sarada

When I first open the bottle, I get a breath of fresh earth, like Graveyard Dirt, but soaked in deep, rich red berry juice with a dash of sweetness and rose. This....is heaven. Rich earth in the shade of a tree, thick and ripe with red fruit or deep purple berries -- the fallen fruit mingles with the soil and the sun's golden warmth melds the two in a sweet, earthen cocktail. Deep, ruby red and moist, gritty dark brown earth sparkling with amber crystals glinting in the sunlight. A hint of smoke, of soil warmed after the rain -- a sweet, familiar, motherly embrace. Some time later, the roses bloom in the shade. This is one of the most exquisite things I've ever smelled -- I don't even know what to do. I wish I could photocopy it or save it to disk so I could enjoy it forever. This is the perfect blend of earth and fruit, and I wish I could just go on smelling it forever.

I have two Chaos Theory II bottles. They couldn't be more perfect. CXXI - 121 In the bottle: Wine...not sure if it's red or white. Deep, fruity wine and OMG IT'S LIKE THE FRUITS IN HANGING GARDENS!!! ahem. Plum, for sure, possible some sort of berry (currant?), pomegranate....this is just bliss and heaven. When I put it on, it gets stronger and reminds me of some of my other favorites, like Blood Countess and the Queen of Spades (which I only have a small sample of). There's something vaguely incensey in it but it's mainly these wonderful deep dark red and purple fruits with wine. Yes, I'd say that Hanging Gardens and Queen of Spades are the closest I can imagine to this....a smoky swirl of golden incense haze, a goblet of red wine and a still life arrangement of blood red fruits. This is all I could have ever wished for in a scent. It's like it was made just for me. CLXIII - 163 Did I say made just for me? Because here's another one, at the other end of the spectrum!! This is a very, very clean scent -- not quite like a cleaning product, it is a crystalline, sparkling scent that must certainly have pine or some evergreen and a bit of mint in it. It has the same dark, starry night quality that I get from Yog Sothoth and Pluto without seemingly sharing their notes, that's just the overall impression that I get. Something cold, clear and dark glimmering in the sky; the fresh air above an evergreen forest. As it dries on me it stays fairly true to my initial impression -- more air than forest. This is what I thought Nocnitsa might smell like, and while that came out as a very strong green, almost lime scent this is much more like dark night air. Absolutely stunning, and a blend that I will treasure always. I am literally shedding tears over the beauty of these scents and I am so, so grateful that Beth made them and that fate brought them to my door. THANK YOU!

I didn't order a bottle of this but wanted to try an imp because of the minty descriptions -- I hoped there might be a cold, mint ice cream kind of smell about it. I have already tried and passed along Spooky and Chaste Moon because in each one something wound up lingering on my skin or clothing that I didn't like (butter or coconut) despite my having a surprisingly favorable reaction to them initially. But I do love mint and I wasn't entirely put off by the creaminess in those, so it's worth a shot. Preconceptions: I should first mention that I really dislike milk -- I won't drink it or eat anything with milk in it EXCEPT for some kinds of cheese and mint or rose flavoured ice cream (seriously, I'm that picky). I hate everything about milk. I even eat cereal dry. I also have literally no experience with babies -- I had no siblings and even my friends growing up were only-children. So, I don't have any maternal associations with warm, milky smells. So, background information aside, this basically comes across to me just like Chaste Moon did. It's go a very strong mint smell to me and that buttery creaminess that I know ultimately leaves an unpleasant after-smell on my clothing if it touches it. There might be coconut in here -- I don't like the smell of coconut. There's something faintly sour to my nose as well that must be the yoghurt association that many people have (I don't like yoghurt either). Haha, I sound like such a grouch! But I do like the mintiness in this and I don't entirely dislike it, I just don't feel that it matches my chemistry and personality very well. I was having intense cravings for mint ice cream last night so I think I would have reached for this in a second to calm that part of my brain that desires mint. But seeing that many people like scents like this I will probably pass it along after trying it a couple more times. Flower Moon fortunately turned out to be a much better match for me, even though I'm as picky about florals as I am about ice cream.

Oh my lord, I just died! That's magnificent! Do they all have the same design, I wonder? I'm glad I have seven CN bottles on the way....now I want Midway, too...

