| BPAL : Dragon's Milk |
[Mar. 24th, 2009|08:16 pm] |
Two in one day! Whooooo!
(Actually, I'm remarkably bored at work.)
Dragon's Milk : I acquired this imp quite some time ago, back when I first ordered BPAL, and never got around to trying it out. Now that I have, though, I'm glad I tried it while I'm recording my experimental process - as it turns out, this is a pretty nice scent. On the site, this perfume oil is described as "dragon's blood resin and honeyed vanilla". I'm not sure what dragon's blood resin smells like, only that it used to be used as a dye, and in incenses, laquers, and medicines, and thus I'm a bit hampered in my assessment of the layers of scent notes in this perfume oil. In the bottle, there's a very strong woodish/fruity/spicy/sweet scent, VERY strong, and a bit off-putting. Upon first wearing, the "resin" part of the scent is the dominant note, smelling sort of berry-like and soapy and woody/spicy, losing the offputting aspect to the melange that I noticed in the bottle. After a while, the resin mellows out and allows the honey and vanilla to blend into the overall scent, a very nice and rather sexy combo of scentplay. After an hour or so, the resin mellows even more, fading back to a very soft whiff of resin, leaving the honey and vanilla as the dominant scents.
Overall, I like this scent a great deal, far more than I first thought I would. It's a bit strong on the first dabbing, but after about 15 minutes or so, it smooths out and becomes a much more sexy scent than it first appeared to be when sniffed in the bottle. Still not better than O or Nanny Ashtoreth, but far better than some of the BPAL scents I've tried out recently.
Dragon's Milk : Win. |
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| BPAL : Nefertiti |
[Mar. 24th, 2009|12:07 pm] |
Boy, it's been a while since I've done one of these.
Nefertiti : One of the free imps included in my order, I wouldn't have ordered this, based on the description. On the site, this perfume oil is described as "Egyptian iris and olibanum with red and white sandalwood, soft myrrh and a breath of North African herbs." See? See right at the beginning there? Iris = Flowers. I don't usually like floral scents - the process by which attar is derived from flowers to use in perfumes changes the chemical composition of the scent esters enough that the attar generally smells dead or wrong to me. At first, Nefertiti was no exception. In the bottle, the iris scent is overpowering the rest of the scents, and upon first dabbing, the iris is still overpowering. After a bit, the iris drops back, and the myrrh and olibanum come up more strongly. This pleases me, as one of the few fond childhood memories I have of church incorporates the scents of myrrh and olibanum/frankincense, but I don't really want to smell like a church. Within a couple hours, the myrrh/olibanum picks up more of the sandalwood base, and the "herbs" never really put in a whiff on me.
This is.... an okay scent. It's not overwhelmingly strong, and I like a lot of the base notes, but for some reason, this scent doesn't jive with me very well. Perhaps it's the "iris". I'm putting this in the trade/giveaway pile - I just don't see me wearing this again.
Nefertiti : Meh. Ok. |
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| BPAL : Perversion |
[Mar. 10th, 2009|10:41 am] |
Perversion : Whoa. Dude. Like, totally what it says on the bottle. The only scentnote missing from this melange of sexclubsmell is... ahem... the unidentifiable musky scent of a bunch of humans in heat. On the site, Perversion is described as "smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka." In the bottle, the leather is the definite top note, with a lot of sweetness on the undernote, most likely the 'chardonnay' and the tonka. Tonka, according to the almighty Wikipedia, has a scent reminiscent of vanilla, cinnamon, almonds, and cloves (and if you're an Alton Brown fan like me, you already know that the tonka bean has been used a vanilla extract substitute for years); all scents I like, and it's a nice base to this perfume oil. Upon first dabbing, the rum/tobacco become the topnote, and a nice topnote it is. (It reminds me of the Mr. Nancy perfume oil, a bit.)I really like the spiciness of this perfume oil, and the leather aspect is not very strong, more like an undercurrent of scent. After a while, the scent fades back, all notes, and just leaves a very soft spiciness on the skin. I like this well, but not as much as I liked Nanny Ashtoreth.
