The Poison Queen

Apple peel and oak ash, briar thorns and pine ash, and cypress gathered at a dead man's grave. In the Bottle: Camphor and dirt, oh dear, very much like the camphor that ruined "Like Brooms of Steel" for me. Wet: the Camphor is still very strong with hints of wood and cypress and a bit of the sweetness of the apple peel. Much better than I thought. Dry: The sweetness of the apple peel is much stronger now, I am glad I skintested it but I am still unsure about it because my nose can't get past that camphor. I am hoping a bit of aging will do it good. There's definitely none of that lovely burning smell that scents like Halloween in Los Angeles and Burning Book have, and I so wanted there to be some.

Longing and loss: fallen leaves, the memory of pale roses, and long-ago dried tears. In the Bottle: a sweet Aquatic, no rose at all, just soft florals. Wet on skin: Floral aquatic salt, very similar to the Ghosts of the Arroyo Seco, to me, which I love. I thought the tears would wind up being that belovesd aquatic salt note of mine, and they are. Drydown: Very much like the wet stage, only with a hint of that lovely leafy note. Definitely a keeper, and I hope the rose comes out as it ages.

Ozone, white sandalwood, Gum Arabic, crystallized white amber, verbena, oakmoss, clary sage, davana, and a hint of white citrus rind. Hands down, this is one of my favourite lunacies. In the bottle- Sharp ozone-citrus and sweet verbena with just a hint of oakmoss. Wet on skin- A sweet citrus amber, medium sillage. Just really a beautiful scent. Sometimes verbena turns to lemon pledge on me, but in this blend it is just so nice. Dry- Stays very much as it did in the wet stage, only I get a bit more of the ozone and the gum arabic. Just a beautiful scent, I wish I had ordered more of it.

Officially official, they are GC- they've updated so you can get imps and the price is the normal price, thanks so much Kaitlin!

Oh dear. They're 17.50 on the site for me, I put them all in my cart just to make sure- I would email the lab and let them know you were over charged.

They are definitely in Excolo section and not in the LE. I think they just missed the coding on that. I sent Kaitlin a PM and will see what she says!

BPAL no longer is using CCnow, so you're fine to check out. When they updated the website, that was one of the big changes they made.

Almondy sweet snow in the bottle in the bottle but SN Snow on my skin. Off to someone who can love it!

See now I fooled my nose into smelling camphor. I had this all typed out nice and neat and had never smelled camphor before but now my brain got tricked into it. I think they might also have cinnamon or cedar in common but with my mind trying to smell camphor that's the only thing I can get If you LOVE camphor then I totally suggest this scent I just reviewed but can't remember but I will add it in in a second "Like Brooms of Steel", it's totally all camphor/menthol/Vick's Vaporub all the time. "Death Fires Dancing Over the Tombs" has it too, less menthol, more camphor on that one.

The man who had brought me now squirmed to a point directly beside the hideous flame, and made stiff ceremonial motions to the semicircle he faced. At certain stages of the ritual they did grovelling obeisance, especially when he held above his head that abhorrent Necronomicon he had taken with him; and I shared all the obeisances because I had been summoned to this festival by the writings of my forefathers. Then the old man made a signal to the half-seen flute-player in the darkness, which player thereupon changed its feeble drone to a scarce louder drone in another key; precipitating as it did so a horror unthinkable and unexpected. At this horror I sank nearly to the lichened earth, transfixed with a dread not of this nor any world, but only of the mad spaces between the stars.
 The mad spaces between the stars: oakmoss, myrrh, vetiver, rectified cade, ravinsara, wild verbena, and neroli. In the bottle: Vetiver and verbena with an undertone of the juniper cade. Very interesting. Wet: Mostly lemony verbena, actually very pleasant without being pledge. I get a hint of the neroli and the vetiver stays low in the background. This is a very dark oil in physical color! Dry: Much the same as wet, but maybe with a hint of the oakmoss. Really a very interesting scent, glad to have a bottle.


