ClareN

Um... yeah. That was helpful. PayPal's help email system is awful. You always get a fast but meaningless reply that boils down to "There's nothing I can do about that." I had to call them to get any decent help last time I had a problem. They have a free help number so it might be worth calling up about it if you don't mind being on hold for a while. Maybe if enough angry people call they'll restore the old character limit.

Bastet or Lyonesse would work, too...or Bakeneko. Is there a general "what BPAL would fictional characters wear" thread? Because there should be!

Bat, from the Salon? Or maybe he secretly wears Bat-Woman under his costume from time to time.

Death Cap. It's not a traditional aquatic at all, but it's the only scent I've ever found (from any company) that comes close to that smell, the steam coming off the warm earth just as it begins to rain. There's a coconut note in it too, though - so it's a bit like you're wearing suntan lotion in the rain. It's gorgeous. The drydown doesn't work on me, sadly, but that warm rain scent is there at the start. ETA: And actually, yes, you are asking for much. I've tried a bunch of "rain" scents and other aquatics, and they mostly just smell like soap or cologne, without that real earthiness. The closest thing I'd tried before Death Cap was a Demeter fragrance, Thunderstorm, which really smelled more like lettuce and dirt than rain. I'd begun to think it was a scent that just couldn't be duplicated.

This is an excellent idea for a thread. First of all, No. 93 Engine, from the Steamworks category. It's so hard to describe what it smells like, but once I tried it I felt like I'd always known it. It's made of all these resins and herbs, but smells like gold dust. It's also bizarre in that it's quite popular but doesn't smell like vanilla or musk at all. There are two other scents that I love but can't quite get my head around because they smell like nothing else in the BPAL catalogue: Bien Loin d'Ici and Xiuhtecuhtli. I think it's the "spiced unguents" that make BLDI smell so strange; the red musk and caramel aren't obvious in the way they usually are. Xiuhtecuhtli smells like oranges but not, and sweet but not, and floral but not. Honorable mentions: Voodoo - one of my favorite scents, the notes are all over the place - myrrh, patchouli, vetiver, lime, vanilla, pine, almond and clove. I get mostly almond, myrrh, lime and vetiver. The Music of Erich Zahn - do you know what opoponax and ajowan smell like? This is one of the best BPAL vetiver scents, too. Umbra - dark, substantial, resinous patchouli; really underrated. Hunger - it has vanilla, but it's also dark and strange - there's red musk, narcissus and orange blossom, which is a weird combination. Penny Dreadful - I dislike this, but it's very odd. Earthy and perfumey and kind of boozy all at the same time. Death Cap - Second or third this suggestion. Smells like the earth when it rains, which is something many perfumers have attempted but so few have accomplished. It doesn't quite work for me but it's definitely worth trying. Destroying Angel - the lighter side of Death Cap. Also smells earthy, but much more green. Troll - what Uploaded Lobster said. Kathmandu - dark herbal sarsparilla and eucalyptus over dark wood and spice notes. Sybaris - violet and clove, unusual and gorgeous.

I love spices, but cinnamon burns my skin, so I was afraid to try Pickled Imp because I was sure I'd find yet another scent I'd love but could never wear because of the burning (like Silk Road and Bengal). I was wrong on both counts: I don't love this, but it doesn't burn my skin either. It itches mildly but it doesn't cause the red rash I usually get from cinnamon. If you're sensitive to cinnamon like me, well, you should probably stay away from all cinnamon scents, not that I ever take my own advice there - but if you do want to risk it, this is definitely one of the milder cinnamon scents. It's spicy for sure, but I think it's much more clove than cinnamon. And speaking of clove, this is by far the cloviest scent BPAL has ever done. I've tried nearly everything containing clove in the search for the ultimate clove scent, so you'd think I'd love this...but I just don't. It's too simple. It's almost single note clove. Obviously it smells really good, but I might as well buy some pure clove essential oil. Stronger pine or creamy vanilla would make things interesting, but the other notes are just a faint hint behind the clove. Gingerbread Poppet is similar but slightly foodier; I think I prefer it over Pickled Imp. To sum up: if you like cloves, look no further. But expect a simple comfort scent, not a complex perfume.

