lady_pandora

A traditional Voodoo recipe: a fast-acting, efficient uncrossing oil. Scentwise, Flying Devil is peppery; if you've tried Bengal, it's that same warm, sweet spicy note. It didn't irritate my skin, but I only got it on my fingers, and I'm thinking it could cause a welt on more sensitive areas. I tried this out last night because I'd had a Day From Hell and felt like I needed to change my luck. Handy that it was the waning moon too. I improvised a little ritual using both this and Jinx Removing. I first put Flying Devil on a black tea light and focused on banishing all the bad stuff, and then Jinx Removing on a white tea light while focusing on cleansing; while I know Jinx Removing is also a banishing oil, it has a very soothing character to me and seemed to fit in this way. (FWIW, the Flying Devil candle burned higher and was consumed first.) And then I knocked out a massive, gross cleaning project that had been nagging at me for months. I've noticed that these oils sometimes prod me to do my own part in fixing a situation, and Flying Devil appears to have spurred me to banish one of my own "demons" in the form of this task. Now to see what effect it has on the other things that were troubling me...that'll be a more gradual thing.

A cherry opening note, transitioning into a sweet, fluffy, just-this-side-of-foody rose that reminds me a little of Pink Fuzzy Handcuffs. Nice spring scent!

A clean scent with citrus and green notes, like a light, somewhat masculine soap, with the ambergris providing a musky overtone that keeps it from being too sharp. I definitely get the Irish Spring comp. Not me, but I'd love to smell this on a guy.

Slightly fruity pie crust--can't really identify it as a specific fruit, but there's a definite fruitiness about it. It's warm and snuggly. I like it--maybe especially because it's cold as balls here right now--but I like Take a Knee better for my pie needs and have a big bottle of it, so I probably don't need to hunt down more Halfling.

Black Forest might be a good one too, and if you can track them down, The Eternal King and Christogenniatiko Dentrophobia

I get a sheer veil of something mentholic over the scent of autumn leaves and woodsmoke. The mentholic note is most prominent in the throw and fades earlier, while the leaves/smoke are closer to the skin and last longer. Leans slightly masculine, like I'm smelling a very clean man who's just come from a bonfire.

This is a sweet incensey blend that I think probably contains frankincense, sandalwood, and hyssop, based on its similarity to Tzadikim Nistarim and to a couple of TALs. There may have been some honey in the early stages. Has a very TAL sort of vibe.

I haven't tried Seraglio, but I wonder if you'd like Othello. Rose with musk and spices.

Another interesting pom is 7 Word Story: Lust, which is fresh in my mind because I'm wearing it today. I don't know if it'll be at all similar to the Jo Malone, but on me it's a really juicy pom with sort of a clean incense note hanging around.

I got a partial decant of this as a freebie from a lovely BPALer when I bought something else from them. Halloween being this week, I decided this was a good time to test it. Sticky Pillowcase starts out with a big blast of sugar note, and then settles down to a one-note but indistinguishable red fruit--I couldn't tell you whether this was strawberry or raspberry or pomegranate or what. It just refuses to identify itself to my nose. I really like the idea, but on my skin it's basically just that one note, and I have more complex blends if I want to do fruity.

I get a super sweet citrus scent up front, must be the mandarin plus either the sugar note or the vanilla, and it flirts with being too sweet but somehow never quite tips over the line. The citrus drops out eventually and it settles down to a sugar note reminiscent of Pink Fuzzy Handcuffs plus a light, sweet, smoky opium. It's all a little like Carnaval Diabolique, which I also like. Light, sweet, incensey. This is a keeper, at least an imp's worth, though it's not at all what I imagined from the note list. There's little enough jasmine that my jasmine-amping powers do not activate--I can't even smell it.

I have the hardest time pinning this one down. I think it's because the strongest notes are ones I'm not really familiar with. The skin scent is clean and a little sharp, while the throw is kind of sweet and misty. It smells a lot like something I had in my house in about 2003. A perfume, a candle, a shampoo, maybe even a book? IDK. I'm just struck by this frustratingly vague scent memory of me reading a book in my tiny old apartment in my early twenties. The nostalgia of it is kind of cool when paired with the "dust is whirling with the dust" line.

