Jilara

Wet: Hi There, I'm ALMOND EXTRACT! I'm here to beat you into submission! Drydown: okay, Mr. Almond Extract is toning his act down, and this is now starting to remind me a lot of Eclipse. Hmm, sugar cookies. This is making me hungry. Dry: wow, is this ever making me want to eat it. Sugar cookies with marzipan filling, and a drizzle of sweet honey syrup. Unlike Eclipse, my skin doesn't eat this one. Not something for wearing a lot, but I could see scenting a room with it, or wearing it for an occasional novelty. A perfume for my Cook personna!

This is very much amber and musk when it's wet, and there is a vague floral lurking, a whisper of vanilla blossom. It mostly gives an aura of a warm and loving mature woman. As it dries, notes come out that remind me a little of Zarita the Doll Girl, but without the funky plastic sweat note she has in the early stages. Must be the carnation coming out. Dry, I can pick up a hint of refined rose, with musk and carnation the main other notes. If I really look for them, the vanilla flower and lavender are lending support in the background, but so well blended in that they harmonize into the whole. This is a very warm and flushed scent, like it's June tending to summer, and our lady has just been gathering flowers in the warm garden. I think I like it best about two hours into the wearing, when it's turned very mellow and sexy in a subtle way. Like a woman who's self-assured and sexy without even being aware that she is.

Wet, this is completely strange, kind of sun-warmed plastic with a bit of stale sweat. Well, she is a doll-girl, after all. She's been sitting in a hot car, going funky. I wasn't sure I would make it through the drydown, but I'm glad I did! As it dries, it goes very sweet with neroli and carnation, though there is still that sweaty hot plastic smell in the background. But the drier it gets, the more the creamy note and the florals come out. It takes over 40 minutes to smell really good. Dry: by the time I've had it on an hour, it's gorgeous, and I keep sniffing my wrist. It really lasts, too. There's a creamy carnation note that is still there 8 hours later, just a whisper. However, I'm not sure I want more than the decant, because it seems like a long time to wait through the funky plastic stage for that lovely sweet and creamy floral to bloom.

In the imp, this was very woody, but more like catching a waft of wood far off. Wet/drydown. Teakwood! It's the scent of new teak furniture at my favorite oriental import store. There is also something vaguely reminding me of copra. I think of tropical countries with rain forests, with people processing copra in tin-roofed shacks made with teak beams. Dry: it's a rich teakwood with an almost cocoa undertone. There is still a copra note, but sweeter and creamier now, more like the undried cocoanut. There is a moist earth note in the background, and something like fresh leaves. This is definitely a rainforest scent.

Wet, this is chill and forest-y. It makes me feel like penetrating cold in a bottle. I couldn't help but think it would be a good summer scent, putting one in mind of shivering in a dark woodland. On drying, it warms up. The violet note, which really makes me think of those square violet mints, comes up as it dries down. Later, the amber notes bloom out. The chill is only a background sensation, after about an hour. Overall, a beautiful scent, but it fades away fairly quickly, leaving only a distant memory of chilly beauty.

Hmmm, wet and drying down, it's cappuccino with myrrh, and a backsplash of cherry. I also feel like there's a note of red velvet cake in it. Dry, it's more like Swiss Miss hot cocoa, with a shot of black cherry syrrup. There is a distinct resin bloom in the background now, but I can't i.d. it. It's mingling with the black cherry, giving it a rich and decadent quality. There is still something in the background making me think of red velvet cake, with a kind of sweet stickiness hovering. I certainly don't have it conjure up the actual plant (an amaranth with trailing red floral bracts), but there's a certain gothic darkness to this scent that conjures up a woman in red velvet, quietly sobbing in a dark garden...

