I made the awful mistake of returning to MySpace after an absence of several months. The MySpace group for my little group of college friends apparently had people flocking to it in droves while I was away, and now it's full of people I knew 15 years ago in college.
Clicked on the picture of a girl who didn't like me because she thought I caused her boyfriend to break up with her. She's gorgeous now. Clicked on the picture of a guy I dated on and off for a few years but lost touch with. He's a damn fine-looking man. Clicked on the picture of a guy who was full of himself and was a dick to me. Still looks like he's a dick. Clicked on the picture of a guy I dated for a couple of years. He's been hitting the gym. He never looked that good when he was with me.
And what do you see if you click on my photo? A dumpy-looking middle-aged woman with a stupid hairstyle who has gained 25 pounds since college and looks like a mess. Niiiiice.
I was feeling pretty embarrassed about the whole thing and ranting about it in an exaggerated fashion to my husband -- he pointed out that it is impossible for everyone I knew in college to be better-looking now than they were then. I know that. It's not everyone. Just everyone I dated. And the girls who were catty to me because I went out with the lovely sensitive goth boys that they were all swooning over. I would not be at all surprised if some of them looked at my photos and thought, "HA! She got fat and ugly. Good."
I usually don't think I look that bad. I think for whatever reason people often tend to be close to people who are more or less at the same level of attractiveness, and in my current circle of RL friends I don't feel out of my league with any of them. But when I was in college, I paid a lot more attention to my appearance. (These days I'm lucky if I'm wearing two shoes from the same pair half the time.) If there was such a thing as a beautiful people goth/skater clique at my university, I was probably in it. Those people wouldn't give me the time of day right now. They don't let you back into the beautiful goth people club if you gain 25 pounds and move to the suburbs.
In a couple of days this probably won't bother me any more, but right now I'm unhappy that I thought I was comfortable with my appearance and where I am in my life right now... and apparently I'm not. Apparently I am embarrassed by it. This revelation is unsettling to me.
[see previous entries for what I'm doing here.]
Coconut's a tricky note for me. I like it a lot when it's a minor note in the scent, but when it's a major note sometimes it smells either too much like suntan lotion or like Fruit Loops (generally the fig + coconut combination does that on me). I'm going to try to figure out which primarily coconut scent is my favorite, but my all-time favorite blend that has coconut in it is Snake Charmer (which just has the barest hint).
GCs THAT CONTAIN COCONUT
Black Pearl: Coconut, Florentine iris, hazelnut and opalescent white musk. This one has a lot of coconut in it -- the kind that reminds me of suntan lotion.
Blood Pearl: soft orris, blood musk, and coconut. Dry papery orris and a wonderful sexy musk. The coconut rounds out the scent nicely in this one.
Brown Jenkins: dusty white sandalwood and orris root, dry coconut husk, creeping musk, and the residue of ceremonial incense. Dry and incensey, with a hint of coconut. I really like that white sandalwood and the cocounut husk. It's light and sweet, dry and hazy. The coconut in this one is light and incredibly gorgeous.
Eden: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood. A sweet, warm, nice scent -- but definitely of the Fruit Loops variety.
Elegba: coconut, tobacco and sweet, sugared rum. Very reminiscent of Pina Coladas at first, but when it's dry the tobacco comes out a little. Tropical and sweet. Nice blend.
Obatala: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. On me this smells like a cross between suntan lotion and overly creamy coconuts. I know other people love this one, but it wasn't so hot on me.
The Sailor's Den: Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather. Quiet, subdued, and pleasant. The coconut and rum smell very good here. Classy. This is a great, unusual, all-purpose sort of scent. You could wear this anywhere and it would be perfectly appropriate.
Shango: red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane. The coconut in this one gives it an extremely pleasant creamy background. I love this scent and have a bottle of it, but I wouldn't call it primarily coconut. It's in the background here.
Shoggoth: white amber, green coconut meat, iris, palmarosa, Chinese peony, lime, water lily, snowdrop, muguet, lemongrass, osmanthus, wisteria, glassy musk, and hinoki. The lemongrass in this one killed it for me. My skin amps lemongrass so much I practically couldn't smell anything else.
Also, although not mentioned in the notes list, Perversion definitely smells like coconut to me. I bought a 10ml bottle over a year ago and I've been letting it age (because I read that aging will make the coconut scent die down a lot), but it's still strongly coconut-scented. I've noticed in both Blood Pearl and in Perversion that the coconut scent died out a lot faster in an imp than in a 10ml bottle. I bought 10mls of both Blood Pearl and Perversion after trying imps, and the coconut was so strong in the 10mls that I couldn't wear them. I sold the Blood Pearl bottle a while back because I like Perversion better, but the Perversion bottle still isn't to the stage at which I can wear it yet.
In addition, the Tarot blend The Star and the Qliphoth blend Gamaliel both smelled a little Fruit-Loopy to me, so I think they have some coconut in as well.
Of the GCs, I really like Perversion, Blood Pearl, Brown Jenkins, and The Sailor's Den. I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite between Brown Jenkins and The Sailor's Den, but I think I'm going to go with Brown Jenkins.
LEs THAT CONTAIN COCONUT
Antonino, The Carny Talker: White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender. I forgot to write a review of this before I sold it. Shoot. But I know the reason I sold it was that the verbena was too strong in it for me, so this isn't a "primarily coconut" contender.
Carnaval Diabolique: Opium smoke, lemon flower, heliotrope, tuberose, black musk, vanilla, coconut, apricot flower. Whoops, I didn't write a review for this one, either. But also not a primarily coconut one. More of a smoky floral.
Creepy: butterscotch-kissed, caramel-smothered red apples spiked with a blast of coconut rum. Nice but mostly apples, not coconut.
Dark Delicacies: devil’s trumpet accord, black orchid, tonka, coconut meat, fruit gums, osmanthus, smoky resin, myrtle, and Indonesian patchouli. This is a gorgeous scent, but I don't think the coconut is prominent at all.
Death Adder: Snake Oil with vetiver, black coconut, vanilla, and opoponax. Ahhh, this one smells great. Similar to Snake Charmer but with vetiver.
King Of Spades: oakmoss, vetiver and opoponax with black plum, wild blackberry, soft woods, sharp and glinting white musk under a soft, velvety robe of vanilla and coconut. I can't remember what this smells like off the top of my head, but I know the coconut isn't pronounced. My husband wears KoS, and he's not very fond of coconut scents, so it can't be very strong at all.
Monster Bait: Underbed: Cassia-caked cocoa coconut over angel food cake. I smelled no coconut in this. It was all cassia, all the time.
Red Lantern: Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. This one smells mostly like spicy caramel on me, not so much coconut.
Snake Charmer: Arabian musk and exotic spices slinking through Egyptian amber, enticing vanilla, and a serpentine blend of black plum, labdanum, ambrette, benzoin and black coconut. This one's probably my #1 favorite BPAL oil, but I can't say the coconut in it is enough to qualify it for a "primarily coconut" scent.
Spooky: warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. This one's a smooth peppermint on me, and not much coconut.
Treat #2: fig meat, coconut, and "buttercream bonbon," rolled in orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove and ginger, dipped in milk chocolate. Very much a Fruit-Loopy scent on me.
Also, although not mentioned in the notes, Milk Moon 05 also had a slight coconut twinge to it.
Out of the LEs, I kind of have to pick Treat #2 by default because it's the only one in which the coconut seems prominent. However, I don't like Treat #2 any more than I like Eden from the GC.
Verdict on Favorite Coconut Scent: Brown Jenkins
Argh, it's been a crappy week. Sort of. Mostly due to this damn cold. I hate being sick. It makes me mad to be sick. I don't know how to stop getting angry about it, but I wish I could. I think that if I spent my mental energy concentrating on getting better rather than perpetuating my foul mood I might recover more quickly. I am the whiniest, rottenest, most annoying sick person you've ever met.
But! At least it's starting to go away. Probably by next week I'll be fine. And next week is more important than this week because next week it's my birthday.
Ye gods, 35 years old. Holy crap. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that I was 25? It sure seems like it. I remember once when I was little complaining to my dad that time goes so slow (when you're little the time just drags on and on until the fun things happen), and he got this funny smile on his face and said something like, "When you get older, it'll go by a lot faster." As usual, Daddy was right.
One of the things that bugs me about being this old is that I have just started to realize that I can say things like, "Yeah, but that happened 20 years ago" to my friends from high school. Twenty years ago. TWENTY. I'm starting to remember 30 years ago with increasing clarity. I don't feel old when I look in the mirror, or even when I overhear teenagers talking and their inane conversations drive me up the wall. I always thought that would make me feel old, when I realized that I didn't have anything in common with teenagers any more. But nope, that's not it. It's that I used to feel like I had so much of life ahead of me. Now there's a huge swath BEHIND me, 35 years' worth... that's what gets to me.
Don't get me wrong, looking back doesn't make me feel like I regret anything. I might not have the life I imagined I'd have, but it's pretty damn good. In fact as I've gotten older I've taken care of myself better -- I actually look better now than when I was 28. I'm definitely more financially comfortable. And I'd like to think I'm wiser, too. All in all not too shabby.
Anyhoo, enough of that. Mostly I wanted to write about my week, so I don't know how I ended up with that birthday-related nostalgia.
This week, I submitted two more Trick or Treat pleas. I was really hoping to be able to do four, and hopefully (maybe) get all the different ones, or at least have something to swap for any I didn't get. But it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to afford one more submission before the deadline. Alas! I keep telling myself I have too much perfume oil as it is -- I need to do a serious reduction of my collection. But I've been at this BPAL thing for 8 months now, and the oils are still coming in at a much faster rate than they're going out. The good news is that I haven't been buying from eBay in quite a while; mostly I'm just ordering from the Lab. The bad news is that the reason I don't want to buy any of the older scents is because I've already tried nearly all of them.
And now I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Good night!
[see previous blog entry for an explanation of what I'm doing here.]
BPAL's chocolate note is usually not so great on me, but my luck is much better with cocoa. So I'll give chocolate/cocoa a whirl.
