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BPAL Madness!


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About windbourne

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    sexy swapper
  • Birthday 02/01/1979


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    Seattle, WA
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  1. windbourne

    Bernardino Dotted Blue

    This decant has been hiding out in my stash for several years, and I tested it without checking the notes first. ^_^;; Unfortunately, for me this was a scrubber. It's 3/4 notes I can't wear or don't like and stays true to that on my skin. Copal always turns into a particular brand of flea shampoo on me, lily of the valley is high and shrieky, and violet leaf smells like dust, so what I ended up with for the ten minutes I was willing to bear it was a high shrieky soap with a pretty heavy throw. I'm pretty sure that if I let it dry down fully the tobacco and patch would probably take over and it would be pleasant enough, but I can't deal with the rest of the notes. Welp. (I'm not concerned that it's gone off after 8 years in my imp box. I have BPAL much older than this li'l guy that still smell fine and are wearable. This one just isn't for me. ^_^!)
  2. windbourne

    Mountain Temple

    I wish I could add more to that, but I had exactly the same experience as brineydeep. 😂 It's a lovely light incense with a hint of chilly, gently greenish snow and a very slight sweetness. It doesn't throw very far, but it lasts a decent amount of time and I found it detectable even after washing my hands a few times. It faded to a very pale sweet sandalwood. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do, but I'm really happy I blind bottled it, and can see myself wearing this a lot this winter when I want something serene to wear that won't draw a lot of attention. I think this will make a really good work scent.
  3. windbourne

    Frostbitten Knave of Hearts

    I had my bottle of KoH handy, so I applied that one to one wrist and this one to the other. This year's Frostbitten scents (I got three) are definitely a cold, slightly minty frost note to my nose. As Torikitty commented, Knave, unfortunately completely gets overtaken by that note for most of the wear time. As it dries, I do get more of the base, a little cold rose and some fruitiness, plus a little bit of pastry. It dried down to a softer, almost dryer sheets-y version of the base scent. I like it, but I wouldn't consider it an essential unless you're absolutely obsessed with both parts. If you haven't tried KoH, the notes are "crushed roses and blackcurrant tarts", and it's pretty delightful, imo. This one didn't do a whole lot for me as a separate scent, but if I couldn't find my bottle of OG KoH, I'd be reasonably happy with it.
  4. windbourne

    Frostbitten TKO

    TKO (sweet lavender, possibly marshmallow?), but it dries down to a minty snow note. Similar in throw (moderate), wear length (long, with a slow fade), and just as soothing, but I found it gently jarring to wake up and smell a cool frosty note instead of just lavender. ^_^;; Worth getting if you think you'll like it, but otherwise zero surprises.
  5. windbourne


    Three of my favorite notes in one glorious place? Yes, please, and THANK YOU. Well, two (white rose & ambergris) and one that I usually like and often accompanies one or the other. It is, indeed, the bomb, if these things are things you also like. The heart is ambergris, salty and damp, but also warm and sexy, followed by a rich breath of dusty orris, then crowned with a very cool, but slightly over-blown white rose. It's not exactly an aggressive perfume, but it's a surprisingly big scent with a pretty solid throw. Less femme fatale and more ...idk, that gently overwhelming boss in a very sleek gray wool suit who wears pearls and is rumored to have a lot of very interesting kinks, but no one can prove a damn thing. Everyone wants to know, but no one ever wants to ask. It's not especially complex (outside of the complexity inherent in ambergris), but it is beautiful and I love it. If I were to give it a color it would be something like the inside of an oyster -- lightly shimmery pearly white to gray, perhaps with a hint of iridescence. If your skin is prone to going sour or sharp with roses and you don't like it, I'd probably skip this one. The particular combination does bring out that aspect. Throw & wear are both slightly above average on me, but the drydown is pure ambergris SN, as is almost always the case on my skin. If there's ambergris in it, that's all that remains after a few hours. Overall yeeeeeeeeessss I'll take five.
  6. windbourne


