ljaylh

Those are the original prototype labels for the Good Omens series. They were given to Neil Gaiman, and several bottles were gifted out, but the were never sold with that label. They date back to 2006.

Wowsers - thanks for that info, wickedgoddess!

So arsinoe9.... looks like you have some special bottles there Good for you!

I tried searching but the only Internet I have is my phone so I may have missed it somewhere.

 

I desperately need something similar to Elf v 4! Since there are no notes listed and I know nothing about scents, I cannot find a dupe.

 

Banshee Beat reminds me of an earthy version of it (and I have already acquired a back up bottle of it!) and Love's Philosophy reminds me of Elfv4's spicy, louder sister. Any other suggestions? Elf v 4 on me is warm, musky vanilla that has amazing staying power and seems so comforting and complex and snuggly. It's truly becoming my number one scent, but all I have is a sniffie and an imps worth in bottle

Ahh... Elf v4 hates me - it's the kind of vanilla that turns into a horrible sharp plastic/chemical nastiness on my skin. I remember when I got my bottle, and I'd read reviews where people were saying similar things to you - warm, musky, snuggly - so imagine my disappointment when I tried it!

Anyway - enough about me

So there's some others in the BPAL vanilla range that have done the same thing on me, and therefore might be worth trying as dupes for you, for Elf v4 - using the logic that if Elf v4 was horrible on me but good on you, then the other vanillas that were horrible on me should be good on you! (this may be a special form of blonde logic )

Celeste - an LE from the Trading Post - notes are: Madagascan vanilla bean, vanilla orchid, orris root, and saffron. I find Celeste to be.. prettier in a more feminine way than Elf v4 - kind of like it's 'soft pink' rather than white. This has the saffron that you mentioned in Love's Philosophy (but I don't find Celeste spicy at all), and there's also a soft/slightly sweet waxy floral feel. The vanilla though.. pretty sure it's the same as Elf v4.

Phyllocrania Paradoxa v1 - a prototype - no notes, but some reiews mention a similarity to the vanilla in Elf v4 and a musky vibe.

Anti-Saloon League - Notes are: sarsaparilla and cream. The sarsarilla here gives ASL a fuzzy feel, but the vanilla is creamy.

None of those are going to be easy to find.. sorry!! But perhaps you could track down a tester just so you can test them out before hunting for a bottle

And I realise that this thread is supposed to be about finding GC equivalents, but I just can't think of a straight-up vanilla in the GC that's anything like Elf v4. Morocco would be one suggestion.. but you've probably already tried that one.

awww thank you for the kind words, arsinoe09!

Hmm.. so that's an old bottle of Crowley then, you think? Curious and curiouser! I thought I was doing well with my aging bottles being from 2007, but now I'm going to have to find some of the one you've got if it's older than that!!

I would love to know if that's actually the case though (ie that bottle is ooooooooold) so hopefully someone else will be able to confirm!

Hmm... arsinoe9 - are those Good Omens bottles newly ordered? Just wondering, because my bottles of Crowley (the oldest being 2007) have this label:

So I'm wondering if the artwork has changed on the Good Omens series?!? And... more leather, you say?

And I *think* that bottle of Smut is 2007 - the '06 and '08 labels had almost the same looking label (b&w photo with red splash) but with slight differences.

When this first goes on, I get a strong rum-like note that I really wasn't expecting! I guess it's from the bay laurel, although usually that comes out as softly spicy rather than rum-like on my skin.. so possibly it's the combination of balsam + bay laurel.

Aaaaaaanyway - that rum business goes away pretty quickly, and soon becomes a nice warm base. The leather here is quite a heavy leather - not quite warm and snuggly, and not quite black and shiny.. just somewhere in between, but I'd say brown rather than black leather. Oh ambergris - lovely, softly sweet and musky - it's the star of the show here, and with the leather it's just glorious.

