StrangeLove

I've become exceptionally fussy in my love of perfumes, so its rare that I get something and feel any way towards it. I like foody scents but don't like smelling like them, and LOVE floral scents, but mostly they turn to soap or "grandma" on me. My favorite BPAL scents are Abhisarika and Swan Maiden, which share "orchid" as a note. That in mind, I decided to spring for a bottle Christine without having smelled it. I'm very glad I did. Christine is the most "perfumish" of the perfumes I have. Something in here smells very expensive. I'm not familiar with the "Swedish" florals of linnea borealis, hoya, and Phyteuma nigra, so perhaps its one of these. However, This "perfume" note is simply an underscore to this fragrance, which is predominantly orchid on me. The frankincense is, luckily, very mellow. In the bottle: First sniff is fresh and both perfumey and soapy to my chagrin. Smells startlingly like fresh blooms after several inhales. I get the impression of honeysuckle and white petals. Wet: Soap goes away, sweet comes through strongly. I'm guessing it's the vanilla orchid. My skin pulls sweet so this on me is about as sweet as a floral can get while still smelling like a flower and not food. This particular orchid is hot and humid and gives up its fragrance accordingly. Dry: Frankincense mellowly(almost meekly) evens out any remaining sharpness. The "expensive perfume" notes come out to play with the orchid more. Exceptionally powerful sillage, a little goes a long, long way. Summary: Christine smells very expensive and very evocative of something... darker. It's a young perfume, but also very deep and not to be worn lightly. It reminds me of both Abhisarika and Swan Maiden, the latter of which has the stronger orchid note. Naturally, Christine is an immediate favorite. Its depth and intensity make this a night-time perfume, so I'll probably wear it accordingly.

I purchased this as an Urban Outfitters exclusive, where the description is: "a luscious floral with predominant notes with tuberose, lily of the valley, and gardenia". I'm not sure if this is different from the original(the actual perfume, not the description) or not, but I'm in love with this perfume. I've kind of dropped off the face of the BPAL world, becoming disenchanted with fragrance in general. I kept(read: hoarded) just a few scents that I was absolutely in love with, and that was that. I'm not sure what got me to buy Sweet Life, but I'm happy I have a whole bottle. Wet, it's kind of like a smack in the face with wet gardenia, which was kind of shocking and disappointing to me. It tempers down to creamy, dreamy florals reminiscent of silken petals and just as silken skin. I don't get "soap" at all, and I LOATHE soap/"fresh"/perfume scents. Way to get me re-hooked on BPAL!

In the vial: fruity cream, warm and yummy. On my skin: ewwww. Tart, cloying grapefruit and some other obscenely sweet thing. After awhile, this turns into Fruity Pebbles exactly, which isn't so bad, but not really good, either. Later still, the clotted cream and pear come out to play, but I still smell grapefruit. It is a less sickening version of the sadly atrocious Mi-Go brain cannister. Meh.

She herself had short red hair and a face which was not so much freckled as one big freckle with occasional areas of skin. Pepper's given first names were Pippin Galadriel Moonchild. She had been given them in a naming ceremony in a muddy valley field that contained three sick sheep and a number of leaky polythene teepees. Her mother had chosen the Welsh valley of Pant y Gyrdl as the ideal site to Return to Nature. (Six months later, sick of the rain, the mosquitoes, the men, the tent trampling sheep who ate first the whole commune's marijuana crop and then its antique minibus, and by now beginning to glimpse why almost the entire drive of human history has been an attempt to get as far away from Nature as possible, Pepper's mother returned to Pepper's surprised grandparents in Tadfield, bought a bra, and enrolled in a sociology course with a deep sigh of relief.) There are only two ways a child can go with a name like Pippin Galadriel Moonchild, and Pepper had chosen the other one: the three male Them had learned this on their first day of school, in the playground, at the age of four. They had asked her her name, and, all innocent, she had told them. Subsequently a bucket of water had been needed to separate Pippin Galadriel Moonchild's teeth from Adam's shoe. Wensleydale's first pair of spectacles had been broken, and Brian's sweater needed five stitches. The Them were together from then on, and Pepper was Pepper forever, except to her mother, and (when they were feeling especially courageous, and the Them were almost out of earshot) Greasy Johnson and the Johnsonites, the village's only other gang. Wild English roses, French gardenia, vanilla, honey, golden ginger, blood orange, pine resin, pink pepper, crushed berries, tuberose, bergamot, and geranium. I thought this was a mistake when I saw this, or that Beth was bringing the single notes back. I wondered why, of all things, she'd bring up PEPPER. Goes to show how much I know! Pepper is a mix of pepper, of course, ginger, and either cinnamon or cardamom(my nose was too overloaded to decide). Complex, spicy, warm, with a touch of non-foody sweetness. Something I wouldn't try if given the notes, but actually beautiful. This is close to, but also superior to Shub-Niggurath(the original extra gingery 2005 blend was better, I mean the newer version), just has pepper in it. Interesting and one of the more unique BPAL scents, for sure.

