My blog never gets bumped whenever I add a new entry. Sigh. Poor little guy. It hurts his feelings.
And even though I have written several entries, in the blog list it still has a big fat ZERO for number of entries.
I wonder what this "Publish" button is for...
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...
My mom is an elementary school teacher, and she's getting ready to retire at the end of this school year. Last year she bought her parents' farmhouse after my grandma died. She has many siblings, and although the land was divided up between them they weren't sure what to do about the house and buildings. A couple of my first cousins were interested in it, but they couldn't afford it. So, since my dad passed away a year and a half ago and my mom would like to live closer to her siblings (who are all in the same general area except one), she bought it.
Her original plan was to tear down the old chicken coop and the old barn that Grandpa built (they really needed to come down, and they're already gone now), and then tear down the old farmhouse and build a new house on the same site. When it was time to really make decisions about the house, though, she started thinking of all kinds of reasons why she didn't want to tear it down.
A couple of months ago she finally decided to stop talking about building a new house and just fix up the old one. By the time she's done, it probably will be more expensive than just building a new house. But it wouldn't be that house. The house she grew up in. She was the first child in the family who was born in the hospital instead of at home, so she wasn't technically born there, but her older sisters were. Grandma died in that house, too.
In the 1950s Grandpa added on a new kitchen and bathroom (before then they only had an outhouse) plus an extra upstairs bedroom. He built it himself, with timber he had cut down out back. He also built all the cabinetry in the kitchen and bathroom. Grandpa was a farmer, not a carpenter, but he built it. The wallpaper Grandma had hung in the 1950s was still there. There was some flooring in the upstairs that dated to the 1920s. That house had not changed one iota since before I was born, with the exception of new furniture in the living room and new carpet in the downstairs. That's it. My mom couldn't stand to think of tearing it down.
I'm glad she's fixing up the old house. I can't imagine that house not being there. Throughout my childhood we lived in four different houses, and my parents lived in several different places since I left home, but Grandma and Grandpa always lived in the same spot. The house my other grandparents lived in has already been torn down -- the people who bought it only wanted the riverfront property and wanted to put up a whole new house. So my only real "home" link any more is to that farm.
My grandparents moved into that house the day they got married in 1938 and never moved from it. Grandpa bought it from someone in his family -- his mother grew up on that same farm (different house at that time, but the same farm). That little plot of land there at the bend in the road with a creek running behind it and the best well water you've ever tasted in your life has been in my family since about 1850. The big red barn has my family's surname and the year 1891 etched into one of the doors. It was never a big farm -- only a few hundred acres -- and it was nothing fancy, but it was clean and well-kept.
My three sisters have no interest in living in the middle of nowhere on midwestern farmland, but I love that little 20 acres that is now my mom's. So my sisters and I kind of have an agreement that whenever that land gets passed on, it'll be mine to retire to. I told my mother than I have no problem putting a clause in my own will specifying that the land will be sold only to a descendant of my grandparents no matter what other offers may be. My ancestors have lived on that land for so long, it feels like it belongs to us -- even without the deed.
So many things in life change so fast... but some things need to stay the same.
More Than This, by The Cure
For a second of your life
Tell me that it's true
Waiting for a sign
It's all I want of you
Your heart hides a secret
A promise of what is
Of something more than this
Just a second of your time
Any one will do
A taste of any other
Is all I want from you
Offer me the world
And how can I resist
Something more than this?
Make-believe in magic
Make-believe in dreams
Make-believe -- Impossible
Nothing as it seems
See, touch, taste, smell, hear
But never know if it's real (But never know if it's real)
For a second of your life
Tell me if it's true
Anywhere we are
Is all I want of you
On your lips lies a secret
A promise of a kiss
Of something more than this
Just a second of your time
Any one will do
To know from any other
Is all I want from you
You've given me the world
You know I can't resist
Something more than this
Make-believe in magic
Make-believe in dreams
Make-believe -- Impossible
Nothing as it seems
Never really understand
What anything means (What anything means)
Another second of my life
Not knowing if it's true
Make-believe in nothing
Is all I want of you
Whispering the secret
Whispering there is
Always something other
Something more than this
-------------------------------
I've been listening to this song a lot lately. There was a time in my life when the emotion/longing described in this song was at the forefront of my mind all the time, and I listened to this song a lot then too. One of the reasons I've always loved The Cure so much is that a lot of their songs really resonate with me. Not too deep but not too shallow either, and there's a heart-on-your-sleeve quality to a lot of them in addition to a rawness, which I generally think of as intrinsic characteristics of passion.
I also love The Cure because Robert Smith is a hottie. Oh, right, and also a genius. But, yeah. A hottie. He looks like he'd be ready to cuddle and take a nap at any moment, and he has a killer smile that he sort of saves up and suddenly unleashes when you're not expecting it. My kind of guy.
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.
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.
Bleah. I feel crappy. Several people I know feel crappy. Why does January always suck?
People have taken down their Christmas lights, and there's only a dusting of snow on the ground right now, so when I'm driving around everything just looks stark and icky. I wish that "Christmas lights" were actually "winter lights" and people would leave them up for the entire winter. I can't stand the interval between having no Christmas lights and spring. It's so bleak and dreary. Another two months of this. Gah.
The sky is white instead of blue. No birds are singing. The only thing I smell outside is automobile exhaust.
Probably what I need to do is start a fire in the fireplace, hang some colorful Christmas tree lights all throughout my family room, burn a yummy-scented tart, bake some bread, and load up some energetic happy music on the stereo.
But I don't have the energy for that, so I'll settle for happy music and a yummy tart.
After reading through the LJ Wank-Garbage thread, I noticed that some people have mentioned (again) that if people didn't buy high-priced decants/bottles, no one would have them on their sales lists. And I feel guilty because I buy those high-priced things. I guess I'm a big fat jerk for driving up the prices for everyone else. But I've only been around for a few months, and some really good stuff was discontinued before I'd ever even heard of BPAL. It's not like I could buy it from the Lab right now.
I feel like it's okay to be different in the BPAL community -- goth or not, bi or not, pagan or not, whatever -- but it's not okay to have money. If you spend a lot of money on an imp of Pumpkin King, people bash you all over the place for being stupid and/or insane. And evidently it's not cool to have a big BPAL stash because then you're an obsessed fangirl who has no life.
I will come clean: I've spent several thousand dollars on perfume oils in the past three months or so. I'm not stupid, insane, or obsessed -- just... well, wealthy. $20 is not a lot of money to me. At all. And I feel like I'm being a bitch just for saying the truth. It's not a flaw, and I don't know why I'm ebarrassed about it. In my groups of friends in real life, having a comfortable home and money in the bank is the mark of hard work and success. It seems like in the BPAL community it's just a reason for people not to like you.
I love my BPAL collection, I like to talk about BPAL, I like to swap with people, and there are some exceptional people in the BPAL community. But I don't feel like there's a whole lot of love for people like me. If anyone said anything negative about someone's religion 20 people would jump to her defense. But when people say someone's an idiot for spending $50 on an imp of Storyville, crickets chirp off in the distance. Followed by a post of "Yeah, that's ridiculous!"
In a couple of days it will have been one year since my dad died. This whole Father's Day thing is just going to be terrible for me forever... my dad died on June 17, his birthday was June 22, and Father's Day is always right around those days. Three whammies all at once.
Last year I brought the Father's Day card I got for him to his funeral. I had bought it before my husband and I went on a cruise to Alaska -- we arrived home on Sunday night to find out that he had died on Friday morning. The next morning we drove to Ohio for the funeral. I took the card and read it to my dad when I saw him. I wanted to put it in the casket with him but my husband didn't think I should. So now it's in the back of a picture frame, the one that holds my favorite photo of my dad from when he was about 22.
My mom is getting ready to retire and move into her parents' farmhouse -- Grandma passed away in February, and my mom is buying their property and is going to live there. So a few weekends ago my sisters and I were all going through all our old toys and stuff from school, boxing things up to take to our own houses, and my mom gave me some of my dad's and my grandparents' things. I have an apron my grandmother made, an ashtray my dad made and a bunch of his college books, my grandfather's locksmithing certificate, and a few of my other grandmother's ceramic turtles from her turtle collection. I used to have four grandparents and a father, and now all I have is a few of their things.
For the past couple of weeks I've been such a mess. No sleep, and bawling all the time. I can hardly stand to read the Confessional thread these days because whenever someone complains about their parents I just sit here and cry. And think about how much I would give to hear my dad's voice again. Yelling at me or anything, I don't care. Just to hear his voice.
