Macha

No, they still come this way...this was a (quite probably) permanent change.

Sarada's got it, I think. I just know that I adored Three Witches to bits: if I could have gotten the re-release as a 10ml, I would have...and I didn't. Thus my agreeing that the a 10ml Three Witches is very likely an original formula version.

Sounds right to me. I'm pretty sure the Lab stopped selling 10mls before the Three Witches re-release.

But the kitty is speeecial....

Can you try sending it to them from a different e-mail address? If you're being blocked, that might help the issue. Also, double check the e-mail address you're sending it to, just in case that's the problem.

Ahem...as a matter of fact, I didn't do the art for these. Too busy. Beth found some other very talented artists to pick up the slack, and I look forward to seeing the labels myself!!

They're photos. We're looking into the issue, since we thought it was a photo we had permission to use.

hehe! I had fun with those...glad you like them!

If anyone ever needed proof that the Lab hand-blends their oils, this would probably be the shining example. Unfortunately, the cold hard fact of the matter is that when you are mixing up oils from such incredibly remote locations and sources, that crop variations are...well...inevitable. I think Electra likely has nailed this in saying that one of Hamadryad's woods likely smells minty, and for some reason the batch that season was stronger than normal.

Differences should be pretty minor, I believe. Of course, I wasn't holding up a bottle of the last set to compare with, but I DID reuse the same files, so...mostly any differences would be to accommodate larger or smaller perfume titles (some are real doozies for length.) I was relatively careful to match letter color and hat shading for the Carnaval Diabolique scents. For Carnaval Noir, the only labels that used the "Snake Oil" label were the Snake Pit — and my decision to use that label with the type of serpent on each was so very last minute (I had told Beth I was going to make a single label, then changed my mind because I wasn't happy with it and ended up doing them all individually) that I honestly didn't pay much attention to the jester's crown. Except, perhaps, to make sure it lined up with King Cobra's head just so.

Answer: The color of the Jester's hat was my whim.

In the bottle, what I smell the most strongly is fresh ginger essential oil, the kind that has an earthy dirt note to it. Underneath that, there's some cinnamon and cassia, but I have a strong sensitivity to that ginger note, so it's what I notice the most. I'm fortunately not particularly sensitive to cinnamon or cassia essential oils, so skin contact did not produce a rash, welts or the burning sensation that others have reported. When first applied, Saw-scale is very spicy, with the Cinnamon/Cassia quickly battling it out with the ginger and winning for predominance. Underneath, it's supported by the scent of Snake Oil. As the scent dries, true magic happens. It becomes creamy spice, and really wonderful. I like spicy scents, and I like the initial application well enough — but the dry down is pure heaven.

So let me start by explaining that I can't really wear Snake Oil.. I am one of those people who, sadly, has the perfume turn to something that is a precise and uncanny rendition of play-dough within moments of contact with my skin. So I wasn't really planning on trying the Snake Pit, but Beth talked me out of abstaining. A while back she showed me a cocoa absolute oil (I believe she passed it around at a Will Call too) that she'd discovered — rare, difficult to obtain, frighteningly expensive — and it was this perfume gem that she had added to Bloomslang. Yeah, okay. I had to try it. As others have mentioned, this is a thick oil. I knew from previous experience with the cocoa absolute that it tends to separate, but even so I managed to not mix it enough the first time, and ended up with a light Snake Oil scent that didn't much smell like cocoa but didn't turn to play-dough either. A good sign, I thought. I mixed it a little more thoroughly and tried again. Even well-mixed, the chocolate for me is less an in-your-face extravaganza than a sneaky sort of figure, darting in to tap you on the shoulder, then running away when you try to look. But the cocoa does do an excellent job of making the Snake Oil behave, so what remains is a rich, sexy, and dark fragrance that does not tend towards even the slightest resemblance with children's toys. And truly, it's pure joy to finally be able to wear this perfume and not have it go wrong.

I'll do one better: I have personally witnessed Beth making Chaos Theory scents. Each bottle is created individually from single notes. They are absolutely not disguised GC scents.

Have you tried Szepasszony? It definately hits the rain/flowers/ozone notes, although I'm not so sure about the exhaust.