oedipa

The Queen has finally arrived! After waiting for what seems like an eternity, I pull the coffin lid back... Wet on skin: Wow, berries! And some sort of musty undertone - definitely crypt-like. 5 minutes: Dusty sharp smells with a slight berry undertone and now, wait...rose? 10 minutes: Lots of rose! Rose rose rose! With a sweet and sharp afterbite. 30 minutes: It's...umm? This scent morphs like CRAZY! Now the berries are back - I strain for pomegranate (oh, how I love thee!) but get a nosefull of gravedirt instead. 2 hours +: It finally ends up as a mishmash of sweet berries and spicy, almost peppery, dirt. Overall, the Queen is probably not for me. I may keep her just so the coffin can be properly occupied, or I may see if I can find her another, more loving, home.

Green tea leaf, jasmine, coriander, sage, guava pulp, freesia, passion flower, lizard's leg, howlet's wing, scale of dragon, hemlock root, and eye of newt. Water, saponified organic fair-trade palm kernal oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, organic fair-trade shea butter, castor bean oil, jojoba oil, green sea clay, Cauldron Gunk fragrance, and parsley powder. Wow, first review? Neat! I got a little chunk of this from Miss GRR (enough to tide me over until mine arrives!) and it's amazing! It smells very...green (probably the green tea leaf?), a little bit sweet, but mostly green. The lather is good, and the scent lingers for just a bit on my skin before taking off. I may have to purchase another bar, if it's still available!

Ok, let me preface this review by saying I have never been particularly interested in scented soaps - I use Dove because it gets me clean and doesn't dry out my skin, and that's that. However, because this is BPTP I decided to give soap a chance. And I'm so glad I did! It arrived so beautifully packaged I almost felt bad opening it. The scent was super-strong Snake Oil even through the wrapper, and when I removed that I found a delightfully scented little brown bar with its own brimstone stamp. I carefully cut away a good-sized slice, noticing the marbling through the bar, and practically lept into the shower. The lather is good, not great, the scent is fabulous - it's starting to get cold in Seattle so I actually stay in the shower much longer than usual & end up using the soap twice, once at the beginning of the shower and once at the end. Out of the shower, the scent lingers lightly on my skin for a few hours...I catch a whiff of it every now and then, surprising myself. My skin doesn't seem overly dried out or overly moisturized. Overall, this soap is totally a worthwhile indulgence...not for everyday use, but definitely makes me feel luxurious!

This is the 3rd bottle of 13 I've had the opportunity to be around for - the 1st (orange Oct '06) is OMGAMAZINGYUM, probably in my top 5, the second (purple April '07) smelled strongly of clove and bitter chocolate - blech, no thank you! So I swapped the second for this version. I'll admit, the first time I tried it (just a wee bit on a wrist) I did not like it - I got a strong bark/clove smell with a fruity undertone that was no good. However, I let it sit for a couple of weeks and revisited it, and am I ever glad I did! Wet on skin: Ugh, it's that nasty clove and bark combo. Must...wait...it...out! 5 minutes: Still rather nasty, but I'm beginning to get a more "spice" scent as opposed to overwhelming clove and the bark is starting to back off. Go for the burn! 30 minutes: Chocolate has come out to play! There's also a nice vanilla undertone and I imagine (though perhaps I'm wrong) that I can smell some faint whiffs of orchid. 2 hours +: Clove-spiced chocolate with sweet, almost honey-like undertones. Overall, I'm glad I waited it out! This one's a keeper.

Thanks to everyone who recommended Old Spice-smellalikes for my boyfriend! I got lucky and got ahold of some OotD: Count Dracula and oh...wow, does it smell awesome on him. It is really similar to Old Spice but darker, sharper - dare I say with a hint of malice? The last bit is perhaps just my imagination, but it does smell absolutely amazing on him, and it's similar enough to his preciouses that he lets me apply it whenever I want. I even caught him going for the bottle before a party...he gave me a long-suffering look as he applied it and made some snarky comment about my taste in perfume - but he was the one who put it on, and I have a sneaking suspicion it's growing on him. Again, thanks guys!

Thanks for the recs! I have tried two scents on him thus far (Leo and Ozymandias) with dodgy results…Leo amped to all-amber badness (way too sweet!) and Ozy was just “bleh!” – I put it on him in my casual “sneak attack” way and within two minutes he was waving his arm around, making a face and saying, “Oh HELL no! Whatever this is, hell no!!”. I’m also going to pick up Golden Priapus and Dorian, just because they’re so popular.

Fixed Fire: the essence of pride. Egyptian amber, walnut bark, chamomile, frankincense, and saffron. I purchased this bottle for my very own Leo (my boyfriend), who I have been trying to get into BPAL - no luck thus far. I put it on him last night and it's far, far too froofy and sweet...and apparently his skin also amps amber like mine does (which is the reason I won't be wearing Leo). From application to the point where he washed it off (about half an hour) all I could smell was amber, with occasional resin-y undertones. Alas, off the swap pile you go! Edited to add lab description.

