leptonpyr

To me this is a very strange and beautiful scent. When I first opened the bottle I was a little put off because it smells *so* strong and sharp and camphorous it's almost medicinal. I want to throw out a comparison to eucalyptus oil here, but please take that with a grain of salt because I am still a fragrance newbie and quite frankly still cannot name most of the things I smell precisely. But something magical happened when I tried it on: the sharpness dissipates a bit and it is just so intensely *green*, evoking the scent of thick wet vegetation so strongly for me, like forest undergrowth and leaf litter mixed with fresh leaves and crushed, sweet grass just after rain. The blackberry starts coming out very distinctly too, and the combination is gorgeous, hard for me to describe, but sort of thick and syrupy and a little bit sharp, almost a resinous effect? There is a tiny, tiny whiff of something faintly floral that feels to me like it's acting as an undercurrent to the blackberry specifically, it's like the suggestion of flowers, the ghost of honeysuckle (so I suppose this is the scent of honeysuckle "grasp[ing] at[...] shadows" then!). Later in the day, I noticed I was losing some of the complexity and it was becoming a much more blackberry-forward scent with just a touch of green, and I thought perhaps that was just the fragrance fading, but later still I noticed more of the vegetal/green aspects returning. I can't wait to see how this one ages as it settles, and I am strongly considering a bottle. It's dark, gorgeous, and I would recommend it if you want to feel like you are creeping through a dark, lush, rainy, possibly bewitched forest at night.

2025 version! On me it goes on very, very green/fresh and a touch camphorous. I associate what I'm smelling with pine needles more than I do with autumn leaves but then again, I'm not yet familiar with BPAL's pine note, so YMMV. It's got just a touch of sweetness from the sap, and the overall effect is very warm and dark; it feels like a very cozy scent to me, like an autumnal scented candle. I'm not sure if I'm getting any smokiness, but I'll report back once my decant has had some more time to settle. The pine-camphor and greenness brought to mind The Woman at the Edge of the Woods, but this is a *much* gentler, softer scent, and the green here feels a lot brighter and fresher. There is a LOT going on in The Woman at the Edge, and I'd describe that one as quite intense, whereas October is much simpler and more straightforward. Kind of like a cottagecore version of The Woman: The Woman at the Edge of the Woods is unabashedly intense and unapologetically complicated, and totally unconcerned with whether she comes off as intimidating (which feels entirely appropriate for what the scent was inspired by!). In October '25, that wildness has been tamed into something much more approachable. If it's not already clear, I absolutely adore The Woman, but I'm enjoying my decant of this as well. Not sure I'll need a bottle, but it's a really nice, cozy-feeling scent to curl up in, feels like a warm, relaxing afternoon spent with friends. October goes on fairly strong, but recedes fairly quickly, as most things do on my dry-ass skin. A few hours in, the green champhor sort of wears off and the blend gets sweeter and more "perfumey", losing most of its sharpness. About average longevity for me, 4-6 hours.

Lol no worries! Either way, I'm interested in whatever you remember/feel like sharing with us I too have an absurdly long wishlist, with many many more items than I could ever actually afford to procure, but it's nice to dream... (and you never know what might come your way on the forums!) As for sticking to fewer notes as a beginner or not, I'd say definitely just go with vibes xD. I very much did not do that, and have spent some happy hours googling like a dozen unfamiliar notes at a time so I could try and puzzle out what I was smelling when trying more complex scents, and I've been having a wonderful time. It also means that sometimes I'll recognize a note in something else later on and be like "oh okay, that must be x!" It's been fun to get to go back to fragrances I tried earlier on and be able to pick out many more notes than I could at first. Follow your heart for sure (I feel you on the forums being overwhelming for a newbie and sticking to the website. I was also rather determined to do that at first...)

