themerrybaker

Berries my bum!

 

Amen from the Borough of Bugger Those Berries.

 

Some nice person sent me a very aged partial imp of Yew Trees and, from the description, it didn't look like something I'd even want to try.

 

Straight out of the imp, Yew Trees smelled a lot like turpentine. Aha - another scent that makes you wonder if BPAL is an acronym for Be Patient Aroma Lovers.

 

The big jackpot is that this evergreen dries down to coconut cream and woods and smells delish.

 

I've already gone through the imp and will be hoarding any new ones that come my way.

What a bunch of ASSHATS in this thread!! I'm giving up BPAL FOREVER!!! I'm not gonna VOTE, just to make you feel baaaad!!

 

 

Oops, not really, just getting my internet Troll on.

 

The BPAL Troll is a lot nicer, but still does me dirt in the early stages - the cumin gets a bit gamey and overcomes the nice little herbal-woodsy ranger-boy thing that was going on.

 

The final dry-down is very smooth and reminds me a bit of cake batter with the fireplace crackling away in the background. I like the way the oil ends up, but it is definitely in the "you have to be patient" camp.

There was a practical reason that this oil was not named "Dragon's Wussiness" because it comes roaring, breathing fire, and slaying knights right out of the imp.

It eventually settles down (or burns out my sense of smell) to a smoky vanilla-dragon's blood affair that I kind of like. Dragon's Musk was a surprise in that I absoluted hated the first waft and mentally consigned the blend to the oil burner, but now think that when the oil gets to be as old as I am it could be awesome.

I think I may have gotten the Fruitiest Bandersnatch, mine smells a lot like cinnamon applesauce. My parrot will be thrilled!!

Japan's Secret by Gunter Schwartz describes Sokuza-Harikata as a penis from the garden. A.K.A. sort of a garden-variety, field-expedient penis to be used when a "rubbing ox" horn penis was not available or affordable.

 

I would just as soon skip the bull and have my Harikata from the Lab's garden. The initial apricot-fruit phase passes into subtle honey and enough soft flowers to keep the bees happy all year. The way the honey cooperates with the rest of the notes has been really well done.

 

I have been wearing Harikata as a staple since it became available and didn't really think about the concept behind it. Glad I didn't dick around and miss out on a bottle.

I have always been surprised that some of the Lab's oils start out smelling dreadful and develop into something wonderful if you can overcome the urge to wash them the hell OFF.

 

Leo is one of these culprits. He starts out smelling like a hot, horny, tomcat having gamy sex in the baby powder he's knocked off your vanity (hyssop often does me wrong this way). After about 15 minutes he completes his postcoital grooming session he settles down into salty warm saffron and clear amber. The overall impression is the resin translucence of a cat's eye.

 

Good kitty.

I can't believe that I haven't reviewed Noche Buena yet, given that I've used about a third of the bottle.

 

NB is what I wear when I want a light, fresh, herbal scent. It reminds me a bit of my other similar faves: Garden Path with Chickens, One to Tie, and now Mictecacihuatl but for some reason the level in Noche Buena keeps dropping a lot faster.

Tokyo Stomp is a great big monster who kicks your butt if you forget to brush your teeth after licking all the frosting off your birthday cake.

 

I wanted to like it more than I did, since one of the House Lions is named after a character in the Godzilla movies....but alas!

I wasn't expecting much from the zodiac series, since it seemed to be heavy on the concept and thereby limited with respect to ingredients.

 

Sagittarius is a wonderful surprise that works as a perfume for me. It evokes dark days, and dark but warm smells: the sage, clove, and fig. The sage or dandelion reminds me of dry winter grasses. Such a happy surprise that Sag will be able to go on me instead of in the oil burner.

Another one faked out by the non-existant rose. Queen of Hearts is nice, but nondescript on me. She smells like "gift soap" - the fancy kind molded into flowers or sea shells that live in the guest bathroom.

Yum, dancing carnation, sweet pea and orange blossom. The vanilla keeps it from becoming sharp. It would have been a great trick if you could apply Terpsichore on your wrist and have it waltz up to your earlobe ... but why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Wish I could dance like a muse and smell this good.

I was conflicted about Pruno and Privilege when they were available from the lab - with so many irresponsible rich middle aged white males, why go after an irresponsible rich young female? Maybe I am projecting my unease onto the scent, but this reminds me of commercial "citrus" dishwashing liquid or shower gel. Very grateful to have been gifted with a half-decant, though.

