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BPAL Madness!

labugsy

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Everything posted by labugsy

  1. labugsy

    Teenagering

    I almost passed on this one, which would have been a fail. Lots of lightly spiced carnation with a mist of rosewater and a background of sweet, creamy, buttery warmth. On me the notes are all perfectly balanced. And wow is this carnation note equisite. Overall the scent is a little girly, but also very grown up, and fits the title perfectly. Very pink but in a grown up way.
  2. labugsy

    Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here

    Oh man, I struggle being the first review (anxiety is such an asshole) but here we go. I blind bottled this because FOMO, although I tend to struggle a little bit with BPAL blends that have more than 10 notes. But this just sounded so perfect, a balance of green, woods, floral, maybe a little bit of fruit. And it is, indeed, gorgeous. Wet on the skin I get a lot of oak (I LOVE THE LAB'S OAK NOTE SO MUCH) backed by a lot of green stems and some lilac and eucalyptus. This is my favorite phase of the whole scent... seems like these notes would combine in a very off putting way, but they really don't. The eucalyptus used here is not nearly as medicinal and camphor heavy as, say eucalyptus essential oil, not at all. It feels like sticking your face in a eucalyptus plant and it is so calming. The lilac note is not BPAL's normal lilac note, it is much gentler and greener. Weirdly, I don't get any sage. As the scent dries, I get a faint dark fruitiness that must be from the elderberry. I would certainly not call this a fruity scent though, or a floral scent. It's very green at it's heart, and definitely conjures up the image of a sunny, warm day in the park. I have a pretty large collection at this point, but this scent is still unique enough to earn a place.
  3. labugsy

    And Here I Shere My Corne Full Lowe

    Ohhh I like this a lot. It's starts off with a lot of honeyed oats and a decent amount of corn on my skin, but as it dries out comes the gorgeous woodmoss note and more than a few flecks of amber. I can't pick out the beer, but I do get something slightly boozy from this. This scent is the coziest and warmest of the monthly labor scents so far. There is something about it that really does bring to mind a gathering of warm, friendly, and very busy people. It's charming. It is very similar to August's Labor of the Months scent but without the clove, which really didn't work on me. There are enough similarities between all the Labor of the Month scents (at least so far) that I'm not sure I need to upsize any of them, but I am very happy to have my decants!
  4. Starts off strong on the cherry and vanilla, but turns into something very, very soapy on me. Have to echo other who said this smells like bathroom hand soap on my skin. There is a little nuttiness if I search for it. I've never had pistachio or vanilla cream go soapy like this, so I guess the macadamia is to blame. Now I know, and this decant is off to a better home!
  5. labugsy

    The Fairy Lovers

    I thought this would be the time moonflower finally worked on me, but no. I was too busy lusting after the moonlit amber and dewy, pale mosses and completely ignored the presence of a note that never, ever, works on me. This would have been a complete stunner on me without the moonflower, which hates my skin and turns into a super indolic screechy nightmare that will give me and anyone within 50 feet of me a migraine. I should have known better! The dry down was pretty once the moonflower disappeared, and I agree with the comparisons to The Last Unicorn, one of my absolute favorite scents. But I can't stomach the moonflower when wet, and have other scents in this family I like a lot more. Alas, this decant is off to a better home.
  6. labugsy

    Vase de Lilas a la Fenetre

    All lilacs all the time, and I'm here for it. It starts as a lovely lilac SN, but never gets too screechy feeling, which happens to me often with floral notes. After about half an hour (maybe less?) of SO MUCH LILAC, I start to get the amber and vanilla too, and they both help to soften the lilac but yet also enrich it somehow? At this stage is stops smelling like a person wearing lilac perfume and starts smelling like the scent of lilacs wafting about on a warm breeze. The amber is the light, clear, golden type that doesn't read as extremely resinous to me. I think it adds to the warm spring day feeling I get from this scent. Absolutely gorgeous. Fighting the urge to upsize my decant, since I really only want to smell like lilacs for a month or so max out of every year, and I already have a lot of lilac perfumes...
  7. labugsy

    Thirteen (13): May 2022

    My experience with this scent seems to be pretty different than others... I get a heavy hit of the cacao and molasses up front, which lasts for maybe 10 minutes. Then this dries down to something sweet and pink and almost fizzy, with a lot of amber? Maybe the agave is contributing to the fizziness? I don't know... but it is very different than the March 2020 13 (which I adore!). May 2022 13 is a more grown up sugar, a little less playful and fun. I like this one a lot, but adore the March 2020 13. They are different enough that I think I can easily justify having both though, hooray! ETA: Two or more hours later, this has settled into something like warm, caramelized amber sugar crystals. It is all but completely faded by three hours in, which is pretty good longevity for my skin. It stays quite close to the skin, but I got pretty wafts of it all throughout the wear. This is seriously beautiful from start to finish, and an extreme morpher, at least on me!
  8. labugsy

