Andalei

So I got a replacement for the bottle of Dee I posted about in August (Lisa is the best! ). She said that all their bottles of Dee smelled fine to them, but they were happy to send another one. However...this third bottle smells pretty much identical to my second bottle which is nothing like my first bottle or the imp I had initially. So very strange because all three bottles are from 2013 so it's not like my original one is super aged or anything. But...I have a 4oz memento bottle with Dee in it coming from Ebay, so I will see what super aged Dee smells like and then maybe hide these bottles for years.

My bottle of Cottonmouth is from '09 and it has the etsy label. I've had multiple bottles of a few other snake pits and haven't noticed any label variations. I've had bottles of Temple Viper, Death Adder, King Cobra, Western Diamondback and Australian Copperhead and they've all had the Snake Oil type label with their snake on it like that one on Etsy. Searching completed listings on Ebay for Cottonmouth all turn up that same label as well.

So Dee is one of my absolute favourite scents, and I ordered a bottle in May because my first one was disappearing pretty quickly. I went to apply the new one the other night and it smells awful. The closest thing I can compare it to is potting soil, which makes me believe the culprit might be patchouli which isn't even a listed note. Regardless, there's no similarity at all to my beloved Dee. My first bottle was also purchased straight from the Lab and was lovely right from day 1, so I don't think this is an aging issue. I emailed the Lab a few days ago to see if they were aware of a batch variance or a mis-labeling maybe, but I haven't received an answer. I need more Dee, but I'm afraid of getting another bottle like my second one.

Sadly I don't have a picture anymore and I sold the bottle, but my bottle of Dragon's Heart from 2008ish had a different label than the standard GC one. I want to say it was black with a stylized dragon on the label, but my memory is horrible, so I could be way off base.

Huge thanks to Puddin' for creating this lovely spray and to sunshinedaisybliss for sharing it! I'm terrible at reviews, but Sweet Barking Cheese is so lovely! It's got a real cinnamon kick to it, but I find it sweeter than Aphrodite Kypria which is a really harsh cinnamon to my nose. I'm not sure what is contributing to the sweetness of this - it's definitely not foody in a cookie sense, but something is sweetening up the cinnamon just a bit. It also resembles the Goblin of Yuletide Yet to Come atmosphere spray IMO, so I'm thinking maybe there's a bit of clove in this too? Whatever the actual notes may be, I know one thing - this is amazing and yes, it has incredible staying power which is good because I can make it last longer!

I know this is a super old comment, but I noticed the bottle hasn't been posted, so here it is in case anyone is still wondering! It's slightly blurry, apologies for that! I tried to get a picture of my Mopsfledermaus bottle, but for some reason every single shot turned out far too blurry to see anything. I'll try again tomorrow when I'm not so tired maybe!

Thanks again to my wonderful fairy! Sadly, this one broke my heart. In the bottle it's a lovely mix of creamy beeswax and rosewood with something herbal in the background. On my skin though, this was not good at all. It turned into a very strong, bitter herbal scent that actually made me feel nauseous. Not sure what note was responsible, but it was not a nice experience.

Thanks to my lovely fairy for allowing me to own this! I initially pounced on this one simply because of the bourbon vanilla and musk, and then I started having buyer's remorse before it even got here because I was afraid it would be too foody. Luckily, there was no reason to worry! This is definitely sugary and spicy, but it's got more of a sexy feel to it than a foody feel. When first applied, it smelled a lot like my mom's ginger snap cookies, but then the musk comes out and turns into this warm, slinky, sexy scent. I think this one will age amazingly too!

I found Love Me to be a dark, spicy-sweet vanilla scent. It smells horrible in the bottle imo, but lovely on the skin.

