Jenesis

Well, not sure I can match the mental images brought on by the previous review, but here goes On me, the Madame is... pleasant. Nice. Sweet. And that's just it. I can't pick out any individual notes. Although I can tell they're there - the red musk and the vanilla in particular - they just blend perfectly to create a sweet, womanly, sophisticated scent. Maybe that's where it falls down on me; it's just not very complex. The only morphing that happened was the red musk going from frontal-assault mode to the background in the first minute. After a while, this blends to, well, a patchouli-vanilla blend with a little red musk brightening it up. I don't get any pomegranate or plum out of this. It's sweet and warm, and my boyfriend described it as a "snuggly" scent. I think this replaces Midnight Kiss in my top 10. All in all, it's a nice, pleasant scent that I like. I will definitely hang on to my bottle, but I won't be panic-buying it before the Carnival goes away. ...Although I might have to get one more bottle.

Well, again, my Mum got my order She confessed she's been trying them all on! Go Mum European Order! Ordered: 25th OctoberCnS: 14th November Delivered: 20th November Ivanushka Samhain Perilous Parlor Gingerbread Poppet El dia de Reyes Vampire Tears March Hare Imp pack #1 1. Schrodinger's Cat 2. Katharina 3. Event Horizon 4. Embalming Fluid 5. Iago 6. Sudha Segara Imp pack #2 1. Bastet 2. De Sade 3. Fire of Love 4. Goblin 5. Whip 6. Incubus ...and (from the sound of my Mum's email) about twenty frimps! Hoorah! It's not actually my birthday until Dec. 14th, and I won't get these smellies until Dec. 1st, when Mum brings them up with her when she comes to my concert. I need my Samhain!

As I'm at University at the moment, I get my BPAL orders (the Lab ones, at least) sent home, for a couple of reasons, mainly the shipping time fluctuations, but also housemates here are useless and never answer the door for post so I'd have to collect it from the PO every time. So every time a Lab order arrives home I get a bewildered email of "Some Alchemy potions have arrived for you" European Order! Ordered: October 30thCnS: November 14th Received: November 19th Black Forest The Lurid Library The Snow Storm - with a picture label, as far as my Mum described it to me. ...and seven frimps! (Namaste, Vampire Tears, Villain, Juke Joint, Seance and Oberon.) My Mum said that she liked The Snow Storm, and that it "smells wintery". I won't get to smell any of these until December 1st, when the parents are coming up to see my concert and bringing a few things, like a warm dressing gown, and smellies!

This isn't a review as such, just a note to say that my Mum likes it. My order with this in was delivered at home today, and my Mum, who likes "clean but not acidy" scents, as well as light woods, said it smelt very nice. So that's my Mum's review!

For me this is pretty much Patchouli SN. It gets a little sweeter after a couple of house, but it's still very strong on the patchouli. Strangely, I got a lot of compliments on it. Weird!

Oh. dear. god. This smells EXACTLY like my home toilet. No fruit or anything even remotely nice. The smell reminds me of the few mornings I've spent with my head down said toilet after overindulging the night before. Noooo thank you

I wasn't around for the actual lab release, but I got a bottle of MCIII in a swap. MCIII means 1103, doesn't it? (Wow, that's a lotta bottles of CT!) Anyway, this one is... green. Very, very green. I'm useless at picking out plant notes so bear with me! It smells kind of sharp and quite medicinal at first, but there's an interesting sweetness behind it. I think it's dandelion as the main note but don't take my word for it. A little later, this has a strange spiciness about it, and the sharpness has died down (although I think I put a little too much on!). Later still, this has turned into a spicy herbal scent. Very unlike anything else I have, and quite pleasant! I think this could be good layered with something smooth, like pear or peach.

I was lucky enough to get a sniffie, with just enough to test, of this in a swap! My skin AMPS booze notes, so all I can smell on for the first hour is butter rum, thick and alcoholic. After that time, the vanilla comes out a bit, but it's still very heavy on the rum. While that's quite nice, it's not really as nice as I was expecting, although part of me is glad of that because I'll never be able to find any more of this!

It might as well be. I call it Bee-Pahl too. When I am not calling it "THEE presh-usssss," that is. Ooh I call it that too sometimes. But not often, my boyfriend looked sad and said "I thought I was your precious...?" last time I said it.

Me four! Although as none of my friends (whom I know IRL, I mean) know what BPAL is or what it stands for, they're a bit bemused when I refer to "My bee-pal stash". I hope they don't think it's a new euphemism for crack or something

Err. Whoops. I couldn't resist Samhain's siren call! I NEED a second bottle! So I ordered it, along with a bottle of Plunder to keep it company. Yay!

A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930's. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. I have no idea whether this is the 06 or 07 version. I think it may be the 06 as the label isn't "shiny" and it looks a little weathered. In the bottle, this is incredibly sweet - think along the lines of the overpowering caramel of Creepy. First on my skin, it retains this caramel-sweet whoosh, but I can detect the coconut in there too. Drying, I get a slight "burnt sugar" smell. I hope this doesn't last. Drying after a few minutes, the sugar has faded to the background, leaving a smooth amber-coconut scent. Very strong, so use sparingly, but going well so far! Dry (10 mins): I'm not getting any opium, spice or delphinium out of this. It's just a smooth, slightly "sticky"-smelling scent. Definitely pleasant!

I have no idea whether this is the 06 or 07 version. I think it may be the 06 as the label isn't "shiny" and it looks a little weathered. In the bottle, this is incredibly sweet - think along the lines of the overpowering caramel of Creepy. First on my skin, it retains this caramel-sweet whoosh, but I can detect the coconut in there too. Drying, I get a slight "burnt sugar" smell. I hope this doesn't last Drying after a few minutes, the sugar has faded to the background, leaving a smooth amber-coconut scent. Very strong, so use sparingly, but going well so far! Dry (10 mins): I'm not getting any opium, spice or delphinium out of this. It's just a smooth, slightly "sticky"-smelling scent.Definitely pleasant ETA: This scent does something weird on me. After about two hours, it just... vanishes. Completely disappears. It leaves behind a veeeery faint musky skin scent.

