Teamama

Today is turning out to be pretty sedentary, except for some laundry. After my shower, I put on Snake Oil, Revenant Rhythm HG, and a cozy sweater and jeans. Since we're likely to lose power some time today due to high winds, we made minestrone. I'm knitting, drinking black tea, and haven't felt a need to supplement the tea with goodies. A couple of times while watching my family eat nibbles, I've thought about making popcorn. Each time, I've had a little more water or tea, and felt my belly. Since I'm not getting hunger signals, I've waited for the impulse to pass, and each time it has. Of course now that I've written about popcorn, my mouth is watering a little. I'll see if water makes it pass, and if not, I'll have a little bit .

I have decided that I'm going to use BPAL as an incentive to make healthier choices. My weight has gone up and up and up over the last several years. I do not like what's happening to my endurance, strength, agility, blood pressure, or my risk for developing diabetes! My plan is: 1. Associate the pleasure I take in smelling great with healthy behavior. (I'm wearing a different BPAL to my Weight Watchers meetings each week, so I can tie what I'm learning to scent.) 2. Reward myself with BPAL purchases for healthy behaviors (like increased fresh fruit & vegetable intake, exercise, drinking more water, increased flexibility & strength, reduced body measurements, etc.) I haven't yet figured out what the criteria for rewards will be, and would love wisdom from the room :-). Ideas: Walk 1000 steps farther each week for X weeks = a bottle? My resting heart rate goes down? Accomplish a physical activity without huffing and puffing? Low blood pressure number goal? My hope is that by using BPAL to say "atta girl!", I'll train myself to feel rewarded without involving caloric overload.

Ditto!

Brown Jenkin for sure, The Little Wooden Doll, Rakshasa, and Volcano in Springtime from the 2016 Lupers. Of the 4, Brown Jenkin seems to have the greatest proportion of sandalwood.

Wow, Volcano is by far my favorite Luper blend for 2016. In the decant: sweet vanilla cream and sandalwood. Applied: the Sandalwood's warmth spreads out, sweetened by the vanilla cream. I can't identify lotus root as a note in Volcano, I suspect it's also adding sweetness. Volcano stays true over time. It lasts a long time on me, and it's so pleasurable! My decant is going fast, and I have put in an order for 2 bottles. I think Little Bird described Volcano well "...a rich, sweet vanilla cream and hint of warm woodiness." 2022 update: With age, the lotus root note is now a prominent part of the blend. Still gorgeous!

Bilquis is sweet, and rich, and fine. I'm amazed by how good this blend makes me feel. I don't experience a lot of changes over time, and Bilquis lasts for hours. I smell honeyed rose and lily of the valley, with the apples, almond, ambrette, and myrrh as a framework. It's sweet like baklava, if baklava could be stuffed with fresh flowers. Love X 1000! Maximum rating. Can't be improved.

I agree that this is a happy combination. Lavender, hay & strawberry candyfloss are a winning team. Carnation arrived late, and I never found the cream. Smells fantastic! The bad news for me is, my skin eats it up! Within an hour of application, it was nearly undetectable. Four applications later, I have to admit defeat. I will never smell like RD for any length of time.

This review is based on a teensy decant-ette that came with my Luper decants (thank you Azzie!) Upon opening Fire Monkey, I was overwhelmed by how great it smelled. I could also tell that FM was likely to smell better on my daughter than me: she's the herbs & fruit one, I'm the resins and flowers one. I called her over, and had her sniff the implet. No sooner had she smelled it than she snatched the vial from me, and began applying it to herself, declaring "This is Mine, and I must get a bottle!" Since there is only about 1/5 of an imp to test, I have been informed that I must wait until the bottle arrives to test it on myself . My impression is: FM is hanging out in the flowering plum thicket, next to a pine tree, pussy willows, and a stand of bamboo. She's got a basket full of fruit with a few peony blossoms, and is alternating bites of the lychee, mandarin, and peach. I was reminded quite a bit of Elf, with added fruit.

Amber, golden musk, and sweet dried plants (woody, grassy notes.) Long-lasting, utterly sweet and desirable. I love Coyote.

