Silvertree

I juuust got a CnS for my 9/8 order (US order, via PayPal). I never get confirmation emails through the Lab, just the standard PayPal "you sent a payment" email. Porcelina, you've got the right address. Don't freak out yet-- I think the Weenie rush has backed up orders and communications, too. Hang in there!

I think anything with a leather note tends to stand out and be noticeable. Hunter is warm and golden without being too soft (Leonine amber, tanned hides, clove, and clary sage). The Black Rider (Black leather, oppoponax, tobacco, and black amber) is just badass. If you can find Gun Moll, that's a great scent that's assertive without being too in your face, and it has the distinction of being one of the few scents with jasmine that I can wear (as sexy as ox blood lipstick and a Chicago typewriter: honeycomb, red amber, narcissus, bergamot, Zanzibar clove, opium poppy, tobacco leaf, skin musk, dark fruits, night blooming jasmine, tarragon, and gunpowder). And two of my most favorite GC scents might fit the bill: Spellbound (three roses, radiant amber, and sensual red musk) and Sin (amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon) are both very compelling.

The lab's site says: "Please address your payment to paypal@blackphoenixalchemylab.com"

I think there are some blends at Dark Delicacies that might fit the bill: THE NAMELESS CITY DRIVE-IN THEATRE Chrome bumpers gleaming in cold, exhaust-fume laden night air. Soggy foliage and crushed grass dotted with popcorn that has been crushed under rubber tires. Leather seats moist with skin musk and the sweat of groping hands fumbling under ceremonial robes. SPLATTER COMEDY A bit of blood and chainsaw grease underneath a banana cream pie. You might want to check the reviews to see just how dominant those notes are, though.

Cernunnos! I bought a bottle at NYCC last year-- it stood out as wonderful even among all the amazing exclusives and other things to smell and try. Another Carnaval blend that's amazing on guys is Theodosius. And my top two guy-friendly scents (that are my favorites to wear, too) are Mr. Jacquel and Crowley.

Unfortunately, Carnaval Diabolique is dark right now, but when it comes back you might try Habu? Snake Oil with ho wood, teak, black musk, and bamboo.

I like that theme! Here's the GC list so far: Anne Bonny/Calico Jack (or Mary Read if you prefer/have a two-bride wedding) Marquise de Merteuil/Vicomte de Valmont Oberon/Titania Hermia/Lysander King/Queen of Hearts Prunella/Bensiabel Mme. Moriarty/Theodosius (or Snake Oil/Dorian) Plutonian/Alana Patel Liz/Hellboy Schmendrick/The Amorous Tree Couples with a discontinued partner: Wanda/De Sade (substitute Whip?) Yvaine/Tristan (substitute The Evening Star if you can find it?) Me being silly: Miss Lupescu/Mr. Jacquel

Congrats to all the BPAL brides & grooms! The Husband Elect and I will be tying the knot next June. He thought my suggestion-- which was Typhon for him and Ekhidna for me-- didn't have the most positive associations. His absolute favorite BPAL on me is Shub-Niggurath, but given the time of year I might wear a few drops from my precious bottle of Blue Lilac. Maybe he'll consent to wear His Station and Four Aces? That also has lilac in it, but the white musk and leather make it more manly. My other thoughts were to choose our favorite pair out of the King & Queen sets (Clubs, Diamonds, or Spades) and wear that. Most of the other couples in the BPAL catalog seem to be of the historical or literary variety, and don't necessarily get to live long and prosper, ifyaknowwhatImean. Just for my own edification, I'm making a list of all the "couple" scents. I'll post it here, if anyone is interested.

