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Mmmmm... in the bottle, beautiful berries and pomegranate with just a hint of green

 

When it first goes on my skin, it's mostly pomegranate but not a sweet type, more a musky kind. The blackberry's there too, and very faint is the bergamot. I can't actually smell any patchouli on its own, but I think that's what's behind the musky dryness of the fruit.

 

Half an hour in, it's all dark fruity berries and the heliotrope is there now, so it's sweetened up a bit.

 

After an hour, it's faded down nicely into a very musky soft berry. A masterful blend!

 

 

I am ridiculously thrilled to have scored a bottle of this!! Deranged indeed.. on me, it's all smoky sexy leather. The pine and mosses are hanging in the background, adding a slight twinge of green earthiness but the patchouli and cinnamon are on top. There's a waxy wood kinda thing going on here too, giving it all a lovely warm richness. It starts off quite masculine but softens up as it dries down.. after one hour on my skin it mellowed into a gorgeous woody leather.. and after another hour it's still there in pretty much the same style but starting to fade. I'd need to reapply this approx. every two hours to keep the spices, they're the notes that disappeared the most quickly when it was on my skin.

 

Do geeks really smell like this? Clearly I need to investigate that further.

 

 

 

 

Well.. I seem to be the odd one out here - on me, this is all sweet, warm and spicey apple cider. I can definitely get the cardamon and cinnamon, but sadly no sign of the tangerine or cherry. I really can't find the black tea either, but my guess is that it's the amber musk at play here.. my skin loves amber musk but it tends to morph other notes for me. But apple? Very odd.

 

So yeah.. there it is, completely lovely but totally unlike what I was expecting.

I received this as a stealth frimp in my Lab order..

 

I would never have picked Love Lies Bleeding, because of the "bloom" in the description. I thought.. florals. Ohhhhh boy - was I wrong!! If you had asked me to pick the notes in this, I would have said cocoa, cherry, dragon's blood and red musk. Smooth and velvety, warm and lush. Good grief, it's delicious!

 

I could smell this as soon as I opened the imp to test it. When I dabbed it on, the fragrance wafted up in a delicious cloud before I even leaned in to sniff it. I think I may have said an impolite word at that point. After about a half-hour on, something kinda coconut-y is coming out, that may just be the cocoa mellowing out. Still cherries and musky. Two hours in, and it's all softened down beautifully but still holding all the notes - lovely.

 

This is ridiculously delicious velvety sexy scrumptiousness.

 

 

 

Firstly, big going out to Tapestry, who sold me her 1/2 bottle of this lovely lady. Like many others, I'd been lusting after her for a while

 

I really LOVE the way this smells in the bottle. I wanted to drink it. It's all dark peppery velvet raspberry and pomegranate - sweet with a menacing edge, like a very very VERY good hideously expensive voluptuous red wine. And then it hits my skin. The same rich rudeness is there, but now I can smell the rose musk and it's not as heady as it was in the bottle. The gardenia is just a bit too obvious for my liking, it's overriding the reds and purples. Give it time..

 

Ok - an hour in. Now the gardenia has settled, and remains only in spirit. The plum is in full force, with the blood, and now I can also smell the patchouli. The raspberry and pomegranate are hanging in there, just around the edges.

 

Two hours in - much the same, but much fainter on my skin now. I wish the heady voluptuous stage had stayed a bit longer, but this is one intoxicating blend.. I will be treasuring every drop.

Mmmmmm. MMMMMMMMMMM. Yum!

 

The coffee here is lovely - this reminds me a little of El Dia de Reyes but without the brown sugar. If there really was a group of dogs playing poker, smoking pipes and drinking Irish coffee - this is how the room would smell after they'd left, having spilled the Irish coffee all over the wood and tapped their burnt pipe tobacco out on to the floor.

 

I found that it goes on strong, with a very rich blast of the rich sugary Irish coffee, but within about 10 minutes the wood and the tonka come out and the coffee blends in more evenly. At the half-hour stage, the smoke is now there. At the two-hour stage it's all just blended together beautifully but quite faint on my skin - mostly it's the coffee (still) and smokey wood that I can smell.

 

 

 

 

 

For a blend inspired by such a macabre tale, this is incredibly delicious and lovely. Pomegranate is always a friend to me.. when I first put this on, it's by far the strongest note - almost bubble-gum like in its richness but don't let that put you off if you're not a bubble-gum kinda person - my skin amps pomegranate like crazy.

 

Half an hour later, ahhh... leather and tonka bean. Nice - the pomegranate has softened now and gone more fruity than its original pink bubble gum, perhaps the boiled wine has something to do with that. I'm not picking up the blood note at all though, but the overall effect now is a leathery grape with a touch of spice.

