minnalavender

Not to be vulgar, but migraines have really fucked up my life. I first became involved with aromatherapy specifically to find ways to help me cope with the pain and nausea they create. GRR is not just peppermint oil. I've used plain peppermint aromatherapy oil for years and years, and I know it when I smell it. It's definitely the main player, but I agree that their are other notes at play. I detect Eucalyptus, which is fantastic as one of my symptoms is sinus congestion and runny nose. The consistency of the oil is different than any other peppermint oil I've had access to. I would guess that reflects the quality of the oil as well as its purity. A lot of aromatherapy oils are NOT supposed to be used neat on the skin. I can dab this right underneath my nostrils and on my temples. GRR is much more straight-up therapeutic in its scent than other mint scents Beth has released, like Lick It (Again), Green Tree Viper, etc. I would use this in a steam humidifier as well as on my skin. Thank you Beth, from the bottom of my heart.

This is good stuff - and the timing of its arrival is wonderful! Three of us have head and chest colds. With a dab beneath each nostril Oof immediately opened our sinuses and helped us breathe. I agree with the reviewer who preferred it over pharmacy sinus salves because there's no petroleum greasiness to contend with. An imp is also the perfect discrete way to transport and use it. Good stuff! I love the Lab so much for creating things that make us feel so much better.

ITA w/savage_rose: the packaging is exceptional - really creative and wonderful - and the scent is very subtle, mostly in the lather. This actually suits me just fine! I love enjoying the aromatherapy as I'm bathing, yet not being limited in my choice of fragrance after the bath is over. I have a LOT of soap and gels in my bath, including everything from handmade to Lush. They're separated by scent. I get a lot more use from the neutral, lightly-scented ones than from the scent-saturated bars. I loved the color of the bar, and the light brown suds. I used the bar as shaving soap with a none-too-sharp razor and got lovely shaved legs, no razor rash or dryness afterwards - it's that rich and moisturizing. I have no problems with dry skin, but a harsh soap will leave me feeling tight all over. Not Bliss. This is good stuff. I can't WAIT to try Snake Oil soap tomorrow!

Wow - either the batches are way different or people's noses are a wonder to me! Chocolate? Musk? Cinnamon? Hmmm... EGM isn't anything that I expected it to be from the notes. I have been utterly spoiled to death by the cocoa absolute in Boomslang and Wulric; now my expectation when I read "chocolate" is to smell that same thick, rich, fudgy chocolate note that gives me multiple nose-gasms. Well, I never smell even the teeniest hint of chocolate-covered cherries or cocoa or cinnamon in EGM! (I'm glad there is no cinnamon in mine - I put it on a small patch of tender inner arm skin and if it was going to burn me, it would have - and did not. Not even a tingle.) Wet in the bottle I smell Beth's buttery caramel and lots and LOTS of cardamom. Period. Wet on my skin, the two main notes in the bottle bloom and I am wearing an evil Graham cracker! It srsly cracks me up - I'm snack time in Hell! While it's certainly not unpleasant, I would have been MUCH more in love with smelling like the cocoa absolute-covered Graham cracker from Hell. *sigh* Beth, you've spoiled me. The drydown, however, is quite lovely. The cardamom gets sweet and dusty and reminds me very much of the cardamom note in Treat #2, one of my absolute favorite drydowns of all time. It's what I imagine Shub to smell like, actually. I'm not sure if I want to smell like evil Graham crackers just to wait for that note, though. As long as foodie-scent lovers don't get a Cinnamon SN experience from EGM, I imagine they'll love it lots! It sure smells like delish baked goods on me. I've just come to the conclusion that when it comes to food scents, I'd rather smell like candy than a cookie! Oh well. It was worth a gamble.

I totally agree with the reviewer who said that Fire Pig reminded her of the happy-go-lucky sister of HGM! There's the same cheerful fruitiness, but combined with the gorgeous peony note from Peony Moon instead of ho wood and resins. It's innocent and fun and very sweet and feminine. In the drydown, it deepens into a luscious fruity floral. Mmmm. This makes me smile. I love anyone and anything that makes me smile. What a lovely scent! I will treasure it.

