naeelah

Sorry, that was unclear... I want to know if BPAL blends commercial fragrance oils to make their products. Are they essential oils that Beth makes herself? Are they essential oils that she buys? Are they synthetic oils made by BPAL in chemistry labs?

You'll find a 9 page FAQ thread here discussing this:

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=11584

In short: yes.

Except to the part about synthetic oils made in chemistry labs. They don't use aldehydes and other synthetics common to commercial [department store type] perfumes. I don't know exactly where the synthetic boundary lies, but Beth most certainly is not going to soap websites and ordering their fragrance oils.

They use EOs, absolutes, and other natural infusions (such as gardenia). Many of these components they buy from small suppliers all over the world, some of them they make themselves. (I recall Beth asking for someone to send her some black walnuts one time.) They use some commercial fragrance oils (in that Beth does purchase some pre-blended accords). They also blend their own accords, so if you're smelling "cake batter" in a scent, it's anyone's guess whether Beth bought that from a blender or she blended it herself. It's probably a combination of both. That's just part of their secret.

Whatever the ingredients, be sure of one thing: Beth is a trained, master perfumer. She is not some Etsy hack ordering lotion making supplies and re-selling them. She could go to work for Guerlain if she wanted. That is not her style.

BPAL is about concepts, not traditional perfumery. Some of their scents smell like traditional perfumes. Some smell like cake. It just depends. And that's what we love about BPAL: all things are possible. In the past -- what is it, 6 years? -- they have created more than 1500 individual scents. The permanent catalog has more than 400 scents. You can be sure that there is a lot of variety in it.

If you don't like your samples, try some others. Maybe you won't like any of them. That's okay. Everyone has their own tastes. As for me, even Guerlain gives me a headache because it is so laden with horrible man made ingredients, like the alcohols and fixatives, not to mention aldehydes. BPAL has never had that effect on me. So what is a reviewer's definition of "quality"?

That's a lot of angst over a $25 purchase.

That's what I was thinking. And to the OP: if you don't like your first 6 samples (which is entirely possible), you'll notice that there is a thriving second hand market for BPAL, so you will easily be able to trade for other scents. You should have also noticed that the forum has a substantial review section, which contains all manners of reviews (not just hopelessly optimistic fangirl ones).

It has a strongly boozy start and smells rather like bubblegum schnapps [assuming such a thing exists] and dark incense.

Once dry, it's less strongly boozy and bubblegum-like, but it's still distinctly sweet. Oddly, it smells like cinnamon to me now. So, really, this smells kind of like your customary "cinnamon apple spice" autumn room spray -- with a liberal addition of wood smoke.

As it continues to dry over the next hour, it loses some of the spice blend quality (thankfully) and a more realistic wood smoke scent develops. The wood smoke is actually fairly subtle. It's nice and warm and does give the image of fires in the distance. It isn't as strong or barbecue-like as, say, Bonfire Night.

Strangely, I don't smell much musk. Or I guess I do, but I'm just not singling it out as musk. That's a little disappointing. I hoped this would be muskier. But this is sure to age well, so we'll see how it goes. I *can* say that it isn't black musk (something I was afraid of). If anything, I'd guess that it's a brown musk, because it has that same kind of warm, blending-in-ness that scents such as Brown Jenkins have. Almost as if you had a gland that produced brown sugar.

The longer it wears, the less flagrantly sugary it becomes. After an hour or so, it's darker and less immediately fruity or spicy, and more on par with what I was expecting.

So as it stands, it's a sweet, slightly fruity, spicy smoke blend. It's a little bit short-lived, but then again, this kind of blend works better when it stays close to the skin (you don't want to broadcast "I'm drunk and I'm on fire!!' to surrounding people, really).

This is extremely well blended. I have a very hard time identifying what's in it. This is a good thing, really, because it just creates a quality of "glossy black" that's perfect for the theme.

First and foremost, it's strong. A little goes a long way, and it lasts all damn day. I put it on at about 8 this morning. Here it is 3:30 and still at a perfectly respectable strength.

