Ms. MSGirl

Oh wow, you're going to be on this side of the atlantic, only in Armenia -- there are a couple of Armenians here at Oxford; they say it's a really beautiful place. I emailed you in reply to your email about my combined order -- to nella@blackphoenixalchemylab.com, but it bounced back. Should I just keep re-sending? Have a wonderful trip home -- it should be so beautiful there this time of year!

This is really complex and interesting to me; I almost don't know what to say about it! I will try. I agree that it smells like Snake Oil without the vanilla -- like whatever that perfumey spiciness is in snake oil, and I really like it. It is, as described, and incensey spicy and warm scent. But to me it is not heavy at all as that would make it sound -- in fact, this feels to me like a hot summery scent, not like a wintery scent. It is surprisingly super-fresh to me. It smells a bit like the beach. It also smells a bit more like very expenisve traditional perfume, because of this likeness to Snake Oil -- I get the guerlain/estee lauder old school scent again, but I LOVE it cause this is just so much fresher and hotter and more interesting than those perfumes, and yet it smells a bit vintage and old school at the same time. As I keep wearing it, it does weird things -- now a bit sweeter and almost honeyed, now a bit muskier (don't like that turn so much), but it keeps smelling like fresh beachiness only with spices and incense instead of sunscreen and the sea... like being in a desert if a desert were a refreshing and soothing place to be. I like it, and I'm going to go sit in the sun with it on! It's very light and delicate on me, I think I'll need to reapply... but wow, it's lovely! so unusual!

This is like what Shalimar wishes it was. Perfumey in the best possible way -- somehow this vanilla doesn't smell like baked goods to me, but like perfume instead. rich, rich, exotic vanilla perfume. I love it! When I first dab it on, I get the same woody/smokey/incensey note that I get overpoweringly in Hellcat and Hunger, so I thought it was going to be too strong for me. But miraculously, that twinge disappears in this so quickly! In those other 2, it's all I can ever smell of the scent. It quickly softens into perfumey spices (and I get the same old school, Shalimar/Youth Dew classic perfume spiciness that I got in Unseelie), and then last of all it just softens into the greatest yummy perfumey vanilla. This is much mellower than Hellcat on me, and infinitely yummier. I've found the strong/smoky/spicy one that works the best on me, I think. This will be an awesome perfume for going out at night!

This is my first-favorite category -- I've been turned on to the floral and resiny ones since finding these perfumes, the reverse of you. I just tried Dragon's Milk, and you _must_ try this one. I predict you'll adore it. I also love Tamora (warm golden sweetness, some have smelled peach), Carnivale, Eclipse... give O a whirl, everyone loves it -- amber honey and vanilla. And I haven't yet smelled Velvet (cocoa and sandalwood)_or Seraglio (almond, rose and orange?) but I think they'd be what you're looking for.

For me, too, this is one I knew would be a favorite and I really can say I love it almost more than any other one. In the vial and wet, it is strong almondy/cherry vanilla. When it goes on, I immediately smell it begin to dry out a little bit and for some reason I get a strong hit of gardenia (even though, like carnation, it's not in the description!) The dry-like gardenia note develops almost into a smoky kick -- I guess that must be dragon's blood resin, this is the first time I've ever encountered it. But it's always secondary to the incredible, warm vanilla. I love this every bit as much as Dana O'Shee and O, if not more, because it has a depth and strength that those just don't on me. I can actually SMELL Dragon's Milk on my skin, actually AFTER putting it on, which I just don't get with those other 2. I have to get a big bottle of this. I think I've found the almondy-honey one that is actually detectable with my body chemistry -- and as a bonus it's got this amazing strength and warmth to it. It's kind of like Tamora in that vein -- sweet and vanilla-y but warm also. I think I like this better though, cause I'm more of a foody/almondy girl (I'm the one who has worn vanilla and almond extracts dabbed on my wrists as perfume) and this is definitely that. Yep. Expectations are so often disappointed in our modern world -- it's so wonderful how often BPAL is an antidote to that!

This is just heavenly. It has SO much more staying power than Dana O'Shee, which just doesn't smell like anything on me -- the carnation and the bergamot, I think, must give it the oomph or sharpness or whatever it is that it needs to cling to my skin and keep on smelling good. Wet, it has the same soft almond-candy smell that Carnivale initially has on me, kind of like Snowcake soap. It quickly becomes so much more, though -- fruity more than rose, though the rose is there. I just love that this is such a strong smell for all its sweetness. So many of the really sweet ones I love don't last on me, but this should have no problem. I think I have found the perfect candied rose I was looking for (still haven't tried Persephone, but I think Alice is it).

