Ishtar

This one is unfortunately a bit too dark and resiney for me. I have to apply it very, very sparingly or it turns overly sweet and heady on my skin. However, this blend is very well-balanced and I can tell this would smell fabulous on someone with the "right" chemistry. It's too bad it doesn't work on me, because I am usually quite fond of dragon's blood. Oh well, at least I have my beloved Dragon's Milk, which is quite possibly my favourite BPAL oil.

I must have a weird nose, because in the imp and wet, Nyx smells extremely nutty to me. No flowers whatsoever, just nuts. Hrm. It usually takes a good 30 mn for the nutty smell to go away and for the actual notes to come through. The jasmine and the myrrh are strongest on me, with the rose in the background. It is a very nice floral, but I guess I expected a much cooler, sharper blend. Since jasmine is a night-blooming plant (at least the variety with which I am familiar), I tend to associate it with cooler scents. It is one of my favourite floral notes though, so I think I will keep my imp of Nyx, unless I find another jasmine scent that is on the fresher side.

On me, Pride is a fairly straightforward rose scent with an underlying tanginess, almost a saltiness to it. After a few minutes, it reminded me of the rose scented bath salts we used to keep in a jar by the bathtub when I was little. Once it started drying down, it went through a stage during which I thought it was going to turn to powdery, but never quite did. After drydown, I was left with a pleasant if somewhat simple rose scent. I will definitely give it another try, since I suspect I was having a bad chemistry day when I wore it.

Dear Old Paris, I wanted to love you. I really did. You sounded so attractive... your name, the lavender, the spice... how could I resist? At first sniff, you were a spicy yet very soft lavender scent, much more subdued than the bold Provence lavender note I am used to, but I was more than ready to fall for your Parisian sophistication. Alas! Why did you have to turn into cinnamon bubblegum on me? Should I take it personally? What have I done to deserve this? I will love your concept forever, but I am afraid I will have to swap you. Your heartbroken Ishtar

Bold, bright mandarin paired with the sweet, sensual earthiness of fig. Very sweet and fruity in the vial. I can distinctly smell the fig note, which is good news since I love figs. Unfortunately on my skin it is the mandarin that strongly comes through and I don't care for it as much as I love fig. Bummer. It is a gorgeous scent though, and if you are looking for a fruity blend with an orangey note, you would probably love Carnal. ETA: I am reading the reviews posted earlier and I agree with Shadow, I guess I actually prefer the scent of a fig tree to that of the fruit itself. I am off to the Suggestions forum to beg for a fig leaf scent.

It took me several tries to fall in love with Harlot. The first time I wore it, I found it nice, but a little bland. Not much staying power either. The second time around was better. Very cinnamony in the vial, then quite rosey on my skin while wet. During drydown, the cinnamon came back and played with the rose without completely blending with it. One minute I could smell the rose and the next the cinnamon. I was still having a hard time deciding if this was a swap or not, so I tried it a third time, applying it over Virgo that I had been wearing all day. Eureka! The perfect combination! Rose, spice, wood, this mixture is beautiful and damn sexy. As in really, really sexy. A definite keeper, if only for layering purposes

Jolly Roger comes to mind. Beth perfectly captured the freshness and saltiness of the ocean with this one. I have not worn it yet, only burnt it as a room scent and I found it wonderful. Probably one of the most evocative oils I have tried so far

Ooh, this is a complex, changeable, cheeky blend that just defies description. Anyway, it smells good. Oh, but you wanted a review? OK, I'll try... In the vial, Voodoo smells unusual yet promising. You know, the kind of oil that makes you think "I sure hope this will smell different once applied, but I bet it could be divine on my skin" At first, the lime, vanilla and pine are the strongest notes on me, with an undertone of "something else" (hey, I warned you it was difficult to describe! ). Pleasant, but rather busy at this stage. There are lots going on at the same time in this blend. I can't wait for it to settle down as I have a feeling it will turn out great. After wearing it and actually forgetting about it for several hours while working, I suddenly caught a whiff of something wonderfully spicy and woody. Mmm! Oh, wait. Now the patchouli is coming through. And that must be the cloves... oh, the lime is back again... very changeable but quite harmonious. I agree with Thanatopsis Azraelis, this is like the masculine version of Black Phoenix. The spiciness and woodiness also remind me of Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme that I used to wear years ago. Yet, I would call Voodoo a unisex scent rather than a masculine one; it can definitely be worn beautifully by a women.

