Monster

In the imp: Weeeiirrrddddd! Citrus lavender. Sharp!

 

On my skin: Do I really want to put thi on my skin? Hmmm..here it goes...yep citrus and lavender. LOTS of lavender. Lavender doesn't like me.

 

Dry: This dries into a bathroom spray/dryer sheet scent. There's soemthing else in here that smells...odd. This scent just doesn't make sense to me, much like Schrodinger's experiment.

 

Not for me! Off to swaps!

In the bottle: Rich and sweet black musk

 

On my skin: Beeeeaaauuuutiful incense, black musk. This is dark, smoldering, absolutely the type of scent I obsess over.

There is definitley something sleek and furry about this.

 

Dry: Absolutely amazing! The ambergris accord stands out on my skin as this dries. I'm not detecting any anise or ginger. This is all resins and incense on my skin. Dry, the ambergris is dominant along with the musk.

 

Overall: A beautiul unisex incense/resin scent. Instantly a Top 5 favorite!

Frimp from The Lab...

 

In the vial this is stinky band-aid flowers. There's something nuce underneath that makes me hopeful though.

 

Yep..sharp headache-inducing flowers. There's definitley incense underneath everything but I just can't get past the sharp, overwhelming floral notes.

 

This dries into floral incense. I like the incense part and that's about it.

 

Must wash off.

ALLLL JASMINE!!!! AHHHH!!!! This is my NOTE OF DOOM!

 

Bleh bleh! Must...clear...nostrils...

Sneezy bathroom spray flowers.

Definitely the opposite of what I like

In the bottle: Sweet lemon sugar!

 

Wet, on my skin: Mmmmm sugary lemon drop candies with powdered sugar on top.

 

Dry: The lemongrass settles down a bit...but it's still ALLLL sweet lemon drops on my skin. I'm not detecting anything else. This its absolutely delicious! I want to eat my skin and it's making me crave lemon candies

 

A winner! SO glad I have a bottle of this!!!

My husband loves this too. He also agrees with the lemon drops comparision.

Oooh oohhh ooohhhhhh! This is Three Witches + Pine Sap. It's like Three Witches crashed thier broomstickes into the woods!

 

I this!!!!

 

This is all cinnamon, clove and umm..pine sap. Yep, exactly like the description says. The cinnamon is more of the "red hot" variety. This is a great cool weather scent. I can see myself enjoying this in the fall. I'm not sure I would wear this as a perfume, this is something I'd enjoy in an oil burner. I think wearing this would just make me smell like a seasonal candle

 

This is lovely though, not terribly complex or unique, just fun and yummy

In the imp: Tropical blossoms...lots of orchids.

Oh my skin, wet: BIG florals, really pretty in fact. This is an example of a floral I like This smells purple, warm and sweet. I'm not getting any vetiver at all....which is slightly disappointing since I love vetiver oh so much. This smells like it could be part of the Tiki collection. It has a wild, tropical feel to it.

Dry: An almost berry-scented orchid. This is absolutley gorgeous. I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do. I think it's even bottle worthy. I will be using ALL of my imp

I'm so happy to finally have a bit of this to test!

 

Medicinal anise with herbs and cooling sweet mint...or eucalyptus. I can't SMELL mint or eucalyptus in this, it's just leaving a cooling/chilly feeling on my hand. I really love the way this smells but probably wouldn't wear it as perfume. I haven't tried this during meditation, I'll see how it works tonight

YUM! Sweet mandarin orange with a touch of spice (must be the fig). Very short and simple review...this scent is very straightforward, plesant and delicious. Unfortauntely my skin eats up citrus notes...this doesn't last terribly long. I still love it though, I'm thinking this would make a great layering scent

In the imp: Powdery, cough syrup-like rose.

 

On my skin wet: REALLY powdery rose with something sharp...and a background of cough syrup. This is strong and headache-inducing.

 

Dry: Powder, rose. Yep. That's about it. Not a fan of this one. These notes just don't work together.

 

My husband says this "smells like bathroom spray in a elderly persons home."

 

I was so excited for this! It's not that P. Swarm is bad...it's nice enough but it's nowhere near as wonderful as I thought it would be.

