Kanra

This was one of the Lupers I was most excited for and, of course, what I threw on right away when my package arrived. It's a lot gentler than I imagined, but it is strong and powerful in its softness. It is very powerful yet has an elegant beauty to it. I love the lab's aged patchouli so this was a no brainer for my cart. The patchouli is definitely there, but this does not smell "dirty" at all or anything you'd typically associate with patch. It reminds me very much of the vibe of the quieter, aged, complex patchouli in To My Dear and Loving Husband, another favorite of mine. There's a lot going on here in Elephant. Fruits, florals, musks, patchouli, tobacco... This could have easily ended up very jumbled with notes clashing against each other, but this is not the case at all. Everything is incredibly well blended. Like Madame Mew, I definitely get the floriental vibe from this. Fruits and rose (though not a powdery rose at all) are the main players here on my skin, sitting on a backdrop of tobacco, opoponax and mellow patchouli. The red musk is there, and I do absolutely adore a good red musk, but this is one of the only red musk blends from the lab where the red musk is more of a background element. If you are afraid of red musks, or enjoy your red musks not taking over the entire blend, I'd recommend this one. It's very velvety in feel and is both luxurious and comforting. The oil is a deep, dark color even straight out of the mail, fresh from the lab. I really can feel the inspiration of the scent while wearing this blend. It suits it perfectly.

I managed to track down a bottle of this. I ended up buying it because there's no way I'd let that opportunity pass me up. This scent has its place in BPAL history. Naturally, I expected it to be the best fragrance ever(TM)! Well, was it?! To be honest, when I first put it on, I was a bit underwhelmed. Yes, it was super nice. It was amazing even. But it wasn't exactly dissimilar to other BPALs in this dark musky/spicy/oriental genre and I breathed a sigh of relief that I was glad I got to try it and enjoyed it more than enough to keep, but it wasn't like I'd go out of my way to seek out and buy some backups if more appeared. Then some magic happened. This scent is a grower. It didn't take long to kick in. This turned downright phenomenal. It has that boozy musk thing going on from Smut (honestly, aged Smut is what it initially reminded me of!) with vanilla and spices and perhaps some hints of tobacco. It's an incredibly warm, dark yet sweet, boozy musky vanilla. There's something in here that smells like gingerbread a bit to me and I wouldn't be surprised if a similar fragrance was released as part of the Smutoweens as Gingerbread Smut or Gingerbread Spice Smut. That being said, there's a lot more to it than just being a gingerbready, Smutty scent. Upon first application, that was mostly what I got, but it only took a few minutes for the magic to set in. When it did, this is absolutely lovely. I doubt it will ever leave my list of top BPALs. If I saw another bottle on the market I'd be tempted to buy. Yes, it's THAT good. I still stand by my statement that it's not completely dissimilar to other BPALs in this genre. The notes make it a very different take on it, but I think you can capture the vibe of this with other, more affordable options (and layering). But it will never be quite the same and I will say that Storyville is incredibly complex and my personal favorite take on this genre. It will always have its rightful place in my collection and honestly, if you can spring for a bottle, it's worth it not even for the history of BPAL but for the scent alone.

This was a must buy for me because of some personal attachment to the name and the notes here. I am glad I was able to track down a bottle. Admittedly, my review is biased. (Then again, what review isn't biased towards their tastes?) This scent has some elements to it that are very special to me on a personal level so I knew there was a high chance I'd love it. But even without this personal bias, I think it's a great scent. I can see how some might find the dry down to be powdery, but personally I don't carry an aversion to powdery fragrances. Powdery, I daresay, even works on me as long as it is a flavor of powder with other aromas than just clean powdery notes. I love florals, and the types of florals that tend to go "powdery" are some of my favorites. Like previous reviews say, this is a candied floral. It isn't sugary or gourmand at all, but there is a sweetness to the floral aroma. Violet is, of course, the main floral. If violet works well on you and your skin, this is such a beautiful example of it. It's sweet and ethereal and magical. There is some lilac and ylang ylang to give it depth, and some mint which really makes this blend quite unique amongst other violet scents. There's a sort of musky, misty coolness to it, but it never loses its sweet aroma. I love this and think this is my favorite purple flower scent ever.