@Smelly_Swede In that case I doubly recommend Bon Vivant! Let me know what you think if you do end up ordering it, I really do love it. And I'm curious what you decide to order next, whenever that will be! The "happiest" scents out of the fruit imp pack to me are Cheshire Cat and Yemaya. Croquet became one of my favorite fragrances ever, it's just soooo beautiful on me, and Poisoned Apple was the first scent I tried that really made me go "oh shit this is what perfume can do, this is cool as fuck." (It starts off smelling SO strongly of apple, then ends up smelling nothing like apple on me, it becomes something dark and balsamic and spiced. Get it, 'cause it's *poisoned*...) So it ended up being a great first purchase for me. And ugh yes BPAL doesn't exactly encourage wise financial decisions...I FEEL THAT lol. it's a struggle. I'm trying to calm my FOMO down by telling myself that there are SO many new scents all the time, there'll at least always be something new to try. Something to keep in mind with older oils is they *do* age--some of them age very well and some of them age poorly, so you never know quite what you're going to get (unless you ask the person selling it, I suppose!). I've been told that oils in bottles age a lot better than oils in imps, generally speaking, and I'd be willing to believe it--I have some older (like a decade+) imps that are deeeefinitely shall we say past their prime.

I love this question! And I love that Shango is doing that for you---that is so, well, lovely to hear! I've only just started getting into fragrance this summer, and perfume has done a lot for my mood too. It's really nice to get to watch it having a similar effect on others too "It depends on what makes you happy" is an unhelpful non-answer, so don't worry, I'm not going to leave it at that, but if it's fruity scents you've identified as ones that make you particularly happy, BPAL has a LOT of really excellent fruit scents, and I'd recommend trying their fruit imp pack (which happens to be the very first selection of BPALs I tried), or just exploring some of BPAL's many, many fruit notes, whichever ones sound most enticing to you! Bon Vivant is another that's guaranteed to lift my mood. It's a simple one, champagne and strawberries, but to me it's just SUCH a happy, giddy scent! (I get more soda than champagne, so YMMV.) Pumpkin Sparklers is an LE from July that's going away soon, but it's another that I think of as really fun and happy (pumpkin splatter, blood orange, white ginger, champagne, gunpowder, and calcium chloride accord). To me it smells exactly like ginger cookies, except also BUBBLY! I guess something to keep in mind is that while aldehydes clearly make me feel happy, they may not be for everyone. I think you've said you're new to fragrance too, so I'm not sure if you've experienced them yet, but they literally do feel sort of bubbly and fizzy in your nose in a way that mimics champagne or soda! It's something I think is very fun, but others might find unpleasant. Old Woman with Cat (sweet roasted pumpkin rind, raw wool accord, polished oak, baked bread, cocoa absolute, and kitchen herbs) is not an aldehyde. It's one I find delightfully warm and comforting, an excellent autumnal or winter scent imo. My partner says it smells exactly like spiced ginger-molasses bread baking.

La Sylphe de Forêt Noire was not the foresty, mossy scent I was hoping for. It was surprisingly sweetish, in a way that reminded me very much of Anathema and Stormclouds over the Midway, so I'm going to guess there's an unlisted opium note in there. If I'm honest, opium might be the only note I could discern from this. In the imp and going on wet, I definitely got some myrrh, but it seemed to disappear on contact with my skin (which is not a problem I normally encountered with myrrh?). I'm new to BPAL so I haven't been here long enough to have experience with oils "settling" or "aging", but perhaps I'll give this one a minute before I see if I can detect anything more interesting going on on my second try.

