septima_pica

I got my 11-year-old brother a bunch of crazy concept BPAL scents and the ones he liked best were Bliss, Grog, and Brimstone. I think I'm going to have to buy him a bottle of Bliss sometime, maybe for his birthday, because it sure is awesome, and it sure does last for a day and a half. (Which is a GOOD thing. Kids are stinky! I know, I was too!) Although Brimstone is a nice campfirey smell, for when you don't want to be a chocolate bar, and he likes that a lot too.

Well, here are my candidates... PHYSICS Ultraviolet Schroedinger's Cat Event Horizon Cathode Eclipse Umbra BONUS: Nuclear Winter DRUGS Laudanum Juke Joint Roadhouse Absinthe Kill-Devil Twenty-One

Give the kid some candied ginger. *Everyone* likes candied ginger. Especially if it's associated with nausea going away -- that's a pretty hard-wired rat-brain response, forming a positive association with things that abate nausea, just like foods associated with the beginning of nausea cause a super strong aversion. Lavender, lime and mint oils are also effective as aromatherapy, I think.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Madrid! That was nothing at all but grapes...it said wine, but it sure was grapes. Urd too, but everyone said that already.

I love fig but some of the blends just go crazy on me... Carnal was just completely and unmistakably dried figs stewed in orange juice -- this would be my pick for "the figgiest". Nemesis is the best thing ever, though. Fruity but not foody, dark, warm, herbal, gingery, totally badass. The notes in order of dominance: fig, cypress, ginger, tonka, everything else. Dragon's Heart is probably a good bet too, if you can wear dragon's blood, which I can't. Gomorrah just smelled funky and wrong...burnt, maybe, or mildewy? Not either really, but *wrong* somehow. Not sure what was wrong with it, but I could barely smell the fig. I couldn't find it in Hetairae (too floral), Hanging Gardens (too much stuff), Mata Hari (JASMINE), or The Apothecary (which was still really nice, actually, but smelled more like apples for some reason). (eta: Octopod speaking)

(Octopod; freebie received in a swap from tartchef) That's what this is -- spiced cider! There's a faint something else in there, maybe a floral -- not jasmine, not plumeria...what is it? Magnolia? Some kind of lily? and something a little dusty-grey-green which comes and goes which I can't possibly figure out... As to voodoo properties, I seem to be largely not susceptible to them (other than Fire of Love, that is, and I think that's just the civet), but we'll see what happens...I guess I've got some work I need to do today, so I'll see if this helps me get started on my research proposal or something.

(Kalirren) Octopod wanted to try this when it first came out because she loves the poem, but amber smells awful on her. So when Kalirren figured out it was good on him, this went straight on the communal wishlist. Wet, lots of fruits and something else which must be the amber. It's an unusually coherent scent, especially for BPAL; no one note sticks out at all. Either it fades quickly, though, or the nose just habituates to it. The fruits can't be distinguished, but there's probably fig and plum in there, plus some other unknown things. Strong, soft, round, and sweet (but not foody-sweet). It has more throw than you'd think from such a quiet scent. This one is a keeper for sure.

Haha, I knew I'd like this one. I wish there was a tiny bit more tobacco in here, but it's a really nice, solemn, sweet, dry incense scent. Can hardly detect the black pepper, but I think I can smell it in there somewhere. A few minutes later, the tobacco comes out more -- the same pipe tobacco smell from Perversion -- and now this is closer to what I was hoping for. This is in the family of Sri Lanka, Magus, and Kathmandu, but doesn't (thank goodness!) have galangal in it, and the tobacco makes it sweeter. I'll have to see how much I use this before I decide whether to buy a bottle.

Chibi: Vera Wang's Princess is "Water Lily, Lady Apple, Mandarin Meringue, Golden Apricot Skin, Ripe Pink Guava, Tahitian Flower, Wild Tuberose, Dark Chocolate, Pink Frosting Accord, Precious Amber, Forbidden Woods, Royal Musk Captive, Chiffon Vanilla." Tropical florals, fruits, and foods, mostly. Sort of thing that I avoid like crazy, but hopefully someone here knows this end of the BPAL catalogue better than I do, and can help you out. DarkBeauty28: For Escada Collection, you might try Three Brides, a Salon scent ("Moroccan rose, king mandarin, red sandalwood, Egyptian amber, orchid, carnation, benzoin, tonka, calla lily, vanilla flower"). Mata Hari ("five roses with soft jasmine, warmed by vanilla, fig, tonka bean and mahogany, spiced with a drop of coffee bean") sounds pretty good too, but doesn't have the sandalwood. kahmiel: It's described as a cinnamon scent but that's all I can get. Other than that, can you remember the rest of the scent -- was it foody? floral? spicy? woody? There are 18 BPALs that list cinnamon, and five more with cassia, so that's a whole lot of testing if you can't remember more than that.

