olympia301

Oooo, I really like Baron Samedi! A frimp, it did start out as almond...the smell of something burning and there was a bit of vetivert in the background. You knew that the Baron was going to appear in a puff of smoke, but where? In front of you, behind you? Next there was a waffly drydown. As if the smoke was clearing and there was really nothing you could see. You do get the almond goodness drying down with vetivert here. Almond always seems to do the best things for me in unexpected ways, but it seems to be a topnote...it doesn't stay forever but it does herald be best things afterwards...so maybe it dries down to something I can't quite name as "dry almond" but it is gorgeous. Vetivert scares me, though. It's so big and strong...it will run over everything else if it's not stopped.* Finally the cloves came out and took the vetiver in hand. "Hold it, there, big boy...not so fast, I'm here to play, too, and we're going to play nice, get it?" Believe it or not, clove starts to blend with the vetivert and they are both in perfect harmony together. Then there is something that reminds me of basil, and some part of the voodoo oils that I love (not quite vanilla not quite basil). This is a big masculine type of scent, but one that would not be totally out of place on me (like the Viscount of Valmont or Morocco). This baron likes to play with the ladies. He is a Bay Rum kind of a guy, but not your average Bay Rum, he's specially good. *On me Lex Talionis was all vetivert slashing its way through my nose, up my sinuses and advertising me as an amazon. Not what I wanted at the time.

This is medicine, not perfume. Nothing about this blend comes off as being pretty. It's all business. I would say this is a ritual oil, it doesn't last very long and with those characteristics I would guess that there is a purpose behind its ingredients which is meant to be used for more serious things than adornment.

This is a real sleeper...no one talks about it but it is wonderful. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and Beth has performed alchemy again. Roses, this is a very rosy blend. At first I thought, "ho hum...does it measure up to London (my all time favorite rose blend)?" It is as nice as London but different. For one thing there are obviously more things in here than just rose, I smell lemongrass but dealt out with such a deft hand that you don't say "lemongrass!!!" it just adds enough background to the roses to make them shine. I don't smell "hazel" like hazel nuts, but when I take my had away from my face, the same phenomenon hits me that happens in House of Night...the third heartbreakingly beautiful smell comes out of no where and just makes you say "what was that?" Like a ghost brushing by you at a seance. This is great stuff, off the the favorites list with it! I will order 5ml toot sweet. I love this, a frimp from the Lab.

Beautiful white flower blend with plenty of lilies and jasmine (which does not overtake everything else---hooray). Gorgeous feminine smell without being waxy and overbearing. I think this one is a fine scent, even for summer when you don't want something that descends on other people. Suspiro entrances other people.

I'm going to guess: Lotus, Red Musk, maybe some dragon's blood. Very nice in a Snake Oil kind of a way. I liked it but it doesn't move me to tears. Problem is that there are other scents that really ring my bell (like Hunger and Hollywood Babylon) which are in the same "family".

The first seconds of trying Hunger, I was thinking "Snake Oil". Then a few minutes passed and I started thinking, "Haunted". Then a few minutes passed and I started thinking,"Pascal Moribito's 'Or Noir'". Or Noir is one of my all time favorite "big French fragrance houses" scents and I live in terror that it will be discontinued. Hunger is just as sexy, round, smokey and delicious as Or Noir. Maybe it even has more character. I really truely love this scent, it is zooming into my top 10 as we speak. Wow, this is damned beautiful.

The Rising Sun. She is Ostara, Easter, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and the dawn. She is a protector and friend to all children. Her scent is that of softly glowing skin, jasmine, buttercup and honeysuckle. Whoever said this smells like Easter hit the nail right on the head. I smell the "heliotrope" jelly beans, the flowers on the table for midday dinner, some mysterious perfume that some lady wore to church, the first heat of Spring. It is lucious and though it is definately floral, it is childlike and simple in the most perfect way. I will treasure my imp of Eos, but will wait until January to order it, it will be the most wonderful vernal surprise.

Very nice! Lemon and citrus with leather and incense. I had some incense when I was a kid that smelled just like this. I still have it and hoped I could find something similar, and Torture King is it. I can't get the frankincense or clove but I sure can pick up the citrus and leather. This one grows on you. At first I thought it was sort of a lavender, now I know I was wrong.

This is something else! Fig, boy does this one have fig in it! I really like it this time. It's juicy and wet, not dry. I smelled cocoa when I first opened the bottle and put it on my skin, but it doesn't have the orange 13 had and so there is nothing diametrically opposed to the cocoa, which seems to really like fig. This one reminded me of 13 due to the bitter cocoa and fruit mixture. Freak Show is a lot more easy to get along with, though because it doesn't deal with volitility just sweet fruitiness. I like this one, but don't know if I can grow to love it. It's a good positive scent, though. If you like fig...you will fall for Freak Show.

