Ms. MSGirl

Eclipse is like the greatest lipgloss *ever.* It's juicy and sweet and almondy to the max, yet with the complexity of the cinnamon and florals and just the lightest touch of resin to round it out. I want to smear it all over myself. Interestingly, this smells very *smart* to me. Like an almondy candy flavored lipgloss, but an extremely smart one. It just has a vibe of coolness and intelligence and chill hipness along with the sweetness that is very, very, very appealing to me. Yay! I knew I would love this one!!

This is lovely, light orange with a sweetness to it. I have to sniff really hard to smell it on my skin, even though I just spilled my entire imp's ear on me -- I have to get another one or a big bottle, though, cause this is so beautiful that I just want to keep putting it on again and again despite its lightness! It develops beautifully on my skin, though, getting more orangey and more complex and more intense as it dries. Reminds me of the French countryside...

this one is SO changeable! Out of the vial, it smells to me exactly like Estee Lauder's "Youth Dew," which my grandmother used to wear -- a super-old-school, posh, classical perfume smell, only it is unmistakably richer and spicier than Youth Dew. And then once I put it on, it is initially very spicy. It quickly dries down, however, to a baby powder or baby powder-scented deoderant smell, although still spicy underneath so it's more complex -- this reminds me of an awesome bath bomb, the softness of the sodium bicarbonate with the sharpness of the flowers and oils inside. I smell jasmine, apple, other things I wish I could name! It's like the smell that hits you when you first walk into a Lush shop, a smell I have never found to be equaled by any 1 product in there before, so I am absolutely thrilled! Powders and soaps and oils and lotions and shampoos, this is chock full of organic essential oil-y goodness. I think I love it, unexpectedly. It's very chaotic on me, powdery and spicy in a less feminine way than Othello -- may even be interesting on a guy. It's really interesting and cool, though, one I can see using as a room scent, a dryer sheet scent, a bath bomb scent, etc.

Seraphim is lovely! I am getting a similar blend of notes to that in Queen of Hearts, but I like this SO much better -- it is lighter, sweeter, whiter, and younger. The sweetness of the lily peeks out around the crisp dryness of the sandalwood -- and the more this dries down on me, the sweeter it seems to get. I really love it; this will become a mainstay.

Hooray for the first day it's been beautiful and bright enough to wear this!! In the vial, this was a sweet juicy pure grapefruit. When I first dabbed it on, I worried for 1 second that it was going to do what Rosalind did on me and turn all Pledge-y, but my worries immediately disappeared as a crisp, dry floral tinged with tea took over -- almost like the drydown of Queen Mab, only citrussy. I can't really smell any of the juiciness of the grapefruit any more, and I never got any of the apple blossom unfortunately. What remains, though, is a super-clean dry floral scent -- very complex, actually, for so light a scent. In the future I may wear this with honey, apple blossom, or grapefruit single note oils to sweeten and fruiten (fruiten?) it up. It's really ingenious on its own, though!

ENVY is my new scent for focusing, calming, getting to work, waking up, going to sleep, and just generally clearing everything bad or chaotic out from my room and body and life and making myself the productive, calm girl I would like to be all the time! The lavender and mint and even the green herbs on the drydown are just the ticket. I'm so amazed, I wasn't even going to try it, but it is like some kind of magical mental medicine on me. I might have to order a big bottle to get me through grad school!

This is really nice, really complex and interesting, more than almost any other BPAL scent I've tried it's not all one thing or all another. It's very sweet and almondy, wet, a very strong cherry/amaretto flavor, but not sour or chemically or weird at all in any way. Just juicy and good. Then as it dries, I can also smell the polished wood, it takes on a slightly dusty tone but again not musty or dirty smelling at all. I think the plum and currant are really giving it a tartness that keeps it from veering into the sickly, tickly sweet category, though it teases and flirts with that line for all it's worth, and in some people's opinion it might cross over, but not in mine! I think I just need a fruity note in any scent to add that tartness. Strangely, (or maybe not so strangely considering this is Elizabeth's miraculous, uncanny creation) this actually does remind me of the personalilties of a few of the sex workers I've met and come to be friends with in various walks of life -- a very flirty and cloying veneer over a core of incredible strength and warmth and sweetness. A scent that is fun and carefree and big-hearted all at the same time. Edited to say, I wore this to a huge, boozy, sweaty dance party, and it really held its own, it was still on my skin at the end of the night, which was really amazing. It was just about the perfect going-out scent. Once I use up my vials of my other very sweet and strong going-out scents, like Old Kyoto, etc., I might look into a big bottle of this one for parties!!

