sunshinedaisybliss

Warning - everytime I use the word 'vetiver' in this review, it will be written as VETIVER.. because that's how it is in Expressive Head. OK? OK Speaking of warnings, this BPAL should come with one: WARNING: VETIVER AHEAD! Ahead. A-Head.. Expressive Head, geddit? Good grief man, as soon as I dabbed this on the VETIVER leapt off my arm, ran up my nose, and invaded my head. All I could smell was VETIVER - dark, nasty, gnarly VETIVER. But thankfully, after about 15 minutes the VETIVER had calmed down a bit.. and things improved. Mmm.. this is a lovely warm patchouli - slightly sweet, and a perfect partner to the VETIVER. Green pepper is a new one to me, but I can smell it in here - it's green without being leaf/plant-y green, and a bit ticklish on the nose but not in a sharp or unpleasant way - I actually really like it, it's different. Clove? Maybe - not really noticing it, same with the cognac and champaca. Teakwood? Nope.. not getting that at all. So half an hour later, and the VETIVER is still going strong - it's nowhere near the nasal assault that it was at first, but if I take a deep huff of my arm it still coils up and grabs me. A light huff and I don't notice it as much - it's the type of VETIVER that gets right into the back of yer nose, like some deranged black booger that you can't get out. And now I can definitely smell the cognac.. also the champaca.. but they're very very light - just a slight top layer of sweetness over the patchouli and VETIVER, and the green pepper is still hanging in there - it's got an almost lime smell to it, which is really interesting - actually, it's kind of like a minty lime.. very interesting. I just don't know about this one - that VETIVER business is really too much for me, but the dry-down of Expressive Head is very enjoyable and I do like the end result. Would I wear it, if I got a bottle? Yes, I think I would. But do I need a bottle? Not sure. Plus - I suspect this VETIVER is going to get more gnarly with age, so.. I just don't know

I'm not sure that I have much to add here that hasn't already been said in previous reviews.. but I'll try The Arabian Dance was one of my favourites from last year's Yules, and The Ta-Ta is so much like TAD that it's kind of uncanny. The key difference, to my nose, is that The Ta-Ta is overall more soft and gentle, and the coffee is more present than the leather - on me, TAD was the other way round - leather first then coffee. The Ta-Ta actually reminds me of some of my favourite BPALs - as well as TAD, it has a similarity to Pinched With Four Aces (similar rich coffee) - also A Bachelor's Dog and Brom Bones and dare I say it... *whispers* Quincy Morris - it has the same soft, warm leather. So if you have found any of those things impossible to get hold of, then definitely give The Ta-Ta a try The only note I'm not really loving here is the carnation blossom - although it's not really sweet as such, it's still a bit too sweet for my liking, and it's kind of interfering with the leather + coffee deliciousness. Once again, I find myself wishing for a Note Removal MachineTM. So my problem now is.. having hoarded a few bottles of The Arabian Dance, do I need a bottle of The Ta-Ta? Time for a death match!!

I just can't quite decide what to think about this one There's something here that's just not quite working for me. But it's not as simple as that.. because somehow it keeps drawing me back to take another huff, and I want to like it, I really do. I think there's just too much going on with the notes here, it's like they're all fighting for attention. The red musk is very dominant, but it's held back by the black musk and clove - those two are keeping the red musk from completely taking over so that's a good thing. But red musk + black musk + clove don't seem to work all that well together, and the myrrh isn't helping out at all. Then we've got bamboo and vanilla orchid - both of those are quite syrupy sweet on me usually, so I think they're just at odds with the musks on my skin. I really can't pick up any of the mandarin at all, which is a shame because it's a fave note. In the end, this does a similar thing to The Elephantine Colossus for me - it develops a slightly sickly cloying aspect.. almost honey-ish. Like red musk and honey. I'm beginning to think that red musk is not my friend My best moment with Sentimental Initiation came after I'd had it on for almost an hour.. I had another huff, and the red musk had died down significantly. The clove had sweetened up, and a lovely smokiness had developed. But I can't be wearing something that only smells good after an hour, so this one is not a keeper for me.