GCs THAT CONTAIN CHOCOLATE/COCOA
Bliss: The serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate. This one wasn't my fave. The chocolate didn't work so great on me.
Centzon Totochtin: Bittersweet Mexican cocoa with rum, red wine, and a scent redolent of sacrificial blood. I like this one, but it's not my favorite because of the red wine.
Gluttony: Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel. Not primarily chocolate on me at all, mostly nutty/creamy.
The Great Sword Of War: Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. Mainly herby on my skin. Didn't like it.
Intrigue: Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes. I like this one a lot; it smells mainly like a cocoa/fig scent on me.
Kali: This perfume is a blend of the sacred blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey. I like this one okay, but it's not primarily chocolate on me. Mostly honey and wine.
Tezcatlipoca: Deep cocoa laced with patchouli, leather armor, ritual incense, and a touch of Xochiquetzal's flowers. I like this one a lot. I used to have a bottle and I gave it to someone who was looking for it. I miss that bottle and often wish I still had it.
Vice: A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom. The chocolate just didn't work that well on me. Smelled like tootsie rolls.
Velvet: gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh. I like this one a lot. A lot of sandalwood and myrrh with just a little bit of cocoa.
Favorite GCs are Intrigue, Tezcatlipoca, and Velvet. (Not a surprise that they all contain cocoa and not chocolate.) The cocoa is prominent in all of them, but it's hard to choose a favorite because they all smell so different. I think my favorite is Velvet, though.
LEs THAT CONTAIN CHOCOLATE/COCOA
Boomslang: Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk. Ahhhh, I love this one. Have 2 bottles.
The Candy Butcher: Dark chocolate with a heavy cream undertone. Didn't work on me at all.
Enraged Groundhog Musk: Cranky groundhog musk sweetened up by chocolate-covered black cherries, cardamom, French vanilla, and caramel. The cardamom amped too much in this for me, to my disappointment.
Freak Show: fig, pomegranate and cocoa bean with lemon, bergamot, vanilla, mellow honey musk, calamus and tonka. I really like this, but the cocoa bean isn't prominent. This one is similar to Intrigue and Carnal from the GC. I have a bottle of this.
Monster Bait: Underbed: Cassia-caked cocoa coconut over angel food cake. The cassia is really really strong in this. I have a bottle of this... not sure why though. I never wear it.
The Pumpkin Patch #2: Pumpkin with cocoa, hazelnut and walnut. Largely pumpkin with just a little cocoa.
Spooky (Yule 2003 & 2005) A maddeningly festive blend of warm, buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and a jolt of peppermint. Mostly minty on me, not too cocoa-ish.
The Tell-tale Heart: blood musk, cocoa, black pepper, allspice, dragon's blood resin and vetiver. This is a fantastic scent but seems like mainly spicy dragon's blood on me. I have a couple of bottles of this.
Thirteen (4/13/07): A base of cocoa absolute and white chocolate with thirteen baneful and beneficial bits: cardamom, fig meat, grains of paradise, rice flower, chamomile, sandalwood, catnip, clove, and a bundle of five blessed blossoms and herbs. This is the purple label one. Too herby for me.
Thirteen (10/13/06): Cocoa and vanilla beans, Mysore sandalwood, star fruit, orange rind, red amber, fig leaf, mimosa, rooibos tea, bourbon geranium, rose otto, nutmeg, and lavender. My favorite of the 13s so far. I have one bottle of this.
Thirteen (5/13/05 & 1/13/06): thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris. I like this one (the white label one) but I liked Oct 06 (the orange label) better.
Treat #2: A fine confection for discriminating trick or treaters: a fig meat, coconut, anduttercreamonbon rolled in orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove and ginger, dipped in milk chocolate. Not primarily chocolate on me at all, more like Fruit Loops.
Wulric, The Wolfman: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and cistus. This smelled a little weird and not harmonic on me.
Of those, the Oct 06 (orange label) is my favorite of the 13s, but Boomslang is clearly my favorite. I'm so glad that has cocoa in it and not chocolate. I would say that Boomslang is mostly Snake Oil rather than mostly cocoa, but Velvet is my favorite GC and that one's more myrrh & sandalwood than cocoa. Between Velvet and Boomslang I prefer Boomslang, but I'd love to have a bottle of Velvet too. They're really different. (Of all of these, I'd like to have bottles of Boomslang, Velvet, Tezcatlipoca, and 13 orange label.)
Verdict on Favorite Cocoa/Chocolate Scent: Boomslang
Here's a strange question for you. What do you do when you realize that your professor is giving wrong answers in class?
Last quarter I had a 300-level anatomy class. This quarter I have a 100-level physiology class. This is the first time this professor has taught at Northwestern -- usually she teaches at a community college.
Last week she mis-identified a bone on her own lecture slide as a humerus when it was very clearly a femur. She sort of hemmed and hawed over it for a couple of seconds and then said humerus. So it wasn't just an oral typo.
Last night she spelled the muscle sternocleidomastoid wrong on her lecture slide, and then she mispronounced it as well. But the real kicker was that she had it up there as an example of how muscles are sometimes named based on their points of insertion. She said this muscle is named for its three insertion points: the sternum, the clavicle [both true] and... "mastication, which is chewing, which means it goes into your neck." Ummm... no. It's attached to the mastoid process, which is a piece of the temporal bone of the skull that sticks down behind your ear.
I realize she may need to simplify some explanations because it's a 100-level class, but simplify does not mean the same thing as "tell students the wrong answer." When a student asked her what the difference was between "extends the thigh" and "extends the leg" when we were talking about different muscle functions, she didn't know the answer. Our anatomy professor beat us over the head with learning to call the upper part of the lower limb the "thigh" and the lower part of the lower limb the "leg." She told us specifically not to call the whole lower limb the "leg" because that was anatomically incorrect. So why did my physiology professor not know that?
I don't know what to do here. I paid full Northwestern tuition for this class, and this is the first time at Northwestern that I felt like I was getting a crappy education for my money. All my other Northwestern professors have been stellar.
Should I go to the dean? Should I ask my advisor what I should do? I've never been in this situation before and I don't know how to approach this.
I have been visiting my sister for the past five days, and in her house they go to bed at 9 p.m. on work nights -- I go to bed around 4 a.m. and sleep until noon. So since I had a bunch of free time where I was sitting around my sister's house by myself with none of the usual distractions at my own home, I decided to be productive. I tried to consolidate my BPAL reviews into one location.
And HERE is the humongous result. It took me roughly 20 hours, and it's still pretty crappy and incomplete. Man, there are a lot of different BPAL oils.
[see previous entries for what I'm doing.]
I've lumped these all together because they smell sort of similar on me. I generally dislike dirt and earth notes because they amp so much on me, and often I don't like moss or oakmoss either. Sometimes, though, I find a moss/oakmoss blend that really works on me.
GCs THAT CONTAIN DIRT/EARTH/MOSS/OAKMOSS
Arkham: maple, birch, dogwood, cypress and pine softened by a garland of New England wildflowers: bergamot, columbine, rue anemone, blue violet, creeping phlox, bloodroot, toadflax, and pixie moss.
Bayou: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms.
Burial: The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetary loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead.
Cathode: Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss and three electric mints.
Crossroads: A chill twilit garden of blooms over dry earth and mosses, heavily laden with incense and offertory herbs.
Danse Macabre: Black cypress with oakmoss, frankincense, oude, and a sliver of toasted hazelnut.
Death of the Gravedigger: Snow, soil, opoponax and myrrh.
Destroying Angel: Papery white notes evoke the grace of this fungi, grounded by thin, crisp soil.
Fae: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss.
Greed: patchouli, heliotrope, copal and oakmoss.
Horreur Sympathique: blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane.
I Died For Beauty: The Venusian splendor of ylang ylang and violet stirred by hyssop, frankincense, and grave loam. [grave loam, in this case, is oakmoss and Spanish Moss]
Jazz Funeral: Bittersweet bay rum and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss.
Jezirat al Tennyn: smoke and fire, earth and wind.
Kiyohime Changes From A Serpent: Salty ocean spray, red kelp, black plum, lychee, sea moss, green musk, hachiya, plum blossom, and matcha.
Les Anges Déchus: Khus, blonde tobacco, life everlasting, orris root, black currant, cabreuva, Spanish moss, leather, and ambrette.
Les Infortunes de la Vertu: A pain-tinged, pleasure-soaked blend of leather, oakmoss, orange blossom, amber, and rose with A breath of virginal French florals and a hint of austere monastic penitential incense.
Lyonesse: Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss.
Mad Meg: Fire-scorched earth, black mandarin, cinnamon bark, bitter almond, sage, vetiver, and balsam of peru.
Nephilim: Holy frankincense and hyssop in union with earthy fig, defiled by black patchouli and vetiver, with a chaotic infusion of lavender, cardamom, tamarind, rosemary, oakmoss and cypress.
Nocnitsa: Her scent is that of a lightless fir wood, nighttime air, wet forest mosses and upturned earth.
Nosferatu: desiccated herbs and gritty earth brought to life with a swell of robust and sanguineous red wines.
Nuit: Her perfume is starry and crystalline, a jewel-clad and glittering paean to night: dazzling white musks, white rose and night-blooming jasmine with the soft moss of moonlit meadows, a waft of Egyptian incense, and a gentle breath of moonflower.
Omen: oakmoss, juniper berry, myrrh and patchouli.
Penny Dreadful: Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam.
Phantom Queen: Black orchid, apple blossom, meadowsweet, and rue over Irish moss, hawthorn and red clover.
Robin Goodfellow: Dark musk, moss-covered wood, ragwort, heather, and sage.
Salomé: almond with star jasmine, oakmoss, red sandalwood and Egyptian musk.
Sunflower: Sunflower bouquet, black amber, creeping black moss, wilted greenery, and scorched, dry stems.
Thanatos: Dry white sandalwood and soft Siamese benzoin over a lugubrious blend of myrrh, Moroccan rose, mastic, tomb moss and a thin whiff of Greek incense.
