allamanda

Very sweet when first applied and reminds me of Delight.

As it is drying the jasmine is most prominent, the rose is still there... but only just.

It takes until about 30 minutes after application before I can smell the myrrh, I think jasmine overwhelms my sense of smell a bit.

This is lovely. It still reminds me of Delight, but Delight is sweeter and more florally, Nyx is darkened by the myrrh.

I tried this one three times (spread out over several weeks) and each time I developed a red weal as it dried. Not an instant one, this took quite a few minutes.

Obviously I then had to wash it off, but my comments up to that point:

When wet this smells very strongly of almond essence.

As is starts to dry the strong almond smell is abating, I can smell the incensey smell of frankincense and a fruitiness in the background.

The almond disappears rapidly on my skin, but is replaced by what smells like cherry (fruity anyway), backed with incense. Nice until my skin starts to burn and I have to wash it off.

Like Joey I am not sure what causes this, my skin copes with Chimera which also contains cinnamon. The only other oil I reacted strongly with was Mercury.

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the update.

Not sure if you have had the chance to read through (I doubt it somehow), but quite a few of us have said we would be happy for the samples not to be tied. Some prefer it that way, others would prefer this to be a temporary, emergency measure. Would it help if we confirmed our preference when ordering???

Yay for Mom!!

Pam.

phew, stout is the word jj_j!!

Very strong when wet. I can now identify the notes in some of the Lush products. At the moment this reminds me of bakelite lightbulb holders when they get hot.

Once dry this is not unpleasant. I wouldn't want to wear it alone, but as backing for other smells this would be good. Well, let's face it, it is... I love other vetiver containing perfumes like Voodoo.

When wet slightly fruity and I can smell ripe sweetcorn (maize) just drifting in the background.

This didn't change much on the dry-down and still smells great. I love the perfumes I have tried that contain red musk and I love it by itself. I need a big bottle of this.

Omen

First reaction was old, lovingly-polished wood.

It took a few minutes before I could catch the juniper, in the background there.. but as a gin drinker I can't miss it.

I must investigate Oakmoss. I am not familiar with it, but have a much-loved (and polished) 100+ year old piano made from oak. I wonder if this is why I smelt wood? One of my favourite smells is when I open that piano, it takes me back to babyhood.

As this is drying I can smell the patchouli and the myrrh.

Once dry I can still smell my piano and the combination of myrrh and patchouli gets the vintage note just right. There's a sweetness that rises above the earthy smells though, light and almost like a pale citrus, not sharp citrus, this just floats.

Well what a surprise. An hour or so later this has changed totally. You know the crisp, clean smell you get near a waterfall? Well that's what I'm left with. Very clear, clean and refreshing, still with that very faint citrus whiff.

Nadirah got it right, " Mysteriously addictive stuff".

I likened Chimera to "cinnamon-spiced almonds". The cinnamon was very noticeable on me, but sweeter than it sometimes appears.

chai_girl I think our brains linked

Beth, thank you for the update.

As the others said, no problem. Your oils are well worth waiting for and your health and well-being are far more important. I hope you have shifted that cold??

As much as I love the ties I can manage without. Maybe those of us who agree could have the labels taped on and if necessary the ties added loose!! we'll learn.

My fingers are no longer nimble, but if there is anything else I can help with at a distance, please yell... I would be more than happy to do what I can.

This is a little off topic but I just need to ask a question.  

 

I sent my order in by paypal cause I'm from England.  Do we still get "Your Shipment has Shipped!" messages even though we're not using the main shop front or do we wake up and find a parcel on our doorstep.

No definite answer I'm afraid. My first order I received an email letting me know my order had shipped, the second I woke up to a parcel.

Equally exciting either way

Velvet didn't really stay chocolatey on me, it went very sandalwoody, nice but decidedly woody. I haven't tried Vice, but on me Bliss was out and out chocolate, yum!!

I second friendthegirl's suggestions and would add:

Ingenue

The Star

Pain

The latter two are light on me and refreshing.

to the madness.

Looks like good news to me.

I think we are all aware that for the perfumes we love and desire to be available, BPAL needs to make a profit. Yes, some of us may need to slightly scale down our orders, but that is a small price to pay.

