Reedsong

Flame of Desire is my absolute favourite TAL. I love everything about it. In texture, it's thick and viscous; in colour, a perfect deep mahogany; the scent is such a wonderful dark, musky civet, very sexy and powerful. When I use it alone, Flame of Desire helps put me in a desirous mindset, and I mean this in a very general sense. It reminds me of my deepest dreams, the things I keep hidden and might otherwise ignore. With a partner, it does exactly as the name implies: kindles a passionate flame, intensifies desire, and the wonderful fragrance certainly doesn't hurt. In fact, my only regret is that Flame isn't available as a general BPAL scent; I'd wear it all the time if it were!!

Nine Muses. Let me see how to sum up my opinion of this blend. There we go. The fragrance is awful, don't get me wrong. It's lemon Pledge in all of its Pledgely glory. But good lord, does it work. I use this blend whenever I want to compose, write, or do anything expressive. Having said that, be sure you have the time frame when using this one. Once, I applied it when I only had a half-hour before a work shift, and ended up dashing back and forth from my computer keyboard to my piano keyboard when a new composition idea hit! Another time, I tried to use it when I was completely stressed out about a writing deadline, and was simply too focused on the deadline to be inspired by anything. Used with visualisation and respect, this oil does wonderful things!

In the bottle and on my skin, TAL Changó is proof that the gods have a sense of humour. It combines the rotting bananas of Manila with the icky coconut of Elegba, the fruity wretchedness of Fruit Moon, and that weird tobacco-ish note in Ogún to produce probably one of the most vile BPAL or TAL scents I've ever tried. Wow. I used it for the first time a few days ago for a ritual. I was feeling very angry over the indiscretions and lies of an ex, and since I associate Changó strongly with justice, I applied this blend and then began 'talking' to him about the situation. I lit a candle and explained how I felt, that I was mad, but that I knew stupid blind anger would lead nowhere, and asked him to give justice in the situation. As I finished my request, asking for justice in whatever manner he saw fit - the candle flame leaped up once with an audible hiss, and then went out. Regardless of the final outcome of this interesting 'omen,' I do know that I felt closer to Changó and his strong, vibrant energies while using this oil, and will keep and use it despite the smell.

This is the perfect Oshún blend in every respect - soft, sweet honey, beautiful and indescribably elegant. I've done several river rituals for Oshún and have made certain to bring a little of this lovely oil for her each time. In fact, it's my feeling that she likes it and requests it (though, of course, that's debatable based on what you believe! ). This TAL oil is good for anointing, offering, or both, and each time I've used it, the sense I've had is very positive and loving. I would definitely recommend this blend to anyone interested in working with orisha Oshún.

Bottle: Scent-wise, this is a mess. Whatever that salty note in Undine that almost made me gag, it's here. I also smell incense, candle wax, fruit, spice, musk, a trace of floral - it's as if every offering (including the dancers' sweat) that could be made to the loa has been mashed together into one bottle. Strange, and I'm so glad that I didn't smell the bottle before applying the oil. Skin: Once I put this on, it dries down to a very pretty spicy-incense-musk that's very reminiscent of the fragrance in the temple after a few hours of dancing, burning candles, and some rum thrown into the mix. Wonderfully evocative. Use: I used this blend for the first time tonight when making offerings to the loa in my temple-room. I was tired and did not expect to experience much except the sense of satisfaction that comes with service - but I was quite surprised. I felt greatly attuned with the energies of the temple, and very loving as I 'spoke' from my heart to the loa. Several times I caught a whiff of the scent, and each time it brought me back to the temple in New Orleans and reminded me of the greater community of practitioners. So this simple ritual became more moving than I expected, and I know that TAL Temple of the Loas helped that shift in consciousness to a near-trance state, enraptured and joyous. I had a feeling that this oil would be special to me, and I'm glad to be correct. I would recommend that people try it, but since it's very rare - I'll say instead that you don't need it, you hate it, and you want to give all of yours to me. Yes.

