seamor

In the bottle: A sweetish odor I can’t quite place – opium? Wet: Musky, with a hint of brown sugar and something a little flowery 15 minutes: Sweet pipe tobacco and smoke 1 hour: Sweet pipe tobacco and smoke. 2 hours: gone A very interesting fragrance. Not for me, but I can think of a man or two I’d like to try it on…

Oh, I DO love the smut! Musky sex with sweet dark rum, and maybe a sugar cookie or two. My, my, my…

My first swap - from HonorAlexandria. Thank you! First on: Liquid lemon drops. Yummy! 20 minutes: Lemon, lemon, lemon. Don’t get me wrong – it’s quite a lovely lemon - but where’s the jasmine? The honeysuckle? The lavender? 30 minutes: Oh! There’s some honeysuckle, I think. And another flash of lavender. I guess I’ll wait a bit... Okay, there it is! This is the scent of lavender, jasmine, and honeysuckle I was expecting. Lovely. (I wonder where that lemon was coming from?) The jasmine is amping up now – Wow! An intoxicating scent close to the wrist. Not much throw that I can discern, though. Finally, a luminous (transparent?) floral, with just enough edge (the lavender?) to keep it from being too sweet. This is a lovely scent, but an allergic headache is threatening. Ah well... off it goes to the swap pile.

First out of the bottle: Euwww! Musty, moldy, rotting wood ... and, did somebody say bug spray? I want to wash it off RIGHT NOW! But I persevere. About two minutes later: The initial stench has completely disappeared. I can't smell much of anything now... but ... faint scent of ... apples? Really? Is it actually smelling the way it is described? With my skin, that's a bit unusual... Over the next few minutes, the apples grow stronger, warmer, sweeter. Mmmmm... very nice. Very appley. Definitely not the sickly sweet green apple reek of so many commerical apple fragrances. The Hesperides smells like real apples, perfectly ripe and warm under a gentle summer sun. VERY impressive! It doesn't last long on me, which is no great surprise - gentle fruit scents don't seem to want to stick with me very well. I am not sure I really want to go around smelling like apples, to tell the truth. But, as with so many of Beth's scents, it was a fascinating experience. If you love the scent of a nice fresh apple (and you can make it through the first 60 seconds) this is definitely the one for you.

First out of the bottle: I can hardly smell this at all. "Delicate" is not the word – it's almost nonexistent. 15 minutes later: The scent has blossomed into a pallid version of Dove’s Heart, but without the comforting effect. Something in it is burning my skin a little. It’s gotta go.

First on: OMG!!! I love dragon’s blood resin, and this blend is AMAZING!!! INSTANTLY No. 1 on my favorites list! I think I’m smelling a little of the black currant and fig, rounding out the resin scent and making it deeper and juicier. I can’t pick out other individual notes, and maybe I’m only imagining I smell the currant – this is so beautifully blended that nothing sticks out. It has a lovely, sweet throw – almost like flowers (lilies? ripe mango?), but with that beautiful resin as well. I am perfectly delighted. An hour later: Very stable - a wonderful musky resin on the wrist, still with that round, sweet throw. This is simply gorgeous. It seems like it will last for a while, too. This is the first time I’ve encountered a scent that actually makes me want to roll in it. Happy, happy, happy.... Update: A few hours later the Dragon's Heart seems to be fading, so I layer some Aglaea over it. The combination reminds me of Imp, but uh... better? Hard to believe. Oh dear - now I will have to get more Dragon's Heart and more Aglaea, mix them together, and ... bathe in it.

