PrinceofcatS

My imp of this is really old, so I'm fearful this isn't necessarily true to the scent, but a friend sent me a bunch of old imps last spring and that's what got me into BPAL again. This and The Reaper and the Flowers ended up being my two favorite scents that spring. I do get a faint soapiness from this now that I think about it, but it's not really soapy, so much as strongly green. The lettuce is really sweet and aquatic and the orris adds a pinch of almost violet-like sweetness (without being violet-y - I amp violet to high heavens even though I like it in small doses so I tend not to be able to wear it and tend to be very nervous about orris). I think angel's trumpet might dominate, a soft, greenish floral note that is definitely also in Yorick (though sadly on me, Yorick is the spices from that dirt going REALLY sweet with the amber undertone in it). The rosewood doesn't amp either, but does add a faint brush of perfumey wood to this, grounding it and rounding it out a little. I really like this scent particularly for whom it describes. It's very inoffensive, but it isn't, on me, a very generic or commercial scent. The orris eventually ends up strongest on me, but it is a note I amp.

I think there's carnation in both Voodoo Lily and Leanan Sidhe, though both of them are lily scents (and it might be ylang ylang in Voodoo Lily! my nose has failed me). I haven't tried it, but Bathsheba is carnation, plum and musk, and might be a replacement for Frumious Bandersnatch; from what I remember that was all plum and carnation on my skin. I haven't worn Morocco in a long while, but I think the spices and carnation blend really nicely in that.

I've never responded to one of these before and I'm excited to. Ranger (Untamed wilderness: buckskin accord with Terebinth pine, Russian birch, black ironwood, elder bark, hay, armoise, juniper, patchouli, galangal root, Spanish moss, and cabreuva.) - For someone in tune with nature! (The leather on this is kind of strong on me. Arkham is another forest scent I tried recently that is much more florally. I find the violet note comes forth the most in it.) Croquet (Pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk) - Hedgehog musk! Pele (muguet and Hawaiian white ginger enveloped by warm, damp tropical blooms) - idk! this scent is sweet and bright, a bit tropical. Brusque Violet (Violet petal, violet leaf, osmanthus, orris, mint, and opoponax) - A bit quirky, rather sweet, definitely stubborn. Hollywood Babylon (The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry) - "all things makeup and fashion" just made me think of this one, both in sweetness and subject matter! Vixen (The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli.) - Another one that's just sweet and pretty, but unusual. Voodoo Lily - bonus Poison Ivy scent. This is a heady, spicy lily, almost a little fruity.

I second Roses, Pearls and Diamonds, which really does smell exactly like those things (I'm not regularly a coconut fan, but this doesn't smell tropical at all, just pearly), Lucy's Kiss (to me this is gentle spices and white rose) and The Ragged Wood (judging by the other scents you like, FeralFae, like Elf, I think you would really like this one). If you're up for hunting for it, Fresh and Blooming as a Rose, which was one of the Snow Queen scents from the Trading Post this past Yule, is a dreamy blend of light snow, white rose and white amber and is rather romantic. In the general collection I recommend Ave Maria Gratia Plena (unless you really hate any of the notes - I like them, though; I find the flowers light but persistent and the sandalwood comforting and warm) and Victoria from the Stardust line, which is one of my absolute favorites.

