Epiphany

This was one of those that I chose on a whim, mainly because it has sage and I love BPAL's sage note This did not disappoint. Wet, this is all sage--not a bad thing at all. This was a lovely, silvery, very real sage scent. In the dry-down, the sage melded into the other notes seamlessly. I tend to amp cedar, but here it does not overwhelm at all, but instead creates this incredible backdrop for the other notes. My husband and I both agree that, somehow, this smells like MD Ren Fest. It has an incredible depth and complexity and is comforting in a way that I expect from a really good sage scent. I will need a bottle of this.

This is very interesting. It is pale, fruity, and softly lemony. I really enjoy it, but I think it overall may be just *slightly* too much like a nice glycerin soap (this is my downfall with lighter scents). It's truly lovely and light and I think is a wonderful spring scent for those sunny, but still cool days. Definitely worth trying, especially if you don't tend to turn basically any floral into soap the way I do.

I was super excited about this as the combination of notes should be really nice on me. Wet, it is all in-my-face almond, with nothing else. On the dry-down, the honey and coconut come through, but they are overlying a bitter, almost skunky note. I don't know what in the world is doing that or what combination of things is going off, but it is really disappointingly not working.

This smells like Easter, likely due to the way I amp the narcissus combined with the softer vanilla. I saw someone else mention that they thought it had that bubblegum lotus scent and I also get that impression here. A sweet, candy-like floral. Just...too much on the floral for me (which is not a surprise, I just am always willing to try things 'cause with BPAL you never know). If you either don't amp floral or just really love that note, give it a try.

Knowing that I amp white florals, but also amp tobacco, my hope was that the tobacco would moderate the floral. However, this just isn't the case and on me, it's all floral, floral, floral soap. I think if you're a person for whom white florals work, this will be lovely, but it's not for me.

This smells like sex on me. It smells like sex on my man. Basically this is sex in a bottle for me. Wet and dry it's Snake Oil tempered with a soft leather, utterly intoxicating. The comparisons to Western Diamondback are obviously apt as they both contain Snake Oil and leather, but they are two very different scents in my mind. Whereas WD feels like a more casual, day out in the sun type of scent for me, Snake Skin reads as something I'd put on for date night and may therefore never make it out of the house....

Revisiting Lupers from last year (especially because I cannot remember what most of them smelled like). Immediately on my skin, this smells like some Japanese strawberry gummy candies that I had recently. It seems to disappear almost immediately and I layer it on two more times to try to get a sense of it. This seems odd as my skin generally amps up red musk and vanilla (not in a bad way), but for the life of me, I can barely smell anything at all...Huffing my arm close to my skin, there is that light cherry blossom floral underlying strawberry (less candy-like now) and tinge of vanilla--it is really lovely, but just seems to cling so close that I'm not sure how wearable I would find it on a regular basis.

Retesting Lupers from last year because I cannot remember them at all. This is such a unique scent--one of the reasons I'm always curious to sniff various blends, even if they don't sound like something I would wear. Wet it is a strangely sharp and astringent evergreen, which I am attributing to the lavender's influence. As it dries, the sharpness fades somewhat, though it remains a very assertive scent, and the rose melds into the lavender and wood. Ultimately, it gets a bit muddled and soapy on me. I think the rose + sandalwood + lavender just can't figure out what to do, but that first blast of scent is so intense that I'm glad I got to test it.

Retesting Lupers from last year. So, I remember I was super excited about this because red leather is my favorite leather (Red Rider ftw) and I loooove honey. How could this not be amazing (and why don't I remember it?). Anyway, wet on it's sort of a weird muddle of sweetness, I'm very confused. As it dries, the honey begins rolling out in a sweet, almost boozy wave and the leather settles into the background. Definitely getting more honey than leather. Fully dry, this is nice--oddly I get some rose along with the honey and leather. It is soft and supple, almost downy, but there's something about it that isn't quite selling me 100%. Perhaps future testing is needed...

Revisiting Lupers from last year. I tend to be cautious about cream accord as it can go quite bitter on me, but in the imp this smells like a sister to Glowing Vulva (as noted by the first poster). Wet on my skin, it definitely has a GV vibe...which is amazing. As it dries, the lotus comes out a bit more and I have a moment where I'm concerned that this is going to turn into bubblegum, but that fades quickly and it settles into this lovely soft vanilla haze. As it wears, the sandalwood asserts itself more and it really is reminiscent of a less spicy GV. I'm loving this and have no idea why I didn't order a bottle last year....

Revisiting my Luper decants from last year, I couldn't remember this one, even though it's one that I was most excited to try. Wet on my skin, it's sort of a muddle of scents and difficult to pick anything out, but then...that "thin whiff of rose" begins to stage a hostile takeover. Pretty soon, I have a very dry (maybe that's the leather and tonka trying to help) rose single note. A few minutes later and the leather starts presenting itself a bit more, but the rose is still very, very much the dominant force and continues to be so as it stays on my skin. Ah, rose, why must you be such a bully. ETA: About two hours into wearing it and the rose has toned back so that this is mostly leather and...soap? So weird.