Fainting and gasping, I looked at that unhallowed Erebus of titan toadstools, leprous fire, and slimy water, and saw the cloaked throngs forming a semicircle around the blazing pillar. It was the Yule-rite, older than man and fated to survive him; the primal rite of the solstice and of spring's promise beyond the snows; the rite of fire and evergreen, light and music. And in the Stygian grotto I saw them do the rite, and adore the sick pillar of flame, and throw into the water handfuls gouged out of the viscous vegetation which glittered green in the chlorotic glare. I saw this, and I saw something amorphously squatted far away from the light, piping noisomely on a flute; and as the thing piped I thought I heard noxious muffled flutterings in the foetid darkness where I could not see. But what frightened me most was that flaming column; spouting volcanically from depths profound and inconceivable, casting no shadows as healthy flame should, and coating the nitrous stone above with a nasty, venomous verdigris. For in all that seething combustion no warmth lay, but only the clamminess of death and corruption.
 Viscous vegetation, slimy water, suffocating incense: death cap and false morel with green frankincense, black copal, Spanish moss, celery seed, and lime rind over stagnant black liquid and decaying kelp. In the Bottle: This smells like putrid, decaying plant matter, like damp, rotting woods and leaves and mushrooms and all the things of the forest. I am not sure I am brave enough to skin test this. D: Okay it took me all day to work up to it, but here you go. Wet on skin: Oh God, gross, get it off!! Very green and rot-y smelling with a sickening sweet undertone. D: D: D: Dry: Sharp, putrid narcissus, like rotting narcissus flowers in the woods where some unholy ritual has been done. Unless the Elder Gods tell me to keep this scent, it will be finding a new home.

This is lovely, and exactly what it says it smells like; cotton candy snow. It's consistent on me from bottle to skin to dry, and very similar to the cotton candy note in Midway. Definitely NOT foodie at all, I am pretty anti-foodie but the lab's cotton candy note is really just lovely. I just adore this and suspect a few more bottles will make their way home before the Yules go down.

A Winter Dawn Above the marge of night a star still shines, And on the frosty hills the somber pines Harbor an eerie wind that crooneth low Over the glimmering wastes of virgin snow. Through the pale arch of orient the morn Comes in a milk-white splendor newly-born, A sword of crimson cuts in twain the gray Banners of shadow hosts, and lo, the day! - Lucy Maud Montgomery The soft splendor of dawn in winter: pearlescent pink grapefruit, neroli, helichrysum, freesia, white mandarin, and rockrose rising behind a dapple of snowflakes. In the bottle: Soft snow, almost like a SN of the lab's snow note. Wet: Soft, floral snow, maybe a tinge of grapefruit. This is really pleasant and one of my favorite snow scents from the lab so far. Dry: The florals come out much more here, very pleasant, very sweet, but the snow note is still predominant. I like this one a lot!

Pointing to a chair, table, and pile of books, the old man now left the room; and when I sat down to read I saw that the books were hoary and mouldy, and that they included old Morryster's wild Marvells of Science, the terrible Saducismus Triumphatus of Joseph Glanvill, published in 1681, the shocking Daemonolatreia of Remigius, printed in 1595 at Lyons, and worst of all, the unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, in Olaus Wormius' forbidden Latin translation; a book which I had never seen, but of which I had heard monstrous things whispered.
 Yellowed fragments of vellum and parchment scrawled with unnamable horrors invoking ghastly abominations: decaying papers and moldering leather with sickly-sweet tonka, inky musk, black sandalwood, black fig, sugandh kokila, and pimento leaf.
 In the bottle: Uhhh. Sushi. Not fishy but cucumber rolls, with a hint of wasabi. That is VERY interesting. I really smell cucumber. Wet: dusty cucumber, paper and leather, with a touch of sandalwood. Much better on, and I think aging will erase that cucumber smell, but boy it made me want sushi. Dry: Musk and mouldering papers with a bit of sandalwood and leather. Definitely worth keeping to age, I would love to see how this develops.

Then I saw the lurid shimmering of pale light, and heard the insidious lapping of sunless waters. Again I shivered, for I did not like the things that the night had brought, and wished bitterly that no forefather had summoned me to this primal rite. As the steps and the passage grew broader, I heard another sound, the thin, whining mockery of a feeble flute; and suddenly there spread out before me the boundless vista of an inner world-a vast fungous shore litten by a belching column of sick greenish flame and washed by a wide oily river that flowed from abysses frightful and unsuspected to join the blackest gulfs of immemorial ocean.
 Salted citron, black coconut, wormwood, and oily labdanum oozing through fungal mosses and sick, greenish subterranean flora.
 In the bottle: My first impression is one of salt, and then a bit of the citron and coconut. Wet: Aquatic and salty with just a touch of fungus. Dry: Salty aquatic fungus, actually very pleasant. I wish that citron stuck around more, perhaps aging will help it along.