I love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. I think I've read almost all of them. They're funny and clever, and I like the characters.
My husband recently bought some Nero Wolfe TV shows on DVD -- apparently this was a series that A&E produced at some point in the last few years. When he told me that he was getting them I raised an eyebrow and expressed skepticism. I told him that I seriously doubted they could find any actor who could pull off Nero Wolfe, and since Archie Goodwin is my favorite Stout character I didn't want to see him butchered by some Hollywood ignoramuses who probably never even bothered to read the books.
What a surprise. I love this series. The guy who plays Wolfe (Maury Chaykin) does a fantastic job. He's a little more shouty than I pictured Wolfe, and he's also not quite as heavy as I pictured Wolfe. But other than that he's very good.
Archie Goodwin is spot on. Timothy Hutton plays him, and he's also one of the producers. I think he does some directing, too. This guy, obviously, has read these books. He's perfect as Archie Goodwin, too. He looks like Archie and talks like Archie and is basically exactly right. I'm very impressed.
On top of all that, they stick to the stories as perfectly as they can in this format, and they even use Stout's dialog. They don't take many liberties. And the whole thing is very pretty. The sets are beautiful and the lighting is lovely.
All in all, this is a highly successful adaptation. Apparently A&E cancelled it after only a couple of seasons, which is a great disappointment. I would have loved to see a lot more of these.
I'm procrastinating studying anatomy right now. Again. So here are my thoughts about the glorious update!
Wolf Moon. Winter air, Terebinth pine, juniper berry, dusty orris, deep amber, white sandalwood, black musk, blue cedar, and tonka.
If this smells anything like the previous version, I'll like it. I enjoyed that cold and sort of aquatic feel to the first Wolf Moon -- it was good with the musky scent. Got a bottle.
Lycaon. A monstrous, brutal, and bloodthirsty blend: blackened myrrh, crushed olive leaf, black musk, spikenard, frankincense, cypress wood, opoponax, white ginger, and patchouli.
Sounds monstrous for sure. I have no idea what to think of it. Spikenard is probably the ONLY note I can count on ALWAYS hating. Ick. However, I really like opoponax, myrrh, and patchouli, and I think that crushed olive leaf would be interesting too. Got a bottle of this too, but I think it was kind of a risky choice.
The Salon!!!!
I honestly could not afford to get all the bottles I want right now (Christmas coming up and everything), so I just got an imp pack.
The Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil, Antoine-François de Saint-Aubert.
Bourbon vanilla, benzoin, caramel, Mysore sandalwood, aged black patchouli, carnation, and iris florentina.
Holy moly. Um, yes please!!! If I could have picked just ONE bottle, this is the one.
The Cup of Death, Elihu Vedder.
Peach blossom and peach tree leaf, Mysore sandalwood, French lavender, bois du rose, myrtle, and blue yarrow.
Hmm. Possibly too feminine for me, and maybe too herby. I don't know what blue yarrow smells like in perfume, but I know what yarrow smells like in the wild. I think the myrtle and yarrow combination might make the whole thing smell a bit too weedy for me.
Cupid Complaining to Venus, Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Apple blossom, fig, white peach, honey absolute, red sandalwood, and wild thyme.
What is honey absolute? I've never seen that. Everything in this sounds fabulous except the thyme... and maybe honey absolute wouldn't smell like play-doh on me like honey usually does. Fingers crossed!
The Ecstacy of St. Theresa, Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Frankincense, iris, white gardenia, Roman chamomile, amber, and agarwood.
I bet this smells breath-takingly lovely. Sigh. Blends like that make me wish that I was breath-takingly lovely so that I could wear them. Unfortunately, scents like that are usually at odds with my Dr Martens' boots.
Garden Path With Chickens, Gustav Klimt.
Damp grass, ivy leaves, morning glory, daisy, rose geranium, heliotrope, white gardenia, climbing roses, peppery nasturtium, phlox, begonia, verbena and sun-warmed herbs.
I know people are going ga-ga over this, but I will tell you a secret. I hate chickens. I've hated them since I was a little girl on my grandparents' farm. And this blend sounds like it'll be way too flowery for me anyway.
The Great He-Goat, Francisco Goya.
Haitian vetiver, Egyptian amber, carnation, black musk, pomegranate, patchouli, and smoked ginger.
This one, on the other hand... yeeeessss, that's more my style. This one's gonna be a doozy.
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun, William Blake.
Daemonorops, vanilla, Indian sandalwood, Mexican copal, hyssop, muguet, sweet pea, amber, hazelwood, galbanum, hiba wood, and orchid.
I'm concerned about the sweet pea but there are so many other notes in there that I love. I have high hopes for this.
Itasô Kansei Nenkan Jorô No Fûzoku, Wada hori Yû.
Osmanthus, white honey, ti leaf, hibiscus, and sugar cane.
I've got no frickin' clue what this will smell like. I can't imagine. Can't wait to try it!
Judith Victorious, Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Chestnut blossom, lily of the valley, King mandarin, French magnolia, and golden musk.
This is going to be glorious and triumphant, I just know it. If I had been able to choose bottles to buy, this would have been the one that I picked because it sounded so good even though I couldn't tell what the combination would smell like.
La Mort Qui Danse, Félicien Rops.
Black pepper, white ginger, Calla lily, and lily of the valley.
Oh... sad and funereal. But white, and clean. My favorite kind of floral!
The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa, Shunkosai Hokuei.
Black tea, cherry blossom, ho wood, calla lily, rice wine, and white mint.
There are only a couple of blends with mint that I like, and I honestly think this is going to be one of the good ones. That whole combination just sounds fabulous.
Les Anges Déchus, Edouard Cibot.
Khus, blonde tobacco, life everlasting, orris root, black currant, cabreuva, Spanish moss, leather, and ambrette.
I love this painting. And I want something that has the ingredient of "life everlasting." Even if I'm unsure of the Spanish moss.
Lot and His Daughters, Hendrik Goltzius.
Indonesian black patchouli, petitgrain, brandewijn, incense, saffron, lemon peel, myrrh, skin musk, bourbon geranium, and tangerine.
This painting makes me feel uncomfortable. I think this blend will make me feel that way too.
Melancholia, Albrecht Dürer.
Blue lilac, white sandalwood, stargazer lily, paperwhite narcissus, ylang ylang, delphinium, and cypress.
Blue and sad. I bet this will be a lovely shade of blue though. I have my fingers crossed for this one as well.
The Sailor's Den, Félicien Rops.
Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather.
Woohoo! This one's a shoe-in for me. I can't imagine that I won't like this. Bet it'll smell great on the hubby, too.
Three Gorgons, Gustav Klimt.
Egyptian amber, mandarin, tangerine, black pepper, tobacco, and vetiver.
Oooo. Dark and smoky with bright tangerine top notes. I bet I'll like this one.
And... of course,
Shub-Nuggurath. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices.
Pass! Guess I'm the only person in the world who didn't care for this one. Ginger's tricky with me, and I like Gingerbead Poppet a lot better than Shub.
I usually get a drink from the vending machine when I'm at school. More specifically, I usually get a Mountain Dew. I like the taste, and the caffeine keeps me awake during class.
Tonight, I decided to be a grown-up. I'm 35 now, after all. Probably time to stop drinking sodas. I'm afraid I'm at the age where I can no longer tell myself that I will address my bad habits when I'm older. I am older now.
So... I chose the Diet Lipton Green Tea with Citrus instead of the Mountain Dew. And get this: It was good! I mean, spectacularly good. I really like it. I feel kind of stupid for drinking so many Mountain Dews when I could have been drinking this tea drink instead the whole time. The taste is great, and it has zero calories and no carbonation. (One of the reasons I like Mtn Dew is that it seems to have fewer bubbles than other sodas. Not a fan of the bubbles.)
I'm never going to like carrots as much as potato chips, but I wonder how many other healthier things I can find to replace other bad habits. I did already replace most of my cheeseburgers with Boca cheeseburgers (yummy!), and now I've found this diet green tea drink instead of Mountain Dew.
I think I'll make an effort to try new things for the next few weeks and see what I find.
This evening I was reading articles about clinical trials in the New England Journal of Medicine for a research paper I've been working on. After reading two of them, it suddenly dawned on me that this is the first time in my life I have understood enough about medicine, medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology to even have an idea of what they're talking about in those articles. In the past it's all been way over my head.
Today, I got it.
This has been a good day.
I've had a horrible migraine today. I wandered out of bed for a bit here and there, but mostly I've been trying to stay as quiet as possible. However it seemed to be waning around 8:00 or so, so I decided to take a nice warm bath. I figured that since it was a special occasion I'd bust out the expensive bath products and use the last of my LUSH Christmas Kisses bubble bars -- one and a half of them (I have a big tub).
So I crawled in, deployed the bubble bars, and before I knew it the bubbles were arching over my tub in a humongous mound. Light was glinting off the bubbles in every direction, making me feel like I was snowblind. Bubbles, thousands of them, were popping and fizzing in my ears. (Did I mention I have a migraine?) The scent, which I normally love, was WAY too strong for me today. But by then I felt trapped in the tub under all those bubbles, and I didn't want to waste the last of my bubble bars by getting out of the tub, so I forced myself to stay in there until I couldn't take it any more.
