Nepthys

For some reason I thought Spooky would be more holiday-ish. Instead to me it's a very cooling, summery scent, like eating mint-chocolate-chip ice cream on a hot summer day with the shades pulled. I got this on the first truly warm day of spring (80's in AZ) and it felt very appropriate. However, it didn't smell all that complex - on me, the booze and cocoanut completely evaporated and I eventually wound up smelling like a Thin Mint. Which is pleasant enough, but I have so many more BPALs that I'd rather wear that I may use this mostly as a house scent.

A very pretty scent but I was wildly off on guessing its notes. For the first half hour or so, it smelled like half-briny aquatic/half-tart apple. Very nice but at the same time so distracting that I could never stop noticing it. Then suddenly the black amber came through and rounded and softened it out to a more traditional, feminine scent. This is lovely.

Well, color me stunned. I always wanted to try this, being tempted by the name and good reviews, but ylang-ylang and I do NOT get along so I never bothered. Luckily the Lab sent it along as a freebie and it works so well on me that I can't believe it! No morphing of any kind occurrs with this; it smells on me just like it did in the bottle, a warm earthy scent. If I had to be specific, I would say that this smells like having sex on a bed of fallen leaves - there's the warmth of skin yet with an autumnal dryness of earth and dead leaves. It is quite incensey, yet still very beautiful.

This smells just beautiful in the bottle, a rich honeyed tea that stops just shy of being overly sweet. Wet, there is a deeper, more brutal note - the musk? - that shapes it into a very interesting scent, one that totally suits Dorian Gray. Unfortunately that note completely evaporates on me and pure sugar tea comes forth. Like Snake Oil, I have to be in the mood for this level of unadulterated rich sweetness; though it smells delicious at first, after an hour I'm sick of it already. In the future I'll probably try layering it with something a bit more dry.

Manila's description sounded lovely and in the vial it was - very aquatic and fruity. For the first 20 minutes, an intense banana smell came forth, backed up by that same aquatic scent, which was okay but nothing special. Then a solid woody scent came forward and this turned into a fruit-tinged version of Cathedral! It was pleasant enough but nothing I'd choose to wear.

This is a very tart lemon-lime soap scent. At first it smells like my house on a spring day after I've thrown all the windows open and cleaned it thoroughly. I don't really get any Ripper associations unless this is what he washed off with after the murders. Later as it dries down, the citrus softens enough to let the musk come out, and then the blend is quite sophisticated and haughty. There is definitely a sinister note here.

Being a Leo I wanted to love this and at first I did. It went on like a rich cinnamon-honeyed amber, and I thought for sure it would be one of my new loves. It smelled to me like Bastet (one of my top 5) meets Chimera. But as it wore on, it turned a little cloying -- like a very rich cake that tastes irresistible, but makes you feel glutted and sick after eating. Scented up close, it retained that gorgeous golden glow, very languid and confident as a lion should be. But the float of it was a thick syrupy sweetness that just made me feel drowsy and slow. I might wear this to relax at home in, but it's too lethargic a scent for me to wear out and about.

BPAL aquatic scents always smell so sad to me, like tears and nostalgia. On top Sea of Glass is light and appealing, but underneath there is a heavy connotation of loss and regret. It's quite pretty and I can see where people would really like it but apparently I just don't mix with aquatics.

In the vial this is everything as its described, warm, dry, dusty... completely evocative of a coyote in the desert. Unfortunately on me it dries down to a sort of nondescript woody scent. I think my skin just can't handle musk of any sort which is a shame because this otherwise sounded right up my alley.

I'm mixed on this one. At first it smelled like an old-fashioned sumptuous dessert table, rich mocha cake and dry red wine. Unfortunately it dried down on me to a very dry and somewhat bitter coffee-chocolate. I do like it, but it's too strong for me to wear regularly.

I really hesitated on ordering this because I loathe sickly-sweet candy smells. But the amber and heliotrope convinced me to give it a go... and yay, it works! In fact it exceeds working to stunningly beautiful! In the middle of the drydown, for about a minute and a half, a synthetic cheap note emerged from the strawberry, making me cringe, but luckily it vanished. Bracketing that was a seductive velvety honey, strawberry and vanilla scent, sort of like O in the strawberry patch on a warm summer day. There is a very naughty fragrance and strangely connotive of both a trashy Lolita and a sophisticated film siren. I love the book Hollywood Babylon and I think this really does justice to it.

This is pretty but a bit stuffy for me. I've tried enough dragon's blood blends now to recognize that they tend to drown out everything else on me and eventually they all come to smell quite similar. I could see where this would be gorgeous on someone else - from the vial I was really impressed - but I am not that person.

Something told me not to order this but I did anyhow. In the bottle, it was delightful - the smell of snow and flowers. Unfortunately it is an utter fiasco with my chemistry. That beautiful chilly scent gets subsumed in a plasticky cocoanut, which then itself gets subsumed in a very strident, off-putting note I cannot for the life of me identify. The lily musk? All I know is I can't wear this without it curdling my stomach. Even my cat recoiled from it. I really want to salvage it so I'm trying to layer it but so far that horrid note overcomes everything.

