billaguru

The scent of abandoned places, of desolation and emptiness: heavy woods and thin dusty herbs touched by the wafting incense of a nearby chapel. The bottle came the same week I got a buncha hand-me-downs from my enabler, most of which were heavy with vetiver. So I was a mite disappointed when I opened the bottle and smelled…more friggin’ vetiver! But I gave my snoot a rest, waited a couple of days, and fell smack dab in love. This is one of my fave BPAL scents yet. Creepy but crisp, the cool that fills dark, dry places; the scent of flowers grown stunted and strange in sunlight that lasts mere moments before being swallowed in shadow; the heaviness of usurper woods scrawling up, around and through stone long lonely for the warmth of men. Wow. This became one of my beddy-bye scents, its sibilant muskiness ably bearing me into the oneiric lands. I’m already used two-thirds of my bottle, and I’m freaking out that I gotta wait another six or seven months to see if it gets brought back. Any suggestions for a similar scent?

The first bottle I ever ordered, sight un...uh...unsmelled? Anyway, I got mine in 2005. Redolent of the Yule season, triggering a hundred memories of childhood...the scent of pipe tobacco, burning logs, buttery hot toddies, caramel apples, even cough syrup! Definitely a cold weather scent, far too thick for days of heat, grass and sweat. One year later, it's mellowed. The tobacco, butter and caramel scents dominate, while the slightly medicinal quality seeps around the edges. Goes sugary and faint after a while - like a lot of scents do because of my body chemistry...I'm one Double-Stuff Oreo away from diabetic shock - but that's altogether apropos. I recommend this to anyone who likes either the woodsy or foody scents. Nice label, too - four-color print of one of those creepy toy soldiers from the ballet.

My latest order included a six-pack of Arkham imps, and - IA! IA! - they all are just marvelous. So I'm going to review 'em alphabetically. Man, this smells good. A sweet scent of almonds and some desert fruit - dates, maybe? - dominates at first, eliding into a sandy, windswept odor that creeps and wafts around me like tiny ghosts. That's how most of the Lovecraft scents work: a rich, even foody scent which transforms into something outre, even sinister. Quite evocative; damn good job by Beth and her cabal.

Fruit cocktail...supernatural fruit cocktail, the kind you'd get in a fairy mound; you'd still be picking shreds of apricot and cherries outta your teeth when you left the party and realized ten years had passed. Do all the Carrollian scents have this somewhat juvenile, fey quality? Not surprising if they do, given the gent inspiring them (and his, ahem, "interests"), but thus far, in the Three Way Dance cage match between Carroll, Lovecraft and Shakespeare I've been booking, Wild Bill and the Providence Prophet have left Lewis looking up at the lights.

One of the freebies I got with my latest order, Bandarsnatch has that sweet, slightly juvenile quality I've noticed in the Carroll-based scents, but with a spicy kick. Others have picked out fruity, flowery notes, but to me (and on me) it smells like spearmint and cinnamon having sex. The gals at the library really liked this one. It goes on the "definite maybe" list for a 5 ml.

Got this as a freebie in my last order: thanks, y'all! Lemony, but a thick, rich, warm, honeyed lemony. Imagine that scents are people, in this case Goth chicks: if Embalming Fluid is the skinny Goth chick, all kole-eyed shyness and Ankh-bedecked collarbones and sharp knees poking out of torn fishnets, then Polyhymnia is the pluscious scream queen, curves clad in yards of velvet, with a sly knowing smile and cleavage for days. Fab on its own, Polymymia his makes a good blender, a sweet note to lighten more aggressive scents. I've emptied my imp...and I tried so hard to be stingy. I'll no doubt end up ordering more, like the damn sniff junkie I've become.

Mmmm...this smells like I hoped it would: thick, strong, of wild northern wood - perhaps the tree in which the King of the Aesir hung for three days to achieve wisdom? - and the musk of fur and leather, of He who presides over the souls of the glorious slain in mighty Valhalla...even a horsey note, as if you'd just climbed off Sleipnir after giving that eight-legged steed a good ride. More the scent of the Grey Wanderer of myth than the pompous papaw of the Thor comics...always thought that guy was a dick, well deserving the ass-whoopin' threatened, but sadly never delivered, by Mangog. I flipped a coin to see whether I'd get a bottle of this or the Bow and Crown of Conquest: Ragnarok beat out Armageddon. But then, Valkyries are sexier than the Four Horsemen any old day...

I must admit, I dunno neroli from a canoli, so most of my reviews will be more expressionistic description than a detailed lowdown on notes'n'such. Besides, one of my major fascinations with BPAL product is how the scent expresses the idea or character it's based on. And in this case, Beth and crew really nailed it. The scent smacked me upside the snout the second I popped the cap on the imp. Something wild-eyed and manic, yet possessing a frayed gentility. First you get a faceful of crazy, all quicksilver mints and scorched felt...then the tweaker takes his butterknife away from your throat and invites you to tea and cakes. Neat, but a bit fey for me, so I swapped it to my evil enabler for some imps of Coyote and Hellfire.

I got a sample of this in my last order. It was one of two imps on which the caps had snapped, so I had it wrapped tight in bubble wrap when I took a bunch of imps to work to share with my "enabler". Unfortunately, when I got home that day, I found the imp had emptied completely, the precious juice coating the plastic. Left with no other choice, I simply rubbed the bubblewrap all over my torso, smearing the Titus into my great furry chest. so I got to know this scent real up close and personal for quite a few hours. It is intense: like grass trampled in battle, pine just ignited for a funeral pyre, old leather armor from which you could never clean off all the blood. It's fierce, prideful, even gloomy, like Titus himself, like his hard, ancient ways, like his violent story. Nicely done; still on the fence about getting more...maybe if I run for office and need a scent to quietly intimidate my opponent with a two-fisted combo of gravitas and cruelty.