kmasden

Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town, and of the mouldy, unhallowed garret gable where he wrote and studied and wrestled with figures and formulae when he was not tossing on the meager iron bed. His ears were growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree, and he had long ago stopped the cheap mantel clock whose ticking had come to seem like a thunder of artillery. At night the subtle stirring of the black city outside, the sinister scurrying of rats in the wormy partitions, and the creaking of hidden timbers in the centuried house, were enough to give him a sense of strident pandemonium. The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound - and yet he sometimes shook with fear lest the noises he heard should subside and allow him to hear certain other fainter noises which he suspected were lurking behind them. He was in the changeless, legend-haunted city of Arkham, with its clustering gambrel roofs that sway and sag over attics where witches hid from the King's men in the dark, olden years of the Province. A shadowy, unapproachable forest of maple, birch, dogwood, cypress and pine softened by a garland of New England wildflowers: bergamot, columbine, rue anemone, blue violet, creeping phlox, bloodroot, toadflax, and pixie moss. I am not the most sophisticated of posters or sniffers, but I have been loving this scent so wanted to start the topic. Beth has done an amazing job with the Springtime in Arkham scents. I'm a picky scent person and the four I acquired from the Black Broom are surprisingly magnificent! Not because Beth ever does anything less, but because I am a picky scent person who didn't think I would like any of them. WOW. In the bottle this almost smells like "pink" to me. Almost sugary sweet with the scent of delicate petal flowers. The wildflowers and violet are most noticeable and i don't detect the woody notes that are listed. I would call this a supremely blended scent. I don't feel like it morphs much from bottle to wet to drydown, just becomes richer and more "you." It stays sweet and very lightly floral. Not a headachy perfume, not white or red flowers but the delicate petals that you would expect from a field of wildflowers. The peony and phlox stand out for me, but then I am familiar with them so it is recognizeable. Within the first fifteen minutes i start to detect what to me smells like possibly the maple and pine. Just enough to keep this scent from being overly sweet and make it warm and inviting and even mysterious. To me this has the same uniqueness that i find in Alice, yet is totally different - the comparison comes only in that it is an unexpected mingling. Can you imagine laying in a field of flowers in the middle of a forest on a warm spring day? You will when you smell Arkham Revisited. This is a truly warm and soft scent. Not overbearing in any way. Not soapy, just floral and sweet but tame and balanced. If flowers and woods could be carmelized - this would be the scent. It is absolutely gorgeous. There is not a foody note and yet I want to say it is absolutely edible. I have a feeling that many may not try this in fear that it will be too floral or too woody. It is neither. It is balanced, soft yet with throw, perfect for a warm summery scent. It's something I want to spray on my pillow and wear with a flouncy skirt. It embodies spring for me and is both innocent and sexy. Wow, just wow. As i said with Shub-Niggurath, this is a must try. Don't sniff it, wear it. It's quite an experience! I fear that i don't do it justice as I am not familiar with H.P. Lovecraft. I can say that because of Arkham Revisited, I plan to get very familiar! PLEASE NOTE: This is the formerly limited edition scent formerly known as Arkham Revisited, and is not the same as the long-ago discontinued scent known as Arkham. Those reviews are here.

