[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
Has it been a month since I wrote anything here? Sheesh. I thought it had been maybe a couple of weeks.
I would really like to start writing more in this blog because I don't have any RL friends who are into BPAL, except my husband. My LJ journal is mostly just full of entries that have a company's name in the title and then a list of all their products I've tried and whether or not I liked them. I suppose it's not helpful to anyone but me.
And I don't want to be all over the place making all kinds of posts everywhere about every BPAL oil I try because I don't want to be a pest. Plus, it seems like it's very easy to irritate people on the Internet, so I'm cautious about that. (If someone heard me talking it would sound different from the way text looks.) People tell me that I have an extremely expressive face, and I also gesture with my hands a lot, and all of that gets lost when I type.
So I guess I'll just post here. It seems pretty unobtrusive. And I'm pretty sure no one is reading this anyway.
I have been visiting my sister for the past five days, and in her house they go to bed at 9 p.m. on work nights -- I go to bed around 4 a.m. and sleep until noon. So since I had a bunch of free time where I was sitting around my sister's house by myself with none of the usual distractions at my own home, I decided to be productive. I tried to consolidate my BPAL reviews into one location.
And HERE is the humongous result. It took me roughly 20 hours, and it's still pretty crappy and incomplete. Man, there are a lot of different BPAL oils.
Argh, it's been a crappy week. Sort of. Mostly due to this damn cold. I hate being sick. It makes me mad to be sick. I don't know how to stop getting angry about it, but I wish I could. I think that if I spent my mental energy concentrating on getting better rather than perpetuating my foul mood I might recover more quickly. I am the whiniest, rottenest, most annoying sick person you've ever met.
But! At least it's starting to go away. Probably by next week I'll be fine. And next week is more important than this week because next week it's my birthday.
Ye gods, 35 years old. Holy crap. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that I was 25? It sure seems like it. I remember once when I was little complaining to my dad that time goes so slow (when you're little the time just drags on and on until the fun things happen), and he got this funny smile on his face and said something like, "When you get older, it'll go by a lot faster." As usual, Daddy was right.
One of the things that bugs me about being this old is that I have just started to realize that I can say things like, "Yeah, but that happened 20 years ago" to my friends from high school. Twenty years ago. TWENTY. I'm starting to remember 30 years ago with increasing clarity. I don't feel old when I look in the mirror, or even when I overhear teenagers talking and their inane conversations drive me up the wall. I always thought that would make me feel old, when I realized that I didn't have anything in common with teenagers any more. But nope, that's not it. It's that I used to feel like I had so much of life ahead of me. Now there's a huge swath BEHIND me, 35 years' worth... that's what gets to me.
Don't get me wrong, looking back doesn't make me feel like I regret anything. I might not have the life I imagined I'd have, but it's pretty damn good. In fact as I've gotten older I've taken care of myself better -- I actually look better now than when I was 28. I'm definitely more financially comfortable. And I'd like to think I'm wiser, too. All in all not too shabby.
Anyhoo, enough of that. Mostly I wanted to write about my week, so I don't know how I ended up with that birthday-related nostalgia.
This week, I submitted two more Trick or Treat pleas. I was really hoping to be able to do four, and hopefully (maybe) get all the different ones, or at least have something to swap for any I didn't get. But it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to afford one more submission before the deadline. Alas! I keep telling myself I have too much perfume oil as it is -- I need to do a serious reduction of my collection. But I've been at this BPAL thing for 8 months now, and the oils are still coming in at a much faster rate than they're going out. The good news is that I haven't been buying from eBay in quite a while; mostly I'm just ordering from the Lab. The bad news is that the reason I don't want to buy any of the older scents is because I've already tried nearly all of them.
And now I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Good night!
A 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.]
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
ETA: I actually wrote this on about April 8th, I just never figured out the Publish button thingie until just now.
Allrighty, figuring out how to set up this blog wasn't too rough.
I wanted to start a blog because my BPAL habit is getting out of control. Not in terms of sheer numbers of imps and bottles, mind you -- that would be silly. Clearly I can never have enough BPAL. The part that is out of control is the organization of it.
I have a box for keeper bottles, a box for keeper imps, a box for swaps, and a box for imps I haven't tested yet. I also have a box for frimps from the Lab because I like to keep those separate so I know which ones were "straight form the Lab" for swaps. Everything in my "keep" boxes has labels on the top. The imp labels are color-coded by scent category.
I have a color-coded spreadsheet that lists all the oils, their categories, their notes, a basic summary of what I read of their reviews, and my own thoughts on them.