Perversion : Fair Bit of Win. |
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| BPAL : Jezebel |
[Mar. 6th, 2009|09:31 am] |
Jezebel : Remarkably, I find this a delightful perfume oil. I'm not normally a floral-scent person, but this oil smells lovely. On the site, Jezebel is described as "honey, roses, orange blossom and sandalwood". One of the things I love about BPAL is the way they describe their scents. 90% of the time, the scent is exactly what they list, and this perfume oil is no different. In the bottle, the scent of roses overpowers the rest of the scent notes, (which just kind of hum along in the background) but surprisingly, it's not a turn-off. Oddly, the rose attar that BPAL uses is the FIRST rose attar that I have smelled that doesn't smell like dead roses. The BPAL rose scent is just as fresh and pure as if the rose were still on the bush, and that's fantastic. Upon first dabbing, the rose is still the major player in the scent, but the honey and sandalwood come up more strongly, and the orange blossom seems to be a mere undernote, not really noticable at all. After a while, the rose scent drops a bit and blends more evenly with the honey and sandalwood, creating a more complex scent profile. Orange blossom, still not showing up to the party. This is a very long-lasting scent; it's over 24 hours after initial application, and I can still faintly smell rose and sandalwood on my skin.
I really liked this perfume oil, more so than I thought I would at first. I probably wouldn't wear it every day, though, it seems more like a special occasion scent to me. The rose scent isn't as overpowering on my skin as it appeared in the bottle, and overall the honey and sandalwood tones really blend nicely and round out the scent. This is also a easily-loved scent as well, since nearly everyone I asked liked it a great deal. The Music Hall manager even declared that it made me "smell like a wedding bouquet" - I wonder what kind of weddings he goes to.
Jezebel : Lots of win! |
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| BPAL : Siren |
[Mar. 4th, 2009|10:45 am] |
Siren: WARNING! UNMITIGATED DISPLEASURE AHEAD!
On the site, this perfume oil is described as "white ginger, jasmine, and a touch of vanilla and apricot." Well," sez I, "I'm not overly fond of floral scents, but I do love the way jasmine smells, and the other three scents are right up my alley." WRONG. I *do* love the way jasmine smells..... when it's still growing on the vine. When I can walk away after a few heady sniffs, and leave that heavy, overpowering scent behind me. In the bottle, this perfume oil positively reeks of jasmine. The other scent notes don't even show so much as a whisper of scent behind the rolling wall o' jasmine. Upon first dabbing, the jasmine continues its blanket of smell, leaving the other scent notes quietly meeping in loneliness, wallflowerism, and unlovedom. I NEVER noticed any of the other scent notes in the perfume. In point of fact, the jasmine was SO over-the-top that I actually had to wash this scent off within an hour of trying it on. I can't do it, I just can't. It's far too much floral for me; I found it vastly distracting and annoying. If you like floral scents, this may be one for you, but I can't wear it. (Oh god, 24 hours later and several washings, and I can STILL smell it..... argh.)
Siren: Total FAIL!
Ugh... I'm going to go take a very long shower and scrub this off. I smell icky. Maybe I'll try something new post-shower, or go back to O or Nanny Ashtoreth. I want to smell good today. |
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| BPAL : Carnal |
[Mar. 3rd, 2009|10:26 am] |
Carnal: On the site, this perfume oil is described as "bold, bright mandarin paired with the sweet, sensual earthiness of fig". "Ah-ha!" sez I, "I adore citrus! I will love it!" And so, I ordered it.... and I do *love* it. It's a beautiful, yummynummy scent. In the bottle, the scent of mandarin is quite strong, with a darker undertone that I believe is the fig. Upon first dabbing, the citrusy spiciness of the mandarin jumps right up to the forefront, leaving me smelling like I'd just spilled the juice from a can of mandarin oranges all over me (but without that metallic tang from being in a can.) The fig is still an undernote, but I can smell it lurking. After a while, the bright citrus note drops down and blends nicely with the figgyness. This isn't a very long-lasting scent; I reapplied at least once, maybe twice, and in part because I loooooooooove the way this smells on me. I smell good enough to eat, I swear. Also, there's something about this scent that triggers a very strong sense-memory for me, but I can't quite place it. Perhaps one of my sister's scented dolls, Orange Blossom from Strawberry Shortcake? I'm not sure, but I smell like candy and I'm loving it.
