sarada

If I didn't know anything about BPAL and I was presented a vial of perfume marked "Blood" that was this delicious dark red radiant color I would immediately be in love. While dragon's blood scents only rarely win their way into regular rotation for me, the fact that it's paired with clove instead of cinnamon really makes this blend work.

 

This is the closest to an almost pure clove incense scent in the lab's repertoire and I'm seriously considering a bottle just so I can get that clove scent to surround me without having to cross the border to PA to buy a pack of them (which I wouldn't smoke anyway, but ... I like the scent a lot).

 

Dragon's blood, while present early on my skin, gives way to a dusty dark clove, very much like the Airs clove incense that they used to sell a long, long time ago (10 years or so). This is almost exactly like what I remember of that, on the drydown. Myrrh doesn't always work on me. Neither does dragon's blood. And I really don't like cherry most of the time. But they all bow down and make way for that smoky spiciness and it comes out on top.

 

If you're looking for the definitive clove scent, give this a try. Some day I might need to lay in a supply of this one.

With such a wide variety of components -- sweet, floral, resiny, herbal, boozy -- I had no idea what direction this would go. The direction it took is gorgeous, though, and it's going to take me a few wearings to make sense of it!

 

I'm immediately overwhelmed with that gorgeous honey wine scent. A touch of a fruity booze -- rather like Fortunato in concept, in the way that these notes are all suspended, retaining their individuality -- but the honey and thyme definitely remind me a bit of Honey Moon. Meanwhilte that boozy scent and the ivy remind me of those elements in Fortunato.

 

I don't specifically smell the frankincense or copal, which are favorite notes of mine, but the way that the blend warms and radiates belies their presence. If it was only honey, herbs and mead then it would probably dry up to something powdery and light almost immediately. But I think the resins cause it to stick around and help it to project and last on me.

 

The honey-thyme combination is so appealing to me, that that alone would win me over to this blend. But add in those complex resins and the green ivy and oak and this is just heavenly. I don't know how long it will last on me because I'm testing so many things today...but my first impression is just absolute love. I don't know if I'd wear it outside of spring, summer or early autumn but I can see giving this a lot of wear up through October.

This is the other of the Salon scents that screamed my name. Having recently tried the Redwood single note (which is the perfect fresh-cut forest wood scent for me), previously tried the Frankincense note and generally loving any kind of sandalwood or tobacco, I could just cry with joy for reading the notes in this blend.

 

In the bottle: strong woods, but light-colored woods, rather like an amped-up Yggdrasil with a bit of Penitence thrown in. The wood is so vivid and real, it really smells like you have your nose pressed to a tree. On my skin, a spicy frankincense develops, while the reddish woods linger in the background. I'm walking through a forest of tall redwoods, my bare feet sinking into a bed of dried pine needles, while swinging a censer of frankincense to and fro.

 

This is pretty much a perfect blend for someone who loves very true-to-life wood smells, and resins. I couldn't ask for anything more. I can't believe this is actually in the catalogue and I can get it whenever I need it! This is the fresh wood scent I've been dreaming of.

 

 

This fragrance is a who's who of everything that I like, with the exception of leather, so I had to get it, whatever the cost!

 

This is a mellow, soft, leathery wooden scent with a gentle dusting of moss and a scattering of incense ash. Initially I think of what leather would smell like if it had been soaking up nag champa incense for decades, but there is also a breath of something very earthy and dark green, wafting in from outside. This doesn't smell like anything else I've tried BPAL-wise...I thought it would wind up being a bit like the King of Clubs, but it's not at all. That was very earthy-sweet and this is sort of leathery-green-incense, morphing from dark green to amber as it wears.

 

Ginger and white pepper prop it up slightly and keep the darker notes from closing in on themselves. The dark green moss, earthy brown notes, vivid champaca and soft leather all hang suspended around those high, lighter notes of pale amber and dusty white.

 

The overall effect when I step back from it, is the scent that comes off of one of my giant boxes of mixed packs of incense. There's the champa, strong and soft as always, and gritty hints of the other earthy fragrances but it's such a well-blended melange of soft, wild, appealing scents. I'd say it's a cousin of Geek, but other than that it's quite unique and I'm so glad that I took a chance on a whole bottle!

 

edited to add image - clover

I didn't order this because florals don't do anything on me except disappear -- and I'm not into pink things, so I waited awhile to get a decant.

