ayelienne

This started off very rootlike (vetiver/patch) with fuzzy resin (myrrh) and dying dark red roses that are a few days away from being thrown out. Very sophisticated. After a while, things settled down with the rootlike and slight decay notes, and the vanilla emerged, morphing this during drydown into a creamy and slightly sweet vanilla/myrrh/rose blend.

I love this! Long ago, there was a BPAL called "Lawn Gnome" that had red currant and vanilla cream among its notes; The Pearl in the Volcano is reminiscent of that blend to me, but even better (and sexier!)

It smells a little bit sweet, a little "fuzzy" (red currant always smells a bit fuzzy to me), and the myrrh & vetiver ground it in a really subtle, quiet way. The rice milk and red amber cream add soft, creamy roundness. I think this is going to keep on improving with age.

Definitely a keeper, and a fairly unique entry in the BPAL catalog.

There are two BPALs that come to mind and both are pretty HTF, so apologies in advance they are:

Old Moon (2011 Lunacy) - The scent of things drifting just on the edge of memory, hiding in shadowed corners. Old, yellowing books, dust-covered toys pushed to the back of the attic, windows obscured by thick, thorny vines, letters discarded, and photographs of people long-forgotten.

and

Adam (from the Only Lovers Left Alive series) - Adam, our suicidally romantic scoundrel. His scent is a palette of somber colors, melancholy memories, and lupine, savage beauty: black leather, pale sandalwood, ambergris accord, and the memory of a long-lost Victorian fougère.His internal life seems to be reflected in his lair, so his perfume also possesses the scent of the wood of his guitars, the rosin from his violin bow, the musty wool of neglected Oriental carpets, the plastic, metal, and magnetic tape of his reel-to-reel, the dust that permeates everything.

It doesn't have a note list, but Black Cat is usually interpreted as mainly mint and rose, although the reviews are a bit all over the place. You can read them here: http://www.bpal.org/topic/4935-black-cat/page-1

Seconding the Black Cat recommendation!

Hmmm ..

this is not really what I was looking for.

 

I was looking for a recommendation for pure Egyptian Musk,

not neccesarily from BPAL.

You may want to post your query to the Other Perfumes You Love thread to get some suggestions beyond the Lab. That said, if you wanted to try a BPAL, I'd suggest you check out Bastet, which is just IMO, and has Egyptian Musk as a note. The description is: Luxuriant amber, warm Egyptian musk, fierce saffron and soft myrrh, almond, cardamom and golden lotus.

This is so beautiful! I'm reminded of the wildflowers in Papow! but in Catch Me, Dad, the wildflowers are softer and more muted (perhaps with the addition of lavender?) and the flowers are suspended in that beautiful sense of atmosphere/space that I find in my favorite BPAL/BPTP blends. This is definitely an outdoors, late summer scent. It's warm, slightly sweet, somewhat earthy, somewhat floral and completely happy making. DH swooned a bit and thought it was one of my "fancy French perfumes." Masterfully done. I love it.

Black Taffeta has been lingering around the edges of my collection since it was released and has spent pretty much all its tenure in the "age/maybe swap" pile, so I decided that today was Black Taffeta's day of judgement in my collection.

Sometime during the first hour of wear, I decided that this was going to be swapped, due to the frequently aforementioned bitter/musty feel of the geranium and something else.

During the second hour of wear, the bitter/musty note settled down, and a dry, slightly sweet patchouli-tinged feel began to emerge. It was at this point, I decided to keep a decant for myself and swap the bottle.

About 30 minutes after I decanted an imp's worth for myself, the bourbon vanilla absolute and patchouli began their dance with the black and white musks, and I suddenly I realized that I couldn't stop huffing my arm. What is this sorcery?!

I'm now well within the third hour of wear, and at this point, I've slathered even more onto myself because oh my gods is this good - dry, warm, slightly woody, vanillic patchy musk. No question I'm keeping the bottle now. It's beautiful.

I absolutely love the dry down on this blend, yet I hardly ever wear it. I retested again today and while I will reaffirm my love of the dry down phase, I am finding the pear and its accompanying notes to be very juicy sweet, probably a little too much so for me. It's beautiful, though and definitely worth tracking down if you are a fan of candy-sweet / lightly incense-y blends.

does anyone know if the salons are still available to buy, i want to get Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree and i cant find the salon listed on the website.

Hi there - the General Catalog Salon series was discontinued earlier this year. You may be able to find a decant or bottle in the sales/swaps forums-

ETA: You could also post an ISO (in search of) request in the Wanted forum -

Here's a couple recs that might be a little more musky, but to me still have a dark, sweet, resiny vibe....