Fresh out of the bottle: A sweetish musk. Reminds me of ferrets, but not grapey… Hmmm… I don’t know about this… Rapidly blossoms into an intense, sharp rose. I’m thinking there’s lots of yellow rose in this. I like it a lot, and even though it’s pretty intense on the wrist right now, the throw is not aggressive. Very good. Mmmm… Ahhh, I recognize this! Austrian Copper rose (rosa foetida). Some people think rosa foetida smells bad but I’ve always loved it. To me it’s a musky rose scent with a strong component of sharp unripe orange, a sort of peppery tickle, and a touch of clove - very intriguing. Spellbound doesn’t seem to have the clove, but it's sure got all the rest of the good stuff. Gods, this is glorious! Later: Oh, no! That interesting tickle is more than a tickle – it’s making me sneeze! Spellbound and Phantom Queen – love ‘em both to death, and both make me sneeze. Is it the roses? Oh, bad word, bad word, bad word!!! (Heartfelt foot-stamping fit!) Update: This stayed on me nicely for a good four hours before I was forced to wash it off. Allergy meds were just not up to the task of counteracting its awesome sneezy-power. Not feeling at all well. I love this scent so much that I would almost wear it anyway... SOoooo disappointed... * * * * * Update: I tried it again and I did not sneeze! Wahooo!!!! It's not the roses - I think it may be the red musk. The thing is, I really LOVE the red musk. "So", I says to meself, "I wears it and I takes me chances". Some days it's sneezy, some days not so much. It's just too luscious to let go. Obsessively in love with this scent. * * * * * Yup. Still allergic to it Still love the scent beyond all reason . Nothing else smells like this. Just the best thing ever. Waaahhh! What do I do now? * * * * * Whew! Rescued from my obsession at last! I bundled it up and sent it off to kalipriestess! I hope you love it, Kali P.!

Wet: A very female, "perfumey" flower scent. A deep red velvety rose with a hint of orange peel. Dry down: The moss and clover have come in and are grounding it beautifully. Very floral still, but less rosy and just a bit spicy. Oh, no! Now my wrists are hot and itchy and I’m sneezing. Aaaarrrggghhhh.... this just can't be! I love this scent. I am terribly disappointed that I may not be able to wear it.

A very intense musky herbal scent – smells spicy in the bottle, but not on my skin. Kind of a fetid metallic musk with sharp herbs. Had to get it off, fast. Just not for me, I guess. (sigh...)

Wet: Dry woods and spices, a hint of curry. Dry down: The curry note faded very quickly. Now there is the warm sweetness of amber seeping through exotic spices. Gradually, as it dries, it is becoming sweeter – the mandarin and nutmeg come up, joined after a moment by a touch of rose, still with the spice base. Oh, this is too gorgeous! An Indian spice market with a few tangerines and a huge bouquet of deep red roses somewhere nearby. Later: Oh, this is soooo lovely! :swoon: Lots later: Still loving it! It morphs a little, sometimes more rose, sometimes more mandarin, but always with that lovely musky spice. A gentle throw – there’s an exotic “air” about me, but I don’t reek. Perfect. I do wish it would last a little longer - only went about 3 hours on me - but I'm happy to re-apply whenever necessary.

Wet: No vanilla here - almond extract, fresh out of the bottle. Well, that’s okay – I like almond. 15 minutes: Sweet almond oil, with an impression of a darker note (the amber?) underneath. So far, this is a pleasant, unassuming fragrance that I could comfortably wear every day, but I’m not in love with it. 30 minutes: The almond effect is finally dying back. I now smell more amber, with just a hint of vanilla. 1 hour: Now it’s all soft amber. My skin seems to do that – eats everything but the amber/incense notes. Oh well. Good thing I like amber and incense. 1 ½ hours: It’s not over, after all! The vanilla has resurrected in an altered form – rounder, darker, with (finally!) some presence. 2 hours: Well, that didn’t last. The scent is a faint golden vanilla amber now - quite beautiful, but almost undetectable. O is not what I expected, but it's a good “comfort” scent on me in each of its various morphings. It is rather timid, though, with no throw. If I could get either of those last two effects in a “louder” form, I’d love it. Maybe if I just slather gobs of it all over me… So, okay. I tried that. About 20 minutes into the second, much heavier, application (about four times what I used the first time), I am getting a non-sweet, non-floral, slightly musky vanilla scent that I like just fine. Something like Nefaerious’ The Queen’s Royal Vanilla, and thoroughly yummy. This time it lasts about five hours with no morphing at all. Still mild, gentle, not much throw, but nice. This is quite nice really (Notice how I keep saying "nice"? That's because that's what it is. Very nice.) , but it just doesn't make me wanna shout. I may use the imp, but then again, maybe I'll trade it for something else.

