fountaingrl

I dearly love this oil. It is one of the best on me and I am so glad that it is GC! In the bottle it is a little tangy and sharp, and wet on skin it smells a bit over-vanilla, but the resins take the blend in hand upon drydown and it only gets better.

I love anything with myrrh just about, so Velvet starts with a leg up from the get-go. Pair the myrrh with sandalwood, so that it mellows and softens, for smooth incense-y love. But, this is not a 'head shop' vibe here because of the cocoa and vanilla. The two sweeten up the resins, but somehow don't become too foody.

I was so relieved to see that. If you are one of the people who get disappointed by most 'foody' blends, or who wish chocolate notes would work on you but they don't, try this one. On me, bpal cocoa is much better than bpal chocolate. I swapped away the Candy Butcher because it didn't do much on me, and disappeared quickly, but this one becomes deeper and rounder as it mingles with body heat, and lasts all day long on me.

Highly recommended, 5 out of 5. I like this one better event than Dorian and maybe just maybe better than O.

I'm going to echo the Death of Autumn recommendation. It is a 'dark' and somewhat ominous scent, but not a 'scary' or hunted scent. It smells like wet leaves and crisp air and a fire somewhere in the background.

OTOH, the only scent that I have worn thus far that has had me creeping myself out? Was the 13 from July 07. It smelled like chocolate covered iced malice. Like someone who brings poisoned brownies over in a bandana-lined basket, to welcome you to the neighborhood. I kept wanting to back away from myself. I wore it twice and got rid of it.

Body chemistry is everything with BPAL tho, I read the review that has Tombstone as dry and dusty, and on me? Root Beer. Nummy nummy, like a perfume oil version of LUSH's Sonic Death Monkey. SO GOOD.

OOoooh yes! In the bottle it smells dank and kind of spooky, cold and imposing. The minute it hits the skin: BAM! Walking in a wood at twilight in fall. Dirt, wetness, leaves that are rotting.

Then it dries down and it is like walking in a wood but smelling the smoke from a distant fire, and there is something sweet waaaaaay in the background. Almost like a sweet-haunt, like a shadow of sweetness that when you sniff your wrist you wonder: was it really there?

Amazing, gentle, complex scent, so glad I got a bottle!

I am a Libra, I was SOOOO excited! Finally, my lunacy. And I am ok if not hooray about rose, and I am "meh" about fruit, so I steeled myself. I figured: try.

Was already for rose-and-strawberry-jam mess.

NOPE.

All I got? Was old, musty, in the soapbox too long COAST deodorant soap. Dang chemistry! Amped the fruit in every other blend to intolerable degree, goes sweet crazy rose when there's any rose at all, and in this one NOTHING but soap???? WHY???

I can't stand it, I am going to try it again tomorrow and pray something is different.

Well, POOP!!! I love honey scents. I would roll in honey if I could get away with it. I also think that rum smells rather lovely. Theoretically this scent should have been great.

I was fasincated with the idea of smelling like Buttered Rum Lifesavers. Smelling like candy FTW!

But in the vial, and on my skin, Hellcat is acrid, sharp, and chemical. I get none of the rum smoothness, none of the cherry note. No rooibos. I get smoke, maybe some tobacco, and something so sharp it is like being bitten in the sinuses. It is actually "sharp" in feel to smell. Then the rum scent comes in but it is a turned rum. A rum that has been sicked back up after a bad night of Captain & Coke.

To the swap pile, maybe even wrapped in plastic to prevent a molecule of this from escaping. It is noxious when combined with my skin.

Yikes! I do fine with Zombi even if it isn't really "me" -- my daughter loves it and claimed it -- but Nosferatu does some really odd things with my chemistry.

In the vial it was intriguing, yummy, wine and dirt and citrus.

Wet on skin: CITRUS LIKE WHOA! To the point where I smelled like a citrus cleanser, layered with dirt. I smelled like I was right in the middle of mucking out a very dirty, very dank, long-neglected crumbling home with a bucket full of lemon pine-sol in hot water. Felt like I was a Merry Maid in hell.

