ChupaChup

Dragon's milk is probably the sweetest BPAL oil I have tried that I still like. Sometimes. It has to be the right day for me to enjoy it, other days it's vaguely sickening. But on the right days, I really love it. The vanilla is incredibly strong and the scent lasts all day and night. I think I will really enjoy it as the weather becomes colder. I doubt I would ever get a 5ml of this, the imp will last me a long time. But I will probably get another imp of it once this one runs out.

Sometimes I think my nose is broken. I was really hoping for the chocolate, tobacco and honey notes in Kali but all I got was a lot of wine and a little bit of the florals. It faded really quickly, too. I'm jealous of the others who had such a great experience with it

This was a generous extra from the lab, thank you. I was a little hesitant to try Bon Vivant as fruits in a perfume don't usually work on me. As soon as it hit my skin, I got a burst of the champagne, it's really brilliant how Beth can do that, you almost smell the bubbles. The strawberry is very soft at first and I thought I would enjoy the perfume after all. Unfortunately, the tang of the champagne faded fairly quickly and the strawberry got too sweet. So, not for me, but a fun one to try

Hellfire is one of the most unusual BPAL oils I have tried. It really does smell like a place but somehow I love wearing it as a perfume. I especially adore it on my boyfriend but he doesn't enjoy it as much as I do (it is kind of wild and he is more conservative). Anyway, yeah, what just about everyone else has said. This is a wealthy gentleman's club, leather wingback chairs, a fire roaring in a big stone fireplace, expensive pipe tobacco and brandy snifters. This oil is an experience.

Wow, we are all over the place on this one! Nope, I don't get any sense of Snake Oil or O from La Petit Mort. I DO get the skin after, erm, love thing, though. I mostly get that smoky warmth from myrrh and something green. On some days, the green smells like the pure green note in Venus, on others it's a little dirtier, like vetiver (but just a touch, not strong at all). I can't for the life of me find any ylang ylang in this. So as confusing as it is to try to describe this oil or figure out what other people are smelling, at least I know I LIKE it. It's mesmerizing and addictive Not particularly long lasting, doesn't waft much, but I can't stop sniffing my wrist. ETA: The imp reviewed above was from a swap. I just got another one which I ordered from the lab, it is much sweeter and less green, now I get the O comparison others were making. Maybe that first one was a prototype? I like this version even better!

Thanks to Vaniclion and others on the Recommendations forum, I ordered an imp of this for my boyfriend. As soon as I smelled it, I knew he was going to love it. And I love it, too, on him AND on me! I was worried about the lavender, since often that smells kind of "aromatherapy" to me, but in this blend, it just lends a subtle herbal note. Mainly, it is a very complex blend with a crisp, citrus waft to it (mostly lime), it really reminds me of expensive European colognes that you can't find in the US. Lasting power is very good for a citrus blend, it wafts for a couple of hours and remains for hug sniffs for at least eight. My boyfriend immediately placed an order for a big bottle of this and he's a REALLY hard sell

I got Chimera in a swap and loved it the moment I popped the top off the imp. Wet, I can't detect much cinnamon, just a dusting. It smells a lot like O, that luscious honey and vanilla wafting around, with a little bit of cinnamon sugar added in. Later on the cinnamon gets a little stronger and a smoky incense note emerges, I think that's the copal, it's yummy. Even later, the vanilla honey notes come back. This is the softest of the BPAL cinnamon scents I've tried to date and my favorite.

Fairywingmaker was so sweet to decant an imp of this for me to try At first it smelled very much like Gluttony but calmed down quickly and was not nearly as sweet and strong. The ginger emerges and it starts to smell just like real, homemade gingerbread cookies, molasses and all. This is a perfect fall or holiday scent, I love it.

