catslash

Spicy, lightly sweet rum deepened by wood. When I inhale deeply, it's underlaid by a rush of salt air. I love this one.

This is one of my very favorite poems! I was an Emily Dickinson fangirl when I was a kid (I was a weird kid) and this is the first of hers I memorized, and I'll know it by heart till I die. I wasn't really familiar with most of the notes in this blend, but I saw nothing actively appalling, so I had to give it a try. It's a light, powdery floral. It smells nearly the same on my skin as it does in the imp - maybe a tad sharper and brighter. If I liked light, powdery florals, I would love this blend, but I don't. In fact, they are kind of the opposite of what I like. I love that there is a scent for this poem, but it's not for me. The imp goes to swaps, but the poem stays with me.

To think I almost didn't try this! I was so sure it would be too sweet for me, but its popularity intrigued me, and when I saw an imp up for sale on on the forum I thought, "What the hell," and snagged it. So, so glad I did. richsweetthickintensehoneyvanillaamberomg. This is one of my favorites and my introduction to BPAL's scrumptious honey. I love this scent, and I suspect I will love it even more come winter.

In my search for a berry scent I decided to give Bon Vivant a try. I am very picky about berry scents - they can't be too sweet, they must be tart and/or fresh, they can't be too light, they mustn't be too strong, other notes can't interfere too much . . . you get the picture. Bon Vivant is the only scent I've worn right out of the house without giving it an initial test at home first, and I wished it hadn't been. While it's lovely strawberries for the first twenty minutes or so (sweeter than I'd like, but for strawberries exceptions can be made) it dried down to pure champagne. My nose identified the champagne as being very woodsy, and I couldn't shake the association. The strawberries came back eventually, much lighter than before, and the scent was totally unremarkable. I wore it once more just to make sure, and now it's sitting in my swap bag. The search for my One True Berry continues.

Ugh, so close. There's something rich and buttery lurking in there that I just love, but on top is a piercing sweetness that smells to me how it must feel to have a spike of sugar driven into your skull through your sinus cavity. Very good for people who like sweet scents, but emphatically not for me.

This scent is so funny! I went from not much caring for it to ordering a bottle. I just kept reaching for my imp until I realized how much I love it. The reason it took a while? I don't remember it very well. It's like a book that's amazing when you're reading it but when you put it down you can barely remember what it's about. I've worn it many times and it's one of my favorites, but it's hard for me to describe without wearing it. Ah, well, here goes: In the imp, and wet, it's an odd little scent. There's a very strong tang that I think is the linen mixing with the other notes, and it smells like almost-sour spicy vanilla. (Okay, I cheated and sniffed my bottle.) It's almost off-putting to my nose, which is probably why I didn't like it much at first. When I'm wearing it, though, it mellows quickly and sweetens, and no matter how often I wear it I can't keep my nose off my wrist. As best I recall, it's a gently sweet, subtly rich vanilla with maybe the pepper or the ginger grounding it. Toward the end, it becomes a mild, nondescript vanilla, softly pleasant and unremarkable. I love, love this scent. I am very, very picky about what ultimately becomes a bottle, and this bottle was a BPAL must-have for me.

This one goes through crazy morphing for me. In the imp, it's a rich, sweet scent, sharp berries with fresh-from-the-oven vanilla cake underneath. Wet, the berries are still there, and there's a strong, almost astringent vanilla that reminded me of Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, but without that blend's piercing sweetness. This worried me, as I'm not in love with that particular vanilla. It softens, though, and the berries sweeten and come more into play; for a while, it's almost straight berry on me. Dry now, the berries are gone, and all I can smell is soft, airy vanilla cake. This isn't a dense, moist cake. It's light and fluffy. I like this so much. I don't wear all the scents I test out for a full day, but this one has passed the initial test and will be going through that stage, probably tomorrow. I see bottle potential here. Edit: And now there's a sweet hint of berries again. I don't even know about this one, but I love all the twists and turns. Can't wait to take it out for a full test drive.

Raspberries. Very tart ones. Swear to god. Interesting trick of my chemistry there.

This was the first BPAL I tried and I loved it immediately. It is just like a commercial men's cologne right out of the imp, but that's not a bad thing to me. I've always been drawn to men's cologne, and I was delighted, after the long anticipation of my first BPAL experience, to find a beautiful blend of every cologne sample from GQ that's made me sigh in want and then sulk because the cheapest vehicle for it is still fifty bucks. I ordered a bottle last night in my very first bottle order, and I'm smirking to myself because I'm getting way better and cheaper than anything GQ could tempt me with. On me, Vicomte de Valmonte becomes more distinctive. The mints leap out, sparkling pale green, with a smooth, round lavendar background balancing them out. It stays lovely and cool all the way to the end. I think I know which imp is coming with me to work tomorrow!

Ohhhh. This is the element I liked most in Iago, before the black musk turned it to powder on me and made me cry. I'm new and not much practiced in identifying notes, so I didn't realize that it was the leather in Iago that I liked best. This is the delicious scent that I hoped would stay, with no sign of powder to break my heart. I'm so glad I decided to give it a try. Pure leather, like burying my face in a new jacket still hanging on the rack. Fantastic.

A sultry and unruly blend that emulates the ambient scent of the markets in ancient Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. I'm brand new to BPAL and still learning my way around which notes do what on me. I've found that black musk amps to high heaven and then turns to powder, but I wasn't yet sure if it was just that or the darker musks in general (I've found I can wear white musk, thank goodness). So when I received this imp and checked the description, I was wary of the "skin musk" note, since I wasn't sure what that meant. So I applied Bengal carefully and sniffed more carefully as it settled down. The cinnamon came out first, and then - uh-oh. Is that - is that? Powder? Noooo - oh. No. No. It's going away! Yaaaay! The cinnamon stays steady - present, but not overpowering - and then a rich sweet note that I do believe is the honey comes into play too. I've caught a few whiffs of, randomly enough, raw cookie dough, but that goes away and the rich cinnamon honey comes back. I'm not really catching any other notes, but that could be because I'm just beginning to learn. This is pretty now, and I think it will be fun to try out again with a more educated nose. ETA the next day: It's been over twelve hours since application. I was sniffing at my hand to see if the potent lotion I used last night before bed had worn away so I could test another imp, and lo and behold, I found the faintest whiff of a lilac-like floral scent where the Bengal was. It bears no resemblance to what I was smelling last night. I wonder if it reacted with the lotion at all, though I'm not sure how cinnamon honey + coconut = almost-lilac.

Oh, yes. This is exactly what I was hoping for: BBW White Tea and Ginger PLUS AWESOME. I don't know why I messed around ordering an imp, I should have just gone with a bottle right off the bat. It is every bit as delicious as I expected. I wish it lasted longer, but that's all right. I'll try layering it with the BBW cream as suggested earlier in the thread, and the spray as well. I love this scent. I definitely need a bottle of this. It's bright and sharp and delicious.

Yay! I thought my skin had swallowed this scent whole since I was fooling around testing out some sniffies in the laundromat, but it was just because I was so warm in there. I won't make that mistake again. It's still on me hours later, and it's this lovely creamy hot chocolate scent. And I mean good hot chocolate, made with whole milk and plenty of expensive cocoa mix. I don't think I need a full bottle of this, but I would like to have an imp for those times when I could use a nice cozy comfort scent after a hard day.