kerikeri

Resurrected version: In the bottle, I smell mint and coconut rum-- delicious! On me, the sharpness of the mint and booze burn off quickly, and it starts to smell more like coconut milk, with a soft candy mint edge. Unfortunately something here, maybe the coconut or vanilla, goes a bit plastic on my skin. I am sort of getting suntan-lotion vibes, which isn't necessarily bad but isn't what I was expecting from this. I wish the mint would stay a bit sharper-- it might counteract the plasticiness. Still, it's got potential, and I might try it as a room scent.

This is awesome at first, a boozy mint scent that reminds me of mojitos, which I love... but unfortunately I'm one of the people who gets nothing but baby powder from it on the drydown.

This smells a lot like orange sherbet on me. The fig isn't strong, and does smell more like a spiced, cooked, foody fig note than the sharp earthy fig that tends to go bad on me. It's a simple blend, but smells really nice and reminds me of summer (though that might just be the sherbet/Creamsicle association).

I wouldn't normally have tried this, because musk and jasmine are... not exactly among my favorite notes, but I got it as a frimp and I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised. It's soft, pretty and a little powdery-- I'm getting mostly amber and pink musk (which I think is one of the only musks that actually works on me, as I also liked it in Mlle. Lilith). Over time it becomes a little more sharp and floral-- maybe the jasmine is poking its head out, but it's not too bad. This is really nice for a traditional feminine scent.

I got this as a free tester, and I'm not really familiar with any of BPAL's stone or metal blends/notes, so I'm having trouble putting my observations into words. On me it's powdery and surprisingly sweet, almost cloying, though not in a way that's obviously fruity or floral or anything else I can place. It does have that clean laundry-like feel to it, but it's much heavier than most clean scents. There's something cologney/masculine about it, but again, in an oddly over-sweet way. I'm not really a fan of how this smells, and it doesn't particularly suggest stone or metal to me (though I guess I'd be hard-pressed to say how stone or metal does smell-- I would at least expect something ozone-like for the metal and something earthy for the stone, anyway). But it's intriguing me, just because I've never smelled anything like it before and I can't even begin to place the notes. The powdery-sweetness is similar to what musk usually does on my skin, but beyond that I'm stumped.

From bottle to drydown, this is extremely syrupy-sweet and artificial-smelling fruit, with a boozy sharpness underneath. It's not a good combination. I don't really smell white chocolate, although it may be contributing to the overall cloying effect. I've really enjoyed the apricot note in a few other blends, but it's not working here-- overall, this smells like a very cheap, artificially-flavored fruit liqueur. Tragic, as I really thought I'd love this.

In the vial this smelled interesting, chocolate and a powdery green tea scent, as you'd expect. As soon as I applied it to my skin, though, that hated Froot-Loops-and-Pledge lemony-death note reared its ugly head, just as it did in Crib Girls a few months ago. I smelled no chocolate and no green tea whatsoever, just screaming LEMON. And it gave me a headache.

This is the unexpected favorite of the 2010 Lupes so far for me. It goes on very woody and cologney, but over time the cranberry and currant add a sweet overlay to the wood, with a bracing touch of mint. It's a bright, fresh, kind of energizing scent, and I really like it even though it's not much like the kinds of scents I'm usually drawn to.

This is a soft, perfumey scent on me; the notes blend together so it's difficult to make them out individually. It's kind of a sharp, citrusy scent, only slightly sweetened, with none of the creaminess of vanilla coming through. It's not bad, but I was hoping for something a bit more warm and lush, more amber and vanilla and less citrus and myrrh. edit: Gave this another shot today and I may have been too harsh on it. It is a pleasant, soft scent, and I could make out the red tea note better this time around. The citrus elements aren't lemony-sharp or tropical, more like a warm, gentle orangey citrus. It's very light and subtle and not very sweet, which still makes it not really my thing, but it's still one of the better scents from this update that I've tried so far.

This smells like a spicy chai-infused chocolate bar. The ginger and cardamom are very strong, with impressive throw. I don't really get any rum or coconut, just warm spices and creamy milk chocolate. It's a very intense foody scent, possibly a bit too strong, but smells quite delicious.

Starts out as a dark, thick, rich red wine scent, very reminiscent of the GC scent Centzon Totochtin, but with additional smoky wood notes. It's very heady and a bit overwhelming. Then it almost completely morphs-- the cherry and plum notes rise to the top, adding a brighter, sweeter, almost sparkling quality to the scent, though it's still grounded by the darker wine and wood underneath. This one surprised me with its metamorphosis-- I was just thinking it was nice, but a bit too similar to all the other dark, vampy wine scents I've tried, and then it totally changed into something unique. I liked Centzon Totochtin when I tried it, but the occasion never seemed quite right to wear such a heavy, decadent scent; Zadok Allen Vineyard seems to be its lighter, dressed-down cousin, and I can see myself wearing it in everyday situations a lot more easily.

On me, this wavers back and forth between nothing but lilac and lilac plus smoky, creamy vanilla and tonka. I can smell the supporting notes better in the throw, but up close the lilac is really strong. I'm not usually a fan of florals at all, but my mom grew lilacs in the backyard when I was a kid, so the scent has a certain amount of nostalgia for me. I wish the vanilla and tonka were stronger and the lilac a little more subdued, but this is still pretty wearable, and might make a nice scent for spring.

I had high hopes for this one because of that ginger cream note-- I was hoping for something more like Glowing Vulva, but instead it's earthy and harsh with barely any creaminess and no ginger at all that I can make out. At first it's a very sharp cologne, but the drydown is more of an almost "dirty" skin scent (in the working-in-the-garden sense, not in the haven't-showered-in-days sense). If you like unisex earthy scents, I'd definitely recommend this, but it's not what I was hoping for and not my kind of thing.

Resurrected version: At first it's all strong tobacco, and then it fades down to faintly smoky baby powder. Some BPAL vanilla/cream notes work wonderfully on me, and some automatically turn to powder; this seems to contain the latter. I can smell some complexity to it if I sniff up close, but that baby-powder scent overwhelms everything else. Over time, it morphs a bit. Still powdery, but darker and sweeter, and somehow intriguing-- I think the incense and cognac have shown up to the (funeral) party. I'm not sure how I feel about it now-- there's something I really like about it, but the powderiness hasn't disappeared, it's just had some more interesting notes layered over it. I think this might work for times when I needed a more traditional, mature, serious kind of scent, but it wouldn't be appropriate for everyday use.

Dark, dusty tobacco, sandalwood and clove. These are all notes that work well on me, if leaning a bit masculine, and this is just on the edge of how dark a scent I can wear without feeling like I'm wearing cologne. Layering with Black Heart makes it sweeter, obviously, and also brings out the citrus notes I couldn't really smell before. It's an interesting combination and makes both a little more wearable than they are individually for me. Gets even nicer as it dries-- the candy sweetness of Black Heart plays off the clove and sandalwood in Black Death really wonderfully, resulting in a scent that's both shadowy and alluring. I don't know if I'd want to buy two scents just to layer them, but it's tempting.