Wwindy

Super-sexy chocolate incense goodness! This is a tasty scent, in all senses of the word. I just wish the chocolate lasted a bit longer on me -- it seems to burn off a lot faster than the spicy incense-y Snake Oil part. I also think this blend would be a bit much for everyday wear, especially for work; Wulric is a more laid-back, relaxed choice along the same line, at least for me.

Gorgeous! I tried Thalassa because I thought I should start experimenting outside my usual resinous BPAL comfort zone -- I figured the frankincense would help ease me into an aquatic! I'm not detecting the jasmine or almond at all as individual notes. What I'm getting is a very true "beachy" scent. It isn't quite ocean -- more like being on the sand with the waves crashing nearby. I think where the jasmine and almond come in is just the faintest hint of wearing sunscreen, but that might be my imagination and/or too many summers down the Jersey shore. Anyway, I'm very happy with this -- it's very different from my usual range, and it must really be working for me since I got my second-ever completely unsolicited BPAL compliment today!

I really wanted this one to work, even though I was nervous about the fruit and floral notes! The first time I tried it, it was a giant jumbled muddle -- I think I must have hit a bad time of the month to test a complex blend. The second time, I was interested in the wet stage and starting to enjoy it. The jasmine was behaving itself nicely, much to my surprise. And then... the orange pulp reared up and smacked me upside the head for no good reason! Industrial cleaning solution all the way. Even my husband, who is not a particularly discerning sniffer, said "Chemical-y cleaning stuff!" right away. *sigh* If you're good (or even just ok) with the lab's citrus, this could be a gorgeous blend. Not for me, alas.

Oh no! Sleep, M, sleep! :waves Jedi hands: (Need me to come over & do the Magic Baby Dance again? ) Yes please! She actually does fine as long as someone is holding her/paying attention to her -- it's just when we get to 3am or so and I can't cope with being upright any longer that we hit the real trouble... Hmmmmm. Herbal, cloves and cider, or bamboo/tea -- all of those I could definitely deal with. You even make the Green Phoenix sound pretty good! I'll start decant-hunting. Thanks for the suggestions!

My baby never sleeps and thus I need anti-TKO in a big way... but citrus (and most fruit in general) is terrible on me. Anybody have good "perking up" scent ideas for a resin and spice lover who doesn't do well with sweet, fruity, or foodie blends?

Plunder! "The scent of a pirate's bumboat, overflowing with stolen wares: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg."

In theory I agree about the Apothecary being great for this weather, but my skin seems to just suck those light tea scents right up -- Apothecary and Gennivre just disappear on me. Alas! I've been enjoying Dragon Moon (the recent vintage) on hot days, and also Diwali.

I saw several recommendations for this one over in the "what to wear when it's blazing hot" thread, so I figured I might as well try the frimp I had floating around. This blend is indeed very pleasant, and very clean. I get mostly tea and greenness -- there was a hint of ginger on initial application, but it didn't really stick around. Unfortunately, my skin seems to eat these kinds of scents for... well, for high tea, I guess (except without the scones and clotted cream and jam and all that good stuff!). There's not much of what I would consider "perfume" going on at this point; the effect is more reminiscent of having used a nicely scented but unfamiliar hotel soap. I might go for the Apothecary if I had an interview or something business-related on a hot day, but it's probably not something I would choose for my own aesthetic pleasure.

On initial application, I get a lot of citrus out of this. Weirdly, depending on where you sniff (left wrist, right wrist, neck, general throw) the citrus is either very sweet or has a very sour edge to it. I know, sounds crazy, but I asked my husband to smell a couple of spots and he actually thought there were different blends each place he sniffed! As Aelopile dries down, the good stuff (the resins and woods, as far as I'm concerned! ) does intensify and the citrus backs off a bit, although it continues to make intermittent appearances. Unfortunately, something about the overall impression reads as classic men's cologne to me, and I just can't get over the random morphing citrus.

Sometimes it's really hard to describe the play of notes in a BPAL blend, but this one is easy for me (me = some combination of my skin chemistry, nose, and brain! ). It's a hint of smoky incense-y sandalwood plus a handful of white-to-pale-yellow Hawaiian flowers. I'm not really detecting anything else, but the overall effect is very airy and pretty. I'm not a floral fan in general and have been wondering what to do this summer when it gets too sticky hot for my beloved resin/spice blends -- if you're in the same boat, Tupapau might be worth trying!

