A round up of some of the Valentine's scents for 2011

Random picture of BPALs that have nothing to do with Valentine's Day

THE MORBID THE MERRIER

El Corazon
Like the heart, fickle and a bit deceptive. A heavy, dark, smoky scent with a taunting core of sweetness.

Hasta la Muerte
The innocence of lily and carnation, sweetened with vanilla absolute, smashed and marred by an undercurrent of heartless black spice.

Paramour
Oh, romance. Or something like it. A dozen red roses, spilled wine, a hint of blood, and gunsmoke.

Histoire des Amoureaux
A little Eden, a little de Sade. leather, juicy red apple, a serpent slither of pepper and spice, green grass, and sweat.

Histoure du Professeur
Leather arm chair, starched white cotton shirt, dusty books, a memory of sweet pipe smoke and a faint whiff of brandy kept hidden in a desk drawer.

Histoire du Secretaire
Mile-high leather pumps, skin tight wool pencil skirt, stacks of filing paper, steaming black coffee, a mahogany desk and a hint of musky perfume.

Price:          $12USD
Samples:     Yes, in sets of 3, 5 or 10 and 3ml travel size Eau de Parfum spray.

ONE HAND WASHES THE OTHER

Be Mine
It's a spicy/fruity/vanilla smell, definitely on the feminine side, but I don't see why the right male couldn't pull this off. It's got florals and greens but not a ton- just enough to move it out of the "I smell like food" category. Be Mine is the smell of a thousand heart-shaped cinnamon red-hots sprinkled liberally on buttercream-frosted cupcakes, accompanied by a bowl of punch, cups of coffee and tea; all served at an antique wooden table laden with roses, jasmine and orange blossoms; the perfect Valentine's Day afternoon teatime treat.

Or, for short, it's a spicy vanilla scent with a fruity twist.

Price:          $10.52AUD
Samples:     Yes

POSSETS

Pink Cake
A frothy piece of cake hidden under a dense crust of butter and sugar flavored with the silliest strawberries you ever tasted! Very straightforward but somehow so moist it's a bit like a custard, but not quite. Maria, the Maltese cook and housekeeper has this recipe inherited from her mother and from generations back So very Very VERY good. It is said to be an aphrodisiac.

Pretty
Sweet, pure and desirable, Pretty is just that, divinely pretty like Isabella in the springtime. A whisper of mint flies along three white flowers (a combination of a hint of gardenia, freesia, and a drop of lily), all of this girded about with some dry vanilla (very dry and not the confection you are used to). This is a surprisingly sober fragrance for such a fluffy thought, but then again beauty is a sobering thing to come face to face with.

The Girls Love Leather
Yes! The Girls have discovered the fun of leather, the smell of leather, the sensuality of leather. Leather and honey. Wow. Just Wow. This is not just any old leather, this is the superb stuff which you find in the church shops of Florence, dripping with honey from Malta. Just the apex of the apiary. Yummmmm. Not for the faint of heart, not for the pure of soul!

More Possets Valentine scents here and here.

Price:          $10USD
Samples:     No

BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB

Parlement of Foules 2011
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his mate.

Medieval romance and courtly love. White rose and soft resins.

Red Lantern 2011
A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930's.
Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice.

Burning Vulva
Vanilla-infused amber, leather, beeswax, cyclamen, oakmoss, peru balsam, orange blossom, red ginger, tonka, opoponax, myrrh, and black pepper.

Nude Woman Reclining
Calla lily, honeysuckle, Turkish jasmine, ambrette seed, galbanum, iris, and bourbon vanilla.

Nymphia
She Who Blesses Brides
White rose, apple blossom, spun sugar, mango, cucumber, freesia, coconut, and lavender.

BPAL has a ton of Limited Edition scents released for Valentine's Day. You can find more of them here, here, here, and here. 

**And be warned - these links lead to NSFW images of nooooodity.**

Price:          $20USD
Samples:     No

HAUS OF GLOI

Come Hither
Based off of traditional herbs and roots used in Hoodoo to draw and attract a lover, or entice the one you've already ensnared! Bourbon vanilla, tonka bean, cardamon, a touch of rose oil, Queen Elizabeth root, three threads of saffron and a touch of honey to sweeten the whole deal.  

Something Hopeful
Perhaps the first stirrings of the spring to come. Warm sakura blossom green tea with the tiniest droplet of plum juice, red mandarin and crystallized jasmine essence.

Who Needs Love
A mahogany box filled with chocolaty orbs, coated in crystallized coffee - filled with a pomegranate and raspberry filling. Who needs love when you have something this decadent?

Price:          $15USD (scents also available in various bath products)
Samples:     Yes

*All descriptions are the manufacturers' own.

Possets: A quick look (and sniff).

A few weeks ago I bought some BPALs from a lovely girl on Livejournal, and also a bottle called The Girls Love Vanilla, by Possets, a company I was vaguely aware of because they're often mentioned in BPAL circles. I loved the oil - a very sweet vanilla with a honey base - so I thought I'd better take a look at these Possets people. (As it happens, it seems to be a Possets person - the perfume oils are created by Fabienne Christensen, owner of the company.) They offer any 6 samples from their permanent collection for $10US, and shipping is as cheap as chips. I went through the list and got to 8, and I was only up to the letter M by then, so I had to splash out and buy two lots of 6... yes, had to...

First of all, let me say that I am SUPER impressed by the speed of their shipping. I received my perfumes 8 days after ordering. They must have been whipping those babies into an envelope the second my order came through. I ordered some BPALs on the same day and it will be several weeks before I see those (though in fairness, they do make the perfume oils for each order, which is why it takes a while).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Noodle Arms and I sniffed all of these one by one the other evening, until we ended up all headachy and queasy. Most of the ones I bought were foody, with a few florals and musks as well. On top of the 12 I bought, we received four free samples:

Mrs Rabbit's Carrot Cake: a cheesecake-ish vanilla scent.
Fluoxetine: a lollyish scent that's hard to describe.
The Clockwork Kumquat-Oregon: a citrusy-fruity scent that I surprisingly rather liked, as I am not usually a fan of citrus or fruit at all.
Sweet New England-Vermont: another citrusy one with a sharp note of lime that isn't my cup of tea at all. Noodles loved this one so I gave it to her.

I love, love love chocolate scents, so I ordered a few of those, including a trio of chocolate variations - Giddy, Glee and Guffaw, as well as Passion, Id, and Queen Of The Night, an unusual scent with a note that smells like it might be chocolate and might not be. Noodles was all over that one, and since I liked it but didn't love it, I gave that to her as well.

I'm also a nut for anything vanilla, so I wanted to try BBC The Big Black Cat and Reason, described on the site as "(a)bout 6 vanillas and three toffees and a big glop of butter and cream on it all". Having sniffed it now, I think that's a pretty spot on description!

Finally, I ordered some musky scents, because I'm a fan of slinky oriental fragrances. My choices were Madame X, Lamp Black, Eve, and Dangerous Oil.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be wearing these and testing them properly, but so far after just having had a play with a couple and a sniff of them all, I'm kind of loving them. If you're a fan of foody or musk scents, they're definitely worth checking out.