gaai

Harvest Moon 2006 Harvest Moon is celebrated in almost every culture, and the bounty of the season is marked in a myriad of ways. Harvest Moon touches the Equinox, the festival of Janus, the culmination of Homowo, the “crying of the neck” in Cornwall, and the Women's Festival of the Moon. This is a day that celebrates abundance and beauty, fertility and progress, and the light of this full moon blesses new undertakings and reunites lost loves. This Harvest Moon oil is a merging of autumnal scents from all over the globe: chrysanthemum, pomegranate, cane sugar and dusty wheat, sorghum, green tea leaf, rice flower and rice milk, Russian sage, bamboo shoot, elderberry, black cherry, wild plum, red haw, hazelnut, red apple and shagbark hickory. I'm the first to review this? It's very fruity in the bottle, sweet and berry-ish Wet on my skin it's pretty much the same and something herbal comes through ( I guess the green tea leaf, sage, bamboo and shagbark hickory ). This stage I like........but when it dries it's all herbal and some kind of spice and I don't like it all that much. I read somewhere it was like a fruity Three Witches.....and I can see that......Three Witches didn't appeal to me though and this doesn't either......at least the dry stage doesn't. I really wanted to like this moon, since it's the first moon I ordered straight from the lab, but I don''t If only it stayed the way it smells in the bottle......... The artwork looks as good on the bottle as it does on the Tee btw! (so I *will* keep the bottle) eta: I'm beginning to see a pattern here.......there are like 2 days mid-you-know-what-cycle, where my skin does some weird things to some blends......today, when I tried HM again, my skin didn't amp up the herbally spicy scent in the end and it was actually quite nice...... Another lesson learned I guess.

TAMAMO-NO-MAE One day, a courtesan of unearthly beauty appeared at the Emperor's court. Her skin was like silk and porcelain, and her eyes gleamed like polished onyx. Her body exuded an enchanting scent, and her robes were immaculate. She quickly endeared herself to the Emperor and his concubines; her unequaled grace was matched by a glittering wit and astonishing intellect, and though she appeared to be no older than twenty, there was no question that she could not answer. There seemed to be no limit to her knowledge and strange wisdom, and she was well-versed on every topic, from astronomy to Buddhist teachings. So profound was the Emperor's fascination with this woman that he kept her by his side, day and night. One night, the Emperor and his court attended a performance of poetry and music at the serene Seiryoden. A strong gust of wind suddenly tore through the Leaping Tiger Garden into the performance hall, shaking the bamboo reeds and extinguishing the lanterns. The room was plunged into darkness, save for a warm, golden light that emanated from within the mysterious woman's robes. She was aglow like the rising sun. Enthralled, the Emperor declared to his ministers that this woman must be an incarnation of the Buddha, and he named her Tamamo-no-Mae. Deeply in love and profoundly devoted, the Emperor exchanged weighty vows with his favored mistress, and showered her with gifts and affection. Within months, the Emperor became ill. He was listless, his sword-hand faltered, his skin took on a grey cast, and his muscles began to sag. Horrified, his ministers went to all the priests and soothsayers in the land, begging them for answers. They had none. The ministers appealed to the people, begging them to raise their voices in prayer. The people loved the Emperor, and sent their prayers to the Gods. The Emperor's condition did not change. Finally, the renowned astrologer, Abe no Yasuchika, divined the cause of the Emperor's infirmity: Tamamo-no-Mae. She was not born of woman; her true form was that of a hundred-year-old, forty-two-foot-tall, two-tailed fox demon. Disguised as a beautiful courtesan, the demoness hoped to slowly kill the Emperor, and then take his place. Knowing that she was exposed, Tamamo-no-Mae fled the palace. Horrified, the Emperor sent the greatest warriors in the land, Kazusa-no-Suke and Miura-no-Suke, to pursue and slay his former mistress. The creature was wily and elusive, and after many weeks of hunting, the warriors began to fear that they would be unable to bring the demon to justice, thus shaming themselves and their families. They vowed that they would commit suicide if they failed in their quest, and they prayed to the Gods for assistance. That night, a beautiful woman appeared to Miura-no-Suke in his dreams. Her lovely face was marred by weeping, and she begged the warrior to spare her life. He refused, and cut the woman down. Upon waking, he realized that the dream was an omen -- they would find and kill the foxwoman this day -- and the warriors resumed their hunt with renewed enthusiasm. The hunters spotted the fox on the Plains of Nasu, and Miura-no-Suke fired an arrow into her heart. She fell, and her body transformed into the Sessho-seki, the Killing Stone. Tamamo-no-Mae's scent is soft skin musk, brushed by white tea leaf, rice flower, black locust flower, white sandalwood kodo soke, dry ginger, benzoin gum, and Amacha. I'm afraid I won't be able to give a very good review of this one because I'm not sure what (at least) half of the notes listed are/smell like. However......I will say that it has a very Asian vibe to it......it reminds me a little of Hungry Ghost Moon, but softer...... First there is a kind of citrus scent, which I think comes from the ginger......after it dries it smells fruity, a little sweet, light and feminine.......it will be great for summertime!

