Blogs

Resurrection of the Flesh

Resurrection of the Flesh: Frankincense, hyssop, heliochrysum, ylang ylang, copal, angelica, and rose geranium. Featured in the Salon: detail of the fresco. In the imp: WoW! The resins and ylang ylang blend so beautifully together. A quick test tells me this will be a favorite. On me: a delicious incensey blend fused with the beauty of ylang ylang. For maybe half an hour. And then it fades to almost nothing. My skin ate it, and in eating it the fragrance that is left isn't even classifiable. It's something, but so faint that it isn't much. I am very disappointed by this.

June 17, 2008

vultureguy's Blog

:(

I'm going to go slather some Western Diamondback and lie down. I'm sick and not happy about that. Worked my ass off last week, went in when I was sick because of work that needed to be done. Went home early yesterday. Stayed home sick today. Found out just now that they announced how much of our area they are off shoring to India. 60% Flippin Hell. It will be a ghost town in there. I'm officially depressed and sadly the Creme Brulee chocolate just won't cut it. I am going to withstand the temptation to hit the fermented stuff. Really really don't need to be compounding my problems right now. I've emailed my team leader to see if I can get more info. I've emailed Carol and asked if we could talk about moving our accounts out of the bank we work at. They dont' have loyalty to us, why bother? Besides the biggest argument they had about keeping our accounts there was that it kept our jobs safe. Yeah, right. Not anymore. Besides, the only way the CEO is going to have an idea that this isn't a good idea is when the money starts walking. If we hemorrhage profits then it will hopefully offset any "gains" from offshoring. Fliping idiot <---- insert much stronger language

vultureguy

June 17, 2008

Two Monsters

Two Monsters: Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper. In the Imp: Upon first sniff I didn't think it would work. I got a lot of leather, which has a 50/50 chance of going wrong on my skin, and vetiver, whichusually goes wrong on me if it's GC but not with CD blends. Wet: The wrong kind of leather and some rotted spinach smelling vetiver underneath. I didn't even wait for the drydown and tossed it into the swaps pile. And then, 10 minutes later, this scent morphed into one of the most amazing scents I have ever tried. Talk about a morpher!!! It reminds me of Temple Viper, another favorite. The leather blends beautifully with the resins and champaca to create an slightly leathery sweet incense scent that is absolutely amazing!! Must hoard. It has a very good throw and I get the feeling has a pretty long staying power too. Oh yes, I need a bottle.

June 17, 2008

Bilquis

Bilquis: Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk. In the imp: Sweet delicious honey and almond. Heaven!!! On me: The almondy sweetness vanishes, and the rose otto comes to the forefront. At first it was a very perfumey blend, but now it is almost entirely rose. This would be wonderful for a rose fan, as it is a very complex and slightly sweet rose blend.... but I am not a fan so I'll have to pass on this one.

June 16, 2008

vultureguy's Blog

13?

"white chocolate, dark chocolate, apple blossom, honeysuckle, frankincense, allspice, nutmeg, black tea, tonka, and sandalwood." Hmmmm, do I? Don't I? I don't do foody usually, don't do chocolate, apple blossom or honeysuckle. But the rest of it (barring the tonka?? not sure about that) I do like. The fact that a Wildlife refuge gets some of the funds too makes it even more interesting so I'm leaning towards a possibly yes. Besides, it's been forever since I've bought a bottle for either of us unsniffed in some form. Yes, I know that getting decants or sniffies first is best, that way we can spend our (limited) funds on what actually works instead of guessing and hoping that something might work and finding out it doesn't. I did put an order in. I would have left it but the fact that some of it does go the refuge put me over the line on the "ok why not" line. Besides, it might be the next Glowing Vulva. I never thought we'd like that (or that it would have become so popular). Work has been particularly bad. A really, really shitty week. Other stuff going on, sickness/flu and it all adds up to still trying to find the strength to get up each morning and put one foot in front of the other. I've got a couple job apps in, really leaning towards the second one that closes on Monday than the one that closed last week. It would technically be a step back but it would be a lot less stress and that's really what I would appreciate right now. I'm tired of playing with other people's money but more so I'm really tired of being responsible for millions of dollarsNZ getting (or not) into the right account at the right time yet making sure the right conditions have been met adequately. All with a rapidly reducing level of staffing. Snake Oil was my saviour today, what I could smell of it. Western Diamondback yesterday. My team leader was really really nice. I went up to her to tell her have a good weekend. She thanked me for coming in when I was sick. She told me this morning that my productivity level was 112%. And I'm sick. So that means I either fucked up a hell of a lot of accounts or I busted balls big time. At least she appreciates it and let me know. She wrote a note to Carol when I was talking to her tonight: "Carol can you please look after Alex (one of my favourites) as he has not been feeling well. Really appreciate his committment. He requires lots of TLC. Thanks. R" I thought it was really nice.

