DigitalCoyote

I thought, initially, that I'd put Habu on again. I got something sweet--like a vanilla--which probably made me figure that's what had happened. What gave it away was that it just wasn't as "in your face" or obvious. As it dried down, it turned in to a woody incense that didn't go powdery on me. This is probably why my boyfriend's boss thought he was wearing a new aftershave or something. I applied it about 18 -20 hours ago, but I can still catch a whiff of it every now and then.

Got this with the massive order of Yules I received last week. If I had to sum this up in a phrase, it would be "Victor Victoria." Initial wet stage: Oil, heavy metal, and a familiar cleaner or solvent. I think other posters may have nailed it with it being the big gold bar of Dial. This isn't a bright, sparkly metal flowers like Metal Phoenix. First drying stage: This is hardcore perfume. Floral. In your face floral. I was concerned that I'd run in to "old lady" territory because of how big this smell became. Second drying stage: A man's cologne or shaving cream. Warm, spicy, woody, a little green, and clean. The oil is still lurking, but it's not as pronounced as it was freshly wet. Dry: This doesn't know what it wants to be. I smell the manly part of this but occasionally get a whiff of something feminine and green; the boyfriend smells expensive perfume soap and something he can't put his finger on. I like this because it's hard to pin down on me. It's sure to make some men sufficiently uncomfortable. Edit 12/19: I put this on the boyfriend to see if he would smell better on him. In a word: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GG was manly on me, but turned in to the classic "old lady" perfume of doom on him.

The notes in this sounded interesting because of the combination and because I was looking for something to wear when belly dancing. When I opened the bottle this morning, I thought I'd hit the jackpot and felt the same way while it was still wet. I was a walking chocolate goddess, literally (instead of how it's used in that creepy pickup line way)! No -4 F day is going to bring me down smelling like that. No sirree. Then it started to dry: the tobacco was a great compliment to the cacao. And when it dried some more, I fell out of love. On my skin, this eventually became light incense and industrial strength baby powder. I'm not ready to give up on it, so I'll try aging it for a bit.

This scared me initially because in the imp and freshly applied to my skin, no good was coming of it. I initially got something nutty/seedy--never a good sign for me--that was overwhelmed by wood and water scents. I thought I'd made a major mistake in putting this on and my nose was seriously angry with me. After about 5 minutes to mellow, this turned on me. This became soft, sweet, feminine, and a happy/summery smell. A few more sniffs and I realized it reminded me of my mother. On my skin, at least, this morphs in to the spiritual sister of 273. I wish it had a longer throw because it was gone from me in less than 45 minutes. If my mom is good, I might go through the trouble of finding her a bottle of this, but she's not getting my imp.

I'm three snakes in to the Snake Pit: Western Diamondback, Cottonmouth, and now Habu. I've come to the conclusion that the common element, Snake Oil, is what's throwing the vanilla and incense and maybe a little teeny bit of leather on me. I don't know how old it is or under what conditions, if any, it was aged--I got this imp second-hand from a nice seller. I didn't get any greenery out of the smell in either of today's applications. There was, however, a burst of a citrus (more lemony than grapefruit or orange) on me in the stage between wet/fresh and the beginning of the dry down phases. I get different notes depending on the wrist I'm sniffing at the time. That said, I wish I would've read the reviews before I put this on today. My professor/advisor was running in and out of our classroom during a movie. On one trip he stopped for about a minute and didn't move; he was a few feet away at the time. "Who's wearing that? It's vanilla..." Long pause. "Or maybe its hairspray or something.." Long pause. He eventually left, but would periodically return to poke his head in for a few seconds. When he came back to class to sit down, he stood in front of my desk for a bit. "Will you stop huffing me already?!?!" He spluttered and sat two seats to my right. I think he was a bit embarrassed and it's probably why he couldn't sit near me for more than a few minutes. Man attractant (as other more knowledgeable posters have said) indeed. Or Habu was giving him the munchies: he is a pothead. One of two in our Criminal Justice department, actually. Either way, I'm amused.

*sighs* I guess I'm an odd duck. For the first ten minutes or so--when the smell is so fresh it's overpowering--this was a sweet scent on me. Herby and green, just barely flowery if there's any floral at all. After the dry down, it was very masculine and dark. I'm not entirely sure what commercial cologne it reminded me of, but it seemed like it could have be a member of the Drakkar family--albeit once or twice removed--or something else really masculine and common. It'll come to me eventually. It's not that I find the scent unpleasant--I think it's nice and the manly guinea pig (MGP) gave it his usual non-committal "eh"--but I think I would like it more on a man if it smelled the way it does on me.

