cuervosueno

I picked this out at random to try just before bed, oracle-like, as I sniffed a few bottles without reading labels and chose this simply on the scent of the pomegranate. And it turned out to be oracle-like in terms of meaning for me as well: The Fortune That Changes Bad Luck to Good, Intervention in Times of Need. A hymn for blessings. Yes, I need that now.

I smelled the pom right away, but because it is a little sweeter than some of the other poms I like, I thought for a moment it was grape, though I corrected myself even before I read the notes. I think the other notes do make it turn to an almost cocktail like scent, as noted by Ms. Z_z above. And certainly as it wore on it seemed to get more....clear for lack of a better word and the notes blending together even further become more like a cocktail, kind of the way a cosmo looks shining in the light of a nice dim bar, know what I mean? It feels...lucky!

 

Glad I got to try it!

I'm going to agree too--a tobacco scent (pipe tobacco) with a hint of jasmine, that at least in the early stages is just a hint to sweeten things a bit. I have some trouble with BPAL tobacco blends (which is too bad, because tobacco notes are one of my faves for perfume). I like the pipe tobacco blends, but some, like the french tobacco, are awful on me and smell like cologne rather than tobacco. This one doesn't do that, so I do get to enjoy the tobacco (which reminds me of the kind of pipe tobacco note that sometimes shows up in Yule blends). I'm wary of the jasmine, though I like it, because the slightly soapy edge is creeping in there now.

And thanks to ZZ for sharing empties with me so I can sample these Fortuna blends!

Wow, this one is so not me I'm not sure I'll even be able to skin test. I do like lavender, but in this case it is overwhelming and the champaca and jasmine combine to heady sweet but also a bit funky (no doubt the jasmine, which I usually like). Together it is just a mass of over-the-top floral for me--I can't quite bear to put it on.

Thanks to ZZ for sending me empties to sniff, but I think this one will not end up on me!

Wow, hello, cedar! You know how sometimes we say cedar might go pencil shavings or wooden box? That's how this cedar is (which I don't mind). It remind me of walking into an herb shop or health food shop that sells a lot of herbs. Woody as if someone opened a cedar chest, but also with herbs drying in the background.

Creamsicles with a bit of strawberry. I could see it being good for a child, and it is a happy scent. I like the creamsicle part (vanilla and orange) but the strawberry makes me not want to skin test this, because I don't like strawberry scents. (And thanks to ZZ for sending on some empties so I can try these scents out!)

Odd. I swore I could smell cardamom in Apple VI even though it isn't listed, but I don't get it in this one at all. On me, and in the bottle, it's apple and something sweetening it up, but I agree with Violet Chaos that is more spiced cider (lightly spiced!) than it is cake. Would have liked a little cake, but don't get that myself. And no cardamom, sadly.

eta: after about an hour it sweetens up more on me, but it is, oddly, a slightly floral sweetness, rather than cake sweetness. I wonder if this would smell more cakelike on someone else? I'm usually fine with apple scents, but this one is turning a little odd on me for some reason!

Oh, I like this one! In the bottle and on me, it smells like a sweet, lightly spiced chai. I know the apple is in there, but it doesn't come out very heavily: instead, I get a creamy, sweet, and lightly spiced scent (more cardamom to me than cinnamon, but who knows if there are even spices in there?) that is quite dreamy and lovely. I expect the marshmallow and cane sugar are adding to the "chai" feel to me, but regardless, this one is really nice!

My take on sniffing this from the bottle is very similar to Zankoku_zen's take on this. Floral, perfumey, and as this is apple blossom rather than apple, it has a certain glittering aspect that is interesting. Unfortunately, it's also just a bit harsh on me--almost floral scented cleaner. Well, oud doesn't always play well with me, and florals are iffy too, except for a rare few.

