khemistry

I very much like this citrusy blend.

 

Imp: Oh hello ORANGE

 

Wet: Lovely mandarin, with a little warm kick (amber? Is that you?)

 

Dry: The fruit fades into the background (although I'm happy to say never entirely leaves!) and the light floral/amber hangs out nicely.

 

Overall: As with most bpal, I will try alternate application to hang onto the gorgeous top notes longer (hair usually works best for me). I may need a bottle of this one..

Ommm nom nom nom.

 

In the imp: white creamy chocolate mmmmm

 

Wet: Spice comes up and has sex with the chocolate

 

Dry: The offspring of the spice and chocolate are mango and fig children. Everyone dances together in harmony. I don't get much patchouli, but I'm going to assume he's the creepy uncle that doesn't show up until later. Not much green tea, but if I sniff really hard it might be there.

 

I consider this the best of the best in foodie scents: not overly sweet, definitely not the plastic snow-sugar of the late yules, and no nasty ass flowers coming to play. Just delicious with enough spice and fruit to give it complexity. Not a one-note sugar-fest, but a feast of awesome

 

one hour later: Alas, gone the way of 95% of bpal on my skin to turn into a vague incense/hippie/amber. I'll have to experiment with scent lockets or hair application. The fresh scent is to die for, but the long term wear turns into every other bpal.

 

Edit/Update: I've decided the long lasting base note that I refer to above must be patchouli. Since it is in so many BPAL blends, it's no wonder they all smell the same (and not great) after long term wear to me. Henceforth, I will refer to it as the "creepy uncle" of base notes. Bleh

Yep, dryer sheets!

 

I mean, I don't find dryer sheets to smell bad... but not what I'm looking for in a perfume!

 

I will say that I'm a floral hater, so this was a risky one for me. I was hoping for more vanilla and nutmeg. Alas, the stinky dry sheet flower comes in a stomps on my dreams.

If you want a dead and drowned flowers kind of bog, Siren smells very much like flowers + bog water to me...

This might be fun so I'll give it a go.

 

I'm short and have dark blonde hair and eyes of a really indistinguishable color. My license says green, but others think gray or blue.

 

I love to learn all about the intricacies of language. I did a double major in Spanish and International Studies with a lot of classes concentrated on linguistics.

 

I'm really a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl who usually just wears concealer, mascara and a little lipstick. I try to dress up and be ultra feminine sometimes, but usually am minimalist.

 

I'm shy at first and have moderate social anxiety, but really enjoy one on one conversation.

 

Morocco - feminine, but with a little spice. International

Spanked was available as a linen/room spray for the Yules. I cheat and spray it on my hair (but never on my skin, burning terror). I have three bottles of it, you might be able to talk me out of one

*Gag* Decaying soil, mold, eck eck, ewwww. I'm sure someone will love this, but it's completely WRONG to me. I did only sniff it wet, can't handle putting this on my body.

This imp smells just like the Macy's perfume counter. I dislike traditional perfume, so this is a capital N No for me. I think it's the freesia that makes this go so wrong for me. I did a dry test, but it was just more misery.

I've recklessly disregarded its use as a room spray... I've tipped it (1 Tablespoon) into my bath, sprayed it on my hair, pretty much would have sex with it if I thought I could* I spray my clothes down with it before going out in the evening. LOVE

 

I adore this oh so much. It's gotten the most compliments of any BPAL/BPTP yet.

 

*Direct skin contact is a no no. It burned like crazy when I tried spraying it like a perfume. I still refused to wash it off. That's how good this is.

If you like the idea of a creamsicle (orange + vanilla ice cream), I highly recommend Gobo. It fades on skin, but stays lovely when applied to fabric or (lightly) to hair.

Pinesol chemical sludge when wet. Dries down to pine and floral (berry?). Still smells like a cross between floor cleaner and a bad x-mas candle. I was really interested to try this since it was so well-rated. Alas, this will not be a bottle purchase.

