spaceprostitute

I'm going to say "It depends".

Up until getting a new coworker that claims she's allergic to my BPAL when I wear it (and honestly, she's come up to me on some days when I wasn't wearing it at all so I'm thinking that it may be one of the women near me who wears commercial perfumes and she's mixing up what scent goes where), I would have said no. I have a former coworker who was allergic to most commercial perfumes and had absolutely no problems with my BPAL when I was wearing it and even started buying it for herself and had no problems. But really, it depends.

(Sarada, I'm with you. I need to start wearing my BPAL more because I miss it so much. I laid off of it because of this coworker when we were in training, but now we're not in quite as tight quarters as we were and screw that I'm wearing it. I also use the "It's my shampoo" thing though. And sometimes it is thank you very much Body Perfumery for Ambra del Nepal scented shampoo!)

Either my skin really amps the rose or I just don't know what night-blooming jasmine smells like. But, as night-blooming flowers tend to go acrid and perfumey on my skin, I think that's alright in this blend because I'm actually liking it.

I get rose. All rose. There's a hint of something behind it, but I can't tell what (I think it's the musk I'm getting). It's not a dry or perfumey rose, not overly heady, just more of a lush, womanly, lure you with my feminine wiles kind of rose. I get none of the mandarin, neroli, or bergamot in this blend. It's nice, but not my favorite blend, and not even my favorite rose blend. It just doesn't really capture the image of the description in my opinion, but I'll keep the imp, and I won't toss any imps that may come my way in the future as it is quite a nice rose blend.

It took me a long time to try this one due to a fear of cedar (I'm looking at you Namaste!) and vanilla. Vanilla is growing on me though, and just in time.

This is mindblowing and this review can't do this oil justice.

It's rugged, but not overly so that I can't wear this. In fact, I wear this all the time when I want that nice warm feeling or to be reminded of my favorite guy.

In the bottle, it's a bit reminiscent of pencil shavings, but there's a warmth behind that begs you to try it on. Once you do, it's just the warm, rugged amalgamation of cedar tempered by a rich aged vanilla and with just a note of sassafras to add just the slightest hint of a rugged bite, but doesn't make you think "Mmm, rootbeer." This scent is Clint Eastwood in a bottle. It's wonderful on me and just envelopes me when I wear it, and it makes me want to nuzzle every nook and cranny when the favorite guy wears it, too. If I could buy it in a 10 gallon drum, I would, it's just that good. Definitely in my top 10 scents.

In the bottle, the lemon and spice is most prominent. I don't want to compare it to a cleaning product, but at the very least it isn't a smell I would wear as a perfume. On my skin, the floral amps up, the lemon and spice die down, and it all gives me a headache. The floral is almost oppressive, heady and humid, and I guess I've never been one for jasmine. This is no exception. However, it delivers what it promises and if you like oppressive, heady florals, this is it. I can appreciate it for what it's supposed to be and the image it's to evoke, but I just can't wear it.

Wow, I really wish I got all of the wonderful stuff everyone else did from this one.

It's a medicinal balm, sort of akin to some of the badger balms out there. It's not very strong, but I'm assuming there is some sort of sandalwood in there and it's turning a touch acrid on my skin. This just isn't working for me. Faint spices, if any, just mostly light acrid wood. Luckily, for me, it fades quickly. It might work as a lotion and be a good, daytime office scent and then possibly layered with something a touch spicier or maybe sweeter, but as is I couldn't wear this as a perfume.

I'll be sticking with Scherezade.

I'm not one for straight florals, but this one is one of the few that doesn't have me crinkling my nose. The way it blends together reminds me more of ylang ylang, but this is feminine and not overtly sexy like ylang ylang (particularly in La Petite Mort).

It's a sweet rose and lilac scent, a bit powdery, but not too dry. It reminds me of expensive French-milled soap. Very Victorian and womanly, an older scent. That's really the best I can do description-wise. It's one of the few straight florals that I actually like, but I wouldn't rush for a bottle. I'll finish the imp and won't turn away any other imps of this that come my way.

