sarada

I had wanted to try Loviatar for ages as part of my red musk quest, since I love everything in this blend except leather (and leather seems to blend well with other things when I wear it, as long as there are lots of things for it to blend with and none of them are roses). For some reason I thought this had dragon's blood in it... But I definitely get the red musk, and I immediately wanted more of this when I smelled it. I didn't test it right away though and after time the leather really dominates (appropriately enough). Ahh, but that amber, musk and myrrh combo is fantastic and I'd like to keep trying this into the colder months of the year. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this but it also makes me think of a character in those Terry Goodkind books -- it's been years since I read them but I remember there were these sort of dominatrix/torturess characters and one wore a tight red leather bodysuit as her uniform. This is definitely her scent. That's not exactly me, but I still like all of the dark red and black associations that this gives me, I just need to keep the leather in the background.

I never even thought about trying this until the lab surprised me with it -- I despise coconut (though occasionally it slips into a scent where it doesn't turn into awful sunblock on me) and I'm kind of "eh" on orris, but blood musk...hmm. That sounds interesting. I'm a notorious red musk freak so I'm wondering if this might be a combo of dragon's blood and red musk -- a combination that goes great together, and the scent/color of this blend do suggest dragon's blood and red musk to me. The second I sniffed this I added it to my 5 ml want list -- it's not what I would typically like but it makes my nose happy. I don't smell my hated coconut, but I definitely get a certain dry sweetness from this. I don't like beachy smells at all, they make me think of heat stroke and car sickness, but this manages to capture what I wish a trip to the beach might smell like...a pearl found on the shore with waves crashing around your ankles and the light of a blood red moon hovering over the horizon. The orris adds a certain powdery, gritty touch to this -- orris really dries things out, but I kind of like it sometimes. It keeps it from getting too sweet. But that luscious bloody musk is really the star of this blend, and I must obey its command.....blood musk.....mmmmmm.... I might be over this little love affair by tomorrow but I hope the romance is still there if I pick it up again in a few days!

This is the real House of Mirrors -- and it smells very much like what I remember from Sea of Glass, as other reviewers have said. I knew that it would probably be aquatic because of the glassy notes, and I agree with olympia301 that there does seem to be a kind of grapefruity element to those. The main impression that I get from both this and Sea of Glass was a sort of green aquatic though -- not of seaweed or ocean, but a pool tiled in shades of green and blue, with water reflecting onto the walls and ceiling. The fact that most aquatic/ozone scents make me think of commercial perfumes puts me off a little bit but I like the imagery that they create in my mind sometimes. I can't smell the amber but this is a bit stronger and less fleeting than most aquatics so perhaps that's how it's manifesting. As always, I think the imagery that Beth uses to describe scents really adds to my enjoyment of them. If this had been called something else, like "Flip-Flops" or "Beach Bag" I wouldn't have any interest in it at all but the thought of warping crystalline mirrors is very compelling to me! I don't know if I'll keep it, I might like to swap it for something else that I missed out on but it's interesting and it might be especially appropriate on icy cold days in the winter or on rainy days in the fall since I like to match my perfumes to the weather and time of year (among other things!).

Incidentally, Penance's review really captures this well! My initial reaction was that this was one of the cologney scents that don't suit me, which I figured might be the case but just couldn't resist ordering it anyway. And yes it does have a lot of that aftershave/cologne/ozone scent that just doesn't seem to work with my incense-lovin' skin. But I was testing this at work today, when I had my window open to enjoy the rain outside. I love that summer afternoon rain. It's just warm enough out that the sidewalk and the tops of cars start to steam and that wonderful mixture of damp ozone and greenery from the woods and park that surround my office compel me to throw open all the windows (safety be damned! i don't care if the computers get wet!) and keep the lights off and just inhale that scent. And I realized that Bed of Nails really mirrored that scent for me, as I alternated between sniffing my arms and sniffing the window (god, they must think I'm on drugs). It's a slightly green, succulent ozone -- damp wood, the hissing mist that rises from the asphault when a torrential summer downpour unexpectedly splits the afternoon sky. The cologney impression I got made me initially think I'd swap it but then when I found out my mom would be willing to get me the thing I wanted to swap for I decided to take it off the block for now. I'm not sure how much I'll wear it but I like to have some rainy scents around and I haven't really been able to find the right one yet. This might fulfill that need, since it really captures the hot green mist of a summer thunderstorm to me.

