sunshinedaisybliss

I've had my bottle of Silver-Haired Bat for quite a while now - I've been holding back on writing my review, because I didn't want to just come in and say IFUCKINGLOVETHISPERFUMESOMUCH.. that would just be rude. So I had to wait until I could find the right words.

But, here's the thing.. I'm still stuck on IFUCKINGLOVETHISPERFUMESOMUCH. Apparently I am rude, far more rude than I realised. It's like I have some new variant of perfume-induced Tourette Syndrome, because I find myself involuntarily dropping the F bomb a lot when I wear Silver-Haired Bat. When I take the lid off the bottle, it's OHFUCKTHATSMELLSNICE and then when I dab it on my skin it's OOHFUCKTHATSMELLSGOOD and then I start sniffing myself and it's OHFUCKISMELLSOGOODIWANTTOEATMYSELF. It's a problem, really.

OK.. come on now, get yourself together girl. People are reading this - what the hell's the matter with you? *ahem*

Oudh. It's oudh - I blame the oudh. Usually I like my oudh to be all dark and throbbing and smokey - I guess because most of the oudh-y BPALs I love tend to be on the darker side, but here it's somehow all quietly sexy in a slither-into-your-pants sort of way.. it's in cahoots with the silky ambergris and balsam and benzoin - the four of them together are like the fragrance equivalent of wearing satin underwear - it's like having my olfactory thingamebobs massaged by golden angels, I feel like there should be some sort of bright golden light streaming from my nostrils because my nose just can't contain the joy it's feeling. But under all that creamy sexiness is the pepper being a little spicy and ticklish, and the amber is just kinda dancing around in amongst everything, adding a lovely softness.

But what does it smell like? Oh.. I don't know - at first it's quite sweet, like a soft caramel - but NOT that nasty brown/burned-sugar kind of caramel, I mean that light brown soft chewy caramel or butterscotch - it reminds me a bit of the same cotton-candy kind of smell I get from Midway or Mouse Circus but not as light and fluffy as they are - the benzoin here in SHB has much more oomph.. like Midway would be water, and SHB is treacle. But the whole 'sweet' thing changes after about 15 minutes, when the pepper and cedar and oudh start to come out - that's when it gets interesting, and darkens up.. right before the ambergris+balsam+benzoin start slithering around. Overall, Silver-Haired Bat smells like peppery, musky, furry, shimmery golden goodness. Ahh.. I give up - I should have just stuck with what I know. IFUCKINGLOVETHISPERFUMESOMUCH.

Can anyone think of a perfume oil that is similar to the gorgeous Butterfly Nectar bath oil? I'm having far too many baths in this lovely concoction when really I should have showers and use less water.

A couple of the reviews for Pandy (in the Pandora line) compare it to the Butterfly Nectar bath oil, so that might be worth looking into

EDIT.. oh, I just noticed yours is one of the reviews! Let's just call this a blonde moment for me

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Also:

Fell absolutely in love with the DANK TARN OF AUBER BATH OIL:

 

A gloomy, morose soak. Bog bean, oakmoss, bog myrtle, water hyssop, calla lily, water snowflake, bulrush, and marsh marigold swirling in dark, still water.

 

Any suggestions?

No suggestions, but that bath oil is DIVINE and I would like to find a perfume-alike as well

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I'm thinking another one to try might be Morocco + Detestable Putrescence for that icecreamy-vanilla with soft warm spice?

Another option for layering would be BOO (any year) - to me, that's a more 'rich' vanilla.. like a vanilla extract kind of richness- but layered with something warm/spicy it could give you interesting results.

When I first popped this on, it was like a fruity explosion of fruity fruitness - kinda like sticking your head into a bag of Starbust fruit chews.. sweet, fruity goodness. Then I remembered... my old friend pomegranate, who turns into bubblegum almost always once it hits my skin - and there's also something very apple-y but kinda strawberry-ish going on here too. OK, so I just need to wait a bit for the fruitiness to mellow out...

