Nepthys

This smells just too delicious to be true: a warm blend of amber and flowers that is graceful and feminine in a way that feels genuine, not fake as so many girly scents seem to me. It's not too sweet, no strange jarring notes emerge, and it lasts and lasts on me (through a humid club basement at least) for hours. It dries down just as it goes on and in a nice reversal of my usual luck, smells better on me than it does in the imp. I never would have expected to like carnation as much as I do with BPAL but somehow it tends to work on me in blends - and being the amber-fiend I am, this is a match made in heaven. I definitely get the comparisons as a less-sweet O or a less-spicy Bastet. Too, too beautiful.

I got this as a freebie with my new BPAL shirt but had been thinking about getting it anyhow. It just sounded so dashing. However... sexy as this is, it is complete overkill on me. Just from opening the imp to sniff it and some getting on my finger, then transferred to my collarbone, resulted in a powerful aura of scent that clung to me for hours. It smells very much like a department store cologne and has some delectable notes, but I would only wear this if I could turn down the intensity a few notches. As is, it reminds me of obnoxiously persistent nightclub guys who drown themselves in cologne.

This smelled very pretty in the imp, a hot bright gold. Unfortunately on me it went on quite smokey, then turned into a hot version of Vicks Vapor Rub. Eventually I got the Dragon's Blood everyone else could smell, but the medicinal sterile note underneath continued to bother me. Too bad.

Thick, sickeningly sweet honey and butterscotch. It gives me a glutted, overindulged feeling - the way I get after baking when I eat too much of the dough and feel so sick I never want to even see a sweet again. I thought the booziness was only there a short while but apparently my nose just turned off to it - someone came in my office later and accused me of drinking. This has inviting elements to it, it's just a bit too strong for me. I'll try layering it with something a little drier and sterner and see what that produces.

Sandalwood is probably my favorite scent in the world, but in BPAL I'm not a big fan of it. Something is in Shroud that was also in Cathedral and Tushnamatay that turns flat and dull on me; instead of exotic or spiritual it smells repressive, like an old house that really needs to be cleaned and opened up. I can't wear this without feeling depressed but it makes a decent room scent.

I wouldn't have tried this if not for the tempting reviews here. At first I was very excited - this went on as a feminine, expensive blend of amber and peach that was just perfect as the scent of a seductive, dangerous woman. I was thinking I'd found my next big BPAL love. Alas... as it dried down, both the peach and amber evaporated and I was left with a chilly and matronly floral. It's pretty but a bit too formal and fussy for me in the end.

This is what expensive men's cologne tries to be. It's masculine, confident verging on cocky, and sexy as all hell. I happened to get this hours before going off to this huge gay conference and carried the imp with me; two of my butchest friends were just swooning over this, it smelled so dashing on them! This is easily my favorite "boy" BPAL so far, definitely outclassing Wilde and Whitechapel (though they're both quite nice.) In the imp this smelled at first whiff like a Calvin Klein cologne. At second whiff I realized it was much more artful and inviting than any commercial cologne, and didn't (thank god) have that toxic note I associate with store scent. On me at first it was all lavender and tonka bean; there were clearly other notes blending in, but I couldn't really identify them. It was just a good blend. It started out with a very rakish air and yet as time went on, the scent seemed warmer and comforting in a strong way, like snuggling into a good-smelling man's leather jacket. Total BPAL genius afoot again.

I honestly only tried this because Santa Muerte is cool; I wasn't expecting to like it much, given that rose and I don't mix. What a surprise, then, to discover that this is a very beguiling scent. At first it was all cactus flowers with just a bit of vetiver --in itself a dry, dusty, western kind of scent. Then a complex but subtle sweetness came through so it all rounded off to a soft, dry green floral. This isn't my concept of Santa Muerte and yet it very much matches the art I've seen of her, a desert skeletal goddess in velvet robes. This is one of those BPALs that actually deepen and enrich your experience of a deity. Lovely.

This is the sharper, bubblier sister of Hollywood Babylon. At first the champagne and strawberry were perfectly balanced but eventually the strawberry triumphed. Luckily it isn't an overly sweet note like so many synthetic strawberry scents - this smells like the actual fruit, not the many products people try to make smell like strawberry.

I love the true scent of chocolate but most chocolate scents have always smelled synthetic and kind of sickening to me. BPAL is the exact opposite - I love Velvet, Vice, Kali, Dia de los Muertos - so I had to try Bliss. I have immediately fallen in love with it. It smells so rich and genuine and comforting, there's not a shred of plasticity in it. Best of all, this is the perfect oil to layer. I like it with all of the above, but right now I am really liking it with Samhain - wearing both is like carrying around a Halloween aura all day. Fabulous.

The ghostly White Women of the Scottish highlands. They seduce unwary travelers by night with their unearthly beauty and mesmerizing dancing. They engage their victims in a wild, hypnotic dance, and once they reach exhaustion, the demonesses exsanguinate their partners with their vampiric kiss. Talk about a quick courtship. Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. This goes on and stays on as a white powdery aquatic. I don't get any of the citrus or ginger - and ginger usually comes right through on me. Instead this smells like a soft, feminine French perfume. There is virtually nothing to match it to the description! This got a lot of compliments at work and I am finding it so nice on the warm spring days that I may have to get a big bottle.

