astrid

The rage of Pindar filled the sounding air, As Polyhymnia tried her skill divine; The shaggy lion roused him from his lair, And bade his blood-stained eyes in fury shine; The famished eagle poised his waving wings, Whetting his thirsty beak--while murder rose, With hand that grasps a dirk, with eye that glows. She of Many Hymns governs Sacred Poetry and the Gift of Eloquence, and brought the gift of Geometry to the world. The most introspective one of the Sisters, she is contemplative, withdrawn and brooding. The Solemn One is veiled, garbed in long, somber robes, and is shown either resting her arm upon a pillar, or with her finger to her mouth in a gesture of silence. Polyhymnia grants fame and glory to writers, brings inspiration and immortality through one’s written work. Orris root, white sage, rowan bark and red sandalwood, with myrrh, rosemary, lemon balm and honeysuckle. (Hoping I did this all right!) Polyhymnia just arrived today! I had to get this scent mainly out of the fact that it contains Rowan bark and I named my horse Rowan after the properties of the Rowan tree! In the bottle in is simply gorgeous, crisp and fresh. Like a softened and gentle Lemon balm. First on, the Lemon balm is very much in the forefront, but then after a little bit it tempers down to almost being undetectable. So all you peeps who don't like lemon scents, don't let this one scare you. It will at first, but then you won't notice it. I'm actually sad the lemon balm goes away on me. I am very much becoming fond of the brightness that lemon brings to scents! So anyways...yes, the tempered Polyhymnia has become a bit "church incensey" to me...probably the myrrh. I'm having a hard time distinguising any of the other ingredients actually. It's only been about 10 minutes that I've had this on so I can't say what sort of throw or duration it has. I am really sad it doesn't stay on me the way it is in the bottle. When I first smelled it, I was ecstatic, but now I'm not so sure. I can see with the way it dried down it is rather "withdrawn and contemplative" and poetic with a solemn grace.

For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours, Her deep hair heavily laden with odour and colour of flowers, White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a flame, Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name. The emergence of light in darkness. Frozen pomegranate and a hint of nocturnal blossoms. How come no one has reviewed this yet? Surely, it has been a good seller since it is an incredibly pretty bath oil! Maybe everyone is still stuck in their tubs, unable to write reviews? To me, Proserpina is very pomegranate in the bottle, but a little less so once in the tub and blending with the other ingredients. It's a little wintery (the frozen quality) in that there is the faintest, faintest hint at pine (similar to Snow White... it is there or is it not there?) and even the 'nocturnal blossoms' seem to share similarities to Snow White. My bathroom smells heavenly afterwards, my skin might keep a tiny bit of the fragrance with it, but not much after the bath. It blends great with any other fruit or spice bath item you might be using as well or with a cream or perfume after your soak. So lovely!!

This smells utterly fabulous and reminds me lots of Candy Phoenix, but for a $9 bar of soap I need something more moisturizing which I get with soaps from other small boutique soap makers. This soap strips my skin of oil and doesn't leave anything to offer in kind, which I find surprising since I know Villainess makes faaaab goods and I'm a fan of her scrubs & cream!

Wow, I can't believe this hasn't been reviewed! This is Jasmine indeed! While it is very Jasmine in the bottle, it becomes an earthy Jasmine on me. My husband was crazy about it and I can see why, but it's really quite amazing how well Beth hits these single notes on the nose! As for lasting power, I had only rubbed some on my wrists. It's not as whammo on the skin as when just smelling it out of the bottle and it didn't seem to last too long on my wrists, but I hadn't applied as much as if I really wanted to wear it.

Frankincense, olive leaf, champaca, beeswax, amber, and bay myrtle. Oh man, BPTP totally bites for *only* offering this in squirt size! What starts out as rather frankincensey scent and goes to honey and rather Lupanary, settles to an absolutely GORGEOUS golden scent. What an incredible atmospheric!! Love it!!

For stimulating the libido and arousing the senses. Vanilla, palmarosa, patchouli, jasmine, cocoa absolute, bergamot, sweet orange, nutmeg, ylang ylang, rose otto, and Haitian vetiver. The label was an interesting idea..... it is of silhouetted women, like a Bond movie, but in sexual positions which are a bit racy. So when I first got this and opened it up the jasmine, which I generally love, punched me in the face! I tried to find the other ingredients and now and then there was a tiny, tiny hint of some of the others. The blend, from the bottle, didn't seem harmonious to me. I wondered how much I would use this oil or even if I would use it. I stuck in it my office drawer and would sniff it now and then, but had pretty much resolved that I should sell it and get a different bath oil from the Post. Then the other afternoon I was working on the computer and was really, really cold, so I decided to get in the tub for a hot soak. On my way to the bathroom, I said, "Screw it. I'm going to try Incendia. Maybe it will be better turned loose in the hot water." And it was. It became a whole. I didn't find it particularly stimulating, but jeezy kreezy was it relaxing! I felt sooooooo good afterwards! Even yesterday when I only had time for a real quickie quickie bath, I used Incendia again. And I'm going to use it in today's bath, too. I'm so glad I gave it a go in the tub. I would have totally missed out on this great big bath oil! ETA: If you want a little more chocolate, add a dash of Gula. Mmmm!