I hope she gets over this. The girls' got a great "nose" & I loved sharing perfume with her. 

 

My sensitive little artist...

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Maybe it would be worth it to invest in some rollerball ummmm...thinger-jiggers can't think of the name. Ummm...like the ones about 2/3rds of the way down this page and transfer some oil into those for her to use the the spillage factor is reduced to practically zero and hopefully the only way she can get any in her eye if is she rolls the applicator directly on it. Maybe that'll get her back into BPAL until she feels comfortable with the imps and bottles again.

Though those might be a little impractical for just a single imp, but for the bottles it would definitely work.

Am I the only one who thought there was a similarity between Danube and Blue Moon???

Huh, just me then, I guess.

Memo to Beth: Please, don't ever, ever discontinue this scent.

I have been searching for patchouli perfection. Perfection, thy name is Coiled Serpent.

I love patchouli, but I will admit that I don't like them all. Anne Bonny turned horribly rank on me. And I can't stand the patchouli of the Blue Skies bubble bar slice from LUSH. And so far, my quest for the perfect BPAL patchouli has been fun, but other than Depraved and maybe Imp, none of them have really done much for me, until now.

The Coiled Serpent is the most perfect, warm, smooth, inviting patchouli scent with what seems to be a very, very slight sweet incensey undercurrent of frankincense (???). It's bold, but warm and comforting in the way Loviatar is (which I had previously described as that warm hug from someone in a well-worn leather aviator jacket or that perfect, soft pair of worn-in jeans). It takes on an almost chocolate-like quality and melds into my skin beautifully.

Due to current logistics, I have yet to practice yoga while wearing this oil, but this is it...this is the one that makes me feel grounded and peaceful. I can't wait to use this in my yoga practice, but until then, I'll just have to be content with sniffing the comforting patchouli goodness.

Ok, I even hate suggesting this, for fear that it's misinterpretted as saying this oil smells like insect repellent, because it doesn't....but if, IF, the patchouli thing is true, then The Coiled Serpent is heavy on it.

I must say though, that I lurve The Coiled Serpent. It is the smoothest, warmest patchouli, taking on an almost chocolatey quality. This is the most perfect patchouli scent ever.

However, I can't confirm or deny the patchouli as an insect repellent thing. I can say though, that Burt's Bees makes an herbal insect repellent, and their repellent consists of mostly lemongrass oil with some citronella oil and rosemary oil in a grapeseed oil and vitamin e base. I also found this online at a website called thebestcontrol.com

The best treatment for insect bites and stings is to avoid them in the first place. If practical, wear 2 layers of clothing, avoid floral prints, hair spray, perfumes and shiny jewelry. The color blue is the preferred color of mosquitoes; wear white, tan and/or light green clothing. Routinely shower with peppermint soap. Try orally taking 3 - 4 garlic capsules and vitamin B and nutritional yeast daily. Avoid eating sugars, alcohol, tropical fruits and juices. Thread a sprig of elder through your hair. To create a mosquito-free environment, boil willow in water, burn artemesia in a campfire or diffuse various combinations of the oils of citronella, eucalyptus, pennyroyal, grape seed, almond, lavender, rosemary, tea tree, basil, geranium and/or sage into the areas. You can also make a room spray with water and a few drops of these essential oils or with enzymes. Essential oils, e.g., geraniol or geranium oil and coconut oil, diluted in olive oil or aloe vera nectar or jojoba can be applied topically to pulse points on your body every hour or so to repel insects (e.g., fire ants, ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, lice and gnats), but can be irritating to some people, so always test them on a small area of your skin first! As the odor lessens, so does the effectiveness. Try chamomile tea, thyme, sweet basil, yarrow, vanilla extract or try dilutions of camphor, tea tree, bergamot, patchouli, sandalwood, peppermint oil, Guatemalan lemon grass, lavender, cedar wood and pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) individually or as blends. Pennyroyal’s Latin name means mint and flea and the plant and smoke from its burning leaves help control these pests, but avoid mint plants if you are pregnant or sensitive. Other essential oils that can be made and used as repellents include menthol, citronella, eucalyptus, geranium and okra but they can stain clothing; do not drink them and be careful around your eyes and mouth when applying them.

