anastasia

What is your favorite saffron BPAL and why?

This oil invites dark muses. It is an oil of somber reveries and unearthed horrors, and is inspirational in all creative undertakings with a macabre bent. This oil is for horror writers, artists, and musicians, and for those who wish to better understand their shadow selves. This oil contains tobacco absolute, pomegranate extract, orris CO2 extract, steam-distilled fractionated white camphor, wildcrafted myrrh oil, jasmine sambac, steam-distilled galbanum essential oil, elecampane essential oil, motia attar, champaca attar, mugwort essential oil, organic clary sage essential oil, styrax, labdanum absolute, Somalian opoponax, carrot seed oil, wildcrafted cypress essential oil, rose otto, asafetida essential oil, and crushed poppy petal infusion created from flowers grown in the TAL garden. Ahhh i do hope this oil gets more love. i bought it some time ago with intent to use with a creative friend. in the back of my mind i had the concept of mary shelley and lord byron and pollidori all getting wild and creative together. i was hoping to do some gentle imbibing of some kind and some serious work with writing or visual art or music or all of the above. i still think it would be good for these things and hope to use it in this way later on... no TMI but the person i wanted to use this with has kind of broken my heart and i am in a really repressive and uncomfortable living situation where i feel i cannot be creative in any of the ways i normally would be. i had been casting about for comfort and picked up the book American Gods again which is so much more than a novel in so many ways. i have ended up using this oil with a candle at night to connect conceptually and creatively in my mind with Zorya Polunochnya in the house of Czernobog and to be more comfortable with the dark feelings i am currently having. it is working. as a scent i would say that dark communion is an apt term. there is a something that reminds me of a really black bread but perhaps one with psychotropic herbs baked into it. and the throw is a remeniscent of absinthe. yet of course it is much more as a fragrance than these two things. it is not scary. the way i was feeling was scary and now i feel able to deal with it...

i finally got to try this as for some reason it is never at the top of my list but always there. the lab sent me an imp! this is very cherry almond in the bottle and wet but after that not anything like it. there is a predominant camphor almost dusty undertone to this that immediately flashes me back to theatrical costume smells. the cherry and anise in conjunction make it perfectly evocative of theater makeup and costumes. i have a feeling the fall weather is not its best foil but i can see using this for certain moods regardless and suspect it will be a spring winner. it is definitely not strong anise or cherry singly for me but smells influenced by those ideas. there is a whole little world going on here.

first let it be said i think Miskatonic University is a perfect fragrance. the perfume itself on my skin never stops its slow journey in creepyness so that it starts out all irish coffee and eventually it smells like a mildewed rotting library of dusty books and perhaps even old choir robes worn by things not fully human. the soap does not go that far but is perfect with silky lather and the little bit of grit from the coffee grounds. ironically the soap reminds me of coffee hour at church. in a good way. because with those big coffee urns with the spigot there was a way that it always tasted as if the wooden pews had got in with the coffee and blended somehow. i don't know how they do it folks but this soap is like that. anyway the Misk U fragrance is masterpiece perfect and the soap is like a little dose of that every time you shower or bathe. it compelled me to order the perfume and i'm pretty sure i will need a lifetime supply of the candles...

i crave the smell of fall year round so anything that says dry leaves is something i think i want. this is what i thought chant d'autommne might be like which had a bit of a syrupy red quality that was just slightly too candy like to be perfect for me. this is almost pure red leaves on me. i want to say there is a tiny amount of tomato leaf in here but it is definitely red over other leaf colors. i am hoping over time that it gets rosier because i am a rose hound and there is not noticeable rose here - rather, it contributes only to the sense of velvety fall redness. i put it on the collar of my shirts to get more throw and staying power. it is otherwise fairly light and a little short lived. i am going to lotion up to see if the fault is my dry skin. this is very beautiful and reinforces my feeling that i can't have too many dry leaf fragrances.

