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BPAL Madness!

portalkat

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Posts posted by portalkat


  1. MLVII (1057)

     

    Whoa, strong hit of leather with some sort of floral in the background, maybe Gardenia. There's also something sweet like sugar cane and a fruity note like plum - and I think that there is some vanilla peeking through. Wow, this is very complex and I love the leather and the fact that my skin is not amping up the floral note. A definite "thumbs up" for this bottle and it's mine :P

     

    eta: The more that I wear this, the more I love it and I loved it just sniffed from the bottle.


  2. I hesitated about ordering this unsniffed because of the night-blooming flowers, but since I am on an incense note kick, I took a chance. The first thing that I smell after applying is strong, strong flowers. Okay, I need to let this sit for a bit.....................oh, that's better. The flowers have mellowed out and have gotten musky and deeper. After a bit longer, the sugared incense comes forward and now this is really more like the description. For something so floral, this has such a dark feel to it and I really can imagine a carnival at night during dramatic weather. I'll probably most definitely need more than one bottle of this.


  3. I read the scent description on this and knew that I would love it. The first thing that I smell is the vanilla and then the lily with a hint of the musk. I love resins and woods, but generally I am not a huge fan of white sandalwood. In this blend it is different, somehow complimented by the resins.

     

    Lyonesse is lovely and understated. As mild and delicate as this scent is, it has quite a throw and I keep stopping to figure out what smells so pretty. It is another to be hoarded, I'm afraid.


  4. The minute I saw the scent description, I knew that I had to order this. The strongest note is the resiny smell of the labdanum, then the wood notes. There is a sharp note and it might be the resins combined with the cedar. The rose is faintly in the background which is a pleasant surprise to me as my skin tends to amp up florals. The sweetness of the rose is actually combining nicely with the resins and just adds a sort of incense note to this blend.

     

    This is so beautiful and I can see myself hoarding bottles and bottles of this


  5. Oh, a rose scent where the rose does not amp on my skin and I can actually smell the other components. I can smell that earth note which is always so interesting and different. The myrrh is mingling with the earth and the currant and the rose is rather creamy because of the vanilla. The longer that this is on my skin, the more I can smell the vanilla which I really love. I only wish that this was a bit stronger because I really like it. Oh, well, it was an LE, anyway - too bad because I would have bought a bottle or two.


  6. Gloriously innocent and guileless: pure buttered popcorn!


    Melted butter and a hint of popcorn in the background. I had forgotten what Shill was supposed to smell like when I tried it on last night. I was so surprised when I sniffed my arm and then there was that niggling thought of buttered popcorn that I dredged up. Then I felt like crying - what long forgotten memory was stirred up there :D plus, it made me really hungry for popcorn :P It was an interesting experience, but I don't think that I'll be wearing it as a perfume.

  7. Aaah, nag champa - sandalwood and champa flower and

     

    perhaps some frankincense. Since I have been into incense

     

    scents lately, this is just perfect. This is a very delicate

     

    blend, but I can smell it wafting up from my arm so it does

     

    have some throw. This is very lovely, calm and peaceful and

     

    think that it must go onto my next order. Hmmm, perhaps I need 2 bottles since it

     

    doesn't seem to last very long.


  8. DCCCXII (812)

     

    Wet, just after applying, I smell pear with clove and some very light floral in the background, something like jonquil or freesia. I can't really tell, but it smells light and bright against the pear and clove. After an hour or so, I can smell vanilla musk and something green peeking through. The green smells earthy like a vegetable garden, tomato leaf or lettuce or maybe helichryssum, but it's smoothed out by the vanilla musk.

     

    This is really lovely and different and I am liking my very first Chaos Theory blend a lot. Boy, if there is a list cross-referencing the notes in each bottle, Beth is probably rolling her eyes and laughing as she reads this. :P

     

    Um, maybe the "green" that I smell with the vanilla musk is white sandalwood because I smell something similar in Mouse's Long & Sad Tale and maybe the flower is dandelion...............oh, forget it. Whatever it is that I smell in this bottle, I like it.

