GypsyRoseRed

Those new labels are beautiful!

Damned pregnancy hormones. I had high hopes for this one, but it turned right to grape cough syrup on me.

I'm always drawn to ginger and gingerbread scents, though they hardly ever work out on my skin for one reason or another - fake gingerbread, too much cinnamon, plasticky, too sweet,blah, blah.. Flesh Eating Reindeer for the WIN! This is my quintessential holiday scent from now on, so I'll have to make my bottle stretch. Wet, in the bottle, it smells like an interesting gingery musk blend, slightly sharp and a little on the dark side. On me, it turns into a beautifully grownup *true* soft gingerbread, with a nibble of fruitcake and hints of rum and musk. The last two notes are what make this so wearable as a scent for me, instead of just smelling like food. Truly gorgeous.

I didn't compare this to my imp from last Christmas, but it smells like Nutella in the vial.

This is all peach and gardenia on me with no honey, so the only sweetness is coming from the fruit note and with my body chemistry, pretty much all I can smell after half an hour is OMG!gardenia! Such a pity because if this ended up anything like the way it smells in the bottle, it would have been pretty. As it is, it ends up a one note wonder.

Chilly white florals. It's interesting, because I was expecting a straight up floral, but there's a definite impression of frost here. Not my bag, but nicely done nonetheless.

Hm. To my nose, I detect the tiniest hint of earth when I spray this, but after a minute, it's the fragrant scent of Snow White, classic, regal and lovely. I sprayed some on my pillow and comforter and could easily detect the smell the next night.

I'll qualify this review by saying I'm not a fan of dirt notes in perfume. I usually end up smelling like something that's rotting which isn't intriguing to me at all, plus I'm not a fan of banana scents. What I smell in the vial is pretty much what the name suggests - a banana peel in a graveyard, the ripe fruit plus the tang of rich, dark earth. I was wary of testing this on my skin, but thankfully it turned into a happy surprise. About ten minutes in, the banana has become surprisingly low-key and realistic while the 'graveyard' isn't dirt at all but patchouli, smooth, dark and mellow. The overall scent dried down is dark, mysterious and unique. Since I knew this wasn't my kind of scent going in, I was surprised by how wearable it turned out to be. Another fab piece of work by the Lab.

When I saw the Lab had created a Sea Rat scent, I never thought I'd be able to wear it because I'm not a lover of aquatics. Thankfully, there's more to this old sailor than just the ocean - it's mostly wood, herbs, musk and underlying it all is the warmth of ambergris. It's really surprising and distinctive.

Since I'm a resin/fruit/spice/vanilla lover, I knew upon first sniff that Toad Hall wasn't for me. My daughter fell in love with it, though, because she said it smelled like a park, like the outdoors. I sniffed it on her wrist, and it's an interesting scent - one that grows on you. This is the refined abode of Mr. Toad for sure with a cologne note that's also slightly lemony.. and beyond, the tang of the river and a breath of clean, fresh air blowing through the trees of the wild wood.

When Grace dresses as a princess, she wears Queen Alice and I must say it's perfectly appropriate. It's elegant, but slightly sweet at the same time and not overly floral. I think this is a wonderful clean scent that doesn't even have a whiff of 'air freshener' or dryer sheets though it's hard to pin down individual notes. If the treacle is there, perhaps that's what stopping the scent from being OMGflowers, but I definitely pick up on the light touches of amber and sweet wine mingling with the spicy carnation note. Overall, a beautiful scent and a fragrance that will always make me smile.

Since Bat's Day hasn't happened yet (and won't until Nov 8th) I don't think we'll know until the actual day.

Ugh. I wanted to get some caramel out of those, but it's honey, amber with a dominant waft of apple blossoms. This comes out smelling more floral on me than foody.

I didn't think I was going to like this blend at all because even though I love Snake Oil and Dorian, lavender is my perfume nemesis and kills every scent it's in stone dead. But not this time! Bwahahahahahaaaa! Usually, the lavender takes over until I can't smell anything else, but this time it was faint in the bottle, amped like crazy for the first twenty minutes, then it faded in the background until it was strangely complementary and managed to stop LV from being too vanilla. On the skin, this scent surpasses the hype of either of it's parent scents and blossoms into something sexy, elegant and very unique. For all it includes two existing blends, it manages to stand alone as something truly exceptional. It's only the second BPAL scent ever that my husband really loves on me, and he's super picky (the first one was Snake Charmer) ETA: This is so gorgeous, I really wish it could be made general catalog. I don't ever say that about any LE, but this one would be a definitely re-order on a regular basis for me.

