BPAL - Aglaea, Phantasm, Siren

[chomiji]

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.

Comments

[chomiji]

I might have known you'd have the answer!

[chomiji]

Wow, I loved that article! And I was very interested in the comment about how "Giorgio Armani perfumes have one of the industry’s cleanest signatures." Because that really describes my Acqua di Gio - very clean and light.

[chomiji]

I think I've run into those blogs when I was doing searches on what notes might be in my current mainstream faves. I thought "Now Smell This" was a pretty laid-back sounding name!

[chomiji]

Hmm, yes, I guess I'll add one of those to the next order. Yes, Acqua di Gio is interesting that way! Thanks for the research.

Heh - Douglas at Union Station? I walk past that every work day - you were a stone's throw from my office! If you'd continued on past it to where the train platform gates are, them hung a right down to the end and a left at the McDonald's, you would have seen a set of big glass doors labelled "To Station Place Office Buildings." That's where I work!

[chomiji]

Oooh, sounds pretty! Well, if we go shopping or something together sometime soon, maybe we'll have to check out perfumes.