A grab bag of reviews
BPAL 13
The site says: In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris.
In the bottle: This is odd. I can’t figure out what I think about it. At first it seems to be this odd clash of different scents and associations. Then I inhaled properly - I can definitely smell the tangerine and mandarin, and I can smell the chocolate. OK, this is nicer than I expected.
On the wrist: Wow. Much nicer than I expected. I can smell the flowers now. This really doesn’t smell much like perfume at all. It smells like I’ve spent a day in a kitchen, or in a garden or something. This is gorgeous.
One hour later: Mmmmm…still edible. It has faded quite a lot - my skin doesn’t seem to hold these sweeter scents as well as it does musk and incense - but it’s left a lovely subtle aftereffect, which is making me very happy. I think a little dab applied on both wrists and the neck would probably hold a little better. God, the chocolate comes across nicely, I’ve got to admit!
Final Verdict: I really didn’t think I’d like this as much as I do, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. 9/10.
BPAL The Red Queen
The site says: Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant.
In the bottle: Is there furniture polish in there? And maybe some aniseed? Actually, I do smell cherries - but those quite vile cherries that have been soaked in liqueur for too long.
On the wrist: Dear god. This is a little overwhelming, and I can’t quite get away from the sense furniture polish. It also smells a bit too much like conventional perfume to me - it smells a bit like something my mother would wear.
One hour later: Nope. It still smells too much like conventional perfume for me, and although it has faded a bit, I think it’s still too heavy for my skin.
Final Verdict: 3/10. It isn’t a bad scent, I suspect. It just doesn’t suit me at all and is the first of the BPAL imps that I’ve wanted to scrub off my skin. This will be added to my list of swapsies.
I also tried Dragon’s Heart, Jester, and Haloa on wildrogue - one of each wrist and one on the elbow. I would have done this more slowly, but I had Elle for the evening, and wanted to see how they smelt on her.
The quick result was that Jester started off as smelling very strongly of citrus, and rapidly turned into soap on Elle’s wrist. Dragon’s Heart was just horrifically musky - it really swamped Elle’s skin, and Haloa was quite nice - I thought it had a nice warm fruitness to it on Elle, but Elle said it wasn’t entirely her kind of perfume, but she didn’t object to wearing it for an evening, and thought it smelled quite nice.
It was actually really interesting noticing just how different scents smelled on me and Elle - Dragon’s Heart mellowed really nicely on me, but just overwhelmed Elle.
By the way, why did no one tell me before that Anne McCaffrey had written an Arthurian novel? And an Arthurian novel about horses as well. I spent a very pleasant afternoon curled up with Black Horses For The King, being vastly cheered by this novel about King Arthur’s farrier. Next time I have a pony I shall call it Spadix.
Anne McCaffrey also seems to be much better behaved when writing about a male lead. She didn’t even begin to slide into Mary Sue-isms, although he was possibly the least blokey male character I’ve seen in a novel in some time.
Oh, I’m on the look out for comfortable books I can read in between ploughing through chemistry papers at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions? Bear in mind that I have a fondness for Anne McCaffrey, and a deep and abiding love for Rosemary Sutcliff.
Ideas?
The site says: In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris.
In the bottle: This is odd. I can’t figure out what I think about it. At first it seems to be this odd clash of different scents and associations. Then I inhaled properly - I can definitely smell the tangerine and mandarin, and I can smell the chocolate. OK, this is nicer than I expected.
On the wrist: Wow. Much nicer than I expected. I can smell the flowers now. This really doesn’t smell much like perfume at all. It smells like I’ve spent a day in a kitchen, or in a garden or something. This is gorgeous.
One hour later: Mmmmm…still edible. It has faded quite a lot - my skin doesn’t seem to hold these sweeter scents as well as it does musk and incense - but it’s left a lovely subtle aftereffect, which is making me very happy. I think a little dab applied on both wrists and the neck would probably hold a little better. God, the chocolate comes across nicely, I’ve got to admit!
Final Verdict: I really didn’t think I’d like this as much as I do, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. 9/10.
BPAL The Red Queen
The site says: Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant.
In the bottle: Is there furniture polish in there? And maybe some aniseed? Actually, I do smell cherries - but those quite vile cherries that have been soaked in liqueur for too long.
On the wrist: Dear god. This is a little overwhelming, and I can’t quite get away from the sense furniture polish. It also smells a bit too much like conventional perfume to me - it smells a bit like something my mother would wear.
One hour later: Nope. It still smells too much like conventional perfume for me, and although it has faded a bit, I think it’s still too heavy for my skin.
Final Verdict: 3/10. It isn’t a bad scent, I suspect. It just doesn’t suit me at all and is the first of the BPAL imps that I’ve wanted to scrub off my skin. This will be added to my list of swapsies.
I also tried Dragon’s Heart, Jester, and Haloa on wildrogue - one of each wrist and one on the elbow. I would have done this more slowly, but I had Elle for the evening, and wanted to see how they smelt on her.
The quick result was that Jester started off as smelling very strongly of citrus, and rapidly turned into soap on Elle’s wrist. Dragon’s Heart was just horrifically musky - it really swamped Elle’s skin, and Haloa was quite nice - I thought it had a nice warm fruitness to it on Elle, but Elle said it wasn’t entirely her kind of perfume, but she didn’t object to wearing it for an evening, and thought it smelled quite nice.
It was actually really interesting noticing just how different scents smelled on me and Elle - Dragon’s Heart mellowed really nicely on me, but just overwhelmed Elle.
By the way, why did no one tell me before that Anne McCaffrey had written an Arthurian novel? And an Arthurian novel about horses as well. I spent a very pleasant afternoon curled up with Black Horses For The King, being vastly cheered by this novel about King Arthur’s farrier. Next time I have a pony I shall call it Spadix.
Anne McCaffrey also seems to be much better behaved when writing about a male lead. She didn’t even begin to slide into Mary Sue-isms, although he was possibly the least blokey male character I’ve seen in a novel in some time.
Oh, I’m on the look out for comfortable books I can read in between ploughing through chemistry papers at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions? Bear in mind that I have a fondness for Anne McCaffrey, and a deep and abiding love for Rosemary Sutcliff.
Ideas?