izile

crap, what I get for reading the forum FAQ instead of the website FAQ (forum FAQ has the same list of percentages, but at the bottom had added that BPAL was 85-100%, but that was 2004. . . http://www.bpal.org/index.php?s=&showt...ost&p=50554 ) of course, now I'm going to wonder if the forum FAQ was always inaccurate or if there was a change in the past 5 years to weaken the formulas.

confused, seeking clarification of above: "and the Lab's scents start at 15% perfume oil and go up to 80% perfume oil. " I thought BPAL was 100% essential oils and natural accords? No dilution, no thinning, no synthetic fragrance oils." ??

Smells OK, but seems to be a complete loss on me. I've tried it a couple of times, anointing candle and myself along with meditation and focusing on what the oil is suppose to help generate. Two very different outings (both at bars, though one was a dive bar the other was a swanky theater bar); the first one I got the same reaction from everyone that I always get, no effect; the second one I got even less attention than what I'd consider usual. Had someone tell me I smelled like incense, not necessarily in a good way. Not a scent I'd wear if it were *just* a perfume, and it does seem to be *just* a perfume to me. ------ EDIT: Tried it one more time, this time adding a red colored candle instead of just plain white, and including a piece of rose quartz on the alter. Worst. Night. Ever. Ended up crying in the ladies' at my favorite bar because this guy came up and decided he could steal my chair if he said enough upsetting things to get me to leave. Not crude, or inappropriately sexual or like Dixie was being too powerful, no, hurtful, mean things. So I went to the upstairs part. No matter where I went, if people came up to me, it was to be mean. I finally got tired of everyone just throwing all their negativity and anger on me and went home. NEVER USING DIXIE AGAIN!

In the imp: at first I smell the woods, right up front, then there's this really nice fruitiness, but I can't deside if it's the blackberry jam or the strawberry juice. . . definitely mandarin in there too. . .I can't smell anything watermelon-like or gardenia-like. The berries are a bit elusive in the imp, keeps getting overwhelmed by the woody notes. wet: damnit! who said bubbleyum? I smell bubbleyum. *grumble* yup, that's all i can smell/think of now, is original bubbleyum gum. dry: at a distance, I smell a kind of mandarin-watermelon mix that drifts up now and again, away from the other notes. Up close, there's still a little woody background coming back, and the fore still smells like bubbleyum, it's a lot milder and less screamy-GUM!!, but it's still what I'm getting.

In the imp: MELON! woooo-boy, MELON! maybe a hint of citrus (lime rind or lemonbalm??) if I try and pick out notes. wet: still melon! little bit more on the citrus end now, maybe something slightly floral? wait? no. . no that's just more melon. dry: getting a more blended scent now, still starring melon, but now I'm getting softer hints of other notes, I'm getting the sparkly, champagne grape, mintiness now. love this! note: some throw on this thing! receptionist around the corner noticed it. Ha!

In the imp: strong violet, but something very dark and murky, I'm thinking the opopanax wet: lighter, more floral, but not sweet. There's a dry, earthiness which I would assume is the orris root and violet leaf. I am completely unaware of any hint of mint. dry: violets in the woods, that's what I'm getting. I wasn't sure I'd like this from my first sniff in the imp, the opopanax worried me. But now it smells like the powdery dust from the underside of tree bark in the background, and really beautiful violets in the front.

In the bottle, to wet to the skin to dry much later, all I smell is Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies (not that I'm complaining) The part of the scent I identify as "cookie-ish" oddly reminds me of Nuclear Winter 2005's somewhat underlying "vanilla-ish-ness" Do love!

In the bottle: lovely bright berries, a little honey, it's very fresh and sharp. Wet: musk and honey, and where are my berries fading to??? Dry: myrrh, musk, and powdery, dry, resinous, myrrh. It must be the musk. *weeps* Please hope that a few days of settling will fix this! I wanted the bottle everyone else is reviewing!

