tarotbydiana

Metallic Pearl A regal, ambitous plum metallic pearl. I purchased my bottle of Morgause Claw Polish at Will Call. It's not yet up on the BPTP site so there's no lab description at present. Morgause is a sumptuous winter berry shade. It's a metallic polish with a high shine finish. I imagine Morgause would appeal to many people as the personality of the color morphs depending on one's demeanor and attire. It's not pink. It's not plum. It's not red. Take an overripe raspberry and a plump blackberry and crush the two together. The juices would blend to form Morgause. The color would succeed at a family luncheon as well as a sexy rendezvous. The power of Morgause lies in the intent of the wearer. I would recommend a base coat and top coat to prolong the life of the polish. Although I find the solid gloss shades have a little better staying power than the metallics, I am truly pleased with the longevity of every BPTP polish I have tried. After three days of manicure abuse, I have one tiny chip earned by unravelling a firm knot in a length of velvet ribbon. I have committed many other such manicure horrors and Morgause can handle it.

Metallic Pearl Rich midnight plum pearl flecked with a silver metallic sheen. Midnight on the Midway was my virgin experience with BPTP polish. In the bottle, the silver swirls against the plum like stars across the galaxy's night canvas. Once applied to the nail, the color and the shimmer unify. Two coats are essential to make the plum as bright as it appears in the bottle. I am pleased at how much shine this polish had even before I added a protective topcoat. I am also amazed how BPTP can create a fashion color that is classic and elegant. It makes me think of shades Chanel would bring out for holiday wear. It's not often that I receive compliments on my nail color while out in public. I admit I couldn't stop staring at my own fingernails. I feel like the Midnight on the Midway polish is an accessory that helps define me. It's like a special sweater or a necklace I always feel completely at home within myself when I have it on.

GC imps typically aren't given out at East Coast Will Call. If there is a special LE frimp or frottle (free bottle) offered, these have been at both East and West Coast Will Calls. Carnivale cards are available at East Coast Will Call along with the appropriate Carnivale bottles purchased.

It's like someone took a bucket of newly picked strawberries and a pail of sugar and hurled the contents overhead and it rained down as sparkling pink glitter. The sugar note is white sugar (similar to the note in Hope and Faith and Sugar Moon) rather than brown sugar (Sugar Skull). It has the fizzy drink quality of Jailbait and the cheekiness of Pink Phoenix. For the lovers of sweet, ambrosial fruit, this is a pleasure. Strawberry is a happiness bearing note for me. I don't find Sticky Pillowcase impossibly foodie. The berries taste picked not smushed down, dehydrated into a chewy rectangle and mummified in plastic with a child magnet logo. The strawberries have life in them.

I acquired bottle DV previously reviewed by scotchbonnet I can see where she gets rose and honeysuckle. I also detect a subtle milk or cream note similar to Alice or Zarita the Doll Girl. There is an overall milky floral vibe on the skin. It's the type of milk that stays sweet and cool, and unlike the note in original Milk Moon or Obatala that translates to warm milk. If there is rose in this, it's subtle. It has a golden summer flowers and cream feel. It's hard to discern note by note what flowers are present in the bouquet, but it's lovely. In the locket, there is a touch of melon that I don't smell either in the bottle or on skin. I like DV best when it cavorts with my chemistry. This one is certainly staying with me as it's hard to find that perfect sweet cream note with flowers.

I feel some of the lab's most finely crafted and unusual scents come from the Salon category. It would be worth saving up for an imp set since they can't be ordered individually in imp form. The Death of Sardanapal is luscious and bizarre, so's the painting.

Snake Oil in the GC is the closest. I also think Mme. Moriarty in the Carnivale has the vibe too.

Yay! April Fool has the picture of the Fool from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck. How cool is that?

I am sorry you are feeling that way. Dove's Heart is very useful. I would also recommend Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo.

From my experience of being around dogs, they seem to be more interested in scents than repelled by them. I used to work retail years ago as a sales manager in a department store. I had to be up on ladders, moving merchandise etc and still look fashionable. What I wore a lot of around the holidays were dresses and separates in velvet that has a little stretch to it. It can take much more abuse than any dressy fabric I've ever worn. It doesn't seem to get those wear marks or scratches the way thicker, finer velvet does. You could always pair a stretch velvet top and a pretty pendant with sturdier black pants or a skirt and still look festive enough for your aunt and be dog friendly.

