DigitalCoyote

Bottle: Wright's Hickory Seasoning, also known as liquid smoke. It made me homesick. My mom smells like this when she's been barbecuing. Wet: Campfire. Angry, burny, smoking campfire. Dry: This is where it gets interesting. I'm not exactly sure what palm smells like, but after the smoke burns itself out...this gets really sweet on my skin. Not a foody sweet, like Beaver Moon, but not a flowery sweet either. It's very clean and appealing at that point. Fresh rain and happy plants clean and appealing. If this were to be reissued, I'd hope that they could make the smoke tones shorter.

I bought a bottle of Beaver Moon 2005. In the bottle--and in theory--this smells good. It smells exactly like food, even. I can't say it agrees with me: the thick odor of confection turns rank on my skin. Not rank in the traditional sense, mind you, but my chemistry amplifies the sugary goodness in to something that no one would eat. You could get a cavity from sniffing me...ten feet away. I don't know if it was aged to (and subsequently past) perfection or what. I opened it once to try it. Once. It's now the overwhelming scent in my Kaboodle where I keep these. In smaller Bodai boxes. That are air-tight.

Bottle: CHOCOLATE!!!!! On me: - Wet: Hershey Kiss. I could literally eat myself to death like Pizza the Hut. - Dry: The chocolate smell gives way to something weird. I'm not spicy...or flowery...or boozy....or vanilla-y. Something very dry and less warm than the chocolate odor, then it meets a smokey death. On MGP: - Wet: The same incredibly edible smell. This is what that Axe commercial with the dark chocolate guy wishes it smelled like. - Dry: Still chocolate. This is where I feel obligated to point out that these are my interpretations of the smell. He could not smell anything remotely like chocolate on himself, irrespective of the oil being wet or dry. The MGP swears that it smells like Snake Oil and only after three hours wear did he get chocolate notes. We both give it a 4/5.

Friendly, charming, and cuddly, but possessing one hell of a mean streak: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and citrus. I bought this on eBay for the Manly Guinea Pig (MGP) as a Happy Expensive Dinner and Two-Days-From-Dead-Flowers Day present. It's been in my keeping for a couple of weeks now and I did have to try it. This is a rather sexually dimorphic scent between the two of us, not necessarily because of the smell itself, but because of what we can smell in it. Bottle: CHOCOLATE!!!!! On me: - Wet: Hershey Kiss. I could literally eat myself to death like Pizza the Hut. - Dry: The chocolate smell gives way to something weird. I'm not spicy...or flowery...or boozy....or vanilla-y. Something very dry and less warm than the chocolate odor, then it meets a smokey death. On MGP: - Wet: The same incredibly edible smell. This is what that Axe commercial with the dark chocolate guy wishes it smelled like. - Dry: Still chocolate. This is where I feel obligated to point out that these are my interpretations of the smell. He could not smell anything remotely like chocolate on himself, irrespective of the oil being wet or dry. The MGP swears that it smells like Snake Oil and only after three hours wear did he get chocolate notes. Rating: Me: 4/5 MGP: Not something I'd wear daily, but something I'd wear on a date when I want your undivided attention. It's still good. 4/5

WESTERN DIAMONDBACK: Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage. I've had this for about a month now. What strikes me about the scent isn't the notes as much as the mercurial nature of the oil: On myself, the odor is very much like I would imagine lounging about on a hot rock on a warm summer day, assuming I was a reptile. It's very mellow, even homey and comfortable after it dries down. It's feminine without smelling like a little girl or a dowager. Every once in a while, I catch a whiff of something like water or something seriously metallic. I'm guessing it's the leather. It's not unpleasant, just a gentle reminder that this might not be as cuddly as originally thought. On the DBF, it's something vicious. Very masculine and biting. A really pissed off snake that is about to introduce itself, business end of the fangs first. The smell on his skin varies between sniffs: inviting, stay away!, come closer..., ...this is your last warning... I like it. He doesn't care for it as much, although I like it on him. Rating: 4/5 (fresh).

I'm a college student in a mountain town, although I'm originally from and have lived in two relatively large and urban areas. I am a hockey-loving, rugby-playing, former fencer tomboy with a love for animals and Jack Kerouac's Bodhidharma. I am not the "typical" BPAL buyer in the sense that other people imagine the customership of the company to be. I do, however, have a scent problem. I've come across two things in my life that genuinely smell good on me: Oceanus (Body Shop) and Charlie White. Other mass-produced scents smell the same as they do on everyone else or they're absolutely acrid. In my quest to make my mother feel better about me before she gets old and decrepit, I've taken on the task of expanding my scent collection in an attempt to give her hope that maybe one day she'll have grandchildren. If I look like a girl and I smell like a girl, maybe I'll be less frightening to settle down with...or so her logic goes. I ran across BPAL a few years ago when I was looking for something vampy for Halloween in a LiveJournal goth community. The lady that did such excellent work on my choker suggested I try BPAL for an appropriate smell. Until the recent past, I've been much too chicken to try anything. Those days are over. In lieu of some sort of quarter-life crisis with far-reaching consequences, I've begun my quest to smell like a million bucks. The dear boyfriend (hereafter known as DBF) is my guinea pig and 2nd opinion. My mom-by-proxy (MBP) is my third and by far has a better sniffer than I do. By the end of this, I hope to have found scents that are good on me and trained my nose to work better for me. Howdy!

I had hope for this one. I don't have any sensual smells in my arsenal and this was on my short list of things to try after my first order. It didn't like my chemistry very much. My boyfriend thought it was overpowering and my mom-by-proxy said I smelled like a head shop. I think I'll try this one again after a week or two and/or save this one for Halloween--it was very incense heavy after it dried on me--and might add to a costume.

I just got my order a few days ago and this came with it. I wasn't sure what to make of the smell in the imp, as I'd smelled about a dozen other things before getting to this, so I tried it out on my boyfriend. It started out as something sort of nutty, like sesame seed and walnuts; it was definitely food-y. After it dried, it became bacon and stayed that way until he showered 5 hours later. I don't know if leaving this one to sit for a while will help it.