Two Monsters: Oakmoss, vetiver, black musk, champaca flower, leather, patchouli, ginger, Japanese pittosporum, ambergris and white pepper.
Urania: Moonflower, Moroccan jasmine, benzoin, white musk, iris, moss and a flash of ozone.
Vicomte de Valmont: ambergris, white musk, white sandalwood, Spanish Moss, orange blossom, three mints, jasmine, rose geranium and a spike of rosemary.
Viola: Gentle tea rose, lilac, Calla Lily, and Somalian Rose layered over golden Peruvian amber, Spanish moss, red sandalwood, rosewood, and myrrh, with the lightest touch of Mandarin.
Wilde: A sophisticated traditional gentleman's cologne, with just the slightest taint of patchouli's passion, tonka bean's decadence, the philanthropy of bergamot, moss' cynicism, the sharp wit of lavender, and the hopeless romantic longing of jasmine and thyme.
Zombi: Dried roses, rose leaf, Spanish moss, oakmoss and deep brown earth.
Of those ones, the ones that seem to be primarily dirt/earth/moss scents are Bayou, Burial, Cathode, Crossroads, Jazz Funeral, Jezirat al Tennyn, Nocnitsa, Nosferatu, Penny Dreadful, Robin Goodfellow, and Zombi. Of those, I like Bayou, Jazz Funeral, Nocnitsa, and Robin Goodfellow. My favorite is Robin Goodfellow.
By the way, although it isn't mentioned in the notes, Ulalume smells like it has a little bit of dirt/earth in it too, and I like that one as well. Death Cap and Masabakes smell like they have some dirt/earth in them as well, and I don't like either of those at all.
LEs THAT CONTAIN DIRT/EARTH/MOSS/OAKMOSS
Annabel Lee: wild peony, sweet pea, cucumber and white sage with sea lilies and moss.
Bad Luck Woman Blues: Spanish moss, black pepper, mullein, sweet sage, vandal root, cypress, cigar tobacco, and a puff of goofer dust cloaked by a swarthy cologne of vetiver, lime, dark musk, caramel accord, and lilac.
Banded Sea Snake: Snake Oil with oakmoss, sea moss, and olive leaf.
The Castle: A distant whisper of pine, wet moss and dry leaves passing through vast halls and winding dungeons whose scent bears the memory of blood, faded splendor, imperial elegance and stunning violence.
Fée: Auoyant, dulcetlend of vanilla, sunflower, carnation, honeydew, peachlossom, lychee, oakmoss and white tea.
Faiza The Black Mamba: black amber, caraway, oakmoss, green sandalwood, bergamot, jasmine sambac, gardenia, orange pulp, vanilla, blackberry, black musk, white honey, ti leaf, and ginger.
Gnome: No notes listed, but when I tried it, it clearly had dirt/earth in it.
Graveyard Dirt: This is the scent of pure graveyard dust, spattered with grave loam and dusted lightly with tombstone moss.
Hunger Moon: Ozone, white sandalwood, crystallized white amber, verbena, oakmoss, clary sage, and a hint of white citrus rind.
Jólasveinar: Their scent is a mishmash of snow, dirt, Icelandic moss, marsh felwort, and the smushed petals of buttercups and moorland spotted orchids, with the barest hint of the scent of pilfered Christmas pastries.
King of Clubs: deeper, darker [than Queen of Clubs] earth notes with dark musk, tobacco leaf, oakmoss, amber, leather, sage and vetiver with fig and bitter almond.
Luperci: Raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk.
Oborot: Balkan fir sap, dark mosses, Greek Mountain tea flower, black pine, salty ocean spray, deep black earth, and a moon-touched magickal incense of sandarac, frankincense, and ravensara.
The Premature Burial: Oppressive darkness, expressed through black orchid and patchouli, smothered by wet soil, a coffin’s teakwood, and the funereal gloom of cypress.
Privilege: Armoise, tuberose, white citrus, rose absolute, oakmoss, tiare, tuberose, vanilla, linden, and lemon tree blossom.
Queen of Clubs: Soft, deep earth notes with myrrh, amber, pomegranate, dark incense, red currant, rose and vanilla.
R M Renfield: moss, cumin, patchouli, Balsam of Peru, and neroli.
Roux-ga-roux: Spanish moss, swamp jessamine, bog water, cypress, hickory wood, lobelia, sweet flag, wisteria, and marsh milkweed.
Samhainophobia: Menacing Haitian vetiver, patchouli, and clove with a shock of bourbon geranium, grim oakmoss, and dread-inspiring balsams pierce the innocuous scent of autumn leaves.
The Sleeper: Night-blooming jasmine, opium poppy, wild rosemary, Calla lily, oakmoss and crypt musk.
Swadhisthana: Vanilla, nutmeg, orris root, gardenia, damiana, jasmine, patchouli, ylang, tangerine, bergamot, sandalwood, oakmoss.
Vipralabda: benzoin, Greek sage, hay, melaleuca ericifolia, oakmoss, and blue chamomile.
Whipporwill: Spanish moss, cedar, black pepper, oakmoss, juniper, bamboo reeds and cardamom.
The Wild Men of Jezirat Al Tennyn: red amber, Spanish moss, Indonesian patchouli, ambergris, red pepper, two cloves, and vanilla flower.
Of those ones, the ones that seem to be primarily dirt/earth/moss scents are Bad Luck Woman Blues, Graveyard Dirt, King of Clubs, Oborot, The Premature Burial, Queen of Clubs, R M Renfield, Roux-ga-Roux, and Whippoorwill. Of those, I like the last three in that list a lot. I'd have a hard time choosing a favorite among those three actually, but if I had to, I'd pick R M Renfield.
Verdict on Favorite Dirt/Earth/Moss/Oakmoss Scent: R M Renfield.
Has it been a month since I wrote anything here? Sheesh. I thought it had been maybe a couple of weeks.
I would really like to start writing more in this blog because I don't have any RL friends who are into BPAL, except my husband. My LJ journal is mostly just full of entries that have a company's name in the title and then a list of all their products I've tried and whether or not I liked them. I suppose it's not helpful to anyone but me.
And I don't want to be all over the place making all kinds of posts everywhere about every BPAL oil I try because I don't want to be a pest. Plus, it seems like it's very easy to irritate people on the Internet, so I'm cautious about that. (If someone heard me talking it would sound different from the way text looks.) People tell me that I have an extremely expressive face, and I also gesture with my hands a lot, and all of that gets lost when I type.
So I guess I'll just post here. It seems pretty unobtrusive. And I'm pretty sure no one is reading this anyway.
I'm making a list here of my favorites from the GC, mainly just for my reference.
The ones I don't have bottles of yet have an asterisk. The ones that are next on my list to get are purple.
Bewitching Brews
Jack
Scherezade
Sin & Salvation
Anathema
Dorian
Love Potions
Bathsheba
Bordello
Perversion
Snake Oil - AGED
Vixen
Diabolus
Fenris Wolf
*Kitsune-Tsuki
Marquise de Merteuil
Mad Tea Party
Eat Me
Frumious Bandersnatch
Mouse's Long and Sad Tale
The Unicorn
Illyria
Tamora
*Titania
Wanderlust
Tintagel
Tombstone - AGED
Ars Draconis
Dragon's Milk
Dragon's Musk
Rappaccini's Garden
Cobra Lily
The Salon
Silence
Two Monsters
Three Gorgons
A Picnic in Arkham
Miskatonic University
Excolo
Loviatar
Ogun
Osun
Santa Muerte
Shango
Sephiroth
Chokmah
And these ones are the ones I like a lot, but they're a step down from the "love" category. I wear them often.
Bewitching Brews
*Blood Kiss
*Intrigue
*Lampades
*Omen
*Sudha Segara
*Velvet
*Voodoo
Wilde
Funereal Oils
*Midnight
*Nocturne
*Thanatopsis
Sin & Salvation
The Bow & Crown of Conquest
*Fallen
*Hellfire
Lust
*Oblivion
Sin
Love Potions
*Carnal
Loralei
Salome
*Spellbound
Vicomte de Valmont
Diabolus
Dracul
*Hell's Belle
*Hellcat
Villain
Mad Tea Party
Cheshire Cat
*White Rabbit
Illyria
*Lady Macbeth
Wanderlust
*Hollywood Babylon
Manhattan
Morocco
*Lyonesse
*Pontarlier
*Prague
Ars Draconis
*Dragon's Heart
*Dragon's Reverie
Rappaccini's Garden
*Black Hellebore
*Love-Lies-Bleeding
*Moon Rose
*Strangler Fig
The Salon
*Three Brides
*The Ecstasy of St. Teresa
*Judith Victorious
*Les Anges Déchus
*The Sailor's Den
A Picnic in Arkham
Al-Azif
*The Music of Erich Zahn
Excolo
*Grandmother of Ghosts
*Kali
*Mania
*Oya
*Queen Mab
*Tezcatlipoca
*Xiuhtecuhtli
*Aglaea
Vechernyaya
Voodoo Blends
French Love
*Love Me
*Wolf's Heart
The Chakras
Swadhisthana
I organize thoughts with bullet points. I'm sorry. I spent 12 years writing technical manuals, and this is a habit I cannot break. Again, my apologies. On with the blog!
- This is bordering on TMI, but: One of my dogs (or maybe both, I'm not sure) has been tooting all night. We had to evacuate the room twice. It's driving me crazy. As far as I know they've eaten nothing except kibble and their usual treats today, so I'm worried about what they've gotten into that I don't know about yet.
- When we got our tax forms back I looked at my income from last year and started to wonder how much I'd be getting back. My husband said, "You mean WE'll be getting back." He reminded me that we split my income 50/50. I sputtered, "But, but... that was MY money, that I made, and I'm broke..." (I haven't worked since April.) He was right though, we did agree two years ago that my income was used as our discretionary money and it was split 50/50. I haven't worked in so long that I forgot. I was mad and stomped around and behaved like a jerk. I finally said I was REALLY looking forward to that extra $20 I'd be getting in the tax refund, in the most sarcastic voice I could muster. He said he expected my half of the refund would be much larger than that, considering that we split HIS income tax refund 50/50 as well. Whoops! I forgot about that agreement too. Here I was being all pissy that he was taking half of my paltry refund when he was also giving me half of his much larger one. I slinked off silently feeling like a toad.
