filigree_shadow

This is a surprisingly soft scent. It seems that the chamomile and mallow are strongest, with a little bit of musk and some light florals. It's not herby at all -- it smells a bit floaty. Like a cloud. It's a very gentle floral. It smells like all the floral notes are cushioned. I really like the softness of it. Very pretty.

By all accounts, I shouldn't like this scent. Don't like any of those floral notes, and I avoid pine and juniper berry. The only notes in this scent that I usually go for are benzoin, vanilla, and bergamot. Yet, for some reason, I like The Ragged Wood. Because of the pine in it, it has the sort of tone that I get from Yule scents without the cold/slushy note that those invariably have. The floral notes are light and not overbearing at all. The juniper berry sweetens up the scent a little bit without making it overly sweet. It's soft, pleasant, and pretty.

Musky and dark, and the wormwood makes it very interesting. It smells like just a slight hint of licorice, but you don't get blasted with a licorice scent. It's mostly resins and musk with a hint of that sweet wormwood. Luckily for me I can't really smell any basil or galangal (I don't really like those notes). It smells dark and deep and a bit broody. It's a very good fall scent. Also, this one is my favorite of the 2007 Celestial scents -- it's the only one I'm keeping a bottle of.

It does smell like fruit punch -- nice and sweet with that red Hawaiian punch type of scent. I don't smell much booze in it at all, but maybe something that's just a little bit fizzy. It's softer than I was expecting, and I like it better than most scents that smell like drinks. Seems like a good springtime/summer scent.

It smells white and fluffy, and it seems like it has a little hint of something pink in it. It's sweet, but not overbearing. I think this is a very good interpretation of a marshmallow scent. Also, although I sometimes have trouble with BPAL foody scents developing a plastic or artificial-smelling scent, this one doesn't do that. It's good.

Odd. I thought I had posted a review of the 2004 version already, but I don't see it. Here it is: I had high hopes for this, but it smells very plastic-y on me. BPAL's "cream" note is notoriously bad on me, but I had hoped that maybe it would work in this one. No such luck. I think I'd probably like if it weren't for the plastic scent. Oh well. I have a bottle of Arcana's Egg Nog layering note, and that one does work on me. So I'm not overly sad about BPAL's not working. And here's my review of the 2007 version: As with most of BPAL's "cream" notes, this one smells rather artificial on me. I like the spice in it, but the plastic undertone doesn't smell very good. There are other foodie BPAL perfumes I can wear, but usually something with cream tends to smell not so great on me. This version is better than the 04 version, though -- that one had a much more distinct plasticy tone on my skin. I think the nutmeg is stronger in this version. Also the brandy and rum notes aren't too strong at all. It would be great if I had more cooperative skin chemistry. In short: The 2007 version was better on me than the 2004 version, but I still have some trouble with it.

Although I smell mostly plum and musk in the bottle, on my skin the cassia is quite heavy. I only get a little bit of patchouli and benzoin, and not much tobacco at all. Usually red musk is pretty dominant on me, but not in this one. I can tell there's musk in it, but I wouldn't have pegged it as red musk, which is weird because red musk is pretty distinctive. Mostly it's just a red cassia scent, with some nice patchouli and benzoin underneath. It smells good, and I like it, but on the whole it's just a little too spicy for me personally.

This smells like a soft, meadowy musk to me. It's very nice, but quite soft. It wasn't very strong right when I put it on, and an hour later it was barely noticeable even right next to my nose. So although I like this scent, I think my skin eats it.

When I first put this on I wasn't sure I was going to like it. It smelled quite herby and a bit planty. Like plant roots? A little bit like that. I guess it's from the oakmoss. However, when it warmed up, that herby/rooty scent pretty much disappeared. It turned into a sweet, deep resin scent. I can't really smell any pomegranate or lavender in it, and just a wee bit of neroli. Also, black amber is one of the worst powder culprits on my skin, and I get no powder at all from this scent. That's a very pleasant surprise. I'm still not totally sure what purple musk smells like after trying Penumbra, but it doesn't smell black or red -- I think it's kind of in between. This is a lovely, softly resinous scent -- dry and slightly sweet. The moonflower comes out more after about 30 minutes or so and gives the scent a light floral overtone that I really enjoy. This one ends up being a keeper for sure. Can't wait to see how it ages.

