stellans

This is not the spectre which sends a chill down your spine with an eery cry; no, this is your dearly beloved grandmother or cherished aunt, looking after you from Beyond, the gentle breeze you feel brush your cheek when you enter a certain room in the family home, the faint scent of long-gone roses in the attic... Lilac is uppermost, with the lily a close second, but wet I can find no sandalwood at all. In drydown, however, not only does the sandalwood come forward (as lilac and lily bow out), so does a faint whiff of rose. Truly, this is a ghostly blend, as spirits of scent notes drift around your nose, tantalizing and taunting all at the same time.

Amber on me often turns to aftershave, and this is the case for Mantis, at least while wet. However, once dry the blend turns fresh and herbal, not at all cologne-y. I smell only the tiniest hint of patchouli, and the neroli makes only the faintest of appearances. The musk is there, blending with the patchouli and neroli underneath the fresh herbal scent, all giving a deepness to the blend which is very pleasant. All in all, this is a bottle I will likely wear again and again, especially in warmer weather.

wet, this has a top note very much like that of Dragon Moon 06 or Holiday Moon (bamboo perhaps?), enough so that I turned my bed lamp back on to check the label to be sure I hadn’t grabbed the wrong rollon!).. But...the dry down is so wonderful! Under the bright first notes (hello, nice ozone rather than aftershave ozone!), there comes a dry, woody, hot note which speaks of seared summer landscapes rather than stormy spring growth. This dry heated wood smell is wonderful, and totally different from any other Lunacy I have in my collection. I love this. 4 of 5 stars

Lemon starts out strongly in the bottle and while wet on my skin, but dries away quickly to leave an absolutely delicious sandalwood scent, tempered by the slightest hint of fresh cedar. This is a blend which has aged exceedingly well. It’s been my experience so far that citrus notes tend to age away, and I think that has served Shadow very well for my own personal use. Sandalwood is one of my favorite notes, and though cedar doesn’t always work well with me, in this blend it is just right. The mellowness of this blend is perfect for what turned out to be a nice, lazy day. eta: I know this is an older bottle because it's cobalt. Hence my reasoning regarding its aging.

When first applied, sweet plummy coconut notes are all I smell. Where are the soft woods, the vetiver, the oakmoss??? As drydown happens, a slightly fermented wine smell emerges, but still no soft woods. I'm not a big fan of wine notes, and even if that isn't listed in the notes of this blend, there is a distinct fermented odor in my decant. This is one rare I think I shall be passing along, because I don’t think further aging will improve my opninon. *sigh*

Wow. This is something I would love to find a bottle of, because the violet and the lavender are in perfect harmony, and the neroli is just barely there to make this wonderful. The dry-down is just as wonderful as the scent wet, only with a bit of an incense note, at least on me. This could possibly be the white musk, but it doesn't normally affect me quite this strongly. Love! This is a very old imp, the kind the lab first put out, with the hand-lettered tag tied on with black fibers. Therefore, this blend ages not only well but very well, and a bottle of this would absolutely join my personal Top 10. Yum!

Again, I warn hoarders: if you love your BPAL, use it! Don’t hoard it (thinking to keep it forever) because it will either: a) evaporate; b)change its odor, and not necessarily in a good way; c) your skin chemistry will change, rendering it personally unwearable )d all of the above. The sad thing is: I thought Mystery would be safe from the above rules. During the past few years of testing, I’ve noticed that citrus, lighter florals, and some herbal notes don’t always age well, but so far incense, resins, rose, and most evergreens do. I have many bottles of 4-year-old Snow Moon, and everytime I open the next bottle, it smells just as wonderful as did that first sniff. Same goes for Rose Red, of which I have bottles from 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008. And those are just 2 examples of scents I’ve found age well. Mystery is supposed to be incense with a hint of perfume. Unfortunately for me, it is now more of a soapy floral (deep floral, at least, but with soap!), but no incense at all. I am so disappointed that I saved this imp for so long before trying it. ETA: OK, I read the previous reviews, and now I see 'soapy' was also applied a couple of years ago to this blend. I feel a little better now about having not tried it before, but I still caution hoarders: if you love a scent, wear it now. It's better to use it up while it smells good on you than to keep it until it doesn't, and then you're faced with keeping a bottle which doesn't work or selling it, perhaps at a loss. Enjoy what you have to the hilt!

the neroli is the strongest presence in this blend, which is fine because I like neroli. The lavender seems to help dial down the citrusy tang a bit, but whatever lotus there might have been to begin with has been lost to time and aging. This blend is nice and I wouldn’t mind having more, but luckily for my bank balance it isn’t something I will layout ridiculous amounts to buy.