RAVEN MOON The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance: shining, moonlit ebony musk with benzoin, myrrh, smoky vanilla, patchouli, nutmeg, and dried red chili. And i'm first up - this time i don't really want to be - but i know if i don't review know i'll forget to do it! I will start off by saying that i truly think this is one of those scents that everyone should try...it's special. I'm at a little bit of a loss for words with Raven moon. It actually took me quite by surprise. I think in my head i had made this out to be foody with the nutmeg and smoky vanilla....but it isn't foody in that way at all...what i'm getting most are the myrrh, musk and the benzoin...with myrrh and benzoin vying for center stage....i'm not super knowledgeable about benzoin and tend to think of it as "vanilla" but have heard it referred to as resiny and spicy and that's exactly what i'm getting here. Although it's not spicy in the cinnamon type of way, it definately feels a bit spicy at first and i think that's due to the benzoin... When wet it was almost overwhelming in the "wow it smells good, but almost a bit tooo rich" and i couldn't figure out if it would be wearable for me since i get headachy on very strong or perfumey scents...it also smelled just a tad soapy to me....but that spicy bit, which in the wet phase was almost cloveish to my nose, kept me very interested. I should also say, that while it starts out really strong - it really does calm down very quickly and it doesn't fall into the "gonna give me a headache category". I think the drydown is rather lovely, it definately settles down and plays nicely with my chemistry...the overwhelming part has disappeared (within the first 10 minutes or so), the soapy bit seems gone, and it feels grounded....i can't say that i can smell a lot of the patchouli, red chili, nutmeg etc. outright...rather it's superbly blended and i have a feeling that this rich resiny goodness is truly a compilation of all elements working together beautifully. I wouldn't worry if you aren't a huge fan of patchouli, nutmeg, chili, etc...i doubt those will shout at you enough to turn you off - i think they just ground it and help it become one with your own chemistry. After about 30 minutes it becomes just a beautiful, resiny, slightly powdery, meld with your skin so you smell interesting and beautiful...I can see this on both a woman or a man... In short, i think this will be fantastic on some, and i suspect we'll get a lot of varying reviews on this - depending on what notes your skin amps. Hmmm, yeah, i kinda can't keep my nose off myself...i kinda wanna just snuggle up with it and stare out the window and think about life and death.... Well done!! (i should add two things - 1) this smells entirely different in the bottle than it does on the skin and i'd consider it a bit of a morpher, so if you don't like the smell in the bottle, try it anyway! and 2) i did a normal wrist only application - not too light, not too heavy...i'm feeling like it's totally mellow and my teenager came in and went "wooahhh - that's strong!"....just a warning if you have any sensitive peeps (he's a migrainer so definately sensitive!)

Pink Sugar put her tushy over the fire lol.First thought, toasty marshmallow. Then the white Musk appears, sweetening the Rose and the peony while the vanilla swirls its warm richness through it all. The lavender is just enough to keep it perfectly grounded. I would love a tiny bit more apricot, it's barely there. But I will say this I generally don't like that marshmallow food type of fragrance and I really don't like roses and peonies but I can't stop sniffing myself and I'm thinking I really do need a bottle of this. It's definitely soft and warm and innocent and maybe a little sexy at the same time. I kind of love it!

Alas, not for me. I love frankincense and clove and was hoping they'd dominate. This is all decaying/wet roses and the orris and myrrh on me. Someone mentioned a gothic type of scent and I'd tend to agree. It's warm and dark and I think rose lovers will find it far different from other rose scents, a good reason tho give it a whirl.

I like this! A lot! I apply without reading notes to remind me, and this one was interesting right off the bat. I got a slightly tart smelling cinnamon bark combined with the vetiver. It was dark and really strong. I go back and forth with vetiver the way I do patchouli, I tend to not be able to wear it for long and it really stays true to itself on my skin. I thought that would be the case with this but it wasn't. Instead that nice strong slightly sweet cassis smell remains and slowly the vetiver dies down and i smell the the red wine, the current. I'm left with a strongly spiced, slightly red wine fragrance, that quite frankly is delicious. As much as I love the red wine scents, I've never been able to wear them. I'm not a huge foodie either because as much as I love spice, it can cross the line real quick. This is perfect to me, grounded, spicy, tart and syrupy all together. Love it! Definately ready for fall. I think this one will play well with others too for those that like to layer.

To me it started as wet tart green apple, so much so that I wondered if it was the right oil! As the musk flowered, it became softer and powdery and I'm left with a soft blue green feeling,the tiniest bit of green and appley bits in the back of it. Maybe the smidgiest smidge of mint keeps it from going too powdery. No pine at all for me. It's sweet and soft and nice, but I was hoping for the pine.If you love that soft skin, slightly aquatic scent, you might live this. Don't fear the pine or mint or grass imho.

Keeps you from spending money unwisely, making foolish investments, and wasting your hard earned cash. I am so confused between "aunt caroline's mojo," "aunt caroline's money draw," and "aunt carolines money bag." I was at black broom the other day and picked this up as it seems to get asked for a lot. It's called "aunt caroline's money bag" and is a black broom exclusive. I'm not getting orange, but definately hot spice, cloves, cinnamon etc...I really like it, but would like to know what the difference is between these three..or at very least between "money draw" and "money bag." Anyone? [added description ~qs]

This will sound strange and it's been a long time since i've used Queen Mab - but Ragan always struck me as a similiar feeling oil....not the smell, but the feel....