Over the course of the past few months, there has been a jump in swap-related rule violations. We thought it would be a good idea to post a quick primer on the dos and don'ts of swapping on bpal.org. *** ~Swapping Outside Swaps~ First and foremost, there is to be NO swapping outside of the Swaps forums. Period. This covers offers to buy, sell, swap, and even gift BPAL or any other commodity. Examples are posts like, "I can send you an imp of that," or "That sounds like the best scent ever! Can anyone send me some?" and "I'm thinking about doing a decant circle for this, would anyone be interested?" [The exception is gauging interest via the dedicated decant circle/group order topic.] "No swapping outside swaps" also means that there can be no swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. Additionally, you cannot direct others to your swap/sale/wanted topic by posting links or swap/sale info in any other forum areas. We have seen this a fair amount recently, especially in Introductions. You may want to help enable a new forumite, but they will find the Swaps forum on their own. If you truly want to help them, guide them to Recommendations-- they'll probably remember your kindness and seek out your page anyway! If you wish to give away scents, please check out the Random Acts of Kindness forum, located within the Swaps forum. We also do not permit *any* linking to off-forum decant circles, group orders, sales/swap/wanted/wishlist pages, spreadsheets (such as Google docs), or databases (such as ScentBase). This includes, but is not limited to: posts on-forum, such as, "so-and-so is running a decant circle on LJ!"; links in signatures to off-forum decant circles/group orders, sales, swaps, wanted, and wishlist posts, databases, or spreadsheets; lists or links to any of the above in blogs and profiles; and off-forum links within swaps/sales/wanted topics, such as Google docs, spreadsheets, databases, LJ links, and so forth. This also goes for PMs. It is unacceptable both to PM someone on-forum and ask them to check out your off-forum sales/swap page, decant circle, group orders, etc., AND to respond to an on-forum swap/sale inquiry by providing an off-forum link. Violation of this rule will result in a suspension from swaps. Also, we do not allow specific swap-related content in signatures. That means no "I'm looking for Lughnasadh!" Or "Mme. Moriarty for sale!" You may post general links to your swaps topics in your signature, as long as those links direct to on-forum pages. Spreadsheets that are intended to keep track of released scents (i.e., ones that have no specific swapping info) are allowed, but they are not to be treated as a swap list. Why are we so strict about this? We're not trying to make life difficult for everyone. Partially, the forum was not intended to support the secondary BPAL market. We permit swapping and selling, but feel that it is best kept to one section so that it does not overrun the entire forum. Also, there are some members who are on a swapping hiatus and cannot access the swaps forums. Posting swaps content outside the swaps forum can lead to someone exploiting a loophole, and may mean that you're entering into a transaction with someone who's supposed to be on a time-out for swaplifting or price cap violations. In short, when you want to arrange a swap or sale, your best route is via PM. We discourage members taking transactions off-forum to private email, as that is how swaplifts have occurred in the past. We have the PM function for a reason! Please use that rather than arranging swaps in a non-swap thread, posting on someone's profile, etc. ~Swap Topics~ We have three main sub-forums within the swaps area: For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted. (Circular Swaps, Random Acts of Kindness, and Decant Circles/Group Orders are separate entities.) Every member is allowed one topic in each of those three sub-forums. As members can no longer close their own swap topics, we ask that members report their posts to be closed before starting a new topic. It is not sufficient to change the topic title to "closed" or "Done!"-- please use the report button. Members with multiple topics who do not report their previous topics to be closed will receive reminders, warnings, and may lose the ability to make new topics. Also, please keep in mind that your topics in Swaps are to be bumped at MOST once every 24 hours. If you posted at 9 pm one night, you must wait until *after* 9 pm the next evening! ~Arranging Swaps/Panhandling~ While the Wishlists are a useful tool, most people keep them as a list of scents they mean to try, or what they will accept as swap fodder. Please do not contact someone based solely off their Wishlist with an offer to swap/sell them a desired blend or add them to your decant circle/group order. Similarly, do not contact someone-- in-thread OR via PM-- based on a comment of theirs in a Review thread or elsewhere on the forum! Someone may have posted a positive review, but that is not an invitation to contact them offering to sell them more of that scent. The opposite holds true, too-- posting a negative review (or saying "I bought two bottles, when I really only need one!") is not an invitation to arrange swaps. If someone wishes to find a blend, they will post in Wanted. If someone wishes to divest themselves of extra bottles and imps, they will post in Swaps/Sales. ~Auctions~ In the For Sale sub-forum, there is a topic for eBay auctions. Please post there rather than starting a separate For Sale topic. At this time, we do not permit on-forum auctions or links to other auction sites, either for BPAL or to benefit groups or individuals. Please contact an administrator if you have a question about a specific auction. ~Random Acts of Kindness~ It bears repeating-- RAOK is a place for "I'll give," not "I want," or "I'll swap!" This is not the place to note your wishlist, to mention something you're looking for that has not been explicitly offered, or to link to your swap/sales page, etc. If you're offering items from your sales/swaps, please repost rather than linking. And also, since it's not entirely clear: on principle, we're opposed to charging people shipping for PIF/RAOK packages. ~Decant Circles/Group Orders~ In decant circles and group orders, please post in the "new circle" thread and report your post for approval. Once your circle or order is complete, please report it to be closed. If your old circles are not closed, you will not be able to start a new circle. Decant circles and group orders are to be posted in the appropriate forum ONLY, not in blogs, and must have moderator approval. We do not allow group orders to be posted for special events because there is no guarantee of stock availability. Please do not solicit for participants in your circles. It will not be tolerated. Please do not discuss decant circles outside the appropriate forum. If you have questions about running a circle, please use the designated topic. On-forum decant circles and group orders are to remain on-forum only. It is unacceptable to start an on-forum circle and then link participants to your LJ or other non-forum circle. If you are running a decant circle or group order some place other than the forum, you may not advertise it here by any means, including signature links or PM. Members who violate this guideline will lose the ability to start new on-forum circles, and may lose swaps access. ~Pricing~ One of the reasons we do not permit links to off-forum sales is that those pages usually contain costs over our price caps. If you do not wish to sell on-forum, that's fine-- but you cannot plug your off-forum sales. If you choose to sell on-forum, you must abide by the caps as reported in our database. If you are copying a sales post that you originally made on another site, please check your prices against our Price Caps Database. Abiding by the price caps includes posting specific prices (no "make me an offer!") and indicating if a blend is for sale or swap-only. If you note that you are willing to sell a scent on your swaps page, you must post a price within our caps. The price caps hold for responding to ISO posts, too-- you cannot offer someone a scent off of their Wanted post at a price that is above our maximum for that blend. We do not feel that going around the guidelines by only responding to wanted posts rather than posting the items you have available in Sales is acting in the spirit of fairness and friendship we try to encourage here. If someone proposes a swap that violates the price caps, please notify one of the swap moderators (Maewitch or Silvertree) or one of the board administrators (Morrighana or shriekingviolet). If you see a post in the swaps area that exceeds the caps or says something along the lines of "make me an offer/contact me for prices," please report the topic. For blends you only wish to swap, we advocate a 1:1 ratio. You cannot offer to swap heavily in someone's favor, or very generously, or offer two or more of your bottles for one blend. If someone asks for an uneven swap or quotes your a price outside of our caps, either offer a polite correction (it's likely an honest mistake) or, if the price is heavily inflated, you can report the conversation to a mod. Our prices refer only to the cost of a scent plus a $2.50 per bottle/$0.50 per imp or decant cap. Shipping fees are to be posted separately, not included in the price. A note on PayPal fees-- they are not to be passed on to the buyer. This holds for event exclusive pickups and Will Call fairies, both from the attendee and the purchaser. You cannot offer to pay your fairy for doing a pickup beyond the price of your items + shipping. And we absolutely will not tolerate surcharges-- you cannot charge a pickup fee to anyone purchasing items through you. ~Feedback and Swaplifting~ If a transaction goes awry, please use the feedback and unresolved swap centers! We can't send a SWAT team to retrieve your money or perfume, but we can stop a swaplifter from taking advantage of more people. You can indicate if the transaction took place here or elsewhere. *** If you've read this announcement and still have questions, or have swapping questions at any time, please contact a mod! Currently the swaps mod is Silvertree.

