Czarina

No official description AFAIK. This is an "unreleased but available" ritual oil. It has a strong scent of lemongrass. It reminds me of Clarity, but Clarity has a "cold" edge to it that Protection doesn't have. As I understand the various oils with protection aspect, this is the oil that is a purely defensive shield and does not work to rebound energy on the attacker. I did a simple candle ritual with it this evening because I'm just so, so tired of fighting today. It gave me a strong sense that I was resting behind a barricade where no harm could come to me.

Very odd. The listed notes blend into a mix that smells like fermented straw. and burning pot. Not unpleasant, but not at all what I was expecting. No sweetness at all, more acrid.

This smells just amazing on me, but in a different way than I expected. Strangely, I got this as a part of my Quest To Try Every Scent Beth Makes With A Violet Note . I can barely smell the violets in this one, and in fact wouldn't be able to detect them if I didn't know they were there. The initial note of this perfume for me is lilies. As time goes by the juniper and the myrrh emerge, making this, as has been noted, a floral-resin blend. Brilliant.

Sugar pine. Fun. Cute label, too. Not a deep, complex scent. Nice to wear when I want to turn my brain off.

Interesting how my nose reacts differently. I get pure white sugar from this scent (granuated, not powdered), no strawberry, no linen. To me this smells as much like white sugar as Sugar Skull does brown sugar. Love it, but it makes my teeth ache.

Foodie fans, get ON this one. Butter, sugar, cinnamon, rum. I don't know how she does it, but it definitely smells like a cookie in a bottle, and not cake, thereby differentiating this from Cockaigne. The cinnamon does amp up over time, but it behaves well. Mmm, rum cookies.

This is a wonderful, warm, mellow apple scent (in sharp contrast with the ice of Snow Glass Apples!). This is definitely hot cider by the fire. Borders on smelling like a Yankee Candle, but doesn't fall over the edge. Would also be excellent in an oil burner.

In the bottle: peach and gardenia. Interesting combination. Wet: the two scents above are joined by the amber. Even more interesting combination. Drydown: this becomes one of those indescribable BPAL scents that, for me at least, unless I'm sitting there with an ingredients list I can't really tell what's in it, other than that it just smells really good in a vaguely floral sort of a way. What never really come out to my nose are the honey and cream. Also, rather than neroli it smells more like roses to me. Odd.

If this were a decant I would believe it was mislabeled, but it is a Lab frimp so I know I am reviewing the actual scent. This is straight-up jasmine/camphor/Chanel No. 5 on me with an additional nasty plastic note (like a garment bag). No roses, no coffee, no glamour, no mystery. Feh. Mindful of the comments above about the drydown, I waited, but the best I can say about this scent with my scent chemisty is that it faded fast enough that I didn't need to scrub my wrists to get the scent off. Off to the swaps with you!

In the imp: roses. Wet: roses and musk. Drydown: roses. Lilies nowhere in evidence. Nice, but not for me.

From a decant dated June 2008. In the decant: pine and vanilla. Wet: boozy vanilla tobacco, plus pine pitch. Drydown: this expands into a wonderful cloud around me. The sharpness of the pine pitch balances out the sweetness of the honey, and the patchouli and tobacco come to the forefront. Nice morpher.

In the imp--very light sugared incense. Like incense before it is burned. Wet: ozone and sugary incense. Drydown: floral incense with sugar. At first sniff, it is nice enough but not anything I'm jumping-up-and-down excited about. ETA: ahhh, I typed too soon. This is exquisite in the drydown. And I thought I didn't like florals.

Bottle given to me at a MnS. In the bottle: lemon and herbs. Wet: wow, the oil itself is yellow! The scent is lemon-coconut-vetiver, with musk purring underneath. I'm not smelling the lavender in this at all. Drydown: coconut-citrus-musk. It almost reminds me of a Love's Baby Soft scent from the Seventies (But in a good way!). Very cheerful scent.

Boomslang, which is Snake Oil with cocoa. H-e-a-v-e-n-l-y. You might want to check out the "Everything you ever wanted to know about Snake Oil" thread for a bunch of lore about aging Snake Oil (people lay imps on the side, leave the cap off the bottle, etc., etc.).

Oh baby! This scent may be in honor of a child, but it's not childlike in the least. This is lavender Snake Oil with lemon and tea (the Dorian; Dorian itself has lavender in it). The lavender is pretty well-behaved. I catch occasional whiffs of vanilla as well. This appears to have massive throw.

In fairness I think I should reserve judgment on this one to see if it mellows a bit over time. In the bottle, wet, and on drydown this is harsh lavender to the exclusion of almost every other note. I get the honey and sage a bit in the background but if anything they create additional offnotes. Sometimes I like scents better over time. I'm hoping my approach to this one mellows with age. Right now, do not want.

The mandarin is the strongest note in this for me and the florals are so mixed as to smell generic. Can't detect the violet at all. Just lovely though.

Lab frimp. In the imp: apples. Wet: apple cider, apple blossom, berries/floral. Drydown: sweet, sweet apples and berries or hyacinth. This is a "warm" apple scent--think cider beside a bonfire--not a "cold" apple scent like Snow Glass Apples. Very welcoming, getting compliments as it wafts from my Clocket. (I originally reviewed this as Mabon--this is what happens when I read labels quickly in a rush in the morning--and was relieved to notice later that this is a GC, not an LE).

Frimp from a forumite. In the imp: pine cone up the nose. Wet: pine and juniper. I expect my wrists to be sticky with sap. Drydown: the evergreen scent sweetens a bit. The eucalyptus (usually a scent I hate) makes a pleasant and subtle appearance.

Smoky myrrh. The rose is buried under a pile of ashes, which is just where it should be. This one doesn't do much for me for some reason.

In the imp: oh, olibanum. That must be what that smell is (frankincense, but lighter and sweeter). Wet: honey. Drydown: honey. Dang. No pepper. On me this is sweet without being either foody or floral. Intriguing, but not likely to cause me to sell my firstborn in search of more of this. Not much apparent throw or wearlength.

Lab frimp. In the imp: cedar and cigarette ashes. Weird. Wet: patchouli. Drydown: Hm. Much better. Woody with a hint of rose.

Oh, wow. This smells like candle soot and matches, with a nutmeg and rootbeer undernote. The rootbeer fades fast. It really makes me think of someone heating up drugs in a spoon. I don't know my historical drugs enough to know whether this would have been done with laudanum , but there's a clear burnt note in this to my nose that I really like. If you like this try: Bonfire Night, L'Heure Verte.

I've had a series of difficult days at work--negotiations that went all over the place--and I found myself using this daily for about five days. It doesn't smell very good--kind of woody. Things did settle down after a couple of days and I liked the notion that I had the oil "in my corner." I anointed my head with it, which I think is the traditional way to use Crown of Success.

In the imp: whoa! It's a mint julep! Wet: oops! I spilled my mint julep all over myself! Drydown: Oh, dear! Now I spilled my mint julep all over the baby! => In other words, it morphs quickly into baby powder on me.