Different smells/colors, same perfume

[Iceblink]

Has anyone else tried Io both before and after the backorder and noticed a difference? My decant was heavy on the red musk and the bottle I bought (which shipped after it was backordered for a bit, so I assume this is from a new batch) is so much lighter and thinner. I get almost no musk from it at all. I know aging is a factor with musks but red musk is one that's always been very recognizable and present even in fresh blends.

[flyby]

I have two completely different Fenris Wolves!

 

(bad pic, sorry)

 

I'm pretty sure this is a case of a mislabelled imp, since the scents are pretty different. The orange-red one smells more like what I'd expect FW to smell like based on the notes description - strong red musk, hints of amber and wood. The golden-yellow one is very patchouli in the imp but on my skin it's honey-patchouli (I amp honey) with some musk in the background.

 

Can anyone tell me which one is the genuine canine? And if the golden honey-patchouli imp isn't FW, what might it be? I... kind of like it. A lot.

[Molls]

I had an imp of Fenris Wolf, and it was red, like the one on the right in your picture...

[redderz]

Just a query on something I've never really heard of before!

 

I made a large order (9 bottles and a couple of imp packs) back on the 30th June, and they arrived on the 12th August. One of the bottles (Bon Vivant) was for a friend, as we made a group order, and I sent it off to her a few days after it arrived. She got around to testing it last week, and she said that she thinks it's not quite right - she says it doesn't smell at all like the last bottle she had, and that it's not nice at all, and like the strawberry scent isn't there at all. All of the other bottles that I got in the order were fine though!

 

I emailed the lab about it last week but haven't heard anything yet, though I'm not quite sure what they could do, as they don't accept returns, of course.

 

Is there anyone else out there who has had a dodgy bottle of Bon Vivant?

[krazyanjel]

I have a stumper.... I have 2 bottles of Black Temple Burlesque Troupe, and one has lemon in it? Like, lemon pledge. Its weird, dude. I've tried it on multiple occasions, wondering if it's a skin chem. thing, but nope. Definately heavy lemon. Crazy.

[Ondine]

Grrr. I have a 10 mL bottle of Anathema that I got straight from the lab in an eBay auction. I'm wondering what's up with it though because it smells exactly like Dragon's Milk. It's all dragon's blood all the time and nothing at all like either of my fresh bottles of Anathema (very vetivert heavy) or my aged 5 mL bottle (opium and incense). I wonder if it might have been filled with the wrong thing? It's really off; it smells fine ... for dragon's blood. It smells wrong for Anathema!

[Teaotter]

#occupywallstreet -- One of the recent reviews mentions cocoa globs in the bottle. Mine is entirely clear, as far as I can tell -- no separating globs at all. And I'm not the only one. I ordered mine the day it was released; I wonder if more recent bottles have more cocoa?

[Wwindy]

#occupywallstreet -- One of the recent reviews mentions cocoa globs in the bottle. Mine is entirely clear, as far as I can tell -- no separating globs at all. And I'm not the only one. I ordered mine the day it was released; I wonder if more recent bottles have more cocoa?

 

I ordered mine about three days after it went live, and mine is also clear. I can smell cocoa in the scent, but not particularly strongly.

[archionblu]

I'm a bit confused.

 

I have 2.5 imps of Loviatar that I received as extravagant gifts from wonderful people or bought on ebay (the .5), but while 1 and .5 are the same, the second imp is different smelling and looking. It's golden, instead of the deeper read, and it is actually kind of...floral???on me?

 

It really confused me. It's a from-the-lab-label, and say's Loviatar on it, but...it smells and looks so different. Does anyone have an explanation for this phenomenon? I'm so grateful to the people who scent me the imps, because it's in my top 2 BPALs (well, any scent EVAR), but I was just curious/wanted to know for documentation purposes.

 

TIA!

