MadameGorgon

What to do when your skin rejects a favorite scent.

This THEfirst scent I ordered from the lab. I was so excited!

 

Good thing I only ordered an imp.

 

This smell is "hangover in a bottle" for me. Including the headache and nausea. :cries:

 

I put it on and am instantly transported back to the mad bad days of my misspent youth. I get the impression of waking up in the backseat of a car with the horrid dawn rays searing my dried out eyeballs. I have some kind is sticky rum drink spilled in my hair and a crease on my face from the leather upholstery. I don't know where I am or who I am with, but I know I did something stupid.

 

I don't usually like to leave reviews so negative, so I must say that I have since come to realize that I can wear NONE of the BPAL scents with leather notes. :cries eyes out: Not even Coyote where it is so soft or Western Diamond back mixed with my beloved SO.

 

I apparently amp leather like CRAZY and (Sorry Beth!) I get "new car scent" which has ALWAYS made me nauseated.

Thought I would really like this. I mean, if it were a drink, I'd drink it. But I'm finding that hazelnut doesn't agree with me.

 

This is a very rich, buttery scent. Very foody on me. Usually, that's OK, but in this case it smelled like I had been fronting a cake, got it all over myself, and didn't wash up. It made me feel like I might be sticky.

 

I can understand why someone might love this, but it wasn't for me.

I tried this fresh out of the hot mailbox. Wait - schmait.

 

One word description: unusual

 

Grains of Paradise:

"A New York Times article written by Amanda Hesser has popularized grains of paradise. She wrote, "I put a few between my teeth and crunched. They cracked like coriander releasing a billowing aroma, and then a slowly intensifying heat, like pepper at the back of my mouth. The taste changes in a second. The heat lingered. But the spice flavor was pleasantly tempered, ripe with flavors reminiscent of jasmine, hazelnut, butter and citrus, and with the kind of oiliness you get from nuts"

 

Cubeb:

"They have an aroma and flavor similar to peppercorns, but with a note of allspice. The berries' pungent flavor with a touch of bitterness and camphor make it a specialty item. Cubeb is still used in the flavoring of cigarettes and spirits like gin and vodka and incense."

 

Devil's Bit:

"The leaves and shoots are edible, and the leaves also provide a green dye traditionally used for tartans. Bees, butterflies, and caterpillars love the flowers, which have a light honey scent. Devil's bit is protective in Hoodoo magic as well. Pieces of the root are added to incense burned to repel negative magic, put into protective mojo bags along with herbs like rue, and placed around the house or under the stoop for protection from baneful work. Growing some by your steps is a great way of protecting your home from violent magical attack"

 

I got the slightest hint of cocoa. A fairly earthy, dusty cocoa. Then ZINGGGG!! ZINGADING DING DING! Citrus. Definitely a lemony zinginess, but not 100% recognizable as lemon.

 

The lemony zing does seem to float around above a core of what must be patchouli and the jasmine element of the grains of paradise. Maybe it smells a little like the cloth that was wrapped around that magical crystal you bought off that blond dreadie chick dressed like a hippie fairy.

 

Seriously, not what I expected. The description made me think of chewy, foody, dark, dank, sweaty, sexy, dirty-luscious. What I got was breezy with a hint of earthy. Above poster described it well. Sunshine, blue skies, grassy, herbal, tiniest hint of floral.

 

I can't resist the 13s. I mean, really. A line of scents based on CHOCOLATE and the number 13? What's not to love? But I haven't decided if I LOVE this one. It was actually warm when it came out of the vial, so I will let it settle a good bit before I make my final decision. Maybe the citrus component was just particularly volitile.

This scent blew me the Hell away.

 

I understand that it is based on an actual flower. I'll check that out and edit later.

 

I bought an imp of this based on the chocolate / floral mix. St. Valentine from DSH is a favorite, but seems very specific. Chocolate and roses pretty much says "date night" and not much else.

