valentina

I got Lump of Coal in a swap with crescentwrench, and what else do I have to add that hasn't already been said before me? Very little. It's pure brownie batter. I nearly made a batch of my favorite brownies, so I could compare the two... but my brownie-chef nose would say Lump of Coal smells like my cocoa brownie recipe. And brownie batter doesn't smell just like chocolate, of course -- there's the sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla and chocolate all blending together. Lump of Coal is just like that. Nummy.

 

It doesn't morph that much on my body from the bottle scent, it stays the same as the hours pass by and lasts a long time. Brownies hardly last that long at my house!

 

valentina

My body chem is seemingly sympatico with head shop fragrances, although no one thinks they smell hippie-ish or head shoppy on me. Spicy, exotic, erotic, my-god-you-smell-good, that's what I hear when I wear Urd. And if layer Blood Lotus with the Urd, the effect can sometimes multiply, to the extent that I don't do it that often. It depends upon how much energy I have that day.

 

valentina

Spanked, how I wanted to love thee...

 

I was so delighted that this was what the Trading Post sent to me! It was appropriate. I deserved it. I wanted a good spanking. Besides, I love patchouli, I love cardamom, I love boozy scents. But damn that leather! My body amps it so thoroughly that it wiped out all the other wonderful components. Like Loviatar and Wanda, I love the smell of fragrances with leather, but I can't wear them on my body. I am sure this scent is utterly awesome on the right person, and I'm very, very jealous of them right now.

 

Lucky me, I was able to swap with crescentwrench for Lump of Coal. Sweet! (Literally and figuratively.)

 

valentina

In the imp, Devil's Night is sweet, boozy, and spicy. When I first apply it, and on initial drydown, I can detect that spicy and crackly, yet green and woodsy, smell that I associate with the end of October. After a few more minutes, I smell predominately cinnamony sweetness. Within a half hour, the musky undertone makes a very subtle appearance. I didn't order a bottle of this scent because I shy away from anything with "thuggish musk," but this blend is so complex that the musk doesn't take over. (I'm testing from a decant.) There's also a vague boozy smell, but it's much lighter than the booze smells I get from a scent like Hellcat or even Gluttony.

 

Ultimately, Devil's Night truly does smell like the combination of sweet candy, the autumn woods, a few nips from the flask and hot little bodies, running around playing tricks all night long! I have no idea how Beth came up with this concept and still made it smell so good, but it's great fun. Now I'm off to see if someone will swap or sell a bottle to me...

 

valentina

In the imp, I find Gluttony to smell sugary-sweet. The initial application is rather nice -- sweet, but with a vaguely boozy undertone. After about 15 minutes, the sweetness explodes and I smell exactly like the kitchen of someone making home-made caramels or boiling sugar water to make candy. It's very buttery-butterscotch-sugar sweet. Not a bad smell, but not one that I prefer -- cooking sugar just isn't one of my favorite smells. The overwhelming sweetness fades out after about an hour, and dissapates entirely after about 3 or 4 hours. It seems my body chemistry blows up the scent and burns it off rapidly. But this might be a low-calorie way to relieve those PMS sugar cravings!

I plan to use Gluttony in my brown sugar/salt scrubs. That will be very, very yummy. It's just not a sex-on-a-stick scent for me.

valentina

In the imp, this scent was sweet, exotic and a little elusive... I can't put my finger on exactly what I'm smelling.

 

The inital application did the most fascinating morph. It went on buttery-sweet, but within 15 second, something much more pungent and snappy emerged. But within in a minute or two after that, I'd gotten the dreaded peanut butter effect. It was like peanut butter with patchouli. Within in hour, the peanut butter scent had departed, leaving a strong smoky/floral scent. It was almost too strong for me. I would guess that this was the myrrh and the floral components taking over the rest of the blend. About 3 hours later, it had mellowed out into a nice patchouli base with a drift of musk. Very pretty.

 

So I got up this morning and took a shower, and I can still smell the remains of Sed Non Satiata on the top of my hand, where I applied over 12 hours ago! It's a musky patchouli smell. Talk about lasting power...

 

I really wanted to like this scent, I love the inspiration behind it, and I think it's a gorgeous blend. If I didn't have to go through 4 hours of not-so-pleasant morphs to get to the last drydown, I'd love it. But I increasingly find that complex blends just don't work well with my body chemistry. I may try cutting this scent down with a carrier oil to see what happens.

 

valentina

This is a scent I got from the Lab as a frimp, and thank you Lab, for always endeavoring to expand my horizons!

 

I loved this scent in the imp... very fresh, just delightful. I find it rather girly, although I believe it's listed as a gender neutral kind of scent.

 

On my body, I get and keep a strong ozone/floral scent. My body chemistry really pulls ozone, but this also has orchid coming through, with maybe a bit of cherry blossom. I get no hint of fruit. After it dries down, it sadly turns too powdery on me and just doesn't agree with my body. This is what my body always does to those delicate, lovely blends. (sigh.)

 

I have a male friend who adores ozone fragrances, and Neo-Tokyo may be the BPAL that really works for him! I'm passing it along for his enjoyment!

