Review of Antony by BPAL

[lunabee34]

The Catalog Description

The embodiment of Classic masculinity. A warrior’s scent: the green hills and grasses of the battlefields, the resinous incense from the prayers to his Gods, and a touch of the musky leather of his armor. Ambergris and frankincense with sage, and basil.

The Forum Reviews

The forums generally classify this as a masculine scent with many women reporting that they enjoy wearing it and that it makes them feel powerful. (Not every set of forum reviews can contain such a gem as Bread and Butterfly's "plastic baby doll head" comment, alas. LOL)

Our Reactions

Emma (the 11 year old): "This smells like an old man rolled himself in dirt, gasoline, and weird metal. Bad!" And she washes it off (the first perfume she has washed off; even though she didn't really like Incantation much, she still didn't wash it off)

Josh: (who smelled my wrist after the morphing process had completed) "This smells like baby powder."

Me: At first I smell sage and basil and a strong metal smell which quickly turns into an overpowering smell of gasoline that slowly burns off. I smell leather and something incensy, probably the frankincense. I smell nothing at all sweet in this scent to start with. It reminds me a bit of Juke Joint, and I wonder if they have ambergris in common. It's either the frankincense or the ambergris that I'm smelling as gasoline; my money is on the ambergris. And then it starts to get a little sweeter and more powdery, and I almost like it for about ten minutes, and then BAM!, all I can smell is baby powder. I wondered as I was reading forum reviews and everyone else's posts on smellsgood what everyone was talking about when they said a perfume had turned to powder. Now I know.

My imp of Antony is up for grabs. Free to anyone who wants it; I'm waiting to mail out giveaways until I finish testing this first round of imp purchases in case anyone wants more than one, but let me know if you're interested, and I'll reserve it for you. :)


And now, for the wonderful sallymn who made the lovely icon I'm using, have a double drabble of Daniel Jackson gen set during season 5's episode "Summit."



Antony

Daniel doesn’t know where the slave garb the Tok’ra gave him came from, but he certainly isn’t the first person to wear it. The leather collar and belt smell of incense, herbs, and something faintly metallic that Daniel can’t quite identify but suspects might be blood. He can’t help but wonder if the slave who wore these clothes before him died in them. Slaves who rise to the rank of lo’taur are prized but considered as expendable as other humans. That unknown slave may not be the last person to die in these clothes if Daniel can’t manage to hide his identity from Lord Yu.

Daniel quickly discovers what has perfumed the leather he’s wearing. Lord Yu drinks a tea, popular among the Goa’uld and made from herbs that must be ground by hand. As Jarren, he is expected to spend two hours each morning preparing tea for the day. By the time Daniel is finished, the scent of the herbs has worked its way into his pores, his hair, along with the sweet incense Yu keeps burning in his bed chamber. It’s enough to bury the tang of blood that clings to the leather, enough to mask Daniel’s fear.

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I can set Serpent's Kiss aside for you if you like! I like it well enough but I don't adore it, and it wouldn't break my heart to pass it along to another vetiver lover. (You may want to check out BPAL's Highwayman and Iago. Or if you want to explore its use in more conventional perfumery, The Perfumed Court does amazing decant samplers - http://theperfumedcourt.com/Products/Vetiver---3-vetiver-You-Pick-sampler-pack__vetiverpick3pw.aspx)

And I've finally got the entire inventory listed here:
https://scentbase.com/Smillaraaq - although I'm far behind on digging up old disorganized notes and retesting things for the actual ratings side. If there's anything there in sample size you're especially interested in, even if I don't have it listed in the swaps category, let me know - swaps is just for stuff I have zero interest in wearing, but there are bound to be a lot of other eventual 3-to-4-star things that I like but don't love and would be willing to rehome to someone who was more strongly interested in them.

[lunabee34]

Iago is on my list to purchase next already! LOL

I would hate to take something you do like in swap (especially since I might end up not liking it); I'd rather take something you're not interested in at all. I'll have a look at what you've got listed and let you know when we've finished sampling this first round.

And Perfume Court sounds cool. *clicks link*

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I wouldn't have offered you that imp if it was something I couldn't bear to part with! I like Serpent's Kiss well enough but I'm not in love with it, and like many other things that I'm only middlingly fond of, it mostly languishes unused in the sample box; when I'm in the mood for something resinous or vetivery there are too many other scents I love more that I turn to first. It's all yours if you want it!

[lunabee34]

I am so sorry for the late response. I have been sick since this weekend and just barely floating my head above water. I finally got back to shore last night (to belabor a metaphor to a ridiculous point LOL).

I really appreciate the offer, but I think I am going to stay away from discontinued/LE stuff just because I don't want to fool with trying to replenish a supply of something I really love but can't order from the general catalog. I know it can be done, but I'd rather not have to go through the hassle. I am lazy, yes. LOL I think when the time comes, I will be interested in the Somnium one you have; I want to try all of those at some point. :)