Wonder of wonders though, there is one pink flower that I like, and it is rose -- and this smells like a very very soft pink rose with touches of greenery. It it fresh, damp and tender.

Peonies are my mom's favorite flowers and her yard is full of them. However, I never found them to have a strong smell. I buried my nose in them this spring hoping to be able to tell what Peony Moon might smell like, but all I got was a nose full of water...and ants.

If peony essence smells like a perfect fresh wet tender pink-green rosebud, though, I'm totally there. Unfortunately it dies on my skin almost immediately and gets a bit of baby powder scent in it as well. I think it would work better in a locket, so I will happily use it on rainy, springlike days when I need a nice wet pink slap on the face to get me motivated.

Surprisingly lovely, even for someone with flower-eating skin like me. I'm glad to have a decant.

I've wanted to try this since it first came out, because I love dirt and moss scents, but I'm not so sure about the boozy or floral notes.

 

I'm glad that I did though because this is lovely -- a bit cloying at first, with the floral notes really at the forefront, as thick and sweet as if they were filling the air on an oppressively humid day.

 

But the slightly sour wine notes (it's not boozy so much as winey on me), combined with the loamy soil and fragrant moss, really remind me a lot of Nosferatu. It's not as sour as Nosferatu and the moss is somewhat eclipsed by the sweet, almost fruity floral blooms, but my skin insists on making this morph into a Nosferatu-like scent.

 

It still stays a little bit too perfumey for me to want to wear this all the the time, but it's a surprising variation on the dirt/moss theme that I love so much. I've never been to New Orleans and have only driven through Louisiana once so I can't say that this conjures up any memories for me, but a humid, sticky warm summer day in a New Jersey cemetery doesn't smell too far off from this if I use my imagination. And on a humid, rainy day like today it really cuts through the thick, murky air with the sharp, white incisive bite of gardenia and almost rose-like Spanish moss...but stays grounded in sweet, soft, gritty earth doused with wine.

Hard to believe it took over two years before I came across an imp of this older blend -- I wasn't particularly interested in trying it, but I do like the Wicked Witch associations it conjures up and I just got a copy of the book "Wicked" so maybe I'll wear this while reading it.

 

In the imp, it's a very ... yes, acrid is the word, jasmine. Kind of offputting, I'm not too fond of it. But I tried it on, and it's a warm, humid day, which is the kind of day that I expect florals to really fill the air around me with a thick, heavy, cloying scent. That's not a bad thing really, I normally can't even smell florals.

 

It becomes a little bit better on. The rose slowly strengths, and I like the way it mixes with myrrh. The jasmine does its usual unpleasant things...it starts out acrid and then gets an almost sweet, grainy quality to it. It dries down a pleasant memory of myrrh and a powdery dust of rose.

 

It wasn't as bad as it smelled in the imp but it's still not the kind of thing I'd wear. I might keep it around for that book though. And it never hurts to have some heady florals around for the odd summer night now and then.

Tweedledum is my favorite that I've tried of the new MTP scents but I'm not quite sure how to describe it. As a color, it's orange and green in my mind, not too surprisingly -- the mango and green tea play off each other nicely. As someone else stated, it reminds me of a sort of Pier 1 candle scent, but without that artificial, waxy smell.

 

At first it's mostly mango and tea with a bit more strength and earthiness to it than such a light scent would normally have. I chalk that up to the patchouli though I don't really smell it. Gradually the fig starts to chime in, a very distinct, gritty and slightly sweet scent.

 

I don't see where I'd wear it a whole lot but it's definitely a unique scent in the lab's arsenal and would work well for anyone who likes that fruity candle sort of scent. Good room scent too perhaps? Nice pairing for Tweedledee. I'll definitely try to wear it around this summer and see if it grows on me even more.

A lot of my favorite notes are in this one -- except cherry, which I don't care for, but I'm ready to try anything.

 

In the imp, lavender and cherry. A very sharp, astringent lavender. The cherry fades very quickly on my skin and what I think is rosewood comes out a bit more. It goes through an amazing stage where it resembles Dee or Old Scratch (the rosewood in Dee, the musky lavender of OS) briefly then dies down a bit, becomes a bit like soap and a faint swirl of lavender incense smoke.

 

I really love red musk and rose but I smell neither in here, and the oil is clear, whereas red musk always lends a deep, rich blood-colored tone to most oils so I'm a bit surprised by that.

