anastasia

Me too on the wood and I am fairly new so this thread is exciting for me. The woodiest one so far on me is Ouija. But apparently I am the exception to the rule. Lots of people got flowers. I get the flowers but they stay mixed with the wood at least somewhat. But I am probably getting a full bottle of Ouija because at the beginning it is kind of like licking a really nice and highly polished wood table. What about other woods in The Carnival?

This one really entertains me. Even more so after reading the reviews... When I put it on at first it is just wood wood wood and more wood! It makes me think of the biting baby hanging from the table by her teeth in the Lemony Snickett movie. This must be what she is tasting. Dark hard wood and maybe some kind of sinister wood polish. Then I get this wonderful minute by minute slow process of changing to flowers. I just love that! I really like the wood but am fully aware that the public might not. Then again it kind of smells like a fancy herbal sports rub at that stage so maybe I could just not care... The flowers are perfect for this. They definitely smell antiqued. This is highly evocative of victorian parlour spiritualism and at the wood stage makes me laugh and think of some charlatan with a hard object strapped to her knee banging away with it under a beautiful wood table to make people think the spirits are knocking. Then the flowers come in and make me think of the real spirits hanging around the house, lingering... I have been wearing this in the evening and I love the changes this goes through and the final scent but it is kind of fleeting and then I want to go put more on and start all over again. I may need a full bottle if I can afford it because I really like the way it is like an assortment of white roses and faded dried rosebuds floating in total darkness and I love the process of getting there. I would be curious to know what it is like if it kind of got built up from wearing it a couple of days in a row or lingering in clothes. I feel like I need a big bottle so I can get a handle on its consistant lingering scent.

I have never really understood the character of Lady Macbeth. I did not expect her to smell robust in quite this way. Possibly even roly poly. And she is handing out children's multivitamins... Now that is sinister!!!

ooooh salty! I think this is just wonderful. The "perfume" through the salty tear smell is the scent equivilant to looking through a distorting pane of glass at a fair far away in the distance with bright colors and exciting possibly beautiful things going on that I cannot quite make out. Or like looking up from under the water of the pool of tears and seeing all the characters splashing around above my head. I love the prevailing salty sea smell which is both clean and a little suggestive smelling and then the floral blend which seems bright and tiny and beautiful. It is so light but so interesting. I am enchanted by this particular floral aquatic and wonder if I am destined to love aquatics or if it is the simplicity and lightness of this one that I am liking so much. I could see wearing this all summer long. I am pretty sure this will be one of my next GC picks.

The Scarlet Woman, aglow with sensual indolence: red musk, benzoin, caramel accord, golden honey, and spiced Moroccan unguents. I have enjoyed as I read through reviews, how everyone seems to have a scent that smells like their first "head shop." This one is mine. It was not exactly a head shop but a shop in this old wooden rabbit warren of a building that had our "art" movie theater at the top and an espresso shop and a pizza place and some hair salons down below. This gift shop was in there for a long time and they had a huge assortment of antiques and hand made or really nice cards and lamps and tchotchkes and some local art. It wasn't gloomy or dusty but the building was old so it was kind of antiquey and refined. Warm stained glass lamplight and pens and old lace. This scent captures that and more so, a particuar brand of incense that I used to buy there which was my trademark because I was the only one of my friends with the ability to differentiate incense quality and I HATED Gonesh and all those other crappy made to mask other smells type of incenses. This was by no means the best incense but the best I could get at the time. It came in a triangle shaped box and I do not remember the name but it was I think this fragrance is reminiscent of one that was yellow rose scented. Only much much better. And I am so glad. If it just smelled like the incense I probably would not love it but it is a deep and sparkling golden scent. I really have not explored all the resinous scents yet but this is going toward the top of my full bottle list. It is elegant and bright.