THE IFRIT The taxi driver comes out of the shower, wet, with a towel wrapped around his midsection. He is not wearing his sunglasses, and in the dim room his eyes burn with scarlet flames. Salim blinks back tears. "I wish you could see what I see," he says. "I do not grant wishes," whispers the ifrit, dropping his towel and pushing Salim gently, but irresistibly, down onto the bed. Desert sand, red musk, blackened ginger, dragon's blood resin, black pepper, cinnamon, and tobacco. I cannot honestly place notes in this one. All I can say is-- its light and airy, perfectly suited to its name(Ifrits are sort of India's vampires or Middle Eastern fire spirits-- supposed to be boney and wispy). Reminds me a lot of Dreamland. A light floral with just enough grounding notes. One of my overall favourites at willcall, out of the whole sniffable lab! Ifrit is a perfect summer or spring scent. I can detect perhaps white rose and something sweet on drydown. MAYBE lightest incense. Nothing spicy or resiny or strong, though. As I said before, definitely airy. Great throw, though. Crossing my fingers for this one! IMPORTANT UPDATE: SInce both this and Pepper have been released, I've noticed that my reviews of Ifrit and Pepper are in REVERSE!`

SNOW, GLASS, APPLES She said nothing. Her eyes were black as coal, black as her hair; her lips were redder than blood. She looked up at me and smiled. Her teeth seemed sharp, even then, in the lamplight. "What are you doing away from your room?" "I'm hungry," she said, like any child. It was winter, when fresh food is a dream of warmth and sunlight; but I had strings of whole apples, cored and dried, hanging from the beams of my chamber, and I pulled an apple down for her. "Here." Autumn is the time of drying, of preserving, a time of picking apples, of rendering the goose fat. Winter is the time of hunger, of snow, and of death; and it is the time of the midwinter feast, when we rub the goose-fat into the skin of a whole pig, stuffed with that autumn's apples, then we roast it or spit it, and we prepare to feast upon the crackling. She took the dried apple from me and began to chew it with her sharp yellow teeth. "Is it good?" She nodded. I had always been scared of the little princess, but at that moment I warmed to her and, with my fingers, gently, I stroked her cheek. She looked at me and smiled -- she smiled but rarely -- then she sank her teeth into the base of my thumb, the Mound of Venus, and she drew blood. I began to shriek, from pain and from surprise; but she looked at me and I fell silent. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is thrilled to present a numbered, limited edition chapbook of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed short story, Snow, Glass, Apples, beautifully illustrated by Julie Dillon. Each package includes a 5ml bottle of perfume, created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, that was inspired by the tale. In Neil's words, 'It smells like green apples and like sex and vampires, all at the same time. (Actually, it smells like sexy vampire apples.)' This set is a limited run of 1000. 250 were sold by CBLDF at San Diego Comic Con 2008, and the remainder are available through the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab web site. Snow, Glass, Apples will be available on the BPAL site as long as supplies last. This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single set go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which works to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. A million thanks and all our love to Neil, and to Charles Brownstein and his staff at the CBLDF! (Can't find another thread, but if this isn't the first, deepest apologies!) YUMMY. Juiciest apples(green and perhaps another sort, too), a sort of pale musk, and a touch of mint in bottle and freshly applied to the skin. Dries down to a sort of etherreal, glowing apple scent. Fruity but not too much so. A definite must-snag. A fruity scent for those who don't like fruity scents. Definitely a masterpiece, I'll be sad if this is never released! Mod note: This review references a Will-Call prototype scent.

Ahh, my love! *Heart palpitations* This is another thing destined to not be popular that I LOVE. It reminds me of Dia De Los Muertos 05(my absolute favourite BPAL scent along with Shub) in sentiment and complexity, only lighter and less heady. In the bottle, and freshly applied on my skin, it smells pretty much like the description. Within minutes the musk, cocoa, and allspice are dominating. Upon drydown, I end up with a beautiful, slightly sweet but far from cloying well balanced light musk/dragon's blood and slight spice blend with just a sprinkle of true cocoa and a slight mist of vetiver. Unlike my beloved DDLM, this dries down light enough to wear in spring and summer no matter how/where I apply, but retains just a touch of headiness to garner curiosity when someone gets a whiff of me. Only problem? The throw is kind of lame and it wears away kind of quickly, so again unlike DDLM, I have to reapply this one. Which could be a good thing, since I've hoarded so many bottles that I worry about them going bad before I can use them. Absolutely lovely. If you're looking for a light oriental, TTH is definitely what you seek.

This smells to me, no matter what I do with it, of a White Castle burger soaked in cheap perfume with a sharp lashing of old-lady rose and put out on a porch in hot summer rain, only to be left to slowly melt into some disgusting pile of goo. The lavendar in this is unpleasant and lends it that White Castle/wet dog note and ups the amp of the rose. The musk makes it smell like something humid(the dog?!), reminds me of a girl in highschool who never bathed but constantly reapplied cheap white musk. The incense emphasizes this, badly. I don't smell orchid at all. My skin is very tolerant of scents, and things seldom if ever turn unpleasant on me. I'm picky, but I've never had a BPAL scent that made me reel back in utter disgust like Psyche did. I've never really had a scent in such a small dose(a drop dabbed in the crook of my arm). As I type this, my head is THROBBING. All I can say is WOW. I feel like I need to be shot and put out of my misery right now.