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BPAL Madness!

filigree_shadow

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Posts posted by filigree_shadow


  1. At first this smells mainly like lemon, but that fades into a strong floral. I can't really smell any sandalwood, which is too bad. I think there's some musk under there, but the florals are so strong I can't really tell much.

     

    I do think this is pretty, but it's not my style. Too floral for me.


  2. I am trouting myself because of La Fee Verte. :P

     

    At least three imps of this have come through my swap box, and I only held onto one of them because the first time I tried it I didn't like it. But I've tried it again tonight... and damnit, I'm gonna need a bottle. I can't believe I swapped away those other two imps, like an idiotic carefree fool.

     

    I have no idea what I think this smells like, some sort of honey sweet spicy white musk combination... whatever it is, it works. And how.


  3. My very first reaction to this was "pee-yoo." A pungent floral.

     

    But it's growing on me. I've tried it three times now, and every time I don't like it at first but I think it's quite pleasant when it's dry. It has a floral scent to it, but there's also a sweet fruity note in it. I'm not sure which one, but it doesn't really smell like berries or melons. And I wouldn't say it's citrus, either.

     

    It's an unusual scent, kind of bright for what I pictured as appropriate for Baba Yaga. It's not disgusting or ugly, and it doesn't smell rotten. It also doesn't make me think of giant chicken feet, which is what I was afraid of.


  4. This is a sharp floral on me, something like gardenia, but that's not it. Yellow. It definitely has a perfumey quality to it. For some reason the scent reminds me of a very viscous shampoo that I used when I was a kid -- something like Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo. I know I've smelled this floral scent before, but I can't place it. It's making me feel nostalgic, which is why I think it's something from my childhood.


  5. I love Voodoo Queen! It smells like a sweet, resiny incense. Dark and brooding. It gets powdery after a while but retains that sweet scent.

     

    I looked at the other reviews that say it's like pickles, Smut, Gypsy Queen, florals... it smells nothing like any of that on me.


  6. Lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker’s perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli.

     

    Vixen reminds me quite a lot of Dior's Poison, which was my signature scent throughout college -- but it's better. It smells exactly like the description says it does.

     

    I love patchouli, ginger, and orange blossom -- those three were some of the few notes that I already knew I liked before I found BPAL. So this was one of the first BPAL oils I ever tried. Vixen is a dark color in the imp, and it stains my skin when I put it on. After trying lots of BPAL oils, I now know that both of those things indicate that I'll love the scent of the oil. And I looooooooove Vixen. :P

     

    Vixen has been on my list of favorites since the beginning and I expect it always will be. Whenever I smell it I am transported back in time to the evening I first tried it, when I was in total awe that anything could ever smell that good. There's nothing quite like BPAL newbieness, and Vixen brings it back to me.

     

     

     

    ETA: Lab's description.


  7. At first, pepper. But that was for about three seconds. Then a very bright and juicy fruit scent came up quick and shared the spotlight with pepper and tea. I thought it was an odd scent, and a little jarring. I sniffed it again 15 minutes later and that weird discordant pepper note was gone -- it's mostly just bright fruit. This is an interesting scent, but I don't imagine I'd ever reach for this imp instead of other ones that I truly love.


  8. While the scent is strong, it's quite herby and green. Reminds me of Irish Spring soap and dryer sheets. It smells bright, clean, and fresh. It ends up (after an hour or two) smelling like a faint green floral. So when it's strong it's herby, and when it's faint it's floral. Interesting.


  9. At first I can mainly smell the dirt, but it has a very sweet floral overtone. It turns into a sweet floral with a really lush, rich background. It smells humid to me and reminds me of a hothouse. This might be the only GC blend with a dirt note that I would wear. (I specified GC because I sometimes wear Queen of Clubs.)

     

    It has good throw for only a couple of hours, but it remains faint several hours later.