There is a wonderful painting by Reubens of his wife called "The Little Fur" and when I put Wanda on and started thinking about Venus in Furs I started thinking about it. I guess I think this smells like a fragrance version of that painting which was pointed out to me long ago because the perspective between the two halves of her separated by the fur is not quite anatomically right. Wanda definitely has stages for me. About two minutes after applying, there is a blossoming of leather like a leather flower just opened up on my skin. Which is a little disturbing. And there is something about it that I can't pin down that reminds me of being in the hospital as a child. Today wearing it, there is a tiny hint of the smell of woodsmoke in fall air as well. It is just a really strange montage of slightly unsettling imagery for me. And so because I can't ever quite get it figured out or get comfortable with it, I LOVE it!!! The wine is great on me, rich and honeyd and my brain can never really understand the flowers in this behind the leather but they are probably crucial to what keeps this strange for me. There is something that it shares with The Black Tower for me - probably the wine and leather. It is very much the colors in "The Little Fur" for me and the brightness of her look and kind of youthful face with all her fleshly perfection/imperfection. This is much more about being a woman than I usually go for in a fragrance and makes me feel like kind of an impostor when I wear it but it is strange enough for me to feel comfortable with it. And I hate to say this but there is a part of it that smells like swedish fish candy - the red ones. But that is one of my favorite candies. I could wear a lot of this for a long time and I think it will be my next full bottle purchase. It is at the top of my top ten right now because it is totally COMPELLING.

This is not something I would wear in regular rotation but I am enjoying it. I don't get any coconut that I can tell though. I get mostly orris and what seems like a teeny bit of dragon's blood. It is kind of a fruity orris. I am just getting to know orris so this has been nice.

With all of the conjure bag oils, I recognize crossover parts of them in other conjure oils. They all have a potency and power to their fragrances which seem to really invoke the ideas and energies behind their intended uses. I had used a little of this one in my oil burner right after I got it but was very busy that night which is not like me and felt like I kind of missed a date with something important. Tonight I felt was the night to really commit to investigating this oil. I have been burning it in my oil burner and then after my bath I decided to put some on. I feel like a weight has been lifted from me. Like I can breathe freely. I didn't think I was feeling bad but I feel better! I feel very relaxed but with a clear head. For me so far several of the conjure bag oils are extremely compelling. Like once I have smelled them that is all I want to smell. After I have been wearing this a while there is something about it that reminds me of hot fresh ironed old cotton. I do find it uplifting and wish I could go back and give myself some of it when I have been really struggling with depression. This is not a bracing uplift but more like the uplift that happens when a slightly wilted plant gets water. And I can't get enough of it. This is going on my next big bottle order list!

I always feel somehow that I have an unfair advantage because I like vetivert and I believe that it smells good on me. Also, there are many different vetiverts to me. I think I have a couple of blends with vetivert in them and this one smells extremely different to me. This smells very fresh. Even in the bottle, Thorns smells good to me. I don't get any smoke out of this at all but the kind of green around the edges rooty smell of like, a bowl of vetivert root. I never really liked the prince in Rapunzel. Apparently I don't want princes of fairytales to be enfeebled in any way. But this is kind of a skin scent on me and makes me picture a very beautiful and tormented young man sweating beautiful sweat as he wanders blinded by the witch. In other words, the gratuitously kinky implications of the tortured prince have been made apparent to me for the first time, through this lovely fragrance. I get a greeny garden dirt out of this vetivert and I get the dragon's blood...I used to make my own blend and crumble whole chunks of dragon's blood into the bottle. The resin I used may have had a saltier quality to it so this smells more like the dragon's blood I am used to but may be because of the "tears." I don't really get "aquatic" but again this may be what is making this smell fresh and skin musk ey to me. It is a little neutral and smells even better on my shirt than it does on me which makes me think I may want to make a linen spray out of it for late spring as the weather is warming up but the warmth and greenyness of the scent will still be appealing. To me this scent is light and clean and kind of jeans and a t-shirt and no makeup sexy.

