So I can print this and take it with me to the Meet'n'Sniff. It comes in categories. It's kind of long.

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Summary of my thoughts on the BPAL scents I tried and reviewed in 2006. Splitting it out of the former big-huge-everything-BPAL post, for sanity and organization.

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Lots of them, because I've been testing without posting. Some that I have tested once, I want to give more time and thought to the review before I post it and set it in stone; as always, a complete list of my impressions-to-date and ramblings is in my BPAL post, or you can click on the 'bpal' tag on this entry to get them all relevant posts listed for you.

Quick summary: Liked Baobhan Sith, Danube and Dragon's Blood well enough to want to keep them; Mata Hari left me 'ehh' (I'm not big on Massively Rose scents), and I detested Undertow. But dormouse_in_tea likes the sound of it, so it will probably go off to live with her sometime soon.

These imps (and more) came to me through a 'Mystery Pack' off the bpal.org forums, and I like it. Given the 400+ scents in the catalog, it amused me that one of the 18 Mystery Imps I got was one that I had JUST ordered from the lab, and another two were scents I was already thinking about. I think it will pay off to repeat the experiment, as new as I am; I can't control what I get, but it's likely to be new to me, and may well introduce me to scent notes I don't yet know that I love. Worst-case, I've gotten commodity imps I can use as swap-fodder on the fora, or to sell there for about what I paid for them.

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One big winner, one big loser, as far as I'm concerned: I adored Aeval, detested Tezcatlipoca. Which means I have my first destined-to-trade-away imp -- progress, of a sort. :->

Luckily, the turn-everything-to-baby-powder thing is apparently related to my menstrual cycle, and not my skin itself, so I'm giving Whip a longer test-drive today, and will have a full review of it sometime in the future.

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Ahh, yes, BPAL fandom. For those interested in The Big Picture, see my tracking post.

That said, my first package of imps off the sales section of the forums have arrived (yay!) and I've tried them out a bit.

Details below the cut, but the upshot is: I like Hetairae, and apparently my skin turns lots of scents into 'baby powder'. Oh, and I am apparently a moron about smells, compared to most of the people doing good detailed BPAL reviews out there -- I'm very bad at verbalizing what I smell. Or at least at placing it.

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I know a lot of you folks on my friendslist do the BPAL thing (for those of you who don't -- detail-obsessed, extrageeky perfume fandom), so feedback is solicited.

I'm thinking of starting out with a six-pack of Imp's Ears (sample size vials, for those of you who don't), and am considering the following as my starting order:

• Aeval ~
  
• Florence
  
• Les Infortunes de la Vertu
  
• Miskatonic University
  
• Tezcatlipoca ~
  
• Whip ~

I'm a little worried that using their site search to look for Miskatonic University doesn't turn anything up -- is it discontinued, only available in Big Bottles, too new for reviews ... other? Everyone says to stick to the 'general catalog' scents to start, but their website does not make clear which are what, in any way.

Also, if any of those turn out to be unavailable, knowing that they sound (not having encountered them in person yet, of course) interesting -- what might you suggest, out of those you've tried? In shampoos and other scented products I generally run quickly away from anything too insanely floral (think gardenia for one example) or too over-the-top fruity. Musk is tricky. Patchouli is in general good but can overdose me quickly. I like Lush's Flying Fox scent, and anything cinnamonny/spicy is generally great.

And is there anything else someone getting started in BPAL fandom should know?

Oh, I made a tracking post for my upcoming obsession ...