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Wow this is pretty! Velvety rose petals scattered over resins and softly glowing amber. The iris adds a cool edge to this, while the beeswax softens the edges. Really really pretty. Reminds me of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Incredible throw on this one! Barely applied and my whole living room is a rose temple. I actually have a rose petal rosary I bought at Our Lady of Guadalupe some 20 years ago and it still has a faint scent and this is spot on for it! That rosary smelled fantastic for a solid decade and I was sad when it started to fade, so very happy to have a wearable version.
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Unfortunately I don't think my decant of this one has aged very well! On initial application I get a lot of grass, some fresh, very green wildflowers, and a hint perhaps of citrus, but on drydown it quickly goes waxy and indistinct, which I've noticed is a pattern for bpal florals aging poorly; I get a faint pleasant scent if I smell my wrist directly, but little else. I haven't been able to notice much of a pattern as far as which age well or not; I wonder if the fresh greenness of this one (perhaps leaning on top notes?) lead it to age worse, but have no actual idea.
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I let this rest 2 weeks before trying it out. I get a suggestion of blueberry from the bottle, but as soon as I applied it, it exploded (in a very lovely way). I’ve loved every cardamom cream I’ve gotten, so no need to expand on that. The blueberry is slightly chilly, but a nice beginner’s level of that metallic chill note. It’s also much more prominent in the throw, rather than sniffing the skin directly. I keep getting whiffs and I love it! It’s a beautiful balance of nice, pleasantly spiced sweet perfume, and a gourmand. Big fan. I’m wearing it with Honey Marshmallow hair gloss and Bourbon Vanilla hair gloss.
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Yep, that is gummy fangs! Like uncannily. Smells like a bag of red gummies, but with that odd creamy vibe that opaque gummies have. Starts out with insane throw. I put a tiny dab on the back of my hand and it overran what I wearing on my neck. But it dies back and stays fairly close to the skin after that. It's quite nice, if you want to smell like gummies.
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This is another one I should have tried years ago but have always culled from my cart to bring the total down. Finally giving it a go. On the skin this is initially very soft and subtle, sweetly resinous. It reminds me strongly of the Steampunk blends. This gains some power as it dries down. I believe "golden" is the appropriate description. It's not particularly joyful but it is radiant. FYI the costs adds a wonderful human note to this. Costs smells to me like unwashed hair and adds a warm animalic touch.
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In the Bottle: i get the nectar sweetness with a touch of bitterness and the tobacco On the skin: the rose immediately blooms but isn't overpowering and the spices are very evident, possibly with a touch of chili. I love the lab's copal note but I really can't pick it early in the drydown journey so I'm expecting a pay off deep into the drydown. This is one I have skipped over through the years and I'm glad I picked it up this time. It is quite beautiful, complex and elegant.
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Strawberry Moon: Pink Strawberry and Black Champaca
leptonpyr replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
...Okay, I appear to have had the direct opposite experience of @Larinessa. I bought this decant specifically to try the champaca note, but when I put it on wet it's nothing but strawberry. Very, very berry--it's sort of zingy and tart, but somehow also sweet and candyish? It REALLY gives the impression of a Sour Patch Kid, actually, the way it's both sour-tart and feels like it's covered in sugar. Not my thing. @Larinessa, trade skin chemistry with you? - Yesterday
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Beaver Moon: Graham Cracker & Buttercream Lotion
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lotion
This smells like graham cracker crust and buttercream, but it also smells like there's some coconut infused into the buttercream. I received compliments on this one when I used it as a hand lotion in the office one day. It pairs perfectly with its moon and will go so well with many other gourmand scents. I'm surprised it's not getting more love. I'm happy I blind bottled it. -
The cherimoya note is the strongest note in this lotion, and it's the same one from Water Bearer. Sadly, I don't seem to appreciate it here, maybe because it's not paired with lavender? It's giving off a candy floral vibe that reminds me of SweeTarts smushed into a floral note -- I think it's the somewhat soapy lemon blossom note combining with it that's putting me off. I'm not able to pick out the green tea, berries, or sandalwood in this one. The lotion is strong and has good throw, so make sure you like it before you slather it on -- fortunately, I only applied it to the back of my hands. I'm glad that I opted for a sample pot, as this one is not for me.
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The opening of this one is YUMMY. An immediate crush of juicy, jammy berries, strawberries both tangy and sweet, with the blackcurrant bringing a fair bit of tartness. The lime is accenting and accentuating the berries' tartness beautifully, adding an extra citric zing, like lime zest grated over a bowl of crushed berries and blackcurrant sap. Strawberry Moon is having this very fascinating, slightly unsettling effect on me, where I keep getting the faintest whiff of incense, as if I'm catching incense on a breeze in the distance, but every time I go to sniff my skin directly, the incense disappears and all I get is berry. It's beguiling. As it dries down, I get more of the honey, and the blend gets jammier without losing tartness...at first. About 2 hours in, it loses much of its intensity and complexity, and the strawberry goes from juicy and photorealistic to a fainter, sort of artificial-smelling/candy red fruit scent on a backdrop of faint musky honey. Sadly, this goes from "WOW" to "meh" for me. I'll keep my decant because the opening is GREAT, but unless it ages differently within the next month, I don't think a bottle purchase is in my future. (I don't get any moss at all, but I have never once smelled BPAL's moss accord on me. At this point I'm convinced my skin has some sort of moss-resistant properties. Go figure.)