This smells pale yellow-white, like the woman in the picture. White tea is the strongest note for me; you probably won't be able to pick it out if you haven't smelled it in perfume before, but it's a subdued, calm, almost floral scent. BPAL tea notes often seem to smell lemony, but I get no lemon at all here. I love white tea, it's in some of my favorite scents, but the other notes here are combining to make a whole I'm not fond of. Behind the white tea there is a sharp-ish white musk note (I get no vanilla though), ambergris, and a little gardenia, and...chlorine? I think it's the combination of ambergris and "chrome" (whatever that smells like - I can't quite pick out the note that's playing the role of chrome) that is making my nose think "chlorine". It doesn't smell exactly like a chlorinated pool, just the idea of one. So, this smells like someone who's just gotten out of the pool to sunbathe and sprayed on some perfume I don't quite like. I can see how a lot of people will go for this, but it isn't me. It's probably a good choice if you're looking for a BPAL that smells like modern mainstream perfume (although it definitely smells more sophisticated than your average J.Lo or Escada).

I couldn't say how unhealthy it actually is, but I'm sure no-one here will tell you he should go ahead and risk it. Knowing teenage boys...are you sure he's not just pretending he likes the taste just to annoy you, worry you, or gross you out? I haven't tasted Gluttony but I have tasted other BPAL by mistake and it doesn't taste good; it tastes soapy and bitter and it stings your lips. I assume you've already told him it's not meant for food, so if that hasn't worked I would just tell him to grow up and buy some caramels instead (safer and cheaper). It might be a good idea to notify your parents too. No one here knows the actual ingredients, but I can tell you that Gluttony is not made of actual food, it's a blend of concentrated plant oils that probably have varying levels of toxicity. Not something you'd want to eat in any case.

That's true, but BPAL note listings (ie. the official lab descriptions) are not necessarily arranged in that order. Sometimes they seem to be sorted that way, but other times it seems like they are just arranged by strength (the first listed note is fairly often the strongest), and I think a lot of the time the note listing is just written to sound pretty or to fit with the scent's inspiration. And we all know that there are often unlisted notes that show up unexpectedly, or listed notes that are too faint to pick up on. That's why I don't put too much stock in the Lab descriptions when it comes to predicting what things will actually smell like - I read the reviews. Some examples of note listings, since I'm thinking about this now: Bluebeard seems to be arranged in top-middle-base order: Violet, lavender, white musk and vetiver. But in Seraglio, there's no clear order: Sweet almond and Mysor sandalwood enveloped by a heady veil of Bulgarian Rose, neroli, nutmeg, clove and orange peel. If you were to fit those notes into the traditional perfumery note pyramid, it'd be something like this: Top: almond, orange, neroli Middle: rose, nutmeg, clove Base: sandalwood So in Seraglio's case I think it's all about writing a description that sounds pretty. Plus there are many BPAL blends that consist of all top notes or all base notes, according to the rules of traditional perfumery. Lolita: Glittering heliotrope, honeysuckle, orange blossom and lemon verbena (those sound like all topnotes). Or Malediction: red patchouli and vetivert (base notes). I'm just rambling about stuff I think is interesting now. But to answer the first question from way back, I wouldn't bet on the notes being arranged by percentage at all.

