sarada

Oh yes! I should have mentioned that I love Hemlock! I wasn't sure what to expect from that based on the description, either, what a nice surprise it was!

All single notes were discontinued a couple of months ago but people sometimes have them up for sale or swap! Hope you can find some!

I think I've developed an example of the "generic BPAL smell" on the cuffs of my winter gloves, in advertently! Every day I apply an oil to my wrists, but shortly thereafter I have to put gloves on and go outside. A little of the fragrance, each day, clings to the gloves. So now when I pick them up they are extremely fragrant! But it does have that sort of universal "I just opened a box full of BPAL and it is wafting across the room at me" scent. I think the scent that most smells like BPAL to me would be something like Queen of Spades, which has a lot of ingredients, including a little from the fruit column, a little from the floral column. That's kind of what my gloves smell like right now!

Vetiver and patchouli are among my favorite scents (damp earth and wood being things that I apparently want to smell like!), so I was going to go ahead and order a bottle unsniffed but decided to try it out imp size first. I admit that the scent in the imp put me off slightly, because I didn't realize that red patchouli is different than other varieties. It is slightly more bitter, and spicy -- not the round, warm, earth smell that I am used to. Vetiver, also, can be a little too much in a thick concentration and take on a smell almost like stale coffee grounds in the bottle. Nonetheless, as soon as it hits my skin it becomes pure, smooth, earthy vetiver with a spike of patchouli and it mellows wonderfully. I think I will get a big bottle of this after all, eventually! I realize that if all I want is a vetiver/patchouli smell that I could just wear those oils on their own, but as usual the lab manages to mix a particularly fine grade of each for a scent that is far more sophisticated than your typical hippie smell! This is only for very serious fans of the deep, rich earth scents that compose it. If you are not completely in love with vetiver and patchouli this will turn you off -- and yes, it is much stronger in the bottle than it probably will be once you apply it. If your skin likes these scents it might be like mine, and really cause the fragrance to blossom. Also, it lasts forever! Always a plus with flower-devouring skin like mine! ETA: I tried this again after being without it for a long time (thank goodness for frimps!) and my love is confirmed. I hope this one sticks around because it's the closest of anything that I can find to my beloved Capricorn...and once it hits my skin it really does magnificent vetiver things. It's still a little overpoweringly bitter and smoky in the imp, but man, some day I do need a bottle of this.

Just got a decant of this and I put it on both of my wrists -- strangely, on the left it smells a little stronger and redder than on the right! Oh I LOVE the range of purple-red fruity/berry smells so much. Problem is, I always want to drink them. This smells as fresh and crisp as a bottle of some kind of clear berry spritzer/soda. It is a cold, purple smell. Plum tends to be interchangeable in my mind with black or red currant smells -- you get the natural sweetness of a very, very ripe plum or berry, frosted over with a slight sheen of cold. Somewhat like the Holly and Red Currant candle that Yankee has out this year, but a bit purpler, lighter, fresher. I have the good fortune that this is the one fruity smell that lingers on me for a long time, and like most scents it doesn't change very much over time. Again, it seems lighter and airier on my right hand than the left, so perhaps that gives ms an idea of how two different peoples' chemistry would work. Yes, so when are they going to make drinkable BPAL?

Thanks! I appreciate it -- I am hoping that they don't discontinue the Tarot oils before I get a chance to try some. It looks like no one has reviewed some of them for many, many months. Has anyone encountered any of the ones at the bottom of the list, like the Devil or Death? I think I might need Strength tomorrow, when I meet with my boss! Hopefully Jupiter will help me out with that! The right scent really helps me get in the right mindset for things sometimes.

