Dorian

[sabina_k]

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.

I've only tried it once so far, but my initial impression was of someone washing out a teacup with lemon Pledge. It wasn't that strong or annoying, really, but it was almost all lemon until two hours later, when it finally became a faint vanilla tea.

ETA: Tried it twice more, and both times it really calmed down with the lemon. It's still a strong note, but the tea and musk are just as prominent. It's all very sweet, almost like frosting. (But refined, gourmet frosting, not grocery store cupcake frosting!) Edited April 9, 2006 by Liz

[jarvenpa]

Oh, many thanks to jewelbug, who in response to a post in the recommendations thread asking for thoughts on the scent of experience, mentioned Dorian.

 

She said she tells everyone to try Dorian, so it may not have been particularly brought to mind by my request for a scent for a poetic, wicked past.

 

But..my goodness, does it hit the mark.

 

First sniff from the vial: hmmm, faint something. What's the big deal?

 

Daubed on wrists, and what the hell, behind ears, down cleavage, let's give it a whirl.

 

Tea. Who would have thought the scent of tea would be so interesting? I happen to love black tea, and appreciate the many varieties and the importance of proper brewing and lovely china cups, though I have swilled black tea from chipped enamel under dripping trees, and liked that too.

 

The tea scent develops with a twist of--citrus/sugar/breaths of flowers/vanilla. Is the lovely sensual sense here the musk? Maybe.

 

Vivid image from this scent: there are flowers on a linen covered, small table. There are crumbs of scones that were made with currants and orange peel and dusted with crystals of sugar. The very proper teacups have floral motifs, and the two at this table are wickedly in love--indeed, madly in lust, beneath their quite proper clothing.

 

This is a very elegant, decadent, delicious scent. Though when I put it on I was wearing sweatpants and hiking shoes, I strolled through the street as if I were wearing a most lovely Victorian gown, and had just come from a heated embrace with my probably married lover.

 

Damn, I need to get a big bottle of this one.

[ghosttown]

A lemon cookie, warm, comforting, sensual, perfect. I can smell this even when I'm not wearing it just by thinking about it. Sometimes I smell it before I fall asleep. This oil is haunting. It's definetly innocent and sweet. It's definetly not. I've brought this to work and let my co-workers smell it from the bottle and nobody describes it the same way, but everyone loves it and wants more...expressions of rapture are not uncommon. This is my favorite BPAL creation by far!

[GemmaCat]

I was very much looking forward to this one as it combines two of my favourite scents: vanilla and tea. It isn't, however, what I was expecting. Upon initial application it has an almost citrusy smell that reminds me, oddly enough, of a cleaning product, like Ajax or something. It's really off-putting and weird. :/ Eventually I get a scent of real vanilla tea with a squeeze of lemon and a nice muskiness (the fougere, perhaps?) but that cleaning product smell keeps appearing every now and then. Definitely one to stick with until I'm 100% sure but not the "OMG! I need a big bottle of this" scent I'd hoped for.

[jidabug]

Mmmm! Sweet lemony cookies. This is all lemon zing, mellow musk, and androgyny (it makes me think of David Bowie, the early years). Dries down to a clean lemon and restful tea scent. Perfect for a day when I’m in a "sweet" but not "girly" mood.

[nyxluna]

I finally snagged an imp of this and tried it today. It reminds me so much of an Uncle who smoked the most delicious-smelling pipe tobacco. All day long I thought of him and growing up. He didn't come to visit often, but when he did, the scent of his pipe would linger.

 

I didn't get any lemon at all, just tea and a slight vanilla, and something like tobacco for me.

 

I really like it, but it seems a bit too masculine because of the associations I get with it. I will definitely enjoy my imp and will see what it brings me the next time I wear it.

[kylni]

I tried an imp of this one because it got so many recommendations - it was in the same pack with Snake Oil and O.

 

After being unenthused by both (powdery vanilla was all I got), I was significantly less optimistic about Dorian, since I think vanilla doesn't generally do well on me.

 

But Dorian is wonderful. It is most noticably vanilla, yes, but there's definitely tea there, as well as musk making it smell like a perfume and not like you spilled tea on your jacket, or something. I personally get no lemon at all.

 

Dorian also lasts quite a while for me - in the 6-8 hour range, which is quite high.

 

My mother, who up to that point had been regarding my budding BPAL obsession with a sort of amused tolerance, tried a bit from my Dorian imp... and said, shocked, "This is really nice." She was also surprised that it was still there, hours later.

 

Enabler points for me! Though, she's not much of a perfume person, so I think I still need to score a few more before she obtains any BPAL of her own.

[salamandrina]

I just got a frimp of this with my Peony Moon order, and it was the first one I've tried on today.