Wow!!!! Wow, wow, wow. I'm speechless at this fragrance. This is a top five BPAL for me easily! I'll be honest with you: I wasn't sure if this would be my thing. While I do like most patchouli blends, I like sweetened and aged patchouli and patchouli mixed with other things rather than dirty patchouli. My personal style of fragrance is far from "hippy-ish" so I really wasn't sure. But WOW. I can't express with words how much I love this blend and am glad I took a chance on it. You know when you try really hyped up fragrances, and some are underwhelming whereas others you "get" right away? This was the latter. There is something about this combination that has an addictive quality to it. I can't stop smelling it. I want to wear this all the time. The vanilla (which amps on me), the patchouli which is dirty and comforting and spicy in all the right ways, the hemp?! I now know I love the lab's hemp note and will absolutely seek them out in the future. I'm even wanting to try other blends that are often reviewed as being "dirty patch" or "hippy-ish" because, while this doesn't work on me with other brands, maybe the lab does them in a way that makes them exactly my thing?! Or maybe this is just the magic of Banshee Beat. This is absolutely magical. I want to fall asleep to this scent every night and wake up to it every morning. I bought a bottle, and a backup bottle, and the RR hairgloss. This is how much I love BB!! I never want to be without this one in my collection. The staying power of this is amazing for an oil too.

I wasn't sure what to think of this by the notes alone but someone I share fragrance tastes with talks very highly of this so I decided to give it a go when I saw a bottle. This is sugared cinnamons and clove with a small bit of pepper! Cinnamon and clove are definitely very prominent on me, and when I first apply, it's all about that cinnamon spice. Throughout the wear the sweetness that wasn't present in the beginning comes out. The clove starts to settle down a bit, and the cinnamon becomes sugary. It never turns into a hyperrealistic food scent on me, but in the dry down stages, it is very sweet and cozy and vaguely foody. It's very comforting in the same way I find these kind of spicy-sweet type blends usually are, yet it has a bit of an edge to it from the cloves in the opening. I love this. If you love oriental spicy scents and all things cinnamon, and you are fine with clove and sugar, this is a great scent.

I have both the original and resurrected version. Both are wonderful. The original is a bit deeper, muskier, and even sweeter in tone. Not a sugary kind of sweetness, but sweetness from the musky spices that this blend has quite a lot of. Both versions are absolutely fantastic. I don't get any coconut at all from either year, but I do get a lot of (now aged) Snake Oil, amber, musk, spices, and plum. This is absolutely delightful. One of my favorite orientals by the lab. It's spicy but in a vanilled (from the Snake Oil), musky, dark kind of way. It isn't quite as vegetal as regular Snake Oil. I'm someone who finds regular Snake Oil to be very comforting and warm, like being wrapped up in a warm blanket. Snake Charmer is that with the comfort amped up higher than I thought possible. If you love cozy, spicy oriental blends, Snake Oil blends, and the lab's plum note, you will love this. I'm glad I have a bottle of each. This is amongst my top favorite BPALs.