Primarily, I smell the ebony musk. This definitely is not regular black musk. It doesn't smell like regular black musk, but I also know it's different because I asked Beth on twitter. This is most akin to blue musk. It has an oily undertone with a bright, smooth top aspect. It is dark like the night sky during a full moon, cool and clear (whereas black musk is dark like crude oil -- thick and enveloping).

Underneath the musk is a dusky, fuzzy, smoky blend of notes. It reminds me in some ways of the lab's dark incense blend. I really can't pick anything out. Not even the vanilla. Hours and hours later, I can smell a creamy aspect in the scent, but it doesn't stand out immediately as vanilla. I don't smell patchouli. The pepper adds a pointed bite; it doesn't stand out as distinctly as black pepper does, but you certainly notice the eye-watering sharpness. It's hard to say anything dominates the blend. It's just...black. But sleekly so.

Actually, this reminds me a bit of a dark version of Coco by Chanel. It has that similar seamless blend of musk, resin, and spice, with a bright edge to the musk without the scent being light and sparkly. Raven Moon is very elegant and definitely unisex.

If you like this and want something similar in the GC, try The Raven (obviously). It's very similar, with a slightly floral, fruity edge. Also try The Velvets, which has a similar "dark but cool" quality.

For LEs, you might enjoy Romantigoth (if you can find it -- for a similar but more pungent and swarthy scent), On Darkness (elegant, cool, fuzzy, faintly fruity), The Emathides (dark and intriguing with a sweet center).

--

ETA: age is serving this well. I can actually smell the notes slightly more distinctly, but in a good way. This used to give me a headache, with the sharp pepper. The pepper has lost none of its potency, but now it is better balanced by the sweetness of the vanilla, so the scent is somewhat less aggressive, overall. The patchouli remains strikingly subtle. Definitely a gorgeous blend.

This is actually rather like John Barleycorn from last year. Like a cross between it and Bonfire Night, mercifully without vetiver.

It goes on with a lot of beer and a lot of cake. It definitely has a grainy (in the sense that it smells like bread) quality with sweet cakes, with some alcohol to brighten things up a bit. On me, the incense quickly emerges and becomes pretty strong. The bread quality of the beer is strong enough that it balances the sugar of the cake, so while this is a sweet blend with a slight creamy aspect, it's not so foody.

So rather than smelling like cake, on me, this smells like incense and beer with a little cake on the side. And that's okay with me!

The throw dies down pretty quickly, BUT the scent lasts a reasonable time. It just stays a little close to the skin. After about 6 hours it's mostly gone, smelling like traces of petit fors and incense.

Those of you who hoped wanted to love Bonfire Night but can't wear vetiver, give this a try. Bonfire Night is heavy, custardy cake and wood smoke. Feeding the Dead is lightly iced white cakes (very similar to Eat me) with incense smoke. So they aren't identical -- FtD is a bit less rich -- but they're definitely related.

I second doing the search for black pepper on the site. There have been some good peppery LEs, too. (I LOVE peppery scents.)

What else do you like? What sort of effect do you want? I could recommend some specific ones if I knew a little more.

If you want something that will just be a whole lotta pepper and spice and not much else, try these:

La Mort Qui Danse - basically black pepper and lily.

Aries '07 - this has a lot of dragon's blood and honeysuckle also, but it's extremely peppery and has a sharp, cool quality

Some other peppery LEs:

Pothon Meter - this is like black pepper and rose, with added spice bouquet.

Dark Chocolate and Pepper Smoked Caramel -- this is a foody candy scent, but with a lot of pepper. It's sort of like a foody Hand of Glory.

All of the ones that Caudapavonis mentioned are good ones, but pepper is just part of the bouquet. It's fairly pronounced in Three Gorgons, though. If you like orange scents, that's a good one to try.

giabee, I'm sure that AL similarities have come up before, so try searching the thread. It was discontinued once before, so there has to be some good advice around here somewhere already.

