Reaver

Hunger Ars Amatoria Right, it’s official. I’ve found a note that my skin hates. It’s taken about 30 different blends tried to find ONE. Finally, I can ignore a group of blends. I can pretend that I’ve got a rigourous set of rules when it comes to picking new oils. Sheer, unadulterated carnal lust? No. Just burning. The vanilla note is pleasant under the burnt flowers but I get none of the orange blossoms, unless they’re burnt out too. So... a burnt down fudge factory. Not a keeper. Conclusion: Bye bye, Hunger. I won’t miss you. 1/10.

Debauchery Ars Amatoria Fresh onto my skin, this is civet, and just civet. It dries down to let the opium ooze out, the musk taking a backseat but just tickling my nose. It’s suprisingly fresh and bright, more fun burlesque than delicious debauchery. It’s got a touch of class, and is reminiscent of the smoking rooms on the Titanic. Or what I imagine them to be like. This scent courts you like it should. It brings you flowers, then screws you in the back of the stagecoach. Conclusion: Keeping the imp. I have Faustus so there is no need for a bottle. They both evoke the same kind of toffee-nosed sex appeal in tight pants and frockcoats. 8/10. ADDED 9/5/09: Gah... second review - sorry, I missed this one?! This is aged for 3 years, and quite different! This is very firey and musky... debauchery indeed! The civet is really strong in this, it's almost hot in my nose when I go in for a sniff. This has got killer throw and the throw is all musk with me. This is such a deep red oil, it even looks 'vivacious'?! I think that this smells awesome but I think it might be an acquired taste. I should also add that my imp was with my first BPAL and that was near on 3 years ago, and this smelt far too civet-y to wear then. I think the musk has gotten better with age, and hold it's own a lot more. The opium just makes it a bit sweeter to my nose. 9/10. I really like this. I'm keeping it for back-up ammunition when I need to bring the 'vivaciousness'. Word of the day, much?! I might even have to get a bottle to start the aging process to make it amazing.

Shub-Niggurath. Or Shaved Knicker-Rash as our CoC group called Her. The Goat-Mother of the Woods. I really, really wanted to like this. I tried it once, I tried it twice a week later. I LOVE the throw, incense and resins, cloying and dark but still a gingery base. It's just a shame the stench of it wet, and then actually sniffing it makes me want to vomit. Maybe I should have made like when we met her in the first place. Fired off a few shots, realised she was far too big for us to tame, and got the hell out of dodge. I hope some layering with something lighter takes away the Death-Cakemix but if not, it's off for swap. Conclusion: Yep, should have avoided this one. For some reason, most popular scents are NOT my friends. 3/10, and that's just for the pleasant throw of resins and incense.

Faustus Sin and Salvation Dark, makes my entire world collapse for a few moments. The violet tries to come to the front while drying, but the frankincense kicks it back smoothly. A devil-tongued demon tempting you. Slightly medicinal, a clinical cover-up for explicit needs. It’s one out there on it’s own, and likes it that way. Conclusion: Sechs now please. 10/10. Bottle please. FYI: The stickiest oil yet. Almost makes it even more foul but sexual.

It's on order And yay! So many ideas! I think I might add Kataniya to my next order - looking to hoard some CD oils before they disappear. At the moment, Doc Constantine is my as-many-bottles-as-i-can-get oil from there. 'Lurid' seems to work too. Just seeing how it lasts through the day now on my shoulder. I've added all of the GCs to my 'wants imps' list for future lab orders, and Neo-Tokyo has clocked up a few more notches on my 'kill-people-for' list.

Seconding 'Beaver Moon'! Creamy strawberries, with a light 'Milky Bar Kid' undercurrent.

Dee and 51 added to the next Imp order. And I know I have Cathode in one of these little bags SOMEWHERE... *throws baggies of imps about*

Danse Macabre Ars Morendi Oh my. In the bottle, it’s delicious frankincense. Slightly nutty, but nothing too sickly. The drydown in completly cypress and oakmoss, the frankincense stickiness clears up and the overly astringence of the initial cypress calms and this blend becomes a light, slightly peppery foresty smell. Clear evergreens and the scent on the wind in the Catskills. Conclusion: Love, more please. 8/10. It’s going to be my back-up ‘fresh’ smell for when I’ve worn Cthulhu too many days in a row and it starts to get boring. 5ml being considered!

