Diana

wet: odd florals, almost plastic smelling, possibly rose

dry: this is an odd blend; it smells almost like artificial rose potpourri room spray. Not something I'd personally ever wear as a perfume, though I may invest in some at some point for the magical purposes.

wet: rose, obviously. there's a bit of a playdoh-ish note in the background

Drydown: I really wish I knew what specific type of rose this is, because I think this is a the same one that I've tried in a few other blends. I really don't like it. It's super cloying, waxy, sour, and plastic smelling--and I usually love roses. I think it reminds me of Netzach or Hymn, both of which really have started turning me off of floral blends. Not for me at all.

wet: heavily sweet florals, slight fruit note?

Dry: the florals aren't as cloying as I thought they'd be. It's soft & light; quite pretty. Even as much as I love violet, they aren't detectable enough on their own for me in this particular blend. If you're into soft florals, you'd probably like this. As it stands, this is really not my style.

wet: ozone/aquatic, with a slight floral undertone

Dry: oddly enough, this is a bit better than I remember. It isn't quite as sharp, and there's a bit of a floral/clean aroma from it. A bit like hyper-clean laundry. I don't think this is something I'd wear on my skin, but I think it might make a nice room or linen spray!

Wet: dry woods, leather(?), just a hint of sassafras

Drydown: sweet, dry woods. the sassafras isn't really detectable as a single note, but along with the vanilla (almost gooey-seedpod-like) adds a lift to the cedar note, which on its own is usually darker & drier. I really like this a lot. It also reminds me a bit of Chokmah.

I know lots of folks here aren't jasmine fans...but I am, provided it's balanced out right. For those who like jasmine, what are your favorite jasmine scents?

Hey there! There's already a jasmine rec thread here:

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=1178&hl=jasmine

I'm kind of off & on with jasmine personally. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I think Peitho might be my favorite blend.

Can I get some recommendations for very spicy bpal scents? I've found I'm more in love than I even realized with black pepper and cinnamon and the like, especially when paired with musk.

There are a few of these listed in the pinned recommendation section:

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=1531&hl=cinnamon

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=10677

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=10163&hl=musk

Check out Bengal, Silk Road, and Baghdad in the Wanderlust section.

Three Witches was a great one, though it was discontinued, and rereleased for a limited time, so it may be harder to come by.

Using the search engine on the BPAL website, searching for +black +pepper turns up

Wrath as a possibility.

Searching for cinnamon brings up: Sin, Harlot, Chimera, Al-Shairan, Eclipse, Highwayman, Umbra, Inferno, Bloodlust, and Faustus to round out the list.

Wet: wet, heavy, sweet floral notes... magnolia maybe? a bit ozoney/aquatic too.

Drydown: the floral notes fade away, and this starts to smell more and more aquatic as it dries. It smells a little too artificially "fresh" to me, and a bit sharp.

It's not bad if you like ozone-fresh-aquatic blends, but I typically can't wear them, and this is no exception.

Wet: sweet, soft anise

Drydown: the cherry blossom is pretty faint, and is overall it's like a softer version of Kabuki, which is a blend I love to wear. The combination of the anise + cherry blossom produces a soft pink, but slightly metallic smelling combination.

It's really pretty, but I prefer the heavier in-your-face cherry note in Kabuki.

Wet: soft, floral vanilla

Drydown: soft, rich, vanilla with just a bare hint of a floral note. It's not necessarily a foody vanilla, more of a true vanilla scent overlaid with a light, sweet floral.

Wet: soft, pretty floral mixed with mint

Drydown: the mint loses most of its power pretty quickly, but the floral notes are there to pick up the slack. there's just a touch of rose, which isn't overwhelming, and an overall soft, pretty, and cool & glittering. Very nice.

Wet: Sweet, gooey pipe tobacco

Dry: The tobacco note becomes sweeter & nicer & a bit drier as it sits on the skin. There's also just a faint aroma of hot, sweet leather, which I totally love in almost every blend. It's a total guy smell, but I think that's part of the appeal. I just want to snuggle with it.

Wet: funky, damp lavender.

Drydown: whoa! the lavender is still there, but it's blended into a smokey, hazy aura of wonderful aroma that I just want to get lost in (sorry for ending a sentence with a preposition; Gaueko made me do it!). I guess it's the nag champa that's the main note that I'm picking out, and the lavender adds a curious sweetness to it, which I am in total love with. I think I may need a bottle of this!

Wet: Violet, just a hint of vetiver and a tiny wisp of lavender

Drydown: surprisingly, the vetiver has been overpowered by the violet! I love violet so much, but it tends to not stand out so much against heavier notes, so this is a nice surprise! It's much softer & prettier than I thought it would be. It is much sweeter than you'd expect for a scent named after a mean jerkyface.

If you like Ultraviolet or The Raven, you'll really love this one too.

Wet: Super heavy, thick vetiver

Drydown: the myrrh appears, and brings with it a bit of a spicy punch. the myrrh is also intensely heavy, and adds a slightly bitter quality to the blend. This is heavy & dark, definitely embodies the qualities of sloth. It does soften quite a bit as it dries, and isn't as toxic smelling as you'd think (for those anti-vetiver people in the crowd). It's nice if you like darker, resin-based blends.