Monsterbait: Underpants: A love letter. Thiiiis. This is lovely. Absolutely gorgeous. A fragrance after my very own heart. I knew I would love this by notes alone, but I thought I'd never be able to get a bottle of it. Surprise, surprise: I found a bottle. And I love it even more than expected. This is going straight up to its rightful position as my #1 favorite BPAL, I think. It is THAT stunning. Caramel and creamy vanilla and saffron and sandalwood and rum. It's exactly as described. It's super creamy and cozy and, like a previous poster said, almost golden-like in aura. It's like being enveloped in a warm, sweet hug. Wearing it is like being taken away to a magical paradise. That is part of the beauty of Monsterbait: Underpants, but not the entire thing. What makes this so wonderful isn't the notes alone (though they are indeed great), but the way it is all combined. Before I got into indies and BPAL, I collected niche fragrances for 5.5, almost 6 years. When I smelled this, this seemed familiar in the sense that I have tried similar things in the world of niche. I don't mean to say this is a dupe for anything --- it is not. But these kind of notes and this way of blending is incredibly popular and beloved (in a much deserved fashion) in the niche world but I rarely see blends like this in indies. That's not a shade to indies at all, as indies offer types of blends and scratch some itches for me that are hard to find within niche. But at last, I've found such a beautiful, complex niche-like blend within the world of indie oils. BPAL can pull it off well. They do fantastically here. I'm trying to go through years worth of scent memories and pull up exactly which kind of niches provoke the same sort of feelings for me that Underpants do, but I know they are two, even sometimes three times more expensive than even the inflated secondhand market prices for Underpants nowadays. (That is to say, yes, for me Underpants is absolutely worth it and I would jump on this bottle again and again if I saw it.) I'm super happy I have a bottle of it, yet sad I only have one! I'm not normally a backup person but I'd absolutely grab another if I saw it for sale so I could wear this to my heart's content without being stingy in the slightest. I never want to be without this again in my life.

Snow, Glass, Apples is one I wasn't quite sure about. Apple scents are tricky on me and can either be massive hits or major misses. I've heard great things about this one, though, so when I saw a bottle of this, I knew I had to at least give it a try. I'm so glad I didn't hesitate on a bottle of this! The apple note here is fantastic. It's a super realistic green apple note. If you love green apples, this is a must try. But this fragrance is so much more than just "green apple". It's minty, effervescent, ozonic, and slightly sweetened green apples. They aren't sugary, but they have a natural sugars found in fruits realistic feel to them. The cold, snow note is wonderful here and it does have an atmospheric, glass-like quality to it. I'm not getting any blood as some previous reviews have mentioned (either it just doesn't appear on my skin or has long faded with age), but there is a sense that something darker is lurking beneath these sweet, fruity apples. It has that sort of "poisoned apple" feel to it in the best way possible. I'll be keeping my bottle.

Reading the other reviews, I need to do another wearing of this soon. I'm not getting much dragon's blood from this at all. Maybe a very faint, barely there trace, but it's certainly not what I'd call a main feature of this perfume on my skin. That being said, it's incredibly cozy. This starts off on my skin as a true cotton perfume and reminds me of the feeling of snuggling under a warm, toasty, clean, fluffy blanket. This is pretty much the image of coziness. I personally love fragrances like this, so I knew I was in for a treat. As the wear continued, a sweet, strawberry-like element emerged from beneath the cotton. The cotton didn't turn into strawberry, but rather the white fluffy blanket got tinted a little pink. Perhaps this is where a tiny hint of dragon blood came out, but again, not much on my skin. The cotton, once fluffy and fresh and almost linen in quality, also began to take on a milky quality that almost reminds me of Ghost Milk and similar scents. I didn't think it was possible for this to get more cozy, but I was proven wrong. I love this. It's a definite keeper. A must if you like your perfumes fluffy and cozy like floating on a cloud.

I love cherry blossom and love seasonal juxtapositions so knew I had to try this. It's gorgeous! I'm so glad I was able to find a bottle. Upon first applying it, I get a lot of the lab's piney snow note. Unlike other fragrances that have the piney snow note, the pine doesn't completely overwhelm the other notes or the snow on me. It smells wintergreen and pine with a cold, snow note that keeps this fragrance a bit chilly. Beneath all the snow, however, there is a surprise: cherry blossoms! As the life of this fragrance wears on, winter turns more into spring. The snow melts (yet never completely disappears), and the cherry blossoms and ume blossoms come out to play. This is a beautiful, delicate, ethereal floral atmospheric. I wish the lab did more seasonal juxtapositions like this because I would buy them all. Cherry blossoms and snow is definitely a winning combination.