I was at the airport yesterday picking up my husband, and I was sitting in one of those rows of chairs. A woman and her child sat down behind me, facing the other direction. For the next 20 minutes (until I could no longer stand it and got up and left), this woman lied to her kid, made him cry, berated him, and basically told him he sucked. Not only that, but she had this whiny nasal voice with a pitch that could bend steel, and she spoke very loudly.
Apparently the kid (probably 3-4 years old) had just gotten a Spiderman toy less than an hour ago, and he threw it into some baggage bin or something, and they had to sit there and wait for airport personnel to retrieve it for them. So the woman ran through the list of other things she could have bought with that $8 instead of wasting it on a toy for the kid which he then "threw away." She told him that his dad works hard for that $8 and it was not nice of him to throw Daddy's money away. She told him that when she told Daddy about what he did with the toy, Daddy would probably never buy him another toy again. She pointed to a policewoman and told him that she was going to go over and tell the policewoman what he had done and she would come over and arrest him and take him to jail. This is when the kid started to cry. The crying just spurred her on, she then described how miserable he would be all alone, without Mommy or Daddy and no toys at all either.
All of this because the kid had a toy and did what kids do when they have toys that look like superheroes who fly through the air: He threw it. She sat there and let him throw the toy repeatedly, and then when it landed in a bad spot she berated him for 20 minutes in public, doled out the "wait until Daddy finds out" threat, and then told him he's going to jail. Of course none of this is her fault, it's all the kid's fault. Unbelievable.
I have no idea at all what gave that woman the idea that it's acceptable to talk to a little child like that. I honestly can't imagine that it would be natural to anyone, so I guess she must have seen someone else do it and figured it was a good idea. Which sickens me even more.
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.
I'm making a list here of my favorites from the GC, mainly just for my reference.
The ones I don't have bottles of yet have an asterisk. The ones that are next on my list to get are purple.
Bewitching Brews
Jack
Scherezade
Sin & Salvation
Anathema
Dorian
Love Potions
Bathsheba
Bordello
Perversion
Snake Oil - AGED
Vixen
Diabolus
Fenris Wolf
*Kitsune-Tsuki
Marquise de Merteuil
Mad Tea Party
Eat Me
Frumious Bandersnatch
Mouse's Long and Sad Tale
The Unicorn
Illyria
Tamora
*Titania
Wanderlust
Tintagel
Tombstone - AGED
Ars Draconis
Dragon's Milk
Dragon's Musk
Rappaccini's Garden
Cobra Lily
The Salon
Silence
Two Monsters
Three Gorgons
A Picnic in Arkham
Miskatonic University
Excolo
Loviatar
Ogun
Osun
Santa Muerte
Shango
Sephiroth
Chokmah
And these ones are the ones I like a lot, but they're a step down from the "love" category. I wear them often.
Bewitching Brews
*Blood Kiss
*Intrigue
*Lampades
*Omen
*Sudha Segara
*Velvet
*Voodoo
Wilde
Funereal Oils
*Midnight
*Nocturne
*Thanatopsis
Sin & Salvation
The Bow & Crown of Conquest
*Fallen
*Hellfire
Lust
*Oblivion
Sin
Love Potions
*Carnal
Loralei
Salome
*Spellbound
Vicomte de Valmont
Diabolus
Dracul
*Hell's Belle
*Hellcat
Villain
Mad Tea Party
Cheshire Cat
*White Rabbit
Illyria
*Lady Macbeth
Wanderlust
*Hollywood Babylon
Manhattan
Morocco
*Lyonesse
*Pontarlier
*Prague
Ars Draconis
*Dragon's Heart
*Dragon's Reverie
Rappaccini's Garden
*Black Hellebore
*Love-Lies-Bleeding
*Moon Rose
*Strangler Fig
The Salon
*Three Brides
*The Ecstasy of St. Teresa
*Judith Victorious
*Les Anges Déchus
*The Sailor's Den
A Picnic in Arkham
Al-Azif
*The Music of Erich Zahn
Excolo
*Grandmother of Ghosts
*Kali
*Mania
*Oya
*Queen Mab
*Tezcatlipoca
*Xiuhtecuhtli
*Aglaea
Vechernyaya
Voodoo Blends
French Love
*Love Me
*Wolf's Heart
The Chakras
Swadhisthana
A long time ago, when I was wending my merry way through the BPAL GC, I thought that some day I ought to figure out which BPAL blend was my favorite of all the BPAL blends that had one particular primary note. For example, I noticed that I LOVED about 12 dragon's blood blends, but I didn't think I needed bottles of all of them so I thought I should figure out my favorite out of those and just have one bottle of that one.
I utterly failed with the dragon's blood one. I bought about 5 different bottles of those. But, there are a few other notes that I like only occasionally, and I really need only one bottle. I don't need to keep around all the various imps, either.
So I'm going to try to do this, now that I've made it through the whole GC. I'm starting with VIOLET.
GCs THAT CONTAIN VIOLET
Arkham: A shadowy, unapproachable forest of maple, birch, dogwood, cypress and pine softened by a garland of New England wildflowers: bergamot, columbine, rue anemone, blue violet, creeping phlox, bloodroot, toadflax, and pixie moss. Light pretty floral, but not primarily violet.
Bluebeard: Violet, lavender, white musk and vetiver. Smells more of lavender than violet to me.
Ephemera: sorrowful violet and chamomile with muguet, white geranium, calla lily and tea rose with a hint of autumn leaves. Pretty, but soft and wistful. Not the sort of loud VIOLET! scent I was thinking of.
Fallen: Cherubic white sandalwood and golden musk with a dark halo of amber, a breath of imperial florals, unbending woods, and the shadow cast by vetiver and violet. Not primarily violet at all.
Faustus: frankincense and cinnamon, darkened by violet. Not primarily violet.
House Of Night: (Maybe has Primrose, violet, Daisies, Narcissus, spotted pinks, yew, myrtle, elm, cypress, cedars, osier, pine, tamarisks, weeping willows, poplar, lotos, lime, poppy amaranthus rose, mint, laurel.) A sorrowful graveyard bouquet of somber blooms, funereal boughs, dismal green and laden with grief. Need to try this again because I can't remember if the violet is a stand-out in this.
I Died For Beauty: The Venusian splendor of ylang ylang and violet stirred by hyssop, frankincense, and grave loam. [grave loam, in this case, is oakmoss and Spanish Moss] Not heavily violet, and didn't like it that much.
Le Serpent Qui Danse: Violet entwined with vanilla and gardenia. I like this one.
Libertine: Rosewood and chamomile with bergamot, violet, red sandalwood, primrose and Arabian musk. This was one of the first BPAL oils I tried, but my husband told me it smelled like old ladies and didn't like it. I swapped it away and haven't tried it since. Need to try it again.
Lucretia: Iris, black amber, sage, Kashmir wood, vanilla musk, mandarin and violet. I like this a lot, but it's not primarily violet.
Lysander: Lilac musk, tonka, wood violet, and urbane lime rind, with a Venus-kissed tangle of myrtle, blackberry leaf, and benzoin. The myrtle killed this one for me.
Marie: A blend of sinuous violet and elegant tea rose. Didn't smell good on me at all.
Monna Vanna: Russian rose, mimosa, gardenia, bois du rose, parma violet, calla lily, red currant, ambergris, and bourbon vanilla. Haven't tried it.
Morgause: A bouquet of five night-blooming flowers deepened by dusky violet, purple fruits and the barest breath of medieval incenses. I would include this one in the "primarily violet" family. However, I liked other ones better.
Nocturne: Deepest violet touched with lilac and tuberose. I like this one, but it seems mostly lilac to me, rather than violet.
Queen Gertrude: Imperial violet softened by wisteria and chrysanthemum, but edged with the regal iciness of delphinium. I need to try this again. It did seem to be strongly violet, but it reminded me so much of Libertine that I sort of ignored it.
The Raven: Violet and neroli mingled with iris, white sandalwood and dark musk. I need to try this one again too. I don't remember it well enough to try to do a side-by-side comparison based on my memory of the scent.
Saturnalia: Violet deepened with vetiver. Smelled awful on me.
Sybaris: Bright violet with sweet clove, Mediterranean spice notes and tonka bean. I like this one a lot, but it seems like it's mostly spicy on me with just a moderate violet undertone.
Ultraviolet: Lush violet and neroli spiked hard with eucalyptus and a sliver of mint. The eucalyptus blast at the beginning really turned me off, but I like the violet+mint combination in dry-down. I think the eucalyptus will keep this from ever being a favorite for me, though.
Utrennyaya: Osmanthus, Damascus rose, violet, delphinium, white mint, palmarosa and white sandalwood. Smelled not quite right on me for some reason.