Ooh, purdy! I can't wait to get my Yule/Halloween order now...

Samhain... because both my costume and my Samhain are new

I have a bottle of this on the way, but a kind forumite frimped me an Imp in advance. Wet: This smells very woodsy and quite sweet. Pleasant. Drydown: I can smell cinnamon in this, rounded by woods and sweetness. For some reason it really reminds me of a scented candle I used to own - not that that's a bad thing, it was a lovely candle! Dry: HOLY MACARONI! This is a sexy scent. I can smell all the notes listed in it (except mullein, but since I don't know what mullein is...). On my skin, which loves wood and apples and spice, it's incredibly warm and comforting and as someone earlier said, it is "Autumn in a bottle". Rating: A smashing 5/5! Throw: Incredible... for about two hours. Then it vanishes into a skin scent. Expect lots of reapplications. Room scenting: Strangely, no. I tried it both on my hair (which is very long) and in an oil burner, and both times it just smelt like a smoky bonfire. Pleasant enough, but not exactly a great scent. I guess my skin chemistry must love all the notes! PS: My un-BPAL-initiated friend, who has no idea of notes and skin chemistry, said this smells like roasted apples on me. PPS: Wow, I actually finished an Imp of something all by myself! I really slathered this on today. It's quite strong, and I can detect a faint, boozy, sweet note that must have been too weak to smell before. I assume that's the mullein. It's still lovely though!

Nice one swilde! When I went UK (Birmingham) to Budapest a couple of months ago I put the Imps in the ziploc baggie you're meant to fit all your liquids in*, and there were no problems. *I take everything in hand luggage unless I'm going for more than eight days or so - My Dad, a seasoned international traveller, has lost too many bags and had too much stolen out of hold baggage to trust the handlers any more. Strangely, he says Heathrow is the worst for getting stuff pinched. I've become very good at fitting a week's worth of stuff in a rucksack.

Heh. I realised I would probably like some of the more woody scents as well, so I ordered: Not a bad one, eh?

Aye, the Goods one is the one you want.

Yep, the box itself is slightly bigger than a VHS video box (boy, now I feel old) and that is wrapped in a large card envelope. Put a different delivery address on PayPal. Re. your previous question, just add $13 to the total oil price when you send the PayPal I usually put "UK Order - Yule & Halloween" (or whatever) in the Subject field as well. Don't know if it helps, but oh well!

I'm getting shower gel/laundry powder out of this one. The sad thing is, the bottle it's in is soooo cute (a tiny, tiny bottle, less than an Imp's worth).

At first sniff, for some reason this smells like paint thinner. However after a couple of minutes it mellows into, you guessed it, pears. But they're not fresh-picked juicy pears - to me, they're fermented pears that have been sitting in the cupboard under the stairs for a while. Like other reviewers I found this very, very light (and my skin amps vanilla!). Strangely, I'm getting a "paint" vibe out of this at the moment ETA: It's best to let this age. When I first got this it did this weird paint/plastic funk for the first hour before drying down to a sweet vanilla. I was mortified - I want my pears, not plastic! However, applying again, when the oil is around a month old, is much better. The plastic smell is only there for the first few minutes and then the pear comes out, sweetened by the vanilla. A lovely scent, if rather simple, and well worth being patient with!

Well said I tend to think of it in terms of pounds - $13 is roughly £6.50. That's to ship a box (not an envelope), which can be quite heavy with bottles, three thousand miles to my front door. That's not bad going! My favourite computer parts retailer, who are UK based, charge nearly twice that much to ship. Not to mention the comparison between BPAL and "store" perfume. My last BPAL order: $175 = £90 including shipping. That's for seven bottles and two Imp packs of six scents each. A bottle of Calvin Klein = £45 for a single bottle, not including shipping. Guess which one I'd rather buy? Going back to faeriedust's original post: It's your money! If you don't want to spend it on a handling fee that's fine There are the swap forums, the ISO forum, and lots of livejournal groups for buying second-hand smellies.

This does indeed smell a lot like Bloody Mary, only less cough medicine and more sugar. First on, I don't like this at all. It smells like the cherry scented plastic Cabbage Patch Kid (or whatever they were called) doll. Thankfully, after 10 minutes or so it mellows out into a creamy fruit. Smelling it makes me feel all young and innocent again! However there is a hint of something sharp and burnt in the background. After an hour or so, it hasn't changed much. It's fairly pleasant, but it's still quite plasticky and there's still that burnt note in the background. I'll hang on to the Imp for fancy dress, but this isn't big bottle material.

So here I am back at University for my second year. The work isn't too bad, although the lecturers seem bent on giving us assignments that have to all be handed in at once. My house is... interesting. Suffice to say I am never living with some of these people ever again. Leaving milk out on the counter for two weeks doesn't exactly put them in my good books. Anyway, happy stuff: I made my birthday Lab order! I thought "Oh, screw it" and pretty much ordered my entire wishlist. Here goes: What a great box that will be to open! I was going to go for Saggitarius, but the Chamomile was a deal-breaker for me - the scent of that just reminds me of pond water. I'm really excited about Samhain and Gingerbread Poppet especially, and I look forward to trying Iago and De Sade (leather... mmm!). Luckily my birthday isn't until December 14th, and hopefully it will be delivered before then! I know the Lab will be very busy over the next few weeks, what with the wedding and everything, and I just hope they get round to my order in time.