cuervosueno

I don't think the whole foods in the bay area has any bpal.

I'm quoting this below, because I'm reviewing another decant of this from the lovely Schackjj...

 

CCLXXX (280) I'm testing this for the very kind schackjj.

 

In the imp: The first impression I get from this is a sugary floral with a hint of something a little darker at the edges. She mentioned smelling a leather note, and the more I sniff, the more I agree. It's not an overpowering amount, but just enough to top off the sweetness.

 

On my skin: Mmmm. Cool, sugary lime, soft floral and a hint of leather. The dry-down is heavenly... just sniffing my wrist is making my mouth water! If I had to compare this to another scent, I'd say it's quite a bit like Mr. Nancy: sweet, citrusy, masculine without being manly.

 

This is a wonderful scent for the warm season. Excuse me while I dab on the rest of my decant and imagine myself drinking an unfortunately nonexistent glass of limeade.

 

When I tried this, the first blast from the open imp was....whoa! What is that?! It was quite...odd...bitter? Sour? Something off-putting anyway, though also something green and familiar. I kept sniffing and sniffing and thought huh, it's geranium. That seemed so odd to me that I decided I was wrong, though then I remembered Zdravetz, which has appeared in some BPAL scents, and is, indeed, a geranium essential oil.

 

But I had answered a post for ISO of a great nose (which I don't have, but I don't have an awful one either) so I knew I had to try harder. I put dabbed a bit of the perfume on me, where it was a blast of green familiarness over definite Dorian, took the imp and headed upstairs to my essential oil collection. what was this like?

 

I don't have any geranium (or zdravetz) EOs, but I sniffed a lot of other green notes, and when I hit petitgrain, I thought I'd found it. It has an odd, almost overpowering scent in the bottle which more than anything else reminds me of pickles, though when it is mixed or dilute I find petitgrain to have a green slightly sour/bitter note. And it is citrus, afterall, so it also has a citrus edge. Because I noted that this blend DOES get pretty heavy on the citrus, and I understand why sirensea might read it as lime....it is a very green citrus...Lime or petitgrain...hmmm..who knows?

 

What I don't get is any leather at all.

 

Being rather determined to figure this out, I took the decant with me to the Colorado meet and sniff. Several people sniffed it, and none of them got leather. When I said could it be geranium, a couple of people thought it might be. As a suggestion, petitgrain got mixed results because not everyone knew what petitgrain was or smelled like.

 

So...inconclusive. I think it is either (or both) some sort of geranium and petitgrain. And since I can't really tell, I can't tell either if it will calm down....I know that on me that green top note fades fast and leaves me with a rather citrus heavy Dorian, but I'm afraid I'm not much help other than that.

Hmmm...guess this pretty much answers my question about the Perfumed Court too....here is where they are selling decants.

 

I wish I hadn't supported this business, but too late now. I won't, however, buy again.

so I've been on the forum a long time, which means I've tried...well, almost everything I want to try. Occasionally things come up with notes I like (pear, pomegranite, apple, sounding familiar yet?), and I think....huh, will I love that? Probably not. Will I buy it? Nope. But I might slip it on the wish list for an imp swap, but it's a desultory thing, and I'm not at all seeking said scent, just have a mild curiosity about it.

 

That's how it was with candy phoenix, and eventually, I got an imp. I'd read the reviews, and thought...hmmm...it doesn't sound that bad (or that good), though some very cruel past reviewers compared it to pink phoenix, a scent I like....(I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THESE COMPARISONS BTW AND WILL BE SEEKING OUT SUCH REVIEWERS FOR PUNISHMENT! )**

 

I sniff it, and as I have another imp with a currant note, I see the immediate similarities. And yes, I also get the effervescent fizziness of this in the imp, but it smells...well, not like something I want to put on, but more like those wierd fruit candies that have this fizzy creamy stuff in the middle? Zotz or something like that (of course I may be totally making that candy up, but I really think there is something old timey candy like that).***

 

Gingerly, I put a tiny bit on my right wrist and OMG can we say currant candy? Stomping its way in and shouting and screaming? Yup. And SO SWEET...It's like I'm being attacked by a giant piece of hard candy...a giant piece of wet sticky hard candy that is trying to tie me up and do unspeakable things to me. And not fun things either.

 

About three minutes later, it morphs to....candy scented plastic! It's as if the currant candy and some pomegranite candy mated and created little stompy sticky candy bits wearing rubber boots, which are now following the example of their parents and stomping me too.