And apart from that, it's a DISASTER. I forget I bought an imp from my wishlist and I buy it again from someone else. My to-be-tested imp box is overflowing. I can't sell or swap anything to save my life, so I end up with like 3 imps of Jabberwocky that I'll never wear. I begin to panic because I'm terrified I'll swap something that has been tampered with before I got it unbeknownst to me, and then I'll get blacklisted in the whole community, so I start to think I need at least 2 of everything before I can sell it so I can compare them and make sure they both seem legit. I have reviews of some scents and not some of others, and I've already swapped away a few imps that I didn't write reviews/thoughts for, so now I'm thinking I'll have to buy the buggers again. And the biggest horror of all: What if my tastes change? What if my skin smells different today because I used the Decadence smooch? What if something I thought I hated and swapped away turned out to be something that I will love 1 year from now? I better just keep everything...
I keep telling myself I will NOT buy any more until I get this situation straightened out. But here I am at 11:00 on a Friday night trolling the sales posts to see if by some miracle someone has an imp of Spanked they want to sell. Sigh.
ETA: This was from April 10.
I can't find the appropriate thread right now so I'm putting this here.
Holy fricking crap. This has been one of the best days I've had in a long time. I'm thinking it ranks right up there with the day we brought our puppy Prudence home.
I had so many packages delivered today that the mailman left one of those plastic mail bins outside my front door. And this is what was in it:
My March update order with 5mLs of Peony Moon, the two Monster Baits, Saturn, and Uranus. And 3 imp packs with imps of all but two of the March GC updates, plus 13 frimps. YAY!
I also got packages from herbhealer (Thunderbird!!) and sheila (with tons of stuff off my wishlist that I bought from her, including a 5mL of Beatrice, which is now my spring scent!).
In addition to that, I got my "mystery box" from eBay, which had in it decants of Peony Moon and the Monster Baits! Plus tons of other stuff too, including 7 BPAL imps!
I also got my fabulous order from Arcana, with soaps and perfume oils, and they frimped me a couple of oils plus a free big bar of Dia de los Muertos soap!
And here is where I'm saving the best for last.
I got a total of 13 decants that I bought from lorajc, including these:
Snowblind, Skadi, Queen of Spades , and FORMULA 54.
This has been my BEST BPAL DAY EVER!!!!
Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who sent me these great packages!!!
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.
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...
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.
Cross-posting to Reviews forum and my LJ journal.
I got the first package from kakiphony, which incldues Ave Maria Gratia Plena, Hymn to Propserine, Jazz Funeral, Jolly Roger, and Juke Joint. Here are my reviews.
Ave Maria Gratia Plena - Rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris. At first this smells mainly like lemon, but that fades into a strong floral. I can't really smell any sandalwood, which is too bad. I think there's some musk under there, but the florals are so strong I can't really tell much. I do think this is pretty, but it's not my style. Too floral for me. Lots of throw, and pretty strong.
Hymn to Prosperine - The darkening amber of faith’s sunset, deepened by the dark fruits of Proserpine. The first time I tried this, it went wonky after 20 minutes. This time, it's staying mostly perfumey amber that doesn't go powdery, and the dark fruits aren't starting to smell like rotten fruit. I'm blaming hormones for that first failure trial. This time it's dark, ambery, and only very slightly fruity. Fades pretty fast though; it's almost completely gone in an hour, leaving just a trace of amber.
Jazz Funeral - Bittersweet bay rum, bourbon, and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss. At first I can mainly smell the dirt, but it has a very sweet floral overtone. It turns into a sweet floral with a really lush, rich background. It smells humid to me and reminds me of a hothouse. This might be the only GC blend with a dirt note that I would wear. (I specified GC because I sometimes wear Queen of Clubs.) Good throw for only the first couple of hours, but it's still faintly there for several hours after that.
Jolly Roger - Sea spray with an undercurrent of leather, Bay Rum, and salty, dry woods. At first it smells salty and grassy to me. It's pretty green. Then as it's drying it smells more like an aquatic/grass combination. I like the scent, but as a perfume it fits my hubby better than me. Good throw.
Juke Joint - A bawdy, gleefully wicked and unruly scent: Kentucky Bourbon, sugar and a sprig of mint. The first scent I can pick out in this is mint. Then it turns into a sweet boozey scent with the barest bit of mint... blends like this are what makes BPAL the paragon of perfume excellence that it is. I have never smelled anything like this. It's like springtime, but it's a fun spring day -- like one of the days when you have a few drinks with good friends and you all end up skinny-dipping in the lake. The scent that I can tell is bourbon reminds me of my grandmother, which is kind of weird. Makes me wonder if Grandma was in the habit of taking a nip from a hip flask when I wasn't looking. Wears close to the skin; not a lot of throw.
