Dorian

[jizatt]

Inspired by and created for my beloved Tedwin: my eternal, beautiful, wicked Dorian Gray. Refined, elegant, and lovely, with a noble bearing and seemingly gentle air. This blend is an artful deception: a sweet gilded blossom lying over a twisted and corrupted core. A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.

This is all vanilla with only the littlest bit of tea on me - I have to say it is quite lovely, or yummy, I'm not sure which. I don't get anything masculine from it, but I might say vanilla musk.

[Heeroluva]

In the bottle it's mostly musk with a hint of vanilla. Wet the vanilla comes out. Dry the vanilla and musk are well balanced and there seems to be almost a smokey, dark note in the background. Will have to try this one again.

[cam]

In the bottle, I get pepper, musk and something sweet (the sugared vanilla, probably). This one is soft and feminine. On me, it's musk, pepper and spice, with that soft, underlying sweetness. I really like this one.

[MissEyre]

Ok, so the first time I tried this on i liked it, but I thought it was a little too foody for me. But I've worn it a couple of times since and I keep thinking to myself, "What is that great smell" and then i realize it's me:) Dorian is a wonderfully delicious combination of vanilla, tea and a muskyness that keeps it from being too sugary or foody. I love this and plan on getting a full bottle:) I'm also a huge Oscar Wilde fan so this makes me enormously happy:)

[Kimbernunk]

In the imp and wet, it was musk, vanilla, tea. Black tea, specifically. Vanilla often goes very manky on my skin, so I was a bit nervous to try it but thought I should because I know it's one of the popular ones. It smelled quite strongly after I put it on and it had settled like a cuppa freshly-brewed English Breakfast Tea that someone had scraped a vanilla bean into. This would be awesome for people who like sweet vanilla tea. I'm not that person and this isn't really my type of scent. I could see where it would be lovely for people who want that sort of thing.

 

Overall: glad I got to try it, but I'll pass.

[lunaticana]

so masculine to me..

I like it on the boy

it s black tea, tea, tea and more tea

than after an hour or so it s also leather, that scent that coms of a nice new jacket!

it's a loveley blend.. really, but just not feminie enough for me to wear

[harpie17]

First review!

 

This was the second one I tried and I love it love it love it! Tis what I wear when I want to feel pretty and understated.

 

My nose is sadly out of shape, but I shall try.

 

Sweet, but not very...sugary and vanilla with something slightly darker, must be the musk. (I have no idea what musk smells like). Very creamy...the tea, maybe? It is very proper, but there's a naughty, slightly fun undertone.

 

It smells like a lady in a lovely, simple white dress that everyone admires for her primness, but underneath, she is wearing very sexy/naughty undies, but only she knows...to me it smells very feminine. Demure, but sexy.

 

yeah...maybe I'm crazy...

Edited August 10, 2008 by harpie17

[GeorgeJr]

Dorian was one of the first frimps I got from the lab . It opened my eyes to the fact that I love smelling of tea But it goes way beyond that . It helped me realize that one of the problems I always had with typical colognes was the " I'm beating you & everyone else around you over the head with my scent " thing that so many of them have . This is great in that , I can smell it & others around me can smell it if close enough , but it's not aggressive in any way . It's just a lovely , clean scent . Tea , vanilla , the slightest hint of musk . Just beautiful Beth , your man must be very special indeed to have inspired such a scent from you .

[AthenaRose]

Beautiful. I bought this imp for my fiancé and it wasn't really his cup of tea (haha) but i stole it for myself because it is delicious! Musky vanilla tea. It's really quite lovely. He likes it on me much better than on him, which is perfect, because i'm not giving it back.

 

4/5

[nellieburger]

In the imp: The sweetest, most delicious smelling tea with a hint of lemon and vanilla teasing me deep within. It's YUMMY!!!

 

Wet: Lemon becomes more prominent.

 

Dry: A light, pleasant, vanilla musk. Beautiful!!!

 

This is the first BPAL scent I've tried that I loved both in an imp and on my skin!!! It's stunning in both forms. It soothes and comforts yet refreshes and invigorates. I will definitely have to purchase a bigger bottle of this lovely scent!!!

