Muppetk

Going through an imp box that I haven't looked at for a while, and I've got a full decant ofsomething labeled: "WMO AJ" And my response is wtf?? A quick sniff smells lovely - woods and resin & maybe a dark musk? Definitely smells like bpal. help??

I have few to no skin problems with bpal oils, but you got me thinking. I haven't heard of anyone else getting acne from perfume... I wonder if it's actually an eczema. Eczema often looks like little fluid filled bumps, like many pimples, and is an allergic reaction. And allergic reactions to oils *are* pretty common. Maybe it's time to test out scent lockets and/or putting oil in your hair where it won't cause visible bumps? good luck.

I love this & think I'm going to find it very useful. Not to mention SO MUCH MORE ORGANIZED than my current wishlist. But is it just me, or aren't the BPTP perfumes an option? For example, I can't find L'Estate or Spanked in the dropdown box to add a perfume. And I only just discovered (way late to the game) that I love L'Estate, I'd love to be able to input it into my stash. Speaking of wishlists, it would be neat if there were an option to turn that part public or not, all at one stroke. Just a thought on a nice way of keeping all the lists & their comments tidy.

Wow! This scent was tonight's surprise winner! I have no idea why I held onto it this long... I got it direct from the lab when it first came out (which I can now see is 3 1/2 years ago!), and tried it a few times. Each time the lotus note had been overly aggressive bright pink bubblegum dominating everything else. Tonight though I tried again -- and it's gorgeous! The lotus was aggressive and pushy for about 3-5 minutes and then settled down in to one small note among many, for a final result that reminds me of a more ambery & non-foody gingerbread poppet. It's GREAT. I love gourmand scents, but hate when they go outright foody and this has become absolutely LOVELY.

Very pretty. Starts out slightly sharp citrus but quickly dries down to something lovely & warm and fuzzy - an orange-y version of Litha 2006 on my skin. Quite lovely... though having 2 bottles of Litha 2006, I don't think I need to drive myself nuts looking for more of this. But It does make me want to layer something citrus-y with my Litha.

Oh! This is surprisingly nice! Starts as sugared grapefruit and dries down to a grapefruit-blossom blend. It doesn't last that long, but that's actually a bonus in one way -- I can put it on when I need a perfume hit before work without worrying about wafting a lot of scent about in front of patients. Most of my favorites are deep & heavy & I *can't* wear them while working. This is a nice one to have! Very different from my others. And also, I totally want to try layering this over snake oil.

Wow. Dammit. This one completely shattered my expectations. I've never liked anything with coconut notes before, but this is beautifully blended... I think I need a bottle of it! wet: citrus?? smooth creamy citrus. How?? where did citrus come into this?? does white amber have a citrus note??? drying: this takes a loooong while to dry, and it's creamy citrus with a very fresh coconut - not the overwhelming suntan oil I've gotten from other coconut blends - with just a smidge of oakmoss underlying making it beautifully fuzzy - and yet it's a *decidedly* femme oakmoss blend! I haven't run into too many of those! dry: The amber comes out and rounds it out just a bit more. It's gorgeous. Overall - it has great throw while wet, but much less so when dry. Methinks I need to try it again on my hair to see if that amps it, as this is beyond gorgeous and I'm huffing my wrist nonstop! Three thumbs up!!

Can't comment on the effect quite yet, the candle I lit for a friend undergoing surgery is still burning & the surgery in question is still going. But the ritual came together very nicely - with a really good energy of love & joy. The scent itself though... I think I may be more inclined to use a different one next time. While wet it's okay -- sharp citrus & litsea (litsea smells like a furry lime lifesavers to me, and litsea EO tends to cause a feeling of warmth on skin, which this oil does) without being overly sweet. I can work with that. But dries down to that same jasmine-note I get from most of the voodoo blends. And jasmine just really goes bad on me. Really bad. And I can't get it off my fingertips. Feh. Next time, I'll try using Radiance of Ra instead, if it seems appropriate, (and if I can find it when I need it.) because I do greatly prefer the scent of that.

Wet: dark cocoa with a wee pinch of something interesting underneath. This is decidedly my favorite cocoa bpal note yet -- it's the first one I'm actually excited about! (I don't usually do foodie) Drying: still dark cocoa, with the leather starting to come out. Not really crazy about leather notes. This particular one smells, well, kind of band-aid like. *crosses finders* Actually, I wonder if one of the flowers is narcissus. That one usually turns straight to band-aid on me. Phooey! Dry: dark cocoa melds seamlessly with smoky non-sweet incense! Ooh! Band-aid scent faded but not gone! *has fingers crossed that over time this will go away* Dry after an hour or two: the bandaid scent seem to finally be gone, and I do love what's left. Still, it's an awful lot of time to wait. Will have to experiment more. verdict: (Mixed.) Wow. I'm not a foody, but I suddenly must try all the other dark cocoa (not sweet sounding) notes in the catalog. I had NO IDEA that chocolate could be so good in perfume! (I generally shun things like Bliss or candy butcher because they make me hungry. This just makes me want to stuff my wrist up my nose.) Until the bandaid note fades out on me completely, it's doesn't *quite* work, but without the bandaid its incredible -- of course, by the time the bandaid is gone, some of the gorgeousness is too. grrf. Whodathunk bitter chocolate & patchouli... like boomslang without the sweetness. Sigh. This is a layering experiment to happen - need to try mixing it with other scents that are patch heavy to see if that drowns out the bandaid...

