dawndie

In bottle: creamy pineapple On skin: sweet, creamy pineapple and coconut. Since we were just in Vegas I'm reminded of ambrosia, the omnipresent dessert in any decent buffet: pineapple and other fruit in mounds of whipped cream Half-hour later: spicy boozy rum with coconut sweetness In conclusion: this reminded me of Elegba, but the spice at the end gives an extra kick. Elegba went a bit plasticky at times, and Upa Upa seems to stay sweet & boozy enough to avoid that. Delicious without being too foody, a really fun blend!

In bottle: sticky hard candy On skin: sweet pomegranate with a dash of woody almost-cinnamon spice Half-hour later: candy-red sweetness with a bit of dusty earth In conclusion: pomegranate is one of my favorite notes; it's sweet without being over-the-top fruity. The additional "dirt" appearing from the reeds and barley is a really nice match for the sweet pomegranate and lotus. Another great pomegranate blend.

In bottle: perfumey musk On skin: sugary dusty musk Half-hour later: up-close the florals have strengthened, especially orchid and violet. The woody notes are up-close too but aren't too strong, just adding a bit of dust. The waft is beautiful, sweetened light musk In conclusion: blue musk is a new ingredient for me, light and pretty, and it owns this blend. I'm glad the sugar didn't amp strongly on me, as it does in Sugar Skull and Chanukkiyah. A cute & girly blend.

Wet: dusty oranges On skin: lots of orange "fizz." You know when you peel an orange and there's a fizzy mist of juice and oils when you're digging through the peel and pith? I'm imagining all that fizz going up my nose right now. After every sniff I think I'm about to sneeze Half-hour later: the orange fizz has calmed down and violet has amped up, and everything's under a layer of dust from the amber In conclusion: this was an interesting blend -- the oranges were certainly assertive, and I like violet too, it's a unique floral. It ended up too dusty for my liking though.

Wet: plasticky cream On skin: still creamy plastic with a bit of dust from the amber Half-hour later: this is the best stage, as the natural-smelling wood tames the fake-smelling cream In conclusion: this was a disappointment after reading the previous glowing (hee!) reviews. Alas, the BPAL cream notes on me are either rapturous or extremely "off." Glad I got to see for myself, though.

Wet: green incense On skin: the tea comes stomping to the forefront over the greener notes Half-hour later: up close is darker and mossy, but the waft is gorgeous! Light green incense with a bit of creamy tea In conclusion: I thought this would be too dark and green, but further away is a beautiful waft that reminds me of some garden incense I bought -- these are jumbo-sized 24" sticks of incense that you burn outside. Refreshing!

Wet: light musk On skin: watery white flowers Half-hour later: the honey and ginger have warmed up, but the florals are still so strong it's seeming a teeny bit soapy In conclusion: this is another nice honey blend, and it would be ideal on me except for the osmanthus and vanilla flower which veers in and out of soapiness. I'll stick with O for my honey fix.

I got bogged down and couldn’t update my BPAL blog, but have continued to purchase. Since the last entry I’ve purchased bottles of: Minotaur Temple Viper (these two were purchased from a forum buddy, both smell amazing) Black Lace Prospero (these two were my “normal” purchase one month from Dark Delicacies instead of the Lab. Both are really nice) Hony Mone Blood Phoenix Chanukkiyah (I was underwhelmed by these 3, but hopefully aging will help) Numb Peacock Queen 2005 (these two recently purchased from another forumite) I Married a Vampire from Planet X Diary of a Lovestruck Teenage Cannibal (Vampire is a bit too masculine, but Teenage Cannibal is nice) Anactoria Lunar Eclipse (recent update) Regarding Numb: it’s gotten a bad rap and I don’t know why. I bought Numb brand-new from the Lab when it was offered in July 2005. I liked it well enough, it was like frozen sugared violets, but unfortunately I broke out in a rash the few times I wore it. I gave it to my mom, and when we went to visit for Christmas I was looking at her stash (I’ve also given her Harvest Moon 2004 and Taurus 2007) and noticed that Numb was almost empty. She loves it! It’s her favorite and she asked if I could get her another bottle for her birthday. I finally took recent pictures of my collection. I enjoy reading about other collections and what people love. I’ve been buying directly from the Lab for over 3 years and have over 100 bottles of favorites. Here’s the main box, it’s a tin from a men’s cologne set that DH had received. I was so excited when the shipments started arriving with special BPAL orange shipping tape, *dork alert* I would carefully peel it off to stick on the tin. Here’s a picture of the inside, it’s totally full and I’ve started a second box. The bottles are in order based on when they were received, which makes less and less sense. If I’m looking for a bottle I can make a good guess where it will be, but it’s hard to browse if I’m trying to decide what to wear out of the blue. My special imp tin: these are imps or decants that I want to keep. There’s my one tarted imp (Alice); even though I have a bottle I’ll never get rid of the imp just because it’s the way imps aren’t done anymore. I also have some single note decants, Tomato Leaf is peeking out. The labels have the She-Devil forum skin logo, there are a few others floating around in there. These were won in the forum fundraising raffle in April 2006. My backup box contains Arcana and Possets bottles, new BPAL bottles arriving and tested imps that I don’t care to keep. I’d love to have a nice display rack of some kind, because the labels are kick-ass and I could see everything. But how is that possible? I’d need a wall at this point.

