scarletgenesis

Rich purple musk, moonflower, red sandalwood, black amber, oakmoss, copal, lavender, neroli, tobacco, and pomegranate. In the bottle and immediately upon application, Penumbra is a very dark herbal and woodsy scent. As it dries, though, some of the other notes start to soften it. The pomegranate makes an appearance with a sweet tartness (or maybe a tart sweetness, I can't decide). I am getting the sandalwood, amber, and purple musk all together as a soft, yet complex addition to the herbal base. There is a tiny tiny bit of floral that I can't place (must be the moonflower) which was the note I worried about here, but it's so faint on me that it doesn't bother me at all. All in all, Penumbra is a beautiful complex blend that, like many people I know seems rather harsh and dark at first, but once you get to know it/them, you find has a softness and sweetness that is completely endearing.

This starts off in the bottle as very crisp and juicy apples. Like the scent after you bite in and there is tons of juice just running down your arms. On my skin, it becomes very spicy, like a rich mulled cider with some added figgy and other goodies. A few hours later, the apple crispness returns to dance in the forest with the rich spice blend, which then bows out to allow the apple the chance for an encore. So gorgeous I wore it 3 days in a row, which I almost never do!

The thing that is particularly irritating about these responses is that none of them address WHY Paypal put these limits in. They're responding as if it was always this way or something. If BPAL goes to another system of payment because of this (I thought I heard that there was at least one other similar system out there), Paypal will lose alot of money in fees. Has anyone notified the Lab of this new development? As a company that does a LOT of business through Paypal, they might have better luck.

Um, has anyone else noticed that Paypal now only lets you put 300 characters in? For bigger orders, it will be impossible to get them all into the comments field. Am I the only one experiencing this?

Mort de Cesar Three Witches Samhain Pickled Imp Apparently the guys I work with (most of the compliments come from men at my work) like cinnamon and cloves alot! I'm happy about that because those are 4 of my very favorite blends!

Soooo nice. The blood orange is front and center here with a sweet and sharp scent. But the resins serve to kick up the complexity, and the lilac (my least favorite note in th blend) even adds to it with a tiny floral overtone. I am glad that the floral isn't overwhelming because I got this bottle for the ORANGE...and I got what I was hoping for in this blend. It is all at the same time very crisp and citrusy while maintaining its allure (thanks to the resins). Oh, and the amber didn't go powdery on me! Yeah! I hope the staying power on Maltese Cross is long because I want to be able to smell this on me for the whole day.

Since ginger works for nausea, I will have to try Shub (gingery goodness) next time I feel some coming.

On the up side, Scherezade is a red musk blend that is not horrible on me. Actually, on my skin its similar to Mme. Moriarty, though lighter. I get the red musk and lotttttttsssss of Middle Eastern Spices with a bit of smoky incense. No saffron though. Overall, it's nice enough, I suppose. Kinda goes weirdly spicey/powdery on me after a while. I may try wearing it in a scent locket or burning it as a room scent to see if I warm up to it more.

This smells like Dragon's Blood with a hint of honeyed vanilla and a whole lot of wine-soaked cherries.There is a hint of musk that keeps it from being too sweet. This should be glorious, right? Well it is.....for about 5 minutes. I don't know what it was, but Blood Kiss faded on me incredibly quickly, leaving only a memory. I am disappointed that it faded so quickly on my skin, because I could really love this.

In the decant: mostly honeyed peach with a little bit of cocoa. On skin: ohhhh yessss. This is an amazingly warm scent. The honey and peach give it a golden smell, and the cocoa darkens it a bit. As it dries, I get the tiniest floral, but very little which is fine with me. Also barely any patchouli coming out on this one. It has food notes without being a foody scent, and is really perfect and light for a summer comfort scent. I definitely have not smelled another BPAL like this and may need to end up with a bottle.

First off, I get the smell of the dry leather, dusty and cracking. Nutmeg makes an interesting and subtle appearance as well. Then...definite notes of beeswax and a very smoky smelling sandalwood mixed with some woodsy note that has to be the oak bark. I don't know what saltpeter smells like, and I don't get any pepper, but that's ok. There is a hint of floral undertone to this, which I think is a combination of the beeswax and sandalwood. This is a smoky, incensey, warm scent that is perfect for warm-weather wear. It is very Egyptian smelling to my nose, if that makes any sense. I am so creeped out by the whole Hand of Glory connotation that I don't know how often I would actually wear this, as much as I like the scent. So it's probably good I only got a decant of it, which I will definitely wear.

