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BPAL Madness!

karihan

Members
  • Content Count

    291
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About karihan

  • Rank
    evil enabler
  • Birthday 03/26/1967

Location

  • Location
    Arizona
  • Country
    United States

Contact Methods

  • eBay
    beaditude
  • AIM
    CavyBwee
  • Livejournal handle
    kariquirks
  • Twitter
    CrysCalCreate

BPAL

  • BPAL of the Day
    Sweet Pea SN
  • Favorite Scents
    Litha '06, Aglaea, Gluttony, Lambs-Wool, Et Lux Fuit, Titania

Profile Information

  • Pronouns
    Female
  • Interests
    writing, jewelry crafting, teaching, Zentangle, mixed media experimentation, baking, reading, speculative fiction (especially Lois McMaster Bujold), music (Vienna Teng, Over the Rhine, James Morrison, Minnie Driver, many others)
  • Mood
    bUsY

Astrology

  • Chinese Zodiac Sign
    Ram
  • Western Zodiac Sign
    Aries

Recent Profile Visitors

4,474 profile views
  1. Candy Butcher 2006 (original release, comes with pitch card!  34mm, full into neck), $30.00 if this is still for sale I would love to buy it thank you, Carol

  2. karihan

    Yule Cookie

    Freaking YUM. Seriously, this is a delectable scent. Sweet? Yes. Foody? OMG YES. And yet Yule Cookies smells like a very different take on the fall-winter-holiday baked-goods scents that the Lab does so well. The caraway and citrus notes lend a little freshness and an old-fashioned feel to all the sugar and spice, and the tea keeps the sweetness from going overboard. I've been a cookie-baking fiend this holiday season, and my biggest triumph was a batch of turbinado-sugar-topped gingersnaps with lemon cream filling. This scent brings to mind relaxing with two of those cookies and a cup of my favorite chai while inhaling all the delightful odors of my baking spree. Beautifully balanced, utterly delicious, Yule Cookies will sorely test my resolve not to buy backup bottles.
  3. karihan

    Purple Snowballs

    Alas, I am going to have to accept that the snow note in the Snowballs just hates my skin, no matter how lovely the other notes should be. Plum, currant, cardamom, I am so there! And yet, the snowball morphs into a eucalyptic monster and beats all the yummy fruit and spice into near-nonexistance.
  4. karihan

    Sweet Lavinia's Dread Puddings

    We have an unabashedly foody scent here, but a delicious one, I must say! In the bottle, I get sugary sweetness, warm spices, and a hint of booziness that says rum extract to me, rather than full-on rum itself. I can smell the yummy sweetroll-like breadiness, but it's a supporting player. Once on my skin, a delightful creamy-custardy note reminds me that this is bread pudding, not sweet bread. I had to remind myself not to lick my wrist. And yes, I do get the maple note that others have mentioned. This was confirmed by the students in the geometry class I subbed for today: "I smell cinnamon pancakes!" "Who's been eating waffles in here? The smell's making me hungry!" "Oh yum, what smells like syrup?" Since kids were making these comments from all the way across the room, I can only conclude that Dread Puddings has some serious throw going on. It lasted for most of the day too. Final conclusion: This dread bread pudding is luscious, warm, comfort-food love.
  5. karihan

    Nabby Gardner's Holiday Globules

    The impression I got from my first sniff of the bottle was a fruity fizziness (ozone?) and a luminous quality that brings to mind 51 or Enchanted Wood Florist without smelling like either. I will hazard a few probably incorrect guesses about the fruits: pomegranate, berry of some sort, and something indefinably citrusy, possibly kumquat? I also detect something lightly floral that to my nose seems very similar to whatever floral notes go into Night-Gaunt. Altogether a very intriguing scent ... in the bottle. Alas, Globules turns aloe-y as it dries down, or at least something that's a dead ringer for the way aloe amps on my skin. Sorry Globules, you need someone with kinder skin chemistry than mine.
  6. karihan

