Arcana

[zapevaj]

The essence of magickal enigmas and long-forgotten esoteric mysteries. Frankincense, rosemary, lavender, neroli, and verbena.

I really wanted to like this, but it just won't work. I think the lavender is too strong for me, and coupled with the frankincense and lemon verbena, it's just pungent. I tend to like slightly warm-smelling scents, and this one is cold. If I had to assign it a color, I'd call it light yellow or violet (if that means anything outside of my own head!) Definitely a nice herbal blend, but totally not for me.

-Rae

[Sara]

Very lemony right out of the imp, what is it with me and citrus lately?? There's also an undercurrent of something behind the lemon that made me back off for a little while to indulge in light, sweet scents.

 

However I finally got around to trying this one and must admit: It's wonderful!! I love the clean, bright scent of lemon (It's like lemon candy I tell you!!) fresh on my skin with that touch of "something darkish/heavy" lingering in the background. After an hour or more this becomes nothing more than incense. But it's a delectable incense. Reminds me strongly of some kind of "occult" shop and gives me the impression of something "mysterious and earthly - special like." Not to mention it melds perfectly with my skin! (yay for the melding) So after many, many hours it's become a human smokey skin scent I rather adore.

[closedacct]

Arcana

 

While most people seem to think that this blend is soothing, I find it invigorating.

 

Lovely!!! I can smell lavender, rosemary and lemon verbena. Very stimulating! My husband used to use rosemary oil for mental clarity while finishing his bachelors degree, and I would always be putting lavender under his nose to soothe him. I know this will be a family favorite.

Edited December 6, 2004 by ewalk

[Scylla]

In the vial: Indistinguishable herbs and LOTS of lavender

 

Wet, on my skin: Gah! Pure lavender. And that is NOT a good thing.

 

On drydown: The lavender has gone away and left neroli and lemon verbena in its wake. Pleasant enough, but not really my thing.

[Finny]

Strong lavender.

 

On it stays strong lavender and not much of anything else on me. It will make a delightful bath scent, I think.

 

As a perfume oil, too much lavender for me.

[Fishwomon]

I just can't decide about Arcana. I'm fascinated by it, and I keep returning to it, even though it's not an oil I automatically reach for in the morning to carry me through my day. Arcana is soft and haunting, as if it's wafting from the skirts of a woman moving around an apothecary, or as if it's herbs crushed underfoot on an old wood floor on a warm day. It has a dry, dusty quality, which must come from the frankincense. No one note predominates on me. Lovely, intriguing, subtle.

[polydactyl]

This starts out bright - the herbs and resins really stand out. This is the first oil I've smelt where I can distinctly identify more than two components. Not surprising, since rosemary, lavender, and frankincense are such strong scents. But this isn't really an overpowering oil, more refreshing, I would say. It ends up lightly lemony after an hour on my skin.

[paperdoll]

Initial Sniff: Lavender! And frankincense? Odd.

 

Wearing: This is much lighter and more subtle than I expected from the bottle. There is a light lemon smell, and a light herbal smell... it is very soft and... dessicated. It smells like crumbling relics of a romantic age gone by.

 

Final Impressions: I liked this a lot better than I did the last time I tried it. It is not as astringent as I remember it being. Very nice, but not me.

[antimony]

Mmmm... lavender and herbiness. Pretty.

 

I definately think of this as a relaxing scent. The lavender smells just like the lavender in the sleep blends, and overall, it has a very similar feel.

[slave1]

ARCANA

 

In Bottle: The lemon and neroli stand out.

 

On Skin: I haven’t been liking lemon scents on me, they all seem to turn to Lemon Pledge. The lavender softens the spice of the frakincense and rosemary but still the scent is very pungent. This review is pretty short but just because there isn’t much I can say about it… it’s pure Pledge on me.

[quimerula]

Wet it's lavender, rosemary, incense and verbena.

Fresh but quite strong, with a lot of rosemary.