    To a Wreath of Snow

    Funny story, I immediately purchased a blind bottle of this when it was released, because tobacco, lavender, and ambergris are 3 of my top five BPAL notes. Then, because I buy so much perfume I apparently can't keep track of it all, I put it in a drawer in my vanity and... never tested it. I know everyone was raving about it, but somehow never bothered to put it on my own skin. And maybe it's silly to review a wintery blend in the middle of summer, over a year after it was released, but hey... Spoiler, this scent ages beautifully. Maybe it was heavier on the tobacco flower a year ago, but now all the notes are perfectly balanced. The lavender is the camphor-scented, cooling kind, and that's what I get at first with a backdrop of the tobacco and ambergris. After about an hour the lavender fades but never disappears, and the scent becomes more tobacco dominant, and it is indeed, as all these brilliant people have said, the same tobacco note from Vison of the Courtesan and Zorya P. The ambergris is not prominent on me, but it's there making the scent kind of misty and fuzzy. I'm definitely getting some oud, but it is very soft and not the stinky kind. It is doing a beautiful job of grounding the scent. A year ago, amidst all the Covid turmoil, I splurged and bought myself a silk and cashmere robe from one of my favorite small businesses. This scent feels like slipping that robe on at dusk in a candlelit room and reading something dark and moving (Wuthering Heights comes to mind). It's classy, a little moody, and extremely inviting.
  9. labugsy

    Ebisu Making Love As Two Octopuses Look On

    After years of hunting down a bottle of this while I hoarded a decant, I finally have a full bottle! I love looking at these reviews because I think this is a scent that has definitely benefited from some aging. It smells so incredible. I get all three notes in equal balance, maybe a touch more oakmoss and musk than nectarine. It does not smell even a little bit aquatic to me. It smells like an elegant but understated elf moving through a sun dappled forest in very early spring and it's just fucking incredible. Definitely sticks close to the skin, but then again, most scents do on me. Lasts for hours. So glad to finally have a bottle.
  10. labugsy

    Chibi Skull With Last Will and Testament

    I get something shockingly red currant - like when wet, but it disappears quickly and mellows into a smooth, creamy vanilla patch. It is very much a more sweetly vanilla, less gnarly and dirty version of Banshee Beat to me. In other words, incredible and everything I've been looking for.
  11. Oh thank goodness I'm not losing my mind. This is coconut cream soda and cumin on me. Occasionally I get pretty whiffs of coconut fried ice cream at a distance, but if I get too close to my arm, it's allll cumin. Love the taste of cumin, don't really want to smell like it!
  12. Very unique fuzzy lavender scent. Cool toned and melancholy, but with something sweet and comforting at the same time. Very herbal with the French lavender, thyme, and immortelle, but also cozy. Like snuggling one of my baby goats after they've been playing and nibbling in my herb garden on a cool, cloudy day. Not that I ever let them play in my herb garden (too much poisonous stuff!), but this scent smells that way that scenario would smell in my head lol.
  13. labugsy

    Marshmallow and Black Plum

    Sweet, slightly sour, juicy black plum with BPAL's perfect marshmallow note. It's a 50/50 split of those two notes to my nose. There is something almost floral and musky to the plum. Gorgeous, and smells very complex for just two notes.
  14. labugsy

    Disastrous Twilight

    Got this as a frottle and did not expect to like it, but it is STUNNING. The myrrh and orris were aggressive and loud in the bottle and when wet, but both fade pleasantly after less than 1 minute on my skin. I love the smell of ylang ylang but it usually turns screechy on my skin. In this case, however, the ylang ylang is perfectly balanced with all the other notes, and it adds this kind of glittering overtone to the scent. Overall this smells blue and deep, like a slightly misty, starry sky with a few wispy, powdery clouds.
  15. labugsy

    Bon Vivant

    Got this as a frimp and immediately upsized. Never something I would have picked for myself, love when the Lab does that! I love BPAL's champagne note, but honestly this doesn't quite smell like champagne to me... it smells like Canada Dry ginger ale (that is to say, light on the ginger) with fresh strawberries. It's surprisingly dry and much less sweet than I would have expected. It smells fizzy in the most realistic way. Very happy and lively scent, immediately puts me in a good mood.
  16. labugsy

