tempete

I was surprised by how much I liked Bewitched. I've tried other BPALs containing dark musk (Hecate, Phantom) and was put off by the rawness of this particular note. But in Bewitched, it is blended so well with the fruity and green components such that no one component dominates the scent. On me, the sweetness of the berries and the freshness of the green tea and sage peek through the dark musk, just enough to smooth it out and brighten it up. Unexpectedly lovely - I would consider buying a 5 ml of this.

I'm at work and I'm not doing anything interesting tonight (didn't do anything interesting last night either). Since I'm in such a bad mood over not having any fun this weekend, I'm wearing Spellbound to cheer me up.

I swapped for this scent because I love myrrh. However, I only smell myrrh if I inhale deeply. There is a very strong herbal green note that dominates on me and is not at all what I expected given the presence of other notes, floral and otherwise. This one will be swapped out.

Heh heh... I have an ulterior motive for giving BPAL imps to my sisters for Christmas. It gives me an excuse to try as many BPALs as I can in order to make an "informed decision". Anyways, I'm very grateful to everyone for all the suggestions. I've managed to set up swaps for Desire, Neo-Tokyo and Juliet, and I'll have to see if I can find the rest on the swap board.

Just to warn you, you may have to pay brokerage fees in addition to tax and duties when you get your Fedex package. Expedited shipping services such as UPS and Fedex use brokers to get their packages quickly across the border, but the end receiver has to pay for that service. I once had to pay $25 on a UPS package containing a lipstick and an eyeshadow worth about $30 This details Fedex brokerage charges that was posted in this discussion of brokerage charges.

Each one of my three sisters is getting 7 BPAL imps for Christmas from me, with the option of getting a 5 ml bottle of their favourite scent. Each one will receive Kumiho and Snake Oil plus 5 different scents. There will be no duplication between these 15 scents (5 scents x 3 sisters) so that they can swap amongst themselves. I'm having trouble finding a 7th scent for two of my sisters. Some background on sporty sister: she's finishing up her Ph.D. in cancer molecular biology. She's quite social and makes friends easily. She's never been much of a girly-girl - I've always had to do her makeup for her for any special occasions. She's probably the most athletic member of our family - she runs marathons and participates in triathlons, and finished the Ironman Canada triathlon just this past September (I am enormously proud of her for that!) Some background on girly sister: she works at an accounting firm that gives out iPods as thank you presents. She's also very social and makes friends easily. She is very much a girly-girl and I've given her lots of cosmetics and hair care stuff that have always been well-received. I would say that she's probably the most conservative of all my sisters, and the least likely in my family to seek out things that are off the beaten path. So other than Kumiho and Snake Oil, sporty sister will be getting O, Scherezade, Baobhan Sith (may substitute Danube once I know what it smells like) and Machu Picchu. I would like to get her a clean-smelling BPAL that doesn't have a lot of ozone or citrus to complement this set. Girly sister will be getting Haunted, Old Morocco, Jezebel/Queen Mab/Rapture/Viola (haven't decided yet) and Xiuhtecuhtli. I've been trying to find a fruity BPAL that isn't just fruit to complement this set. Here's what I've tried and why it didn't work: Clean Apocathery - I actually like this, but I think that it might be a little too heavy on the herbals for my sister's tastes Dragon's Tears - likely too spicy for my sister's tastes Embalming Fluid - smelled medicinal Empyreal Mist - faded out within an hour Shanghai - too lemony Tempest - too lemony Unseelie - powered out Fruity Swank - far too sweet Venice - too much sandalwood Recommendations for clean-smelling and fruity (that aren't just pure fruit) BPALs would be greatly appreciated! (And thanks for reading through this really long post!) [The other sister is receiving Black Phoenix, Intrigue, La Petite Mort, Perversion, and Spellbound.]

(Old) Venice has gotten such good reviews that I thought that I would give it a try. I definitely get the juicy red scent that other people have experienced with this BPAL; however, there's something lurking in the mix that smells off. I suspect that it's either sandalwood, lemon or jasmine that is disagreeing with my nose, as those notes have caused problems for me in the past.

Empyreal Mist evoked green grassy meadows for me. While quite lovely, it is rather nondescript on me and lacks... a bite, an edge, anything to balance the airiness and etherealness. Plus, it disappeared on my skin within an hour. This one will be swapped away.

Cordelia was one of the imps in my first order simply because the description mentioned tea. Unfortunately, the tea aspect of this scent was overpowered by the floral components (I think that it was the fault of the lilac note), and I didn't get any of the spiciness that the other reviewers mentioned. I ended up swapping this one away.

Wet, the grapefruit note in Baobhan Sith dominates on me. This quickly dissipates (which is good, because I'm not overly fond of grapefruit) into a clean white floral with little staying power. The white tea and ginger notes are not major contributors to this scent, which makes me prefer Kumiho to Baobhan Sith.

