naeelah

I've tried two blends lately that remind me a lot of Snake Oil blends, but that don't actually contain Snake Oil: Now Winter Nights Enlarge - I guess the musks and patchouli (+ creaminess of the caramel) are in the right proportions here to invoke snake Oil -- at least, on my skin it does. (I see that at least one other reviewer mentions a SO resemblance, FWIW.) Naturally it isn't a dead ringer, but if you didn't like SO, that should be a good thing. So if SO was sorta close but no cigar, check this out. Cthulhu in Love - this reminds me a lot of Boomslang. I'm not sure if it has any musk, but I suppose there's something about the seaweeds that's a little rubbery and oily feeling, to my nose. They also fill a woodsy niche similar to the teak, and the chocolates provide a creamy note like the rice milk, so yeah -- kinda like Boomslang without the SO. ETA: Ahh, I remembered the third one: Love Me. Under nose it doesn't necessarily remind me of SO, but when it wafts at me, I feel like it's really similar! I guess the jasmine isn't so obvious when it's just wafting.

I'd forgotten what notes were in this, so when I put it on, I was surprised that it smelled rather like cherries. Aha, that would be the wine note! It doesn't smell like the lab's usual cherry note, it's just a very rich, red fruity scent that reminds me of cherries. This is definitely not the dry wine of Prospero. This is more like the wine in Madrid or Lady Macbeth. In the bottle and in the first hour or so of wear, it smells very strongly of roses and fruity wine, with beeswax and a bit of astringent frankincense. The frankincense immediately fades and blends in, but I suspect its staying power will improve with time. After a couple of hours, the pronounced fruitiness of the wine recedes, so now it smells primarily of beeswax, with frankincense and dry rose petals. The wax here is very creamy and waxy, but lacks the sugariness of honey it sometimes has. This scent isn't so unlike Libra, but where that one went a bit flat and soapy on me, this one remains rich and voluptuous. The rose note here is very deep and red, and the effect is only intensified by the richness of the wine. It's almost difficult for me to separate the two notes. So in short, this is a rich, fruity rose and wine scent with beeswax and a hint of smoky resin. Try it if you like: Libra, Prospero, Red Queen, Blood Countess, Lady macbeth, the Knave of Hearts

This isn't overwhelmingly foody on my skin, but it still makes me go OM NOM NOM. I was so excited to try this, because the scent of bread is one of my most favorite things in the world and I've been dying for a simple bread scent from BPAL. Wet, this is very sweet and creamy. As it's drying, I can smell a lot of the black tea note, which is very airy and almost floral in this blend. The toast is dry and only a little bit toasty (i.e. not super brown smelling). It doesn't smell just like fresh bread. It smells rather like a toasted english muffin, actually. (So in that respect, it strongly reminds me of the pastry note in Crumpet Rebellion. Layer this with something with some black currant, and you might get a nice dupe!) I can definitely smell a crisp white sugar note, reminiscent of Sugar Skull. The extreme creaminess of the wet scent seems to be gone. In this stage, it smells like a sugar cube, crisp black tea, and plain toast. The milk is quite subtle and seems to just round everything out. About 15 min later, the toastiness seems to be fading. This is definitely not a dark or dusky scent. It still doesn't feel very buttery to me, but there is a subtle creaminess in the background smoothing it all together. It doesn't morph so much. All in all, this is a gentle, sweet, creamy bread and tea scent that is brighter and airier than you'd expect. Try it if you like: White Rabbit (a very similar blend), Knave of Hearts, Eat Me, Crumpet Rebellion, Sugar Skull

I just got Bread & Butterfly, and I have to say that I find the toast note in this really similar to the pastry note in Crumpet Rebellion. Crumpet is toasty, buttery pastry with black currant, and as it has aged it's clear there's some nutmeg & cardamom in there. So it has a dry, slightly spicy, dark edge to it. Bread & Butterfly definitely smells like buttered toast, with a white sugar cube. It's not as dark as Crumpet, but if you layer it with something that's black currant heavy, and I think you'll have a pretty similar scent.

