halcyon_flight

This scent starts out with some blaaaaack musk, I don't really get the minerals of The Ifrit, which is the only other desert scent I've tried, but I do get a sense of warm and dry air. Then I have a Mugatu moment of feeling like I'm taking crazy pills, because the musk backs off and this becomes an overwhelmingly orange scent, which I didn't expect from the previous reviews. It isn't a juicy and pithy orange, more like a sweet and powdery orange. There's a bit of something that reminds me of Hamadryad 2004, cinnamon and bit of coolness from wintergreen, maybe some dragon's blood. But this is mostly ORANGE. By drydown, the musk has gone from roaring lioness to pussy cat. Still warm and dry, all the way through.

I've got some guesses about the notes, so here it goes. Cassia, clove, cinnamon, sandalwood, honey (not much, though, it isn't particularly sweet or foody, the honey in scents like O is horrible on me, possibly white honey, like in Oblation?), I recognize a floral from Flowering Chrysanthemums but I don't know if it is the 'mums or the marigolds, pine sap (like in Inez) or maybe even pine wood (not like the evergreen scent of the needles, like a 2 by 4), and tonka. This is definitely a warm and spicy scent, kind of what I hoped for from Morocco, which I felt ended up being more powder and vanilla than spice. It is very similar to Hod, but with sandalwood replacing carnation as the central note. It also shares commonalities with Inez and Flowering Chrysanthemums. For a child devouring monster, Lamia is very pretty! I don't find it particularly foody or powdery, unlike a lot of scents with these kinds of notes. Just warm, woody, spicy yum. I've already used half a decant, oops!

I really love this blend, initially I don't get any musk. I find a lot of BPAL black tea notes are black tea with milk, but I personally take all my tea clear, so I really like the rooibos note in this. It is black and bitter and rich, and balances well with the fruity sweetness of the mango. After a couple of hours of dry down the musk comes out, reminds me of the Chinese musk in Wood, Water, and Fire Phoenix.

This smells almost exactly like Rome + Pomegranate!

Something of Garden Path with Chickens, some part of the sun burnt grass note from Dog Days of Summer. I can see what TwilightEyes is saying about the chrome, but it isn't something I would have picked up on my own. I'd have more likely guessed the bitterness of growing things. Now I don't know if this is kosher to add in a review, but I'm smelling a spicy floral that I'm pretty sure ISN'T carnation, it reminds me of CB: I Hate Perfume's ginger lily or ginger flower scent. I'm getting the berry smell as the initial hit of bitter greenery mellows. It's odd, Medb starts out a fighting woman on my skin with strong greens, juicy berries, spicy flowers, and burnt grass, but morphs into a mellow ginger flower with sheets that have dried in the sun sort of scent after an hour or so. My Irish Lit prof would be so annoyed with me, but I think I like meek Medb more than Medb the warrior queen!

I think this is probably a blend that remained a prototype due to inconsistency. I'm going to try to nail down the merry-go-round ride that is this blend. Phase 1: Most favouritest! Juicy summer blueberries with subtle moss-i-ness Phase 2: Sweeter blueberry, missing the initial tart-ness that makes the blueberry note so real. Light wildflowers. Phase 3: return of the tartness, now with a deep subtle caramel note. Toffee after blueberry picking? Still with the wildflowers. Phase 4: Sweet-juice of the blueberries, now with powder, pollen? Phase 5: Caramel Blueberry sweet tarts? Phase 6: Powder-y very sweet caramel blueberry sweet tarts. I don't know, maybe my skin chemistry is on crack? I'm keeping the bottle because Phase 1-3 as well as Phase 5 are absolute love. I think the blueberry and caramel notes in this blend are pretty unique and lovely. The caramel behaves in a way that it doesn't in other blends with my foodie-amping skin. The blueberry really matches the juicy sweetness and the tartness that makes a blueberry a blueberry. But this certainly isn't a blend you can go "well I'm in the mood for..." and then put it on hoping for something in particular!

I'm so bummed, I'm such a rose fiend and this just doesn't work on me AT ALL. The rose turns into a sour musty grandmother rose, where BPAL's rose is usually fresh and almost fruity on me. I couldn't really get to the rest of notes.

Oh I love this. Certainly a scent that would appeal to any who liked One to Tie, but felt the dandelions made the scent a little too bitter. If you are a lover of the CB I Hate Perfume blend called At the Beach 1966. Overall, this scent reminds me of the CBIHP perfumes in its evocation of a specific place and time, though it has more of BPALs prettiness than CB's unapologetic realism, heh! I love it, the wildflowers make for an unusual floral, with an almost edible fruity quality to them rather than the sharp dignified scent of the sort of flowers you'd find at a flower shop. These sorts of flowers would probably just be buttons of colours in a field, unremarkable enough that only a kid would think to make a bouquet out of them. Perhaps one lounging in the outfield! But they smell good, they just don't smell like any specific flower I've ever smelled before. Just general flowery-ness. The grass note is straight out of One to Tie. I'd say more scorched than sun-baked! But I don't get any smoke. This incense reminds me more of Heavenly Love and Earthly Love than the brass church-y types. If you're looking for an Incense Blend, this is not it, the incense is sort of a background or foundation, it isn't a main player. Then there's the sunscreen! I can smell it too, a little bit of coconut. That's what reminded me of At the Beach. Lovely, lovely, perfect, perfect! This is such an odd mix of notes, all of which are notes I adore, it seems as if it was specifically made with me in mind!

