MuskWitch

Well, here's my review. OMFG I LOVE THIS!! Soft, sweet beautiful resins, champaca and the opium in the background. I will need GALLONS of this stuff! Gallons.

In the imp, sweet creamy salty caramel, a cookie note, and a marzipan note with a tiny bit of vanilla? On skin, wet, caramel, beautiful sweet creamy caramel, the marzipan is still there, but it isn't the irritating yucky smell of artificial almond, it is almonds, real almonds. This is mostly caramel cookie with a teensy bit of marzipan, maybe even some coconut? Drydown, well, this won't be fair at all, my skin did the same thing it usually does with the caramel note. I was so hoping it wouldn't! It just turns icky on me. If your skin agrees with caramel, you'll probably love this. Caramel is one of my favorite things to eat, I SO wish I could wear it on my skin! This would be AMAZING if I could.

Well, this one just isn't for me. It sounds delicious! And if it were a real pastry I'd probably devour it! Several, actually. As a scent on my skin, something happens. Something not very good. I truly love Beth and the Labbies, I really don't want to hurt their feelings. I will be honest, but try to be gentle too. I could smell this through the bubble wrap when it arrived. It didn't appear to leak, may have been just a tiny bit somewhere on the bottle that got there during decanting. Or, maybe it smells right through the lid, I don't know. Anyway, an immediate VERY SWEET and something-not-quite-right scent permeated my nose. Of course, being the excited person I am when I get my order, I opened the bottle and took a big ol' sniff (snort is probably more like it). Oh my, that isn't what I was hoping for. The best way for me to describe it is "very sweet nutty sharp vitamins". I'm wondering if the "vitamin" scent that I get is the "grain" scent that Numanoid gets? I let it rest for a day, then tried it on my skin, hoping something magical would happen. It didn't. It just intensified the nutty sharp vitamins and the sweet kinda disappeared. I wondered if it was my skin chemistry, so a friend tried it on her skin. She didn't get the same scent I got as far as her nose was concerned, but I did smell the same scent on her. It could be my NOSE that is the problem, not my skin chemistry. Either way, this one isn't for me. *sigh* I SO wanted this to work.

In the bottle: A sweet creamy butter cookie, a little spice and just a very faint hint at citrus. Wet: Pretty much the same. Drydown: I get the sweet cream cheese cookie, and a hint of spice, not detecting any citrus. A GREAT rich cookie scent!

I'm the first? Uh oh. Well, I'm not really liking this one. The notes sound AMAZING. But in the imp, I just get (I'm sorry Beth, maybe it is my nose and lack of experience, this may be wonderful for those with different chemistry) kind of a very strong "old, sour perfume" scent. I put it on my skin, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but I did have to wash it off after about 5 minutes. I just couldn't leave it on and wait to see if it would get better. Maybe it just needs to age a bit so all those good notes can meld a little better. I'll try it again after a week or so.

I got mostly amber when this was first applied. On the drydown (about 15 minutes) the vanilla began to peek out with the amber. The vanilla sweetened the amber, the amber warmed the vanilla. And now, there's a very slight woodsy scent in the background. GORGEOUS! BOTTLE for sure!

This one was all bright fruit on me. Not exactly what I usually like to wear, it got rather "cloying" on me. Maybe that's why I don't usually like bright fruity scents, they don't work on me. But, if you like bright, fruity scents, this one is for you!

I get clove, a hint of orange peel, all backed by a beautiful and strong (not scent-wise, but strong, masculine-wise) blend of the remaining notes, can't really pick out any of them individually (maybe that's because I'm not familiar with them all, but I like it!). This one says "I want to get closer to that guy, he smells wonderful!"

OH, this is gorgeous! Warm, sweet cinnamon, and glowing frankincense. It just gets better and better as it dries down. This is bottle and back-up bottle worthy! A must-have Holiday Scent if you like cinnamon and frankincense, and probably even if you don't!

I think my nose is from a different planet. I really like this! I don't get any kind of chemical smell, and I don't smell roses. I just smell a lovely sweet warm incense. Tis is after being on my skin for about an hour. Before that it had a little bit sharper scent, but still very nice. I layered my All Souls '07 with Gingerbread Poppet the other day and it was sublime! A nice sweet GP with the depth of a resin blend.

Elegba, Haragata II, Paper Kite, my favorites!

