Les Bijoux
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

Official notes:
Honey, musk, myrrh, orange blossom, rose, red apple, frankincense, white peach.

It's a balmy honeyed gourmand that ends up a bit too sweet and too honeyed for me, but I'm sure could have many fans.

So this is the first BPAL I've ever tried. I should admit that I fully expected this to be utter garbage, but it's actually quite nice.

After a confusing tutti frutti explosion for the first minute or two, it quickly settles into a really well done apple note. It's realistic, sweet but tart, and you can even smell the green skin and the bitter pith around the seeds. Slowly, a soapy white flowers accord leaks in around the edges, making way for a 60's-style youthful gold musk base similar to Keihl's. As much as I never expected to say this, it's actually very well put together, an intelligent fruity floral musk.

Unfortunately, there's one huge problem. It's incredibly over-concentrated, which makes it smell cheap and amateurish. As is, it gives the impression of walking through one of those scented candle booths at a state fair and picking up their apple one. On first application, the uncomfortable intensity of the sweet fruity notes reminded me of the smell of airplane toilet chemicals. Which is sad because, given the time and attention, Les Bijoux turns out to be a decent perfume that could have been very good if someone had bothered to find the optimum concentration instead of just selling their mixed oils. smell = positive. concentration = negative. review = neutral.