Try Sri Lanka! You might really like it -- it's one of my favourites, and it's much like you describe. It's deep, sweet, and warm, and there's definitely some cedar going on in there.

(Kalirren's review) The apples in this all seem to come out at the beginning, and then it's pretty much hyacinth for the first ten minutes or so. A little whisper of dragon's blood comes out, and then it starts to pulse -- goes up and down in intensity, which is what it usually does. It's a strange note -- very different reactions on different people. All the florals and fruit soon volatilize completely, which leaves the pulsating dragon's blood as the only thing going on. After a while there's nothing left but a faint hint of white musk -- there aren't any base notes here to anchor the dragon's blood. A pleasant floral, but not terribly interesting in the final accounting.

We both got lemon too -- wonder where that's coming from? Odd. Kalirren: Lemony tea with rose. Itchy. Fades to a very, very faint rose, which is where it stays for quite a while. Octopod: Carnations and a bit of lemon. Reminiscent of a flower-seller's stand I remember in from a subway somewhere...I wasn't very tall, and it was autumn. Hm, Proustian memory. This is a very innocent, delicate, pretty scent, with enough tea to give it a bit of strength but no base note to speak of, which is probably the reason why it has almost no staying powder. On me, though, it turns into a faint tea rather than a faint rose, but still almost absent.

(Octopod) Well, I've been coveting this one for ages, ever since it went up, and now I've tried it. I was hoping for more dirt, honestly, but this is still absolutely lovely. To begin with, it's the dirt -- the dusty dirt, like in Death Cap -- and pine which must be what passes for "snow", not that I'm complaining because it's good stuff. This sharpess gradually fades into the background as the myrrh shows up from underneath and sweetens it up, and several hours in it's a very subdued, floaty, white scent, a little bit watery, almost ethereal. Really nice. It only lasts a little while, but I don't mind reapplying. But I still don't know what opoponax smells like, and I was hoping to find out. Oh well.

WOW. (Octopod:) I'd usually avoided foody scents on the basis that I didn't want to smell like cake unless I'd actually come by it honestly, i.e. made a cake, but got this as a freebie in my last order so I figured we should try it. So, yeah. It pretty much does what it says, on both of us. It's buttery, vanilla-y cakes with red currants -- no black currant. This is outrageously true to scent, and really yummy smelling. The only problem is that I still am not sure I want to smell like a cake, but I'll be keeping this anyhow just because it's so entertainingly, deliciously, bizarrely cakey. Better than any other foody scent I've sniffed.

The forks of the road: an in-between place, sacred and tangibly magickal in innumerable cultures and faiths. This scent is dark with mystery, taut with power. A chill twilit garden of blooms over dry earth and mosses, heavily laden with incense and offertory herbs. Kalirren: Complex herbal floral, blunt and piercing at the same time. All the layers are apparent: flowers, moss/herbs, incense. A little watery, maybe a tiny bit sour, but not jarringly so. Almost an old-fashioned lady's perfume, but somehow not quite. Probably the incense. At intervals rather soapy, but that goes away. Hurrah, jasmine wins! Probably sandalwood in there too; somewhat reminiscent of Dragon's Bone, but more subdued. This is a great perfume looking for a context. If I were sixteen and female I would wear this to school every day; as it is, I'm not sure when I'll wear it but it's just too good not to keep. Lovely stuff. Octopod: Damn, there's jasmine in this, isn't there? There go my chances of smelling anything else. Jasmine goes BOOM.

Does what it says on the tin. This is extremely true to description on both of us. We get different proportions of apricot to patchouli -- fruitier on me, patchouli-er on him -- but it's still basically exactly what it says. Pleasant, but not really what either of us is looking for.

