annemathematics

it isn't in the study or book theme per say, but sometimes when I get home after a long long day or work, I dab on a bit of winter stars. this scent silences my monkey mind (chatter chatter!) and brings a sense of profound calm to me. it doesn't make me drowsy. if I want to sit and think and be focused and have a bit of stillness (or take a late walk) this adds a level of grace to whatever I am doing. if I were to take a class again soon, I would try using this or another mugwort blend in studying (waters of the well of wisdom is another bottle I have, but haven't tried it late at night). winter stars was a 2013 yule, and one that I don't think was heavily loved, so it may come up in forum sales for a nice low price. I think the main trick will be to train yourself that once you apply your chosen oil, you immediately sit down and work/study/learn. your pavlov's bell will be a smell. good luck!

freshly applied this is warm, bright, spicy. a light sweetness on top with a touch of bitter smoke at the base. this dries down to warm, soft leather that is worn and dusty. i close my eyes and try to picture what I am smelling and I get dusty leather and parchment and the vanillin-esque smell of old books (I'd wager this is the amber). this smells like an old, treasured book on me! which for me is total love.

in the imp and wet this is pure beauty. a classic opium perfume that smells like it came from behind the counter of an upscale department store only bpal oil style all the way. on me it fades extremely quickly. because I love it, I'm just reapplying more and more. the result of this buildup throughout the day is a hint of sandalwood with clove in the background. either my skin eats the other notes or my nose just adjusts to them. were it not for this chemistry strangeness, this would be a top three luper. the wet stage is gorgeous.

I love champaca, am wary of chamomile but was overall excited to try this blend. mostly on it's a classy, old fashioned perfume. I could smell the chamomile and nutmeg when wet, and now they are nicely and discreetly in the background, supporting a lovely blend of champaca, amber and vanilla. the throw is such that the air around me is nicely and very lightly scented without being too much for an office or elevator. lasts several hours and blends beautifully with implacable beautiful tyrant hair gloss. sweet!

I also see (smell?) this as a cousin to memory of primal secrets. wet, they are nearly identical. battle is a little saltier, a little bit of blood. dry, memory morphs to a soft cologne but battle stays fairly true to how it was when was wet. salt, blood in the earth (subtle blood in a clean and subtle soil). something is evoking buttery le pere fouettard cookie crumbs far in the background. warmer in tone than many of the others in this release.

placaphobia without graveyard dirt. that's what this smells like on me. it's absolutely gorgeous. I don't smell vetiver, but I'd place a small wager on a moss note being present. but the whole thing smells of clean smooth stone. cold mossy rock. a little blood, dried. I missed out on placaphobia and all sadness and regret are washed away because I like this just as much.

I don't get anything evergreeny. my brain must be stuck on the "iron" part of ironwood, because I'm smelling something clean and metallic with a little lemon oil--just a touch! there's a soft fluffy cuddly wolf puppy musk that comes through and this part lasts when all the other smells have faded away. this is the clean animal musk that I believe I have met in faunalia. this is a giant, fluffy, playful, massive, adorable, godwolf puppy, and there's no hatred or cruelty in it at all. if the throw were stronger, I would get a bottle. I do like this enough that I might get a bottle anyway, but I wish that the whole thing was a little bigger on my skin.

beautiful clear cool refreshing. the herbs are spicy at the start (I also get no butts!) with mugwort leading, but then they settle down and thyme becomes the most dominant one. (mayweed=a type of chamomile? I don't know this note, but there's nothing doing on my skin what chamomile usually does) wearing this is fun because I've never before worn or smelled a perfume in any way like this. it has a low throw with decent staying power. absolutely gorgeous not-sweet, non-soapy aquatic.

this is my favorite ragnarok scent. maybe because I love the yules so much? I think every time I tried a evergreen-heavy yule, I was hoping for what I find in hel. better on me than skadi (no berries, but happily no weird detergent wafts). until hel, I loved my little talvikuu partial. hel is so much more complex. everything good about talvikuu on me times twenty. between this and eldritch drunken constellations, I'm beginning to think I will enjoy wearing everything with ambergris. bright spicy icy sweet and delicious. good throw and wear length. edited to say that this smells as though some of the wood for hel's ship was chopped down from the Black Forest, another bpal smell I love wearing.

bright and refreshing and lightly citrusy but not sweet. more of an amuse bouche served between savory courses than a dessert. a little bit of a cologne with a metallic sheen underneath. pretty, clean and wearable. has a good throw and held its own for several hours. one of my surprise favorites of the ragnarok scents. edited after reading the review below me to say that yes, this is indeed a sibling to eldritch drunken constellations, which I adore. so close that my nose can't describe the subtle differences, although there are some. fimbul has a slightly bigger throw and lasts longer. if I didn't have eldritch and a backup, I would get a bottle of this as well and love and wear them both.

a nice deep earthy musky scent. a little sweet, but not really sweet. patch can sometimes be too much on me, but this one is leading the other notes while still letting them show through. I mostly detect patchouli, the balsam, the ambrette and the musk. the beeswax softens and fattens its texture. the honey isn't all that detectable. I do get a bit of the warm, soft, earthy side of vetiver as well. luperci is much mellower and more wearable than I expected. gentle throw. I've been wearing it for two hours and its charms are still growing on me. the honey coming out a bit more. the whole scent getting rounder and fuller. I like it. I agree with milo, and would love to smell this on a dangerous guy.

this is lovely. bright sparkly absinthe with a creamy robe of white chocolate. alas, it sinks down into my skin and stays there, too shy to come out and mingle with the rest of the world. if this develops a bigger throw, I will wear it because it's beautiful. if it doesn't, I still will wear it but no one will know...

this one is full of notes that can go both ways on my skin. in fact, almost all of them have given me joy with the grief in extreme measure. despite all of this, my gut told me to get a decant, and my gut was totally right to do so. the chocolate doesn't go plastic. the clove doesn't scream louder and longer than the rest of the notes. the cherry isn't medicinal. the honey doesn't smell like bad sweat. the wine doesn't make me smell like a drunk is sitting on my pulse points. every note is instead doing the most beautiful thing in can in a harmonious combination with good throw and staying power. the whole of it is deep and rich and a little smokey. it's beautiful and my favorite chocolate bpal on me so far. maybe my favorite of this year's lupers?

