelming on my skin. So it came as a total surprise that I tried this one, and I LOVE it. The scent, both in the bottle and on my skin, can be summed up in 2 words: fruity floral. The wine, honey and chocolate notes conspire to give this scent a truer black cherry smell than Blood Kiss had. I want to eat my skin when I wear this. The rose is the dominant note in the floral, but all the scents are blended so well that this is just one glorious summer symphony. It goes on very fruity and then fades back to more floral within a few minutes, but the scent stays very much the same all the way until it fades completely. This isn't what I'd imagine a smell named Kali should be. No, this is The Empress of the tarot, womanly, fecund, lush, and queenly, all the abundance of Summer rolled into one scent. It's ripe, sun-warm fruit bursting on your tongue as you walk through a rose garden in riotous full bloom. Kali is the ultimate contradiction in perfumes for me: I hate fruit scents and I hate roses, but I can't get enough of this blend.

In the bottle this smells incensey, resinous. On, the musk/leather/vetiver combination reminds me, so far, of a really sexy-smelling soldering rosin, oddly enough, with a fairly strong note of baby powder. Hmm. I hope this mellows better. I usually love vetiver scents. Half an hour later: Nope, not getting any better. I smell like a baby's ass in a leather diaper. Damn.

Hurrah! Something my skin likes! Straight out of the bottle, the almond is obvious, that almost cherry-like almond extract scent, with the sandalwood and musk just in the background. On my skin, the almond fades back very quickly, and the star jasmine marches to the fore. I'm not really sure what oakmoss is supposed to smell like, but I never really detect any mossy notes. As it fades, the sandalwood and musk keep shifting back and forth, with the almond making a brief reappearance in a nuttier, more subtle incarnation about an hour after application before disappearing back into the sweet jasmine and musk. Absolutely feminine, rich, floral, and smelling like a warm, humid summer's evening, with a pretty strong "throw". Delicious. This may go on the big bottle list.

In the bottle: Mmmm....I love amber. It has a sugary, creamy sweetness which almost reminds me of Dreamsicles or St. Joseph's baby aspirin, for those of you old enough to remember it. The musk is just sitting behind it, so far. On, the amber blooms into its full, warm, almost citrusy sweetness, with a hint of spice, and the black musk adding a resinous, mammalian depth. Now I know where I was getting that solder rosin note in Iago from, but it works much better here. I *like* this one. 10 minutes later: Damn. It's going baby powder on me, although it works better with the amber than it did with the leather in Iago. Guess my skin just does not like black musk much. I still like it, but it's not as sexy as it was when I put it on. 1 hour later: The baby powder has faded back to a proper true musk, smelling like warm clean skin, with a hint of the amber's lingering candy sweetness. Yay. This one doesn't have a lot of throw, and it fades pretty quickly, but I think it's a keeper.

In the bottle, this smells like "Constant Comment" tea. In other words, black tea with citrus and spice. That would be mostly the bay rum, with a hint of bourbon. On me, all of the sudden it screams, "CLOVES!" with the tea note still backing it up. The florals are in the background, but the clove scent is so overwhelming at the moment that I can't single any of them out. The clove/floral combo is one that I happen to like--it brings back college memories of smoking Djarums in the Lounge, and it also smells kind of Christmasy with the bay note (think more like bayberry rather than bay leaves you cook with). I'm liking this, but it seems very straightforward, not complex. The florals are starting to be a little more evident now. Later: I realized what this reminds me of, now that the clove has mellowed. It smells almost exactly like KL by Karl Lagerfeld, a perfume I used to wear a lot in the late 80s/early 90s. At a much better price.

Straight out of the bottle, the cocoa hits you first, backed up with the spiciness of myrrh and the sharp, almost alcoholic but darting-in-and-out tang of vanilla. On, my body heat emphasizes the cocoa and myrrh even more strongly. I smell like a cup of Mexican hot chocolate, rich, spicy and edible. The vanilla note fades away very quickly. As the scent wears, the sandalwood begins to come to the fore, making the scent less like food and adding a nice soapy depth. I'm surprised at how well cocoa and sandalwood marry. After at least an hour on, the sandalwood is the main note, while the cocoa and myrrh have faded to a foundation for the sandalwood. I really enjoy the mix of cocoa and sandalwood, but the myrrh's interaction with the sandalwood produces an almost unpleasant throat-itching note, which is a shame, because normally my skin loves myrrh. I keep thinking this is what Salma Hayek or Tyra Banks ought to smell like. Overall, this is a nice scent for those of you who like edible smells. I do not generally like food notes in my perfume, so this is not one I'll be ordering more of. Oddly enough, I can think of at least 2 friends on whom I think this might smell fabulous. Just not me.

In the bottle: Bleah! Very traditionally perfumey, very floral. On, the gardenia/rose is really strong, cloying even, with a LOT of throw. Jasmine is so similar a scent to gardenia to me that they're just blending into one sweet floral. The vetiver gives it some earthiness, but on the whole this is throat-catching flowers. Good Lord, I hope this mellows fast and the cinnamon and leather make their appearance, because right now this is Grandma in a funeral home. I can't imagine a man wearing this scent. Later: FAUGH! I've given this stuff a half hour and I can't stand it anymore. I stink. I'm going to wash this off. Guess in the future I should avoid all BPAL scents with rose in them, as we can't stand each other.

I had high hopes for this scent, because I have a rose and sandalwood bath gel from Bath & Body Works that I adore. Normally I don't care for rose perfumes on me, but occasionally I find one mixed with another scent that takes it in a new direction. I remember liking a rose/lavender oil very much once. Upon opening, the rose leaps out. On my skin, it's even stronger. All I'm getting is roses. I can't detect the sandalwood or patchouli at all. After a few minutes, I start getting a tinge of the sandalwood, but all it's doing is adding a little cologne-y complexity to the rose. After a little more than an hour, I start being able to detect the patchouli, but one has to *really* look for it. Otherwise, on me this smells like something my mother would like a lot. Very floral, a little powdery, very traditional-smelling, feminine without being wispy. I can see why a lot of people like this one, but on me the roses predominate so much that it's really not to my taste. I prefer spicy, incensey scents or delicate white flowers, not heavy florals. Seems this one is very dependent on personal chemistry--people get a lot of different results with this.

Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk. In the bottle, the main notes are honey and cherry, with a bit of the wine note. So far, this smells a lot like Vicks Formula 44D. On, the honey is pretty dominant, with the cherry, vanilla and a hint of the musk hovering in the background. I'm not getting much of the vetiver. It's a nice enough smell, but very foody and not really to my taste. It's also not what I imagine "vampiric" ought to smell like, if that makes any sense. To me, this is rather a teeny-bopper smell. Half an hour later, the poppy and wine are really coming out, giving the blend an almost dusty smell with a hint of raisins. It reminds me of my grandma's poppyseed kolackys. Yummy, but not something I really want to smell like, nor is it sexy to me. Something with a name like Blood Kiss ought to smell sexy and dangerous.