Ae. Aegypti

[absinthetics]

Five honeys with vanilla orchid, gardenia, dragon's blood resin, gingergrass, and turmeric.

I expect this to be one of the favorites from this series.

In the bottle: Honey, orchid and gardenia. There is a heaviness in the background that could easily be the dragon's blood resin, made even deeper by the gardenia.

On: the dragon's blood comes out more, and this deepens. The honey is still delightfully there but the flowers are coming more to the foreground.

After 20min: lovely honeyed vanilla orchid and gardenia. Only a hint of the dragon's blood in the background that gives it some depth. Beautiful foody floral.

[Invidiana]

On me this is almost a dead ringer for Honey hair gloss. I was a little leery of the gingergrass and turmeric, but they are barely detectable. It's just a lovely golden honey scent tinged with vanilla and gardenia and the tiniest bit of dragon's blood for depth. I positively can't wait to wear it along with the hair gloss.

[orata]

Reminds me strongly of a Rappaccini's Apiary blend--if you like BPAL honey, you will enjoy this; it smells almost like a beeswaxy, slightly powdery single note honey on me, with just hints of dragon's blood, gingergrass, vanilla, and gardenia. They're not strong presences, though--this is more like honey from a beehive that's been gathering from those plants. This is pretty, but probably not unique enough to me to warrant a bottle.

[yakiguri]

Ae. Aegypti is a lovely floral honey, with gardenia most prominent. I get tiny hints of vanilla and ginger here and there, and just a drop of dragon's blood. No tumeric. Aegypti is faint though, so unless you prefer your scents up close and personal you may need to slather. As I currently lack a honey-dominant blend in my BPAL stash (I know, I know...) I'll definitely pick this up, but I'm unsure if it's unique enough to warrant purchasing if you already have numerous honey blends.

[ChloeKEvil]

I love this! Dragon's blood is usually too artificial and perfumey for me to enjoy, but the honey mellows out its harsh edges and it lightens the scent, making it not too sweet. I can get a bit of the gingergrass in it as well- ginger is not usually one of my favourite notes, but it's really not bad here at all. This seems light and almost grassy, yellow-green to me. It's very summery and fresh, and much less irritating than you'd think mosquito-inspired perfume would be.

[aphrodite]

These are a few of my favorite things! Every note in here is one I'm obsessed with. I really like the scent, but I do sort of agree with Orata that it's not unique enough to warrant a bottle. However, since it is LE I may buy a full bottle anyway and see if it grows more complex with age. Right now it's all vanilla honey, warm and sweet in a heady rather than sugary way, but with little glimpses of other notes peeping out throughout the day.

[astarinel]

I was expecting this to be spicier, I guess, but basically it becomes a more floral Dragon's Milk on my skin.

 

I love Dragon's Milk, but I don't really love a big pile of gardenia on top of it. For those of you who were anxious about the spices, they are pretty non-existent on my skin.

[ModderRhu]

This is pretty much spicy Dragon's Milk. Nice but I prefer DM.

[sunlitgarden]

In the decant: Honey with a bit of astringency. You know, what this reminds me of, weirdly enough, is the scent of the Pike Place Market here in Seattle. It's a tourist attraction, but I also enjoy going there despite being a local -- it's an open-air market with all kinds of stalls, meat, produce, flowers, honey, crafts, etc. Something about this - possibly the honey mixed with the other combination of notes -- is reminding me of there. (Incidentally, it's also the home of Tenzing Momo -- sniffing their essential oils taught me to recognize quite a few different notes.)

 

On my skin: Sweet honey and floral-ness. The dragon's blood isn't cherry-like as it sometimes can be, but is more resinous (at least on my skin). Fortunately, the turmeric isn't making this smell like curry - they just add a bit of spice to the scent. I think it, along with the gingergrass, is largely contributing to the Pike Place Market smell though, as there's also a large spice and tea shop there (which is another favorite shop of mine.)

 

All in all, I don't think this is bottle-worthy because it's far too evocative for me, and smelling like the Market is just weird. But it's a fascinating blend!

Edited May 31, 2012 by sunlitgarden

[violetblue]

Mine smells of super strong gardenia bush in full bloom first applied, then the dragon's blood peeks out and cuts it with some honey and mellows it out some, but it's still really strong and possibly a bit too floral for me, sadly.

[angelamaria]

In decant: I'm not really sure what I expected from this, but this is full-on dragon's blood resin for me, with some honey.

 

Wet on skin: that's dragon's blood resin, maybe a hint of gardenia and vanilla orchid mixed all in with the honey. I expected this to be a bit sweeter and a bit more floral, but I'm getting mostly dragon's blood resin here. It's like something I'd expect from the Ars Draconis line.

 

Dry: not a morpher--stays true to the wet stage, although it gets smokier and smokier the longer is stays on my skin. I think the turmeric is also coming out--this is like three hours on. Spicy, smoky DBR.

 

Verdict: I did wish this was a bit more floral! DBR hasn't been a win for me for a while though.