Ah - that's better! fruity overload has passed after about 10 minutes, and now I've got this completely different fragrance - a lovely smokey/slightly spicey leathery warmness has come out - there's a hint of something boozy under there, which I guess is the cognac (I lovelovelove cognac in my BPALs, but prefer the regular kind - the green, not so much). This is reminding me very much of Crypt Queen - the pomegranate particularly - it's lush and velvety with dark mysterious undertones, and I agree with myth - it's very heady, but for me it's not heady in a 'yikes that's some strong perfume you're wearing'.. more in a 'lean in and mmmmmm close your eyes and breathe it in' kind of way. I'm not getting any of the juniper at all (praise the gourd!) but I sure am loving this black myrrh.

In the end, Cuélebre dries down to a lovely warm mix of dry/dusky pom + soft dark leather/myrrh with the cognac sitting quietly in the background. Very nice indeed.

Plus - cute label, too --->

Hmmm... on me, this smells kinda like a robust, lewd and powerful blend of dollar-store aftershave, red hard-boiled candies, and sweaty leather.Sounds gross, yes? Ah but no, my friends, gross it is not.

The star of the show here for me is the amber incense fluffing around all those delicious resins - without the amber this would probably be too much, but the amber lends a lovely dusty quality that makes the resins into a nice warm snuggly blanket for the red musk and dragon's blood to settle into. So ultimately, I end up with this snuggly blanket of warm amber and resins, with little hints of sweet goodness from the red musk and DB (this is the combo that's giving me the red candy smell).

I was a little concerned when I first put it on, because it really was very cologne-y on me (this is what frankincense does on my skin sometimes), but that didn't last long. And I'm honestly not picking up any gold or tundra frost - it just doesn't feel like either of those things on me at all.. nothing metallic or particularly gold (if this perfume was a colour, it would be the deep orangey-red of desert sands from somewhere like Namibia or even the Aussie outback. But I've never seen any dragons in the outback here, and believe me.. I've looked. The only thing that I found myself trying to find in here was the leather, which didn't make an appearance for about 20 minutes.. but when it did, it was like I'M HERE! LEATHER! HERE I AM!!! and suddenly all that lovely snuggly amber-resininess was nowhere to be found. Boo to that, I say... BOO! Usually I love a good dollop of leather in my BPALs, but I was enjoying this much more before LEATHER showed up. But the weird thing is, the leather keeps coming and going.. here one minute, gone the next, then here again, and so on. And the leather goes slightly pine-ish sometimes too - maybe that's the tundra frost? I dunno, this Mr Gorynych is a weird one. It's at its best for me after about 40 minutes when everything seems to finally settle in and balance out.

So in the final analysis, Zmey Gorynych smells like Puff the Magic Dragon meets Arthur Fonzarelli - he's the suave, leather jacket wearing dragon who thinks he's all tough and cool but really he's just a big softie who snuggles with a blankie at night, keeps red candies in his pocket, and likes to smell nice for the ladies

EDITED UPDATE: I had to come back and update this, because sadly when I checked my arm about 20 minutes after writing it.. all I had left was a soft pine smell.. kind of like a cleaning product smell. A nice cleaning product smell, but definitely that kind of fragrance. So I guess I finally found the 'tundra frost', but all that lovely musk and amber and resin business has completely gone. Sad.

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My order was shipped on 9/15 and it stll hasn't arrived. I am starting to get a bit worried because I don't think that I have had an order take so long to arrive before, it's almost been three weeks. Is there anything I can do, or do I just keep waiting?

Yeah.. this is the most horrible thing about being an international BPALer... the waiting

Is it your Click N'Ship notification that was dated 9/15? If so, just be aware that the 15th might not be the day it was actually sent - if I remember correctly from previous conversations about this, the Lab bundles all the international orders together and processes them for shipping at the same time (ie generates the CnSnotification), but they might not actually get posted on the same day the CnS is generated. The 15th of September was actually a Saturday, so it's likely that wasn't the actual shipping day. So, let's say yours actually hit the post office on Monday the 17th - then it may not have actually commenced the shipping process until Wednesday the 18th - then counting the days, from Wed 18/9 to today Tuesday 2/10 is only 11 business days even though it's been three weeks in 'real' time. My guess would be that you've probably still got another 2 or 3 days to wait.