I LOVE this! I don't have the refined nose and eloquent words of my fellow reviewers, I will just say I purchased a bottle of this on the Forum, tried it, and about 2 hours later ordered 2 more bottles. It is a lovely scent. In the bottle I smell mostly frankincense and piney-type woods, not much vanilla at all. My first thought was, meh. Then I tried it on my skin. On wet, a little of the vanilla joined the woodsy-frankincense. Hmmm, this might be okay. On the dry-down the bourbon vanilla came forward, softening the frankincense and wood. Oh, I like this! Upon further drydown I kept snuffing my wrist, DANG! I LOVE this! It is "different" from any other frankincense or vanilla scent I have. Different in a wonderful way. The frankincense keeps the vanilla from going "sickly sweet", dusty or metallic on my skin (like some strong vanilla blends do), and the vanilla keeps the frankincense at a nice, smooth, pleasantly woodsy scent without being too sharp, or too "cedar/BBQ" on my skin (like some wood notes tend to be). Bottle, and back-up bottle worthy! It went directly into my "Favorites" box.

I know what you are going through. I ordered LOTS of things when I first found BPAL, and now I have LOTS of things on my Sale Page. One thing I discovered and cannot explain is that Red Musk really does make me nauseous, but not always on the first try of a certain scent. But after trying several Red Musk blends, I have banned myself from ever ordering ANYTHING with Red Musk in it. For example, I loved Eat Me at first, now I can't stand it, even in the bottle. Same thing happened with Hygeia, Witch Dance, Cake Smash, and several others. I can't blame periods, don't have 'em any more. Can't blame pregnancy, that never happened and now the ship has sailed. Gardenia is another one I find to be too gross, and rose. And there is something in Antikythera Mechanism, The Raven, and a few others I can't remember right now, it has the "roofing tar" effect. It doesn't smell like roofing tar, but any time I'm around that tar smell it seems like my barfing mechanism is primed and ready. I don't get sick, but I have that "gluck" feeling. I've been keeping track of my impressions of my BPAL purchases, and when I write "roofing tar", the blend may smell really nice, but it has that effect on me. I also agree with all the previous advice. You'll find your niche!

This. Is. Just. Frickin'. AMAZING. Ordered 3 more bottles. Should have ordered 6. Maybe I will.

I have never written a review. I think it is mostly because I just don't have the sophisticated nose that most Forumites have, and I also have a hard time identifying scents. Most of the time I just think "Ooooo, that smells pretty" or "BLEAHCKGH!!!!!" I'm slowly learning to recognize notes because of BPAL! This one, this Voyeuristic Monkey, has me stumped completely. What I think I smell cannot possibly be what I'm supposed to smell. It is "sharp", it is brown, it is almost "tarry". Like, uhm, er, smoked pot. You know that smell you get left-over in the pipe after you've smoked? That's what I smell. Now, mind you, most of my pot-smoking days were 25+ years ago. When I occasionally partake of the herb now it is through baked goods. (Actually rarely, after menopause I need all the brain cells I can get! ) Does anyone else get this association? Maybe the stuff smells really different nowdays. It is definitely a jolt of nostalgia for me, that's for SURE! I'm not going to reject this one just yet. It just arrived yesterday, may be travel weary. I'm going to let it sit for a week or so and try it again. Maybe it'll settle down it its old age, like I did. EDIT: Okay, weighing in over a month later, I just tried VM again. It isn't as sharp as it was, I don't quite get the "smoked pot" scent, but it is still very gritty, I think I'm just going to have to decide it isn't for me. Off to the Sale/Swap pile! I wish it smelled as nice on me as some of the reviews are saying it smells on them! I'm sure I'd keep it if it did.

Well, I found BPAL AFTER menopause, so I don't have to deal with the hormonal changes (Ladies, love your estrogen while you have it! SERIOUSLY). I have found that orchid does strange things on my skin, things I don't like. Red musk doesn't go cologne-y, it just downright goes sicky sweet. I love it at first, and then have to wash it off within about 5 minutes. I think the best advice is to scour the "For Sale" area of the Forum and look for inexpensive imps. There are a TON of them. Or, you can go through the BPAL website, one section at a time, find what you want to try and do a search in the Sale section for imps of those scents. If the imps don't work on you, keep them as "frimps" for when you do swaps or sales. I've been in BPAL for just over a year, and I have learned SO much about what works on me and what doesn't. Some of them are surprising. An oil can smell not so good in the bottle, and turn into something lovely on your skin. It can smell heavenly in the bottle, and turn into dusty dirty metallic yuck on you (some of the really sweet foody scents do that on me). Hope this helps!

