birdiefu

This is one of the very, very few blends with rose in it that don't amp into rotten rose petals on me! It is a very pretty scent, very feminine and girly. First on, I get a general delicate flowery scent with violets predominant, giving the scent a purple vibe. Nice violets, too! As it dries, it turns very creamy, with a touch of those florals still evident. The mandarin and vanilla manifest themselves as a creamsicle sort of scent, bordering on foody, but the florals keep that in check. Oooh, then the musks come out too, I definitely get the juicy red musk, and my notes say I smell Egyptian musk, but that must be the white musk instead. The scent has the feel of sunset at this point, and the florals have gone very soft over the layer of vanilla orangecreamsicle and musk. I can see how this could be OMG love on some people, but I don't feel like wearing florals often. The only problem I have with Lady Lilith is that a few hours in once she has faded quite a bit, the residual scent on my skin is a bit...unappealing. I get a touch of very faint vanilla over unwashed dog . But, I could either reapply or wash it off at this point. Overall, nice and pretty but probably won't be a regular for me.

I am not much of a lavender person. In fact, even TKO and I don't get along. It's not a total dealbreaker, but if there is enough for me to smell it distinctly in the blend, that scent will not be a favorite of mine. This is very lavendery in the bottle, but does fade a lot after application. Wet, I get a light lavender over Dorianesque tea. As it dries, I get a minty fennel scent with lighter lavender. Over time, lovely red musk comes out a la Snake Oil, but not overwhelmingly so. I still get this minty fennel lavender cast over what seems like a nice combo of light Snake Oil and sweet Dorian (but not as sweet as the real Dorian, that is uber sweet on me). This ends with a final drydown of light red musk and spices plus vanilla tea, overlaid with fennel and a sharp note. I don't distinctly smell the lavender anymore, but think that is where the sharpness is coming from. Maybe that is the lily, but I don't distinctly smell that, either. I am iffy on this scent. I don't really like that sharp note, but the total package is pretty nice if I ignore that part of the scent. Maybe age will make this luscious on me. I hope so!

Samhain 06 First on, it is warm pumpkin (without butter) and apple with mulling spices with some heavy smoke. After a few minutes I get a blast of menthol and fir. As it dries down, the notes blend a lot better, I get a touch of fir, some spices, and smoky cider, and the pumpkin is gone. There is also the smell of cold air outside making it very evocative of autumn. As it dries further, I am left with mostly smoky, spicy cider. Very lovely and a perfect fall scent, lasts forever and nice throw. Samhain 08 This seems lighter and fades faster than the 06 version, perhaps it will be closer with aging. First on, I get not-too-strong spices and that odd menthol with fir note again. As it dries, a crispy apple scent comes out, much lighter than 06 and more like apple slices than cooking apples. As it dries more, it turns into a very lightly smoky apple cider, with just a hint of that cold air scent that disappears fast. Further into drydown as it fades away, I get light, sweetened apple. Nice, but not as much of a total-autumn experience to me as the 06 version. Will have to test again after further aging.

Wow, this is amazing! Well, first off I should say that this imp is over a year old, so it is aged already. I loved it from the moment I swiped it on! In the imp, this is a sweet amber. On, mmmm! Spicy, beautiful, sensual amber with just a hint of the mandarin giving it some sweetness. I can tell the citrus is there, but it is not "Hai! Oranges!", very mellow and not sharp. This is an exquisitely blended scent, and really is a masterpiece. This scent is bright and dark at the same time- the vetiver and tobacco are giving it a dark edge without being too noticeable, and this glorious amber and touch of citrus makes it golden. Smells like there is another dark resin like opoponax in here, as with a deep sniff I get that fuzzy cola feel from it like Schwarzer Mond. Overall, a wonderful, swoon-worthy, sexy scent! My only complaint is that it fades to a light skin scent quickly, I would love to enjoy it's throw longer.

