Macha

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.

I will admit this is the very first time I have ever heard anyone's complaint be that we didn't keep a General Catalog label on something. And to be perfectly frank, last year's labels would have been different too, but we ran out of time.

Everytime another company is accused to IP infringement (and usually after they become aggressively defensive on the matter) someone will bring up a Disney character. I wasn't expecting is this time (in the H&E debate, for those who are intelligently staying away from the conversation,) honestly, because the subject has been gone over before. But, as it turns out, I was wrong. So I'm talking about it here, for reasons I'll get to in a moment. Basically, a refresher course in trademark law. When you introduce a product, the field that product falls into is critically important. Apple is the name of a computer company. They didn't run afoul of a problem with Apple Records (UK-based record company) until Apple Computers started selling music. You see? Same name, two different products. So legally, Snow White the Ceramic Figure is a very different creature from Snow White the Perfume (and I know there are also copyright issues, rather than trademark issues, that come into play surrounding Snow White the Disney character that we won't go into right now because they mainly come into effect if you're writing a Snow White book or creating Snow White-themed art that does NOT look like the Disney stuff.) There is only a problem if Disney decides to start selling Snow White the Perfume. (Likely, in that case they would try to use their deep pockets and huge bank of lawyers to go after anyone else using the name irregardless of whether or not they had the original trademark, but that's the advantage being a mega-corporation gets you.) Point is, it's apples and oranges. Not the same type of product? No infringement. And the truth is, Beth checks. I've seen her change the names of perfumes because she realized she would be infringing if she came out with something called X. Likewise, I've seen her pull a product after its release because she received a letter from someone she missed in her initial searches. There's at least one "unreleased" perfume I know of which will never see the light of day until Beth can find a replacement name for it she likes -- her original name is already being used. So yes, it does go both ways. Beth tends to create her perfumes off of folktales, myths, and literature in the public domain (remember, Snow White is a fairy tale, not something Disney invented.) Does that mean that someone else can base their perfumes off the same fairy tale in the public domain? No. The law doesn't work that way. A competing product of the same name will cause confusion amongst customers -- that is precisely what trademark laws are designed to prevent. It does not matter if the origin of that name was something that was public domain originally or not. I'm not a lawyer, of course, I'm an artist; but nothing I've said here can't be gleaned from the US copyright & trademark offices web site. Now on to the reason I'm posting here, rather than putting this out over in the H&E forum where more people will see it and it would likely do more good. One, because a discussion of trademark law IS tangenty, and I've no desire to add to it, and Two, because of the perception that the mods "bully" through numbers. And yes, I am quoting Inanna9 here, although I don't personally believe that her opinion (as I have perceived it) is in the minority in any way. It's difficult to go back and check, but if memory serves me correct, the last "kerfluffle" over on the H&E thread (before this business with Pilotkitten & BOMH) was the Thirteen debate, which was responded to by Scylla (a IP law clerk -- hard for her to resist,) Ivyandpeony (a lawyer, ditto) and Jenpo (who made a few comments before she realized she wasn't helping the discussion and bowed out.) Embezel (another laywer) finally responded after the tangent on IP law had been split into a different thread. So three mods, really, that made comments, and all of them with expert opinions and insight on the subject at hand. And yet, the number Inanna9 mentioned was twice that, and rather than point fingers at her or some such silliness I think that I'll simply say that I think her observation is a keen reflection of the problems of being a moderator, the metaphorical "space" we seem to take up on this forum, the tendency to group all mods into an amoeba like amalgam, and the perceived intimidation factor of knowing a dozen mods are watching a thread, even if they aren't participating. Any forum member can go to the main forum page, hit "My Assistant" at the top, then "Top 10 Posters" and receive a list of the top 10 posters on the forum. Notice that 8 out of 10 of those are moderators? Why? Not because we're handing out that many "warnings" but because we are opinionated, chatty bitches. We always have been. In many cases, part of the whole reason we were asked to become moderators is because of our willingness to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into a debate and do so often. We are MORE than happy to throw our personal opinions into the mix. We are not automatons. We are not drones. Yet if too many of us reply to a thread, we're viewed as bullying or intimidating or some such. And it seems like our detractors quite forget that we are people too, that we have opinions that are not the "party line" (whatever that is) and we came here to these forums to talk about perfume and politics and make-up along with everyone else. Go visit some of the other perfume threads and you'll likely notice mods enthusing over the products of Ave Lux, or DSL or Possets -- these are not "all other perfume companies besides BPAL are EVIL!" people. I was rather stunned by the suggestion that Michele over at H&E was within her rights to ban Laurin (Scylla) because she was a mod and obviously hostile to H&E. Can you imagine if we did things the same way here? Banned people just because they didn't like us or criticized BPAL? But it turns out that you actually have to break rules here to be kicked out -- "we don't like you" is not good enough. After a while, it gets a bit hard to stay calm and unemotional about the whole situation, certainly. And maybe some day I'll get a thicker skin about the fact that no matter how fair or even-handed we try to be, we're still going to be labeled as tyrants. I guess "Mod Censorship" means something very different to me.