Ok, so my fabulous boyfriend is stuck on Old Spice...and, Lord love him, it's what my grandfather wears. And, nothing against my grandfather, but when I cozy up to my hot blonde boyfriend the last thing I want to be thinking is, "...Grandpa?" So can anyone rec a good substitute/similar blend? I've pretty much told him, "Look, I'm going to put this on you and if it smells good and doesn't make your arm fall off, you're going to wear it, ok?" and he shrugs in his noncomittal way - his way of letting me know he's not so much wanting to make a change as he wants to make me happy (and is also too lazy to escape from my evil clutches, mwahahahahaha!). OLD SPICE - Top Notes Orange, Lemon, Spices, Clary Sage, Aldehydes Middle Notes Cinnamon, Carnation, Geranium, Jasmine, Heliotrope, Pimento Berry Base Notes Vanilla, Musk, Cedarwood, Frankincense, Benzoin, Tonka, Ambergris

Jesus, Mary MOTHER OF GOD this is the worst smelling BPAL I have ever come across. It smells like old, rotten perfume - I get a hint of roses if I hold my wrist up real close-like to my nose, but I am also starting to develop a splitting headache. Back in the bubble wrap! Back in the box! This can't go in the swap pile fast enough.

I was hoping this would be similar to the previous incarnation of 13 that I own (October 06) - that on me is an amazing blend of chocolate and vanilla (not like ice cream) that's just the right kind of foody. Alas, it was not to be! I too had a top layer of coco, so I shook the bottle like a happy little bartender. From wet to drydown to 2 hours later this version of 13 was strongly, almost nauseatingly, herbal, with a sort of bitter chocolate undertone. The chocolate smell reminded me of what happens when you have a really old Hershey's bar, how it's all dry and crumbly and not very tasty at all. Bummer! I'll have to toss this one on the swap pile.

I should really, really just give up the ghost on jasmine scents. It doesn't matter where it's listed in the blend, or what other notes are with it...if someone has so much as waved jasmine over the bottle before closing the lid, that's all I can smell. Jasmine. Jasmine. JASMINE. It is the ruiner of worlds! Suffice to say I've had Sacred Whore on for half an hour and that sickly-sweet, cloying jasmine scent is clogging up my nose. Gah! Into the swap bin with you!

This scent doesn't morph on me at all (surprising!), so I'll just give my review all in one chunk. SUGAR!! PEPPERMINT!! CANDY!! I smell like I've been cozying up to some YorkDoubleMintCandyCane goodness and while this is definitely not a "wear everyday scent", I do absolutely adore it. So do some of my friends, in fact - one of them who attempts to take bites out of me eveytime I wear it around her.

As I get more and more familiar with BPAL and its lovely and varied notes, I find myself ending up with less "this is not the blend I wanted it to be" swap bottles. Unfortunately, this was not one of them. Wet: Oooh, smells like blueberries! Sharp lavendar undercurrent that makes me wary. 5 minutes: Lavendar is coming out in a big way and I'm not sure I like it! But there's a hint of blueberries which keeps me hanging on. 30 minutes: There is no lavendar, only BLUEBERRIES!! Ech, I smell like one of those highly-scented candles. It's making me a little queasy. 2 + hours: This eventually wore down to nearly-nothing after 5 hours or so, but before that I kept getting waves of blueberry candle smell that made me make a really unpleasant face. To the swap pile you go!

Since I use TALs only for ritual purposes, I won't review the scent of Middle Pillar except to say it was very cleansing - I think someone mentioned eucalyptus, and I got that. As far as ritual use goes - Holy Zen, Batman! I used Middle Pillar after a shower, shortly before heading to bed, in a very simple manner. I drew a line from crown down the center of my body, asked for help in centering myself, and laid down in bed. Lemme tell you, folks; this stuff WORKS. I found it amazingly easy to slip into a medative state and focus on my own personal middle pillar - visualizations were easier, and I was soon so relaxed I fell fast asleep. I woke up refreshed and spent the day in a very calm state. Bottom line, grab a bottle if you can. It's an amazing oil and worth every penny.

Frimp from the Lab! Wet on skin: Um! This is somehow sharp, maybe it's the grass? A little sweet, berries, but no floral. 5 minutes: Still sharp - a little too much so, I think. I don't know what this reminds me of, but it's not a grass smell. I like grass. This, I do not like. 10 minutes: Unchanged from 5 minutes, drat it! 2 hours +: Somewhere around an hour or so this mellowed considerably. It's now a light, very sweet (berries I assume) floral. Very pretty, good for spring I'd think. Final verdict? A keeper for the imp - nice if I can get past the drydown stage!