Dedee

Almond Blossom Even iron can put forth, Even iron. This is the iron age, But let us take heart Seeing iron break and bud, Seeing rusty iron puff with clouds of blossom. The almond-tree, December's bare iron hooks sticking out of earth. The almond-tree, That knows the deadliest poison, like a snake In supreme bitterness. Upon the iron, and upon the steel, Odd flakes as if of snow, odd bits of snow, Odd crumbs of melting snow. But you mistake, it is not from the sky; From out the iron, and from out the steel, Flying not down from heaven, but storming up, Strange storming up from the dense under-earth Along the iron, to the living steel In rose-hot tips, and flakes of rose-pale snow Setting supreme annunciation to the world. Nay, what a heart of delicate super-faith, Iron-breaking, The rusty swords of almond-trees. Trees suffer, like races, down the long ages. They wander and are exiled, they live in exile through long ages Like drawn blades never sheathed, hacked and gone black, The alien trees in alien lands: and yet The heart of blossom, The unquenchable heart of blossom! Look at the many-cicatrised frail vine, none more scarred and frail, Yet see him fling himself abroad in fresh abandon From the small wound-stump. Even the wilful, obstinate, gummy fig-tree Can be kept down, but he'll burst like a polyp into prolixity. And the almond-tree, in exile, in the iron age! This is the ancient southern earth whence the vases were baked, amphoras, craters, cantharus, oenochoe, and open-hearted cylix, Bristling now with the iron of almond-trees Iron, but unforgotten, Iron, dawn-hearted, Ever-beating dawn-heart, enveloped in iron against the exile, against the ages. See it come forth in blossom From the snow-remembering heart In long-nighted January, In the long dark nights of the evening star, and Sirius, and the Etna snow-wind through the long night. Sweating his drops of blood through the long-nighted Gethsemane Into blossom, into pride, into honey-triumph, into most exquisite splendour. Oh, give me the tree of life in blossom And the Cross sprouting its superb and fearless flowers! Something must be reassuring to the almond, in the evening star, and the snow-wind, and the long, long, nights, Some memory of far, sun-gentler lands, So that the faith in his heart smiles again And his blood ripples with that untenable delight of once-more-vindicated faith, And the Gethsemane blood at the iron pores unfolds, unfolds, Pearls itself into tenderness of bud And in a great and sacred forthcoming steps forth, steps out in one stride A naked tree of blossom, like a bridegroom bathing in dew, divested of cover, Frail-naked, utterly uncovered To the green night-baying of the dog-star, Etna's snow-edged wind And January's loud-seeming sun. Think of it, from the iron fastness Suddenly to dare to come out naked, in perfection of blossom, beyond the sword-rust. Think, to stand there in full-unfolded nudity, smiling, With all the snow-wind, and the sun-glare, and the dog-star baying epithalamion. Oh, honey-bodied beautiful one, Come forth from iron, Red your heart is. Fragile-tender, fragile-tender life-body, More fearless than iron all the time, And so much prouder, so disdainful of reluctances. In the distance like hoar-frost, like silvery ghosts communing on a green hill, Hoar-frost-like and mysterious. In the garden raying out With a body like spray, dawn-tender, and looking about With such insuperable, subtly-smiling assurance, Sword-blade-born. Unpromised, No bounds being set. Flaked out and come unpromised, The tree being life-divine, Fearing nothing, life-blissful at the core Within iron and earth. Knots of pink, fish-silvery In heaven, in blue, blue heaven, Soundless, bliss-full, wide-rayed, honey-bodied, Red at the core, Red at the core, Knotted in heaven upon the fine light. Open, Open, Five times wide open, Six times wide open, And given, and perfect; And red at the core with the last sore-heartedness, Sore-hearted-looking. - DH Lawrence Something must be reassuring to the almond, in the evening star, and the snow-wind, and the long, long, nights: almond blossom, hoar-frost, and snow-wind. When I first read the description for this scent I thought it would be full on almond, as in the nut, not the blossom! So when I first caught the scent when I opened the bottle I was taken aback! It had a very light flower scent, with no hint of the nutty goodness I was expecting. However the floral scent from the almond blossom was very light and pleasant so I applied a dab to my skin. The floral amped up immediately and I became a little nervous, floral and I do not get along much. But once my skin had a chance to work with the oils it blossomed into a floral I could actually wear! It is very light, and slightly warmed with the briefest touch of almond, and I think I could actually smell the cold snow-wind! The scent is almost alive, as if you would catch it on a breeze while walking through a forest in March, when some buds opened in anticipation of longer days and warm sun, only to be pushed back into winter with a surprise dusting of snow.... I don't know how she does it, but Bravo, Beth!!

