Jilara

In the bottle and wet, it's peat smoke, essence of Irish hearth in an alcohol base. On drydown, you get less smoke and more whisky, but with something blacker and...oh, it's black bog mud. It's very earthy. It's like sitting by your still out in the bog, tending the fire and sipping something a bit more elegant than poteen. Dry: its an old pub. There is good bog-laced whisky, and a peat fire going in the hearth. And very dark stout. (Don't think Guinness; it's too limiting.) I couldn't figure out what that sweet almost chocolate-y backnote was for a while, but it came out as Mad Sweeny dried. It was inky-dark stout, chewy-thick stout, sweet and with a head like cream. There's also something more like oak-paneled walls impregnated with generations of old pipe smoke, just at the edge where it nags you. An Irish pub that's been running since God was a Youngster. Wow, something like this would make a fantastic room scent if you were doing an Irish music night!

I was expecting something reminiscent of Queen of Sheba. Well, maybe in the same range, but this is more like Eclipse meets Osun. In the bottle, it's all honey and almonds. Wet, it's honey and almonds and an undertone of pastry. I don't get apple at all, not even apple fritter pastry. Drydown: I'm getting a floral backnote coming up, that reminds me a lot of Osun at this stage. It's still got that Eclipse almond pastry thing going, though. Dry: early stages, the notes are VERY heavy honeyed floral, with a lot of throw, and now the nutty notes are almost gone. It's the Osun floral pastry thing, but with a strong throw-note of French Love, or maybe Follow Me Boy. Weird. I can't distinguish any individual floral notes at all. It's sweet and floral with a voodoo blend sort of vibe, and an undertone of musk. Dry, later on: Osun/French Love quality is gone, now. I get lily of the valley, honeyed pastry, and baby powder (but baby powder in a good way, because it's a myrrh-scented baby powder). Where's the rose and the apple? I haven't detected them at all.

Wet: root beer with a cedar chaser. Well, I like root beer... Drydown: a background spice base comes up as the root beer becomes less aggressive. The cedar doesn't really seem identifiable at this point, just an intriguing back note. Dry: cedar coming out again, and mingling with sandalwood. The spices add intrigue at the back, and the root beer has gone away. It smells cold, which is odd, with all the spices in it. Definitely chilly behind the spice.

My cat loves this one. He fell asleep sniffing my wrist and kneading my arm...I must smell like cat-mother! Wet, it's very skin musk, with a bit of sensual vanilla. There's something that reminds me of Eclipse, but without the nutty quality. And unlike Eclipse, it stays on my skin. It was still with me faintly after a night's sleep. As it dries down, a woodsy back note comes up. It's very comforting. My male housemate was complaining about something when I put it on, and I said "smell this!" shoving it under his nose. "Whoah!" he said, looking startled. "Whole mood shift in a bottle! Wow, that's nice! Can I have some?" See, it calms all sorts of savage beasts!

Wow, Crow Moon is a hard one to quantify. Fascinating, but really hard to put into standard terms. If a scent has a color, this one is YELLOW! -- the color of a buttercup in the sun. For me, it doesn't really change much between bottle and on me, wet or dry. It's very buttercup-y, a slightly bitter yellow flower scent, with a slight herbal base note, maybe a bit of dandelion in there, too. There's a backing of something musky and a reedy/grassy undertone. I don't get anything evergreen, here. Somehow, it makes me think more of late autumn than spring, but maybe that's just me, since I think of crows as autumn birds, too...

I got this as a free imp from the Lab. Hmm, everything they've sent that I've tried so far has been a winner. I just ordered a 5ml bottle of this! Wet: amber and something sinisterly sweet in the background. Drydown brings up woodsy notes behind the amber, and a musky darkness. Dry: Darkly spicy and resinous, with a big WHOOSH of amber! Fairly good throw, but not overwhelming. It's gorgeously sinister, like a sensuous meeting by night in a dark forest. Verdict: an instant favorite!

This is such a gorgeous scent I really wish it lasted more than 20 minutes. Unfortunately, it's all delicious BIG PEARS blended with roses (more rose than bois du rose), maybe a hinting of musk, for ten minutes, with a huge throw, then politely excuses itself and starts to fade away. And once it does that, it's a quick exit. I wonder how it would do as a room scent?

Interesting. The first time I tried this, it was light amber all the way through, with a touch of something powdery as it dried down. However, something has shifted, and it's very different today. Wet, it's apple blossom with a backnote of carnation, and the vaguest hint of amber. Drying down, it holds the floral notes in front, but the amber amps up and starts to make it less floral. Dry, the amber is foremost, a front resin note, with background support mostly from the apple blossom. I can only find the carnation if I look for it. A male friend saw me sniffing my wrist as I met up with him for lunch, grinned, and asked which new perfume I was trying today. He checked it out and said it was amber with a back note of something that reminded him of fir boughs, not floral at all. Hmm, maybe Freya remembers that she lives in the far North, and her necklace ought to reflect that. I couldn't get the fir quality he was scenting, though. It's good on me today, but then, both amber and apple blossom usually tend to do well on me. But I'm not sure I'd get a bottle, as that amber/powder thing it did on first application might come back, and that version just doesn't excite me.

