Nepthys

In the bottle this is mostly lavender to my nose; applied it is all sweet syrupy cinnamon, with my skin sucking the lavender into extinction. I'll definitely use up my imp, starting with wearing this to the casino next week so we'll see how it affects my gambling luck and agility.

I've been dying to try Calliope, so I was thrilled to find this in my last shipment as an extra from the Lab. In what is becoming a pattern, I ended up liking it more than what I did order (Mercury.) Calliope is pure lemon on me, graced faintly with thyme and bergamot; I get none of the lavender. Truth be told, it does smell a bit like Lemon Pledge furniture polish, but with the yucky chemical note extracted and a deep green mystery injected into it. No complaints on this end, I love it. I don't feel especially eloquent wearing it but I do feel very alert and quick-minded.

I loved this from first sniff. It was heady, sweet and leathery in the bottle. Applied, all I got at first was sweet red wine and dragon's blood; then it mellowed and expanded into deep wood/leather notes. It last like that about two hours before quieting to a faint whisper of wine/green. All told, this is a beautiful scent and very fittingly named. Edited to say that this is a very complex, protean scent. Much like Kali, different notes come through on me on different days and I can never really predict how this will develop: sometimes it's a sweet wine scent, other times it's very woody and dry, sometimes it's a mix of flowery green herbs and leather. But every time it is a very subtle, graceful blend. This is becoming one of my all-time favorites.

Add me to the Burned Plastic group. (I assume I have Jack II since I just received it.) This smells gorgeous in the bottle - I swooned when I first sniffed it and immediately thought, "No matter what, this is going to work on me." Sadly, no. Something synthetic and unpleasant came from my skin where I applied it and I was just beginning to get a headache when I stepped in the shower and washed it off. I don't think I'm even going to try to layer this with anything because it does smell so good on its own that I don't want to risk wasting it. I'll just use it as a house scent.

Oh, this is pretty. This ranks right at the top of my BPAL favorites. At first whiff, it is very light and feminine - to me, a cherry-almond-vanilla smell. But applied it behaves unlike any other BPAL oil I've tried. At first it disappeared entirely. Then after a few minutes, the dragon's blood emerged and that was mostly all I could smell. After about 20 minutes, the vanilla emerged and it seemed to settle into that same sweet milky scent I'd first sniffed. Much to my surprise, this lasted a really long time on me - all night long and at the perfect palpable-but-not-overwhelming level. This is pretty much what I hoped Dana O'Shee would be (which I like but doesn't show up on me.)

At first this smelled identical to Chimera on me - a heavy syrupy-sweet cinnamon that made me drowsy. Luckily it dried down to allow the clove to surface and then it smelled a little darker and sharper. But on the whole this reminds me of a cinnamon donut dipped in hot cider; a delicious autumn smell.

Red Devil has that effect on me - when I put it on, I transform into this uber-efficient fireball who wants only to clean my entire house and then work out for two hours. No idea why.

Scent-wise, I'm not wild about this one but I don't dislike it either. It smells better in the bottle, minty and floral, than it does on me - something sharp and offputting comes out on my skin. However, I didn't get it for the scent, I got it for the name (I adore my two black kitties and I burn black cat candles to banish obstacles) and what it's purported to do. I tried it this past week and without going into detail, it worked well. And fast. I am really impressed with the efficacy of BPAL's Voodoo oils and this is easily one of my top 3, the other two being Blockbuster and Horn of Plenty. I never thought I would buy a 5 ml bottle just for candle dressing and not personal wear, but I think I will have to with this.

This as a scent totally did not work for me. I can't really tell what's in this or what is mixing so badly with my chemistry but... yikes! In terms of intent, I used this (both on me and as a candle dressing) during a generic Friday night love ritual and the energy raised was powerful. But it was more of a bitch-goddess energy than a romantic one. I'm sure that could have its uses but I will be very careful how I use this one.

I love the scent of this - warm, masculine and smoky-golden. It's kind of like the big daddy tycoon of oils, connoting security and wealth. Elementally it's very much an earth-fire blend to me, which is appropriate given the intent. I used this in a general abundance ritual. Much to my surprise, I woke up in the middle of the night with two very specific ideas to make money and another idea to save money. That is so not like me, so I will definitely be experimenting with this in the future. This may wind up being a big bottle for me.

I never thought anything with cranberry in it would smell good on me, so I was hoping the other notes would trump it. I was wrong; this is a pure floral-cranberry on me and it is gorgeous. I don't get any of the musk, ginger or spices but they must be doing their work behind the scenes because this is just so fresh and pretty. It's sophisticated and light at the same time. Definitely something to wear on a fall night.

I read through this whole thread, but I couldn't find a Lush/BPAL equation for Silky Underwear Powder. Does anyone know of one?

Yummalicious. I can't attest to the efficacy of this oil yet - I just used it last night for the first time during a money rite - but it smells divine. No clue what the notes are. On me it's a very rich sweet golden scent and really does connote luxury and success. I had planned to just use this ritually but it smells so awesome that I will definitely order a 5 ml just to wear around and keep my prosperity vibes up.

I've gotten excellent reactions to O, but the one that seems to affect men who normally don't, um, react to me that way would be Sin. I love Sin, but I'd never think of it as a man-magnet. Yet it's happened a few times now. Women seem to really like Haunted and Kali.

