My first reviews...
White Rabbit-
BPAL's description: Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen.
My description: Straight out of the bottle I know I'll like it. First scent of it smells to me to be not strong tea but instead.. Dark Chocolate! I put it on, and the dark chocolate swirls around my senses with a hint of green to it, which I would guess is the tea notes?. It dies back to a milder dark chocolate but the green notes fade to the background while the notes of strong honey and a soft milky vanilla float up to the forefront. Then I smell the ginger, but it too like the milky vanilla is a soft ginger. Then the strong honey and the dark chocolate (black tea) becomes a steady heady scent with a HINT of pepper, the pepper and honey made me think of chai but only for a few moments. Then 20 minutes later the green of the tea? (or maybe it's the linen?) returns a little, but only when one takes an up-close sniff. Otherwise it's not a food-like scent to me even with the chocolate smells, the honey isn't sweet "food" honey, it's strong "perfume" honey.. which apparently my chemistry likes as it's the strongest note 20 minutes after first impression. To me this is a strong scent, but one I'd like to wear.
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Mata Hari-
BPAL's description:
"A renowned exotic dancer and courtesan, possessed of aristocratic elegance, matchless charm, an iron will and a streak of fearlessness. The actual events of her life have met with much speculation, and to this day it is unclear whether or not she was truly a German spy. Despite shaky evidence of her guilt, she was tried for espionage by a closed court-martial and was executed by a French firing squad in 1917. Her scent is striking and bold with a delicate yet dark undertone: five roses with soft jasmine, warmed by vanilla, fig, tonka bean and mahogany, spiced with a drop of coffee bean.
My interpretation:
Jasmine and roses right off the bat, Jasmine being the base and roses blending up from rich rose to a light white rose, quite like a garden in summertime.. warmed then by rich mahogony undertones.. which seem to be mysterious and lingering on the senses. Then the Jasmine fades back to a top note of white roses and smoother wood and tonka bean, then again fades into a warm inviting feminine and mysterious fig, tonka and coffee bean. The BPAL description of this one was right on in my opinion altho I seperated the smellies to different levels of scents.
All these scents in this oil seem to do well with my skin, I was skittish at first of the Jasmine .. thinking it was too powerful, but it was actually quite invigorating. Many would NOT do well with this scent if they don't like Jasmine or Roses or Mahogony. I looved the Mahogony when I sensed it .. and the total fade down to the lingering smells of smooth woodsy, fig, tonka and coffee with a top note of light white rose is great!
Two for two.. that I like.. Not bad! I do wish yesterday's White rabbit had a stronger lasting scent. I like this one, it's strong yet smooth and feminine. I think its' the woodsy and fig and light rose combo that's got me liking the lasting scent :D
Edit: my son really liked this scent on me.. he sniffed me and went "mmmmmm SO nice!" I do get a little shaken by the initial Jasmine/Rose scent being so strong tho.. the dry down is what I really like.
2nd Edit: The Jasmine really bothers me.. I got a little of this on my shirt and the jasmine is ALL I smell now :/ so must wear sparingly and on wrists only to get to the dry down that I like. hmmph.
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Hetairae-
BPAL's description:The sublimely beautiful, fiercely independent, impeccably cultured, fascinatingly worldly and witty courtesans of ancient Greece. A seductive and dazzling blend of golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang.
My review:
Honey and patchouli right away, clove starts to show itself as the oil dries, those are the dominant scents. I get a hint of the ylang ylang now and then in the first 5 minutes. No fig yet. Five minutes into dry down the golden honey mellows some and patchouli stands out with an undercurrant of clove.. still hints of ylang ylang, which is light and really adds a feminine note to this scent.. otherwise I'd say it's truly unisex. 10 minutes into dry down the patchouli fades back and the honey stands out again, with more of the ylang ylang.. only a hint of clove now. I had a perfume that smelled something close to this in say 1992 or 1993, but I've no idea what it was. Patchouli and honey seem to keep trading places as the dominant scent, blending nicely as they pass each other to the forefront. Ten minutes into dry down the patchouli and ylang ylang are stronger with almost no clove or honey. This scent changes often, which is pretty cool. Twenty minutes after application...and lingering.. patchouli warmed by honey and clove and possibly fig, (altho the fig really never presented itself to my senses really), with a tiny bit of ylang ylang on top, but it's slight. The patchouli isn't too earth/dirt smell in this.. it's quite patchouli but not a dark patchouli.
I like this scent, it's bpal description is pretty accurate on me. I'd have to say tho that this one brings up some odd memories of that perfume scent from early 90's for me. I'd wear it, yep. I thought I'd like this from the description and I do. I would have to wear it often to fade out those odd memories from early 90's tho. The patchouli and clove remind me of the Renn Faire :) I think the sweet fig is blending with the ylang ylang on me and I'm just not seperating the two scents, it's a sweet floral blend smell.
So far this and White Rabbit may be keepers.. this one for sure.
Edit: this scent has very good lasting power, and .. 2 women at my sons' school stopped ALL that they were doing in the office when I came in , to find out where on earth the "Easter flower/lillies" smell was coming from.. then one said no.. it's like a different flowery smell.. I held out my arm, that's it! They said together. On my way out of the office it hit me.. I smell like a funeral complete with a bit of floral and some good incense. :) I quite love this scent.
I'm still learning the language of perfumary, so bear with me :) Thanks all!