Wet: Fruity fruit fruit. Very candy-like pear.

Drydown: This is still very sweet. The wine/pear & floral notes are almost penicillin-tangy on me, but not too tart and not too sickly, sticky sweet. As it dries, more of the floral notes come in and make it even more tolerable, which is odd since floral blends usually turn me off. It's just so cute!

Not something I could see myself wearing, but totally something I'd pass off to my 15 year-old neice.

Wet: Grape candy! There's a bit of a dry herbal note to it as well.

Drydown: the grape smells like bubblegum. The herbal note, whatever it could have been, has almost gone, but there's a tinge of it left that's keeping the grape note from being too overwhelming. It's almost got a wine-like quality to it at this point, but it's subdued.

This is an odd blend! It's not sweet, but it's not purely herbal either. I'm just confused. This is one I'd get if I were to use it with ritual connotations rather than to wear as perfume.

DCCVI

I think this might be my most favorite Chaos Theory ever.

Wet: Lemony. Maybe lemon verbena or lemon balm or some other lemony herb. But bright, happy citrus (which I love) is the overwhelming note. But! There's also a vanilla musk in there! WHOA. Score!

Drydown: This is so pretty. It's kind of similar to La Fee Verte, actually, but with much longer-lasting citrus notes. Sooooo nice, sweet, creamy, slightly vanilla/slightly lemony. I am in total love with this blend!

edited because bad grammar makes me cry.

Help. I got an order from BPAL yesterday. An imp of Yemaya was included. I can't find it on the BPAL website. I'm thinking it is from TAL. Are TAL scents included in BPAL orders? Also, this thread lists Yemaya as TAL version indicating that there is a BPAL version. Which one did I get?

 

Love the imp!

 

java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_16')

There are no TAL imps from the lab. Check for Yemeya in the Excolo section of the BPAL site.

(This is a picture of Machu Picchu I took on 8 June 2006.)

I got a few imps of this to wear for my then-approaching trip to Peru. I wanted to mentally prepare myself for the trip by wearing a scent that I could associate with that time & place.

Wet: It's bright floral-fruity. It's almost lemony. Sweet, sunshiney, very yellow in my mind.

Drydown: The lemony aspect dries down a lot, leaving a sweetened ambery scent. Not the usual heavier, powdery amber, but a lighter, softer one, layered with a soft-breathy floral/fruit note. I've tried this both as an atomizer spray & as straight oil; neither formulation lasts more than about 2-3 hours on me.

Throw: the throw is good while it is still wet, and in early dry-down stages, but it tends to fade after a short time.

Verdict: I really enjoy this scent. While the actual Machu Picchu didn't really smell like much at all, wearing this scent now brings me back to standing on the huge site, and climbing up Waynapicchu (the hulking mountain next to the site), sweating off much of the scent in the process. It also reminds me of the gorgeous orchids in some of the gardens in Machu Picchu. Though the gardens didn't have a discernable smell, I tried to pretend it smelled like the oil. Heh. This oil also reminds me of insane near-death bus rides in the Andes, hikes in the middle of nowhere, and how happy & lucky I was to be able to experience such a beautiful and amazing place. This is truly my "happy scent."

There's a foody-recommendation thread here, which is probably some help!

This is very lovely. The main note on me is honey. Though I do get occasional whiffs of orange blossom, it isn't very strong at all. The sandalwood note blends really well with the honey and deepens it and gives it a slightly spicier/woodsy attribute. I can't honestly detect roses at all.

This is soft & romantic & pretty. Yum.

This is way more impressive and awesome than I can have ever expected. It's sweet, slightly tart, mouthwatering, refreshing, and pretty.

I think the combination of sugared ginger + sugar with the delicate sweet-tart grapefruit and really soft woodsy musks is amazing. I have no idea what Ti or Ho Wood (though that brings several bad images to mind), the overall effect is so wonderful, clean, crisp, juicy, sweet.

I love sweet. I love cute. This is such a winner.

DIX

(yes, I'm twelve, and this bottle is now known as "dicks")

In the bottle, it's very faint. A little medicinal, but not too much going on scent-wise.

Wet: very very pale woods & herbs, and a little light musk going on. This reminds me a whole lot of Yggdrasil, but it's not very strong, and there isn't much throw at all.

Drydown: this wasn't very strong to begin with, so it's faded quite a bit. It's a clean/herbal, vaguely sweet, but there's a note in there which I cannot identify. This note is in some other oil, which of course I cannot remember, but it smells slightly bitter. Thankfully it isn't a major component. The drydown is mostly soft woods.

I do like this, but I wish this were a lot stronger. I think it will age well, so I'm going to leave this one to brew for a bit to see if that impacts the throw or complexity.

And FWIW, this tastes really gross.

The combination of sharp citrus & soft lavender is quite strange; neither overpowers the other, and the result is a powdery-tart sweetness. It reminds me a bit of King of Hearts in this respect, but with grapefruit instead of cherry.

I don't think it was all that particularly long-lasting, but that could be partially due to the extreme heat & sweating happening in this part of the country.

At any rate, it's a pleasant and cute scent.