An opiate torpor, soporific, trancelike, and sublimely languid. A poet’s morphine dream, a listless journey into a gentle dream and the precipice of intoxicated madness. Paperwhite and black narcissus, three lilies, black poppy and tuberose and a hint of hypnotic opium den haze. I was very interested in the "opium den haze" part of this, but very nervous about narcissus and poppy. I know that narcissus is probably what turned Darkness and Hades into bad mixtures on my skin -- it became very chemical on me. While I do get a strong whiff of that smell in this blend, overall it strikes me as a very dark and sophisticated perfume. The initial scent that I recognize from Darkness -- sort of like hairspray -- fades quickly and the dark florals emerge. This is a dignified banquet sort of scent...it's definitely not the sort of thing I'd go out of my way to smell, and I don't tend to wear things like this either, but I can definitely imagine this as an "occasion" scent. It doesn't strike me as a hazy languorous scent oddly enough, but I do think of black and red silk and velvet and diamonds with a thin layer of dust (that musty bookstore kind of smell that I remember from the Hermit!). I always get that plasticy chemical hairspray smell from one of the notes in this though, which other people seem to get as well. Is it narcissus? I think it is. But I can see wearing this to a formal occasion and I will try to remember that this would be perfect if I am ever invited to one!

Hey, I like this! It must be the white wine and heliotrope -- those are the things that I liked in Fae, but without the licoricey tone that the peach took on, in that blend. Yes indeed, heliotrope is pretty groovy. It really has this shimmer to it -- slightly cherry like, but REAL cherry actually makes my head swim and my stomach turn as a scent. However, heliotrope has all of that shimmery sweet cherry feeling without the bad stuff. The white wine adds a dignified, grapey touch -- I don't drink but if I did, I'd drink something like this. I don't care for lotus, and it does have a bubblegummy quality to it but it doesn't come through too loudly in this, for me. It just keeps it aloft and swimming in a sort of giddy haze. I can't imagine liking this outside of summertime, but I'm really into bright scents like this right now. I'll probably keep this in rotation during the warm months!

Yowza. I have always avoided chocolate scents because, while I LOVE chocolate I don't like to smell like anything edible...it creeps me out and I don't like the "Mmmm, I could just eat you up" comments it tends to inspire. Okay! So anyway, I opened this up and feel like I must have just passed out drunk at a diner with my face in an entire chocolate cake. And that's not a bad thing, in this case. Did anyone else describe it like that? I didn't read all of the reviews, but I feel like someone else must have had that impression. It does give me an overall "diner" vibe with some really deep, dark black coffee brewing, a shelf full of fresh donuts and thickly frosted chocolate cakes, and maybe a glass of wine. The rumminess does NOT put me off the way that it usually does because it doesn't have that heady swirl of buttery booze in it. It's a slightly more bittersweet scent. As it dries down a faint, slightly metallic tone chimes in and there is a bit of a red wine bite. That warm smoky chocolate is really amazing. I'd swear there's some sort of pipe tobacco or deep dark coffee ground smell. The slightly sweet smell of dad's pipe tobacco seems to creep in. I don't even like any of those scents "in the wild", as it were, but somehow this works. I can't really imagine wearing it on a regular basis -- maybe just on a special occasion in the fall or winter, when I want something to warm me.

mmmMmmmmmm.... I decided I should try this because I love Corazon so, so much and thought that this might have a similar feel to it, with the Mexican herbs and fruit. While it is a very different scent it does beautifully capture that slightly spicy, desert fruit and herb scent that I love. I was VERY excited by the inclusion of coriander as it is my favorite herb and I use it in virtually everything that I cook. I love the smell of it and I can sense it in this blend, in the background -- like a garden of exotic herbs and cacti is blooming in the sun. These kind of scents love my skin. The coriander comes through as it does when I buy it fresh -- a cool, refreshing splash of scent. There is an underlying current of very fresh, warm air and water in the background in this blend, beneath the rich, ripe fruit and heady poppy. The amber is a warm, golden sunny aura that helps to waft and carry the other fragrances. The pear does come across something like pineapple -- when we buy prickly pears at the supermarket they smell and taste a little like very rich, sweet watermelon, but a little tangier. I think I can sense that, in this blend. There's something a little overwhelming and heady in the vial and when I first put it on -- I guess that would be the poppy. I think it could potentially be a headachey scent but I am digging the other aromas so much that I don't mind right now! I think I will wear this when I go to my favorite Mexican restaurants -- though since I visit one at least once a week I will be out of my imp very fast at that rate!