My mother was pretty solidly UU, and if there'd been a strong community in the town where I grew up, it's without question where I would have attended services. So all I remember is the literature she used to get in the mail on a regular basis. Your experience sounds really neat.

My apologies, QS. As a point of order, I wasn't actually disagreeing with you. I was saying, in effect, "I found the trademark, and you're right."

Point of fact: several of the mods whe responded to this issue ARE lawyers, and IP laywers at that. They largely became involved precisely because incorrect information was being given out. If you're being very polite and sweet about telling ME to STFU, that's cool too, although I'm afraid I must apologize because I don't think I'm going to take that advice. But my point is that Beth DOES do diligence, so saying that she obviously hasn't in this case because those perfumes exist is not a convincing argument. You're right. I don't know for a fact if she has contacted those companies and has permission, or if there is some other reason regarding trademark that makes it not a problem. I will admit that I am giving BPAL more of a "pass" than I might give another company, because I know that Beth pays attention. But I _know_ (and know for a fact) that Michele did no such checking with BPAL while playing in BPAL's unofficial sandbox. There's always a risk. That's the bummer of how the trademark system is set up. A friend of mine once worked for a company who had one of their intellectual properties yanked in a suit by a car manufacturer. No big deal, right? The company in question was a COMIC BOOK COMPANY. Someday someone will explain to me how a character in a Star Wars comic book could ever be confused with a Jeep. Yet the comic book company lost. Like you said, money wins. It happens. And please allow me to clarify: I don't think Michele should have done this out of respect. I think she should have done it because she was pitching her tent directly in BPAL's back yard, and it was impossible that someone over there wasn't going to notice. Respect is why she should have obeyed the forum rules. Not using the same names as existing BPAL products though — I maintain that should have just been common sense. It seems to me that you're saying....well, I'm not really sure. That we shouldn't discuss this less BPAL get into trouble too? That we're being hypocrites for pointing out H&E's missteps when BPAL may be doing them too? If BPAL is, then it's still wrong, nor does it excuse H&E's behavior. The difference is that if next update Beth announces that she's pulling a fragrance or even a bunch of fragrances because of this, she'll likely thank you and whoever else pointed them out to her. I've seen her reaction to finding out something was "taken" and it's not "I'll use it anyway and hope no one notices/objects." Of course you are right: ultimately this is a matter for lawyers, which is ultimately where anything meaningful about the matter will be decided.

