portalkat

I just got my bottle today and it was from the second batch shipment. I put some of my neck and I think that the heat from that part of my body is releasing more of the beeswax note, because that is what I am smelling swirling around me. I also get hints of the clove and cinnamon, but the strongest note is the beeswax. The blackened vanilla just pulls everything together. I'm going to try some on my wrists next time and see if it will tone down the beeswax note a bit so that I can smell the spices a bit more.

You shouldn't have any problems. I just got a package from Future Primitive in the UK last week with 13 5mm bottles of oils and a large bottle of hair conditioner.

Yes, the key word is "perfume." Either mark it as Bath & body or cosmetics.

I actually get oils from the UK all the time. I buy through the forum or from one company in particular, Future Primitive and even Lush, UK. I just looked at one of the boxes from Future Primitive and they mark the customs paperwork as bath and body products. I usually get 1-2 packages from them a month with no problem.

ZZ's review at the top of this page is what made me order a bottle of this. Now, I don't really recall what a Lush store smells like, but I wanted to smell like one. The first sniff from the bottle has me worried because "red" anything always smells harsh to me and red sandalwood is no exception. When I put some of, the change is drastic and the harshness is gone. I'm finding the peach note to be stronger than the champaca and I think that I would have liked it better the other way around, but I'm hoping that with some age behind it, that might change. The drydown is soft, fruity from the peach with just a hint of floral behind it. The red sandalwood keeps this from being too cloying and changes it from being just another peach blend. I love it and I'm actually considering a backup. I think that I'll hit the Lush store tomorrow and see if it smells like me.

My first thought was Lyonesse, but you probably have already tried that one.

I just wanted to say that star anise smells nothing like licorice or regular anise to me, so that is probably why you did not recognize it. It is one of the main ingredients in Chinese 5 spice powder, so you can acquaint yourself with the smell. I know that the lab has used it in some things, but with the other notes added, it might not be that noticeable.

I will need a backup of this. I love amber, but sometimes it just seems a bit too much. I love how the other notes give it depth and complexity and temper some of the sweetness. I am also getting some deep woodiness in there, which I know will not please some, but it floats my boat.

When I first tried this at the CBLDF party, it smelled a bit cologny. I really wanted to buy it in order to support the CBLDF, so I bought a couple of bottles of it. I tried it again when I got home from the party - I only work 10 minutes away from the Con. It was still strong on the cologne smell, but from the previous application, I could smell the dry paper note and a bit of leather. I tested it more that night and the next day and it seems to have developed in that short period. Now it opens up with that sweet leather note, the paper note follows and then it ends up with the sweet smoke smell. This is actually something that I would wear, but I wasn't sure from the initial testing. I'm glad that I was able to get my hands on a bottle.

BPAL champa blends for me are Urd, Panther Moon and Temple Viper.

I do not get the men's cologne which is a good thing. This opens up with the rosin note with a bit of dry dusty wood in the background once it starts to dry down. The one thing that I have not seen in any review is that the drydown for me is a very strong beeswax note. I am loving this a lot. Thieve's Rosin for me is rosin, light wood and a generous helping of gentle sweet beeswax.

Do you mean acknowledged by the Lab or by Paypal? If you mean Paypal, then yes, you should get a notice. I ask this because on my last couple of Lab orders, my PP notifications were delayed as much as a couple of days. I've never gotten an acknowledgement from the Lab.

There is a thread here with BPAL recommendations to commercial perfumes. I saw that someone asked about Saint, but I did not find any replies. You might want to look through there, though. That person also listed the notes for Saint - Mirabelle Plum and mandarin are top notes. Tiare flower and caramel with jasmine are the mid. And vanilla combines with a cream type musk with sandalwood for the base. So, even though you might not like florals or fruity perfumes, you might not want to rule them all out.

Yep, I was going to say the same thing. Don't use something that you love, because you might associate the smell with death or whatever you are trying to not smell.

Here is part of my review from 2006 - "This scent brings up so many images and memories. The first thing that I smell is the wood note, perhaps cedar. It reminds me of a church, but not a cathedral. It reminds me of the churches in the missions in Southern California. I can smell the San Juan Capistrano and Santa Barbara missions. It smells old, but not dusty, just old wood, aged old wood. I can smell the incense notes behind it and it conjures up images of monks in prayer in earlier centuries. I also had an image of the woods down along the Little Sur River. I could smell the wood of the trees and the sweet smell of the leaves. The Big Sur area is like a cathedral of sorts." It doesn't have the benzoin and vanilla from EM and I haven't tried layering them yet. On its own, it's very different from EM, but it is one of my top 10 BPALs. If you can get your hands on silver haired Bat, that is pretty much benzoin and cedar on me - if you layered this with cathedral, it might get you closer! ... Or layer Banshee Beat with Cathedral to add the Van/Patch element. I've never smelled EM, but based on the notes and your descriptions, it might work! ! I happen to have a bottle of Silver Haired Bat thanks to my lovely faerie, so I pulled out Banshee Beat and Cathedral and tried layering them with SHB, but they are all too sweet. Encens Mystic is not very sweet. The closest I've come so far is layering a tiny bit of SHB with Empire from Haunt. Encens Mystic is just so different from anything else that I have ever had and it really does have an incense quality about it. I think that I just need to order a sample of CdG Avignon to see how it compares.