pekeana

If I had to compare Justice to another scent in the BPAL catalogue, I would definitely have to say it's the older, wiser sibling of Embalming Fluid. They have similar overall scents to them, and I think they share a common aloe or tea note, but whereas Embalming Fluid can be screechingly loud and obnoxious at times, Justice stays soft, subtle, and even-keel, gently turning people to its own wiles. It's definitely a good balancing scent, and I feel much calmer wearing it.

Moscow is rose and bergamot in the vial, to my nose. I put it on and exploded into a huge red rash. Alas, Moscow hates me.

Thalia is all sparkling and happy in the vial. Then she hits my skin and becomes floral booze. And not an endurable floral booze, like Swank. Oh no, this is bright, in your face, and screams bloody murder when you won't pay attention to it. My allergies are rebelling in a big way. *sneezes convulsively*

*sigh* Brisingamen on me = bitter floral powder. End of review.

Black Pearl is nice enough in the vial. But once it hits me, it becomes a drying, rotting iris with bitter, disgusting burnt nut smell that turns me off so much that it wasn't even on for thirty seconds before I washed it off (after becoming physically ill from the scent).

Dorian is sex. Pure and simple. When I put it on, there's a smack of woody lavender and sugar, then it mellows out into a slightly musky, slightly lemony sugared tea with very soft floral undertones. The first few moments are extremely masculine, then Dorian becomes almost feminine in his seduction of my skin. Truly a very sexy metrosexual kind of a guy. Totally a 10ml purchase.

Juke Joint smells like a cross between Helping Hand and Laudanum. Alas, it's very powdery, not very boozy, and the mint goes bye-bye very quickly on me.

Aglaea is very sharp. I don't get a lot of peach, it's just kind of hiding around the edges, laughing and giggling at the amber and myrtle, which are duking it out. The musk comes up from behind and seduces the peach whilst she's gossiping about the catfight between the amber and myrtle. Mostly, it's a sharp resinous floral with a touch of sweet, fruity musk on my skin. I really like it, but it's far subtler a scent than I usually go for.

Oh. My. God. In the bottle, Chaste Moon smells like freshly-churned sweet butter, with just a hint of herbal floral to it. On my skin, it keeps the warm, thick sweet buttery scent, but a lot more of the floral comes up and balances it out. It's a sexily sweet, warm, divine blend. It's got a hint of butterscotch scent to it around the edges of the sweet butter/cream, but in general, it's just a warm, thick, sweet and creamy floral. I love it, and I hate florals.

Mata Hari has coffee as a predominant note.

Old Morocco starts off very biting, but as it ages, it becomes much creamier and rich like in most imps. Part of the problem is that oils age prematurely in the clear glass imps -- there's no light filtration in imps as opposed to bottles. My recommendation is to stop up your bottle and let it sit a month without touching it, then open it up and see how much better it is to your nose, then decide whether or not to close it again. And go like that. I did that with Gingerbread Poppet to age the molasses note, and now it's utterly fantastic. It took about 5 months to age it to the point I could wear it and recognize it as my happy, joyous Poppet!

This was a slightly woody floral. It wasn't unappealing, but I'm not a big floral person. It would be good if I could get over my aversion to florals, though. No one floral note really stood out to me -- the combined floral effect seemed at once metallic and milky, all with a woody undertone.

I had a guy tell me that Sacred Whore smells good. Of course, he's a gardener, so he'd think florals are good.

Musk, flowers, and sugary-powdery-sweet fruity. The Living Flame is nothing if not floral Sweet Tarts to me.

Nemesis reminds me of some other BPALs -- Wolf Moon, Yereven, and (somewhat) Urd. Actually, it smells like all of those thrown together and beaten with a stick. Badda-bing, badda-boom. It's deep and sticky sweet with an undercurrent of darkness and judicious malice. There is intent in this oil, perhaps the first BPAL oil in which I've sensed intent. It's strong and firm, not at all gentle. And, after a while, it starts to turn into sticky sweet pencil shavings. ALAS!

In the vial, Delirium is all lemon and floral. Once on my skin, it stays lemon for quite a while, then floral comes up behind it and it all starts smelling very traditional-perfumey. In fact, my mother swears up and down that Avon had a scent similar to this when she was younger. It's nice enough, kind of fruity and rosy and smoky all at once. But it's not something I'll keep because rose is just too chancy on my skin.

Hello, leather! Dead Man's Hand is a leather jacket, warm and smelling like a good man.

Beyond those you've mentioned (and Snake Oil is a FABULOUS power scent -- I wear it to work when my bosses come in), I definitely think you should try Lady Macbeth. If you can get past the initial "whoa, wine!" scent, it dries down into a softly sweet but eminantly strong, firm scent that screams power and a manic grip on control.

I kind of like Urd, kind of don't like it... In the vial, it's very, very sweet, but with a tang of patchouli that makes me wince and swallow a little harder. Once on my skin, it smells kind of fruity-sweet on top of a base of patchouli, almost like "Hi, I'm eating Sweet Tarts while lighting up some patchouli, man..." Yeah. After a while, it's almost all patchouli, but it's not the dirty hippie kind of patchouli -- it's the warmer, softer red kind. And it kind of reminds me of the smell of Black Broom -- kind of patchouli, kind of other incensey, kind of BPAL generic and other oils all mixed together and all of that. It's not bad, but I'm not sure I'll keep it because patchouli isn't my friend in any way.

Yuletide is mostly green -- very, very, extremely green. It has a touch of cinnamon, but not the craft-store type of cinnamon. More the mulling spice type of cinnamon. It rests on my skin and goes slightly soapy from the greenery, but it's saved by the cinnamon. Thanks to pkwench for letting me try it!

Seven African Powers is green, herbal, woody, strong, and slightly spearminty. Something in the combination has a similar scent to High John The Conquerer, but a slightly bitter version. There's also something light floral, almost powdery here. It's dark and deep, but surprisingly light and pulls you in. Alas, the woods are turning me off, and this bottle will be going away to live with a nice girl who invokes the powers and protection of the Orishas.

Love Me is creamy, green, and slightly spicy. I smell grasses/herbs, something vanilla-floral-milky, and gentle, soft cinnamon. Alas, this is only after about 5 hours of having it on. Before now, it's all been green as can be, and whoa, so strong.

My mother said Eclipse smells like original Jergen's.

CCNow authorizes your account for the full amount of purchase, then after a week or so, drops the authorization and doesn't pull the money until the Lab pulls your order for processing. This can take up to 3-4 weeks sometimes. Paypal takes less than a week, in most cases; credit card, balance, or bank withdrawl.

From what I've been led to understand, Paypal has lower fees than CCNow. So, you're putting a little bit more money into the Lab's pockets if you use PayPal as opposed to CCNow, but it's all personal preference as to how you order.