shriekingviolet

Initial Impression: Slightly musky. Stern, yet kind. Masculine but not oppressively so. It's a good "father-in-a-bottle" scent. After Wearing It: This is a really confident, masculine smell. Regal almost. It's earthy, woody and slightly smoky. I definitely smell sandalwood here, and probably some frankincence and a wood note (cedar maybe?). Possibly some patchouli too, and something green and slightly herby. This scent evokes an aura of competence and power, yet of benevolence as well. It somewhat reminds me of the way my grandfather looked before his final illness. Even into his late sixties her still had his hair color, casual dress meant not having to wear a jacket and a tie and had such an air of dignity. He had a reserved and somewhat stern demeanor, but he always gave the best hugs and to everyone who knew him he was truly kind. He was firm, disciplined, but also compassionate and fair. Which is what The Emperor says to me. Final Thoughts: I got this because The Emperor is my soul card. It captures the meaning of the card very well. However I can't imagine actually wearing it. It's much too masculine for me. But I will be keeping the imp for meditation purposes.

A perfect amber note. Smoky but smooth, sweet, warm, thick and full of mystery. Couldn't have captured the scent of burning this resin better. Absolutely gorgeous. Amber's one of my favorite notes too, so I'm going to have to buy a bottle of this for layering purposes. Can't wait to try the Black Amber single note as well.

Update: I found and removed the hijack and submitted the site to Google last night to have it reviewed for malware. The review was completed earlier today and Google says we're now free of suspicious content Things should be back to normal, but if you still run into malware warnings or hijacks, please PM me ASAP.

Hey all. As many of you have noticed, the forum was a victim of a code injection hack. We are aware of the problem and are trying to get that fixed. As far as we can tell no actual malware was hosted on our site, but certain urls within the site were being hijacked and taken to sites that were host to suspicious content. We're working on getting everything cleaned up and appreciate your caution and patience in the meantime.

Thanks for waiting everyone. For the moment at least, the forum is back open. I don't have any plans to take it back down again any time soon, but please keep in mind that I haven't had a chance to evaluate the work our host's IT team did under normal traffic conditions. I'm not entirely sure how it's going to behave. Hopefully what was done will put an end to the irregular periods of drag we've been experiencing as well as the odd multiple posting, but until we put it through its paces I can only hope. If you experience any errors over the next few days please PM me (shriekingviolet) as soon as you can so I can have an idea when and how they popped up. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. I will be away from the computer this evening as I have a standing weekly playdate every Thursday with the world's cutest baby, but after that I will be around all weekend. Thanks!

This seems to be happening more and more lately, and it's starting to make me wary of purchasing bpal. I've ordered a lot of bottles over the past year and a half especially that smell nothing like what I was expecting, and different to bottles that I've compared them to of the same name. You could try messaging the lab about it, but I've messaged them about this sort of thing in the past and haven't gotten a response. A lot of times people will tell you to try aging a scent, which might help, but not in a case where the oils just flat out aren't the same... Natural ingredients aren't homogeneous like synthetic ones are, they can vary a lot with the location or the particular conditions of the time in which they were grown. It's like with wine. The same grape varietal can be grown in the same plot of land year after year, but the 2010 vintage will inevitably taste, smell and possibly even look different from the 2011 vintage. It doesn't matter if the same winemaking process was used on both, made with the same equipment, same hands. The nuances of the grape are shaped by the conditions they are grown in, and different weather and soil conditions can wildly vary the output of a particular harvest. Maybe it was colder one year, maybe there was less rain. Those variables will make a difference in the final product, and you'd be silly to expect two years' crops to produce identical wines. So why would you for perfume made from organic material?

Hey everyone, as you've probably already noticed we're experiencing problems with a few of our tables. We're currently working on getting that fixed and appreciate your patience!

I'm happy to announce that we have a new, better, prettier mobile version of the website! The old one was useless and poorly designed for touch screen navigation, and as someone who is chained to my iPhone that annoyed me a lot. This new one is actually designed as a mobile site rather than just as a lo-fi version of the default IPB skin, and so it should be easier to navigate on small touch screens. This new skin should automatically load next time you access the forum from your phone (and you should be able to tell right away if it has), but if it doesn't let me know. I only have access to my iPhone 3GS, so I'd like feedback from other phone and tablet users if something doesn't seem to look or work right. Other things to note: the mobile version of the site isn't as feature rich as desktop version but you can access the full site by clicking a link at the bottom of the page. Also, to have access to the edit and quote buttons, just press down on an individual and hold it until the buttons appear. There is no multiple post quoting on the mobile version unfortunately. I think that's it! If you have any questions or issues to report about the new mobile version, just send me a message!

