AngelFireHeart

Well, last night I e-mailed poor Sara, & told her of my ickle problem with Hamadryad. I also took a chance & tried the imp on me & this rubbing alcohol scent transforms after a couple hours into a soft floral / woodsy scent (At last) & the strange rubbing alcohol smell finally disappears, I'm now pretty certain the scent I think of as rubbing alcohol is infact the Birch! As I said I e-mailed Sara & got a very quick & lovely reply from her...bless her when she got my e-mail she went straight to the big bottle of Hamadryad, & described perfectly for me what I smelled, & she's certain that this is what Hamadryad is supposed to smell like. So the official answer from the lab is that there is NOTHING wrong with it. Which makes me feel a lot better. I suggest that people persist with it if they love it, because it is right.

This imp & the bottle (I still have the imp) Definitly smells like rubbing alcohol, not minty though like Mrs. Black says, but very disinfectant, possibly Birch I think, the Cinnamon *is* there, but barely, the Disinfectant note really overtakes everything else in it. if you smell it for long enough the other notes are there once you get past the almost alcoholic disinfectant type smell. On it does transform to a type of floral, but I can still smell that disinfectant - & now I can see how it could be minty, & very much like mouthwash. & very soon after that morphs into a softer woodsy scent, but NO Cinnamon & still that essence of Rubbing Alcohol's there.

I bought a bottle of Hamadryad unsniffed & I got a frimp of it in a later order, both smelled strongly of disinfectant in the bottle a stuff we have here called TCP, Anyway as it was unsniffed I didn't know what it was supposed to smell like, & some of the descriptions I've seen on here for other things don't match up to what *I* think. So I put it on the swaps board & Mrs. Black offered to give it a home, & I recently got a PM telling me it wasn't Hamadryad, I'm because I hadn't a clue as I'd not sniffed it & the frimp I got of it smelled EXACTLY the same! So I really don't know what's up, I recieved this around late October / early November having ordered Early September. I remember because I ordered it at the same time as my Samhain scents & I know I didn't get those until after Samhain. Thing is now I have to pay twice for it. Once for getting it from the lab, & once to Mrs. Black for her problems with it (We swapped Hamadryad for Terpsechore & I've not received Terpsechore yet, I think it might be lost in the post). Is there anything I can do or am I totally screwed? Has anyone else had this problem?

Wow - I got my bottle today! This is one of my most favourite scents ever! I have lots of BPAL scents I like & can wear but very few that I love. The only oil that comes close to this for me is Snake Charmer, I love it that much! On me it's all sweet incense, kinda like a wiccan supplies shop but sweeter, honeyed with a tiny bit of chocolate, soooo I guess that makes an unforgettable night in the bedroom, Silk sheets, warm candlelight, sweet incense, a jar of honey & body chocolate & the sexiest hunkiest bloke you've ever seen (Phew! I'm getting hot just thinking about it!) I absolutely adore this scent

Oooh, I'm not keen on this one I get a Very Potent Lavender from the bottle. On my skin still the lavender, but something else, spicier than cinnamon, Anise I think, mixed in with it, that I can vaguely smell, which blends into the lavender to give it a strange warmth. Left on my skin for a little longer the Anise comes out more & the pure Lavender Essential Oil smell, receeds a bit, to become a softer lavender & I'm actually starting to like this a bit now, there is something else here too, now, something just a little bit woody & green, but I don't think it's pine...whatever it is there is just the tiniest hint of it, no more than a single drop in a 5ml bottle. After about 10 mins the Anise smell mellows into a more pleasant cinamon & the blend is now ever so slightly sweet, which I think is a development of the woody / green fragrance I mentioned earlier, possibley Benzoin, or Tonka Bean maybe. I'd say beware of this oil separating, as I've used the same imp, on both wrists, & I'm not wearing anything other than Mercury, & On the first wrist I applied it to, I still have the very potent Lavender, but on the my other I have what I mentioned above. Hmmm, I'm still quite undecided as to whether I like it or not if I'm honest, I'll wear it today & see how it goes ETA 20 mins on & I'm now getting some sage through here, a lot less lavender, but the cinnamon's still around too...

OK here goes, I got this experimental blend in a swap from Seven Sins (Thank you Teri ) OK, this oil is very dark in colour & quite thick in texture, upon swiping my wrist with the wand the colour reminded me somewhat of fake tan! This to me is just like Snake Charmer but not quite so sweet, very vanilla-y judging by the colour I'd say it had Benzoin (vanilla scented) in it. Also it has something smokey behind it, perhaps Sandalwood? I've not tried Snake Oil so I don't know how closely it resembles that, but my Snake Charmer 1/2 imp is very precious to me & it's soft vanillaryness without out & out sugar is what I love & it's definitly in this blend. The Vanilla isn't a pure vanilla, if you've ever heated milk or cream together with vanilla essence & Saffron that's what the top 'layer' of this scent is like, honeyed vanilla but not sugary sweet I really want to make that clear! The undertone is a smokey soft woody scent, that isn't at all harsh & it blends with the vanilla in such a way as to create the illusion of perfect sensuous harmony. I am in love with this imp! I don't know what I'll do if I ever run out I really don't. After having worn the scent for a day I can detect just the faintest hint of the smokey sandalwood, but the vanilla is still very soft but prominent on my skin - It's a VERY sexy scent & ....well maybe we shouldn't go to where my mind just drifted off to I could easily have a love affair with this scent God help me I'm hopelessly addicted!

