BPAL - Jolasveinar 2010

It's Christmastime, right? So lets have a sniff at the BPAL Yules. BPAL Yules seem to work a lot better on me than the Weenies - so I guess it'll be difficult to figure out which ones are bottleworthy - or better: Which ones I can affort!

Let's start with Jolasveinar 2010!

Wet: Soap with some gingerbread!

Dry: The soap takes off more and more - the stage welcomes sweetmint and a light wood scent. The gingerbread have disappeared. After some minutes a light iced fruit scent blends into the woods and takes back the sweet mint.

This seems to be one of the few BPAL scents that does not turn sweet on me - quite nice! It's fresh and nice and cool. The more I sniff on it, the more it reminds me of a less sweet and less artificial but more herb "Cool Water" - strange!

Time to have a look at the description! The lab says:

The Jólasveinar are the seventy-some offspring of Grýla and Leppalúði, an ogre couple with a taste for chomping naughty children. This impish brood delights in causing discomfort, sowing confusion, and all-out raising hell during the Yule season. Their names are indicative of their malicious intentions -- Strap Loosener, Door Slammer, Window Peeper, Sausage Snatcher, Doorway Sniffer, Icebreaker -- and their creepy natures -- Lamp Shadow, Smoke Gulper, Crevice Imp. The devillish Jólasveinar finally cease their mischief and head for home at Þrettándinn.

Their scent is a mishmash of snow, dirt, Icelandic moss, marsh felwort, and the smushed petals of buttercups and moorland spotted orchids, with the barest hint of the scent of pilfered Christmas pastries.

Wow - somehow this doesn't match ... or does it? Snow = hint of mint ... no dirt in this one ... moss - yes, at least a little bit of it ... marsh - perhaps the soapy thing in the beginning? ... can buttercups and spotted orchids turn into something icy-fruity? The pastries have been there in the first seconds. Okay, perhaps this does add up after all! :o)

Anyway, this one is nice an different from my other BPALs and it's on my "would like to get a bottle" list!

And this one would be great on my dragon, will have to dab some on him.

BPAL - Halloween: Brooklyn 2010

I confess: I just ordered this decant because I loooove NYC - so I just had to have this one, even if the labs description did not call out for me:

Flowering dogwood, weeping cherry, Korean pine, camellia, moonflower, Alberta spruce, arborvitae, and crab apples.

Wet this is a sharp scent. Aquatic mixed with smashed floral stems and a hint of some sour fruit.

As it dries down it gets a lot more gentle. Now there are wet trees, and wet leaves on the gravel in a park.

My skin seems to eat this one - it has no trow at all - which is too bad because it is a very interesting scent. It's not a "perfumy" scent to me - it's just very beautiful, conjuring up a perfect park scene after a heavy rain, paired with some melancholic thoughts.

I can't pick out the scents listed in the labs description - but on the other hand I don't know most of these scents ;o)

Cotton-test: On my cotton piece it's the fresh and aquatic scent with some crushed stems but without the fruits. Pleasant and rainy.

Verdict: I'm torn about this one. I only want to buy bottles of scents I'll truly want to wear - and I don't want to wear this one. But it's so nice - on my skin and on the cotton, even - or perhaps because - those scents are so very different. I enjoy sniffing it every few minutes ... but I wouldn't want somebody else to sniff it on me. So perhaps I should just keep my imp and enjoy it ... but I'm not determined yet.

BPAL - Satyr

Wet this reminds me a bit of Lush Tramp - not that it's the same scent, it's only the same feeling.

It's really hard for me to pinpoint what this scent could be. Musk and something wooden? A dab patchouli? A hint of lavender?

As it dries it's a lot like Czernobog which I looooooove. It looses the disturbing complexity it had in the wet phase and becomes sweeter and softer but still a bit wild and extraordinary.

I'll have to do a comparison between Czernobog and Satyr. Wet I like Czernobog better - but dry I'm not sure.

But lets have a look at the BPAL homepage, Ars Amatoria. The lab doesn't reveal a lot about this one:

Unleash the bawdy, unrestrained passion of the satyr! A ferociously masculine scent: sexual, vigorous, and truly wild.