 

Love-lies-bleeding, aside from having an awesomely goth-tactic name is milky chocolate, sweet floral (daffodils, violets, and lilac those soft, old fashioned Spring flowers come to mind, not sharp lavender or herbal or heady), and luscious green sap.

 

When I wear this, I think of a translucent, syrupy, grass green sap surging rhythmically through a tender stem. It's topped with a deep purple-ish blush pink flower with a smell that would subtly entice you to get closer and closer until the vine-et tendrils grab you by the arms and ankles, then the throat, wrap you in a beautiful chartreuse leaf pod and devour you. All the while, looking sweetly demure and innocent.

 

Yup, it takes my mind on a strange little journey, but it comes down to a fragrance that is enticing and sweet, but with a serious hint of power and menace under the femininity. Probably not a work appropriate scent, since its kinda sexy and lickable (as in you want to lick it) and the coy femininity.

 

I really loved this, in case you can't tell, and plan to buy a bottle as soon as funds allow.

I bought a bottle of this sniffed based on a forumite recommendation. It was purported to be "summer in a bottle". And I must confess that I do not normally like fruit based scents, with berries being particularly problematic because they end up smelling artificial or candle-like.

 

I would actually describe it as "Spring in a bottle" since that's when strawberries come into season in my part of the world.

 

I would agree with other posters who describe this as "real" berries. My instant 1st impression was the strawberries my grandmother would "put up". She would sprinkle them generously with sugar and freeze them in season, then thaw them and mix them with cream or use in a recipe. This is the top note / sniffed from bottle scent.

 

It usually goes soapy on me at this point, although not in a bad way. Someone else mentioned high-end strawberry soap and I concur. Clean and fruit. BUT ( see? A big but!) I'm finding that my nose will interpret scents it can't place as "soapy". I'm going to try it again with a mind toward trying to find the dandilion ( sp?) and grass and I might not smell soap anymore.

 

Final verdict: a very pleasant, refreshing, clean scent that is unmistakably strawberry. Perfect for days when you want something light, playful and youthful.

 

I like the notes listed and I love the description and artwork. I've always been creeped out by ventriloquist dummies, especially since I saw that movie. You know... The one where the dummy comes to life and starts killing people. There's only one of those, right?

But I amped this fragrance to the point of nausea. It's sad, because after I washed off as much as I could, I really liked the faded, soft wood scent. Tried to use just the tiniest dot and still a fume factory. The smell was so strong for me that I could smell it through 2 closed doors and a tightly capped bottle. And for reasons unknown, my Id decided that this scent was highly disturbing.

I gave it to my 60 y o mother to try and it smelled good on her. It still smelled the same to me, but not overwhelming and not disturbing. Now, she's hooked!! She took my sample of another BPAL ( I should say, she hounded me until I gave it to her) and asked me how to find it on the interwebs.

Yeah BPAL!

I got 2 imps of this in a swap because I was so certain I would love it.

 

It smells very different than I imagined. I get clove, soap, and smoke. Maybe a little Sasparilla now that I'm at the 4 hour mark. I can deal with the smoke (I think this is actually the brown sugar), but the soap is a deal-breaker.

 

Alice's Evidence went soapy on me too, but eventually it stopped. I think that sometimes my nose interprets notes that it doesn't understand as soap? I'm hoping that's the case and that I like this more the next time I try it or I will just have to let someone else pick out my BPALs for me.

Thanks to Herb Girl for insisting that I try this.

I was happy with my plain SO and Boomslang. Then Herb Girl came along and sent me more of the Snake Pits. Thanks for helping me empty my bank account!

This is some ANGRY cinnamon. Almost harsh and burning. Like the cinnamon toothpicks I used to buy in middle school. Lip tingling! I assume it's Cassia that gives it the serious dryness. I'm not smelling Ginger but it may just be contributing to the heat.

I like cinnamon and this is STRONG cinnamon with THROW like crazy. But after 30 minutes or so, the cinnamon backs down and the vanilla and SO come forward. I do get tiny hints of the same soapiness that I got from Alice's Evidence, which is odd. The cassia does lend an almost watery cinnamon note. Don't know quite how to describe it, because it's certainly not aquatic.