This blend reminds me *remarkably* of Circe Transforming Odysseus' Men into Swine. In fact, I would say it's kind of like a slightly gentler, less pungent version of Circe Transforming, like Circe without the swine musk! Going on this morning, I got strong whiffs of honeyed fruit and orange blossom, but a curious thing happened when these notes seemed to evaporate in literal minutes after the oil touched my skin, and all I could smell for awhile was a blend of dry, savory, cumin-y spices. I was initially unsure how I felt about going around smelling like a dry rub, but stranger still, when I went out in the sun later this afternoon, Dance to the Music of Time morphed again! All the fruitiness returned in full force, and it became much grape-ier than it was even while first applying. After that it stayed a really pleasing blend of honeyed fruit and spice, with the spices at the forefront but no longer overwhelming the other notes. The dry savory quality of the spices balances the syrupy fruits superbly, preventing them from ever going too sweet. There was a moment in the middle of the day where I felt like it was almost about to veer on the edge of getting ever so slightly powdery, which is what amber apparently sometimes does on me, but it never quite got there. I don't know that I ever got rose, although it's funny, now at the end of the day I think I'm picking up on something very very slightly floral. I was never able to detect any orange blossom again after the initial flare-up/instant die-down. I don't smell anything resinous in this one, so I'm not sure if I never got the frankincense, or if the frankincense is just subtly complementing both the peppery spice and the touch of sweetness. Overall, this is a very warm, dry, yummy autumnal-feeling blend. I'm glad to have found what feels like a gentler version of Circe Transforming, as I was excited for that one but remain unsure how I feel about the pungency of the "swine musk."

Going on, the first notes to jump out at me were the "sugared" lemon (it did not read as particularly sugary, but it definitely feels like a kind of softened lemon, more like lemon marmalade than the fruit itself), the sharpness of the neroli, and a bit of jasmine. The neroli + lemon started out quite strong, but receded into the background within literal minutes, like under five, with the lavender coming out more and more. After that it felt very well blended: the individual notes were harder to pick out, but the lemon, neroli, jasmine, and lavender were all very much still there as components of a light, soft lavender-citrus blend. I have to say, although it did smell nice, unfortunately the specific combination of lavender and citrus was undeniably reminiscent of laundry detergent. I wouldn't describe this as pure Tide, it's definitely a bit subtler and a touch more complex than detergent, but the association was unignorable. As for the other notes: I'm not sure if I've tried anything with heliotrope in it yet, so I don't know if I picked up on that note at all. There was a kind of "smoothness" to it, a not-quite-creaminess, so it's possible that was the heliotrope? The strangest part of this for me was that while I normally amp indoles to high heaven, the jasmine was barely detectable on me! No idea what's going on with that... I had no idea it was even possible for jasmine to come across as "subtle" on me. It lasted maybe 4-6 hours, and the very last note of the day was a very pleasant musky sort of lemon that reminded me a lot of Northern Lights (honestly it just kind of made me wish I were wearing Northern Lights!), but it's extremely faint, almost entirely faded. Overall, a very fresh and clean scent, gives me calming/relaxing sort of spa-day vibes, but veers a little too close to laundry detergent for my liking. I'll be keeping my decant and will enjoy the rest of it, but I don't think I'll be needing a bottle. If there are any laundry-scent lovers out there tho, you should jump on this one.

This was one of the first BPALs I ever tried, in the fruit imp pack I ordered, and I feel compelled to leave a review because it was my first experience with fragrance that made me go oh, okay, this is what perfume can do! scents can tell a story, this is fascinating! Going on wet, it just smells like really strong, sweet pure apple, like sticking your nose in a barrel full of apples that are as ripe and gleaming as the description says, almost teetering on the edge of overripe. But slowly the apple recedes farther and farther into the background, and something spicier, smokier, and balsamic starts to come through. I can still smell the apple notes, but they get fainter and fainter until by the end of the day it no longer smells like apple at all. All that's left is the slightly floral spice and balsam of the opium, hemlock, and oleander. I thought (and still do!) this was so clever when I first tried it--like okay, I get it, I have been lured into biting into a perfect, mesmerizingly red, overwhelming fragrant apple...but as the hours go by, you start to notice something funny about this apple. You start to "taste" the poison after it's already too late, and eventually you arrive at the realization that its true face was pure poison all along, only dressed up in apple guise. I love it. Perfume is fucking magic!!!

