I love Dorian by BPAL! I’m new to perfume, but some of my favorite scent notes include bourbon vanilla, lavender, amber, black currant, and sandalwood.
My first BPAL scent was Darkness. It was gifted to me by a friend when I was expressing my frustration on how all colognes smell generically masculine and the same. When I first tried this scent... I absolutely hated it! I thought it smelt like an acrid old woman, which was not the mysterious gothic fantasy that the tiny bottle (and my friend) promised me it was. But growing a little wiser, and owning other BPAL scents that I adore, I decided to try it again. My opinion on it completely changed. Darkness is not the bottled gloom that it advertises itself as. It’s so much more! It’s the shadows in a Cathedral lit only by candlelight, it’s the decadent incense burning in some esoteric library as you read ancient tombs, and it’s a dangerous spymaster with enticing machinations. It’s even an old woman, but not some shriveled thing being held together by moth balls and wallpaper paste. The kind of old woman who wears velvets and furs. Rich and beautiful in her youth, now creeping around a large house of memories and bitter love affairs. I am so glad I found BPAL and even happier I revisited this scent.
AH! I love your descriptions here and you know, to be totally honest, I think I love this most of all: "...a shriveled thing being held together by moth balls and wallpaper paste." That is SO evocative, and I am quite certain that the creative minds at BPAL could make this into a beautiful thing.
@@MlleGhoul I have no doubt BPAL could turn that kind of old woman scent into something fabulous! They’ve made several scents I thought I wouldn’t like that have rocked the house
Rachel Syme’s perfume genies have been my gateway into the world of perfume makers. Who knew there were so many people making such exquisite art? Thrilled to have found the more obscure side of fragrance!
Yes, yes, the perfume genie! I was just talking about that over on my TikTok the other day when reviewing Tuberose and Moss from Rogue Perfumery. She recommended this scent to me when I requested something that smelled like "Tasha Tudor's goth great granddaughter." It was such a great pick and I am kinda mad I didn't know about it first :P PLUS she is just so good for finding out about all sorts of things you never knew you wanted, stinks or otherwise!
Could you also make a video someday on how you wrote/composed The Art of The Occult - what the process was like, how did you research, etc. I’m always curious about the behind-the-scenes of unique books like this:)
That’s a fun idea! I don’t think there would be a huge amount of interest in it, but I shouldn’t let that stop me. I’m currently at work on book number two (not making an official announcement until it’s done, but it’s in the works!) so maybe I’ll do a little Writer’s Log type video and share a bit about the process.
My best friend and I first bonded over BPAL. We both love scents and have spent many evenings after work walking around department stores getting a good sniff.
“The Bugger alle this bible” from the terry pratchet collection is my current fav. It smells like a big ole stinky book of nonsense with elaborate binding you keep out of obligation to a long past family member you didn’t particularly like, but had a stubborn eccentric charm.
Dorian and St. Germaine were the first scents I purchased from BPAL. I love the idea of a fragrance embodying a person. Wearing it lends you just a bit of their personality. I need a Dorian restock!
What a lovely video! I love talking/thinking/dreaming about scents. BPAL is an old friend, scents-wise. I think they were the first indie perfumer I ever bought from. I love their Athens so much, that honey red wine goodness I can still remember though my vials of it are long gone. I also love Circe Invidiosa! I bought some to go with your book, and had to choose my favorite sounding one (and indeed I love Waterhouse) from the series based on The Art of the Occult. Other BPAL favorite is definitely June 23, 1886 from the Only Lovers Left Alive collection. Would love to buy more from that collection, as they all sound so dreamy. Your description of Danube makes me wish it was still in production! It sounds heavenly. Thanks for doing what you do, and being vulnerable and real on your channel. I truly enjoy your offerings. {Sorry to write tons! I got carried away.}
You give such a great description of BPAL scents! Also obsessed with them 💖 I usually veer towards anything of theirs with rose in it. Seraglio has held my heart, but I also have a weakness for Incubus - something about the mint/caramel/sage makes me feel powerful and cool when I wear it! Outside of BPAL, my favorite perfume company is Juliette Has a Gun. Mad Madame makes me think of a rose in a leather moto jacket with a switchblade knife!
I'm always so intrigued when people proclaim their love for rose! I've got a very complicated relationship with it, because my late mother used to wear it, and so it's just...a fraught fragrance for me.
Scent is so personal! When I smell dried roses, I think of a friend from over 15 years ago, and us wandering the French Quarter in the early morning hours. I’ve tried exploring other scents, but I always come back to rose!
I love watching 'Behold, My Stuff' videos too - and yours was excellent and so satisfying to see. Thank you for posting and sharing your exquisite bpal collection!
I loooove beholding other people's stuff, and peeking into their everyday lives, like your "perfect weekend" video, and will watch as many as you post 😊. I was introduced to BPAL last summer (I THINK through the Haute Macabre blog??) My current favorite is the Midnight Bonfire- I love that I can carry this scent of Fall and Halloween into the winter with me.
Bpal changed my life starting in 2007. My favorites are Snake Oil, Hell’s Belle, Mme. Moriarty, The Other Miss Forcible, Silky Bat, the Wish, and Solstice Lace. They bring so much happiness to my life each day. Thanks for the inspiring video! I hope to explore some of these beautiful scents.