Right. So I get that people use BPAL for themselves, and some people *hi-fives* use them for their re-enactment or LRP characters. I've been dowsing myself in BPAL for a while now, and I've used light, floral blends (that I wouldn't use for myself usually) for my Star Wars jedi character, but now I've hit a stump. I need a scent for a Steampunk scientist (Herbert West and Mechanical Phoenix I've got a tried, and they're no-goers ) I need a scent for a Togruda (Star Wars) gunner. (Fun, young, cute and alien. Rainforest-y.) I love BPAL, and they're so so so so good for my modern-day LRPs, and medievil style fantasy LRPs and I'm a sucker for the crazy fun scents for myself every day, but I need some suggestions for futurist, tangy, metallic, circuit-board scents. (Would help if suggestions were GC or generally easy to get ahold of!) THANK YOU THANK YOU, Path.

I flew from UK to Boston about 3 months ago and had an imp in my carry-on (my only BPAL at the time...) and it was in the baggie. Not a blinked eye. Bottles and lots of imps came back with me, and I just had them in my checked bag in the postal box they came in, with lots of bubble wrap. If you keep the postage boxes, and put the shipping label in with the perfumes, it adds certain authenticity in case your luggage DOES get searched. Just because I'm a bit paranoid and tbh, they COULD look quite dodgy... M.

In the bottle it's a zany floral, light and really refreshing. On my skin, the jasmine is the only thing that rises, but searching through that scent for the lime is quite amusing. The throw is beautiful and really warm but not cloying as I find most florals to be. It's quite a grown-up scent but the lime makes it fun, not dowdy. And dried, it's still mainly a very fresh jasmine on me. It's a keeper for me (i got frimped it) but saving it for the days that i need a pick-me-up that will carry me, instead of me carrying my signature sicky unique scents. And for someone that dumped things like Amsterdam, it's quite a leap! But I probably won't be getting a bottle. Conclusion. Fun, light and good staying power for those days where you need a bit of a nostalgic floral lift. 3/5 for me, as it's not WOW but it's for sure a pleasant scent.

Limited Edition, Halloweenies 2007 Really quite disgusting in the bottle. It makes me sick to my stomach like 'Eat Me' and 'Drink Me' did at first. Seeing as 'Miskatonic University' and 'Beaver Moon' do the same, I'm say it's the sugary creamy vanilla that does it to me. Which is bad as it's lovely when it settles down. I don't get any fruits from this until a few hours after applying and even then it's just a vague crispness after a deep wiff of sugar. The most outstanding smell I get is maple syrup or golden syrup which is why this one scores so highly with me - i LOVE maple syrup! I want to eat my arms! Conclusion; Not an everyday as it is far too overpowering. It's more of a date perfume or something to wear outside to cover bad smells (maybe one for uni as acrylics smell nasty). 9/10. Could have better fruit notes, and a little less creamyness but I love it and after an hour together, it loves me back. And whoh BABY, does this sugar have staying power. Note; A dot of this when applying Miskatonic University makes for some extra arm eating. Sweet milky coffee!

General Catalogue, Bewitching Brews. I can see why it's called Schrodingers Cat after a few hours of wearing it. It's not that it smells like cats, it's just two very different scents. The wet stage smell is VERY grapefruity and very fresh, almost citrus cleaner-ish. Still nice, but a little too clinical. The dry stage is hardly fruity at all, except for a tangerine undertone. It's mainly lavender. It doesn't smell creamy like the usual chocolate scent, but this may be as the mint cuts through it. If it wasn't for the mint, it might smell a little dowdy but as it's quite a sweet and fresh scent, it cuts through the cloying part of the lavender and tickles your sinuses. Conclusion; Everyday fragrance, addicitively sniffable as every time you get a different wiff as it settles. Not overly strong, quite background really but it would be good when you have a blocked nose as the combination of lavender and mentholy mint helps unblock noses and calm headaches! I may get this to wear when i'm feeling a bit down as the fruit is cheerful and the afterglow quite relaxing. 8/10. A surprise, given it's horrible in the bottle.

