BPAL: The Frimping

[gwydion]

The Frimps:
ANNE BONNY (Bewitching Brews,): (Company says: A blend of Indonesian red patchouli, red sandalwood, and frankincense.)

In bottle: Mostly balanced. The patchouli is slightly stronger than the sandalwood, and the frankincense a touch weaker, but really, it smells exactly as you’d expect given the listed components. Wet: The patchouli is early, the sandalwood suggests a ship, the frankincense gives it claws, and a touch of paint thinner. Not my thing, really, but suits the concept just fine. Dry: powdery sandalwood mostly. It’s actually quite pretty on the dry down.

BATHSHEBA (Ars Amorata): (Company says: The Seventh Daughter, Daughter of the Oath. She was King David’s lover, and the mother of King Solomon. Her scent is breathtakingly lovely, exotic and powerfully sensual in its innocence: carnation, sensual plum, and Arabian musk.)

In bottle: Fairly evenly balanced and well blended. I think the carnation is marginally stronger, but really the plum and musk are not far behind. Wet: I actually like this even better the musk and plum really pop on the skin while the spiciness of the carnation adds a special something to the warmer plum. Dry: fast fading. What little is left is vaguely musky plum.

DOVE'S HEART (Bewitching Brews, Conjuring Bag): (Company says: A gentle, healing love blend, often used to help mend a broken heart. Brings peace of mind, soothes the sting of loss, and aids in finding closure.)

In bottle: A pretty mix of lavender and dragon’s blood, with a touch of something herbal. There might be a hint of incense. Wet: there may be a touch more floral than I thought, though the lavender is so dominant I can’t tell what. Dry: mostly dragon’s blood with a touch of linen.

HORN OF PLENTY (Diabolus): (Company says: Forces a change of fortune, helps overcome poverty and want, and helps attract prosperity, prestige and earthly bounty.)

In bottle: Bubble gum, herbs, red berries, and paint thinner. There is no way I’m putting this on my skin.

MAENAD (Bewitching Brews, Conjuring Bag): (Company says: Orgiastic mayhem in the extreme: sweet strawberry and orange blossom distorted by carnation, black poppy and hibiscus.

In bottle: Fruity bubble gum. Really, I think it’s my nose breaking down the strawberry accord with the poppy, orange blossom and hibiscus, and coming up with fake fruity accords that were not intended. I can barely pick out the carnation in the chaos my nose is making of this, but it is there. Wet: It makes slightly more sense on my skin, with the strawberry accord components reassembling into a strawberry flavoring scent instead of true strawberry. This allows the orange blossoms to smell more like orange blossom, the hibiscus to create a subtle background, and the poppy to add a little sex appeal. The poppy strengthens as it warms, slowly coming to dominate. This is fore the best, as it imposes some order, and hides the seams on the strawberry accord better. Likely this won’t be a problem for normal people and likely most people won’t break down the accord to start with, but if you have trouble with some strawberry accords, likely this will not be one of the exceptions. Dry: Ah, there is the carnation, right there with the strawberry gum.

MOONSHINE AND MIST (Marchen): (Company says: Ethereal, otherworldly, delicate: ambergris, white musk, water violet, ylang ylang, magnolia, and white sandalwood.)

In bottle: Soapy florals mostly. There seems to be a conflict between the sandalwood and the flowers. The musk is clear and reasonably strong, and plays well with the ambergris. I’m not skin testing as my skin does terrible things with violet and ylang ylang.

RED DEVIL (Bewitching Brews, Conjuring Bag): (Company says: A sinfully playful lust blend. Inspires sexual spontaneity, a little bit of kinkiness, and new and inventive ways to get dirty.)

In bottle: Grapefruit dominant. Bright and friendly and a little sharrp. Wet: Still grapefruit dominant, but sweeter and a little gummy, with a touch of berry and spice. Dry: Fast fades to soft herbs.

THY GODFATHER'S PRESENT (Marchen): (Company says: A bruised purple bundle of herbs with hyssop and life-everlasting.