Chocolate notes either disappear into thin air or are waaay to foody on me (except Candy Butcher, RIP...). This falls into the disappear category. In the imp, it was rich cocoa with a hint of dark berries. On, no chocolate or cocoa at all. Without looking at the notes, I smell tobacco, sandalwood, and nutella with a dark base. Yes, and a feel of vetiver. Once I peek at the notes, I think I am interpreting the rum, wine, and blood as nutella. Odd. As it dries, this really changes. OMG, it is Blood Kiss exactly! Yup, that rich, winey/fruity blood scent with clove-like spices. Never had a BPAL scent clone another before, but Centzon Totochtin has uncannily become Blood Kiss on me.

I first tried this a few days after I got it in early August, and it was pine death. All pine, all the time, and not a happy thing for me. Well, I could tell there was something under there, but the Christmas tree was smooshing it all to smithereens. I tried it again today after almost 2 months of aging, and it is better but still not as wonderful as I had hoped. First on, I don't get the Christmas tree needle smell anymore, but more of a deeper and sweeter pine sap. However, this does mellow out pretty quickly and I'm left with a very odd and hard to explain scent - not quite plastic and not quite cleaning products... so I try to ignore how I smell and wait for it to dry. The odd smell very slowly softens over time and sweetens up. 3 hours in, I finally get something nice- a smoky, musky vanilla! But it is so very faint . 4 hours in, I have a delicious honey over that dark vanilla, but the scent as a whole is just about to fade away. As it stands, the Illustrated Woman isn't worth the very long wait to get a nice faint whiff at the end. However, since I got a change for the better after 2 months, maybe more aging will turn it into the fabulous scent that I know it can be.

Yesterday I was trying Death Cap on one hand and Shub on another and just loved the waft of both of them together. That is what I get with Penny Dreadful! This is dirt/vanilla and gingersnaps. In the imp, this does smell a little off putting, as the earth/dirt note smells very separate from the foody part (which smells almost sickly sweet). When first applied, those elements are still pretty separate, but as this dries the foodiness settles and the dirt relaxes to a smoother earthy feel. The final result is a warm and rich earthy base layered under spices (ginger and clove?) that are tempered with just a touch of vanilla-like sweetness. Very nice, as I would never have thought food and dirt went well together, but there you have it!

I've had this bottle for a year and a half, so it's pretty well aged. I know when I tried this when it was new, it was chocolate that faded to regular SO, so I let it be for a while. In the bottle- Very dark brown oil that I had to roll for a long time since the bottom was very thick, and a stubborn chunk took a while to mix back in. Smells like a very rich and yummy high-end chocolate over a bit of nicely aged Snake Oil. Yummy! Makes my teeth ache in anticipation. Wet- As soon as I apply it, it smells divine like in the bottle. However, over a matter of seconds, the chocolate morphs to a weird acrid, burnt smell . Initial dry- The burning is gone, thank all that is holy, leaving.....regular old Snake Oil. Late dry- Snake Oil. Nicely aged Snake Oil, that is. Overall- I will love the bottle to sniff from, but wearing it as perfume is useless unless I run out of Snake Oil. Maybe a pendant will work better.

I was afraid of the caramel and apple blossom, but all the other notes called my name. In the bottle, this has a very sweet caramel scent- I was almost afraid to try it since this much caramel usually turns sickly-sweet on me and makes me wash it off right away. Wet- Caramel and some light honey (yeah!) but not horridly sweet. Initial dry- Caramel, honey, and light cream emerges- yum! But still mostly caramel. Late dry- OMG, this is awesome! The caramel is still there, but it is a lot more mellow. I've never had a BPAL caramel turn so tame on me- its more of a color than a scent, if that makes any sense. The honey and cream dance behind the caramel. I get a touch of what seems to be lightly spicy amber- mmmm! And when I take a deep whiff, the end of the sniff catches the most beautiful skin musk that just makes me want to die of happiness! So sad that the musk isn't more up-front, though. This has long staying power on me, so I can thankfully ignore the wet and early dry stages to enjoy the later dry-down for a good long time. Overall impression- love it and worth a back-up bottle. Second favorite of the ladies behind Marianne, and makes up for Illustrated Woman going all perfumey and wrong on me.