Oh dear! I'm a quarter gone!
 Gingerbread and exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla. Yay! The Yules of 2013 have begun!! I will start with my most anticipated one!! From the bottle: spicy warm gingerbread, yummy!! First applied on skin: I smell like gingerbread and warm cinnamon. A comforting, baked cinnamon, not the scary overly strong cinnamon that my skin can amp badly like Saw Scaled Viper. But no Snake Oil yet... After about 20 minutes: OMG I think I am in love.... Snake Oil is coming through and mixed with gingerbread it is simply AMAZING!!! I need to buy more bottles of this... like right now!! Verdict: When this scent was announced I was so excited! I even had mentioned in the Yule Stalking thread that I was hoping for a 'Snakes in the Gingerbread House' type scent! This scent combines two of my favorites into one and I am in heaven.... I never knew one could smell like a sexy gingerbread house, but it is possible!! If you like Gingerbread, if you Love Snake Oil, all I can say is HORDE THIS!! You'll be wanting more than one bottle, I swear!!

Somalian myrrh, orange blossom, champaca flower, and verbena. At first wiff out of the bottle all I can smell are orange blossoms, reminding more of Spring time rather than Fall... not that there is anything wrong with that! Applied on my skin I still get the lovely orange smell but within moments the champaca appears with just a slightest touch of the myrrh, and as it dries down it becomes quite floral on me. Though I am a self proclaimed 'foody' this scent is quite lovely. I honestly wasn't expecting that this would be one of the scents I fell in love with tonight! It is a beautiful and light floral scent that I can see myself wearing year round!

Mother Shub's lovingly hand-crafted gingerbread temples are sure to summon a little extra joy for the wee ones! Mother Shub's secret gingerbread recipe contains ritually-consecrated resins and pulped root from her own hydroponically-grown Saturnian ginger cultivar. Each temple is decorated with sweets from local candymaker Abyssal Addictions! I am such a fan of Gingerbread scents so when this one was announced as one of this year's Yules it took me all of about 2 minutes to place an order! wet: a slightly gingered sprinklecake to me. All the sugar baked goodness of walking into grandma's kitchen during Christmas drydown: it's delicious, but I can barely detect the gingerbread in this one. It's all cake and cookies, which is yummy, but gingerbread is still hiding from my nose verdict: After a few hours the gingerbread did come through softly and it is a wonderfully foodie scent, but when I need Gingerbread I'm probably going to reach for something stronger like Flesh Eating Reindeer or my favorite BPAL of all time, Bedbug! If other Gingerbreads were too strong for you than this is the gingerbread scent you should try!

Pumpkin artwork by Neal Segler! Warm pumpkin with three honeys, oudh, sweet frankincense, and champaca resin. A PUMPKIN SCENT THAT WORKS ON ME! A PUMPKIN SCENT THAT WORKS ON ME! I am one of those unluckies whose skin amps cinnamon like nobody's business. I have tried many a pumpkin creation by Beth and my skin has failed me every time, turning beautiful pumpkin scents into a terrible cheap smelly candle awfulness!! Well, I am ecstatic to say that this scent is THE PUMPKIN ONE for me and I am in love! Wet it is a warm, slightly spiced pumpkin scent. I could sense the cinnamon trying to force it's way to the top once again, but as it dried the Champaca resin made its debut and the cinnamon disappeared!! Then the most wonderful thing happened... the three honeys showed up and melted into the pumpkin and champaca for a sweet foody melody... It is what I always wanted a pumpkin scent to be!!! I was so happy I hugged Beth!! I have spent the evening driving home from Will Call with my wrist glued to my nose. Verdict: I should have bought more than one bottle!!! WINNER!!

