steffanina

Persephone- In Bottle: Rose and a hint of something else, slightly sweet and fruity. Can't say if it's pomegranate though. Wet: Rose! Quite rose-y. It's a nice rose, though I am not that into rose. Dry: Wow. I am really startled by how much I like this one--it's one of the nicest rose scents I've ever tried. For "nicest" you sort of have to read "most tolerable" because I usually find rose cloying. But, yes, this is a pleasant rose--I think the touch of fruit is what's setting it off even if I don't really smell the fruit itself. Overall: I like.

Aeval- In Bottle: Oh, very nice...floral, but with a spicy note in the background. Wet: Woo, sudden acetone rush! Wait...I get licorice off this now! Dry: This is really interesting, in a good way. There's a fresh sharp smell to this (no more licorice). I feel very young. The fragrance of a children's room, filled with kiddie records and plastic toys in bright colors. It's too strong to keep sucking up in great sniffs, but the overall effect is nice. I think it's a bit too....hot and sharp to be on my frequent use list, though. (What the heck is tonka? First I've heard of it.) Overall: Interesting.

Iago- In Bottle: Okay, I THINK I've pegged what vetiver is by this time. It must be that wood-and-chocolate smell that I smell in this. Anyway, I like it, and this is not at all insect-repellent-y or eye-watering in the bottle, as I might fear from a scent that's supposed to be more masculine. Wet: Hello! Woo, that's different. What am I smelling? There's a plasticky undertone... Dry: You know what that smell is? Latex balloon. Just as an undertone, but I don't like it. It goes away after about 45 minutes, but what's left is nothing that enchants me. It's like baby powder gone off. Where's the leather? Sigh. Overall: Uninteresting.

Seraglio- In Bottle: Mmm! Almond! And lemon and soap, which is fine. Wet: Soapy. The almond lingers, but soap is predominant. Dry: The almond seems to be receding. Bright soapy scent. If this is "Seraglio," I feel remarkably clean for it. Quick fade, not very interesting. Overall: Uninteresting.

Oberon- In Bottle: Lemons? Wups--that's all I have time for, I seem to have spilled a drop on my thumbnail. On to wet! Wet: Strong lemon musk, if there is such a thing. Hmm. Masculine, sure. A little cloying, a little eye-watering. And now I just sneezed. Will stop sniffing wrists and wait for a little more of the dry-down. Dry: Much nicer on dry-down! A pleasant lemony musk; not a favorite but something I might try when I want to feel musky and masculine. I do feel...powerful...in this one. Overall: Conditional but I like.

Moon Rose- In Bottle: Very light sweet floral--rose, certainly, but also a clean freesia-like scent. Wet: Rather nice; not too strongly of straight cloying rose (rose does cloy for me in many commercial rose blends), but, yes, I can imagine the "midnight dew" in this; it's aquatic and like a night-blooming flower. Dry: A nice pleasant clean floral blend. Dries down and loses some of the dominant rose note, and that's fine. Not unctuous and not too cloyingly rose-y. It's not very exciting for me, compared to some of Beth's other blends, but that's not her fault--it's just not a combination of scents that I usually find exciting. Overall: Pleasant but not exciting for me.

Jack- In Bottle: Oh, GOD. Yummy creamy spice cakey VANILLA. Another "oh, please please work on my skin" in-bottle scents! Wet: Spice and lemon blooms. A hint of the vanilla too, thank god! Dry: (weeping) Oh, Jack. You and I are the star-crossed lovers of BPAL; on my skin you are not yummy spice cake vanilla, but instead are waxy, wan, fruity spice that becomes a little...bit...musty. Our love can never be. I shall try you on a cotton ball and see if you work as an aroma sniffer, but I'm heartbroken. Overall: Without getting into the drama, disappointing.

Dorian- In Bottle: God, that's delicious. Sugary cotton candy with milk and just a hint of lemon. (Oh, please please work on my skin!) Wet: Oh, yum. Oh, that musk is starting to announce itself but I love white musk and so that's great. Still sugary. Just a teensy bit masculine, with that musk (I don't think of white musk as masculine but something about this blend, despite all the sweetness, makes it just a bit so). And the lemon lingers in the faintest, non-overwhelming way. Dry: Less cotton candy and more of a pure, lovely warm vanilla. With the white musk. And still the lemon. This is DAMNED sexy. Most foodie smells make feel happy but not sexy; this is such a beautiful exception. Must be the white musk. I feel like I have turned into a naughty piece of candy, waiting to be eaten up. I want to apply this between my breasts and find a divan to recline on. This stayed lovely all the way through, and had decent staying power. Overall: I love. Wow.