Cross-posting to Reviews forum and my LJ journal.
I got the second package from kakiphony, which incldues Leanan Sidhe, Neo-Tokyo, Obatala, Tweedledee, and Vixen. Here are my reviews.
Leanan Sidhe - Her perfume is a crush of Irish herbs and flowers, Gaelic mists, and nighttime dew. While the scent is strong, it's quite herby and green. Reminds me of Irish Spring soap and dryer sheets. It smells bright, clean, and fresh. It ends up (after an hour or two) smelling like a faint green floral. So when it's strong it's herby, and when it's faint it's floral. Interesting.
Neo-Tokyo - Urban metallics and an ozone-tinged breath of electric light mingled with reedy bamboo, crisp mountain air, cherry blossoms, delicate orchid and a splash of playful, wet fruits. Smells mostly aquatic to me, but sweet too. The florals are modest and not overly strong. This oil smells cute. I like it, and might get an imp of my own. Probably not a bottle though.
Obatala - Obatala’s ofrenda is soft, white and pure: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. It's funny, I remember reviewing this when I first got the imp -- I thought the coconut had a suntan lotion smell and I didn't like it. This time I thought it would be different because it started out as a creamy, dark coconut. But after about 30 minutes, that suntan lotion scent I remembered was back. So... this one's still a "no" for me.
Tweedledee - Ridiculous! Kumquat, white pepper, white tea and orange blossom. At first, pepper. But that was for about three seconds. Then a very bright and juicy fruit scent came up quick and shared the spotlight with pepper and tea. I thought it was an odd scent, and a little jarring. I sniffed it again 15 minutes later and that weird discordant pepper note was gone -- it's mostly just bright fruit. This is an interesting scent, but I don't imagine I'd ever reach for this imp instead of other ones that I truly love.
Vixen - Lascivious, flirtatious, and vampy as hell. A true heartbreaker’s perfume. The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli. Vixen reminds me quite a lot of Dior's Poison, which was my signature scent throughout college -- but it's better. It smells exactly like the description says it does. It's been on my list of favorites since the beginning and I expect it always will be. Vixen was one of the first BPAL oils I tried, and now whenever I smell it I am transported back in time to that evening, when I was in total awe that anything could ever smell that good. There's nothing quite like BPAL newbieness, and Vixen brings it back to me.
Cross-posting to Reviews forum and my LJ journal.
I got the package from moonarcana, which incldues Bathsheba, Eden, Glasgow, Jezebel, Persephone, Phantom, Rome, Titania, and Wanda. Here are my reviews [just a placeholder right now, until I fill them in -- the notes here are just what I wrote in my spreadsheet].
Bathsheba - Her scent is breathtakingly lovely, exotic and powerfully sensual in its innocence: carnation, sensual plum, and Arabian musk. It is breathtakingly lovely -- sensual, too. This oil is one of my favorites from the GC, and I already have a bottle of it. The plum is great, the carnation is not too bitter, and I don't get too much musk. Very nice.
Eden - This oil contains the innocence of the Garden, coupled with the Truth and Erudition found in the fruit of the Tree of Evil: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood. Smells like Fruit Loops. I like it. Coconut and honey is a nice combination. On second try: Yep, still like Fruit Loops, but that's mostly just at first. Overy time it turns into a sweet nutty honey blend... I wish the fig was a little stronger because I love fig. But I'm really happy that the honey is behaving itself in this blend -- there aren't many BPAL oils with honey that I can wear.
Glasgow - The rich scent of wild blackberry breezing over gentle rosy heather. I like the berries, and it smells wispy with the heather. I like this one. On second try: Not as much berries this time. It actually smells a little bit musky, reminding me very slightly of Enraged Bunny Musk. I still like it.
Jezebel - A gloriously decadent blend of honey, roses, orange blossom and sandalwood. That orange blossom is very nice. Loved it at first, then it went baby powder. Still a nice scent though. It's quite sweet. It reminds me more than a little of baby aspirin. That sort of chalky fruity scent.
Persephone - Pomegranate and rose. The pomegranate is loud at first. Then the roses come up. Uh-oh. Too sharp, I think. I usually can only wear watery roses, and this isn't watery at all. No, this isn't going to work on me.
Phantom - Myrrh, dark musk, attar of rose and ylang ylang. A rose I like! I can barely smell the rose, the yling ylang is strong and gives it an edge, and the musk is nice. This is a sensual blend, quite mysterious. I really like myrrh and dark musks, and this is very well done.
Rome - Refined, austere and graceful. A recipe gleaned from Classical Rome: cypress, juniper, chamomile and rose. Juniper and rose are the prominent notes on my skin, but mostly rose. It smells like a woody rose (as opposed to a watery rose or a bright rose, etc.), which appeals to me more than other rose blends. But rose and juniper are two of my least favorite notes, so this isn't gonna work for me. I like the chamomile, though.