Me and Mr. Bones, we got a thing going on. The only thing in my stash I can compare this to is Western Diamondback: both have a warm leather note, but Brom Bones is all-leather-and-musk-all-the-time. Where WD goes sweet and cuddly on me, Brom Bones is the most charming or dangerous man you'll ever meet. It just depends on what day it is and how he's feeling. I am in love with this. More after I slather it on the manly guinea pig (MGP) later.

I got this in the mail today. I laughed at my boyfriend being enamored with Tombstone because he said it was his "childhood." I'll be damned if this isn't mine. This is brown, dried out grass that's not quite dead--there's just enough moisture in the ground for the dandelions to pop up--on the baseball field I used to practice on as a little girl. In the end, this died down in to some nondescript incense smell. I assume that's where the warmth of Dog Days came from. This was a welcome surprise in the midst of such a snowy and sad winter. I dare say it almost made me cry.

For Jenny, with love. Crocus with snowdrop and three lilies. Haribo gummi bears (the red raspberry and clear pineapple, perhaps) + something with bite (a really happy lemon?) + lush greenery. This made me smile after such a crappy week, so I think it's a happy smell and likeworthy.

Plain sweet and honey-heaven to part lemon gum drop to lemon and slightly sweet dust? This is playing havoc on my nose because it changes every time I put it on! It lingers in a slightly eerie way.

I don't know about beer, but I got warm lemon and soft spice (tobacco?) when I put it on my skin. I enjoy this and will test again.

OHMIGAWDISMELLLIKEACHERRYICEE!!!!W00!! This is a really fun smell. I realize it has a few alcoholic notes, but I don't smell much like a mixed drink....ok, maybe one that sneaks up on you after you've had three or four and puts you on your butt for the night. On my skin, it's cherry-heavy until it dries. At that point, the spicy smell of the rum and the clean smell (of the vodka?) come out. The clean smell is almost soapy, but doesn't have that typical soap smell: it's a nice, zesty clean. Both of those notes tone down the sweet, so it's still sugary but not sickening. This is light and fresh sweet, not heavy and cloying like Beaver Moon. I. like. this. Strong enough for a man, but made for a Pisces (like me!). Just like the Lab's description says.

'Scuse me while I find enablers to help me with my BPAL habit in honor of my first twenty-five years terrorizing the planet.

Another one I got from a private seller. If you could bottle a Pisces, this is it...minus the booze..and drama...and avoidance behavior. This is the spiritual and mysteriously all-knowing part of the fish.

I bought this second-hand from a private seller and thought I'd give it a try. I would like to think that my nose is becoming more sensitive to multi-layered scents and hoped that this would be one that I could pick out all the notes in the description. Unfortunately, all I could get was warm wood and nothing else when this was put on my skin. It's not unpleasant, but it's not nearly as delicious as it sounded.

The Lab sez: Volcanic ash and Easter Island palm Bottle: Wright's Hickory Seasoning, also known as liquid smoke. It made me homesick. My mom smells like this when she's been barbecuing. Wet: Campfire. Angry, burny, smoking campfire. Dry: This is where it gets interesting. I'm not exactly sure what palm smells like, but after the smoke burns itself out...this gets really sweet on my skin. Not a foody sweet, like Beaver Moon, but not a flowery sweet either. It's very clean and appealing at that point. If this were to be reissued, I'd hope that they could make the smoke tones shorter. Rating: 3/5

Bottle: Wright's Hickory Seasoning, also known as liquid smoke. It made me homesick. My mom smells like this when she's been barbecuing. Wet: Campfire. Angry, burny, smoking campfire. Dry: This is where it gets interesting. I'm not exactly sure what palm smells like, but after the smoke burns itself out...this gets really sweet on my skin. Not a foody sweet, like Beaver Moon, but not a flowery sweet either. It's very clean and appealing at that point. Fresh rain and happy plants clean and appealing. If this were to be reissued, I'd hope that they could make the smoke tones shorter.

I bought a bottle of Beaver Moon 2005. In the bottle--and in theory--this smells good. It smells exactly like food, even. I can't say it agrees with me: the thick odor of confection turns rank on my skin. Not rank in the traditional sense, mind you, but my chemistry amplifies the sugary goodness in to something that no one would eat. You could get a cavity from sniffing me...ten feet away. I don't know if it was aged to (and subsequently past) perfection or what. I opened it once to try it. Once. It's now the overwhelming scent in my Kaboodle where I keep these. In smaller Bodai boxes. That are air-tight.

