Mila's BPAL review thread (UNISEX)

(BPAL = Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab)

Since I've ordered about 45 BPAL samples (so far... will order more) I might as well review them all in one thread. I've got feminine, masculine and unisex frags - frankly, I don't care which is which.

I have no idea how these oils compare to regular, alcohol-based perfumes (or to other oil houses for that matter), but I LOVE variety, so their 600+ fragrances definitely captured my attention. :-) Their odd and interesting titles, combined with very inspiring descriptions, proved irresistible to me. I just hope that there is quality and yummy perfumey goodness behind the hype, otherwise I just wasted a lot of money and time.

My plan (and plegde to self):

- to wear one perfume a day. Whether I have a good 1st impression or not, I'll put it on my wrists and go about my day.

- I WILL NOT sniff my other samples before their turn! (Will hold my burning curiosity.) That way, every morning will be like Christmas, with the unwrapping of a present. :-)

- It's ok to repeat the same perfume more than one day.

Now, to it:

1) Snow White 2008


My very first BPAL!!! :-D I've read so many good things about this one (which is a L.E.) that when I saw a bottle for sale on someone's LJ I went ahead and bought it, afraid to lose my chance forever (despite my intention of sticking to samples for now). And I'm glad I did.

I can't say that I love this as of yet; it will take more than one wear for me to form a strong opinion. But this is definitely pleasant and different. Very feminine. Fragile, delicate, innocent. Sweet, just in the right measure. Very light and airy, in an almost not-there fashion. Cold as snow, while warm at the same time (even if that doesn't make much sense). Almost fairy tale-like; there is something magical and special about it. People mentioned almond; I definitely picked up a light nutty smell, but if it's almond, I don't know. No coconut or pear (other common mentions). Unfortunately it is very fleeting; it's discreet to begin with, barely-there (I wish it were stronger!), I have to sniff deeply to smell the goodness. And then it doesn't last very long... But while it's there, it's beautiful.

Color (of the "essence", the "aura", not the liquid): White

Images evoked: Other people associate it with falling snow; I actually think of *the* Snow White, the fairy tale princess, walking in the forest in a cold night; perhaps running away from her evil godmother who sent a hunter to kill her. But she's feeling peaceful, almost happy. It's snowing very lightly, perhaps the first snow of that winter, and there are tiny little purple flowers everywhere in the ground, spreading their scent. (Don't ask me which flowers!) But the perfume in the air has more to do with the girl herself, then the snow or the flowers... or perhaps it's a mix of it all.

Veredict: I like it! At least for now, I will keep my bottle.

Mila

2) Serpent's Kiss


I mainly got curious about this one because I have no idea what dragon's blood and vetiver smell like, and because the perfume sounds so evil. (And also because I'm a Slytherin! :-P) Today I still don't know; the one note I detected was so vicious that I could smell nothing else.

I also thought, "Oh, cool, I can pretend that this is snake's venom..." Childish, I know.

At first this perfume wasn't too bad. (Or at least, I was trying to keep my mind open.) Easy to imagine the venom; very spicy (and I was never one to like spicy fragrances). It smelled like a very obvious spice, something that I'd use in the kitchen, but my nose is so untrained that I couldn't figure out which - if it was cinnamon, clove, cardamom, or something else. Later on it hit me: this smells exactly the same way that hot cinnamom candy *tastes* (if that makes any sense). It's not the same cinnamon I'd use in desserts; it's an artificial, industrial one.

My husband made the lovely comment that I smelled like a cheap dollar-store potpourri... :-(

It didn't take 20 minutes for the nausea to make an appearance. I was at work, trying to get things done, and that strong cinnamon candy kept invading my nostrils and making me slightly dizzy. At some point I thought I might lose the breakfast. I just kept praying that the smell would go away soon. (Unfortunately I applied it liberally, on many places - I couldn't just wash it off.) The smell lasted many hours. This experience will make me think thrice before ever wearing a cinnamony frag again!!!

Other people feel (and BPAL's description states) that this is a cold-blooded smell; I feel the opposite, this is red hot.

