thekittenkat

In the bottle: That's lovely! I'm picking up all the notes, but especially the clove and carnation. Wet: The cedar, the rose, and the incense are really coming out to play. There's a fruity sweetness that must be the pomegranate. The dry-down: This is a proud and regal Queen who has spent a lot of her time at Mass, but also in her garden, and hunting in the woods. She wear velvet in the fall and winter. Strong and independent, she is elegant and a bit haughty. There's an actress friend of mine that this would suit perfectly, as this is just the type of part she would play. Layering this with her bath oil amps up the roses and carnations on me, a lovely effect. If you like a sweet incense with a touch of florals, this is a keeper. I may try layering this with The Rose later on, and see how that works as well.

In the bottle: Lots of fig in a creamy vanilla sauce. Wet: Yes, it's mostly the yummy fig and vanilla, but the sweetness is tempered by the patchouli, pine needle, and vetiver, all three of which combined to give this bath oil a hint of sharpness that it needs to keep from becoming too cloyingly sweet. There's neroli, but just a touch, a citrus note to give this a bit of sparkle. The dry-down: This is simply one of the best things from the Post ever. (And I adore the Unity set and Pancake Breakfast!) I love figs, and Boadicea is part of my cultural heritage. I put my hands on the perfume and bath oil first out of the box. Interesting. Make of that what you will. I just know that I would like to smell like this when I wasn't wearing any scent. I have to slather this, because it is a skin scent on me, but oh so yummy! And combined with her perfume, it amps up the sweetness of the latter. I'm hoping that the layering will cause the Queen to stick around longer. And, yes, for the bath oil alone, I plan to order another set of Boadicea. In fact, if I could have several gallons of the bath oil, I would be happy. It's just that good. It's light enough to wear now, in the heat of summertime, but this will also be lovely during harvest-time. Especially when the figs are ripe in the back yard. It will also make by itself a wonderful and relaxing bed-time scent. ETA: sookster, thank you for your kind words! I like your review, too. In fact, most of the reviewers here love this bath oil. (Alas, Little Bird, we seem to be scent opposites!) Like milo, I won't be using it in the bath (I could, but I prefer to take showers) and instead am using it as a body lotion/oil.

In the bottle: It's a warm and creamy and spicy scent. Wet: The vetiver and the patchouli are there, but they are being kept well grounded by the fig and the vanilla flower. I think that the hint of sweetness is from the fig and the neroli. The oak might be that green and woody note. The leather is the base note. I'm not the world's biggest fan of dragon's blood resin, and if it's here, it's rather faint. The dry-down: This is really a skin scent on me; the vanilla and the fig are the top notes. I wish I smelt like this after mucking about and after horses all day long. I like it a lot, but even after slathering, the Iceni Queen is off to burn down those Roman cities. Layered with her bath oil, Boadicea's a bit sweeter, and I hope she will stay longer. I might have to order another set of this, because I like both so much! So lovely, but so fleeting.

In the bottle: The tea and the lotus seem to be the most prominent notes. Wet: Wow! That's sweet! I always worry about lotus, because it can turn into pink bubblegum on me. But already the other notes are appearing. There's a nice spiciness from the ginger, a faint hint of rose and neroli, and the jasmine and tea leaf are working together as a good base note and a good top note, keeping everything else in check between them. The dry-down: I was afraid that this was going to be too candy-like, and as much as I love candy scents, that concept didn't seem quite right for Mulan. However, the candy sweetness of the lotus root faded quickly, and I'm left with all the other notes blending together in a lovely scent with perhaps the tea leaf and ginger floating on top. I did try layering this with her perfume last night, and the sweetness of the bath oil did amp up the perfume somewhat. However, neither of them seem to last long. Like the lady warrior herself, this scent is floating off into the distance, off to fight another battle, perhaps, but smelling oh so gentle and elegant and lady-like.