I is in lurst! In the bottle it's very sakura+plum WINE to me, but once added to the bath, it mellows into this lovely plummy cherry blossom softened and given an almost creamy edge by the rice flower. When applied directly to my skin after a shower, it doesn't last very long, but it feels great. When mixed with a little kosher salt, however, it is a beautimus salt scrub, and it makes the scent last longer after the bath. It's my first bath oil, and was great when I smelled it and thought, "OMFG I want to BATHE in this! ow wait, I CAN!!"

I LOVE Cherry Blossom! I personally find Jingu (though I love it) to not be very sakura-y dominant. Voyeurs amongst the Cherry Blossoms is very lovely, but again, I get more "other notes" with that one. Hanami, on the other hand, I LOVE that bottle, and it'd be my "go to" scent if I just wanted to smell like Cherry Blossom.

I'm a big supporter of The Rose. I'd gotten Rose Red and loved it dearly, but decided to try out the GC variation and was not at all disappointed. The Rose reminds me of my Mom's garden, full of antique English roses. As I tend to tell people, "it's not rose perfume or rose oil, or rose scent, it's the WHOLE FREAKIN' BUSH!"

I just want to huff this bottle. In the bottle it's like my favorite coffee house, sweet and slightly alcoholic coffee. On me, it's horrid, it turns into pure evil. It smells like cheap cigarette ash and wood cleaner. However, I bought it for a gift for a guy friend of mine. And on him, it smells just like it's supposed to. *droooools*

After reading the reviews, I'm really wondering if I have a mislabeled imp. Granted, it's aged to the point of a very thick consistency, and very dark red/brown; but on me, it smells a LOT like snake oil that's been aged just a little. it's mildly spicy but mostly kind of a sexy, old sandalwood, resin-y, dark vanilla smell. no fizz, no flowers, no bubblegum. . .

I'll have to try and blend those. WC & Strawberry is nice, but not VERY berry-ish on me, I'd like to try and blend those two together and see what happens. Strawberry moon '09 starts kind of candy-ish on me, but it dries down the the most lovely strawberry and it lasts *forever* on me!

Most super candy candy candy sweet ones I've tested are Candy Phoenix and Pink Phoenix. I mean, they're literally SO pungently sweet that I get headaches from even the smallest skin tests (which makes me sad, because their descriptions sounded so nummy!)

I know a lot of this has to do with skin chemistry but on a male friend of mine, both Coyote and Brown Jenkins smell like soft, warm, fur. On me, the Little Sparrow scent from the Marchen line is *very* soft, warm and furry (or downy, I suppose, depending).

I just resniffed White Moon after reading this thread. Yup! I get lilac now. *takes it OFF the swap pile* keeping that.

I Adore Lovers in a Ricefield Kitsune-Tsuki was one of my first loves I cannot get enough Prunella! Bensiable did something a little wonky on my skin and I smelled no plums or leather, though reading this makes me want to try it again. I, too, would love more plummy goodness!

I want to try Detox, now. I have Philosophy's 3-1 body wash in Margarita, and I love the smell, but it drives me mad that the scent washes down the drain, and I step out of the shower smelling like NOTHING!! It makes me so sad, and I always leave the shower wanting BPAL that smells like bright, alcoholic limes.

I loooove coconut, but I'm uber-picky about it. I want it to not be "fakey" like so many other companies' coconut scents are. OBATALA is my pure coconuts scent. The one that makes me feel like I just broke one open on a tropical beach and drank the milk and am chewing on the fresh meat. Elega is my second, as i do love a pina colada, even minus the pina part. It's sweeter, boozier, more drinky-drinky, but still lurvely. Black Pearl, I'm just trying again, but it comes out as having so many other notes in with it, where Obatala is just like "KING COCONUT" to me.

