kirsten

I love that this smells purple to me, haha. Maybe a little synesthesia kicking in.

I'm quickly learning that I love candy/foodie scents over pretty much everything and Faith definitely delivers. Delicious and decadent!

ETA: Upon a couple more wears, as much as I like this, it gives me a serious migraine. ;_________;

Oh, man, this is definitely one of my favorites. I bought this bottle without smelling it (or any of BPAL's strawberry notes, actually), and it's everything I thought it would be. Great summer scent. Sweet and clean and just a little green around the edges.

I have no idea what oleander is supposed to smell like, but this is deliciously sharp and green and just a little bit sweet on me. One of my favorites so far.

Well, BPAL doesn't use carrier oils, so that puts it above some of them (I think Violette Market might, and I know Odditorium does). I've never tried NA (or their goth line either) so I don't know if they use carrier oils as well. Carrier oils are cheaper, and dilute the scent; if you see a huge bottle, and it's only $8, then you can bet it's at least half almond or other oil instead of scent.

 

However, I've tried ZOMGSmells and Conjure Oils both, and both manufacturers use pure oils and are as far as I'm concerned, of the same quality level. It's just whether you happen to like one company's leather note or rose note or whatever better than another, and if a certain company makes a scent you love. I don't like BPAL's lavender at all, but I love ZOMG's Purple Almond (lavender-almond) to death, I love BPAL's leather note, and CO's leather goes funky on me. It's all about skin chemistry and personal taste.

 

Just make sure they aren't using carriers and it's probably all the same, physically speaking.

 

EDIT: It should be noted that NEITHER BPAL nor any of the other manufacturers can truly be said to be 'essential oils'. It's true that they all use them, but many of the notes (like civet, and dirt, and banana) are 'perfume oils' and artificially created. I can't think of too many scented oil manufacturers that exclusively use essential oils, except a few of the specifically metaphysical companies that require %100 natural oils. It's possible that the TAL lines are purely essential but I can't remember seeing confirmation of that.

I feel incredibly silly now, because that makes perfect sense, haha. Thanks very much for the response. I can't seem to find on the NA website if they use carrier oils or not, but maybe someone else has the answer to that.

Apologies if something along these lines has been posted before, as my forum-searching failed to turn up any discussion. There's probably something there, considering how long this board has been in use, but I'm evidently not savvy enough to find it.

I'm just wondering about the quality of BPAL in comparison to other essential oils, like the ones sold by Nocturne Alchemy, Blooddrop, etc. It definitely looks like BPAL is the most expensive of the lot, but is there really that much of a difference in quality? Part of me is sure that it must just be a case of BPAL having so much more variety that makes it more popular, but I'm new to perfume, so I really have no idea.

Any thoughts, my lovely forumites?

I have no idea what note it is that I'm smelling, but for some reason all of this combines on my skin to smell exactly like blueberry muffins.

All I smell is ripe tomatoes. Not roses. o_____O

This smells godawful on me. I'm not sure what note it is (especially since currant tends to smell very nice on me), but the only way I can describe the smell of Gomorrah is a combination of cheap tobacco and ass. FORGIVE ME, FORUMITES. ;_______;

Mmmm, I love the mix of vanilla and tobacco in this one. It wasn't until a while wearing it that the wood really started to come out, but every note was very nice. Definitely a favorite from the few I've tried.

I'm waiting to give this one another try before I add it to the pile to swap later, but I wasn't super thrilled by it. It smelled heavenly for about two minutes and then all the pine was suddenly gone. I'm not sure whether this is just my skin sucking up pine smells (so sad, because pine is one of my favorites!) or if it's the fault of the really faded Morocco I had on from earlier in the day. So, like I said, I'll try it again. I want to like this one.

I wasn't all that ecstatic when I smelled this in the bottle, since it smells a lot like cough syrup to me, but I wore it yesterday and I'm actually really enjoying it. My skin amps rose like crazy, but in this blend the pomegranate is strong enough to balance it out. It's much less fruitier than I would have expected from my imp-sniffing, which is good. And the rose is far more interesting---juicy and sweet.

Not sure if I like it enough to get a bottle, but I'll definitely use the imp!