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BPAL Madness!

marared

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Everything posted by marared

  1. marared

    The Phoenix, Having Burst Her Shell

    This smells like Copper Phoenix with patchouli, and the orange gives it the same high-pitched gack that I didn't like in CP either. I'm going to pop it in the closet for a year or two to see if it mellows out with time.
  2. marared

    Sell me on patchouli?

    DIONYSIA. Everyone loves it on me and raves about how good it smells, and when they ask what's in it, they say, "Patchouli? Huh. I HATED patchouli until I smelled this." Patchouli is also one of those things that gets much smoother and sweeter and less hippie-dirty as it ages, so if you find a blend you like but the patchouli is a little strong? Put it away for at least one year, try it again, and give it one more year before you decide for sure.
  3. The only rose I can wear that doesn't turn into freakishly loud ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE is Moroccan rose, and even then I have to apply cautiously. I mostly get my rose fix from The Body Shop's Moroccan rose body butter.
  4. marared

    Peach V

    Peach V has a lot in common with Peach Moon, I think - minus the jasmine and the wood. It's light and sweet without being excessively fruity right off the bat, and over time on the skin it gets deeper and richer with the honey. Neroli is sometimes slightly bitter - this is not, not at all. It's a wonderful summertime scent.
  5. marared

    Peach II

    I smelled Coldie's in Atlanta, and it was totally peachy fruit punch on me.
  6. marared

    Peaches in the BPAL Garden Atmosphere Spray

    I smelled Coldie's while in Atlanta, and all I got out of it was slightly fruity cedar, maybe a bit of vine. I think I'm just excessively sensitive to cedar though, because it's an amp note of mine.
  7. marared

    Tokyo Milk to BPAL comparisons

    I don't have any recommendations, but I loooove TokyoMilk Dark and look forward to the day when I can afford bottles of Everything & Nothing and Bittersweet. I think #62 is called Tainted Love, which I remember liking pretty well too. For alcohol-based perfume, it's really nice and long-lasting, and doesn't SMELL like alcohol like other brands do.
  8. marared

    Traveling with BPAL

    No one's ever said a peep to me about bottles, loose imps, or even a quart bag full of imps. Honestly, there's been more than one occasion when I forgot to take my baggie of travel-size liquids (shampoo, lotion, etc) and nobody said anything about it either. (but they DID open my *checked* luggage to examine a bottle of beer that was a gift...)
  9. marared

    Feed Me and Fill Me With Pleasure

    This is a pretty, soft, inoffensive patchouli that's been gentled by the amber and honey. If you want to try patchouli but you're afraid of the loud dirty boot-wearin' kind, this would be a good place to start. It does grow progressively a little dirtier with time and warmth, but it's not nearly as forceful as #occupywallstreet or Banshee Beat. I do get the hints of wood other people mention, but I really have to huff my arm and think about it before it becomes noticeable. I like it, it just doesn't have quite as much personality as other patchouli blends. Edit: this does strongly remind me of O, without being as *sweet* as O.
  10. marared

    Sic Erit

    As most everyone else has said, the rose geranium is dominant right out of the imp - it's pretty sharp, and there's this high-pitched note that's almost like mint but isn't. I can smell the patchouli in the background, and if I really inhale the red musk is there too, which is unusual because that's a pretty loud note and very distinctive in BPAL blends. It definitely needs to be revisited in a few months, maybe a few years to let everything smooth out. ETA ten minutes later: oh, THERE'S the red musk. Just needed time to warm up...
  11. marared

    Angry Crab

    This smells like high-end deodorant. Really! It's a very nice, fresh and salty aquatic that does NOT go weird on my skin - it's in the same family as Lightning - but it still reminds me of deodorant!
  12. marared

    Haitian Vetiver

    Pretty much what everyone else has said. If you don't already like vetiver, this isn't going to make you a fan. If you're on the fence, you need to give it some time to settle before you decide if you do or don't like it, because it's powerful, smoky and strong right out of the bottle. Not a huge amount of throw, but it's pretty intense. It mellows out pretty quickly though, into smoky/scorched green wood. It'll age nicely, too.
  13. marared

    Your Salon Must-Haves!

