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To/on me this smells like absinthe with a background of vanilla and leather. It is so fabulous! I expected the leather and vanilla to take over, but they don't really... and surprisingly, I don't mind a bit. This is green and lovely. Old books and a glass of absinthe. Love it!

This is a really great scent, and I'm so pleased it worked for me (I usually can't do aquatics)! I get salty, musty chocolate and dirt (in a good way!). The chocolate isn't too overwhelming, either; even my hubby likes it, and he's usually not a fan of chocolatey scents. Love it.

I really like this scent! I hadn't worn it in awhile, and decided to wear again last week, and wow! My bottle is really aging nicely. The vanilla creaminess has become more prominent, and really softens the ginger and oakmoss, without completely overpowering them. This one is on its way to becoming a favorite.

This morning I placed an order using CCNow. I got my receipt email, then about 15 minutes later I got this email:

 

CCNow has received Order Number 174-23-4166 which cannot be processed.

 

This order has been cancelled.

The customer's credit card was not charged.

 

The reason for the cancellation is:

 

The email address used for this order is not allowed at CCNow.

 

To our client: If necessary, you can look up order number 174-23-4166

to see the transaction details. This feature is available on the

Information & Help section of the Client Administration screens.

 

Regards,

 

- CCNow Processing Team

 

WTF??? Has anyone else had this problem?

 

The email address that I used is the same one I've used for ALL of my orders from BPAL and BPTP (13 total), and there has never been a problem with any of them.

 

I had the EXACT same thing happen! So I figured I made some kind of error and ordered again, on my other card. I then received a more disturbing email.

 

CCNow has received Order Number 175-24-2212 which cannot be processed.

 

This order has been cancelled.

The customer's credit card was not charged.

 

The reason for the cancellation is:

 

This order was placed using a stolen credit card number.

 

To our client: If necessary, you can look up order number 175-24-2212

to see the transaction details. This feature is available on the

Information & Help section of the Client Administration screens.

 

Regards,

 

- CCNow Processing Team

 

So I called my bank and they told me BOTH cards had the charges authorized and that there were no theft alerts or locks on either card. What a mess. I emailed the CCNow addy it came from and the answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com to see what wis up. How strange and annoying. I hope both charges were indeed canceled so I didn't place dupe orders.

Weird. I contacted CCNow, and they told ME that my bank had issued a chargeback for a purchase I made in November.

Um, no they haven't. I'm still trying to sort it out.

Contact CCNow to ask about that...it looks like them, rather than that Lab, who canceled your order. Very weird!

Yeah, it was them. Very strange. I sent them an email. Hopefully they'll straighten it out.

This morning I placed an order using CCNow. I got my receipt email, then about 15 minutes later I got this email:

CCNow has received Order Number 174-23-4166 which cannot be processed.

 

This order has been cancelled.

The customer's credit card was not charged.

 

The reason for the cancellation is:

 

The email address used for this order is not allowed at CCNow.

 

To our client: If necessary, you can look up order number 174-23-4166

to see the transaction details. This feature is available on the

Information & Help section of the Client Administration screens.

 

Regards,

 

- CCNow Processing Team

WTF??? Has anyone else had this problem?

The email address that I used is the same one I've used for ALL of my orders from BPAL and BPTP (13 total), and there has never been a problem with any of them.

On me, the chocolate in this is quite muted (which is nice, because although I love chocolatey scents, the hubby isn't quite as fond). It's very spicy and and with a hint of incense. I get plenty of ginger, with a bit of anise and nutmeg.

I agree with what you guys have said above; I think age is going to do this one some good, and I can't wait to see how it's evolved after six months or so.

This is a beautiful, deep woodsy scent on me. But not masculine. It's very soft and sexy. I definitely get a hint of the walnut others have mentioned, and soft spices. This is really a gorgeous scent. Definitely a keeper.

Wow. I like this a lot more than I expected to. It does remind me of snow. It's a really nice, soft, pretty scent, but kind of hard to pin down. There's spun sugar and creaminess, maybe almond? Some very soft florals in there somewhere. It's not my usual style at all, but I sort of can't stop sniffing it.

Definitely need to order a bottle now that the Yules have come back around.

Soooo, here's an odd one.

 

I am going as an anthropomorphic personification of a specific geologic feature for Halloween. (Yes, I am a colossal nerd. But at least there will be other colossal nerd friends of mine going as other geologic features!) I designed the character myself, and I've been pulling together the visual aspects of the costume just fine. I was thinking, though, that smelling like rocks and dirt could be a fantastic touch. A fault line, no matter how humanoid, sure isn't gonna smell like skin musk, after all!

 

My question is, which BPAL (or combination thereof) do you all think would be best for pulling this off? I own imps of Black Opal and Kumari Kandam, and a decant of Moai. I've already ruled out Moai, because I'm not about to slather something I may not be able to get more of. As for Black Opal, I like the rocks note, but the vanilla is present enough to not be immediately rocky. (Also, my nose is kind of confused by the combination of rocks and vanilla. Still trying to figure it out!) Maybe layering this with something would minimize vanilla and bring out rocks? I like Kumari Kandam a lot, but the clay is part of the complexity of the blend, rather than an immediately obvious thing.

 

Scent is not vital for making the costume work, so no worries if people draw blanks, but I figured I'd at least throw this out there. Thanks!