Carnal: Full of WIN! |
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| BPAL : Queen of Sheba |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|10:47 am] |
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Queen of Sheba: On the site, this perfume oil is described as "a bounty of golden honeyed almonds, and a whisper of African and Middle Eastern spices". While I was unsure about the "spices", I do love honey and almond as scents, so I figured what the hell. As it turns out, this scent doesn't really please me. In the bottle, it's a mish-mash of smells; the honey and almonds come through a bit, but I'd be hard-pressed to identify any of the other notes in the fragrance. Upon first dabbing, the almonds jump right up to the top, followed by a sweetish undertone of the honey, and some weird underlying scent blend. I have to say, the combo of the two smells like the honey almond guest soaps my grandmother used to have in her bathroom, and it smells fake and almost plasticky. After a *short, as in minutes* while, the honey/almond/soapy smell fades back, leaving behind a dusty potpourri of dead flower smell, which I'm guessing is supposed to be the "spices". The scent, as a whole, disappears very quickly. I actually had to reapply a mere three hours after initial application to try and carry the scent through the rest of the day. I'm thinking.... this is not the perfume oil for me. Blech.
Queen of Sheba: Fail.
I think, after today's shower, I'll try out Carnal, or Perversion. Either would be/has to be better than QoS. Ick. |
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| BPAL : O |
[Feb. 28th, 2009|10:24 am] |
Yesterday, I said I'd try out O or Perversion after my shower. I chose O, and what follows is.... a review!
O: This scent is described on the site as "amber and honey, with a touch of vanilla". Those are three of my all-time-favorite scents, so this was definitely a perfume oil I knew I'd like right off the bat. In fact, a lot of the Ars Amatoria scents have a base with those three scents in various conjunctions with others, which is why they've made up the bulk of the imps I've gotten. In the bottle, O presents a really complex scent profile - all three scents are so intermingled, it's hard to pick out a top note. There's a slight bitterness, which is probably the vanilla fighting for supremacy. When first dabbed on my skin, the vanilla comes right up and mugs you, while the honey and amber lurk in the background. After a while, however, the vanilla drops down, leaving a nice soft sweet scent of honey strongly supported by the spiciness of amber. Regardless of my language a sentence ago, this is NOT a very strong scent, i.e. you have to be fairly close to me to whiff it. The amber is by far the longest-lasting note in this perfume oil, still faintly smellable on my skin 24 hours later.
I adore this perfume oil as a nice, wear everyday kind of perfume - since it's such a soft, low-profile scent, I'd feel comfortable wearing this to work, where it's a tiny, enclosed space. Jeremy quite liked it, as did ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zoethe, as did Sarah. I'd highly recommend this perfume oil to anyone who likes those three scent notes. I'll probably end up buying a whole bottle.
O: Complete win!
Perhaps today I'll wear Perversion.... or Queen of Sheba. Haven't decided yet. Must have breakfast first. |
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| Hooray! Stinky Stuff For Me! |
[Feb. 27th, 2009|10:58 am] |
It may take them two months to fill an order, but when they do, BPAL certainly comes through! Whoopee!
For Winter Holiday this (past) year, Sarah/moominmuppet ordered me a copy of Ravens In The Library, a fabulous anthology of stories collected to benefit SJ Tucker/s00j in her time of need. While thrilling, exciting, and otherwise stoking my readerflame, I was fully aware that that part of my gift would take... a while. No idea when that's coming out and around, but hey, I love surprises. No worries. I can wait.... really, I can. I is patientlike.
