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BPAL Madness!
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Now that'd be a scent, wouldn't it?

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Working the oils.

Possibly the single most amazing thing to happen to me at Convergence XIII was to have someone who was looking through my stash ask me about two oils she'd never heard of before: Boo! and Void. I'd forgotten that I hadn't taken them out while I was packing: those were my personal two leftovers from the big single note project box that Chumley sent out a few years ago. I'd made oils for a few other people, and those two for myself.   I think I'd just had a bottle of Spooky explode on me after I'd replaced all my caps with the wand caps that someone had purchased, and the Spooky bottle was too small for the cap. boom! I already knew that I wasn't going to get anymore Spooky for either love or money (which I was actually wrong about), so I tried copying it while I had the box. Hence, Boo! It didn't turn out too well, but I'd heard about leaving the oils to set for a while, so I did. Pretty much the same happened with Void, which was my attempt at Tulzcha ... which I hadn't purchased the first time around. (argh)   The person I was talking to asked if she could smell them, so I said yes with only a little hesitation. I hadn't smelled them in at least a year, and couldn't remember for the life of me what Void was supposed to be. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she outright stared at me as she asked me if I could get her my recipes for the scents.   "Um. Okay."   I sniffled Boo! and found tha the chocolate in it had finally come out. Void took me a little while, but I realized that ... yes, I could eventually figure out what it was just by sniffing it. They'd both needed to sit for a while, but they also both reached their potential while I wasn't watching. Wow.   So, last week I signed up for Cat Yronwode's Hoodoo Correspondence Course. I don't know of any hoodoos to learn from in Seattle, and I figure that turning in homework regularly might be a good plan so that I can figure out if I'm up for going back to a standard school again. Also, I want to learn this stuff, as I have one idea for a book once I get good enough to know what I'm talking about. (Basically, I suspect that I may have a way of teaching myself how to learn some of these concepts, but want to use them myself and do a bunch of research before I unleash it upon an unsuspecting populace.) And finally, I know that I have the ability and possibly the temperment for workings, but I really need a framework to wrap it around. I grew up with hoodoo type comments in my home and neighborhood, and I've been feeling for a while that I'd be on familiar ground here.   It occured to me today that I might want to take the subject headings from the Twilight Alchemy Lab site and figure out what BPAL oils I use for what occasions. I understand that the ingredients that resonate for me are probably not what works for traditional use, but at the same time a fair amount of hoodoo involves winging it. This is what I have so far:   Love, Lust and Beauty   13 * Bliss * Dorian Loviatar Lump of Coal * O     Joy & Inspiriation   Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo Fae Jester Lick it!       Crossing, Binding & Controlling   ?     Prosperity, Success & Good Fortune   Blood Rose Greed Rose Red Ultraviolet     Purification, Protection & Uncrossing   Dragon's Blood Dragon's Heart Imp     Utility Blends   ?     * Mainly because of my boyfriend.
byrdie

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Where I've been.

Someone recently contacted me on the Lush forum and asked if I didn't love all the folks in the BPAL forum anymore. I sent them this: my job sucks big, sour oranges. I don't remember the last time I placed a BPAL order, and I've been supplementing my own income off of my nearly non-existent savings. I've been job hunting
 
My commute to work is much shorter than it was back when I was writing BPAL reviews ... which means that I have less undisturbed time as a captive writer on the bus to jot down my impressions of what I do own.
 
Since about Spring, the already threadbare regional department I work in has dwindled from three employees to just one: me. Therefore, what little time I put into various boards is limited.
 
After nearly a year and half, my boyfriend and I still can't keep our hands off each other ... which also means that our weekends and thus a fair chunk of what would have been downtime online is taken up.
 
While I'd scaled back my visits with my mother -- who'd had a stroke in July of 2005 -- she was diagnosed with lung cancer after being admitted to the hospital for pneumonia on the 15th. I'm the main Power of Attorney, and am thus a little distracted.
So, while it feels that I don't know that many people on the BPAL threads anymore, it doesn't mean that I don't miss writing reviews. It's just ... I have a hard enough time figuring out when I'm going to do laundry and dishes.   I find it amusing, though, that of the very few blogs here that I subscribed to read, nobody has actually posted anything in them!   At least, these are the explanations. Only one is really good stuff. Maybe someday soon I'll get to the good stuff.
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This Winter and Spring.