I have very fair skin, so the lightest little bit of staining shows up. I love me some Boomslang, and I find that applying it with a wand, so that I can easily control the quantity that I put on in one place, and then immediately rubbing it in helps considerably. I apply a thin streak on one arm, them rub my arms together a few times, until the oil looks soaked in. This leaves a slight yellow spot, BUT I find that this yellow spot fades as the oil continues to soak in. So I just put it on 15-20 minutes before leaving (in inconspicuous places, just in case). If you want to slather it, put on smaller amounts over a larger area of skin, rather then really caking it on in one place. I usually apply straight from the bottles, but with Boomslang that put way too much perfume on, so the stain never went away. YMMV but this works well for me. Or, put it in a lotion, and then you can slather it everywhere without staining.

That's the cocoa absolute. Some chocolate blends have a chocolate component that settles at the bottom and just exists as droplets -- it never emulsifies with the other oils. So you just have to roll it in order to distribute the droplets throughout before applying.

In the bottle it smells rather like Boomslang. Rich chocolate with spicy notes underneath. Wet it smells like rich chocolate with something salty. I recognize the dark seaweed note from Cthulhu, but if I hadn't already smelled it, I'd probably never guess the salty note was supposed to be sea vegetation. It doesn't smell aquatic at all, though. (I should note, I hate aquatics, but Cthulhu was surprisingly pleasant. I didn't keep it, but it was much richer and nicer than the average aquatic. So, I was not worried about the sea components of this.) As it dries, the chocolate is less sweet and obvious. It's a dark, rich blend of chocolates, dark seaweed, slight saltiness, and a whole lotta darkness. The seaweed notes themselves are hard to describe. There's something that does smell like actual seaweed -- deep chlorophyll, water, salt, and that weird beach funk. But it's much more pleasant than that. It kind of works like neroli -- it seems to act like a base note and ground the scent, but it has brighter aspects that work as middle and top notes. It's dark. It doesn't seem to scream dark incense -- yet. IME, dark incense blends start out relatively normal (like any other non-dark incense blend) and gradually deepen with age. (Fresh al-azif, for example, smells like maple syrup and smoky resins on me when fresh, and like blackness with a side of pancakes when aged. The incense in this reminds me of Al-Azif, so I expect it to get darker.) There's no wood given in the notes, but the base aspects of the seaweeds remind me of teak. They have a slightly herbal character that recalls the 13 blends. So in the end, this is rather like Boomslang, if you added the herbs of 13 blends. If I take a deep breath, then an earthy note lingers on the scent's finish. Kind of like black patchouli. In a sentence, I might summarize this as, "Dark, salty, rich chocolate incense." It isn't a chocolate blend with some other stuff -- it's much deeper and richer than that, so just as I'd hoped, it isn't particularly foody. In short, it's pretty dang awesome. I look forward to seeing how this one ages.

All of the notes of this scent come together to suggest black musk, to my nose. This is a little bit more like a men's cologne than I'd hoped, but that isn't too say it's too masculine for girls. I think it's definitely unisex. Wet, I smell leather primarily, with a hint of something earthy. On skin, it immediately rounds out. The black amber is very strong and syrupy, the tobacco is rich and earthy, almost like patchouli, and the oppoponax lends a mild smokiness. The first time I tried this (last week), I felt like it was almost a leather single note, but this time, it's much richer. Leather remains the strongest note, but it's well supported by the other notes. Totally dry, the tobacco feels less dirty and the amber seems to be blending better. Its sweetness is a good counter to the coolness of the leather. The oppoponax is very smoky and works well to smooth out and bind the other components. So in a sentence, I might describe this as, "Rich, lightly smoky, quasi-musky black leather." Something about this reminds me of Count Dracula. If you like this, try: Count Dracula, Black Temple Burlesque, Nanny Asthoreth, among other things...

When I open the imp I smell a whiff of patchouli, but on skin it's a bright and fruity scent with no hint of earthiness -- at first. Apple and rose are strongest, with just a suggestion dry woods. As it dries, the scent slowly fills out and becomes rounder and better balanced. The vanilla emerges and something strikes me as being slightly resinous. I wonder if that's the effect of the neroli, here. I still don't smell patchouli, per se. Little by little, there's something almost smoky about it, and way in the background, I can smell the black musk. I'm sure that the vague smokiness comes from the black patchouli. Normally, black musk has a strong, masculine, oily quality to my nose, but here it's quite subtle and blends beautifully with the other notes. Given how many notes there are in this that I'm not so fond of -- apple, black musk, patchouli, etc -- I'm surprised at how nice I think this is. This scent really is greater than the sum of its parts. It's not as earthy or as musky as you might expect it to be. It's a really rich and well-rounded scent, even on my skin (and I tend to amp patchouli and black musk). In a sentence I might call this "Rich, gently woodsy apple floral with a creamy center."

