Dorian

In the bottle: Sugar-spun vanilla, slightly fairy floss-y/cotton candy-ish. It’s like walking into a circus tent and seeing two beautiful women in baby pink leotards - one with long blonde hair and the other with a dark black bob - performing aerial feats of grandeur on the tightrope. Theatrical, romantic, and sweet. Wet: Putting it on, the lemon definitely stands out. I’m not the biggest fan of it in this state as the sourness of it puts me off. It is like a lemon covered in sugar, with a real bitter note. After 10 minutes: Here’s where the sugar-spun vanilla starts to come back to play. There’s still that bitter lemon undertone which I’m not the biggest fan of, but I’m waiting for that beautiful sugar to come back. This is where the scent begins to get more heady (I can now smell it without putting my nose to my wrist.) 30 minutes: The sweetness begins to float around my head like a heady, intoxicating spiderweb made of sugar. Musky vanilla also begins to come into the scent. This is the moment I was waiting for! Now the Victorian element comes out as well. It’s like being in 1870, sitting down in an old mini-mansion for tea with an elderly billionairess and being donned in a long, lace and silk gown, all in black. 1 Hour: Unfortunately, even though the headiness of the perfume is quite lovely, to get the complete essence I still have to stick my nose to my wrist. The scent is again like sitting in a beautifully cold stone mini-mansion, but now it is as if I have a wonderfully warm cup of milky English Breakfast tea, with a drop of lemon and about 6 teaspoons of brown sugar, with a side of Venetian biscuits. I’m not sure if Venetian biscuits are exclusively Australian, but just in case they are, the biscuits are "rich in currants, and the soft white icing has a delicious vanilla and coconut flavouring.” 2+ Hours: My favourite part. Imagine you’re in a Victorian-style room with deep, dark red furnishings. A pale man with dark hair and a musky essence stands next to you in a beautiful cashmere suit. He kisses and nuzzles your neck and whispers to you that the dark side can be very seductive. I can remember smelling Dorian at the 2 hour mark for the first time and thinking precisely this, and I didn’t even immediately make the connection that the man I was thinking of personified Dorian Gray almost exactly! I don’t know how it could personify Dorian Gray’s character so perfectly, but I am most definitely seduced by the gorgeous, gorgeous experience this perfume gives me!

Dorian starts out smelling like a cup of very sweet tea, with just enough lemon squeezed in to be noticeable without overpowering the tea itself. The vanilla lingers in the background, like a plate of freshly baked cookies on a nearby table, making everything else just a touch softer and warmer. The musk comes out very gradually, probably an hour into wearing it, and everything is just that much sexier for it; as if, in your rush to get to "desert," you never bothered to leave the table. Wearing Dorian is like having a very lovely, polite tea with a very lovely and polite young man who nonetheless seems to be very fond of stealing little touches during conversation–his hand resting upon your own or stroking lightly along the inside of your elbow–which you don't really notice until his fingertips are flirting with the inside of your thigh and you're stealing little touches of your own back. Tea ends, before you quite realize it, when he has you on the table, trapped between his arms with your skirts bunched up around your waist and a damp glove tossed haphazardly in a saucer. Unfortunately, like most BPAL scents I've tried, it has very little throw. It's the kind of scent that you don't notice until you get really close. The wear time is pretty average, I'll usually reapply about halfway through the day as it fades, but even if I don't, it never really completely disappears until the next day. Some people have said this isn't unisex, and if you prefer for men to smell overpoweringly of Axe, then no, it certainly isn't. Personally, though, I would LOVE to smell Dorian on a guy. This belongs on the kind of man who remains well-mannered and pleasant even while you're unfastening his pants, and afterwards hands you his handkerchief to clean up with and fondly calls you his "wicked girl". It's the kind of sexy that doesn't feel the need to flex it's muscles to prove it: elegant and discreet in its debauchery, and all the more attractive for it. This would be great for someone who wants something unobtrusively sexy, or for somebody who wants something that is sweet, but not childish or cloying. It is also a great introduction scent for anybody who's interested in dipping a toe into the BPAL pool, as it seems to be one of the most consistently liked scents and, though rather different from most perfumes you'd find in a department store, isn't quite as disconcerting as other BPAL scents can be.

Lovely vanilla-infused tea with the barest hint of lemon and fougere. BPAL touts this as being unisex, and I think the leans that way, but I much prefer it on myself vs. my husband. It lasts very well on my skin, and it evolves throughout the day when the vanilla really comes through. It is a tea party with a fancy, mysterious Dorian Grey-type character, and much like its namesake, looks can be deceiving as the late vanilly mustiness is what makes this perfume one of a kind. Sad to see it go, but c'est la vie.

I can't imagine the typical macho-macho man wearing this at all, but it would be perfect on a boy like Dorian. Combined with my chemistry, this perfume smells like a lemony sugar cookie with hints of black tea and maybe just a whiff of oakmoss in the background. It's very light and delicious, and stays close to the skin, though it lasts for a weak hour or two. That's the only thing I would improve about this perfume -- it needs to last longer! Otherwise, it's a wonderful treat of a perfume.

love it! smells just like a london fog, nothing more to say. my mother got a mix of feminine and masculine notes (the musk), but i personally couldn't smell much of the musk. unfortunately, the sillage becomes very intimate after an hour or so. edit, after a month or so: this scent is so good. like whenever i smell it, my mood is lifted. it's sweet without being too gourmand-y. it's vanilla in a true unisex form. the scent is warm and cozy. i'm definitely buying another bottle of this.