Edited November 2, 2011 by archionblu

[HighPriestessIce]

Hmm that is odd. I have several imps and some are a more golden color but none have been floral. They all smell pretty much the same :/ though obviously the darker ones are a lot stronger. Though I do not wear them on my skin so maybe that's why I smell no difference aside from strength. Only thing I can think of is a batch difference. There's probably more or less of an ingredient in there than usual. Kind of like how there's a green and an amber version of Oblivion.

[sunshinedaisybliss]

Hmm.. all my imps of Loviatar are a deep rich red colour, and they all smell the same.

 

It's not all that unusual to get different colour variations in the oil, and some difference in the fragrance happens sometimes too.. but if yours is a whole different colour AND a whole different smell then I suspect you might have a mis-labelled imp there. I dunno - I could be wrong, but that sounds like more than just a 'variation' to me, it sounds like a whole other oil

[Unauthorized Cinnamon]

I hope this is the right place to ask about aging. A few months ago I got an imp of Jezebel from a forumite, and it was wonderful. Very rich, with an assertive (but not overpowering) and long-lasting rose note, and a really nice, non-powdery honey base, with just hints of neroli. So I finally up and ordered a bottle, and it smells very powdery, not very rosey, and almost reminiscent of baby aspirin to me. Do you reckon this is a case of new versus aged? Please tell me if I squirrel my 5mL away for a year, it will smell as gorgeous as the imp!

[SerendipityHQ]

Hi everyone! I'm pretty new to Bpal and just got my first bottle and well, erhm.

 

Same sort of story that as everyone else. I got an imp of Strangler Fig- it smelled unholy good. Deep, thick, smell like figs poached in honey and a little earth. I wore out the imp almost instantly and jumped at the chance to grab a bottle from the forum.

 

And its so different, man. Not just slightly different- almost 100%. This one smells like the white stuff in dandelions wet and drys down to sharp green vegetation in a hothouse, it makes me sneeze and burns on my skin which the other most assuredly did not.

 

So, to anyone who owns this one or knows these symptoms- HELP!

 

Is this a case of one being aged? Storage? How is it that one triggers allergies and one doesn't? Which is the normal state of affairs for this scent? Is there some strange alchemy that I can do to make this turn into the gorgeous imp smell? I can't imagine this type of difference is normal- no one could have a favorite if it smelled this different every time. Anything anyone could tell me would be hugely appreciated.

Edited November 13, 2011 by SerendipityHQ

[Little Bird]

Is this a case of one being aged? Storage? How is it that one triggers allergies and one doesn't? Which is the normal state of affairs for this scent? Is there some strange alchemy that I can do to make this turn into the gorgeous imp smell? I can't imagine this type of difference is normal- no one could have a favorite if it smelled this different every time. Anything anyone could tell me would be hugely appreciated.

 

This seems to be happening more and more lately, and it's starting to make me wary of purchasing bpal. I've ordered a lot of bottles over the past year and a half especially that smell nothing like what I was expecting, and different to bottles that I've compared them to of the same name. You could try messaging the lab about it, but I've messaged them about this sort of thing in the past and haven't gotten a response. A lot of times people will tell you to try aging a scent, which might help, but not in a case where the oils just flat out aren't the same...

[SadariEvenstar]

I was heartbroken to discover that my second bottle of Lady Una smells nothing like my first. The second bottle is so strongly musk that it actually makes my eyes water when I sniff it, and I love musk. I never smelled anything like it.

[shriekingviolet]

Is this a case of one being aged? Storage? How is it that one triggers allergies and one doesn't? Which is the normal state of affairs for this scent? Is there some strange alchemy that I can do to make this turn into the gorgeous imp smell? I can't imagine this type of difference is normal- no one could have a favorite if it smelled this different every time. Anything anyone could tell me would be hugely appreciated.

 

This seems to be happening more and more lately, and it's starting to make me wary of purchasing bpal. I've ordered a lot of bottles over the past year and a half especially that smell nothing like what I was expecting, and different to bottles that I've compared them to of the same name. You could try messaging the lab about it, but I've messaged them about this sort of thing in the past and haven't gotten a response. A lot of times people will tell you to try aging a scent, which might help, but not in a case where the oils just flat out aren't the same...

