sarada

I'm trying this for the copal, but I like resins in general, generally like tonka and I am fond of heliotrope. I have no idea what this is going to smell like. In the imp: hmm, a dark floral perfume, but very mellow. It makes me think of the color of dark amber or a pale golden brown. I was just sniffing candles at the mall and determined that iris is a floral note that I like, and there aren't any florals in here that bother me so far, even though I can't pick them out. On my skin....oh, oh my. Copal is definitely coming out. I love copal. A very dry resin, this smells like it smells when it is burning. Like gold dust, in a way, but a deep and dark gold. There's a slight woodiness in the background. The florals are all arranging themselves neatly on top of this. A collection of flowers in a dark, somber building. A memory of joy. The flowers are like pale, scattered shards of stained glass in a room that is vast, solemn, dark, formal, dry, dim. It is not "perfumey" to me, and the dry resiny base really works wonders with my skin. I will have to see if this changes considerably after it dries down. I don't know if I can really get a full idea of where this is going and what it can do with just one wearing. This is great to experience, and even if I wouldn't find many occasions to wear it I think it is a beautiful piece of art. A great blend for contemplation.

Banana and coconut are not my favorite things in the world to smell. Banana is probably the only fruit that I don't like in general and I really dislike coconut as a smell. But I love pomegranate, can dig pineapple sorta, and am OK with apples, so what happens here? Well I do smell banana but it's pretty faint, more like the banana candy scent that I get from lotus scents and I don't smell coconut at all. Pomegranate and a general thick, fresh fruit cocktail are my impression. Since I like fruit scents that smell like real, natural fresh fruit (not baked goods) it's pretty appealing. Chili pepper doesn't really jump out at me either, but it's an energizing blend, overall. I'm glad I overcame my fear of banana and coconut to give it a try, it's really quite a nice thick dark fruity scent. There aren't many occasions that I'd wear it, but perhaps during a thunderstorm, when lightning is in the air, it would be just the thing to dab on as I watch the skies.

Oh WOW. I really love honeydew -- I love that IC Honeydew drink they have at Panera, I love honeydew ice cream, and well of course the melon itself is one of my very favorite summer treats. And this is the scent of honeydew, alright! That's really all I smell and that is quite enough to make me happy. Actually at first I do get a very slight whiff of what I can only describe as "nail polish" which I think might be the grape. When I sniffed the lab's Grape single note it smelled just like nail polish to me, so there you go. I also smell this in Shango. This is a strong, thick honeydew scent and I guess there could be cantaloupe in there as well but this is mostly a pale green, stick-sweet but utterly refreshing scent. Oh, and it's strong, it lasts, and it has decent throw for a fruit scent. It fades slowly to a light green honeyed fruity scent. So good. I put this on when I was picking up a friend in the car, and he got in and said "What's that?? That's my absolute favorite!!" (after a year and a half of having me wave smelly wrists at him every week). So I should probably get him a bottle, since he is a big fruit scent fan. I think we will both need bottles, actually. I don't wear a whole lot of fruit scents, except for plum/pomegranate, but this is definitely going to enter my summer scent rotation. BOTTLE ME NOW!!

Bewitching, tantalizing and dangerously seductive. A thrilling, exotic blend -- deceptively sweet, but spiked with malice. White ginger, jasmine, and a touch of vanilla and apricot. Wow, I don't even remember seeing this in the catalogue! Hello, frimp! Sniffing it, I have no idea what is in it, but there's a gritty, sweet orange fruit -- apricot? I'd swear there's something incensy in there too but sweetness dominates. It reminds me of Drpraved, but lighter, possibly a little floral, golden/honeyed in tone. After writing down those notes I looked up the ingredients and I see it all makes sense. I don't smell jasmine, but the sharp spicy ginger is definitely there, playing with the apricot to make it both sweeter/spicier and brightening it at the same time. The vanilla must be helping to sweeten the otherwise tart ingredients. Like, say, Wanton, this is something that I like that will be destined to get forgotten in favor of the other ... 50 or 100 blends I reach for regularly. But I like it and I think there will definitely be times where I want this exact combination of sweet, spicy, soft, bright and fruity.

