BPAL Roundup!
May. 24th, 2006 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joiedecombatHaven't done this in a while now...
Aizen-Myoo: The lab says the fruits in this are yuzu, kaki, and mikan, but what it ends up smelling like to me is grapefruit - ruby red grapefruit and tangerine juice. Like Ocean Spray makes. It's pretty nice, but I'm not all that big on citrus in general or grapefruit in specific.
Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo: Did I ever review this one? I don't think I actually did. Oops. Well, here it is now. The Joy Mojo smells like fruity bubblegum in the bottle - and upon retesting it, throws a goodly amount of that around after only a cautious swipe across my inner arm - but once on my skin, a vague herbal note - or something that I can't quite put my finger on, anyway - makes it less sweet and a little sharper and not altogether pleasant.
Calliope: Erg. Lavender, mint, and orange really don't combine very well, at least not on me. It ends up smelling kind of medicinal, and not in a good way.
Dana O'Shee: Well, I did want to try some almond scents. This one is pure almond in the bottle, like almond extract. Once it's on, the milk notes come in and add a creamy fullness to the almond which is really very nice. As far as creamy scents, though, I prefer Sudha Segara, and they are rather similar.
Devil's Night: YURGH. Smoke and booze and sugar sounded good in theory but is kind of sickening in practice. Had to wash this one off. Anybody wants a 5ml of it, they can have it free.
Dragon's Milk: This one is kind of unusual. The milk notes fill in where ordinarily the cleanliness I associate with dragon's blood resin would be, and the result is almost kind of a fruit and cream scent... but not quite. It's not unpleasant, but I don't know how much I like it either. It's... odd.
Eclipse: Almond again, but this time spiced, toasted almond. I get some cinnamon from this, but not red-hots candy cinnamon like in Inferno, and it doesn't prickle my skin like that one did either; there might also be a little whiff of clove or something akin to it. The spices are almost nose-prickling, a little too prominent for my personal tastes, but it's a nice scent. Global domination smells like spiced almonds, apparently.
Empyreal Mist: I was really, really hoping that this would turn out to be close cousin to Holiday Moon, which though I have a 5ml bottle is not going to last forever. Unfortunately, it goes on with a sour edge to it. It gets a little sweeter with wear, becoming a bit reminiscent of green apple or even a bit of lime, but it doesn't recreate the pale smooth green of Holiday Moon as I was hoping. Still, if you like the sour-sweet of green apple or limeade, it could be a good thing to try out.
Eos: Wow, a jasmine scent which actually works on me. And if I can only have one that behaves itself, I'm glad it's this one. When I first put it on, I can smell the jasmine doing its usual thing, but as it dries down it becomes a soft, sweet, warm scent that very much evokes the "softly glowing skin" mentioned in the lab description. It's similar to Tamora, but without Tamora's overpowering sticky-sweetness. I am thinking I need a bottle of this.
Eve: The apple and rose combine on my skin to create a weird green rose smell... like a rose that was stunted in its growth somehow, or went a little bit on the sour side, or something. I really need to just stay away from rose scents; you'd think I'd know better by now.
The Hesperides: This one is pretty cool, especially if you like apple or refreshing juicy scents in general. It's apple candy in the bottle, but once it's on my skin, a bitter note comes out and it's the exact scent of apple peel. After a little bit of drydown, some of the juicy apple scent comes back, but the trace of bitterness from peel and stem remains, and it's quite unique and refreshing, not at all artificial or candylike. I may end up springing for a bottle of this for the uniqueness of it.
Jacob's Ladder: At some point when I was a kid, my grandmother gave me a couple of old perfume bottles with a little bit of perfume in them. One of them was shaped like a frog - opaque green, and the head was the lid. Jacob's Ladder smells exactly like the perfume that was in the bottle. Which is to say that it's very much a sort of acrid, powdery, commercial-perfumey scent and not anything I would actually want to wear.
La Belle Au Bois Dormant: Pear, which is nice, and generic florals, which aren't so nice, and it kind of vanishes on me and generally is a poor second, in my estimation, to Thalia. If Sleeping Beauty here almost but didn't quite do it for you, consider Thalia as an alternative; you might like it better. (Or it could just be me.)
Le Petit Mort: Poor relation to Eos. I... can't really go into much more detail than that on this one; it's similar to Eos, but where Eos is downright lovely, Le Petit Mort is a somewhat muddier scent which edges towards being a bit sickly-sweet. If you're interested in this one, try Eos first.
Magus: If I had a boyfriend I would make him wear this. The cedar is its most recognizable note for me. That is really just fine; I grew up using cedar chips as horse and dog bedding, so the scent has positive associations for me. However, I wouldn't care to wear it as a perfume... which is where the other notes come in. These, I'm not as adept at picking out, but they combine to give the scent a warm smoothness along with the cedar. There's a bit of spiciness too, but it isn't sharp, and it only adds to the clean, dry warmth of the scents. The day after I tested it, I could still smell it lingering on my skin. By that point, the cedar was no longer apparent, but it was still smooth and warm and woody-spicy and very pleasant. Although it's really more masculine than I like for myself, I love it too much not to keep the imp for myself anyhow, and I may yet spring for a bottle. I have hopes, though, of finding something similar in BPAL's catalogue which is a little more me. In the meantime, I raved on this at such length that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
persephoneflame decided she had to have some (if the lab will ever ship it).