 

Ultimately I think I'm set with Old Scratch as my smoky, musky lavender scent but this is a nice one to keep in the arsenal. It makes me feel like my mind is clearing and focusing ... must be the lavender. I feel like I could really get things done wearing this, freshly scrubbed, well-rested and ready to go.

Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood.

 

This was very faint in the imp...almost didn't notice it. Who's that little mousy in the corner? Oh don't mind him, he won't be any trouble.

 

This went on very light, with the sweet pea at the forefront, and I thought it was very much similar to the other sweet pea blends in the catalogue, though I haven't kept any...it's a unique and pleasant fragrance even if it's not my typical type of scent.

 

But then it goes NUTS on me and becomes incredibly strong and wafts up in the air around me. It's still soft and mournful, sweet pea is still strong, but it gets an almost incensy quality to it. Call me crazy but for a moment here it makes me think of nag champa. I think that it's the sandalwood coming to life on my skin, along with the sweetness of amber and vanilla.

 

Although I'm still not a sweet pea wearer in a big way, this is really surprising and a nice, unique little blend. I have a feeling that people passing by me when I'm wearing this might identify it as incense or nag champa because that's what my skin does to everything. I don't know if other people would amp that quality quite as much as I do.

This doesn't last very long on me, but while it does it's boisterous, joyous and effervescent. It smells like a lemon-lime soda of some sort. Sprite or something. Synaesthetically, for me it's yellow (lemon yellow) and blue (a bright, electric blue). Complements Tweedledum very nicely and I think as long as I have one, I will want to have the other!

 

I don't wear things that are this citrusy very much because they don't last on me, but it might work in a locket or as a quick cool-down splash in hot weather.

I immediately started drooling when I read the brief note description of this and knew I should have just ordered a bottle unsniffed. I love amber, though I prefer it very deep and thick, sweet, resiny and rich. I love "dark fruits" if that means things like plum, pomegranate and purple or red berries.

 

When I got a sneak sniff of this a little over a month ago it struck me as somewhat lighter and more pale gold and perfumey than I had expected, since I was thinking of something that would be intense like Blood Countess.

 

But now that I have an imp, I'm going to go through it within a week I think because I can't stop drenching myself in it! These are some of the best ingredients in the world for my particular chemistry. Amber, when it works, is long-lasting, radiant, golden, and slightly sweet and the fruits are a luscious ruby and purple bouquet, just tart enough that the scent explodes like bubbles fizzing at your nose when you go to sip a freshly-poured glass of soda.

 

It dries into a lasting, radiantly sweet resiny-fruity scent, though still much lighter than I expected. I like it anyway though. I like it a lot. This will be a bottle for sure, as I can't stop using the imp. I love it on my skin, where it positively comes to life, and I love it in a locket, where it stays at a slightly paler and lighter tone throughout the day, but lasts even longer. I wish I'd just taken a chance on a bottle all at once!

When I first sniffed this at a meet 'n sniff over a month ago I thought I caught a stronger whiff of dragon's blood, and overall I thought for a moment that it might be a bit like Red Moon. Now that I got a bottle though it smells just like Holiday Moon to me, as others have observed.

 

I tested it once and the effect was similar -- the tart, green pulpy stem scent of bamboo perhaps spiked with a bit of tea leaf but I don't get any of the other notes. It doesn't dry down to dragon's blood or sandalwood on me either, but side by side with Holiday Moon this has a slightly warmer glow, and slightly less crisp and raw.

 

I think that I'm set for that kind of scent with Holiday Moon though...I'll save my dragon's blood and sandalwood cravings for whenever I try Dragon's Claw. Darn, I was hoping this would work a little better on me!

Foody (sweet/baked good) scents are the one thing that I avoid like the plague...somehow it's usually nauseating to me unless there's actual food backing it up. However, I love currant and have had good luck with some of the lab's vanilla blends so it seemed a better fit for me than the ambiguous Drink Me.

 

In the imp, I do get a hint of the dreaded buttery smell that makes me feel sick, but I don't actually feel sick this time. It's not a strong enough component or maybe I'm just used to it by now. I don't really smell currant but it's a pleasant, soft cakey smell rather than an overwhelming, stomach-churning one.

 

On my skin it becomes quite nice. I don't specifically smell currant but the fact that I like this is probably because it's in there somewhere, adding that tart berry touch. When it dries down it smells just like the drydown of Snake Oil, minus the spices. Must be the vanilla.