 

Natural ingredients aren't homogeneous like synthetic ones are, they can vary a lot with the location or the particular conditions of the time in which they were grown. It's like with wine. The same grape varietal can be grown in the same plot of land year after year, but the 2010 vintage will inevitably taste, smell and possibly even look different from the 2011 vintage. It doesn't matter if the same winemaking process was used on both, made with the same equipment, same hands. The nuances of the grape are shaped by the conditions they are grown in, and different weather and soil conditions can wildly vary the output of a particular harvest. Maybe it was colder one year, maybe there was less rain. Those variables will make a difference in the final product, and you'd be silly to expect two years' crops to produce identical wines. So why would you for perfume made from organic material?

[Wwindy]

Natural ingredients aren't homogeneous like synthetic ones are, they can vary a lot with the location or the particular conditions of the time in which they were grown. It's like with wine. The same grape varietal can be grown in the same plot of land year after year, but the 2010 vintage will inevitably taste, smell and possibly even look different from the 2011 vintage. It doesn't matter if the same winemaking process was used on both, made with the same equipment, same hands. The nuances of the grape are shaped by the conditions they are grown in, and different weather and soil conditions can wildly vary the output of a particular harvest. Maybe it was colder one year, maybe there was less rain. Those variables will make a difference in the final product, and you'd be silly to expect two years' crops to produce identical wines. So why would you for perfume made from organic material?

 

I agree with the basic philosophy here: in a way it's one of the charms of BPAL that you can never step into the same scent river twice. To be fair, though, winemakers use a very elaborately detailed system of nomenclature so that buyers know exactly what vintage they're purchasing and can do the research to determine what the characteristics of any given vintage are likely to be. I understand and am fine with the idea that no two batches of a blend will ever be exactly the same -- but given that, I think a lot of people would really appreciate it if the Lab would acknowledge when there are extreme variations and give us a little warning when scents come out as "the apple-y version" or "the really sharp patchouli version" or whatever. It's *understandable* that it happens, but it's also understandable that it comes as a huge shock to most people who are accustomed to more traditional perfumes -- or, really, any consumable product where you're pitching a particular esthetic quality.

 

Sure, I know the Martin Codax Albarino 2009 is going to be different from the 2006, but how would I be able to decide which I would enjoy drinking with my dinner if they didn't have dates on the label or the maker hadn't released flavor profiles for the respective vintages for me to compare?

[Little Bird]

Natural ingredients aren't homogeneous like synthetic ones are, they can vary a lot with the location or the particular conditions of the time in which they were grown. It's like with wine. The same grape varietal can be grown in the same plot of land year after year, but the 2010 vintage will inevitably taste, smell and possibly even look different from the 2011 vintage. It doesn't matter if the same winemaking process was used on both, made with the same equipment, same hands. The nuances of the grape are shaped by the conditions they are grown in, and different weather and soil conditions can wildly vary the output of a particular harvest. Maybe it was colder one year, maybe there was less rain. Those variables will make a difference in the final product, and you'd be silly to expect two years' crops to produce identical wines. So why would you for perfume made from organic material?

 

The differences that I've found often aren't over the span of 2+ years, and the differences are not subtle. I'm not talking about subtle variations, but scents that smell entirely different, in bottles that are often purchased in the same LE run.

 

It is a huge letdown to get a sample or first bottle of something and then purchase a full bottle or backup bottle and get an entirely different scent. If I never know what to expect or what scent I'll actually get, then it makes me hesitant to purchase anything.

 

The latest Beaver Moon is a problem for me, because some people got a version that smells like it was supposed to (like lavender and cheesecake), and some people got something else entirely. My bottle smells like burning chemicals and unfinished men's cologne. I would have rather had a refund than some other scent, or some variation of the intended scent. These are *huge* differences in bottles that were purchased days apart. And there are some examples of huge differences posted in this thread.

 

I've had this happen with a lot of bottles lately, where I've purchased bottles a few months apart or in the same LE run, and they don't smell the same or have the same oil ratios or same oil color.

