joopjoop

Cool creamy white floral with the barest hint of fir and something that smells just a little bit fruity on my skin. Although it does have a cool feel, it also seems faintly tropical. Interesting. This one doesn't morph on me much at all. I got this decant in a swap and had no idea what to expect. I like it and will probably hold on to the decant, but don't feel compelled to hunt down a bottle.

Very light and pretty to start with the lilac taking center stage. Unfortunately, after an hour, it's all cedar all the time on me. I should know better by now but everything except the cedar usually works on me and it sounded so pretty! Ah well, eventually I'll pass it along to someone who will enjoy it more.

I got ahold of a 6-year old imp and I get zero berries from it, which is a bit disappointing. At first it is all amber and spices, and after a few minutes the iris asserts itself with that slightly nutty quality it has sometimes (it smells like it is the same iris as the one in Black Pearl). It is a lovely, regal scent, it really does feel plush and 'gilded.' It's very pretty, but I was really hoping for some berries. I'd love to try a fresh imp of Florence and see if they come through.

Very nice and clean scent - heavy on the plumeria (which I like, so no complaints). I smell fresh and bright - but a bit generic, which I suppose is the point? I do like it, but it is not setting my world on fire - the imp will do for now. The imp I have is quite old, I would be really interested to try a fresh one to see if the linen note came out more.

This is pretty! Starts off very green with the ferns and lavender strongest. As it dries down it still smells very fresh, but becomes primarily a lilac and anise scent with just a touch of sugar. I like it a lot, but it fades very fast. After a couple of hours I can hardly detect it.

I got ahold of a decant from the forums - really excited, I've wanted to try this one for a long time. And I'm not disappointed. I have to agree with the general review consensus - Bilquis is just beautiful. There was a moment about 15 minutes after I put it on where it got a little funky on my skin and I may or may not have yelled "Myyyyyyrrrhhh!!!" aloud in my best Wrath of Khan voice, but fortunately the moment passed and now I just want to inhale my arm. Once it settles down It's floral and apple and the most gorgeous honey and spices. Later the musk and ambrette emerge a little more, giving more depth to the scent. It reminds me somewhat of Osun, which I also love. I was planning on getting a 5ml of Osun in my next order, but now I'm leaning towards snapping up a bottle of this beauty instead.

So I also love ambergris and recently got my hands on a decant of the SN. Thoughts on good scents to layer it with? Should I layer it with other scents with ambergris? Other things? I'm overwhelmed with the possibilities! Any thoughts welcome!

Well this smells freakin' delicious. At first it is all glorious marzipan with a cake background - it smells what I imagine this to smell like (minus the lemon, hmm... maybe layer with a lemon scent?). It dries down to a mostly vanilla cream scent with the mimosa balancing it out and keeping things light and non-plasticky. And the almond is still there wafting about - every now and then I catch a bit of it from my arm - lovely! I'm not a huge one for foodie scents, so I don't feel like I need to hunt down a bottle, but I'm so glad that I took a chance on the decant. It'll be great for those times when I'm in an almond state of mind!

I've been wearing Twilight for about 5 hours now and the longer it is on, the more I like it. The jasmine is the lighter, more astringent version that the lab uses in some blends, and it plays nicely with the lavender. The honeysuckle adds just a hint of needed sweetness. The overall effect is undeniably on the soapy side as others have noted, but I find that I don't really mind that much. The name is appropriate because there is something sleepy and soft about Twilight. I doubt it is bottle-worthy but I'm going to test it out as a sleep scent as most of the dedicated BPAL sleep blends are just too lavender forward for my taste.

A whole lot of sandalwood to start - and a bit bitter wet - but settles down quickly and becomes a very nice sweet musky beeswax with a hint of resinous wood. I guess I haven't tried that many wax scents because it's a new experience for me. I'm not sure it is really 'me' but I am intrigued to give it another test and to try some other wax scents as well.

Mostly nag champa on me at first, with some orange blossom in there to sweeten it up and tone down the hippie vibe. Dries down to a soft incense and sandalwood scent, although a little orange blossom comes through in the throw. Although orange blossom can be tricky for me, particularly when paired with patchouli, I do like it in many blends and I think it works here. I like it. It would be a good blend for meditation or meditative/ritual activities. I think the imp I received might be fairly aged, however. I'm interested to try a new imp of it and see how it varies.