 

This starts out smelling very similar to Mlle Lilith, Fortune Teller and then fades into well, almost nothing on my skin It's just a faint memory of something vaugely...coconutty....sweet and just sort of boring. This might age well. We shall see.

This starts out with a very quick mandarin top note. It immediatly fades to honey-laden tobacco note. This reminds me of a boring version of Agrat-Bat-Mahlaht (which I actually thought was quite good and not boring at all).

 

Meh.

These are all notes I really love so I had high hopes for this but, Unveiled is just sort of...meh. I've noticed most of the Shunga scents are usually just Ok or average on me. It's not that they're bad but none of them really impress me all that much (except Men Ringing Bells with Penises which I loved).

 

Unveiled is just average. It's pretty but doesn't jump out of the crowd.

 

At first this is sweet mandarin in the bottle. On my skin I smell a strong, fruity tea note. As it dries I get more amber mixed with soft peach, tea, and lotus (which add a hint of perfuminess to it).

 

Pretty...but forgettable.

I HAD to get this...of course, based on the title it was necessary for me to own this The note listing made me nervous since it reminded me so much of Hay Moon (which was an epic FAIL for me). Traipsing through the Crop Circles is quite the opposite!!!

 

I think everyone on the BPAL forums can relate to this...I like to go for walks and sniff the air, noticing how different neighborhoods, landscapes, and States all smell at various times of the day. My favorite place to go for a walk is my parents place in Western Maine in the summertime. There is one particular road I enjoy visiting (and have been since I was very young), it's along a lake and across the street is a huge field full of dry grass. In the middle of it sits an old red barn that's used to store hay and farming type of equiptment. My favorite time of day to walk down this street is right before sunset. The air is filled with the scent of the dry, dead grass, scorched from the heat of the day, fresh Maine air, and the dampness of the soil from the lake on the other side of the street. I like to stop at a certain point on this road, close my eyes and inhale. It's an incredibly nostalgic scent for me and brings back so many wonderful memories of my childhood.

 

Traipsing through the Crop Circles is THIS EXACT SCENT in a bottle. When I sniffed it I nearly cried.

This has that same, dry, dead grass scent mixed with cool, damp earth and a breeze of fresh air. How does she do it?! Another example of why BPAL has such a huge cult following. I'm not sure anyone else could accomplish this. Amazing.

 

Bette Noir is a morpher on me. In the bottle it smells sharp, it's all bergamont and herbs. On my skin I'm getting LOTS of orange blossom (similar to Lady Lilith) except with that stinky diaper smell I associate with jasmine weird! Just when I was about to transfer this to the swaps box...Bette Noir morphs again! Dry, this is all plum, berries and amber on my skin. I've been testing this off and on throughout the week and as soon as I get past the wet phase this is absolutley gorgeous to me. I find myself repeatedly sniffing the test patch on my hand. This is really very pretty, I just need to make it through the first two phases in order to enjoy the last

I finally have a bottle! I LOVE this stuff!

 

Penumbra is the love-child of Urd and Purple Phoenix to my nose (and you know how much I love Urd) It's all smoky, purple incense on my skin. As it dries, it becomes more and more fruity...I'm amping the pomegranate and PLUM (I swear it's in here) This hugs the skin and doesn't have too too much throw which makes it a great daytime scent.

 

Again, Penumbra! I'm THRILLED I was finally able to track down a bottle

This is ALL VETIVER and 100% LOVE! This stuff is amazing. Seriously. If you like vetiver this might be the holy grail of vetiver scents (imo). The grapefruit only shows up for a brief moment as a fresh top note and then gives way to the powerful and ferocious beauty of the vetiver. It's grounded (only slightly) by patchouli and is something my friends compliment me on all of the time.

Am I the only one who likes this stuff around these parts?

 

I was absolutely thrilled to see all of the Black Helicoptors scents. I'm not sure I've ever been so excited for a BPAL update ever.

 

In the bottle: A drier version of Velvet Bandito. It's like a Moon Cowboy! Richard C. Hoagland!