On drydown: Ok this makes more sense. Much more wine now, and the dirt was super-strong. Lemon came under control. But the wine is amping to a crazy level. Wine does that on me, I really like the note but if it is one of the main notes in a blend it goes crazy MD 20/20 on me. I smell like I went on a cheap red wine bender and then got rolled in a park after a rainstorm. I smell dirty and drunk on overly sweet red wine. Not good. The different notes 'fight' each other, they don't meld on me. It isn't even a rotting smell.

And now for the weirdness: After I washed it OFF with soap, the scent is good. I know this is odd, but what is left after I take soap and water to it the scent goes very light and it blends better. I don't think I can justify keeping it around to put it on, wash it off, and then sniff the lingering faint scent periodically though, that is a waste of oil that might be amazing on someone else. To the swaps it goes.

Once again I am blown away by Beth's artistry. Not because I love this scent -- I don't -- but because she has produced a smell so dead on to the description and goal that it is like a portrait or personality profile in a bottle. Beth, this is uncanny.

The scent in the bottle is very floral. Almost sharp, almost over-sweet white floral.

Wet on skin is OMGFLOWERS. But it dries down very quickly, mellows out some, softens. And it is lovely. Maybe even beautiful.

But there is something about it that is a ringing "so what?" This does NOT have the soul note that most of Beth's blends do. I know that sounds all hippy-dippy, but I am sorry, something about most bpal blends have a vibe to them whether or not you like them. They feel real, they feel full and round even if the round is a big round "yuck" on some people. This blend is not round. It is pretty in a thin, generic, two-dimensional all-surface "yah it's pretty but that's all it is" scent.

It's Paris Hilton's portrait, perfectly rendered in perfume form. Playful and beautiful, but disconcertingly hollow, and no depth to challenge the intellect or spirit. All quick pretty flash that at the end of the day is nothing terribly special. I am not wearing it again, and I won't be keeping my bottle, but I am amazed at how well this captures the essence of spoiled shallow debutante.

Ok, I don't know what to do with myself. Just when I think I know what will and won't work on me, Beth astounds me again! I had NEVER found a fruit blend that worked. I had enjoyed some wine notes, but the wine in Athens has crazy throw and my partner hates it. I love myrrh but it is very strong and I have a ton of myrrh blends already and a small cache of Minotaur.

I had this little sniffy of Haloa. I am packaging up a package to get sent to a newbie for enabling, and right before I tuck it in I think, "oops, sniffied it but never even tried to test, let's give it a shot too." Oboy.

It does NOT smell like heavy resins on me, nor does it smell like wine note even tho it has 'wine grapes.' It doesn't go fruit-barf at all. I have had no luck with most foodie scents, have swapped away all my monster baits, but THIS one?

Sugar, sweet sugar and cake, and light, and almost coconut but not quite, so fresh and light and sweet, like the smell of light golden sunlight and fluffy snow. Words fail.

I need a shower cuz I tested it after a run, and I am SITTING HERE STILL STINKY because I don't want to wash off the sniffy and I have sent off the imp. It took me *checks watch* oh .... thirty minutes to start hunting down a bottle?

I am going to need to build the paypal big time between 'weens and yules.

ETA: I 'clean-tested' obviously, before sending off the sniffy, since I was a bit icky. I love those little individually-wrapped toothpicks you can get at restaurants, I keep a couple tucked into my wallet. Does that make me an addict, to carry around testing supplies everywhere I go?

I loved the idea behind this, I bought the set (both Pruno and Privilege) within a couple of hours practically of them going up. I couldn't stop laughing about it, and I so wanted to wear it constantly so when people asked what I had on I could say "pruno!" and give the quick story about the lab and the concept.

Then the bottle came.

It smelled sour in the bottle to me but I know you have to test the oils on the skin. So I did.

Within five minutes it smells like I have had a hard night of swilling margharitas and eating hot dogs, and then sicking them back up. Pruno goes fruit-barf, which is always a danger with fruit notes on me, but over the top there is this greasy, dank, low-rent meat smell.

Lord how quick I scrubbed it off.