Resurrecting this thread to ask...any new word on Ingenue? I see it's in the discontinued section on the forum, but on the search engine on the main page, it comes up under current scents. And I searched and searched for an official discontinued announcement from Beth, but I couldn't find anything. The only two things I could find were back in Feb. of 2004 when Beth said she f*cked up and accidently deleted it and that's why it didn't show up on the site, and then again in May when she said that she had to temporarily pull it along with Hemlock and Wolfsbane, but that they would be reintroduced on June 7th. The latter two were reintroduced, but not Ingenue. I keep forgetting about it, but then it keeps coming up in main page searches when I'm looking up scents with notes that I like. And Ingenue sounds lovely...melon, violet leaf, water lilies, clover, rose....I want it!!!!

So any word on what happened to this one???

It's nice, but not something I would buy a 5mL bottle of.

This is a very girly fragrance, as in a young girl. If you use LUSH, I can equate with the kind of young bubble gum scent of Rockstar and Creamy Candy. I have my Creamy Candy moments, but they're few and far between these days, and thus so will be with Bon Vivant. The champange does add a bit of a bubbly, boozy, NYE celebratory feel to it, and for just that reason I may wear this on NYE along with my Candy Fluff from LUSH, but ultimately the strawberry wins out and this becomes a very sweet strawberry gum scent. It nice if you like that sort of thing or are in the mood for it. I like it much more than Jailbait, but will be turning to Swank when I want a fruity/boozy scent.

Love it, but love Persephone more.

This one is fairly strong and long lasting. It reminds me of the Demeter Cosmopolitan fragrance, but more tart.

It stays true to the vial while on the skin, like a fresh pomegranate, a bit sweet, a bit tart, with the underlying astringent note of gin or vodka. That astringency mellows, but I still get that sort of tangy quality that you get from those air fresheners that they use in public restrooms.

Overall, I love it, but it's so fruity that I don't know if I'm inclined to wear it a lot, as I usually like my fruit to be in blends either with woods or spices or florals. But it stays true to the pomegranate scent and is quite refreshing. Of the four I have tested out tonight (Pain, Siren, Desire, and now Swank), I like Swank the best.

I'm debating on whether I really like this one, or just like this one.

I'm a bit confused because I could swear this had ylang ylang. It's the first thing I could smell in the vial and the only thing I could smell on my skin for the first 15 minutes. Then a bit of fruitiness peeked out, that apple orchard scent of The Hesperides and Desire reminded me very much of La Petit Mort, with just that hint of sweet fruitiness in the background.

About a half hour into this oil, became confused again because I smelled baked goods. And I thought maybe something was off with my body chemistry because I had Siren on the other wrist and I got the same thing. Turns out they share a note...vanilla. And apparently my body or my nose interprets this note as butter cookies. Love to eat them, hate to smell like them. And thus, begins my disappointment with Desire. But wait...

It morphs again, the rose and bergamot finally start to come out and mix with the butter cookies. It's actually kind of nice at this point because that trapped in the bakery display case actually fades a bit, but still, I can't help but wish that it was ylang ylang instead of vanilla and maybe the bergamot and/or patchouli could be a touch stronger because I don't get any patchouli.

Nice, I would order an imp every now and again. This could possibly be worthy of a 5mL bottle, but I can't seem to make up my mind. I will say though, that this is one of the only oils that I have worn to work and gotten a compliment on, so if nothing else, another imp is in my future.

In the vial it's sharp, reminds me almost of orange blossom. On my skin, it's a bit biting, with an underlying sweetness to it. But then it dries down. And first I thought I was going crazy when it started to smell sort of coconutty, like a creamy, buttery cookie with a tiny bit of unsweetened coconut. It's not a bad smell, but I personally despise most scents that smell like baked goods. It makes me feel like I'm locked in a bakery display case. And that's how I started to feel wearing this one.

