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BPAL Madness!

joseybird

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Posts posted by joseybird


  1. I don't think women are instinctively, naturally better at picking out notes, it's probably just that (in general) they're more familiar with scents from all the lotion/candles/bubble bath they've been exposed to their whole lives. Like walking into a paint store, a typical man might say "I need a sort of off-white," while a typical woman might say "I need something between eggshell and ivory, but not too much like ecru." It's not that men don't know smells (or colors), it's just that women more often know and care about the names.

     

    I read a report of a study recently that showed that women are better at detecting smells. Not sure if it said anything about picking out specific notes, though.

     

    Midnight Kiss is deliciously sexy and gothic; it's like a feminine counterpart to Dracul/Count Dracula (though it smells nothing like either of these oils).


  2. What a glorious, glorious scent! :wub2:

     

    Inez combines the light sweetness of Egyptian Amber with powdery, dried carnation, delicate vanillic musk and dry woods. The amber is the real star here, balancing out what might otherwise be an overly-dry blend (as ceder blends can too often be) and giving the composition a pleasent skin-scent lightness.

     

    Like a lighter Storyville. Love :thud:


  3. I knew I'd like Hay Moon because I adore Serge Lutens Chergui, whose dominant note is hay.

     

    Hay Moon is a warm, earthy hay. It's definately a skin scent, and not very heavy; while it would be nice in the autumn, it's also perfect for a humid summer evening.

     

    I can't give it top marks, however. Though I like Hay Moon, it merely smells like one chord of Chergui, which is far more deliciously complex.

     

    What I'd give for a Hay Moon lotion/bath oil though! :beg:

     

    (And btw, MOAR HAY SCENTS NAO PLX BETH :wub2: )


  4. This soap was ok-to be honest, I find whatever base is used for the bpal soaps to be a bit overpowering...not sure how to describe it, but it kind of overshadows the perfume of the soap. To me, the scent was a soft cider scent-very reminiscent of fall, but sadly, the scent was light to begin with, and faded after only a few uses.

     

    My experiance exactly :cry2:

     

    The BPTP bath oils (the only other BPTP product I've tried) are of such fabulous quality that I had high hopes for this soap (included as a generous freebie in a swap package) :(

     


  5. Lady Una smells exactly as it should smell: comforting, exotic, and fae.

     

    On me, it smells like a blackberry scone with tea and milk, and yet (oddly enough) it doesn't smell explicitly gourmand (by that I mean that it doesn't smell like I have the aformentioned foods smeared all over me :lol:). It may be the touch of musk, which is usually helpful in helping a scent blend in with my skin chemistry.

     

    I would recommend this oil for those who love foody scents but can't wear them or can't bear to smell like actual food.

     

    Another note: The honey musk note is completely different from normal BPAL honey notes. I can't wear BPAL's honey, but I can certainly wear Lady Una :wub2:

  6. Yule


    It is Yule, and the Holly King has slain the Oak: blood red holly berry, mistletoe, wild thyme, verbena, cinquefoil, hemp, winter rose, evergreen, frankincense, juniper, and myrrh.


    Samhain was, along with Rose Red, the first BPAL I fell in love with. It was very atmospheric, and it captured the holiday beautifully.

    Then I got Lughnasadh and Mabon. Those, like Samhain, were also gorgeous "tapestry" scents which painted scented "scenes" of their respective holidays.

    But then came Beltane, and Litha, and Ostara, and I was dreadfully disappointed by each. Partly because I felt they lacked the rich complexity of their earlier Sabbat counterparts, partly because they turned to soap on me.

    So I wasn't expecting much of Yule. But now that I try it...Ooo this is lovely! :P

    I normally don't like evergreen scents (Snow Bunny, Skadi, Snow-Flakes, etc), but Yule is a bit different. It starts out evergreen and berries, but quickly dries down to something warm and golden--almost vanillic--with hints of lemon and herbs. Like a warm little nest of light and life buried in crisp snow.

  7. Stunning stunning STUNNING! :D

     

    Chilly woodsy notes (though no evergreen!), sweet jammy notes, and a lovely crystalline resin.

     

    Like a walk through snowy woods on a gorgeous, breezy, chilly day with the scent of frozen blackberries wafting through the air.

     

    I can't believe this is LE :P


  8. If a perfumer could identify an oil's supplier simply by sniffing the single note, they 1) have mad skillz beyond the realm of normal science and or 2) they already know who the supplier is and have thus already explored that venue.

     

    And if they went so far as to do a chemical analysis, well...you can do a chemical analysis on blends, too.