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Spring Wildflower Honey, Grass, and New Mown Hay Atmosphere Spray
Biocarbons replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Atmosphere
Lightly sweet, fresh grass and hay. Slightly perfumey, but definitely less perfumey than the BPAL grass note has been in the past. If you enjoy the grass note, try this. -
I did one spray of this and went nose blind for a while. This is STRONG. Very intense, a little goes a long way. Floral champaca and sandalwood intense. Incense dominant. The cream element doesn't stand out to me.
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The oud is very green with a vetiver quality. The honey used is closer to BPALS black honey which is grapey smelling to me. Strong incense on dry down. I like how this settles into a slightly smoky, woody musky scent.
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Those strawberry lychee hard candies with a swirl of cream and a spritz of citrusy sandalwood. I get more cream and sandalwood as this sits on my skin. See also, strawberry taffy.
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Wet I get a burst of juicy pomegranate and wildflower honey, over wooly cedar and leather. A hint of incense. Comforting. Getting fruity wafts from this one. This settles into dry pomegranate, incense , wool, and leather. Warm, dry, comforting.
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Airy white musk and soapy florals. Very clean and dry. Settles into expensive shampoo.
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wet, I mostly get beeswax, copal, and balsam. As it sits on my skin, the lemony Frankincense and wax peak the recede. This settles into mostly dry beeswax and balsam again.
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Deathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind, child of Zeus, who twists lures, I beg you do not break with hard pains, O lady, my heart Translation by Anne Carson The tenth muse: purple fig, sun-warmed thyme, rose resin, orris, olive oil, and myrrh.
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Welcome my sweet daughter, my favorite, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maatkare, Hatshepsut. Thou art the Pharaoh, taking possession of the Two Lands. Maatkare, the Good Goddess, Divine Daughter of Amun, sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, androgynous queen regnant who wore the uraeus-crowned Khat, traditional false beard, and the shendyt and bore the double crown as Mother and Father of Egypt. She sent five ships to the Land of Punt and brought back thirty-one living myrrh trees, their roots balled in soil, to be planted at the terraced temple of Deir el-Bahari, the Djeser-Djeseru. Her scent is imperial and vibrant, seizing back her power from those who would erase her: myrrh trees crossing the Red Sea in the hold of a ship, the dark smoke of kyphi drifting through limestone colonnades, ground frankincense and kohl, warm sand and blue lotus incense, cedarwood from Byblos, the dry resinous breath of obelisk granite in the sun, and a base of black amber and sacred anointing oil.
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Master of stained glass and illustration, his pen moved through Poe, Perrault, and Goethe like a needle threading silk through shadow. Sparkling shards of aldehyde-glowing mandarin, red musk, plum, bergamot, iron, smoky labdanum, and ink.
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That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will shew. The Enchantress of Numbers, the First Programmer: bergamot and black tea, polished mahogany and silver filigree, and an electric clap of bottled lightning.
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The day we have long awaited is here: our migration of the entire BPAL library over to a more user-friendly platform that is both easier to navigate and easier for us to maintain. It may be days or even weeks before the "new" site (same URL!) has all the features we're trying to implement. ✤ BPAL's "General Catalog" has been renamed! It is now the Eternal Collection. And to celebrate this occasion, we've added some fragrances to it! Would you like us to tell you what they are, or hunt for them yourself? 🙃 ✤ Logins from the old site don't work anymore; you will have to make a new account. ✤ We will be re-issuing all store credits & gift cards. These will be sent to the email address that it was issued to on the old site. Please give us a bit of a grace period before contacting customer service, there are a lot to get through & we have to process them all individually. We'll keep editing this post to add more bullet points as updates and important clarifications arise. In the meantime please pardon our dust!
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I agree with, well, all of these reviews. The facets of fur and yeast are drenched in a honeyed toffee and something inexplicably rosey. It kind of reminds me of Marthe Bibescu but where that one was crisp, brittle toffee this is the confection whilst it's cooking: sticky sweet and melted. Wet, it's a bit much for me with the brown buttery-toffee-honey throwing like crazy, but as it dries it gets a lot more wearable and complex. Still retains solid throw! A lot more complex than expected from two notes, I suspect 'ethereal lure' might be it's own thing.
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Ooh, I love this. I'm a vanilla and sandalwood fiend, so of course I had high hopes for this one, and they were rewarded. I'm not sure I can describe this very well. It's vanilla and sandalwood, but not too sweet, and rounded out and deepened a bit by what I guess must be the chrysanthemum. I don't get lemon per se, but there is a little brightness it seems to be adding. Overall, it's soft and a little like a luxurious lotion, in the best way. I think it could be worn in any season and on almost any occasion.
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Man Making Love to the Maid of a Samurai Household
Beatrice33 replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
On my skin, the combination of notes reads as lemongrass, which is a note I love in food but personally don't enjoy smelling like. I did try this right out of the mailbox, being the impatient sort, so I will try it again in a few days to see if anything changes.