I'd recommend Graveyard Dirt. It really does smell like freshly-turned earth, and lots of people have decants up for grabs right now in the swaps forum.

I think that the Paypal or CCNow confirmation should be sufficient to prove to a customer that a transaction occured, and they do give an estimate of ship time (14 to 21 business days) and send out a click and ship. The only thing that I wish could be done to help clarify things for new customers is some sort of large, red flashing notice on the CCNow site that indicates that "order status: shipped" has nothing to do with the actual order status. If I am popping in on the squee thread three times a week to clarify people on that point, I can't even imagine how many emails the lab has to answer about it! (and I'm not a mod or anything, I'm just a busybody!)

The problem is, it's sufficient to prove a transaction occurred, yes, but not sufficient to prove the lab actually got your order. I placed my SGA order through Paypal, and waited and waited for a CnS. I watched the CnS thread. I was hesitant to email Customer Service because I know how busy they are, and the volume of orders they were dealing with at once for that particular item, so I didn't want to seem like an impatient pest (and I suspect others feel the same). Finally, when people were getting CnS emails for orders placed a few weeks after mine, I sent them an email, and found out they never got their confirmation email from Paypal.

It's not difficult to set up an auto-response system, and these days, most spam filtering software is very good at filtering only actual spam. I'm a web developer and server/email administrator, so I have some experience with this. We filter for spam, and these days we almost never get complaints from clients about missed emails trapped by the spam filter (we serve approximately 50 individual clients, with hundreds of email accounts between them). In the past year, I've had one report of a missing email that turned out to have been caught by the filter (and believe me, if people don't get their emails, I hear about it immediately).

These days, most people know to check the spam folder/directory if they don't receive an email they're expecting. An easy way to avoid this is to advise people to add the email address from which notifications will come to their address book or other whitelist. A lot of companies advise people to do this somewhere during the ordering process, when people sign up for newsletters, etc. It's not a perfect system (some email providers just delete email flagged as spam, rather than saving it for awhile so users can check for incorrectly filtered emails), but as I said, these days most spam filters are really good and don't catch many legitimate emails.

Snake Oil, Bordello, Hunger and Kali seem to always work on my husband.

On him, I LOOOOOOVE Brom Bones. Like, whoa. Dracul, Hellfire, DeSade and Havana are great too.

This is great on me. It's a dark cocoa dirtied up with sandalwood and myrrh. Love it.

I love this! In the bottle and on wet, it smells very strongly of whiskey, with maybe a tiny bit of the oak. Once it dries, however, it's this lovely combination of whiskey, oak and smoky spices. To quote my hubby, "Ooh, it smells like a fireplace" (in the best possible way). Love it.

In the bottle, this smells really lovely. Green and floral in the soft, not-too-sweet way that I like. I can smell the ivy and moonflower. It does smell like the outdoors at night. Unfortunately, on me, it turns a little too soapy when it dries. Bummer.

This smells great. The scents are very well integrated and difficult to differentiate. I definitely get the blood, sandalwood and vetiver notes, maybe a hint of something metallic. I really like this one.

In the bottle, there's a very strong beeswax scent, with a hint of tea. On wet, I get beeswax, tea and pepper. There's sort of a popcorn scent. Dry, it's strongly beeswax, with cream, pepper and a hint of tea. I really like this, but unfortunately my husband thinks it smells weird and a little like pee, so I won't be wearing this much.

In the bottle, this smells very edible. It's carrots and hay with a lot of molasses and maple oats. On wet, it's pretty much the same, but the musk also begins to come through. Dry, it's pretty much the same again. This is very nice; it smells warm and cozy. It's comforting. Unfortunately, it's not a scent I would wear, much as I love foodie scents. I think it will be great in an oil burner or something like that, though.

In the bottle, I get LEATHER!!! with a hint of musk. On wet, it's mostly leather again. As it dries, it's a lovely, dark leather and musk scent, yet somehow manages to smell clean as well. I LOVE this on my husband. It's perfect.

In the bottle, I get a nice scent of charred wood, leaves and tobacco. On wet, I get smoke, char, leaves, tobacco and something very heavy and flowery/powdery. This does not bode well. I waited for this to dry, but that heavy scent just doesn't go away, and it doesn't work for me. Bummer.

In the bottle, the bourbon vanilla is quite strong. I can also smell the bay rum and a bit of brimstone. On wet, it's pretty much the same, though I start to get a hint of muskiness. Dry, this is really great. Boozy tobacco and brimstone goodness. It smells especially nice on my hubby.

In the bottle, I get dried, wet leaves, pine and smoke. On wet, it's a little too much pine at first. There's some spiciness as well -- maybe allspice? The longer it's on, however, the more the leaves and smoke begin to come through. Once this is really dry, it's very nice. The pine scent settles down to something manageable and pleasant. I like it.

In the bottle, this smells like spicy creamsicles. On wet, I still get the creamsicle scent, but the spices and a hint of smoke are more apparent. As it dries, the anise seed begins to come out, and I get a very subtle scent like slightly burned popcorn (but not in a bad way). This is nice. I like it.

Sugar Skull 2008

In the bottle, this definitely smells like sugar, but not straight-up sugar. Like caramel or toffee. It has a deep, slightly smoky scent. On wet, it's much the same, but a slight spiciness begins to come out. Once dry, this is really awesome. Dark, smoky sugar with a hint of subtle spices. Love it!