As a note this oil is from when the CD first opened, so it is aged. Anyhow, when first putting this on it is very sharp and bitter. I mostly get the woods, and they are very strong with what I could swear is some vetiver in the background. No rose at all, which is surprising and delightful, as rose usually amps to rotting-petal floral death on me. There is no labdanum according to my nose. As it dries, the sharpness does mellow down a bit, but it is still very dry and bitter for my tastes. I too get a pickle vibe, oddly enough. Once it has been on for over an hour, the bitterness and dryness mellow out too. The labdanum finally comes out to play, and it is a thick, sweet resin with some woods in the background. Much nicer; however, at this point the scent has faded so much that I can barely enjoy it.

Beautiful mixture of notes! First on, I get mostly citrusy orange with a bit of depth from the amber- and this is a full-bodied, rich amber, not powdery or perfumey. As this dries it gets only better- the woods comes out and there is a hint of leather, which I think is actually the ambergris. The orange is still there, but very subdued. There is also just a *touch* of the lilac, giving it a sweetness but not 'OMG flowers!' (I'm not a floral person). Gorgeous blend! Medium throw and staying power on me. Unisex, but oh so lovely!

Wow, I thought I was going crazy not smelling any hay or grass, but it looks like I'm not the only one. Yes, AMBER is the dominating note here. This is truly the most amber I have smelled in a BPAL scent yet, the amber is yelling at me in a perfumey, high-pitched manner. Oh wait, maybe a hint of lemon...hmm that might have been my imagination. Don't get me wrong, I am a lover of resins, amber included, but I was expecting to experience more notes here. So I will let this amber age a bit as it is still sharp in it's newness. Maybe the other notes will emerge later.

I'm moving from Germany to the States (I *hate* moving a whole household!) and they are coming to pack up my house next week. My BPAL plans are to ship independantly to myself (well, DH's grandma till we get our own address) insured. I am still in the process of packing my BPAL, I've made it through the bottles and about 1/3 of the imps. If anyone wants to know how I do it, here it is. Bottles- make sure each lid is secure, tape lids with electrical or plumbing tape. Wrap each bottle in an individual piece of bubble wrap. Then take a bigger piece of bubble wrap and wrap four 5 mls (or two 5 mls, one 10 ml) at 2 bottles deep. Tape up little bubble package, repeat for all bottles. Imps- sort through for any potentially leaky imps, seperate previously leaked (but fixed) imps from pristine imps. Tape up possibly leaky imps. Take a strip of bubble wrap, place 6 imps with lables in one direction then 3 with labels in other direction in a line. put one flap of bubble wrap over this, stack another 9 imps on top in the same fashion, wrap the other side of bubble wrap from other direction, tape up. Repeat with all imps, keeping yucky label/possible leaks seperate from perfect imps. Once all these are packaged up, I will place the bubble wrap packages in tupperware, then within a shipping box with extra bubble wrap here and there as desired. I have a few choice imps set aside for use between mailing the package and getting it again. I'm not sure if I will put it in carry-on luggage or just make it safe with bubble wrap and tupperware in luggage.

I got my little lone imp of Shub right when it was released again (was that Dec 06? I forgot). When I tried it on that time, I got the dreaded lemon pledge effect. Some ginger there, but overwhelmed with super-sharp lemony cleaning product smell. Ugh, I was dissapointed. Threw it in my pile 'o imps that I planned to later sort through. Fast-forward to today when I find this little imp once again 9 months or so later. I decided that Shub needed to have a second chance, and oh my is it different! It went on very sharp like freshly cut ginger- this I think is where I thought it smelled lemony before, but this time around it doesn't *really* smell like lemons, just part of the fresh ginger scent (if that makes sense). As it dries, the sharpness mellows leaving a pure, strong ginger. About 30 minutes in, the other layers of the blend come out to play. The resins have that hint of syrupy-cola fizz like in Schwarzer Mond, which backs up the ginger giving it that fun evil vibe. A few other undefinable spices augment the ginger, but they just hang around in the background. The overall vibe of this scent is an almost-foody (the sweetness of the resins) dark ginger that is awesome. Yay that I didn't get rid of the imp! Throw is *very* strong at first, but after the notes mingle together it mellows into a nice aura of gingerness rather than assaulting other people's noses.

