Sidhechaos

thanks to being premenopausal and having a failing thyroid, I have horrifically dry skin. (if I don't moisturize every day I peel like I've had a mild sunburn....or I shed heavy flakes ) One of the things that seems to help best is soaking myself in neutregena's rainbath the second I get out of the shower and not towel drying at all, but letting the oil seal the leftover water in my skin...and I'm not left greasy or damp, my skin soaks up liquids like crazy.....my bpals seldom last for more than a couple hours before needing reapplying. I'm wondering if I were to moisturize the areas where I normally scent with the unscented neutragena maybe 10 minutes before, do you think my oils would last longer? would it muck with the scent?

I've had allergies all my life and while thanfully I've grown out most scents triggering asthma, there are some that I am very wary of, and to many encounters with department store bathroom coconut air fresheners has programmed me with a :run:response to the thought of coconut. there have been a number of scents out there that I look at and think "that sounds lovely but........" I keep hoping maybe the lap will frimp me a few and I can see if they Beth's genius can do with coconut what is has for me with rose and lily of the valley (both of which have made me ill in non bpal formats.)

not surprisingly this reminds me somewhat of kitsune tsuki, though it has a stronger green note (the bamboo Ii'm guessing) I had some concerns about "black pine" (I believe it was thanatopisis? that had some kind of pine in it that had me wheezing and scrubbing my arms frantically with oxyclean) but so far it has not attacked!! to be honest it's a so evenly blended mix of florals it's hard to pull out particular note other than the bamboo and a bit of persimmon tang amongst the florals. Magnolia does stand out a touch as does the wisteria. My aunt had a magnolia I often climbed into and sat on the limbs and read in the summer and the arbor we had on the patio had wisteria climbing all over it so while swinging in the hammock and reading I know that scent very well.. Frankly knowing what I've read about tanuki I expected to this be a bit more masculine but I am quite pleased with it. It is VERY floral but not cloyingly so and it doesn't have that sour undertaste that store bought floral type perfumes typically develop. It is bright and sharp and crisp and clean and and I think the yuzu is in the back giving it a little whipcrack to keep it from getting to sweet I wish Mom were still here to try this, she probably would have loved this as much as Kitsune Tsuki (one of the few perfumes that smelled good on both of us) would love to keep a bottle of this to hand.

Allison Gross Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) A Little Lunacy (Limited Edition) Status: Limited Witch-herbs, crushed golden flowers, and a man-made-dragon's surly musk lightened by the scent of the blossoms and unearthly incense that clings to the Faerie Queen's hair. Dragon's blood musk, ambergris, sunflower, chrysanthemum, muguet, and rue, with gingered lily, moonflower, bluebell, peony, nightwort, and white rose. in the bottle, a strong green scent with a pale floral undertone. on skin wet, same as in imp on drydown faint musk peeks through,sunflower and chrysthanemum are what florals I can pick out amidst the strong green note.Over time other florals weave in but none are strong enough to really assert themself definitively as to what they are, so this remains a green predominajt floral blend, very crisp.

Hony Mone Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) Forum Exclusive (Limited Edition) Status: Limited Three honeys blended with seven fruits, flowers, and herbs of passion, pleasure, and joy: honeysuckle, fig, carnation, apricot, jasmine, tonka, and almond. In the bottle I mostly just smelled honey but once on skin I began to pick up the fig, Tonka, and almond. Oddly enough no florals have stepped up yet and I usually amp floral scents very strongly. Despite so far only food like scents coming up this is not a foody smelling perfume it is not overly sweet and the non honey notes popping out or more spice \incense like. Some of that spice might be the carnation. Oh no partway into dry down on starting to pick up a faint plastic note sometimes bpals honey will do this on me I think it has to do with my chemistry at the time the first time I'd tried O it was horrible two weeks later it was fantastic this may not be a good time for trying this perfume. However with this faint plastic shift (which I'm hoping will go away) I'm starting to pick up thread of florals. Perhaps a faint bright tinge of the apricot is peeking through, it's a little hard to tell with the plastic note. The honey is still there, evidently it's one particular type of honey note that tends to do this and sometimes it morphs back I will keep my fingers crossed. Final dry down:honey spiced almond with a woodsy floral note

