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smellsgood2014-06-12 09:44 am
elfin) wrote in smellsgood2014-06-12 09:44 am
Entry tags:
BPAL sniffing notes
Sniffing notes for Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Destroying Angel, Chimera, Gnome, Al-Shairan, Dorian, Perversion, Plunder, The Bow and Crown of Conquest, Thy Godfather's Present.
Destroying Angel
Papery white notes evoke the grace of this fungi, grounded by thin, crisp soil.
Wet it's very dirty and funky with something green in the background.
On my skin the green notes amp and... oh, wow this is going off the rails. It smells like compost. Like a compost heap in the middle of summer that you've just turned and maybe the neighbor's cat has been leaving presents in it because is that poop? Yes, cat poop. Oh my god.
Chimera
cinnamon, thickened by myrrh, honeysuckle, and copal.
Wet, this is Big Red gum.
On my skin, this is super sweet and spicy. And bubblegum-y. It's not unpleasant, just not something I really want to smell like.
Gnome
golden ginger and black peppercorn with sarsaparilla, gurjum balsam, nutmeg, gear lubricant, and smoke
Sweet and gingery! And, oh, dammit. This smells really good in the bottle, and immediately turns to soap on my skin. :(
Al-Shairan
clove, peach and orange with cinnamon, patchouli and dark incense
In the imp, this is cinnamon and oranges, with some sharp note that I can't place.
Wet, the cloves immediately come out, and it smells like oranges and cloves.
As it dries down, I start getting a peaches in the throw, but not when I sniff directly at my skin.
This gets more and more peachy the longer I wear it. Now I can smell it directly on my skin, and the throw is intense. This is nice.
Dorian
A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.
In the imp, this is overly sweetened tea and sugar cookies.
On my skin, the vanilla really ramps up and becomes almost a single note. I'm not getting any musk at all with this one.
As I wear it, the musk is very slowly creeping out. It's still mostly sugar and vanilla, but I get musk in the throw. It's really lovely.
Annnnd, it's gone, save for the occasional whiff of vanilla. :( This lasted just over an hour. Wow, I wish this one stayed around longer.
Heh. I put this one on in the morning before work, and it was gone before my coffee was. But that night when I went to bed I kept getting whiffs of sugary vanilla when I tossed around.
Perversion
Smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka.
In the imp, whoa tonka. It has some bright notes, too. I'm guessing that's the chardonnay.
On my skin, this is much sweeter and lighter than I thought it was going to be. It's got a bit of spiciness and warmth to it, like someone spilled spiced rum on a leather jacket. I wish this wasn't so sweet. I'd like it better if the rum and leather notes were stronger on me.
Plunder
tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg.
In the imp it smells like black tea and spices. I don't really get any distinct spice notes, just 'spices'.
On my skin it's still very much black tea and indistinguishable spices, with a little bit of wood. It's nice enough, but I'm not super fond of it.
The Bow and Crown of Conquest
sage, carnation and cedar with lavender, vanilla, white musk and leather.
In the imp this is so delicate. It's slightly floral over a base of sharp musk.
On my skin, it sharpens up a little, with the cedar and sage coming out.
30 minutes and OH HI leather. Oh, that's glorious. Leather and musk and a little bit of woodsy floral. Mmmm.
Sadly it doesn't have a lot of staying power. 2 hours in and it's just barely noticeable, and the leather notes are gone completely.
4 hours and the only thing left of it is vague cedar. Dammit.
Thy Godfather's Present
A bruised purple bundle of herbs with hyssop and life-everlasting.
In the imp it's... green? Sort of flowery?
On my skin it continues to be sort of green and flowery. I'm really struggling to pick out recognizable notes.
And I'm sneezing. Off it comes.
Destroying Angel
Papery white notes evoke the grace of this fungi, grounded by thin, crisp soil.
Wet it's very dirty and funky with something green in the background.