    The Tears of Lilith

    I went through quite the internal debate before buying a bottle of ToL. It went something like this: "Ooooo, honey! Hydromel! And hemlock is a green note I actually love!" "Whoa back, are you forgetting all the horrors that red wine notes have perpetuated on your skin? The cherry Vick's Vap-O-Rub, the sour grapes, the sharp blast of cheap alcohol?" "But, but but but red musk! BPAL's red musk is wonderful!" "What about the red rose? You know you amp that like nobody's business. And do you even know what aconite or gall smell like?" "Well, no, but ... ambergris?" "Hmm. Maybe." Well, I did buy a bottle, and ToL is *A*M*A*Z*I*N*G* on me. Not the kind of amazing where just the notes I love predominate, but the kind where even the notes I normally loathe smell fantastic, and make the notes I love smell even better! The red wine wafts the bouquet from a mellow, well-aged glass, and the rose smells lush and inviting while still allowing all the other notes to do their thing. I'm still not sure what aconite or gall smell like, but add in the rich sweetness of the honey, the soft green of the hemlock, and the sweet, animalic sexiness of the red musk and ambergris, and the result is ToL has some nice throw to it as well, and lasts for hours. I may have to snag a back-up bottle, which I almost never do anymore.
  7. karihan

    Pumpkin V

    Lightly spiced pumpkin pulp swirled with bourbon vanilla, French vanilla, and raw vanilla bean. I was a bit worried when this first hit my skin, because I had to jam my nose right up to my skin to get even a whiff of its pumpkiny goodness. I was about to write poor Pumpkin V off as one of those blends my skin eats in no time flat, but about ten minutes later something yummy wafted up from my wrist and I took another sniff. I was instantly reminded of an amazing pumpkin creme brulee I had years ago. No spice overload for me, just sweet, pumpkiny, creamy deliciousness, lightly spiced. Well worth the wait!
  8. karihan

    Ghost House

    Nooooo, no no no NO, Ghost House. On my skin you are the All Moss All the Time Show. If I wanted that, I'd have bought the Spanish Moss SN. Time to wash you off and find you someone whose skin chemistry will treat you better!
  9. karihan

    Miss Jenny

    Peony, carnation and freesia are three of my favorite floral notes, and peach has always done lovely things with my skin chemistry, so I went hunting an event fairy. The gracious tuesdaynexxt on LJ offered to pick up a bottle for me! In bottle: Hello florals! Spicy carnation, creamy peony and cool freesia all make themselves known. I can just detect the peach adding some sweet and tart to the proceedings. The amber and woods are barely a hint, if that. Something smells ever so slightly off, not bad, just ... indefinably odd. I'm not sure what's doing that. On skin: Oh. MY. The oddness starts to fade right after application, and the scent blooms beautifully. The florals still predominate, but the peach and woods come out of hiding. I can't quite pick out the amber, though it may be adding to the sweetness and depth. Drydown: I agree with everyone above who called this both an elegant and a sexy scent. Utterly feminine blossoms and fruity-sweet peach, with just enough wood and amber to deepen the blend and keep it from becoming frivolous (not that there's anything wrong with frivolity, mind you. ). Just lovely all around. Conclusion: KEEPER OH YEZ. I would wear this to impress, I would wear this to entice. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, and thanks again to my NYCC fairy!
  10. karihan

    Mango-Infused Pumpkin Chai Latte

    Yes, yes, YES! Mango, pumpkin and chai, three notes that my skin loves, together in one perfume! In bottle: At first sniff, this blend said "baked goods!" to me. Sweet-spicy pumpkin cake, to be precise. With a few more sniffs, that impression faded a bit; probably the spice-milk combination triggered it. On wet: Soon after it hit my skin, the resemblance to cake vanished as the mango and tea came out to play with the pumpkin, milk and spices. I had actually expected the mango to dominate a bit more, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it blends with the pumpkin, lending a delicately tangy sweetness to the proceedings. Gunpowder tea is a green tea, according to wiki, and the note is far more subtle and soft than other tea notes I've worn. I can tell it's there, but it doesn't step out and claim center stage. Drydown: This one doesn't morph much, which is fine with me. Every so often I get a stronger whiff of the spices, but most of the time it stays well-balanced, without any notes bullying the others into submission. Verdict: Definite keeper! On my skin, this is everything I wanted Pumpkin Latte to be and a bit more. Delicious!
  11. karihan