Philommeidês Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) Lupercalia: Ode to Aphrodite (Limited Edition) Status: Limited Laughter loving. Peach wine, carnation, lemon peel, osmanthus, blood orange, wood violet, and tuberose. MMMMM...peach and spice (carnation I'm sure) sing out first on my skin with a nice balance and the peach is not turning to candy like most fruit scents do, but is a warm juicy just off the tree, I'm tempted to taste myself. gradually the brightness of the lemon peeks through and the other florals (esp. the tuberose) weave in but the peach continues to be dominant but not overwhelming.Even the violet peeks in and out, here and there. once again the lab cranks out beautifully balance fragrance, and something I would have never tried elsewhere, a fruit note scent.

Kytherian Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) Lupercalia: Ode to Aphrodite (Limited Edition) Status: Limited She Who Conceals Love-Affairs Black narcissus, purple orchid, neroli, white sandalwood, ambergris, plum musk, jonquil, thyme, oakmoss, and grapefruit. In the bottle this has very little to no fragrance oddly enough. On musk in The sandalwood and thyme come out in this very faintly with this slightly spicy green and wood incense note. I made be picking up a faint tinge of floral but not anything I can identify specifically which is odd as florals and neroli tend to go crazy on my skin. After a little while the floral and musk note joins in more strongly that strangely enough no citrus notes. This remains an oddly weak fragrance on me very little throw with a strong wood in green note fragrance with the faint floral aftertaste. Still no citrus notes. It's nice enough just not exactly what I was expecting.

Lune Noir Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) Limited Edition (Limited Edition) Status: Limited The encroaching darkness: black orchid, jonquil, white pear, white amber, gardenia, olibanum, champaca, sweet clove, tonka, oakmoss, and blue musk. oh this reminds me a great deal of my beloved lost shadow witch orchid although maybe it's only because it's been so long since I've smell shadow witch orchid. Still this is amazing. In the imp it was just a melange of florals and spice that I really could not pick out. On the skin that lovely rich orchid scent jumps right out with the faint undertone of incense most likely the amber,champaca, and Tonka chiming in. I think the other florals are there but my nose is clinging to the orchid. A little way into dry down the clove starts to chime in giving this a bit of byte outside of the floral notes. It's nice and I almost want to say drat because it was really reminding me of shadow witch orchid and I'm tempted to hunt down every bottle of this I can find. The pear note has also started to bloom in this and although the florals have weakened they are still there. The oakmoss is also filtering in with its faint green salty scent. It is still a lovely scent as it rounds out but how I wish it would clean that opening just put on skin scent! Amber, spice, and musk have come to overwhelm that initial orchid note for the most part. edit O happy day this one is continuing to morph in the orchid has come back up to the surface now it is a woodsy orchid O if it would stay like this I would hunt down more.

As usual anything with carnation in it right off the start, wham! Smack in the head with a ghetto mace. Thankfully it settles down quite nicely within the first four or 5 minutes and the other fragrances start to come out to play. oddly enough the rose is quite polite and does not amp on me to and overwhelming level Like most roses to nor does it turn to potpourri. Eventually the other florals come into play. Once again I am impressed beyond all reasonability by Beth and the labs ability to blend florals that normally amp to barf inducing levels on my skin and instead give me something that is pleasant and beautiful. After 15 to 20 minutes the amber and musk blend in quite nicely everything balance is very evenly, nearing the end of the first hour citrus notes start to blend in and for the next few hours there is just a very nice balance of everything. Wish it lasted a little longer but definitely a lovely floral I'd like to add to my collection. Don't remember if this imp came as a free me from the lab or from a forum purchase but I'm glad it came my way.

