dronzeka

This is lovely! Initially, it smells like soap - but a very posh and luxurious soap. It dries down into a slightly-soapy (and I mean that in a good way) aquatic with a hint of sweetness from the honey. There's a kind of powdery depth to it from the ambergris. On me for my test it's quite light and refreshing, though I can see how it would be possible to apply it with an overly heavy hand. I will have to think about a bottle for this one!

I'm not sure if it's totally inappropriate to post this here, but the richest, most buttercream-y buttercream I've ever come across is at Heaven and Earth Essentials (the link is to the forum thread) - you can get a straight buttercream scent from them, or a lot of scents with a buttercream component. ...

 

Since Anna mentioned being unsure about whether it's appropriate to recommend non-BPAL perfumes in this section, I thought I'd clarify that for everyone

Thanks so much for clearing that up! It makes total sense.

Is there a set schedule for will calls, anyway? Or is each one decided separately?

Will Calls are held on the full moon, so while it varies, it's also set, if that makes any sense. There's a list of dates for 2008 here.

I'm not sure if it's totally inappropriate to post this here, but the richest, most buttercream-y buttercream I've ever come across is at Heaven and Earth Essentials (the link is to the forum thread) - you can get a straight buttercream scent from them, or a lot of scents with a buttercream component.

ETA: HAEE's Samhain is Irish soda bread with apples, and people said it smelled very bready; someone also compared it to the Body Perfumery's Milk Bread scent. (Sorry, more not BPAL!)

Heh, I adore Shattered! I don't find it in the "heavy sophisticate" class of perfumes, but I'm just excited to have something with grapefruit and mint that sticks around. I completely second (third?) the Marquise, to me that's a very posh grownup lady scent (I love it).

Interestingly, I get way more evergreen than snow from this, though the snow note is definitely there. Initially it's a blast of wintry pine/fir/spruce (sorry, I can't really tell my evergreens apart!). As it dries down, the berries make an appearance - they're subtle, but present; they add a nice sweetness to this. And there is a sort of hint of the lunar herbs and flowers underneath, like a very distant bass note (terrible metaphor!). I like this VERY much. It reminds me of Skadi, though I should add I only have a little half-imp of Skadi that I hoard like mad, so I'm not doing a direct comparison and may not remember it very well at this point. I think it's also a LOT like The Snow Storm, although I find it a bit more feminine with the sweetness of the berries. ETA: Yes, I did a side-by-side comparison of the Snow Storm and Old Moon, and they're very similar, but the Snow Storm has a woodier undertone, while Old Moon is sweeter from the berries/lunar herbs/flowers. Both are pretty gender neutral, though, and while Old Moon is sweeter, I think guys would have no problem wearing it (off to attack the husband... ).

Wet, this is an incredibly crisp and refreshing peppermint. It gets a little murkier as it dries on me; something is coming across as a kind of dusty cocoa on me, very much like Tokyo Stomp, and it winds up a little dry and dull. I find it much drier and crisper than Lick It Again, which turns into a wonderful cream vanilla on me, rather than fading into the kind of almost cocoa-y dustiness of Lick It One More Time. So I can stick with my bottle of Lick It Again! LIOMT is nice, but on me, nothing special.

(Actually, it would probably be nice in a scent locket where it would stay that initial blask of crisp fresh MINT!!!!!!!).

Damn, I don't get ANYTHING like what anyone else describes.

Wet, I get something sort of high-pitched and sharp, but it doesn't read as floral to me, and I think it's the tonka (resins don't work very well on me). Though I suppose it could be some weird bastardization of jasmine?

Eventually, it dries, and I get some honey. But really, it's hard to smell ANYTHING - it's incredibly faint on me. And it's just...sort of blah honey. (Says the woman who LOVES honey.) Seriously, I don't get ANYTHING interesting from this. I don't smell any fig, carnation, almond, or apricot (all of which I love). I get a very faint honey.