Someone recommended this to me a while ago as a good gothic heroine in a white nightgown scent, as being ethereal in that dark sort of way. It was definitely on my top list of things to try, but I ended up getting some other imps instead in my last order. And then I got it as a frimp! This goes on with the sharpness I associate with lily (I think maybe my favorite floral note - I have definitely had poor experiences with lily scents, but more often than not, this note really glows on me, and I find it subtle and sweet but not bullied by other notes), and then warms up to this almost buttery sweetness that haloes the flowers. I had to look at the notes list and I think it's whatever the honey is in honey myrtle; it's a really subtle honey note, though. I mean buttery not as in edible but just to describe the richness of it. Stargazer lily has a recognizeable sweet and springy feel to me, always very fresh, and moonflower is similar but has a nearly soapy edge that also smells kind of misty, and always evokes nighttime. Together they're a silvery and almost sharp floral that is really soft and ethereal. I start to detect a bit of moss keeping it from being too sweet or too floral, and which also helps this scent to evoke spring flowers specifically at night. So definitely my gothic heroine in a white nightgown scent, but she's not running from the castle, she's just wandering its cemetery unchaperoned in the moonlight. Finally that tomb dust note starts to catch up to the moss; it's like a very, very soft and dry version of their dirt note, which I adore. I think that might be what other reviews call spicy, since I find the dirt note has a gently perfumey, spicy scent to it (and i love it!). This one didn't have great longevity but I hope that's just because my skin has been really dry and everything's had poor longevity on me lately. It held its own better than a lot of scents have recently. I was thinking "BIG BOTTLE" from the time I put this on, and I'm still thinking it. It's really, unbelievably lovely, and might be a good lily-dominant scent for me, because even though I think the moonflower is just as strong, moonflower and lily have a lot of things in common - their crisp, fresh feel - and they blend together gorgeously.

In the wet stage this is frankincense - a bit lemony but more the other kind - and lily of the valley, and it's so gorgeous, just teeth-achingly beautiful. But sadly, the myrrh comes out kind of powdery-sweet and then the rose comes up too, and it ended sort of surprisingly powdery, which isn't a thing I like, but was also gorgeous. This definitely evokes holiness and femininity, and I actually felt like i shouldn't be wearing it! It's nice, I need to wear it a few more times, but I think I'm disappointed because that early part before rose and myrrh (notes I adore, honestly) where it's a simplistic, glowing frank and muguet blend, was like my own personal heaven, and I can't find another scent in the catalogue that's similar that doesn't seem to blend rose with lily.

I absolutely hate patchouli, except very, very rarely, when it's smothered in other notes and in something specifically trying to evoke dirt or woods, so when I got this as a frimp I already knew I wouldn't like it. But I sort of hoped I would since i was super curious about all the apocalypse scents back when I first discovered BPAL, and I am discovering that I adore lavender pretty much all the time. I actually come very near to liking this, so I'm sure it's actually quite beautiful. After a limey stage post-application, almost all of the notes in this come out rather sweetly. Lavender, sandalwood and patchouli - but less terrible on me than most, sort of a softer, paler patchouli? - with a growing sweetness that I can attribute both to the flowers (I love lily and if not for the patchouli I think I'd love the blend for this mixture!). There's a sort of otherworldly windswept feel which I think the notes contribute to in general, but the musk and mint are just like a chilly overlay, and then there's a kind of dark undercurrent from the vetiver. I wouldn't call this desolate or forlorn though I can see how it lends to that; it's pensive and pretty, and leans masculine only in that it's not overtly feminine - not overtly floral, sweet or anything else, but the musk doesn't dominate the way "masculine" scents feel like on me. It's a real pity about the patchouli because I actually really liked this. It's like a lying on a tomb in a white dress reading baleful poetry sort of scent. Listless, but holding your attention with its unusual prettiness.

This was all lemon spice on me? It wasn't a bad lemon, like a cleanser, but it wasn't bright either. The incense-y elements - powdery, resinous, spicy, idk - were there in some degree, but I couldn't pick up anything specific, just lemon. Neither what I expected nor something I particularly like, I'm afraid, but I'm sure there's got to be someone who would find this scent a must-have.