In the bottle: I'm getting all of the notes, I think, except the leather. Wet: The spiciness of the ginger is really strong, but the sweetness of the jasmine and the pink musk is keeping it in check. The dry-down: There may be a faint hint of the leather as a base note. I'm also finally getting a whiff of the bergamot and the tea leaf. The musk has really helped to combine all the other notes into one harmonious whole. I would call this a "pink" scent, but it is not at all a candy scent. It's a bit more grown-up than that! Mulan may be dressing in male attire, but there's an elegant lady hiding underneath who still has a sense of what it was like to be a girl before she went off to war. I have now gone and dabbed a bit of her bath oil on top. The bath oil is missing the pink musk (and leather), but makes up for that with lotus root, rose, and neroli. The layering really sweetens up the perfume oil, and makes it a bit more like something a young girl/lady would wear. This is a lovely oil, with or without the layering of the bath oil, but Mulan seems to be getting on her warhorse and riding off, leaving only a faint trace of her sweet and spicy scent behind.

In the bottle: The woods are the most prominent notes: the sandalwood, the fir, and the cedar. Wet: Still getting all those notes, but something sweet is coming into play; I suspect it's the berries, and maybe the rose. This oil is cool on my wrist, and I'm in a rather cold air-conditioned house! The dry-down: The musk and the amber are a wonderful grounding element for all the other notes. Everything has blended together into a lovely scent. This is the smell of the most wonderful fir woods ever, lightly dusted with snow. The Christmas-time roses are peeking through the snow, and over in a shady area, last night's cold snap has frozen the late fall blackberries. I wore this oil a lot during the wintertime, after the winter holidays. It's wonderful on its' own, however, when layered with The Winter Maiden bath oil, it becomes even more itself, if that's possible, and lasts for hours. When I combine both like that, I always feel as though I'm in the best of heady dazes. All good, no bad. The poem that goes with this is utterly tragic. The coldness of the poem is well-reflected in the notes of the perfume oil. But of all the 2008 Yules that I have tried, this is still my favourite. I ordered it unsniffed, simply because of the frozen black berries. Some might think it a masculine scent, but I feel that it's gender-neutral and can be worn by anyone.

In the bottle: Another one of those pink (candy) scents, but this one has a hint of something deep in the mix like Sour Tarts, but only in a very mild way. Wet: Lots of sugar, also that cherry fluff. (And I was worried about this, because sometimes the Lab's cherry notes and I don't always see eye-to-eye. A mixed metaphor, almost.) There's certainly strawberries in here, but some are fresh-picked, and some have a sugar syrup already poured on them and been popped into the fridge to cool down and wait for the heavy whipping cream. The merangue is giving this Unicorn a nice vanilla base in which the other scents can frolic with abandon. (I always shake in a few drops of real vanilla into whipping cream before whipping it, so I can pour it over the strawberries--the vanilla really adds a deep but nice flavour to the cream.) The dry-down: Everything blends together very well. This lasts for some time on me, and I only have to re-apply every three hours or so. I love the label art on the bottle. But this isn't a totally sweet unicorn. There's a knowing glance there, something of wisdom but also perhaps of trouble? Certainly not My Little Pony Unicorn! At any rate, I wore this all last weekend to a SF con, and people did comment nicely on it, that it was sweet and yummy. Of all the Velvets, this and Ms. Pink Kitty are my faves, and it would difficult to make a choice between the two. I love them both! If you like the Lab's candy scents, get both of these, and also Pink Phoenix and Candy Phoenix and Pink Moon '07 (the sugar, to my mind, puts it somewhat into this category).

In the bottle: Sugar and carnations, a very pink scent. Wet: Now the sugar has been sprinkled over the carnations, dulling the possible peppery note into a base note, and a very light note at that. The dry-down: The sweetness of the sugar has soaked into the carnations. And the whole thing is slowly fading away, alas. I wore this today and it's very lovely, but if I keep wearing it a lot, I will go through the bottle in no time flat! Instead of dabbling, I will have to slather, or dab some on every couple of hours, if not more often. This is a very gentle scent, and very lady-like, in a young girl sort-of fashion, no where as sweet as some of the other oils with sugar notes. I looked up phlox at the wiki, and it's a flower that I see a lot of in the summertime, but alas there was no mention of what scent it might have. To end with, the bottle's label is seriously cute in an interesting way.

