allamanda

The forum looks great. I love the designs.

 

Thank you for your hard work and I hope you sleep well

 

Edited because I just looked at the 'Review' section and wanted to say how wonderful it is

everyone:

 

shriekingviolet has kindly offered to host the forums on her site, where she has suffient extra bandwidth.  thank you so much for all your offers of support =D

 

i've really enjoyed having these forums, and i'm sorry i couldn't keep up with the level of activity!  thank you all so much.

 

Thank you for all your work slythwitch, it is a lovely forum and such a shame you are no longer able to host it.

 

Thank you for stepping in to the breach shriekingviolet, much appreciated.

Happy to contribute via PayPal, but don't forget to allow for the charges too.

Does anyone know what the stuff is that they actually swing around in church?  That particular resin (or blend of resins) is particularly 'wow'  and I'd dearly love to buy that in a bottle....

 

I've always thought it was Frankincense and Myrrh, but I stand to be corrected.

I will resist, I will resist.

 

It all looks too cool Elizabeth, I can't wait

From Bewitching Brews

 

First sniff unbelievably sweet...smells like jelly babies to me whilst still wet. Getting deeper and darker as it dries, still incredibly sweet. Developing an acrid note that I can't identify, at the moment not sure if I like it. Now it has developed I don't dislike it, but don't quite like it either.. it has almost a toffee note and a faint whiff of dry smoke. I think I would like this as a room scent or something (so will try), but it doesn't quite smell right when I wear it.

From Bewitching Brews

 

First sniff sharp and woody, quite an earthy smell. The sharpness is almost citrussy, presumably that's the galangal I can smell. This is a nice smell, Some hours later still smells pleasant but once again has a faint curry odour on me.

 

This is another one where the smell was not 100% to my liking after an hour or so. It seems as though my skin (or maybe my nose) can't cope with sandalwood + citrus-type smell. Other than that, I liked it.

From Love Potions

 

mmm spicy rose when wet. Gentle and pretty but not too sweet. Carnation becoming more obvious as it dries. As it dries smelling more and more like herbal tea, I couldn't smell the tea when it was wet.When dry the smell of tea is very strong on me, not an unpleasant smell.. but not one I want to wear.

From Love Potions

 

When wet like overpowering aftershave. Not at all feminine on me and not pleasant at the moment either. This is making my eyes run and I want to sneeze, can't decide what is so unpleasant to me. Improves slightly when dry, but really can't take to this at all. This is the first one I am going to wash off immediately!

 

I love BPAL perfumes, but this one and my skin chemistry didn't hit it off. I'm one of the people who makes Chanel 5 smell disgusting.

From Diabolus

 

Stunning!! Beautiful ginger smell and couldn't stop sniffing my wrist. I had to force myself not to use it and try something else. Definite keeper, I adore this smell.

From Venerable Cities

 

Lovely smell in bottle and when first applied. Green tea hit me first, rapidly followed by lemon. Very light. Fading quickly to a pretty, light, lemony fragrance. Clean smelling and very nice. Mellows out on me to a light daytime-type fragrance. Can still smell the green tea and faintly the lemon, never did detect the honeysuckle. I reckon this would smell great on a man. A keeper

From Bewitching Brews

 

Not very strong when wet. Very understated and slightly sweet. Very, very nice but way too complicated for my nose to break down the individual scents at the moment. Still very slightly wet, so may change as it matures. Lovely smell and I still can't isolate any individual smells. This is so nice, but seems to fade on my skin or maybe it is my sense of smell, not sure. Once completely dry I could just detect the sandalwood, I will have to try again.

 

wow totally different when more applied. I can even smell orange this time. Beautiful

 

It is several weeks since I wrote the above and Queen Mab has really grown on me. Very close behind my favourite (Snake Oil), this is totally addictive and I get withdrawal symptoms if I don't wear it for a couple of days.

From Bewitching Brews

 

Smelt good from the beginning, but very familiar. Can't place it (yet) but reminds me of how perfume used to smell. I am not catching any individual notes, so maybe it is just the overall blend I smell. Very pleasing, but not addictive.

 

Mellowing out to churchy incense, somewhat reminiscent of Icon perfume (yes, I still have some). My Husband's comment was, "sweetshop" ... disagree but.... obviously his nose is different.

From Love Potions

 

Weird, on application the first thing I smelt was Lily of the valley... mmm that isn't there. Very sweet, very pretty, very floral. As it was drying I started to smell the melon, violet and a few minutes later the clover. This feels incredibly young and pretty (I'm neither!!). Very rapidly faded out to not a lot. Very light and not really to my taste. Not unpleasant, just nothing.

From Love Potions

 

I love this smell.. wet or dry it is fantastic. Vanilla and spice with a wonderful dryness a bit like smelling a wooden cask that has contained something wonderful... an exotic liqueur or similar. The dryness is almost like tobacco, but very special. When dry still gorgeous. A slight smokiness has now developed. I can understand why this is BPAL's most popular fragrance.

Now I'm convinced my nose is weird. First thing I smelt was mint!! On concentrating it seems to be the combination of lime, vanilla and pine. Strong resinous smell whilst wet. As it dries I am smelling the patchouli. Now it is smelling sweeter and I can smell the almond and clove. Very nice, I like this. Beautifully blended smells. An hour or more on and I am totally hooked. This smells gorgeous.

Initially incredibly sweet. Then I was especially aware of the Frangipani and Jasmine. As it matured on my skin I could just smell the rose if I concentrated. Still reminds me of Jelly Tots or something. Very nice, a keeper. My early reaction was, 'maybe not compulsive', now I can't stop sniffing it! There is so much depth to this fragrance.

Final verdict: absolutely fantastic

Smelt lovely in the bottle and when first applied... but totally different on both. Once applied I could smell the ylang ylang but everything else just blended to a lovely sweet smell. As it is drying I am smelling violets as well as rose. Really nice but can't understand why I am smelling parma violets so strongly when they aren't in there. This feels like a memory perfume, like a flashback in time. I really love it. An hour later I still can't stop sniffing this, definitely a keeper, I want to smother myself in it.

The above was my first try of Phantom. Weeks later I still love it and have ordered more. It is a really comforting smell!

Must agree, Spellbound is gorgeous.

 

Lovely smell when opened and first applied. As I sniff I smell first faint rose then a faint musk blends to amber. Every time I sniff I am getting this effect, one smell progressing to the others... very interesting. I am not especially a musk fan, but it smells good in here. As it dries I am more aware of the rose. Very pleasant smells from this. The rose smell is taking back somewhere in my childhood, trying desperately to remember where / what. It is a warm, clean rose note, faint but so pleasing. Some hours later this still smells gorgeous. Warm, deep and lovely.

 

I've already ordered more of this one.

wow!! Gorgeous in the bottle and when first applied. Unusually for me I can immediately detect most of the different scents. Patchouli first, then lemon, then cedar, rose and jasmine. Sandalwood seems to be there as a backdrop as it is drying. This just smells so intense and complex. So far I love it. Getting slightly peppery now, maybe the sherbet lemon effect. Dries out to a spicy lemon, very nice. Slight reservation as it really does smell like curry to me.

 

Since my original review above I have discovered this is a superb oil for burning. I don't like it on my skin, but in the burner it is warm, eastern and really lovely.