I totally agree with the lovely Ms z_z up there ^^ because this really does remind me of Quincy Morris - the leather is definitely similar (if not the same) but it's the balsam + bay laurel that creates a point of difference with the herbal tones. And the soft spiciness reminds me of Spanked. Another comparison here would be Banshee Beat - this doesn't have that syrupy dark vanilla, so it's not really a BB-alike at all, but the balsam + bay laurel smells similar to the hemp component of Banshee Beat on my skin.

After about 30 minutes on my skin, Peter Quint has softened up and mellowed out quite nicely into a warm spicy leather. Like Spanked layered with Quincy Morris

I don't love this enough to buy a bottle - I pretty much have my leather needs sorted already - but if you've never had a chance to get any of BPAL's classic leather blends like Quincy Morris or Brom Bones, then Peter Quint should go on your things-to-try list

Eat Me is hard to find on the sales posts, because unfortunately the search engine here on the forum doesn't handle three-letter words.. and two-letter words are even worse! So you could try putting it in quotes like "Eat Me" and see if that gets a result, but if that doesn't work then you're probably stuck. Another option would be to make a new post in the 'Wanted' section - list the imps you're looking for, and people who have them available will contact you.. that might be quicker - they can come to you, rather than you searching for them!

Aside from Eat Me, the only other full-on black currant I can think of in the general catalogue would be Knave of Hearts - that one is 'crushed roses and black currant tarts'. There's also The Red Queen (wood notes with sweet, black-red cherries and currant) that might be worth a try. There's also Bordello - plum with amaretto, burgundy wine and black currant - it's lovely, but quite dark and rich - like a nice dark red wine kind of feel.

You could also investigate blackberry - like Betwitched - blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and dark musk - lovely, but quite voluptuous and dark. Glasgow was also mentioned earlier - that one is wild blackberry breezing over gentle rosy heather. I think you might like Hollywood Babylon - notes are: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry - so that's cherry rather than black currant but I've always thought it has a blackberry-ish feel and it's quite light and pretty with nice sweet tones.

It's nice to see you getting into this! I hope you have a great time with all the lovely smellies when your first little package of imps arrives!!

Excellent! I'm happy to hear you've managed to find some imps in the sales here - the other good thing about that is people generally ship things pretty quickly so you'll get them nice and fast

I thought of a couple more, because I saw in your intro post that you said Earl Grey tea (rather than green tea that I was thinking of before), sooooooooo:

Rapture - This has your bergamot, plus mandarin and neroli and jasmine so it could be a winner. Notes are: Moroccan rose, Sumatran rose, mandarin, Egyptian myrrh, night-blooming jasmine, bergamot and neroli thrust into Arabian musk.

Fae - This is another of those 'glowing' scents that BPAL does so well - it's very pretty with an soft ethereal feel. Notes are: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss.

Zephyr - personally the lemon in this was too much for me, and as meaganola mentioned the 'white' notes are risky when it comes to headaches, but it has a lot of the things you seem to like so it may be worth a try. Notes are: Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla.

But as you've seen by the great recommendations everyone's already offered, there's no shortage of lovely things to try! I hope you enjoy your travels through the smelly world of BPAL

Hi russalka! Welcome to the forum!!

You've definitely chosen the right place to explore a new option for your perfumes - a lot of people who can't wear regular perfume due to migraines/headaches find BPAL perfectly OK. However, it may take you some trial and error to find things that are wearable for you - certain notes may be problematic, no matter what type of perfume you try, but at least with BPAL you know exactly what you're getting because the notes are listed.. and there's no nasty chemicals in there which is definitely a good thing

I looked at the commercial perfumes you mentioned, and it seems you like the sweeter florals and soft/sweeter nectar type fruits like peach but also citrus notes. Sandalwood appears in two of your perfumes, jasmine comes up in three, musk in two (light/white musk), and the citrus notes reappear too. Fragrantica has this neat feature where it gives you a summary of the main accords in each perfume, so I looked at what it listed for your four (Daisy, Amor Amor, Weekend and Green Tea) and here's what you had:

ozonic (x2), white floral, powdery (x2), aquatic, fruity (x3), floral, woody, sweet (x2), citrus (x2), ,vanilla, rose, green, aromatic, fresh spicy.

