Merteuil

Oh, I remember that! I had the pot of softening cream and the little pearlized roll-on perfume. I'm going to have to think a while to come up with BPAL similarities, though. Maybe something in my upcoming order delivery will strike a chord.

I second the Unicorn and the Dormouse for gentleness and fresh prettiness. Gotta love the Mad Tea Party scents. I found Veil, though interesting and nice, to be quite an intense and sometimes sharp floral with the sandalwood and lavender in there.

This one has worked amazingly for me. I'd put it as #1 on my list so far. It's fresh and floral and slightly sweet (but not saccharine) on my skin, and I just feel good when I wear it to work. Clean, energetic, professional but feminine. I don't like it fresh from the tube -- it's too medicinal, almost menthol-ish on me. But after 10 minutes it's perfect. I can't pick out the notes very well, but there's a soft rosemary note, and like someone else said, a clean laundry scent.

In the bottle: lavendery, piney, peppery, maybe even a little bit of menthol and cinnamon...fresh, green, and a bit spicy rather than sweet. It reminds me vaguely, gently of the "Karvol capsules" my mom used to get in England: soft capsules of aromatic oils meant to clear up stuffy noses when you squeeze them into a warm bath or onto a towel. A pleasant enough smell, but not the right perfume for me. On my wrist: it quickly becomes a scent similar to the dried floral section of a craft and sewing store: dried lavender, crisp ochre sunflowers, fronds of eucalyptus. Again, a pleasant smell in its place, but not the right perfume for me. This is the most swiftly-vanishing BPAL I've tried, too. Absolutely gone in 30 minutes.

This isn't a tart orange scent. In the tube, it's pure sweet candied orange slices, yummy but not the tangy orange peel and freshly sectioned fruit I was expecting from the descriptions. On my wrists it becomes a warm cherry-strawberry-plum tart. I have to agree with the "Fruit Roll Up" comparison someone made above, but what Carnal instantly brought to my mind was my childhood box of Strawberry Shortcake dolls and all their little plastic pets and accessories. It's a cozy girlish scent. Not one I'd wear out clubbing or to work, but certainly when I'm feeling a little down and want to snuggle up with my flannel pajamas and a favorite old book.

Definitely let this one "bloom" on you. This was not a pleasant smell at first, in the tube or wet on the arm...bitter greens, evergreens, decaying petals, swampy water. However, I'd learned that the in-bottle smell doesn't mean much with BPAL, and I was missing New Orleans so I decided to give Bayou a try last night. For about 20-30 minutes, the scent worked on softening down. The bitter greens and swampiness left quickly and the fresh florals began to peep out, but the scent developed that sharp Deet/bug spray smell others have mentioned. This is not unpleasant to me -- reminds me of hiking and camping -- but it is kind of odd for a perfume. I was rewarded after a half-hour. The bug spray aroma left, and the scent bloomed luscious warm but subtle flowers. This is a scent I've been looking for since my childhood: I'd smelled it on a few beautiful women passing by over the years but could never figure out what perfume it was. I still don't know which notes are doing it for me, but I think I'll need a big bottle of this -- the first BPAL to impress me so.

This scent was a series of surprises -- or unveilings, perhaps. It had been a while since I read the scent description; all I was really expecting was violets. In the tube and for the first 5 seconds on my arm: Surprise! Pure, fresh lavender oil. Then for about 5 minutes, the lavender mingled with the violets I was expecting, plus some lush lilac -- Surprise! Another favorite floral note of mine. The lavender disappeared quickly, and the lilac soon after that, and for an hour or so I was left with a soft, rich, powdery violet -- not baby-powdery; rather, the powderiness of an elegant French face powder. I assumed that the journey was largely over and that the violet would continue getting softer and gentler as the hours progressed...but again... Surprise! The scent got sharper, warmer...the violet gave way to a crisp, subtle sandalwood that stayed for the rest of the day. A lovely scent. I wish the violet had lasted longer, but the sandalwood is nice, too.

This scent was jarring to me at first, in the tube and for the first half-hour or so on my wrist. It was like someone took an axe to an apricot tree whose fruits weren't quite ripe...freshly splintered green wood, torn leaves, sharply acidic bruised fruits dribbling on the sidewalk. Thankfully it mellowed down to a soft, sweet, light apricot musk. It's like a young girl's Tinkerbell perfume. I like it, and I can't stop sniffing my arm, but it's not me, a 28-year-old woman with a penchant for wearing black.

In the tube and for a few minutes on my skin: I'm definitely getting the sweet almond smell, almost like almond extract. There's a little bit of tart lemon (the bergamot?) too, when I inhale more deeply. These top notes fade quickly and the scent warms to a spicy fresh carnation smell. This lasts for maybe a half-hour, then the fragrance mellows out to a more powdery, warm carnation that lasts for hours. I like it. Not sure yet if it's 5 ml love, but the imp will be used.

In the tube and for the first minute or two on my skin, this is Earl Grey tea...fresh, herby black tea, with bergamot-citrus notes hovering tantalizingly for the deeper inhalation. Then the peony really comes out, mingled with green tea and perhaps a jasmine tea for an hour or two. It's the peony that stays for hours upon hours after that...a soft, polleny pink floral smell. The very last fading fragrance, after I'd washed my hands and wrists a few times, was reminscent of sundry aquatic florals I'd sniffed during the 90s...Cool Water, Acqua di Gio, etc. I don't know if I lurve it enough for a larger bottle...I'm not really a peony-sweet girl...but I'll surely use up the imp.