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BPAL Madness!

gwynethr

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Everything posted by gwynethr

  1. gwynethr

    Tintagel

    This one scared me a bit to try -- the mulled wine part specifiaclly, because of the dreaded cinnamon and spice notes. But it's wonderfully balanced through those greener notes, I think. I definitely don't get any leather, but that's okay, as it often turns to evilness on me, but I think I can detect it from far away at times. It smells the same wet and long after drydown, which is great, and seems to last for quite some time. Lovely!
  2. gwynethr

    Lilac!

    I'm so glad this thread was revived -- lilac is my favorite and my bushes are waning now, so the lovely scent is gone. I'm anxious to try the others mentioned (Ouija and Veil didn't work for me at all). But I did find a perfect one since the original thread -- Melancholia in The Salon. It's so wonderfully lilacy I couldn't believe it. The bad part is that while it has good throw, it doesn't last very long. But I'm planning to buy bottles so I can slather it on with aplomb.
  3. Just found a wonderful pairing when I got my Monster Bait: Bloody Mary. If you like Snow Fairy holiday shower gel, get thee a bottle of Bloody Mary! It's got that wonderful combo of fruity with sugar, but not that sticky, heavy kind of sugar. Lush's "candy floss" and "wicked fruitiness" are a great match with the dark cherries and powdered sugar of Mary. They're not identical, but close enough that it makes me really happy I finally found a great BPAL to put over the scent the gel leaves on my skin.
  4. gwynethr

    New Orleans

    I have been very ambivalent about jasmine so far -- sometimes I get rashes, sometimes I just don't like how it smells with other notes, and sometimes I love it. I was a bit hesitant about this one because of that, but I adore it. Though the jasmine predominates and I don't like it nearly as much as honeysuckle, it's still very nicely blended with the honeysuckle, and this is really how I've always thought New Orleans and environs might smell. It's definitely one of my favorites for the rare times I want a floral and want to make a change from Lady of Shalott, which has been my go-to floral. This one and Muse both have this deep, intense, humid floral feeling to me that make them stand out from other blends. Good thing I like it, too, because I keep getting frimps from the lab and in swaps/purchases!
  5. gwynethr

    Milk Moon 2007

    I was beyond excited for this bottle, as I thought it would be one of my Perfect Scents. But. Wet: vomit On skin: vomit Drydown: vomit with a faint hint of honey I was crushed. Tried it a couple of times. No luck. I'm going to try again when it's that time of the month and see if a change in my chemistry might help. I also tried this on right after my beloved kitty died, so I'm sure the stress and the grief aren't making for a worse combination (though it was wonderful to get a big box of BPAL on that day, all things considered) and skewing how it smells. But I kind of doubt it more, as I'm discovering that most of the time, fig isn't my friend. I love figs like crazy, but as a scent note, they seem to make me queasy, except in Eden, so far.
  6. gwynethr

    All Souls

    A very generous BPALer threw this in as a frimp, and it wasn't something I would normally try (the word incense scares me as a general rule, and I know I will sneeze a lot). But I'm so glad I did. I can smell the soft cakes and the currant, both very light and gentle, and the incense is softened by their notes, though it's still prominent. In all, this is really gorgeous on me and I think I will have to find a bottle. It's the kind of perfume I can see wearing often.
  7. gwynethr

    Svadhinaopatika

    I hadn't planned to buy a bottle until I saw so many rave reviews and it sounded pretty much up my alley, with all the notes listed. Wet: I get rose. What the hell? I can't figure out how any of those notes could be rose, but it is rose. Not as heavy as a lot of rose scents, but still rose. And I don't like rose. On: Still rose, though I do smell some other notes. Just not as much as the rose. Dry for a few hours: Finally! Honey, lovely honey, and the rose smell has moved far to the background. There's a hint of sandalwood, which I love so I wish it was more prominent. I'm liking it more after a few hours, but unfortunately I have to wait till it's almost gone to get there. I guess I'll hang on to it for a while to see if it will age better. At the very least, the lable is stunning, so I definitely don't mind having it on the BPAL shelf.
  8. gwynethr

    Mme. Moriarty, Misfortune Teller (2006)

    This is my desert island perfume. If I had all my other favorites taken away from me and had to wear only one 24/7, this would be it. I don't feel the comparisons to Snake Oil, since SO is just powdery awfulness on me, but am one of the Snake Charmer comparers-- my nose is not terribly sophisticated, and these two smell quite similar to me. As I have no hope of ever landing a bottle of Snake Charmer, I'm happy to have something I love as much and can have more than an imp of! (And then I wonder, how many bottles is too many? I fear I may have to stock up on ridiculous quantities of this.) I love so many of the CD scents, but I don't know if anything will compare to this wonderful blend. It's earthy and piquant and warm and rich, and it's just so wonderful. Every time I wear it, people tell me I smell great.
  9. gwynethr

