PirateMaggie

Damn my white musk-amping skin! The musk completely overpowered the (very nice) florals and made me smell as though I'd sweated heavily in floral deodorant.

O my. This is an absolutely filthy vanilla blend. Not filthy in the Play-Doh vanilla sense, but in how suggestive this scent is. This is not innocent vanilla--this is what a leer smells like. The vanilla, honey, and amber are very, very sweet. The first time I tried it I thought it was too sticky and cloying, but it grew on me as the day went on. The amber just glows and the vanilla and honey smell like the most decadent dessert ever (drizzled, of course, over a partner). It smells like a stronger, headier version of that honey dusting powder that seems to be all the rage. Be forewarned--a little bit of this blend goes a very long way. A drop will do: I slathered this on and it took over the room, took its clothes off, and refused to leave. Throw and staying power are both enormous. This is a blend for the bedroom. It also plays really well with other naughty blends (I've been adding a drop when I wear Hell's Belle). While Blood Kiss is still my favourite vanilla blend, I will be getting more of this.

Intoxicating is right! I've been using my imp in trance work--something in this, probably the wormwood, is highly effective in reaching an altered state of consciousness. This works really well as a scent as well. As others have said, it isn't a perfumey or sweet blend. On me it's sparkling mint, warmed by cardamom and hyssop, witha tart twist of lemon. The anise lingers in the background, giving the occasional licorice waft. It's green, herbal, and somewhat ethereal. Throw is light, but it lasts well. It's one of those blends that smells different against the skin than it does further out. It's definely one of those complex, unique, interesting blends that only BPAL can make. It's gone into heavy rotation with the arrival of Spring--the herbals lend themselves well to season as the earth wakes up and the greenery comes back. My imp is almost gone and a big bottle of this is getting ordered next payday.

Shanghai has replaced Sea of Glass as my favourite clean, warm-weather scent. The lemon in this is tart and juicy, like smelling a freshly-cut lemon, with smooth, nutty green tea beneath. The honeysuckle is sweet and mellow and slightly aquatic, softening the lemon's edge and lingering long after the citrus has faded. Throw is light as is the scent. I'm reminded of sipping iced green tea with lemon on a honeysuckly-covered deck overlooking the water, or one of my favourite tea blends, Earl Grey made from green tea instead of black. Shanghai manages to be both soothing and refreshing, a perfect everyday scent for summertime. Big bottle, definitely.

This smells like burning plastic and latex gloves on me. Drat.

Death is right--on my skin this smells exactly--and I do mean exactly--like rotting corpse. (At work, I often have to deal with rotting corpses; it's a smell I'm quite familiar with.) Obviously, this is not a keeper.

Wet, this is a really spicy floral. I'm tempted to say carnation; I'm not getting any lily. Drydown: The spice removes itself to the background and I start to get wafts of honey. I recognize Beth's gorgeous lily note that I love so well in Prague, but much warmer and somehow, greener. Like Prague, this is a very clean scent, but golden where Prague is silvery. These are sunlit lilies drizzled with honey on a warm afternoon. Throw is medium; lasting power is good. It's twelve hours after application and still smells spicy-sweet and fresh. These are lilies that growl. Another keeper.

This started out as a whisper-soft green floral, but when it dried it turned into fabric softener with a sour, soapy undertone. Luckily, it faded completely withing two hours. ADDED March 26: I too got the dryer sheets smell from this. Very nice, floral dryer sheets, but not what I was hoping for.

Wet: Clean cold air at high elevation, with a hint of snow. There isn't ozone listed, but I keep getting whiffs of it. Cedar and sandalwood, and is that...wintergreen? Dry: This really warms up. It's like coming out of the cold into a warm haven. The woods and minty-evergreeny smells are noticeable, but the saffron and spices come out and glow softly. The lotus hides in the backround, occasionally showing up then disappearing just as fast. This is soft, light, comforting, and uplifting, like a Himalayan version of Sudha Segara. I'm not sure this rates a big bottle, but I'm going to enjoy my imp.

A gift from the Lab. This is really incensy: the sandalwood is very, very prominent, followed by the amber. As it dries, I get just a touch of rose and mandarin while the saffron and bergamot come out to make the blend interestingly complex. This really evokes the spice bazaars of the Middle East and the Lebanese shops in the neighborhood I grew up in, as well as witchy/hippie stores. It manages to make me both nostaligic and wanting to explore. The sandalwood has some throw while the rest of the blend stays close and comfortable, like a favourite shirt and like a favourite shirt, I love it.