Wow, this is another one of BPAL's scents that evokes a STRONG scent-memory, of finding a Destroying Angel mushroom! I'm 9 years old, and I've found the coolest white mushroom under a bush on the vacant lot above our house. I know from the cup it springs from that it must be an Amanita, which means mondo poisonous, but what kind? I happily pick it and take to show my mother, sniffing it all the while, because it has this fascinating sweetish fungus smell. My mother keys it out in the mushroom book, then freaks out, and makes me take it waaaaay down the street to throw it away, and makes me wash my hands repeatedly with pine tar soap, afterward. This is the embodiment of that memory, captured in a bottle! Wet: moist earth full of organic matter and mushroom mycelia. Drydown: a sweet and almost papery scent comes up to join the fungus smell and the earth. Dry: the earth fades, leaving the pure essence of Amanita mushroom scent, delicious and yet somehow dangerous. I realize from sniffing this how it is that Amanita is considered among the most delicious mushrooms; people say so before they die of mushroom poisoning. I want to wash my hands thoroughly, before handling food. It smells exactly like Deadly Mushroom. I am utterly amazed at how thoroughly this scent captures the exact scent of a Destroying Angel and its home environment. I might just end up with a bottle of this. It's so cool, in a creepy sort of way.

I'm a beekeeper, and this is the scent of a happy beehive! Seriously, I can tell the mood of a hive by how it smells, and this is the total bottled scent of bees that are happy with life in general. (Le Petit Mort is closer to how a hive smells when it's getting near swarming.) Wet, and in drydown, it's a little sharper-scented than the hive, which might be due to the patchouli, but as it dries the honey and musk and bee-scent come out as the dominants, but with still a slight background of patchouli. (Patchouli usually hates me, but in some BPAL blends it's surprisingly refined and good natured. This would seem to be one of them. Interestingly enough, I use really good patchouli-blend incense for my smoker, because it seems to be the absolute best smoke I've found for keeping the hive calm.) I put Sed Non Satiata on to work my hive, this weekend, and the bees were soooo mellow, because I smelled like a happy honeybee. (I always try to wear "bee scents" when I work the hive, as they're so much more managable if I do.) It's funny, because the time I tried it before, it wore off after a couple hours. Twelve hours later, this time, I was still smelling it. But then I realized it was because I had been slurping honey and royal jelly out of the hive not long after putting it on, and that was apparently changing my body chemistry to keep all the notes blooming on my skin. I think I'll wear this to my next beekeeper's guild meeting. Everyone will probably say "Hey, how come you smell like a bee?" Then I can tell them about BPAL!

Sigh, another one I had to scrub off... I love chrysanthemum incense, so I thought this would be wonderful. In the imp, I smell sharp chrysanthemum and something gingery, with a hinting of something vaguely like dragonsblood. On my skin, these notes stick around, but get knocked on their ass by the MUSK. And as it starts to dry down, the musk goes all funky and disgusting on me. It was nice wet, but the minute the drydown started, it got nasty. I could still smell the lovely spicy chrysanthemum in the back, but there was a very unpleasant nasty, smokey (opium smoke?) funky musk overpowering everything. If only I could have convinced it to leave and let me keep the other notes... I'll find another home for this imp, I guess.

Wet, I get a note of citrus and ...basil? But more like holy basil than cooking basil. It's sharper than I was expecting, for a dream blend. There is something a little bit musty/dusty at this point. I commented to a friend that it smelled like the signature scent of the Ashkanic Library. Drydown brings out the lavender notes. When it dries, it seems to be a well-blended herbal with a hint of tartness and a slightly spice/resin undertone. I didn't have any remarkable dreams with this one, but my real dream blend is Al Azir, anyway. However, I slept well.

In the imp, it was lavender and sandalwood, which seemed promising. Unfortunately, the minute it hit my skin, it developed a note of stale urine. Yucko. I lasted through the drydown, and then it was stale urine with an undertone that was vaguely skunky. This is the first one I've really had gross me out. Definitely going to find a new owner for this imp.

Wet, this makes me think of grapefruit peel, with a papery backnote. I wouldn't have thought it was orange. There is something warm in the background, which is probably the amber. As it dries down, the lavender comes out, and also a soft resin note. The sourness lent by the orange is still there, but now it's got a lovely herbal/floral backing from the lavender. Patchouli, which usually hates me, is nowhere evident in this, on me. This is a Good Thing. This is very well balanced, and I like it a lot.

