reviews & recommendations
following badriyaz's bandwagon, i thought i'd post reviews of my new BPAL scents which arrived earlier this week, to my mildly sheepish joy (seriously, when did perfume get so exciting?).
yesterday's scent was Intrigue: "A sultry, exotic scent that inspires devious plotting and clandestine affairs. It is a scent painted in artifice, veiled in deceit, and slithering with whispered secrets. Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes." in the bottle, i can smell the cocoa -- not to rich and chocolatey, more like good Dutch cocoa powder or hot cocoa. beyond that, hints of fruit, also not too sweet, and some other scents that are harder to identify (i'm not even sure what "black palm" is). on the skin, the cocoa and the fig come out nicely but not too strong. there's a greenness to the scent. by the end of the day, it had mostly faded, but i could still detect some of the notes.
the day before was Gluttony: "Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel." I can't really distinguish the chocolate in this, or any of the other individual elements -- to me, it smells like butter and sugar and fresh baked cookies. very strong in the bottle, and very sweet. goes on a little too strong at first, but then lightens to a more manageable sweet, still reminiscent of baked goods. i smelled lightly like a cookie shop till the end of the day. mmm.
today, i finally get to try Jack, which i think may be too strong for school days: "The scent of warm, glowing jack o'lanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove." in the bottle, this smells very nutty and creamy, and i'm very much looking forward to seeing how it smells on me.
my surprise favorite has still been Hellcat, which i stole as an imp from rivetpepsquad. i can't afford big bottles of all of these, so i have to decide which i want to wear the most often. some of the others that i wanted to like, including Snake Oil, just go to baby powder or soap on my skin, which is no good. i think i want a scent that smells like honeyed figs with a hint of fresh milk, that they could name after some Persian or Babylonian princess, like Vashti. i don't think they have one for her yet.
on a non-olfactory note, if you enjoy IDM/ambient/DnB-style electronic music, you should download Statement of Purpose, a free album on the netlabel Xynthetic. so far, all the tracks are really good, including the one from displacer, who posted the link.
yesterday's scent was Intrigue: "A sultry, exotic scent that inspires devious plotting and clandestine affairs. It is a scent painted in artifice, veiled in deceit, and slithering with whispered secrets. Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes." in the bottle, i can smell the cocoa -- not to rich and chocolatey, more like good Dutch cocoa powder or hot cocoa. beyond that, hints of fruit, also not too sweet, and some other scents that are harder to identify (i'm not even sure what "black palm" is). on the skin, the cocoa and the fig come out nicely but not too strong. there's a greenness to the scent. by the end of the day, it had mostly faded, but i could still detect some of the notes.
the day before was Gluttony: "Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel." I can't really distinguish the chocolate in this, or any of the other individual elements -- to me, it smells like butter and sugar and fresh baked cookies. very strong in the bottle, and very sweet. goes on a little too strong at first, but then lightens to a more manageable sweet, still reminiscent of baked goods. i smelled lightly like a cookie shop till the end of the day. mmm.
today, i finally get to try Jack, which i think may be too strong for school days: "The scent of warm, glowing jack o'lanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove." in the bottle, this smells very nutty and creamy, and i'm very much looking forward to seeing how it smells on me.
my surprise favorite has still been Hellcat, which i stole as an imp from rivetpepsquad. i can't afford big bottles of all of these, so i have to decide which i want to wear the most often. some of the others that i wanted to like, including Snake Oil, just go to baby powder or soap on my skin, which is no good. i think i want a scent that smells like honeyed figs with a hint of fresh milk, that they could name after some Persian or Babylonian princess, like Vashti. i don't think they have one for her yet.
on a non-olfactory note, if you enjoy IDM/ambient/DnB-style electronic music, you should download Statement of Purpose, a free album on the netlabel Xynthetic. so far, all the tracks are really good, including the one from displacer, who posted the link.