I would never have sought this one out because it has cherry in it, and cherry equals a huge almondy headache for me usually. I also rarely like anything with vanilla and honey together in it, because it becomes too cloyingly sweet and foody, which is not my thing. But OH MY GOD, Blood Kiss. Thank god for frimps! Just like the wild naked romp I had with Perversion last year when I tried it for the first time after expecting not to like it, I am completely blown away. Thick, rich, sultry, intoxicating...a dark rich tobacco with a hint of clove. Wait, tobacco? Yep, that's how my nose interprets the dark, sweet, earthy vetiver and the musk, paired with a tiny hint of sweet luscious dark red cherry (the kind so dark red they look like little black hearts), a hint of clove and all luxuriating in a bath of smooth, softly sweet nectar. I could drown in this. Sweet and dark without striking me as foody, and still pornographically lickable. I hope it's not just a one-night stand with me and this scent, I can't imagine not ever loving it, every time I pop open the imp to take a sniff. That vetiver is the glossy, polished, dark wood that it becomes at its best, and now that I know what happens when clove and honey meet (see also: The Masque) I am hooked. I didn't even realize this had red wine in it! Another note that I just utterly adore. Anything that has red wine in it smells drinkable to me (note: I do not drink, in real life, and never have!). I am really curious to see if this becomes the first time I go through an imp before I get my bottle. I NEED this. Now I have to try every single thing I missed in the catalogue, to see what else I am missing out on!

I've been trying to figure out how to review this for several days now! This is indeed the most viscous, thick oil I have ever tried. When applying it, it feels like sticky resin, as though it's an oil that has been aging for quite some time (though this is fresh, of course). It is a very familiar scent. A resiny smell that reminds me of a store I went to as a child with my mom that sold things like incense, yoga mats and beaded curtains. But it is such a subtle scent, on my skin....so faint I can barely smell it unless I put it right up to my nose, and then, ahhh....a nice, strong, resiny sticky dark dry cedar, maybe with a hint of true church frankincense. It's a bit like a darker version of Magus. A green wood, a thick cedary resin smoke snaking through a wooden chapen, overshadowed by evergreens and beds of fallen auburn needles. Gorgeous, and definitely a favorite though it is so faint on me that I will either have to slather it, locket it or find another way to disperse it. Perhaps a good one for an oil burner, since it seems very much like something that should be slowing filling a room with a dark but uplifting scent.

This was a generous frimp from a forumite! I really want to try all the Poe scents even though most of this series are floral, and florals don't agree with me (they give me headaches and my skin soaks them up almost instantly). However during spring and summer, I have much greater success rates with florals and can wear almost anything, if only for a short time before my skin drinks it up! (c'mon scent locket!) I didn't look at the notes in this before sniffing, and my first impressions are: jasmine, but very carefully balanced with other elements, so it doesn't overwhelm. A pretty jasmine, it reminds me of stepping outside at night when I was staying in California and I could smell all of the night-blooming flowers in the garden. This also has something very familiar, herbal and green mixed in with the bright, sparkling white florals. Jasmine has a....how do I say..."assy" quality to it, to me, but I seem to be able to tune it out in this blend. Looking at the description it all makes sense. That herbal scent is rosemary, which can become an overwhelming, eucalyptus-like scent when it goes wrong, but in this case it balances out the strong white florals very nicely. Again, I don't really care for many florals. I don't typically like night-blooming jasmine, and I openly dislike opium poppy -- it really ruins blends for me like nobody's business. BUT, this is a really gorgeous blend! None of the "always goes wrong" notes are going wrong! Maybe it's the warmth in the air and my current open mind about florals, or maybe it's the work of the gorgeous oakmoss, grounding it and giving it an earthy edge....or crypt musk, goodness, doesn't that sound exciting? The warm air really does wonders with this stuff. Along with The Perfumed Garden this goes on the very very short list of things that I can wear with jasmine or night-blooming jasmine in it. Thanks to the herbal rosemary, green/earthy oakmoss and the subtle warming/softening qualities of musk, this is rather happy on my skin.

