Chanteuse87

I got two frimps with my last order from the Lab, which is unfortunate because this is straight up baby powder with the barest whiff of salt. It’s a little more interesting when wet, sweet salty and incensey dragon’s blood, but after two minutes or so it’s just wafting baby powder 😭

Received this as a frimp from the Lab Wet: INCENSE wow. I’ve been in a number of stores that sell crystals and incense and patterned fabrics and knick knacks, frequented by free spirits and this smells exactly like that in a very overwhelming way. Dry: thankfully it calms down quickly — the lemon appears for just a moment, but it settles into a thick, dark, spiced incensey honey. It’s sweet for my taste, my skin already turns everything to syrup. We’ll see how it ages — I think I won’t wear it often, but it definitely evokes a mood.

Edit: this is for October 2020 Wet: .... green pepper. It smells intensely of fresh cut green peppers. Thank god it morphs quickly! Dry: this settles into something very subtle but very beautiful. Reminds me of an October afternoon, intensely blue sky with golden sunlight through the leaves, a distant fireplace wafting smoke through the chilled air. I get a vegetal top note, rounded by the smell of cold (is it sensation or smell?) all over a gently sweet spicy smoke. It stays very close to the skin on me.

I don’t normally go for sweet scents, but this is gorgeous on me! wet: fruit forward, but balanced by the rice flower and vanilla. I don’t get much smoke, and no spice dry: the vanilla/rice flower really warms up and takes on that gentle toasted smell, the fig stops screaming and plays nicely, and while I can’t pick out the spice, I think it helps to round out everything. It’s intensely comforting and unlike the rest of my woody, resiny, musky collection. I like it even more than I thought I would, with the added benefit of helping out a good old girl.

Wet: Well blended, but I can pick out pine, cedar, and balsam grounded in something plush that must be moss. It’s beautiful and very wearable. Dry: my skin drinks this up exceedingly fast, it dries quickly into a barely-there powdery sweet woody balsam. I’m hoping with some resting it might unfold a bit — I don’t mind the dry down it’s just not very exciting. I might try layering it in the meantime.

Freshly applied and still wet: holy apple cider, Batman! A real, juicy apple with a hefty shot of cinnamon and spice. Five minutes later: it goes high end cider candle on me — ever so slightly waxy and very strong on the spice Fifteen minutes later: apple is nowhere to be seen, the spices are the barest whiff, and it’s a beautiful soft wooly musk. Very comforting, and very different from anything else in my collection. Edit: a couple of hours in and the cider came back, but faintly, like I spilled a bit on the cuff of my sweater and didn’t notice. Soft and beautiful but VERY close to the skin on me. My skin tends to amp sweet and eats perfume oils so it wears very close to the skin. I think I’m going to really love this, even though it shifts like crazy on me!

As someone who generally amps sweet and foody to a nauseating degree, I wasn't sure what to expect with this frimp from the Lab. I dabbed a teeny tiny bit on my wrist, and the first few minutes were pretty bad, haha! But it's morphed gorgeously. Wet: buttery cake and cake and butter and a little caramel. Too foody, too sweet, overpowering. Dry: Oh! Spiced wine is really grounding it, and the more it dries, the more I like it. Almost no sillage, wears very close to the skin. I can definitely see wearing this with an oversized sweater all autumn. For those days when Dee just isn't quite sweet enough I still might give it to my sister to see if she likes it, but otherwise I can imagine this will have a place in my rotation.

This is what I wanted Tombstone to be! Tombstone, unfortunately, turned into nauseatingly sweet root beer on me, but this -- this I can wear. It's very vanilla (I amp anything sweet, so go figure), but grounded enough by the musk, leather, and sage that I don't feel like a thirteen year old experimenting with body spray. And the throw is quite strong, despite my skin doing it's very best to suck all of the scent in to a three inch radius Probably won't get a bottle, but I'll thoroughly enjoy the imp.

I just got this as an imp... I was so looking forward to it, and it couldn't have been worse all around In the bottle: Plasticky yankee candle butter pumpkin. Too sweet, too fake. Wet: HOLY SUGAR BUTTER PUMPKIN. Nauseatingly sweet, almost no spice. Dry: Um, hello completely overwhelming peach. None of this is good for me, haha. I tried it on the husband out of desperation, hoping to save something from it... his response? "Oh, gross, it smells like Candyland vomited all over my arm." Not a keeper for this household!

So, knowing that my skin amps sweetness to a nauseating degree (probably why "masculine" blends like Dee smell amazing on me), and that I can't stand O, why did I let this sucker me into trying it? Because it smelled gorgeous in the vial and I like to pretend I can be girly. But then I slathered it on and was almost suffocated by OMFG HONEY, followed by sickly sweet orange blossom honey powder with a throw for ages. No thank you.