Green!! It's very intriguing to me when a fragrance does not include a description of its component parts, so I always have to find out what the deal is. I was hoping for something green and herbal here and that is definitely what it is. Actually, it reminds me of Burial without the earthy component. Juniper, moss, pine, those might be in there somewhere -- as well as a rosey scent that reminds me of my beloved Zombi. I haven't worn this one out a lot, I just keep dabbing it on myself at home to try to figure it out. It is very sharp, strong and pungent and I like to "coordinate" my scents with what I'm wearing, but I just don't have anything GREEN enough to wear with this! I don't get much of a wood scent from this, unless it's extremely damp and mossy, but it does smell like vegetation. I really wonder what other people would pick up on, when I'm wearing this. Will they think that a giant mossy rose monster is shambling towards them? Or will they think it smells more like dried herbs? Well, I seem to have a preference for dark earthy or green scents with a hint of rose mixed in (Burial and Zombi are in my top ten, and I also love GothRosary's Graveyard, which is very similar) so this is definitely for me. Edited to add: It dries down to a very green rose scent on me, by the way -- it lingers for a very, very long time in that stage! Edited again to add: I'm almost certain that Spanish Moss is the predominant note in this. The giant mossy rose monster is undeniably Spanish Moss! But there was something else in this that didn't agree with me, the creamy undertone that several others have mentioned that just clashed with the greenery and made the whole thing uncomfortable for me.

I put Penitence on my left wrist, and Cathedral on my right wrist, to compare them, as they smell identical in the bottle to me. Or wait, was it.....Cathedral on my left? No, I think I got it right. Frankincense and myrrh together are one of the most perfect scent combinations I could wish for -- the Wise Men knew what they were doing! After the drydown the difference between Penitence and Cathedral though seems to be that Penitence is a little darker and stronger. It was still very strong on my skin when Cathedral had faded like wisps of incense in a...uh, cathedral. I love both of them and I don't think I could choose if I had to, but I already have a 5 ml of Cathedral, so I probably will be happy with an imp of Penitence for now. When it comes time to re-order more resiny goodness though I think I will opt for a bottle of this, as it is a much stronger and darker blend of those two wonderful components. The bottom line: If you love incense smells, resins, and you went to church just to watch the smoke pouring out of the censers, this is for you! Floral, fruit and foody smell lovers might not be into it, but incense people, this scent should be your best friend! ETA: Now that I have a full bottle of this, it is definitely a favorite, and I think I like it even more than Cathedral. It's much simpler and stronger, and while I have to slather Cathedral throughout the day to keep it going strong, this only needs one application. It's very close to Anne Bonny as well but not quite as sweet, and without that patchouli note. Definitely promoting this one into my Top 15 scents now that I have a whole bottle and can really experience it!

I have two imps of Spellbound, one is deep dark brownish red and the other is deep golden honey colored. They smell the same but for some reason I favor the reddish, dried-blood colored one. I just found that interesting -- anyway, on to the review! I hadn't had this pegged as one I wanted to try because I figured "Eh, more roses. I like roses, but...I already have roses." Then I got a freebie of it, and things just haven't been the same since! Every time I sniff it, I'm just overwhelmed with how a fragrance can make my nose so happy. It's rose, but it's the deepest, darkest rose imaginable, thick and syrupy, the smell of black, dried petals floating in amber. I wore this today and a friend said, "WOW, you smell GREAT" which is always a nice nod to the power of the precious. I can feel this emanating off of me in dark crimson ripples of flower power. But it's not floral at all -- it has a darker, incensy quality that I guess is attributable to the amber and musk. Headshoppy? Maybe, but it's always been my dream to smell like a headshop. More like a witch/occult supplies shop, perhaps. A big bottle is on the way. By the way, I got Scherezade at the same time as this as a freebie (same dark red color) and at first I couldn't tell them apart. I am still not sure what it is that is so similar in them, but maybe the color is playing tricks on my nose.

Given that I am only wearing oils for their fragrance and not specifically for magickal work, I have been wondering for some time which Tarot oils would suit me the best. I've been through all the reviews but since many of them only have a couple of reviews I thought I'd see what people thought! I am most fond of scents that are: Woody, resinous, pine/evergreen/juniper, herbal, incensy, dark, and complex, but I also love roses, berries, and citrusy scents. I just don't like light florals, I can't smell them at all...and anything with vanilla, rum, almond, cherry, etc. ('foody' smells) I'd rather not get, even if it is a Tarot card that I dearly love. My favorite card has always been the Tower, incidentally. Though looking at the reviews I think Death might be the most up my alley, fragrancewise. I love all of the cards though, and there's none that I wouldn't want to wear, if it was a scent that agreed with me. Any thoughts? I think the only one I have sampled was the Lovers, which was too sweet for me.