In bottle: Sharply herbal and oddly sweet in it’s floralness. It does manage to convey a sense of purpleness, like dried flowers. Wet: An herbal green sort of delicate purple floral. It’s a purple wildflower sort of floral and the herbs are rich and pleasant green. They go together well. It’s more herbal as it warms and it quickly gains dominance, while the flowers fade to a gentle top note. The herbs smell fresh cut. I am detecting what I suspect is some lemon verbena, or at least some similar citrus adjacent herb in the mix, but I’m failing to find names for the others, though they are familiar. Dry: sweet purple herbs. No really.

REVENGE 2011 (Unreleased - Atmospheric Linen & Room Spray)

There is something ozone chemical that may be linen or possibly hairspray. I’m picking up dirt. There is a soft sweet effect, but nothing I can quiet identify, with something familiar that’s a little like fungus on a rotting log. There may be vetiver or orris, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten which is which. There may be leather and/or moss, as I thought I smelled both at various points, the moss more strongly than the leather. It's also got a pale wood thing going on, more prominent with time.

VAN VAN (Bewitching Brews, Conjuring Bag): (Company says: A venerable voodoo blend, used for purification of the spirit and to amplify positive personal power.

In bottle: I’m not skin testing, as I know from the bottle, I will react badly. It’s sort of bone dust and dealy mushrooms. With something sweet and hard to classify let alone identify.

VASILISSA (Marchen): (Company says: She herself had cheeks like blood and milk and grew every day more and more beautiful: creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine.)

In bottle: It is indeed creamy. It’s cream and skin musk dominant with amber a close second. The incense and star jasmine are very soft and well blended with the other scents. This is foodier than I expected with a powdery subtle sexiness to it. I was expecting this to be more floral, but it really isn’t, the jasmine gently blending into amber and sandalwood. Wet: Creamy musks are still dominant. It is still vaguely foody and subtly sexy iin a very feminine sort of way. My skin coarsens it rather, but that is to be expected. It is still lovely, but ill suited to my personality, but it would be lovely on most women, I think. It has lots of throw. Dry: It doesn’t change that much, the cream softens leaving the musks and amber dominant, but faded, it is pretty close to fresh only softer.

Y'HA-NTHLEI (Picnic in Arkam): (Company says: A great undersea metropolis located below Devil's Reef. A swirling, lightless, effervescent scent: the deepest marine notes with bergamot, eucalyptus and foamy ambergris.)

In bottle: I will not skin test it due to my bad reaction to eucalyptus. It is gorgeous in the imp, and well suited to concept. It does give an impression of sea the richness of the bergamot and ambergris implying worship and the exotic nature of the city beneath the sea. The eucalyptus gives it claws and blends beautifully with the others. This really is rich and strange, dangerous and mysterious. My inability to wear it in no way undermines my sincere admiration for the skill with which it is blended and its unique beauty.

Ordered:
THE BUTTERFLY (Last Unicorn): (Company says: Fuzzy brown tonka bean, golden amber, bergamot, and petitgrain.)

In bottle: Bergamot dominent. The tonka, petitgrain, and amber give a gentle, but pleasant support. It’s rather sweeter than I expected, but nice enough. Wet: both sweeter and sharper on the skin. It’s still bergamot dominent, and you really would need to like bergamot to like this. The petitgrain moves to a strong second, with tonka the softest note. I really do like the way the three smoother notes display the bright jewel of the bergamot. The whole thing is delicate, feminine, and utterly lovely. Dry: The tonka and Amber come into their own as the others fade, warm and friendly and sweet. This was not what I expected, but it is very pleasant indeed.

DESICCATED FROSTBERRY PIE FILLING PERFUME 2010 (LE, Underworld Cup 2010: The Cats from Saturn): (Company says: Commemorating our Black-Ribbon Award Winning Pie Filling, named Best in Show at the Celephaïs County Fair six-hundred years in a row! Plucked from the highest mountaintops of Leng, our desiccated frostberries have been certified organic by the Dreamlands Department for Environmental Concerns, Slaughter Regulation, and Sacrificial Affairs.)

In bottle: I do not know what a frostberry is, but this is very berry sure enough. It’s something like raspberry, but there is something frosty, sugary, and toxic about the blend. It’s suits the concept. It does also just suggest pastry somehow without having a pastry note. Wet: It no longer suggests pastry. The sweetened toxic frosty berry nature is balanced the same, but smoother somehow, with the berry more complex and the edges blurred. I am not sure I like it on me. It's’ a little too sharp, too almost ozone. I can easily imagine more copacetic skin chemistries for the blend’s charms, so YMMV by quite a bit. Dry: Pretty much the same only softer and smoother.