Although I'm not a huge fan of pure floral scents, I gave Pele a try because I thought that the Hawaiian ginger would balance the floral notes. Unfortunately, Pele dries down to a floral bouquet that had a creamy or buttery feeling, which was really off-putting. I gave the imp several tries, and ended up swapping it away.

I've had different experiences with Kali (probably related to what time of the month I tried it). Sometimes, I get an almost artificially sweet fruity scent that lasts from application to drydown. Other times, this sweetness gives way to a smoky chocolate scent with hints of flowers and fruit. And the other version that I get is the initial sweetness slightly tempered with tobacco and chocolate that turns into the smoky chocolate scent. I love the chocolate phase so much that it has single-handedly catapulted Kali into my top ten despite my dislike of the sweet fruity phase.

I thought that I would like this because I enjoy the pomegranate note in Persephone so much. Unfortunately, Swank dries down to a very sweet fruity scent on me with little tartness (which would have been nice to offset the sweetness). I'll be swapping this one away.

I think that Scherezade is similar to Old Morroco in that they are both spicy scents. However, Scherezade is less dry because it doesn't contain any sandalwood and the floral component is provided by the saffron note. FWIW, I prefer Scherezade although I think that Old Morroco is lovely as well (Edited because I thought that Old Morroco didn't have any musk in it. Silly me, I should re-read the descriptions before I post...)

Although I love BPAL's red musk, I was unsure if Spellbound would work for me because rose tend to overpower all other notes on me. But Beth told me that red musk was a dominant note in Spellbound, so I took a chance and swapped for it. It's a mighty good thing that I did, because I couldn't stop smelling myself when I wore it! I must have looked pretty weird to my co-workers because I kept randomly smelling my forearms... Wet, I smell the red musk and amber most strongly. As it dries down, there is a phase where the roses emerge to temporarily dominate the scent. The final drydown on me is a beautiful, sensuous blend of red musk tempered by the rose. This is a bit much for every day, but I'm still seriously considering a 5 ml bottle because I love it so much!

This was a freebie from the Lab. I was excited to try it because it contains one of my favourite notes, red musk. Unfortunately, it never really comes out on me in this scent and instead, I alternate between the cherry cough syrup phase and the licorice-y anise phase. Oh well, maybe someone will want to take this off my hands...

I swapped for an imp of La Petite Mort even though I had an imp coming in an order because I was so desperate for a good myrrh scent. I am so glad that I did! On me, this is a wonderful skin scent that is darker version of O with tiny hints of white florals (must be the ylang ylang). I already bought a 5 ml bottle

Lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker’s perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli. I smelled like freshly grated ginger for about an hour after I applied Vixen. The ginger then relinquished its hold and let the orange blossom emerge. While this was a very pretty phase, fruity florals are not my favourite scent, so this one will be swapped.

I've lived in Canada for most of my life, and I remember what a hassle it is to order stuff from the U.S. And how annoying it is to wait for your packages to clear Customs... It's no biggie - just want to make sure everyone gets their BPAL fix!

Cross-posted to the BPAL Chatter forum: Hopefully the five-week delay of international packages going into Canada will be resolved within a month - at least that's what Canada Post hopes.... If it's not, I live in the U.S. and am flying to Toronto for Christmas on December 21, so I can bring orders with me and mail them within Canada. If you're interested, PM me!

If I have somewhere to go on Halloween and if I can squeeze myself into my PVC pants, then probably something blatantly sexy like Snake Oil. I'll be a rock star or something like that. (As an aside, I haven't really thought of a contingency plan and don't really have time to shop around for a costume... so I hope that those PVC pants still fit.)

Tamora smelled like vanilla sandalwood on me. I suspect that my skin's affinity for sandalwood masked the other notes and made it much less interesting on me, unfortunately. I will use up my imp, but I will not be purchasing Tamora again.

Etherealchild is probably right in that it's contact dermatitis. However, from violetblue's description, her case is most likely caused by an allergic response and not skin irritation (or primary irritant contact dermatitis). First, she did not have an initial response and secondly, not everyone who's worn Blood Amber develops a rash - refer to this website for a detailed description of both allergic and primary irritant contact dermatitis. You should only use hydrocortisone creams sparingly and for just as long as you need them. Overuse can cause thinning of the skin, prolonged redness and stretch marks (my reference is this website).

Follow Me Boy turned into a very strange mix of strong grassy herbals mixed with a bit of powder on me. It was quite a potent scent with a lot of throw to it - I had about 4 different scents on my arms when I was first testing Follow Me Boy and I could definitely smell it the most. If it causes men to chase me, I'll definitely wear it often... but otherwise, I won't be wearing it because I think that it smells good on me.

Unseelie is very green on me when wet, with a tiny hint of florals lurking in the background. From this promising start, it unfortunately morphs into Love's Baby Soft on me. A more sophisticated version, to be sure, but not what I want to smell like.