BPAL: Nuit, Queen Mab, Venice, Rapture
Nuit
Description from the site: Dazzling white musks, white rose and night-blooming jasmine with the soft moss of moonlit meadows, a waft of Egyptian incense, and a gentle breath of moonflower.
In the bottle: Jasmine with incense and faint rose.
Wet: Jasmine and something I think is moonflower - the jasmine scent here is a refreshingly specific kind of jasmine, rather than soapy and generic.
Drydown: The incense comes out just a little and the moonflower fades. But it's still a very cool, almost cold scent, with a still, empty feeling.
Dry: The rose starts playing more of a part, spiced with the faint incense and round, low-key musk. Musk is a crap-shoot on me, but this is subtle enough that I like it. There's a period where the jasmine gets slightly soapy, but on the whole it's behaved unusually well. Ends spicy with just a hint of floral.
Verdict: I used to wear this kind of cool, white scent a lot several years ago and not so much now, but I think I'll keep this for when I want something elegant, but remote.
Queen Mab
Description from the site: A very complex scent, both shadowy and fierce: black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk.
In the bottle: Musk, rose and a little sandalwood.
Wet: Sandalwood and a little rose. I can't identify exactly what I don't like about this -- maybe the black orchid? -- but the fact remains that I don't.
Drydown: The jasmine tries to come out, but can't make it past the sandalwood/musk combination, except perhaps to make things worse. It smells like a combination of expensive soap and cheap incense. Mildly headache inducing.
Dry: Eventually it settles down to a wispy sandalwood-floral that's inoffensive, but not worth the trip to get there.
Verdict: Yuck. To be fair, it really does give off an atmosphere of malicious mischief. But I'm beginning to learn that if the descriptions says 'fierce' anywhere I'm probably not going to like it.
Venice
Description from the site: A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf.
In the bottle: Lemon, sandalwood, rose and a hint of jasmine.
Wet: Lemon and sandalwood dominate with a little plum in the background and slight jasmine top notes. Plum seems like such an inoffensive scent, but I never seem to like it in blends. And, while I like citrus notes, lemon doesn't work on me all that well.
Drydown: Basically the same, except the lemon retreats a little, which is good because I amplify it, leaving a rose-sandalwood blend with a touch of wisteria.
Dry: The rose fades, giving the lemon more prominence without being too strong. The scent turns into a lighter citrus-spiced floral, the individual notes nicely fused, but the result is somewhat unremarkable.
Verdict: Meh. In its most interesting phases this is a heavy, luxurious scent that evokes the idea of Venice well, but is simply too voluptuous and weighty for me. I always think of heavy velvet curtains when I wear it, rich but a bit musty, and frankly I'm just not a velvet drapes kind of girl.
Rapture
Description from the site: Sensual ecstasy, the blinding red fire of the apex of sexual pleasure: Moroccan rose, Sumatran rose, mandarin, Egyptian myrrh, night-blooming jasmine, bergamot and neroli thrust into Arabian musk.
In the bottle: Spicy incense, rose, and bergomot top-notes.
Wet: Warm round musk, spicy rose and the bittersweet combination of bergomot and neroli.
Drydown: This scent starts just short of bitter and drifts sweeter as it dries, retaining the wonderful spice of neroli/incense and the round, lazy, almost soporific base of musk and old rose.
Dry: The scent comes together nicely. The rose becomes slightly more prominent, but the effect is still bittersweet and spicy, which I find sexy in a laid back, understated way.
Verdict: One of my favorites. On me it's not so much rapture -- the blinding red fire of the apex of sexual pleasure of the description -- as a lazy, sun-tinted afterglow.
Description from the site: Dazzling white musks, white rose and night-blooming jasmine with the soft moss of moonlit meadows, a waft of Egyptian incense, and a gentle breath of moonflower.
In the bottle: Jasmine with incense and faint rose.
Wet: Jasmine and something I think is moonflower - the jasmine scent here is a refreshingly specific kind of jasmine, rather than soapy and generic.
Drydown: The incense comes out just a little and the moonflower fades. But it's still a very cool, almost cold scent, with a still, empty feeling.
Dry: The rose starts playing more of a part, spiced with the faint incense and round, low-key musk. Musk is a crap-shoot on me, but this is subtle enough that I like it. There's a period where the jasmine gets slightly soapy, but on the whole it's behaved unusually well. Ends spicy with just a hint of floral.
Verdict: I used to wear this kind of cool, white scent a lot several years ago and not so much now, but I think I'll keep this for when I want something elegant, but remote.
Queen Mab
Description from the site: A very complex scent, both shadowy and fierce: black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk.
In the bottle: Musk, rose and a little sandalwood.
Wet: Sandalwood and a little rose. I can't identify exactly what I don't like about this -- maybe the black orchid? -- but the fact remains that I don't.
Drydown: The jasmine tries to come out, but can't make it past the sandalwood/musk combination, except perhaps to make things worse. It smells like a combination of expensive soap and cheap incense. Mildly headache inducing.
Dry: Eventually it settles down to a wispy sandalwood-floral that's inoffensive, but not worth the trip to get there.
Verdict: Yuck. To be fair, it really does give off an atmosphere of malicious mischief. But I'm beginning to learn that if the descriptions says 'fierce' anywhere I'm probably not going to like it.
Venice
Description from the site: A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf.
In the bottle: Lemon, sandalwood, rose and a hint of jasmine.
Wet: Lemon and sandalwood dominate with a little plum in the background and slight jasmine top notes. Plum seems like such an inoffensive scent, but I never seem to like it in blends. And, while I like citrus notes, lemon doesn't work on me all that well.
Drydown: Basically the same, except the lemon retreats a little, which is good because I amplify it, leaving a rose-sandalwood blend with a touch of wisteria.
Dry: The rose fades, giving the lemon more prominence without being too strong. The scent turns into a lighter citrus-spiced floral, the individual notes nicely fused, but the result is somewhat unremarkable.
Verdict: Meh. In its most interesting phases this is a heavy, luxurious scent that evokes the idea of Venice well, but is simply too voluptuous and weighty for me. I always think of heavy velvet curtains when I wear it, rich but a bit musty, and frankly I'm just not a velvet drapes kind of girl.
Rapture
Description from the site: Sensual ecstasy, the blinding red fire of the apex of sexual pleasure: Moroccan rose, Sumatran rose, mandarin, Egyptian myrrh, night-blooming jasmine, bergamot and neroli thrust into Arabian musk.
In the bottle: Spicy incense, rose, and bergomot top-notes.
Wet: Warm round musk, spicy rose and the bittersweet combination of bergomot and neroli.
Drydown: This scent starts just short of bitter and drifts sweeter as it dries, retaining the wonderful spice of neroli/incense and the round, lazy, almost soporific base of musk and old rose.
Dry: The scent comes together nicely. The rose becomes slightly more prominent, but the effect is still bittersweet and spicy, which I find sexy in a laid back, understated way.
Verdict: One of my favorites. On me it's not so much rapture -- the blinding red fire of the apex of sexual pleasure of the description -- as a lazy, sun-tinted afterglow.