MMMMMmmmmm. I traded my Agony: Passion for a bottle of Snowblind, as the clove in Passion overwhelmed all of the other notes. I'm so glad that I did! This is Yet Another Freaking Amazing mint scent! I mint & I vanilla, so... no-brainer! But this has another, buttery note in it that is so pretty on me - the buttery yellow cake note that's in so many other of Beth's divine dessert scents. After the mint dries down and fades, the cake and vanilla linger on, making me swoon. The throw is very close to the skin, which suits me just fine after once having spilled an entire 5ml bottle of Lick It on my jeans right before I had to run to the market for last-minute birthday party items. I will never forget how embarrassing it was to have people staring at me with various expressions of disbelief and dislike... Snowblind lives up to the hype. It is gorgeous. *sigh* I'm really glad I have a bottle!

This is a simple review, as Hope is the same on me from application to drydown: pure, sweet rose. She's not as sugary as her sister Faith, and that's good - rose in and of itself is so sweet. Throw is good and she lasts for hours. If you love rose, you'll love Hope. I love all of Beth's roses, from the aggressive, powerfully green Rose Red to the sweet resinous rose of Parlement of Foules. Hope doesn't disappoint! She is a sweet, sugary pink rose in my mind's eye; beneath the sugar I can faintly smell the greenery and cut stem. She's a soft, relaxing, very old-fashioned scent and one I'll reach for often in the summer. I'm really, really glad I gambled on this set. Beautiful concept and execution. Scents like these make me glad I'm a woman.

When I read the notes, I wanted Passion with a... passion. I was so happy when I received it! In the bottle: Clove. No musk, no vanilla, no amber - no nothin' but clove. *shrug* On my skin: Clove! Pure, unadulterated clove. Clove SN. What the heck has happened to my red musk?? My amber?? Did I get a weird bottle? Is my nose broken? What?! Tried a second time. Clove SN. Swapped to a more loving home. Gorram evil skin!!

I purchased this oil to anoint my Absolution Conjure bag, but I'm using it mainly to anoint candles and use with wax tarts as it smells absolutely heavenly to me! The main note is lavender - my beautiful, soothing lavender. *beatific smile* There are other notes, including a cleansing menthol-like herbal one, but lavender predominates. As for its intended purpose, it really does its job. It's very calming when there's fighting in the house, inevitable with an adult child and my husband living under the same roof! I also love dabbing a little on my temples at night when I want to wind down. In conjunction with Somnus and TAL Nocturne, I fall asleep with a minimum of mental rehashing of the day, just drift into restful sleep. It's a wonderful blend I'd highly recommend to folks who need a little peace.

I received Heartache, not what I was hoping for. I have enough of it already. First sniff from the bottle: Mmmm. Beautiful blackberry and sage! This reminds me so much of Oblation and Bitter Moon, two scents I adore - this is a good sign! On my skin, the blackberry and sage still dominate, and oddly enough, I don't smell patchouli. I like the Lab's patchouli, too. It's very sweet on me - no bitterness at all. Can heartache be sunny? This is! It's so pretty. The initial notes stay true in the drydown as well. I'm so glad I received this blend! Unfortunately, it seems like heartache is just perfect for me.

Ohhhhhhh crap. Oh crap. Love at first freakin' sniff. After the Tragedy of Luperci I was so bummed I almost didn't test Red Lantern. BIG MISTAKE!! This is coconutty, caramel goodness, with an undertone of sweet tobacco and incense - so many notes I love and who love me back. Who needs that indifferent wolfman? Red Lantern is here and he's hot to trot. In the vial, the sweet, buttery, sugary caramel is making my mouth water; the drydown reminds me of Tiresius, even though there's no sandalwood in this scent. It's gorgeous. Oh, Red Lantern... I would meet you behind my boyfriend Smut's back and commit delicious obscenities with you all night long. Actually, I'd love to do a three-way with Smut and Red Lantern - I think we'd layer beautifully together. Musk, booze, tobacco, caramel... gahhh. Enough cheezy sexual comparisons. I want to slather myself in Red Lantern, and all I have is this measly imp! Must. Get. Bottles. SOON.