Omen - Bewitching Brews Ow. Ow ow headaches. I assume it’s the juniper or the myrrh because i’ve never had a problem with patchouli, and the mossy part is lost amongst the cheap old-ladies scent part of this blend. It’s quite addictive to sniff, but only because it’s so strange but i’m CONVINCED it’s given me this headache. It really does smell like old ladies, the ones that are really crafty or arty and wear heady hippy perfumes that hang in the air after them. You never know, it might grow on me. Conclusion. Eaugh. Double eaugh. I’ll try it again in a few days and if it’s still too lifeless and eaugh, it’s up for swap. 2/10, the 2 is purely for sniffability.

Jailbait - Sin and Salvation I wanted to like it so much when I put it on and then it stunk of anti-septic. Like horribly, eaugh get it off me, stunk. Now it’s calmer it’s all cherries and bubblegum. None of this heady womens perfume rubbish. I smell like cheap childrens sweets. But apparantly, only for two hours. After that, just a hint of sweetness. Then it’s all gone. Which allows for trying reviewing ANOTHER scent today... Conclusion. SO SO good but why doesn’t it last for longer? And you have to be quite adamant that you want a sniff to get a smell from it. Not my friend, I don’t think. But yummy. 7/10. It’s yummy but I was wearability and durability.

Miskatonic University ... Oh, how I love this scent. I loved it in the bottle. It was the first one I opened when I got the imps through. And it went straight onto the list of full bottles. This one MIGHT even overtake King Of Hearts in the everyday scent if the boy likes it too. It’s sweet sweet nutty coffee (smells just like my favourite fairtrade tesco blend) with a dash of alcho-ma-hole and cream. The drydown is fantastically woody on me (my skin likes to amp woody aromas quite a bit...not that i’m complaining) but still incredible nutty coffee. So impressed. This is at the front of my perfume wardrobe. And it lasts FOREVER as I discovered the other morning after applying it at about 6pm. Conclusion, Oh-my-gods-orgasmic. 10/10. I want more. I want to bathe in it. NB; My mum says I smell gross and sickly. So maybe not for people that like clean, fresh scents. Whereas i'm a more sickly-the-better person. ETA: Still smiling from the whiffing about 8 hours after applying MU. So good!

Like 'sggster' above, I was hoping for a lot more from 'Herbert West', especially with the 'aftershave' part of the mix. I got this because of the name. Herbert West is a nasty little worm, blond and striking but rotten to the core. I was expecting Embalming Fluid with a dark, maybe salty dry down. Nope. It's really quite sweet and it's definitely got the embalming fluid tendencies - tea and lemon - but it's not as sparky fresh. It's infact, quite disappointingly flat. It only lasts for about an hour on my skin and even then, you have to sniff hard to get a whiff of it after ten minutes. I prefer my scents to be noticable (at least to myself) because what's the point in wearing them? That said, it's a great pick-me-up scent and makes a fantastic early morning wake up call if you dot it on your temples after a shower. It's close enough to smell, and it lasts a little longer but as long as you don't clash it horribly with a longer lasting scent for the daytime, it's delicious. I'm keeping the imp purely for the hangover cure aspect that I've discovered, maybe even buy a bottle but it's not in the 'next order list' for sure. NB. Had it for four months now and it doesn't get worse, or better with age. ETA: 3.5/5 - It's cute and fresh and smells like green tea but it's short lived. And it's not Herbert West to me.

...and now I search for 'anise' and get some lovely search results back, including all of the above. Kyoto, Kabuki and Absinthe sound perfect for me... *adds them to the next imps order* There are also Black Annis, Casanova and Anja if anyone else is interested. This is nearly as good as the day I found liquorice and lavender flavoured fudge in a sweet shop. But not quite as good as the day I discovered Jaegermeister. Strange that liquorice itself makes me feel ill eating it... Thank you lovely people!