LiberAmoris

Coyote is a wonderful second-skin scent on my me, with amber, tall dry grasses, and a touch of cedar. The musk gives it an animalistic edge that reminds me of the smell of my dog, which I absolutely adore and is one of the most comforting smells in the world to me. I'm not sure I'll need more than an imp of this, but I will definitely enjoy using every last drop of what I have.

Thanatopsis was a freebie from the Lab, thanks Labbies! Ok, I know this is a Funereal Oil blend, but it's just so...damn...relaxing and peaceful! Ah, life after death, perhaps. To me this smells like Sin with pine and juniper. It's incredibly 'down to earth' and grounding. This is one to put on after I get home from work when I need to 'tabula rasa' my mind. Very clearing!

Shub-Niggurath smells just like a drink my mom used to make for me when my throat was sore: hot water with ginger and lemon. Add a touch of cinnamon and clove and it's Shub-Niggurath! This is just beautiful, an herbal-citrus on me with a dark amber base that comes out after an hour of wear. I feel like there's maybe even a bit of patchouli in this, which makes it very sexy. I am so glad that I went on intuition and ordered two more bottles of this before Arkham disappeared. A definite top 10 scent for me!

Miskatonic University is my first taste of the Arkhams and boy, what a way to begin. Coffee, buttery toffee, and the smell of book spine glue, ink, and a little bit of water damage...it's heavenly. Libraries are my favorite places in the world, and as an undergraduate, I spent hours milling around in the stacks, sometimes looking for something in particular, other times just wandering, pulling things with interesting titles and reading several pages before moving on. I love the smell of books and sunlight on long wooden tables...and the flickering shapes of people on the other side of library shelving that has always seemed like such a great metaphor for the way in which we can only see partly, only see parts of people through the knowledge that we have... Miskatonic U captures that magic perfectly. I even get a hint of candle wax on the drydown that adds an element of reading by candlelight. Love it.

Mmmmm, Flower Moon. Reminds me of Beltane, lots of lovely flowers, a whole heap of them. It's like a summer meadow in a bottle. Beth's florals are so incredible. Flower Moon just makes me...happy!

Milk Moon smells to me like the stage in bread-making where I add warm milk and yeast to the flour. The lunar oils shimmer a bit at the edges of Milk Moon, casting a slightly floral glow around it. It's so soft and comforting, I love it.

Chaos Theory II - CCLXXXVI Wow. Lemon, lemon, lemon---not a dusty or removed lemon, but a lovely, bracing, juicy surge of lemon as if I were grating lemon rinds. Underneath, there's a lovely grass or hay note. An hour later, I can smell a touch of anise. It's like drinking a lemon drop at a garden party. Chaos Theory II - CCXCVI This is going to sound nutbar, but this really smells like a good merlot out of a winecask. I can smell the wine, dusty woods, and the very slightest touch of leather. On dry down I can no longer smell the leather but I can smell a white flower, I think it's gardenia, just a touch of it. Lovely. Chaos Theory II - XXI Freshly ground pepper, the fancy kind. And...oregano? On drydown there's a resiny undertone and the tiniest touch of spearamint or eucalyptus. It kind of reminds me of spicy basil. It's a dark, mysterious herbal.

The Ides of March is yet another blend where in a million years I never could have anticipated that I would love this as much as I do. For me the rosemary and bergamot are most apparent at first, with a rich undercurrent that I believe is the gray amber. The lemon note is there, but it's spiced by the cardamom enough so that it's submerged. There's just a touch of something eucalyptus-y that makes it very mind-clearing. It's just so fresh and lovely without being in any way overpowering. I really feel like I breathe more deeply and am more relaxed when I wear it. It's like walking through a misty herb garden where everything is very still. ETA: An hour later, it's like a handful of beautiful, green crushed herbs on a tea cake---creamy, herbal, with a little bit of sweetness, spice, and tang. If I had several bottles of this, it still wouldn't be enough.

Graveyard Dirt is great on its own as an earthy, grounded, dusky blend---or as one of the best blenders that I have come across. I've added a little GD to my favorite florals and have not yet been disappointed. It always adds another dimension that I really enjoy. I smell oakmoss, some kind of pale wood, and a touch of patchouli in Graveyard Dirt, although I don't have the best nose. I've been using it on days when I literally need to come down to earth and feel my feet on the ground. I love the way it helps me focus.