Titania - A nocturnal bounty of fae dew-kissed petals and pale fruits: white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon. Bright, fruity, and flowery. More fruits than flowers, at first, but then flowers come out. A bit more floral that Kitsune-Tsuki, but it's in the same vein. This is a great springtime scent, and I wish I'd had a bottle of this for spring this year. I might get a bottle anyway... I like this a lot.
Wanda - Her scent is a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle. The first time I tried it, it smelled exactly like red wine on me, and pretty much nothing else. The next time, it was more floral at first -- the dry red wine is still obvious, but I like it better with the florals. They make it sweeter and rounder. But it ended up being entirely red wine again after about 15 minutes. The scent is quite lovely, I just can't picture when I'd want to smell like a bottle of wine. It's strong, too.
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.
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-posted to the reviews forum.
Ahathoor - Triumphing. Kind of a weird woody/citrus scent. Maybe something like eucalyptus in there. It's kind of a cross between a medicinal scent and a cleaning products scent. From that description you'd probably guess that I don't like it very much, and you'd be right. I can't wear scents like this.
Al-Shairan - His scent is fiery, bright and thick with sweet sinfulness: clove, peach and orange with cinnamon, patchouli and dark incense notes. The Lab has frimped me Al-Shairan imps three times (and they're all different colors), so I've tried it a few times. From the notes, it does seem like something I should like -- and I do like it, but the cinnamon will keep this from being a favorite. If it weren't for the cinnamon I would like it a lot. There's a sweet, thick scent underneath (the kind of scent I like), but the cinnamon makes it too hot and spicy for me. After about an hour it's a great clove and peach scent, with very light oranges. Exactly the type of scent I like. The only problem is getting through that initial cinnamon stage.
Alice - Curiouser and curiouser. Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot. Reviewed on 3/13. Alice and I were not meant to be pals. I suspected the rose would be too much, and I dreaded the honey-induced play-doh scent, and I thought the carnations would be too bitter on me just like they always are. And Alice did exactly what I thought she was going to do.
Bastet - Luxuriant amber, warm Egyptian musk, fierce saffron and soft myrrh, almond, cardamom and golden lotus. Mostly almond at first, and then amber and saffron. This is a beautiful golden scent, and I think it's very fitting for Bastet. I can see why this oil is so popular, it's lovely. It gets pretty light after about an hour, but it lasts quite a while.
Bengal - A sultry and unruly blend that emulates the ambient scent of the markets in ancient Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. At first it smells like honey and spices. Can't really smell any cinnamon in this at first, but I do smell a little bit of clove and ginger. After a while I definitely get cinnamon bark, loudly, with a honey undercurrent. Usually with cinnamon I have some trouble with it smelling very strong (the throw is a little too much for me), and it's like that in Bengal too. However after the cinnamon fades it’s a sweet honey scent, very lightly spiced. Quite nice.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
This package contains: Oberon, Penny Dreadful, Port-au-Prince, Skuld, Tzadikim Nistarim, Urd. (I didn't have to test any of the imps from the package -- I already had all these.)
Oberon - Orchid, white musk, and bergamot wafting over juniper berries, with a gentle touch of soft, earthy patchouli. Based on the notes, I should like this. However, the first time I tried it I didn't like it at all. I tried it again as part of the GC circular swap. Now I remember why I didn't like it -- it is too sharply floral at first. It's a little too lemony for me (juniper berries and white musk both tend to smell a bit like lemons on my skin). If I got orchids and patchouli out of this I would be very happy. Instead it kind of smells like dirty lemons and old lady perfumey powder.
Penny Dreadful - Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam. (Reviewed 4/22/06) There's a sort of honey sweetness to this one, but unfortunately there is also a strong dirt smell, which doesn't agree with me. I like the way it smells in the imp though, so I think I'll try it in a scent locket.
Port-au-Prince - Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras. Strange, I thought I reviewed this already. I can't find a review, though. I really like this oil -- at first the almond is strong, the clove is barely there, and the whole thing is buttery and soft. Then it morphs into a smooth clove scent. It's rich and full, and it definitely smells decadent. It has very good throw and lasts quite a while, too.