Decant. In the imp: Coca-Cola and wood. Wet: Incense and wood. Dry-down: Incense, salt, and sweet wood. This is kind of baffling to me. I can't pick out the individual notes at all! It's a lot like Morocco, that way; well-blended and balanced. I have an oddly neutral response to Indulgence as a scent. My daughter says it smells nice on me, which is unusual, given that she usually dislikes Incense-heavy scents. I'm not sure how often I'll wear it, but I'm glad I got the decant, and I'll keep it. 3 years later, I found my lost decant. So Smooth! This has aged into a silky oudh & amber blend, with incense notes around the edges. Delicious.

I get compliments when I wear his fuzzy highness. TBP is a cuddly musky rose, or rosy musk. The feeling I get from the musk isn't the shaggy, animalistic kind you'd get from the label art. It's more like the skin musk of someone you're cuddled up and you're sniffing their hair, or neck. On me, the snow is delicate and subdued. The rose may be Rose Red, but minus the green bits. I'm really happy I got a bottle, and I'm considering a backup. ETA 1. Bear Prince is definitely related to Coyote. 2. I bought a backup bottle. 3. I hope he comes back again, because he's wonderful. Winter 2022 update: With age, Bear Prince has become stronger, & the balance has shifted. The musk is brighter, less like a skin musk & more like a white musk. There's a hint of something green, probably rose greens, but also a little like fir needles. The rose is stronger too. The changes don't work well on my skin. His fuzzy highness may be edging into Teadaughter's wheelhouse instead, though the strong rose may not be her jam.

This haunting, exotic scent is named in honor of the shapeshifting demons from Hindu mythology. Sandalwood with rose and patchouli. Almost colorless oil. Wet, I almost think I smell almonds and oranges, but I'm pretty sure that's patchouli being a trickster. Cinnamon seems to have a small walk on part in Rakshasa, but no lines. By the time it dries, Rose & Sandal are the stars, and they're very sweet. Spicy patchouli warms them up, and keeps things from getting too sedate or powdery. I'm glad I got a bottle.

In the imp: Wintergreen and salt. Wet on me: Ben-Gay, salt, root beer, and a teeny bit of Timothy hay. Dry: it's getting sweeter, and a pine-pitch scent is emerging. Very beguiling, but it's more my son's kind of scent than mine.

Testing a frimp without looking at the notes. In the imp: pastry, floral soap and herbs. Wet on me: Less pastry, and it's getting salty, like pretzels. I can't ID the flowers in the soap or the herbs. Dry: I caved, and looked at the notes. I dunno how I get pastry out of this, but that's still an impression for me. The vanilla is finally showing itself, but it's dominated by the salty pastry and herbs. I don't get any lily at all. It's interesting, but not me.

Testing a frimp. Like other reviewers, I get sweet resins from TBR, a hint of sweet tobacco, and some lemon. I don't get any smoke, and as usual, BPAL's leather scent isn't leathering on my skin. I bet this would smell fantastic on Teapapa, however he is resistant to testing new scents (totally devoted to Looming Specter.) Nice, but not me.

Frimp. The champagne and pear team up on my skin to remind me of the smell of almost-ripe Concord grapes, on the vine in summer. Plumeria isn't distinct to me. I read it as "flowers and herbs." This stays the same all during wear: fruit on top, flowers & herbs underneath. Nice, and will probably smell fantastic on someone else.

A frimp, which I tested more out of curiosity than interest--the notes seem like this oil is not likely to work on me. In the imp: That "Womanly Perfume" must be indole city, because this is teetering on the edge of "smells like a**." On my skin, it has quickly become baby shampoo, powdery Dubble-Bubble, cinnamon and vanilla. It's kind of like Follow Me Boy and Chuparosa have a 14 year old cousin, who's sucking on Jolly Ranchers and experimenting with makeup. I'm not repulsed by the combo, but it's not me.