Bottle: CHOCOLATE!!!!! On me: - Wet: Hershey Kiss. I could literally eat myself to death like Pizza the Hut. - Dry: The chocolate smell gives way to something weird. I'm not spicy...or flowery...or boozy....or vanilla-y. Something very dry and less warm than the chocolate odor, then it meets a smokey death. On MGP: - Wet: The same incredibly edible smell. This is what that Axe commercial with the dark chocolate guy wishes it smelled like. - Dry: Still chocolate. This is where I feel obligated to point out that these are my interpretations of the smell. He could not smell anything remotely like chocolate on himself, irrespective of the oil being wet or dry. The MGP swears that it smells like Snake Oil and only after three hours wear did he get chocolate notes. We both give it a 4/5.

Friendly, charming, and cuddly, but possessing one hell of a mean streak: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and citrus. I bought this on eBay for the Manly Guinea Pig (MGP) as a Happy Expensive Dinner and Two-Days-From-Dead-Flowers Day present. It's been in my keeping for a couple of weeks now and I did have to try it. This is a rather sexually dimorphic scent between the two of us, not necessarily because of the smell itself, but because of what we can smell in it. Bottle: CHOCOLATE!!!!! On me: - Wet: Hershey Kiss. I could literally eat myself to death like Pizza the Hut. - Dry: The chocolate smell gives way to something weird. I'm not spicy...or flowery...or boozy....or vanilla-y. Something very dry and less warm than the chocolate odor, then it meets a smokey death. On MGP: - Wet: The same incredibly edible smell. This is what that Axe commercial with the dark chocolate guy wishes it smelled like. - Dry: Still chocolate. This is where I feel obligated to point out that these are my interpretations of the smell. He could not smell anything remotely like chocolate on himself, irrespective of the oil being wet or dry. The MGP swears that it smells like Snake Oil and only after three hours wear did he get chocolate notes. Rating: Me: 4/5 MGP: Not something I'd wear daily, but something I'd wear on a date when I want your undivided attention. It's still good. 4/5

WESTERN DIAMONDBACK: Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage. I've had this for about a month now. What strikes me about the scent isn't the notes as much as the mercurial nature of the oil: On myself, the odor is very much like I would imagine lounging about on a hot rock on a warm summer day, assuming I was a reptile. It's very mellow, even homey and comfortable after it dries down. It's feminine without smelling like a little girl or a dowager. Every once in a while, I catch a whiff of something like water or something seriously metallic. I'm guessing it's the leather. It's not unpleasant, just a gentle reminder that this might not be as cuddly as originally thought. On the DBF, it's something vicious. Very masculine and biting. A really pissed off snake that is about to introduce itself, business end of the fangs first. The smell on his skin varies between sniffs: inviting, stay away!, come closer..., ...this is your last warning... I like it. He doesn't care for it as much, although I like it on him. Rating: 4/5 (fresh).

I'm a college student in a mountain town, although I'm originally from and have lived in two relatively large and urban areas. I am a hockey-loving, rugby-playing, former fencer tomboy with a love for animals and Jack Kerouac's Bodhidharma. I am not the "typical" BPAL buyer in the sense that other people imagine the customership of the company to be. I do, however, have a scent problem. I've come across two things in my life that genuinely smell good on me: Oceanus (Body Shop) and Charlie White. Other mass-produced scents smell the same as they do on everyone else or they're absolutely acrid. In my quest to make my mother feel better about me before she gets old and decrepit, I've taken on the task of expanding my scent collection in an attempt to give her hope that maybe one day she'll have grandchildren. If I look like a girl and I smell like a girl, maybe I'll be less frightening to settle down with...or so her logic goes. I ran across BPAL a few years ago when I was looking for something vampy for Halloween in a LiveJournal goth community. The lady that did such excellent work on my choker suggested I try BPAL for an appropriate smell. Until the recent past, I've been much too chicken to try anything. Those days are over. In lieu of some sort of quarter-life crisis with far-reaching consequences, I've begun my quest to smell like a million bucks. The dear boyfriend (hereafter known as DBF) is my guinea pig and 2nd opinion. My mom-by-proxy (MBP) is my third and by far has a better sniffer than I do. By the end of this, I hope to have found scents that are good on me and trained my nose to work better for me. Howdy!

I had hope for this one. I don't have any sensual smells in my arsenal and this was on my short list of things to try after my first order. It didn't like my chemistry very much. My boyfriend thought it was overpowering and my mom-by-proxy said I smelled like a head shop. I think I'll try this one again after a week or two and/or save this one for Halloween--it was very incense heavy after it dried on me--and might add to a costume.

I just got my order a few days ago and this came with it. I wasn't sure what to make of the smell in the imp, as I'd smelled about a dozen other things before getting to this, so I tried it out on my boyfriend. It started out as something sort of nutty, like sesame seed and walnuts; it was definitely food-y. After it dried, it became bacon and stayed that way until he showered 5 hours later. I don't know if leaving this one to sit for a while will help it.