ephemera

Sorry, guys, but this one did NOT work on me at all. It was a weird sickly combination of astringent, sweet and something undefinable.

In the bottle this smelled like the description - cocoa and honey and sugar. On me, this turned to cocoa-dusted rusty violets. It's sour & unpleasant.

This is, as everyone has been saying, a strawberry jam-filled doughnut. It's amazing. It's somehow not cloyingly sweet on me (although perhaps others might disagree). Wet it's all strawberry & sugar. Once it dries down it keeps the strawberry, but it becomes subtler and the pastry scent mixes with it nicely. I'm thrilled I gave in & bought this.

I loved the smell of Tombstone since I first sniffed it years and years ago. However, on me it turned entirely bland and powdery in perfume form. Lo! Here is the savior, Tombstone hair gloss! This is sensual but not overt. It's warm, warm vanilla and sassafras The cedar is barely noticeable to my nose, but I suspect it's what's adding the depth to this scent. Three spritzes in my hand (I do one spritz, rub over a section of my hair, next spritz, different section, etc) and my hair is bringing a small, lightly scented cloud all around my face.

I bought this without reading the description, so I initially missed the addition of honey from the 2009 version. Unfortunately, I don't like the change. The scent is still nice, but the 2009 version was green and smelled like real strawberries. This version smells like strawberry candy to me, and the honey is making it almost cloying. I'll let it settle for a time and try again, but I vastly prefer the 2009 version.

This is SO much sweet pea! I can see why it's popular - it's bright and youthful and sugary. I like it, although I don't think I need a bottle of it. (Although as soon as I say that, I think, "But...." so maybe I'm changing my mind already) The vanilla bean makes no appearance on me at all - this is all sugar and sweet pea and candy and bright shiny summery-ness.

This... this is my Holy Grail scent. (OK, I may have more than one, which makes it less "Holy Grail" and more "God I love this scent", but whatever.) This is perfection to my nose, both in the bottle and on my skin. The sandalwood lends depth to what could have been an overly sweet, sticky blend. Instead it's vanilla and sandalwood and creamy notes blended together with the lightest touch of butter rum. It smells like the kind of scent that you ought to wear if you're dressed in a floor-length, slinky dress with mile-high spiked heels, in a dark room with wailing jazz, igniting fire in your wake. It's that damned good.

OK, so, this ought to be the perfect scent for me. It's vanilla. Straight-up vanilla ice cream. This ought to be awesome. It's... well, it's not. For one thing, it smells a bit too thick and cloying for ice cream, and it's not a rich vanilla. For another, this turns to plastic on my skin. It's the first-ever vanilla scent to do this on me, and believe me, I love me some vanilla and foody scents. I am a sad panda, because I wanted to love this.

This is like super-fizzy lemon lime water. Not sweet like a Sprite, but more like seltzer water with an extra kick of citrus. It's not a very "me" scent, and yet once the bubbliness eases a bit I find myself sniffing at my wrists a lot in pleasure. This is most definitely a teenaged, over-caffienated summer scent and I'm really enjoying it.

What the bullshitter means to say is OHGODSYOUMIGHTCATCHFIRE! Otherwise, I do the same thing you do. I think rubbing hard does accelerate the drying process - there's a perfumerie in Salem that will create a scent just for you and when she's testing you on skin, she rubs it briefly to speed up the drydown - but I don't think you wreck anything. Also, nuclear fission FTW!

Phear me and me leet searchie skillz!

Here you go.

I got this in a recent swap unexpectedly (I love our forumites!) and didn't realize until this morning that it was from the Inquisition. Hee! In this vial this smells like a more childish Spiked Punch. Like the kind of red fruit punch that gives you fruit punch mouth. (Maybe I have discovered what the Master smells like from Buffy? Add in some Graveyard Dirt over Bauble!) After a little while the initial brightness of the scent starts to fade, and it starts to smell a bit like how my husband's homemade fruit topping smells. Like mashed up berries, lemon zest and a tiny bit of sugar and honey to sweeten the deal. It's quite cheery, and rather interesting, but I don't think it's quite for me.

I don't believe the Lab sells 10s any longer. You can sometimes find them in swaps though, or on ebay.

