Silvertree

The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices. (Bringin' it back: I looked up my old (2005!) review of the original Shub-Niggurath before writing this up. Ladies and gentlemen, Shoggoths of all ages: it is the 10th anniversary of Shub! I'm pleased to report that the ol' black goat is just as spicy, sexy, and swoonworthy as ever, if not more. My Shub HG arrived in a new style of bottle: taller and slimmer than the other HGs I own. Which is great, because now I can cram more in my hair gloss drawer! I could cut and paste my old review here, as the gloss is a twin of the perfume, but I'll see if my review-writing skills have improved at all. Apologies in advance for the second person POV....) Shub-Niggurath rushes through the forest, her midnight-black hooves crushing the secret herbs that grow in the shadows. You hold your breath as she passes, fearful of her horns and huge, heaving flanks. In the wake of her passing, you catch the hint of her scent. You thought it would be animalic, heavy and rank. You thought wrong. Warm, biting ginger tingles in your nostrils, making you gasp in delight. And as you open your mouth, you take a full, deep breath, drawing her perfumed essence deep into your lungs. The ginger blooms with life inside your body, growing hotter. Spicier. It reminds you of familiar scents--cinnamon, perhaps? But something wilder, nothing so tame as the powdered stuff you sprinkle over buttered toast in the morning. These are not daylight scents. You're bathed in fresh bark, and rushing sap, and oddly shaped leaves, growing fierce and free in ancient, hidden groves of trees. It's a green-gold scent, alive and lit from within like an ember, glowing and growing warmer and warmer... You aren't certain when you started running, but you're loping through the forest fleet as a deer, that scent on your tongue and steam rising from your skin as the cold air kisses your bare limbs. Laughing, you tilt your head to the sky, getting your bearings from the stars as they wheel through the branches of the trees above. You take another gulping breath of that invigorating, intoxicating, gently radiant heat, and follow its trail into the woods and into the night.... ...You wake up in your bed as the sky changes from inky blue-black to the pinkish gray of dawn. You stretch sore muscles, luxuriating in the slight burn of your limbs. As you arch your back, your husband rolls over and sleepily wraps you in his arms. He picks a leaf out of your tangled hair, and then buries his face in the curve of your neck. "Mmmm," he says, suddenly sounding much more awake. "You smell incredible."

Switch Witch info is fine. You can have the link to your wishlist in your sig, but your wishlist must be in the Wishlist topic, not your blog.

Looks like the butterfly's scientific name is Megathymus yuccae and it's found "in deserts, foothills, and woodlands where yucca plants occur," so it's a [Yucca] [Giant-Skipper], not a [Yucca Giant]-[skipper]. I'm no lepidopterist, but I'd say Yucca GI-ant Skipper. Then again, I suspect you wouldn't make an ass of yourself unless you happened to be chatting about perfume with a very judgmental lepidopterist.

I tend to gravitate towards more traditionally masculine scents. This might fall into the "too green" category for you, but I love Dawn: Cernunnos (Terebinth pine, basil, green sandalwood, fig leaf, armoise, lemon balm, cypress, myrrh, black cedar, and juniper). It's more rich/resinous than herbal. If you can find a decant in the Swaps forum to test, one of my favorite scents of all time is Crowley from Good Omens (Infernal musk, red patchouli, lilac cologne, mahogany, lemon rind, oakmoss, leather, and vanilla husk). It does have a number of your iffy notes, which is why I thought you might want to test it before committing to a bottle, but it's extremely well-blended and just so. dang. good. Not too musky, not too patchouli-aggressive, not too floral.

Since we currently don't have the swaplift center accessible, we've made a swaplift reports topic. Please post there and report your post to immediately bring it to the mods' attention. (This can and should be done in addition to leaving feedback in a member's individual thread, FYI!) We realize that sometimes people may be reluctant to "tattle" on a forum member, but notifying the mods ensures that a member's activity will be tracked, and that they can have their access to the swap area restricted if need be. Filing a report ensures that the rest of the community is aware of the situation. Please PM both Maewitch and Silvertree with any questions!

I searched the reviews topic to see if anyone posted a review for Chaos Theory O: CXXI. Other than that, there's not much to go on--each bottle of Chaos Theory is blended individually/without a formula, so as Andra said, there's no way of knowing exactly what's in it.