Like inkstone, I also immediately thought of Vinland when I first uncapped Beltane. I agree that it shares some notes but is a stronger floral. It’s very sunny and fresh, like a field of wildflowers and tall grass. Beltane is perfect for springtime, and I find it almost impossible to be in a bad mood when wearing this blend, which is a wonderful side-effect! It’s like pure sunshine.

A smoky, sexy Samhain. Hexennacht is the BPAL equivalent of sex in the woods: mussed hair and smudged eyeliner, fir needles stuck to the back of one’s coat, tree sap on the sleeve, grass and soot stains on the knees, and suffused skin that carries the remnants of bonfire smoke on it. It’s the smell of flushed skin in a forest. If my local Parks & Recreation Department started making skin flicks, I couldn’t be more surprised than I am by how much I love Hexennacht. Now I am off to plan a camping trip.

In the bottle, Pink Moon smelled incredibly sweet, like liquid pink tooth decay. But once on my skin, the sugars burned off a bit and gentle florals took their place---I could smell the dogwood, the tulips, and the phlox. For me, it ended up being less strawberry and more strawberry leaf, which I was really happy about, as I’ve always loved the smell of the entire strawberry plant, the whole shebang---petal, leaf, stem, and berry. The candied sugar quality of Pink Moon remained like a halo around the flowers for a couple of hours, and then it seemed like it almost vanished entirely from my skin, leaving a bit of lotus that for me always seems to be the aftermath of the Lunacy blends. Pink Moon doesn’t cling to my skin the way some of the other oils do, but I have two bottles, so I’m going to spend the remainder of this spring slathered up in the stuff.

Othello on me is a powdery rose. I'm not getting any of the spices, just powder and roses. It reminds me of some pressed powder my late grandmother used to have that smelled slightly of roses. It's very pretty, it's just not something I see myself wearing too often. I prefer the 'juicier' roses, like in Rose Red and Persephone. I do think Othello would be devasting on a man....

If Morocco and the Queen of Spades had a love child, it would be The Living Flame! I love this blend---spicy vanilla, sandalwood, those mysterious eastern spices, berries, and sexy musk. On my way home from work, not one, but TWO complete strangers complimented me on my perfume on the subway...both nice-looking gentlemen, I should add... That's really all it takes to sell me on a blend. I'm so glad I bought two bottles of this stuff---one is going to a good friend for her birthday present, and I know she's going to love it!

This haunting, exotic scent is named in honor of the shapeshifting demons from Hindu mythology. Sandalwood with rose and patchouli. Rakshasa smells just like polished wood to me. I think it's quite lovely and very relaxing, good for meditation and long weekends. Unfortunately, on my skin a sour citrus note comes out---quite different from the scent in the vial. I'm going to use this up in my oil burner, as it is just gorgeous until it hits my skin.

The Sacred Ho was a freebie from the Lab, thanks so much Labbies! Like viciousviolet, I immediately thought: Dragon's Milk + Gardenia. That combination always smells like banana for some reason...what can I say, I'm weird. This reminds me a lot of both Blood Countess and Serpent's Kiss. I think this is one blend that I would love to smell on someone standing near me, but it's just not really me. I'm going to give this imp to a friend and hope she wears it the next time we hang out!

Nosferatu is really quite an accomplishment. I love Murnau's film for its technical brilliance and innovation, and was eagerly anticipating this blend. I was initially surprised at how fresh and grassy it smelled, as I thought it would be darker somehow. But really, the florals and wine are perfect, as there is a sensuality and inverted pleasure that is invoked by these decadent notes. The slinky malevolence comes out much later on my skin, as the grassiness recedes and the smell of the ground and earth rises up against it. Somehow it smells like being cornered, like a threat that is both fearsome and desired. There is that one shot in the Murnau film in which the bedroom door opens on its own, and Count Orlok ghosts down the hallway and into the room in one smooth foregone conclusion. Yeah, that's what this blend reminds me of. Vampiric associations aside, Nosferatu also reminds me of summer days spent outside all day and night, and the memory of sunlight still trapped on the skin and clothes and hair of one's beloved, hours after the sun has gone down. A sexy, strange, provoking blend that I'm glad I have a bottle of.