vultureguy

June 13, 2008

Diplomatka

Amen

I came in this morning and had gotten a copy of the article referenced here about Muslim women having their hymens reconstructed. I shared it with my friend Hareg who informed me that infibulated women go to the doctor to have their infibulation "tightened up" for the husbands as a holiday gift. (If you don't know what infibulation is, it's when a woman has her clitoris, labia majora and minora cut out and then sewn together to ensure she remains a virgin until she marries. See my post on International Women's Day.) Y'all, what the fuck? At least Judith Warner knows what time it is. From today's New York Times. June 12, 2008, 11:37 pm Pure Tyranny Tags: chastity, patriarchy Righteous indignation is so easy, so pleasant, when you can sit back and fling it overseas. I had that edifying experience on the D.C. Metro Wednesday morning, reading in the Times about the Muslim women in France who are going to cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacement surgery so that they can bleed as seeming virgins on their wedding nights. It’s a practice that has, apparently, become relatively common in the immigrant communities of Europe. But, of course, it seems like hair-raising news in a country like ours, where a young woman’s right to do with her body as she sees fit has, for decades, been enshrined as perhaps the most essential part of her God-given human dignity. As my 11-year-old says, Yeah, right. Right after I finished reading the Times piece, I called the French Embassy to find out under what conditions French social security would pay for the hymen-restoration procedure. (It’s “mostly done in private clinics and in most cases not covered by tax-financed insurance plans,” said the Times article; “Oh la la!” said the receptionist to whom I relayed my query.) I then started rifling through my desk. And there, beneath a report showing paid family leave to be on the decline, beneath a Newsweek article on a new children’s book, “My Beautiful Mommy,” that tells the story of a mom who becomes even prettier after a nose job and a tummy tuck, I found the story that the hymen news had immediately brought to mind. It was also from The Times, from May 19, and featured 70-odd girls, of “early grade school to college” age, with their fathers, stepfathers and fathers-in-law-to-be, at the ninth annual, largely evangelical “Father-Daughter Purity Ball.” “The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing” – and which culminated, for at least one father and his daughters, with a dreamy walk in the night around a lake, “was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed,” said the Times article. “From this, it’s only a matter of degree to the man in Austria,” I’d scribbled across the first page. The “man in Austria,” of course, was 73-year-old Josef Fritzl, who was around that time also making headlines after it was discovered that he had kept his daughter, Elisabeth, 42, locked up in a cellar for 24 years, during which time he’d raped her regularly, and had her bear him seven children. (“It was a lovely idea for me, to have a proper family … down in the cellar, with a good wife and a couple of children,” he said in his confession.) Fritzl, a self-described “man of decency and good values,” had imprisoned his daughter after she began staying out all night and drinking. “I had to create a place where I could keep Elisabeth by force if necessary, away from the outside world,” he confessed. “Fathers, our daughters are waiting for us,” Randy Wilson, one of the ball’s organizers, said at the Colorado Springs “Purity” event. “They are desperately waiting for us in a culture that lures them into the murky waters of exploitation. They need to be rescued by you, their dad.” I don’t want to take this analogy too far. I don’t mean to imply that there’s any equivalency between Josef Fritzl’s acts and the Purity Ball. Fritzl’s actions were uniquely horrific, and I am not accusing the men who danced in Colorado Springs of any crimes. But there is nonetheless a kind of horror to their obsession with their daughters’ sexuality. There is a dangerous boundary violation contained in their vow “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.” And there is even greater danger to the fact that this particular aspect of the nationwide “abstinence movement” has not been broadly denounced as the form of emotional violence against girls that it indisputably is. Judith Lewis Herman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, whose work with and writings on incest victims in the 1980s revolutionized the understanding of the crime and its perpetrators, believes that incest, like rape generally, has to be viewed within a wider context of power relations. Incest, she says, is “an abuse of patriarchal power,” a criminal perversion of fatherly control and influence. It is perpetrated, in many cases, by men who present themselves as the guardians of the moral order. And it isn’t always physical; in her 1981 book (with Lisa Hirschman), “Father-Daughter Incest,” she writes that the violation can be emotional, too, as when a “seductive father” oversteps his boundaries and goes places he never should in his daughter’s head. “Something I need from dad is affirmation, being told I’m beautiful,” said 19-year-old Jordyn Wilson at the ball. “If we don’t get it from home, we will go out to the culture and get it.” Sexual abuse – judging by statistics mostly based upon reports of incest – has greatly decreased in our country in recent years. From 1992 to 2003, substantiated cases went down 40 percent, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Lisa Jones, a research professor at the center, says she thinks the impressive decrease isn’t just due to changed reporting patterns or data collection methods. “We feel like it’s very suggestive of a likelihood that there’s a real decline,” she said. There are many possible reasons for this improvement. But one, I think, that has to be considered is that girls’ and women’s status has risen. Acceptance of sexual assault and insult has declined. In a world where girls and women are stronger, “abuses of patriarchal power” are less tolerable, acceptable, and possible. Or should be. In highly secular France, the reaction to the drama over young women’s virginity playing out in Muslim communities has been public and profound. Justice Minister Rachida Dati recently had to fight off calls for her resignation after she upheld a ruling by a regional court that had annulled the marriage of two French Muslims because the bride turned out not to be a virgin. Our condemnation of cultural practices and beliefs in our own country that violate girls’ and young women’s dignity and most intimate personal boundaries should be no less total. For, when it comes to female chastity, much of what passes for “protection” is nothing less than sick.