I am actually thinking about leaving the AC on in my bedroom, where I keep my oils, during the days this summer because this is my first Summer of BPAL where I have a seriously large collection. The bedroom is the only place where I have room to keep them. I wish I had planned to have my summer orders shipped to my PO Box at work so I wouldn't have to worry about them sitting outside in the heat but I hate it when they get delivered on a Saturday and I can't pick them up!

Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear I've been obsessed this summer with having a scent that resembles the gorgeous honeysuckle bouquet that greets me when I step into this little patch of woods that I love -- the flowers have changed throughout the season but honeysuckle is always strongest, and this glistening, fresh scent is like a sweet embrace every time I step among the trees. Juliet had never caught my eye before because I'm not very interested in florals, but I've learned a few things this year -- first, I love heliotrope and it brightens any blend that it is in, for me. Second, I like sweet pea quite a lot more than I did when I first tried it. Especially when it is combined with musk, that seems to eliminate some of its more powdery qualities. And I love honeysuckle -- I just adore it. Especially in its natural state, crawling among dark boughs in the forest. So this is pretty much the floral for me. Along with Ophelia, and Tiger Lily, Szepasszony and Flower Moon, these will be my hot summer day fragrances when I want to retreat into the shade of the forest and drink deeply of cool, refreshing wildflowers or dewy white flowers. There's a tiny hint of soap to it, but that is just making me feel even more refreshed and clean, honestly. And I'm so happy that it doesn't give me a headache!! I'm so glad that I'm finding some florals that I like, because I love flowers in the wild and I was so upset when I started to find that they don't work on me as perfumes. This is such a pure white gleaming fragrance, I would associate it even more with Galadriel than Juliet, as I feel as though I should be cloaked in gleaming white, silver and gold and drifting noiselessly through the forest when I wear this. I wish I had a bottle, but maybe I can get one for next spring.

Strength is such a beautiful, bright green (the scent, not the color) that I could just lose myself rolling around in it. It's a smell of bright tender green shoots in the spring to me, of grass warmed by the sun, a crisp, clean, clear green herbal grass scent. Utterly gorgeous. But it fades so very fast -- I can still see where this is a very invigorating, confidence-building scent that creeps up gently on you like a sunbeam. This is on my bottle list, though it may take me a long time to get around to ordering it.

I applied this on my left hand when I applied Ace of Wands on my right hand and in the imp they smelled very similar. Dragon's blood, of course. I figured it would be appropriate to test them together. But this one underwent some interesting transformations -- the initial blast of dragon's blood died down over time and woody notes overtook it. Actually, I get the amazing, smoke-and-fire, ashy tang of Brimstone or Djinn, perhaps with a touch of vetiver, in the drydown. It's beautiful! It's like charred ruins in a forest. This would probably be a good bottle scent for me, because The Tower has been a card that I considered "mine" for a good dozen years or so and while I think that I probably don't quite identify with it as much now I still am fond of it. This represents the card very well and stands on its own as a great scent if your tastes run towards smoke and wood.

I like dragon's blood, but whenever it is combined with any kind of spice it winds up smelling fairly awful on me. This does not, but I can't really tell for sure if there's a spice intermingled with the blood. I expected a woodier smell for Ace of Wands even though it is a Fire scent. I'm going to say there's probably not any cinnamon in this because I don't get a hot feeling on my skin and it doesn't turn into the "cheap cinnamon potpourri" scent that any blend with cinnamon in it, automatically turns to on me. Approaching this just as a scent, it's not a dragon's blood scent that I would wear -- it looks like Dragon's Heart and Dragon's Bone are the only ones for me in that regard -- but as a Tarot oil, it is undeniably fiery without being "hot." Seeing the imagine of a hand holding a wand makes me think of wood rather than fire, and that is the scent that I am yearning for, so I just can't quite wrap my head around this one. Other than the blood, I can't tell what is in it at all -- clove maybe? Clove doesn't turn into craft store potpourri on me, that might be it. Some vageuly spicy wood? I'm not sure.