To a certain extent, I agree with you, Tamburlaine. I might quibble a few points. You are right, it would certainly be nothing new in the world of business that one company checks out the competition. Happens all the time. In point of fact, any new company looking to develop a business plan had best have a very good idea of what their competition is selling (preferably with hard numbers to back it up.) This is done not only so you know what works and sells but so you can differentiate yourself enough from your competition that that you create your own brand identity. You better believe the Lab checks out what their biggest competitors are doing — so they don't accidentally duplicate their efforts. Two companies coming out with a perfume of the same name on the same day? That's just embarassing. It's like showing up to the prom and finding out the girl across the way is wearing the same dress. And if the girl in question has worn the same dress to every dance this year, what excuse do you have for not thinking she'd wear it this time too? I don't believe market research is a dirty word. I think it's smart. I think it's essential. (Can you tell I've worked in marketing for almost two decades?) I won't condemn any company for wanting to know what their competition is up to, or even for wanting to know that foodie scents seem to sell better than jasmine or that people (at least the people who hang out on these forums) really REALLY like ginger this season. Even with e-tailer restrictions, those sorts of things are not terribly hard to figure out. Go! Take that knowledge and fly! Be a success! Now I must reiterate that Michele wasn't suspended for "market research" — she was suspended for breaking the rules about duplicate accounts and lying to us when we confronted her about it. No other reason. However, if we want to address her behavior as it pertains to her presence on this forum, allow me to provide my own opinion: When someone lies to get information on their competition (which we know happened,) creates polls asking the competition's customer base what kind of perfume they like best (which we know happened,) reads through the review threads for those types of scents (which we know happened,) goes through all the endlessly debated hoops to circumvent forum restrictions placed on her once her e-tailer status was revealed (which we know happened,) and then STILL manages to come out with multiple products that infringe on intellectual property rights and then claims that she didn't know BPAL already had perfumes of the same name? I don't think that's very good market research. Nor do I think it's good business (and by "good," I mean successful, not ethical.) And I find I'm being asked to accept that Michele is a smart businesswoman, with twenty years of experience in the field, and yet unaware enough of the laws the govern her own trade that she didn't know that any and all ambergris possession is illegal in the US or that trademark law makes no distinction between "13" and "THIRTEEN" for the name of a perfume (or for goodness' sakes, that no one on the forums would notice or object to said duplication.) So I'm going to go the other way: I'm not going to criticize Michele for doing market research here on the BPAL forums — I'm going to criticize her for not doing ENOUGH research, because everything she's currently being faulted for has been previously discussed here on the forums, from the issues of IP law to what perfumes BPAL has previously brought to market, to the rules about duplicate accounts. (The only other option I have is the exceedingly distasteful idea that Michele knew the details but deliberately lied about them, ignored them, and chose to purposefully commit IP property theft. Only Michele is ever going to know the truth of her own motives in the matter, so by all means pick the version with which you're most comfortable. For the sake of civility, I prefer to go with the "she should have done more research" version.) My too-long-to-get-to point is: starting up a new business is tough and I expect and forgive missteps, but only to a point. After that point, I expect people to know their business if they want to keep mine.

It is my understanding that while registering a trademark is indeed an expensive and lengthy process, claiming a trademark is a matter a bringing a product to market, just the same way that a copyright protects any work I create whether I have filed the copyright or not. (It's just a LOT easier to prove my claim if I've put in the extra work to file first, plus I get to put the nifty ® next to the name, instead of just ™.) You're right: you haven't heard from BPAL on this. I would be, not just surprised, but utterly floored, if you ever did. If BPAL wants to take action their attorney will do so, and I'm quite sure no announcement of such will ever be made. It's simply not in their interests to make a statement on this. Personally, I believe they have a case if they wish to pursue it. The companies you've listed may also have a case if they wish to pursue it. Like I said, it wouldn't be the first time the Lab has discovered they needed to remove a perfume from their catalog. Honestly, I don't find fault with any company for find out someone else got to the cool name first. It's probably happened to every perfume company out there. I've done it myself (and let me tell you, the fact that I had NO idea the other company existed and had come up with the name 100% independently and thought it was original did nothing to change the fact that I didn't get to keep it.) I think Michele has a hard time claiming she didn't know, however. I found it, QS: they have in fact trademarked their perfume as "Walt Disney's Snow White," not just "Snow White."