Veil: White sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender and ylang ylang. The lilac and gardenia were strongest in this one, for me.
Venice: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf. Not primarily violet, but I didn't really like it anyway.
Wings Of Azrael: Warm myrrh swirled with a bittersweet blend of violet, Lily of the Valley, juniper, cypess and cajeput. Not primarily violet at all for me, and it was only OK.
So far it seems like I like Le Serpent Qui Danse the best, but I need to re-try Libertine, Queen Gertrude, and The Raven. I don't have any of those imps.
LEs THAT CONTAIN VIOLET
The Agony Of Longing: Attar of rose, violet, white pear, Queen Elizabeth root, and freesia. I LOVE THIS ONE. Don't have a bottle of it, but I really want a bottle of it.
Bearded Lady: Turkish rose, stargazer lily, violet, honeysuckle, amber, star jasmine and vanilla. I like this a lot and have a bottle, but it doesn't smell primarily violet to me.
Crow Moon: vervain, black violet, white musk, and Chinese cedar, is brushed by the last cold wind of winter on their wings, and the scent of evergreen boughs touched by the season's final flowers and the first blossoms of spring: wintersweet, green-barked dogwood, primrose, snowdrop, and lenten rose hellebore bouquet. Like this one too (and have a bottle), but also not primarily violet.
The Darkling Thrush: Snow, darkness, and icy air illuminated by the thrush's song: warm amber, soft orris, and melancholy violet. The cold/snowy note dominates in this one. This is one for the cold/snowy decision rather than the violet decision.
Faith: Sugared violet. I like this a lot and have a bottle.
Flower Moon: a bouquet of vivid, sexy blooms… tulip, daffodil, violet, dewdrop, rhododendron, iris, daisy, and a mix of California wildflowers. Doesn't smell primarily of violet.
Melisande, The Puppet Mistress: Jasmine sambac, dark musk, violet water, vanilla bean and mimosa. The jasmine's way too strong in this for me.
Ostara: orris root, bergamot, frankincense, daffodil, orange pulp, attar of rose, jonquil, strawberry leaf, benzoin, violet leaf, copal, honey cakes, sweet cream, and the blossoms of springtime. I liked this okay, but I sold my bottle.
Purple Phoenix: myrrh, plum blossom, African violet, cognac, fig, orris, lilac, wisteria, black plum, and Burgundy wine grapes. Have a bottle, but doesn't smell mainly of violet to me.
Rose Moon: Bulgarian rose, tea rose, violet leaf, opium poppy, Bois de Jasmin, patchouli leaf, honey, blue lilac, balsam, woodruff, and lemon peel. Largely rose, not violet.
Taurus 2007: Rose, daisy, apple blossom, violet, poppy, columbine, thyme, and mint. Not primarily violet, and it's not my fave. I'm trying to sell my bottle.
White Moon: Lilac, calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, moonflower, night musk, phlox, and violet. I like this, but it's definitely more of a white floral than a violet scent.
So! Favorite LEs are The Agony of Longing and Faith. If I had my choice the only primarily violet blend I'd ever wear is The Agony of Longing, but I don't have a bottle of it. Faith is pretty, and I have a bottle, but I like the Possets Silver Violets scent just as much if not more than Faith.
Verdict on Favorite Violet Scent: The Agony of Longing.
[see previous entries for what I'm doing here.]
Mint is often a deal-breaker note for me. I almost always do not go for the cool/chilly scents, and mint smells cool to me. In the worst situations it reminds me of toothpaste, and in the best situations it makes me think of dinner mints. Neither of those are things I'd consider favorite perfume scents. I do like some mint-scented soaps, so it's not that I dislike the scent of mint. It's just that as a personal fragrance it doesn't suit me.
GCs THAT CONTAIN MINT
Absinthe: Wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and lemon. Not primarily minty, mostly wormwood essence.
Bess: rosemary, orange flower, grape spirit, five rose variants, lemon peel, and mint. This doesn't seem primarily minty to me because rosemary is always so strong on me.
Calliope: lavender and bright mint with bergamot, verbena, thyme and a touch of sweet orange and warm almond. This is an herbal citrus scent on me and not very minty.
Cathode: Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss, and mints. This one is minty, but I'm not a fan of the moss/mint combination. My notes for this scent said it reminded me of one of my dog's mint-flavored treats. Ew. Not a great association. No wonder I didn't like this scent.
Cloister Graveyard In The Snow: Three white musks, ozone, frankincense, mint. This one was a surprise hit with me because I did not expect to like it. My notes said that the mint was the most captivating of the notes in the scent -- that is unheard of, with me.
Death On A Pale Horse: empty white musk and mint seeped with solemn lavender, doleful patchouli and vetiver, scythe-sharp yuzu and lime, with geranium bourbon, white sandalwood and calla lily. I really didn't like this scent at all due to the yuzu. I don't think it was mostly minty, anyway.
Dracul: Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom. My husband has a bottle of this and wears it from time to time. I like it, but it's not primarily minty.
Envy: Green herbs slithering through mint, lime and lavender. Mostly herbal, not minty.
House Of Night: [see description for what may be in it -- one thing mentioned was mint.] "A sorrowful graveyard bouquet of somber blooms, funereal boughs, dismal green and laden with grief." A sweet floral. Not minty.
Juke Joint: Kentucky Bourbon, sugar and a sprig of mint. I can smell the mint in this, and I like the scent. Very evocative.
The Lantern Ghost Of Oiwa: Black tea, cherry blossom, ho wood, calla lily, rice wine, and white mint. The mint in this is soft and smells fresh and clean. I like this one, but I can barely smell it on my skin.
Manhattan: sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid. I love this scent -- it won my Favorite Grapefruit scent. Not really minty, though.
Melpomene: dark cypress with mint, geranium, Bulgar lavender, orange blossom and passion flower. I didn't really smell mint in this, but it smelled kind of medicinal to me and I didn't like it.
The Mock Turtle's Lessons: blurry aquatic notes, with a confusing, contrary splort of iris, ambrette, green apple, vodka, white mint and a squish of lime. This is a good blend of mint and lime, and I do like it. My only complaint with it is that it disappears really fast on me.
Shattered: A blend of white champagne notes, grapefruit, lotus, slivered mint and crystalline aquatic blooms. This smells like mint-menthol on me and was totally not the kind of scent I like.
Silence: White sandalwood, iris, blue musk, lotus root, moonflower, plum blossom, green tea, white mint and white peach. This perfume is gorgeous, and I love it. However, not primarily minty. It's one of the peach contenders.
Ultraviolet: Lush violet and neroli spiked hard with eucalyptus and a sliver of mint. The eucalyptus in this one is very, very strong at first. I mean, like knock-you-over strong. That's what keeps it out of the running for my favorite anything. I do like the violet/mint combination I get when it's dry, but I really dislike the initial eucalyptus blast.
Undertow: lotus and juniper with a hint of mint. Minty when wet, but sweet when dry. My notes said that when it was dry it reminded me of Pez. I have no idea why.
Utrennyaya: Osmanthus, Damascus rose, violet, delphinium, white mint, palmarosa and white sandalwood. This smelled minty AND powdery on me. Not a good combination.
Vicomte de Valmont: ambergris, white musk, white sandalwood, Spanish Moss, orange blossom, three mints, jasmine, rose geranium and a spike of rosemary. This one is a little too minty for me personally, but it smells great on my husband and I like it when he wears this.
The ones that didn't have mint listed in the notes but smelled a bit minty to me were Hamadryad (possibly due to wintergreen smelling minty to me), possibly Yggdrasil, maybe Nocnitsa, maybe Szepasszony, possibly Jezirat al Tennyn. I thought Tarot The Fool and Strength smelled a bit minty as well (but again, that could be due to wintergreen), and Grr is very definitely peppermint-scented (but I don't use that as perfume, of course).
So of all the ones listed above, the primarily minty ones I like are Cloister Graveyard in the Snow, Juke Joint, The Mock Turtle's Lessons, and Vicomte de Valmont. I think my favorite out of all those is Vicomte, but I don't wear that, my husband does. So I'll have to pick something else. I think Cloister Graveyard in the Snow wins.
LEs THAT CONTAIN MINT
Frost Moon: "traditional lunar oils frozen with winter mints, shivering eucalyptus, clear lotus, a gust of wind, and a midnight aquatic note." This smells much too cold for me to like it.
F5: Aloe, white musk, lime peel, fresh mint, seaspray, verbena and green tea. I did like this one, surprisingly. It smells fresh and clean. It was really nice on hot days. Not really minty, though, mostly aloe, tea, and musk.