That's a fine list of favorites! I've only recently discovered BPAL and am eagerly awaiting my first order. In the mean time, I have been eagerly devouring information about all the scents on the sight and speculating about what might be my favorite. I am an autistic person with a growing fascination in my senses, their pleasures and their limits. I see in perfume a great overlap of many disciplines to pour over and indulge and BPAL in particular has captivated me. For scents that I know I adore, resin incenses like frankincense and myrrh and dragon's blood, which I burn and fill my little apartment with, a smell I would gladly carry on my anywhere; the smoke rising from a tobacco barn in the autumn, I imagine with paired some sweetness, would make a wonderful scent for the season; wild blackberries in any form, especially in a scent that also captures their thorns, essential to their character and making them all the sweeter; peonies, which generations of my grandmothers have loved and grown; and cherry blossoms, a beloved springtime sight for me, captured in scent would please me greatly. I greatly anticipate sampling the perfumes I have ordered, including Becoming Thunder (flowers in a thunderstorm is an image I dreamed of for a scent), Iago and Endymion (I am a woman but am eager to play with masculine scents), Cherry Blossom Vulva and Vasalissa (some lovely feminine scents), and Cathedral (Incense! and possibly fun for layering). I've barely entered the rabbit hole, I'm sure! Happy indulgence!
I am in the process of putting together a PDF of all the BPAL reviews I have written over the years, you may find it interesting to peek through and nibble at while you are in the process of devouring. Once I have finished it and found a home for it, I will let you know!
Hate I missed the giveaway, but I have to say I am loving your videos!!! I’m thinking of honoring my home state and choosing “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation” as my first BPAL blind buy- I drove 7+hrs to cast my vote. I’m amazed and the offerings of BPAL!
You have a great collection! I also just love your shelves and seeing bits of the artwork you've collected. As far as perfumes go, I actually love more notes than I dislike, but I find myself reaching for perfumes that have notes of rum or tobacco more often than not.
It's funny...I don't like clove very much as a flavor, but it adds such an interesting facet to a fragrance! BPAL did a collab with Thorns clothing on a clove cigarette scent that you might find interesting! www.thornsclothing.com/products/thorns-x-black-phoenix-alchemy-lab-clove-cigarette-perfume-oil-1
This was even better than I was hoping!!! Definitely adding the ones that are available to my next haul! I think my all time favorites from BPAL are Morocco and Occultation which I’m desperately hoping they turn into a hair gloss because apparently just the perfume isn’t enough stink for me😂 you actually are the one that inspired my first order and I haven’t looked back since. My favorite scents are the musky earthy kinds along with the alluring scents of the bread aisle of the grocery store and gasoline. Probably not something I’d want to smell like but it always brings a smile to my face when I encounter them.
My only BPAL regret is that I didn’t find them sooner! I’m only a little over two years down the rabbit hole. I adore Sweet Potato Musk, Snake Can, Ghost Milk, Klosterruine Im Winter Mit Blick Auf Heisterbach, Banana Bread, Voluminous Red Blanket, Halite Phoenix...The list just keeps on growing, really!
Even if I had an actual perfume collection, rather than that random bottle of CK1 I've had since 1995, I'd be very impressed! Keep showing us more of the stuff!
BPAL was one of the first houses I tried when I got into perfumes! The very first scent I fell in love with was The Illustrated Woman and my latest obsession is St. Clare!
I just found you tonight on tiktok- you were on my FYP! I ended up watching every single one of your videos, and there are soooo many perfumes i want to try now! Your words are so beautiful and I am sure I could listen to a 10 minute video of you describing a brown paper bag. I have lightly dabbled on and off through the years but have never found “the one”. Fragrances that is, not brown paper bags. Favorites are A Travers Le Miroir - Mugler Mirror Mirror Collection, and Reglisse Noire - 1000 flowers. Someone sent me samples of those years ago and i have sadly run out. The common notes in those are anise, bergamot, and mint. I also love histoires de parfums 1969, 1826, This is Not a Blue Bottle, Ambre 411 and Noire Patchouli. So I know I like amber patchouli musky incense...vanilla... rose. like the basic b i probably am. But not white flowers. Jasmine or lily anything gives both me and my husband headaches. I have not tried anything from BPAL, but it sounds like an amazing company! I compiled a long list of things I want to try from your TikTok, and now I am going to go look through your TH-cam and blog for any other fragrance information. Thank you so much! I really enjoyed your videos.
Hi Sonya, I decided to pick two winners for this giveaway and you are number two, yay! Hello! Drop me a line at mlleghoul AT gmail dot com with your address and I will get these mailed out to you this week!
I enjoyed this so much! I’m in the process of trying to find a new scent and that’s how I ended up here - also I am finding myself fascinated with BPAL - so many fragrances to choose from it’s kinda overwhelming!
If you're able to isolate a few notes you like, even if it just one, like rose or vanilla, or leather, or smoke, you can do a search for scents with those notes on their site, and that should narrow down the selection and give you at least a place to start. Good luck!
I absolutely love your descriptions of fragrances. You have inspired me to start a journey of finding my own personal “stink”. I am not sure at this point what my notes are...I know I like musky...but there are so many other notes that speak to me. The search continues!
Aw, I love that! Keep me apprised of your stink journey, I am super nosy about where you'll end up and what you'll find along the way! Ha, "nosy"! Pun intended :)
I love the Coffee Bean, Cardamom, and Vanilla scent that I bought (via your suggestion!), as well as Choir of Angels, the ever-classic Dorian, and Spinning on Graves which I snagged a backup bottle of when I saw it pop up one day! Does anyone else do that with their favourite scents? It feels a little extra but... I know I'm gonna finish that bottle and if I don't buy a backup I'm SOL! Great video- loved "snooping" through your collection.
Thank you for this video. I had such an overwhelming and unexpected emotional response to it. My sense of smell is finally returning after many months and I have a new appreciation for a sense that I previously took for granted. I grew up with an orange orchard as a back yard so the smell of orange blossoms stirs something in my soul. I’m eager to discover new scents and now I think I’ll be buying some from BPAL. 💜
So much of scent (at least for me, but I am certain for others, too) is about memory and dreams and all things elusive, ephemeral, and utterly intangible. I'm certain you'll find that to be the case if you do end up grabbing any BPAL scents, for they are especially evocative
Hello! You're our winner of ten bottles of BPAL, yay! Drop me a line at mlleghoul AT gmail dot com with your address and I will get these mailed out to you this week!