My mother died in early January. I've been a little out of the loop online. I've dealt with a great deal of family and administrative stuff since then, and am ready for a breather.   Next weekend I'm heading down to Portland with Brumbjorn's group for Convergence XIII. This will be my first road trip in over two years. Last year I tried to schedule a visit with family in L.A. during a May BPAL open house ... which was cancelled. Here's hoping that I have better luck this year.
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Shtinky Puddin'.

So, I've been getting my boyfriend into BPAL slowly but surely. First, it involved gifting him with decants of Cthulhu and Kingsport early on in our relationship. Then, after finding out what some of his favorite scents were, I added a decant of Graveyard Dirt, which he adores. Later, I started holding out scents to him to see what he'd think. In order: Sugar Skull
13
Talvikuu
Dana O'Shee
Sugar Cookie
Elegba
After receiving Chumley's Sniffie Box, I asked my boyfriend how he'd like to smell to others. He mentioned "chocolate and raspberry," so I made him his own custom scent. hee.   Because he owns blacksmithing equipment and wants to get into the local Iron Worker's Union, I'm aware that dragons are a mascot of blacksmiths (fire, armor plating, etc). So, when I ended up with a couple of Ars Draconis scents as frimps, I handed them to him. He was particularly taken with Dragon's Hide, which has leather, and told me that he'd be interested in any other of the Lab's leather, Norse and Celtic scents. Based on a bit more he's mentioned, I've got some others in mind, too.   He now owns 20+ imps, thanks to me. It was so cute, listening to him call himself a "BPAL scent whore." If I remember correctly, he's got: Graveyard Dirt - 5ml
His custom scent, ala Chumley
Temple: Celtic - decant
Temple Norse - decant
 
Dragon's Blood
Dragon's Heart
Dragon's Hide
Dragon's Milk
Dragon's Tears
 
Antony
Casanova
DeSade
Dracul
Geek
Hearth `04
Hearth `05
Hellfire
Herr Drosselmeyer
Iago
Les Infortunes De La Vertu
Severin
Tezcatlipoca
Tintagel
Torture King
Wanda
Whip
 
Black Annis
Black Lotus
Black Pearl
 
Sudha Segara
Yemaya
 
Cthulhu
Kingsport
Given his interests, I figure that I should collect the following for him: Leather
 
Black Tower, The
Dead Man's Hand
Dee
Highwayman
Jolly Roger
Loviatar
Perversion
 
*Spanked - have a sniffie, but he didn't like it
 
Smithing
 
Dragon Moon - Lunacy blend
Dragon's Eye
Dragon's Musk
Dragon's Teeth - up and coming
Ogun
 
 
Celtic & Norse
 
Brisingamen
Odin
Phantom Queen
 
 
Favorite Color
 
Black Cat
Black Dahlia
Black Forest
Black Hellebore
Black Opal
Black Phoenix
Black Rose
Black Widow
 
 
Additional
 
Master - Twilight Alchemy Lab
Ogun
Old Scratch
Olokun
Oneiroi
R'leyh
Sea of Glass
Shango
Undertow
Water of Notre Dame
And perhaps a nice, gun-metal grey ammo case to keep them all in. *whistle*
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Note to self.

To get a message posted on this board, I should either press the Publish button or just have that set as a default status for posts.
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My forum Top Ten-ish entries.

Regular catalog: Baneberry Bengal Dorian Gluttony Imp O Snake Oil Ultraviolet   Limited Editon/other: 13 Gingerbread Poppet Lick It! Lump of Coal Mitzvah Snowblind Spooky Sugar Skull   Aromatherapy/Ritual: Eulegba - ritual High John - ritual Nanshe - aromatherapy (sleep) Sleepy Moon - aromatherapy (sleep)
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My first post here ...

-- and it's geekified. I didn't seen the Trading Post option in the list of codes to use in the I Got My Order thread. Turns out, while mods have been asked to keep C-n-S's seperate, the one I spoke with had no idea as to whether the same went for received orders. She let me post my announcement in the general thread anyway, but wasn't able to tell me what the code was. However, I figured it out on my own:   Black Phoenix Trading Post Order! Black Phoenix Trading Post colorspost good news here   Some days, I manage.
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More scent notes.