Skuld - Being. Ylang ylang, honey, Egyptian and Arabian musks and labdanum. When I first got into BPAL I really wanted to try Skuld because it seemed like it was terribly popular. Then I got an imp of it, eagerly took a sniff, and then wondered what everyone thought was so great about it. Poor ickle Skuld, shunned to the back of the imp box. I got the imp out to try it again as part of the GC circular swap, and now I see what all the fuss was about. This really does smell wonderful. Charming and bright, warm and soothing. Pretty but not overly feminine. This doesn't smell like perfume, it doesn't smell like flowers, it doesn't smell like fruit -- if someone else was wearing this, I would definitely ask her what it was. You wouldn't expect a person to smell like this. It's unusual and very intriguing.
Tzadikim Nistarim - The scent is one of unadulterated spiritual purity, with a taste of the world's eternal pathos, and the joy of suffering with grace: frankincense, olive, spikenard, hyssop and galangal. This smells exactly like a weed smelled in the field behind my house growing up. I don't know why, I have no idea what note is causing that. It's a sweet weedy scent. It's a little unsettling to me. I think it may be the spikenard -- I smelled spikenard oil once and thought it was revolting. But anyway, I really don't like this blend at all.
Urd - Fate. Muscadine, black and red patchouli, cereus and nag champa. Mmmm, nag champa and patchouli. There is definitely a grapey scent to it, but it's not overpowering at all. This smells good on me, but it truly smells lovely on my sister. On her skin it goes from rich and smoky to mysteriously sultry. She's not normally a patchouli and nag champa kind of gal, but even she had to admit that Urd smells fantastic on her.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
13bodies package #2: Bon Vivant, Cobra Lily, Dee, Djinn, The Great Sword of War, Kurukulla.
Bon Vivant - An effervescent blend of crystalline champagne notes and sweet strawberry. It does smell like champagne, which is quite nice, but the strawberry scent smells artificial on my skin. It reminds me of a strawberry lip gloss. My hubby likes it a lot on me, but it's not really doing anything for me.
Cobra Lily - Sharp, heady and viciously carnivorous. I love this one! It smells bright and slightly fruity. It's a little bit green, but the fruitiness stays around too. It's pretty and light and feminine. Also it's a red oil, and I almost always love the red ones.
Dee - His scent is soft English leather, rosewood and tonka with a hint of incense, parchment and soft woods. This oil smells like a gentleman's cologne -- it reminds me of my dad. My dad was one of those guys who wore a tie to work every day of his life and always carried a briefcase. He was very meticulous about his appearance and picky about his shampoo, shaving cream, and aftershave. When I was a little girl I used to love giving him a kiss before he left for work because I loved the way he smelled. I thought he smelled clean and like Daddies were supposed to smell. Looking back, I know it was woodsy and sweet and must have had a little bit of leather in in somewhere. Just like Dee.
I think Dee is the only BPAL oil that reminds me so strongly of my dad that I would prefer that my husband does not wear it.
Djinn - The scent of black smoke, of crackling flames, and smoldering ashes. Phew, that's strong! It's also sweeter than I thought it would be -- this is sweet smoke rather than dark smoke. It's actually not as bad as I expected it would be, but it's giving me a headache so it has to go.
The Great Sword of War - Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. This is an oil that I expected to like because I love the listed notes, but I had a very meh reaction to it. I thought it would be kind a musky deep scent, and I mainly got tea and herbs out of it. I guess the "five classical herbs of conflict" are too dominant for me. It ends up being closer to what I like when it's completely dry, but I don't think I like it well enough to ever want a bottle of it.
Karukulla - Her scent is a harmonious, sweet, enchanting blend of three lotus blooms and three roses. Surprisingly fruity at first, although I'm beginning to realize that lotus smells fruity on me. The roses underneath are not very noticeable at first but dominate the scent when dry. This blend smells sweet and feminine -- I would definitely use the word "harmonious." The notes all combine nicely and the overall effect is soft and pretty.
Cross-posted to the reviews forum.
cordia #1 package: Aizen-Myoo, Asphodel, Blood Countess, Follow Me Boy, Hunger, Seraphim, and Yggdrasil. I have all these imps, so I didn't have to use any of the oil from the swap package.
Aizen-Myoo - Yuzu, kaki, and mikan with cherry blossom and black tea. Aizen-Myoo smells like stank on me. It is one of my least favorite BPAL oils. And it's weird, because the Lab has frimped me with Aizen-Myoo at least four times. I feel like Aizen-Myoo keeps saying "Try me again. This time you'll like me. Go on, try." And I try it, and it's horrible. It smells like the very worst bitter citric acid smell you've ever smelled combined with weeds that sort of smell like tomato leaf but four times sharper. And the scent lingers around for hours making me regret ever putting the damn oil on my skin. I know there are people who really love Aizen-Myoo, and I'm honestly glad that someone likes it. But I don't. Yick.
