surf-tormented

I was inspired to buy this oil because Poe was being re-buried and celebrated in style and Raven Moon reminds me of this time. In the bottle, it smells sweet. A hard to place sweetness, because I can't describe it as flower sweet or candy sweet. It's more of a clear sort of sweetness. Perhaps it is the musk, I don't know. Wet on my skin, it smells dark and deep, like a vanilla incense highlighted with myrrh and musk. There is almost a mushroom like fungus scent lingering under that. Yet that part is fresh. It is the note that stays with me. Upon drying, the perfume oil starts releasing its spices, I can smell the chili and nutmeg. It adds a nice finish to the oil. Of course, all the rest of the notes are in there too, in the back. I wore this starting at bedtime and when I woke, I could still smell the reminder of the perfume, the hint of myrrh tinted musk and smokey spicy vanilla and the fresh fungus soil like note there in the background. I do like this, though I probably won't buy moons for a while unless they don't have myrrh in them or aren't too fruity (sorry Peach Moon). The myrrh tends to dominate on my skin, sometimes to bad effect. But not with this one, Falling Leaf or Black Butterfly Moon...I think that has been 3, so I am bound to hit one that messed up my skin like Sugar Moon and ended up smelling like I had sprayed hair spray all over my bad self, thinking it was perfume. I'm waiting for this to happen again. Raven Moon does capture the dark sadness of Poe, the mystery of the grave and remembrance of our own mortality. It reminds me of burning incense in a crypt, perhaps after a long rain. Or perhaps being it one's den and being visited by a visage beyond the grave. The musk in it blends really well with the other notes, I can sense it there, but it isn't overpowering. I find this a really nice unisex scent. It's sort of making me gothicly giddy right now. Or maybe that is because I need to eat breakfast!

It's a really nice blend. It smells perfumey in a sophisticated way. In the bottle, I can smell the myrrh like component, which usually amps up on my skin, killing off all other notes, but this myrrh blends well like the other notes. You get a bit of rain, damp dead leaves, a tiny bit of fruitlike sweetness and a hint of spiciness without any of them out doing the other. This is great as soon as it is put on, at least for me. I have to usually wait for the perfume to die down to smell the individual notes, but with this one, it's like autumn in a bottle, like if you were at an outside Halloween party, the leaves are falling, rain is in the air with a faint chill, seasonal spices cooking somewhere in the distance, even the occasional whiff of apple. I am happy I bought this. I almost didn't because of the sweet myrrh (opoponax) component, but it doesn't get all sugary on me like other myrrhs do. I would recommend it to people who like perfumes that are deeper and more heady than your usual fruit and flower perfume.

I used to never buy these pumpkin scents because pumpkin in the blends usually is way too creamy, buttery and foodie for my tastes. Pumpkin #5 from 2007 changed my mind about this, having ginger, lemon peel and benzoin in it. Over two years, the pumpkin in this blend has gotten less buttery and foodie, with the more spicy and herbal elements making it smell better than it was when it was new. So, I decided to buy another pumpkin because I saw this one had tomato in it and I loved the Planter's Moon, which also had a tomato note in it. The rest sounded bizarre...fir, rosemary...pitch? I wasn't even sure what pitch was...it's pine resin...I looked it up. Or else it's a tar note. Anyway, I have another non-foodie winner. If you don't like the traditional pumpkin scents or think they are too sweet, buttery or creamy for your tastes, try this one. It starts out very spicy. Hurts-your-nose spicy. It reminds me a lot of Pumpkin 5 (07) in that respect. But the tomato note is strong first. Smells like a field of gourds and vegetables being harvested. I can make out a slight medicinal undertone. I am not sure if that is fir needle, pitch, rosemary, two of them or all three. After a half hour of so, the rosemary comes on very strong. The tomato is still there. Of course, the main note of pumpkin lingers. It smells very green and fresh, but not a timid fresh, this fresh means business. I can really smell the complexity of the rosemary coming on by the time an hour has passed. As it starts to mellow, I do get a slight, very slight pine/fir scent. Like a herby almost basil like pine, if that can be imagined. It shows no sign of going away. It is an all day scent with a great throw. It tops my previous favorite, Pumpkin 5 (07). It gives me hope that each year, there will be a non-foodie (as in baked good or dessert) pumpkin out there for us non-foodie people to enjoy. Happy to have bought this. Note I have dry pale skin. It might act differently on a different skin makeup.

I got this as a freebie with my order today, but it is one of the GC I have always wanted to try. It smells very good on, the leather mingles with the sea air note and there is just a hint of bay rum. The only problem with it is that it doesn't have much throw, it only lasts about a 1/2 hour on my skin. But if I want a scent for only a half hour, I would definitely wear this one.

