ImperatrixMundi

Umm, imo Hunger has no red musk at all, it is a rather straight up fruity-orangy orange blossom with vanilla and a floral touch from the narcissus. Now I seriously miss my imp! But really, I don't think it has any phantom red musk but that does not stop it from being a gorgeous scent.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) and pink peppercorn or brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) are from different plant families. Black pepper belongs to it's own family, the Piperaceae, and pink peppercorn belongs to the Anacardiaceae. The most prominent members of the Anacardiaceae are cashew trees, so as a matter of fact pink peppercorn is closer related to cashew nuts than to actual pepper. But the actual red or pink pepper is ripe Piper nigrum as well, the dried black pepper is harvested while it is still unripe while the preserved red pepper is ripe pepper. Sorry for the lecture, that was just the botanist in me coming through! But I hope it helps to sort out the peppers. I think the lab can give a definite answer to what they really mean by pink pepper.

Rose Red 2007 - Thanks to khiseer for the Frimp. Not a big fan of rose here, I never wear anything with a dominant rose note but amp it to hell. Never mind. Rose Red has a very fresh, moist and strong red (of course...) rose note and something sharp, spiky and green. It does not paint a picture of soft, gentle rose petals but rather a dew-covered and cold red rose freshly cut with a long and spiky green stem. Rather evocative, I grant you that.

November is a mix of the typical brown autumn leaves notes (like in Death of Autumn, Chant d'automne, etc.) and the snow-type note that is ozone, so it really matches the description with the typical bpal notes associated with leaves and snow. I am reviewing this after swapping my bottle away because the weather outside reminds me of it. It is December already but the weather is still the November fog and cold drizzle, just above 0°C and the ground is still covered with leaves. Now I suddenly miss that scent, I never wore it year round but it really captured the essence of November perfectly.

Ok, I have no idea what Snickerdoodles are I was hoping for a vanilla and sugar scent that is not too buttery. But instead Sugar Cookie is very buttery and spicy with cinnamon. I think I'd love a candle that smells like this, or an actual cookie but it is not something I want to wear as perfume because it is too buttery-foody and sweet foody scents and cinnamon in perfumes can make me a bit nauseous, even though I love it in actual food.

La Befana is very sweet. It smells like sirupy brown sugar (like in Sugar Skull), a hint of cocoa and violets. I love violets but La Befana was seriously too sweet and sugary for me. It smells really nice actually but wearing it is out of the question for me. I'd have expected something a little lighter, more complex and more floral.

This is probably not the best review because I am pretty bad at telling notes in floral/herbal scents apart. Taurus 2007 is a light and soft floral, bright and spring-like. None of the floral notes stood out very much on me but I could definitely smell the mint in there for a while. Like most florals on me it dries down to a rather sharp and not too great scent and fades fast, unfortunate chemistry it seems. It is nice when wet but not for me.

Hi. I am not really qualified to answer your question but in doubt I'd say better safe than sorry. Pepper is not an extremely common note anyways, it would be harder to avoid vanilla or amber or something else that is a common base note. Not that many blends have pepper. If you are absolutely dieing to try something with pepper in it then take a cotton swab and put a tiny little bit of the oil on the underside of your forearm with it and wait for 24 hours to see what happens. But do not slather the perfume all over yourself the first time in any case. Apart from that there is a thread in the BPAL FAQs section of the forum that is for all allergy-related issues: Allergies and other reactions to oils The mods may probably move your post there as they see fit. The people who post there might be able to help you out, maybe someone has a similiar problem.

Yes, definitely similiar to Anne Bonny, which is red sandalwood, frankincense and patchouli. But the added notes in Sri Lanka make it more woody and spicier, I'd have thought it has some cinnamon if not for the notes. While cedar normally is my nemesis and makes me smell like pencil shavings it is very well-behaved here. Wet it starts rather sharp with a blast of patchouli but the resins get soft and powdery after a short while and the patchouli is noticeable but not overwhelming, it adds a bit of depht to the very dry notes. A very mellow, comforting scent after a while, very warm and dry. It really does not make me think of Sri Lanka, it makes me think of an old, dusty library with wooden shelves and air heavy with soft incense. I like it. Actually I wanted a bottle of Anne Bonny but now I think I'll go for this instead because it is stronger, fuller and a little more complex

