olympia301

Wet -Sort of a bubblegummy scent mixed with herbal aromatherapy and a bit of musky pine. This is a classic herb like smell with some sort of heavy sweet thrown in. Drydown -Basil. I smell basil in this blend. It is one of the notes which I think works wonders for Queen and gives its resin the needed individuality note which it needs to stand out of the crowd. Alas, there is too much going on in the background to have me say it meets my "uniqueness" criteria. I bet this blend is indeed carefully crafted and I am sure it gives you the confidence of Her Majesty in the situations you need. However, as a perfume, it doesn't work. It really isn't "come hither", rather it's, "Her Majesty commands your presence!" I can detect nothing behind the basil which I would say was charming. Sorry. On the up side, I would bet this is a fine ritual blend. It just smells too serious not to be.

I am seeing these similarities: Violet Ultraviolet-->Veil-->Wings of Azreal Lemon Shanghai-->Kumiho-->Severin I am sure I will find more as I smell more.

Frankincense and myrrh, but unburnt. Very simple scent, but that was my problem with it, not so very interesting either. I have smelled this combination before and I much prefer smelling the burning resins. So, I will be swapping the imp. Not a pity and I am glad I tried it.

The crisp, clean scent of green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle. I'm going to make someone very happy about my reaction to Shanghai because it is going into the swap pile! It starts very beautifully, all lemon and tea. Afternoons of lazy summer and white lawn furniture. I loved it and thought I had found a lemon scent which would stay on me, because it did linger for hours and hours. But...after it dried and the fixative was holding it together, it smelled like mildew on my skin! Gah! This is the first blend that I have ever washed off. I am convinced, like my ill-fated tango with Wilde, my chemistry detests whatever is keeping Shanghai going. So...someone who loves it is going to be right happy to get one 5ml bottle and two imps I picked up in various places. This deserves a good home. My answer to the lemon summer scent is Severin in a scent locket, and I am testing Kumiho right now.

I wasn't so very wild to try this one. As someone else mentioned previously, this does not seem to be a spectacularly adventuresome BPAL. But, Beth does such a great job with old favorites, I had to see what she would do with straight on roses. Wet-I smelled the rose, but I also smelled some disagreeable plastic, quasi-volatile smell in the background. I have learned to stop myself right there and let the scent bloom on to drydown before making judgments. This might be a prelude to something spectacular. Semi-wet-A glorious thing is emerging now. That plastic background is turning into the licorice-like note which haunts me so well in Alice. Slightly volatile in the most scrumptious way, this is a scent which is similar to some part of the very fine roses BPAL uses, and so it has a hook to the rose scent while being a licorice like scent. There has to be a similarity to make me believe that this is part of the rose deal, not just some interloper thrown in the keep it going. Dry-I smell leather subtly backing the roses, as well as the lovely licorice-like smell. This is glorious, always victorious...God Save The Queen! It is the pinnacle of rose goodness, handled by a genius. I would never have imagined the leather and licorice notes would be such a perfect backup for scent roses. It also lasts and lasts, all of it in perfect concert. This is a triumph and a classic.

I liked this scent. It's coco, it's nutty...it's coconutty! Wew! Actually, it's a fun and frilly scent which is just right for a hot beach walk in the shining sun. It's a Caribbean holiday without mom and dad. It's a lazy summer afternoon wishing you could be somewhere more exotic than Atlantic City. It's a dreamy American classic scent with lots of coconut and hazelnut and sunshine packed into an aquatic type of base. My only catch to it was that it reminded me of Hawai'ian Tropic Tanning Lotion, and I am afraid that was too much for me to get past. It haunts me, that Hawai'ian Tropic memory. So, though I like it, I sent it to someone who was longing for it. It has a better home there. Far better to be a loved perfume than a clownish novelty, right? I have a hard time taking coconut seriously. My bad. P.S.-My husband is a full professor at a big research university and a very serious well educated man. Once I was kidding him after I noted that the back of the Hawai'ian Tropic bottle stated there was a place called "The Hawai'ian Tanning Institute", I asked him if he though he could apply to be a visiting professor there. *snert* I don't really think they give degrees.

