zenvodunista
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Posts posted by zenvodunista
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... well, now I feel silly.Don't feel silly! I've been collecting BPAL for at least 2 years now, and I recently got a frimp of Black Tower and had NO idea if it was a new or old scent. Turned out to be part of the GC and had all these pages of reviews. D'oh!
The catalog has like 500 blends in it. No worries if you can't remember them ALL!
N.
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Snow-Flakes
in Yules
Snow Flake and Snow White are definitely in the same family of scents.
In the bottle, I can't really disguish them from one another at all. On, Snow Flake's mint bursts forward and actually does a simultaneous cool/warm thing to my skin for a bit. I'm wearing one on each arm right now, and for me, they are so close as to be pretty much interchangeable. Where Snow White gets deeper and more creamy/coconutty, Snow Flake is cooler/minty.
I think that difference will register as huge to some folks noses, and less so to others. For me, it's more a "vibe" than a difference.
I think if you are a huge lover of this kind of scent, you'll really dig Snow Flake. And if you are new to BPAL and missed out on Snow White, get yourself a bottle of this. I think it makes a most excellent substitute. It's not exact - nor should it be - but it is most definitely very related. Similar to the way that Snake Oil & Snake Charmer are sisters, so these two. In fact, I bet Snow Flake will be great in summer. That sweet mysterious quality of Snow White, paired with cool mint will do wonders in the terrible heat.
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Dries a bit more...
Is that cucumber I smell? Yeah, there's some cucumber in there keeping the mint cool.
Good work, lab! Just lovely....
ETA: The longer this is on... the more it smells like Blue Moon @.@
That's not a bad thing, and in some ways makes sense.
I mean, it's Sleeping Snow White and the Light of the Blue Moon kissing her.
I'm getting more blown away by the minute here. Really complex. I think this one will morph a LOT with skin chemistry, and I want to read all about it. So y'all go out and get yer bottles and report back here to me
Just wonderfully complex. A real BPAL experience. Too chilly for me to wear in winter (I get cold so easily that cool scents make me feel cold) but a keeper nonetheless.
n.
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In the bottle: Chocolate & Vanilla, together at LAST!
On: I was worried that the sandalwood would go bad on me - it's an iffy note often... But on me this is all Chocolate & Vanilla. The sandalwood is there grounding it, the other stuff is just sweetening it a bit. Maybe a moment of lavender and then it's ball back to Chocolate & Vanilla goodness.
And unlike a most other chocolate blends, there is not a hint of the hated hazelnut.
I am SO happy! At last I can wear one of my favorite numbers!
This is a very fun scent. I think it'd be great for pretty much anywhere except for the high/end date, super sexy mama type thing. Totally fine with going out with friends, home cuddling, going to the movies, at work, whatever.
Thanks, lab!!!
ETA: Yesterday while wearing this, I would notice that the throw (the "sillage") would change a lot. Sometimes it was lavendar, then it was a sweet brightness which I think was mimosa & starfruit, for a bit tea-like. The cool part was that while the throw was morphing, by my skin it stayed true to chocolate/vanilla/sandalwood. By the end of teh day the throw was what was nearest my skin.
It's a wonderfully complex scent. And SO much fun. Comforting too.
I
13.n.
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Pretty, but more incense than cake. Actually, last night I tried Haloa, and I think I like it more than All Souls. All Souls on me is all incense and no cake. The Haloa is far more complex with a lot more depth.
I'm glad I got to sniff this though.
n.
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This is the secret hit of tOotD. Eveyrone is oohing and ahing over Lucy, and Quincy... and here is mad John Seward quietly gibbering in the corner. Lean close though, and you'll find he's not as mad as he seems and quite possibly holds the keys to the kingdom of understanding.
Sweetly mysterious, rich without being ostentatious, I LOVE this Doctor and will be getting a bottle ASAP.
It's extraordinarily blended, I can't pick out the notes. It smells very .... sophisticated, expensive, elegant. Powerful.