I like. I get a strong hit of cinnamon, and can detect the other spices too. As it stays on, it rounds out into a sweeter, very candle-like scent which I don't mind at all, cause it's like I'm burning one of the spice candles I love in the room with me. Like Envy, this is an extremely good focusing/working oil for me. I just did a little incantation from the opening scene of Macbeth as I dabbed it on my wrists and set about a long night of work on my Shakespeare masters thesis, which happens to be about witches and Macbeth (yes this is in fact my area!) so it should be good. A great oil for cooking up an intellectual project, for me, because it conjures a spicy/kitcheny vibe that seems to put me in touch with centuries of female inventiveness and creativity and reminds me that even though what I'm cooking up on my word processor isn't quite the same, it is in fact connected to all of those billions of projects that came before. Fire burn and cauldron bubble!

This gorgeous apple blossom smell is very, very *green* to my nose. It has a lot of stem, stamen, pistil, etc. as well as petals to it. It IS a vastly stronger apple blossom scent than you can get even standing in an apple orchard, which is fine by me cause I can never get enough of the smell. I would still love for BPAL to do a single note of Apple, because this is very precisely flower on the tree, not at all fruit. It's crisp and yummy and wonderful. It got *rave* reviews from my bf when I wore it to bed last night. In fact, he was an uncontrollable fool for it. So apple blossom may have some properties we should test further...

That's so wonderful! Congratulations! I think soaps of the scents that I can't wear in their full-strength oil form would be so wearable and layerable and lovely as soaps: like Snake Oil! Also it would be fantastic to see Dana O'Shee and Eclipse, The Star, Dragon's Milk, O, Othello, and Kitsune-tsuki. hey, I think a Bliss soap would be unbelieveably rich and luxurious!

This is a pretty nondescript rose to me, though the musk and the other things make it a bit deeper and spicier without me being able to actually smell them as notes behind the rose. It isn't as crisp as Old London or as sweet as Eve -- actually, I don't like it that much because it's dry but not crisp, and a bit dusty to my nose. If you really love rose and jasmine and musk, if they're 3 of your favorite notes in the world, you would love this. I'm really glad I tried it, but I was hoping for something sweeter. It *is* sexy, but somehow just not quite in the exact way that I want to be sexy. I feel a lot sexier in vanilla-y scents than in this. It's not that it's not growing on me; it is, and I'll enjoy wearing it tonight, I just like others better. Hm, some slight honeysuckle-y notes are coming out as it dries, making it a bit crisper/juicier, which is what I thought it was lacking. I might like this after all! eta: it dries down to a faint, powdery jasmine. I did enjoy this, it has better staying power on me than a lot of the oils, and it smells to me like very expensive traditional French perfume. A little too perfumey and not foody enough for my tastes, but lovely.

Veil is very, very clean on me. Not quite soapy or cleaning-fluid, as I feared it would be when I first put it on, but a very quiet, powdery clean. I don't know if I'm smelling lilac, violet, or lavender, or all three, but it smells like a refined beautiful old grandmother's drawer sachet, or a very small baby. It's not nearly sweet or spicy or floral enough to be something I'd wear -- but I can see this being a perfect scent for someone who had never really been into perfume and didn't like the idea of smelling like perfume, someone who just wants to smell clean and pretty. I smell like I just took an amazing bath with all kinds of old-school yardley and crabtree and evelyn bath stuff in it. This is a great BPAL imp to give to your perfume-skeptical best friend, your grandmother who uses abovementioned bath products, or your clean-scrubbed athletic teenage niece.

Wow, I am really taken with this. It's unlike anything I've ever worn before. At first, it's sheer apricot, but with something making it stronger than the single note oil. I really like it, and I smeared it all over myself. Then it goes through this light, almost lemony phase that is really beautiful, and now finally it is a very candle-y spicy scent, though I can still smell the apricot and the lemon. It's not as foody as I expected it to be, somehow, more like a sensual room/home scent, but I adore it! It has great staying power and is so much stronger and more complex than any of its single elements would indicate. I layered it over honey-scented body cream and that worked great; this is a very adaptable, easygoing, sweet-tempered scent. I never dreamed I would love it so much. I would even like to add it to my big bottle list, if it weren't so damn long already. I know I will use my imp really fast, though, it's already half gone!!