Rosalind: Definitely a berry scent. I have tried a few of these now, and I'm finding that they all come out rather the same - berry, yes, but a slightly artificial berry, or maybe it's just that they have a tartness to them that I don't so much care for. In any case, Rosalind isn't bad as a berry scent, but I don't like it enough to keep it.
Santo Domingo: Sadly, I get no tropical flowers from this. It's mostly reminiscent of pipe tobacco, and while I do like pipe tobacco as a scent, I don't want to smell like I smoke a pipe.
Snake Oil: Ah, damn. I was really, really hoping that Snake Oil would be like Morocco with vanilla, but it doesn't have the same comfortable smoothness. It's certainly an interesting scent, vanilla with a musky sort of spiciness to it that, to my very virgin self, sort of evokes sex - but not very me.
Stardust: HAIRSPRAY. Damn, the forum reviews weren't kidding. Wet, Stardust smells exactly like hairspray, and while there's a really nice creamy-floral undertone that emerges as it dries, the hairspray tang never quite goes away. I actually kind of like it, but not enough to wear it; it's a bit of a novelty scent.
Sugar Skull: They weren't kidding about this being about sugar. It's a brown sugar scent on me, coarse and a bit sticky, and very sweet, with an edge of spiciness to it. Eventually it dries down into a toasted (or perhaps I should even say scorched) sugar scent. Interesting, but not for me; it's too abrasive a scent, if you can call a scent abrasive.
Tiger Lily: It is definitely lily that made Seraphim and Queen of Hearts go wonky on me, because Tiger Lily does the exact same weird weedy beach scent, just with a thin glaze of golden honey sweetness over it. Promptly swapped this one.
Velvet: Cocoa + Sandalwood = huh. This one is interesting, but I'm sort of wishing the sandalwood weren't as strong as it is. The cocoa is very nice, soft and, indeed, velvety, but the sandalwood is a bit drier than and not as smooth as I would like. It does make me think I'd like to try more cocoa/chocolate scents, though... and the "throw" I get from it is more cocoa than dry sandalwood. I'll need to think on this one.
Aaaaand... I think that's it for now. Whoof. If I tried any others I haven't reviewed, they've already been swapped away for other stuff and didn't leave enough of an impression for me to remember, so, tough.
The icon doesn't mean anything, I'm just pleased with having made it.
Aizen-Myoo: The lab says the fruits in this are yuzu, kaki, and mikan, but what it ends up smelling like to me is grapefruit - ruby red grapefruit and tangerine juice. Like Ocean Spray makes. It's pretty nice, but I'm not all that big on citrus in general or grapefruit in specific.
Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo: Did I ever review this one? I don't think I actually did. Oops. Well, here it is now. The Joy Mojo smells like fruity bubblegum in the bottle - and upon retesting it, throws a goodly amount of that around after only a cautious swipe across my inner arm - but once on my skin, a vague herbal note - or something that I can't quite put my finger on, anyway - makes it less sweet and a little sharper and not altogether pleasant.
Calliope: Erg. Lavender, mint, and orange really don't combine very well, at least not on me. It ends up smelling kind of medicinal, and not in a good way.
Dana O'Shee: Well, I did want to try some almond scents. This one is pure almond in the bottle, like almond extract. Once it's on, the milk notes come in and add a creamy fullness to the almond which is really very nice. As far as creamy scents, though, I prefer Sudha Segara, and they are rather similar.
Devil's Night: YURGH. Smoke and booze and sugar sounded good in theory but is kind of sickening in practice. Had to wash this one off. Anybody wants a 5ml of it, they can have it free.
Dragon's Milk: This one is kind of unusual. The milk notes fill in where ordinarily the cleanliness I associate with dragon's blood resin would be, and the result is almost kind of a fruit and cream scent... but not quite. It's not unpleasant, but I don't know how much I like it either. It's... odd.
Eclipse: Almond again, but this time spiced, toasted almond. I get some cinnamon from this, but not red-hots candy cinnamon like in Inferno, and it doesn't prickle my skin like that one did either; there might also be a little whiff of clove or something akin to it. The spices are almost nose-prickling, a little too prominent for my personal tastes, but it's a nice scent. Global domination smells like spiced almonds, apparently.
Empyreal Mist: I was really, really hoping that this would turn out to be close cousin to Holiday Moon, which though I have a 5ml bottle is not going to last forever. Unfortunately, it goes on with a sour edge to it. It gets a little sweeter with wear, becoming a bit reminiscent of green apple or even a bit of lime, but it doesn't recreate the pale smooth green of Holiday Moon as I was hoping. Still, if you like the sour-sweet of green apple or limeade, it could be a good thing to try out.