The Black Swan is a very dark purple to me.

Before I even unwrapped this soap, I was in love. An eyeball peers, a frog leg pokes up, a bone floats, pink worms slink, a fish skeleton wiggles from within the rim of a giant cauldron, sloshing with green liquid and frothy bubbles. The best soap label ever! What is beyond the festive wrapping is even more of a delight. The soap is pleasantly herbal in a fresh and mellow way. I am reminded of the 2007 version of Hunter Moon as well as the Buck Moon of yore, sans musk. The green clay adds a teensy bit of texture, not enough that I would consider it exfoliating. Cauldron Gunk has a smooth glide over skin. This soap seems the most moisturizing of this year's Halloweenies. I could imagine using Cauldron Gunk all year round. I truly wish this soap would enter the Trading Post catalog rather than tempt us only briefly as an LE.

On the initial application, Creepy smells like I smeared a heap of caramel on my wrists. In the next phase the apple was invited and the two socialized and mingled. Rum and coconut are notes that can be difficult for me, but neither were standouts. They wore feathered masks to the party. They seemed to mix with the apple and create the scent of a gourmet fizzy drink: a sweetened, carbonated apple cider. The caramel note haunted the air around me, a sweet-faced ghost, but when I pressed my nose to my wrists, I was greeted with sparkling apples. I can imagine wearing Creepy into the winter holidays. It would be a pleasurable scent to accompany leaf trodden walks and fireside gatherings.

I will admit that butter is an unkindly note once it comes in contact with my skin. I typically prefer not to have the butter note in the same zip code with my person. This year, however, I was able to buy the whole pumpkin plunder. I found Pumpkin#1 a little too sweet for my skin but it's beautiful in the locket, where I tend to keep gourmand scents. I was surprised at how balanced this blend is. The pumpkin and the jasmine tea are the most prevalent notes with the pear and the wine grapes adding a sparkle of nectar. Pumpkin #1 reminds me of the beginnings of fall when bartlett pears and sugar pumpkins begin their appearance in farmers' markets and my fruit bowl is arranged to overflowing. It's a fresh and proper scent, like having a pear tart in a tea house at 4 p.m. on an autumn day.

I saw it at will call and it has the standard Rappaccini's Garden label with the floral motif. Still pretty, but no toad.

I've had trouble with some of the pumpkin scents of the past because the butter note has been too prevalent for my chemistry to handle. I was interested in trying the BPTP pumpkin soap mainly to find a usuable form of the lab's pumpkin for my skin. I find this particular pumpkin to have a strong buttery top note when dry. When the soap meets water, the butter seems to subside and the smell of a carved jack-o'lantern emerges. It's the true fresh pumpkin smell I have been craving. While I love the soap in the tub, the smell of it dry is too strongly buttery for me. I combat this by keeping it in a drawer between uses. I wonder if the nuttiness the other reviewers are reporting is a hint of the shea in the soaps components. I used my bar of Pumpkin Soap in the bath. The red clay colors my skin in a pinkish terracotta for a moment and then it dissipates into the water. Washing with the soap feels like a spa beauty treatment.

Othello is a union of musk and tea rose drawn together by spice. In the guise of Shakespeare, it conjures Othello and Desdemona's passion before his unravelling. The rose is fair with a gentle sweetness and the musk is proper and almost courtly in it's elegance. The spices provide a brush of warmth like an unexpected touch. While Othello could certainly be viewed as a gentleman's scent, I think chemistry is a vital element in its wearability as a true gender neutral. I have read that rose is a common note in commercial men's cologne. Who knew? Othello is in keeping with Beth's handblended artistry. I find myself intrigued by her gender neutral blends and Othello will certainly be increasing my collection by another 5ml.

OMG! Schrodinger's Cat! I want a bottle! I also want to check one of the boxes. That's the cutest thing ever!

I am testing Bastet from an aged imp that has languished in my imp box. I am very tempted to pick up a bottle and let it linger before wearing it. The amber is much quieter and contributes an overall warmth to the blend rather than a clear, definable note. The strength of the almond has waned over time and the cardamom has gained prominence. The musk is demure. It presents the sensuality of a woman who doesn't have to try to enhance her appearance to have her innate attractiveness appreciated. This blend isn't showy. It slinks. Adding a subtle spice and personality, the myrrh and the saffron make their way into the blend like a cat commanding the attention of all eyes in the room.