Still no clue about which part the dragon's blood and vetiver took in this. But unless proven guilty, I won't assume that they are bad, of course.

Color: Brownish red

Images evoked: none, besides the obnoxious, round, strong red candy.

Veredict: Straight to my swap box.

3) Languor


Oh, I love the description! And love the perfume. :-)

I was afraid that this would be too spicy (especially after Serpent's Kiss!), and in fact it has a bit of bite and bitterness at the start (or is that smokiness? My nose is too untrained to tell!), however it's nothing that offends my nose... it's discreet enough to be charming and sexy. Which is a bit of a revelation to me: I might hate some spices with a passion, but perhaps might enjoy others. Good to know!

Well, I have absolutely no idea what those notes (see description) are supposed to smell like. Tuberose? Paperwhite? (What the hell are those?) Not a clue. Perhaps this is why I cannot describe this scent. Or perhaps this scent confounds me... after all, it is supposed to cause torpor and be trancelike, is it not?

I only know that I enjoy it... I know that it makes me feel sexy and warm... it makes me think of a warm blanket, very much like Armany Code. But I don't know which notes do that. I wore this 2 days in a row (today, my need for comfort overcame my curiosity to sample another vial!) and I'm still nowhere close to describe it.

Oh, this lasts all day, or else all night. :-) After a few hours there is no spice or smoke, only a very nice, warm floral. VERY nice.

Color: gray

Images evoked: a really hot, long-haired blond male artist (painter!) in his 20's, alone in his New York warehouse-style studio, reclined on a really comfortable settee/lounging chair, slightly high in his drug of choice (something not too crass, for the sake of fantasy), feeling at peace and contemplative in an autumn day, gray and cloudy, but warm enough to lounge around in a thin t-shirt sprinkled with paint oil.

Veredict: I will definitely finish my sample (I've got only 0.5 ml, too little as it is!) and if I still like it then, will buy a bottle.

Mila

Thanks Matidaben! I figured, if I'm going to wait until I'm knowledgeable to start writing opinions/reviews and participating here, it might be a looooong while... and my enthusiasm might have died off by then (OR, my enthusiasm might die off if I don't feed it by being here). :-) It's actually very liberating to be able to confess not to know something; I certainly cannot do that often at work!

Cheers!

Mila

4) The Red Rider

Virgem Maria das Travestis Aposentadas! (Sorry, but I need to curse in Portuguese.) This is an awful, AWFUL smell! :-P

Before I describe it any more: It became very clear to me the need to revise my initial pledge. The one about wearing a perfume a day, whether I get a good or bad 1st impression. Yes, I still think it's wise to wear a perfume that you don't like, especially when you are just starting to learn about fragrances; there is something to learn in each one. Plus, I hear that some perfumes have a horrible top note combination, but get really nice later - and I trust that. But when the top notes make you suffer, I draw the line. It makes the process no longer fun.

Why did I mention suffering? Because this damn oil sent me straight back to the dentist's chair! Yes, as soon as I dabbed it in my wrists and sniffed, I was unwillingly transported to that grey room, sitting in that large reclined rubbery chair, with that metal lamp hanging just above my head, Dr. Ghasemieh on my right side, the drill inside my mouth, drilling deep, in preparation for yet another root canal. [shivers] All that came to my mind in a second, prompted by nothing but a little sniff. I don't even remember the oil's description, what notes it is supposed to have. (I'll find out later when I get home.) So I thought that I was going crazy and being overly imaginative... "A frag that smells like the dentist's office, this cannot be." So I gave my wrist a 2nd sniff... and back to the dentist!!!

I contemplated leaving it on anyway, first to follow my pledge, and 2nd in the hopes of it getting better with time. But then I thought, "HELL NO!" and ran to the bathroom to wash it off. Unfortunately the darn thing had penetrated my skin with its claws, and refused to disappear. In a desperate effort, I covered it up with Snow White and left to work. It helped some, but I still smelled dentist. Finally, in a coffee shop while I waited for my cappuccino, I used a last resource: topped it all with Armany Code (thank God for the tiny spray I carry in my bag.) I risked making it even worse by creating a mix of disparaged things, but it worked. Right now I don't exactly smell good, but not offensive either.

