Xue_Bai

This was a free imp from the lab. I had been mildly interested in it, so time to give it a go. Imp: Lovely pines and juniper, very woodsy and fresh. Wet: Went sweet. Very sweet mix of greens. Dry: It went soapy the second it dried. It now smells like Irish Springs on me, fading pretty quick too. Not at all what I expected or wanted. As the first scent to go entirely soapy on me, it's not one I'll keep. While I don't have a problem with the scent of Irish Springs, I'd rather not smell like it unless I'm using the soap.

From my first BPAL order... Imp: Smells like cherry and tea, with a hint of anise. Lightly sweet. Wet: It's back licorice. I mean, I can pick out the individual scents underneath, but together it make a sticky sweet black licorice... Dry: Still smells like black licorice, though slightly less sweet. Hmm, I've never tried a scent with anise in it...looks like I amp it. Later: Okay, the sweetness has gone, and the anise has quieted. Now it's light cherry blossom, some sandalwood, and a tiny bit of the anise hanging on. Very light and nice and more what I thought this scent would be. But it took over an hour to get to this nice point and then it didn't last for much longer...though what lingers is fresh and clean smelling, even if I'm not. The throw was pretty weak. This scent was not what I expected, but I'm not unhappy with it. Black licorice and anise are a happy, homey smells for me, and the morph into the lighter cherry blossom scent is calming. I'll keep the imp, though I'm not sure I'd order it again.

Imp: Wine, red and dark, but floral. Really strong, lightly sour. Wet: ROSE! So much ROSE....can't smell anything else, though I can smell the rose easily at arms' length. Dry: Luckily the rose calmed down as it dried. Now it's a mix of rose, jasmine, and some wine, with the other scents playing lightly in the background. It's dark, but very sensual. There's a nice bite to it that keeps it from being too floral. Later: As time goes on, the rose calms even more, playing more evenly with the jasmine, with a spicy, woodsy, dark undertone. Even later: It went a bit powdery, but not overly so...the spice of the wine still plays through nicely. There's also now a nice metallic feel to it. And work stopped me from recording the other morph notes, though I know it changed some more before fading. So many morphs to it! When I looked into my first BPAL order (this imp was part of it), I looked at all the perfumes I owned in the past, looked up the notes, and found a lot of jasmine and a wide range of sandalwoods...this scent made the short list because of this and I'm glad it did. However, it's maybe a bit too dark and heavy for everyday summer wear...I'll put off getting a bottle until the weather turns cold.

Finally placed my first BPAL order, and received Fighter as a lab freebie. As it wasn't something I would have bought myself, I decided it would be the first tried. Bottle: Well, that's strong...like, wow! Sinuses are open! Really metallic to my nose. Wet: Leather, lots of leather. The metallic has retreated. Not getting any of the blood or musk yet. But it's oddly nice...I'm not the biggest fan of the smell of real leather, but this is interesting. Dry: The leather has retreated a bit and now I'm getting a hint of musk and different aspect to the metallic that must be the blood. It has a decent throw, my family catching whiffs from across the room. Later: The dry scent lasted for about 4 hours, before the metallic AND the leather died. What was left was the lightest scent of leather mixed with a light musk very close to the skin. Smells kind of like taking a leather jacket off after wearing it for hours, but again, still more pleasant to my nose. Overall, I really ended up enjoying this, though I think it's a bit too masculine for me most days. As I do have some other rpg scents, maybe layering might make it more feminine for me. Might buy a clearly old bottle from ThinkGeek if they still have them on sale next time I get paid should the layering go well.