Gennivre, L'artiste Du Diable: Hyson tea leaf, pale mint, sugar cane, orange blossom, lemongrass, and honey. I like this one as well. On me it smells like a tea scent with a mild mint. Very pretty.
Green Tree Viper: Snake Oil with four mints, bergamot, and green tea. I tried this but didn't write a review, and I'm trying to remember what I thought of it. I think that I didn't care for the Snake Oil + mint combination.
Lick It: a candy cane perfume, minty, sweet and sugared. Smells exactly like a candy cane. Peppermint isn't my favorite mint, though.
Lick It Again: "a peppermint candy cane with an extra jolt of sugar." This one also smells like a candy cane, but a bit smoother than Lick It. Like I said, though, not really into peppermint.
Monster Bait: Tokyo Stomp: vanilla mint. Crisp and refreshing, but smooth as well. I was surprised and delighted that I liked this scent. It's probably the only mint scent I actually wear.
Nuclear Winter: The ice, desolation and barrenness of nuclear devastation shot through by a beam of radioactive mints. I liked this one. Didn't think I would, but I did. Very much a chilly scent.
Snowblind: the perfect vanilla mint. I tried this a long time ago and gave it the boot due to being minty. I don't think I even wrote a review, I just passed it along. If I recall correctly, it did smell like dinner mints and I thought it wasn't that bad. I wish I'd kept a little bit of it so I could do a side-by-side comparison with Tokyo Stomp, but I don't have any Snowblind and I doubt I'll ever get any again.
Spooky: buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and peppermint. I like this scent. I haven't written a review for it yet, so I couldn't tell you what I like about it, I just know I like it.
Taurus 07: Rose, daisy, apple blossom, violet, poppy, columbine, thyme, and mint. Sweet spring floral. Not minty.
Treat #2: fig meat, coconut, "buttercream bonbon," orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove, ginger, and milk chocolate. Smells very Fruit-Loopy on me. Not minty.
Tulzcha: "A crystalline, cold green flame: six mints with white pepper and cucumber." Mint+cucumber. This is a cool, refreshing scent, and I do like it. I just never wear it. It's one of those scents I appreciate because it smells good but it doesn't really suit me.
Usher: light musk, fougere, white mint, mandarin, tea leaf, blackcurrant, "brushed by the scent of the tarn that surrounds the House, and the gloom and decay of the walls that hold him." I gave a bottle of this to my husband and he wore it maybe once or twice. I remember liking it when he wore it, but I don't think he liked it. I can't remember if it was primarily minty, but I doubt it.
The one that didn't have mint listed in the notes but smelled minty to me was Snow-Flakes. I really like that one, but because I don't know for sure that it has mint in it, I can't include it.
So, of those ones, the ones I like are F5, Gennivre, Tokyo Stomp, Nuclear Winter, and Spooky. (Possibly Snowblind, but I wouldn't name one that rare as a favorite anyway because in order to be a favorite it has to be obtainable.) Out of those, my hands-down favorite is Tokyo Stomp.
Verdict on Favorite Mint Scent: Monster Bait Tokyo Stomp.
[see previous entries for what I'm doing here.]
Honey in large doses is not great for me. It tends to give me a play-doh scent. That's why picking a favorite scent that's primarily honey is a bit problematic for me. When it's a minor note usually it seems to lend a very pretty smoothness to the scent, so I like to try BPAL blends that contain honey. But sometimes the honey is too much. It's not just BPAL, either; I have this problem with pretty much every perfume oil brand I've tried. I guess my skin just doesn't like it.
So, in a departure from the norm (in picking a scent that is primarily one particular note), I'm going to choose just my favorite one that has honey in it that's detectable. I already know going into it that the primarily honey ones will not be favorites.
GCs THAT CONTAIN HONEY:
Alice: Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot. Aaaaand this list starts off with a play-doh one. I can't wear this one.
And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt: Dark myrrh, white sandalwood, amber, hyssop, frankincense, honey, cypress, red musk, cardamom and saffron. This one is spicy, sweet, and complex... but I can't really detect honey in it.
Athens: voluptuous myrrh, golden honey, red wine, and sweet flowers. I tried this one twice and didn't like it either time. I don't have any idea what is going wrong for me with this scent because based on the notes it should have been okay. The honey was behaving itself nicely... but after an hour or so it smelled off. In a big way.
Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. Apparently honey WITH strong spices is a winner for me. This one is lovely. Usually cinnamon is too strong on me, but the hot cinnamon and smooth honey really balance out each other. Very nice.
Bien Loin D'ici: red musk, benzoin, caramel accord, golden honey, and spiced Moroccan unguents. Ah, red musk. How do I love thee. Oh, wait, right, I'm talking about honey. Yes, the honey in this is detectable, and it's GORGEOUS. I really like this scent a lot. Sultry, sexy, and smooth.
Bilquis: Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk. Lovely. This blend is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about in which honey can be beautiful on me when its just an undercurrent that makes the scent warm and rich. In this particular one, the almonds are much too strong for my taste at first, but luckily they fade. That initial almond blast will keep it from being a favorite, though.
Blood Kiss: Vanilla, honey, clove, red cherries, vetiver, poppy, red wine, and feral musk. I like this one, but I can't detect the honey in it. It does seem smooth underneath, but that could be from either vanilla or honey, I'm not sure which.
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. Oops, I haven't tested this one yet.
Cockaigne: milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine. This one and one other BPAL GC scent with milk and honey do NOT smell bad on me. This smells like ... well, exactly like the notes. I don't wear it, though, because although I like lotions and creams that are foody scented, usually not perfumes so much.
Cupid Complaining To Venus: Apple blossom, fig, white peach, honey absolute, red sandalwood, and wild thyme. I like the scent of this one, but it's extremely faint. It doesn't last long at me at all. That keeps it from being a favorite.
Dana O'shee: Milk, honey and sweet grains. This is one of the ones in which the honey is too strong for me. This smells off on me.
The Death of Sardanapal: Red wine, gurjum balsam, dark myrrh, honey, cassia, lemongrass, palmarosa, elemi, cognac and olibanum. Oops, I didn't write a review of this yet. Hmm. Hope I still have that bottle.
Delphi: The smoke of Sacred Incense of Apollo twined through laurel branches, bay, and honey wine. This one smelled mostly like grape juice on me. Didn't like it too much.
Eve: Apple blossom, rose, ylang ylang and golden honey. I think this one is a nice scent, but I can't smell any honey in it.
Hellcat hazelnut, buttercream, honey mead, rum and sweet almond. This one's more of a nutty creamy rum scent to me, not honey.
Hetairae: golden honey, fiery patchouli, sweet fig and clove, and a blushing touch of ylang ylang. Mostly a honeyed fig scent, on me, with some kick from the clove. It's a great scent, and I do like it, but it'll be more of a contender in the favorite fig one.
Horreur Sympathique: blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane. This is sweet and lovely, and I like it a lot. The honey isn't strong, but it has a warm wonderful smoothness to it that I attribute to the honey.
Itasô Kansei Nenkan Jorô No Fûzoku Osmanthus, white honey, ti leaf, hibiscus, and sugar cane. Kind of a dewy light floral. I didn't detect honey in it.
Jezebel: A gloriously decadent blend of honey, roses, orange blossom and sandalwood. This one tends to go chalky on me (like baby aspirin) or powdery. But I can't detect any honey.
Kali: This perfume is a blend of the sacred blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey. The honey goes wonky in this one too.
Les Bijoux: Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, frankincense and myrrh. Honey and apples at first, but then I can't really smell the honey. Ends up being a light pretty floral.
O: Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. This one is a play-doh one.
Ogun: heavy and dark cigar tobacco, gin and juniper, melon, chili pepper and a touch of honey. I really like this one, but I can't detect honey in it. Mostly melon with tobacco and a chili pepper kick.
Osun: thick with honey and herbs of love, passion and desire. I thought I liked this one a lot at first and bought a 10ml of it, but I never wear it. I can detect the honey in it, but I guess I don't really like it as well as I thought I did.
The Penitent Magdalen: Immortelle, lily of the valley, gaiac, amber, honey, white sandalwood, almond flower, blonde musk and hyssop. Haven't reviewed this one yet.
Sed Non Satiata: myrrh, red patchouli, cognac, honey, tuberose and geranium, and body musk. Can't really tell there's any honey in this.
Skuld: Ylang ylang, honey, Egyptian and Arabian musks and labdanum. Charming and bright, warm and soothing. Can't detect honey, though.
Spirit Of The Komachi Cherry Tree: Cherry blossom, blue lilac, lavender monofloral honey, white sandalwood, and Asian pear. Haven't reviewed it yet.