When I was ready to get out I had to call my husband to help me because there were still so many bubbles that if I got out I'd have bubbles all over and they'd get on the floor and on my towel. I wanted him to rinse me off with water while I was still standing in the tub so I wouldn't be bubble-covered. He came in, and I looked down because I was embarrassed of the situation and wanted to hide my face, which is when I noticed that the water was cherry red because I had used so much bubble bar. So there I was, already irritated and upset because I'd made my headache worse, when I realized that I probably looked like a giant piece of fruit trapped in a tub-shaped cherry jello mold with whipped-cream-like bubbles everywhere. And I'd just invited my husband in to witness this spectacle.
I told him about the bubbles fizzing and light glinting and how I used too much and now I felt like fruit in a jello mold and I was nearly crying... I'm not sure that he understood what I was talking about but he tried to be very sympathetic and helpful. He was also trying not to laugh while he was rinsing the bubbles and drying me off, but a few giggles escaped. The whole thing must have been quite a sight. This is my first bath ever that was torture the whole time and ended in humiliation. He told me that I shouldn't feel bad since I had a life-long run of successful baths and only one failure so far. Somehow that didn't make it better.
[instead of posting in the H&EE thread, I told people there that I would write my opinions here instead.]
Very brief background if you have no idea what's going on here: Heaven & Earth Essentials is an etailer that sells perfume oils and bath & body products. The owner's name is Michele; her account name in this forum is anxious1. She has been a member here since November 2005. The thread for her business was started here in January 2006.
So, let me give you a hypothetical scenario.
How well do you think it would go over if a new BPAL competitor joined the BPAL forum and almost immediately asked what the most popular BPAL scents are? And what if she also asked how people were getting a hold of unreleased BPAL scents? I bet people might think that was odd -- if they knew she was a competitor. However in this scenario, the new competitor hasn't revealed herself as a competitor yet. She has only said that she is the business owner of an unrelated business and a LUSH fan.
OK, what if she then started buying a whole bunch of BPAL bottles, and then she resold them to BPAL fans on the BPAL forum for a profit. Say you look at her sales post in March and you see FORTY-THREE BPAL GC 5mls on her sales post for $14 each. Think that would go over very well? Yes -- you read that right. A BPAL competitor making money for herself off of BPAL products directly under the nose of the BPAL owner. Not only that, but you happen to notice in someone's post from April that this new competitor was also putting samples of her own oils in with the BPAL packages she sold to people.
How about if she then started talking up her own company on the BPAL forum, communicating directly to BPAL customers about her own business. She was answering questions about her products, telling people when their orders shipped, and announcing new product updates on her site. (You are aware that running the BPAL forum takes money and time. You think it's strange that this competitor is allowed to use the BPAL forum for free as her own personal communication tool for her business.) Say the forum administrator warns the new competitor a couple of times that she's breaking the etailer rules -- which are outlined clearly for all to see -- but the new competitor doesn't change her ways. The forum adminstrator then makes her customer service posts invisible and restricts her access to some of the other parts of the forum. The new competitor says it was just a misunderstanding on her part.
Keep in mind that until this new competitor had her access restricted, she had access to all the members' posts about which scents they liked and didn't like. Just like any other forum member. She had access to etailer threads of her other competitors, where she could see what people liked and didn't like about those businesses as well.
[ETA: please see shriekingviolet's comment below for a correction about the above paragraph.]
When people on the BPAL forum ask the new competitor about her ingredients in her oils, the new competitor says in one case that she has made a couple of mistakes on her site and that she doesn't really use a Chocolate EO; in another case she said that she uses real ambergis. At that time, she also had Lily of the Valley EO and Lilac EO for sale on her site -- but you've been reading this newsletter, which contains some conflicting information. A little bit of foreshadowing here: Later, in a post in another thread, she says she's been a "perfumer" for 20 years. You might wonder how a "perfumer" with that much experience would mix up what's an essential oil and what's not, or how a person with so much experience in the field could possibly not know that real ambergis is illegal.
Then this competitor comes out with a new perfume that is remarkably like one of BPAL's most recently released AND most wildly popular Limited Editions. She mentions that she "has been told" that her version has more buttery vanilla. She says it's a coincidence and nothing more. When asked about her ISO for that particular BPAL LE only a few weeks before her own very similar oil was introduced, she changes her tune and admits that she did in fact try that BPAL oil (she hasn't just "been told" about it), and she says she wanted more of it because she liked it. She claims that her version of the scent had been in the works for months. Just coincidence, she said.
During the blow-up about this remarkably similar product, the new competitor states that she loves BPAL and respects Beth, and in fact she only wears Beth's oils and not her own. You can't help but notice that for all her proclaimed love of BPAL, this new competitor has up until that point posted exactly one BPAL review in the forum, and it was to say that MB Closet smelled like cat pee.
In a discussion about using stock oils in scents, the new competitor calls herself a "perfumer" and says "I don't do dupes and I don't relabel." Yet when you look at her site you see a dupe of LUSH's Karma right there!
And say that BPAL has been doing, oh, I don't know, a special Limited Edition scent called "Cinco" on Cinco de Mayo for the past two years, and suddenly this new competitor comes out with her own product called "Five" especially for Cinco de Mayo too. But she says, once again, that hers has been in the works for a long time and that it is merely another coincidence.
Finally, the forum administrator of the BPAL forum comes into this new competitor's thread to explain that the new competitor's account has been suspended because she broke the forum rules by creating a duplicate account. She used the duplicate account to get around restrictions that were placed on her first account so that she could snoop about BPAL's business and BPAL's fans some more. The administrator can prove this with IP addresses showing duplicate accounts accessed from the new competitor's home and work. (And your husband is a Database Administrator, so you know perfectly well what IP addresses are and how they are logged.) The administrator also says that the new competitor has been borrowing a friend's login to browse the BPAL forum as well. She says she was posting under the friend's login as well.
At this point, how many people do you guess would be big fans of this new competitor and unwilling to believe that she has exhibited some shady business practices?
You guys, Michele has done every single one of those things and they are all recorded in the BPAL fan forum. Check her posts. It's all right there. (Except that her customer service posts in the H&EE thread were made invisible, so I'm just going off memory there.) I swear to you, I am not making this up. Every single bit of information in that huge "hypothetical" scenario above came from Michele's own posts and the H&EE thread. All I did was put it in one place.
Please note that you can look at all her posts yourself by going into her profile (anxious1), clicking on Profile Options, and choosing the View Member's Posts option. This is all right there, out in the open for anyone to see.
So here are my major concerns:
- I don't like re-selling BPAL for profit in any case, but I think it is especially reprehensible behavior for a BPAL competitor. Bad form. To the nth degree.
- On top of that, I think that slipping some samples of her perfume oils into her BPAL sales packages is... well, I want to say it's a dirty trick, but I'll leave it as just saying completely disrespectful and inappropriate.
- She was not upfront about her status as a BPAL competitor when she joined this forum and started asking questions about the most popular BPAL scents and how people get a hold of unreleased scents. That's called market research. This tactic in particular makes me angry. I did not write my reviews and posts here so that a BPAL competitor could come along and use what I've written to think up new ideas to make herself money. I resent that.
- I might have bought her story about one "coincidence" of copying BPAL. Maybe. But two? Nope. Fool me once...
- Someone who supposedly has 20 years of experience with perfumes really ought to know what's an essential oil and what's not. She also ought to know that real ambergis is illegal. I don't believe she's telling the truth about her experience. Also she claimed to have a Lilac EO (and a couple of others). I don't believe she's telling the truth about her ingredients, either.
- She refused to sell her products to olympia301, citing oly's post in the H&EE thread as the reason why. (Oly questioned a couple of Michele's ingredients.) Nobody, and I mean no one, should get retribution from an etailer for comments they make about that etailer on bpal.org. That's just wrong. By the same token, people who consistently post glowing remarks about the etailer in bpal.org should not receive preferential treatment by the etailer.
- She used bpal.org as a free service to communicate with current customers and answer questions of potential customers. No, wait, I should clarify that. It was free to her -- but it was not free. Someone was paying for it. The fans of her competitor were paying for it. The only thing that stopped her from using it for her own purposes was having her account restricted. Just asking her to stop didn't do the trick.
Michele has said several times that the reasons for issues with her were misunderstandings or coincidences. I just flat-out do not believe her. She said she is the manager of a Fortune 500 IT department, and she owns her needlework business as well as her bath & body business. Clearly this is not a stupid person. I think she knew exactly what she was doing when she came to the BPAL forum: She was reading all our posts and finding out which scents we like best and why. She was studying up on other etailers and their products. She was noticing how much money people are willing to spend on perfume oils and on bath and body products. She was buying up Beth's oils like mad and then just sniffing or testing them and re-selling them for a profit. She found a HUGE potential market here -- not to mention free market research -- and she exploited it. In my opinion, that's the bottom line. She saw what was going on here and decided she wanted a piece of the action.