Anubis is an entirely unique scent, one which I can't put neatly into any little niche. It is dark, rich and golden -- it hints of incense and ancient secrets. I feel as though I am participating in some great occult mystery simply by smelling this. But in the vial, it's not nearly as complex as it is when it hits my incense-friendly skin. The balsam becomes ancient wood, the myrrh turns slightly sweet -- oh, I DO recognize something like Gonesh in here! -- and I have no idea what storax smells like, but this is just a delightful funereal dirge of a scent. I go back to sniffing it in the bottle and, yes, it's nice, but it doesn't quite get across all of the complexities that reveal themselves on my skin. This is a religious scent, indeed -- not like the stained glass windows of Cathedral or Penitence, but something from a far more distant past. I get the feeling that this is a fragrance that has not been smelled for thousands of years. Except for that slight Gonesh similarity! I'll be getting a big bottle of this one ASAP.

The mint is so gentle in Frost Moon -- it's like being kissed by someone who has just eaten a candy cane, or put on some of that Burt's Bees peppermint lip balm! If there is eucalyptus in this it is blended in so well that it only adds the slightest bit of volume to the mint. There are several distinct layers in Frost Moon...in the bottle you get that swirl of minty breath, that quickly dissipates. When applied it remains for awhile but within an hour the mint is gone on me and the other notes begin to come out. I wonder what the traditional lunar oils are, as I swear there's something fruity in this blend. Perhaps it is the sweetness of the lotus, which comes out in the next hour or so, on me. It must be lotus, at any rate -- it's a slightly sweet floral, but with just that touch of nectar beneath the surface. This is a very poetic blend...the cool, crisp swirl of mint, and the shimmering underlayers of moon-kissed nectar swimming on a frozen lake. It doesn't cling to my skin the way that Skadi does, but that's mostly because I can't keep any light or floral scent going for very long before I burn it up. I can always put more on! People won't be hit by a cloud of scent when you're wearing this, unless they get nice and close. ETA: I tried this again recently, a year later (I had swapped my bottle) and while I definitely like to have a sniff of it around in the winter months I figured out what made it go wrong on me, and it's the lotus. Lotus comes floating to the surface like a blobby pink jellyfish, just looming over everything else. It's got a plastic, fruity smell to me and while I like everything else in the blend the lotus is the only thing that I can pay attention to.

For some reason I keep thinking Tiger Lily is a single note fragrance, so I was surprised to get a freebie imp of it, but then I remembered...it's part of the Mad Tea Party! I was not sure where I stood with lilies, to be honest. I like them in the garden, I love them in the spring when the warmth of the sun is releasing their heady scent, but as a perfume I thought it would be too cloying and sickly sweet. I've passed over some other lily scents for that reason, but the honey in this really does make all the difference. The smell is not too strong in the bottle, and when I put some on my wrists I didn't feel as though I was surrounded by a funeral bouquet or trapped in an Easter parade. This is the smell of natural lilies lolling their heavy heads in the sunlight. With time, it does turn to a more powdery honeysuckle fragrance -- one of several that I've tried that remind me of a honey flavored dusting powder I've tried. The liles in sunlight have been taken inside into a bedroom and arranged neatly on a dresser, covered in a white doily. Not the kind of thing I'd get a 5 ML of, since florals aren't typically my thing but I could see wanting to wear this on certain spring days, or with a bright orange dress. Edit: Okay so I DID like it enough to get a 5 ml bottle! And I'm so glad I did! I can't stop smelling this now, I absolutely adore it...one of the only sweet fragrances I've really gone for. This will be perfect in warmer weather.