Your speak beautifully of your collection and all the wonderful memories and imaginings eat scent brings to mind. I'm adding Dana O'Shee to my imps-to-try list after your comments. My favorite notes to wear are leather and rose, and I had the fortune to wear an old imp of Brom Bones (the manliest of musks!) a few years ago and have been seeking a bottle in vain ever since. It ties with Red Rose as my favorite BPALS.
Your poetic descriptions of all the scents gave me some complicated feels on a day I've been feeling particularly outside of myself for whatever reason. Especially bergamot, vetiver, and orange blossom, altarpiece #1, and all colors are caste to black. Especially drinking the potpourri. I've been collecting (mostly BPAL) for like 3 or 4 years now. I started out wanting to be a leather, grave dirt, and dragonsblood person and figured out I'm more of a red musk , woods, motor oil, aquatics, and and unexpectedly ROSE person. Luckily I have a friend who loves dragonsblood so I can spoil her with all the dragon scents I want to like, but that don't like meee. Two of my favorite bpal notes I don't fully understand are ebony wood (it smells like a wooden cabinet in a cold room with stone floors, what), and hyssop. Their hyssop is this fresh, earthy green HERB smell I want to season a piece of meat with (I'm obsessed with ll Bagatella which smells to me like an aromatic marinade for a rack of lamb). Hyssop essential oil doesn't smell anything like this 😂. ALSO, the thorns: clove cigarette smells to me like the hot ember on the end of a burning match. It's not exact, but it's close enough it makes my brain melt. I appreciate finding others who also want to talk about stinky things. Thanks. 💜
Thanks for this video! Your videos are always so interesting and have a very relaxing feel to them. I don't have a large collection of BPAL perfumes, but my favourite so far is Bloodlust. I'm intrigued by In Night When All Colors To Black Are Cast.
Hey! I don’t often comment on things but thanks to you, I’m super intrigued by this brand! I think it was maybe the 2nd or 3rd episode of Midnight Stinks that randomly happened to be on my FYP, but since then I’ve been obsessed with your descriptions and stunning imagery. Coming into spring, I’ve been really enjoying lily-of-the valley, lilac, and other similar florals!
@@MlleGhoul It’s one of my spring favourites, probably to do with the fact that my city is full of them, and the scent is always in the air when they start to bloom! Very nostalgic and homey to me. I did a little research, BPAL’s Veil, as well as Nocturne, both have lilac notes and sound beautiful!
Thank you so much for sharing part of your collection! 🙂 Fragrance is one of my obsessions, as well. I especially adore indie fragrances. I have been incredibly inspired by your fragrance posts, videos, and reviews. You have helped me discover so many wonderful fragrances. I absolutely love your fragrance reviews!
My favourite scent notes are incenses, resins, rose, amber, dragon's blood, patchouli, cardamom, lilac, chai tea spices, petrichor, mosses, lavender and sandalwood ~ the list is long and I love 💙 discovering new fragrances as well as seeing what works well with my skin chemistry. 🙂
@@MlleGhoul that sounds wonderful! 😍 Hmm when the lilacs are in bloom, I may need to experiment with my oils at home and lilac water. Thank you for the inspiration! 🙂
My husband and I picked white and purple lilacs the other day and infused them in jojoba oil for 24 hours. We just made a lilac cardamom body mist! It smells like a subtly floral exotic sweet (he says a bit like Turkish delight). I am curious to see how it ages.
The Choirs of Angels by far and away blew all my other favorites out of the water as soon as it came in! Previously, I had worn Blodughadda as my daily driver for a long time. It feels more of a fall scent for me now and Choirs of Angels is perfect no matter what time of the year or day it is or what mood I'm in.
ooo i love anything that reminds me of spiced tea. Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, black tea, though i can’t seem to find candles or perfume that really capture the same scent. i also love rose and lilac 🖤
Cool! We love 💙 similar scents. 🙂 One of my favourite rose scents is Persephone by BPAL. It is rose and pomegranate and smells wonderful! I recently ordered Bollywood by For Strange Women. It has chai spices, saffron and rose in it. It is a unique, lovely scent that is quite saffron forward to start.
Your collection is awe inspiring! Snake Oil and fan reviews were also my introduction to Bpal. I was so fascinated by fantasy style descriptions in the reviews, I had to see if the oils were truly as incredible. They were and continue to be. Thank you for this video!
I love listening to your reviews! My favorite scent from BPAL is their collab scent with Haute Macabre, Mummies of Mexico City. I love woody fragrances with cedarwood or oud and i'm currently obsessed with finding something that's salty but not cucumber-aquatic-y.
So many people love Mummies of Mexico, I love that! I've been writing for Haute Macabre for several years now and I was honored to be able to contribute a few of my own words to the official description.
Such beautiful descriptions! I discovered bpal in 2007, but then took a break from collecting until 2011. My favorites are Ninon (a trading post oil), Druid, Lyonesse, Streets of Detroit, Minotaur and recently The Scholar's Tower and Abalone Vulva. I adore amber, musks, grapefruit, lilac, plum, dirt, and vanilla. Narcissus and I do not get along at all, cinnamon burns and jasmine tends to overwhelm every other note.
@@MlleGhoul Had to get the shungas Erotic Sake Bowl and Suprise Ejaculation this year because of the grapefruit. Pretty sure the pink musk in Abalone Vulva has grapefruit as well.
I love beholding stuff! As long as it’s a similar aesthetic to mine on display. Tragically, I love perfume but I’ve never had a single sniff of even one BPAL creation. Maybe Snake Oil some day if I have the chance.