I'm not a big fan of lighter fruity scents, but I love Titania - it's so juicy and just awesome smelling. My favourite coconut scent is Elegba, but it's a bit on the strong side. For a warm, cozy vanilla scent I highly recommend Morocco, it's such a gorgeous, comforting scent. Bordello's another sexy/sweet fruity scent, but again may be too strong. I'm also prone to headaches from scent (I use unscented detergent/softener as well!) but I have had very, very few scents from BPAL cause a headache. I avoided sandalwood for a long time because a sandalwood scent from another company triggered horrible migraines. But I recently discovered that BPAL's sandalwood note does not have the same effect (and it smells amazing!). I definitely wouldn't want you to risk a headache, but I hope you're able to enjoy these lovely oils without pain!

I'd forgotten this had rose in it until I came to post a review and re-read the notes. Rose *never* works for me. Well, except for this one gorgeous exception. I'm not a huge fan of honey either, but G'Milut Chasadim is just perfection. It's sweet and floral and juicy all at the same time. I can't really describe it any better than that because it's so well blended that no one note stands out to me.

When first applied this is a very herbally, slightly spicy scent. At this stage it smells very green to me. As it dries, the tobacco and tonka come out to sweeten it up. The drydown is a gorgeous musky tonka that I absolutely love and never would have guessed from sniffing in the bottle. The patchouli never really shows up for me.

With my newfound love for resin scents, I'd been dying to try this and finally found someone selling a bottle on LJ. It was love at first spray! At first, it's very spicy and clove-y and reminds me of Christmas baking. But then the frankicense and myrrh pop their heads up and it turns into the smell of baking spicy Christmas cakes while incense is burning elsewhere in the house. I can smell a slight herbal/"green" note in the background which I'm thinking is probably the oakmoss. Perfect for the holidays, but this will see year round use by me! Sparingly though, because I may never be able to get more!

Ooh, yes! I can't wait to try Heretic!

Seconding the recommendation for Cathedral and since it's General Catalogue, you can get it as part of an imp pack from the lab. Every scent mentioned above is excellent too and some others I'd recommend that sadly are not available as imps from the lab, but you may be able to find some in the swap section of the forum are: Heavenly Love and Earthly Love (Ambergris accord, benzoin, teakwood, frankincense, myrrh, Mysore sandalwood, and incense.) This is my absolute favourite incense/resin blend. It's a retail exclusive, meaning you can't get it from the Lab's website, but I got my bottle by posting an ISO and a lovely forumite was able to do a pickup for me. White Peacock (Teak, ebony wood, osmanthus, patchouli, red sandalwood, vanilla orchid, tonka bean, tobacco, wild musk, spikenard, and sugandh kokila.) This one is a bit more woody than incensy, but it's divine and people are always asking "what smells like incense?" It was a limited edition this summer, but I've seen it in the swap section a few times. Smoky Moon 2012 (Aged champaca, golden amber, guiac wood, dusky patchouli, twilit oudh, and feathery orris, with a touch of grapefruit, davana, and elemi to help lift it to the heavens.) Another gorgeous resin blend - I don't smell any of the grapefruit in it at all. Penitence is another General Catalogue scent and while I didn't care for it, you might be interested. It's simply frankincense and myrrh. There's also a huge thread here on incense/resin blends with many suggestions that you may want to browse through: http://www.bpal.org/topic/9995-the-lowdown-on-incense-resin-the-best-recommendations/

I'm not sure how easy it is to find, but I'm currently testing a half decant of Kitty that a wonderful forumite gave me and it is very sweet and girly to me. French vanilla, hot house orchids, strawberries, white sandalwood, bergamot, and honey. It's not super floral and while it reminds me of candy, it's not a fake strawberry scent. It's very nice!

My taste in scents is pretty similar to yours - dark, incense blends, but two girly ones I enjoy are Titania and Jailbait. Titania: white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon. This is a really juicy, sweet scent. Jailbait: Sticky pink bubblegum and the thick, sweet scent of orange and cherry lollipops smeared over a breath of heady womanly perfume. All I get from this one is bubblegum, but it's such a fun, sweet scent and definitely girly.