So maybe that will be helpful to narrow down the kinds of notes you're drawn to? 'Powdery' would be the sandalwood, and the floral/sweet definitely matches up with jasmine.

Having said all that, it's a really good idea to branch out when it comes to BPAL - try at least one thing that's nothing like any of the perfumes you already have - it really is about creating scent experiences and many of us started out thinking we loved xyz smell but ended up falling for something completely different... for example, I started out with a lot of 'foody' blends because I love the smell of cakes and candy and chocolate (and BPAL does some incredible foody blends!) but then I realised that although I really do love the way they smell, I don't really like wearing them as perfume so I went back to the dark, resinous, incense-y smells that I have always loved and found my favourites there.

Here's some of my suggestions for you - I'm just going with things that mostly match up with what you've said you like for now because that's easy

Mouses's Long and Sad Tale - I recommend this a lot to new people, it's just so soft and pretty and it has sweet pea for the sweet floral you like plus a gorgeous powdery softness from the amber + sandalwood, with a base of creamy vanilla. Notes are: vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood.

Dorian - this is a huge favourite for many people, and it has the tea that you like plus vanilla and nice warm musks and a lemon citrus tone. Notes are: A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.

Euphrosyne - Two white/sweet florals, a lovely soft tea rose, and warm vanilla. Notes are: gardenia, tea rose, vanilla and jasmine.

Morocco - this might seem an odd choice, but it's gorgeous and soft with a lovely warm vanilla and gentle spices and the carnation is lovely. Notes are: Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia.

Phantasm - This seems like a great mix of notes for you - the tea is clean and fresh, it has a lemon citrus hit plus lovely sweet jasmine and a soft orange from the neroli. Notes are: green tea, lemon verbena, jasmine and neroli.

High-Strung Daisies - a beautiful gentle floral, it has a subtle sweetness but also a bit of soft spiciness from the carnation and pink pepper. Notes are: daisy, pink carnation, pink pepper, and sugar.

Tamora - this has the lovely soft powderiness from amber + sandalwood, plus a sweet soft peach and pretty vanilla - this is a real 'glowing' kind of scent, warm and lovely. Notes are: amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom and vanilla bean.

Rapture - This is a heady mix of florals and citrus with a beautiful exotic feel. Notes are: Moroccan rose, Sumatran rose, mandarin, Egyptian myrrh, night-blooming jasmine, bergamot and neroli thrust into Arabian musk.

Jezebel - this is a warm 'womanly' scent with a lovely dusky sweetness. Notes are: honey, roses, orange blossom and sandalwood.

Embalming Fluid - despite its name, this is a lovely clean one with an aquatic feel and a nice hit of citrus. Notes are: white musk, green tea, aloe and lemon.

Lyonesse - this has a slight aquatic feel, but the lily is gorgeous and the vanilla + musk give it a beautiful soft warmth. Ambergris is a note I think you may really like, although you possibly haven't encountered it before - it has a gorgeous soft, almost waxy sweetness. Notes are: Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss.

Vasilissa - this is seriously one of the prettiest BPALs I've encountered - it's soft, clean, sweet and powdery but also creamy - just gorgeous, the pink musk is sublime and the myrrh gives it some depth. Notes are: creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine.

Obatala - probably the most coconut-y of BPAL's coconut blends - this has sweet tones, but it's also creamy and slightly aquatic but very clean in feel - the coconut is gorgeous and reminds me very much of the pure coconut oil that I use. Notes are: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water.

I could go on... but I'll leave it there! Hopefully I've come up with some things that appeal. I heartily encourage you to try Kubla Khan though - I have a feeling you might like it, and although it has some of the notes you like it has a different feel to the perfumes you mentioned so it would be a good one to test yourself with. And of course there's Snake Oil - we always say everyone has to at least try this one, and I think you might like it. I see Black Pearl on your list of possible imps, and also Siren.. yep - good choices! Actually I don't think you can go too far wrong with pretty much all of the imps you're already considering.

