Boadicea the Victorious Pure

Boadicea the Victorious is one of the luxury niche brands. I know, I know, just what does luxury mean in an industry defined as luxury? The price points for this house tends to be higher than the others, thus defining it as the luxury of the luxuries? Who cares, bottom line, it’s expensive. Pure

In Bottle: Fresh, crisp citrus and pink and white flowers. Pure smells like laundry,  just barley, but with a citrus topper and an even cleaner lead.

Applied: Beautiful citrus opens up the fragrance. Green and fresh, a lot of lime and a bit of lemon then the white florals come in and add a slight powdery sweetness to this while the citrus notes hang on into the mid-stage where that clean laundry scent gives way to a beautiful, airy beach-like floral and green tea. The dry down comes too soon as I was appreciating that lovely white sides, blue ocean, green palms feel of Pure. Upon dry down I finally get word of the sandalwood in this as Pure becomes a dusty, pretty citrus. This fragrance triggers a vague memory from my childhood. Green fields, dusty country road and laundry hanging from the lines.

Extra: Boadicea the Victorious is a relatively new British niche house headed by Michael Boadi. The house features some exclusive scents, and a ready to wear line referred to as The Victorious, which Pure is a part of.

Design: Presented in a rectangular glass bottle with lovely metal trimmings. You will receive the bottle nested in its own box and you shouldn’t settle for less, especially given how much this goes for on Luckyscent at $265.00 per 100ml. Yikes.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: : Bergamot, Sicilian lemon, green tangerine, Mediterranean cypress, basil leaves, Egyptian cumin, juniper berry, ylang ylang, sandalwood, amber, patchouli, vanilla.

Given how much this is, I wouldn’t settle for less than a fragrance that completely knocks my socks off. Pure is a lovely scent, for sure, a few degrees above a mainstream house’s general fair when it comes to clarity of the fragrance. I do love that juicy, pure citrus opening.

Reviewed in This Post: Pure, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Gucci Flora

There’s nothing very special about Gucci Flora that you couldn’t get anywhere else. It has a nice scent, an inoffensive and pleasant aroma perfect for office or school wear. Something about its squeaky cleanness just slots it in generic category. Generic, boring, common but ultimately very pretty. Flora

In Bottle: Light, sheer, clean peony with citrus and a mixture of discriminatory florals. Nothing stands out too much in Flora.

Applied: Citrus opener that has a nice clean kick to wipe the palette before it calls in the peony and its entourage of florals as the scent prances in a field wearing a cotton dress into the mid-stage. Rose is used to bolster the scent in Flora as I can’t smell rose, exactly, except for its presence. That sweet pinkish feel that builds up the power of the other flowers must be those mysterious fruity notes that Flora alludes to while rose is happy to just settle in the background. I was looking forward to a few other notes in this but they never actually make an appearance. It’s all just lumped into one big bouquet of fresh and clean. If someone asks me what I smell in Flora, they’re likely to see my eyes bug out as I chirp, “Flowers!” Flora lasts a decent time, often getting hours of wear before approaching its dry down which is a clean patchouli, vaguely flowery, and sandalwood mix.

Extra: I like Flora. I really do. Don’t let my comments about how pedestrian it is turn you away. This is a very nice fragrance with a classy, clean aroma that’s pretty set to be widely worn and commented upon. Mostly you’ll get things of the, “Hmm, you smell nice” category. Then you get the pleasure of telling them what it is and it’ll be a great time.

Design: Cute squat bottle in a geometric shape with a little black ribbon on the bottle. The design is pleasant, the bottle isn’t too awkward to hold and everything works as it should. One thing I will note is that I love the floral pattern detail on the inside of the box. Reminiscent of botany texts and old woodcut floral patterns. I am a big sucker for that kind of thing.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Citrus, peony, osmanthus, rose, fruity notes, sandalwood, patchouli.

I own a small 30ml bottle of this stuff that I spray on whenever I want to smell clean and fresh but more interesting than one of my clean musk scents. I always find myself smiling a little whenever Flora wafts up to my nose, so something in this stuff is doing good work.

