jayne

I'm certain the mall scents...lack creativity. I prefer not to smell like everyone else.

 

Besides, I can not stand how [fancy house, commerical perfumes] are mass marketed with little to no real inspiration.

 

 

I'm sorry but that sentiment makes me really angry.

 

This is exactly what you accuse BPAL of doing. So maybe you should sit back a minute and think of whether we should be just as mad at you.

 

Beth takes enormous amounts of pride in her work and will take YEARS to perfect a blend. It is RIDICULOUSLY insulting to say that she just slaps together fragrance oils like a generic chain candle maker. You should have read the FAQ and About Us sections of the site, and the FAQ section of this board before you started making judgements.

You know... I would really take what you said more seriously if BPAL didn't produce hundreds of fragrances every year for the exact same (very low) price. The people on Luca Turin's blog had a point about the basic logistics/economics of it all. I'm trying to do the reading suggested by some very nice commenters but so far I'm still left uneasy.

And for the record, while I did quote people who compared bpal to velveeta, I never endorsed their view.

I do think the lab buys component oils from various sources, but I strongly suspect (I can't say I know because I don't work for them) that they do NOT buy from the mass production synthetic oil companies that sell fragrances to Yankee or wholesale their products to every bath and body producer mixing things up on the web. For one thing, I think Beth has too strong a background in traditional perfumery (there's a thread somewhere that talks about where she studied, I'm sure someone less lazy than I will find it for you), and for another, bpal simply doesn't smell like those oils once applied to the skin..

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Certain blends that bpal produces are much more likely to smell like a Yankee Candle shop than others. I don't think any perfumer out there can produce the scent of candy corn or funnel cakes or the like without using a lot of synthetics. Some people love those scents and they can be fun and they sell, so the lab continues to produce them. Some people (like me) tend to dislike them and that’s fine too. Part of loving perfume is loving the way in which it creates a mood or a signature scent. If we all smelled the same it would be no fun at all! For me, perfume is very much tied up with identity. It’s why I tend to acquire less scents than lots of my compatriots here. I have a specific scent profile that is “me” and I stick to it...

 

(Ps. The inside of my imp box does smell like the miasma from a candle store. Luckily, once the oils are applied they smell great. I think any time lots of strong scents mingle you get that dreaded Yankee Candle fog. That’s why having a box that closes is so important!)

This was really helpful. Thank you so much. Your comment felt really...honest.

(And thanks to other people who responded! I'm kind of overwhelmed right now with links and comments...)

Well, I went to makeupalley and picked out the most popular, generally appealing ones I could find: Snake Oil, Dorian, White Rabbit, Old Morocco, Dana O'Shee, and Vixen. I was really hoping to find a smooth smokey lavender but I didn't want to risk it early on without being more educated.

And if you're lucky enough to live near one of the stores that stocks bpal or a location that does a monthly Will Call, you CAN try things for free! There just aren't as many boutiques stocking bpal as their are malls or department stores stocking the major brands.

Oh that would be really cool. I live in a larger city, so it might be an option. I looked on the website but I couldn't find any listing for boutiques that carry BPAL. Is there a page anywhere that has this?

I'm certain the mall scents...lack creativity. I prefer not to smell like everyone else.

Besides, I can not stand how [fancy house, commerical perfumes] are mass marketed with little to no real inspiration.

I'm sorry but that sentiment makes me really angry.

Then in the future, you might wish to research your purchases more thoroughly before making them. In this case, you did not even look up the opinion of the perfume reviewer you regard so highly before making a luxury purchase?

 

You also might have noticed that there are numerous second-hand bpal sales in various places where you could pick up gently used samples for smaller prices which also might have been a better initial investment for you.

To be fair, I have his book and I tried to see if BPAL was reviewed but it wasn't listed. It wasn't until later that I thought to look in the archives of his (now defunct) blog.

I agree with people who say I need to give the samples a try before freaking out. Maybe I've been overreacting.

$25 is probably equivalent to a teaspoon of 1 scent of Chanel perfume diluted in alcohol. But you can make the judgment call on luxury and worth for yourself, I suppose.

Erm... This is really besides the point of the discussion, but you can get a 1 ml sample of Chanel perfume for $3. You can also get a sample of pure parfum oil for as little as $9.

Usually though, I just go to department stores and boutiques and test things for free or ask for for samples. Sales ladies are often pretty generous.

You'll find a 9 page FAQ thread here discussing this:

http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=11584...

Thanks for the link, naeelah. I'll check it out.

6 imps?

 

That isn't much of an investment to worry over. You will either like them or not.