Once the initial cinnamon heat blasts off, its a super sweet cinnamon/vanilla scent with some extra warmth from the SO which stays in the background. Why didn't the cinnamon/vanilla combo in Pickled Imp work this well?

The rice wine amped like crazy on me. I got a little Sandalwood, but no vanilla or musk. It just didn't work. I smelled like I spilled the Sake on myself at the Japanese Hibachi Restaurant.

 

I didn't give this a ton of time to settle on my skin, so I may retry it and see if I like the drydown better, but so far its much too "perfume-ey" for me. Sigh.

Melliflous was nice enough to send some pipettes used to decant this scent so I could try it.

 

Ah. Mah. Gawd. It smells so much like honey that I kept expecting it to be sticky!

 

Honey has been hit or miss, but I am in serious love with SO, so I wanted to try. This is like no other BPAL honey I've tried before, including O (which I also love). It's a heavy dark buckwheat honey instead of a light clover honey. It is rich and heady and sticky. I get a sense of flowers from the honey, but also an animal or leather type smell (which I get in real honey). It is STRONG!! And almost overpowers the SO, which I didn't think possible.

 

My first thought was that the honey was too strong. Too rich, too dark, too heady. But I kept going back to my sad little pipette baggie until I finally turned the baggie inside out and swabbed every last bit of the oil onto my skin. It wasn't enough. I am hooked and want more.

 

I wanted to be a different person so I could snuggle up with myself and nuzzle the good smelling parts. Maybe I will have to convince Husband to wear some. Its super crazy sexy and makes my eyes roll back with desire!

w. o. w.

 

Whale vomit, why do you have to smell so good? How can something so very wrong be so very right?

 

 

I did not know there was room in my heart for two favorites. But I suppose, just like a Mom always has enough love for the new baby and the older child, I have enough love in my heart for Nymphs & Satyrs and Boomslang.

 

This reminds me very much of Parfum d'Empire's Equistrius (named after a racehorse) whose notes are listed as: orris, violet, rice powder, chocolate, ambrette, sandalwood, vetiver, and grey amber. A Wood, vetiver according to other reviewers, grey amber/ambergris, a sweet foodie note, and a sweet floral. No wonder they smell similar!!

 

I'm guessing that it is the balsam that hits my nose as a kind of minty/woodsy hay note. It is refreshing and lifts this so it isn't quite so heavy. I don't get "Woods" on first wearing, I get lots and lots of ambergris. I remembered reading rose in the description, but nary a whiff on my skin, although there is a very sweet (but not cloying) layer that lingers in the background and keeps things from being too oily and resinous.

 

It's perfect and very different from the other BPALs I've tried so far and I am buying a bottle at first opportunity.

I bought an imp of this from the lab.

 

Obviously, I wanted to like this, since I bought it, but it didn't work for me. Unbeknownst (is that a word?) to me, BPAL's honey note goes kind of weird on my skin. A scratchy, bitter, body odor smell. Not good.

 

Once the initial blast of unfortunate honey was gone, I got what I can only describe as something like a child's drawing of a rose. Vibrant crayon colors. A bright spring green for the foliage with screaming hot pink roses scribbled on top, plunked in some dark brown dirt. No thorns on these roses.

 

I didn't get any cream or milk and no tea. I'll keep it around and try it again. Maybe make some room spray because I do like the kind of child-like quality, but it does not work on my skin.

I got this as a frimp from the lab.

 

I like this scent very much. The quince and plum give it a juiciness that sweetens the HOT ANGRY cinnamon/ginger combo. That is some SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF spice. My skin is generally not sensitive in the least and this gave me a warm sensation (like those lip plumping lipsticks if you know what I mean).

 

After a couple of wearings, I did start to get a very short lived soapy phase that it would cycle through. But it went away quickly and was really only apparent when I wore too much.

