kmasden

just a quick little review. First off (wet) i got a fresh fruity - though not discernably blueberry scent...after drydown, i have to say that it was much richer and warmer and something about it reminds me intently of the last beaver moon - so i guess to me it feels like warm cream and cherry cake!

Sturgeon Moon - i knew this would not be anything to be afraid of! It is gorgeous! It's sweet and slightly salty at the same time, it definately feels green...i agree that there is something about it that "feels" like both Thunder Moon and Hungry Ghost Moon, though a bit more "perfumy" if you will...I would say that it smells like the lake...a very pretty lake...the cucumber adds a great freshness that helps it not to be too overpowering and it does smell softly like florals...however, i don't think flower haters should stay away...I think actually if i were wearing some of the fab floral bpals I love and then went swimming in the lake...when i got out of the water, i would smell like this...I have to say, i know this sounds weird, but it kinda makes me feel young!! Like i'm at summer camp and just full of sun and water and grass and flowers and loveliness!

I might have a different view of unusual and strange, i guess i like scents that have interesting combinations, so i would say to try:

Tenochtitlan (i can never remember if it's that or Tezcatlipoca - try them both!!)

Envy (for an unexpected way to wear florals and mint - you'd be surprised!)

Sin (for the sheer deepness of it)

Mata Hari (well, it is a little too floral, but the mix with coffee is very interesting)

Marquise de Merteuil (not sure why except i find it to be so complex on many levels)

Manila (for a jungle like thang)

Tanin'iver and Ladon (cause they are interesting takes on dragons blood)

I love black pepper and havent' had much luck with bpal in that regard. Plunder is probably the closest you'll get - layers great with Villainess' pyromania smooch/soap which is a great black pepper brown sugar blend. Bengal i love but it is honeyed jalapeno to my nose, not black pepper. All the others mentioned really don't do the pepper thing for me.

I do find that my love of black pepper is probably why i like some other scents - scales of depravation, port royal, devils night, gingerbread poppet, al sharain (clove), fiery command (which i think is disc)...those all do the same thing for me that pepper does, give em a shot ;-)

Umm damnit and thank you! ha.

I looovvee fruitcake and since i haven't been on the forums much, i assumed maybe it was a christmas scent i missed and rushed off to order a few bottles and low and behold it's an unreleased imp!

It is fabulous, fruity and boozy and just perfect. Frankly i don't care if this is fragrance oil or a miraculous concoction of whatever, i want a VAT of it NOW!!

Thank you lab for the frimp - i still want a bottle ;-)

Have you tried Asphodel? It's white floral with greenery so i would put that in the "florists shop" category....others that i would try would be danube, maybe prague but you'd need to layer it with something green...i actually wonder if you might like some of the fougere's like villain and envy.

i agree, they aren't totally like snake oil. I love snake oil, and they all have a base type of snake oil, but are very different. I personally liked asp viper the best, however, i'm a huge almond/marzipan/sweet fan, so this was up my alley. I also like boomslang, but again, i love chocolate. I would say if there is a scent in the pit that works on you (tea, almond, chocolate, etc) then that's the one to try!

<jumping up and down> I LOVE THIS! Wow, did i luck out, this last order was full of loves!

I've been fascinated with scents lately from all etailers/retailers that have a juicy tart type scent...kind of like the "sugared plums" or pacifica's guava -

This takes it to a whole different level that i wasn't expecting. At first, very fruity, so much so that i wondered if it was a pomegranite scent or some such thing (i didn't review the notes before i opened it up) or maybe a juicy dark cherry, which i now realize must be the red wine. The sandalwood and patchouli are definately there, taking the fruit component and deepening and grounding it.

The beauty of this is that the red wine (which obviously is the fruity component) is tart enough to stay equally strong and sweet with the patchouli and sandalwood. And the nicotiana adds a fabulous touch! Soo hmmm, if a drunken cherry took a bath in wonderful aged patchouli (reminiscent of fritz' to me)..........

I have an uneducated nose still yet, so these are the notes that stick out for me - i can't say that i get strong cocoa or the musk, but i think those are more of the base, which make it uber wonderful. This reminds me of nothing that is already out there...i can't usually do wine scents, or the strong woody or patchouli scents...though red musk and cocoa do work well on me...anyway, i have to stop raving, but suffice it to say i've been wearing it for thirty minutes and i just want to gnaw my arm off!!!

I LOVE this blend!! I think it's totally gender neutral - it would smell awesome on both sexes!

It is totally aquatic - i can't say i'm a lover or a hater of aquatics - but i definately seem to be okay with them and wow, this one confirms my suspicions...i'm a pisces so it makes sense ;-)

It starts out salty, slightly limey, woody which is just delish...but there is something gentler in there, to my nose almost floral, and i believe that's the "blood" and of course, it is smooth, which i will give to the dribbling of snake oil....anyway, i love it, it's great. The throw indeed is perfect, not to perfumey (cause for some reason that kills me) and just downright lovely and sexy!