Oh! Too bad this one is disappearing. It's one of the more subtle dragon's blood blends -- I tend to find the BIG ROUND CHERRY-ROSE of most dragon's bloods a bit over the top, (used to love 'em, then my chemistry changed, sigh) but this is lovely! It's like a drier, smoother, less sweet, more elegant chimera - having subtle dragons blood & spiciness grounded and smoothed with woods and patch. Really quite nice. I won't kill myself trying to find a bottle of it, but will appreciate the imps I have.

Oh! How could I forget: Also, if you find you like Snake oil, even a bit, check out the snake pit scents. They're technically LEs, (they're part of Carnaval Diabolique) they've been up for a couple of years and should be up for at least a few more months. The snake pit scents are all variations on snake oil (my guess, because people discovered that snake oil layers beautifully with EVERYTHING.) And a frequent foodie favorite is Boomslang composed of "snake oil, cocoa, teak wood and rice milk." Snake pits here, about 1/3 down the page: http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/cdiabolique.html

The only suggestions I have of the near-foody variety that haven't been covered are: Dragon's Milk & The Antikythera Mechanism. (The former is a wonderful honeyed vanilla, the latter is like a deeper, darker Dorian, which I'm sure has already been recommended to you multiple times.) They're not quite technically foody, but they straddle the foody-nonfoody borderline. I'd also suggest grabbing a few things that sound appealing that aren't foody. BPAL can really surprise the heck out of you. Be open to experience. And usually, I'd say skip LEs initially, but the Halloween LEs are generally the foodiest of the year & they're up right now. See if you can acquire samples from forum members, but you probably will want to try some of them. Ohhey, as to non-foody must tries that no one else has mentioned: The Lion (amber & dry spices), Shub-Niggurath (which to many people is foody, it was originally nicknamed spicy gingersnaps). (EDIT: aha! someone else mentioned them -- you! I think they're definite must tries.) And here's a link of forums favorites: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=51153 (Che the second list - it's all currently available scents. Only the first has LEs on it.)

in the imp & wet on me: citrus and sawdust. Not promising, but I know my favorite notes of this blend (amber, oud) are slow to come out. drying: well, the verbena is starting come out a little more. And the pencil shavings are dying down a little. Marginal improvement. drying longer: (this one seems to take a while to dry!) okay, so the saw dust has died down almost completely, and it's now a nice, sweet round citrus (with some base notes peeking through). IT reminds me a wee bit of an etrog (a citron), which I assume is the verbena sweetened by amber. barely dry: (srsly, this takes forever!) This is an entirely golden fragrance. The citrus/verbena melds perfectly with the amber and there's a deep furry undertone that I think must be the oud. It almost strikes me as a deeper, heavier, darker version of Khrysee. Maybe it's the Winter Queen to Khrysee's Summer Queen? Actually.. no, not that dark. It'a more like the auburn autumn version of Khrysee's summer. Yes, I know that misses the concept of the Aelopile entirely, but dammit, that's what it says to me. *nods importantly!* dries further: aw... I liked the golden stage. This is nice too though. The cedar comes back up, just a tad, making this a drier scent & the amber becomes more powdery. It's like the golden fusion is separating back out into its components. There's also a lightly burnt scent (I suspect the oud, it does that). The resemblance to khrysee isn't *entirely* gone, but it's more like a cousin than a sibling. It's got the magical mechanical thing going on now. It's definitely nice. But it doesn't have the rich glory of the barely dry phase. IT also feels like it has the potential to grow on me. Definitely worth trying again. Verdict: puzzled. In no hurry to ditch the imp, but neither am I panting for a bottle, like I might've been if it stayed Khrysee's sibling.

Spices and musks. Very smooth & lovely. But except for the wet stage where it's light, the rose is almost invisible. (in-nose-ible?) Am starting to think of this as more of a layering scent. Have tried it two different times of the month, so it's not my skin chemistry monkeying with me. How odd. I've never had this un-rosey a rose scent before. The throw is certainly respectable about, I'm getting wafts while just sitting here at the computer... But again, no rose. Methinks it'd layer beautifully with a light & fresh rose. Maybe Eustephanos or Pothon Meter (sp?) or maybe Rose Red. *snicker* I officially need to start layering this with numerous floral scents!

In the imp: mostly fresh (actually, almost unripe, the brown variety - the one with the rougher skin, not smooth, I think Bosc) pear, and that smooth amber-patch-musk that seems to be a bpal signature. Wet: slightly less pear, slightly more musky-incense. Yummm. Drying: pear continues to dwindle, fading into the rest of the lovely amber-patch-musk yumminess. I think I could live without the pear in this, so won't be horribly sad if it disappears. Oakmoss is starting to come out now. OH -- I think that distinct Bosc Pear scent is actually ordinary pear + oakmoss. Dry: The scent is stabilized but surprisingly light. I'm thinking this might be a good one for my SO to try on as he's truly a first degree slatherer and it might overcome the faintness. Funny that this scent is supposed to be of a jester. It strikes me very much as a Green Man scent -- a great powerful scent of a deity, if only the Green Man were from the Pear tree rather than Oak.