Dammit, Et Lux. Why? Why did you have to do this to me? I virtuously avoided Et Lux Fuit for weeks, laughing at the description because I hated about half of the notes used in the fragrance. Hell, I remember being so smugly relieved at that update because I didn't want any of the scents, and my wallet breathed a big sign of relief. But I had to admit, I was curious. There was honey in it! Everyone said it was 'yellow'-scented! (Like my beloved Nihil...) It had a Latin name!! Finally, I broke down and swapped for a half-imp, using my F5 logic: "I'm going to hate this, so I simply must try it!" *breaks down weeping* I loved it! *sobbing in shame* I hate being wrong. Et Lux Fuit is creamy honey golden goodness. It's mildly sweet with a decent throw; I can smell it, but it's not overwhelming. So lovely and elegant! It smells sweetly luxurious and opulent, the kind of fragrance I'd like to wear with a pretty dress or to a formal event. However, since the French verb "fuir" means "to flee," I will always think of this scent as "And the Light Flees." Which is much more in keeping with the dark BPAL image anyway.

Each bottle of Chaos Theory is truly unique, a fragrant fractal, and exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct. CTIII: MV: I swapped for this. Because how could you not want an imp of the Chaos Theory That Smells Like a Sharpie?? In the imp, it actually smells pretty appealing. A spicy medicinal cherry. I like it! It keeps that quality for a few minutes on my skin, and then on the dry-down, some spices come out that I was not expecting. I smell something green, either thyme or oregano, and something odd like cardamom. Curried cherry with a slight soapy quality. This is really weird... And then, I pick up the Sharpie that moonarcana included in my package. They're similar. Good lord. However, I have to admit the unthinkable: I actually like the Sharpie Chaos Theory. It amuses me, and I can take comfort in the fact that I definitely will smell unique. Previously reviewed by moonarcana.

Dear Chaos Theory III: CCLXXXIV: Let me first preface this letter by saying You are the perfect coffee-chocolate scent. Your rich, caffeinated goodness is more stimulating than Misk U. Your dark, velvety chocolate richness is more wonderful than Lump of Coal. As you dry down, you remind me of the imagined effect were I to melt a Coffee Crisp and rub it on my wrists. You are absolutely magical, and my only regret to acquiring you via trade is that I have only one imp of you. I promise I will never wear you around anyone that gets on my nerves, for they do not deserve to smell the beauteous glory that is You, Oh Coffee Crisply One. I'd also like to officially laugh heartily at the above review of the Sharpie Chaos Theory. Love and kisses, The Corinthians Also Reedsong. Last reviewed by sarahmarie.

This scent makes me snicker. In the '80s, I was in junior high and had two alarmingly sweet scents that I loved to wear, both teeny-bopper kind of perfumes: one was called Tribe, and the other Malibu Musk. Ever since getting into BPAL, I've been tempted to find both of them, just for a trip down memory lane. I can save myself part of that search - Toxin is Malibu Musk in BPAL form! I smell just like I'm walking down the beach...or at least the halls of my junior high school. It's got this freakishly-sweet-aquatic thing going. I am amused. Anytime I feel like being ten years old again, I'm going to wear Toxin. Though the name puzzles me - if toxins really smelled this sweet, I'd run out and pollute everything in sight.

What a surprise this one has turned out to be! I expected to like it pretty well, but it's so unique and interesting that my little imp will be getting more use than I thought. All of the notes mentioned in the description - I can smell them distinctly, and then they all blend together to create an aura of something magical and remote. This is definitely the most evocative yet of the Shakespearean scents.

I just got an imp of this today. I've really been looking forward to this one because of my good luck with the 'Baudelaire scents' in general and because it sounded wonderful. At first test, the apple and honey are the strongest notes, but after only a few minutes, the apple fades away almost completely, and what's left is a languid, musky honey. This reminds me quite a bit of Honey Moon, but lighter and much sexier. Dammit, Lab! I was trying to save money! And then you had to come out with this, and it's probably going to be a 5 mL purchase for me, and it'll sit right next to my treasured Living Flame bottle in the "scents for Gallic-style seduction" section of my box.

