ephemere

It's not a very popular scent, but I've fallen head over heels in love with Burning Vulva. It's so hard to find, though! Could anyone please help me out with something a little more readily available, that has a similar ginger/orange blossom/sandalwood vibe going on? Thank you so much!

This is the first BPAL oil I had to wash off. It was so gorgeous in the bottle -- rich, deep, dark Irish coffee -- but turned awful on my skin. It's so strange because coffee and most woods are fine on me, but this just turned into a dank, musty kind of smell in a matter of minutes, as if I'd burned off the coffee and was left with moldy, wet books. Why like this, skin chemistry?!? I might end up just keeping a little bit to sniff and finding someone to whom I can gift the rest. Sigh. I had such high hopes for this one, too.

Two weeks is not too bad. Thanks so much, for the answer and the link! (Ah, looks like I was looking in the wrong forum /)_(\ Ah, sorry, mods, please move this if it's okay!)

Hoping this is the right place to post this-- I'm sorry if this has been answered before; if so, I can't find it! I wanted to ask if anyone here who's in Australia could help me out with the average ship times from US and EU locations to Australian addresses. I'm trying to figure out whether it would be better to have some packages sent to my US address or my AU one. Thanks!

Five minutes after I made my payment for an order including a bottle of Burning Vulva I had that awful feeling of panicked dread when you know, just know, that you bought something you shouldn't. I was convinced it was going to be awful on me. Pepper! Oakmoss! Balsam! Thankfully, I was wrong, and Burning Vulva has just shot up to my top five favorites. It starts off as this rich golden ginger before turning into a -- surprise -- beautiful, sophisticated floral that melts into a creamy sandalwood/vanilla scent. For some reason it reminds me of a scene described in one of Ursula K. le Guin's Earthsea books: dragons wheeling in a golden sky. Love. ♥

Very intense almonds and roses! Considering how much of a disaster roses usually are on me (with the exception of Peacock Queen) this is surprisingly beautiful, especially a few hours in when the caramel starts to come out. One of few floral scents I can wear, maybe because it has a strong gourmand element too. I like it so much I ended up buying a bottle.

This was such a playful, pretty, bright scent in the imp that when I put this on and it turned into LEMON AIR FRESHENER OF DOOM on my skin I almost groaned aloud in disappointment. I could smell faint hints of chocolate and lavender trying to make an appearance, but the LEMON OF DOOM refused to give them any space. The lemon faded after a few hours, but it took just about the whole scent with it, leaving only the faintest hint of chocolate if I pressed my nose to my wrist and inhaled very deeply. I guess this is a little bit like Schrodinger's Cat, then? In terms of wavefunction collapse, I mean -- apparently my Schrodinger's Cat is pretty dead.

Warm, cozy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon. 2010 version-- How much do I love this scent? Let me count the ways. (Or not, otherwise we could be here all day...!) In the bottle, this is a straightforward scent: ginger, just that. On my wrist it becomes gingerbread liberally topped with brown sugar and lots of cinnamon and cloves. After a while, the spices and the sugar develop into something incredibly comforting and lovely and warm; I won't say it's creamy, because the softness of cream is different, but it's... Well, if scents were the sounds of instruments, it's as if the orchestra of this blend stopped trying to impress the listener and simply started playing in a rich harmony. I get wafts of a deep caramel and sweetened spices. In the last stage, the caramel dominates and becomes more buttery and creamy, and instead of spicy ginger I get fruits whose main note is "floral fruit" rather than "fruity sweet". So so so so much love. I need more bottles. Moooooooore.

This is the first BPAL rose that I actually like, I'm so pleased! BPAL's other roses for some reason turn into either crumbly powder or strong soap on me. This one doesn't. It stays true to itself: a perfect rose whose scent is almost crystalline in its purity and clarity. After some time on the skin, it warms into a more approachable rose but loses none of its flawless beauty. Absolutely gorgeous. Definitely on the bottle list for sure; I hope BPAL comes out with a version of this for this year.

The Land of Plenty, also called Luilekkerland – the Lazy, Luscious Land: milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine. This smells the same on my skin as it does in the vial, which is good, because it smells quite nice in the vial I get honey, oat cakes, and toasted nuts (no milk -- thank goodness). Of the BPAL scents I've tried, the ones that mention wine tend to go floral on me -- this one doesn't. It's a delicious, warm, golden scent, and after a while sweet almond comes out to play as well. I'm not sure I'll be getting a bottle, even though I like it; it's a little too sweet and warm, even for me. But I'm enjoying my imp.

I had such hopes for this, because so many of the reviews I read were positive, but -- it turns soapy on me. Very strong, sharp soap; at the start there's a hint of green there (which I initially hoped was the rose trying to reassert itself) but it eventually gets overwhelmed by so much soap. After a while it turns powdery, which I'm not a huge fan of, either. Oh, Spellbound If you like florals though, please don't let this review put you off! Most florals don't play well with my skin anyway. It's beautiful in the vial, just not on me.

I'm not sure I'll have anything coherent to say about this because I'm so very very very in love with it, just trying to describe it has me devolving into keysmash. Both the 2007 and 2009 editions are absolutely gorgeous and I put them on when I am especially in need of comfort. To me, though, 2009 is more cinnamon-y than 2007, and 2007 has quite a bit more brown sugar. The cocoa surfaces more noticeably in 2007 than in 2009. Still. Both are just. Pure love.

Dark chocolate over the most beautiful, floral red wine. I was a little worried when I first tried this, because I couldn't seem to smell the chocolate at all! But this time around it's this beautiful dark velvety cocoa blanket over the plummy flowers of the wine. So in love with this. It's definitely going on my bottle list. So far all chocolate BPAL scents have been so good; I can't decide whether I like this or El Dia de Los Reyes 2007 more.

A heady, strong floral. My skin seems to warm it up and deepen it, which is nice. I wouldn't call it something that would make me sleepy, but it evokes images of settling down to a luxurious massage in a spa filled with hothouse flowers. My mother, when she first smelled it on me, said it was like rich almost-burnt brown sugar, which I thought was interesting. After some time the wrist on which I put more on (I experiment with quantities too; I put more on my left wrist than my right wrist when I'm testing scents) smelled like a much more sophisticated and complex version of Elizabeth Arden Red Door (!) while the other wrist has this lovely almost creamy quality to it.