 

Then... Husband told me that I smelled like Cracker Barrel. It's a Country Cooking restaurant in the Southern U.S. Yankee Candles are very big as is potpourri. Maybe Cinnamon brooms rings a bell? Anyway, since then it has just reminded me of Cracker Barrel and commercial cinnamon scents. Thanks big-mouth.

Got this as a frimp from the lab.

Based on the notes, I didn't expect to like this. Bananas are very iffy for me. I adore fresh ripe real bananas. Fake bananas (Laffy Taffy in particular) is literally nauseating.

I actually liked it and had fun wearing it. I don't do much drinking of actual fruity blended cocktails anymore, but getting random whiffs of this put me in that fun silly mood. I wore paper umbrellas in my hair. I would, however, advise against being pulled over for a traffic stop while wearing this. The rum, although unusually lovely and warm, was strong enough to make me smell drunk!

I'll keep my imp, and have great fun with it, but I can't see buying a bottle. Silly doesn't fit my mood often enough.

I got a frimp of this in an order Husband placed for me for Christmas. I've tried it once and have been hoarding it for warmer times.

 

My first thoughts were zingy zing! BLUEBERRY!! I don't usually like fruit, but either the gin or lemongrass makes this work. What I would love to do with this is make a cooling body mist and stick it in the fridge to use on hot sticky Southern summer days. Very refreshing!!

 

I hope to update this review after using this scent in the summer.

Arrgh. For the love of god. This is the 3rd time I've tried to post a review. It must be an evil computer day. Its a good thing I love you, Boomslang.

 

OK - confession time... I have not yet tried Snake Oil. I just got a frimp from my new pal, Stellans, so I'll test it "sooner" rather than "later" and edit my review after the comparison.

 

Dark spicy cocoa, almost like mexican hot chocolate, but with chai spices like black pepper and cardamom instead of cinnamon and chilis.

 

Next is TEAK TEAK TEAK-ety TEAK. Which is OK with me. Boats are often outfitted with teak, so this has very pleasant and expensive associations for me. On me it's teak sawdust. Fresh and strong, but from bone-dry, well seasoned wood.

 

There's also vetiver (?), something murky and dank and earthy that keeps this from floating up into the ether. This may be an element of the teak, though, because my nose keeps turning it into a sweeter agarwood/aloeswood/jing-koh.

 

Then a warm, sweet spiced vanilla or rice milk scent will peek through to keep it from all being too heavy and dark.

 

I am at the 12 hour mark and still surrounded my a swirling miasma of loveliness. I'll get little hits of each of the above notes, with STRONG black pepper with a sweet edge, as they swirl and mix around me. I smell my wrists and get a fairly generic sweet spiced vanilla, so I'm not sure where all the complicated notes are hiding on my skin. And somehow, this blends with and enhances my own personal funk (or musk, if you will) so that it smells like an amped yummy, spicy/sweet version of my own skin.

 

It usually takes me 3 - 4 wearing spaced over a few days for me to decide if I like a scent. This was perfection at moment one. And the only fragrance I have ever tried that was an unequivocal YES.

 

Boomslang says: I can bring home the bacon, watch the cook fry it up in a pan, and NEVER let you forget you're a man.

While I haven't tried this scent, I'm wondering if the herbal/lemongrass/rosemary/ sour offputting note is pennyroyal.

 

It has a fuzzy catnip klind of smell lemony, astringent, mint/camphor smell when fresh, but it also has a very strong undercurrent of something a little skanky or skunky.

 

Pennyroyal is also supposed to be good for "female complaints" although you wouldn't want to use it when pregnant.

I got this as a frimp from the lab and HOLY SHIT!!! GORGEOUSNESS & GORGEOUSITY

 

This would have been so far down on my wishlist, because many of the notes just don't sound all that appealing to me. Almond? Myrrh? meh. Golden Lotus? Particularly problematic because I often associate lotus scents with Avon. bleh. Saffron got me at least interested enough to try it.