Two things I've noticed, one related to this thread and one not: 1. Othello smells a lot like The Living Flame, at least on me. Sweeeeet. 2. Pumpkin Patch #1 smells a great deal like Beth's experimental/Snake Oil blend. It even gives me the same rash. Definitely worth trying, since the PP#1 is a lot easier to get...

Two bottles to review, ahoy! CI: This was my original bottle and smelled like a very pretty rose in the bottle, with faint hints of mint and fruit. When I put it on, it immediately became a kind of thin, almost aquatic tea rose with a decent amount of throw and a mild, but not cloying sweetness; the mint, fortunately, went away almost immediately. It was an interesting scent, but I have enough BPAL rose scents that I knew I wouldn't use this one very much. So I swapped it with emzebel for: CCCXC: This just arrived today, and I almost fainted when I opened the bottle. A mild, green/herby, almost soapy floral - and the sweet green notes smell the same as in Val Sans Retour! Ohhhh, yeah! On my skin, sadly, this fades quickly and has no throw whatsoever. It clings to my skin for dear life, and someone else would have to be in direct contact with me in order to smell it. (Similar problem with Val, actually.) Having said that, though, this is still a really lovely scent. The florals warm and deepen (I have no idea what flowers), and it smells fresh and clean, like a flower garden after a spring rain. I really like this and will definitely be keeping it, though will probably trade away an imp or two if anyone's curious. I'm seriously loving the Chaos Theories so far and may have to spring for another bottle before they go away. *praying for civet* Edit: Heyyyyy! There's a creamy note in here somewhere!! *sniffs wrists* Where did this come from!? Good lord, this smells even better now. Previously reviewed by emzebel.

I just snagged decants of these from the lovely LiberAmoris, so here I am to add to her review (post #18 in this thread): XXI: This is a freshly cracked peppercorn with a little herbiness in the background. I actually went to my spice cabinet to see what matched the herb(s), and I got thyme and possibly oregano. This is a fun scent and will be neat to wear when I'm cooking! CCCXII: Plummy in the imp with the slightest hint of floral, this is nice to smell but dries to something like a slightly plastic-y Oya on my skin. I'm glad I got to sample it, but it's not quite for me. CCXCVI: Oh. Dear. Gods. Above. Through you doth manifest all things good, and I sing a paean of thanks to you for Chaos Theory II: CCXCVI; yea, thy mercy and bounty are great. I had really high hopes from Formula 54, but it went to a cherry cough syrup on me, and I swapped it away. This Chaos Theory is how I wanted F54 to be! It's the perfect sweet fragrance, elegant, like a glass of fine wine, with a bowl of cherries and a dish of small cakes set beside it. It reminds me of F54 crossed with a little bit of Beaver Moon. I've just slathered myself in this stuff with the zeal of a chicken pox patient holding a bottle of calamine lotion...and then I realised, wait, I can't, because it's a one-of-a-kind Chaos Theory! LiberAmoris, I hope you still have some decants left! *runs to check* CCXCVI:

So. I leave La Belle Au Bois Dormant and Nihil unsupervised in my imp cabinet, and this is what happens - they reproduce, and it's called Languor! That's the only explanation I have as to i) how this imp appeared, and ii) why it smells so perfect. I envision Beth standing over a cauldron with a grin and a cackle, blending several addictive drugs and then squeezing huge handfuls of tuberose flowers into the mix. That's exactly the blend: flowery crack. I love it.

