VelvetSky

Deep in earth my love is lying And I must weep alone. Rose geranium, Spanish moss, Irish yew, and graveyard dirt. Out of the bottle, Deep in Earth is wet, loamy, murky, black soil. This reminds me a lot of Burial, amped up and thicker, if you can call the smell of earth thick. Halfway down, the notes melt down and the gentler notes of the rose geranium and moss come up. I'm glad, because the intense dirtiness of the top worried me for a while. Almost to the final dryout, Deep in Earth starts to evolve, a bit strangely, into an aquatic on my skin. Very wet, ever so slightly floral, with just a hint of the yew. This scent ends up surprisingly gentle in the final analysis. My son hugged me and told me that I smell like an earthworm. I'll that that as a compliment.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks: He withers all in silence, and his hand Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life. Skeletal limbs of birch and fir coated in a thick, impenetrable blanket of snow. This is the death of the year personified. Ahhhh the pressure. My first 'first to review'. Here goes: Out of the bottle, Talvikuu is strong, sweet and brightly resiny...the way sap would smell if it was mixed with sugar. This is a very perfumey, dense, heady fragrance...not dry and airy like many of Beth's 'foresty' blends. This scent stays strong and true for quite some time on my skin, and the simple but strong notes morph very little all the way through the drydown. The one thing that stands out for me about Talvikuu is that it's a perfect example of the absolute brilliant quality of the oils that Beth uses. I'm so glad I ordered this scent, and I'll enjoy wearing it all winter long.

THE LITTLE BIRD Traditional Little bird! O little bird! I wonder at what thou doest, Thou singing merry far from me, I in sadness all alone! Little bird! O little bird! I wonder at how thou art Thou high on the tips of branching boughs, I on the ground a-creeping! Little bird! O little bird! Thou art music far away, Like the tender croon of the mother loved In the kindly sleep of death. Night air, wild jostaberry, melancholy thistle, meadowgrass, marsh marigold, and butterwort. I'm first? Yikes! Okay, fresh out of the bottle, The Little Bird smells cool, bright and fresh - I definitely get the grass note, and the 'night air' reminds me a lot of Wolf Moon. The flowers are green and wild - not too sweet - but quite tame and subdued. The marigold comes up in the drydown. This blend does not have a lot of throw on me, nor is it particularly long-lasting...and it's soapy. I like this one. It smells happy - like Spring.

Henry John Stock Oleander smoke, white jasmine, ambrette seed, and cistus. I knew immediately that I would love this scent, and I do! Sniffed from the bottle, and on immediate application, it is quite a 'humid', light floral, with the sweet jasmine most noticeable to me in the top. Drying down, a beautifully clean, misty smoke accord comes forward, blending with the floral note and muting it - like flowers in a cool fog. The ambrette seed lends an interesting tobacco-like scent to the final drydown, while the cistus helps to ground the base with a sweet earthiness. What a gorgeous blend this is! Cold, ethereal, dreamy, yet utterly wearable.

I ordered this one because of the "thorny blackberries", and it certainly delivers. On my skin, HSEF stays pretty linear from top to bottom, with the sharp, fruity berries mixing with a dry, woody incense. I expected more fire and smoke, but that's all pretty subtle. More of a warm, smoky aura than individual notes that you can pick out. As the perfume develops, I'm getting an herbal, sweet soapiness mixing beautifully with the jammy blackberries. No bubblegum in the final phase for me, thankfully, but definitely soap. Blackberries is the star here. Thumbs up!

This is a beautifully strong and lasting blend, with the beeswax note predominant throughout. This wonderful beeswax accord is both sweet and animalic, with wafts of hay and amber mixed with the honey. The olive blossom comes through for me about halfway through the drydown. Olive blossom is a great note for people who arent really into florals, as it's relatively muted, in the same way magnolia is, for example. I pick up the moss and violet as green notes mingled with the powdery musk base. This perfume lasted a long time on my skin, with great sillage. If you love Beth's beeswax blends, in particular, I think you'll really like this one.

Hi, can someone explain what the carrier oils are used for? (In the Etcetera section.) Thanks!

ZING! Minty citrus, bright and refreshing that dissolves down into the pink grapefruit accord pretty quickly. This is good, because I LOVE pink grapefruit. The Cat becomes a bit sweeter and deeper as the topnotes burn off. I was wary of the chocolate, because to be honest, I don't want to smell like chocolate, but it never really manifests on my skin. If this scent weren't so fleeting, I'd consider it full-bottle worthy, but my skin soaks it up at an alarming rate. However, I'll definitely be enjoying my imp and I'm so glad I've had a chance to try this one.