You must have met some Ladies of a Certain Age with Really Bad Hygene Habits I have to add in Ave Maria Gratia Plena, one of my personal favorites, but I have to be in a certain mood to wear it, as it is very heavy, and feels a lot like Guerlain's Mitsouko to me. Well, I don't think they had bad hygiene habits, it's just that older folks (I'm talking 70's and 80's, since I'm in my mid 50's ) usually only bathe every other day because soap dries out their skin. There isn't any BO,just layers of old perfume. Kinda hard to describe. Oh, and it is usually icky perfume to begin with. And there is the "My Grandma/Old neighbor/Old maid teacher/etc used to smell like that".

My own "take" on the "Old Lady" scent is that it smells like an old lady. Here's how that happens. Older ladies sometimes have very dry skin, so they don't bathe every day. I'm not saying they smell like B.O. What they DO is apply their perfume every day. So, what you end up with is staler perfume, overlayed by stale perfume, overlayed by fresh perfume. UGH! And more times than not it is not the right perfume, and it is applied WAY too heavily multiple times. It isn't necessarily the notes that make it smell old lady, it is the application?

The Lab doesn't pick up orders from CCNow until they're actually within a couple of days of filling them (barring backorders and such); oftentimes you won't see "Shipped" until it's only a day or two before you get a CnS. During updates and when things are especially hectic that usually takes a few weeks. ETA: I just went and looked at my October 1st order, and it's still Awaiting Shipment, too. I won't start worrying for at least another week or so. THANKS! Altho, unless they know what is ON the order, how can they know if they can fill it or not? I do not like this CCNow, I think I'll try PayPal next time and see if it's better. I know the lab is busy busy busy and we *must* wait our turn. (as she stomps her feet and throws a fit because she LOVES her BPAL!) :lol: THANKS Sakari! You have created a monster. I love you too. Awwwwww. Well, before I wrote this note I went on the CCNow website and pulled up all my orders, that's how I found the ones that hadn't been shipped. So, I clicked on each order that was still "waiting", went to the bottom of the page, and clicked on the "send an email to the supplier" and I let BPAL know that CCNow was holding up my orders. That was yesterday early morning. I just checked CCNow again, and ALL of my orders (except the one I JUST did for more Hygeia, Oblivion, & Snake Oil ) have been shipped. Don't know if it was coincidence or not. Just thought I'd let you know.

The Lab doesn't pick up orders from CCNow until they're actually within a couple of days of filling them (barring backorders and such); oftentimes you won't see "Shipped" until it's only a day or two before you get a CnS. During updates and when things are especially hectic that usually takes a few weeks. ETA: I just went and looked at my October 1st order, and it's still Awaiting Shipment, too. I won't start worrying for at least another week or so. THANKS! Altho, unless they know what is ON the order, how can they know if they can fill it or not? I do not like this CCNow, I think I'll try PayPal next time and see if it's better. I know the lab is busy busy busy and we *must* wait our turn. (as she stomps her feet and throws a fit because she LOVES her BPAL!) :lol: THANKS Sakari! You have created a monster.

I am SO GLAD several other folks smelled the CELERY too! I've only sniffed it from the bottle (yep, I bought a bottle, it sounded so good), and all I got was CELERY. I thought I must have a bad nose, being new to BPAL. I'm learning a lot! I will try this on my skin eventually, just to see what happens. I have several other much more attractive things to try first.

I ordered on October 4, the CCNow website doesn't show the order as "shipped". I would think they would send the orders to the Lab at least every few days? Now it is 11 (ELEVEN) days later and the Lab doesn't even know I ordered! I am finding CCNow to be very frustrating in this regard. I ordered on 9/20, and they didn't "ship" the order to the Lab until 9/30. What gives? I do understand the a CCNow status of "shipped" only means they have sent the order to the Lab, it isn't actually physically shipped TO me until I get the Click-N-Ship notification from the USPS. It took me a while to get that figured out too.

Thank you so much for the information! I'm still attempting to navigate my way around the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab website. There are "hidden" areas that if you don't know where to click, you won't find it. It is lots of fun, and a bit frustrating at times. I see names of oils in the Forum and I think "I never saw THAT one!" Maybe in one of the "dark" places. Maybe I still haven't found all the nooks and crannies! THANKS again for the description!

I will be receiving an imp of The Second of Three Spirits via an ebay auction. Can't find it on the BPAL website, maybe because I'm a newbie, maybe because it isn't there anymore. Can someone let me know what scents are in this oil? I'm keeping a journal on my BPAL oils and am trying to figure out which notes work on me and which don't. THANKS!

Thank you for your suggestions! I'll check them out, if I can find them ;-)