Why do all BPAL scents smell the same to me??

[kadmia]

Although I haven't tried many scents, they all seem to have the same undertone to them.

I've tried:

 

Veil

Persephone

O

Snake Oil

Old Kyoto

Eclipse

Queen Mab

Danube

Endymion

Dana O'Shee

Chaos Theory (can't remember which #)

 

Now I understand that the top notes vary--a lot! But there is this underlying scent that I smell in all of them, and for some reason, it's really noticeable to me. It's hard to describe...kind of incense-like. While I'm sure some people love this scent, it kinda bothers my nose.

 

Have I no hope for liking BPAL? I have some upcoming orders that I made in hopes of loving BPAL, but why do all blends smell the same to me? Is there anything I can do to fix my problem?

 

Please help!

[hypothermya]

Well, a while ago I came to recognize a generic BPAL scent. But then I realized that that scent changed from package to package. I think that what it is is one or two of the stronger oils in each order mingling with one another in the package. And if you store your oils together, this tends to be amplified. So it could be that one of the oils in that batch of yours strongly disagrees with you, and you're just smelling the residue of it whenever you take out your oils.

 

Or perhaps it's more than that.

 

Myself, I just recently organized my imps (Yes, SilverAngel -- organized! In little ziplocking baggies!) and have them alphabetically stored in a green frog-prince lunch box that my swap faery gave to me. Um, but aside from all of that extraneous info, the point is that all of my oils are all in the same place, and that even though they're in ziplock bags, whenever I open the box I get the most incredible blast of the generic BPAL scent. It's amazing, and half of the time nauseating. I don't know how all the Lab rats stand it. Maybe they get used to it after a while....

[sarada]

When I got my first package I didn't know what to expect, and I think that the freebies I got mostly came from the same "family" as the bottle I ordered -- from Mad Tea Party. In a mixture of under a dozen scents, I think that the dominant notes will really stick out and hover over all of them. When I go back to that first batch I still seem to notice the same thing -- all of the tags picked up that strong Mad Hatter minty smell, and the undertone of various tea and citrus notes. But since then, after trying dozens of others, I don't feel that way anymore. Especially when I tried some radically different ones, like the extremely earthy and rosey Zombi and Burial. They were so different from that initial cloud of fragrance I experienced that I can really distinguish the differences to a greater degree now.

 

If you had a batch that, for example, was mostly stuff like patchouli, wood and other 'dry' scents and tried them off in a different room than the other bunch you might have a different impression, who knows! But there is a generic scent that emerges from any large gathering of fragrances, which is hard to put your finger on. I've always wished there was an incense called Incense Store, for example, that just had that amazing waft of ALL incense smells you get when you walk into a place like that!

 

Maybe if you get some more, and try them out far apart in time from each other the individual notes will become much more distinct! I did feel at first that there was an overall "perfumey" quality to my samples that was a little too perfumey for me..and since then I've discovered that I stay away from the light, floral scents and go straight for the deeper, darker ones.

[tart]

I thought all of my BPAL smelled the same at first, but I think it's part of getting used to using perfume oils instead of commercial perfumes. Now, all commercial perfume has the same smell to me...do you know what I mean?

[ipb]

if it helps any, almost all of those are oriental/gourmand/spicy scents (exceptions: persephone & endymion, which are fruity-florals, and danube, which is an ozone/marine/fresh)

 

i would say good ones to try (just because of how immediately different from other scents they are)

- roses: zombi, red rose

- mints: shattered, cathode

- ozone: tempest, neo-toyko

- metallic: mercury

- salty: jolly roger, dragon tears

- boozey: grog, roadhouse

- citrusy: carnal, zephyr

 

note that these aren't necessarily my favorites.. but imo very different from the ones you've selected.

[Mrs.Black]

Because you haven't tried enough of them.

[VelvetSky]

Personally, I think the "BPAL smell" is due to one (or a combination) of the four bases that Beth uses in probably most of her oils: Sandalwood; amber; myrrh; patchouli. She obviously uses very high quality base oils, which are rich and distinctive smelling, and which tend to permeate any container.

 

kadmia, if most of the scents you've tried so far have smelled similar, it may be that your skin naturally amplifies the base notes.

 

I also want to add that most of the world's great perfume houses have a distinctive quality about them. Chanels are powdery, Guerlains are rich, etc. I think that BPALs are incensey.

[VorpalBunny]

- citrusy: carnal, zephyr

 

note that these aren't necessarily my favorites.. but imo very different from the ones you've selected.

 

On me, Zephyr smells a lot like Queen Mab, so if you don't like Queen Mab it may not be the best choice.

 

Other scents you could try that might be very different:

Bon Vivant (strawberry)

Fae (peach and white musk)

Kabuki (cherry and clove)

 

You should try swapping on the swap board to see how other scents work on you.

