Valentine of Rome: Ecclesiastical incense, Roman flora, and the fruits of martyrdom: cypress, olive blossom, frankincense, myrrh, and blood accord.
In the bottle: I got incense, but with something harsh in there. Maybe it was vetiver, even though it's not listed? Vetiver and I have a love/hate relationship, but it usually ends up being hate.
On me: The vetiver-ish note toned down some, but there was something ash-like that I really wasn't enjoying. There was incese too, but not enough to overpower the vetiver/ash thing going on.
King Cobra: Snake Oil with orris, frankincense, and copal.
In the imp: A very resiney Snake Oil
On me: Snake Oil with incese!!! A dryer incense, not like Temple Viper at all but still very good. After several hours it smells mostly just like snake oil, but that's what reapplying is for.
Verdict: Yum! I wouldn't mind swapping for a bottle of this too.
Resurrection of the Flesh: Frankincense, hyssop, heliochrysum, ylang ylang, copal, angelica, and rose geranium. Featured in the Salon: detail of the fresco.
In the imp: WoW! The resins and ylang ylang blend so beautifully together. A quick test tells me this will be a favorite.
On me: a delicious incensey blend fused with the beauty of ylang ylang. For maybe half an hour. And then it fades to almost nothing. My skin ate it, and in eating it the fragrance that is left isn't even classifiable. It's something, but so faint that it isn't much. I am very disappointed by this.
Swadhisthana: Sacral:
The Glory of Vishnu, The House of Varuna, One’s Own Abode
The Six-Petaled Lotus.
The unconscious, the sweetness of life, desire, pleasure, sexuality, procreation, emotion.
Swadhisthana is the manifestation of passion, the reconciliation, balance and union of the masculine and feminine within ourselves.
In Swadhisthana, we learn to give and receive pleasure. It is the stimulation of the life force, the basis for life itself, and our force on the physical plane.
In this chakra, our samskaras are cloistered, and in this chakra they find expression.
Because of the highly sexual identification of this chakra, many find its temptations and trials very difficult to overcome.
**This is the first Chakra that I've tried, and WOW! I need to try more of them.
In the bottle: A deliciously dark incense blend, very sensual and unique. The reviews say floral and/or citrus? But I got none of either one. I did get a bit of an iodine type of smell too.
On me: Whoa. Well, it works, it is very sexual! On me this was a very sensual incensey blend with a sharp something that my nose couldn't identify (the iodine-ish type smell, but not in a bad way).
At one point (once the chakra started working...), it turned into waffles with a super strong throw, and then went back to being incensey without any waffle traces.
I'll have to reserve this one for special occasions.
Lady Una:Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices.
In the imp: Deliciously honey musky blackberry. Yummy!! What are fae spices?
On me: I am getting a lot of honey musk and peach, even though peach isn't listed in the notes. Everything else ran and hid - I'm thinking I smell the fae spices but I can't pinpoint that. It's very faint, not a lot of throw or staying power.
It smells good, but it's not my kind of scent. I was hoping for a honey-berry-vanilla scent, and this was definitely not that.
Moon of Ice: The Moon of Ice shines its pale white light on snow-blanketed hills and barren fields. Icicles dangle from skeletal branches, and the desperate howl of starving men and beasts echo through the darkness.
Frost-crusted winter flowers, white pine, eucalyptus, and traditional lunar oils.
In the bottle it reminded me a bit of Zest soap. It definitely has a good "splash you awake" feeling to it.
It was cold today (weird for Miami), so I decided that Moon of Ice was appropriate. I am loving the combination of scents in this. The flowers, pine, and eucalyptus blend together and I can't really pick out any specific notes, they just all create a cold wintery fresh scent. It's got a pretty strong throw, and I'm definitely doing a lot of self-sniffing.
From smelling this in the bottle I didn't think it would work on me, but it has! Yay.
