Blogs

Icons Schmicons

Man, you kids these days and your hip trends. *bandwagon* // And yes, it is pure coincidence that the first two icons I made were to do with the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'm as confused as you are. Hellfire is completely apropos of nothing, other than the fact that it got that song stuck in my head.

lamenteuse's BPAL rambles

January 1, 2011

Notes of love and hate

LOVE! Notes: Leather Red Musk Vanilla Dried Leaves Chocolate Ginger Black Tea Honey Woodsmoke Scents: Death of Autumn Elephantine Colossus Invasion of the Flesh Eating Reindeer from Uranus The Soldier Mutter U Samhain (2007) Manila Shub Niggurath DISLIKE GREATLY! Notes: Florals! Lily, rose, and jasmine are the biggest "nooooo" Rum Sandalwood

lamenteuse

January 1, 2011

REVIEW: Thunder Moon 2007

Ozone deepened by liquid amber, and a spray of hot nighttime rain mingled with the scent of lightning-struck wood, water-soaked summer blooms, and sun-scorched grass. In the bottle, I smelled a kind of freshness and soap. Wet on skin, it continued to be soaps, but gave off a greener scent-- not plant green, but a high synesthetic green with a blueish hue. As it dried, it retained its greensoap smell, but developed a mellow spiciness. This was so strong on me that I ended up washing it off after a few hours, on account of the fact that it was starting to make me woozy-- tho' I suppose that could have just been medication withdrawals-- but! Like I said, vurreh, vurreh strong. Will have to remember to apply less next time 'round. And speaking of synesthesia... for some reason it really bothers me that the bottle is blue and pink, rather than green: "Clearly you're green with a mild brown and blue undertone, you fibber!" I yell at it, which in itself is probably indicative of an entirely different mental condition.

December 31, 2010

CaudaPavonis' BPAL Blog

Notes of Love

BPAL Relationship Status: my best scents, family-wise gourmands (not straight foody), fruity+something, sweet woods, musks orientals One True Love notes: vanillas, ambers, musks Lover notes: woods: teak/oak/cedar, red/golden sandalwoodozone, linen/cotton, clean/soap, snow, glass, sugar, champagne fruit (apple, black currant, peach, pear) palm, ferns, green/dry grasses, oakmoss white/green/red/black tea, tobacco, fur, benzoin, ambergris orris, saffron, tonka, beeswax, almond/amaretto I seem to love all musks - animal, vanilla/warm/skin musks, white/pale musks, black/dark/brown musks florals (dandelion, lavender, lilac, olive blossom, poppy/opium Just Friends notes (I usually like): florals (carnation, magnolia, moonflower, narcissus, sweetpea)white/black/pink pepper, leaves, bergamot, opoponax, patchouli, pine/juniper, sweet mints, orris, sweet herbal notes, cucumber fruits (apricot, lime, plum, pomegranate, strawberry) red musk Acquaintance notes (work in some blends, but not others): rock/stone notes, aquatics, metallics, leatherpastry/biscuit/cookie/cake, cream, honey, wine, cocoa florals (cherry blossom, heliotrope, honeysuckle, hyacinth, iris, lily, magnolia, myrtle, orange blossom, orchid, osmanthus, plumeria, rose, ylang ylang) fruit (berry, black cherry, blackberry, cherry) mahogany/rosewood Passing Stranger notes (rarely work on me): dirt, fruits (citrus, fig, grapefruit, orange, cranberry)incense, coconut, white sandalwood floral (champaca, gardenia, hibiscus, hyssop, linden blossom, jasmine, lotus, peony, tobacco flower) booze, labdanum, myrrh, palmarosa, dragon's blood, balsam, milk, frankincense, sugar cane, bamboo, ho wood, vetiver spices (cinnamon/clove/nutmeg/ginger) Mortal Enemy notes (mutually despised): violet, heavy lemon/verbena, goat's milk, rum, smoky