I really need to figure out more about red musk. I've had the lab's red musk on its own and can really recognize it in general and love it, but i think the cassia isn't doing it for me for some reason. I love cinnamon in general but probably don't understand the difference between cinnamon and cassia because i keep ordering cassia stuff and although i think they are great, they don't work well on me.

The dodo to me is like a muted red phoenix/spanked type of blend with a bit o' lemon. Sooo, i say for those who really loved Red Phoenix or Spanked, definately try this one out....also for those that like those blends but maybe found them a bit overpowering, i think this is a muted, cleaner version. It's yum, but not for me this time around!

I am totally shocked, i love this scent and think i need to put it on the wishlist for big bottle purchase...at first i thought simply ylang ylang and chocolate, then lotus and chocolate, then reading the reviews while sniffing i could see the correlation with florence or the possibility of some very small bit of berry or wine, definately a little wood to round out the chocolate...but yeah, i love it...i don't pick up roses per se, but if it has roses, it smells to me like they do in kurukulla or versailles, the type of rose or the ingredients mixed with them that make them no longer smell like rose. I like it...i'm off to slather it! In some ways it even smells to me a bit like the snake oil soap LOL

okay, so i love booze scents...love the idea of them. love booze...if you know me, you know i love my cocktails. However, i'm not a whiskey, scotch, you know, that type of liquor....

The first whiff of Mad Sweeney was blow me away alcohol...to me almost in an acetone kind of way...you know if you open the bottle and take a big whiff of any alcohol and it stings your nose...yep....and then it moved into a real bourbon type of scent for me....with a touch of the campfire smoke of torture king. I think it's fabulous....it doesn't do very well with my skin chemistry in a way that would make me want to wear it as perfume...but i would actually looovvee to burn this one as a room scent, smoke a hookah, and yummm, yeah...nice. It's one i think we all want to own because it just speaks to the uniqueness of bpal and even the character of bilquis.

I actually didn't have high hopes for this one - not for any particular reason except that i figured there was something bound to go wrong for me with the potential headiness of honey and lily of the valley.

At first i have to say that there was something almost "corn chippy" to me...i know it sounds crazy (and the bf was cooking chicken, so who knows?). I had forgotten the notes and didn't look them up before I tried Bilquis, so i can honestly say that I didn't think "apple" or "almond" or even "honey". What i can say is that after about 5 minutes, there was no "corn" there, instead it was a slightly heady, sweetish, creamy, oh maybe honeysuckle to my nose....really beautiful and I feel like it's a sexy, creamy, honeyish, sweet, floral.

I would actually say even if you don't love almond or musk, this might be a good one....it is a bit "powdery" (which i personally like) but doesn't feel musky to me....it's just really beautiful.

Great job - for me, out of the carousel, this is the clear winner....

this will probably sound silly, but my gardenia love is based on a give away creme perfume about 30 years ago from United Airlines when i flew as a child to hawaii...so for me, bpal like dreamland have that same scent and feel that i associate with gardenia...course now i know enough to figure that it probably wasn't a really good gardenia, especially since none of the one's y'all mentioned seem gardenia-ish to me, but for the record...dreamland and even asphodel feel very "gardenia" to me!

it's funny how this blend really seems to be very different on different people. My skin is weird and it's weird with all perfume for the most part. I remember being at will calls and smelling something on someone and it was heaven, then i let them smell it on me and we both were thinking "ummm....is that the same lovely we just smelled on someone else?"...just doesn't smell as good on me and thus far, Temple Viper is one of those...

I will say that the snake oil back is beautiful and noticeable IMHO and the frankincense as well, not overpowering but adding a little darkness to the blend...I am thinking what didn't work on me was the champaca - on my skin it morphed into something that smelled like pez or those old fashioned orange chewable aspirin...and you know, once you get your head stuck on it, it isn't going to go away LOL....I can absolutely see how this will age beautify and on people who don't morph the champaca (or whatever the note is) into something "shallow and sweet/tart" this is going to be a knockout.

Oh Zarita! This could have been wonderful for me, but alas, my chemistry mucked it up.

I love, love, love the creaminess of this one, so smooth, not creamy like food cream where you feel it is candyish..but literally cream that is just milky and slightly sweet. The orange (and I usually hate orange) is not a citrus, but definately more of a floral orange. I think this blend is lovely, so lovely, if you can think of white, slightly fruity blossoms floating in thick cream - actually as i say that, i get visions of an actual making of an essence, you know...when the flowers are very delicate they lay them in a solid fat or butter so that they can capture the essence of the flower....

The only problem is that I'm one of those that is getting the bit of a soap connotation with it...there are many notes that morph ridiculously on my skin, i'm not sure what it is here....but alas, at least i am able to see how i would have loved it! Anyway, i definately think for many, this is going to work and it's going to be wonderful as the cream tempers the sugar and it's even a bit on the tropical/warm summer day side...

I haven't sniffed them in a long time, but i wonder if olive branch might go along with zephyr or greed? I know i mentioned dracul and kitsune tsuki before, but again, it's been so long since i have sniffed!

i wanted to say that i have been using bnever tangle conditioner and to me it smells like scales of depravation almost exactly....also slightly similiar would be isles of the dead.

