dzurlady

I don't really feel informed enough to comment one way or the other, but you did remind me of something I read the other day. Australian farmers were starting to plant sandalwood as an investment plant, which also helped with the water table and salinity and the soil generally because it meant there were more trees around. I don't know how widely spread it is yet, but I thought it was pretty cool. The article made the point that the sandalwood would therefore be sustainable, and what a good thing that was.

Smut is pretty heart breaking for me. For the first 4 or so hours, it's quite unpleasant - a faint peanut butter smell, as others have mentioned before, but otherwise a sort of strong, kind've bitter scent. I can't really describe it, but it's not great. Then! After waiting for 4 or 5 hours, it turns into the most glorious, delicious, I want to eat my own arm vanilla. But it's so difficult to have to wait for hours before it arrives, since it's not something I'd want to wear around other people. I've been aging my 08 bottle in hopes of improvement, but no luck. I think I will keep my imp for the rare occasions I want to wait and wear it, but sell my bottle.

I was really excited about Hay Moon, and grabbed a bottle of Mead Moon because I thought it was worth a try. I was completely wrong - I love Mead Moon but Hay Moon (which I thought was a pretty certain bet) does not work on me at all.

In the bottle: Sharp, soapy cologne.

On my skin, wet: Soap and cologne.

On my skin, dry: Soap. Not floral soap, which is how things normally go soapy on me, but still soap.

I kept this until April in the hopes that it would age differently, but no.

Once dry, this smells very like Beaver Moon (the first one) on me. A sweet cake smell. It's a little too sweet for me, actually.

Just one, I believe, but I don't own it to be 100% sure.

Apparently no-one's mentioned Mead Moon so far, which I'm surprised by sine I find has a very strong, sticky, almost but not quite overwhelming honey note.

Here's some relevant posts from earlier in this thread (I edited them down slightly so that the parts that are relevant to synthetics in BPAL are easier to spot, but if you click on the arrow in the top of the post you can go and read the whole thing, if you want). (Also, I was wrong before - there are a couple of prototypes with synthetics around, some of which came from a forum raffle and some of which were iirc auctioned on ebay.)

 

I think it was removed when Beth started experimenting with aldehydes (the synth note in some unreleased blends like...Toxin, I believe?). Since those blends never made it to the catalogue, the response you got from CS makes sense. I seem to recall Beth saying something about the FAQ needing to be updated.

 

To the best of my knowledge, the full list of prototypes in circulation that may contain aldehydes are Toxin, Nihil, and Zero. They were involved in the forum fundraiser raffle last year. Nothing currently on offer from BPAL contains synthetics, or the Lab would be very clear about saying so.

 

 

Btw, I did email the lab, and here is the response:

 

Black Phoenix uses no synthetics, no fillers and no garbage. All of our scents are 100% naturally derived. With the exception of our honey products, BPAL perfumes are vegan. Our 'civet' and 'ambergris' are bouquets, and thus, are composite scents created from plant-derived perfume oils combined to best approximate the scent.[/b] Black Phoenix is entirely cruelty-free, as our four dogs, many fish, and resident lab cat will attest.

 

While we use no preservatives, our oil blends will last for over one year, if they are cared for correctly. Please keep all of our products in a cool, dark place to maximize their shelf life.

 

Unfortunately, we cannot further divulge our ingredients due to protecting our recipes from competitors.

 

The revision of the faq has been in the works for about a year. I've been insanely busy at work and in my personal life, so the revision ended up on the backburner. Kathy and Bill have a list about 60 pages long of things I should address there, and I'm still working on it. Honestly, it isn't going to get done any time soon. Sincerest apologies if that bothers people, but I just don't have any time at all right now.

 

After the sales of the Synthetic Line prototypes, I could no longer state that we have never sold anything that doesn't contain synthetics, so I pulled the statement completely lest there be a misunderstanding.

 

When I'm not bombed by a million BPAL and BPTP issues and the imminent birth of Junior, I'll get back to revising the faq. =)

 

 

Actually, and this has been discussed previously in this thread, the Lab doesn't use synthetics. The only BPAL around with synthetic components is a prototype that the Lab auctioned on ebay.

I would expect one per person, and then be pleased if it were more, rather than the other way around, but I don't really know, sorry. Perhaps you could ask in the dedicated Will Call thread? Dirty South Will Call

Thank you for the picture.

Here you go:

(Sorry about quality but it's the best my phone camera could do).

 

 

..really does it no justice whatsoever. :S

But it does give me more an idea of what it looks like, so thank you.

Apparently there is a new standard GC label design? People saw it at the West Coast Will Call.

 

How many times can I edit? I don't know! Have the new GC labels already been discussed? A lot of the bottles out for testing had them, they look like mini aged scrolls - very nice!

 

what?!?!?? new labels for GCs??

 

YES! They're very pretty. They're a dark cream/light tan with little scrolly edges. They're not on all of the GC bottles yet, but it's fun to see them show up on the sniffing bottles; see how fast they come in and how often the display bottles are changed.*

 

 

*how often can I say "bottles" in one sentence? Let's see. Bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles bottles.

