TheMistWalking

CcNow was sold to a foreign company earlier this year and started charging foreign transaction fees. Ouch. That stinks. I guess I'll need to figure out the whole Paypal without the Paypal-setup before I place another BPAL order. (I HATE unnecessary fees, and I refuse to pay them. )

Here's an odd one. CCNOW charged me a "foreign transaction fee" for my last order. I live in the US, and as far as I know, BPAL hasn't moved to Canada or anything, so...

Source: Imp straight from the Lab, aged a little more than a year. I first tried Morocco about a year ago. It was a little bit sweet, slightly soapy, mostly spicy, and it also faded pretty fast. I put the imp away to age... and then I forgot about it. I'm retesting it now, and it's no longer soapy. It's also not particularly sweet. On me, it's primarily a spicy carnation scent -- which would be good if I loved carnation, but, unfortunately, I'm not a fan.

The 'rum' part of this scent almost scared me off, but luckily, I get no rum from it at all. This is nutty, slightly sweet, a bit almondy, and slightly vanilla-ish. Unfortunately, it's pretty light, and it has almost no throw. If this had more of an impact, I'd get a backup (or two), but, as it is, one bottle is probably enough.

2012 Version (aged about 6 weeks) I tested this, put it away to age a little, then tested it again -- but it hasn't changed. On me, The Lurid Library is 'old-fashioned' ladies' perfume: a mix of high-pitched florals, maybe some white musk, a hint of powder as it wears. I don't know about those infernal servants, but I'm pretty sure they'd be perfectly at home taking tea with my grandmother. It's a nice enough scent, but it's not for me.

I have just the thing for you. Eat Me!! It is sooooooo good. I'm pretty new at scenting but I'm in love with it's warm mix of vanilla, cake and currant (although lots say they don't get the currant). But it is just wonderful and I could wear it every day. LOL. Eat Me is one of my GC favorites. To me it smells like jam and vanilla cookies. Dorian's my other top GC scent, but that's a sexy, musky vanilla. (I don't get any tea from it.) I never tire of finding new vanilla blends.

2012 Version (aged about 4 weeks). This is a very light, sweet pear that seems almost floral to my nose. Sadly, it only lasts about an hour and a half on my skin (2 hours tops). Hopefully, age will strengthen it a bit. Otherwise, it will need to be slathered and reapplied frequently.

Sugar Skull: 2012 Version (about 4 weeks old). I was giving this a little time to get settled -- because it's a bit of a morpher on me -- but it hasn't changed too much over the last few weeks. It starts out with a burst of licorice and lemon, but the lemon drop smell quickly overpowers the licorice. After a half hour, the tartness of the lemon begins to fade, and a maple scent emerges. By 45 minutes, it's definitely sweeter, and the lemon is mostly gone. An hour in, the scent is more of a caramelized sugar with a hint of maple. That's the scent that lasts the longest, but it's rather light. By an hour and a half, it's definitely a skin scent, and even that only lasts another hour or so. I'd like to see how this ages. It'd be nice if it picked up some strength and lasting power. Also, I've noticed that 'morphers' don't always stay that way on me. Generally, the notes will merge more over time, and/or one of them will emerge as the 'victor.' (I'm rooting for the maple and browned sugar.)

Source: Bottle straight from the lab, aged about 11 days. Wet on skin: Florals with citrus. I can't pick out an individual flower note. The lily of the valley, ylang ylang, and jonquil blend together into a soft floral. The grapefruit smells more like tangerine to me. I'm not noticing any fig, musk, ambergris, or vetiver. 5 minutes later: The citrus is stronger, and there's a mild zing from the ginger. It's more of a lightly spiced citrus with florals now. 1 hour later: The scent is much the same -- zingy citrus and soft flowers -- light and not overly sweet. 2 and a half hours later: Sadly, it's all but faded into nothing. Verdict: This scent was a lot lighter and more delicate than I thought it would be. It's very pretty, and it's perfect for the summer months ahead. Unfortunately, it has very low throw and fades rather quickly. I like it, and I'm happy to have it, but it's not horde-worthy to me.

Source: Bottle straight from the lab, aged about 10 days. Wet on skin: Black musk and more black musk, woody and very slightly lemony. A half hour later: I'm not getting any lemon now. It's just a woody black musk. 4 hours later: The scent is still the same, but it's begun to fade. 6 hours later: It's barely there. When I first tested this scent, it was freshly ripped from the mailbox. I was sorely disappointed by the lack of cinnamon, so I decided to put it away and give it some time to settle and blend. Unfortunately, the last week or so hasn't changed it so far. Verdict: I am VERY saddened by the complete lack of cinnamon in this one, since that's the reason why I bought it. I like black musk, but I don't quite love it on its own. Plus, I already have some Haunted, which is very similar, and I prefer it to PWM. (Haunted is sweeter and retains that touch of lemon on my skin.) Overall, the scent's not a bad one, but it fell rather short of my expectations. I'll put it away for now and see what happens. (Who knows? Aging might work wonders.)

I used this today, and it added a faint, sweet vanilla scent to my skin. Very pretty. I wish it were available as a perfume oil.

Source: 2011 Version. Bottle straight from the lab, aged about 11 weeks. Wet on skin: Cinnamon! It smells like I was baking and spilled the canister on my wrists. 40 minutes later: Other notes have emerged. I'm getting whiffs of pumpkin, vanilla, sugar, and milk. 1 hour later: The cinnamon has pretty much burned itself out. It's all sweet, creamy vanilla pumpkin goodness. 2 hours later: More of the same. It reminds me of creme brulee, but with a dash of pumpkin. 4 hours later: The scent is still pretty strong and has a decent throw. 10 hours later: The perfume has been rather faint for a few hours now, but a sweet, caramel scent is clinging to my skin. When I first tested this, the bottle was only a few days old, and it was all CINNAMON for hours and hours (and hours). Happily, the spice has mellowed quite a bit. Un-happily, I never got any coffee out of it (or nutmeg for that matter), but I can live with that. Verdict: Yum! (I was expecting pumpkin latte, but pumpkin creme brulee is just as good.)

My first review ever. Here goes. Source: Bottle straight from the lab, less than a week old. Wet on skin: It's an evergreen scent, but I can't quite identify it. It's not pine or balsam, but it's definitely reminiscent of the winter holidays. (Other folks have mentioned juniper. That could be it.) 5 minutes later: It's gotten sweeter, 'fizzer,' and reminds me of ginger ale. I haven’t tried any of the lab's other ozone scents, but I have tried the BPAL champagne note, and it's very similar to that. 1 hour later: It's still an effervescent wintergreen smell. 2 hours later: The same, but a bit fainter. 3 hours later: The scent is mostly gone, but now there's a trace of light musk to it. 3 and a half hours later: No more fizzy trees. There's just a very faint skin musk left behind. Verdict: I freely admit that I bought this (almost solely) for the name. The scent is slightly more masculine than what I usually wear, but I'm happy with my purchase. It's light, bubbly, wintry without shouting pine or mint, and it definitely reminds me of champagne or soda (but with an undertone of winter greenery instead of fruit).

I bought a bottle of Sugar Cookie unsniffed and I love it. It smells just like a warm buttery cookie. On the other hand, I bought a bottle of Snow White, and it smells just like ... plastic. (Is there a cream note in there somewhere? The lab's cream note has been plasticy on me.) I'm hoping that aging will work some magic.

Ditto. I've already begun stalking the review threads (now that they're up). I'm curious about Beautiful and Adored, Pale Student of the Unhallowed Arts, and A Wonderful Light -- plus Yellow Snowballs and Maison en Pain d'Epices. In general, I'm wondering what the favorites will turn out to be. (I'm also stalking the BPTP threads becuase ... hello, Puddings!! )

Yeah. I'm noticing now how folks mention that 'aged' Chimera smells like cinnamon buns. I wonder how long these need to age before the strength of the cinnamon burns off.

I've got a newbie recommendation request / what-went-wrong question. I love the scent of cinnamon (or at least I thought I did), but I prefer the sugary sweet type of cinnamon (cinnamon cake, cinnamon rolls, etc.). Philosophy's Cinnamon Buns and Williams Sonoma Spiced Chesnut (with cinnamon and clove) are two of my favorite lotions. So, for my first order, I bought a few scents with cinnamon/spice in them: Pumpkin Latte, Shub-Niggurath, and Chimera. And they all went horribly wrong... Pumpkin Latte was my least favorite. For the first 3-4 hours it was cinnamon gum + cinnamon potpourri + cinnamon red hots = SHARPSPICYPUNGENTSPICYHOT. Once that finally faded, I got pumpkin rind and a teensy dab of vanilla (but for a while there, I really wanted to wash it off). Shub-Niggurath went on smelling like fresh cut ginger root: slightly sharp and almost lemony. After a few minutes, though, it became cinnamon potpourri + cinnamon-infused pinecones. A few hours after that it turned into a woodsy men's cologne with a hefty dose of cinnamon. Chimera is my favorite of the three (but that's not saying much). It went on smelling like a cinnamon stick: not too spicy, not sweet at all, almost 'neutral.' Basically, it smelled like I accidentally dropped a canister of ground cinnamon on myself. After a few hours, it developed a hint of sweetness (or that could be wishful thinking), but for the most part, it slowly faded away. Now for the question portion of this post. Has anyone else had these reactions? Are the scents simply too 'new'? Maybe they need to age and mellow a bit. Or ...does the lab's cinnamon note hate me? Maybe there's something wonky in my skin chemistry that's absorbing everything sweet and amping up the hot spice. Please let me know if you've had similar issues and maybe -- hopefully -- found a cinnamon scent that worked (i.e. was sweet & foody vs. spicy, woodsy, masculine, etc.) THANKS.

Are there any sweet, almost-pure, foody vanillas in the general catalogue? I'm thinking of vanilla + brown sugar, vanilla + caramel, vanilla + cream, vanilla + cake, etc. (I've been looking at Detestable Putrescence... but I'd have to get a decant of that... or buy a big bottle unsniffed.) Thanks!

Thanks for clearing that up. I only placed my order on the 23rd, but the CCNow site has said 'shipped' for a little while now. After reading through the other threads, I was anticipating a month's wait ... so the 'shipped' confused me ... and made me wonder if I'd missed something.