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BPAL Madness!

valnillarose

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Everything posted by valnillarose

  1. valnillarose

    Different smells/colors, same perfume

    Is it possible that the Bordello imps were mislabeled and they are actually Druid?! I’ve sniffed both the forum-acquired Bordello and Druid side by side and they are kind of similar. Or do these scents smell similar? I read the Druid reviews and it's supposed to smell very green so I feel this may be what happened. Wanted to see if anyone received these two recently. Yes! I tested Druid and wondered why I got so much yummy plum from it. Later I was sniffing my other frimps and, even though I have and love Bordello, gave it a sniff too. DIRT?!? Wha??? Then it hit me, Druid smelled just like yummy plummy Bordello. So yes, I believe the two got switched, and I'm making sure I keep those two imps together to remember this.
  2. valnillarose

    Elegy No. 1 S. 196

    The lemon combined with the powdery sandalwood and touch of clean musk makes this smell more like Shalimar to me than Haunted EVER has. I've discovered I love Beth's white sandalwood, and this is just gorgeous with it.
  3. valnillarose

    Different smells/colors, same perfume

    Yes! I bought a bottle right after they went up, then bought a back-up right before they came down, and there's a definite difference in color. I haven't tested them side-by-side, but if there's a difference in scent I didn't pick up on it when wearing them separately.
  4. valnillarose

    The Night Hag Visiting The Lapland Witches

    I don't get much pine from this, just sharp charred wood and woodsmoke that sweetens a bit with time. I've worn this alone a couple of times but in the future I'll probably wear this under a sweeter scent, to soften and sweeten the acridity of the smokiness. Staying power is good and a little goes a long way.
  5. valnillarose

    Nightmare

    I bought a partial of Nightmare from an awesome forumte because the notes screamed "Nightmare!" to me but this is my first Weenie update and I have to have them all!!! I'm glad I gave it a chance, because the opium behaves and instead of being sharp, just makes the blend richer. I'm sensitive to lavendar but it all but disappears after a few minutes and leaves sweet dark fruit and opium. I don't get much jasmine if any. Definitely a surprise love!
  6. valnillarose

    Inez

    Inez is a sweet amber skin musk on me, almost reminiscent of the Bonne Bell classic but sweeter. The amber has just a touch of the dirtiness that amber can have, but the vanilla musk keeps it in check. I get perhaps a hint of the sandalwood, but no carnation, cedar, or myrrh that I recognize. Inez is a winner!
  7. valnillarose

    The Changeling

    This is so good! To me it's a warm fuzzy brown scent very similar to Atlas, though sweeter, creamier, with very-slightly-spiced pumpkin instead of coffee. It lasted all day and ended up being a sweet pumpkin scent.
  8. valnillarose

    What do bottles and labels look like?

    Here are a few more, taken with my phone so not the best quality:
  9. valnillarose

    The Soldier

    LOVE The Soldier! It makes me think of Smut, but leaning towards root beer instead of grape. I don't get leather, pepper, or any sharp edges from the Soldier. He's just a smooth sweet musky root beer float with perhaps a hint of pie crust.
  10. valnillarose

    The Arabian Dance

    I bought a bottle of AD from a lovely forumite not too long ago, thinking it sounded perfect, and was underwhelmed. It was sharp, almost bitter, and leathery, with no sweetness that I could find. I tried it several times and came to the same conclusion, that there was no coffee, hazelnut, or spices to be found. Shortly after, I read that there were suspicions of two versions of this, and I wondered if mine was the leather-heavy one. Fast-forward to last week, when another lovely forumite frimped me a decant. Wow! Sweet, rich, slightly spicy coffee, with leather peeking out but not overtaking the rest of the notes. It's like a completely different scent. I wonder if something was left out of the one batch, or if too much of something was added to the other. I plan to layer the leathery one with a sweet scent and see how that does.
  11. valnillarose

    Red Lace

    I missed out on AL and BL, so this is my first Lace scent. I'm so glad I ordered unsniffed. At first I get a sort of mild sweet wintergreenish vibe, and I think that's just my nose still not used to these sophisticated blends. That disappears quickly, and I get that awesome tobacco note that I get from Perversion, sweetened with what I take to be the pomegranate and vanilla. It's not a juicy fruity pomegranate, more like as if the tobacco had been soaked in the juice before drying. I don't know if I get the cotton note or not, as I'm still not familiar with that note, but I do get the red musk that I've fallen in love with, and the raspberry peeks out well into drydown. Fantabulous!!!
  12. valnillarose

