caitilarkin

In the imp: Lots of ozone with unidentifiable sweetness way in the background Wet on skin: As expected, I'm amping the ozone and will have to wait it out... Dry on skin: The mega-ozone lasted about an hour, then the violet becomes more prominent. I'm never able to detect any of the other notes. Maybe aging will temper the ozone a bit; I'd love to get some sandalwood from this.

Resurrected Version In the bottle: Rich, creamy vanilla with light spices and fruit Wet on skin: Same as above, now with coconut and plum Dry on skin: Slightly spicier, with a good balance between the creaminess of the coconut and the sweetness from the vanilla and plum On my skin, this is richer and less spicy than Snake Oil; in fact, I wouldn't have thought to compare them if I hadn't read posts about similarities (and differences) between the two. This goes strong on my skin for about six hours, then slowly fades over another three to six hours. Love it and will be getting a back up bottle, seeing that this will probably age well.

In the bottle: The lab's beautiful trademark snow note, minus the pine that I usually smell with it Wet on skin: Goes through a very brief plastic phase (but, of course, this bottle is less than a month old), then the snow is joined by light, unidentifiable florals Dry on skin: Soft snow and faint florals...yup, just like the description. Lasts 7-8 hours on me, becoming slightly sweeter with time. I love this now and can see it being wonderful during the summer as well as winter.

BeaverVersary! In the bottle: Buttery vanilla cake goodness without the plastic note that I sometimes notice in foody scents when they're new Wet on skin: Homemade vanilla cake and homemade cheesecake with freshly ground vanilla bean Dry on skin: Oh baby...creamy vanilla cake with nutmeg and cinammon...where did the spices come from? They're perfectly blended with the yummy vanilla and cake notes. This lasts forever and a day on me, basically until I scrub it off. There's not even a whiff of strawberry to be found, but I don't care because this is glorious. I wore it all weekend and had people cuddling up to me the entire time. Love, love, love.

In the imp: Ozone and dust with a hint of sweetness (florals? fruit?) Wet on skin: The ozone-y dust note amps for a bit, then turns pleasantly dusty, while the sweet notes intensify. Dry on skin: Turns out gorgeous, like an apple orchard in the fall. Great staying power--lasts about eight hours on me. The lovely dust note fades a bit but the fruit stays sweet and lovely for the entire wearlength. Bottleworthy!

In the imp: Peach Wet on skin: Starts out peach, then morphs into the Soapy Gardenia Monster Drydown: The Soapy Gardenia Monster kills the peach and vanilla cream notes and eats them. She then takes a nap and the honey furtively peeks out from under the rock where it has been hiding. In the end, I'm left with a pleasant-enough single note honey. Hmmmm. Let's see how it ages.

In the imp: Spicy butter Wet on skin: Hi, pumpkin! There you are! And you've brought lovely nutmeg and clove with you! Dry on skin: Oh, mama...I want to lick my arm. Jack is warm, spicy pumpkin pie filling. There's no hint of peach anywhere--this is all spice, all the time. I will need to check the Aging BPAL thread to see if there's any info on how this does over time; if it ages well, then I'm definitely going to need a bottle.

In the imp: The piney snow note (as opposed to the clean snow note in Snow White) with musky florals Wet on skin: The snow note warms up and the pine is crisp without being astringent. I can't separate the various floral notes, but these are woodland flowers as opposed to hothouse-grown. Dry on skin: Just lovely...this is the surprise hit of the Yules for me so far. Perchta evokes cross-country skiing through a pine forest on a star-filled December night. How on earth will I be able to talk myself out of getting a bottle? This scent just says Yule to me.

Amber loves me. Yes, it does. It loves me so much that I almost bought a bottle of Jacob's Ladder unsniffed when the Yules came out, but in an uncharacteristic fit of caution I signed up for a decant instead. Turns out that was a good thing, because Jacob's Ladder does not love me. In the decant: Light, sweet, almost fizzy resin. There's nothing heavy or serious about this blend. Wet on skin: Jacob's Ladder meets my skin and immediately becomes confused. The notes are not blending--the light amber clashes with something floral and the tonka becomes very, very sweet, drowning out the other notes. Dry on skin: For the first time, I am experiencing powdery amber in a BPAL. The blend dries down to a light, acrid tonka powder. This was so thoroughly different from what I had expected that I bought an additional decant, thinking that perhaps the first one was mislabeled. Nope. Multiple tests from both vials have yielded the same results. Maybe the decants will grow deeper with age, but for right now this is my biggest BPAL sadness. Glad it works on so many others, though.