Oh this is wonderful! I had been afraid of the "embers" note, silly me! I loved Minotaur, and had a brief fling with Athens (but it was too sweet on final drydown). I still have a thing for Minotaur -- but my partner dislikes both Minotaur and Athens. But: Philosopher in Meditation? He LOVES. And it has the honey scent I love and a wine note like in Athens, and the incense & resin blend of Minotaur, but it is the best of both.

I am going to need several bottles of this. I smell like honeyed mead and soft, expensive, ecclesiastic incense.

I get the cinnamon and the light wood note that everyone else gets, I don't really get a lot of frankincense (which is why I bought it unsniffed, as I have a strong need to smell like incense), but I get the niftiest thing after drydown finishes:

Just-extinguished, lightly scented white candle. I'm sorry, but that is SO sexy and comforting at the same time. I smell like very faintly perfumed hot wax with the notes of burned wick and a wee bit of smoke on top. You know how sometimes you are burning a candle and you blow it out and then walk past the candle later and it smells even better in a way? Yes siree, I smell like *that*!

I love honey, and I love amber. I got this in a swap and thought "can't lose, this is gonna be the sex on me." And for the most part it is, I get honey and warm amber and a little floral...

And then maybe 30 mins in, and lasting throughout rest of throw time, there is a slight tang/bitterness that smells all for the world like the juice from a jar of green olives. It is very faint, but it is definitely there. So annoying. The rest of the scent is so good I may keep it, especially if I can figure out if the olive part has throw or if it is only discernable if you huff my wrist. Bah, olives! Good to eat, not to smell.

This is a crazy smell that I have vacillated on....love /hate/love/hate ....finally decided on LOVE!

It starts out dry and piney, and within moments on me the Dreaded Pencil Box 'o Doom comes out to play, complete with a tone of graphite that suggests scantron tests in grade school. Usually that is all she wrote for me, and I'm done. I gave up on cathedral because of the pencils, I have only ever liked Lucretia as far as anything with a wood note.

Then. Then we have Shanghai Tunnel. Good lord, it becomes "lost in a hot forest with pine or sap smell somehow plus bark PLUS wet and moss, just outside the damp cave where you are sitting."

How astounding. There is a rock smell, and it turns out I like to smell like rocks somewhat.

Beth I love you!! More rock smells? Rock smells! Pine smells! Swoon!!!

Wow. This starts out smelling on my skin just as it does in the bottle, which NEVER happens for me. Never. It is creamy, sweet, spicy and floral.

As it dries, the scent goes through a neat morph where it deepens and it takes on an almost savory-spice note, almost food (but not sweet food, like very faint pepper or paprika?) aspect. The floral gets stronger too.

I like this very much. The one drawback that keeps me from sqeeling unreservedly is that it has a little soapiness to it about an hour into wear, and it doesn't stay as strong as I would like.

I can say wholeheartedly this is the most aquatic blend I have ever smelled. Unfortuantely, it has both the good aspects (salt tang, ozone, watery 'blue' feel) of an oceany blend, and also the 'ick' parts that a seaside image calls up. On me, this smells like water, and marsh/salt air, and sand, and maybe dry sea oats or waterside plants that are drying because of summer heat, but also there is a bit of brackish "underside of the dock" to this. I get a brackish, dank, almost mildewed undertone to Kingsport that turns my stomach. I swapped this away after only one try.

(edited for spelling because I am undercaffeinated today)

There is something very sexy about the myrrh/honey/wine mix of Athens. I feel like I've been sexin' it up in Greece with wine and sun on my skin, just amazing.

Ok, dur, that would have been a good inclusion hey? I use O, Minotaur, Athens, Dolce Stil Nuovo, Winter of Our Discontent, Centzon Tetotchtin, Velvet, Midnight on the Midway, Bilquis, Queen. I have a number of other bottles but those are the ones in hardcore rotation.

I don't have any of the Halloweenies, and I don't have any lunacies/moons except Minotaur...

What do you have in regular rotation?