It's almost reminiscent of honey or mead somehow, but without the cloying qualities of those notes. That must be the champaca that reminds me of a drier Kajuraho...
I love this.
Sorry for the inchoherence...
ETA: It finally struck me what this scent is like! If Khajurajo and Two Monsters had a baby. Yep. So, if you like both those scents, get this. As for me, I love it. Especially since I find Khajurajo to be a little to *sweet* for my skin chemistry - John Seward is a drier champaca.
n.
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In the bottle: Hmm. Some kinda funk is residing in there
On: well, that burnt away quick. BAM! Now we gots the fruits. And that wine? THat's fruity red ya got goin' on. Yup.
THere's a lot of different kinds of sweetness happening in the scent, and I can faintly pick them out. I think that funk might have been the honey which to my nose is very... shall we say... feminine?
I'd love to see how this one ages. Right now the resins are lingering at the edges of the party. I wonder if they will deepen with age. I'll be keeping the imp for testing, me thinks.
This is definitely one for those of you that like Lady MacBeth.
n.
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The velvet flower. A lush, thick, luxuriant bloom, bold and red.
Almost like neroli or mock orange - but not quite. Darkened with something else - the tiniest dash of dragons blood? Something almost spicy, almost like cinnamon but utterly different lies at the base of this oil. It flickers between sweetly innocent (Lolita and Alice come to mind) and something darker. A hint of bright spring green. The sap of the freshly cut flower.
Strange, utterly indescribable. Floral lovers, take note.
n. -
YULE
The Holly King and Oak King each hold sway for half of the year, and engage in an epic, eternal battle at Litha and Yule. In truth, they are each a half of the whole -- known by many names: Pashupati, Caerwiden, Herne, Pan, Puck, Cernunnos, the Green Man, the Horned God -- and as the Holly and Oak Kings represent the light and dark halves of the year, thus do they also represent the light and dark halves of the deity, and thereby, of ourselves.
During the darkness of the year, though it seems cold, barren, and bleak, the earth holds the warmth of life deep within itself, and in the depth of its shadows is the eternal promise of renewal and rebirth.
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.
In the bottle: sweet pine resin. Like when you go out into the woods and pick a bit of newgrowth of spruce off the tree and press it between your fingers? Your fingers get all sticky and for hours after you can smell that evergreen scent? Like that.
On: Brighter and brighter, the scent grows. I don't know how to describe it. It's just *brighter* and more intense, and transforming from a simple evergreen resin to something else but I can't somehow say what. It's so... GREEN. Not the green of the swamp, or green grass, or green tea... It's the heart of the yule log. Sticky. Living. Green even in the darkest part of the year, on the longest night, that strong heart of living energy reaching upwards through the cold to dance in starlight.
"EVER GREEN", Yule says, and I respond, "YES" because there is no other answer to that.
Spot on. Yule, the ancient pagan holiday, in a bottle.
Wow.
I am blown away by the craftmanship of this scent. I'll be using it in the oil burner this Yule and I hope it comes back every year to keep me and mine company through the dark of the year.
N. -
Wine grapes, myrrh, frankincense and olive leaf, and the warm scent of offertory cakes.
In the bottle: MMM! Cake! Creamcheese! OH! It's reminiscent of the elusive Beaver Moon! That's cheesecake I'm smelling....It's sitting on my laptop a couple of feet away from my nose and that tang is floating towards me.
On: Whoa! Here comes the table. That Cake and Creamcheese gets dried out (in a good way) by the herbaciousness of the olive leaf - the olive leaf is reminding me of thyme somehow. Dustier and woodier though.
*sniffs again*
Frankinsese. Yep, hot and spicy, also dry, and whiffs of red wine. The cakes have been eaten and my table is graced by olive branches and rich red wine. Lingering remnants of the frankinsense burnt earlier hang in the air. That is all against my skin directly.
The sillage of the scent is sweeter - some of the cake remains and the wine is richer, but it is no longer foody at all.
