urbantravels

A claustrophobic thicket of yew, cypress, and drooping oak grown wild with dense mounds of bittersweet nightshade, gleaming white foxglove, creeping black ivy, clusters of marshy false morel and fly agaric, and a smear of crushed, overripe baneberries. I appear to be the first reviewer - I wish I had a more profound review to contribute! I generally tend to like the "green" and woodsy blends, and I'm enjoying this one, though I don't feel it's really dramatically different from similar BPALs, such as Bayou. (Though I don't own any Bayou and sniffed it just once a long time ago, so I'm not sure the comparison is valid.) To me, the florals predominate somewhat, with the nightshade note reminding me a lot of the angel's trumpet from Rapunzel (angel's trumpet is a nightshade). But whereas Rapunzel has a more simple green backdrop, Verdant Decay brings in the cypress/yew evergreen resins, and the "mushroomy" note that, indeed, smells a lot like real mushrooms to me. The cypress/yew did not jump out at me at first but emerged more on dry-down. (Bear in mind, though, that I have a high threshold for resinous woods.) I like this; not sure I need a bottle. I like most of the notes here but it's seeming like the mushrooms might be a little too far front in the long run. To me they're more "foody" mushrooms and not quite in harmony with the mood of the other notes. I'll ponder further.

I think this is my favorite of the Ligeias I've sampled and may need to get a bottle. I absolutely do not get "bubblegum" or anything sugary or candy-like. What I do get is a warmly sweet, complex, spicy sandalwood blend. I don't smell anything that smells like actual pink pepper, so maybe "pink pepper" is a conceptual note.

Yes, I was able to find them on the website and see that they are discontinued. My question is whether they are gone for good. Does anyone know the story?

I can't afford to have a BPAL habit all the time, so I tune in and out of the update situation for months on end. I must have missed something, but what became of all the Panacea oils? Only TKO seems to have survived, presumably because it's a "beloved favorite" and a heavy seller. Are all the rest discontinued for good? (Oof, Ugh, Grr, etc.)

Since this one is still available for the time being, I thought I'd share the love. This blend is very comforting and homey and "me" in the sense that I was once a young gardener growing herbs all on my own (I was in charge of the yard from about age 12 so I conducted my own experiments out there. Did mostly everything wrong, but I had lots of fun.) The intention really comes through as a little girl who loves flowers and herbs and wants to make people feel better. There is a good balance between floral and herbal. I love both carnation and lavender, but this really isn't a heavy lavender and for me the carnation mostly stands in front of it, with the greener herbal notes freshening everything up. I can't pick out the ginger per se and I don't know what blessed thistles smell like. The honey isn't overwhelming but serves mostly to sweeten up the flowers a bit. I'm definitely getting the chamomile, which is just as subtle and comforting as chamomile should be and helps keeps the overall impression from getting gooey. The chocolate peppermint does a tricky thing - my bionic nose would definitely sniff out any hint of peppermint and usually I get none in this blend - but then I'll be going about my business and suddenly get a little whiff of chocolate out of nowhere (there's no chocolate in the house, so what the heck is that? OH. This is nice for me, because sweet candy notes are NOT my thing in general but this is subtle and intermittent.) This is a simple blend but definitely not simple-minded - there's some morphing and playfulness going on.

TKO also costs a bit more, being a Panacea, so that's something to bear in mind. Someone used to cheap candles and oils might burn through (literally) a lot of expensive BPAL if they're not careful! (Says she who finally got an oil burner and now realizes she needs a good eyedropper or pipette to avoid accidentally drowning 2/3 of a perfectly good imp at one go. ) Lavender is a very diverse genus; there are dozens of different species and the oils have different qualities. BPAL must have a line on some really good stuff from uncommon sources. It is certainly a revelation to people who are only used to the cheap stuff (or, God forbid, fake lavender). I like all kinds of lavender, even the cheap essential oil I keep around to throw in the laundry and what not, but BPAL's lavenders are very sophisticated.

What kind of pepper? Black pepper and pink pepper are totally unrelated plants. There's a good dozen other "peppers" out there because it's a name applied to anything sharp-tasting, but I don't think most of them are BPAL notes. Calocylas says it's a black pepper note; VILF lists pink pepper. I haven't tried either. The only pepper note I think I've got is in [Redacted] Dragon, a Lilith/Pickman Gallery LE from spring of this year. which is listed as pink pepper. I'm actually not crazy about {Redacted] Dragon; the pink pepper seems to add a musty sharp-unpleasant note, which is probably compounded by the presence of vetiver, even though on paper I should like all the other notes:

A thought I had. I'm a bit of a newbie myself. It took me a while on these forums to realize that people talk about limited editions from years ago in the same breath with GC oils. When you're talking to a newbie and making recommendations, I really think it would be courteous to say which recommendations are GC and which are old LEs which would have to be purchased or swapped on the secondary market and which may be difficult to find or inflated in price. Searching out and collecting past LEs is its own thing and has its own kind of fun, but I don't think it's the starting place for most people, and it could be very frustrating for a newbie to try and find all these recommendations without realizing that they're far less accessible than GCs. We could also explain that GC means "general catalog" (available all the time barring supply problems and the occasional discontinuation) and LE means "limited edition" (available directly from BPAL for a limited time, and after that on a treasure-hunt basis if you can find someone who is reselling or swapping it.) This may be on a FAQ somewhere but it took me a while to sort it out.

