myth

I will say... the ability to get samples is a must for me buying scents. I am very picky about smells, and lots of things give me headaches. Until I discovered alcohol-free bpal I didn't even wear perfume of any kind, and I always try to buy unscented products for other stuff. A HUGE HYOOOGE part of what enabled me so well is the swapping comms. I don't mind taking chances on things I know I can swap if they don't like me. I think the way it's built an online community and allowed / not discouraged the aftermarket has been really critical to bpal's expanding success. I think it's kinda cool that at this point they can transfer the benefit of that online community to grow the retailers. Because you do have to be careful when you're "competing" with your resellers. One of my clients sells his products online and via small retailers, and he does have to be careful about not stepping on their toes with his online sales [ie a customer buys from the store, then sees his web addy on the product label and makes future orders online... that's not so great for the retailer]. But there is a large segment of people who will sniff and buy on-site but never go online and purchase scented products, and it's good to be able to reach both markets. I'm hoping this means we'll have will-calls here eventually, too. Because that would be all kinds of fun.

Well, I'm just speaking for myself here, but I live in Atlanta and even driving just a few miles can take 30 minutes or more. I haven't been by the Whole Foods location; it's not that close to me and isn't anywhere that I happen to be most of the time. If I wanted something they carried I'd just order it from the lab with a lunacy order. I'm too lazy to go driving, I'd buy groceries online if I could! But... if the WF in Roswell gets these Salons, I'm there. So I was just basing my theory on my own dislike of going anywhere when I don't absolutely have to.

I don't mind it being merged but I had to really go looking for it, too. I went to take a shower and when I came back the thread was gone. I thought I was losing my mind.

I wouldn't worry about it, there will be circles, I've already seen someone trying to set one up over on the S&S LJ. The love-sharing never stops around here, all the fans will be able to get these. It'll just take maybe a little more leg-work. And that adds to the excitement doesn't it?

When I was there last week, the women told me that the guy in charge of ordering was planning to double the size of the existing display. *fingers crossed* They'll get more sales carrying these than they will stuff that's already available from the lab, that's for sure. I kinda see this as a reward/incentive for the retailers to carry the line, because the existing customer base will *have* to go to the retailer for these scents. And you know what that means... people walking out with 100 bottle group orders so they can send them out to all the retailess bpalers. If the retailers are only carrying scents available online then they won't get too much business from the existing customer base... we all usually order GC bottles with our lab orders during lunacy updates, etc. That's just my thinking behind the reason for having retail-only products.

Knowing how the bpal swapping community works I have little doubt that anyone who wants a bottle will be able to lay their hands on one eventually. I'm sure decant circles and custom purchases will spring up like mushrooms in a particularly poopy field, pratically overnight.

Oh pleeeeeeeze let Harry's/Whole Foods in Atl be carrying these! PLEEEZE!

Heh. I'm glad I didn't read the reviews before I snagged a half-imp of this, or I'd have passed it up. I don't get aquatic or floral, thank gods, those are headache-death notes for me. Aquatics always go soapy or cologney on me, and there is none of that here. There is a touch of cologne sniffing from the vial, but it goes away upon application. And I love pine but I don't get that, either. Instead, I get something very similar to Hunter's Moon '04, but with less wood note. I'm finding it very hard to describe... the words foresty, woodsy, musky, animalistic, and earthy all flow through my mind, but none exactly fits. It's kind of all of those things together, combined into some totally new and undescribable scent that can only be partially hinted at by calling upon those other things. I'm not as familiar with the earlier lunacies that shared a base lunar oils component, but somehow this scent *is* evocative of a full moon to me. And that base may also be why it calls to mind the first Hunter's Moon. I'm a big fan of the '06 Wolf Moon, and this is quite different from that in terms of scent, but I think that it does create a similar mood and feeling. This isn't an "OMGMUSTHAVEMOAR" scent for me, but I will keep an eye out in case some crosses my path, because I do enjoy it and am glad to have gotten to try it.

I don't get this nearly as foody as most others. I've never smelled Sugar Skull, so I can't say anything about similarlity there. But I don't really think it smells like either Eat Me or Cockaigne that much. At first blast it's sweet Snake Oil, and there is maybe an overtone of something that makes me think more of maple syrup or brown sugar than caramel, and maybe a touch of nuttiness... but even that's not entirely right. There's a little bit of a powdery top to it at this point too. Someone else said sandalwood and I do get some of that at first as well. But as it dries all the sugar-sweetness turns into a sticky-sweet tobacco note. If you've ever seen a pouch of chewing tobacco... the tobacco shreds are moister and stickier than smoking tobacco... and that's what this makes me think of. I put it in two places... on the open back of my hand, and in the skin-to-skin crook of my elbow. The elbow location turned tobacco-smoky faster than the open location did. On my hand it kept the slightly powdery top and more of the sweetness. I get a nice supporting layer of Snake Oil throughout. On me this is pretty much a spicy-sweet-tobacco Snake Oil. I am head-over-heels in love with this one.

I love dark and woody, and this was everything I hoped it would be. In the bottle it is yummy carmelly hazelnut over wood and patchouli. It morphs lightly over its wearlength becoming less foody and more patchouli/wood as it goes. This one stays around forever on me, and has good throw. This is definitely not a sweet foody, and I get none of the apricot [yay!] If there was such as a thing as semi-sweet caramel this would be that, it's got a dry edge to it like a dark chocolate [it doesn't smell like chocolate, I'm just using the difference between dark and milk chocolates to try to explain how this caramel is!]. I think it's the hazelnut that's roughing it up a bit. So this caramel glazed hazelnut is sitting inside a dark wood box with some patchouli, and MB:VD is what you smell when you open the lid.

I'm baffled by the poster above saying her oil is dark. I got my bottle today and tested it without noticing any separation. When I read the review above I rechecked and put a drop of oil on my fingertip... it appears pale/clear, and I can see straight through the bottle if I hold it up to the light. Very odd. I get milk chocolate right out of the bottle. It comes with herbalness and just a touch of floral, but mostly the chocolate sits on top. It's not cocoa like Wulric and Boomslang, it's more of a milky, slightly sweetish chocolate. As it dries I begin to maybe get a leetle of the clove and sandalwood, a tiny bit of spice comes up and the chocolate begins to blend in better with the other notes. Annnd then it disappears, right about the time it's turning into something I could really like. An hour, tops, and it has become very faint, to the point I have to put my nose right on my wrist to smell what's left. Which is sadly kinda nicer than it was at first, and I wish this stage had more throw on me. I've never tried the first 13 but to me this one is very different than the Oct.06 version [which I love]. This is much sweeter/foodier, and less rich/spicy. Personally, I don't dislike it, but I'm also thinking it's not really me as I tend to prefer the darker scents. I'm going to try it again at another time to make sure [and also by itself, as I'm currently testing 2 other things that came with it! ], but as of now I expect I'll be swapping this one away.