 

Wet: Aaaaannnnnnd it's love at first sniff Is there khus in this? I swear I smell khus! Or maybe it's the white sandalwood. I might be confised. This is dry, slightly sweet with a glllooorrrrrrriiiiiooouusssss background clove. It's like Cytherea and Velvet Bandito had an alien lovechild.

 

Dry: Sweet clove over dusty vanilla. I'm guessing the powdery note is the orris. This is just plain gorgeous. Staged moon Landing hugs my skin closely yet lasts a long time. It's a nice close-up scent and the clove is gentle enough to keep it from smelling like kitchen spice.

 

Overall: Love love love. I will be reaching for this one often

In the bottle this smells like straight up honey. Not a beeswax honey, but a gentle clover honey with a ton of golden sweetness! Honey is a hot or miss note for me (especially the beeswax variety).

 

Wet to dry this starts out as mostly honey and then gradually dries into a beautiful honeyed-Snake Oil. NOM!

 

I love Snake Oil but sometimes straight SO ends up smelling like play dough on my skin. I have had better luck with the Snake Oil blends

Womb Furie is a win for me! I love this stuff! If you have a hard time wearing Snake Oil, try this one!

I think this would also make a great layering oil.

 

I was really excited to try this one based on the clove and the anise. I was a bit nervous about the cumin (it's a note that doesn't work well for me).

 

Welp...looks like I was right about the cumin. This goes on as a spiced mandarin scent...like Three Witches drizzled over sweet orange slices. After it settles into my skin a bit this turns to crayons and pencil shavings...that would be the cumin. I'm thinking this might do better in an oil burner or as a kitchen scent. This is NOT something I can wear as a perfume.

Oh well. Ya can't win all the time!

I tested this today while on my lunchbreak, went back to work and received a compliment! Ha! Too funny...and I work somewhere nobody likes to compliment me on my perfume oils. Needless to day, I was very happy.

 

RomantiGoth smells like vintage, aged perfume. I remember smelling something like this once in my grandmothers perfume collection (please don't misinterprent this comment as my saying it's old lady-like because it's NOT!) This is the scent of a sophisticated Goth....not the teeni-bopper sort.

This is deep, rich, velvety incense. It's a thick, somber incense scent with a background of a faintly sweet plum.

 

I knew I would love this based on the note listing. RomantiGoth is one of the very best BPAL scents I have smelled in a long time. Instant favorite here!

 

Aquatic mens cologne. Maybe mens deodorant?

While I like wearing more masculine scents, I'm not into the aquatic mens type of scent...however...my husband is! I have a feeling this work well on him

 

Tin foil Hat = Clean Man skin

This smells alsmost exactly like Tauers L'Air du desert marocain. It's funny. I received this from The Lab as a frimp, sniffed this and immediatly thought it smelled like the Tauer perfume. I looked up the scent description and it's almost identical! I do believe Beth and Andy Tauer are cut from the same cloth.

 

The thing I LOVE about L'Air du desert marocain is how the scent paints a perfect picture of a cobalt blue sky hanging above hot sand dunes. It smells exactly like the description Andy Tauer wrote. Ozymandias does this as well (just like many other BPAL perfume oils...which is why I LOVE Bpal so much!)

This is a perfect example of perfume genius.

This is the scent of the night air cooling the dry, desert sands. Incense dances from tents in the distance....it's mysterious, sacred, ancient and absolutely gorgeous!

 

As far as notes are concerned, this is mostly amber....the same amber you'll find in The Lion. It's spiced and warm with a touch of powder.

I would describe this as unisex and resin based.

 

Love love love!

In the vial: Sinus clearing lavender and sweet mint.

 

Wet: Not as minty as I expected (it's still very minty though). This is sweet fresh, herbal mint mixed with lavender. Normally, I run away from lavender in BPAL blends but this is actually really nice. When I inhale deeply I can feel the minty coolness in the back of my throat.

 

Dry: It takes a while for the sinus-clearing mint to settle down but, when it does it's actually very nice. This turns into a faintly minty and mostly sweeet vanilla lavender.

 

Overall: Not something I would wear as perfume but I will definitely use this as an aromatherapy blend. I think it will be nice to dab on my pillow at night.