Finally, there's a huge 'For Sale' section here on the forum - if you find your list of want-to-try imps is getting a bit long, you should definitely check out forum sales because you can pick up imps from there at very fair prices... and the more you try, the more you'll learn about what's going to work for you. And just a last bit of advice - BPAL oils need to be tried differently to commercial spray-on perfumes - when you first start out testing BPALs, just apply a little bit (swipe the imp's wand cap over your skin just once or twice) - you'll be surprised how just a teensy bit of oil packs a lot of fragrance. And give it time to meld with your skin - the oil will often smell quite different from initial application to even just five minutes later, and the play of individual notes will change over its wear length, so always allow the oil to go through its full dry-down on your skin before you decide whether or not you like it.

Good luck in your BPAL adventures! I hope you find some things you love

edited for formatting mess-up!

Oh my. OH MY! This is exactly what I had hoped for... dark and heavy, rich and sumptuous.

The vanilla is rich and strong - it's very much that vanilla extract smell more than a sweet vanilla smell - the type of vanilla extract that you pay a lot of money for... rich, slightly boozy, used by chefs with great caution and an eye dropper. But it's the type of vanilla I like... not too sweet, not really foody as such - just... pure bourbon vanilla.

The molasses definitely translates to a spicy rum smell - it reminds me of the Hot Buttered Rum that came out last year, but minus the butter. It also reminds me of the rum note in Rangoon Riptide - it's not a young sweet rum, it's a deep dark old spicy rum like you'd find in the captain's quarters of a pirate ship. But I can see why the description says 'fermented molasses' rather than 'rum' because this actually does smell like molasses when I really pay attention - it's the smoky tones of the molasses that make the difference, and there's also a slight menthol or medicinal tone at the very top that I recognise as being a feature of the way molasses smells. But overall, the effect is very rum-like. As others have said, this is going to become even more amazing with some age behind it, because the brashness of the molasses will mellow out over time and become more syrupy.

If you like your vanilla sweet and pretty as in blends like Celeste, this is not the BPAL for you. There's nothing soft and pretty about this at all really - it's a smack-you-in-the-face type of vanilla.. the kind of vanilla that stays in the room long after you've left. Luckily for me, that's exactly how I like my vanillas

edited because I despise typos!

I musr have some sort of freaky skin chemistry, because my impressions of this are quite different to the previous reviews!

At first, this smells like Johnson's Baby Shampoo, with herbs and almonds. If it had a colour, it would be gold (the oil actually is a golden yellow colour, but that's not what I mean). Actually... I know exactly what this smells like - California Poppy Hair Oil!! Does anyone even remember that?

Anyway, it starts off all shampoo smelling but then the herbs come out and it develops a definite green/leafy tone. I get the civet that others have mentioned - there's a slight smokiness here too, which could be some vetiver or maybe a musk of some sort. It ends up smelling kind of poopy. It's interesting and all, but... I don't really like it, and neither do my cats.

So like many of us.. I had to try this, because I was intrigued by it having no listed notes. When the update went live, people were talking about this one being about Christmas tree decorations - those shiny coloured metal ones - so I guess I was expecting something metallic? I dunno...

Anyways - nothing metallic! YAY! Like other reviewers have said, this is like candy - I'm guessing there's some pomegranate in here, some strawberry, some lime, and something else.. passionfruit, maybe? It has a tropical candy smell on my skin, rather than a fruity candy as others have mentioned. I'm pretty sure there's a musk in here too - or perhaps an amber or sandalwood? It's light, but I am definitely picking up a dry musky vvibe. I'm also not getting anything particularly 'fizzy' here - if anything, it's slightly dusty in tone - nor any ozone. Just... yummy candy smells, but not in an obviously foody way - it's like the smell of candy, without actually being the smell of candy. Like that makes sense, right? Heh.