Does anyone have a picture of the new GC labels? I know they're still very very new but I'm really curious.

This is quite unpleasant smelling in the vial - vetiver with hints of patchouli. On the skin, it's quite different and comforting. Wet it smells like dirt, with vetiver in the background, but then after a minute or two the cedarwood comes out to the front, and then all three scents meld together to make a warm and comforting scent (provided you don't hate the smell of dirt). The cinnamon adds a little something interesting to the mix, but doesn't stand out. I agree that it would smell nice on a man, but it's not an exclusively masculine blend. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice this was - I kept wondering what the nice smell was when I caught whiffs of it - but I can't see myself wearing it, so I'll pass it along. It has good throw and wear length.

I really love the Graveyard Book labels - they've got the right kind of vibe.

My bottle of Chimera must be aged -- it smells exactly like Snake Oil to me. I had to do a side by side comparison and I couldn't tell the difference.

Did you try them on the skin? I wouldn't say mine are that similar, but they're more similar in the bottle.

I ordered an imp of this with my first order in January 2006, and it was this imp that really got me into BPAL as an ongoing interest in January 2007 when I unearthed it and retried it. But I've never really felt able to describe why I like it, until now.

 

Snake Oil is sadly fickle on me, sometimes doing terrible things on my skin and sometimes smelling like it normally does, only powdery. But it is so glorious when it works I can't give it up. I can only start wearing it when it's a year old, and the older it is the better it gets. When it works, it's an amazing combination of deep warm vanilla (which generally takes a few hours to develop) and spices, and a kind of floating note that I can best describe as sort of but not really cola-like and which I recently discovered to be ambergris after I was able to try Beth's SN ambergris. I don't get any dirt from the patcholi but it helps to ground the scent. Periodically I will develop a craving to smell snake oil and must go and apply it for the day. It's pretty amazing, if unpredicatable.

This is rich buttery-rum scented in the imp. Wet and up close on my wrist it's similar, but the throw is terrible. I don't even know what it is, but it's offputting. Dry, it goes plasticy on me (this is a problem I am reasonably prone to, generally with some vanillas, so that may be a note even if I'm not picking it up). Clearly it was not meant to be. Strong throw, but I can't comment on the wearlength.

This was really interesting, and not what I was expecting. I was expecting some kind of animalistic musk and was amazed to find out that it's actually that kind of floaty, cola, almost but not quite sharp kind of note that so intrigues me in Snake Oil. It's pretty hard for me to explain, but if you know the note I'm talking about you'll know how ambergris smells. Really fascinating and I'm so glad I got a chance to try the SN, because otherwise I'd never know what that note was.

This is a sweet, rounded scent. It's a deep sort of sweetness. I might be getting a bit of vanilla as well, or at least something that reminds me of vanilla. I'm not terribly familar with the smell of lillies to comment on that aspect, but it's nice. Unfortunately, like most florals, it doesn't suit my perfume wearing tastes. Otherwise it is quite nice and plays well on my skin.

I would suggest that if you try Chimera, don't get an aged bottle. For some reason the spice seems to completely disappear.

Huh. I go the other way, and far prefer aged - it's deeper and more rounded. It's not so much less spicy as more of the other notes, so it's more balanced.

The patchouli is by far the most prominent note, followed by the coconut, which comes out more as it dries. It's the same coconut as I get from Brown Jenkins - soft and dry. Overall this is a soft, earthy scent, with a touch of sweetness. I don't get much floral, but I don't wear florals much so I might not be picking up on it. Dark Delicacies has good throw. I sort of like this and sort of don't. If you're in the same boat, try Brown Jenkins, which this reminds me of and I like.

Isn't that... illegal?! No coffee?!

 

It's lunchtime soon, right?... you can hide til then!

 

LOL!! I think there's a coffee pot upstairs, but I can't climb, on doctor's orders. I don't know if they actually use it, because I see a lot of people coming in with Starbucks cups. (I take my caffiene cold... aaaaaaah, Coke!)

 

Unfortunately the Snakeoil won again around lunch and I dashed home, scrubbed, and finally tried the deodorant trick. I STILL smell it, but it's bearable now. Wow! Strong stuff!

I don't know if you got to this part of the thread, but apparently using other oils works well (for when you get home again). So you could try olive oil or something.

One of my big bpal regrets is missing the ending of a ebay auction for a squat bottle of snake oil. It's the only one I've ever seen. It went for less than I'd planned to bid, too. I have the current label design in a 5ml and a 10ml, and one of the classic GC labels in a 5mls, and I would have loved to extend my collection with one of the old style bottles. That, and a tarted imp of it.

 

It's always cool to see the older styles, so thanks for posting.

You could also try The Lion: The dry, glorious warmth of the Savannah. A golden, spiced amber, proud, regal and ferocious. It smells like dry grass to me, but maybe you'd like it too, or could layer it. There's also the Dogs Playing Poker series scent One to Tie, Two to Win, but that's older and there's not that much of it out there.