Reviewed in This Post: Flora, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Guerlain Vol de Nuit

Much raved about by fragrance lovers, I had this on my list to smell and try for a very long time. When I did spot it at a counter as a tester, I wasted no time making a beeline for it. Excited as I spritzed it, stuck my nose it, slapped it on my skin and then stuck my nose in again, I was hoping for the shapely beauty of Mitsouko. Or the chilly distant wonder of L’Heure Bleue. What I got was a little disappointing. And I say that as I don my metal armor and prepare for the angry mob. Vol de Nuit

In Bottle: That lovely, iconic Guerlain base that defines all the classics shoots Vol de Nuit into heavy hitters category immediately. Though after the guerlainess makes its way through my nose, Vol de Nuit’s underlying personality seems a bit weak. A little big of bergamot. A little bit of spices. Not what I expected from a fragrance that was so well loved.

Applied: Lovely little opener with the guerlainess leading the way for bergamot to flare and dissolve, leaving a little trace of it behind for the rest of the fragrance. Vol de Nuit is a gentle waft of spices, woods, and florals. It’s green ivy and dense flowers on a bed of soft spices. It smells–kind of ordinary. I expected great things from this fragrance. Things so great that it couldn’t possibly have fulfilled. Perhaps I read so much hype that it’s gone to my head and I wanted laser beams and dinosaurs when all Vol de Nuit had to offer me was pleasant featurette. Vol de Nuit is lovely, for sure. It’s more complex than something made these days but I also expected it to be so much more than this. When the dry down approaches, Vol de Nuit turns into a dense, dark woodsy vanilla spice before fading completely. Very nice. Very much Guerlain. Vol de Nuit still blows most modern fragrances out of the water. But I guess I was just expecting more, especially if you slot it in with the other classics.

Extra: Vol de Nuit is a true Guerlain classic of the likes of Shalimar and Jicky. It was released in 1933 and composed by Jacques Guerlain.

Design: I love Vol de Nuit’s bottle. Colored glass with recessed patterns in the shape of a belt buckle. An interesting circle with the fragrance’s name. Reminds me of Art Deco and the days gone by when the women were like columns and the men wore fedoras.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Hesperedic notes, narcissus., galbanum, oakmoss, woods, iris, vanilla, spices.

Since you’ve probably seen it listed a lot and likely wondered what it means, hesperedic notes are scents reminiscent of florals mixed with citrus peels such as orange, lemon and tangerine. Also you can bet your horses that oakmoss note is either synthetic or has been formulated out. If it hasn’t, I would be shocked and fully expecting it to be phased out soon.

Reviewed in This Post: Vol de Nuit, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Jean Paul Gaultier Ma Dame

Ma Dame has one of the most addictive and fun commercials I’ve seen as of date. It features international It Girl, Agyness Deyn, with a snappy song and a great dynamic series of cuts showing the rejection of order and embrace of rebel and style. But like all fragrances, I advocate smelling the actual juice. The fragrance itself doesn’t really follow its marketing image. Ma Dame

In Bottle: Fruity, sweet and candy-like. This is floral too and has a strangely clean cotton candy scent to it. Now that’s just a bit odd as when I think cotton candy, the last thing I think is clean but hey, Ma Dame.

Applied: Flowers, sugar and citrus, big chunks of sugar and a ripe orange thrown in for good measure. At the heart of this fragrance is a lovely floral mixed in with the sweetness, like candied flowers covered in citrus clean. There something lemony to this because I can smell a very strong, sharp citrus trying to overcome the other notes. Ma Dame is a strong scent with lots of sillage. It’s projection will reach an impressive distance so use it sparingly if you’re going to be in an enclosed space with others. She’s a nice fragrance though with a bright and spicy little kick to her. The dry down is a sweet woodsy affair.

Extra: Ma Dame is by Jean Paul Gaultier, a French fashion designer well known for his haute couture and conceptual fashion items. You may recognize some of his work adorning the likes of Marilyn Manson.

Design: Ma Dame is bottled in glass with a female figure recessed into it. The figure is a throwback to Gaultier’s usual bottle style in the shape of a woman. The glass has a nice orange pink sheen to it. This one is pleasant to look at but I’ve always found the body shape bottles to be a bit too much.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Orange zest, rose, musk, cedar wood.