I heard Edith Cushing compared to this quite a lot after she came out, but Edith was the blend that broke the news to me that no matter what else is going on, i will always hate patchouli. A friend of mine loves Lyonesse, though, so I decided rather spontaneously to try an imp of it. And... at first, wet on my skin, it gave me the same sickening feeling Edith gives me, this blend of a foody vanilla with a bunch of things that frankly smell atrocious. I love ambergris and sea moss and elemi are all grand ideas, but on my skin, with the foody vanilla, I seriously thought I might be ill. Thankfully I didn't try to wash this off, because while it took a while, it settled very quickly into a gorgeous, golden, otherworldly beauty. Dry, it's a liquid blend of this golden vanilla-amber-sandalwood-musk, and the cooler, silvery feel brought on by the blend of notes that evoke the ocean. I can also definitely detect the pure stargazer lily note, which is one of my favorites, but overall the scent is incredibly well-mixed and evocative. I can really see the comparison to Edith, but the patchouli really disrupts that one for me. At the same time, I think that one is way more buttery vanilla throughout, and doesn't have the crystalline feel of this. This scent reminds me of a grey rainy day spent consuming your favorite piece of fantasy media - a LOTR marathon from the comfort of your couch wrapped in a blanket or rereading your favorite childhood books in bed - this perfect blend of translucent watery notes and the comforting blend of musk, sandalwood, amber and vanilla, but transcending the earthly comforting feeling and being all celestial and shit. So I really like it! And I wish Edith was more like this on my skin, but nevermind. This is probably a future bottle purchase. I could see myself reaching for this a lot in the cooler months, though it feels out of place now that I'm eager for spring.

I agree with what the person directly above me said, only on me I hate it. This goes on soapy juniper, then some benzoin comes out and makes it less horrible (even though it's still a soapy juniper). I'm not getting any flowers, though I do think i got some bergamot. I've been bitterly disappointed in most of the Lupercalia scents I've tried this year and I was hoping this one might manage to be some kind of standout for me. Nope. Not at all. This is absolutely terrible. EDIT: I was so disappointed in this one that I actually kidded myself if I wore it again it would be different. And it was?? I tried on The Ragged Wood again this morning and this time it went on juniper-pine and almost bubblegummy, so I was hopeful that would lead to more than just the benzoin. Today, juniper and pine smelled like the woods, not like soap; a clean and clear woods, not a dirty wild one like Ranger or something, but quite pretty. No florals were distinguishable on me from one another, but they were very much there, marrying the super evident, creamy vanilla and benzoin to the woods. This is like sitting in a forest clearing and smelling flowers off in the distance. It's very sweet, very pretty, very unusual. I think it suits the poem very well. This isn't what I expected at all, but after the horrible experience I had the first time I wore it I'll take any positive I can get! This one doesn't smell great when I actually sniff my wrists, but it floats around me like a hazy cloud of woods and distant flowers and vanilla, and had great staying power. Let's hope it wears like this from now on, not like the horrible first time.

This is an almost medicinal herbal blend of lavender and mint and chamomile in the bottle, almost sharp but with an underlying sweetness; on the skin it's much the same. I don't find it hits you in the face with lavender or mint but they're quite strong and sparkly and herby. I adore this lavender scent; it reminds me of the same one in Yvaine, and I really need to look into more lavender scents. The mint in this is like wild mint, the plant, not an extract or candy cane or something else; green and soft and even sweet, and it hovers over everything and feels really magical. I can't explain it any better. As it dries I can get more of the honeysuckle and osmanthus, and maybe the honey too, bolstering the honey-esque elements in both of those scents but not dominating or crushing the many herb and floral notes here. This is so bright and delicate and really feels like being outside in an herb garden with like, fluff and sparkles floating all around you. I agree with the person who said this is like what a fairy bite would smell like after. Like fairy saliva would totally smell like this, gross as that sounds! I was hoping I'd like this but utterly terrified based on the note list for years - if you are like me please just stop worrying and buy it.

This goes on with a strong lemon bite from the frankincense, with the other qualities of frankincense kickin' it in the background, and flowery osmanthus (which is an almost fruity flower scent that I find very ethereal and pops up a lot in otherworldly blends in BPAL). The other notes are all there as it dries, and there's definitely a golden, somber feel to this one. The lily isn't super strong and just seems to kind of float; the musk is just mingling with its resinous qualities. I find frankincense usually gets less lemony on me but this one doesn't seem to, maybe because it's fresh? The osmanthus calms down a little bit on the drydown - the strong fruit note that it can have does at least - but I found all the notes of this consistently detectable the entire time I wore it. This does have a somber but bright and gleaming feel to it. It works really well for mythical vampires, but it doesn't feel like a ~dark vampire scent~, for which I'll presumably have to try something else in this line.