 

Two hours later - all soft and pretty, just a less strong version of where it was at the half-hour point. Very enjoyable.

Ohhhh how I love my snakes! But I had been avoiding this one, because mint and I have a very tumultuous relationship whereby any BPAL that contains mint gets on my skin and turns me into a walking tube of toothpaste. But then I discovered Monsterbait Tokyo Stomp, which totally loves me and the mint worked well. So I figured perhaps I should re-think my stance on the mint issue and give GTT a try.

 

YAY! It's a win!! I love how the Snake Oil is still there, but the mints here are stunning - clean, crisp and slightly chocolate-ish. I'm guessing it's the green tea that's mellowing out the mints and stopping that toothpaste thing from happening - well, that and the snake oil base.

 

Two hours later - the mints have softened down beautifully.. the snake oil is more prominent now but still with that minty flavour. I can see this being perfect for hot summer days - it's still the dirty sexy snake oil we know and love, but with the crisp fresh excitement of mint. I'm ending this review right now, because suddenly I feel like I'm writing copy for a Mentos commercial

 

So it's official - I love ALL of the Le Mat trio! But if I had to pick a least favourite of the three.. Coxcomb would be it. Not because it's "bad" or anything, but just because the other two are so divine.

 

The Moroccan musk is strongest on my skin - the red currant is there, but quite soft. I'm not really picking up the sage at all, and the frankincense is subtle. After about an hour on, I can barely detect where the oil was - it dries down to a very subtle musky fruit spice.

 

I'm not that enthralled with Coxcomb on its own - it just doesn't have much staying power on my skin. But put it with the other two Le Mat blends and it provides a beautiful foundation for the craziness of Motley and the fruity goodness of Marotte.

 

Well.. this is completely unlike any other BPAL I have experienced to date! I had no idea what this was going to smell like, but I am so glad I got a bottle because as VioletChaos said.. total.love.

Rhubarb, blackcurrant, mushroom.. who'da guessed those three together would be so awesome!?! The sour syrupy tang of the rhubarb is balanced beautifully by the sweet darkness of the blackcurrant, and the myrrh is just purring away in the background keeping the whole thing all warm and velvety. I'm guessing it's the mushroom that's adding the powdery feeling to this, and stopping it from going completely purple fruity. Champaca - well, you know how that is.. all sexy warmth and musky creaminess.

I can see how this might go horribly wrong on some people.. particularly if your skin has a tendency to turn things into the dreaded plastic note, but I couldn't be happier with Motley - it's completely unique and unbelievably sumptuous. And incredible when layered with its mates; Marotte and Coxcomb. Much kudos to Beth & team on this one, I'm smitten.

 

Completely delicious! As others have said, the pear is strongest on my skin.. it reminds me of The Perilous Parlor - same kind of pear except that in Marotte it's a golden woody kind of pear rather than the sweet vanilla pear of TPP.

 

Patchouli, thankfully, is not strong here - although it does feature more after about an hour on my skin than it did at first. I'm loving the heady mix of the oakmoss, musk and mahogany. I do get what people are saying about the 'metallic edge' but on me it's not sharp at all.. everything here is beautifully blended and very soft. After 3 hours on my skin, I'm still getting beautiful woody pear and amber.

 

Gorgeous on its own, but even better when layered with the other two (Motley and Coxcomb).

Sadly, I'm not getting any of the beautiful fruits and vanillas.. Velvet Tiki for me is like a strong boozey brown sugar/caramel. Not nice.

 

I am seriously considering the possibility that my skin is somehow conspiring against me

 

 

Damnit. I wanted the pink rock candy and strawberry cream. But noooooo - all I get is the sour gin and vermouth doing their best impression of hair spray and fly spray mixed together. And grenadine, where the hell are you? Such a bummer, I should have known by my past experience with champagne (hello, Stardust - I'm talking to you!) that this was never going to work.

 

Bad kitty. Put that martini glass down, go sleep off that stinky booze and come back when all you have is rock candy and strawberry cream.

Wowsers.. there's no mention of clove in the notes but on my skin - this is like a clove-o-rama!

 

Actually, what it reminds me of is the smell of the dentist's.. when I first open the door into the reception area and that smell of fillings fills the air.

 

What it also reminds me of is when I was in Bali, and I would walk past a huddle of Balinese men on the street smoking clove cigarettes. I prefer that scent association to the one about the dentist

 

Very spicey, and kinda smokey - I actually like this as a "smell", but not sure I would wear it for myself.

 

 

Oh my.. when this first hit my skin and I took a big whiff.... it tickled! The wasabi was sharp, but not unpleasant. I thought I could also smell an anise kinda thing going on, but I'm not sure where that was coming from.