*decides to throw out her usual review format for single notes* Yes that's definitely coffee. The rich, earthy, bitter smell of quality coffee beans. I could seriously use this in a burner on an early morning and not be able to tell the difference between this and the smell of a real pot brewing. Excellent copy of a familiar scent. Strong and longlasting too!

Notes on skinning: So like much of the Midwest, I've been suffering through the after effects of last week's giant snow storm. The bad news was that since this is Oklahoma where we don't know how to handle snow, I have't been able to really leave the house for nearly a week. The good news is that weather enforced house arrests are apparently good for slogging through confusing software blockades. So, at long last, we finally have one of our original skins back. I know dark devil wasn't the highest up on most people's wishlist of skins to be brought back, but it was the one I knew would be the easiest to convert and if I tried to tackle reskinning by handling the tougher ones first this would never get done. Now I don't want the reappearance of this skin to get anyone too excited. Even as the "easiest" of the bunch, it still took me about 10-12 hours to get this one finished and I don't think I learned enough from the process to believe the next will be easier going. Getting more skins added is going to be a slow process, and they're going to continue to be tackled in the order of their complexity and not their popularity. The Alice skin is not next on that hierarchy, though it's not at the end either. I'm not going to give an ETA for any of the returning skins, or announce the order of their return as I just don't know. As I'm the forum's only skinner and this process is incredibly time consuming, it's all about finding enough time. Now given that the process of adapting this skin has been one of trial and error, I would not be surprised if there were sections I missed resulting in impossible to read too-dark-on-dark/too-pale-on-pale text or things that don't match up with the color scheme (specifically, if you see green text anywhere, let me know!). If you run across this anywhere, please contact me either by PM or a comment on my profile with as much detail as possible. Screenshots would be best, but no worries if that can't be managed. Thanks for your patience guys!

It's with much regret that I'm posting to announce some very important changes in leadership this week. After seven long, very productive years, Kate (quantum spice) will no longer be a part of our management team. As an extremely talented lady who has given the forum so much, she will certainly be missed. We hope she remains in touch and lets us know about her future projects so that everyone will have the opportunity to see what exciting places she goes next! As of this week, I'm officially back from my management hiatus. I've missed you all while I was dealing with family health issues and am eager to reconnect with familiar faces as well as with those of you who have joined us in the last year. Meg (Morrig) will continue as an additional admin, so forum questions and concerns can continue to be directed to her as well as to me. Now, given how much we have relied on Kate in the past to manage our forum on a technical level, it'd be unrealistic to assume that things will continue to run exactly as they have without her. We're likely going to have to reassess different aspects of the forum, just to ensure that the forum is running in a way that's manageable for our team. We will keep you guys informed with whatever may come, though I will say that we don't expect any major changes to come in the regular discussion aspects of our forum. We appreciate your patience during this period of transition. If anyone has any questions, feel free to drop me a line! Just as a refresher, here is a line up of our current active line up of moderators should you have any questions that pertain to more specific topics than the forum at large! alicia_stardust (BPAL Chatter, Cut & Paste) Andra (BPAL Chatter, Meet 'n'Sniffs, EatDrink&BeMerry, Roam If You Want To) Belladonnastrap (Fantasy Island, Retail Therapy) emzebel (Politics, Book Club) heartbeast (Believe It Or Not, EatDrink&BeMerry) ivyandpeony (Beyond Perfume, Recomendations, Roam If You Want To) jenpo (BPAL Chatter, Randomness) Jessica (Entertainment, Fantasy Island, Celebration Galore) LiberAmoris (Retail Therapy) maewitch (Swaps) parrot_suspect (Get Personal, Book Club) Sarah (Retail Therapy) Shollin (Reviews) Silvertree (Swaps) wickedgoddess (TAL Chatter) I better not have forgotten anyone......

