madeleine

Persepohne captures the character perfectly, I think. On me, there's not much pomegranate, but it's a riper, wetter rose than I usually get from BPAL perfumes. It's a bright, lush, girlish scent. Which, honestly, isn't really my thing but I think it's gorgeous and evocative. I'll probably wear it every now and then, just because it's so nice.

Haunted started out sweet amber, which was nice but kind of boring. I'd rather stick with boring, though, because it turned into a dusty, dry scent with too much sweetness. I smelled like someone's crazy grandmother - a dusty old house with too much potpourri or Yankee candles or something. Also, it hurts my nose a bit, maybe because of the dryness. I definitely pass on this one.

This was a mistake. My skin chemistry hates, hates, hates Wrath even though it's worked well with other notes present here and I actually really like dragon's blood and cinnamon. On me, Wrath is slick, plastic, artificial, too sweet, medicinal. It's just not a good experience. So of course it lasts forever. Sigh.

I tried this because I wanted to find a scent that blended amber and rose together. Also, I love the amber/saffron/musk combination - it smells delicious on me. For about three minutes I got all the notes (or most of them) especially the amber. But once it dries down all I get is the rose. Like, only rose. And while I really like the sleepy way it comes through in Seraglio, in Baghdad it's just dry and overpowering. I may try layering it with something (Brinsingamen, maybe) to mute the rose note, but I'm not sure.

I was really indifferent about this until about half an hour in. It started out very evocative, but not particularly attractive on me. There was plenty of chilly danger and malice (the ginger seemed quite cold, plus there was a very very faint cigarette smell) but it wasn't really...something I wanted to smell. However, after a while it warmed up a lot. There's still an edge, but it's a hot edge. I only get the barest whiff of vanilla, but the apricot, ginger, and jasmine combine very nicely. Exotic is exactly the word I'd use. I actually like this a lot, now.

Creamy and golden. If this were lotion, I think I'd probably love it, but on my skin it's just too flat. I like perfume to have more nuance, especially when amber is involved. Seriously, amber is my favorite note but my skin really amps it up. So I need something more than sweet amber if I want to stay interested in the scent. It's really nice - a smooth scent. I don't know about glittering, though.

I really liked Penitence so I wanted to try some other resin-y scents and see how they worked on me. And I do like Cathedral, but it smells almost exactly the same on my skin. I get a whiff of green-y cedar when I open the imp, but on me and dry it's all frankincense and myrrh. When I press my nose directly to my skin there's a bit of heat and the cedar again, but it's not a scent my skin amps up. However, they're very nice together. Kind of Thanatopsis + Penitence. And it lasts foreeeever! But I think I'll stick with Penitence for my resins, or try a resin/floral mix or something.

Silk Road really is a panoply of scents. The primary note for me is cinnamon, but I find that even when the cinnamon is shouting at me, I am always aware of other scents in the background. Clove, maybe myrrh and a bit of rose. There's amber (of course!), and something that might be almonds. Oranges and ginger. For a while about half an hour in it has a sunscreen-y edge that I like (Follow Me Boy does the same thing, but I don't like the direction Follow Me Boy chooses to go on my skin) and then a grainy, smooth scent comes in to compliment the cinnamon. The grain and cinnamon notes are the most prominent when it's really truly dry. One thing I like about Silk Road is that it doesn't feel like perfume, but like you smell like this naturally. It's something I could imagine a Byzantine empress wearing, no problem.

I don't like the way alcoholic drinks smell, usually, but I love the idea of this scent. And I do love the tart/sweet strawberry flavor and fresh scent. In the vial, it's primary strawberries (cooked, or fresh with sugar) with a champagne edge that makes it a bit grown up. Wet on me, it's EXTREME strawberries to begin with. As it dries, the champagne amps up. So it becomes a bit more adult and dangerous, but still with the sweet, sweet strawberries. It reminds me of a Bond girl, but not a dumb Bond girl - a cool Bond girl. (Not Pussy Galore, she's too hardcore for this.) I like it a lot, and enjoy it!, but I don't think I want a big nottle of it.

In the imp, I can smell the spices clearly. It's like they've been layed over rose petals or something. On my skin, however, it's a very Victorian rose - all lace, corsets, good manners, parasols and just a little bit of dust. It's not a "wet" scent at all, but definitely dry. While I enjoy how effectively it sets an image for me, I don't think I'd want to wear Lucy's Kiss. It's...not really me.

Tintagel is a wonderfully evocative scent that...can't make up its mind on my skin! It starts out very herby - the junper, bayberry, etc - and clean in a way that reminds me of books like Wise Child. Herbs being thrown on the fire to scent smoke, thatched huts in Cornwall, one of the flashbacks in The Dark is Rising etc. The dragons blood takes forever to show up, but when it does it brings the spices - cinnamon? - in with it. The story stops being about "ordinary" people and becomes about warlords and ladies. There's a good deal of roughness to it, but these people have power from more than just ability. It's like a room being cleared for a returning soldier. Really reminds me of the film Becket, or anyway, the sets for the movie. So I like Tintagel a lot, at least partly for what it makes me think of.

Thanatopsis smells like Christmas. The way the pine and the amber combine remind me of Christmas trees and incense, and the juniper is a sharper note like the cold weather. So it's beautiful, but much too masculine for me. And I don't want to go around worrying I might be set on fire. Gorgeous and definitely worth a try, though.