I wouldn’t refer to Ma Dame as an order rejecting fragrance. It’s a nice tweak from the usual fruity floral fare but it has a long way to go before it rejects anything. The sweet floral is pleasant though it can be a bit much–especially if someone mistakes this fragrance for a wilting lily and bathes themselves in it, thus causing a 100 mile radius cloud of pink scent to perpetually swirl about them like a sugary tornado.

Reviewed in This Post: Ma Dame, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


Clinique Happy

You have to throw props at a fragrance that doesn’t even try to pretend that it has any ounce of natural to it. Clinique Happy is the big red balloon of the fragrance world. It smells fake, it smells perky, and it doesn’t even bother to hide it. Happy

In Bottle: I don’t know where the notes listing got the idea that this was supposed to be fruity and floral. The only thing this smells like is powdered makeup. Ever hovered near the Clinique counter at the department store? Ever bought any of their cosmetics? That scent you get is what Clinique Happy smells like in the bottle.

Applied: Juicy green citrus followed by a powdery green floral and dry citrus rind mid-stage that has this synthetic heart to it. That synthetic heart smells like a child’s red balloon. It smells like Clinique cosmetics. I swear this scent is what they imbue in their products because, to me as someone who knows and hangs out with several people who wear Clinique cosmetics, this fragrance is  extremely familiar. It’s not unpleasant by any means, it’s just familiar and frustrating because I cannot dissect it and cannot separate it from the products I know it smells like. I can only go so far as to suggest it smells like citrus at first, then green florals, ivy, and dry citrus notes and when it dries down it has a dusky green powder tail that drifts off leaving a hint of freshness. Fresh, clean and synthetic.

Extra: Clinique is well known for their line of hypo-allergenic cosmetics. So I’m guessing that all the people who say this fragrance makes them happy are either smelling the red balloon and remembering the circus or just really, really like Clinique products. Maybe I’m just not understanding the floral this is supposed to be. I didn’t find myself any happier having smelled this or put it on. I didn’t find myself any sadder either so there’s that.

Design: Very simple bottle design. Clinique does simple packaging very well with their signature light green color on their cosmetics. I was surprised Happy didn’t feature the light green in some way but I’m not complaining about what it currently is. Easy to hold, not unpleasant to look at. Just a bit too plain though.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Bergamot, boysenberry, honeysuckle, bushflower, grapefruit, moss, freesia, lemon, Hawaiian wedding flower.

Nothing really sweet in this either. It was just a light, powdery, fresh scent. Not at all offensive, quite amusing in that it smelled like Clinique cosmetics too. This is nice if you need an office fragrance or a scent for everyday wear.

Reviewed in This Post: Happy, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Sarah Jessica Parker Covet

Covet is a fragrance with Sarah Jessica Parker’s name on it. She has other fragrances too, ones that I actually like more. Lovely is a pretty one. That new fragrance she has coming out seems worthwhile too. Covet never really drew me in as I heard its mid-stage can be somewhat intense. And now that I know why, I can safely say this isn’t for me. Covet

In Bottle: Soft, citrus, lavender floral with a touch of sweetness–almost licorice-like. Nice green, clean and kind of average smelling. I lower the bar for celebuscents as I really don’t expect these to break any new ground. I just expect them to smell pretty, agreeable and nice. And in the bottle, Covet smells pleasant.

Applied: Light, green aromatic floral. A little reminiscent of Spider Lily by India Hicks. Pleasant on application with a slight citrus note that layers and plays well with the greenness of the fragrance. The pleasant top notes last for a few minutes before Covet takes a turn for the sharp and chemical and powerful. After the initial pleasantries are through, Covet turns into a powerful bright green and lemon fragrance that’s more reminiscent of Versace Versense’s crazy powerful citrus than it is of Spider Lily now. Spider Lily had a boundary but Covet does not. It crashes through the boundaries and gives off wave after wave of too-strong lemon and sharpness. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but the citrus in this is really strong and entirely too overpowering. It’s trying to be sweet and sophisticated and pretty but that citrus is just so strong. Finally when Covet enters the dry down stage it mellows out just a little as that chemical green finally lets up and I can smell some sweetness.