In the bottle: Pink! Strawberries and gin! Wet: The pink sugar note really jumps out, as though it were sprinkled over fresh strawberries. And there's a slight hint of the juniper. The dry-down: And now here comes the syrup of the grenadine, but only slightly. A touch of vermouth, too. What this all reminds me of is those pink cocktails I used to drink, back in the day: Planter's Punch, Sloe Gin Fizz, and Singapore Sling. They didn't really smell like this, but they should have. Later: A lovely strawberry scent, with some boozy notes underneath. I think that this is in the same scent family as Velvet Unicorn, Strawberry Moon 09, and Bon Vivant. Also, Pink Phoenix and Candy Phoenix. And of course, the Tikis, for the boozy notes. Plastic Pink Flamingo will probably be in the family, too. I'm just thrilled that Beth has a strawberry note that works on me and doesn't turn plastic. This is a very yummy scent. And it has a cooling effect on my wrist--I like that!

This is for the white label bottle, from Jan. 2006 In the bottle: Chocolate and the citrus notes. Wet: The currant and iris are rising slowly out of the chocolate, and the latter seems more like a milk chocolate than a white chocolate to me, or at least a mix of milk and white chocolate--the half-and-half of chocolate, perhaps? The citrus notes are there, but faint. The dry-down: This is mostly a milky chocolate on me now, with all the other notes blending in the background. The white tea is barely present, but I think it adds a lightness and a sparkle to what would otherwise be too much of a foodie and fruity scent. The currant is really not obviously present, but gives the oil the sweetness that it needs. Later: The iris did turn sharp for a bit, and that had me worried, but the creamy chocolate managed to subdue it back into the mix. If I huff at one small place, the tangerine comes out some more. I would really like to see an oil with tangerine as the major note.

This was from the Lupercalia update, but I've been saving it for summertime, as it seemed like a nice cooling treat for our hot Deep South days. (The calendar may say that it's still spring, but it's been summer here for a few weeks now.) I was totally right! After showering today with an unscented shower wash (not what I usually use, just trying to finish up a bottle), I towed-dried and then applied the bath oil, as a lotion. Like other BPTP oils, it's very liquid, and I have found the best way to apply it is to put some in my palm and then smooth it over my legs and my arms. Glacies melted right into the skin and was not sticky in any way. The scent is heavenly! The cucumber mint, lavender, mum, and lemon are the most obvious notes to me, in the bottle. Once on the skin, they blend together in a lovely, light, delicate fashion. That scent was so good that I almost hesitated to put on any perfume! Finally, I layered with Strawberry Moon 09, and the Glacies helped to amp the green notes in Strawberry Moon. A lovely combo that I must try again. But I also plan to layer Glacies with some of the Lab's minty oils, too. I would love to see this become a permanent addition to the bath oils. (Now, I'm off to eat a fresh cucumber/mushroom/sprouts salad. Just seems the thing to do!)

Many thanks to those who post the label art pictures! This is a thread, that once I knew about it, had been meaning to visit forever, but now with the Warriors Queens artwork, I'm here, thanks to someone posting a link in the BPTP subforum.

I received this as a freebie in my last Ebay win. Thank you, Puddin'! Although it's not really the sort of colour that I would normally wear, I did try it to see how the Lab's polishes would do on my nails, and was quite impressed. The scent was almost like chocolate! It went on smoothly, and dried fairly quick, always a help. The colour is deep and rich and true to the bottle. The silvery swirls in the bottle transform to a tiny delicate sparkle, very elegant. I'll be gifting this to a friend who likes the plum colours, but I'll be sure to add a nail polish to my next Lab order.

The embodiment of Victorian funereal elegance. A delicate sugar-spun vanilla cream cotton, stained by tobacco and incense smoke, Indian musk, and drops of cognac. In the bottle: Mostly the vanilla and the musk. Wet: Wow, that's some tobacco! A nice cigar tobacco, but where did my lovely vanilla and musk go? The dry-down: Things are starting to blend together much more so, although the tobacco is still a very prominent note. I was hoping for more of what I smelled in the bottle, the vanilla and musk. I may try layering this with Dorian or Snake Oil and see what happens. And of course, I can always put it in my scent locket. (So grateful that the Trading Post has those for us.) I'm also going to try this on the bf, as this seems like a very masculine scent on me. (Considering that in Victorian times, at least amongst the upper classes, women did not attend funerals, I should not have been surprised by this oil.) ETA: A couple of hours later, the tobacco note quieted down somewhat, and this became as lovely as I would hoped it would be. If I can find a good single note vanilla musk to layer on top, I think this would work perfectly on me. Until then I may have to banish it to the scent locket, alas.