This one does an interesting morph on me. Wet, it's all a spring meadow after a rain. There's water here, but it's all about grass and clover and growing things, not the sea at all. It smells fresh-washed. As it dries down, a salty note comes out, but it's still salt spray with spring meadow. Dry, there is a note of young primroses and clover, under the salt spray. It's a gorgeous scent, but rather incongruous. So I had my male friend try it, and it was even more interesting on him. "Jolly Roger? Are you sure they didn't mean Jolly Rancher?" It was all Jolly Rancher watermelon candy on him, at first. Then the salty smell came up, and we joked about watermelon salt water taffy, because it really stayed sweet and fruity on him, under the salt spray. Pleasant, but not what we would have expected. Boy, does this one do interesting morphs, depending on your body chemistry.

I just got this as a sample imp, and am in heaven! I wouldn't have even *thought* of it, but there's the magic of BPAL. Now I want a bottle! In bottle: buttered amber with saffron Wet: amber and saffron with a boozy quality like Buttershot liquer. Drydown: The booziness quiets down, and frankincense starts mingling with the amber and saffron. There's a delicious sweetness coming up in the background. Dry: It's gone golden, with amber and frankincense mingling in a buttered-rum sweetness. There are back notes of resin and musk. If the gods ate pastry, it would have some of this quality. This lasts and lasts. Hours later, it's gone softly musky, but still keeping those delicious golden notes. I think I'm in love.

Tobacco and melon with chili sounded so promising, but no. This comes up as rotted fruit on me, right out of the bottle. It's nose-twisting, with an emerging hint of garbage and something metallic like vomit. Fortunately, within ten minutes, it disappears entirely off my skin, eliminating the need to scrub it off. (But I still washed my wrist thoroughly.) I was hoping it might at least morph to tolerable, but I'll settle for vanishing.

Eclipse reflects its name on me, but I'm getting ahead of myself. It's lovely right out of the bottle. Oddly, instead of bitter almond, it goes almost to hazelnut on me, with a backnote of frankincense. As it dries down, a luscious butterscotch note comes out that starts to predominate. Very foody. And then it dries and vanishes entirely. Half an hour later, I couldn't tell it had ever touched my skin. Waaah! Eclipse eclipses itself almost immediately! It's not fair!

There's supposed to be an amber note here, but I don't get it. Wet, it's a waft of flowers with a slight backnote of ginger. Reminds me of something I've smelled in Hawaii. It's very etherial, at this point. Almost not there at all, a whispered scent. As it dries, a smell of clover and grass comes out. It mixes and mingles to smell like a lovely day in a late spring meadow.

I was sitting here at my terminal, and kept thinking "What is that gorgous scent?" And realized that Lady of Shalott had morphed again. It's now etherial flowers, with a slight hint of muguet and calamus and something that reminds me of fresh primroses. This one, I was scared to try. I've identified with the Lady of Shalott since high school, but the scent description listed gardenia. And gardenia and I do NOT get along. But I decided to try an imp, because, well, it was the Lady of Shalott. In the imp, my first thought was "Where's the gardenia?" All I got was aquatics. Wet, I got more aquatics and a soft background floral that I couldn't identify. As it dried down, the most amazing thing happened. A background note of calamus iris came up. Suddenly, I was 10 years old again, and in the calamus bog, hunting frogs with my friends. Dry, Lady of Shalott was exactlty the smell of the calamus bog on the property of the "mad botanist" who had planted a jungle-garden of exotic plants behind high fences and hedges, decades before. This overgrown property, of course, was a kid-magnet, made all the more attractive by being Forbidden. This is exactly the smell of mud and crushed wet calamus irises, with a haunting background note of florals from somewhere outside. This is MY scent! For the Lady and for that kid in the bog. Even better for an additional morph later on, described above.

Wet, it's all coconut. On drydown, it becomes rounded and tropical, coconut with a nutty and floral background that's very delicate. I can't pick up musk at all. When I first put it on, it was HI, I'M COCONUT, but on drydown, it becomes almost etherial, like a warm tropical breeze off islands, distinctly subtle and well-rounded.

Woodsy and herbal, with a background note of resin that adds a sharpness. As it dries down, a distinct wintergreen note comes up for me. I remember a black birch tree that smelled like this. The longer I have it on, the more herbs and wintergreen it becomes. Feels like it could help keep you calm and awake.

