sarada

This is the honey smell that I recognize in Skuld and would swear it's in Anubis as well...I haven't tried O yet so I can't speak for that. A very dark honey, rather surprisingly dark, and I am not generally fond of honey (too sticky) but I don't mind this. I wouldn't wear it but I am glad to know what the note is, that I recognize in other blends.

Wow, it turns out that fig is the note that overwhelmingly strikes me in Mata Hari. This is the exact scent that dominates for me in that blend and reminds me somewhat of toasted rice, slightly sweetened. It comes out in Cerberus as well but with a lighter, slightly citrusy twist.

 

I didn't think that I would like fig, I figured it would smell too much like some sort of baked good, but this came out as a rather nice slightly toasty sweet scent. I won't be afraid of blends that have fig in them now!

I could actually smell this before I even opened the package it came in…very, very strong. My first impressions were Bubbalicious or Hubba Bubba – i.e. a very strong, fruity bubblegum scent. But it also kind of smells like nail polish or nail polish remover. Too strong for me to test, because my bf could smell it from the next room and was so put off by it that I didn’t want to mess with his allergies. I would think that if used in a blend this would need to be used very sparingly.

Rose is one of the few florals that I actively enjoy, especially in blends like Spellbound (which is oh so incensy and red musky on me), Rose Red (love that fresh florist smell), Zombi (roses ground into the earth) and many others – this very simple, pure rose single note is almost like the drydown of Rose Red, to me. It doesn’t smell quite as fresh, cold and natural though, it’s a bit more perfumey and actually gives me a bit of a headache. If I had any of this to play around with I’d try layering it with other single notes to see what I came up with, but as it turns out I think I like rose in more complex blends, more than I like it on its own.

Received as a gift from Phaedrine!

 

The fifth Tarot oil that I have tried...I had no idea what it would smell like as the forums were down and I didn't remember what the reviews said, so I approached this with no (consciously) preconceived notions.

 

At first I thought it was a sort of sweetened, slightly fruity white floral...something white like lilies, or maybe a bit of honeysuckle. But it wasn't a cloyingly strong floral, it's much...rounder, I would have to say. Then I realized that it was probably jasmine that came across as that familiar white floral. I see from other reviews now that I'm not the only one who gets some sort of honeysuckle or other white floral out of it before the jasmine becomes apparent.

 

As it dries it occurs to me that it smells a LOT like Crossroads. The main difference it that I don't get the peculiar sort of headache that I got from that. I attributed it to jasmine, but The Moon hasn't given me a headache so far and I'm pretty sure this is jasmine as well. Maybe it's a different kind, as suggested above...night-blooming jasmine maybe? Or maybe it's gardenia? I don't think that I smell gardenia, but I don't spend a lot of time with florals so I could be mistaken. But since I loved Crossroads and couldn't wear it due to the headaches, this should be an excellent substitute!

Love this poem.

In the imp, my overwhelming impression of this blend was that it was a lot like Medea. There was sort of a lingering wisp of a sort of cigarette smokey scent about it as well. I thought it would turn out a lot like Medea on me as well, but imagine my surprise....

When I put some on (I've tested like four things so far today but they've mostly faded so far)...and I walked outside and I swear I smelled Samhain, drifting around me. What?? I sniffed my arm, and sure enough, it was very much like the smokey fir/green smell that I get after I've been wearing Samhain for awhile. The smokiness is prominent but there's a wonderful green sweetness underlying it.

Very surprising, as I was expected a more floral scent in the vial, and I have no idea why it came across so much as a smoky Medea. From the description I had thought it would be much more floral or have some of the graveyard dirt smell.

I'm not going to say it smells LIKE Samhain, but when it first starts to dry on me it comes across like several of the notes in Samhain. How about that??

I will need to test this when I am completely unscented, to get a really good grasp of what it does, but I went from being kind of neutral on the oil in the bottle, to being VERY excited when it dried. Now I'm thinking this will definitely be a 5 ml purchase, but I'll have to test it a couple more times to make sure.

ETA: Hours later, I get a kind of musky, dusky memory of darkly sweet florals still with a slight whiff of smoke. I still like it...definitely hoping to see what others might pick up from it!

Doesn't this sound incredible? It is! The color is a pale and slightly rosy amber, and the scent of this oil immediately perks me up. It's like walking into a store that sells all kinds of incenses and oils...just lovely!