Wow! I am getting something completely different than anyone else got. I smell: grapefruit and then it turns into Incantation! I love Incantation, love it! Sometimes it gets a bit too strong for me but this is the perfect strength with an opener of grapefruit. This one is also giving me an insight to Beth's scent shorthand. Sea of Glass was loaded with grapefruit. Glass-Mirrors-Grapefruit. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if there wasn't a bit of lily of the vallery lurking around in the background, too. Really a nice blend with a summer addition that is fabulous.

I am at a loss for words about Fire Eater. I can't pick out any of the notes in it at all! I think Laurel the Wood Fairy explained it as well as a human can, even if she is a Wood Fairy. I just don't have as finely tuned a nose as she does. Damn it, Laurel (the wood fairy)---you are so RIGHT!!!!! You have given me the words: this is a Hollow Aldehyde! I bet you a peanut this is nothing but topnote mixed with fixative. OK, maybe it has a bit of middle note floral thrown in, but basically it's all highs and lows. That's what makes it so daring. Fire eater defies the ancient recipe of top-middle-bottom and just starts hard and then gives out a long term "whoosh". It takes some real guts to come out with something like this. Actually it does end up with a subtle but persistent bass note which lasts for hours. This one will take you a while to get it wrapped around your head, you are utterly lost without the progression you are used to in a perfume, but this is really quite a courageous accomplishment. If you have a bottle of Fire Eater, give it another try. No wonder everyone has been so confused about it. Thank you Laurel! Please Note: I am just taking a wild guess at all this, but it's the most sensible explanation I can come up with for this amazing scent.

Very much like my Chaos Theory 3: VIII, and almost but not quite citrus scent with woodiness backing it up. Yggdrasil has quite a good shot of the cold crisp musk which is in the Zorya and it does last a long time. This is almost a perfect rendition of the wise Ash of the World, big and strong and woody. Once again a fabulous performance piece from Beth, something which really makes you close your eyes and see the image by just using scent.

Now THIS is the most beautiful violet scent Beth has come up with. It is such a grand example of what she is excellent at concocting. First, her violet scents are outstanding, and they go the gamut from the almost military stance of Lex Talionis to this meltingly beautiful interpretation of all that is feminine and beautiful about violets. The other important part of Nocturne is the way that lilac is handled. Beth really gets all the best out of lilac. I am in awe of how well she understands what lilac is capable of, and how little everyone else can do with it. You haven't smelled the maximum fabulousness of lilac until you smell what Beth does with it in blends like Whitechapel and Nocturne. Nothing cloying, too sweet or empty-headed about lilac when Beth choses to use it. Somehow and some way she manages to find the note in lilac which fits into the place that violet leaves for it and presents the combination flawlessly. Violet has a tendency to be overpowering/ volatile/ nose numbing/ metallic BUT here it's edge is blunted by the otherwise tooth-partingly sweet shot of lilac and they are put so well together. I suspect that part of the triumph comes from knowing how much of each to expose to the other. This alchemy works to bring out the best and most appealing notes and attitudes of violet and lilac while using their otherwise unpleasant aspects as assets, and therein lies the genius. I used to think that Marie was all that you could get from violet, the most appealing and beautiful use of this little purple wonder, but now I am convinced that Nocturne is what violets evolved to be.* This one is never too strong or weak and is as beautiful as violet can get. *don't get me wrong, I adore Marie and I will have a bottle of it as long as I live, and I love love love the combination of London-like roses and violets. The icon is Turner's masterpiece Nocturne which is a painting of fireworks at night. It cause unbelievable scandal and outrage when it was shown at first, it broke every rule and ushered in the Abstract Expressionist Movement.

She is so nice, this Magdalene. There is still a whiff of floral whore perfume about her and a heart of gold. A very sincere fragrance, bolstered by roses and a soft but menthol-like note playing in the background. Heartbreakingly pretty for the white flower lover.

I smell orange in here though it isn't named specifically in the description. Deceptively soft, this is a very lovely scent. I think the sandalwood goes very well indeed with that sort of orange-y start. The idea of polished wood, as was stated above, does give you a good idea of what's going on in this imp. On me the scent fades pretty quickly and it's not the soft and creamy sort of thing I fall in love with, but I am sure that a good home will be found for Rakshasa without much effort on my part.

