Perfume mini reviews - BPAL

These are some of the BPAL samples I got from Su a while back. (You can view the whole awesome package here.) I have chosen to only review those BPAL oils that I enjoyed.

Velvet - Notes are stated as sandalwood, cocoa vanilla and myrrh. On me it starts out as a large burst or dry cocoa powder with a sandalwood and vanilla background. On drydown a sweet and fruity note emerges for a while before it turnes into a lovely but rather generic sandalwood/vanilla. Neither sillage nor longevity are terribly good with this one. Lasts maybe three hours and is quite discrete.

Vixen - Notes are supposed to be orange blossom, ginger and patchouli. At first I strangely get a strong note of lavender. The patchouli is also quite sharp, definitely not very aged. I don't smell any ginger, but it is possible that it contributes to the sharpness of the patchouli. After a while this turns sweet. It is not quite floral but I will attribute this sweetness to the orange blossom for now. I confess that I don't quite know what orange blossom smells like. The drydown is still sweet but now with notes of vanilla and chocolate I believe. The patchouli is still going strong. This one is possibly full size worthy. It is interesting with good sillage and about an above average longevity.

The Dodo - Notes for this one are red musk, lemon peel, sugar cane, cassia, white sandalwood, mango, and agarwood. I have heard said that BPAL's red musk is something special but I don't know, to me it smells like quite ordinary musk with a cassia background and hints of the agarwood. The musk soon turns quite powdery and I can smell the sugar. After this the mango emerges for a while. The drydown is musky and woody with some lingering hints of mango. I like this a lot at times, but on the whole it leaves me unimpressed. It seems somehow disjointed... Sillage is good, longevity is about average.

Al Azif - This is a strange one! BPAL doesn´t provide me with any notes on this one apart from the vague term of incense. And I don't smell any incense. I get a dark smoky sweetness, it is resiny but a very creamy sweet resin. There is amber in here I think, and maybe honey. Something here smells like that deliciously fragrant kind of plastic and there are hints of sun tan lotion and makeup. This might actually be full size worthy! It is definitely interesting and smells beautiful on my skin. Sillage is about average, longevity slighly less than average.

Miskatonic University - Notes are stated as Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls. This one is creamy and sweet from the start. I can't quite tell what it is I am smelling but on wet it does remind me a bit of Cake or Death. I will have to compare the two side by side. I can smell no coffee, no boozyness, no dusty books... Just that strange creamy sweetness, somehow nutty, together with a strong note of oakwood. There are hints of the same sun tan lotion as in Al Azif and some discrete spices. I swear I pick up some kind of while floral, a nice white floral, could be tuberose, but it is very faint. This one stays about the same on my skin the whole time. Slightly more woody on the drydown.  I am a bit disappointed that I can't smell those dusty tomes but the rest of this scent definitely makes up for that! When I read up on this scent I found lots of talk about the coffee, it is strange that I can't smell that at all! But I do have one other coffee scent, and I can's smell any coffee when I wear that one either, so maybe my skin just eats coffee notes. Anyhow, Miskatonic University is my absolute favorite of this lot! Definitely full bottle worthy! Both sillage and longevity are well above average.

On the whole my first meeting with the famed BPAL was positive. These are interesting, and rather unique, oils! Concentrated too, and long lasting! There were other BPAL imps in my package from Su, and some of them were absolutely terrible but I did end up liking five out of ten! :) I can't quite understand the BPAL hype but I'll probably end up ordering from there at some point!

Perfume Review - Twyla Perfumes and Apothecary

I have read so much about Twyla lately, and only rave reviews! So when I got the opportunity of a little discount I ordered some samples right away. I ordered Bone Flower, Dryad and Occula but I also received Chocolate Violets ( a limited edition Valentines scent) and Love & Squalor.

Bone Flower is a gorgeous scent! I ordered this because I thought that I might like tuberose, now I know I love it! In the vial it is very delicate and creamy but it blooms when it hits my skin. On wet this is heady and almost unsettlingly sweet, cloying in a way that I enjoy so much! As it dries it becomes softer and all too soon it is only a vague creamy white floral that clings very thightly to my skin. I love this one, I really, really love this one! I just wish it had a bit more sillage and longevity on me. It only lasts for about three hours and only for the first hour does it have any sillage to speak of. But I still feel tempted to buy a full bottle, I could wear it to bed and at home!