This is a really lovely blend, but as hard to pin down as you would expect an Air scent to be, in terms of ingredients. Refreshing, and stimulating -- mint and a tingle of eucalyptus, a little bit like Envy but not quite as "green." I can see there being lavender in here but it comes and goes. I've already sent this on so I'm going partially from memory here but it is a changeable scent that goes through several morphs before settling down. It reminds me a little of the drydown of Black Forest; I was thinking it was an ambery smell but I think that's just the drydown of that slightly evergreen or eucalyptus smell that I caught at the beginning. I'd enjoy a bottle of this, I used to reprsent myself with the Page of Swords when I became interested in Tarot cards as a kid and though I don't have any Air signs going on, astrologically speaking, and I'm not a very "Air" oriented person, I appreciate this as a very stimulating and refreshing blend that I think would be conducive to creativity, focus and intellectual pursuits.

This is a magnificent scent! I know that a lot of people, myself included, are a little wary of florals. They go powdery or soapy most of the time, for a lot of us, and often induce headaches or sneezing. But on me, Flower Moon is gorgeous and it is just what I wanted for summertime. The only time that I can really go all out with floral scents is summer, but even then, only a specific kind...ones that smell natural, like walking into a flowered forest or a field dotted with wildflowers, warmed by the sun. That is what I get from this scent. There is nothing in this that makes my nose twitch or my head twinge, there is nothing of soap or powder, just pure glorious fresh sun-warmed wildflowers wafting through the air. Actually, it most reminds me of Mi-Go Brain Canister without the strong fruity overtones. And while I initially thought that might be because I had been wearing Mi-Go earlier, I tried it again after bathing and that's still my impression. I'm really learning a lot this year about which flowers work on me. The lab does marvellous things with these spring and wild flowers --and I absolutely love them. Mi-Go and Arkham Revisited both have this similar crisp, fresh, inviting field of flowers smell. On the other hand, Beltane struck me as very perfumey...but this does not. This is definitely what I wanted when I was wishing the other day for the scent of flowers to dispel the heat.

I didn't put this in my first SIA order, despite it having some of my favorite notes in it (cedar, vetiver, hell all of these are favorite notes of mine) ... I tagged it onto another, later order as an afterthought. I had mixed ideas about how it would turn out, and was really hoping for something like Capricorn (very deep and woody, sweet and brown) with a touch of sweet tangy citrus and some of the spicy warmth of saffron that I love in Scherezade. It came across in the bottle very much like a masculine cologne though, rather like a darker, deeper version of Incantation (which struck me as pure cologne, and not one that I liked). But the vetiver does keep it from going too far in that direction. The smooth softness of vetiver warms up the blend and it fades in and out between masculine perfume and a warm, woody blend. I don't get much of the tangerine at all and I really don't sense much saffron either. I think that the amber gives it the cologney edge along with cedar...as much as I love cedar it can have a very aftershavey scent in certain combinations. I think I will keep it because I love having these Arkham bottles and I do get a lot of vetiver from it, but it's a bit too much like a cologne/aftershave scent for my tastes. I might eventually wind up swapping it if I find out I missed the boat on another scent but I'll give it a try until then. Maybe in the fall it would suit my mood better. Or the boy...I caught him sniffing it, and he's a Lovecraft fan so maybe this is made for a masculine chemistry. We'll see!

This is a very hard one to figure out. I have absolutely no idea what is in this but how does it make me feel?....Balanced, really. It feels like a good scent to wear when you need to buckle down and get things done. It gives me a feeling of efficiency and control. I should wear this on a work day, not on a day when I'm just lounging around the house, but I have to review all of the Tarot oils pretty quickly for the circular swap! Jasmine soap? A touch of wood? A touch of herb or aquatic? It's a little medicinal, a little floral, a little soapy/aquatic. It's rather like some sort of antibiotic lotion you might wash your hands with before going in to a hospital room, but imagine that it was made out of purely natural ingredients rather than harsh chemicals. A cleansing scent to stimulate and prepare the mind for the tasks ahead.