jizatt

December 31, 2010

widdershins' Blog

Wishlist

I would love to try any of these in any amount (decants, anything!) The ones with the asterisks (*) are the ones I've tried and need more of. The ones in bold are things I especially want. GC BPAL/BPTP: Akuma Alice* Black Phoenix Bon Vivant Castitas Bath Oil Cordelia Dana O’Shee Dove’s Heart Drink Me* Down the Rabbit Hole Atmosphere Spray* Eat Me* Envy Fainting Room Spray* Frenum Bath Oil Garden Path with Chickens Glasgow* Gertrude Dix's Atmosphere Spray High-Strung Daisies Humanitas Bath Oil Les Bijoux Ode on Melancholy Okiya Atmosphere Spray* Oneiroi Queen's Croquet Ground Atmosphere Spray* Séance Schrodinger's Cat* Somnus* TKO* Tweedledee Viola* White Rabbit LE/unimpables/Discontinued etc: Candy Butcher* Chaste Moon Day of the Skulls* Gothabilly* Grindhouse Holiday Argument Diffusing Spray Ichabod Crane Ingenue Josie La Vita Nuova Love in the Asylum* Monsterbait: biggerCritters Moxie New Year's Eve in Dogville One to Tie, Two to Win Orange Peacock Queen Peacock Queen soap Presence of Love Schlafende Baigneuse Silenti Storm Snow White* Snow White Atmosphere Spray Snow White Bath Oil Snow White Soap Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Skull Atmosphere Spray TKO Massage Oil Velvet Nudie* Velvet Unicorn* Wensleydale Xanthe, the Weeping Clown Yvaine I also love LUSH, Villainess, and makeup.

widdershins

December 23, 2010

Forum Updates and News

Our chat room has been updated!

Our chat room has had a small upgrade. Nothing really changed from a usability standpoint, but some minor back end changes were made. An option to automatically kick inactive users has been added
An option to disable the "user has left/entered room" messages has been added
An option not to show the recent chats when a user enters the room has been added
An option to launch the chat in a minimalized popup has been added

ipb

December 21, 2010

Notes of Love and Hate

My new novel. Love Mint Ozone Ginger Eucalyptus Citrus Almond Sugar Milk Tobacco Leather Cherry Tea Rose Honey Clove Dirt Melon Hate Patchouli Vetiver

December 21, 2010

Forum Updates and News

A Peek Behind the Curtain (software in the works)

