The_Merf

No description listed at the Twilight Alchemy Lab website Scent: I've smelled this and I've smelled PM: Saturn, and I think that the PM blends have a similar scent to their Celestials counterparts. The PM: Venus oil is characterized by a combination of lotus, which gives it that "pink" feel, and herbal notes. I think there are also some other florals in the blend, but I'm still not great with picking out particular floral notes. The Celestial: Venus review thread can provide further comments on the scent. Personally, I don't think PM: Venus smells as candy-like as Celestial: Venus. I feel that the scent of the oil made it a very good match for the pink candle I used in my ritual. Ritual/Use: On Saturday I had an exact transiting Venus conjunct natal Neptune aspect, and decided that would be an appropriate first use for the oil. Not only did I want to gain insight on various dimensions of Venusian energy, I also wanted those insights to lead me to conclusions about Neptune, which has traditionally been a difficult planet for me to comprehend. I anointed one pink candle with PM: Venus, one grey candle with Glamour and one grey candle with Veils and Mist. I carved the Venus glyph on the pink candle and the Neptune glyph on the grey candles. I specifically petitioned for the ability to use Venusian energy, which is close to the individual (and seeing as how I am a Taurus Sun/Libra Moon...) to understand and begin to assert control over the glamorous and obfuscating powers of Neptune. I had an incredibly productive session while these candles burned. I read from a number of my favorite astrological texts, and was able to draw some new and important conclusions, despite having read those texts many times before. I was able to arrive at the type of insights I was looking for, and one of the reasons I was able to do so was because I found myself able to focus on aspects of Venus (particularly her connection to the 2nd house and possessions) in a much more subtle and advanced light than I had previously. I found that I was able to access these insights in an intellectual way, which is consistent with my Venus in Gemini placement, but my conclusions were not necessarily "limited" by what a typical Venus in Gemini might feel safe doing. The effectiveness of this oil has made me very excited to try other Planetary Magick oils, both as an aid for concentrating on aspects and other specifically astrological events and as a way to interact with different types of energies.

In the imp and on me at first this is a dead ringer for Villainess's Scintillating smooch--creamy minty weirdness. I'm very lukewarm on that scent, and I'm not terribly excited about putting this on my skin, but if I tried Grog, I can try anything. I'll admit that this isn't half as bad on me as I thought it would be--it looks like I'm going to be one of the few people who is sort of ambivalent about this particular scent. I'm just not a fan of minty perfumes, and this does end up minty on me (even though the mint dies down as the scent dries), so I'm probably not going to go with a 5mL bottle. Still, this is a very interesting scent and the combination of vanilla and mint ends up being less unpleasant that I initially thought it would be.

Do I have the same blend as everyone else on this page? All I can smell in the imp is vanilla and amber, and I get the same effect on my skin. This starts out as a really foody vanilla with a touch of besswax (honey) on me--I mean golden, cakey vanilla. This blend eventually sort of starts to smell floral on me, but the floral notes are just in the background of the vanilla/amber combination. In terms of the florals, I can pick out a little bit of carnation and a little bit of lily and a bit of honeysuckle. Indeed, the florals do get stronger as the blend dies down, and the lilies and honeysuckle are the strongest florals of all in this blend for me. This one has a really odd path on my skin--it's quite a morpher! This one is much warmer than the other fresh floral that I've tried from this collection (Passionate Shepherd).

I too get a blast of lavender upon initial application, but I was sort of expecting that. However, I was hoping for a nice "purple" scent of lavender, paperwhites and lilac. Instead, I get a very weird mix of lavender and balsam. I think I may need to just completely avoid Balsam of Peru in the future, as it's tanked a couple of scents for me at this point. The overall effect is very dry (like orris, almost) lavender--I feel like I'm breathing in dust! I think this is just another one done in by my skin chemistry.

I was very excited about Night Thoughts--I thought it could be a slightly warmer and more feminine version of Lear. Alas, in the wet stage it is literally nothing but cedar. I do love the smell of cedar, but not when I'm suppose to get lilac, herbs and other goodies as well! Even in the dry-down, when the cedar isn't completely overpowering, all I get is a generic floral smell instead of the specific loveliness of lilac. When the floral starts to become prominent on my skin, the cedar is almost gone. My skin chemistry just wrecks the complexities of this scent. Bah.

Initially I smell a rose--a velvety, dried rose, not fresh--with a spike of cinnamon. However, the cinnamon goes away rather quickly and gives way to a floral/musk/incense/rum combination. This is an insanely hard scent for me to review because I'm having a terrible time picking out all the different notes. Like the reviewer above me, I think this blend does sort of remind me of Morocco, though with a different kind of kick. This really is a very unique blend--I'm going to have to test it again side-by-side with Morocco to see if there is enough of a difference to warrant a bottle, but the cinnamon and...something...give this a dusty rose color in my mind, while Morocco has always been off-white or linen. Maybe the blends use similar--but not identical--musks? At any rate, an interesting oil, to be sure!

Wow, this was not one of the decants I was expecting to be hot about, but I really like this. At first it's all green--ivy and clover...really beautiful. Very quickly, I start to smell both florals, but the carnation is stronger than the rose. This oil comes the closest to approximating fresh cut flowers as any BPAL that I have tried. I love, love, love the fact that the carnation is so prominent here--it's a lovely deep pink smelling oil, and the greenery surrounds it beautifully. It's very "English" in a romanticized way--I'd love to wear this to tea. I'm pretty sure that I'll grab a bottle of this!

I almost, almost, almost bought a bottle of this straightaway, but Old Rome was sharp on me, and I feared that this one might be as well. I'm glad I waited for the decant because while it is a really awesome "natural churchy" blend (as someone said upthread) in the vial, on my skin it is hardcore cypress. Cypress is a difficult note for me--it often comes off as metallic on my skin, and I've never really liked that effect. I'm getting that with this blend--it really does remind me of a combination of Old Rome, Heavenly Love and Earthly Love (in terms of how the incense smells on my skin--it's that very strong and cleansing incense, which I like) and cypress. After I've had the scent on for a little while, the cypress is less prominent (though there is a metallic afterglow) and I can sense a bit of the olive. I generally don't like to keep decants around--I either swap them or get a bottle--but I think I might keep what I have here for judicious use on candles or something.

I was surprised to see that I hadn't tried this and it wasn't on my w/l; I can't see anything on the note list that would have led me to exclude it! When the blend is wet, it's a really gorgeous carnation. I love carnation to death; it's one of my favorite floral notes, so I am pleased by this. The plum and the musk blend very well in this blend, and I think that the musk note has the edge on my skin. This smells like a fine piece of fabric skimming over my skin. The notes blend together very well, and I would still call this a carnation/musk blend on me, but the plum adds a depth that distinguishes this from Othello (which is similar, but I prefer this). The plum also gets stronger in the last stage of the scent. I'm definitely going to hold this one over for future testing. It's so nice to happen upon lovely GC surprises like this, and I thank the Lab for the frimp!

At first I thought this would just be another soapy rose blend and I was ready to dash it off the list rather quickly. However, as the scent dries (i.e., just a few minutes after I put it on), it becomes a fuller rose--more akin to the nice red, velvety roses that I like. The mums are the secondary note in this blend--on my skin the notes go as listed in the scent description...rose and mum are most prominent, and there is a dash of vetiver and not much else. The vetiver is pleasant here; it adds a unique quality to the blend. It's not too green/grassy, but does add a nice sense of "soil" for the rose and mum.

This one was almost all rose on me. During the early stages, the rose mixed with the patchouli, so I thought there was hope that the blend would go more in the spicy direction, but it remained so sharp. No pretty sandalwood, no warm clove. The cedar and rose combined for a very sharp and soapy blend on my skin. Alas, as this was the Lupercalia scent I was most excited about.