 

Still not my kind of scent but if I was in one of those rare moods for something like Snake Oil I could go for this. There might be some hope that some of the foody blends are becoming a bit more soft and mellow for folks like me, who have really bad reactions to the butter and strong, sweet scents. I think I'll keep this around!

I tried this one a long time ago and it didn't make a huge impression on me, but in trying it again -- after two years of constant sniffing -- I am in awe of the gentle beauty of this blend. It's a shame that notes aren't listed because I think a lot more people would try it if they knew what to expect.

 

My first impression is: frankincense. But a soft frankincense, with a touch of floral underneath. Like Arcana without the sharp herbs, in a way. Or a very faded Penitence or Cathedral, with a powdery layer of florals just beneath.

 

There might be a hint of a faint vanilla as in Antique Lace, but that blend had a very harsh, chemical phase to me and this is just very soft and natural.

 

A wonderful resiny scent but not too strong or churchy -- if you don't normally like resins this might still work for you. Whatever this sweet creamy floral bouquet is, behind the radiant resins, is just gorgeous. It's a soft, warm, glowing, comforting light.

 

A lot of people mention sandalwood and that could very well be in there as well. Sandalwood often gives things a dusty, powdery quality and I get that in the drydown as well. So I'm going to say: frankincense, white (?) sandalwood and some sort of gorgeous faint florals, maybe with a touch of vanilla, I'm not sure. I even think I get a quick hit of pepper for a moment there but frankincense is often "peppery" on me.

 

I think this is going on the short list for big bottles that I will eventually want to get. It's been in the catalog for awhile but hasn't gotten a lot of reviews...so please try this one out!

I'm reviewing this before testing it's efficacy because I'm so impressed with the smell -- and I'd better write that down before the review turns into a Penthouse letter. At any rate I only plan on wearing this around the mate, just in case.

 

It smells very minty in the imp (I got a decant) -- very minty. I like mint, and people tend to be attracted to it, so that's a good thing. On my hands, it smells a lot like Spellbound. A lot! And the color of the oil suggests red musk, one of my favorite notes of all.

 

I'd say that red musk, rose and peppermint are probably all ingredients in this -- definitely very much like a minty Spellbound. That, in my experience, has been a scent that men like. I always got a lot of comments when I wore it, or anything with red musk in it really. So I can definitely see this as being an oil that could draw people in and excite them.

 

I'm not close enough to the boy for him to smell it yet but like I said, I just wanted to get my first impressions down. I am going to be very careful not to wear it outside of the house!

It doesn't have a lot of staying power, but Szepasszony feels wonderful to me in hot/humid weather. I bet if I added it to an odorless shampoo or body splash or something like that, it would really help to make the scent stick around and lend its cooling quality.

 

I can't wear BPAL on summer days that I'm outside because I have to wear so much sunblock and bugspray to go out! There's no point in pleasant fragrance that is going to get buried under that stuff...because even the odorless kind does have a particular smell. Sigh. I spend most of my time indoors in air conditioning so I bring them with me to work to enjoy in that environment.

Aeval contains: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka.

 

No patchouli listed and to me it smelled mostly like sweetpea...i.e. a very sweet, slightly fruity, slighty cloying dewy floral.

 

URD is definitely the ultimate headshop scent I think!

 

Anything containing red musk has a bit of that hippie vibe in it too in an incensy kind of way (not patchouli, not vetiver, not champa, but just something rich and deep red, musky and sultry). Lust, Scherezade, Fenris Wolf and Spellbound are all good red musk scents....

 

but then again hippie scents are my favorite so I kind of over-scrutinize them!

URD! Uuuuurrrrrd! It's the ultimate nag champa hippie store scent and it's my favorite!

 

Hellion is very similar if you can find it.

 

I thought Death Cap was wonderfully earthy in a sweet, incensy kind of way. That's another favorite.

 

Anne Bonny has already been mentioned of course but yeah, that too!

I actually find Mantis is my favorite grassy blend although I'm not sure why it comes across that way. Maybe it's because the first imp I got was bright green!

 

Despite the amber and patchouli, there are green, green grassy herbs in it and it's just my favorite summery fresh green scent.

Tried this on a day I'm going to the shore (not a common occurence despite being in NJ...I'm just not into the shore). I like it in the imp, it's very fresh and clean, with just a touch of almost liilac-like sweetness to it. I'm interpreting it as slightly floral, a pale pale clear purple water color in my mind when I sniff it.