Now I'm curious to read what this awful concoction is made of, and whether anyone actually likes it.

Color: Grey (I don't care what the title says)

Images evoked: enough said!

Veredict: I might throw this in the trash bin, to prevent another poor soul to suffer from it. Or maybe not... everyone has a different taste.


---------------------------------


(Later in the day)

This is this baby's description by BPAL:


What can I say?... I don't know what any of these three smell like. Which one is responsible for my visit to the dentist. And isn't leather supposed to be sexy, hello-o?

[pouts]

I expected to find answers, but not yet. Oooh- I should read reviews!!! Be right back!


---------------------------------


(10 min later)

Bummer. Read a few revews, and everyone smells leather. Old leather, a letter jacket, wet leather, entering in a leather store. They didn't sniff balsam or red moss, for the most part. Which must mean that my nose and leather scents are enemies??? But I never felt that way before, leather never equaled dentist before! I surely hope this is not the case, because I was (and still am) VERY curious about leather scents; I have high hopes for them. Hopefully this particular combination was bad, but others won't...

Some other day I'll sniff this thing again and see if I detect any leather.

Mila

5) House of Night

Awesome, very evocative description - and I was really hoping to "see" a cemetery, or some really desolate and sad scenery. (I actually waited to try this sample on a day when I was happy, as not to let myself be affected negatively.) But I saw none of this. No graveyard, no funeral, no grief. I suppose that these smell different in different parts of the world. In southern Brazil, funerals take place indoors (in a church, or in a room within the cemetery's facilities) and not out, in a beautiful green field, where I'd imagine that you smell the grass, the revolved dirt and the flowers, all with fresh air. So where I'm from, funerals smell like roses (there comes my aversion to rose scent), other flowers that I can't pinpoint, whatever chemicals the body was cleaned with... NOT pleasant or poetic whatsoever. But the smell is vERY recognizable. (Obviously, I wanted to smell the american funeral scent, not the brazilian!!! But because I have never been to one, I wouldn't recognize the scent.)

All this blah blah blah intended to say: I did not smell what was described. Instead, I smelled "dark emerald green". I know, that is a color and not a smell - but tell that to my brain! The most I associate it with is a large green field, with grass recently cut. Nothing else. I wear it and think, "green emerald".

It's a good smell. Not sad in the least. Kind of comforting.

Veredict: Nice, but not wonderful. I don't need a whole bottle, but I'll make good use of my imp.

6) Wanda



Leather is evil on me - and not in a good, sexy way.

I already wrote about my horrible introduction to leather scents, with The Red Rider,
when I was transported back to the dentist's chair. Wanda didn't "give me" a root
canal, thankfully, but at least a small cavity, oh yes. Nothing horribly unpleasant, but
not something that brought me any amount of pleasure; I certainly didn't want to sniff
Wanda all day. Honestly, I didn't care to pay attention to the other notes; I was happy to wash
it away and forget about it.

Shame... leather is something that I really expected wanted to like. It's supposed to
be so sexy, so edgy... Well, I'm not exactly an edgy girl.

I bought at least one other BPAL with a leather note. I'll sniff it, but without much
hope...

Color: none in particular

Images evoked: dentist, version light

Veredict: swap box. Shame.




7) All Night Long



So much for the promising description!!! :-P I wore this 2 days ago, and all I recall is a basically
boring scent (which would put me to SLEEP all night long), along with an obnoxious
spicy note that I disliked. (HAS to have been cinammon.) Boring, bad smelling, AND
unmemorable, all at once! :-P I hate it when a popular smell that I've been dying to try winds up
not being up my alley at all.

Images evoked: none

Color: none

Veredict: Fail. Next!



8) Debauchery


I want something sexy, damn it!!! Leather doesn't like me, cinnamon likes me even less (that's ok, I don't like them either!), All Night Long was a total fail, and now this one is too. I just need a little aphrodisiac, a little something to turn me on... is that too much to ask for???