Ok, this is maybe going to sound a little weird and totally out of nowhere...but were you also verbminx on LJ back around, say 2002-2005ish and perhaps beyond? If so, I think we were on each other's friend's lists! I was very shy about interacting, but if you are the same person, I think it was you who inspired me to learn knitting! I was akissofshadows at that time. And if that wasn't you--sorry for the weirdness, and hello! And definitely try Snake Oil :)
Oh, you absolutely should! It's such a beautiful, sweet creamy scent, and when I said it smelled like incense, I didn't mean at all like smoke. Like an unlit stick of like, rice pudding incense, if such a thing existed!
Yay! I had found your tiktok a while back and am now finally on your YT. Love your videos and how you use words☺️ You actually persuaded me to look up The Witch/ Straega and i love everything about it. The fragrance reminds me of maybe what One Eyed Willy of the Goonie’s room of treasures would have smelled of. Maybe it’s just what I associate it with because that was the movie that was on tv as i first smelled the fragrance.
Oh my GOSH, I love that description! And you know, that's often how I think of fragrance, too. I often think a scent smells like a film sequence or a scene from a story.
@@MlleGhoul Same here. I love that bpal curates their fragrances on memories, scenes, literature, art, and feelings etcetera into these vast scentscapes. By using notes that turn every day from one of monotony into a story of your own.
I recently discovered BPAL (in the last year) and am obsessed. Most recently I placed an obscenely large order and loved every single scent but the one I adored the most, Aevum, is only a limited edition imp and I’m coveting every last, precious drop!! 😭😫😂
Even though my BPAL collection is far away from being as big as yours, I think I already have my favorite scent: Mummies of Mexico City form the Haute Macabre collection. It’s just perfect. To me it smells like old chapels burning incense and old, dusty lace and golden ornaments. It smells secular, but familiar, somehow. I just feel embraced by it, it’s so comforting.
I have a few imps from BPAL but I’m still looking for a signature scent that just screams me. I love scents that are deep and spicy with a hint of sweet.
I’ve always wanted to try BPAL, but don’t know where to begin! I’ve been looking for a “signature scent” for quite some time, but nothing seems to click. I would like something that’s incense-y without being straight up nag champa that has a dark vibe to it, without a heavy floral note. I’m still relatively new to my perfume journey, but looking forward to embarking on it! On the topic of perfume oils, do you have any suggestions on how to make the scent last longer on your skin? I’ve heard the trick of moisturizing before applying, as well as using fragrance lockets, but wonder if you have any other suggestions!
I never get tired of listening people talk about their favorite perfumes. Owl Moon sounds the best to me out of these. My favorite BPAL's are Blacklight-Reactive Poster (only perfume I've tried that actually smells like weed) & Stormclouds over the Midway (it smells like purple thunderstorms at night).
Absolutely obsessed with bpal. My favorites (though it’s hard to pair down) are Silky Bat, Flickering Lantern, Snake Smut (a new addition!), and Revenant Rhythm aka Banshee Beat. For bed I love their lavender scents like TKO and You Are Not Alone. ✨✨✨✨✨
Anubis, Manuscript, Pumpkin Dust, Hilma, Chiroptophobia, and Gloomy Day are probably my favorites, but Xanthe the Weeping Clown is up there as well, especially this time of year. I always want to smell like a sexy, sticky, guava pastry from Miami on a warm day.
It definitely is! I think it helps to have an idea of a scent or a season, or even just a memory, or impression, or dream. Then do a keyword search for those words or phrases on the BPAL site...a bit of targeted scentomancy might be an interesting place to begin!
I love Dorian by BPAL! I’m new to perfume, but some of my favorite scent notes include bourbon vanilla, lavender, amber, black currant, and sandalwood.
My first BPAL scent was Darkness. It was gifted to me by a friend when I was expressing my frustration on how all colognes smell generically masculine and the same.
When I first tried this scent... I absolutely hated it! I thought it smelt like an acrid old woman, which was not the mysterious gothic fantasy that the tiny bottle (and my friend) promised me it was.
But growing a little wiser, and owning other BPAL scents that I adore, I decided to try it again. My opinion on it completely changed. Darkness is not the bottled gloom that it advertises itself as. It’s so much more!
It’s the shadows in a Cathedral lit only by candlelight, it’s the decadent incense burning in some esoteric library as you read ancient tombs, and it’s a dangerous spymaster with enticing machinations. It’s even an old woman, but not some shriveled thing being held together by moth balls and wallpaper paste. The kind of old woman who wears velvets and furs. Rich and beautiful in her youth, now creeping around a large house of memories and bitter love affairs. I am so glad I found BPAL and even happier I revisited this scent.
AH! I love your descriptions here and you know, to be totally honest, I think I love this most of all: "...a shriveled thing being held together by moth balls and wallpaper paste." That is SO evocative, and I am quite certain that the creative minds at BPAL could make this into a beautiful thing.
@@MlleGhoul I have no doubt BPAL could turn that kind of old woman scent into something fabulous! They’ve made several scents I thought I wouldn’t like that have rocked the house
Rachel Syme’s perfume genies have been my gateway into the world of perfume makers. Who knew there were so many people making such exquisite art? Thrilled to have found the more obscure side of fragrance!
Yes, yes, the perfume genie! I was just talking about that over on my TikTok the other day when reviewing Tuberose and Moss from Rogue Perfumery. She recommended this scent to me when I requested something that smelled like "Tasha Tudor's goth great granddaughter." It was such a great pick and I am kinda mad I didn't know about it first :P PLUS she is just so good for finding out about all sorts of things you never knew you wanted, stinks or otherwise!
Could you also make a video someday on how you wrote/composed The Art of The Occult - what the process was like, how did you research, etc. I’m always curious about the behind-the-scenes of unique books like this:)
That’s a fun idea! I don’t think there would be a huge amount of interest in it, but I shouldn’t let that stop me. I’m currently at work on book number two (not making an official announcement until it’s done, but it’s in the works!) so maybe I’ll do a little Writer’s Log type video and share a bit about the process.