Eve Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL) Excolo (General Catalog) Status: Available The spirit of temptation, the essence of lost innocence. Apple blossom, rose, ylang ylang and golden honey. In imp, faints sweet floral scent but nothing particularly standing out. On skin O no, I had been having so much luck with rose lately but here we go this particular rose does that old lady potpourri thing on me and right off the bat is trampling all over everything else. I might be getting a waek hint of the apple blossom twined into it but the honey and yLang yLang are completely absent. Will check back in about 40 minutes About an hour later this as simply turned to rose powder at least it's a nice rose powder and the potpourri stank has faded but this is definitely not something that works well with my skin off to the swap file.

This has got to be the weirdest behaving fragrance I have encountered yet. in the imp, I picked up a slightly fruity floral blend with a faint spicy note. On my skin, absolutely nothing. No seriously I slathered this wrists elbows and eventually cleavage and I can jam my nose right up against my wrist are elbow and I picked up maybe a faint light fruit note an a little spice. I don't know if I just simply can't smell this on myself or for some reason it does not hold on my skin, or if my dry skin just completely soaked it up. Finally dumped the rest of the imp into my cleavage. (not a lot of room there for it to evaporate) now if tilt my head down slightly I can get a good idea of what the smells like. I don't know if it's because its in an enclosed area, but I can smell it. Normally I'm not a big fan of fruity or food scents but I like this really well. Peach does well on my skin and the apple is not turning to a potpourri apple but remaining more of a fresh fruit scent. The rose is not amping on my skin as it normally does that blending nicely with the orange blossom. The honey is giving a nice faint sweetness and the musk incense notes blend into give a mild spiciness. The real question is if I were to go out somewhere other people were would those around me be able to smell this? Is it actually vanishing off my skin or can I just not personally smell it on myself? Unfortunately I used up the entire imp in my slather fest trying to get a bead on this. I don't know if I have another imp of this are not if I do I will have to hold off and try it out when I'm out and about in public. If what I'm picking up from my cleavage is actually on my skin and broadcasting I like this really well it's one of the few fruity scents that works great on me and I would most likely buy a bottle but if my skin just soak set up or if it just vanishes from everywhere but my cleavage there would not be much point. Next time I may try brushing some through my hair and that might make the scent retained better than if it does on my skin. Anyone else had a perfume that they have tried and they could not smell it on himself at all but other people could tell that they were wearing it? Makes me wonder if I've really over applied and I would knock someone over with this or if it is actually as light as it seems to me. I'm really hoping that other people will be able to smell it and I will be able to wear it because it's very nice especially with summer coming up.

Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss. In the imp this is sort of a musky smoky salty amber. Initially on skin, wow, everything pops out at wants with that salt aquatic note. It's not as overwhelming as caliban was (I dearly loved caliban because it reminded me of a beloved uncle who first introduced me to the ocean but it was a bit too strong for me) this is like caliban was female cousin, softer and a little lighter but still very much an ocean presence with a very faint semi green note hovering far in the background. On dry down, this finally rounded down to a very warm comfortable soft fragrance a kind of makes me think of sitting in a hammock by the shore and sipping some vanilla iced tea in the hot sun. The vanilla is not actually the Food type of vanilla I think it's a little bit closer to the floral but then occasionally there is a sweet tinge there that borders on the sweeter vanilla note. This one danced around on me quite a bit fewer to compare tracking the fragrance notes with my nose to playing music on a violin this perfume had me playing some very interesting scales, it morphed a lot. I like it and I think I would like to have a bottle of it but it would be more what I would wear for myself just hanging around the house than something I would wear out to a fancy dinner, just feels very comforting and comfortable. It does not have a very far throw and my skin seem to have soak soaked it up quickly however I had read earlier warnings that it can be powerful so I had applied might lead will retry with a heavier hand and see what results I'd get later.

I had a suspicion when I read this one it was not going to work well for me I'm not real big on fruity type scents and for some reason raspberry always turns to you funky powdery candy on my skin, such a shame because I liked the name but this one is off to the swap or give away a pile.