- I've been watching Father Ted on DVD for the past couple of days, and today I found this: www.doogle.org. This will make no sense to you unless you've seen Father Ted, but I think it's hilarious.
More Than This, by The Cure
For a second of your life
Tell me that it's true
Waiting for a sign
It's all I want of you
Your heart hides a secret
A promise of what is
Of something more than this
Just a second of your time
Any one will do
A taste of any other
Is all I want from you
Offer me the world
And how can I resist
Something more than this?
Make-believe in magic
Make-believe in dreams
Make-believe -- Impossible
Nothing as it seems
See, touch, taste, smell, hear
But never know if it's real (But never know if it's real)
For a second of your life
Tell me if it's true
Anywhere we are
Is all I want of you
On your lips lies a secret
A promise of a kiss
Of something more than this
Just a second of your time
Any one will do
To know from any other
Is all I want from you
You've given me the world
You know I can't resist
Something more than this
Make-believe in magic
Make-believe in dreams
Make-believe -- Impossible
Nothing as it seems
Never really understand
What anything means (What anything means)
Another second of my life
Not knowing if it's true
Make-believe in nothing
Is all I want of you
Whispering the secret
Whispering there is
Always something other
Something more than this
-------------------------------
I've been listening to this song a lot lately. There was a time in my life when the emotion/longing described in this song was at the forefront of my mind all the time, and I listened to this song a lot then too. One of the reasons I've always loved The Cure so much is that a lot of their songs really resonate with me. Not too deep but not too shallow either, and there's a heart-on-your-sleeve quality to a lot of them in addition to a rawness, which I generally think of as intrinsic characteristics of passion.
I also love The Cure because Robert Smith is a hottie. Oh, right, and also a genius. But, yeah. A hottie. He looks like he'd be ready to cuddle and take a nap at any moment, and he has a killer smile that he sort of saves up and suddenly unleashes when you're not expecting it. My kind of guy.
[see previous entries for what I'm doing here.]
Mint is often a deal-breaker note for me. I almost always do not go for the cool/chilly scents, and mint smells cool to me. In the worst situations it reminds me of toothpaste, and in the best situations it makes me think of dinner mints. Neither of those are things I'd consider favorite perfume scents. I do like some mint-scented soaps, so it's not that I dislike the scent of mint. It's just that as a personal fragrance it doesn't suit me.
GCs THAT CONTAIN MINT
Absinthe: Wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and lemon. Not primarily minty, mostly wormwood essence.
Bess: rosemary, orange flower, grape spirit, five rose variants, lemon peel, and mint. This doesn't seem primarily minty to me because rosemary is always so strong on me.
Calliope: lavender and bright mint with bergamot, verbena, thyme and a touch of sweet orange and warm almond. This is an herbal citrus scent on me and not very minty.
Cathode: Ambergris, Spanish Moss, oakmoss, and mints. This one is minty, but I'm not a fan of the moss/mint combination. My notes for this scent said it reminded me of one of my dog's mint-flavored treats. Ew. Not a great association. No wonder I didn't like this scent.
Cloister Graveyard In The Snow: Three white musks, ozone, frankincense, mint. This one was a surprise hit with me because I did not expect to like it. My notes said that the mint was the most captivating of the notes in the scent -- that is unheard of, with me.
Death On A Pale Horse: empty white musk and mint seeped with solemn lavender, doleful patchouli and vetiver, scythe-sharp yuzu and lime, with geranium bourbon, white sandalwood and calla lily. I really didn't like this scent at all due to the yuzu. I don't think it was mostly minty, anyway.
Dracul: Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom. My husband has a bottle of this and wears it from time to time. I like it, but it's not primarily minty.
Envy: Green herbs slithering through mint, lime and lavender. Mostly herbal, not minty.
House Of Night: [see description for what may be in it -- one thing mentioned was mint.] "A sorrowful graveyard bouquet of somber blooms, funereal boughs, dismal green and laden with grief." A sweet floral. Not minty.
Juke Joint: Kentucky Bourbon, sugar and a sprig of mint. I can smell the mint in this, and I like the scent. Very evocative.
The Lantern Ghost Of Oiwa: Black tea, cherry blossom, ho wood, calla lily, rice wine, and white mint. The mint in this is soft and smells fresh and clean. I like this one, but I can barely smell it on my skin.
Manhattan: sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid. I love this scent -- it won my Favorite Grapefruit scent. Not really minty, though.
Melpomene: dark cypress with mint, geranium, Bulgar lavender, orange blossom and passion flower. I didn't really smell mint in this, but it smelled kind of medicinal to me and I didn't like it.
The Mock Turtle's Lessons: blurry aquatic notes, with a confusing, contrary splort of iris, ambrette, green apple, vodka, white mint and a squish of lime. This is a good blend of mint and lime, and I do like it. My only complaint with it is that it disappears really fast on me.
Shattered: A blend of white champagne notes, grapefruit, lotus, slivered mint and crystalline aquatic blooms. This smells like mint-menthol on me and was totally not the kind of scent I like.
Silence: White sandalwood, iris, blue musk, lotus root, moonflower, plum blossom, green tea, white mint and white peach. This perfume is gorgeous, and I love it. However, not primarily minty. It's one of the peach contenders.
Ultraviolet: Lush violet and neroli spiked hard with eucalyptus and a sliver of mint. The eucalyptus in this one is very, very strong at first. I mean, like knock-you-over strong. That's what keeps it out of the running for my favorite anything. I do like the violet/mint combination I get when it's dry, but I really dislike the initial eucalyptus blast.
Undertow: lotus and juniper with a hint of mint. Minty when wet, but sweet when dry. My notes said that when it was dry it reminded me of Pez. I have no idea why.
Utrennyaya: Osmanthus, Damascus rose, violet, delphinium, white mint, palmarosa and white sandalwood. This smelled minty AND powdery on me. Not a good combination.
Vicomte de Valmont: ambergris, white musk, white sandalwood, Spanish Moss, orange blossom, three mints, jasmine, rose geranium and a spike of rosemary. This one is a little too minty for me personally, but it smells great on my husband and I like it when he wears this.
The ones that didn't have mint listed in the notes but smelled a bit minty to me were Hamadryad (possibly due to wintergreen smelling minty to me), possibly Yggdrasil, maybe Nocnitsa, maybe Szepasszony, possibly Jezirat al Tennyn. I thought Tarot The Fool and Strength smelled a bit minty as well (but again, that could be due to wintergreen), and Grr is very definitely peppermint-scented (but I don't use that as perfume, of course).
So of all the ones listed above, the primarily minty ones I like are Cloister Graveyard in the Snow, Juke Joint, The Mock Turtle's Lessons, and Vicomte de Valmont. I think my favorite out of all those is Vicomte, but I don't wear that, my husband does. So I'll have to pick something else. I think Cloister Graveyard in the Snow wins.
LEs THAT CONTAIN MINT
Frost Moon: "traditional lunar oils frozen with winter mints, shivering eucalyptus, clear lotus, a gust of wind, and a midnight aquatic note." This smells much too cold for me to like it.
F5: Aloe, white musk, lime peel, fresh mint, seaspray, verbena and green tea. I did like this one, surprisingly. It smells fresh and clean. It was really nice on hot days. Not really minty, though, mostly aloe, tea, and musk.
Gennivre, L'artiste Du Diable: Hyson tea leaf, pale mint, sugar cane, orange blossom, lemongrass, and honey. I like this one as well. On me it smells like a tea scent with a mild mint. Very pretty.
Green Tree Viper: Snake Oil with four mints, bergamot, and green tea. I tried this but didn't write a review, and I'm trying to remember what I thought of it. I think that I didn't care for the Snake Oil + mint combination.
Lick It: a candy cane perfume, minty, sweet and sugared. Smells exactly like a candy cane. Peppermint isn't my favorite mint, though.
Lick It Again: "a peppermint candy cane with an extra jolt of sugar." This one also smells like a candy cane, but a bit smoother than Lick It. Like I said, though, not really into peppermint.
Monster Bait: Tokyo Stomp: vanilla mint. Crisp and refreshing, but smooth as well. I was surprised and delighted that I liked this scent. It's probably the only mint scent I actually wear.
Nuclear Winter: The ice, desolation and barrenness of nuclear devastation shot through by a beam of radioactive mints. I liked this one. Didn't think I would, but I did. Very much a chilly scent.
Snowblind: the perfect vanilla mint. I tried this a long time ago and gave it the boot due to being minty. I don't think I even wrote a review, I just passed it along. If I recall correctly, it did smell like dinner mints and I thought it wasn't that bad. I wish I'd kept a little bit of it so I could do a side-by-side comparison with Tokyo Stomp, but I don't have any Snowblind and I doubt I'll ever get any again.
Spooky: buttery rum, cocoa, coconut, vanilla and peppermint. I like this scent. I haven't written a review for it yet, so I couldn't tell you what I like about it, I just know I like it.
Taurus 07: Rose, daisy, apple blossom, violet, poppy, columbine, thyme, and mint. Sweet spring floral. Not minty.
Treat #2: fig meat, coconut, "buttercream bonbon," orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove, ginger, and milk chocolate. Smells very Fruit-Loopy on me. Not minty.
Tulzcha: "A crystalline, cold green flame: six mints with white pepper and cucumber." Mint+cucumber. This is a cool, refreshing scent, and I do like it. I just never wear it. It's one of those scents I appreciate because it smells good but it doesn't really suit me.
Usher: light musk, fougere, white mint, mandarin, tea leaf, blackcurrant, "brushed by the scent of the tarn that surrounds the House, and the gloom and decay of the walls that hold him." I gave a bottle of this to my husband and he wore it maybe once or twice. I remember liking it when he wore it, but I don't think he liked it. I can't remember if it was primarily minty, but I doubt it.
