dronzeka

You get a CnS with a Paypal order. I have only ever received 1 CnS since I started ordering BPAL (about 18 months worth) I've heard of that happening with international orders. I've had tons of orders and have had a CnS for every one through PP. I wonder if it's because you can print out shipping labels from paypal online for domestic orders but you can't for international orders? Although I don't know if this is the case for the Lab as opposed to just individual people - I just know that if I get paypal payments from US folk, I can then print an online shipping label easy-peasy and paypal e-mails to say the package is being shipped, but I can't print labels for international folks because of the customs forms; I have to take those to the PO, so they go the old-fashioned way, with no online notification. The Lab may have a different setup, though (USPS CnS's are different from the paypal ones).

Oooh, yummy! I think I'm getting more red currant than blueberry... and the tea is in there as well. So far, very little vanilla, but I did get a whiff of ginger - which is quite dry and unsweet on me - and maybe a little hint of coriander, and these keep it from being uber-fruity-sweet. I am not a huge red musk fan - it doesn't turn vile on me, but I don't love it to pieces - and so far I'm not really getting any from this, though I think it might be grounding the fruit and giving it some backbone. It does have a kind of surreal and irrelevant vibe, though, because it's a kind of crazy combination on me - I agree with the Mad Tea Party comparisons; it's kind of surreal in a light-hearted way. I have to wear it a bit longer to figure out if it's really me, but it is a great scent that captures its concept amazingly well. ETA: Holy moly, is this stuff STRONG! I put a dab on my wrist and was surrounded by throw, and the next morning I can still smell it with ease, and that never happens with me.

I'm pretty sure that translates to - we will keep it just how it is, now fuck off and have a nice day. At least Sheri's reply was in reasonably decent English!

Well, I e-mailed them myself - even though my order was so small that the character limit wasn't a problem for me! - and got this charming reply: Um... yeah. That was helpful.

Maybe Paypal thinks the problem is that their comments box won't reset to the full number of characters if the OP has deleted them? That is, they think her concern is that she typed in stuff, deleted it, and isn't getting all the characters back? Rather than the real concern, which is that they've restricted the comment box completely unmanageably?!? But really, that e-mail is completely incoherent. How lame!

My husband resembles this remark! He almost never notices my actual perfume - but I have a variety of vanilla-foody lotions that I put on before going to bed, and he always says, "You smell like a cookieeeeeeeeeeeeee!" To stick to BPAL, I have probably had the most compliments on Dorian and Antique Lace, which are both warm and vanilla-y, if not quite foody. Unthreatening perfumes!

HONEY! Honeyhoneyhoneyhoneyhoneyhoney... I LIKE honey. Seriously, this is amazing stuff. It's beautiful rich honey, thick and sweet, without any of the sort of bland/powderiness I got from the honey in O and Jezebel. I don't pick out many of the other notes, though they add something to distinguish this from a honey SN; the one I do get is lemon, which makes me think of tea with honey and lemon (except without the tea!). It reminds me of Honey Moon, but I think it's a thicker, deeper honey, without any of the greenness or herbalness to lighten it up. At the same time, it's not at all cloying. It reminds me of the honey in Thaleia most, I think. I want to BATHE in this.

Like some others have mentioned, I get lemon-herbal cologne, and then amber from this. No honey, no cardamom (sigh!), and it doesn't have that sweet dry grass smell to me. It's by no means unpleasant - just a little dry for my tastes. I might have to try it again, though, when I don't have Mead Moon screaming HONEY!!! on my other wrist.

Wow, chemistry is funny - I haven't tried Severin, but the rest of those all smell completely different to me! (But I can see how they'd be similar if you amp the citrus, especially - I get very little citrus from Dorian and Baobhan Sith was very pink grapefruit, unlike the lime in Whitechapel or white grapefruit in Vampire Tears.)