This is lovely. Fruity and light. For me the mango is the real star here. I do love the scent of mango, but it can often be overpowering and just a little bit sour. Not so with The Dodo - the other notes are blended beautifully and it all works. But I do agree with LizziesLuck - this one is really light and fades fast. Still, I'm considering a bottle, just wearing it is really cheering me up!

Source: older imp - looks like it has been around the block a few times! I am a red musk fan, but sadly I get almost no red musk from this at first - it is all rose and strong amber. I like most of the BPAL rose notes, and this one is no exception, but the amber is totally hogging the limelight - screeching and flailing its arms around as it tap-dances center stage. Later I can detect the red musk smoldering resentfully in the background, stuck behind the rose and amber, but it never gets its chance to shine. Several hours later: the amber is super-powdery - almost cloyingly so and I have to stop the show and accept that Spellbound is not for me. I really love rose so I'm always taking chances on different rose combos - so no regrets - but this one is clearly not meant to be.

Source: bottle from TP's Etsy At first, my nose can't make much sense of this scent. It's both very well blended and yet simultaneously somewhat discordant. A little jarring but not unpleasant. I get some apple and sandalwood and a little bit of rose and pomegranate. Fortunately the dry down on this is *gorgeous* and it turns into a lovely fruity floral/rose with touch of vanilla and a nice base of wood. Somehow the pomegranate combined with the apple gives this one a gentle pineapple note to me (which I love - usually actual pineapple notes in scents are too overpowering, but here it is just a hint and is therefore perfect). However I should note that the description above comes from after wearing it several times and really *thinking* about what I was smelling - overall Crypt Princess is super well blended and smooth once it has a chance to settle on the skin, and I have to work to pick out individual notes. Which is fine because it is just the sort of happy fruity (but grounded) floral that I love. Glad I took a chance on this one!

The scent of the wild, hauntingly beautiful Pine Barrens of New Jersey! Pitch pine with blackberry leaf, cranberry, cedar wood and tomato leaf. I like this one a lot wet. The pine is strong but I can smell the blackberry and tomato leaves clearly as well - giving it a freshness I enjoy. Blackberry brambles are are everywhere in the summer in the PNW and are an important part of the scent-scape I associate with the outdoors - so I am really enjoying that aspect of Jersey Devil. The cedar is in the mix too and I’m worried it is going to take over soon (I amp cedar). Later - I am happy (and happily surprised) to report that cedar is definitely still there but seems to be staying in check in the background. Still later - this is lovely. Overall it is a sort of dry, high-summer woods scent, particularly when compared to my current favorite forest BPAL, Black Forest, which has a much more wintery and shadowy feel to me. Don't think it is big bottle worthy, but I'm putting the imp into rotation for use during summer walks..

This starts off really well - apple, lemon and pink pepper. The pepper takes the whole thing up a level for me - it adds a surprising twist to the tart apple and citrus. In the early stage I can detect the cedar in the background, but it is a nice supporting player. Sadly, the cedar takes over pretty quickly. On my wrist (where scents are always sweeter for some reason) I can detect the apple and pepper hanging in there, but elsewhere the cedar takes over. Too bad. Although now I'm curious to try more BPAL's with pepper notes.

An imp of unknown age from a lovely forumite! In the imp the vetiver is quite sharp and somewhat smoky and gritty. Once on the rose comes forward immediately to balance out the vetiver. Wet, it does have a smoky almost somber feel to it, with just an edge of something yellow and green - it almost has a slight wine note to my nose - I don't get chocolate like some other reviewers. It dries down to the lovely lab rose note with still that edge of something green and slightly sharp. I quite like it and will use up the imp, but I think that there are other rose scents that I would reach for before this one.

Pure internal harmony and spiritual bliss: the perfected meditation blend. This blend almost but just doesn't quite work on me, which is a pity, but not surprising as it is an incense blend and I find them tricky. It starts off with incense and blast of floral - very strong, but the floral leaves immediately once on the skin. Then it is fairly consistent - an incense with a sweet background - some kind of muted vanilla I guess. There are moments when I catch a whiff and I like it in an understated way, but mostly I feel vaguely aware of it in a way I don't quite enjoy. I find vanilla tricky as well - I want to love it, but so often it does not love me. In short I am conflicted about this scent. I may keep it for one more try - after it has aged a few months it might change, but there are so many scents I love more, that I think this is one frimp that will probably go to a new home.