The description of this sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, this was a complete disaster on me. In the imp I caught some of the sandalwood and musk, though little amber - but on my skin, it quickly dried down to an unpleasant staleness, the vetiver drowning out every other note.

In the imp, this is delightful - but on me it turns into an old lady churchy-rose smell and stays that way. Definitely a house scent.

Whoa, people aren't kidding when they say this is bubblegum. I don't mind the sweetness as much as the way it smells plasticky and synthetic. Every now and then something deeper and more genuine pokes through - the red currant? - and then I see how nice this could be, but unfortunately it just doesn't work with my chemistry.

This is just a little too sweet for me for personal wear. It's very pretty and very light, and in the imp smells dead-on like a tulip... but applied, it diffuses into a more generic aqua-floral. Basically, this is the smell of a wet spring day to me.

The described amber and musk made me expect something very different from this, but I like it quite a bit. Right off this smelled familiar to me and it took me a second wearing to come up with it: it smells almost identical to the Irish Spring soap my high school boyfriend used. This has that same clean herbal-lemon smell. It's refreshing without becoming acrid, but this is definitely something I see more as a good pick-me-up on a sluggish summer day, rather than a winter scent.

Oh, this is too good. Delphi smells exactly as I hoped it would - gorgeous - but it vacillates at first between two personalities: it starts off as a confident, spicy green laced with honey, then gets deeper and heavy on the bay. Then it returns. Both are stunning. After about half an hour, the honey and wine come through more and it finally settles into a rich, almost cocky, scent of a sunlit forest. I agree that this is definitely masculine, but I like it on myself just as much.

This was one of my most highly-anticipated scents, partly because of the name and partly because of my beloved sandalwood. I am pleased to report that Nefertiti is as beautiful as its name. It begins on me as a cool and peaceful green, with the iris and the sandalwood coming together in tranquility. Then slowly it turns warmer and more myrrh-y and feminine, but without losing that serenity at the core. This is the scent of a strong, self-possessed woman, and suggests a calm nobility befitting a queen. So far of all the BPAL I've tried, this strikes the absolute perfect balance between sandalwood and green/floral notes - it's genius.

I thought I despised this at first. It smelled like orange-flavored cough syrup, some kind of children's medicine laced with a fake candy taste. And then it really grew on me, especially as the vanilla warmed and emerged. This is one of those BPAL oils that I don't like, exactly, and yet I cannot compulsively stop sniffing it. It's off-putting yet addictive. It struck a sour note with my parents so I think I'll save it as a house scent... I can see where other people find it sexy but on me it really isn't.

This was a dark rose on me for about 30-40 minutes... and then it completely vanished! I've never had an oil disappear so suddenly and dramatically. There was just a very faint, barely perceptible trace of rose left. While it lasted, it was ok but not my bag. I'm just not a rose person and this pretty much drove that home to me.

One me this is a very light, unassuming daytime scent, mostly an herbal woody-floral. It reminds me of those beautiful Merchant-Ivory historical films set in old mansions, where all the rooms are huge and filled with gorgeous heavy antique furniture and fresh flowers. This has the same association of quiet wealth and good taste. At first the wood was the strongest note, which I really liked, but it dried down to emphasize the violet. I preferred the initial impression. However, I think that as much as I like this, I might like it best as a house scent so I'll probably use the rest of my imp for that.

I don't think I can add anything to a review that everyone else hasn't already said! This is intoxicatingly beautiful. It's exotic, golden and sultry, and yet subtle enough that I don't think I could OD on it, the way I have on some other scents like Snake Oil. I don't get the cherry note at all - the almond is fairly pure, and the myrrh (which I like but can be off-putting to me) is lightened enough to be pretty but not overpowering. Similarly, the lotus in this works for me here. But mostly I pick up on the cardamom, musk (subtle), and saffron topped by glorious amber and they make for an alluring, feminine, powerful scent that is just divine. All the relevant associations of the goddess of felines, pleasure and fertility are there -- this so hits what I imagine Bastet to be that I think she must have whispered in Beth's ear. I agree that this will probably become very popular, as it should.

I was hopping with excitement to try this because I love Anubis beyond words... and wasn't it just a nice Yule gift to find this is a beautiful, ancient and reverent scent. I agree that this is much simpler in the vial than on the skin. All kinds of contrasting scents emerged, a golden-spicy scent overlaying a dustier, religious fragrance; this smells like deep, old magic. I've tried enough BPAL by now to usually find related scents for whatever I try, but this one really stands out to me. There's something original in here I've never smelled before. It sounds crazy but you really can believe this is the scent of an ancient Egyptian funeral rite, incense, tomb dust, sacred oils, mummification, etc. I intended to order a big bottle just for working with Anubis but I'd do so for the scent alone now.