    Pink Moon 2007

    I am so surprised to find how much I like this! Normally carnation and phlox are things I love au naturel, in my garden or as cut flowers, but they don't appeal to me as scent notes. Not this, though! It must be the sugar tempering the carnation note especially, since that doesn't have the nasty bite I usually associate with it. Even though, oddly, I don't smell the sugar at all until it's been on for a bit. This is such a light, springy scent -- I've rarely ever had the associations of masculine and feminine, and even find that the things everyone says are totally masculine appeal to me the most, but this really is a light and girly, springtime happy fragrance. I'm so glad I took a chance on the bottle -- I bought it primarily because I felt like I should at least try it if I was buying the T-shirt, expecting to swap it, but now it and its adorable label are getting a prominent place on the shelf.
  10. That's fantastic news, thank you. I wouldn't have thought to look elsewhere, as I hadn't realized they offered different things in different countries. I'm sure a number of my friends will be thrilled. Now if only there were a matching BPAL perfume...
  11. I'm coming to the end of my stockpile of Irresistible Bliss shampoo bars, which Lush discontinued last year. I'm heartsick, as I adored the soft, light floral fragrance. Most florals I get tend to be either very intense notes (such as Lady of Shalott or Muse) or smell powdery to me in a lot of the BPAL blends, but the faint "night-blooming flowers" of Snow White almost reminds me of the soft Irresistible Bliss flowers -- but it's not a good match because of the snowy scent (also, I want to hoard my stock of Snow White!). Was anyone else a fan of this lovely shampoo bar, and do you know of a light, sweet, soft floral that would match in BPAL? (And I see through this thread that no one's ever made a strong rec for Sympathy for the Skin... maybe I will make it my quest in life to see if I can find a close-to-dead ringer for that one, because it's the one I'd want the most after IB...)
  12. gwynethr

    Enraged Groundhog Musk

    I'm another one of those sad cinnamon people. It's all I can smell. In the bottle, there's a hint of sweetness and foodiness, but the cinnamon is still strong. Too strong. These are so many of my favorite notes -- chocolate, cherries, vanilla, cardamom... all good. But on me it's just cinnamon, which I can't handle. Wah! It's amazing how wildly different this scent seems to be for so many. I wish I was one of the ones who smelled the sweet foodiness.
  13. gwynethr

    Boomslang

    I have to agree with others, this is the Snake Oiliest of the Snake Pits. It kept threatening to turn to Snake Oil powdery unpleasantness on me, but never quite did, and I'm hopeful that some aging will help, too. This was the first of the Snake Pit decant set I tried, because I'd seen so many raves here about it -- and I was not disappointed! It smells like a mix of dark cocoa-y richness with a bit of chai undertone -- I'm sure that sounds crazy, but it really does seem like chai without too much cinnamon and with a little cocoa instead. For me, that's a very good smell. I can see why it's so popular. Definitely a keeper.
  14. gwynethr

    Western Diamondback

    Oh my. This is just unbelievably wonderful. It smells as good wet as it does dry, something I've often found varies wildly for me. Leather has so far turned out to be either invisible (which makes me sad, as it's one of my favorite smells ever) or horrible baby powder; Snake Oil hasn't worked well on me yet (so far, very powdery, though I'm trying to let my already aged imp age more to see if it will help), either. But many of the Snake Pit scents are turning out to finally be Snake Oil I can wear and love, thanks to the other notes balancing them out. This is one of the best. I get wonderful leather and the spicy warmth of the Snake Oil and sandalwood, the vanilla-y tonka, and underneath a slight whiff of the sage, just enough not to traumatize me (my bad childhood desert experiences come back when I sniff that in perfumes). This is my perfect scent version of growing up in the west. I'm buying bottles of this, for certain.
  15. gwynethr

    Iago

    My first attempt at commenting in the reviews, so I hope I don't blow it. I thought this would be a perfect GC scent on me, and was so eager to try it. I love all the notes. Alas, it turns to baby powder on me. I can't believe that those kinds of notes can turn to baby powder, which I hate, but they do. I can almost -- almost -- smell the leather, but it's not quite there for me. (I seem to have a lot of trouble smelling leather in any of the BPAL scents that use it, and I'm not sure why, as that's one of my favorite smells in the whole world. Weird.) ::cries:: I love the smell in the bottle, though, so may try to get a diffuser and see if I can enjoy it that way.
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