Mermaid-on-Land

Very light, watery herbal notes. I can barely smell it with my nose pressed to my wrist. When I do smell it I get an almost lettucey note. Meh. Light scents aren't my thing. My chemistry does nothing for them and they don't grab my attention at all. There's something powdery and perhaps a bit soapy on me, it unfortunately reminds me of an old deodorant I used to hate. Hmm. This might not work so great on me. It's got a hint of mintiness too. Later on the lettuce/vegetal note fades and it's a teensy bit more floral but not sweet. Springy. Calm. Like slight ripples on a pond surrounded by greenery on a warm day in May. Or looking at a Monet painting. Yeah that's it. It's oddly impressionist. I do feel pretty chill and calm but I'm not sure if that's placebo effect haha. I'm quite susceptible to being influenced by the descriptions of these scents so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Eventually this develops (and then completely changes to) the same odd stale note that happened with Prague. Some light floral apparently does not like me.

Pollen note that i notice from slippery poppy tincture. It almost but not quite reminds me of honey. Combined with a light, golden, frankincense-like resin scent. If there are any herbs, there's a small hint of them chopped up and mixed into some kind of oil (maybe even olive oil?). It's not *herbal* but they're subtly there. Balsam keeps it light. The scent is light in general. Not light as in barely scented but light as in not heavy in feel. It's actually fairly strong. It almost has a cologne-like note so I think this would easily work for a guy as well, it's fairly unisex. Very golden. Pretty but not *me*.

Ok so I loved carnation and plum in two different scents separately so I wanted to try this to see how they are together. On application I mostly get a smooth but somewhat spicy floral. The musk is a pretty accent and I can actually sort of detect it here, whereas I usually can't pick it out. The plum is extremely subtle on me tho. It's not juicy and sweet, it's almost a dried plum. It's close to a straightforward floral on me. Until I looked up the notes I had thought there might even be rose. I like it but I'm not crazy about it so I think I'm good with an imp. The throw started off well and dropped off steadily over about 4 hours. What is left is a rather non-sweet plum with a bit of musk. It would be great for someone who wants a plum scent that's not foody or fruity at all!

...Her scent is a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle. Omg yum. I put this on and right away I get a juicy vibrant very *grapey* wine. The wine is on the sweeter side but only slightly, and not in a dessert way, more in a fresh/fruit way. It's not extremely boozy but more so than any other scent has been on me (I don't mind though, it doesn't smell like I spilled a bottle of wine on myself either lol) It has the same humid quality as some scents like Eros and Hell's Belle, but not warm like those scents, it's almost on the cooler side. The hint of florals I get is mostly what I think is the myrtle and a hint of rose, I don't overly notice any lilac. The leather makes an appearance about 5 minutes in and balances nicely with the wine. This is gonna sound terrible but it's shoe-store leather on me. Very clean, new leather jacket-ish. First leather scent I've tried and I really liked it as a note! It's actually very fresh for being a heavy scent, not cloying at all. The throw is strong and fairly noticeable, although it oddly disappears off my wrist a couple hours after application. I can't sniff my wrist directly but the scent still drifts around me. Going on the favorites list I think!

Ermagherd, I tried this months ago and totally forgot to review it! Loved it, it was awesome and I felt like a cool witch crafting spells in a tiny cottage wearing this. The moth dust was a really interesting and predominant note. The scent was herbal with an earthy/woody grounding. The flowers came through with a subtle sweetness, I picture white chilly florals, not warm saturated ones. The cold iron note was noticeable as well. Yeah I wanted to go around singing "I put a spell on you" 😬 This variety of herbal, with a solid base of earth/wood and a hint of sweet floral, works better on me than straight up herbal, which isn't quite my style. This was beautiful and I quite enjoy it! 😝

Saltwater-soaked woods and maybe a kick of gunpowder are the most noticeable aspects of the throw here for me. There's very little scent near the wrist pretty soon on application, I mostly notice it as I move around and detect it subtly, not with a direct sniff. This oil makes me feel like a badass pirate and just yes. A couple hours in I notice the skin scent has developed the sassafras note. Such an unusual note, I have a definite soft spot for it in perfumes. It is sweet and mixed with resins here. That eventually fades to a lingering sweetness while the saltwater and wood remain predominant in the throw. I like this one if only for the feeling that I project a piratey aura! Not a "signature scent" for me, but definitely something fun for days I want something unique!

