alicia_stardust

Ice Prince is the most amazing winter bath experience I could have imagined. My concerns that the pine would be too strong or prominent were unfounded. While it has its own personality in terms of fragrance, you will love this if you love any of the fragrances in the family of Snow Moon, Skadi, Snow Bunny, Snow Storm...

This has a clear, crystalline bell tone of white musk. It is chilly and ethereal. The bergamot has a warming, bright quality to it and the plum adds depth and "color" to the otherwise frosty, cool aspects. The characteristic ice/snow fragrance surrounds the pine boughs and brings a truly magical winter quality to this bath oil.

A little goes a long way in the bath and it sinks into my skin quickly after I have rinsed off and left the bath. Ice Prince is my favorite of all the bath oils.

This starts out as a sweet, bright peach scent that is married with the sensual sweetness of jasmine. Behind those two things I can detect the lily of the valley, osmanthus, and rose. As time passes, the wine grape and cream come into the picture and turn this into a high and heady, wispy, feminine fragrance that hints at hypnotic summer fragrances.

This starts out smelling like wood dust and patchouli, but on my skin this starts to take on a sultry, honey-like quality with a very light and close skin musk and a side of magnolia. The carnation lends a touch of floral spice but it doesn't take over the blend.

 

Overall this has a sensual but strong quality to it. The florals and musk are hypnotic, the honey is sultry, and the patchouli brings in a strong and earthy quality. The immortelle,almost seems to have a tea-like undertone and a herbal tinge to it. I this blend to be complex yet gestalt.

This is a cool, light musk scent with a blanket of fruit and verbena. The verbena is light and sweeter than I am used to and it settles into my skin well. At that point I am able to smell the rose and magnolia and they are divine. This fragrance is very uplifting and refreshing. After the florals come out and the verbena has settled this becomes a beautiful piece of art that would be perfect for anyone that lights light, summery fragrances.

Oh Lucifer, I love you so! This is the first time I can say that the presence of vetiver has not put me off.

 

Lucifer is a richly glowing red and gold scent with veins of darkness and earth pushing through it. The patchouli and amber meld together perfectly and the fig adds and earthy, sensual sweetness to things. This is a true work of art and the fragrance nailed the artwork after which it was created.

Autumn is a beautiful dry leaf scent. The leaves remind me strongly of Samhain, but the difference is that this has a fine layer of sandalwood dust and a burst of rose absolute. It sticks around for a while and has a very strong atmospheric quality to it. This definitely smells like autumn.

This is a deep, rich blend of glowing resins and dark clove. The clove and patchouli are the most prominent, with the rose not far behind. As it settles into my skin I get the sandalwood, smooth and fine. The resins add a nice incense quality to this. Long wear-length, wide throw. Lovely, and I'm definitely keeping this.

This is a sweet and crisp scent. It is light and both fruity and sensual. This sort of brings to mind a lovely medley of colors: glowing white, green, lime green, pink, cobalt...

 

The pear is by far the dominant note in this and it has a juicy green bite to it. The bamboo pulp brightens things and the jasmine adds a sensual sweetness. The freesia and plum are lovely. I smell the freesia as a soft, bright blue spring color. The combination of the ambergris, sugar, and violets adds a sort of dusky, powdery aspect to this.

 

I find this to be a juicy, bright, glowing, feminine fragrance.

This is a soft, gorgeous blend of hazelnut and vanilla bean. There is a slight element of something chocolate-like beneath the vanilla and hazelnut. The amber provides a warm, soft base. The myrrh grounds it out a bit. The honey adds a sultry-sweetness. Overall the hazelnut dominates the blend but not so much that I can't enjoy the artistic interpretation of this blend. Lovely.

This scent is the most divine blend of resins I have ever encountered. It's as if it was made for me. I can't pick out a single thing about it that I would change.

 

I get a complex mix of golden, glowing, sticky teardrops and dusty rocks of resin. There is a gummy bite and a layer of smoky-sweetness. The teakwood is beautiful. The myrrh adds a touch of darkness and the sandalwood provides a soothing, woody base for all of the resins.

 

I can't get over how glowingly beautiful this is!

Frenum is a gentle, clean scent. It is dominated by the cool green cucumber and the white tea. I find it soothing, calming, and refreshing. The lettuce and sakura remain subdued to my nose, but they are definitely there in a supporting role.

