7 posts tagged “review”
Black Pearl, from Bewitching Brews
Tested 5 March 2008
Evocative of the sea's unplumbed mysteries. Gentle and lovely, but menacing and profound. Coconut, Florentine iris, hazelnut and opalescent white musk.
My impression in the imp was that of coconut blended with something I couldn't put my finger on.
Immediately after application, this was a lovely coconut with salt and spice behind it, exactly as I hoped it would be. A bitter, nutty note rapidly emerged, however, which I first thought was the hazelnut. I soon revised my assessment to Florentine iris. Ugh, bitter, strong floral with something I'd much prefer to be smelling in the background.
The horrible iris continued to dominate, but I stuck with it for some hours in hopes that it would fade. It didn't appreciably, so I finally gave up and went to scrub it off. I wasn't able to get rid of it entirely, but my skin was left smelling deliciously warm and spicy. I don't think I'm willing to go to the lengths of applying perfume and washing it off in hopes of leaving something that smells nice, though.
Miskatonic University, from A Picnic in Arkham
Tested 4 March 2008
A venerable New England university, whose vast library holds many rare, diabolical and obscure arcane works, including one of the few surviving legitimate copies of the Necronomicon. Home to innumerable scholars of the esoteric and the occult, and the notorious Dr. Herbert West.
The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls.
I popped off the imp's cap and was greeted by the aroma of very, very boozy coffee. It smelled more like coffee and liqueur than coffee and proper Irish whiskey, though.
I was eager to put this one on, and I thought my excitement was justified when I caught the first whiff of creamy coffee. Much to my dismay, it morphed rapidly to... dust. The cofee was still present underneath, if rather Play-doh-esque when I held my nose very close to sniff, but the dreaded Doh wasn't as apparent from further off.
Time went on... Eurgh. Dusty Play-doh. There was a kind of sugary, creamy coffee underneath, but the dust note made me feel a little ill. An hour or so later, it was getting creamier on my wrists, but the dust continued to dominate in the crook of my elbow. Then the sweetness decided to take a sharp increase. I kept wishing the dust note would disappear entirely.
When M got home and took a sniff, he thought he was smelling a candy shop. A sadly dilapidated and dusty candy shop. "This would be a lot better without the dust," he said, "which is a shame, because the Irish coffee is excellent."
Just goes to show that you never know until you try, because this was one of the ones I was most excited about based on the description. I mean, coffee and a library filled with old books? Yes, please. Unfortunately, it seems my skin has no desire to smell like such a delightful place. I don't think I'll be matriculating at Misk U.
Embalming Fluid, from Ars Moriendi
Tested 3 March 2008
A light, pure scent: white musk, green tea, aloe and lemon.
M's take on it was similar:
Initial lemony-ness backed up with a sharp wood rosin type of smell. I wish I could describe it better, but sometimes in a cut area in the forest that has a lot of high grass and vegetation, you get a sharp, cutting smell that has a woodsy base.
Vice, from Sin & Salvation
Tested 2 March 2008
Voluptuous and indulgent! A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom.
I was excited about this one, because really, how awesome would it be to smell of chocolate-covered cherries? Things didn't get off to a promising start, however: I got all cherry and no chocolate from the imp, with a little nuttiness thrown in for good measure.
Wet, I still didn't get any chocolate. The cherry was mixing with something that made it smell a little off, maybe the orange blossom. The sweet, artificial "food" scent put me in mind of the ice cream-scented My Little Ponies I had as a kid.
As it dried, the plasticky note died down enough to let the cherry come out and play. There was also a nutty smell, rather like Frangelico, but not as pleasant. My wrists smelled like some kind of candy, but certainly not chocolate. M didn't catch any chocolate either, with a first impression of orange that morphed into cherry candy of some kind.
Verdict: I'm disappointed that the rich cocoa/chocolate-covered cherry notes never came out on me, and I'm not sure that the floral/nutty/quasi-cherry scent is for me in spite of the fact that Vice got more pleasant over a span of hours.
Sea of Glass, from Sin & Salvation
Tested 1 March 2008
Upon the Sea of Glass, glowing with the perfection of spiritual union and the radiance of true wisdom, rests the throne of God. A scent of inimitable purity, crystalline grace, and limitless light.