[rusty]

to be completely honest I was a bit underwhelmed...there are so many rave reviews for this scent and I was so excited for this! it is very nice, a sweet vanilla tea, very warm and sweet and....thats it. its nice but not amazing.

 

pleasant, wonderfully balanced between the sweetness of the vanilla and the savoryness of the tea, but not very exciting.

[MisterShrapnel]

With 21 pages of reviews and counting, I'm afraid I can't add anything new to the pile (the very first review is amazing ), but thus far Dorian is my hands-down favorite blend, and also my first ever, so I feel a certain need to say something.

Dorian makes me think of pale, creamy colors, delicate fingers, and, somehow, innocence, reflected in the startled eyes and barely parted lips of the blend's namesake. The tea (with a hint of lemon! which makes it all the more tea-like for me...) and fougere give it an air of polite behavior and refinement, and the smooth, sweet, and creamy vanilla is delicious and pleasant and comforting. But the musks... the musks make it perfect. It exudes a certain... something (hahhaa sorry, I don't know how to say it! It's SEXY but it doesn't scream it... which makes it even better in a way... DDD: maybe this is just me and my inexperience with musks overreacting? ). It's like the barely perceptible shadow in his eye, the one that betrays, beneath all those proper manners and that sweet smile, that what's on his mind probably isn't so innocent after all... You get a little... ah, suspicious that this flawless exterior could be concealing an undercurrent of hedonism, an oft-overlooked and well-hidden penchant for debauchery. When I smell it wafting up from my skin, I feel like I'm dangerously close to someone gorgeous and seductive (even though he (she? this scent is not so much gender-neutral as it is delicious enough to the point where you wonder, "does gender even matter? " ) doesn't even have to try, and when wearing it I get a tad worried that the wrong people are going to have the same response ("OMGZ KL;AN EWG;AWEGIO WHAT SMELLS LIKE COITUS?! NOT-THAT-I'D-KNOW-WHAT-THAT-SMELLS-LIKE") as I did.

People wearing this should be careful not to get jumped by people like me.

Ahhh it's perfect and lovely and I could wear it anywhere and for years to come (if the Lab is willing ).

(hahhaha have I completely over-done my first review? Are people staring? Ah well, it was quite an entertaining exercise and I think it conveys the point. First ever BPAL review completed!)

Edited September 22, 2008 by MisterShrapnel

[goblinshark]

In the imp: Hahaha, WHOA, I can see why this is such a favorite. I am already mentally ordering a 5ml and I have not even tried it on yet. Beautiful, cleanly sweet tea and vanilla. It actually smells a little like cream soda, I think.

 

Wet on skin: I seriously cannot believe there exists a vanilla scent that I LIKE, let alone one I LOVE. Very natural vanilla-y smell, but not a MUSKY vanilla which is what I normally detest. After a few minutes a slightly more masculine tea smell peeks out beneath to temper the sweetness, which is perfect.

 

Final verdict: Love. Am ordering a 5ml as I type. Can't believe it took me this long to try out.

[rayvn1]

I've been eagerly awaiting an imp of Dorian to come my way and this is very lovely. Strong, too. It was best about 15 minutes after I put it on where it was a heady balance of vanilla and dark tea. Unfortunately all I'm left with now is vanilla and a hint of musk.

 

I'll have to see if anyone else has had this reaction, but this is a dead ringer for Lady Una on me. Huh. As always, I wish the tea had stuck around but I will try this again - maybe with a bit of Dormouse added since that imp is uber-tea on me

 

 

Quick edit: on the plus side this stuff lasts forever!

Edited September 27, 2008 by rayvn1

[le fey]

Age:

Brand new

 

In the bottle:

Vanilla Musk

 

Wet:

Very cologny with vanilla laid over it. Not getting sweet tea, just vanilla and musk and ...sweat. Uh oh... smells like someone masking BO with cheap vanilla musk cologne.

