kmasden

I have to do a mini review because i think it is just hilarious...not bess, but what it smelled like to me. First off, I am usually sniffing without looking at the ingredients...it's led to some amazing interpretations....like I loved Versailles and slathered and slathered and then i read that it had rose and in my head i can't do rose, and then all i could smell was rose (the powers of the mind, i tell ya) Anyway, don't hate me, but i put bess on and took a whiff and well, my brain went "Nachos!" Yes, you heard me right, it smelled like Nacho cheese to me. I have no idea how, but without reading the ingredients, that was the smell to my nose. Now that i read what is in it, i can definately pick out the orange flower, the rose, the grapeish smells...but together, they said "Nacho!" I would love to smell this on someone else. I love rosemary and so many of the notes in here. My skin is well known for taking lovliness and trashing it however, so alas, I can't wear bess...but I had to share the nacho cheese story.

Shell...give us a break, we all know you don't wear panties!!! I think this thread (well, not the funny parts, just the complaints) are a clear case of "think before you post" and "if you post something negative for the whole world to see, expect to be called on it." Oh, and while I am on the soapbox I am feeling jealous...people are ordering from places with better CS and freebies than bpal? Please help me out if you would be so kind... A ) Please list here all the other companies that send you freebies with your order. Ummm, granted I mostly order from places like amazon, art.com, macy's.com, LL bean, etc...but ummm, yet to receive a freebie....would love to get freebies from them, where are you ordering from that you get so many freebies with your order? B ) Please list here all the places you order from that email you back in less than 22 hours (hell, i'm in cancer care and our "urgent" requests usually take more than a day to get handled). Wow, I really would like to know because generally when i use email to talk to a company about receiving the wrong order, i don't see an answer for a week and sometimes more! I just have a hard time why anyone expects bpal to better than the rest of the world...I mean granted, I think the product is tops and i love the company, but it seems that some people expect them to keep to higher standards than the rest of the world...ummm, hello...human beings...running a business...growing like crazy, etc. etc...damn lucky we get to email them at all, talk to them ever, and get squat beyond the exact item we pay for....huh huh helloooooooooooooooooo.

Am i allowed to be totally sad that this one didn't work on me at all? I actually smelled it on lavinia and it seemed delish...but tried it on the other night and wahhhhhh, on me it turned into cough syrup/melted barbie doll head....the strawberry/honey combo I suspect is the culprit as it really became overly sweet almost cherryish to my nose.... Now mind you, my chemistry also turns beauties like snow white to plastic and the way this one smells and from the reviews, i definately think it is one that will be a love or hate it scent with the lovers ruling the majority! I'm happy for y'all and sad for me....though I have my red phoenix, and my snow bunny, and my pumpkins, and trick or treat, and, and...well, you get the picture.

Wow, are we sniffing the same thing? LOL...I just dont' get leather, though mind you I am not educated sniffing pro and I'll definately sniff again with leather in mind. For me Herr Drosselmeyer started out all wonderful almond (yup, i'm an almond LOVER!!!!!) strong, rich, cherryish..yum...as it dried down it became hellfire, just a little less smokey, a little less overbearing (although i love the smell of hellfire, i could never wear it). I think someone else said (I didn't read all the reviews) that it was a more wearable hellfire and i think they hit the nail on the head! Bravo.

I actually really like Trick or Treat. I feel that it's pretty unique for a sweet foody scent....i definately get loads of syrupy brown sugar...very warm and yummy...I would have to say after plenty of reflection, it smells like banana foster...you know that baked banana with the brown sugar melted all over it...maybe a touch o liquor or rum....YUM.

Corazon, maybe? It had a colored label with an image of the Sacred Heart on it... It is on the far right in this picture, which someone else posted waaaaaay back toward the beginning of this thread. You know what, i think it is? My god you people are fantastic <you people, snicker, snicker - we're our own breed aren't we!>

That is hilarious about the thorns and blood and spiders. I guess since although I love all things goth, i'm probably just a boring girl, i am loving the different type of labels. I thought the originals were lovely as well, but to have a piece of custom artwork on every label, i am soo in heaven. I would love to see more of the rappuccini's garden type...they are like art deco goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bottle was at the lab though i think someone just showed it to me, it wasn't on the display with that type of label. I have a pic via email of it, but am so technically dumb i don't know how to post it LOL...plus it's a bad pic! oh and Macha...will we be seeing any of this art on posters/postcards, etc...pretty pulleeaaasseee???

label comment and question. First off all the new labels are gorgeous! The antique halloween one's look like they are 30's and 40's art...and I love them soo much! I have to say that as a huge art deco/art nouveau fan, the rappuccini's garden labels are to die for as well... And I am so buying a 10ml of snake oil now LOL. Now, question, i have seen a bottle with an elixor type label (heart with daggers just like the others; safari et all) but with a reddish back instead of black....i have no idea what oil this is? Can anyone help?

