Honor

If you really want to be certain, you can always email the lab to ask them specifically whether the component is present. *nods*

Indeed. Maybe if you tried them on the same day it was something else that day you encountered. Other then that, I'm stumped.

Two things come to my mind w/ the oils mentioned: 1. all of the oils you mentioned seem "spicey". I haven't smelled Snake Oil, but I know the others to be such. Patchouli very well could be a common ingredient,just in varying amounts? There may also be an ingredient common to all of them, that's similar enough to patchouli(if you are allergic to that) to also cause a reaction. For example, Patchouli oil contains, among other things, the chemical eugenol, which is also found in cloves. I know that people who are allergic to rubber, for example also tend to have allergies to figs, bananas and avocados....so you could be looking at a similar situation. 2. Although unlikely, it is still possible that you've developed an allergy to the oils, period. Unlikely, but possible. Of course the only way to know if you start reacting to oils you've never reacted to before AND aren't even remotely close in notes. ~ETA: and yes, you're right..I AM at that point (financially). All of my pending orders were bought when things weren't so tight (shit happens) and I probably should not have gotten Harvest Moon. Fun. This is what second jobs are for: to support my "habit"

Kalli (I'd quote your post, but that'd make my reply even longer!) Well, as of now I only have imps of things, even my favorites. I only have a few bottles of some LE's...but the scents I'd most want a spray from I have imps that aren't even full. I did find a perfumers alcohol that's pretty cheap and I found 1oz glass bottles for .50 a piece, and disposible pippettes aren't TOO bad, but right now I shouldn't even spend that. (currently saving up for a car, and deposit on an apartment) Even though pure alcohol would be cheaper then perfumer's alcohol I'm still not sure how I feel about it...esp since I personally find vodka to have a distinct smell. (I know it's SUPPOSED to be relatively odorless, but I can always detect it.) And actually when I get a second job I can probably get the alcohol and bottles ok, it's mostly buying more oil. Because I'd at least have to buy new imps since my current ones are at 1/2 or less....and I still have pending orders that I SHOULDN'T have ordered and a harvest moon I really really shouldn't have ordered. Heh. I sound terrible. It just sucks having to buy the perfume, and then having to buy even MORE to actually be able to wear it. you mentioned "A single imp turned into eau de toilette would give you 9 or more mL of fragrance"... is that 1:9 (oil to alcohol) ratio then, or is my math off? I was using this reference for ratios http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/form_perfumes.html and thinking I want to make a perfume, since even Eau de Toilette doesn't last very long on me.... if I'm going to through the effort of doing this, I want it to last all day, so perfume ratios seemed the best path for me. I'm not trying to be argumentative, mind you. I appreciate the input..this was just my line of thinking. ETA: I just realizing my original post mentioned body sprays, although I really meant perfume sprays. For example, B&BW sprays last... 3 or 4 hours on my skin.... but my old perfume spray I wore would last 8-10 hours.

I'm not using alot of oil.... I press the fabric on the top of the imp and turn it upside down once, but I didn't think of using carrier oil in addition...hmm.... (plus i have jojoba so I wouldn't have to buy anything else.) thanks! For reference, this is the locket: http://www.treasuredfinds.com/p.asp?p=8255&i=28 not bad for a necklace, pretty heavy for anything else. Plus I'm so harsh on jewelry and lazy when it comes to what I wear so I don't like to mess around with too much to put on. I did think about the lotions...thank you portalkat for reminding me. That sounds like the lowest cost option... do you have a particular brand you buy? I have been trying to notice fragrence free lotions and haven't come across any.