Oops, I posted my review for Temperance here by mistake. I will update with my proper Judgement review shortly. Okay, here goes: The oil is a dark, almost brown color, which makes me expect some of my favorite scents might be lurking in here -- a patchouli or vetiver, a resin perhaps. It's a dark musty mix of a sort of vague incensy smell...not one that I can recognize, it's a little spicy, with a slight medicinal/herbal overtone that gives it a bit of a "greenish" cast over the impression of a thick brown scent that I'm getting. Oh, oh, I think there might be a bit of tobacco in there as well! A bit like a smoky cologne. I would probably wear this as a scent -- as for its Tarot associations, it has a very formal and masculine feel. It feels "official", not like a woody forest scent but a wood-paneled dark room with high ceilings.

When I think of this as Key Lime Pie, as several reviewers have noted, I like it, because that is one of the most divine things on earth and I have literally eaten it for dinner (i.e. skipped dinner, went straight to dessert), I love it so much. But as a fragrance...yes, the lemon and coconut are appetizing but as I learned with Spooky, if a fragrance has strong coconut in it it will cling to any garment I am wearing and make me smell like I spent the day buttered in sunblock at the beach (which is not something that I would ever do, I'm a forest girl). Not getting any mint, not really getting any lime unless I TRY to imagine it's lime...possibly almond... Ahh, but this is a Tarot oil, so who cares what it makes me smell like? The important thing is how it captures the card it represents. And it does that quite well. This is a dry, distant but still warm glimmer of white and yellow light. It glows softly and lingers for a long time. It is a scent full of hope and inspiration, it is stimulating and comforting at the same time. And that is why it is a marvelous scent and why I would use it if I had more. But I don't, so I will just rest assured that I can continue avoiding coconut in most blends, and I am glad that I got to try it!

Hm, did I really test Wheel of Fortune or is this something else? This doesn't smell anything like most of the things described above, to me. It strikes me first as....ah-choo!! It makes me sneeze. I have to assume that it's got pepper in it, nothing else makes me sneeze quite so quickly. But after I apply it it changes and becomes softly woody -- it smells almost just like Grandmother of Ghosts, or the cedary wood smell that was in Jupiter...or the combination of wood and an orangey smell that was in Kuang Shi. And it stays that way, with that soft wood growing in warmth. Even after washing it off it's going strong! I like it, but that initial sneeziness means I probably wouldn't want it as more than a curiosity. As for its relation to the Tarot card it represents, I don't know why but I feel as though it fits. Now that I read how everyone else described wintergreen/mint when testing this I went back to sniff it in the bottle again and I DO get that as well but that was part of what made me sneeze, so I didn't notice it at first. That faded almost immediately on me, I never got it at all except straight from the bottle. My skin really does gobble mint though, it hardly lasts a minute on me.

I'm a little afraid of this one, despite not being from a particularly religious background, but I'm watching a History Channel documentary on Hell while testing this so I'm thinking more in terms of the traditional idea of the devil, rather than the Tarot card interpretation. This is a thin, sinuous scent -- light at first but if you inhale it, it's a sharp spike of scent that goes up through your nose and surrounds your brain. It's not pleasant but it's not objectionable. I think of the chest that my grandmother kept a couple of antique furs in -- I was horrified by them, they seemed ghoulish and wrong to me, but the scent of the mothballs and cedar of the chest was mingled with that preserved fur smell. That's how this comes across to me. The mothball/musk scent continues...I don't know exactly what the lab's civet smells like, but if that is what this is, I don't find it quite as horrifying as I thought I would, but I also don't think I'd want to wear it. That said, I washed this off because it makes me feel weird.

Looking back over the other reviews, very few of us seem to agree what's in this one! I tried this a long time ago and passed it along and my impressions at the time were that it was a very pale yellow-white sort of succulent scent, maybe a little lemony, maybe lotus. One thing is for sure though: I detect absolutely NO cinnamon. As I said in my Hierophant review, I don't care for cinnamon but I tend to amplify it and anything with ANY cinnamon in it and can generally detect it instantly. I get none here. I don't get the burny sensation that it gives me either so I am going to side on the "no cinnamon" side of the Lovers discussion. Though now that I am TRYING to sense it I feel my skin warming where I applied the oil. This blend is coming across as a sort of watery lemon-yellow floral on me and I am afraid I don't care for it very much. There could be some lavender in here, I think I can see that...and the lemony smell could be ginger, because ginger always impresses me as a high-pitched dry lemon scent. Ah, could be bergamot, too, that's another that likes to disguise itself in a lemon suit and run around. Otherwise it's very indistinct to me, just a sort of floating slightly herbal slightly citrus scent with something vaguely floral that tends not to agree with me (lotus?). I've never felt much connection with the Lovers card, so I'm quite content to sample it as a curiosity and move to the next...