Bizarre! Shocking! Disturbing! Hilarious! I just had to laugh out loud when I got my first whiff of this scent! At the beginning I smell pineapple and some drippy-pink candy. Wintergreen/sugar sweet/pineapple-like but it's all fake fruit. Man, I feel like a kid. I LOVE it even though it smells like something really wicked. The kind of treat that a really BAD man would offer you to get in his car. It strongly reminds me of my ballet classes as a little girl. I think the candy scent is Ju-Ju-Be's. There is a resiny behind-the-scenes-lurking here (like the resin box that the big girls in toe shoes used) and that's what says "ballet school". It dries down to a cousin of the Arpege-My Sin type of smells, which is exactly what the ladies in the dancing school wore, but the candy never goes away. Really spooky how this recreates a place so long ago. I swear, any of the bleeding edge high toned perfumers like Lolita Lempicka or Thierry Mugler have been outdone by Jailbait. You can't stretch it any further than this one. I heartily recommend it as a throughly evil but wacky smell. I do love this as an art piece. Edited in the interest of science: I went through a phase where Jailbait was just too strong for me. I had an imp then ordered a bottle. I put it on and was totally overwhelmed by it. I could not use it again after that and swapped it away. It wasn't "ewwww", it was "gasp". Too bad. I tried to satisfy my Big Fruit desires with Bordello. Bordello is a great scent, but much tamer and sweeter than Jailbait. I became dissatisfied, restless, out of sorts. What's wrong? I was inculcated with Jailbait and wanted to give it another try. Which I did. Big difference. Was it the weather, the "education" of my nose, a sudden change of heart, the rediscovery of something wonderful which scared me at first? I don't know. But I did refall in love with Jailbait and now it is a staple in my scent wardrobe. It can be overwhelming but that's more a function of its strength rather than it's art. If you like fruity blends with some real starch in them, give Jailbait a try...or another try. I am glad I did. This one really is a "corker".

Another Limited Edition I couldn't wait to put on. My favorite holiday with notes of autumn, I had high expectations of Samhain. Sorry to say, it wasn't me. Headshop, all I could get out of this one was the inside of Bleeker Street or High on the Hill. Maybe it was my unschooled nose or my dislike of the deep notes or my skin chemistry but it was a flop on me. The color is beautiful, the idea is sublime, its limited edition status gives it a great deal of cache but it simply wasn't my perfume. Sad to say, I swapped it away...but...the receiver loved it to pieces. So that ended well and it just goes to show you that what's just "feh" on me may be glorious on you. If BPAL comes out with it again this year at Halloween, I will give it another try. No kidding

O was not me at all. There is a heavy note of a jasmine which does not do well on myskin, it is an Indian jasmine which I find in some incense. Reminds me of being forced to smell someother woman's musky scent (which isn't something I go in for). I really didn't like the florals in here either, cloying.

Mmmmm, impy goodness!

A nice scent. Smells like roses and herbs on me. My problem with it is, once again, it's a good attempt but there is nothing unique about it. I would not pick it out in a crowd and say,"What a wonderful signature scent." Again, I would recommend it to those who want to be "pretty" but not stand out, to smell good in the indefinable way you can with natural scents. I really could not detect lilac here, or osmanthus (which I grow in my window, and it blooms well for me) or any of the other lovely things. They blend together to make a new entity for me, and it is pretty but too insipid for my taste. Too bad, but it happens.

Just a suggestion (for the Exel impared or without): I keep track of the oils I have tried by writing a review of them. I post it and when I want to remember if I did try one, I do a search for my name in reviews, and up comes a ready made list of all the oils I have tried. You don't have to be Earnestine Hemingway when you write one. One line about how it really orginally struck you will do, as long as it adds something to someone else's understanding, it hits the spot.