There's a thread about carrier oils where this question has been discussed quite a bit. (I think it's this one but that could be wrong). My take on it (keeping in mind that I am not an expert or affiliated with the lab, yada yada) is that 1) it's possible there are components in BPAL that are neither perfume/essential oils nor carrier oils (absolutes? resins? beeswax?), 2) that there's (possibly - my speculation) a difference between a blended perfume that's diluted with carrier oil, and a perfume blended from oils that have been diluted to safe levels, and 3) while I know individuals can have allergic reactions to different notes/strengths, if BPAL were generally unsafe to apply to the skin without dilution, the Lab would tell us. They have no incentive to sell perfumes that are unsafe to put on the skin! That's not to say that specific individuals might not be happier wearing the oils diluted, but I'm quite sure the Lab blends its oils to be skin safe to the general public. ETA: I get all almond from Black Phoenix.

Hmmmm, I'm not sure I get any honey from this, nor much acai. It's very floral to my nose - sweet and bright and slightly "perfumey." The final dry down is a soft, sweet scent, but not terribly distinctive on me.

This starts out as the most amazing honey-amber scent - what I'd have wished for O to be (and isn't on me, because it turns to baby powder). As it dries down, however, something comes to the fore - I think it's the Arabian musk. Musk tends to go "men's cologne" on me, and the same thing happens here; it deepens the scent and reduces its sweetness. It almost smells a tiny bit like leather to me. Anyway, once it's fully dry I think it would be an amazing scent on a man, but it's a little too masculine for me. (It's strong, though - I tried a dab this morning BEFORE I showered, and I can still smell it!)

Alas, this ended up all caramel, all the time. I got a little sweetness from what I think was the apple blossom, and by the drydown the teak tempered the caramel a little, but for me, it was too overwhelmingly caramel (I was hoping to mostly get the other notes). I shouldn't have been surprised, as this has happened with all BPAL caramel scents (I think particularly of Tiresias). If you like BPAL caramel, though, you should love this!

I just wanted to add my review/endorsement of Charisma - I can't for the life of me identify notes or tell you what it smells like (though I think it smells good), but it seems to have a nice trick of smoothing the way with people. I haven't used it very often, but a few weeks ago I was at a conference and each day I dabbed a wee bit on my chakras (or what I generally think of as my chakras - I'm not very informed about the chakras per se, but I put it on the crown of my head, just between/above my brows, at the base of my throat, over my heart, and just below my navel). I always wore something else for scent - I couldn't even smell Charisma, and I forgot I had it on - but by the end of the conference I realized that my social interactions had gone really well. I enjoyed talking to people, I felt calm and confident, and people really seemed to enjoy talking to me. Now, I'm sure it helped that I was meeting up with friends much of the time but still, negotiating large groups of people and staying "on" for a few days at a time is usually really hard for me, and I really felt very little of the usual awkwardness that I feel in social situations - which I think was at least partly because the Charisma was working and people were responding positively. Anyway, I really want a bottle for further experimentation, now.

The only scent I've got true play-doh from was Snow White, which might well be the almond, although I have no problem at all with the almond in Black Phoenix, Bastet, Queen of Sheba, and the like, so I kind of doubt it. Unless it really is almond oil as a carrier, rather than the actual scent of almond.

I really don't get a lot of comments either - my mom liked Antique Lace, and I've had compliments on Dorian. But honestly? I don't think I know enough people who'd feel comfortable commenting on perfume - apart from my husband, the people I spend the most time around are the college students in my classes, and I really doubt any of them are going to comment on a professor's perfume! (Employees in universities seem really uncomfortable commenting on such things, unless you're already good friends - they don't want to be accused of sexual harassment!) And I also tend to have a "don't talk to me, I don't know you" face when I'm out in public by myself, so strangers don't usually approach me. It may not be because people aren't smelling the perfume, though, as much as they don't get BPAL as perfume. I was once waiting for people in a used-book store to tally up some books I'd brought in, and the employees started saying to each other, "Do you smell pot-pourri? I'm sure I smell pot-pourri!", and I'm quite sure it was actually ME! But we all agreed it must be the books. It was Tamamo-no Mae, which I don't think smells at ALL like pot-pourri! But I think the thing was that it doesn't smell at all like conventional perfume - no flowers or musk - or alcohol! - so it just didn't register as perfume them - it was some other kind of smell. So I think some people don't comment because BPAL is so unlike conventional dept-store perfumes, they don't associate it with something that people wear. (Oh, wait, my hairdresser usually comments! She's one of the few people up-close-and-personal enough to notice, I think. She's liked most stuff I've worn, though.)