Asphodel - The grey and ghostly flower that fills the fields of Hades. Light and floaty, but extraordinarily floral. Like I just stuck my nose in a flower. It's one of those heady floral scents that would be cloying if it were stronger. (Luckily it's not very strong.) I'm not a floral gal, so I can't say which flower this smells like because I'm not very familiar with floral notes. I can say that it smells kind of pale pink, rather than yellow or purple. I like this better than some of the other floral blends but not well enough to want to wear it.
Blood Countess - Corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry. Blood Countess is one of the blends I knew for sure that I would like -- the plum, opium, lilac, and berry sounded wonderful! The only listed note I don't get along with is gardenia. (I wore a gardenia-scented oil in the 90s and got burned out on the scent.) And guess what Blood Countess smelled like on me? Yep, you guessed it. Gardenia. A fruity gardenia, but still gardenia. I tried it at least three times because I kept hoping that this time it'll be just plum and opium. You'd think I would have given up after three tries, but I refused to give up my imp hoping that one day my skin would play nice. And I am happy to announce that TODAY is that day! Today this is definitely a plum and lilac scent on my skin, and it's lovely! I'm thrilled that this finally worked on me. And now I know for sure that this particular oil is affected by my hormones. Now that I know when to wear it and when not to, it's officially a keeper!
Follow Me Boy - No notes listed. Hmmm. An odd scent. I'm not sure how to describe it. It starts out smelling kind of floral and herbal. Green, but not sharp. It's not unpleasant, but it doesn't seem particularly enticing to me. After a while it starts to smell a little milky and floral -- kind of like sour milk. Still an odd scent. I wouldn't wear this as perfume.
Hunger - Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. When it's wet, this oil smells dark and powerfully sexy. It's almost all black narcissus with something deep and smoky underneath that reminds me a little bit of vetiver. As it dries I can begin to smell the orange blossom. The vanilla makes it slightly creamy. The first time I tried this oil a few months ago I thought it smelled like a creamsicle. This time when I tried it, it was much darker. I like it this way better. Very nice blend. I think this imp might get upgraded to a bottle.
Seraphim - A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense. Woah. This scent goes straight through my head. It's white and sweet and so piercing it makes my teeth ache when I sniff my wrist. I'm not sure why this combination is so disagreeable to me -- the notes don't offend me individually. Frankincense often goes too sweet on me, but I can't really smell any frankincense in here. And oh great, I get the extra special bonus pounding headache from this one. Perhaps this blend is too angelic for me. 'Fraid this one's getting washed off.
Yggdrasil - The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg. A very woodsy scent. Is there mint in this? Or menthol? It's odd, the first time I tried Yggdrasil a few months ago I thought it was a very dry, light, wood scent, and I kept the imp around because I thought I might want to try it again later. I had in mind that it was the sort of light comforting scent I'd want to wear at bedtime. I definitely don't remember anything like menthol in it -- that is not comforting to me at all. After the wet stage dies down, that minty scent fades away. What's left is wood and herbs. This is much more herby than I remember. Also it gets a little powdery when it's dry. It's not the comfort scent I thought it was. Hunh. Off to swaps, I guess.
cordia #3 package
Bloodlust, Dirty, Grand Guignol, Nuit, Rage, Szepasszony, and Zombi
Bloodlust - Dragon's blood essence, heavy red musk, Indonesian patchouli and swarthy vetiver with a drop of cinnamon. What I got straight away was cinnamon and vetiver. Then the cinnamon burned off (fortunately!), and the scent brightened up a little. I could smell the dragon's blood and vetiver most strongly. Then the red musk. It definitely smells red to me, dark red. It settles into a lovely dark musky blend... heavy and sweet. I really like it when it's dry.
The thing that really irritates me about this blend is that I really don't like it at first -- which surprised me. Red musk is my favorite musk, and I love dragon's blood, patchouli, and vetiver. But for the first ten minutes, it's nose-crinkly to me. I bought a 5ml of it several months ago and I don't think I've ever even opened it. The thought of going through the first 10 minutes is unpleasant enough that I don't wear the oil at all, even though the dry stage is fabulous.
I think I'm going to have to try harder to remind myself of how much I like it when it's dry, to distract myself from remembering the wet stage.
Dirty - A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy. Smells like a crisp white floral. Lily? Extremely feminine. Quite breezy too -- it seems like it's floating. A very clean, pretty scent. Not overpowering, either. Nice!
Grand Guignol - Our Grand Guignol perfume is a shot of sweet apricot brandy; just enough to settle your nerves after a ghoulish, gory brush with the macabre. Yay, Grand Guignol! I like it a lot! It smells to me a bit like an apricot tart. It reminds me a bit of peach cobbler, one of my very favorite desserts of all time. The brandy really warms up when the perfume oil is on my skin, too. I like this one mostly because the fruit note doesn't smell artificial on me (as fruit notes sometimes do), and it's also not overpowering. It's almost a delicate scent... which is how I like fruity blends. I don't want to walk around smelling like a giant piece of fruit, I just want to have a vaguely sweet and pleasant aura.