 

I think the leather in Severin is in this, strangely light and sweet at first but it warms over time and becomes a bit more gruff and stubbly. Arrrr. I loathe rum but I don't specifically smell it. This is a clear, clean, salty scent.

 

And although I don't like aquatics it's closer to what I would like than most. It does not smell like men's cologne, it smells natural. All that said though it makes me feel a little seasick. It might be fun to keep around, but I think I'm going to have to put on something else...

I had a craving for strong amber today and since I don't have Haunted anymore I remembered that Iago was very similar to my nose. But for some reason I thought this was an amber blend...

 

As it turns out, it smells a lot like Haunted to me anyway, maybe the musk is the same. In fact, maybe it was the musk that dominated in the other blend as well and I mistook it for amber. It's strong, but thin and golden to my nose.

 

I love vetiver but I don't smell it in this really. Vetiver is a dark earthy sweetness and it comes out marvellously on my skin, but I don't get anything like that until well into the drydown. I also don't get the leather, which actually tends to work well on me. A surprising scent, not really how I imagined it at all. I'd say this is a slightly stronger Haunted to my nose.

 

I thought I liked dark musk but it does this thing that civet does (though they smell NOTHING alike!!) where it it is a little thin and high-pitched and just seems to get all over everything and overpowers the other scents. If I could find a batch of this where there was more vetiver and leather, we'd be in business.

In the bottle: Oh, this is a fresh spring day, alright! I already have the window open and the smell of new growth and flowers drifting in, and this scent perfectly complements them.

 

A little bit of Dublin, a little bit of Dorian. It's got the fresh, crisp tender budding scent from Dublin, but the musky, slightly lemony sweetness of Dorian. This is gorgeous. I don't mind the powdery notes at all -- it's a bit like what you might get from something with apple blossom in it.

 

Sunshine pouring over green grass, in a field of dandelion fluff and clover. There's still a bit of chill in the air in the shade so you snuggle deeper into a soft white shawl or sweater. The sugar-dusted lemon fades to a soft, downy musk brushed with spring flowers.

 

It's not overly floral and it's not overly powdery. I'd say that it's mainly a gentle, sweet white musk touched by lemon drops and pale spring blossoms. This will be the first bottle beginning with the letter "E" that I think I'll keep in my collection! It's really gorgeous and definitely makes the conceptual leap between Dublin and Dorian that I was hoping for.

 

Perfect spring blend...I am so glad I got it when the weather is perfect for it!

I always swore I wouldn't use the word "lemony" in a review if I could avoid but but I just don't know what else to say!

 

I have not been able to try Kyphi incense but I'd really love to, despite the slightly "ugh" feeling I get when I think about the combined scent of sticky-sweet honey, raisins and wine with my beloved resins.

 

The strong dark lemon-honey scent is a bit too foody for my tastes, reminding me more of a cup of herbal tea that you'd have to choke down when you're sick (I'm not a lemon-honey fan, you see). But, no, I think I can see where there's a sharp sinus-clearing note in there that is almost like camphor or mint as well.

 

There's a bit of a spicy wood scent that could be myrrh or it could just be a wood like cedar combined with some gentle spices.

 

It is a bit more incensy as it dries but that lemony (I said it again!) note is just so strong...I'm also reminded of a lemon balm rub that I used from time to time for muscular aches. Lemongrass perhaps.

 

Despite the fact that everyone who passes by me will probably just smell that sharp lemony note, I do like to sniff this as it evolves. It is strong, which is a big plus for me, and as I wear it I think that my resin-friendly skin brings out more of the sweet resiny-woody scents rather than that lemon note. Honey tends to also be a note that plays well with others on me, though I rarely seek it out because of its sweet and foody connotations.

 

If this was darker and smokier, more like incense, I would be all over it. But as it is, about a half-hour into wear it is really nice on me and I'll definitely keep some around.

I'm at a loss to describe this one aside from slightly spicy and musky floral. I've been describing a lot of these scents similarly and they do have a lot in common: there are some that are spicy, slightly woody and musky and others are soapy florals. But they all do have their own individual signature and I can tell them apart by scent pretty easily.

 

This is another that gets stronger with wear and the cinnamony spice comes out a bit more. After a shower it's still pretty strong on my wrist though indistinct as far as fragrance goes. Not as striking of a fragrance as, say, Nahemoth was, but probably in the same general family of scents as far as being a strong, spicy and slightly musky floral.