darkophelia

... This perfume is the scent of the witches’ revel: German fir and forest herbs, incense and bonfire smoke, and the wet, glimmering scent of skin warmed by dance. Oh, god. This is more than I could have hoped for, it really is. I managed to acquire 3/4 of a 5ml bottle of this, and when I first opened it for a sniff, it did nothing for me, nothing at all. I immediately thought it would be a swapper, for sure. Then I dabbed a bit of it on, and the magic that is BPAL happened. It had hardly warmed up on my skin when I realized it had that undefined pagan bookshop smell. You know the one I mean---it smells of herbs and incense and things you can't identify. You always ask the shopkeeper "What is that?", and they tell you, and you buy it, but you can never get that same scent at home---that wonderful mingling of many delicate scents. And it also reminded me of a long ago weekend spent in the woods with friends one Halloween, sipping home made honey mead, dancing shirtless around a bonfire while the men were gone, using sticks of incense to draw pictures in the air in the middle of a clearing surrounded by evergreens. Later, I will edit to and try to better identify the notes and stages, but right now all I get are pictures. I'm so glad I didn't just pass this on after only smelling it---I would have missed out on a great scent.

I purchased a set of the twins decanted because I feared their florals would go wonky on me. My fear was nearly unfounded. While Hope wasn't exactly all I hoped for (pun intended), Faith is exactly what I needed to push me into buying a set in the VERY near future. In the vial: As with Hope, not much came to my nose. It was only as I started to put it on that it's delightful sweet scent showed itself. Wet: As with Hope, Faith is faithful to the scent of sugared flowers and smells exactly like violet flavored cremes----quite possibly the most scrumptious candy in the entire world. It made me long for London, ache for it, even. As it dried down: It didn't lose the scent of sugared violet candies. It did not become overwhelming or cloying. It was light and faded before the day was done, but I never tried reapplying it. This is such a perfectly wonderful scent, floral without being perfumey, and I suspect it will become a favorite of mine.

I purchased a set of decants so I could test this without buying the bottle because rose can go funny on me. In the vial: I couldn't get much from just sniffing the vial---it seemed, though, that as soon as I started putting it on, I could really smell it. . . . And wet: It smelled just like rose flavored cremes! I love rose flavored candies, and wet this perfume smelled just like my favorite rose cremes I discovered in London. Alas, on the drydown: The rose went sort of funny, as if it couldn't decide if it wanted to stay that delicate candy rose scent or go straight to rose perfume. It's hard to explain, but as the afternoon passed, I could taste rose perfume in my mouth, it was overwhelming to my nose. However, despite what I said above, I think it is a beautiful scent, but I may need to put it in a scent locket. It may also be just a matter of timing---sometimes my chemistry works, sometimes it doesn't. I may also need to wear it on my wrists, and not up on my throat.

Sadly, this scent went straight to herbal cherry cough syrup on me. It didn't evolve or blossom into anything other than more herbal cherry cough syrup. I was so hopeful, and I have no idea what went wrong unless my skin chemistry just doesn't like certain fruits----it definitely smelled of booze on me, but it was also like sharp, bitter fruit. I could even taste it in my mouth.

Thus far, this has just been rose-scented baby powder on me with enough tobacco to give me a headache. Don't get me wrong--I like the gentle powdery rose scent, but I do not like the allergy-induced headache tobacco leaf causes that leaves me feeling like my head is in a vise. I really, really, really want to like and keep this scent, but that one component doesn't like me, and I want to be able to breathe when I wear it. Which sucks because I like the poem, the name, the label, and the roses they used in this blend.

Black Phoenix turns orangey yellow on my skin. I wore some to a funeral a few months ago, and my husband turned to me at one point and asked me what I had done to my neck.

