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BPAL Madness!

Pika

Members
  • Content Count

    909
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Pika

  • Rank
    diabolical decanter
  • Birthday October 16

Location

  • Location
    CO
  • Country
    United States

BPAL

  • BPAL of the Day
    Dee
  • Favorite Scents
    BPAL faves - Anactoria, Kali, Mme. Moriarty, Tiki King, Tiki Princess, Czernobog, Gold Phoenix, Snow White .... Notes: I seem to gravitate to honey, wine, amber, coconut, incense/sandalwood, and spices. And they mostly agree with me. Patchouli is hit or miss, lemon and lemongrass don't often work well, jasmine and many fruits overpower on me. And I don't really like to smell like a dessert, no matter how yummy it may taste.

Profile Information

  • Pronouns
    Female
  • Interests
    Hiking, plants/gardening, animals, reading, football... and good smelly things. When I have time, CP soap and balm/salve making, as well as pysanky and various other crafty things.
  • Mood
    refreshing

Astrology

  • Chinese Zodiac Sign
    Nothing Selected
  • Western Zodiac Sign
    Libra
  1. Pika

    Jazz Funeral

    Bittersweet bay rum, bourbon, and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss. Floral-magnolia(?) very strong at first, then fading. I really didn't get the alcohol other reviewers had. The moss note is more prominent on me in dry-down.
  2. Pika

    Tzadikim Nistarim

    Frankincense and dark green things, drying to more floral, with some sweet candle wax type scent underlying. Smells like ritual, with that kind of heaviness - not a happy-go-lucky perfume scent.
  3. Pika

    Arkham

    I wasn't expecting this to be as sweet and floral. It's pleasant, initially more green and wet, then drying to more pure floral. There's a little bite of evergreen or leaf/moss that lingers, but it's very subtle. I think "pleasant" is the right word... not love, but nice, and not as shadowy/dark/mouldery as I expected. I could actually see wearing this during the current season (spring/early summer).
  4. Pika

    Body, Remember

    2018: I never got to try the older version, but this one is lovely! I do agree that there is some FRUIT of some kind in the imp and wet, but it dries down in a more subtle way... in fact it loses most of the top-note fruit whatever after 5-10 minutes on me. It's sweet, musky, and very subtly floral. The coconut isn't beachy coconut on me... it's that muted black coconut / coconut husk that lurks under other woody things. I like it!
  5. Pika

    The Pleasure of Aristocratic Women

    Dang it!! I wanted exactly what Casablanca got... that's indeed what it smelled like in the imp, with a very sharp almond/amaretto that I assumed would dry down to a lovely scent on skin. What I got was soap. Stupid chemistry.
  6. Pika

    On Seeing a Tuft of Snowdrops in a Storm

    Beautiful early spring flowers. Really light and pretty, and works better on my skin than most florals. Does seem to fade in 3-4 hours, but not uncommon for a “light” scent. Glad I got a bottle.
  7. Pika

    Corvidae?

    Aeronwen. The first release label art had more corvid silhouettes, but the recent still has her dark wings. <3
  8. Pika

    Honey and Beeswax scents

    This was my first year trying Hanerot Halalu and I got pretty much straight beeswax from it. I didn’t detect any olive oil, and maybe a bit of smoke, but it mostly dried down to beeswax, or a light, muted honey type scent. I don’t know whether this is good news or bad news for you. :-p
  9. Pika

    Honey Snowballs

    The honey note is great, and really steps to the front on me... I was worried it’d get lost or take a backing role. Something about the honey and the “snowballs” notes (which is very Snow White) turns into some kind of complex floral, like how really fragrant wildflower honey smells, compared to “normal” clover in-the-bear-bottle honey. I really like Snow White and the backing snow notes, so this is a great combination for me!
  10. Pika

    Blessing of Isis

    I posted a comment in the TAL discussion area, but thought I'd make one here as well. Blessing of Isis has seemed to work remarkably well and promptly towards helping my partner and me reconnect in the bedroom. The first time I used it, within days of actually receiving it, I dressed and burned a candle with the oil and focused on reviving the romance and "teh sexy" in our relationship.... did this two nights in a row, prior to the third night, when I was expecting him home from a business trip. That third night, when I got home from work, he was waiting there, ready to jump me... something that hadn't occurred in the past several months. I don't usually have this prompt a response from my ritual work, and while we were both aware of our drought and likely already thinking about ending it, Isis may have just been the nudge we needed to get us there. It was certainly unexpected, exciting, and most welcome! ETA: Smell notes... not really my fave, gonna leave it on the candles. Heavy, herbal/musky? and makes me think a bit of Smut, which is the only BPAL so far that made me run screaming (figuratively) once reacting with my chemistry.
  11. Pika

    Jinx Removing

    Used this at the last new moon. Anointed a white candle which I burned during a bath into which I added sea salt and a couple drops of the oil. I did a cleansing meditation while soaking. I'm still a White Light fan first and foremost, but I did really enjoy this informal ritual and plan to repeat it with this oil each month, if I can. Worth it to wash accumulated gunk away.
  12. I love those notes, especially honey and tobacco. I may have different skin chemistry than others, but I've tried both Tobacco Honey and The Illustrated Woman with disappointing results. Tobacco Honey came out all sweet, green, and flowery, and The Illustrated Woman was VERY pine-y and forest-y on me neither of which is how I like my tobacco scents. Those are good recs if they'll work for you though! The best tobacco-and-sweet scents I've smelled are really hard to come by... Pinched with Four Aces is lovely... no honey, but gorgeous with sweet coffee overtones... and impossible to get. Sacrifice and Quincey Morris are also fabulous, sweet tobacco with leather notes too... and impossible to get now. Kali is another favorite with tobacco and honey, but it's got strong, fruity red wine overtones. If you can do red musk, I LOVE Mme. Moriarty and it has a very "smoky-sweet" feel to me. Perversion is good like that too, and actually has tobacco as a note. Bengal is a good honey-spices, but not very smoky. ETA: I've been dying to try Womb Furie (Snake Oil + Honey) but haven't gotten to it yet!
  13. Pika

    Using BPAL to negate the smell of death?

    Be warned though...I used to wear Penumbra during my anatomy labs, but then I couldn't wear it ever again without the association with death/formalin! I had to swap it away after that.
  14. Pika

    The Vine

    Wow... incredibly fruity and strong at first! The honey is there for me from the beginning, but definitely comes to the surface more after the pear/FRUIT backs down a bit, and the creamy vanilla does come out at the end. (Thank goodness I don't get any artificial banana!) Kind of a "heady" scent, without a lot of grounding notes, and so sweet it almost makes my teeth ache. Still, this is great "creamy" scent, one of the first that seems to work on me, and I can't get enough BPAL honey.
  15. Pika

    Dark Chocolate and Key Lime Truffle

    I agree, no false advertising here! Lime and chocolate, which was what I was hoping for. They blend well, and I enjoyed it, and I think it's a lovely foody-in-disguise type scent. It's like the lime tricks my nose into not associating the sweetness with a candy bar, which is perfect. I might have to try to find more of this. ETA: I do agree it fades quickly though. It's a morning-only type scent.
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