I really wish I had a better idea of how to describe the individual notes in this, because I love it -- but I have no idea to describe it! But in the interest of contributing a review, I'll do my best. This is like a light, spicy incense -- the spices are subdued, and although I have a full spice cabinet at home and a good idea of what smells like what, I have no idea what is in this! Slightly woody, extremely complex, I don't get a strong sense of cinnamon but I think I can smell it in there somewhere...not a foody spice scent, and not overwhelmingly strong like Scherezade, which was something I was wondering, about this scent. Subtle, but compelling.

I will definitely be ordering a full bottle of this, though I don't think I will ever figure out exactly what's into it! I can't think of any other BPAL blend that this is similar to. It is not extremely floral or extremely herby but you can catch a glimpse of some sort of exotic bouquet or spice kitchen. I imagine it is like walking into an ancient Eastern or Middle-Eastern market, and the swirl of scents (just the good scents...not the other smells that might have been circulating in ancient times!) in the sun, with a swirl of incense smoke.

This description is one of my favorites ever. It sounds like everything that I love!

In the bottle, the first impression I get is: lime! A very green, clean scent -- pine is just behind the lime, and comes out stronger almost immediately. This reminds me of the scent in the air when I go to a particular nature preserve that I love, where you are walking down a path in the woods and are suddenly surrounded by tall pine trees. The moss and earthy smells are just in the background and they come out more as this develops...I can recognize some of the mossy, loamy and earthy notes just beneath the crisp lime-tinted pine. I haven't had this on for very long but I have a feeling that as it dries, the earthy notes will come out more.

I think this will actually be a wonderful spring and summer scent...very refreshing. Not quite as dark and brooding as I was expecting, it is very stimulating and energizing, which is exactly how I would feel in a damp pine forest at night!

ETA: One year later, to the day! This ages very very nicely and it's not bright candy lime anymore to me, the pine and earth smells are much stronger. Now that Premature Burial is out, I can compare it to this -- and this lacks the orchid note but is very similar otherwise. Green, mossy, dark, damp, soil and pine. Thank goodness I kept this...I almost parted with it several times, thinking it would always be too candylike. I'm going to wear this all the time now!

Another St. Patrick's Day review!

 

Dublin is one of my top ten favorites in the regular catalog and I don't think that will ever change, even though it is at the other end of the spectrum from many of my other favorites.

 

This scent (which I agree is echoed in Skadi) is one of the most unique fragrances that the lab has created, to me. It smells like nothing elseI have ever encountered. It is perfectly round, soft and sparkling -- palest shimmering green, the reflection of spring trees and shamrocks in a perfectly clear river. I wish I could bathe in this. I initially tried this because of the Skadi comparisons and they are very accurate, for me, but Dublin even has a little more staying power. If Skadi is forest greenery frozen in ice, in Dublin the ice has just melted and the world is fresh and green. I don't smell any rose, or any specific woods but I can imagine this being the scent of a faerie forest in Ireland. This will be one to stockpile I think, I don't want to think of a world in which I cannot smell this fragrance from time to time.

Woody and resinous are two of my favorite things, but there is something in Saturn that doesn't agree with my chemistry -- I almost expected to hear my skin hiss when I tested it! Anything with pepper and almost anything with cinnamon in it, causes me to react similarly -- I feel a sort of burning sensation. Otherwise, in the vial I am inclined to think there might be vetivert in this...not the creamy vetiver of Capricorn, but more like the dark, unyielding one that shows up in a couple of blends that don't agree with me. I am wondering if there is a dark myrrh scent in here as well, as it has that similarly murky, shadow quality that myrrh often suggests to me.

 

As much as I love woody and resinous scents, this is a washer-offer for me...I've had that experience with a lot of the discontinued scents so perhaps there is a common ingredient that they used to use. A sort of lingering dark powdery scent clings, even after I've washed it off. I would like this as an incense and it would be a great ceremonial incense for a man, but it's not going to work on my skin unfortunately. But for a man, on a Saturday, under a new moon, I could imagine this doing marvelous things!

 

ETA: Sniffed again as part of the Celestials swap circle, now that I've read the other reviews I am guessing that the quality that made me need to wash this off might be the civet that everyone is talking about. This is a formidable mixture indeed!

Burial sounds like a good bet -- or Omen! Omen smells a lot like Burial to me and it even dries down a little better (but fades faster).

 

Nosferatu smells like wine and dirt -- I love it but I agree that it doesn't come across green at all, to me.

I've been thinking about this one for awhile but haven't been able to come up with a good description other than to agree with the rosy assessment. I like roses, but so far I have only really clicked with a couple of rose scents where it doesn't turn into bathroom spray or powder on me.