This HG is great! Very fun and fruity. It's sweet and a bit seductive at the same time due to the strawberry/cherry fruit combination juxtaposed with the red musk. This wasn't super faint on me, but also wasn't super strong. I really love wearing it, especially as a compliment to my fruity/musky fragrances. I haven't yet tried the perfume oil version of Hollywood Babylon but now I must. This is good stuff.

This is super, super clovey. I knew it would be clove heavy but I didn't know the cloves would be quite this prominent. However, as a fan of all things clove and spices, of course I love it! There is a dry, chewy patchouli mixed with the clove and both of those are the main components of this scent on my skin. I'm not getting the cherry, the cacao, or even the rose. I'm absolutely not getting any kind of sugar to this either. It's very different than my image of this as a "little kid's take on a goth perfume" with extra sugar and cocoa and sweetness, but as someone who loves cloves and patch I'm not disappointed at all. If I do want a little extra sweetness, I can layer with a sugary or marshmallow SN and I think the results would be beautiful. (Note to self: I need to try this ASAP!) Otherwise, this is a great scent as is. I'm super happy with my purchase and would buy it again if I ever run out and found more. I just wouldn't go into it thinking I'd get a sugary goth perfume this time. If you go into it not expecting it to be a sweet goth take, I think you will love it. If you love patchouli and cloves, it's a must. If you like your perfumes extra gourmand and don't want something drier with a spicy kick to it, maybe this won't be your thing.

This is absolutely worth the hype. I never knew I loved hemp so much until BB/RR. It's an earthy, chewy patchouli and vanilla beauty. Absolutely addicting. This is amazing for cooler weather and lasts for a very long time in my hair. I don't have a bottle of RR, but I have BB which this will compliment nicely. Now I need to hunt down a RR bottle. This is fantastic stuff.

Midway! Where do I even begin with Midway? This scent is one of my all time favorites. It's the best carnival scent I've ever tried, and one of the best BPALs in general. Definitely in my top 10 if not my top 5. Probably top 5. When I say I love this, I realllly love this. Both the 2005 and 2007 versions are fantastic. I have half imps of both, plus recently acquired a bottle of the 2007. You can't go wrong with either. Midway is perfect. Cotton candy goodness with sugary, doughy funnel cake, salt water taffy, and some caramel apples for good measure. This is super foody and sweet. It's definitely one of the sweeter BPAL's I've tried (even for me, who loves gourmands!) but isn't quite as cavity inducing as the sugar note in Sticky Pillowcase. That's not to say this isn't sugary though! It's so well blended, that at least on my skin, no single note overpowers the rest. Throughout it's wear, sometimes the cotton candy comes to the forefront, other times it's the funnel cake or the taffy. I don't really have any fair related nostalgia but this scent is super comforting and gorgeous. If I had to complain about one thing, it would be that I wish it had better longevity. Really I just want Midway to last all day on me. I wouldn't mind smelling like this forever. I love it. I never want to be without it in my life. This is the HG of all HGs of carnival scents for me in both its incarnations. I can't recommend Midway enough.

This is definitely a white floral heavy blend. If you don't already love white florals, this isn't going to convince you. I know there are a lot of people who white florals don't work for. But if you are like me and love all things floral (including white florals), this is a nice BPAL to have in your collection. The Snake Oil aspect isn't heavy at all. There's a slightly oriental, incensed base to the white florals which I assume is the Snake Oil peaking out. But this is much more about the white florals than anything else, particularly the narcissus and lily. As noted above, if you are specifically looking for a Snake Oil + white floral blend, this isn't what I expected. Maybe if I layered it with some actual Snake Oil, it would give that result. As a standalone fragrance, I wouldn't say it's particularly unique but, in comparison to other brands, my wardrobe severely lacking in BPAL white floral options so I'm really happy to own this.