Notes of mine grabbed from the Lush forum for future use.   In other news, I'm trying Gingerbread Poppet in my scent locket today. Um, I learned something important: just because I could tip my imp of Imp and have to scoop the oil out with the wand does not mean that the same would have been true for G.P.   I smell like a riot in the Keebler factory.     Bewitched ~ very, very sweet blackberries. If it's too sweet on you, I recommend Baneberry, which has a little greenery to cut some of the sweetness. Dragon's Milk ~ one of the few of the Ars Draconis line that I can tolerate, if I remember correctly. Dana O' Shee ~ whee! sweet! Often compared to Snowcake soap. Eclipse ~ I smell HIWTK from this. Snake Oil ~ took a while to grow on me, and now I'm considering a 5ml bottle. Black Pearl ~ a sweet, creamy coconut scent. Imp ~ my "hi, i'm a large, unstable thing of indeterminate gender walking alone at night" scent. Embalming Fluid ~ a very bright citrus. White Rabbit ~ my frimp of it shattered in the box. Smelled sweet and lovely, though. Tombstone ~ before it ages, it actually smells sweeter than Snake Oil. Dorian ~ for Anita Blake fans, my standing comment is: This is what Nathaniel's hair my smell like. Laudanum ~ hoohoo. Herbal, and a great sleepy-time oil. review Hecate ~ very strongly floral to my nose. Queen of Sheba ~ spiced, honeyed almonds Antique Lace ~ after reading people's reviews, I was surprised by how dry and dusty a floral this is. O ~ powdery and very much like cocoa butter on warm skin. Snowblind ~ A perfect, light, sparkling mint blend. Milk Moon ~ somewhere between sweet-n-creamy to "damn, I forgot to finish this glass of milk" Smut ~ falls a bit flat on its own, but has potential if it's layered with O.
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More like Midlife-crisis Guard.

I attended the end of a local kinky group meeting that I hadn't been to in years. They've been hosting it in my neighborhood, a bit north-easterly of me as it turns out, so I finally and beleatedly decided to see if I could find the place in question. I did, the facilitator remembered me, and I even got the reinforcement of someone fanning themselves as I described some of the stuff that Daddy and I had been up to. heh.   It was weird, to attend this sort of meeting again, but not really as a n00b. But I live in easy walking distance of the place, so I have no excuse.
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Milk Moon vs. Budding Moon.

After reading reviews of Peony Moon, I decided to layer Milk Moon with Budding Moon. It starts off taffy or ice-cream sweet, as both are sweet oils. The florals of Budding Moon are still obviously there, but they're less shocking with the creaminess of Milk Moon. Similarly, Milk Moon's sour phase seems to get distracted by the florals of Budding Moon.   The combo is just starting to get a little musty now, but then I've had it on for almost three hours without a touch-up.
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Memorable roses.

Blood Rose ~ I've nicknamed this The Days of Wint and Roses because it smells like it has a high red wine content.   Eve ~ Supposedly there's fig in this, but damned if I could smell it over the rose once I applied it to my skin.   Rose Red ~ Unfortunately, this is an LE; however, it does smell like a perfect dew-covered rose.   Zombi ~ Fresh, this oil smells far, far more like dirt than rose -- and that's how I prefer it. Aged, it smells far, far more like rose than dirt -- upon wearing this, not even Lushious Goodness could blow my skirt up.
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It is a horrible thing ...

-- to be a scent whore and not be able to smell anything. I have a cold, and while I can taste stuff (*whew*), I can't smell it until it's in my mouth. And yes, some of the obvious crass jokes have occured to me.   If I don't get well soon, I may lose my membership to the Brumbjorn Decant Bitch Club.
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I got called a "nigger" today.

By someone I've never had any exchange with whatsoever:   http://johnblack13.livejournal.com/2007/06/15/   This was said to piss off my boyfriend, possibly to provoke a physical fight. I think it was the dating equivalent of a "yo mama" jab.   I'm still trying ot figure out how I feel about it.
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I drank what?

And I'm finally having some of the bagged Assam that I picked up at the Portland Stash store. Either I kept the teabag in for too long or this is only one step above Lipton.
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Few and far between, part 2.

In the Summer of 2005, there was a family medical emergency.   I have, since then, been spending about half my week at my mother's home, offline, doing home-care. We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of her stroke and after a winter funk, are now looking at our options.
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Few and far between, part 1.

So, since late 2004, my reviews on this forum have been dwindling down to nearly nothing. Since I didn't do much here besides post reviews, I don't think may people actually found out what the deal was.   In mid-2004, I started getting really, really depressed. "Situational depression," some people called it. A 10-year relationship was going down the tubes. It ended formally in January 2005, shortly after New Years.   I moved out in late February/early March of 2005, and started building a life of my own.
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Effective scents.