This is complex. I think it would do well on a man or a woman. Very androgenous.
Well done!
N. -
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fevourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
The hope of springtime penetrating winter darkness. Snow, darkness, and icy air illuminated by the thrush's song: warm amber, soft orris, and melancholy violet.In the bottle, at first sniff, all those "slush/snow" notes that BPAL does. That almost-aquatic note that says "Yule at the Lab".
On: Vibrating just below this the orris, it *thrums* like the wings of a small bird. The amber is a faint bit of warmth behind the rest. Cold pine, just a wisp of it, lingers in the background.
This is a cold and dark forest. I barely can find the amber, though I can tell there is orris in it. Very melancholy.
Perhaps as I wear it, that little thrush will burn through the winter's cold.
n. -
DCXXXI (631)
I swapped Oedipa for this, and I am glad I did. To my nose this is all Sugar Skull, mixed with incense. My skin happens to amp sugar so it's more SS than incense, but there's a lot of incense here. Weaving in and out of the scent as I wear it, is a faint hint of some kind of fruit - I am tempted to say cherry.
Really excellent, adn something I'll actually wear.
Thanks!
n.
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The last of my CTIIIs:
DCCCLIX: a hit of light musk (skin maybe?) and a touch of some kind of fruiting flower and something clean.
DCCCXXXII: Clean, but I can't ID it farther than that. For some reason it's reminding me of Sea of Glass.
These last two are very related. They are variations on each other. On my skin they are barely distinguishable. Both are a little bit aquatic. Both remind me a bit of City in the Sea. Maybe it's sea lily? I don't know my notes for these as they seem to be related to a class of scents I am not ever really interested in.
n.
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In the bottle: OMG. It's Storyville with berries. *DIES*
On: On, the initial blast sultry and warm vanilla-musky-sexyness dies back a good bit and everything else begins to come forward. OH GOD this is FUCKING AMAZING.
Even when I feel like the Oakwood might be too much, it gets pulled back. Nothing ever seems to overwhelm the other one. Berries - which can be candy on me - are tempered by the bitterness of the pine. The wood is sweetened by the berry and mellowed by the vanilla. The tobacco is perfect. The pomegranate not too sweet at all - it's tartness is grounded by the pink pepper.
This is flat out amazing. I'm.... completely overwhelmed. Oh god!
n.
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SMOKY is right. This smells pretty much only like smoke on me, with a background of opium resin. I love the smell of opium smoke and opium itself, but this was more smoke and less opium on my skin.
I'll probably use the rest of the imp in the oil burner though. Sexy!
Interestingly enough, Kathmandu does the same thing on my skin. It's all burnt herbs and smoke.
n.
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CMXXXIX
In the bottle this has potential. I smell some similar notes to Snow White, and a bit of mint. On me, something floral comes out though, and the mint and the cream go way to the background. Will I wear this ever? I doubt it. It's perfectly fine, but while I like these kinds of notes, I hardly ever wear them :/
MLXI
In the bottle: cheese. Cheese and ... alchochol? Something like that.
On: musty dust and vaguely medicinal institutional floor scrubbing liquid.
ETA: You know what? The cheese? I think it's the same musk that's in Queen. To me it's kind of like a sweaty foot cheese. THat's this scent. Horrible on me. Wonderful on other people.
*sigh*
Chaos Theory Hates Me. I have a couple more bottles to go, but I am pretty sure they won't work on me since I can tell they have some of those berry-florals that go Sweettart on me.
n.
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You know what Kindly Moon reminds me of? Al Araaf. That sort of sweetly honeyed lily. It must be the beeswax combining with the stargazer lily.
The other florals and musk are really not here for me. It's mostly stargazer, and it fades super fast on me. My skin is known for that though, and it's one of the reasons I go for darker scents - they have more staying power on me.
This is very pretty, girlish, and a touch posh.
n.