    Redoul Honey

    I finally got my hands on an imp of this, and it is LOVE. From imp to drydown, it remains a lovely rich honey blended with deliciously tart, fresh berries. The Lab's blackberry note usually does nasty things on my skin, but either the honey makes it behave or this isn't just blackberry. I get the faintest hints of greenery and spice as well, but nothing interrupts the dance of honey and berries. Delicious. A bottle buy for sure! ETA: Just wanted to add that Redoul Honey has good throw and lasts like nobody's business. I tested it early afternoon yesterday, and when I woke up this morning I could still catch whiffs of it on my wrist. ETA THE SECOND: Welp, I can now confirm that there must be blackberry in this, because after several months of deliciousness, the tart berry note stabbed me in the back and turned to cat pee. Time to rehome, woe!
  12. karihan

    The Orchard

    When Beth described The Orchard as "Rose hips and rose thorns, tulip petals, wild plum, and bittersweet chocolate," I knew I had to try it. Rose hip is one of my all-time favorite notes that I just don't see used often enough, and the other notes sounded lovely too. The minute I sniffed my bottle, I knew I'd made the right call. This one didn't morph much between bottle and drydown. The rosy tang of the rose hips and the sweeter plum meld beautifully with the dark chocolate, much as the pomegranate and chocolate blend in The Spanish Dance. The result is eminently wearable, sweet without being strongly foody, deep and dark without being heavy, and just a bit playful and sexy. The tulip petals provide a wispy floral hint, taking the scent further out of the foody realm. I wonder if the "rose thorns" might actually be a drop of rosewood or something similar, because I think I might detect a touch of wood behind it all. It stays very much in the background though, so I'm not sure. I can only come up with one negative about this gorgeous scent: I wish it had more throw. The Orchard sticks very close to my skin, much more so than The Spanish Dance. It would be lovely if it was a bit more assertive, but that's a pretty minor quibble given how much I enjoy this scent.
  13. karihan

    Thirteen (13): April 2012

    White chocolate is one of those either/or notes for me; it's either creamy and delicious or plasticky and yuck, no middle ground. Between that worry and the fact that past 13 blends have been dusty-sharp-medicinal-herbal disappointments, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best when I got my bottle. In the bottle and wet on my skin, I smell a really pretty, complex blend of flowers with sweet creaminess in the background. The flower notes are fresh and bright, not loud, soapy or powdery. I get a hint of green, but only a hint. Dry, this one doesn't morph much. The white chocolate and honey intensify, but never to the point of taking over from the floral bouquet. Until I smelled this, I would never have believed that you could have that many floral notes playing this nicely with each other! I can pick out a few of them, particularly the carnation, tiare and peony, but nothing overwhelms anything else. Final verdict: This is wonderfully balanced and unique on me. Finally, a 13 for me to love!
  14. karihan

    Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds

    Source: Lab-fresh imp On wet: A combination of soft rose and ... dill pickle potato chips?! Drydown: Okay, the sour and saltiness goes away quickly, thank goodness! What I'm left with is that same soft rose, some gentle musk and baby powder. Orris often goes baby-powdery on me, so no surprise there. Alas, I can't detect the coconut! I'm afraid this is for the swaps.
  15. karihan

    Akuma

    I wish, I wish I was one of the people who get tons of fruit from Akuma, but alas, I smell a bare trace of fruit with neroli in the forefront. A very sharp, darkly elegant neroli, but not what I hoped for. The blood orange and raspberry come out a slight bit more after about half an hour of wear, right before the scent fades to the point where I can barely smell it. Off to swaps with this one!
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