Right on application it's watery-sweet and VERY cucumber scented. It's sweeter than I expected, and much less grassy than I thought it would be. There's perhaps a delicate watery floral in here, only very slight... oh no wait, there's the grass note. The smell of a freshly mowed lawn comes up STRONG and very suddenly. It's very much like lying in a field of grass (without the itching because I'm really allergic haha). The color association I get here is pale translucent green with flecks of dark grass. The grass note sticks around for not quite an hour before fading back a bit, then continues to dance between being very upfront and almost unnoticeable past the juicy sweetness of the cucumber. It's springy and fresh, a scent category I like in theory but which is not quite my style. This would be a good scent for a slightly breezy but pleasant day in March. I'm not sure how much I'll wear it tho, I think an imp is quite enough for me. This faded quite fast and had a low throw, not unexpected for a light scent on me.

Initial review (one of the first BPAL perfumes I tried): omg the vetiver is veeeeeery strong. At least I think it's vetiver? I've never smelled that note before. Is it too strong? (I've read reviews that people either love or hate vetiver, I'm a little intimidated ) Anyway eventually it settled down and the cherry and vanilla notes came out a bit more. Very sweet but it still kept a good bit of the underlying darker complexity from the clove, wine, poppy and vetiver though. Smells really good and comes thru very strong on me. Good throw and lasted a long time, all day practically. After a couple months of reviewing: This is lovely. Very sweet with a dark twist. I kind of get a slightly similar feel from Centzon Totochtin for some reason, though I think Blood Kiss is more complex. I think it's the sweet, heavier foody scents (cocoa vs vanilla/honey) with the wine and "blood" inspired scents giving me that impression. This is definitely a very sweet type of wine in this blend. The honey and vanilla make it very rich and somewhat foody. The cherry is not cough syrupy (Yay! Cherry can either be good or bad on me, and this is great!) The vetiver that I found intimidating on the first wearing has quickly become a favorite base note of mine. It gives this scent a nice dark twist along with the spiciness of the clove and the depth of the wine. The poppy is the same sweet bright-red floral I loved in Slippery Poppy Tincture, blending with the cherries nicely. This is one of the first BPALs I tried and still a favorite!

This smells a little cinnamony when first applied. Maybe that's the clove? It's smoky/peppery/spicy. I quite like it. But I'm having a hard time describing it. I definitely smell the myrrh-like oppoponax in the background. The pepper is a unique note that's noticeable. It's pretty but perhaps leaning a bit cologne-ish. But not too much for me to wear, I don't think. It's a dark scent, fitting the name, but elegant too, I think. A refined, well, *classy* demon lol. It's resiny with spices. Good throw and lasted a good amount of time. I could detect it as I moved around. The dry-down is mostly to oppoponax, which behaves a lot like myrrh on me. A previous review described it as opening a wooden spice chest and I can't get the association out of my mind so I'll just second that haha On a second wearing I mostly notice the pepper and clove giving it a spice and a smooth musk in the background. The neroli isn't terribly noticeable but lends it a hint of sweetness. The pepper comes across more spiky in the beginning (it veers a little close to making me want to sneeze!) but smooths out over time. It's a very *dry* scent; it almost made my nose feel dry to smell it. Like air in a desert. I like this and get a better sense of it on the second wearing. I'm discovering I like musk based scents as well!

Meh. I liked Windward Passage better for a stormy ocean scent. This one is a lot simpler on me, I think I'm just not bringing all it's notes out well with my chemistry. It's got pretty good throw and lasting power though. It is ozoney and fresh, but also a bit minty on me somehow. Sometimes I like mint, but in Lightning it veers a bit toothpaste-ish on me. The water is only very slightly saltwatery but not as ocean-like as Windward Passage. It's not as intense as I was expecting; it seems more toned down than, for instance, Hurricane. I wanted to like it based on the description but there are other similar scents I like a bit better, this one was too subtle for my taste.

