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.

This has been a favorite of mine for many years. I still have a bottle from 2012 and it smells amazing. If you like the idea of a sweet, creamy, boozy, lemony tea. You will love this. It's not complicated but its yummy and addicting. I don't think I will ever go without unless BPAL disappears which I hope never happens.

A classic... an old favorite.. smells like sitting down to tea in a lavish yet slowly decaying room, like you are having tea with Dorian Gray himself. The musks and tonka and vanilla are a heavenly combo. Started wearing this scent in 2018 and it's still one of my favorites.

Love this scent so much. I wish they shipped to Canada!! I got a bottle from a friend years ago and I'm rationing it because I don't know how I can ever get another one. It's a perfect sweet but not too sweet winter scent for me.

I don't like lemon. at all, ever. this isn't lemon. this is the faintest hint of a super-sweet lemon sugar. yes, there are some musks but not a "white" musk or anything that smells like Tide. and i love this scent.

I love it. Smells like simple vanilla-tea-musk. Delicious, simple but interesting.

Refined gentrification in a bottle. Dorian smells like a young gentleman frozen in time, sitting casually on a plush leather armchair, he was supposed to drink fine whiskey but sips Earl Grey tinted with vanilla spice instead. A sweet and vibrant tea scent, appropriate but remains a tad of that playfulness we all adore. Delicious. Imagery: the petty bourgeoisie teahouse TWG has a prohibitively priced tealight called French Earl Gray: "The fragrance of freshly infused black tea wafts through a window, both invigorating and sensual." A personification might be a plaid daddy dressed in pristine three-piece and deliberately mismatched quirky wool socks. Very sexy in an adorable way. Moderate sillage and lifespan. Some problems with the occasion since perhaps Dorian best suits semi-casual and cozy afternoon tea service, of course. 8.5/10. Brilliantly timeless.

When I first smelled the applicator on my imp (sample vial), all I smelled was vanilla. Imagine my surprise when I applied it and a strange lemon smell invaded. For a while, I couldn't remember what memory this was evoking, and then it hit me-lemony bathroom cleaner!!! Since then, I have searched for and found the tea notes, so it is easier to deal with. Still, that memory link of the weird lemon scent has really made this fragrance pretty unwearable for me.

Dorian starts off as unisex lemon furniture polish (minus any screechy chemical notes), then transforms into black tea with lemon and vanilla. As it dries, the vanilla becomes most prominent--it's a really nice, sweet, feminine vanilla note that does not become "play dough-y" as so many do. Addictive, soft, and lovely! This is the perfume you want to linger on your wool coat and scarves all winter.

Enjoyable, but overrated. It is very sweet sugared vanilla with tea, a tiny bit of lemon, and a pale sheer musk. Simple and linear.

I’ve tried 8 BPAL scents and this one was my favorite of all of them. It’s unisex and appealing in the same way the scent of old books would be. There’s something vintage wrapped around the notes of tea and tonka.

This was one of the few BPAL imps I thought I liked enough to order a bottle of it. Big mistake. No tea at all, or if there is, it is smothered under sickly sweet vanilla musk. Not pleasantly sweet, but offensively sweet, like a sweet drink left in a hot car for weeks until it went off, and then spilled over someone, in the same airless car, eating vanilla sweets and wearing cheap deodorant. I hope its new owner likes it better.

I was desperately hoping to like this. It sounded so perfect: tea, sugar, lemon- what's not to love? Unfortunately, when I wear this, I get very little tea and lemon and lots of masculine musk. The scent was very, very masculine on me, so much so that I washed it off. And I so wanted to love it.

I agree with jdusk. I gave this a solid two tests, and I just didn't get the hype. Starts as lemon cleaner, mellows a bit to vanilla + lemon. Pretty linear and boring. Husband says "Meh. Smells like breakfast, I guess. I don't like it."

Had high hopes about this - but on me it's just insanely sweet vanilla with sweet lemon, cramped down in condensed milk. Really disappointed.

Dorian is so beautiful, in the way that those minimalist, modern gender-neutral clothing boutiques are beautiful - you know the ones, with the sparse, curated brushed-steel racks of origami-shaped neutral-color garments and shiny, narrow, handmade leather ankle boots, breathtakingly chic but heart-stoppingly expensive. There's a clinging, gray drizzle outside, but you've found yourself downtown with no umbrella, so you step into this lovely box of pale, soft white light and set your cooling London Fog down on a bespoke table near the door so you don't have to worry about spilling it on a $250 white t-shirt. You try to look natural while you touch the neatly-pressed organic-natural-fiber sleeves of high-end chore jackets as if you might actually buy one. The candle burning gently near the dense linen curtain of the single dressing room smells faintly like pale woods and artisanal lemony shortbread, the type with little designs embossed into the surface of each bite-sized cookie, and probably costs more than the grocery run you're going to do after this. You might find the whole concept of the establishment to be a little much, but it feels nice and comforting to be dry and warm and experiencing this type of luxe-casual lifestyle for a second, even if you won't be taking it home with you. You leave when the rain lets up without buying anything, but the candle smoke is still clinging to your hair and you've got to admit, that's really nice. TL;DR: soapy musk, milky black tea steam, and atmospheric vanilla. The musk in the drydown pulls warm-plasticky in the very best, most comforting way. Goes great with business casual and rainy days.