filigree_shadow

I often like white florals, and I really like this one. The Calla lily is very pretty, and it seems like there's something faintly mossy underneath it. I guess that's the ivy? This smells so pure and innocent. Kind of floaty, too. I think people who express themselves better than I do call that "ethereal." To me, it's floaty. A bit wispy. Quite evocative of a ghost, to be honest. I'm not sure why I don't have a bottle of this yet. Probably because it's not very strong on me. However, when I run out of White Moon I'm sure I'll want a bottle of The Ghost. I'll always want to have a beautiful white floral in my BPAL box.

Goneril smells like a clean floral to me. Not heady or dewy or green or cloying, just... clean. I think the scent is just fine but I'm glad it doesn't suit me because I couldn't stand the character Goneril. I disliked her enough that I wouldn't have bought a bottle of this even if I liked it due to the name. (It's bad enough that I like BPAL's Regan!)

I'm not sure what I'm smelling in this. At first it seems sporty, like an ozone or aquatic cologne scent. Then as it's drying it turns kind of green, sort of like herbs. It ends up reminding me a lot of Mountain Fresh Dove soap. I'm not saying it smells like soap, because it doesn't, it smells like the fragrance they put in that soap. It's a clean, fresh scent. Not the sort of thing I usually wear, but I certainly don't dislike the scent. It's the sort of fragrance I prefer in bath products rather than perfume.

Interesting. I thought I'd hate this because sweet pea is usually awful on me, but I don't hate it at all. It smells like a sweet hazy rose scent to me. Not very strongly of any one flower; they're blended very well. It's soft, and not nearly as heady as I was expecting. I don't wear this type of scent myself, but I'm quite pleased to find out that sweet pea isn't always horrendous on me.

Lots of berries. Tons. It's light and sweet and cute. It's so sweet and strong on berries that it reminds me a lot of Midwinter's Eve. Especially from a distance. Close up, Jester has a very slight chalkiness (I sometimes get that with particular berry notes), and MWE doesn't have that chalkiness. So I'm sticking with MWE for this type of scent. However, when I run out of that one, I'll be looking to Jester to supply my sweet berry fix.

This is an excellent scent for a man, and whenever I get a frimp of this one I pass it over to my husband right away. It smells good on both of us, but it suits him a lot better than it suits me. Mostly it seems like a warm leather and wood scent, and it's fairly rugged. I wouldn't say it's "gentlemanly," but it's not like a cowboy either. The ebony and teak are brilliant in this one. They smell fantastic and they make the scent seem sophisticated than the usual leather scent. I could have sworn there was a little drop of vanilla in here -- there's something in it that's a bit sweet. All in all this is a fabulous scent, and I love it when my husband wears this one.

I'm pretty sure there's night-blooming jasmine in this, because that's what I smell. Maybe a little bit of violet, but not much. I'm not really getting fruits or incense, mostly just the jasmine. That's too bad because I probably would have liked violet and purple fruits. When it's totally dry it seems like I can smell the violet better, but it's still not strong enough for me to like this. I just don't get along with jasmine.

Catherine reminds me of Bess, except less pretty and more soapy. There are just a handful of BPAL scents that honestly smell like soap on me, and Catherine's one of them. I'm not sure why -- don't know what exactly in there is making it smell that way but some rose notes tend to have that effect on me -- but it smells just like those cute little flower-shaped soaps people put in their guest bathrooms.

I can't tell there's lime in this at all, just herbs (including mint). It smells herb-gardeny, which is something of a comfort scent, to me. I mean, this scent makes me feel relaxed. It's not something I'd wear as perfume, but I'd buy a bath oil that had this scent. It's just so... I don't know. Calm? Damn, now I want to take a bath. I wonder if I could figure out how to make bath salts with this imp. Hmmmm...

This smells pretty much just like gardenia on me. I can tell there are other floral notes in there with it, but I would never have been able to guess what they were. Gardenia is the only one I can identify because it's overwhelming everything else. It usually does that with my skin, though, so this is not a surprise. But I can say this scent is soft. Not bold and eye-watering. Rather delicate and pretty. As it happens, gardenia is one of my least favorite floral notes due to overloading myself on gardenia-scented stuff a few years back. I used to love it. Maybe in the future I'll love it again. But for right now, this isn't what I want to smell.

I think this is a masculine scent, which is a shame because it smells damned good on me. I don't usually like cypress and frankincense goes too sweet on me, but they're both behaving themselves in this one. It has a deep dark woodsy scent hazed over by some smokiness. Very little throw, though. Like, next to nothing. I tried to get my husband to wear this but it wasn't his cup of tea, so I guess the imp will get passed along. I'm kind of sad about that, though, because I like this one.

The unreleased BPAL Black Orchid reminded me of Prada right away. I have no idea if they share any notes, but I put some Prada on one arm and Black Orchid on the other, and they smelled very similar to me.

Mostly a clear, slightly tart citrusy tea scent. A little bit of ginger adds zing. I think this is a lovely scent -- crisp and delicate, and not overly feminine. Refreshing and light. I'm slightly picky about tea scents, but I like this one. I wouldn't have guessed I'd like it, but that's why I keep trying all BPAL perfumes. Not sure if I'd be able to use a whole bottle of this, but I do enjoy wearing it.