Sexual: yes. Masculine: perhaps. Wild: a bit. Anyway: Dry it makes me want to eat my hand! It's gorgeous and will go right to my "need a bottle" list - and I'd love to try it on my dragon!

But this won't be a typical "go to" scent for me like Blood Amber. Blood Amber feels like a blanket I can cuddle in or like a second skin. It just feels "me" - Satyr is more "what I'd like to be" or "that's my mood today".

edit: Several hours later this becomes powdery in the best way possible - still in love with this one!

BPAL - Halloween: San Francisco 2010

I was so waiting for this decant! The lab's description just sounds too great:

Salt air wafting in from the bay. Rain falling on rain-soaked leaves.

I love the idea behind these "Halloween memory" scents from Beth :o) Thank you for sharing your Halloweens with us!


Lets see what my skin does to it:

Wet this is salty + fresh sort of herbal. I don't associate this one with leaves - for me it is too sharp for leaves.

Dry: This is definitively playing in the "fresh" class! It really reminds me of taking a walk on a foggy autumn morning next to the sea.

But I don't get enough from the leaves in this one - it's only foggy and fresh, that's why it's not really what I was hoping for. It's drawing a nice picture and I really like the idea of it but I don't think that I'll need a bottle of this one. But I'll appreciate my decant.

I could imagine this one on my dragon - will have to ask if he'll finally give in and try his first BPAL! If he should like it, I consider one bottle as a gift for him - always wanted to enable him!

BPAL - Khephra

A random BPAL, this time a discontinued one (it was from The Stations of the Sun: The Midnight Sun):

Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest over the heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening.

Wet: I can't pick out any specific note but some cardamom ... this is just something golden and warm to me (I usually write my own thoughts before I go to the lab and read their description - somehow I wouldn't have thought the Midnight Sun to be such a warm and golden scent!).

Dry: The cardamom fades a bit, some soap appears ... and something herbal comes out to play. Herbal-floral. Perhaps camomille?! Nice but light. Suits this rainy day. Despite the soapy undertone in this one it's a very nice and warm scent which gives me a comfortable feeling.

Verdict: It's okay, even nice - but nothing I need more of. Other BPALs suit me much better and give me a warmer feeling overall.

BPAL - Kill-Devil

Lets grab a new random BPAL! Again from Bewitching Brews:

"Rum punch is not improperly called Kill-Devil; for thousands lose their lives by its means. When newcomers use it to the least excess, they expose themselves to imminent peril, for it heats the blood and brings on fevers, which in a very few hours send them to their graves."

Sugar cane, molasses, oak wood, and honey.

Wet: Very sirupy.

Dry: Sweet, a bit mossy with a hint of wood. Not unpleasant but also not really my thing. And somehow this one is a very flat scent - I more fond of the complex BPALs. But this one could be nice for layering!

Still this one would be a good choice for a cold and sunny day, perhaps for a walk on a fair or something like that.

And while this is sweet, I'd still consider it to be unisex because it's sweet + masculine undertone.

BPAL - Cathedral

The next random BPAL from Sin & Salvation:

Venerable and solemn: the scent of incense smoke wafting through an ancient church. A true ecclesiatical blend of pure resins.

Wet: Somehow soapy with a nice spicy background and a touch of eucalyptus.

5min: This reminds me of Aureus, I think ... it's somehow pleasant but the soapy note is distracting.

Dry: The soap is gone, the spice (guess it's the incense) is still there and is now accompanied by a very dry, wooden scent. Nice!

After 1h - either the scent almost gone or nose is stuck! There is only a light scent left, a bit spicy and somewhat nice but I really have to put my nose on my skin to smell it.

Verdict: A nice scent but somehow unsigificant on my skin and too faint. But I'll revisit it on another day to rule our that my nose is the culprit!

BPAL - Spellbound

A random BPAL - this time from Ars Amatoria:

Perfectly enchanting! An irresistibly sexual, utterly rapturous blend of three roses, radiant amber, and sensual red musk.

First I thought: Huh, how could I forget this scent?! It slept for a long time in my "try again" stash - and it is so nice! It's roses with a hint of Blood Amber and something earthy.

After a while the Blood Amber hint vanishes, the scent becomes more earthy and somehow masculine - not at all a romantic rose, but really a great scent.