This would have been the perfect BPAL to wear for my 6th birthday party - it's cute, in a girly bubblegummy lollipoppy kinda way. A fun scent

(2012 version)

Krampus is one of those Yule blends that has stayed pretty much the same from year to year - I have tried previous versions, and this 2012 batch holds no surprises but that's a good thing for those of us who like a bit of reliability

Krampus is also one of those BPALs where what you get is exactly what it says you're gonna get - sinister red musk and black leather like POW right there in your face, with the dusty rags and wooden switches playing along as sidekicks. On me, it starts off with a blast of red musk and then the leather comes out on top for a while (which I prefer, the leather here is really warm and lovely) and then they battle it out for supremacy for a while but ultimately the red musk wins. It does eventually dry down into a lovely warm musky leather, and even develops a slightly sweet tone on my skin, but Krampus is definitely not for the feint-hearted - it's bold and ballsy and hot and mean and firey and ferocious. Do not let it near little children.

Miss Addie would have been right at home with those other pretty ladies of BPAL from The District

I grabbed a half-decant of this, knowing it wouldn't be for me, but the note combo sounded so lovely that I really wanted to have a little to try anyway. And I'm glad I did, because it's just so pretty - kind of classy, very feminine, slightly luscious yet genteel.

Mostly what I get here when I first apply the oil is the gorgeous waxy vanilla orchid as a mid note, with the neroli and apple blossom as the top notes. The red sandalwood is a little lost inside the sweetness of the top notes, but it does provide a nice warm base and adds a slight duskiness that cuts nicely through the mix. I'm not picking up on the star anise all that much - it's very subtle - and I'm getting no clove at all.

After about 15 minutes on my skin though, all the subtleties that I noticed at first have faded and I'm left with... uhm... dusky vanilla peach. Really? Peach? Yep! And after about 30 minutes, it's pretty much completely gone - I can barely find the spot on my arm where I applied it. So overall... lovely, but fleeting.

OK.. so you know when something new comes out and you read the notes and go "OMGWTFBBQ!!!11!! I MUST HAVE THIS" because it sounds that good? Well.. that was me, when Mrs Palmer's was announced. So when I finally managed to get hold of some.. was I disappointed? Nope!

This is by far my favourite of all the BPTP atmos that I have ever tried.. hands down. And that's saying something, because I've got some beauties. O the surface it's a beautiful warm, sensuous blend of patchouli and leather and vanilla but then you notice the tobacco and oakmoss just flirting in and out of the air and that's what brings it up to a whole new level. It makes the room smell cosy and inviting.

I do find that sometimes it gives me a slight 'burning plastic' smell when I've first sprayed it - it's weird though, because sometimes I get that and sometimes I don't.. I guess it's just the nuances of the vanilla.

The only thing annoying me about Mrs Palmer's is that it reminds me very much of a BPAL perfume and I cannot think what it is! If I manage to work it out, I will come back and edit this review.

Rating: 10 out of 5.

So, does anybody else smell Oregano??

Yep! This smells like the fresh herbs that I chop up when I'm cooking spaghetti bolognaise... oregano, thyme, a bay leaf, and rosemary. And yet no herb-related notes are listed! Curious and curiouser

Anyways.. when I first sprayed this in the air and took in a big whiff, I kinda wrinkled my nose because.. well... I didn't like it. Mostly because it really truly smelled like that combination of herbs I listed ^^ and whilst that's a fine smell when it's in the pan with some garlic and onion, on its own not so much. It took about ten minutes for that herb blast to die down, and then I get ginger... not sweet ginger, but spicy hot ginger, and the hay.. that's about it, I really can't smell anything else.

Overall it smells like herbs + ginger + hay + wet grass. Not my thing at all, but it is quite an invigorating smell.

La Belle au bois dormant = Sleeping Beauty

I would suggest you explore the Ars Amatoria collection, and read some of the descriptions - Beth has chosen some beautiful pieces of prose to honour with her perfumes. One that always brings to mind a voluptuous goddess is Bien Loin D'Ici:

This is the house, the sacred box,

Where, always draped in languorous frocks,

And always at home if someone knocks,

One elbow into the pillow pressed,

She lies, and lazily fans her breast,

While fountains weep their soulfullest:

This is the chamber of Dorothy.

Fountain and breeze for her alone

Sob in that soothing undertone.

Was ever so spoiled a harlot known?

