smell a day

a perfume review every day i do my best to test scents blind and add final thoughts after i've looked at the notes click below for links to specific brand reviews

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BPAL CHRISTMAS LUSTRE

Amber-illuminated roasted chestnut, cardamom, caramel, and allspice.

First sniff: Caramel, heavy and sticky, like the one in Mother Shrubs Squamous Sea Salt Caramel Cookies.

Wet on skin: A heavy roasty-toasty kind of spice that edges on a chestnut I don’t particularly love.

Drydown: The caramel here disappears quickly, with just a lingering trace of it enveloping all of the spicy stuff.

Final thoughts: This is the kind of thing that I’d like my house to smell like, but not me personally. It’s good, but more for my wax melter than it is for my skin. Maybe I’d feel differently if it was cold out, but as it is, it’s just fine.

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ASTRID NYMPH

White musk, watermelon, pineapple, whipped cream, and lemongrass.

First sniff: Juicy fake watermelon candy. Delicious, but artificial.

Wet on skin: Oh, this smells like GUM. Exactly like candy watermelon, transparent like jolly ranchers sticking in your teeth.

Drydown: There’s a little tempering of the fake candy scent here that’s turning a bit creamy. It’s still very much a watermelon candy scent on my skin.

Final thoughts: I was so interested in the pineapple here that I decided to ignore the fact that I’ve only ever found a couple watermelon that I like, and this one is way too fake for me. I can maybe smell some pineapple if I focus really hard, but this is mostly a creamy watermelon candy scent with the tiniest touch of musk to nail it all down. It’s cute but juvenile, something I don’t know if I’d ever reach for over other summer scents I like more, including Lacerta from Arcana, the only watermelon scent that I’ve ever really loved.

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ASTRID DAYDREAMS

Moonflower, lemon, blue chamomile, mugwort and vanilla CO2.

First sniff: Lemon tea, like a lemon iced tea.

Wet on skin: Definitely tea. It’s a more realistic lemon tea note than I’m used to, but it’s not something I care for typically in perfume. It’s fresh and clean scented but not in a way that hits for me.

Drydown: I’m not getting any vanilla or florals at all. This is pretty much just an herbal iced green tea type of scent. I definitely understand why this was a summer scent, but it’s not a summer scent for me.

Final thoughts: I was expecting this to be a cool chamomile vanillaed floral, but the mugwort in this dominates completely. It’s fresh and bitter-green, but not floral enough for me.

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BPAL THE LANTERN BEARERS

Radiant orbs of luminous lemon amber illuminating a backdrop of black orchid and ivy-twined, plum-touched cerulean musk.

First sniff: Carnation spice.

Wet on skin: Still, carnation spiciness with maybe a touch of sour fruit in the background when I sniff really hard. This is pretty and feminine in a very unexpected sort of way. I don’t own anything like this.

Drydown: This one is mouthwateringly feminine, I love how rich and gorgeous it is. I can’t really pick out any notes here, I just love the floral dark spiciness of it.

Final thoughts: Wow. I didn’t know what to expect from this one at all, and it is so, so good. A blind pick of a free sample from a larger destash order, and my, what a pick! I’m going to have to search for more of this one.

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BPAL IN THE HALLWAY OF A BROTHEL

Lemon cream, incense smoke, and candle wax.

First sniff: Definitely lemon and candle wax, the sweet kind.

Wet on skin: The lemon is taking on a fizzy sort of a quality to it, it reminds me of both pez and another Luper, penis bound with gold ribbon. There’s something that’s a tiny bit unappealing in the background that’s a little dusty to my nose. It’s nice but kind of reminds me of a Halloween kind of a scent.

Drydown: The lemon cream description is fitting, but not exactly hitting for me. The cream is going salty-buttery the same way that the cream in Kyphi and Sweet Cream did, only supported by a fizzy lemon incense note. I wish I got more wax from this.

Final thoughts: This is one of those scents I keep trying over and over to see if it hits me any differently and it just isn’t what I wish it was on my skin. I am still deeply interested, but maybe I just need to put this one away for a while.

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ARCANA HONEY CRAVES PINK MOONBEAMS

Warm clover honey is drizzled over a sugared gourmand blend of juicy passion fruit, velvety purple iris, Tahitian vanilla beans, pink candyfloss, reflected sunshine, sheer layers of soft orris, glowing musk, and a hint of wild lavender stems. Infused with moonlight from the Full Pink Moon in Libra.

First sniff: Tangy lavender honey.

Wet on skin: The passionfruit blooms immediately on the skin, there’s a touch of a powdery floral honey hovering around the edges, but this is a truly passionfruit forward scent, exactly what I was hoping for. It’s bright and reminds me of a delicious glass of honeyed iced passionfruit tea.

Drydown: This is still solidly in passionfruit honey drink territory, a reminder of one of my old favorite iced tea orders from the boba shop. I suspected that I would love this, and I do!