On me, personally, AL is mostly violet and sweet vanilla. It is nothing like Morocco, for me, except that they both have a sweet vanilla note. If I were going to look for an AL clone, I'd probably start with Faith and then add Mouse's Long Sad Tale or something like that -- a scent with vanilla and other dry, lightly floral notes.

I LOVE this. How did Beth know that I really wanted some more non-seasonally-specific floral room scents?

It smells primarily like rose water. Light, pink, soft rose. As other reviews have said, Queen's Croquet Ground is packed to the brim with voluptuous red rose and greenery, and it smells very much like Rose Red in spray form. This is much lighter and girlier. QCG is an outdoor garden, this is absolutely an indoor parlor, exactly as you'd imagine from the description.

In the air, it's hard to pick out individual notes beyond rose, but the overall sense is of rose water on dry linens with a little bit of dust. Knowing there's orris, I can definitely smell it -- powdery and bone dry. I can smell the black tea note when I first spray the scent, but once it has settled in the room, it seems to just add to the "parlor" quality of the scent, rather than stand out as a distinct note.

So taken as a whole: light, dried roses and dusty linens. Fabulous!

Ha, I forgot that "stays close to the skin" was actually in the description of this. That's why I chose this scent to wear today -- I wanted something that was be soft and skin-like.

When it first goes on, it's very strong on vanilla. It honestly smells a little bit artificial. It reminds me strongly of Love's Philosophy, only with the chamomile providing the odd herbal tone instead of sharp saffron.

As it dries, though, everything balances beautifully. The chamomile is very light and sweet, much more like a cup of herbal tea than a nose full of dried flowers. It, of course, smells like chamomile, but it isn't as overwhelmingly hay-like as actual chamomile. I don't care for the scent of the dried flowers themselves, but in this perfume, it's lovely.

Dry, it's soft, golden, and round: warm vanilla (which now smells quite like an actual vanilla bean and NOT like artificial flavoring) anchoring the scent to the skin, with light chamomile floating above.

I really don't get much sense of smoke from it at this point. A little, but not in such a way that my memory of the scent is smoky. I expect this aspect will develop as the bottle ages. (Obviously, this scent can only get better and better!)

The only down side is that the scent fades rather quickly. It was basically gone after a few hours. However, it's beautiful, and probably my favorite vanilla blend so far. It's warm and sensual without being as overtly sexy as something like Snake Oil, and the vanilla doesn't call attention to itself as a food scent. Really the perfect all-purpose fragrance. If you're a vanilla fan, or think you'd like a chamomile perfume, you should definitely give Sachs a try.

ETA: with a few months of aging, the smokiness is now more noticeable. The vanilla is richer and more complex and I can smell the smoked aspect. Also, the scent lasts much longer on the skin. I'd even say it has extremely good wear life now. The chamomile is still vibrant and has not faded away, to my nose, it's just better matched by the vanilla.

For everyone like me who's been desperate for a TKO linen spray, look no further. This smells quite. Similar to the oil, as it's predominately lavender and vanilla.

On first spray, it's all fresh lavender with an aftertone of shady vanilla. This is not as sweet and vanilla heavy as my tko massage oil ,but it's definitely reminiscent. I had hoped this would be more floral, but since I have been wanting a tko spray, I'm quite happy with this being lavender heavy! It's also quite similar to the Emathides. It isn't musky, but the vanilla and melon combine to form a scent that reminds me of black amber.

As it settles, I smell night blooming jasmine and an edge of light melon. The other florals don't stand out individually, to my nose, and i'd never guess this had cedar. This is certainly a floral scent -- the vanilla just rounds things out -- but the lavender beats the others into submission.

This is certainly a cool, shadowy night time scent. Perfect for overcast days and any time you need to destress, too. And it's WAY strong, so it will last forever. In a room where I keep the window open, I don't smell this in the air the next day, but I can definitely smell it on my sheets. Love it.

I'm really happy to see that I am not the only freak for whom this is almost a rose single note.

In the bottle and wet it's MEGGGAAAA AALLMOOOND! So much so that there's probably an echo.