In the imp, I get a spicy citrus, but very refined. Right off the bat, I picked up the bergamot and ginger. I would have guessed at grapefruit in background, like someone noted, but it's not in the blend. It's got a nice softly sweet-sour note, slightly astringent, that I really like. There's a nice note of soft lime and vetiver that comes up as it dries down. Dry, I get soft lime and vetiver with a mellow spiciness behind it. Vetiver is a note that's really good on me, and I like the way it comes up as it dries. There's just something slightly edgy about this vetiver and spice, though, which I really like. I'm guessing it could be the herbal note of the artemesia. Spider, you da man!

Mr Jacquel doesn't do much of anything on me. Wet, I pick up a vague bit of amber, and something like undefined spices, maybe something almost like a hint of caraway. (A friend sniffed and confirmed the almost-caraway note.) On drydown, I get a bit of amber and a dry, dusty note, and that's about it. No herbs, no spices, not even patchouli (which usually aggressively hates me, anyway). Not really much there, there. Mr Jacquel is bored with me, and I'm bored with him. Maybe my decant will find a better home...

I wanted to like Depraved. I got it as a frimp, and it seemed so promising when it was wet. It was earthy, woodsy, resinous, with a sweetish mellow undertone that might have been the apricot, but you couldn't prove it by me. It was very nice as it dried down. Then it turned to all black patchouli on me. Patchouli and I don't usually get along, though it surprises me in some BPAL scents by actually playing nice with my chemistry. Well, this wasn't one of them. It has an unpleasant note with some real staying power, which quickly kicked all the other players out of the running. I guess this one is going to get passed along to someone who has a better relationship with with patchouli.

Ohmigod, I NEED a BIG bottle of this! So here I was, failed even by aspirin and strong coffee, a blend that usually at least knocks a major edge off my migraines. Not this day. I was at a point where the pattern in the carpet at work was doing op-art morphing, and seeing it was making me seasick. Yeah, my migraine was THAT bad! I left work, went home, and broke out my new imp of Grr. I rubbed it on my temples, across my forehead, and down the sides of my nose. I then retired to my darkened bedroom to go be miserable with my eyes closed. Within 15 minutes, I could feel the pressure and nausea starting to lighten. I cautiously looked around, and didn't see funky visual effects any more. About a half hour after applying Grr, my migraine was GONE! I will make salames in the direction of the Lab every day, for a miracle like this! I am definitely including a bottle of this in my next order! This is the BEST thing I've found for my migraines so far!

I love dragon's blood, so getting a frimp of this was nice. And woooo... dragon ossuary indeed! I don't know how they get that baked and bleached bone smell, but it's SO bones! Wet dry, all the way through, it's dragon's blood and the smell of ancient bones in a desert cavern. If ever a scent evoked an actual picture, this is it! I'm impressed! Make you want to go wear it while excavating dinosaur remains....

Since I only recently discovered BPAL, I can't say what the old (2005) Ides of March was like, but I LOVE the 2007 version. In the bottle: very green and herbal Wet: Bergamot with a herbal backing and a heavy green note. Drydown: Bergamot and lemon in front, slightly spicy herbs in the background. I can't ID any of the herb notes, because they're pretty well blended. Dry: This makes me think of March breezes. The citrus notes are less agressive, now, and it's herbal/floral with a slight citrus sharpness. I can pick up the benzoin in the background. No idea what gray amber smells like, so it could possibly be reenforcing the benzoin, because there's a soft resin quality I can't identify. The rosemary in here must be blending into a general herbal note, because I can't identify it as rosemary at all. This doesn't have much throw on me, but really keeps close to the skin. A nice spring fragrance where you don't want to really be noticed as wearing a scent. Which means I can put it on if I'm going to be in meetings all morning--woo-hoo!