 

Drydown:

As it dries down I get gusts of the tea...vanilla...BO...lemon...musk. None of the scents seem to want to settle down and play together. Its as if they're coming from various parts of the room. I am not finding this pleasant - but it is sexy and dangerous... dangerous because its sexy putting on a civilized front for a little while.

 

By the time it's dry I get only the barest suggestion of tea (old tea left in the cup), lemon - less likely in the cup then polishing the table it sits on), the old BO and musk of a horny man who hasn't washed since his last encounter and a liberal splash of vanilla he hopes to cover that fact up.

 

Interesting sensory image but I'm not sure its at all what I want to smell like.

 

Later:

Other than occasional gusts, the tea is gone. Left is vanilla musk overlaying male sweat and a slightly sour note that is likely the lemon but is translating into old BO. This makes me feel like the morning after a sexy but unsavory night.

 

It's really interesting, but I don't know when I want to smell like this. I wish the tea were more prominent - it's the reason I picked this up. On the other hand the vanilla and musk are blending together much better now, leading to some heady sensory memories of a certain someone from years ago who wore vanilla musk cologne.

 

This whole thing is leading to some dirty thoughts - the kind that aren't all that comfortable.

 

...and then all of a sudden, two hours out, it all starts behaving... the BO turns to the yummy smell of skin, the vanilla takes center stage and grows sweet, the musk stops smacking me in the face. And tea! That smells fresh instead of last night's leftovers.

 

This I like. I'm just not sure I can go through a two hour one-night-stand to get here.

 

Verdict:

I think I'm going to let this sit for a few months and see what a bit of maturing does for it. Intriguing, those day after the night before relationships can be so uncomfortable.

Edited October 5, 2008 by le fey

[squeakelala]

Dorian is one I thought I'd adore, since I love tea and I love vanilla... but I don't smell tea at all in this and it's wayyyy to light and sweet. On me this is all extremely sweet vanilla (too sweet for my tastes, I thought it'd be a darker and less syrupy), a hint of musk, and something that reminds me of that fake lavender-vanilla scented baby wash. That impression, thankfully, dies down after about an hour and then I'm left with just sugared vanilla and a tiny bit of musk. I was really hoping for something a little darker and, well... less tooth-achingly sweet. Black tea, where are you?

 

Apparently, I'm amping the sugar and vanilla in this to eternity and beyond. Dorian is sadly not for me.

[juniperus]

Bottle: very sweet and sugary

Wet: more of the tea itself, bare hints of the musk

Dry: more of the musks, and the tonka in the fougere

Later: mellow and masculine without being omg!Masculine...the sweetness give it a neutral quality, but it's hardly girly. intriguing...

[indiumhalo]

This is the first bpal blend I tried that I am planning on buying, and I'm already wondering if one bottle will be enough. Oh Dorian, my love.

 

In the bottle, it smells quite strongly of tea and sugar. Less vanilla and more general sweetness. When dabbed on my wrist, though, the warm, musky tea really comes to life, with the smoothness of vanilla sugar beneath it all. And the vanilla only comes out more over time. After a few hours, the scent of tea had mellowed a little, to the point where the vanilla was the first thing I noticed whenever I caught a whiff of my wrist.

 

It's tea time, sure, but the late night sort of tea time to which you'd wear a sexy black dress (hey, it could happen!). Or like the sort of nightcap you'd say yes to after a date that you don't want to end.

[ouch!]

A men's blend? hmm. I'm not feeling that at all.

This is lovely though...

 

It smells at first like a lemony/vanillary tea..this is when first applied..

Vanilla amps on me like crazy so I'm waiting to see what's gonna happen from here on in.

 

The wet stage is yummy, it changes into a much more muskier vanilla tea with a slight hint of something citrussy. The vanilla in this is the vanilla that's in Antique Lace, it's incredibly sweet, almost sugary...

 

The faint citrus dies down after this and oh my gosh...the vanilla has not taken over the blend entirely for probably the the first time I think..

This is quite a sophisticated, soft blend. It feels secret to me, and when I say secret I mean..like..nobody would know I'm wearing it but me. I don't know why it makes me feel like that but it does...!

Kind of like this scent would become me...part of me. (It's not often blends evoke a proper physical emotion in me but when it happens?? wowzers!)