 

After 10 minutes, that initial blast of wasabi has calmed right down, and now I can smell the tea.. the myrrh and frankincense are quite subdued but I know they're there. It's smelling very green!!

 

Half an hour later, this has dried right off and is barely there. I'm left with a very clean, fresh (and still green) scent on my skin that I have to get up real close to find.. however I did only dab, I didn't put a lot on, so that may be why it's quite faint.

 

This was bold and intoxicating at the start, energetic and vibrant in the middle, and soft at the end. Like sex. If your sex is like that. Ahem.

 

Ok.. here's what I don't understand - the vetiver in this is completely non-existent to my nose.. but in Velvet Tiger it was all I could smell. I just don't understand how vetiver works, but in this instance I'm not complaining! The most prominent notes on my skin are the musk, anise, mandarin and black vanilla. This is a good thing!!

 

They're very well blended though, I'm having trouble distinguishing them individually. As a result, I get a *nice* fragrance from this.. a kind of vanilla-ish mandarin-ish musky thing, but I'm not sure it's anything too remarkable. I'll be happy with just my one bottle, thankfully I won't be needing to hoard this one

 

 

 

edited to fix double posting

Oh vetiver, you truly are a dark and fiendish bastard.. why do you have to dominate all the other lovely notes here? Do you have some sort of inferiority complex? It's not like we don't notice when you're around.. seriously, learn to mellow out a little.

This is a beautiful blend, but unfortunately the vetiver is just too much.. damnit.. I can only just smell the gorgeous rich orange and tangerine, and the amber has been vetivered into submission. I can't really pick up the licorice or teak at all, but the cinnamon's there. So I was hoping for orange, amber, licorice and teak with subtle vetiver and cinnamon in the background.. but instead, I got the reverse of that. If you're lucky enough to have skin that can absorb and soften the vetiver/cinnamon thing, then you're a lucky lucky sausage. I'm seriously upset about this one, I sooooooo wanted it to work for me but I don't think it's going to be a keeper

This is a very classy, womanly scent with an edge to it. Like a business woman who wears super sexy, naughty underwear beneath her suit.

 

Yep, this.

 

I am extremely thankful for getting lucky with the skin chemistry for this one. I can smell the floral, but it's dark and mysterious - quite subtle, not bright at all. It has gone powdery after about 30 minutes.. but a beautiful velvety incense kind of powder - smokey, and musky, but the myrrh is keeping that incense vibe from getting too strong.. it's a lovely balance. After about an hour on my skin it has mellowed out a lot but not changed, just softened.

 

I should mention that I'm testing this from a cobalt bottle and I think it dates back to around 2005, so mine probably smells very different to what you'd get from a fresh imp, I suspect that with age the narcissus has succumbed to the opium.. so if you're on the fence about this one - put it aside for a while and see if you like it better a few months from now.

Hello,

 

I'm new at BPAL. I want to order three 5 ml bottles each costing 15$ and 8 imps. This would be an international order. So what are international shipping rates? How much should i send with paypal ? Can anyone help me?

 

Hi there - I'm also international, so I know it can be confusing when you do your first order

 

There's info on shipping here on the Lab website (scroll about half way down the screen).. it says:

 

If you purchase 12 items or less (in any combination of imps and 5mls), these are the shipping rates:

$11 to Canada

$13 to Western Europe & Australasia

 

So yours should be $13 - you just add that to the total of your bottles and imps when you pay via PayPal - remember to pay in US dollars. In the comments section of your PayPal order, write the bottles and imps you want to order, and say that your payment includes $13 for shipping.

 

If you're ever unsure about how to do your order, you can email customer service at answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com and they'll be happy to help you.

 

I hope that information is helpful for you, and have fun with your new goodies!

 

Hello, pomegranate, my dear friend. And salutations to you, Sir Fig, how lovely to find you here.

 

This is my favourite of the new releases in Rappaccini's Garden. As other reviewers have mentioned, it does have a cocoa thing going on when it's wet.. but I found that died down once it dried. Mmmm.. this is velvety, rich and lovely! I'd say this is more 'fruity' than 'foody' - it's not sweet or cake-like in any way, and the almond isn't doing anything remotely foody in here.. actually, I'm not really getting the almond at all. The cinnamon must be quite light in this blend - or maybe it's just my skin - either way, I'm not finding this to be spice-y. On me, it's 99% pomegranate and fig.. the other fruits are there, but quite faint.

 

There's something a bit Miller vs California about this.. I guess that must be the fig, although the two are quite different they both have that mysterious dark fruity balanced with boozy thing going on. I think the fruit from this particular tree may have been sitting on the ground for a while, it has that dark fermented smell about it, verging on a wine but not quite.

