sunshinedaisybliss

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.

Oh HELLO THERE powerful Sumatran patchouli! I love the way you have filled the air around me with deep, dark patchouliness! (that is so a word ) Once I get over the intense blast of patchouli, which quite literally almost made my eyes water, I find the lovely woodsy-ness of the copaiba and pao d’arco are in there too - together, the woods and the patchouli create the atmosphere of a deep, dank, dark forest. The kind of forest you have to cut your way through with a machete to get through to daylight Further on into the drydown, the lovely cacao and bourbon vanilla come out - a good thing, too, because without them I think La Mano would be just a little too much of a good thing.. I mean, I like my patchouli and woodsy smells - but this one goes to eleven. It's reminding me a lot of Banshee Beat - not that they smell the same at all.. but they both have that gnarly oomph to them. Ooh - and also Lucy, Kissed with that snarly dark lush patchouli it has. I'm also reminded of Panther Moon - although not a patchouli blend, it has that lovely enveloping darkness to it. I like a bit of oomph and enveloping darkness I think the cinnamon is just lost in here - I can't really pick it up on its own, but what I do smell seems more like a sweet kind of cinnamon than an obviously spicy one. And the tobacco only really comes out on my skin after I've had La Mano on for almost an hour - it took that long for the patch/woods to mellow out enough! I'm liking the tobacco here - it's pretty soft and.. slightly damp smelling, but it adds a nice warm glow. This is going to be even more awesome a year from now after it's aged a bit. If you're scared of patchouli.. then walk away now my friend, for this one will frighten little children and almost certainly make babies cry. But if you like your patchouli to be all gnarly and pulsing, and you don't particularly care about scaring people.. then this one's for you. edited for spelling fail. .

YUM YUM YUM!! I'm LOVING this one!! Mastermind has some of my most-loved notes in it.. leather, black amber, oudh, and bourbon vanilla - it was only the jasmine that I was worried about. Oh, and the mention of 'cologne' - that almost put me off. But oh happy day - I'm not picking up any jasmine at all here, thankfully my skin has decided to dispose of it completely! And cologne? What cologne?? Something in here smells like a bit like dark chocolate when I first apply it - I wonder what that is! I suspect it's all those dark notes mixing with the bourbon vanilla, but I'm not complaining because it smells divine! I can pick up the leather (warm and 'new' as opposed to worn), the black amber is dark and dusky, the oudh is adding a lush smokey vibe, and the orange blossom is just adding a faint touch of sweetness. On full dry-down, this actually reminds me very much of Hellion.. but I tend to amp plum, so I guess that's why I can smell it so strongly here. I do think that Mastermind has a strong similarity to Hellion.. but where Hellion on me was very golden and warm in tone, Mastermind is more dark and definitely devilishly handsome. So far, this is my fave of the Grendel scents. I just might need a bottle

Damn you, lilac, why can't you behave on my skin? And frankincense.. why do you have to turn into lemon sometimes? You two have completely ruined Exorcist for me.. I can smell the lovely resins and the dark musk trying to come forward but nope - the lilac mixed in with the lemony-frankincense are not pleasant at all on my skin, the whole thing ends up smelling like a cheap Avon perfume. Sadly, this is not a winner for me.

Mmm.. I'm loving this one! On my skin, it has a similar feel/tone to Spanked.. slightly spicy, soft and dusky, warm and snuggly. I almost didn't bother trying this one, because I was worried about the floral notes (the tuberose and pikaki, especially) - but I'm happy to report that I don't really notice the florals in here at all. What I do get is a lovely soft vanilla (not sweet) with a rum tinge, a gorgeous earthiness from the patchouli, and a slight spicy kick from the pepper, clove and caraway.. but it's not SPICY as such, it just has a hint of brown spices. Golden amber is fast becoming a favourite note for me - it doesn't go as uber-powdery as some other ambers on me - and in Avenger it lends just a hint of golden softness that's really lovely. So although I was expecting this to be a bit more kick-ass with that pepper/patchouli/clove combo, I'm not at all disappointed.. this is working really nicely on me! If you enjoy dusky, semi-spicy blends then I would definitely recommend giving this one a try

You could try Antony (reviews here) - the notes are ambergris and frankincense with sage and basil but I find it has a very dill-like smell to it. I also remember picking up a dill-like smell from Black Cat. You could also check Envy, Loup Garou and Delphi - those all had a hint of dill to my nose. A lot of people mention a 'dill pickle' smell to certain BPALs, but I'm not sure that's what you're after! Dill itself is not something I've encountered in many blends, so good luck in your search!

At first, slightly sour berries (for me, blackberry=sour).. a hint of booziness, musky redness. On full drydown, the darker berries have taken a back seat to the sweeter ones (strawberry, blueberry), the booziness has gone completely, and the cherry is the star of the show. Where's the apricot? Dunno.. it never showed up. In the end, I have musky cherry with a hint of blueberry. Which isn't a bad thing at all, really.. but the middle stage with the lovely sweet rich berries was nicer