Drow Yoga Instructor

[Seajewel]

As silent as the deepest cavern, as serene as a twilit shadow, as graceful as a spider, and as resilient as a web: wild plum, indigo lavender, and a tranquil tendril of sandalwood incense.

[Jenjin]

I really don't like being first, but yah, okay 
Reminds me of Lush Plum Rain at the start, at least the memory of Plum Rain cause I used up my body wash a couple years ago. Maybe its just the idea of it, dark purple and Ka-BLAM! up front. It's a fresh fruity plum with a slight tart tang. Big fruit rolling in straight out of the bottle. The lavender becomes more apparent after a few minutes, and its the sweet kind, not medicinal. This is a deep, dark lavender if that makes sense. Hence the name "indigo", like the deepest darkest lavender night sky. OM~
So here's the buildup.....once this gets on the skin and starts to warm up, it literally blossoms. The best part IS the dry-down. This is seriously divine smoky sandalwood. It's like sticking your nose in an empty wooden cigar box. Just a little chewy, rich golden smoke with a plump purple floaty floral sweetness. I LOVE DYI once its warmed up on the skin and the sandalwood deepens. I can see this being cuddly enough for bedtime, YES for yoga practice, and being a very sensual goddess experience wafting around you during downward dog. Namaste~

Edited August 29, 2021 by Jenjin

[groovyrooby]

What a treat! Upon first test, this was a light creamy, sweet floral with a little bit green and herbal feel. Very clean, soft, and calm. Second test, I really got the lavender to start, warm and sweet. It developed into a strong, stable, snuggly cologne - something you want to bury your nose in and take deep, soothing breaths. It's not a dry woody lavender but a sweet and fuzzy version. I have since worn this during yoga practice, to bed, and for general unwinding on the couch at the end of the night. I also would wear this to catch up with an old friend and whenever you need a grounding boost of peaceful confidence that everything is as it should be.

 

I didn't even realize how excited I should be for these new RPGs! They and seem to work both as a terrific standalone as well as a great base for layering. This feels like the base for many of my favorites.

[Casablanca]

"Serene as a twilit shadow" aptly describes this smoky lavender-plum incense. 

 

The lavender and plum stand out to me first. The lavender is airy and a bit sweet; it's also dark with the indigo note from some blends with "indigo musk" and similar designations... although I can't think of what those blends have been. The plum is mild and a bit surface-level, rather than the deeper, richer plums of some limited edition blends.

 

Smoky incense is also prominent, though, especially beginning in drydown. I'm loving the smoke note of this one.

 

A while after drydown, I seem to amp a ton of indigo musk from this, bringing it to a much more perfumey place. Too perfumey for me... but I did enjoy it before this point.

 

For those who wear it better, this would be a good blend for evenings and rainy days. The blend as a whole is a bit simple, but it's in no way a bad thing. This drow is perfectly up to either layering or standalone wear.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Casablanca

[doomsday_disco]

At first, I got powdery sandalwood and lavender with a bit of plum, but over time, I noticed a quality to the scent that reminded me of French Vanilla SN and Love's Philosophy... which is to say that I think there's some vanilla and/or saffron at play here, probably in the sandalwood incense, and it's dominating on me.

 

Not what I expected (I thought this would be heavy on the plum), but not bad since I enjoy the root beer-y saffron vanilla of French Vanilla SN and Love's Philosophy.  I'm curious if anyone else will have a similar experience, or if I will be the lone saffron/vanilla reviewer.

[SophieCedar]

Having the same experience as doomsday_disco, here. Its mostly sweet vanilla plum with a drop of indigo note and a breath lavender. I get the saffron note too a la Love's Philosophy... Its more nocturnal dolly.goth sweetie on me? I mean I like it but, its unexpected.

Edited October 3, 2021 by SophieCedar

[Claire-of-the-Valley]

This isn’t quite what I was expecting. It reminds me of champa but with more of a food quality, which is most likely due to the plum. I'm not really getting any lavender note. The combination kind of makes me think of perfumed bread. Now that I've seen other reviewers mention saffron, I think that may be some of what I'm picking up on. It's not a bad scent, but it's not one of my favorites either.

[forspecial_plate]

This scent didn't work out for me.  It's very loud and high-pitched on my skin.  Reminds me of a cleaner or air freshener.  It doesn't smell bad, but it's way too strong and I'm picking up on the floral impression that others got.  It smells more like a plum blossom note than plum.  I don't get lavender at all, maybe the lavender is contributing to the floral/detergent feeling I'm getting.  Sandalwood?  Can't really detect it. 

 

I might like this more if it was about half the strength it is.  Later as it dries, the plum comes out more, but it's not sitting well on me.  It's more of that air freshener feeling.  

 

Maybe I should disclose that I'm learning more and more that I often like softer, quieter scents, not the very strong ones.  I find many to be just too strong and this particular scent has a very "perfumey" quality.  (I do realize, they are perfumes, they're supposed to be perfumey! 😆 I was hoping for more of the tranquil incense part).

[ReallyZeb]

Wet: comforting spices

Dry: a warm fuzziness, reminds me of warm spiced milk without being milky. There can't be cinnamon in it as my skin isn't peeling off! Very low throw, might be a nice comforting bedtime scent.