Let me draw some comparisons between Michele and roostersgrrl. Both of them:
- Tried to come off as BPAL fans in order to be welcomed into the community.
- Were secretly (or not so secretly) using this community to pad their own pocketbooks.
- Hawked their own wares to BPAL fans inside the BPAL community.
- Claimed innocence and misunderstandings whenever anyone brought up issues with them.
- Showed a blatant disregard and disrespect for the Lab.
- Had nearly every mod breathing down their necks at every turn... which they used to try to convince people that they were being unjustly persecuted and singled out.
In roostersgrrl's case there was a very good reason for that attention from the mods -- don't you think it's likely that in Michele's case there's a very good reason for it too? I look at that H&EE thread, and I see red flags everywhere. Warning sirens screaming, horns blowing, the whole nine yards. And I'm quite sure that the mods know a lot more about this situation than they're telling us.
Roostersgrrl got basically exiled from the community for what she did, but people are still buying Michele's products and talking about them in bpal.org. A lot of people have said things like "well, that's between Michele and the mods" and "whatever else she does doesn't matter because she's nice to me." That's exactly what people said about roostersgrrl too, you guys. I said those things. Then later I felt like a schmuck for having been duped by roostersgrrl. I don't want that same sort of thing to happen all over again -- a lot of the people who post in the H&EE thread are people I like and care about. I think Michele is pulling the wool over their eyes, and it bothers me a lot. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the mods are wrong, maybe everyone who has noticed something fishy about Michele is wrong. But there are quite a few of us who feel this way.
So do I have too much time on my hands and should I get a job in a research library? PROBABLY. However, I'm not posting this for my sake. What I want is to put this here so that in the future someone won't end up in the situation I was in with the roostersgrrl fiasco: "Why didn't anyone tell me about this stuff?!?" Here it is. I'm telling you.
If it seems like I'm singling out Michele, it's because I visit this site every day, and I read a lot of the threads. I haven't noticed any other etailer behaving like Michele has. Not one. She's the only one who is doing this. I don't have a problem with her products -- they're not for me, but I'm not going to say that no one could possibly enjoy them. That's just not true. Plenty of people like them a lot. What earned Michele my criticism isn't her products or her company -- it's her behavior here in her competitor's fan forum. If she had never come into this forum, I probably wouldn't have ever said a bad word about her.
I made the awful mistake of returning to MySpace after an absence of several months. The MySpace group for my little group of college friends apparently had people flocking to it in droves while I was away, and now it's full of people I knew 15 years ago in college.
Clicked on the picture of a girl who didn't like me because she thought I caused her boyfriend to break up with her. She's gorgeous now. Clicked on the picture of a guy I dated on and off for a few years but lost touch with. He's a damn fine-looking man. Clicked on the picture of a guy who was full of himself and was a dick to me. Still looks like he's a dick. Clicked on the picture of a guy I dated for a couple of years. He's been hitting the gym. He never looked that good when he was with me.
And what do you see if you click on my photo? A dumpy-looking middle-aged woman with a stupid hairstyle who has gained 25 pounds since college and looks like a mess. Niiiiice.
I was feeling pretty embarrassed about the whole thing and ranting about it in an exaggerated fashion to my husband -- he pointed out that it is impossible for everyone I knew in college to be better-looking now than they were then. I know that. It's not everyone. Just everyone I dated. And the girls who were catty to me because I went out with the lovely sensitive goth boys that they were all swooning over. I would not be at all surprised if some of them looked at my photos and thought, "HA! She got fat and ugly. Good."
I usually don't think I look that bad. I think for whatever reason people often tend to be close to people who are more or less at the same level of attractiveness, and in my current circle of RL friends I don't feel out of my league with any of them. But when I was in college, I paid a lot more attention to my appearance. (These days I'm lucky if I'm wearing two shoes from the same pair half the time.) If there was such a thing as a beautiful people goth/skater clique at my university, I was probably in it. Those people wouldn't give me the time of day right now. They don't let you back into the beautiful goth people club if you gain 25 pounds and move to the suburbs.
In a couple of days this probably won't bother me any more, but right now I'm unhappy that I thought I was comfortable with my appearance and where I am in my life right now... and apparently I'm not. Apparently I am embarrassed by it. This revelation is unsettling to me.
Here's what I got imps of:
BLACK LILY -- This is beautiful, one of my favorite BPAL florals. I already have a bottle, but I need the imp for my "entire GC" imp collection.
DEVIL'S CLAW -- I have no idea what to expect from this, smoky brown-black sounds good... not sure about the yellow-bright.
LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING -- Really, really looking forward to this. Beth does "velvety" really well.
SLOBBERING PINE -- I don't usually like pine scents, but this one sounds different. Also I like the word slobbering.
THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS -- I haven't had much luck with the Funereal Oils, but I'm interested in this because of the cemetery grass and lilies.
LILIUM INTER SPINAS -- I usually like fig, but green fig might be a little too strong for me. Not sure about this one.
THE TEMPTATION -- Not sure about this one either -- might be too floral for me.
MANIA -- I can't imagine what this might smell like. I think I might like it, though. A lot.
HORREUR SYMPATHIQUE -- I expect I'm going to love this one.
Here's what I got bottles of:
BLACK ICE -- Sleet, vetiver, cold wind, and smoke? Yes please!
THE DARKLING THRUSH -- Everything in this sounds good to me except maybe the violet. We'll see.
HALÔA -- Frankincense sometimes makes the whole blend too sweet for me, but everything else in it sounds good, so I took a chance.
KNECHT RUPRECHT -- This might be a little too woodsy for me but I like the poem so I'll give it a shot.
KRAMPUS -- This one sounds the BEST. I always like red musk and leather.
SNOW-FLAKES -- Not entirely sure what this is going to smell like, but I just have this good feeling about it. I love snow flakes.
SOL INVICTUS -- This is the one that most worries me from my order. I think I haven't worn Et Lux Fuit even one time after testing it, and this one could be similar. I like amber, saffron, and heliotrope, but everything else in it could be iffy.
THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT -- This one sounds pretty good. It might be a little too spicy for me, but I have to try anything with myrrh and dark musk.
These are the ones I hope to find decants of:
HERR DROSSELMEYER 2006 -- My husband has 4 bottles of last year's version, so we probably don't need any more. I wouldn't mind getting an imp to compare though.
JACOB'S LADDER 2006 -- I've had a bottle of last year's version for almost 8 months and I've worn it exactly twice. I like it, but I never seem to reach for it. I'd like a new decant of it to see if it smells any different aged though.
JÓLASVEINAR -- The dealbreaker in this one was the dirt and moss. They go bad on me more often than not, and dirt always overpowers every other note. I'd try a decant or sniffie, but I don't expect this to work.
LICK IT AGAIN -- Didn't really like Lick It because I don't care for peppermint scents. I'd try it to make sure, but I have big doubts.
MIDNIGHT MASS 2006 -- I had a bottle of last year's version, swapped it, had second thoughts and got another bottle, then swapped that one too. I think it's just too sweet an incense scent for me. I like darker incense like Al Azif better.
THE SNOW MAIDEN -- This just sounded a little too young and innocent for me personally. I'd like to try it, but from the description I don't think I'll like it.
STARDUST 2006 -- Still have a bottle of last year's version, and I never wear it.
YULE -- Holly berry, mistletoe, thyme, verbena, evergreen, frankincense, and juniper are ALL usually no-nos for me. I highly doubt I would like this.
And I'm going to have to make another order and get a bottle of 13 because I completely forgot to order it.
I have sent a crapload of money to the Lab in the past three months. Seriously. Way too much. I've been saying for the past month or so that I need to do some serious reducing of my collection, but I barely did any. Now it has become a dire need. I have no more room for more BPAL bottles, yet more will be on their way soon.
Argh, it's been a crappy week. Sort of. Mostly due to this damn cold. I hate being sick. It makes me mad to be sick. I don't know how to stop getting angry about it, but I wish I could. I think that if I spent my mental energy concentrating on getting better rather than perpetuating my foul mood I might recover more quickly. I am the whiniest, rottenest, most annoying sick person you've ever met.
But! At least it's starting to go away. Probably by next week I'll be fine. And next week is more important than this week because next week it's my birthday.
Ye gods, 35 years old. Holy crap. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that I was 25? It sure seems like it. I remember once when I was little complaining to my dad that time goes so slow (when you're little the time just drags on and on until the fun things happen), and he got this funny smile on his face and said something like, "When you get older, it'll go by a lot faster." As usual, Daddy was right.
One of the things that bugs me about being this old is that I have just started to realize that I can say things like, "Yeah, but that happened 20 years ago" to my friends from high school. Twenty years ago. TWENTY. I'm starting to remember 30 years ago with increasing clarity. I don't feel old when I look in the mirror, or even when I overhear teenagers talking and their inane conversations drive me up the wall. I always thought that would make me feel old, when I realized that I didn't have anything in common with teenagers any more. But nope, that's not it. It's that I used to feel like I had so much of life ahead of me. Now there's a huge swath BEHIND me, 35 years' worth... that's what gets to me.