First on: Not much scent – a little dry grass maybe. Not enough of anything to describe, although there is a kind of desert-ish feeling to it. I can’t really explain that, since I am not consciously smelling much of anything. About 1/2 hour later: Ooooohhh.... Wild honey warmed by the sun, white sage, and a soft dusty something – maybe a bit of fur? Wow! This is the scent of a warm southwest desert afternoon, with honey on top. Golden, melting, and just the tiniest bit tricky somehow (that must be Coyote peeking through). 2 hours later: The wild honey scent (could that have been the amber and musk together?) has backed off, leaving a perfect dry, dusty spring evening filled with gently aromatic desert plants and just the faintest hint of ephemeral desert wildflowers. 4 hours later: It's all gone now, but I surely did love it. This is just the right thing to help me start breathing again if I start to feel trapped in that little gray cubicle during the week. Beth, I'd say you got it just right.

Oooooh, yummy! First on, this smells just like Repubic of Tea's Ginger Peach Tea (a scent I just can't get enough of - I have been know to sit around smelling the tea cannister), only not quite so dry - rounder, deeper, juicier. Later it fades a bit, but is still there when I check three hours later, and is still peachy. Peach usually fades pretty fast on me, so I am very excited to find it still here. On me, this is a very gentle scent, with not a lot of throw as far as I can tell, but a lovely surprise when someone gets close. Yummmm....

First on: The patchouli is there, but gently - not overpowering. The individual notes blend seamlessly. I can also pick out the peach if I really try, but no single note is prominent. Warm and spicy - yum! Settles down to a soft incense-amber scent with a delicate hint of high fruity musk and a gentle ambery throw. I also keep thinking I smell spiced vanilla - where is that coming from? Very nice! Update: About an hour later, when I am not paying attention any more, I suddenly get a big *BOOF* of warm, golden, spiced peach. It's an almost tactile sensation, like being bopped in the face with a huge, soft, peach-scented powder puff. Awesome! What a gorgeous scent! Sadly, that right-up-front peach note doesn't last long on me. I end up with a warm spicy-resiny scent that lasts at least 15 hours, right up to bedtime. I really like spicy-resiny, although I would love to have held onto a little more of the peach along with it. This is not bad at all.

Wow, I had been hearing so much about this one that I was really excited to try it, but... Wet: Oily vanilla. No cinnamon. Dry: Clean naugahyde, with a touch of vanilla and petroleum. (Think of a newly washed vinyl car seat with a chemical vanilla car scent in the background.) Also, it makes me sneeze. Darn! Sometimes being alien is just not as much fun as the stories say... So sad... On the other hand, if they all worked on me, I'd probably go bankrupt.

Thick, dark, sluggish and heavy with indolence: vetiver over black myrrh. I received this as a frimp with my last order, and was surprised to find that I like it. I first wore it while couch-potating – it seemed appropriate. (heh heh) Wet: vetiver and molasses. Dry down: A dark, almost chocolatey scent, with maybe a little fur. I’d love to smell this with a hint of something with a little bit of edge – lavender and/or orange, maybe? Verrrrryyy interesting...

