Mckerr

Thanks Hackess. Yeah - the more I tinkered with it, the clearer it became that it was going to be a manual job. It's all good though. I'm pleased with the results and I think it'll be much easier for me to add updates in the future. Thanks for sharing your hard work!

Hackess, your spreadsheet is a godsend. My devoted thanks. Just a quick question. I've been working off of a 2-year-old copy of the spreadsheet ... so ... no updates other than what I put in myself. But I thought it was time for a full update so I downloaded the 9/2/09 file. The question is... my current copy is obsessively notated and color-coded, etc. Is there a way to merge the old file and the new without overwriting my data? Just wondering. THANK YOU again! Michelle

The scent of warm, glowing jack o’lanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove. Whoa. I have to admit, when I opened the imp, I nearly fell over. The scent was SO strong, and SO sickly sweet and overpowering that I thought I was going to retch. It reminded me of this "Baked Cookies" home fragrance oil that The Body Shop used to make. Even so, I know how BPAL scents can change so dramatically when they touch my skin, so I was determined to give it a try. I'm glad I did. The strength of the scent mellowed out in a few minutes. It's still strong, but not in a negative way. That said, I still think that -- for me -- it's just too sweet to wear. It's very foody, but I don't really get the pumpkin part so much. Just strong baked goods ... the nutmeg and peach kind of scream at me. I could easily see this as a home fragrance scent, or used to scent candles or potpourri. It's very festive. But for my definitive autumn scent, I absolutely prefer Fearful Pleasure or even The Jersey Devil. (Samhain smells good, but it burns my neck some). Poisoned Apple is an excellent autumn choice too, and not nearly as foody as you'd think from the name.

BPAl, BPAL, how you toy with my emotions! In the imp, I didn't quite know what to think -- I caught some kind of sickly sweet presence I couldn't identify. But I put it on and was absolutely joyous for the next 10 minutes, even though I couldn't pick out a single note. I sat down and read a slew of reviews, perplexed, because I didn't get all the dusty, powdery references. But alas -- 15 minutes later, I smelled like somebody's great-grandma. What a shame. I wonder - if I put it in an aromatherapy necklace, could I capture that lovely wet scent? Worth trying.

Oh wow! I was searching for something to wear for a romantic evening with the hubby, but he tends to wrinkle his nose at some of the notes I'm most fond of, so I wanted to be careful. I fished through my unruly pile of imps and came up with New Orleans, which I knew nothing about, as it had been an add-in to an order. After a quick whiff, I said "This'll do," but that was *such* an understatement. Five minutes later, I swirling in clouds of jasmine, which just happens to be one of his very favorite scents. I could pick out the honeysuckle too, but on me, the jasmine was very strong. I'll be picking up a bottle asap and renaming it my "Happy Hubby Blend."

Loved the smell of this in the bottle so I applied it quite liberally. But EEK! The sides of my neck began to burn like crazy, even though I have no specific allergies that I'm aware of. It didn't burn at all on my throat or wrists. Go figure. Fortunately, the burning subsided in about 10 minutes and I was able to relax and enjoy the scent -- a gorgeous spicy, sweet, smoky blend. I don't know what the burn was about.. I haven't had that happen before. I'm going to give it a second try - maybe it was a fluke. But if it keeps up, maybe I'll have to just confine it to the aromatherapy necklace I just bought, or use it as a home fragrance oil.

I received this as a "treat" with my last order. (Great Googledymoogledy, I *do* love those BPAL treats!) It's not something I typically would've chosen, especially since it's rose-based and I am NOT a rose person -- not at all. Fortunately, It tried it without looking up the description first, so I was able to test it without pre-judging. To my happy surprise, I actually kinda like it. Out of the bottle: Oooo! It's so sweet! I'd go so far as to say candy-sweet. On me: Goes floral immediately. I get flashes of "traditional" perfumes. I know that scent, what is it? Oh, duh! It's roses. The rose is strong, but... it's not sickly rose. And it doesn't make me smell like somebody's great-grandma, like rose usually does. This is different. More complex. Obviously the lotus is working some kind of magick on the rose. Later: I can still pick out the rose, but the blend is even more harmonious now. Just a gentle but uncommon floral that I actually would wear, particularly if I was in an especially feminine mood. Is there no end to the ways that those geniuses in the lab can surprise me?? Kudos on creating a rose that even rose-haters can warm up to.

If this is answered somewhere within the thread, I apologize - I must've missed it. I just downloaded the 9/16/08 spreadsheet and it's great - thank you! I'm just curious... how do other people handle their personal updating -- in terms of copying all your status and reviews note and color coding, if any -- from an older version to a newer version? The older copy I had had a slightly different configuration of fields and formatting, so I couldn't just copy and paste full lines ... I actually had to go field by field (and I'd really rather not do that again ... it was a wicked pain!) All suggestions appreciated!

In the imp ... thick, sweet .... an absolute dead ringer for Plunder, even though this makes no sense whatsoever, since the only thing they have in common is clove. On my skin .... ack! The sweetness is completely gone -- it's turned instantly potent ... almost acrid. Maybe even a tad metallic (which, of course, suits the name just fine). I wonder if it's the myrrh. Myrrh sometimes turns me off. Not at all sure if this is going to suit me. In ten minutes ... phew! The bite is gone. But now it's pure spice. Not at all sweet, just a swirl of spice, bound by an undertone I can't place. Is that the dragon's blood resin? Could be, as I'm not all that familiar with that note. In a half hour ... on me, this is now pure clove. I like it, it's just not what I expected. In an hour ... it's softened now. A much lighter fruit-spice blend. Maybe the cherry finally came out - I didn't catch it at all before. Overall: What a ride! I haven't had a scent that had quite as much "motion" as this one. It's fitting though, subtly conveying the movement of blood through one's veins. I will definitely enjoy the rest of the imp, but I don't think this one gets a slot on my big bottle wish list. Too exhausting!

Everyone here has covered the notes quite thoroughly, so I won't repeat... All I can say is that I put this one for the first time this morning and my gut reaction was, "Omigosh, that smells like Halloween!!!" And of course it was love at first sniff. It was very tart at first, but the tartness mellowed quickly, leaving it sweet, spicy and sensual. Unfortunately, on me, the scent did not last long, which surprised me. (Perhaps it's because my skin is very dry right now) I guess I'd have to keep applying throughout the day with this one. It's gorgeous though, and I doubt my bottle will make it past autumn. I want my entire house to smell like this for the rest of the season.