In the imp this is mostly a sharp green lemongrass with a milder intrusion of lavender. On me, though, it is almost all lavender with a pleasant herbal afterthought. It's a decent enough scent but I only wear it right before I go to sleep so... Now. I've only had this a few nights and it's true they involved a partial eclipse with the moon in Aries, but still, my dreams have been complex and meaningful. Unfortunately they're so complicated that it's difficult to remember them all but I've been waking up with a true feeling of refreshment, like my consciousness worked out whatever it needed to, and I got a good night's sleep besides. Because this seems to affect my insomnia as well as my dreams, I think I prefer this to my other sleep oil, Somnus.

At first this smelled like other BPAL churchy/woody scents to me - I expect because of the frankincense, which has always drowned out all other notes on me. Then, surprisingly, a hot peppery note came through which saved it. I got the pirate assocation after that, though like others I somehow expected a salt water note that wasn't there - which I actually think is good. I don't think I would wear this just for the scent of it, but rather, when I wanted to feel kick-ass and adventurous.

I think Beth really nailed this one - this is exactly how Lady Death should smell! It's feminine, elusive and dry as a death rattle. What's unsettling is its shifting faces on me, elegant and ladylike-pretty on top, and then a sinister afternote of dry leaves and arid earth. It's quite remote, so that one sniff doesn't quite sate me - I keep going back for more and more, trying to nail down my impression. I wasn't expecting it, but this was a HUGE hit with two male friends tonight. They thought it was the sexiest scent ever. I know orris root is used in lust spells but that really took me by surprise... I like this ok but they went crazy for it!

The "somber blooms" just aren't in this for me, neither in the imp or on my skin. Instead it's a dark dry scent of pine trees and night - I don't know why the description evoked a chilly gray day in my mind, but this has a midnight association with it; and of course, it is called House of Night. This doesn't really remind me of a graveyard as much as a huge Victorian estate, the kind in gothic romance novels where there was always an overgrown weedy family cemetery on the premises. I could see a Bronte heroine wearing this - it's that kind of dramatic, tragic scent.

At first this was pure anise, which has never been a favorite scent of mine. But it quickly morphed into the smell of cigars and leather. This smells exactly like a certain breed of old men; I had to actually wash it off because though not unpleasant, I seriously felt as if the ghost of an old man was right next to me wherever I went. Incredible.

I totally get the occult bookstore smell from this - it makes you think of dusty tomes and obscure incenses and a general smell of old magic. For the first hour this is straight tonka on me, very dry, and then quite suddenly the sweet pea comes out and makes it rather feminine. I'll use up my imp because it is pretty, but I don't think I'd get a big bottle of it.

I was really looking forward to this - the description sounded so beautiful, I thought for sure it would work in some capacity. Yet my skin performed its oddest BPAL trick yet and deleted all of the amber, mango and lavender from the scent, leaving only sage with just a trace of musk. It's pleasant enough, just a very far cry from both the description and the lovely scent of the timp. As it dries down, it turns into a dead ringer for Cathedral.

The other reviews sound so subtle and nice! Leanan Sidhe is not at all evocative of twilight and mist and flowers on me - instead it smells like fresh, sharp, green soap. I like this; it gives me that clean, well-scrubbed feeling you get taking a cold shower with lots of bath gel after a hot grimy day. Very sudsy and herbal. I'll probably get a big bottle for summer to feel sweet and cool in the sweltering AZ heat.

I know UD's Cake has been discontinued but I really loved it. I've tried a few sweet BPAL - Snake Oil and O and some others - but none that actually smell like cake batter. Is there such a one that doesn't have almond notes or spice notes? Thanks!

For some reason I thought Spooky would be more holiday-ish. Instead to me it's a very cooling, summery scent, like eating mint-chocolate-chip ice cream on a hot summer day with the shades pulled. I got this on the first truly warm day of spring (80's in AZ) and it felt very appropriate. However, it didn't smell all that complex - on me, the booze and cocoanut completely evaporated and I eventually wound up smelling like a Thin Mint. Which is pleasant enough, but I have so many more BPALs that I'd rather wear that I may use this mostly as a house scent.

A very pretty scent but I was wildly off on guessing its notes. For the first half hour or so, it smelled like half-briny aquatic/half-tart apple. Very nice but at the same time so distracting that I could never stop noticing it. Then suddenly the black amber came through and rounded and softened it out to a more traditional, feminine scent. This is lovely.

Well, color me stunned. I always wanted to try this, being tempted by the name and good reviews, but ylang-ylang and I do NOT get along so I never bothered. Luckily the Lab sent it along as a freebie and it works so well on me that I can't believe it! No morphing of any kind occurrs with this; it smells on me just like it did in the bottle, a warm earthy scent. If I had to be specific, I would say that this smells like having sex on a bed of fallen leaves - there's the warmth of skin yet with an autumnal dryness of earth and dead leaves. It is quite incensey, yet still very beautiful.

This smells just beautiful in the bottle, a rich honeyed tea that stops just shy of being overly sweet. Wet, there is a deeper, more brutal note - the musk? - that shapes it into a very interesting scent, one that totally suits Dorian Gray. Unfortunately that note completely evaporates on me and pure sugar tea comes forth. Like Snake Oil, I have to be in the mood for this level of unadulterated rich sweetness; though it smells delicious at first, after an hour I'm sick of it already. In the future I'll probably try layering it with something a bit more dry.

Manila's description sounded lovely and in the vial it was - very aquatic and fruity. For the first 20 minutes, an intense banana smell came forth, backed up by that same aquatic scent, which was okay but nothing special. Then a solid woody scent came forward and this turned into a fruit-tinged version of Cathedral! It was pleasant enough but nothing I'd choose to wear.