I definitely agree that rolling is a better idea than shaking. And it seems to work fine with the heavy, highly separated oils. I don't shake my bottles because I don't want to introduce air bubbles, but before I put on Boomslang, I give it a vigorous rolling between my hands. Not quite like I'm starting a fire (I don't do it for minutes straight), but definitely more forceful than, like, rocking a baby. And I tip it over top-to-bottom a few times, hard enough to sling all the cocoa sludge to the top. (That method was good for Khrysee, too.). I like to use wands with heavy oils like Boomslang- - then you can kind of stir it around before you put it on. ETA: I love all of the discussion of application techniques that come up with BPAL. We should offer certificate programs in putting on perfume.

I've always felt that was kinda BS too. Someone chimed in to say her bottle did change. Maybe if you really shake it vigorously like you're mixing paint, the air bubbles introduced will have some negative impact. I would believe that having a permanent effect. But just rolling it and shaking it -- like if it falls off the table and rolls across the room... We're not talking super-collider velocities. What do you think happens to your box while it's in the mail? Clearly the lab doesn't think that the jostling damages their product, or they wouldn't be a mail order business. Which brings me to another tangential point: I think the idea of a perfume needing to "settle" after coming out of the mail can be a little silly. Oils can definitely smell different a week or a day or two after you get them, I'm not arguing against that. But the changes are due to age*, to perception, to temperature... not due to shipping somehow jumbling up the smell. *natural oils change a LOT when they're first blended. If your bottle is super fresh, then it really might change day by day, until the components settle in. So sure, you can say there's a settling period, it just has nothing to do with shipping (other than shipping introducing your oil in extreme temperatures).

HEATHEN. How do you live with yourself?? I rub my wrists together. Only gently -- I basically just blot them together so that the oil distribution on each arm is the same. It makes me crazy when I have one arm that's smellier than the other. But I have to agree that this sounds like a bunch of crap. I mean, you can damn near set the molecules on fire and they smell the same. (Sometimes stuff even smells better in an oil burner. *) I have never noticed in a difference in dabbing the perfume on versus rubbing my wrists together. My daily application pattern uses a combination of both. So fear not, faithful BPALer. Thou hast not strayed from the path of righteousness, and thou shalt be rewarded for thine devotion to perfume fidelity. (I really wish we had an emoticon that was wearing a miter.) *Although I should note, I've realize that there's a point where the scent stuff burns out and all you have left is carrier oil, which turns into a gross, smoky mess. So if you wonder why your Snow White suddenly smells like something that's on fire, that's because you're just enjoying the soothing aroma of scorching coconut oil. So go blot the rest of the oil.

I get these notes from Love Me: Jasmine, rose, dragon's blood, patchouli, and sandalwood. (+and cassia, vanilla, frankincense?) There is probably more going on -- the Conjure Oils tend to have a distinctive herbal base - - but those are the main things I smell. There is possibly some vanilla, but that could just be the combination of the jasmine and dragon's blood suggesting creamy sweetness. I don't smell any cinnamon or spice or smoke at all, but the patchouli does add a certain something that lends those qualities. This morphs a lot, on me. I smell patchouli when putting it on, but then it instantly disappears. Jasmine and dragon's blood run out to take its place. As it dries, a woodsy base reveals itself -- the patchouli comes back. (I usually dislike patchouli, but here it's subtle and blends well.) It starts out a little strong, but over the course of an hour or two, it settles in nicely. The dragon's blood ebbs and flows slightly, and it's not until a few hours in that I suspect there's vanilla. eta: nearly 12 hours later, it's still going strong. The patchouli is the strongest note, wrapped in a sweet, creamy cloud. It actually smells remarkably like Snake Oil, from a distance. Under nose I can pick out traces of dragon's blood and jasmine, and I think vanilla. It's sweet, rich, and round. It projects but also clings to the skin and invites you in. More than any other conjure oil I've tried, this is simply a gorgeous perfume. I've smelled someone's ancient 10 mL, and this stuff ages fantastically, so if you like it, you won't regret getting a whole bottle. Try it if you like: Dragon's Milk, The Presence of Love, Morocco... -- eta: 8/27/10 - now that my imp is well aged, this scent is even more amazing, and it has gotten much spicier. I'm sure that one of the additional notes in this is cassia. Wet, I can still smell a lot of patchouli, but this is immediately overtaken by a wood and cinnamon-like note. The cinnamon note blends back in as it dries and seems a part of the wood notes, so I think it might be cassia rather than cinnamon -- but it's always possible both are present. It reminds me very much of Morocco, without the musk. Morocco with a ton of jasmine. I LOVE it. There's also a slight smokiness that I couldn't smell when it was fresh. It's still pretty faint on my skin, just a slight haze in the base notes. It isn't sharp, it's a slightly earthy resin, so I'm guessing it's frankincense or something in that family.