I want to love this, but I can't. I like it enough that I wouldn't swap away an imp if I got it, but not enough to actually purchase this on my own. I don't get bewitching or dangerously seductive with this one. I get baking butter cookies on warm spring day with a vague light floral scent wafting in through the windows.

Not for me. Think I would have liked this one better without the vanilla.

I like this, but I don't think I would ever wear this as a perfume, which is what I do with most of my oils simply because I don't have the time or energy or creativity to do things like room sprays or soaps or candles or what have you. There's a very medicinal, herbal quality to this, like a mint tea or a homemade vapor rub, that sort of hangs in the back of the throat long after you take your nose away. The mint (not spearmint or peppermint, Vicks VapoRub mint) fades ever so slightly and gives way to lavender. It's astringent, but less so as time goes on.

I'm normally not a fan of lavender, but this is making me rethink that. Normally, I wouldn't keep more than an imp of this on hand, and I probably wouldn't purchase it again, but this is a good one to keep on hand when I have migraines or or nausea and so I might consider a 5mL bottle.

Well, dammit all this has been discontinued.

I got this a freebie awhile back, or maybe it was freebie in a swap.

I rather like it, though I believe it would make a nicer candle or soap scent than it would perfume.

In the vial, I mostly get ozone and something minty in a menthol way versus a peppermint or spearmint way. I don't like it...there's something a little off.

On my skin it's very reminiscent of June Gloom, that sort of wet, citrussy scent. A tad like lemon Pledge, but there's a little tiny bit of green behind it,

It fades fairly quickly, but the greener notes start to come out a little bit more. The green notes remind me a bit of dandelion.

It's a shame this has been discontinued. I actually like this better than June Gloom. Once the citrus dies down and the greener notes come out to play, it's really quite lovely, whereas the citrus in June Gloom never really dies down on me and I miss out on the greener notes.

Overall: I don't know if I like citrus enough to buy a big bottle of it, but it's definitely one of the better citrus blends that I've come across and doesn't turn bitter like I find some citrus to do. I would buy an imp of it now and again when I'm in the mood for citrussy scent. Well, I mean, I would if it wasn't discontinued.

In my experience it's about every two weeks that they harvest orders. If yours were harvested very close to when you ordered, then you just happened to order at the end of their little cycle. I placed an order on 09/29/04, it was harvested on 09/29/04. I placed three orders after that. Two of them were harvested on 10/27/04, but I must have missed the harvesting on 10/27/04 because my order placed on 10/27/04 was not harvested with it.

However, when your order was harvested has very little to do with anything, unless you're interested about when your card is going to be charged. Regardless of when your order was harvested, it's going to take 4-6+ from the date you placed the order to get your oils because they process by order date, not harvest date (as evidenced by the fact that people whose orders were placed on 09/23/04 and harvested on 09/29/04 are already getting their oils and my order was harvested on the same day and I have bupkiss because I ordered later than they did).

So really, unless you're worried about when your card will be charged, the only reason you really have to care about the shipped status on CCNOW is if it's been close to 30 days since you've placed the order and it hasn't been harvested yet and you're in danger of having the order automatically canceled then.

Lavender, peppermint, roman chamomile, rosemary, and marjoram. I've always heard lavender and peppermint in equal parts for migraines.

I am one of the ones who is actually helped by mint. I get horrible nausea with my headaches, and mint is about the only thing I can tolerate smelling without throwing up, so you'll often find me clutching my bottle of Freeze shower gel by LUSH when I have migraines.

I'd stay away from florals or fruity/foody scents.

Alright...I was confused about this same issue because my order says "shipped" on the 27th of Oct and my card was charged then as well.  But I was beginning to worry as USPS priority mail usually takes 4 days tops to get here, and it's been 6 (including Saturday).

 

Let me make sure I understand what has been stated here.  "Order shipped" just means that BPAL has received your order and is in the process of filling it.  Is this correct??  If so, does one get an e-mail notification when your order has actually shipped or is it more like going to the mail box and  "Surprise! Your smellies have arrived!"?

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I don't know if your question was every outright answered, so here goes.

a) You do indeed understand the "shipped" (yes, those are air quotes) and are correct. Your order has not been shipped to you. You have, mostly likely, another three week wait minimum.

