janelle_hell

Does anyone else remember spending all night at goth/deathrock clubs in CA before the ban on indoor smoking happened? I do! BPAL's Deathrock blend smells EXACTLY like coming back from the dead the afternoon after dancing all night at *name of much-beloved club goes here*. Minus the sweat and the subtle whiff of vomit from overindulging in the "festivities", of course. Stardust, with its Aquanet, champagne & opium effervescence is glamrock; Deathrock, with its Aquanet, cigarette smoke & incense is, well...deathrock. Upon first applying, it is "all Aquanet, all the time". After a few minutes, the smoke comes out. This isn't the scary "wet ashtray full of old cigarette butts" that the description conjured up for me, thankfully. It's more like the smell of a well-loved, studded-and-safetypinned-semimoldering-battlescarred leather jacket with the Christian Death logo handpainted somewhere on it & the smell of 1,000 or so nights in dark clubs full of smoke from both cigarettes and fog machines soaked into it. "Old leather" isn't listed in the scent description, but I could swear it's in this oil. After it's been on for a few hours, the hairspray note and the cigarette smoke mellow out to let some of the resin notes through. It's like waking up with one's hairdo matted against the pillow, in the home of a friend (or someone you just met that night ) who's fond of burning incense. Then after several hours, it smells just like Manic Panic hair dye and a little bit of cigarette smoke. This is definitely the most spot-on BPAL oil I've ever tried...if pointy, black leather witch boots with skull buckles down the side were a perfume and not an article of clothing, THIS would be IT.

Another vote for Zombi. It's not so much "masculine" as it is "death in a bottle": deep, dark, dead rose & even deeper, darker moss.

Bpal scents: Jailbait or Antique Lace, with the Yule scent Stardust applied simultaneously! Non Bpal scents: Love's Baby Soft, totally.

This was...worth the wait. The vanilla turns the patchouli & hemp into "bad teenager". Good smelling bad teenager. If you were a good smelling bad teenager, you will LOVE Banshee Beat.

On me, Detox is "all lime, all the time!".

Temple Viper now shares with Urd my #1 spot for "head shop incense" favorite scents...my favorite type of scent to wear during the summer! To make use of an overused metaphor, Temple Viper is what would happen if Snake Oil and Urd had a baby, and then said baby was teething on a piece of sugarcane Spices + Nag Champa + sugar. It has great staying power, too- I applied it this morning, and now 12+ hours later, it's still going strong. Not just a keeper, but a new favorite!

This doesn't smell "deathly" at all to me; it smells like dirt after a spring rain & the resulting mushrooms. Reminds me of when I was a little kid and would go outside after it rained and dig in the dirt to look for worms. This is a very "wet" scent without being "aquatic"- Death Cap doesn't have a saltwater scent, more like a rainwater scent. Very evocative, but I don't know if I'd like to wear it as a scent. I'll keep the imp I have for when I want to be reminded of a nice, rainy day.

Shub smells like crystalized gingerroot and a Chinese herbal shop on me. I could see how someone would say it smells like spicy gingerbread, but to me it's more "medicinal" (but in a good way). Herbal and spicy and yummy, but it gave me a headache after awhile. Still, I'm glad that I got to try it.

For the first hour or so, King Cobra smells like Snake Oil (of course) and Midnight Mass...2 of my favorites. I get no sweetness at all from this blend, just straight-up Snake Oil and frankincense. As if Snake Oil got dressed up for the holidays. After the first couple of hours, it turns into pure frankincense on me. Heavy incense, but not "hippie/headshop" incense. There's something golden and glowing about the scent. Don't know if I need a whole bottle, as I already have both Snake Oil and Midnight Mass, but I'll be keeping my imp to wear for the holidays.

If Tombstone is real cowboys in the real Wild West, then this is little kids, *playing* cowboys, on a warm summer day in the back yard. It's such a happy scent...sweet rootbeer and vanilla bean ice cream. I'd been wanting to try this for awhile, and got an imp in the mail today. I was not disappointed! I'll have to get a 5ml of this, for sure

On me, this is "ALL CLOVE CIGARETTES! ALL THE TIME!"; I get no cedar at all. Or cigars. It smells exactly like clove cigarettes...reminds me of my misspent teenage years. Which isn't a bad thing. I'm keeping my 5ml, as I'm sure it'll be AMAAAAAAZING after it ages.

Sea of Tranquility is what would happen if Stardust and Jailbait had a baby who grew up to be a glamrock groupie on the Sunset Strip I can picture her with her big, beach-blonde hair and hot pink lipstick and lil silver lame' mini dress and "stripper" heels with glittery stars on them, as she teeters down the Strip under a full moon, worrying her mom & dad back home who were so wild back in the day! Seriously, though- this is the only Lunacy I've tried that's worked on me! It smells like 2 of my favorites that seem to NOT be favorites of many others...but that's ok, more for me! I'm guessing that it's the lotus in this that's reminding me so much of Jailbait..it's got a fruity/bubblegum sweetness. I'll also venture to guess that the poppy (which gets translated into "Aquanet hair spray" by many) is what reminds me of Stardust. This is a perfect "party" scent...I'll have to track down a bottle!

I have a new favorite! A friend gifted me some imps that she didn't want, and this was the first one that I tried. I had to order a bottle of it immediately, it's that good! Tombstone really fits its name; this is "Wild-West-ghost-town-in-scent-form", truly. It's a very androgynous scent on me, which is what I'd been looking for. The sweet sassafrass really balances out the heavy cedar, and vice versa. There's a slight "dustiness" to this scent, which is what makes it so evocative. Easily in my top 10 favorite BPAL scents, no contest.

In the bottle, this was all just-blown-out-candle yumminess. Swoon-worthy. Seriously. My bizarre body chemistry had other plans for it upon application, though. After about 5 minutes of yummy smokiness with a faint "fresh, sweet oranges" smell, it turned to... ...scary chemical-y orange dish soap. The longer I left it on, the worse it got. So, I washed it off. It's really too bad that it didn't work on me, as I had very high hopes for this one.

I got a free imp of this via a Forum purchase; I'll definitely be getting a bottle of it with my next order! Scent-wise, I get no lavender from this...it's all jasmine and bergamot with a tiny, but not unpleasant, "sourness" from the mugwort. (Mugwort smells similar to wormwood). It reminds me very much of the unreleased blend, Vieux Carre, which I've been hoarding my imp of. Now I have something that I like just as much, but it's actually available for purchase As for its sleep/dream inducing properties, I have to say that as a life-long insomniac it doesn't help me fall asleep or stay asleep, but it is quite pleasant *finally* falling asleep to this scent.