YES!! A version of Black Phoenix that I can actually wear and love!! This was the first thing that came into my mind when I sniffed Old Kyoto for the first time -- there's something nutty and incensey about the drydown of Black Phoenix that I just can't tolerate, and this is all the sweet cherry/almondy goodness and sassy spice of that scent, but juicy and fruity throughout the wearing period! Will most definitely be a clubbing/party/going out scent for me, I will douse myself in this one and just smell the entire place up with yumminess!

This is yet another absolute favorite from Beth -- it's beautiful!! Something, maybe the plum or the currant or the jasmine, reminds me of the perfume I LOVE, Kitsune-tsuki, it's just sweet in that juicy, fruity-and-floral kind of way. It's more grown up and sophisticated by far than Kitsune-tsuki, though, I definitely second the lush, mature, red bloom image that others are getting from this. It is, in a phrase I've heard people use to describe other BPAL scents but which sticks the most to this one in my opinion, "what department store perfumes TRY to smell like and fail miserably!" Someone who wears designer perfumes would be an instant BPAL convert if she tried this most of all. It smells _expenisve_ in a classy, classic way, without being weird or fussy or powdery at all, just RED and juicy. I adore this one!!!!! Edited to add: the drydown on this one is something absolutely exquisite on me, I only wish that I knew what it was!!!! I don't know anything really about how to pick out the different notes of the "purple" florals -- jasmine, violet, lilac, orris/iris, etc. I think it is one of those. But whatever it is, I want a bottle! Can anyone help me?? Is that jasmine? or violet? ?? I don't *think* it's rose... It's wonderful, though!!

This is so wonderful! I didn't even think it was one I wanted, but now that I've gotten it in a swap it is one of my all time favorites! Even crisper and cleaner than you can imagine, with the lavender and the spearmint equally balanced and smelling like some kind of million dollar shower gel... I will be wearing this one at night to have calm, tranquil, clean dreams, and in the morning to wake up refreshed! Wow, this is absolutely beautiful in a completely clean-scrubbed, unfussy way. I would really, really recommend it to anyone who likes mint and anyone who is looking for non-girly scents that are a bit lighter. Sooooooo fresh!

wow, another example of the wildly varying reactions people have to these scents: out of the vial, this to me had the unmistakable, overpowering scent of -- dog. Now, I love the way my doggie smells and I think she smells very sweet, but sure enough this is the exact smell of a (very sweet) wet puppy. Maybe it's some kind of musky or animalic note in here? When I put it on, the dog smell mostly goes away, and I got more of a chocolate-and-chlorine scent, like chocolate syrup in a swimming pool. Then that goes away, and the chocolate settles into itself -- to me, this is definitely chocolate baked goods, like brownies or a pie or a cake. It retains a slightly musty smell, like eating brownies at the kitchen table of a not-exactly-clean house, again must be something animalic. Has anyone else really had a problem with scents "curdling" against one another when you sample them? I think if I had sniffed this on the same day as a vanilla, coffee, caramel, or otherwise gourmand-ish fragrances I would have been fine. But next to Baobhan Sith, Carnal, and Envy, it just seemed to sour or curdle somehow. I will try it again and edit this when it's more isolated.

Ooooo, THIS has got to be one of my favorite scents in the world. It's fuzzy alright, fuzzy and chewy and loaded with calories but oh so tangy and good for you, almost like a cross between dried apricots and apricot syrup. I don't know what it is about scents with JUICE, but this has it, and I'm a fiend for the juice. Love it! I will definitely wear this by its gorgeous self!

wow, it's so funny how differently people's chemistries react to these oils. I got the exact same imp's ear from the lovely jj_j in a swap today, and out of the vial it smells chemical-y, exactly like cherry-scented fingernail polish remover, I can smell the acetone. On my skin, it sweetens out and the chemically smell dissipates, but the extreme sweetness takes on a nutty or oily flavor that reminds me of incense being burned. In the drydown it begins to smell more and more like, weirdly, corn oil being burned, as in some Buddhist temples I've been in in new york's chinatown. It's a very rich, sweet black cherry scent, to be sure, but there is none of the tartness of cherries (or of cherry koolaid loaded with citric acid ). Instead, there's this nuttiness, like cherry incense. It's a rich hippie-shop smell that some might love. But then, obviously, it might not smell like this on you at all!