My best friend and I first bonded over BPAL. We both love scents and have spent many evenings after work walking around department stores getting a good sniff.
“The Bugger alle this bible” from the terry pratchet collection is my current fav. It smells like a big ole stinky book of nonsense with elaborate binding you keep out of obligation to a long past family member you didn’t particularly like, but had a stubborn eccentric charm.
OMG you had me at "ole stinky book of nonsense". HOW have I never tried this one?
Dorian and St. Germaine were the first scents I purchased from BPAL. I love the idea of a fragrance embodying a person. Wearing it lends you just a bit of their personality. I need a Dorian restock!
What a lovely video! I love talking/thinking/dreaming about scents. BPAL is an old friend, scents-wise. I think they were the first indie perfumer I ever bought from. I love their Athens so much, that honey red wine goodness I can still remember though my vials of it are long gone. I also love Circe Invidiosa! I bought some to go with your book, and had to choose my favorite sounding one (and indeed I love Waterhouse) from the series based on The Art of the Occult. Other BPAL favorite is definitely June 23, 1886 from the Only Lovers Left Alive collection. Would love to buy more from that collection, as they all sound so dreamy. Your description of Danube makes me wish it was still in production! It sounds heavenly. Thanks for doing what you do, and being vulnerable and real on your channel. I truly enjoy your offerings. {Sorry to write tons! I got carried away.}
Thanks for the intro to BPAL awhile back. Nosferatu has become a favorite.
You give such a great description of BPAL scents! Also obsessed with them 💖 I usually veer towards anything of theirs with rose in it. Seraglio has held my heart, but I also have a weakness for Incubus - something about the mint/caramel/sage makes me feel powerful and cool when I wear it! Outside of BPAL, my favorite perfume company is Juliette Has a Gun. Mad Madame makes me think of a rose in a leather moto jacket with a switchblade knife!
I'm always so intrigued when people proclaim their love for rose! I've got a very complicated relationship with it, because my late mother used to wear it, and so it's just...a fraught fragrance for me.
Scent is so personal! When I smell dried roses, I think of a friend from over 15 years ago, and us wandering the French Quarter in the early morning hours. I’ve tried exploring other scents, but I always come back to rose!
I love watching 'Behold, My Stuff' videos too - and yours was excellent and so satisfying to see. Thank you for posting and sharing your exquisite bpal collection!
Thank you--that's the word I was searching for--they're so *satisfying*!
I loooove beholding other people's stuff, and peeking into their everyday lives, like your "perfect weekend" video, and will watch as many as you post 😊. I was introduced to BPAL last summer (I THINK through the Haute Macabre blog??) My current favorite is the Midnight Bonfire- I love that I can carry this scent of Fall and Halloween into the winter with me.
Bpal changed my life starting in 2007. My favorites are Snake Oil, Hell’s Belle, Mme. Moriarty, The Other Miss Forcible, Silky Bat, the Wish, and Solstice Lace. They bring so much happiness to my life each day. Thanks for the inspiring video! I hope to explore some of these beautiful scents.
YES! I hear you on that. BPAL absolutely, 100% changed my life
Thank you for sharing some of your favorite BPAL scents! One of my current favorites is It Wasn’t Just a Phase. 🦇🖤
I have so many perfumes but have never purchased a BPAL even though I have known about them forever. I think it's about time I purchase.🖤🖤🖤
That's a fine list of favorites!
I've only recently discovered BPAL and am eagerly awaiting my first order. In the mean time, I have been eagerly devouring information about all the scents on the sight and speculating about what might be my favorite. I am an autistic person with a growing fascination in my senses, their pleasures and their limits. I see in perfume a great overlap of many disciplines to pour over and indulge and BPAL in particular has captivated me.
For scents that I know I adore, resin incenses like frankincense and myrrh and dragon's blood, which I burn and fill my little apartment with, a smell I would gladly carry on my anywhere; the smoke rising from a tobacco barn in the autumn, I imagine with paired some sweetness, would make a wonderful scent for the season; wild blackberries in any form, especially in a scent that also captures their thorns, essential to their character and making them all the sweeter; peonies, which generations of my grandmothers have loved and grown; and cherry blossoms, a beloved springtime sight for me, captured in scent would please me greatly.
I greatly anticipate sampling the perfumes I have ordered, including Becoming Thunder (flowers in a thunderstorm is an image I dreamed of for a scent), Iago and Endymion (I am a woman but am eager to play with masculine scents), Cherry Blossom Vulva and Vasalissa (some lovely feminine scents), and Cathedral (Incense! and possibly fun for layering).
I've barely entered the rabbit hole, I'm sure! Happy indulgence!
I am in the process of putting together a PDF of all the BPAL reviews I have written over the years, you may find it interesting to peek through and nibble at while you are in the process of devouring. Once I have finished it and found a home for it, I will let you know!
@@MlleGhoul I am absolutely interested! I've been reading lots of reviews, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you!
Hate I missed the giveaway, but I have to say I am loving your videos!!! I’m thinking of honoring my home state and choosing “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation” as my first BPAL blind buy- I drove 7+hrs to cast my vote. I’m amazed and the offerings of BPAL!
You have a great collection! I also just love your shelves and seeing bits of the artwork you've collected. As far as perfumes go, I actually love more notes than I dislike, but I find myself reaching for perfumes that have notes of rum or tobacco more often than not.
I love your stories! Some of my fav notes are vetiver, soil, civet, neroli, violet, incense, oakmoss, petitgrain...I could go on.