 

I would agree that this makes me think of rosewood, rather than rose petals -- it is very soft and comforting, like sinking into your mother's bosom as a child. I wonder if there's a milk component in this as well, softening it and adding a bit of a creamy texture? That would make sense I guess, given the maternal nature of the card. I seem to think of yellow and pink roses, mainly, when I smell this. Ultimately though the powder smell predominates, which is what happens in a lot of rose scents that I like in theory (like Ouija) but which just don't work on me.

 

I think this matches the card perfectly -- it's never been a card that I connected with though, "my" card has always been The Tower! But this is very comforting, soft and feminine and I feel like people are going to come up and hug me and nestle into my cleavage if I wear it.

Wow!

 

I have always liked rose, but the challenge is in finding rose scents that don't smell powdery or artificial on me. I've been pretty content with Zombi and Spellbound as my favorites that have a strong rose notebut have always wanted to try this, and now I finally can, with an imp from ivyandpeony.

 

In the imp this is very, very surprising, as I don't smell rose right away! I smell something very wet and mossy, but not exactly the dirt smell in Zombi, it's more like the smell of a block of that green foam that florists stick flower stems in to arrange them. More like grass and rain than dirt, but there is a hint of earth in it as well.

 

Once it goes on my skin though that dies down and the pure, perfect, icy rose comes through. This ain't your mama's rose! It lingers for a long time, just like having a fresh bouquet of roses at your side all day.

 

BPAL could take over the world with this scent alone, I think. Here's hoping it comes back some day! At any price!

There's vetiver, and then there's vetivert. Vetiver, to me, is very creamy and smooth, almost chocolatey, and one of my favorite smells. It's my understanding that in BPAL nomencalture, vetivert is slightly different. I've noticed that in fragrances that spell it that way, there is a very strong, bitter, almost animalistic note that I am not as fond of as I am of the smooth and radiant vetiver.

 

Torment is, wow, STRONG. Overwhelmingly so. It is very bitter and herbal, which I attribute to the bay. It makes me think of medicinal herbs...or of a cauldron brewing in a little hut. Sometimes scents that are thing strong dry down into the vetiver smell that I love (Malediction does that, for example), but this becomes more sharp and spiky and herbal and kind of wild and scary!

 

Not detecting any gardenia in this, just very strong, herbal bay and very deep, bitter, strong vetivert. I'm trying to try all of the discontinued fragrances that I can that I missed out on though so I'm glad I got to sample it! I can't see myself wearing it out though, I had to wash it off and put on something with a lot of grapefruit in it to neutralize it.

I was very much hoping for that perfect scent to wear on a rainy day...I'm still undecided as to whether this is it.

 

In the bottle it reminds me either of a men's shaving creme or aftershave...sparkling, clean, a little soapy. I think that it should have some sort of froth or lather. It makes me think of a storm is brewing over the ocean, as the waves churn froth on the shore.

 

When I put it on I feel like I must smell like lightning is about to strike...this is for a rainy day in early spring when things are starting to look green but there's still a touch of chill in the air. I get a slight herbal bitterness on the drydown and I fear this will fade very quickly. I absorb aquatics like mad...very few fragrances stick to me unless I get them in my clothes or hair.

 

I want to keep it around for the stormy spring season but I don't know if I'll use it enough to justify it. For all of the stormy associations that this has for me, it does have a more perfumey overtone than I usually like. Might keep it for awhile, might pass it on, haven't decided yet!

I tested this last night before bed...it's not one I would have chosen myself, but I always try to test out unexpected imps as long as they don't smell like butter!

 

This is a good nighttime fragrance as it turns out, though definitely not my kind of smell...the flowers are very very sweet and white, somewhat reminiscent of Lily of the Valley because of that delicate, childlike sweetness. As it dries down slightly it smells almost exactly like a fresh bunch of flowers -- a dew-kissed bunch of Lilies of the Valley picked by a little girl in the springtime. It has a vivid, crisp early spring sweet freshness to it. Amazing how they capture that scent. It's not something that I like to wear though, I'd rather smell it in the garden...this was a nice experiment before bedtime but florals like this aren't my thing. I am mainly just getting lily and sweet pea from this, I don't sense any of that slightly spicy carnation smell from Alice, but perhaps it would develop more if I wore it during the day.

As has been said before, there's that unmistakeable maraschino cherry smell in the bottle -- but that is also the smell that greets you when you open a bottle of Greed, and in that case it is heliotrope....which I know from experience generally fades away upon application.

 

So despite my aversion to the cherry-almond smell, let's see what happens! After all it's taken me a whole year to try the lab's signature scent!

