BPAL questions!

[wesleysgirl]

The lovely harmonyfb sent me BPAL imps to try, and I have questions. (I do know about the BPAL forums, but either my questions are extra dumb or I can't find the answers there.)

1. Where to you put the stuff when you try it out? On your wrist? Should you only do one wrist, or is it better to do both?

2. How do you put it on? I haven't actually opened an imp yet because I'm afraid of spilling it everywhere, but there's a little plastic wand type thing sticking down from the cap and I wonder if you're supposed to dip that into the oil? It seems like if you put your finger over the opened top of the vial and then tipped the vial, you'd end up with the scent on your fingertip and then transferring it to everything you touched.

3. Reviews I've read seem to talk about how the oil smells 1) in the bottle 2) when first put on the skin 3) some time after that and 4) much later. What kind of time period are we talking about here (between-times?)

Comments

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

1. Everybody does it differently. If you think you might have a negative reaction to one of the components in the scent (for me, anything with lavendar, or clove, etc) or you just have sensitive skin, try only a little dot of oil in an easily-washable place, like the inside of your wrist, so you can smell it to see what it's like, but if you hate it or you react to it, you can wash it off quickly.

2. If I'm trying the scent, I use the wand. I overkill things, so I just wick the wand over my skin -- you can dot it, anything you want. In anything but a very, very empty imp, the wand will come out with some oil on it, so just use that without redipping.

3. However long you think necessary. Some oils dry down very fast, which means the change in scent is pronounced. Sometime it takes a while. Here's an example of what I'm wearing now, Jack, which is my OMG FAVORITE fall scent, although I want the Pumpkin Patch 2007 series muchly.

In the bottle: pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin.

Wet on skin: more pumpkin with a little clove

An hour later: the scent starts getting more peach and lightens up.

Two to three hours after that: pure yumminess.

But there's no hard or fast rule, it's just when you start noticing the changes in the scent.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thank you. That all makes sense, yay. I'm sticking to one wrist for trying things out, just in case something makes me incredibly allergic (you never know!)

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Also, you have to tell us what you have and what you like, now :D

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Okay! I've got 8 BPALs -

BPAL:
Queen Alice (Mad Tea Party)
Endymion (Love Potions)
Lust (The Seven Deadly Sins)
Danube (Wanderlust)
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Bewitching Brews)
Tweedledum (Mad Tea Party)
Milk Moon 2007 (A Little Lunacy)
Harvest Moon (2004) (A Little Lunacy)

And one imp from Posset's Perfumes:
Silver Roses

:-D

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Ooooo. A Little Lunacy is a really nice LE, some very good stuff there, and the MTP is awesome.

I hope you like!

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

The Milk Moon 2007 is fantastic. I want to lick my wrist, LOL! Another question - if you write reviews on the BPAL forum site, do you use some version of your ladycat-ish screen name, or something totally different? If a lot of TV-fandom (as opposed to BPAL fandom) people use their LJ-ish names, I probably will too...

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

You like it? Man, it hates me. Which sucks, cause I have a whole bottle. You want it?

[vylit.livejournal.com]

I think I might have some scents around for you to try if you would like to sample more. Oh BPAL, it is addictive.

My favorites are Snow White, Lilith, Dia de los Muertos, Aizen Myoo, and Gennivre. I could maybe sample out a little from my bottles of those too. What kind of scents do you like?

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I know which kinds I like, LOL! Well, I know I like food scents, but I would have thought I didn't care much for flowers, and yet all the ones I have sitting here smell awfully good to me and some of them are flowery. I like resin-y smells like amber and dragon's blood.

I tried my first one this afternoon, Milk Moon 2007, and it's so fascinating! It smelled awesome in the bottle, then too strong and kind of ucky for a while, and now it smells FANTASTIC. I want to walk around with my wrist pressed to my nose, LOL. So yummy.

I would love it if you wanted to share. I can totally see now how/why it's addictive. Wow. :-D

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i dabbed a little on my wrist with the wand (very carefully because i too was worried about dumping it everywhere), smelled it, waved my wrist around to dry it, smelled it again, and went on about my day and completely forgot to check in an hour or so to see how the scent changed. >.< i just did one wrist in case i didn't like the scent or it was really strong, so i could wash it off. i think it's totally up to you where you put it and how long you wait to smell it.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm just doing one wrist for now, that seems sensible. If you end up having an allergic reaction or just not liking the smell it seems like it would be better to have it on a limited bit of skin. Thanks!

[fadedwings]

when trying something new that I'm unsure of I usually put it a bit above the wrist on my forearm where the skin is a little less sensitive, just in case. I use the wand and just put a little on when trying something new. I often wrap my fingers in my shirt when I open one of those little imps because the smell tends to get on my fingers if I don't.

When I wear something I know I like I dab a bit on the back of my neck then a bit on one wrist and then wipe one wrist against the other :)

I think the time period varies on the person and the scent, especially since some scents really don't have a lot of staying power and others change a lot depending on how long you wear them...and of course depends on who is wearing it etc.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, that makes sense. It seems clear that the scents really do smell different on different people. I think I might use a tissue around the cap to undo it -- I opened one and got the stuff on my fingers even though I was being careful, and I'd hate to end up rubbing it in my eye or something! Thanks for the advice. :-)

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

When I get new imps, I generally try them all on at once, until I smell like a Turkish whorehouse. Dots on each wrist, halfway up my arms, and then near my elbow. ;)

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

until I smell like a Turkish whorehouse

ROFL!!! :-)