Mechanical Death

Does anyone know of a bpal scent that resembles the fragrance of the Brazilian bum bum cream? A friend got me hooked on it recently, and it’s way different than what I usually gravitate towards, but it’s really yummy for the summer. I would love to find a bpal equivalent. FRAGRANCE NOTES Top: pistachio, almond Mid: heliotrope, jasmine petals Dry: vanilla, salted caramel, sandalwood

I can't believe I finally finally got my hands on a bottle of this. Pomegranate scents are some of my favorites, and this is no joke. The pomegranate rose and vanilla are the most prominent. It's a similar variety to crypt queen, but still different. I don't get a lot of incense which makes me a bit disappointed, but there's myrhh and something earthy like dirt and mosses rounding it out. It's lucious, warm, not overpoweringly sweet from the pomegranate. The vanilla is almost creamy. I'm so glad to have a bottle of this in my collection!

This is amazing. I was a little wary of it both before purchasing and smelling it in the bottle, because I always want to love chocolate or cocoa scents, but they rarely seem to love me. This is however an exception. The cocoa is not the star here, despite how it smells strongly in the bottle, like sweet sugary milk chocolate and almost nothing else. Still I skin tested it because the reviews were so wonderful as are the notes. Initially the cocoa does come on strong. Still like a creamy sugary milk chocolate. However almost immediately there are other noticeable elements but I can't really pick any of it out until it really begins to dry down and declare what kind of scent it will truly be. The cedar and patchouli mingle. The cedar is woody, rich, resinous and a little green, or perhaps that's the neroli. Neroli always registers as green on me, like the inside of a young tree stem. I don't get pencil shavings from it. The patchouli is well rounded and a little sugary from the vanilla. Frankincense is there lending an insence undernote. The whole of this is sweet rich and dusty cocoa mingling with vanilla sugared incense, and slightly spiced woods. It's an incredible blend. It reminds me of the same family of Morroco, banshee beat, and Tezcatlipoca

What a stunning fragrance! In the bottle this is rich citrus and creamy vanilla. It reminds me of a pastry with Lemmon shortbread and custard... But it's not foodie even though I'm getting the thought of that imagery. On the skin the grapefruit picks up immediately after an initial blast of sweet and creamy candy citrus. My first thought was "yes! This is the perfect citrus scent I have been searching for! Give me a gallon!" I truly may need a back up of this. As it dries the sour grapefruit that came forth begins to back off and all of the variety of citrus notes mingle. The creamy floral begins to join the party too, quietly, but enough to ground the strong citrus. I don't think I smell much violet if any, maybe faintly as it dries further. I suspect it will be a note that lingers once the oil has been on my skin for a few hours, violet tends to do that on me. I seem to be missing the frankincense too. The tonka, which is what I registered as that custardy vanilla note has dissipated mostly too, but it's there just enough to hold the scent together. For a few moments it seemed like it was returning strongly but it backed off again. The notes are having a quiet battle. I had hoped this would be a ringer dupe for the fragrance "Hello" from Harvey prince. And while its of a similar family it's missing some of the warmth and cheeriness that Hello has. If the scent in the bottle translated directly to skin I would drown myself in the stuff. For a scent that's floral, citrus and creamy tonka, it does very much have a chilly crisp edge like the name would suggest rather than something warming and upbeat. I still love this one a lot and may require a back up for aging. I think aging this would bring out the tonka, violet and frankincense on the skin more. Yum!

I expected great things from this. I have been loving plum and vanilla blends after falling in love with mme morrirty again, and was hoping this would be in a similar family. Upon application I get incencesy hair spray and itchy smelling cologne. What?! I tried to wait out the wet to dry phase but it was so strong and do headache inducing. I had to scrub it off, as my already milder migraine started screaming at me. Not fun. There was something beautiful lurking underneath the cheap cologne and hairspray. Hopefully I can retest it and see if it will work with my skin at all. It started to remind me a bit of a fancier version of the lady gaga perfume, so if it cooperates with my skin I think it's a winner. If not for me I can gift it to a friend who lives that perfume.