I complained that both Elf and Arkham didn't smell like woods on me but this, while it does smell like woods, doesn't smell like the kind of woods I want: this is all forest floor and vegetation in the depths of a forest, with sun trying to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves but failing, but not very much trees. I generally don't like patchouli and leather is a scent i am critical of sometimes, but both of them together really evoke that sweet almost-rot feel of a forest floor. I feel like leather is the strongest note on me.

Yikes, I really hate this. I can't even say this smelled like something I want to drink, it has like a rubbing alcohol feel to it. I just wore Oberon recently so I recognize the juniper element, which has a "clean" element to it that i don't really care for, but not that alcohol note. It is a bit sweet and soda-y after that initial wet phase, and I really feel the Roaring Twenties vibe of it, but I personally can't stand it.

Usually tropical flowers means heavy and smelly and fruity and I hate them with a passion, but I love muguet desperately, so I gave this a try. It's really pretty! Definitely has a tropical flower feel but it's white flowers and lovely and pretty. I got a gardenia out of this and I don't know why, but the muguet was prominent. There's maybe a tart and bright note from the ginger but I didn't actually detect any ginger. I think i might send this to a friend because I can probably find muguet scents i like better than this, and I don't feel like I'll wear it a lot because tropical flowers is still not my ultimate jam. But i recommend it.

I wanted a crisp twilight woods with wildflowers, feared dark heavy woods and nothing else, and got... faint woods, beautiful flowers, then ALL FLOWERS in the drydown. What?? I am starting to realize woods might not show up much on my skin, which baffles me. This goes on with a strong lemonish scent that's probably bergamot, but fades into a really pretty floral. The violet dominates a bit (that note definitely amps on me though), but it doesn't crush the other notes, it just lends a prevailing sweetness that I detect as violet. If you sat in a flowery glen and far behind your field was a big old forest, maybe that would be how this smells. I really wish the forest notes were stronger, because I can tell they're gorgeous, but on me this is mostly sweet flowers. I am sad.

I'm agreeing with the person above me. This actually reminded me more of Jareth than the Jareth perfume did? I get a strong, stronger junipery white musk from this one, too strong and too masculine for me, with orchid floating above it, and something faintly nature-feeling, almost a dirt scent, which is the most wearable patchouli tends to be on me (I usually hate it). The orchid came out a lot more as I wore it, but it still overall feels like a mysterious Faerie King. I picture someone illuminated by moonlight very intensely wooing me, standing upon the moss outside my bedroom window, and orchid and swirls of white musk all around clouding my judgment. I love orchid, but this one is gonna go to my best guy friend. It feels too masc for me. I really want an orchid-dominant scent but this is not the one.

I'm one of those people who thought this would be a lot darker than it was and was surprised to find it was not. I'm not horribly disappointed, but I am a bit - I adore the scent as it is, it's one of the best BPALs I've ever tried, but I also got it because I wanted ~~~a vampire scent~~~. This goes on sweetly dirty and herby in a very green way. I recognize the dirt from my adored Penny Dreadful; a little spicy, light and almost fluffy and glorious. There's a "perfumey" note in the background that I couldn't identify when I first wore it; it might be a sweetness in their dirt scent, might be one of the herbs, might be the most I get from the wine note, which gradually adds a deeper, richer sweetness, but is never boozey to me. This scent feels complex in that there's clearly a lot here but it's well-blended and very beautiful. It didn't have great lasting power on me, but i've been having a chronic dry skin problem lately. This does evoke the sad, wistful romanticism of Nosferatu the Vampyre to me, but I don't find it a very dark or sexual scent.

