sarada

I have been looking for the perfect evergreen scent for quite some time. When you come across a stand of evergreens in the middle of the woods, it's almost like you are entering a cathedral. Their tall, dark trunks are like columns in a temple, and the pale needles on the ground form a carpet to keep your footsteps hushed, a stark contrast to the bustle and crunch of the rest of the forest.

 

I'll sit there all day sometimes on a cushion of pine needles, rubbing the sap on my fingers and inhaling it, absorbing the silence. I've never quite been able to capture that in bottle form before.

 

Yew Trees does it. This is the smell of living resin, the dark dark green of the forest and the dry needles underfoot. At first I recognize what smells like the Cypress oil that I love to sniff at aromatherapy displays in stores -- a distinctly sharp, dark green scent. As it wears it mellows slightly, there's the palest hint of sweetness (I don't smell very much in the way of the berries, and I had been afraid they'd be overpowering). This is one of the most natural-smelling oils that I've come across, even from the lab. By contrast, Nocnitsa smelled like a lime lollipop to me, and I had hoped it would be something like this.

 

Yew Trees lets me smell like that sap I scrape from the pinecones and rub on my hands, but without the stickiness. It smells like going to look for a live Christmas tree and having all of the aromas of every type of evergreen in the area. I'm guessing in addition to pine and fir there must be cypress and maybe spruce.

 

This wasn't one of the Yule LEs but it could easily be worn as a Yule scent. Fortunately, however, it looks like we'll have this in the catalog for awhile. Welcome to my top ten, Yew Trees, I just have to figure out who gets knocked down a peg to make room for you!

I don't have a camera that can take close-up pics so I hope someone else is able to post pics soon, these are gorgeous! It's going to be hard to keep them locked away in their box, I want to display them!

 

I have five more Yule blends I hope to receive for Christmas and I am absolutely dying for them, eep!

I was expecting something like Aureus for this blend, but it is quite a different take on amber actually -- fairly light and perfume-like in the bottle, a glorious amber color when I apply it, and an almost frosting-like sweetness when it first goes on. I'm not sure what the individual notes smell like other than amber, but I know that I like most blends that contain these ingredients....resiny, warm, slightly sweet.

It is lightly sweet without being cloying or honeyed, and it is amber without being powdery (that's not generally a problem that I have with amber anyway, but I know some people do). I've only had this on for the morning but it has stayed strong so far and not morphed too much. The gentle, light golden sweetness is really what impresses me. I think this one will be a hit because it is a nice compromise between the people like me who are crazy for resins, and the people who like their scents a little sweeter. There's just a tiny floral hint that I can't quite place. Perhaps that's from rockrose?

Oh yes. I think we might have an amber scent for almost everyone here! Think Haunted without the musk, Aureus without the gritty earth or patchouli notes, but then add a veil of pale, luminous sweetness. It's a little "perfumey" the bottle (and I really wish I could come up with a better adjective than that) but if your skin likes amber then this should do marvellous things when you put it on.

Am I the first?...

This was the first Yule blend that I opened, partially because it was the first alphabetically and parly because it was the one I was the most curious about, wondering how smoke and blood would come across and excited about the incense.

In the bottle (which is lovely, by the way), it is a perfumey incense smell -- I think that the "metallic tang" is what gives it a slightly static, perfumey scent, rather distant and sophisticated and a bit like a very dark commercial perfume. When I wear it, the pleasant scent of and incense store starts to develop more -- I don't get any one particular kind of incense, it's just that kind of "occult store" vibe without any one element dominating. It is muted and slightly dusty, as though cloth had been soaking up the scent of many kinds of incense for years and is now being hung out in the cold to air out.

This warms up nicely on my skin, which loves incensy smells, but it's not an overwhelming scent. Could there be a faint breath of nag champa in there? Maybe something amber or musky as it dries? I may add more to this as I wear it but those are my immediate impressions...this might not be an every day scent for me but I think that on cold winter days, especially, the chill air will contrast nicely with this dusty incense-soaked tapestry.

That's a perfect solution...poisonous plants! They can still smell nice but they definitely project a "don't get too close" vibe. Powerful, feminine, not unpleasant yet not flirtatious. I will remember that. And congratulations!!

I am thinking that if it's called Ambra it might have a bit of an amber-like scent, in which case Aureus would be a great choice since that's super golden amber. Not very sweet though. Anubis was also kind of golden and resiny with a sweet aspect but that was a more honeyed sweetness than vanilla.