Sudha Segara: Sweet milk and warm, healing ginger with a touch of golden honey and our blend of Ambrosia. Amazingly, this one works on me. This is the other BPAL GC with milk and honey that does work. It smells like someone nearby has a big mug of chai and I'm catching wafts of it. I like this one a lot.
Thaleia: honey, ylang ylang, apricot, ciste, blood orange and gardenia with earthy, warm tonka. Mostly apricot and gardenia, on me. Honey isn't detectable.
White Rabbit: Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen. Some days I like this one, and some days I don't. Occasionally the honey is too much for me.
Of those, the ones that are disqualified for being play-dohy are Alice, Dana O'Shee, Kali, and O. Osun and White Rabbit walk the "too much" line a little too close for my comfort.
The ones I like a lot (in which honey is detectable) are Bengal, Bien Loin D'ici, Horreur Sympathique, and Sudha Segara. Although Bien Loin D'ici is my favorite out of those, I feel like I need to pick Sudha Segara because the honey is stronger in it. It just seems like more of a "honey" scent.
LEs THAT CONTAIN HONEY:
The Brides Of Dracula: gleaming skin musk, honey and white amber, plum blossom, osmanthus, sandalwood, calla lily, and a light, sensual blend of Eastern spices. Apparently I didn't write a review of this. I like it and wear it from time to time, but it doesn't seem like I can smell the honey in it.
Hearth 2005: candied chestnuts, buttered, covered in brown sugar and honey, alongside the scent of cedar smoke and soft pine. This is really a nutty buttery scent with pine. Pleasant, but not much honey.
Honey Moon: five different honeys, ranging from pale and sweet to deep and heady, with hints of jasmine, white gardenia, Hawaiian white ginger and thyme. Not surprisingly, this one didn't smell great on me.
Faiza, The Black Mamba: black amber, caraway, oakmoss, green sandalwood, bergamot, jasmine sambac, gardenia, orange pulp, vanilla, blackberry, black musk, white honey, ti leaf, and ginger. This one was mainly floral on me -- couldn't tell there was any honey in it.
Freak Show: A strange, disconcerting embrace… to some, alarming, and to some, intimately familiar: fig, pomegranate and cocoa bean with lemon, bergamot, vanilla, mellow honey musk, calamus and tonka. Not a whole lot of honey in this one -- this is more of a fig scent.
Gennivre, L'artiste Du Diable: Hyson tea leaf, pale mint, sugar cane, orange blossom, lemongrass, and honey. This is a lovely scent, but it's really more of a tea contender, not a honey one.
La Fée Verte: Sugared wormwood, hyssop and melissa with calamus, angelica and Dittany of Crete, blended with aohemian perfume of vanilla musk, honey absolute and Moroccan spices. I love this scent, and thankfully the honey in it doesn't smell bad on me at all. I love wearing this one. It's really unusual and almost always gets a compliment from someone.
Khajuraho (2006 & 2007): honey, date palm, tuberose, davana blossom, amber, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, Damask rose, and champaca flower. Both versions (from both years) smell the same on me. It's perfumey and pretty, but I can't really tell there's honey in it.
Litha: Honey mead with honeysuckle, oak wood, ivy leaf, wild thyme, carnation, daisy, vervain, gum arabic, frankincense, yauhtli, and liquid copal. Mead yes, but honey no. Couldn't smell honey in this.
Luperci (2006 & 2007): raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk. The 2006 version smelled mostly like juniper, which I didn't like, and the 2007 version smells mostly like patchouli, which I do like. Neither have a detectable honey, though.
The Masque: Honey and carnation, rich incense and rose accord, myrtle, red sandalwood, amber, jonquil and clove, patchouli, tobacco and labdanum. I could barely detect any honey in this, mostly spicy flowers.
Milk Moon 2005: Cream and warm honey soften our traditional blend of lunar oils. I really, really like this one. Not wonky at all. This is lovely, creamy, and sweet. Wouldn't say it's strong on the honey, but it's so smooth and wonderful I must be picking up honey from it somehow.
Milk Moon 2007: Sweet milk, golden honey, fig fruit, pomegranate, dates, and white grape. This one I had trouble with, though. Smelled like sour milk.
The Oblation: A stirring blend of dianthus, French lavender, blackberry, and white honey. Couldn't smell honey in this. Smelled like blackberry wine to me.
Ostara: Orris root, bergamot, frankincense, daffodil, orange pulp, attar of rose, jonquil, strawberry leaf, benzoin, violet leaf, copal, honey cakes, sweet cream, and the blossoms of springtime. Couldn't smell honey in this one either.
Pink Moon 2005: This Lunar blend is soft with phlox, tulip, daffodil, dogwood and muscari, dusted with pink sugar and honey, and a touch of the first strawberries of the season. I couldn't tell there was any honey in this.
Poisson D'avril: Lenten rose, crested iris, Virginia bluebell, primrose, moss phlox, blue crocus, daffodil, and dewy tulip with a touch of sugar blossom and honey. I can't detect honey in this.
Rose Moon: Bulgarian rose, tea rose, violet leaf, opium poppy, Bois de Jasmin, patchouli leaf, honey, blue lilac, balsam, woodruff, and lemon peel. I couldn't detect any honey in this, just floral notes.
Selkie: The chill waters of the Orkney coast, tea-leaved willow, honey-touched Grass-of-Parnassus, sea aster, and Scottish Primrose. I couldn't detect any honey in this.
Svadhinaopatika: Golden amber, oude, red sandalwood, massoia bark, honey, and currant. This is one of those fabulous ones in which the honey undercurrent gives it a luxurious smoothness. I like this one.
Of those, I really liked Svadhinaopatika, Milk Moon 05, and La Fée Verte. But La Fée Verte is by far my favorite.
Verdict on Favorite Honey Scent: La Fée Verte
[see previous entries for what I'm doing here.]
Picking a favorite grapefruit scent is a toughie for me because I tend to like it. I didn't think I would like it, when I first started trying BPAL scents. In fact, that was during the time when several of the GC grapefruit scents were discontinued because of a component problem, and that was just fine with me because I didn't think I'd like them anyway. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I liked Cheshire Cat. Weird. Then I tried other grapefruit scents and liked those too. So now I have to admit that I do indeed like grapefruit scents. I do NOT, however, like yuzu. In fact, I really hate it. I like that pretty sparkly quality that grapefruit has, and not the harsh acidic yuzu. I'm not even going to bother doing a "favorite yuzu" because I can't stand any of them.
Grapefruit always comes out strong on me when I first put on a scent, so all of these are fair game for "primarily grapefruit scents" for me.
GCs THAT CONTAIN GRAPEFRUIT
Baobhan Sith: Grapefruit, white tea, apple blossom and ginger. I tried this one again because when I reviewed it I said I liked it but it didn't suit me... but that was back before I realized I like grapefruit. I do like the scent -- it's nice with the tea. The ginger makes it smell a bit off, though.
Cheshire Cat: Grapefruit, red currant, dark musk, Roman chamomile, delphinium, and lavender. Smooth, crisp, bright, and shiny. I have a bottle of this and wear it pretty often.
Croquet: Pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk. I like this one a lot too, just like Cheshire Cat -- I'd need to do a side-by-side comparison to see which one I like better.
Megaera: Orris, black amber, bergamot, plum and grapefruit. My notes on this said it was "too citrusy for me," but I probably need to re-try it.
Manhattan: sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid. I like this one a lot, and I have a 10ml of it. It took a couple of tries before it grew on me, but it grew on me in a big way. My only problem with this scent is that it fades out on me more quickly than most BPAL oils do.
Mania: Screeching white musk collides with a howl of red musk, with sharp white grapefruit and pale strawberry leaf. This is another one I like a lot. It's a lot different from the others due to the red musk.
Night-gaunt: something akin to yuzu, white grapefruit, and kumquat mixed with the snow-dusted flowers of Mount Ngranek. Very, very bitter on me, and I didn't like it at all.
Phobos: Chilling white musk, lemon verbena, white grapefruit and lemongrass. The lemongrass killed this one for me.
Shattered: A blend of white champagne notes, grapefruit, lotus, slivered mint and crystalline aquatic blooms. Didn't work because the mint was way too much for me and seemed menthol-y.
Also, Versailles has "citrus" in it that smelled like grapefruit to me, but I didn't like that one. I thought Detox maybe had grapefruit in it too, and I liked that one all right, but not as perfume of course.