With regard to the mail; I was starting to plan an email to you for my next shipping quote and had decided to ask if it would be possible to use an insured / signed for service despite the increase in cost.

The list of new smells sounds amazing. How to delay my email in one fell swoop!! There are soooooo many 'must haves' on there.

I still feel there has to be a way we can reduce your administration workload. Is it possible to work out a price scale for International Shipping so we don't all need to email you?? Could we then post that we had made a PayPal order? We wouldn't need to give full details but you would know the order and payment should be on your statement. Maybe this could reduce emails further? I appreciate first-timers and non-forum users will still need to email, but maybe this could help? Is there a way you could post which dates emails / orders etc you are up to? If people know their email date is several away and that they can see when you reach it, maybe that will reduce the email queries further.

Here's to the day when BPAL will be your only job

Thanks for everything, well... maybe not for producing so many perfumes I love, my wallet is suffering!!

First sniff, I thought I had applied Delight by mistake. Very rosy and floral.

As it starts to dry I can just detect the apple, a slight freshness above the floral tones. The ylang ylang is noticeable now too.

Once dry this has all blended together to make a quiet, gentle floral smell. Not pretty, but calm and peaceful. I like this very much, It feels at one with me and I am so comfortable wearing it.

Hymn

First sniff very floral, then as I sniff deeper I can smell church pews. Currently the top note is a bit too floral for me. The lily of the valley is very prominent. Not sure what produces the church pew smell, I assume the myrrh and frankincense, but to detect it I have to sniff very deeply and then I can taste it rather than smell it.

As this is drying the lily of the valley calms down a bit, tempered by the rose. This is a very calm, grounding scent. Once dry the lily of the valley blends well with the rose, initially it was screaming and drowned the rose on me.

When this finally quietens down it is lovely. I think I have a serious issue with lily of the valley and suspect I would have preferred a more incensey feel. The myrrh and frankincense were almost non-existent on me.A soft, clean floral with just the hint of something heavier backing it. It really makes me feel calm and I think I will persevere with it.

Edited to say:

Since I wrote the above I keep finding myself reaching for Hymn, to a point where I *had* to have a larger bottle.

Oh woe is my wallet!!

The most effective way and the neatest to apply perfume oil (that I've found) is from an applicator with a roller ball top.

Thank you. I hadn't thought of that and they sound perfect for me.

I've even found a supplier in the UK:

http://12121.hostinguk.com/Bottles.htm

and another:

http://www.newseasons.co.uk/acatalog/index...tml&CatalogBody

That'll keep me out of mischief for a while

Pleased to meet you fallow deer

to the madness.

I'm not familiar with Boudoir, but the decription I found was:

Boudoir blends the scent of the viburnum flower, a fresh, sparkling note never before used in perfumery, with french marigold, it creates a feminine harmony with turkish rose, iris and the spice tones of cardamom, coriander and cinnamon.

It sounds to me as though you are looking for a light floral?? I tend towards the heavier scents, but from the descriptions and reviews you might want to take a look at the following:

Feu Follet - Deceptively gentle and lethally alluring. Jasmine and rose, touched with sparkling heliotrope

Noir - Our olfactory tribute to the film genre: a dark, moody, brooding scent that embodies moral ambiguity, alienation, and soul-wrenching cynicism. A complex, seamy blend of Lily of the Valley, opoponax, myrrh, black rose and plum with a slithering twist of clove, deep plum and star jasmine. (this seems to be heavy on some users, but light on others)

Ophelia - Wistful and vulnerable: lotus, water blossom ivy, stargazer lily and white rose.

Maiden A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose.

Hopefully the descriptions above might trigger thoughts of particular smells / notes you like. Then it is worth using the Lab site search function to find perfumes containing those notes. Check the reviews on the forum too. With luck someone who is a lighter perfume fan will spot this post and respond.

Hope this helps.

Milk chocolate with creamy-vanilla when first applied. Yum!!

Going incensey and very smokey as it dries (I assume that's the myrrh), with the sandalwood coming through very strongly, almost smells like cedarwood on me.

Some hours later this remains very dry, incensey and decidedly woody. This took me back to memories I had totally forgotten. As a small child I used to spend hours with my Father in his workshop. This is all those happy hours amongst the wood-shavings.