I feel like somehow I got the wrong oil or something, but both my imp and the bottle smell the same. To my nose this is Voodoo Queen without it's signature must, with the rose replaced by plum.

I just got a free sample of Hypnose, and it reminds me a great deal of Black Lace. The alcohol in hypnose reminds of the cognac in Black Lace, they both have a similar vanilla and a musky woody vibe underneath. Black Lace has tobacco and hypnose is slightly fruity, but other than that they're very similar and have the same 'vibe'.

The booze note in Fruitcake is the same as the booze note in Spiked Punch, it's just a lot less boozey in Fruitcake. Then for the molasses spices, I'd add Kill-Devil. Then you'd need something that smelled like jube jubes or cherries, and for that I got nothing. Good luck!

Baobhan Sith. Baobhan Sith. Baobhan Sith.

Maybe Garden Path with Chickens or Poisson D'Avril.

The apple in this reminds me a lot of the apple in Mock Turtle's lessons; fresh, juicy, and green. The candied part seems to be spicy brown sugar NOM NOM. The freshness of the apple cuts through the foodiness, and makes for a remarkably wearable scent. Unfortunately, it takes a turn for foodiville rather quickly, and ends up smelling like toasted brown sugar. Great for foodies, not for me! To be fair, I have skin that amps sugar, so that's probably why the lovely apple gets lost.

Wild roses smell different than roses, though I'm not sure if the 'wild' part is just part of the name or a reflection of the ingredients. I believe the wild roses in the catalogue are Croquet, Yeveran, and Vinland, though none of them feature wild rose prominently. As for conventional roses, Persephone is by far and away my favourite. Libra is very nice as well, if a little less rose-centric.

Egg’d mailbox was the scent I was most afraid of getting, what a silly BPAL-er I am! This is a foody suited to non-foodies. It’s almost smells like someone crushed up carnations, egg flan, and vanilla oil. Or, if you celebrated the Moon Festival in Chinatown (or China!) this year, it also smells like the egg cakes, only with a bit of vanilla frosting. I definitely smell carnations though; my mind is playing tricks on me. I didn’t mean that to be a pun, but it kind of is. Hod lovers might like this one me thinks.

No, that's the weird thing. I tried to add it as a gift address but paypal wouldn't accept it. I'm emailing Ted, gotta get my hands on some Crypt Queen. I'll relay his answer back.

I currently live in Canada, but by the time a BPAL order has been processed I'll have moved to the States. Paypal, however won't let me add an American address because my credit card is Canadain. I haven't switched myself over financially, so I don't have an American credit card yet. I really want to make a Hunter Moon order, but I don't want it to end up at my old address. Help!

Alright, nobody else has said it so I will. Ingenue? Is that you? This is very similar to ingenue, so similar that I have trouble describing it as anything but ingenue-ish. Not as melon-y, not as rose-y, but with the same complex perfume-y greenery. Layering it with some honeydew SN from another company may well be a step towards ressurecting the dead.

Eep, Rose Red does but you might have to kill someone to get it.

Dear lord, what a morpher! First two seconds: pine? I have like fifty million pine scents I don't need a... Next ten seconds: Where did the pine go? Wet stone? How in heck does something smell like wet stone... Next minute or so: Suddenly this is all very creepy and dank green, a place where monsters come from. Finally it settles on being: a green old forest sort of scent, no wood or dirt, just the beautiful green scent plus an uplifting shot of green tea, which is weird because I usually hate BPAL's green tea scents. Sort of floaty and calming. I don't get any ocean or aquatic at all.

I can't believe I'm the only one who's comparing this to Snake Oil. The second I put it on it's got that patchouli/red musk/cream that eveyone loves and I HATE. Cue heartbreak. But wait, my skin is doing something useful for once! It's amped the rose and slayed the evil evil Snake Oil vibe. JUSTICE AND GLEE FOR ALL . There is a momentary caramel thing, but that dies and in the dry-down this becomes the rose-centric musky creamy scent that I was hoping Abhisarika would be. Lovely lovely! I'm just going to have to avoid sniffing this right out of the bottle, and I should be fine.

If I were to guess a note, I would say jasmine sambac since this scent reminds me so immediately of Melisande. This a lush lush lush white floral, I can smell both jasmine and magnolia, plus a bit of lush jungle greenery. When I put it on initially it’s as if I just opened the door to a white-floral-only greenhouse. In a couple of minutes it does the ghost thing. Light, ethereal, Victorian, wispy, a touch haughty. So very not me. Anything I can describe with the word 'wispy' generally gets booted to the swap pile.

Buttercup SN? Who saw that coming? Damnation 'pon my wiley skin!

I was sort of torn about suggesting this, because it's so impossible to come by, but Pink Grapefruit SN has great staying power, if hardly any throw.