I don't really talk about the software development process here, because I figure that outside of a few technically inclined people, nobody really cares. I also don't really talk about the things I'm working on for the forum very much because it takes quite some time for me to go from "idea!" to something I can release for you to use, and I've already had a few instances of people trying to profit off of my ideas for things to do with the forum (such as when someone went and manually queried my scent family database and tried to sell the contents on eBay for about $20). But, today, I've decided to share with you some of the things I'm working on! Feedback Oh, feedback. You are the bane of my existence! But I am (slowly) taming the beast. As you all have noticed, even with the sixty thousand-some old feedback reviews from the old system, it's lightning fast & nobody has login or skin issues anymore! Of course, the flip side of this is that nobody has their individual pages anymore. Feedback Updates I was lucky enough to be selected as a beta tester for the next version of the software platform I use for the development of our apps. I don't have it running live here (just retailtherapy, a site I've been playing with developing but haven't actually released), but I've been able to play around with development. I'm happy to announce that when this version goes live, I will *definitely* be able to finish the personalized pages for the feedback. I consider this to be a "priority development" issue, and as such, I have decided to update it in two phases. The first phase will have the consolidated page with feedback & swaplift reports. This will eliminate the current problem of getting others' feedback mixed in with yours (for instance, feedback for the user "luna" may show up with the feedback for user "LunaKitty" right now). The second phase will have some statistics as "header" to the page, and it will probably clean up the display. The Future of Feedback Are these features that would interest you? Comment and let me know! Something for the front page to show who has recently given and/or gotten feedback - probably limited to just who has recently given you feedback.
A profile tab (like "About Me") that summarizes your feedback statistics
The ability to "draft" feedback, so you can start it earlier in the process of swapping
The forum no longer deletes PMs (it uses a "soft deletion" that keeps the PMs in the database). I could enable something that would allow you to attach a PM to feedback (as a link, not the actual text) & give a link to recover the PM if you have left the conversation. The BPAL Perfume Database, Price Caps, Reviews, and the Scent of the Day FB App This database is more encompassing than just listing the price caps. It's also the back end for the BPAL site catalog database and our facebook app. If that wasn't enough, it's *also* going to be added to the review forums, to replace the BBCode descriptions/images. Basically, the top of the page of the review topics is now going to have the description, pricing information (Lab cost & our price caps, when available), image(s), release & discontinuation dates, and a link to purchase from the Lab. I've got the actual code written now, and am working on the integration part. The Scent of the Day Facebook App I believe the time has come to retire the existing SotD application. The way Facebook worked and was used when I created it is worlds different from what it is now. Facebook killed the way feeds used to work. They have also, for all purposes, gotten rid of boxes and of the profile side bars that many of us have used to display it. But never fear: I am working on something that will allow you to "push" your forum SotD changes to Facebook or Twitter if you've got them set up. I will be starting this with Facebook first, so I can cleanly retire the app, and then adding Twitter as an option. When it is done, it'll be very simple -- it'll just attach a link to the forum's review page. This will be an "opt-in" thing, not a default. Future Work I have been flirting with the idea of incorporating some sort of tagging with scent families, but I can't think of a way that will do it smoothly. I thought using a poll in the topic would work, and then I could do a nightly synchronization and display the results as a tag cloud & pick the top one as a "user based The review topics will become automatically generated by the database (making it easier for us to maintain -- right now Shollin does all of that, and we'll be distributing the work between Shollin & our swap mods, Silvertree, maewitch, and Noumenon), and I don't know how to automatically add a poll (and with about 3000 topics, it would need to be done automatically). I may talk with some of the code mod developers about this, because I think having a general sense of the scent family would help find other scents you might like. I am also flirting with the idea of using a tag cloud for the notes. This might be fairly easy to do, but will depend on how the tag cloud goes on retailtherapy. Finally, once the SotD app has been revived, I am considering allowing people to opt into pushing their forum reviews to facebook.

ipb

December 21, 2010

</3 (Scents I've disliked)

~ Wishlist ~★~ Love & Hate ~★~ Swaps ~ ~★~ ScentBase ~★~ For whatever reason, many of the scents I try don't work out for me. Here's the list of things I've tried, that just haven't come through for me. General Catalogue Ars Amatoria Hetairae - ★★★★★ Boomslang - ★★★★★ L'ecole Des Filles - ★★★★★ Salome - ★★★★★ Ars Draconis Dragon's Blood - ★★★★★ Bewitching Brews Intrigue - ★★★★★ Jolly Roger - ★★★★★ Penny Dreadful - ★★★★★ Diabolus Incubus - ★★★★★ Excolo Baron Samedi - ★★★★★ Olokun - ★★★★★ Illyria Hermia - ★★★★★ Marchen The Little Sparrow - ★★★★★ Rappaccini's Garden Bohun Upas - ★★★★★ Steamworks Violet Ray - ★★★★★ The Conjure Bag French Love - ★★★★★ Wanderlust Glasgow - ★★★★★ Hollywood Babylon] - ★★★★★ Kyoto - ★★★★★ Limited Edition / Discontinued Carnival Diabolique Arachnina The Spider Girl 13 (October 2006) - ★★★★★ Lupercalia White Chocolate and Strawberry - ★★★★★ Metamorphosis Rosy Maple - ★★★★★ The Bards of Ireland Eanach Dhuin - ★★★★★ Yule Diwali - ★★★★★ The Cracked Bell - ★★★★★ The Winter of Our Discontent - ★★★★★