I've slowly (while trying to cover as much of the catalog as possible) been setting aside certain scents as "male." Normally, I give them to the guy who got me into BPAL in the first place by giving me all his imps. The ones he likes, he keeps, the rest I swap off. So far, these are the ones he's kept and I've approved are good on him. (Some I absolutely HATED until he tried them on) Anthony - Guy Baron Samedi - Guy Bensiabel - Guy Brown Jenkins - Guy Calico Jack - Guy Coyote - Guy Crowley - Guy Doc Constantine - Guy Dorian - Guy Grog - Guy Jolly Roger - Guy Libertine - Guy Lysander - Guy Oberon - Guy Nyarlanthotep - Guy Phoenix Steamworks - Guy Plunder - Guy Port Royal - Guy Saytr - Guy Snake Oil - Guy St. Germaine - Guy Tavern of Hell - Guy need to add, Velvet Dogs Playing Poker. I'd *LOVE* to smell that on a man.

Re: the environmental issue. I'm not knowledgable about this enough to know 100% for sure on this particular subject, but I know that in other cases, people often champion synthetics in the name of the environment, saying it's better than the natural because of mismanagement of the natural resource needed to produce the "natural product." However, they often overlook any environmental damage caused by the production of the synthetic substitute. I know this is the case with fabrics, where people will be against cotton, wools, silk, leathers, for various reasons; meanwhile acrylics, poly-fabrics and some other synthetics are developed from crude oil. Not only a non-renewable resource, but very environmentally unfriendly from the harvesting to the processing of the crude oil into these synthetics. Worst of all, these synthetic fabrics do not biodegrade and there are no recycling programs for them in the US. This is something that lots of people never consider or even hear about. Personally, I did a lot of personal research on that, and I avoid buying clothing items made with any petro-chemical synthetic fabrics, unless I find them in the thrift store. Last year, I almost managed to completely change my sweater selection over to Cashmere, Merino Wool, Silk and Cotton blends only. So, I know that's way OT here, but it's something I'd want to know about regarding certain synthetic alteratives. What are they made from? What is their chemical base? How do we get that chemical base?

Just wanted to add a note for the sensitive. When the anniversary scents first came out, I'd gotten a couple of imps of Candy Phoenix - worst most intense and immediate and PERSISTENT headache I've ever had to a scent. Scrubbing with soap wasn't enough, had to douse with vinegar and alcohol and scrub and then shower. WOW. And that wasn't a slather, just a light initial skin test.

I'm just mildly curious how others use their excel files. I download Hackess's brilliant piece of work as a base, then add a column on the far left where I can put "X" for keeping an imp "5ml" (obvious) "'--'" for had but swapped off, and "y" for giving to males. And recently just added "MNS" for those sniffed at Meet and Sniffs. Then I go back through with color coding. I see a lot of people mention color coding, but curious to know how they color code. Ones I've tried that I SERIOUSLY never want to smell again, highlighted in red. 5mls are dark blue-green, loved imps are neon green, and then everything in between loved and hated is somewhere on the color spectrum between red and green, with yellow being "meh" or "undecided" anybody else?

I have nothing *against* synthetic ingredients on a moral or ethical basis, but I have to admit, I do like the fact BPAL uses no synthetics and it's one reason they're the only perfume I've ever bought. Before I discovered BPAL I was allergic to basically all perfume I'd ever been exposed to. Even if a perfume (like Philosophy's lines) didn't make me sneeze, I tended to break out in a rash. Then again, I'm also one of those freaky individuals that has really bad reactions to synthetics that were specifically invented because a lot of people have bad reactions to the natural version. (I'm allergic to synthetic penicillin, but not real penicillin; I can eat all natural ice creams like Breyers, but if I get one of the kinds with the huge paragraph list of ingredients, I'm going to be in the bathroom *all night* in pain; I have a better chance of coping with rare chicken or pork than a properly prepared frozen dinner.) So, whatever Beth does, I appreciate it! Because otherwise, I would still be living in a perfume-devoid world!