Truth is, it was your post asking for a forum to respond to that prompted me to write this particularly little mini-essay, so I feel much better now that you've happily found a place for your own post. First, I must admit I personally wouldn't have read "that is all" as snarkiness in a million-gazillion-years, perhaps in part because I don't roam around on TelevisionWithoutPity, and probably equal parts to do the fact that I am well familiar with how Andra sounds in print when she IS being snarky, and that's not it (not by a long shot.) "That is all" is Andra shorthand for: "just setting the record straight, carry on" and it's not necessarily confined to Andra. I might well have used the same language with no snark intended. Perhaps that is why it took all the mods so by surprise when the reaction was very strong. If our reaction was equally strong, well, we're only human too. _________________ As for the rest of it...well...it's tough. We're all volunteers, and we don't always agree with each other, and we have a wide variety of backgrounds. Maybe if we had no emotional investment — but of course we do. I'm going to approach something from the marketing/advertising angle; other mods are experts on the legal side of things. I don't always bring up the point that Andra wants to make, or Embezel, or Quantum Spice — often because I don't KNOW the information that they know. I'm not sure that stifling mod responses is always to the good — there is a wealth of knowledge and experience on a variety of subjects that is currently not available because a mod has to double-check to make sure that they are not seen as dog-piling responses, and if someone else has responded, not reply. (From this you may surmise that quite a bit of discussion has occurred amongst the mod staff about ways to keep this sort of reaction from happening again.) [Edited to add: I'm going to point back to the difference between my response over on Filigree_shadow's blog, and Shrieking Violet's response, to the same comment. We both answered, and we answered in completely different ways. I like what Diana said, and I think she made an excellent point -- but it's not what _I_ would have said, nor in fact what I did say.] Believe me, I'm not saying that mods are perfect. I have seen a mod asked to resign her position because she was willfully and purposefully attempting to intimidate certain forum members — I know it can happen, but I also know that we watch for that behavior too. That's part of why we have rules, part of why we can't just ban someone who's being an ass. We don't assume we're always right and infallible. Honestly, I'm not certain that it matters any longer how we respond, or how many of us respond. I think that there are some members who are so hostile at this point that ANY response will be perceived as intimidation and oppression. Maybe I'm wrong...maybe I'm not giving people enough credit, but that's honestly the way I've felt of late. I'm just not sure what to do about it.

Just so's you all know....it's the same label for the entire Order of the Dragon series (I would have loved to have done individual paintings, but there was just no time...the lab's really hopping on turnaround.)

So, under the circumstances it only makes sense that I begin my reviews of the new CD scents with this one, because...well...obviously it's a bit special to me. In the bottle this smells mostly like orange blossom with a little mint. A little sweet, maybe. It does not particularly smell like tea to me. It's only after it's on the skin that it starts to sweeten, and starts to smell like the minty tea for which I have a notable weakness. I was leery of the honey note, because honey can often go very bad with my skin chemistry, but happily that is not the case here. It's just a lovely, sweet fragrance, which I have decided I adore completely.

Some months back, when I had planned on painting a triptych of the loas (a project which didn't work out, although I have some preliminary sketches) I had stopped by the Lab. Beth, knowing what I was working on, pressed a bottle of Hermes into my hand. It made sense — there are some strong parallels between Papa Legba and Hermes, and I work electronically in a manner that calls on these powers very strongly. She told me to rub a little on my palms before sitting down to draw. It's a re-apply as you go sort of thing and very easy to do. No special training. Put a drop on your palm, rub your hands together. That's it. In the bottle it smelled very strongly lavender, but as soon as it's on the palms of my hands, it's pure cinnamon with a slight lavender undertone. It's very spicy. So....the first thing I discovered is that my cat HATES this. He will all but run from me while I'm wearing it. That's not necessarily a bad thing: keeps him from trying to jump on my lap while I'm trying to navigate through a tricky sketch. The second thing I discovered is that this oil works better than any other I've tried, and I've tried just about all the inpiration and creativity blends. Writer's block? Not a problem. Painting? Works beautifully. Gaming? Oh yeah... Yup...you heard me. Gaming. I discovered by accident that Hand of Hermes also works very well when playing computer games (I know, it's a bit odd,) helping give me the calm, cool edge I need in raids and the like. The result of all this? I keep a bottle in front of my computer at all times and another one in my satchel. I grow cranky if I lose track of it. It's become as indespensible as my drawing table and keyboard. The fact that I adore the scent just makes it that much better, because it is extremely effective. This stuff works. As Summer said: it is an invaluable tool for me in my professional life.