 

It never hurts to try Snake Oil though!

heh, okay, now i am going to have to order a Snake Oil bottle. i had it before, didn't think it worked on me...but now that Snake Charmer has changed my tune....well hell, i just want to have another cool looking bottle like that!

I keep a bottle of Pain for the express purpose of headache remedy.

 

The oil itself is too strong for me to wear as a fragrance (that pennyroyal is like the strongest mint scent on earth, paired with sharp lavender) and it's actually so strong that I keep it separated from all of my other oils because it was making other bottles smell minty on the outside.

 

But man, one dab of that in the middle of my forehead and bye-bye headache. I think I had the boy rub some onto my shoulders too, since shoulder tension causes my headaches half the time. If I put some in a massage oil base that might work too. Though the cats would just try to lick it off of me.

 

But yeah, I plan to always have some Pain on hand if I can to fight headaches.

Raven in the Violets, you have the best user name I've ever seen! What a beautiful image that conjures in my mind.

 

That wasn't on topic but I just had to mention it!

Baneberry makes me think of little green unripe blueberries...tart, slightly antiseptic in aroma. I can almost taste it when I smell it....an almost sour apple green. It never gets too sweet, but it also does not become a powdery or soapy scent. It simply stays tart, green and almost floral before fading.

 

I really do agree with shelldoo that it reminds me of some pleasant sort of shampoo, when I sniff it. I also agree with everyone who smells ivy...that might be what imparts a slightly "clean" smell to this as ivy is a very bright, crisp, clear and clean green to my nose. Almost grassy.

 

I think this is interesting and I might keep it around to sniff but it's not something that I'd wear...if it was a deep, luscious purple berry it would work on my skin, but this is an interesting scent to experience to wake me up.

Queen Mab strikes me at first as crystalline, sparkling flowers with a deeper, darker undercurrent.

 

I am cautious around blends like this, because all of the strong, heady florals like to compete to see who can give me a headache first, and though musk usually helps to make a blend last on me, when combined with flowers it typically just makes for a stronger, longer headache.

 

However Queen Mab is grounded in a powdered sandalwood incense -- a very pale sandalwood, burned at night by an open window with a garden blooming outside.

 

It becomes slightly more perfumey as it dries and the night-blooming jasmine starts to gain power. It becomes an old perfume bottle gathering a light coat of sandalwood dust. Perfumey, but without that aldehydic synthetic buzz.

 

I like this fairly well for a floral but it doesn't wear well on me and winds up smelling like a fairly conventional commercial perfume....which is what florals usually do. But happily, neither this nor the other florals I tried today gave me a headache or put me off smelly stuff for the rest of the day.

 

Queen Mab finished up a bit darker, with sandalwood and musk simmering under the bouquet, which is a nice finish for me. I might keep it around for reference but I don't think I'd wear it more than once a year when I was in a strange, atypical flowery mood.

That's funny -- Just like Olympia301 I tested Phantom Queen on one wrist, and Queen Mab on the other!

 

I didn't want to confuse the two and made a point to keep track of how each one developed and refer to the notes several times to keep them straight in my head.

 

Phantom Queen is a pure, ethereal, misty, delicate pollen-dusted bouquet. It reminds me most of Flower Moon, which encapsulated the idea of spring flowers in a field for me without becoming too "perfumey" of a floral.

 

I will be saving this blend for the spring - it's a perfect pale rainbow of tiny sweet meadow flowers. I don't know what the individual notes smell like on their own because I'm not geared towards florals but these are, well...all of the good ones! Sweet and delicately fragrant, silvery and mesmerizing, with that powdery dusting of apple blossom (a note that usually can ruin a blend for me, here just adds to the fae sparkle).

 

Though it loses some of that sparkle as it dries, I will be hanging onto the imp for the spring and I hope I find some more. There are so few, few florals that I can stand...and this is just lovely.

I tested this without looking up the notes, and my first impression was that it reminded me of how most floral and fruity blends struck me when I first started trying BPAL. I couldn't distinguish between most of them and in my notes would just write down "generic floral" or "kinda fruity."

 

I had a similar "floral, a little sweet" impression from this along with...a very faint impression of toasted rice. For some reason I thought there might have been a fruit in it, so my immediate impression was to think of a pale orange fruit wrapped in toasted pastry and lightly dusted with sugar...served on a sunlit breakfast table near an open window with a vase of white flowers.