Afer a few hours becomes sweeter - somehow with a hint of vanilla - and still some earthiness. The vanilla is not candylike, just perfect.

Overall an interesting scent with a lot of morphing. I think I should wear it more often!

BPAL - Ultraviolet

Hello fellow BPAL-friends!

Today I grabbed another random BPAL out of the hat. It's Ultraviolet from the Bewitching Brews Collection.

Electrifying, mechanized and chilly - the scent of crushed blooms strewn on cold metal. Lush violet and neroli spiked hard with eucalyptus and a sliver of mint.

So what do I get?

This one I have to split, it morphes extremly:

1-10 minutes:
This is really terrible and I think that I have to wash it off immediately. It is sharp eucalyptus with sweet chewing gum mint and a hint of floral. It makes me nauseous and it has something from a very digusting cough drop. The one you'd refuse to suck even if it would really help you. I had to fight to manage those first minutes.

10-30 minutes:
Violet with edgy eucalyptus. Luckily not with the cough drop eucalyptus any more. Very interesting, surely something unique. Nothing you'd expect a perfume to be. And not my style. But I can imaging that I'd like this scent on a man - so I'd label it as "unisex".

After 30 minutes:
The longer I wear it, the more it becomes a plain but nice violet scent. Of course a bit sweet. I'm note sure if this is still unisex ... well I still think that I'd like it on a man - even if it's not the conventional masculine scent.

Verdict: If you endure the first minutes this one becomes a really nice violet scent - violet, not ultraviolet.

BPAL - Squirting Cucumber

Okay, another random BPAL! I wanted this one so badly becaus the lab writes:

Yikes! A spurt of wet, grassy greenness.

This one is from the Rappaccini's Garden collection. But well ... what can I say. Wet? Grassy? Green? No, my skin turns this into very sweet cucumber. Not really something I want to smell like! Fresh cucumber?! Why not. But sweet? No thanks.

Anyway I should not come to close to my guinea pigs with this one ... couldn't blame them for wanting to take a bite ...

BPAL - Dragon's Eye

I think it's time for "random BPAL" - I just pick one BPAL imp and test it. So this is the first one.

It is part of Ars Draconis and BPAL says:

A piercing, radiant perfume: dragon's blood resin, lily of the valley, lilac and galbanum.

I bought it because I thought that I'd love everything with Dragon's Blood. I was a bit wrong. The first minutes after applying this one is simply soap to me. Some soap I don't like at all. It's a very sharp scent and the Dragon's Blood is very subtle. In this scent's describtion it says that there is lily of the valley in it (funny - in Dragon's Blood it's not supposed to be but I smell it, in here I don't).

But after a while the sharp note disappears, but the soap note stays. But it's not that ugly anymore and has a sweet touch. Still, I won't buy a bottle of this one and I'm not sure I'll ever complete the imp.

This one's color: Shifts from grey to a bright green and back.

I might like this one on a man ... definitely a unisex scent!

BPAL - Dragon's Blood

Another favorite of mine!

It is part of Ars Draconis and BPAL says:

Powerful, commanding, blazing with strength.

This one also belongs to my "feel good and confident and protected" group (and well, right now I need it - yesterday I woke up and couldn't hear with one ear. Acute hearing loss - possibly due to some news I didn't like to hear at all. It really seems to be a case of "I didn't want to hear that - thatfore I now quit and won't listen anymore. Well well ... I hope it goes away soon!).

It has the same floating, wet quality like BPAL Blood Amber, but this one is not that sweet - guess it is the "blood" part that makes them silimar. But it has a spicy undertone to it. It feels grown up. Not ladylike - I'd say this one is unisex - at least on my skin. In addition it smells like lilies of the valley.

This ones color: lilac + blue with brown sparkles.

I got a lot of compliments out of this one, it seems to agree to a lot of people.

I hope this evening I find the time to polish my nails again. Only problem: I'm still waiting for my orders - so still no Fast Drying Top Coat and all I want to see on my nails right now is a holo polish! I'd love to go for CG FYI again. But perhaps I could switch to CG OMG instead - this way I'd have the opportunity to take some new pictures and post them here.