In my experience, the 'priority' shipping that the Lab uses is no quicker than regular first class international that most forumites use for sending BPAL internationally.. if anything, it's actually slower. I don't know where they (the postal service, not the Lab!!) gets off calling it "priority" but it really isn't. I'm in Australia, so the same vicinity as you in NZ, and my Lab orders regularly take 3-4 weeks (12-15 business days) to get here. Occasionally I get super lucky and an order will arrive in around 8-10 business days, but that's very rare.

Anyways.. I hope that helps, and yes - for now you should probably just keep waiting and hopefully your order will appear very soon

Hmmm.. so the Australian Gold website calls it their "tropical fragrance" but doesn't list any ingredients or give any clues as to what's actually making up that fragrance. I did find an ingredients list for some of their products on the Ulta website (like this one for the self-tanning lotion, for example, which has things like Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Citronellol and Caramel in there so those would be part of the fragrance) but I can't find anything for "Sunscreen #1" - is that definitely the name of the product you used?

Oh.. and side note.. I thought perhaps this might be an Australian product - being called "Australian Gold" and all.. but, nope! Looks like it's a US-based company

First up - thanks to the lovely Mellifluous for sending me a tester of this!

So when it first hits my skin, Morven gives off a really strong "man's cologne" smell.. and I went "eeewww" because cologne smells are not my friends. But a few minutes later when the oil has dried down.. it's really very different. I get the spicy musk that previous reviews have mentioned, and maybe a hint of clove but I might be imagining it (that'll teach me to read reviews before doing my own!). There is a woodsy tone to it, and it goes nice and dry/dusty after a while which makes me wonder whether it's got some sandalwood in it.. or a red amber, maybe?

Anyhow - it's interesting, and overall quite nice, but not for me. Morven is now moving on to a new home so that someone else can enjoy him

So I was gifted a decant of this, and oh sweet baby cheeses.. it's seriously some righteous patchouli

In the vial, it's a gorgeous dark golden honey colour.. but then I pull out the swiper thingy and brush it across my skin.. the oil is bright goldy-yellow. Plus, it's bodaciously gloopy and thick, when I went to smoosh my wrists together to smudge the oil I was afraid my arms may get stuck together in some sort of unholy bonded glue of gloopy patchouli. So yeah, it's gloopy and glorious.. but how does it smell? Well - it smells like patchouli, as one would expect. I possibly slathered on a bit too much at first, because for the first hour I was bombarded by patchouli.. I could kinda taste it in my mouth - this stuff is potent. But I've now had it on my skin for over two hours, and it's still going strong but has mellowed out really nicely - now I get the 'red' tones.. it definitely isn't brown or black at this point. It's soft and lovely and.. yeah, lovely.

This is exactly the kind of patchouli I like.. it's not the dirty/earthy kind, nor the kind that smells musty/damp.. nope - this has an sultry sweetness (but isn't sweet!) and a beautiful woodsy-organic flavour to it (without smelling like actual wood or dirt). On me, it is the hippie patchouli - it's the kind of patchouli that follows you around like a little brown love cloud ("hey, where you going? I'm coming too!") - the kind that lingers in your hair after you've been hanging out playing bingo on a Thursday evening with Neil Young (as I often do, and mostly enjoy except that Neil tends to cheat and claim he heard numbers being called when they weren't).. the patchouli that stays in the room for hours after you've left, and makes people wonder what's been going on in there. Yes folks, this is the patchouli your grandma warned you about, the kind of patchouli that demands you wear no underwear and let your hair grow long. And that's just fine with me, because I'm a stinky hippie and proud of it

Anyone have a picture of the Benevolent Triple Conjunction label?!

 

Anyone?!

Yes ma'am

Side note.. I hadn't realised it's been so long since that one came out.. May 2011? I hope this is the one you meant!!

I must confess that I'm pretty underwhelmed by this Siberian Musk.. maybe it's because the hype has been so OMGWOW about it, I expected more? Or maybe it's just not that great.. I don't know, but I just don't feel all that excited about it.