I love the little globule of chocolate goodness sitting at the bottom of my decant. I also love the word 'globule'.. so even if I hated The Seekim, I would still be grateful that I got a decant of it because it gave me an excuse to say globule. I was expecting something a bit more dark and intense from this - or should I say hoping for, rather than expecting? Yeah.. I was hoping this would be a dark and dirty mix. When I read this from a few posts up: I had to chuckle, because it is kinda like that, except for me it's more like clean yuppie barn sex rolled in chocolate. Yuppies have those very clean barns ya know, filled with matching suites of storage cabinets from IKEA and clean hay stacked neatly in orderly rows. So I wanted dirty hippie barn sex, but I got clean yuppie barn sex. Anyways - all that aside, I really love The Seekim. Once again I find myself wishing I had a Note Removal MachineTM so that I could take out the hay, because I think that's the note responsible for the 'clean' feel that it has. I also find that the black pepper adds a top layer of brightness to the mix that kinda spoils it a bit, and seems at odds with the cacoa and patchouli. Thankfully, no lemon for me here. I'm not really getting any sense of the incense ash, I do know what incense ash smells like - it's not really smokey as such, it's more a dusky powder - but I'm not getting it in here. And this has to be one of the lightest, least in-your-face patchouli blends that I've ever tried.. the patchouli here is soft. I do think that this is one of those BPALs that should be tested from a 5ml bottle, rather than a decant, because oils that contain globules (YAY - I got to say it one more time!!) don't always decant well, and I always wonder whether I've got an even mix of things in my vial. So although The Seekim has turned out to be much less dark and mean than I hoped he would, I might just have to buy a bottle anyway

I had a similar experience to Ms stellans... At first, this was all lovely lime, with the bergamot adding an extra layer of juicy citrus and just a slight peppery touch. The dragon's blood was there, but quite subtle - just kinda wafting around in between the lovely citrus vibe. I wouldn't have picked there being any floral element here, but since I know helichrysum is present then I can sense a sort of sunny gold-ness about it.. but it's not a strong feature of the fragrance. But then.. BAM! In strolls cedarwood, and that's when the trouble starts. This is how it goes: Lime - weeeeee! I'm heeeeeeeeere! Smell me! I'm fresh and lovelyyyyyyyyyy! Cedarwood - Lime? Pffft.. get outta my way! There's no room here for lime, and you can take that stupid girly bergamot with you too. Don't let the door hit yer ass on the way out. Lime - *leaves quietly, holding bergamot's hand* Cedarwood - OK, and now - that dragon's blood resin.. let's just push that aside, shall we? *shove* DBR - But.. I wasn't causing trouble, I was nice and subtle, why don't you like me? Cedarwood - Because I am CEDAR, and I will not stand for any other notes to be present in my company! Now LEAVE! DBR - *puts tail between legs and skulks away* Cedarwood - MWWWWWWWWAAAAAHAHAHA! I win! I'm the only one left! So yeah, it's all over for The Zoom - cedar wins the day. The cedar itself is quite pleasant, it's not totally pencil-shavings or mouse cage, but it's.. cedar. And after all that fuss, the whole fragrance (including the cedar) only lasts for about half an hour on my skin before it fades almost completely away. So unfortunately, this one is not a winner for me If the cedar hadn't bullied everything else away, then I would have really liked this because that early stage with the citrus + DBR was gorgeous.

When I first dabbed this one.. my initial thought was "Sugar Skull, is that you?" - because it had that same burnt sugar/boozy thing going on. And I was not happy, because burnt sugar is not my friend. So I wait five minutes, because I'm just uber cool like that (give perfume a chance, I say - as would John Lennon have said, had he lived long enough to experience BPAL, but I digress..) and behold! The burnt sugar stink-o-rama is gone! And what do we have here... hmm - red velvet cake, but not the red velvet cake your grandma made for your sweet 16th - oh no.. this is the red velvet cake that Keith Richards had at his 60th. Rich, boozy, ridiculous. Ten minutes in, and I notice that Snake Oil has slithered on to the scene, because now there's a gorgeous smoky/spicy vanilla wafting around. Is there any Dorian here? I dunno.. maybe, but if so then he's being rather quiet. Can't say I blame him really - this is still a pretty gnarly scent right now, so maybe it's best to lay low for a bit. A full thirty minutes in, and everything's changed again! Now it's all tobacco and incense, dark red wine and vanilla. And that burnt brown sugar/boozy thing has reappeared - not as strong as it was on initial application, but it's definitely back. And the overall scent develops a slight 'stale' tone over time, which is not all that great really - it was a much nicer smell earlier on in its timeline. Ya know.. in the end analysis, this is a pretty awesome scent, and it's probably just as I would imagine a debaucherous pirate wedding in Las Vegas to smell. If I ever imagined such things, which honestly I don't. My imagination is filled only with butterflies and rainbows. But I feel some sort of kindred spirit now with the cleaning staff at that particular Las Vegas establishment - the people who had to clean the room after the event, because this is probably how that room smelled. Except this is better, because it's perfume. It's like Monsterbait: Closet on acid, or Cake Smash on steroids. But I'm not sure whether I will actually ever wear this - it's kind of scary. Yummy, but scary. Actually - I will wear it! When I get invited to Keith Richards' 70th birthday party in December 2013. Yep.