God - I am SO SO jealous of all of the reviewers before me who got what sounds like multiple orgasms in a bottle from Luperci! It's pure men's aftershave on me - lovely, expensive, sexy men's aftershave, but not something I'll ever wear. And I do so well with unisex scents!! I will pass this decant along to my husband, who I'm sure will smell wonderful wearing it, the fucker. lol

The Oblation is a beautiful fruity, summer blend. In the vial lavender dominates, which suits me just fine! However, once on my skin, the lavender note recedes and the fruit really blossoms. The blackberry note blends perfectly with the herbal lavender and what I assume is the dianthus - if there's honey, it's not the same kind as in O that turns into baby wipes on my skin. This is a sweet, old-fashioned china bowl full of blackberries next to a vase with lavender on a checkered tablecloth on the porch in June - simple, sweet, and lovely. I just adore it! Big bottle for sure.

ITA w/the previous reviewer! Tiresias is another unique and complex scent. (The 13-n-1 has just blown me away with the originality of it all.) In the vial: caramel, patchouli, and cinnamon leaf. Ooooh - I love this caramel! It's deeply browned sugar and a perfect top note for the darker notes. On my skin the red sandalwood amps, yet is kept from too much spicy woodiness by the other notes, beautiful patchouli and caramel most of all. In this middle phase the currant waves hello too. The tobacco, red sandalwood, and patchouli give this just enough bitterness and masculine feel to keep it from going all soft and girlie on me like Wulric does. I do love how the caramel gives it a "foodie" feel. Boy, the darker scents in this Carnavale rock my socks off. Tiresias is completely androgynous on me. I love that it's that assertive, too. One of my first GC loves was Bow & Crown, as it was so butch, yet I could wear it like I owned it. Tiresias is like a really badass MB: Underpants to me! In that scent the sandalwood amped so much it overwhelmed the sweet notes - in Tiresias, sandalwood complements the sweet notes, highlighting them by contrast, if that makes any sense! If Undies had smelled like this on me I would have wept at the beating on my wallet. lol! Gah. Yet another CD I'm going to have to buy!

Another Snake I'm in love with! This is going to be a completely useless review, but I'm writing it anyway. Western Diamondback is SEX. It smells incredibly good on me - Snake Oil lite, heavy on the vanilla, with a hint of leather and sage - but want to smell this on a man. Right before I attack him. teh S3x0r. That is Western Diamondback. Yep.

I LOVE minty things, always have. For me, Green Tree Viper is a new must-have. It starts out pure sugary mint in the vial - what I had hoped that Lick It Again would smell like! One sniff and I feel refreshed and clear-headed. On my skin, the mint is still the dominant note, but the slightly lemony bergamot and the tea notes are definitely there rounding out the sugary mintiness. To be perfectly honest, I barely smell any Snake Oil in this snake until the drydown, but that's fine by me. The predominant notes are beautiful in and of themselves. (And how does that happen?? How can I not detect the Snake Oil from the get-go? It's so strong to me!) GTV has almost no throw and disappears quickly on my skin, but that's no problem - I carry pretty imp holders with me always and love to reapply. Despite the peppermint, it is very Asian in tone. It should wear a cheongsam. lol! (I'll wear one for it instead.) I'll be wearing this a lot during the heat of summer, and also when I feel like putting on a sophisticated, Shanghai-esque tea perfume. It also has aromatherapeutic qualities without any medicinal association, which I love! Mint is wonderful for settling the tummy. So Edited to add: The decant I have has oxidized/aged VERY rapidly and boy, have the Snake Oil components come to the forefront now!! I love this even more than I did when it was new. As a result I've acquired another bottle just for aging.

