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smellsgood2014-05-03 04:34 pm
jenett) wrote in smellsgood2014-05-03 04:34 pm
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11 BPAL scents, plus aged vs. non-aged and an interesting layering thing.
More testing: O, Queen of Sheba, (including testing aged versions of both against new ones), Bard, Nyx, Ultraviolet, Uruk, Brown Jenkin, Eden, Jailbait, Lurid, Titus Andronicus, and an experiment in layering Eden and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because really, why wouldn't you if you had both on hand?
So, I have two very aged (from about 2005 or 2006) bottles of O and Queen of Sheba, and I knew I wanted new ones (which were in the order that includes the other things in this review) but I also thought it might be cool to do a compare and contrast with the newer version. (My storage has been decent - mostly out of light, and they’re in amber bottles anyway) but not fabulous.
In both cases, the new one is on the underside of my wrist, and the old one was on the top.
O: Honey and amber with a touch of vanilla
Wet: Lots of amber, with a bit of honey and vanilla. One of the things I love about O is the simplicity. It’s warm, and there’s reasonable throw and density of scent, but it’s not very complicated.
Drying: It gets notably fainter for a little, and then comes back with the amber and vanilla.
Dry: Much more sweet than the older version, and also, weirdly, it smells more ‘together’ and blended - it’s harder to pick out the individual notes.
Highly aged version: There’s something quite a bit sharper in this one when it goes on wet. It’s not ‘gone bad’ or anything, but there’s something about the honey note going almost to alcohol rather than pure honey. It’s also (like with Queen of Sheba) noticeably fainter. Though it’s got more amber coming through.
Queen of Sheba : Her scent is a bounty of golden honeyed almonds and a whisper of African and Middle Eastern spices.
Wet: Lots of almond when it goes on wet, not so much spice. There’s a bit of bitter-almond in there
Drying: Something suddenly very sweet - there’s spices in there, but the sweet is not honey, or at least not just honey, there’s something brighter in there.
Dry: It’s gone very faint on me, but pleasantly. This is one that often does better with a cleavage application rather than wrists, which I did not do for this test.
Highly aged version: I’d wondered, when I ordered the new bottle, if a lot of notes had dropped out in the aging - and yes, yes they had, now I compare. The aged is still quite pleasant, but it’s very mellow, and in comparison to the new bottle, much fainter for a comparable amount of scent.
Bard : A ridiculously charismatic blend of bay rum, honey, and white musk mingling with the scent of harp wood and lute strings and the twang of horn brass.
Wet: Honey! And some wood!
Drying: This has a lot of what I like about Delphi (the honey, especially) but it is managing not to be too sweet. It’s more like sitting somewhere with a cup of mead in a wooden goblet. (Mutter. Do not actually have mead in the house, though I have a suitable goblet). And I really like the touch of the musk.
Dry: Definitely lots of mead. (I think it’s the honey and the bay rum combining in my nose.) The musk makes it have depth in its chording, and there’s a lot of sunlight in here somehow. It’s the ‘lounging around in the sun drinking mead and listening to music, and sometimes making some’ sort of smell.
End result: I was really hoping I’d like this, and it actually exceeds my expectations. Definitely going to get a bottle at some point. (Especially since Delphi's been disconned, and I want something in that particular gap.)
Nyx : Night-blooming jasmine, warmed by myrrh, lifted by the promise of rose.
Wet: Flower. Flower going to powder, which is not promising.
Drying: There’s a bit more ‘that is actually jasmine’ in there. It’s also quite faint. Which is good, because I’m not very thrilled by it.
Dry: Meh. Lots of vaguely flower scented powder. I do not like this. Alas.
End result: Not for me. Swap bin you go.
Ultraviolet : Lush violet and neroli spiked hard with eucalyptus and a sliver of mint.
Wet: This is one I’ve tried in the distant past, and the ‘spiked hard’ is very prominent. Lots of eucalyptus and mint
Drying: As it starts drying, the violet and neroli both come up. There’s something very bracing about this scent, mind-clearing.
Dry: It’s got more balance now the initial sharpness has muted and the flowers have come up properly. I have a feeling this is one that might benefit from a bit of aging (it feels a little unbalanced?) But it’s good.
End result: I like this a lot, though it’s not something I want to smell like all the time. But it’s bracing and refreshing, and I find myself sniffing my wrist when I want to clear my head.
Uruk : Thick bitter almond and heady night-blooming jasmine with saffron, cinnamon leaf, red patchouli, river lilies, bergamot, fig leaf and the sacred incense of Inanna.