My first sniff: now that's interesting! And then "but I don't think I'd wear it." I did not read the notes ahead of time, so I'm sniffing all of these blind, and I thought, I really don't get the apple in this, but something else is super familiar. Ah yes, the champagne note. I love to drink champagne, but am not a fan of it as a scent, so YMMV. For me, this is heavy on the champagne note, so much so that the apple is almost not there, and a bit a brown gingery note that reminds me more of dried ginger (baking spice) rather than fresh. Champagne and gingerbread almost! Not my thing, but if you like champagne notes, try it!

I read this one as an aquatic apple, which is, no doubt, the cucumber in it. I can see the pear comparisons--somehow, mixed with the florals (which blend to simply a "floral" scent for me), the apple becomes more pear like. Reminds me slightly of green apple jolly roger candies!

Wow, I'm first!

Anyway, to the review! I love fir and evergreen notes, and the lab's snow note, and also am a huge fan of tobacco. There's not a note I don't like in this, so I was sure I would love it! Unfortunately, that doesn't always guarantee a good fit.

In the bottle, there I get the fir right away, but the overall impression I get from the bottle is masculine--it reminds me of a men's cologne. A good one, of course, and one with fir, but it has that men's cologne vibe that I wasn't looking for. When I get it on the skin, I do get the flutter of snow, too, which is the lab's snow note, which I find magical. But it's still a bit overwhelmed by whatever is causing the "cologne" impression. There is something slightly sweet in it too--and I'm not sure what that is. I don't get pipe smoke per se, but perhaps that is what is sweetening it up a bit? I don't get a smoke note at all--not from tobacco smoke or from the fireplace, which is sad, because I was hoping for tobacco and a bit of smoke.

 

In the end, this smells like a classy men's cologne--a bit aquatic, a bit sweet. It doesn't morph much on me at all. Though the fir is there, it certainly doesn't make me think of a Christmas tree or candle or anything like that. I imagine it would be lovely as a good "date night" scent for someone who loved those kind of sophisticated classic men's colognes. That is not me, alas, so I probably won't keep the bottle.

I like this quite a bit too. I tend to like simpler blends where I can pick out the individual notes, and while I generally go for wood or resin scents, there are a couple of fruits I like, such as pom and fig. I saw some reviews on a FB group which said this smelled like Banshee Beat, and thought, oh, no, not what I was looking for AT ALL. (I may be in the minority here but I do not like BB).

 

But I didn't need to worry. This is exactly what I wanted. Pom heavy for sure, which makes it feel red and round. The patch comes off as woody rather than head shop/hippie patch (I love most forms of patchouli, but this one is doesn't scream "I'm wearing patchouli!" as some do). The pom doesn't really fade on me, but the sweet fig does come out a bit as it dries down. I don't get the frankincense at all (something I also love), but that's ok. This is a rich pom blend deepened with the woodiness of the patchouli, and it's really beautiful. I'm so glad I got it!

Great Greenwoodtree. I loved the lat matchbook shrine swap.!

 

Also anyone interested in running another altered altoids tin swap with me? I don't remember who ran it last time but if anyone does, I would like to ask them permission. Anyone interested in doing that kind of swap?

 

 

I had a great time with the altered tin boxes swap years ago (I believe Cuervo ran it? Maybe?). I would most probably join!

 

Yep, I did it a long time ago. It was fabulous! But feel free to do another one if you like! I don't know if I'll be able to participate, but if I can and you need another organizer, feel free to hit me up. I might be able to help, but even if I can't play, I'd love to see it happen.

 

And greenwoodtree, I'd love to do the matchbox shrine one with totem animals!!!

 

 

I ended up swapping another hair gloss that didn't work on for me this, and SO glad I did! I like Vixen, the perfume, but don't wear it a lot--even for a neroli lover like me, it can be a bit much, as my skin amps the neroli. However, this is softer, with a little more patch and ginger and a kinder, gentler orange blossom. Interestingly, the hair gloss goes very vanilla on me--soft and sweet, which is just lovely. I really, really like it! So much so that on occasion I have put a bit more in my hair than I should have! Ooops!