I've been wearing June Gloom today to keep the Southern California sun at bay. It's been a nice month with clouds. It seems, it will get sunny again. Sniff. Anyway, this is a great blend to wear on such days, sunny or not. It is fresh and vibrant, starting off on my skin as a airy floral, light fruits and ozone and ends up soapy but still rainy and clean. Like a mist of rain, much like what we get here in Southern California. It's like a scent poem of what it does out here weatherwise. I enjoy that it is more of a complex clean, if that can be understood. I mean, in this area, the mist comes and a lot of the nightblooming flowers bloom, thinking it is night because the clouds are out. I think if it was more lemony, I wouldn't like it as much. I think lemon would throw it off more than make it clean. The initial phase of the perfume doesn't last long on me, maybe an hour or two. The second soapy phase lasts a few hours longer. It has a nice throw, but I wish the initial notes would last longer. Even so, the perfume oil smells very clean and refreshing. I wouldn't buy a second bottle, but I really like this bottle and will use it up. My boyfriend loves scents like this, so this is one I can wear to sleep that isn't too overly strong. It's win win. I like the artwork on the bottle too, though I do believe it is public domain. But I often don't like the artwork on the bottles...so that is a win too. This one is really nice, bottle art and oil.

This perfume oil has an unique scent. Upon opening the bottle, I was greeted with a strong milk scent. I am not sure what the milk scent is made of, but I was unsure how it would do on my skin. I was pleasantly surprised though. The milk is very solid and not too buttery or sweet. It hangs on, the fig and myrrh stay in the back of it, but add a nice fresh note to the mixture. I have a hard time finding words to describe this scent. It is cream, like warm spicy fresh cream sitting in the summer sun, fresh milked with a fig tree hanging overhead. It also reminds me of a creamy cocktail, I am thinking a spicy White Russian. I also had a Milk lotion from H2O+ that has a similar scent, though without the spice and fruit. I am not sure if it would be for everyone. I could see how some people might get spoiled milk, due to their skin chemistry. It is so unusual, I would suggest swapping for a sample first before buying a bottle. I tend to gravitate to the perfume oils that aren't usual or sweet, so this is perfect for me. It lasts a long time. I put in on in the beginning of the evening and didn't go to bed until 3am and it was still very noticeable on my wrists and behind the ears. It does morph on me from strong milk to milk with fig, the sugar of the fig coming through after 3-4 hours of wear. It makes the milk smell deeper, the sugary fig, by 3-4 hours on me, the spicy myrrh is gone. Which is ok by me. It reminds me a lot of Juno and Bacchus, or Pater Liber. I am very happy that BPAL makes a lot of perfume oils based on Roman ritual, because I use them both as perfume and in rituals around the festival day. It gives a deeper meaning to the oil. The artwork on the bottle is cute, it has a goat on it, bedecked in flowers.

Dirt after a spring rain. Tomato vines coming out of the soil. Weeds growing around those seedlings. Grass swaying by the garden, wildflowers at the gate, winding about the wooden planks. A hint of growing squash in the crisp, gentle air. The scent of a tomato vine as you press your fingers against it to cut off a stem. All under the full moon, night time, talking with close friends walking outside in the country, after a long hot day of labor. It's a fantastic scent. There are a lot of lunacy perfume oils I skip due to being overly flowery, fruity or sugary. This is a nice blend of a Demeter Tomato scent (which amps up really high on me, which is what I wanted it to do) and a scent of freshness...fresh soil, fresh seedlings, fresh air, squashes starting to grow...it takes me back to the farms of my youth, since I was raised in the country. My grandfather's garden. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't like the typical offerings of scent like ones that are fruity, flowery or sugary based. Definitely for those into earth scents with grassy fresh notes. And if you love fresh tomato vine smell, you should get a bottle. I wish more lunacy oils were like this.

I was noticing the other day that The Robotic Scarab smells a lot like the Yule LE, Le Père Fouettard. It may be an understated version of the latter, but The Robotic Scarab gives off the same leathery anise scent that Le Père Fouettard does, except the anise doesn't amp up too much. The Robotic Scarab has less sweetness, but that is ok with me too. It kinda goes on like a men's perfume, where Le Père Fouettard crashes into my skin as if a truck full of licorice whips just beat me senseless. It's subtle, but I do believe the two could be kissing cousins or sniffing cousins, for that matter. If you love Le Père Fouettard, it might be worth picking up an imp of The Robotic Scarab to compare and contrast. I'm pale with dry skin, FYI. I just read on the Internet that skin tone and oily/dryness of skin affects perfume notes. My dry skin eats oil. Good to know. It lasts with a little bit of lotion before putting on the perfume, to, I guess, lube my pulse points.