The Red Queen is a very challenging scent, and aptly named. This is the only Mad Tea Party scent I have tried thus far that didn't quite agree with me -- all the others seem to work incredibly well on me. In fact, I didn't make it past the sniffing stage as I knew that it wasn't going to be my kind of scent. The phrase "lacquered" in the description is one way to describe my impression as I have the same sort of dizzy feeling I get from this, as I do when I get a waft of nail polish, turpentine or something like that. Must be the same thing that has been likened to Robitussin in other reviews. I do sense the cherry and underneath, the currant just peeking through (hello currant! I love you!)...but the overwhelming sense of a freshly lacquered table, or fingernail, prevents my sensitive nose from getting closer. I have a feeling that this would fade immediately upon application, as the smell in the bottle always changes when it reaches skin, but I know that I'm a bit peculiar with this particular type of scent. ETA: Well! I never tried this on because of my initial impressions but today I actually DID put it on my skin and the turpentine scent went away very quickly. Though there's a hint of the fruity scent, it mostly turns to sandalwood. And I love sandalwood more than almost anything, so that is just fine. I'm going to have to seriously try this again some time, because if it stays sandalwood or just woody in general this would be upgraded from a "No way!" to "Want a bottle!"

Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig. This is a positively lovely scent that I have been enjoying for many months in the imp, but unfortunately when I apply it, it vanishes almost instantly! The pale green tea is so appealing and I always enjoy coming back to it to sniff in the imp, but as soon as it touches skin...alas, there is nothing there. I have very fair skin but it does tend to eat up anything that is light and airy, in the white/yellow/pale green family of scents. I think this would be absolutely stunning as a scent in a shampoo, or a lotion or shower gel and perhaps if I get some more I will try to put it in an unscented bottle to try out. It is similar to some green tea aromatherapy blends I have come across but far superior, of course...and the mosses give it an earthy edge that is unusual in an otherwise crystalline, ethereal blend of early spring greenery and tender shoots.

This is one of the most edible-smelling scents that I have gotten from the Lab so far. I can just taste the apricots when I smell this -- that wonderful peachy, dry leather tanginess -- you can practically run your tongue over the rough, dry texture of dried apricots when you smell this. The rich, deep, earthy patchouli roots deepens this feeling -- it feels like you are digging your toes into fresh, damp earth and curling them with decadent pleasure as you linger over the sticky orange fruit. I absolutely love patchouli but I have never worn it on its own because people have a tendency to groan "Oh great, here come hippies" when you come into their presence dripping with patchouli. That hasn't stopped me from appreciating that most complex and earthy scent, but I tend to like to combine it with something else. The Lab pefectly uses patchouli to root other scents down in the earth and to darken qualities that you might not have even known they had. What a brilliant combination! On my wrists this faded very quickly as fruit scents often do, but no matter, I'm used to slathering on more whenever I need it. I definitely need a big bottle, but I have a couple imps to last me awhile. This will be a nice summer scent.

Cathedral is one of those that I had to buy a big bottle of from the description alone. My favorite oils are those that smell like incense. I simply love it when people tell me, "You smell like incense." That's the greatest compliment! So with that spirit I eagerly awaited my bottle... In the bottle, it lives very much up to its description. Actually it's a little lighter than I expected. I had envisioned something thick and dark that would smell as though it were viscous resin running down an ancient split tree trunk. This is shot through with beams of light, there is a lot of airy room for movement among the strands of incense smoke in this blend. Cedar stands out very strong -- it's the smell of the old carved cedar chest in my parents' house, freshly oiled with sunlight pouring in through the window. Frankincense, I'm sure that's in there as well. It's hard to pick out exactly which resins/incenses this is. It dances happily on my skin as all resinous scents do, and lingers, releasing scent throughout the day and not changing too much. There is that sense of extinguished candles, of layers of ancient wax encrusted on a wooden altar. It is a well-lit cathedral in daytime. I will not ever want to be without this fragrance! But I would also like to find something even darker and deeper.

