There hasn't been much BPAL around lately.
So I wear a lot of BPAL, but I keep forgetting to do reviews, largely, I think, because space cadet cat is currently orbiting one of Jupiter's moons. The San Diego Comicon this year boasted a BPAL exclusive, however, and being me, I was forced to beg and plead for it to come to my house and have a party. Well, it did, and now I will rejoice. With a review.
Snow, Glass, Apples.
What the Lab says: ...nothing of any use. Seriously, this is one of those blends where they basically go 'ooooooo flavor text ooooooo spooky wear the perfuuuuuuuuuume' and thus annoy the crap out of me, because there are notes I just can't wear. Neil Gaiman was somewhat more useful, as he occasionally is, and says, 'It smells like green apples and like sex and vampires, all at the same time. (Actually, it smells like sexy vampire apples.)' Sexy vampire apples is a scent description that I can deal with, given that I describe my favorite BPAL as smelling like freaky chainsaw swamp sex.
What I say: I have a small Snow White fixation. Very small. Tiny. Miniscule. Small, tiny, and minuscule enough that I didn't particularly care what the flavor text said; I was going to try the perfume. Upon opening the bottle, I was greeted with the smell of cold, almost metallic apples, with a very slight floral undertone that could have been roses, could have been snowdrops, could have been any one of a number of things. I was immediately intrigued. Also very pleased, as the Lab's 'cold' notes almost always smell awesome on me. No sexy vampire apples had yet put in an appearance.
On my skin, the initial impression is one of apples and cold. I smelled almost instantly like an iced apple martini. Not exactly the result that I was looking for, although it was sort of interesting, in a 'what would you smell like as a Strawberry Shortcake character?' sort of a way. Rather than dying down, as I might have expected, the scent of apples grew steadily stronger, eventually beating down the cold enough that the underpinning scents of blood and steal and walking into the dark, dark wood all alone could start to emerge. Seriously. The perfume smells like taking off your cross and stepping away from the path. It's...loamy.
The scent died down in stages. First the wood faded away; then the steel, and the distant, how-did-they-do-that? tang of blood. The floral made a brief last-minute comeback, declaring itself to be rose, before fading under the apples and the cold. Not apple martini apples and cold; that ship had sailed. This was frozen apples in the snow, and it whispered away like a secret. That is the worst thing about this scent; when it goes, it's gone, leaving just the scent of perfumer's base behind.
My score: 8 out of 10. It's suitably filled with sexy vampire apples, and it makes me want to slink and write Winter Queen stories, but it fades a lot faster than I like.
Snow, Glass, Apples.
What the Lab says: ...nothing of any use. Seriously, this is one of those blends where they basically go 'ooooooo flavor text ooooooo spooky wear the perfuuuuuuuuuume' and thus annoy the crap out of me, because there are notes I just can't wear. Neil Gaiman was somewhat more useful, as he occasionally is, and says, 'It smells like green apples and like sex and vampires, all at the same time. (Actually, it smells like sexy vampire apples.)' Sexy vampire apples is a scent description that I can deal with, given that I describe my favorite BPAL as smelling like freaky chainsaw swamp sex.
What I say: I have a small Snow White fixation. Very small. Tiny. Miniscule. Small, tiny, and minuscule enough that I didn't particularly care what the flavor text said; I was going to try the perfume. Upon opening the bottle, I was greeted with the smell of cold, almost metallic apples, with a very slight floral undertone that could have been roses, could have been snowdrops, could have been any one of a number of things. I was immediately intrigued. Also very pleased, as the Lab's 'cold' notes almost always smell awesome on me. No sexy vampire apples had yet put in an appearance.
On my skin, the initial impression is one of apples and cold. I smelled almost instantly like an iced apple martini. Not exactly the result that I was looking for, although it was sort of interesting, in a 'what would you smell like as a Strawberry Shortcake character?' sort of a way. Rather than dying down, as I might have expected, the scent of apples grew steadily stronger, eventually beating down the cold enough that the underpinning scents of blood and steal and walking into the dark, dark wood all alone could start to emerge. Seriously. The perfume smells like taking off your cross and stepping away from the path. It's...loamy.
The scent died down in stages. First the wood faded away; then the steel, and the distant, how-did-they-do-that? tang of blood. The floral made a brief last-minute comeback, declaring itself to be rose, before fading under the apples and the cold. Not apple martini apples and cold; that ship had sailed. This was frozen apples in the snow, and it whispered away like a secret. That is the worst thing about this scent; when it goes, it's gone, leaving just the scent of perfumer's base behind.
My score: 8 out of 10. It's suitably filled with sexy vampire apples, and it makes me want to slink and write Winter Queen stories, but it fades a lot faster than I like.