    Got my second/last bottle of Mad Meg today. I wish I had discovered this sooner. Whole bunch of notes that I hate, working together to smell gorgeous on me.
  14. marared

    The Phoenix in Autumn

    Some scents don't always call to mind the season they're meant to evoke, but this one deeeeeefinitely does, and it's the "dry leaves" in particular that leaves that impression. Dry leaves, teak, patchouli. It smells like a solid wood hope chest that once held detritus of the earth - leaves and flowers and bits, and you can still smell them in the empty box. Sits very close to my skin and not much throw. Given ten or fifteen minutes, the wood and leaves slowly fade into the background and the ivy and hyssop become more noticeable. I don't get the vetiver impression other people mention, although I can understand why they'd think that, but vetiver is stronger and sharper to my nose.
  15. marared

    Honey Hair Gloss

    I love this stuff - it's a fabulous rich honey. What I usually do is one spray into my hairbrush, which lasts for a few uses each time. My hair does a great seaweed impression if I ever apply oil directly, but done via hairbrush, by the time the oil builds up enough to make my hair heavy and floppy, it's time to wash it anyway. It's strong, but it doesn't have much throw - I can smell it in my own hair, but other people generally don't notice it unless they're right up in my space. Just how I like it. It's *great* for the days when I have to use tar shampoo, and it will get used again tomorrow after I'm done with a henna touchup.
  16. marared

    Halôa

    2011 edition. I've been eyeballing this one for a while now, unsure because wine of any kind often dominates a blend on me, but these are just the grapes... and frankincense and especially myrrh have a track record of not playing nice with my skin, but not always. Happily, it works. On me, it's a slightly grapey frankincense and olive leaf - I do not smell the pomegranate or even the cakes, but perhaps it's the cakes that lend that hint of sweetness to the blend. It's a little strong for the first fifteen or twenty minutes, but it damps down after a while and hangs on for at least five or six hours before the scent evaporates. Not foody or winey at all - just smooth resin that will age like a champ. I will have to get a full bottle of this after all!
  17. marared

    A Wonderful Light

    The honey smells much like the GC honeys, which unfortunately is not all that great on me. I was hoping for more of the orange and linden blossom, but it's really just a golden amber-honey without any real zing to it.
  18. marared

    Mad Meg

    There's absolutely no reason this should work on me. Almond? Ew. Balsam? Usually overwhelms every scent on me, as does cinnamon. But oddly enough, it DOES work. And it's GOOD. Like second-tier favorite. Like I might actually get a bottle. Cinnamony orangey vetiver. My first impression involved an almost magnolia-like gooeyness, although that dissipates after a while. I like it.
  19. marared

    Devil's Night

    Sweet dark golden musk. A bit of smoke. I only catch a *hint* of vanilla on the drydown, and it mostly develops into a sweet woody musk without the smoke.
  20. marared

    Autumn Cider

    Another vote for fruit punch - specifically Veryfine Fruit Punch with a few extra spices. I get very little actual apple - it's orange and cinnamon and lemon zest and I'd swear there was a hint of pineapple in the blend too, but apparently not.
  21. A friend of mine who is not on the forum, splag****@yahoo, says she sent an email about an order that was shipped two weeks ago but has not yet arrived, and she has not gotten an answer. She says she did check her spam. I'm sending up a flag on her behalf.
  22. marared

    #occupywallstreet

    This is a big ole whack of patchouli. I can smell a bit of the cocoa and a bit of the tobacco, but it's mostly woodsy holy-cow-patchouli. Filthy indeed, but in a good way - I need to give it more time on my skin to be sure, but for once, the tobacco doesn't turn all greasy-gasoline on me. Edit to add: When it's had several hours to sit on the skin, it's really lovely. It's still distinctively woodsy-patchouli, but it's not so loud and not so filthy. The tobacco definitely does not take over (thank goodness!) and works with the cocoa to mellow the patch. I really like this now, and can't wait for it to put on some age. After a second test tomorrow, I'm sending this off to the aging box in the closet, to be huffed every few months or so - I imagine this sucker will take a couple of years to truly mellow out. If you like Boomslang and you like a lot of patchouli, you'd probably like this.
  23. marared

    Honey Pumpkin Stout Soap

    This was much sweeter than I expected - I had thought it would be more... beery. Instead, when it's dry it's sweet pumpkin, and when it's wet it's all sweet honey. I do like it though!
  24. marared

    Candied Pumpkin

    Bottle? Pumpkin pie. Yum. On me? Smells just like the Feb '09 13 - one of the spices just doesn't work, and I'm leaning towards the brown sugar. It doesn't smell bad, but that one spice is taking over, and it smells nothing like the yummy pie in the bottle. Definitely very noticeable and long-lasting through at least two hand-washes.
  25. marared

    Invidia Bath Oil

    I never did review this when I had the decants, but I loved it enough to buy a bottle. It's refreshing, both sweet and tart at once - not noticeably floral, just grapefruit and lime and honey and ginger. There is some jasmine way at the bottom of the scent, but it's not the cat-pee jasmine by any stretch. I occasionally run back into my bathroom to huff after I've used it - if there was a perfume oil of this, I'd have snatched up several backups already.
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