BPAL newbie

[adamantine_lady]

Ok, I fear this is going to be one of the biggest financial mistakes I will ever make BUT..

I am absolutely 100% new to this.. any recommendations and useful tips? *ducks in anticipation of being flooded with replies* :)

Comments

[etienne]

Hello and welcome!
And yes, prepare to be poor from now on... but you'll smell so good! :D

A good place to start is the perfumes you currently like and the notes in them. Do you like floral, musky, spicy, foody scents? bpal.org is a good resource for reviews and recommendations, and then you might want to start by buying some imps (sample sized vials of BPAL) and starting to work out what kinds of scents you like. :) Try ones that might at first sound strange, too, chances are you'll discover you like scents you didn't think you would like.

[adamantine_lady]

I've just tried to purchase something and it said "vendor only sells to the US" Errm??!

[etienne]

For international orders, you have to pay by Paypal. Check out the FAQ on the BPAL site for instructions.

[ravenrigan]

That was quick :D! I only posted the link a few minutes ago!

Be aware that stuff from the lab can take a while to come, and postage tends to be on the expensive side so if you are just after a few imps, or want to get started straight away, put together a wishlist, from notes you like and reading reviews and look through peoples swaps for them. Most people post swaps to sinandsalvation but you soon start to recognise the names of UK peeps from this community, and postage from individuals in the states can be reasonable as well.

When I started I bought a few sets of random imps from Ebay, and discovered some things I would never have thought I would like.

Or arrange to meet up with enabled friends, and sniff their goodies.

If you are going to Consequences I will have my collection there!

[esther_reeves]

Now just because I addicted, sorry enabled, you doesn't mean you should be luring others in :)

What am I saying!

Must get round to doing a swaps list soon I must have some I don't want I'm sure!

[ravenrigan]

Too late. My tally is 5 definites and a few more teetering on the brink.

Mwahahaha!

I must revamp my swap list too, and post it. I just posted it on my LJ and facebook last time enabled several of my chums!

But I've got loads of Carnival Diabolique scents I just HAVE to have, so I should shift a few of the things that didn't work!

[dmwcarol]

I could bring mine to Consequences too, we could do swapsies :)

[litt1e_n0thing]

My recommendation - buy an assload of imps, and maybe a bottle or two first. Even if you know vaguely what sort of notes you like, they can really vary between places (I love jasmine things from Lush, but anything Jasmine-y from BPAL - blehhh!!).

Another thing that used to be a big downfall for me - getting too caught up in a really cool sounding scent description, and ignoring the actual notes in the scent. Just 'cos you really liked suchandsuch a character in a book, when they make a BPAL scent of it, you won't necessarily like the smell. (This is probably stating the obvious, but it's screwed me over many a time with *wanting* to like certain scents!)

Have fun! :)

[bagfish]

If you want to get imps of BPAL or other perfume oils quicker, you can buy them on LJs like uk_bpal_swaps or pw_market from sellers in the UK.

Best places for reviews are the reviews pages at www.bpal.org For Possets, there is a really good reviews forum on the Possets website and the Villainess products also have their own review website. For other e-tailers, there are often reviews on the BPAL.org website in the bath, beauty and beyond section (which you need to be a member to access).

I would agree with little_n0thing above though and buy a whole load of imps to see what you like as BPAL is often very different from what you would expect. I almost gave up on it as the first 15 or so BPALs I tried were absolutely dreadful on me and I still have quite a low hit rate. But the ones that work are fabulous and so worth trying!

[bagfish]

that should be pwaters_market - sorry!