    Fascinating. I love it when scents come up as heavily YMMV, even on the first page of reviews. I really loved Shortbread Snowflakes, a BPTP scent/bath oil from a while back, and this has a lot in common with that on me. Actually, it's almost identical after drydown, which puts me firmly in the category of 'all cookie, minimal rose' reviewers. I can smell the rose very strongly in the bottle, and for the first minute or so that it's on my skin. Big fluffy tea roses, plus warm, very buttery shortbread. It's pretty good! Then it dries and the roses just vanish. Once in a while if I jam my nose up to my wrist, I get a bare hint of what might have once been a petal fluttering by. I like both sets of notes just fine on their own, but I was hoping for a slightly more balanced blend. I have a mildly hilarious amount of Shortbread Snowflakes, so I'm almost regretting blind bottling this rose. Almost. It's still a delicious smelling and very foody perfume, and I really like the initial HELLO ROSE blast. :9 Moderate throw, lasts average length, fades to buttery sugar.
  7. windbourne

    The Fool’s Tranquility

    I often enjoy very simple blends, and this one is very simple indeed: a clean, soft honey with a gentle nibble of pink pepper. The honey is definitely dominant; I have to really huff to get any pepper on my wrist, though it's more present where I dabbed a bit on my forearm. If it had a color it would be a soft warm beigey neutral with pink tones. It's almost boring, but still somehow soothing. Except. Once in a while, I sniff at my arms and end up sneezing, and that makes me laugh. This is not the only perfume with pink pepper in it that I've had that response to and it feels especially apt here, given the inspiration. NB: If you are someone for whom certain honey notes go powdery you'll probably want to avoid it, though. It's definitely that sort of honey. Heck, it almost goes powdery on me, and I'm not prone to that sort of thing unless there's something else in there (orris, usually, or milk) also giving that impression. Light, gentle, minimal throw, lasts a few hours, fades gracefully into a lightly peppered honey on me.
  8. windbourne


    This is one of those very rare perfumes that I put on and really enjoyed for about ten minutes and then something went terribly wrong and I had to wash it off. Unlike Haltija, I normally adore the smell of root beer, but Outlaw actually did make me feel nauseated. I'm not sure whether it was the root beer-leather combo, or if the cream usually turns into dust on me problem reared up and bit me, or if I'm allergic to some unlisted note, or what, but, yeah, sick to my stomach after about ten minutes. Tested it twice, and both times, no bueno. Those ten minutes are pretty good, though. Fresh sarsaparilla and a bit of leather, pretty simple and almost foodie, but not quite. Throw was solid, and I could catch whiffs just moving my hands. I'm not sad I bought it, but it's definitely off to a new home, and I'm leaving this review to remind myself that no matter how good it sounds, root beer + leather may not be my friend. I definitely see the comparisons to Le Pere Fouettard, with the complementary sweet & leather notes. ...Man, though. The mental images it brings up are stellar. Lilith in chaps with a cap gun strolling up to the bar and demanding the house reserve root beer, yyy? The dusty scent of the saloon, the smooth frothy mug slightly overflowing with strong homemade rooty brew capped off with a dollop of vanilla cream, the faint jingle of horses outside. If you breathe in deeply you can catch the scent of their saddles.... It's pretty much the best, and I wish it worked on me.
  9. windbourne

    Muddy Puddles

    I feel really weird about writing a review that is ultimately a finger pointing up and "what they said!" but sometimes that's all there is to be done. Yep, powdered hot chocolate mix with dehydrated marshmallows. That is exactly what this smells like on me. Soft, sweet, minimal throw, but the dregs of it linger on my wrist for some time. Very slight plastic, but not nearly as bad as Bliss was on me. I'm inclined to chalk that up to the difference between the 'milk chocolate' and 'cocoa' notes, though the initial waft is somewhat similar. Got a 5 ml from Etsy recently, but I've had a decant since last year.
  10. windbourne

    Coconut Meat

    So I used to obsess over coconut things when I was a kid, and this included buying raw coconuts, drilling holes in them to drain the milk, then smashing them with hammers in the garage and gobbling up the meat as best I could with my grimy little kid fingers. And that's what this smells like to me. =^.^=
  11. windbourne