What a GREAT list! THank you I am going to track down a bunch of these! I have an imp of Pumpkin Queen on the way, and I am definitely going to look into at least half a dozen of the others I haven't tried.

Thanks so much! (I was kind of hoping to mix seasonal or 'love' theme with my tastes because I am a geek like that -- I even thought of Tarot: The Lovers.....)

This is so fun, I love the hunt with BPAL also.

Did you want something autumnal? Or just something based on your likes?

 

If you like autumnal & pumpkin, maybe Pumpkin Queen, if you can get your hands on some: Regal Egyptian Amber, red ginger, orange peel, mandarin, cardamom, fig leaf and warm pumpkin.

 

Here are some other scents that I think are really nice that you might like. You didn't say anything one way or another about vanilla, musk, or spices, so some of these have them as components, but I tried to stick with the lighter musk notes:

And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt -resiny/woodsy/spice

Bastet - ambery/warm

Dee - woodsy

Golden Priapus - pine/vanilla

Lotus Moon - warm floral/amber/resin

Black Opal - cool musk

Thanatopsis - pine/woodsy

Harvest Moon - autumnal/warm

Antique Lace - vanilla/musk

Tushnamatay - sandalwood

Omen - resiny/woodsy

Seance - woodsy/rose

Bow & Crown of Conquest - woodsy/vanilla

Brisingamen - amber

O - amber/honey/vanilla

Nocnitsa - wood-fir

The Mock Turtle's Lesson - aquatic

Al-Azif - resins

Kingsport (if you can find it!) - aquatic

Coyote - wood/amber

Clio - amber/wood

Verðandi - amber/herbal

Skuld - honey

Baghdad - spice/sandalwood

Silk Road - spice/resin

Hopefully that's good for at least a few ideas.

Poopie. My wedding this year is on All Soul's weekend, likely on All Soul's Day itself (if not will be next morn, is matter of church availability). I got an imp of All Souls, figured it would be THE perfect wedding scent. No go. It stinks so bad on me it is not even funny.

I am hoping to find something fabulous to comemmorate the day, something that I don't have in regular rotation, so that it is special and will evoke the day from then on for me. Goofy, but what can I say? I do great with ambers, incense smells esp myrrh, frankincense, sandalwood, pines, ozone, rosewood but not most other woods, many flowers but not if cloyingly sweet, honey, spice. I do horrid with fruit (I think this is what turned All Souls -- the current from the 'cake'), many cake-y smells, heavy milks. Samhain doesn't work on me although it smells good because it is the one blend that is instant headache with nausea for me.

What would you wear if you were me? And do I need to get some Honey Moon for the honeymoon or am I just a giant dork? (to put this into perspective, I don't yet have a dress picked out and have only tried on ONE, but am all obsessed over the right BPAL....yah, I am a little obsessed....)

Thanks much! *crosses fingers*

I wanted this to be good on me so bad. I am getting married this year, either on All Soul's Day or on the day after, and I wanted this to be my wedding scent.

In the sample decant it was great. Spicy, sweet, incense-y.

Immediately upon application it starts doing that odd thing that MB: Closet did on me that made me swap out my bottle almost instantaneously. I have had this on for fifteen minutes and I can already tell it is horrid.

Did you ever chew on your Barbie's feet? The smell of this on me is like the taste of if I had sucked on a Jolly Rancher ten minutes ago and now I'm noshing some Barbie feet. Fake fruit and Barbie feet.

So. Sad.

And I love incense too and there is NO incense in this blend at ALL on me.

So much for the perfect wedding scent for a wedding on All Soul's Day. Bah. It would have been so cool.

Guess I'll just have to pick out a different blend for the big day (and the hunt is on, and like that upsets me right?!)

Wet in bottle: sweet, light floral, tang (light) of tea

Wet on skin: still sweet, floral - very white somehow, tea is strong and there is an undertang that on me is slightly citrus and I like it.

On drydown, most of the scent fades. I love the start of this, the wet phase suggested that this was going to go floral tea with a gentle citrus and bamboo on me (my skin does interesting things) but then .... all but a generic floral fades. It is pretty, but nondescript and not worth hanging onto for me when I have so many that need love. It's already found a swap where someone will give it proper love.