Oh, Amber, my love... Ever since reading a comic book where my favourite character burns amber incense I wanted to know what it smells like. Turned out I love it! Apart from BPAL amber blends I also bought some solid amber from India, it is a crumbly resin blend which comes in a little wooden box with holes in the lid. When I burn it it smells mostly of benzoin, the Benzoe Sumatra kind, and has the same biting smoke. But when I touched it and sniffed my fingers it turned into a scent very sililiar to the amber in Hay Moon or Mr. Jaquel. Which is warm, soft, rich and golden and not the extremely powdery variety at all. Anyways, those are the two amber scents I so far like the most and that have an amber note similiar to the solid amber I have, which might still be very different from other solid amber mixtures. Weirdly, while I was expecting lots of amber goodness from Brisingamen I was severely disappointed, my imp was all CARNATION, front and center, with a little powder sprinkled on top. But I guess that must really be a chemistry issue with the amber and carnation in this blend.

My favourite sleep blend, actually the only one I sometimes use. It is all sharp lavender at first, then labdanum and nag champa come out. But it does not smell like incense sticks, if that is what you are thinking Unisex, dark, swirling scent. Not my choice for daytime wear but I like to scent my pillow with a little drop.

Hmm. Maybe they look better when you have them in front of you than in the picture. I hope to find out soon

Thank you. My last lab order was in January 09 This was the first time that I'd seen the new labels. Hmm. I liked the old ones better. Did they say anything about why they were changed?

Hello! Can you help me? This thread is so huge and I am a little confused. Here is the story: It has been a long time since I last bought a GC bottle directly from the lab. Has the lab changed the standard GC labels??? All the GC bottles I have have the old standard label that has been around since the dawn of BPAL. (The second page of this thread has a pic with many bottles with that standard label but I am sure you know what I mean) Except for Rappacini's Garden, Ars Draconis, Neil Gaiman, etc... Now I just found a few interesting auctons for GC bottles on e-bay.de Look, here is one: http://cgi.ebay.de/BPAL-Anne-Bonny-5ml-Par...=item35a45d8dda It looks totally different. Is something wrong with these bottles (that seller has many more listed and they all look like that) or did the lab change the GC label art and I totally slept through the process?

No coconut I love it but the lab coconut note always smells like faintly sweet plastic on me, it is like my olfactory blind spot. Blood musk is a sweet, fruity musk, more pink than red. It has something oddly tangy and drowns out the beloved orris. So I got blood musk and sweet plastic all the way, with rather little throw. I had to slather this on to smell anything. What a heartbreaker!

re: Bloodlust - yes, the vetivert it pretty strong in it

Try Vixen and Sin: Sin (Sin & Salvation) - Thoroughly corrupted: amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon. Vixen (Ars Amatoria) - Lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker’s perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli. I know they don't list red musk, but it's definitely in there. Czernobog is also very heavy on the red musk: Czernobog (Excolo) - A combination of three musks, with splashes of dark myrrh, vetiver and mullein. Lady Lilith has a really strong red musk component on me. It mixes with the white musk and overall the drydown of this scent is extremely musky in a fruity-sweet way. Krampus is really heavy on the red musk too, but with woods and something dusty and possibly some patchouli. A red musk scent that is very strong but not sweet at all. Bloodlust is a GC with a lot of red musk, vetivert and spices. War has three red musks (I didn't know there were more than one!) and ginger. The ginger was a killer for me but maybe you have better luck. You missed Marianne but if you can find some she might be worth a try. What I was actually going to ask: Is there a sort of master list of all the bpal musk notes? There are just so many.

Mmm. I love the complexity of the Salon blends. Lady Lilith has a lot of that and turns out somewhat different than expected. She has quite a few notes that can go awfully wrong on me but surprisingly they are well-behaved. Opium poppy, opoponax, vanilla, cream and rose can all turn out very bad. Most of the notes in this are really lost to me as they seem to blend into a mellow, fresh but soft scent with a sudden huge burst of red musk. Fresh on a delicious mandarin and tea are strong but they fade quickly and I am overwhelmed by red musk after twenty minutes. A little later white musk and something creamy kick in and take over. White and red musk together really make a pink smell in my nose. A creamy pink smell. Reminds my of strawberries. Maybe this is what I was hoping for from Mania which also has the red and white musk combination but did not turn out so well. In the locket the mandarin and tea stage lasts a lot longer but after wearing it all day it fades to a mellow powdery-musky scent, like white musk and opoponax and I think I finally smell some rose? Must retest it when my sniffer is in a better condition than it is now. Having a mild cold does not help. I like it but what would be great would be a lot more throw and staying power. If I slather the red musk phase will knock out everyone in a mile radius.