This is very happy-making in the bottle. Bright, bold tangerine-orange with something slightly darker underneath. Ah, I definitely smell lime, and I think saffron -- okay that's not listed, but maybe that's clove I'm detecting. There's a smooth, comforting warm layer underneath that reminds me of King of Clubs...the leather, amber and musk notes make you want to rub your face up against it. A very passionate, living combination of scents. The orange and lime remain fairly strong though those kinds of scents always fade very quickly -- but the rich array of seemingly disparate components play together very nicely and one never overpowers the other. I love vetiver but I don't smell it at all -- still, it must be contributing to the overall feeling of warm comfort that I get from this, which is spiked with points of citrus. I think of a man with a furry chest and a face full of piercings who is still somehow a warm and inviting figure that you'd want to hug. It's very different on my skin from in the bottle, as that initial super-tangerine burst dies down very quickly and it becomes a different take on the same kind of masculine theme that King of Clubs started. It's very manly though, and while I anticipate keeping it and wearing it, it might be more of a bottle-sniffer than a wearer, for me, even though I favor masculine blends. This might put hair on my chest. I suppose I do have a male sitting around that I can dab it on too though! And this will be another fabulous one for the fall!

I passed on Snake Oil after I tried it because the vanilla was too strong and my bf said it smelled like Play-doh (his words, not mine...he wasn't aware that others have reported that phenonemon). But I knew there was something in it that I liked and wished I could wear it. And here it is. And it's called Snake Charmer!! Even though I dislike vanilla and coconut they are so well blended in with the other ingredients, they come out as a nice, full, slightly sweet incensy blend on me. And I love plum with a passion...that adds just a touch of earthy sweetness to this even though I can't pick it out on its own. Amber and musk in general go well together on me and they really sing in harmony with the other notes. My usual hated coconut works in this as well, and it's not just making me smell like sunblock. Coconut blends are especially bad on me when they dry down and I feel like I can never get them off of me. This, on the other hand, just becomes more lovely with every passing moment...the amber and musk simmer gentle and it's more and more of an exotic, slightly spicy sweet incense. The kind you might smell swirling from a colorful, decorated tent in a desert town with piles of pillows and tapestries. Since this is my answer to Snake Oil I wouldn't mind having an extra bottle in reserve even though I use oils very sparingly.

I love roses in the garden but only a few scents in bottles can make the cut with me...too many just give me a headache. At first, this comes closest to Rose Red for being a fresh from the garden rose scent to me...and when applied it really turns into a wild rose rodeo! I can actually see them in my mind, pink and red and white and yellow, like I'm flipping through a rosebush catalog and looking at all of the names and the colors. Nice! Definitely a touch of greenery as well, though not as sharp and pungent as Rose Red was. Strangely, it goes a bit winey on me. Roses can do that too from time to time when I try them out...they turn to an almost sour wine for a bit before they fade. And yes I do get a bit of a rose headache but it's not as bad as some of the other ones I've had. I think this is a rose scent I could wear if I was going to be spending a lot of time outdoors so it would disperse around me nicely and not become too overpowering. That's the odd thing about florals scents -- when they work on me (rarely) it's invariably only when I wear them outside, and the fresh air does something to them that my skin can't do on its own. I will probably keep this around so I have some roses in reserve if I need them.

I'm rather embarassed to be reviewing this from memory to satisfy my need to complete my Mad Tea Party reviews, but my impressions of it were clear and I don't think I'll need to test it again. I'd love to love all of the scents in this series but there's just nothing I can do about cherry and lilies -- while lilies can work in a small handful of blends for me, particularly liilies of the valley and calla lily, that drop of cherry just turned everything into an almondy cherry adventure in cloying sweetness and mild nausea for my cherry-sensitive nose. Funny, I love them as fruit. This is a perfect embodiment of the Queen of Hearts, all white and red, something that would be loved by little girls at a tea party even though it is haughty, bold and regal. Alas it's not for me!

Another one of the first imps I ever tried and I was happily given another imp a little while ago by the lab and I realized that I should have gotten a bottle of this a long time ago! This would pretty much be a perfect fall scent. Since I love clove but hate cinnamon this is a great spice scent for me, and I love love love the lab's apricot -- Depraved being another favorite. There's not much else to say except that this is a perfect vision of golden-orange autumn spices and fruit for me and it never ceases to light up my eyes and wake up my brain when I sniff it. I asked for a bottle for my birthday, which will still be in the middle of the fall season and I think it will play nicely in the winter too, a warming blend on cold nights. This is the kind of thing that I could just never get sick of, and its simplicity is absolutely perfect.