Confection

June 13, 2008

Review Round-up!

Croquet

In the imp: Sweet fruit - like apricot (or in this case, nectarine) syrup. On wet: Citrus. Lovely, fresh, lightly sugared citrus. Drydown: Kinda perfumey. The citrus and nectarine sweetness have sort of merged into the other notes, none of which are very distinct to my nose. And I'm picking up on something "off" - like powdery carpet cleaner underneath everything else. Not sure, but I'm betting it's the sage (it doesn't like me usually). If I really inhale and mash my nose to my wrist, I get really delicious whiffs of musk and patchouli - too bad neither are very prominent. Overall: Not quite what I was looking for - more delectable nectarine, that is. Croquet starts off promising, but the perfumey drydown - complete with sage hate (or whatever that dusty cleaner vibe was) isn't really my thing. I'll stick with my Ebisu, thanks. 2.5.5

furygrrl

June 13, 2008

Spider

Spider: White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime. In the imp: sweet masculine goodness. Indistinct notes, but it smells wonderful. On me: First, I "blind" tested, as I grabbed the imp without looking at the notes. This has vetiver and it doesn't smell like rotted spinach!! Yay!! On me: A very beautiful masculine sexy scent, and it smells wonderful on me. The ginger and bergamot work beautifully together, and I believe I'm getting some King mandarin too. No lime in sight, but that's good because citrus usually goes weird on me. This one is a major shock - it's got vetiver AND lime and it still smells freaking awesome on me!!! I think me needs a bottle of this. There is something femininely sexy to me about wearing awesome smelling masculine scents.

June 12, 2008

Mr. Nancy

Mr. Nancy: Sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime. In the imp: Sweet cookie yumminess!!! On me: Where did the cookie go? I smell like bread dough with a whole ton of cinnamon in it. No cinnamon in the notes, could it be the bay rum? Only bay rum usually doesn't smell like cinnamon to me though. Very strange. This will be a pass.

June 12, 2008

tastycactuar's Blog

A surprising development

So. I started out with BPAL the same way I think of all perfumes: foods. Fruits. Nummy. It's the way I've always been with perfumes- I hate florals, I hate musky stuff. I'd rather smell like a meal then smell like perfume. So when I began collecting, I started with the same things. I picked up anything that I thought had a dominant fruit note, and avoided anything else like the plague. Here's the weird thing though: I've been finding (through frimps. Hooray frimps!) that there is stuff that is NOT a foody scent predominantly that I love. Like La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente. Myrtle? Rose? WTF, I HATE rose! And yet I love this scent. It's fabulous. Or Blood Countess. Yeah, it's got plum and berries, but there's opium! and rose! and lilac! Crap, I thought I hated florals? Also, there's foody scents that I've discovered I don't like. Wow. Like 13. I've got a bottle of it, but it's so bitter and yuk - like a bar of chocolate that sat out on the counter for a month and is now all dessicated and gross. Every single ingredient in there sounded delicious, and I just can't wear it. What a shame. And then there's Ventriloquist's Dummy - there's supposed to be apricot in there, but I can't even stand the smell in the bottle enough to try it out on me. But then, there's the obvious: I LOVE Titania. Love. and I love Yemaya, and Fruit Moon.... It's just neat to see the other notes in there that I could have sworn I hated.

tastycactuar

June 12, 2008

Calliope

Category: Discontinued Scents Initially, there was a very strong lemon smell. Then the thyme and verbena and lavender insinuated themselves into the yellow haze of scent, giving it a peppery kick now and then. Mint and bergamot were faint, but there; they sort of phased in and out throughout the day. Overall, though...it was just...too...lemony! I really wanted to like this, but it just didn't work out completely.

June 12, 2008

Bewitched

Category: Bewitching Brews At first I wasn't sure about this one, because the sweet berry note was throwing me off quite a bit. As much as I like sweet things, the berry notes usually feel too thick and sappy for my liking. For instance, Baneberry was just too in-your-face with the berry, and Akuma was sickeningly candy-sweet. Fortunately, later on Bewitched became more balanced by the herbal elements, and smelled like someone who's been working in their herb garden, with just a hint of otherworldly sweetness thrown in for good measure. It was much more pleasant, then! I would nudge people who don't usually like strong berry scents toward this one, as I feel the herbs and musk really help to ground it well.