A very high, light, airy cinnamon -- it's not burning my skin the way Three Witches, Mercury or other cinnamon-containing blends did, but I'm still not wild about cinnamon and that makes me draw back a little. I've always drawn back a little from the Hierophant card though as it looks very religious and makes me feel a little uncomfortable. But I love "churchy" smells -- wood and resin. Cathedral and Penitence are just about my favorite things on earth. I can smell a bit of that incense in here -- the light, airy resins of Cathedral, overlayed with a very bright but not-hot cinnamon. It's very nice, but I know I wouldn't wear it because I don't really feel the need to get closer to this card and I am turned off by cinnamon in a lot of blends. It tends to overwhelm everything else and just always smells "cheap" to me even though I know that the lab's cinnamon is of high quality. My brain just doesn't interpret cinnamon favorably. The resins certainly remind me of the Hierophant imagery though and I imagine this would go over very well if you like cinnamon! ETA: Tried this again and I have a better idea of the notes now. BAM! Pure frankincense and cinnamon. The cinnamon still turns my skin red but you know what? It's working for me this time. Maybe this is a fresher imp (it's fresh from the BPTP!). Oh yes this is the lab's frankincense and I love it! I'm becoming more open to cinnamon once I get past the burning stage but wow, this is nice in every stage. I suddenly want a bottle of this!!! It smells like some of the Japanese incense that I like, where resins/woods and cinnamon are combined to delightful effect.

I'm going to add to this review later as I've only smelled it, not tested it, but my first impressions are a vivid flashback to staying in nice hotels at the Jersey shore. This is a very clean scent, I feel like I am being hit with a waft of fresh ocean air, but it also reminds me of high quality hotel soap! It's a pleasant soap though, the kind that I'm tempted to put in my mouth when I'm taking a shower. What a surprise! Soap, water and ocean air. I will edit this when I get a chance to wear it for awhile but I know that scents like this generally fade on me immediately. Upon wearing: I feel like I can taste salt water and sand on my lips when I smell this. It makes me think of taking a shower after spending a day at the beach (which is something I haven't done since I was about 10 years old...too crowded for my taste). The combination of salt water and soap, and an overall clean smell but still that lingering scent of ocean in your hair. There might be a hint of driftwood (probably really something like sandalwood) in the distance. There is probably something floral in here but it is all interpreted by my brain as high quality hotel soap and salt water. I like this, but it doesn't make me think of the Emperor and I wouldn't wear it as a perfume except as a curiosity...or maybe if I was actually to go to the shore for a day (and believe me, this redhead is no fan of being anywhere without ample shade). This makes me think of the GOOD smells of the shore, not the bad ones (sweat, fish, sunblock). Though as it wears I even get a bit of a musky scent from it that reminds me of a fresh sweat-washed-away-by-soap feeling. A fascinating blend. I'd like to have an imp of this around for the curious feelings it inspires in me.

The strong cherry smell in the bottle almost puts me off testing this, as I really can't stand that smell -- the cherry/almond scent is almost always stomach-turning for me unless it's the early stage of heliotrope before it fades to a golden glitter. Ah, but this fades almost immediately from that stage and goes to a sinus-clearing mint. Interesting! There's still something alcoholic or medicinal in it that I don't like ... but if I had more of this I might be willing to experiment with it a bit. The heady smell does make me feel a little "high" and gives me a bit of a boost...I actually feel like this would be a good one to wear to work on a stressful day when I need to be ordering people around while keeping ice-cool and calm. It actually dries down quickly to a resinous incensy smell. Wow, that was unexpected. It darkens fast, and now it's like wood stained by smoke and melted resin. Definitely a "me" smell in this stage. It ends on a STRONG resiny dry wood incense on me. This is so complex I might need a bottle just to wrap my head around it...and to get that incredible rush of power that I feel when I first put it on. It was worth enduring the cherry stage, as it only lasts a few seconds. I can see using this both for meditation/introspection or for putting on on a day where you need to do some ass-kicking and feel calm and centered through it. I might have to get this some day.