For summer and hot weather, i tend to like santo domingo, regan, whooperwill, bakeneko, arkham revisited, envy.......i agree with the person who said Josie would be good for summer...i totally agree...i think i tend to either like the sharper gingery bits, or the floral but sweet/fresh smelling (which to me can include lavendar, mint, fougeres, white flowers/night blooming flowers, powdery ambery things, etc.).....tamora is another good one, and i do miss severin...so nice for summer weather (course i'm in LA sans humidity, so....)

Wow, one of my dream scents actually....i love having things in a scent that don't really stand out on their own. In this it's the chocolate. I love the way it grounds this scent a bit (at least that's how i think about it) without smelling like chocolate...of course as it's chocolate plum musk, i'm not sure how chocolately it should be anyway... For me this feels like snake oil (i'd assume that's the red musk part and i'm a whore for red musk!) with a darker note and only slightly fruity. I definately "get" the plum/fruits, it's like a hint of what is in midwinters eve, with a little bit of spicy added in from the ginger. This is sex on wheels for me.........mmmmhmmmm GOOD!!

wowow, just as someone mentioned above, this is pretty, dark, spicy, green etc...all those things, without exactly being "all those things"....I was in a rush this morning and hadn't tried this - couldn't even remember what familiy this belonged (matter of fact was thinking maybe it was a tal for good fortune or something hahaha) and sniffed the imp - didn't find it too perfumy or offensive (some things i sniff and i just know that maybe i don't want to commit to it for a workday) and slathered it on my wrists and ran! Slightly lemony to me, and barky i'd say...i tend to like things that remind me of bark, wood, etc...and this does...i didn't get much green (not a moss fan and this was great!), more like a slightly citrusyfruitysaltywoodymuskyish without being powdery. Yes, a tad masculine - or unisex maybe is a better word, but i love all things men so whatevah....i really really really love it! eta: i didn't find it too strong or overbearing at all and for me this has normal throw, nothing "too much"...and i tend to get headachy on anything heady or cloying (even when it's my fave like hearth 04 or sin), so this isn't bothering me a bit - still worth a try for those afraid of that.

I'll give a very tiny "aye" to this one. I'm wearing it today because just a touch, it reminds me of "something" and i was leaning towards buck moon...i'm smelling my wrist now and it is slightly reminiscint of Skin Musk.

i love pumpkin scents, but i don't find them very wearable for me because i get really tired of the smell, same goes with apple etc...find in the room burner, not so much on my skin all day. However, this scent is FABULOUS! I couldn't stop sniffing!! I smelled the pumpkin, but not uber sweet pumpkin, perhaps tamed by the coffee, which did not overwhelm the scent, perhaps because it was grounded by the chocolate, which was not obvious to my nose at all - the surprise? For me it was like this spicy clovey vanilla snake oilish (unless that's a leftover haha) pumpkin scent. I love, love, love it!!!! First pumpkin scent that is a bottle buy and a keeper for me! I smell HAWT!

I expected this to be like a cherry devils night or something...which i would have loved...as it is i do love this, and am so intrigued by it....but totally in a different way. To start, yes, i do get the ludens cherry cough drop reference, but how could you not with anything cherry - cherry is just so distinct. I might also add that ludens are the coughdrops that aren't medicincal, just soothing, so this isn't the nyquil part someone mentioned....SO yes, this is a nice innocent introduction for me...fond memories of one too many ludens just because they tasted good, flannel nighties, being sick in bed but being pampered by mom with a hot bubble bath while she washed my sheets and set me up with 7-up (a rare treat), toast, magazines and kleenex and ludens and whatever ugghy cough medicine i'd get later. Next up, i do detect the booze, but wouldn't call it boozy, i think it just walks with the cherry for a while....lays its coat over a puddle for her, and takes off, bad boy that he really is (the booze I mean!) - so it changes from ludens to something a bit more gravely....it is ludens with a splash of brandy indeed...and then it starts building and the tiny fire lit by the brandy initially ignites....that's where i think some get the medicinal/nyquil reference, it's ever so mild, and i actually think it is the booze component doing it, but it almost smells like just a hint of anise or absinthe (i prefer to think hahaha) that is a bit licorice-y...it's part of what turns this into a bad boy...it's so subtle though that you just wonder about it...i don't find it a turnoff and i am not a fan of any medicinal, anise, etc. type of scents at all.... And then i get these wonderful wafts the next few hours, the ones where you barely smell something absolutely delicious and then get to take a nice big sniff...and realize it's Suck It......mmmmm.....I love me some Suck it.....take me Suck it, i'm yours...purrrrrrr..... Yep, i luuurrvveee the Suck It...it's way more than I thought it would be ETA: it does fade forever after a couple hours, not a trace left. Forest at the old black broom lab once told me when that happens, rub a bit of oil onto your skin first where you are going to put the scent so your skin is really full of moisture, then apply...i'm going to see if that helps, if not, travel imps!