I would swear that this was one of the first reviews that I ever wrote but there's nothing here by me! This was the first BPAL that I ever tried. I don't have any anymore but I am writing this from memory, to complete my Mad Tea Party reviews since I just noticed that I had a couple missing. I ordered this based on the notes, having never tried BPAL before or any scented oils at all...I was always an incense and bath product girl. I love incense and the "incensy notes" promised in this along with the vetiver and patchouli were what turned me on. I also knew that I liked bergamot (I'm an Earl Grey junkie) and moss. When I got it it wasn't exactly what I had expected, which would have been a very strong earthy blend but I didn't know then what I know now about jasmine and carnation and bergamot in perfumes on me. The jasmine was overwhelming, gave me a headache and masked everything else with a sort of soapy floral smell. I really want to like it though -- I hope that I get an imp some time as a freebie so I can have some around to play with. This reminded me a lot of Flame of Desire too, which smelled almost exactly the same to me except it was deeper and darker and even stronger, somehow. I think that I would appreciate this more now that I know "how" to smell BPAL and how to enjoy the different layers and notes as they emerge. The jasmine would still probably kill me but I think I'd be able to better appreciate the patchouli and other earthy scents swirling around. All in all it's absolutely brilliant and just reading the description is a sublime pleasure -- the colours and textures that these words evokes paints a wonderful picture of greenery, plants and flowers in my mind, all mixed in with the Alice in Wonderland art from the well worn book I had as a child.

I'm trying to think of something to say about The Lion other than amber and cinnamon...but it is very straightforward on me, though in a good way! This is more the amber that I get from Haunted, than the one I get from Aureus. It's a very sultry and inviting, skin-warmed amber. I can't generally wear anything with cinnamon in it so whatever the spice in this is, it's either a very mild cinnamon or it's something other pleasant spice that never goes into potpourri territory. It just makes the amber that much more warm, golden and inviting. If there is clove in this that could explain what is appealing to me because I love clove, even while cinnamon turns me off usually. Another lovely Mad Tea Party scent! Now I think I've tried all of them!

This is boootiful... I really like certain of the white floral scents that are not cloying and perfumey. Some other scents that this reminds me of are Szepasszony and the Unicorn. Imagine Szepasszony without quite so much ice and water, but still very crisp, white and refreshing. Or Unicorn with a bit more greenery, and slightly colder. It's a bit more of a floral perfume than I would usually wear but it's subtle and not strong -- the lily miraculously does not give me a headache and the overall impression I get is of something I would want to wear on an overcast, rainy afternoon or evening when mist is rising through the ivy that's crawling up a grey stone building. I would definitely recommend this if you like the white, misty, cooling blends like those I mentioned above. One other odd thing -- when I first put this on, I swear I thought I could taste Swedish Fish. The Unicorn did a similar thing though. There's a brief moment of sort of fruity sweetness that underlies the succulent white flowers and ivy.

I think I just wet my pants. Wow! I really hope I get to see this in person soon!

Yeah, I can't pronounce anything Celtic, Gaelic, Welsh, etc. which is really embarassing since that's my heritage (well, I know I'm English/Scottish/Welsh, at least). I just do my best to never have to say anything in any of those languages/dialects!

I always say Sam-hayne. I can't wrap my head around the other pronunciation and even when I've attended formal ritual observances of the holiday I say Sam-hayne. I'm a stickler for getting my pronunciation right in German, French and Japanese but I can't seem to understand a lot of other systems so I just go with whatever I can say with the least awkwardness.

I am just testing this right now, I don't know how to "use" it but if there's one thing I could use right now it's prosperity and abundance so I think I will be applying this frequently and hoping for financial stability. This also happens to be fantastic as a scent -- it's simultaneously grounding and stimulating. I feel as though there are a lot of resins in this -- it immediately strikes me as sort of spicy and resiny, as if a piece of copal has been burning in a brass censer and bubbling from the heat, then the ashes were scraped from the bottom. Sort of straight-up-the-nose with a spicy ginger/pepper but grounded in smoky incense. Since copal is in the blend Greed, which is also associated with material wealth, I'd guess there could be copal in this. That's definitely some kind of ginger shooting up my nose and I wouldn't doubt that there could be pepper as well since there's some heat to this. I do get that sort of "papery" feeling as well, perhaps it's because it's so dry and smoky. It's really not like any other blend I've tried -- maybe closest to Aries, but that's just because of that sharp peppery/ginger note. I really like this as a scent and I hope that as stimulating as it is to my senses, it could be working on another level as well...wish me luck!