In the imp: Faint aquatic with...cotton flower? I'm getting something clean and linen-y. Wet on skin: Ah, that's more like it! Saltier with hints of seaweed and florals. Dry on skin: As it dries, the blend loses its ocean-y goodness and becomes more floral/soapy (*glares suspiciously at evil jasmine*). Me loves me some aquatic, and this is not what I had hoped. Ah well, it's definitely pleasant and will probably be even more so during hot weather.

In the bottle: Red apple with whiffs of orange and smoke Wet on skin: The apple fruit morphs to cider, faint spices appear and are laced with the orange and smoke notes. Dry on skin: The apple cider and orange notes sweeten and intensity, with the smoke and spices (I get more clove than cinnamon) adding a bit of interest. This lasts about six hours on me, getting sweeter and brighter with time. Other BPALers have compared Fearful Pleasure to Samhain, but on my skin there is no resemblance except for the presence of the apple. Fearful Pleasure is very light and bright versus the damp forest night evoked by Samhain. I may try layering the two in an effort to experience the dark and light aspects of autumn at the same time.

In the imp: Croissants slathered in butter Wet on skin: Sweet pastries made with oodles of butter, taunting me from their plate, sitting next to a mug of steaming, fresh-brewed coffee with cream and sugar Dry on skin: The pastry note remains strong for hours, and the richness of the coffee note intensifies with time. Not sure what happened to the dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls, but this is all pastry shop, all the time. It's definitely not what I had expected, but it's extremely yummy nonetheless!

In the imp: Cocoa and a very fruity wine Wet on skin: The cocoa turns up its nose at my skin and disappears, as always. The red musk, sandalwood and wine love me (also as always) and carouse merrily during the drydown. Dry on skin: I get about two hours of a boozy, heady floral before Midnight Kiss turns to single-note grape. This was interesting; the drydown process was actually quite lovely. At least the cocoa didn't throw a tantrum and ruin the whole thing.

In the imp: Smooth, liquid chocolate, not quite as powdery as Bliss. Wet on skin: Lovely powdered cocoa and sandalwood for about two minutes, then cardboard. Dry on skin: Yup. Cardboard. No myrrh, no sandalwood, and most decidedly no chocolate. The BPAL cocoa and chocolate notes, they do not love me. And the irony is that I love and adore them (and chocolate in all of its forms). I had hoped the presence of the sandalwood would help me on this one, but no luck.

Hi and welcome to the forum! I go through CCNow and that has happened with all of my orders. I think CCNow verifies that the funds are available, then releases the money back to your account until right before your order is sent to the Lab. The charge should reappear in a week or more, right before your order actually goes to the lab. (If you're interested in reading a bit more about the CCNow process, ivyandpeony talked a bit about ordering and wait times in the post right above your question; that might help if you want to know about turnaround time as well.) Hope that helps! Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions or need clarification.

In the imp: Clove and citrus backed by something woody (evergreen? pine? juniper?) Wet on skin: My nose is registering the citrus as lemon, but that might be due to the presence of the clove (citrus + clove = lemon because of Nanshe). I'm still not sure what the wood note is because I'm distracted by the citrus/clove combination, which tends to go kind of dirty on my skin. Dry on skin: Luckily, this calms down as it gets dryer--the clove and citrus-that-might-be-lemon stop fighting and the high-pitched evergreen/wood note mellows. I quite like it after a couple of hours.

In the bottle: Very, very buttery cake with a hint of orange in the background. Wet on skin: Yowza. Rich vanilla cake with homemade custard, orange glaze and a hint of anise. Rich and utterly delicious. Dry on skin: This keeps its moist orange vanilla cakey feel for several hours, at which time the faint florals are added. Lasts forever on me (okay, not forever but over 12 hours) with vanilla, faint orange and light florals as the final notes. This is my HG foodie scent and I must have more, more, more!

In the bottle: I agree with previous reviewers who have experienced this scent as very green--it is very fresh in a late spring/early summer sort of way. Well-blended florals (I can't pick them out separately) are much stronger than beeswax or amber at this point. Wet on skin: Uh oh. Something (probably one of the florals) has morphed into burning plastic. The other notes are carrying on valiantly, leaving my skin to smell like a freshly manicured lawn with a pile of compost burning in a corner of the yard. Dry on skin: No more burning plastic! Yay! Her Voice is now deeper, creamy florals thanks to the arrival of the vanilla amber/beeswax combo. The burning plastic phase occurred in two out of three tests (weird) but only lasted for about half an each time. Yup, I like this. The creamy sweetness of the dry stage is worth the wait.