Black Heart and Black Death are so cute! I almost want Black heart now just for the label (well, naturally I was tempted by the perfume, too...) And TwilightEyes, I know I don't mind your signature on the images! It's a good idea, if people are stealing them for ebay. People shouldn't put up pictures of perfume without saying that it isn't the actual bottle. If I see a pic, I'm going to assume it has the same oil level and label condition. Beth -- ahh, so that's why Ode to Ares was SFW! I was really surprised that it wasn't a man butt fest.

This is everything I hoped it would be. I don't often wear foody scents as perfume, but I love spice blends, and ever since moving to NYC, I'm infatuated with the scent of the sugared nut carts. That's one street smell that I don't mind being so ubiquitous. And Pfancy Pfefferneusse smells essentially just like the nut vendor carts. At its core, it's a soft, warm, sugar-cookie like scent, but it has powerful spices heaped all over it. The spices are dry enough and fiery enough that although the scent is always sweet and cookie-like, it has a good sense of balance. I can definitely smell the pepper, and I swear I can smell a hint of fennel. The spice blend is not cinnamon heavy, nor does it just smell like gingerbread. It's unique and it has bite. Pepper and nutmeg are heavy. I don't know if it has any ginger. Cardamom is often fairly bright and green for me, but it doesn't call attention to itself here. Everything blends nicely. As for the nuts, it feels like blanched almonds. I don't smell hazelnut or peanut -- it's just very smooth and round. It doesn't smell like the lab's usual almond note, it smells like a can of whole almonds. This scent also lasts a good, long time. Hours later, even when I felt like it had faded, I was aware of a faint cloud of sugar cookies around me. It's pretty great.

The lab has so many of these sexy red musk blends, and they're all a little bit different, so it's awfully hard to predict how they'll turn out on the skin. Some of them I've loved, others I've been very "meh" on. I wore this without looking at the notes. I remember it has red musk, caramel, and patchouli, but the rest was a mystery. Like all caramel blends, initially, the caramel is very strong. With very few exceptions, caramel (as well as almond) tends to burn off almost right away -- at least, on my skin it does. It never completely fades away from this blend, but it balances out very well, so even though I'm not a huge caramel fan, I really enjoy it in this blend. The rest musk is bold and powerful, and it's one of the primary notes, for me. It has neither a latex edge nor a flat Dr. Pepper quality. It's just fabulous. The patchouli is also very strong, on my skin. (It's the fresh and light smelling patchouli as in the Grindhouse ladies.) Bizarrely, I LOVE it. Normally I hate patchouli. And I'm very worried, because any blend with strong patchouli that I like fresh tends to age into something that just ends up smelling like a single note Dirty Hippie. What can I say -- patchouli clings to me. I amp it like it's a pheromone that will get me free Phish tickets. (I don't even like jam bands!) This feels like Snake Charmer's sister, on me. Where Snake Charmer has a dark, smoky resin core, Now Winter Nights has a warm, spicy wood core. I'm surprised to see there are no wood notes in the scent, because this has a very wood-y quality on me. It's earthy without smelling like earth, it that makes any sense. (It must be the combo of patchouli, nutmeg, petitgrain and galbanum.) It's quite different from other scents with earthy roots. I didn't even register that it had champaca, and I don't pick out the honey over the caramel. It's pretty well blended. I can be iffy with petitgrain, but here it seems like it's the magical binding ingredient -- bright and sweet enough to pull in the honey and champaca, but rooted and grainy enough to pull in the patchouli and resin. And this lasted forever. It went pretty strong all day, with none of the notes completely fading away. I fear for the way the patchouli will age, but as it stands, I LOVE this and hope that it will continue to be gorgeous.