Hey, pomegranate is behaving itself! Usually pomegranate smells weird on me (like bathroom air freshener, to be honest), but not in this one. It smells lovely and sweet and not too strong at all. I like the river reeds with it, too. I'm not sure what barley smells like in perfume, but I don't smell anything that smells like a grain. Just a cute and sweet scent. I like this one much better than Fruit of Paradise. Unfortunately, after about an hour it smells like fruit-flavored bubblegum or candy on me, and although I like that kind of scent in scrubs, it's not the sort of thing I usually go for in perfume. But yay for pomegranate not always being bad on me!

Narcissus and poppy always contribute what I think of as a "stinging" scent to a perfume. They smell like traditional perfumey perfumes to me. It's not that I don't like them, but I certainly have to be in a specific mood to appreciate them. It's not a scent I'd wear if I were relaxing around the house or going out with friends. This is that sort of scent, but I think it's better than other ones like this that I've tried. Often opium/poppy has been smelling like band-aids on me recently, much to my dismay. Not in this one though, and I'm quite pleased about that. I was afraid this would smell like band-aids straight off, and it didn't. I don't smell any lily, though. Tuberose either. (I like both of those floral notes, so I'm concentrating pretty hard to smell them, and it's just not there.) It's all narcissus and poppy on me. I don't know. You know, this is a perfectly fine scent, and I enjoy it. However, I think perhaps I'm going to have to come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to be sophisticated enough or elegant enough to wear a perfume like this. It just doesn't smell appropriate on me.

I had an imp of this ages ago, but I swapped it away because I was in my floral-hating stage back then. Now I don't mind florals so much, so I wanted to try it again. It's a very pretty soft rose scent, with sweet apple over the top. I don't smell any lemon in it, and that's fine with me because I don't like lemon much. The apple and rose combination in Eve surprised me because I didn't think I'd like it but I did. I like it in this too. I should probably do a side-by-side comparison of Delirium and Eve and find out which one I like better.

I should be able to write a review of this scent without putting any oil on my skin to try it because my husband wears this fairly regularly. I can't do it, though. All I would be able to say is that I like it when my husband wears it. So! I have a little test patch on my arm to remind me of what it smells like. Oh right -- this is the one that smells like baby wipes on me. It smells much better on my husband. It's mossy, and the lavender isn't that sharp herbal kind, it's the cologney kind. Also, the amber doesn't go powdery on him. My husband just sniffed the Saint-Germain area on my arm and wrinkled his nose. He then announced that from now on he is the only one in our house who will be wearing it. That's fine with me! It really does smell great on him.

This smells like tea and honey and... green. I'm not sure how to describe that in scent words. It smells a little planty. I think it is a refreshing scent, and it does seem fairly invigorating. It was quite strong at first, but after 15 minutes or so it starts to smell lemony for some reason. I don't know yet how I feel about this scent. It seems like I like it because I keep sniffing my wrist, but maybe that's because the scent is so odd I don't know what I think about it.

On me, this smells like Pine Sol. Blech. I hardly get any vanilla -- it just smells like cleaning products. On my husband, it smells a lot better. On him, the vanilla is much stronger and it balances out the pine and juniper quite well. It smells rather bracing on him, rather than astringent. It's got a nice woodsy aura with the vanilla sweetening it up a bit and taking the edge off. He says he doesn't like it as well as Tombstone, but he does like it.

I have trouble with dirt/earth scents basically always, but I wanted to try everything in the BPAL GC – just in case! – so I’m trying this one. Uh… yeah, I could have safely given this one a pass. The dirt note in it is far too overwhelming for me. It’s not a pretty dirt (like in Zombi) or a lush black fertile dirt, it’s kind of an acidic dirt. I wouldn’t wear this myself, and I don’t think I’d like to smell it on someone else, either. This just isn’t the sort of thing I like. I wish I had the type of skin chemistry that would allow me to wear a dirt/earth scent. Any dirt/earth scent!! Just one would be nice! No matter which one I try, basically all I can smell is dirt. I was testing 6 different BPAL oils on my arms while I was testing Nosferatu, and while I was sitting here typing all I could smell was earth from Nosferatu. It lasts forever, too. Two hours later, I still smell like dirt. All the other notes from all the other perfumes I had on have faded out, but the dirt is still going strong.