Just got my bottle of this and I LOVE IT. I'll have to come back and add more coherent thoughts later. Definitely a MAPLE scent but not at all maple syrup or maple sugar - it's sweet but lightly so, doesn't have the carmelized/cooked notes of maple syrup. There is definitely something else in here - a light wood or flower note - that's adding to the impression of maple without actually being maple. I love woods to begin with, but this is so much lighter than most woods, and really does manage to give the impression of leafiness.

I have to tread carefully with any "sweet" notes. I don't like most sweet florals or any foodie/candy/baked goods type scents, and haven't had good luck with BPAL honey notes. But the description on this really intrigued me. And yes, it IS very sweet, but the beeswax scent is so real - in a sort of hyper-real way - that I don't object to the sweetness. I don't think I can pick out any "snuffed wick" notes. But the beeswax/honey itself gives such a "warm" impression that it's almost like flickering candlelight. Flickering candlelight FOR YOUR NOSE. I have no idea what other notes are supporting the beeswax - others have suggested vanilla, or sandalwood - but whatever else is in there it's not drawing attention to itself. I really like this close to the skin. Wore it to bed and it's lingering on my nightgown. Great for the enclosing darkness and cold of the season.

Damn you BPAL you may be converting me from my dislike of patchouli. I was never on the extreme loathing end of the scale -no over-exposure to bad patchouli on unwashed hippies - just didn't care for the stuff. But this... I like woods, spicy dark green notes, and some musks, so this seemed like a no-brainer. I forgot about the patchouli when I tested it. My first impression was a powerful reminder of Antikythera Mechanism and/or Araña, both of which I own. I could swear I got vanilla! But vanilla isn't listed in Oblivion. There must certainly be some wood notes in common, probably the oak, maybe teak? And "wood spice" could mean a lot of things. I don't have a clear mental picture of labdanum or saffron, but I think I can pick out the saffron. My skin really likes this musk, and the patchouli is really behaving itself nicely here. Reminds me of shopping at Pier 1 when I was a kid and it hadn't yet had its 80s makeover into a housewares store. It used to be an eccentric import place crammed full of things like wicker baskets, Chinese fans and gewgaws, bamboo wind chimes, scented soaps, and LOTS of incense. Come to think of it I may be getting a whiff of the ol' Nag Champa so there may very well be sandalwood in here too. This is the kind of thing I like, and I like it. ETA: But whoa, it seems to be giving up the ghost pretty quickly. I'd think something so resinous would have staying power but it seems to be evanescing. Have to try again later to see if this is a fluke. If not I'll have to try gluing it down with a bit of shea butter.

This really does do the magic advertised - gives you the green grass and the flowery notes up front, and lets the incense notes come out in a ghostly way a little later on in the drydown. However, I find I am among the people who turn this into detergent. After a few tests I tried an all-day wearing, at home and not doing much except some cooking and washing dishes. I kept wondering where I had spilled dish detergent on myself and failed to rinse it off. All day. Sadness.

I really like the new design of the BPTP site and I can't wait for the BPAL site to follow suit. Having a picture of the bottle with the listing is so much better marketing. Just being able to picture what you're getting is a huge factor in buying decisions.

Ugh, I'm tempted to just put my order on a slip of paper and write a check. The reply from CCNow does not indicate that they have any idea what that error message means themselves: they just suggest I "try entering my order again." Well, thanks for the inside info on how to order via Paypal. I had seen those directions before, but not realized why they're necessary. I just thought it was a weirdly elaborate workaround for those who don't have credit cards or something.

I really really wanted to like this, in fact it was the one I was most excited about from this Pickman collection, but.... it really doesn't work for me at all. The pink pepper note sits on top of everything else and creates a kind of very dry, dusty pepperiness, which doesn't ever seem to come to life on my skin. It seems like a very authentic pink pepper note - pink pepper (Schinus molle, absolutely no relation to black pepper) is a common street tree/landscape tree in Los Angeles. But pink pepper isn't a very wearable note - the berries aren't specially aromatic, just faintly peppery. I get a little bit of the ginger, but none of the other notes until a long, long drydown period has passed, when the scent becomes more pleasant, and I seem to get a bit of carnation and clove, but by that time it's incredibly faint. Bummer. I think what I'm looking for might better be found in some of the more aromatic, spicy GCs that I haven't tried yet.