Ummmm, I would suspect that because they have been in the process of moving the lab and all it's intricacies and little pieces etc. etc...that they have probably been somewhat incommunicado except for emergencies. I'm not sure which is the best email address to use but i would be pretty confident that they will get your message before your order goes out. Did you put "URGENT SHIPPING ADDRESS CHANGE" in the subject line? I would think they scan through the emails etc..at the very least, but they may not have had a reliable hookup ya know with the move. On another note (this isn't meant for you of course), I'm always wondering and waiting for my shipment cause i'm so damn anxious and love bpal so much. I do it with all etailers actually LOL...but i do always keep myself in check by reminding myself how many retailers and etailers have a standard 6-8 week ship time...so in all reality, bpal isn't really out of the norm on that in my opinion! Especially for a basically custom/handmade type of product that isn't produced by the million in a factory!

So far I am soo sad about this one. I really like the almost citrusy sweet zing it has on me in the beginning, but I find the dirt/moss note to be the kind that just makes me a little bit nauseous....It's not the oil, it's my sensitivity to this particular note or family of notes. As much as I love the dirt smell, i can't handle this particular dead, squishy, mossy, algea type smell....like stale swampwater perhaps. Now mind you it is not dominant and those that love that earthiness will probalby love this. It is beautifully blended and sweet yet earthy, but alas, the same bottom i couldn't handle in say queen of clubs...feels similiar to me here....alas... And I vow...and I've said this for a while....when i die, i want a jazz funeral....so i don't know if i can part with it just for that sake...maybe it will be perfect anointment for the day i die...you know, as morbid as that sounds that makes me feel peaceful...thank you Beth!

Yup, I agree....I'm a spicy girl (love snake oil and anything with spice) Bengal - this is a "hot" scent...as in a sweeter skin with a jalapeno type bite, not a huge smell, not pepper like black pepper, but sweet hot....very nice for layering as well. Al Sharain - lovely if you like the clovey spicyness, again sweet spicy, but very distinguishible clove/cinnamon spice and just a lovely golden background. Tintagel - this is a junipery spicy that is just wonderful. Smells much better on than in the bottle. Hamadryad - good through and nice and spicy, it reminds me of the type of spices you get with apple pie...cinnamon barkish... The Lion - this is barely spicy, just soothing, ambery with a rush of light cinnamon. Dee - this feels spicy to me, spicy, perfumy, leather. I find if you want something interesting, layering the spicy scent works great. I love to layer spicy with severing and florence...a little al sharain or hamadryad with florence is like red moon! Tintagel with a floral tones down the pine but leaves the cinnamon. Bengal is good with just about anything!

This one goes to the top of my list, it is sooo beautiful. Lovely ambery, almost honeyish - milkyish, rosyish (ha, new words) to me...mixed with citrusy (almost indescernable) note or two...it is sooo well blended! I think the rose and jasmine must counterbalance each other somehow..the rose doesn't overpower, nor does the jasmine, it just makes for a creamier, headier, but more lovely floral scent. I'm not the greatest reviewer but felt this needed more than one review. I would say that it is a very warm scent, luxurious, nothing screaming out at you, i don't get an amp on the citrus, rose, or jasmine (none of which i care for if they are too strong in a blend). It is strong mind you, not for those that want a whispy scent. Lately, I keep associating bpal scents with sex...hmmm...not getting enough obviously! In that regard, this is the kind of sex you have if you are an elegant seductive woman...it's the scent of men licking you all over because they can't pull their nose out of it...and the scent of perhaps a hidden kinky side....hmmm, it's very grown up and beautiful, very sexy, in a very womanly way... hmmm...i think i need to go back to the licking all over part....LOL....

I actually wasn't much of a fan of the lavender in the somnium blends...really disliked it quite a bit and chalked it up to obviously "not liking lavender." However, some of my favorite scents are lavender based here on bpal... Guaeko (which i may be spelling wrong) is a wonderful spicy, woody, lavender. Probably too masculine for most, but.... Villain - again, it has a citrus note, so not pure lavender but is glorious just the same. Old Scratch - OMG on this one...it is a lavender blend but the tonka and other notes round it out soo nicely. There is also the safari elixer out now...which I find to be very straigh lavender smelling....haven't worn enough to review however!