I haven't sniffed them in a long time, but i wonder if olive branch might go along with zephyr or greed? I know i mentioned dracul and kitsune tsuki before, but again, it's been so long since i have sniffed!

i wanted to say that i have been using bnever tangle conditioner and to me it smells like scales of depravation almost exactly....also slightly similiar would be isles of the dead.

wow, i'm amazed at the difference between some of the reviews. I love isle of the dead, but am not getting the juniper or aquatic at all...to me it smells like scales of depravation...it is woody, resiny...almost incensey really. I love it!

i agree with verdandi for fall, and of course samhain, harvest moon, etc. I love, love, love Scales of Depravation in the fall...and oddly enough i would sweeten my bow and crown of conquest with dorian and felt it was like old library fall. In the fall i find myself reaching for hamadryad, sin, snake oil, sed non satiata, and devil's night the most. Everything else kinda gets lonesome until spring.

weirdly enough, scales of depravation and devils night are similiar to me, i have no idea why.

Regan and Santo Domingo...both have that creamy bottom that i love, though this year something in Regan makes me physically ill (which didn't happen all last year).

Hesperides is full of appley goodness, it would be wonderful with temptation IMHO. I love Fever with Morocco and I think Hot Java would smell great with Scales of Depravation, but i'm weird that way. I also see that someone on the LUSH forum's likens Hot Toddy to Chokmah. I too wish there was a perfume of Elixer, though I suspect that Sudha Segera would go well, and whooperwill, though a limited had that same type of sweet ginger goodness to my nose. I luurrvveee elixer. I'm wondering if the Olive Branch would be a good primer to Dracul or Kitsune Tsuki.

I'm having a love/hate relationship with this one. I love white musk, lily, etc. so have great hopes. It smelled nice OTB. For the first 30 minutes i'm getting something i like, a sharpish lily, slightly aquatic even to me, but also a background of ....cumin....perhaps the frankinsence. I don't know if it is me (after all, when i tried bess, i got nachos!) but i get a lot of cumin type smell from this.

After 30 minutes that cumin is gone for me and i do like the way this smells. It's soft, slightly perfumy, very feminine i believe....i just need to figure out if i'm smelling cumin and if that part will go away.

I think the lily in this is very nice and I always love osmanthus. I really am liking the dried on scent.

 

Shell...give us a break, we all know you don't wear panties!!!

 

someone recently asked if my hair was my real color. i replied no my natural color is bald. this is a case of the drapes not matching the carpet

 

oh and could you just imagine the layering possiblilities? hello i have smut on my devils panties? or o on devils panties? how about a wee bit of inferno in my devil's panties...really i have a million of them.

 

Ha ha, I love it!

I think this is a new series....most definately.....a series based on lusty stories and characters....scarlet letter folks, steamy sinners....you know....please Beth, oh Pulleeaaaseeee give us something really tawdry...we know you have it in ya

I have to do a mini review because i think it is just hilarious...not bess, but what it smelled like to me. First off, I am usually sniffing without looking at the ingredients...it's led to some amazing interpretations....like I loved Versailles and slathered and slathered and then i read that it had rose and in my head i can't do rose, and then all i could smell was rose (the powers of the mind, i tell ya)

Anyway, don't hate me, but i put bess on and took a whiff and well, my brain went "Nachos!" Yes, you heard me right, it smelled like Nacho cheese to me. I have no idea how, but without reading the ingredients, that was the smell to my nose.

Now that i read what is in it, i can definately pick out the orange flower, the rose, the grapeish smells...but together, they said "Nacho!"

I would love to smell this on someone else. I love rosemary and so many of the notes in here. My skin is well known for taking lovliness and trashing it however, so alas, I can't wear bess...but I had to share the nacho cheese story.

i would *so* wear the devils panties

 

 

shelldoo is now trotting off to order a ton of imps....jk

Shell...give us a break, we all know you don't wear panties!!!

I think this thread (well, not the funny parts, just the complaints) are a clear case of "think before you post" and "if you post something negative for the whole world to see, expect to be called on it."

Oh, and while I am on the soapbox I am feeling jealous...people are ordering from places with better CS and freebies than bpal? Please help me out if you would be so kind...

A ) Please list here all the other companies that send you freebies with your order. Ummm, granted I mostly order from places like amazon, art.com, macy's.com, LL bean, etc...but ummm, yet to receive a freebie....would love to get freebies from them, where are you ordering from that you get so many freebies with your order?

B ) Please list here all the places you order from that email you back in less than 22 hours (hell, i'm in cancer care and our "urgent" requests usually take more than a day to get handled). Wow, I really would like to know because generally when i use email to talk to a company about receiving the wrong order, i don't see an answer for a week and sometimes more!

I just have a hard time why anyone expects bpal to better than the rest of the world...I mean granted, I think the product is tops and i love the company, but it seems that some people expect them to keep to higher standards than the rest of the world...ummm, hello...human beings...running a business...growing like crazy, etc. etc...damn lucky we get to email them at all, talk to them ever, and get squat beyond the exact item we pay for....huh huh helloooooooooooooooooo.