Don't get me wrong, looking back doesn't make me feel like I regret anything. I might not have the life I imagined I'd have, but it's pretty damn good. In fact as I've gotten older I've taken care of myself better -- I actually look better now than when I was 28. I'm definitely more financially comfortable. And I'd like to think I'm wiser, too. All in all not too shabby.
Anyhoo, enough of that. Mostly I wanted to write about my week, so I don't know how I ended up with that birthday-related nostalgia.
This week, I submitted two more Trick or Treat pleas. I was really hoping to be able to do four, and hopefully (maybe) get all the different ones, or at least have something to swap for any I didn't get. But it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to afford one more submission before the deadline. Alas! I keep telling myself I have too much perfume oil as it is -- I need to do a serious reduction of my collection. But I've been at this BPAL thing for 8 months now, and the oils are still coming in at a much faster rate than they're going out. The good news is that I haven't been buying from eBay in quite a while; mostly I'm just ordering from the Lab. The bad news is that the reason I don't want to buy any of the older scents is because I've already tried nearly all of them.
And now I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Good night!
A couple of days ago I was reading dawndie's blog, totally engrossed in her Sixth Sense Part 1 story. I don't usually talk about things like that because for one I'm afraid people will think I'm nutters, and for two it seems very private. But I feel encouraged by what she wrote, so... here goes.
About a year ago, my husband and I were getting ready for work one morning after it had been raining all night. He was in the shower, I was in the bedroom. Midway through his shower, he thought I was in the bathroom because he heard the sink faucet turn on. When he got out and didn't see me standing there, he yelled at me for leaving the sink on. Problem is, I didn't turn it on. And it's not like I could have left it on and forgotten -- we have double sinks in the master bath, and it was his sink that was on. I never use his sink. We have the kind of knobs that you have to turn clockwise to turn on the water, and it was full-blast. We had no idea how it happened and discussed having a plumber come out to look at it.
When my husband was leaving, he set the alarm as usual, then went in the garage and got halfway to his car door when he realized he forgot his lunch. When he came back in the door a few seconds later, the alarm went off. The whole shebang with sirens and bells, not just that buzzing noise that it does when you open the door and you have 30 seconds to turn it off. It doesn't do that. That's not supposed to be possible. You're always supposed to get 30 seconds of leeway whenever you open a door. When I heard the alarm sound I came flying downstairs to find out what was going on. He was standing there looking at the alarm panel. He turned and looked at me with this confused look on his face and said "What the hell is going on around here today?" He told me what had happened, and I couldn't figure it out either.
I started to walk back upstairs, and when I got to the bottom of the stairs I heard water running. I yelled out, "Oh great, now the faucet has started up again." I started up the stairs, and quickly realized I wasn't hearing the faucet. I came back down slowly as my husband was coming around the corner. I said, "The faucet's not on. What's that noise then?" We stood there for a couple of seconds, and then I said, "Oh, wait. It's the sump pump. We had all that rain last night." He brightened and started to say something, probably to agree with me, when his face suddenly changed. He said, "I haven't heard the sump pump at all this morning." (Our sump pump makes this really loud THUNK noise when it switches off -- you can hear it all the way upstairs in the bedroom.)
He ran down to the basement to see what was going on, and that's when he discovered that the sump pump was broken. Water was already coming out of the pit into the basement. We looked at each other strangely, and he said, "If we had both gone to work this morning, we would have come home to a flooded basement." We looked around at all our boxes of stuff that we store down there, and we both felt a bit of a panic. Anyway, he wound up calling the plumber, and I agreed to work from home until the plumber arrived.
Right after he left the house (he tried opening the door again, no sirens this time), our dog Prudence started going nuts in her crate in the family room. Barking, whining, scratching at the door. She never does that. She was specifically trained to be quiet in her crate. Even after I said, "No" and "Quiet," she kept barking. By then I was pretty freaked out by all this weirdness, so I let her out of the crate. She ran straight into the kitchen and started barking at the stove. I've never seen her behave like that. She wasn't growling, just barking. I thought maybe someone had left food on the counter and she wanted it, but there was nothing there. Everything in the kitchen looked exactly the same as it does every day. She trotted off, and then turned around and came back and barked some more at the same spot.
I opened the fridge to get a drink, and after I shut the door I turned around and looked at the kitchen counter again. I noticed that one of the demitasse cups had been knocked over, and the water that was in it had dumped out on the counter. I am 100% positive it wasn't like that before I opened the fridge. I checked the counter when Prudence was barking! Those cups don't just tip over, they're short and squat. And Prudence hadn't been charging into the cupboard or anything -- there was no huge bump that could have knocked it over.
Then... nothing. The rest of the day, no weirdness. And nothing that strange has ever happened in our house since. I didn't feel anything spine-tingly the whole time. I didn't feel like I was being watched, I didn't feel like I was in danger -- nothing like that. I wasn't afraid. The bizarreness of it freaked me out, sure, but it didn't make me feel like the house was creepy. Actually I felt safe. Kind of protected.
I don't know who or what was here that day, but ever since then I have always knocked on the basement door before I go down there. It seems polite. Just in case.
YAY! School started today! I went to my statistics class tonight, and I think it'll be interesting. We have to do a statistics project for the class, and I'm thinking about doing something related to BPAL (of course). The only question is.... what?
I thought maybe I could figure out from the descriptions which notes were most popular and least popular in the Lab's blends (which ones occur most and least frequently), and then do a small survey and find out which notes are most and least popular among people who buy BPAL.
Obviously I can't list ALL the notes, that would be immense. So that would give me a chance to use the "random sampling" method to pick maybe 10 or 20 notes. And then ask people something like "do not like/neutral/like" to see if that tells me anything about whether the notes that are most popular in BPAL blends are also most popular among BPAL consumers. And vice versa.
I'm kind of afraid to do it, though, in case the whole thing backfires. What if it turns out that there are notes that are consistently disliked in like 85% of the blends or something? I can't see that being something the Lab would want advertised, even if it's just among the 30 people in my class.
Does anyone have a better idea for a project I could do? Or any thoughts about whether this would be an interesting project? Now that I've thought of it, I do kinda want to know how it would turn out...
Here's something that bugs me about the BPAL community.
Whenever anyone (usually a newbie) comments or complains about long ship times from the Lab, at least four people jump down the person's throat saying things like "When I started buying BPAL we had to wait three months to get our orders. This is nothing. You should shut up and stop complaining." Or they say "It only seems long right now to people who started buying BPAL when the Lab's shipping times were shorter."
Here's the thing: The Lab's shipping time two years ago has absoultely no bearing whatsoever on whether or not a newbie is feeling excited and impatient and wants her BPAL as soon as possible.
It seems like people say things like that because they think they're defending the Lab, but it comes across to a newbie as "You're not allowed to have an opinion about ship times until you've been around for as long as I have." Or worse, "Your opinion matters less than mine does because you haven't been around for as long as I have." That's a personal insult, which is a lot different from the newbie's original comment about a business practice.
I wish people would stop saying things like that.
This is the Sephiroth package: Binah, Chokmah, Chesed, Geburah, Kether, Hod, Malkuth, Netzach, Tipareth, Yesod.
The first package disappeared after it was sent to Mistress Tera. So we had to put together a new one... these are all my imps I'm donating, so I'm reviewing them before sending them off.
Binah. This is the only imp of the set that I don't have. I tried it several months ago and didn't like it. I swapped it away. My only comments in my spreadsheet were that it was "kind of sharp." Other reviews describe it as resiny and floral, and I don't usually like either of those. That's probably why I swapped it.
Chesed. Hmmm. A slight pencil-box sort of scent to this one at first. Kind of like sweet resin, maybe some incense. I can't actually tell what all is in this, but it is definitely woody. After a while it develops kind of a fruity scent, like maybe peach or apricot. Interesting.
Chokmah. [Reviewed on 5/3/2006.] Dark brown oils are usually good ones for me -- so as soon as I saw Chokmah in the imp I wanted to try it right away. At first I smelled something like a pine/juniper scent, which I didn't like. But after about 30 minutes it smells and awful lot like Snake Oil. It has that same powdery vanilla quality with some yummy spice. On my skin, Chokmah is Snake Oil without the heavy powdery note. It has more bite, too. I didn't expect to get sexy out of a blend called Chokmah, but that's definitely what I got. (And you won't hear me complaining about that at all.) Need a bottle of this one...
Geburah. Smells like a very clean man. Leather for sure, and maybe a little bit of salt. I agree with some previous reviewers that it smells like soap. Leather and soap. Kind of a odd combination. But that soap scent goes away and it ends up being all leather. Black, sleek, clean leather. I like this one.
Hod. [Reviewed on 6/4/2006.] Powdery and sweet, which makes me think there's amber in this. There's also a slightly bitter floral note in it, which could be carnation. I think it smells golden, creamy and spicy.
Kether. [Reviewed on 6/13/2006.] Almond powder. That's what it smells like on me at first. And then it smells like hair-styling products. I smell this and all I can think of is an old lady with her hair in those pink rollers and a hairnet, standing there in a housecoat and fuzzy slippers. So, um, no. This will go to the swap pile.