Slightly astringent in a cooling way, I think of that as the green grasses part. I was expecting roses here (because of the name) but didn't find any. That was OK. It was a bit lemony and tangy but I wouldn't call it a lemon scent. I didn't get much spice to it and no floral. Sad to say, it fled from my skin pretty fast. I think while she lingers, Rosalind is very pretty and cool, a great summer scent which you might want to keep in a scent locket round your neck. I wish it had more I could talk about beside "astringent" , I didn't pick up berries here regardless of the official description. Oh well. Rosalind was fun while she lasted.

Sexy, strong, medicinal, volatile. Obeah smells like a magic oil which means business. It smells resiny like you get so close to a "weeping" pine tree so you can smell it's sap and the sap running in its bark, then there is the civet tone...that's Obeah. This definitely isn't meant to be a perfume oil at all. I don't know what to do with it, either, so I suppose it's for the best to swap this and let it make the rounds. Good to review an unreleased scent, though, I just got lucky. Though this is an unreleased scent, it sounded like a Voodoo blend so I made a voodoo icon for it.

Not a bad scent but the individual components are overwhelmed by geranium. Geranium is one of the most powerful ingredients you can use in any blend, I know this I used it a lot in my aromatherapy and in lots of household tasks where I want to leave behind a powerful lasting natural scent (try putting it in the vacuum cleaner bag). It lasts like mad, too. Here is absolutely takes over, like Goneril tried to take over Lear's life. The other parts try to get attention, but alas, it is in vein. Trying to combine it with cedar was a great idea, but geranium eats cedar alive and then starts looking around for other victims.

After falling in love with Aglaea, and liking Euphrosyne a great deal, I had to try Thalia to finish my exploration of the 3 Graces. She is very pretty, floral and graceful but she certainly doesn't have the Grand Original Beauty of Aglaea or the Extreme Flower Weaving Prettiness of Euphrosyne. A great example of the White Flower BPAL scents, perhaps a White Flower fan would find tons of personality here. I liked it but didn't go for it like her two sisters. So, I am going to put her back in the swap circle and see if she can find a great home.

This one was very light and not too distinct on me. I could smell some kind of spice in there but it was so fugitive that it is very difficult for me to give a proper review of this scent. The ingredients sound marvelous, but I think my skin ate them. Kathmandu is best reserved for those whose skins will allow it to exist.

Florence and 13. What Josey said. On me 13 was all iris after the cocoa and orange got through with their dance. 13 dries to DRY iris, Florence dries to sweet iris (the berries keep it that way).

Smokey, that was my first reaction to this. I know that laudanum wasn't smoked but still there is that forbidden edge to it. Yet it is so appealing, the incense (and I mean churchy "legit" incense background to it) gives you that air of authority being perverted which makes you tingle with doing something bad when you smell it. This is really really pleasant, like you are wafting away on a dope induced high. I can pick out the nutmeg and sassafrass quite clearly but at the same time they are blending well with the rest of that smoky smell. This is a truly intriguing scent, one that I will have to explore and perhaps purchase a bottle to explore further. Thank goodness the FDA doesn't know about Laudanum, or that you need a prescription for it! Very nice...captures the spirit of the thing. Like writing a poem or tale which lifts the hairs on the back of your head. Perhaps...like...Frankenstein! * *Purportedly written under the influence of Laudanum by Mary Shelly. Really, if you haven't read the original, I commend it to you wholeheartedly. Fine book, wear Laudanum and go read it.

A gorgeous and strong floral with hints of Snake Oil floating around. This is a Grand Scent and I would think it would go well with some swanky night on the town as well as to your favorite club spot. It has a thick syrupy component, and does best when allowed to mix with air before it comes to your nose. If you do that, the slight shift in focus of the scent will reward you handsomely. It turns into something great instead of something very good. Hell's Belle is a very very good scent. The icon is one of my paintings. Alas, I did it with high hopes which were never realized. Oh well, at least it can be an icon in a perfume forum.

Voodoo oil, mmmm. I think there is a little civet in this blend, a lot of cinnamon, whatever sort of very appealing voodoo base Beth uses at times (with a vanilla-like part which is not vanilla and not tonka). Quite attractive and more than a little course (and I mean that as a compliment), don't lube up on this stuff if you are going to be presented to the Archduchess of Grand Fenwick, save it for that guy you want to rub up next to. There is a time and place for everything, Love Me is a get down and get busy sort of a scent.

This one is dripping with red musk, and that is its personality to a tee. Beth has combined the smell elements common in red musk with orange blossom and come up with a completely harmonious scent. Throwing in a bit of patchouli and ginger, and whatever is the underlying similarity among all those things really presents itself in Vixen. I would say this blend is a thorough success in terms of its harmony. It is long lasting and glorious in the vial as well, tawny and appealing as a vixen's coat. Alas, I am not a red musk person (though I can appreciate it), so I am giving this to someone who I think will enjoy it. I would be surprised if they didn't.