filigree_shadow

Sandalwood with incense. There's something sweet in it too, like a floral note. Something about it smells very clean, which is weird because sandalwood and incense scents don't usually smell like that to me. Doesn't seem to be very strong at all, and I did a fairly large test. When it's dry, it's back to a nice sweet and dry incense scent. It's not the kind of incense scent I like to wear (I like the darker ones), but it's pretty.

In the bottle: Medicinal. Wet: Vetiver and vanilla. Yum. Dry: I can definitely tell that this has a Snake Oil base. But it doesn't do that powdery thing that fresh Snake Oil does on me, it goes in the smoky-vanilla direction like Snake Charmer does. The black coconut adds to the sweetness and overpowers the vetiver -- when it's dry I can't smell the vetiver nearly as well as I could when it was wet. And the opoponax = hubba hubba. This is absolutely everything I wanted it to be: smoky, dark, and smooth. ETA: After a couple of hours on my skin, Death Adder is close to Snake Charmer, my most favorite BPAL ever. It's smokier, a little bit less vanilla, and not as strong. But it's certainly close enough that I'm going to be forced to order about three bottles of this.

In the bottle: Herby, some citrus. Wet: Cold. That same coldness that's in all the blends that are wintery/slushy. A little bit of citrus in there somewhere, but mostly what I'm getting is that nose-tingling cold scent. Dry: Well, darn. I don't know why my skin has to bury all the other notes under whatever that cold note is, but it does this to me every time. I had the same problem with Wolf Moon. Sigh. I think I might have to just give up on the cold blends. Once the coldness finally gives up a little, all I can smell is lemon. I can tell from the way the oil smells in the bottle that it is supposed to smell different than this, but my skin is messing it up. Sorry, Hunger Moon. It's not your fault.

In the bottle: Cardamom, and a bit masculine. Wet: Softly spicy. Not a loud spice at all. Wonder why I can't really smell any tangerine? Usually that pops up right at the beginning. Dry: I like this a whole lot. It smells kind of like a spicy dark tea scent. Warm but not hot. What a fantastic combination of notes. Beautifully blended (no single note seems overly prominent) and wears close to the skin.

I've been inspired by the recent spate of blogs about bringing out the inner sex kitten, so... I woke up my husband at 4:00 in the morning for purposes of sex. This was a pretty common thing when we were first together, but after six and a half years it's not as common as it probably should be. I'm not even sure if you can say "not as common" if it's like once in three years. When he got home told me he was tired at work all day today but he was also happy. Maybe I should do that more often. Next on my sexy agenda: Tweezing my eyebrows into pinup-style arches!

After I wore Tamora the first time I ordered 2 10mls of it. It was the first imp I used up completely. I once spilled an imp of it all over myself and I didn't even get tired of it then. I think it's beautiful, sweet, and glorious. I always like peach scents, and heliotrope is one of my favorite floral notes. The heliotrope is just as strong as the peach in this blend, so I'm really glad I like both of those notes so much. It's not a juicy, fruity peach scent, it's a floral peach. The combination of those two with vanilla is basically perfect, and the amber and sandalwood keep it soft rather than being too bright. Tamora was one of my first BPAL loves, and I'll always love it.

Lots of lavender at first, but then the amber and patchouli tone it down. It turns into a little bit more of an earthy scent -- not overly lavender. This is the sharp sort of lavender that smells good on my husband but not on me. It's going kind of powdery on me, too. Also I think it's funny that lady_pandora said that the scent reminded her of spice cookies. When I first tried this scent months ago, I wrote this in my notes: "Something about this scent reminds me of breakfast."

I have this one long black skirt that's a little tight and kind of stretchy, and it goes to my ankles. One time I was wearing it walking along the sidewalk, and I had to take a step up on a curb, and I swear my leg sproinged back down like it was snapped by a rubberband. Not too sexy. I learned to hike it a little before trying to step up. It's funny how you sometimes have to learn how to move in your own clothes.