Oh yes, DEFINITELY, I couldn't agree more about the ties. I feel so, so bad knowing you hand-fray all of them, when I know a lot of people, myself included, end up having to cut them off because they get in the way! I think most people just order a ton of imps to see what they like, and don't even give a flip what they look like -- it's that the stuff inside them is about a million, zillion times better than any perfume anyone can get anywhere else! Besides, I think a cute printed stuck-on label would have every bit as much character, or even tying them with twine and then just snipping it off right at the label instead of having to fray them, if that would save you some labor...

In the vial, this was basically straight sweet grasses, very pastoral. I dabbed it on my wrists, and instantaneously -- lemon!!! Who knew? It just exploded into lemon verbena-ness on my skin, which was an amazing sensory experience and put a big smile on my face -- I've never been fond of the lemon verbena/lemon pledge smell, and it was truly a revelation to smell one that I loved so much, but before too long this teeters dangerously close to pledge territory for my tastes. I will have to try it again on a day when I haven't smelled anything else, I think there could have been some traces of Empress underneath it on my skin that might have thrown it off (is this possible, that roses + sweet grasses could = lemon verbena, cause maybe that's an undetectable buried note in both of them?) Beautiful, though, just the thing for wandering barefoot through the forest and causing trouble dressed as a guy! (I love Rosalind!)

Hm, this one has me stumped. I don't know what to say -- I was so excited to try it because of the raves it's gotten from everyone else, but then out of the vial I didn't like it at all. It has a sharpness to my nose, a bitter undertone that a couple of people have mentioned, that makes it really unappealing to me -- I know I have ridiculously sweet taste in scents though. On my skin, the bitterness started to fade almost immediately, and now it's a pleasant enough riot of roses, but there's something... woody, I guess, underneath it that just makes it sharp to me. It almost smells a bit chemically, just not sweet or mellow enough for my tastes. It's too... fierce a rose for me I guess. Maybe I did like Spellbound better?! I swapped my imp of Spellbound and got this instead because I thought it would be more delicate and elegant, less dark, but now I think the musk in Spellbound helped mellow it out on my skin and this doesn't have that. I do like it, now that it's calming down, it does have a certain strength that appeals to me. I will wait and see if any moods present themselves where I feel like wearing it.

I too never ever dreamed that I would become such a huge fan of smelling like a rose! But I have, thanks to Beth's genius. So far the ones I love are: Othello -- spicy expensive powdery rose Ophelia -- delicate watery rose-based floral Queen Mab -- though this isn't as rosy on me as much as just nice crisp floral and sandalwood Old London, which I never expected to love but is a crisp, dry, clean rose single note on me Spellbound, which I hated in the vial but was miraculously strong and deep smelling when I put just a single drop on I am dying to try Alice, Eve, Persephone, and any other sweet/juicy/fruity ones you can think of!

Hi Ishtar, I adore Soft Coeur and Figs and Leaves too -- I really find that Soft Coeur works wonderfully when layered with a whole slew of BPAL scents. It works to sweeten and mellow and soften all kinds of different BPAL smells like rose -- I layered it with Othello and smelled of rich spicy oriental roses and honeyed chocolate all day -- it was great. My suggestion for Soft Coeur is just wear it with any BPAL scent you like that it can add that sweet note to. I think it'll be amazing with Alice or Eve, or Seraglio (all of which are on my wish list).

WHY I AM THE HAPPIEST GIRL EVER: The darling eleventhousand has sent me an imp of Kitsune-Tsuki in a swap. Oh. my. goodness. gracious. heaven. The imp leaked and this smell was exuding from the package as I unwrapped it, and I AM in love. This is utterly beautiful, soft, sweet, gorgeous, everything magpiedee just said. I have never sought out scents with plum, jasmine, daffodil, etc. in them, but there must be something in this one that is made for me and I for it, because this is just the most beautiful thing I have ever smelled in my life. It is so beautiful it is almost a religious experience. I am in love!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you Beth... I can't order a 10 mL of this fast enough.

