Scarah

I have no idea what this smells like, except that I like it. It's sweet but not cloyingly so. It very much has that "my skin only sweeter and prettier" thing going on. I can see the comparisons to The Girl. But I would agree that Vasilissa is evocative of The Girl in certain ways, not an exact knockoff. The Girl has got a weird edge to it, for which I think the birch is at least partially responsible. There is a smell there that, as Dethklok would say while eating maced turkey, smells "kinda sting-y." Vasilissa is like The Girl in some ways, except there's no edge. She's friendliness and sweetness and light. My only criticism would be the amount of throw and staying power. This just soaks in to me and becomes one with me. But I have also heard that the things that work best on us can tend to be that way, so maybe that's why.

2009 here. This is my first experience with a lab snow note! At first I didn't like it. In the bottle/wet it was... dirty parts of snow like dirt/underbrush/ferns. It dried to a vanilla flavored sno-cone! I have no idea how they get it to smell like snow/ice, but it does. I like this. I don't know how much I will wear it in favor of warmer vanilla stuff, but I'm sure I will some. I don't get coconut from it at all, so those who found some years too coconutty might like 2009 better.

I'm surprised I haven't reviewed this yet, I've been wearing it pretty often since getting it! I think I was going to see if the wet/bottle smell settled down any before reviewing. The backstory is that I had already ordered a bottle on the forum unsmelled, when a wonderful Meet N' Sniffer let me stick a toothpick in their bottle and give it a shot. In bottle/freshly applied: This is where the roads part. The MNSer's bottle just smelled vanilla-y and sweet, though it is possible my nose was fried at that point. My bottle goes over the top into candy corn! Yep, candy corn. Not to worry, it dries quick on me. Dry: Wonderful vanilla and the cloth does come out. This makes me happy. It is not too sweet or too foody, just enough so, and then the nice clean cloth. If my laundry was prepared by angels using laundry products never to be found on Earth, it might smell like this. Not a bad throw for stuff I usually like either. In conclusion: Boo is awesome. I am planning on getting my last Halloween order in here and this is the first backup bottle I will get ever. Possibly two. I can't imagine ever getting tired of this.

In imp: I smell almost nothing. Strangely, this also happened when I smelled someone's Antique Lace imp. Am I missing a brain sector? Possibly. Wet: Oh my, it's heartbreakingly gorgeous. Vanilla tempered by the slight bit of... stone? Whatever it is, it's wonderful. But sadly, that's only when my nose is actually touching my arm. Dry: It has gone! In conclusion, I blame myself somehow, not the perfume. I know that the other reviewers can smell this fine. I must have a missing smell spot or something? I'd blame my skin for drinking it, but I couldn't really smell the imp either, and the same thing with AL which is said to be similar. For the brief time I can smell it, it's just amazing. But I don't think it's for me, because how frustrating not to hardly smell it, haha.

I'm thinking that almond can be a tricky thing for some people, and I'm one of those people. If I don't squint sideways at it, Bite Me pretty much smelled like I spilled amaretto on myself. If I do, I can realize the cherry cough syrup and rose. It is almost as though the cherry and rose are not actually there, but the almond is leaving behind negative space that my brain fills in with cherry and rose. Like the almond is the vase silhouette and the cherry and rose are the two face silhouettes. Enough tripping out on why it didn't work. In conclusion, it didn't work.

Didn't change much from bottle to dry for me, it really is melty vanilla ice cream. I just threw back on the same hoody I threw on yesterday after trying it, and it's still there, heh. Sometimes I think there is chocolate, but probably it's my mind playing tricks because I've smelled more melted chocolate ice cream than melted vanilla ice cream, or something. I don't know how I can smell that it is "melting," but I can. I don't think I'd have ever have blind ordered a bottle of this one, so I'm so lucky I got to try it at the meet n' sniff, because I think I want some now. As a side note, I enjoy reading up on the stories that inspired BPALs I like, if I don't remember them too well. Valdemar's name sure is close to another, more modern literary figure who is kind of dead-but-not-really. Coincidence????? It brings me great joy to think that I smell like melted Voldemort.

Thanks everyone! I have the Sarah bottle now so I can see it up close. It is two skulls, buried either in rocks, or like thigh bones that you can only see the ends of. If I tilt it a certain way I can still see the lady's abdomen with elbows, and a belt with foie gras dangling off it! I must need a magazine rack, for my issues.

Love love love. Freshly applied: Spicy, resiny, interesting. Dry: This is one of those "smells like me, but better and more interesting" things for me. But it doesn't stay half an inch from my skin and actually has throw! In conclusion: I think this was kinda everything I expected out of Snake Oil, but didn't get. I will have to experiment further as I would hate to be wearing this and have it be TOO strong. A little really goes a long way on me, moreso than other BPAL. And it lasts and lasts.

