Nia

I have found that some BPAL's blends, while they're not irritant on first use, should not be aplied more than once in a while on the same skin spot. If I use, for example, Phobos, It has to be one day on my temples, one day on my neck, one day on my wrists..... Otherwise I get a strong itch that lasts for days.

Belladonna smells of slightly minty aloe vera; Ave Maria Gratia Plena might work because it's lemony; Cheshire Cat smells fresh; Croquet has citrus and nectarine, but it smells basically of pink grapefruit and nothing else to me; Phobos = lemongrass, Leanan Sidhe is herbal and gentle. Shanghai. Yggdrassil. Embalming fluid Ultraviolet. Pele is the only aquatic (in the "fresh" sense) floral I have tried that didn't have any sweetness. Stay away from Odin. It smells like your work environment. Good luck!

I have consciously avoided any salty or oceanic notes. I like light herbal scents, but I didn't like the idea of smelling of the sea. But Caliban is one of my favourite Shakespearean characters, so I had to give it a try. I'm so glad that it works so well on me. It starts out scary, with a strong herbal bite that quickly goes away and leaves a fresh grassy scent for hours, It is quite mild, as if poor Caliban was in hiding. I think it would make an excellent masculine scent. Let's see what The Boy thinks.

I'0m tempted to get The Cat unsniffed!

Initiallyt is a sweet floral with a fittingly bitter, nasty undertone, but later it goes amazingly old-ladyish like only lilies can do on me. I don't know if it's the orchid, but this is just too strongly floral.

I have been searching forever, wasn't there a thread for BPAL similarities to TAL scents when we wanted the scent and not the magick??

It seems that every reviewer gets a different impression of White Light's scent. I will add a bit more to the confusion: It is a sweet floral, like BPAL's fruit and floral combinations. It smells a little bit spicy, "sweet" does not mean overwhelming. It's a sweetness like fig or lotus. I would love it if it was just a perfume. I haven't tested its ritual uses much yet. I tried some to see if it would help me feel better when I was ill, and I had a tremendous crying fit the following morning. It's as if it makes me happy in the short-term and a cleanse-the-hard-way if it's given a few hours. Handle with care.

Determination is to me everything that is not sweet and creamy in Block Buster. I do like BB, but the smell of Determination was so "not me" that I swapped it away after trying to use it two or three times. I'll stick to Block Buster and Concentration in the future.

Lemongrass and mint and more. Let's see: pure mint, the BPAL Lemongrass single note, and Phobos (which smells of lemongrass and nothing else to me) are so strong they are distracting. Lush has a temple balm called Whoosh which is meant to help in concentration. It's citrussy. I added a drop of mint AND added equal parts vaseline because, again, it was too distracting. Concentration is exactly perfect because it has everything in my "improved" whoosh, only sweeter, fresher, and not at all so overwhelming that the only thing I can concentrate on is the smell. It lasts for hours too, although I think that the effect is much more aromatherapeutic than magickal. ETA: After continued use, I think that Concentration is good if you are tired, unmotivated, uninspired. It hasn't worked for me when I was too stressed. It helps creating energy when I don't have any; for example, it was great to keep me awake in long lecture sessions. On the other hand, if the energy is already there, but it's just creating "mental static electricity", Concentration makes the problem worse for me. It's like trying to relax by drinking coffee.

I applied Charisma on the day I received it, without preparation or a proper ritual, because I was on my way to class and I had to give an oral presentation I didn't feel ready for. The smell was pleasant but I can't describe it, like others here. A bit floral, a bit musky, and it doesn't smell like beer (ie sour and yeasty) but it somehow reminded me of it. In a way it smells pleasantly reaffirming, although I didn't notice any dramatic effects in class or later. The presentation didn't take place, it was postponed until next week. Let's see. ETA: I have used Charisma several times, including The Oral Exam on which my chances of getting a job depended. I got a 90%, and the job. I find that Charisma gives me confidence and positive results in the long run.

Wet, it smells like cherry lollipops, sweetened and deepened by the musk. It's the first time that cherry doesn't smell like bitter almonds or something like that, on me. But then the musk and the anise take over and the result is bitter and wrong

So, this week I have a gazillion things to do. Unit 58: The Lady of Shalott DONE Unit 59: Les Bijoux. Unit 60: Lucy's kiss Unit 61: Queen of Sheba Unit 62: Muse Reviewing Unit 1: Rapture. Writing a letter to a friend, by hand, paying attention to hand position, speed, etc: Ravenous DONE Doing calligraphy exercises: Salomé Doing an hour a day of my online course: Saturnalia.