Yule Cookie 
Clouds of flour and spices with the scent of ginger tea, warm caraway cakes, snickerdoodle pinwheels, and sugar cookies with sweet orange frosting A direct sniff from the bottle and I thought I had found another yummy baked cookie concoction from the lab with a slightly different note, maybe that is the caraway?? It smells wonderful, but not quite like the other 'baked goods' scents that have been released before. At first when I applied it it was all baked cookie, but within minutes I got some sort of citrus amp that is almost overwhelming! I wasn't expecting the sweet orange frosting to be so... lemony!! It seemed to be the only note I could detect!! That citrus did fade to the background after about 20 minutes, and the ginger tea starting coming out... it really is morphing into something very lovely. Every once in awhile I pick up the sugar cookie or snicker doodle sweetness, but it is the ginger tea that my skin is amping. For my skin chemistry it seems it is more 'Yule Tea' than 'Yule Cookie'.

Bourbon vanilla, Arabian amber, ylang ylang, peach blossom, sweet freesia, and strands of vibrant saffron. OK, so this bottle I was debating on getting just because normally most florals and my skin seem to have a misunderstanding but... Out of the bottle: Boozy Vanilla and flowers. I can't differentiate the floral notes too much but I think I can make out the freesia. Wet: Oh, this is nice! Right away I think my skin amps the peach blossom because all I can smell are overly sweet vanilla peaches, and that is sooooo not a bad thing Drydown: The peachiness fades into the background a bit and the freesia has come out to play with the amber, and every once in awhile the vanilla peeks through, it has turned into a lightly fruity, soft scent that is perfect for hot Summer days. Verdict: The throw is not very strong on me, and the scent kind of reminds me of an after shower body mist, very refreshing!! It is so light and lovely!!! Not at all what I would equate with a Nocturnal Flying Rodent

A lush carpet of foam-white and dusky purple blossoms: this is the gentle, joyous scent of spring-blooming sweet alyssum. I was so excited when I saw this was the new Single Note at Will Call a few weeks ago!!!!!! I work with Sweet Alyssum everyday (I work in a garden center) and Have even said out loud a few times I wish Beth would make this a scent!! Wet: wow, flowering honey, very sweet, stronger than I expected On skin: still sweet, but the flower is starting to come to life Dry Down: Oh wow, it really is Alyssum!!!! Stays fairly close to the skin but every time I move my arm I can smell my garden Verdict: I LOVE this scent, it is like putting the tiny little flowers directly on your skin. This is the most perfect floral single note I have found so far. It is truly Sweet Alyssum, light and airy, reminds you of Spring and Sunlight and Honey Bees with it's delicate floral honey scent. The perfect warm weather scent! Thank You, Beth!!

Brown sugar and ginger root with smoky clove, bourbon vanilla, cardamom, and Indonesian musk. This was the bottle I was most excited about for the 2013 Bat's Day releases. It just sounded so delicious!!! Judging by how fast it sold everyone else had the same idea. Out of the bottle:BROWN SUGAR!! Oh man that is delicious. My nose can pick up a little of ginger and musk, but not really much of anything else. Wet:Yep, serious sugar rush with ginger, and now I can smell the musk and clove, its like a smokey sugar slather on my wrist and its making me hungry. Drydown: Oh no, no, no,!!! The sugar is starting to smell burnt, and the musk is coming out but turning sour on my skin!!! Stupid skin chemistry! Verdict: Ok, panic is over and I am so glad I was able to get a bottle!!!!! After literally being on my skin overnight the notes have finally blended into a very nice sweet and spicy musk. Phew!! So I think I can safely say the staying power is amazing!! I will be letting this settle and trying again in a few weeks.