Midway doesn't need my review, but I'll feel remiss if I don't review it. I'm not much of a foodie person - wait, i'm very foodie, but i don't want to smell like food I guess. So while I love the way things like miskatonic u smell, i don't wear it often. Midway is a sweet, but not a cheery sweet, more like an evil dessert sweet. It's sweetness oozing out of your pores, because there is a quality to it that allows it to sink in deep and just become a part of you. Yes, it smells a bit of cake and sugar frosting and all things sweet, but it is also deep and not toothachy to my nose. My dear ol' shelldoo made an amazing comment about the movie Michael and how he smelled like dessert. I totally agree...it's as if you were just oozing pleasant yumminess. I love it! Now eat me

I also liked Gypsy Queen a lot, though totally unexpected. I was thinking that the components were Alice like and expected an Alice smell. I felt that there was a bit of Alice in the background, in the way that Gypsy Queen felt creamy and yummy. I would say that it has a wonderful creamy smokey quality that is just edible and sexy. And then weirdly enough I get berries. Yes, bizarre, I can't explain it, but I have worn it three or so times now and to me, I smell creamy, slightly smokey berries. I think I would compare this to a combination of Alice and R'lyeh if you will. R'lyeh was another "shouldn't smell fruity, but it does" scents and Alice has that delicious creaminess. Gypsy Queen is definately a "must have one bottle of" if not more.

I have to agree with Quantum Spice. This is very fruity. Not fruity in the fresh and fruity way. If possible, the black pepper and benzoin probably ground it a bit, yet I don't get any black pepper, not obviously anyway. I would say that for the most part I get a very deep orange fragrance. It does get deeper as it dries. It is not the lighter orange or type of orange in masquerade, etc. It is unique. Very melding with the skin. Although I was really hoping for a big ol' shot of black pepper (Beth, please make me a black pepper scent LOL), one of the things i love about Kunstkammer is that hours later when you sniff your skin, your skin just smells pleasant, sweetish but not overly so. Almost reminds me of my german mother and the way she smells when she's been playing in the apricots. Almost a part of you scent, yet totally strong and on its own at first. I would say, if anything, the pepper comes out much later, just deepening and spicing up the dark orange a tad.

Bed of Nails wasn't my favorite scent, though not at all unpleasant, just didn't bowl me over like some of the others, so I will keep the review short. I really felt like I couldn't identify anything in bed of nails. What I can say is that it was a bit pungent, in the way that alcohol is, yet it wasn't at all unpleasant. One of the most fantastic thing I've noticed about the CN line, is that when i am smelling the scents and reading the descriptions, they really, really represent what Beth (or whoever wrote them :-) said they did. More so than many scents. Bed of Nails is no different. For those that like an aquatic or ozone type scent, this is probably a must try. Unfortunately they don't agree with me as I'm more of a snake oily type of gal.

My first thought with Torture King, right after applying, was campfire smoke. That was the predominant smell I got from it. You know when you've camped for 3 days and the jacket you wore sitting around the fire is just permeated with smoke. Not unpleasant but very smokey and strong. As it dries, it seems to sweeten. I am definately getting a sweetish bourbon, lemony feel, a touch of mandarin and lime, leather, those for me are predominant. Another scent that has a quality reminiscent with skin to me. So far, many of the CN scents are really matching a vision in my head. Torture King, is he balding with a big goatee ish beard....no shirt, some type of cigarish thing being puffed on, a bottle of bourbon sitting behind the barrel, oil on his body, a mean streak. I have no idea if that's what a torture king is, but in my head that's what he looks like and now I smell him! I really think it is pleasant on drydown, very tobacco leaf, leather, bourbon, lemon...the citrus is very slights. A bit addicting, i can't stop sniffing.

