Miss Despair

The first time I smelled this in the imp, my reaction was "EW CELERY EW EW EW." I'm not sure if my nose was completely out of whack or what, but after that initial sniff, things improved vastly. I still smell a note that reminds me of celery, but it's more in the background. It's a sharp, astringent, herbal scent. On me, it dries to something very green-smelling, a little medicinal, bitter, with just a hint of something vaguely fruity. I didn't think it resembled beer at the time, but a few days after I had an IPA for the first time in a while, and the scent is actually a lot like the aftertaste of an IPA.

In the imp, this was an interesting scent. Fruity and sticky-sweet, yet kind of dark and mature. When I first swiped, I recoiled in dismay and disgust. Dismust? Either way, it smelled like apricot cough syrup, if cough syrup came in apricot flavor. Cue terror that this is what BPAL's brandy note smells like with my body chemistry. Luckily, after about a minute, the cough syrup is gone. I'm not picking up on any alcohol, it smells like bitter apricots. Another review mentioned it smelling woody-- I'm getting that, too. What kept coming to mind is the way an apricot pit smells. It's strange, though, the alcohol notes (I think) are very very bitter on me. Not in a bad way, but I can't say I particularly like it, either.

The scent of calm waters just before a raging storm, limned with achingly-beautiful blooms, an icy scent, but somehow warm, and mirror-bright: bold gardenia, crystalline musk, muguet, water blossoms, clear, slightly tart aquatic notes and a crush of white ginger. Lovely aquatic white floral, mostly gardenia. A very clean, feminine, springtime scent. Unfortunately, with my body chemistry, the aquatics vanish (I'm beginning to think BPAL aquatics don't like me!), then it turns into a weird plasticky smell that hardly resembles the bottle/wet smell at all. So sad this didn't work out on me, since I love gardenia and aquatics and clean, soapy scents.

Very fresh, aquatic, and salty in the imp, just like the ocean! There's an undercurrent of leather, but unlike the leather in The Red Rider, this one doesn't scare me. Wet, on me, the spices immediately come out. I think this is the bay rum, although it's only slightly boozy, and reminds me of... cloves, I think? Cloves and leather. The sea spray is still there, but playing second fiddle now. On drydown, all of the aquatic properties disappear, which is too bad, but what's left is a lot like the way it smells inside a sauna. Unexpected, but I love it! Warm, cedary, salty, still a little spicy. It's rather masculine, but such a comforting scent that I can see myself wearing this from time to time.

I was wary at first, because in the imp this smelled mostly like Pine-Sol. Luckily, I like citrus and citrus seems to like me so far (knock on wood)-- most of what's left after the drydown is sweet orange. I'm not getting much eucalyptus, either, so no Vaporub for me. However, with my body chemistry the throw is really poor; it only sticks around for an hour max. Maybe a good candidate for a room scent.

I'm not great with notes, but originally I wanted to say something about the pleasant milkiness, the spicy carnation, the warm pumpkin... Then I asked the boy, who notoriously dislikes everything but foody smells, if it smelled good. He said, "Yes, you smell like french toast." Can't. Unsmell. Every time I put it on, that's all I can think of. French toast dusted with pumpkin pie spices. (Maybe there's a bouquet on the table, too, I can still smell the florals if I'm looking for them.) Edit/update: After wearing this on several occasions, I've realized it's longer lasting than most of the other scents I've tried. It sticks around for a good 6-7 hours or so!