Wet: A bright, non-aggressive lemon/lavender, with something unidentifiable behind it – clears my sleepy head nicely. Dry down: Soft incense on the wrists, with a sweet lavender throw. That’s wild - two completely different scents at the same time. 20 minutes later: I’m not noticing the lavender throw any more, but the incense on my wrists now has developed a lavender quality. Yummy! I'm not particularly noticing carnation or mosses, but I imagine they are part of that lovely incense effect - amber, carnation, and mosses beautifully blended. 1 hour later: Now I'm getting a slight incensey throw. Just the right amount. I really like this. 3 hours later: Seems to be fading a little, but a touch of lavender incense is still there. I hope it will stay, but if not, it’s well worth reapplying every now and then. I am not experiencing this as a masculine scent, although it's certainly not feminine, either. It seems gender-neutral to me - focused on mind-and-spirit aspects, rather than sexuality. A good fragrance for work. Yay, Beth! This is just lovely. Update 02-08: St. Germain was one of the first BPAL scents I tried, and it's still a favorite. I'm not sure that what I smell when it's wet is actually lemon - it could be, or could be an intense edge of the wet lavender. I'm not sure I would call it "incensey" now, either. Maybe my nose has improved?!? I still get ( and love) that remarkable lavender/amber combination, and now notice a slight dustiness to it that is definitely part of the attraction. I can now pick out the subtle dark green of moss adding depth and foundation, and I have found the carnation, too. It's not the sweet, in-your-face note of many carnation perfumes - this is much more like real carnations, a teasing hint of pink-and-green spiciness. It also stays with me a good while, which is not an easy thing with my scent-gobbling skin. St. Germain is a perennial - a true classic. Gentle, subtle, beautiful. Couldn't ask for better. Thanks again, Beth.

Mandiapple, I completely commiserate. I am allergic to wheat and ground nuts (soy, peanuts). Nobody seems to realize how many foods have those components in them in hidden forms. So in restaurants I ask things like, "Do you use wheat flour to thicken the sauce? Is the crab real, or a faux crab made with whitefish and modified wheat starch texturizer? Do you ever cook with peanut oil?" Etc. It has taken me a long time to get used to doing this (you're right - it does annoy some people), but ending up sick every time I go out to eat, or constantly refusing to go out and play with my friends is REALLY not fun. Keep trying. People do get used to it. I recently met a waitress who very willingly checked out every one of my questions for me and was completely pleasant and friendly about it. The key, as another allergic friend has pointed out to me, is to be gracious and friendly when you ask, not embarassed or hangdog. You are completely deserving of having servers help you with this problem - that's what they are there for. My friends have stopped being embarrassed, although there is a certain amount of joking about it. People are learning. I haven't had trouble with any of Beth's blends but one - a single drop of Water of Notre Dame on my wrists really knocked me back recently. Someone else in this thread said something about reacting to the green, watery scents, so maybe I'm not alone with this one. I don't know which component of WOND got to me yet, so for now I'm avoiding the green scents. Since I tend to be an amber, musk, incense girl, it's not a problem - there are plenty of other choices available. Customer service at BPAL is always very kind and helpful. They may be able to steer you in the right direction if you email them explaining your concerns.

Newly on – ohhhh, rose, rose, rose! Just lovely. This is what I expected Two, Five and Seven to smell like, and it didn’t. Taking very deep breaths right now… Definitely seems to improve my mood. Doesn’t banish cares, but does seem to help me be more clear and less emotional about discussing them and looking for answers. With Has No Hanna on my wrists and a little Black Cat in my cleavage, I feel as if I am ready for anything. This lasted all day. Even when I couldn’t smell it on my wrists any more, I kept getting that gorgeous rose throw. Mmmm….. It was a good day