I loved this in the imp, green & woody maybe a hint of eucalyptus? Unfortunately it turned to Washing up Liquid on me, but it's lovely in the imp & a beautiful green colour too

Thanks goes to Cuervosueno for this impy decant You’re the best! Mistletoe 04 is for my poor nose quite an assault, I was shocked that I didn’t like this much at first, so I waited it out a bit. Wet in the imp & on my skin there is a very strong Pine type note that hits you like a smack round the face & it’s got almost a bleach type scent, very sterile in he same way as eucalyptus but not eucalyptus scented. It’s a real shock to the system, but it does smell like a deep forest green. After about 15 mins fortunately this strong, sterile, pine like disinfectant scent starts to dissipate & it becomes much softer but still pine scented, now it is more the pine scent first thing in the morning when you come down to your (real) Christmas tree, & now it’s quite nice. To strengthen it a little I added a drop of Dirty to it & it’s a gorgeous clean green scent now Thumbs up for this one here & I’m looking forward to receiving my 05 bottle

I couldn't decide, so it's Samhain with a drop of Dragons Tears Right, I'll lurk here whilst waiting to scare the kiddies

At the moment I'm wearing Jolly Roger as I've been hand sewing (no sewing machine) my skirt for my costume, I'm dressing as a Vampyre Queen tonight & I'm still at a loss as to what BPAL to wear a bloody one maybe? Where's blood moon when you want it eh?

Well, this is my first BPAL'ing hallowe'en, I have a good old vampy costume (of course) that's going to get an airing, as for BPAL I'm not sure, perhaps Blood Amber or Dragons Tears....hmmmm I'm not yet decided - Also depends on what I get through the mail, I will also be wearing my special Jack & The Hesperides blend body lotion So I'll smell good no matter what

Yep, I agree with Rhowan giving up is NOT an option! We don't do giving up Rhowan's Idea is very good, you will eventually find scents that don't bring out a reaction, but sometimes it takes a little thought, the one's I *thought* I'd like weren't the ones for me for various reasons including allergies, but then I started to open my eyes a bit more - it's an artform to read & interpret the descriptions on the site, so you're bound to get some wrong, especially at the begining - & I found some beautiful oils which I didn't react to & that I loved. My things to stay clear of are for example, Carnation, Tobacco Flower, Fig, Cocoa, almond, Jasmine & Honey, everything else is normally fine if though, I find a scent that I love but it brings me up in a rash I use it in my scent pendant, which solves most of the problem. There are usually ways around things if you really like a scent, you've just got to be a bit crafty - For example, I'm allergic to citric acid found in all bathbombs, but if I use something with a high concentration of cocoa butter with it, I'm usually fine, & by doing this over the last year & exposing myself to it, I'm not quite so allergic anymore either I can react quite badly to a lot of things on my face, so now I make my own face masks of which ALL of them contain calamine, which reduces significantly any reaction I do have, if at all to many things. It's all about working around things & if it's something you love, then building up a tolerance to it. You know you can pay a lot of money to have this done to you professionally, it's called Immunotherapy.

Wow, I got some imps of this just today & was convinced before, that I'd like it. In the bottle this is a very wet, mouldy, earthy smell & it's really strong enough to knock you off your feet. On my skin it softens a little but still keeps it's earthy smell & the musty mould dissappears. It definitly does what it says on the tin so to speak. This is EXACTLY how I'd expect Graveyard dirt to smell. Excellent job Beth Incidentally, I tried it over the top of a looong faded Harvest Moon 2005 & now GYD has sunk in it's brought the scent of HM05 back up to the surface with it & the 2 together is like Hallowe'en on steroids! Excellent!

Over in the UK we use grapeseed oil as a carrier oil that works really well - I would suggest staying away from Almond oil as a carrier for this type of problem because Almond oil sinks into the skin really quickly & would carry the fragrance deep into the skin which wouldn't be good if it causes an allergic reaction. I myself am allergic to Carnation & Liquorice root (fortunately I don't find the latter in BPAL) But Carnation brings me up in a red hot itchy rash which I end up bathing in calamine lotion - Although I have discovered one or two scents that I can get away with it in such as Saint-Germain which just leaves a mild irritation. Two of the Panacea's Quietude strangely enough & Moxie bring me out in a stinging nettle type rash. I've discovered the only way to deal with these is to put them in my scent lockets. I had a really weird reaction to Magus when I 'tried' it - meaning it didn't get as far as my skin. I took out the stopper of the imp & sniffed it & then spent the next hour throwing up - which wasn't fun. Fortunately none of the scents I've tried have given me a bad headache so I consider myself lucky. Good luck to all those who're allergic to different things

Buck Moon, A lovely forumite was kind enough to swap me an imp of this. I recieved it in the post this morning & it is lovely. To me this is quite a gentle scent really not as confrontational as I'd have thought by the description. It's the scent of sweet herbs & a soft musk coupled with something clean & crystaline - so pretty much like the description really, the amazing thing is however that it has stayed on all day without any reapplication I'm really impressed with that. It's subtle & gentle really nice, but having said that it doesn't have for me the 'WOW' factor that everyone was talking about. I'll be tempted to swap it if I get a really good offer for it I think