 

As suspected, the cherry smell goes away very quickly. I really wonder if it is heliotrope, as cherry usually sticks around on me and makes me feel kind of queasy, but this doesn't.

 

Once that is gone, within about a half-hour the predominant smell is the powdery purple that I have come to associate with myrrh. Each and every time I try a blend with myrrh, it comes across as a kind of dusty smell, a powder spread over a viscous, sticky purple surface. It's not unpleasant but I don't think that myrrh (or whatever the note is, in this!) works for me except in a very few blends where it is not the dominant note. This has a drydown very similar to Malice for me, but not quite so dark. It is definitely a very sultry and sexy nighttime smell...but not quite what I associate with myself. I'm so glad I got to try it though! Haven't decided whether to keep or swap, though. Perhaps it's a nice "gothic formal" scent.

Noir is another fragrance that I didn't think about trying when I first started browsing the Lab, and by the time I remembered, it was gone! Now many months later I finally have an imp.

 

The description made me think of Venom, since both have opoponax and jasmine...with some plum in Noir, and berries in Venom, among other things. Venom is one of the strongest scents I've ever tried and it gives me a slight headache (that's the jasmine talking) so I thought the same might happen with Noir.

 

It is very very strong and heady, and somewhat reminiscent of men's cologne (or perhaps Old Spice?).

 

Clove and myrrh stand out the strongest -- myrrh doesn't necessarily always agree with me; I like the dark and smoky aspect but it always really reminds me of sort of a cologne/aftershave smell that rarely develops well on me. I cannot smell any lily, rose or jasmine in this though I suspect that their presence just lends something to the overall alchemy of the scent rather than being intended to stand out on their own. It keeps it from being overwhelmingly dark and spicy.

 

Still, I am enjoying this, though I can't imagine using more than a drop or two to surround me with an aura of gothic mystery for an entire night. This is definitely one of the most Gothic scents I have tried...it just makes me think of a dark, smoky club filled with people smoking cloves and fashionably sulking. I like it though I think it would ultimately give me a headache if I wore too much. A great scent for men, or for a woman going out at night who wants to have an aura of dignity and mystery.

I was always expecting Sudha Segara to be a very foody scent -- or a beveragey scent maybe would be the better word! I expected something like an Indian dessert, like rice with milk and honey. But ginger, as it so often does, makes the scent a very ethereal airy citrus. I know that ginger is not citrus, but it comes across like lemon in many blends (like White Rabbit). Very light and refreshing, like washing your hands in a fingerbowl in a restaurant with lemony water. Having tried a few scents with milk and honey ingredients (Alice, White Rabbit) I can't pick out either of those notes in here, but at least the ginger-smells-like-lemon mystery seems solved to me.

 

This does smell like something you would want to splash on yourself on a warm day, which is not something I would want to do it this was more of the milk and honey scent that I was expecting. A nice surprise!

What a fascinating transformation! I have had Shadow marked as a possible interest since I first visited the site a year ago because I love sandalwood, cedar and patchouli more than just about anything...and I even like verbena quite a bit, but that lemony scent can get really overwhelming sometimes, and all scents that contain it tend to just be lemon on me.

 

Well, Shadow is a very playful little fragrance and one I shall surely order a bottle of if the discontinued alert ever goes up for it...because after the verbena burns off it is an absolutely stunning cedar/sandalwood! My first impressions were just pure lemon, similar to many of the other blends that have it as a top note, like Embalming Fluid and Phantasm. The patchouli immediately begins to assert itself and there's a strange stage where it actually smells, like...ummm...weed, to be perfectly honest! I love the way that the patchouli sticks its little hippie head out and I wave hello to it. Then about a half-hour later I suddenly sniffed my wrist and it's pure, delicious woody cedar and sandalwood. How did that happen?? I'm not sure what the verbena might be contributing after it burns off, but this is definitely right in between the verbena scents that stay lemony, and the woody scents that I love so much.

 

I have so many bottles I want right now this isn't an urgent want, but I have a feeling I'll be using it a lot in the summer so I can get my wood fix without having something too heavy and smoky. If they ever phase this one out though I will definitely stock up!

Yay! I never thought I'd get a chance to sample this, as I was not yet browsing the site regularly enough when it was released to notice the limited edition scents or to get in on them before they were gone. (Oh, the dark ages of my existence!)

 

I just got a teeny sample and have a full imp on the way, just in time for the season that I think this scent will be perfect for.