Oh, drat. This is gorgeous. It's definitely got a message of HELLOOOO RESINS!, but in a sweet, somehow gentle, ever-so-slightly florally tinged way. It doesn't read as headshoppy or hippie at all to me throughout most of the wearlength, and I would therefore be much happier about wearing it to work than some other resinous/patchouli blends. (Except obviously I won't be doing that, because why waste a single precious drop on work, right? ) The final tail end of the drydown is a little patchouli-heavy, but I do that to a lot of blends -- my skin seems to hold on to patchouli longer than anything else. I suspect a mid-day reapplication would take care of that problem, anyway. *sigh* This is the first time I've fallen for one of the really hardcore sought-after blends. Just watch... next it'll be Minotaur or worse! Well, I'll enjoy my decant while I have it!

Oh, yum! This is good stuff! Wet, it's almost entirely dark chocolate and lavender on me. This is a surprisingly fantastic effect -- surprising not because I don't love chocolate and lavender (I do!) but because I haven't had a huge amount of luck with BPAL's lavender in the past. Wulric does the trick, though! The lavender does start to die back on me during the drydown, and the vanilla comes out. After a couple of hours I'm getting a soft vanilla musk with hints of the cocoa. I tried Boomslang yesterday and loved it, and sampled Wulric today specifically to compare the two. I'm happier with Wulric as an everyday blend, especially for going to work -- Boomslang is indeed Teh Hott Sexxay chocolate fudge cake, but Wulric spares your boss, coworkers, clients, etc. those potentially alarming headshoppy vibes.

I'm a big fan of lavender in general everyday life (like, really big -- lavender soap, lavender deodorant, lavender tea, and lavender chocolate big ). I didn't normally wear it as perfume before I found BPAL, though, and I have to admit I haven't had much success with BPAL lavender blends. I'm not sure why, but something about most of the blends I've smelled so far just doesn't quite work for me. Yvaine smelled lovely in the decant -- unlike most of the other lavender-containing BPALs I've sniffed before, it actually had a detectable true lavender note to my nose. It was pretty on my skin at first, too, although the lavender receded somewhat. However, poor Yvaine only held out a half hour, barely. Maybe. I thought it might have been a fluke, so I slathered mid-afternoon, and... still nothing. No throw, no duration. Pretty if I pressed my nose up against my wrist during those first few minutes, but gone in a flash. *sigh* I'll keep looking... and maybe Yvaine will consent to grace me with her presence in a locket!

So, I was about to make an impromptu purchase more or less purely on grounds of cultural/religious affinity. Then tartchef said, "Don't buy Chanukkiyah, buy Diwali -- it's much easier to wear and you'll like it." And I thought to myself, "Are you MAD? It has fruit in it! And almond milk! And, you know, other yucky stuff which makes me go bleh!" But tartchef is made of awesome and also a very wise woman, and so I did what she told me to. You guys! Hey you guys! OMG, you guys!!! Diwali: The Platonic ideal of mango lassi, accompanied by joyful exotic party smells and a curl of incense smoke. This is sooooo incredibly gorgeous. Why did I not pay attention to this when it came out?!? Oh, that's right, IT HAS FRUIT. And true, it is foody, kind of -- but it's also spicy and smoky and a tiny bit woody, and the mango doesn't really smell like a fresh-cut fruit so much as it does ... well, like I said, lassi. Very sophisticated, very warm and...yes, definitely celebratory. I always sort of laughed at the whole "I want to eat my arm" bit you read a lot around here. Now you can all laugh at me, because I WANT TO EAT MY ARM. Actually, I want to bathe in this stuff. Rawr! In conclusion: 1) Try this even if you think you don't like fruit, because BPAL is full of wondrous surprises. 2) I don't have enough italics or exclamation marks to convey the depths of my squee. 3) Also, tartchef is a goddess... but most of you probably knew that already!

Do woody notes work for you? Glowing Vulva at Ryogoku Bridge ("Cream accord, amber, teak, and lotus blossom") is gorgeous!

Fascinating! When I first put To a Woman on, it smelled much like I had expected The Clod & The Pebble or maybe Pulcinella & Teresina to smell. Both of those were a little too harsh on me, but this is lovely. I don't generally do well with rose notes, but whatever's going on with the rose otto in this blend, it works for me -- not too overpowering, not old-ladyish, not heavily perfumey, just pretty! The throw for some time is very much rose and what I would have sworn was cedar. The rose and whatever is doing the cedar impersonation are definitely predominant for a good long time. After a couple of hours, I can pick up the benzoin (I'm learning to track benzoin by that faint breath of hairspray-like smell!) and a tiny bit of faint fruitiness. It is a "purple" sort of fruit note to my nose, but very delicate; I'm not detecting any of the citrus reported by some people. I'm also not picking up any overt patchouli, and I'm a patchouli lover whose skin usually brings that note out! I think it's just working in the background of this blend. I keep coming back to that one overall impression: Rose and cedar, but soft, rich and well-blended, with a warm, intriguing depth. I'm excited to have a patchouli blend I can wear to work without worrying about overwhelming people!