*nods* I was thinking about that...I may do that as a last resource...I'm not really fond of long long chains... I'm also very clumsy and tend to catch either myself or furniture/objects/etc into long chains and break them

Note: I thought there was a thread similar to this but couldn't find it.. if such a thread does exist, my apologies. So I stopped wearing BPAL for a long while because my skin simply ate up the oils and I had to douse myself with oil in the morning to get anything to last more than an hour. I thought of making my own alcohol based sprays (b/c "Regular" alcohol based body sprays last for hours on me) but I really couldn't afford to buy all of the supplies, in addition to the higher amount of oil required to make the sprays. Longer story short: I finally bought a scent locket. The perfect way to prevent my skin from absorbing the oil and smell good all day. Right? Well...wrong, kind of. I smell good now (and my wonky skin chemistry doesn't prevent me from wearing certain scents) but because the scents aren't being diluted by my skin, and the charm is so close to my nose.... my sinus/allergies and nose are going haywire. I either sneeze all day, or get a monstrous sinus headache. The latter is dangerous, b/c my sinus' don't drain properly so I'm stuffed up for too long I WILL get an infection which takes weeks to cure. So now I'm at a loss.... I thought of making solid perfumes to apply, so I can continually apply them through the day... but again I'd have to buy more then the imps worth of oil I have in addition to the solid base and tins.... and I paid so much for this locket...I can't afford to shell out even more (I = REALLY poor college student....) Even worse, I just ordered oils a month ago.... I'm at a loss... I DON'T want to sell my BPAL. I love too many scents. What would I do without Embalming Fluid and Dorian?? So are there ANY ideas anyone has to try so I can still smell good w/out killing my nose? ~Honor

I don't know how much like Black Pearl it might smell, but Eden isknown to be quite a coconutty smell.

Although it's more of a masculine scent... and LE(discontinued now) to boot, I love my decanted imp of Cthulhu. "Blue/green" aquatics through and through. But I'm a strange girl who likes to wear "masculine" aquatics... thought it wouldn't hurt to throw it out there though *grin*. You might be able to get a decanted imp somewhere from this thread, LJ or ebay. Also, silly as it sound I really like Paris Hilton for Men. Ignoring the name, I got a sample of this from a makeup store I frequent and it quickly became one of my favorite scents..and apparently I'm not the only girl who likes to wear it too. It's actually more girly then masculine, with a light aquatic/melon-y type smell to it.

Roses. That's all I can really say about this scent. I was both dissapointed and endlessly pleased with this scent. Dissappointed because I didn't get the complex chammomile, lavender, floral, woodsy scent I was hoping for. Pleased because I didn't think my skin likes roses. In the bottle I smell the mix of lavendar, rose and something "soft". But on my skin, it's all roses.. even during drydown and after. I was pleased to find that this mixes well with DeSade on me, making the perfect scent on me and now I'm only lamenting that I am going to be hardpressed to find a larger bottle of this.

There's something about the Labs white sandalwood which makes me think of peanut butter. It doesn't directly smell of peanut butter....but enough to where that's the first thing I think of when I smell any scent w/ white sandalwood in it. Which is exactly what happened when I smelled this in the bottle. Thankfully, I've come to know better. In bottle: needless to say...peanut butter. Why, I'll never know. On skin/wet: peanut butter smell going away, the lemon and cedar are taking hold and after a moment, lemon and cedar is all I can smell. Drydown: lemon and cedar still, but I smell patchouli now. The patchouli is stronger than I would have liked. Completely dry: Cedar and patchouli. The sandalwood and lemon are gone. A heady, woodsy, almost masculine scent. Reminds me of hippy shops. I like it, but I don't know if it's something I'd wear... maybe for the boy? Incidentally, my skin was itchy not long after this application, but in parts that the oil was near but didn't touch. Could be just me though.

I don't like sugary, girly scents and I LOVE THIS! In the bottle: fruity, vanilla-y bubble gum. PINK bubble gum. In a very good way. The vanilla is a warm, french vanilla type. On skin/dry down: very similar to how it was in the bottle, but with a softer edge. I suspect it's the honeycomb, as honey usually goes powdery on me. This isn't powder, but defintly has a lightness reminiscent of powder Dry: Sticky pink sugar. Fruity cotton candy w/ a hint of powder. (I guess I can't wear honeycomb either). Although I normally HATE the baby-powder smell I get from honey notes, this one is bareable, maybe because the strawberry and sugared fruits are masking it. When I go to sniff my wrists I don't get the lovely warm vanilla I did from the bottle, but I get wafts of vanilla occasionally, so it's still there just slowly coming up to the surface. I can't really say anything else, I wish I could. Everyone else has said it, this smells like *pink* and in a good way. I'mpleased that on my skin, it smells close to how it did in the bottle, with little morphing. This is definetly a scent for a flirty, girly spring day.