December 20, 2010

Forspecial Plate's Blog

Wolf Moon '11

Well, indecisive as usual.... Wolf Moon '11....."Winter air, Terebinth pine, black spruce, long-dead maple leaves, juniper berry, dusty orris, deep amber, white sandalwood, brown musk, blue cedar, ambrette seed, benzoin, and tonka". I like Wolf Moon '04, and I love Wolf Moon '07, so I pretty much have to get this! It's possible I won't like it as much, or that the brown musk or something else will ruin it for me, but I just have to find out. Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse...."A voluptuous and brittle blend of lunar oils and white chypre shimmering with darkly glowing red musk, golden amber, black currant, patchouli, rose peppercorn, blackberry, ylang ylang, and daemonorops astride Yuletide’s holly berry, white pine, winter rose, and myrrh". Well, this is quite a mixture of notes, which sound kind of hit and miss for me, and I'm especially concerned about ylang ylang and winter rose. Really have to think about this one. I like the idea of white chypre. I just don't know! WILF....."Warm fur coupled with red and black musk, vanilla bean, patchouli, champaca flower, juniper berry, chocolate peppermint, frangipani, browned sandalwood, ferntop ash resin, and massoia bark". I typically don't like "fur" scents, or most things with chocolate, or "browned" anything, especially after the failure the was Howl In The Darkness when it touched my skin. But.....but.....it's forum-only! Inspired by Lycanthrope! Will I be able to resist? I don't know! So that's one pretty definite 'Yes', and two 'I don't know's. Looks like I have some thinking to do!

forspecial_plate

December 20, 2010

colormonochrome's Blog

>.<

I've not been on the forum for a while due to serious health issues, and a few things have kind of gotten away from me. I'm not getting any PM notification emails, so if you need to contact me it's best to email. I try to check it at least every couple of days.

bellademarco

December 20, 2010

Non-BPAL Noms. =)

Love Potions Perfume: Come To Me Moxie Nouveau Bee Charmer Mazzolari Carolina Possets Betsy Perpetual Motion Machine Inez Nocturne Alchemy: Liked: Osi'Azam Purple Nile - - ★★★★★ Queen Amber 7.2 - ★★★★★ Disliked: Om Na: Balance - ★★★★★

December 15, 2010

Forspecial Plate's Blog

Serge Lutens, Five O'Clock Au Gingembre

List of notes: "Bergamot, candied ginger, honey, patchouli, pepper, and dark cocoa" Well, this is quite a warm, cozy scent, very yummy, as could be expected just from reading the notes. But....it's not really a straight-up foody blend, and it's not quite as sweet as you might expect either. It's spicy but it's also very smooth and wearable, on the male side of unisex in my opinion, and just completely blended, with no notes standing out very much except maybe the ginger. I can't smell dark cocoa but I can tell it's there supporting. Overall I really like this and I'd love a larger bottle if it weren't so dang expensive. As it is, I'll keep wearing my little sample and maybe some day get a larger amount. Edit: I got busy here at work, so I didn't really finish what I was writing. This scent has a small component of the whole that adds some kind of strange salty or doughy part of the scent. It's just an interesting little twist that kind of reaches out from the scent from time to time.

forspecial_plate

December 14, 2010

sheena's Blog

Feedback

I'm giving myself a deadline of December 24th to try to leave feedback for, well, everyone I haven't left feedback for! It would not be out of line for anyone I owe feedback to bring it to my attention!

cyberpuff

December 13, 2010

I own imps, I want full bottles!