This is a beautiful cluster of flowers. I'm so bad at identifying notes that I'd probably be stumped by Blue Cheese SN, but it reminds me of jasmine, gardenia, and others with rich, deep, warm and tropical fragrances. It's sultry yet bright, sexy, the perfect summer scent - or a perfect scent for the dead of winter when you want to be reminded that, yes, there are flowers somewhere under all that snow. Nihil is my favourite BPAL floral to date, and if this ever becomes available on the site - forget 5 and 10 mLs, I want my Nihil to be measured in litres! Meanwhile, I've made it known that I'll sell kidneys to acquire more - and I'm secretly hoping that Beth gets tired towards the end of Chaos Theory 3, thinks, "Aww, forget it," and dumps a whole bunch of Nihil in my bottle. I even made a LiveJournal icon for it, and I haven't done that since City in the Sea. A LiveJournal icon, people! This is serious, hardcore, unreleased devotion here. Nihil = Utterly intoxicating flowers. I think I'm actually strung out on it as I finish this entry.

I was so excited when I received this imp because, in the bottle, it smelled a lot like The Great Sword of War - a perennial favourite and fantastic fragrance. I applied it, though, and on my wrist it quickly lost all of the Sword-y notes and dried down to a really weird talcum powder. The throw of "freshly powdered baby" was so strong that I had to wash it off after about ten minutes, and the imp promptly migrated to the swap pile... ...where it remained, pulsing discordantly near my other imps, maddening me with its presence before I finally found a swapper who wanted it. Imagine that. I'd loved all of the DiMV scents I'd tried before getting to this one. It broke my perfect record. And I was sad.

This is beautiful! I'll try to soften my usual biting sarcasm to do this scent justice. I definitely smell the maple and wildflowers right away. It's sweet in the bottle and sweet on my skin, very richly sweet without being syrupy or cloying. As I wear it longer, the cypress and pine start to emerge, and the scent fades away very gracefully. And when I say "longer," I mean hours on end - ten hours later, I could still get a lingering scent as my wrist migrated to my nose for the eight zillionth time. Aside from that whole Cthulhu mess, I want to go live in Arkham if this is how it smells in spring. It would sure beat the scent of teenage desperation exuding thickly from the Campustown bar scene. Arkham Revisited: Continuing my undefeated Springtime in Arkham streak!

After striking out with Ultraviolet, Cathode, and several other 'cold' scents, I was thrilled to smell Tulzscha. There's a definite cool mint to it - in the bottle, it's kind of like the Doublemint Twins on acid - but the scent has a nice, sickly edge that does not smell like toothpaste. This actually had a refreshing, tingly feeling on my skin and was perfect for a summer day. A really evil summer day. If you don't normally like mint, try Tulzscha. I was certainly surprised by it! Tulzscha: Continuing my undefeated Springtime in Arkham streak!

On first application of Kingsport, I was immediately reminded of Sweet Tarts candy, for some reason, and while distinctly not pleased - if something smells like candy on me, I usually wash it off with a shudder - I decided to let this one lie for a while. About ten minutes in, the aquatic/breeze notes started to emerge, and then, like the little imp creatures in Galaxy Quest, they went dark. This is the water that the evil sociopath pushes his girlfriend into in the Lifetime movie-of-the-week. This is the water into which a young child in a horror movie stares and solemnly intones, "Something bad happened in there." This is the water you wade in before diving deeply down to "Death's aquatic throne" in City in the Sea; in fact, I'd almost call this more deadly than City in the Sea, since it has a certain beguiling, tempting sweetness to it. I get seaweed and deep water from this, as well as breezy sweetness, which is strange, given the description. I think my skin makes everything turn darker and more evil than it really is, though. There's probably a lesson in that. Kingsport: Continuing my undefeated Springtime in Arkham streak! Woohoo!