Hello! As I'm sure many of you have noticed, there are a lot of errors popping up today. There was a power surge at our hosting company last night that has caused connection issues for a lot of their clients including us unfortunately. I've been told they're working on it but have no more details. Hopefully they'll be able to fix it today, and because there's nothing else to do but be patient. If any one double posts today or the like, don't worry about it. We'll fix it when things are working properly again. As for getting around the errors in the meantime I've found entering topics using links for the individual pages works but trying to get to individual posts (either through direct links, "last updated" or returning to the topic after you've posted links) does not. Also at least from what I've been experiencing, your post/pm goes through even if that error message pops up after you hit submit. Reloading it submits the post/pm a second time. But don't worry if you end up double posting. Everyone's having the same problems right now.

And I think we're fixed. If you posted any duplicate posts by accident today, please report them so we can get them taken care of more efficiently tomorrow. If you notice any lingering after effects from today's bugginess, please let me know.

This a really nice vanilla note. Sweet and creamy, but rich. A less sugary version of the way homemade vanilla ice cream smells. It has good throw and staying power too (I can still smell it strongly 10 hours later). It may be a bit much to wear on its own, since its a scent that people commonly associate with sweets or candles, but I can't wait to try layering it with other scents. I definitely am going to need a full bottle of this. The possibilities of layering with an added vanilla note are endless. And this is such a fine one. Joy!

Category: Tarot Oils Site Description: None as of yet. Initial Impression: Mysterious and indefinable. Is it earthy, is it smoky? Shadowy, yet raw in a way that's open and everpresent. After Wearing It: First on, the scent is very earthy. From what I can tell, it's a heavy mixture of dark musk, vetivert and earth. Over time it starts to lighten up, becoming less dark but still warthy. Smoother, but not at all sweet. So imagine my surprise when 5 hours later I sniff my wrist and smell traces of sweet flowers among soft, wispy musk and earth. I can't tell exactly exactly what I'm smelling but it's not sweet in a foody, vanilla kind of way, but like small sweet wildflowers you might find growing across a field somwhere. A bit powdery too. This is a very complex scent, morphable, totally capturing the meaning of the death card as a sign of transformation. It started out dark and oppressive, but came out with a sweet new beginning. Amazing. Final Thoughts:. I don't think this is something I'll wear as a personal fragrance, but it'd be a wonderful aide during reading & meditation sessions. It's definitely worth your time if you appreciate scents for more than their aesthetic qualities.

Update. We've finished moving things way ahead of schedule. Feel free to hit the report something if we've missed a thread or moved something that should have been moved.

Category: Celestials Site Description: none listed for zodiac inspired scents Initial Impression: Very sharp, spicy smell. Maybe with a hint of green. There's definitely some musk in here, but I'm not sure what else. I need to wear it to really get a feel. No sweet scents here, but I like it all the same. After Wearing It: Wow, this is dead on in it's Scorpio vibes. Goes on strong and heady: smoky, spicy and slightly musky with a sharp biting edge that's almost venomous in its quality. There's a slightly sweet tang lacing though this as well. It's overwhelming and dizzying yet empowering and sexy at the same time. After putting a bit too much on, I literally felt buzzed on the fumes. The scent mellows a bit (but only a bit) as time goes on, and a powdery undertone starts to show through. But nearly 10 hours after I put the oil on, it's still going strong, so it's the strongest BPAL oil I've tried yet. I'll be buying a bottle for when I feel the need to come off as more intimidating than usual. Final Thoughts: What a joy! I'm an astrology buff, so I was utterly delighted to have a scent for my sign, particularly one so well attuned to the energies of the Scorpio archetype. Score!

Just a reminder everyone, but I'm going to be away until July 6 so if you send me a PM between now and then, you likely won't hear a reply until at least the 8th. In the mean time, if you need help, please contact either Quantum Spice**, Morrighana or someone else on the mod team. However, if your problem or request is not urgent, we'd appreciate it if you held off on it until I get back so that no one gets overwhelmed. **QS will be in Boston through this weekend, so be patient with her if you PM her too. Take care guys!