Dry my skin eats all the notes, making it a strong rosemary scent.

 

After all the pretty BPAL oils I've tried, this one doesn't work on me at all!

[Abbie]

In the imp: Definitely I get the lavender and verbena. It's a clean, refreshing smell... makes me think of the refrigerated flowers at a florist's

 

First application: Whoa! Citrusy! The lavender is quickly reduced to a base fragrance allowing the neroli and verbena to shine through. There's something else in here that I can't put my finger on... not rosemary, not frankincense, although it's definitely more incensey than herbal.

 

Dry: Has a definitely astringent note... not quite the same as the lavender.

 

All in all, a very nice garden fragrance.

[Ms Density]

Arcana, to me, is the perfect pillow/linen scent for summer. When I first put it on, I get a slightly sharp, slightly medicinal whiff of lavender and resins and herbs. But as it dries down, it gets really soft without going powdery. In fact, it reminds me of the scent of Avon's Skin So Soft. Since I spent most of my childhood summers slathering myself with Skin So Soft and lazing around on soft old sheets by the pool or in hammocks, well, it's nostalgic.

 

I will definitely be using this as a bed scent. Or maybe I'll just use it on any summer night when I'm curled up on the couch under a soft blanket with the AC going full blast, after spending the day out in the hot sun. It's so soothing and comfortable, and surprisingly sensual.

[quikslvr]

Strong lemony herbs. Lavender, perhaps, but a dry version rather than the artificial sweet in most products. Then a darker note underneath emerges--earthy-like. Probably the frankincense, at a guess. Wakes me up quite a bit. Darkens as it dries--gets forboding, even.

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): A bright vivid almost minty herb scent.

 

Just On: A hint of mintyness, and maybe some citrus?

 

An hour or two later: Okay, there's a hint of lemon pledge in this, but I like it, so please don't take that as a knock against it. No more mint that I can smell.

 

Around 6 hours: Less of the lemon pledge, but still there. Pretty lemony.

 

12 hours: The very last vestiges of lemon zestiness.

 

Overall: I could totally get hooked on this. It wasn't really far up on my list, but it turns out I like it a lot. Goes to show you that I can be wrong about anything <g>.

 

After reading other reviews: Verbena. So that's the lemony thing. Apparently my skin amps that up so much as to take over everything else. Apparently, someone else got the mint thing too. However, I got NO lavender out of this at all.

[wickedgoddess]

Wet - Lavendar and herbs.

 

Dry - Lavendar, lemon verbena and a bit of rosemary. I can almost smell the Frankincense, but every time I think I find it, it scurries away. I love herbs and herbal blends, and this one is quite nice, but I would love it more if the Frankincense would just sit still. One hour later - hey look, the frankincense sat still finally. It's front and center, but now the rest of the notes have gone away.

 

I wish this was the rich, gorgeous Frankincense of Anne Bonny, but it's not, it's rather thin. This is nice, and as I said before I love herbals blends, and I just may pick up a bottle sometime down the road, but it's not quite a must have. Close though.

 

On the wickedgoddess scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best, this rates a 3.

[zankoku_zen]

In the bottle: Sharp lemon herbiness. I smell the lemon verbena and the rosemary most prominently. I got a whiff of lavender.

 

On Skin: Woof. It sort of smells like Vick's Vapor Rub... without the fresh mintyness. After a bit it calms down, and I can smell some of the floral goodness.

 

On Drydown: Still associated in my mind with Vick's Vapor Rub. Can't get over it. Nuts.

 

Verdict: My skin and I don't agree with this. I'd think about offering this to the boy because this strikes me as a more masculine like scent. Except I don't like how it smells and I'm not sure I would want him smelling of this. Off to the swap pile.

[QueenFae]

This is a very earthy, dusty, brown scent for me. It's light and herb-y, does make me think of magick. It ends up smelling very incese-y on me, but not overpoweringly so. It's a pleasant, earth child, walk in the forest type of scent. I like it very much, I will evjoy using up my imp!