I love Hatta, leather and cinnamon. it sadly fades on me rather quickly, but it's beautiful while it lasts.

I've only ever tried a fresh frimp of misk u, and it was all boozy coffee with oak on me and in my frimp.

if you clock over to post #441 in death matching http://www.bpal.org/topic/65148-death-matchin/page__st__425 you can read monster's excellent compare contrast of lurid and buggre. she makes them both sound tempting.

I have never sniffed it! although it might be in my future if my luper decants don't inspire any bottle needs. I'm wanting a bookish companion to picture books in winter and was deciding between the book and buggre all bible. monster was kind enough to death match buggre and lurid library. if you were able to compare a bit between book and PBIW, or book and buggre, or merely sing the many praises of book beyond what's on the review page, I promise to geek out and re-read it several times.

I use this as an after shower moisturizer, not in the tub. as a moisturizer, it absorbs quickly and beautifully in the hair and skin, leaving both soft and smooth and not greasy or filmy. the scent on me is a sweet bright floral. a hint of lovely honeysuckle softened with white chocolate and warmed by amber (doesn't go powdery). there's some brightness from the mint. sometimes mint oil can be bracing and cooling on my skin, but I've been using this in winter and I haven't had that happen here. overall this is great and I'm glad to have gone through a bottle and be able to score a backup.

bumping this as my bottle of picture books in winter comes to an end. I was considering investing in a bottle of either buggre alle this bible or paranorman's the book. is anyone able to offer a little scent insight to help me choose? either to compare the two against each other or compare them against picture books? I know lurid library is another book smell that does come up in the forum sales, so comments on that one are welcome as well. thank you! edited to also ask about TREVOR BRUTTENHOLM!

up on etsy is MENACING IONOSPHERIC RESEARCH INSTRUMENT, which takes mint in an herbal metallic direction, if that's of interest to you. "Electrically charged white amber, violet, sage, mint, and neroli flanked by dazzling metals and shining wires."

I love all of the listed notes in this one. however, in the bottle and fresh and dry on my skin, it's pretty much straight up identical to my 5year old oshadhi galbanum essential oil. I can't smell anything other than the galbanum. no clove, no orange peel, no labdanum, no frankincense. no change after a few weeks of sitting in the dark. I like galbanum, but I was hoping for more of a blend.

hastur really broke my heart. I ordered this, excited by the subject and the notes, expecting to get a rich strong scent with a good throw that would last and last. instead I received a pale oil that smells of...nothing! just emptiness! no patch, no labdanum, no brimstone, no tobacco. the bottle smells like there is no perfume in it at all. I even tucked it away for a good two months, hoping a bit of time would bring smells to the surface. but there's nothing in the bottle or on my skin or on the skin of my housemate, who joked that we can't smell it because we ourselves smell of demons. I think it would be thoroughly appropriate to use the term DAMN here for this one, yes? update: [i could have sworn that I already updated this?? but oh well here goes again] about a year later, I took this bottle out again as I prepared to add it to my sales pile. low and behold...the perfume had finally blossomed! I could smell it! it's actually now a beloved scent, very easy to wear: smokey damp resins. lab and patch mostly brought in from the rain and left to dry by the fire until just slightly sticky, still a little runny. it's much lighter than ligur. the more reasonable demon, if you will.

maybe treasure ships coming in will deliver what you seek. King mandarin, green mint, green tea leaf, and white musk. I love love love lick it now, but it's very sugar heavy. mint strong at the start, then fades to the background. it doesn't have a huge throw. I've never smelled it, but green tree viper sounds amazing to me. forum bottles tend to be too pricey for me, so I'm hoping it will return with the carnival. Snake Oil with four mints, bergamot, and green tea. how doth the little crocodile has chocolate peppermint listed as a note, but I didn't find it to be so minty.

one scent that plays beautifully on my skin in a fashion similar to butterflies attending is skekTek the Scientist Metal and stone beams of dark light: hyssop, black currant, black viola, passionflower, and myrrh. from the Dark Crystal line. it's beautiful and has a nice throw and lasts a while. mmmm, it's so good! (please note when considering my advice is that I tend to go for weirder bpal's with notes like dirt and books and vetiver and coconut swamps. but I love butterflies...attending and skektet delivers as well)

strong, girly floral sweet APPPPPPLLLE. big throw. lasts and lasts. a little goes a long way. first test, I put on just a dab and was left wanting more. not personally drawn to apple notes, I was pleasantly surprised at how delicate and feminine and pretty sjofn was. second test I applied a generous amount and it was too much. still a nice floral sweet apple blend but TIMES A MILLION. too sweet too floral too apple too much TOOO LOUD for me to handle. impervious to soap. layers well with musky, spicy, honey and resiny scents. fyi