Malkuth. [Reviewed on 6/4/2006.] Spicy, earthy, masculine. Quite fitting for Malkuth, I think. Not light and fleeting at all, it's solid and strong. Sweet, too. I don't usually like cinnamon very much, but I like this.
Netzach. [Reviewed on 6/13/2006.] Mostly rose. Kind of an herby, woody, rose. To be honest I think this smells really nice. It's pretty and light. I don't usually wear rose blends as a personal fragrance... but maybe I should. Beth's rose notes smell so good and very true on me, even if the rose scent itself isn't my own fave. My skin seems to like it a lot.
Tiphareth. Woody and sweet. A little smoky. Also it's really faint. I like the scent a lot, but I guess my skin sucks up this oil... it nearly disappeared entirely after about 5 minutes.
Yesod. Stinging. Strong. It has that strong biting floral scent that I really don't like about florals. It's gotta be jasmine, but there's something else in it that makes the blend particularly nostril-curling for me. (Jasmine really doesn't work on me in the best of circumstances, so I'm not surprised that this one didn't work for me.)
cordia #4: Lady of Shalott, Lilith, Love Me, Magus, Othello, Undertow, and Whitechapel. I hadn't written reviews for ANY of these yet, but the only one I didn't have was Undertow.
Lady of Shalott - The scent of calm waters just before a raging storm, limned with achingly-beautiful blooms, an icy scent, but somehow warm, and mirror-bright: bold gardenia, crystalline musk, muguet, water blossoms, clear, slightly tart aquatic notes and a crush of white ginger. The gardenia is prominent, but I don't mind it as much as I usually do. The ginger and musk is a nice combination -- they keep the floral notes from being too heady. It's slightly aquatic as well... kind of reminds me of flowers floating on a pond. Very pretty.
Lilith - Mother of Demons, Vengeful Fury, Darkest Seductress, Queen of the Djinn, Goddess of the Gate. Red wine, myrrh, black musk, and attar of rose. This smells very fruity and sweet at first. It doesn't smell like fury to me. Can definitely pick out the red wine in it, and the rose is there too. This reminds me a lot of Wanda, except that Wanda smells entirely of red wine on my skin, and in Lilith there's a little bit of rose too. I like this one better than Wanda, but when it's dry the wine scent is still a little too strong for me.
Love Me - A commanding, dominant oil that increases sexual magnetism, creates an intense and irresistible air of attraction, and amplifies potency. I can't comment on how well this works for its purpose, but I like the scent of it. It smells spicy, like cinnamon, but not overly so. There's also something powdery underneath the spice. Maybe some kind of wood, too. It definitely smells like it would attract people, I've been sniffing my wrist compulsively since I put it on. I like this a lot, even just as a perfume.
Magus - An ancient blend, swollen with arcane power: galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood. I read frankincense and cedar in the notes and thought I wasn't going to like Magus. I'm surprised to find that I do like it. It's in the same vein as Aureus and Cathedral, but it doesn't smell as much like a pencil box as either of those do. The frankincense doesn't get overly sweet on me like it usually does, and the cedar doesn't smell quite as peppery as usual. This is kind of comforting and soft. I like it a lot better than Cathedral.
Othello - Arabian musk with two roses and a bevy of Middle Eastern and Indian spices. I don't think this is masculine. I see what other reviewers mean about the fabric softener, though -- there's something crisp about this scent. It actually reminds me of a soap scent. It's not my favorite rose blend, but I like this better than some others.
Undertow - The Dark Side of Air: a high pitched, tangy, clear scent -- light China rain deepened by murky vetivert. I smell some kind of mint in this, or possibly eucalyptus. I can't really smell any vetivert in it. It's definitely high-pitched and tangy, like the description says. It does seem airy, too. It's not the kind of scent I wear, but it smells pretty good. After it dries it smells less minty and much sweeter. It reminds me of Pez.
Whitechapel - A gentlemen's blend, possessed of dignity, charm and refinement, but in truth masking a corrupted, hideous, soulless core. White musk, lime, lilac and citron. This smells strongly of lime at first... but most blends that contain lime usually smell mostly of lime on me at first. There's a little bit of lilac underneath the lime that starts to come through as the lime fades out, and the lilac keeps getting stronger while it dries. But as the lime goes away a lemony scent takes its place, and I don't care for lemon. It makes the lilac smell sour, and I like lilac so much that I don't want it to be altered like that.
The parts of this that I like are things I can find in other oils I like better: I can get my lilac fix from Cordelia, and for a clean crisp masculine citrus scent I prefer Villain over Whitechapel.
I honestly have no idea how to use the chakra oils, so I'm just commenting on the scent.
Ajna: The Third Eye. In the imp, it smells chemical. Kind of like that cleaning solution that you use to clean off whiteboards. On, it smells kind of like menthol, anise, and coffee. It's the kind of scent that will clear your sinuses and open your eyes up. It doesn't seem to last very long though, which was unexpected.
Anahata: The Heart. In the imp, it smells a bit herby, a little golden. On, at first it smells almost exactly the same as it did in the imp. But as it dries I think I can detect something floral in it. It smells yellow to me. There's something about it that reminds me of that yellow Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo.
Manipura: The Solar Plexus. In the imp, it smells spicy and unusual. On, at first it smells interesting and spicy. It has kind of a gingerbread scent to it a little bit. Not quite though, it's not that foody. Definitely spicy. I like this scent.
Muladhara: The Root. Smells rooty. Like a dark woodsy scent, kind of pungent. Sort of reminds me of a basement. Yeah, something like a root cellar. Dark and deep.
Sahasrara: The Crown. In the imp, it smells bright, maybe citrusy. On, it definitely smells bright. Light, sweet, and kind of glowing. There's a slight cleaning products feel to it, but not overly so.
Swadhisthana: Sacral. In the imp, it smells sweet and a little spicy. This oil has my favorite scent of all the chakra oils -- this one and Manipura are the only ones that I'd wear as perfume. The oil itself is orange, and it smells red to me. I can't tell what's in it, but it's really a lovely scent.
Vishuddha: The Throat. In the imp, it smells a little like cleaning products. On, the oil smells lemony and kind of sugary. Not totally like candy, more like lemonade. It definitely seems clean and fresh. This scent actually reminds me of a drink I'd want to drink if my throat hurt. Kind of like a lemony herbal tea with a little bit of honey.
The Vortex. Kind of bright and lemony. I didn't find the scent objectionable, but it also wasn't my fave. Sort of clean and crisp.
The Salon
Cloister Graveyard in the Snow: Ozone tends to be too stinging on me, frankincense becomes too sweet, and I don't usually like mint. I didn't get this and I doubt I will.
Death of the Grave Digger: I love opoponax and myrrh, and I even like snow. But soil is a bad note for me. It has worked out okay in a couple of blends, but most frequently not at all. I would try an imp just to be sure, but I'm definitely not getting a bottle unsniffed.
The Fox-woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child: I thought this might be too floral to me. I'm not totally opposed to it, though, and I'll be happy to try to find an imp of it to try.
The Penitent Magdalen: I have seen other people being really excited over this scent, so I bet it will be popular. I'm afraid it might be too floral for me, but it sounds like it could be very pretty. I will definitely want to find an imp at some point.
Silence: The only Salon bottle I bought from this round. I'm not sure about the white mint, but I thought the rest of it sounded good. It sounds like it'll be slightly dry but bright at the same time, so I'm intrigued.
Three Brides: This one tempted me, but I didn't end up getting it. I'm sort of regretting not getting it, though -- maybe I'll get one with my next order. It has the kind of flowers in it that I like, and I pretty much always like sandalwood, benzoin, tonka, and ambers. This sounds like it'll be rich, sweet, and a little bit spicy.
I got imps of all the new GC blends, even though I'm almost positive a few of them are not going to work on me at all.
Bewitching Brews
I Died for Beauty: Pretty sure the grave loam is going to kill this one for me. And even if it doesn't, the violet and frankincense are problematic. Don't have high hopes for this one.
The Jersey Devil: I'm afraid this one will be too resiny/woodsy for me. That tomato leaf worries me too, as it tends to smell a little too sharp to my nose. Worth a shot, but I doubt it'll work.
Tavern of Hell: Hmmmm. This one might be good. Unless gardenia is prominent, I think I'll like this one.
Love Potions
Les Bijoux: I'm not expecting to like this due to the apple, rose, and frankincense, but if ends up being mostly peach, musk, and myrrh, that could be a good thing.
Illyria
Caliban: I have no idea what this is going to smell like. I expect it will be a little too masculine for me, but that's okay -- the hubby needs new scents to get excited about too.
Wanderlust
Mag Mell: I think this will smell too green and herby for me.
Manhattan: This one interests me a great deal. I can't guess what it's going to smell like yet, but it sounds complex. I sort of expect that I'll like it, but I may love it.
Pontarlier: Hmmm, rose and lavender. Probably not. But you never know.
Port Royal: Salty sea scents aren't usually my fave, but I do like rum. This will probably be one of the first ones I try when I get my imp packs.
