tajana

Ultraviolet - freezing cold mentholated violets for ice queens. Good for faking a cool, perfectly collected, detached aura. Bow & Crown of Conquest - badass leather jacket exterior meets cuddly vanilla center. I always wore this for midterms + final exams.

To me, this smells like pomegranate hibiscus tea steeping with sprigs of fresh mint when freshly applied. The drydown gets totally swallowed up by what I assume is the mulberry. As others have mentioned, this starts to smell like generic red candles. Naturally, since I didn't care for it, the throw was immense.

Honeyed frankincense and creamy lilac musk, with a little burst of glossy pomegranate juicing things up a little bit. I would've also guessed there was a touch of vanilla in here. This is the good kind of honey - neither baby powdery nor crotch-y, ahaha. I do not sense much in the way of rose, and I couldn't pick out sandalwood as a distinct note either. All in all I liked this a lot more than I expected, but the scent overall was somehow really... familiar. A scent memory I couldn't quite place, or maybe it just smells like perfume oils I've already tried! Overall this smells a bit sensual, but classic.

This sounded like it would be pretty, but it was a total drag. Awkward apple strawberry bubblegum, artificially flavored and dusted with violet powder and sour, rotted flowers. On me it smelled like something I might expect to find kicking around in Rite Aid's clearance section, collecting dust. I can't speak to lasting power, because the nauseating fake fruit drove me to scrub this off with soap and water. For me this was the only dud in the apple series - even though I don't usually like apple scents, I thought the rest of the ones in this series ranged from fairly pleasant on through lovely.

This one is quite musky on me! Right off the bat I get a fair but of ambrette and clean white musk along with the florals. Unfortunately, I don't like narcissus much, and that's the floral that sticks out most to me here. The throw is surprisingly powerful for what I expected would be an ephemeral scent, and the scent that wafts up is quite pretty - crisp muguet and creamy gardenia musk. But when I take a closer whiff, I get a nose full of uncomfortable narcissus.

This was high on my list of anticipated scents to try, and it was probably the biggest disappointment. Wet, it's very foresty, but off kilter. Oddly alcoholic tones with turpentiney pine and a general crisp decidious leafy feel, and just a tint of underlying fermented fruitiness. The dry down makes me think of wet soil, full of worms, but not in any good sense, especially since there's an odd sweetness to this scent, like a glaze of really weird, toxic honey, which in turn clashes with the hint of nuttiness. Quite frankly, this smelled rancid on me. I barely made it through half an hour before I had to wash it off.

Of all the "dark purple" scents in this Halloween update, this one is my fave. The sage adds an interesting herbal twist that goes well with the black-purple, pruney fruitiness and soft blend of violets and subtle aquatic touches. Gets a bit darker with the dry-down, but neither tobacco nor opoponax nor anything else in particular really stand out, it's more of a dark, damp, just slightly cologney scent, with perhaps a bit of earthiness from the moss. The herbal-floral-smoky-aquatic balance is unusual but still comes off as cohesive and wearable. I don't think I need more of it personally, but I did enjoy testing it out.

Oh boy. I really enjoy some of BPAL's dirty, earthy, soil notes, but a few of them really disagree with me. This is one of them. There are traces of a sharp, funereal white flower and sour pomegranate, but mostly this is the smell of mildew and decay. Had to wash it off.

I didn't even read this review thread, but independently wrote down in my notes, "green bell peppers?!" After the perplexing, crisp-watery bell peppers fade back, this goes to a softer scent that's more traditionally perfumey but still reminiscent of gardening - light grassy flowers, just slightly sweet, anchored with a bit of a soft, slightly wet dirt scent. Ultimately dries down into a generic, slightly powdery scent on me.

After the juicy, opening burst of pink grapefruit wears off - which takes a good thirty minutes on me - this reminds me of one of my GC faves, Meliai - an unusual, fresh honey scent resplendent with sappy green notes as well as a hint of citrus/floral/something tastiness. However, Two Tailed Sogg is an inferior cousin - though the pink grapefruit is nice, this scent overall goes through a phase of being too sharp before degenerating into a sweet, nondescript powdery scent.

I really wanted this to work on me but it was not meant to be. I can sense that on the right person this would be a dark, womanly, luxe feeling perfume, but on me it's mainly about the blackcurrant, ylang ylang, and a bit of jasmine. Unfortunately, this translates to fruity cat pee berries and a sour, nearly rancid powder.

I really love BPAL's "blonde wood" notes and there's plenty of that to be found here! The clean, fresh planks of timber sort of scent forms a natural bridge between the clean cologney top notes - linen? - and the toasty, baked pumpkin. Vanilla softens the edges, giving it a bit of creaminess without taking over. The overall texture of this blend is interesting - fuzzy, almost nutty, bakery, but still very woody. The far drydown is very nice, with the pumpkin-vanilla-wood triad settling down like a comfy wool sweater. I'm not entirely sure how often I'll wear this because it is still rather "seasonal" to me, but with the lack of fruit or spice notes, this isn't nearly as "craft store autumn candle" as most other pumpkin scents. If you think this isn't smooth and soft enough for you now, try again later... this promises to age into a gentler scent as the wood smooths out and the pumpkin and the vanilla come into their own.

This is the best pomegranate scent and the best rose scent I've ever tried from BPAL. Most of BPAL's rose scents are a total miss for me - either acrid and sour or powdery and stale. There are a handful of exceptions, and this one is at the top of the list now. "La Mort" is a surprisingly lively scent. To me it smells flirty but sophisticated. Juicy, ruby red pomegranate stands out most but as it dries down, a lush red rose blends into it, along with a kiss of spice. It is bright red and mouthwateringly tart for a while, but within an hour it starts to feel darker and more substantial as the champaca and opoponax round out the base, with just a hint of creamy benzoin. Even though I have several fruity rose fragrances from other sources, I definitely need more of this one in my life! It makes me feel positively vivacious.

This is fantastic! I did not expect much of anything from it. Really I anticipated it to be mediocre, the kind of thing that would do better in a candle than on my person. But it's just a very evocative perfume, reminding me of shadowy late autumn, early winter forests without being too literal about it. The evergreen notes are present but not overwhelming. I get more cypress than pine. The woodsmoke note is realistic and atmospheric, but it's balanced out by a lovely resinous sweetness, as well as a brush of spicy warmth from the nutmeg. A rich, wonderful, full bodied sandalwood rounds out the base and lasts forever on the skin, even after the other notes recede. Good throw. As a sandalwood fiend, I am definitely going to need a bottle of this. I suspect it would smell great on guys too.

Ghostly lily of the valley, glowing in a dark, starless night. The dark resinous base, mostly labdanum on me, smells inky and shadowy, but it's not heavy at all, it's dry, cut with the austerity of white sandalwood. The floral bouquet becomes more complex as it passes through the drydown, and smells very sophisticated, with the slight smoky sharp sweetness in the blend of carnation, tobacco flower, and tea rose. Classy, classy, classy! Romantic and melancholy. Sadly, rose can be fickle with me and went sour and musty after about 30 minutes of wear, so this is a no go.