I think some of my favorite sons are vanilla, clove, musk, chocolate, anything sugary sweet with the hint of spiciness❤️
It's funny...I don't like clove very much as a flavor, but it adds such an interesting facet to a fragrance! BPAL did a collab with Thorns clothing on a clove cigarette scent that you might find interesting! www.thornsclothing.com/products/thorns-x-black-phoenix-alchemy-lab-clove-cigarette-perfume-oil-1
This was even better than I was hoping!!! Definitely adding the ones that are available to my next haul! I think my all time favorites from BPAL are Morocco and Occultation which I’m desperately hoping they turn into a hair gloss because apparently just the perfume isn’t enough stink for me😂 you actually are the one that inspired my first order and I haven’t looked back since. My favorite scents are the musky earthy kinds along with the alluring scents of the bread aisle of the grocery store and gasoline. Probably not something I’d want to smell like but it always brings a smile to my face when I encounter them.
You are too sweet! And YES, Morocco is so good. That should have been in my video here, but I've never properly figured out out to talk about it...
I love hearing about your treasures! Have even been inspired to make a few stinks purchases myself!
My only BPAL regret is that I didn’t find them sooner! I’m only a little over two years down the rabbit hole. I adore Sweet Potato Musk, Snake Can, Ghost Milk, Klosterruine Im Winter Mit Blick Auf Heisterbach, Banana Bread, Voluminous Red Blanket, Halite Phoenix...The list just keeps on growing, really!
Me too! I think they were established in 2002, but I kinda wish I had known about them from day one, been their first order! Is that weird? :P
@@MlleGhoul Not at all! ;)
I’ve never had the pleasure of trying one of the Black Phoenix Alchemy perfumes, so it would be awesome to finally get my hands on them:)
Owl Moon is one of my favorite perfumes ever!! You describe the scent so beautifully. 🖤
AHHH! So happy to see that someone else counts it amongst their favorites.
Even if I had an actual perfume collection, rather than that random bottle of CK1 I've had since 1995, I'd be very impressed! Keep showing us more of the stuff!
Ha! Do you still have that?!
BPAL was one of the first houses I tried when I got into perfumes! The very first scent I fell in love with was The Illustrated Woman and my latest obsession is St. Clare!
WOW, I don't think I have tried either of these!
I just found you tonight on tiktok- you were on my FYP! I ended up watching every single one of your videos, and there are soooo many perfumes i want to try now! Your words are so beautiful and I am sure I could listen to a 10 minute video of you describing a brown paper bag. I have lightly dabbled on and off through the years but have never found “the one”. Fragrances that is, not brown paper bags. Favorites are A Travers Le Miroir - Mugler Mirror Mirror Collection, and Reglisse Noire - 1000 flowers. Someone sent me samples of those years ago and i have sadly run out. The common notes in those are anise, bergamot, and mint. I also love histoires de parfums 1969, 1826, This is Not a Blue Bottle, Ambre 411 and Noire Patchouli. So I know I like amber patchouli musky incense...vanilla... rose. like the basic b i probably am. But not white flowers. Jasmine or lily anything gives both me and my husband headaches.
I have not tried anything from BPAL, but it sounds like an amazing company!
I compiled a long list of things I want to try from your TikTok, and now I am going to go look through your TH-cam and blog for any other fragrance information. Thank you so much! I really enjoyed your videos.
Hi Sonya, I decided to pick two winners for this giveaway and you are number two, yay! Hello! Drop me a line at mlleghoul AT gmail dot com with your address and I will get these mailed out to you this week!
@@MlleGhoul OH MY GOSH!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
I enjoyed this so much! I’m in the process of trying to find a new scent and that’s how I ended up here - also I am finding myself fascinated with BPAL - so many fragrances to choose from it’s kinda overwhelming!
If you're able to isolate a few notes you like, even if it just one, like rose or vanilla, or leather, or smoke, you can do a search for scents with those notes on their site, and that should narrow down the selection and give you at least a place to start. Good luck!
If you go to the Directory section in their website menu it lists all the scent notes and will show you what oils they are in.
I absolutely love your descriptions of fragrances. You have inspired me to start a journey of finding my own personal “stink”. I am not sure at this point what my notes are...I know I like musky...but there are so many other notes that speak to me. The search continues!
Aw, I love that! Keep me apprised of your stink journey, I am super nosy about where you'll end up and what you'll find along the way! Ha, "nosy"! Pun intended :)
I love the Coffee Bean, Cardamom, and Vanilla scent that I bought (via your suggestion!), as well as Choir of Angels, the ever-classic Dorian, and Spinning on Graves which I snagged a backup bottle of when I saw it pop up one day! Does anyone else do that with their favourite scents? It feels a little extra but... I know I'm gonna finish that bottle and if I don't buy a backup I'm SOL!
Great video- loved "snooping" through your collection.
Thank you for this video. I had such an overwhelming and unexpected emotional response to it. My sense of smell is finally returning after many months and I have a new appreciation for a sense that I previously took for granted. I grew up with an orange orchard as a back yard so the smell of orange blossoms stirs something in my soul. I’m eager to discover new scents and now I think I’ll be buying some from BPAL. 💜
So much of scent (at least for me, but I am certain for others, too) is about memory and dreams and all things elusive, ephemeral, and utterly intangible. I'm certain you'll find that to be the case if you do end up grabbing any BPAL scents, for they are especially evocative
Hello! You're our winner of ten bottles of BPAL, yay! Drop me a line at mlleghoul AT gmail dot com with your address and I will get these mailed out to you this week!
Your speak beautifully of your collection and all the wonderful memories and imaginings eat scent brings to mind. I'm adding Dana O'Shee to my imps-to-try list after your comments. My favorite notes to wear are leather and rose, and I had the fortune to wear an old imp of Brom Bones (the manliest of musks!) a few years ago and have been seeking a bottle in vain ever since. It ties with Red Rose as my favorite BPALS.