Out of that list, I really like Cheshire Cat, Croquet, Manhattan, and Mania. I tried them all on at once to compare them (plus Baobhan Sith), and I was surprised to discover that I like Croquet better than Cheshire Cat. And although I really like Mania, the red musk in it overpowers the grapefruit, so I can't say it's primarily a grapefruit scent on me. It's primarily red musk. However... Manhattan is the winner. I like its sleekness better than the pretty florals in Croquet.
LEs THAT CONTAIN GRAPEFRUIT
Hungry Ghost Moon: Offerings of ginger candy, sugar cane, smoky vanilla and rice wine mingle with a ghost's perfume of white sandalwood, ho wood, ti, white grapefruit, crystalline musk and aloe. This scent is tapered by the presence of seven herbs, woods and resins used in the purification of the spirit and the purging of earthly concerns from the soul. This one smells like sugary grapefruit on me, and I liked it. However... I haven't worn this in a year. (Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long.) I need to get out my bottle and test it again.
The Ectasy Of Infatuation: Black cherry, pink grapefruit, white musk, lemon verbena, champagne grape, pikaki, plumeria, and Hawaiian ginger. This one is a little too floral for me when it's dry.
Monster Bait: Biggercritters: Five vanillas with Moroccan jasmine, white gardenia, and pink grapefruit. The jasmine in this smelled pungent on me. I need to try one of the white-label bottles, though, because when I smelled one at a meet n' sniff it smelled a lot different in the bottle than the critter-label one I tried at Convergence.
Queen Of Diamonds: A glittering icicle of a woman, regal, proud and cold: shimmering white grapefruit, pale flowers and lemon bark with orchid, rose and a dash of mandarin. The grapefruit in this one seems to have disappeared. I like it, but I don't think it'll ever be my favorite grapefruit scent because I can't really smell much grapefruit in it.
Out of those, I think Hungry Ghost Moon is my favorite. But I like the GC grapefruit scents better than any of these.
Verdict on Favorite Grapefruit Scent: Manhattan
[see previous entries for what I'm doing.]
I've lumped these all together because they smell sort of similar on me. I generally dislike dirt and earth notes because they amp so much on me, and often I don't like moss or oakmoss either. Sometimes, though, I find a moss/oakmoss blend that really works on me.
GCs THAT CONTAIN DIRT/EARTH/MOSS/OAKMOSS
Arkham: maple, birch, dogwood, cypress and pine softened by a garland of New England wildflowers: bergamot, columbine, rue anemone, blue violet, creeping phlox, bloodroot, toadflax, and pixie moss.
Bayou: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms.
Burial: The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetary loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead.
Cathode: Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints.
Crossroads: A chill twilit garden of blooms over dry earth and mosses, heavily laden with incense and offertory herbs.
Danse Macabre: Black cypress with oakmoss, frankincense, oude, and a sliver of toasted hazelnut.
Death of the Gravedigger: Snow, soil, opoponax and myrrh.
Destroying Angel: Papery white notes evoke the grace of this fungi, grounded by thin, crisp soil.
Fae: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss.
Greed: patchouli, heliotrope, copal and oakmoss.
Horreur Sympathique: blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane.
I Died For Beauty: The Venusian splendor of ylang ylang and violet stirred by hyssop, frankincense, and grave loam. [grave loam, in this case, is oakmoss and Spanish Moss]
Jazz Funeral: Bittersweet bay rum and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss.
Jezirat al Tennyn: smoke and fire, earth and wind.
Kiyohime Changes From A Serpent: Salty ocean spray, red kelp, black plum, lychee, sea moss, green musk, hachiya, plum blossom, and matcha.
Les Anges Déchus: Khus, blonde tobacco, life everlasting, orris root, black currant, cabreuva, Spanish moss, leather, and ambrette.
Les Infortunes de la Vertu: A pain-tinged, pleasure-soaked blend of leather, oakmoss, orange blossom, amber, and rose with A breath of virginal French florals and a hint of austere monastic penitential incense.
Lyonesse: Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss.
Mad Meg: Fire-scorched earth, black mandarin, cinnamon bark, bitter almond, sage, vetiver, and balsam of peru.
Nephilim: Holy frankincense and hyssop in union with earthy fig, defiled by black patchouli and vetiver, with a chaotic infusion of lavender, cardamom, tamarind, rosemary, oakmoss and cypress.
Nocnitsa: Her scent is that of a lightless fir wood, nighttime air, wet forest mosses and upturned earth.
Nosferatu: desiccated herbs and gritty earth brought to life with a swell of robust and sanguineous red wines.
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.
Omen: oakmoss, juniper berry, myrrh and patchouli.
Penny Dreadful: Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam.
Phantom Queen: Black orchid, apple blossom, meadowsweet, and rue over Irish moss, hawthorn and red clover.
Robin Goodfellow: Dark musk, moss-covered wood, ragwort, heather, and sage.
Salomé: almond with star jasmine, oakmoss, red sandalwood and Egyptian musk.
Sunflower: Sunflower bouquet, black amber, creeping black moss, wilted greenery, and scorched, dry stems.
Thanatos: Dry white sandalwood and soft Siamese benzoin over a lugubrious blend of myrrh, Moroccan rose, mastic, tomb moss and a thin whiff of Greek incense.
Two Monsters: Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper.
Urania: Moonflower, Moroccan jasmine, benzoin, white musk, iris, moss and a flash of ozone.
Vicomte de Valmont: ambergris, white musk, white sandalwood, Spanish Moss, orange blossom, three mints, jasmine, rose geranium and a spike of rosemary.
Viola: Gentle tea rose, lilac, Calla Lily, and Somalian Rose layered over golden Peruvian amber, Spanish moss, red sandalwood, rosewood, and myrrh, with the lightest touch of Mandarin.
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.
Zombi: Dried roses, rose leaf, Spanish moss, oakmoss and deep brown earth.
Of those ones, the ones that seem to be primarily dirt/earth/moss scents are Bayou, Burial, Cathode, Crossroads, Jazz Funeral, Jezirat al Tennyn, Nocnitsa, Nosferatu, Penny Dreadful, Robin Goodfellow, and Zombi. Of those, I like Bayou, Jazz Funeral, Nocnitsa, and Robin Goodfellow. My favorite is Robin Goodfellow.
By the way, although it isn't mentioned in the notes, Ulalume smells like it has a little bit of dirt/earth in it too, and I like that one as well. Death Cap and Masabakes smell like they have some dirt/earth in them as well, and I don't like either of those at all.
LEs THAT CONTAIN DIRT/EARTH/MOSS/OAKMOSS
Annabel Lee: wild peony, sweet pea, cucumber and white sage with sea lilies and moss.
Bad Luck Woman Blues: Spanish moss, black pepper, mullein, sweet sage, vandal root, cypress, cigar tobacco, and a puff of goofer dust cloaked by a swarthy cologne of vetiver, lime, dark musk, caramel accord, and lilac.
Banded Sea Snake: Snake Oil with oakmoss, sea moss, and olive leaf.
The Castle: A distant whisper of pine, wet moss and dry leaves passing through vast halls and winding dungeons whose scent bears the memory of blood, faded splendor, imperial elegance and stunning violence.
Fée: Auoyant, dulcetlend of vanilla, sunflower, carnation, honeydew, peachlossom, lychee, oakmoss and white tea.
Faiza The Black Mamba: black amber, caraway, oakmoss, green sandalwood, bergamot, jasmine sambac, gardenia, orange pulp, vanilla, blackberry, black musk, white honey, ti leaf, and ginger.
Gnome: No notes listed, but when I tried it, it clearly had dirt/earth in it.
Graveyard Dirt: This is the scent of pure graveyard dust, spattered with grave loam and dusted lightly with tombstone moss.
Hunger Moon: Ozone, white sandalwood, crystallized white amber, verbena, oakmoss, clary sage, and a hint of white citrus rind.
Jólasveinar: Their scent is a mishmash of snow, dirt, Icelandic moss, marsh felwort, and the smushed petals of buttercups and moorland spotted orchids, with the barest hint of the scent of pilfered Christmas pastries.
King of Clubs: deeper, darker [than Queen of Clubs] earth notes with dark musk, tobacco leaf, oakmoss, amber, leather, sage and vetiver with fig and bitter almond.
Luperci: Raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk.
Oborot: Balkan fir sap, dark mosses, Greek Mountain tea flower, black pine, salty ocean spray, deep black earth, and a moon-touched magickal incense of sandarac, frankincense, and ravensara.
The Premature Burial: Oppressive darkness, expressed through black orchid and patchouli, smothered by wet soil, a coffin’s teakwood, and the funereal gloom of cypress.
Privilege: Armoise, tuberose, white citrus, rose absolute, oakmoss, tiare, tuberose, vanilla, linden, and lemon tree blossom.
