filigree_shadow

I like the combination of soft lavender and lemon that I smell in this. I'm a chiropractor and I do soft tissue work every day, and although I like the scent of this and even the feel of it, I wouldn't be able to use it at work. It sinks in too quickly. I might be able to add it to the oil/lotion I usually use, for the scent, but on my skin the scent didn't stick around very long. The oil definitely did soften my skin, though. It feels like good quality.

Sweet, very slightly fruity (in a round way -- the fruit is not easy to place) dry chamomile. Warm, pleasant, sweet, and kind of clean-smelling. I very definitely like this. I'm not totally sure how often I'd wear it because it's out of my usual comfort zone, but I do like it. It for sure is more of a spring/summer scent than a fall/winter one, though. So right now isn't the right time of year for it. I should try it again in a few months. This is one of those BPAL blends that I come across from time to time that is very unusual -- it doesn't remind me of anything, and I don't think I've smelled anything like it before -- but it really smells surprisingly very good, and it makes me wonder why people don't wear scents like this. Like why does everyone and their sister wear some department store perfume day after day, wouldn't people want to smell like this, if they knew they had the option? I feel like people would want to smell like this. Unusual does not mean bad. At all.

I smelled this without knowing what was in it, and I was sniffing pretty hard and couldn't place the notes. I was having a hard time guessing what's in it. After I looked at the notes I thought, "Oh. Yes. Lilac. Now I smell it." The olibanum is behaving itself, which is super rare for me. This is a very nice dry, only slightly mossy, smoky floral. I like it. It's pretty. Not in-your-face at all. Definitely a night-time scent, for me. Not a day scent.

I'm not totally sure why I even have a decant of this, because a lot of the notes in it aren't my favorites. I'm betting I wanted it because of the saffron, which is both unusual and a favorite of mine. I think I can smell the saffron in it, but the amber is a little powdery, and I'm not a fan of the incense in the combination. Also, something about it is a bit pungent, and I'm not sure what that is. I'm glad I tried it but it didn't work out for me.

I was hoping this would be a knock-it-out-of-the-park scent for me, because I like almost all the notes. Red patch tends to be a no-no on me, and I don't like gardenia. Other than that, I was hopeful. As with all red musk blends, this smells very strongly of red musk on my skin. Apart from that, only kind of a dry floral overlay. It doesn't smell as complex as I expected. Kind of like just a particualarly dry red musk. Another reviewer mentioned a grapey scent, and I get that too. I have like a billion red musk blends because it's a favorite note of mine, but this isn't my favorite combination so the decant will be moving along to another home.

I like the scent of this -- kind of a soft herbal scent. It's not harsh, more rooty than bitter. I think the patchouli rounds it out nicely and takes an edge off of it. I don't typically wear this type of scent myself, but I wouldn't mind sitting next to someone who smelled like this. It's pleasant.

This actually smells really good on me. I expected it to be kind of gross, because, it's Croup. But it's a nice musky scent that smells a bit aquatic on me, like a traditional cologne. I like it.

Lettuce, eh? Well, I get that. It definitely smells like white and green, minty, smooth. The moonflower in it is a very nice touch and blends really well with the other notes. I used to hate green and/or minty scents, but in the last couple of years I've started to like them more, and this is a good one. Not harsh herby green, soft dewy green. very nice. I notice it's a few years old at this point. I guess it's been sitting in my BPAL box for a while. I think aging has probably improved the scent, because it was in the "I didn't really like this, try it again to make sure" part of my BPAL box. And now I definitely do like it.

Incomparable loveliness: the perfect rose oude. It probably is the perfect rose oude -- Beth does tend to get these things exactly right! -- but I'm picky about roses and this isn't the one for me. I like roses dewy and petaly and mixed with notes that smell watery. This one is very definitely perfumey. Not like Grandma scent, though, which roses tend to do on me, fairly frequently. A must try for people who like rose scents.

Black cherry brandy, eh? I definitely smell the black cherry, but what's probably supposed to smell like brandy smells medicinal on me. So, unfortunately this smells like a cough drop. It's not bad, I actually like the scent of cough drops. But, not really as perfume.

I like the candied apricot part of this scent, but I can honestly only stand jasmine if I can't really smell it in a blend. And I can definitely smell it in this one.

Very mossy. The oil even has a green tint to it. It's not unrelentingly mossy -- there's something sweet about it as well. I kind of expected to hate this, and I don't. At all. There's a peppery-ness to it that reminds me of R.M. Renfield, which I used to have a bottle of and enjoyed at home, but I didn't wear it in public because I thought it was a little too bold for me. I feel the same way about this one, but I think it would layer with some other oils very nicely.

I thought this would be a sure-fire love for me -- rosewood is one of my favorite notes, and I tend to like woody blends. I don't know, though -- something in this smells powdery and floral. Sadly doesn't seem to agree with me. But it's okay, I still have a bottle of my beloved Seance.