Extra: I don’t know if this is just my experience or if a small swathe of people out there who also experienced this overpowering green lemon monster mid-stage just have really awkward skin chemistry but we do exist and Covet should be tested prior to purchase. Or you might experience what I did and just be thoroughly perplexed.

Design: It’s a cute bottle, little cap is a plastic flower petal ring type thing. It’s easy enough to hold and the design is not over the top. I have to agree with Tania Sanchez and what she said about this bottle in, Perfumes, The A-Z Guide, “The bottle looks like a Super Mario power-up”. It really does.

Fragrance Family: Citrus Floral

Notes: Geranium leaves, lemon, honeysuckle, lavender, lemon, amber.

I suspect one of those lemons–maybe both of them–are causing this sharp over-green explosion every time I try to enjoy a citrus-based fragrance. One of these days I’ll figure it out.

Reviewed in This Post: Covet, 2008, Eau de Parfum.


A Guide for BPAL Newbies

As Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) fragrances get more and more popular, some people might be interested in finding out just what all this hubbub is about. They’ll inevitably discover The Lab’s website address and look for themselves. Upon which they are bombarded by the general catalog fragrances of which there are hundreds of and decide that it is, really, quite too much to sort through.

And the site is intimidating with hundreds in the general catalogue and literally thousands if you include former general catalogue fragrances and limited editions that are no longer available. How is someone new to BPAL supposed to get around and figure out what they want to try? Or what’s supposed to smell good?

While this cursory guide is not an in-depth document meant to school you in every fragrance available from BPAL, it will list a few common, popular, general catalog fragrances that you may want to try out when you’re looking to order your first pack of samples.

How do samples work at BPAL?

BPAL’s sample vials are typically around 1ml and are referred to as imp’s ears. You can buy one imp ear for $4.00 or get a pack of six for $22.00. The prices have been adjusted recently as of this posting which is why on your travels around the internet, you may get conflicting price quotes. The best rule of thumb is to trust what The Lab says on its website. If you discover the secondhand market for BPAL sample vials, you can typically get these for much cheaper, though you may not be able to pick and choose which scents you want to get as a sample seller will usually not carry all the fragrances you are looking for. Imps

What should I include in my sample pack order?

Usually people will think that what you want to include in your sample pack are fragrances they’d like. This is a good safe practice. But I also recommend that people go out of their way to try fragrances they wouldn’t normally think they’d like because all scents can smell different on different people and all scents are composed differently too, this goes for mainstream, niche and BPAL alike. With a catalog of readily available perfumes ranging into the hundreds, why restrict yourself?

Now, let’s get into the meat of this post. You have on the website a few hundred general catalogue scents that can be ordered as samples (pay attention to that page on The Lab’s site about imps and what fragrance lines cannot be ordered as samples too). You have a general idea of what scents you like but don’t want to fiddle around wondering what would work on you since browsing the site could take hours and hours. The following is a handy little list of popular general catalog BPALs that I recommend, ordered to fit a few fragrance types to help you pick and choose:


Citrus:
Cheshire Cat (Mad Tea Party), Whitechapel (Wanderlust), Night Gaunt (Picnic in Arkham).
Clean: Dirty (Sin & Salvation), Lilium Inter Spinas (Ars Amatoria), The Lady of Shalott (Ars Amatoria).
Fresh: Embalming Fluid (Ars Moriendi), Kumiho (Diabolus), Phantom Queen (Diabolus).
Floral:
Glasgow (Wanderlust), The Unicorn (Mad Tea Party), Amsterdam (Wanderlust).
Fruity:
Aglaea (Excolo), Baobhan Sith (Diabolus), Yemaya (Excolo).
Gourmand: Dorian (Sin & Salvation),  Eat Me (Mad Tea Party), Gluttony (Sin & Salvation).
Herbal:
Villain (Diabolus), Lear (Illyria).
Musky: Bien Loin d’Ici (Ars Amatoria), Snake Oil (Ars Amatoria), Penitence (Sin & Salvation).
Smoky:
Anne Bonny (Bewitching Brews), Djinn (Diabolus).
Spicy: Queen of Sheba (Ars Amatoria), Scherezade (Bewitching Brews), Plunder (Bewitching Brews).
Sweet: Aunt Caroline’s Joy Mojo (Bewitching Brews), The Dodo (Mad Tea Party).
Woodsy:
Sri Lanka (Wanderlust), The Coiled Serpent (Bewitching Brews), Arkham (Picnic in Arkham).