Stay focused....chat about what you got belongs over in Come Squee with us, not here. I'm not being a bitch about...just consider it a very gentle reminder.

If there is, they'll let you know. Since she didn't say so, I would take that as a "no" in the meantime.

Darned interweb and it's loss of subtlety in a text medium!

Gosh, I certainly hope it was meant as humor — I can only hope to be held to the same standard as some of the artists the Lab has featured in the Salon! The Salon Labels each feature the artistic piece that inspired the perfume, of course. And like all art, it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that's the nature of art, isn't it?

That's very sweet, but sometimes the beautiful label isn't my artwork. I'm certainly not too proud to state that some of my favorite labels were designed by Beth, rather than myself.

It's just the same as for the 5mls, but stretched to fit a larger size (in most cases.) And since I don't design the art for 10mls, but for 5mls, the art tends to be stretched out of proportion for the larger size, often in ways that weren't intended and which I don't necessarily think look very good. The only exceptions to that is art on the bottles that were always intended to be 10mls, such as the LE bottles that went with the statues from the Trading Post, Sepheroth and Tarot — none of which are changing sizes. So umm...I guess I'm saying I don't think you're losing out, art-wise.

So besides occassionally painting my character, I AM purely geeky enough to also come up with soundtracks for the novels. Wooboy, that's some good geek. Ahem. Not even sure why I'm sharing this, except to give folks something to giggle at. So let's see: For the fantasy novel, a typical soundtrack looks like this — 1 — Boulevard of Broken Dreams — Greenday 2 — Candy Everybody Wants — 10,000 Maniacs 3 — Everybody Knows — Concrete Blonde 4 — Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) — Eurythmics 5 — Behind Blue Eyes — The Who 6 — The Stranger — Billy Joel 7 — The House of the Rising Sun — The Animals 8 — Control — Poe 9 — Shadowman — Brother 10 — The Game — Disturbed 11 — Walking on Broken Glass — Annie Lennox 12 — Revenge — K.M.F.D.M 13 — I'm Alive — Disturbed 14 — Twelve — Seven Nations So it's a happy kind of book. For the science-fiction novel, it doesn't get much cheerier: 1 — Hello (turn your radio on) — Shakespear's Sister 2 — Theme to a Fake Revolution — Powerman 5000 3 — Celebrity Skin — Hole 4 — Tom Sawyer — Deadsy 5 — Wild — Poe 6 — Knock a little harder — Yoko Kanno 7 — Last Things — K.M.F.D.M. 8 — Tear it up — Andrew W.K. 9 — Flaming Telepaths — Blue Oyster Cult 10 — Ask DNA — Yoko Kanno 11 — Out of Control — Hoobastank 12 — Epiphany — Bad Religion 13 — Veteran of the Psychic Wars — Blue Oyster Cult 14 — DOA — Foo Fighters

Sorry, Indocolite: things have gotten busy so I quite forgot to reply to this. Except to say: You WIN!!!

I expect you'll see a gradual phase over to all amber bottles. I remember Beth mentioning that the supplier for blue glass bottles was becoming highly irregular, both in quality, consistency, pricing and timliness of delivery — whereas the folks who make the amber bottles do it spot on every time. So...yeah. Amber bottles.