Sigh. I adore Honey Moon SO much that I'd hoped this would be a wonderful successor! But on me, it's just not. Wish I got some of what everyone else is smelling!

(It's especially weird because normally stuff that people like works on me - I have pretty forgiving chemistry. So far, the only scents that have smelled nothing like what they're supposed have been this, and Snow White. Total bummer!)

(2007 version)

In the imp, this smells just like gingerbread cookies; on me, it turns into that very dry ginger that takes on almost a lemon-y smell (I think this is the same kind of ginger that's in Shub?). It's very spicy, but not sweet enough for me - it's almost a little harsh. I suspect it would be lovely as a room scent, though!

Wet, this is OMFG so gorgeous! Sweet, rich, peaches - beautiful and sweet without being cloying. As it dries, the white wine grape makes itself known as well, and the florals cut through the fruitness a bit. It really is a lovely scent - basically I'd just ditto everything that clover just said above.

Initially, this is hugely lemon verbena on me, too - brisk and citrus-y and refreshing. I love verbena, but after a few minutes it turns a wee bit cleaning-fluid-like. As I wait longer, though, the musks and white flowers come out to play, as well as the rose. Moonflower goes a bit soapy on me (but very expensive, superior soap ) and I get that here, softened by the magnolia. Now I only get the occasional whiff of verbena, but it does seem to add a certain brightness to the scent. In any case, this is a beautiful cool floral, with that kind of complexity and seamlessness I always get out of the Salons. Truly lovely!

Okay, I'm not sure why I bought this, because patchouli doesn't usually like me at all... but strangely enough, it kind of almost works here! In the imp I get a lot of patchouli and think, yuck, oh well, not a surprise. But on it's much nicer! Something about the carnation and honey and musk is combining to really smoothen and mellow out the patchouli, and I can almost see why people would like it. (Sorry, that's such a ringing endorsement! ) It's warm and deep and strong and maybe just a little bit angry. Like all the Salons, it's very complex and well-blended - it's hard to distinguish any of the notes, really; the spiciness of the carnation and the woodiness of the sandalwood are melding together to fill in the rough edges of the patchouli. Anyway, I'm not sure that it's precisely me, but it's intriguing - may have to try it again before I decide its ultimate fate...

In my mind it's Bee-pal, but then, I'm Spanish and we read acronyms as word as long as it fits our sound system. I say in my mind because if I ever speak to anybody about the lab it's as "los perfumitos" or "las muestrecitas": the perfumies, or the samplies, like "the doggies" "the kitties".

I LOVE "los perfumitos"! I never took Spanish, but Italian does something similar with "ini" (like "linguini", little tongues). I love those diminutive endings.

I just retested Phantasm, which is verbena, green tea, jasmine, and something I'm forgetting, and it's very bright and fresh and green and cheery - it really smelled like spring/summertime to me.

Now, whether it would have any effect, I don't know. Maybe some other of the Panaceas? Also, have you looked into TALs? I know there's a Joy blend which sounds like a good antidote to SAD, and Anthelion also is designed to ease depression (and smells WONDERFUL!).

I'm finding all sorts of neat threads today...

 

Ha, am I the only person who just applies straight from bottle to wrist?

 

Heh. Nope. I upend the bottle once against each wrist, then apply wrists to opposing inner elbows.

 

It depends on the scent, and how much I want to smell like it. For light ones like Vampire Tears or Phantom Wooer, I'll apply straight to one wrist, rub my wrists together, then rub each wrist on my neck and shoulders. (And in my hair, if there's still a lot of oil to go around...)

 

If it's one that has a lot of throw, I just apply from the edge of the bottle, or the cap.

 

I like the idea with the bobby pins though. I may have to use that in the future.

 

o_O I couldn't imagine putting that much oil on at once.