I wore The Woman at the Edge of the Woods for the first time today, and I have to say, it is such a fascinating blend that I've pretty much spent the entire day thinking about it off and on. BPAL is truly taking over my life! (I can't say I mind much.) It goes on wet quite strong, and instantly feels like it embodies its name--WOODS, dark damp woods, with some witchy kitchen herbs. It's all pine-camphor, earthy patchouli, a little bitter and a little sharp, almost minty, almost but not quite medicinal, and just a little bit smoky. After maybe half an hour the vanilla started to come out to soften it a little, which had a kind of really delicious effect. I would describe it as dark and warm, though there is a slight astringency peeking through that's almost citrus-like (after some googling, it would appear this could be the nettle? or perhaps the chamomile). At the end of the day the headiness of the herbaceous/camphorous swirl is gone, and I'm left with a sharp but softened piney pepperiness that is simpler and more straightforward than the Woman at the height of her power. It feels more like I'm sniffing a bouquet of dried herbs I've taken into my house rather than standing outside in the thick of a forest, in a way that's making me excited at the thought of getting lost in the forest all over again. (I don't think I got a single note of berry at all, unless it was contributing to the astringency? I was also very surprised to see so many forumites mention rose, as I came on here specifically to see if anyone could describe what the "rose thorn" note is like, since I couldn't identify it. I can't smell any rose at all on me! I'm not sure I picked up on any floral aspects whatsoever.)

The description for this one was so evocative that I had to try a decant, but I found this one a little underwhelming. It kind of just smelled like a mix of Y'ha Nthlei and Cthulhu, only with a slight floral note. It definitely shares Y'ha Nthlei's marine notes; I'm not sure exactly which ones, maybe ambergris and eucalyptus? It even smelled slightly citrusy to me, so possibly the bergamot too. After about an hour I started to notice a scent I would describe as slightly bubblegum-y; after 2 hours the marine note started to take a backseat to a kind of soft, gentle floral spice. It was quite nice, but did not last; at the 6-hour mark you wouldn't've known I had put on perfume that day at all, except my skin smelled kind of fresh and pleasantly soap-like. Overall, it smelled nice, but disappeared pretty fast. I think I'll stick to Y'ha Nthlei for this particular marine note, and maybe try layering it with Lightning if I want to add something floral.

Well, I'm not sure how helpful my review is going to be to anyone else, but I feel compelled to leave one considering this is an active Lunacy and mine would be the first! So. I amp indoles unto oblivion. Apparently BPAL's lilac accord (don't know if it's all lilacs or just black lilac, this is my first BPAL lilac) is indolic, because when I first put it on all I could smell was an atomic indole BLAST. Thankfully this calms down within an hour and I start getting something more recognizably lilac-y that is very pretty, although still quite strong. It's nice and fresh and not at all powdery. I did not get even the slightest hint of tea until after many hours of wear, when I think I started to detect a hint of astringency. Now at the very end of the day, after about 10 hours of wear, I think I can finally smell more of the tea, and it's quite lovely as it mixes with the lilac. I guess the most useful thing I can say is: if you amp indoles, this lilac accord is in fact somewhat indolic. I doubt it's as intensely indolic for anyone whose skin behaves normally around indoles, so if you don't share my indole problem and you try this one out, I'd love to see another review so I can get an idea of what this is *supposed* to smell like!