Wet: zippy citrus On skin: perfumey citrus and white florals Half-hour later: the citrus disappeared, replaced by a vague wax In conclusion: I suspect the pikaki is turning to wax on me. Otherwise this was a fairly nice, tropical white floral blend. Good but not great.

Wet: sweet green On skin: orange and green and orange and green! Half-hour later: sweet garden greenery, like walking through an outdoor nursery full of fruit trees In conclusion: I was unsure of this blend, as I saw the first ingredient of oakmoss and imagined it would end up too dark green and aftershavey on me. How wrong I was! Bright and peppy and beautiful. This was a delight!

In bottle: clean soapy musk On skin: creamy sweet honey, lighter than the "normal" golden BPAL honey Half-hour later: a nice blend of light musk and honey, with the kush and amber adding a bit of aloof dust In conclusion: this ends up so pretty, like a cousin of Snow White and Snow-Flakes. A light blend, but not girly and innocent. Sophisticated, smooth and very very confident.

Wet: sharp pink floral On skin: burst of pink! Like crushed red berries and sugar Half-hour later: the green tea has appeared with the berries, giving this a green "melon" edge In conclusion: I love the red blends and this is a great example. Not too sweet, but really girly and effervescent. What a fun blend!

Wet: minty aquatic On skin: pungent seaweed, woo! Tingly with a pinch of mint Half-hour later: sweetened up a bit, but the main note is the musky dark ambergris In conclusion: this is a deep and sweet aquatic. The ambergris is the big player here, and it ends up a bit too masculine-cologney for my personal tastes. This one lasts freakin' forever too. What an experience!

In bottle: light spicy incense On skin: clean, almost soapy musk Half-hour later: the "green" notes have amped up further, making this more aftershave-cologney on me In conclusion: this is definitely one of the more masculine blends I've purchased, but I'm actually enjoying it. Clean and bright, like just stepping out of the shower, and I'm fairly confident I'm not smelling like a dude. The musky base is pure love though, and I'm hoping that gets stronger as it ages.

In bottle: sweet musk On skin: blast of strawberry-like fruit juice, then more mellow with darker musks Half-hour later: an interesting combination of sugar-sweet with a dark murky base. Every so often I get a tang of grapefruit, which comes and goes like a pealing bell In conclusion: this reminded me of Trick #2, which is strange as there aren't any similar (listed) ingredients other than pink pepper. But it was an uncanny resemblance, one I couldn't get out of my head. Yes, Trick #2 with extra red fruit juice and grapefruit. Very cool.

In bottle: sharp honey, almost acrid On skin: very nice soft honey, tempered by the olive oil Half-hour later: STRONGLY sweetened up on me, that "burnt sugar" smell like in Sugar Skull In conclusion: I liked the softly sweet beginning very much, and I have to be in the mood for the ending. It's a blast of funhouse cake while I was hoping for something more serene. Maybe that sugar high will calm down as it ages.

In imp: sugary cake batter On skin: boozy rum, then fruity spicey cake Half-hour later: spicey spiked cake sweetened with fruit juice In conclusion: I love the boozy blends, but not straight-up cake foodiness so much. The jeweled fruit juice and touch of spice hanging around was nice. This is more like a mulled spiked cider than fruitcake to me. What a nice holiday surprise!

In bottle: sweet red cherries On skin: sugary-sweet Pixy Stix grape candy Half-hour later: still very grape-fruity, but lots of dry dusty flowers nearby In conclusion: this is a more-perfumey blend, reminiscent of the Masque. The myrrh and carnation give this the drier floral feel on top of the rich dragon's blood and wine grapes. I really like the juicy red blends, this is great!

In bottle: sweet vanilla caramel On skin: blast of warm tonka and honey, delicious! Half-hour later: sweetened flowers. Honeysuckle is the major floral, with jasmine bullying its way in every so often In conclusion: the original Honey Moon ended up with too much jasmine on me; I liked it but didn't love it and ended up swapping it away. This has the nice creamy base of tonka, and when the jasmine tries to all over everything the honeysuckle's all . A sweet lovely blend.