i do find this oil to be almost unbelievably effective not just for physical healing but in conjunction with other oils or bags or candles for different more conceptual healing. i don't think it smells of any of the things people have specifically mentioned but to me smells like a whole herb garden with something that always jumps out at me akin to dill or fennel but somehow prettier than those smells. nobody else in my life likes the smell though. not that i care if i feel i need it. but i find that if i just put some under my nose i get the effect and don't need a lot if i am using it for something where i can still be around people. if its something more serious i don't want to be around people anyway. its effect is immediate for me in that i feel better right away but also seems effective for more long term types of healing with repeated applications toward those ends.

well it sounds like you are approaching this in the spirit of fun. the first thing that comes to mind would be Old Man Ackerman's Instructional Toys because my brain is apparently afflicted by the obvious. BUT what kind of toy/product design? you could go a cartoony route with some of the Neil Gaiman or movie or comic based fragrances or the Steamworks also immediately comes to mind as well as some of the Alices... and I even think some of the Carnivals currently on Etsy might work. i always think that interview fragrance is so subjective. because for me i will wear what will convey the right impact for me personally and just go light if its a strong one. i don't need anyone else to be impacted by it because i expect to be the one doing that and not my fragrance if i interview as intended. lol. but i wear BPAL for what it does for me. for what it is worth generally in this thread; i have been jobhunting since November. i got out my Manhattan imp without reading up on the notes or anything just because my instinct told me to. i just got two jobs off the interviews i wore Manhattan to. now i fully understand that i got them after this long jobhunt largely due to working hard at improving my resume and interview skills. lol. and going forward i might wear something completely different again based on mood an instinct. but i do think i may get a whole bottle of Manhattan because on me it is delightful and still feels work appropriate and not too personal. but that does not mean i am not going to go to work lots of days wearing all kinds of other BPAL. sorry for the book! and most of all Good Luck!!! to everybody currently job hunting... may hope sustain you and hard work be rewarded!

i think that 'Tender Poison' was discontinued by Dior long ago but anyone who loved it may want to try 51 from Wanderlust.

i have found that i should probably buy any bpal fragrance with autumn leaves in the description. not that i find any of them to be repetetive. this one is like an autum/winter sunset in a cold climate where the sun pours golden through the clouds so that you expect to hear angel's trumpets. jubilant winter sunset...

i waited a year to review this and am waiting till christmastime to wear it. i have to admit when it was new it was a little rowdy but i knew it would settle down. there is a hoodoo roomspray which certain types of strip clubs and maybe some taxi drivers use which comes in all kinds of apalling 'flavors' like strawberry and coconut but which contains a special component called "nine indian fruit oil" when this was fresh i felt it smelled like nine indian fruit oil. which made me skittish admittedly. but as it has aged it has really come together and is darkly rich and incensey and fruity and jubilant. and so i will be wearing it at yule instead of halloween because it smells like a feast in a great hall acknowledging the darkness but celebrating the return of the light.

i think that this smells like a hobbit hole. where gandalf has visited recently. it smells like a hearth and multiple good things to drink and maybe flint. in the bottle and fresh it is of course very buttery foody which gives me the wiggins but the moment it dries it is really good. it is not like a perfume in any way but very organic and with the wood i think actually a little dark - a little connected to real faery homes or maybe badger's home from wind in the willows...

my first hair gloss. this hair gloss is precisely the right level of scent for hair. morocco is perfect for summer, comforting in its dry warmth. suggestive rather than overt but still delicious. i have a lot of hair and use a lot but have eliminated all other product besides conditioner which i leave in...

one of the stories says she died with a new pair of white gloves on. this smells like perfume from the 1900's. like a modern perfume then. it smells heavily gilded and dense. on me it is ylang rose indian incese. a little bitter and lacking in depth. it smells like something promising that was left to go to ruin. but enjoyably so of course. this is kind of a set piece for me like miskatonic university. maybe its the coffee... its too specifically evocative to wear to work or anything but good for an imaginitive day off...