Oy, I agree....for me the fear was that it would be "too perfumy" as I tend to amp some notes and when a scent is complex, get the "perfumey" headache going on, especially with something like orchid involved...but not this baby...it's rich and sophisticated, sexy, yet not overpowering....the red musk is grounded beautifully by the balsam and vanilla and patchouli. Mind you that i'm not a patchouli lover and can easily be overwhelmed by the clove...this is so wonderfully blended....I think this is a favorite that will do nothing but get better and better as time goes on. I wish i could keep a zillion bottles of this one, but i'll have to be happy with just one for now...lovers of musk and spices rejoice...and people that dislike or amp clove, patchouli, etc...dont worry...totally worth trying!

Arkham is the sweetest scent ever to my nose (well, i have arkham revisited, but i think it's the same as the arkham in the collection now)...florals and sugar sweet! Also, the devil's nights are sweet without being cakey...and trick or treat, while foody is a sweet that isn't too "cream/bread"...

Very good point!

not to be weird, but i always have a hard time understanding why this question keeps coming up in a day when everything one touches from grocery bags to your coffee table is treated with chemicals..though i totally support lessoning exposure, it's so minute in perfume oil in comparison to the car you sit in, the desk you rest your arms on etc. I thought it had absolutely been disclosed a zillion times that yes, sometimes, based on demand for unnatural smells, etc...there are synthetics in bpal...my understanding is that you can't derive things like bonfire smoke, cotton candy, ambrosia, martinis, bone, skin, rotting linen, rusted metal, bubblegum, blood, crackling flames, smoldering ashes, etc. from plants and such. Now i could be wrong, but i'm just assuming that in those cases, yes, synthetics would of course be used when needed. Probably the best rule of thumb would be that if a note listed doesn't sound natural, it isn't. And if i'm wrong, someone please shoot me!

What Zoma said! lol. I love woody scents, but not "superwood" if you know what i mean....hmmm, superwood brings to mind all sorts of weird images for me Antikythera Mechanism is a warm, divine wood...it loves me and i love it...Glowing Vulva also very nice. Calico Jack is great too...wood is the base and it's slathered with all sorts of wonderful things like driftwood, seaweed, leather, etc..it's even kinda sweet/salty for me. I don't know why and perhaps someone should tell me I'm crazy, but Scales of Depravation feels and smell very salty and woody to me and i love it...i don't get lemon or anything just this salty slightly sweet weathered in the sand wood smell...it's lovely! Tho not feminine... Port Royal is woody and surprisingly all of these belong in the same category to me..port royal smells like rich moist wood that's had years of sloshed drinks and feisty wenches and pirates seeped into it...and of course the salt of the sea. Divine. Boomslang is very woody with a rich deep cocoa...Velvet also falls into that category for me though very sandal/cedar smelling with a lighter cocoa. I love woody scents too...but i do need the wood to be light and mixed with other sweet or boozy things...i think wood with leathers and teas and rums and things are soo the best ever!

Oy, Hearth 04 - it's holidays for me with it's smokey cherry tobacco Harvest Moon 05 - was indeed perfect, fruity in just the right way All pumpkin blends - the bpal pumpkin note just screams fall in general for me!

Wow, totally brings back memories of the old imps. You are lucky, I looovveee that! Treasure it forever!! I've always wanted one of the big ol snake oil jugs i used to see in the first "lab" (or one of the firsts)...so much character!! I think i'd swap you my first born (and he's the easier one haha).

