Tesseljoan

This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress. From the Bewitching brews section. I have grown to love this one. When wet, this is very piny and forest -like. You can smell soft flowers in the background. As the pine fades, the night flowers come out more and more, grounded down by something which I think smell like white musk (I know it isn't in the ingredients, but I can smell it... weird nose). Beautiful. My sample is half finished, and I'm worried already of running out. Edited July: It's good fun to read back your older reviews. What I thought were flowers and white musk, was actually ambergris and black musk. sampling single notes is really educational.

Beautiful cinnamon, with clove and copal as the supporting cast. I'm going to mix this with a chocolate scent to see what happens.

Mod Note: FYI, there is another 'Meditation' oil/review topic located in the general category of TAL. Dot gently onto your temples and third eye prior to meditation. Helps clear the mind and calm the spirit. Can also be used as a candle dressing or diffuser scent. I put this on my temples and my forehead as instructed, and meditated. I have used Concentration for meditating as well, as an experiment, but this oil is much calmer, and therefore much better suited for mindfulness meditation. It gives a gentle nudge whenever my mind starts to drift off (whereas Concentration would hit me back into concentrating and focusing). I have tried this on only one session, I will update when I have used it a bit longer. I don't feel comfortable giving a complete scent description, but I will say that I can smell violets and I don't detect any "controversial" notes, such as vetiver, civet or patchouli. Edit: but a patch test might be a good idea (a patch test is always a good idea). My skin turned just a wee bit red from this. Nothing painful, though.

Right, a thread inspired by my two days of not holding any food or water inside: Are there any oils that give you a sense of well-being without triggering the nausea? I've seem to have gone off all my BPAL, Lush and essential oils at the moment... Is it better to leave it for the moment untill my 'old' sense of smell returns?

Thanks to Laurel for posting a link to this thread! I wore the unity set (red rose and white rose) on my wedding day. The scent wasn't my husband's thing but he sprinkled a bit on a bit of cloth that he kept in his pocket for the day. The symbolism of combining the two perfumes into more awesomeness made it the perfect choice.

I haven't used Anthelion in a while, but when I did use it, the effect was pretty awesome. Last year I had a mild depression. Nothing appealed to me. Granted, I had a shitty job, but I started to hate my hobies as well. I lost my concentrationa and appetite and wanted to give up. I used Anthelion to anoint myself. I didn't use it in a ritual, I just took a quiet moment to still my mind, and apply it. The effects were not lightning speed, but within weeks things started looking up. My situation didn't change, but I was able to handle the shitty bits, and to find small joys again; incredibly precious when you haven't had those for a while. several weeks later I got counceling, and things have improved a lot since then, of course. But that first nudge was desperately needed, and I'm glad I had Anthelion handy for that.

Nope, but wouldn't a print of your paypal receipt do for the 'bill and payment confirmation' part? I'm at a loss for the latter part though. How hard is it to translate 'perfume oil' and couldn't they look it up in a dictionary themselves? Or do they go as far as wanting to know the ingredients or something?

Copaiba balsam, Tolu balsam, hay absolute, cardamom, and hiba wood. Cardemom and... amber. When this scent dries, it becomes a heady tunisian amber on my skin (I know, I know, it's not there). No wood notes for me, but a beautiful round and warm scent. Hoarding time.

This barely made it into my bottle order, because of the Lush comparisons... I would never have selected this based on the note listing. BOY am I glad that I did! Cytherea is a winner for me. There is indeed a fleeting similarity to the dearly departed Skinny Dip, but this scent is so beautiful and evocative in its own right. Just a shame I don't have the words to do it justice.

Hellfire is weirdly sweet tobacco with leather. Not impable, but not exactly something you would expect from a perfume: Mad Sweeny. Smells like a single malt whiskey. I adore this one.

I wish my mistakes were this good. On my skin, dragon's blood mainly comes out, but it's tempered by a creamy clove. The clove is so gentle and foody that I almost thought it was carnation at some point, but now it's more clove-y.