Hey everyone. Browsing the forum I've noticed that there are a lot of signatures out there that are not in compliance with our guidelines. Some of them contain too many big images, or too many images period, and some take up more than the ten lines of space required (if your signature takes up more space than the content of most of your actual posts, it's ridiculous). I noticed a few are even messing up the summer layout (which became the default yesterday) because there are too many images in a row and they stretch the table beyond the prescribed limits. Which is the quickest way to make me annoyed. Anyway we've rewritten the signature guidelines so that they read a little more coherently. Nothing is really new here except that we've added a row maximum for multiple images as some signatures were fine in one screen resolution and not in another. Or fine in one skin but not in another. So now there's a prescribed max that's allowed so there's no question. Below is the rewritten signature guidelines: We're giving everyone two weeks (until July 6) to comply. After that, we'll be issuing reminders to offenders. A special note to Dragon Cave players: you must keep a close eye on your signature if you want to post them there. As your dragons grow, your signature might grow beyond the guidelines. Some adult dragons are taller than allowed, and having multiple adult dragons is likely to exceed the signature maximums. As warnings will be issued on a second offense, you won't want to let any developments of your "pets" surprise you. Thanks everyone! If you have any questions, I'll be available until Tuesday night. After that I'll be flying to Barcelona and will be without net access until Sunday July 6. If you have any questions while I'm away, please direct them toward someone else on my team.

Initial Impression: Rose! Lots of rose! With just a touch of gardenia After Wearing It: Elegant, regal floral. The rose is most prominent in this blend, with the sweetness of gardenia behind it. Rose gets really loud with my skin chemistry, so it can be pretty hard to smell any other notes in blend when its there. There are some exceptions of course, but at least on me, Marguerite is not one of them. I think this would be nice for rose fans, it's very elegant and sophisticated. But unfortunately it doesn't do a lot for me. Final Thoughts: Not my cup of tea, but I wasn't expecting it to be so I'm not too disappointed. I'm picky when it comes to floral scents, and rose in general rarely works on me. Still, I do think this would be a beautiful blend on the right person so I wouldn't discourage anyone from giving it a try!

Initial Impression: Dry sandalwood and orris spiked with vanilla. After Wearing It: This smells of a really posh dusting powder on me(sort of reminds me of Lush's Silky Underwear!). Very powdery from the get go and remains so all the way to the dry down. Wet, it was a sweet and floral powder, with the champaca flower and vanilla being especially prominent. The sandalwood note is more dry and refined, but doesn't have much throw to it which is a shame. After an hour or so, the amber and the patchouli make an appearance, but are fairly subtle. Overall Cytherea smells of vanilla, crushed flowers and a puff of sweet incense smoke overlaying a deep powdery orris note that dominates the blend. It's exquisite, very elegant and gorgeous, but very powdery too. I don't mind powdery scents, but I prefer them to be less so than this. That doesn't keep me from liking Cytherea, but it makes it so this is a scent I'd have to be in the mood for whereas with less orris, I think I'd be wearing it all the time! Final Thoughts: Love it, but I think I'm going to have to test wearing this in a scent locket to see if wearing it off my skin will keep the powder in check. This one is just too lovely not to find a way to make it work.

Initial Impression: Ripe fig spiked with tarragon and a hint of musk. After Wearing It: From the moment I first applied it until I washed it off in the shower 13 hours later, Aeronwen was a captivating mystery. It's deep but not heavy, dark yet has this wonderful effervescent quality. It's an odd paradox, but rather magical. It inspired visions of thick clouds of white fog on a dark, moonless night. Aeronwen is very well blended. While I can catch the different notes if I try, it's more like trying to see the red that was used to make up orange than it is to try to hear the sound of a drum in a song. It can be done, but to do so would almost be missing the point because you'd be ignoring the entirely different color by trying to dissect it. Aeronwen had fruit notes, but isn't fruity. It has spice, but isn't spicy. It has musk but isn't musky. It's a complex scent without being too "noisy" and I think has to be experienced to be understood. This scent was very long lasting, and had good throw without being overpowering. I think I put it on around 8am and could still smell it when I showered late that night. It didn't seem to fade much at all, or even get powdery toward the end of the day which scents with black musk and amber can sometimes do. Final Thoughts: Love this one, though it may not be for everyone. It's unique and the slightly herby quality (I'm guessing that was the tarragon) might scare some off, but I thought it was perfect. Wouldn't swap my bottle of this for anything!