Indeed, very tropical and I also get a hint of citrus. Maybe a little bit of yuzu? There's definitely something tart in there that is tempered down by the other ingredients. It's really, really lovely. I'm reaching for more "oomphy" scents these days, so I think I'll let this one go, but it is a gorgeous blend!

I got my Hua Mulan yesterday and while I have yet to try the bath oil, the perfume is very, very pretty! I was a wee bit concerned about the leather note, but I can't smell it at all. In fact, this is really well blended. I can't pull out any note specifically, which is a tiny bit disappointing for me since I love tea and ginger and was hoping they would be more prominent. Wet and freshly applied it reminded me of a bath gel I used to use in France and the scent coming out of the tub or shower while you're still warm and fragrant. The dry down is neat, too. A little sweeter with a faint berry touch. This may be the pink musk? It doesn't seem like a strong, in your face blend, but I didn't slather. To me, this is a dainty and delicate scent. Very Spring and Summer friendly!

Oh god, people would go crazy for this one! It is total bakery goodness!! Maybe we'll get lucky and this will be a release for next Halloween?

I'll admit it, this one is very "eh" to me. It's kinda sweet, kinda floral but nothing really outstanding. Maybe several spritzes around a room and that would give me a better impression of it, but right now it's so-so.

This is sooooo not motor speedway at all! It is the exact opposite! in the same way Dirty smells incredibly clean, this smells the furthest thing away from fumes, gasoline and burning rubber! It is a beautiful outdoorsy scent that has loads of apple and pear and fresh greenery! This, too, would be an INCREDIBLE addition to the Atmospheric line!

Oh hella yeah. Oh man, this is really, really, really good. And it would be an AWESOME addition to the Atmospherics collection! It makes me think of Embalming Fluid (one of my favorites) with black tea and a teeny bit of smokey tea. This is so gorgeous! PLEASE release this PLEASE!

So I haven't tried this in the tub yet, but in part that is because I'm seriously tempted to stash it away and pull it out when summer is here and it's hot, sticky and GLUH*! Glacies is going to be a perfect hot weather oil because it is so fresh and cooling. From scent alone, it really comes across as a cucumber minty floral and I don't personally get too much lavender, which is good for me because I have an iffy relationship with the lovely herbe de Provence! Mais, c'est n'est pas mal ce fois ci! (I don't know how to put in a cedille here...) Glacies is a very big contrast to the lusty, rich Incendia. And where I find Incendia very relaxing and soothing, I think Glacies is going to be the stimulating one for me! *Very nice!* *By GLUH, you know what I mean! That time in the summer where it's so stupid hot you're at a loss for words.

Love this! It is so fresh and bright! I hope BPTP will bring more out in this vein! My husband said, after I sprayed it liberally across the downstairs, "Whatever that is, buy a gallon of it! It makes the house smell great!"

I was so jealous of the others getting samples of this and I opened my latest BPTP order to find one inside! Woot! This is floral, but not strictly rose and definitely earthy/dusty-ish. Like a combination of an open window letting in a breeze of fresh air and wafting flowers' scents into an old parlor room of beautiful furniture, covered in white sheets to protect them from the dust. I would totally buy a bottle of this. The imagery alone that I created from this scent reminds me of my great aunt's home in Brittany. Ah....

Damn pretty this is! It shares a lot of qualities to White Rose and a few with Giant Vulva. I also get a hint of tobacco, which is possibly the notes playing together, but it is the prettiest tobacco scent that I've ever smelled. Really, while I know people want to stock pile on White Rose, you should consider Symmakhia instead. I think it has a better slightly better throw. Gosh, I am really loving this. Beth is doing something really special with blends like this one (and the Shungas, too, for example), that I really envy in her skills! I'm looking forward to getting more Aphrodite scents!

Great color and not bad on tenacity either. Looks totally awesome over black.... creates a super black cherry color!