It should be noted that these are just recommendations based upon my tastes. What you like or dislike may be different so feel free to look at these as suggestions only. If you have any suggestions to add to this list, please feel free to comment.

Also keep in mind that BPAL may have to discontinue some of the fragrances listed in this post at a later date due to component issues so some of these recommendations may not be available when you go to order your samples. Always double check the site to ensure the fragrance you want is still available before you send in an order. If a fragrance you wanted a sample of is not available or was discontinued, BPAL will substitute it with an available fragrance.


Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue

Dolce & Gabanna are like the masters of the inoffensive scent. Light Blue is considered to be one of the most popular most inoffensive and easily wearable fragrances available. I used to smell this stuff everywhere when everyone had a bottle. Back then it seemed like one in every tenth person was rocking Light Blue, but that phase seems to have passed and people have moved onto fruitier things. Light Blue

In Bottle: Fresh, citrus scent with a note of cedar. I can smell the apple, tart and crisp. The in-bottle scent is a bit aqueous too. This is clean, fresh, like a very nice shower gel or shampoo. Or a well made alcoholic drink.

Applied: Mojitos. It smells like mojitos! The apple and lime just combine nicely into tricking my nose. So what I get is apple, lime, mint and rum. Very slightly tart and very slightly sweet. I don’t know why I’m so happy about that but Light Blue’s alcohol base is doing its work with the citrus and aqueous notes in this. It’s like I spilled a mojito on me and decided I was too busy to wash it off. But after that initial burst of mojito, Light Blue turns toward the woodsy side of its personality. Cedar comes up, and the citrus side of Light Blue gets together very well with it. Then disaster strikes as the lemon notes comes in and bulldozes everything. I’m starting to see a trend here as lemon tends to be the obliterator of perfumes on my skin. I cannot for the life of me, smell anything but this stupid lemon now.  Once in a while that green apple scent will flair up like it’s trying to make itself known. Upon dry down there is a soft woodsy and musky quality to Light Blue that fades in and out of the loud and obnoxious lemon that eventually dies but when it does, there’s nothing else left to appreciate.

Extra: At one point I owned a deodorant stick in Light Blue scent. It smelled much more like a mojito than the fragrance. It was also a highly pleasant wake up in the mornings thanks to the sheer freshness of this. Not to mention the looks I’d get as people would think I drank before I went to work.

Design: Light Blue is bottled in a big glass rectangle with frosted glass. The cap is is an equally rectangular blue plastic affair. The bottle is a little strange to hold but it is manageable. Nothing exiting going on with the design of this bottle. There are hundreds of different fragrances that employ the big rectangle bottle out there.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Granny smith apple, sicilian cedar, lemon, lime, bluebells, jasmine, rose, bamboo, cedarwood, amber, musk.

You shouldn’t wear Light Blue if you’re looking for something that smells unique or interesting. The time for Light Blue to be interesting ended the day everybody decided to wear it. But it is not at all a bad scent. It is highly versatile, very inoffensive and extremely appropriate for wear in an office.

Reviewed in This Post: Light Blue, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Creed Love in White

Love in White is one of those fragrances with a wide split between people who love it and people who hate it. It’s Creed’s answer to the ultimate fresh fragrance. This stuff is so fresh and crisp it makes my eyes water. Billed as a women’s fragrance, Love in White comes in a cute, feminine white bottle that’s supposed to represent a woman, the sand, and the sea. I can dig it. Love in White

In Bottle: Sweetness, aqua, and something sharp. Like sugar water with broken bits of glass and twisted pieces of metal. Love in White is strong too. So strong that my first whiff of it went straight up my nose and exploded in the back of my head. The sharpness that I assume might be the zest is so strong in this that it went beyond fine fragrance and reminded me of household cleaner.