 

I don't think that it's silly to expect the same perfume to smell at least mostly the same over a period of time. And with scents like the Beaver Moon 2011, those were bottles that certainly were purchased/made around the same time, so the huge difference there doesn't make sense at all.

[Deidre]

I do agree with Little Bird - when buying perfume online, a customer should be able to trust the description and the fact that they will not get something completely different (I'm speaking both as a rather poor student who only treats herself to perfume occasionally and as an international customer who has to pay high shipping costs with every order and thus thinks twice about ordering anything). I think it's justified to expect a perfume to smell roughly the same, even with slight variations - and since I'm short on money, I have to rely on decant circles and such to know what I like, and the possibility of getting something completely different when ordering a full bottle is a bit off-putting when you are saving every penny to treat yourself to something once in a while.

And I do think the Lab uses synthetic ingredients too (from the FAQ : "Our products are as natural as possible without compromising the safety and health of our customers. We will not use any component, natural or synthetic, that is deemed harmful to either the environment or the individual", implying that they do use synthetic ingredients), so that should cut down the variation potential...

[Silvertree]

This is not at all to knock decant circles, as I have relied upon them to help narrow down a too-large wishlist after an update. However, I can see a decant removed from a bottle by a second party being different in composition from the overall bottle, even if the bottle is well-mixed by the decanter prior to the decanting.

 

I don't want to get into the synthetic ingredient debate too much, as that's off-topic and has been covered in other threads, but my understanding is that the Lab at one point in time made one or two prototypes with synthetic ingredients, but never put them up for sale. So they can't say "we have never used synthetics" but nothing in the current catalog uses them. Of course, I don't work for the Lab, so don't take my word for it.

[DahliaHayashi]

Well this is not really related to a bad choice but does anyone has following experience:

 

When I see reviews I sometimes find it interesting how people with imps seems to to have complete different experiences with the scents than people with bottles. can this be?

In my case for examble i was totally suprised when i got my egg nog imp. everyone says spices and booze, my imp had neither.

an direct experience i have with snake oil, my imp is much less sweet than the bottle i got half a year earlier (the imp was a free one).

I am wondering. i am joining decant circles all the time and i am sometimes wondering if i maybe miss out on a beautiful scent because the decant is not really what you get in the bottle

Can that be? Can the scent in the imp and the bottle scent differ quite a bit? who has experience?

Edited January 22, 2012 by DahliaHayashi

[sunshinedaisybliss]

Can that be? Can the scent in the imp and the bottle scent differ quite a bit? who has experience?

 

Yes.. it sure can be. It's actually quite common

 

You need to be especially careful with scents that contain certain notes. For example; cocoa tends to sit in the bottom of the bottle - if the decanter doesn't 'blend' the oil in the bottle properly before making up the vials, you will get a decant that has less or more cocoa than what was intended when the mix was made at the Lab. I've noticed some booze notes like rum also don't always distribute themselves very well through an oil, so that could be the problem with your decant of Egg Nog - maybe you got one that came from the top of the bottle rather than the bottom (the rum tends to hang down the bottom of a 5ml). Hellhound on my Trail is well-known for having dark globules in it, like a lava lamp, and as far as I can tell by investigating my bottles.. it's the rum in the globules! There's also the whole issue of batch variances - like the infamous Infernal Lover red musk/no red musk bottles... so that also needs to be considered.

 

I just want to add that what I said above about decants is in no way a criticism of decanters!! Having done many many decants myself, I know how difficult it is to get cocoa and other things out of a bottle and evenly distributed into vials

 

 

I think imps are generally more susceptible to imbalances in the notes - I guess if you think about it mathematically.. in a 5ml you've got five times as much oil so the chances of all the notes being perfectly mixed is better than in an imp, which holds only 1ml.

 

Oh - and just one final thought.. Snake Oil is a bad one to compare imp vs bottle, particularly if your bottle is 6 months old and your imp is fresh.. the oil in your bottle would have changed through aging

 

Edited to add - there's actually a whole topic here about different smells/colours, same perfume that might give you some extra info!

