urbanruralferal

Struggling to come up with a metaphor for this. I only wore it for about an hour. I guess the closest I can get now, after the fact, is the image of a group of thirteen year olds in a brazilian floral parade, very bright, bright as in sunny, and taking themselves (and their brightness) quite seriously as only thirteen years old can do (that would be the lavender tether.) It went on so splashy and citrus. whoa, a lot. The jasmine surfaced as it dried, and jasmine is consistently soapy on my skin, so that was there, too, but the lavender held it together and kept it from splashing itself off the page. This will make a wonderful RAK for someone!

Pennyroyal, hello! This is mostly pennyroyal on me, with a something a wee bit woody in the background. It is a light wood, like pine. the wood comes out in varying degrees as it dries down, but the pennyroyal rules the show. Pennyroyal is a bit musty, or something. Just a tiny bit *sweaty*. I can taste it on the back of my throat. I think one might like to wear this when one is congested... The image here is a great big dance studio, bright, with well worn, but clean, wooden floors. there aren't any dancers in it at present, and it is cold. So maybe the Pain here is of a searing muscular variety. "Go for the BURN!" I won't keep it. I much prefer the pennyroyal in Mad Hatter.

when this first hit my wrists, I smelled cardamom and fenugreek scuttling down the dry hot street talking animatedly! strange for a perfume. those turn a corner and up walks up a friendly citrus to greet me, orange and his honey friend they want to show me around the city! I agree and we go to a little cafe where we are served this lighter-than-air, not-too-sweet dessert made of orange and rose water, delightful. we consider whether or not to order a coffee, but decide against. After all this is a very non-urgent visit. On our way to the lodgings, a slight breeze picks up, and blows the scent of blooming almond through the streets. I turn around to ask my citrus guide where the trees are, but he and honey are lagging aways back, and the almond breeze pushes me lightly towards a dry fountain that sits in the middle of a deserted public square. I am left, alone.

dang and double dang. There is a whole family of scents that I am completely unable to enjoy, and Veil is no distant cousin to that clan. My skin's insistence on simplifying anything white floral to shrill soapy blasts is the reason for the first dang. The second dang is because when I faced with a floral scent such as this one, I can't write an interesting review. Veil is just one big resounding NO. I will continue to try the gardenias, the jasmines, the honeysuckles, the lilacs. They were good to me once, long ago.

Of those I have tried, Love Me and Tezcatlipoca are the hippiest. Love Me smells just like the hippie herb shop in my town when was growing up in the 70's, and Tezcat is very insencey (once the chocolate burns off). :edited for bad typing, of course

This smelled very promising on my 9 year old. I could smell the dragon's blood and it was good. On my skin? Oh my god, it turned so. wrong. on me. This is the kind of scent that will drive my husband from the house. It has that aquatic sharp edge that reminds me of obnoxious laundry detergent, and thoroughly stirred in is a massive dose of white floral. Oh and as time goes on, it gets stronger and stronger until it is penetrating my sinuses and I can taste it in my mouth. I felt panicky...must.wash.everything that has come into contact with it. Enough already. I will go put this on the swap list right now. I feel so stoic, trying the aquatics even though they seem to do this to me!

This scent is to me like watching a little rosy cheeked toddler run towards you just beaming. The joy can't be contained in any vessel. It just spills out like light. powdery, milky, honey powder. It's very nice. I'm probably never going to wear it, but then again, it's my daughter Alice's, so it's a moot point. If I had a baby, I would put this on it's clothes! ETA: It is so funny, re-reading this review. My 13 yr old daughter loves to wear this as a soothing scent, every day these days. Trying to hang on to her fleeting childhood? ETA: 11 years later, Alice still has her bottle of Alice, but doesn't wear it. She let go of childhood...

Trying this is just another bit of proof that I cannot discern a floral from a floral from a floral. All I smell is roses? With a little bit of something wilder behind it. I am going to pretend that wilder thing is heather, but it's just pretense. It doesn't even change all that much. It just goes on and stays on for a few hours and then it is gone. I haven't even got on the train before the journey is over. Oh well.