 

This ends up being a very sexy musy vanilla that's very soft and subtle enough to be my own secret!

 

Edited because I'm a typo spaz today!

Edited October 15, 2008 by ouch!

[klokwerk]

Just got my shipment today, first one I'm trying out is Dorian. Very subtle scent, my nose isn't refined enough to pick out the individual notes. Not as sweet as I've read in some of the reviews. my girlfriend describes it as a "powdery sweet smell". *shrugs*

 

That said, it has the effect on my girlfriend that I was hoping for. I had her sniff my wrist and she started rubbing her cheeks on my arms. Definitely a scent to use on nights out. I still need to see how she reacts to O, think that one will be for nights in ^__^

Edited October 15, 2008 by ObadiahAskew

[Vespar]

I bought an imp of Dorian along with a Lilith Victoria,just to compare the two scents since I've never before smelled Dorian and honestly,I didn't think it would work on me.I do love tea,but I can't imagine wearing a perfume that smells like tea.

 

Anyhow,I tried some yesterday before going out and I was like OMG.

Dorian is a very charming,noble and elegant scent indeed.On my skin,luckily,it doesn't smells like tea but like sweet lemon.And when I say sweet,I don't mean a sugared lemon or a glass of cheap frozen lemonade.It smells freshly sweet,like a lemon that you grew in your garden and was freshly cut,juicy,tangy and yummy.

 

I get lemon mixed with light florals and tea in the background and a swirl of smoky musk,It gives me the picture of a handsome man in a fine black coat and long hair,walking into a vampire club filled with cigarette smoke,and he smells like woodsy and sweet incense-y cologne.

Each stage is very complex and beautiful.When first applied it's fruity and vanilla-ish,but not candy sweet.

After 20 or so minutes it's soft musk and tea and I even get a hint of Snake Oil.After and hour or so it's incense-y and more powdery.

 

Did I mention it lasts forever?I wore it early in the morning and I could still smell it after 8 hours.

 

I'm sold on this,it's a brilliant perfume,infused with love and sweet thoughts.I'm more of a musk/incense/myrrh girl myself,but this one pleasantly surprised me.I'm definately coveting a 5 ml right now.

[llhorian]

Well I ordered this as an imp, thought I might enjoy it since a friend of mine is in love with it.

Now for me it's a lot of vanilla. I may just not have enough of a trained nose to distinguish notes, I'm a newcomer to BPAL too, but there's not much else than vanilla as far as I can tell. Maybe a hint of something warmer behind it that I can't really place. It reminds me of vanilla scented candles.

I could see this working for a distinguished man in his forties, that would probably work, or more generally a woman. It's not for me, I think, though I'm determined to give it another few tries to do justice to my friend's enthusiasm.

[cosmoblue]

In the Imp lipton Brisk iced tea with a soapy floral. Wet: floral tea. At fist I think I may need to apply more because I can hardly smell it. Dry I am getting musky vanilla with a bit of powdery floral tea behind it. I think I like it, but I am not sure how much. This is my 4th BPAL I've tried and it is definitely the most easy to like.

[purplegirl]

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this gorgeous scent.... I need a good

 

In the bottle, it's all tea-musk, but not in a bad way - the ltea is creamy because of the vanilla; the musk is clear and bright, so it's so refreshing!

 

Once it hits the skin, wow wow wow - it really is a beautiful scent!!! The vanilla comes out more to make the tea a very round and almost custard-y/lemon tea, grounded by a beautiful musk. It doesn't have the strongest throw on me, but the wafts of scent that flit and float around me are so lovely And much to both my delight AND despair, it smells pretty amazing on my hubby, a really cozy scent on him. I'm happy because I do love the scent, but then bummed out because he tends to slather, so he'll be whipping through copious amounts of Dorian!! Good thing I've hidden the aged bottle I was fortunate to find; that one is even more gorgeous than fresher Dorian -aging made it even more sweet and breath-taking

[tacey]

So disappointing. All I got out of Dorian was a sweet vanilla. So sweet that I had to take it off after half an hour or so. I will pass this one along...