Morella was one of the first BPAL scents I ever tried, as a frimp, two years ago...at the time I hadn't developed my sniffing abilities so I didn't know what was in it (though I could have checked on the site, eh?). I remember thinking that it was violet...and I had satisfied myself that it must be mostly violet. I still actually think that I smell violet but that must be a combination of the purpley-smelling iris and the soft, dusty orris. I definitely smell sage and I love the lab's sage. It is a lovely pale green aromatic herbal scent, really just like the scent of true sage, warming in the garden or drying in the sun. It is strong at first but quickly supplanted by that dusty/soapy violet scent. I do not like civet but I do not smell it here. I don't positively hate civet, but I'm not fond of it, because it tends to just stick to everything once I open it up and positively dominates a blend when it is heavy in it. Nope, I don't smell it. But sage and this violet iris/orris scent would evaporate very quickly without something to anchor it down and I guess that drop of civet must be helping to keep the blend together and help it to disperse and soak into the skin. So yay! Not really a sarada scent for general wear but I like it, and wouldn't mind putting it in, say, a shampoo or something...if I ever got around to doing things like that!

I expected something a bit more woody in this, but it's a golden, slightly lemony herbal with a soft, gentle sweetness about it and a creamy wooden base. Very light, buoyant and spring/summery. Light slanting through pale geen leaves, shedding a sweet golden light. It's got a bit of a cleansing sharp tang to it. As it dries, it becomes an indistinct, pleasant soft green scent. Faded slightly creamy fruit, a bit of a "cleaning fluid" sharpness and a grassy green base. Much lighter than I expected and much cleaner. A pleasant scent, though not one that I'd wear.

This has a soft, powdery honey combined with a fresh green herbal scent that is a faint echo of Honey Moon -- very faint, but the gentle powdered honey/pollen scent does match nicely with the aromatic, crisp green herbs. It is a lovely sunny scent and if your skin takes well to these sorts of scents this would be a very nice match. As it dries I get a faint hint of powdery rose starting to warm like a blush around the edges. This makes me think of a women with skin the color of pale honey, in a foamy, herb-infused bath with tropical plants and flowers blooming all around her. After it has dried down for awhile it smells a lot like the drydown of Persephone on me. A sweet, powdery rose with luscious pomegranate. I don't know where the pomegranate came from but this smells like it does when it dries down. Yep, that's the drydown of Persephone on me, alright. Isn't that strange?

I had a feeling I'd like this, and I didn't know why. It was an appealing concept and it's very bright, vibrant and sunny in the imp. I couldn't say exactly what was in it...if it's floral then it's a very crisp, fresh one. It really comes to life on my skin and blossoms, extending dewy tendrils and bright lemon-colored light. In a way it makes me think of a pale yellow version of Mantis. I also think of pale, crisp, broken stems. It doesn't exactly smell lemony but it makes me think of the color of pale, glowing lemon. Fainty fizzy citrus, as others have said...but with that strange pulpy stem scent. The bamboo pulp that was in Holiday Moon is the closest cousin to this, but this is a little more mellow. If I thought I'd wear this on a regular basis I'd get a bottle...as it is I anticipate sniffing it a lot in the warm weather, so I might go through an imp fairly quickly and need more, just from constant sniffing!

My first impression upon sniffing was that I thought of my reaction when I tried The Cracked Bell. It has that perfumey quality to it, with something underneath...something sparkling just at the corners. On my skin, it is very perfumey. It is rather like a classic perfume. I don't know which, since I've never dabbled in regular perfumes, but I think of the dresser where my grandmother collected her bottled perfumes when I smell it. Dry, bleached and floral, but very sophisticated...something you'd wear in a black dress to a formal event, that kind of thing. When it dries, the incensy notes do come out, again rather like The Cracked Bell but not nearly strong as that. Still light, faint, dry and blown around by the wind. Just the memory of incense that's been burning. Mostly a perfumey blend, but not a cloying floral. Nice for people who might be looking for something more classic or commercial in their BPAL arsenal. Not necessarily for me but I'm going to keep the imp around for the moment.