First up - if you get a bottle of Batty, make sure you roll the oil before testing! I didn't at first, and I got a weird floral/cologne smell out of it.. not at all what I was expecting.. and then I realised HEY ALL THE CHOCOLATE IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTLE!!!! Yep, I mean ALL the chocolate was at the bottom. As in, a big thick sludge of it. So once that blonde moment of mine was over, I got to smell Batty in all its chocolately goodness - and what a relief! There's a lovely dark chocolate note, but it's slightly bitter rather than sweet - and the lack of vanilla or other 'foody' notes in Batty allows the chocolate to keep that dark/bitter tone rather than going all candy-like - the tonka adds that nice vanilla-like flavour but not the actual vanilla smell. Oudh, how I love thee with your sweet smokey woody sexyvelvet tones. Oudh makes everything better - even dark chocolate. And who knows what bat musk smells like (well, Robin probably has a fair idea) - but there definitely is a furry/musky tone behind the chocolate.. and the sandalwood is in there too, as a lovely balance to all that dark business. The sandalwood definitely makes everything a bit powdery, but not in a bad way - just in.. err.. a sandalwood kind of way. There is a slight peppery spiciness if I really pay attention, but I'm not noticing the cassia as a stand-out - that's is a good thing since cassia pretty much ruined MB Underbed for me. About 10 minutes in, and the fragrance changes quite a bit - what started out as a blast of dark chocolate musk softens up and settles back, and that's when the oleander starts to come into play.. and it's not as sweet as I was expecting - instead, it's slightly sharp and cologne-y. Luckily it's not enough to completely ruin Batty for me, but I would be a lot happier if the oleander would just bugger off because it has kinda spoiled the nice smells I had going on before it arrived. And once again I am wishing I had a Note Removal Machine*TM, because I just know that Batty would be all kinds of awesome on me if I could just get that oleander out of it. Overall, Batty is a weird little scent - I think it probably needs just the right skin chemistry to get the notes to balance out nicely.. I amp the floral aspect a bit too much, unfortunately. It's not a horrible smell.. it's just not something I think I will wear a lot. In the end it wears down to a soft, powdery, dusky tone with a very dry floral top note - it really is quite nice but not what I was hoping for. I think I'll stash it away for a bit of aging, and see what happens - fingers crossed that pesky oleander will go away! *not related to The Cult's Love Removal Machine, which has been known to distract even the most pure of women. Or is that Ian Astbury in his leather pants? I dunno.. I'm all distracted now.

Hmm.. all my imps of Loviatar are a deep rich red colour, and they all smell the same. It's not all that unusual to get different colour variations in the oil, and some difference in the fragrance happens sometimes too.. but if yours is a whole different colour AND a whole different smell then I suspect you might have a mis-labelled imp there. I dunno - I could be wrong, but that sounds like more than just a 'variation' to me, it sounds like a whole other oil

Thanks to the lovely devilot for sending me a tester of this! When I first dabbed the oil on, the most prominent note for me was lilac. It smelled sort of like some kind of men's cologne/aftershave had just been sprayed in the air. Ten minutes in, and the pomegranate makes an appearance but it's oh-so-light - hardly there at all really. Where's the spices? Where's the patchouli? Hmph I say, Hmmmmph! I waited thirty minutes before leaning in for another sniff, but by that point it was almost gone completely - all I can smell now is dry, dusty remnants of lilac. So overall, this is really lovely in its own right.. but not for me at all. I was expecting a lot more depth and warmth from the patchouli and spices, something dark and menacing, and that's just not happening on my skin. Sadly, one me - this is no Crypt King... it's more like Crypt Boy

