kenjari | BPAL Reviews: Salon I plus freebies & swaps (Reply)

(Salon I scents are marked with an asterisk)

*And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt: A very understated blend of myrrh, sandalwood, and amber, with just a bit of sweetness and spice. Much more subtle and light than most of the other scents with similar notes that I've tried. It fades quickly, though.

*Bat-Woman: Flower-tinged warm night air. It's like a perfect early summer evening in a bottle.

*Carcieri D'Invenzione: Wow, was this a surprise. I was expecting the tobacco to go all ashtray-like on me as it has with other scents. Instead, it blends beautifully to give the woody and spicy notes of this scent a nice crisp tangy edge. It's a kind of reminiscent of a fireplace. It's a great scent, but I'm not sure if it's really "me" - I get the sense that wearing it would feel similar to smelling another person's scent on your sleeve after hugging them.

*Cloister Graveyard in the Snow: Wintery and musky. Unfortunately, the snow note is horrible on me - it smells kind of foetid, like stagnant water.

*Death of the Gravedigger: This is another one with the snow note, and it's also horrible. The myrrh, soil, and opoponax do nothing to temper or alter it.

*The Death of Sardanapal: This smells so much better on than it does in the bottle. Wine, honey, and woods. A pleasing spiciness develops as it dries. It's very warm and cozy.

*The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child: A light scent of tea, wood, and flowers, almost watery. It's very fresh-smelling and well-balanced. This was ludicrously good on

epilimnion, though, so I swapped it to her.

*The Isle of the Dead: Warm, sweet, rich, dark woods and resins with a hint of rose and other flowers. I think it's a bit too heavy, which makes the sweetness cleave to the back of my throat in a way I don't like.

Kitsune-Tsuki: Plum and jasmine. It's really nice. I am actually a bit unsure about how much I like it, but

epilimnion thought it was quite good on me and insisted I take it.

*Lucretia: Purple flowers combined with woodsy and herbal tones. It gets slightly musky and earthy as it dries. It's the exact kind of floral that works really well on me: flowers tempered with woods, musks, or resins.

Megaera: Amber and citrus, a lovely combination. Amber works really well on my skin and tends to make anything it's blended with work well, too.

Muse: A tangy floral, perfectly balanced between the flowers and citrus.

Nefertiti: Sandalwood with a bit of iris, myrrh, and herbs. It's slightly spicy but also has a clean, dry, green quality.

*Orpheus: A light, green herbal floral, with just a bit of powderiness. It's very spring-like.

*The Penitent Magdalen: Warm, gentle, and beautifully feminine without being at all girly. It's a perfect balance of florals and resins.

Phantom Queen: Very light mosses, grass, and flowers. I don't think it really works on me - it's too light and the greenness isn't very satisfying.

Pontarlier: Roses tempered with a subtle wet earth note.

Queen Gertrude: Violets and wisteria. It's an intriguing cool floral. It makes me feel elegant and self-possessed. I ended up giving it to

jenaflynn, though, because it worked better on her and she likes it more than I do.

Rage: Rose with amber, resin, and a hint of berries. It’s a got a little bit of tanginess to it that really pulls the whole thing together. Another blend that proves that amber is my chemistry's best friend.

The Raven: Warm dusty violets, soft without being girly. It's very much the way I like my florals - tempered with non-floral notes.

*Resurrection of the Flesh: At first application, there's a slight boozy note to this. Luckily, it quickly mellows out to a nice subtle woodsy floral.

Rose Moon: Rose with a hint of green. Rich, deep and complex without heaviness. So beautiful.

*Satan and Death with Sin Intervening: Tea and oranges with a woody, resiny undertone. It's wonderful - both dark and luminous at the same time. I think there's a bottle of this in my future.

*Silence: This is very light and subtle. Every time I sniff my wrist, I detect something different: sandalwood, a gentle fruitiness, a green herbal note, soft flowers. It ultimately goes kind of powdery. This will go to

epilimnion, because she bought a partial bottle and just loves it.

Szepasszony: A nice warm aquatic, like rain on a hot humid summer day. It's ever so slightly sultry. It's kind of strange that it turns out this way on me, because the majority of the reviews on bpal.org describe it as cool and icy.

*Three Brides: Roses and spice, but with a syrupy quality that I just can't get around. It's like an overly sweet middle eastern confection.

*Two Monsters: It starts out with wood and leather, with a spicy ashy undertone. It was nice, but not necessarily something I'd want to wear. Then the Curse of the Baby Powder struck, which was really suprising since I'd thought that the complexity of the Salon scents would prevent it.

Zombi: Dried roses, moss, and dirt. It's a very nice combination of floral and earthy, but I can't wear it in hot weather because once I start to sweat, it turns to bugspray.

Whew, that was a lot of testing. It was fun, but I'm really glad to get back to wearing bpal rather than just testing bpal. There will be swapping, but I've decided to wait until after I've returned from Oregon and moved to get into that, for the sake of my sanity.