I bought this as a bottle so I might be responsible for anyone who received it as a frimp around the same time, and you're all welcome, because I love this scent. I had this as an (aged) imp a friend gave me and it was dominantly white rose on me with maybe a bit of grass and some other light stuff to smoothe it out, so I tested my imp against my brand new bottle. They're mostly the same, but the bottle is a tad fresher with a slightly stronger lily note that is acutely sweet and almost fruity-sweet, especially at my throat, where I've noticed all the sweet notes in anything seem to amp a lot more than on my wrist. So this one gets a bit stronger of a white rose note with age and its lily note gets less sweet, but mostly stays the same, which is nice to know. The white rose note is probably my all-time favorite rose from BPAL; I find it less sweet, a bit tart, and more understated, but not necessarily weaker, than their other rose notes. It doesn't overpower the other notes in this scent but it's definitely there. I don't amp rose, I don't think, so I don't think that's why it stands out to me. This is such a lovely springtime scent and I'm glad to have a bottle of it. I wish it were a bit stronger as a lily note, as it's one of my favorite flowers, but the search for the perfect lily note continues!

Soap! D: I'm so distressed, it's really rare for something to go soapy on me, and it happened with several of the things I just ordered. But I wanted this to be an early spring lily scent so bad. There's a really sweet lily kind of smell underneath the soap eventually, and then a couple of hours later it's more that than soap...but by then it's mostly faded away. This was a huge disappointment; I was looking forward to this scent like you wouldn't believe.

This literally smells like toothpaste in the imp. It smells that way when it goes on wet, too, and though the toothpaste impression fades, the mint doesn't. It's crazy! I expected smoke because everyone else said that but I get this bold crips wafting mint and a quickly developing blue lilac. After it dries down I still get some chill from the mint but the lilac dominates and the roses and osmanthus float beneath it. If there's wood in this scent, it's very distant and just adds a nice complexity to the base of it. I think the aquatic note i always get from tea rose bolsters the lushness of the blue lilac and then the white rose is also there. Osmanthus is hard to explain to someone who's never smelled it before. It's like an apricot-honey smell but it's a flower and it smells like a flower. If you don't like fruit scents it can really throw off a floral! I used to really hate it but it grew on me really quickly. Osmanthus and white rose come out more later in the drydown and it starts to get a scent that reminds me of what Mata Hari used to smell like on me - I think it's the interaction of the wood notes finally coming into play and rose. I honestly thought I amped wood notes. Apparently not even close. In this past order I also got some forest scents and the forest parts of them all utterly vanish on my skin. By the end this is some kind of wood base, bit of rose and osmanthus. Osmanthus seems to be used a lot to evoke otherworldly atmospheres? I think it works really well for that purpose and it's so pretty here. I think tea rose and white rose are some of my favorite rose notes from BPAL, I adore lilac and really wanted a lilac scent, and I am coming to adore osmanthus, so for these flowers to dominate this scent is a plus. That toothpaste smell at first is REALLY offputting for me though, and I wish it were mostly lilac for longer (but I didn't expect to be able to smell any lilac at all in this blend, so that I did is a point in its favor). I like the woody flowery scent it's drying into, but the period when it was lilac and rose was the best one. (...I should look into Les Fleurs du Mal, huh.) This one has been complex and develops a lot and is a very unusual group of flowers. I also feel like the lilac evoked memories from being at my omi's house over the summer when I was a child, and that, overall, this really does have a haunting Victorian feel. But it's really weird to me that everyone else seems to get "WOOD!!!! and then it is some flowers later" which was the opposite of my experience. Still, Victorian parlor with rich polished wood and velvet seat cushions, flowers everywhere, and a faint, mysterious chill - is it from the flowers? Or is it Something More... That's this scent for me and I really love it. It's easily one of the most successful imps I've tried recently.

I was sort of wondering if this would be comparable to Fresh and Blooming as a Rose, which is white rose, white amber and snowflakes, since I loved that. While it has a bunch of similar components, this is very different. It's not the ice note I've tried from BPAL before, there's no evergreen to it and it's not SUPER strong when it goes on. There's a mintiness here, but it lacks some kind of sweetness and there's something that definitely feels like an icy rock - and it definitely smells pink! I can't figure out how that it is because I don't detect any rose when I sniff for it, but I think it's there and coloring my perception. The amber isn't quite golden but it's not a light white amber either. Against the cold icy rock feeling I get, it makes it genuinely feel celestial. This is my first time purchasing a lunacy scent and I'm glad I tried it.

