odalisque

My birthday moon! I'm going to keep wishing for BPAL to do an April Lunacy that's beeswax, soft musk, apple blossom and patchouli, but until then, I'm trying to love Egg Moon. Early results were discouraging. I smell like a dish of potpourri in a mall bath and beauty store. Hmmmmm. I don't have anything against cassia or cinnamon per se (although I keep an eye on them; Priala, that she-devil, gave me a rash after several months of use), they're just not me. After a while, though, the cassia and cinnamon stop yelling and what's left is a strange but pleasant, spicy, ever so slightly sharp resiny scent. I'm going to guess the main players here are the bdellium and dammar. It reminds me very much of the resinous notes in Allison Gross (without the nose-tickling botanicals). It's growing on me. I'm going to age this one at least until my next birthday and see what's what then.

The most interesting thing to me about Peach Moon is exactly how the peach blossom smells peachy. Have you ever eaten a peach that wasn't as ripe as you'd like, kind of still a little bit hard, and it wasn't exactly tart but it was kind of ... a little vegetal-tasting? Peachy, but a dry aromatic peach flavor that focuses on your palate and nose rather than one that juicily floods your mouth and tongue? That's what the peach blossom reminds me of. It's really gorgeous and I will look out for this note in the future. It's very prominent initially when the oil is still wet. The chrysanthemum (I'm fairly sure that's what it is) floods in on top of the peach blossom, giving it a momentary sharpish herbalness. It's followed by a woodiness I'm going to assume is ho wood, and some soft lushness that I think is the musks, although I don't smell musk per se. The night-blooming jasmine emerges last. Along with the musks, which I think are closer to the white/translucent end of the scale, the night-blooming jasmine turns this into a well-blended, sophisticated, subtle, gentle pale (but not white!) floral. Bottom line, the night-blooming jasmine and musk dominate this blend for me, with the peach blossom and ho wood in the background, which is a shame because I'd hoped for it to be the other way around.

Ooooohh, you guys, Twilight Woods dried down smelling EXACTLY like the musk in Morocco on me. I was wondering where I was smelling Morocco -- did I have some on my hoodie cuffs, had I dropped an imp in the car, what? I want to test the lotion, too, and see if it dries down the same because if it does it will be mine.

I have good luck with cold cream (Ponds and Queen Helene are both floral scented on their own and that helps cover up BPAL I hate while I am waiting to wipe it off). I smear it on and leave it for a few minutes and then wipe it off with cotton, following with warm water and soap. I think the oily cold cream dissolves the BPAL oils.

Ooooh, so much love and so much sad. Burlesque Troupe ladies, why must you tease me? Wet: Uh, stale. I was not hopeful when I first smelled it. Like a powerful cologney, stale tobacco (by which I mean, not stale cigarette smoke, but like tobacco plus a sort of rancid-oil edge. A hint of very dry, raspy cocoa, like the cocoa in Velvet. Drying: OMG this is nice! Where the heck is that spicy stuff coming from? I wonder if there are unlisted notes in this because I could totally believe I'm smelling patchouli, or ginger, or both. It is DELICIOUS. After a while, I smell what I think is the black musk creeping around the edges -- something with a similar nosefeel to the musk in Morocco, without actually smelling at all like that musk, if that makes sense. A little fuzzy or velvety. It sweetens the blend up. Dry: This just gets sweeter and sweeter and sweeter, powdery and more powdery and even more powdery, until it's pure baby powder. *cry* I am going to try aging it, I think, to see if it calms down and gets better at staying somewhere in the inbetween stage where it's not stale and cologney and not overwhelmingly powdery-sweet.

Oh, I so wanted to love this It seems I was right to suspect that the ice note wouldn't work on me, because hello, Aquatic Of Death. Sob. I never smell ice or water or sea in any aquatic blends. Never. Woe. *loud noseblow into an oversized and flapping handkerchief* So anyway! Fresh on the skin this is a very interesting cocktail of something like canned red peppers, but without the tinny can smell, and a very pale and transparent aquatic. I think it's the first aquatic I've smelled that's given me a "watery" visual, as opposed to a "holy god bright blue" visual, very delicate for an aquatic and interestingly toned down by the red peppers. As it dries the aquatic gathers speed and becomes the dominant note and a note emerges that is definitely maple twigs and/or leaves. Neat! After a long, long drydown, during which the only throw is delicate aquatic, what remains on the skin is pale musk that does somehow seem to be layered. It's very light in "color" like white musk but has the softness and sweetness of some other type of musk, so I don't know what all's in there but it's kind of cool. I keep saying "interesting" and "neat" but this one is super duper not for me. Glad I gave it a try though.