I really wanted this one to work too, as I loved the story. C'mon, female monster that works for me PLZ!

(edited for spelling, ack, need more coffee it seems)

I'm a sucker for anything with myrrh. This blend is one of my favorites. Not only is it a blissed-out resin-fest, it is mixed with spice. The clove and other notes come forward and make TWOOD very complex. Usually resins give me that "incense, yum!" comfort feeling. This one doesn't get my snuggle mode going the way Minotaur does. This one is almost aggressive. It is weird and wonderful, the scent feels cold even though many of the individual notes by themselves are 'warm' tones to me.

I got a decant as a frimp in a swap, and went in search of a big bottle on the Forum that same day. Glad I did, well worth it!

Amazing scent, morphs majorly in each stage.

Wet in the bottle: sweet, honey, herb, sort of green and sharp

Wet on skin: roses and licorice. You would think that would be pukey but it isn't somehow, it is amazing. I really am liking this.

Early drydown is same, still roses and licorice but warmer

By 2 hours in, Queen is like roses dusted with powdery honey. If you have ever smelled "honey dust" by Kama Sutra, it reminds me of this but with rose and still the faintest whiff of licorice.

This is just fabulous. I swear, Beth has some sort of mojo -- she keeps sending me frimps that I would NEVER have chosen for myself and then they end up being some of my favorite scents and I go chase down bottles. Psychic marketing?

If you want a floral that feels womanly and regal but with an edge, you have to try Queen.

In the bottle you can smell sweet resin and wine.

Wet on skin: Myrrh! I love myrrh so I am good with this, but at first I am a little disappointed because I think 'hey this is good, but it isn't as good as Minotaur if this is all of it, and it is so similar, maybe I won't keep it?'

On drydown it gets more nuanced and I start to love it. I can smell the wine come out, it is like sweet deep red wine and resins and some honey. I love love love this. I can close my eyes and it feels like how an ancient temple should smell, like incense and offeratory wine and honey. Mmmmm. This is one of my top ten for sure and it is going to go into hard rotation for summer.

Oh dear. From all of the reviews I read I figured it would be Snake Oil with an undercurrent of sweetness and resin.

I love snake oil. I love resins. Fantastic, these things separately are wonderful.

As combined here together though, this is awful on me. The coconut amps to the point of inducing nausea. I cannot wear this, I smell like generic knockoff tanning oil in a very very very bad way. It even chases away the snake oil. This smells like turned coconut with brown sugar. And I had such high hopes! I hope the decant of Temple Viper that also came from the circle works better on me...

(at least my 11 y/o is happy, she gets first pick of the rejects and she ADORES this one...)

I'm reviewing the recent 4/07 version, and wow is it different from the very chocolate-y goodness described by many. This one isn't chocolate orange, or even very chocolate at all. When I first put it on, I got really concerned. It is sharp and good, but also sort of stinky. I know this is a very weird way to put it, but the new 13 sort of stinks in a GOOD WAY. It is sharp and dangerous and smells like flowers and a bit of creamy chocolate and underneath it? Poison. Honestly, it smells like a very dangerous plant that draws you in with floral and sweetness but then if you get close you realize that maybe you don't even want to get the sap on you! At that point I was still wavering: do I like it? Is it too toxic-smelling? Do I really want to wear something that makes me feel a little nervous (btw, that is PERFECT for a fri 13th scent, Beth nailed it!).

Then it went drydown. And it did the oddest best thing ever. It started to smell like something was smouldering.

This smells like herbs and flowers and strange unguents smouldering in a hot iron cauldron on a fire.

I am so keeping this. I have a small concern that I had a headache yesterday & I am not sure if the scent contributed, but if it did I am going to see if I can't use it as a room scent. That is saying something because I don't use BPAL that way but this one is so strange, so unique, so aggressive but alluring that I have to have it. (I know this isn't a TAL/ritual oil, but it feels like you could charge it and use it if that is your thing, for real, this one has weird major energy.....anyone else feel that?)