I forgot to put the link in on my previous post - announcement here. And yeah.. Google is often out of date like that - also usually the mods who look after the Reviews area move the scent to the Discontinued area and add a 'Disc xxx date' to the sub-title of a scent's review thread (like they did on Ether here) but I don't think that's been happening with every discontinued scent recently because I see a few still in their review sub-category of the GC area with no discon date. I know the mods have a lot to keep up with though, so your best option is to check through the Announcements topic if you need to check on anything

Nope.. sadly, it is discontinued. The announcement was made in July (The Hesperides was one of five GCs discontinued at that time) - you can see it here. Sorry, that's probably not what you wanted to hear

Excellent! Thank you so much for keeping this all up to date for us OCD organised types

Oh you're welcome! And I'm glad you solved the mystery Scentbase is great, it has a lot of neat little features that make finding things nice and easy

Is there any chance that it's actually "B.B." rather than "B.R."? I was just thinking maybe it's Brom Bones, because the only other 'B.R.' blend I know of is Blood Rose, since you've already said that Black Rose isn't right. But.. this might help - on Scentbase, you can search by letter! BPALs can be searched here, BPTP blends are here, and TALs are here. It's possible that not every blend ever made is in their database, but I've found it to be pretty comprehensive so maybe that will be helpful for you

Bearing in mind that florals are not really my friend.. I would suggest Grief - lily of the valley, hyacinth, calamus, muguet, hydrangea, and elemi - reviews are here. To me, it was a nice mix of florals without being too floral-y, and it does have a nice soft/light tone. It's a shame that Sundew is now discontinued, because that would be another one I would have recommended - no listed notes, but to me that one was a beautiful sparkling, golden sunny and fresh blend that feels like a floral but isn't full-on flowers. Reviews are here - it might be worth trying to track down an imp, because it really is a nice one. The other one that came to mind is Moonshine and Mist - ethereal, otherworldly, delicate: ambergris, white musk, water violet, ylang ylang, magnolia, and white sandalwood - reviews are here. Very soft and pretty - it actually does feel misty, and kind of like a forest full of wildflowers. I was thinking it would be a nice companion to Fae Forest.. not sure about how it would go with Slobbering Pine though - maybe worth a try?

Wow.. the things I would never have tried, had I not been frimped them! Yes.. Phantom Queen definitely falls into that category - floral-y things mixed with moss and green things are not usually my cup o'tea at all. But when I first pull the lid from the imp, I am greeted with a lovely clean apple smell - kind of like a green apple scented shampoo that I used to use years ago. When I first apply the oil, it's all apple blossom - creamy, sweet, soft but not weak.. just gorgeous. Then the black orchid comes out with that lovely waxy texture, and for a little while there this is all the best parts of my beloved old green apple shampoo but without the soap smell. Ten minutes in, and the greenery starts to come forth - kind of like a little forest of smells slowly and deliberately marching over the top of the soft sweetness of the apple + orchid. Bad, bad forest! Back off!! But no.. the final score here is forest of greenery wins the battle over the delicate apple and orchid fragrance. This really isn't something I would wear, which is probably just as well since it's discontinued now, but it is quite lovely nonetheless and I know I'll find just the right home for my imp one day, because I see plenty of people do love this one. Great for those who like the sweetness of fruit and floral but enjoy the rich deep tones of dark greens.

Usually from the US to Australia takes around 10-14 days, and from EU (and UK) around the same. Sometimes they will be a little quicker than that, and sometimes a little slower, but generally it's around two weeks. Hope that helps! edited, because I think this topic is more abut international shipping & info for BPAL orders, rather than general questions.. this thread here seems to be more for non-order related questions so your post may get moved there

Not sure if this will help.. but for me: O - sickly, powdery, cloying honey. Too much honey for me. And something almond-ish, I dunno.. just ick on my skin. Nothing chocolate-y about this one, on me. Bliss - chocolate, chocolate.. and chocolate. On me, it's a dry and kinda powdery chocolate - rather than a rich, milky chocolate.. but it's definitely chocolate. Gluttony - this was more caramel gooey than chocolate on me. Very rich and syrupy, sweet and a little bit something almost-boozy - like those liquer-filled chocolates. Oh - but did you realise Gluttony is actually discontinued? So that might help you narrow down your choice, since you'll probably find that Gluttony is hard to get hold of

Awww.. that label for Pumpkin Princess is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your pics, angelicruin

Oh.. ivyandpeony - I had forgotten about The Snack Hut, but yes - I definitely got popcorn from that, although the cherry was very strong as well so it wasn't a 'pure' popcorn smell like Shill or Trick or Treat. And I think that one's discontinued now, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to find some. But I honestly can't say I got any popcorn at all from The Elephantine Colossus - it was all red musk/cola on me - just thought I'd chime in on that one, because it is a bit difficult to find.