This is kind of fresh and light. The art for the label is perfect. It is very evocative of the actual absinthe ritual and I love that the water is rosewater and that there is lilac in here somewhere in the sweetness but it really is all very blended on me with nothing jumping out except "the smell of absinthe" as a dominant note. It warms up on me a teeny bit but mostly makes me think of a fancy crystal absinthe glass. This is not Van Gogh or Rimbaud absinthe, it is refined and lace curtain ey. In my mind it is pale milky green and light rosebud pink. I'd like to think there were some rich old ladies drinking absinthe in their parlours somewhere... but this doesn't smell old. It smells fresh like daydreaming of spring in the middle of winter.

This was one of the first salons I wanted because of the whimsicality of the combination of the really civilized presentation of the painting with the barbarian nature of the subject. It makes me laugh every time. This scent is a little disturbing to me because it really does remind me of my grandmother. Not that it is a grandma ish scent - it reminds me of her physically and personally which is strange because she died when I was six. I apparently do have scent memory of her and her belongings though. It smells like her open suitcase. In the bottle and wet it smells like the painting, almost victorian in its brightness and cleanliness. Nobody in that painting looks like they are sweating. It is like a diorama of Cleopatra in a crystal palace. Bright and clean resins and peach or apricot seed. Once I have worn it, it becomes kind of a 1930's apricot silk underwear kind of scent. It reminds me of Hitchcock movies for some reason. It reminds me of a really fancy compact of face powder. Which comes around full circle and reminds me of the inside of my grandmother's purse and how even though she was older when I knew her I knew that she had been glamorous and that the things in her purse were the things she had always had in her purse even when she was twenty.

I am out of control over this right now so thought I had better review it. I always like licorice but there is a cold licorice scent/flavor and a warm one. This is very warm. I cannot get over how smoothly it blends with leather. This is a very golden, resonant smell with a hot dark center. Initially it was fresh and sharp but the more I wear it, the softer and warmer it gets. I actually have had to mix some in with my unscented body lotion so that I can get a tiny undercurrant of it no matter what else I wear. So I will be ordering more before it goes away and a gift bottle for a friend of mine who loves licorice!!!

Well I think this totally suits Ichabod. The film Ichabod and the book Ichabod. I find it to be fairly strong and confident. A character full of strength and conviction, just unusual. This is the warmest BPAL scent I have smelled. Strong, smooth and warm but also quirky. It unfolds in stages a bit. Not too sweet, it smells clean and warm and sturdy to me but with a layer of strange whimsy from the floral. I fully experience all the ingredients but am just slightly heartbroken as mycatfrankie and I split a bottle and on her there is more wool and on me there is more lily of the valley. I love the wool. I used to like to stand in coat closets as a child and smell all the coats. Ichabod is the Sleepyhollow that at the last minute we decided we couldn't live without knowing what he smelled like. It will definitely be a welcome addition to the winter round of fragrances!

I haven't smelled enough BPAL yet to help you out with this one or with Prell but I am delighted that you are pursuing these scents. I remember discovering Camay when I was a child and absolutely thinking that it was the height of decadence. The only soap we had in the house by law of my mom was called Safeguard and it was not the height of decadence. I had totally forgotten the luxury of Camay.

SaneAsYouAre, I never thought of that and it totally made me laugh. Now I have an added dimension to my pursuit of the right saffron for me. I love those episodes!!! I can't describe saffron because I don't understand it yet which is part of why I have the obsession right now. This happens to me with a fragrance sometimes and then after I wear it a lot for a while it stops being obscure and becomes a scent that I can call up the details to from memory. I think that it is warm and sweet and a little bit sharp and feral smelling all at the same time. I don't understand it in food either because it can be in pastries I think but also savory dishes and of course, rice. I do love paella. Anyone have what is to them an accurate description of saffron?

