crimescenecleanup

This is a nostalgic scent that sets my heart all a-flutter. It smells like a very clean young man wearing his best leather jacket and little too much aftershave, trying to impress someone. Aw, I remember when boys used to try and impress me. Now, they're all like "Madam, you look frail and decrepit. May I escort away from this mosh pit and to a safer place, perhaps a diner with a senior menu?" In the bottle this smells very distinctly of original Irish Spring soap.The soapy quality never quite goes away, but it does mellow beautifully as the greasepaint, leather, and aftershave notes develop on warm skin. I agree with zankoku-zen that it does smell a little like a theater.In spite of the name, Whiff-Lash is not harsh at all. It is playful, fresh, and downright charming.

He Who Soothes the Storm: languid lavender pacifying a tumultuous wave of salt water, guiac wood, and cedar. Whoa, this is beautiful! It is a very masculine lavender. The guiac wood adds just a touch of natural sweetness, the cedar grounds it. The lavender stays dominant throughout. I don't get any aquatic from this, it just seems like a clean, fresh airy floral with just a whisper of woods. Soft, not bracing. It is the kind of scent that seems unexpected, daring and sexy, yet still gentle and inviting. I suspect a lot of people will want to buy this for their significant others, so they can cuddle up to Aegir.

This smells like a street fair run by hippies, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Incense-soaked handmade batik scarves, artisanal herbal teas, and exotically spiced snack food beguile the senses while a handsome young juggler dressed in patchwork hemp flirts with you for tips. Yep, it's that in a bottle.

Beeswax so sweet it is almost cloying, the kind that is dark brown, barely filtered. This is like the beeswax from Flickering Lantern amped up to 11, mixed with raw honey. For me, the chalk and dust only make their appearance on drydown, and then only faintly, adding a little powder to this blend. Although it isn't listed, there is a very strong vanilla-like note that shows up in this one. It makes this scent warm and comforting, maybe to represent the glow of candles. This is one of the longest-lasting perfumes I've tested. If you love beeswax, this is your new holy grail scent.

Damn, Krampus, where have you been all my life? This is the most beautiful true-to-life suede leather note, and possibly the first BPAL leather note to ever work on me. It has just a hint of red musk that is both fruity and cold at the same time. It is not a red musk that I recognize from any other scent, and seems unique to this one. It has a pleasantly dusty aspect to it, that keeps the leather and red musk in check. I agree that it is similar to the coal dust from other Yule scents. The coldness and the dustiness of Krampus It is definitely filling my need for more mineral/petrichor notes.

Thanks! I appreciate the replies.

Ugh. I've had bad luck with package deliveries lately. A couple days ago, UPS dropped a large, heavy parcel right on top of the boxes USPS left on my porch. The boxes underneath were broken open, including one from BPAL. Luckily, nothing was broken. However, when my husband was cleaning up the mess, he set one of the BPAL bottles on the windowsill to keep it from rolling away, and forgot about it. When I came home from work and found it, it has been sitting outside in the sun all afternoon, and was very hot to the touch. I brought it inside to cool it off, but is it ruined? I keep all of my essential oils and perfume oils in a climate controlled room, in a dark cabinet, so I haven't really experimented with how much of a beating they can take from heat and light.

Theoi Nomioi would be a lovely choice for Bobbie. I was thinking very much along the same line that you were - except I was looking for scents that paired both aquatics and clay notes, something for both water and dust. But Theoi really captures the idea of the garden dream paired with her rugged marine persona. And Mr. Czernobog for Amos...my goodness, it does sound perfect. It has the blood, the leather, the metal...I'm very curious to see how the tobacco and incense plays out in that one. For Errinwright, definitely The Convocation from The Graveyard Book. Or maybe The Magician from Crimson Peak, or Mr. Qubit. Swanky Cologne, but with a futuristic, metallic edge. I also noticed that Mr. Wednesday has "sleek cologne, whiskey, gallows wood, and herbs" listed as the notes. It is a long shot, but somewhat fitting in symbolism. He's definitely all about the sleek cologne and whiskey, herbs for the greenery of earth, and his job is definitely headed for the gallows. For Julie and Blue Julie, I'll have to test some imps and come back to that one.