Nuit - Her perfume is starry and crystalline, a jewel-clad and glittering paean to night: dazzling white musks, white rose and night-blooming jasmine with the soft moss of moonlit meadows, a waft of Egyptian incense, and a gentle breath of moonflower. I expected Nuit to be beautiful and captivating. What I got out of it was a snootful first of jasmine and then rose. The problem is that jasmine and rose are two of my least favorite floral notes because they tend to be quite strong on my skin. Nuit does start to seem musky after the rose phase, but not enough to make this something I'd want to wear. This just isn't the sort of floral that I like.
Rage - Black amber erupting with a dark volcanic surge of fiery dragon's blood and a burst of melati, rose geranium, mandarin and black currant. Initially it kind of smelled like a burnt orange. It's not nearly as dark as I thought it would be, but it smells a little bitter. It's an interesting scent... just not the hot fiery scent I was envisioning. Also it doesn't seem to be very strong. It's ending up smelling kind of farty. I don't think this one is going to work for me...
Szepasszony - A chilly, tempestuous whirlwind of clear, airy notes, slashing rain, and a thin undercurrent of white flowers. Other reviewers described this as a cold aquatic floral -- I think it's chilly but I wouldn't call it cold. It smelled a little bit minty at first, but that didn't last long. It's kind of breezy and aquatic, with some pretty white flowers. It smells fresh and clean to me, totally inoffensive. A little bit like soap, but often the aquatic scents smell a little like soap to me. This is perfect for a day like today, when it's 91 degrees but the RealFeel is 102. Ugh.
Zombi - Dried roses, rose leaf, Spanish moss, oakmoss and deep brown earth. I tried this a long time ago and hated it. I tried it again as part of the Entire GC circular swap, and now I realize it's not as bad as I thought.
I am not a person who can wear the dirt scents. This smells like pretty dirt, because of the roses, but still dirt. Fresh, earthy, black, fertile dirt. I find the scent interesting and intriguing, and I wouldn't mind burning a candle that smelled like this. But as a personal perfume it's not for me at all. It's all right after about an hour (more rose than dirt), but it's still not something I'd choose over other BPAL blends.
I will say in Zombi's favor that I find this scent infinitely more appealing than Graveyard Dirt. And the dirt scent in this blend is not as overpowering here as it usually is on me. I think Zombi is my favorite of all the BPAL blends that have that earth note.
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.
These reviews are for pink.owl #2 package, which contains Aeval, Carnal, Hecate, Morocco, O, Red Queen, and R'lyeh.
Aeval - A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. This oil smells almost entirely of sweet pea. It's way too sweet and way too floral for me, plus it's approaching powdery. This is just not at all something I would wear.
Carnal - Bold, bright mandarin paired with the sweet, sensual earthiness of fig. At first it's almost entirely an orange scent that's quite strong. Then that fades out as the oil dries, and it ends up being a wonderful and nearly equal balance of rich fig and sweet bright mandarin. These are both among my favorite notes (especially fig), so I had assumed I would like this, and I definitely do. It's lush, round, and sweet -- divine!
Also it reminds me a bit of Freak Show, so anyone who likes Carnal should check out that one.
Hecate - Their scent is the crisp, inviting bittersweet tang of cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices. The first time I tried this I thought it smelled smoky, hazy, and dark. Then I got a frimp from the Lab, so I tried this new one. It smells like cherries to me at first, not cranberries, definitely cherries. As it dries I think I can detect a little bit of ginger, but not much. There is something in this that strongly reminds me of the Glade air freshener (you remember those can-like things with the scented jelly-type stuff inside) that my grandma used to keep on the back of her toilet. So, as you can guess, I don't really want to smell like that. As it's drying it doesn't smell quite as much like the air freshener, but now that I've got that image in my head I can't get it out. The scent is getting better as time goes by, but now it's turning powdery.
I kinda wish this one smelled like that first imp I had... wonder what I did with that one. I'll see if I can track it down.
Morocco - Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. I was rather meh about Morocco the first couple of times I tried it. It seemed to be terribly popular, and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I thought the carnation was too strong and I thought the whole thing smelled dry like a desert and unpleasant.
Then I got a frimp of Morocco from the Lab, so I decided to try it again. This time it's wonderful. The sandalwood and cassia is a great combination (and the cassia fortunately doesn't overpower everything else)... mmm, musky, dry, and spicy. And there's something creamy under there too. It's exotic and mysterious, and I love it!