In the imp, this reminds me a lot of a homemade potpourri my aunt in use two simmer on the stove. It would be an orange peel and some spices from a cupboard. On the skin it is the same thing it reminds me of Christmas potpourri, no florals or neroli really show up for me and it's vaguely nauseating because how sweet it smells, which is a shame because it sounded so very promising. I was really surprised is I usually amp rose and expected more floral to pop through.

The dry, glorious warmth of the Savannah. A golden, spiced amber, proud, regal and ferocious. I have always been a fan of amber it is probably my favorite fragrance note and have often worn just a simple amber oil almost as a signature scent in the years before I found bpal. The stuff I bought from a local store was nice, but this... This is the alternate amber. I feel like there is a glow radiating from me with this on my skin. I feel like I'm wrapped in the sunlight of the summer dawn. The scent is so perfectly smooth and rounded and mellow, I almost want to rub it in from head to toe. I can not exactly figure what the " spiced" faction is in as all I'm getting is just the absolute most perfect amber and I'm quite happy with that. Biscuits added to the list of " never ending bottle please".

Just got this in the mailed today, happy birthday to me! It isn't really really lovely. Apparently Damascus rose is not one of the rose fragrances that I amp out of control, it is here in the perfume that very well behaved. The orchid gives a faint almost spicy flower scent, kind of like carnation does but different of course, and I have always loved Kashmir musk I would've never thought of putting a creamy note and with all of these but it is incredibly lovely. Beth you are truly a genius!

blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane. Right off the bat I am remembering sitting in a garden that belong to a friend of my mother's and the two of them are sitting and sipping wine and my mother lets me try some of hers. I was probably 11 or 12 at the time, and this is that wine. I even remember what type of wine it was Mogen David. Very rich, sweet, fruity fragrance and the Grapes have a definite hold but somehow do not morph into kool aid or bubble gum which I was afraid it would do, I'm not big on smelling like candy. It does not take much of this to get one hell of a throw. I had dabbed one or two drops on each wrist and then smeared them into my elbow hollow and wow this one really travels. A friend had called shortly after I put it on and asked for an emergency ride to the drugstore. He got in the car and after a moment we both rolled down the windows and I explained I was testing a new bpal but did not know its strength. It has a good staying power as well. even well into the dry down the strong wine scent continues to linger and it continues to have a very sweet nature to it, eventually on mild smoky incense tinge creeps in that you really have to work at picking it up. The florals sadly seem to get a bit lost in this which surprises me as carnation is usually howling like a crazed fox on my skin, but it just does not seem to be there for me to amp. All in all it winds down to a sweet fruity wine with a very soft musk and smoky incense twinning through it. I very much like it although I think I need to put a sticker on the cap that warns to apply with a toothpick and be prepared it to last most of the day. I will admit in the first 15 minutes it is a little scary that you're going to wind up with grape candy of some sort, but that's the short amount of time and I already know that that passes. This is one of those I would not mind having a bottle on hand regularly, I think it would make a fantastic fall perfume and actually would be pretty nice in the winter as well. It's a little strong for spring or summer and could very well attract bees.