 

Interestingly enough I don't like ANY of the ingredients in this blend yet together they blend into something unlike any of the components. I think the reason it doesn't strike me as the same kind of cloying, headache-inducing floral that, say, Bearded Lady was is that there is no lily in the mix.

 

I would probably not wear this except to test it, but I might keep it around as a reference...I'm trying to build a library of scents to refer to so this is a good example of floral notes blending together into something unlike any of the individual fragrances on their own.

I thought for sure I had tried this before, but apparently today was my first time with Paris!

 

In the imp and freshly applied this has the scent that always comes out on me when lotus is an ingredient: sort of a powdery banana candy scent. Kind of like...the banana candies in Runts. Lotus has a tendency to make scents not-work-very-well on me because of this.

 

Ahh, but the strangest thing happened and it became a lovely, pure, gorgeous lavender a short time after going through the banana phase. What a lovely lavender! When I visited Paris it was in the spring and this makes me think of the first flowers blooming and the gentle rain that fell the first day I was there.

 

The lavender fades quickly though -- I never get a spicey component to this scent, just the banana candy, then the lavender rainfall. It is very nice but I have a lot of other lavender blends so I don't think I can take the candy stage at the beginning. Au revoir!

Bear with me folks, I hate having to tell you what oils containing coconut or rum do to me but I really want to review every scent that I try.

 

Truth be told, there's nothing I can do about it -- the rum note makes me sick, sick, sick. I try not to sniff if when I can avoid it but curiosity gets the better of me and then I have a stomachache to remind me that this is a bad idea.

 

Coconut often has a similar effect, particularly when it is a very sweet one. This blend is very strong, sweet coconut/rum. I can't really even compare it to sun tan oil or the beach, since I avoid both of those things like the plague.

 

But that is good news for you if you like coconut and rum! Actually this scent resembles what I feared Perversion would be on me. But that blend worked perfectly for me, probably because the dreaded rum was not in it. Very very sweet, heady, boozy, dripping with sunshine and drinks served in coconuts with little umbrellas in them. I don't feel so good.

 

I'm glad I gave it a chance but once again, proof that I can touch rum!

I really love the description in the review right above mine but I will try to do this justice too!

 

I love the concept for Thanatos and was hoping for something along the lines of Dance of Death, in the combination of myrrh, woods and incensy smells. In the imp myrrh is the strongest scent that I get, though it shifts quickly on my skin.

 

This is much more of a perfumey interpretation of Death -- an almost feminine take on it, with the crackling static of resins snapping as they burn up on hot coals, over the high-pitched whispers of rose and loamy moss. It is a bit more light, perfumed and alive than I had though a death fragrance would be, but that does fit with the imagery of a willowy young man with a butterfly.

 

The wood and incense are very much in the background here, crowded out by a profusion of flowers and moss that have overgrown the grave. The rose and perfumed moss turn out to be a bit overpowering on me. I like my Death best when it's dark and buried deep in the soil. Still, I think I will keep the imp because it's a lovely interpretation of the concept.

I was optimistic about this blend, with the deep woods and forest herbs, but I wasn't sure if it would be a little too...feral? Well, the verdict is: OMG!

 

This is quite a departure from most of the other lunar oils, because it is so strong and musky, but I am loving it. There's an enveloping, comforting warmth to this blend...it just comes to life on my skin. A spicy musk would be my first impression. The spiciness recalls Hamadryad a bit -- it's not the dry, earthy wood that I am used to...but unlike Hamadryad, which developed a kind of generic "potpourri" scent on my skin, this is like a dark, simmering spice. As it warms on my skin it just gets more and more beautiful.

 

I had a friend sniff it on my wrist and they said that it reminded them of Christmas. It's a bit more of a wild Christmas to me though...one celebrated in the forest, bodies close together for warmth, woods and green boughs strewn on a fire that warms the air as you drink spiced wine. (there's no wine in this scent but it does recall that 'mulling spice' kind of smell...)

 

In case anyone is wondering if the "blood" has anything to do with dragon's blood, my guess would be no. That has a very distinctive smell and there is no trace of it in this scent. So I'm not sure what the blood-dimmed lunar oils are in this blend, but the end result is absolutely delicious.