I haven't read through all the old messages on this thread, but today CCNow rejected my BPAL order on the grounds that "The location of the IP address recorded did not match the shipping and/or billing information for this order." Not sure why this message is popping up now. I've ordered from the Lab before several times without incident, and none of my information has changed - same credit card, same computer, same Internet provider, same home address for both billing and shipping. I could have done something dumb like mis-type my credit card number, but there doesn't seem to be a way for me to go back and check - and it seems like that would have generated a different error message anyway. I did email both the lab and CCNow about it; I'm just wondering if others have encountered this. Isn't there a way to pay via Paypal for BPAL orders? Wasn't there supposed to be a website redesign that eliminated CCNow?

I like this. Of course I would; it's a lot like Antikythera Mechanism, which I am a big slutty slut for. In fact I couldn't really get a handle on the full difference until I did a side-by-side test. Compared to Antikythera Mechanism, Araña is lighter and sweeter, and AM is darker, spicier, heavier, more bitter, and the leather note really comes forward when you're comparing AM to a very similar scent without it. The AM leather to me right now smells like a belt - with its buckle. Don't ask me why I'm getting a notion of a metal buckle in there...it's really not a metallic note, probably something my smeller-brain is synthesizing on its own. I'd be perfectly happy with either one if I never knew the other one existed, but now I go "Hmmmm." Araña would probably be more palatable to more people, which is neither a good thing or a bad thing. To my still-noobie nose, they are both very BPAL but AM is in the much darker shade of BPAL. AM is also more "masculine" if that's a useful category to you. I was about to buy a bottle of AM but now I must think on it a little because I'm not sure which to choose. I would get too far ahead of my budget if I got both, on top of the other things I want to get next...and I'd hate to get hooked on a LE scent. Too much like my checkered romantic history. Edit 5/29: I wound up grabbing a bottle of Arana, and putting off getting a bottle of Antikythera Mechanism until a later date. Ultimately I want to own both, but I feel like Arana is a little more wearable in more situations, less "challenging" than AM. After a few more tries of Arana I really started enjoying the sweetness of it, though I don't care for "candy" or "sugar" notes, this is a sweet vanilla note. At times almost syrupy, although I really truly mean that in a GOOD way.

I have no idea what an opium poppy or opium itself should smell like. I guess I haven't encountered opium notes in perfume before. On initial application, this smells floral with a strong overlay of something bitter and chemical - maybe this is what others are describing as a "band-aid" smell. It's not quite band-aid to me, but definitely like something chemical outgassing. The bitter note eventually recedes - after varying periods of dry-down, the different times I've tried it - and I get the underlying floral which is quite pleasant. I'm not a big floral fan overall, but I like florals that are a bit spicy or even a bit musky and this one fits the bill. It might be carnation-like. It's also reminding me of some little bottle of perfume that was around when I was a kid - I have no idea what it was called, I can only remember the bottle. It was a bottle with no place for a label but perhaps there had originally been one on the bottom. The bottle was made of sort of swoops of ridged glass that wound up at the top of the bottle in a knot-like shape. I don't have the right words to describe it though I could probably draw it semi-accurately from memory. It was a mini sample bottle so it might not even have been the same shape as the regular bottle, so odds are that I might never find an image of it on the Internet. Anyway...I really like the final dry-down, quite a bit better than most florals. It's just the initial bitter phase that is off-putting, and hard to get past because it could be close to an hour or even more before the bitterness burns off.

Lots and lots and lots of people scatter ashes at Disneyland. So many try to do it from the buggies in the Haunted Mansion that they have established procedures for dealing with it. Basically: there are video cameras that watch you, and the instant they spot someone doing it, they stop the ride, eject the culprits, and come out with the vacuum cleaners. So I don't think it's such a great final wish if you know that you're just going to be vacuumed up within sixty seconds. Maybe Disneyland should do what some other place with ash-scattering problems have done: turn a negative into a positive, and actually establish a columbarium somewhere on the grounds and sell niches. There are sports stadiums (yes!) and golf courses (really!) that have done this. Sure, it wouldn't stop people who want to scatter ashes *because* it's illicit, but I think plenty of people would take advantage of a legitimate alternative.

*confusedly looking for the "Like" button for the Imps On A Plane graphic* Samuel L. Jackson packs imps! Granted they are a little larger than the standard size, but then he is Samuel L. Effing Jackson, and if he wants big imps, he GETS big imps.