Boom, Boom, babycakes, and bombs away! This is one sex-aye blend. It smells very much to me like a man's aftershave, but he would have to be one cocky sucker, nothing suave or mysterious about this guy. I doubt he would own a dinner jacket but ooo la la! Since I have no compunction about stealing men's scents if I like the way they smell, this one is a keeper for me. Phantom has some real staying power. I put it on when I started gardening and it is still there, very noticeably so. I am sure I smell the Ylang-ylang, but it has been bullied into playing with a kind of menthol backlash which was popular in the '50's (old Aqua Velva). Some classic spice here (Old Spice). Very nice blend. Makes me feel nostalgic for the Cold War and Strategic Air Command (Peace is Our Bag). I didn't think I'd like Dark Musk, but this is nice. *The icon is of an F-4 Phantom airplane.

Wicked smells exactly like a perfume that my mother's friends would wear. I do not have fond memories of it. My mother's friends were frequently drunks, neurotics and querilous old sadists (in the nicest possible way), hence I do not like that jasmine scent. My review is is just an intensely personal reaction to this scent combination, but I do think it was quite popular years ago when perfumery was still based on natural ingredients. There is something "Joy" in it, and that saves it from being Ghastly Friends of my Mother's smell. However, I think that someone else would appreciate it more that I do. It paints an effective portrait of faded femininity, the grasping at youth and beauty, and the insatiability I associate with dashed women. I think that is what Beth was trying to paint in scent and she did too good a job.

I was happy to see a small caption somewhere on the Lab site which said "All BPAL oils are tested on Beth". That's where they should be tested (or some other human). Goodness, we are going to wear them on human skin, right? Hell, I would sign up for that job in a second, "BPAL tester". I believe, in my earnest but somewhat ignorant way, that dilution of certain oils is necessary. You do know that the vinegar we use is salad is diluted, right? Otherwise you would burn the inside of your mouth and throat from the acid. I knew someone who did this with Key Lime juice, so there are things we put on or in ourselves that really can be caustic without proper handling. Also, there are some things which have the consistency of tar unless they are dissolved in something. Oak moss is one of them. Just like molasses in January, thick and very dark brown, not to mention potent smelling. You would Have to dilute that to work with it at all.

There is something about Hecate which reminds me of Alice. It starts off very sharp, but with the promise of something wonderful following. When I say sharp, I mean volatile, like acetone. With Hecate there is a smoke component to it which smells very much like an electrical fire starting. That is a pretty compelling beginning for a scent. As this dries down the smell changes to a metal fire. I smelled plenty of this in the machine shop and it is metal heating up through friction, makes a very particular "iron burning" smell. Usually that means danger, and that is great art in this scent dedicated to the Dark Goddess of New Moons and Black Dogs. Not too pretty but right on target. After the "metal burning" phase, flowers start to blend in. I detect a hint of cocoa. This is one reason why I like the fact BPAL is an oil. Drying down takes a while and the phases a scent goes through really are showcased and stay around long enough to appreciate. Finally it dries down to a pleasant scent which is a nice blend with a bit of burning around the edges. The beginning is magnificent in its inventiveness, it is real art. The middle is the continuation of the spread of oxidation, and then ending it burns itself into a field. Good story and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates the subtlety in here. I can't see a bottle of this one in my future, just not enough romance about it, but it is another good scent but not for the faint hearted. The icon was taken from a painting of Hecate by the painter/poet William Blake.

What several people have said. It's a well blended oil. Hard to pick out the notes individually. It impressed me as a "perfumy" type not a Unique scent but one that would be at home on any perfume counter. It is very pretty. From the first application to it's finish it has a lot of polish and is throughly unjarring. I just like the unique blends. If something smells OK or nice then I usually swap it or give it to one of my friends who won't wear anything at all different. I would recommend this one to BPAL-shy folks. It has excellent staying power.

