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BPAL Madness!

filigree_shadow

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Everything posted by filigree_shadow

  1. filigree_shadow

    Monastery in the Mountains

    Easily recognizable as BPAL's snowy note. Soft, cool, and sweet. I can definitely detect some incense in it. This is very nice, and if I didn't already have bottles of Snow Flakes, Snow Maiden, and Snow Bunny (they are all soooo good), I'd keep this one.
  2. filigree_shadow

    Enkhespalos

    Oddly, this one doesn't work on me. I really thought it would. I usually like those notes, and they usually agree with me. Sadly the combination smells a little... antiseptic on me. It kind of reminds me of band-aids. Like I said, odd. I think it's the leather and cognac combination. But I'm pleased to see that a lot of people really like it -- I feel like this combination of notes should have worked. It's probably just my skin that's weird.
  3. filigree_shadow

    Oof

    Just like everyone else said, Oof smells like Vick's VapoRub. It definitely makes the inside of my nose tingly when I sniff it. But... I don't really want to walk around smelling like VapoRub. I was a raver in the '90s. I've spent enough of my life smelling like VapoRub. If you were also a raver, I bet you know what I mean.
  4. filigree_shadow

    Fairy Bites

    I didn't read the notes before I put this on, and after I did I sniffed it and said, "Wuuf. Lavender and... eucalyptus? WTF. No." I'm super picky about lavender and have only liked maybe two lavender blends ever, and combined with that minty scent is not my fave at all. It's kind of herby and bold and a little harsh, which is pretty much exactly how I don't like my perfume to be.
  5. filigree_shadow

    Humbug

    This smells only faintly of licorice/anise on me, which is awesome because that's exactly how I like anise to be -- just a hint. Faint. It smells mostly of vanilla. Specifically, it smells like Snow White. I feel like if you put a drop of Kabuki into an imp vial of Snow White, you'd get this. That's what it smells like on me. Which, I have to say, is really not bad at all. I'm not going to say it makes my eyes roll back in my head or anything, but... pretty damn good.
  6. filigree_shadow

    Boo Bam

    Very green and bamboo/reedy, and just a smidge watery. And, as many other reviewers have noted, smells a lot like Holiday Moon. Which is interesting, because I had a bottle of that way back in the day but swapped it. I haven't smelled Holiday Moon in several years, but as soon as I saw that someone mentioned it, I thought, "Yep, that's exactly what this is." Scent memory lasts a long time.
  7. filigree_shadow

    Wood Phoenix

    It's 2015, and this came out in 2008, so this oil has been aging for 7 years in a decanted clear vial. It's well-aged at this point. And, amazing. I remember not liking it much when I first got it, and the poor thing has been sitting around ever since. I've been going through my old pile of untested/swappable imps recently, and I got this one out half-heartedly, remembering I wasn't impressed. I was very, very pleasantly surprised. It smells like a sweetly figgy, smooth chamomile, gentle wood scent. Well blended, soft, and, almost... luxurious. I'm super tempted to try to track down a bottle, even at this late date, although I'm a little worried that whatever has been sitting in a bottle won't smell quite like this. Oils age differently in clear vials than they do in bottles. So I don't know what a bottle would smell like. But I sure can vouch for this little decant I have... pretty heavenly.
  8. filigree_shadow

    The Doom of Beauty

    Had no idea what to expect from this scent. It smells like a herby lemon/citrus scent, but the herbs aren't harsh at all, they're super soft. Like I said, I wasn't sure what to expect from this, and I was surprised to like it as much as I do. It's unusual, definitely not overly floral or overly herby. It's soft and smells rather elegant to me, and I think that's the first time I've ever said that about a citrusy scent.
  9. filigree_shadow

    The Vine

    I really hoped this one would work on me, and in the beginning I thought it would. It smelled like sweet pretty pears. Then while drying it smelled like creamy pears. Nice! But dry, it smells like BPAL's honey note... which does not get along with my skin chemistry and smells like play-doh. There's barely any pear left at all after 15 minutes, and it's just a sweet honey scent.
  10. filigree_shadow

    Arise, Lift Up Thine Eyes and See

    For sure champaca. Reminds me a lot of nag champa incense. I can't really smell much of anything else, to be honest. Mostly just nag champa.
  11. filigree_shadow

    Mokey

    I usually like lilac, but for some reason this one isn't working for me. It smells like a very sweet, dry lilac. I like my lilacs to smell soft and petaly. Orris tends to smell quite "dry" on me, and I think it's not my favorite combination with lilac.
  12. filigree_shadow

    Miss Addie

    I feel like this maybe should have worked on me? I don't hate any of those notes, and "gentle" is exactly how I like anise. But something in this smells off to me. I can't put my finger on what it is. It's not bad, it just smells distorted somehow. Like it was trying to be something else, but it's off. I don't know how else to explain it. I think that apple blossom and anise/clove is not my favorite combination. I'm guessing that's what's going on here.
  13. filigree_shadow

    Plastic Pink Flamingo

    As nearly everyone has said this smells very marshmallowy and pink. It definitely does remind me of Velvet Unicorn, like if it was next to I Fell in Love with a Floating Brain. I don't really smell any dandelion in it, which for me is good because I don't like dandelion. I do have trouble with certain BPAL notes smelling like plastic on me, but happily this one doesn't.
  14. filigree_shadow