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In the bottle this reminds me of some of the ambergris blends I've smelled. The black musk is very strong. I could not smell the vertiver.
On, sadly, my skin seems to revolt for a bit and it's all powerful musk that isn't happy with me -- but hten it settles down into a structured oriental/spice scent. The tamarind and mimosa sweeten up the blend, while soft and powdery resins come to the forefront, that are almost reminiscent of cocoa. Dark like cocoa, and a combination of bitter and sweet.
I'll be trying this again. It's very complex and mysterious.
n.
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Black Moon reminds me of a very sophisticated, old world, vintage style perfume. Perhaps from somewhere like Guerlain.
It is seamlessly blended. In the bottle, I can pick out the pear, cooled and tempered by the cucumber and the juicy blue lotus. But on, it blends and becomes something else.
I don't know if I can wear it. But it makes me think of that beautiful photograph of Greta Garbo, the light on her face, her mysterious eyes, and her skin so flawless, that it fairly glows.
n.
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In the bottle this is simply glorious. In fact, while being different, it also reminds me of Luperci. That sort of warm man smell thing going on.
On me it's terrible, and I am so sad and hating my skin right now. Something in it is doing what cedar does on my skin - turning into a sort of stale BO thing. Granted, my BF says it just smells "gentle" on me, but I smell it.
*sniffs more*
I don't know. I'm confused. Further away it doesn't smell like BO, just very structured and woody almost, with hints of spice. But I don't think it's working. I'll try it again, several times I'm sure, but I think for my spiced woods I'll go to Port Royal and P&T of the Carnaval. My skin is bad!
Now, Schwartzer Mond on the BF?
Simply glorious.
He fell in love first sniff at the bottle and pulled out his wallet and asked "how much?". It's his now!
And I get to semll it on him!
On him I smell lovely cloves and leather. The musk warms it up and there's a gentle sweetness to it. It's simply gorgeous on him, and I'm very glad I get to snuggle up to that.
So Schwartzer Mond broke my heart and mended it again all one one evening. Powerful, to be sure.
n.
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MXIX (1019)
This is a Snake Oil variant. Basically, it's Snake Oil with Cedar instead of Vanilla.
It's totally gorgeous!
The only problem is that Cedar smells like Body Odor when it mixes with my (stupid!) skin chemistry.
Weep for me?
n.
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This is simply a GORGEOUS oriental/spicy/floral. I can't pick out a single note in this, though something about it reminds me of honey. Not that it's sweet, but that it's some kind of essence of something else, refined, purified and then transformed. It is not floral, not spicy, not sweet, not woody -- and yet it is all of these things together.
It absolutely defies description. Even saying it is beautiful, or seductive, or mysterious, doesn't quite cover it.
I love this one.
ETA: I couldn't wear Love in the Asylum, or Haunted Palace (both went to powder on me), but I can wear this. A great alternative!
n.
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I'll be coming back to this. But I just got my order and had to, of course, throw some Mum Moon on.
In the bottle this is hot ginger all the way. On.... It's strangely clean smelling. A ginger floral with a touch of soap that I don't really mind.
Right now I'm not getting any opium, nor smoke, nor cream, nor.... not anything anyone else seems to be getting actually!
I'm getting the mums, sweet skin musk, and invigorating ginger. I'm not getting the opium den below, but the smell of my invigorating guide and the golden mum she handed me.
n.
Svadhinaopatika
in Lupercalia
Posted · Report reply
Bottle: This smells like the patchouli that hates me in Madame Moriarty.
On: This is the patchouli that hates me in Mme. Moriarty.
15 minutes: this is the patchouli that hates me Mme. Moriarty with lots of sweet fruit.
1 hour: this is fruit.
I may age this one. Sandalwood and I have a tumultuous relationship and I think that's what is going bad on me in this blend. Khajurajo did something similar to me when I first got it, but now is very lovely.
I may swap it though. I can't smell any of the amber or the oude, both of which I adore.
We'll see.
N.