Then...it turns into rose. It's red rose but not too voluptuous... so really, it's very much like rose water. I can't smell anything remotely foody about it.

So I thought, meh, pass on this one....but about 10 minutes later, a light, sweet creaminess finally comes in and warms up the blend. It's a little like Katrina van Tassel but more of a creamy *quality* than the lab's actual cream note. And at this point, it's pretty freakin beautiful.

I was going to pass on the scent entirely until I realize it might have chocolate in it, so I tried it. I was totally shocked by the emergence of rose, but in the end, I love it. Once I got over the shock of it being totally different from what I expected (caramel cake), I realized I like this far better as it is than I would have as I imagined it. So it's a surprise hit for me.

ETA: Now that it's a few months old, when I sniff it in the bottle, it smells primarily of rose. The almonds are much more agreeable now. On the skin it's much the same -- lots of rose, well balanced by a creamy sweetness, rather like Katrina van Tassel, but richer.

When I tried Tome Gozen, I thought it was a lot like Lady Una without the vanilla. The similarity still stands, but it's just a similarity and not a dead ringer. Now I have Berry Moon, and I think it's even more like Lady Una. Just add vanilla and you've basically got Una.

This smells like berries and sunshine. I love it. It's another blend that's quite similar to Lady Una minus vanilla.

Wet and in the early stages, it's a load of ripe, slightly tart berries (a single berry variety doesn't stand out to me -- combined they smell like the lab's blackberry note) with an equal amount of sparkling golden musk. The honey is definitely there, but the sweetness blends, and the orange blossom adds some contrast to the thick, ripe scents.

As it wears, the berry fades, and it smells primarily of golden musk with a little orange blossom honey and tart traces of berries. From a distance, something in this keeps reminding me of black amber -- I think it's the combination of the sweet honey and the slight oily undertone to musk.

So if you get this expecting mega berry, you may be disappointed. It certainly has berries, but to me it feels like more of a golden summer blend with berries in it than a berry scent, per se. This is more to my tastes, so I love it. It's a great summer alternative to Lady Una because without the vanilla it lacks some of the heaviness that can be nauseating in extreme heat and humidity.

If the notes here were ice cream flavors, this would be the best sundae ever: pumpkin and white chocolate with whipped cream and pomegranate syrup.

I don't know how this has aged, but I want to say the pomegranate stands out more now. When I first slather it on, it smells like chocolate and pomegranate. Not even white chocolate -- much more like chocolate chocolate. But the chocolate quality immediately begins to lighten, and buttery pumpkin surfaces, anchoring the scent a bit. Once dry, I can smell the cream if I know to look for it, but on the whole this note doesn't stand out. It just helps to blend the other notes.

This is definitely thick and sweet. The natural sweetness of the pumpkin is only amplified by the pomegranate, which here adds a slight bitter undertone but mostly smells rich, red, and fruity sweet. The notes are complex enough to have some balance, but there is no getting around this being a very richly foody scent.

Of all the foody blends I've tried, nothing else has been quite like it. If you're a big fan of pumpkin and pomegranate, you should definitely try this.

I have a certain life-long affinity for gnomes, especially of the lawn variety, so I really wanted to love this. About half the notes are hit or miss -- really, pretty much miss -- so I was worried. But I am very pleasantly surprised.

Red currants sometimes smell like plastic on my skin, patchouli tends to turn into extremely strong dirt, and oakmoss turns even shriller than patchouli. (Wasn't sure what kind of moss would be in this. The moss in the shunga blends wound up smelling like some kind of awful cologne on me, so I was not optimistic. Moss and I just don't go well together.)

Wet, this is a ton of tart, slightly jammy red currants -- just like the currants in Tomoe Gozen -- with a liberal drizzling of molasses. The molasses is perfectly true to life. Dark and thick and sweet, but not overwhelmingly sugary. A hint of bitterness. Behind those is a thick vanilla buttercream, but not as sweet as frosting.