The oil itself is nice and moisturizing, it doesn't cause me to break out (I waited a few days to write this review), and it sinks into my skin rapidly once I have rinsed off and left the bath. A little oil goes a long way in terms of fragrance while in the bath, and using a minimal amount keeps my bath from turning into an oil slick.

The fragrance of this sticks around for a while afterward, but it isn't strong enough or long-lasting enough to interfere too much with other fragrances I may want to wear that day. As for my bathroom, the scent lingers. A lot.

I find this lovely for a bath, and I am especially keeping it in mind for the warm summer months when a cool, soothing cucumber bath is just the thing I am in the mood for.

Wow! I have to start this review by saying that I do not consider myself a "foody lover" where fragrances are concerned. I enjoy them and I have some favorites, but they are not the ones that attract me the most. Especially not the heavier food scents. With that said...

I LOVE Gula! In the bottle it smells very strongly of cocoa absolute. It smells very dessert-like and rich.

In the bath the cocoa absolute remains the strongest note, but I can individually pick out the black currant, vanilla, and caramel as supporting notes. It makes for a very decadent bath! The oil itself is nice and moisturizing, it doesn't cause me to break out (I waited a few days to write this review), and it sinks into my skin rapidly once I have rinsed off and left the bath. A little oil goes a long way in terms of fragrance while in the bath, and using a minimal amount keeps my bath from turning into an oil slick.

The fragrance of this sticks around for a while afterward, but it isn't strong enough or long-lasting enough to interfere too much with other fragrances I may want to wear that day. As for my bathroom, the whole thing smells like chocolate afterward.

I think that gourmand/foody lovers with go ga-ga over this scent, and I venture to guess that even the non-foodies (like me) will end up really enjoying Gula.

I hate airport searches. Sometimes I practically have to turn around and bend over to let them search me, and other times (this just happened recently) they don't even ask for my ID when I pick up my tickets. That's right, peeps. I didn't get ID'ed.

 

When I went to C13 I was so paranoid about getting my BPAL home that I went and mailed it to myself with insurance and DC. Since then, I have just traveled with a few bottles and imps in my carry-on, in a ziploc. I have never even been questioned about it but even so, I always travel with replaceable BPAL and not something rare like Pumkin King.

 

When I moved from OR to CA, I wrapped each bottle in bubble wrap, then put more bubble wrap around everything and stuffed each box full of padding. My ~250 bottles made it here just fine, even with the moving company.

Lysander is so much different than I expected. I get an almost-foody, nutty quality to it. The strongest parts of it is the tonka, which to me is a comforting and more decadent version of vanilla, and the benzoin. I don't smell much of the other notes, but the violet adds a touch of softness and the musk adds a slight sharpness. I find this to be very calming and gentle.

This is a dark red wine that is smooth and sweet. The wine and the plum are so very gorgeous together. They dominate the blend in a deep red-purple richness, but the amber is underneath it all and has a soft powdery resin quality. I can't pick out the champaca but the white musk is there in the background.

 

I really think this is pretty. It is very distinctive and if you like plum then this is probably one that you should run out and buy!

(Dark Delicacies re-release)

 

This smells just like a rich, smoky-sweet incense with a slight gummy bite to it. It reminds me of sandalwood and frankincense, and I know there are other resins in there as well. While I find it similar to Al Azif and Midnight Mass, this smells a bit darker and more earthy than Al Azif and is softer and smoother than Midnight Mass.

 

In any case, this is an amazing incense scent. I can't wait to try this as a room scent.

Blood Phoenix is sweet and grape-like. Despite that, this still smells "red" to me, and not purple. The red musk is present but not dominant. The dragon's blood resin gives me a sharp tingle and the myrrh and sweet myrrh darken and ground this and prevent it from smelling too candy-like.

 

As time passes, the dry bite of the poppy comes into play and, as with the resins and musk, it tempers the juicy grape scent. I can distinctly smell carnation and its floral spice as well.

 

Overall this is a very bold, red scent due to the resins, poppy, and musk. The wine grape, mimosa, and carnation sweeten and lighten the boldness to create a rich, blood-like scent that is also sweet like a fine, dark wine.

In the bottle this is faint. I detect a touch of sage and papaya, and the barest hint of white mint.