13 ~ Oddly, I used to have issues about walking around smelling like I'd smeared myself with chocolate, but sometimes 13 would just be too much fun not to wear. Then I let my sweetie sniff some. There's nothing like seeing someone's eyes glow from a BPAL scent to change one's mind. I'm beginning to equate certain scents with sex (ginger and more recently mango, for instance), which is a habit that seems to transcend whatever relationship I'm in. I keep forgetting to wear this oil on the 13th -- after all, I have a bunch of new decants to play with today -- but hopefully I'll correct that next month.   Imp ~ I love this one because it makes me feel somewhere between mischevious and downright evil. Sometimes I feel like I'm developing the Joker's grin just from applying it. "I aim to make some mischief." It's kind of difficult to be scared about walking around alone at night when I feel pleasantly psychotic.   Loviatar ~ for a couple of months, I wore this out while dancing before I started dating a scent-phobe. He's no longer an issue, but I've dropped the habit of wearing scents to the club. I'll have to correct that soon, as this one left me feeling relatively powerful and predatory.   O ~ for months, this was the oil I wore out dancing because it was soft and sexy and made me feel pretty. I have to start putting some BPAL in my dancing bag.   Snake Oil ~ the only precioussss I can wear to work and get compliments on, it's grown on me since I first tried it a few years ago. I used to think that Tombstone was sweeter, but I must have been very confused.   Spooky ~ This smells the way my hair does after I've shampooed with Washaday Greens and conditioned with Cooaluin. Of people I've hugged after giving myself the complete mint-and-coconut treatment, only one has complained about the wet cardboard scent -- the rest have told me I've smelled edible and prolonged the hug just to breathe me in some more. This is my "no, really -- you wuv me" scent.   Sugar Skull ~ While playing "my sweetie has a broken sniffer," I held this bottle up to his nose, keeping my fist around it so he couldn't see the name. This was the oil scent that made him grab my hand in both of his to keep me from moving the bottle away. I've since decanted about half of one bottle into a lip-gloss roller bottle for slathering, and picked up another 5ml for good measure.   Talvikku ~ My sweetie sniffed me after I put some on and said, eyes glowing, that I smelled like candy. I'm not sure that a whole week passed before I bought a whole bottle from Lush-a-Lot.
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Dirty scents.

I tried Death Cap on Saturday. It starts out smelling like freshly turned earth -- much like Graveyard Dirt. Then I can smell something else in it, which I'm willing to believe is the mushroom. Then the mushroom scent takes a sweet turn, which overwhelms the rest of the oil until it starts to smell like cupcakes.   I'm tempted to nickname it Picnic at the Cemetery.     I'm trying out Premature Burial today. The green is doing odd things to me. Ever smelled frozen spinach being boiled? That was a peculiar stage of this oil.   Penny Dreadful also has that wonderful Graveyard Dirt base, but soon includes semi-sweet florals. I would consider this a true scent-garden oil.   Graveyard Dirt ~ I have a bottle, with three more on the way. This actually smells like freshly turned earth, and I was first aware of it as an LE scent. This may end up being my default "working" oil, though I'd need to research the appropriateness of using it thus.
byrdie

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Coming up on nine months.

A couple of weeks after a heart-to-heart with my niece about how frustrated we both are with the current Mom-care situation, my sister called and left a message on my cell phone -- I only just noticed the light flashing as the call went to voicemail.   She sounded horrible, and told me that we really needed to get together and talk about the situation with Mom. My stomach tightened up, so I grabbed some stuff (water bottle, pad, pen, plush doggie, phone), dumped them in the conference room, went to the bathroom, came back and returned her call.   Oh. My. God.   My sister, niece and I are pretty much all on the same page about this. We're sick of it. My niece has watched my mother be royally obnoxious to my sister and my brother. I've watched my mother basically wait around to die while having us attend her. She's not doing her vocal exercises. She's not wearing her Life Alert necklace, which should be on her person at all times -- it can even be worn in the shower. She sits and watches TV, cooks a little, does laundy and occasionally goes shopping. That's it.   There's a little place in Chinatown/the International District that does daycare for people much less able than my mother. They have a tea service, teach Tai-Chi, have workshops for various hobbies, do fieldtrips both in and out of town. Shit, both my sister and I agreed that we'd like to go. My mother went once, a few weekends ago and said that she'd liked it, that they'd been very nice. So, my sister was working to sign her up for a year's membership, getting it set so that the Access bus would come and pick her up. This would take some of the strain off my brother, who is now complaining about tonsil problems (evidentally, nobody wants to yank them out of an adult). Once our mother figured out what my sister was planning, she damn near rushed her. My sister actually thought our mother was planning to hit her, she came at my sister so fast. All of the sudden, she started ranting about how nosey these people were, how they wouldn't leave her alone. She pulled a 180 within about four mintues of having said that she'd liked the place. My sister was livid for the rest of the weekend, and our mother hid near my niece for the rest of the time.   There's been other stuff, but she's bascially being a stubborn little bitch about this. Fortunately for her, she raised a couple of stubborn bitches and put us in charge of her care. Now, thankfully, we have pretty much full immediate family support for plotting against our mother. We're going to try to make her get well, whether she wants to or not. The plan, sketchilly: I'll be given a copy of the document which says that I have main Power of Attorney, so that maybe I'll actually get a response from Mom's doctor when I next call to ask about her progress.
 