 

You may want to check out this topic for more recs.

[ipb]

- citrusy: carnal, zephyr

 

note that these aren't necessarily my favorites.. but imo very different from the ones you've selected.

On me, Zephyr smells a lot like Queen Mab, so if you don't like Queen Mab it may not be the best choice.]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ah, yeah, they've got a few of the same notes (sandalwood and chinese musk)... but on me, queen mab is richly floral with a lovely sandalwood base, and zephyr is just fresh citrus. m

[rainbow]

Yes, I think there's a BPAL scent, the thing I get eminating from my pile o' imps. For me it's sort of the combination of everything together- the result is mildly floral and slightly sweet, and sort of hard to describe.

 

I also find that there are certain notes my skin favors on drydown, and regardless of the oil blend tend to be the most prominent as the oil as fading- that is, if a blend contains them, my skin seems to latch on for the extreme drydown (i.e. when the scent is really on its way out). I haven't yet determined what exactly these notes are, but it's something that makes me curious. They're not unpleasant, but hard to pin down.

[babykitty]

Try using them differently--a little on a cotton ball & tuck it in your bra. Get one of those light bulb scent rings ($2 Michaels). Mix with a little water & spritz in your room or on your sheets. Add some to lotion.

 

You'll be surprised how different some fragrances bloom.

[kadmia]

Wow, thanks for all the responses!!!!!! You guys are all so helpful!

 

I have a feeling that it has something to do with my body chemistry amplifying the base notes as VelvetSky said. I have a similar problem with commercial perfumes come to think of it--they turn into a strange smell upon drydown...not the same as BPAL, but not a nice one either.

 

If any of you are LUSHies, it's like "that LUSH smell" that all LUSH products have. however, i happen to adore "that LUSH smell!"

 

I also think the base notes are ones that i'm not too fond of. I love sandalwood, but i don't think i jive with amber or myrrh (turns metallic on me). And i really dislike patchouli (but i avoided that in my orders). Part of me wonders whether the culprit is the carrier oil beth uses...but those should be fragrance-free, no? It's just so weird that every blend has the same underlying scent. I wonder if there's a drop of a BPAL signature perfume added to every blend...

 

Also, I actually do have Tempest--forgot to list it. And it too has the same BPAL scent on me. I have a lot of imps and Yules on their way (soon?!!) and hopefully they'll work for me....!!

 

I'll try storing them separately as well--right now they're all in one small box together.

 

I'll update when i get my new order! Er, either I'll be really psyched, or have a ton of stuff to put up for swaps

 

Thanks again for all your thoughts!!!

[tart]

I still attribute some of "the smell" to getting used to using such high quality perfume oils. I swapped away all of the imps I got in my very first order because they all smelled to similar to me but now I wish I could re-try some of them. It's okay because I don't think any of them would be favorites to me now, but I wish I still had them because I think I'd appreciate them more now.

[Neko]

While I haven't noticed an overarching bpal smell, I have definitely noticed that all of my imps with green or wood notes have a very similar base note to them. While they each have their own lovely top and middle notes, this base note is so pervasive that there are times when I think I could wear one scent on one wrist, a different scent on the other, and within 10 minutes I wouldn't be able to distinguish between the two.

 

The trouble is, I love my green and wood scents while they're fresh, but the base note can take on a dirty, unwashed, oppressive feel (it reminds me a lot of a sweaty old wooden necklace). I don't want avoid those imps forever!

[Penance]

I had the same impression you did with my first order, but I've found with each order I've begun noticing the little differences between even the most similar scents.

 

That being said, I'd put my money on it being a combination of skin chemistry, an untrained nose and the scents mingling from being in close proximity. That's just my (admittedly unscientific) theory, though, so of course I could be wrong.

[quinkel]

To me its sort of like with wine

 

When you start drinking wine is just wine .

After a lot of bottles you notice all different flavours even if they cannot possible be in a grape.

 

My first order they all smelled the same to me, a sort of faint sweet incence. Now I can tell them all apart. But there is a common hint in them that makes you recognise it from non-bpal oils.

 

Try using scent from different families, like the citrus ones or the foody ones, they really differ a lot

[Sheila]

I thought all of my BPAL smelled the same at first, but I think it's part of getting used to using perfume oils instead of commercial perfumes. 

Exactly what I was going to say. These oils are not your typical alcohol-based perfumes.

[kadmia]

I get what y'all are saying about BPAL's high quality essential oils, but I've been using high quality essential oil-based perfume oils for a long time now. I haven't used a commercial alcohol perfume in years (probably b/c they all turn ick on me.)

 

So I'm not really sure it's a "your nose needs to be trained" thing entirely. The blends I have all do have primarily different scents--they just have an underlying scent that is the same. Like someone else said above, I can tell that I'm wearing a BPAL blend, rather than any other essential oil blend.