Neo-Tokyo really does transport me to a Japanese garden: bamboo, cherry blossom, orchids, running water, terraced sand and those perfect rocks that are mountains in miniature.... The metallic tang reminds me of the proximity of the ocean or a early morning rain. I also smell white tea in here, or perhaps my imagination is just working overtime. For me, Neo-Tokyo is a BPAL blend that has spaces within it. The notes have air around them, and silence. It reminds me of reading haiku and tanka poems, in which the volta (or turn) at the end of line allows the reader to take a breath. On my skin, this plays across much like Vinland, which I also love. I have so many bottles already, but I think this might eventually have a space in my big bottle collection.

De Sade is pure I annoited myself in this to get myself into character to play a Dominatrix-turned-cabbie role for one of my boyfriend's short film projects (no, not that kind of short film). De Sade definitely helped me connect with the character's past! It's pure, unadulterated leather, with no mercy.

La Belle au Bois Dormant is another BPAL blend in which I can smell all the notes. Like others above, It also reminds me a lot of Titania. I'm not the hugest fan of tuberose, but the pear and plumeria really balance it out in this blend. I wore this to bed last night (I thought Sleeping Beauty would be appropriate for one trying to get some beauty sleep) and it had a very lovely and comforting effect. I think I'll save my imp for a day in which I wear a floral, girly dress (currently penciled in for sometime in 2006). Blends like La Belle au Bois Dormant remind me that I should have more flowers around the apartment. The floral oils and essences that BPAL uses as notes are so beautifully true that they really are uplifting harbingers of spring.

Ophelia smells to me like Persephone's little sister. There is that same note in both that for the first five minutes reminds me of a nail polish remover I once had, and then it fades into sumptous rose. Ophelia is watery and lovely. I don't know if I need a big bottle, but I'm going to use up the imp and go from there. Another good candidate for the summer months when I want something feminine and fetching to go with my skirts and heels.

:wades into Dorian review thread: Well, tea is not usually the best note on my skin, but of all the tea blends I've tried, Dorian is the loveliest. Tea with lemon... and a little vanilla cake with clotted cream on the side! This is more foody than sexy on me, but at some point, when you're hungry, you're hungry, right? I now suddenly have a craving for tea and cake.

I am not a fan of vetiver. So I was more than a little hestitant to try Santa Muerte, even though the description was so amazing. But I had the same experience that Caitfish had---the vetiver is very noticeable at first, but quickly backs off and then remains simply to darken up the blend a bit and temper the sweetness of the florals. For me Santa Muerte quickly moved into a dark floral and stayed there. It was like a mixed bouquet of dried, withered roses and living, vibrant ones. Underneath, the current of the cactus flowers adds an aloe-y lushness to the blend, something green and watery. Yet there is also a dryness to this, a kind of arid wind that lifts the notes away from each other at moments so they are distinguishable on their own. Comparisons to Dia de los Muertos and Kali come to mind...although Santa Muerte does not smell like either of those, I feel like I can smell elements of each of these blends in Santa Muerte. The drydown is really different from the wet stage---I'm so glad that I waited a bit so that I could experience this Saint.

Moscow is a really well-blended floral, very polished and smooth. The top notes on my skin are the tangerine, jasmine and rose, with the carnation and lily supporting. The amber, bergamot and musk are only detectable as a subtle base for the floral notes to rest upon. Moscow reminds me of another classy floral---Venice. Both blends have me envisioning an enormous floral bouquet in the foyer of some great, gilded marble hall. The drydown of Moscow also reminded me of Mata Hari's drydown, sans coffee and tonka. All in all, another gorgeous floral blend from Beth. It makes me wish I had somewhere more interesting to go today than down the hall to the laundry room!

Amber, amber, amber! I love amber and Brisingamen is mostly amber on me. I can't smell the carnation or myrtle or apple blossom---just rich, delicious amber. It's like The Lion without the savannah spices and grasses. Because I already have a bottle of The Lion, I think I'll hold off on a bottle of Brisingamen. But it's lovely and it's on The List. Even my boyfriend, the one who thinks everything smells like 'spicy cookies', thought this one was exceptional.