 

 

Added: do I amp DBR or something?! Almost everyone else says floral

[KatharinaNordh]

I love Bpal honey, but I also amp it and the end result is that this just doesn't smell Different enough from anything else for me to need it - glad I just got a decant at this point. It's a nice enough scent, but just lacks something to make it special for me.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

These notes sound delicious, so I hope it lives up to them! The oil is dragons-blood-red colored in the vial. Wet, this is the OMG-sexy lovechild of "O" and "Dragon's Milk". I'm not getting floral or spice, just dragon's blood and honey in equal measures. But then on drydown, spice and gardenia peek out. I'm wearing this for date night with DH; it's nummy and sexy!

[stellamaris]

Oh rats. Another bottle I need to buy.

This is Crib Girls honey, with DBR, medium power, great lasty-ness. It's making me invent words!

I love this, it gives me the same warm softness as crib girls but with resins instead of lemon. Love.

It smells a little smokey to me, but sometimes strangely gardenia does that for me, but a light smoke. OMGosh love this.

Edited June 6, 2012 by stellamaris

[Zorra]

From the decant and in the very first wet stage I get a bit of gardenia, then it's honey, honey and honey with an edge of ginger. The ginger (well, it must be gingergrass but it smells like ginger) makes that I like this mosquito better than Jezebel, which is also almost pure honey on my skin. I am very sorry that I don't really get any dragon's blood, although I think it does something to make the honey less sweet. Perhaps I amp honey. But who would have thought that the yellow fever mosquito smells like what must be a dream of Winnie the Pooh?

[calivianya]

Oh lordy, I received this as a frimp and I can smell it through the plumber's tape. I can clearly pick out gardenia and dragon's blood, which are two of the notes that will cause me to INSTANTLY wash a perfume off because they go fetid vomit on my skin, so I won't be brave enough to try this one today. Just the waft is enough.

[ami226]

On the skin: A plastic honey? With some dragon's blood. This does not smell so good on me. I don't know what is happening with this one, but it just smells... really bad on me. It's kinda making me feel a little sick.

[Antoinette]

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! This is sweet and warm with just the slightest edge from what I think is the gingergrass. The honeys, vanilla orchid, gardenia and dragon's blood resin meld into such a pretty and almost humid scent that reminds me of warm weather that's not suffocating but soft and comforting. (Which is quite a feat because I am not a warm weather fan!)

 

Upgrading decant to bottle.

[Gateau]

At first, honey with gorgeous floral notes, but then the dragons blood pops up and, as it always does on me, turns into something at reminds me of mothballs. I don't make out the ginger grass or turmeric. If you like Dragon's Milk and honey scents, definitely get this. I just wish it didn't have the dragons blood, because the honey-gardenia-orchid phase, though short-lived, was divine.

[milo]

Very sweet dbr. After a bit the honey comes out, and it's mostly honey with a bit of dbr. This really reminds me of Dragon's Milk, though there is something slightly herbal here. Not really a dbr fan, but this was nice to try.

[Little Bird]

This is a pretty, perfumey scent on my skin. It's like a sharp white floral center, surrounded by the sweeter honey and vanilla, and darkened with a bit of dragon's blood. I normally have trouble wearing bpal's dragon's blood, but it smells incensey, dark and exotic here (rather than the rotting flowers scent it usually has on me).

 

White floral perfume smudged with dark incense and sweetened with honey powder and perfumey vanilla. It's a little too floral on my skin after a half hour, as the honey and dragon's blood notes fade a bit, but I do like this one. Dragon's Milk is one of the only bpal dragon's blood scents I enjoy, and this is more dry and perfumey smelling than Dragon's Milk is on me, and Aegypti isn't as sweet.

 

I'm happy to have a couple decants of this one, but I don't need a full bottle.

[whitsunweddings]

In the imp: A sweet, deep spice.

Wet: An interesting mix of kitchen-y spices with honeyed white florals.

Dry: Mostly a white floral honey with an interesting element of spice. Nice!

[zankoku_zen]

Honey and gardenia. This is a sweet honey + gardenia. And this sucker lasts. About 12 hours later, I can still smell it and at this point, I can catch a whiff of the turmeric.

 

Not my type of blend at all.

[Alethia]

Thoughts before testing: The Lab's honey is one of my forever win notes. Gardenia and I get along very well, and I've recently discovered a love of DBR. Vanilla orchid is also traditionally good on me, but I'm not sure about ginger grass or turmeric, so we'll see how this goes!

 

Wet: This opens with a blast of dragon's blood resin and a very pretty, musky honey (which reminds me a lot of the honey hair gloss. The gardenia is also strong but not high pitched and the vanilla orchid is staying soft in the background. Overall, it's a bright, sweet floral at this stage.

 

Dry down: All of the notes keep getting more well rounded and prettier. This is really lovely.

 

Dry: The sweetness tones down quite a bit after an hour or so and is a beautiful musky floral.

 

Final thoughts: Love this!

 

Verdict: Keeping the bottle!

[neuilly]

I should have known better. On me 99% of dragon's blood scents become single notes. There is maybe a slight hint of honey but it just makes it seem like extra sweet dragon's blood. Not my cup of tea.