Road testing the black musk now! It does seem to have dried down much sweeter than I expected, and slightly powdery, but not completely gone to powder (and it's been over 2 hours, so I think I'm safe).

Bleargh, Haunted went to powder on me. But! That one has amber, too, and amber always goes powdery. So maybe I won't have so much trouble without the amber.

What's the deal with black musk? I think I've tried it a couple times, and it tended to be baby-powdery on me. I really want to like Black Temple Burlesque Troupe, so tell me about the black musk in it. Is there anyone who has black musk go powdery in some scents and not in others?

Vechernyaya went strong and soapy on me.

A generous forumite frimped me with this, and it's a real treat. Firstly, I'm shocked that the dragon's blood doesn't dominate this, in fact I can't detect it at all. I think dragon's blood musk must be a slightly fruity musk. Wet, the sunflower is distinct and the rose peeks out. The muguet is strong at first giving this a perfumy feel and throwing a lot. There is a very green scent, but green as in believably vegetal and slightly dry as opposed to the dryer-sheet odor other green scents have on me. The ambergris is slightly salty and moist and there is a breath of something with a faintly herbal tang; it reminds me of thyme but a little spicier. I think it's the chysanthemum and/or the rue. I can smell the ginger in the gingered lily, too (and the lily itself is incredibly well-behaved). It's a very sophisticated scent, not an ethereal witch, not a sexy temptress witch, not a young maiden witch but a witch of years who knows what she's about. Compelling, as another reviewer said. It is by far the perfumiest and most floral scent I've actually wanted to wear, but I do want to wear it. It's beautifully complex and so well balanced. Just stunning.

This is very pretty, although it's not the kind of perfume I'd wear. It shares the sunny jasmine that's in Eos, so if you liked that, then check this one out, and vice versa. The musk is not at all sharp. It reminds me of lotion, which Juliet also did yesterday, so I'm going to guess it's a combination of the white musk and floral (although the two don't seem to share any floral notes). After it warms up a bit on my skin something faint and warmer emerges that might be the spices of the Orient. I agree with the last reviewer that there's definitely a delicate aquatic quality to this as well, but if you love the floral and musk notes listed, don't be afraid of the aquatic -- I'm a veteran aquatic-hater and this is very subtle and gentle on me.

2009 I really like the apple note in this. It's round and juicy and sweet but just avoids Jolly Rancher status. I can smell the caramel too and the combination is foody but also kind of sexy. Sadly, some part of the rum note breaks the deal for me. I think it's what others have described as "buttery" and it was in Fruitcake as well. I can't stand it and on me, it turns into something like rancid coconut rum. Not appealing.

I can understand the comparisons to Ivory soap, because the first thing I thought of when I put on Juliet was "hand lotion". There must be a major brand of lotion that's scented with sweet pea or honeysuckle or something, because it really was all I could smell and I know it's exactly the scent of some brand or another -- not a bath & beauty specialty creation but something like Vaseline Intensive or Jergens. Mr O didn't agree, so maybe it was just some brand that figured prominently in my childhood. Dried down, it's a little less lotiony and a little more musky, but it's still there. Curiously, I never got any lily at all, and it often dominates blends; this one is really well-balanced with no particular floral note leading. I think I can see how the pear rounds things a little and prevents it from being completely a floral-musk. Pretty, but not me.

This is so weird. I cannot for the life of me figure out where it's coming from, but under the strong and tart lemon and grapefruit there is a whiff of something else. I had to sniff and think for several minutes until I figured it out -- it's the smell of a rawhide bone that's been chewed on. After the BBQ scent and flavor they baste on those things is gone, there's a peculiar, doggy, slightly rancid odor they get, and that's what I smelled when I tried on Phobos. It's very very faint, and Mr O looked at me like I was crazy when I explained it to him, so obviously not everyone can smell it; but I smelled it distinctly and had to wash Phobos off.