In the imp & wet: Spicy, rich soil and a hint of Rose. On drying, the first 20 minutes or so maintained the balance of soil & Rose. After that, the Rose disappeared. After about 2 hours, a salty, slightly metallic note crept in. This has a wonderful, fresh soil scent that reminds me a lot of Yorick. (I don't get the salty metal note with Yorick, though.). I like this, but I don't need a bottle. Yorick is meeting all my current soil needs.

In the imp, an excellent fresh Rose scent, with a hint of Amber. Fantastic! Once it touched my skin, alas, it flattened out into a run-of-the-mill, warm, amber-y floral that had lost all its mojo. My chemistry obliterated what makes this blend fantastic. I'm jealous of all the folks who can wear Fresh and Blooming, because it's something I would love to smell of.

I agree with findaghost (respectfully snipped,) D:M is related to Alice. If Alice is your cup of tea, I predict you'll like her a lot. In the bottle, wet & dry, I experienced D:M as warm tea roses, sweetened by heliotrope, milk & honey. Olive blossom was fugitive on my skin; I never detected it. It's warm, sweet, feminine, and joins Alice in the category of "Blends that smell better on my daughter than me."

Dawn: Priestess, fresh from the Lab. This is the kind of sweet incense floral that I love (Caterpillar, I'm looking at you.) It's very complex--all of the notes are playing in the band, but none of them is the bandleader. That said, on my skin, the jasmine is definitely singing backup to the Damascus Rose, and the patch is second fiddle to the myrrh. Sage is a featured player, and it's wonderful. (Sidebar: I love sage when it's sweet, like Eastern Washington desert sages. And I dislike the near-menthol stank of culinary sage. This is the good stuff.) Not a lot of change from wet to dry. Incense, rose, jasmine, sage... All yes, all the time. Glad I bought a bottle.

I have tested two imps--one a forum purchase, age unknown, and one a frimp freshly delivered from a BPTP order. In the imp, apple and amber. Wet, a lovely sweet apple supported by sweet, resinous amber. with some intriguing, spicy notes that seemed almost more like faint cinnamon than herbs. Maybe a scented basil? I didn't notice the honey as a separate note. Dry on my skin, it was very much the same; warm and sweet and lovely. And Then...Verdandi vanished. Nowhere to be found after 3 1/2 hours. My skin ate it all up, even the amber, which usually stays around for me. Super lovely, but I'm not going to buy a bottle.

Loving Mata Hari! Imp from a forum purchase. In the imp, it's Follow Me Boy, plus coffee: sexy baby lotion vanilla jasmine. Wet: It's roses! No, wait, it's Follow Me Boy! No, wait, it's tonka-coffee baby lotion! Time to let this dry down a while, because it isn't just morphing, it's Tam Lin, the fragrance: They will turn me, on your arm, Into tonka-coffee, But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby lotion... The ellipse there represents about a half an hour. MH is now settling into a fragrance rare. Sweet, rich, and utterly original. It is a relative of Follow Me Boy, so if you love FMB, be sure to test MH. Roses at the heart, the warm, rich kind that I love. Jasmine melded with vanilla and tonka. Sweet fig and mahogany are providing a subtle grounding. The coffee occasionally appears around the edges, but only faintly. On my bottle list, for sure.

Bottle from a forum purchase. My daughter squeed when it arrived. I've tested it, and she's right: another musk that smells better on her than me (even though I like the woods.) Her review: "In the bottle, it smells green and nice. Wet, aggressively DISH SOAP! Dry, sweet, nice, vagely floral wood and musk. It smells like an antique perfume bottle at Grandma & Grandpa's house. It's Mine (takes bottle.)" Edited to add: Aziraphale layered with Crowley is much better on me than Aziraphale by itself.

Bottle from a forum purchase. This is a Floral's Floral: femme to the max. In the bottle, I get the vanilla and the tuberose, not so much roses or jasmine, no tobacco or neroli. Wet, it's lilacs (?!) Dry, I can't make out the vanilla or the tobacco. The neroli is in there, but the Red roses, Moroccan jasmine and tuberose are combined in a powdery "Floral Perfume" blend. Verdict: It's pleasant and clean, but it's not taking me to rose or jasmine-land, where I love to be. I think this may need to go to another home.