I love most wood notes. There used to be a fragrance oil line made by Aura Cacia based on the elements - I never tried any of the others, but I had the "Wood" one as a kind of signature scent for a long time. I think there's a little smidge left in the roller bottle; I should hunt it out and see what it smells like to me now, since I already feel that BPAL is training my nose to be more sophisticated, and I don't think the "Wood" oil was very complex. I couldn't name the notes now, but there was undoubtably sandalwood (I am a cheap date when it comes to sandalwood, almost any sandalwood will make me happy) and probably cedar, not sure what else. Anyhow that line has been discontinued by Aura Cacia, so I can't go back to the store and check the box. I probably need to seek out more sandalwood notes from the extensive list of BPALs containing it. So far of the "woody" BPALs I've tried: Antikythera Mechanism - (LOVE, there isn't a single note in it that I don't love) Arkham - (my first big bottle: I still think it's great, but not quite as woodsy as I'd like - the wildflower notes seem to be crowding any wood notes.) Black Forest - (I liked this a lot - pine, juniper, cypress - and the addition of the musk seemed to make it more personal or sensual or something) Yggdrasil - (Unexpectedly disappointing. I didn't get any of the resinous type notes that I like; smelled to me like old, dried-out, faded wood of some not-very-aromatic variety.) Rome - (I smell almost nothing but rose; although there's supposed to be cypress and juniper, both of which I love. I may be a rose "amper.") On the list of GCs to try soon: Coyote, Alecto, Lear, Cathedral, Half Elf... Having read the descriptions here, I think Sri Lanka is one I'd really like to try, sandalwood slut that I am. Damn you, discontinuation! I'm not sure I even dare to go and read the Sandalwood recommendations topic.

I wanted to like this very much, since I love green notes and I love citrus, but on me all I can smell is some kind of bitter, fake-lemony chemical. Not even soap or Lemon Pledge, but some kind of cheap janitorial cleaner that comes in a 5 gallon jug. Although it doesn't *actually* smell like formaldehyde, it does somehow evoke real embalming fluid to me. That could be the power of suggestion, but the sour fake-lemon is unpleasant enough to suggest artificial preservatives. Actually, that's not a totally insane comparison, since many department store perfumes strike me as sickeningly fake, and part of that might be aldehydes. Which despite being widely synthesized, are originally derived from natural materials. I suppose that's how totally natural ingredients such as those in BPAL oils can wind up smelling artificial on/to some people. Just looking up information about aldehydes and aldehydic perfumes, and it does seem that aldehydes can derive from citrus. But I really took notice at the information that there are aldehydes present in citronella. Now that the idea is in my head, there is definitely something citronella-like about Embalming Fluid. Nothing wrong with a citronella candle on a picnic table, but it doesn't appeal as a personal fragrance.

I'm in the "no patchouli, EVER" camp, but I've seen some blends that otherwise look so intriguing that I'm tempted to take the chance. I was frimped some Economic Recovery and that is definitely a patchouli note that is WAY too dominant, in a hippie incense way, for me.

I love woods and evergreens a lot, and I don't particularly think "Christmas" when smelling evergreens. Probably the result of growing up with an artificial tree. Black Forest to me is not cold and ominous at all. It develops as sweetly warm. I love pine and juniper a lot, and these are like the sun-warmed pines and junipers of Southern California - even those poor twisted Hollywood Junipers, which are so butt-ugly but smell so great in the sun. I think I'm getting a cedary note too, which must be the cypress, although I don't have a good mental picture of cypress. I think it's the ambergris/musk combination that contributes to the "warm" feeling - the evergreens feel like wood and boughs that are sitting in the sun, or have been brought inside to a warm room. If there were a little smoke in there I could even imagine pine, juniper and cedar burning in a fireplace. As it is - this could be freshly carved wood sitting near the fire, maybe a wooden box with the ambergris inside. I don't get the bitter resinous side of pine at all here; maybe a little bit if you sniff the bottle cold, but there's none on my skin. Doesn't smell at all artificial to me either.

Well, it's looking as though I will need to try Coyote regardless since so many have recommended it in different topics. In that thread you linked, I'm intrigued by Corazon which says it has a purple sage note (though it is listed last.) I don't think I've seen a purple sage note listed elsewhere. Of course it appears that Corazon is an LE from so long ago that I'd never find some. Here's my favorite native plant nursery website on California sages (they are rather harsh on those who harvest white sage in the while irresponsibly...I trust, however, that the firms that sell smudge sticks and claim sustainable wildcrafting are living up to their labels.) http://www.laspilitas.com/garden/sages.htm Purple sage on the hillsides is great, black sage is even better. White sage, with no disrespect to its ritual uses, is the stank, so I'd never want it to be a dominant note!