supervillainess

I thought the original F54 was a 1/3 oz bottle? Or am I completely making that up? I was not paying attention to special offers at the time so I missed out on it!

 

 

Sarada's right, it's a 1/3 oz bottle, which is approximately 9.76mL

 

Thanks ladies! I'm not sure where I got that 15 notion - this sounds more like I remember.

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Sometimes, yes. Especially in the case of blends such as Formula 54, which was sold for $45 per 10mL bottle ( worth. every. dime. ).

 

Bumping this post to verify something - and because this is the only reference to F54s original size/price I can find using the search engine at 1 am! (My search terms shouldn't be screwy, but I'm not even finding the original thread w/ the "forum only" details in the Cemetary - which would be definitive.)

 

Question being, are you sure this was a 10 ml bottle? I have "15" written on my spreadsheet, and I'm trying to hazard a guess at how much I have left (I can't usefully eyeball the little blue potion bottle). I can confirm the $45 price tag, as I still have the order on a PayPal receipt.*g*

First, I think this bottle of Chaos Theory may be my most favourite BPAL ever, in that it combines a lot of my most absolutely favourite notes that don't work on me in other blends. I only got the one bottle since I have complete faith in Chaos, and've been completely rewarded. Heh.

 

So! Chaos Theory II: The Butterfly Effect CLXXVIII (that's what - 178?).

 

The outside of my bottle smells like my parents' favourite pinot noir. Dark, fruity, red wine. The top note that hits you when you open the bottle is coconut, I swear. And oob the whole impression is definitely one of sweet red fruits.

 

On? The wine note amplifies but doesn't dominate (similar to the wine in Nosferatu/Wanda/F54). It persists through most of the dry down, taking a back seat to a headlong plunge into a floral bouquet. I cannot identify all the notes in this. I know there is rose, but this is the only rose that hasn't strangled a blend since I last layered Wanda w/ DeSade.

 

For the dryest of the dry down I get honey and what I swear is tobacco. And a wee powdery floral something or other.

 

The overall impression is Kali-esque. Minus the chocolate. It reminds me of the smells and experience of my first BPAL order - the surprise that something can really smell that good. It's missing my favouritest leather note, and has more rose than I'd have ever thought I'd like - but it really truly works.

 

It is soooo me and good lord, do I adore all this wine!

Yeah, it's listed as "Verandi" in the website search engine.  I posted it in the search bug listing, but maybe not in the right one.

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Dude, you know that's Bjork's fault.

It's no big surprise that leather is not one of my favorite notes, but in the bottle this smells really good.  It smells *exactly* like the leather in a brand new car and the leather shop at the mall.  It's really amazing how that true to life scent has been captured in this little, tiny blue bottle. 

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At this point I'm just echoing everyone else but... OMG I smell like new shoes! This is definitely pure leather, I'm not getting any other notes. But it's a yummier more sophisticated leather - where De Sade is more raw.

 

This reminds me of my childhood in Dallas, poking around in boot stores with my parents.

I think that was my post on the lj community... here's the link, although the pertinent part was:

 

Hello, my fellow BPAL enthusiasts.

 

While I wait for my forum access to go through, I thought I'd ask a question here. I've hopped around the reviews section of the forum as well as the main BPAL website, and haven't found any specific references to a scent that evokes old books. I was lucky enough to get to attend a sniffing party, and we discussed how much we would all like something that has that particular association.

 

Does anybody get that impression- paper, leather, a little dust- from any scent or scents? I bet BPAL could do a great Hell's Librarian oil.

 

Thanks!

 

I was waiting for my forum request to be approved but couldn't contain my curiousity. Supervillainess, thanks for bringing this up here- it totally slipped my mind.

 

Recommendations from the lj thread included Ouija, Hellfire, The Apothecary, Arcana, Severin, The Hermit, Seance, Gaukeo, Scherezade, and Le Serpent Qui Danse.

 

A big thank you for all those recommendations! I can't wait to smell like a Library- any will make me happy, although I have a special fondness for the Lucien's collection, The Beast's (from Robin McKinley's Beauty) and the Library of Unseen University.

 

No bananas, though, please.

 

(Ook.)

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Yes - that's it! Thank you.

 

Gotta run to the grocery now, but I am SO coming back to read this in detail. I knew I wasn't crazy!

I'ma guess this should go in recs, but it's really more of a "Which thread did I read that in?" kind of post.

 

I read something somewhere by someone new (I'm thinking maybe in the lj comm) asking "Hey, why don't we have any scents that smell like dusty old libraries?" Which kinda got me thinking Yeah! Why not? Because ancient books are my single most favourite smell on earth. I sometimes open up my old copies just to take a big whiff. I'd have asked this a long time ago because I tend to not think of books in terms of personal fragrance, BUT this doesn't mean I can't make absolutely everything else smell like that, right?

 

Bonus score for me then because someone posted in reply that "Well, XBPAL actually smells a lot like old books."

 

And of course I can't remember what that post was. Anyone else happen to read this?

 

Orrr, any new suggestions?

Going to skip the extensive review, because my wonderful experience w/ Egg Nog was much like everyone else's. DELICIOUS. And all the spicey rumminess needs to last much longer. Will definitely be slathering.

So, why do I bother to post? Because the drydown smelled of powdery sweet handmade marshmallows, and lasted a *long* time. I was walking around in an aura of marshmallow-y goodness and making people smell me. It's really amazing what smelling like confections can do for your mood.

Oh, and Rosemary is one to be avoided according to all my aromatherapy books.

It's easy to write a review if you love a scent, it's harder f you don't, because I don't want to hurt any of the creators of a particular perfume.... But the hardest is when a scent is so non-descript that you don't have anything useful to say about it then...: it smells like flowers.

 

Final verdict: Not my thing, obviously. Sorry.

This was much the same impression I had at first. OOB I was totally not impressed with Black Dahlia. Wussy girly *bland* floral that I quickly overlooked in favor of Kali and Brimstone. It was the last of my Imps that I even tried, and it's been something like 3 weeks so...

 

I got it out today on a whim. I'm feeling slagged, so I excavated the fancy pretty underthings and went for a girly floral.

 

Totally surprised me once I got it on.

 

Wet, was very sharp overwhelming notes - probably the Jasmine (from what you guys have said), quickly followed by Magnolia. My overall impression was Pele, only effervescent and much more vibrant (ironically). That bubbly bright haze of sharp florals lasted longer on me than Pele did too, but now that it's allll the way dried down I'm really smelling the amber which I'm not so crazy about. Amber makes me feel geriatric somehow. So... between white florals, Pele is probably still my prevailing fave. Especially since I'm not picking up on anything off/evil/dischordant in Blach Dahlia. Will so totally eke my entire imp though!

 

p.s. firstest review - do I pass?

I tried Hamadryad yesterday, and it made my skin a bit red where I wore it, but that went away eventually.  It wasn't as bad as the All Night Long.  Does anyone know if there's cinnamon in that as well?

I didn't think there was cinnamon in Hamadryad, but when I wear it that's *all* I can smell. It was kinda a weird deja vu-ish moment later that day when I bought a used car and it smelled like cinnamon too.

 

But I can't wear any oils in my cleavage. I'd only tried Kali, Wanda, and O spread out over something like 3 different days, and I ended up w/ an itchy rash. My dermatologist explained once that the skin on your chest is just more sensitive, scars easily, and is an all-around pain.