Seajewel

I second Okupsidedown's review. This is a lovely blend. The champaca behaves--it's nothing like the screeching incense I did not like in the Darjeeling Tea trio. This is a fuzzy soft gardenia. Not overly sweet. Not as high-pitched and bright as the Gardenia, Tobacco Leaf, and Oakmoss trio - which I also loved. This one is a comforting cloud of prettiness. Turns out I do love Gardenia, even though I normally avoid florals. I want a partial but not sure if I need a full bottle. Debating..

This blend sounded perfect for me, but on me it's a green scent with a lot of cardamom. I'm not getting honey, milk, or much carnation, except maybe a very green kind of carnation. A testament to how much skin chemistry and "nose" matters--feyofthefellwood, who reviewed above, sent me the tester and it looks like we are getting very different scents. I really wanted to love this but it just isn't working on me. The hunt for the perfect cardamom scent continues.

Yay the mods helped me fix an issue with not being able to respond to this thread.. would love to resume a discussion on allergies if anyone else has them. I've previously had issues with contact dermatitis with some BPAL blends - possibly Chimera's cinnamon, but it was so long ago and I just realized something in the past week that puts everything into doubt. Throughout the lockdown I've been buying and testing BPAL like mad (it's been a lovely distraction), and that means putting on 3+ scents a day on various parts of my arms. I also started keeping a detailed journal of each scent and my impressions of it, and when allergies reared their head I started keeping track of where on my arms I was putting each scent so I could do, ahem, "contact tracing" (highly recommend to our Government during this time of COVID). There were a few things that seemed to trigger itchy white bumps that would last for days that I set aside as being allergic to, when I had a huge realization in the past week - Dark Rosaleen (which I love) seemed to be causing allergies, because two different spots I put it on, one of which I hadn't put anything else on, came up with hives. But not for 3 days after I applied. So I went back and tested Dark Rosaleen on my left arm, near the shoulder, where I haven't tested ANY BPAL at all, ever. And approximately two days later, small bumps appeared. So then I had to go back through all my notes.. all the stuff I thought I was allergic to - No Man is an island, Colemanite Phoenix, Kommt Mit.. all of those were blends I had put on the DAY the hives appeared. But going through my notes, it seems it was actually something else.. potentially Aradia, Buck Moon ' 19 (this has pine pitch in common with Dark Rosaleen.. but the pine pitch in Illustrated Woman, for instance, I'm not allergic to), and The Instinct of Hope. I won't know for sure until I retest those. The instinct of hope is almost definitely one that I'm allergic to based on the areas I tested and the reaction a few days later, so I might have some kind of wood allergy. I won't retest that one though as I didn't like it on either prior occasion. Also the odd thing about Dark Rosaleen is the first time I applied it I had no reaction whatsoever in that area, it wasn't until the second+ times that I had a reaction. Anyways, would love to hear from others who have pinpointed their allergic reactions, and also hope this helps other who might have reacted to something.. knowing that actually hives can take several days to appear (maybe that's obvious to others..) rather than just minutes or hours, at least in some cases. Also, heartbroken about Dark Rosaleen which made it to my Top Ten list. But I'll try it in a scent locket once my locket ships!

I had a bottle of original Midway once upon a time and swapped it away but just received a decant as a freebie and I'm quite taken by it. Part of my brain did interpret it as teetering on the edge of plastic at first, but that went away. It is a very very quiet scent on me, I am not getting buttered popcorn, thankfully (some people have reported a greasy smell), but I'm getting a mildly sweet scent with an edge of salt that just gives it enough character to get by me (not a foodie). Based on the notes, I'm guessing I'm getting funnel cake and salt water taffy. It's not cloyingly sweet as cotton candy can be on me and thankfully not getting any apple (not one of my favorite notes). My 4 year old likes it and when asked what it smells like, declared "pancakes!" Although I generally shy away from BPAL's foodie scents (wary of the spices on my skin, for one, and my preferences are really towards non-foodie for the most part), I am quite entranced by this today.