    Eldritch Drunken Constellations Nail Polish

    My bottle of EDS is a jellyish (semi-translucent, vs. a totally opaque creme) marine blue base absolutely full of chunky holo sparkle. Rainbow shimmer everywhere, with a lot of depth from the jelly base. It twinkles. The formula was very thick, usable, but would be improved with a little thinner. It dried extremely quickly, and semi-matte. You'd definitely want a topcoat to bring out the full shiny. I used three coats -- first coat was electric blue and streaky, the second was reasonably full-coverage but not quite the color of the bottle, but the third was perfect. It's a bit more green-tinted in person than this image -- it was taken with my phone, so color accuracy isn't 100% perfect -- but overall absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, though, it was touchably dry, even with three coats, after about two minutes, I was stunned. I was expecting to need my hardcore fast dry topcoat, but instead I just used one of my usual ones. A half-hour later, if I press really hard I can dent it slightly with a nail, but I'm not worried about waking up with sheet marks.
  12. windbourne

    Dusty Accumulated Menorah Wax

    Love me some beeswax! I don't get new car at all (that scent makes me feel nauseated pretty rapidly, so I'm glad!) I just get dusty wax both in bottle and on my skin, the scent of the drippings on a candlestick that wasn't cleaned before it was put away. To compare it to a couple of other waxy nearly-SNs: VS The Light of Men's Lives -- DAMW is a lot darker. The wax in TLoML is very clean and bright, the candles still burning, and the scent as a whole is warmer and lighter. VS Hanerot Halelu -- That one is a little more sour and smoky, more reminiscent being in a room with freshly extinguished candles. It also has an interesting tang to it that I attribute to the olive oil. DAMW is sweeter. All of them are fairly strong and last quite a long time, but this one has a slightly beefier throw and better longevity than the other two, though. I wore it at a convention, applying it in the morning, and could still smell it very clearly on my wrists when I passed out around 5 am. Overall, if beeswax is your thing, or you're trying to figure out if it's your thing, and you don't mind a hint of dust, grab at least a decant of this one asap. If neither of these things appeal to you, well...don't. :3 It does exactly what it says on the package.
  13. windbourne

    Pears - different BPAL pear scents

    I actually like Bjugnakrækir more than Perilous Parlor, though I do perceive some sweatiness in the overall scent from the castoreum. It's a really lovely pear! My all-time favorite is The Vine. PP was too dusty on me, both versions. I love skin chemistry.
  14. windbourne

    Départ Pour Le Sabbat (Aufbruch Zum Hexensabbat)

    Chalk me up for having weird skin chemistry, but this one, on drydown, smells like a very strong, heady, dirty incense. For the first minute or two, it's distinctively red patchouli with a soft honey note, and in the vial I can clearly identify the goat milk and other notes, but after that BAM. Incense. Incense and a little smoke. And maybe something sweet underneath. I can't remember having had a perfume morph quite this aggressively on me before; it really smells completely different on me than it does as a liquid. But. It's incredible and I need a full bottle. O_O Like, yesterday. I smell like the mosh pit at the Siouxsie & the Banshees concert I saw in 1995. I can't think of another BPAL I've tried that has achieved quite the same balance of sweet, smoke, and filth. *insert assortment of delighted cursing here*
  15. windbourne

    Black Silk

    So this has been tickling the back of my brain since I got it. It just smells so familiar, somehow. And yesterday I was cleaning out my closet and finally nailed it. I have this black lace mourning outfit that I got in high school. It's definitely vintage and possibly handmade, and the bodice is lined with silk. It's not in great shape anymore because I wore the heck out of it at every possible goth event that I could between 1996 and 2003, when it got packed into a box during a move. But it smells exactly like this. So, I suppose, on me, this perfume smells like aged lace and silk and a touch of smoke and old sweat. Crazy evocative, at least for me. Takes me right back to summoning up the nerve to wear it for the first time. Wearing it in the rain, in the club (when I was old enough), in a graveyard that one hilariously predictable time with that one guy. Yep. If I think of it in a more analytical way, it starts out patch, sandalwood, and tobacco, then melds down with the immortelle and ambergris to make a smooth, smoky slip of a perfume. The vanilla cream is a little dusty on me, as cream notes often are. It's pretty strong, but doesn't have a huge throw, and it lasts for quite a long time. Late drydown is all ambergris, because that's what always sticks on me whenever it's involved in the slightest. The sandalwood tries real hard to add something to it, but it's still pretty one note. Yay, my chemistry? Anyway, it's beautiful, and I feel pretty lucky to have located a bottle. :3