Mmmmm. I'm glad I gambled on this scent (orchid makes my head go owie ). It's absolutely gorgeous! In the bottle - faint patchouli and resins, with a slight floral undertone. On my skin, all the florals bloom like mad, as they are wont to do. Oh, there's orchid, the bitch! Thankfully, the resins and the patchouli keep the florals from taking over the whole show, and what emerges is a very slinky, spicy, and mysterious bouquet. I detect the tonka note from Bitter Moon as it dries, but the coconut stays very much in the background on my skin. The throw is close on me, for some reason! Even though this is primarily spicy, it keeps a freshness about it that I love - kind of like clean skin smell, if that makes any sense. I really like it. EDIT: After a few more hours, the orchid has taken over and killed my head. DD is off to a more loving home.

Wulric needs more love! He's wonderful. This is another cocoa scent, with dark brown cocoa absolute sunk to the bottom of the vial (decant from CD group). In the vial the two notes that jump out at me are the cocoa and the lavender, instantly endearing the big lug to me. I love my lavender so much, but it's usually a bit player. I'm so glad to see it center stage! Wet on my skin, they're still the only two notes I can detect, and I'm a happy Mattie! Who ever would have thought that they'd blend so beautifully? I'm not getting a masculine vibe from it at all, either - Wulric is sweet and gentle in a lovely herbal way, but with the creamy vanilla holding the two strangely complimentary notes together. The vetiver is very low-key at this point, and I smell just a hint of dusky sage. On the drydown, the lavender and cocoa recede and leave a wonderful, gentle, musky vanilla-tinged sweetness in their wake. Beth has created yet another completely unique, complex olfactory experience. I LOVE Wulric! I adore lavender and I do well with "gender neutral" fragrances as I amp every sweet, floral note to the nth degree, but Wulric is a real doll on me - Zarita could kick his ass with one tiny hand tied behind her back. I wish I knew a real guy as sweet as he is! Edited because I can't spell.

Received as part of a decant circle. Oh deer Jeebis - Boomslang is an orgasm in a vial!!! I can't even write a coherent review, it's so good! And I am not a foodie person! I do, however, love Freak Show with all of my heart - and the chocolate in Boomslang reminds me of the cocoa in Freak Show, rich and dark. Which reminds me: this is THE darkest, thickest oil I've ever seen - and it separates! I have to roll the vial in-between my palms to incorporate the darker oil with the lighter before applying. In the vial and wet on skin: chocolate. Not milk chocolate, not bitter dark chocolate - like the perfect hot chocolate with just enough milk and just the right amount of vanilla. Snake oil emerges quickly from beneath it, and when it does... it's so beautiful I have no vocabulary for it. I'm not a Snake Oil fan, but when combined with these extra notes it's so lovely I want to BATHE in it! It's still strong and sexy-spicy, but with a touch of dark chocolate gentleness and sweetness that I guess I need to love it. I would almost swear there was some amber in this blend - as it dries down it has that baby powdery amber note, softening it even more. Oh. I love Boomslang the way I love Snake Charmer, and that is saying something. Perfect. There will be several bottles of Boomslang for me before the Carnavale goes bye-bye - oh yes. I'll wear this all the time!

I finally got my hands on a little bit of this, and couldn't wait to try it! In the bottle: sweet, buttery rum. Oooooh, I love the booze note! It's so sweet and delicious! On my skin, it quickly turns into buttery cake a la Haloa, but without the wine and with the spiciness of sandalwood underneath it. Unfortunately, my skin both eats the scent while amping the sandalwood like whoa. When I press my nose to my wrist, I smell like a sweet, smoky pencil. These 'pants will be traveling to a more loving home.