Here in Arkansas, we've had quite a few 100+ days. It's also really dry most of the time and we're under a burn ban. We're used to hot and humid, just not THIS hot. I always carry a couple of my oils---if not more---with me in my purse. I used to leave my purse in the car and just carry my checkbook in to do the grocery shopping, but I carry the whole purse now because I'm worried about what the heat trapped in the car will do to the oils. When I have them at home, they are stored in a dark bedroom in a wooden aromatherapy box, and we've always got the AC on. No problems there, then. Small hijack, if no one minds-----Temperature aside, what is the longest anyone has had a bottle of BPAL before it went 'bad'? I know what they say the life expectancy is somewhere around here, but I've had oils for much MUCH longer than that which still smell much as they did when I got them. So in practical terms, how long will a properly stored bottle of BPAL REALLY last before it turns?

Rose Red 2005 This is the scent I dreamed about finding as a little girl----the perfect rose, a rose perfume that really did smell like roses and not just some artificial rose-floral scent. This is a rose that makes me feel like a princes in a fairy tale. So far, I've only used tiny dabs in testing, and the scent has not lasted very long on me, but perhaps I need to use more. It is very fresh, green, crisp, with just a hint of spice. It reminds me a bit of a tiger-striped rose someone gave me once, and its the scent my own roses only achieve after the rain. I hope to get my hands on a second bottle of this, but with the popularity of the scent, I'm lucky to have gotten the bottle I own now!

I placed an order yesterday that included an LE bottle that I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to get from another forum member. The purchase went through, and now I'm going to have a second bottle. I ordered through CCNow, and I want to know if I can just cancel my order entirely and re-place my order minus the bottle I no longer need.

From http://www.celticspirit.org/imbolc.htm Pagan milk and Christian candles interesting combo interesting... Dare I ask how it's pronounced? having been informed previously that the traditional pronounciation of "Samhain" differs north of the border (here in Scotland) to the rest of the UK, I'm ready for multiple suggestions... How do you pronounce Samhain? I've always been told it's pronounced like sow-in or sow-en.

I really like Dana O'Shee with Honey I Washed the Kids soap---they don't smell alike, but they smell good together---but the soap really dries out my skin. I adore the B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful showergel from Lush---my husband shelled out $17 for the smallest bottle on Ebay for my Christmas stocking so you know he must really like me---and it did wonders to reverse my dry skin and smelled fantastic with Dana O'Shee as well. I did a search for B Never Too Busy, etc., and I found a website for a completely different company in the UK---does anyone know anything about it and if it smells anything like the sweet and honeyed lovelies of BPAL and Lush? I haven't tried mixing Tramp (soon to be nonexistent, woe is me!) with anything else yet, but I'm open to suggestions. I'd really like to find something that compliments the patchouli, but doesn't make it stronger. I usually wear it with Karma because the sweetest of the orange tones it down a bit, and while I'm talking about Karma, I'd love someone to suggest any BPAL scents that are remotely close to Karma--no matter if they lean more towards the orange or more towards the patchouli, although a similar scent with almost no patchouli is really what I'm looking for so I can enjoy the uplift of Karma without giving my mom a sinus headache when I wear it. I also found I like Hetairae or Anubis with Chai (also soon to meet its end, stock up while you can!), not alike but complimentary. I thought that Flying Fox worked well with Beatrice, but Lush also makes a Flying Fox temple balm that has fantastic staying power on me. Unfortunately, Flying Fox tends to go all honeysuckle on me!

So far, the only oil I've tried that I've had a reaction to was Hecate, but only where I applied it to the insides of my elbows. Nowhere else did I feel anything, but in that one spot there was a mild burning sensation, not enough to make me go wash it off, but I certainly felt it. I noticed some time ago that amber and myrrh tend to do that to me, too, but those were not BPAL oils, and I cannot testify to their purity or quality, and the vanilla oil I bought from the same maker also made the insides of my elbows burn, but more so than the Hecate. I certainly won't give up on Hecate any time soon, but I've always been wary of those other oils I have. Could my reaction be caused by some additive in the oils, an impurity of sorts, rather than the myrrh or amber itself?