I have this rather perverse :twisted:nature I enjoy trying fragrances that have provocative names so when I saw that bpal had a scent called harlot I really wanted to try it. part of it is that it is always funny when someone asks what is the perfume you are wearing and you answer " harlot" or " embalming fluid". A lot of times before looking to see what is actually in the blend I'd tried to imagine what I would put together for perfume called harlot. For me this would've had skin musk in it, and probably tobacco, some type of wine or bourbon scent, not sure what all else as I don't have access to Beth'S vast array of fragrances. Roses and cinnamon I was not expecting, just doesn't make me think of harlot. In the imp this is rose and and then some more roses and then there might also be roses in it. O wait! I think, yes, yes there are definitely roses here. I don't know if my sense of smell is just exceptionally attuned to roses fragrance or if my skin just amps it's to crazy levels or both but if there is the slightest hint of rose in a perfume it will come up very strong for me. I once had a rose garden with 20 different rose bushs. Each type of rosebush had an actual different rose fragrance which really astounded me. One rose had a very spicy scent, and other and almost fruity scent, another had a more traditional rose scent but it also had a slight herbal tang to it. None of them really gave my allergies much trouble. Rose perfumes however have always been somewhat difficult. Most of the stuff you buy in stores comes out as sickening potpourri rose on me, and because of that I have only recently started attempting rose fragrances through the lab simply because I have learned to trust that Beth somehow has a magic touch. Fragrances that I would normally wear and it would drive skunks away she can somehow do something with them that they turn out rather nice instead. Like I said harlot applied is a whole lot of rose. I can differentiate there are at least two different types of rose going on my skin, thankfully neither have gone old lady, potpourri, or rotted smelling on me. It is simply a very strong floral rose blend rather like being in my garden but only being around the more traditional roses instead of say the tea roses or the hybrids. They were often the ones that smelled fruity or spicy there is none of that here. I get no cinnamon from this at all not even after a good hours worth of dry down. The rose fragrance is enjoyable, it's not something I would not wear, it just seems very much like a single note. Thankfully it has not turned powdery or soapy but maintain a steady soft floral throw. I could very much see blending this with a number of other fragrances and in coming out quite spectacularly. Probably not something I would ever wear just on its own, I'm old enough to have the memories of sitting in church surrounded by a little old ladies wearing stale rose toilet water and it just leaves me with an impression of boredom and nervousness. Mental associations, what can you do? However if a bottle of this ever fell into my lap I certainly would not turn my nose up at it as it has many possibilities of things it can be added to and enhance.

A seductive and dazzling blend of golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang. Initially in the bottle I get a spicy earthy scent but oddly enough the earthy is not what I normally associate with patchouli. (patchouli almost always reminds me of being in head shops and has an overly ranked animal musk smell to it, very faintly skunky. I don't know how Brth does it but somehow she makes patchouli pleasant and not overwhelming) On application there is still a warm earthy scent was a lovely bite of spice to it. There is also a sweetness that I'm picking up that is not honey I am guessing it is the sweet fig as I'm not completely familiar with what that smells like as a single note. It is very pleasant. After several minutes I begin to get the undertones of honey and the ylang ylang merge in. This is an exceptionally well balanced perfume as none of them notes seemed to overpower the other's (and there are a couple such as patchouli and ylang ylang that can to go crazy on my skin) but everything is getting along well sharing nose time equally. I sort of took a gamble on this bottle when I bought it because when I sampled the perfume it was from a very old imp that had somehow wound up behind my computer desk so I did not know if a fresh bottle would be as enjoyable or or perhaps better than the little bit that I got to try. It does smell somewhat different than the imp did I don't think the imp was quite as sweet and was a bit more earthy. I really like this and would like to add it to my list of " would always like to have a bottle". I think this would make a fantastic fall scent.

Silenti Spanish moss, lilac, wisteria, myrrh, and olibanum. This to me is like the very heart of exploring the old out of the way cemeteries within the fields and woods of the deep south. I get a wonderful woodsy green fragrance with this that has the faintest hint of spice and florals to light it up.

For me I really have to avoid lavender. Not if it's just that teeny tiniest backed note I can tolerate it, and the actual living plant does not bother me but lavender oil will trigger terrible asthma issues as well as set off my allergies with swelling eyes and running nose. And it seems inevitable that whenever I'd get free imps from the lab there is always vice and 51 and thanatotsis amongst the amps and all of them have made me ill. It's odd you can break down individual scent components and I have no problems with them in other perfumes but combine them and blends and it's enough to make me want to scrub it off with lye. There were very few perfumes in the way of store sold blends that I was able to wear, and actually wound up in the hospital when Giorgio came out. Some girls brits it on me without asking and the EM T's nearly had to give me a tracheotomy on the way to the hospital. Thank god I've never had a bpal scent give me a reaction like that. I can walk past someone in a store wearing Poison and will literally throw up within seconds, it's like being sprayed in the face with raid. Not sure why store bought perfumes would affect me so violently when bpal is so much pure in terms of fragrance, possibly it is the carrier chemicals that set me off. Before bpal, I could not wear anything with a lot of floral notes as my skin amps them to bullet train levels. How Beth does it I don't know, but with bpal I can now enjoy wearing rose, jasmine, ylang ylang, lily of the valley, mugeut (what exactly is the difference between lily of the valley and mugeut? For some reason I always thought they were the same thing) typically these fragrances often turned old lady or potpourri stank on me, but with the bpal blends I enabled to enjoy florals that don't become gaggy or overwhelming.