I love this smell, it makes me feel so happy.

I have quite a few thoughts on this, many also mentioned above.

Price:

Although shipping prices might be reduced, we could lose the advantage of the current exchange rates. The importer would need to pay customs duties and these would be added to the price. Understandably the distributor would want their cut too!!

Shipping:

Shipping *might* be faster. Both my orders have arrived within 7 days of the postmark date. Depending on the setup, packing orders, posting etc might be faster, but equally it might not.

Range:

I can recall the Australian members saying the local distributors had a limited range, but I think they would order products on request. Knowing what many of us are like for wanting variety and the latest scents, I have a feeling there wouldn't be too much advantage here.

Personal Touch:

Many of us have commented that Beth does a better job of choosing perfect scents for us, than we can for ourselves.

Overall this is difficult. As the Lab becomes more popular and demand increases it will become harder to maintain the personal touch and individual recommendations.

I suspect that I would use a local distributor for staples such as Snake Oil, but would still prefer to deal with the Lab for everything else. Scotland is too far for a personal visit, but I often send Lush to my friend who lives there and 1st Class mail usually arrives the next day.

It depends on what would suit Beth best. As I see it the worst parts about ordering from the UK are getting shipping quotes, email problems, shipping notification and Customs or postal delays / snarl ups. What was the reason given for all those returned parcels Beth? I noticed my parcel had "Perfume" entered on the Customs declaration, but I read elsewhere this could cause problems as Customs assume perfume contains alcohol. The suggestion I saw was that "Perfumed Oils" be entered instead. Depends on why the parcels were returned.

Is there a way we can manage some of this ourselves? If we had details of shipping charges for given numbers of bottles this would cut out the shipping quotes. Is there a way we can post that we have placed an order and then the Lab comment order received, shipped etc? We could then add our own comment when we received the order, this would surely reduce some email traffic and time spent on administration.

Sorry this is so long. Very likely I have misinterpreted / overlooked the difficulties, so if the problems the Lab experiences in sending to us were brought to our attention, maybe we could think of some solutions.

Nope, "@papow.com" has long been scrubbed. As far as I understand, it's all  "@blackphoenixalchemylab.com."

With one? exception. I believe the PayPal address is still 'cupcake@papow.com'

Hecate

When first applied very sweet floral.

Darkens quite rapidly with resiny musk, can still smell a sweet floral, smells like carnation to me, that slight peppery feel.

I like this a lot, the sweet floral scent is beautifully enhanced by the myrrh and musk which seems to give more depth and stops it from being too pretty on me. I didn't detect the almond at all.

Hunger

First reaction sweet, then orange.

I am loving this one, sweet, dark and sort of husky. My excuse for keep sniffing my arm is that I am trying to determine what I can smell... nothing to do with the smell being addictive.

It has been on quite some time before I can smell the vanilla. I can feel a big bottle coming on.

Almond essence but sort of fruity as well while wet.

Dries down to a clean, soft almond, yep Snowcake.

Wonderful layered with Bliss as well. Chocolate almonds, yum.

Chimera

Spiced candy when wet. This reminds me of German Christmas Markets, cinnamon spiced almonds all I need now is mulled wine. The cinnamon is noticeable but honeyed.

As this dries it is getting darker and more resinous. This is really growing on me.

On my skin the cinnamon is not too loud and is sweetened, presumably by the honeysuckle, and then given more depth with the myrrh. Very nice.

My question is... do I now start to require signatures for delivery?

Yes definitely.

Each of my parcels has been left on my doorstep. Fortunately my house doesn't face the road and is sheltered, so only someone coming to my door is likely to see the parcel. As someone else suggested, just state on the website your reasons for shipping this way. Yes, it's a pain when you miss the post, but at least you know the parcel is there to be collected / redelivered when it suits you.

And yes, I'm still behind on emails. Not enough time in the day, guys, but I'm trying my hardest.

Is there a way that we can manage some of this on the forum by ourselves? For example noting that we have sent / received / queries regarding shipping quotations, payment and orders. This might lighten the load on the email accounts and reassure people the email hadn't gone missing. Would this be practical??

Edited for abysmal punctuation (might be slightly better )