On me the most prominent notes are the blackcurrant and the plum. Its fruitiness is similar to that of Jester, but sweeter. It is not cloying at all though. It is well-balanced, soft and rounded, which is somewhat surprising give how bold this was in the vial. I cannot really smell it on myself, but it projects a really nice aura in which the wine and amaretto make their presence known. To me this scent is definitely burgundy red, so much that I was actually surprised by the clearness of the oil when I first saw it in the imp! Another keeper! Edited to fix a typo.

I expected Old Morocco to be quite on the spicy side, but I found it surprisingly soft and rounded, even a bit dusty. Not powdery-dusty, rather like an old, mellowed-out kind of scent. It was a bit faint when wet, then got stronger during drydown. Nice, warm and comforting. I will definitely have to wear it more. I must be a late bloomer when it comes to ultra-popular scents. The first time I wore Snake Oil, I also thought "Well, that's nice, but not outstanding" and now I can't get enough of it! I can already tell that Old Morocco is going to be brilliant for layering, either to give more oomph to lighter scents or to cut the sweetness in fruitier ones. I am sure that after wearing this again on its own, I will come back to edit my review and I will kick myself for not seeing how beautiful this is right away

I am utterly in love with this oil and I don't even know how to describe it. I wish I could find words to explain how wonderful it makes me feel. Let's just say that this is the perfect balance between fresh and fruity, between crisp and juicy. It is a fairly straigthforward kind of scent that somehow manages to be truly out of the ordinary. Unobtrusive yet full of personality. It is uplifting and grounding at the same time. This oil has been of invaluable help in keeping my sanity during a pretty rough month of June. I am probably influenced by the name and my love of all things Celtic, but every time I put Old Glasgow on, I think of the old traditional song "The wind that shakes the barley": airy, poignant and beautiful. Beth, this is downright wonderful

I just received an imp of Three Witches and when I opened it, my first reaction was "Oh! It's like Wiccy Magic Muscles!". Now I know that not everyone enjoys the smell of Wiccy, but to me it is pure spicy cinnamony goodness, so I am extremely pleased to find an oil with a similar scent. I have not worn Three Witches yet, I will let you know if it still smells Wiccy-like on my skin (fingers crossed!)

Hi Speedqueen. Has it been a month since you ordered, or since your package shipped? I am in Canada too (Vancouver) and it is not unusual for swaps/orders to take up to two weeks to reach me. So I would say that one month and a half (give or take one week) from the day the order is placed is pretty much the standard timeline at the moment. I also had once a package from the US(not BPAL) that took 2 months... it had been opened by customs, of course. I am sure your order will soon be there

I don't think I can add too much to the reviews already posted. Dreamy is indeed the perfect description for this blend. Soft, comforting and calming. I put it on just before bed and I slept like a baby. This goes straight into my Keeper list, in the "Cosy night at home" scent category.

mandiapple, your question is not awkward at all! Food allergies are to be taken seriously, all the more so when they are as severe as yours. I am sure there will be plenty of gorgeous oils that will be safe for you. Let us know what you end up getting, the information could be useful to other people since allergies to nuts seem to be common, unfortunately. Take care

I tried Seraglio hoping for the strong almond note that usually works very well on me. In the vial it is all almonds and marzipan, with a faint hint of orange coming through. On, the rose and orange quickly reached the same level of strenght as the almond and ended up overpowering it during drydown. The last stage was almost exclusively fruity/floral and faded rather fast. I think Seraglio lasted 5 hours or so on my skin. It is a very nice scent, but a bit too faint and floral for my taste. I like my almond more bitter and bolder than that. I think this will be a swap, yet if you are thinking of ordering Seraglio, I would still recommend that you try it. It is a great scent, just not what I was looking for.