Debauchery smelled nondescript to me. Just a generic ok perfume. Not good and not
bad. What can I say?... It was another very sexy description that didn't deliver. And it has OPIUM! Languor has opium, and I love it. I want to love Debauchery as well.

Tell you this. I'll keep this one on the side, and give it another go some other time. Perhaps I'll be more sensitive to any goodness it might have.

HA, that explains why I was so averse to Kelly Caleche when I sniffed it at the store!

elizrj, thanks for the comment! :-) It's good to know that someone is actually reading this.

Horreur Sympathique

I am not very fond of Belle au Bois Dormante (to me it's not offensive in any way, but not exciting either... too bad, as I love the name!) and I'm SUPER curious to try Cathedral.

Malice


Perhaps it was the description, perhaps it was the scent itself, but it disturbed me as soon as I put it on. It was very... bitter, sharp? Poisonous, but not in a spicy way. (I wonder if that's the clove or the indonesian patchouli.) It came across as evil to my nose, and (as absurd as it sounds) I felt like I was doing something wrong by wearing it, almost as if it could affect me and make ME evil.

Veredict: I don't care to ever smell this thing again.




Rosalind


Wow, what a huge difference from what the descrption evokes and the scent itself! I love the scent of berries, I love the scent of grass, add some soft flowers - it sounds absolutely lovely, fresh and comforting. The operative word being sounds.

I cannot pinpoint why, but this perfume disturbed me very much. It made me uneasy, uncomfortable. I couldn't wait to take it off of my skin. It's not that the smell was THAT unpleasant. It's just... hell, I don't know what on earth it is, I just know how I felt about it. Just now I dabbed it on my skin again, for the sake of doing a just review, and it's making me uncomfortable again. I'm off to wash it off. And by the way - I cannot describe what it smells like, besides it being somewhat medicinal and sharp, but in a soft way (I know, I just called this soft and sharp in the same sentence...) A bit acrid, perhaps? Anything but grass and berries!

Veredict: what do you think?

Demeter - Snow and Demeter - Frozen Pond



I'll just review these two together, as to me they are VERY similar.

Snow smells like... well, snow. So it fully fulfilled its promise. It's cold, wet, ozoney, not quite so clean snow. I get alcohol, even though this is supposed to be a water-based perfume; I don't know if there is alcohol in it, or it's just part of the scent.

Frozen Pound is almost exactly the same thing, only a bit less cold, no alcohol note, and with a subtle dirt note. But overall, they have the same "feel".

Both make me imagine exactly what they propose to be, which is pretty admirable. Both are great for layering (and probably intended for it). But, as I've discovered, although I enjoy being around snow, there is nothing particularly pleasant or comforting about smelling it, and for that reason I'll pass these to someone who will give them more love than I would.

Images evoked: snow and a frozen pond :-)

Color: transparent

Veredict: Really DO smell like the titles. But I found that I don't care for cold, icy smells.

Arcana - Frilly Underpinnings



Extremelly peppery!!! (Well, with 3 kinds of pepper here, what did I expect?) But still soft and not overwhelming at all. I smell that and sugar, nothing else. To be fair, it's a very pretty smell, different and well done. But personally, I dont care to smell like pepper.

Images evoked: a pan in the stove, slowly simmering some light sugar syrup, with little pink, white and dark gray balls of pepper floating in the bubbly mixture.

Veredict: Lovely for those who like pepper and sugar. That's not me.

Nyx

Jasmine is one of those scents that I knew I would feel strongly about, in my like or dislike. Nyx, as it turned out, is pure jasmine on me. (I still don't know what myrrh smells like, believe it or not, and I couldn't smell any rose.)

As I discovered, I very much like jasmine in my tea, but not on my skin. It just feels... wrong, not meant to be. So now I know to stay away from it.

Color: cream

Images evoked: jasmine petals, a pot of chinese jasmine tea

Veredict: Nice perfume, but for someone else. Swap box!