The one that didn't have mint listed in the notes but smelled minty to me was Snow-Flakes. I really like that one, but because I don't know for sure that it has mint in it, I can't include it.
So, of those ones, the ones I like are F5, Gennivre, Tokyo Stomp, Nuclear Winter, and Spooky. (Possibly Snowblind, but I wouldn't name one that rare as a favorite anyway because in order to be a favorite it has to be obtainable.) Out of those, my hands-down favorite is Tokyo Stomp.
Verdict on Favorite Mint Scent: Monster Bait Tokyo Stomp.
I can barely believe how much gorgeousness the Lab has created in the past few months. I have been thinking that after the hugeness of Carnaval Diabolique, Halloweenies, Order of the Dragon, Yule, a whole new Salon set, and the ToT inquisition, they'd probably be taking a break for a while. I thought that the next CD act would be kinda small, the size of one of the first two acts, and I thought that Lupercalia would be on the small side as well. Maybe 6 or 7 bottles.
Here are my thoughts and what I got:
HUNGER MOON. Ozone, white sandalwood, crystallized white amber, verbena, oakmoss, clary sage, and a hint of white citrus rind.
I bought a bottle because I always buy Lunacy bottles. However, I don't expect to like this. Citrus and herbs are usually bad for me.
BAKENEKO. Warm amber musk, Satsuma tangerine, black tea leaf, cardamom, cherry blossom and cinnamon.
Again, I bought a bottle because it's a Lunacy blend, but I'm not sure it'll work on me. My skin amps cardamom and cinnamon to overwhelming proportions. Both in the same blend is very probably a deal-breaker.
ABHISARIKA. Damascus rose, African orchid, cream accord, and Kashmir musk.
I love the idea behind these. I would have bought the whole set if I had enough money. I heavily debated whether to buy a bottle of this one, and I probably should have. But I just wound up joining a decant circle to buy a decant of it. At least it'll be up for a while so I'll still have a chance to get a bottle later. I don't usually like blends that are too rosy, but the orchid, cream, and Kashmir musk sound wonderful.
KALAHANTARIKA. hyssop, lavender, balsam of Peru, jonquil, and elemi.
Potentially too strong for me. I'll be interested to find out what it smells like, but I'm not going to go out of my way for it for a while.
KHANDITA. fiery saffron, neroli, severe black musk, rose otto, and a harsh splinter of rosemary.
It's funny, I was all prepared to order this one until I saw the rosemary, and then I balked. Maybe I shouldn't have. I usually like the other notes.
PROSHITAPATHIKA. blue iris, fennel, dark musk, verbena, and a drop of star anise.
This is the other one that probably won't work for me. I tend to dislike sharp scents, and the fennel and star anise might be too much for me. Also I usually don't like verbena at all.
SVADHINAOPATIKA. golden amber, oude, red sandalwood, massoia bark, honey, and currant.
Um... yeah, I got a bottle of this one. Holy crap. That sounds marvelous.
VASAKASAJJA. skin musk, wild orchid, champaca flower, amaranth, tonka bean, and French vanilla.
Had to get a bottle of this one too. It sounds feminine but not overly so, and rich and slightly decadent. I love the description, too.
VIRAHOTKANTITA. blue lilac, snowdrop, bergamot, night-blooming cereus, frankincense, Himalayan cedar, and stargazer lily.
This definitely sounds like it will smell like sadness. I bet it'll be very pretty, too. I'd like to find a decant of it.
VIPRALABDA. benzoin, Greek sage, hay, melaleuca ericifolia, oakmoss, and blue chamomile.
I have no idea what that will smell like. I'd like to try a decant of it.
DOLCE STIL NUOVO. rose otto, carnation, vanilla flower, lavender and jasmine with the clarity of crystalline white musk and the warmth of golden amber.
Eek. Those flowers are usually much too strong on me. I'd try a decant of this, but I doubt it'll work for me.
CHINTAMANI-DHUPA. Pound well together sandal-wood, Kunku, costus, Krishnaguru, Suvasika-puspha, white vala and the bark of the Deodaru pine; and, after reducing them to fine powder, mix it with honey and thoroughly dry.
Got a bottle of this because I'm dying to know what it smells like. The description is very intriguing.
KANISHTA. black opium, Haitian patchouli, jasmine sambac, French magnolia and kush.
I didn't realize until after I submitted my order that I did NOT have this one in my order. Stupid oversight. I really meant to buy a bottle of this. It will be in my next order. This sounds like exactly the sort of scent that I love.
KHAJURAHO 2007. honey, date palm, tuberose, davana blossom, amber, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, Damask rose, and champaca flower.
I had a bottle of this from last year, and although I thought it smelled fine, I never wore it. Sometimes I'd pick it up thinking I might wear it that day, but I always put it back down and picked something else. I like the scent, it's just not me, I guess.
LUPERCI 2007. raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk.
I had a bottle from last year, and I thought it was going to smell good on me. I was really excited to try it. But both times I tried it, all I got out of it was juniper. One of my least favorite notes. My husband didn't like it on me either. So I swapped the bottle, and I've never regretted it.
NIGHT'S PAVILION 2007. White musk, osmanthus, Nile lily and frankincense.
I may have tried this last year, but I don't remember it very well. I do know that every time I've seen it up for swap/sale I've passed it over rapidly. I believe that I did try it and I thought it was too sweet and feminine for me.
THE OBLATION. A stirring blend of dianthus, French lavender, blackberry, and white honey.
I think that poem is wonderful and moving. In the old days when I had a job I would have bought a bottle of this just from the poem alone. However, now that I'm unemployed and my husband decides how much money I can spend, this would have been a risk for me because of the lavender. I couldn't resist signing up for a decant, though. I bet I'll like this despite the lavender.
THE PERFUMED GARDEN 2007. Myrrh and Moroccan jasmine with apple peel, Indian sandalwood, myrtle, quince, citron, and thyme poured over soft musk.
I had a bottle of last year's version, and I thought it was too feminine so I sold it. Then I got together with another BPALer and she had a bottle of it she wanted to swap. I sniffed it and tried on a little bit, and I realized that I do like it. It is feminine, but I'm not as anti-feminine as I used to be. So now I have that bottle.
RED LANTERN 2007. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice.
I had a bottle of last year's version for many months, and I finally realized that I never wear it and I might as well sell it. I just sold it a couple of weeks ago. It's a great scent, and I liked it, but I see no reason why a whole bottle of it should be sitting in my BPAL box getting no love when they are lots of people around who would wear it and enjoy it.
SMUT 2007. Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes.
I still have at least three bottles of last year's version. Maybe four. This is one of my husband's very favorite scents on me. I'm not allowed to wear it out of the house.
ELIXIR X: GRR. Headache relief.
ELIXIR XI: OOF. Sinus pain relief.
ELIXIR XII: UGH. Muscle ache relief.
I didn't try any of these, but that imp three-pack is very tempting. I think I'll order the imp pack with my next order.
And now for the OMG Carnaval Diabolique scents:
THE PARLIAMENT OF MONSTERS. Dust, incense, wet tobacco, and a curl of opium smoke.
I signed up for a decant of this. I expect to like it, but I'm not sure I'll like it enough for a whole bottle. I already have other bottles that have a similar scent.
ARACHNINA, THE SPIDER GIRL. A swirling, hypnotic perfume of black currant, poppy, red and black musk, lilies, nicotiana, and patchouli.
I signed up for a decant of this too, but that was sort of dumb. I should have bought a bottle. There is no note in there that I don't like. In fact, I like them all a lot. I'm a huge sucker for red musk.
ESHE, A VISION OF LIFE-IN-DEATH. The perfume of life-in-death: embalming herbs, black myrrh, white sandalwood, black orchid, paperwhites, tomb dust, and Moroccan jasmine.
The description for this one creeped me out. In a good way, of course. I didn't sign up for a decant of this because I was put off by the embalming herbs. Those usually overpower a blend on my skin. I will eventually swap for a decant of it to try, though.
FAIZA, THE BLACK MAMBA. black amber, caraway, oakmoss, green sandalwood, bergamot, jasmine sambac, gardenia, orange pulp, vanilla, blackberry, black musk, white honey, ti leaf, and ginger.
I got a decant of this because there are quite a few notes in there that are usually not good on me. (oakmoss, jasmine, gardenia, ginger). However... those are all notes that have on occasion surprised me by not ruining a blend. So, we'll see.
ASP VIPER: Snake Oil with red mandarin, myrrh, and almond.
Want to try a decant. Might be great.
AUSTRALIAN COPPERHEAD: Snake Oil with acai berry, amber, cardamom, neroli, and smoked vanilla.
Not sure about the cardamom, but the other ones sound good. Will like to swap for a decant eventually.
BANDED SEA SNAKE: Snake Oil with oakmoss, sea moss, and olive leaf.
Hmmm. I'll try it eventually, but I'm in no hurry on this one. Oakmoss and sea moss are usually not so great for me.
BOOMSLANG: Snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk.
Bought a decant of this. I bet those notes smell lovely with snake oil.
CORAL SNAKE: Snake Oil with blood orange, red apple, lemon peel, plumeria, and gardenia.
Hmmm. Probably not. Apple, lemon, and gardenia are usually no-nos for me.
COTTONMOUTH: Snake Oil with linden blossom, calla lily, passion flower, and narcissus.
Snake Oil with a bunch of floral notes? I'm not sure what that will smell like. I'd like to try a decant of it, though.
DEATH ADDER: Snake Oil with vetiver, black coconut, vanilla, and opoponax.
I allowed myself to buy ONE Snake Pit bottle unsniffed, and this is the one I chose. I bet I'll love this. Opoponax, vanilla, and vetiver are three of my favorite notes.
GREEN TREE VIPER: Snake Oil with four mints, bergamot, and green tea.
Mint is usually not my thing.
HABU: Snake Oil with ho wood, teak, black musk, and bamboo.
I carefully considered this one. I didn't buy a decant of it but probably should have. This will be one of the first ones I'll be looking for when people start swapping/selling their decants.
KING COBRA: Snake Oil with orris, frankincense, and copal.