I've yet to meet one of Beth's peach blends that I didn't like, so I was thrilled when a frimp of this came with my last order. I don't know how I managed to miss the description of this...ah, I know. The musk threw me off. Happily, it turns out that only white musk hates me. This is definitely BPAL's glorious peach, but different than my other peach blends: Marquise de Merteuil is ice queen peach, Tamora is bright happy sunlit peach, La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente is soft and wistful peach, and Imp is dark, steamy, wickedly seductive peach. This is not a tame, fruity-girly peach at all. The peach in this scent is at the peak of ripeness, the amber makes it sizzle, the patchouli (which my skin sometimes amps but not in this blend) makes it earthy and wild, and the golden musk smells like naughty intentions. Throw is medium and very come-hither. It lasted all day and into the night, which is good because this really is a nighttime scent--preferably a hot, humid night with somebody special. Big bottle. Definitely.

This is the way the air smells after a thunder storm: it's crisp and clean and the ozone is very much like a lightning strike. The florals are icy and white and very beautiful. It's an aquatic white floral, like a sharper Prague without the lily. Throw is light, but it lasted well. If I didn't already love Prague so much, I'd certainly buy a big bottle, but Prague works a little better with my body chemistry.

Wet: Mmm. March Hare got into the pumpkin pie spices. Dry: Mmm. March Hare took the pie spice into the rose garden. The fruity apricot smell really blooms. The spices give this blend a comforting, glowing quality. As it continues to dry, I get occasional wafts of pure, crisp rose and possibly gardenia. This works fantastically. Without getting into the gory details, I achieved a personal best in a work test, in a subject t which I've been a bit lacklustre. Today, everything just came together. I was calm. I was collected. And I shot really, really well. I know I should save this as a special occasion oil for when I really need its oomph, but this is fantastic as a scent.

Wet, this is a sparkling white floral with a hint of neroli, carnation, and vanilla. A very graceful scent, and light in the sense of being light on one's feet. Unfortunately, it turns soapy/powdery as it dries, though after a couple of hours it goes back to smelling as it did wet, though milder. Quite pretty once the soapy phase passes.

I'm a chronic insomniac; I have difficulty getting to sleep even when exhausted, and tend to wake up several times throughout. I consider myself lucky to reach REM sleep at all. Needless to say, when I received a frimp of this, I slathered it on before bedtime. Scent-wise, it smelled like sharp, fresh lemongrass, or maybe lemon verbena. Very herbal and lemony, without any of the furniture polish odor I've gotten from other lemony blends. In spite of how sharp and green this smelled, I found it relaxing and found myself getting drowsy. As it dries, this turned sweeter, like lemon drops, and a slight hint of lavender came through. Not only did I fall asleep quickly and sleep through the night without waking up, I had remarkably vivid dreams and for once woke up feeling refreshed. Nanshe works and I will certainly be ordering a big bottle of this.

This went incredibly masculine on me. It's a proud, wicked, astringent scent (that would be the lavender) with a lot of musk and leather. Not the scent for me, but if I could convince the Boy to wear it, I'd be a very happy girl.

Limeade with a sprig of mint, enjoyed on a fresh-cut lawn amidst an herb garden! Completely green and utterly refreshing. I can't wait to give this a whirl when the weather turns hot.

Another frimp from the Lab. I'd been meaning to try this, since all the notes work on me individually. Together, this could have been custom-blended to work with my chemistry. This scent is warm and very, very light, It reminds me very much of an extremely light and less floral version of Rapture. The vanilla and mandarin are both sweet without being cloying and are not at all overpowering while the lily of the valley is cool and whisper-soft. The sandalwood makes this a warm, golden "second skin" scent. At first I thought it faded incredibly quickly--gone within the hour--but later it seemed to reawaken and I began getting wafts of it. This is a scent I'll be putting in my hair and in my lingerie drawer. Because it's so light, it could be worn to the office or school, but it has a breathy, sensual quality that makes it perfect for an elegant evening out, preferably one which involves being close to someone special.

This is sweet, almost medicinal cherry and a lot of clove, underscored by spicy dragon's blood. As it dries, the cherry darkens and smells more like cherry juice while the clove remains strong, hot, and spicy-sweet. It reminds me of the way the Boy, who used to smoke cloves, smells, making this comforting for me if not necessarily what I'm looking for in a personal scent.