I like coconut in small amounts, but this is too much coconut for me. It's more suntan lotion than food on my skin.

Initial blast of tart lime. Love that. It dries down to mostly cotton candy though, which is more sweetness than I prefer. I can see why foodies love this!

Sugared honey! Lavender shows up but it doesn't take over, thankfully. I love this so much I want to marry it. Or buy multiple bottles. Which I'm no longer allowed to do, because I have never in my life finished a bottle or even gotten it down below label. (Truly a dabber). This is indeed orgasmic. It's the type of blend that keeps me wondering how the Lab can create such magical scents, that don't smell like perfume so much as they evoke an experience, time after time and year after year.

Unfortunately, I get little to no blueberry on my skin after two skin tests. It's all cardamom with some cream. Which smells yummy, but extremely simple. I wouldn't mind trying more scents with cardamom as I like it well enough here (though I'm wary of whether it might cause a skin reaction), but it doesn't justify a bottle. It does have great longevity. I could still smell it on my skin the next day.

This is beautiful, smooth and golden. So very sophisticated--much more perfume-y than my usual loves from BPAL. Longevity is a bit lacking on me though, and it's not the type of scent I fall hard for. So I am both in awe of this scent and yet not too sad that I have only a decant.

Wet, this is all herbs --- kitchen herbs. Then it dries down to a sweet, mildly pleasant golden scent. The very deep drydown reminds me vaguely of So Below (which i did not love either though many do). It's more kitchen herb gold than forest gold on me, sadly. I don't get animalistic musk nor the glory that is Buck Moon, which I am forever trying to recreate. Low throw, decent longevity.

This is beautiful, and my runaway hit from this batch of trios. Love at first sniff. It is a high-pitched scent and I often go for more unisex scents, but I love it. I wish I could describe why, but I can't (this is why I don't post reviews, but I've made it my resolution to post reviews anyways because I wait with baited breath for other's reviews). I tested it against A Vision of the Courtesan, which is much sweeter and somehow "lighter" (more girly, less sophisticated) but I like this better, actually, and Vision was my favorite of the Lupers I tested (not that many). I'm not even sure why I tested this one first out of all my trios, maybe because I had recently been reminded of how much I love both French and Bulgarian Tobacco single notes, but this isn't really like those notes.. it's not chewy or dry and sweet. It is, like all of Beth's scents when they work on me, pure magic. It is more of a sophisticated, perhaps almost perfume-y scent than I normally go for, but it's one I'd like to keep around. If these notes speak to you, don't sleep on this one!

Almost fizzy at the start, mostly getting sandalwood, which is an agreeable note for me. Very low throw. Mildly, pleasantly sweet--very comforting. I like this, but I want to be judicious with my bottle upgrades and I don't think this one will make it (from this batch, the winner for me is most definitely Gardenia, Tobacco Leaf, and Oakmoss). But whenever I wear the decant, I know I'll be happy (other than the issue of low throw). I'm very bad at picking out notes and amazingly enough I'm not exactly sure what sage smells like so can't say if it is strong here, but this is mostly a softly sweet sandalwood to my nose. (Also adding: ignore what I said here, there is definitely a lot of distinct sage in here!) Edited to add: I keep coming back to this for comfort. I may have to get a bottle after all!

This is more fig-centric on me in the wet phase. I actually like the Coconut, Smoked Vanilla, and Fig trio better for a sweet fig scent, as this one is not very interesting on my skin. This dries down to something a little reminiscent of Chaste Moon, one of my favorites, but I like Chaste Moon better--the creamy scent without the fig note here. Also started having a skin reaction (bumps) on the wrist I applied this today (but not yesterday), but I have a history of allergic reactions to certain BPALs (Chimera famously sensitized me so badly that I couldn't use most BPAL for a long time) and it could have been building up from other oils, it's so hard to say, but something to keep in mind. I don't see an obvious trigger like cinnamon here.