I like copal but frankincense tends to make blends too high-pitched and sweet on me.
SAW-SCALED VIPER: Snake Oil with cinnamon, cassia, and red ginger.
Much too hot for me. I had a vial of Beth's experimental cinnamon Snake Oil, and it was too cinnamony for me. I like plain Snake Oil better.
TEMPLE VIPER: Snake Oil with sugar cane, frankincense, champaca, opoponax, labdanum, and hyssop.
This one might be one I like despite the frankincense. I truly love champaca and opoponax, so I bought a decant of it.
WESTERN DIAMONDBACK: Oil with leather, tonka bean, red sandalwood, and sage.
I didn't get a decant of this, mostly due to my dumbness. I should have. I will look for this one first when people start selling/swapping decants.
HOPE & FAITH, THE SIAMESE TWINS. Hope is sugared violet, Faith is sugared rose.
Love the description for this one, but those florals usually don't work for me.
ISAAC, THE LIVING SKELETON. Bourbon, tobacco, dry bone, bay rum aftershave, and sleazy cologne.
I bought a decant of this because I think my husband will like it.
KATANIYA, THE CLOCKWORK WOMAN. Gentle flowers over hot metal, shocked to life with electricity.
I don't know what this will smell like. I'd like to try a decant eventually. I often like the metallic blends, but I already have several of them.
MESKHENET, THE VULTURE MAIDEN. Frankincense, hyssop, hibiscus, river reeds, orris root, palm frond, and olibanum.
I don't think those notes will work for me. I'll try a decant eventually, but it's not high up on my list.
THALASSA, THE GALAPAGOS MERMAID. Seaweed, kelp, salty ocean spray, bitter almond, night-blooming jasmine, frankincense, and benzoin.
VERY unlikely to work for me. I don't like the scent of seaweed and kelp at all.
TIRESIAS, THE ANDROGYNE. Dark, moody, and bittersweet: black currant, patchouli, tobacco, cinnamon leaf, caramel, muguet, and red sandalwood.
Great description, and I love the song Gloomy Sunday. I think I might like this one a lot -- I bought a decant of it, and I'm betting it will be my first CD Act III bottle purchase (after Death Adder, of course).
THE WILD MEN OF JEZIRAT AL TENNYN. Fiery, primal, and precociously diabolical: red amber, Spanish moss, Indonesian patchouli, ambergris, red pepper, two cloves, and vanilla flower.
I wonder if my husband would like this. He liked Fire Eater. It's just too hot-sounding for me.
WULRIC, THE WOLFMAN. Friendly, charming, and cuddly, but possessing one hell of a mean streak: cocoa absolute, French vanilla, birch tar, lavender, bourbon vetiver, wild musk, clary sage, and cistus.
This might smell very good on my husband. I bought a decant of it so he can try it.
ZARITA, THE DOLL GIRL. white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream.
This will probably be too feminine for me, but I wouldn't mind trying it.
PRIALA, THE HUMAN PHOENIX. Three deep, dark myrrhs, smoke, and cinnamon bark.
I bought a decant of this, and I'm really impatient to try it. I love myrrh and smoke. I wonder if I will end up wanting to buy a whole bottle.
Was I really gone for that long? My sales post went to the dead area. Whoops. I didn't think I was away for that long.
Stupid school sucking up all my time.
I had just decided to put away my laptop and go to bed when the announcement email popped up in my InBox. I didn't even know there was a chance it might go live tonight, so it was a big surprise. But YAY, I didn't miss the update!
Here are my thoughts (apart from the general about Neil Gaiman scents!):
THE CAROUSEL: AMERICAN GODS
BILQUIS: Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk.
I will love to try a decant of this because I like a lot of those notes. I had to be picky about which bottles I got, though, due to a rather small PayPal balance, so I decided against ordering a bottle of this. The honey, ambrette, and red apple are possible no-nos on me.
MAD SWEENEY: Barrel-aged whiskey and oak.
Not sure on this one... I like oak but whiskey is iffy.
MAMA-JI: Spices, cardamom, nutmeg, and flowers.
I don't think that one's going to work on me either. I usually stay away from spices.
MR. IBIS: Papyrus, vanilla flower, Egyptian musk, African musk, aloe ferox, white sandalwood.
I have to try this one as soon as possible. I really like all those notes. I ordered a bottle.
MR. JACQUEL: Golden amber, hyssop, North African patchouli, and embalming spices.
This could be really great -- when I was reading the description I accidentally read "embalming spices" as "embalming herbs" and remembered that the herbs haven't worked on me. I didn't order a bottle because of that, and now that I realize I mis-read the description I wish I would have tried a bottle.
THE CAROUSEL: ANANSI BOYS
MR. NANCY: Sugar cookies with bay rum, tobacco, and lime.
I love sugar cookies and I like those additional notes! This was the first one I saw that I didn't even have to consider -- I knew instantly that it would be in my order.
SPIDER: White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime.
This one threw me for a total loop. I have no idea what that will smell like. I'll be on the lookout for decants for sale as soon as people start getting their bottles.
LIMITED EDITION: LUNACIES
CROW MOON: This is the final Full Moon of winter. The call of the crow signals the end of the frost, and their scent, of vervain, black violet, white musk, and Chinese cedar, is brushed by the last cold wind of winter on their wings, and the scent of evergreen boughs touched by the season’s final flowers and the first blossoms of spring: wintersweet, green-barked dogwood, primrose, snowdrop, and lenten rose hellebore bouquet.
I got this because I get all the lunacies, but I am almost positive that the "cold wind of winter" aspect is going to mess up the scent for me. It always does.
OBOROT
Balkan fir sap, dark mosses, Greek Mountain tea flower, black pine, salty ocean spray, deep black earth, and a moon-touched magickal incense of sandarac, frankincense, and ravensara.
I got this one too for the same reason, but fir, pine, moss, and earth are all bad on me. I don't expect I'm going to like it, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
LIMITED EDITION
FIRE PIG
A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat, pussy willow, and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, and peach blossom for longevity, with a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood… to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.
Well, I did like Peony Moon, except that I thought it didn't seem to be too terribly complex -- this one sounds a lot more interesting. I'm not sure about it though, and since it'll be up for a while I figured I could take some time deciding on it.
Cross-posting to the reviews forum.
Blood Kiss - Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk. At first I mainly get vetiver from this (I love vetiver) with clove and a little bit of cherry. It's smoky and warm. After a while the honey comes out a little more and makes it creamy... it ends up as kind of a husky smooth clove scent, with only a little bit of vetiver underneath. Complex and wonderful. I like it a lot.
Hollywood Babylon - The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry. Hmmm... black cherry and red musk, very lovely. Lusty and dark. I don't really get much strawberry, which is okay with me. I love heliotrope, and I always love amber and vanilla. Seriously, the only note in this whole blend that might not have worked on me was the strawberry, and I can't really detect it. This is exactly the sort of oil I'd like to wear 5 days out of 7. I tried this again as part of the GC circular swap after not trying it for a couple of months, and now I realize I need a bottle of it.
Katharina - A strong, willful blend with a soft, utterly lovely soul: white musk with a trickle of bright, sharp apricot and orange blossom. Katharina is a very bright, very springtime scent. There is something in it that reminds me of popsicle sticks. You know that woody flavor combined with the last drops of fruit-flavored popsicle left on the stick. It's very soft though, it doesn't have strong throw.
Queen Mab - A very complex scent, both shadowy and fierce: black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk. I loooooove this oil. It's beautiful and womanly, sexy and powerful. There's nothing young and innocent about this scent, it's the scent of a woman who knows what she wants. The black orchid is wonderful, and I love the sandalwood and musk with it. To be honest I'm not sure what night-blooming jasmine and osmanthus smell like, but if they're in this blend I'm pretty sure I like them. Mmmmm, this smells good. Can't believe I don't have a bottle of this yet... it's going on the list right now.
Rosalind - Dew-covered berries and fresh green grasses with a faint breath of spring flowers. This oil smells mainly grassy, but very fresh. The florals are very faint and not all that noticeable. It does smell a bit dewy as well. It's a young, clean, fresh scent. It's pretty, but too feminine for me personally.
Tempest - A crisp ozone-tinged breeze. The scent of the first gentle rain before the storm. This doesn't smell much like ozone to me, but it does smell breezy. There's kind of a citrus scent to it as well. It smells much brighter than most ozone scents.
Thanatopsis - A deep, solomn earthen scent containing pine, juniper and musk. Thanatopsis was pretty far down on my "to try" list because of the pine and juniper, which are traditionally urgh for me. I put it on, sniffed, thought "eugh, pine," then went back to typing something. About 10 minutes later I started to wonder where that lovely scent was coming from. I traced it to the little swipe of Thanatopsis. So I swiped on a whole bunch more, and waited for the pine to go away again. Is anyone else getting red musk out of this? I swear the musk smells like red musk... and at one point I thought I faintly detected some leather. Very animalistic, and to be honest I don't mind the pine. It actually makes the whole thing seem slightly fresh, giving a pleasant respite from the feral undertone. I can see this being masculine, but I'm reluctant to hand over the imp to the hubby. I kinda want to keep it for myself.
I'm procrastinating studying anatomy right now. Again. So here are my thoughts about the glorious update!
Wolf Moon. Winter air, Terebinth pine, juniper berry, dusty orris, deep amber, white sandalwood, black musk, blue cedar, and tonka.
If this smells anything like the previous version, I'll like it. I enjoyed that cold and sort of aquatic feel to the first Wolf Moon -- it was good with the musky scent. Got a bottle.
Lycaon. A monstrous, brutal, and bloodthirsty blend: blackened myrrh, crushed olive leaf, black musk, spikenard, frankincense, cypress wood, opoponax, white ginger, and patchouli.
Sounds monstrous for sure. I have no idea what to think of it. Spikenard is probably the ONLY note I can count on ALWAYS hating. Ick. However, I really like opoponax, myrrh, and patchouli, and I think that crushed olive leaf would be interesting too. Got a bottle of this too, but I think it was kind of a risky choice.
The Salon!!!!