 

And most of the hair glosses do not last long on my hair at all. (Granted, my fine hair can only take a few spritzes). But this one really does linger on me, which is also nice. Vixen HG for the win!

I like this a lot. I love vetiver and fig, so it was a no-brainer to try. It starts out with a lovely vetiver, smoky and quite strong and powerful (almost can't smell the fig at all), so people who do not like vetiver will not like this. But one think I know about vetiver EO is that it has a heart of sweetness: if you can get through the smoky dryness, there is something very sweet in the center like green grass at the heart of the dried grass. Because of the fig, that is what this reminds me of when wet: the secret heart of the vetiver showing itself, shyly.

 

For awhile, it is all sweet vetiver, but eventually that strong--Mars like?--not fades and the fig takes center stage. It does seem like dark, dried figs, rather than green figs, but I'm speculating on this some because I'm not terribly familiar with what real figs smell like. Anyway, it is now sweet and figgy and lovely, and I'm just crazy about it. It reminds me a bit of The Grave Pig, which also has a fig note, and I'm going to compare them later.

 

I'm a sucker for simpler scents, like a lot of the older BPAL blends. I like to be able to pick out the individual notes, and often to me there is a great deal of complexity in a single note, and I enjoy being able to smell that. This perfume is right up my alley because of that--I can enjoy the changes in the vetiver and the fig as the scent wears, and I get a lot of the complexity of the vetiver in this blend.

 

I will probably get a bottle of this!

I love a lot of the notes in this: tobacco, amber, especially nutmeg, benzoin, so I wanted to try it. I'm usually actually not a fan of BPAL tobacco (I really did NOT like French Tobacco sn), so I decided to go with a decant just in case.

 

I do get a similar tobacco to the tobacco sn, which is not to my taste. there was something almost cologne like about it (rather than the straight humidor scent I like in a tobacco note), and I do get that scent in this when it is wet. In fact, wet, I just went....what? It smelled almost fruity/floral, probably from the cistus, which I had to look up, and when I realized it was rockrose I thought that might be what I'm getting--something slightly floral. I also got vanilla and a carmelized scent but no nutmeg, which is sad, because it is an all time favorite of mine. No benzoin either, which I also love. Anyway, I was unimpressed overall: it was a nice cologne like scent, and yes, I agree with Lunasariel, almost clean/soapy (it never went soapy on me, but verged on it).

Fine: one less bottle I need.

 

But then about an hour later, I thought what is that lovely scent? It was not Mars Alator, though I like that even more than this. No, it was this! It had changed! I like it much more now. Now it is a lovely vanilla-esque amber, with something caramel in there. Overall, it turned to a rather sophisticated semi-sweet scent, with perhaps a hint of tobacco. It is lovely.

I guess I didn't read the description closely enough before buying this...I was expecting more champa and rose, and what I got was red wine and a hint of incense. For people who don't want much rose this will be fine, but it is not for me. It is ok, but not a keeper for me by any means. Sad, since I bought a full bottle.

I was hoping to love this, as I love a lot of the individual notes. It the imp it is quite lovely, with a nice blast of sweet citrus and a hint of floral, more tuberose than neroli to me. It does have that heady "white floral" scent which is lovely and sweet, like an orchard in bloom. But on me, the beeswax and honey quickly dominate, and it becomes a BPAL honey scent. I like BPAL honey, so that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I also have plenty of honey scents and did not want another one. I lose a lot of the sophistication of the florals right away, and it's that heady honey note--nice, but not what I was looking for. I get no sense of ambergris or cedar at all (disappointing to me). This reminds quite a bit of Womb Furie--honey and a slightly Pez candy note.

 

I'm glad I tried it, but won't get a bottle.

I wish there was a good alternative to it too! There doesn't seem to be, though. I keep hoping it will be resurrected at some point.....Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Alright all of you experienced bpal lovelies, help a girl out... I am head-over-heels for the (sadly-now-discontinued) Pukka Firming Face Oil. It's not all about the lovely results on my skin either. The scent of this stuff is so beautiful! I would love to find a bpal oil to wear that smelled similar. Just to clarify, I am not looking to use it as an oil for my face, but a scent.