.

Edited January 22, 2012 by sunshinedaisybliss

[DahliaHayashi]

Can that be? Can the scent in the imp and the bottle scent differ quite a bit? who has experience?

 

Yes.. it sure can be. It's actually quite common

 

You need to be especially careful with scents that contain certain notes. For example; cocoa tends to sit in the bottom of the bottle - if the decanter doesn't 'blend' the oil in the bottle properly before making up the vials, you will get a decant that has less or more cocoa than what was intended when the mix was made at the Lab. I've noticed some booze notes like rum also don't always distribute themselves very well through an oil, so that could be the problem with your decant of Egg Nog - maybe you got one that came from the top of the bottle rather than the bottom (the rum tends to hang down the bottom of a 5ml). Hellhound on my Trail is well-known for having dark globules in it, like a lava lamp, and as far as I can tell by investigating my bottles.. it's the rum in the globules! There's also the whole issue of batch variances - like the infamous Infernal Lover red musk/no red musk bottles... so that also needs to be considered.

 

I just want to add that what I said above about decants is in no way a criticism of decanters!! Having done many many decants myself, I know how difficult it is to get cocoa and other things out of a bottle and evenly distributed into vials

 

 

I think imps are generally more susceptible to imbalances in the notes - I guess if you think about it mathematically.. in a 5ml you've got five times as much oil so the chances of all the notes being perfectly mixed is better than in an imp, which holds only 1ml.

 

Oh - and just one final thought.. Snake Oil is a bad one to compare imp vs bottle, particularly if your bottle is 6 months old and your imp is fresh.. the oil in your bottle would have changed through aging

 

Edited to add - there's actually a whole topic here about different smells/colours, same perfume that might give you some extra info!

.

 

thank you for directing me to the other post. well then i have hope for my egg nog bottle comming my way because my decants came to late. the booze seems to mainly come from the rum (like the real deal ) and my nog was pretty light and non boozy and spicy. just plastic vanilla.

i know snake oil is aging but i was just wondering because i know what my bottle smelled like when i got it fresh and it was not really as incensy as the imp. i sneak of to the other topic to check it

Edited January 22, 2012 by DahliaHayashi

[DahliaHayashi]

This is not at all to knock decant circles, as I have relied upon them to help narrow down a too-large wishlist after an update. However, I can see a decant removed from a bottle by a second party being different in composition from the overall bottle, even if the bottle is well-mixed by the decanter prior to the decanting.

 

I don't want to get into the synthetic ingredient debate too much, as that's off-topic and has been covered in other threads, but my understanding is that the Lab at one point in time made one or two prototypes with synthetic ingredients, but never put them up for sale. So they can't say "we have never used synthetics" but nothing in the current catalog uses them. Of course, I don't work for the Lab, so don't take my word for it.

 

I have the feeling that some scents are not really good for decanting. it has nothing to do with the decanter, the scents seems just not good for it. if you read through some reviews its interesting how people with decants sometimes dislike them while people with bottles rave about them. there seems to be something about it. Egg nog for examble (i mention this alot but this i recent to me). people with imps seems to get a strong plastic note sometimes (me too) while people with bottles get nice nog with booze and spices (and my skin amps spices but in my imp where non existent).

[Glambie]

Hey, all!

 

I have a quick question about one of the Lupers. I ordered a bottle of Body, Remember (unsniffed) when it first came out, as all the notes generally work well on me. But sadly, when I smelled it in the bottle and then tested it, it smelled nothing like what I expected. Since I'm new to BPAL, I thought maybe it was my skin chemistry that changed it, but the sweetheart that I swapped with had the same reaction (unfortunately).

 

The Lupers will be coming down soon, and I'm really thinking about trying it again based on the glowing reviews it's received. But being on a student budget, that's sort of a tricky situation.

 

Has anyone else had this issue with BR? And do you think I should risk it? I don't know how common batch variations are, but I desperately want that beautiful oil that everyone else is getting!

 

Thanks!!