I honestly could not afford to get all the bottles I want right now (Christmas coming up and everything), so I just got an imp pack.
The Arrival at the Sabbath and Homage to the Devil, Antoine-François de Saint-Aubert.
Bourbon vanilla, benzoin, caramel, Mysore sandalwood, aged black patchouli, carnation, and iris florentina.
Holy moly. Um, yes please!!! If I could have picked just ONE bottle, this is the one.
The Cup of Death, Elihu Vedder.
Peach blossom and peach tree leaf, Mysore sandalwood, French lavender, bois du rose, myrtle, and blue yarrow.
Hmm. Possibly too feminine for me, and maybe too herby. I don't know what blue yarrow smells like in perfume, but I know what yarrow smells like in the wild. I think the myrtle and yarrow combination might make the whole thing smell a bit too weedy for me.
Cupid Complaining to Venus, Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Apple blossom, fig, white peach, honey absolute, red sandalwood, and wild thyme.
What is honey absolute? I've never seen that. Everything in this sounds fabulous except the thyme... and maybe honey absolute wouldn't smell like play-doh on me like honey usually does. Fingers crossed!
The Ecstacy of St. Theresa, Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Frankincense, iris, white gardenia, Roman chamomile, amber, and agarwood.
I bet this smells breath-takingly lovely. Sigh. Blends like that make me wish that I was breath-takingly lovely so that I could wear them. Unfortunately, scents like that are usually at odds with my Dr Martens' boots.
Garden Path With Chickens, Gustav Klimt.
Damp grass, ivy leaves, morning glory, daisy, rose geranium, heliotrope, white gardenia, climbing roses, peppery nasturtium, phlox, begonia, verbena and sun-warmed herbs.
I know people are going ga-ga over this, but I will tell you a secret. I hate chickens. I've hated them since I was a little girl on my grandparents' farm. And this blend sounds like it'll be way too flowery for me anyway.
The Great He-Goat, Francisco Goya.
Haitian vetiver, Egyptian amber, carnation, black musk, pomegranate, patchouli, and smoked ginger.
This one, on the other hand... yeeeessss, that's more my style. This one's gonna be a doozy.
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun, William Blake.
Daemonorops, vanilla, Indian sandalwood, Mexican copal, hyssop, muguet, sweet pea, amber, hazelwood, galbanum, hiba wood, and orchid.
I'm concerned about the sweet pea but there are so many other notes in there that I love. I have high hopes for this.
Itasô Kansei Nenkan Jorô No Fûzoku, Wada hori Yû.
Osmanthus, white honey, ti leaf, hibiscus, and sugar cane.
I've got no frickin' clue what this will smell like. I can't imagine. Can't wait to try it!
Judith Victorious, Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Chestnut blossom, lily of the valley, King mandarin, French magnolia, and golden musk.
This is going to be glorious and triumphant, I just know it. If I had been able to choose bottles to buy, this would have been the one that I picked because it sounded so good even though I couldn't tell what the combination would smell like.
La Mort Qui Danse, Félicien Rops.
Black pepper, white ginger, Calla lily, and lily of the valley.
Oh... sad and funereal. But white, and clean. My favorite kind of floral!
The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa, Shunkosai Hokuei.
Black tea, cherry blossom, ho wood, calla lily, rice wine, and white mint.
There are only a couple of blends with mint that I like, and I honestly think this is going to be one of the good ones. That whole combination just sounds fabulous.
Les Anges Déchus, Edouard Cibot.
Khus, blonde tobacco, life everlasting, orris root, black currant, cabreuva, Spanish moss, leather, and ambrette.
I love this painting. And I want something that has the ingredient of "life everlasting." Even if I'm unsure of the Spanish moss.
Lot and His Daughters, Hendrik Goltzius.
Indonesian black patchouli, petitgrain, brandewijn, incense, saffron, lemon peel, myrrh, skin musk, bourbon geranium, and tangerine.
This painting makes me feel uncomfortable. I think this blend will make me feel that way too.
Melancholia, Albrecht Dürer.
Blue lilac, white sandalwood, stargazer lily, paperwhite narcissus, ylang ylang, delphinium, and cypress.
Blue and sad. I bet this will be a lovely shade of blue though. I have my fingers crossed for this one as well.
The Sailor's Den, Félicien Rops.
Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather.
Woohoo! This one's a shoe-in for me. I can't imagine that I won't like this. Bet it'll smell great on the hubby, too.
Three Gorgons, Gustav Klimt.
Egyptian amber, mandarin, tangerine, black pepper, tobacco, and vetiver.
Oooo. Dark and smoky with bright tangerine top notes. I bet I'll like this one.
And... of course,
Shub-Nuggurath. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices.
Pass! Guess I'm the only person in the world who didn't care for this one. Ginger's tricky with me, and I like Gingerbead Poppet a lot better than Shub.
This is the Sephiroth package: Binah, Chokmah, Chesed, Geburah, Kether, Hod, Malkuth, Netzach, Tipareth, Yesod.
The first package disappeared after it was sent to Mistress Tera. So we had to put together a new one... these are all my imps I'm donating, so I'm reviewing them before sending them off.
Binah. This is the only imp of the set that I don't have. I tried it several months ago and didn't like it. I swapped it away. My only comments in my spreadsheet were that it was "kind of sharp." Other reviews describe it as resiny and floral, and I don't usually like either of those. That's probably why I swapped it.
Chesed. Hmmm. A slight pencil-box sort of scent to this one at first. Kind of like sweet resin, maybe some incense. I can't actually tell what all is in this, but it is definitely woody. After a while it develops kind of a fruity scent, like maybe peach or apricot. Interesting.
Chokmah. [Reviewed on 5/3/2006.] Dark brown oils are usually good ones for me -- so as soon as I saw Chokmah in the imp I wanted to try it right away. At first I smelled something like a pine/juniper scent, which I didn't like. But after about 30 minutes it smells and awful lot like Snake Oil. It has that same powdery vanilla quality with some yummy spice. On my skin, Chokmah is Snake Oil without the heavy powdery note. It has more bite, too. I didn't expect to get sexy out of a blend called Chokmah, but that's definitely what I got. (And you won't hear me complaining about that at all.) Need a bottle of this one...
Geburah. Smells like a very clean man. Leather for sure, and maybe a little bit of salt. I agree with some previous reviewers that it smells like soap. Leather and soap. Kind of a odd combination. But that soap scent goes away and it ends up being all leather. Black, sleek, clean leather. I like this one.
Hod. [Reviewed on 6/4/2006.] Powdery and sweet, which makes me think there's amber in this. There's also a slightly bitter floral note in it, which could be carnation. I think it smells golden, creamy and spicy.
Kether. [Reviewed on 6/13/2006.] Almond powder. That's what it smells like on me at first. And then it smells like hair-styling products. I smell this and all I can think of is an old lady with her hair in those pink rollers and a hairnet, standing there in a housecoat and fuzzy slippers. So, um, no. This will go to the swap pile.
Malkuth. [Reviewed on 6/4/2006.] Spicy, earthy, masculine. Quite fitting for Malkuth, I think. Not light and fleeting at all, it's solid and strong. Sweet, too. I don't usually like cinnamon very much, but I like this.
Netzach. [Reviewed on 6/13/2006.] Mostly rose. Kind of an herby, woody, rose. To be honest I think this smells really nice. It's pretty and light. I don't usually wear rose blends as a personal fragrance... but maybe I should. Beth's rose notes smell so good and very true on me, even if the rose scent itself isn't my own fave. My skin seems to like it a lot.
Tiphareth. Woody and sweet. A little smoky. Also it's really faint. I like the scent a lot, but I guess my skin sucks up this oil... it nearly disappeared entirely after about 5 minutes.
Yesod. Stinging. Strong. It has that strong biting floral scent that I really don't like about florals. It's gotta be jasmine, but there's something else in it that makes the blend particularly nostril-curling for me. (Jasmine really doesn't work on me in the best of circumstances, so I'm not surprised that this one didn't work for me.)
I usually get a drink from the vending machine when I'm at school. More specifically, I usually get a Mountain Dew. I like the taste, and the caffeine keeps me awake during class.
Tonight, I decided to be a grown-up. I'm 35 now, after all. Probably time to stop drinking sodas. I'm afraid I'm at the age where I can no longer tell myself that I will address my bad habits when I'm older. I am older now.
So... I chose the Diet Lipton Green Tea with Citrus instead of the Mountain Dew. And get this: It was good! I mean, spectacularly good. I really like it. I feel kind of stupid for drinking so many Mountain Dews when I could have been drinking this tea drink instead the whole time. The taste is great, and it has zero calories and no carbonation. (One of the reasons I like Mtn Dew is that it seems to have fewer bubbles than other sodas. Not a fan of the bubbles.)
I'm never going to like carrots as much as potato chips, but I wonder how many other healthier things I can find to replace other bad habits. I did already replace most of my cheeseburgers with Boca cheeseburgers (yummy!), and now I've found this diet green tea drink instead of Mountain Dew.
I think I'll make an effort to try new things for the next few weeks and see what I find.
This evening I was reading articles about clinical trials in the New England Journal of Medicine for a research paper I've been working on. After reading two of them, it suddenly dawned on me that this is the first time in my life I have understood enough about medicine, medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology to even have an idea of what they're talking about in those articles. In the past it's all been way over my head.
Today, I got it.
This has been a good day.
ETA: I actually wrote this on about April 8th, I just never figured out the Publish button thingie until just now.
Allrighty, figuring out how to set up this blog wasn't too rough.
I wanted to start a blog because my BPAL habit is getting out of control. Not in terms of sheer numbers of imps and bottles, mind you -- that would be silly. Clearly I can never have enough BPAL. The part that is out of control is the organization of it.
I have a box for keeper bottles, a box for keeper imps, a box for swaps, and a box for imps I haven't tested yet. I also have a box for frimps from the Lab because I like to keep those separate so I know which ones were "straight form the Lab" for swaps. Everything in my "keep" boxes has labels on the top. The imp labels are color-coded by scent category.