 

There was shrieking on my part, and I ran to the bathroom and tried to wash it off, first with soap, then with rubbing alchohol, followed by a metal bristle brush (well, maybe I'm exaggerating on the last one). When I came out of the bathroom, my BF laughed and said it smells just the same. (it was kind of an evil laugh too).

 

And of course, this sucker stuck around and stuck around.

 

It's safe to say I did not enjoy candy phoenix.

 

** Ok, I won't really hunt you down and punish you, but I really do love pink phoenix, and really did kind of think this might smell like it, and on me, it SO did not.

 

***I read this review to the BF who laughed out loud when I said zotz, and said he remembers such a candy.

There are some notes I really like in here, but there is also one of cuervo's banes: lavender. So I didn't get a bottle, and even declined to swap for a full imp. I ended up getting a sniffy from a very kind swapper, and it is a good thing that's all I got....

 

It's not awful...it starts out clean and powdery, and yes, kind of baby-like. But then lavender throws open the door and comes stomping in, yelling "I'M HERE!" As if I couldn't tell.

 

What this ends up on me is lavender baby powder. Not My Thing.

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.

 

 

This might answer a question I asked in another thread, which was about the Perfumed Court, which has decants of BPAL for sale. I know they aren't an official BPAL retailer, but it seems to me then that they really ARE NOT supposed to be selling decants of BPAL scents on a retail site....

 

Or is it ok? I'm guessing not, but admit I'm not sure.

 

I'm kind of sorry I didn't think about this sooner, because I just spent some $ buying CB I Hate perfume decants from them, then realized, huh, are they even supposed to be doing this, with CB or anyone else? Then when I saw the BPAL on there I began to think probably not...And then I wished I hadn't supported their business...

 

 

 

Bottle number: CCCXXXIII (I think, ink fades fast)

 

I got a bottle of this, and a bottle of the O ct at the same time, and they were similar enough that I kept getting mixed up on which was which. Because I kept smelling something bright, kind of lemony and green, and yet something that also had a men's cologne feel to it. (I had one on each wrist, hence the confusion).

 

So my two CT's start out quite similar though quickly diverge.

 

The thing is, I knew I recognized the top note in the O one, but couldn't place it, and finally did: Bergamot. And I thought, huh, could my Dorian one possibly have bergamot too? And maybe some oakmoss, because they seem very similar in that. How could that be?

 

Then I decided to refresh my memory on what a fougere is. Oh. Bergamot. Oakmoss. Lavender. So those notes are actually the Dorian base I'm getting.

 

So what is the chaos part? Lemon and something sweet. When this is first on it is friggin' gorgeous....lemon cake, but not an overly sweet lemon cake--think only slightly sweet tea cakes. With sweetened Earl Grey tea. I LOVE IT!

 

Unfortunately for me, the lovely lemon tea cakes fades into regular Dorian, which I always feel like I should love (love me some tea and vanilla scents), but I don't. And I don't love Dorian because the fougere always overwhelms. So I lose my lovely lemon cakes and tea, and end up with more of the base of Dorian and the fougere.

 

It also fades fairly quickly.

 

So I don't know if I'll keep it. I'm totally in love with how it starts, though. Actually I could try it my scent locket perhaps....

 

eta: It does finally fade down to a nice Dorian, with a bit more of the sweet vanilla tea than the fougere so I may keep it....And today I compared it to regular Dorian and the dry down is virtually the same. I'd forgotten that it was the earlier stages of Dorian I wasn't as crazy about, so I think I will keep this. It is lovely.

I have bottle CCXXX....at least I think so. It is true the ink rubs off of these pretty much immediately.

 

I was very eager to try this and was on my way to work when I picked up the mail, so I pretty much just put some on, and what I got was O plus a bright note which I couldn't figure out. At first I thought it was frankincense, but I don't think it is. It is a bright, almost citrus note which quickly fades, and the scent begins to have a bit of a men's cologne phase, which worried me. But not to worry--O pretty much overwhelms that quickly, and what I'm left with is a brighter and cleaner version of O.

 

I tried it again at home, trying to figure out the very familiar top note. Not frankincense. I KNOW what this is...but what? Sniffed it in the bottle after dinner and it was slightly O but mostly a bright, greenish note, and then...hmm...did I need to wash my hands? What was the wierd (and faint) onion-like scent? (I'd cut an onion for dinner). After a thorough washing, came back, and could still smell it underneath the bright greenery....Odd.

 

So I went to my cabinet of essential oils, because I figured the men's cologne note was either bergamot or oakmoss. And I think it actually might be both in here. I sniffed my very old, sludgy oakmoss oil in the bottle, and yep, it has a very very faint oniony note. But the bergamot is bright, slightly green and lovely, and of course both are a mainstay in men's cologne.