Every note in this should be an absolute winner for me. Red musk blends are amazing for my skin chemistry, and I love patchouli and champaca dominate blends. The supporting notes here are beautiful and are things that generally get along with me and that I like.... So why am I not smelling like... Anything? When I skin tested the oil I actually spilled a little turning the bottle to my wrist. I thought crap, I'm going to be drowning in this! Since the blend profile was bound to be rather strong. But even though I quite literally slathered myself in it, I smelled nothing. I'm terribly confused. Even after a few hours all I got was a vuagely plastic sweet burning smell, but still very very faint. I had to really stick my nose to my wrist. I'm hoping this is a case of if I let my bottle rest and age the oils will bloom. How odd.

I discovered this sample in my latest order, and oh my I'm in love! This is an instant bottle order for me. It's soft vanilla, with incencesy sandalwood, maybe some frankincense, and hints of cocoa. It's sweet and incensey, and reminds me of LUSH. It's a soft scent and clings close to the skin, but I can smell it hovering gently around me when I move. It's snuggly, soothing, but also a little sexy in a refrained way. I love discovering GC gems like this!

Straight out of the bottle. Yup, dead leaves. Wet but also dry crunchy dead leaves-- that familiar autumn smell. It's the same across the board with all of the dead leaf blends. It's very strong and over powers the other notes in the blends. However this is much more like it's hair gloss counterpart (white musk and vanilla) It starts out on the skin as a very strong blast of dead leaves, and stays dominantly that for a while, but there's something peaking through. something sweeter and smoother. After about 2 hours on my skin the bourban vanilla and myrrh are strong, and vanilla is rich and lovely, and the leaf note is more in the background. This pairs so nicely with the vanilla and white musk hair gloss, and my bourban vanilla bath oil from last year (which has aged divinely). The combination there of is vanilla heaven, and it's a nice soft scent combination that I can wear it on days when I'm scent sensitive (migraine prone) but want something comforting, and is a deviation away from the very dark spicy incensey scents I am drawn towards. This has a lot of lasting power. A full 24 hours and a shower later I can still smell it rather strongly on my wrist and inner elbows, and wafting closely around me. It doesn't have huge throw at any stage though.

For a while I was convinced that all the dead leaves blends would smell the same on me. The leaf portion of these blends is potent and over powering both in the bottle and on the skin, and while it's not unpleasant, it's more of a novelty smell than a rounded wearable perfume as a single note component. The frankinsense and Copal variation for a while I thought sadly dried to just a dead leaves single note. For like an hour or so into the dry phase it's mostly a dead leaves single note, but the longer it's on my skin the more the frankinsense and copal come forth. It's sweet, a bit dry, and lightly incensey. Each of these blends are very light, I had hoped for more oomph from the components considering there are so few. Out of the 3 I got this one will be the most worn. It's lovely, though light on the skin. When the scent does bloom fully it's very relaxing. Would be a nice for meditation.

I was most excited to try this one from my recent order. I let it settle from the mail for a few hours so I could get an accurate first impression. This is so beautiful. Everything I ever wanted from an apple scent. This is a complex beautiful scent, and the apple doesn't stomp on everything else. It's so nicely blended together I can't really pick any one note out other than the apple, but even that is clearly enveloped by other lovely notes rather than standing out on it's own. It has a rich feeling. I'm so glad this works on my skin the way I had hoped it would. What stands out to most to be is the tobacco giving a caramelized touch, and the honey on top of the apple that up front is a little floraly possibly from the lavender though I don't smell any outright sadly, but juicy and sweet like honey crisps. I also don't detect any patchouli outright, or champaca Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have a ton of lasting power, it fades within a short few hours and reapplication would be needed for a full day of wear, but perhaps a little aging will improve that.

