Saffrin

I hope this is the right place to ask...does anyone know what US to Colombia shipping costs? Someone offering to buy some of the stuff I'm selling is in Colombia and I don't know what to charge for shipping.

Check out the price calculator on USPS's website. I believe they have a fairly flat international starting point, so it'd start at about $7.10.

For reference, a 5ml weighs about 1oz.

Ahhhhh ok. And there would be a significantly lesser chance of customs having any issues with it? Considering there would be no more than say 10-30mls sent at a time presumably. Unless someone went mad and bought everything hahaha!

Technically customs wouldn't have an issue with it if it was just marked "perfume oils". However, customs agents tend to actually know the postal laws and restrictions, where as post office workers are more sketchy on them.

You can also use "scented oils", "body oils", "fragrance oils." All of these are entirely correct, as that is what the product is - oil with a scent.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming, I just had an idea for a swap that I don't want to start until the critter swap wraps up at minimum, but I'm thinking maybe a hybrid - spring cleaning craft swap, where the theme is open, but the only real requirement is that you have to use what you already have without buying new materials. The only exception would be general things that are not specific to your craft, so if you wanted to try something with a new gage of needles or run out of polymer glaze that you will use for other projects, that would be cool, but no running out for new yarn or fabric or clay or whatever it is that you personally stockpile, and no buying any single use items like clasps just for this piece of jewelry.

 

It could either be separate or part of the regular spring cleaning swap with the idea that one thing you send must be something you crafted for your recipient, with the idea that the rest would be business as usual.

 

Thoughts?

I'd totally be up for it if it was a separate part. I have plenty of crafting stuff I could do, but not other things to be able to do a both or depends on your person kinda thing.

Noooo, my oven is not working. How will I cook my clay?

But I'd be up for another critter swap, as long as there is plenty of room for interpretation in the theme.

Generally, it's the time it is available for.

In this case, "Lilith series live until December 8" means "Lilith series available until December 8".


"X goes live on" is "X becomes available on".

I just realized that I should have received my order yesterday (according to the tracking number) but it still isn't here. The tracking says delivered. I replied to the blackphoenix@ address, is that okay? I mean, instead of customer service. I was having a missing-perfume-panic, but I don't want to bombard them with my hysterical emails.

 

It's so weird, because I usually get orders within two days of shipping. I wonder what the heck happened. My porch is really far and you can't even see it from the street, so if it was stolen, it would have to have been stolen from my mailbox.

Check in with your post office.

Sometimes they mark it as delivered when they load it for delivery, and if they can't deliver it, don't edit the tracking, etc.

There are definitely some batch variations from time to time.

On top of that, though, 3 years is a pretty big time difference for aging, particularly when the older one is an imp, which age faster than bottles anyway.

Vanilla is something that comes out a lot with age, too.

There's a thread floating around dedicated to this question, but for the life of me I can't remember what subforum it is in.

Silly me. Found it! http://www.bpal.org/topic/3142-different-smellscolors-same-perfume/page__st__575

Wheeee. Bottle/imp holder swap thread submitted for approval. Fingers crossed I did everything right.

I know I said I was going to wait until the critters was wrapped up, but I got impatient and want to make things nowwww.

It liveeesss!

Intentionally? I mean internationally. That's what I get for typing things up when the clock is still in single digit hours.

I thinnkkk I know what hosting a swap entails (thread posting, questionaire receiving, match making, chasing up packages, organising any replacement packages, yeah? ), so "might" do this after the critter one winds up, which should be fairly soon.

Wheeeeee

So, I had an idea. I have no idea if it has ever been done before, because the cemetery is impossibly hard to find threads in, and I've only been in one swap, let alone hosted one, but it could be fun!

The idea would to be to make a bottle (or a handful of imps) holder for someone, based off one of their favourite scents in some way.

Since they'd be relatively small/light, it'd be intentionally friendly, as well as all sorts of crafts friendly. People could clay or wire sculpt, paint small boxes, decorate altoid tins, sew a fabric pouch, etc, as long as it could hold a bottle or some imps.

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the correct place but here goes: I ordered on Feb and it was shipped out, till then all fine, it arrived in Germany a month ago but hasn't moved since, I contacted the post office and they said it was sent back... what do I do? I e-mailed BPAL customer service but they haven't received anything... Thanks in advance I'm just a bit worried and to be honest I really want my bottle of blood kiss

 

I don't really know the answer, but I had a parcel from a decant circle in the US sent back by the postal service and it took the best part of 3 months to get back to it's origin, so it may still have a while to go before it turns up.

I believe, to save on shipping costs, that when parcels get sent back internationally, it tends to be via surface mail, rather than air. Surface mail takes a great many months. :/

Ok total newb question, but for 'slather worthy' oils (ones I definitely anticipate using up/not selling or hoarding) is it ok to cover the hole with your wrist and do a quick flip of the bottle for application? I know that skin contact with the oils chances changing them but this is just so much easier haha. Is it really any different than a wand cap in terms of possible 'damage' to the oil? (which also contacts the skin then goes back in the bottle)

That's how I apply all mine anyway. Haven't had a single one go ew from it or anything. I would assume most people use wand caps so they don't accidentally spill when they tip the bottle.

I think those that are more worried about skin oils tend to use coffee stirrers or the such, which are easily one time use.

I use oil straight from the bottle. Finger over the top, upend, rub finger in spot.

I do have some with wand caps from forum sales, but I forget they have them every time, and almost spill them everywhere when I don't lift the wand up high enough to clear the bottle when putting the cap aside. :/

Reducer caps are the bane of my existence.