 

Blood Moon may be for October but this will be a gorgeous scent throughout the cold months. Lunar oils do not generally work for me -- my skin tends to eat them up very quickly -- but this is quite a departure. I'd say this ties with Buck Moon as my favorite now.

 

ETA: After wearing it all day I have to amend this to say that this my new favorite Lunacy blend!

 

ETA again: I didn't wind up keeping Blood Moon because after awhile I thought it smelled a bit like cinnamon and soap. Still, I got another sniff of it the other day and I do miss it now. But I just can't get that "cinnamon soap" thought out of my head and it made it rather less appealing to me.

I think it's a rite of passage to write a review of Snake Oil and I've been slacking in my duties for some time, so here we are on Page 12, finally getting around to it!

 

I had a bottle of Snake Oil, liked it well enough but never wore it, passed it on and then after having a wonderful experience with Snake Charmer decided to try it again. Happily, a freebie showed up just when I needed it the most.

 

Now that I've become a devout fan of Snake Charmer I can see its resemblanace to the almighty Oil but I still think that I prefer Charmer's slightly lighter touch...and its touch of plum and, well, whatever it is in there that works so well on me.

 

The vanilla is still a little too heavy in Snake Oil, though at first this reminds me a bit of Haunted, with vanilla. This changes over about an hour, and it strengthens a bit...whatever the amber-ish note is comes out warmer and spicier. It is definitely a blend that comes to life on the skin.

 

Snake Oil really doesn't smell like anything else in the world (in my experience), so I have no frame of reference to put this in. I don't think it smells like incense, because to me incense is always something very gritty, earthy and woody...and this is much more of a sweet, ambery and lightly spiced scent. It's not exactly "foody" but my boyfriend said it smelled like vanilla cookies. He pretty much says that about everything though.

 

It does last on me -- Snake Charmer did too, and I'd put it in my hair at night so I could smell it the next day. These are comforting nighttime scents for me, to curl up with when I go to bed. I imagine that some day I'll get a bottle of Snake Oil again to try to age it and see if I can get a deeper, more incensy note out of it but until then I have a fresh imp to play with.

Tombstone is yet another scent I didn't seek out, because of the vanilla. Seems as though I'm catching up with all the vanilla scents this week as they keep sneaking in as freebies!

 

When I first opened this I got the usual "vanilla candle" aroma that always overwhelms me when vanilla is present, and it's what generally puts me off those scents. I have a hard time getting past that even though I know that it changes once I try it on.

 

In a few minutes the cedar and balsam come out incredibly. This is one of the nicest cedars I've EVER encountered from the lab or anywhere else. Cedar is one of my favorite scents, but sometimes it becomes very woodchippy and sometimes it is very cologney ... not so with this one. This is WOOD. This is the inside of a log cabin in an forest of cedar and pine...well, with a vanilla candle burning somewhere. The vanilla is still distracting me but the cedar and balsam take center stage.

 

I don't get any sassafras, which is probably a good thing...there's just that soft sweetness backing up the wonderful fresh-hewn wood. There are a few tendrils of pipe smoke drifting through a polished wood study in a cabin in the woods. This is a comforting, fatherly scent.

 

I am surprised at how much I like it. I was afraid that the vanilla would make me feel sick. I wound up with two freebie imps of this. I was going to keep one and pass another the other...but I might keep both because I can see this being a good winter scent and I might suddenly lose my mind late one December night and decide I need a ton of this.

Eden is another one I wasn't interested in because I didn't like most of the notes -- coconut and almond are both (usually) no-nos for me, and anything with honey or milk in it is also suspect as far as my preferences go.

 

But I do like sandalwood so let's see what happens!

 

In the imp this is overwhelmingly sweet and coconutty but I do get a slight sense of that crisp, fresh greenery that others have mentioned. The unmistakable BPAL fig is also present -- a slightly fruity, slighty woody note that I like a lot.

 

The coconut dies down within about 15 minutes and the fig is the strongest in the next stage. Otherwise it reminds me somewhat of Nemesis without quite as much greenery and wood...and with a lot more sweetness. It's more the sweetness of something like Perversion...a slightly smoky sweetness to me.

 

I like the drydown, which is fig and wood shavings and a faint sweetness. I'm not so fond of it in the wet stage but I think I'll keep the imp in case I get a fig craving!

I always regret when I can't be more helpful in a review than to say "I can't wear this one, it gives me a headache" but if you are like me in that you have trouble with almond scents, then you might have the same problem with this one.