Wet: Bitter almond! But then lots of other stuff that smells like walking into a temple with flowers nearby. It’s got a very nighttime sort of feel, like it’s quiet, and there’s things nearby, but not intruding right now.
Drying: Ok. This is a thing I very much like smelling like. It’s like Queen of Sheba, which I love, only with more flowers. Maybe a different part of the same city. I get much more of the almond and the leaves and the incense than I do the jasmine.
Dry: It has faded fairly quickly (enough so that I just tried putting some on an actual pulse point, because it was on my arm near my elbow, and sometimes that does weird things with the fade.)
End result: Alas, it fades awfully fast. I may try it in a locket at some point.
Brown Jenkin : A small, furry, sharp-toothed scent that will nuzzle you curiously in the black hours before dawn: dusty white sandalwood and orris root, dry coconut husk, creeping musk, and the residue of ceremonial incense.
Wet: Very dry, yeah. Coconut on the first whiff, then I think the orris and the incense. Very dusty. It’s like the back corner of an old store that sells dry goods.
Drying: More of the incense has started coming out, like the little furry rodent has lit a stick of it to nibble its coconut by. What I find fascinating is the sense of *dryness* in this scent - like my throat wants to start itching with the dust.
Dry: Still with the dryness. Which is fascinating.
End result: I don’t know that I really want to smell like this, but I’m sort of glad I know it’s possible? It’s got the sort of dryness from snakeskin, I think, is the thing I keep coming back to. Where you think it’s one thing, and then you touch it and it’s not.
Eden : This oil contains the innocence of the Garden, coupled with the Truth and Erudition found in the fruit of the Tree of Evil: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood.
Wet: A mix of the honeyed almonds and the coconut (apparently the Lab thought I needed coconut in my life? And then the fig leaf comes out, and a hint of sandalwood. (And I am struck by wondering what would happen if I layered Eden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, like one might, if one had imps of both handy, and I will do that at the end of this review.)
Drying: More of the dry leafy bits are coming out - the fig isn’t very strong on its own, but it’s adding an element of fruit that’s anchoring everything.
Dry: Ooh! More fig! I really like the way this is settling out.
End result: Quite pleasant, though it ended up still fairly faint. (I like it better when layered, turns out.)
Jailbait : Innocence defiled. Sticky pink bubblegum and the thick, sweet scent of orange and cherry lollipops smeared over a breath of heady womanly perfume.
Wet: I was expecting not to like this. ARGH. Bubblegum! Pink! Too much pink! (I have pink aversions. For Reasons.)
Drying: It has settled down to stop being quite so pink, but now smells like drying chewing gum, with a side of orange sugar. Which is not the most appealing smell ever, even while I’m sort of fascinated by the fact you can make something smell like this.
Dry: Ok, it’s actually sort of faded out entirely. Not that I’m unhappy with that.
End result: Going in the box that’s coming with me for a visit in a couple of weeks, for “This is just weird!” and then to swapping.
Lurid : Shocking, horrific, fierce, savage, sensationalized, luminous and hazy: black currant, Bulgarian lavender and white musk with a dollop of thick resin and a voltaic charge of ozone notes.
Wet: Lots of musk. Lots and lots of musk. With resin. And a bit of stormy ozone. Mmmm. I like this a lot, even though it’s sort of faint.
Drying: Still musk.
Dry: Still pretty faint, but as it’s dry, there’s more of the currant and lavender. I don’t find this a shocking scent. More like, I don’t know, finding an old 1900s sensationalist magazine, all sort of “this was shocking 80 years ago”. Which isn’t to say I don’t like it - I do. Just. Not shocking.
End result: An interesting mix of fruity and the sharpness of the lavender, with a softness from the musk and resin. Not so much ozone now. Meh? Can go in the swap bin and see if someone else likes it better.
Titus Andronicus : Dark musk and black amber with frankincense, red sandalwood, neroli and bergamot.
Wet: The musk and amber and neroil is a really nice mix - warm and resonant. This is like standing in - I dunno, some room with a lot of marble and which has been soaking up the sun all day, so that there’s warmth radiating around you
Dry: Settles into neroli and bergamot with a bit of amber and musk to anchor. Very faint on me, now, but pleasant in the faint.
End result: Keeping for now, I think.
As noted above, I tried layering Eden and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. I get something that’s got a lot of ambient greenery in it, with a solid fruit note that shimmers between being apple and pomegranate and fig and some sort of berry. And a bit of something incensy.