This one is maybe a little bit watery, but mostly it smells like rose. Not a soft dewy one, a rather green one. It smells like a fresh rose and as rose scents go it's not bad... just not the kind of rose scent I like. I like the softer ones.

I sometimes get Blood Pearl and Black Pearl confused, but I keep track of them in my head by remembering that this one has more coconut in it. Or, at least, the coconut seems stronger in this one. They both have iris/orris and musk, and I prefer the dry orris and blood musk in Blood Pearl to the more floral iris and bright white musk in this one. Just a personal preference. I think this is a fine scent, but for this type of scent I prefer Blood Pearl.

This smells quite woody and dry on me, with just a touch of a sweet rose scent. It manages to be deep but delicate all at once, which is very pleasant. I usually like rosewood scents, and I definitely like this one. I'm not sure how often I'm in the mood to wear something like this as perfume, but I do know that if I came across a bottle in a swap I wouldn't turn it down. This is just too pretty to pass up, even if I wouldn't wear it that often.

I got an imp of Fae a long time ago, right when I first started buying BPAL. I expected to love it because I love all the notes except oakmoss, which is hit or miss. I put it on and thought it was overwhelmingly sweet and fruity, like candy. Also it seemed super strong. I kinda shrugged and put it in the back of my imp box, and I've never worn it again until I got it out to write this review. I have no frickin' idea why I thought it was like candy. I have it on right now, and I don't smell anything like what I remember. It's a beautiful musky heliotrope scent with the bergamot sweetening it up and a little bit of peach playing around the edges. It's really lovely, and I feel like a huge fool for letting it sit at the back of my imp box all this time. This is exactly the sort of scent that I love to wear in the springtime. It's bright, cheery, and pretty. And it has graduated to the "LOVE" compartment of my imp box.

I adore the mimosa in this one. It's really cute and sparkly. Unfortunately, cute and sparkly mixed with red wine evidently smells like grape juice to me. It's not straight-up grape juice, but it's a little too close for my comfort. I can't tell there's any clove in this, to be honest -- just the barest hint of a spice, but I wouldn't have been able to identify it as clove.

Red patchouli usually doesn't work on me very well, although other patchoulis are fine and often beloved. It tends to smell somewhat sour on my skin. So, instead of like a nice tart citrusy orange scent, I'm getting a rather sour orange. However, it's not bad. Definitely not something I feel like I need to wash off or anything. I'm kind of enjoying it. It's not the sort of thing I wear as perfume because I don't usually go for the orange scents, but it's an interesting combination and I do like it.

Black Opal smells sweet and powdery on me. It's very soft. A bit feminine. It does smell like a very appropriate scent for its name. Unfortunately it has no throw whatsoever on me; it's so faint I can barely smell it even when my nose is right next to my wrist. So although it's not a keeper for me personally, I can certainly see why people like it.

This is a beautiful floral. One of my very favorite ones. In fact, Dreamland, Bearded Lady, and Beatrice are usually the only overly floral BPAL perfumes I ever wear. It's clear, fresh, and a bit sweet. Not cloying or heady at all. Just pretty and feminine. Elegant, even. I can't smell the carnation in this and I don't know what osmanthus smells like, but I can tell there's tuberose, iris, and musk in it. Simply delightful.

I always like red musk, and I like it in this one even though it's not very strong here. It's sweet from the blood orange and vanilla, and soft from the rose and heliotrope. I like all the listed notes for this scent except gardenia, and I can't smell that in this. So I suppose it's not too surprising that I like The Haunted Palace a lot. It smells sexy, warm, and sweet. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's my very favorite red musk blend, but it's up there.

For some reason that I can't figure out, in my head I confuse Spirits of the Dead with the Evening Star. For at least a year I've had a mental note that I didn't like Spirits of the Dead because it was too floral. Apparently I'm a big dummy. Evening Star is the one that's too floral. I like Spirits of the Dead just fine. This is a pretty soft tea scent. Not tea with some sort of fruit (I tend not to like those scents as well), but sweet, clean, tea. I recognize the linden blossom from The Unicorn, and I like it here just as much as I like it in that one. The scent isn't as dry as I was expecting it to be -- not dry at all, in fact -- it just smells lovely, like springtime. I like this one a lot.

Night-blooming jasmine, opium poppy, wild rosemary, Calla lily, oakmoss and crypt musk. Mostly what I get from The Sleeper is jasmine. The night-blooming variety is usually a little better for me than regular jasmine, but it's still too much for me in this one. It seems musky and a bit cloying. It's not nearly as bad as other jasmine perfumes I've tried lately (i.e., Ligeia) but still too much jasmine for me to like it.

Hmmm. I like all the notes in this, so why don't I like this? I'm not sure. I think it's because it's just a floral with nothing else there to balance out the floral notes. Seems like the poppy is strongest on me. I could have done with more moonflower and gladiolus. Ah well. I'm so picky about florals that they don't work for me more often than they do, so I shouldn't be that surprised that this one isn't for me.