PersephonesChild

#129 It's a cool, low-key, greenish unisex scent, with a familiar central note-- I want to say calamus? It's almost mineral-y. And a little narcissus! And possibly that brown rice scent that's in "Lover's in a Rice Field". I feel like that's a good comparison-- like that scent without the plum, and with more cool greenishness. Maybe aloe?

#29 I could smell this one when it was sitting in the box! Sweet and creamy and familiar, hm... it seems to have some kind of complexity when wet. It hit my skin, and then the note hit me: coffee!!! I ADORE coffee, and I've always been disappointed at how rarely it pops up in BPAL blends. On my skin, this smells like a cafecito and nothing else-- nothing particularly floral. And I am totally fine with that!

I picked this up yesterday at C2E2 without having skin tested it, so I was a little nervous today when I wore it the first time. I didn't need to be-- this is really quite a lovely blend. It's a very light and effervescent myrrh, sweet but not overpoweringly so. Sweet flag is apparently also known as calamus, and provides a very mild spiciness. Bu tit's mostly sweetish, resinous myrrh, and it's very pretty and very long-lasting. I can see myself wearing this a lot.

I kind of love this perfume, but I have to admit it has some pretty strong "old lady" associations for me-- it smells so much like my grandmother's perfume, but in a way that I personally really enjoy. In the imp, I got a good dose of lemon with some sandalwood underneath. On my skin, it's much more integrated-- it's hard to pick out a single note, although the sandalwood and champaca are fairly present. It smells classic and refined. But I suspect for some people the "old lady" association will be too much!

Super powdery, both in the vial and on my skin. It opens up a little on my skin, but I don't notice really any of the notes that are described (no absinthe, which I would have liked, no spiciness, no juniper, and a little bit of a high note that *might* be rockrose.) This is so far from what I expected-- rather a disappointment.

To be honest, I'd completely forgotten I'd ordered this, but looking at the notes, I can see why I did-- lilac, wisteria, black currant, and frankincense are notes I love, but haven't really experienced in combination. In the imp, I found this scent surprisingly hard to place-- fruit (black currant) over other unplaceable notes. On my skin, things swap around a little, and lilac dominates as the top note, over a swirl of incense. It's a very mysterious scent, and it's purple without being very fruity. I like it-- I think it fills a void in my collection. It's not overly sweet, and I have to tell you a lot of the lilac blends I've been trying lately (mostly from other companies, but akin to Ichabod Crane) have been built on cloyingly sweet bases. This is not that, and I'm very pleased. My only concern is that the wisteria may be going slightly off-- I like it, but at least in Les Fleurs du Mal, it doesn't much like me. I'm getting occasional whiffs of "drowned flower mush", but they don't dominate. I like it, I'm definitely going to hang on to my decant. ETA: Mugwort comes way up in late drydown-- it's now a more mellow/less minty version of Beltane 2008, which is good, because I liked Beltane, but it was too powerful for me!

It's mostly the historical aspect of this blend that I found appealing, though honestly, most of the historical blends don't suit me. Still, I was encouraged by how this smelled in the imp-- I got a strong mix of rose and ambergris, and vegetal musk which I found to be kind of greenish. My enthusiasm was short-lived-- this became powdery mish-mash on my skin. I have to say, it wasn't the worst smelling powder out there, so I let it hang around a while to see if it got any better, and eventually gave up and washed it off. I think the ambergris may actually have been the culprit, that and those vegetal musks. (Interestingly, the residue left after I tried washing it off actually smelled quite nice! I guess it blended well with my soap...)

Definitely a woodsy, green, and herbal scent. I happen to love smelling like a forest, so this makes me happy! It's kind of like a rougher Yggdrasil. There's a notable moss component to it-- I think that's what's reading as masculine, but there is a sweet edge to it. I especially noticed that late in the dry-down, I got a kinda sweet, sticky base note-- I'm thinking that's the black gum + sassafras. On the whole, the sassafras note is fairly light (shucks!) and, yeah, the florals are definitely barely-there. The other comparison I have for it is like a less-floral Arkham. Which seems kind of appropriate-- Tesla and Lovecraft are the ones who made the Northeast just weird enough to be worthwhile. Oh, and the medicinal smell is the comfrey, I'm pretty sure.

