Gin

What a gem! Like its stress-relieving counterpart, this is lavender, mint, clary sage, and geranium. However, it all takes a backseat to the glorious King mandarin and blood orange. In the bottle, I couldn't tell much difference between Holiday Stress Relief and Holiday Joy--they both smelled nice, but I was slightly disappointed (do I really need both?). On the skin, though, the oranges really pop and set this apart from HSR. It's calming, yet energizing, if that makes any sense. I feel like it helps my mind snap back into focus, and the oranges makes me feel happy and uplifted. Good stuff.

Relaxation in a bottle. This is like Lush's Aura Suavis on steroids. In a good way. Mint and lavender plus two of my favorite aromatherapy oils: clary sage and geranium. It's strong and a little sinus-clearing, but I think that's part of the reason I like it. It tells my brain in no uncertain terms to settle down and be still for a minute.

This is another bath oil I initially passed up. I couldn't get into it--cranberry cookie wha? But then my husband got a whiff of it at Dark Delicacies and wanted me to order it. To me, it smells like buttery cookies and dried cranberries dipped in white chocolate. It smells like winter nights when it's freezing and snowy outside but it's bright and warm inside, and everyone is in a good mood and we're baking cookies and getting ready for Christmas. This oil is the golden glow from the windows, the cookies on the cooling rack, the cranberry candle I'm burning, the feeling of love and excitement and good will.

First of all, the name conjures up something stuffy, maybe rosy or violet--something I wouldn't like--so I overlooked this oil. I'm pretty sure I smelled it at Dark Delicacies and realized it wasn't horrible, so I ended up ordering a bottle. The bottle sat in my cupboard for... how long now? A long, long time. Why am I so stupid sometimes? This is perfectly lovely. Lightly minty, lightly floral, it's a little perfumey, a little foody. I'm sorry that there are so few reviews here; it makes me think that a lot of people missed out on this. (Although, it makes me extra-glad I got some since I don't know if I'd be able to find it in swaps.)

OMG, this is amazing. It's been on my wishlist for awhile, but I kept putting it off because I was worried about the jasmine and the violet (and the cedar and lavender!). Well, the Goblins saw fit to send me a squirt, and lemme tell you, it is some damn fine stuff. If no list of notes were given, I'd probably never guess any of them. It just smells good. It smells like a nighttime linen spray I got at Bath & Body Works in 1998--and that's not meant as a slur. I loved that stuff, it came in a spray bottle with little glass 'rocks' at the bottom. Anyway, Erebos smells like vanilla and flowers and it makes me feel happy.

GORGEOUS. Heady tropical florals and peach, dusted with vanilla sugar. This is absolutely divine.

I want to love this. I get a spicy-floral-cream, which is awesome. It's almost pancake syrupy. However, it makes me feel sneezy. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Tangy is what comes to mind. Sweet raspberries and citrus, with a zing of neroli.

Egg Nog + coffee + milk + nutmeg + cinnamon = Mother Shub's Spiced Lait de Chevre. Good enough to drink.

Cute! I love ginger ale, so this was a must-buy. It's fizzy ginger ale with a squeeze of orange. Fabulous!

Peachy peach peach! This is divine, syrupy peach, like and intense peach candy. Love this.

Cold, snow, flowers, mint. The Macabray is a light, white, glittery scent.

I'm not a fan of ylang ylang, but I love carnation, vanilla, and lemon enough to take a chance on this. I'm glad I did, because in the air, it smells like carnation and vanilla. Very pretty.

Nutty and spicy, Nut Crack Night is a perfect fall-winter room scent.

Pumpkin Pie Bath Oil is a favorite in my house. It's pumpkin pie, cinnamon, and I swear I smell apple--it's a lovely belnd of all things autumn.

I love The Dormouse. It's peony and tea, and perfect for spring.

I've never reviewed this? I got an imp of this in my very first order in 2004. My first reaction to Snake Oil was not good. It smelled dirty and cold (?) so I put it away for a long, long time. When I tried it again, I was surprised by how much it had changed (or how much I had changed). It's now spicy-incensy vanilla. It ends up going powdery on me, so maybe there's musk or amber, too? The powder makes me feel headachey.

Bathsheba is amazing. Plum and what almost smells like patchouli but must be the musk. Very sexy.

Aw, I thought this was a no-brainer. I get deliciously tart yuzu and grapefruit, but somewhere along the line, something goes wrong and it turns into a dryer-sheet scent.

This is lovely. It's lightly musky, it almost smells like nothing at all--is that the nudie part? If anything, I'd say it's slightly lemony. I wish I had bought a bottle of this when it was available.

Leather! (Obviously.) I get glossy black leather--after I looked up "Dead Man's Hand" and realized we weren't talking about an actual, old, dried, dead man's hand.

Hm. I like blackberry, rum, and tea, but they don't seem to work so well together here. I get a lot of tea and brandy, and maybe some ouzo, but not a lot of the blackberry which is what I was really looking for.

Red Tide is kind of a red version of Blue Fire. I get red fruit and fizzy gin. The red fruit fades quickly and leaves me with just fizzy gin. I wish the fruit was louder and lasted longer.

Bordello is one of my favorite BPAL oils, so of course the claw polish was on my wishlist. I had the good fortune to be able to visit Dark Delicacies in January, but I knew I had to limit my purchases because I had to get it all home in my carry-on. Del directed me to the claw polish testers, and there was Bordello, singing out to me. TSA be damned, I had to have it. It's beautiful. Bright raspberry and lit from within. The "metallic flake pearl" is perfect--it dries super smooth, super shiny, and it rivals any high-end polish available.

Apple and lemon candy! This smells faint in the bottle but it blooms on the skin/in the bath/in the shower.