Grounding the scent is a hint of moss (fuzzy and sharp at the same time -- sure there is a little bit of oakmoss or spanish moss) and fresh patchouli. The patchouli here is a more elegant variety, sort of like the one in the Grindhouse blends.

As it wears it becomes more and more earthy (as patchouli always does on my skin), but the red currants never go away. So, after an hour or so, it's a light earthy scent with currants a hint of molasses and vanilla.

Even as someone who hates earthy blends, I love this. It has just the right balance of notes. It's earthy enough to suggest gnomey goodness but, uh, non-earthy enough for me to like it. I really hope that the patchouli doesn't get stronger with age (as every patchouli blend I've ever gotten a bottle of has), because I want to keep this forever and ever. Definitely give it a try if you're a fan of currants or earthy blends.

No, Bewitched and Lady Una aren't much alike. Bewitched was very light and herbal on me. Very dusky feeling and subtle, with some berry for contrast. Lady Una is MAGICAL! Effervescent, sweet honey with vanilla and subtle blackberry.

BTW, the reason people are recommending Snow Glass Apples (which is extremely hard to come by) is because Neil Gaiman tested it and said it smelled like "sexy vampires".

If you want to find something that smells like it, try searching in the LE to GC recommendation thread (pinned at the top of the forum), because I know it has been discussed. (The lab has some similar apple blends in the GC so layering to get something similar shouldn't be too hard.)

Well Count Dracula is an obvious one. But that's an older LE. (But Smiling Spider in the Salon is fairly similar. Layered with Calico Jack or something you might get a good resemblance.)

There is a ton of stuff that could work. Is there anything in particular that you like or hate? Do you want a musky scent, a floral scent, a berry scent...?

A few random ideas--

GC:

Perversion (notes of booze, smoke, leather)

Snake Oil (of course!)

Loviatar (leather, black amber, musks, myrrh)

Wanda (leather, merlot, rich flowers)

Blood Countess (berries, wine, smoke)

Bloodlust (vetiver, dragon's blood, patchouli)

Blood Kiss (can't remember everything - vanilla, spice, vetiver, dragon's blood, etc)

LE:

Death Adder (currently available in the CD - Snake Oil, coconut, vetiver)

Krampus (red musk, leather, wood, dust)

Snake Charmer

I think you'll be cutting it very close. It looks like the lab is shipping orders very quickly right now (you can see the announcement that they're shipped thruogh Jun 18). When the lab is moving this fast, sometimes you have your order a week after you place it. So if I were you, I'd wait and order a day or two before I left my old house. Or if you'll have all your stuff packed up already and won't have access to a computer, just wait until you get to your new home.

oh, and BTW, there is a thread (currently on page 2) called "Planning your next order", and it seems likely that your topic will get merged with that. A mod will probably tell you where your thread went if it moves, but just so you know.

On me, Taurus '07 is very similar to The East. The main difference is that Taurus feels a little more substantial, stronger, which makes sense given that The East is suppose to be a scent carried on the wind. Taurus doesn't have currants, but that note was pretty subtle on my skin in the East.

Anyway, all very minor differences. Even if they don't smell just alike on you, if you like one, you'll probably like the other.

Taurus is a bright, sparkling spring floral. Wet, it smells cheerful and pink, almost effervescent, with a liberal amount of thyme and mint. It's just a little bit sweet. The rose adds richness and I can smell the dryness of the violet, but otherwise, the florals here are very well blended. Nothing really stands out. If I had to guess, I'd say there were carnation and phlox. Those are not listed in the notes, but as a bouquet, they flowers remind me of those notes. Apple Blossom sometimes smells like apples, but here it does not.

The mint balances, as it usually does, as it dries, but the thyme remains pretty strong. The mint has a more herbal quality than peppermint candy quality, and the thyme smells almost spicy from a distance.

So, in short: this is a cheerful light spring floral, with an airy, herbal overlay of mint and thyme.

It reminds me a lot of the East, minus the red currant.