In bottle: spicy red punch On skin: dark red wine blooms; I could drink this straight up Half-hour later: mellow red wine, slightly dusty from the amber. Every so often I get a woody hint, which might be the champaca flower but reminds me of a wine cask In conclusion: I love the red wine blends and this is a perfect example. Delicious and a bit boozy. Love love love it.

In bottle: piercing alcohol On skin: lots of sharp white notes from the clean cotton, not much else appearing Half-hour later: the tobacco and musk took a while to warm up, but thank goodness they're here now. It's much more mellow and smooth In conclusion: Black Lace is a perfect example of the "give it time" blends, as it starts out very high-pitched but rewards me later with a darker, dreamier blend that has tremendous staying power -- 8 hours later I could still smell creamy vanilla and dusty tobacco. This is beautifully blended too, none of the individual ingredients are too dramatic and overpower the others. Very pretty!

In bottle: sweet red juice On skin: yummy pomegranate juice with a teeny bit of allspice Half-hour later: not much morph, still slightly spicy red juice In conclusion: I love the dark red fruit notes so this was a must-order. This is like Bordello without the the boozy bite. I have a nice pink cloud of fragrance around me, well worth a bottle

In bottle: dark woods On skin: dusty dark myrrh with a bit of dry wood Half-hour later: swirling miasma of gloomy resins and musk, but with a dusty woody waft In conclusion: this is a slightly less sweet version of Schwarzer Mond, which at the time was the murkiest blend I had dared to buy. Very dramatic and ballsy, which is what I'm in the mood to wear today with the nippy November winds. I love these sticky resin blends.

In bottle: slightly burnt sugar On skin: sweet, but I'm getting the impression of dark plummy fruit along with dusty resins Half-hour later: sweetened-up Snake Oil, like glittering brown resins and Sugar in the Raw all mixed up together In conclusion: at first this was similar to Australian Copperhead, and I don't know where I'm picking up the dark fruit. But this blend trumps Australian Copperhead as the Snake Oil base is really prominent, as it deserves to be! I will be reaching for this bottle often

