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BPAL - Aglaea, Phantasm, Siren
I've gone and done it - I ordered Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab imps (little samples that BPAL calls "imp's ears" and that everyone who has this hobby seems to call just imps). BPAL sells strangely named perfume oil blends, and just reading the descriptions on the website is a total kick.
Anyway, there's a delicious and slightly absurd element of ritual (my sister called it that, when I described it to her) in the way one tests these things. That's not to say everyone does it this way, but wotthehell, I can see the point of it, and maybe it will eventually help me learn to detect some of these scented ingredients, so I'm gonna do the whole in-the-bottle, on-the-skin, drydown thing. And I'm going to give them points out of 10, which is something I've seen done on several blogs with BPAL reviews.
Aglaea - Splendor (7/10)
Three golden ambers, bright musk, peach wine and myrtle.
note - irritating to broken skin
- in bottle: intensely sweet, like peach candy
- on skin: still very sweet, but warm and powdery notes (possibly amber and musk?) emerging
- drydown: faint, sweet amber with spicy undertone
I liked this, but not to wear, myself, as perfume. I gave it to the Young Lady. I think maybe I should try some more amber-ish stuff.
Phantasm (7/10)
Green tea, lemon verbena, jasmine and neroli.
- in bottle: sweet, lemony, pleasant yet piercing
- on skin: similar but more floral/herbal
- drydown: faint, interesting scent ... can't decide whether I like it, but I kept wanting to sniff it
Pretty, but not very long-lasting. Some people have called the initial scent "Lemon Pledge," but it's nicer than that.
Siren (6/10)
White ginger, jasmine, and a touch of vanilla and apricot.
- in bottle: slightly sweet, pungent, and spicy
- on skin: warm, sweet, spicy, vanilla increasingly apparent, slightly medicinal - almost like some sort of confection (smillaraaq was absolutely right about this - it's really like white chocolate goodie with fruit)
- drydown: vanilla/floral only
Meh.
I had also ordered Croquet, Zephyr, and La Belle au Bois Dormant, and they sent me Vampire Tears and Yew Trees as freebies. I tried the Croquet and Zephyr before I decided to get systematic, so I guess I'll have to try them again ... phooey, because I didn't like them that much (men's cologne and old-lady floral soap, respectively).
This makes me realize how lucky I have been with regular ol' perfumes ... Calyx, Escape (a little too sweet), and Acqua di Gio are my usual ones.
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See, I didn't know I liked amber until I started playing with these!
The regular things I like are all called "fruity florals," but they're all light and fresh - so I was basing most of my choices on those. But I realize that I also love my Origins Ginger Souffle body creme stuff, which actually has a warm, spicy scent (despite the description on their site, which makes it sound all citrus-y ... yeah, there's citrus, but also tons of spices and eucalyptus and things ... ). So that might be another direction to go, amber and citrus and spices.
I keep expecting to get an allergic reaction from something on one of these, because regular perfumes frequently give me horrible headaches. But this small sampling hasn't given me anything like that yet.
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I'm starting to get quite a list for my next shot at this!
I've seen both Embalming Fluid and Shanghai mentioned favorably. I can live with most of BPAL's funny names, but ... Embalming Fluid?
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Yeah, I have a feeling I won't be able to resist another batch for long, with all these good suggestions.
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Hee, I think "floral fruits"! Yeah, my ginger body mousse stuff uses orange flower water, which is nice.
(Heh, the right icon for this would be that pic of Hakkai with the cut orange ... that whole series of things she has of them with various edibles is so very intriguing psychologically ... XD )