I want 5ml bottles of: General Collection Aremata-Popoa Mr. Croup The Caterpillar The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener Santa Eularia Des Riu LE Jolasveinar

December 11, 2010

my scent ramblings

time for new toys

Well, ok, I haven't reviewed -- or even tested -- all the imps I have (though I've smelled them all), but I'm ordering a new set. My SO and I went to a wood-working store with lots of exotics, and after following his nose to a stack of Spanish cedar, commented that any perfume that contained that would drive him wild. Alrighty! Ysabel, here I come. His comment is probably the only thing that could convince me to try a perfume with rose other than Les Infortunes. I'm also getting: Lampades Ulalume Black Opal Wrath Yggdrasil Can't wait!

Graphica

December 11, 2010

My Askew View

I haven't forgotten you!

Femme_Fatale and Scrappy I have not forgotten both of you helping me out when I was unemployed (around this time last year) and desperately wanting to try Hod. I am writing this here so I don't forget and I can keep tabs on your ISO lists. If I ever have something you are ISO I will definitely send it out. I'm still amazed everyday at how awesome Bpalers are!

lectriceye

December 8, 2010

Dorky Fan-Concocted Scents

As I am a dork in all fields, I've taken to fantasizing about my own blends that will never be. Unless I figure out how to make them myself. O_O Original Characters BARILLO - cigar smoke, leather, gin, whiskey, gun oil, licorice, black coffee, charcoal, molasses, chili pepper, match strike VIEULETTA - absinthe, opium, lavender, poppy, mint, eucalyptus, burnt sugar VESPA - ozone, crude oil, plains grass, rubbing alcohol, grapefruit, lime, rice milk, ammonia, bitter almonds, clementines, oatmeal The Claidi Journals (Complete with links to old fan arts!) CLAIDI - desert winds, jasmine, Moroccan rose, Arabian spices, incense, herbs, lavender, vanilla, heather, star anise, mint THE HOUSE - incense, well-polished woods, marble, perfumes THE GARDEN - rose, JIZANIA - tropical flowers and fruits, citrus, incense... THE WASTE - something desolate, salty, with an undercurrent of rain, sweetness, flowers NEMIAN - gold, honey, cologne, tobacco, sunflowers, gunpowder, vetiver ARGUL - leather, coffee, black tea, cream, black pepper, saffron, cinnamon, clove, cardamom THE HULTA - horsehair, leather, old woods, camp fires, spices, frankincense, myrrh THE RAIN GARDENS - rain, lava rock, wet animal PESHAMBA - bronze, metallic, clock oil IRONEL - metallic, sharp, ginger, black pepper, vetiver MOON SILK - lilies, lotus, cream, sugar, mint, white tea THE WOLF TOWER - rain, soot, ink, and old paper GREMBILARD - tropical woods, greenery, moss, herbs, green tea JOTTO - metal, oil, something sweet, floral, cakes and candies THE STAR - mint, eucalyptus, ozone, citrus, sugar WINTER RAVEN - snow, sharp icy air, metallic, black pepper HRALD & YAZKOOL - A cacophony of tacky scents, colognes, red wine and tea, citrus. USTARETH - black musk, sandalwood, incense, charcoal, SCIENCE! Music THE RED TIDE IS OVER - saltyfishy ocean stink, warm dog hair, gasoline, cedar, metal, rope, gravel, cigarettes, freshly lit match

December 8, 2010

How Not to Test:

By slathering yourself in several different scents at the same time, on different parts of the body. Dance of Death on my wrist and neck, Umbra on one hand, Iago on the other... Not to mention the myriad of other scents that I've tried and simply let fade, instead of washing them off properly. *fail* Is it my fault that I've bought about 300 different imps/bottles in the last month and now I don't know what to do with them? (Yes.)