Ok mostly what I notice first is the cassia and quince. This is a spicy cinnamon-y scent without being cooking cinnamon. It's holiday-ish to me, the cassia reminds me of the scented pine cones so I wore it while decorating the house. The quince gives it a fruit-juicy edge, reminding me of almost a fruit punch cider. I've never smelled quince (or eaten it) but after looking it up, apparently it smells like a cross of apple and pear, which makes sense where I get the apple cider vibe from. I think the prune combines with that general fruit scent and adds a bit of richness. The black ginger is probably combining with the cassia lending it some bite. The rum doesn't make an appearance on me. Overall I like this. It's somewhat foody but quite spicy. The wear length is average, so is the throw. Eventually the spice wears off and its mostly just the fruit. Wait a second. After re-reading the scent description before posting I realized, it's not CASSIA. It's CASSIS. As in currant berries…? But…but…I smell cinnamon! Well, my review still stands. I would swear I smell cinnamon. Must just be the ginger creating the impression. I guess the cassis is combining with the other fruit notes to add to the 'fruit punch cider' effect.

Everything's blending and smelling the same to me, is this Sacred Whore? Hell's Belle? Lady of Shallot? It's gingery but without the freshness of Lady, orangey but missing the humid sweetness of Belle, and gardenia-like but without the indolent quality of Sacred Whore. It's like their tropical cousin? It was good but honestly I enjoyed all three of the other ones i listed better. I'm not really sure why I'm noticing such similarities between all four, they don't share too many listed notes in common, but that's what I'm getting. It was a bit simple for my taste. Too light and carefree; I tend to like a darker edge to my scents. I dk I think I need a testing break. My nose is confused and overwhelmed and probably hiding in a corner somewhere begging me to give it a break. I'll probably come back to this again at some point, when I'm not overwhelmed testing new stuff and running out of descriptions.

My first impression is lemon and a bit of rosemary over a bright clear frankincense. I love frankincense and it's very sparkly here. At first I wasn't too thrilled with this, the lemon was the main note with a bit of rosemary and it reminded me of a kitchen soap I had once. Once the lemon settled I enjoyed it a bit more, but I thought it was a bit plain on me until something bloomed more (not sure which note). Anyway, it suddenly gave me a very vivid scent memory of the plants they landscape with in Frontier Land in Disneyland. Bristle cone pine- ish or something, very deserty. I can see how it's arcane and magical but in a bright, cheery way. Not dark magic, more cheerful, sunlit magic. Might be something to wear around the house! I wasn't initially too excited about this one, as it was pretty but not jumping out at me, but the hit of nostalgia was really nice!

A candle that was just blown out is a very apt description, as mentioned in a ton of previous reviews! It somehow has a cavernously hollow feeling though, like you're in a dark room that echoes and you know it's cavernous, vs being tiny and claustrophobic. The smell somehow has a hollowness to it, I'm not sure how to explain better. The narcissus (I think) is reminding me of something I just can't place. It's sweet, smoky without being resiny or cigarette like. Color is translucent gauzy smoky black with a grey-brown undertone, with gilded edges. It's hard to explain. I think it's in the oriental floral category? With a dark barely floral feel and resinous myrrh and opium. On a side note, my mom loved the smell of this on me, but then when she went to test it herself she had to immediately scrub it off lol said it smelled awful on her so apparently it doesn't work for everyone. This one is strong and long lasting. Myrrh works pretty well for me, it's quickly becoming a favorite base note of mine! I love scents that are resinous, sweet, and sort of heavy, and this falls right into that category.

On application I get a light red wine mostly. It's not a sweet wine like in Obsidian Widow. This is a clear dusty burgundy scent, with accents of dark grey and desaturated green. The description says dry and that's very true. Somehow it smells to me like a combo of the Pinot noir from Obsidian Widow mixed with the "thin lubricating oils" from the Robotic Scarab. That sounds weird just because it doesn't share any notes that I know of but that's what it smells like to me. I like it so far. About 45 min in, the wine sweetens a little. The wine really does seem to give the effect of bringing the earth and dried herbs to life. The application point practically disappears on my skin about 1.5 hrs in, but the scent continues to drift around me. Weird. It's a clean dirt smell, if that makes any sense. This one confused me somehow? It didn’t smell like I expected it to or something. Not sure, gonna have to try it again. On a second try, it seems more settled. Dark red wine that's very dry rather than sweet, and a light dirt note, all with a very herbal theme. I liked it. It's not a top ten favorite but I think I'll keep it for days that I feel like something very different than my usual!