Dryad reminds me a bit of Mephistopheles when I first put it on, which is strange because, as far as I know, the only note they share is patchouli and that is not what I smell. Compared side by side the two are no longer as similar. Dryad is definitely more woody and resinous. I don´t think smelling Dryad after smelling Bone Flower is a good idea, somehow the heady smell of tuberose overpowers my nose and makes Dryad meek and uninteresting. Dryad is a bit difficult for me to make sense of, it is woody, resiny with som earthy patchouli thrown in, but it somehow manages to be delicate and almost powdery on my skin. I can´t really smell any of the notes clearly in this blend and it isn´t quite what I expected. I expected powerful resins and woods but this just falls a bit flat on my skin and fades fast. Perhaps it just doesn´t agree with my chemistry. Sillage and longevity are both minimal on me.

Occula is an interesting one! In the vial I can only smell the patchouli but on wet I get a strong flash of cloves that then linger and blend very nicely with the patchouli. In the background I get hints of honey and tuberose. I love this stage, it is spicy and creamy and dark! Unfortunately this one as well fades quite fast on my skin and, while I really enjoy the wet stage, almost all scent is gone by the time it is completely dry. By then the only thing left of this intriguing blend is only a rather flat and uninteresting patchouli and clove.

Chocolate Violets and Love & Squalor are scents that I would never have ordered myself but I found them surprisingly enjoyable. They both contain florals, but this is definitely the real stuff, not synthetics!

In the vial Chocolate Violets seems like a powerful chocolate scent of the kind that I generally dislike. Once I put it on I do get a strong chocolate at first, but that only lasts a few moments and then the violet takes over! This is a violet that doesn´t quite strike me as floral, but is rather more like violet flavored candies in scent, and I love those! The scent doesn´t really change much after this, so it is not very complex. Chocolate Violets doesn´t last very long, a few hours maybe, but it has more sillage than all the scents above!

Love & Squalor starts with a powerful note of jasmine. And I kind of hate jasmine. And, indeed, the first half hour or so is quite horrible. On my skin, jasmine is cloying in a way that I definitely don´t enjoy! But, yes there is a but, when the jasmine calms down this is actually a great scent that really likes my skin. Except for the jasmine I can´t really identify any other notes. It is very floral, so I really should hate it, but it is also both deeply complex and delightfully creamy! Out of these five scents, this one, the über floral one, is the one that has the best sillage (medium) and longevity (about 4-5 hours) on me. How is that for irony... I really wish this scent was more "me" as my skin seems to love it...

In the end I enjoy all of these scents, even the dreaded florals! I might even go so far as to say that, to my surprise, the florals were the best of the lot! I never though that I would actually enjoy a jasmin scent and I didn´t know that violets were so amazing! Unfortunately none of this scents had the longevity and sillage that I am used to with perfume oils. I don´t have dry skin, so that is not to blame. Perhaps these oils are just meant to be rather delicate and soft but I definitely prefer more power and longevity!

Perfume Review - Rama

Rama by Enchanticals Perfume.

Rama is a dark and murky blend. Before you shake it there is a thick layer of cocoa absolute at the bottom... I like that, it is really pretty! In the vial this smells sweet and boozy, a bit like a lovely chocolate liqueur or like one of those liqueur chocolates that I spend Christmas avoiding. 

On wet it changes completely, coriander and bergamot takes center stage for a short while. At least I think it is coriander, I can´t quite remember what coriander smells like and I can´t find any to sniff right at this moment. This stage is fresh and spicy in a way I can enjoy. After the bergamot fades it also smells a bit like yogi tea, not a cup of it, but the "tea" itself, a beautiful blend of dry spices. The vague spice stays for a while but is joined by wood, a dry wood, not a resiny one. This is also where the cocoa makes a reappearance, but now it is a slightly bitter dark chocolate, just the way I like my chocolate in perfume. The final drydown a soft, almost powdery, woody amber with hints of cocoa. I can´t quite find any tobacco in this one, even if the description says it should be there... If there are hints of tobacco here, it is the same tobacco as in Mephistopheles, a sweet and mild one and therefore quite hard to distinguish.

This one is about medium in both sillage and longevity. I love it, probably not enough to buy a full size, but there is something intriguing about it... The scent is dry in a way that I enjoy and I am a fan of woods and spices!