I'm a-wearing this for the first time today. It sure is complex! I am thinking of this as Czernobog's sister, she's a Gypsy Daisy duke, bustin out all over in her little caravan on the outskirts of the Carnaval Noir...She's got a brisk little trade in herbal remedies, and if you're really in need, or whatever, she'll take you into the back corner where it's dark and dusty and take down a jar that contains camphor-clove candy. I swear I have been to her shop, maybe when I was kid in Isla Vista in the 70's. she was just passing through, but she had herbs hanging from the ceiling, and some frangipangi incense, I will never forget the smell of that place. My husband says, "hmph, it smells like a head shop inthe mall." I say it goes perfectly with almonds and raisins. Get a bottle, Shan. And some way to make room scents... And keep on wearing it. It is good.

I agree that this is like the description. Actually I smelled more of a leaf mold smell than turned earth, but leaf mold is simply on it's way to being earth, so... also, it did smell a little soapy on me. But that is just me, I bet. I liked this in principal, but I really don't wear rose, which was the predominant note after it was all dry, so I don't need to keep it. off to swap.

I look forward to learning how to use spreadsheets so that I can make some changes. Until then, I am using Nattie's and just adding to the extra columns. I can't really use the help section because I don't understand the spreadsheet vocabulary...

Oh my. 12 pages of reviews! Don't know how much new I can add to this, but here's my two cents. Can I tell you how much I love this? I must admit, it is the first BPAL of the vanilla.tea.lemon ilk I have smelled, and perhaps I will love them all! but this has brought out the slatherer in me. I want to experience this with more than my nose. I want to travel to this place. I want immersion. Okay, the gentleman in question is (don't laugh) Donovan on the back of the Mellow Yellow album. In his white linen suit, and such a lover. The color is a yellowed white. Not like old lady hair, though. maybe like the sun shining on vintage cotton bedsheets. The food is those vanilla lemon wafer cookies, with a cup of tea that is laced with something a little bit sharp. It promises to feel really good in a drawn out way that has you gritting your teeth just a little.

The first thing I thought when I put this on was "Green". it started out very herbal and almost menthol or eucalyptus. There was a dark streamside mossy feel to it. And then it moved on to something sweeter, but the sweetness didn't sit well. It's a boggy almost putrid sweetness, a bit like the mullein in Czernobog. I think it is the carnation. It has that spicy quality. I like it but it is weird. Completely dry and the morning after, I can still smell it on my wrist. The patchouli really comes out as it dries, and the carnation/whatever is still there...The disparate scents seem to be better integrated with time. What a strange ride getting to this point, though. Over all it may be too sweet for me to wear regularly, but I'm going to try a little on a lightbulb and see how my room smells.

I did smell chocolate when it was in the bottle, but as soon as I put it on, I just got The Great Floral Waft. Imagine if you will a huge animated blossom, Sgt. Pepper's style, and out of this trumpet-like bloom, flowers of all different colors keep piling out, covering each other up, more and more of them, and you will have an idea of how I experience the floral scents I have been trying lately. I just sort of stand back, and go, "Whoa. trippy. that sure is floral." My nose, it's just not terribly discerning. I didn't smell wood at all. Unless that was what that chocolate smell was at the beginning. I did however smell...LILAC! I love lilac, really I do, but this just didn't speak to me. And then, in the end, it turned to soap. Another one to swap.

Yes, I know I had read how much an imp contains, but I had no idea the vials would vary so much. Thanks for the replies everyone. I will feel more secure in my swapping now.

I am wondering how full an imp is when it is brand spanking new. I couldn't find this question in the FAQ section.

Hmm, well, I was really excited about trying this, as I am working my way down the list of scents with vetiver... plus intrigued to smell violet again. I'm on a definite learning curve here. So, got this today and put it on right away. the violet and vetiver were on an equal footing when wet, but as it dried down, the violet took over and it was cloying. I thought of a manipulative woman, all sweet, with dark intentions. The vetiver never faded out of the picture, but I lost interest. I can't stand it when women bat their eyelashes at me. Many hours later, I am left with nothing but a faint, slightly more femme version of Bluebeard on my wrist. Same combo, go figure. deodorant-y. I'm gonna swap it.

I only have girls, and they are much older (9 and 12) but the 9 year old loves Black Lotus, and the elder, The Lion. We haven't tried all that many, though; these are just the faves so far...