I have both Milk Moons, they are both very special to me- the first I got while my son was a baby (and nursing) as my first bottle of BPAL and it has significance as a memory of his babyhood. The second I got while pregnant with #2 and had an aversion to scents so didn't try any BPAL (just bought!) until just recently after this baby was born (who is also nursing). Interestingly the differences are sorta like my kids. Anyhow, on to the actual review- this Milk Moon is much more smoother and creamy than the first. I was never a big fan of the mint note in the first one, I think the second MM surpasses the original in my book. This is a true warm milk and honey scent with just a touch of fruity fig. More of a snuggly scent than the first, which had more spunk to it (with the mint). It's a very light scent on me, not overwhelming at all and fades quickly after about 30 minutes to a ghost of warm milky sweetness.

I'm 14 weeks so thought I could go ahead a give a touch of BPAL a try, especially since I'm dying to love up all my new goodies. So I put the *tiniest* (just touched the wand tip to my skin in one spot, didn't swab it on) amount of Shub-Niggurath on. Well, it's a lovely scent but it's either me or this has the strongest throw in the world as that tiny speck of oil on my skin just permeated the room for a loooong time. Eventually had to wash it off- even though it smelled good, it was giving me a headache and upset tummy (but it's ginger!) . So I tucked the rest of my new little bottles away, still in their bubble wrap, for when I can tolerate them.

My son is about 2 1/2 and has been BPAL trained for a while to sniff me appreciatively. He doesn't have any particular preference that I can tell for what scents he wears, but I found out recently that Haloa smells just perfect in his hair! I usually stick with Alice, Regan, Dorian, and Sudha Segara for him- but I got a bottle of Haloa pretty much just for his use.

Seraglio if you like almonds with your rose.

I'm 8 wks pregnant as well as still nursing my 2 year old and so sad to say I haven't used BPAL for weeks! Mostly because I can smell *everything* and hardly anything smells good to me anymore. I can even smell my closed imp box from 2 rooms away . Needless to say, I was very very sad when my Bitter Moon and other lovelys came in a while back and I had to put them away after just a brief sniff. I'm hoping I can stand smells a little better come the 2nd tri, but I will still be collecting BPAL on notes only. It's driving me crazy, but I can't go without snagging up LEs with notes that usually work on me even though I will have to put them away as soon as they arrive. But it will be bliss when my nose returns to normal! I just had to vent a bit as I'm sure you ladies would understand the pain of BPAL withdrawal.

Malice is very dark, brooding, murky scent and I think I like it! Wet- Hmm, quick patchouli blast that makes me a little uncertain of how it will turn out. Smooth, resiy myrrh backs up the patchouli, and the cloves give just a touch of spice. Dry- Wow, the patchouli really mellows and blends with the other notes. It has a very earthy, woody feel while still having some spice and sweet. The cloves aren't too overpowering as they tend to be on me, but just give that spicy edge that is a little 'seasonal'. The myrrh is very rich and awesome in this blend! Patchouli is still there, but a nice, smooth patchouli rather than 'dirty hippie' patchouli. I don't really get any ylang-ylang- perhaps the tiniest hint of a sweet floral, but I wouldn't think it was there if I didn't look at the listed notes. Good throw and long lasting, this scent doesn't morph much on me past a few minutes in.