Initial Impression: A damp earthy fragrance sweetened with honeysuckle. After Wearing It: Starts out as a powdery musk tempered with moss and a kick of sweet honeysuckle. I can smell the star jasmine in the background, but it's not too aggressive. It just adds a more floral element to the blend as the honeysuckle smells more sweet (like the nectar on the inside, not much like the petals) to my nose than floral. After it dries, the musk and orris really start to get powdery. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it definitely smells like baby powder to my nose with a kick of honeysuckle and oakmoss. It reminds me of an earthier version of Unseelie that way, which I appreciate though Unseelie wasn't really my thing either. It's sort of serene and gentle in a vaguely outdoorsy way, yet still sophisticated. The baby powder quality doesn't keep it from being grown-up. There's something sophisticated and almost classic about it that keeps this powdery fragrance from evoking images of my tween years experimenting with Love's Baby Soft (which is what I usually think about when I smell baby powder on me). I think it's the hint of star jasmine and the earthiness lurking behind it, but I can't be sure. Final Thoughts: Pretty, but not really me. I might reach for this occasionally, but I don't think it's my style enough to wear regularly.

Initial Impression: Juicy nectarines grounded with beeswax. After Wearing It: Wet on my wrist, Marcilla smells of nectarines and slightly buttery (??) beeswax. Not sure where the butteriness is coming from, but that was what hit my nose at first. After a few minutes, that yellow butter smell evaporated (though a touch of saltiness remained) and the floral notes started to come in but gently. Even after a few hours, the springy floral notes never dominate the fragrance. It's mostly nectarines, beeswax, golden musk, white ginger and a touch of something sugary that I can't define. I can only really smell the lily and lilac when I go to sniff my wrist. The throw is all sugary nectarines and golden musk, yet it isn't heavy or cloying at all. It's very fresh and springy without being all the things that typically make me hate "spring" scents. Instead it's gorgeous. I'm loving it. Final Thoughts: I will admit to being a little "frightened" of Marcilla before I got the chance to smell her. Cupide430 and I have very different tastes in perfume, so before the Grindhouse was released, I joked to her that our ladies' fragrances would be diametrically opposed and that we'd hate each other. When the notes were released, I was still a little wary of it as while I do like ginger, beeswax, nectarines and golden musk, I hate lilies. They go all soapy, awful and LOUD on me, and lilac and bergamot are only good in small doses. So I was a little worried about how this would turn out on me. But I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm glad I gave it a chance. If I had let the note list scare me off, I might have missed out on something great. Marcilla's a keeper.

Initial Impression: Straight up peach. After Wearing It: Wet, Eisheth Zenunium smells like cocoa powder. It's not a sweet, chocolatey scent, but like the dark, bittersweet cocoa powder you use to bake with. There's something earthy lingering behind it, either the ambergris or the patchouli. It's too subtle to really tell. After a few minutes, the peach and honey notes come out, which made me a bit edgy. I love me some honey, but the smell of peach makes me ill. Fortunately, the peach note isn't quite as aggressive smelling on as it is in the bottle. It's definitely present, but it's softer. Part of a choir rather than a soloist, which is how things should be. Still, given my aversion to peach (I think I associate the smell of peach with the taste of peach schnapps and that makes things unpleasant), it took about an hour to get used to smell enough to be able to appreciate the fragrance. The honey note in this blend is gorgeous. Honey is one of my favorite notes in general, but not all honey notes are the same. Some are more floral, others herby, but the best (IMO) is the heady, variety and this is it. It's sweet and almost resinous, warm, dense and sticky. It complimented the dusty cocoa note well and helped keep the peach in check. Most of the time anyway. I could smell the patchouli, ambergris and neroli in the background, but they continued to be more subtle and elusive throughout the life of the fragrance. They helped to give the oil some depth, but didn't do much to define its character. The effect was lovely, but still, from time to time that peach note billowed up to consume my senses and I felt a bit queasy for a moment. I think when I rested my head on my hand is when it was the worst as the peach note is especially strong close to my skin. Not pleasant, but that's probably something I can work around. Final Thoughts: I'm very ambivalent about this scent. On one hand, the honey note is sublime. Probably better than in any other BPAL blend I've tried. And the cocoa/patchouli/ambergris combo helps to ground it so it doesn't get too cloying. But the peach!! It wasn't enough to ruin the scent for me, but still, I spent all day praying it'd fade away. No luck. I think I'll have to experiment with this one to see if I can further minimize the peachiness. If I can, Morrighana will be my favorite whore!