 

Wow. I definitely love the vanilla, musk, and sugar scents, so it was no surprise that I liked this, but it smells amazing...and I need to try it on my husband, because I think it would smell delicious on him.

 

Wet, it's very much like drinking a hot cup of lemon-infused tea. As it dries, it turns into a rich, musky-sweet vanilla, with undertones of tea and lemon. Imagewise, you've started having a very proper tea with your lover, and by the end, you've knocked the teapot to the ground, and covered yourselves in whipped cream.

[TheStormCellar]

In the bottle and when I first put this on it had the smell of a really strong English Breakfast tea, that had been slightly sweetened. As the day has gone on, it has mellowed into something deliciously sweet and sexy. I feel like I've been ravished by a "proper" English gentleman. I think this is my favorite BPAL scent to date. Who needs Colin Firth when I have this perfume?

[tereshkova2001]

Ahhhhh. Sugared vanilla over something dark and deep. Warm, delicious, and darkly passionate. Someone is hiding a secret.

[Diana]

 

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this... d'oh! This is one of my top 5 scents, too!

 

This is like smelling a pitcher of ice cold, sugary sweet tea and a plate of sugar-coated lemon cookies sitting on a table, with a light breeze coming in through a window. It is sweet, and my overuse of the word "sugar" might have you believe that your teeth will fall out if you indulge in this scent, but it's a soft, cool sweetness. Underneath it all is the white musk, which has a (yes, this word again) sweet, almost creamy, skin-like softness to it.

 

This is just gorgeous. Everyone compliments me when I wear it. And I've gone through almost an entire 10mL bottle in a year (I admit it, I'm a slatherer), even with over 200 other oils to choose from. This is just a classic, and one of my default, no-nonsense scents.

[klio]

Quick sniffy impressions:

 

Fresh lemony tea, boyish; lightly brewed and sweet, over vanilla. Clean, smooth skin, looking for something. A beautiful, irresistible boy, sitting too close. Lean against him and you are lost.

[septima_pica]

Immediately: lemon, vanilla, and (I think) lavender. Unfortunately, the tea (always weak, for me) vanishes completely, and the combination of the other three ends up smelling not so much of elegant cologne as of the sort of soap you find in the better sort of seaside tchotchke shops. Not unpleasant, but not the sort of thing I'd really like to wear -- too pastel for me.

After 15 minutes or so, it's warmed up to something much nicer; I still don't think it's quite my style. The vanilla is much nicer now, though; it seems I just need to give vanilla a little while to start smelling good, not rule it out entirely. In fact, everything but the vanilla vanishes after an hour or two and then it's pretty nice.

Again: it might be generally a bit sweet for me to wear with a straight face, but it would be totally hot on a pretty boy... ::ponders::

(I'm putting this, along with Black Lotus, on the "I want to smell this on a hot boy/girl" list.)

[Delight]

I thought I had already added my two cents to this one but apparently I dreamed it up. I had heard rave reviews about this particular scent around the time of my first imp order so I added it on a whim.

 

In the bottle: A lemony sugar scent. Something tasty and sweet.

 

When applied: Vanilla, tea, and sugar. I imagine a richly decorated english mansion against an overcast sky but maybe thats the influence of its description talking.

 

Wear this when you feel vasty superior to everyone else. Even I couldn't resist a boy that smells like this and I am a pillar of self-control.

Edited April 16, 2006 by Delight

[smelly]

Dorian smells kind of good, but I don't know if I'll ever be in the mood to wear it. It's so sweet. It doesn't have enough texture for me.

 

Maybe I'll put a drop in my boring, unscented shampoo to jazz up my shower a bit.

[pennydreadful]

In the bottle: Sugary lemon cookies with a thick vanilla glaze.

 

Wet: Just as delicious smelling as it was in the bottle. I cannot stop sniffing this intoxicating scent!

 

Drydown: This is one of the few BPAL oils that is just as potent 8 hours later as when I first applied it. And that is a good thing, because this scent is one of my top 3 favorites.

 

Verdict: I purchased a bottle almost immediately after sampling my first imp of Dorian. This will be my signature summer scent. One of the best BPAL oils I have ever tested.

[em_h]

The first time I got an imp of this it turned out to be from the anomalous lot that smelled like apple cider, so I've been wanting to try the, as it were, canonical version.

 

Wet: Immediately a strong lemon cookie waft, followed by lavender. After another minute or two the tea starts to emerge. Light but complex, so far.

 

Drying: Black tea with crispy lemon cookies dunked in it. Tasty. Also starting to get a little bit of the musk, and definite wafts of lavender. After some time, the vanilla starts to emerge, and after an hour or so it's more sweet and vanilla-scented, with tea and musk. Pale but distinct, subtly sexy.