I'm not much of a fan of metallics, so I was pretty safe from the anniversary blends this year. But something about Lead appealed to me. I knew it really would smell like lead, but most of the notes (tobacco, plum, resins) are things that I love, and that age beautifully, so if ever there was a metal I'd like, surely it would be this one. Wet, it certainly does smell like lead. (Or, for something I'm more familiar with, pewter.) It's soft and grey with a cold, sharp edge. I can smell the cypress as a part of this cold edge, but I wonder if there's also some penny royal. Something just smells minty. After a couple of hours, the metallic, cold, minty quality wears down and the sweet plum and tobacco core warms up. Once you get past the initial application, it really doesn't smell so much like a metallic scent. It's certainly doesn't have the lab's usual metal notes. It's cool and strong on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. It has a very slight fuzzy smoky quality. It doesn't strike me as being like incense, but there is a haziness. The cypress continues to lend a cool top quality that does feel slightly metallic in context. The plum is also a little bit tart. The tobacco is slightly sweet and rich, but it's not strong. Nothing in this blends dominates, to my nose. It's a fairly even blend of cold, warm, smoky, and sweet. This has none of the ozone, vetiver, or aquatic notes of typical metal blends, so it's well worth trying just for comparison. As I'd hoped, this suits me much better than any other metal blend I've ever tried. Very curious to see how this one ages!

Thanks for sharing the reply. That is indeed very detailed. At risk of causing confusion, I just want to add that nothing here actually means they're using synthetic fragrances. I think it's just the confusion of different meanings of the word "natural" -- the civet is not "natural" because it's a synthesized scent. But as he explains, these bouquets are comprised of plant-derived ingredients. He lists the different sources (EOs, CO2s, etc), and all of those are naturally obtained. Concerning the musks, I don't know enough about them to know if he's saying they don't use *any* synthetics or they don't use unsafe synthetics. Also, the atmosphere sprays likely use alcohol in the base, so that may be another reason they don't want to make a blanket statement of "all natural". lord, that we can get such detailed replies and still think there's ambiguity! However I do think it's pretty clear that their scent components (possibly with the exception of some musks) are naturally derived.

I would assume that they would, since they like to keep people informed of changes and potentially sensitizing ingredients, and they know that their customers care about these things. The only synthetic scent so far was blatantly advertised as such, so I don't think there's anything to worry about. But there again, only BPAL customer service can give you a definite answer.

I heartily second everything yvaine said -- especially for people with serious health concerns However, I just wanted to add generally that the lab HAS replied here and has replied to an intrepid person's e-mail, as quoted up thread from Aug '08. Jayne absolutely should e-mail the lab with further questions, but I will not be surprised if she receives the same FAQ answer that someone got a year and a half ago. That is the answer.

Exactly! But now we know without a doubt that the lab makes all its own accords, so we can bask even further in their awesome 1337 skillz. (And I guess you haven't run into too many crazy quilt artists! Some of those people act like you're a total hack if you don't harvest the berries to craft your own dye and do everything short of weave your own fabric. )

I hate that you had to reply, but thanks for clarifying, beth. Your reply should answer all questions and doubts that newcomers might have. Even i'd wondered about pre-blended accords, so it's nice to have that mystery unraveled. Not that I ever thought bpal used mass market pre-fab blends, or ONLY used accords purchased from other blenders, but for all I know, you know an indie blender who makes a fabulous amber accord, and using it helped control cost -- know what I mean? (And even if that were true, who cares? The quality and artistry of a bpal product speaks for itself.)

Oooh right, On Darkness! I knew I was forgetting something. I agree, that one is gorgeous! For me it's not so lavender heavy - it just has a well blended, purple smoke character -- but it's definitely worth checking out on a quest for smoky lavender.

I've just remembered another LE: Under the Harvest Moon. It doesn't have any incense notes so it may not be smoky but it does have a dusky quality. It's a recent LE so it should be easy to find. It has white and blue musk, lavender, leaves, white amber (I think) and some florals. It's dusky but it does have a pale, round aspect also. Erebos is only softly smoky. It's more of a floral scent with vanilla and a hint of melon. Hmmm. I hope bpal makes a scent with the notes you mentioned, because that sounds great. I'll have to check it out.

Hell, as long as we're giving recs: Check out the Erebos room spray (which I am currently obsessed with). The main notes are lavender and smoky vanilla. It's gorgeous and you could use it as perfume if you mist it over your clothes and hair (although it can stain fabric so take care). You could also use it in a scent locket.