     

     

    MLVII (1057)

     

     

    Whoa, strong hit of leather with some sort of floral in the background, maybe Gardenia. There's also something sweet like sugar cane and a fruity note like plum. Wow, this is very complex and I love the leather and the fact that my skin is not amping up the floral note. A definite "thumbs up" for this bottle and it's mine.

     

     

    MCXLIV (1144)

     

     

    Something smoky when still wet, perhaps an opium sort of smokiness as opposed to a bonfire smell because it has a bit of a bite that I detect with opium. There is fruit coming through..............oh, apple and some clove and what seems like vanilla musk starting to emerge. This reminds me of something from Carnaval Diabolique or the Halloween blends. This is lovely and reminds me of Autumn.


  9. I saw the cherry in the description and was rather wary. I was so afraid that it would smell like cherry cough syrup. I needn't have worried because the combination of the three notes is such an incredible combination. I have always liked chocolate with orange blossom, but the addition of the black cherry gives it a fruity sweetness. Vice reminds me of incense and since I'm still on a quest for incense-type blends, this is a good thing. I need a bottle of this now.


  10. I read the description, loved all of the notes, so on with the show.

     

    Wet - strong cocoa without any sweetness and it does not seem at all appealing. After about 2 minutes, I begin to smell the sandalwood mingling with the cocoa. The wood adds the sweetness and the cocoa starts to smell more like milk chocolate, however it disappears just after the vanilla arrives. Now it smells more like vanilla/sandalwood incense because the myrrh shows up to join the party. I wish that the chocolate had hung around longer, but since I have been on a quest for a BPAL blend that smells like incense, I am loving this. Anything with vanilla smells good to me and anything that smells like incense gets a nod of approval, add them both together and that is a bottle order for me.


  11. This one of the first bottles that I ever owned and I bought it from the forum.

     

    Sniffing from the bottle - Floral with some kind of odd fruit smell, but I never let the smell from the bottle deter me.

     

    Wet on skin - Smells pretty much as it did in the bottle, still floral with a sort of sickly, "going off" kind of smell.

     

    Dry on skin - I think that it's the quince that I'm smelling because I've had quince in tea and jellies before and it smells similar. Usually, my skin amps florals and I almost wish that were the case here because then it might cover up the quince.

     

    I had high hopes for this because I love musk and sandalwood, myrrh, fruits and herbs, but the quince kills it for me.

     

    I tried layering it with Snow White and it helped a bit. The sweetness bumped up the apple peel and the quince and freshened it up a little. I'm rather tenacious so I will keep looking at layering possibilities.


  12. about 2 weeks ago, i ordered 7 imps from bpal, and i went to "imps ears" and placed an order by clicking "buy 6" and then added the additional imp to the "cart" list thingy... it had the option of paying with paypal, so thats what i did.

    they havnt arrived yet, and the other day i looked at "welcome" on bpal, and it said:

    "IF YOU ARE PAYING VIA PAYPAL, please do NOT use our online credit card processor. Place your order through PayPal using the payment address paypal [at] blackphoenixalchemylab "

    ... i think i might have screwed up by ordering ON the bpal site, rather than going to paypal and sending the money to them...

    did i screw up? if so, is there anything i can do to fix it;?

     

    please help ;o; i used the last of my money to order these scents

     

    I just totally did the same thing :P I SOOO want to fix it, but I haven't heard back from bpal and I don't know where my order went. I don't know if they got the payment, or if CCNow just absorbed it. I saw all the warnings, but I didn't quite understand them, since I still paid through paypal. It's only looking back that I realize how badly I screwed up. Does anyone know what to do in this situation? Did I just throw my money away? Did bpal even get my order? It was my first ever, only two packs of imps, but I was really excited about it :D

     

    I did the same thing with my first order. Go to this thread here to read about my experience. Sara had answered my email and said that everything would be fine. No need to worry, but now you know to go to Paypal in the future.


  13. I'm sending in a snail mail order and my question is, what's the Lab's address?? The one on the Lab's site is different from the return address on the box for my last order received(HGM/CT III). I would guess it's the return address(received after the Lab's recent move), on the recent order, but since the site's *just* been updated...???

     

    *confused*

     

    TIA :P

     

    I'm pretty sure that it's the Hillhurst address for the orders. I don't think that you necessarily send the money to the return shipping address. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that all of the info on the faq page is current and updated.


