BPAL reviews

[arianhwyvar]

BPAL Reviews:

Love and Pain (Lavender, Balkan tobacco, black musk, dark vanilla, and golden copaifera) : In vial -- lavender. Wet -- lavender/perfume. Then the musk came in, like an increased version of my own skin scent. I like black musk in general, but here it was a bit odd with the lavender. A note I didn't like came in, and the vanilla, of course, turned into staleness, the way vanilla always does on me, goddammit. Unfortunately I often perceive lavender in combination with many other scents as adding a kind of dirty note, and so it was here. Eventually this was just bleh, dirtiness. (1.5)

Hecate (Deep, buttery almond layered over myrrh and dark musk) : Wet -- marzipan yum. As always, the almond faded (sad...), but the skin-alchemy musk came up. This was pretty straightforward, musk and myrrh, not as nice as the musk + amber of haunted, but still good. Seemed like it was trying to be a little soapy, though. (3.5)

The Great Sword of War (Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict.) : This one, on the other hand, was surprisingly nice, partly because the feared red musk did not make its red muskness known. Wet, this was mandarin orange and spices. Cocoa? Tea? Almost foody. The mandarin stayed strongest, and the scent warmed a little. It had a period of being really nice, orange warmed by musk, but with no specifically red-musk scent. It got a tiny bit soapy, and died down a lot as it dried. Many many hours later, I found there was a bizarrely flowery scent left on my wrists. No idea where that came from, but I wasn't touching anything else that could have rubbed off a different scent on me, as far as I know. (3.5)

Al Azif (A sinister, sinuous incense of summoning, a herald and paean to the Primordial Gods of Darkness, Chaos, Madness and Decay): Wet, this was a very strong, sweetish, maybe alcohol? smell, plus a weird plasticy playdoh-y smell. Not very nice. The drydown was ok, though. (2)

Sunrise with Sea-Monsters (Ocean mist, kelp, ambergris, amber, white pear, osmanthus, freesia, and seafoam accord) : Wet, this was a lovely aquatic. A little salt, a little sweetness, a little light floral. It dried and faded fast, but stayed fairly nice -- got a little stale, but still ocean-reminiscent. A light ocean salt/sweet smell. By about 2 hours later, it had gone faded and plasticy. Still, I'll give this one a (4)

Bengal (skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger) : In vial -- cinnamon and other nice spices. Wet -- light cinnamon and a sort of held-back staleness, like the tone I didn't like in Silk Road. It continued as pretty nice cinnamon, though not much else. It was very pleasant dry, though, a light cinnamon that lasted. (3)

Kiyohime Changes From a Serpent (Salty ocean spray, red kelp, black plum, lychee, sea moss, green musk, hachiya, plum blossom, and matcha) : Wet -- salt aquatic/light floral, nice. The floral reminded me of the smell of spring tree blossoms; it's probably a particular type, but I don't know the name, only the smell, and it's a scent I like. The scent became softer and less salt. It dried to faded/stale pretty fast, though. Hm. These Salons tend to be sadly less exciting than they look, though usually pleasant. (3.5)

Two, Five & Seven (A huge bouquet of squished rose petals: Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose……and just an itty bitty bit of green grass) : Wet -- yep, this is lots of rose. There was the rose scent I don't like, the one that was in Lilith and Rose Moon, but also some other lighter/fresher rose scents that I do like -- I suspect tea rose is one of them, not sure about others. In general, this was too floral/rose for me. The rose scent I don't like got much stronger, and then the whole thing faded back a lot. (2)

Fox Fires on New Year's Eve at the Garment Nettle Tree at Oji (Weeping cherry, watery bamboo pulp, nettle tree bark, green tea incense, soft musk, rice wine, and Japanese tree lilac) : Wet -- perfumy aquatic changing quickly to pungent floral, then quickly softening to something pretty nice. Quite soon the scent moderated again to something I didn't like as much. It wasn't bad, but it was really unexciting. (2.5)

Monsterbait: Biggercritters (Five vanillas with Moroccan jasmine, white gardenia, and pink grapefruit) : As expected, this one didn't work on me. Vanilla, thou'rt my bane. It actually didn't work in additional ways to what I had expected, even. In the vial, it smelled really good, vanilla-foody. Wet on me, the scent was more cakey, foody but not as good, heavier. The smell became increasingly heavy/burnt for a little while. It then lightened up some, and I think I smelled some of the grapefruit. Then the vanilla-staleness took over, and that was that. (2)

Megaera (Orris, black amber, bergamot, plum and grapefruit) : In vial -- grapefruit. Wet -- grapefruit, perfume, soap. A sort of skin alchemy warmth came in (probably the amber), richness, but with the soapiness still on top. It became a lighter grapefruit/amber/soap smell. The amber/grapefruit wasn't awful, but either the slight soapiness or the blend itself just didn't do it for me. (2)