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

[Penance]

 

Sarada, I have the same thing going on!

 

I like my generic BPAL scented gloves, they're kind of fun. I can wear them and pretend I'm working for Beth.

[absinthe21]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the BPAL imps I have received over the last week all smell the SAME when they are in the bottle? Everything I got smells like cheap new age store incense, until I put it on my skin and it dries down a bit. WHY is that? It's freakin' annoying and I wonder if it's my nose or if the imps have turned or what it is? These were all from swaps...my imp order from the lab should be here today!! YEA!! I know i sound awful....just wondering what's wrong with my nose!!!!!!

[Diana]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the BPAL imps I have received over the last week all smell the SAME when they are in the bottle? Everything I got smells like cheap new age store incense, until I put it on my skin and it dries down a bit. WHY is that? It's freakin' annoying and I wonder if it's my nose or if the imps have turned or what it is? These were all from swaps...my imp order from the lab should be here today!! YEA!! I know i sound awful....just wondering what's wrong with my nose!!!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

DO they all have similar components to them?

 

A problem I seem to get is that a bit of oil from each imp will get on my fingers as I open and close them. Then I'm whiffing a melange of scents from my finger + the oil in the imp! heh.

[absinthe21]

I don't think so, but here are a few of them....maybe you can tell me!!

amsterdam

belleepoque

katharina

sophia

the unicorn

danse macabre

malice

ultrviolet

hemlock

love me

envy

 

There are a few others, but this should give you an indication....the only thing I can think of is that something leaked in shipping and flavored all the lids, because I usually have a VERY sensitive nose......argh....wish I knew...

[clover]

A couple of thoughts:

 

I can't always smell the scents in the imp either. I would never in a million years say that they smelled like cheap new age incense...but sometimes the subtlies of the scents don't shine through until they are actually on the skin. It's just the nature of the product. I guess a perfume has to be relatively subtle, or else it would just be overwhelming when applied.

 

It's especially hard to distinguish when you're trying a lot of scents at once, so you may want to try the old trick of sniffing coffee beans between imps, so that your nose doesn't get confused. Your nose can get tired, just like the rest of your body!

[quinkel]

Are you in a certain "time of month" Hormones can cause your nose go weird..

 

does it happen all the time or did you touch you nose with the imp and therfor smelling only the same oil all the time.(happens to me a lot when i am trembeling on a caffeine kick Kind of frustrating to smell an oil you don't want)

Edited May 20, 2005 by quinkel

[babykitty]

It could be the tags that smell incense-y...Someone--you or the lab--got some on the tags while putting your order together, while testing or some leaked a bit during transit.

[absinthe21]

I guess that the cheap new age incense comment wasn't exactly needed....it was just the only thing I could come up with at the time.....and yes I am PMSing, so that could have something to do with it.....maybe I am just not a big musk fan and didn't know it......i love some of the lighter scents I got, such as ultraviolet, which is soooooo different than anything I have ever smelled before......but I am so used to wearing what the rest of the world deems "darker" scents (ie: Shalimar, the new Prada, Indecence by Givenchy....even a MAC fragrance that I would kill to find now), that I thought I would love some of the muskier scents, but maybe it's not musk in those perfumes.....I am rambling.....I so do not want to hurt anyone's feelings, and I feel as if I have....weird. It's the mood swings!