In the imp, I mostly smell dragon's blood and cinnamon. Upon application, it's still mostly dragon's blood and cinnamon. As it dries, the juniper and woods come out, giving the impession that one is drinking spicy ritual wine in the middle of a forest. The musk and leather remain in the background, giving this skin-like warmth, and the berry sweetens it without making it smell sticky. This scent reminds me not so much of the Arthur's castle--it's far too outdoorsy to evoke anything inside stone walls-- as much as it reminds me of the Grail Quest, or the wood elves' feast which Bilbo and the dwarves interrupt in The Hobbit. It's glowingly spicy-warm yet crisp and green and utterly feral; this is the scent of growing giddy on mulled wine and telling stories around a campfire in a clearing surrounded by ancient trees. Like most BPAL blends, throw is not overpowering. It lasts well; if anything; Tintagel deepens and grows more interesting the longer it's worn. Luckily my tax return is on its way; I require a big bottle of this.

This was a frimp from the Lab. I see it's listed as "Discontinued;" I don't know if Beth is planning to start offering it again (I hope!) or if it was simply a left-over, but I feel honored indeed to have been given it! Mmm. Not-too-sweet pink tea rose deepened and made exotic by the ylang ylang. Ylang ylang can be overpowering, but it isn't at all here and there is no trace of the baby powder and air freshener ick I get from so many rose blends. This blend evokes a moonlit rose garden in June. It's soft and delicate and a bit wistful, warm but slightly dark, and very, very romantic. Throw is slight to medium. It doesn't morph as it dries, and it lasts for hours. This is the rose scent I've been dreaming of. Should Beth resurrect it (pretty please?) this is a definite big bottle buy.

Wet, this is pure white grape juice with a hint of pear. Very sweet. As it dries, there is a hint of cool white floral, but it remains predominantly very sweet, slightly fizzy grape. I love BPAL peach, and was disappointed that the grape completely overpowered the peach. My perfume-hating BoyCreature loves this blend, and I think it's pretty enough, but because there are fruity-floral BPALs that I truly love (Tamora, Marquise de Merteuil) I can't see this being a big bottle (though I might spring for the occasional imp).

At first, this does the usual unpleasant soapy-powdery rose morph on me, but it isn't overpowering. I wore this with Has No Hanna, which covered the worst of the dread rose bathroom deodorizer effect (and weirdly, smelled like nice roses) while it settled down. A little dab of this goes a long way for its intended use and the throw isn't terribly strong, so if the scent doesn't work for you then layering with something that does should help. After a couple of hours the air freshener smell morphs again into floral shampoo--still soapy, but not unpleasant. There is a hint of mint in this, which I didn't smell as much as feel that nice menthol tingle on my skin when I applied it. I bought Black Cat for its described use rather than its smell, and if today is any indication, this is a very effective kitty. I wore it to work because I knew that a supervisor would be on duty with whom I and pretty much everyone else on my shift have had a personality conflict since he came to our division. As it turned out, I got to go out in the field while he stayed inside doing administrative duties, and apparently he kept having to deal with minor bureaucratic annoyances all evening which kept him too busy to annoy, threaten, or micro-manage any of us. Yay Black Cat, and yay Lab for delivering as promised! edited to add: This got all over my bra, on which it smells completely different than it did on my skin. On my bra it smells like fresh pink tea roses with mint and cinnamon. I think I'll have to experiment to see if Black Cat is as effective applied to hair and clothing as to skin, because on my clothing it truly smells wonderful: herbal-floral and warm-yet-refreshing, without even a hint of soap or air freshener.

Wet and dry, this is a rose floral with hints of fruit and fresh herbs. BPAL rose is usually horrid on me, but Has No Hanna smelled like a garden of blooming sun-warmed roses. I bought this primarily for ooga-booga uses and wasn't expecting this to smell especially great, but it's really quite pleasant and cheery. It's clean without smelling soapy, green without smelling bitter or astringent, and floral without being cloying. In addition to smelling good, this really, really works. I had what I feared would be a tough day coming up at work so I wore Has No Hanna with a dab of Black Cat for good measure. I ended up working with someone I didn't really know before today, but we hit it off famously. None of our equipment malfunctioned (unusual, given that we work for the City which hates to update or repair our broken and outdated stuff). We were busy, but it made the evening go quickly instead of being an aggravating juggling act. Our colleagues all did what they were supposed to do and nobody had to pick up anyone else's slack. Best of all was the attitude improvements it brought: not only did nobody mouth off at me (rare; I work with the public), and even when wildly juggling assignments I was able to keep calm and centred and saw the humour in it instead of getting cranky, or frazzled. My people skills were top-notch as a result.

There was a light hint of pine and leaves when wet, but on drydown this became a chemical, cloyingly sweet and soapy floral. It gave me a headache, and it took several scrubbings to get the smell off.