A funny note, two friends of mine said I smell like incense. I didn't really get an incensey feel from this, and I would have squeed if I had because I love incensey smells. But....yeah....I smell like incense to unindoctrinated noses.
Gwyneth: Rose otto, tonka, orchid, Calla lily, skin musk, coconut, and Spanish sage.
In the imp: A delicious blend of sweet orchid, tonka, and a bit of musk.
On me: Oh dear. Rose! A sweet rose (not as sweet as Hope) and not much else. A few hours later a bit of orchid and musk started peeking out, and maybe a bit of sage but barely. Unfortunately this is way too rosey for me. I will stick with Hope for a sweet rose.
Coral Snake: Snake Oil with blood orange, red apple, lemon peel, plumeria, and gardenia.
In the imp: Is there really snake oil in this? And where's the plumeria and gardenia? This smells very apple-y to me. Reminds me a bit of Bath and Body Works apple body splash.
On me: Wet was ALL apples. As it dried, the florals peeked out and it was a delicious blend of snake oil with fruits and florals. And then it dried down and the florals went away, leaving apple. After a bit, the plumeria decided to come out to keep the apple company. The snake oil is hanging out faintly underneath the apple and plumeria. This is definitely a complex scent.
Verdict: It smells good, I alternate between smelling BBW Plumeria and Apple body splashes, and sometimes get straight up snake oil. It smells good, but it's not really my kind of scent.
Snake Oil: By far, our most popular scent! Magnetic, mysterious, and exceedingly sexual in nature. A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
In the bottle: It smelled weird. A funky bitter spice, no vanilla at all. I sniffed it at different times thinking it was me, the moment, etc. Nope, still weird. Knowing all the rave about it and loooooving the entire Snake Pit, I decided to still give it a shot.
On me: At first it was the same weird smell. And then it dried down to a lovely spicy vanilla. The spice toned down a bit, which took the bitter edge off while still leaving a lot of spice. And it blended really well with the vanilla to make it a very warm spicy scent. As the day goes by it's smelling different, I can't pinpoint it though. I think I want to buy a bottle and age it, since apparently it is better aged.
Beltane 08: Mugwort, French rose, Lily of the Valley, broom, frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, foxglove, woodruff, rowan wood, ivy, sandalwood, spring mint, thyme, iris, copal, and night blooming jasmine.
In the bottle: Green!! This is a deliciously green Spring scent. I definitely get mint, but it blends in really well with the herbs and greens I'm smellling. I don't get any flowers out of this, but I'm sure they're hiding there somewhere.
On me: It was deliciously minty for about 10 seconds, and then the mint lost its sweetness and turned bitter. And then I began smelling like some sort of scented cleaning product. NOT good. No mint, no herbs, no flowers, only cleaning product. Hours later, it faded into a very faint floral but that's it.
Unfortunately, this totally bombed on me. And it smelled soooo good in the bottle.
Boomslang: Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk.
In the imp: Strong snake oil presence and some cocoa. Teakwood and rice milk? They are hiding.
On me: HEAVEN! Slather PLEASE! Delicious snake oil with a lot of cocoa yumminess. I think I may sniff a teeny bit of teakwood, but I still don't know where the rice milk is.
This smells sooooo good! It's got more throw than Snake Oil, or any of the other snakes I've tried so far.
Boomslang is a dark oil, and when it was wet I could see it on my skin. I'm sure if I hadn't rubbed it in it would have stained my skin, so must be careful with that.
This is most definitely a bottle need.
Tiresias, the Androgyne: Dark, moody, and bittersweet: black currant, patchouli, tobacco, cinnamon leaf, caramel, muguet, and red sandalwood.
In the imp: It smells totally foody, I get A LOT of sweet caramel. No sign of patchouli, tobacco, cinnamon, or sandalwood. Maybe a bit of currant.