Tzadikim Nistarim has be quite an experience for me. I received it with several other oils from swaps and just put a little bit on one arm during the day yesterday. At first, I detected a rather bitter fruit scent, not so much pineapple, more like the Japanese citruses that are in Azen-Miyou, very biting. But there was enough creaminess underneath that to keep me interested. Then about an hour later, the different notes had blended into something very comforting, there was still a touch of the bitterness but it was no longer biting. Then I forgot about it until about 3 hours into the drydown when I noticed this glorious, uplifting scent coming from that arm. I really couldn't believe how beautiful it was, I started to cry. It's not any kind of floral beautiful, more of a lingering incense kind of feel to it but with absolutely no bitterness, like nothing I have ever smelled before. If you have tried Hymn and gotten that wonderful sense of purity from it, it's kind of like that (although it smells nothing like Hymn), like being cleansed spiritually. Being a kind of concrete person, rooted to the physical world, I can be rather numb spiritually and often miss what Beth is going after in a blend, but I think I got it this time. From the initial bitterness I get a sense of the Tzadikim Nistarim taking on the suffering of the world, and then absorbing it until nothing is left but purity. I wanted to have the experience again so I put it on before I went to bed. I tried to stay awake until the bitterness disappeared but fell asleep. I had a really terrible nightmare, the kind where you finally realize you are dreaming but have a hard time waking yourself up. The bitter scent was still there, it had been incorporated into the dream and just smelling it kept taking me back to that place of fear so I had to get up and wash it off. I won't be using this one for sleeping ever again!

Several of the BPAL scents took a while to grow on me and then became favorites, Vice is one of them. It really does smell like a chocolate-covered cherry cordial, the ones with a little bit of vanilla buttercream in the bottom. I love how those taste but somehow, the smell seemed odd as a perfume. The first time I tried it I thought it was a little icky. But after several hours of my nose glued to my wrist, I realized I had to keep it around for a while. It has become a very comforting scent for me, much along the lines of Dana O'shee and I usually wear it for sleeping or other times when I need an olfactory hug.

I have to agree with t3andcrumpets's assessment of Saturnalia, but she said it so much better than I could. Violets don't like me and vetiver, if there is more than a tiny drop in a blend, reminds me too much of dirt. I tried to leave this one on to see if it would mellow but it stayed so sharp and "dirty" that after an hour I washed it off. Wonder of wonders, it actually smells nice on the boy. Kind of a clean fresh smell, like he just showered with some expensive shower gel.

I have gotten the most compliments from people I don't see very often when wearing either Vixen or Midnight. But people whom I see all the time, who didn't seem to care for them at first, now always compliment me on Snake Oil, Voodoo, Old Athens, Tombstone and Queen of Sheba. I don't know if it's that they have finally gotten used to them or if it's because I feel so good about myself when I am wearing them.

I got The Red Queen in a swap, great trade! At first, it smells of cherries, dark and not too sweet. After about five minutes, I can smell the woods blending in. It really smells of cedar to me, like the cedar in Tombstone and Intrigue, which I also love, although the description says mahogany. Not that I know what mahogany smells like! The scent is soft and doesn't have a lot of wafting power, it's more of a second-skin scent on me. I love it and it's one of the oils I rotate through for sleeping. It's very dreamy

I got half an imp of Greed in a swap, thought it smelled a tad masculine on me and tried it on my boyfriend. What a surprise, he loved it (and I loved it on him), he hasn't really liked anything else I've gotten for him. Then I got Wilde (recommended to me on the Recommendations board) in an order the other day, that one is fabulous on both of us, it made a convert out of him! He went and ordered big bottles of both Greed and Wilde and a few more imps to try (plus a couple in there for me to round out the six pack ) I also thought Voodoo, Tombstone and Hellfire smelled great on him but he's too conservative for those. If your guy is on the wilder side, oooh baby, try them!

This perfume is absolutely adorable! Yup, it's bubblegum, the kind coated in lots of powdered sugar. As it drys, it does mature just a little bit, it becomes more of a soft fruit and floral perfume with a tinge of alcohol. I think a teenager would love Jailbait but you might want to cut the label off before you give it to her! Although I guess being naughty is most of the fun in this one The lab threw this in as an extra in my last order, thanks for letting me try it. It made me giggle as soon as I sniffed it in the bottle.