December 7, 2010

Forum Updates and News

Forum Software Upgrade (updated)

We recently updated the forum software. As these things tend to go, there were a few unexpected bumps. When we updated, BBCode, the Gallery, Feedback, and Unresolved Swaps were not functional. They now are, hooray! Now to tell y'all about the updates! Forums had actually a really boring update - it just fixed bugs and was setting things up for the big update that's scheduled to come out in Q1 2011. I know, all that fuss and nothing changed as far as what we see! There will be a new skin, but that's independent of this update. Blogs update is actually pretty big. Many of the changes were back end related, but here are some of the things you might notice! New "Like" system on Blogs and Blog Entries.
Notification support for new blog entries, and new comments, so you can watch a member's blog or an entry.
Uses a new comments system.
New "Manage Blogs" area.
Facebook Like and Twitter Tweet buttons on blog entries.
Cleaned up design.
Single column layout on individual blogs. Gallery has returned to us! Feedback / Unresolved Swaps / Price Caps / Cookbook all had backend updates that will let me start working on some cool things, but you won't see it for a few months yet!

ipb

December 5, 2010

<3 (Scents I love!)

~ Wishlist ~★~ Love & Hate ~★~ Swaps ~ ~★~ ScentBase ~★~ (also: imps I own, that I'm looking for full bottles of here) Waiting for review: Aureus Twilight Ave Maria Grata Plena Ozymandias Desire Vice Sheol Bensiabel Xanthe, the Weeping Clown Fruit Moon 2006 Creepy 2006 Treat #2 Pumpkin I (2007) Pumpkin V (2008) Loosening of the Obi Samhainophobia Dragon's Eye Les Infortunes De La Vertu Copper Phoenix Interfector Old Man Ackerman's Instructional Toys Wrath Uruk Carnal Clémence Lampades Dove's Heart Nanshe Maenad Alien Invasion Black Hellebore Honey Sugar Cookie 2008 High John the Conqueror Erebos General Catalogue Ars Amatoria Hunger - ★★★★★ Atomic Luau Lounge Aremata-Popoa - ★★★★★ Blue Fire - ★★★★★ Pahoehoe - ★★★★★ Bewitching Brews Namaste - ★★★★★ Scherezade - ★★★★★ Conjure Bag Black Cat - ★★★★★ Diabolus Akuma - ★★★★★ Maenad - ★★★★★ Excolo: Zorya - ★★★★★ Mad Tea Party The Caterpillar - ★★★★★ Marchen Serpents with Glittering Eyes and Forky Tongues - ★★★★★ Pharmacopoeia Stimulating Sassafrass Strengthener - ★★★★★ Picnic in Arkham Shoggoth - ★★★★★ Rappaccini's Garden The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - ★★★★★ Sin and Salvation Anathema - ★★★★★ Jailbait - ★★★★★ Wanderlust Santa Eularia Des Riu - ★★★★★ Limited Edition / Discontinued Prototype Ngagl5 - ★★★★★ Neverwhere Mr. Croup - ★★★★★ Trick or Treat Marshmallow Pumpkin - ★★★★★ The Nutcracker Valse Finale Et Apotheose - ★★★★★ Wind in the Willows Rat - ★★★★★ Yule But Men Loved Darkness Rather Than Light - ★★★★★ Jolasveinar - ★★★★★ Midnight Mass - ★★★★★ Waiting to Receive From: CatsEyes (September 2011) Silver Apple of the Moon Golden Apple of the Sun Black Apple of Saturn Green Apple of Venus Glittering Apple of the Stars Nightmare Gorobble Autumn Cider Boo 2011 Devil's Night Elegy IX October 2011 Sahain 2011 From: Elliemental (November 21, 2010) Baghdad Belle Vinu Hollywood Babylon New Orleans The Isles of Demons Melisande the Puppet Mistress

December 4, 2010

REVIEW: Water of Notre Dame

Brings peace to the spirit, a sense of calm and fulfillment, and attracts the aid of beneficial spirits. In The Bottle Smells like watah. And a bit of flowery. Wet On Skin Aquatic, with light, calm florals. Maybe I didn't put enough on, but I have to put my wrist right up in my nose to get much off it. Dry On Skin Much stronger now, especially the florals; I can actually smell it without trying to. A little like soap or baby powder. It's hard to describe when I don't have a proper description to work off of. Longevity Lasted only two or so hours. Color Bright white and light lilac.