When I got my first package I didn't know what to expect, and I think that the freebies I got mostly came from the same "family" as the bottle I ordered -- from Mad Tea Party. In a mixture of under a dozen scents, I think that the dominant notes will really stick out and hover over all of them. When I go back to that first batch I still seem to notice the same thing -- all of the tags picked up that strong Mad Hatter minty smell, and the undertone of various tea and citrus notes. But since then, after trying dozens of others, I don't feel that way anymore. Especially when I tried some radically different ones, like the extremely earthy and rosey Zombi and Burial. They were so different from that initial cloud of fragrance I experienced that I can really distinguish the differences to a greater degree now. If you had a batch that, for example, was mostly stuff like patchouli, wood and other 'dry' scents and tried them off in a different room than the other bunch you might have a different impression, who knows! But there is a generic scent that emerges from any large gathering of fragrances, which is hard to put your finger on. I've always wished there was an incense called Incense Store, for example, that just had that amazing waft of ALL incense smells you get when you walk into a place like that! Maybe if you get some more, and try them out far apart in time from each other the individual notes will become much more distinct! I did feel at first that there was an overall "perfumey" quality to my samples that was a little too perfumey for me..and since then I've discovered that I stay away from the light, floral scents and go straight for the deeper, darker ones.

You may have gathered by now, that this is a minty scent! I had no idea that pennyroyal had such a strong minty smell, I was expecting more lavender but I happen to like mint as well. Pain is a good name, as this is a crisp smack of a scent, an icy spank on the bottom, a whipcrack in the snow. Since I am trying to find lavender when I smell it, I can detect it in the distance, a faint whisper of a scent lurking beneath the surface. When I put this on my skin it actually tingles, like it does when you use Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap in sensitive areas. A nice tingle! It's really energizing to feel that minty spark crackling around you. After some time it does mellow and is tamed by the lavender. A nice mix! Definitely for the mint fans, and chillingly appropriate for winter, or when you need to wake up your sense of smell after a cold.

I want to roll around in this scent. I want to tilt my head back and pour an imp right up my nose so I don't have to stop smelling it! I seem to really love the red wine scents because I had the same feeling about Nosferatu -- perfumes that I positively want to drink. Funny, because I don't drink wine -- maybe I should start! The scent in the bottle is carbonated berries -- currant, really, which is another thing that I can't get enough of. It's really quite strong, and an overwhelmingly "red" scent. Might be a little too berry-rific if you're not into that kind of thing. But the wine and myrrh make it sinuous, and sultry, and sexy, alluring and hypnotizing. I'm completely entranced. On my skin, it just does the most marvellous things. The carbonated currant wine electrifies and comes to life, and this just lasts and lasts. The rose scents start to emerge, after awhile, and transforms the experience even further. I love the really, really pure rose scents that they get at the lab. This lasts and lasts on me. Whereas light fruit and floral scents tend to dissipate immediately for me (or maybe I just have a weak sense of smell in that department), this really clings. I was lucky enough to get it in my hair when I applied it behind the ears, and that really carried it beautifully. Yet another one I want to pour into a glass and drink.

I'm so glad to have an imp of this! I wasn't paying close attention to the updates when this came out so I missed my chance to order it. I would definitely have done so, at the time, based on the description. I love complex scents, it's fascinating to see them unravel throughout the day, revealing all of the layers. The plum is the first thing I smell, and in the bottle it reminds me of Megaera, because fruit smells tend to come to the forefront for me, particularly "purple" ones like plum. They're also the first thing to go, once it hits my skin. I put a lot of this on my wrists and behind the ears so I could be sure to enjoy it for awhile before it started to burn off. This is like a much, much more complex Megaera, darkened by the myrrh and woods, but I don't really smell them much...I just know that something is deepening the mix, while the amber sparkles in the distance. After the plum burns off, the amber and myrrh remain as an incensy aroma that I can smell when I sniff my wrists (a compulsive habit that I have now, as the people I work with can attest to...I must look like some kind of maniacal junkie going in for a fix every time I sniff my wrists). It's a pity that fruits positively evaporate on me, and unless there's something stronger underneath I have to reapply constantly. Another one that I just want to drink. Can the lab please make drinkable oils?