When first applied, this is a really yummy, complex blend of spiced, honeyed fruitiness that smells wonderful. After a minute or so, the fruitiness disappears and is replaced by a spicy, "dirty" kind of musk that is very potent on me. I always find it hard to describe musk, and I'm really grasping for a less nonspecific, less gendered way to pinpoint what this smells like...but the most accurate description I can think of is what a college roommate once described as "man stank." Like very strong, very musky skin, but it doesn't smell *bad*, in fact it smells quite good, it's just very strong. It was surprising to smell it on myself and I'm not entirely sure whether I like it on me! But it was for sure an interesting experience, and I am planning on trying it a few more times at least. The spicy, peppery, camphorousness of marjoram and bay are I think adding to the "swine musk" effect, and the labdanum may be contributing its warm, musky, slightly earthy/sweet animalic qualities. The "swine musk" & the peppery spice stay most prominent on me all day, and there's just a whiff of a honeyed, faintly fruity tinge. It didn't really seem to morph throughout the day, it just got slowly fainter--although it definitely lasted the whole day and stayed pretty strong for most of it. Overall, a super fascinating, complex scent, although I do find myself wishing the swine musk were a bit less pungent on me, and that the initial effect I got as I was applying it stuck around for longer. eta 10.23.25 I'm really happy to report that after letting Circe sit for a month+, she seems to have mellowed out a lot! I no longer find the "swine musk" to be overwhelming, this stays very pleasantly spicy, fruity, and honeyed. I am now considering a bottle!

This was not one I would've chosen for myself based on the notes listed (I assumed "strawberry cream" would be a little gross), but it was passed on to me from a friend for whom it didn't work, and I was pleasantly surprised by how pretty it was! The strawberry cream was definitely the first note to come out, but it was a very lovely and fresh strawberry cream, not the cloying nesquik I'd imagined, tempered by something vegetal and floral in a really nice way. (Maybe it's the florals that are responsible for making the strawberry cream note come across as "fresh"?) I liked this one so much I reapplied about 4 hours in, and upon reapplication I noticed the strawberry note was much lusher. As the day went on, it faded into a really gorgeous earthy, almost musky, ever so slightly powdery iris note, which smelled surprisingly sophisticated. The strawberry creaminess was still present, but had faded mostly into the background. It wasn't until the very end of the day that I started getting my first whiffs of spice from the carnation, and I'm still not entirely sure what lotus smells like. I've seen it described as "airy," "creamy", "soft and fruity", all of which would blend well with the other notes in this one. I've seen some of you describe it as going kind of "bubblegum-y" on the forums, and I think I may have noticed that about 2hrs in, but it receded again. Overall I'm so happy I was able to give this one a try, it's very very pretty! I'm excited to wear it more in the spring.

This did something odd when I first put it on and smelled almost unpleasantly indolic. I have no idea why! Carnation hasn't done that on me before. Peony was the only note in this that I hadn't tried yet, but "indolic" does not seem to correspond remotely to any descriptions of peony I've found online, so who knows what that was about. Apparently I amp indoles like crazy, so maybe I've just unlocked the bonus power of "turn anything I touch indolic"? (glad I'm not the only who had this experience at any rate!) Anyway, happily the inexplicable indoles faded within an hour, and I could mainly smell the juicy pomegranate with a floral undertone. Possibly a whiff of spice from the carnation, but I'm really not sure. As the day went on, it kind of blended into something very smooth/fresh/bright, more of a blended fruity-floral than distinctly pomegranate or distinctly peony/carnation, which was very nice. It mostly disappeared on me after about 6hrs, but I could definitely still pick it up very, very faintly if I pressed my nose to my skin. At the very end of the day, after more than 12 hours of wear, there was something decidedly but verrrrry faintly peppery/spicy on me, so I suppose that was the carnation coming out at last! Overall neither my favorite pomegranate scent nor my favorite floral, but I really enjoyed this one, and my experience of wearing it was so weird it only added to the enjoyment.

This went on smelling of ALMOND and not much else, which I did enjoy because I absolutely love almond. Started getting hints of vanilla, a little warmth, and maaaaybe a little spice? At first it was very slightly powdery, but not overpoweringly so, still very pleasant. I'm sad to report that about 8 hours in it's gone pure baby powder. Almond-scented baby powder so that's nice, but definitely baby powder. I don't think this one's for me.