I think that the first time I tried this it was wintertime, and that was the wrong time to try this. It is perfect for a very hot summer day like today, just perfect. Wow. I can't believe how much my opinion about this oil has changed in just a few short months.
Also I have a hunch that I should get a big bottle of this and put it in the back of my closet for about a year to let it age.
O - Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. [Reviewed on Feb. 22, 2006; updated review on Aug. 1, 2006.] Not much I can say that hasn't been said. On me, it's honey and vanilla -- after a while it warms up into a honey musk.
After reading the reviews I was expecting O to bowl me over with sexiness, but it doesn't. (I guess Scherezade is still the reigning champ of sexy, for me.) It's not really what I expected.
ETA: After trying many BPAL blends, I now know why O didn't work for me -- my skin turns the BPAL honey note to play-doh. However I have found that Mouse's Long and Sad Tale works great on me and is sort of what I was expecting O to smell like.
Red Queen - Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant. [Reviewed on Mar. 13, 2006.] Very cherry at first. Not at all like cough syrup or fake cherry flavoring. Like I just stuck my nose in a jar of maraschino cherries. (Which is not to say The Red Queen smells like almonds, becasue I don't think it does.)
It's really faint, which surprised me. For The Red Queen, I expected a much bolder and stronger scent. It's sweet and candy-ish, but not at all strong. After about 20 minutes the wood notes come out and give it a nice balance.
I don't think this is for me, but it would be good for someone who likes the sweet resiny-wood blends.
R'lyeh - A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves. Of the aquatic scents, I think this one is my favorite. It doesn't smell stinging in that way that ozone often does on me, instead it smells like clear, clean water. Like water in a fountain. Except better. I don't actually get anything evil out of this, nothing that evokes dark oceanic depths. Mostly it smells clean and fresh. My only complaint about this is that it softens up a bit too quickly and becomes faint... which is also unusual for an aquatic scent on my skin. Usually they're a little too loud for me. It figures that the one that I like a lot would be the only one that doesn't amp itself into the atmosphere.
I wrote that paragraph before I looked at the other reviews, and now I want to add this:
1) Grapefruit? I wouldn't have guessed that. I have my doubts that Beth would put grapefruit, which smells sparkly, into something that's supposed to be like fathomless darkness... but maybe. I don't know -- I'm going to be a hard sell on the grapefruit possibility. I'm just not getting that. I guess there might be some citrus in there giving it that "fresh" feel, but it's not strong enough for me to be able to pick it out.
2) I agree with edenssixthday that most aquatic scents smell masculine on me. I blame that damn Cool Water cologne that everyone and his brother wore 10 years ago.
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.
I honestly have no idea how to use the chakra oils, so I'm just commenting on the scent.
Ajna: The Third Eye. In the imp, it smells chemical. Kind of like that cleaning solution that you use to clean off whiteboards. On, it smells kind of like menthol, anise, and coffee. It's the kind of scent that will clear your sinuses and open your eyes up. It doesn't seem to last very long though, which was unexpected.
Anahata: The Heart. In the imp, it smells a bit herby, a little golden. On, at first it smells almost exactly the same as it did in the imp. But as it dries I think I can detect something floral in it. It smells yellow to me. There's something about it that reminds me of that yellow Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo.
Manipura: The Solar Plexus. In the imp, it smells spicy and unusual. On, at first it smells interesting and spicy. It has kind of a gingerbread scent to it a little bit. Not quite though, it's not that foody. Definitely spicy. I like this scent.
Muladhara: The Root. Smells rooty. Like a dark woodsy scent, kind of pungent. Sort of reminds me of a basement. Yeah, something like a root cellar. Dark and deep.
Sahasrara: The Crown. In the imp, it smells bright, maybe citrusy. On, it definitely smells bright. Light, sweet, and kind of glowing. There's a slight cleaning products feel to it, but not overly so.
Swadhisthana: Sacral. In the imp, it smells sweet and a little spicy. This oil has my favorite scent of all the chakra oils -- this one and Manipura are the only ones that I'd wear as perfume. The oil itself is orange, and it smells red to me. I can't tell what's in it, but it's really a lovely scent.
Vishuddha: The Throat. In the imp, it smells a little like cleaning products. On, the oil smells lemony and kind of sugary. Not totally like candy, more like lemonade. It definitely seems clean and fresh. This scent actually reminds me of a drink I'd want to drink if my throat hurt. Kind of like a lemony herbal tea with a little bit of honey.
The Vortex. Kind of bright and lemony. I didn't find the scent objectionable, but it also wasn't my fave. Sort of clean and crisp.