Eos: Wow, a jasmine scent which actually works on me. And if I can only have one that behaves itself, I'm glad it's this one. When I first put it on, I can smell the jasmine doing its usual thing, but as it dries down it becomes a soft, sweet, warm scent that very much evokes the "softly glowing skin" mentioned in the lab description. It's similar to Tamora, but without Tamora's overpowering sticky-sweetness. I am thinking I need a bottle of this.
Eve: The apple and rose combine on my skin to create a weird green rose smell... like a rose that was stunted in its growth somehow, or went a little bit on the sour side, or something. I really need to just stay away from rose scents; you'd think I'd know better by now.
The Hesperides: This one is pretty cool, especially if you like apple or refreshing juicy scents in general. It's apple candy in the bottle, but once it's on my skin, a bitter note comes out and it's the exact scent of apple peel. After a little bit of drydown, some of the juicy apple scent comes back, but the trace of bitterness from peel and stem remains, and it's quite unique and refreshing, not at all artificial or candylike. I may end up springing for a bottle of this for the uniqueness of it.
Jacob's Ladder: At some point when I was a kid, my grandmother gave me a couple of old perfume bottles with a little bit of perfume in them. One of them was shaped like a frog - opaque green, and the head was the lid. Jacob's Ladder smells exactly like the perfume that was in the bottle. Which is to say that it's very much a sort of acrid, powdery, commercial-perfumey scent and not anything I would actually want to wear.
La Belle Au Bois Dormant: Pear, which is nice, and generic florals, which aren't so nice, and it kind of vanishes on me and generally is a poor second, in my estimation, to Thalia. If Sleeping Beauty here almost but didn't quite do it for you, consider Thalia as an alternative; you might like it better. (Or it could just be me.)
Le Petit Mort: Poor relation to Eos. I... can't really go into much more detail than that on this one; it's similar to Eos, but where Eos is downright lovely, Le Petit Mort is a somewhat muddier scent which edges towards being a bit sickly-sweet. If you're interested in this one, try Eos first.
Magus: If I had a boyfriend I would make him wear this. The cedar is its most recognizable note for me. That is really just fine; I grew up using cedar chips as horse and dog bedding, so the scent has positive associations for me. However, I wouldn't care to wear it as a perfume... which is where the other notes come in. These, I'm not as adept at picking out, but they combine to give the scent a warm smoothness along with the cedar. There's a bit of spiciness too, but it isn't sharp, and it only adds to the clean, dry warmth of the scents. The day after I tested it, I could still smell it lingering on my skin. By that point, the cedar was no longer apparent, but it was still smooth and warm and woody-spicy and very pleasant. Although it's really more masculine than I like for myself, I love it too much not to keep the imp for myself anyhow, and I may yet spring for a bottle. I have hopes, though, of finding something similar in BPAL's catalogue which is a little more me. In the meantime, I raved on this at such length that
persephoneflame decided she had to have some (if the lab will ever ship it). Rosalind: Definitely a berry scent. I have tried a few of these now, and I'm finding that they all come out rather the same - berry, yes, but a slightly artificial berry, or maybe it's just that they have a tartness to them that I don't so much care for. In any case, Rosalind isn't bad as a berry scent, but I don't like it enough to keep it.
Santo Domingo: Sadly, I get no tropical flowers from this. It's mostly reminiscent of pipe tobacco, and while I do like pipe tobacco as a scent, I don't want to smell like I smoke a pipe.
Snake Oil: Ah, damn. I was really, really hoping that Snake Oil would be like Morocco with vanilla, but it doesn't have the same comfortable smoothness. It's certainly an interesting scent, vanilla with a musky sort of spiciness to it that, to my very virgin self, sort of evokes sex - but not very me.
Stardust: HAIRSPRAY. Damn, the forum reviews weren't kidding. Wet, Stardust smells exactly like hairspray, and while there's a really nice creamy-floral undertone that emerges as it dries, the hairspray tang never quite goes away. I actually kind of like it, but not enough to wear it; it's a bit of a novelty scent.
Sugar Skull: They weren't kidding about this being about sugar. It's a brown sugar scent on me, coarse and a bit sticky, and very sweet, with an edge of spiciness to it. Eventually it dries down into a toasted (or perhaps I should even say scorched) sugar scent. Interesting, but not for me; it's too abrasive a scent, if you can call a scent abrasive.
Tiger Lily: It is definitely lily that made Seraphim and Queen of Hearts go wonky on me, because Tiger Lily does the exact same weird weedy beach scent, just with a thin glaze of golden honey sweetness over it. Promptly swapped this one.
Velvet: Cocoa + Sandalwood = huh. This one is interesting, but I'm sort of wishing the sandalwood weren't as strong as it is. The cocoa is very nice, soft and, indeed, velvety, but the sandalwood is a bit drier than and not as smooth as I would like. It does make me think I'd like to try more cocoa/chocolate scents, though... and the "throw" I get from it is more cocoa than dry sandalwood. I'll need to think on this one.
Aaaaand... I think that's it for now. Whoof. If I tried any others I haven't reviewed, they've already been swapped away for other stuff and didn't leave enough of an impression for me to remember, so, tough.
The icon doesn't mean anything, I'm just pleased with having made it.