Just one little note: My imp is called "Old Sybaris" -- note sure how aged it is, but it's not spankin' new. Sybaris is a pretty blend of creamy violets and incense. The clove kicks in when it's drying and adds to the incense to make it smell mainly like a spicy incense scent with a little bit of floral underneath. Violets are usually pretty loud on me, but they're quite soft in this blend. I like it a lot. Lots of clove when it's totally dry. I happened to have a newer imp of Sybaris so I tried that one to compare, and the violets are a lot stronger in the newer imp. ETA: I forgot to mention this part: From a distance the creamy violet scent seems to be the strongest. The clove/incense part of the scent stick pretty close to the skin.

One thing to note: My imp is one of the ones with the old style white paper labels (the one that has Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab across the top of the back of the label) -- I'm not exactly sure how aged it is, but it's probably at least 8 months. Velvet is a lot of sandalwood and myrrh with just a smidge of cocoa. The myrrh is much stronger in this than it usually is. I wouldn't have guessed there was anything like vanilla in this -- it smells mosty like dark sandalwood. The cocoa makes it smell a bit dry but gives it some warmth too. This is a great scent. Why don't I have a bottle of this yet?

Here's a strange question for you. What do you do when you realize that your professor is giving wrong answers in class? Last quarter I had a 300-level anatomy class. This quarter I have a 100-level physiology class. This is the first time this professor has taught at Northwestern -- usually she teaches at a community college. Last week she mis-identified a bone on her own lecture slide as a humerus when it was very clearly a femur. She sort of hemmed and hawed over it for a couple of seconds and then said humerus. So it wasn't just an oral typo. Last night she spelled the muscle sternocleidomastoid wrong on her lecture slide, and then she mispronounced it as well. But the real kicker was that she had it up there as an example of how muscles are sometimes named based on their points of insertion. She said this muscle is named for its three insertion points: the sternum, the clavicle [both true] and... "mastication, which is chewing, which means it goes into your neck." Ummm... no. It's attached to the mastoid process, which is a piece of the temporal bone of the skull that sticks down behind your ear. I realize she may need to simplify some explanations because it's a 100-level class, but simplify does not mean the same thing as "tell students the wrong answer." When a student asked her what the difference was between "extends the thigh" and "extends the leg" when we were talking about different muscle functions, she didn't know the answer. Our anatomy professor beat us over the head with learning to call the upper part of the lower limb the "thigh" and the lower part of the lower limb the "leg." She told us specifically not to call the whole lower limb the "leg" because that was anatomically incorrect. So why did my physiology professor not know that? I don't know what to do here. I paid full Northwestern tuition for this class, and this is the first time at Northwestern that I felt like I was getting a crappy education for my money. All my other Northwestern professors have been stellar. Should I go to the dean? Should I ask my advisor what I should do? I've never been in this situation before and I don't know how to approach this.

Thanks! I sent an email to my advisor, and she was very concerned (as she should be, I think). She told me that for new professors, the students fill out a mid-term evaluation halfway through the quarter in order to give the professor a chance to fix mistakes rather than waiting until the class evaluation at the end of the quarter to get feedback. She also gave me a phone number for the dean -- she told me that I can call and be anonymous. Not too anonymous, however... there are only 3 or 4 students in the whole class (of about 35) that had anatomy before taking this class, so if an anonymous student says her anatomical descriptions in class are wrong, I bet she'll be able to figure out who it is. Especially since I had to tell her on the quiz last week that she had left one of the answers out of the "word bank" for our multiple choice questions and she had to announce two new words to add in the middle of the quiz. I never think students should correct teachers in class, but come on. That was pretty bad.

Bleah. I feel crappy. Several people I know feel crappy. Why does January always suck? People have taken down their Christmas lights, and there's only a dusting of snow on the ground right now, so when I'm driving around everything just looks stark and icky. I wish that "Christmas lights" were actually "winter lights" and people would leave them up for the entire winter. I can't stand the interval between having no Christmas lights and spring. It's so bleak and dreary. Another two months of this. Gah. The sky is white instead of blue. No birds are singing. The only thing I smell outside is automobile exhaust. Probably what I need to do is start a fire in the fireplace, hang some colorful Christmas tree lights all throughout my family room, burn a yummy-scented tart, bake some bread, and load up some energetic happy music on the stereo. But I don't have the energy for that, so I'll settle for happy music and a yummy tart.