Reviews are absolutely encouraged! The Reviews forum is split into different categories, so it's helpful to know if the blend is a Bewitching Brew or from Diabolus, etc., but you can also search by name. I definitely echo Dawn: Cernunnos and Robin Goodfellow, and I think you chose a great assortment. If you end up wanting to try more scents, Yggdrasil (Bewitching Brews) might be a good fit for what you're looking for: The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg. There's also The Apothecary (Illyria): Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig.

GOP was one of the free imps given with a purchase of Tabella or E Pluribus Unum, I believe. There were also some bottle-sized testers given out as contest prizes, so you've got one of those. Congrats, it's a great scent!

Wow, that's a great list! I might argue that since Ivanushka is about a man transformed into a stag, that would be a better scent for James Potter/Prongs/Harry's Patronus. Maybe Parliament of Monsters for Hagrid or his charges? And there is actually a SakuraCon scent called Giant Squid! Finally, since I love the Marauders: Hellhound on My Trail could work for Sirius/Padfoot; Wulric the Wolfman for Lupin/Moony; Rat or The Rat King for Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail.

I think the Godfather Death scents from Marchen wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the Hallows: Godfather Death: Olibanum, elemi, Bulgarian rose, yew, and oppoponax. Thy Godfather's Present: A bruised purple bundle of herbs with hyssop and life-everlasting. The Lights of Men's Lives: The wax and smoke of millions upon millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death's shadowy cave: some tall, straight, and strong, blazing with the fire of life, others dim and guttering.

I think sensitivities are different than allergies. I sometimes have my skin turn pink from an oil with a lot of cassia or ginger, but I can use those spices in cooking without experiencing an allergic response. You could try putting the scent in a spot where the skin is less sensitive (tops of the wrists rather than inside, for example), or, if you have no plan to ever sell or swap Inferno, you could try diluting it a bit with a carrier oil. You might also find that your skin is more sensitive right after a shower, and wait to apply scents until you've dried off. One final thing-- it sometimes helps to moisturize the areas you want to apply scent to with an unscented lotion, then wait a little while to let that sink in before putting on the perfume oil. That might keep your skin from absorbing the oil and reacting. And, of course, there's always a scent locket!