Uhhhh….herby cinnamony citrusy?. It’s hard to pick out individual notes. Oh! Is that some peppermint? Yes, definitely peppermint coming out now. (Wow, I was very tired and I immediately feel better playing with this scent.) Now something sweet is coming through, peppermint receding. Sort of amber-ish now, still with that something sweet. Changing by the second. Something new I can’t quite put my finger on... I have no idea how to describe this. It has definitely perked me up, though. Oops! There it goes again – now there’s something “perfumey” (like the perfume aisle in the WalMart.) coming out over the other scent, just for a moment. And now there’s more peppermint…and Oh! I think that sweet one is honey! And it keeps cycling – peppermint, honey, incense, fruity amber, clean linen. Getting kind of powdery now... Is it settling at last? No! Citrus beginning to come through again…what’s next? Baby powder, the perfume aisle, clean laundry…. This has been going on for more than an hour now, and there hasn’t been a facet that I don’t like. I haven't smelled the rose that others have reported ... yet. This blend really wants to play, I could wear it every day! I would love it every time, Even though it makes me rhyme. (Oh, dear! Aaacckk! A Dr. Seuss attack!) I have never considered that I might need a 10 ml bottle of anything before, but I am thinking about it now. Too much fun! Two hours later, this has settled down to a perfect ambery incense with just a hint of spicy peach throw. Yum! Three hours later, mostly gone. A faint clean, soapy floral still on my wrists. It didn't last long, but what a great pick-me-up!

Oooo-WEEE! Did I fail to recognize the possibilities and pitfalls of this one! Here's the story: I’m going through lots of changes at work, mostly for the good, but I’m resistant and little paranoid about them, for no discernible reason. So I decide it’s time to try Block Buster. 7:30 am – A remarkably light, delicate fruit-and floral. Pleasant. Calming. 7:45 am Oh dear – the first blocks this seems to be busting are those I have carefully erected to stop myself from expressing my general frustration and irritation with the entire universe. Lots of old angst and unresolved anger is popping up. I am now severely cranky – like “Where’d we put the hydrogen bomb – I need to use it” cranky. Yipes! 8:15 am Well, whew! That particular side effect seems to have passed. It just rolled up and out, instead of subjecting me to the truly horrible day I usually have when I’m thinking about those particular things. Now I’m starting to have a good time again - almost like they've gone altogether. Hmmm.... 9:00 am I’m getting a kind of dry, chocolate-y smell – not rich or sweet like brownies, but kind of dusty and austere (Whoa! Austere chocolate?!? Weird.) – like a chocolate biscotti, maybe. I sure didn’t imagine I would smell this from the scent I put on this morning. 10:30 am The morning job went just fine. It seemed long, but not in a bad way. More like “I can’t believe I still have plenty of time to do everything.” That was nice. Now I’m smelling a faint golden amber, with maybe a little fruit behind it - a distant orchard on a summer day. 11:30 am I am home for lunch with the parrots, and we are being very silly, all of us. They love it when I’m like this. I am smelling fruit and flowers again. Now on to the *real* job - the one where the discomfort is… 6:45 p.m. Well, golly, that was not so good in some ways. This blend really works, and - as noted before - it is not at all selective about which blocks it busts. Like, the one I have that keeps me from crying like a child when my feelings are hurt was gone today. And the one that keeps me buffered so I don’t feel it so much when someone near me is in emotional pain was not there at all. Aieee... This scent changes my psychic orientation in some way. It’s not that I become disorganized or flighty, or discover different priorities, or think different thoughts - more like it just opens up all the honest, unrepressed emotions of a child. When I am happy, I am completely happy. When I am silly, there are no limits to my silliness. When I am sad, I cry, regardless of whether it is an "acceptable" time for that or not. This is a very amazing thing. For ritual, or for days when I need to work through something and expect to have plenty of time to do it, this blend is pricelesss. For future hard days at work? Wolf’s Heart. Definitely.