On the other hand, I also asked for a set of six imps from BPAL's Ars Amatoria collection. As of late, I have decided I like smelling sexy and yummy, not just for others but for myself as well, and thus have gotten back into the habit of wearing perfume. What better way to start smelling pretty, sexy, and yummy than going for the gold that is BPAL?
The gold arrived on Wednesday! After spending a lovely evening playing Apples to Apples (for the first time evah, what a great game that is,) with theferrett and zoethe, Jer and I arrived home to see a white USPS box sticking out of our mailbox. I squealed with glee, "My stinky stuff! It's finally here!" and leapt out of the car. Jer followed, bemused, as I gabbled madly about my preciousssssssssness and clutched the box in rapture. I ran upstairs to open my box of smell in the presence of the one who purchased it for me, and boy am I glad I did, since there were extra surprises for me!
Not only did Sarah buy me the imp set I had requested, she also picked up a bottle of Nanny Ashtoreth for me, too! Yippee! Extra smelly stuff, and smelly stuff that benefits others as well! Hurrah! I'm a big fan of the deal that Neil Gaiman has worked out with BPAL; the proceeds from every bottle of scent that is based on his works go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and when it's a scent based on his and Terry Pratchett's fabu book Good Omens, the proceeds are split even-steven between the CBLDF and Pratchett's chosen charity, the Orangutan Foundation UK. Socially conscious and smelling nice, how can I resist? (This is, in fact, why I started buying BPAL in the first place. It's all your fault, Neil.)
By the way, apparently BPAL loves to give their stuff away, since I not only got my six [Carnal, Jezebel, O, Perversion, Queen of Sheba, Siren] imps from Ars Amatoria, I got four extra [Nefertiti, Psyche, Helena, The Hamptons] imps of scent as well! And a really unbelievably appropriate postcard of a 1920's-era photograph of an Oriental dancer. (*snert*) BPAL sent me extra imps before, when I purchased Jer's Winter Holiday gift last year, and I have to say it's a brilliant strategy. At least one of the extras they sent me this time, Psyche, is going in my to-trade-or-give-away pile, since it's got musk in it, and musk does NOT wear well on me. So, once I've worn through all my new ones and decided what I like, I'm going to start offering up my imps for trade or giveaway. Keep your eyes on this space for the offer!
Now, for a review!
Nanny Ashtoreth: As described on the site, this scent is "Middle Eastern flowers, amber, honey, blood red-berries, whip leather, and polished paddle wood". I wore this all day Thursday, and I can still smell it lingering a bit, 24 hours later. Good scent strength/length, there. When in the bottle, I smell mostly the "flowers", which hits my nose like sweet, creamy, soft, and a little dusty, and doesn't really smell like any flower/s I can name, and a sharp, cutting undertone that I'm guessing is the leather. On the first dabbing on my skin, I smell more of the amber and honey, although the first flower scent is still prevalent, and the leather and wood come through much more strongly. There's still the sharp, cutting tone in the scent, which strikes my nose like the way mint smell strikes my nose, although it's more clearly the leatherish part of the scent now. After several hours of wear, the scent has blended, the flower note has dropped down, the sharp leather note has faded, and mostly what I smell is the honey, amber, and wood. Wood is the longest-lasting of all of the scent notes in this perfume oil for me.
Overall, I really really like this perfume oil on me, and so does Jer, judging by the way he promptly nibbled my neck when asked if I smelled good. Sarah really likes it in the bottle and on my skin, and I'm sure I'm going to let her try some out herself, since she and I have similar scent likes and similar body/skin types. My co-worker has labeled it "nice", although "not what you usually smell like". Caleb dislikes it, but he says it reminds him of Stetson, which he dislikes intently. Never having smelled Stetson myself, I can't say if it does or not.
Nanny Ashtoreth: Total win!