I haven't written a review about Jack yet? Goodness, where are my manners. I owe Jack a lot. When I first started trying BPAL oils I saw that this had pumpkin in it and I thought, "GROSS! Who would want to smell like a pumpkin. That's disgusting." Then I got some in a swap or something and decided to be brave and give it a whirl. So... who wants to smell like a pumpkin? ME. That's who. I had no idea that in perfume the pumpkin note would be so creamy and rich. Pumpkin is my absolute favorite foody note. It's so much better than the vanillas and chocolates on my skin -- it never smells plasticy or too sweet or does that weird sour milk thing on me. I wouldn't call it a buttery scent per se, but it has the absolute smoothness of butter. Also it lasts for a long time. Pumpkin and peach is a fabulous combination, and the spices keep it from smelling too decadently rich. The pure lusciousness of Jack is what led me to try the Pumpkin Patch scents, and I adore them all. I also love Pumpkin Queen. Jack smells almost illegally good on me. It's definitely a favorite.

In the imp, the oil smells kinda bad. On, however, the strawberry blossoms. The floral notes behind it make it smell like a whole strawberry field rather than just the fruit. When it's drying the strawberry gives up a little makes way for more florals, which are dark and a bit acrid. Reminiscent of incense. The whole scent becomes sweeter as it dries. The strawberry in this is not juicy, it's kind of powdery, oddly enough. I'm an extremely hard sell on strawberry scents, but I like this one a lot more than others. I think it's because it's distorted just enough here that if I didn't know there was strawberry in this I don't think I would have been able to name the note. I think this would make a good summertime scent.

The scent seems lightly herbal (but like soft, gentle herbs, not bitter or sharp ones) and fresh. Slightly salty. It's an extremely soft scent -- I can barely smell it. Strangely, when I sniff this in the imp, I smell practically nothing -- almost no scent at all. I'm not sure about using the oil for its intended purpose, but the scent is definitely not going to deter me from trying it -- I find it very pleasant (and practically nonexistent).

This was one of the first oils on my BPAL wishlist -- I love the idea of it, and the notes sounded good too. I got it, tried it, thought it didn't smell right, and swapped it. Then a couple months later I was looking at the notes and thought, "Hey, that shoulda smelled good, why did I swap that?" I got another imp, tried it again, and swapped that one away too. The sandalwood in this reminds me of cedarwood, it's kind of a peppery wood scent. Kind of like Cathedral. The frankincense makes it quite sweet. And now I've tried enough other blends to know that red patchouli isn't good for me. Most patchouli is fine on me, and in fact I like it a lot, but for some reason red patchouli kind of smells sour on me, a little musty. So now I've written this review to remind myself why I don't need to try this oil again, even though the notes sound good.

A lovely honey fig scent -- the patchouli makes it a little bit dark, the ylang ylang makes it a little sweet, and the clove makes it kinda spicy. I've tried this one quite a few times, and today for some reason my skin is really amping the fig. The last time it was spicier. I like the figgy version better. It's reminding me a lot of Freak Show -- if I didn't already have a bottle of that one I'd want a bottle of this one.

I have one of the new imps from the Lab after Misk U was added to the GC catalog, and it definitely smells different from my Springtime in Arkham bottle. This new one has a lot more of a coffee scent to it, and more wood, too. Kind of boozey... it's a slightly bitter scent. The old one is creamy with a little bit of booziness, and that great oakwood underneath it. I don't get nearly as much coffee in the aged scent as in the fresh scent. Not quite as much wood, either. The SiA one is one of my husband's favorite scents -- he wears it a lot. Personally, I liked the aged version a lot better than the fresh one.

This smells mostly like red wine on me, but yay for the cocoa! It's the perfect combination with the red wine because the dryness of one complements the other. It's also sweeter than the other red wine blends I've tried, which is a plus for me. It smells more like fruit than strictly like wine, to be honest. It's a little bit grapey, but not like grape juice or anything. There's definitely a boozey aspect to it. I like this one.