Thanks ivyandpeony, So far I have only gifted the salons. I do seem to have the mojo for that but don't know about the accuracy of my salon purchasing abilities for myself. I do have every intention of diving into the salons though. I am an artist and so the visual concept is completely motivational for me. As far as the saffron goes, I just have a bug for it now. Ironically the salons I have been drawn to do have it in them so I still have high hopes. Oblivion is a leeeeetle sweet for me even though I really like it and Scherezade has some aspect that reminds me of my childhood and creeps me out. I am hoping that Monsterbait Underpants comes back some day!!!

I could wear this every day if there weren't so many others!!! It really does smell like enchanted machine oil to me. Like magical sewing machine or bicycle oil. I wish I could say more because it is fairly light but also complex. This is kind of my idea of sunshine in a bottle. I get the saffron and love it but there is just so much going on, and all the while just the prevailing concept of oil for a bicycle that is going to fly the minute you ride it...

What are people's favorite Salon saffrons?

Okay, well, what in the general catalog, or retail available scents is going to give me the biggest slap in the face with saffron? Because I rreeeaaalllly think I need it!

Well I think this works as therapy. It seems to be kind of an emotional 'reset' kind of smell. It reminds me of spring and early summer. Like when I was younger and would have been too self absorbed with no clarity for days and then there was a day to get up and put on a clean, worn, cotton dress and go explore the world with new clear eyes. It is a little bit green smelling to me but not anything I think of as floral-y. It has kind of a neutral undertone like clean cotton or uncooked rice. And then a little freshness or sparkle on top but it seems very gentle to me. I am recovering from a cold and possibly from suffering from being trapped in the small picture and this is just perfect for me today. Summertime is very hard for me and I could see this being really therapeutic for me this year when it gets too hot for me. It also seems like it could be good on a day when you have a hangover. I feel like I am making it sound less pretty by making it sound therapeutic but it is really fresh, gently bright, sparkly and nice!

does anyone think anything in the GC smells like Mictecacihuatl? I am excited to go hunting for a new rose blend because I do love how Elizabeth can use rose in soooo many many interesting ways but I will run out before the year is over and what if i get homesick?

I want to wear this now but can't. I sure hope that it keeps. It is really lush and verdant. Fluffy cool green like the word bullrushes kind of. And the blackberry leaf and incense and roses and dwarf st john's wort smell like non-foody pie filling if that makes any sense. Like herbal pie filling. It is juicy and mouthwatering in a fairy food way maybe. I can't help but feel it is the best mood lifting use of St. John's Wort that there is! This happens to me with scent sometimes where I have to wait for some specific time to wear something. I want to wear it now because it is literally delicious but I can tell I am going to need it sometime in the coming months. This is totally awesome and I am happy that my whole bottle is waiting for me to wear it.

Don't be hesitant, I fully understand that the Conjure Bag Oils and TAL products ought to be used with intent but it is great to know what that will smell like anyway. It happened to be on my TAL wishlist! Thanks!

I cannot get enough of this on me. I may throw some in my oil burner so I can have more, more, more. This seems to be many things that I like all in one place. On a simplistic level, it smells of dry vermouth and honey. I don't know where the honey is coming from... maybe the wine? But I am picturing a fine silver powder of all the things listed in the description poured into a cup of honey wine. Silver-grey and floating. Swirling slowly into shapes of ships and towers and battle imagery. Like scrying history in a cup of wine. I wish it were stronger but since it is a memorabilia sort of concept, the faintness is appropriate. It is warming up now and I can smell the leather, ebony, teak and burnt grasses. I am sad because all I have at this time is an imp and I want to make my whole world smell like this. Also if i were more of a gamer, this would be very useful for some characters. This definitely smells Medieval. It doesn't really take much to do this to me but boy does it make me wish I were a man. Not because I shouldn't or can't be wearing it as a woman but it is like a glorified advertisement of the high points of manliness - kind of like really good propaganda for the military.

ooh thanks! I am just really into musk!