Definitely Bengal and Morocco! Maybe give Hell's Belle and Othello a shot too, for more floral interpretations of the spice thing. I also adore Dragon's Milk.

Polished metallic notes, glossy leather, frankincense, star anise, and thin lubricating oils. I think my nose is confused, because I'm getting what smells like lemon along with a sort of high-pitched department-store musk. It smells expensive but not "me." ETA: And kind of dryer sheets in the later stages.

I got this as a freebie from my lovely Dragon*Con fairy. I absolutely love this! In my decant, the lemongrass has mostly aged out, and I get a delicious almost-foody amber/vanilla/coconut blend with a hint of smoke that isn't explainable by the notes. I could see myself reaching for this year-round for any occasion. How did I miss it the first time around?

The first note that hits my nose is rose, followed by something else that I'm reading as honeysuckle, though it's not listed. It dries down to a slightly rose-scented cloud of soft spice and musk, with the spice/musk combo reminding me a bit of Hell's Belle. The rose makes it different from Hell's Belle's citrus and magnolia, but it has the same kind of languid hothouse softness. If I'd tried to imagine with Othello smelled like, I doubt I'd come up with something that reads so femme to me, but it might be a reference to the Middle Eastern perfume traditions where, IIRC, rose is less gendered. Anyway, it's beautiful and I really like it.

This is a really interesting synergy of the amber, citrus, and cedar. The amber gives it kind of a glowing feel, the cedar is woody and soothing, but the citrus keeps it astringent, rather than being "comfy" like some other amber/wood combos are (such as The Magician's Wand). Wood polished with a lemon-scented product, maybe. This is a blend to keep you alert! I like it, and I may wear it for class or something.

I really want to love this conceptually, and the pom note is fine, but something else in this isn't working on me. There's a note in here that's turning on me into something maybe rubbery? maybe metallic? It's a little like the way Fortuna Dubia didn't work out. Dates, where art thou?

I really love this, but...really really close to Pink Fuzzy Handcuffs on me. It's that fluffy sweet vanilla rose vibe. What sorts of kinky things is the Priestess putting in that initiation ritual?

On me, Exodus 22.21 is not the dark heavy scent I might have expected from the presence of the resins, but a light, sweet puff of red-fruity incense. It's cuddly and comforting and close to the skin. A definite keeper!

Not dark at all on me--it's melon shading into more of a mixed fruit scent with light ozone. It's a fresh summer scent, but not quite my thing.

This reminds me of Like the Flashing of Light plus oudh. It's got the bitter-but-in-a-refreshing-way citrusiness of LtFoL and the amber softening it, and then the addition of earthy incensey oudh to the mix. It's like a more autumnal version, maybe.

This is fantastic! It starts out smelling like a honeyed campfire, and morphs into smelling like soft honeyed leather, a bit like that Ploutos imp they did for Black Friday a few years ago. The honey/beeswax keeps it from tipping into the masculine, for me, and this is one of the most comforting BPALs I've ever smelled. I think I need a bottle.

First sniff is of rose and pom, but the rose vanishes quickly once it hits my skin, and it settles into tart pommy wine. Later something sweet and lightly incensey comes in to soften it up a bit (hyssop?) and now the morning after the night I tested it, it's pom/cedar. Super long lasting pom note! Wrong holiday and all, but there's something kind of Yuleish about this. I probably don't need a bottle, as I have a lot of pom scents, but I like it.

True love renewed by night in an English garden: moonflower, Nottingham catchfly, Casablanca lily, evening primrose, night-blooming cereus, Queen of the Night, muted by the sepia tones of tonka, tobacco absolute, bourbon vanilla, and costus. I get what I think is almost 100% moonflower from this, which makes it distinct from the other moonflower blends I have where it lets something else share the stage. Cool, ethereal, and very pretty, without much morphing.