Well I mainly got this one because I'm familiar with Czernobog as the villain from Fantasia's 'Night on Bald Mountain' sequence. I thought it sounded cool and got some interesting reviews, plus I haven't really tried many musk-based scents yet so it was on my to-try list. I really liked it right away, it was sweet and resinous, pretty and smoky. It reminded me quite a bit of Dracul in feel actually. I like both and I'm not sure if I could pick a favorite. They both amp smoky-sweet and mysterious on me. Dracul is a bit stronger but I applied Czernobog hesitantly (i.e., a reasonable amount and not my usual slathering) because the reviews said it was strong and leaned masculine. Next time I'll apply more like I typically do to get a better idea of its wear length and throw.

Well it's definitely wine and chocolate with an underlying hint of blood, exactly as advertised. Sweet wine and chocolate, but it somehow reminds me, just a tiny bit, of Nosferatu? Whereas that was a dry wine this is sweeter. I dk maybe the 'blood' note is in both and that's what's making me think of it. Whoever said its a touch unsettling was right, I think that's the power of suggestion for me, lol. I'm pretty suggestible by the descriptions ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but that's kind of half the fun for me anyway. On a second wearing, I'm thinking the 'blood' note is actually dragon's blood resin, I think I can detect that in the mix. The throw was really good, I could smell it drifting around as I moved even when I wasn't paying attention, and it lasted pretty well. I liked it. It's richly chocolatey but not in a very sweet, foody way, more like cocoa powder or very dark chocolate. Also, I just love the wine notes so I'm a bit biased! It almost somewhat reminds me of those chocolate red wines you can get at the grocery store? Chico-Vino? Like a chocolate red wine but In a good way! I really liked it.

On first application this is very bitingly herbal and green, leaning towards vegetal. I can distinctly smell the lettuce, parsley, carrot, etc. As it tones down over the course of about a half hour, it develops a sunscreen-ish note, like an herbal cream. I can imagine this being what a hedge-witch's healing liniment or something would smell like. After around 30 min the floral scent of the morning glory comes out. It reminds me quite a bit of jasmine. Overall it's a cool witchy blend, herbal and floral at the same time. The floral is warm and a bit spicy, and the herbal is cool and almost minty. There's an undercurrent of darkness to it, too. It's definitely a *witch's* garden, not a cute little cottage garden, which I like about it. It only lasts about 5 hours on me before i can’t smell it on my wrists anymore but it had a nice throw, especially for a green, non-resiny scent on me. I really enjoyed this one. It was more floral than i expected but also totally unique out of all that I’ve tried so far! The colors are varying shades of green, from pale celery to dark pine, with a bit of off white for the flowers.

Yummmmmmm. Resiny and sweet. There's a rich balsamic quality to this too. Not quite vanillic but sweet, as I tend to amp the sweet side of scents. The orchid reminds me of the narcissus from Darkness in the "dark saturated" variety of floral it presents. Both florals have a hollow quality as though the scent is cavernous. The orchid mainly flares up around the 30 minute mark, then fades back to a smoky, burning, resinous, incensey scent. Eventually the smokiness fades to the background a bit and it's more charred incense than BURNING incense. I really REALLY liked this one! It had a lovely throw, i smelled it as i moved around all day. It's still going strong at about eight hours. Yay. Smoky burning resins.

Ok so when I apply it, it's super herbal and sharply medicinal. A couple minutes in, the berry note comes out and... nope. Ick. It goes straight to a mix of cherry and grape cough syrup. Ack, not for me. I generally like dark berryish scents. I've never gotten this reaction with cherry or any other berry note. Hmm, I dk, my skin REALLY does not get along with this one. The throw was average and it didn't last super long, The description doesn't mention berries so I'm not too sure where that impression came from, but I hate cough syrup so I just couldn't enjoy this one despite the cool name and description :/

