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It's been a rough couple of days, and a package from BPAL was just the thing to find in my mailbox this afternoon. It came with some fun swag: a small bumper sticker (actually the second I've received, though I hadn't yet gotten around to putting the first on my car), trading cards for each of the three scents in the Carnaval Diabolique series, a ticket to the Carnaval, and the usual postcards. Plus frimps, including a couple I can actually use.

Georg is away for a couple of days so I indulged myself and tried almost everything. Some quick reviews:

Theodosius: Earl Grey tea leaves, a white fougere, jasmine leaf, pearlescent white musk, and vanilla bean. This was a bit of a disappointment. Reviews described it as smelling like Dorian only less sweet. I thought that sounded like the best thing ever. Unfortunately, I put it on and I get aftershave. I don't want to smell like aftershave. Eventually the aftershave fades away and it's a nice light vanilla. But I have other scents that dry down similarly, without going through an unpleasant aftershave phase. I'm going to give it another try; maybe it will smell better when I'm not wearing 4 other scents. And also offer it to Georg. It seems like a guy scent.

The Candy Butcher: Dark chocolate with a heavy cream undertone. I knew I would love this, and I was right. It's a dark chocolate, not sweet. Like Velvet, only smoother and without the sandalwood. I'm going to wear this a lot in winter.

F5: A refreshing scent! GET IT?! Aloe, white musk, lime peel, fresh mint, seaspray, verbena and green tea. This was a special limited scent for forum members only. Again I correctly guessed I would love it. In the bottle it smells just like Embalming Fluid, my favorite summer scent. On me, F5 is ... crisper. It's all lime for about 10 minutes, but sadly citrus never lasts on me. The notes that remain after the lime fades out are perfectly blended, light and subtle. It really is refreshing.

Lyonesse: Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss. File this in in the "what was I thinking?" category. Heavy floral hates me. Yet I keep trying. I was seduced by the vanilla, musk, sandalwood and orris root in the description. All I get is the lily, and something powdery. Probably amber, which doesn't much like me either. At least it's just an imp.

Cockaigne: The Land of Plenty, also called Luilekkerland – the Lazy, Luscious Land: milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine. In the imp it smells cakey, with a tang that must be the wine. On me it smells wonderful, like baked goods. Reminds me of Beaver Moon. Or Monster Bait: Underpants, except without the cinnamon nastiness. (I love the smell of cinnamon, but can't stand cinnamon scents in candles, potpourri and etc. BPAL is unfortunately no exception..) Beaver Moon, Underpants, Cockaigne ... I sense a pattern here. Hmm.

Yay, my April 10 BPAL order finally came in! Their turnaround had gotten much better -- I hear it was up to 2 weeks at one point. But they got hit with some administrative problems, losing their lease and several staffers at the same time, and the turnaround has reflected that. Anyway, I'm just thrilled to have gotten my order after all this time. Some quick impressions:

Baobhan Sith: Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. I remembered loving this, and I still do. After a couple of hours it's mostly apple blossom, which is not unpleasant, though floral isn't my favorite thing. Still, the first two hours are divine. I'm not sure why I got rid of this before. I think I was so enamoured with Embalming Fluid that I wasn't wearing anything similar, so I ended up selling off other tea scents that I'd probably wear if I tried them again now.

Phobos: Chilling white musk, lemon verbena, white grapefruit and lemongrass. People on the forum described this as smelling like lemon sherbet, but it doesn't at all to me. Lemongrass has a sharp edge that's distinct from lemon. It's a little overpowering for the first few minutes, in fact if I apply too heavily it smells like my wrist has been working in the yard and needs a shower. I guess that's the musk. That was probably way too much information, sorry. But anyway, then it calms down and the lemon verbena softens it and then it's wonderful.

Drink Me: However, this bottle was not marked `poison,' so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off. Based on the description I had no idea what this would smell like. The reality is an intense butterscotch. Very strong throw: Georg could smell it across the room. It's too much for me, but those who like buttery, sweet scents will love it.

Eat Me: Three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants. Cake. It smells like cake. Very soft, subtler than other cakey scents like the Monster Baits. Me likey.