Mine are the night and morning, The pits of air, the gulf of space, The sportive sun, the gibbous moon, The innumerable days. I hid in the solar glory, I am dumb in the pealing song, I rest on the pitch of the torrent, In slumber I am strong. Moonflower, Madonna lily, orris, white ginger, cucumber, hyacinth, and Irish moss. This is what I expected Blue Moon to smell like! And although I like Blue Moon a lot, I absolutely *love* the Gibbous Moon. When first applied the cucumber really makes its presence known.......smelling all crisp and fresh......then the flowers blend in, making the whole a pale blue-ish floral. I'm left with a beautiful light floral scent.......I say 'light', but that's more of a feel.....you can definitely catch wafts of it on final dry-down. I love the way it's pretty much the opposite of The Sportive Sun, which smells warm and a touch spicy.....where this is pale and airy.........a beautiful pair!

Mine are the night and morning, The pits of air, the gulf of space, The sportive sun, the gibbous moon, The innumerable days. I hid in the solar glory, I am dumb in the pealing song, I rest on the pitch of the torrent, In slumber I am strong. Heliotrope, amber, almond flower, frangipani, cedar, and calamus. Okay, so this *definitely* smells warm and orange-y (like the color, not the fruit). I was a little scared of the almond flower....afraid it would smell like almonds......it does, but only lightly so and I really need to sniff for it, so luckily it just blends into the whole. Speaking of blending.......this is a very well blended perfume. I can pick out the different notes if I want to, but they're not that obvious......except for the amber. It's not a floral scent by any means.....there's a touch of spice to it....don't exactly know where that comes from, but it's there. And I love the way it pairs up with the Gibbous Moon.....being the scent-opposite of that one. A wonderful set of perfumes! (and I'm really glad it got to me in time to pick up some back up bottles if I need to)

Siberian Musk reminds me more of Smut that it does of Snake Oil.... To my nose (and with my chemistry) it smells like a less smutty, non-sweetened Smut, although I can definitely tell it's probably the same musk used in SO. There, to me, is just a lot more going on in Snake Oil that it kind of loses any real resemblance to this Siberian Musk. It's a very nice, simple, but not ordinary musk! I'm glad I decided to go for a bottle!

Sniff from decant: buttery, salty popcorn...hm... Wet on skin: PEANUTBUTTER... this had better calm down or I'm gonna have to wash it off... Settling on skin: almost no trace of the peanutbutter...this starts to smell sugary sweet...the BF says it actually smells mousey to him Dry on skin: pink cotton candy...but really soft and faint...no throw to speak of...and when I huff the spot I can catch little wafts of the peanutbutter sneaking back in. I thought I might love this enough to need a bottle, but I don't....it's a fun scent, but the decant will be sufficient.

Here you go! Lovely!! Thank you!

No anime labels yet?? *so curious*

XXII Uh oh..... .....chocolate.......or cocoa........and I cannot wear a perfume that's heavy on the chocolate (not because I don't like the scent, but it makes me queezy if I smell it for too long)...... I decide to put it on anyway, because I've recently discovered that I *can* wear some types of chocolate notes (White Chocolate & Sugared Violets = ), so maybe not all's lost........ Phew....the chocolate (which I now recognize as cocoa, it's 'dryer' smelling) only hangs around for 20 minutes and then the Penitence-base comes through strong.......the cocoa gives it a 'sweeter' twist (only it's not really sweeter, but it's the only way I can describe it). This is actually quite good.....I can get my chocolate fix *and* finally have the bottle of Penitence that I've been meaning to get, but got pushed back with all the LE buying.

CVI In the bottle I smell grass with the O-base.........very promising! On wet and during dry down it goes from grass&honey through grass&lemon&honey to honeyed lemon.......it's gorgeous and perfect for late spring early summer!

LXVIII Okay........it's SO with.......some kind of flower........but which one?! I'm not typically a floral-wearing girl, so I'm not good at picking out what flowers I'm smelling. If I had to guess, I'd say chrysanthemums........but....yeah......not sure. This is a lovely womanly version of SO though......it goes through a *very* floral stage which lasts about 15 minutes and then settles into Snake Oil with just a hint of something floral. The floral note takes off the slightly bitter, medicinal note that SO sometimes has on my skin......this smells soft and lovely, but with a sexy edge. (now that I've typed that......that's exactly what it is....sexy.....but a unisex kind of sexy)

LXXIX In the bottle and wet this is Dorian with a fizzy, bubbly grapefruit topnote! It dries down to a sweeter, more girly version of Dorian........it's *really* good and I'm glad to have gotten this bottle.