So it’s been a crazy October with traveling (cruise to Mexico last weekend and planning for friend’s wedding next weekend) and I didn’t order right after the Yule update as I wanted to wait for the Lunacy. But what a great Yule update! Angeronalia -- Strength, passion, and the cleansing fire of joy: olive blossom, white nectarine, vibrant blood orange, honey absolute, lemongrass, elemi, sensual patchouli, and the quiet purity of gardenia. This sounds like a different and interesting floral. Wait for reviews. Archangel Winter -- Crystalline, glassy ice whipped by a snowstorm. Piercing ozone, winter darkness. Aquatics aren’t my thing, most go too soapy. Chanukkiyah -- Olive oil, beeswax, glowing amber, sweet sufganiyot, pomegranate, and fig. Hmm, olive oil as the main ingredient? Interesting. Wait for reviews. Christmas Rose -- Bruise-tinted hellebore blossoms pushing through snowdrifts. I read that hellebore was green and herby, therefore this isn’t a BPAL Rose. I’m not one for the straight-up florals anyway. Diwali -- Lotus root, mango, tamarind, cardamom, clove, almond milk, cashew, rice flower, coconut, supari, raisins, and incense crafted from aloeswood, red sandalwood, cedar, and spikenard. This sounds interesting with the mélange of ingredients. Wait for reviews. Egg Nog 2007 -- Sweet brandy, dark rum, heavy cream, sugar, and a dash of nutmeg. This is one of the all-time forum favorite Yule blends, but I’m afraid the heavy cream will go rancid or plastic. I’ll think about this one. El Dia de Reyes -- Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar. Not so much for cocoa, cinnamon and coffee; I’d rather drink it than smell like it. Fruit of Paradise -- The Fruit of Paradise, the Nectar of Death: bittersweet pomegranate, nurtured and cultivated in the hollow darkness of the Underworld. -- Pomegranate is one of my favorite notes, so dark and foreboding. Gingerbread Poppet 2007 -- Warm, cozy gingerbread spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon. Another all-time favorite for some, but gingerbread is not one of my favorite scents. I don’t want to flounce around smelling like a giant cookie. Haloa 2007 -- Wine grapes, myrrh, frankincense and olive leaf, and the warm scent of offertory cakes. I have a bottle of last year’s; it was pretty sweet and cakey at first, but the incense has gotten stronger which I love. Jolasveinar 2007 -- Their scent is a mishmash of snow, dirt, Icelandic moss, marsh felwort, and the smushed petals of buttercups and moorland spotted orchids, with the barest hint of the scent of pilfered Christmas pastries. Another blend from last Yule, and the reviews gave me the impression that the “pastries” will end up plasticky on me. Krampus 2007 -- Be good, or Krampus will toss you in a river! Sinister red musk, black leather, dusty rags, and wooden switches. This was a love-it-or-hate-it blend for forumites last year. While I love red musk, black leather and wood comes out pretty harsh on my skin. La Befana -- Candy charcoal, winter lilies, parma violet, a sprig of cypress, a poof of chimney dust, and holiday sweets. Candy charcoal? I have no idea. Wait for reviews. Lick It One More Time -- Every holiday season should be full of lewd suggestions and filthy double entendres, right? This is a new take on Lick It and Lick It Again -- a peppermint candy cane with a flash of vanilla and an extra jolt of sugar. I have a bottle of the original Lick It, a sweet-sparkly mint. Midwinter’s Eve 2007 -- A melancholy, deep scent, poignant and brimming with nostalgia. The perfume of sugared plums over a breeze of winter flowers. I had a bottle of Midwinter’s Eve 2004, and while I loved the sugared plums it ended up a bit waxy from the flowers. I ended up using it all in my oil burner and don’t need more. Mistletoe 2007 -- The plant of peace in Norse tradition. If enemies met in the forest and came upon a sprig, they laid down their arms and observed a truce until the next sunrise. I don’t like the green planty blends much. Noche Buena -- A celebration of the Nativity: the light, uplifting incense of the Misa de Noche Buena, purple sage, and a vibrant bouquet of plumeria, chrysanthemum, tuberose, Angel's Trumpet, Mexican tiger lily, dahlia, and azucenas. This sounds beautiful, Chrysanthemum Moon is one of my favorite Lunacies and the ingredient will pop out at me. Plus purple sage is in Corazon which is one of my all-time favorite bottles. Wait anxiously for reviews. November -- Autumn leaves damp beneath the first snowfall. I’m not sure about damp leaves. Wait for reviews. Peacock Queen 2007 -- In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred. I love the description for this, it’s so snotty. This will probably demand to be ordered. Rose Red 2007 -- The perfected winter rose, dew covered and freshly cut. I have and cherish a bottle from 2005, it really is a perfect rose. Shivering Boy -- Cold, cold forever more. A winter storm roaring through empty stone halls, bearing echoes of despair, desolation, and death on its winds. The scent of frozen, dormant vineyards, bitter sleet, and piercing ozone, hurled through labdanum, benzoin, and olibanum. Woo, sounds really detergenty. Wait for reviews. Snow Storm -- Winter aconite, balsam fir, cedar leaf, and white mint. I don’t know what Winter aconite is, but Botanical.com says it’s a deadly herb. This blend is probably too green for me. Snow White 2007 -- A chilly, bright perfume: flurries of virgin snow, crisp winter wind and the faintest breath of night-blooming flowers. Finally! I’ve been waiting to reorder Snow White, and while Snow-Flakes appeared last year and is quite lovely, this bottle is definitely being ordered right off. More Gaiman/Pratchett scents, which by the way I finally read Good Omens and enjoyed the dry British apocalyptic wit. Famine -- Sleek black tea, tobacco leaf, frankincense, lilac, and white musk. Tea scents aren’t my favorite. Madame Tracy -- A coquettish blend of tea rose, ume blossom, geranium, lily of the valley, violet, and heliotrope. Tea rose has the risk of going all twee baby-powder on me. Pollution -- A toxic chypre: radioactive green musk, davana, and oozing white amber. I haven’t tried green musk, let alone if it’s glowing. Wait for reviews. Hastur -- Smoky-sour labdanum, black patchouli, wet tobacco, and brimstone. This sounds like Schwarzer Mond and Minotaur, dark and eeeeevil. Wait for reviews. Ligur -- Dry olibanum, black moss, soggy ti, khus, and opoponax. Same as Hastur, except probably more masculine cologne with the black moss. Wait for reviews. Fairy Wine -- An ethereal vintage, steeped with dandelion, honey, and red currants. I love the boozy wine blends, and the other ingredients sound nice. Lady Una -- Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices. The BPAL Honey is greatness, but not sure of the green tea (even though I drink it every morning). Wait for reviews. And finally, the normal Lunacies. I love the cool rippling script for Long Night Moon! Long Night Moon -- A bouquet of night-blooming flowers, petals dusted with frost. Cereus, moonflower accord, night phlox, honeysuckle, silver thyme, white mint, and blue musk. Lots of white flowers, not for me. Sagittarius -- Sage, clove, dandelion, balm of gilead, fig, and chamomile. I’m afraid of the clove, which can overpower. Ivanushka -- Soft, velvety fur and warm musk, brushed by forest woods and dusted by dry leaves. This sounds a lot like Buck Moon, which I liked but didn’t love enough to keep. In conclusion: I’m ordering Fruit of Paradise and Snow White!