Yesterday was a good day for BPAL. First, they posted the full moon update five days early. A rerelease of Carnaval Noir, a bunch of new Alice in Wonderland scents, and the best part is, the grapefruit scents are back! Apparently the spike in grapefruit oil prices is over. They're leaving the limited releases up a full week because most of the staff are going to a convention next weekend, but I went ahead and placed my order yesterday. I knew what I wanted so there didn't seem any reason to wait:

• Phobos: Chilling white musk, lemon verbena, white grapefruit and lemongrass. 5 ml. Normally I don't buy bottles unsniffed, unless it's unavailable in sample imps. But this sounds so me, I couldn't resist a bottle. I love all these ingredients, and reviews describe it as "lemon sherbet." I want to smell like lemon sherbet!

• Baobhan Sith: Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. 5 ml. Another grapefruit rerelease. I had an imp of this, sold it, and have been regretting it ever since. Apparently this is pronounced "bay-oh-ban shee." That confused me immensely until I saw someone use the alternate spelling "baobhan sidhe." Those wacky Celts!

• Kunstkammer: A sensory jumble, a true cacophony of odors: black pepper, benzoin, blood orange and olibanum. 5 ml. I'm not sure about this one; it may be too resiny for me. But it was the only scent from last year's Carnaval Noir I wished I had tried. This is my last chance, so what the heck.

• Shattered: A blend of white champagne notes, grapefruit, lotus, slivered mint and crystalline aquatic blooms. Imp. Another grapefruit scent. Some of the ingredients sound iffy, but still worth a try.

• Drink Me: However, this bottle was not marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off. Imp. I hear that the quoted text is not totally reflective of the scent. But I almost don't care what it smells like; I have to at least try it.

• Eat Me: Three white cakes, vanilla, and red and black currants. Imp. This sounds like it will work well for me.

• Mouse's Long and Sad Tale: Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood. Imp. Amber doesn't much like me, but Beth keeps blending it with other ingredients I love, so I keep trying.

• Tweedledee: Ridiculous! Kumquat, white pepper, white tea and orange blossom. Imp. This could be great for summer.

• Tweedledum: Absurd! Green mango, fig, patchouli and green tea. Imp. I shouldn't have ordered this: I love fig and green tea, but loathe patchouli. But the imps come in sets of six, and it is part of a pair and all.

Then after placing my order in the morning, in the afternoon my March 14 order arrived! I managed to test most of it:

• Monster Bait: Underbed: Cassia-caked cocoa coconut over angel food cake. 5 ml. When will I learn that BPAL cinnamon hates me? In the bottle this smelled lush and chocolately. On me it smelled like a rancid cinnamon car freshener. Seriously vile. After a long while it settled down to a nice chocolate with a touch of cinnamon, but it's not at all worth two hours of gack. Waah.

• Usher: This is Roderick Usher: a faded genteel light musk and fougere, heightened by hectic white mint, gleaming mandarin, ethereal tea leaf and gritty blackcurrant brushed by the scent of the tarn that surrounds the House, and the gloom and decay of the walls that hold him. 5 ml. I bought this because reviews described it as a more subtle Dorian. I don't agree with that assessment at all, but I do like Usher. It smells a little weird for the first 10-15 minutes, then dries down to a beautiful skin scent. Very soft and unaggressive. It smells like I'm not wearing scent, I just happen to smell really good. (And how do you know that's not the case anyway.)

• Sundew: A carnivorous enchantress: diverse, lovely and graceful, emitting a sticky, glowing golden, sweet and terminally inviting scent. This smells exactly like the mini daffodils blooming all along our driveway. It's uncanny. Unfortunately, I don't want to smell like that. It's nice in the garden, but on me it's cloying and heavy. Ah well, at least I only bought an imp.

• The Mock Turtle's Lessons: Blurry aquatic notes, with a confusing, contrary splort of iris, ambrette, green apple, vodka, white mint and a squish of lime. This was a pleasant & light aquatic, but by this point I was a bit scented out and can't really review it. I'm going to give it a try another time and see if I get a stronger impression.

Wearing BPAL Midway + someone leaving a banana in the office = freshly baked banana bread, that only I can smell.

Mmm, banana bread.

More BPAL reviews from the big Halloween order:

Black Opal, redux: After a couple of hours it turned to baby powder. Alas!