June 12, 2008

Bess

Category: Bewitching Brews Definitely mint and lemon...those two scents predominated. Also a very faint hint of orange, and the rosemary gave it a peppery kick. Unfortunately, as strong as these elements sound, it really did not linger long at all. I can't say that this one did much for me. I would recommend it to mint-lovers.

June 12, 2008

Bengal

Category: Wanderlust I could definitely smell the cinnamon in this one. Oddly enough, there was also a strong chocolate smell as well. I constantly had images of a cup of dark hot chocolate spiked with cinnamon...either that, or a cinnamon-colored, chocolate-striped tiger. It's not bad! Must have been the way the clove and honey were mingling together, with perhaps the ginger as well...it fooled me. All in all, I like it.

June 11, 2008

Lady Una

Lady Una:Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices. In the imp: Deliciously honey musky blackberry. Yummy!! What are fae spices? On me: I am getting a lot of honey musk and peach, even though peach isn't listed in the notes. Everything else ran and hid - I'm thinking I smell the fae spices but I can't pinpoint that. It's very faint, not a lot of throw or staying power. It smells good, but it's not my kind of scent. I was hoping for a honey-berry-vanilla scent, and this was definitely not that.

June 10, 2008

Philosopher in Meditation

Philosopher in Meditation: Smoldering woodfire embers, Galen’s Kyphi, and Abramelin incense. In the imp: Hot - fire hot and incense smoking. I'm not familiar with Galen's Kyphi so I'm not sure what I'm smelling. On me: Incense!!! Deep, dark, delicous incense!! It is sweetened up by something that I can't quite figure out, and smells so very lovely. If I smell like incense, I am happy, and this is no exception. It's a unique incense, different from the other incenses that I've tried. Methinks a bottle is needed.

June 9, 2008

TeaLeaf's Blog

Mad Tea Party

I have almost completed the collection and I am so glad I started with this one. I love just about every scent so far and am eagerly awaiting the final few scents I don't have already. Yay!

TeaLeaf

June 9, 2008

Lemonlife's Blog

updating

There has been much swapping. I need to update my lists & write more reviews. Random: I went to Das Bunker last night. It was kinda like late 90s industrial/raver night. I was SO f-ing happy. I traded a drink for 2 glowsticks and had at it. OMG, joy. & I hadn't been to a club in 2 years. I'm sore, tired, and full of bliss. Thus, today I wear Bliss.

quigza

June 7, 2008

Lucretia

Lucretia: Iris, black amber, sage, Kashmir wood, vanilla musk, mandarin and violet. In the bottle: Yuck - pure iris! I almost didn't even test it, but thankfully I did. On me: A sharp violet! The iris hides, thankfully. The violet blooms and definitely takes the forefront, its beauty is accentuated by the amber, sage, and vanilla musk. They blend beautifully to de-floralize the violet while still keeping a strong violet presence (confusing, but I don't know how else to describe it). This is a gorgeous scent.

June 5, 2008

I've started testing some salons....Exhibit III...

I think this is going to be one of my favorite categories!! Madonna: Hyssop, pomegranate, Angel’s Trumpet, Indonesian patchouli, iris, white orchid, and frankincense. OMFG I need buckets of this!!!!!! The white orchid dominates, but is balanced out by the pomegranite to make this a very sweet beautiful orchid. The hyssop (I think) sweetens it up nicely, and the frankincense makes it resiney enough to give a bit of an incense feel. This is heaven!!!! Bottle - yes, must have bottle. Love and Pain: Lavender, Balkan tobacco, black musk, dark vanilla, and golden copaifera. This is the most beautiuful lavender blend!!! The tobacco keeps it from getting overly floral, but didn't stand out on its own (thankfully, because I amp it like crazy). The dark vanilla and black musk work beautifully to turn the lavender into a very dark purple type of scent, very sensual. Bottle is definitely needed!! Death and Life Completed: Grey amber, carnation, lemon balm, hydrangea, Chinese peony, white sandalwood, cypress, juniper, cedar, hibiscus, and African daisy. Peony!! This is what I wanted peony moon to smell like. For me it's mostly peopny and hibiscus, no amber anywhere unfortunately. The sandalwood and cedar complement the florals very niceley and give it a bit of a woodsey feel. Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Those Condemned to Death: Accords of peach kernel, hemlock, aconite, and belladonna, with bitter almond, saffron, honey, myrrh, hyssop, frankincense, and palm. It's hard to tell what I'm smelling specifically, but the honey in this is amped A LOT! I think it's the honey/almond combination. This is so well blended that I can't pick out the notes. It smells very good, but it's not "me" so I'll probably pass on this one.