I got this in a swap from hypothermya and am so glad I did. When first applied, I get a chocolate/cedar thing that makes me think of this as the chocolate version of Tombstone After about an hour, the fig begins to dominate, the chocolate goes away but a little of the cedar lingers. I kind of agree with the posters above who use this as an "alone time" oil, I think other people might think it was a little weird but I find it very seductive and addicting

This was on my wishlist to try, but luckily the lab generously threw it in as a freebie in my last order. Wow, Hamadryad does the most amazing morph on my skin. I was afraid it was going to be very dry, what with the seven woods, but wet is smelled strongly of cinnamon and I could swear I got a whiff of honey every once in a while. It took almost an hour for any woods to appear and it was only for a brief moment until they were suddenly overtaken by florals. What a surprise, I had no idea for the first hour that they were hiding in there! The flowers continued to bloom on my skin, this is one strong floral oil, it lasted for many hours, even through a shower.

Laudanum is pretty much the way everyone else has described it. Medicinal at first but after about half an hour it turns into a yummy rootbeer float. I love what myrrh does on my skin.

This was included as a generous extra in an order, thank you! I probably wouldn't have tried this since roses don't seem to work well on me, but this is gorgeous. It's a pink and green scent, the green seems to quieten the rose enough to let the spiciness of the carnation come out. I really love how this smells, I wish it were longer lasting but it's so beautiful I don't mind carrying it around to top off.

I've never been to the Bayou in Lousiana but I've been to the swamps in Florida. This is a truly beautiful interpretation, I'm amazed at Beth's artistry. How the hay she gets the smell of humidity in a bottle is beyond me! I'm not familiar with the notes in this but the florals have that languid scent I associate with the south and the moss is green and wet. Brilliant!

Yay, I found it! One of my favorite shampoos is made by Morrocco Method, it's called Earth. I had been hoping to find a BPAL oil that smelled like it and tried several of the ones that were described as earthy. The World is it, it comes so close it's amazing. I can smell a tiny bit of cinnamon, eucalyptus, something a little nutty like almond, resins and earthy notes like vetiver or patchouli. It's so refreshing, uplifting and calming at the same time, I love it

Oh my, how I love this one This was a generous extra from the lab, thank you so much for letting me try it. I adore spicy blends and this one is so exotic. At first it does smell just like curry but within only about 5 minutes, the top notes of coriander and cumin fade and the fennel and maybe some cardamom emerge. It starts to get slightly sweet, with that soft licorice smell that fennel seeds have, much gentler than anise. Someone above mentioned that bowl of seeds and little licorice candies they have in Indian restaurants, it smells like that, all freshly ground. I think Beth should make a whole range of oils using India Bouquet. I would love to see this with notes like vanilla, almond, honey or even soft florals. I have already tried it layered with O <twitch> If you've ever had any of the Indian sweets that are ground cashews, condensed milk and cardamom, that's what it smelled like

The pinnacle of wealth, luxury, self-indulgent pleasure, voluptuousness and sensuality. Bright violet with sweet clove, Mediterranean incense notes and tonka bean. I really wanted to like Old Sybaris, but violet is another note, besides rose, that hasn't been working for me. I love the smell of violets, just not on me. The wierd thing about this oil is I kept hoping for the violet note to fade since the spices under it smelled so nice. But after the violet did fade, this ended up smelling like Scherezade (which I love) but with some funky note that made me wash it off.

This was included in an order as a freebie, thank you, I'm so glad I got to try it. I was a little leery due to the rose in this as rose tends to go somewhat sharp and sour on me. But Old London is such a soft rose, I guess that's the tea rose, that it smelled quite lovely. I think this is a beautiful scent for someone who is really into florals but as I prefer a little more depth I decided to swap it. Still, a lovely oil.