The dominant notes here are the peach, amber and vanilla which mix into a velvety scent that I like a lot. It's a golden velvet. The example that springs to mind is from a book: Quest for a Maid. Anyway, amber velvet figures prominently in the book for a bit, and I imagine this is that fabric made into a scent. Rich, luxurious, golden. Powerful? I would have liked something with a bit more of an edge to it - claws or knives beneath the velvet. Tamora was a bitch, after all. But it's really a beautiful scent and I may get a bottle.

From what I understand, Shanghai is disgustingly hot and humid a lot of the time. My idea of the city is not at all like this perfume - but BPAL Shanghai is lovely. A perfect hot weather scent. It's fresh and green, really lifts you up. The way the honeysuckle comes through is beautiful. If I smelled like this naturally, I would go through life always happy.

In the bottle, it smells like nothing so much as cough syrup. (Robitussin, maybe. Been a while since I had any.) On me, it starts that way by becomes sweeter and deeper - I suspect the currants and mahogany. But I can't like it: it's too insecure and babyish. The Red Queen is the perfume a starlet might choose if she's just starting out. Her make-up is flawless and she's got great posture - to look at her you'd never guess she's faking. The scent gives it away.

The "dark cigar" concept really put me off, but I'm glad I tried Ogun. The dominant note was melon - sweet and crisp and made me want watermelon Jelly Bellys an awful lot. As it dried down, it also warmed up. The scent was smokier and deeper - the tobacco I imagine. Not much chili though. While the strong notes didn't last long, it did linger forever and it really reminded me an awful lot of Devil's Night. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's what it reminded me of.

The description had me expecting someting dark and broody, maybe a bit dangerous. I was wondering how you could do that with aquatic notes...but at least on my skin you can't. This smells like most aquatics do to me, at first. Light and spring-fresh. Very pretty. But Olokun turned into soap and cut lilies - not nice lilies or nice soap, but that eye-watering scent you get from both sometimes. I need to wash this off before I want to sneeze my nose off.

Oh, I really do love this! At first I was extremely wary, because incense is not necessarily a good smell for me. But Penitence is just beautiful. Slightly bitter, but dry and really graceful. It's equal parts old and beautiful church (polished wood, smoke drifting up into the light from stained glass windows) and something a little older than Catholicism. There's a hint of a dancer in the scent, surrounded by burning candles and incense smoke... I'm surprised that I like it so much!

Prague is very, very nice. It's a lovely and elegant floral, definitely reminds me of the pictures and movies I've seen of the place. Seriously, it's just really, really pretty. I love the way it makes me feel and smell. It's like the best parts of March - where winter is just becoming spring, and somehow you still have snow and flowers. I'll probably buy a bottle eventually.

Honest to God, on my skin this starts out mint and turns into Chinese food. I mean, it's okay - made me hungry! - but that's not what I want my perfume to smell like. The original out-of-the-imp smell was a lovely mint, apple and aquatic mix. So if your skin sticks with it then congratulations.

I was really wary of Madrid, because the idea of wine notes in perfume doesn't appeal to me. (I hate the scent of anything alcoholic, generally. Can't stand it.) But Madrid smelled like Sweet Tarts in the imp. On my skin it was bold, heady and intoxicating. Overall, I liked it much more than expected but it didn't last through my first class so I won't be looking in to a bigger bottle any time soon. It's a nice scent, and even if you're skeptical of the wine note I recommend you try it out.

This is a brilliant scent. And I do mean that rather literally - smelling it on my skin brought to mind hard glass flowers throwing back light. Really love the peach here, the two BPAL peach scents I've tried have really surprised me. As I perceive it, peach ought to be a very heavy scent, but as with Fae the peach here is crystalline and glittering. It's still very floral - hence the flower images. But it's different from the other florals I've tried on. Rather than being heady and snaky, Marquise de Merteuil is sophisticated and elegant. I like it a lot, and when I finally get around to ordering bottles it's definitely going on the list.

I wasn't crazy about Eos wet - it was clear and clean with both honeysuckle and buttercup. Somehow it managed to be heavy and clear/clean. Don't know how. But then as it dried I liked it a LOT. Very evocative, beautifully drawn scent picture. Um, until the jasmine came out. I like jasmine, but Eos turned into a nasty jasmine variation on my skin and it was just too harsh. Not a scent for me. The beginning was genuinely lovely, though.

I got this in a monster imp lot from eBay, and now I see I'm kind of late to the party! Oh, well. Anyway - piercing is right. Banshee is clear, sharp, keen. But I don't care for eucalyptus in perfume and it made my eyes water. But on a guy, this would probably be really, really nice. Somehow I feel like a guy would manage to turn down the burning sensation. Reminded me a little of Absinthe.

I really, really loved this for the first two hours. It was beautiful - vanilla and honey, truly reminiscent of heated honey milk. The dragon's blood gave it an extra heat and kick. And then after about two hours I caught a second whiff of it and the whole scent turned into baby wipes. A fine scent if you're a newly clean baby, but personally not how I want to spend my day smelling. Sigh. Although, it does seem to be switching back to the original scent. Still too schizophrenic for me to wear.