I don't like rose blends, so I got a decant of Pepper in the hopes that the other, non-floral notes would take center stage. Immediately on my skin, I get a fruity, gingery, pepper. This is REMARKABLY like Teenage Cannibal on my skin (which I like as a light, sweet, pick me up scent). Now it's several hours later and it has morphed to a light, floral vanilla. I do like this and am glad I got a decant and that it's not too floral. However, I have a bottle of Teenage Cannibal, so I can do without Pepper since they're so similar on my skin.

I don't know that I've tried any other scents with civet in them before this one. I tried this without checking the notes (it was a frimp with another order)....if I had checked the notes and seen the dreaded red musk of D00M, I would likely not have tested it at all. As red musk scents go, it's not bad on me. It certainly does not turn into the that most bpals with red musk do on my skin. The blend overall is incredibly heady and almost cloying with animalistic incense. Those alone would probably make me want to wear this to seduce my husband and stalk him like a great cat (ok, so I need to try out more civet based blends, apparently). Unfortunately, I think the red musk (hopefully not the civet) is making this give me a dusty headache, so I don't think I'll wear this one too much. Pity. Edited to add....this ended up giving me such a headache that I had to take a bath and vigorously scrub it off with my sandalwood soap, and then slather myself with TKO. Headache is now fading, thank goodness.

So all the notes in this (except maybe the apple blossom which I'm not sure I've worn before) should have worked wonderfully on my skin. In the bottle, and on first application, this is like a smoky, nutty caramel, similar to Red Lantern and/or MVJBA. Yum! Within about 10 minutes, it started to morph, and morph, and morph. My skin chemistry turned it into some sort of unpleasant hairspray, fruit salad, vinegar combination that frightened me and kicked my sinuses into high gear. It seems to be calming down some now, and I get the caramel again, and the honey, and perhaps the amber. But if the previous morphology remains underneath it all, I will have to sadly put this one aside. I'll give it a bit longer to see if the ickyness stays or goes away. I want this to be gorgeous, but perhaps apple blossom is a bitter enemy of my skin? Time will tell.

In the bottle, I could barely smell Inez at all...the same once I first applied it. I was actually wondering if there was something wrong with either the blend or my nose (I'm a little stuffy today). But after about 20 minutes, things started to emerge....first it was undenyably the woodsy cedar, then the amber, and a little later I got something slightly sweet and almost caramel-like. I'm guessing that last one is the vanilla musk, which is like sweet and sexy skin. I would like to get more of the carnation, but there is a slight spicyness now so perhaps it will come out more as I wear this intriguing blend. I also have some Inez in my scent locket and I have to say that this blend is much better and more complex when interacting with my skin chemistry. A lovely winner!

Beth and the lab staff have managed a near perfect blending of clove and cinnamon with Pickled Imp. Neither of these two notes stand out over the other; rather, they work wonderfully well together. Those are definitely the two promenant notes here.... but after a while......hey! Hi there vanilla! You do interesting things to the clove note...things I rather like. and further on into the future....hmmmm...is that pipe tobacco? Lovely rich pipe tobacco (checks notes)....Ok so no pipe tobacco here, but that's what I'm getting. It must just be the rich scent that the clove and vanilla create together, mixed with the tiniest hint of sap (glad it's not overpowering, but it adds some complexity to what is a gloriously simple blend) This reminds me a bit of Three Witches, but less baked-goodsy. So glad I just got a bottle of this right off the bat, because it is absolutely wonderful.

I was incredibly wary of trying the Ifrit, because it contains the dreaded red musk (cue menacing music)....but I love most of the other notes so it at least deserved a try. Thankfully, the red musk pretty much behaves itself. I get mostly a nice incense blend, with the dragon's blood adding a resiny sweetness. The cinnamon also comes out as an individual note. I agree with previous posters that this would work very well as a hot-weather blend. I will not need a bottle of this, because I have other incense blends I like even more, but this is quite nice.

I am incredibly thankful that a forumite swapped this to me. It LOVES me. Mmmmmm......in the bottle and especially when first applied, Three Witches is like warm spice cookies. It's got a vanilla-dough quality in with all the spices for sure. After drydown, the cinnamon and pepper pop out alot. The clove is there, but it's very light. This has similar qualities to Samhain (but Three Witches is spicier and without the smokiness) and Mort de Cesar (but Mort has alot more noticible clove and is much darker). Those are 2 of my favorites so this is definitely up there as well. I love the Three Witches from Macbeth and am so glad this blend is wonderful on me. I am surprised at how non-sinister this particular fragrance is, but it's so lovely that I don't mind at all.