This is the girliest BPAL I've tried yet. It is minty-pink, reminds me of Barbie's convertible, sheer pink nightgowns, Jayne Mansfield. It's like the "innocent" perfume you bought for your middle-school niece and then realize you want to wear yourself. I normally could never pull off something so rose-girly and in fact I know I have tried out similar scents in witch/new age shops without success, but this actually works on me. I don't think it will ever be one of my favorites just to wear, but because the scent is so highly evocative of Venus herself to me, I will probably save it for ritual use.

I can't pick out either the dragon's blood or the amber - they're blended together too smoothly. Instead it smells just like one warm, autumnal golden note, sweetened by something floral (?) that so far has lasted on me for hours. I love both amber and dragon's blood individually so it's not a surprise that this totally works for me. This is very pretty and very new to me - I haven't found anything similar yet in BPAL.

Mmmmn. I'm afraid my nose just isn't educated enough to pick out the notes in this - I can pick up the pine that other people have mentioned but it's a very sweet pine, not a sharp or acrid one. It smells not exactly like a Christmas tree on me but rather a delicious Christmas potpourri or candle. Something is sweetening it but I can't tell what. Regardless, this is a very cheerful, pretty scent and a total mood-lifter. It reminds me of days at home baking and wrapping presents and burning candles, the kind of days I love to have around Christmas but never seem to have enough time for. On me it retains the same scent as in the bottle and lasts a decent amount of time, getting just a bit pinier after an hour with a bit of citrus(?) poking through. I think I will probably have to get a big bottle of this, once it comes out, because it is just so perfectly evocative of how I want to feel in November and December.

I loved this from first sniff. At first I detected cinnamon but then it quickly turned more to a spicy orange almond. After about an hour the rose came through. I have a terrible time with rose scents but somehow with BPAL I can tolerate them and here I actually outright liked it. This is just the perfect blend, the spice-almond counteracting the sweetness of the rose, and it all comes together for a very exotic, sultry scent.

I too got this as a bonus imp with one on the way... and that's not a problem because I really like it. This does not smell at ALL like I was expecting; I thought it would be softer and milkier and sweeter. Instead on me it's a sharp spicey ginger with an edge of something green??? -- I can't figure out what that note is. All I know is this is oddly addictive and invigorating.

I've been aching to try this and now that I have, it's quite nice. This is a very innocent scent on me, a milky-almond that completely suppresses the honey. Unfortunately I didn't get the play-doh smell others have - I say unfortunately because I adore that smell and was hoping to get it here -- but it's still a nice, light Ivory Snow Girl sort of scent. It fades a bit quickly though.

The perfect scent to wear to your next bondage ball, dungeon adventure or sojourn to your favorite pleasure dome. Smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka. Oh wow, this is divine. Thank goddess I didn't let the rum in the description throw me off (I hate the smell of rum). Unlike others here, I don't get any coconut; on me this smells like I was wearing Kali and then went out and rolled around with a hot dirty stranger. I get a smoke/wine/hot skin smell from this for about the first two hours and then it sweetens just a bit, with the smokey note evaporating. This is easily the most down and dirty-salacious BPAL I have tried yet and is definitely going to be a big bottle for me. It's just magnificent, not to mention spellbindingly addictive. I didn't even think you could bottle something like this.

I loved the sound of this but was intimidated by the ylang-ylang, which is never a scent I get along well with. Sure enough, that is what came stridently through on my first test of this. I was upset because I love Snake Oil and O and yet this did not even seem in the same family as them. Luckily it morphed after about half an hour into what it is now - a mellow golden powdery scent. I still don't get O or Snake Oil (if anything, it reminds me of Haunted) but I do like it quite a bit. It hasn't captured my heart like O or Old Morocco or Kali but it's still a pleasant drowsy afternoon scent.

Of all the BPAL oils I've tried, this has the most extreme arc from wet to dry. When I sniffed the bottle I thought "Oh no - this is going to be horrible on me." Applied it was all smoky almond with a very bitter myrrh edge .... and then gradually it's mellowed into something that is as dark, foreboding and mysterious as you imagine Hecate to be. This is the most exotic and adult of the BPAL almond scents I've tried and perhaps the most addictive; it's never cloying or overly sweet, instead bringing me in further with each sniff. I love the scent purely on its own but I think that I will definitely be using this for divination rites around Samhain - this just smells like clairvoyance, like murky secrets and magic. Of the three Goddess BPAL scents I've tried so far (the other two being Kali and Pele) Hecate is to me the truest and most evocative of that goddess's nature. Lovely.

I was really anticipating this based on reviews. So I was disappointed when I opened the imp to be assailed by a very harsh chemical scent. I tested it out... it took about twenty minutes but somehow it evolved into a grassy smell - bright green - then into that barren, scorched scent I was expecting. Unfortunately the sweeter green-vegetative scent disappeared at the same time. I think I may play around with layering this to see what else I can evoke from this.

So pretty. My only worry with this was the frankincense, but that turned out to be needless: it is firmly in the background. At first the cinnamon dominated on me for about 30 minutes, then the almond came through and I felt I was smelling a warmer, sweeter Queen of Sheba. Then the scent kind of morphed into the perfect blend of the two and well, it's beautiful. Although it fades more quickly than I'd like, it's rather energizing and I really like that.