Morocco: I just put it on and it's too soon to tell, but it's not impressing me. I was expecting sandalwood and spices, but all I'm getting is a sort of vague perfume. Kind of like a men's scented soap. At least it's not overpowering and/or headache inducing. So I can give it a little while and see if it improves.

Perversion: The smell in the vial scared me a bit, and on first application it smelled strongly of wine. But that disappeared quickly & it softened to a yummy scent that's so well blended I can't pick out the notes. I don't really smell tobacco or leather, and definitely not rum, and I don't know what tonka smells like. But it's really nice. I thought it would be a strong scent only suitable for boozy nights out, but I think with a light application it would work during the day.

Dia de los Muertos: Last year's version of this was described as smoke and dried leaves and sweet chocolate and tobacco. In other words, yummy nummy. But all I get from this one is jasmine. I hate jasmine.

Trick or Treat: Now this is a winner. In the bottle it smells weird, like sugar and creamed corn. But on me, it's pure sugar, but not overpowering like Sugar Skull. I do get a little bit of corny scent from it at first, but I'm not sure I would be able to identify it as corn if I hadn't known the scent was based on candy corn. Which is funny considering candy corn doesn't smell anything like corn. After a couple of hours it settles down to a nice light sugar. This is what I hoped Sugar Skull would be..

Looks like I have 2 winners from the Halloween series: Devil's Night and Trick or Treat. And 3 losers: Samhain, Dia de los Muertos, and Sugar Skull. I still have a bunch of catalog scents to try from that order.

My Halloween BPAL order arrived today! Yay! It was a big one, with scents from the Poe series, "A Demon In My View," the Halloween series, and some imps from regular catalog too.

Here's what I've tried so far:

• Devil's Night: I was worried that this would be too much for me, but it's a beautiful light, sweet smoky scent. Smoke like an outdoor fire, not like incense. I think this may be that perfect autumn scent I've been looking for.

• Samhain: Mainly apple and spice, kind of a cidery scent. But really strong and cloying. Like falling into a cider press. It was threatening to give me a headache so I washed it off.

• Spirits of the Dead: Gorgeous tea scent. My first thought is Embalming Fluid without lemon. But I'll have to try them side by side to get a better comparison.

• Black Opal: Mmmm. I think this is the first scent I've tried that was vanilla but not sweet. It's wonderful. Very light. Unfortunately I am an idiot, and didn't close the imp properly. I lost about 1/4 of it to leakage. Time to order a bottle!

• Sugar Skull: This is the biggest disappointment. It was horrible. And I was so sure it would be fantastic! It was overpowering and sickly. Like nasty burned sugar. And really strong too. I only put on the tiniest dab and it was wafting that awful smell all around me. Oh well, time to do another sale post.

And that's all I can try in one day. I'm feeling a bit overloaded with the scenties.

The BPAL sniffing party was a great success. In attendance were myself, Lisa, Alicia, Christa and Shayne. Many vials (or imps, as the kids call them) were opened and sniffed and tested. Only one was spilled, and none of us liked it anyway. I think everyone left with something they didn't have before, and for some it was their first BPAL. Yay! I took home Le Petit Mort and Chesed. And was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was more or less correctly pronouncing chesed.

I forgot to take photos this time, but if you want to know what the table looked like, go to this photo and imagine about 4 times more. Yeah, Lisa, Alicia and I have all been acquiring. We're talking about having the next get-together in early November after all our massive Halloween orders arrive. (Which, by the way, I can hardly wait.) Maybe by then Christa and Shayne will have their own BPAL stashes to share.

Along with the imps, I also took home some decanting supplies Lisa had ordered for me. I already had empty imps, but this time I got tiny eyedroppers, little 2 ml bottles, and a couple of atomizers. When I got home I put Shanghai in an atomizer. I love the scent but it disappears so fast when applied directly to the skin. I mixed the oil with everclear at a 1:10 ratio. (You can also order special perfumer's alcohol, but I hear everclear works just as well, and it costs a heck of a lot less.) I shook it up and spritzed it in my hair. I smelled it when I first sprayed it, but as for its staying power I can't really tell. I tried so many bpal blends today that I can't distinguish it from the general cacophany of scent. I'm probably Stinky Perfume Lady right now, and I'm enjoying my own stink. Mostly I'm getting cocoa and sandalwood from Velvet and musk from Buck Moon. Mmm, musky sandalwoody chocolate.