  10. The first scent I can pick out in this is mint. Then it turns into a sweet boozey scent with the barest bit of mint... blends like this are what makes BPAL the paragon of perfume excellence that it is. I have never smelled anything like this. It's like springtime, but it's a fun spring day -- like one of the days when you have a few drinks with good friends and you all end up skinny-dipping in the lake.

     

    The scent that I can tell is bourbon reminds me of my grandmother, which is kind of weird. Makes me wonder if Grandma was in the habit of taking a nip from a hip flask when I wasn't looking.

     

    Wears close to the skin; not a lot of throw.

     

    ETA: And this is why you should always test frimps from the Lab... I got one of Juke Joint recently, and I remembered that it wasn't for me. I tested it again today, and wow! I think it smells wonderful! My tastes have changed in 15 years since I first tried it.


  11. At first this scent is too much lemon for me, but it seems like a sweet lemon, not a tart lemon. Kind of like those candy lemon drops. When it's dry, a green herbiness emerges, but it's still sweet. The grapefruit is doing something funky to it when it's dry -- I can still mostly smell lemon, but it's got a little twang to it. A bit of discord.

     

    I think this would be a good scent for people who like lemon and herbs.


  12. At first it's a juicy bright fruit with dark amber that's going a little bit powdery. After a while the brightness of the fruit darkens quite a bit. And then it starts to smell kind of like Good & Plenty candy.

     

    I can tell that this is a great scent, but my skin is making a mess of it. Ah well. I'm sure this imp will find some love with someone else.

     

    ETA: I tried this again a few days later and got something else entirely. (I'm blaming hormones.) The second time, it was mostly perfumey amber that doesn't go powdery, and the dark fruits aren't starting to smell like rotten fruit. It's dark, ambery, and only very slightly fruity. Fades pretty fast though; it's almost completely gone in an hour, and only a trace of amber is left.


  13. Sweeter than I expected at first, then the vanilla takes over, and finally the amber seems to dominate when dry. The sweet pea is very soft. The vanilla doesn't make this smell foody at all, to my nose. Mmm, this is lovely. The amber isn't going to powder, either.

     

    I think all vanilla and amber fans should try this one.


  14. Started out smelling like a strong floral. Little bit of grapefruit underneath, but mainly floral. I didn't smell any ginger at all at first, but it came out a little later.

     

    I'm not a big floral fan under that best of circumstances, and floral with grapefruit isn't really my style. I think the blend is very pretty and would be stunning on the right person. That person isn't me, though. Baobhan Sith makes me think of someone who is graceful, poised, feminine... and I'm a klutzy dork in a Sisters of Mercy t-shirt and clompy shoes. So, yeah... not me.


  15. Mint. Mint that gives me a headache if my nose is too close to it. It smells cool, yes, and I'm sure this is great for some people... but I feel like it's boring into my sinuses like menthol. Not particularly pleasant. *gurgle* 'Fraid this one's for swaps.

     

    ETA: After about 2 hours it smells like dryer sheets. An improvement over the menthol-mint thing, but still not my cup-o-tea.


  16. I normally avoid anything with grapefruit or lavender, but I think Cheshire Cat is lovely. It's a little overwhelmingly grapefruity for the first couple of minutes, but then the chamomille kicks in and balances it out. It has just a hint of lavender, which is amazing since lavender usually amps to unreasonable levels on my skin. It smells smooth and bright, crisp and shiny. Playful. I would love to take a bath in this.

     

    And this is the reason why I should always try a BPAL blend even if I don't think it'll work for me.


  17. Mmmm, currant. I'm getting mainly currant out of this with a little bit of vanilla underneath. I'm kind of surprised it doesn't smell cakey to me, since it smells like cake to other reviewers.

     

    The currant smells yummy, and the vanilla underneath gives it a creaminess that balances out the tart currant beautifully. Very well done! I'll be needing a bottle of this.