[Eris]

Got this one as a frimp, though I'd been eyeing it for a while. Initial application is very astringent and almost metallically herbal--the rosemary, methinks. That sharpness fades, and the lavendar pushes out to the forefront to create a sweeter herbal effect. This is soon overtaken by a citrusy smell--persumably neroli and verbana. Neither on their own is overhwhelmingly citrus, but united, they push the envelope, at least on me. This is soon subdued by a creamy, almost vanilla-y element (though there's none in the blend), and then finally all notes yield--though the verbena puts up a good fight--to my old friend frankincense. Frankincense always works well with my chemistry, and I'm left with a familiar resiny finish.

 

Lots of morphing! I can definitely see a magical edge to this.

[nineveh]

This starts as lemon and lavender. Very medicinal. I'm not getting any frankincense, which makes me sad.

 

As it dries, it starts to smell very sweet, like hard lemon candy.

 

This is too intensely lemon for me, and I don't think that lavender likes my skin.

[sarada]

I first tried this about a year ago and it didn't strike me very much. It seemed rather pale and bland in my memory, I think I wrote in my notebook at the time that it was a generic kind of smell, one that I couldn't put my finger on.

 

Funny how things change! Now that I've tried um...350 or so blends and carefully studied what I like, I can distinguish every single note in this and it is gorgeous.

 

First it hits me like Nanshe, my favorite dream blend, with the strong lavender and the golden warmth of citrus. Then the rosemary peeps through like fresh cut herbs in the kitchen, sharp and slightly smoky, as if the leaves are being added to a hot, dry frying fan. Those are still "visible" in the scent when the frankincense takes over, and it is the perfect warm resin that carries the blend through, still shimmering with the memory of the herbal bouquet. This is really spectacular and I wish I had "understood" it better when I first tried it. I'm thinking that perhaps I had tried an old imp that had faded somewhat. Now I'm thinking this is big bottle material! I might even prefer this over Nanshe as far as the scent goes, because of that wonderful frankincense that loves my skin.

 

Even with all of the new amazing blends that keep coming every month or so, scents like this one are classic and I will always come back to them for those basic, simple ingredients that will always inspire me.

[blood*rose*flowers]

In the bottle: Rosemary and Lavendar

 

On wet: Lavendar lots of lavendar

 

Dry Down: This one switches quickly to a much milder less heavy floral scent to a more incense scent as the frankincense comes forward.

 

Overall: This is a very interesting mix of floral and incense this is very nice scent over all.

[telesilla]

This is a forum purchase. It was on my wish list because of the lavender.

 

In bottle and wet on me: OMG lavender! This isn't a bad thing; I love lavender.

 

Drying down: Still heavy on the lavender but it's going a little sweeter and I think I'm getting the neroli now.

 

Later: It's gotten even sweeter now with a slightly resiny base, that's probably the frankincense, but I can still smell the lavender over it all. It's very smooth now; it's a total keeper, possibly a big bottle, depending on what else I try that has lavender in it.

[Phaedra]

This was a freebie in one of my recent orders. It goes on as bright, crisp lemon with some soft, almost watery note underneath. It softens into a honey and vanilla blend and reminds me of some other BPAL blends but I can't remember which ones. I don't get any of the herbal notes at all. I'm going to try this again before deciding if I really like it or not.

[bonibaru]

Along the bank by my childhood home, verbana grew wild and my mother used to bring the leaves in, dry them and steep them in hot water to flavor her homemade iced tea. Everywhere I went in my grandmother's house, the scent of lavender was pervasive from the sachets she kept in almost every dresser drawer. On my skin this is lavender tinged with a light lemon, fresh and cool, and it's making me homesick like you can't believe The trouble with lemon scents is they often make me think of household cleaners (!) so I am turned off by lemon, but not with Arcana - the lemon is so light and airy, and tempered by the rosemary I think. I'd wear this in springtime, or for sleeping - it would make a great sachet for the lingerie drawer!