On drying, there’s more of that, and I really like the combo. Definitely a garden of complexity. I get different things each time I sniff my arm, but they mingle really well.
Two bottles I know I love
So, I have two very aged (from about 2005 or 2006) bottles of O and Queen of Sheba, and I knew I wanted new ones (which were in the order that includes the other things in this review) but I also thought it might be cool to do a compare and contrast with the newer version. (My storage has been decent - mostly out of light, and they’re in amber bottles anyway) but not fabulous.
In both cases, the new one is on the underside of my wrist, and the old one was on the top.
O: Honey and amber with a touch of vanilla
Wet: Lots of amber, with a bit of honey and vanilla. One of the things I love about O is the simplicity. It’s warm, and there’s reasonable throw and density of scent, but it’s not very complicated.
Drying: It gets notably fainter for a little, and then comes back with the amber and vanilla.
Dry: Much more sweet than the older version, and also, weirdly, it smells more ‘together’ and blended - it’s harder to pick out the individual notes.
Highly aged version: There’s something quite a bit sharper in this one when it goes on wet. It’s not ‘gone bad’ or anything, but there’s something about the honey note going almost to alcohol rather than pure honey. It’s also (like with Queen of Sheba) noticeably fainter. Though it’s got more amber coming through.
Queen of Sheba : Her scent is a bounty of golden honeyed almonds and a whisper of African and Middle Eastern spices.
Wet: Lots of almond when it goes on wet, not so much spice. There’s a bit of bitter-almond in there
Drying: Something suddenly very sweet - there’s spices in there, but the sweet is not honey, or at least not just honey, there’s something brighter in there.
Dry: It’s gone very faint on me, but pleasantly. This is one that often does better with a cleavage application rather than wrists, which I did not do for this test.
Highly aged version: I’d wondered, when I ordered the new bottle, if a lot of notes had dropped out in the aging - and yes, yes they had, now I compare. The aged is still quite pleasant, but it’s very mellow, and in comparison to the new bottle, much fainter for a comparable amount of scent.
Ordered imps
Bard : A ridiculously charismatic blend of bay rum, honey, and white musk mingling with the scent of harp wood and lute strings and the twang of horn brass.
Wet: Honey! And some wood!
Drying: This has a lot of what I like about Delphi (the honey, especially) but it is managing not to be too sweet. It’s more like sitting somewhere with a cup of mead in a wooden goblet. (Mutter. Do not actually have mead in the house, though I have a suitable goblet). And I really like the touch of the musk.
Dry: Definitely lots of mead. (I think it’s the honey and the bay rum combining in my nose.) The musk makes it have depth in its chording, and there’s a lot of sunlight in here somehow. It’s the ‘lounging around in the sun drinking mead and listening to music, and sometimes making some’ sort of smell.
End result: I was really hoping I’d like this, and it actually exceeds my expectations. Definitely going to get a bottle at some point. (Especially since Delphi's been disconned, and I want something in that particular gap.)
Nyx : Night-blooming jasmine, warmed by myrrh, lifted by the promise of rose.
Wet: Flower. Flower going to powder, which is not promising.
Drying: There’s a bit more ‘that is actually jasmine’ in there. It’s also quite faint. Which is good, because I’m not very thrilled by it.
Dry: Meh. Lots of vaguely flower scented powder. I do not like this. Alas.
End result: Not for me. Swap bin you go.
Ultraviolet : Lush violet and neroli spiked hard with eucalyptus and a sliver of mint.
Wet: This is one I’ve tried in the distant past, and the ‘spiked hard’ is very prominent. Lots of eucalyptus and mint
Drying: As it starts drying, the violet and neroli both come up. There’s something very bracing about this scent, mind-clearing.
Dry: It’s got more balance now the initial sharpness has muted and the flowers have come up properly. I have a feeling this is one that might benefit from a bit of aging (it feels a little unbalanced?) But it’s good.
End result: I like this a lot, though it’s not something I want to smell like all the time. But it’s bracing and refreshing, and I find myself sniffing my wrist when I want to clear my head.
Uruk : Thick bitter almond and heady night-blooming jasmine with saffron, cinnamon leaf, red patchouli, river lilies, bergamot, fig leaf and the sacred incense of Inanna.
Wet: Bitter almond! But then lots of other stuff that smells like walking into a temple with flowers nearby. It’s got a very nighttime sort of feel, like it’s quiet, and there’s things nearby, but not intruding right now.