I've wanted to try this ever since it was first added to the catalogue. At the time people were saying that the description could just as easily apply to the Internet variety of troll, which amused me greatly. Plus, I like vetiver, musk and dark smoky scents. Pine was the one note I was worried about, since I rarely find a pine scent that works on me, but this is one of the rare exceptions (along with Golden Priapus and Thanatopsis - so if you like those, pay attention ). Freshly applied: I can clearly smell pine, vetiver and black musk. These notes blend together beautifully, the vetiver and musk making the pine smell mild, sweet and spicy-resinous instead of the strong "bathroom cleaner" scent I usually get from pine. There's a bit of an earthy note too, and from time to time I am sure I smell a hint of that lovely coconut-and-dirt note from Death Cap. Drydown: The clove comes out and it gets sweeter - much sweeter and fresher than I expected based on the notes. Seriously, it smells almost like fruit salad at this stage: peaches and pineapple with cloves. Call me crazy, but it has a similar feel to the scent of Lush's Jungle conditioner, which is a very good thing. This is probably just the pine pitch and clove turning sweet on my skin, so YMMV. But on me, it's all golden-sweet fruity pine resin and cloves with vetiver and dark musk playing a smaller role in the background. It's one of those hard-to-describe well-blended scents where various interesting notes keep popping in and out. Later drydown: This morphs a lot. It starts to smell almost incensy, with the smoke, musk and vetiver coming out more strongly. It's much less sweet at this stage, all serious dark resins and musk. That's still very good, though. Verdict: I test a lot of scents that have a great stage at the beginning but later turn flat with my skin chemistry, and I usually get impatient and don't end up keeping those around. This one, though, I love at every stage. I'm not sure if I need a bottle yet since I haven't worked out when I should wear these piney scents (bushwalking? camping? Yule parties?) but the imp will definitely be getting some wear.

Okay, UNEXPECTEDLY AWESOME alert. Knucklebones contains six notes I think are okay and no notes that I really love, so I wasn't expecting much, but this is wonderful. Intoxicating. I'm having a hard time concentrating to write this review because I keep stopping to breathe it in. Um, okay, what does it smell like? There's lime and orange blossom grounded by black musk, mostly; there's a little tobacco adding a smoky-vanillic edge to the black musk, and something that I think is the gin is making it smell kind of fizzy or sparkly, as others have mentioned. The throw (and it has lots of throw) is all dark-sweet-musk-lime-vanilla and up close to the skin it smells clean and soapy with more orange blossom. When I say soapy I mean that in the best possible way. This manages to be clean and fresh yet dark and sweet and complex and sexy all at the same time. It smells like a sexy boy who wears vintage suits, someone kind of pretentious yet down-to-earth, with a wicked sense of humor. I love this. I will have to see how much I wear it to decide whether I need a bottle or three, but I think I will need at least one before the Carnaval leaves.

First of all, I must admit that I don't really like most herbal blends, even though I like the idea of them - they usually don't work great with my chemistry. Also, I'm not a fan of lavender as perfume. But after I made my big bottle order for the new Carnaval stuff, I read reviews of the ones I didn't order, and for some reason Licwiglunga was the one I fixated on like "I have to try this". Found an imp on the sale forums, and it just got to me today, so it was the first one I tried. To me, freshly applied Licwiglunga smells like a herbal tea shop, or maybe a witch's house. It's a fascinating, complicated mix of sweet, dry, rich herbal scents. Lavender and pomegranate are the strongest when freshly applied, with hints of the anise, paper and verbena. The pomegranate definitely smells like a dried fruit - I've never had dried pomegranate but this is what I imagine it would smell like - and it balances the lavender enough that the lavender doesn't bother me. It reminds me so much of herbal tea that I started craving herbal tea, so I went and made a pot of it. As the scent dries I get more of the fennel, star anise, verbena and hemp paper. At the same time, the dried fruit note gets stronger and the lavender fades, so it smells almost like some kind of dried berry treat you'd buy at a health food store. It's still interesting, but I do prefer the wet stage. After half an hour or so it goes all wrong on my skin, unfortunately. Cloying bitter-sweet dried fruit or something - I know I've tried a few other BPAL scents that went wrong in a similar way, but I'm not sure which note is responsible. I can tell this is a chemistry issue, though, so if you have better luck with herbal scents you definitely want to try this one. It would also be great as a room scent, if I used room scents, or to scent an object like a journal. tl;dr: Fascinating, different scent. Doesn't work on me, but I would definitely recommend it if you like herbal scents or if the concept grabs you.