This doesn't smell as floral as I expected it to. It's kind of a jumble of notes that winds up reminding me a bit of Bess, for some reason. Maybe because Bess has grape and this has wine. It seems like that's the most prominent note, on me.

This is supposed to smell like metal but for sure smells soft to me. Like, cottony, almost. Very nearly a dryer sheet sort of scent, but with a metallic/watery edge that is very appealing. I generally don't go for this sort of scent, but I'm finding it hard to stop sniffing my wrist right now. A surprise winner. Add me to the list of admirers.

This is not bad at all, but it reminds me somewhat of Lawn Gnome and Crawdad Dream. The same sort of scent. Red fruity, and fairly round. I like it, but for some reason I tend not to wear scents like this. I've had similar bottles sitting in my box for years with no wear. So! I like it, but apparently it just isn't "me."

Whoops, no. This one doesn't work on me. I'm not sure whether it's the banana or the pineapple, but something's going weird. I don't know what orange blossom honey smells like, but this "honey" is the thing that doesn't smell very good with my skin chemistry. I had hoped this one would work out for me, but I think the combination just isn't right for me.

I was completely bowled over by this scent for the first 20 minutes or so. Sweet, gourmand rose. Absolutely lovely. I'm super picky about rose scents, and I was thinking that this would probably become one of my favorites. But then it dried down and it turned into almost entirely pomegranate. Which I don't like. Definitely not a favorite note of mine. I'm disappointed because it started out so fantastic. But I just don't like pomegranate and I never will.

Ugh, this has spikenard, my nemesis. I loathe spikenard. This scent starts out very nice... kind of an earthy wood with some sweetness and a hint of patchouli. I really like scents like that and wear them often. And although spikenard is usually a huge horrible disgusting jerk that ruins everything, I feel like I almost can't smell it in this. I'm sniffing pretty hard, and I'm coming up with dry woody patchouli. There may be a tiny whiff of that revolting harsh weed scent that spikenard is on my skin, but I think maybe I'm smelling it because I'm looking for it. I think that if it weren't listed among the notes, I wouldn't have known it. This scent is pretty nice -- I like woody patchouli scents, but I like them when they smell deep and sweet and viscous, and this one smells kind of high-pitched and powdery. So, it's not my sort of scent anyway, but at least it makes me feel better that spikenard doesn't always try to kill me through my nose.

I've been trying to find a review for Red Lantern, and I can't find it. Have I really never reviewed this? Weird. I've had some since 2006. It smells like a nice combination of coconut/amber on me, with a very heavy overtone of caramel -- but burnt, plastic-y caramel. I'm not sure whether it's the caramel part of the scent or the coconut part that is responsible for that weird artificial plastic scent, because they've both been culprits in the past. I really, really like the dry coconut/amber/tobacco combination, so I have held onto a decant for a very long time, and I've tried new versions when they come out, because I always hope that plastic scent will go away. Sadly, it never has. I think I have some sentimental value attached to it because it was one of the first BPAL Limited Editions that I tried, and I remember being super excited about it. But I guess after nine years I should give up, ha.

Definitely a lot of honey in this, which is often a bad thing for me because BPAL's honey notes don't usually play well with my skin. For some reason in this one it is not doing that usual plastic thing, though. But, the hemlock part of this scent is odd on me, though -- powdery and perfumey, in a way that I normally associate with old lady bath powder. I think this is just not really my thing.

This definitely does smell like marshmallows, to me -- with kind of a burnt caramel scent over the top and some smokiness. I like marshmallow, but I'm not crazy about the "burnt" part. I do like the scent, but not as a perfume. Burnt/hot scents just don't really suit me.

This is one of the very few BPAL blends in which I feel like I can actually smell each individual piece, and the combination is wonderful. Actually I'm super surprised to see that I never wrote a review for this one because I loved it straight away, as soon as I tried it. BPAL has a handful of scents that I consider to be "me" scents -- like, I don't just like it, it actually seems like it's at home on me. Like we're in harmony. Does that make sense? I get that feeling that someone who'd seen me but had never met me before would say "Yep, that's exactly what I expected you to smell like." I only have two decants of this, and I really, really wish I had more.

I am never a fan of eucalyptus and very often not a fan of mint, but... I like this. It mostly smells like leather with a fresh, brisk, cool green overtone. I can smell the lime for sure. And yeah, it does smell masculine to me, I guess because I must have smelled men who kind of smell like this. But I still like it.

Fig milk, vanilla, orchid, and ylang ylang. It smells like sweet, creamy fig with just a hint of a lush (not heady, not stinging, not icky) floral note. The sweetness of it is quite a bit overwhelming at first, when it's wet, and I don't like it very much. After it dries, though, the fig is most prominent, and that super-sweet creamy note calms down. It becomes a light, soft, sweet, smooth fig-orchid scent. This is one of those unusual scents that I put on, sniff, and think, "Ewww, no." And then I come back to it 10 minutes later and say, "Oh! Nice!"