BPAL Review: Venice

I'll have to redo Pele fairly soon - it was overpowered by Leanan Sidhe not wanting to get off my skin.

Onto Venice.

From BPAL's website: "A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty and of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf."

In the bottle: the jasmine and the wisteria blend together beautifully. Can smell hints of the other oils, with a bright spike of lemon at the end. Can't really smell the roses, which I'm a little disappointed with, but eh. (I like roses. They make me happy.)

On initial use: The orris root really darkens the otherwise overly-sweet jasmine, and I'm reminded by large commercial perfumeries coming up with similar scents. It's neither masculine nor feminine on initial use, though, I suspect that might change. The combination of scents is crazy. I still get the lemon spike at the end, and I really like it. It's not crazily overbearing.

15 minutes later: Venice becomes a lot more delicate as time wears on, and it's almost like I can smell a bit of sweet, hot sunshine with this. The spike of lemon isn't as strong as it previously was, but the jasmine/wisteria/sandalwood is still the biggest group of notes that I can detect at this point. Still quite nice and earthy, which I really like. Initial verdict is to keep to wear at events, but we'll see if it changes any.

30 minutes later: The rose is finally coming out to play, but they're not too terribly aggressive, but there's a hint of the orris root still. The jasmine has lightened almost completely. This entire time, I've been trying to figure out why it smells so familiar to me and now I remember why. It reminds me of Johnson and Johnson's baby lotion, in the pink bottle. Same sort of scent, at least as I remember. (That, and I remember that my classmates used it in gym because it was cheap and it kept them from looking ashy.)

45 minutes later: The jasmine and wisteria play nicely with the roses, and the orris is a great binding scent. It's not an aggressive scent, at least on me, it's not. The Johnson and Johnson scent is mostly gone by now, but it's starting to give me a headache. It may be me sniffing my wrist every so often, but eh. There is a lingering sweetness that I'm not sure where exactly it's coming from but it's not overpowering the otherwise earthy "thing" that's going on.

1 hour later: The scent is still there, and on complete dry-down, is still fairly pleasant, if not a little boring. The orris and sandalwood are the last notes I've got, and by this point, I'm almost kind of sick of them.

Verdict: It's not as rich or decadent as I feel the Italian Renaissance was, but I do think it's pleasant. It's still nice, but I'm not sure I want to hold on to this one. If Leanan Sidhe is a trade without regrets, this one is a hesitant trade, though I'm not sure I would go out of my way to buy it for myself. It's earthy, but a little too floral at the same time, and it might be okay for events, as it has that "feel" of history about it. I'll have to see what it smells like on my mom.

BPAL Review: Venice

I'll have to redo Pele fairly soon - it was overpowered by Leanan Sidhe not wanting to get off my skin.

Onto Venice.

From BPAL's website: "A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty and of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf."

In the bottle: the jasmine and the wisteria blend together beautifully. Can smell hints of the other oils, with a bright spike of lemon at the end. Can't really smell the roses, which I'm a little disappointed with, but eh. (I like roses. They make me happy.)

On initial use: The orris root really darkens the otherwise overly-sweet jasmine, and I'm reminded by large commercial perfumeries coming up with similar scents. It's neither masculine nor feminine on initial use, though, I suspect that might change. The combination of scents is crazy. I still get the lemon spike at the end, and I really like it. It's not crazily overbearing.

15 minutes later: Venice becomes a lot more delicate as time wears on, and it's almost like I can smell a bit of sweet, hot sunshine with this. The spike of lemon isn't as strong as it previously was, but the jasmine/wisteria/sandalwood is still the biggest group of notes that I can detect at this point. Still quite nice and earthy, which I really like. Initial verdict is to keep to wear at events, but we'll see if it changes any.

30 minutes later: The rose is finally coming out to play, but they're not too terribly aggressive, but there's a hint of the orris root still. The jasmine has lightened almost completely. This entire time, I've been trying to figure out why it smells so familiar to me and now I remember why. It reminds me of Johnson and Johnson's baby lotion, in the pink bottle. Same sort of scent, at least as I remember. (That, and I remember that my classmates used it in gym because it was cheap and it kept them from looking ashy.)

45 minutes later: The jasmine and wisteria play nicely with the roses, and the orris is a great binding scent. It's not an aggressive scent, at least on me, it's not. The Johnson and Johnson scent is mostly gone by now, but it's starting to give me a headache. It may be me sniffing my wrist every so often, but eh. There is a lingering sweetness that I'm not sure where exactly it's coming from but it's not overpowering the otherwise earthy "thing" that's going on.

1 hour later: The scent is still there, and on complete dry-down, is still fairly pleasant, if not a little boring. The orris and sandalwood are the last notes I've got, and by this point, I'm almost kind of sick of them.

Verdict: It's not as rich or decadent as I feel the Italian Renaissance was, but I do think it's pleasant. It's still nice, but I'm not sure I want to hold on to this one. If Leanan Sidhe is a trade without regrets, this one is a hesitant trade, though I'm not sure I would go out of my way to buy it for myself. It's earthy, but a little too floral at the same time, and it might be okay for events, as it has that "feel" of history about it. I'll have to see what it smells like on my mom.