I love amber, but it sometimes goes powdery on me. So far it hasn't done so in this blend. I get a spicy, dusty (probably from the amber), herbal floral. I'm not normally big on most florals, but the spices in Mr. Jacquel manage to temper the floral into just another lovely component. This is a great blend, but I wish it had more throw and longer wear on me. I didn't apply it as many places as normal, since I'm testing, but even on my wrists and cleavage, it is fading fast after an hour and a half. I think that I can live without a bottle of this, though I'm glad for the imp. Ok, so I tried this again and have changed my mind...here is part 2: Glorious Egyptian blend! This sucker may be bottle worthy. I'm not sure what hyssop smells like by itself, but that's ok with me, b/c everything else here is wonderful. The patchouli, thankfully, doesn't smell dirty, like patchouli often does on me. Instead, it's just very rich and herbal. Spice-wise, I am getting cinnamon and something peppery. There is actually an oily resin in here, which might be the amber, and I 'think' the hyssop is lending a very faint floral overtone to the spices, but it's just a hint. Very glad I got a decant of this, and it makes me feel incredibly ritualistic.

I love love love chai with fresh cardamom. I am not a huge fan of lots of floral smells. Thankfully, Mama-ji is behaving herself on my skin. It's exactly like really wonderfully fresh chai, with extra spices added to make it more rich and robust. Not a flower in sight (or in smell). So it's wonderful and sexy and comforting all at once. And I am going to make a cup of chai now because I am craving it after sniffing myself so much!

Incredibly smooth patchouli is the dominant note at first. It's not at all head-shoppy, much more dark and herbal. I get a tiny amount of violet later, but no sweetness that I'd usually associate with violets or currant for that matter. After a few hours, this is primarilly the smell I'd associate with a deep, dark, wet forest. I definitely also get the moss and the patchouli root is still giving this incredibly smooth and complex forest-herb smell. I like it better as I wear it! It's not remotely what I expected, but it is pretty great just the same.

This was uber strong when I put it on at first. It reminded me alot of a slightly lighter version of El Dia De Reyes. My husband came in and said 'something smells like caramel' That would be me, my dear. That would be me. After a short time, the scent settles down into a lovely salty caramel corn yummyness. It's actually alot less sweet than El Dia De Reyes, which is good, b/c that one is a bit TOO much to wear often. I am not much of a fan of baseball, but if I go to any games for any reason, this will be the scent to wear! Perfect execution of the concept!

In the bottle and on skin.....parchment soaked in rum? Hmmmmm...At first and for a while, I seriously get some major booziness. Like maybe someone fell asleep reading because they'd had too much to drink. Not bad, but not what I expected or wanted. Ahhhh nowwwwww about an hour later, the booziness is morphing into some seriously deep tobacco and incense, which mixed with the paper note gives this blend a majorly ancient smell. I do get a hint of leather....very dusty leather, but it's more in the background. Leather is coming out more in the scent from my Monas locket than on my skin. I want to slather this and dig through an archive now.

Hey there leather...how about letting your friends play too? This is a glorious smoky leather, with some wood coming through. I might get just a hint of florals, but no amber, honey, or berries, which is a bit disappointing. It is certainly a naughty blend. This is really lovely, but alot like Crowley to me. Incredibly sexy and unisex. I wish I got the amber, honey, and berries though.

Guh. In the bottle I'm getting cinnamon and cloves, neither of which is listed in the notes for this blend (but I don't care, because I love them). Once on, this is like thinned out motor oil and leather that's been drenched in spices. I still get cinnamon and cloves, but the anise and frankincense might be in there a bit as well.... This actually reminds me of a lighter version of Mort de Cesar..... Friggen gorgeous on me. Not exactly what I expected, but O.M.G...so beautiful and sexy. It would be fantastic on a man as well, but since my husband doesn't do scented stuff, this bottle is allllll minnnnneeeeee. Makes me want to prowl around, pose for sexy photos, and stalk around the house in jeans and 3 inch heels. Yummy. I'm pretty sure this just jumped into my top 5. Definitely top 10.