To my BPAL friends...

[spqrblues]

I'd really love to get a bottle of Peacock Queen. One came up on eBay, but I put my big bid on the wrong item—I totally blame this on drowsiness from pain medications. If anyone hears rumour of Peacock Queen on offer, please bear me in mind. I've decided Peacock Queen is my "serious businesswoman" scent. It puts me in a professional mood, for some reason, and makes for good Monday-morning aromatherapy.

Other than bpal.org, where are the good places nowadays for looking for discontinued and LE oils? I am so very very out of the loop.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

Where does your user icon come from ?

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I created it for the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (blackphoenixalchemylab.com) "MonsterBait" scents from the Klimt "Beethoven" frieze: see here (http://www.productionmyarts.com/Images/klimt/la-frise-beethoven-les-forces-hostiles-1902.jpg) and here (http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.photo.index/w/wien/images/wien__beethovenfries_von_g_klimt_in_d.jpg) (though they aren't very good images of it).

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

I was actually thinking Klimt, but wasn't sure... So Black phoenix, they're the guys who make all these geeky/gothy perfumes (I see they have Neil Gaiman en Lovecraft Perfumes) and sell them online ?

Can you buy them elsewhere than on the net ? It seems weird to buy a perfumed that you haven't had the chance to try first.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Yes--geeky, gothy, Edgar Allan Poe-y. Before I tried their perfume oils I thought I'd found the perfect work-day scent in Chanel No, 19, but now that seems harsh in comparison. Some of the BPAL scents do not work on me at all (anything with apple in it turns to the smell of melting rubber on my skin), but others are just perfect.

The descriptions, once you read past the mood-setting part of the explanation, list all the elements in the perfume. So, once you get to know which notes work for you, you begin to get a sense of which of the other oils you'll like. One nice thing is that they offer the oils in sample size (imps), so you can try, say, a dozen different ones--and the folks at the lab always include a few extras as well.

I've learned that I love anything that is heavy on rose or honey; I tend not to like the scents that are described as "fresh" or "oceany" or "ozone," or anything with "dragon" in the name or description.

My first order from them was for one bottle and a half dozen imps. I hated the bottle (thought it smelled like a barroom floor) but found two of my favourite scents in the imps. And, I was able to sell on the bottle to someone else in a LJ BPAL community who was interested in it, and I could swap some of the imps for the scents I liked.

I'm not as fanatical about it as I used to be, but I could really use a bottle of Peacock Queen :) (I believe the catalogue described it as haughty roses, and that is absolutely spot on.)

Smelling Like a Girl

[perilousknits.livejournal.com]

I've never worn perfume because I can't stand the nose-tickling, sneeze-inducing torture that is "the perfume aisle." In my limited experience with things that smell, I actually prefer men's colognes. I went through a Nautica phase in high school and currently when I want to smell like something other than a sweaty manual laborer, I use my husband's Old Spice.

Still . . . I am going through a girly phase right now and would like to try using perfumes. I should ask my friend who is a BPAL fanatic to recommend a few imps that I should try. Hey, friend! What do you recommend?

Re: Smelling Like a Girl

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Ooooo! Someone volunteering to be drawn into the world of BPAL!

I will box up some extras and send them to you (of course we all know how reliable I am with getting things mailed). I'm still irritated with myself that I didn't bring them with me when I visited.

There are several BPAL scents that are slanted toward being "for men" that I quite like--Whitechapel (white musk, lime, lilac and citron) and Saint-Germaine (amber, lavender, carnation, and mosses) in particular, and I also love Ides of March, but apparently only the version that was made in 2005 (rosemary, bergamot, lemon rind, and vervain with costus, benzoin, gray amber, cardamom, white narcissus, and iris). I'll have to think about which oils have an Old Spice aura about them.

Are there any particular scents you like--rose, flowery, citrusy, fruity (which fruits?), honey, musky, chocolatey, incense, sandalwood, leather, wine, herbal, minty, almondy, patchouli....?

Re: Smelling Like a Girl

[perilousknits.livejournal.com]

Smells that I like in general (maybe not on my body, but in the air at least) are: Rosemary, Mint with Rosemary but not by itself, Lemony things (Lemon balm, Lemon verbena, Lemons), Cinnamon, Cloves, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Olive blossoms, Cedar cigar boxes, Loose tobacco, and that hair-oil that some black women use. I think I smelled some Copal once and liked it . . . or maybe it was frankincense. Don't remember if I've smelled real amber, but surely it has a good smell. That's all I can think of.

Of course, I also like the smell of Roast Beef, Lasagna, Chinese Food . . .

Re: Smelling Like a Girl

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I'll see what I can find in a Roast Beef-and-Plum Sauce scent.

As soon as my mid-month paycheck appears, I'll get myself to the post office and mail you some of my extra imps, and a list of recommendations :)

Re: Smelling Like a Girl

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

I was just perusing my imp collection shortly before going out with some friends the other night, and I was reminded of how woefully pathetic my bpal collection is. So yes ... I ordered more imps. It's and addiction, I tell ya!

My very favorite so far is Dublin, which is of course no longer available. I guess I'll have to do some digging around if I want an actual bottle of it.

Re: Smelling Like a Girl

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Aw. I don't think I have even an imp of Dublin. But if I find one in my boxes, it's all yours.

I couldn't find Bon Vivant today (I needed something bright, fluffy, and cheerful), so I put on Two, Five, & Seven based on the vague memory that it is a bit of a perky scent. It's been great aromatherapy for my day ("A huge bouquet of squished rose petals: Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose... and just an itty bitty bit of green grass"), though I think I would get tired of it if I wore it everyday. It's very sweet in a Bon Vivant way ("An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry").