Em-

Sweet pine...I found it hard to describe this one in my head as I tried it, but I really like it...it is green and verdant and herbal and just chilly enough to feel very fresh and clean. I really enjoyed smelling this on my wrists as I wore it...

Aquatic herbal mint - this is wild mint in an icy garden - none of that candycane sweet mint stuff...

Very very very light. This is an extremely light scent, almost like a crisp cool whisper...almost like a snow flake on the tongue...a sweet aquatic with hints of vanilla mint (I sense more familiarity with Snowblind than Snow White, but then again, I like the former, and not the latter) and none of the pine note that is typical of the Yule-at-the-Lab scent... This is gone in almost an instant...but is lovely while it is here...

Wet and earthy. Not wearable for me, but very evocative of the characteristics it represents.

Wow, I cannot believe I have not reviewed this yet - this is my favorite of the elementals and the only one that is really wearable for me. Salamander is, as expected, warm and firey. I get a light dragon's blood, some spicyness and a warm herbal florally note. I cannot really discern the notes in this, but that's okay - I like them.

I really had no idea what to expect from this, other than, well, pine. So for Slobbering Pine to be rich sappy pine with a shot of fresh citrus - well, color me a happy happy camper. This is a very piny blend, but very fresh as well - not the deep dark pines of winter, but a fresh summery pine forest. I really love this.

Icy pine with something warm poking out - I wore this today because I keep passing the real pine wreath that is hanging on the door to my office suite and thinking as I do so, "I should really wear a BPAL oil that smells like this." The Darkling Thrush isn't exactly a pine tree, but it has that icy aquatic pine scent that as someone put it up thread just sings "Yule at the Lab". Which just sings...

DC Circular swap - A very strong shot of what I suppose must be lavender from the other reviews, but what to my nose is coming off as pine. Odd that. That's really all I smell from this. It is a fresh scent, but probably not one I'd wear much.

DC Circular swap - Light and spicy, a sort of powdery scent. Not at all what I expected from the name.

DC Circular swap - This is a very bright sweet floral that pretty much stays that way. Very pretty, but not my thing.

My notes on Glasya from the discontinued circular swap are spotty at best - herbal with a floral hint. That's useful. But my resurrected bottle...now this is the stuff. Rich and heady, this is similar, a bit, to Skuld, but more sultry and sinister, and less honey sweet. I really really like this and can see myself getting a lot of good use out of it.

Actually, to the best of my knowledge, there is currently one licensed reseller for BPAL products - Nail Polish Etc. in Hershey, PA, owned and operated by our own Shelldoo.

Some of your UK cohorts can probably answer more specifically as to what specific wait times have been like lately, but generally, I would guess that an order placed late this month would likely be in your hands by early February. Of course, as you can probably guess if you read through this thread, a lot can depend on other factors, such as whether there is a component issue with anything that you order, whether there is an update around the same time (Beth's been making some noise about squeezing another installment of the Carnaval in before the end of the year, so a crush of orders around the same date tends to slow things down by a week or so...but I wouldn't guess that absent some bizarre curcumstance you would be looking at more than 4-8 weeks. But that's all unofficial like.

Very very very sweet candy cane. In a side by side comparison with last year's Lick It, I have a hard time telling them apart, to be honest, but that may be aging, as this does seem a tad sharper and sweeter, and definitely very delish.

Oh dear lord, this is Samhain 04. Rich, dark, deeply aged, with almost a petrol flame tinge. Sooooooooo happy is this Samhain lover. So very very happy.

Surprisingly sophistocated - I had forgotten about the coconut rum note when I first tried this, and was thus startled to find Creepy was much more than just a caramel apple scent - it is that, to be sure, but this is the scent of real sugared caramel, slightly burnt, with an alcoholic edge that gives it just enough of a kick to make this more than just a Halloween novelty scent.

Resinous fruit - bright and glittering...a perfect tribute to the sparkling light that is the precious winter sun. I was sniffing my wrists as I drove to work this morning, with bright winter sunshine filtering through barren trees, and a song about winter by the band Sol Invictus came on my iPod, and it was the perfect convergence of scent and sound and vision.

Sour and tart, if not quite bitter...Bitter Moon is a much lighter scent than I would have expected on my skin - the poppy behaves (it often takes over with my chemistry, which was my biggest fear in this blend). I get a sort of bitter fruity musk, with a floral edge, something very lush, but also sort of chilled - it is almost like Fruit Moon with a shot of vodka, although it doesn't smell at all alcoholic - but it has that sort of cutting aspect that liquor can give a mixer. I am making sense to myself...if not to anyone else!

This is the pitch dark moon that should not work on me, but it does...dark creeping florals, rich and lovely...Black Moon is the perfect black crystalline shot of dark moonlight on a forest pond...I honestly cannot even begin to put it into words in any other way. Except to note that even if you think you hate florals, this beauty is worth a try, because she is something so much more.

Based on the notes...based on the reviews...I should love this. Love love love, I say. So it is with great sadness that I report that on my skin, Schwarzer Mond smells like a resiny floral, similar to All Saints, perhaps a cousin to Al Azif, neither of which work on me in the slightest. Pout.

A fruity floral, very blossomy - the peach blossom is by far the strongest note in this for me. I get very little musk, and almost no rose or lily...alas, fruit blossom perfumes, while pretty, just don't really sing on my skin.

Purple. Purplepurplepurple. Seriously. This is what purple *smells* like. Purple fruit, purple flowers, purple liquor...I don't know how she does it, Beth has done it again...

The blends are similar, but not identical from year to year- each year has a new formulation. You can see the differences by reading the different year's reviews in the "reviews" section of the forum. Strictly speaking, I believe that blends such as Samhain and Devil's Night, or say, Jacob's Latter and Stardust from Yultides, are made from year to year from the same formulations - differences that we see are essentially batch differences that come from the fact that the Lab uses all natural oils and periodically may have to change suppliers. So the components may change slightly, but the formula (i.e., 1 part X to 2 parts Y doesn't change). That's why these blends are all listed in the same review threads in that part of the forum. Sometimes blends that keep the same name are reformulated, in that the actual recipe for the blend changes, in which case the description will change, for example, Hearth 2004 vs. Hearth 2005 or the various Harvest Moons, or Beltanes, and new review sections will be set up.

Wow, this is really beautiful - a red sensuous scent, rich and juicy. This is a very visual scent to me - I get ripe juicy red fruit, with the juicy dripping over tonka maybe? There is a lush creamyness to this that is not quite vanilla or chocolate or almond on my skin, and probably the barest hint of Dragon's Blood. Absolutely wonderful.

I had expceted to like Dracul, both as a me scent and as a scent for my husband - he found it to sweet and floral (he amped the orange blossom something fierce). As for me, although I like almost all of the individual notes in this blend, they do not come together into something that I love. Ah well.