BPAL expertise?

[kindkit]

I'm thinking of trying out some Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab scents, because I find commercial scents pretty uninteresting. I'd love advice from anyone who's bought BPAL stuff (whether you love it, hate it, or whatever). Are their scents very heavy? Are they usually very feminine? (I know to avoid scents with a lot of flowery notes, but if their scents run feminine in general I may not bother.) Are there particular ranges or scents you think are great and would recommend for a n00b to try? Of course I'm aware that a scent that's great on one person may be terrible on another.

Generally I go for citrusy scents or spicy, woody ones. I don't like florals. And I detest patchouli--the smell of it makes me feel sick.

ETA: At the moment I'm only considering their main lines of scent, the ones that can be ordered as imps' ears, rather than any of the special/rare lines.

Comments

[glim]

BPAL! My other fandom <3 I'm not sure if I'm an expert, but I'm more than happy to talk BPAL stuff with you.

+ I wouldn't say the scents are especially heavy. Of course, some are more heavy or strong than others, but you can always apply very small amounts of the oil to different parts of your body to control how strong some of the scents are. And, since their scented oils rather than an alcohol based scent, the throw tends to be less.

+ Hm, I tend to think that a decent number of the scents qualify as gender-neutral. (Though, okay, probably more of the catalog fall more into the 'feminine' range of scents.) The forum at bpal.org has a few threads on masculine/non-feminine/gender neutral scents that might be interesting to read. And, like you say, since scents tend to smell very different from one person to another, you might find something that ends up smelling great on you, even if the notes don't seem as if they would.

+ Recs! Hmm... maybe look at the Steamworks scents? The Antikythera Mechanism is nice if you like woodsy vanilla. In Bewitching Brews, Dee is a nice, bookish, woody, incense type scent. Oh, and, Aziraphale (on the Good Omens page) smells exactly what I expect his bookshop would smell like. I'll see if I can think of any others that I've tried. (I don't wear citrus scents, but I do like spicy and woody ones, though my favorites tend towards heavier, incensey and resin-y blends, and then sweeter, gourmand type ones.)

I hope that's helpful. I'm pretty happy to talk BPAL any time, so if you have questions, just let me know.

[kindkit]

Thanks so much! Both the Antikythera Mechanism and Dee were ones I was already considering, so I'll probably try both of those. What I think I'm going to do is get a set of imps in a range of styles and see what I like best.

[matgb]

wandering my network.

I'm in no way an expert, but miss_s_b used to buy loads of their stuff, and there's a big chunk of bottles and imps on her side of the bed.

There's also a small jar with some in on my side, I rarely use them but there are some 'male' scents and a fair few gender neutral ones--frankly, i don't think SB would use them at all if they were floral or feminine, although they do do lines in that direction as well.

That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge, but, y'know, bloke that's happy to wear them on occasions.

[kindkit]

Thanks! It's a little unnerving buying scent over the internet, but I suppose there's no way to find out unless I try.

[lilacsigil]

From the POV of someone sensitive to fragrance, their scents are not intrusive or heavy, but very subtle and long-lasting. I don't wear any fragrance and most fragrance gives me headaches (and occasional migraines) but most BPAL scents on st_aurafina were so pleasant and slow to release that I could actually enjoy a fragrance for once. The scents change over the course of the day, so unless you hate something immediately, leave it on and see what happens.

[kindkit]

That's really helpful. I wouldn't call myself sensitive to fragrance, exactly, but certain strong smells like patchouli and cheap chemical-ish perfumes can make me feel pretty icky, so it's nice to know that BPAL scents aren't intrusive that way.

[st_aurafina]

Oh, I haven't worn BPAL for a while, but I mostly went for the citrus/fruit scents, because I don't like florals or musks at all. My favourites, the ones I wore over and over were from Wanderlust - Shanghai is like a citrus/green tea blend, really summery. Eden smells warm and coconutty, I wore that through summer. Glasgow reminded me of blackberry jam, it's probably the most feminine of those three, even though it's not floral as such, it is very sweet. Of those three, I'd say Shanghai is the most masculine - it has a fresh, cologne-like tang to it, if you know what I mean.

They're really good value - I sprung for some glass bottles with roll-on ball caps, so I could decant the oils into those and dab them on without fear of overdoing it and making lilacsigil sick.

[kindkit]

Yeah, the Wanderlust range sounds interesting. I might try Shanghai or possibly one of the spicy ones, like Bengal. Thanks!