Parlement of Foules is a Lupercalia scent I wished would return this year, but thankfully I was able to track down a second bottle. This scent reminds me of pressing my face into an heirloom white rose at full flower at a local arboretum. The white rose has a quiet purity. It is much different to me than many other BPAL rose notes, which seem sharper and higher. There is an edge of sweetness as flirty as a lace ruffle on a party dress. There is a touch of green in the backround that reminds me of looking at a white rose petal in direct sun when the thin vein of green is visible. The incense smells churchy to me. It's impossible for me to separate frankincense from a Cathedral. It reminds me of the scent of Catholic wedding with roses decorating the bridal bouquet and altar centerpiece while frankincense curls its perfumed snakes through the air. Growing stronger as it ages, the incense note balances with the rose. I love Parlement of Foules in the locket. The incense acquires an almost peppery brightness while the rose complements in classical beauty.

Kumiho has a delicate aroma of white tea. The perfume reminds me of the color of white tea as well, a light alteration to clear water, a hint. The ginger is subdued but present. It offers a tingle of scent. The soap has a smooth texture as it glides against skin. It's more cleansing than creamy. My skin is dry and sensitive. While the Kumiho soap didn't add moisture, it was balanced enough to clean while not leaving my skin parched. I would imagine this soap would be suitable for all skin types. Kumiho is the ideal soap for gift giving. While the fragrance is certainly not standard soap faire, it would likely appeal to a variety of tastes. It would be perfect to tuck into a birthday, holiday or housewarming package to spread the pleasure of the Trading Post. Inhaling the scent turns the calendar to Spring. It's a happiness inducing soap everyone should have on standby.

Apple is the most prevalent note in my bar of Samhain soap. The fragrance of woods and spices trail through the air of an apple orchard at harvest time. In a nearby patch, the pumpkins await their jack-o-lantern smiles. Macha captured a portrait of the season in a bar of soap. The powdered sandalwood adds a gentle abrasive that's perfect to help keep skin smooth as the air becomes cooler and crisper. I would imagine it would make a mild scrubbing hand soap too, though it would be tough to get it out of the vicinity of my bathtub. Samhain is my favorite BPTP soap so far. It makes me want to drink a full mug of hot apple cider, wear orange, jump into a freshly raked leaf pile and then go take a bath.

While I love the green glowworm color of Embalming Fluid in the bottle, on the nail it has a sheer opalescent glitter. I used one coat over a dark polish and it did have a bit of flash in low light without the showy glow-in-the-dark quality of a Halloween costume. It has enough flash to be novel and fun without blaring. Adding another coat would up the intensity and I am certainly open to that too. I found that putting on a top coat softens the feel of the raised glitter. The polish alone has a bit too much texture for me, but it's easily remedied. If I left it alone I would be tempted to pick at it, yet with a top coat, that temptation vanishes. Embalming Fluid reminds me of some of the polishes I wore when I was thirteen, except a much better quality version with a longer wear time and more manageable application. The polish smoothes on easily and doesn't land with a gloppy thud on the nail as the glitter polishes of long ago. Having shimmery fingernails makes me nostalgic and happy. I will be picking up a bottle for each of my five nieces. While younger girls would appreciate it, I do think it's wearable as a creative look for people of all ages. I can't wait to to try it over dark reds and plum shades for a holiday look. I think it belongs on my toenails!

Belladonna smells very sticky. It's a slow rolling of sap along the bark of a tree in a coniferous forest. I imagine elves in pointy, celadon hats anointing themselves with Belladonna before embarking on a woodland pilgrimage. A scent of forest magic, the transluscent green color would be suited to fill a corked vial. In the imp, it looks like a charm or philtre. I couldn't help but watch the green liquid coat the inside as I turned the imp like an hourglass. There's an unexpected whisper of floral layered in the green as if someone picked a few flowers from a winter faery's bouquet and suspended them in the sap. When I unstoppered the imp of Belladonna, I knew it was for me. A big bottle shall be mine!

These two LEs are my favorite decongestants: The Carpathian Mountains and Lick It.