Snake Charmer surprised me. Not entirely in a pleasant way, but that's only because it was absolutely different than what i expected. In my mind I had a combo of forbidden fruit with snake oil and vanilla. Therefore I was not expecting the somewhat sharp and definately perfumy wet stage. Strong, strong, strong, nothing subtle about it. I don't get coconut at all from this and somehow i lose the ambery, musky scents that I am familiar with, however, it may just be that i am still too new to understand the different types of these. I definately get an incensy feel, a perfumy, heady incense. Overall I am afraid this is just too strong and perfumy for me to wear (I'm one of those headache people though). It absolutely lasts and does seem to get stronger as you wear it. This is probably House of Mirrors, but I don't know for sure so I'm leaving it here. --Shollin

OH MY GOOOOOOODDDDDDD! I had scratched this off the list, sure I didn't want it. Now mind you I love amber when it doesn't turn powdery, but really wasn't attracted to the glass notes. I bought it cause I had to...You can't look at something so accessible and not buy it! It is sooo flipping gorgeous...please, please, get a bottle! It is exactly a milder snake oil, it is sexy, warm, skin with vanilly type of goodness. Mother of God, it is good if you like those warm scents. For me this is i am woman hear me roar. It's that sly smile, the man sniffing your neck not even sure if it is perfume or you that smells so delicious....must taste... Really, i think this is the very best of the carnivale noir line and i was not expecting that at all. Beautiful. This is probably Snake Charmer, but I don't know for sure so I'm leaving it here. --Shollin

Wow, I am amazed at the two reviews thus far. I definately agree on some points, but find this to be an amazing scent for entirely different reasons <grin> First - feral, yes, very. Not in a horrid way mind you, though I fear it may put people off. I think it blends so well with the leather that you can't tell if you are smelling cats ass (meaning a civet type scent) or leather and whatever is stuck in your head will be what it becomes for you. The cedar blends very well, it gets slightly more cedary as it dries, almost couldn't detect it at first. It is definately that old apothecary cabinet someone mentioned, not hamster, not old closet...it is pleasant and does not amp on me as cedar is known to do. The cinnamon...just a touch, just a sweetness with a teensy touch of cinnamon, almost not spicy, just part of this animalistic, spicy, teethbared scent. Did you read the Perfume Murderer? There's a man in the book that has no smell of his own...when you read the description of this horrid little man, you think of his sweat and hairy, short somewhat deformed body, you imagine his yellow teeth and scary smile....he's not necessarily a bad man at that point mind you, yet he is a very, very primitive man that never gets noticed. He wants to smell like people. He wants to emit the caphony of smells from sweaty and dirty to showered to food dribbling down the chin to perverted thoughts and angelic wishes to sex...that is what Geek smells like to me. I don't know if it will be a hit, but it is worth smelling on your skin and examining over the course of an hour or two.

I haven't done a review in a while and since i'm into my 4th or so glass of a boozy homemade sangria, i'm not expecting much from myself, but had to comment on Santo Domingo. At first I didn't love it, even swapped my first away. But let me tell you something folks, this is a scent that grabs you and takes hold. I haven't heard any comparisons (or I've missed them) to Alice yet, but to me this is a grown up, slightly greener Alice. The creaminess is there, the no bullshit tobacco/rum/peppery note is there, yet it let's you be whoever you are. It's white, it's not really floral - not heady floral anyway, it's like if you took a bowl of cream and put some type of tropical flower in it and sprinkled it with some sweet sugar or rum, pepper and the tobacco of a cigarette and let it all sink in together. That sounds totally weird doesn't it? As I tend to say - try it, you might like it. Yup, and if you don't. Wait a few weeks and try it again. Try it three days in a row. Bet you'll be hooked!

Thank you Ms. Penance! I'm an alzeheimer case waiting to happen, so even if i know i read something, i can rarely find it till someone bumps it with a new post! Thank you thank you!

Wow, it has been amazing some of the differences. I know that I had recently gotten another imp of hamadryad. The first one was dark brown and very cinnamon, the second one was light green and not cinnamony at all! They were both from the lab, so no funny business going on, but i suppose between again, variances in the organic oils etc...it's possible that they can change a lot. I had no idea that we were supposed to roll the bottle before decanting - DOH. At least i'm rough handled enough that i probably always shake them, but this is excellent to know! I wonder if you can age oils quicker the same as wine. I had read that with wine, when you have a crap bottle, if you decant it into a wide mouth container and let it expose to air for an hour or so, it will taste like it's been aged a few years. Could that work with oils? Can they be left uncapped with a gentle shake around for a couple hours and age them quicker than just letting them sit for months???

Very interesting the way people create scent associations. I can see similiarity between F54 and Lilith as well as between Samhain and Hexennacht. It's not that either smell like the other but more of a similiar association/feel for me. Although I would bet there is an ingredient similair :-) I just wonder how much of the associations we make are based on actually detecting a note or particular fragrance within the blend vs. how much a scent "feels" similiar to our noses. Hmmm, it's late and I probably made no sense at all!! LOL