evanesce

I would really love to see a whole set of Honey scents with the money going to an organization that is working with bees to investigate and understand colony collapse and the disappearance of the American Honey Bee. But I have a special love of bees, even if I don't want them near me because I'm allergic to their sting.

If I could sit down, with Beth, and work out what a "signature" perfume for me would be.... It would be Touched Twice (Thank the Universe! Saved me some money!). I adore classic scents with rose, lavender, vanilla, etc. And that's what I got. It is very strongly rose in the bottle, but once on my skin it smooths out with a creamy coconut-vanilla musk, a hint of the sandalwood, and of course, the rose absolute. And yes, it becomes powdery -- but I like powder. It's a soft, feminine, comforting scent. I don't get much of a tropical feel, despite the coconut and frangipani. In the end, I adore this scent and have been wearing it constantly.

Nia -- You know, I never scented my bouquet (mine was silk flowers with swarovski crystal picks that I made with copper, gold and silver wire, with ribbons, etc). I feel silly now I wore The Library of Alexandria from Violette Market on my wedding day. It's a very autumn scent to me, and it blends into my skin chemistry so well, it's like I was born smelling like it. My husband wore BPAL Galvanic Goggles, which just smells like pure sex on him.

(OMG I'm reviewing something!) Berry Moon 2011 In the Bottle -- A big bowl of berries macerated in liquor On, wet -- Berries, hard core. Just absolutely dripping with berries. The scent is red, sweet and heavy On, dry -- The musk finally comes out, but it's still berry explosion on me (I like berries, so I guess my skin knows it!). The thing is, it's such a heavy scent it's not very summery, it's much more suited to fall and cooler months on me. I couldn't wear this on a hot day. And it is slowly but surely morphing into a very strong and "mature" scent on me. Perhaps a bit too mature.

I think it's GC so it should be the "generic" BPAL label.

halation -- wash it with dawn dish soap like mentioned above. It really does eat oil. And once it's dry it should be fine.. You can see if they have an unscented version too.

I get that - I was mostly responding to why people would get offended. I understand being... well.. annoyed at the bottle not being "full." It's just really hard with handmade goods to be perfectly precise.

The bottles have not been filled by hand for years. The reason people get defensive is that, they did nothing at all wrong. They got the bottle that full, didn't touch it, and now someone is basically saying something with an undercurrent of "You're screwing me over." It sucks. Now, the labels I think are put on by hand, which means the height of the label is a completely useless way to measure how much oil is in the bottle. In fact -- Unless you have the time and inclination to actually take the oil out of the bottle and measure it, mL by mL, there is no way to just guess how much is in the bottle by sight. Furthermore, if you have that kind of spare time... well kudos to you. When you purchase handmade and artisan goods - whether it's food, clothing, jewelry, pottery or perfume, there is going to be variances and other issues. That's the whole point. ETA, from Andra's post, again:

I am of the mind, that if I get a bottle, open it once, then toss it in a box, when I decide to sell it -- it's full. The end.

lilium: To quote Andrabell: "I swear we've had this discussion before. Each measure of oil that goes into the bottles and vials are calibrated. The imps are 1/32 of an ounce (IIRC). The glass in each bottle/vial can differ, which is you may get bottles that are full into the neck or only up to the shoulders. It is still the same amount of oil. ETA: The viscosity of the oil can also make a difference in the level of fullness." This means that variations in how high or low the oil is when the vials come from the lab is *totally normal*. They all have the same amount of oil in them, but it won't always *look* the same due to oil and glass variations. Hope that helps.

I don't usually do reviews, but being the nature of this one, I thought I'd play too... The moment I opened the bottle it was just FRUIT! Capital letters. And not much different on me wet. It's been drying down for a few minutes now, and honestly its very spicy and bitey on me. The pepper is very strong, the rose is threatening dryer sheets, and the fruit is lost. It smells familiar... I just wish I knew why.. It is definitely dusty, and makes me think of an old grave... Dried roses, and heavy nearly rotting fruit under musk. The coffin is neat and I was shocked at how big the package was! And I too love the label art.

I left a pack of imps in my cars glovebox through the summer and they're fine. So, its not reccomended but it's not a garunteed perfume killer

Depends. Use your comfort scent. I wear Valmont to interviews. It makes me feel confident and comfortable. If you're looking to chill out though, I find TAL Peace to be better than Xanax.

*snort* sometimes, people make me giggle... He's not alone in that sort of paranoia. And what *is* in High Fructose Corn Syrup, anyway???

That's a pretty good idea Silvertree. I like that

My Vodka is waaaaay too expensive to be spraying on my wrists (and cheap Vodka stinks!) I'd stick with the Alcohol. It comes in those nice little handy wipes you can stick in your purse.