 

valentina

I ordered this for my husband, because I knew Herr would not work on me, having leather in it. In the bottle, I smell leather, tobacco and what smells to me like Sugar Cookie -- a bit of sweetness and spice. I think the Herr was eating cookies in his workroom. And maybe a nip o' hot buttered rum or honey mead? I smell something a tad boozy in all of it.

 

When my husband wears it, it's very tobacco/leather on him, with a sweeter spice overtone. He loves Hellfire, and this is similar, but I think Herr has a pronounced sweet element to the spice. It's really nice on him, rather festive and sweet underneath the more masculine notes.

 

valentina

In the imp, this is a sweet leather. On my body, it's total leather, because that's what I amp if even a drop of leather is in the formulation. I simply can't wear leatther -- with my body chemistry, I simply smell like a leather goods store.

 

I put it on my husband and it's great -- I can truly pick up on the musk at first, but after a few minutes, and lasting beautifully, is a wonderful tobacco-leather-spice scent. What it reminds me of is walking into a humidor of a fine cigar store -- there's tobacco first and foremost, but also a lot of spice, and the damp warmness that come from the musk. It's very masculine and sophisticated.

 

I do believe my husband has ordered a bottle!

 

valentina

I received Baba Yaga as a frimp from the Lab. Thank you! I was rather excited to try it, because my forum name - Valentina - originates from a graphic novel character by Guido Crepax. Crepax also draws a charcter named Baba Yaga, who encounters Valentina and plays out elements of the original folk story, except this Baba Yaga tries to take Valentina as a lover and at some point hops in a car and tries to run over Valentina.

 

So I am getting to my point... the Baba Yaga scent sort of ran over my body chemistry -- it blew up wildly once applied to my body. Wow, did it get strong right away. And what I get when I smell it is lots and lots of ylang-ylang, with maybe a bit of spicy smokiness in the background. It doesn't smell bad on me, but it's not one of my best. I do think it's rather intense and exotically weird, and I wished it worked just a bit better, because it smells unlike anything I've previously tried. I do think I'll try to put a few drops in unscented body lotion and see what happens, because I'm simply not ready to say this one can't work on me in some form or another...

 

valentina

Wet: Rum and cookie dough.

 

Yep, I totally agree with the previous post. I think that Sugar Cookie smells like the chef got into the hot buttered rum and got sooooo confuuuuused that she couldn't remember if she was making sugar cookies or rum balls! I did a little test with Sugar Cookie on one arm and Hellcat on the other arm, because I know Hellcat has that boozy tendency. Sugar Cookie has a bit of the same, but it's much softer and mellower. I really like Sugar Cookie -- it's a foody yet boozy scent, and I tend to enjoy that combination.

 

Maybe the Hellcat was the one making sugar cookies, and that's why Sugar Cookie is part of "The Devil's Bake Sale?"

 

valentina

I ordered a bottle of Beaver Moon when I ordered the t-shirt, not so much because I thought the scent would work on me, but because I had to have a bottle that said "Beaver Moon" sitting on my bathroom fragrance shelf. (And cudos on the label art!)

 

And I'll be dipped in a vat of BPAL, Beaver Moon actually works on me! The initial application ran through the cheesecake scent, with cherry and lots of graham cracker. It then dried down into a very cinnamony-spicy smell. After a couple of hours, it amped a bit and went back to a more cheescakey (vanilla and milky/cream cheese)-cinnamon smell.

 

I normally prefer all those dark, incensy-patchouli blends, so it's delightful to have a completely different alternative. And it's just fun. It is a silly-but-sexy smell. How on earth Beth developed the scent, I don't know -- but it's just amazing!

 

valentina

I wanted to like this very much, and had high expectations, because I love incense so much. In the imp, it smells great -- spicy incense with a bit of ozone. Initial application is also pleasant, but after 5 minutes, my body amps the ozone. I waited patiently, hoping it was a temporary matter, but the ozone simply took over all the nice incense components. Damn the body chemistry! Oh well, back to wearing Urd all the time...

 

valentina

In the imp, I found Ravenous to be extremely orange-y, and I was concerned it was going to turn to orange soda pop once it hit my skin.

 

Upon application and the very initial dry-down, I could swear it had a little musk in it, as musk usually turns a little poo-like on me. But that is a very short-lived phenomenon, and the patchouli and orange blossom amp up equally.

 

About 15 minutes later and thereafter... oh my! This is a rousing scent, indeed! I love it -- the earthiness of the red patchouli and the sweetness of orange blossom create a fascinating blend. I love it... I feel kind of feral while wearing it... Yowzah.

 

valentina

In the imp, it's very gingery. Once on the skin, it turns into very snappy ginger, but mellows out into a very creamy, gingery scent that doesn't scream "ginger!" It's not heavy, but smooth and gorgeous. I love, love, love it! Big bottle city...

 

valentina

In the imp, I thought this smelled very sweet and vanilla-almondy. I wasn't sure, but I thought I'd give it a try.