 

First Sniff: SHOYEIDO INCENSE - I used to work for Shoyeido Incense in Boulder, Colorado. It's a 200+ year old Japanese incense company where I learned that incense doesn't always give me a headache and that natural is just plain better to my nose. This smells like the first moment you walk in the door. I can't believe this doesn't have Oud or Agarwood or Aloeswood or Jing-koh or whatever you might choose to call it because it has a very similar sour/rich woodsy resinous smell. So beautiful I would have swooned if I was the type to swoon.

 

Then.... I added O.

 

O! MY! GOD! I couldn't stop smelling myself. The amber in O mixed with the amber in Bastet and it got sweeter and richer and um, let's just say that the rest of the night was not fit for polite conversation.

 

I never would have expected to have such an intense reaction to a fragrance, but there it is. I feel sexy and powerful and enigmatic and royal and irresistible. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe it.

 

 

5 out of 5 stars. I hope it never ever goes away.

I thought this would be much too sweet on first try. It was tooth-achingly sweet. It does warm up considerably once the amber comes out to play, and the honey doesn't go all wonky on me like in Alice, Sudha, and Against Idleness & Mischief. But mostly, I use it to layer with Bastet and other oils to warm and enrich them.

 

If it were a bit less sweet and not nearly as strong, it would smell like my skin smells to me on a warm summer day.

 

There is the most gorgeous depth to the amber. It brings to mind learning to play the violin. I pick up whiffs in the deepest depths of the rosin that I used for my bow. Its a dry-woodsy richness, the rosin was always so clear and the color of amber. I always wanted to bite or lick it, although I knew it wouldn't taste good. I'd scratch at it with my fingernails so I could get fresh whiffs and get the scent on my fingers to smell all day.

 

I don't get individual honey & vanilla notes, they blend to a kind of generic sweetness, so this doesn't come across as "foody" on me at all, and don't mind smelling like food. But, even though it doesn't smell like food, it does smell lickable. It makes me wish I were a guy or a lesbian so I could smell this on my partner.

 

Bastet and at least a couple of others just don't smell the same or as good on me without it. I'll always want to have some around and I imagine that there will be times I want to wear it all by itself.

Maybe it is my chemistry, but I get clobbered (in a fluffy pillow sort of way) with Stargazer Lily. It hits my nose first and I find it hard to believe that only 2 other posters have smelled lily? Maybe that is the floral that everyone thinks they should recognize, but don't? Stargazer has a warm, spicy smell to me in real life along with that candied sweetness that is strong enough to fill a room. For other notes, I'd guess at a hint of vanilla, sandalwood, & amber.

 

I had a very emotion-filled day recently and was feeling very raw , wanting something soothing and this was my choice.

 

After the initial blast of lily burns off a bit, it makes me think of a thick, fine, camel colored cashmere blanket. Snuggly, warm, sensual, calm.

 

I got this as a freebie in a package that Husband ordered for me for Christmas and it is very nice. I probably wouldn't buy a bottle, but will relish what I have of Tushnamatay while I have it, and would not trade it away.

Yep... I'm ISO Tomato Leaf, too. I knew I couldn't be the only freak for this stuff here.

 

I got Jersey Devil because of the Tomato Leaf. It comes out toward the end on me. 1st is PINE, then some sweetness softens it (blackberry leaf), then the cedar and tomato leaf wrap together and rise up to make it a stemmy chlorophyll smell like no other. I would nurture my unborn babies on this smell. I can actually feel the fuzzy prickles from the tomato plants when I smell it. Alas, the Cranberry fucks it all up for me. It amps like crazy and OBLITERATES everything else, so I end up smelling like a crappy cranberry candle. Grr.

 

I gave to Husband and he doesn't amp the Cranberry, but it's a little too sweet on him.

 

I was HOPING that there was something in Rapaccini's Garden that had tomato leaf sine it's such a green, prickly, garden-y smell to me. NOTHING says summer time to me like tomato leaf smell. Ahhhh. Very evocative mind-movie plaing in my head about being little and hiding in the garden, crushing herbs and leaves with my fingers, digging in the dirt, eating bits of whatever is ripe, touching the fuzzy stems and feeling the crisp snap as a tender green shoot breaks under a fingernail.