I got this scent originally because it shared so many notes with a retail perfume that I am so very fond of (and am trying to find it's BPAL equivalent)...including jasmine... In the past BPAL jasmine and I haven't gotten along very well, but we were agreeable. Not this time though. In the bottle: Strong, almost acrid Jasmine and COFFEE! on top, with the roses softly underneath. I almost expected that from the jasmine, but the coffee I wasn't digging and I LOVE the smell of coffee. The coffee in this was almost fake smelling...like coffee flavored products. I could feel a headache starting, but from reading other reviews this seemed to be one of those scents which morphs completely on skin and dry down so I swiped some on my wrist. Dry Down: The jasmine is fading (thankfully!) but still very much present, although the roses are coming through. The coffee is getting stronger though. I can't even detect the other notes at all. Fully dry: Still sharp, although softer than initially, jasmine, w/ roses underneath. The coffee has faded some, but it's still present and not blending well with the others. It just doesn't fit in here. Ultimately, I wound up washing my wrist and taking some aleve. I think I can wear jasmine, but it's got to be tempered by something equally as strong. And in this case, it was the coffee and the two did NOT agree. In the swap pile this goes, which is too bad. I had high hopes for this.

I wanted to like this so badly not only for the name but the description, and I'm a huge fan of cherry blossom. In the bottle, it smells mostly what I think it should..light, floral, but not ultra fem or grandmotherly...I don't get ozone, but there's a sharp greeness in it which is what prevents it from too floral. On ME..it starts out sweet and light... I like it, but then on dry down all I get is soap. Not soap in a bad way....just sudsy, bubbly, fresh soap. Which isn't necessarily bad, but not what I was hoping to smell like with this. If I want to smell like soap I wouldn't wear perfume, heh. I am undecided as to whether this is going into the swap pile yet...it may be good as a room oil for me. Throw is medium... the scent lasted about 3 hours on me before I had to put my wrists up to my nose to sniff it.

So I am the only one who finds that The Great Sword of War and Kali smell very similar? I'm sure most of it's just me, as I don't smell ANYTHING in Kali, except the tobacco and cocoa, and that's exactly what I get from TGSW.... I have severe sinus issues so I'm almost always a little stuffed up, making it hard for me to get any subtle scents, only strong ones really come through for me mostly... I thought that I'd smell at least a LITTLE bit of a difference between the two though and I can't. So it is just my nose, or does anyone else out there think Kali and TGSW smell alike? If my nose doesn't detect a difference soon I'm swapping one of them out.

Haha, just kidding, I thought it was unreleased, but I just couldn't find it. In Bottle: Citrusy, woodsy and slightly "Green" with a hint of spice...not a heavy scent, but complex. Wey: Although my sniffer isn't nearly as sophisticated as other BPAL-ers... I get lemon verbana and honeysuckle immediately on my skin. The woodsy scent has dissappeared, but the lemon and honeysuckle are apparent, although not sharp. There's something smoothing them out and I can't tell what it is. Dry Down: Completely turned around. The citrusy/honeysuckle I was smelling is still there, but in the background. The woodsy smell is back (cedar maybe? I can't tell), while at the same time reminding me faintly of dorian... in that there's a sugared, smooth musk smell at forefront. Very complex and hard to accurately describe. Throw: Eh. Average. Many citrus smells don't last on me very long, so I'm really thinking there's got to be lemon verbana in this. Overall: I liked this all the way through, from bottle to dry down....although it morphed considerably. In the long run, once it's dried I am reminded of a sprightlier, brighter dorian... citrus/honeysuckle behind warm, sugared musk... and a sprinkling of spices. Of course, I could be completely wrong and find out none of those scents are in this blend, but that's what my sniffer made of it. I see now I was completely and utterly incorrect on every assesment of the notes I thought were in it. Funny how blends of things can smell like something they aren't. Score: (1-5, with 5 being best) I give this a 4, only because there just isnt' enough throw on me. If this could last 8 hours on me without reapplication I'd give it a 5. An interesting side note: This is the only scent so far which has caused my boy to give an active reaction ("I *like* that)... as opposed to usual "eh" or "pretty good" that I usually get from him. He's not a scent man at all, and doesn't really care what I smell like as long it's not BO ... and when he does like a scent, all I can usually get is "pretty good". So for him to react the way he did is unusual. EDIT: Merged into existing thread. --Shollin ETA: Edited because I'm silly.