I got a frimp! Yay! Wet: Uh-oh...Lemon Pledge on the wrist (the combination of lemon verbena and rosemary?) but the throw is softer, sweeter. Dries fast, the throw transforming itself into frankincense, but when I sniff my wrist expecting incense, I get lemon again. Then, it changes - ahh…there’s the neroli. It is running rapidly through separate notes and adding a few that don’t seem to be listed – incense, neroli, a surprising waft of mint, incense again, amber? Doesn't seem to want to settle anywhere. No lavender yet. The lemon is pretty much gone now, after only a couple of minutes. Now it’s kind of dusty; that “dry and ancient” feeling again, like Bastet, which is weird because it doesn’t seem to have any of the same ingredients. (Oh, maybe it’s me that’s ancient and dusty…hee hee) About 20 minutes later: The lavender is coming up now, making a sweet, floral incense - I would swear I smell roses. It settles here, just the way I always want rose incense to smell, but somehow it never does. Lovely. Can't get enough. 2 hours later: I keep thinking it’s gone. I can’t smell much of it on my wrist, but there’s still some throw, and it wafts past my nose every now and then. The floral has dropped back now, leaving a faint frankincense. Arcana only lasted a couple of hours on me, but it’s definitely worth re-applying periodically. I did reapply it, and I got that minty scent again in the beginning – it wasn’t my imagination. Where is that coming from? The verbena, maybe? This is a good one. I may not buy more, but I’ll certainly use up my imp.

In the bottle: Buttery spices – fruitcake and cardamom. A hint of something unidentifiable and slightly unpleasant. I might not have bought it if I'd smelled the bottle first. Newly on the wrist: Yum! Dry, dusty spices, ancient but clearly present. A spice caravan preserved in warm sand. Drydown: An implication of fruit (dates, a melon or two? - where is that coming from?) among the spices. Later: Oh, now I’m getting dusty amber…and the almonds are there… Even later: Mostly dusty amber, with other elements playfully peeking out from behind, ready for a friendly pounce as soon as my back is turned. Still later: Now that hint of fruit is re-emerging, but still with lots of yummy amber. Et cetera. This fragrance lingers for quite some time. The scent is warm, soft, and purring (the way a lion would purr, with power behind it – some caution advised). It is definitely dry - how can something smell dry? But it does, very clearly. An ancient (how can it smell ancient?) desert cat - wise, confident, and sensual, with a playful aspect that took me by surprise. This is one of those I-can’t-stop-smelling-myself blends. It is most definitely putting me in a mood to rub up against someone tasty and purr. My imp won’t last long. I'd better put in an order right now. Quick update: I went to the laundromat with Bastet still lightly on. Now, believe me, I do not dress up or paint to go to the laundromat, and this is a college neighborhood, so I am older than the mothers of most of the folks I run into there. Today I got checked out - I mean it! - twice! - by nice looking (young!) guys. Pheromones are everything. Best not wear this one to work. My parrots are acting a little strange. One of them won't come anywhere near me right now.

Oh goody! A frimp! Lemon-with-something-else in the bottle – very sharp, but attractive. Can’t wait to try it! Yipes! I can’t seem to actually put it on – I associate Whitechapel with Jack the Ripper and it is creeping me out. Okay, I finally tried it. Wet, I get primarily a lemon/lime scent – not Pledge, not lemon drops, just clean and sweet - with a slight under-whiff of something-left-in-the refrigerator-too-long (or dead and rotting behind the boarding house). Dry, the lemon becomes softer and a bit sweeter (but still not at all like lemon drops) and there’s a breath of white-smelling floral which I’m guessing is the combination of lilac and white musk. The diverse elements of this one surprise me by blending very smoothly. I would personally prefer a dash more lilac and a smidge less citrus, but it is a pleasant scent. It didn’t last long on me (probably the alien physiology again) and will go up for trade.

This may have been overkill, but I tried Wolf's Heart for the first time yesterday, to help me get through a particularly painful last day at one of my jobs. (I loved my boss, but other aspects of the situation were just not good, and clearly not going to get better.) This warm, fiery scent bolstered me very well. I was calm and centered through various kinds of emotional interactions, something I’m ordinarily not very good at. I love the scent, and the feeling of calm confidence and protection that came with it. Both stayed with me all day. I definitely need a big bottle of this.