Most (not all...most) people get a click n ship if you're in the US. Personally, I have never not gotten one. However, some people report never receiving them. There was a glitch in the USPS CnS system that made it that only the top person on the list of 10 people to send out click n ships to ended up getting the email. Hopefully that has been fixed. But like I said, I have always gotten a CnS for my orders and I know the lab does their damnedest to notify when orders ship, but it is a time consuming process.

I had a CCNow order that didn't "ship" until two weeks after I placed it, would the lab start filling out an order before the credit card was approved (mine doesn't take very long to get approval in other places, on or offline)? Paypal always takes my creditcard immediately, is it better to order through them instead?  I know I'm going to forget a shipping charge or something if I have to fill it in myself, lol

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Use whatever is convenient for you. Like the poster above me said, when your card is charged is not indicative of when you get your order. It's still 21-30 business days because they process the orders by the date you ordered, not the date your card was charged.

For me, I don't use paypal and I don't mind that my card isn't charged right away, in fact it's kind of nice for me. And I can easily remember that I have some pending charges and not overspend. But, some people don't like having the charges just sitting out there or else know that they're the type to forget they made an order and then get an unpleasant surprise a couple weeks later when they get their statement and realized they kind of spent the money twice because they forgot the BPAL order and bought other things in the meantime. It's up to you.

Depraved was the first thing that came to my mind before I even scrolled down to read the replies, so consider this another nomination for it. It was my first BPAL oil ever, bought scent unsniffed, and I still love it.

Imp is a lighter version of Depraved, with peach instead of apricot and some amber and white musk. Fruity, yet spicy.

Ravenous isn't fruity in a sickly sweet way. It's patchouli and orange blossom. The orange blossom gives it a sweeter, fruitier quality, but it's more like a an orange peel with the pith kind of fruit.

Masquerade starts a bit smoky, stays pretty incensey, and then gets a touch of sweetness from the orange blossom (though it's more of an orange peel sweetness than outright fruitiness).

The Hesperides has a very woodsy (as in oak trees after a spring rain, not the smoky, bonfire kind of woodsy), apple orchardy feel that's not overtly sweet, but smells more like you just bit into a crisp Fuji apple.

Wanda isn't really fruity, but has a fruity, wine quality to it that it cut into by leather. There's also a touch of floral. I tend to layer this one with Loviatar if I want more leather. Not sure if this one would be good for you, but I had to mention it, particularly layered with Loviatar.

I can't vouch for how "lotus-y" the scent is,, as I have yet to really isolate the lotus scent to make it recognizable as a single note, but regardless, Ophelia is feckin' fantastic. I love that scent. It was the first floral scent I ever loved (I'm not much of a floral gal). I got some in a swap and ordered myself a big bottle the next day.

Depraved - patchouli and apricot

Imp - patchouli and peach

Loviatar

Wanda (but there's some floral in it, but to me it's more fruity/leather).

Haunted

La Petite Mort

The Hesperides

Baobhan Sith

Old Shanghai

Old Morocco

I'll edit when I can think of more.

But, don't discredit florals. I never classified myself as a floral person before BPAL. Sometimes it's just a matter of finding what flowers work and what don't, and how you like your flowers.

I'm ok with floral if it's a bit fruity or spicy, too. Like Persephone (rose and pomegranate) and Wanda (crushed rose w/ leather and wine, I think). And some florals work really well like Carnation, which is spicy, Orange Blossom, which is a bittersweet, like orange zest with some pith, lilies of all shapes and sizes, and most rose scents, heliotrope. So now, some of my favorite scents are ones I wouldn't have picked for myself initially, like Alice, Wanda, Ophelia, and Moon Rose.

I've also learned that things like violet, lavendar, jasmine, magnolia, honeysuckle, or anything labeled "night blooming flowers" gives me a headache and reminds me of fabric softener (like Juju and Old New Orleans).

I received a very good response with Wanda. Rumor has it Snake Oil has a similar effect, but I have not tested it out for myself yet.