In the vial: Sharp, non-foody citrus (mostly grapefruit) and balsam, florals in the background, backed by musk and wood. The notes can be detected separately but are in harmony with each other, at least to my nose. Wet on skin: The florals are way in the background, adding a distant sweetness to a blend that is largely citrus and balsam at the point. The whole scent is grounded and unified by the wood note(s). Dry on skin: Blended and sweeter; each note makes its own contribution to a blend that is a perfect expression of the poem in the scent description. After three tests, I've come to realize how evocative this scent is: the morphing process of this blend reminds me so strongly of what it feels like to be mourning the loss of a loved one. The sharp, bittersweet citrus suggests the initial agony of grief, the florals are the sweetness of memory (which ebbs and flows), the balsam is healing and the grounding wood notes are a reminder that life goes on. Mourning Moon beautifully captures the universal process of bereavement and remembrance in scent.

In the vial: Apple, tropical florals and a hint of Snake Oil spices--very strong and heady! No citrus, though. Wet on skin: No more spices, and I can barely detect the apple. The florals have taken over the compound and they're having a raging party. And where's my beloved blood orange? Dry on skin: The Snake Oil vanilla appears for the first time, but the spices are gone for good and the blood orange is MIA. These are some aggressive florals, but they never go soapy or shrill, just heady (as I noticed in the vial). This blend is Snake Oil on vacation, lying on the beach drinking mai-tais. And it lasts FOREVER, even sticking around overnight and after my morning shower. This is a floral for cold weather; it would be too overwhelming during a hot, sticky summer.

In the vial: Snake Oil spices with light, clean florals. Wet on skin: A softened, sweetened Snake Oil Dry on skin: Spicier, with florals so well-blended that I can't discern the separate notes. I don't detect any of Snake Oil's vanilla until after 3-4 hours of wear. My brain registers the blend as very innocent and youthful, but judging from the compliments I got today (including a creepy one from a dude on the El ) it is apparently pretty sexy. Huh. I was afraid I would fall in love with Cottonmouth, and sure enough, I have. It's probably a leetle too sexy for work but will be perfect everywhere else. This one's going on the bottle list!

In the bottle: Pale, well-blended florals; cannot pick out the carnation (which usually jumps out due to its spiciness) or the neroli; not detecting any vanilla either Wet on skin: Very sweet, very strongly floral, but still with a light, spring-like quality. The vanilla is starting to bloom as the oil dries. Dry on skin: Much better dry than wet, as the vanilla appears and seems like the same cotton-sugary note that I so love in Antique Lace. Lasts about eight hours on me. This blend is like a coloratura soprano: ethereal, agile, strong and delicately beautiful.

I placed my first BPAL order for three bottles without ever reading the reviews, and I almost included Hellcat as one of them. Those were the days before I knew that hazelnut and almond are two of my most consistent Notes of Doooooom. But once I got it as a frimp I had to try it just to make sure. In the imp: Strong almond and rum, with no trace of the buttercream Wet on skin: Almond, please don't abuse me. I love you so; why do you insist on going screamingly bitter on me? Gah. Dry on skin: Burnt, bitter almonds and sour rum icing. I can't detect the hazelnut, which usually amps on me, because the almond is too strong. Didn't morph at all over the three hour period I tested it. I couldn't stand to go out in public with this on and had to wash it off instead of giving it a full go. Nope.

In the imp: Ginger and heady florals--yum! Not noticing the musk, which makes me think it must be red musk because I can never pick that one out. But most red musk blends are winners for me. Wet on skin: The ginger is fading (!) and the florals are coming on strong. Unlike most blends, which tend to go kind of dry on me, this one is very syrupy. Dry on skin: Bye bye, ginger. The florals have seized the day and they're mad as hell. This had amazing throw and lasted forever, but is too thick and cloying for me, especially without the ginger.

In the imp: Bright, sharp florals; I can pick out the orchid but everything else is blending Wet on skin: Still sharply floral but now softened by the musk; white and glittering, beautifully feminine and clean Dry on skin: Softer now, still floral but also with a linen note. This is absolutely gorgeous. I've been looking for a clean scent like this for aeons...and here it is! Lasts more than eight hours on me, becoming more cottony and less floral with time. Yeah, I'm scouring the forum for more of this.