Kalirren: Wet: Ooh. Nice. The sage volatilizes immediately. This is like a traditional cologne but sweeter. Vanilla keeps the cedar down but not for long…we can wait it out. After it volatilizes completely, what's left is an unusual version of some rather standard cologne formulation. Reminds Kalirren of his father's cologne. I can see why; it's a mature dignified gentleman's perfume, a "professor-at-tea" sort of smell. Lovely but a bit out of character. Still, keeping it because it's just so good, and lasts so long...maybe he'll have to be respectable sometimes and want to smell like this. Octopod: Vanilla, with something sneaking around underneath. And then it disappears almost completely. :-( A faint something there, cedar and vanilla? white musk?, but barely anything really. Almost no throw or staying power, unfortunatel.

Octopod: Wet: Some kind of wood, sweet spices. Powdery -- reminiscent of Morocco. And then…eeeew. Sour amber yuck. I was afraid of that, based on people's descriptions. Amber is sour stinky DOOM. Kalirren: Wet: Lemony! Dry: at first, straight-up Celestial Seasonings. Two scents eventually vanish, leaving something much better. Now it's a sweet incensey smell. Is this what amber is supposed to smell like? After 3-4 minutes, it's a bit reminiscent of citrus, but without the sourness. Sweet resins and spices. Eventually...what is fake sandalwood incense made of? This smells a lot like that fake money for burning at Chinese New Year.

Octopod: Flowery soap, all the way. Unfortunate. Kalirren: Nice. At first, this smells like a really spicy floral -- like a rack of flowers in an Indian grocery. This phase is really nice but doesn't last; the spices coalesce into straight orris, reminiscent of Dragon's Bone, which isn't a bad thing at all. Eventually the dry notes disappear and it's left as a really nice floral -- not a soapy one, but real fresh juicy flowers. This one is going to turn into aftershave for sure.

Well, we didn't get anything spicy at all. Kalirren: Baby lotion? Baby lotion! Good baby lotion, but still. Disappears really fast. Octopod: SOAP! FLOWERS! Guest-room rose-scented soap, like you’d find in seaside trinket shops. Eventually turns into a really well-made French rose soap I used to have, but still...it's soap.

Octopod: This is vetiver and patchouli most of the way. Ylang ylang emerges for a little bit, becoming quite strong, then dissipates. Smells like the inside of a sauna for probably an hour or two. No sign of the orange, ever. When the vetiver finally dies down, the ylang ylang is still there, and the scents are finally balanced. When this happens, it's pretty awesomely old-school gothy smelling, but probably won't want to wait for it. Kalirren: VETIVER. Drying down: VETIVER. Eventually the orange (sweet orange, like in Xiuhtecuhtli) shows up a little bit. Overall: smells like Chinese herbal tea, which is possibly a good thing if you want to smell like Chinese herbal tea.

Double review. Octopod: Smelled like I'd been wearing a big fur coat all day, one that had been stored on cedar. Distinctly animal, plus cedar and some sort of sweetness. After I washed it off it didn't go away but rather smelled better, which indicates that I should probably dilute this in a carrier oil and then it'll be good. It was pretty overpowering, and I only put on a tiny dab. On the upside, though, if this has civet it means I can wear civet without smelling like pee or halitosis, which would be an interesting thing. Kalirren: Smells like a horse! So Kalirren typically has a personal smell a bit like a little furry animal. This turns him BIG. Big and stinky. Must be civet; I don’t think there's anything else that smells like a big furry animal with bad breath. And the weirdest part is that he can't smell it. We can both smell that funky animal smell blending into his natural body scent, but it stands out tremendously at some point in there to Octopod but not to him. Is this a sex thing, or do we just have weird noses? In any case, no more civet for this cat.

Aramis sounds a bit like Dracul, which is similar in feel to me also. Wilde is a bit like that too, but with a floral (jasmine) added, and no clove.

This perfume is so absolutely perfect on my boyfriend that I gave him my bottle, even though I like it a lot. I didn't find myself wearing it all that much, surprisingly. I think it's not butch enough for me for an everyday scent. It goes to this lovely springy scent, iridescent yellow lime and sweet pale-purple flowers, and apparently white musk is gorgeous on him (it kinda disappears on me). Funny thing is, it's not even particularly cologney or masculine, nor does it have that "evil" edge that people here are talking about. On him, it smells just exactly that sort of genteel that he is. It's just a very clear, gentle, lighthearted, quirky, polite smell -- all adjectives that describe him, too. He says he wants to wear it to a picnic, but I suspect he's going to end up wearing it all the time.

Mm, I think Cottonmouth is from Carnaval Diabolique -- I don't think you can get it in imp size from the Lab. You might be able to snag a decant off someone, though.