I knew from the name that I would love this....but oh, DO I love this. I love earthy scents. I love incense. I love dark, deep natural scents. Most of my favorite scents have patchouli or vetiver in them or at least smell like a big box of incense of some sort. Death Cap is just about perfect, but it is not your typical hippie dirt smell. I don't smell patchouli. If there is vetiver in this it is the sweetest one possible, very gentle, dark brown and sweet. Unlike Destroying Angel, which was a very airy, crystallized dirt smell along the lines of Graveyard Dirt (though I compared it to the Rat King), this would be something like G. Dirt taken a few notches stronger, deeper, sweeter, browner. And on my skin, WOW...this is an aromatic, smouldering mound of soft, sweet earthy incense. It is like soft blankets infused in years of sweet incense smoke. But again, nothing specifically leaps out at me in terms of champa or vetiver or anything. It reminds me of them but it is gentle and softly blended. A tiny bit spicy as well. I can see where the sweetness could be interpreted as something cookie-like. Overall it's practically the perfect blend for me. This is going to duke it out in the Top Ten...I think it will have a permanent position there for me. Thank goodness I bought a 5 ml on instinct. eta: This has got to have patchouli in it, right? Maybe I'm confusing it with the dirt smell. I can't imagine anything this earthy wouldn't have patchouli in it...anyway, this should be in my Top Five for all time... Oh, and drydown 12+ hours later? This amazed rich dark amber, on my skin. Like I actually rubbed a big resiny chunk of it on myself. Amazing.

I have to agree that the color of this oil is amazing, that deep murky olive green. Unique! The notes in this are almost a who's who of things that I like, except that I don't know what labdanum smells like on its own and I have had bad experiences with almost everything that contains saffron. It smells as murky as it looks, but not in a good way for my taste. This smells like some sort of chemical cologne to me, not pleasant at all. It is very masculine but in a dark, aftershavey kind of way. As I suspected, saffron is the key ingredient that messes up a blend for me and pairs with the woods that I would normally like to make them smell chemical, cologney and unpleasant. I didn't want to test it but tried a drop and it didn't do very nice things. I don't smell patchouli, I don't smell woods...just a very murky, plasticky hairspray-like scent that is heated up by a heady musk. The saffron does remind me of the sharp, bitter smell of saffron ice cream. But while I like to have that after Indian food for its cooling sweetness, I dislike the scent itself. This was nothing like what I expected and I'm glad I was wary of the saffron. A good masculine scent perhaps, or for someone who doesn't have the weird reaction to saffron that I do (though I like the note in Scherezade, go figure).

This is the only one of the imps that I got today that I don't plan to test on my skin because the second I opened it I recognized the smell that makes me ill in Darkness and Languor. It smells like some sort of chemical to me -- something that would be used in doing something to hair or nails, though I don't know what. Just a very strong, bitter, chemical scent that disagrees with me to the very core. I am glad to finally know the exact source of this smell and now I know to avoid opium and/or poppy, though it does work in a few blends here and there where I can't smell this chemical haze. I don't know if it would work on my skin because I just can't get close enough to it, to try it. I know that in the case of Darkness and Languor it didn't do anything good on my skin either. Chalk this one up to a learning experience!