THIS is what I need in a peach scent. It's perfect -- floral and peachy, with a firm grounding from the woods. Not too sweet, but purely feminine in a young and fresh sort of way, at least on my skin. While Tamora smelled like "melted skittles" according to my husband, this one is sheer and delicious.

I like this one a lot, but it's a stranger morpher on me. Wet: Weirdly enough, hubby and I both get CHOCOLATE right when it's put on, and for a few minutes after. Nice, but strange. Then it quickly warms into wood, vetiver, and sweetish spicy incense. Lovely. Dry: A slightly woody, vetivery, but very sweet dry down. I really like it, although it wears extremely close to my skin and fades relatively quickly. I'm excited to try it as a room scent, but I very much like it as a perfume.

I wish this had worked on me. It sounded so lovely... but alas, rootbeer from start to finish. The vanilla is overpowering, the sassafras smells just like root beer, and I get no woods or anything. It's wet, foody, cloying, and just too much. 14 year old me would have loved it. 25 year old me is a little more subtle I'll try it again, or maybe use it in a bath, but it does NOT work as a perfume for me.

Weirdly, this is a dead ringer for Golden Priapus on me. I know they only share a couple of notes, but even into the dry down, they seem identical. I'll have to do a side by side comparison to be sure, but for now it's just uncanny. Anyway, wet this is bracing pine and juniper with a warmth underneath. I don't get moonlight or coldness or anything, I get much more of "lovely afternoon in the sunlit forest" type of thing. It's awesome! The pine fades quickly, but it stays pleasantly warm and spicy for a good long while, before finally drying down into a sweet musk with a touch of masculinity. Most everything sweetens on me, so I'm not surprised, and I love the effect with this blend. I wore it to Oktoberfest today and it was just the perfect outdoors scent!

Oh. My god. This is possibly the best scent I've ever tried out of BPAL. It's unbelievably sexy and well blended -- I get no obvious floral out of this, though I'm sure it's there, and I can see how some would interpret the patchouli as "nutty", although on me it's just rich and yummy, but it's the honey that really gets me. No BPAL honey has ever really worked on me. They go powdery and WAY too sweet and just, ick. This had me in paroxysms of ecstasy for hours Seriously, I'm obsessed. It lasts and lasts, throw is amazing, and it's the most unabashedly seductive scent I think I've ever come across. On the bottle list, immediately.

Apparently civet and I get along famously, I never even get a whiff of rankness, just a deep and sexy musk. It's very spicy at first, enough to burn my skin (but I'm a trooper), but quickly settles down into a close wearing, intriguing warmth. If I smelled this on someone at a bar or a club I would definitely want to get a closer look. I don't get masculine out of this at all, it really sweetens on my skin. Husband thought it smelled a little cologn-y, but his nose isn't the mos reliable. He also refuses to wear any scent, so I'll never know what this could be on him I ended up layering it with Aureus, and the result is beautiful, and appropriate for daytime wear.

Ohhh yes please. This is a very me scent and sweetens up in a way that I wouldn't call masculine. It's just dark red and woody, with a hint of musk and amber. Well rounded, fierce, with just a little spice left. Scents really morph quickly on me, but I love all of the (lightning fast) stages. Wet it's sharp, like a reprimand, but dry it's exactly in the family of scents I love on myself. I would wear this for an evening out, if I were feeling predatory.

So, I'd taken a break from BPAL for a couple of years, and when I came back... there was no more Casanova! I'm still going to hunt around for a bottle of it, but in the meantime, does anyone have similar scents in mind? Dee and Golden Priapus are both manly and warm, but not quite the same.

I hadn't tried Tamora in a while, so I thought I'd give it another go. Wet: PEACH. OMG PEACH. Wet and sticky and way too sweet. Initial dry: Still very much peach, but a little tempered by vanilla and amber. Dry: Ugh, still much too sweet for my tastes. I think I like peach, just not here. I need it as an accent note, not the whole scent. Husband's reaction to it wet was, "Skittles!" When dry, I shoved the crook of my elbow under his nose, and his response was, "Melty skittles!" Not for me, I think

So apparently having a wishlist is a very helpful thing... here goes nothing! I'm trying to stick to GC, just because there's so much there to try Bottles I really want: Golden Priapus Dee Casanova The Antikythera Mechanism Hellfire Fenris Wolf Sed Non Satiata Imps I'd like to try: French Love Snake Oil Wicked Desire Jezebel L'école des filles Seraglio Vixen Wanda Whoso list to hunt Brimstone Mata Hari Velvet Yggdrasil Love Me Wolf's Heart The Great Sword of War Phoenix Steamworks Alice Dana O'Shee Perversion No. 93 Engine TKO Baghdad Eden Havana Morocco Moscow Malice Zombi And the one non-GC I'm allowing myself to covet: VILF