If you can find it, you should definitely try Snake Charmer, which is Arabian musk and exotic spices slinking through Egyptian amber, enticing vanilla, and a serpentine blend of black plum, labdanum, ambrette, benzoin and black coconut.

also, this might be further afield, but have you tried Blood Kiss? That's definitely got a dark, sweet, earthy kind of vibe - Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk.

ETA: and I agree with posters above that Fairy Market might be exactly what you're looking for, but finding some isn't easy these days.

I recently got a backup for Cloister Graveyard in the Snow and must get another bottle of Three Gorgons which is amazing. I love this area, but am consoling myself with visions on what will replace it

I think I've lost my marbles. According to my notes when I placed a Yule order back in November 2010 I ordered a bottle of Mother Ginger, I've got the notes I made on testing it so I clearly received the scent, but I can't find it anywhere on the bpal.org/search or going through the review section. I apologise if I'm being amazingly dense, but can any body point me in the right direction?

Here you go - link

My Dad really liked Dorian (which I believe Beth made for Puddin'), the only problem was that he would use it like a cologne splash and go through 10 ml bottles in a matter of weeks. He never did get the hang of "Dad, you only need a little bit" and stopped wearing it

If I were getting a GC six pack for a guy, I'd pick:

Jolly Roger

Nero

Incantation

Black Forest

Dee

Dorian

This gives a nice range, from warm and cozy (Dee) to fresh and clean (Jolly Roger) and several points between.

This smells like shopping for a Christmas tree with mom and dad on one of those crappy weather kind of evenings that you get in December in Northeastern Ohio.

I didn't plan to buy this when I saw it go up, but then I got a phone call from my mom the morning of the 14th to tell me that my grandmother had died overnight. She always used to tell us that she was born on a Friday the 13th, and then she died on a Friday the 13th. I knew that I needed to get this, and the beautiful label gave it an even deeper resonance. This blend is darkly sweet and exotically spicy, complex and perfect. It makes me feel happy and sad and bittersweet.

Top notes - hideous on me, likely it's the hyacinth and moonflower. I feel an averse reaction to hyacinth, my subconscious cautioning against the recollection of some childhood memory better left in the fog of the past. Fine. The opening fanfare is a blast of floral.

Not long after, the orris and white ginger hold hands as they emerge ahead of the heavy florals, making this slightly more tolerable. All the while, the cucumber note just sits there crying a pool of cucumber-scented tears, drenching us all.

It's watery (cucumber), with a translucent, fragrant rootiness (ginger, orris), and heavy florals (hyacinth, moonflower, lily). It morphs fairly quickly and fades fairly quickly, leaving a very light blanket of floral spice and moss.

While it's not one that I would keep in my collection, I sure it is stunning on others.

I think Stardust fits the bill really well.

I was really struck by Quicksilver Phoenix, and it was quite unexpected. It made me think of my dad when I was little, circa 1970s. I remember him wearing Canoe for Men, so I went to look up the notes for that.

Launched By The Design House Of Dana In 1932, Canoe Is Classified As A Refined, Spicy, Lavender, Amber Fragrance.

Now, I really can't say with any authority that I've made the proper connection, as I know he wore other colognes, but there are definite similarities in the descriptions.

I guess my review is that it's striking me as one of the more masculine lavender blends. I don't know how often I'll wear it, but it's such a vivid scent memory for me that I want to keep it around.

This is an interesting blend. I smell underripe banana, some kind of wood, and waxy tropical blooms/greenery. For a brief while, there was a really dry, almost hay smell, but that seemed to fade as the wood setttled in. I don't think this one's for me, but I have a friend who I think will love this.

Kejiaron, you can also check out the Click and Ship thread to get a feel for approximately what order dates the lab is currently shipping. Right now, it looks like orders placed 11/3-5 or so are getting their click and ship notices.

You might want to go check the reviews for Sea of Glass; that might be exactly what you're looking for...

Add me to the Manhattan chorus! If you like vanilla, you may also want to consider Black Opal; to me, the vanilla provides the femininity but since it has a cool undertone, there's a sense of detachment as well.

I tested Serpents... today, and my first thought was that it reminded me of Budding Moon. I took a look at the note list and didn't see any common notes, and as Serpents... dried down, it was clear that they were more kissing cousins The bright sweetness is similar in both, but while Budding Moon stays sweet and slightly floral on me, the sweetness in Serpents... settles down quite a bit and there is no floral note, rather a really pretty musky herbal scent. It's more gender neutral than Budding Moon and overall is a quite nice blend. Glittering indeed!

You may want to try Manhattan, which to me has a power/control vibe. Also, some of the conjure bag (voodoo) oils might fit the bill.

I've been wearing Stardust every New Year's since 2006, so I'll be keeping this tradition tonight