Koumori

I got this one in a swap; sadly, it really wasn't to my liking. In the bottle, I smelled something like chamomile and children's aspirin. On, I got the same strong jolt of something fruity but synthetic, like lukewarm Kool-Aid. I was hoping for more of a shot of black pepper to even things up a little, but I'm afraid that didn't come through for me. Much too fruity for my taste.

When I applied this, my first thought was honeysuckle. As the morning has gone on, it's become strongly reminiscent of lilies, a scent I don't care for. I get a little bit of the ylang-ylang and neroli coming through at times, but nothing that cuts or tames the overall strong and very sweet white floral. This would be a great scent for a very cool, feminine person to wear; alas, I am warm and sporty, and it doesn't seem to be a good fit with me.

 

ETA: I'm afraid Tisiphone may have aggravated a headache, as well. Sweet florals just don't like me!

This scent was extremely fruity on me. It reminded me of Bordello, which is more plummy than peach/apricot. I didn't get very much of the clove, as the fruit seemed to take over very quickly, becoming a very full and ripe fruity scent. Quite strong on me, but not one that I love.

Lovely, lovely! This is a delightful, exotic scent that crosses Asia and the Middle East. It's deliciously complex in the bottle. On me, I got mostly sandalwood for the first 20 minutes or so, and I was afraid it would end up smelling too soapy for my taste; but that was not the case, as the other notes warmed up and joined in quickly. Sophisticated, spice and tea, not overwhelming. Definitely a winner.

I'm getting overwhelmingly roses out of this one. Some of the other notes start to come out a few hours after application, as the scent is beginning to fade on me, but those other scents don't blend with the rose as I'd hoped they would; rather it's sort of a serial scent. Nice, but not spectacular, for me. Until that fading drydown, it's much like Othello, which will probably remain my rose of choice.

Yog-Sothoth comes across to me as a cool musk; I'm not good at distinguishing individual notes, but I get a floral sense from the rest of it. It's clean and crisp, and stays very true and strong on me. Individual notes are hard to pin down. It's intriguing.

 

However... it also smells exactly like a particular bar of soap that my parents for some reason had sitting around in their linen closet when I was a little kid. I must have kept digging it out because I liked the smell, but that's all I can think of when I wear this.

The peach notes are evident to me in the vial, but quickly vanish when applied, leaving me with primarily amber and a blend of florals of which I can't distinguish individual notes. It's a "power" scent thanks to the amber (one of my favorite individual scents), but not a strong one; 3 hours after application it has virtually disappeared. I'm left with no strong feeling about this one either way.

In the bottle, I got hit with a very fresh green, almost medicinal scent with a strong pine resonance. On me, the medicinal quality disappeared and it quickly developed into a complex green with a suggestion of cool lime; shadows under tall trees. Dried down very soft and faint.

I finally got a decant of this from a kind friend. Upon first sniff I thought, 'hmm, nice, but not really worth all the fuss people make about it.' Then I sniffed it again and thought 'no... no, this might just be worth all the fuss people make about it.' And then I tried it on, and now I feel like I would like to make everything I own smell just like this. The peppermint that seemed a little sharp in the bottle becomes a bright, cool note over the warm, festive blend. Seems light enough to wear in just about any season, and does not develop the off note that many foody BPAL scents do on me.

 

I think I really, really need more Spooky. I almost never use up a whole Imp due to sparing application and short attention span, but I don't see this one lasting very long.

I wanted to like this. I wanted to like this so much. In the bottle, I love it.. foody, boozy, comfortable leather chairs. But alas, my body chemistry doesn't seem to like the resiny/foody scents that I love so much, and after an hour or so, I'm left with a dry-papery scent with an unpleasant undertone of wood smoke.. that smoky/ashy note seems to come out with a lot of BPAL scents on me, sad to say; must just be my chemistry. I desperately love this in the bottle, and may still try it as a room scent, but I don't seem to be able to wear it.

I've been ordering from BPAL for several years, and I have yet to run out of a 5mL - however, I'm a dabber rather than a slatherer and I rarely apply more than a drop or two at a time. I wore Sugar Skull almost daily all fall and winter, with a midday reapply, and I still have a third of the bottle left!

 

As far rancidity goes - I've only had one bottle go rancid on me so far, which was the 2003 Samhain (or was that 2002? I forget.. well, Samhain I anyway). I discovered it had gone bad about a month ago, which gave that particular bottle a shelf life of a bit less than 2 years (or maybe 3). Like all my oils, it was kept in a box in my bedroom.

This is what I wanted Gingerbread Poppet to be. It's a burst of warm, fresh ginger, spicy and exotic. I can't smell much beyond the ginger itself, but maybe there's something to the aphrodisiacal components, because my SO keeps telling me how good I smell... but then, my SO also keeps saying I smell like cookies. I got a decant of this in a swap, and I'm going to do my best to find more, especially since it doesn't have much staying power on me and I'd like to be able to reapply often.