Hello furry musk. Nice to meet you. Weird how musk notes can smell sweet, brown, soft and fuzzy. Not so feral and animalistic as I would have thought but rather soft and tame and clean. In the background is a hint of the wine but I can not detect the leaves or bonfire smoke or approaching winter chill. I wish I could smell some of that instead of only musk and wine. Somehow it is intriguing though. My decant has wandered in and out of my swaps box about five times now and I am still not sure if I like it or not. I wanted to try it because my father is a hunter and so were my grandfathers. In any case it is a very romantic approach to the smell of a hunt. The real thing would probably be closer to gunpowder, blood, wet earth and wet dog.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet. But not foody! The Dragon's Blood is not as prominent as it is in most scents as soon as they meet with my skin. But here the sweetness of the vanilla and honey is dominant and the DB keeps it from smelling edible, which is a nice combination. I sometimes like sweet stuff as long as it does not smell too edible. A note for people on whom the standard vanilla note in most bpal scents often smells like plastic - that does not happen to me with this scent. I do quite like it when I am in the right mood, especially when I am cold or a little depressed, it is really a comfort scent. Good throw and very good staying power as well.

The Deep Ones reached me as a frimp - thank you, kind swapper! - and I looked up the description to find out what is in there... How helpful it was... Anyways, this seems to be a sweet ozone/aquatic scent, maybe a little too generic for my tastes but all aquatics smell like that to me. And like most reviewers I think there is some citrus in there - maybe yuzu? It does not smell bad, rather clean and salty and fresh but I never wear aquatic scents so I'll pass this one on to someone else. And somehow it makes me think that is the kind of scent my mom likes in a shower gel. No, thanks.

Wet the dominant note is iris, which works better on my skin in this blend than I am used to. It does not smell as sharp as normally but rather lush and nice. On drydown the olibanum comes out and for a while it lasts in the olibanum/iris stage, a rather pretty mix of resin and floral. On my skin it fades rather fast (but anything does, don't let that concern you), on my shirtsleeve I can still smell it and it smells like a very classic floral perfume, but rather faded. My hope was to get iris and a lot of sandalwood but the sandalwood hides from me. This is likely to go into swaps.

There I was, thinking that I have nothing to wear for summer, only all that heavy musk and incense I tend to accumulate Along comes Death on a Pale Horse. I had no idea what to expect but was totally thrilled by the concept and I love most of the featured notes. On me this has turned out to be mostly yuzu and lime with white musk, reminds me a bit of Embalming Fluid. Then the citrus backs off a bit and the sandalwood shines through. For some reason all the floral and earthy notes are not prominent at all. It smells almost a bit japanese, with the yuzu and sandalwood. So Death smells bright, soft and slightly sweet. Not like a dusty skeleton draped in a musty black robe. More like a swirling and bright spectral appearance. Maybe my swap imp is already aged a bit because the vetivert, mint and lavender are not in it at all. But I love it and want a bottle now because it is a little sinister but refreshing and beautiful and very wearable as an everyday scent in summer. Who would have thought! Edited to add: Well - I eventually caved in and got a bottle of this. With no regrets. The lab-fresh bottle smells just like the imp I have had before, no difference due to being aged more or less. It is just odd, no vetivert, patchouli and lily (which is usually a sharp and pungent floral on me) to be detected. They must be blended in very subtly. So if you are worried about the vetivert or patchouli - don't be, you might not find it at all here.

Clove-patchouli-peach smelled great. Warm, spicy-fruity but not foody. I thought I was smelling cinnamon at first but it was cloves. For about three minutes it was really nice. My chemistry kills the peach note, really messes it up and turns it into something sour and rotten. Sigh. It has happened again and I did not want too keep it as a locket-only scent.

Faiza is one of the scents I really like but simply fail to describe accurately. It is orange/green and sweet and pulpy but also slightly musky/spicy. See what I mean? FAIL. But I love Faiza, it is one of the very few scents that have florals and fruity notes and sweet notes all jumbled together but actually work for me. Among the fifteen (!) listed notes are some that are usually troublesome for me or completely overwhelm other blends sometimes (like black amber, oakmoss, honey and blackberry) . But not here, Faiza makes them all behave nicely This is such a nice change from the heavy musk and incense stuff I tend to gravitate to normally and I'd really love to snatch up a bottle of Faiza some day because I cant use my little decant if I am afraid I will run out.