My first real BPAL success! I might be an aquatic scents kind of girl, because this was like a walk by the ocean.
In the imp, I got a generalized sort of "watery" impression with the implication of some kinds of cologne.
When I first applied it, that watery scent hung back in favor of an immediate transformation to a floral. Wet, I got lilacs! It took me right back to springtime in the big backyard of my early childhood, the air redolent with clouds of the pale purple blooms.
The floral impression pretty much dissipated as it dried, leaving aquatic loveliness. This was the first one I felt compelled to dab behind my ears just so I could get a whiff as I moved my head. I'm going to betray my lack of aromatic sophistication here and say that it blended quite satisfactorily with the sunblock I slathered on before we went for a walk by the water here on base. Salty-fresh-breezy goodness, and not too heavy for the South Texas heat. I'll definitely be wearing this on hot days.
I'm very glad that I got an imp of Lightning in this order, too, so I'll be able to try another aquatic in the not-too-distant future to see if what I like about Sea of Glass is present in other blends in this family.
Maiden, from Ars Amatoria
Tested 29 February 2008
A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose.
This was included as a "frimp" (freebie imp) in my first BPAL order. I actually had a dream the night before that I was wearing Maiden, so I took that as a sign that it should be the second one I tested. I wouldn't have chosen it for myself based on the description, but the slightly spicy floral aroma I got from the imp was intriguing.
Wet from the initial application, I caught carnation, not much rose. There was kind of an herbal element in the background that might have been the white tea. Slightly disconcertingly a tiny hint of the flower scent that reminds me of my old "Flower-Making Basket" Play-Doh set; I hoped that would go away during the drydown.
As it dried over the next few hours, Maiden got softer and more subtle. I think the rose became more prominent, if a tiny bit powdery. I'm not convinced that's a bad thing, and M sure didn't think so: after inhaling deeply from my wrist, he got a big smile on his face and pronounced, "It's like a hint of spring coming to love me." He said he definitely got floral, mostly rose, but not a sickly-sweet, overly "perfumey" smell. All in all, not a bad scent, and one I'll probably wear again.
I am taking my first faltering steps into the world of perfume, which has a vast and mysterious vocabulary akin to that of wine tasting. I quite clearly don't know what I am talking about at this point, but I'm learning as I go. Please bear with me as I attempt to suss out what I like and what I don't (or perhaps more to the point, what works on me and what doesn't).
Snake Oil, from Ars Amatoria
Tested 28 February 2008
By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
In the gleeful and eager chortling that immediately followed the arrival of my very first imps from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Snake Oil became my first tested scent by accident. There is an art to popping the top off the tiny vial that I had obviously not yet mastered, so a little of the thick, dark stuff dripped on my wrist as I tried to open it to take a sniff of BPAL's most popular blend.
In the imp, I got a big ol' whiff of incense of the kind found in shops that cater to a hippy-chic clientèle. Whoa, strong stuff.
Wet on my skin, that patchouli-hippy-incense smell continued to dominate. I learned that a little bit really does go a long way, which makes me think that these sample-sized vials are generous indeed.
As it dried, perhaps a hint of vanilla developed, but I sure wasn't getting the spicy vanilla goodness that so many people rave about. It wasn't unpleasant, but it didn't bowl me over as perhaps I expected the Lab's most popular scent to do. Still, it was unlike anything I'd ever worn before, so I kept sniffing my wrists more out of fascination with the novel sensory experience than anything else. I don't think I care to smell like sweet incense akin to the kind sold at novelty shops like Spencer's.
Of course, it's possible that I have a defective nose, because M's first words upon sniffing my proffered wrist were, "Whoa! Vanilla."
Smelled this one very dry and long after original application. The first biggest impression was definitely vanilla. Not much else around it for me. Smells good.
After a time, though, he started to catch a lot more of the incense/patchouli. I don't think he was too sad when I scrubbed it off before bed. There is hope, however: I've read that Snake Oil in particular improves with age, so maybe I'll try it again in a few months to see if that smooth, exotic vanilla makes its way to the forefront.