I really wanted to like this - the bottle is so cute. I like leather, but the combination with the musks, etc just didn't smell good on me (wet or dry). I would like to try this on someone else (especially a guy I can get close enough to sniff).

My favorite rose! Fresh cut rose buds with the understated rose and a green note. Pretty amazing wet and dry. I didn't think I liked rose scents (or florals at all)!

Of all the snowballs smelled wet, this one interested me most with its alluring top notes for a test:

 

Wet: This is what I would imagine purple snowballs would smell like, so I thought I grabbed the wrong bottle. Nope, black. Purple is much lighter when smelled next to it. Black snowballs is fruitier than I imagined for something that is supposed to be goth (I suppose this is tongue-in-cheek goth). This is more hot-topic & black eyeliner. The fruit is nice, but has an immature and slight falseness to it wet. Sort of grape-juice.

 

Dry: lighter fruit comes off and reveals a more mature fruit scent. Licorice comes up stronger along with a floral that I can't identity. The floral definitely takes this from hot-topic goth into something much more deep and complex.

 

Overall: if you can live with the grape-juice fast dry down, really very nice. Would probably layer very well with other scents like leather, vanilla, etc. Retains a fruit-forward note when dry unlike most fruity scents.

 

Update: Layered with Brusque Violet = fabulous

Wet: Better get my nose closer, I don't really smell anything. Maybe something mint or sweet? Too faint to tell

Dry: I can't remember which arm I put this on, because it is completely gone.

 

I tested this with several other scents and it was almost completely lost. Extremely light and sweet, hardly any throw or staying power. I'm going to get an imp from a decant circle and retest in much larger quantities.

 

Overall: too faint to tell, retest with more slathering is required.

I'll note upfront that I do not like Zombi: it smells like death & decay & molding things & moss

 

Gingerbread Zombi is pretty damn funny. It's death and decay with a gingerbread finish. Completely confusing and weird to my nose. I will say that the gingerbread helps to bring down the zombiness of the zombi to maybe more of a leaves & dirt stage rather the death & decay. Not anything I ever want to smell like (wouldn't do a dry test, yeck), but really interesting combo if you enjoy unusual scents.

Yummmm

 

Wet: Juicy, bright cranberry juice. This smells amazing. So amazing that I bought a bottle on the wet top-note alone at Will-call without dry testing it.

 

Drydown: Juicy cranberry shifts into spiced cider. Cinnamon? some kind of ultra light floral maybe (or maybe that is the remains of Skadi still on my lower arm?)

 

Dry: cinnamon & anise, dust?, and a lingering of the bright cranberry in the background

 

Overall: absolutely wonderful, but two different scents dry and wet. And I like them both. I'm going to experiment with non-skin application (hair or fabric) to retain more of the top note for a longer duration, but the dry scent is still fabulous. I could bathe in this (hint, hint, BFTP)

 

(edited to add: of all the yules (smelled wet), this is by far my favorite)

 

UPDATE: SKIN REACTION. Beware if you have sensitive skin to test this on a less-visible part of your body. My arms aren't normally sensitive (do fine with Chimera for example), but are now BRIGHT red and burning from this. This makes me so sad And ummm ouch

Thanks to an incredibly generous swapper, I was able to smell several years worth of Moon of the Terrible for comparison.

 

This year's moon is heavy on the florals and snow and much lighter on the lychee note. For the folks that didn't care for the fruity top note in previous versions, this is much more in the background for 2013. Sadly, the lychee note is my favorite aspect, so the 2013 blend leaves me wishing for more. This is a very cold feeling floral scent to me- nothing warm or spicy about this like so many of BPAL's scents. It's not a bright or happy floral either. This feels like flowers long dead and covered in snow.

 

(Side note: on dry after an hour, the various years smell much more similar. I still miss the wet lychee though)

One of my favorite BPALs! Sexy - sweet and spicy. This is what I smell: Chocolate, vanilla, musk, cinnamon, and leather.