As others have said, it definely has a strong similarity to Snake Oil - but without the sweetness of the vanilla, the complexity of the spices, and overall less oomph. Where I find Snake Oil to be multi-dimensional on my skin, Siberian Musk is pretty simple.. it's a sweet, fuzzy red/brown musk and that's about it. It's also not like Smut at all for me - on my skin, Smut was boozy and dark and way heavier on the brown sugar than this.

I dunno.. it's not horrible or anything, but it's not really anything special on me either. And considering I have a nice little hoard of Snake Oil bottles, I just can't see myself ever reaching for this

Aww.. this is really a cute smell. It's sunshine and green grass and fresh air and puppy burps.

This smells like a white shirt that's been washed in Clairol Herbal Essences Apple Shampoo.

Yeah... this smells like grandma. Roses, baby powder, and lilacs. That is all.

Ayup... cherry. Actually, it's CHERRY. The kind of cherry that has an almond/marzipan kind of tone to it. Once the CHERRY dies down a bit, I can pick up the 'cereal' business.. it reminds me of muesli (the crunchy, toasted kind that has lots of grains and mixed dried fruit in it), and the 'jelly beans' becomes more obvious - it's not just cherry now, it's that generic 'bag of jelly beans' smell. So yeah.. muesli and jelly beans.

I definitely agree with jolarocknrolla - this reminds me very much of Decadence, except it doesn't have the same depth and complexity. Also, Neil pretty much disappears from my skin after about 30 minutes. I can live without this one

This is really quite lovely.. and I usually never go for the 'dead leaves' and 'forest' kinds of blends - they're really just not my thing at all. But this is one of those clever blends that's much more than the sum of its notes - it's definitely evocative of a cool forest, and I get an almost tactile cool/aquatic/airy tone from it (verging on mint-y, even) that makes me think of a lake in the middle of a forest. Kind of an eerie and misty lake.

Although it's not something I'll wear as a perfume, it is a lovely scent experience and I think that if you're into these cool, forest-y type BPALs then this will definitely impress.

1. Pickles.

2. Tomato sauce.

3. Coffee.

4. Vinegar.

5. Tobacco.

See those five things? They are not things I want to smell like. Maybe if I were trying to attract the Hamburglar - he might fancy a gal who likes to smell of pickles and tomato sauce.. but I'm not that gal. If I want to smell like this, I can go eat a huge jar of pickled tomatoes then pour coffee over myself and roll around in an ashtray.

Even though the initial PICKLE blast does die down, and the whole thing eventually becomes quite pleasant (fully dry, I get a dusky musk and some fuzzy coffee with a touch of clove-like sweetness.. and surprisingly this does remind me a little of Pinched With Four Aces as ZZ mentioned) but I can't be dealing with the whole pickle business at the start there. Ick.

Hmm.. from reading previous reviews, I really expected this to be PINK bubblegum but it really isn't that at all on my skin - it has more of a grape-y kind of smell. So.. purple, not pink. And I am picking up something vanilla-ish, but it seems to be mixed with something very WHITE - like skin musk, perhaps? There's a sharpness to the vanilla that really does remind me of 'teenybopper perfume'.. but not in a good way.

I don't like you, Courtney.

Uhmm.. I'm not really sure what to say about this. It smells like leather and paper, and that's about it. Not really pleasant, not really interesting, just... leather and paper. The leather smells new and dusty but fresh to me, rather than old and worn, and I guess the paper smells old (as opposed to, say, the smell when you tear the wrapping off of a new ream of paper for the copier at work) but.. yeah, it's just leather and paper.

I really like this one! Norman has a really solid base that's warm and hempy but then there's a layer of cotton-y creaminess over the top that makes the overall feel of this blend quite rich and yummy.

At frst I found it to be quite zingy - almost a lime kind of smell (ectoplasm, is that you?) but that was fleeting. I don't usually like anything with 'pine' (or juniper or other similar things that smell like disinfectant on me) but here it really is just a hint of the pine and it's nice.. warm and snuggly rather than sharp and medicinal. I do agree that it's kinda odd though - it's a strange mix of milky clean and hempy dirty. To me, Norman perfectly captures the scent of a boy who has a naughty nerdy streak but is still a good clean milk-drinking boy. A boy who smells perhaps just a little bit more like bong water than he really should, but a good boy nonetheless

Hmm.. I guess I was expecting something a little different here - patchouli, suede and smoke sounded like a dream combination, but what my brain failed to acknowledge in my excitement for those three notes was the whole 'ghost' aspect of this blend.