In the bottle: It's an odd oil. It comes out of the bottle acid green. At least my bottle does. Smells garbagesque. When applied: It reminds me of something when I put it on...banana bubble gum chewed in a grassy field? It has a fresh grass note, then an earthy tone not unlike Graveyard dirt and then the banana, which is sweet, but not too much so, comes in. It does have a starter garbage and loam scent...I wondered if I would like this at all... Drydown: Dries to a nice strong fruity earth scent. Very unique, not too sweet and the garbage scent morphs quickly into something utterly wearable. Gothic banana smoothie thrown in the moss of a crypt..just the empty plastic cup amongst the graves. You would think this combo wouldn't work, but it does on my skin. The earth note plays with the banana one. It's haunting familiar to something I once ate or at least smelled...maybe I will report back on that. I think it is bringing something back from my childhood. It reminds me of the country and the outdoors, very clean and herbal-grassy. I did get a copy of The Graveyard Book for Christmas and I haven't read it yet, but I'll wear this when I get around to it. It's yummy and dirty.

This is one of my favorite BPAL oils. It is what I wanted the box of chocolates oils to be, not too sweet and a nice blend of cocoa scent with other notes. This is cocoa without sweetness. Chocolate, wood, spice and musky. It's a food based scent for us who don't like foodie scents. It is weird, but I get no cherry in this like others do. I get mostly spicy woods and dry cocoa. It's a great combo. It is very sophisticated smelling. Probably more of a man's oil, but I like it too. I am happy I bought it, since I wasn't the happiest with the last 13. It was a little too sweet for me.

Agape smells like a spicy orange creamsicle. I am not sure how one makes a spicy creamsicle, but BPAL managed it. It's throw isn't the greatest. I have to have it really close to my nose to smell it. It morphs slowly into a bandage smell laced with orange juice. It is appealing though even if that combo doesn't sound good. It ends on me, a sweet kind of orange-vanilla scent. I would keep the bottle, if it would stay strong in scent. I put this on before I started this review and already most of the scent has faded into my skin. I could see this used in a body wash or something where you would get the scent for about 5 minutes and then it would fade as you are putting on your perfume for the day. By the way, the label on my bottle wasn't put on evenly. It's a minor thing, but I guess I expect more quality control from the Lab.

This is a cute yet tricky little scent. Herbal, yet leathery, like the scent of boot leather and magic. It's a little earthy too, on my skin during the dry down. I am glad I got to try this scent. I got to try Fruitcake too and it's great these unreleased scents are given to us when we buy BPAL oils. It's a fun bonus.

I like this scent, however the licorice/anise element of it amps up on my skin, killing off all the other notes. After about three hours, it mellows into a nice leather scent, but the anise is so high before the drydown, I can't take it. Maybe I am slightly allergic to anise, I am not sure. I wish I could keep it, but I know I won't wear it because of the way the anise amps, so I am hoping to trade it to someone else who either likes licorice a lot or doesn't have the reaction to it I do. It's a strong scent, a little goes a long way. Like I only put a drop on and it was overpowering.

Does BPAL have any cucumber scented oils? I searched the website and found no oils with cucumber in them. If there are, or if there is one that smells fresh like that and isn't listed as cucumber, PM me. I would be very interested.

Morocco.

It smells like a "holiday spice" oil I have. Spicy and sweet. The honey is probably too much for me.

It does smell a bit like Red Moon. It's very warm bright sophisticated floral.

It is soft on me. I can't say anything more than that. Smells like softness.

It's unique. It smells like burning but sweet...then it gets that rank honey scent I don't like so much. Wet, it is very good though.

Smelled very minty and then became Dial Soap on me.

It smells like Bliss at first then fades into a root beer smell, followed by a gross sickening sweetness after a few hours, like Delphi has. Not for me.

It smells of ripe fruit at first and then dries down to a light almost lily smell. Not what I was expecting. I thought it would be stronger because of the notes and I have no idea where the fruit note in coming from, unless it is the honey. It's ok. I am trading the imp I got and wouldn't buy a bottle of it. Skuld to me is much more powerful than this.

It comes out majorly rosey on my skin, almost like rose water. It is really clean smelling, but isn't for me.

It smells really good but I could whip all a version of my own since I have all the notes. It is thick and strong. The cinnamon has a kick. It's good.

It's interesting. At first it was far too strong, almost nutty. But as it dries, it is a neat mix of chocolate scent and wood notes. I guess if you sat a chocolate bar in the woods, this is what it would smell like. It is one of those scents like Kali that is multi-faceted. It's a deep layered scent that's foody yet tamed by the other notes. I don't know if I would buy a bottle of it, but it is a nice scent.