Namaste- In Bottle: Lemon! A very rich lemon. Can't identify the spices giving it that rich smell. Wet: Sweet lemon, and not lemon furniture polish-y either. Lemon candies. Lemon fizzy sherbets! Dry: Hmm. I think the spicy smell in this is sandalwood? That's the impression I get, anyway. Anyway, this scent is lemon sandalwood, all the way through, and it's interesting but not something I'm in love with. The end of the dry-down becomes extremely nice--sweet and powdery, almost like white musk--but that's a couple of hours later and I'm not sure the lemon sandalwood is that luscious, to be worth it. Overall: Interesting.

Wings of Azrael- In Bottle: Er...strong scents. Er...yes. That's all I can say about it. I can't pick anything out; it's just strong and masculine and eye-opening. Wet: This is hard to sift out. Okay, let's try. There's bright citrus, and something darkly floral. A little soapy? I think the violet might be coming out, and I like that. Dry: Starting to smell nice and woody, but not woodsy, or pine-like, no. Just...mellow and wood-like, and no longer soapy. The dry-down as this progresses is soft and powdery but has a masculine smell to me for quite some time. I don't dislike it but it might not be one I come back to often. Overall: Okay. Likeable but not a frequent flier.

Santa Eularia Des Riu- In Bottle: I smell orange and lavender. Not sure if there's a hint of jasmine or if I just am influenced by the description. Wet: Lemony! Very bright lemon juice/lemon furniture polish smell. Not noxious like lemon furniture polish but the association may prevent me from a better relationship with this scent. Dry: Oh, ick. This is the first scent I've actually gone to wash off (and it's not washing off very well). It smells like a baby's changing room, with the soiled baby in it. And the room's just been painted, too. Very nasty plasticky dirty diaper on me. Good-bye. Overall: Downright noxious.

Faustus- In Bottle: Hmm, I'm not sure. Slightly musty? Wet: Oh, that wood-and-chocolate smell showed up in the first whiff!...Now it's suddenly more floral and sweet, and a little sharp. I will take my time with this one. Dry: I've come close to washing this one off a few times. There's just...nothing here that I like; it's a little nauseating to take repeated sniffs and it's definitely eye-watering. I sneezed once, soon after I put it on, but it wasn't right after a sniff so I don't think it's an allergic reaction, but it might be an irritant one. There's no cinnamon or violet that I can detect. (And I'm not sure what frankincense smells like. Maybe that's what I don't like.) With so many good scents in the BPAL collection, I don't feel like this is one upon which it's worth wasting my time. It's just not for me. The fade is uninteresting too. Overall: Not for me; unpleasant. Swapping.

Depraved- In Bottle: Patchouli and apricot! Very much so. Wet: Ooh, such an earthy combination! Yes, it's still apricot and patchouli, and I like it. So earthy and yummy! And it doesn't smell like the patchouli that I'm used to encountering, which is sweeter and lighter. This is not so sweet (but the apricot balances that very nicely) and it's a deeper, darker kind of patchouli than I'm familar with. Dry: This stays just the same! It's like Whip and Obatala in that--not that it smells like that but that it seems to be a combination of two scents that stays the same from bottle to the end of the dry-down. Nice duration too. I really love it. "Earthy" is the word I must keep using, not in the same way as The Premature Burial is truly like earth, but just like a deep musky of-the-earth smell. Overall: I love.

All Night Long- In Bottle: I smell the cinnamon people are talking about, but the smell comes at me like cinnamon almonds do (yum), and then I realize it is the nut undertone coming at me too. Peanutty. Wet: French burnt peanuts! And the cinnamon blooms. Ooh, yum, I love that peanut scent. Dry: -Oh, a little must is coming out. I hope not. Go away, must! You are not nice!--Oh, good, it goes away, settles down into a sarsaparilla scent, with only the memory of must to it. This is pretty nice. Decent staying power too. (I don't find it a sexy or arousing scent as food scents don't usually do that to me. They make me very HAPPY, but I don't really think of them as sexy.) Overall: I like.

Juke Joint- In Bottle: I don't smell mint, I smell must. Wet: I smell something a little minty, but that's not the overall impression...the overall impression is still of that must. It's not boozy or sweet at all. Dry: WOW. What a change this goes through on my skin. The musty smell stays around for a good long time. Now, normally I hate the musty finish that comes with many companies' scents. But this? It's not like a musty after-finish. It's like it's saying, "I AM the scent. This is what I am and what I'm here for. I smell like this honestly, not as a deceptive after-smell." And you know what? I keep sniffing my wrists, not in a desperate quest to see if it's changed and grown nicer, but to keep sniffing up that same scent. Liking it. Wow. After a while, I feel as if what I am smelling is pipe tobacco, which I've always thought kind of nice. And then, after a good hour and a half, the scent's undergone still another change. The mustiness is GONE and what I smell is brown sugar, sweet and pleasant. This is really remarkable. And it has great staying power. Overall: It's conditional, but I think I like this a lot. Or will come to. Maybe even love it.