  18. I get a lot of pineapple at first with some butteriness underneath. Pineapple toffee? It's a little odd... but then the pineapple kind of fades away and there's a buttery dough scent left. Toast with maybe a little bit of jam. Some sort of unusual fruit jam. I think I'll have to give it another try before I make up my mind.

     

    Also, it's pretty faint; I'd have to put a lot on to really notice it.

     

    ETA: Something about this smells perfumey to me. I'm not sure why, but it does. I thought it would be mainly foody, but that's not what it smells like on me.


  19. I know lots of people went nuts over Eat Me and Drink Me in the last update, but The King of Hearts was the one I was most looking forward to because of the red musk (:P). I was a little worried about the lavender, but I figured "just a spark" meant it would barely be noticeable.

     

    Alas.

     

    Wet it smells like lavender. Strongly. Of course whenever I try anything with lavender in it I walk around in a little lavender cloud, so I don't know why I thought this would be different. Just hopeful, I guess. When it's dry it smells like a woody white musk but it still has the lavender undertone. It's kind of nice but very faint.

     

    My beloved red musk apparently went scurrying off in horror from the lavender. I can't smell it AT ALL. Couldn't really detect any rose or cherry either. Argh, my treacherous skin chemistry strikes again!

     

    Oh well, I guess I'll pass this over to the hubby and see what his skin does with it. He can wear lavender just fine, the lucky duck.

     

    Oh, and I agree with slave1, very short wear length.


  20. The Lab's description nailed it. That's exactly what it smells like.

     

    Wet, it's mostly salty water but it changes quickly into a spicy floral (spicy florals always make me think of carnation, but I'm not sure if that's what this is) with an aquatic scent underneath. It doesn't smell mainly like water with a little bit of floral, it's mainly floral with a little bit of water. If that makes any sense.

     

    Also, it's quite light. Aquatics tend to be bold on my skin and they usually smell masculine to me, but this one is not like that at all. Also, before I got this I was expecting it to be sort of like Ophelia, and this doesn't remind me anything at all of Ophelia.

     

    It's interesting. I can't recall smelling anything like this before. Very pretty.


  21. At first it was strong, but that phase fades pretty quickly. If you think it smells too bold or powerful at first, give it 15-20 minutes.

     

    Dry, it smells mainly like tea and sandalwood on my skin, with a woody floral scent over the top (I'm guessing that's the cherry blossom, but I don't really know what that smells like on its own). I am a dragon's blood fiend, and I can barely tell it's in this.

     

    Very complex. Sometimes when I sniff it I think it smells a bit aquatic, sometimes it smells woody. Sometimes it even smells perfumey. Even though I'm not sure what it smells like, I am sure that I like it a lot.

     

    Also, the label is gorgeous. :P


  22. I can't comment on the scent because I don't remember what it smelled like. I used it last night while I was studying for my physics exam (which is today at 6:00 pm).

     

    The problem is that I was awake until 4:30 this morning because I couldn't shut my mind off. I just kept thinking. And thinking. I had to actually mentally tell myself to concentrate on SLEEP in order to fall asleep. So I would recommend caution when using this oil.


  23. Scent: There is an astringent pine or lemon scent to this oil at first. Over time it becomes more smoky, but I still don't think it smells particularly seductive. After more than an hour, there was definitely a Snake Oil-like scent to it, in that powdery spicy way.

     

    Effect: I have used this oil twice now for a specific purpose, and both times the person appeared to be a little nervous near me, which is unusual. He seemed to be slightly unsure of himself. I should mention that the person is not a stranger, but he is someone I share a close friendship with, the kind that has an easy and natural affection associated with it. Or, at least, it used to. We've grown a bit distant, and I'm not happy about that. I miss the affection, and I know it was based on a mutual attraction, which is why I got a bottle of Queen of the Nile instead of Euphony. However, since the desired effect is not happening, I think this means I need to use Euphony for now and work on the affection later. I think I was a bit too impatient with my intent... which is probably what was making him nervous.

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