Review by aiona
I tried Dorian because it was one of the BPAL scents that people notoriously list as being sweet -- Dana O'Shee being among them. Compared to Dana O'Shee, Dorian is less sweet. It has a ton of vanilla, like Dana O'Shee. A TON. In fact, early on, that's mostly what I smell. But there's also a bit of a lemon twist in there. I get no "cinnamon red hots" from it, as I do with Dana O'Shee, and that actually makes it less sweet and more tolerable to me than Dana O'Shee. But definitely, if you do not like vanilla amplifed, this is not a good scent to try. There's a touch of tea, which Barriel says she put in there. But really I mostly get vanilla. And a manly smell -- the fougere part, I suppose. Unlike previous reviewers, I had no problems with longevity, with only two swipes of the imp wand. In fact, it was so oily (as all BPALs are oils, I assume) I had to smear it onto my other wrist to keep it from dripping onto my clothes! The scent was with me all day, but morphed throughout the day. Early on, mostly vanilla and tea and a VERY faint fougere-like scent -- herbal vegetal smell. About 4 hours later, my sillage was predominantly sandalwood. A very sweet sandalwood. And much much much later on in the day, like 8 hours later, I could finally smell a bit of white musk -- and only after the vanilla died down! As for how this relates to Dorian Gray -- well, if one lives forever, one can indulge in these excesses -- vanilla = food; sandalwood = environment; musk = sex. But, again, who wants to live forever? I like this scent very much, but sometimes I like to wear something dark and death-like. This scent is totally sweet. There's not a bit of dryness in it. If you like sweet scents, this is definitely one you might try. There's no patchouli. Definitely.
