t_for_tau

I'm always curious to try leather scents, so when I ordered the Marchen imps this was definitely on my list.

I'm really surprised by how much I like this, given that it's basically a floral on me! It's a fresh, damp lilac, like standing in a summer garden at twilight. The other notes only deepen and soften it a bit, and this has become my go-to sleep blend - it puts me in a calm, blissful, relaxed state, worries drifting off. Bugger the Somnium category - this stuff is the shiznit. It's been described on the forums as a "butched-up" floral, and while I can't really see it as butch at all, it's not all-out girly: it just smells like the actual lilac that was blooming outside a few weeks ago. A natural smell, rather than a perfumey smell. Not sure if I'd wear it as anything other than a sleep/relaxation blend, but I have totally unexpected love for it. Probably bottleworthy at some point, just for my mental health.

<3

An overwhelming smell of stale sweat, with a hint of fizzy candy.

I have no explanation. o_O

Thank you for clarifying your position, Brittany.

A question.... "We bear absolutely no ill will about the matter." Is this mutual? I would be reassured to know that the Lab are also happy with the situation.

I'm sorry that the venture didn't work out.

It is in violation of the lab's policies for any of our retailers to sell our products online. Posh Brats is aware of this, but is currently liquidating their product and don't care. Unfortunately that leaves us with no UK retailer once again.

Agh, that sucks.

Wonder if the big Wholefoods branch in London would be an option....?

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but....

Should Posh Brats, the only authorised UK reseller, really be selling bottles of the Retail-Only Salons (among other scents) for 6.99 on Buy It Now on ebay? It seems to be undercutting the lab by quite a lot.... I don't know what kind of arrangement they ahve with the lab, but this caught my attention.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/poshbratsu...QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

Leather, cologne-y musk and...saffron? I would *swear* there was saffron in here.

Warm, delicious and *very* masculine.

Starts off as apples, ends up as christmas candles. Sigh.

Spicy satsumas! This is fantastic stuff. Resinous, citric and slightly sharp, with the cleanness of the white tea. Lovely!

umm..

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cilantro

 

how is cilantro not coriander?

Here in the UK it's the same thing, but I've heard American people using cilantro for the leaf and coriander for the seed, I think.

Neal's Yard do a lemon and coriander deodorant that smells lovely.

I'd like to add my voice to the request for a list of oils which definitely contain nut allergens - a friend of mine with a nut allergy has just been enabled, and I'd like to know what oils not to give her....

In the imp: fig! - and something woody and resinous. Fortunately, fig is about the only fruit note I like....

On: the fig stays in the foreground, but the woody resins come swirling forward. I'm not actually getting the vetiver at all.

Dry: ok, this is cracktastic...vanilla-coconut wtf? Incredibly delicious, creamy, wood-resin vanilla-coconut, but still - wtf? I wonder if it's the golden amber? There's a threat of powderiness that I suspect *is* the amber. I shall have to keep this on for a while and see how it develops.

After a while: I would have sworn that *this* has benzoin, rather than El Amor, because this is what it smells like. On me, Lucifer is a comforting, vaguely foody smell, with a hint of woody-resin-cologne in the background. Though this wasn't what I was expecting, it seems appropriate, and is a definite bottle candidate.

In the imp: smoky clove-sandalwood mrow.

On: opoponax, how I love thee and thy cola/resin smell! And SMOKE. And benzoin and patch. Yum.

Dry: Hmm, here comes the rose. It's a sharp and stanky rose, and it wants me to die. This has completely changed from first on, alas. Now it's a slightly acrid perfume scent, with rose. Like Lucifer, I need to give this ore time, to see if the rose backs the fuck off. Back the fuck off, rose.

After a while: Rose pot pourri. *Nice* rose pot pourri, but none the less...if this doesn't get a lot better fast, it's off to swaps.

In the imp: hazelnut, warm woody hazelnut.

On: Still warm and foods: woody hazelnut with a hint of spice cupboard that reminds me of Ventriloquist's Dummy, without being too much. A worrying over-sweetness emerges quickly.

Dry: Burned nutty honey and Radox. Huh.

After a while: Hazelnut cookies had a threesome with Radox and the old London Mind-Body-Spirit festival, and this was the result. I still can't figure this one out.