Continuing to review the rares I'm sampling this week, up comes Doc Buzzard, which comes to me by way of another kind forumite in a swap (or maybe an outright purchase, I can't remember). Luckily for my sanity (and my paypal account), while I like the scary Doctor well enough, I find it quite like another resinous blend of which I have multiple bottles, Luperci. A bit smoother, perhaps, but still a rough and wild patchouli when all is said and done, would be how I describe Doc Buzzard. It has good throw; the teeny little bit I dabbed on my wrist entertained my nose very nicely and for a fairly long time too. Verdict? I like it, and certainly wouldn't turn it down if offered more, but I won't be haunting eBay to score more of it. Thank goodness!

This decant has been in my storage box for so long I've forgotten when and from whose hands it came to me, but since I declared this "Wear the Rares: Imps/Decants" week, it was time for an outing. Well. Let me just say some rares shouldn't be hoarded, and --sadly-- Unseelie is one of those. This one didn’t age well; the florals/herbs/grasses seem to have deteriorated into something plastic-like, which finally turn into something vaguely baby-powderish -- with something rather unpleasant underneath. Jasmine, is that you?. *sigh* Well, cross that rare off my List of Hunting.

I ordered this blend because on the whole the Lab's apple scents do very well on me no matter what the other notes are. I must admit the vanilla cream note gave me a bit of pause, because the Lab's cream notes tend to turn sour on my skin (Milk Moon, I'm looking at you!) but there are exceptions (hello, my lovely Chaste Moon!). I was hoping Agapé would also prove to be an exception...and I was right! In the bottle, the cream note is hanging out with the juicy just ripe-enough apple, the spicy carnation blossom, with just a bit of deepness -- the tonka, I think. I swab some on my arms, and apple immediately announces its presence with UH-THOR-IT-EYE! But there's also the spice, the sweetness, and the deep underlying tonka...but no cream on me! w00t! The sweetpea also starts to peep out more and more, which I'm glad to smell because I do love me some sweet pea. After a couple of hours, the scents have all melded together in a delightful fruit-floral amalgam (with a smoothness I will credit to the cream note) which still totally delights the nose, and doesn't require deep huffing to smell, either. The waft is still excellent, despite the passage of time. All in all, this is a definite keeper...and I'm not a big foodie, but I do love apples! ETA: And besides, who could resist a bottle label like that, anyway??? I mean, Alice is the skin I use just about all the time!

I love the labels, but sadly I fear only 4 of the 6 have any chance of working on me. I'm giving a pass on the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde pair.

the only danger-note for me was the vanilla cream, as cream too often turns sour on my skin. But I love all the other notes, and took a chance that Agapé will love me back. And the label makes me so happy I did -- now if mine will just arrive!

oh, lovely! The sandalwood jumps right up my nose and tickles with a dry, dusty flair which is only slightly tempered by the cedar. I was really worried about the cedar because it most often turns into pencil shavings with my skin chemistry. I love the way Beth and the Lab manages to convey such wonderful concepts in a scent, and what a perfect Imbolc scent, though it would work just as well for Samhain... It must the lunar oils which are referenced in each moon description, but on the whole A Little Lunacy is my favorite of all the BPAL lines. I wear one every single night...