I didn't order a bottle of this because of the ylang ylang and lotus, but I wanted to try it. I like Pink Moon but figured that would be enough strawberry for me for awhile, because ylang ylang always strikes me as a very harsh chemical scent, rather like nail polish remover, in most of the blends where it is used. Indeed, in the imp I get a strong sensation of that chemical smell...alcohol or turpentine, something akin to paint thinner/remover. Why does ylang ylang do that to me? Lotus is another thing that I watch out for, as it's got that sort of plasticky quality at times but mainly lotus just isn't a scent I like in general. However, I love strawberries and I love green tea and sage. That paint thinner scent fades as soon as I apply this and it makes me think of those frozen fruit ice pops, where it's just like a big chunk of dark red berries smooshed together and melting in your mouth. Although I am still dimly aware of that chemical smell that I don't like through the drydown the berries manage to edge it out. I get a faint glimpse of green tea and sage but not as much as I'd like. I love both of those notes...they seem to cool the blend off a little and give it a blast of fresh greenery but it's mostly thick, syrupy strawberries. I do think this will be nice to wear outside at this time of year though as I like what fresh summer air does to scents like this, that I might not be inclined to wear during other times of the year. A nice warm breeze helps to waft this through the air and reveal the nuances of the fragrance that I don't notice when I'm sitting inside at my desk.

I tried this a long time ago because I was excited by the Lovecraft scents (pre-SIA) but my impressions of this at the time were rather indistinct. It came across as kind of a golden scent to me, which for some reason I also associated with citrus or fruit but I never got a clear impression of it at the time. Thank goodness the lab threw an imp of this at me and now I can try it again! I think it was just a case of my nose being untrained in the way of BPAL previously because now this makes perfect sense to me! And frankly it fits in so well with the Springtime in Arkham scents I might have to get a bottle and group it in with that little collection. The main impression that I get is one of resins...being very familiar with the lab's frankincense I think that might be in there, but there's probably also a hint of ginger (that would explain the flash of a lemony impression that we sometimes get). But definitely dry, incensy resins -- not like the sweet incense in Al Azif, but imagine a bitter, dry version of that kind of scent. And it's layered over this amazing ozone....I don't like ozone in many blends at all but man, it works in this! Here's what I get from it: A dark, smoky ritual in a seaside cave. The water crashes over the black rocks and mist fills the entrance to the cavern, with the tang of seaspray lingering in the air outside. Inside the chamber, woods, bones and resins smoke in a censer while a hooded, masked figure conducts dark and unspeakable rites. There was a slight, faint "perfumey" odor as this developed but overall the other elements drowned it out. I put this on last night, and today I can still smell it on my wrist but now it smells like seashells recently taken from the ocean and drying in the sun. A touch of salt and ozone, and a dry, bone-like quality with the faint remembrance of those resins. I really wish that I had "gotten" this the first time I tried it, but really it's amazing how your nose can grow (!) after you spend a few months being a complete obsessive freak. I really can't justify buying any more bottles right now but I'd like to nab a bottle of this while it's available, some day. And it would certainly help keep my other Lovecraft scents company!

Sniffing the imp: It's kind of fizzy...sparkling....after awhile I realize it smells kind of like Coke, or maybe something lighter, like...uh, Tab? I checked the reviews and I see I'm not the only one to get this!! Alright then, I'm not insane! I don't even drink cola but I swear, this smells like cola. The combination of spices must be similar to those that are in Coke. It's actually more like the carbonation when the bubbles hit your nose. I have always tried to identify the spices in Coke...since I drink it so rarely it's something of an exotic treat for this little tea-drinker. Okay, so when it's on...hmm...still Coke! Actually, ever have one of the Bottlecaps candies that are supposed to taste like cola? That's what this kind of smells like. A touch powdery and candylike. It's definitely not a scent I'd wear because of all the candy-soda associations I'm getting, but it's really interesting! And now I want a Coke.

This came across very oddly in the imp....slightly medicinal? Astringent? It would seem pure mint at first but then I'd take it away from my nose and get a strong whiff of palmarosa. Then it would just smell like a light floral of no particular description. Then I'd smell mint again. Ultimately I think that the mint is what comes out the strongest in this, and it's quite nice when I put it on and that sort of witch hazel, astringent scent that I was getting before fades away and is replaced by palmarosa. I haven't seen a lot of palmarosa blends, and it's a scent that I really like sometimes. Airs brand incense used to have a palmarosa scent that I was addicted to -- I'll always associate it with the time that I spent in California, when I burned it constantly at night. So I really like the way it comes out in this blend, and there's just enough mint to keep the blend from getting too floral. It doesn't last very long and I can't really see wearing it a whole lot since I have soooo many imps that I'm not likely to wear something like this more than once or twice so I probably won't hang onto it. But I would have definitely bought a bottle of this 10 years ago in my big palmarosa phase!