On my skin it is no longer faint, but it is soft. It has a pale "green" fragrance to it without being considered an earthy scent. The papaya is fresh and bright but not overly fruity. Instead it lends itself to supporting the other notes and it gives off an almost spring- or summer-like vibe. The mint is fleeting but I can smell the sage and amber.

The most distinctive part of Green Phoenix is, for me, the grass and cucumber. They are so stabilizing and grounding to me. While distinctive, they also mingle well with all the other notes and create an extremely gorgeous and very green phoenix scent. I really love this one and I can't think of any other BPAL scent that is quite like it.

LIGUR

 

Ligur is dark and fiery. It is very heavy on the khus and black moss which bring it an earthy, dank quality. There is an almost medicinal quality to this. The resins add a dark, gummy bite but they remain subdued next to the dominant khus. This is very interesting—earthy, dark, autumnal, dry, fiery, fiendish!

HASTUR

 

This is very dark and heavy with an almost medicinal quality to it. It is actually very, very nice! It has a dark, sticky resin quality that is weighted by a light, sweet smoke and the barest hint of tobacco. The brimstone serves as the base and it is recognizable yet doesn't dominate the scent. The labdanum seems to be the most noticeable part of this blend and as a whole it has a strong throw and a long wear-length. It is a perfect Hastur scent.

FAMINE

 

Wow! From the description I had no idea if I would like this or not, but it is fantastic. It smells gender neutral to me and has a sort of musky, resinous base, a light dry tea and tobacco accent, and a top layer of honeyed lilacs. I have no idea where the sweet honey scent is coming from but I think it is, in part, the tobacco and the way it mingles with some of the other notes. This sticks close to my skin but lasts quite a while. I'm definitely going to keep this one.

POLLUTION

 

This has a distinct green ozone scent to it. It is sharp and musky and the ozone causes this to present as almost masculine. I find that Pollution has a clean, cool, citrus-like scent that sits over the other notes, and that helps add to the radioactive part of the concept. This is really nice. Oddly enough, I find this sort of refreshing.

MADAME TRACY

 

This is a sweet, comforting sort of floral blend. It actually reminds me of my grandmother in a good way; it envelops me in a floral hug and kiss from a motherly figure. The rose sits on top but the lily and geranium are not far behind. I do get some of the violet; it sort of softens things and blurs the lines between the other notes. This is clean and light but it has a strong throw and an almost perfumey aspect to it. It fits Madame Tracy well.

White Phoenix is a gentle scent, which is different than being faint. It has a medium throw and average wear-length.

The frangipani is the strongest part of this blend. It is exotic, hypnotizing, sweet, and almost spicy. I think it presents differently than it does in other blends as a result of the interplay with the other notes. It is less dominant than I expected, and has a lower pitch. (Yes, I sometimes hear tones. )

I can detect a very light grit of sandalwood and an uncharacteristically mellow lavender in the background. The combination of white florals and cotton flower with the resins and crystal musk are gorgeous. They sort of play off of each other and swirl into an uplifting, soothing, benevolent scent that is almost powdery, almost spicy, almost warm.

MECHANICAL PHOENIX

 

I can't get over this.

 

I've been trying to finish this review for over an hour and my eyes keep misting up. Talk about Proustian memory. When I first smelled this I had a sudden flash of myself as a child, running around my Dad's shop, jumping oil puddles and grease stains, climbing over car jacks, and hiding behind toolboxes. But this is more than a memory that has welled up. This scent IS my dad; it's his life and work, his work ethic, his innovative and mechanical, power-driven approach to everything. It fits so well with the concept that Beth set forth for this anniversary Phoenix. She nailed the scent.

 

Mechanical Phoenix smells like cogs and gears, metal tools, and dirty smears of oil that mar the sheen of smooth metals. This is a gentle scent, despite the metal and oil. It has a unisex/masculine air about it and a sweet, light background that I believe might be a floral or light musk.

 

Mechanical Phoenix is what I would smell when I'd run up to hug my dad; even after cleaning up there would be a slight tinge of the scent of motor oil that mingled with his cologne. I find that combination both rugged and genteel at the same time. This would smell great on any male, or on anyone that likes light metallic, cool scents, or on anyone that likes the uniqueness of a fragrance that invokes motor oil as part of its outcome.