I got glasya for the darker elements- musk, civet and resins. Also, I am pregnant now so my BPALs don't smell quite the same as it did before. In the bottle- Patchouli! Definitely a hippe feel going on, with a touch of rose Wet- Maple syrup? It has a deep, murky, almost spicey sweetness that really makes me think of maple syrup. Dry- The myrrh and DB is coming out to buddy up with the patchouli. I can still catch a hint of rose, giving this a girlier vibe that I had hoped, but still nice. I don't smell my beloved civet at all, and the musk seems to be drowned out by the resins and patchouli. Still has a hippie vibe to it, it makes me think of an incense I used to burn ages ago. Overall- Good, but not as awesome as I had hoped. Blends with patchouli are much better for me aged, so I will put Glasya away for a bit and see how she mellows. That and the pregnancy nose may be making it smell off. ADDED 10/5/08: Oh Glasya, how I wanted to love you! For the record, I am a civet fan, and jumped for joy when this was resurrected. I also love dragon's blood, myrrh, musks, and patchouli is usually just fine. However, rose is my nemesis, but I figured just "drops" of it would be fine, right?? Freshly applied, this is a deeply syrupy delight of musks, resins, and patch. A joy to inhale, but just a few seconds later, florals start to emerge. After a few minutes I have rose, and it has turned into the evil, rotting rose of doom! I can barely smell the deep beauty of the other dark elements below this rose. A little while longer, the rose is giving me a headache and I am trying not to smell myself in the hopes that it will get better as it dries. I make it about 45 minutes before I need to take this off with rubbing alcohol, it wants to cling to me and never leave. I am very sad, as I saw how beautiful this could have been before the rose attacked me. Perhaps a scent locket would keep this in that first, delicious stage.

This is for the 06 version. Jacob's Ladder is a resin-lover's dream!! Sort of reminds me of Schwarzer Mond lite. Anyway, it is mostly amber on me, but such a deep, slightly sweet, almost spicey amber that I haven't really seen in any other blends. It gives me a very sunny and warm feeling, and is a calming blend. As it dries it gets a little on the powdery side which I usually don't like, but it actually works this time. Awesome, awesome blend and I will need more bottles . It is also wonderful with layering if you need to add some resin goodness to another scent. ETA: Great staying power, and though the throw doesn't go far it wafts well near the skin.

Yet another new GC winner for me! This is much lighter and fruiter than I expected from the description, but still awesome. Wet, it's very grapey, but that tones down as it dries and turns more into wine. Deep plum joins the winey grapes in dark, drunken, fruity bliss. The honey in this is divine and complements the grape/wine/plum and the touch of musk nicely without being sickly sweet. I wish I could pick out the darker elements (like tobacco, opoponax, and oakmoss) a little more, but it feels like they are giving a deeper edge to the blend without being obvious. There is also just the tiniest bit of spice to this blend, which I'm guessing is from the carnation, but doesn't smell 'floral' at all. Overall, a very beautiful bottle-worthy blend that I enjoy.

OMG, I'm so happy I got this as a frimp! For some reason the description didn't call to me, even though it had red musk that I love. I'm usually not a fan of most citrus and white musk barely shows on me. But as soon as I saw the imp I knew I had to try it as I usually like the oils that deep dark red color. I was very pleasantly surprised as I applied Maina, as my first impression was that it's a variation of Holywood Babylon, my First True Love . Deep lucious red musk and a touch of sweet strawberries (but not too sweet). This strawberry doesn't go through the fake plastic fruit stage either and stays true on me, very nice! The main difference I see in this blend from Hollywood Babylon is that there is an almost champagne-like effervescent feel to it, making it lighter. I'm thinking this is due to either the grapefruit or the white musk even though I can't single the notes themselves out. I'm debating if I should get a bottle as it is divine, but so similar to Hollywood Babylon which I still have a 10 ml to work through. Regardless, it is a top BPAL oil in my book!!

When I first tried this on, I had forgotten what the listed notes were. Initially it was sweet yet musty at the same time, and an odd familiar scent predominated. It made me think of almonds, but not as marzipany, but has a distinct nuttiness to it- hazelnut? Sniffing deeply, there are some light oriental spices in the background and I get that saffron flavor, too. The opoponax is barely noticeable, and the vetiver just gives that touch of mustyness. The bulk of the scent is still nutty/musty, not quite what I was expecting but I'll probably keep the imp.