I wanted to wait to be sure before writing this one. But since wearing it every day for almost a week, I think we could be safe. O Yeah. Imp: I have never smelled anything like this in my life ever ever and I love it. It is sweet and sour, in the best of all possible ways. How can three so simple ingredients end up like this? Genius. I want more. Freshly applied: Same as imp! So far so good! Dear my wrist, I love you. Love, me. Dry: The amber really warms up. I'm a person who can't do too many spices or incense or anything, because they become self-aware like Skynet and then take over the Earth and convince everyone I just came from my errand of buying three screens and a lighter. But I love warm, kinda spicy-but-not-too-spicy things, so I'm finding that notes like amber and dragon's blood are the perfect compromise. The tangy honey dies down on me some, but never ultimately finally. I can get a waft of it now and then. And it's AWESOME. The overall impression that one gets if they are standing a polite distance from me, actually *may* be vanilla baby powder. But I simply don't care because I KNOW THE REAL TRUTH. Let them go ahead and think my pants are full of baby powder. O makes *me* happy, so who cares about the rest of the world. In conclusion: Yeah, I've been in BPAL fandom less than a week (if you count actually possessing scents as opposed to just having ordered them and waiting), everything else I've tried so far has been tried once, and the O imp is half gone. I would say bottle please. Side note: I like this scent so much that I decided to reread part of the novel, which I did read the whole thing about 20 years ago. This time, I was just all like "LOL WHUT?" I can't recall if O's preferred fragrance in her "normal" life (as a fashion photographer) is mentioned, since I didn't reread that part. But I figured at least at Roissy, the chambermaids would have done her up with some kinda Serious Floral Business. Thank deity(ies) the lab has more creativity than I do, because BPAL O is awesome!

Sweet! Freshly applied: Sweety McSweeterson, mayor of Sweetville. Dry: Dragon's blood has warmed up and is coming out to play. Very nice when I huff my arm. Unfortunately, with my nose anywhere further than two inches away, it is doing that thing where resin + SWEET = reads as baby powder. If it were the finest baby powder money could buy of course, but the brain of the average person smelling me would just go through its pattern-recognition routine and match on baby powder. In conclusion: This is brand new from the lab, and it is one of the imps that is going in the "age and try again" section. Edit: Tried wearing it all day, and I have now decided this is sweet, but not too sweet for me. I like it and it makes me happy. I can't stop comparing it to O (which I love), and have come to think of it basically as "O, remixed." It has the dragon's blood instead of amber, a very similar vanilla but a very different honey. O's honey's is that in-your-face wonderful sour, for lack of a better word. Dragon's Milk's honey is just sweet. I may end up with a bottle yet.

BPAL is the thing that it took to overcome my lifelong floral fears. I had a feeling it might, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too much before trying. Freshly applied: Nice warm dragon's blood, lilac, a bit of lily. In the past I would have run screaming from anything that said it was supposed to smell like lilac, but this one is clear and true on me. Like real, fresh lilacs. Which I like very much, just not lilac car fresheners like most lilac products are. Dry: The dragon's blood comes and it goes. When it's not there, it's mostly the lilac, which I'm perfectly happy with, but I like it in combination with the dragon's blood even more. Just when I think the dragon's blood has worn off for good, it wafts back again. Interesting effect. In conclusion: I like this so much it might be a bottle. I am going to try the imp a few more times first though. At the very least, I am certainly very happy with the imp!

According to one website's translation that I saw, it means "The Sleeping Bather". Most of the pages that I translated came up with "Sleeping", but weren't quite sure what "Baigneuse" was... this was the first that gave me more than "The Sleeping Baigneuse". --M "Bather" actually sounds right for "baigneuse." I vaguely remember that "bain" is "bath" in French. Um... is "schlafende" German and "baigneuse" French (or a related Romance language)? o_O Precisely, German and French. Also, the bather is female.

I'm new to BPAL and this was one of the first handful of scents that I tried. So not what I expected to find in a BPAL for some reason! Clear, blue, aquatic flowers. I don't know how "me" it is, but I do like it. Smells like it could be an expensive mainstream perfume, without the alcohol and aldehydes. Ageless; neither too mature nor too youthful. Threatens to go soapy, but never really goes there. Even if it did, it would smell like extremely very nice soap. No bottle, but I will keep the imp for those times I want to have brunch with some well-dressed ladies in a nice garden. Or just smell like I am.

Disclaimer: first BPAL ever tried! First review! I think I now understand the theatrical concept art that is certain BPAL scents. From the description, I expected this to be particularly morph-y, and I was not disappointed! Freshly applied: Astringenty, citrus cologne. I have smelled something just like this during the 80s. At least I don't have to worry about smelling like a head shop! I certainly do not smell wolf fur or incense. Ten minutes later: I got fur! Seriously, fur! And not in a bad way, either. Like the very clean but unscented fur of a very beloved and well cared for pet. Almost not quite unlike musk in a way. Incense, too! The incense is very tentative and only whiffs in the background, so my head shop fears are again assuaged. Astringent smell is going away. Fifteen minutes later: The flesh is congealing and it smells SWEET! It's the flesh congealing I know it is! Or, okay, maybe it's ozone. But it waited all this time to do it just now, just for me, it's Sarah rising from her grave I know it! Half an hour later: The Seabreeze/10-0-5 smell is gone. It has all mellowed out into a mellony, citrussy, non-astringent, ozone-sweet, wearable scent. I still get the occasional whiff of the fur note here and there, though. I don't think the fur note is throwing at all, I only really notice it with my nose in my arm. Still, it is there at some times and gone at others. An hour later: The whole thing is softening even more. The melons, the sweetness, and even a little bit of the fur are becoming all one thing now. I was antsy to review this one while it was still all fresh in my mind, so I haven't been wearing it all that long. I'll edit later if anything interesting comes up, but things seem to have stabilized for the most part. In conclusion: The fur note may not be for everyone, it can be a little salty-sharp once in a while. It didn't throw a lot for me, but if you put on a lot especially then your mileage may vary. The overall impression of this, if you are not searching for the fur and incense, is just sweet and mellony. I am uncertain what melons have to do with the short story, but there we are. I don't know how much I will wear this, but I am very happy with it as my first bottle, because it has my name on it and a cool label with skulls buried under rocks.

Does anyone know what that is on Sarah's label? It looks to be a woman's torso with her arms folded up so we can only see her elbows in the frame. Then... she is wearing a belt with sea sponges or foie gras hanging off it? Haha!