This thread needs an update. White Chocolate and Strawberry from this year's Lupercalia LEs. I love the strawberry note in this. Strawberry Moon 09 -- I would love a comparison to the old one. But very fresh and ripe, just-picked strawberries in this new moon. Yum! Velvet Unicorn has strawberries; Velvet Pink Kitty has strawberry cream. These both seem very sweet and candy-like to me, esp. the Kitty. Bat of Virtue also has strawberries, but all the fruits there blend very well together. Just found today that layering White Chocolate and Strawberry with Strawberry Moon 09 is a wonderful thing--the SM 09 really amps the strawberry note in WC & S for me.

No notes listed, and I always try not to look at other reviews, until I'm done with my own. So here goes! This is for Neptune Revisited. In the bottle: Aquatic, minty, some light florals, a hint of sweetness. Wet: Some kind of sweetness and some mint are both blooming, big-time! But I like it! The dry-down: This is a heady mixture! The mint is stepping down, and there are some florals, and is that some citrus? The sweet note is grounding everything, and it's all blending together very well. It even feels a little cool on my wrist, which is nice, as I'm going back out into the heat again in a few minutes. (High 80s today here.) Later: For a few minutes there, sad to say, I really thought that the sweet note (not a floral, but more like a candy note) was going to suddenly overpower the scent. But now it has retreated, thank goodness. I liked the scent out of the bottle a lot, but the mint went away too quick; the sweet candy note was grounding everything, until suddenly it wanted to take over my wrist. It's all calmed down now, but the mint is fading fast. In order to keep that heady blast of mint right out of the bottle, I'm going to try this in my clocket, and see how it goes. That will be for another day, and I'll report back then. If nothing else, this oil should be blue in its colouring (oil and otherwise), but I get more of a green and then pink feeling from it. Had the aquatic and mint notes lasted longer, I would love this. As it is, for my skin chemistry, this may end up as a locket scent only.

(Not my usual review--I'll come back and edit this later on.) When I first read the notes for the Tiger, I was excited until I came to the dreaded licorice. I ordered a decant anyhow, and now I'm glad I did, because sadly I had to find out that this didn't work on me. The licorice stomped all over everything, and there was no lovely orange or tangerine or amber, or anything else. (I would love to see a reformulation of this concept without the licorice.) This was so bad on me I had to go and wash it off after half an hour--I was so hoping that some other note would come out, but no, the licorice just got old and stale-smelling. And I tried it on the boy last night (who usually has great skin chemistry) and it was just as nasty on him. He went and washed it off in a few minutes, too. Lovely art for the bottle label, but am glad that I didn't order it.

tartchef is right, this is very much like F5, except maybe even better! This isn't my usual review (I'll edit this later for that), but I will just say here and now, if you like F5, order a bottle of this tonight before it comes down! Also, I had to order an extra bottle of Velvet Cthulhu for the boy, as I tested it on him last night, and it smelled even better on him than me. So, that's one birthday present down for him. (And as much I loved the Feb 13 on me, it was again even better on him. He must have the perfect chemistry for these gender-neutral scents.)

This is for the 2009 version. In the bottle: Sweet, but herbal at the same time. Wet: Very green, but some sweetness is rising up. The dry-down: I'm getting a touch of the frankincense and that, along with the parsley, the moss, and the yarrow, are grounding the honey and all the sweet florals, like the carnation and the gardenia. Perhaps too much so. Later: This is a very well-blended scent. I would like for the honey note to predominate more, however. It's a nice scent for summer, and I'm glad I got a bottle.

In the bottle: Ripe strawberries with a little greenness to them still, but they aren't that sweet just yet; however a few more days might be too late to devour them. Wet: Very ripe strawberries becoming more sweet by the second. The dry-down: Over a period of half an hour, the strawberries start to float on top of the green leaves, stems, and grass; there might be a little hint of the dandelion sap, too. Later: The scent doesn't change very much. It's a very fresh note, not a candy scent at all, but much like ripe strawberries in the garden ready to be picked and eaten. Much like fresh blackberries, only about half of these will make it back to the kitchen for slicing and sugaring. (That's not to say that this perfume oil has any blackberry scent in it, it's just a comparison with what happens with berry fruits that one picks oneself, supposedly for later eating and cooking; it's just been my experience that maybe half to two-thirds of any picked berry fruit makes it back to the kitchen. *smiles*) As lovely as this is, it hasn't knocked White Chocolate and Strawberries out of the top for strawberry scents from the Lab, IMHO. It's very light, which makes it nicer for the hot days ahead; however, it seems as though it will require constant re-application. It did smell very lovely on a good friend when she tried it the other day, so I gifted her with a bottle, and showed her around the site here, and also of course the Lab and the Post. (Yes, I ordered extras!)