pink rose, apricot, orange blossom, carnation, red sandalwood, lemon blossom, rose musk, Madagascar vanilla, white wine grape, pink grapefruit, and white patchouli. This Phoenix embodies liberty, renewal, vitality, and creativity. I was lucky to just pick this up from a forum member this week (the package came today) I don't know if it is because it is well aged or perhaps it was formulated in a different batch from the ones that other reviewers acquired, but I am getting very different fragrance notes than many people have mentioned. Then again my chemistry tends to be a bit wonky. I have a tendency to amp florals like a bullet train. Right out of the bottle this is an amazing balanced blend of faint citrus with a spicy floral balance and a mild sweetness. The apricot definitely shows up which I'm very happy with. Usually rose and patchouli can become almost sickening on me, the rose being that very old lady potpourri scent :ack:and patchouli just flat out being overwhelming head shop stank. I'm barely even noticing the patchouli here, just a very faint incense note. Further on into dry down it continues to be a mild citrus and sweet mild florals and develops a lovely creamy note to it. I am so delighted I took a chance on buying this and wish now I would be able to acquire more bottles, this is lovely for a springtime or early summer scent especially considering the humidity and heat in Indiana. It has a very light throw however and I'm hoping that my skin won't totally suck it up and it will be one of those that needs frequent application.

What is this? In the imp I wasn't getting any definitive notes, but as soon as it hits skin I get coconut suntan lotion, bluech!! O I just can't really stand coconut or strong coconut anyway. This may have to get washed off. Even an hour later this never really got any better, it turned into a powdery coconut musk incense. I'm really saddened by this from the description I was expecting something like avon's sweet honesty only seriously rocked as bpal has a tendency to do. I will set the vial back and wait a couple months and maybe give it a try again but this was truly horrific and I don't know why, I'm not that familiar with " pink musk" and am thinking perhaps that is the culprit, not really sure.

Initial scent from the imp is of a floral musk. The jasmine is the dominant part of the floral but it is not overwhelming, I tend to amp jasmine. I'm also getting a faint whiff of the wild plum. Normally I'm not big on fruity scents but this blends nicely with the musk and jasmine it does not have that "candy" smell that most fruit scents seem to leave on me. There is a faint incense note I think more from the benzoin, I'm not really noticing any patchouli which is unusual as I'd tend to amp patchouli, or is just one of those really overwhelming scents. I really like this in spite of or perhaps because of the plum coming through. After about 30 minutes this scent has settled into a soft musky floral with a faint herbal note, (the geranium?) A light tang of fruitiness, And a soft incense like background. Me like very very much. Definitely going on the list of would like to have a bottle.

Tiger-lily, ginger root, neroli, purple fruits, and frankincense. Initial sniff from the imp I pick up lily and ginger. Initial application is very strong lily with about half the amount of strength in ginger and a faint bite of neroli. Partway through dry down phase the ginger picks up very strongly and the faint incense note of the frankincense starts to filter through. I'm not picking up any fruit scent to this, for which I'm grateful as I'm not a big fan of fruit fragrances. I really like this it's an excellent balance of floral and spice with the faint citrus like tang of the nero1i weaving in and out through it. The frankincense blends nicely with the ginger. This one is a big hit for me I wish I had tried it sooner.