Hah. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. And I went to makeupalley and selected ones that were popular and generally appealing: snake oil, old morocco, dorian, vixen, white rabbit, and dana o'shee. Morocco was one of my first great loves.

I guess it comes down to worrying or at least feeling like I'm being cheated or deceived. I want to buy products from people who care about excellence, not price or prolific production of a new perfume every other day. I don't want to be fooled by creative copy. Maybe Beth is spending day in and day out in the lab dutifully mixing her own essential oils to create violet, musk, amber or sandalwood from scratch. Maybe you all are right. But the blog comments planted a pretty big seed of doubt that I'm having trouble uprooting. OK, so can I ask what would make you feel more comfortable? I personally am very comfortable with BPAL's creations because they smell great, they last a long time on me, and the company has a very public and proven record of charitable donations. A lot of companies looking to rip you off (and they are legion online, I know), but in the 10 (?) years that BPAL has been operating as a business they have not been accused of ripping off customers. I also think it's worth noting that rarely does a company looking to scam folks engage in public charities and team up with high-profile folks like Neil Gaiman, The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Amanda Palmer, et al. It's too public and the risk is too high to be exposed as a fraud. Take from that what you will. I truly think that the only way you can make this decision is to try the oils yourself and make up your own mind. You're not going to find anyone on a fan website (which this is, remember) to tell you that the company is a sham. You're going to find a ton of people who enthusiastically support the company. There are 19,000 active members on these forums who comprise a wide variety of people - lawyers, doctors, teacher, police officers, etc. from all around the globe, and they all enjoy these products and feel that they are made with quality ingredients and with great care and attention to detail. We can't convince you, you're appearing skeptical and seem to be looking for a reason to believe that the negative reviews from a couple of individuals are accurate. They're names you know, names you trust. That's understandable. But if you're really looking for answers here, you need to ask yourself what are you hoping to learn that will make you feel better?

Agreed! (Also, I don't want to appear to be backseat modding, I just wanted to put my two cents in that I'm not getting the troll-vibe right now.)

I'd like to take a minute to suggest that we don't all assume that jayne is not here for a legit query and is a troll. There's no reason to solidify the internet perception that we're all rabid defenders of BPAL, ready to attack at the slightest provocation. Not everyone is going to like us, right? Edited because grammar is not always my friend

I would have to ask if you have hard proof that Guerlain uses natural oils? How much alcohol does Guerlain put into their perfume? How does it react to your skin? I personally vastly prefer BPAL over commercial perfumes, like Guerlain, Chanel, etc. for a variety of reasons. One is that the alcohol that most of the large perfume houses uses in their oils to spread the perfume further means the smell is offensive to my nose. I smell the chemicals and the alcohol more than I smell the perfume, and it bothers me. I also don't want to pay a ridiculous sum of money for a name brand that everyone else out there wears. BPAL oils are many and varied, and some of them smell awful to me as well, but some of them smell very lovely to me. That's enough for me to prefer their oils over a commercial house. It's a matter of taste. It sounds to me like you've already made up your mind about BPAL. If that's the case, then luckily you've only ordered Imp's Ears of the scents, are not out a lot of money, and you can return to your preferred brand of 'haute' perfume.

Yep, Beth once recommended lemon juice to me at a WC. Works for me. Anyone else have a weird desire to know which one of her own scents Beth wanted off her skin in a hurry?

I've tried this several times, and it's just not working for me. In the vial I swear this smells like cherry cough syrup to me. On my skin it gets a little less cough-syrupy, but it never smells like egg nog or latte or spices - it's just a sicky sweetness that doesn't smell like goat's milk and some kind of past-prime fruit.

In the bottle this is spice and caramel and more spice and something that makes me think of walking through cold woods at night, heading home. On my skin this is very reminiscent of the February 2009 (Navy) 13. The same cocoa (not chocolate) and spices, the same heaviness of scent. This is a bit sweeter though. I'm huffing at it. I'm hoping that this last through dry down and doesn't turn to powder on me.

Doesn't look like much BUT remember a little scent goes WAY further than dept store atomizers.

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, definitely, and I also recommend Regan, which is a little less girly without being (to me) at all sultry. Regan is less straight vanilla, but it's really lovely.

What about Phoenix Steamworks? It's got a metallic bent to it that would go well with the wrench!