This is valuable info and I am 99% sure my order (12 imps and a 5 ml) would have $8 shipping to England, too, I am just so afraid to go ahead and PayPal Beth for it, without hearing from her! I mean, does anyone know if she has weighed in on people doing this? Is she ok with it? Has anyone else gone ahead and done it and actually received their order? It's just that, I've been emailing her since January trying to get a shipping quote, and I've never ever gotten any response back after 1 email at the first of February, and I would love to just make an order and pay for it and finally be on my way to getting my very own scents, but I am just so afraid that if she gets an order from someone she has not corresponded with she'll just think it's some random who doesn't know the rules and not accept it or something. I am so paranoid, I hate to bother Beth so much and I fear that maybe I'm that annoying person whose messages she is just so fed up with that she won't answer... anyway, sorry for the neurosis, I just wondered if anyone else has gone ahead and done this.

I almost didn't even put this on cause I hated it in the vial, but after dabbing just a tiny bit on me it is a rich, velvety rose smell -- I can see how if you love roses and you love strong deep notes like musks and resins, this would totally be your "magic slinkiness oil." This is really really nice -- complex, deep, strong, and unabashedly sexy. I don't think I'd choose to wear it out over other rose scents, but someone with different tastes would be a total sex goddess in this!!

Out of the vial and when I first put this on, it's strongly almond/sweet cherries. But on me, that unfortunately quickly fades to a nutty, incensey, sickly-sweet smell that reminds me of the only BPAL scent I've ever not gotten on with AT ALL -- Hunger. It doesn't smell like Hunger, it just has that same sickly-sweet incensey kind of tone. I only put a tiny bit on, fortunately, a little of this goes a long way on me. I think it would be better for nights out dancing and big crowded hot parties, when a scent has to be strong to get noticed at all, than for me sitting alone in my room working which is where I'm wearing it right now. I like the aura of it, just the faint whiff of sweetness someone near me at a party could smell, better than the nutty/cola/incense smell I get when I actually smell my wrists up close.

I just put this on and it is so beautifully powdery over the roses, just so soft. As it dries it is getting less sweet and rosy and more woody/powdery, I don't smell the spices yet -- but they may be giving it the powderiness (it's NOT a baby-powdery smell, it's more like a fancy old-school spicy body talc powder). This doesn't smell _like_ roses so much as it smells like just something nice and rich and expensive and spicy. I like it a whole lot more than I expected to. Very soft, but not strong or girly. e.t.a: there's an "aura" of this after it's been on a while that is amazing! I lose it if I smell my wrist directly, I just get the rich body powder smell again, but surrounding my nose from where I have it on my wrists and cleavage is this amazing light sweet rosy smell! Yes, like the best dryer sheet ever! It's amazing how I can only get it if I don't try to smell it directly. If this is what people are going to smell on me when I pass by today, I am going to get millions of compliments.

I agree that this smells like a very crisp, dry tea rose on me -- more akin to the innocent spiciness of Maiden than to anything black or twisted, which is just *wonderful* by me. It has something in addition to the rose that is making it just a touch deeper, a bit of wood maybe, or even a touch of fresh lemon? I can take or leave pure rose scents and don't really consider myself to be too moved by them. But a few minutes after I had this on, I noticed that I was humming "The Rain in Spain" and "On the Street Where You Live" and basically the whole score of My Fair Lady absentmindedly to myself... Elizabeth works in strange and subtle ways, I tell you! This is, indeed, the Covent Garden flower market at dawn, on an English spring day like today where it could be sun or rain, there is absolutely no telling!!

This is maybe the one I love the most of all so far. Out of the vial it is sweet, juicy, almost almondy, so full of berries and ripe. On my wrist it stays like that for a bit, but then gradually the flowers and something warm I think must be the sandalwood develop out of it -- this is the first scent that I have loved both the wet stage AND the drydown, and not wanted to get through one or prevent the other. It is complex and beautiful enough that both stages have their great points. This is what I was hoping for when I started trying to get BPAL scents -- sweet and juicy and fresh, it nonetheless is so much *more* than that underneath. So complex and strong, compared to the adolescent girly fruity body sprays I had been wearing. But the one is not in the least sharp on me. I love it and just wish I could get it to last longer on me -- my skin just eats up scents, it seems the ones I love the most just disappear faster.