 

This is very nice indeed, but it may take me a few tries to decide what to do with it. I would love it on a guy, but my husband would never in a zillion years wear any kind of scent; I'm not completely sure I like it on myself. It'd be a kind of seductive room scent if I ever did room scents. On the other hand, I may decide in the end that it works on me after all (especially the later, sweeter stages).

 

Glad I got to try the real thing, in any case.

[PixieSkull]

Imp: I can smell the tea for sure. There's a sweet and bitter top note, I think it's lemon. It makes sense with the tea.

Wet: Smells like the artificially sweetened ice tea you get everywhere with vanilla and lemon. I think the pale musks are adding to the vanilla and becoming sweeter.

Dry: A sweet and powdery vanilla scent. The tea is buried and fading continually. The floral and the pale musks are very light and powdery. A bit too much sweet.

 

Category: Tea/Vanilla

Rating: 2/5; Lovely, but too much sweet

Overall: I might have liked this blend if there wasn't so much sweetness. The lightness of the tea and musks is very pleasant and this is the only vanilla blend that has actually smelled like vanilla to me without going plasticy. I think the super-sweetness ruined the blend for me. Oh well.

[Melantha]

Open:

 

Lots of vanilla, only a hint of anything darker.

 

On:

 

Again with the vanilla, not too overpowering, though. Delicate.

 

Dry:

 

The vanilla is still there, but the musks are a bit stronger now. I like this, it's a light scent.

 

Throw:

 

Not much once it dries.

 

I think I'll have to get a bottle of this.

[sookster]

this is mostly all lemon....a tad vanilla; a touch of sugar.....after all the talk i thought i was most certainly a dorian kinda gal but, however unfortunate; my skin gobbled it up and left me with nothing more than a fading memory of what could have been a beautiful friendship............le *sigh*

[Miss Lynx]

Although this one seems to be a perennial favourite among many BPALers, it took me a long time to get around to trying it. And it's quite nice on me, though not the stunner many other people seem to find it. Mostly it smells clean, herbal, slightly citrussy and a little astringent -- I suppose that's the tea -- with a warm vanilla-musk overlay. I don't get much of that sugar note that's in things like Smut and Devil's Night, and am glad of it, since that note doesn't work well on me.

 

I could see this one being more of a men's scent -- it definitely smells like it would be good on a guy. But it's also pretty nice on me, so I'd put it in the gender-neutral camp. It smells a lot less exotic, and more clean and professional than many BPAL scents -- definitely something you could wear to a job interview. The gender-neutrality of it would probably be a plus there, too, as it doesn't come off as girly in the least, but it doesn't smell like you've been messing around with men's cologne either.

 

I don't really find it terribly exciting, so it's not likely to become a top favourite for me the way it is for so many others -- it's a little bit too clean and professional for my tastes, to the point of being a little bland. But it's certainly not bad, and I'll keep the imp around for occasions when I want to smell respectable.

 

On the plus side, the scent stays nice all the way through the drydown, and never turns to Play-Doh as vanilla scents so often do on me. The herbal/citrus side of it eventually fades and leaves just a soft vanilla-musk skin-scent, which lasts for many hours, and stays pleasant the whole time.

 

Grade: B/B+

[Bagfish]

aessedai gifted me with a taster of Dorian in a recent swap, many thanks I have wanted to try it ever since reading Andra's famous review

 

Overly sweet and fruity in the imp and on my skin at first, I thought that this wasn't going to be one for me. But, on drydown the tea scent emerges followed by a smooth vanilla-musky smell which I rather like. The throw on me is not very strong after the first fruity wafts, but close up it is quite a slinky scent.

 

Yes, very nice, I shall have to snag at least an imp-full of this to try it out properly.

[sissa125]

Too sickly to be comforting and foody, too foody to be wearable.

 

This is definitely not a summer-in-alabama scent. I may have to revisit it in the winter. And move to Alaska.

[ajcj213499]

I wanted to love this- I mean, how cool is a scent named after Dorian Gray?

 

Unfortunately this smelled like play-dough on my skin. I don't think it has anything to do with the oil itself, since it seems to be a BPAL favorite- it's probably just my skin chemistry smoking crack again...

[bookishgrrl]

Tried it on both myself and bookishguy... is was delicious lemony sugar cookies (with a light base of sweet pale musk at the end) on both of us. Delicious! Though slightly disconcerting as we're both large, robust sorts and thought it felt far too blonde, delicate and fey for our personalities. We still huffed our wrists like crazy, though. I might try it as a summer linen spray.

Edited June 4, 2006 by bookishgrrl