 

At first I thought this must be a straight cherry scent but it's that almond again...I do get a headache almost immediately from it. Like most scents that start out that way though the cherry/almond smell is only present in the bottle and it dissipates almost immediately. The headache is still there though.

 

The next phase is a powdery rose. Powder....no sandalwood or spices...basically just stays at the powdery rose stage. Sort of reminds me of a thick dusting or foundation powder you might find on an antique dresser. Some time later I do think that I find a hint of clove. Now I am thinking of an antique dresser with powder dusting the surface, a vase full of faded roses and a clove cigarette slowly burning in an ashtray. Not unpleasant but it's not something that particularly suits me.

 

The good news is that the cherry/almond smell is only present in the bottle, so people with sensitivities to it might be able to make it through that stage and find it wearable in a later stage. For me though since I just get sort of a caked-on powder scent, it's not something that I can wear.

I kind of dreaded this one but knew when I was sniffing my imps (which were not labelled, but I am going by smell to identify them) that this must be the chocolate one.

 

Let it be known, I love chocolate, but I only like to eat it...I don't care for the smell on its own. When it's not attached to a piece of cake I'm about to eat the smell just doesn't work for me.

 

The buttery smell isn't as bad in this as I feared but it still turns my stomach. Nutty smells also make me queasy. Somehow I actually managed to test a drop of this, and while I am sure that someone who liked these kinds of smells would enjoy it, it gives me an instant splitting headache. Even after washing it off thoroughly I feel sick to my stomach and the memory of the smell makes my head hurt.

 

In other words, if you have a problem with nut/chocolate/food scents this is another one to avoid. But hey, I thought I'd feel the same way about PP #1 and I loved that so everything is worth a try.

 

It does make me think of going into a store at Halloween time that is full of Halloween-scented candles and potpourris and chocolate treats. But just as too much candy can make you sick to your stomach, a whiff of this blend is not good for me. Major headache and tummyache. I need to go sniff some trees!

I am assuming this is the pomegranate Pumpkin Patch because while my imps aren't numbered there is definitely a fruity aspect to this scent.

 

Once I get over the usual nausea I feel at the pumpkin top note, the bright red berry scent comes bounding out onto the stage. This actually smells like a candle shop in New Hope, Pa. that I love. It has a waxy, fruity smell with a taste of burnt, billowing flame. The pumpkinny smell is gone almost immediately and it's just a bright red glowing pomegranate. I have been eating pomegranates almost every day this fall and it's a scent that I'm very familiar with!

 

It smells like a pomegranate candle. It fades fairly quickly but the sickening smell that greets me when I first sniff it is gone fast as well, meaning I have a much better chance of enjoying this than I had though.

 

I didn't think I'd be able to wear anything out of the Patch so I'm glad that a couple of these worked out OK!

I am pretty much certain this is #1 I'm testing...my imps are not labelled but I know apples and spice when I smell them.

I wasn't interested in trying this blend initially because I don't care for cider or apple or spices. But now I'm convinced. This is amazing! This is what I hoped Harvest Moon would have been like. Like I said, I normally wouldn't care less about a spicy cider scent but this is the most fresh, appealing scent of its kind I've ever encountered.

The pumpkin smell that makes me sick is not present in this oil to my nose...at least not when I apply it. It's overcome with apple and spices immediately. It's pure, crisp, fresh apple...the freshest I've ever smelled. A freshly-cut golden apple. A spice cabinet, not a craft store. This is so good. Very very good.

If a person who hates pumpkin smells, apple and cinnamony spice smells tells you this is OMFG unbelievable you know it has to be good. You've done it to me again BPAL. I love something I thought I'd hate. This is the one I wish I had a bottle of now. Also, I'm suddenly an apple fan! Maybe it's just the time of year, but I'm ready to go retry Hesperides and Verdandi now too.

I like most of Beth's musks...I like some roses...I like Middle Eastern and Indian spices...

 

This smells like perfumey rose in the imp though, with a heady undercurrent of spices like those in Scherezade. Worth a try...

 

At first I think I might like it, as the Scherezade-like spices come out (but without that marvellous red musk). Very quickly though things go bad and this is a very strong, cologney/perfumey blend on me that makes me feel sick to my stomach.

 

I need to get the perfumey smell out of my nose. What a shame! You never know what's going to work and what isn't.