And I couldn't imagine putting on less! I am kind of amazed at people who use just the amount on one dip of an imp wand, or just dot from the residue on the cap - it's not a criticism, it's just because I'd never be able to smell the perfume that way! Either I eat scents, or my life-long allergies have shot my sense of smell and I'm happily stinking out everyone around me.

Seriously, though, I don't think I'm stinking people out, because when I *do* overapply, I can tell; it's just that most scents are completely unnoticeable on me unless I apply more generously (I just stick my index finger over the top of the bottle and invert, but I'll do it a few times depending on the scent). Maybe it's because I don't like most of the really strong varieties of scents (resins, patchouli, that kind of thing).

This is beautiful - sweet and cool. At first I really couldn't smell the mint, but as it dries, I think I'm getting a combo of the mint and sage. Okay, I confess that I really can't distinguish between the different florals, because I don't know most of them, but this is gorgeous. I almost get a kind of verbena-esque vibe from it, which may be partly the sage. There's a tiny little hint of frost behind this, too. It's sweet, but it's a crisp kind of sweetness, almost dry, not juicy or fresh. Ah, I give up, this is a lame lame review, but this is a beautiful beautiful scent.

I kind of get pickle initially, too! I was wondering what that smell was!

And yup, it's clean fur. It's soft and warm without being sweet. I'm not the best at identifying musks or woods, so I have to apologize for this being a lame review. It's a warm autumn kind of scent, like fur and dry leaves in the sun in the winter. After a couple of hours, there is a kind of powdery element to it, but in a nice way.

(So, um, yeah, I could just say, "what paperbacknovel said!")

Hmmm. Reviewing these is so hard! My first impression is GREEN, so green it's almost minty - a very fresh, light, cool green. As it starts to dry, it gets a bit sweeter, but not really in a floral way - almost like there's a hint of lime? This is really very lovely - fresh and green and cool, a nice clean kind of scent without being remotely detergent-y. Very nice!

Oddly, this initially says tropical fruit to my nose - I think mango or maybe canteloupe or the like. But as it dries down it does turn into the dandelion scent that others have mentioned - something green-yellow and spicy in that slightly airy dandelion way - not hot or peppery, but just a kind of brightness or snap. A nice light green grassy-floral scent.

This starts out almost candy-sweet citrus, like lemondrops - lemongrass is actually what pops in my head, but I'm not sure if that's the case or not. Maybe some of the orange others mention. As it dries, the sweetness dies down and a slightly soapy note emerges, so the pure citrus gets blurred a little bit. I think it is a floral of some kind, perhaps jasmine, although maybe the heliotrope others mention - a white floral that goes a little green and soapy. While I like the candy-sweet initial burst best, the drydown on this is still nice - bright and warm and cheerful - a comforting warm sun, not something harsh and blinding.

Yea I meant I didnt know the raw materials are from suppliers. I thought they make it themselves. Like it's more exclusive? Because wouldnt other etailers use the same supplier oils too? Do they use normal fragrance oil too? I've always wondered how fragrance oils are made. I know essential oils are from plants etc.

Well, there are a lot of different suppliers of the raw materials - for instance, you can buy essential oils like lavender, rose absolute, jasmine, etc., all over the internet, so I doubt there's any one supplier that all etailers buy from, even if all etailers were hand-blending their stuff, which a lot don't (not a criticism, just saying). Plus, I don't think there's anything at all exclusive to, say, lavender essential oil - where exclusive comes in is how Beth uses the oil.

I think the raw materials here work the same way they do with, say, professional bakers. I don't think most pastry chefs are out there growing wheat, harvesting the crop, and processing the wheat into flour, collecting the eggs from the chickens, and so on. Instead, they buy the flour, eggs, sugar, cream, chocolate, etc. and combine them to make an incredible cake. If someone handed me a pile of flour, eggs, butter, and so on, I wouldn't know how to make anything with them without following someone else's recipe. Beth is like the pastry chef who knows how to combine these things in slightly different ways to get amazing but different results each time. She could hand me the raw components that go into, say, Snake Oil, and I'd never be able to reproduce it in a million years. And just because one pastry chef gets her eggs from the same person that another pastry chef gets their eggs from. doesn't mean the final product will taste remotely alike.