On my skin the green notes amp and... oh, wow this is going off the rails. It smells like compost. Like a compost heap in the middle of summer that you've just turned and maybe the neighbor's cat has been leaving presents in it because is that poop? Yes, cat poop. Oh my god.
Chimera
cinnamon, thickened by myrrh, honeysuckle, and copal.
Wet, this is Big Red gum.
On my skin, this is super sweet and spicy. And bubblegum-y. It's not unpleasant, just not something I really want to smell like.
Gnome
golden ginger and black peppercorn with sarsaparilla, gurjum balsam, nutmeg, gear lubricant, and smoke
Sweet and gingery! And, oh, dammit. This smells really good in the bottle, and immediately turns to soap on my skin. :(
Al-Shairan
clove, peach and orange with cinnamon, patchouli and dark incense
In the imp, this is cinnamon and oranges, with some sharp note that I can't place.
Wet, the cloves immediately come out, and it smells like oranges and cloves.
As it dries down, I start getting a peaches in the throw, but not when I sniff directly at my skin.
This gets more and more peachy the longer I wear it. Now I can smell it directly on my skin, and the throw is intense. This is nice.
Dorian
A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.
In the imp, this is overly sweetened tea and sugar cookies.
On my skin, the vanilla really ramps up and becomes almost a single note. I'm not getting any musk at all with this one.
As I wear it, the musk is very slowly creeping out. It's still mostly sugar and vanilla, but I get musk in the throw. It's really lovely.
Annnnd, it's gone, save for the occasional whiff of vanilla. :( This lasted just over an hour. Wow, I wish this one stayed around longer.
Heh. I put this one on in the morning before work, and it was gone before my coffee was. But that night when I went to bed I kept getting whiffs of sugary vanilla when I tossed around.
Perversion
Smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka.
In the imp, whoa tonka. It has some bright notes, too. I'm guessing that's the chardonnay.
On my skin, this is much sweeter and lighter than I thought it was going to be. It's got a bit of spiciness and warmth to it, like someone spilled spiced rum on a leather jacket. I wish this wasn't so sweet. I'd like it better if the rum and leather notes were stronger on me.
Plunder
tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg.
In the imp it smells like black tea and spices. I don't really get any distinct spice notes, just 'spices'.
On my skin it's still very much black tea and indistinguishable spices, with a little bit of wood. It's nice enough, but I'm not super fond of it.
The Bow and Crown of Conquest
sage, carnation and cedar with lavender, vanilla, white musk and leather.
In the imp this is so delicate. It's slightly floral over a base of sharp musk.
On my skin, it sharpens up a little, with the cedar and sage coming out.
30 minutes and OH HI leather. Oh, that's glorious. Leather and musk and a little bit of woodsy floral. Mmmm.
Sadly it doesn't have a lot of staying power. 2 hours in and it's just barely noticeable, and the leather notes are gone completely.
4 hours and the only thing left of it is vague cedar. Dammit.
Thy Godfather's Present
A bruised purple bundle of herbs with hyssop and life-everlasting.
In the imp it's... green? Sort of flowery?
On my skin it continues to be sort of green and flowery. I'm really struggling to pick out recognizable notes.
And I'm sneezing. Off it comes.
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I'm keeping the new imp around in the hopes that maybe aging will burn off the sweeter top notes and make it a little closer to the old version, but the more I look at older reviews the more I'm convinced something has to have changed because even the color of the oil is different. The new imp is almost clear, with just a faint golden tinge, but I remember my older ones as being a much deeper golden-brown even when they were new; this 2012 review (http://ascentaday.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/perversion/) describes the oil color as "perfectly baked sweet roll drizzled with honey", and a 2004 writeup I found on BPAL.org describes it as "warm, cloudy gold", which both sound like they're in the same ballpark as my memory of the 2007 batch. (Aging and evaporation seem to have darkened what's left of my old bottle to more brown than gold, but even when it was new it was never as colorless as the 2014 imp.)
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i shouldn't laugh, but i did.
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