On me: OMG it is heavenly!! And it morphs. The throw smells all foody and caramelly. When I put my nose up to my wrist to sniff (which I've been doing very frequently), it's a completely different scent. I get a caramel sweetened black currant with a fair amount of red sandalwood to balance it out and make it non-foody. I LOVE THIS!!!
It has very good throw and medium wear time. I wish I would have brought some with me to work to reapply.
A bottle of this is definitely needed.
Fae: A brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss.
In the imp: sweet and peachy.
On me: The white musk and peach have blended beautifully on my skin!! In the background I smell a floral green, which I think is the heliotrope and oakmoss. It smells very meadowy and I can almost see the fairies.
On me, it reminds me of Ebisu Making Love as Two Octopuses Look on. This is a great thing because I opted not to buy it, and instead got Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. Now that there's a GC scent that smells like it, I'm going to be all over it!! And it's $15 vs $27.50 - pretty big difference.
Two Monsters: Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper.
In the Imp: Upon first sniff I didn't think it would work. I got a lot of leather, which has a 50/50 chance of going wrong on my skin, and vetiver, whichusually goes wrong on me if it's GC but not with CD blends.
Wet: The wrong kind of leather and some rotted spinach smelling vetiver underneath. I didn't even wait for the drydown and tossed it into the swaps pile.
And then, 10 minutes later, this scent morphed into one of the most amazing scents I have ever tried. Talk about a morpher!!! It reminds me of Temple Viper, another favorite.
The leather blends beautifully with the resins and champaca to create an slightly leathery sweet incense scent that is absolutely amazing!! Must hoard. It has a very good throw and I get the feeling has a pretty long staying power too. Oh yes, I need a bottle.
Agrat-Bat-Mahlaht: Amber, cream accord, white honey, apple blossom, skin musk, caramel, and teak.
In the imp: Amber and caramel. I am such an amber whore.
On me: The amber and caramel blend beautifully with the honey, and I get a hint of cream. The teak adds a bit of kick to the blend.......no hint of apple anywhere (thankfully, as it's not a favorite).
This is definitely a "Mia" scent. Need!
Bordello: A decadent, deep perfume, lusty and luxuriant. The scent evokes images of velvet-lined Old West cathouses, tightly laced corsets, rustling petticoats and coquettish snarls of pleasure. Bawdy plum with amaretto, burgundy wine and black currant.
In the bottle: A delicious fruity blend of plums and currants, plum dominating. I didn't get much amaretto except for a bit of sweet almond. And no wine either, but that's ok.
On me: The plum deepened and the currant came out more. I got more amaretto, not too much, and a hint of the burgundy. It smelled very sensual on me, and it is definitely a "Mia" scent.
Yvaine: The high, crystalline scent of a star-filled night with blue lavender and lush magnolia.
In the imp: Not sure about this, it doesn't smell very appealing and I get some sort of citrus?
On me: This totally blossoms, and the weirdness goes away. The lavender is sweetened up by something in there, and the magnolia peeks out but doesn't make the blend overly flora. It really does embody Yvaine, to my Stardust-loving-self.
This is very yummy and a bottle is needed.
The Flower Song: Pomegranate wine, lotus root, river reeds, hyssop, and barley.
In the bottle: Not floral, as the title would suggest. I get sweet pomegranite and lotus, with something else I can't identify (I don't know what hyssop and barley smell like).
On me: Oh this scent was made for me! The predominant notes are pomegranate and plum (no plum listed, but it smells like plum to me), with deliciously sweet lotus root and river reeds right behind them. I'm sure the hyssop and barley are there, I just don't know how to find them.
This is exquisitely blended, and works wonderfully on me. This was a last minute, unsniffed add on a whim even though most of the Lupercalias didn't do much for me. I'm so glad this fell into my shopping cart!
Dragon Moon '08: Our Dragon Moon represents the forces of rebirth and the vigor that springtime brings: dragon's blood resin, galbanum, blue sage, lavender, peppermint, sweetgrass, frankincense, moonglow magnolia, bergamot, and green cedar.