I only tried Jolly Roger as a room scent so far and it I love how it captures the smell of the ocean. Probably one of the most evocative BPAL oils I have tried so far. I will update after I wear it, but I can already tell that this one is going to be highy changeable on me. It smelled different in the vial (fresher), on the wand (spicier) and on my fingers (more leathery and floral). This is going to be interesting!

In the vial, The Star smelled strongly of fresh coconut milk, with an undertone of something sharper. Lovely! On my skin, it turned into a gorgeous mix of coconut and pineapple with a very fresh note that prevented it from being too foody and cloying. After the blend mellowed out, I smelled exactly like a pina colada served in a chilled glass whose rim had been frosted with lime sugar. Delicious, unexpected, brilliant. I need more of this! This is a joyful, bright, uplifiting scent, which I believe perfectly befits The Star card. Very well done. It stayed true, wet and fresh until the end and had a rather good staying power on my skin.

Red. Sexy. Sophisticated. Wow! At first sniff I mostly smell roses and... no hippy shop! As soon as Spellbound touches my skin it is the amber that becomes most prominent. A warm and deep scent, but not heady nor overpowering (I applied very sparingly though, and seeing how rich it is, I think it would be easy to overdo it). This is an extremely elegant blend, changeable and sensual. Seductive in an refined and mature way. A definite keeper!

Another vote for Jolly Roger and The Star here I burned some Jolly Roger in my kitchen yesterday to get rid of the smell after cooking fish (fish... salt water notes... sounded like it would make sense ). At the same time, I was trying The Star that I had just received in a swap. Wow. The crisp ocean freshness of Jolly Roger + the pina colada smell of The Star = sheer seaside bliss

Wow. This is simply delicious! Soft and well-rounded. Creamy rather than sweet. Comforting yet sexy. Foody with just a hint of fruitiness from the dragon's blood that prevents it from being cloying. Perfection in an imp. Needless to say, it will soon be perfection in a big bottle By the way, I got my first BPAL-related compliment when wearing it tonight to our Midsummer bonfire

A strong floral, Twilight did not change too much from the vial to drydown. With three of my favourite floral notes ever, I expected to like this a lot. Not only did I like it a lot, I was actually blown away by how precise this blend is. Like Blackrayne said, the three main notes are perfectly balanced, none overpowers the others. But they are not blended, they are juxtaposed with incredible precision and I can distinctly smell each one as a single note, wonderfully true to what the actual flower smells like. Spectacular.

I usually love rose scents, but this one did not quite work on me. The dreaded rose-scented bug spray curse strikes again... The smell on the vial and wet was lovely. Like other posters said, it is definitely a dark rose, not a cheerful nor "pretty" one. It is actually a bit sinister, but seducing all the same. After 30 minutes, it unfortunately turned a little sour and chemical-smelling on me. Not to the point where I had to wash it off, but not the most pleasant scent either. Thankfully, the sourness went away after drydown, but by that time Black Rose had turned into a rather unremarkable, almost generic rose scent. Rats. Oh well, there are soooo many more to experiment with!

I am with jj_j on this one: I get a very fresh lemony scent in the vial, but on my skin it is more like a green floral and I think I smell a eucalyptus note too. It is nice, very refreshing and pretty unobtrusive (it lasted something like 5 hours on me), but in the fresh scent category I much prefer Old Shangai. Edited to add: Phantasm, I am sorry. I take back everything I wrote. I tried you again last night, and you were all soft gorgeous lemoniness. You faded away a bit quickly, but I love you all the same. Come back home, I'll wear you every night when it's hot.

Congrats on your new car! I would personally go for the "neutral scent" option. Like you said, a relaxing fragrance would be great for driving. I also think some of the headier scents might become overpowering in the confined space of a car, especially if they overheat when the car is left in the sun, etc (although this shouldn't be a problem at this time of the year since it's winter for you, right?) I have not tried Old Paris yet, but it sounds like it would work beautifully Another oil I would recommend in the "lighter, serene yet red" category would be Old Glasgow, but bear in mind that I am utterly in love with it, so I have a bad tendency to recommend it every single freakin' time! *Old Glasgow! Get your Old Glasgow! Cures everything, from new car smell to PMS, from ingrown nails to chicken pox..."