A charming, mischievous, and inexplicably sinister blend of balsam of Peru, honey, skin musk, and black pepper. This one really interested me. I had never tried balsam of Peru, so wanted to step out and be daring! Here goes my first 'first review'! wet: Wow! It is a fresh scent. I think all I am smelling is the balsam, not getting any of the honey or skin musk but it smells wonderful. It reminds me of walking through Hoh Rain Forest in my old home state of Washington after a fresh rain. Green and cool and strangely comforting. Making me quite homesick actually! on skin: still all balsam, but maybe now the honey is coming through, for it smells just a bit sweeter now. I'm still not picking up the pepper or skin musk. drydown: the throw and last is amazing on this! I put it on last night and can still smell it this morning. verdict: Though I don't know if I would have bought it for myself if I had smelled it at a Will Call I think I am falling in love with this one. It is VERY different from my stash of BPAL loves, but it reminds me so much of home I don't think I can live without it! WINNER!

In hindsight, it was something of an omen that Lilith would be born on Brian’s birthday. He was with her on the day of her birth, and I have no doubt that they will love each other eternally. Yes, they are family, but he is also her friend: her pillar of support, her precious uncle, dearer to her heart than he could possibly know. I created this scent as much for Brian as I did for Lilith; it is the scent of the summer that lives in one’s heart. Orange blossom honey, white coconut, and pear with flecks of golden amber that glimmers like sunlight on water. Out of the bottle this almost smells like a twist on a summer Pina Colada, so yummy... Wet on my skins it's just as it is described! Coconut, sweetened with honey, and ripe juicy pear combine to make a fantastic scent that I want to lick right off my wrist! The amber shows up far into the drydown and blends into the very scent that reminds me of slip-on sandals and short summer dresses. It's an adorable perfume, if there is such a thing. It's just sweet, innocent, and full of fun. Yeah, I bought a bottle

OK, well.... I got 2 bottles myself. Quick reviews are: The first one is not Gourmand to me at all!! First bottle I tried (#78) smelled like lightly lemon scented Orient.... like lemon and Sandlewood, maybe some Ylang ylang??? Dried down to just a light sandlewood on me. It's lovely, but not Gourmand in the way I was thinking the Gourmands would be. The second one (#77), when I first opened it up I was so excited, because it almost smelled like Gingerbread!! But it went through soooooooooooo many metamorphosis's once on my skin! First Orange cake, then bubblegum cake, then caramel popcorn, then just sweet plastic poundcake, and lastly.... maple syrup!!! When I was going to bed last night my husband asked, 'Why do you smell like pancakes??" So maybe I have found a distant cousin of Pancake Breakfast???!!

in the bottle- wonderful deep chocolate, like a spicier Boomslang. Oh boy!! wet-still a deep dark chocolate but now all of the spices come out, and my skin amps spice like nobody's business. Dang it, chocolate is going away already, and all I'm getting is clove and nutmeg and allspice. GRRRR!! drydown- chocolate is all gone and now I get a sweetness above the spice that must be the sarsaparilla, and a slightly green, earthy scent. Could that be the catnip?? verdict- definitely not for me, will find someone else to give it lovin'

in bottle- sweet lavender, so soothing!! It smells wonderful!! And as everyone has commented the label is so touching!! wet on skin- strawberries!?? Weird because it is not one of the notes, but all I and my man smell are strawberries! hmmm... maybe that's the ice cream residue and my wacky skin drydown- still a berry scent for some reason but I think the musk is coming through, still no Dorian at all hours later/verdict- THERE'S the scent I was looking for! A slightly lavender, vanilla-sweet, full-on Dorian that is warm and snuggly like ReallyZeb describes. However, I can't wait hours for that scent to appear when I can just put on my beloved Dorian and get that feeling immediately.

Agreed on the Boomslang into Snake Charmer reviews!! The chocolate is strong at the getgo, but fades rapidly on my skin. After about an hour it has morphed into almost a Snake Charmer soap scent, i.e. very faint. Absolutely lovely, but I am not sure I would wear it a lot since my skin seems to eat it almost immediately. I would have to reapply it hourly at this rate. Really really lovely though!!

Ok, I have very high hopes for this one because I love Snake Oil, and I so want to love pumpkin scents because they smell so good... until my skin gets involved. It amps all the spice and lets nothing else through! So here goes.. in bottle: HOLY MOTHER SNAKE OIL this smells so amazing!!! Please please please work for me!! wet on skin: CRAP!! Within 2 minutes all spices and NOTHING ELSE!! Seriously??? Stupid skin chemistry!! drydown: Still extremely spicy, I'm still not getting any pumpkin, barely sniffing any Snake Oil, it ain't looking good. after a few hours: spices calmed a little, and now Snake Oil is coming out, but with a plastic note to it. Well damn, yet another pumpkin that's not even remotely pumpkin on me... and I really need to go wash it off getting a headache edited for spelling!