Uruk: Red patchouli sometimes smells a bit foul on me, so I'm a little wary of this blend. I like saffron and fig leaf, but I'm not so sure about the rest of it.
Cockaigne: I seriously hope this doesn't smell like sour milk or play-doh on me, but unfortunately that's what milk and honey notes tend to do on my skin. I can see this blend becoming quite popular with other people but not working on me at all.
The Isles of Demons: Really looking forward to this. Can't imagine what it's going to smell like and was too afraid to buy a bottle unsniffed, but sounds like it could be really good for me. Here's hoping!
Jezirat al Tennyn: I have no idea what this will smell like.
Kumari Kandam: I also have no idea what this one will smell like.
Lyonesse: I think this one could be really pretty. Looking forward to trying it.
Ars Draconis
Ladon: Not sure about that apple note. Didn't care for it in The Hesperides. So we'll see.
Tanin'iver: My very first unsniffed GC 5ml order. I think this one is going to be really good for me. I love dragon's blood, patchouli, myrrh, blood musk, and smoke. All of them. The pomegranate note that was in Swank smelled artificial on my skin so I dearly hope it is not prominent in this blend.
Panacea
Elixir VIII: Bitch. Don't know what this is going to smell like, but so far none of these Panacea oils have been anything I wanted to keep. So my hopes aren't very high for this one.
Elixir IX: TKO. Ditto the above.
Carnaval Diabolique: Although I don't know what lemon flower is (is that like verbena?), the rest of this sounds marvelous. Heliotrope and tuberose are two of my favorite floral notes, and two of the few I can actually wear. Can't wait to see how they'll combine with the black musk and opium smoke in this.
Midnight on Midway: I probably should have gotten a bottle of this but I didn't. I saw "flowers" and moved on. But often night-blooming flowers are good for me -- I really like the GC Midnight. And sugared incense sounds great. I waffled and then didn't get it. But this is one of the first ones I'd like to try after my current order comes in.
The Phantom Calliope: The cassis (is that the same thing as cassia?) and cardamom scared me off of this one. I'm afraid it might be too spicy for me.
The Candy Butcher: Yes, please! Chocolate and cream sounds great!
Mme Moriarty, Misfortune Teller: Red musk is my favorite musk, plum is my favorite fruit, and I love vanilla and patchouli. (I'm not sure what patchouli leaf is, though.) I fully expect to love this oil.
The Organ Grinder: I debated about this one and then passed on it. The tobacco smoke and black patchouli sounded excellent, but sasparilla and white pine bark and normally not so great for me. I'll have to wait for reviews.
Pulcinella & Teresina: Cedar, teak, and rose are three notes that normally don't work on me, so I didn't get this one.
Melisande, The Puppet Mistress: The mention of jasmine and violet scared me off (although I don't know what sambac is, and I'm also not sure how violet water is different from violet). Jasmine is a heady cloying floral on me -- the kind of floral I don't like. And although I like the scent of violet, every BPAL blend that contains violet winds up smelling virtually identical on me because my skin amps the violet note so strongly.
Doc Constantine: I wavered about this one too, but I decided to pick just one of the ones I was iffy about and take a chance. This was the one I gambled on. The cedar smoke and fir needle sounded iffy, but the rest sounds fantastic. So I'm hopeful.
Xanthe, the Weeping Clown: I got a very discordant strange feel from Tweedledee, which also has white pepper and an exotic fruit. I didn't think it was all that pleasant, so I passed on Xanthe. I'll be interested to read reviews of it through.
Gennivre, l'Artiste du Diable: This blend has too many notes that don't work on me. Mint and lemongrass are very rarely good on my skin, and honey is often questionable. So I didn't get this one.
Theodosius, the Legerdemain: This is the one I should have gotten but didn't. Rats. I saw "jasmine" in there and immediately moved on, and then for some reason I didn't come back to this one and read it again. Well, I'll get a bottle with the lunacy update. It sounds like possibly something between Dorian and Wilde, and I think it would be an excellent birthday gift for my hubby.
Antonino, The Carny Talker: Another must-have. The verbena and lavender might have killed it on my skin, but this one will be a gift for my husband and lavender smells good on him. Plum, vetiver, and fig are three of my favorite notes, and I'm hoping this one will be a little reminiscent of King of Spades...
The Carnaval is awesome, the Salon updates look wonderful, and I can't wait to try the new Wanderlust scents. Everyone involved has been working so much to get this accomplished, and they must be so excited for it to actually be live.
And I'm really irritated that I've been watching that hijack thread about the people complaining about the price changes going into effect early. I shouldn't have done that. Now instead of feeling happy I feel pissed.
I'm thankful we got any warning about the price increases at all -- I can't think of any other business owner who has warned me a few days in advance of increasing her prices. It appears that the only reason Beth did that is that she cares about her customers and wanted to give people one last chance at the prices that were sending her business into insolvency. For people to be complaining about that kind of generosity, mainly because their own personal circumstances prevented them from being able to take advantage of it, seems undeservedly harsh.
And the nit-picking about the hours is very strange. I didn't hear one single person complain that the CD banner on the BPAL site said it would be coming in JULY of this year and it didn't. No one said "That's untruthful and bad business practices and when I tell my clients something will happen on such-and-such day it happens." (Which, let's be real, can't possibly be true. I worked in the business world for 12 years and precious little happened exactly when it was supposed to.) And yet when it comes to a $2.50 price increase, suddenly people want to quibble over a few hours. In fact they want to quibble about it SO BADLY they write multiple insulting posts about it and in general bring down the whole squeefest excitement of update night and try to make Beth feel like crap on what should be one of the best nights of her whole year.
I call Bad Form.
These reviews are for pink.owl #2 package, which contains Aeval, Carnal, Hecate, Morocco, O, Red Queen, and R'lyeh.
Aeval - A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. This oil smells almost entirely of sweet pea. It's way too sweet and way too floral for me, plus it's approaching powdery. This is just not at all something I would wear.
Carnal - Bold, bright mandarin paired with the sweet, sensual earthiness of fig. At first it's almost entirely an orange scent that's quite strong. Then that fades out as the oil dries, and it ends up being a wonderful and nearly equal balance of rich fig and sweet bright mandarin. These are both among my favorite notes (especially fig), so I had assumed I would like this, and I definitely do. It's lush, round, and sweet -- divine!
Also it reminds me a bit of Freak Show, so anyone who likes Carnal should check out that one.
Hecate - Their scent is the crisp, inviting bittersweet tang of cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices. The first time I tried this I thought it smelled smoky, hazy, and dark. Then I got a frimp from the Lab, so I tried this new one. It smells like cherries to me at first, not cranberries, definitely cherries. As it dries I think I can detect a little bit of ginger, but not much. There is something in this that strongly reminds me of the Glade air freshener (you remember those can-like things with the scented jelly-type stuff inside) that my grandma used to keep on the back of her toilet. So, as you can guess, I don't really want to smell like that. As it's drying it doesn't smell quite as much like the air freshener, but now that I've got that image in my head I can't get it out. The scent is getting better as time goes by, but now it's turning powdery.
I kinda wish this one smelled like that first imp I had... wonder what I did with that one. I'll see if I can track it down.
Morocco - Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. I was rather meh about Morocco the first couple of times I tried it. It seemed to be terribly popular, and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I thought the carnation was too strong and I thought the whole thing smelled dry like a desert and unpleasant.
Then I got a frimp of Morocco from the Lab, so I decided to try it again. This time it's wonderful. The sandalwood and cassia is a great combination (and the cassia fortunately doesn't overpower everything else)... mmm, musky, dry, and spicy. And there's something creamy under there too. It's exotic and mysterious, and I love it!
I think that the first time I tried this it was wintertime, and that was the wrong time to try this. It is perfect for a very hot summer day like today, just perfect. Wow. I can't believe how much my opinion about this oil has changed in just a few short months.
Also I have a hunch that I should get a big bottle of this and put it in the back of my closet for about a year to let it age.
O - Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. [Reviewed on Feb. 22, 2006; updated review on Aug. 1, 2006.] Not much I can say that hasn't been said. On me, it's honey and vanilla -- after a while it warms up into a honey musk.
After reading the reviews I was expecting O to bowl me over with sexiness, but it doesn't. (I guess Scherezade is still the reigning champ of sexy, for me.) It's not really what I expected.
ETA: After trying many BPAL blends, I now know why O didn't work for me -- my skin turns the BPAL honey note to play-doh. However I have found that Mouse's Long and Sad Tale works great on me and is sort of what I was expecting O to smell like.
Red Queen - Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant. [Reviewed on Mar. 13, 2006.] Very cherry at first. Not at all like cough syrup or fake cherry flavoring. Like I just stuck my nose in a jar of maraschino cherries. (Which is not to say The Red Queen smells like almonds, becasue I don't think it does.)
It's really faint, which surprised me. For The Red Queen, I expected a much bolder and stronger scent. It's sweet and candy-ish, but not at all strong. After about 20 minutes the wood notes come out and give it a nice balance.