 

I guess the mystery remains a mystery. Anyways, I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed about my Yule order!

[Electra]

I get what y'all are saying about BPAL's high quality essential oils, but I've been using high quality essential oil-based perfume oils for a long time now.  I haven't used a commercial alcohol perfume in years (probably b/c they all turn ick on me.)

 

So I'm not really sure it's a "your nose needs to be trained" thing entirely.  The blends I have all do have primarily different scents--they just have an underlying scent that is the same.  Like someone else said above, I can tell that I'm wearing a BPAL blend, rather than any other essential oil blend. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I agree with VelvetSky - I think it's probably the base.

 

The "generic BPAL smell" to me is Sybaris. When I tested an imp of it, that was exactly what I thought (and I think I may have said it in my review as well). So even though I don't think that all my BPALs smell alike, I know what you mean .

[Sara]

I've noticed a distinctly icky playdoh/floral smell on my skin after drydown with the majority of BPAL scents tried. Thankfully, there are quite a few without this scent, among them are: De Sade, Bliss, Jack, and Sugar Skull - foody scents, anyone?

 

I really think the majority of the blends have a common base and some people just don't mix well with it. Good luck on trying out more oils and finding some that either don't share the common base - or don't get as "generic" on drydown.

[Julilla Regina]

Try each oil at least twice, at different times of your hormonal cycle, too. I noticed that almost everything tends to turn to powder on me when I'm close to my period.

 

Also, it's hard to get all the nuances when you just start opening and sniffing beaucoup imps. For instance, I got 12 yesterday, plus a few freebies and of course I wanted to sniff all of them. But in opening the imps, little bits of perfume get on the fingers and then the next one you smell is like the one before...it's maddening!

[stardreamer]

When I get a new order and open it, I always notice what I think of as the "parfumerie smell", which is all the scents from the shop mixing together. Since BPAL uses a lot of musk, sandalwood, and patchouli in their scents, and those are very strong fragrances, that's what I get a blast of. And sniffing the outside of the imps, it does seem as though they all smell similar, for pretty much the same reason.

 

What I do is to isolate my imps for a day or two before trying them. I bought some "dessert cup" size reusable cups, and I drop 1 imp into each; empty pill bottles would probably work just as well, or anything else that seals fairly tightly. Then when I open the container later, I can smell *just* that particular imp, since it will have outgassed a bit into the container.

 

For long-term imp storage, I use 2" seed-bead vials, available from your local craft store. Again, this isolates them and keeps my bathroom from starting to smell like the BPAL lab!

[luxuria]

I let my friend go wild in my imps and the first thing she said afterwards was "You can tell they're all by the same company." Mind you, I had quite a variety, so it's likely there's something the same in all of them and she wasn't just smelling the notes I like..I haven't noticed it yet, but I don't have the most educated of noses, so we'll see.

 

My collective BPAL collection has QUITE a strong smell. I always get blasted with it when I open my little box. I might take the bottles out, but I'm definitely keeping the imps isolated..it's not an unpleasant smell, it's just strong! If I had to describe it, it would be slightly floral and slightly incensey.

[Northernminx]

Has anyone thought to ask beth if there's a common base note? It would seem to me that she couldn't be using the same base note or oil in all the blends as it would rather defeat the purpose of having soooo many different blends. I don't think she uses carrier's so wouldn't the blends be made up of the scents listed in them?

 

I also noticed a lot on the list were foody/spicey scents so it's possible that whatever is used in those blends is reacting badly with chemistry - or that you're skin chemistry when you tried them was running that way. I'm not sure if you tried them all around the same time or not. It's also possible they're mixing with any scented soaps you might be using (you mentioned lush so that's just a guess.) I don't particularly find a lot of incense notes in most of the blends unless they are supposed to be incense-ish but as has been pointed, chemistry goes a long way to amping up certain notes.

 

I do get a "generic BPAL" smell from my box but I figure i'm storing 16 5ml's and over 30 imps in there so it's bound to have all sorta mingled up in one waft of BPAL. Oddly I've found only one blend so far that has smelled like that scent and I can't for the life of me recall which one that was.

[sarada]

I think I've developed an example of the "generic BPAL smell" on the cuffs of my winter gloves, in advertently! Every day I apply an oil to my wrists, but shortly thereafter I have to put gloves on and go outside. A little of the fragrance, each day, clings to the gloves. So now when I pick them up they are extremely fragrant! But it does have that sort of universal "I just opened a box full of BPAL and it is wafting across the room at me" scent. I think the scent that most smells like BPAL to me would be something like Queen of Spades, which has a lot of ingredients, including a little from the fruit column, a little from the floral column. That's kind of what my gloves smell like right now!