I have a color-coded spreadsheet that lists all the oils, their categories, their notes, a basic summary of what I read of their reviews, and my own thoughts on them.
And apart from that, it's a DISASTER. I forget I bought an imp from my wishlist and I buy it again from someone else. My to-be-tested imp box is overflowing. I can't sell or swap anything to save my life, so I end up with like 3 imps of Jabberwocky that I'll never wear. I begin to panic because I'm terrified I'll swap something that has been tampered with before I got it unbeknownst to me, and then I'll get blacklisted in the whole community, so I start to think I need at least 2 of everything before I can sell it so I can compare them and make sure they both seem legit. I have reviews of some scents and not some of others, and I've already swapped away a few imps that I didn't write reviews/thoughts for, so now I'm thinking I'll have to buy the buggers again. And the biggest horror of all: What if my tastes change? What if my skin smells different today because I used the Decadence smooch? What if something I thought I hated and swapped away turned out to be something that I will love 1 year from now? I better just keep everything...
I keep telling myself I will NOT buy any more until I get this situation straightened out. But here I am at 11:00 on a Friday night trolling the sales posts to see if by some miracle someone has an imp of Spanked they want to sell. Sigh.
Cross-posting to Reviews forum and my LJ journal.
I got the first package from kakiphony, which incldues Ave Maria Gratia Plena, Hymn to Propserine, Jazz Funeral, Jolly Roger, and Juke Joint. Here are my reviews.
Ave Maria Gratia Plena - Rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris. At first this smells mainly like lemon, but that fades into a strong floral. I can't really smell any sandalwood, which is too bad. I think there's some musk under there, but the florals are so strong I can't really tell much. I do think this is pretty, but it's not my style. Too floral for me. Lots of throw, and pretty strong.
Hymn to Prosperine - The darkening amber of faith’s sunset, deepened by the dark fruits of Proserpine. The first time I tried this, it went wonky after 20 minutes. This time, it's staying mostly perfumey amber that doesn't go powdery, and the dark fruits aren't starting to smell like rotten fruit. I'm blaming hormones for that first failure trial. This time it's dark, ambery, and only very slightly fruity. Fades pretty fast though; it's almost completely gone in an hour, leaving just a trace of amber.
Jazz Funeral - Bittersweet bay rum, bourbon, and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss. At first I can mainly smell the dirt, but it has a very sweet floral overtone. It turns into a sweet floral with a really lush, rich background. It smells humid to me and reminds me of a hothouse. This might be the only GC blend with a dirt note that I would wear. (I specified GC because I sometimes wear Queen of Clubs.) Good throw for only the first couple of hours, but it's still faintly there for several hours after that.
Jolly Roger - Sea spray with an undercurrent of leather, Bay Rum, and salty, dry woods. At first it smells salty and grassy to me. It's pretty green. Then as it's drying it smells more like an aquatic/grass combination. I like the scent, but as a perfume it fits my hubby better than me. Good throw.
Juke Joint - A bawdy, gleefully wicked and unruly scent: Kentucky Bourbon, sugar and a sprig of mint. The first scent I can pick out in this is mint. Then it turns into a sweet boozey scent with the barest bit of mint... blends like this are what makes BPAL the paragon of perfume excellence that it is. I have never smelled anything like this. It's like springtime, but it's a fun spring day -- like one of the days when you have a few drinks with good friends and you all end up skinny-dipping in the lake. The scent that I can tell is bourbon reminds me of my grandmother, which is kind of weird. Makes me wonder if Grandma was in the habit of taking a nip from a hip flask when I wasn't looking. Wears close to the skin; not a lot of throw.
These reviews are for pink.owl #2 package, which contains Aeval, Carnal, Hecate, Morocco, O, Red Queen, and R'lyeh.
Aeval - A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. This oil smells almost entirely of sweet pea. It's way too sweet and way too floral for me, plus it's approaching powdery. This is just not at all something I would wear.
Carnal - Bold, bright mandarin paired with the sweet, sensual earthiness of fig. At first it's almost entirely an orange scent that's quite strong. Then that fades out as the oil dries, and it ends up being a wonderful and nearly equal balance of rich fig and sweet bright mandarin. These are both among my favorite notes (especially fig), so I had assumed I would like this, and I definitely do. It's lush, round, and sweet -- divine!
Also it reminds me a bit of Freak Show, so anyone who likes Carnal should check out that one.
Hecate - Their scent is the crisp, inviting bittersweet tang of cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices. The first time I tried this I thought it smelled smoky, hazy, and dark. Then I got a frimp from the Lab, so I tried this new one. It smells like cherries to me at first, not cranberries, definitely cherries. As it dries I think I can detect a little bit of ginger, but not much. There is something in this that strongly reminds me of the Glade air freshener (you remember those can-like things with the scented jelly-type stuff inside) that my grandma used to keep on the back of her toilet. So, as you can guess, I don't really want to smell like that. As it's drying it doesn't smell quite as much like the air freshener, but now that I've got that image in my head I can't get it out. The scent is getting better as time goes by, but now it's turning powdery.
I kinda wish this one smelled like that first imp I had... wonder what I did with that one. I'll see if I can track it down.
Morocco - Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. I was rather meh about Morocco the first couple of times I tried it. It seemed to be terribly popular, and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I thought the carnation was too strong and I thought the whole thing smelled dry like a desert and unpleasant.
Then I got a frimp of Morocco from the Lab, so I decided to try it again. This time it's wonderful. The sandalwood and cassia is a great combination (and the cassia fortunately doesn't overpower everything else)... mmm, musky, dry, and spicy. And there's something creamy under there too. It's exotic and mysterious, and I love it!
I think that the first time I tried this it was wintertime, and that was the wrong time to try this. It is perfect for a very hot summer day like today, just perfect. Wow. I can't believe how much my opinion about this oil has changed in just a few short months.
Also I have a hunch that I should get a big bottle of this and put it in the back of my closet for about a year to let it age.
O - Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. [Reviewed on Feb. 22, 2006; updated review on Aug. 1, 2006.] Not much I can say that hasn't been said. On me, it's honey and vanilla -- after a while it warms up into a honey musk.
After reading the reviews I was expecting O to bowl me over with sexiness, but it doesn't. (I guess Scherezade is still the reigning champ of sexy, for me.) It's not really what I expected.
ETA: After trying many BPAL blends, I now know why O didn't work for me -- my skin turns the BPAL honey note to play-doh. However I have found that Mouse's Long and Sad Tale works great on me and is sort of what I was expecting O to smell like.
Red Queen - Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant. [Reviewed on Mar. 13, 2006.] Very cherry at first. Not at all like cough syrup or fake cherry flavoring. Like I just stuck my nose in a jar of maraschino cherries. (Which is not to say The Red Queen smells like almonds, becasue I don't think it does.)
It's really faint, which surprised me. For The Red Queen, I expected a much bolder and stronger scent. It's sweet and candy-ish, but not at all strong. After about 20 minutes the wood notes come out and give it a nice balance.
I don't think this is for me, but it would be good for someone who likes the sweet resiny-wood blends.
R'lyeh - A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves. Of the aquatic scents, I think this one is my favorite. It doesn't smell stinging in that way that ozone often does on me, instead it smells like clear, clean water. Like water in a fountain. Except better. I don't actually get anything evil out of this, nothing that evokes dark oceanic depths. Mostly it smells clean and fresh. My only complaint about this is that it softens up a bit too quickly and becomes faint... which is also unusual for an aquatic scent on my skin. Usually they're a little too loud for me. It figures that the one that I like a lot would be the only one that doesn't amp itself into the atmosphere.
I wrote that paragraph before I looked at the other reviews, and now I want to add this:
1) Grapefruit? I wouldn't have guessed that. I have my doubts that Beth would put grapefruit, which smells sparkly, into something that's supposed to be like fathomless darkness... but maybe. I don't know -- I'm going to be a hard sell on the grapefruit possibility. I'm just not getting that. I guess there might be some citrus in there giving it that "fresh" feel, but it's not strong enough for me to be able to pick it out.
2) I agree with edenssixthday that most aquatic scents smell masculine on me. I blame that damn Cool Water cologne that everyone and his brother wore 10 years ago.
I honestly have no idea how to use the chakra oils, so I'm just commenting on the scent.
Ajna: The Third Eye. In the imp, it smells chemical. Kind of like that cleaning solution that you use to clean off whiteboards. On, it smells kind of like menthol, anise, and coffee. It's the kind of scent that will clear your sinuses and open your eyes up. It doesn't seem to last very long though, which was unexpected.
Anahata: The Heart. In the imp, it smells a bit herby, a little golden. On, at first it smells almost exactly the same as it did in the imp. But as it dries I think I can detect something floral in it. It smells yellow to me. There's something about it that reminds me of that yellow Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo.
Manipura: The Solar Plexus. In the imp, it smells spicy and unusual. On, at first it smells interesting and spicy. It has kind of a gingerbread scent to it a little bit. Not quite though, it's not that foody. Definitely spicy. I like this scent.
Muladhara: The Root. Smells rooty. Like a dark woodsy scent, kind of pungent. Sort of reminds me of a basement. Yeah, something like a root cellar. Dark and deep.
Sahasrara: The Crown. In the imp, it smells bright, maybe citrusy. On, it definitely smells bright. Light, sweet, and kind of glowing. There's a slight cleaning products feel to it, but not overly so.
Swadhisthana: Sacral. In the imp, it smells sweet and a little spicy. This oil has my favorite scent of all the chakra oils -- this one and Manipura are the only ones that I'd wear as perfume. The oil itself is orange, and it smells red to me. I can't tell what's in it, but it's really a lovely scent.
Vishuddha: The Throat. In the imp, it smells a little like cleaning products. On, the oil smells lemony and kind of sugary. Not totally like candy, more like lemonade. It definitely seems clean and fresh. This scent actually reminds me of a drink I'd want to drink if my throat hurt. Kind of like a lemony herbal tea with a little bit of honey.
The Vortex. Kind of bright and lemony. I didn't find the scent objectionable, but it also wasn't my fave. Sort of clean and crisp.