This is a perfect scent. It is foody and gourmand, but very subtle as well. On th edrydown, I'm left with the scent of musk and vanilla, but nothing overpowering, honestly, it is a PERFECT mix of my all-time favourite BPAL scents. I would chase this down. O yes. Anyone want to rob a bank with me?

Wet, this smells more like an aquatic to me. I read the reviews first, and when I grabbed the decant I went "huh?" Now that it is dry, I can smell the jasmine. Usually jasmine makes me run and hide in a corner, but with those fresher notes, I find I can actually wear this (I can't and I won't, it has other European decantees to visit!)

Another from the International sniff circle by Ahania. This is a soft green to my nose, with dampness and earth thrown in. Unfortunately, my skin chemistry does weird things with it *shakes fist at skin* and it morphs into something generic and sharp. But that first wet phase is indeed lovely.

I wasn't too impressed with this when it was wet, but mmmmm, spicy and deep and lovely. Very mysterious scent.

Another review from the awesome European sniffies circle (aka Ahania we love you!). This smells lovely and buttery when wet. I like foodie, so I had high hopes for this one. And I'm definitely not dissapointed. Other smells are peeking through, like currant, and... sugar perhaps? It makes the scent aas a whole less foody, but more interesting.

I'm also someone who chooses to avoid florals, but I couldn't resist getting decants of the entire Gaiman set. The flowers in Mam-Ji are of the headier, almost soporific kind. Combined with the incense and hint of spices, this actually *gasps* works on my skin!

Beautiful blend. When I put it on, it's very spicy, but right now it has dries down to a fantastic velvety patchouli and spice blend. On my skin this works like a spicy cross between Umbra and Chimera.

Mint mint and mint. I don't get much Snake Oil, evne when it dries, but the scent as a whole is a bit sweeter then the wintery mint blends from the lab. After the mint dies down a little, green tea makes its appearance. It lasts longer than most mint scents, but I still reapply and slather it on as often as I can.

At first, this smells like almond cookies with orange and a hint of rose water. On my skin, it does the 'florals go sharp-thing, but this remains lovely in a locket. When the almond settles down a little, I can notice the myrrh and honey a bit more. Beautiful, feminine, and as reviewers befor eme have said, if you like almond, you must try this one. ADDED June 13: This works for about two seconds on my skin, but my, those are two beautiful seconds! The almonds are very obvious on application, but there is lots more going on.... it's a very sensual skin scent. The touch of floral that's in this blend decided to take over, but if your skin doesn't do naughty things with flowers and you like almond, try it. It sure is a masterpiece.

Oak-barrel aged whiskey, with a whiff of turf. I have no doubt that this was hard to make, but it's effect is sweet and simple. (and I will totally wear this as a perfume. heh.)

Tiresias smelles like warm caramel, with a hint of patchouli from the bottle. On my skin, it morphs into a dark skin scent (mainly patchouli tobacco). The caramel is lodged between the darkness of the other notes and gets a bit more chocolate-y the longer I wear it. I don't get the currant, the cinnamon-leaf isn't really noticeable either. It is simply gorgeous in a dark moody way.

Don't get me wrong, this is great.... because it smell sof Snake Oil. In the initial wet phase, I thought it smelled like cocoa and wood, which didn't do much for me. On the drydown, it smelled exactly like my aged Snake Oil from 2005, which is a favourite of mine... But if you like that dry woodsy chocolate scent and might be pursuaded to wear Snake Oil, this will be OMG LOVE for you.

The violetblends that I have tried (Ultraviolet, the Raven amongst a few others) usually scream 'purple, heady violet' to me. faith doesn't, it is a much lighter and gentler kind of violet. On my skin, this turns into a clean scent, almost like slightl old-fashioned soap. Nice, and slightly addictive.

I'm not a big rose fan, but I jumped on a decant for this all the same. It is a gentle sugared rose. It's nto something I would wear, but it is a beautifully done scent. It's very pretty, and while I haven't been succesful in enabling my friends to BPAL, I think this one just might be succesful.