The patchouli here is soft and light, and honestly I can't find any suede or smoke in here at all. On my skin, the overall smell that I get from Hippie Ghost is cotton/linen that has a very clean scent - almost soapy, but not quite. At first I could swear that I smelled something like violet, but that went away once the oil dried down. It's pretty, but... bland, although I do agree with others that it would be perfect for those who don't usually love patchouli.

So instead of the ghost I was hoping for - a gnarly Jimi Hendrix-esque ghost who rampages around the house belching trails of dirty patchouli and suede and smoke behind it - this is more the kind of hippie ghost who drinks your shampoo then floats quietly around your house doing pretty little peasant blouse scented farts that you don't really notice - you just kind of think "oh it smells nice and clean in here".

As far as I know, the only BPAL retailers are the ones listed here.

I hope you enjoy your trip to the US!

It's an LE, but Makhanitis (from the 2010 Lupers) is a really dark luscious red/burgundy wine - reviews here:

In the GC, it has to be Bordello for a lusty fruity wine - reviews here:

I hope you find something you love!

Proving once again that Brian can do no wrong in my eyes when it comes to creating smellies... this Thirteen is scrumptious! Scrum-diddly-dumptious, even.

The chocolate note isn't bitter at all on me - actually it's really quite dry and dusky, kind of similar to the chocolate/amber feel of Gelt. It does have a touch of warmth/spice to it - but I wouldn't say it's spicy. It's yummy and sumptuous without being all CHOCOLATE. It's not obviously chocolate, it's just chocolate-ish. And it's not really foody as such - it's definitely more in the incensey/woodsy camp - but it's also kinda snuggly. I wouldn't complain if this had a bit more darkness/richness to it - if I could somehow just turn the dial up a couple more notches - it's not 'weak' or 'soft' as a fragrance, but I still would like it to be just a bit.. err... more. The honey manages to be almost invisible for well over an hour, but starts to amp more once the chocolate starts wearing off at about the 90-minute mark (damn you, honey). The surprise win in here for me is the mix of the resins with the cacao - I had a feeling that cacao + DB was going to be awesome, but I wasn't sure about the opp/frank/myrrh on top- I figured this one was either going to be a spectacularly epic stinkfest on me.. or a spectacularly scrumptious smell-o-rama. Thankfully, it's the latter.

Honey that doesn't smell like baby poo? Check!

Smooth wood and patchouli? Check!

Dusky soft amber? Check!

Comfy blankety balm? Check!

Om nom nom vanilla? Check!

And for the bonus points.. does it have good staying power on my skin? *drum roll* Check!

DING!! DING!! DING!!

This one's a winner.

Oh - and I'm really not getting 'pink' like others have mentioned.. on me this feels more like a deep burgundy. Like Ron Burgundy. Yes, this is the Ron Burgundy of 13s.

In the bottle this has an almost bitter fishy smell to it <snip>

haha.. when I first read this, I thought "oh you crazy Pisces person" but then I opened up my bottle and yep - it smells like fish!

But as Alicia and others have noted, the fish-y thing goes away. There is definitely a herbal/medicinal undertone to this blend at first, and I almost decided that I didn't like it at all.. but then I left it alone for half an hour or so, and came back to it.. to discover a beautiful waxy-soft coconut with gorgeous dusky sandalwood over the top. I think there's some kind of resin in here, something golden maybe - copal? I don't know what it might be, but there's something a little more complex in here than just sandalwood. Although ultimately this prototype reminds me of the smell I get when I open up my little wooden box of sandalwood incense cones - it's that same dusty dry cloud of sandalwood-y goodness.

This is a warm, subtle blend that would be easy to wear any time really.. because it kind of doesn't smell like perfume. It just smells.. nice