Oh, I forgot about that one! I have tried it too, but it really smells like 'raw' ginger, not baked at all. It went sour on my skin really fast. But my skin amps stuff really weirdly. It might go beautifully with yours so if you find it give it a try!!

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this scent yet!! OMG: Sexy Snake Oil slithering in chocolate that lingers for hours. This is what I wanted the original Boomslang to be! It smells amazing, and I feel amazing when its on. Exactly what a woman should feel when wearing perfume!! I loved it so much I ended up with more than one back up bottle!!

This is the sweetest of the Snake Oil blends, not that that is a bad thing for me!! When I first sniffed it I felt like a lot of others, it just got too sweet too quick, and there wasn't much of the Snake Oil scent I loved. But I must say it has grown on me, and now I am quite fond of it!! My skin tends to eat the few scents that work on it (i.e. they last only a few hours) and many that I love from the bottle my skin morphs into awfulness. So I have found that wearing the scents in my hair makes them last so much longer, and no worry of morphing what so ever. Temple Viper therefore stays a sweet wonderful Snake Oil, and I reach for it almost as much as Boomslang V2, and now even more than my beloved Snake Charmer!!

I've had this for awhile but only wore it once or twice, and was unsure of it worked with me, especially since I had already fell in love with His lovely sister, Snake Charmer... It has a very rich undertone that must be the frankincense influence, that was really lovely, but I wasn't sure if it was for me. Then I wore it to work one day, and instead of putting on my skin I put it in my hair. I work outside so every time a breeze would drift through I would catch the scent and as the day went by I fell more and more into it! Then a woman came up to me, saying "Oh my what IS that perfume??? Hubba hubba, that's hot stuff!!" I immediately ran home and put it on my swap wish list!!

One of the best Snake Oil offspring ever!!! Deep and dark like the lovely S.O., but with a foody, smooth quality that lets the S.O. speak in hushed whispers rather than the normal "Look at me!" tones you expect. Its absolutely wonderful!!! I hope it is one of the CDs re-releases that Beth's been hinting at!!

I do not know of anything being made now, but there were two in the past that may meet your needs that I am aware of 'Chocolate, Espresso, and Gingerbread" which was an Yule imp release in 2010 'Milk chocolate, coconut, cardamom, rum, and ginger truffle' which was release in January 2010 If you can find those they may be close to what you are looking for, but you can also mix some scents! Bliss isn't dark chocolate, but milk chocolate and I use it to mix with some of my favorite gingerbread scents like any of the Gingerbread Poppets or Mother Shubs Gingerbread Temples. One scent on one wrist, one on the other, and rub together!! Other lovely forumites will have other suggestions too, but those are the ones that popped into my mind tonight!! Good luck!!

Wet on skin: very sweet. All I smell is cream, and is that the tiniest hint of lemon?? Drydown: Oh my gosh, I smell like a delicious baked cookie all warm and fresh out of the oven! That hint of lemon is still there but now the yummy ginger is making an appearance A few hours later: Uh oh, that wonderful baked cookie smell has morphed into something else. The raw ginger is coming through, and on my skin it is making the whole scent go sour, and now I smell like rank baby powder. Dang it, I thought this was going to be great for me!! Off to the swap pile

Agreed to all of the wonderful help above!! I heard about BPAL about a year ago and was never into perfumes AT ALL before, they all gave me a headache. But the love expressed from the BPAL community made me want to give it a go. All the scents I tried that I thought I would love were horrible on me (florals, citrus especially- I end up smelling like household cleaners, talk about nausea!!) but the frimps thrown in were very intriguing! I started swapping and testing dozens and dozens of random scents and have now found a few that I cannot live without, but it took a LOT of testing and mucho swapping. Don't give up quite yet, you might find a Love you never knew you'd have!!

I'll second the White Rabbit!! Its morphs into a pure honey smell on my skin after about an hour