I don't think this is for me, but it would be good for someone who likes the sweet resiny-wood blends.
R'lyeh - A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves. Of the aquatic scents, I think this one is my favorite. It doesn't smell stinging in that way that ozone often does on me, instead it smells like clear, clean water. Like water in a fountain. Except better. I don't actually get anything evil out of this, nothing that evokes dark oceanic depths. Mostly it smells clean and fresh. My only complaint about this is that it softens up a bit too quickly and becomes faint... which is also unusual for an aquatic scent on my skin. Usually they're a little too loud for me. It figures that the one that I like a lot would be the only one that doesn't amp itself into the atmosphere.
I wrote that paragraph before I looked at the other reviews, and now I want to add this:
1) Grapefruit? I wouldn't have guessed that. I have my doubts that Beth would put grapefruit, which smells sparkly, into something that's supposed to be like fathomless darkness... but maybe. I don't know -- I'm going to be a hard sell on the grapefruit possibility. I'm just not getting that. I guess there might be some citrus in there giving it that "fresh" feel, but it's not strong enough for me to be able to pick it out.
2) I agree with edenssixthday that most aquatic scents smell masculine on me. I blame that damn Cool Water cologne that everyone and his brother wore 10 years ago.
pink.owl #7 package
Dana O'Shee, Santa Muerte, Satyr, Thalia, Venice, Wilde.
Dana O'Shee - Offerings of milk, honey and sweet grains were made to placate these creatures, and it is that the basis of the scent created in their name. Smells like cherries and honey at first. Then it gets milkier and sweeter and the cherry scent fades out almost entirely. I have a feeling that this would be a lovely scent if it weren't for my skin chemistry making the honey smell like play-doh. It's done the exact same thing all three times I've tried Dana O'Shee over a span of several months, so I'm pretty much giving up hope at this point. I'm glad this smells great on other people, but it's never going to work for me.
Santa Muerte - A deep, resonant scent, both comforting and soft: lovers’ roses, solemn chrysanthemum, dark vetiver and dazzling cactus flowers. Disclaimer: I love vetiver. Santa Muerte is lovely. Gentle and cozy. Like cuddling up with a good book under your favorite blanket on your favorite comfy chair. It does kinda smell a little bit like cocoa at first, and then it smells a bit like cleaning products, but that's just the wet phase. It's pretty without being aggressively floral, soft and lilting.
Santa Muerte was one of the first 5mL bottles I bought from the Lab. It was great to wear in the springtime.
Satyr - Unleash the bawdy, unrestrained passion of the satyr! A ferociously masculine scent: sexual, vigorous, and truly wild. Yummy yum. To me this smells mostly like Scherezade with clove when it's wet -- kind of like an aggressive Scherezade. And it's a really dark brownish-red color, so of course I'm going to like it. There's nothing soft or gentle about this scent. But even though it's dark, it's not a brooding darkness. It's kind of playful. If there is civet in this, that's okay with me because the Lab's civet note smells pretty good on me. Nothing like poo at all.
I ashamed to admit that I have about 4 imps of Satyr and I haven't given a single one to my husband yet. I just let him try it a few minutes ago for the first time, and it smells fabulous on him! Even better than on me. Rats. I guess he gets the imps.
Thalia - Good cheer. Plumeria, pear and white champagne. Hmm. Plumeria, is it? I thought that scent was gardenia until I looked at the notes. This is a very yellow oil, and it smells like a very yellow flower. The pear gives it a nice crispness, and the champagne gives it a bit of a sparkle. Over all I like it, it's just a little more flowery than what I usually wear. This is one of the BPAL blends that doesn't suit me personally but that I find quite pretty. I also think it would be nice layered with one of the grapefruit scents.
Venice - A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty and of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf. It smells lush; I don't know how she did that. It's also slightly sweet, but it's kind of a fruity sweet, not what I'd consider a floral sweet. It doesn't have as much jasmine as I was afraid of, and the tiny amount of lemon I can smell doesn't bother me as much as lemon usually does. It's a pretty floral that smells rather grown-up. It gets slightly heady when it's dry, but not offensively so. However... even though it's nice at first, after about an hour I don't like it. It smells like pretty floral soap. So this is one for swaps after all.
Wilde - A sophisticated traditional gentleman's cologne, with just the slightest taint of patchouli's passion, tonka bean's decadence, the philanthropy of bergamot, moss' cynicism, the sharp wit of lavender, and the hopeless romantic longing of jasmine and thyme. This is one of my hubby's favorite GC oils -- he tried an imp of it a few months ago and then immediately bought a 10mL. It really is a great cologne, it smells wonderful. I can definitely smell a clean, crisp lavender in it, and it's just very slightly herby. The bergamot is a nice touch. Very gentlemanly, but not necessarily in a prim way.
To my nose there is no mistaking this for a woman's perfume because it smells very much like a traditional cologne. But that could be because my hubby wears it all the time.
cordia #3 package
Bloodlust, Dirty, Grand Guignol, Nuit, Rage, Szepasszony, and Zombi
Bloodlust - Dragon's blood essence, heavy red musk, Indonesian patchouli and swarthy vetiver with a drop of cinnamon. What I got straight away was cinnamon and vetiver. Then the cinnamon burned off (fortunately!), and the scent brightened up a little. I could smell the dragon's blood and vetiver most strongly. Then the red musk. It definitely smells red to me, dark red. It settles into a lovely dark musky blend... heavy and sweet. I really like it when it's dry.
The thing that really irritates me about this blend is that I really don't like it at first -- which surprised me. Red musk is my favorite musk, and I love dragon's blood, patchouli, and vetiver. But for the first ten minutes, it's nose-crinkly to me. I bought a 5ml of it several months ago and I don't think I've ever even opened it. The thought of going through the first 10 minutes is unpleasant enough that I don't wear the oil at all, even though the dry stage is fabulous.
I think I'm going to have to try harder to remind myself of how much I like it when it's dry, to distract myself from remembering the wet stage.
Dirty - A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy. Smells like a crisp white floral. Lily? Extremely feminine. Quite breezy too -- it seems like it's floating. A very clean, pretty scent. Not overpowering, either. Nice!
Grand Guignol - Our Grand Guignol perfume is a shot of sweet apricot brandy; just enough to settle your nerves after a ghoulish, gory brush with the macabre. Yay, Grand Guignol! I like it a lot! It smells to me a bit like an apricot tart. It reminds me a bit of peach cobbler, one of my very favorite desserts of all time. The brandy really warms up when the perfume oil is on my skin, too. I like this one mostly because the fruit note doesn't smell artificial on me (as fruit notes sometimes do), and it's also not overpowering. It's almost a delicate scent... which is how I like fruity blends. I don't want to walk around smelling like a giant piece of fruit, I just want to have a vaguely sweet and pleasant aura.
Nuit - Her perfume is starry and crystalline, a jewel-clad and glittering paean to night: dazzling white musks, white rose and night-blooming jasmine with the soft moss of moonlit meadows, a waft of Egyptian incense, and a gentle breath of moonflower. I expected Nuit to be beautiful and captivating. What I got out of it was a snootful first of jasmine and then rose. The problem is that jasmine and rose are two of my least favorite floral notes because they tend to be quite strong on my skin. Nuit does start to seem musky after the rose phase, but not enough to make this something I'd want to wear. This just isn't the sort of floral that I like.
Rage - Black amber erupting with a dark volcanic surge of fiery dragon's blood and a burst of melati, rose geranium, mandarin and black currant. Initially it kind of smelled like a burnt orange. It's not nearly as dark as I thought it would be, but it smells a little bitter. It's an interesting scent... just not the hot fiery scent I was envisioning. Also it doesn't seem to be very strong. It's ending up smelling kind of farty. I don't think this one is going to work for me...
Szepasszony - A chilly, tempestuous whirlwind of clear, airy notes, slashing rain, and a thin undercurrent of white flowers. Other reviewers described this as a cold aquatic floral -- I think it's chilly but I wouldn't call it cold. It smelled a little bit minty at first, but that didn't last long. It's kind of breezy and aquatic, with some pretty white flowers. It smells fresh and clean to me, totally inoffensive. A little bit like soap, but often the aquatic scents smell a little like soap to me. This is perfect for a day like today, when it's 91 degrees but the RealFeel is 102. Ugh.
Zombi - Dried roses, rose leaf, Spanish moss, oakmoss and deep brown earth. I tried this a long time ago and hated it. I tried it again as part of the Entire GC circular swap, and now I realize it's not as bad as I thought.
I am not a person who can wear the dirt scents. This smells like pretty dirt, because of the roses, but still dirt. Fresh, earthy, black, fertile dirt. I find the scent interesting and intriguing, and I wouldn't mind burning a candle that smelled like this. But as a personal perfume it's not for me at all. It's all right after about an hour (more rose than dirt), but it's still not something I'd choose over other BPAL blends.
I will say in Zombi's favor that I find this scent infinitely more appealing than Graveyard Dirt. And the dirt scent in this blend is not as overpowering here as it usually is on me. I think Zombi is my favorite of all the BPAL blends that have that earth note.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
cordia #1 package: Aizen-Myoo, Asphodel, Blood Countess, Follow Me Boy, Hunger, Seraphim, and Yggdrasil. I have all these imps, so I didn't have to use any of the oil from the swap package.