Snow White and Dana O'Shee don't smell like almond to me either, and they definitely don't behave like most almond scents do (every single BPAL almond scent I've tried has that super-strong rush of sweet cherry-almond when freshly applied, so strong it nearly drowns out all the other notes in the scent, but then fades rapidly and nearly disappears after 10 or 20 minutes). But what about Black Phoenix? That one has a definite almond note that behaves in the same way as the average almond scent - I'd bet an amount of money on it being that same almond note as Voodoo, Seraglio, Hecate, Hellcat, etc. But there are no notes listed for Black Phoenix. Maybe that will change, if the Lab is becoming more allergy-conscious?

Any hints on how to pronounce Aelopile or Antikythera?

Damn, I LOVE The Coil. I was not expecting that at all...in fact, I don't even know why I ordered an imp of it, since I'm not crazy about mint and there are very few florals I can even wear. But this is just amazing. It starts off a cool, calming mint with light herbal notes and ozone. As the mint fades, the floral notes come out more strongly and it evolves into a beautiful, soft, clear floral. Not too sweet and not at all cloying, heavy or powdery - just elegant, pale green or electric blue florals. The throw is excellent for the first hour or two. It gets quite faint after three or four hours, but I will happily reapply all day since it is GC. I will go through my imp and most likely buy a bottle when it runs out - the gorgeous artwork is a great incentive to buy a whole bottle! I've only tried six of the Steamworks scents so far, but this is my second favorite (after the unfuckwithable No. 93 Engine). Love this series.

There's an unwanted guest crashing this party and her name is tuberose. Tuberose, if you don't know her, smells like a white floral version of rancid corn. (She's not to be confused with rose, who is a good friend of mine most of the time.) If tuberose isn't kept in check, she'll run around being loud and obnoxious and won't let anyone else get a word in edgewise. It's all about YOU, isn't it, tuberose? You couldn't sit back and let me enjoy a nice sweet tropical floral, just this once; you had to jump around waving your arms and yelling "Hey! Look at me!". As usual. Sigh. I really wanted to hang out with my friends coconut, white musk, vanilla and neroli.

On me, The Great He-Goat is almost all deep, dark vetiver and a little patchouli. Some amber comes out after half an hour or so, but I get no carnation, pomegranate or ginger, any of which I would have loved. I do like vetiver, and while this is a gorgeous vetiver it isn't complex enough to warrant buying a Salon bottle; I think there are equally nice vetivers among the regular GC blends. If I wanted this kind of scent I'd be more likely to reach for Umbra or A Countenance Foreboding Evil, so this will go off to the swap pile. ETA: I bought this imp from a forumite and I suspect it may be well-aged, which may or may not account for differences between mine and the other reviews.

When freshly applied, Eclipse is so good it makes me swoon. I'm a sucker for almond, and this is the almondiest of almond: strong, sharp, rich and piercingly sweet, just like I like 'em. There's a slight hint of vanilla and cinnamon, but it's not overly foody, which is good. The cinnamon isn't strong enough to burn my skin, which is also good. Unfortunately, it goes all wrong on me as the almond note fades. I'm not sure if it's heliotrope or frankincense - probably heliotrope - but something turns this scent flat and semi-powdery. More than anything, it smells like...baby wipes? Maybe some sort of hand wash or lotion, familiar and institutional. Not unpleasant, almost comforting really, but not something I'd want to wear as perfume. I don't think this review will really be helpful to anyone. If you like almond, you know you need to try this - it's gloriously almondy, and with any luck your chemistry will be more sympathetic than mine. If you're not an almond fan, you already know to stay away.

I think the acai berry is the main note here I'm smelling here. It smells similar to the tart berry-like note in Roadhouse, and it also has something in common with the sour wine note in Perversion. I haven't smelled actual acai berries, but what this note reminds me of most is the Surinam cherry, an edible berry that some people grow as an ornamental plant - the berries look like little red and orange lanterns. I eat them. They're very tasty. I'm not really a fan of this note in my perfume, but I am impressed at how realistically Slippery Poppy Tincture smells like a sour, freshly crushed Surinam cherry, with maybe some freshly crushed flower petals alongside it. There's no honey to my nose, just tart berry juice and flower petals. I agree with everyone else that the scent smells overwhelmingly RED. The opium/poppy note that's in blends like Euterpe, Bitter Moon, Debauchery and Vechernyaya is completely absent from this blend. I'm pretty sure that poppy flowers themselves don't have a scent, so perhaps that makes sense. The scent evokes the poppy flower without literally smelling like a poppy. Slippery Poppy Tincture is not something I'll wear as perfume, but I can totally imagine this scent as belonging to a weird bright-red potion for strengthening the astral body. Great concept, great execution.