Today, after my shower, I'm going to try out either O or Perversion, I think. Yay for smelling good! |
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| Notes On Materialism: Presents, Parte Deux, BPAL Special Edition! |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|12:46 pm] |
(I know some of you are big BPAL fans, so enjoy!)
This year, I wanted to get Jer something extra-special! I'd known for a while that Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Neil Gaiman have gotten together to do a series of scents (based on his characters from American Gods, Anansi Boys, Good Omens, and [new] Stardust) and as a bonus, all proceeds from the sale of those scents go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Whoa, gifty and supporting a good cause, all in one go! Yay!
So after much browsing, I settled on Mr. Nancy for Jer. BPAL describes this scent as "sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime"; I have to say that in the bottle, I got a definite whiff of raw sugarcane and dark spiced rum, not so much of the bay, with a bit of tobacco and a mere hint of lime, more a whiff of cirtus-like sourness. That whiff of citrus was not all evident when Jer wore the scent, and the tobacco became a muted, almost non-existent base scent. The sugar cookies and rum stayed strong, mellowed a bit though, for quite a while, and everyone within three feet of him has remarked how good (and yummy :D ) he smells. I haven't tried this scent on myself yet, 'cause it smells so damn good on Jer.
I figured, hey, I'm buying one for Jer, why not me? So after some search time, I found a scent that I thought I would like, Mama-Ji. (I have very particular scent rules for myself.*) Mama-Ji is described by the site as "spices, cardamom, nutmeg, and flowers". In the bottle, the "flowers" were the strongest scents, with a kind of lily/marigold-ish-ness, with the spices barely coming through. After a while, it warmed up and smelt more like spicy rather than flowery, although I wasn't really able to distinguish the cardamom or nutmeg from the other unnamed "spices". When I wore it, Jer said it "smelled like a head shop" and it certainly does have that patchouli-like quality. It's a very long-lasting scent, and it mellows out nicely.
BPAL are great people! I ordered on Dec. 14, thinking that was plenty of time for a Xmas-ish delivery. As time went on, though, the package never shipped. I checked the credit card; nope, the charge had gone through. So I sent them a nice little email, thanking them for all that they're doing for the CBLDF, and could they let me know when my order would be shipped? The same day, they mailed me back and let me know it would be shipped just as soon as they got back from their days off. Yipes! What if they weren't getting back till after the holidays? I sighed a deep sigh and told Jer his present might be a belated one. Sweet man that he is, he made no fuss. The days slid by, and the holidays were in full swing. On Christmas Eve, we went to his mom's for the family gathering, and when we returned home, there on the porch was the BPAL package! Hurrah, right on time! (I sent them a nice thank-you note.)
In addition to the super-fast ship, they included five imps of their other scents! Awwwwwwww.... what nice people. The imps they sent are: Phobos, The Isles of Demons, Dragon's Milk, Santo Domingo, and Fruitcake. I'll review the imps one at a time, I suppose, if y'all are interested.
Today's imp is Fruitcake. It's a limited edition, I assume, for the holidays, and it's not listed anywhere on the site. In the imp, it smells like... well, fruitcake. Just like freshly-baked fruitcake. Bizarre. On me, it smells like... fruit cake. The fruity end of the scent was overpowering for a while, but after an hour or so, it's mellowed and blends nicely with the cakey end of the scent. It's a pretty strong scent, and I don't think it's one I'd like to wear again. It's too sweet and fruity for me. I'm glad I'm taking a shower before i leave for work.
*I have very firmly-held beliefs about what smells good on and to me. Perhaps I shall post about that next time I review a BPAL imp.
(On a totally different note, I've translated Michael Schumacher's lines from the end of Cars, when he's in Luigi's & Guido's tire shop. Michael says, in Italian, <<Spero che il tuo amico si reprenda. Mi dicono che siete fantastici.>>, which in English translates as "I hope that your friend resumes itself. They say to me that you are fantastic." Ta-da! This has been your random cinema fact for the day.) |
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