Aizen-Myoo - Yuzu, kaki, and mikan with cherry blossom and black tea. Aizen-Myoo smells like stank on me. It is one of my least favorite BPAL oils. And it's weird, because the Lab has frimped me with Aizen-Myoo at least four times. I feel like Aizen-Myoo keeps saying "Try me again. This time you'll like me. Go on, try." And I try it, and it's horrible. It smells like the very worst bitter citric acid smell you've ever smelled combined with weeds that sort of smell like tomato leaf but four times sharper. And the scent lingers around for hours making me regret ever putting the damn oil on my skin. I know there are people who really love Aizen-Myoo, and I'm honestly glad that someone likes it. But I don't. Yick.
Asphodel - The grey and ghostly flower that fills the fields of Hades. Light and floaty, but extraordinarily floral. Like I just stuck my nose in a flower. It's one of those heady floral scents that would be cloying if it were stronger. (Luckily it's not very strong.) I'm not a floral gal, so I can't say which flower this smells like because I'm not very familiar with floral notes. I can say that it smells kind of pale pink, rather than yellow or purple. I like this better than some of the other floral blends but not well enough to want to wear it.
Blood Countess - Corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry. Blood Countess is one of the blends I knew for sure that I would like -- the plum, opium, lilac, and berry sounded wonderful! The only listed note I don't get along with is gardenia. (I wore a gardenia-scented oil in the 90s and got burned out on the scent.) And guess what Blood Countess smelled like on me? Yep, you guessed it. Gardenia. A fruity gardenia, but still gardenia. I tried it at least three times because I kept hoping that this time it'll be just plum and opium. You'd think I would have given up after three tries, but I refused to give up my imp hoping that one day my skin would play nice. And I am happy to announce that TODAY is that day! Today this is definitely a plum and lilac scent on my skin, and it's lovely! I'm thrilled that this finally worked on me. And now I know for sure that this particular oil is affected by my hormones. Now that I know when to wear it and when not to, it's officially a keeper!
Follow Me Boy - No notes listed. Hmmm. An odd scent. I'm not sure how to describe it. It starts out smelling kind of floral and herbal. Green, but not sharp. It's not unpleasant, but it doesn't seem particularly enticing to me. After a while it starts to smell a little milky and floral -- kind of like sour milk. Still an odd scent. I wouldn't wear this as perfume.
Hunger - Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. When it's wet, this oil smells dark and powerfully sexy. It's almost all black narcissus with something deep and smoky underneath that reminds me a little bit of vetiver. As it dries I can begin to smell the orange blossom. The vanilla makes it slightly creamy. The first time I tried this oil a few months ago I thought it smelled like a creamsicle. This time when I tried it, it was much darker. I like it this way better. Very nice blend. I think this imp might get upgraded to a bottle.
Seraphim - A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense. Woah. This scent goes straight through my head. It's white and sweet and so piercing it makes my teeth ache when I sniff my wrist. I'm not sure why this combination is so disagreeable to me -- the notes don't offend me individually. Frankincense often goes too sweet on me, but I can't really smell any frankincense in here. And oh great, I get the extra special bonus pounding headache from this one. Perhaps this blend is too angelic for me. 'Fraid this one's getting washed off.
Yggdrasil - The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg. A very woodsy scent. Is there mint in this? Or menthol? It's odd, the first time I tried Yggdrasil a few months ago I thought it was a very dry, light, wood scent, and I kept the imp around because I thought I might want to try it again later. I had in mind that it was the sort of light comforting scent I'd want to wear at bedtime. I definitely don't remember anything like menthol in it -- that is not comforting to me at all. After the wet stage dies down, that minty scent fades away. What's left is wood and herbs. This is much more herby than I remember. Also it gets a little powdery when it's dry. It's not the comfort scent I thought it was. Hunh. Off to swaps, I guess.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
13bodies package #2: Bon Vivant, Cobra Lily, Dee, Djinn, The Great Sword of War, Kurukulla.
Bon Vivant - An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry. It does smell like champagne, which is quite nice, but the strawberry scent smells artificial on my skin. It reminds me of a strawberry lip gloss. My hubby likes it a lot on me, but it's not really doing anything for me.
Cobra Lily - Sharp, heady and viciously carnivorous. I love this one! It smells bright and slightly fruity. It's a little bit green, but the fruitiness stays around too. It's pretty and light and feminine. Also it's a red oil, and I almost always love the red ones.
Dee - His scent is soft English leather, rosewood and tonka with a hint of incense, parchment and soft woods. This oil smells like a gentleman's cologne -- it reminds me of my dad. My dad was one of those guys who wore a tie to work every day of his life and always carried a briefcase. He was very meticulous about his appearance and picky about his shampoo, shaving cream, and aftershave. When I was a little girl I used to love giving him a kiss before he left for work because I loved the way he smelled. I thought he smelled clean and like Daddies were supposed to smell. Looking back, I know it was woodsy and sweet and must have had a little bit of leather in in somewhere. Just like Dee.
I think Dee is the only BPAL oil that reminds me so strongly of my dad that I would prefer that my husband does not wear it.
Djinn - The scent of black smoke, of crackling flames, and smoldering ashes. Phew, that's strong! It's also sweeter than I thought it would be -- this is sweet smoke rather than dark smoke. It's actually not as bad as I expected it would be, but it's giving me a headache so it has to go.
The Great Sword of War - Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. This is an oil that I expected to like because I love the listed notes, but I had a very meh reaction to it. I thought it would be kind a musky deep scent, and I mainly got tea and herbs out of it. I guess the "five classical herbs of conflict" are too dominant for me. It ends up being closer to what I like when it's completely dry, but I don't think I like it well enough to ever want a bottle of it.
Karukulla - Her scent is a harmonious, sweet, enchanting blend of three lotus blooms and three roses. Surprisingly fruity at first, although I'm beginning to realize that lotus smells fruity on me. The roses underneath are not very noticeable at first but dominate the scent when dry. This blend smells sweet and feminine -- I would definitely use the word "harmonious." The notes all combine nicely and the overall effect is soft and pretty.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
This package contains: Oberon, Penny Dreadful, Port-au-Prince, Skuld, Tzadikim Nistarim, Urd. (I didn't have to test any of the imps from the package -- I already had all these.)
Oberon - Orchid, white musk, and bergamot wafting over juniper berries, with a gentle touch of soft, earthy patchouli. Based on the notes, I should like this. However, the first time I tried it I didn't like it at all. I tried it again as part of the GC circular swap. Now I remember why I didn't like it -- it is too sharply floral at first. It's a little too lemony for me (juniper berries and white musk both tend to smell a bit like lemons on my skin). If I got orchids and patchouli out of this I would be very happy. Instead it kind of smells like dirty lemons and old lady perfumey powder.
Penny Dreadful - Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam. (Reviewed 4/22/06) There's a sort of honey sweetness to this one, but unfortunately there is also a strong dirt smell, which doesn't agree with me. I like the way it smells in the imp though, so I think I'll try it in a scent locket.
Port-au-Prince - Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras. Strange, I thought I reviewed this already. I can't find a review, though. I really like this oil -- at first the almond is strong, the clove is barely there, and the whole thing is buttery and soft. Then it morphs into a smooth clove scent. It's rich and full, and it definitely smells decadent. It has very good throw and lasts quite a while, too.
Skuld - Being. Ylang ylang, honey, Egyptian and Arabian musks and labdanum. When I first got into BPAL I really wanted to try Skuld because it seemed like it was terribly popular. Then I got an imp of it, eagerly took a sniff, and then wondered what everyone thought was so great about it. Poor ickle Skuld, shunned to the back of the imp box. I got the imp out to try it again as part of the GC circular swap, and now I see what all the fuss was about. This really does smell wonderful. Charming and bright, warm and soothing. Pretty but not overly feminine. This doesn't smell like perfume, it doesn't smell like flowers, it doesn't smell like fruit -- if someone else was wearing this, I would definitely ask her what it was. You wouldn't expect a person to smell like this. It's unusual and very intriguing.
Tzadikim Nistarim - The scent is one of unadulterated spiritual purity, with a taste of the world's eternal pathos, and the joy of suffering with grace: frankincense, olive, spikenard, hyssop and galangal. This smells exactly like a weed smelled in the field behind my house growing up. I don't know why, I have no idea what note is causing that. It's a sweet weedy scent. It's a little unsettling to me. I think it may be the spikenard -- I smelled spikenard oil once and thought it was revolting. But anyway, I really don't like this blend at all.
Urd - Fate. Muscadine, black and red patchouli, cereus and nag champa. Mmmm, nag champa and patchouli. There is definitely a grapey scent to it, but it's not overpowering at all. This smells good on me, but it truly smells lovely on my sister. On her skin it goes from rich and smoky to mysteriously sultry. She's not normally a patchouli and nag champa kind of gal, but even she had to admit that Urd smells fantastic on her.