     

     

    I'd imagine Beth weighed the risk of selling single notes vs the possible profit and made a decision. I think it is a sound decision for any business owner. Regardless of what market you're in, the fewer options people have to buy from, the better. Of course, the customer wants the most options, because the more options you have, the lower the prices go, and the harder the struggle is to improve quality.

     

    Sure, Beth doesn't list exact recipes... but why make it easy for someone who may actually possess the skill to blend oils to elbow their way into her market? I've really not seen any company that does anything similar to what bpal does, however I could easily see a competitor or two popping up and cutting into an otherwise solidified fanbase. I can't imagine Beth woke up one day and was like "I'm just going to stop selling every single note for the fun of it!" :P :D

     

    I'm sure there was a justifiable cause to pull them from the site and I'd be very surprised if they were ever put back up for sale by Beth.

     

    I'm sure there's a good reason. I'm just not ready to say "This MUST be the reason" without any situational facts. I believe that Beth stated the desire to focus on her blends as the reason for taking down the single notes; if there are other reasons, we do nothing but speculate vaguely unless Beth decides to tell us.


  9. I guess I just don't see why the Lab *would* sell single notes. If you're looking for essential oils, accords or absolutes, there are plenty of places where you can buy them - the Lab is all about unique creations, so those two things don't seem to exactly go hand in hand, IMHO. I could be totally wrong, though. And not to be totally paranoid, if I were Beth, I wouldn't want to have any amount of my individual ingredients out there on the offchance that another perfumer would maybe say, "Oh, so THAT's the X she uses!" Ya know? It's not that it's a bad idea, just.. why would you want to do it?

     

    If a perfumer could identify an oil's supplier simply by sniffing the single note, they 1) have mad skillz beyond the realm of normal science and or 2) they already know who the supplier is and have thus already explored that venue.

     

    And if they went so far as to do a chemical analysis, well...you can do a chemical analysis on blends, too.


  10. You'd think if LE's had to be made in such limited amounts due to exotic ingredients that they wouldn't strictly sell bottles only. Selling imps of LE's would allow more people a chance to enjoy them rather than resorting to decant circles. Of course, I understand that bpal is a business and any business' focus is to make money so it makes sense that bpal would capitalize on that natural tendency to want to blindly jump for a 5ml out of fear it'll be the only chance to get it.

     

    From what I've heard, the lab makes more money per item on bottles than on imps. I guess they could just sell pricier imps of LE scents, but honestly I don't know much about BPAL's business model.

     

    Personally I find it hard to believe that *every single LE blend* is LE because of its ingredients, but frankly they're not marketed as if they were, so I don't care too much :P.

    I also think it would be a bad idea for bpal to start selling single notes again. That's sorta like Coca Cola selling their ingredients, then posting their highly secretive recipe (ie bpal note lists) on a website. It'd be a terribly unwise business move, which is undoubtedly why bpal no longer sells single notes.

     

    Notes lists aren't recipes. Very, very far from it. Look up any perfume on the internet and you'll find a note list to go along with it, many quite detailed. Notes =/= ingredients.

     

    I also highly doubt that one of us could just buy a bunch of BPAL single notes and recreate Beth's blends. First of all, I strongly doubt that she made available *every single ingredient* she used in her blends when the single notes were available. Second, mixing oils is more than just dumping several nice-smelling ingredients together. I have a few very lovely books on creating one's own perfume oils, and it isn't an easy task for a beginner, especially if you want to create something that actually smells nice.

     

    If you look at the reviews for Dracul, you'll see most of the posts seem to sing the same song, but the last page of reviews starts to mention an overpowering mint smell. My Dracul (older) has no mint. This leads me to believe Dracul was recently reformulated and a little too much mint got thrown in?

     

    Makes me wish I'd tested my brand-new bottle of Dracul (before I sold it) and compared it to my old 10 ml. And it might simply have been a batch difference. Take Morocco, for example--there's a standard creamy "Antique Lace-esque" variety and the occasional "OMG CEDAR" variety. Just batch differences.


  11. o_o

     

    This has honey in it, and I like it!

     

    A gorgeous, ethereal current wine touched with honey and the tart grassiness of dandelion. It really does smell like a sort of fairy wine :P Pity it doesn't last very long.


  12. Sappy, fresh damp leaves with something warm, earthy, smoky and spicy in the background.

     

    This really is gorgeously atmospheric. It's like a fresh day in autumn, walking in the woods.

     

    I miss scents like this. My first favorites were scents like Samhain and Lughnasadh--scents that really paint a scent tapestry. This isn't quite as complex as Samhain, Lughnasadh, and Mabon, but it's still gorgeous.

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