I'm also obsessed with this soap, and indeed with anything that smells like honey. I snatched one of the little first-class cosmetic kits out of the first class cabin as I filed through it this morning on my way off a plane, because Delta is a partner with L'Occitane en Provence and I was hoping they'd have a sample of their Honey Water in there. Alas, no sample. Maybe O + just a touch of single note vanilla or tonka or something could give that caramelly note for those who seek it? I've never smelled gardenia in HIWTK but I love the sweetness!

Interestingly, I think Tamora is far more like Carnivale than it is like Katherina. I thought it was a whole lot like Carnivale without the berries. I couldn't smell the peaches in it at all; just a warm sweet goldeny scent. I love it. I thought Katherina was kind of like Hunger; like Hunger with apricot. (I like the apricot but don't really like the orange blossom, so I was not a huge fan of Katherina, but I adore Tamora.) And actually, I think Hellcat also picks up on some of the same notes as Tamora and kicks them up several notches -- it takes the warmth and the sweetness of Tamora and adds a kick of wood or smoke or something; it's like a wicked, nighttime version of Tamora to me. They smelled great to me when I layered them recently. It's funny how we all have different opinions about these pairings! And so interesting to me; I think if there is a note you really like or don't like, you tend to think scents that share that note are more alike than someone who doesn't have a strong feeling about that note would.

This is sweet and strong, boozy and honeyed to my nose, with a tiny bit of sharpness that makes it totally wearable, as opposed to the overwhelming-to-me sharpness of Hellcat, which I think it resembles a bit. This is like the sweeter, wearable version. It has that STRONG note, I think maybe it's amber or sandalwood, that is difficult to tolerate in large amounts, but here it's tempered with the vanilla and heliotrope. I really love this one for a sexy, power-woman scent. I wore it to a formal ball last night and it was awesome, very festive. ADDED May 10: Also I just realized that this is a lot like Carnivale, another one I love. It lacks the fruity berry smell of Carnivale, and is a slightly sweeter, lighter version -- the sweet and warm notes are very similar, so if Carnivale is too fruity for you but you like the basic tone of it, you might love this one.

Interestingly, last night I still had Angel all over me, and for an all-night outdoor event in the cold (so no risk of fragrance overload!) I put on Tamora on all my pulse points, and just the tiniest dab of Hellcat on my wrists. I can't really wear Hellcat, but I needed the tiniest oomph of wood or smoke or whatever that really sharp smell in it is. Tamora is like a sweeter, more wearable version of Hellcat for me. Both went really well over the Angel. I am loving all these suggestions! Thanks and keep 'em coming!

When I first put this on, I was happy that I smelled almost pure, fresh apricot (my BPAL apricot single note has an almost lemony freshness in the drydown that I just love), and I put it all over. But then after about 30 mins I found myself smelling the cloying sweetness of orange blossom, and it had the same effect on me in Katharina as it did in Hunger -- it made me completely nauseous when I caught a whiff of it! I wonder why orange blossom has this effect on me? I can tell this is a beautiful scent and I would love to keep wearing it, I just don't understand why orange blossom seems to go so cloying, heavy, powdery, and oppressive on me -- I wonder if it is just a scent association I have from wearing Hunger on rickety buses all over Italy! I could wear this and other orange blossom scents if I could just avoid the bus while I have them on...

gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, sexy, gorgeous gorgeous. This scent is PURE SEX on its own or layered with virtually any floral or fruity fragrance -- it's just an undertone of pure sex. I almost expect the oil itself to be sticky like honey, it has a sticky smell -- someone else was right, it's almost the exact smell of sweaty sticky bodies entwined after the sweetest sex imaginable. It smells like I WISH my skin smelled. It is a non-foody, musky honey that is just, just... SEX. I would not let little girls wear this or they might get ideas. This makes me want to be bad, bad, bad. I can freshen it up by layering it with apricot single note, Carnal, honeysuckle perfume, and I can't wait to layer it with a pear single note. On its own it is less fresh, more warm and sultry. It has great staying power, and I MUST have a huge-ass bottle of this because I will never stop wanting to dump tons on me. edited after wearing it a couple of times to add: the _only_ drawback I find with this scent is that it is not nearly as strong on me as many of the others, it really kind of just blends in to the smell of my skin. And as a result, for some reason the particular very subtle notes in it are making the baby powder scent of my deoderant, which most perfumes totally cover up, super, super-noticeable on me. I think it's cause O is slightly sweet and powdery itself -- I have NEVER smelled my deoderant on me this strongly before, even without wearing any scent at all. Instead of covering it up, it really brings it out, unfortunately. I think maybe O needs just a touch of something with it to make it a bit stronger or sweeter, maybe a dab of vanilla single note, or a fruity or floral single note, or just a smear of Lush's Soft Coeur on my wrists or some MMU vanilla lotion on my hands, just so I won't smell my deoderant so much!

I had sniffed this in the vial several times and smelled only a pure almond single note kind of smell, but this morning when I first put it on my skin I realized I had no idea how complex this scent really is! It mellows out to the loveliest almond/oatmeal/honey mishmash ever -- not exactly like baked goods, more like just a big bowl of sweet gooey yumminess. I like that this smells like a wonderful face mask or organic skin care product. I think I can smell what people are talking about as the 'play-doh' note, an ever so slight clay-ness, but to me it's part of that face mask/skin care/nutritious smell this has and I like it. I can even smell the slightest touch of green. And I love it all. Like all the scents I seem to love, it is quite weak on me and fades really fast. I can't see myself getting by without a big bottle of this, because I love it so much and because I will have to dump massive quantities on myself to keep the scent going so that even I, let alone anyone else, can smell it. Why does everything I love just disappear on me? (wow, that's an unintentionally relevant question nowadays...)

This is a quite unexpected one for me to like. It smells like clean laundry when I put it on, very soapy and with a incensey twinge that made it almost sharp, so I wasn't sure about it at first. It had a "generic BPAL" kind of smell on me, kind of like lots of the other "clean" ones I've worn and kind of like my box of imps. Intermittently, I catch some lemon wafting from my wrists which is nice. And then, about 30 mins. after putting it on, I smelled the most gorgeous sweet smell and literally thought "WHAT is THAT, THAT is the BPAL vanilla scent I've been looking for," and lo and behold it was on my wrists, the drydown on this is an absolutely lovely pure vanilla. I would recommend this as a "clean" scent for people who don't like florals, and a way to wear vanilla for people who don't like blatantly sweet and foody smells. I will definitely finish my imp on the days I feel like a less girly, fresher scent. This would also be extremely interesting on a guy!

This is a gorgeous scent, though different from what I had imagined it would be. On me it is very floral, I am really not getting any apple smell or that much honey at all. It is similar to the soft, sweet floral of Ophelia or the innocent sexiness of Maiden -- it's mainly rose, though a beautiful rose. I had imagined that this would be crisp apples and honey, and on me it's just not as sweet or as foody/fruity as that. It's beautiful, and I know when my imp is gone I'll be wanting more, but I'm gonna try both Alice and Persephone in my quest for the sweetest, candied fruity rose before I purchase a big bottle of this. I think layering this with O would be amazing.

I was sure I would love this one, and it is beautiful, although different from what I expected. The pear in this isn't nearly as strong on me as the lily of the valley, which I think must be that ever so slightly cleaning fluid kind of smell I get from this, Queen of Hearts, and a couple of other blends. I had been wondering what that was -- at least I solved the mystery! I can smell the pear coming through subtly, which really really helps dispel the overly cleaner-y smell that the lily has on me. It is a very clean, sparkling scent, very bright and perky. I will wear this during the day this summer, it'll be lovely to have around as an option. It's gotten to the point that I'm actually relieved when I don't HAVE to have a big bottle of a scent -- leaves room for discovering other favorites!

I see Kitsune-tsuki as a lighter, wispier, more summery development of Old Venice, And Dana O'Shee is like Eclipse without the weight, spice, and heft behind it. Maybe the former can be for hot summers and the latter for colder months -- i love all four of them!

Seraglio with Three Witches to amp up the spice? Dragon's Milk + Three Witches!!!!!???? now I knew I wanted these three, but after this I am REALLY looking forward to getting them -- I adore chai!

Old Kyoto is like Black Phoenix without the nutty/incensy notes. There are more but my nose gets confused!