 

I'm really enjoying this - the longer it stays on my skin, the more velvety and soft it becomes and the lovely dark grape starts to come out more. If you've just got your imp/bottle and only just dabbed it on.. please give it at least half an hour before you make your judgement, because it does change quite a bit in that time. A very yummy and interesting blend indeed - I might need a bottle of this one!

 

Well.. sadly, I'm disappointed. I took the description to mean this was going to be a honey blend.. my mistake, clearly.. cos it isn't.

 

It's sweet like honey - yep. But it's not honey... or at least, not for me (and usually honey loves me and comes out beautifully on my skin). I'm having trouble identifying what this is all about.. I get a kind of citrus-y thing, but it's not lemon or orange. It's slightly sweet but not bubblegum or berries. It's faintly floral but not really floral, and slightly wood-y - that must be the 'lotus' and the 'tree' part! This is quickly turning into a useless review.. I can't figure this one out!!

 

Alright.. focus. This is a *nice* blend.. it smells lovely, and whatever all those unidentifiable smells are - they work together well and give this a sweet and rich musky top note that's quite intoxicating.

 

 

I have lucky skin when it comes to apple

 

This is another dark and mysterious apple in the same way that Poisoned Apple has that 'edge' to it.. except Apple of Sodom has a velvety smoke where P.A. has that sour sweetness. But it's that same apple, at least to me.. that crisp fresh green apple.

 

The apple stays true once it dries down, it almost gets a cider sort of smell to it as the smoke sweetens up a bit but it never quite goes to the cider stage - it still retains that spicy ash feel. It doesn't go sweet or bubble-gummy at all on me, it's pretty much the same after 1 hour as it was when first applied, although it has faded and softened up a bit.

 

I'd definitely recommend this to the apple fans out there!!

 

 

If my village smelt this good, I wouldn't desert it!

 

I'm getting mostly currants with a slight hint of honey, but the black musk is keeping it dark rather than sweet. I agree with a previous reviewer - this is definitely a user-friendly patchouli.. I can hardly detect it at all in this. Actually, the things I was worried about here (orris, neroli, patchouli, labdanum) are very much in the background.. but then my skin does tend to amp any berry and/or honey so maybe that's why everything else is so subdued.

 

An interesting blend, I'm not sure if it's *special* or even whether it's particularly different from other currant/honey/musk type blends that I have, I have a feeling this might develop nicely with a big of aging but at this point I'm not sure whether it's a keeper.

 

 

 

Bottle CCXIII (213) - Snake Oil + Peach

 

Sounds weird? Well it's NOT! It's seriously LOVELY, like deliciously lovely. The peach is all warm and fuzzy - it mixes perfectly with the Snake Oil, which is there but very much in the background. This is so beautifully blended that everything is in balance - I can still smell the vanilla and the rich velvety spices in the Snake Oil, but the warmness of the peach is floating over the top. After one hour on my skin, the peach is still there, it's pretty much the same lovely even mix as it was when it first went on.

 

My only complaint about this is that there will only ever be one bottle of it.. I'm going to cherish every drop!!

 

Bottle CCXXI (221) - Snake Oil + Rose

 

Rose, in general, is not my friend. Whenever it's present in a blend my skin amps it up so much that it makes a big noise and dominates everything else that's in there to the point where all I can smell is rose. Well, Ms Rose, you've met your match! Here, the Snake Oil is dominant.. but sitting demurely in amongst all that spicy goodness is a very soft rose - I'm thinking pink, rather than red - very light, very pretty. After about an hour, the rose is very soft.. the Snake Oil has come up stronger, but the rose isn't gone completely - there's still a nice balance.

 

Out of the two, I'll wear the peach more.. it's just gorgeous. But the rose is lovely too.. I might just have to keep them both

 

If those clever creators of chaos ever happen to read this.. I'd like to say congratulations, you've done a beautiful job with these two.

 

To me this is a beautiful, dark and rich. Teak and black vanilla are the major players until hints of tobacco creep in. It reminds me of Haloes and Black lace, you just know that this is going to age wonderfully. While oak is prevalent, teak, vanilla and tobacco are the stars and it doesn't get any better than this. The throw is long, and lasts forever, and it is sexy, confident and simply gorgeous.

 

Ayup.. couldn't have said it better myself.

 

I think it's not quite as rich and deep as Haloes, but it's definitely got the same sort of vibe. There's a top note in this that's a bit sharp - probably the tobacco - it's not sharp or strong, but it's.. uhm.. shiny? Yeah, shiny. The black vanilla isn't sweet, but it's heady with the oak rumbling around in there, on me it has a slight honey feel to it but my skin is weird like that - it likes to convert everything to honey.

 

A lovely blend, it will be interesting to see what this does with some further aging. I think this has a lot more to reveal, much like its namesake.

 

Fab label too!