spikyfairy

This is one of a few I've tried so far that would be an instant bottle purchase, were it not for what it ultimately dries down to on me. I didn't think I was a huge fan of fruit anything, but I LOVE the wet stage of this - the combination of fruity and woody. In the imp: Woods and musk. Cannot detect fruit. Wet on me: Explosion of fruitiness, backed by woods and musk. Shouldn't work, but does. At first I cannot really detect individual notes, then the strawberry and especially watermelon come to the fore. Not too sweet, just incredibly juicy. A subtle aquatic tone. Dry: The berries regain some ground from the melon, & the fruit takes on an incense-y quality, more blended with the musk and wood, with a hint of gardenia. Still weird & lovely. Unfortunately, after about an hour it turns into just gardenia and musk on me, then disappears. I'm not much of floral fan, so this makes me a sad panda. I don't know why but my skin just seems to gobble this up. Even slathered on, I get almost no throw and it fades fast. If I'm feeling frivolous I may still consider a bottle, just so I can douse myself with the stuff and enjoy that first hour of fruity juiciness. Edit to update: After some ageing, the top notes seem to stick around a bit longer. I've gone through 2 imps now, & as I've had a lot of trouble finding a warm-weather scent that I like, I need a bottle of this ASAP.

This was one of the first oils I tested, and the one that made me start to worry that my skin makes odd things sweeter than they ought to be.. I don't have much experience with what leather is supposed to smell like in perfumes, but I suspect that is what didn't like me here (although I have enjoyed the leather in a couple of other BPALs I've tried, so eh?). In the imp: Rosin (love!), a herby smell which I guess is the hemp, and a sweet smell which does not smell like true-to-life leather to me at all. Overall I really like it, though. Wet: When first applied, I get a nice hit of rosin-y, hemp-y goodness, but then it immediately starts turning into Imperial Leather soap The rosin has all but disappeared. The hemp is there in the background just stopping it from going completely to soap, but it keeps getting sweeter as it dries! Dry: Warmed to quite a strong throw after half an hour or so. Pity it's still Imperial Leather soap. Tiny hint of hemp if I sniff my wrist & concentrate. Faded quite fast after that. Disappointing, I was expecting to love this one.. Have tried layering it with a couple of the other RPG scents, but the sweet soapy leather keeps ruining it for me. On a friend, it smelt exactly as described, so I guess i just have a problem with certain kinds of leather. My imp will probably get gifted to someone who will appreciate it more.

Wet: Balsam & berry. Fresh & clean. I don't know if Cinta brand shampoo is an Australian-only thing, but I have childhood scent-memories of it sniffing this. That's not a criticism. Florals coming out as it dries. Dry: Lillies and berries, with a background of leaves and moss. Touch of musk. Light, and sweet, but not overly so. Very pretty, but gets too floral for me unless I wear it at a specific 'time of the month', when the woody-leafy-balsam notes stay more predominant. Fades pretty quickly on me to just a hint of berries 4+ hours after application. This one has grown on me the more I've worn it, and I will continue to use up this imp, but I don't think I need any more. Wish it kept the balsams of the wet stage, but that's my skin doing its unfortunate sweet-loving thing. I have not tried any of the Fraggle scents, but apart from the initial phase, this smelt more like a Fraggle to me than an elf! (Once again, that is not a criticism!).

This feels superfluous given the wealth of reviews, but might as well add my 2 cents.. Mainly tried this one because it is popular & I was curious (and of course the Wilde connection). I am not a big fan of vanilla or sugar, and still figuring out how I feel about musks. More-or-less transcribing from my notebook (this was a lab-fresh imp): Wet, in imp & on me: Wow, delicious! Vanilla definitely there, but so well blended I almost can't tell. Sweet though, almost a baked-goods or butterscotch vibe. Liking it more than I would have thought.. No tea though. Dry: Same, but with an under-current of men's cologne that is getting stronger as it sits on me. I am getting the "corrupted core" - on the surface it is sweet & enticing but there is something kind of wrong underneath.. It is interesting, and I can see why it's so popular, but it just does not suit me. Quite long-lasting on me; still cologne-y and sweet several hours later, faded to musky and sweet by 8+ hours. On my male friend: Completely disappeared into his natural skin scent on application, then re-emerged a moment later as amazing delicious caramel boy! OMG. Never went as cologne-y on him. Gave him the imp, it was obviously meant to be.

This was in my first order, was the first oil I tried, and now my first review.. Ooh-ah! Really quite a rash choice for me, as I generally loathe anything vanilla; and although I love the scent of jasmine, it does not tend to suit me or go well on my skin. Clary sage, however, is one of my favourite smells of all time, and I thought the combination of notes here sounded interesting. A life-long love of Waterhouse's art, and this painting in particular, tipped the balance. I have tried it several times, and as someone above said, it has been slightly different each time. It really does kind of smell like magic. In the bottle it smells very deep & mysterious, and also powerfully nostalgic for me in a way I cannot identify the source of. Wet on me, it tends to either strongly frankincense, or strongly jasmine, with a soft vanilla that actually does not offend me just balancing out the incense-iness. On one occasion, the combination of jasmine & vanilla made me a little nauseous, but that may have been due to some other things in my system at the time.. It is very heady, and quite strong. Dry on me, the jasmine calms right down, & the other notes come out a bit more, particularly the myrtle. Sadly I have never gotten much of the sage, but there have been traces of soft, woody patchouli here & there.. It morphs and changes a lot, which is fascinating. I am relatively inexperienced with BPAL, but have mucked around with making essential oil blends myself, and I think this will age wonderfully - hopefully bringing out a bit more of the herby-woodiness. Somewhere between the first test and the fourth one, I went from "yeah, this is beautiful, but I probably didn't need a whole bottle" to "I require a back-up bottle of this immediately". So, big win from a big gamble! I love it. Edit to add: Trying the second bottle now, and it is somehow fizzy lemon??!? Smells like a completely different perfume. I hope there is just something terribly wrong with my nose today. I do hope it didn't get a little spoiled in the post, it was very hot here while it was in transit.. - Update on the second bottle: Even after sitting for a month or 2, it is still very different from the first one.. The jasmine is much sharper, the myrtle is far stronger (hence the 'lemon' I think, even though it's honey myrtle), the vanilla is almost non-existent (yay). The frank. is less dominant, the patch. much moreso (but still a lovely soft patch.). Still no sage (boo). Snagged this one right at the end of the scent's run, so I'm guessing the balance of ingredients is a little different because it was the bottom of the batch.. Still lovely, but not quite as beautiful as the first bottle, which I shall treasure. Edit again because I just can't shut up about this one: After a year of ageing, the woody-herbal notes have come out beautifully & I love it even more! Down to one bottle. It's still tricksy though: sometimes it dries down a dry, slightly smoky, patchouli-sage thing that I love, and sometimes it's musk sticks. As in the candy. I have no idea why, but multiple people have said so. There is no apparent rhyme or reason to why this happens, but I like both outcomes, so it's just fun.