Cherry, cherry, cherry and more cherry...for me, the only thing that saves The Red Queen from Cherry Overload in the top is the currant note, which gives a bit of a lower-pitched twinge. As the blend progresses, it becomes heavy cherry sandalwood. This scent is indeed regal, but in the end, cherry scents aren't 'me'. (Edited for wonky spelling)

When I first applied The King of Hearts, I wasn't sure. The woody notes and the cherry were kinda battling it out for the first few minutes, and cherry-dominant scents don't usually work for me. Fortunately, the rosewood amped up and the (tame) florals and lovely lavender musk pushed forward in the drydown. This smells clean without being soapy, like a field of lavender after the rain. A very subdued, elegant scent that pushes more toward the masculine than the feminine, but is definitely wearable by both.

My impression of Plunder is of black cinnamon tea, wonderfully blended and supported by the sandalwood. The smell of fresh tobacco (not dried tobacco as in a cigarette but green tobacco leaf) asserts itself in the middle somewhere along with delicious, warm spicy notes. I really love this one, with my only complaint being that it fades quickly on my skin and loses much of the spicy oomph in the final dryout. Still...Plunder is a beauty.

Laurel Honey is a very sharp, green blend that definitely has presence. The honey is there but its buried underneath the strong, sappy green notes. It dries down into powdery musk, and the honey does come forward a bit. An interesting scent but not one I would likely choose to wear.

Spiced rum, wood, salt air, prostitute's perfume...yes yes yes, I get all of this right away with Port Royal and it's great...but I'm also getting...Christmas candle? Like something waxy with cinnamon or bayberry. I think it smells great, but I don't know if this is a 'me' kinda scent. I think I'll pass this one to my hubby and see what he thinks.

Fresh on my skin, Skuld is honey and a sharp, candyish floral note (guess that's the ylang). I can definitely see a similarity with O as others have written, but Skuld isn't quite as skanky. As the scent develops, the warm, musky smell of the labdanum amplifies and mixes beautifully with the honey. Skuld is just a little bit too high-pitched to be full bottle worthy of me, but it's definitely a pretty scent and I'm enjoying my imp.

Dark soil and peppery vetiver. Out of the bottle, this oil is fairly strong on my skin and then fades back pretty quickly into a pleasantly murky, moldy dirt with a touch of sweetness. I really like the black peppery note in Yorick. It really is evocative of dry bones and grave dirt. I'm so glad I had the chance to try it!

I'm currently loving on The Caterpillar, because the incense blooms beautifully in the heat and humidity.

You could try something with a strong narcissus or hyacinth note... Thanx...will run a search and see what I come up with!

What resembles Asphodel? I adore it, and it's gone.

I agree - I don't think wrist smashing affects the perfume at all, nor does rolling or shaking.

Try Crossroads, which smells like dandelion to me.

Woot! Thank you, sweethearts!

I'm bumping this topic because I'm craving lilac! Any new or different lilac recommendations as we get closer to Spring?

I don't wanna sound dumb but i just wanna make sure... You don't have to mix BPAL oils with a carrier oil, right?? I can just open my bottle and put some on can't i? Im only asking because i have never used any BPAL before but ordered some a few days ago. It sounds great. Anywho... If i do have to mix it with another oil where can i find it on this site??? You can wear BPAL straight up. Some people have sensitivites (like me and cinnimon...I can't put her on fresh out of the shower) but most have no probs. Only dilute if you want/need to! Right! I would suggest that you test your BPAL oils very lightly somewhere, like the inside of your arm. Wait and see what happens and if you don't have a negative reaction, test again on a slightly larger skin area to be sure before you slather. If you have a reaction, try diluting with scentless carrier oil and patch test again. The only BPAL I've ever really had a skin reaction to was Rakshasa. I like that one, so I dilute it with sweet almond oil and it's fine. Test!

I've tried lots of 'natural' perfumes that smelled good, but didn't last worth a diddly-squat on my skin. And I've tried lots of synths that stuck to me like glue but smelled like a caustic vat of evil. So whether a perfume is 100 percent this or that doesn't matter to me. Seems to me that the key is the perfumer's skill with the ingredients. And I trust Beth totally on that score.

Santa Muerte has a masculine feel to me. It smells like very expensive shaving cream.