evanesce

I would really love to see a whole set of Honey scents with the money going to an organization that is working with bees to investigate and understand colony collapse and the disappearance of the American Honey Bee.

But I have a special love of bees, even if I don't want them near me because I'm allergic to their sting.

Free-ish swaps are always awesome (like the mix CD ones).

I think the easiest include would be stuff like special spice blends, which I've been trying to work on. Or even sauces - I have a friend who makes an amazing BBQ sauce.

If I could sit down, with Beth, and work out what a "signature" perfume for me would be.... It would be Touched Twice (Thank the Universe! Saved me some money!).

I adore classic scents with rose, lavender, vanilla, etc. And that's what I got. It is very strongly rose in the bottle, but once on my skin it smooths out with a creamy coconut-vanilla musk, a hint of the sandalwood, and of course, the rose absolute. And yes, it becomes powdery -- but I like powder. It's a soft, feminine, comforting scent. I don't get much of a tropical feel, despite the coconut and frangipani.

In the end, I adore this scent and have been wearing it constantly.

Nia -- You know, I never scented my bouquet (mine was silk flowers with swarovski crystal picks that I made with copper, gold and silver wire, with ribbons, etc). I feel silly now

I wore The Library of Alexandria from Violette Market on my wedding day. It's a very autumn scent to me, and it blends into my skin chemistry so well, it's like I was born smelling like it. My husband wore BPAL Galvanic Goggles, which just smells like pure sex on him.

(OMG I'm reviewing something!)

Berry Moon 2011

In the Bottle -- A big bowl of berries macerated in liquor

On, wet -- Berries, hard core. Just absolutely dripping with berries. The scent is red, sweet and heavy

On, dry -- The musk finally comes out, but it's still berry explosion on me (I like berries, so I guess my skin knows it!). The thing is, it's such a heavy scent it's not very summery, it's much more suited to fall and cooler months on me. I couldn't wear this on a hot day. And it is slowly but surely morphing into a very strong and "mature" scent on me. Perhaps a bit too mature.

I think it's GC so it should be the "generic" BPAL label.

halation -- wash it with dawn dish soap like mentioned above. It really does eat oil. And once it's dry it should be fine.. You can see if they have an unscented version too.

I get that - I was mostly responding to why people would get offended. I understand being... well.. annoyed at the bottle not being "full." It's just really hard with handmade goods to be perfectly precise.

The bottles have not been filled by hand for years.

The reason people get defensive is that, they did nothing at all wrong. They got the bottle that full, didn't touch it, and now someone is basically saying something with an undercurrent of "You're screwing me over." It sucks.

Now, the labels I think are put on by hand, which means the height of the label is a completely useless way to measure how much oil is in the bottle.

In fact -- Unless you have the time and inclination to actually take the oil out of the bottle and measure it, mL by mL, there is no way to just guess how much is in the bottle by sight. Furthermore, if you have that kind of spare time... well kudos to you.

When you purchase handmade and artisan goods - whether it's food, clothing, jewelry, pottery or perfume, there is going to be variances and other issues. That's the whole point.

ETA, from Andra's post, again:

Each measure of oil that goes into the bottles and vials are calibrated. The imps are 1/32 of an ounce (IIRC). The glass in each bottle/vial can differ, which is you may get bottles that are full into the neck or only up to the shoulders. It is still the same amount of oil.

I am of the mind, that if I get a bottle, open it once, then toss it in a box, when I decide to sell it -- it's full. The end.

lilium:

I just got an a 6 pack of imps from the lab today and I noticed that three of them were below label level before I'd even opened them. The labels didn't appear to be put on any higher or lower than any of the other imps I've gotten with lab labels.

 

I guess as with anything that has the human factor in it, there's always going to be some variances.

 

 

To quote Andrabell:

"I swear we've had this discussion before. Each measure of oil that goes into the bottles and vials are calibrated. The imps are 1/32 of an ounce (IIRC). The glass in each bottle/vial can differ, which is you may get bottles that are full into the neck or only up to the shoulders. It is still the same amount of oil.

 

ETA: The viscosity of the oil can also make a difference in the level of fullness."

 

This means that variations in how high or low the oil is when the vials come from the lab is *totally normal*. They all have the same amount of oil in them, but it won't always *look* the same due to oil and glass variations.

Hope that helps.

I don't usually do reviews, but being the nature of this one, I thought I'd play too...