[shelldoo]

i think sometimes in the beginning especially i smelled "hippie" yet when i got acustomed to bpal's individuality i can now greatly distinguish between scents. in the beginning o really turned me off, now i adore it. i just needed my nose to learn bpal subtelties. and on an aside the "darker" regular scents imho don't even come close to our dear beth's dark blends, she is just able to capture completely unique ideas and feelings in a little blue bottle, it always astounds me. hang in there and keep trying and ur nose will catch up (at least mine did) and it is true they very often bloom or develope on teh skin and in teh vial is not abtrue indicator of their notes

[Macha]

Can somebody please explain to me why all the BPAL imps I have received over the last week all smell the SAME when they are in the bottle? Everything I got smells like cheap new age store incense, until I put it on my skin and it dries down a bit. WHY is that? It's freakin' annoying and I wonder if it's my nose or if the imps have turned or what it is? These were all from swaps...my imp order from the lab should be here today!! YEA!! I know i sound awful....just wondering what's wrong with my nose!!!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think it is, as others have said, probably a combination of the fact that you may be trying on too many frgrances in a single sitting without proper precautions (alchohol wipes to remove spilled oil from your fingers, coffee beans to clear your noise), that you're only judging from the vial instead of letting these fragrances bloom on your skin, and that imps tend to be messy little things with a fairly large potential for cross-contamination. I used to bring imps to work to let my co-workers smell, but after the fifth or sixth time a coworker ended up with perfume all over them from mangling the removal of a lid, I stopped that.

 

And besides the time of the month factor, I must ask, any chance of hay-fever, allergies, or the like which may be effecting your sense of smell?

[Julilla Regina]

It's hard when you get a bunch of imps at once. I always want to smell them as soon as I get them, but in opening one, I get oil on my fingertips, no matter how careful I am. So this is the little trick I've used. I get a couple of paper towels, and I'll tear off a little piece, enough to cover my imp opening fingers and the imp top. When that little bit of oil gets on the paper towel bit, I get a fresh piece of paper towel and go to the next one. It works pretty well!

[cuervosueno]

that was a great tip, with the papertowel thing. And yes, the coffee bean trick is useful too.

I'm so sorry you're not able to get a good sense of the perfumes, absinthe. especially since I sent you some of those! I'm aware of the very different scents in say, hemlock vs. malice vs. danse macabre, and so I very much hope you can get a better sense of them.

Try them again. And I second everyone's comment that you can't tell until they are on the skin. My first experiences with BPAL were that some smelled so wierd in the bottle I just couldn't see liking them--but they really are different on.

Last night I was going through a big solo sniffathon, trying to make some judgements on some scents, and I just lost any sense of them--in the bottle they all smelled the same, though they were wildly different. So I understand it happens.

but thanks to everyone for their suggestions on differentiating scents, and good luck A.--I hope your BPAL scent experience improves!

[sarada]

Whenever I have a whole bunch of imps that are cavorting amongst themselves they all exude a fragrance that sort of intermingles, as others have described. The first package I ever got, I couldn't tell any of them apart and thought they all smelled very perfumey -- it just happened that the scents that "click" best for me, were not in my first order.

 

I still can't tell the difference between most florals -- anything light, or floral, smells the same to me and I write in my notes when I'm testing it (yes, I take notes, heh) "generic floral" for a lot of stuff before I actually take it out for a day and give it a serious test ride.

 

Otherwise, definitely just take one out, take it for a ride, test it, buy it lunch, and see if it doesn't come around. These might just not be the right scents for you yet.

 

Also, I love cheap new age store incense. I find it very comforting and familiar, I do wish that a generic "incense store" scent was sold in a bottle! (Urd is my default "headshop" fragrance, it's one of my favorites ever though it's way, way above and beyond anything I've ever smelled in a store!)

[absinthe21]

Thank you so much for the encouraging words!! C., I have since tried some of the ones I got from you on my skin and I am IN LOVE with maccu picchu and ultraviolet!! I will try the others in time!

[joseybird]

Same thing happened with all the imps in my first BPAL order...except that coincidentily they did end up being of the same/similar scent families and such Thankfully though I went back and gave Morocco a second chance

[olympia301]

It's like learning to ride a bicycle...with your nose. Once you learn to do it, your life changes.

[Cagedflame]

It's like learning to ride a bicycle...with your nose. Once you learn to do it, your life changes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I never could properly ride a bike, so I hope it's not toooo much like learning to ride one.