Like with all bpals, aging tends to bring out musks, vanillas and other base notes. So it can't hurt to let it age in a dark place for a year or two. However, batch variation is very likely. In the imp of Dee, what is the masculine vibe you get? Woodsy? Musky? Leather? From what I read, Dee contains paper and tonka notes which has the potential to turn powdery.

Dee is also one of the names that has come up quite a few times in recent history in the batch variation thread.

I would totally be down for more international-friendly crafty type swaps.

The critter one is my first swap, and I am having a ball plotting and planning and making.

I'm naturally a dark copper redhead, all autumny, and it's kind of funny to see people putting down redheads as spicy/resins, and then lots of the redheads saying they're all about floral/fruits. Count me up as another one. I love spring meadow and summer orchard kind of scents. Fruits, florals, honeys with a small bit of earthiness.

My mum is also a copperhead, but lighter/softer all over in general. She's a huge foodie, loving vanillas, etc, as well as a huge dark kind of person. Her collection is all food based scents, and then there's Queen Mab and Black Ice thrown in randomly as top loves.

My blonde sister is all soft florals and roses, whereas my brunette sister is all about bright, slightly spunky scents. She likes sparkling fruits and loud candy scents.

I'm getting headaches from Sacred Whore of Babylon. No other perfume of any type has ever given me that reaction, so is there a particularly rare ingredient in the blend that could be causing this?

Unfortunately, the scent doesn't have a notes listing, so it'd be hard to pin down.

Headaches are easily set off by notes your body doesn't like, and it doesn't have to be particularly rare - just one you haven't had before, and the lab has a LOT of notes.

Mine, for instance, are reallly common - white tea, black tea and opium, though I only have a few imps with them, because the lab has such variety.

Bayou (A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms.) might fit what you need, though on me, it went all hot, and not much of the water, but, skin chem and all.

Another one that I got warmish/humid woody swamp from was Niflheim (The House of Mists, a land of icy fog, shadowy darkness and soul-chilling cold. Dark, damp blossoms winding through an impenetrable, murky gloom.) but a bunch of other people don't get the warmth from it that my skin brought out somehow.

Juliet.

Some creative Googling for the other two suggests that they might both have been scents by Bombshell Bath/Fyrinnae (who I think don't make perfumes any more? but I could be wrong) - I can't find notes for either of them, though, just a description of O'Hara as being similar to BPAL's Miskatonic University, and of Pint O' Stout as being indescribable :x Not too helpful - I hope that at least helps place them, though!

Yeah. They haven't made scents for a greattt many years. Think I started buying from them in '08, and the scents were long gone then. You should have some delicious super aged goodness, by the sounds of it.

Found this in relation to a scent being compared to Pint O' Stout:

"In the bottle, FMB is an interesting and complex tobacco/chocolate/coffee/boozey blend. It shares a similarity to Bombshell Bath/Fyrinnae's ancient, long discontinued Pint O'Stout scent, except without POS's sharp mystery note."

The writer also says it kinda smells like a 7-11 coffee bar.

Imp: The fizzy champagne hits first, followed by a bit of strawberry. Smells like actual strawberries, and not the candy version. It's only a little bit of strawberry. Most of it is very boozy booze.

Wet: Slightly champagne infused strawberry, rather the other way around now. Not one to be into booze, but the strawberry being the majority on this scent is yummy. Fizzy.

The other half has decided it smells like bubble bath.

After a while more, it's turning back towards the champagne. Silly white grapes. Smells like white wine, brightened slightly by the strawberry.

Dry: Strawberry is turning a bit more candy and fake now. The champagne is still realllyyy boozy, and in my face.

Loved the real strawberry at the start, but int he end, turned too fake and winey for my liking,

Memory rewrite. Gogo accidentally closing browsers.

Imp: Bubblegum! I have Eight-petaled Lotus, and that smells just nice and floral on me. This is completely different. Really fruity and juicy.

Can't smell any of the Dragon's Blood Resin at this stage.

Wet: Turns to super duper extra fruity juicy bubblegum. I assume the extra fruitness comes from the resin. It also makes it deeper, and a bit darker. Onomnom.

The lotus starts to fall away pretty quickly, and the spicy fruitness from the resin starts to take over. Turns out, by itself, I kinda like Dragon's Blood Resin. Either that, or it is a different type than in Blood Rose.

Dry: Slightly spicy fruitness. I can't smell any of the lotus anymore. Kinda nice and warm.

Imp: Mostly frankincense, but a little different. Overall, it's an incensey, almost enchantment shop smell

Wet: Frankincense, frankincense, frankincense. Why do I amp you so? Seriously. Sod off for just a second, please?

Dry: Washed off, as the pure frankincense was starting to hurt my head.

Imp: Reminds me of orange skin, without the juice smell, with soft raspberry along for the ride. Doesn't smell overly sweet to me, nor tangy. Just... real smelling fruit.

Wet: Much the same as in the imp, except the orange smells tangy now. After a few minutes, the raspberry falls off.

Dry: The raspberry hits the nose first, without being too sharp or tangy. The orange has moved away from true juicy, and is smelling a bit candyish now. Kinda wanna nom my own wrist.

It is bright, and happy, without being too fake.

I have another orange-raspberry scent, from another company, and this one is definitely the winner, being so nice and smooth.

Imp: Incense floral. In the same family as soapy, without the soap smell. Weird. Must be the white florals.

Wet: Sage and wood, tempered by florals and musk. It slowly starts making its way closer to creamy smelling soap, but the woods and musks seem to be holding it back?

Dry: 40 minutes later, and not sure with this one. It seems to have mostly disappeared. I smell some sandalwood warmth, and a bit of soapy still, but it is very soft, and disappearing fast.