 

Upon initial application, it went very sweet on me, and I was afraid it was going to morph the way Snake Oil smells on me -- very sweet, almost Play-Dough. But there's an edge underneath that keeps that from happening.

 

After 15 minutes, it gets spicy-sweet on me. Almost like cotton candy mixed with Red Hots.

 

After an hour, it's a very Christmas/Holiday scent on me. The myrrh, cloves, vanilla and almonds prevail, with a bit of pine beneath. Someone told me I smelled good, but like the shopping mall stores at Christmas.

 

This might be nice to have an imp around to wear during the holidays. On me, a little dab'll do ya, for it has great staying power.

 

valentina

In the imp, I adored this scent. It's clean linen with honey and tea. Once I applied it, the linen scent amped to take over everything else. So very bummed out about that! I gave it to a friend who loves linen scents (I have Dirty on order for her) and she amped the black tea to such an extent that she smelled like a walking Lipton's tea bag. Our body chemistries are strange, strange things, aren't they?

 

But I love the smell of this so much when it's not altered by my wonky body chemistry that I'll probably use it as a room fragrance.

 

valentina

In the imp, Dana O'Shee smelled lovely but sweet. Once applied, it has a very clean, milky, sweet scent that also has something green in it -- not a forest-like green, it seemed more like sweet meadows. It really didn't morph from initial application to how it smell 3 or 4 hours later, nor did it fade or blow up. It's very pleasant; not a drop-dead sexy thing, much more innocent and fresh. Since I normally wear darker, heavier or boozy scents, I'm very pleasantly surprised at how compatible Dana O'Shee is with my body chemistry.

 

valentina

SevenSins, I just wanted to say thank you for an excellent description of the CCNow process.

 

 

valentina

I'd add Hellcat to the sweet and foody list.

In the imp, I thought this smelled nasty sweet and didn't even want to try it. The first time I put some on, I sniffed my wrist and said "UGH" and washed it off.

 

Later that evening, I decided to try it again. When I first apply Hellcat, the almond in the blend blows up instantly. After about 5 minutes, it calms down and it's a hazelnutty-buttery smell. After an hour or so, it's kind of nutty-boozy-spicy. It also really has lasting power on my body.

 

I'm buying a bottle. I am so shocked that this fragrance works -- it is on the other end of the spectrum from what I normally wear (Urd, Anne Bonny, Blood Lotus, all those head shop smells). We love those unexpected surprises!

 

valentina

Wonders never cease. I was utterly convinced that anything with any form of musk would smell terrible on me (my term is that it "turns to ass" on me), and Scherezade has proven me wrong. I received this an a frimp from the Lab, and I must thank them for providing me with an opportunity that I would not have otherwise taken.

In the imp, I can smell the red musk very clearly, my nose being hypersensitive to that scent. But there's so many yummy elements in this blend that I just had to try it out. Once I place it on my skin, what I smell, very clearly, is saffron and musk, with some other spices -- I'm not sure what, but I keep thinking cardamom, coriander, cinnamon. All those middle eastern market spices.

The drydown settles into saffron-musk-spice, in that order, very subtle and yet very exotic and earthy. I think the strength of the saffron and spices help temper my body's tendency to amp up musk. But bottom line -- this is really sexy stuff!

valentina

Wow, this is gorgeous. I loved this from the moment that I put it on, although it went through several amazing changes. At first it very much amped the pumpkin, apple and spicy fall scent. After an hour or so, the fir and pine scents came to the front, but pleasantly so, with a wonderful clove-cinnamon background. In the final drydown, I got that wonderful melange of autumn scents with the dark background of patchouli.

Patchouli and fall scents are my favorite, it's no wonder I love this. I may end up buying a second bottle because it's so wonderful. A really masterful job by Beth and the lab!

valentina

I was so excited to try this, hoping for a very fall Mexican-y smell, but it went pure floral on me -- very rosy. I was hoping the other chocolate/coffee/tobacco/incensy components would come up, but my skin chemistry amps florals so much that they were left hiding.

 

My stepdaughter's 21st birthday is October 29, so she's getting Dia as a birthday gift -- her first BPAL experience. It's imperative that she stop wearing that chemical Victoria's Secret crap. It makes my dogs sneeze and gives me a headache -- and since she enjoys florals, I hope Dia is a winner on her!

 

valentina

CourtneyLynne beat me to recommending Urd, but I shall second her recommendation. I think it is the most gorgeous scent. I also like Anne Bonny and Tezcatlipoca a lot. All of these scents are patchouli-based, so keep that in mind if you're patchouli-adverse.

 

I tend to amp florals to diabetic-coma-inducing levels of sweetness, but I'm able to wear Kali. While it has florals, it also has chocolate and leather and tobacco in it to counterbalance the sweetness. It's the first blend that worked on me without having patchouli in it. Yggdrasil is a woody/leafy/herbal scent that isn't especially sweet, but smells really fresh. It's not in my top 5, but it comes close.

 

Thanks for starting this thread, I always enjoy reading other recommendations that might send me off on new BPAL explorations! (As if I need the encouragement! )

 

valentina