My sister found a woman whose mother does home care for people who need it. If we can get her sit with Mom for even four hours a day for a couple of days out of the week, we can switch off with the Chinatown place and take care of the majority of her care during the day.
 
Our brother can visit daily, a few hours out of each day, to do additional stuff for Mom. This wil free him up to be able to go to the gym and see his friends. There's also talk of seeing if he's willing to move in with Mom (free rent vs. living with a harpy. hmm) once his housing situation ends.
 
My niece and I can drop by in the evenings after work for a couple of hours, switching off nights like we currently do. However, we won't sleep over, and I won't have to drag a suitcase along with me on the bus.
 
My sister will continue to pick Mom up on Friday and keep her through Saturday night, but will take back Sunday as her day to prepare for work.
 
Mom will just have to suck it up, wear the Life Alert necklace, do her exercises and go where we tell her. If she gets mad, maybe she'll learn to type or something so that she'll actually work towards the independence she claims to want.
I'm hoping that all of this is taken care of and tidy before I go to California in May. Mom's going to go ballistic, but ... well, maybe that'll get her off her ass.
byrdie

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Chocolate scent notes.

Le whee!   13 ~ I took a risk buying the first release as a 5ml and have never, ever regretted it. I rarely smell anything from it but milk chocolate, though. Freak Show ~ delightfully fruity, I wouldn't have pegged this for a chocolate scent Gluttony ~ absolutely alarming by itself, but excellent as a mixer. review. Lump of Coal ~ I got to sniff this recently, and I agree with people who get fudge brownie out of it. Wowzers. Pumpkin Patch #2 Cocoa, Hazelnut, & Walnut ~ like pretty much everyone else, this is one of my favorites of the Pumpkin Patch series. Not big-bottle worthy, but fun. Spooky ~ there's chocolate in this? Wow, all I smell is mint and coconut.   Le suck!   Cerberus ~ cherry scented bandages. review. Dia de los Muertos ~ I really wanted to like this from the name, but it was a little more harsh than I wanted to deal with. Intrigue ~ not my thing, but I gave it to receptionist who said it reminded him pleasantly of his childhood in Scotland. review. Kali ~ a nice collection of ingredients gone horribly wrong on me. The Great Sword of War ~ I think this one was a little too incensy for me, but I'm not sure. I didn't like it, though. Velvet ~ the chocolate descriptions intrigued me, but I mainly remember it smelling like the fabric.
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boyfriend sniff-test

Smut ~ he actually backed up and wrinkled his nose Red Lantern ~ rather liked it Elegba ~ yummy
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Amber scents of note.

Aureus ~ my first wonderful experience with amber. review Bastet ~ spiced almonds, if I remember correctly. review Black Lotus ~ review Bruja (discontinued) ~ related to Snake Oil, but dampened down with dark chocolate. review Carnivàle ~ didn't love it. Maybe it contained cherry. review Corazon (LE) ~ very much a red wine scent. review Haunted ~ a very smooth smelling oil. review Hollywood Babylon ~ not as sweet as I later remembered it being, oddly enough. review Imp ~ I really like this oil: a sweet incense that I can wear! It's my "I'm feeling borderline psychotic right now, perhaps I'll go walk out in the dark alone" scent. Loviatar ~ my "Come here and worship me" dancing oil. O ~ my "Really, I'm perfectly harmless" dancing oil. review Red Lantern (LE) ~ smells like the aftermath of licking caramel sauce off a lover's body. Red Moon (LE) ~ dragon's blood resin. meh. Saint-germain ~ too floral Sin ~ cooling cinnamon pastries. review The Lion ~ this is probably what the lion from the Kenya animation smells like.
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15 minutes of fame.

Oh, yes -- I got a fan letter posted on Laura Antoniou's website. If you tend to avoid kinky stuff like the plague, don't bother following the link.
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