I work pretty hard for my money, so it's always a shock to realise I've spent it unwisely. Right now, I'm reflecting that I paid shipping costs so that I could smell like a wet rat. Wow. Did you catch that? A rat. And not just a rat, a wet one. 5 minutes: I like consistency in people. I was hoping to avoid it in fragrance. For all of your soaked rodentry needs, baby, I'm your girl. 10 minutes: I can only imagine answering questions from people. "Does anyone smell...something?" "That's my perfume." "Oh, I thought a small furry creature had just come in from the rain." 15 minutes: At least this stays close to my skin. For the first time, I'm thrilled to be single. 20 minutes: I asked my cat to help evaluate. I put my wrist down by his nose, and he started circling my arm, the same way he does when he's about to pounce on the kitten. Soap? Aye! Swap pile? Yes sirree! Edit: What the heck?! I'm headed for the soap, and suddenly the rat-ness fades a bit and this woody-muskiness emerges? There was forest under that there rat! And it actually smells pretty interesting! *grumbles grudgingly* Okay. Further testing obviously required. I may still swap this one, but it likely doesn't deserve the total wank I gave it above. I'm keeping it there anyway because it's vaguely amusing.

City in the Sea! My review is here: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=18070&st=50 It's an LE but not too-too hard to find, and even if it were, I wouldn't care. (My devotion to this fragrance is kind of scary, actually. )

Does anyone else remember the episode of Seinfeld that aired shortly after the Today sponge was pulled from the market? If not: the character Elaine was horrified that her favourite contraceptive was being discontinued, so she hoarded all the sponges she could find. (The Today became an LE, basically. ) Her dates for the rest of the episode became hilarious as she was forced to judge each potential partner "spongeworthy" or "non-spongeworthy." Well, I have one full imp of Shub-Niggurath, so the rest of my life events will now be judged as either Shubworthy, or Non-Shubworthy. This was another, "Hey, let's hook Lindsay on the LEs! The first hit's free!" sniffy gift that sent me on a mad quest to find more. The oil itself is warm, alluring in a way I always imagined the kyphi of Egypt and the fabulous spices of the Far East to be; this is a remote, mysterious scent, not quite primordial but not entirely recorded, either. On my skin, it glows; this fragrance is very feminine in the sense of the ancient goddess of great power. I actually feel more female wearing this than almost any other BPAL scent (including the florals, aquatics, and other 'lighter' notes more stereotypically associated with womanliness). Shub was also an opportunity for much mockery. Everyone I knew who read the "corrupted Astarte" description wasn't surprised in the least that this scent worked for me. I guess I really do come across as just that evil.

I received a sniffy in the mail a few days ago as a very generous frimp; I'd been dying to try this one. Within five minutes, my excitement had faded from, "Yay, Misk U!" to, "Oh, dear lord, where's my soap??" The imp exudes a "venerable tomes of rather evil learning" fragrance that fascinates, intrigues, tantalises. Then I applied the oil to my skin, and it instantly transformed into "rich buttery gumbo." It's this strong, pervasive, savoury-roux-butter aroma that's really disturbing, radiates from my wrists and envelopes the entire room; I think it seeped into the walls and will torment the next tenant of this apartment. I smell like I've just come from Cthulhu's Dark Kitchen of Evilly Fattening Southern Cuisine. I had to pass on this one, unfortunately. And it destroyed my undefeated Springtime in Arkham streak. And I was sad.

When I bought this, I had never read the descriptions or reviews and had no idea how it would smell. I just wondered if I would have luck in purchasing BPAL based on the name alone. I mean - the Cracked Bell. What more do you need for a perfect mix of despair and art? It should be part of a series: the Shattered Glass Tower, the Strip-Mined Forest, the McDonaldized Skyline. But I digress. The point is - I should use this kind of luck in picking lotto numbers. Cracked Bell is gorgeous. At first scent, it's incense and metal with tangs of smoke and blood; for some reason, it reminds me of the incense burners in the Catholic Mass, which may be why several people have described this scent as comforting and evocative of memories. It's the very exhalation of the soul once it touches my skin, retaining the incense sweetness without being cloying or overpowering. Cracked Bell is soothing, reflective, and slightly smoky. It's a fire with scented logs on a cold night, or a ritual at home in a warm, incense-filled room. Despite the chilly mood the poem evokes, I find the aroma to be very warming and enjoy the Cracked Bell best as a sleep fragrance after long, stressful days. Verdict: This blew me away, and I'm too sarcastic to be easily impressed. Find a bottle of this if you can - especially now that you've actually read how it smells.