All of the Dream Formula blends I have tried come across mainly as lavender in the bottle, but when you apply them, the other notes begin to emerge very strongly. This is no exception! This time, jasmine seems to be coming through loud and clear. I applied this before going to bed, on my forehead and behind my ears, and just enjoyed inhaling it as the lavender burned off and the jasmine came on and lingered and blossomed in the night. Unfortunately, my insomnia is so severe that I wouldn't expect anything to help it -- nothing natural or chemical seems to help me get over it when it decides to come upon me, and the night I wore Somnus I didn't sleep at all -- finally at around 9 a.m. I managed to get an hour or two, but please don't attribute that to this lovely oil. It was an unfortunate coincidence, and I completely enjoyed inhaling this fragrance throughout the night as I tossed and turned. As a fragrance, I think I would wear this at any time of day, especially in the spring because I seem to like jasmine smells a lot around then. And as an insomniac, if I'm going to be up all night I might as well be smelling something lovely like this!

I approached the Dream Formulae with the intention of wearing them during the day, not at night, because I love the smell of lavender and want to be able to smell it all day -- though I do enjoy using lots of lavender bath products in the evening to relax. I also knew that Baku would be a favorite, because of the wonderful imagery I associate with it, and it turned out to be as wonderful as I hoped! With all of the Dream oils I have sniffed I am struck mainly by lavender in the bottle, and then the other notes come out on my skin. As it turned out, I decided to wear this one to sleep because it really does smell like a night-time scent -- something you would want to wear to relax with -- something therapeutic. I don't get any of the eucalyptus that others have reported, just the immediate emergence of a fennel/anise scent, which I love, and which mixed sweetly with this absolutely perfect lavender. The fennel smell becomes stronger, but I still love it. I know that the scent will evaporate quickly because all light scents do that on me. Nothing will ever help me to get to sleep because I am pretty much a hopeless insomniac, but I did have an interesting dream experience with this. I dreamt about cats ALL night long. And the final dream that I had, was that all of the cats I have ever had, all lived with me in the same house -- there were seven of them. They were all eating out of little dishes or rubbing up against me. Included among them were two that have long since departed -- all happy and healthy. I'd like to think that the cats are the Baku (Nekobaku?) who are guarding my dreams against nightmares. At any rate, the dreams were nice. I would wear this as a fragrance, but I'd also wear it to bed, to drift asleep on a bed of licoricey lavender.

Greed is decidedly different in the bottle than on the skin -- although I mainly smell copal when I take a sniff, I have waved it in front of other people and had them describe it as candy-like, and one person did say it smelled just like maraschino cherries when I asked for their opinion. But on the skin there is none of that sweetness, it all turns to a delicious golden powder that reminds me of the copal incense I like (the sticks are even gold!) When applying it I wish that it came in the form of a thick glittery gold paste that you could spread on your arms and watch them sparkle! It smells like gold that has been gathering dust. The initial pungent sweetness burns off very quickly for me, and this stuff lingers for a long time -- very rare for me, since I tend to burn off all but the strongest scents within a couple of hours! The patchouli lends it a darkness but it's not one of those scents where the patchouli stands out. I think the oakmoss must blend with the patchouli to neutralize it's strength. It's more the earthy base of the scent, which grounds the wispiness of copal and the flourishes of heliotrope. I'm not sure what heliotrope smells like on its own but perhaps that is the sweetness that comes out at first? This is a favorite of mine, nonetheless, and I will definitely get another bottle when my 5 ml runs out!

This is exactly what I wanted, for this time of year (autumn into winter) -- the crisp, cold smell of evergreens. This is one of those fragrances that you just can't stop opening and inhaling, deeply, over and over again. The pine/evergreen smell quickly turns to amber on the skin, on me, which is also a good thing! I do wish that the greens lasted longer though, I would love to smell like a Christmas tree! Before long it becomes pure amber -- have you ever seen those little square boxes that you can wear as a pendant, with a bit of fragrant amber in them? It smells just like that! I can't stop sniffing my wrists, but I always wind up applying more to get a whiff of that amazing deep in the woods scent. Being in New Jersey, I can't help but think of my beloved Pine Barrens. This does not become musky, and does not have a sharp piney tang like you might get if you just used a bottle of pure fir or juniper. Beautifully blended to flow from one stage to the next -- but if you're like me you'll keep slathering it on for that Christmasy woods smell, as soon as it starts to fade! Can't wait to get a big bottle of this -- you don't see many people swapping or selling big bottles of this, it's definitely a keeper!!