Drying: Ok. This is a thing I very much like smelling like. It’s like Queen of Sheba, which I love, only with more flowers. Maybe a different part of the same city. I get much more of the almond and the leaves and the incense than I do the jasmine.
Dry: It has faded fairly quickly (enough so that I just tried putting some on an actual pulse point, because it was on my arm near my elbow, and sometimes that does weird things with the fade.)
End result: Alas, it fades awfully fast. I may try it in a locket at some point.
Frimps
Brown Jenkin : A small, furry, sharp-toothed scent that will nuzzle you curiously in the black hours before dawn: dusty white sandalwood and orris root, dry coconut husk, creeping musk, and the residue of ceremonial incense.
Wet: Very dry, yeah. Coconut on the first whiff, then I think the orris and the incense. Very dusty. It’s like the back corner of an old store that sells dry goods.
Drying: More of the incense has started coming out, like the little furry rodent has lit a stick of it to nibble its coconut by. What I find fascinating is the sense of *dryness* in this scent - like my throat wants to start itching with the dust.
Dry: Still with the dryness. Which is fascinating.
End result: I don’t know that I really want to smell like this, but I’m sort of glad I know it’s possible? It’s got the sort of dryness from snakeskin, I think, is the thing I keep coming back to. Where you think it’s one thing, and then you touch it and it’s not.
Eden : This oil contains the innocence of the Garden, coupled with the Truth and Erudition found in the fruit of the Tree of Evil: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood.
Wet: A mix of the honeyed almonds and the coconut (apparently the Lab thought I needed coconut in my life? And then the fig leaf comes out, and a hint of sandalwood. (And I am struck by wondering what would happen if I layered Eden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, like one might, if one had imps of both handy, and I will do that at the end of this review.)
Drying: More of the dry leafy bits are coming out - the fig isn’t very strong on its own, but it’s adding an element of fruit that’s anchoring everything.
Dry: Ooh! More fig! I really like the way this is settling out.
End result: Quite pleasant, though it ended up still fairly faint. (I like it better when layered, turns out.)
Jailbait : Innocence defiled. Sticky pink bubblegum and the thick, sweet scent of orange and cherry lollipops smeared over a breath of heady womanly perfume.
Wet: I was expecting not to like this. ARGH. Bubblegum! Pink! Too much pink! (I have pink aversions. For Reasons.)
Drying: It has settled down to stop being quite so pink, but now smells like drying chewing gum, with a side of orange sugar. Which is not the most appealing smell ever, even while I’m sort of fascinated by the fact you can make something smell like this.
Dry: Ok, it’s actually sort of faded out entirely. Not that I’m unhappy with that.
End result: Going in the box that’s coming with me for a visit in a couple of weeks, for “This is just weird!” and then to swapping.
Lurid : Shocking, horrific, fierce, savage, sensationalized, luminous and hazy: black currant, Bulgarian lavender and white musk with a dollop of thick resin and a voltaic charge of ozone notes.
Wet: Lots of musk. Lots and lots of musk. With resin. And a bit of stormy ozone. Mmmm. I like this a lot, even though it’s sort of faint.
Drying: Still musk.
Dry: Still pretty faint, but as it’s dry, there’s more of the currant and lavender. I don’t find this a shocking scent. More like, I don’t know, finding an old 1900s sensationalist magazine, all sort of “this was shocking 80 years ago”. Which isn’t to say I don’t like it - I do. Just. Not shocking.
End result: An interesting mix of fruity and the sharpness of the lavender, with a softness from the musk and resin. Not so much ozone now. Meh? Can go in the swap bin and see if someone else likes it better.
Titus Andronicus : Dark musk and black amber with frankincense, red sandalwood, neroli and bergamot.
Wet: The musk and amber and neroil is a really nice mix - warm and resonant. This is like standing in - I dunno, some room with a lot of marble and which has been soaking up the sun all day, so that there’s warmth radiating around you
Dry: Settles into neroli and bergamot with a bit of amber and musk to anchor. Very faint on me, now, but pleasant in the faint.
End result: Keeping for now, I think.
Experiments in layering
As noted above, I tried layering Eden and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. I get something that’s got a lot of ambient greenery in it, with a solid fruit note that shimmers between being apple and pomegranate and fig and some sort of berry. And a bit of something incensy.
On drying, there’s more of that, and I really like the combo. Definitely a garden of complexity. I get different things each time I sniff my arm, but they mingle really well.