I just smelled "perfume" in the bottle, but once I put it on, the aromatic herbs were strong, sort of a trumpet blast, really! Almost immediately, I smell something...powdery. I don't know what that is yet (frankincense?) but I do tend to get powdery smells a lot. The herbs are lost in a veritable fog, which is not unpleasant, but I was wanting to relish the lavendar and rosemary a bit more. As this dries, it descends quickly through a series of phases that I am beginning to recognize: powdery, then sweeter like powdered candy, and then on to a dry powder which I liken to elder flowers. I love elder flowers, but I'm not looking for them in a bottle. This is the second blend to finish with what I shall call The Elderflower Wine Effect. (Belle Epoque did the exact same thing.) Must be my body chemistry. Meh. Off it goes.

Salty ocean breezes touched by a numinous, incandescent mist. I am sorry to say that this smells like.... one of those Swiffer wet pads... and I can't even get past this association. I have to go run to wash it off. Off to swap.

“The Pretty Era”, France’s Golden Time: an age of beauty, innovation and peace in France that lasted from the 19th Century through the first World War and gave birth to the cabaret, the cancan, and the cinema as well as the Impressionist and Art Nouveau movements. Sweet opium, Lily of the Valley, vanilla, mandarin and red sandalwood. I don't have this scent anymore but I was dancing today and a few associations came up for me around Belle Epoque. Element: Air Time of Day: Dawn Music: Cocteau Twins, Pandora All that but slightly corrupted. All that but tired, like it has been out all night.

Okay, Brimstone has the honor of being the first BPAL scent to feel like home to me. Going on, it feels like a second skin! (I used to wear vetiver all by itself, or mixed with sandalwood (Khus), so this is a comforting and familiar scent.) It is gritty and sharpish at the same time, although grey I don't get... After wearing it for an hour or so, it loses a bit of it's sharpness and goes a tiny bit sweet on me, and almost a little soapy, but not unpleasantly so. It seems to fade fairly quickly, but it may be that I can't smell it anymore but others can. That used to happen to me with vetiver... At the rate I am applying this, I am going to quickly use up the little imp; this may my second big bottle ever! Brimstone has also helped define a path for me to travel through the world of BPAL. I am sure to meet a scent that will bump Brimstone, cause it's not quite perfect, but for now it reigns in my imp box! Oh, yeah, and my husband, who is wary of added scent due to chemical sensitivity, took a whiff of this on me, and said, "Now that's more like it!" An added bonus. ETA: In town today wearing Brimstone. A clerk says as she rings me up, "I smell something burning... rubber?" It was me! BWAHAHAHAHA! edited 2017: I tried a fresh imp of Brimstone, and while it is still really nice, it isn't the Holy Grail I was raving about 11 years ago. Today, for me, this finishes as a pretty, feminine vetiver. Image: the sweet stargirl that works at the head shop. You have a crush on her, but she isn't quite letting you in to her private reality. I'm going to put this aside to age for a while, cause, you know, vetiver.

I am in awe that this resource exists! Absolutely priceless. thank you, Nattie.

(I wore this again, and I totally have to rewrite the review.) I know that Bluebeard was a nasty wife-killer. I can't smell him in here. I do declare this is some swashbuckling ship captain. I was thinking gentleman pirate, but I then I remembered Russell Crowe in Master & Commander, and oh! this is it! It's bracing, you know? And sea-swept, and there is a large trunk on deck with leather hinges that has all kinds of mysteries inside. I can't quite spy them out, but I know they are in there, and there is Intrigue... and there is the Captain, on the deck, salty hair blowing a bit. Mmm, yes...this is a fun game to play! But will I wear it? If the Captain of the ship o' my heart could tolerate scent, I would ask him to, but as for me, I think it may be a bit too butch. I'll keep it for a while and see if I can't build a suitable outfit around it. Summer is coming...

I have tried this a couple of times and we were about to put it in the swap pile, but I decided to try it again. today it hit the spot! I fell in love... Although it goes on a bit harsh for me, sort of a floral trumpet blast! once a couple of hours go by it has mellowed into almost the perfect summer scent. There is something so innocently sensual about this twilight. I used to live with a long gone lover in a lovely Old Portland apartment, and that summer there were moments just as lazy and luscious and unfettered as can be, watching the sun filter through a broad green tree and it was so so hot. This almost took me there. There was just a *touch* of sharpness that kept spiking through, but in between I could forget it and dream... It was very strong and I have to be careful to only use a little tiny bit in each spot. I am tempted to put this in a carrier oil and roll it on or something. yeah. yum. I am still going to look for that more rounded jasmine/honeysuckle (New Orleans, perhaps?), but until I find it, I think Twilight will do.