I'm testing Pannychis on my left side, and for some reason the left side of my body is less cooperative than the right, when testing perfumes. In the vial: heady florals. I bet this will give me a headache. Jasmine...more like the jasmine that was in Mi-Go though, which didn't give me a headache. I'm waiting to see if I get frankincense or cardamom, because those are the reasons that I decided to try this... But I just get jasmine! This is a very strong, heady floral to me and I don't really get any other notes. I usually zero right in on the resins but I can't seem to get any frankincense out of this. Damnable left side of the body! It gets a little plasticky and chemical smelling which is something that ylang ylang does to me. Ylang ylang smells like nothing but nail polish to me and sure enough it's going to come out and ruin any chance for me to enjoy the black currant, frankincense or cardamom -- all of which I would love to smell like! Those might come out on someone with more cooperative chemistry but when my skin sees ylang ylang it throws a party and invites all its friends...unfortunately I can't stand ylang ylang unless it's attending a hippie party and smothered in patchouli. Right now ylang ylang is doing its nails and the fumes are going right to my head! Alas! On the plus side, the night-blooming jasmine reminds me of the florals in Mi-Go and Flower Moon, which are two of the only places that I've ever been able to enjoy really fragrant, perfumey flowers in any quantity.

The variety of ingredients in this made me wonder if I'd be able to make any sense out of it in the bottle -- upon first sniff it reminds me the most of Rakshasa, but much lighter and diffused. Sandalwood and rose are the most prominent. When I wear it it really loves my skin -- not too surprising, since I seem to be very receptive to sandalwood, some of the lab's musks and especially saffron. The saffron note that I love in Scherezade seems to be in the background here adding a bit of spice to the background (not hot spice, fragrant spice). It's still mostly sandalwood and rose...I can't get any other notes at all. As some other reviewers have pointed out it really makes me think of a wooden box full of incense. There are a few blends that do this to me and this is a very good thing! It's like sniffing the incense in a very upscale hippie store or an Indian grocery store -- no patchouli, just the very clear, light, sandalwood-based incenses. I don't smell the amber specifically but that's probably just contributing to the overall incensy feel. The rose is a little powdery on me but overall this is something that I can definitely wear and I wish I could go back in time and give this to myself in college...I would have bathed in this stuff then. As it is I'll keep the imp, use it, maybe seek out another some time...and I'm reminded that I need to get some more Rakshasa some time too!

I'm probably trying too many blends today, and they are mostly in the families of scent that I don't do too well with (florals) but I really wanted to try some of these new ones to make sure I wasn't missing anything! Himerus contains red musk, which is one of my all-time favorite ingredients that the lab uses so I hope that it comes out on me. In the imp: Juniper! I love Juniper and blends which feature it prominently (Burial for example) -- there's something sweeter behind it though and I hope that the flowers don't go nauseatingly sweet on me like so many of them do. On my skin: still juniper, and then the red musk begins to come to life on my skin the way it always does. It warms, it practically throbs, and a radiant glowing aura of incensy deep warmth erupts. It's still doing battle with the florals, though admittedly there are some I like in here -- lilac sometimes works in blends for me, and even though it adds a bit of a powdery touch to the blend it plays nice with the other notes. After awhile it reminds me of The Living Flame but with a strong note of red musk. It goes through a really brief but magnificent stage at one point where it's almost like red musk and dark berries...almost like red wine...but that is brief and fades quickly. All in all I'm going to keep the imp, I don't think I'll need a whole bottle but this could definitely have a few more surprises in store. Morphing, complex, and the floral notes don't give me a headache.

This was the last SIA that I ordered, as an afterthought, because I rather like mint. Not sure if I wanted a TON of mint, but still, in the summer it can be refreshing. In the bottle: mostly peppermint, very strong, and that isthe main minty note that I get. I applied it to both my right and left wrists... Left wrist: it immediately turns into a sort of toothpastey smell. Mostly spearmint, I guess. I'm not as fond of this morph as it kind of makes my teeth hurt and I'm reminded of the dentist's office. Right wrist: it goes to cucumber, instead! This is a very nice peppermint and cucumber scent, very refreshing and it practically sparkles. It makes me think of a little of rubbing a freshly broken stalk of aloe on myself, too. I like the right wrist better, I can't imagine why it's different on each wrist! I think I like it, I don't know if I'd wear it a lot because of the dentist's office associations but enough to try it out this summer on hot days like today!

Groovy! I can't wait to have my CN bottles all lined up in a row! I think I like the amber bottles best these days, I don't know why...maybe it's just the change of pace.