I've never tried Brom Bones, but wow, now that you mention it, it must pair MAGNIFICENTLY with Red Rose!
My favorite notes keep evolving. Some of my favorite BPALS, in no particular order:
Snake Charmer
So Below
Unicorn & Ram
Morocco
Quintessence of Dust
So many good ones here!
Your poetic descriptions of all the scents gave me some complicated feels on a day I've been feeling particularly outside of myself for whatever reason. Especially bergamot, vetiver, and orange blossom, altarpiece #1, and all colors are caste to black. Especially drinking the potpourri.
I've been collecting (mostly BPAL) for like 3 or 4 years now. I started out wanting to be a leather, grave dirt, and dragonsblood person and figured out I'm more of a red musk , woods, motor oil, aquatics, and and unexpectedly ROSE person.
Luckily I have a friend who loves dragonsblood so I can spoil her with all the dragon scents I want to like, but that don't like meee.
Two of my favorite bpal notes I don't fully understand are ebony wood (it smells like a wooden cabinet in a cold room with stone floors, what), and hyssop. Their hyssop is this fresh, earthy green HERB smell I want to season a piece of meat with (I'm obsessed with ll Bagatella which smells to me like an aromatic marinade for a rack of lamb). Hyssop essential oil doesn't smell anything like this 😂.
ALSO, the thorns: clove cigarette smells to me like the hot ember on the end of a burning match. It's not exact, but it's close enough it makes my brain melt.
I appreciate finding others who also want to talk about stinky things. Thanks. 💜
You have got me extraordinarily intrigued by the idea and sent of hyssop! I have never smelled it...
I'm a big fan of bergamot, tobacco, and leather scents. My favorite bpal scent was called Tarrasque.
Thanks for this video! Your videos are always so interesting and
have a very relaxing feel to them. I don't have a large collection of BPAL perfumes, but my favourite so far is Bloodlust. I'm intrigued by In Night When All Colors To Black Are Cast.
Hey! I don’t often comment on things but thanks to you, I’m super intrigued by this brand! I think it was maybe the 2nd or 3rd episode of Midnight Stinks that randomly happened to be on my FYP, but since then I’ve been obsessed with your descriptions and stunning imagery. Coming into spring, I’ve been really enjoying lily-of-the valley, lilac, and other similar florals!
Well, thank you for your comment! I really love the idea of lilac...but I don't think I have ever smelled it!
@@MlleGhoul It’s one of my spring favourites, probably to do with the fact that my city is full of them, and the scent is always in the air when they start to bloom! Very nostalgic and homey to me. I did a little research, BPAL’s Veil, as well as Nocturne, both have lilac notes and sound beautiful!
Thank you so much for sharing part of your collection! 🙂 Fragrance is one of my obsessions, as well. I especially adore indie fragrances. I have been incredibly inspired by your fragrance posts, videos, and reviews. You have helped me discover so many wonderful fragrances. I absolutely love your fragrance reviews!
My favourite scent notes are incenses, resins, rose, amber, dragon's blood, patchouli, cardamom, lilac, chai tea spices, petrichor, mosses, lavender and sandalwood ~ the list is long and I love 💙 discovering new fragrances as well as seeing what works well with my skin chemistry. 🙂
In seeing the sequence of how you shared your scent loves, now I desperately want a cardamom & lilac perfume. Doesn't that sound just lovely?
@@MlleGhoul that sounds wonderful! 😍 Hmm when the lilacs are in bloom, I may need to experiment with my oils at home and lilac water. Thank you for the inspiration! 🙂
My husband and I picked white and purple lilacs the other day and infused them in jojoba oil for 24 hours. We just made a lilac cardamom body mist! It smells like a subtly floral exotic sweet (he says a bit like Turkish delight). I am curious to see how it ages.
The Choirs of Angels by far and away blew all my other favorites out of the water as soon as it came in! Previously, I had worn Blodughadda as my daily driver for a long time. It feels more of a fall scent for me now and Choirs of Angels is perfect no matter what time of the year or day it is or what mood I'm in.
There's something about Choir of Angels that feels like a lullaby...I love it for bedtime stinks!
ooo i love anything that reminds me of spiced tea. Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, black tea, though i can’t seem to find candles or perfume that really capture the same scent. i also love rose and lilac 🖤
Cool! We love 💙 similar scents. 🙂 One of my favourite rose scents is Persephone by BPAL. It is rose and pomegranate and smells wonderful!
I recently ordered Bollywood by For Strange Women. It has chai spices, saffron and rose in it. It is a unique, lovely scent that is quite saffron forward to start.
Your collection is awe inspiring! Snake Oil and fan reviews were also my introduction to Bpal. I was so fascinated by fantasy style descriptions in the reviews, I had to see if the oils were truly as incredible. They were and continue to be. Thank you for this video!
I LOVE Snake Oil, but it's definitely one of those scents that is best in small doses...a little goes a long way!
@@MlleGhoul Oh absolutely! And still, I always go back to it! Silky Bat has become a worthy opponent.
I love listening to your reviews! My favorite scent from BPAL is their collab scent with Haute Macabre, Mummies of Mexico City. I love woody fragrances with cedarwood or oud and i'm currently obsessed with finding something that's salty but not cucumber-aquatic-y.
So many people love Mummies of Mexico, I love that! I've been writing for Haute Macabre for several years now and I was honored to be able to contribute a few of my own words to the official description.
Such beautiful descriptions! I discovered bpal in 2007, but then took a break from collecting until 2011. My favorites are Ninon (a trading post oil), Druid, Lyonesse, Streets of Detroit, Minotaur and recently The Scholar's Tower and Abalone Vulva. I adore amber, musks, grapefruit, lilac, plum, dirt, and vanilla. Narcissus and I do not get along at all, cinnamon burns and jasmine tends to overwhelm every other note.