La Petit Mort




Oooooh, this was love at first sniff!!! Sooo good!!! To be honest my expectations were low, as I was disappointed with every other "lusty" BPAL scent I've tried: O, All Night Long, Hunger. But this one is different. This is what a woman would smell if she were lucky to naturally smell great - if that makes any sense. It smells very natural to me, as warm skin. I found that I love the absense of any fruits, florals, or spices in this - I assumed that all (at least most) perfumes had at least some of that, and knowing that no, they can be more "natural", was a pleasant discovery.

Ylang ylang and myrrh, uhmmm... now I have to find out which smells like what, and how exactly they contribute to this perfect scent. (I wonder if that's it, or there is something else here? Must read reviews and find out...)

Color: soft amber cream, with sparkles

Images evoked: myself sniffing a woman's inner shoulder and comparing the scent to this

Veredict: We have a winner!!! Probably will buy a bottle when my imp runs out.



Dragon's Heart




For sure, I thought that I would hate dragon's blood. It sounded like something deeply red, overwhelmingly strong, spicy, thick and nasty. I've also read about it "pulsing, throbing", being used for spells, and the idea kind if scared me.
As it turned out, I found that I love it.

When I first dabbed a bit to my wrist (just a tad), I felt the "pulsing", and thought I was having an alergic reaction (even though I'm not alergic to anything, as far as I know). I thought of running and washing it off immediately, before it got worse, but happily I left it there. It was no allergy, it was just this vital feel that others had described.

When I sniffed it, oh, sweet heavens!!! So red, so deep, so sweet, all in a good way. Not a hint of spice, just yummy, juicy goodness. And so sexy. I couldn't stop smeling my wrist! And all day, I couldn't wait to get home and slather it on myself.

Now I want to try the entire Art Draconis line from BPAL - MUST compare this to anything else with dragon's blood. (Yum, vampires love it!)

Color: Blood red

Images evoked: Blood flowing in veins, but not metalic-tasting blood: instead, sweet tasting blood.

Veredict: Love it!!! Must get a bottle!


Satyr



This looks a bit scary inside the imp tube, brick red, staining the inside cap, looking like it wants to slither out of the glass and escape.

I don't know what's in here, but to me this smells like a much milder version of Serpent's Kiss - red and cinamonny, poison-like. Thankfully this isn't nasty or offensive - I'll give it that - but it's really not a pleasant scent for me. I don't like this kind of spices.

Color: Brick red

Images Evoked: Serpent's Kiss being diluted several times and losing its bite

Veredict: Will pass.



Strangler's Fig

The title sounds pretty cool, but the perfume itself is pretty nondescript to me. Not particularly pleasant or unpleasant. Very soft, light floral. There is not much else to say.

When I get home I'll go find the description, just for the sake of trying to analyze the notes a bit, but I'll pass on this one.

------------------


Ah. No wonder this was boring.

I have each of these a couple of sniffs, a few weeks apart (in case my nose was weird the 1st time around). Generally I got the same impression twice.

Hunger

This evokes hunger, yes, but not sexual: hunger for nuts! This smells like brazilian nuts to me. Too foody.

Not sexy or pleasant to me. Will pass.


La Belle a Bois Dormant


I like fairy tales as much as the little girl next door. (If not more.) I found this scent just ok. Pleasant, but not enough to care to wear it. A bit too floral for my taste.

Will pass.


Rapunzel


Another fairy-tale princess! From this entire review list, this is the one that I like the most - but still not enough to keep it. My nose says "lettuce, lettuce, lettuce!" at first (it's nice and pleasant, in a weird "wet salad" way), and after a minute I smell the flowers. Not much into florals...


Danube


Did not care for this one, either. First, I found it a boring, uninspiring aquatic. Now, I smell a slightly rotten note, as if the waters from the description have been stagnated (or like a perfume that is too old).

Next!


Dove's Heart

I appreciate what this oil proposes to do (and who doesn't carry old love hurts that still could use some healing?), but I really don't care for the scent. Too floral, with something else that I can't identify (a resin?), it's making me nauseated.

NO, thanks.


Debauchery


It's no use; I still don't like it. Shame, as I like notes of opium!

I wouldn't mind wearing it, exactly, but with so many other scents to enjoy, I won't settle for "average".