The Living Flame was one of my Holy Grail scents for ages and I'm glad to have gotten to try a bit of it especially after having misplaced my internal thermostat and turning into the Human Blowtorch of random sweating doom. This smells to me like a precursor of Khajuraho sans honey, and with maybe an undertone of benzoin. Whatever is in there, I will be happily tending my Flame.

Neither forbidding nor fruity on me, Forbidden Fruit morphs through a very sweet stage after which the phantom jasmine Pulls a Putin with its ugly head. Just when I was ready to call out the National Soap Guard, the scent settled down into a warm and feminine perfume.

 

The drydown reminds me a bit of a Carolina Herrera that I used up in my pre-BPAL incarnation. I like Forbidden Fruit because it reminds me that the Lab can hold its own with traditional perfumers and produce a scent that doesn't need Goth trappings, the contents of a bake shop, or any other gimmick to produce something lovely and wearable by anyone.

No. 93 Engine takes a while to get up to speed. Initially I was put off by the gamey hyssop, but 93 settles down to a powdery honey. Glad I got to try it, but have a bit of a surplus of honey scents at the moment.

I'm not much of a musk maven and was surprised to like Robin G. so much. I am glad that the king of Sherwood Forest uses sage and other herbs to keep his royal armpits presentable. His scent reminds me of a sweaty hike in the woods.

A lot of people really seem to hate vetiver. So much so that they do it in, sleep with its spouse, collect on its insurance policy, and weep crocodile tears at its funeral.

 

Fortunately, the vetiver burial ground has been excavated for the new incarnation of Graveyard Dirt. Being a both vetiver and dirt lover I could wear this in my hair, roll in it, rub it on my feet and under my fingernails, concoct hexes just for the fun of it, etc. etc.

 

So glad that this was resurrected!! Vive the dirty minded.

Smoky wood, fruit, and spice. L'autunno is absolutely perfect for cool autumn and winter days. It evokes the coziness and color of the season as an antidote to the lengthening darkness.

 

I can see wearing this for the winter holidays as well - it reminds me of Yuletide and some of the traditional BPAL winter oils.

Pumpkin 2 reminds me of salt water taffy for some reason, then dries down to freshly sawn wood. I love and am still wearing some of the punkin's from 2005, and prefer them, but this subtle autumn scent is also enjoyable.

The Sapphics drydown includes both the resins and the muguet - making this one of the few wearable muguet perfumes I've run across.

 

This is definitely sexy, long wearing, and unusual enough that getting the bottle was worth it.

I get a mossy, aquatic rose. The "moss" is probably the pepper, but the aquatic is coming out of left field.

 

So, maybe a banana boat picks up the coffin of a beautiful vampire queen. She attacks the crew and capsizes the boat sending the fruit to the murky depths of the dark, dark ocean. All that is left are the funereal roses from her coffin floating serenely on the sea?

 

And all this happened in the Bermuda Triangle!!

 

Very appreciative to have been gifted with a sniffy of Crypt Queen, but somehow the Queen and I are just not on the same page.

It's heere....

 

Lunar Eclipse has finally settled down from "Blackened Fruit Gums? Have you considered seeing a periodontist?" to a smoky, spicy, fruity wonderfulness of aged perfection.

 

So glad that the evil cosmic powers of chaos had distracted me from getting rid of the bottle early on, because Lunar Eclipse is now memorably good along the lines of Snake Charmer and Mme Moriarty.

I get mostly dry wood and patchouli. I am happy that the caramel behaves itself for once and Ventriloquist's Dummy smells nothing like Gluttony given the similarity of the notes.

 

Glad I got to try it, but don't regret exercising uncharacteristic restraint when the bottle was for sale.

Mead Moon seems like Honey Moon drinking a Sprite. I am into the honey oils, so it's all good here.

Hay Moon reminded me so much of Satan With Sin & Death (lemony tea) so much that I tried a sniff-off.

Hay Moon on dry-down becomes the dry and toasty scent of baled hay, Satan retains more of its lemony-tea vibe.

Although the initial lemony phases of Hay Moon are fine with me, you do need to hang in for a while before getting the actual hay. Think of it as bribing your pony.

It's a win (by a nose).