    Sugar Cookie Satyr

    I blind bottled this on a whim, not really sure if I would like it as I've never tried Satyr on its own. But this is exceptional. Honestly, to me, it's Sugar Cookie Siberian Musk with a little bit of extra spice and resin (myrrh?) goodness. Has notes of cinnamon, but I don't think it has cinnamon in it, because my skin turns each and every BPAL cinnamon note to red hots and that is not the case here. Maybe I'm getting the spiciness from benzoin or some other resin. The sugar cookie is present here, but not front and center... I agree with the "crumbs" description. Either way, this is gorgeous. A little spicy, a little sweet from the sugar cookie, with Siberian Musk in all it's woolly, dirty but cozy glory. The overall scent is cozy in a sexy way and very unisex and wearable. Very glad I sprung for a bottle! I'm sure it will age gloriously.
  17. labugsy

    Old Scratch

    Oh wow this is incredible. The most gorgeous lavender and amber fougere. The amber almost goes powdery but manages to restrain itself. To me, it's a love child of Casanova and Dorian, but it takes a little more after Casanova. Moderate throw and great longevity. It smells like something a Bronte sister would wear and I love it. There are so many gems hidden in the GC!
  18. labugsy

    Dragon, Rabbit, and Snake

    This was a last minute FOMO type addition to my "The Lupers are Coming Down!" cart, because jasmine and I have a somewhat unstable relationship. But this is surprisingly pretty! I can't figure out what kind of jasmine butterfly jasmine is, just a lot of references to jasmine tea, so maybe that's how this is supposed to read? That would make sense, because the jasmine is very muted on my skin. This would be just a pretty but kind of boring warm floral tea blend but the cypress took this to a special place for me. It provides the perfect amount of clean woodiness to cut through the florals, and makes this scent almost... cuddly, in a come hither sort of way? Pretty, but approachable.
  19. labugsy

    Serving Tea After Coitus

    I love the Lab's green tea note but all honey notes have the potential to go wonky on me, and I was especially concerned about a heady honey... but all the other notes are must haves for me, so I tracked down a bottle not expecting much. Lo and behold, this is STUNNING. The honey is the only honey note I've ever experienced that actually smells like honey. There green tea and honey are by far the most prominent notes on me, with a delicate sweet floral (must be the vanilla flower). The ambergris is not readily identifiable to me, but I think it's contributing to the warm glow of the scent. I get a delicate muskiness too that could be coming from either the ambergris or the headiness of the honey. All in all, this truly smells like lounging in a rumpled bed drinking tea in the afterglow of great sex. Beth is such an artist! I'm so glad I hunted down a bottle.
  20. labugsy

    Frog Moon 2021

    I usually love BPAL's green scents, and I loved this for the first five minutes, then it went very sharp and sour on me... not sure what's causing it (pine moss maybe?), but it stays that way for about an hour or so until it fades away. Too bad because all the juicy green goodness of those first five minutes was lovely.
  21. labugsy

    Surprise Ejaculation

    In the bottle, I was terrified because this smelled strongly of Luden's cherry throat drops and medicinal bubblegum, and it wasn't a terribly pleasant combination. Champaca tends to go weird on me, so I was assuming that might be the culprit... I was hoping "white champaca" would be milder and better behaved on my skin. Thankfully all the weirdly medicinal bubblegum smell faded in about 15 minutes, leaving behind a lightly musky, clean pear scent. Very low throw and decent longevity. Definitely a 'my-skin but better' scent. I wish I got more grapefruit from this at the beginning, but it''s still pretty and unique enough to keep. And the label art is amazing, of course...
  22. labugsy

    Lilith's Love Low

    I'm a fiend for any and all the sugary lavender scents and this one is especially glorious. I get sweet lavender, marshmallow, and white chocolate, followed closely by a note that was difficult to place at first... initially I thought it was floral, but then realized something about it reminds me of both A Cute Kid and Mariposita, both of which contain lavender and strawberry. So I'm not positive, but I think there's strawberry in this somewhere. Still can't shake the idea of something floral (maybe a delicate pink rose?) being present... I agree with other reviews that this smells like the strawberry and maybe rose note from Love. So, so beautiful. I'm so lucky to have snagged a bottle of this! ETA: Two hours later, and it's very much a sugary sweet rose and marshmallow, with just a little bit of strawberry left. It really smells like Love, but lighter on the rose. Throw remains moderate, it's still going somewhat strong at two hours but I'm not sure it will last much past three. Pretty good given it's a lighter scent without a lot of the heavy hitting base notes. This honestly smells like it could be Love, mixed with some lavender and white chocolate. Heavenly.
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