Snake Oil and Dorian! I love Snake Oil and love Dorian so this was a no brainer. Upon application, the Snake Oil was actually the strongest on my skin. It was very reminiscent of Snake Oil with popcorn and oak. After a while, the Dorian comes out in full force and overpowers the Snake Oil. The Snake Oil is definitely still there, but while it starts as a Snake Oil heavy blend for me at the very beginning, throughout the majority of its life it is a Dorian heavy blend. Popcorn and oak (a general sense of woodiness at least) remain throughout the blend. This is great! It's foody and woody at the same time. I don't get much lavender personally. As for the beeswax, I don't particularly get a distinctive beeswax note, but it does have more sweetness to it than regular Snake Oil and Dorian which I suspect is from the beeswax. Overall, it's a very foody, woody, popcorned Dorian with just a little Snake Oil for good measure. There's definitely a lot going on but somehow this all really works together.

I never knew I needed this in my life until a kind seller frottled this to me. It's amazing!!!! Wow. Baileys Irish cream and cake. I love cake scents, boozy scents, and coffee scents so this hits so many interests perfectly. It's very sweet and very foody with such a realistic and amazing Baileys Irish cream note. Seriously, this fragrance is so nostalgic to me. It takes me back to my college days when one of my favorite, go to drinks was coffee with tons of Baileys Irish cream added to it. If anyone else loves the way Baileys smells or has that nostalgic attachment to the smell like I do, this is a great fragrance. I will definitely treasure this one. The longevity is fantastic too.

I love roses, and love opium, so I knew I had to pick this up! Leather is very hit or miss on my skin but it was worth a try and I'm really glad I got a bottle of this. It's a dark, vampy rose scent. It's dark yet has a sweetness to it with is always a winning combination on my skin. The opium is definitely present here giving the rose a blackened, almost smokey feel to it, and the leather thankfully plays very nice on my skin. The leather is there, but it's a soft, almost comforting, vampy type of leather. It isn't harsh or sharp at all. On the very end of the drydown, the rose does take on a slightly soapy quality to it (which rose usually doesn't do on my skin), but again: this is only on the very end of the drydown and isn't a defining feature of the fragrance at all. Throughout its life, it's a very "dark romance" kind of scent. I'm absolutely keeping this.

Oh wow, I love this. I knew to grab it when I had the opportunity to get a bottle. I knew I'd love it. But what I didn't expect is just how much I'd love it. This is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. As in, I can see it being in my top BPALs of all time gorgeous. It's a beautiful creamy vanilla mint. It reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream only without the chocolate elements and York peppermint patties all in one. Mint notes and peppermint are some of my favorite things but I'm always dismayed that they are so short lived. But in Monsterbait: Tokyo Smash, the mint actually sticks around for quite a while! And even as the mint fades a bit in the drydown, you still get that minty edge to the vanilla and it takes on an almost Snow White-ish feel. This is an absolute love. A must have for anyone who loves minty vanillas. This is the minty vanilla to blow all the others away. I adore it. I'm starting to think there's no such thing as a bad or even mediocre Monsterbait.

Loli.Goth is beautiful! I love the lab's strawberry so I had a feeling this would be a winner on me. To my surprise, it's very different than any other strawberry or pink scent I've tried from the lab so far. It's very pink with strawberry and peach, but it isn't a juicy scent. It isn't candied or even particularly sweet on my skin. It has a creamy element to it, yet remains very distinct from most of the lab's cream blends. The peach is definitely a white peach, and the strawberries and fruits in general all have a sort of pale, musky, creamy quality to them. It's as if you are getting a fragrance from the musk of the fruits rather than the juiciness of the fruits themselves. The pale woods really add to the blend without overwhelming it or making it feel harsh. This is the opposite of a harsh, woody fragrance. It's super delicate and pink princessy without being overly candied sweet. Definitely stands apart from other scents in the same genre.