This arrived just in time...well, I wish I had ordered some sooner since my skin is parched! What a lovely bath oil blend this is. I like the fact that a little goes a long way and it isn't as "oily" as one might expect. Beth blended a marvelous base! I would love to have a great big bottle of it unscented! Speaking of the fragrance side of things, Castitas is a lovely soft fragrance. It is a creamy ricey scent that has a lovely "after-waft". The first time I used it, I was walking out to my garage in the freezing cold and thought in my head, "Wow! That smells lovely! What am I smelling?" It was the Castitas on me. Overall what a really nice bath oil! I look forward to trying the others. I think Gula is next! *yum*

When I lived in France, we would have a scoop of Cassis sorbet next to a scoop of Vanilla ice cream and they would melt together. This is that scent! It took me a minute to figure it out....it was so familiar and yet I couldn't place it until the scent settled down a bit. In the bottle this smells just like strawberry birthday cake! Immediately wet, a little weird...like kinda alcohol-y with the berry trying to make its way through. Then settled, the cassis-vanilla combination. This is such a great memory enducing scent! Unlike last year's Beltane which reminded me of the air freshener my grandmother had in her WC. *eek* Yeah, thank heavens for this being so delicious! This is going to be one popular scent....that's for sure!! Oh and I want to add that the label is absolutely PERFECT!

Oh dear, so far I am 0 for 2 on these Lupercalia scents. The smell of Red Lantern is divine in the bottle. That uber caramel-ness is so gooey delish, but on me it goes so uber tobacco it's crazy! I smell like a great big walking cigar. Which would be acceptable if I were smoking a cigar, but not on a non-smoking cigar basis. So sad! I adore the label, but can't keep a scent because of that. Pooh!

I had a feeling this sassy one wouldn't work out on me. Upon opening, I was hit with the similar scent of Snake Oil and was really reluctant to try it, but since Beth had said it's a real morpher, I tried it. I let it sit on my skin as long as I could, but had to get it off. GET IT OFF ME!!! It turned into a nasty head shop and I can be ok with some "head shop" smells. Really, I can! But, Smut and myself, like with Snake Oil will just have to agree to disagree. I will say that Smut has a staying power though. I kept gettin whiffs of it all day and it drove me crazy. I can still get a hint of it now, the next day. Boy is this stuff sticking like nobody's business.

I don't know why I waited so long to try this one! Anyhoo, to me this smells more like rose and mint. I can see how this minty-ness could be considered as the "rose right out of the cold case" scent, but it's pretty minty to me. And I swear I almost get a hint of lotus or something. Maybe not lotus, but definitely something familiar I just can't say what though. And it reminds me of another BPAL scent, but it's not coming to me. Wait! Yes, it totally reminds me of Pandora!! Yup, that's it. Pandora. Crazy!

This is such an interesting contrast...a poisonous plant with a most gentle, soft frangrance! I had no idea that peonies actually smell like anything really (I'll have to see what mine smell like when they blossom this summer), but I can see where someone might think this has a bit of roseyness to it. Overall to me, this is just a baby soft floral scent that is smooth and unabrasive. I'm not sure how much I will wear this right now though. I may hold off on really wearing it (as opposed to a bit rubbed on my wrist) until the gentle weather that will come in a few months when I want something breath-y and whisp-like. Pretty and very demure!

I *JUST* got this. Holy Holiday Moon, this is awesome!! I've only had this on for a few minutes, so it I won't be able to say much for the aging process, but this is gorgeous! It's crisp, fresh and bright! Yet, at the same time, it has a smoothness to it. It's green, but also sparkling with a citrus-like quality to it. Has similarities to Embalming Fluid (the tea part), of course. I am totally enamoured by this and considering it is also my bday moon, I am so thrilled! I wish I had gotten a 2nd bottle, eventhough I've been trying to be realistic about how much I really go through, since I think this may just be added to my list of absolute favorites. So beautiful! Thank you so much, Beth, for being inspired to make this!! Oh and the label is adorable! FU DOG!

Wow! I was expecting something quite different! This is soft and gentle, yet has such a throw! It reminds me a lot of Antique Lace and Morocco. It has a gentle lemon to it at first and then settles down to a powdery spice. Again, I wish the lemon (or whatever it is) would stand out a bit more, but I am glad I got this. It will take be forever to use the 10mls especially since it seems like a little goes a long way. I'll be curious to smell it in a few hours. Love the bottle image, though the lady is green, I'm not too sure about the Fee Verte aspect of it as it looks like a tied up Roman or Greek babe. Balthy (36/300) is cute as the dickens and I'm wondering if he's lonely without Seamus? I might have to rectify that in the near future.... Oh...it's funny...when I have my wrists away from me, I get more of the wormwood/anise/alchoholic qualities! Neat!