sarada

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!

Whoo!  You are my twin, aren't you, Sarada?

 

Seriously, that's exactly the way I deal with pronunciation.

 

I have so much trouble with the Gaelic names that it's not even funny.  The only one I can pronounce without feeling stupid is Baobhan Sith and that's only because it sounds stupid being pronounced the way it's spelled, so I had to learn the right way.

 

I feel better about saying Sam-hayne, now.  As long as I'm not the only one.

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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.

I got this a week ago but only just now got around to testing it...in the imp it smelled a lot like Centzon Totochtin and with the weather being all hot and humid I didn't think I could handle that kind of heavy chocolate.

Heavy chocolate indeed, on first sniff, but I signed up for the patchouli and incense notes...

AHhhh, there it is! I am eating a box of chocolate bon-bons in a hippie crash pad. Thick clouds of incense hang in the air and are infused into the elaborate tapestries hanging on the walls. I'm getting a strong whiff of the kind of incense that was in Urd, so I'm guessing that some of my beloved nag champa might be in here with patchouli.

It dries down to a wonderful rich earthy incense smell with the memory of chocolate. A bunch of hippies got the munchies and decided to chow down on some candy bars, mmm mmm. This is much more wearable for me than some of the other chocolatey scents, because that cocoa scent becomes only a vague hint after the incense takes over. And I loooove the incense. Don't think I need a whole bottle but I'll love the imp!

I've tried the Juniper Berry that they have in the essential oil display at the healthfood store and Whole Foods (Aurocacia, I think?) and it's very similar to this, but the lab's is much more of a...realistic scent, I think. It doesn't have that extremely sharp, piercing quality that other companies' juniper berries sometimes do. It's sharp and evergreen, slightly woody, but it doesn't develop that kind of "nail polish remover" scent that I thought it might given those sharp and pungent qualities. I love the blends I've tried that have this as an ingredient and I love it on its own -- thanks to shelldoo for the little sniff she shared of it with me!

If I had bottles of this and the moss single notes I could have a lot of fun layering them -- but I also love the blends the lab still sells that have all of these wonderful green scents as components.

Dark, dusty and musty, the smell of crumbling damp mossy wood. I can already tell that this is something that would drive my bf out of the house if I wore it around him, the sort of moldering scent that drives his allergies crazy. However, since I'm the kind of person who savors the scent of the woods after rain and loves moss and decay this is definitely the note that I recognized from many blends that suggest the deep dark woods. I think it definitely needs some other notes to play with it and keep it from getting too musty, but this is especially nice when I smell it at the same time as Spanish Moss -- sort of the light and dark of the mosses, one fragrant and stimulating (spanish) and the other (oak) is very still, gloomy and introspective.

Wow, this is not what I was expecting! In the vial this is very fragrant and almost rose-like. I do believe this might be the mystery ingredient in Wolfsbane, which came across as like a white rose drenched in greenery to me -- I definitely smell the rosey scent in this as well as the shadow of the scent that doesn't agree with me in Wolfsbane.

This could also account for why a couple of other mossy scents strike me as rosey -- Burial always seemed to have a tinge of that scent to me as well. Well it's not rose, it's Spanish Moss! A surprisingly fragrant scent, and while it does recall moss growing in the shade it also makes me think of mildewing white rose petals. I recognize it from Zombi as well. Now that I know what it is, I know to expect that kind of moldy rose scent (which I kinda like) when I see this listed in blends.

This is the discontinued Carnivale, not the new LE but I assume that they will be somewhat similar.

This hits me right out of the vial with that delicious slightly cherry scent of heliotrope (note: I don't like "real" cherry but I like the way that heliotrope imitates it without having the quality that makes me kinda of nauseous in "real" cherry). It is somewhat bubbly and sparkling, but smoothed out with a mellow golden amber coating. The bubbly berries seem to almost tingle as I smell them, and the heliotrope adds its characteristic dusting of golden powder.

The amber and almost undetectable musk in the background help to keep this from being entirely fruity or cherry-powder, but it's still fairly light and doesn't have a real "bond" with my skin. I will definitely enjoy the imp because I love heliotrope but I don't think I'll have to go for a bottle, because I like my scents a bit stronger than this and my favorite blend for heliotrope is Greed. This is very much a festival, bubbly blend for summer and makes me think of crimson, orange and golden streamers and decorations hanging in a hazy summer evening.

ETA: Dries down rather spicy! The spicy carnation and the powdery remains of heliotrope form a very nice drydown on this...definitely worth having an imp!

One of them is the proud mama of 5 month old Daniel and the other is going to be the proud mama of a baby girl come early September.  My third friend is still trying and has just started meetings at a fertility clinic. 

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Congratulations to them and good luck to your third friend! I have many friends in a similar situation and sympathize in wanting to support them any way I can.

CCLIII (253)

Got this bottle from Penance!

She described it above as amber and rose and I'm going to go with that since I am not sure if I can pick out the notes myself. To my nose, it is a bright flaming RED scent...not quite like The Living Flame though, it's a bit deeper and just a bit juicier. I'd bet there's some kind of berry or fruit in this, but I definitely get some rose and I am sure that whatever is amping them up and making them tolerable to me is probably amber. Rose and amber is one way that I can enjoy roses, the other being roses and dark/dirt scents. This is like Spellbound or Black Rose without the musky element, and with a very fragrant dark red juicy berry instead.

It's actually the third CT2 that I've tried that has a strong juicy/berry/red feeling to me though this is the most floral. It turns out to be one of the rare floral combos that I like though, since there's so much else going on to keep the rosiness from sailing up into my sinuses.

I like this enough to keep most of it, though I'm not sure if I'd wear it a whole lot since I also have Black Rose and Spellbound, but maybe I'll use half and share the other half.

Previously reviewed by Penance.

Whatever you order it should take about 6-8 weeks (21-45 business days, according to the site) from the time your order is placed to the time you receive it, but it appears that the only thing that would hold an order up longer than that is if an ingredient runs out and has to be replenished (as happens from time to time) as happened recently with at least one Springtime in Arkham scent. Last time I saw a post about how things work there I seem to remember reading that the oils themselves are mixed in batches. In other words, from what I've read here I don't get the impression that a batch would have to be mixed for each separate imp.

I'm speaking solely from my recollection of past posts though so I would certainly defer to anyone who actually knows what they're talking about if they want to clarify it further!

XX (20)

Mmmm, this DOES smell rather like my very own #121, which I adore, but without a strong pomegranate note. As described earlier in the thread, it has a feeling of fruits and wine. This is a good combo for me, generally. I actually don't even know what sangria smells like because I don't drink but if it smelled like this I'd consider it! Not quite as bursting with dark red and purple juice as my CT2 this is nonetheless a gorgeous blend of light berry-like fruits, maybe something tropical thrown in there as well, and sparkling wine. It dries down slightly weaker with a bit of floral though it reminds me of Jester as it dries.

Yay, bring on more Chaos, I can't get enough!

Previously reviewed by hologhost and darkling.