This is a rather complex and interesting scent! I think I'll end up wanting to revisit this. Wet, this was SUPER piney (well, I guess according to the notes list and reviews it's aspen, but...), and then some berry scent came out. It had a very winter-perfume scent, and it was easily very comparable to The Snow Maiden. Then some honey came out, making it similar but distinctly not the same. As it dries, it hits a golden point where it's strongly damp forest smells, but not too masculine leaning (while still being fairly unisex), with the flowers somewhat recognizeable but not dominating the moss and evergreen notes, berry and honey still predominantly on the top. Unfortunately, that time doesn't really last, and the forest part of it seems to recede. It's still beautiful, but the forest feel was the main thing I purchased it for. (I got a frimp of Ranger and I also got an imp of Arkham during my purchase so I might have more luck with them.) The berry and honey and musk all remind me a lot of Lady Una, even though that doesn't have any forest scent to it. I've planned on buying a bottle of that scent, so I'm going to test my decant and Elf against each other soon to see which one I love more and how comparable they are.

Osmanthus is the fruitiest flower! I feel like the most flowery osmanthus I have is an old LE I bought here on the board, The Snow Maiden (Ylang ylang, osmanthus, spring berries, and daffodil cloaked in hoarfrost), which starts out cold ice and then sweetens up to be mostly osmanthus to my nose, but it's also very prominent in Sanctus (Diabolically otherworldly: golden osmanthus, lily of the valley, celestial musk, and frankincense), which is flowery also from the muguet and a bit lemony and resinous from the frankincense, but almost entirely osmanthus again. Recently bought but haven't put on yet (I've been sick :C) Fairy Bites (Osmanthus and raw honey with lavender, chamomile, white peppermint, raspberry, honeysuckle, thyme, bergamot, and Dracula orchid); Elf (Pale golden musk, honeycomb, amber, parma violet, hawthorne bark, aspen leaf, forest lily, life everlasting, white moss, and a hint of wild berry.) I haven't tried Josie (Heady magnolia and honeyed peaches), but it's also in the GC. Other pretty floral-fruit scents in the GC: Endymion (d’Anjou pear, Lily of the Valley, bois du rose and white musk) Persephone (pomegranate and rose) Juliet (Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear) - this doesn't work for me, but I know it does for others! Kali (cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey) - This was very sweet and almost fruity with an aquatic sort of floral tint to it; I have no idea why, but it's subtle and elegant and almost celebratory. Man, osmanthus is in all my recommendations. Roses, Pearls and Diamonds (Red roses, dazzling crystalline musks, and pearlescent coconut-tinged orris) - This really smells like roses, pearls and diamonds; you can tell there's coconut and orris in there, but somehow this is really evocative of pearls. It's such an amazing and pretty scent. Rapunzel (Angel's trumpet, bois de rose, orris, and wild lettuce) - A beautiful spring scent. Lettuce isn't quite fruity, I know! But I couldn't leave this out. Thalia (Plumeria, pear and white champagne) - The champagne note doesn't work on me, but this worked on a friend of mine and it's lovely for her. Things I haven't tried, but are on my want list: La Belle au Bois Dormant (Plumeria and white pear, Damascus rose, tuberose, magnolia and evening dew) Titania (white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon) Sjöfn (Apples, birch, apple blossoms) - I've deeply enjoyed Poisoned Apple and The Apple of Sodom and I am eager to try a scent with both the apple note and apple blossom. Fae (white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss) Croquet (pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk) - I actually got this as a frimp recently but haven't worn it, but a friend of mine adores it and finds it a lovely, fruity citrus with some rose and woody notes. It smells like that in the imp and I'm looking forward to trying it.

This is very close to what I wanted Rose Red to be like on me. The tartness of the pomegranate doesn't seem to do much but add a sweet greenery to the rose that is like the chilly sap note in Rose Red, but where Rose Red is, on my skin, majority cold green sap, Persephone is sweet red rose and tartness. All the same, I do recognize it as pomegranate, i just don't find it does much besides deepen the rose - which I like! It just smells like a dewy, glistening red rose, fresh in from the garden. I've been planning on trying a bunch of rose scents to try and find the One Perfect Rose, but I already feel like this is a strong contender.