 

So it wouldn't seem like this would all work together, but it does, beautifully. The bergomot is bright and adds a freshness to the heavy sexiness of O, and the oakmoss grounds it, gives it a very vaguely aquatic note. But O is so strong and sweet that on me, it quickly overwhelms and I'm left with a gorgeous, sexy sweet O that is more bright than the ohmygod sex of O on it's own.

 

It's like O, but better and brighter and more golden. I really really like it, and several people commented on how good I smelled today.

 

Oh, and I compared it to Faiza the Black Mamba, which has amber and bergamot and oakmoss, and I'd say they are definately in the same family, though the jasmine in Faiza overwhelms which doesn't happen in my lovely O CT.

 

Yay! I like it!

 

eta: got to say that I really think there is a resin in this, probably frankincense. I'm sure of the bergamot and pretty sure of the frankincense, not sure of oakmoss. On my t-shirt, this retains its brightness, and the bergamot/resin combo is very clear, very bright and golden. Lovely!

Yay Hackess! I just downloaded your spreadsheet--it's wonderful! Thanks so much!

 

Now, of course, I'll spend hours noting which blends I've tried....

I got a sniffie of this from the lovely Schackjj, and I liked a bit more than she did Actually, I quite liked it, though i won't have more to say than anyone else did. It is like its name: light, fleeting, like a lovely sweet smelling soap bubble (but not soapy on me). Smells more like a white floral to me than lilac, but then again, I don't know that I've smelled many of the lab's lilac scents. To me, it is very white....like some sort of fragile white flower that dies upon being picked--it is that soft and delicate. Which makes me want to say magnolia, though honestly I cannot remember what magnolias smell like.

 

Its a very soft, lovely, and fleeting scent.

I knew there was a thread for labels, but I was too lazy to search for it the other day.....but here it is! I really wanted to see what the Miller vs. Calif bottle looks like....so yay! It's up here! Thanks for posting it!

 

Somehow I missed that there were knew GC labels....oh well. I like them though. I liked the old ones too. I don't think I have a preference.

 

 

I was beginning to think I was going crazy as I read the reviews--and the notes--for this scent, because I was not getting any of these things at all. No clay, stone or frost or aquatics. Then I came across this review below, and it is closer to my take on the scent:

 

In the imp: A citrus floral--I'm going to bet that this is a combination of the blooms, the aquatics and the "decay" notes.

 

Wet: Very much the same as in the imp. Very orange (but my skin tends to amp all citrus notes).

 

Drydown and wear: The orange might actually be coming from the incense, as this smells a lot like Cairo on me. However, there's more floral at base in this scent than there is in that one. As it goes down, some of the clay/stone emerges, but this remains orange.

 

citrus, yes. I'm not entirely sure it is citrus, but when I first smelled this I thought fruit! some sort of bright red fruit that I should recognize but don't. It still has that feel to it, that and a hot house floral.

 

But after it has dried awhile, the snow notes do come out. It does remind me of one of the snow blends that was snow and fruit, but I can't think which one. Not Skadi and not Snow Moon....hmmm....

 

I kind of like it...but am not sure about it.

In the imp this smells just like what I wanted, smoky sweetened black tea. On me, though, it is WHOA! Lilac attack! There is a bit of tea under it, but mostly crazy lilac soap.

 

and those does remind me slightly of verbena, which is a nemesis of mine.

 

Well, I'm lucky I don't get the vomit scent, but overall this doesn't work for me.

I don't like dirt scents in general. Some of them, like Zombi, make me want to run away screaming. They smell like beets, which in my book is simply wrong. That said, I do like Death Cap a lot...I find it very comforting.

 

and I love badgers. Really really do. So even though I was pretty sure this wouldn't work on me--the dirt you know--I decided I wanted to try it, and was able to swap for an imp of it.

 

And? I'm fascinated by it. First, I wanted to quote Tartchef, because she is absolutely correct--this is a real badger with teeth and claws and deep earth dens:

 

Hey, that's galangal and then some! Eep. Mustard seeds & mushrooms, and a needly shard of cedar - a thoroughly weird & unsettling scent on me.

 

This isn't a fuzzly wombly badger - this is sharp teeth & razor claws, dank earth & hard roots...

 

And that is what I love about it. Badgers are sort of totem animals for me, and I think of them as being protective and fierce, and this scent is both.

