Chrysantza

Body Time in Berkeley is closing down so no more China Rain perfume oil. It's a light musk with white florals and a green top note. Anyone familiar with China Rain and BPAL who has any recommendations?

This smells a LITTLE like the planetary oil Sol - being a Leo oil, I would expect some of the same ingredients. I get the frankincense and some other spices (orange? cinnamon?) in there, as well as something more minty/herbal. The minty note I detect in the Empress oil also, so it's probably the Venusian herb. I used it on my chakras and got no irritation so it must be light on whatever irritated me about the Sol oil. It also smelled spicy, herbal and really nice on - the minty note didn't take over.

I got Marguerite because it has three of my favorite notes in it - rose, tuberose, and gardenia. I am happy to say that the myrrh in this blend behaves itself on my skin. This scent joins Bastet in being one of the two myrrh blends I can wear that doesn't go all horrifying, burning-pepper VOLDEMYRRH on me. This stays a very sweet and gentle herbal floral with just a tiny bit of sandalwood. It's very garden-y, there is really no other way to put it - it is like going outdoors and smelling roses and crushed rose geranium. It's not as tropical as I expected with the tuberose and gardenia, but it is a beautiful floral that I am going to add to my warm-weather collection.

I've been wearing and working with this because one of my main deities is the Archangel Michael, and there is no angel-specific TAL. This one covers the bases anyway. It smells wonderful, rather like Rose Cross, a "flincense" floral incense. I've been anointing my front door and altar and wearing this on pulse points and (upper) chakras, and it makes me feel good, protected, and looked after. I will report back when I do a big ceremonial working, but using this just mindfully to keep angelic forces around me, I feel like this works. It's like White Light on steroids almost!

One of the scents from this year's Novel Ideas for Secret Amusements - Bean Man and Bean Woman Prepare To Attack the Vagina - is very orange-blossom on me. It also has wonderful wonderful skin musk. I love orange blossom, neroli not so much as it is too green/sharp for me.

I ordered a Lupercalia/Novel Ideas scent, Bean Man and Bean Woman Prepare to Attack the Vagina, and OMG is it Tropical with a capital T! It has skin musk, coconut, and orange blossom in it, and smells like sunshine, beaches and tropical blooms to me. In the GC - if you are looking for tropical florals, in the "Hawaiian Ginger" type of mode, try Pele or Hi'iaka (specifically Hawaiian-evoking scents) or Euphrosyne (gardenia and vanilla) or Regan (stephanotis and vanilla orchid).

Does it ever! And yes, you had better just love and adore rose if you want to wear Spellbound. If you want a GC scent that lasts and lasts, and you really and truly are a rose fan, then Spellbound is your scent. Other scents that last and last and have great throw on me - and I am practically world famous for having scent-eating skin: Khajuraho - throws like a mofo and lasts forever Brisingamen The Lion Bastet Salome All Saints 2005 (I wore this to my graduation on a hot day and probably stunk up the whole entire auditorium) In my dry-skinned experience, resins, especially amber, make a scent last and help its throw. You will notice that Khajuraho, Brisingamen, and The Lion all have amber.

And another equivalency - Bean Man and Bean Woman Prepare To Attack the Vagina is a lot like Pele.

Out of the bottle: Clean, sweet, with a slightly sharp overtone (the ylang-ylang?). It's mellowing out to - OMG! Stop the presses! I think I have a summer BPAL to eke out my Dreamland with! This smells like clean skin with orange blossom and just the slightest hint of coconut. I sniff my wrists and it evokes my visit to Kauai, complete with entire days spent on the beach. Aah! Another one I'm going to have to hoard! This is so beautiful! ETA a few hours later: I still love this and want to hoard, but it has already faded. YMMV, as my skin is notorious for eating scent. This will probably be a warm-weather scent for when I want something lighter.

Having tried both, I think that The Harp of Cnoc l'Crosgair (and I am darned if I can spell it) is very close to Brisingamen. If you like the Harp, you will like Brisingamen, and vice versa.

I ordered a bottle unsniffed for the amber and tiare. LOOOOOOOOOOVE. It's indescribably sweet and warm, like a sunny spring day. It's a combination of rich and woodsy, resiny, and sweet sweet tiare. It's also grownup and sophisticated for me to wear to work, etc. Mmm, sandalwood, amber and tiare form PERFECT alchemy. I think Brisingamen lovers would also love The Harp. I wish I had bought more than one bottle!!! This is up there with Khajuraho and Gypsy Queen as one of my new favorites!

PANTHER MOON Sein Blick ist vomVorübergehn der Stäbe so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält. Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt. Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte, der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht, ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte, in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht. Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille sich lautlos auf — dann geht ein Bild hinein, geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille — und hört im Herzen auf zu sein. His gaze those bars keep passing is so misted with tiredness, it can take in nothing more. He feels as though a thousand bars existed, and no more world beyond them before. Those supply-powerful paddings, turning there in the tiniest of circles, well might be the dance of forces round a center where some mighty will stands paralyticly. Just now and then the pupil’s noiseless shutter is lifted — then an image will indart, down through the limbs’ intensive stillness flutter, and end its being in the heart. (Rainer Maria Rilke. Translation by Walter Arndt.) Gleaming black musk, mandrake, labdanum, black ginger, benzoin, champaca, ambergris accord, myrrh, and star anise. So am I the first to review this bad boy, who just arrived in my mailbox <20 minutes ago? I guess I am! I'm amazed, first of all, this hasn't gone VoldeMyrrh on me. It's not overpowering myrrh resin. Nor is it sickly licoricey star anise. The musk and the ambergris (I think) and champaca are making this really work well on me. It's sweet and powdery and almost - masculine, in a foppish way, kwim? It's resiney/musky combined with the sweetness of the champaca flower and is really very, very nice. A tamed pussycat panther rather than a wild one with teeth and claws. Definitely a keeper, and a prospective layer-er as well.

Glad I found this topic! Tuberose is one of my favorite flowers EVAH. I adore Dreamland. You might also try Khajuraho, from past Lupercalia scents; it's discontinued but pretty easy to find. It packs a punch, though, I warn you - it's amber, honey, date, champaca flower, tuberose and rose. I happen to LOVE and HOARD Khajuraho, but it's a bit much for many people. GC scents with tuberose: Delight - frangipani, rose, tuberose and jasmine; La Belle au Bois Dormant; Muse (love this one!), Sed non Satiata, Nocturne (I love this one - it's violet and tuberose), Carnaval Diabolique and Marguerite from CD; and Pepper from Good Omens.

Just a plug for my favorite scent (well, one of two) - Khajuraho. It's a "floriental" with fruity notes from the fig and date, and the champaca adds another fruity-floral note (if I'm not mistaken in the note, champaca flower smells a bit like bananas). Khajuraho, though, is a very assertive scent and not at all delicate. I like this because light, delicate scents wither and die on me within 15 minutes.

Dreamland is beautiful. What I like about it is that it's a summery, cool, watery floral, yet it's sophisticated enough for a woman of my years and dignity. The musk is what gets it there. I do have Bean Man and Bean Woman Prepare To Attack the Vagina on order, and it too contains florals and skin musk, so I'm hoping for something similar, but we'll see!