Sadly this one didn't really work on me. When it first went on it was a really yummy blend of peach and grapefruit with maybe a tiny hint of lime, but all the citrus quickly disappeared and left only a strange peachiness. I say "strange" because it smelled more like gummy peach candy than actual peach, which is a yummy smell for candy, but not something I think I actually want to smell like. It disappeared VERY quickly, and by the end of the day I just smelled like I had never put perfume on at all. Amber never showed up for me. More sorrow than joy then, I guess. Alas

This is totally gorgeous on me. When I first put it on, it smelled just like breathing in the steam from a cup of jasmine tea. The jasmine note was very prominent, and it was a beautiful jasmine note, softened a bit by the tea and the rice. I couldn't stop sniffing my arm! The jasmine started to recede a little after maybe an hour or so, and I started to pick up more of the rice and the creaminess from the vanilla. This stayed pretty close to my skin, didn't have a ton of throw, but it was a really really lovely one. It's mostly gone now at the end of the day, though I can still smell the rice and vanilla if I put my skin right up against my nose. I don't think I ever got the yuzu or any smokiness from this, but I do love it for what it is on me! I do wish it would last a little longer tho.

I've been *fascinated* reading the other reviews, because very few of them seem to reflect the experience I'm having with this one. I am new to fragrance, so it's quite possible I'm just not correctly identifying what I'm smelling, but I definitely have not noticed anything "green" or "wet stone" at all. I've tried other fragrances that definitely evoke the wetness of moss, for instance (one BPAL example would be The Witch/Strega, which definitely evokes dampness), but this one I can only describe as dry and spicy. It's pretty much been one-note on me all day, just very sharp and peppery; no other notes have made an appearance. It smelled complex and a little fruity in the bottle, and I was excited to try it, but whatever fruitiness I got from the bottle disappears completely on me. I hate to gender fragrances, but to me this just smells so strongly like something that would be marketed FOR MEN in an all-caps sans serif font, you know the kind of marketing I'm describing. It almost reminds me of aftershave? I don't think this one's a match for my skin chemistry, sadly.

So I bought a decant from another forum-user and I think I'm in LOVE, will probably see if I can find a bottle at some point. I'm sad I hadn't discovered BPAL yet when this was released! On me this is a delicious blend of every note listed, except for fig, which I don't think I ever got. I would describe it as smelling both creamy and resinous--I get a little toasted rice, a little coconut, a little champaca resin, and those three notes seem to be a MAGICAL combination on me. The champaca resin is very noticeable/prominent at first, but it blends gorgeously with the other notes and doesn't blot out everything else. After about an hour or so the champaca recedes a bit and the toasted rice/coconut becomes more prominent--I was delighted to find that when I sat outside in the sun, it brought the champaca right out again! Seems to be more champaca-forward in heat/sun, more rice/coconut-forward in the air-conditioned indoors. By the end of the day it had developed a really lovely, almost smoky vanillic aspect, and I started getting more of the almond cream. Really swooning over this one, sad I have so little of it!

So this was a fascinating one for me--I'm new to fragrances, and I think this was the first time I was finally able to really "get" the skin musk note! In the bottle and immediately after putting it on, the predominant note is the lemon. I wouldn't say it's an especially intense lemon, it's a little softened (perhaps by the "sugared"-ness), but stands out as the only note I can identify at first. After a bit I started noticing the musk and amber, then it went a bit powdery on me for awhile, then it went QUITE powdery and I was worried it might not work out for me (I've noticed Bastet goes very slightly powdery on me too, so I wonder if that's the amber?)--but weirdly the powdery phase only lasted an hour, then went away completely and it was like the most gorgeous slightly lemony ambery skin musk! Smells fresh and kind of gentle. Skin musk is hard to describe, but wow, it really does just kind of smell like skin when skin just smells really good? Lasted most of the day, towards the end of the day I could only detect it by putting my nose right up against my skin, but it was definitely still there. Really liked this one, think it's made me curious about trying more skin musks. eta: I'm not sure if I ever got the honey or the vanilla cream tho (or if they were present, I just wasn't able to identify them)