 

So if any of you are familiar with the Pukka Face Oil, and have a suggestion, please share. Thanks in advance!

 

Here's a link to the Pukka Face Oil ingredients.

 

Hmm....is it pretty floral smelling with a green edge? (I'm guessing at that from the neroli and petitgrain ingredients, which look likes the ones that would be most of the scent.) There are several good BPAL scents like that....one that comes to mind right away is Vixen.

 

I've got to say, though, that stuff sounds fabulous! Too bad you can't get it anymore!

Blood musk, Egyptian myrrh, Mayan cacao, 7-year aged red patchouli, Siamese benzoin, and tobacco absolute.

It's always so interesting to read others' reviews since people have such different takes on scents and on notes. Like I don't find tobacco absolutes ashy or smoky usually (more like someone mentioned above, the smell of a cigar humidor). I don't think of myrrh as powdery either, though it can have a bitter edge sometimes. But you know, every one's skin chemistry plays with these scents differently!

 

Anyway, my take on this is pretty close to Gwydion's, and I also agree with CherryCherry that these are scents Beth does exceptionally well. I like everything in this except I pretty much hate musk, but I can wear some of these complex, heavy musk/patch/resin scents that Beth does so well, and this is no exception.

 

The first thing I get is the rich, slightly dirty--rooty!--scent of the aged patch, which is oh so smooth in this, and doesn't scream out "patchouli!" like some scents do. The cocoa is also strong, and I can smell the warm vanillic scent of the benzoin. I get the tobacco later--and it does remind me a bit of the smell of walking into a cigar shop (tobacco, in other words, not burning tobacco/tobacco smoke). But I'm reaching to separate these scents: really, this is all blended together in a rich, dark red lush scent. I don't get much myrrh, and while I do get the overall feeling of some of the red musks I've tried in other blends, I don't, thankfully, get "musk" per se.

 

Mostly this is just very rich and sexy, and what I love about it is that a little goes a long way, and it lasts. I put it on last night, and could still smell it this morning. And also, after awhile, something in this does turn slightly incense-like--I kept thinking I smelled incense, then realized it was me! So I can see the nag champa references, though it does not at all remind me of BPAL champa blends, which I actually tend to find too sweet.

 

This is great, in other words, and I tried the decant, and knew that I had to have a bottle right away! Love it!

Pretty, slightly reads as slightly floral with a bit of the redness of pomegranate, but unremarkable. I don't get the myrrh, and I can really read the chypre either....

 

I was hoping for a lot more resin.

 

 

It is pretty enough, but kind of a generic scent on me--nothing I would reach for. Off to swaps it goes.

I'm a bit of a frankincense aficionado. I tend to be snobbish about it, because it's a scent I really, truly love, but I also base my love on something I've discovered is hard to capture in perfume: what I love best is the smell of frankincense when it is burning, which is, admittedly, different from the scent of a frankincense essential oil, for example. I once bought a whole bunch of eo samples so I could see what the difference is between the different origins, too, so I'm pretty serious about my frankincense! I like a good frankincense note to have that bright citrus-y topnote and still be resiny, and yes, since it is a resin, it should have bit of an evergreen pitch to it too. I'm looking for all that, though I'm quite aware that as an EO, for example, it can be darker, more medicinal, and missing that bright top note that I enjoy while burning the resin.

 

Most people don't interpret it in a way I like. I've usually, in fact, found the lab's frank notes not quite to my taste, as they seem more similar to the EO variety than to the burning resin note. So I didn't even rush out to buy this when it came out. But then I read some reviews and noticed the people talking about the citrus like top notes, and thought,hmmm...I might need this!