EL NUEVO PURITANO 2011 (LE): (Company says: The wicked wrath of moral panic: unmoving, rigid oak, dry leather, tonka, gunpowder tea, and pious olibanum with a core of perverse and furtive vanilla bean, bay leaf, clove bud, and lime.)

In bottle: Really unusual. Extremelu complex, and difficult to parse at first sniff. I’d say oak, olibanum, bay, vanilla, and lime are most noticeable, but all elements are presenat, and nothing is particularly dominant. The elements play together beauttifully in the bottle, particularly the smokey tea and the leather. The clove/bay combination was nothing I’d have imagined, but form an interesting effect. There is something pleasantly old fashioned about this, like my Uncle John’s childhood room, long abandoned in my Grandparent’s house and preserved as a sort of shrine to my grand father’s aspirations. Wet: The leather, lime, tea, and bay strengthen on the skin, changing the balance without losing complexity. It is the masculine side of androgenous without losing delicacy or that pleasing old fashioned feel. As it warms, the clove comes out to play. This is a poem with each minute of change a new line. Oak and leather and lime taking new partners in the dance as various things come to the fore. This is lovely and strange, and impossible to explain. One minute it’s tea and lime, the next olibanum and smoke. I’m am completely charmed, but unable to say exactly why. Dry: Mmmmm… Old oak chest, with the ghost of all the other elemen6ts. A wonderful, complex, and irreplacable addition to my collection.

LA MANO DEL DESTINO (LE): (Company says: Powerful Sumatran patchouli and enigmatic Brazilian copaiba with pao d’arco, cacao absolute, bourbon vanilla, Ceylon cinnamon, and tobacco.)

In bottle: I don’t know two of the elements, so my review will be below average. Apologies. The Patchouli is extremely strong, and not of the type I like as it turns out. The scent is a little chalky as a whole, and I think at least one element is making the patchouli more herbal than it might normally be. The cacao is next strongest, followed by tobacco. The other elements are very subtle. I think this will be better aged than fresh. Wet: Mostly dirty, earthy patchouli with some tobacco, and hint of the other things. Eau du hippy really. The thing that smells like roots comes out as it warms. Dry: It’s better as it wears, the patchouli finally allowing the other elements to show through to the benefit of everyone. If this had oak and much less patchouli, I’d probably love it. As it is, I can’t really endorse it, even with the more interesting dry down.

THE NINTH CAGE (Last Unicorn): (Company says: A claustrophobic blend of iron and oak.)

In bottle: Delicious iron accord and gentle aged oak. Lovely. Wet: The more complex elements of the core scent come out as it warms. It is just slightly spicy. It is still slightly iron accord dominant with the oak expanding in richness underneath. The scent has claws, and it’s exactly what I want it to be. Dry: If anything more interesting and lovely. The oak is doing something gorgeous with that slightly spicy element I am suspecting is part of the iron accord. As the iron accord breaks down to it’s components with wear it just keeps getting more interesting and rich. There is almost a hint of dirt to it, which I also like. Lovely and dark.

TATTERED LACE 2011 (LE, Dark Delicacies): (Company says: An allegory of Victorian melancholy and madness: tea-stained bourbon vanilla, with white cognac, coconut bark, Oman frankincense, and woodmoss over opium tar-stained silk.)

In bottle: Heavenly. The vanilla, tea, moss, and cognac are absolutely stunning together, sweet and wicked. The opium is softer, but perfect with the dominant blend. The coconut and frankincense are understated, but present. While frankincense often overwhelms, here it plays well with others. Wet: Less smoothly blended on my skin, but still quite lovely. The tea is more distinct and dominant. The moss provides good support. The vanilla is now dancing with the frankincense, and the cognac has dropped to the softness of the coconut. I do think it’s better in the bottle, but I like this too. Dry: Not quite as good on the dry down. It’s mostly vanilla and frankincense at this point. I have hopes that this will be interesting as it ages, and it really is still worth it, but the dry down is disappointing compared to fresh and in bottle.



Winners: El Nuevo Puritano, The Ninth Cage
Runners Up: The Butterfly