 

Mostly I get the mushroomy earth scent of Death Cap, but with a pretty strong dose of galangal. I'm not getting anything else at the moment. And there are moments when it smells like celery, which is not a good thing, but that passes (mostly if I don't think about it!).

 

I don't think I need a bottle (though if it had a real badger on the label I'd probably buy it for that alone), but I'll keep the imp. I think it will layer nicely. And it is warm and safe and fierce all at the same time.

Oh! I so wanted to try this, and was so kindly frimped with it during a swap....

 

It is lovely! I really like BPAL's almond scents, but can't wear them as they turn very wierd on me. This has the sweet almond, but it is softer (almond blossom rather than the heavier note?) and it doesn't go wierd on me. I get golden amber with it, and a soft musk (and not red, thankfully, as someone else noted). A golden wood grounds it.

 

I don't get much spice. And the amber veers toward powdery very quickly. It reminds me a lot of Hunter Moon, and like that scent it is very faint and fleeting on me.

 

I think I like it, but just minutes after I put it on, it is very hard to smell That's kind of a deal breaker for me, so while I like it, I don't think it is bottle-worthy.

 

 

I live in the mountains in New Mexico, and I know exactly the scent you mean, and I WISH there were such a scent, BPAL or otherwise. I haven't found one though...I had high hopes for Possets ARizona, but for me it didn't turn out that way....

 

I really wish there were such a scent, though. I figure it would have juniper, white sage, pinon, and a hint of rain.

 

I get the cardamom and something vaguely grassy. There's a slightly plasticky, almost pickle-like edge to the spice (I think that's the wood doing something weird to it), and the plant matter is ominously ... uh... not fresh. Like it might be on the verge of mildewing, actually.

 

This one is not playing nice with my chemistry. Woe!

 

ETA: I just couldn't believe this one wasn't working for me, so I went back and tried it again. This time when it was wet it started out not just pickle-y, but salty green olive-y! There's something faintly grassy and something almost nutty going on underneath the awfulness -- but whatever that one horrible note is, I just can't cope with it. Off to wash my wrist!

 

this is probably closest to my initial reaction--whoa! what is that wierd pickle/olive scent? I get no cardamom, no hay....just this odd pickle scent.

 

I tried this when I first got some of these decants, and I tried it with a bunch of others...like heretic's fork, etc. I liked all of them better than this when wet....

 

But then, on that first try, I realized one was WONDERFUL!

 

And it was Bezoar....Once it dries, this is gorgeous....ambery, golden, rich. definately get the richness of balsam...and resins...It smells like a rich sweet amber vanilla, though those are not the actual notes--just an impression. Actually, it kind of reminds of of some incense I have that is honey amber....

 

I really like it.

Add me to the list of people who had to slap a hand to the forhead and go, duh! Why didn't it occur to me that Rosecrucian incense would include rose?

 

so yeah. Rose incense. Nice if you like rose. which I don't. It's not as bad as some rose scents--I guess the incense helps--but still not my thing.

I got an imp of this recently, and had no idea what was in it or why I thought I would like it....put it on, and do like it, but was totally surprised when I read what was in it.

 

On me, this starts out soft, then amps--and it is sweet, powdery, almost like amber. A soft, sweet floral that is like the best kind of dusting powder--not at all what I expected!

 

I was more surprised when I read the notes--I didnt' get that at all! Though in the imp it is slightly winey.

 

Interesting, and quite different than expected. I like it!

This is absofuckinglutely gorgeous, even better than the perfume, which was one of my all time faves for a long time before my skin chemistry went wonky and now doesn't wear it well.

 

It's so rich and brown and autumny. It smells more like apples and pumpkin then the oil does...at least to my nose. There is all the delicious spice, too, as if the best ever cider was warming in the house, along with pumpkin bread. Yet it still holds the scent of fallen leaves, that slightly spicy crispness of autumn air. The patchouli is only a warm darkness in this....unlike the perfume which is very patchouli on me.

 

I felt guilty after I bought this because I knew I couldn't really afford it, but you know what? It was worth EVERY PENNY! This is by far the best of the room scents I've tried, and so far I pretty much like them all....

I ended up getting a partial bottle of this pretty much on the reviews here, esp. those of you who said you couldn't smell the rose. I was quite interested in it when it was first released--I love copal and it isn't in enough scents in my mind--but rose really is a deal breaker for me.

 

But then there was Sarada and Scylla and everyone saying, no really, the rose isn't that big a deal...so I decided to go for it.

 

And I'm glad I did. This is gorgeous.

