u/kinneret_rising

Hi IMAM! I want to ask y'all about an experience I've been having with one of the larger indie houses -- which I love and buy from frequently.

A friend gave me a backup bottle of one of my favorite scents. Both bottles were bought in 2025. Mine is an absolute symphony of morphing notes, a real masterpiece. The bottle my friend bought is good, but it's dominated by one of the darker notes in a way that makes it much more ordinary. They recognizably have the same components, but the second bottle isn't balanced.

I also got two different samples of the same scent from this house this year -- again, one I received directly, one a friend got in their order. One sample is exactly as described, the notes totally recognizable. The other is weak and wan, just vaguely sweet, and I wouldn't be able to identify the notes if I didn't already know.

I've read that scents may have slight variations depending on when they were decanted from the mother bottle, because some components tend to settle toward the bottom. That makes sense, but in this case the variations are so large that I'm inclined to call it a quality control issue.

My friend wasn't interested in contacting customer service about their experience, but I'm wondering if I should -- not to ask for a refund or anything, but just to let the company know. The fact is, I'm hesitating over trying to get another backup bottle of the scent I love because I don't know what I'm going to get, and that's money I wouldn't be spending.

Have y'all had this happen? How did you handle it?

After my initial round of Luper samples, I went back for more! So today I’m finally reviewing the full Faces of the Lovers series.

About my tastes: I love a conceptual scent, something inspired by a narrative or a poem or an image -- a scent that tells a story. I'm not that interested in gourmand scents per se, although I enjoy honey, fruit, and cacao. I like scents that evoke other times or places, or put me in tune with a personality or a mood.

BPAL’s Faces of the Lovers series is an amazing exploration of storytelling through scent. If you’re interested in the full esoteric background of these scents, I recommend reading the extended descriptions on the BPAL site, which relate each pair of lovers to the alchemical concepts that also informed the Lovers Tarot card. But for the purpose of this review, all that’s needed is to understand that each scent explores pairs of opposites in the process of transformation, as explored in stories from Western myth and literature. Each one is a reflection on, an interpretation of, and an embodiment of a mythic relationship.

Here are my takes:

Achilles and Patroclus (bronze-bright armor warmed by the sun, salt-wind off the Aegean, crushed amarantos beneath restless feet, and the metallic sting of blood on sand): This is a richly textured scent, slightly metallic, potent. Despite the associations with the Trojan War, it doesn't read to me as overly masculine. It has a scent that makes me think of well-cared for equipment, but not machinery -- this is a more human smell than, say, the BPAL Steamworks scents I've tried. Amarantos, a grain, helps to warm the salt and metallic notes. This is scent of a love that turns the tide of war. Good wear length as well – a scent of endurance.

Apollo and Hyacinthus (golden laurel and sun-warmed skin, cypress shadow and noontide amber, crushed violets, lilies, and poppy, gilded myrrh, date palm, and hyacinth petals): Wet, I smell flowers and fruit and earth, with a foundation of myrrh beneath. I’m often a little leery of cypress, as it easily overwhelms scents for me, but here there is just a trace of that fresh note. It is lovely and sad to think of this harmonious scent as a memorial offering for a lover whom even a god could not protect from death. The main notes linger lightly on drydown, like a memory.

Beatrice and Dante (white rose and scarlet iris, beeswax smoke and frankincense tears, vellum and sacred myrrh, and a thread of red saffron steeped in luminous amber): Wet, the heady florals embody Dante's near-worship and idealization of Beatrice. Frankincense and myrrh, vellum and beeswax smoke evoke Dante's medieval religious context. His longing for Heaven and longing for Beatrice are one, and they are mixed in this scent. The scent dries down to rose with a bit of complexity beneath – floral, but with substance.

David and Jonathan (shepherd’s wool and wild honey, cedarwood and olive leaf, sun-warmed leather, plumes of frankincense rising from a quiet altar, and a thread of red pomegranate seed crushed between steady hands): This scent is well-blended and I'm hard-pressed to pick out notes aside from honey. That being said, it's just a touch sweet and wonderfully textured from the wool/wood/leaves/leather combo -- definitely a unisex scent. It makes me think of being outdoors – I might even call it “pastoral.” Inspired by the intense friendship of David and Jonathan, this scent could be shared between lovers or best friends.