Wet, this is indeed a contradictory scent - the different citrus notes kind of clash with the woody-herbal notes and the chocolate peppermint. At this point, I'm not feeling it. But during the dry down, it really settles down and the combination of the warm rounded feeling citrus together with the peppermint (and just the barest hint of chocolate - mostly in the throw) is wonderful. I keep getting sniffs of myself and I wholeheartedly approve. This one is a very unexpected yes for me - what an interesting and surprising scent!

Mmmm.... this is delicious. First on, I can smell what I think is the copal - it is like slightly smoky incense but BETTER - with strong orange and a creamy note that reminds me of white chocolate. It remains pretty consistent on me although it does lose that smokey quality a bit as it dries down. I don't get a lot of floral - just a suggestion behind the orange. I'm going to seek out more scents with copal. have a love/hate relationship with incense notes - particularly frankincense and myrrh, both of which I like in actual incense form but that have a terrible terrible relationship with my skin chemistry. But this works! An incense/resin I can wear!? Maybe? And so clearly I need to test out some MOAR copal scents to see if they work too. Anything to enable my growing BPAL habit. Oh, and I'm also considering a big bottle of this one!

It's very dreamlike and ethereal to me. I like it a lot. Delicate, pretty, with a nice balance of gentle floral, citrus and woods. On me it lasts for about 5 hours and has a decent throw. This is the third time I've tested The Zieba Tree. The first time I loved it. The second time I enjoyed it as well, but there was this odd moment about 3 hours in when the sandalwood and 'shimmering' resins came to the foreground and I felt this sense of what I can only describe as foreboding - of deep but unfocused dread of some kind - I don't know if it was connected to the scent itself or the power of suggestion from the description or something else mysterious happening deep in my mixed-up mind. In any case it was extremely unsettling and I've been reluctant to test it again since then. But I'm glad I did. So far, I've been wearing it for 4+ hours and the experience hasn't repeated itself, so this is back on the rotation and possible future bottle list. It really is a beautiful fragrance!

This was my first blind bottle purchase (a birthday gift to myself). It seemed like it was worth taking the leap as I am a Taurus and I love jasmine, ylang ylang and rose and, of all the sandalwoods, red is by far my favorite. I tried this on as soon as it arrived (and before it had a chance to rest) and it was a bit disappointing. On the first try it was JASMINE! and then all patchouli and sandalwood on the dry down. I set it aside for a few weeks and tried it again tonight. All I can say is WOW, this is a beautiful multi-layered scent. I think this is the one that is going to send me right down the LE rabbit hole (so sad for my poor poor bank account!). For me, the jasmine is the star of the show, supported by rose with just a tiny punch from both the ylang ylang and the pepper. As it dries down, the florals remain, but they soften and the base of patchouli and sandalwood come forward. Together these two notes add a richness and depth that I find almost intoxicating. This is not a daytime scent. It is very deep and sensual to me. I will be wearing this on hot summer evenings - when I want to feel like a queen. So glad I took the leap and that I have a full bottle of this particular bull.

Shoggoth is a beach-y scent to me - lime and coconut together. I love it. And of course Pele. It is both gentle and tropical and reminds me of Maui. Gonna try Elgeba. Obatala didn't quite work for me - the Shea butter note was a little too strong. Any chance that the Tiki scents might be reissued at some point? They sound wonderful and I would love to try them, buy them, bathe in them, etc.

Another frimp, and not one I would normally think to try, so glad to have the opportunity! Wow. Very realistic leather with a metallic edge to it. Smells like a high-end handbag. Or, as someone noted above, it smells like the ground floor of a nice department store as you walk in from the hot summer outside to the overcooled metallic air of air-conditioning and expensive leather goods. It reminds me of a popular men's cologne from the 80s or early 90s but I can't quite put my finger on it. I never get any of the blood or musk. I rather like it, although it is not really something I would wear regularly. It's a scent experience - takes you on a journey. I will try layering it with the one or two other RPG scents I have and see what happens - but ultimately probably not a keeper.

This was a frimp from the lab! As others have noted, it is smoke and rum. At first it smells like a dive bar at the end of a long weekend. Later it settles down into a sort of spicy dirty rum scent. Not terrible but still a bit too peppery for my tastes. I will ask the joopman to give it a try, but I don't think this one is a keeper for me.