Of course there are certainly variations in quality of flour, eggs, butter, etc., too, and the best chefs are only going to use the best and freshest ingredients. The Lab's the same way, they only use natural components in their oils, no synthetics (there's a thread about this in the FAQ), so they're only using the highest quality, natural stuff - kind of like using pure vanilla extract rather than the cheaper imitation. So it's not that they're necessarily using different ingredients than other etailers, but they're using only the highest quality. So if by "normal fragrance oils" you mean synthetics, the Lab doesn't use them. And I think the only thing "exclusive" to the Lab is Beth's genius in creating perfumes.

(Sorry, didn't mean to wander so far off the original topic!)

Oh I didnt know BPAL orders the oils from the suppliers. I thought they make it themselves. Which explains the price and uniqueness. Wonder who their suppliers are.

I might not be reading this correctly, but I wanted to make it clear that BPAL "makes" all their oils. All the perfumes are hand-blended by Beth. However, since she can't hand-blend air, she gets the raw materials from different suppliers. It would be impractical for her to try to produce all the raw scents necessary to blend so many different perfumes - I don't think ANY one producer produces all the different oils. So "ordering oils from suppliers" means getting vanilla absolute, cocoa absolute, cinnamon oil, lavender, resins, etc. etc. from suppliers (though Beth may produce some of them herself, I don't know). BPAL itself is created entirely by Beth from these supplies - so yes, BPAL makes their oils. Believe me, the kind of blending and creating that she does is a full-time job without needing to add producing all the raw materials herself.

I also don't think BPAL is remotely expensive when you compare it to so many other commercial perfumes, especially when you take into account the hand-blending and quality of these oils. I think I saw someone work out once that if you took BPAL and offered it in the same alcohol-based formulas as department store perfumes, it works out to be LESS expensive.

And while there are inconsistencies from batch to batch, they are (as people have said) purely to be expected from a hand-blended, natural product, and except for the occasional re-formulation, have as much to do with aging and body chemistry as with differences between batches. It's the same way that skeins of yarn from different dye-lots can be slightly different. For a lot of people, this natural-ness of BPAL is a huge attraction. If you want something that smells absolutely the same each time it's worn and from person to person, then BPAL may not be the best product for you.

ETA: And I agree that nothing from the Lab is a waste of money. If you find a scent doesn't have the amount of throw you'd really like, you can put it in a locket, you can put it in lotion or soap, you can make a linen spray and scent your pillow with it, you can make an alcohol-based spray and see if it goes further that way, you can put it in an oil-burner as a room scent, and if all else fails, you can sell/swap it for something you like better. That's also in the nature of BPAL - there is no one person on whom ALL BPALs work. Sometimes you're not going to like it.

People mention slathering could someone tell me what you mean by that? lol

 

I use two finger's full (tip it over onto my finger.. wipe wrists/forearms) then tip another amount onto my finger and wipe sides of neck and cleavage.

 

Nothing lasts out of my many many bottles except sugar skull. (which I don't really want to last! lol) Also Pumpkin 5 2007 (which I really like alot but not for every day)

 

Are slatherers using way more then this?

I think people talk about slathering in this thread, on where you apply your oils?

Putting on more will always smell stronger, but some *are* just stronger than others - on me, I've had tons of sillage with Tamamo-no-mae, Obatala, Milk Moon (both, but especially 2005), Antique Lace, and Itaso etc. from the Salon (I can never remember the full name!). At least, these are scents I've worn with my usual slathering abandon, then got around people and thought, Damn, my perfume's too strong!

I don't get compliments on my perfume very often at all, though - once when I'd got into a friend's car that had been sitting in the sun, and my family will comment sometimes, but I think partly I don't look like someone who'd want anyone to say anything to me about my perfume!