I had high hopes for this one because i LOVE the cherry tobacco note in Hearth 04 and haven't found it repeated. I was disappointed a bit at first because it seemed very sagey to me and that isn't a great note on my skin...BUT THEN IT DRIED DOWN AND IT'S LOOOVVEEEE...it very much has the Hearth 04 note, but where Hearth 04 can get too cloying over the hours on my skin, this is buttery and mellow and beautiful. This is a must try for all those that fell in love with that 04 version of Hearth and love the smokey cherry tobacco type of smell....i love it! ETA that you have to actually wear this, it is a morpher - in the bottle is different, wet is different - the LOVE for me is the drydown. I so would like a bottle of this one! Oy!

I am too, and i have to confess that most of the recommendations don't fit the bill for me in the respect that there isn't enough spice in them (some of them i still love, i don't always need the strong overwhelming spice, but when i do, i want it and want it bad! In the love it but not necessarily super spice to me are the - opuhi, bakeneko, the old whooperwill for ginger love, bengal for the honey jalapeno, pepper is another very sweet, slightly spicy. Shub and Gingerbread poppet are very strong on the cinnamon/allspice type thing but they are foody, Vampire X, Port Royal are lovely and woody and slightly spicy... The spiciest and strongest blends (in respect to the strong clove/cinnamon, etc) that I have tried are: Port au Prince - Dark, decadent and incomparably exotic: the rich scent of buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras Pickled Imp - Cinnamon, clove, vanilla, and pine sap. Three Witches (disc) - Warm cinnamon, husky clove and white pepper. Al-Shairan - clove, peach and orange with cinnamon, patchouli and dark incense notes. Sybaris - Bright violet with sweet clove, Mediterranean incense notes and tonka bean. Saw Scaled Viper - Snake Oil with cinnamon, cassia, and red ginger. The Ifrit - Desert sand, red musk, blackened ginger, dragon's blood resin, black pepper, cinnamon, and tobacco. Sin - Thoroughly corrupted: amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon. Wrath - A scent aflame with rage, swirling in the red haze of hatred: dragon's blood spiked with black pepper, clove, and cinnamon

I too mourn the loss of Hamadryad - it was lovely! It had a lot of apple in it and hesperides is all apple, so that might be good with mandrake - though to me you would still be missing some depth and spices (even though you say you don't normally get them). I believe Ladon is the dragon's blood blend with apple...maybe you could use that with a little mandrake, or do a mandrake, hesperides, ladon mix...

I ordered snow glass apples for both the book (primarily) and the scent....i'm not someone who can wear most scents, i have my 20 or so loves and only expect or hope for another maybe once a year or two if i'm lucky. I liked hamadryad and hesperides, but had no idea what to expect from SGA. First off i've never read the book (and just finished it right now) and wow, i just loved the story actually. I've wrapped it carefully back up and will put it on my bookshelf with my other special books...LOVE!!!! SGA to me is not green apples, it is red...i keep saying macintosh, even though i agree the scent is crispy and macintosh apples are definately not...i guess i felt the crisp was of a different nature and the apple was well, very red and meaty. Definately a strong apple scent and sharp at first...not because the scent itself is sharp (i have a feeling if you added a carrier you wouldn't get the sharp at all, i think it is simply a distortion going on because of the intensity of the apple)...now that I've read the book, i interpret this as the flesh, the blood, the beating heart, the pale white skin, the "meat" of the characters, both literally and figuratively. The apple stays for a bit, intensity and all, while wet...as it dries, i feel more than smell the mint (though it's there in much the same way it is in say, Envy...almost undetectable...you start to wonder how this can smell cold...and realize there is just a tad of mint in there...so lovely. I'm generally not a mint lover by the way, but in this it is not a mint you think about...)...and i start to smell what seems to me like watery white florals...I have a hard time determining aquatic and ozone and those things people talk about...so forgive me on that....to me this is the melting snow of the forest and also perhaps a representation of the removal of the glass and quartz from the body. The drydown and length of wear leaves me with something warm...i love this because to me (and i daresay i'm in a bit of a romantic mood lol) it reminds me of the very end of the story - the encapsulation and burning within the oven/kiln.....but scentwise its lovely...it feels warm and peaceful...it is simply very pretty as a scent, a total reversal of what that first hour was as it morphed from apple to coolness to watery white floral... I'm in love with the set...I really let myself get into it, testing the scent last night as strictly "perfume" then reading the book this morning and wearing the scent again to think about the story. Amazing.