i am very lucky and seem to have a chemistry which allows me to wear scents pretty true to description. on me this is a large fresh bouquet of hot house flowers smelled outside. very planty even though the florals smell cultivated. with grass... i wore it to a dead can dance show that was in an actual garden amphitheater. now i need a bottle because it will always smell like dead can dance in a garden. like the old black and white poster of theirs...

this fragrance is very cohesive and blended. for me there is fluffy, abundant flowering herb like verbena and in the very very background, gunpowder. which does work for me conceptually. something at the peak of its flowering and ignition. it has an immediate aggressive and pronounced thought clearing, spirit lifting effect. i have not done any larger rituals with it yet but have been wearing it and using it in an oil burner to influence my progress as i work on my own flowering and ignition.

wow, i got this a year ago as part of a gc imp pack with halloween implications. i thought i reviewed it and had come back to edit. i know a year ago that i was pleased because it was the first bpal i have ever considered 'dark.' but i liked it and wore it a bit and then came back from visiting my boyfriend who lives in another state and quit wearing it because it embodied the bitter sadness of how i was feeling about our not being in the same place. but i get to visit again soon and feel i have recovered and the weather cooled off so i put it on again... with a little age and my chemistry this has become very elegant and sophisticated. the impression it gives me now is of a gangly intellectually passionate orphaned heiress with thick beautiful hair and heavy glasses and a total preoccupation with music or math or something. this girl smokes really really good cigarettes non stop and her guardian smokes a pipe with really good tobacco almost as much and she borrows his jackets and sweaters. the impression is of a fury of smoking of the best quality tobacco. this is the first scent i think might be a 'signature' scent for me. it is quite strong on me which i like but has this underlying pretty, pale almost fluffy anisette sweetness and something woodmossy like very good wool fabric and then expensive tobacco. i would say it is very fetish y in a quiet, dark, understated way. the masculinity seems borrowed - it is quite feminine but the feminine of a woman who is intellectually preoccupied and not aware of herself physically or a really beautiful feminine man also intellectualy preoccupied and wearing good clothes. this smells like a person who is full of complexities and totally un interested in self awareness because they are completely absorbed in another pursuit. top pick of all the 'absinthe' fragrances i have ever tried. mmmmmmmm.

this does smell like leather and lots of sweet prairie grass. next day maybe tobacco and prairie grass. there may be a tiny bit of sarsaparilla. very natural smelling and very sweet.

smells like nail polish smelled when i was little. covers with two coats. almost runny. a shade darker than the dark brown m&m but lots glossier. because of the touch of red under my skin this is pretty much a glowing blood brown in some lights. i know that people will think this is black but it is kind of an amazing true neutral. i am blown away by it's greatness.

i would buy this in an instant. the fruit in this is dark and tart - could be blackberry, pomegranate, lingonberry - the other component could be a crepe or a waffle or the 'cake' kind of ice cream cone. with the yellow color and the stumpy bottom. in the best way this is still not foody. it is fresh and oddly kind of sexy. i wish it were stronger.

ahhh this is probably in the top twenty list of smells i have been looking for my whole life. this is very much parts of the pacific northwest and canada. rainy woods leading down to a foggy beach and a damp fire. when first applied, there is an element that is a little too hot and tannic and coppery and kind of uncomfortable but whatever it is dies down and this becomes a completely organic smell - not like a perfume at all. it is iodine and smoke and moss and the way that natural fabrics like canvas and wool will hold the smell of the entire camping experience or sailing experience seemingly forever. it is strong when first applied but lightens up surprisingly. this reminds me of the scene in The French Liutenant's Woman where Meryl Streep has her hair down under the big, mossy trees. i bought this for spring but there is a way for me it will fit any season. i need my clothes to smell like this so used a little Jamieson's i had sitting around for the alcohol and made a linen spray out of a little bit of it. it is stupefying. i do see the comparison to Black Annis very clearly. I like Black Annis too but it starts out cold and dries down to a powdery anisette and Ligur starts out kind of feverishly warm and dries down to mossy driftwood smoke. As far as the character goes, i am happy to represent one of the dukes of hell on a consistant basis.