I'm still on the hunt for another wine blend that works as well as Halloween Las Vegas does for me. Wet, this is pretty much all wine--bright, bold, cascading. As it dries, the wine is still very much the up-front note, but I also begin to get the yew. An hour plus after application, it's still primarily wine, with a bit of a resinous undertone. I like it quite a bit, but it's still not close to HLV, so I'll just keep my decant.

I was drawn to this scent because of the unusual blend of notes. In the decant, all I can smell is a the bright aquatic papyrus and it's the same on my skin--basically a single note, with no hint of the myrrh or frosting. As it dries down, the myrrh (and perhaps a bit of the frosting) begin to assert themselves through the papyrus, but it is a faint dusting of scent. Ultimately, it dries to something a bit soapy, as papyrus tends to do on my skin, but with a hint of myrrh. ETA: Ok, so hours (like 4 hours later) the soap completely disappears and I'm left with the most amazing vanilla myrrh frosting. Seriously, it's an edible myrrh scent. It's glorious, but I don't think I can deal with the papyrus soap for the preceding several hours. ...I'll have to repeat my skin test to see what happens.

I am so confused by this scent...maybe it's the white myrrh, but I get this sort of...clean powdery scent. Not straight up baby-powder, it's more pleasant than that, but it's definitely much more 'clean' smelling than I was expecting. I can't pick out a single individual note, they are all blended into this soft, white puff of scent. There's something about it that I really like, but it's not a perfume I'd wear on a regular basis.

This was one of those, "Hm...that could be amazing, but it could also be meh scents" for me. I love the lab's ivy and leaf notes, but they don't always love me and the other notes in the blend are generally uninspiring on my skin. But I'm trying to steer my scent collection away from "ANYTHING WITH VANILLA!" so I opted to get a decant. Wet: the sharp scent of ivy that I love so much and a nice, loamy grave dirt. Lovely, but not exactly something I'd wear regularly. Drying: This is getting dustier, more like a swirl of dried leaves and loam. The ivy fades. Drydown: I was driving home the other night trying to figure out what that incredible smell was--it was so familiar. It took me a second, because I wasn't associating it with this particular blend, but: chrysanthemums. Somehow this dries down to chrysanthemum on me. I'm not sure what's doing it...but it's a dead ringer for dried chrysanthemum blossoms/chrysanthemum tea. THAT IS A GOOD THING. I double checked today to make sure that I wasn't just making things up, and yep, still chrysanthemums. I'm just hoping that if I buy a bottle, the bottle will have the same dry down as my decant.

In the bottle is a very light, faint leathery smell with an offset of some sort of dried grasses or woodiness in the background. Wearing it, for me, is sort of like Sacrifice light (this is a good thing). The leather is softer, more velvety, and the woods are muted (whereas I tend to amp that cedar in Sacrifice), in tone and texture of the leather (on me, anyway, my body tends to play with leather scents) it reminds me a bit of Liz, but with a woods/dried grasses/amber(?) pairing instead of that heady perfume. I am completely in love with this scent--it clings close to the skin, is somewhat understated, and it at once comforting and sexy.

same here I never would have thought that text would be so H U G E I have Needlework and Okayaki cause I adore the smell, but last years Shunga were more pretty so they stand next to them to make up a little Thirded. In a way it's a good thing...I have empty bottle hoarding issues...This kinda helps alleviate some of that obsessiveness. In other news, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Metamorphosis labels look like...

Really...REALLY? Pickles. Like...Ivanushka was somewhat pickle-y in the bottle, but settles down to this lovely musky scent on my skin. This...is ALL pickle in the bottle. It's been awhile since I was really scared to skin test a BPAL blend--I mean REALLY scared. There have been a few where I sniff it in the imp and know that it won't work on my skin, but try it anyway in the name of science (if it comes across my path, it goes on my skin...it's the only way to be SURE). This...I had to FORCE myself to skin test. I was really hoping that it would completely morph and that the honey and...something would come out. Well, something does come out. On my skin this is pickle and...menthol? There is a woodsy note in the background...but the honey note is nowhere to be seen (or is so blended with everything else that I can't differentiate it). In a way this is a fascinating scent and I'm actually quite curious to see how it would age. However, I have too much perfume, I want too much other perfume...off to swaps this goes.

This is probably the most delicately feminine BPAL scent I've come across, it hovers on the skin as a pink haze and I have difficulty picking out individual components. While jasmine normally=death, it is very subdued here. The creaminess of this scent on me reminds me a bit of how I wear Morocco--the scent itself isn't the same, but it has the same sort of feel to it. I have yet to get my hands on The Girl, so I can't speak to those comparisons. It is a really beautiful scent, but it clings very close--almost no throw on me at all.

Someone said this smells like a fruit and nut trail mix. I'll agree with that, but add that it's a boozy trail mix, like someone soaked the dried fruit in moonshine or something. It's not a bad scent, just not for me.

