Delphi

[Eros]

The smoke of Sacred Incense of Apollo twined through laurel branches, bay, and honey wine.

In the imp: Sharp herbal.

On skin: It's green & herbal, then...spearmint?? Like spearmint tea almost. Clean and refreshing but without the "coolness" of spearmint. Dare I say(type) it...I'm also thinking toothpaste All this within the first five minutes of testing.

Twenty minutes and counting...Finally, could it be...is that...smoke and spice?? With a hint of incense and honey?? VERY light, it's almost as if I have to go *under* the skin to get even a fleeting whiff.
Bah! Just when it starts to live up to the description, which is obviously why I wanted to try it, it fades away to almost nothing. Stupid chemistry. I'm not giving up on this just yet, though

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: herbal and sweet.

 

Wet: amber and wine.

 

Dry: Very light and sweet. Sweet herbs, perhaps a bit of sage, and wine. Very pretty.

[eoifemacbeth]

Okay, I'm thinking it's weird-chemistry week, because NOTHING is going right.

 

In the Bottle: AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH IT BIT ME. Incense, something burning and a very unhappy hippy. Possibly a headshop on fire.

 

Wet: I think this is the only oil I've ever had to hold my breath because of. Still the burning headshop. And WOOOOOO THROW.

 

Dry: A little less fire, a little more incense. Not for me at all. Gaaah.

[Seattlejo]

Dusty honey, with a hint of smoke for me. I was hoping for a stronger honey scent, and a little more depth.

 

Dried I smell bay and still this kind of dusty scent. It's fading well enough, but its not a favorite.

[czuba]

Procured: Frimp

 

In Imp: Sweet, wet metallic, and a little citrus

 

On skin, wet: citrus, wood, incense

 

On skin, dry: fragrent wood, sharp makes me sneeze

[sookster]

straight sniff from imp is sharp, pungent, metallic fruit

 

once applied the boozey honey wine note is most prominant;

slighty incense-like...stays very sharp

 

after 30 minutes or so i get rose note mixed with the honey...nice

but not sure this is for me

[wanderlustlover]

In the imp this is almost sickly sweet to the point of throwing me off (as it had originally been in a swap-away pile untested), but once it touched my skin I was amazed again. Suddenly the sharp note of bay and laurel twined into the honey. In the close minutes passing, the silky smoky scent emerged. I could see it in my mind, the hazy, sharp, sweet scent that would be flooding the room before you gained entrance to speak with the Oracle. A few hours in the honey note dominates and drowns all the others, because I kept catching whiffs of it all afternoon, but eventually it settles down gently. I'm still not sure if it isn’t' too sweet for me though.

[klavierbarrette]

in bottle and on skin: honeywine!

 

drying: i'm getting what i assume is the laurel branches and bay leaf. honey is fading into the background but still very prominent.

 

an interesting scent, but not bottle worthy. not too big on bay leaf and honey.

[ND¢]

From this I get a too-sweet smell off the bat, floral, not the honey. (Laurel? I don't know.) Then a very dusty smell comes in... the scent becomes dust and rose.

[supremegoddessofall]

Sweet, smoky incense, but not overpowering. The bay adds a sharper note and there's a hint of an evergreen feel. Not as strong as many of the incense-based blends, and there is a mystical/magickal feel here that I like.

 

 

In the Bottle: AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH IT BIT ME. Incense, something burning and a very unhappy hippy. Possibly a headshop on fire.

 

I was having a bad morning until I read this, and then I spent several minutes giggling. Thank you!

 

[azhriaz]

This is my least favourite BPAL, by far!

 

It reminds me of stale blood, or something... I don't even know what, but it's nauseating. Athens was honey wine and I quite liked that one, so I guess it's the bay or laurel that's disagreeing with me. I thought I liked bay leaves though. As it dries down it's less disgusting, or maybe I've just gotten used to it.. no, the bad smell is still there, it's just less intense. I think I can smell the incense now and that seems nice enough, but it's still trapped underneath the horror. I must get rid of this one.

