BPAL - Bon Vivant

Random BPAL from Bewitching Brews. The lab writes:

An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry.

Wet: Artifical boozy scent, sparkling and fresh. No strawberries yet.

Dry: Gets sweeter and looses the sparkling scent and becomes nicer - reminds me of a bodyscrub I once had. I still don't get strawberries which is too bad because I love strawberries ...

Becomes a fresh and fruity, light scent. Pleasant but just not the right thing for me.

BPAL - Jailbait

The next random BPAL comes from Sin & Salvation:

Innocence defiled. Sticky pink bubblegum and the thick, sweet scent of orange and cherry lollipops smeared over a breath of heady womanly perfume.

Wet: Bubblegum!

For german readers: Do you remember the pink "Fix und Foxy Kaugummi" that was sold in the 80s? This smells dead on like those bubblegums!

Dry: Something sweet, soft and fruity, candylike. Artifical - but not bad. I think this is a typical little girl scent - I know I'd have loved it when I was a little girl. But for now it's too ... well simple - I miss the "heady womanly perfume". Perhaps I should give this one to my niece (to be) - she is 6 and I think she would appreciate this one.

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 - Black Forrest

Another random BPAL from Bewitching Brews.

This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress.

Wet: Shower gel "Aqua". Cheap, soapy, blue with something sweet underneath (well, no wonder, I ruen everything sweet, right?!)

Dry: Still soapy, a bit piney - only the sweet note is a bit more prominent.

I don't really get the picture of a forrest from this one since there is a sweetness to it, I can't see any dark night or cold or desolate feeling in it.

After 1h: soap + shower gel seem to vanish and leave a nice sweet piney scent with something sour behind ...

My skin might spoil it - I think I'll try it once on my dragon, otherwise it gets a "no" from me.

BPAL - Bliss

A favorite of mine :o)

It's from Bewitching Brews and the lab description says

A shot of pure, self-indulgent euphoria! A scent that is very, very wicked in its own way: the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate.

This is far from milk chocolate on me! It's the scent of my favorite chocolate cake the moment you take it from the oven and the whole room becomes one big yummy!

It's not too sweet and has a tart edge. I really love it!

My dragon and my mom think that it is masculine - and they don't get the chocolate at all - while my coworker agreed with the hot chocolate cake.

This scent is just perfect for cold and rainy days because it's like a blanket I can wrap around me. It definitively cheers me up and gives a warm feeling - and makes me crave for chocolate :o(

BPAL - Gluttony

I know when I ordered this one I was sooooo thrilled. Gluttony from Sin & Salvation:

Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel.

Sounds great, right? Foody, yummy ... but on me it is really ugly! No chocolate, no cream, nothing of the nice things that should be there! On me it is very powerfulf, very spicy a bit smokey and it makes me nauseous! I guess by now that it's my skin + BPALs caramel - they just don't go together.

I let the dragon sniff at this and he even claimed that the scent reminds him of a oddly sweet broth.

Definitively a scent I won't need ...

BPAL - Eclipse

Again a random BPAL: Eclipse from Bewitching Brews. The lab tells us

All the glory, warmth and majesty of the sun -- darkened. A delicious blend of bitter almond, vanilla, frankincense and heliotrope, with a drop of cinnamon.

Well, wet this is wonderful. It's cherry/almond, wonderful, not too sweet, just perfection.

Wet on my skin I almost went nuts: Perfect!! Still like in the imp!

Dry: Huh?! Where did all the cherries go ... ahm, almonds?! After 10 minutes I barely can pick up any scent at all! My skin ate Eclipse!!! And my skin is tingling a bit where I applied the oil. Strange. Everything left is a slight sugary note - absolutely nice, but nothing more or less, far too subtle for a perfume! I have to attach my nose to my skin to guess that there is something to smell!

2nd try: A bit of oil in my hair - perhaps the scent stays there! But again ... after some minutes there's only a faint sweet scent, not as sugary as on my skin - but no almonds, no vanilla.

This is sad - wet it's such a great scent!! Perhaps I should use it as roomscent in an oillamp - that could work.

Well, perhaps good for me: I escaped another "have to buy a bottle!"-trap.

Supplement: After one hour the scent came back. Well, not THE scent, more a scent. I'd say its a bit cinnamon and some vanilla ... it's nice but still not very intense. This is really a funny kind of morphing! From great to nice to nothing back to nice.

2nd supplement: And one hour later there is even some cherry in scent! (this time really cherry, no almond) - I'm not so sure anymore that I won't need a bottle of this ... damn! Make this a half favorite ;o)

3rd supplement: Okay, make this a favorite! I ordered a bottle! On most days it's a bit like Antique Lace + some almond - just beautiful!

BPAL - The Hesperides

Another random BPAL! Today The Hesperides from the Bewitching Brews Collection. The Hesperides ...

are the Nymphs of the Evening who dwell in a verdant garden located in the Arcadian Mountains, guarded by the terrible three-headed dragon, Ladon. Within their garden lives the tree that bears Hera’s sacred Golden Apples. Their perfume is that of sturdy oak bark, dew-kissed leaves, twilight mist and crisp apple.

Morphing:
first - sweet apple and something woody
after 30 minutes: sweet, a bit like cotton candy, apple almost gone.
Later: subtle cotton candy with a hint of rose - nice! (don't ask where the rose came from!)

I really think that I should wear this one more often. It's such a nice candy-scent without being too sweet or childish! It's a possible new BPAL favorite for me! Something totally different from all my other favorites, I think.

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 - Blood Amber

Todays scent is Blood Amber.

Blood Amber is part of Bewitching Brews, BPAL itself says:

Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin.

Blood Amber is my signature scent, it's just so ... me! I got it as a frimp and I have to admit: I would never have ordered it. I was repelled by the name - I'm not a big fun of "blood" in the name. Anyway, after I tried all the scents with names I liked better, I finally had the heart to try a bit of Blood Amber.

And it was love at first sniff!

Most BPALs have a heavy murphing going on between their stages from wet to dry. Some are beautiful while wet and when they are dried they are ... well ... average. I think I'll stick to describing the dried scent because lets face it: the wet stage is no factor for going for a scent!

Okay, back to Blood Amber. This scent makes me feel so great (scents have a huge impact on my mood) - it makes me feel self-confident, sexy, very feminine, warm and protected.

It is a sweet scent but not cavity getting sweet or candylike. For me it has a juicy quality with a touch of very faint flowers. The sweetness is very sophisticated and a bit ladylike - but not powdery at all. I don't know why but every time I sniff it it makes me think "wet" - I picture it floating wet an my skin ... at the same time it still has "an edge" that gives the sexy quality to it and keeps it from being immature. There is a hint of soft cinnamon to it, not the scarp version of cinnamon.

I realize that this scent is very hard to describe for me. I can tell you how it makes me feel, what it makes me think but not actually what it smells like. I have nothing to compare to this one!

Well in this case I go on about telling how it "looks" for me. In cases of numbers, scents and tastes I have synesthesia - so a scent has an actual color to me and I'm going to describe it to you:
This one is copper colored and on some edges it sparkles with orange and warm yellow, burgundy and a little lilac. The colors aren't bright, it's more that they seem to be illuminated by a candle ...

In short: This is MY scent. It's the one I use the most and I have several backup bottles from this one and made a deal with myself: Everytime I order some BPAL I will order 1 bottle of Blood Amber - ignoring how many bottles I already might have (but to be honest: I don't order that often - so the number of bottles is still reasonable).