Queen of Clubs: Soft, deep earth notes with myrrh, amber, pomegranate, dark incense, red currant, rose and vanilla.
R M Renfield: moss, cumin, patchouli, Balsam of Peru, and neroli.
Roux-ga-roux: Spanish moss, swamp jessamine, bog water, cypress, hickory wood, lobelia, sweet flag, wisteria, and marsh milkweed.
Samhainophobia: Menacing Haitian vetiver, patchouli, and clove with a shock of bourbon geranium, grim oakmoss, and dread-inspiring balsams pierce the innocuous scent of autumn leaves.
The Sleeper: Night-blooming jasmine, opium poppy, wild rosemary, Calla lily, oakmoss and crypt musk.
Swadhisthana: Vanilla, nutmeg, orris root, gardenia, damiana, jasmine, patchouli, ylang, tangerine, bergamot, sandalwood, oakmoss.
Vipralabda: benzoin, Greek sage, hay, melaleuca ericifolia, oakmoss, and blue chamomile.
Whipporwill: Spanish moss, cedar, black pepper, oakmoss, juniper, bamboo reeds and cardamom.
The Wild Men of Jezirat Al Tennyn: red amber, Spanish moss, Indonesian patchouli, ambergris, red pepper, two cloves, and vanilla flower.
Of those ones, the ones that seem to be primarily dirt/earth/moss scents are Bad Luck Woman Blues, Graveyard Dirt, King of Clubs, Oborot, The Premature Burial, Queen of Clubs, R M Renfield, Roux-ga-Roux, and Whippoorwill. Of those, I like the last three in that list a lot. I'd have a hard time choosing a favorite among those three actually, but if I had to, I'd pick R M Renfield.
Verdict on Favorite Dirt/Earth/Moss/Oakmoss Scent: R M Renfield.
[see previous entries for what I'm doing here.]
Coconut's a tricky note for me. I like it a lot when it's a minor note in the scent, but when it's a major note sometimes it smells either too much like suntan lotion or like Fruit Loops (generally the fig + coconut combination does that on me). I'm going to try to figure out which primarily coconut scent is my favorite, but my all-time favorite blend that has coconut in it is Snake Charmer (which just has the barest hint).
GCs THAT CONTAIN COCONUT
Black Pearl: Coconut, Florentine iris, hazelnut and opalescent white musk. This one has a lot of coconut in it -- the kind that reminds me of suntan lotion.
Blood Pearl: soft orris, blood musk, and coconut. Dry papery orris and a wonderful sexy musk. The coconut rounds out the scent nicely in this one.
Brown Jenkins: dusty white sandalwood and orris root, dry coconut husk, creeping musk, and the residue of ceremonial incense. Dry and incensey, with a hint of coconut. I really like that white sandalwood and the cocounut husk. It's light and sweet, dry and hazy. The coconut in this one is light and incredibly gorgeous.
Eden: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood. A sweet, warm, nice scent -- but definitely of the Fruit Loops variety.
Elegba: coconut, tobacco and sweet, sugared rum. Very reminiscent of Pina Coladas at first, but when it's dry the tobacco comes out a little. Tropical and sweet. Nice blend.
Obatala: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. On me this smells like a cross between suntan lotion and overly creamy coconuts. I know other people love this one, but it wasn't so hot on me.
The Sailor's Den: Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather. Quiet, subdued, and pleasant. The coconut and rum smell very good here. Classy. This is a great, unusual, all-purpose sort of scent. You could wear this anywhere and it would be perfectly appropriate.
Shango: red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane. The coconut in this one gives it an extremely pleasant creamy background. I love this scent and have a bottle of it, but I wouldn't call it primarily coconut. It's in the background here.
Shoggoth: white amber, green coconut meat, iris, palmarosa, Chinese peony, lime, water lily, snowdrop, muguet, lemongrass, osmanthus, wisteria, glassy musk, and hinoki. The lemongrass in this one killed it for me. My skin amps lemongrass so much I practically couldn't smell anything else.
Also, although not mentioned in the notes list, Perversion definitely smells like coconut to me. I bought a 10ml bottle over a year ago and I've been letting it age (because I read that aging will make the coconut scent die down a lot), but it's still strongly coconut-scented. I've noticed in both Blood Pearl and in Perversion that the coconut scent died out a lot faster in an imp than in a 10ml bottle. I bought 10mls of both Blood Pearl and Perversion after trying imps, and the coconut was so strong in the 10mls that I couldn't wear them. I sold the Blood Pearl bottle a while back because I like Perversion better, but the Perversion bottle still isn't to the stage at which I can wear it yet.
In addition, the Tarot blend The Star and the Qliphoth blend Gamaliel both smelled a little Fruit-Loopy to me, so I think they have some coconut in as well.
Of the GCs, I really like Perversion, Blood Pearl, Brown Jenkins, and The Sailor's Den. I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite between Brown Jenkins and The Sailor's Den, but I think I'm going to go with Brown Jenkins.
LEs THAT CONTAIN COCONUT
Antonino, The Carny Talker: White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender. I forgot to write a review of this before I sold it. Shoot. But I know the reason I sold it was that the verbena was too strong in it for me, so this isn't a "primarily coconut" contender.
Carnaval Diabolique: Opium smoke, lemon flower, heliotrope, tuberose, black musk, vanilla, coconut, apricot flower. Whoops, I didn't write a review for this one, either. But also not a primarily coconut one. More of a smoky floral.
Creepy: butterscotch-kissed, caramel-smothered red apples spiked with a blast of coconut rum. Nice but mostly apples, not coconut.
Dark Delicacies: devil’s trumpet accord, black orchid, tonka, coconut meat, fruit gums, osmanthus, smoky resin, myrtle, and Indonesian patchouli. This is a gorgeous scent, but I don't think the coconut is prominent at all.
Death Adder: Snake Oil with vetiver, black coconut, vanilla, and opoponax. Ahhh, this one smells great. Similar to Snake Charmer but with vetiver.
King Of Spades: oakmoss, vetiver and opoponax with black plum, wild blackberry, soft woods, sharp and glinting white musk under a soft, velvety robe of vanilla and coconut. I can't remember what this smells like off the top of my head, but I know the coconut isn't pronounced. My husband wears KoS, and he's not very fond of coconut scents, so it can't be very strong at all.
Monster Bait: Underbed: Cassia-caked cocoa coconut over angel food cake. I smelled no coconut in this. It was all cassia, all the time.
Red Lantern: Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. This one smells mostly like spicy caramel on me, not so much coconut.
Snake Charmer: Arabian musk and exotic spices slinking through Egyptian amber, enticing vanilla, and a serpentine blend of black plum, labdanum, ambrette, benzoin and black coconut. This one's probably my #1 favorite BPAL oil, but I can't say the coconut in it is enough to qualify it for a "primarily coconut" scent.
Spooky: warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. This one's a smooth peppermint on me, and not much coconut.
Treat #2: fig meat, coconut, and "buttercream bonbon," rolled in orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove and ginger, dipped in milk chocolate. Very much a Fruit-Loopy scent on me.
Also, although not mentioned in the notes, Milk Moon 05 also had a slight coconut twinge to it.
Out of the LEs, I kind of have to pick Treat #2 by default because it's the only one in which the coconut seems prominent. However, I don't like Treat #2 any more than I like Eden from the GC.
Verdict on Favorite Coconut Scent: Brown Jenkins
[see previous blog entry for an explanation of what I'm doing here.]
BPAL's chocolate note is usually not so great on me, but my luck is much better with cocoa. So I'll give chocolate/cocoa a whirl.
GCs THAT CONTAIN CHOCOLATE/COCOA
Bliss: The serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate. This one wasn't my fave. The chocolate didn't work so great on me.
Centzon Totochtin: Bittersweet Mexican cocoa with rum, red wine, and a scent redolent of sacrificial blood. I like this one, but it's not my favorite because of the red wine.
Gluttony: Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel. Not primarily chocolate on me at all, mostly nutty/creamy.
The Great Sword Of War: Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. Mainly herby on my skin. Didn't like it.
Intrigue: Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes. I like this one a lot; it smells mainly like a cocoa/fig scent on me.
Kali: This perfume is a blend of the sacred blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey. I like this one okay, but it's not primarily chocolate on me. Mostly honey and wine.
Tezcatlipoca: Deep cocoa laced with patchouli, leather armor, ritual incense, and a touch of Xochiquetzal's flowers. I like this one a lot. I used to have a bottle and I gave it to someone who was looking for it. I miss that bottle and often wish I still had it.
Vice: A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom. The chocolate just didn't work that well on me. Smelled like tootsie rolls.