In the bottle: A delicious herbal blend of mainly sage, sweetgrass, bergamont, and a bit of cedar. Where is the dragon's blood?
On me: This is deliciously sweet herbal. I'm getting a lot of sage, frankincense, and cedar. The other notes are there, but blended so well that I can't pick them out. I like this very much, and it is very different from all the other BPAL I have.
Blood Amber: Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin.
In the bottle: a very sweet amber. As an amber fan I'm in heaven.
On me: A very toned down version of what's in the imp. It doesn't smell much like amber, and really smells like a commercial perfume. It also doesn't have much throw. Nothing spectacular.
Zarita, the Doll Girl: Soft, yet sociopathic: white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream.
In the imp: A floral-ish cream? Yum!!
On me: a nice sweetened floral blend, but I think I need to wear this again before deciding on whether or not I need a bottle.
I think this is going to be one of my favorite categories!!
Madonna: Hyssop, pomegranate, Angel’s Trumpet, Indonesian patchouli, iris, white orchid, and frankincense.
OMFG I need buckets of this!!!!!! The white orchid dominates, but is balanced out by the pomegranite to make this a very sweet beautiful orchid. The hyssop (I think) sweetens it up nicely, and the frankincense makes it resiney enough to give a bit of an incense feel. This is heaven!!!!
Bottle - yes, must have bottle.
Love and Pain: Lavender, Balkan tobacco, black musk, dark vanilla, and golden copaifera.
This is the most beautiuful lavender blend!!! The tobacco keeps it from getting overly floral, but didn't stand out on its own (thankfully, because I amp it like crazy). The dark vanilla and black musk work beautifully to turn the lavender into a very dark purple type of scent, very sensual.
Bottle is definitely needed!!
Death and Life Completed: Grey amber, carnation, lemon balm, hydrangea, Chinese peony, white sandalwood, cypress, juniper, cedar, hibiscus, and African daisy.
Peony!! This is what I wanted peony moon to smell like. For me it's mostly peopny and hibiscus, no amber anywhere unfortunately. The sandalwood and cedar complement the florals very niceley and give it a bit of a woodsey feel.
Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Those Condemned to Death: Accords of peach kernel, hemlock, aconite, and belladonna, with bitter almond, saffron, honey, myrrh, hyssop, frankincense, and palm.
It's hard to tell what I'm smelling specifically, but the honey in this is amped A LOT! I think it's the honey/almond combination. This is so well blended that I can't pick out the notes.
It smells very good, but it's not "me" so I'll probably pass on this one.
Western Diamondback: Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage.
In the imp: Snake oil with sweetened leather, a bit of sandalwood and sage peeking out.
On me: I was afraid of the leather, as it usually goes wrong on me, but this one went right. I smelled the snake oil underneath, but got a nice blend of leather and sage in there too. No sign of the sandalwood, and maybe a peek at the tonka. This is a great blend.
This will be turning into a bottle!
Pisces: Mutable water: the essence of faith.
Hemp, opium poppy, sarsaparilla, grains of paradise, passion flower, wisteria, Irish moss, and gentian.
In the bottle, a sharp green/white scent.
I can't pick up any specific notes in this blend, but it is a very fresh green scent with a tiny bit of florals to warm it up some. It is very March. It lost a touch of its sharpness on me, but is still a bit sharp.
I am liking this. I don't have any other BPALs that are even close to this one, so it's good for variety.
Chokmah: The Primordial Point of Creation, Mazloth, Being Out of Nothingness, the Origin of Thought and the source of the 32 Ways of Wisdom.
In the bottle: It smelled a bit medicinal, maybe like iodine?
On me: Firstly, it stained my skin just like iodine. And then it deifnitely smelled like iodine on me. After about an hour it softened up a bit to a kind of incensey iodine? Not good.