 

Maybe it is because it is a cloudy 28 degrees and spitting snow, but I want something that has dandelions, tomato leaf, dirt, lemon balm, maybe blackberry or something juicy.

 

I WANT MY SUMMER GARDEN IN A BOTTLE!!! Is anyone listening?

 

MORE TOMATO LEAF!! CB I Hate Perfume does one called "Summer Kitchen" (I think. Kitchen something anyhow) that has tomato leaf and herbs. I haven't tried it yet, since I've been focusing on giving my money to BPAL. haha.

I got this scent as a frimp with my first order. It was placed for me by my Husband, whose name is... David. I couldn't help but think that it was a subtle wink in my general direction.

 

The other scents that came in the package were very STRONG spicy scents (i.e. Siren, Alice's Evidence, and others) so this didn't stand out to me at first.

 

First try was OVERWHELMINGLY FLORAL. Essence of several thousand florists distilled into 5 drops and inserted directly into my sinuses. I washed it off and tried something else.

 

Later tries - I'm coming to adore this when I don't bathe in it. Just a couple of discreet dabs and I get gorgeous warm carnations. I tried Alice because of the carnation and got none. This is almost perfect and I am incredibley picky about florals. In the flesh, to me, carnations are not only clove-y, but a combination of warm black pepper and cool sweet water. They are one of my favorite flowers to smell in person.

 

I get this lovely carnation with bare hint of a spice-laden sweet musk.

 

The carnation stays pretty strong on me for an hour or two and when it is gone, the musk is faint and non-descript. Although I will admit that I do not have experience sampling different musk blends aside from the Egyptian musk found in Bastet. It just seemed that by the time the carnation was gone everything else was gone, too. I haven't noticed plum, yet. But I'll see if I can whiff it out.

 

 

All in all, I was suprised and pleased to find that I liked this very much. I may buy a bottle, but it isn't #1 on my list.

This has a very odd smell on me. Husband says it smells like honey, but that he doesn't like it.

 

I can't really place it. Very grating, scratchy smell. The chamomile, which I normally love turns all diaper-y on me, and it begins to put off a scent like terrible body odor. I thought I would really like this, but I think the honey doesn't work on me.

 

ADDED Jan. 21:

 

EDIT: I'm not sure what happened aside from maybe my nose just didn't know how to interpret this scent the first time I wore it. I do still get the vaseline/mineral oil smell when wet, but as it dries, there is a warm, powdery herbal quality with a hit of almost menthol coolness from the Hyssop. I don't know how I managed to do 2 reviews.

 

Unfortunately, this scent didn't work for me at all and I am really dissappointed. About 1/2 of my imp purchases this time around contain a honey note and none of them worked very well for the same reason, so I assume it is the honey. * Me with big pouty lip *

 

I love honey. I love chamomile. I love tonka. I'm not familiar with hyssop, but I love anise and fennel and other similar liquorice/herbal scents.

 

The honey comes through as this scratchy throat irritant to me. The chamomile turned into the smell of unused diapers (but diapers nonetheless), and I don't particularly smell much else because the scratchy irritation drowns out everything. I asked Husband "What do you think?". He said (and I quote) "Honey. But I don't like it". Honey has the most complex sweet warm floral goopiness when I smell it from the jar and the honey in this and other blends had nothing like it on my skin. And having smelled the wild chamomile that grew in my yard in Colorado, I get none of the pineapple-y herbal astringency from the chamomile, just a dull commercial generic baby product smell.

 

After I've had it on for 10 minutes or so, I start to get this AWFUL stale body odor mixed with Vaseline scent. I haven't gotten that from any of the other scents with honey, so not sure where that comes from. It fades within a few minutes, but, YUCK. And B.O. isn't a smell that necessarily disgusts me.

 

I've tried it 3 times and keep getting the same reaction so I guess I'm not going to change my mind. Although I will try it once more since I usually require some time to assimilate a new scent before I can decide whether or not I like it, I just don't think it's going to work. BUMMER.