Tried this on at C2E2, hoping I would love it. At first sniff, the gunpowder was really strong and dominating-- that kind of surpried me-- and a number of the spicy notes were kicking up a storm. On my skin, the "dark fruits" came out, smelling a lot like cherry, but I want to say that this scent exists in two different worlds. There's the fruity/floral/sweet side, and then sitting on top of that are some rough spices and the gunpowder. The two never really converged for me. So despite that fact that I'd been planning on picking up a bottle of this, I went with Bathtub Gin instead.

Very evocative, rough patchouli smell. Yes, it definitely did remind me a rats. A little bit herbal on top of that, and incensy? Or am I just throwing shots in the dark here? I think it's the lemongrass combining with the leather that's making it smell so... sweaty. It's definitely not for everyone, but I would guess there are some bpal-lovers out there who will dig this scent.

I found this to be something of a morpher-- both to its credit and its ultimate doom. In the vial (I picked up a sample at C2E2) it smelled like your generic amber/incense blend, with maybe a touch of iris. None of those are really my thing, but I try to work myself up to skin-testing anything, so I tried it. On my skin, the amber and resin very quickly backed down, and I smelled the rose, the iris, and the crisp violet leaf-- the blend softened and took on a floral tone. In this stage, it was absolutely lovely. I thought to myself how I glad I was that I'd worked up the courage to try this on. What was I so scared of? I walked over and had my boyfriend smell it-- "Smells kinda powdery," he said. And I sniffed again, and thought, "Oh yeah, that's why I avoid amber." It had gone straight to baby powder in the time it took me to walk across the room, and was getting worse by the second. I couldn't scrub it off fast enough. The worst part is, since I don't like it in the vial, only when I first put it on my skin, I don't think putting it in a scent locket will help.

Dude. This is some awesome stuff here. Ok, so while I know gin and juniper are supposed to smell similar, to my nose, they practically never do. So perhaps I'm missing the point here, but I don't find this to be at all the over-powering juniper that others have spoken of. What I smell is gin and gingerale. Like, an absolute perfect cocktail-- fizzy and spicy, and a tiny kick to it. I bought a bottle at C2E2 yesterday, and I'm so glad I did as I sniff it today.

HEART. I got a sample of this yesterday from C2E2, and just stuck it in my bag with all the other freebies to sniff later, not thinking anything of it. Today, I tried it on and am in LOVE. It reminds me of a less grimy Belle Epoque-- the sandalwood and amber combine very similarly to create a gorgeous incense background, and the jonquil and plum are fresh on top of that. Also similar to Flowering Chrysanthemum, though slightly more polite, I think. It's soft and sweet and fresh, and I want more of it.

I tried this at C2E2 yesterday-- I'm surprised, now that I see the notes, at the lack of florals. To my nose, it had a very floral + light honey feel to it. Honey rarely works on my skin, but this came soooo close-- I nearly bought a bottle, but there's was a tiny hint of plastic that kept me from going for it. I think the most surprising thing about it, given the notes, is how light it is. I think it's worth trying, even if you're not a huge honey fan.

This description stood up and called my name-- I love citrus, florals, and I've recently developed an affection for frankincense. Not to mention the fact that I found the poem beautiful, haunting, and very fortunately, one of Emily Dickinson's poems that breaks out of her stiff rhyme and meter scheme through the use of broken lines. (Honestly, she would have written better poetry if she'd gotten out more, but that's another story...) The citrus is very bold upfront, underscored by the pikake. Of course, as naturally occurs with such high-pitched notes, as the oil dries, the citrus pulls back somewhat, but the juiciness of the pikake remains. Very dimly underneath, I get the sense of a resiny base that grounds the blend. I would like to contend that this is not a Tiki-style blend-- the Tikis were decidedly light-hearted, caricatures of themselves. In Winter, In My Room is much more serious and dark, and the resins make it somewhat unexpected. Bright citrus and big flowers don't always indicate silly exuberance-- here they hint at the sensuality of surreal violence and flesh. I would say the blend is more Asian than it is tropical, and has a very similar way of using light notes to achieve a certain solemnity. Very nice.