[zankoku_zen]

Lavender incense with a whiff of plum. This one smells like a magical forest incense type. Great throw and wear length.

[roseus]

My first thought when sniffing this in the imp was just how classic BPAL this is. It has a dark, murky, incense in a lot of the early GCs. It has this quality to it that reads as distinctly BPAL to my brain. As for notes in the imp I get a dark musky lavender incense, and on wet I get sandalwood specifically. It's smooth and the woodiness gives the scent some heft. As it dries I'm fairly certain I can detect some saffron. I never pick up the plum, but that can happen with my skin. In the end it's a lovely, inky, lavender-sandalwood-saffron incense on me, mysterious and tranquil.

Edited June 1, 2022 by roseus

[a_bear]

Starts as a light, fruity floral, bordering on powdery, but not quite, with a vague hint of lavender that fades quickly. The floral element really seems to be melded with the plum - like someone else said, more like plum blossom than fruit. The sandalwood incense becomes more prominent later and is a bit vanillic.

 

It's lighter and more floral than I expected, but I think I'll hold onto my imp.

[theseagrows]

plum and fresh dryer sheets...is that the 'indigo' mixed with lavender? i dunno, lavender doesn't usually go dryer-sheety on me, but maybe occasionally, if memory serves. i also get something like a yellow floral here. it's fresh and fruity. later i get a lot more incense which improves the scent quite a bit. dries down to a plummy incense- it's very nice in winter.

[Hypocean]

Really love this. It starts as a rich floral and fruity incense in the bottle, but dries on my skin to something much less lush. "Serene" is the perfect descriptor. This is the more subdued cousin of "Sorcerer" (my fave RPG by far) I can see myself reaching for this often and after one try of the imp, DYI jumped to the top of my "buy this in a bottle" list.

[feyofthefellwood]

I love this one. 💜 The plum and lavender are both on the sweet side (the lavender actually reminds me a little of a wisteria note), and the sandalwood incense smells soft and golden. Like others, I also pick up something like vanilla, and the saffron from Monk. It's a creamy feeling scent, very soft and smooth. I only got an imp when it was released and have put a good dent in it already; luckily I got a bottle for Christmas! 

[LavenderCoffee]

I am confused by Drow Yoga Instructor. It is barely there when applied, and then fades out even more as it dries. Very faint incense, trace of lavender, then poof! Gonezo.

Well, not entirely gone. There is a hint of something flat and funky, which is what my skin does with saffron, so you all may be on to something with that - or maybe I am finding that based on the suggestion!

Either way, this is not a good match for my skin chemistry, but happy to test it out.

[HerbGirl]

Very simple. Very pretty. I always relax a bit when I first smell this. The plum seems to morph into not quite lavender (probably a good melding of them which is a foreign scent combo for me) and there's a nice center to it but not any kind of sandalwood I'm familiar with. Lovely for a nice afternoon lounge with a good book.

[Lucchesa]

Drow Yoga Instructor has massive throw on me and lasts ages, which is unusual for me. There’s a lavender incense at first, similar to what I remember Cathedrale de Notre Dame smelling like, which morphs into a sweet sandalwood incense with a hint of plum. Lovely and relaxing. 

[Lunashayde]

For me straight out of the bottle it is lavender incense w/ a hint of sandalwood. Later after drying a bit it has more plum too it, but like others it starts to go sweet. On me it's almost like a sugar cookie topped w/ a lavender incense frosting. It didn't go the way i expected. I was expecting more Caterpillar smokey metaphysical shop vibes than artisan cookie.

[Little Bird]

Baby powdery, vanillic, light, clean, white musky sandalwood that reminds me of a lighter, sharper Morocco.  I never smell any of the incense, plum, or lavender.  Most of the RPG series feels very flat, one note-ish, and cheap to me, but I guess that's because they're meant to layer with each other.  I just don't like them enough to begin with to bother with layering.

[artisjok]

Drow Yoga Instructor is Morocco, stripped of spices and floating in plummy lavender plumes. They must share the same sandalwood incense. For me, it’s a warm and snuggly, musky-type scent. The lavender & plum aspects disappear into the soft cushions of incense faster than I would like, yet it’s still an appealing experience.
There is a linear simplicity about it that would make it easy to layer, as the RPGs are meant to do, and also it’s pretty nice on without adding anything. A meditative scent doesn’t need much.

 

After sitting with the global tension and grief as I catch up on news, this has been a supportive scent cloud to be enveloped in. 
I’ll be over here reapplying hourly (for the purple notes!) til I sleep. 

[quantquill]

A snuggle-me, meditative scent, perfect for sinking into pranayama. Maybe it's the incense undertone, but it also reminds me this yoga instructor is a dark elf who will not tolerate any of my negative self-talk. I can't pull apart the scents, not getting plum, lavender, or incense as individual notes, it all blends together into a long ahhhh and om.  

 

Thank you to the lovely forumite who gifted me an imp. It's going FS in my next BPAL order. I've now slathered it on four different places to have the experience of sniffing it multiple times. I've also layered Elf over it, and NAVA's Haunted Parlour. DYI added delicious depth to both.

Edited March 25 by quantquill
fixing typos gahhh