A coquettish blend of tea rose, ume blossom, geranium, lily of the valley, violet, and heliotrope. this is a little like a salon fragrance. it smells like an understated but curvaceous woman at a garden party. she has a glass of delicious, fruity rum punch and is wearing a silk frock in a splashy pattern of plums and reds over soap scrubbed skin and very proper cotton undergarments. i like to think that at the end of the night without anyone noticing, she is going to go home with the stand up bass player of the band/orchestra. some BPAL fragrances smell like dressing up to me and i particularly like to wear them for everyday. i bought this for spring and the clean undertone to this cheerfully lush floral is going to make it very nice for everyday. all that said, i feel that this is a very nice evocation of Madame Tracy. she is younger than i thought she was and keeps a fresher smelling household than i was thinking. an appropriate vessel for posession by a misplaced angel. any brussels sprouts cooked in this household will be the tenderest and freshest available that day.

Doc Constantine has a younger brother. He also works in a tent show. Some people watch him and get religion. He handles Western Diamondbacks. He does tend to disappear though around the full moon. He is pale and skinny and wears threadbare pants and a grey holey sweater with nothing on under it. Sometimes he and the Doc get together and brew up some pine needle tea with a little something extra in it to make them warm. They don't talk much - they never really needed to.

i had reviewed this in my head so thougt i had really done so that said sometimes the first thing that comes to mind is the funniest this is a lawnmower in a shed. in every garage any gramma ever had. with the heavy door on springs. but i like it. i would probably even wear it regularly - if there were not so many other great BPALs.

Tea and a butter biscuit on a windy beach on a warm overcast day with the sand sticking to your sunblock lotion and your hair blowing in your face. This is and is not what I was expecting. It is both lotion-y and biscuit-y. Less sweet than I thought by far, a little salty. 'Mildew,' which is probably moss in this is a little peppery at times so it is a little like being bounced back and forth between the above scenario on a beach and the above scenario on thick green spicy moss. It is growing on me but there is an element that confuses my nose and what my brain kicks out of the confusion happens to be 'new car smell' which is unnerving. I find it a clean smell which is at least true to Shadwell's spirit if not his corporeal form. I'm going through an odd sugar craving BPAL phase so I think that Shadwell is going to wait and come out in the hottest days of summer and be perfect.

Wow, somewhere in the pit of darkness that includes Valentine's day and Easter this scent took over a big chunk of my BPAL reality! I normally do not buy multiple bottles of LEs prefering to follow Beth's seasonal organic process and trusting that no matter how sad I am when a bottle is empty that Beth is going to provide something I will like just as much that will suit where I am at for that time period. This scent COMPELLS me. This must be part of the ongoing 'LACE' hullaballoo. When I first apply I get a woody fruity thing that would not really have me wanting more. It is not unpleasant but there is almost a scorched sugar quality like someone is burning some brandy punch that has pomegranates cut up in it and lots of sugar. I can't even really pinpoint the change but it gets better and better minute by minute, hour by hour. The compelling part is the waft - not the spot where I placed the oil. The thing is, I have been wearing this to bed and it innundates my sleep shirt, pillows, even the cat. The lingering smell is the best sugary, soft smell ever. The smell on clothes and bedding hours later is AMAZING. Apparently this will just have to be one of life's mysteries for me. I love really strong BPAL, odd BPAL etc. Most of the notes that go bad on people do not on me and I don't normally lean much toward sugary or foodie. So this is just weird. I have not experienced any of the other 'Lace' fragrances but seem to have fallen sway to the phenomenon. Can't explain it, but must have it.