Applied: Not much dying down of that sharp note on application but I do get the rest of the fragrance now that it’s on my skin. It’s like somebody turned up the volume on the jasmine note here because it’s very high-pitched, almost shrill as it tries to out sing the sandalwood. Meanwhile, iris with its rather distinct brightness is adding to the fresh feel. There’s got to be some aqua note in this because I swear I can smell water. I suppose that’s where the ocean imagery comes from but so much of this fragrance is clean and fresh that it’s hard to move beyond those two concepts to something gentler. The dry down helps a bit, the sharpness fades and the florals have sore throats and are now just whispering. I can appreciate the quiet calm of the dry down here as the soft creaminess of that vanilla shows up to help tame the sandalwood a little.

Extra: Love in White kind of reminds me of household cleaners. Not in a bad way. I mean, household cleaners contain fragrances meant to offend the least amount of people. Love in White is that inoffensive. The thing I can fault it for is how close it has to stick to my skin so I have to get up really close and personal. And when I’m that close, the fragrance is incredibly strong.

Design: The white bottle for Love in White is supposed to represent the feminine, the ocean and the crisp ocean air. I’m not sure I’m really feeling the look of the bottle or the conceptualization of it but it is pleasant enough to look at.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Orange zest, rice husk, iris, jasmine, daffodil, magnolia, rose, vanilla, ambergris, Mysore sandalwood.

When it’s all said and done Love in White is a very fresh sort of shrill scent with a loud projection that also manages to stick relatively close to the skin. I have to get up close to really smell it but once I’m that close I also tend to get its entire assault up my nose.

Reviewed in This Post: Love in White, 2010, Sample vial.


Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere

Commence the raving, Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere makes the regular No.5 and twists it into a modern, clean but still classic smelling fragrance. Eau Premiere was made to capture that lost subsection of individuals who thought the original No.5 was just “too much”. That No.5 smelled too much of aldehydes or far too old. In essence, Eau Premiere is an updated, stripped away, younger version.  Eau Premiere

In Bottle: Bright, fresh citrus over that familiar Chanel No.5 smell. But there’s something clearly lacking. The aldehydes that come up immediately upon first sniff have been toned down. The sparkle is a bit duller but Eau Premiere still has that No.5 base, it’s just less blatant now.

Applied: Citrus and a shout of florals before Eau Premiere settles down. Imagine Chanel No.5, then take away most of that sparkle by toning down its aldehydes. Tweak the florals so they dance and float in the air like a pretty, flighty piece of transparent cloth. The powder is noticeably toned down in Eau Premiere to further “update” this fragrance and make it more youthful. The final dry down also lacks that heady, dense, muskiness in the original No.5. Eau Premiere is a younger class of lady. She’s a pale gown and a diamond necklace compared to Chanel No.5’s sleek black dress and pearls. I get that same, but subdued clean, floral, jasmine fragrance but it’s lighter, greener, more fresh and less dense. Nevertheless, the essence of the old classic is still in there.

Extra: Beautiful as it is, Eau Premiere is a flanker. And flankers are not always bad. Though the ones that come immediately to mind for me weren’t to my tastes. Still, when you think about all the different products Chanel has with No.5’s essence, soaps, lotions, body gels, powders, and on and on, another flanker based on No.5 might seem excessive. But if you love Chanel No.5, it’s daughter, Eau Premiere is worth a try. She’s got the same breeding but is obviously in a younger style.

Design: Presented in a tall rectangular glass bottle with the house name and fragrance name embossed onto the glass. The bottle takes its inspiration from the original Chanel No.5 bottle but in a taller, easier to hold form. The cap is especially familiar, being made of a denser material. Chanel’s bottle designs have always been beautiful and Eau Premiere’s is no exception.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Mandarin, bergamot, aldehydes, jasmine, neroli, ylang-ylang, rose, vetiver, vanilla.

Eau Premiere was tweaked by Chanel’s in-house perfumer, Jacques Polge. Polge was responsible for the wildly popular, and very successful Chanel fragrance, Coco Mademoiselle. He’s also done Cormandel, Egoiste, and Allure Homme.

Reviewed in This Post: Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere, 2009, Eau Premiere.