 

I actually wore this to a dungeon (hey, don't judge - I blame the perfume) and it rocked. It's definitely dark and heavy, so I have to use a light hand when applying it. I let a friend smell this on my wrist and she wouldn't let my wrist go.

I've been determined to smell & test /without/ reading the descriptions on any frimps I receive. This way, I'm doing a completely blind test.

 

Here goes:

 

Wet: Omg *gag* cherry cough syrup. This is horrible. I wonder if I can get it off with rubbing alcohol.

 

Drydown: Managed to talk myself into letting it dry. Horrible, but I can't stop smelling my wrist. Sickeningly sweet cherry that I can't stop sniffing

 

Dry, 1 hour later: not so bad now, still fake cherry, but the amber(?) or something more complex has come out and it just smells sweet and harmless now.

 

Thankfully this mellows into something mild and sweet, but it's not worth the wet scent for me. This puppy is getting thrown as a frimp into the next available trade or sale.

I've been determined to smell & test /without/ reading the descriptions on any frimps I receive. This way, I'm doing a completely blind test.

 

Here goes:

 

Wet: Smells very much like a cigar shop. Rich, wet, dark, & sweet. I can't pull out single notes, but I think I'm smelling a lovely dance of tobacco, maybe something alcohol, and some chocolate.

 

Drydown: I smell the same warm sweet note that comes out on perversion during the dry down. I'd call it "chocolate sex" for lack of a better descriptor. This combines in with a very dry and dusty leather/tobacco note.

 

Dry, 2 hours later: Dry and dusty, not much left of the booze or leather or tobacco I thought I smelled. This smells like old men and books with the barest hint of the sexy chocolate lingering.

 

Verdict: I'm going to call this the dirty old man equivalent to the Jailbait fragrance. It smells like an older man to me: not necessarily unpleasant, but maybe staring at your chest a bit too long and offering you some chocolate.

Sybaris (violet, tonka, clove, and a bit of incense) is great if you like violet candy.

Ooo thanks!

The Soft Touch...

 

My all-time favorite product and scent. It was what led me to this forum and BPAL.

 

Here's my recipe, which is the closest approximation of the scent I've been able to pull off:

 

1 part chimera

2 parts kuang-shi (for the mango note. The sandalwood in this isn't right, but this is the mango place holder until I find a BPAL that is mango-vanilla heavy)

1 part gobo

couple ounces of pure cocoa butter

 

Melt the cocoa butter on low heat until soft and melted. Remove from heat and let cool. Mixture should be warm and soft, but not HOT. Add above mentioned oils in the ratio above. Amount of oil added will depend on your taste, but I recommend experimenting. The cocoa butter does add a scent, so you will want to add oil mixture up to the point where the oil doesn't completely mask the cocoa butter.

 

It's not a perfect match, but damn it's yummy.

I also love citrus - some of my favorites are:

Night-Gaunt (Yuzu, white grapefruit, and kumquat mixed with snow-dusted flowers)

Baobhan Sith (Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger)

Whitechapel (White musk, lime, lilac and citron)

Lolita (Glittering heliotrope, honeysuckle, orange blossom and lemon verbena)

 

Out of those, the only one that turns floral at all is Lolita, but even then it's very subtle.

Lolita and Whitechapel are similar, but I find Whitechapel to be a bit more tart, while Lolita is almost sugared.

Night-Gaunt and Baobhan Sith both wear like pure grapefruit on me, with the minor caveat that Baobhan Sith doesn't last very long and goes ever so slightly soapy on drydown.

So out of the above list, Night-Gaunt is the winner for me. I have a 5ml that gets a lot of love

 

And as for foody scents, I'm also going to throw in a vote for Shub-Niggurath, which is like ginger cookies on me and is almost absurdly delicious.

 

Thank you! I'm going to pick up Lolita and Whitechapel Imps soon. Night-Gaunt is fab - really works for me, although the reviewers all seemed to hate it!

So, I discovered I actually like violet! My nose registers it as a foodie scent due to all the British candy I've had. Does BPAL have anything violet+chocolate? That would be divine!