Review of 2015 version: Smut! There are some popular scents that I just don't quite "get" why they are so adored, and others that totally live up to their hype for me. This is the latter. I'm not really getting much in the way of boozy notes on my skin (which is a bit of a shame, since I love all things boozy!) but this fragrance is so great and addictive I can't even be disappointed. It's a musky oriental that's a bit dirty and a bit sweet. It truly lives up to its name. I can see where this would easily get a lot of nighttime wear. With the recent Smut based Weenie series, I've discovered that Smut works nicely with many, many things and will definitely do my own layering experiments. Sometimes you just want your fragrances to be a little more smutty!

I'm surprised there aren't more reviews for this! This fragrance is fantastic an quickly making its way up amongst my favorite BPALs. In terms of throw and longevity, it's excellent on my perfume eating skin. I was surprised how strong it is and how long it lasted! If you are someone (like me) whose skin tends to eat perfumes and is looking for something with a little more oomph, try this. Like everyone says, the caramel is strong in this one. BPAL's caramel note is one of my top favorites, so this was a no brainer buy for me. The chili peppers add a bit of spiciness which is such a nice contrast from typical sweet, caramel heavy scents. Of course I enjoy those too, but this is what you wear when you want a little spiciness in your blend. A little kick to set you apart from the caramel crowd. This is absolutely delicious. It definitely dries down to a buttery pancake note which almost reminds me of Pancake Breakfast, but it takes quite a while to get there. Enjoy the ride. It's a spicy-sweet good time.

This is everything I love about pumpkin fragrances and about laces combined into one. I always tell myself, "stop buying more pumpkins, you have enough!" but this reminds me why I keep buying. This is a nice creamy pumpkin (again, not too buttery or spicy, it's just right) over what you can expect from a BPAL lace blend. For a lace, it actually has fantastic longevity and throw. The pumpkin aspect doesn't overwhelm the lace like I expected. Instead they work together, creating a nice creamy cashmere lace accord with some added pumpkin for good measure. Definitely one of my favorite lace blends. I'd recommend to anyone who can find this one.

When I first opened the bottle of this, I instantly thought, "oh no!" While I love oud in general, the lab has one particular oud that I've since learned smells very strongly of this. When I first opened it, I got that familiar whiff of cat poop. On my skin at first it was mostly cat poop with Snake Oil. While I love Snake Oil and rarely find a snakey blend I dislike, I was really worried about this one. Thankfully, after the initial blast, the poop faded and it turned to a dark, broody, lavender oud version of Snake Oil. It's a bit close to my skin, surprisingly, because this one went on very strong and Snake Oil blends can be very heavy -- part of their charm, for me! I honestly wouldn't mind reapplying often because I do love what it becomes but don't want to sit through that poopy beginning multiple times in the same day. I'm still keeping it for a bit to see if the fecal quality in the opening fades with age. Like others with this note, I absolutely love what it becomes and am willing to ride out a bit of the rather polarizing opening to get the end results. Just not multiple times in the same day to account for a shorter lifespan.

Marshmallow! Fluffy marshmallow! I tend to amp marshmallow in blends and this is never a complaint for me because marshmallow is one of my top favorite notes. BPAL does marshmallow wonderfully. What is there not to love? Despite its name, this doesn't turn plasticy on my skin. Of course your mileage may vary and sin chemistry is different, but on me it's all about the marshmallow floof. It's a very gourmand, very fluffy marshmallow cloud and it has this element in common with many of my favorite marshmallow perfumes. It has a sugary element to the marshmallow (again, something else I really love!!) and all of this sweetness is juxtaposed with a little bit of green and floral elements in the back from the dandelion sap. It's just enough to make it stand out amongst other sugary poofy marshmallow options in BPAL's catalogue, but isn't the main focus of the blend on my skin. While I certainly wouldn't complain about more dandelion (I love love love florals too!), I'd consider the amount here just right to be unique from the other options while still being mainly all about the marshmallow. Do you like marshmallow? Do you like fluffy perfumes? Do you want to smell like a sugary, poofy, floofy marshmallow cloud? If yes, seek this out!