With odorous oils and rosemary,

Benzoin and every unguent grown,

Her skin is rubbed most delicately.

The flowers are faint with ecstasy.

The Scarlet Woman, aglow with sensual indolence: red musk, benzoin, caramel accord, golden honey, and spiced Moroccan unguents.

But another is Le Léthé (oh, the prose for this one is stunning), and also Bordello (A decadent, deep perfume, lusty and luxuriant. The scent evokes images of velvet-lined Old West cathouses, tightly laced corsets, rustling petticoats and coquettish snarls of pleasure) - for me, it conjures up a visual of those olde-time curvy saloon gals overflowing from their bustiers

Excolo is another good one to explore, with all the Goddess types in there, but you'll also find some in Bewitching Brews. Oh - and also, Blood Pearl... but more for the description than name - lustrous, sanguine, soft and lavish

I was an idiot and did not put my address i n the comments field on paypal with my order. I emailed my address to

paypal@blackphoenixalchemylab.com. Could someone please tell me if I did the right thing? Thanks.

Is your address different to the one that's in PayPal? If not, you'll be OK... PayPal payments include your shipping info for the seller so it will be on there for the Lab. Check the email that you got from PayPal (the payment sent confirmation you receive) and it should show your shipping info on that.

But if you've emailed the Lab as well, then you've covered yourself just in case - although the correct email for general customer service stuff is answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com

I really wish the Gaiman line did come with imps. I am a huge Gaiman fan. But the money all goes to charity so if I can scrape together the money to buy a few more bottles I suppose it won't be the end of the world! The Good Omens bunch sound especially good. War does sound good, but Crowley is also really tempting....

You can actually get some of them from the CBDLF here - not all the Gaiman lines are available though

Crowley is gorgeous! A definite must-try... have a look around the For Sale area here on the forum, you'll probably be able to find decants of most of these things

I would suggest you check out the Ars Amatoria line - in particular; Debauchery, Perversion, Depraved, Ravenous and Desire - they are all very RAWR

There's also things like Whip, Lust and Vice that would be worth a look. The trick with BPAL is to step outside of what you think might be good, and take some risks! Many people will tell you they discovered their favourite BPALs completely by accident.. by trying things they never expected to like

Oh - and there's a huge For Sale section here on the forum - that's a great way to pick up a stack of imps without paying too much, so you can try lots of things! Welcome to the forum

BiancaSlate - you could try using the search function here:--> http://bpal.org/search/ - if you put in a note (or note combo) it will search for any BPAL with that note listed. It will bring up things from the General Catalogue (GC) that are still available, but just be aware that it will also show Limited Edition blends too and those will be no longer available (but totally findable, in most cases, via the 'For Sale' section here on the forum)

As others have said, I think Autumn Lace goes over to the same side of the Lace family as Black Lace, Tattered Lace and Mourning Lace - it's dark and melancholy, kind of mournful - it feels... sad.

The first thing that hits my nose is the cognac - KAPOW! BAM! Batman style!! It was a little bitter at first, which is probably the tobacco and/or laudanum, but after only a minute or two it started softening up and the incense and leaves started appearing. Ten minutes in, and the cognac has warmed up beautifully.. all soft and yummy. The leaves are woodsy - definitely brown autumn leaves, it's the smell you get when you walk through the park atop a carpet of fallen leaves. The linen note is definitely there - I recognise it from other Lace blends, but it's stiff and dark here - not white and soft/clean smelling at all. The tobacco is still there - it's quite bright on my skin, and the musk/incense combo is giving a lovely smokey backdrop.

Thirty minutes in and really all I can find now is the cognac, musk, incense and linen with a remnant of tobacco . The leaves have gone and the black tea never really showed up. It's developed a slightly bitter cologne-like vibe, which I attribute to the laudanum still lingering and brightening the cognac. And finally, the sugar shows up! That was a nice surprise - it's changed things completely.. that bitterness has almost gone now.