 

First I should mention that I had always misread the description to say "frozen forever in lime", so I was prepared for a lime-rose scent, and I think that it actually matches that after all. It definitely comes across as the most tender, fresh green rosebud possible, still frosted with the very last ice of winter before spring's warmth releases it. It is also one of the BPAL scents that most reminds me of perfume in the perfumey sense -- but without the alcohol, of course. This is a very fresh, crisp, rain-soaked floral, without any of the associations that I have with "perfume" though. "Perfume" makes me think of old ladies caked in powdery makeup wearing wide Easter bonnets with a cloying artificial cloud hovering around them. BPAL perfumes just capture what is the most beautiful in nature, and although I do not go for florals in general this is one of the few that I could see myself wearing.

 

I definitely could relate the rose in this to that most beautiful cold rose in Old London; the main sensations that I get are a tender green, the palest pink and a frosted white. I'm thinking this will be the thing to wear around Easter this year, when frost on the ground does battle with the first flowers. I hope they bring it back some day, I would definitely make this one of the very few floral bottles that I buy.

Purple incense -- ahhh, this is just what I hoped for.

 

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed on the hope that it would be like Queen of Spades, and yes, it is almost exactly like Queen of Spades on me! Round, dark, overripe plum and berry swathed in golden smoke -- I don't really get any florals from this at all except the slightest whiff of powdery lilac in the background when I sniff the bottle...on my skin these wonderful rich smoky incense notes propel the dark bloody juice of purple fruit. I only got to try a little bit of Queen of Spades but the things that I liked about it, are identical to the things that I like in Blood Countess. Medea also dries down to a similar smoky purple on me, but I love Blood Countess even more.

 

It feels regal, bloody, and evil. So glad I got a bottle, I will want more in the future and I'm already going to put this up in my top 15!

Definitely Black Forest and Dublin...two of my all time favorites!

 

Maybe Yggdrasil, which although it is woody is very light and airy. I think of Belladonna as herbal and dry...Envy dries down to something very like Belladonna for me, though I enjoy the minty lime twist that it has in the beginning.

Got this from Madame Nyx, and I quite like it...if there is a family of scents that we can classify as Misty/Gossamer, then this definitely fits. I don't like a lot of things outside of the wood/resin family because most things become very powdery on me, but these wonderful gossamer mist scents really linger and stay true to their in-the-bottle scent, becoming slightly incensy, which I love.

 

The main impression that I get from Arachne is that I have just walked into a room in very early spring where the windows are open, and a slightly chill breeze is wafting the curtains -- there is still a lingering fragrance in the room where someone was just burning strawberry incense. Dreamy, ethereal, and sweetly smoky -- miraculously, no powder smell. Just to be a little more vague, I'll also say it makes me think of an antique faded photograph...it's as though you're reaching for something insubstantial and fleeting, like a spiderweb (a ha!), and just when your fingers close around it, it vanishes. Hmm, that also sounds a little like cotton candy...this also smells a bit like that! I've never smelled anything exactly like this. Put this alongside Unicorn and Dublin as scents in the "misty" category that I love, though they are all completely unique!

 

ETA: Trying it again a year later, after a few months of not smelling it and I really do love it even though it only lasts five minutes on me. I agree with everything I wrote before, but will add that my bf said immediately upon my wearing it "I smell tuberose." Or, he said, some kind of orchid. He used to live in a house with a greenhouse full of orchids so.....perhaps there is some kind of orchid in this, or tuberose. It's the first useful thing anyone has ever said to me when I was wearing a perfume.

I am lucky enough to have a bottle of this thanks to a wonderful forum member, and I hope that it becomes available for more to try, as this is simply amazing.

 

I keep looking down at my arm and expect to see it smeared with dark, fresh soil or mud from working in a garden all day. This is the pure scent of soil after rain. In terms of other BPAL fragrances, it is like Zombi, without the roses. I think it might be the very same rich earthy notes. I'm sitting here indoors on a bitterly cold day but when I sniff my wrist I am transported into a summer day where the moist soil is drying down in the sun and I am holding a little shovel and some tomato plants. It becomes slightly sweet, like the darkest patchouli, after the initial grittiness dies down and I think this is one that will cling to the skin for quite some time.

 

I can't say it better than the above review, that this is the epitome of deep, chocolatey earth. I imagine this is what the soil must smell like where patchouli grows. Please, lab, make this a catalog scent! We need to smell like Earth!

 

ETA: The above review is for the Black Broom version. The Limited Edition version smells the same to my nose...I think the BB version was a little dustier. I am taking back my patchouli comparison now though as I think that's just my own nose confusing earth scents.