La Petite Mort- In Bottle: Ooh, yummy. I smell...cherries and cocoa! And butter. Wet: No more cocoa--no more cherries, actually, either! Very floral and light. Sensual but not in a smoky hazy way. Dry: Oh, disappointing. This fades to a soft powdery smell on me, unremarkable. Not noxious but, well, blah. Overall: Unremarkable.

Amsterdam- In Bottle: Very floral and pretty. Wet: A bright sweet floral. Lemony? Dry: This is a sweet and delicious scent. It's the sort of sweet floral that freesia is, even if it's not freesia, and it has nice staying power. The "lemony" impression stays around all through. Overall: I like!

Kumiho- In Bottle: Oh, what a lovely scent. At first it wants to say lemon but then I realize it's the tea scent, not really lemon. Wet: Oh, wow, is that pretty. I do smell the lemon, sweet lemon now, Dry: This is a beautiful scent on me. The lemon is as subtle as can be; it's more like lemon tea, nothing like lemon furniture polish or even lemon juice. The ginger is muted, not like the intensity of ginger in Gingerbread Poppet. Beautiful, and with great staying power. Overall: I love.

Obatala- In Bottle: Very warm and buttery, and it's the coconut of coconut milk, not the shredded-processed coconut meat you get in a plastic bag. Subtle. Wet: Rather the same! Butter more than the coconut, but that subtle coconut is still there. This is yummy and delicate. Dry: Wow, it stays the same all the way through! Decent staying power, and it stays a yummy scent. Very nice! Overall: I like!

Yew-Trees- In Bottle: I don't really get the pine; I get a hint of lemon. Wet: Tea tree oil scent blooms on my skin. Not very strong though; kind of nice. The evergreen is starting to come out. I keep getting this whiff of Play-Doh! Dry: Fades without much drama. Will try it in larger quantity Overall: Not very exciting.

The Lady of Shalott- In Bottle: This one's hard to pick out. I got a whiff of orange after a little while, but that was the only thing I could put a name to. Wet: An underlying note of female musk, not really pleasant. Soon it's settling into one of those sharp hot ozone-y floral blends. Dry: Actually I do find this rather pleasant after an hour. The hot florals are no longer so sharp; it might be nicer in a larger quantity, but I'd have to wait until I hit the dry-down to get to the part that's nicest. Overall: I like, but conditionally.

La Belle au Bois Dormant- In Bottle: Mmm, the pear note is delicious! Creamy pear. And there's the rose coming out a little too. Wet: I lose the pear the instant it hits my skin and strong florals, mostly rose, leap out at me. I'll wait to see if the pear returns--I hope so, because I loved it. There's that touch of aquatic smell, that "evening dew." Dry: No more fruit! Wah. I don't know all these florals, but the scent I have is no longer rose. They're very sharp, hot florals. Ozone-y. Kind of pretty-smelling but too sharp for me to fall in love with this. Overall: Okay.

Rome- In Bottle: Rose, with a tea tree oil scent. Wet: Definitely rose. Not too strong or straight rose. Dry: Remains rose but a very nice rose, not too flowery. It evokes a scent I remember of a house that had cats but was very clean (I'm allergic to cats, so, that could have been unhappy for me, but it's not.) Overall this is nice. Overall: I like.

The Coiled Serpent- In Bottle: Chocolate and smoky wood. (I'm wondering if this is that "vetiver" that everyone speaks of. I get that "chocolate and wood" in a lot of scents that purport to contain vetiver, with which I'm not familiar.) Wet: The smoke in the wood blooms. Oh, I really like this. It's smelling almost like...not quite like cordite. I'm reminded of some ride at Disney World, where it's jungle-y and dark and something like this smoky smell dominates! Dry: The patchouli starts to come up, and I like patchouli, so, that's fine. As time goes on, this turns into straight patchouli, so, when I wear this, it will be because I want to smell like patchouli for the duration. Overall: I like.

Nocturne- In Bottle: Lilac! Not sure if I can distinguish the violet, but intense lilac. Wet: Yes, there's violet and lilac both. I'm feeling like a Gibson Girl in a pompadour walking sedately through a garden. Yes, and if that's the tuberose I'm smelling...yes it is! The tuberose is quite strong now. Dry: This fades fairly quickly, with almost no residue after an hour. It was nice and floral at first but that limits the scent's use for me. Pity. Overall: I like, but not a lot of staying power. Will try again.