I was hoping for more musk/incense depth - the tobacco stops this from darkening on my skin, and when the sugar arrived it went slightly sweet, so it never quite gets to the place I want it to go - which would be dark/deep musk/incense/cognac. And I just can't shake the melancholy feeling of this one - it's kind of harshing my mellow. Overall, I find Autumn Lace to be very olde-worldy, and nice in its own way, but not really anything remarkable on my skin.

I'm a dude and I like woodsy earthy stuff (including leather) I'm drawn to Rogue cause of the patchouli and earthyness or druid for earthynessness. The pics for them are ladi,es though so, there's that. Any feedback on the two i mentioned or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks folks!

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that the RPG blends (or some of them?) have both a female and a male version of the label art??

 

 

 

The label art doesn't concern me just if it was tailored to be one or the other. I'm beginning to understand things a bit more and I see that much of it depends on body chemistry and personal taste.

That's very true - it's really all about personal taste and what works/doesn't work on your skin - and honestly that's something I really love about BPAL.. any person, regardless of gender or whatever else, can wear any BPAL and totally make it work. I personally don't pay that much attention to the label art, in terms of it influencing whether I see a blend as masculine/feminine but I guess it might communicate something.. even if it's only subconsciously. I just thought I'd mention about the different version(s) of label art - I think the RPG blends in particular are designed to be more character-specific than gender-specific

Jono - you might like to take a stroll through Rapaccini's Garden collection - a lot of those have that 'attached to the ground' kind of thing going on.

I'm a dude and I like woodsy earthy stuff (including leather) I'm drawn to Rogue cause of the patchouli and earthyness or druid for earthynessness. The pics for them are ladi,es though so, there's that. Any feedback on the two i mentioned or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks folks!

I'm sure I read somewhere that the RPG blends (or some of them?) have both a female and a male version of the label art??

Crowley is magnificent, but personally I find it to be more 'feminine' when new.. it's only after a few months of aging that it starts to get manly and awesome

OK you've already got Sin - good choice! and I second the rec of Kathmandu, and also Velvet (which isn't as chocolate-y as it sounds) - sadly (for me, anyways) many of BPALs sandalwood blends have floral notes that don't like me, so I haven't tried a lot of those. but here's some that may be worth a look:

Lorelei is nice: neroli, sandalwod and ylang ylang - soft, with a really pretty soft/sweet prettiness from the neroli

Anne Bonny: Indonesian red patchouli, red sandalwood and frankincense (warm and a bit kickass)

Plunder: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn and nutmeg (although on me, this is more about the spices than then sandalwood)

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale: vanilla, amber, sweet pea and sandalwood (just so pretty, dusty soft loveliness)

Maybe you could get her an imp pack? That way she could try a few different styles of BPAL sandalwood

Ooh - also there's Violens - five sandalwoods, dusty leather, and light musk - and also Miss Lupescu - musk, white amber, patchouli, ho wood, cypress, almond blossom, golden sandalwood and strange spices - (neither of these are available in imp-form)

And if you can find it - from Carnaval Diabolique there's Hand of Glory - beeswax, leather, black pepper, saltpeter, nutmeg, Mysore sandalwood and oak bark - this is an awesome sandalwood/spice mix with the beeswax giving it a lovely soft glow.

ETA there's a thread in the Recommendations topic for sandalwood here

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Does anyone know which Blue Moon has a label with artwork of the Cat and the Fiddle nursery rhyme on it? I know it's not 2007 or 2009 so it has to be either 2004 or 2012 but I can't figure out which.

Blue Moon 2004 is very rare, so it's probably not that one... and I'm not 100% sure about this, but a couple of Lunacy blends I have from 2004 don't have picture labels - just the old-style white label/black writing, so there's that too

You've probably got a 2012 Blue Moon - but there was three... a regular Blue Moon, and Blauer Mond (Brian's creation).. and then also the one from Puddin' - Luna Azul

Luna Azul had a black bat flying over a moon, so it's not that one...I'm not sure if that's helpful, but I'd say you've got either Beth's Blue Moon or Brian's Blauer Mond - both 2012. I think Blauer Mond has the label you're talking about - maybe look up reviews for those two and see if you can pick which one is yours?