Ok so after the patchouli-scented disaster of yesterday, I want something a little more fresh and clean smelling, so I'm gonna try an oceany aquatic. Oooh this smells amazing when I first put it on. Like a breeze coming directly from the sea. It's incredibly true to the concept. It's a sea wind. It's both oceany and wind-like. The marine accord is not just watery but salt water specifically, which i love. The seaweed is a minor note, enough to make an appearance but not overwhelming. Not sure what bladderwrack smells like exactly but it's also a type of seaweed so I imagine it's in there too. It does lean ever so slightly masculine (oh well, I think that's just because I associate ozonic/aquatic scents with cologne) and a touch soapy, which I don't mind and which doesn't dominate. This is incredibly fresh and clean, like an ocean after a storm, or just before. There's a misty windy quality. I just really like this one. It smells a little bit like Hurricane (which I love), or at least in the same spirit as Hurricane, if anyone is looking for a replacement for that one, despite the lack of similar notes. The imagery is of standing in the wind on a cloudy gray beach and looking out to sea, with piles of seaweed and bladderwrack lying around on the sand. To me it's not a beach where you swim. It's a cold grey beach in a northern area in the winter. You would go there wearing a sweater to enjoy the moody weather, not for tanning and swimming. Anyway, throw is amazing for an aquatic, i could detect it all day. And it lasted for a long time, which was nice because watery scents tend to be light and short-lasting on me!

Sniffing the imp, this smells cool, with a very desert-like vibe, I definitely get the impression of the Sonoran desert, or perhaps New Mexico. On application, at first it didn't really stand out to me. It was pear-like, but very very faint. Barely there pear lol. But the longer I wore it, the more the distinct qualities of this scent came out. In about an hour, it was quite a bit stronger and the notes were all there. Odd since its usually the opposite on me, it starts strong and loses throw over wear time. I really liked the coriander, which added a lovely savory bite! I got a tiny bit of the poppy when I knew to look for it. Hyssop has been quite faint on scents in the past so I didn't notice that really. And I'm not familiar with epazote but I think that might have given the scent it's particular southwestern, Sonora desert vibe. The scent picture is a vibrant fuchsia and orange sunset over a desert, saguaro cactuses and mesas in the distance. I liked it and will wear it once or twice again to see if I think it's "me". I live in a desert and am generally not a huge fan (120 degree weather ) but I really quite liked this scent!

Out of the bottle it's a beautiful, dewy, fresh floral. The crocus and snowdrop is sweet and it's very refreshing. It reminded me of the fresh clean paperwhite note in Destroying Angel. The dewy waxy floral vibe is reminding of Easter somewhere that gets a beautiful fresh vibrant spring season (certainly not where I live) Like all the wanderlust blends so far, it's very evocative of concept. The colors are off white and pale soft yellow. Unfortunately it only lasted a short time and dried down to an odd stale dusty note. Where did that come from??? Think I'll try it again and see if it does the same thing, because I liked it before. It was pretty light with low throw though, and didn't last too long. This is the first scent that struck me that it would be good in a scent locket. Oh god, I'm getting in too deep here... talking scent lockets and stuff...

Ok so I was a little nervous about this one (patchouli seems to be very love it or hate it) so I intended to take is easy on application. I applied about half of my usual amount. Well that was far far FAR too much because this was the strongest bpal I've ever tried. OMFG. Like I actually quite liked the scent, which was a deep apricot. Unlike Grand Guignol, it wasn't candied or syrupy. It was a fresh ripe apricot fruit. The patchouli added an earthy darkness to the scent. My wrist smelled like a dark twist on apricot, which I really enjoyed. And it seemed sorta strong but not too bad. However, every once in a while i'd catch a strong bit of the patchouli with made me nervous that it was too noticeable. Turns out, the peach part of the scent stayed close to me, which was all I could smell. The far throw, what everyone else smelled, was all aggressive patchouli. When I walked past a coworker she was omg are you wearing patchouli perfume? It's sooo strong! And I was like damn it I freaking KNEW IT. So of course I ran to the bathroom and scrubbed it off Super embarrassing. For the rest of the night it was a subtle, tame apricot from the little that transferred from my neck to my hair. So while I actually did like this one, I'm gonna apply like maybe one single drop to one wrist and that's about it at this rate I won't use up the imp til 2075. Imagery is an apricot half buried in dark brown dirt. As much as I like unsubtle perfumes with nice sillage, there is apparently one that crosses the line of *too much* and I found it haha

I feel like this is a boring review but I don't have too much to add. It's apricot brandy. The apricot is sweet and maybe verging on syrupy. The brandy doesn't amp too much on my skin, I don't notice much (or any) of an alcohol smell. It ended up being quite simple on me. It's fruity but on the darker side of fruity, with the syrup and tinge of brandy. I liked it but didn't LOVE it. I like the idea of using the apricot brandy to infer the idea of visiting the Grand Guignol theater tho! That's a cool way to tie it in. Sadly didn't last too long on me, and very little throw.