The Lunar Eclipse behaves like quite a few other blends that have tons of notes (Faiza, Kubla Khan, Ostara). First, the worst possible note for my skin dominates during the wet stage--with this blend it was a combination of red musk and what smelled like old fruit. After that, the scent quickly goes to a characterless muddle. I love so many of the notes here, but there were no resins, no orchid, no tea, no spice. After the red musk/fruit blast, my test spot smelled vaguely mossy. Alas, my skin is very unsophisticated, it would seem.

I had the same problem with this that I had with Amor and Lionheart--the red/yellow/orange color ritual scents just don't click with me as much as do the blue/grey/purple/white scents. I mean, the blend does smell very pretty, very cherry and citrus (it really reminds me a lot of Amor), and while it's burning on the candles and when I get a whiff, it is an uplifting scent. However, in terms of creating a connection or facilitating my concentration/meditation on how to direct my intent to make a happier home area, I had a very hard time using the blend. I think I'll have to take the Peace/blue and silver candle approach, or somehow work on myself to make these yellow/red/orange blends work better for me.

This is very soapy herbs and very clean earth (literally, like if soil went through the washing machine--I think it's the herbs that are giving a bit of a detergent throw). This doesn't morph on me a lot and fades very quickly, but herbal notes are tricky on my skin, so that's not 100% surprising.

Wow, that is some harsh, harsh vetiver, my goodness. The vetiver on its own is enough to remind me of asphalt. I don't know what the asphalt notes themselves might contain, but they do a fine job of evoking what they're supposed to! The vetiver is so strong on me (and this often happens) that it drowns out everything else. I don't get any of the mint/sleet notes; in fact, this becomes a warmish vetiver on my skin. My chemistry is just not going to let me appreciate this one, alas.

I'm really quite interested to try this one, as it appears in a few scents that have caught my interest, but to be honest, I'm not sure what it smells like... Wow, this is a really gorgeous aquatic floral on me when I first put it on; in fact, it reminds me of some of the notes in Danube, minus the incredible power of those florals. As it dries, it becomes more traditionally floral, and honestly, when I smell this, this is what I think a beautiful creamy or pink rose ought to smell like. You can just smell the beautiful, velvety, dewy petals of a flower, dusted with a little pollen, and (fortunately) I don't get any sharpness or soapy reaction early on with the oil. This is such a lifelike and natural scent--I really feel like I just crumbled some flower petals in my hands and rolled them all over my skin. Absolutely incredible.

Like others have said, this starts out as a super-sweet sugared/candied raspberry flavoring on me. I don't mind this, because I like artificial raspberry flavor (as opposed to artificial strawberry, eww!) but this definitely reminds me more of candy than fruit. I must say that it smells more true to fruit in the vial. However, the oil behaves on my skin much like it behaved on quikslvr's--once it dried down, it started to become more complex and smell more fruity than candied. It never approximated the tartness of raspberries however. Still, it's an absolutely joyous scent, and those who are fans of Jailbait, Faith and similar oils should really love this SN.

BAM! At first I thought I smelled dragon's blood, but then I realized it was probably a combination of almonds and citrus (though I have to admit that early in the wet stage this scent went through a coca-cola 'Love Me' like phase so I wonder if there isn't just a bit of db in this one). The almond is the stronger of the two notes and very cherry. In fact, this blend reminds me a lot of the TAL love perfume Amor. It's an extremely bright and happy scent in its early stage, and doesn't really morph much on my skin and I really can't tell the difference between this and Amor. There is no cinnamon that comes out on my skin at all at first, but the scent makes a major morph after about 20 minutes, and I can now see where people are getting the cinnamon from. It's a nice cinnamon--not quite as strong as my favorite, Three Witches, but that doesn't make it less compelling. This is another really pretty blend, and I can see why it has so many devotees.