Usually, the Lab's apple scents remind me of apple cider wet and mostly morph down to a very sour imitation of the fruit thanks to my weirdo body chemistry. Snow, Glass, Apples is *completely* different to any other apple scent I've ever tried. This is a freshly sliced Granny Smith apple - the bright green skin, the juicy white flesh and tart aroma. And in the background, a chilly, very faintly floral note that makes me think of freshly fallen snow. Very unique and distinctive.. for fifteen minutes. After that, it turns into Febreze on me. Bah. No apple love for me.

Spicy honey and skin musk! I get no booze, no lemon, just a honey that actually doesn't turn sickeningly sweet on me with a faint whiff of amber.

See, I'm a big Batman aficionado and my mind went straight to Perversion, De Sade and Saint-Germain right away.

"Many things -- such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly -- are done worst when we try hardest to do them." Water, Saponified Organic Palm Kernal Oil, Coconut Oil, Soy Oil, Fair Trade Organic Shea Oil, Sodium Lactate, Jojoba Oil, Castor Oil, Ground Lavender Flowers, Lavender officinalis, Vanilla planifolia, and TKO. Of all of the soaps, this was the one I was really dying to try because TKO is one of my staples. I hate to say it, but while the TKO soap is lovely, it's not what I was hoping for. I get less vanilla and a lot more lavender out of the soap than I do from the oil, and while it's still nice, being brutally honest, I'd rather buy more oil and add drops to unscented body wash. For those who love lavender, this may be more of a winner, but not for me. There are other BPTP soaps that I rank way above the TKO version which really surprises me. Oh, well.

The East has a very botanical quality in the bottle, but on my skin it dries down to the smell of wildflowers and a light whiff of something like tea. Very pretty.

In the vial, it's hard to detect anything except smooth, mellow patchouli and a hint of violet. On my skin, ten minutes in it develops into the perfect African violet plant scent, without sweetness or the 'dirt' note that makes me think of rotting things. Very botanical, but completely wearable. ADDED Oct. 15: In the bottle, this smells wonderful - dark purple-blue violets with the rich tang of earth. On my wrist.. violets and pee. My body chemistry has been playing cruel tricks on me lately, so I'll probably try this again in the future.

Whoo hooo! This scent kicks ass - leather, oiled wood and golden amber with the faintest undertone of sweetness, so frail that you really have to concentrate to detect it. This may be the ultimate girl power blend.

It was only available in limited quantities at Convergence 13 in Portland.

Mmm. Caramel corn + peanut brittle = gooood. I can't carry off something this foody, but I appreciate the concept and it'd executed perfectly. Not too sweet, and just right.

I tested Pepper on my skin at will call, and just had to rave about how lovely it is. While I'm a huuuge ginger lover, I actually got a lot less ginger or spice than I was expecting out of this scent. To my nose, the first notes that I can pick out are blood orange, bergamot and the ginger (which are just gorgeous), followed by a harmonious blend of mellow florals. The combination is smoothed out by the vanilla and honey creating a spicy sweet juicy scent that I personally think stands out amongst all of the fabulous fruity/floral/sweet scents that Black Phoenix has created. There's nothing generic about this at all, and I think it's going to be much beloved by fruit and floral fans alike. My only complaint is that I don't have a bottle right now. ETA: I got a bottle at this month's will call and... no. This is very different from the original prototype, though it could just be a small difference that's totally disagreeing with my chemistry. I've noticed a stale, dry note in a few blends that contain cardamom so I'm thinking that must be the culprit here, because I mostly get stale fruit jellies with a little bit of spice. Overall, this scent has to be my biggest BPAL dissapointment.

I guess I just don't see why the Lab *would* sell single notes. If you're looking for essential oils, accords or absolutes, there are plenty of places where you can buy them - the Lab is all about unique creations, so those two things don't seem to exactly go hand in hand, IMHO. I could be totally wrong, though. And not to be totally paranoid, if I were Beth, I wouldn't want to have any amount of my individual ingredients out there on the offchance that another perfumer would maybe say, "Oh, so THAT's the X she uses!" Ya know? It's not that it's a bad idea, just.. why would you want to do it?