I tested this 3 times hoping that maybe skin chemistry, weather, and settling out of the mail box would do something to help, because the notes SHOULD be wonderful. but it's not. It just smells sharp, and acrid. Sad. Red musk is one of my favorite base notes, and usually sings on my skin. I was really hoping it would be lovely. I guess I'll pass on this bottle to a friend and see if it works for someone else.

This is unbelievably pretty. Not nearly as dry as the notes would suggest, or soapy. The vanilla frankinsense and jasmine are front and center. It's sweet fuzzy light incense with jasmine pearl tea. The sage is there in the background, fresh, not dried. The patchouli which I can pick out in the bottle seems to take a backseat. In the bottle it's not a very strong stinky patch-- it's well rounded, slightly sweet, a bit soft and woody. The oudh is there, I recognize the same scent from my beloved orb weave spider from a few years back-- to me it smells like fresh green (young) tree bark. On the full dry down there is a sweetness from the honey myrtle-- a somewhat lemony woody fragrance. This scent is reserved, but sophisticated. It does convey the imagery of the art and title well. It smells like casting spells and smudging sage, burning sweet frankincense, and reading tea leaves. edit: after a little while longer the patch makes an appearance again, and like it was in the bottle it's soft, faintly sweet and woody, but not stinky or dominating. another person above described it as 'feather soft' and that's about right. Beautiful

I was so exited for this one after reading reviews, it sounded just so gorgeous. Sadly on me this turns into burning menthol plastic when it hits my skin :[ I can only hope that giving it a few months to mature in the bottle will change this aspect and let it shine.

Dragon-Peaches have become my favorite time of the year in BPAL land. They are always just so expertly blended and delicious and this one is no exception. I don't think I have any other perfume with strawberry in it, and my collection of bpal bottles is upwards of 300. I tend to prefer darker fruits, or jammy citrussy fruits. Peaches kinda fall into that later category. Kinda jammy on my skin rather than floral like peach skin. Strawberry I always think of that artificial strawberry smell, like lollipops or pink strawberry cake. This is not that. This is the ripest strawberry fresh picked in the height of summer. Juicy, bright red, and perfect. The kind where you eat the entire bin. The kind that make the perfect strawberries and shortcake. The kind that artifical strawberry lollipops desperately want to be, but sadly know they never will be. Coupled with it is the lovely peach. Like the strawberries, these peaches are the juiciest, sweetest peaches summer has to offer. This scent is mouthwatering, and I want to drink it. Strawberry-peach juice, I must have it. When it dries the intense fruitiness yields way to benzoin and vanilla making, and faintly sandalwood in the background, which round out the scent nicely. It kind of reminds me of those fruit cream hard candies, but super sophisticated and sexy. The benzoin and vanilla really do add a caramelized and creamy feel, and the sandalwood grounds it all. This is definitely a girly blend, but not so sugary that it's tooth achingly sweet. It has enough complexity that I will be keeping this and reaching for it in my rotation. Quite different from the incense, patchouli, and clove heavy blends I tend to gravitate too, but when I want a different kind of this definitely hits home. It's amazing.

I hastily skin tested this scent straight out of the mailbox and it just about disappeared on my skin. Thankfully after letting it rest for a few days it has settled and bloomed beautifully, everything I had hoped it would be. Straight out of the bottle I get a wet juicy blast of fruits, like red crisp apple (even though there's no apple directly listed, I smell red apple) and jammy fruits. as it begins to dry the rose becomes more prominent. It's almost rich and creamy. when I smell my wrist my brain says vanilla, like rich vanilla pods, but it's not actually a vanilla smell. It's not a high note floral scent, it's very heady, sweet, and smooth. I don't get any leather, which I am actually pleased with. I love leather scents, but I like the way this is without the noticeable distinct 'leather' smell. Perhaps the leather is lending that smooth butteriness that I am registering as creamy vanilla, just without that sharp leather edge. On the drydown it smells vuagely smokey, but still sweet smoke. Like a beeswax candle that was just extinguished. I'm not picking up on any nag champa sadly, but it does read as somewhat incense-y.