strippedhalo

Guava, orange peel, white pepper, spun sugar and apple blossom. In the bottle, this smells almost exactly like Hubba Bubba bubblegum. Not quite as sugary, but close. Immediately after I put it on, and for an hour or so after, the white pepper really came to the foreground, giving it a sort of spicy-sweet smell with just the tiniest floral hint that might be the apple blossom. Maybe? Six-and-a-half hours later, it's dried down to a really nice, soft, sweet scent that reminds me a lot of the way Mi-Go Brain Canister smells on me. My chemistry tends to ramp sweet notes in anything up to ridiculous levels, and this is definitely sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Also, I put a fair amount of it on, but it isn't the sort of scent that reaches out and clobbers you over the head. It's pretty subtle and skin-clingy that way.

I really, really like this. It reminds me a bit of 13, but without the floral over/undertones. The kumquat is strong with this one, but not overpowering at all. My skin chemistry tends to ramp up anything sweet to a ridiculous degree, and this is sweet, but something (maybe the white pepper? or the tea?) seems to be toning it down and keeping it under control. And there's something in a gorgeous light musk going on, too. In any case, it's lovely. Two thumbs up from me!

In the imp, Nine Mysteries is all mint. Lots of mint. Minty McMint-Mint. But I like mint, so it's all good. Wet on my skin, the mint disappears almost instantly and is replaced by a sort of woodsy tobacco smell that hung very close to the skin, so close that I kept having to bring my wrist right up to my nose to see if it was even still there. About an hour in, it turned into a really lovely sort of musk with herbal undertones. Or the other way around. Either way, it was yummy and I loved it. Three hours in, only a fond memory remains. Really, though, this is gorgeous, and I would absolutely buy a larger bottle, if it's ever released for purchase.

This is so, so lovely. In the bottle it smells sweet and delicious. On me, this is the perfect vanilla scent. It smells reminiscent of real whipped cream made with real vanilla and sugar. Not overpowering at all (in fact, it seems to fade away more quickly than I'd like), just warm and gorgeous. I'm going to have to get an extra bottle (or two). Mmmm.

In the bottle: I will admit that I almost sent this off to swap without trying it on, because I can't stand the smell of it in the bottle. To me, it smells like chocolate that's gone off, and I didn't really want to put that on my skin. But I did. On me: As soon as I put it on, that moldy chocolate smell disappeared, and a really nice citrus smell came through. Chocolate and orange, without actually smelling like a chocolate orange. Really nice. Overall: I never got the floral phase that many people have mentioned, but that's just fine by me. To me, the overall sense is of Velvet mixed with Queen of Diamonds, and while I wasn't a fan of either of those, I absolutely LOVE this. It's flippin' fabulous.

Chaos Theory II: CLXXIV (174) This is a bottle I bought on eBay, pretty much blind, as the person selling it stuck to the Chaos Theory spirit and didn't describe the notes. In the bottle: Gum! Mint gum! I can't think of the name of the flavour, but it's the dark green kind. Delicious. Wet on skin: Still mint gum, with maybe a tiny hint of cinnamon. Something kind of spicy, in any case. Mostly true to the mint gum of the bottle, though. Drydown: Around two hours in, I'm starting to suspect that the "cinnamon" might actually be cedar. It's a really warm, comforting scent, whatever it is, and the mint seems to be keeping it from taking over and becoming King Cedar (cedar + my skin generally = Cedar Day Parade). Overall: This is just such a lovely scent. I'm so happy that it came to me, I can't stop sniffing my wrists!