 

ETA: The strangest thing just happened... I washed off Delphi, and tried to recover by sniffing some different imps that I knew I liked, but they all smelled unpleasant! The only scents that could soothe me were florals that I usually find unimpressive. I hope this is temporary!

Edited October 23, 2006 by Azhriaz

[maijasu]

I usually love any BPAL blend with honey, but this doesn't work for me at all. It turns soapy and dusty and slightly herbal, and it's really strong. Too strong. I could have sworn there was some kind of rose in here, because the soapiness often results from rose scents mixing with my skin chemistry, but here it will have to remain a mystery, because I will not be wearing this ever again.

[PilotKitten]

Gak... this smells horrible! Like something dead and rotting... seriously. Blech... have to wash this off immediately!!

[forspecial_plate]

Unfortunately this isn't working for me. All I get is powdery sweet, fruity-grape-candy smell which has a lot of throw and lasts and lasts without turning into anything that I like. No bay or incense that I can detect. I guess what I'm getting is honey wine, in a big way.

 

Association time: Delphi reminds me strongly of some 'grape' flavored liquid asthma medicine I had to take as a kid. It was so bad, it was the first time in my life that I wanted to take pills, and hence that is when I 'learned' how to take pills. This smell a lot like that tasted and thus has a bad association for me.

[steffanina]

Delphi-

 

In Bottle: I smell dill. No, I do! And honey, and that boozy note.

 

Wet: Honey and a mixture of herbs. Something like beeswax. Whoa, I really like this!

 

Dry: MAN, this is delicious. It's like I'm wearing a beeswax candle, one that's burning and sending up a little smokiness from time to time. I really like this.

 

Overall: I really like!

[Monster]

Whew! Right out of the imp this is a very sharp and boozy smelling honey. It's the only note I can really pick out.

 

Wet on my skin the honey is still very apparent but fades a bit and lets some incense smoke rise and swirl around the teeniest little bay leaf.

 

As this dries an almost grape smelling note pops out. The honey has almost completely faded now and I'm left with just a gentle sweet memory of it. There's also something sharp in here, I'm guessing that must be the bay and laurel leaves.

 

Very pretty! I'm not sure if it's for me (while it's wet it's almost sickeningly sweet). The dry down is really pretty though. I think I'm on the fence with this one!

 

This is an amazingly strong blend as well. The throw is incredible.

[fiddledragon]

Unfortunately, while honey loves me and I love it back, BPAL's mead note does not love me. In the bottle and wet on my skin this is Essence of Cheap Greek Tavern: a sour-sweet wine scent with a hint of unwashed bathrooms. When it dries, the laurel comes out more and the mead tones down, but the incense never shows up, and since laurel is already a fairly sweet scent, it stays kind of sticky-alcoholic feeling.

 

Bad skin chemistry. No cookie.

[starcr]

In the imp, Delphi surprised me a little. There is more honey and less incense, laurel and bay than I'd expected. It wasn't different in a way that made me dislike it right off the bat, but I wasn't sure if I would like it or not.

 

When I put it on, I decided that I really liked it. The honey was still dominant, but it was toned down a little, the scent more balanced overall. (Never did catch the incense part of the smell, though.) I could really get used to wearing this one. The very small amount I used seemed to stay pretty constant from getting dressed in the morning until about lunchtime (six hours?) and then sort of faded in and out for a few more hours after that.

 

This is my first BPAL experience and I was definitely not disappointed! The more I smelled it, the more I loved it. I want a full 5mL bottle of this one. (Here's hoping the rest turn out as well!)

[ipsafictura]

In the Vial: Honey and smoke, smells distinctly of honey wine or mead, pleasant, but I'm worried that like other scents, this will come out cloying rather than sweet.

 

Wet: The honey is strong and sticky in my nose, just like real honey. Hrm, this reminds me of the way Black Phoenix is cloying, so I'm less than thrilled initially.

 

Drydown: The bay is coming out more, along with a pleasant smoky smell. The honey scent is still quite strong, but it's no longer overwhelming.

 

Dry: This scent is absolutely at its best after at least an hour. It smells warm and herby and the honey just adds a nice undertone of sweetness.