Much to my dismay I was slathered in Illustrated Woman when my Cake Smash arrived (I'm frequently slathered in Illustrated Woman) so I only sniffed it before heading off to work and. HOLY HELL. Cake Smash is like death scary in the bottle. It smells like cream cheese frosting cake death. I was going "why did I buy a bottle of this again"? and wondering what I could try to swap it for. Got home. Took a shower. Time to test perfume. Thinking that I was going to need to move this one ASAP I tested it first. Christ in Tights it's amazing on. It's like Dorian and Snake Oil had a cupcake baby. Which I guess they did. Now I remember why I bought it. Because it was CAKE with Dorian and Snake Oil (and Doc Constantine, which I also like, though I'm not really picking up on that at all here). All of the cakeyness settles right down to a yummy, rather than frightening level. Good lord Beth is a genius. What a fantastic tribute to Lilith! If you're scared of it in the bottle, test it, that's all I can say. And if you're a non-foody and are put off at the mention of cake, just try it. It might be cupcake death on you, but it also might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship (especially if you like Lilith Victoria!) I have so much perfume that I don't buy backups of anything except for a few select scents that I can't live without, but I might need to find a backup of this. Seriously. Freaking. Awesome. I mean it. I can't stop smelling myself. I have Liz on my other hand and as much as I love vanilla and leather, this is kicking poor Liz's ass.

This does the weirdest thing... In the imp I get a lot of sage and other greenery--maybe a bit of floral. Lovely. Wet, this sweet floral suddenly blooms up, vying with the general greenery--I no longer smell sage specifically. Then as it dries, I smell carrots. I know carrots are in the notes, but I wasn't exactly expecting to smell them. Kinda how I wasn't expecting termites to taste like carrots. Anyway. THEN the carrots go away and I smell flowers and greenery and manure. Not like overwhelming bad manure...just a light scent of good-for-the-garden cow poo. It's actually kinda fascinating, though not something I'm TRYING to smell like. Finally it settles into a very pretty white floral/herbal soap. WHY do greens and florals hate me so much?!? I WANT TO LOVE YOU!

Thank you all so much for posting bottle pictures. I really don't know what I'd do without you ladies. I look forward to seeing the latest art almost as much as smelling the oils. Maybe that's wrong of me, but I can't help it! ETA: Has anyone seen color versions for any of the vampires other than Mircalla and the Girl? Just curious...

So. Very. Close. I tested this without knowing the notes. In the imp it smelled warm and soft, with a bit of a woody overtone. Wet on my skin/initial drydown, it was GORGEOUS I could smell cedar (which I tend to amp) and I immediatly picked up on the leather and vanilla. Rounded and full-bodied. Where have you been all my life?!? After checking the notes, I was thinking I might need a bottle and then...*sniff* Hey. Wait now. Where did my vanilla leather go? This smells like plastic and leather? Er...pleather? Dammit! This is the first time I've experienced something with vanilla and/or leather going 'plastic-y' on me, though I know other people have had it happen. When I breathe deeply of the weirdness on my wrist, I can smell the sage + lavender, so I wonder if it's an effect of those two + vanilla + leather. Apparently it's AWESOME GOODNESS on everyone else...not fair. These notes ALL work on me. ALL OF THEM. THERE IS NOT ONE BAD NOTE IN THERE and yet on my skin it smells like a fake leather sofa. AGH! *wanders off to huff Sacrifice in a corner*

A lovely lady on the forum was kind enough to pick up a bottle of Sacrifice from Vampire Con for me. I had extremely high expectations for this blend. I've been wearing alot of really feminine and/or foody scents lately and I've been itching for something different. I've also been riding horses all my life and I love the smell of leather and the lab's leather note is glorious. I generally try not to get too wrapped up in scent concepts when making decisions, but notes that I love + VAMPIRE COWBOY?!?---I really couldn't stay detatched. In the bottle this is smoke and soft leather and that pine-pitch note that whafts out of my bottle of Illustrated Woman (which I'm supposing is the cedar here). It is an incredibly velvety scent, like well-loved riding gloves that have been worn while feeding pine branches into the fire. Wet on my skin it is all soft, supple leather. Well-oiled and worn. The sage and dust and sweetgrass are all there, a backdrop for the lonely cowboy. As it dries, the cedar and smoke come to the forefront--bone dry and desolate. And then there is the blood. A red haze around the corners of the other notes, perhaps a few dried streaks on the boots or gloves. It settles out to a western vista: the grasses and woods; patrolled by a figure in leather, cloaked in the scent of the night's fire and blood. It smells like estrangement and home, all at the same time. I'm totally obsessed. (Also, I'm watching Deadwood right now, so that's kinda contributing to this...) In a way the scent baffles me. It's masculine, but there's something about the way that it embodies a lone figure riding through darkness with blood on his hands that transcends the gender line. If that makes any sense at all. The blood note in this is actually really lovely and works perfectly with the other components--whereas my previous experience with the lab's blood note has been that it is very...hm...offsetting? and has not worked on me at all. Sadly, the boy is not into smelly things and will not let me experiment with it on him, but that's probably a good thing since I can't stop snuffling my own wrists. Also, as per my obsession with vanilla foody scents, I have already attempted layering this with my aged Inez (very light on the Inez) and I think the combination is quite lovely. (the cowboy and the grindhouse girl--who will possibly be dinner...)