Well, I'm definitely not getting sexy naked dancing witches. More like cheerful, lightly clad hikers just starting out down the trail, I'd say! On my skin this is a gentle, warm evergreen scent with a touch of amber -- a little soapy, a little generically "clean" smelling. If I put my nose in reeeaallllly close and snorfle, there's a faint trace of the incense. OK, maybe they're hippie hikers. Pleasant, not thrilling. I'll test this again in a couple of days but will most likely be swapping my bottle.

Oh, I love the April Fool label! Too bad it's so completely and utterly not my kind of scent... oh well! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I think it's a throw issue. I almost never get any feedback on my BPAL, with two exceptions: 1) one particular friend of mine with a super-sensitive nose (seriously, he can tell when his wife opens a tube of hand cream in the next room!) and 2) anyone whose face I stick my wrist in. Very sad! I'm tempted to start making up sprays of my favorites, to see if that helps.

Wow, object lesson in testing at various times of the month... Three days before my period, Longing was a muddled, murky, cologne-y mess. Three days after my period, it's a delight! Fresh on, there's a bit of an astringent edge, but that dies down very quickly. Dry, this is a warm, well-blended musk with incense depth and lovely rosy overtones (the rosewood is fabulous -- I can't wear straight rose at all, but this is great!). I can't really detect any cinnamon. Good thing I tested again -- I'll definitely be ordering a bottle of this!

Looks like no one's touched this thread for a while, but I wasn't sure where else to put this -- and I wanna preach the gospel of Valentine of Rome! Valentine is a beautifully spicy resin blend: frankincense with tons of clove and pepper overtones. Yum!

Me too. It smells so wonderfully woody in the imp that I allowed myself to hope that the rose would behave itself... alas, no. Me three, alas! I love the way this smells in the imp, all earthy and spicy, but on me it goes to ROSE ROSE ROSE DID I MENTION ROSE. It's a pleasant, soft, powdery rose... but not what I was hoping for. It's still stunning in the vial, though. I think this might be my first locket scent!

Alas, I do not get passionate sex at all from this blend. What I get is a warm, clean, slightly powdery musk with strong grassy overtones. It seems maybe a touch on the masculine side but very wearable in general, although the throw is pretty significant (I had a friend comment that he liked it but I was wearing too much!). Normally I amp fruit like crazy (not in a good way, either ). There's nary a trace of the currant to be found here, though, at least not by my nose. This must be a real morpher, I guess -- I'm looking back over this thread and noting the discrepancies between the people who thought the blend was strong and those who could barely smell it, not to mention the sweet crowd vs. the dry grassy crowd. Weird!

I meant to write about Lionheart six months ago... A friend very kindly sent me a decant, and I thought it would be the perfect thing to take to the hospital with me when it came time to have my baby girl. I wound up scenting a square of fabric in my favorite color and putting that in my toiletries bag -- I didn't want to have to worry about the imp and the hospital didn't allow candles or other burners. Please take that context into consideration when I say this: Yes, it smells like baby powder. Baby powder in a good way -- and of course, completely fitting for my purposes! I'd describe the scent as a warm, powdery amber; I don't pick up the citrus or tea overtones mentioned by other reviewers, but that may be because I've never applied this oil to my skin. I also never got around to taking out the fabric square during my actual labor (that part got long and complicated), but the warm, rich, lovely smell did permeate my recovery room for the five days I was there. I believe it made a significant difference in my confidence level and ability to deal with a newborn. Highly recommended for its intended uses! I wish I'd done more with it during labor, but my daughter arrived as a Virgo instead of the Leo she was scheduled to be, and maybe she wasn't interested in sniffing such a leonine scent during her grand entrance!

Picking up an old thread... Hey, that might explain some weirdness I had during my pregnancy! I've always loved Aveda's hair products, but during my first trimester all of a sudden I COULD NOT STAND a couple of the shampoos and conditioners. I'm guessing they had prominent ylang-ylang notes. Huh. I know anecdotal evidence doesn't count for much, and I see all the other replies from general-non-y-y-lovers, but... interesting!