I did a very silly(ok, stupid) thing on my Nov 15 order and just now realized it. I paid with paypal using the online processor (CCnow) instead of going into paypal and sending it that way. I don't know WHY I did that(I ordered before using paypal so I should know better), but for some reason I did. So what should I do now? The payment shows up on my paypal account, but it shows as going to CCnow. ETA: nevermind. I saw the previous pages where others did it and just emailed the labs customer service myself.

Being the curious little puppy that I am, I went on the hunt in for some scientific articles/journals with EO research. After searching for about an hour through blackwell synergyonline (yay! for University libraries and free student access) I came across ONE article on the potential toxicity of *pure, undiluted* EO's. The article was on Lavender, long thought to be "Safe" for pure, undiluted application and thought to be one of the more "gentle" oils...yet this research proved otherwise... they did research on just the effects of lavender oil on skin cells (not blood, liver, or fatty tissues) and found that the oil actually caused a 50% inhibition in cell growth.(relatively speaking of course) I have a PDF file of the full article if anyone is interested. I'm not trying to naysay anyone,...just putting it out there that just because EO's are "natural" doesn't make them safe and just because you can't *see* any effects, doesn't mean they aren't there. It just worries me when I hear of people applying pure EO's to their skin is all. And it furthers the idea that Beths blends aren't pure EO's..to me at least. Like loveandprozak (great handle btw!!) said, if they were pure, they would be incredibly strong, too strong for perfume. ETA: re: the person who said tea tree oil is safe to be applied pure... that is also an iffy situation. At the very least, I know tea tree oil is toxic to cats... I say this because I know many people like to try more natural remedies for their animals, and while tea tree oil is an antibiotic, it's toxic to cats, and a respiratory irritant to rats. just FWIW

just putting this out there...but lavendar may help promote more restful sleep. The lab doesn't sell pure notes though, but maybe something like Twilight or Oneiroi . If you want just lavendar, you might want to try it as an oil applied to his bed linens or something. ETA: I didn't even really read the other part of the description of Oneiroi..just the notes... not trying to give him more nightmares!

Nattie quoted this and someone else mentioned it earlier. Just wanted to mention that negative effects of applying pure EO's to the skin may not be immediately or readily apparent...but rather, it is a cumulative build-up effect which can prove toxic to the body in other forms: later liver, blood damage, later occuring allergies etc. Just wanted to let you know, that it may not seem to have negative effects immediately, doesn't mean they aren't affecting you internally....and like I said, it's mostly a cumulative effect. Then I really would like an official answer on this... :-/ Me too... but I'm pretty confident in Beth's abilities to do research into her products. I think alot of people here have been confusing EO's with synthetics and that's not the issue. We know she only uses natural oils, but the question is whether the BPAL perfume oils are pure, undiluted oils or scented extracts with some dilution. Part of the problem regarding EO's is that there is little, if any actual long term official research done on the effects of straight, applied EO's on the body...research which examines the micro aspects (blood, liver,etc) as well as the macro (potential obvious physical side effects)

Nattie quoted this and someone else mentioned it earlier. Just wanted to mention that negative effects of applying pure EO's to the skin may not be immediately or readily apparent...but rather, it is a cumulative build-up effect which can prove toxic to the body in other forms: later liver, blood damage, later occuring allergies etc. Just wanted to let you know, that it may not seem to have negative effects immediately, doesn't mean they aren't affecting you internally....and like I said, it's mostly a cumulative effect. Just my .02. Edited for spelling.

hmmmmmmmmmmm... that sounds like it could at least be interesting....worthy of adding to my wishlist at least. I looked through many descriptions and it seems like Mata Hari comes kind of close. Incidentally, I went to put some of my beloved "Good Life" on and it smells nothing like it did. All sharp and alcoholy. I KNOW I've been smelling whiffs of it here and there and with the warm humidity that my room tends to be, I'm wondering if it wasn't notes of the perfume coming out (the bottle is about 5 years old and the cap isnt as snug as it was) so now I can't even use THAT. Must find equivalent....

Hope I'm in the right place. Think I'm in the right place. So, I'm still a newbie to BPAL (and a poor student) and so have not been able to sample ALL of Beths illustrious scents. I've found that her "light" "Fresh" "aquatic" and "green" scents do really well on me, but fade quickly. Florals hate me and honey becomes powder on me. Most of the time I prefer the lighter scents anyway...but sometimes I want something a bit thicker, smoother and heady...basically a scent similar to my current favorite perfume (still).... no offense to Beth and BPAL of course, but I've yet to find a scent like it. I absolutely adore it... of course it's a commercial type perfume, so I know it has fixatives and the like, but I'd be thrilled to shit if I could find a BPAL scent that is at least similar to my current perfume. I want to find a BPAL scent (instead of just buying more perfume)) because for one, BPAL really is cheaper in the long run. (if I get an imp and dilute with jojoba at least) and because I like variety and would honestly rather support a "small" buisness owner like Beth who knows and cares about her customer base rather than a faceless entity. I've tried various BPAL scents that I thought might smell like this, but alas, nothing. I know there are many of you out there who have tried *everything* it seems and know alot more about scents and layers than I do, so I thought I'd see if anyone more seasoned than me might have an idea as to what might either a: emulate or b: react similarly to the perfume I have now. The actual perfume is called "Good Life" by Davidoff, and the notes go like this: Top Notes Citrus, Ylang-Ylang MIddle Notes Jasmine, Rose, Magnolia, Fig Leaves Base Notes Woody Notes, Fig Milk, Vanilla So.... ideas?

In the bottle: Nothing distinct...but very familiar and... soapy? Wet: Similar to how it smelled in the bottle, although I can start to smell the orris and lilac and a touch of violet, I think. Drydown: Still "soapy". Not in a bad way...but that's what it's reminding me of. I can't pick up the lavendar or sandalwood at all. Maybe when totally dry? Dry: Faint feminine, floral smell...still mostly soapy though. Another "it's not a bad smell,but just isn't for me"...which is too bad. I REALLY REALLY wanted this to smell good on me after reading the notes description. I'm begining to find that florals just aren't for me... all the floral scents hate me. Overall though, the scent *does* remind me of a veil...soft and mysterious somehow... even through the "soap" smell, it gave the impression of soft laughter and shy, yet flirty maidens giggling under their veils at the boys. Recommended for someone else with whom florals work well.

In the bottle: Honeysuckle prevailing, with the jasmine underneath and the lemon yearning to come out...absolutely no spice.... yet Wet: Sweet and complex, warm spice. No lemon, and no jasmine at all now, the honeysuckle has taken over. It overwhelms my nose a bit, but I'm thinking I like this scent on me... until Drydown: It still smells nice...but it's gained more of a strange sweet smell and the spice, which was warm when wet, smells artificial now. In all honesty...it makes me smell like an "autumn" scented candle. It's not a bad smell, I quite like the smell itself...but it's not something *I* want to smell like... would be nice for a house/room scent to put in an oil burner... but not right for me. Plus, my nose burns something terrible. *le sigh* Just got this one in, and I think it's going right back out. Its a shame... complex scents don't do well on me, but last longer... light, fresh scents always smell fabulous on me, but my skin just "Eats" them up...