I also noticed on the announcement that 'no third party orders' will be allowed...what exactly does that mean? Does it really mean no more WC pickups for people who can't go to WC?

That was my interpretation of it, yeah.

Damn, damn, damn.

Underneath, this scent is a wonderfully true dark woods scent, with a hint of creepy rot that's just perfumey enough. Unfortunately, on my skin this is overlaid with the strong smell of raw egg.

DO. NOT. WANT. I want that wonderful woods scent, but my skin just seems to make it turn to eggs. Off to swaps....

If this stays smelling the way it does now, I've found my Holy Grail leather/tobacco scent.

Rich, deep, worn brown leather with none of Dee's acridness, a strong curl of slightly sweet pipe smoke without the sickliness of Herr Dross, and a wash of subtle musk and incense with a slight tang of salt. This is what I hoped Dee would be, before it turned inexplicably to sunblock.

Unless this changes a great deal, I'm going to want to run out and buy a lifetime supply of bottles.

I don't mind it being merged but I had to really go looking for it, too. I went to take a shower and when I came back the thread was gone. I thought I was losing my mind.

Maybe one of the mods could put a placeholder post in the old location or something, to direct people here?

You're not! I live in hope that one day Lush will start carrying BPAL! Not that that'll help much as I'm in the middle of bloody nowhere, but never mind eh...

 

Hang on, isn't Morrisons part of the Wal*Mart umbrella?

And you know, there's a Whole Foods in London now....

This is great for the retailers, not so great for those of us who don't live anywhere near the retailers. Now, if this is followed up with an announcement that all neighborhood corner stores will start carrying BPAL, that'd be pretty fantastic

Heh, I can't be the only person who lives at a great distance from the Lab who actually has dreams like that....

They'll get more sales carrying these than they will stuff that's already available from the lab, that's for sure. I kinda see this as a reward/incentive for the retailers to carry the line, because the existing customer base will *have* to go to the retailer for these scents. And you know what that means... people walking out with 100 bottle group orders so they can send them out to all the retailess bpalers. If the retailers are only carrying scents available online then they won't get too much business from the existing customer base... we all usually order GC bottles with our lab orders during lunacy updates, etc.

 

That's just my thinking behind the reason for having retail-only products.

Yeah, now that I've had a bit to think about it, I figure this is something they're doing for business - the retailers', and the Lab's because the retailers will re-order/more retailers may order - rather than for the fans. Still sad, though. *hopes for decant circles etc*

I wonder what the *reason* for having them be retail-only is?

I am never going to be able to get my hands on these (being UK-based and not exactly wealthy). Which is a bugger, because otherwise I would be buying several bottles of Lucifer unsniffed. *feels totally gutted*

Someone in the reviews just said that Pirate Moon smelled like Old Spice Lime on them (and mentioned another scent which did, as well) so that might be worth a look....

Thank you Aevalin and Su, I'll check those out - though I'll start with the lime-ier ones, as that definitely seems to be a perogative.

On me, Torture King has a very similar feel (Frankincense and sweet clove, mandarin and bourbon, lemon peel and leather, grasses and smoke, lime and vetiver, ambergris and deep musk).

I definitely recommend Golden Priapus; as a guy, it's the only vanilla scent that works on me.

L'Occitane's Vetyver eau de toilette is my absolute favourite scent, one of those that smells phenomenal to me and also gets compliments all the time. Unfortunately, they discontinued it a few years ago and I flew through my hoarded bottles.

 

(They brought it back as a men's fragrance but the blend is different, something very distinctly aftershavey kills the good stuff.)

 

The basenotes.net reviews mention nutmeg, macis, cypress, bergamot and rosemary as well as vetiver - it's not overtly any of these, although the cypress was definitely present and good on me. I thought Sloth smelled somewhat similar but my ex-boyfriend (who loved Vetyver) said it was nowhere close. Vetiver and I get on well so I am trying all BPAL scents featuring it, but hints would be appreciated.

 

Any suggestions? I'd be very grateful!

I don't have a helpful answer, but as this is one of my all-time favourites I'm hoping someone else does! I *do* like the men's fragrance version, though, even though it's not quite the same. That whole range of scents was fantastic, and I wish they'd bring them back.