I love your recommendations! Watson sounds rather perfect for Miller. Amos is a tough one... I've been racking my brain over that one, as well as over what Bobbie or Drummer would wear.

OK, here's another one, for the sci-fi fans: Let's think up ideas for what characters from 'The Expanse' would wear. Every time Chrisjen Avasarala comes on screen dressed to the nines with the bearing of a particularly badass goddess I want to swoon with happiness. What perfume would pair well with those awesome power outfits? For some reason, I associate Naomi with some of the Snake Oil variants. Snake Oil seems like a very grounded scent to me, dark and resinous, but it can have a soft and cuddly side, too. Seems like Naomi - sensible and grounded, feminine, and soft-hearted.

Thanks! These are all great recs. I hadn't thought of the Clive Barker scents, but some of those are perfect. And Grand Guignol is one I haven't tested in years. It's time to find an imp and revisit it.

OK, I need some perfume recs for Horror Clowns - you know the type! Pennywise, Twisty, Dropsy, etc... There was a coulrophobia collection. But I'm wondering if there are any GC scents that would work well for scary clown characters. Xanthe is the obvious answer, but can you guys think of any others?

Same from bottle to drydown on me...gorgeous crisp white tea, a dirty funky jasmine, and lovely soft slightly soapy white musk. If there is leather, I can't differentiate it from the tea note. I love it.

This is a lovely, soft carnation at first, with just a touch of a hay note. No chrysanthemum or incense is noticeable. It fades quickly and after a few minutes is totally undetectable. This is by far the faintest/most delicate scent I have ever tested.

The first thing I get is a very strong salt note, followed by menthol and eucalyptus. There is no sweetness to it, so it never veers off into cough-drop territory. No, this is bitter...bitter and cold, and a little medicinal. Dry down is a really powerful, bracing saltwater aquatic. This is the ultimate oceanic/ozonic scent. It reminds me of men's colognes popular in the nineties. Still, it seems like a scent to wear to the gym, rather than on a date. There is nothing cuddly or warm about this. edit: OK, on the second day of testing this, my impression of it has changed a bit. It isn't quite as bitter or medicinal as I originally thought. In fact, after a while, it starts to sweeten up a bit. There are definitely some notes that round the scent out and makes it not purely aquatic, but I can't place what they are. It has a base that reminds me almost of freshly baked bread and white florals. But not Big, Heavy White Florals - gardenia, tuberose, jasmine. No, like little white florals...maybe some spring bulbs just starting to blossom. The cold saltwater marine notes are still at the forefront of this perfume.

Pyretta - my first thoughts for you are Manhattan, Aeval, and Tamora, all GC blends.

The GC scent Come To Me reminds me of laundry soap. It is not unpleasant - no sharp ozone or anything like that - it just reminds me of laundry day. Like some old-fashioned cleaning soap with a light herbal scent.

Thank you, VetchVesper! I've been wondering about King Cobra for awhile. It's good to hear it get an endorsement. I'll watch for Signior Dildo with the Lupers, as well.

I'll play...here are my current favorite GCs Vice Euphrosyne Dragon's Bone Tlazolteotl Ranger and for bonus, Melisande The Puppet Mistress, but I'm not sure it counts as it is Carnaval scent. What else would you recommend I check out?

When I first cracked the bottle, I was stunned by how pretty this was. It smelled poisonous, sharp, delectable and expensive. Testing it on skin, luscious red amber is at the forefront, and oh, it is good. The bitter almond steps up smelling like proper bitter almond, which can never be mistaken for cherry or cough syrup. It has a clean alcoholic note from the rum, which reads mostly as alcohol, with no sugar or spice notes - just a distilled white rum. The lemon peel is very bitter, strong and sharp in this. It is bracing and grabs your attention. Altogether, this is a boozy, exotic amber, with a bright flash of citrus to get your attention. It has my attention. I have a huge crush on 7WS: Wrath. This is all well and good until the patchouli shows up. This is a dry patchouli, it smells stale and papery and almost tobacco-like. For a few minutes this dessicated patch seems to suck all the life out of this blend, and mixed with the lemon peel it is almost too bitter and harsh to stand. Oh no! 7WS: Wrath is breaking my heart and trampling my dreams. On full drydown, though, the sweetness of the amber really blooms, and offsets the brasher and more bitter notes. Now it smells like the worlds' most expensive and fanciest almond soap, and I am OK with that. At this stage, we've worked out our differences, and I am in love with 7WS: Wrath. bonus review: My husband (who rarely wears scented products at all) tested this and said that it "smells like Christmas trees" and is "very pleasant" This is a radical departure from his usual review vocabulary used when I ask him his opinion on perfumes, which consists of the following: "that smells like strawberries" "that smells like candy" "that smells like incense and cookies...like cookies baked in a headshop" "I don't know what it is but I don't like it" and "Oh, that's BPAL's Snow White"