Shill.. will definitely be hard to find. Trick or Treat (the 2009 version) shouldn't be that difficult - hunt around in the For Sale topic, there will probably be at least a decant floating around Both Shill and TorT are both definitely the buttery/sweet kind of popcorn smell though - not the salty popcorn smell. Of the two, I'd say Trick or Treat is the sweeter, and Shill is the more buttery, if that helps. But if it's salty popcorn you're after.. hmm, nothing comes to mind for that - sorry!

greylen is right - Shill is buttered popcorn all the way! But it came out with the Carnaval Noir series many years ago, and has been discontinued for a while now, so that one will be hard to find. You could try to find Trick or Treat - that was also an old one from 2005, but it came back for Halloween 2009 so it shouldn't be too hard to find. The description for that one is "The sticky sweet scent of candy corn!" and that's *exactly* what it smells like

As others have mentioned.. I think it's all about how a scent makes you feel - if you feel confident, attractive, sexy whatever - that will come out in the way that other people see you For me, I have a few - Banshee Beat is the BPAL I wear more than any other (probably at least 3 out of 5 days at work), and the one most people notice when I'm wearing it - I've had more compliments and "Ooooh! What is that perfume?!?" questions about Banshee Beat than any other BPAL that I wear. I love the smell of it on me, I really know that I smell good and it makes me feel happy when I wear it. If I want to feel a bit more strong/confident than usual, I tend to pick scents that are more 'dark' or 'heavy' - like Lucy, Kissed or Spanked - also Crowley. And if I'm feeling a bit girly/pretty then it's Snow White, Mouse's Sad and Long Tale, Vasilissa or Antique Lace. And when I just can't work out what I want to smell like, I usually reach for either Snake Oil or Snake Charmer Resurrected. I think that for most people, it does take a little time to find "the one". My suggestion would be to try as many things as you possibly can, and break out of your comfort zone when it comes to trying new smells - the thing about BPAL is that some of the blends you think are never going to work or don't sound all that appealing can turn out to be surprisingly wonderful

One of the things I enjoy most about BPTP's sprays is that they're not 'normal' smells for room sprays. I mean.. before these all I really knew was the typical 'air freshener' smells - you know, the type that come in a spray can and have names like 'Summer Garden' or 'Ocean Breeze'. Ick. But with BPTP I get smells of leather, smoke, woods, spices - and I love them because they're different - I just don't dig my house smelling of flowers. Soooo.. sadly, Sakura is in that 'typical air freshener' category of smells to me. That's probably not really a completely fair statement, because the notes in Sakura are clean and rich and not at all fake-smelling, but still.. it is what it is. This room now smells lovely, with a strong hit of the sweet cherry blossom and the heady richness of wisteria, and the dusky loveliness of iris, and it's definitely a heady scent evocative of Japanese gardens where the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom creating patterns of dappled sunlight on the ground and the wisteria is dripping languidly over wood gazebos. But it's really not my kind of thing, and in the end analysis it's just too sweet and floral for my liking.

As others have mentioned, this is not the dark/deep scent I was kind of expecting from the mention of 'wicked wrath' and the oak, gunpowder and leather notes - it has a rather light quality to it. It's quite subtle and subdued, but nicely complex in a simple kind of way. When I first put El Nuevo on, it was a bit noisy - the woods, spices and lime seemed to have trouble finding a way to get along. But after about 30 minutes, things have settled down and the leather has come out - it's soft and dusty, not at all a strong kind of leather. The lime is slightly sweet and waxy/creamy - it's not overtly citrus toned or foody in any way. Overall, El Nuevo kind of reminds me of Mr. Nancy.. if he were to lose some of the pepper and tone himself down a few notches. I'm not really picking up much of the vanilla bean, which is a bit disappointing - it is there, but it's waaaaaay down at the base of the fragrance. I find that it stays pretty close to my skin, without a lot of throw, and it fades almost completely within 2 hours. I really like this, but I'm not sure I will end up wearing it.. it's really very nice, but it doesn't knock my socks off. It is beautifully blended though, and the leather + woods + lime combination is very enjoyable.