In the bottle: very musky, but not too deep or dark; some herbs, oh yes, and overall the clear air. Wet: the herbs are the top note, a very light musk for the bottom note, and the air swirling between them, starting the blending. The dry-down: if I huff my arm, I get the musk, but while I'm typing, and the arm is a bit further away, I get more of the air and the lunar oil--it's very pretty, waffing away from my arm like that. Later: this has become a lovely and light blend--is this a skin musk, then? Whatever the musk might be, it's a wonderful oil, much lighter than I was expecting, and something that I plan to wear some this summer-time.

In the bottle: sweet and yummy! Wet: the sweet pea is very strong and sweet and dominates this phase. The dry-down: the other notes are starting to come out now; each time I take a huff of my wrist, it's just a little bit different. This time there's a touch of the vanilla bean, and then next a hint of strawberry; the tartness of the pear, even with sugar, keeps this from being too foodie, and and more the sweet fruit of summer-time. And don't forget the honeycomb, which seems to be holding all these lovely notes together. This may be silly, indeed, right down to the pink label, but it's yummy and so sweet that I want to lick my wrist, just not sniff it! Later: this is such a wonderful combination of notes! I must obtain more of this sweet fruitiness. ETA: this is still going strong! Fading away only slowly.

In the bottle: all the notes are present, but the mint dominates, in a sweet way Wet: still minty, but more sweet, probably the sweet pea The Dry-down: the citrus notes are coming to the foreground, but there's also an underlying woody note, maybe the lemongrass (as if it was dried in the sunshine) Later: not so minty now, and the lavender is peeking out, and I'm getting more of a sense of sun-warmed herbs This is a very light scent, very airy, and that's good, because Gemini is an air sign. I wore this the other day, the first day when we had temps in the 80s, and it seemed to be very changeable from the bottle to the dry-down. Typical Gemini. It's a mutable sign, so all the changes this oil goes through are also appropiate for the sign. Gemini is my sun sign, so I knew that I needed to try this at some point. This will be a good scent for spring and summer, and a good one for sleep-time. I only have two problems with this oil. It's so light that I will have to slather and re-apply often. Also, it's a bit tacky-feeling on my writs, but I suspect that this is two-fold: this is an older oil, and also there are those citrus notes; orange juice, for example, can be sticky.

The dole referenced in the poem's title is an archaic use of the word, meaning sorrow or grief; or dolour, which is an obsolete word that means a painful grief or suffering (all these from the wiktionary for a reference that one can check, but I remember this usage of the word from studying medieval English literature and poetry). In the imp: That sharp note that lilies have on me. Wet: Lilies still like woah, but the rose is coming out to play. And the sand and yew are starting to ground those flowers. Not getting any blood, though. The dry-down: it all seems to have blended together and is lingering close to the skin, and slowly fading away. Pretty but not for me, I think. I had hoped that this would be like Sturgeon Moon, only with roses and not so much the lilies. It's nice to know that lilies can be tamed. I wanted to like this oil a lot, because of the wonderful sad and mysterious poem, and it's fine, but it's not lasting on me at all. I'm also really surprised that the roses were not stronger, as I usually amp rose.

In the imp: Sweet and spicy; the oil itself is a dark maroon in colour. Wet: The honey and the red currant have jumped right out! But the musk is underneath it, and also the oakmoss is giving off the woody note as a bottom note. The dry-down: Some things are blending together now. But the woody oakmoss is rising to the top. There might be a slight hint of the neroli. The bergamot must be the herb and not the fruit, unless I'm mistaking the neroli note for the fruity bergamont. I tried this earlier, and got some violets from the orris root, but this time I'm being attacked by the honey and the red currant. Strangely enough this may be too sweet for me. I'm beginning to think that I might like honey musk, but not honey, but it may be too soon to tell. The Deserted Village is nice enough, but I'll have to think about it. Probably not bottle-worthy.