Right away when this was wet I was struck by the vetiver and grass notes (I made the notation of "khus?" in my journal). Since this was an unreleased, I was surprised to find the notes listed here when I went up--I actually thought that there was a leathery note emerging on the drydown, but I'll bet that's actually the pepper that I smell. (It still gives the feel of leather!) Like many others have noted, this does primarily seem to be a vetiver/pepper blend, and at some level it really reminds me of Geek without the slightly "alcoholic" feel from the patchouli and resin. It's very clean and one of the better vetiver-based scents that I've tried (usually vetiver goes all crazy on me and I can't stand the green). Given the fact that it is vetiver, I'm surprised by how light it is (granted, I didn't test a lot), but I'm really glad I was able to run some of this down. It's a lovely oil.

I don't know if it's the effects of age (I know that citrus based scents tend to age worse than some others), but this is really really metallic on my skin. It smells like the sort of metallic that one can sometimes associate with blood. I think at one time that this might have been lemon or orange. There's also some sort of powdery smell here that I recognize from other "sun" blends like Sol Invictus. As the scent dries down, it does go to citrus pledge on me. Alas, I just don't think that "sun" scents and I were ever meant to be.

Thank you sookster for helping me complete the scent association my brain was trying to make: this does smell very much like Pulcinella and Teresina, almost straight sweet labdanum. I don't get any of the brimstone or patchouli at all--it's really straight up labdanum in the wet stage. It really doesn't morph much on me, and just fades away to something powdery.

This is much darker than I remember the prototype being--when I first put it on, it is very much a mossy, soggy, earthy blend. The sense of wetness and saturation is very strong--this is moss and earth that has been rained on a lot! While I smell the resin, it's also very piney and sharp, and here the khus smells like vetiver more than it has in other blends. As the scent dries, it actually starts to remind me a bit of Dance of Death--the dry resin, if that makes any sense. The "soggy" sense does go away in the latter part of the blend's dry-down. I really am left with that sense of "vetiver smoky" with this blend; it's quite uncanny! ETA: Had to edit this--no wonder I was confused as to why opoponax was smelling like vetiver--I totally forgot there was khus in this!

Oddly enough, this reminds me of a lighter version of Hellfire. Both blends have a tobacco-y base, which sort of surprises me with Famine since it's tobacco leaf and not pipe tobacco. The lilac/musk combination really reminds me of the ambergris/musk combination in Hellfire and there's a bit of resin in both blends. I don't get much tea at all--the lilac/musk combination, with the tiniest bit of resin behind it, is strongest on my skin. As slave1 noted, it is not terribly strong or long-lasting, but it is a very exquisite and pretty blend.

I used this as step four of a five step ritual in order to relax me and prepare me for the holiday season. Scentwise, I got citrus and lavender from this. I lit a silver-blue candle and did a meditation in front of it. Although I immediately expected to connect with this oil, I actually had a slightly harder time of it at first. However, I was able to connect with it when I imagined this oil as resonant with the Crowley Two of Swords (the Peace card). Imagining myself behind the 'shield' of the crossed swords, which are at rest, but can be "activated" if needed, did provide a sense of peace and protection. The entire ritual was overshadowed by the first step of White Light, so I feel like I need to use this on its own to get a better sense of what it can individually contribute to my personal development, but the ritual I used it in was quite a success, so I'm grateful for that!

Wow. This stuff lives up to its hype. To me this smells like the most light, beautiful, ethereal holy white smoke from incense. I just adore the smell to bits. I used this as the first step of a five-day, five-candle ritual to prepare myself to visit my family for the holidays. Per the instructions, I anointed my chakra points and a candle. The effects were almost instantaneous. I almost curled up to sleep right by the candle; I felt so relaxed and safe, and I was able to visualize myself having a wonderful time at home. I was also able to use the scent as a trigger to visualize my stress and all the built up frustration, etc. being sucked out of me, into the candle, and burned. I scented a card with the oil and was able to smell that card whenever I needed to focus myself. I cannot emphasize how wonderful this is--and I think it triggered me to think and visualize in a way that was helpful and productive. I had the most relaxed visit at home that I've had in a long time! Thanks, Beth!!!!!