Although I liked this scent in the bottle, like several other reviewers I was hit with a *strong* jasmine and ylang-ylang when I initially put it on. I kept it on to see what happened on drydown, and while I did get a little bit of mingling into a delicate fruitiness, very soon the jasmine came back in spades and the overall lingering scent is of jasmine tea with a ginger undertone, any fruitiness having disappeared. I think I may need to swap this one.

I'm still not certain whether Arkham Revisited seems to agree with me or not. It's the only one of the Springtime bottles I picked up. Wet, it is a very sweet green floral; my heart sank a little as I am not a big fan of sweet scents, but I gave it a chance to mellow out on drydown, and it did. I hike quite a bit around southern New England, and this really is very much the scent of a New England meadow, or an abandoned road. I know this scent, and it's captured perfectly here. I just can't decide whether it's right for me to wear as a fragrance - I can be too picky!

 

To sum up, this is a subtle, complex, pink/white floral, definitely on the sweet side and moderately long-lasting on me. I wish I'd been able to pick up more scents from this series, and I hope I'll be able to snag some decants of others.

I don't much like florals... but I do much like resins, so a scent like All Saints can go either way with me. I got this one in a swap, and in the bottle I was overwhelmed by the floral components. However, almost as soon as I put it on, the resinous notes come forward; there's almost a foody component to it as well. It's still quite sweet from the gardenia, but the whole becomes a very incensey scent on me. Nice.

I keep going back and forth on this one. On the one hand, it's a light, aquatic, summery scent that I really want to like with the first of my spring wardrobe. On the other hand, I can't shake the association I have of this scent with "sport" deodorants, or fabric softeners... probably because that's what I've been conditioned to think of as "freshness." This is a tricky one!

This is a dry, very spicy scent; lots of clove and ginger, definitely true to the description. It's not too sweet, and in the bottle it smells just like gingerbread baking. I have had some chemistry problems with BPAL oils lately that came through in the Yule '04 batch I got, and this unfortunately was one of the ones that didn't take very nicely on me, developing a dark, wood-smoky undertone that I didn't care for. Lovely in the bottle, but sadly not a keeper.

 

After reading so many glowing reviews of the first Snow White release, I'd regretted not getting it when it came out, so I picked up a bottle in the '04 Yule release. It is a very light, crisp scent which put me in mind of clean sheets and white linen - unfortunately, the "fabric softener" quality of it seemed to develop the longer I wore it, and I never did get the foody notes that other reviewers did. While pleasant, this scent was ultimately not a keeper for me. It was a long-lasting scent, though, and stuck around all day.

I was chatting with a friend on AIM on the evening that I tried this. My comment to her: "Wow, I smell like a bisexual Victorian brothel!" And I did, and it was awesome. I prefer masculine-leaning scents, and this one toned down the lavender to a not-too-sweet point perfectly. It makes me want to start wearing sleek pantsuits to work.

Chiroptera was a pleasant surprise. I ordered it because I love bats and welcome every chance I can get to support BCI, but reading the description I thought "man, I'm gonna hate this scent" - since I don't like heavy florals. To my happy surprise, this isn't the sort of sweet heavy floral I was expecting, and has a nice lemony boost to it. Lasts all day on me, and does not develop any off tones like some BPAL oils do on me.

I don't seem to have had much luck with the Yule LE's, unfortunately! Sugar Cookie is great in the bottle, but develops the wood-smoky undertone that plagues me with many BPAL scents pretty quickly. It isn't as sweet as I was expecting, but is a nice spicy warm fragrance that would probably be great as a room scent. Not a keeper for me; I prefer the sweetness of Sugar Skull.

After a creamy-booze rush in the bottle, I get a creamy-vanilla on my skin. Unfortunately, it very quickly develops a very synthetic undertone on me, much the same way the original Jack did. Not a keeper for me, alas.

A crisp, cool floral that speaks of spring in cold places. There is a definite "woody" undertone - probably the maple - that keeps it from pushing into the sweet floral territory that I dislike, but it isn't a scent of forests; rather one of rocky fields and wild places. It is on the sweet side for me, but it is so evocative that I don't mind the sweetness at all.

Sugar Skull is a new addition to my all-time top 5 list. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but this is a fabulous blend of foody sweetness: maple, caramel, rum-type. It's like wearing cookies. Has good staying power on me, too, which is always a plus. Wish I'd gotten more than one bottle, but this certainly gives me high hopes for Sugar Cookie!

I was enchanted with Dia de los Muertos in the bottle, where it came off as a darker cousin of Samhain in its complexity. Unfortunately, when I actually put it on, it disagreed with me; from its initial whirlwind of foody, rich "street scents," it diminished after an hour or so into a musty, smoky scent that I don't care for. I'll be putting my bottle up for swap.