I’ve tried this one a couple of times – the first time I got mostly wine out of it and it wasn’t really my fave. I wasn’t willing to totally give up on it, though, so I’m trying it again now. This time I do still smell the wine scent (most strongly in the first 20 minutes), but after a while I can start to smell other notes as well. It’s difficult for me to distinguish what they are, but it’s not solely a wine scent. Possibly a wee bit of jasmine and some dark unidentifiable resins. I can only smell them when I sniff my wrist up close, though. From a distance all I can smell is wine. This is usually the problem I have with wine scents, but I still keep trying them hoping for one that breaks the rules. I guess this one isn’t the break-the-rules one, though. *sigh*

This is an unusual and intriguing scent. When I first put it on and sniffed it, my nose tingled a little bit. Maybe a drop of eucalyptus? If so, it isn’t overwhelming at all. I don’t smell any eucalyptus, and I wouldn’t have thought there was any in here except for the nose-tingle. The floral notes in this are soft and unobtrusive, and the whole scent really does have an airy white quality. I like this one. Based on this test, I’m going to try wearing it for a day and see how it goes. Also, I don’t think I tried anything with davana in it before Pollution, but I see it’s in Ether, too. I liked it in Pollution, and I like it in this. I think I need to add davana to the list of notes I like.

Just a twinge more pungent than I usually wear, but it's interesting. Smells very slightly orange-ish and slightly burnt. It’s not the dark musky scent I was hoping for when I tried it. Although I don’t mind this scent, I don’t think it’s something I’d wear. Something in it seems to be turning to powder on me, probably the amber.

This is a very perfumey floral, to my nose. It does smell dark, but it also smells like a traditional floral perfume. I tend to prefer the soft velvety floral scents to ones like these, so this one isn’t a keeper for me.

At first it smells like mostly almonds, but after about 10 minutes that changes to a predominantly honey scent. Just a little hint of almond, and the spices are heavier. I think this is the sort of scent that would smell very good on someone else, but due to my skin chemistry problem with honey, it’s not a winner for me. The honey in this seems to be better than usual, but it still smells a bit off to me.

Ginger blossom and vanilla orchid. I bought a bottle of this from a lovely forumite, and I kept my fingers crossed the whole time it was en route because I hadn't tried it yet. I was just hoping it would work on me. It does! On my skin it smells like an almost musky warm vanilla with an extremely pleasant orchid overtone and just a wee bit of kick from the ginger. It's very pretty, and it's basically exactly what I was hoping for -- something similar to Vasakasajja (one of my top 5 BPAL perfumes) but softer and spicier. I put it on both wrists and my neck about 45 minutes ago, and I really like it a lot. The only issue is that I need to re-apply it now because I can barely smell it anymore. But, no problem! I have a whole bottle! YAY!

I smelled verbena very strongly when I first put this on. Then the cedar starts to come out a little bit, but it still seems to be mainly verbena and some other citrus scent. I don't seem to be getting much amber out of this, and the cedar is pretty soft too. The lemon scent is so strong on my skin that all I can think of is furniture polish. I probably like the scent underneath the verbena, but I can't smell it very well because of the lemon cloud. By the time the lemon scent finally fades away, the rest of the scent is gone too. (Judging by the reviews, I seem to be the only person who is having this lemon trouble. Figures.)

I don't seem to be able to smell any mint in this, which is perfectly okay with me. It seems to smell more like lilacs than violets, to me -- but it's certainly not just lilac. I can smell more than that in this scent. The sandalwood is quite nice with that lazy-smelling lilac. It's just slightly musky, and very pretty. The floral notes are much more gentle than I was expecting. I like this one. It seems comfy and and soft to me.

This smells like VapoRub on me at first. It even makes my nose tingle when I sniff it. As it dries, it loses that menthol-like characteristic and warms up. It does smell quite metallic -- like oily metal and metal cleaner. I think I can smell a little bit of incense. Not enough for my liking, though. I don't think this one is going to work for me, sadly.