Velvet: gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh. I like this one a lot. A lot of sandalwood and myrrh with just a little bit of cocoa.
Favorite GCs are Intrigue, Tezcatlipoca, and Velvet. (Not a surprise that they all contain cocoa and not chocolate.) The cocoa is prominent in all of them, but it's hard to choose a favorite because they all smell so different. I think my favorite is Velvet, though.
LEs THAT CONTAIN CHOCOLATE/COCOA
Boomslang: Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk. Ahhhh, I love this one. Have 2 bottles.
The Candy Butcher: Dark chocolate with a heavy cream undertone. Didn't work on me at all.
Enraged Groundhog Musk: Cranky groundhog musk sweetened up by chocolate-covered black cherries, cardamom, French vanilla, and caramel. The cardamom amped too much in this for me, to my disappointment.
Freak Show: fig, pomegranate and cocoa bean with lemon, bergamot, vanilla, mellow honey musk, calamus and tonka. I really like this, but the cocoa bean isn't prominent. This one is similar to Intrigue and Carnal from the GC. I have a bottle of this.
Monster Bait: Underbed: Cassia-caked cocoa coconut over angel food cake. The cassia is really really strong in this. I have a bottle of this... not sure why though. I never wear it.
The Pumpkin Patch #2: Pumpkin with cocoa, hazelnut and walnut. Largely pumpkin with just a little cocoa.
Spooky (Yule 2003 & 2005) A maddeningly festive blend of warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. Mostly minty on me, not too cocoa-ish.
The Tell-tale Heart: blood musk, cocoa, black pepper, allspice, dragon's blood resin and vetiver. This is a fantastic scent but seems like mainly spicy dragon's blood on me. I have a couple of bottles of this.
Thirteen (4/13/07): A base of cocoa absolute and white chocolate with thirteen baneful and beneficial bits: cardamom, fig meat, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile, sandalwood, catnip, clove, and a bundle of five blessed blossoms and herbs. This is the purple label one. Too herby for me.
Thirteen (10/13/06): Cocoa and vanilla beans, Mysore sandalwood, star fruit, orange rind, red amber, fig leaf, mimosa, rooibos tea, bourbon geranium, rose otto, nutmeg, and lavender. My favorite of the 13s so far. I have one bottle of this.
Thirteen (5/13/05 & 1/13/06): thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris. I like this one (the white label one) but I liked Oct 06 (the orange label) better.
Treat #2: A fine confection for discriminating trick or treaters: a fig meat, coconut, anduttercreamonbon rolled in orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove and ginger, dipped in milk chocolate. Not primarily chocolate on me at all, more like Fruit Loops.
Wulric, The Wolfman: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and cistus. This smelled a little weird and not harmonic on me.
Of those, the Oct 06 (orange label) is my favorite of the 13s, but Boomslang is clearly my favorite. I'm so glad that has cocoa in it and not chocolate. I would say that Boomslang is mostly Snake Oil rather than mostly cocoa, but Velvet is my favorite GC and that one's more myrrh & sandalwood than cocoa. Between Velvet and Boomslang I prefer Boomslang, but I'd love to have a bottle of Velvet too. They're really different. (Of all of these, I'd like to have bottles of Boomslang, Velvet, Tezcatlipoca, and 13 orange label.)
Verdict on Favorite Cocoa/Chocolate Scent: Boomslang
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.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
Antique Lace - A soft, wistful blend of dry flowers, aged linens, and the faint breath of long-faded perfumes. This oil doesn't seem to smell as good on me as what many other people describe in their reviews. It's kind of a stale perfumey scent. Milky and vaguely floral. It does smell white, but it doesn't smell fresh to me.
Belle Epoque - Sweet opium, Lily of the Valley, vanilla, mandarin and red sandalwood. Very sweet, very pretty, but also very light. I like the scent a lot, but it just doesn't last one me. I once spilled a whole imp on myself and could barely smell it 30 minutes later. Phooey.
Chimera - The fiery, volatile scent of cinnamon, thickened by myrrh, honeysuckle, and copal. At first it's a lot of cinnamon, but there's a syrupy feel to it, kind of like that sticky frosting on cinnabons. As it dries down it's still quite a lot of cinnamon, more than I generally like. And by the time the cinnamon fades out, any other scent that was under there is gone too.
Lightning - The electric tang of ozone, marine notes, and a drop of sharp rain. Wooo, very ozoney. Slightly salty, kind of a weird twang to it. This isn't the kind of scent I would wear as a personal fragrance, but it is the sort of scent I would use for a linen spray. It smells clean and fresh.
March Hare - A twisted teatime tart: apricot and sweet clove. At first the apricot smells a bit like an artificial peach scent used in air fresheners. I used to have a "peach potporri" powdered carpet freshener that smelled very similar. The clove isn't very strong, but it gives the scent an earthy foundation and balances out the sweet fruitiness. And after 20 minutes or so the apricot doesn't smell nearly as aritifical, and the apricot/clove combination is more balanced. It's a pretty scent, but it still reminds me too much of that carpet freshener for me to wear it.
Swank - Simply cool, the essence of Lounge: the scent of a crisp pomegranate martini. Reminds me of a cross between generic bath beads and bubblegum. Plus it's strong. It reminds me of a cheap fragrance for some reason, like a bathroom spray. The second imp I tried smelled better, less like bubblegum, but it's still too much of a sweet artificial scent for me. I'll stick with the peach and apricot ones.
White Rabbit - Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen. A clean-smelling white tea scent, and the ginger is pleasant. It smells polite. It's kind of like Dorian plus fabric softener. It has more of a crispness to it and less creaminess than Dorian. And the honey in this doesn't smell like play-doh like it does in other blends.
Cross-posting to the reviews forum.
Blood Kiss - Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk. At first I mainly get vetiver from this (I love vetiver) with clove and a little bit of cherry. It's smoky and warm. After a while the honey comes out a little more and makes it creamy... it ends up as kind of a husky smooth clove scent, with only a little bit of vetiver underneath. Complex and wonderful. I like it a lot.
Hollywood Babylon - The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry. Hmmm... black cherry and red musk, very lovely. Lusty and dark. I don't really get much strawberry, which is okay with me. I love heliotrope, and I always love amber and vanilla. Seriously, the only note in this whole blend that might not have worked on me was the strawberry, and I can't really detect it. This is exactly the sort of oil I'd like to wear 5 days out of 7. I tried this again as part of the GC circular swap after not trying it for a couple of months, and now I realize I need a bottle of it.
Katharina - A strong, willful blend with a soft, utterly lovely soul: white musk with a trickle of bright, sharp apricot and orange blossom. Katharina is a very bright, very springtime scent. There is something in it that reminds me of popsicle sticks. You know that woody flavor combined with the last drops of fruit-flavored popsicle left on the stick. It's very soft though, it doesn't have strong throw.
Queen Mab - A very complex scent, both shadowy and fierce: black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk. I loooooove this oil. It's beautiful and womanly, sexy and powerful. There's nothing young and innocent about this scent, it's the scent of a woman who knows what she wants. The black orchid is wonderful, and I love the sandalwood and musk with it. To be honest I'm not sure what night-blooming jasmine and osmanthus smell like, but if they're in this blend I'm pretty sure I like them. Mmmmm, this smells good. Can't believe I don't have a bottle of this yet... it's going on the list right now.
Rosalind - Dew-covered berries and fresh green grasses with a faint breath of spring flowers. This oil smells mainly grassy, but very fresh. The florals are very faint and not all that noticeable. It does smell a bit dewy as well. It's a young, clean, fresh scent. It's pretty, but too feminine for me personally.
Tempest - A crisp ozone-tinged breeze. The scent of the first gentle rain before the storm. This doesn't smell much like ozone to me, but it does smell breezy. There's kind of a citrus scent to it as well. It smells much brighter than most ozone scents.
Thanatopsis - A deep, solomn earthen scent containing pine, juniper and musk. Thanatopsis was pretty far down on my "to try" list because of the pine and juniper, which are traditionally urgh for me. I put it on, sniffed, thought "eugh, pine," then went back to typing something. About 10 minutes later I started to wonder where that lovely scent was coming from. I traced it to the little swipe of Thanatopsis. So I swiped on a whole bunch more, and waited for the pine to go away again. Is anyone else getting red musk out of this? I swear the musk smells like red musk... and at one point I thought I faintly detected some leather. Very animalistic, and to be honest I don't mind the pine. It actually makes the whole thing seem slightly fresh, giving a pleasant respite from the feral undertone. I can see this being masculine, but I'm reluctant to hand over the imp to the hubby. I kinda want to keep it for myself.
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.)
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.