 

I was able to get a partial decant, and am so glad I did! This is brighter to me than the lab's usual frank note. It's got some of the citrus topnotes I enjoy, and under that, that lovely bright resin, which is almost sharp at times, like pitch from a pine tree. It does smell like a tree, and yet not like wood to me, but like the sap it comes from. It is quite lovely and quite true to the way I think the burning resin smells, and while it isn't as heady as a sudanese frankincense that I have from another perfumer, it is lighter, brighter, more true. I suspect I need a bottle.

 

Also, thought I'd pass this on: I was trying to remember the difference, if there was one, between frankincense and olibanum. I couldn't. So I looked it up and found this useful link, which notes that olibanum is from a different version of the boswellia than regular frankincense, and I was super interested to note that regular frankincense should have a lemon scent, while olibanum should have an orange top note. Personally, I can't smell the difference--I just read it as having a citrus topnote--but I found it interesting anyway. I may have to go and sniff my EOs and see if I can see the difference between the frankincense and olibanum!

 

But for now, I will say this is a lovely version of the resin, and is what I wished for (but didn't get) in Hope and Fear Set Free. I would happily wear this alone, so I'll try and track down a bottle of it.

 

 

I almost bought a bottle of this unsniffed. Because frankincense is one of my all time favorite scents, and I live vanilla, so how could I miss this? But something held me back--I suppose because I'm particular about my frankincense, and I haven't always enjoyed the lab's frankincense note.

 

Frankincense is a resin, and to me, it doesn't and shouldn't smell like wood or wood chips or anything like that. I burn frankincense on the woodstove in the winter, and it smells like the resin that it is, of course, often with a citrus-y top note. It's a bright scent, and that's what I'm looking for, but don't always get, in frankincense as a note. (Frankincense EO for example, is sometime almost bitter and medicinal, so while I know that's true of the EO, I usually long for the bright burning frank note, which is not always how everyone interprets it).

 

Long story to say what I wanted, and why I hesitated, especially after reading some reviews. Then finally I bought a decant.

 

And realized my hesitation was on target. This also reminds me of Benzoin as others have noticed, and in the end, I don't really get much frank at all. It's a pretty nice vanilla--rich and strong and slightly boozy. And while the perfume is wet, I do get something that I suppose is the frankincense--there is a slightly resinous top note here, with that almost medicinal scent I get in some frankincense. So I know there is some kind of resin there, but if I didn't know it was frank, I wouldn't guess it. It doesn't have that rich bright scent I really enjoy, and it is pretty much overwhelmed by the vanilla. I also see the American Cream comparison, though luckily it's not super heavy like that....just in the same family (I don't like AC). But it is not heavy on the frankincense as I had hoped, and it never gets any stronger--on me, it fades relatively quickly and smells like a benzoin vanilla blend, which is fine, but not what I wanted.

 

So I'd say whether you'll like this depends very much on what you want from a frankincense scent, because this is more vanilla than frank, and the frank is not the bright resiny wonder, like the scent of burning frankincense, I'm looking for. It's not even that much like the olibanum single note, which I got at the same time. (Now that one is a winner for me; this is not).

 

I probably won't even keep my decant.

I love neroli and orange blossom (which smell slightly different and are from a different distillation process. I'll post a link here for those who don't know, or who like me, couldn't remember what the difference was! link) I can't always tell the difference, bit sometimes neroli has a bit more green scent to me (probably from the petitgrain?) Sometimes it has a hint of something that I think of as "pickle-y!"

 

Anyway, my hands down BPAL fave is Vixen: orange blossom, ginger and patchouli. It is drop dead gorgeous and sexy, and the orange blossom takes center stage.

 

I also have some faves from other places, like Arcana's The Sweet Trade, which is heavy on neroli (also caramel, sandalwood and I can't remember what else). But you know, neroli is no shy floral, so it seems heavy--I like to think heady and intoxicating--in almost any blend it shows up in.

 

I'm not big on florals in general, but I love neroli!

 

**agreeing with Gateau--I never get that when people say that and think they might just expect it to smell like that. It's actually a very creamy white floral. (and sometimes with a hint of green)