Yep, the engine only gives me OR results (although it says it's giving me AND). If I search for Queen Mab I get 31 results, everything that has Queen OR Mab in it. The heading says "You searched for: Queen AND Mab". If I search for Queen AND Mab I get 31 results, everything that has Queen OR Mab in it. The heading says "You searched for: Queen AND AND AND Mab". Poor confused search engine BTW, do you think it maybe needs a name?

I've gone back and forth on Hesperides several times -- from meh, it's a novelty to sniff but not for me to I must have it NAOW. I have to say it's probably one of the most evocative blends I've tried from BPAL. Maybe this is because apples are so ordinary a part of life? And maybe because I grew up in Washington state where so many apples are grown, the climate is perfect for apples and, like, everyone has an apple tree? But this is eerily true to the smell of apples remaining on a leafless tree, Golden Delicious apples to be exact. It's appley enough to have an edible, juicy edge (as even wrinkled apples hanging on a leafless tree still do) but there's a hint of .. not rot, exactly, but age, something that suggests chill dampness and the end of apple season with fallen leaves carpeting the ground rather than a bursting, lush sunny apple in late summer. There's even the slightest hint of booziness, as if apples underfoot have started to ferment but not turned into a squishy carpet yet. I want to like this more than I do but it's almost a lonely scent, maybe because of the chilly end-of-season character. It's a really stunning blend, though. It has probably the most throw of any BPAL I've tried, too. I applied it on my wrists and poof! The whole room filled with the scent of apples. The throw is much more Golden Delicious apple than the close-up sniff.

I knew this wasn't going to be one for me, bit I tried it anyway in the spirit of curiosity. Cherry candy with rose.

This is another oil where the lab's description really surprised me after I smelled it. "Dark"? "Crumbling parchment"? Because on me, Incantation is aggressively, soapily "clean". It screams air freshener. I wonder if that's the parchment note, because I know linen notes tend to do the same kind of thing on me. At least it served as an object lesson that no matter how cool it is to evaluate oils blindly, I need to be looking them up first, because "crumbling parchment" could easily have included one of the rot, mildew or dust notes that make my sinuses slam shut and scream.

I really thought I had tried this one a while ago, but I guess not. When I put it on, I was flummoxed because I couldn't put my finger on what I was smelling at all until the musk came out, and then all I could identify was musk and ... something else. I feel better now because I see that so many of the other notes listed are ones I'm totally unfamiliar with -- black orchid, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus. On me this is fruity, so much so that I thought it must be a berry scent with the musk backing it. It dries down to the faintest breath of something subtly, duskily floral over musk. Like many musks, it's congenial on me with good staying power. It smells a lot like Egyptian musks I've tried from other companies, that bare almost-edible edge to it (maybe this is the inclusion of jasmine, which it seems many Egyptian-themed blends have, although night-blooming jasmine is definitely a different creature from the jasmine I've smelled before, Eos for example). It doesn't morph much, just the fruity aspects mellowing out and becoming more quiet and subtle. Very retiring for a musk, tickles in the back of the brain. Well-blended, hard to pick out separate notes, a very smooth whole. The colors I imagine for this blend are pale gray-brown like sealskin for the musk, with translucent hints of purple and blue-toned reds like berries and something slightly cool and misty green. It's a very light scent for a musk and such dark exotic florals and I am thinking of keeping it around, or getting a bottle, for springtime wearing when my usual favorites seem a little heavy and warm.

I hope someone more familiar with tobacco flower will come along, but if you like tobacco flower you may also really enjoy jasmine. I've grown scented flowering tobacco for several years now, and the blooms have a strong jasmine fragrance to me.

Eeeeeeeeexcellent. Thank you! Enablement complete.

What collection is The Lights of Men's Lives from, again? ETA: I agree with whoever said Slippery Poppy Tincture is strong on the honey. It has a red-berry scent to it at first but dries down to this blast of honey that is the same as the honey in Hetairae, but without the deeper tones of fig and clove that Hetairae had.

Seconded. And it's a General Catalogue scent.

Very strong milk with slight notes of honey. No grains. It reminds me a little of how Japanese milk-flavored candy smells. I like the way that stuff tastes, but not the smell. The Lab's milk note seems not to be for me.