Eve and Adam (skin musk, fig sap, pomegranate, apple skin, and the smoke and warmth of humankind’s newly-kindled fire): Wet, this is juicy apple with something strange and uneasy beneath -- skin musk for the revelation of Eve and Adam’s nakedness and separateness from each other; fire and smoke for the daily work they must do after being expelled, or perhaps from the angel’s flaming sword that bars them from the garden. For me, this scent is tricky; I strain to identify the notes, wondering what is next. Dry, the apple scent remains forward, but troubled by a foreboding of fire and smoke.

Isis and Osiris (blue lotus incense and kyphi resin dancing in a dusk-shadowed temple, black loam of the Nile and green papyrus crushed beneath bare feet, myrrh and cassia steeped in date honey, a glimmer of lapis and gold leaf pressed into linen, and a surge of floodwater returning to parched earth): For me this scent is the perfume equivalent of classical music. I have to give it my full attention -- it's not an easy pleasure; it takes work, but it's worth it. I catch nearly all of the notes at one point or another, wet or dry. The blue lotus is most noticeable wet, and with drydown, the scent integrates into something beautiful and strange: cassia, moist green earth, linen. I imagine myself smelling the Nile basin, the flood and drought cycle that embodies these gods’ relationship. It's really amazing, and also not a beginner's scent. I may wear it for meditation.

Isolde and Tristan (dark wine spilled on oak, pine boughs and love philtres, rose petals and sea-salt, storm-wind over cold stone battlements, myrrh smoke braided with heart-pulses of red musk awash in tears, tinkling fairy bells and the bitter sweetness of forbidden fruit steeped in a silver chalice): Red musk, wine, roses, salt tears: the dangerous bittersweetness of a forbidden love. Wet, this scent is intense, tumultuous, shifting moment to moment, strongly compelling. Something grounds it -- the wood, perhaps. I keep coming back for more. On the basis of scent alone, this one is probably my favorite in the series, though like the other delicate scents in this series, I wish it had longer wear length – it fades after a couple of hours.

Juliet and Romeo (crushed red rose and night-blooming jasmine unfurl over Verona stone warmed by summer dusk, sugared violets and bitter orange peel steeped in pale cypress smoke, with a single thread of myrrh rising like a whispered vow in the dark): Hypnotic florals, jasmine and rose. Everyone knows this story, where a tragic love drives the reconciliation of two warring families. Is there a touch of bitterness beneath? That bitter orange peel? It makes me think of BPAL’s discontinued scent Venice, though this is more sophisticated. Of the Faces of the Lovers series, this is the only one that threatened to become soapy for me, although on drydown, the stony and smoky notes saved it. I imagine Italy when I smell it.

The White Queen and the Red King (crimson musk and white amber twined with solar frankincense and lunar myrrh, warm saffron steeped in cool iris root, gold-threaded honey darkened by silvered benzoin, a marriage of fire and pearl beneath a rain of distant stars): This scent is the least narrative of the group: it directly embodies the symbolism of the alchemical marriage of opposing principles. It's interesting to smell BPAL's forceful, earthy red musk somehow also smelling ethereal (maybe from the resins). Honey comes through clearly as well. This one lasted several hours on my skin and had relatively low throw once dry. I think if I didn't have to go nose to wrist to enjoy it, I might upgrade to a bottle. It's complex and lovely, but quiet.

BONUS (from the related series, Aspects of the Lovers):

The Lovers' Serpent (snake oil, fig, pomegranate, apple, green sandalwood, olibanum, blackcurrant, and iridescent serpent scale accord): A perfume inspired by the serpent in Even and Adam’s garden. This is a juicy, fruity variation on snake oil -- still complex, but lighter. I can't pick out individual fruit notes, but the combination smells fresh and alive, and the snake oil provides its complex spicy musk as a foundation. For me it's a nicely balanced scent. I have no idea what "iridescent serpent scale accord" would be -- I'll be curious to try it in a different perfume, if it appears again, to see if I can pick it out. I’ve been wearing this one regularly in warm weather, where it has had good staying power over the course of the day.

If you enjoy complex storytelling scents, Faces of the Lovers may be for you! For me I suspect these are mostly special occasion scents, with the exception of The Lovers’ Serpent, which I find easy to wear; David and Jonathan also seems like it could make a regular spring rotation. My only complaint is that I wish BPAL had found a Sapphic pairing to honor as well! Sappho and Atthis, or perhaps even Ruth and Naomi, given that David and Johnathan’s friendship made the cut? Perhaps for a future Lupercalia!

Tips for a meet and sniff?

acceptable variations or quality control issue?

BPAL Lupers 2026: The Faces of the Lovers