I want to bathe in Hope. She smells that good! Sweet, soft, sugary, creamy vanilla violets... like sugar frosted violet petals on a white wedding cake. It's not fair that my stupid skin eats her whole! Good thing there are scent lockets. I'm going to buy another set and keep those bottles to age, as I hope she'll grow stronger, with more throw. PERFECT scent. I her. Switched --Shollin

This is a beautiful scent: a light, tropical floral anchored by vanilla and skin musk. I'm not really getting any fruit from it at all. It has good throw - I wore it without knowing that the meeting I was attending was "no fragrances," and I had to sit with my coat collar pulled up around my chin and my wrists in my sleeves. lol! I don't think that worked very well - people kept sniffing and glaring at me anyway. Ah, bugger 'em. Vasakasajja was worth it! It made me feel pretty, even while getting the evil eye. That's a great scent! It strikes me as very pink, in the same way as Pink Moon and a lot of the blends that contain strawberry are. The orchid note can give me a terrible migraine, but in Vasakasajja the musk and vanilla keep it from taking over - as it dries down the florals recede and only the notes I love remain. It lasts for hours, as well. I'll wear this a lot, esp. in the summer. Now I can't wait to try the other Heroine scents!

Oh, this is a lovely surprise. I expected something much lighter and more milky/buttery. Zarita packs a punch! In the bottle: I don't smell any floral or creamy notes at all. This is all buttery, Sugar Skull-type brown, caramelized sugar, one of my absolute favorite notes! It's making my mouth water. On my skin, the iris and orange blossom emerge from beneath the sugar. I've never smelled anything like it before! With wear, the sugar slowly melts away, leaving the gentle scent of the floral notes. Iris can be iffy with my wonky head, but the depth of the caramelized sugar makes it behave. Sugar Skull isn't something I'd wear regularly in the spring or summer - it's the spirit of autumn to me. But the delicate floral notes in Zarita create a scent I'd wear all year 'round. I'm a huge fan of Sugar Skull and I love florals, so this is a new favorite. Gorgeous! No one could ever create a scent like this except the Lab.

I was really looking forward to getting the Baka kitty! Cinnamon and my skin don't get along very well, but the other listed notes are so gorgeous on me I decided to get a bottle and wear it in a scent locket if I had to. I couldn't pass spicy orange tea goodness up! I'm glad I took a chance. I got one of the benevolent kitties. (The label art is great - kitty looks just like my old girl, Fangie!) In the bottle: orange and cinnamon are definitely the dominant notes, but I can smell that cardamom in Treat #2, which thrills me - that note gives me the best drydown ever! I was a little afraid of the cinnamon on my skin, but what the hell. I never do anything halfway, so I put a good dab on my inner forearm where the skin is really tender. I can feel it tingle, but so far no rash! And it smells so good. The orange recedes, the spicy cinnamon and cardamom blend with the tea leaf and cherry blossom - very floral and reminiscent in tone of the Asian-themed lunacies from last year. It's soft, spicy, delicate and exotic. I don't smell much musk, but perhaps that's the note that makes it sexy? Almost no throw, but that could be because I just dabbed it, and not on a pulse point. It's odd - the cinnamon seems to be digging little sharp claws into my arm, but there's no visible reaction. Is that the evil side of this kitty? Purrrrr. This makes me feel mysterious, sophisticated and slinky, like a little black dress and pumps. I love it and I'm glad I gambled on a bottle!

I LOVE Teh Smut! I wear the "old" version all the time - there's something about the combination of musks and sweet-sweet booze notes that smells sexy yet playful and silly on my skin - not really smutty at all. I was a little nervous when I read that this year's version was different - I want to stockpile the same lovely musk that I fell in love with before! Thankfully, I don't really detect any difference in the two besides aging. I figure most of the bottles I own are a year or so old, and after that amount of time, all the bpal scents deepen and mature. It has the same medium throw and when my nose catches a whiff of it I still grin. I am definitely buying a few more bottles to keep in my box for aging, and I'm really grateful it still smells the same to me!