The moment I opened the bottle it was just FRUIT! Capital letters. And not much different on me wet. It's been drying down for a few minutes now, and honestly its very spicy and bitey on me. The pepper is very strong, the rose is threatening dryer sheets, and the fruit is lost.

It smells familiar... I just wish I knew why..

It is definitely dusty, and makes me think of an old grave... Dried roses, and heavy nearly rotting fruit under musk.

The coffin is neat and I was shocked at how big the package was! And I too love the label art.

I left a pack of imps in my cars glovebox through the summer and they're fine.

So, its not reccomended but it's not a garunteed perfume killer

Depends. Use your comfort scent. I wear Valmont to interviews. It makes me feel confident and comfortable.

If you're looking to chill out though, I find TAL Peace to be better than Xanax.

That's a pretty good idea Silvertree. I like that

My Vodka is waaaaay too expensive to be spraying on my wrists (and cheap Vodka stinks!)

I'd stick with the Alcohol. It comes in those nice little handy wipes you can stick in your purse.

Actully there are 10 in the Ars Draconis collection so two imp packs and 2 left over. My absolute favorite is Dragon Musk and second is Dragons Milk. I hope Beth adds more to this series soon.

I just used the reviews section (I don't browse the BPAL site at work... for obv reasons )

There aren't too many in the Ars Draconis list... so maybe just get them all in one big imp pack? ETA: There's 8 of them. That's one imp pack, and then 4 spots left for those other 4 you mentioned

Personally I like Dragon's Blood. Straight. Nothing else.. I would start there and then branch out. Dragon's Blood is awful soapy but I *like* soapy... so...

ETA:

Anyway, from the descriptions: Heart is warm and spicy (sounds up your alley from what you said), Milk is smooth and sweet (it says it has vanilla and honey?), Tears is aquatic, Bone is dry (which in my experience w/BPAL means it's woodsy but not mossy/earth/dirt), Musk is self explanatory, Hide sounds warm and deep (again might be up your alley) and Eye is floral.

Red and Black musks are stronger than White... I like white but not the other two. I don't wear really heavy scents though (unless you count that obsession w/Samhain 04).

Hrmm.. Jack and Samhain are my "fall" favorites, but Samhain (04) is very woodsy, etc to some people... But it smells like a rotating dessert tray on me (apple crisp, pumpkin pie, spiced cider, hot chocolate w/cinnamon and nutmeg)... So if you could get a hand on it, it might be worth a try...

Since I like to bake in the fall, any "foody" scent is fall-ish to me..

As for cloves, I thought everyone had smelled them But you can find them in your local grocery store. It you have a place that sells spices and stuff in bulk go have a whiff. I like Clove, but large amounts of it can have a numbing/tingling affect (and such is why I don't use Villainess Embargo soap on certain, uhh.. Bits).

And I can only wear snake oil in the fall.. it's too heavy on me for the summer.

Boozy Fruit. I was a bit warm when I put this on and it was like "woah"

Imagine generic "fruit juice" left on the porch all day in the middle of the summer to "stew" - That's the smell I get off this. Sticky sweet and intoxicating.

It's not bad at all.. In the dry down it gets floral and sweet.

Although I don't dislike Grand Guignol overall, I'm not sure I'll be picking it out of the imp box again.

I found this at the bottom of the imp box... poor, unloved *sniff* I am sure it was a frimp.

I'm not sure about this one. It smells... Funny. Not bad, just funny.

I think the funny is the copal, which is something I'm wholly unfamiliar with. I do smell the florals, and some kind of soft spice. Definitely orange, too.. I like the orange a lot..

It makes me think of sitting in the sun on a warm, dry day when all the flowers are up and blooming, and eating an orange (which I make a mess when I do!)

Exotic definitely fits. I really like this one...Lazy lounging, exotic scent, that makes even a cold day feel warm and happy.. Its something I'll be bringing out more often on Sundays, when I need the comfy happy feeling when I'm at work.

I like Zorya for that upscale sophisticated feeling.

Just a small note, she also noted that there were only 3/4 of the 3 imp packs (my math says that 18, which means she got 12 or so..), and no "frimps" - I'm assuming this means she didn't get 6 imps, and also did not get 6 imps she did not order in their place.

That's my assumption... aside from that... I would LOVE free cheese!!!!!!

ETA: I've never had to contact the Lab's CS. And ya know what? To mean that means A+ CS BPAL is one of the *few* items I purchase online that I don't have to agonize over... And I'm worry wart.

Mine last forever, for others they last three applications...

There's another thread on this some where...

I think Yggadrasil has a pine note in it, I was very very allergic to it..