My first thought was Nanny Ashtoreth: Middle Eastern flowers, amber, honey, blood red-berries, whip leather, and polished paddle wood. Although Agnes Nutter (Gunpowder, charred wood, smoke, and rusty nails) might have more of the demolitions expert feel you're going for.

My recent Lab order was shipped in a flat-rate box (bottles wrapped in bubble wrap, etc.) and then the whole shebang was sealed in a flat-rate envelope.

2stoats-- did you place your order via CCNow? If so, the April 29 ship date was when the Lab harvested (or picked up) your order. The actual shipping notification is the click'n'ship email from USPS. So your package is on its way!

Sadly, I live nowhere near California, so I can't answer directly, but you could try asking your questions in the Retail Exclusives thread in the Chatter forum!

We've got a new way to report new decant circles! Post in this thread once you've created your new thread(s), then report your post to have it brought to the attention of the mod squad.

Midwinter's Eve?

This one may be out of left field, but my fella LOVES Shub-Niggurath on me. It's the one scent he can recognize without hesitation, and when I'm trying to decide what scent to wear, he always oh-so-casually suggests, "What about Shub-Niggurath?"

While we cannot allow group orders to be posted in advance for the sake of logistics and availability, ISO posts are permitted. The person who posts an ISO for an event exclusive should keep in mind that their request may end up going unfulfilled, and should choose a method of payment accordingly (i.e, one that is relatively easy to refund, like a PayPal transaction for goods, NOT a personal payment). Anyone choosing to fulfill an ISO post should be aware of potential per-person maximums when deciding how many pick-ups to arrange. Additionally, forum price caps apply for all pick-ups. Asking for additional pick-up fees or surcharges is not allowed. As always, please use your best judgment!

I'm reposting QS's announcement, as we have this issue each time event exclusives are announced. Just a rules clarification: There are no "pre-sales" or early sign-ups for decant circles and group orders, especially for conventions and special events. This includes pick up offers (which are considered by us to be group orders). We don't know what will or will not come, how much will come, how much it will cost, if it will be available in imps, or how much will be unavailable, which means that we cannot tell if it meets the criteria for our decant circles or group orders. You cannot start a decant circle or group orders, or allow sign-ups, for one that you are planning to do here, until it is LIVE (meaning, can be purchased at the time you start the circle's thread).

As you've probably noticed, decant circles are no longer visible to their authors once they've been posted (but not yet approved). Rest assured that the mods can still see them! If you are posting a decant circle and it vanishes, please do not post it again. Instead, please send me a PM to ask me to look for your circle and I will review it as soon as I can. There is no need to PM me regarding Halloween circles that were already posted at the time of this announcement-- I'm making my way through them and will send PMs if edits are required. If I have not approved your circle by 5 pm EST, and haven't contacted you with a reason, please feel free to PM me.

If that's the case, I would think you'd be able to find some reassurance in how affordable BPAL's scents are, compared to many other high-end perfumes. Not only do most oils age well (I have many bottles that date back to 2004, and they all smell fantastic), but a little bit goes a looong way. I know that any one bottle I'll buy will last me at least a year (although, to be fair, I rotate scents a fair amount, and am also fairly sparing with my application). I'd be far more worried about being cheated if something were incredibly expensive. I also think that "prolific production of a new perfume every other day" does not apply to BPAL. Yes, we are blessed with large updates several times a year, as well as monthly lunar blends and other random LEs (and additions to the general catalog), but I would guess that 99% of those are the end result of plenty of time and effort on Beth's part. Researching concepts, deciding on note combinations, blending, testing of prototypes... all of these steps take a lot of time. And while the written descriptions are just as beautiful as the scents, I don't think it's meant to fool or deceive anyone. And for that matter, most of the high-end perfume companies devote a large budget to glossy, compelling advertisements and commercials. Both are intended to intrigue and inform the customer base, as the internets, as far as I know, do not yet have a scratch 'n' sniff platform. Finally, my thoughts on the "you smell like a candle" phenomenon: a large percentage of people are not familiar with perfume, especially fragrance oils. The easiest way to relate to a scent that a friend is wearing is to compare it with something you're already familiar with, yes? I wouldn't expect any of my non-BPAL friends to be able to pick out the notes of my scent of the day, simply because they don't have the exposure to orris, or ambergris, or benzoin. So they reach for something they have been exposed to. I've had the weirdest guesses as to what I'm wearing. "Marshmallows!" was my favorite, for a blend that certainly did not contain any marshmallow bouquet, or, for that matter, smell even remotely like marshmallows to me.