I thought of a fun game to play. I'm sure some/most of you have seen the Disney Villains Perfume Bottles fanart, and the only thing that would make this particular artist's fantasy better is if BPAL perfumes were matched to each bottle! The Evil Queen: Poisoned Apple OR Vain Sorceress Ursula: Ekhidna OR R'Lyeh/Cthulhu/The Deep Ones/Y’ha-Nthlei Cruella de Vil: Malediction Maleficent: Dragon's Claw OR Medea Jafar: Corrupt Chancellor OR Djinn OR Al-Shairan (honorable mention: Iago. You got a problem, pinky?) Gaston: Pride Hades: Hades Mother Gothel: The Other Mother's Right Hand Foulfellow & Gideon: Kitsune-Tsuki & The Sluggard Doctor Facilier: Jazz Funeral (possibly too positive for him, maybe skekZok the Ritual Master?) Lady Tremaine: Wicked OR Wicked Matriarch OR Marquise de Merteuil Scar: Lady MacBeth Yzma: A Countenance Foreboding Evil Madame Medusa: Bayou Prince John: Greed Queen of Hearts: Queen of Hearts Dom Frollo: Anathema OR Tavern of Hell Captain Hook: Jolly Roger (or How Doth the Little Crocodile, if you prefer) Governor Ratcliffe: Villain OR Iago Please feel free to make other suggestions! Now...imagine if these bottles became a reality and they tapped Beth to create a unique perfume for each villain...then we could play "what should _____ smell like?"

The US postal service will be operating as usual, so don't worry about swapping difficulties!

After extensive and in-depth debate, we have decided to adopt a universal price cap for all BPAL/BPTP items sold on the bpal.org forum. As of this moment, the price cap is $50 for a full 5mL bottle, $10 for a full imp or imp-sized decant. You are welcome to charge any price up to and including that amount. Why a universal price cap? First of all, individual price caps were confusing and time-consuming, both to follow and to enforce. Second, we trust our members not to price-gouge and inflate costs. We don't need to police every nickel, dime, and quarter. Finally, the marketplace will dictate what works and what doesn't! Laissez-faire BPAL, yo. Please be aware that this is a trial. If we receive reports of abuse of the system, we will revisit this approach. But we hope that this will be more streamlined and simpler, for both sellers and buyers. As always, if you paid more than the $50 price cap for a given item and have documentation to back it up, you may contact an administrator for an exception to the price caps. BPTP items such as lockets fall into this category. Please note that "make me an offer" is still not acceptable. Specific prices must be posted in the For Sale forum. As always, sellers may not charge PayPal fees on top of bottle/shipping cost. Please PM swap mods (currently Maewitch and Silvertree) with any questions. Please note that the old Price Caps database at the top of the forum is merely an archive, and no longer a guideline. The universal price cap supersedes individual pricing.

We have reevaluated and updated guidelines for Group Orders, effective immediately. New GO sub-forum(s) and reporting/discussion topics will be added ASAP. Until that time, please continue to make topics in the Decant This forum and report your order in the Decant Circle/Group Order thread. We will split out posts and topics as needed. Please PM a Swaps Mod (Silvertree, Maewitch) with any questions, or make a report. Please do not arrange or ask to join decant circles or group orders outside of the swaps forum. This is a test run-- if we find that any of the new guidelines aren't working, we will revisit how group orders are run. Also: we are lifting the six-week minimum availability requirement for decanting. At this time, all scents may be offered for decanting, unless they are available in imp form or imp packs. Thanks!

Also, it's a good idea to include your order number-- that makes it easier to match your email up with your order!

I have plenty of bottles from 2004 and 2005 that are not only still fine, but better than ever (I tend to like spice/resin-heavy blends, which seem to age better). But unless something smells off, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's bad, you'd know it as soon as you sniffed it!

Please check out our new, streamlined decant circle guidelines, effective immediately. We have increased the number of bottles/slots decanters may choose to fill. Current levels will remain the same; just the quantity of bottles available to you has increased. If you have circles open now, subtract the bottles you have ordered from the NEW bottle total to find what you may decant. (Even if you have not completely filled a bottle in an open circle, that still counts as one bottle/5 slots.) So if you are a level 1 decanter with 1 circle of 4 bottles open at the moment, you now have an additional 6 bottles to play with, and so on. At any level, you may choose to put all your available bottles in one circle, or start a new circle with fewer bottles than the maximum, keeping some in reserve. Please PM Silvertree or Maewitch with any questions! Happy decanting.

Zmey Gorynych is neither lewd nor aggressive. It is, however, compelling and seductive. I get a lot of golden glowing amber and a little hint of crisp, slightly sweet frost, so it seems to be warm and cool at the same time. Definitely adding this to the hoard!