Anyway, after mixing up the atomizer of Shanghai, I decanted a few imps of Tarot: Strength. It didn't really ring my bell so I'm going to try and sell/swap it. I already have one imp spoken for & possibly the rest of the bottle. That will be great if it happens, but if not I'll just sell it one imp at a time.

This is the weekend for catching up on blog entries I guess. Quick reviews of all the BPAL I've tried recently:

Ace of Pentacles: "Black pine, patchouli, honeysuckle, oakmoss, almond and other soft earthen tones."

Pine, wood, and ... patchouli. ugh. as it dries the patchouli takes over. I tried hard to like it, but that awful patchouli. It looks like this isn稚 going to be my autumn scent.

Ace of Swords: No lab description.

Mostly sandalwood. When fresh it smells like the cologne one of my best friends in college wore. I liked his cologne, but because of the association it seems too manly for me. The drydown is good though. It faded down to a nice light sandalwood, with a touch of neroli. I'm not sure I get swords from this. That would be airy and intellectual (whatever that would smell like). But I like it.

Dana O'Shee: "Milk, honey and sweet grains."

In the bottle: Almond extract. On me, it smells almondy at first, but then settles down to a nice honey-milk. Much like Eden on drydown but lighter.

This one is another keeper. I'm surprised to like it so much. I didn't think I would like "foody" scents, and the reviewers who described it as smelling like oatmeal really put me off. But I got a freebie of this and it really doesn't smell like oatmeal. Just warm and sweet and comforting.

Eden: "This oil contains the innocence of the Garden, coupled with the Truth and Erudition found in the fruit of the Tree of Evil: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood."

When first applied this had a nasty, burned smell. I thought it was the 鍍oasted coconut� but forum reviews describe it as bitterness from fig leaf. In any case, after about 15 minutes the bad smell goes away and the fig and coconut become more prominent. Not Coppertone coconut but true fresh coconut. After about an hour it痴 honey and milk, with just a hint of fig. Still no almond or sandalwood. This scent is so complex. I really, really like it. It would be a 土owza� if the first few minutes weren稚 so unpleasant.

Endymion: "A sweet, wistful blend of d'Anjou pear, Lily of the Valley, bois du rose and white musk."

Too floral, too much pear. Straight to the swap pile.

Envy: "Green herbs slithering through mint, lime and lavender."

I thought this would be mainly mint, but actually the herbs dominate. The mint gives it a nice chill. No discernable lavender. It痴 nice for this time of year, and quite different from everything else I've been wearing.

Kumiho: "A sharp, biting blend of crisp white tea and ginger."

I love this. Light and sharp and sexy. I thought it would be like Bath & Body Works� white tea and ginger shower gel, but that痴 more mellow and sweeter.

Lady Macbeth: "The essence of ambition, covetousness and manipulation: sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries. "

Grape candy with a sickly overtone of blackberry. yuck.

Living Flame: "A luminescent red scent: breathless with passion, flickering with desire, and glowing with ardent and reverential love."

In the bottle it痴 dark and syrupy, but surprisingly faint on me. It痴 floral but not cloying. Hard to smell it, it痴 so light. Damn, it痴 going soapy. After a half hour it's pure soap. Too bad. I had high hopes for this one.

Maiden: "A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose."

Way too floral. It must be the rose. I washed it off after a few minutes.

Sea of Glass: "Upon the Sea of Glass, glowing with the perfection of spiritual union and the radiance of true wisdom, rests the throne of God. A scent of inimitable purity, crystalline grace, and limitless light."

Beautiful, crisp, light. Reminds me of Dirty except doesn稚 fade as fast.

Now the bad news. Major allergic reaction. I started feeling sniffly immediately. After an hour my nose was running and eyes watering. I washed my wrists but it took another half hour before the constant sneezing stopped. Damn.

Sometimes I get sneezy for no reason, so this might be a coincidence. I知 going to give Sea of Glass one more try before relegating it to the swap pile. On a day when I don稚 have work to do.

Snake Oil: "Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla."

Smelled so strongly of patchouli in the bottle that I didn稚 even put it on. Swap pile!

The Dormouse: "A dizzying eddy of four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony."