    The Harlot's House

    I think my imp is pretty aged at this point, because I'm having a lot of trouble identifying particular notes, and it's certainly not the heady floral soapy perfumey scent other people have described. It's light, sweet, pretty, and a little woody. It seems like I can tell there's sandalwood in this, and the sweetness seems to be coming from the tea. I don't know what this imp smelled like when it was new, but I bet aging has helped. It's pretty nice, and I'm not a fan of florals.
  15. filigree_shadow

    Magic, Do As You Will

    A very resiny blend on me -- almost sticky. The frankincense is quite sweet, and I don't really smell any fruit. I'm not usually much of a fan of frankincense, and I feel like I'd probably like this better without it. I enjoy those deep smooth types of resin scents, and this one for sure isn't dark enough for me.
  16. filigree_shadow

    Sunrise With Sea-Monsters

    Sweet, bright aquatic that manages to be slightly perfumey on me. Sometimes ambergris gives a blend that "perfumey" quality, and that's probably what's doing it here. I'm not used to aquatics smelling sweet... if more of them smelled like this I'd probably like them better. Most aquatics smell roughly the same on me for some reason, and I have difficulty telling them apart. This one is different, and I'm surprised. I like it.
  17. filigree_shadow

    The Curator

    This smells good. I can’t quite put my finger on what I like about it, but I’ve tried it twice now and I’ve liked it both times. It doesn’t really smell like one singular thing, just kind of a soft resin scent. Not herby at all, really. A little sweet. Wears like a skin scent. I’m sure that I’ll continue to like this every time I wear it, but I’m also sure that it’s never going to be a stand-out favorite. But super nice for those days when I don’t really feel like smelling like PERFUME -- I feel like maybe someone might assume that I just naturally smell like this, like some sort of awesome human.
  18. filigree_shadow

    Nes Gadol Haya Sham

    There are a ton of notes in this thing, and it’s pretty hard to pick out any one note. If I had to guess, I’d say that I can smell the lemon verbena, patchouli, and frankincense. Can’t really isolate any of the floral notes, not even carnation, and that one’s usually strong on me. There’s a couple of resins in here that make it smell smooth rather than a jangled mess, and it really does come together quite well in the end. It’s six years aged at this point, and of course the lemon isn’t as strong and the resins are deeper. It’s really quite nice now, as scents like this often are.
  19. filigree_shadow

    The Sorrow of Love

    Basically might as well be a white gardenia single note on me. With a bit of magnolia. Which smells a lot like gardenia. There’s a little musk underneath it, but this scent is really only for people who like gardenia. Sadly, that is not me.
  20. filigree_shadow

    Pomegranate IV

    I don’t really like BPAL’s pomegranate note, but I must have gotten this as a frimp somehow, so I tried it. Surprisingly, not bad. I usually like the red musk and anise combination and I like it here too. Unfortunately I’m not a huge fan of adding pom to it, but this isn’t one of the pom scents that I dislike so much I want to scrub right off.
  21. filigree_shadow

    Copulating Mice

    This has a list of notes in it that would make you think it might smell herby, but it doesn’t. At all. It smells like sweet milk – lots of tonka and a light nutty overtone. I thought this was one of the ones that has rice milk in it, actually, and I was surprised that it wasn’t listed in the notes. I tried this quite a while ago and really liked my decant, so I tracked down a bottle but the bottle smelled different, and not quite as good. So I re-homed that one and I think I'll just keep this decant.
  22. filigree_shadow

    Queen Venus with a Hood Striped Gold and Black

    I got this one because I thought it would be awesome resiny musk, but it’s not working for me, sadly. The rose is a lot stronger than I was hoping for, and it smells a little dusty and powdery. I’m glad I tried it, but it’s not for me.
  23. filigree_shadow

    Beanman & Beanwoman Prepare to Attack the Vagina

    Hm. Based on those notes, I expected to either love this or hate it. Like, amber sometimes goes powdery, and coconut sometimes smells like plastic, and ylang ylang is almost always way too sweet and ruins a blend for me, and ambergris is sometimes powdery too... yikes, now that I'm writing this out, I wonder why the hell I wanted to try this. I like orange blossom, but those other notes are always iffy. Welp, I'm often confusing, even to myself. What I got out of it is a soft, lightly coconut (and I do mean a bare hint), perfumey musk. It's sweet, pretty, and unfortunately awfully generic. It smells to me like the type of perfume someone would wear if she doesn't have much of a preference about what perfume she wears. Like, "Oh, I'll just pick a super bland one so I don't stand out at all." And that, for sure, is not my style.
  24. filigree_shadow

    Pomona

    This is from 2009. I don't get any of the acetone scent that a bunch of other reviewers mentioned. It smells like red applies, and on me it's not very nutty at all, really more juicy-smelling than anything else. Quite red. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of BPAL's pomegranate notes because they don't smell great on me, and although that's not prominent here it is kind of pushing the apple notes into an air freshener type of scent. Which is not all that fantastic. I just tried To Autumn yesterday, and that is a very dry, leafy apple scent -- much more my style. I will stick with that one.
  25. filigree_shadow

    My Sweetest Lesbia

    I do not remember now why I wanted to try this one, since I'm not a big fan of hay notes, ambergris is iffy, and what the hell does catnip smell like. I don't know what I expected, but here's what I got: A soft lemony yellow floral that's more than a little "perfumey." I don't dislike it, but I'm super picky about florals and this isn't the type that I prefer.
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