Did anyone ever hear an official response to the original question? (and I don't mean just quoting the website) I know a lot of places say CO2s should never be applied directly to the skin either and the absolutes are more concentrated even if they aren't real EOs. Of course I'm not saying that BPAL is cheap at all (on the contrary, Beth is a olfactory genius!), I too am just concerned about putting undiluted oils on my skin. I also am concerned because some are really bad for children and elderly such as eucalyptus (which is one note I really like). I totally understand keeping the blends a secret, and I honestly don't care whether or not it's synthetic, my only concern is how diluted the oils are. I did read the entire topic here and the question never really got answered concretely.

I think it's pretty clear from everything everyone knows about the Lab that Beth wouldn't put out an unsafe product. Even if she weren't all ethical 'n' shit like that, it would be poor business practice! Apart from individual sensitivities to specific ingredients, if BPAL weren't skin safe, I'm sure Beth wouldn't sell it (and wear it! and test it on herself!).

My understanding from the website and reading this thread is that

1) all the materials in BPAL oils are natural (whether EOs, attars, absolutes, etc.)

2) BPAL is 85-100% "perfume oil"

3) "perfume oil" is NOT the same as pure essential oils (or attars or absolutes)

What I understand "perfume oil" to mean in this context is, "stuff made of natural components that smells good." Even when a blend is 100% "perfume oil", I don't think that at all has to mean it's 100% EOs etc - after all, jojoba and other carrier oils are natural oils, too. It's been mentioned plenty of times that some EOs plain aren't safe to be worn on the skin (individual success with doing so aside), and that some of them can't be used effectively without dilution because they're too thick etc. I also remember a mention of a spill at the lab where everyone had to vacate the room because the scent was so strong it was making people sick (anyone else remember that?). So clearly Beth isn't simply combining EOs and putting them in a bottle (although it's possible that blends tend to have much higher percentages of "skin-safe" EOs in which much smaller percentages of the less skin-safe are blended).

I would imagine that Beth's blends would have to include some percentage of what we call "carrier oil," but I don't even want to call it that here, because people sometimes seem to read "carrier oil" and see it as some kind of "watering down" of the "real" stuff. I don't see the "carrier oil" here as something that waters down the perfume, but something that's a necessary part of it, without which the perfume wouldn't exist. Hence not calling it "perfume in carrier oil" (which suggests it's just a vehicle), but plain old perfume oil.

Which is kind of my long and confusing way of restating what Macha said upthread:

I can answer part of that: it's ALL 100% natural. The Lab uses no synthetics.

 

As for 100% essential oils? They've never made any such claim. The web site states that all blends are 85-100% pure perfume oil, and made from plant-derived oils.

There are plenty of plant-derived non-essential oils, is what I'm thinking.

(in other words, if I lived near Shelldoo's shop, she'd probably have to forcibly peel me away from the shelves and kick me out at closing time ) I would be more inclined to go to a BPAL store than through mail order given the opportunity - I like the instant gratification of going through a retail store! So all I meant was that I was wondering if BPALers even needed more of an incentive to go to a store that carries BPAL - the fact that it'd carry any BPAL is all the incentive I think a lot of us would need, judging by the squees in the thread when the Georgia Whole Foods became a seller of even a few GCs!

 

I hope that makes more sense

Oh, I'd be the same - Shelldoo would be sick of me! I'd show up like clockwork on payday! All I meant was that having this line is an incentive for brick-and-mortar retailers to carry BPAL - because it's something people can't get via mail order so the fans will have to go to the stores, so the retailers will get something of a built-in market - and that having brick-and-morter retailers carry BPAL is a good thing for the lab, because they can then attract people who *don't* already know about it, don't have internet access, or who are leery of buying perfume online ("how do you know what it smells like???"). So I don't think it's about attracting more current BPAL fans to the retailers, as much as it is having the retailers carry BPAL to get more new customers/fans.