The first time I tried this was a long time ago, and I didn't know that I would eventually try to avoid almond, jasmine, and oakmoss. If I saw those notes in a blend today, I probably wouldn't be too impatient to try it. However... before I knew which notes I usually like and don't like, I tried this. Then I ordered a bottle. It's only very slightly floral, and I can barely smell any almond. Oakmoss usually smells kind of dirty on me, but not in this. It smells dark and sultry, perfumey and languid. It's not an overpowering scent, it's rather soft. The red sandalwood and Egyptian musk is a great combination, and amazingly I like the oakmoss. This was one of the first BPAL bottles I ordered from the Lab, and I still love this scent. (It kinda helps that my husband thinks it's incredibly sexy, too. )

Two Monsters is a pretty good ringer for Geek. It's a little softer but very similar. I will happily second that one. Geek is my husband's signature scent, and when he runs out of his current five bottles ( ), he has Two Monsters lined up as the replacement. It's not exactly the same scent, but it has the same feel.

Hubby and I have too much stuff. It's taking over our house. I am something of a packrat (if by "something of a" you might mean "HUGE")... I have: - bright fuschia-colored socks that were in style for about a minute in 1986. They don't have holes and are still kinda cushiony (probably because I've worn them twice), so I never got rid of them. With the exception of a few pairs, most of my socks can be dated to the early- or mid-90s. - underwear that I bought 10 years ago. If it still fits and doesn't have any holes, I still have it. Those account for, and I'm not kidding, at least 40% of my underwear drawer. - any piece of paper that hasn't been written on. If there's 2 pages left in the pad of paper, I keep it. This includes spiral notebooks from college (which was 15 years ago). - casette tapes I've had since college. I had a vast tape collection before CDs. I meant to replace them with CDs, and I did, for most of the ones I listened to most frequently. And now we're in the age where even CDs are being phased out... and yet I still have casette tapes. - VHS tapes. Same thing. I haven't looked at a VHS tape since we moved into this house 4.5 years ago. But I still have every VHS tape I ever bought. - clothing. I keep everything I've ever bought unless it is too worn to wear. I have sizes from 5 to 18, small to 2X. Some of them still have tags. And let's not talk about concert/band t-shirts. - and just plain crap. Half a cross-stitch thing I never finished. Half a bottle of shampoo I stopped using in 1998. A metric ton of various candle holders I never use. Junk I bought on various vacations. Books I read half of and will never pick up again. CDs I bought 12 years ago and are still in plastic. This crap has got to go. We have a four-bedroom house with a basement, and it's FULL. We are two people. This is no way to live. My sister (a single mom, she and her son live in a house they share with my mother) is currently unemployed and is wondering how she's going to make her car payment. I take one look around my house and see the answer. This is a great incentive for de-crapifying my house. It would benefit my sister. So I called her up the other night and said, "Hey, if I give you a bunch of stuff, would you be willing to sell it on eBay and keep the money for yourself?" She said sure. I told her I'd come over next weekend or the one after with the stuff. I bet she has no idea that my Subaru Outback will be FULL of boxes of clothes, DVDs, CDs, and books. She's in for a surprise.

I've worn this several times and I'm still not sure what I think of it. There's something spicy about it -- something that reminds me of cinnamon. I'm not sure where that's coming from. It's definitely a deep scent. It smells a little bit dark. It has that odd almost woodsiness that I sometimes get from resins, but there's something sweet about it too. I generally wear scents that I find either comforting or lovely, and unfortunately this scent is neither of those for me. It's a little too spicy for me... but I usually can't handle very much spice at all. I shy away from anything that smells hot. It's funny how things change as I work my way through the entire BPAL catalog. I first got this imp quite a while ago, and at the time I'd only tried a handful of BPAL oils. Among the ones I had at that time, this was a favorite. But now that I've tried so many others -- particularly the ones in the Ars Draconis category -- this one no longer stands out. It makes me feel kind of sad. I feel like I've betrayed my poor little Blood Amber imp by deciding I like others better. Ah, well. I can only wear so many scents, so I have to pick favorites.

Although this oil is bright red, dragon's blood doesn't seem to be the prominent scent. On my skin, it has kind of a salty metallic scent -- not so much aquatic, but definitely salty. This one has a much more "perfumey" quality than most of the other Ars Draconis blends. Although dragon's blood usually smells resiny-sweet to me, here it smells almost spicy. This is an interesting blend, but aquatic/salty scents aren't my favorites.