This is much sweeter than I expected. The strongest note start to finish is rich, buttery pumpkin. I don't get as much sense of spice as other people seem to. There's just a slight hint when wet, with a liberal amount of booze and beeswax. The wax is fuzzy and almost sugary.

As it dries, more of the other notes reveal themselves. Some of the alcohol scent of the beer dissipates and it just leaves the sweet, malty scent. I smell what I think is leather, but must be the asphalt. It's dark and cool, and when totally dry there's a slight grittiness, like a drop of brimstone. Unfortunately this doesn't become very smoky on me.

So in short, it's: sweet boozy pumpkin, wax, and a hint of grit. To be honest, I wish it was more grit and less pumpkin, but this is a very nice scent, if you want a pumpkin that is not strictly foody.

This is what I had originally hoped for from Tiki Queen. Wet, it's primarily syrupy tropical fruit and coconut. As it dries, the vanilla comes to join the coconut. It's rich and creamy, and at this stage it smells pretty similar to Agape.

As it dries, the flowers become most dominant. The orchids and frangipani blend together in a rich bouquet with a slightly dry edge that seems to be amber. The flowers and amber remain strongest, with coconut vanilla and a squirt of tropical fruit in the background. It's sweet, very tropical, and probably the best all-encompassing tropical blend I've smelled from the lab.

The first time I tried this, I think I passed it along without even reviewing it. It smelled sharp and cologne-like and awful. Now, though, it's rich and warm and lovely. Perhaps the first imp I tried was fresh and this one is aged. I don't know.

The strongest note is the Arabian musk, which reminds me of skin musk here. It's a nice medium, amber kind of musk that blends into your natural skin scent. It's very smooth and velvety. Immediately the scent is warmed up by a rich bouquet of spices. Nothing stands out, it's just warm and fuzzy, sorta like chai or a curry blend [although I hasten to add, the spices here do not actually smell like curry].

There was a smooth, polished, slightly sweet quality in the middle, and something about this made me think of apple cider, if apple cider were a musk. Then I looked at the notes and I realized what I was smelling was the rose. Strangely, it did not stand out to me as rose. Once I knew what it was it snapped into place in my mind, but it really just adds a core to the scent.

After an hour or two, a lot of the musk and spice had receded and the scent was primarily rose.

Morocco is the closest point of comparison for this, but they are definitely unique blends. Morocco always remains a bit sharp and assertive (in a good way) -- lots of dry cassia and hot spice, balanced by sugary vanilla musk. Bengal is another similar blend, but again, the spices in that were very assertive and cinnamon heavy, on me. Othello is much smoother and rounder, more of a warm glow then a brutal desert heat.

Velvety is still my best description for it. Soft musk, soft spice, and soft rose, all rolled into one fabulous scent.

This smells like Christmas! It smells exactly like fir tree trimmings: evergreen needles with hints of bark and sap.

And it's STRONG, but in a fabulous way. I never wear pine perfumes and I love this. For the first 15 minutes or so, it reminds me strongly of Slobbering Pine, but without the aquatic element that makes that blend unappealing to me

Little by little, as it wears, the evergreen notes recede and let some of the other stuff through, and it becomes better balanced. The other notes provide an herbal quality, but brown herbs, if that makes sense. They provide an earthy base without actually smelling like earth. It's not a dirty scent like patchouli. The longer it wears, the more I smell the tobacco, which is sweet and rich, like pipe smoke.

So, in short this smells like: evergreen clippings, bark, sap, and pipe tobacco. It's rich, fragrant, and fabulous.

I don't think I could begin to figure out everything going on here. I put it on without reading the notes and my impression was "perfume water." It is very strong and it reminds me commercial scents such as Clear Water.

Dry, it's definitely aquatic, first and foremost. It's deep but it has a cool, refreshing edge. It isn't as dark and unfathomable as Hurricane or Cthulhu. The water has a subtle saltiness, and I feel like there's some kind of floral note hidden in the water. Something sweet and rich, like plumeria.

But whatever's going on, it's all to achieve one end: cool ocean water.