Floral & herbs dominate at first. The tea comes forward after about 1/2 hour. Unfortunately it stays too floral for my taste, and goes powdery to boot. I was so confident of this one that I bought a whole bottle unsniffed. Bummer.

Tulzscha: "A crystalline, cold green fire: six mints with white pepper and cucumber."

Mint, mint & more mint. I can't smell cucumber per se, but it must be what's mellowing the mint. I really like this.

Ultraviolet: "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."

mint and eucalyptus. not strong but potent. chilly. really nice.

Drydown: the mint disappears, now it痴 eucalyptus and violet. I don稚 get any metallic but it is very cooling. not 吐resh� like Embalming Fluid, but cold. It's wonderful.

Xiuhtecuhtli: "Copal, plumeria and sweet orange and the smoke of South American incense and crushed jungle blooms."

Incense. Dear god, incense. Swap pile for this one.

The sniffing party was great fun! It was Lisa, Wordnerdy, Pinky, Erin, and myself. Many vials were opened and shared, nothing was spilled, everyone had things that everyone else wanted to smell, and everyone took notes to add to their wish lists.

I added a few things to my wishlist: Empyreal Mist, Phantasm, Whitechapel and Glasgow. And I did my first swap! I gave Endymion to Wordnerdy in exchange for Antony. I had high hopes for Endymion, but that was before I had ever smelled BPAL. Once I started trying things I knew that pear and white floral wouldn't work for me. The pear would have been okay but white floral is just too strong for me. I do better with lighter notes like tea, citrus and white musk.

Lisa had the most interesting scents, like Graveyard Dirt and Miskatonic University (which smelled like Irish coffee). Wordnerdy also brought Spooky, which was really wonderful. Pepperminty with a touch of coconut. I almost wish I hadn't liked it because it's a limited edition. I had a freebie of Grog, which in the bottle smelled like rum cake. Very weird! Alas, the imp of Grog was rather overfull, and the tips of everyone's fingers soon smelled like rum cake. Actually my fingertips smelled like a sort of generic "BPAL mixture" by the end of the party from opening and sniffing so many things, but it has dissipated by now.

Caffe Driade is a great location for a gathering like this, aside from their iced tea refill policy:

"Do you give refills on tea?"
"Yes, but it costs the same as the first glass."
"So you mean, no."
"That's right."

But other than that it was a great place to get together. Lots of little outdoor spaces that gave a feeling of privacy, so even though there were plenty of other people there we didn't feel like we were reeking up the space and ruining it for others.

A few quick reviews:

White Rabbit. "Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen." This reminded me a lot of when I used to drink a lot of tea every day, and how good that tea felt first thing in the morning. I think my reaction to tea was the way most people feel about their coffee. And I used to get a killer headache if I didn't get my morning tea. Which is why I gave it up.

Anyway, despite having such a strong association this was the first tea scent I didn't go wild over. I really liked it a lot, but I didn't find myself wanting to smell like that forever. On my scale of "ugh' to "yowza," it rated "love." Which is one step below "yowza." I'm going to try it again when it's cooler and see if my response is better.

Oneroi. "Soporific, dark and unfathomable: a somnambular blend of deep lavender, white sandalwood, jasmine, bergamot and mugwort." Now this I love. I mainly get lavender and sandalwood, and it smells just beautiful. Very comforting. I rarely have problems with insomnia, but I look at the Somnium series as a way to make sleeping that much better.

Dirty. "A wonderful antidote to an all-nighter oozing with drunken, addled perversion and debauchery. A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy." This is like taking Embalming Fluid and removing all the recognizable notes -- the tea, the sandalwood, the lemon -- and leaving nothing but that crisp coolness. That's what Dirty smells like. I love it.

Twilight. "An enigmatic, otherworldly scent, brimming with power and mystery. Lavender and jasmine, with a touch of glowing honeysuckle." In the bottle it smells like lavender. On me it smells like soap. Not just soap but SOAP! It smells like I have Ivory soap caked under my fingernails. No, it's worse than that. It smells like I was washing my face and accidently got soap in my mouth. Yuck, bleh, ptui. After about an hour the soap goes away and it's just a heavy, cloying floral. This is without a doubt my first "ugh." It must be the jasmine that went all horrible on me.