theshapeshifter

This is the third BPAL scent I've tried so far, and may be the first candidate for purchase of a bigger bottle! In the imp and immediately on my skin - Maraschino cherries. STRONG maraschino cherries. I think this is my brain's initial reaction to 'almond'. This only lasted perhaps two minutes. Wet - Cherry morphing into almond, with the frankincense looming but not overpowering it. Smells like "occult shop", which to me is a good thing. After about an hour - Gorgeous, just gorgeous. The vanilla and cinnamon have come to the forefront, with the almond and frankincense humming underneath like a great bassline. Heliotrope is a scent I'm not familiar enough with to pick out, but there is just the gentlest waft of floral, which must be it. After several hours - Nice staying power... I was out at a festival watching performers, and every time I applauded I got a nice little fresh whiff of Eclipse, but not too strong. A lovely, slightly sugary cinnamon/vanilla, with the other elements giving it depth and keeping it from being too sweet. Definitely getting at least a 5 ml of this. Also, my friend who joined me at the festival has a lot of allergy and scent-sensitivity issues, and not only did Eclipse not bother her, she LOVED it, and asked me for the link to the BPAL site.

An online friend of mine is intrigued by BPAL, but she's got a five-week-old daughter and doesn't want to overwhelm the baby with strong fragrance. Any suggestions of some oils that are pretty, but not so intense?

My very first review ever! In the imp: Wow, pure sweet maraschino cherry. Wet: Maraschino cherry, but almond/amaretto is coming in too, along with a whiff of rose and something that seems like a cross between incense and baby powder... is that amber? (I have no idea what the 'amber' note is, but based on other reviews, perhaps that's it) After 15 minutes: Becoming much more floral... a very grownup, heady floral, that makes me think of getting very dressed up and doing something 'classy', like going to the theatre. The rose is quite prominent, and I tend to not be a big rose fan, but this is rather nice. After about an hour: Rose, and baby powder... but not necessarily in a bad way. And a vague hint of the almond still wafting about. So far, I'd say I'll probably use up the imp, but not buy a bottle; this is lovely, but slightly out-of-character for me. Something I'll probably wear when I'm in the mood to be grown-up and sophisticated, but a little reserved, like going to a nice dinner with my dad or something.

Phew... hopefully now I'll be able to pronounce all the wonderful things I've ordered, once they arrive! I study Scots Gaelic, so that's one domain I'm okay with... although the Lab seems to use more Irish-type spelling for scent names. I had to double-check "Leanan Sidhe" about ten times, because I was wanting to spell it "Leannan" as it would be in Scots Gaelic.

While I'm waiting for my first and second BPAL orders to arrive, I'm already pondering future purchases... and one thing I'm wondering about is musk. I've had bad luck in the past with musk going kind of sweaty/body-odor-ish on me, but I admit I've only tried it a couple of times, several years ago. (And products that were no doubt not nearly as good as BPAL!) So I'm apprehensive about musk, and have so far shied away from ordering anything with it listed... but then again, some things sound SO good to me otherwise. I was wondering what scents you might recommend to the slightly musk-phobic? Something where it's present, but not overpowering?