Final thoughts: Arcana’s honey notes don’t always agree with me, but this one sings on my skin! No dusty powdery notes, it’s just gorgeous and lovely and I’m so happy to have it in my collection!

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BPAL MIDNIGHT ON THE MIDWAY

Lightning splits the sky, illuminating the skeletal skyline of the carnival rides: sugared incense, flickering blue musk, and night-blooming flowers.

First sniff: Definitely flowery, but I can’t quite put my finger on what flower. I see why some people say this smells soapy.

Wet on skin: More perplexing laundry soap kind of scent, floral and clean with a touch of aldehydes.

Drydown: This definitely has a fizzy sort of ozonic brightness to it while still being a little soapy and clean. I’m not getting any sort of incense from this which is a bit disappointing.

Final thoughts: This ends up being very clean and sort of laundry adjacent. No incense at all. The flowery description made this sound very appealing but it ends up really just smelling like fizzy clean aldehydes, which is fine, but not for me.

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BPAL THE WOODLAND SO WILD

The pale sugared blossoms of innocence wrapped tightly in sleet-soaked arms. Vanilla bourbon, cream peony, and white carnation enveloped in a warm, protective fortress of tonka, white cedar, orris root, red amber, and leather.

First sniff: Perfumy, not the kind of thing I normally like.

Wet on skin: The leather comes out and it’s not the kind of leather that I care for. There’s a lacy kind of floral here that reminds me a little of a potpourri, not particularly carnation or peony to my nose. There’s no spice and no rich heaviness from either flower.

Drydown: I scrubbed this. I really didn’t like it. The flowers and leather combo was just coming off super gross on my skin. Not for me.

Final thoughts: Not getting a lot of a lot of these notes. This one just didn’t hit very hard on me. Oh well!

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BPAL PASSIONFRUIT CREME BRÛLÉE

First sniff: This is giving way more creme brûlée than passionfruit. The passionfruit is there, maybe, but not bright and tart like I expected it to be.

Wet on skin: There’s a creamy sort of root beer vanilla that I’m getting, with hardly any tart notes at all. It’s not creamy in a way that makes me think of root beer float, either. Just regular root beer. It’s fine, but not blowing my mind.

Drydown: Not what I expected at ALL. There’s barely any tartness to this, it’s creamy and sweet and nice but it’s kind of just “generic creamy” to me. I wish there was more tart passsionfruit, or more burnt sugar, but on me I get neither.

Final thoughts: Wow, and I glad I didn’t blind buy this one like I wanted to. I was expecting something sour and charred and this is more of a pretty sweet cream with barely a whisper of passionfruit from far away. It’s too gourmand, and too simplistic for me. I will keep the decant I got, but wow, this one is a bit of a letdown.

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ARCANA VANILLA CRAVES THE HONOR OF APHRODITE

Voluptuous melted caramel coils around softly whipped coconut creme. Sun-warmed Californian wild oranges are laced with honeyed cardamom, then dipped in vanilla beans, Muscovado sugar, and delicate ivory patchouli.

First sniff: Coconut creamsicle vibes!

Wet on skin: There’s a touch of warm cardamom and zesty orange, with an undercurrent of caramelized coconut. The orange is fresh and juicy, mingling with the rich sweet notes.

Drydown: This morphs from caramel coconut to a sweeter sort of creamsicle Drydown, all of the oils and sharpness from the orange stripped away. I like this more than I expected I would, with no plasticky Drydown that some vanillas from arcana tend to do. I hoped there would be more zesty orange so that this felt more summery to me, but it’s much softer and more tempered than I expected. I love it!

Final thoughts: I don’t think I could wear this one on a hot sticky summer day, but I still really like it. I’m coming back into liking coconut as a note again, though only the sweetened kind and not the soapy sunscreen variety.

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NUI COBALT LITTLE BROWN RABBIT

Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against fluffy marshmallow, cottonflower, pink pepper, and a trace of carrot seed.

First sniff: Brown sugar oatmeal.

Wet on skin: It’s giving maple brown sugar oatmeal powder. There’s a touch of clean underneath the sweetness, like a fresh clean napkin on a brunch table. I imagine that’s the cotton flower, cleaning up this sweet lacy scent.

Drydown: The carrot seed is noticeable now, but just barely. I’m not getting much pink pepper on me, which is a shame because I love pink pepper. This is lovely, brown sugary, and barely, barely spiced from the nutmeg. A gorgeous autumn scent, maybe for a rainy day too. The first scent I’ve ever tried from Nui Cobalt, and what a lovely first impression!

Final thoughts: I’m usually loath to try out new houses because I already spend enough money keeping up with new releases as it is, but I saw this in a destash and I love bunnies, so I took a chance! I’m glad I did. I really like this. I am a big fan of sweet, but not too sweet, scents. This is great! It definitely reads as oatmeal to my nose, but in a more complex and pretty way. The carrot seed and cotton flower round this out to keep it from verging too far into foodie territory. How lovely!

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BPAL LA DAME AUX PAMPLEMOUSSES

Billowing bulbous blobs of grapefruit marshmallows.