I just used the reviews section (I don't browse the BPAL site at work... for obv reasons )

There aren't too many in the Ars Draconis list... so maybe just get them all in one big imp pack? ETA: There's 8 of them. That's one imp pack, and then 4 spots left for those other 4 you mentioned Personally I like Dragon's Blood. Straight. Nothing else.. I would start there and then branch out. Dragon's Blood is awful soapy but I *like* soapy... so... ETA: Anyway, from the descriptions: Heart is warm and spicy (sounds up your alley from what you said), Milk is smooth and sweet (it says it has vanilla and honey?), Tears is aquatic, Bone is dry (which in my experience w/BPAL means it's woodsy but not mossy/earth/dirt), Musk is self explanatory, Hide sounds warm and deep (again might be up your alley) and Eye is floral. Red and Black musks are stronger than White... I like white but not the other two. I don't wear really heavy scents though (unless you count that obsession w/Samhain 04).

If you bring the grey kitty in, you need to do a few things: #1 is quarantine him. Put him in a room that no one really uses too much. Give him a box, a bathroom, food and water, etc. The quarantine in VA to make sure an animal doesn't have rabies is about 10 days (At least that's what the guy from the health board told me when I was scratched by a stray I rescued). After that period, take him to the vet and have an ELISA test done (It checks for Feline AIDS), as well as FELV tests and all that, get it a rabies shot, and get it spay/neutered... Don't delaw it unless Star is (it's cruel but, well.. grey kitty could kill star if it's equipped and star isn't.. ). After you know he's clean, etc... Slowly introduce Star (if star has his own "spot", put a blanket or towel there when you bring grey kitty in).. Switch their bedding, play with one, then the other and back again.. so they get used to one and other. If you, like me didn't really have time for this: Make all kitty visits monitored by you and Todd, and wait until the hissing and spitting ends before you let them roam the house (with you home) alone.. and once that calms down you can then leave them alone. It took Sandy and Sam 3 weeks to be friendly to eachother and they STILL aren't friends. As for the quarantine and all that, that is all information I learned from the lady at Cat Rescue here in VA Beach (and of course the health board guy)... It's a feral at rescue org that is home-based. They don't have an office or a shelter.. so all that comes from people who deal with ferals. Grey Kitty might be friendly, but don't assume it's just a lost pet - Ferals can be *very* friendly to people... The stray I brought in, Cheeto, was feral and the friendliest little guy I ever met. His mom is still having Kittens too I found another one last night when I almost hit him with my car and sadly he ran away before I could get him... Jody and I are going to contact cat rescue to see if we can get the Mommy and take her to get spayed on their dime.. *sigh* P.S Good luck with the in-laws.... I'd kill mine if they visited for longer than two hours *snarl*

There are no fireflies in NY, not where I lived anyway. The first time I saw them in VA, I thought I was having a stroke. I still get disorientated when I see them. Sure they're pretty but when they first show up I freak. And I know it's summer, cause it's pouring

Hrmm.. Jack and Samhain are my "fall" favorites, but Samhain (04) is very woodsy, etc to some people... But it smells like a rotating dessert tray on me (apple crisp, pumpkin pie, spiced cider, hot chocolate w/cinnamon and nutmeg)... So if you could get a hand on it, it might be worth a try... Since I like to bake in the fall, any "foody" scent is fall-ish to me.. As for cloves, I thought everyone had smelled them But you can find them in your local grocery store. It you have a place that sells spices and stuff in bulk go have a whiff. I like Clove, but large amounts of it can have a numbing/tingling affect (and such is why I don't use Villainess Embargo soap on certain, uhh.. Bits). And I can only wear snake oil in the fall.. it's too heavy on me for the summer.

I like William Gibson's work and some of it has an appeal in the "cool gadgets" sort of way... Of course the whole dystopia (sp) thing, big corporation control, and inequity parts struck me as a bad idea. You can't escape it, and if you wanna see how *stupid* and *addicted* people have come to be on technology, come work with me for a day. I've had grown men almost crying on my phone... because email is down. I've had people lose their minds, like drug addicts being told there's no more heroine, when I tell them there's an outage of the internet, or TV, or both. People around here bitch like mad if they're in a place w/no TV. It's scary and when people on the phone ask me if I like computers and technology I have to bite my tongue cause I'm likely to go off. Do I like TV? yes. Do I like the Internet? Yes - without it I'd never have met Jody or all the people here... Do I sometimes want to run for the hills? Yes

aw. sorry it took me so long to reply. I'm all scatter brained.

I don't care if you like me or not, cause I like you and that's all that matters. And you're completely right.. Under the cloak of being anon we can say anything we want. Hell, we're all pretty anon here. Of course, you know I'm Carly and I know you're Jennifer... But we never have to face each other.. Ya know? But that's no reason for me to be nasty to you and no reason for you to be nasty to me... because you're still a person and so am I and we have feelings and even if we are sarcastic bitches, we still have feelings But fuck 'em. I don't hang out with people like that, and every time this shit happens, I'm all the happier about that.

You wouldn't be laughing it was YOUR last name!!!!!!!!! ..... Ok. Well. Yes. You would. And you'd make dirty jokes about it too. *smirk*