Each bottle of Chaos Theory is truly unique, a fragrant fractal, and exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct. Chaos Theory II: CDLI (451) In the bottle this is sort of sweet and spicy. I think there's lotus in this, and maybe carnation? Or cinnamon, maybe? Wet on my skin this immediately smells like cinnamon and bubblegum, and something foody, but within five minutes the bubblegum fades and it's all cinnamon. As it dries, the cinnamon really hangs in there, though it does mellow out a bit. It's strong, but not overpowering (and as I'm not a cinnamon fan, my tolerance for it is pretty low, but this doesn't really bother me). After an hour or two, a bit of vanilla starts to come through, mellowing the cinnamon even more. And right around the three hour mark, the foody smell comes back, and I sort of think there might be some ginger in this, too. Overall, it's a really interesting scent. A definite morph from bottle to drydown. I don't think I love it enough to keep it, but I'm going to wait a few days and give it another try to be sure.

Chaos Theory II: CCCL (350) I'm really, really bad at picking out and identifying individual notes, especially when I have no idea what to sniff for, but I'll do my best. In the bottle this is almost pure lotus, I think. Light and sweet. Not quite as sweet as Pink Moon, but definitely along those lines. On my skin, the sweetness amps right up, as sweetness is wont to do with me. The only thing I can pick out is still lotus (assuming, of course, that I'm even right about it being lotus). There is also just a tiny, tiny hint of soapiness, but not enough to bother me. Dry, it's still pretty true to what it smells like in the bottle. It warmed up a little bit at one point, and I thought that there was maybe some patchouli or cedar in it, but that went away again. Overall, it's a really nice scent, very sweet, but not sickly so. I think I need to try it again in a few days to see if cyclical girly things affect it any differently.

I am useless at trying to identify any "notes" whatsoever in this blend, but I love it SO MUCH. My first introduction to BPAL was a bunch of imps that a friend sent to me in November, and this is the one I loved the best. On me, Storm is ozone and a faint hint of dryer sheets, which is a lovely combination. Very comforting. It's not the smell of a storm itself, more like the feeling of cuddling up in your bed with a book while you're waiting the storm out. Perfectly lovely. I was so sad to find it was discontinued, but I will hoarde my imp and make it stretch out for as long as I can.

This is the most "perfumey" of all the BPAL scents I've tried so far. I'm not a perfume expert by any means, so I can't identify exactly which perfume or brand or anything, but this smells almost exactly like a popular perfume worn by professional women. The difference is that while that perfume would cause me to have an allergic reaction in the form of either hives or a headache, Queen of Diamonds doesn't seem to give me any allergic trauma, which is nice. The scent itself, unfortunately, is just too strong a floral for me. I can catch a hint of the grapefruit, but not enough to make it work for me.

This was a freebie included with my first order, and I actually like it much better than most of the scents I picked for myself! When I first sniffed it in the bottle, I liked the scent but couldn't identify it at all. When I first put it on, there is something very spicy about it. Not cinammon-spicy, or hot-pepper-spicy just... spicy. Within half an hour it changes into a completely different scent, a warm vanilla, with just enough woodsiness to keep it from being overwhelmingly sweet. It also has huge staying power - put it on in the morning, it's still hanging in when I go to bed. To me, it seems like a very gender-neutral scent, but I can see how with different body chemistry, it could be perceived as more masculine. I really, really like it.

I ordered an imp of this based on the lab description and recommendations from others, and didn't give a lot of thought to how it would smell in reality. IN THE BOTTLE: Woah, almonds. Very marzipan-y. Almond is one of those scents that I'm definitely not a fan of, so I almost didn't make it past the bottle stage. WHEN FIRST APPLIED: When it first went on, it was still overwhelmingly almond, although more of an almond cookie than marzipan, which was a bit of an improvement over the bottle. Within five minutes, the almond disappeared almost completely and the scent turned to more of a sugar cookie smell. Very nice. Definitely a food-y scent. THE DRYDOWN: About two hours after applying, the almond scent came back. Now, about four hours after the initial application, everything has faded quite a bit, but the overriding scent is still almond cookie. OVERALL: I really wanted to like this, but I'm not sure I do. I don't hate it, I just am having a hard time getting past the almond notes. I think this is one I'll have to set aside for a while and try again later.