There's a new coke on the market, Coke Cypress! And that could be the soft drink or the street drug, as my arm is numb where I applied this. Yeah, that's what I get. Beautiful chilly cypress and coca-cola, then hint of cold, cold mint. The myrrh resin and evergreen pitch combination must be what is triggering that coca-cola scent memory. I get that from BPAL's Voodoo as well. Not that I am complaining. It is still more perfume than soda, more resin than gourmand. I have never tried another perfume quite like this. It is in a category of its own. It is my favorite treatment of the cypress note so far, and BPAL has done some very cool things with cypress this year. This will have a treasured place in my collection and will be getting a lot of wear in the coming summer months.

Skin test: Oh, it's that exact carnation note from Maiden that I love so much! Eeeew...but then vanilla and sugar step in to do this weird burnt sugar thing. Vanilla, you are a cruel temptress. Combined with the freesia it smells a little strange and medicinal like...bandaid adhesive? Go figure. The prettiest girliest floral scent of all the Yule releases would turn into burnt sugar and bandaids on me. Paper test: On a paper test strip, it stays carnations, with a bit of earthy raw sugar and a very perfumey vanilla. The freesia seems both tart and green and creamy at the same time, and I think it is what people are calling "plastic". The effect altogether is a little disorienting and strange. These notes don't seem to go together at all. Full drydown mellows it out a bit, as the individual notes stop warring for supremacy and meld into a more balanced blend. In the end it becomes very bright, playful floral perfume, and very modern. It is innocent and pretty, without being the sort of thing your grandmother would approve of or find ladylike. It still seems weird, but in a cutting edge fashion way. It took awhile for me to warm up to this, but after an hour I've decided I really like it - as long as I wear it in a scent locket.

This is a thin, light, gentle floral. Appropriate for a species of jasmine that does not possess a strong fragrance, and only blooms in the cold. It has a hint of greenery and honeysuckle to it. It is not at all heavy or indolic, but it has good throw. There are no cold notes in this, no snow or ice that I can tell - just a light, pretty innocent floral.

This does smell _exactly_ like a raspberry donut. It has fluffy, yeasty, oily cake and the sugar glaze and it is bursting with tart raspberry jelly. Most foody scents seem a little "off" to me, or do odd things with my skin chemistry. Plastic vanilla and amped sugar being two of the usual results. This, however, is true jelly donut on me from first appliciation to drydown. It is remarkable and eerie that a jelly donut can be reproduced so accurately in perfume form If I have one complaint, it is that Raspberry Sufganiyot is very heavy on the raspberry filling, and light on the donut. I would have preferred more donut. Maybe it will become stronger with aging. This scent also has staying power, lasting and staying true well over twelve hours, until I washed it off.

This is very herbal, fresh and green. It reminds me of freshly-crushed aloe vera and fresh chamomile plant....and yes, just a hint of plastic and ozone. The other BPAL scent that comes closest to it is Aeaea. Drydown seems to have a light white musk. This is a really lovely, energizing, wake-you-up kind of scent. It definitely captures a feeling of excitement - if you could bottle a child's hyper wrapping-paper tearing whirlwind on Christmas morning. It is also very clean, and, well...new and untouched smelling. It's like an herb garden in the morning, still wet with dew, but that pristine feeling of newness can also evoke a shiny toy in mint condition, still in the box. This is another standout Yule single note, and I am very glad I got it. It will perfect for those mornings when I catch myself yawning and dragging my feet on the way to work.