$25 on perfume samples is a luxury for me, so it does matter.

I would have to ask if you have hard proof that Guerlain uses natural oils? How much alcohol does Guerlain put into their perfume? How does it react to your skin?

I don't mind that Guerlain uses synthetics, but they are synthetics crafted by perfumers. I personally believe there is artistry to it. But alternatively, I can appreciate a small-scale perfumer who blends natural essential oils. I value that side of things too and definitely see the appeal. But it's that middle ground, of pre-blended synthetic oils that are found in Yankee Candles, that I want to avoid.

By the way, alcohol has never bothered my skin and I don't notice it after the first minute or two, although I know that isn't true for everybody.

Jayne, I think its all about taste, and where else can you find so many different scents that are affordable enough for anyone to try?

Well... I'm not trying to disparage BPAL or anything. Honestly, I just started learning about it recently. But I've been buying $3 samples from The Perfumed Court for the past year. I can get just about anything from there. BPAL is actually a little more expensive.

I don't think it matters if BPAL makes the oils they use. I paint and certainly don't make my own paints. I could, but why would anyone want to waste the time when they could focus on mixing what's already there?

I guess I've just been immersed in the world of traditional perfumery for awhile. People take a lot of pride in craftsmanship, on assembling their perfumes molecule by molecule or using the finest essential oils. Maybe I am being a bit prejudiced...

Sorry, that was unclear... I want to know if BPAL blends commercial fragrance oils to make their products. Are they essential oils that Beth makes herself? Are they essential oils that she buys? Are they synthetic oils made by BPAL in chemistry labs?

So, some background: I started getting into perfumes about a year and a half ago. Some of my favorite frags are Chanel's Sycomore, Histoires des Parfum's 1826, Ormonde Jayne's Ormonde Woman, and Frederic Malle's Musc Ravageur. I enjoy oils too and have bought samples/bottles from CB I Hate Perfume, Kiehl's, Memoire Liquide, Kai, and Amouge.

Recently friend told me about BPAL, I looked around a bit, thought it looked fun, and ordered 6 samples of popular oils.

After my order, I remembered to go to the archives of a blog by perfume expert and critic Luca Turin. I just did a quick search for BPAL and came up with a really interesting conversation. Luca had never heard of the company, but his wife and colleague Tania Sanchez had. She wrote:

You know, if you love BPALs and not Guerlains, that's a matter of taste, and no argument will sway you. I mean, if you loved a grilled cheese sandwich with Velveeta and Wonder bread, and then Daniel Boulud came to you and said, "That is crap!" would you stop loving it? No, you would not! What kind of a spineless cheese-sandwich lover would? What matters is that you use what moves you to understand yourself and your loves and hatreds, and then as you delve further in, you identify what it is about the thing you love that you love the most, and you seek it out in other things, inbever better iterations as what's good about it becomes clear to you, and maybe eventually your tastes develop and change, but we all start somewhere.

 

But personally: the BPALs. I didn't like them one bit. A very sweet woman sent mea load of samples once, and I didn't have the heart to tell her then. I sort of hope she isn't reading now. They're like the miasma that extrudes out of a Yankee Candle shop. And they are most certainly not "natural", although I don't think they ever made the claim.

Yikes. I thought the wonderbread grilled cheese and Yankee Candle comparisons were brutal... until I came across a thread in this forum happily comparing BPAL oils to Yankee Candle.

Also in Luca's blog many commenters (many of whom are perfumers themselves) said things like:

"Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs" is in the business of blending not lovely molecules or essential oils but already produced fragrance oils into well...blends. For example a Halloween blend consisting of: damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein. All distinct fragrance oils. Sweet red apple and warm pumpkin are a hard give that this is frag oil territory. From the look and from the price list (all 200 priced the same?) it's clear that's going on. Synthetic perfumery accords vary wildly in price (look up the lists at The GoodScents Company)...as do essential oils. There is a reason beyond hype for at least some of the priciness of haute perfumerie." -jae

"they're an etailer - they blend existing fragrance oils made by companies for use in lotions etc. and use those as perfume blends. it's not bad stuff by any means, and they have quite a dedicated following,but they're not using the types of products that you make to create their perfumes, nor are they using all naturals." -risa

I came to the board to look for answers and I found the thread that talks about whether or not the oils are natural. The reticence from the Lab on the subject told me that they most likely weren't.

So... Can anyone tell me more about the general source of the oils? I'm sure a lot of people are going to say things like "that's ridiculous! they don't know what they are talking about! they don't know bpal at all!" but do you have hard proof they are wrong?