 

Overall Impression: A lovely, warm scent once it dried, though initial application is not one of my favorites. I'll be using the rest of this sample vial, and seeing whether I like it enough to purchase an imp. Probably a great choice for people who like a honey and herbs scent.

[outofrhyme]

In the bottle:

Wow that's sharp. Some weird things in there... very powerful, almost nauseating. Waaay too much.

 

Wet:

Ehh.... no.

 

Dry down on the boy:

Much better than wet. But there's this weird note that I can't recognize... it's warm and intense, yet almost too far away to make out. Maybe it's the bay leaves? I don't think I'm thrilled with it.

 

Dry down on me:

Oooh. That weird note doesn't stick out on me at all like it did on the boy. Much sweeter on me than on the boy. I can smell the incense and the honey wine, and other things I don't quite understand (probably the laurel/bay), and somehow it's all sweet. But then again, I think my skin turns most scents sweet.

 

Final thoughts:

Too strong. Way too strong. Funny story - I put this on right before my Latin class. I put on just as much or less than I put on of any other oil, but when I got in the elevator... wow. The other people in the elevator kept sniffing, trying to figure out what was going on. It was a bit embarrassing, because it really doesn't work with my chemistry.

[tempestteapot]

This is a match with Athens. The other notes start out sweet and pleasant but are soon overpowered by rancid grapes. The wine went bad.

[jasmine]

Delphi, like The Unicorn, is a scent that I really, really wanted to like for personal associations. Consequently, it was part of my first order from the Lab. I tried it briefly once when it arrived and found it highly peculiar and disappointing. I'm testing it again to write a formal review, but if you want the short version, that would be it: "Highly peculiar and disappointing."

 

A wine note is strongest when I first apply this to my wrist, blended with some high, solid note that I can't identify -- the laurel, perhaps? It's certainly not honey; I haven't got a drop of it. The entire scent is much more high-pitched than I had anticipated, yet not screechingly so. Basically, this oil seems as though none of its elements are displayed to their best advantage. It's like hearing a bass or a contrabass clarinet go into its upper register: it can be done, but why would you bother when the low notes of those instruments are so beautiful?

 

Delphi is producing a lot of throw today, which leaves me surrounded by a cloud of not-quite-right wine notes with that high, solid note smack in their center. It's not a pleasant experience.

 

In a sudden burst of intelligence, I went to the pantry, pulled out the bay, and took a long sniff. Part of the solid note at the center of Delphi is bay, but it's not dried bay -- it's too high-pitched, like wet bay that has been soaked so long in wine that it's starting to disintegrate. Still no sign of either honey or smoke.

 

Delphi doesn't metamorphose. In some scents, this would be a good thing. In this one... well, it just lasts... and lasts... and lasts. (The high bay note lingered after six hours and a heavy scrub.) Delphi is the unequivocal sum of its notes, but those notes were never meant to sum up, and the result has no appeal.

[monsteralice]

A keeper, but not the top of the list for a bottle.

 

Wet: Definitely smoky, with wine note prominent. A green incense smell in the background.

 

Dry: Smoke gone, wine no longer prominent. Incense dominates.

 

Finish: Stays the same as when dry, but a rounder scent. Notes blend somewhat, but can still be picked out.

 

Duration: Stayed strong for about 4 hours, then gradually faded over the next four hours. Throw low to medium.

[oh_the_horror]

In bottle: Slobbery spit from a person who just ate raisins and candy. I recoiled from the smell. Ech.

 

Wet and drying down: Now it smells really good. I smell the incense which is yummy. I have no idea what else I'm smelling but it's a heavenly blend of sweet, sour, earthy, something very clean, and flowers.

 

Dry: I think it smells like rose incense. Maybe kind of cheap incense. It smells very similar to Harlot, except less spicy and a little more tart. Every once in a while I get a hint of the spitty smell. My boyfriend said it smells like nail polish remover, or more specifically, just the scent they put in it.

 

I like this blend but I'm unsure. Either way, I need more incense blends!

[brownbear]

I get acrid smoke from this one. I am bummed because I like bay and didn't get any here. I also love honey and didn't get any of that either. boo!