Whoa. As described by the Lab, De Sade is "The essence of pleasure heightened by pain: the raw scent of leather." Well, yes. It is that. But there is a definite undernote of a man in fresh leather breeches, who has just completed his morning's toilet. The fresh washed, shaven, and dressed man scent that pretty much always makes me weak in the knees. I really, really like this leather scent...but on Mr. Stellans, not me. I truly love the smell of good leather, but not as my perfume. For myself, Spanked is my personal go-to leather scent, followed by an aged and mellow bottle of Western Diamondback. There are some BPAL blends which are considered to be masculine scents that I actually like (Whitechapel, for instance) on me, but De Sade is definitely not one of them; it will remain a male scent. So, I'll keep the imp for the Mr., but unless he asks for it, I won't look for more or buy a bottle. ETA: OK, I should have edited this review sooner, but whoa, has my mind been changed about De Sade! As that ubiquitous Irish Spring ad says, "Strong enough for a man, but I like it too!" The pure leather in this blend is just so appealing that I was lucky enough to score a bottle before it was discontinued, and then bought another from a forumite to boot so I shall be in lovely, lovely leather for some time to come. De Sade really is the purest leather blend I own, as the others all seem to have a little side fragrance aiding and abetting their enchantment. De Sade is walking into a leather goods store. De Sade is making that leather wallet in scouts. De Sade is love.

Because I'd planned to wear White Rose first, then Red Rose, I reviewed White first here after thinking a bit, I applied Red Rose next to the other wrist, and fell in love...though not with any rose! This blend has wonderfully deep notes, the kind I like best, but there is practically no rose discernable to my nose, hardly any at all. But I have so many 'real' rose blends, that doesn't really bother me. The clove is blended wonderfully well with the amber and musk; the tobacco isn't very prominent, which I am grateful for, because it usually turns aftershave on me; I can also discern a faint hint of fir, which I love, and I hope with age this note comes more to the forefront. I think fir + rose might be very nice, especially with the other notes. HOWEVER: this blend's true genius comes out when it is layered with its companion blend, White Rose; separately, I like Red Rose best. Together, I love them both! I am looking forward to this set as it ages, and from now on will most likely wear it layered.

I first applied White Rose early this morning, and as soon as it sat on my skin a bit, I liked it a bit. It was far too sweet when sniffed from the bottle and when first on my skin, but settled down to a more bearable level soon. This isn't at all the rose I was expecting; in fact, I get very little rose from this at all, only sugar, vanilla and tea -- not even any benzoin nor frankincense. I was sadly deciding to put my 2 (TWO!!!) bottles up for sale or swap when I remembered: this was called the Unity set! D'oh! I grabbed my bottle of Red Rose (which I had planned to wear tomorrow) and tried it solo on my other wrist (that review is posted in the appropriate thread) and sniffed deep: this I like much better on its own than the White Rose (I must be Team Lancaster after all). But together...layered, these two blends become altogether fascinating, with depth and intricacy I hadn't expected at all. The frankincese and clove do very well together, and there are the slightlest hints of roses way, way down underneath. These are unlike any rose blend I've ever sniffed, but I like them, I like them...but only layered, as is surely the intention of anything called "The Unity Set."

Does anyone have a current list of TAL's offerings? Their website was last revised in 2007 (!) and La Flamme is not listed. Thanks!

It's great seeing those up close, Jennifer! You are so talented. word. Thank you for posting them, because all I had to work with for icons were totally horrific pretty bad scans of my own bottles.

Yep, that's Jolly Roger!

Mine is just the normal GC label...

On my skin (and to my nose) there is a mint note in Lines that disappears eventually that isn't there in L'Inverno at all. The mint note in Lines, however, is more than my stomach can handle -- unfortunately. I'm glad I was able to acquire a bottle of L'Inverno, though!

oh, thank you for this! I love Hay Moon, and will get Miller's Daughter as a daytime alternative...

great picture of bottles! I wish I'd been in funds to order the Inquisitions!

In her defense, she didn't know they were mine. They came up on google images. And she was very nice and agreed to credit me. She didn't know they were yours, but she had to know they were somebody's. A BPAL fanatic, like she is. Somebody who loves BPAL enough to take pictures. I still call rudeness. But if you're ok with how it's shaken out...hey, that's ok too.