BPAL is one of my first and favorite perfume oil retailer. Most of their scents have a good throw. Their lasting power is about an hour maybe two on me for most of the oils. They have a HUGE variety of scents and their seasonal offerings are typically my favorite though a handful from their general catalog are must haves.
A few reviews for the scents I received this year:
Sugar Skull 2012
Description:
Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits.
This is one of my favorite all-time BPAL scents that has been released during the autumn more than once or twice. I try to make a point of ordering it when it's available of I can swing it and I ordered TWO bottles this year because I love it so much. It is one of the only perfume oils besides apothia's child that I have finished.
This year smells a lot more mild than my bottle of 08. It is GORGEOUS. If you are placing a halloween order at BPAL make sure that you include Sugar Skull.
This years version I seem to smell the confectionary sugar most (previously it was the brown sugar). I can smell all the other sugars playing in the background and I think it is going to age amazing. I wore it out the other day and kept sniffing my wrist to enjoy the scent as I traipsed through the fallen leaves. I received a compliment from some random person when I went to the post office saying that I smelled "lovely". I just adore this scent. Give it a try. Seriously!
Sillage and throw are great. Lasting power is great. A++++
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Punkie Night 2012
Description:
Once upon a time, on a wild October night many years ago, a fair took place at Chiselborough. The men of the village of Hinton St. George made their way to the fair, and spent the night in revelry, drinking and carrying on, far into the darkest hours. Their wives grew concerned, and went looking for their unruly husbands. In order to see their way through the autumn gloom, they hollowed out mangel-wurzels and crafted them into makeshift lanterns. The drunken men, in their sloshy haze, saw the ghostly lights approaching, and believed them to be goolies — the furious spirits of unbaptized children. In terror, they fled in panic from their bemused, bewildered wives.
To this day, that night of foolishness is still celebrated! This is a light-hearted scent: apple orchards, bright cranberries, and a touch of warm cider.
Hmmm.. I loved BPAL's Autumn Cider last year and this doesn't hold up to that for me. I smell almost a boozy apple cider and what I assume are cranberries which smell almost orangey to me. It's a bitter/sour smell on my skin. Did I mention it smells boozy to me?
Sillage and throw are okay. Lasting power is okay. Solid C for me.
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Fizzy Jack O'lantern
Description:
1.5 oz gin
½ oz dry sherry
½ oz lemon juice
1 tsp pumpkin butter
2 dashes of Averna amaro
Pour the gin, sherry, lemon juice, pumpkin butter, and liqueur to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake that mofo and strain it into a rocks glass filled with ice and a strong, spicy ginger ale. Stir gently, and garnish with a cinnamon stick or human finger bone.
When I received this bottle a couple weeks ago I sniffed it then put it in my cabinet. It wasn't a favorite. I am fan of most things pumpkin but the smell I got was predominantly gingerale. Revisiting this it's actually pleasant. The predominant scent is STILL gingerale but given the large amount of pumpkin scents I do have it's actually pleasant. I smell no cinnamon. I smell no pumpkin. I smell the pumpkin in the bottle but it is nonexistant on my skin. How weird.
Sillage and throw are low. Lasting power is low. A C for me just because it's a gingerale scent and I don't have many of those.
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Mango-Infused Pumpkin Chai Latte
Description:
Pumpkin-spiced gunpowder tea with mango peel, red ginger, green cardamom, smoky clove buds, fennel, allspice, saffron, coconut sugar, and foamy milk.
Oh yumm and weird. At the same time. I definitely smell the mango which makes this interesting. I smell nutmeg for some reason. I smell the saffron and milk. People are going nuts on the forums at BPAL ( http://www.bpal.org ) and I suppose I can see why. This is *very* unique. Never smelt anything like it.
That said, I'm not sure I like it or will wear it. It smells like the inside of a just carved pumpkin that has had a cup of mango milk dumped in. It's comforting but just a little weird for me. I'm glad I own it because I'm curious if this will age well but I'm not planning on wearing this anytime soon. The smell sort of turns me off and is periously close to a scrubber.
Sillage and throw are pretty good. Last power is pretty good (still smelt it three hours later when I pressed my nose against my skin). Personal preference gives this a C- from me.
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DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 2012
Description:
A joyous celebration of La Catarina, La Flaca, La Muerte… Glorious, Beautiful Death. In Mexico, death is not something to be feared or hated; She is embraced, loved, and adored. La Muerte is fêted, as the celebrant "…chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite plaything and his most lasting love." This is a Mexican paean to La Huesuda: dry, crackling leaves, the incense smoke of altars honoring Death and the Dead, funeral bouquets, the candies, chocolates, foods and tobacco of the ofrenda, amaranth, sweet cactus blossom and desert cereus.
Most perfumey scent I've gotten during a halloween haul from BPAL. It's lovely. I can't smell the candies or chocolate at all. It's very complex and probably deserves a more in depth review but my initial impression is that it's almost straight up florally perfume almost white flowerish with perhaps the tiniest bit of smoke in the background.
This is one Beth at BPAL has released many autumns and is beloved of many people. For me it's lovely but nothing special. I'll revisit this after it's aged a bit and see if all the other notes come out to play.
Sillage and throw are okay and perhaps more of a skin scent. Lasting power is okay. I give this a B-.
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THE PERILOUS PARLOR
Description:
A memory of pleasure passed. A ghostly rendezvous, delight beyond death. Faint echoes of laughter and the distorted music of a harp drift by, along with the scent of soft white pear and sweet vanilla.
This is a rerelease of the Haunted House collection. I owned a bottle years ago and carried it with me everywhere until I lost it. I was so sad. I love this smell.
It smells exactly like pears. Creamy pears. Nothing complex. The pears dont seem tortured or haunted (though it's pretty to think so). Pears with a creamy vanilla. It is totally worth picking up.
Sillage and throw are pretty good. Lasting power is okay but I wish it lasted longer. I give this an A- because I loved it then and I love it now. Pick up a bottle if you like pears at all. You'll love it.
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Final thoughts on my halloween order:
The two I loved from my order are two I've loved for a long time (sugar skull and perilous parlor). I have more coming in the mail of various scents I haven't tried before and I'm looking forward to it. I'm a bit dissapointed in the labels this year.. other than the perilous parlor which is a purple label and has a cute teapot on it the rest look like some sort of halloween jail cell background.
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