First sniff: Very creamsicle.

Wet on skin: This is a salty, cakey kind of grapefruit. It’s more like grapefruit cake than grapefruit marshmallow up close, but I can catch a whiff of the marshmallow from far away.

Drydown: The grapefruit on this vanishes on me almost instantly, and I’m left with a buttery type of marshmallow that’s just fine.

Final thoughts: I expected that this was going to be a tart grapefruit version of Chiffon from Solstice Scents, which I love, but it’s more like a barely grapefruit version of Ghost Puffs from Haus of Gloi. This is Fine. I don’t feel like I need another marshmallow scent like this, so I’ll probably be destashing this one.

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ASTRID SIGILS IN WET CONCRETE

Damp stone accord, pomegranate, white pepper, cool musk, and lemon

First sniff: A wet and fruity “red” kind of scent.

Wet on skin: This is a touch perfumy, as many Astrid scents tend to go on me. It’s fruity and red, with just a touch of juicy lemon on my skin. I love the undertone of this, which I’m guessing is the “wet stone accord” that I’m smelling. I usually am not a huge fan of pomegranate on my skin, but here it’s really tickling my fancy.

Drydown: This gets faint on my skin pretty quickly! I like it, but it’s also just kind of a gentle fruity red skin scent. I suspect my partner will like this one.

Final thoughts: Yet another hit from the City Witch Collection, which is deeply unfortunate because I have been struggling to hunt down bottles from this collection to no avail. I have been hoarding decants that I’ve found, but I crave that big beautiful bottle.

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BPAL NAG CHAMPA AND WARM COOKIES

First sniff: Definitely cookies! This is like a super duper vanilla sugar cookie.

Wet on skin: This one is…confusing. It doesn’t smell like cookies, exactly, but it also doesn’t smell like nag champa in a way that I recognize. It’s got a bit of an artificial edge to in on the skin like how some white chocolate notes can smell on me.

Drydown: Okay, now it’s opening up! It’s like a nag champa sugar cookie. I really like the nag champa here, it’s not too strong and the cookies temper the sharp incense really nicely. This reminds me a lot of cozy sweater from Haus of Gloi.

Final thoughts: Really nice! I was worried about the opening of this smelling funky but I really love the way it dries down on me. It’s not too incensey or too sweet, just perfect down the middle. I may need to pick up more of this after all!

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ARCANA KRAMPUS CONES

Cold black pepper ice cream with vanilla bean specks, a swirl of dark caramel, and a bit of accursed waffle cone.

First sniff: I’m getting the black pepper and vanilla in equal measure here, and it’s really quite nice.

Wet on skin: Boozy vanilla bean, with a good crack of black pepper for good measure. This is the kind of Arcana vanilla that I typically don’t love because it’s so buttery and strong, but it’s complimenting the vibe of everything here, almost like a molasses cookie. The throw is really strong, I can smell the scent from typing distance away. There’s a caramel richness to this, dark and amber colored.

Drydown: With no spice mentioned, this is still a pretty spicy one! It’s like a molasses cookie to me. I can see why this was a holiday release.

Final thoughts: I like this, but I can’t imagine wearing it very often. It’s a nice sweet and slightly spicy cookie type of scent. It smells really delectable drifting up from my arms while I type, but I luckily don’t think I’d want more than I have right now.

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BPAL JAILBAIT

Innocence defiled. Sticky pink bubblegum and the thick, sweet scent of orange and cherry lollipops smeared over a breath of heady womanly perfume

In the Imp: Gross. Like cough syrup.

Wet on skin: Vaguely alcoholic, like some kind of fruity type of wine.

Drydown: Orange suckers, like blo-pops. It's sugary and wet, with the dusty pink bubblegum sticking all underneath. It's nice and sweet and powdery. It fades awfully fast on my skin, but oh well. It's nice, but not something I would be compelled to wear often which is convenient because it's apparently been discontinued for years, haha.

Final thoughts: Less sweet than I thought from the list of notes, it's a nicely powdered fruity bubblegum that's nice, but fittingly a little juvenile for what I like to wear on the daily. Lucky me it's discontinued, so I'm fortunate it's not a "love" and just a like. I will pass this one along to someone who will appreciate it more than I do!

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BPAL VASILISSA

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.

First sniff: Wow, I hate this. It's powdery floral, and STRONG

Wet on skin: More floral, more powder.

Drydown: This is a flowery, powdery, GIRLY kind of a scent. It's feminine to the max, and not in a way I like. It's the closest thing to a traditional perfume type of smell that I've tried from BPAL, and it is Not one for me.

Final thoughts: For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. The list of notes is a bunch of zingers of things I normally quite like, but the sum of it's parts is a very powdery floral that is altogether too feminine for me. Maybe the pink musk, or white amber, which have both been the culprits of going powdery on me in the past. Not so unappealing that I'll be scrubbing it off, not so appealing that I care to hang on to my Imp.