    Banshee Beat

    A tousled, sexy mix of patchouli, vanilla, and hemp. The smoothest patchouli, sweetened with vanilla that's not candyish or syrupy, with mild hemp to give it character. So good, and so addictive. A grown-up comfort scent with no sharp edges. Like has been said before, I believe I could wear Banshee Beat every day if I had to.
  13. valnillarose

    Eat Me

    Eat Me ties with Boomslang as my 2nd favorite oil so far. (Snake Oil is still tops!) At first Eat Me is mostly the vanilla from Snake Oil (the rich, thick, gooey, decadent vanilla from Snake Oil...*eyes go glassy*...where was I?) with a fruity cakeyness thrown in. On drydown the vanilla loses some of its gooeyness and it becomes more of a white cake scent with what I assume are the currants, although to me they're just a vaguely tart fruitiness in the background. Heavenly!
  14. valnillarose

    The Great Sword of War

    How odd! This is the first BPAL I've tried that I didn't get ANY of the notes listed. No cocoa, no tobacco, no tea. Instead I get lemon meringue, in the vial, wet, and until it dries. It's not an unpleasant lemon, but I expected more from this.
  15. valnillarose

    Love-Lies-Bleeding

    This is so indulgent! Chocolate-cherry heaven is what I get from it. It's a gorgeous color, very fitting for the scent, and the oil seems almost sticky around the imp's cap. I love this!
  16. valnillarose

    Perversion

    The most prominent note in Perversion is, to me, the tobacco. It's not a smooth tobacco, either. Perversion is a sweet, raw tobacco vanilla with an edge to keep it from being too syrupy and gourmand. If this tobacco note had been in a commercial perfume I'd have snatched it up in a heartbeat. As it is, Beth does the best vanillic tobacco I've found (Tom Ford, take note!), and because of scents like this, I'm done with commercial fragrances, possibly for good.
  17. valnillarose

    Jezebel

    Jezebel was the first honey-based BPAL I tried, and I wore it walking that first time. It's been my go-to walking scent ever since, perfect in these pre-summer afternoons. It mingles with the heavy (in a good way) scent of honeysuckle that's in full bloom right now, and makes me picture honeysuckle blossoms dipped in golden honey. The scent itself is honeyed orange blossom, and I get no rose at all. Maybe far into the drydown a bit of sandalwood peeks out, but usually by then I've slathered on more for that orangey honeyed opening.
  18. valnillarose

    Boomslang

    Snake Oil is my first love, but Boomslang is a very close 2nd. Fresh out of the bottle, it's dark fudgy chocolate, perhaps made even creamier by the rice milk even though rice milk is not a distinguishable note to me, and the teakwood stays in the background as well. Upon drydown it's Snake Oil, but not quite! The chocolate recedes to leave not much more than the spicy warm drydown of SO, and lasting power seems to be a bit less than SO itself. Which is perfectly OK, because reapplying means smelling that rich chocolate all over again!
  19. valnillarose

    Spellbound

    Spellbound is rosy and ambery for most of its lifespan, and almost woody on drydown. Rich and sensuous without going soapy or being too sweet, too sharp, too strong. Possibly the best rose Beth offers. In fact, the only way Spellbound needs improving is to layer it with Snake Oil!
  20. valnillarose

    Snake Oil

    What else is there to say? Since I'm late to the party by YEARS, I'll just add that I do see what all the fuss is about now. I fell so deeply in love with Snake Oil on the first try that I wondered why I didn't let it be my first BPAL. It is complex, deep, and sensual, but under all that is that vanilla sweetness that is just, well, perfect. I find it completely understandable that it's BPAL's best-selling oil. This stuff is GOOD!
  21. valnillarose

    Lust

    Lust reminds me of Annick Goutal's Songes (must be the ylang ylang!), but BETTER! Sweeter, deeper, and what I would go for when in the mood for a tropical white floral. It doesn't invoke quite the same visceral response as others have described, but then I'm a vanilla gal first and foremost.
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