I hoped the vetiver would be predominant, but alas, this is all gardenia on me. Not only that, but my gardenia allergy causes it to go funky and give me a nasty headache within minutes. Scrub off. I had a male friend evaluate it, in case he wanted it. He sniffed the bottle. "Leather, with a feeling of sweaty saddles and baseball gloves." On his skin, he said it was the county fair. Huh? Wet, it was leather and straw and animal droppings, particularily pig and sheep. As it dried, he said that the gardenia came out a little, but with a whiff of the agricultural exhibits building. But still a background of fresh dung, alas. Maybe someone else will have a more successful morphing on this one. Neither one of us did.

An instant favorite! I love roses, but a lot of rose scents and I don't work together, going quickly to soap. But with frankincense escorting milady rose, here, suddenly I get all the best of them both. It instantly amps up and is ROSE!!! With a lovely undernote that's all the best qualities of frankincense. Lots of throw, too. It's great for about 3 hours, then starts to go soapy on me, sigh. I guess that I should take that initial 3 hours and not complain, just reapply.

Wet: a faint mintiness, with an undertone of Really Good expensive gin. Drydown: mint drops out, and the really good gin predominates, with a hint of a soft floral coming out, probably the orange blossom. Dry: subtle herbs and soft florals. It's like Noctisca has a sweet baby sister (who has good taste in liquor). This one is pretty yummy .

In the imp: pine and herbs Wet: Clairol Herbalescence shampoo, very soapy. I was so scared this was going to go to soap! Drydown: Herbs but not so soapy, now. It's developing a warmish throw of earth. Dry: Herbs, including something that reminds me of Thai holy basil. Warm earthy smells and something sweet and vaguely floral in the background. A very good throw for the first couple hours. Something sweetly herbal lingers even 6 hours later.

My three hell-kitties were on a real tear, so I put some Bakeneko on in their honor! Wet: Okay, this is utterly unexpected. It's exactly the Hawaiian White Ginger perfume my godmother gave me when I was 11 (and I adored, though my mother said it made me smell "like a French whore.") Very spicy! I like it, but it's completely not what I was expecting! Drydown: hmm, I'm now picking up tangerine, but it's still predominantly that spicy note of my godmother's White Ginger perfume. Dry: the musk and tangerine come up, with that spicy background. I sense more than smell something floral, just at the edge of detection, that must be the cherry blossom. I don't get tea at all, though I suspect more than smell a slight green note in the very background. Definitely playful, as befits a beast-kitty! Weeks later: this one morphs through the month. Sometimes the musky cinnamon is predominant, and sometimes it's the spicy tangerine (but still no tea). I still have trouble believing there's no ginger in it, when it's wet. I suppose shapeshifting is par for the course for the baka-kitty.

This blend just about makes me salivate. There are so many notes that shouldn't work on me, like black orchid, osmanthus, and patchouli, yet here they do! First off, it smells darkly expensive, even just sniffing the imp. Wet: dark floral, a warm note like night in a jungle--must be the cocoanut blending in. Drydown: I want to eat my wrist! How can it be dark floral and edible at the same time? It's like something inutterably scrumptuous, with a note of honeyed resin. Needs a "Do Not Eat!" warning. Like a poisonous, utterly delicious something, luring you in. Wow, this is starting to really throw, too. Dry: I can't even begin to define it. All the notes have blended and mellowed, and it has an undernote reminds me somehow of a sweetish unblended scotch mixed into the rainforest, with that honey and resin still present. I just want to swoon over this one! This has got to be the ultimate winner of everything BPAL I've tried so far! The throw is just gorgeous, too. I don't think I'd wear it to the office, because it's just too seductive, but that's okay. I'd wear it on the hottest hot date, where I wanted to be the ultimate super-seductress.

I wanted to like Cobra Lily. It had such potential in the bottle. It was lily with a slight tartness. Wet, it stayed pretty much lily with an underlying tartness like orange peel. Then the drydown started. It turned to old gym socks, with an undertone of stinky cheese mixed with the lily. The lily answer to durian fruit. Sigh, looks like this is one to swap... Something here doesn't react well with my body.

This is a very masculine scent, which of course means it works very well with my body chemistry. In the bottle, I get leather and chocolate-covered cherries. Hmm... Wet: more chocolate-covered cherries and something dusty and leather, reminding one of old books with leather covers. Drydown: cherry-chocolate pipe tobacco, with a background note of leather. Dry: chocolate pipe tobacco, that leather and dust "book" smell, and rich wood notes. A faint background waft of cherry, but only if you breath on it. Glorious!

I wore this the day I took Route 66 out toward the Grand Canyon. It fits in nicely. Wet: lots of cedar, but with something dusty behind it. Drydown: cedar makes me think of ghost towns, a woody aura of old boards, with the vanilla starting to bloom out. Dry: wooden planks in the background, but now it's the vanilla that takes center stage. It smells like clay baked in the sun, sweet and dusty. There is also an aura of sugar cookies in it. A desert bakery? It's gorgeous, and sure to become a favorite for when I'm doing outdoorsy type things. Definitely desert-rat perfume!