I start school Friday next week. Today I have picked up the school's materials for the month. Reading the materials: Loralei DONE. Unit 55: Bordello DONE Unit 56: Delight. DONE Unit 57: Forbidden Fruit DONE Unit 58: The Lady of Shalott Unit 59: Les Bijoux. And I'm going to do caligraphy exercises. Phew! I'll reward myself with Lolita if I complete a couple of pages every day. The week didn't go very well

For anyone interested in single notes, I've had an imp of lemongrass SN and I can't see a difference with Phobos.

Of course, if worst comes to worst, you can always take the vanilla SN he likes and layer it with other complementary fragrances too. oh, that's what he plans to do with Morocco! It is so frustrating because on me it smells of musky vanilla, full stop. On him it smells of the whole spice market from the vanilla stall. I want _his_ smell on my skin. And he still wants to smell of custard.

We tried eight scents (Phobos, Thanatos, Dragon's Claw, Othello, Shanghai, Kyoto, a posset, and Alecto). Everything was too sweet or too floral and what could not possibly be either turned soapy. I would have given up on BPAL for him if I had not convinced him that Morocco suits him, and a Tokyo Stomp is on the way. Yay!

I've rewarded myself 2/5 more so the count is now 3 bottles. I'm aiming at a complete bottle this week. (Monday 1/5!) (Tuesday 2/5!) (Wednesday 3/5!) Thursday and Friday: YES! I have worked very hard for five days and now I can add another bottle to the list.

Wow, two months already working on this! The really abstruse Gender Theory book: I give up, the book is useless. Sea of Glass is waiting for its chance to join the rest.... Unit 50: "Schrodinger's Cat". DONE Unit 51: Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo DONE Unit 52: Block Buster DONE Unit 53: Chuparosa DONE Unit 54: Water of Notre Dame. DONE This week I also need to do two stacks of photocopies, and go to Uni to request a certificate. These boring tasks get Bien Loin D'Ici. DONE

This is the plan: Unit 45: Greed DONE Unit 46: Lust DONE Unit 47: Pride DONE Unit 48: The great Sword of War DONE Unit 49: Dirty. DONE There's also one library book to read. The reward will be Sea of Glass. And that's the end of the month and of Sin & Salvation too!

what a mine of suggestions! Thanks! I have an imp of Dorian, I had forgot about that one because it's from a recent swap. I need to take a good look at my spreadsheet and the box to see if I also have any of the others!

I'm going to get a handful of things for The Boy one of these days and I'm particularly looking for something that smells of vanilla but isn't too sweet. On him, we like: Belladonna, The Raven, Antony, Death on a pale horse. We don't like: anything with lotus as he amps it up like crazy. Libertine as his skin swallows it in seconds. He swallows roses too. Croquet goes soapy on him. He seems to make everything smell extra sweet and extra floral. He's not a big fan of musk. He loves a particular brand of vanilla single note (but I want him to smell of something more interesting than custard). Is there anything like a vanilla-patchouli or herby-vanilla or something like that???

Plans for this week: Unit 37: Wilde DONE Unit 38: Zephyr DONE Unit 39: Nocturne DONE Unit 43: Sheol DONE Unit 44: Shroud. DONE the end of the Ars Moriendi line (probably my least favourite GC line, too much earth and cypress and lilies). I need to skip units 40-42 because they might be left out or condensed for the exam. Now, for each book I read out of the books I must return to the library in three weeks, another imp, that I will pick up as I finish them. Dissenting Voices: Undertow. Mujeres en el Mundo: Envy. Masculinity and Polite Society: Gluttony.

my TAL list is now two bottles and 3/5 after all the hard work I have done in the garden during the weekend And also because someone said something annoying and I had the good sense not to start a fight. Yeah.

What I detect is the same flowers-on-white-chocolate of the previous edition of 13, but here the chocolate is hardly there. I wouldn't know this had chocolate if I didn't know the description, and even so, it is recognisably a Thirteen, if that makes any sense. What I detect the more are the fruity, less creamy notes: it's something like ginger-peach-starfruit-orchid, in that order, on a creamy base. I'm glad to have some, but the previous edition is certainly more chocolatey on me.

Unit 32: Phantasm DONE Unit 33: Rakhshasa. DONE Unit 34: Sudha Segara DONE Unit 35: Tushnamatay. DONE Unit 36: Veil DONE Each new page of dissertation: Velvet DONE.