fredag 27 februari 2009

BPAL - Winter of our Discontent


Of some reason, for me incomprehensible, BPAL and all of their different oils seem to be very rare to come about on perfume blogs. I´ve had my three different BPAL´s for some weeks now and think they deserve a much better faith than to only be mentioned on BPAL´s own forum. Even tough it says a lot about the oils popularity, BPAL is cult and has a lot of followers.
But why are the perfumistas so un-responsive? Is there to many to chose from? Is the BPAL page hard to overlook? Is the oils bad, boring or just uninteresting? May it depend on the shippingfee for us that lives outside of US? Or is it the long delivery time? Well, what ever it depends on, it´s a fact that BPAL is seldom mentioned at perfume blogs. Maybe I should check some day if there is any only to BPAL dedicated bloggers? The many oils is more than enough to keep even the most devoted blogger fully occupied.
No matter what it depends on, I don´t find the oils bad or boring in any way. On the contrary, Winter of our Discontent is anything but bad. It is mysterious, cold, aromatic and beautiful. I know that roses normaly don´t grow in snow, but I´ve got a clear picture of red snowcovered roses before an old grey stone wall. Winter roses, or has the summer become winter? A poetic soul can easily interpret Winter of our Discontent as a dystopic vision of the change of climate. A winter striking in the summer, a new ice age that will last for thousands of years. In front of the old stone wall, the last roses are flowering...
As you can guess, Winter of our Discontent isn´t really a moodlifting, happy and sunny fragrance. No, this is a true and genuine emo-fragrance. With that said, I do recommend it to happy, optimistic and mentally stable people, that can need to be reminded of everythings evanescense no and then. But I do think that all little, black dressed girl with eyeliner long belowe the eyes should try something very different! Or well, they may use a little drop in the heat of the summer, just to make them imagine that they are just that glomish pale as they want to be!
It is a remarkable fragarnce that manage to evoke remarkable emotions. But it do so in a very nice way. Maybe it´s me that want´s to make it more gloomy than it actually is? My huband do like it a lot, but on him it become more rosy, spicy and not at all as cold.
The sillage? Very good, you will be surronded by the fragrance for hours. Strenght? Amazing, a small drop is more than enough. don´t overdose! Two small drops can easily leed to headache and dizzyness. Longvity? For eeeeeever, or at least about ten-twelve hours. It become softer after 4-5 hours, the sense of winter slowly dissapear, but the roses survive,become weaker but still very pleasant. In my opinion Winter of our Discontent is suitable for both men and women. With that said, I think Winter of our Discontent has a lot to offer.
When it comes to the other two in my (this far) very small BPAL collection, Schwarze Mond and Harvest Moon, they are both also really good. Winter of our Discontent has touched me the most this far, but that dosn´t mean that there is anything wrong with the others. No, on the contrary I have been convinced about BPAL´s excellence so much, that I have bid for and won a big lot of imp´s (the BPAL samples) on Ebay!
So my advice to all perfumistas, goth-wannabes or not, think it over carefully before trying your first BPAL. There´s a great risque you will be liking it so much, you won´t be able to stop, and remember there are a lot of different BPAL`s to sniff trough! And belive me, that is just what you want to do!

2 kommentarer:

Anonym sa...

Hi, Rebella! It's NebraskaLovesScent from Fragrantica.

I'm happy to hear you are enjoying the BPAL oils, and here is some info that might explain why they don't get the attention you feel they deserve.

At one time, BPAL was making the claim that their scents were composed entirely of natural subsances, even though their fragrances contain a large number of notes that are available only in synthetic formats (certain florals, bubble gum, strawberry or cherry, etc.) The ability to claim a product as being "all natural" in the United States is not well-regulated. However, enough fuss was raised that BPAL is no longer making the all-natural claim.

Here's a link to Luca Turin's old blog (now archived) that includes some discussion of BPAL and what he presumes are their ingredients. (Scroll down to page 511 or so, or search in the document for "Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab" and you'll find the discussion:)
http://www.flexitral.com/research/Blogtextweb.pdf

To be fair, BPAL did not participate in the discussion.

I think there is a perception in the perfume world, created by educated, professional "noses" and also folks like Turin and Sanchez,and Chandler Burr, that people who blend scents using fragrance oils and essential oils, or even all-natural fragrances composed entirely of essential oils and botanicl absolutes, are not really "perfumers."

These same folks have also argued that it is difficult to create "real perfumes" and that even a professional nose might create just one or two "masterpieces" each year. So in their minds, folks like BPAL who have a large number of scents available and produce limited edition scents every few weeks, are not creating real perfumes.

Yes, BPAL has a lot of scents, and many of them are simple blends composed of just two or three notes, which perfumers would also argue is not complex enough to be a real perfume.

I think it's worth mentioning, too, that the whole goth vibe of the shop simply doesn't appeal to some people and maybe even frightens a few away.

My personal opinion is that the if the BPAL oils smell good and scent my skin in a way that I enjoy, they're a perfume! :-)

The only thing that has stopped me from ordering BPAL is the huge wait time for their scents. At one time, the wait listed on their website was six weeks or more for a tiny vial of perfume. I just checked their site today and it says orders are now taking 14 to 21 days to ship. I don't have that much patience when it comes to perfume. It kills me to wait even a week for something I have ordered online. :-)

I'm enjoying your blog! Have a wonderful day and see you on Fragrantica!--NLS

rebella sa...

Hi, It has been very interesting to read your comment.

That discussion has of course totally escaped me since I´m not so old in the perfume buisness. And I do understand the critique, a lot of indie perfumers , no matter if they´re working with oils or alkohol-based perfumes seem to just blend together and even to some point copy perfumes from more established houses. I guess all the scientific works that actually bring the perfumes forward are made by leading perfume houses with a big science staff. So technically I can agrre but practically I don´t. :)

For me as a customer and perfume lover the most important is how I think a perfume, fragrance, or oil smell. Do I like it, I like it.

I havn´t either order something directly from the Lab, just buying trough ebay, I agree the waiting time seem like forever, and I also prefer to get the perfumes as fast as possible.

Thank you for reading my blog!

/rebella