I am always so surprised and delighted to see grapefruit show up in a blend, it is without a doubt one of my favorites!
@@MlleGhoul Had to get the shungas Erotic Sake Bowl and Suprise Ejaculation this year because of the grapefruit. Pretty sure the pink musk in Abalone Vulva has grapefruit as well.
I love beholding stuff! As long as it’s a similar aesthetic to mine on display.
Tragically, I love perfume but I’ve never had a single sniff of even one BPAL creation. Maybe Snake Oil some day if I have the chance.
Ok, this is maybe going to sound a little weird and totally out of nowhere...but were you also verbminx on LJ back around, say 2002-2005ish and perhaps beyond? If so, I think we were on each other's friend's lists! I was very shy about interacting, but if you are the same person, I think it was you who inspired me to learn knitting! I was akissofshadows at that time. And if that wasn't you--sorry for the weirdness, and hello! And definitely try Snake Oil :)
Ahhh you reviewed some scents that I've been interested in for ages! I think I might actually buy Dana O'Shee now!
Oh, you absolutely should! It's such a beautiful, sweet creamy scent, and when I said it smelled like incense, I didn't mean at all like smoke. Like an unlit stick of like, rice pudding incense, if such a thing existed!
@@MlleGhoul oooh that sounds ethereal
Yay! I had found your tiktok a while back and am now finally on your YT. Love your videos and how you use words☺️ You actually persuaded me to look up The Witch/ Straega and i love everything about it. The fragrance reminds me of maybe what One Eyed Willy of the Goonie’s room of treasures would have smelled of. Maybe it’s just what I associate it with because that was the movie that was on tv as i first smelled the fragrance.
Oh my GOSH, I love that description! And you know, that's often how I think of fragrance, too. I often think a scent smells like a film sequence or a scene from a story.
@@MlleGhoul Same here. I love that bpal curates their fragrances on memories, scenes, literature, art, and feelings etcetera into these vast scentscapes. By using notes that turn every day from one of monotony into a story of your own.
I recently discovered BPAL (in the last year) and am obsessed. Most recently I placed an obscenely large order and loved every single scent but the one I adored the most, Aevum, is only a limited edition imp and I’m coveting every last, precious drop!! 😭😫😂
Oh my gosh, that reminds me that I have a little imp of Aevum that I haven't even tried yet!
I found you on Tiktok and I *love* your reviews. I'm just starting my perfume journey, and I would love to add to it!
Thank you for the kind words! I hate to be an enabler, but well ok no, that's not true, I live to enable ;)
Even though my BPAL collection is far away from being as big as yours, I think I already have my favorite scent: Mummies of Mexico City form the Haute Macabre collection. It’s just perfect. To me it smells like old chapels burning incense and old, dusty lace and golden ornaments. It smells secular, but familiar, somehow. I just feel embraced by it, it’s so comforting.
That's such a good one! It somehow a muted scent, but also ...potent? Like not a lot of throw, but a lot of backbone.
I haven’t visited my BPAL’s in a while, but now I’m thinking it’s time to take them out of hiding!
Yay! What are some of your favorites?
I have a few imps from BPAL but I’m still looking for a signature scent that just screams me. I love scents that are deep and spicy with a hint of sweet.
Oooh, if you are looking for spicy, try Beelzebub! blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shop/neil-gaiman/good-omens/beelzebub-perfume-oil/
I’ve always wanted to try BPAL, but don’t know where to begin! I’ve been looking for a “signature scent” for quite some time, but nothing seems to click. I would like something that’s incense-y without being straight up nag champa that has a dark vibe to it, without a heavy floral note. I’m still relatively new to my perfume journey, but looking forward to embarking on it!
On the topic of perfume oils, do you have any suggestions on how to make the scent last longer on your skin? I’ve heard the trick of moisturizing before applying, as well as using fragrance lockets, but wonder if you have any other suggestions!
I never get tired of listening people talk about their favorite perfumes. Owl Moon sounds the best to me out of these. My favorite BPAL's are Blacklight-Reactive Poster (only perfume I've tried that actually smells like weed) & Stormclouds over the Midway (it smells like purple thunderstorms at night).
I have never tried either of the ones you mentioned and now I have got an immense sense of FOMO!
@@MlleGhoul Stormclouds over the Midway is still available on site
YES. IM READY
Absolutely obsessed with bpal. My favorites (though it’s hard to pair down) are Silky Bat, Flickering Lantern, Snake Smut (a new addition!), and Revenant Rhythm aka Banshee Beat. For bed I love their lavender scents like TKO and You Are Not Alone. ✨✨✨✨✨
I was a MUA staple for many years!
Anubis, Manuscript, Pumpkin Dust, Hilma, Chiroptophobia, and Gloomy Day are probably my favorites, but Xanthe the Weeping Clown is up there as well, especially this time of year. I always want to smell like a sexy, sticky, guava pastry from Miami on a warm day.
I don't know how I missed Xanthe--that sounds INCREDIBLE!
@@MlleGhoul It was totally a wild card purchase for me. I normally don't enjoy sweet for scents, but the guava note is really beautiful.
I love the black phenix alchemy hair perfumes, my favorite scent is mummies from mexico.
Oooh, yes! The hair glosses are wonderful. I love Burying Point, which is another collab BPAL did with Haute Macabre.
BPAL's catalog is so large, it's kinda intimidating 😅
Of the few I tried, I liked Magnificent Autumn the most.
It definitely is! I think it helps to have an idea of a scent or a season, or even just a memory, or impression, or dream. Then do a keyword search for those words or phrases on the BPAL site...a bit of targeted scentomancy might be an interesting place to begin!
Does anyone have a brand similar but cheaper for ppl in the EU? I don't have 50€ for a bottle :/