Okay, this is unlike my usual scent so this is going to be a pants review, for the sake of knowing what this smells like, but I thought I'd put something down anyway... My initial response is OOOOOoooo! I like this! Spicy, dark, complex - if what I love in here is Bay Rum I'm really bummed I passed on Frederic... Initially I get a lot of rose geranium, which I love. Also the cinnamon. I think as it dries I'm getting more of the frankincense and bay rum. Interestingly, there's almost a wintergreen-y overtone to it? I like this. It's definitely a more unisex scent (which is what makes it odd for me, but if you like the unisex, definitely try this!). I might try it in a locket to see if I can keep that gorgeous rose geranium around longer!

I'm scared of the jasmine, but let me give this a try... Wet, my initial thought is, very perfumey grapefruit? How odd! Then I realize that the "perfumey" part is rose. For some reason "rose-swirled" sounded like "rose as background note" to me, and this has a lot of rose. But that's okay, I like rose! Rose and grapefruit is something I have to get used to... As it dries, I think I'm getting some of the jasmine, but so far, it's not yucky! Maybe it's the musk and amber blending everything together? I tend just to read white musk as "binding stuff," so I can't pick it out here. I think the amber is making the rose a bit more sophisticated rather than sweet. Overall, this is much more a rose scent than a jasmine scent for me (thankfully!). As it dries down, the grapefruit fades - not very surprising, and I'm okay with that as rose-grapefruit is kind of an unusual combo for me. It's quite lovely - very much in the classic, sophisticated vein that the previous reviews mention.

Vanilla, saffron, and cream. Sigh. Vanilla candle. There's a nice little zing from the saffron, I'll grant you, but the vanilla is very ordinary and a little waxy/plastic-y. I was hoping to be wowed, but sadly, I'm not. Stupid skin!

This is lovely! Initially, it smells like soap - but a very posh and luxurious soap. It dries down into a slightly-soapy (and I mean that in a good way) aquatic with a hint of sweetness from the honey. There's a kind of powdery depth to it from the ambergris. On me for my test it's quite light and refreshing, though I can see how it would be possible to apply it with an overly heavy hand. I will have to think about a bottle for this one!

Since Anna mentioned being unsure about whether it's appropriate to recommend non-BPAL perfumes in this section, I thought I'd clarify that for everyone Thanks so much for clearing that up! It makes total sense.

Will Calls are held on the full moon, so while it varies, it's also set, if that makes any sense. There's a list of dates for 2008 here.

I'm not sure if it's totally inappropriate to post this here, but the richest, most buttercream-y buttercream I've ever come across is at Heaven and Earth Essentials (the link is to the forum thread) - you can get a straight buttercream scent from them, or a lot of scents with a buttercream component. ETA: HAEE's Samhain is Irish soda bread with apples, and people said it smelled very bready; someone also compared it to the Body Perfumery's Milk Bread scent. (Sorry, more not BPAL!)

Heh, I adore Shattered! I don't find it in the "heavy sophisticate" class of perfumes, but I'm just excited to have something with grapefruit and mint that sticks around. I completely second (third?) the Marquise, to me that's a very posh grownup lady scent (I love it).

Interestingly, I get way more evergreen than snow from this, though the snow note is definitely there. Initially it's a blast of wintry pine/fir/spruce (sorry, I can't really tell my evergreens apart!). As it dries down, the berries make an appearance - they're subtle, but present; they add a nice sweetness to this. And there is a sort of hint of the lunar herbs and flowers underneath, like a very distant bass note (terrible metaphor!). I like this VERY much. It reminds me of Skadi, though I should add I only have a little half-imp of Skadi that I hoard like mad, so I'm not doing a direct comparison and may not remember it very well at this point. I think it's also a LOT like The Snow Storm, although I find it a bit more feminine with the sweetness of the berries. ETA: Yes, I did a side-by-side comparison of the Snow Storm and Old Moon, and they're very similar, but the Snow Storm has a woodier undertone, while Old Moon is sweeter from the berries/lunar herbs/flowers. Both are pretty gender neutral, though, and while Old Moon is sweeter, I think guys would have no problem wearing it (off to attack the husband... ).