I missed the list of notes when I first saw this, because of the long text passage...I didn't have any idea what to expect! In the imp: aquatic and minty, light, slightly fruity and refreshing. On my skin: mint tea!! Oh yes, this is a wonderful, fresh mint tea sipped in the shade at the edge of a pool in the summertime. The green apple must be what makes it so crisp and juicy, and the lime squish gives it a slightly bubbly, citrusy kick. The mint is the strongest element in it though, floating luxuriously over everything else -- I know tea isn't listed in it but I swear it smells like tea. The aquatic notes drift in the background, never too strong...just smells a bit like you are near some fresh, clean water. More like swimming pool water than an ocean/sea or even river water, though. I know scents like this don't last very long on me but I will try this in my locket when I get it. It would be great for the summer, very refreshing, and a nice surprise if you're like me and don't normally like aquatics. It's not overly minty either, so if things like Tulzscha were too much for you, it doesn't have that toothpastey mint quality.

I keep sniffing this and never quite know what to say -- most of my favorite ingredients are here: red musk (oh baby), patchouli and vetiver, the deep red/brown trinity of scents that I love, along with the unpredictable dragon's blood (I always like it on, but I NEVER feel like wearing it) and the always-disappointing-to-me cinnamon. Cinnamon can turn almost any scent to a spicy craft store potpourri on me, unfortunately. When I first put this on, it's another spicy dragon's blood scent like Serpent's Kiss, which is OK but I really don't find it appealing. The thin, high cinnamon note tapers off quickly though and the dragon's blood mixes nicely with the deeper, darker notes. Mmmm, there's the red musk. The sexiest scent on earth. The most deep red, sensual, rich incensy note in the BPAL arsenal, in my book. Made earthy and gritty by my old favorites, patchouli and vetiver ... though they really don't dominate, to me. Then again I can almost never get enough of either. It dries down with a return appearance of dragon's blood and cinnamon, and again I'm in a craft store and I'm not thrilled. That memory of the wild hot musk party lingers though....not enough for me to want more of this but maybe I'll kick the imp around. It would be a good sub for Telltale Heart once that goes out of production, I think!

This is an irresistable, can't-stop-sniffing scent though it's not necessarily an ideal perfume for me since my skin eats up stuff like this. First you get a sharp juicy slap of lemon-lime (heavy on the lime), followed by the sweet pale purple powderpuff of lilac, all strengthened by the invisible white musk that I can't really pick out but know must be working behind the scenes. Lilac is my favorite flower in its natural state, though as a perfume it veers a bit toward the scent of a lilac bathroom spray I am sure I have encountered at some point and becomes a bit too much like baby powder. Still, lilac and lime are a winning combination, a pale green and pale purple, springtime sort of scent. It fades so quickly on me I never really get to enjoy it and I know that it would probably smell like baby powder to most people around me. So I would have to put this on the long list of things I'd especially enjoy in a bath product or lotion of some sort if I could be bothered to mix some. Oh what a nice lotion this would be to put on before going to bed!

I like tea, I like fougeres, I like mint, I love blackcurrant, so of course I wanted to try this. Sniffing this in the imp, though, I can't smell a thing. Alright, let's try it on my wrists. It is almost like a pale cousin of Whitechapel, but without the powdery lilac. Very faint. Imagine Death on a Pale Horse if you couldn't smell it at all. As it warms a bit I get the slight tang of lime, like bubbles breaking on your nose as you drink a lemon-lime soda. Chilled, fresh, a faint clean lineny musk scent...reminding me a bit of Dirty, but with a twist of lime. A clean, musky citrus but too light even for a locket. The clean aspect actually becomes murky with wear, like bathwater you've been sitting in for too long. I guess this is not for me, but as always it was a pleasure to try.

The scents that I got around this time last year are what I'm reaching for now though I must say Mi-Go is a perfect scent for a warm spring day (which we are not having today, it's rather cold all of a sudden). I am expecting to use a lot of Spirits of the Dead, Unicorn and will dip back into Arachne soon as well.

