kellinator | my first BPAL reviews -- Vice and Swank

Vice

BPAL says: Voluptuous and indulgent! A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom.

In the bottle: It's chocolate! It's chocolate-covered strawberries! And not the crappy Russell Stover chocolate-covered cherries that your grandmother used to love and you never understood why. And when I say you, I mean me.

Wet: Still yummy, but the chocolate isn't as strong as it was in the bottle.

An hour later: But WHY is the chocolate gone?! All I've got now are the cherries -- but they're not real cherries. More like cherry-flavored cough syrup. Great. I smell like medicine. Is this why they call it Vice -- because after the fun, you have the antibiotics?

Three hours later: The chocolate is back, faintly. But it's too late. I've decided I don't want to smell like cough syrup. Vice, you've broken my heart! *SOB*

Swank

BPAL says: Simply cool, the essence of Lounge: the scent of a crisp pomegranate martini.

In the bottle: I have no idea what pomegranate martinis smell like, as I have never had one. But it's fresh and crisp and fruity and fun. I can't tell which flavor of fruity it is, it's just fruity in a really clean, juicy way. For some reason it makes me think of an appletini, but I think that's more the attitude than the scent.

Wet: Fresh and fruity. And it just makes me happy.

Dried: I think this is one of those scents that is just perfect for my skin. It doesn't seem to change much on me -- it mellows a little, but it has staying power. Maybe someday I'll be able to figure out what the actual notes are, but I feel Swank more than smell it. It's perfectly named -- all fancy clubs and expensive drinks. It makes me think of the Roaring Twenties -- I can really see a flapper wearing this. I suspect this will become my signature scent.