This is a big, fruity, powerful perfume. I am afraid it reminded me too much of some commercial air freshener type of scents. Not me at all. In terms of longevity, this stuff is relentless. If you love it, that would be a major positive. It is very popular, but not one for me.

This was totally did not work on me. It started out smelling just like nail polish remover and dried down to a volatile, sulky fog. It had to be one of the most clear cut cases of hate at first sight between Scarecrow and me. I did trade it away. I hope the person who got it had a far different experience than I did. The ingredients sounded so very good. The icon is actually a portrait I did of a friend's ex-husband. There was a hideously acrimonious divorce and she commissioned me to do that portrait so that she could attach it to a Straw Man at Halloween and burn it. So, in a way it was part of a scarecrow for a brief time, and I thought it looked pretty scary.

Actually, this is a very nice scent! Named for the most ferocious of Indian goddesses, the smell is pretty tame bordering on the forgettable. It is supposed to have all sorts of things in it: chocolate, wine, blood and the like. Oddly, for all that thundering build up it only ends up smelling like some kind of lovely hand lotion. I just get the cartoon vision of having to walk into the den of the Goddess Kali and there she is in all of her carniverous glory, shrunken heads around her neck, kneedeep in human blood and on the phone. She looks at you and says,"Make it quick, I got the other guy on call waiting." By the way, the above icon is the most ferocious Western "goddess", Mrs. Van Horne. She only has one set of arms, but she is as feared as her Indian counterpart.

Hate to say it, but this one didn't strike me as a unique scent either. I tested it about one month after I got my first order and my nose wasn't particularly adept at detecting notes I like. This one was pleasant but not a memorable smell. I swapped it. somehow nothing that I have read has made me regret letting it go. I am sure that there are some people for whom this is their favorite BPAL. In light of the ingredients, I don't understand why Ouija didn't unleash the full power of its beauty as soon as I opened the imp To refresh your memeory, the Lab says,"rosewood, oak and teak notes with wispy blue lilac, tea rose, dried white rose and ethereal osmanthus." Really wonderful choice of elements. Go figure.

As you might expect, this is a strange little number. Redolent with licorice (like the real thing) the scent doesn't last too long before it turns into a very light herby fragrance. Not bad if you are really in love with absinthe and don't mind the quick evaporation of its lead expectation. I think it's a good novelty, but not something that would keep me awake for a 5ml bottle.

This is a good scent. I really don't see anything outstanding about it, however. It dries down pleasantly enough and it lingers. Why I don't just get all excited about it is anyone's guess. I think I detect something Icky in the background, maybe that's my opinion of the original St. Germain. Maybe it's the hard way it first goes on, that is pretty astringent, an assault to my nose. From then on It just doesn't seem to go anywhere. I know that isn't a very scientific explanation, but...I don't have any better explanation for you. Here is the lab description:" gilded amber, hypnotic lavender, brash carnation and deep mosses. " This should be a wonderful scent for me, but it isn't. ETA: Tried it again, after getting another imp from a swapbuddy. Same reaction. Lord, I have tried to love this scent, the ingredients are right up my ally, the St. Germain character is one of my favorites but yet...it comes off as "little old lady perfume" on me. No zing, too fusty. Into the swap pile with you, St. Germain. I know someone out there loves you.

Very floral and well blended, a surprising combination considering the name. Overall I liked Le Serpent, but there was nothing in it which was especially compelling to me. Once again, that was hideously subjective. Phffft, sue me.

There is a lot of fir-like resin in this blend. It feels tingly on your skin and it's hard to know what to make of it. This is one of the Lab's most individual scents and it contains the expensive and elusive ingredient, Oude. Somehow, Danse Macabre manages to smell medicinal, like the inside of a medicine cabinet, not in an unpleasant way. I guess it is herbal essences which were used for real medicine until recently are in this blend. Not a smell for a hot Saturday night date, but very contemplative and solemn.