Bastet
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

I feel a little strange reviewing BPAL scents in the same context as commercial frags, because often they're a lot of fun and very evocative as smells, but not necessarily something I'd want to wear on my person. And they're specifically for an audience that often couldn't give a fig about commercial frags, so it feels a little unfair to judge them on the same criteria. All that said, there are a few of them that I love and wear often as skin scents and as bases/fixatives for lighter frags, and Bastet is one.

Sniffed in the bottle, it's a lot of synthetic almond, so for years I'd overlooked it. But I'm able to go to a local BPAL event every full moon, so knowing I liked the other components, I tried it again on my skin, and am so happy I did, because the almond burns off quickly. I'm left with a gorgeous warm ambery/musky skin scent. It's simple, but when it works with your chemistry, very sensual indeed.

BPAL is a line where if you fall in love with one of them, nothing else really does smell quite like it.

There may be spice and some other notes in there--I didn't smell them, because the almond gained a pervasive presence that not even three scrubs with soap and a shower got rid of. It started off decent, with a faint whiff of amber and some dry woods/spices (possibly a bit of cardamon?) but soon the almond got sweet and plasticy and overwhelmed everything. It made my housemates open windows and the cats sneeze and back out of the room.

Needless to say, I won't be trying it again.

Almond and amber together in a very sniffable accord – there are some spices there, of course, to round out the almond and amber. Ordinarily I wouldn't like the almond – not a fan – but in this case the combination is excellent. The spices seem to broaden until I am aware that I am smelling incense in the background. I realize I am into the drydown (too quickly in my opinion). The drydown is a rather simple sweetness with an overlay of incense: it's pleasant, but too soft and too short lasting. Bastet is a very nice scent – it pulls you in… it probably inhabits thumbs up territory in spite of its lack of longevity.