Kypris isn't really floral, but it's a beautiful, sweet lemon "girly" scent. I sold my bottle because I never wore it, and now I miss it. Peru balsam, vanilla bean, Rainier cherry, bitter almond, golden honey, rose water, lemon peel, sugar cane, and benzoin.

This is a lot lighter and sweeter than I thought when reading the notes and the description of it as being "robust, lewd and powerful". Red musk and dragon's blood both seem to have a bad habit of completely taking over and they both behave nicely in this blend. In the bottle I can smell a bit of the pine and something almost citrusy, maybe the gold dust on the leather? On my skin both those notes fade and it becomes this beautiful sweet resin scent. The red musk is predominant, but it's subdued and not stomping all over the other notes. Everything else is so wonderfully blended that I can't pick out individual notes. I do not like leather and didn't notice it in the description initially, but I can't smell it at all here. This is just gorgeous, and I'm so happy I was able to get a bottle.

Kypris was my first thought too, just because of the name! It's definitely a beautiful, cheery scent.

Red musk, tobacco, red sandalwood, dried pomegranate, patchouli, dusty frankincense, and raspberry clotted over blackened sugar-spun vanilla cream cotton. I've had a bottle of this since it was released, but for some reason have never reviewed it. Now's a good time though, because I recently discovered that this ages beautifully! When I first got it, I liked it, but didn't love it. It was a very sweet, sticky scent that kind of reminded me of fabric softener sheets after it dried down. Now however, it is seriously sexy. I can't really pick out any note on its own, they're all blended so wonderfully. There is a similarity to Mme Moriarty here with the musk and patchouli, but the fruit in Red Lace is fruitier (that might not make sense to any else but me, sorry!) and the cotton note makes this one totally unique. I almost sold this one last week and I am so glad I decided to re-test it before letting it go.

Seconding Montresor...I don't see it around very often, but it is an amazing wine scent. Halloween: Las Vegas was very strong with the wine to me, but turned nasty on my skin. I find Kali to be pretty much all wine, and don't get much wine from Bordello at all, but if you haven't tried that one yet, I recommend it anyway, yum! So yeah...nothing really new to add, just seconding some great suggestions!

I've held off reviewing this for awhile because I don't think I can do it justice. But this is an incredible scent. And until I re-read the scent notes just now, I never would have guessed there was rose in this! I have 2 imps worth in a glass rollon and sniffing it wet in the bottle, it's very fruity with a kick of pepper underneath. The first time I smelled it I actually thought "evil bubblegum" but I mean it in the nicest way possible. On my skin, it's a gorgeous spicy fruit with a hint of floral and now that I've been wearing it for a few hours it's morphed into a delicious incensy scent with that pepper spice just barely lurking in the background. I am so, so glad I was able to get my hands on the little bit that I have.

The solace of shadows: blackberry and blackcurrant with Nepalese amber, kewda attar, and a deep, rich, sweet dark musk. To echo an above reviewer, this is SO GOOD. I'm a huge fan of BPAL "dark fruit" scents (Mme. Moriarty, Bordello, Hellion) so I was hoping this would be just as good and it is! In the imp: Golden oil, actually doesn't smell that great. Kind of a musky, sour berry scent. On my skin: This smells purple! Juicy berries with amber and musk hanging out in the background for a bit of darkness. Very good throw while wet. Dry: A touch powdery, but in a very good way. The berries have lost some of their juiciness and the musk has come out to play. Still very "purple" smelling and oh so sexy!

I received a frimp of this in a package I received earlier this week. I was super excited and grateful to have the chance to try this, but sadly it didn't work out between us. In the imp, it smells like fizzy lime ginger ale. Once on my skin the fizzy note amps up and kind of takes over. In this stage it really reminded me of some kind of candy from when I was young, but I can't think of what. The fizzy note calmed down after awhile and the scent morphed into a really weird spicy lime with a bit of fizz. My mom said it smelled like incense (but she says that about almost every BPAL scent) but I couldn't smell anything but lime, ginger and "fizz". Interesting scent and I'm glad I got to try it, but not for me.