This is the first chocolate scent that I can tolerate to wear for more than 10 minutes I actually love this. It might be the fact that it's supposed to be white chocolate (although it doesn't really smell white to me)...... Anyway....I'm glad to have a bottle of this, because I have been wanting to smell like chocolate for a long time and never could. This is just the most lovely blend of chocolate and violets. (oh and yes....the violets smell a lot like the ones in Faith......to me)

After the initial blast of HELLO THERE I'M ORANGEBLOSSOM!!!!! the drydown really does smell a lot like Snake Oil.......which then leads me to believe this oil will age into something wonderful! So I think I'll buy a bottle......eventhough I wasn't planning to, because of the SO resemblance.....but I'm just too curious how it'll age

DCCCXCIX (899, I think?) Er......a glass of warm milk.......That's basically it. In the bottle, wet on my skin, dry........milk. Not really sweet.....just that smell that wafts from a glass of warm milk..... I detest milk......this one is going to have to find a new home. MIII (1003) Pink Phoenix Light!! It's the same pink, sweet, slighty floral, slighty fruity scent that Pink Phoenix is, only a little lighter. Which suits me just fine, because I could hardly wear Pink Phoenix because it was too strong on me. Yeah, a winner this one! DCCCXCI (891) Soap (or toilet air freshener) I really can't say it smells bad.......it's just not something I'd want to wear as a perfume....... I might make it into an expensive air freshener...... MLXXXII (1082) Grapefruit and Lillies (not sure what kind of lillies, but surely lillies) It's really fresh and pretty, but I'm not sure it's 'me'.....I might gift this to my floral loving ex-MIL. This is *so* why I love the Chaos Theory runs........so much fun in the surprise smells!

Starts out as sweet yellow flowers and dries down to the most gloriously golden amber....... I love every stage of this oil and I can't wait to pair it with the bath-oil!

Jai Mahal + Inez = and also

I was very much prepared to dislike this........but I think I've finally found my perfect violet scent!! Most violet scents are either too flowery or too sweet/candy-ish.......this one, for me, comes very close to how I perceive the scent of real violets. It has that fresh, earthyness of the surrounding garden and despite patchouli often being labeled as 'dirty', I find this very clean smelling. This might very well be my first violet-blend-full-bottle-purchase!! *yay*

I was very curious about the wasabi note in this blend, but apparently.......black tea leaf + wasabi = licorice with my chemistry....... I don't like the smell of licorice........not at all.......and the honey is a no-show, so I'm gonna wash this one off and pretend this never happened........

yeah....I have to second The Pool of Tears.....it's probably the single most salty perfume I've ever smelled. Also....Vampire Tears on me gets salty during the dry down, but I seem to be the only one......

Copied/pasted from the other(wrong) BM thread This one makes me smile. It's such a happy, fun scent! It starts out all strawberry and cherry (more strawberry than cherry though) and it dries down to a yummy smelling cupcake with strawberry frosting! Sweet and lighthearted this is.......and it lasts on my skin too, which, in this case, is a definite bonus! ( I only have the one bottle, because of my newly instated no-hoarding rule ).

Funny to see how the dry down of some scents can vary so wildly from skin to skin! For me, this also starts out as a full blast of grapefruity citrus......with some of the green tea and ginger adding their freshness to it. This stage doesn't really make me think 'Vampire Tears'...it's too cheery and light for that. When it's drying, more and more of the flowers come peeking through making it a fresh floral scent.....still not really teary though..... But then........when it's completely dry........it smells like flowers and salt water!! It's very very salty on my skin now and I happen to love me some salty perfumes! *Now* I get the Vampire Tears reference.....this is beautiful!

Well......that was unexpected I got a decant of this because, while I was curious as to how it would smell, it didn't 'grab' me enough to go for a whole bottle.......glad I did.... On me this smells like......latex (like when you take off those latex gloves).....or balloons......or condoms......you know the smell, that rubbery plastic scent..... I have never had a scent turn this rubbery on me before, so yeah......unexpected. Needless to say I won't be wearing this as a perfume.......(I think I'll keep my decant though.....because I find it kind of funny )

This could've been my review of this scent exactly! So I'll just repeat it and add that I really, really *love* it and I have a 5ml pending right now!

..::sigh::.. I was *so* hoping not to love this very much( with the price of the oil and high shipping rates and all ).......like yes....love no.......but alas...... It. Is. Gorgeous! To me it smells like a translucent, light blue floral, but with something woodsy to keep it from drifting into thin air.......... Like I said: Gorgeous! Sadly, I *will* need to pick up another bottle when it returns!