 

In the bottle it smells very woody and rather strongly of sandalwood, which is interesting because it doesn't have sandalwood in it. Then I get the bright golden scent of copal and frankincense, and I'm thinking, yeah baby, this is for me!

 

Overall, this is a dark resinous blend that is gorgeous on--like I'd hoped Midnight Mass or some others would be.

These are reviews of some imps my ever-amazing and wonderful Switch Witch, Ahania, gave to me.

Her original reviews are here

CDLIII (453): It smells fruity and delicious wet--sweet, too, so at first I thought it was some sort of melon. then I though citrus, which I'm leaning toward now. Ahania said lime, and it could be, but if so it is a sweet lime. It could also be mandarin or something like that. I'm kind of leaning that way, because I just compared it to Lover's Parodies of Sumo Holds, with the mandarin, and I think it has a similar note. It also, though, has something sharper--pine? So the final scent is fruit with an edge of pine. Interesting.

CDXLVIII (448): ok, here we are basically in agreement: first popcorn. Then bubblegum, which I too associate with lotus. Yup, bubblegum popcorn with something slightly bitter in there too. Hmmm...overall, this is just odd.

CDLX (460): In the imp, I thought this smelled glorious--resiny and slightly bitter with something else in there too, maybe something green. But I kept thinking this really smells like something, but what? Then I hit on it: on me it smells like celery. This is not good. I hate celery. There is something bitter, even acrid in it, and something green and watery that gives it the celery scent.

CDVIII (408): Hmmm...ginger. Definately ginger, but with something slightly aquatic too. The ginger is sharp, fresh, just slightly sweet. I like this one best of the imps.

None of them were really me, but I certainly had fun trying them, and since I didn't participate in the chaos myself this year, I really appreciate the opportunity to play a bit anyway.

Thanks Ahania!

i need to start this review with a disclaimer: I don't like rose scents. The Lab's roses, in all their myriad varieties, are pretty much the bane of my BPAL existance...they are always the deal breaker for me in scents. I don't like rose essential oil, either, not even the best Bulgarian rose otto. Just don't like it.

 

That said, I really like the scent of real roses...the spicy, velvety perfume that I've never experienced in perfume.

 

And...yeah. I LOVE this spray!

 

I don't know how the lab did it, but the fact is, this smells like fresh roses in a way that nothing else the lab has produced does to my nose. I read the reviews and thought, damn, if it really smells like roses, I might like it. So I got a goblin squirt, and it was just as promised...I spray it on, and I get this gorgeous scent: first I got a scent of outdoor freshness--of wet grass and dirt, and the rich round scent of red roses...It is so lovely, and so evocative....It really smells like rose season, as if you've opened a window to a rose garden after a rain, when the sun is just warming the wet grass and the wet petals, and everything is heating up to a most amazing heady scent...

 

this is so gorgeous that I had to order a full bottle...

 

So rose lovers, this is an absolute must, and it might even work for die-hard rose haters like me....

I didn't buy a bottle of this, because I already have Honey Moon and Litha, both of which are my go-to bottles for a honey fix. However, my dear friend Lizard Queen decanted me an imp so I got to try it and......

 

(drum roll please!)

 

On me, it is a dead ringer for Honey SN, which I had a bottle of but sold quite awhile ago. Although I can smell a little ginger and fruit in the imp, on me, the honey overwhelms and it is pure, intoxicating honey, thick and golden.

 

It is quite lovely, and different from Honey Moon (which I thought it would smell like) because the rosemary never shows up on me, so it doesn't have the herbal note. And I also don't get the booziness which I get with Litha.

 

So yeah, I like it!

If you just sniff the bottle, this smells overwhelming strong--picture the strongest BPAL jasmine ever, and you've got it. I let my friend smell both this and Dungeon as soon as I got them and she said "ugh, I don't want you spraying that on anything in my house!" (She is rather anti-floral, but it still quite strong).

 

So I waited til I got home and sprayed it on the bed after I changed the sheets. It still seemed strong (but not as strong)--jasmine and magnolia, mostly, but with a bit of green. Still, it was so strong and perfumy at first I thought I was going to like Dungeon much more.

 

I continued with various tasks, went outside, came back in, and the room smelled soft and gorgeous. After the scent sits, it gets much, much more subtle, and what I get in the air is still floral, but with the sweet booziness of bourbon vanilla, with just a hint of something else sweet, which I think is the tobacco.

 

Its really lovely and not at all as strong as it seemed. I mean, you really only need a spritz or two, so the bottle will last forever, but it also is not the overpowering scent you might expect it to be. (It is much more subtle than Iago...er...I mean Dungeon which smells exactly like Iago to me).