Effective immediately, we are lifting limits on participants and items for group orders of BPAL/BPTP merchandise at events and conventions (please note that decant circle levels and the 6-week minimum for decanting still apply). Anyone who wishes to make a group order/ volunteer themselves as a pickup fairy must make a topic in the Decant Circles/Group Orders forum, post in the "New Decant Circle" thread, and report that post to bring it to a mod's attention. You may choose to set limits for your own sanity, or leave participation open, with the stipulation that participant lists be posted publicly in your topic. This does not apply to forum members who may choose to respond to select ISO posts in the Wanted forum-- there is no need to post a group order in that case. As always, forum price caps apply. We do not permit group leaders to pass on PayPal fees on top of shipping and handling costs. Participants will cover sales tax, but not cost of admission/gas/parking/merch/any incidental fees the group leader may incur. As group orders and event pickups often involve items of limited quantity, there is no guarantee that participation in a group order will ensure fulfillment. Caveat emptor. Please stay in communication with your participants/group leader; if a month has gone by and you have not yet received your order (or an explanation from the group leader) please alert the swap mods.

"Shipped" on CCNow doesn't meet the Lab/BPTP just got (meaning received) the order; it think it means that they harvested the order from CCNow as part of the order fulfillment process. The bottles weren't available to be ordered by then, but you had put your order in already, so you should be fine. You can check with them just to be sure.

Scherezade is not Indian, but I feel like the scent is in the same family as Morocco, Sri Lanka, etc. Saffron and Middle Eastern spices swirled through sensual red musk.

Definitely Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat. Description: Sticky-sweet iced lemon sugar!

I *think* it's 2005-- those were the years of vintage Halloween labels. Sugar Skull 2004 has text only, no picture. For physical appearance, I would check the bottles and labels thread. And I found... not a pic, but this: I don't havea pic handy but am pretty sure that th 05 sugar skull is the one with a pic of a brown haired girl who has her arm raised. Thanks! I wasn't sure --I've been spoiled by many of the older LEs having years printed on the label, it never occurred to me that they wouldn't be marked after the first incarnation. Sounds like it is 2005! ETA Exhibit B: we also have a Gallery, which includes a section for label art. It hasn't been updated since early 2011, but that might be a nice thing to have people contribute to. And I found this image! Upload date is pre-Halloween '06, so it must be '04 or '05. And since I know '04 was a text label, your bottle is... :drumroll: 2005!

The Salons are unimpable GCs, like Neil Gaiman scents. Occasionally one will be discontinued due to a sudden component issue, but other than that they're live for the foreseeable future. The Periodic Table series has not yet gone live, although testers have been spotted at NYCC and Will Calls.

I think Herr Drosselmeyer (Pipe smoke, sweet leather, woods and linen) would be a great choice! Unfortunately, it's an LE that wasn't revisited this year, but try the Swaps forum. My dad used to smoke a pipe when I was little, so there's something very fatherly about that scent for me. If I could find pipe smoke + cedar + wool (from the sweaters my mom knits him every year, stored with cedar blocks) it would be my dad in a bottle.

This one may be tough to find, but Conservatory Tableaux could fit the bill: Lacquered beech wood and old books. Or Herr Drosselmeyer: Pipe smoke, sweet leather, woods and linen.

This is not at all to knock decant circles, as I have relied upon them to help narrow down a too-large wishlist after an update. However, I can see a decant removed from a bottle by a second party being different in composition from the overall bottle, even if the bottle is well-mixed by the decanter prior to the decanting. I don't want to get into the synthetic ingredient debate too much, as that's off-topic and has been covered in other threads, but my understanding is that the Lab at one point in time made one or two prototypes with synthetic ingredients, but never put them up for sale. So they can't say "we have never used synthetics" but nothing in the current catalog uses them. Of course, I don't work for the Lab, so don't take my word for it.

Maybe Hellhound on My Trail for Hound of the Baskervilles?

Hmm, do you want scents that an evil queen would wear, or scents based on historical/literary ladies? Either way, I think the Diabolus category has a lot of great options for this theme! Maleficent is probably my top pick for an evil queen/sorceress, and I could see her wearing one of the Ars Draconis scents, like Dragon's Reverie: Opium-laced dreams of flame, plunder, power and fury: dragon’s blood resin, poppy, amber and ylang ylang. Another one that springs to mind is the White Witch from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Maybe Baobhan Sith for her: Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. Then you have real-life villainess Elizabeth Bathory, represented by Blood Countess: corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry.