Jump to content
BPAL Madness!

abejita

Members
  • Content Count

    1,436
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by abejita

  1. abejita

    Al-Araaf

    I got this one solely because of the "honeyed" part of the description. I adore honey. Honey honey honey! Okay. Review time: I didn't like this one when I first applied it. Wet, the honey had a powdery edge to it that reminded me of my much-disliked (though I tried, oh, I tried!) Osun. Strangely enough, when dry, the honey smells wet and juicy! There is a delicate floral behind the honey and lilies, but I think that the lotus root is what is really tying all of this together, keeping it from being a bunch of sweet top notes. Though the scent isn't faint, I would use "soft" as an adjective to describe it. It's very pretty and comforting without being common. I'm a little sad I wasn't around for this one's release. 8/10.
  2. abejita

    Snake Charmer

    This one starts out as a mix of rich spice, musk, and resin hung over vanilla. On first sniff, it was pleasant, but I couldn't understand why people went so nuts over it. Then, about a half hour later, the plum ripens and comes up to the same level as the other notes, adding a rich fruit that is what really rounds this one out. It's dark and sexy, but even more than that-- it's intriguing. There's something mysterious about it that makes you keep wanting to inhale for more than just the sheer pleasure of the scent. This one is a 9/10 for me. I think that after some careful aging, it will reach 10/10.
  3. abejita

    Miskatonic University

    I finally understand the hype. This scent is rich, dark, and delicious. I agree fully with Karen Z. about the old professor's office comparison. Though the notes aren't the same, there is a similarity between this and Red Lantern, another of my favorites. Same scent family. I am experiencing some serious longing for more scents with a deep coffee note to them. In the meanwhile, I'll be madly searching for a 5ml of this, wishing for another springtime in Arkham. 10/10.
  4. abejita

    Monster Bait: Closet

    Wow. I'm really thankful for my relatively uncomplicated skin chemistry (well, at least in relation to BPAL). Catbox and pee? Yikes. Anyway, I love this blend. In the bottle it smells almost overwhelmingly buttery and cake-y, with just a touch of berry. On my skin the blackberry takes center stage, with the buttercream and the oh so very accurate red velvet cake scents supporting it. I don't really get much of the booziness, other than just perhaps an extra decadent feel to the blend. Even though it's in the 90s here in Houston, I'm still loving this enough to wear despite its heaviness. I think it will be even better in cooler weather, though. I'm so glad I got a full bottle. 9/10.
  5. abejita

    Osun

    I really wanted to like this one. I am a huge honey fan, and the description sounded right up my alley. At first, I get a burst of wet, sweet honey. However, it almost immediately dries down to something very unpleasantly powdery. It sort of burns the back of my throat. I tried it in a scent locket as well. Same thing. The only difference with the locket was that much, much later in the day a fruity tang (pomegranate?) started to present itself. It didn't save the blend for me, though.
  6. abejita

    Dragon Moon 2006

    This is a really delicate scent, very well-blended. I get a breath of the dragon's blood resin behind the cherry blossom and tea. The bamboo kind of grounds it. There is a dry, crisp feel to the blend. The cherry blossom and resin give it sweetness, but it's a very light sweetness. This one gives me a grown up, clean, elegant feel. My partner sniffed it on me and his eyes widened a little, so it gets his stamp of approval too. I think this could work on the right man, as well, it's not necessarily a girlie blend.
  7. abejita

    LaFlamme

    This is a very warm blend, which is to be expected from something called LaFlamme. The descriptions from other people of the scent are pretty right on. I get primarily rich spice and red musk, but there may be some orange zest in there. If there is, it takes the back seat. I applied this as a perfume, but with a purpose, of course. I used it twice, once with both my partners, once with a single partner. I'm not comfortable with the word "force" in the description, so my purpose was more to focus my partners on me, not just because I wanted to be spoiled (and I was), but so they could overcome being nervous with one another. Well, there was definitely focus, and the scent made me feel pretty powerful and sexy. I will hold onto my imp and use it again. And again.
  8. abejita

    Lionheart

    The scent has been described pretty well throughout the various reviews. I get some bright, sweet floral (heliotrope is in there, I'm pretty sure) along with some pleasant powderiness (and I am generally not a fan of powder scents, but this works somehow). As for its purpose, I anointed a candle with it a couple of days ago, along with my pulse points and mane, I mean, hair. I have been going through a lot of anxiety about my job search, as well as some painful lovelife issues. Unfortunately, when I am anxious and depressed, I tend to suffer from it physically as well as emotionally. Lionheart didn't solve my problems, of course, but the terrible, knotty heaviness I had been feeling in my stomach/diaphagm area has lessened by about 90%. I am still very worried, but I do have a sense of "This will be hard, but I CAN do it." That, I attribute to the blend. ETA: I wore this blend to a couple of job interviews. I definitely felt more confident, and my Spanish was even more fluent than usual (I was interviewing for bilingual teaching positions and I'm not a native speaker). I felt really good, like I had a nice rapport with the people questioning me and I didn't falter under even their most "trying to trip her up" questions. And today I got hired for the position I wanted most. Lionheart wouldn't necessarily have been my first choice to use for interviews and jobhunting in general, based on the description, but it was what I had, so I worked it. I'd recommend giving it a try if you need to project confidence and cheerfulness.
  9. abejita

    Job Interview Recommendations

    assuming all goes well, i'll be interviewing for teaching positions very soon. depending on how i feel, i think i'll either be wearing dragon moon (elegant, regal) or embalming fluid (i have it coming from a swap, but the description sounds really classy and crisp). if i'm a nervous wreck, though, it may have to be TAL lionheart.
  10. abejita

    Persephone

    This is a simple, straightfoward blend. Wet, I get tart pomegranate and sweet rose in equal measure. Dry, the rose takes the background and the tartness grows. I like this one, it's evocative of a very rich, lush, wet red with maybe a hint of a pink undertone. It lasts a long time, hours later I could still smell the pomegranate, though the rose had faded. I don't think I need a 5ml, but I really enjoy my imp.
  11. abejita

    Obatala

    The second I opened my imp and inhaled I was immensely pleased that this is a GC scent. For me it stays pretty consistent through its wet stage, drydown, and through later wear. The coconut is superemly rich, the milk creamy, the shea butter richer still. But somehow the cool water is very present, keeping the scent's richness from going heavy. This is a pristine white scent with a shimmer of gold. I can detect a similarity in the coconut with Tarot: the Star, but this is less sweet. 10/10. This is one of my favorite blends, ever. I already bought a 5ml.
  12. abejita

    Honeysuckle blends

    lolita is lemony honeysuckle on me.
  13. abejita

    Phantom Queen

    I received this as part of an imp lot I bought off of ebay when I was just trying to get acquainted with bpal. It wasn't what sold me on the lot, and from its lab description, I wasn't particularly interested, so I didn't try it for quite awhile. Wow. At first I thought it didn't suit the Morrigan whatsoever. My first impression was just a light floral, sweet, but nothing special. Then I put it on. It's a clearing, after walking through a forest that was shadowed, but pierced with shafts of light. There is hawthorn at the woods' edge, blooming. In the clearing the grass is tall and lush. Spring is almost just a memory and summer's heat is already rising, and rising fast. Red clover is everywhere and the bees are drunk on it. Are those apple trees in bloom? The bees are swarming there, too. The meadowsweet and rue are lush and overgrown. I can't really detect the orchid, but I'm not very familiar with what black orchid smells like. It's wild and majestic, and definitely representative of the Morrigan. When my imp is gone, this is on my list. That red clover note is to die for.
  14. abejita

    Strawberry Moon 2005

    I remember June, 2003. I remember many Junes before then, but this one was special. I think it will always be the very last June for me, maybe until I have my own children. I remember June and I remember strawberries. My grandmother was so happy that we'd come home to see her, home to West Virginia. There had been floods that year, flood after flood, so maybe there wouldn't be good strawberries, she said. Oh, Grandma, there are always good strawberries. My grandfather had died the year before. We'll go to the fields to remember him, I said. He had spent all his Junes in the strawberry fields, ever since I could remember. He was like a strawberry fairy (if a Pentecostal minister could ever be called a fairy with a straight face), leaving quart after quart on the front doorsteps of all his neighbors. He just loved to be in the fields. So we went, and remembered him, and picked more berries than we could ever eat ourselves. The fields were pretty flooded, and some of the plants had caught a moldy rot, but the day was clear and bright and everything smelled of green and bright, bursting red, with white wildflowers, just here and there. Maybe some honeysuckle. We drove home from the fields, the windows down, the air wafting raw, ripe strawberry joy from the back of the car. "Thank you so much for coming. We'll do it again next year, right?" "Yes, Grandma, and every year." But there wasn't another June. There was a stroke, the end of next May. A funeral on my birthday. She had a full, rich, happy life. The only thing I could have ever asked for was one more June. Just one more. That's where Strawberry Moon takes me. I have a single imp, since I discovered bpal well after this moon, but it's a very loved imp.
  15. abejita

    Lolita

    This started out as straight up Lemonheads to me, as in that old super sour, super sugary candy that was dyed bright yellow. It was verging on too sweet, but I didn't mind terribly, since that particular candy is tied to some good childhood memories for me. Lemonheads both in the bottle and wet on my skin. On drydown, the heliotrope has bloomed, honeysuckle emerges. The candy sweetness fades. When dry, the lemon candy has retreated. Honeysuckle takes over almost exclusively, with a breath of citrus blossom. Heliotrope is in there somewhere. I like this one in each of its stages. I'd like if a little more of the lemon and heliotrope lingered at the end, but I really enjoy honeysuckle. I have a feeling that if I were to go outside, I'd have some bees trailing in my wake. This is a great spring/summer blend. As far as the Lolita theme goes, I definitely get that in the beginning and middle, but at the end, that has faded for me. I will definitely try this in a scent locket, in hopes of preserving more lemon. On a scale of 1-10, I give it an 8.
  16. abejita

    The Hesperides

    I brew mead, and this scent is like nothing more than a well-brewed cyser (apple mead), aged on oak. It's crisp with a hint of sweetness, but saved from being candy-like by the oak. I noticed that it lasted about four hours on my skin, but I wore it in my scent locket too. As a side note, my students (ages 3-6) gave this one an enthusiastic, "¡Maestra, me gusta mucho!"
×