Ooh, I love, love, love this one! It's going to be a bottle, very soon! I'm such a varietal coffee fiend, plus I love whisky and old books, so Miskatonic U. was a natural. I was almost afraid it would be all wrong, but it wasn't at all. It was SOOO Right! Wet: Coffee! Sludge-thick industrial strength coffee, with just a hint of booze. Drydown: Okay, creamier and with more whisky in the coffee. Dry: Robust coffee and sweet (not peaty) whisky, slightly creamy-sweet. I was expecting a bit of leather note, but actually, the faint background is paper, the thick stuff like you find in vintage limited editions from obscure small presses. A little bit of ink, too. Miskatonic U. faded out in about two hours, but I just had a cup of coffee and breathed on it after sipping, and it's perked back up! I'm now wondering what it would be like layered over Bliss. Mmmmm.

This reminds me of Mag Mell with a citrus tang. This is a Good Thing, since I love Mag Mell and the citrus notes in this are gorgeous! Wet, it's very green and fruity. It makes me think of green apples with oranges and wet spring foliage, like spilling fruit on a wet bit of shrubbery. Dry, the orange and bergamot are on top, with a very green and slightly sharp leafy note. I get floral in the background, but so well melded I can't tell exactly what floral. Sort of like a waft of new flowers on the soft spring breeze. There's nothing foody I can pick up at all, despite the honey cakes and cream component. It seems to last well, and keeps that sharp tanginess. Two hours later: hey, the benzoin just showed up! And the citrus has backed off and let the floral breeze out to play. It's still there, but just decided to back off a bit, and let the flowers have the main show for a while. I love this morphing! It's like the moods of a spring day, with shifting wind and sunshine.

Definitely more werebeast than beast. It's salty, with an earthy quality, and a scent of human muskiness, when I first put it on. I thought it was going to be very feral, and it was, but in an accessible way. As it dries down, the mosses and woodsy notes come out, and it gets very peppery. Dry, it has a sharp mossy, earthy quality, fir boughs and still that tang of salt, maybe salty sweat at this point. The musky quality has gone. It's night in a connifer forest, full of leaves and needles and earth, and the wind sighing in the boughs above. It's simply gorgeous.

Wet, it's all aquatic notes. On drydown, a waft of something like white florals starts to come out, then a note of fresh laundry. Dry, it's aquatics with a papery note and something that makes me think of iris blossoms, with a faint fragrance of white florals. This would be gorgeous on drier sheets, or sprayed on bedding.

In the bottle, this was all butterscotch. But on my skin, something weird started happening. It turned to minted butterscotch. No shit, Sherlock. I had someone else smell it on drydown, and it was soft mint with a butterscotch chaser, slightly boozy. I suspect it's my skin morphing some component in the lime. But it really does go to soft mint, though there's a slight tang, which is why I suspect lime morphing! It's stayed in this odd combination now that it's dry. Kind of like an odd mint julip. Pleasant, but not what I was expecting.

Wet: spicy fruit, with citrus and peach the main notes. Drydown: spicy citrus, peach, and lychee, with something floral almost hidden behind them. A vague hint of quince starting to come out. Wow, I like this. Why didn't I get a whole bottle? Dry: spicy citrus, lychee, quince and soft peach, with a very nice background of green bamboo. But there's supposed to be dragon's blood in this? Where? I keep thinking the Fire Pig goes out to play with Bakeneko.

In the decant bottle: caramel and cardamom Wet: caramel cherries, with cardamom and ...black pepper?? That cranky groundhog is a spicy fellow! Drydown: Where's the chocolate? The cherries are reading "fresh" rather than chocolate-covered (and napoleon/royal anne, rather than red), and the caramel is a little less aggressive. I'm still getting cardamom and pepper, but now it's like a spice-cake note. Quite yummy, actually. Dry: spiced cherries with caramel-raisin rolls! And just a hint of musk. Delicious! I want to spray it around my kitchen! (It's not bad on my wrist, either. )