Is there anything else that smells like Ivanushka? It's not that I need a replacement, I know it's not too rare and I already have a bottle, I just really like it and I'm curious whether any other scents smell similar because I'd like to try them.

Can anyone comment on smell/color differences with the LE Poe scent The Masque? I have two decants of The Masque. One is a dark rust-orange color, the other is a much paler brownish orangey gold. I don't know which years they each were from, so I have no clue whether it's a difference between the two separate releases, an aging difference, a decanting problem with the oil separating badly, or just some other random batch difference. Anyway, the dark orange imp smells amazing. It's a rich, perfumey amber-incense scent with noticeable orange and carnation notes, and this fresh smoke note as if someone is actually burning incense in the same room. It seems to morph interestingly every time I smell it. The golden one smells...different. When freshly applied it's like the ambery incense is there, but it's behind a wall of green vines full of sap...that bitter green sap scent. The carnation and orange are fainter. As it dries down, it's much sweeter and more floral than the other one - might be some sweet floral like ylang ylang or honeysuckle. The drydown is sweet incensy dust with hints of floral and citrus. If both imps were not labeled as The Masque I would never have picked them as the same scent. The lighter orange-gold one with the plant notes is quite nice but nothing I'd wear often. But I DO want more of the dark orange variety. This makes me sad, since it may not be worth all the hassle and risk to track down the right version. I'm curious whether anyone else has noticed different versions of The Masque?

That is good to know, but now I'm wondering about the carrier oil thing. The site FAQ says that perfume oil is 15 - 80% perfume oil. I always assumed this meant that the other 20 - 85% would be carrier oil. I never thought this was a bad thing or made BPAL less "pure" or anything; from the limited amount I know about perfumery, there are some natural components that are simply way too strong to be used on their own, and carrier oils would help them smell "right" to our noses, and prevent them from irritating our skin in some cases. Is Bill really saying that the Lab uses no carrier oils at all, ever, even for the jasmine, rose, and cinnamon blends? If that's the case, I'm starting to worry that maybe I should be diluting ALL my oils before I use them...

My mailbox is set into a little brick wall, so when the postal worker actually puts the package inside the mailbox everything stays very cool. However, it's happened once or twice that they just shove one end of the package into the slot, and the end that's sticking out gets heated up in the direct sunlight. I've noticed that the oils can smell weird at first but after they cool down they seem to smell fine. I do try and keep an eye on the mailbox when I have a package coming to avoid the heat issue, though. I never have problems with oils getting too cold, for obvious reasons (*points at flag*). For those who are concerned about temperature issues, I wonder if it would be possible to insulate your mailbox in some way to protect your BPAL from the elements? I don't know anything about insulation but if you lined the inside of your mailbox with um, insulation stuff, would that help?

I've never heard of that happening, but I'd think it would be wise to switch to a wand cap if you have one spare! If the oil still smells OK to you it's probably fine to keep wearing it, I'm guessing it's just the cap that is gradually deteriorating after being in contact with the oil for too long. Maybe Psyche is more corrosive than your other oils due to, uh, lavender? Your guess is as good as mine.

Welcome to the forum Greensleeves! I'm not sure I've actually tried Irish Spring soap, although I've definitely heard all about its reputation. But I wanted to second Galvanic Goggles, since I've seen a few people make that comparison with Irish Spring, and it's really fantastic and addictive (this from someone who doesn't normally wear that kind of clean-cologney-masculine scent), AND it's GC. Oblivion might be another one to try, it reminds me of Galvanic Goggles (and it's also green) and smells herbal-soapy but also incensey.