Last I checked you're not supposed to use the Paypal option on CCNow, but I don't know what happens if you do. cuervosueno posted the correct Paypal address, which is also listed on the FAQ page of the Lab site. You can use the CCNow basket to figure out your total, then close out of it and log into Paypal separately to order, filling your order out in the Notes field, if you dont' want to use their credit card processor. As it states on the welcome page of the BPAL site: F YOU ARE PAYING VIA PAYPAL, please do NOT use our online credit card processor. Place your order through PayPal using the payment address paypal [at] blackphoenixalchemylab [dot] com and fill your order info in the comments field. The fact that they put "at" and "dot" in brackets to foil junk mail robots might be confusing though.

I chose a bottle of Fortunato and an imp of Montresor, and though I'm tempted to get more of this one I think I made the right choice for my tastes. This is very sweet and fruity, at first -- a hint of vanilla and a slight sour tang of wine. It reminds me a little of a fruity, medicinal syrup but it's softened by that hint of vanilla and made more sophisticated by a sharp green wine note. Very similar in theme to Fortunato, but sweeter and simpler. They become more similar at it dries...but then the oaken vanilla takes over as this one dries. It reminds me a bit like a fruity, sweet tobacco in the later stages, or the lingering smoke after someone has been smoking it. If I didn't have so bloody many bottles this would be a bottle purchase for me, but I have to try to pick and choose now so I am going to go with Fortunato for my fruity wine cellar! ETA: Yeah well I had to get a bottle eventually! This is really the perfect partner to Fortunato. Instead of being crisp and icy-green and stone-cold around the edges, with wine-soaked wood, it has a sweet but hard wooden core wreathed in that hint of smoke. Since I love wine scents, and I love fruit, wood, and certain kinds of "sweet smoke" scents, this one grew on me until I absolutely had to have more. For the love of God, Montresor!

First sniff of my imp: I want a bottle! Slightly woody, slightly sweet red musk (a perennial favorite of mine). Second sniff (on my wrist): Actually, it smells a lot like Great Sword of War, which I didn't care for after testing. Maybe I don't need it after all. Cocoa just...doesn't agree with me unless I'm actually eating it. Third sniff: No, wait, it's me after all. I get the luscious red musk, an earthy base, a soft, pulsating throb of dragon's blood and a touch of sweetness. I'm digging it. Fourth sniff: Well, no, now it kind of gives me a headache. Maybe I should use some of my other favorite red musk blends like Lust, before I buy more. Ultimately I think I'll stick with Lust, Fenris Wolf and Scherezade to scratch my red musk spot. But when this dries down it does have a touch of dragon's blood that they don't...at the end it reminds me the most of Dragon's Heart, which I used to have a bottle of but never used so I passed it on. It would be bottle-worthy if I didn't have so many others in this family. Maybe I'll weaken and get some before it goes away.

A lovely powdery lily steeped in ... possibly amber and a dark musk? Sweet and fresh -- when I say "powdery" I mean it in the best possible sense: shimmering, natural pollen. Unlike a lot of floral blends that contain lily, it does not give me a headache. Basically, if you subbed out the Lotus in Black Lotus for Lily, you might get something like this. I agree that it is slightly tart, and I'd say has an almost silky powdery quality. I don't think I'd use it very often but I like having an imp. I tend to think of Snow White as a lily scent and it would be my go-to choice for a succulent, crisp lily but I'm glad to have a sneak peek of this one!

Picked up some of this on LJ. I suspect this is one of the blends that Beth had mentioned would be coming up that includes aldehydes, because it smells distinctly like a sort of "perfume counter perfume" but without that nose-wrinkling alcohol harshness. I can't decide exactly why I think this is aldehydic except that it smells "perfumey," like static. As the high, crisp fizzy notes fade a sweet yellow floral takes over. It's as though someone made a commercial perfume that I could actually wear...smelling natural even though there's that high-pitched whine buzzing in the background. If BPAL was to design a mainstream fragrance with a dark aesthetic I would think this would be a likely candidate. I couldn't tell you the notes, but I'd suspect some white and/or yellow flowers, maybe some amber or ambergris, and a light musk -- possibly with a hint of some sort of pale herb. It's not really something I'd wear but I'm glad I got to try it out because my curiosity was driving me crazy!