  14. I tried this because I really like orchid and I love sandalwood. I was hoping to smell a bit more of the wood notes, but this is a very beautiful creation. The lilac and orchid are both in balance with the wood and the bergamot keeps it from becoming too sweet from the lilac. I love musk and the red musk in Himerus adds a creamy sexiness to the whole. I wish that it was a bit stronger as there is little throw and it really is more of a skin scent. This is one that I would consider ordering a bottle of and slathering. I can see wearing a lot of this in the winter and when going out at night.

     

    6 hours later - This just gets better and better. It is stronger now and a deep rich, heady, musky orchid scent.


  15. Where did this whole, "Too bad Underpants didn't work on you" come from? Cause I looooooove Underpants after it sits on me for a while. It's a great scent, but not my target "Indian food" scent. By the way, when I say "foody," I don't mean like a bakery in this case.

     

    I think that this might refer to luna65's review on "Underpants" in which she posts that the blend is mainly saffron and sandalwood on her. I think that she meant that "too bad that the Underpants scent didn't develop on you the way that it did on her." Of course, I could be wrong in my understanding :P in which case, I'll just be quiet and go back to my corner.....................................


  16. This is the second time that I have tried this so I thought that I should try to review it. It confused me the first time around and the second try is no different. The first time I thought that I was smelling olive oil, but now I can pick out some different notes - thank goodness. The first thing that I smell is the cassia, honey and I think the balsam. I'm surprised because cassia usually does not smell like cinnamon on my skin, but something a little less spicy and earthy. I think that it smells different here because I can now smell the palmarosa mixing in and along side it, the resins. This is such a complex scent and I'm glad that I gave it a second chance so that I could get beyond the initial thought of "olive oil." It will be interesting to see how this smells in a few months. I've noticed that all of the Salon scents are more like skin scents on me. I wish that they had a stronger throw.


  17. I tried some unscented, sensitive skin baby wipes last night and it didn't do squat. Pity cause I was going to bring the box to will-call for people to use. I did, however, achieve success by using Isopropyl alchohol followed by soap and water. I haven't found any disposable alchohol swabs yet that I could carry with me.

     

    I don't know if they're still available, Purell (the waterless hand sanitizer) had individually wrapped towelettes. The main ingredient in those is ethyl alcohol (52%) and I had a friend try it once on an unwanted scent and it seemed to work.


  18. Mmmm, very aromatic, cloves, cinnamon bark, pepper and sweetened with honey. Pretty, but it doesn't grab me. I check back about 30 minutes later and the musk has appeared. I love musk so this is looking better. The spices soften from the addition of the musk and add interest to the spiced honey. This would also be nice used as a layering scent. On the list it goes.


  19. This is my favorite Salon blend so far, although it is nothing as I had imagined. It has a wonderful fruity sweetness and I have no idea where it is coming from. I can smell the tobacco and the woods, but it does not smell masculine at all to me. I have found the Salon scents to be very light and this is no exception. I might have to get a bottle of this and just slather away.


  20. When I read the reviews, I thought that this would be the Salon scent that would fulfill my quest for incense-like blends.

     

    One swipe of the wand and....................Dragon's Blood?!?!?! I have no idea what note is the trickster, but after an hour it hasn't budged one bit. The dragon has come to roost.

     

    2 hours later - It has changed slightly and the sandalwood comes out a bit with the cypress and cardamom, but it still reminds me of the dragon blends. :P

     

    4 to 8 hours later - I'm not sure if it was closer to 4 or 8 because I was sleeping, but whatever it was, or the combination of notes, that smelled like Dragon's Blood is now gone, leaving the woods, resin, musk and spices. This is what I had hoped for in the beginning. Maybe I should just try it again and see what it does because I really like the way that this smells after 10 hours - my skin just hangs on to BPAL :D


  21. I have been on a quest for blends that smell like incense and this had been recommended. When I put it on, I immediately smell the sandalwood and frankincense. I said sandalwood because of the description, but it reminds me of cedar planks. I know that the patchouli is back there, but it is very faint. This has a fairly good throw and quite a strong presence. It reminds me of a much sharper Cathedral without the florals. I will be buying a bottle of this.

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