olympia301

Just as a scent, I love this. Real minty but with baby powder out of the imp. I can make a case for a slight bitter chocolate scent in the background. This reminds me a of mintier Follow Me Boy without the jasmine opening note.I also feel like there is a good shot of the voodoo oils in here as well, bringing luck and bending the rules so you can slip through. As a scent, it is lovely. If it works, too that would be a minor miracle. No, come to think of it that would hit the majors. Great stuff!

Sweet, flowery, a bit rosey, this is a lovely floral arrangement for you skin. It does go on a bit "big" but simmers down to a beautiful surround of feminine flowers. It would be great in a lotion as well as for a perfume. I would say that the heavy florals without the sharp modern underbite is more for the mature woman who was brought up with this sort of thing, but that isn't to say that Erato isn't a gem for a younger woman either if she could show the soft side and feel comfortable with it.

This one reminds me of Bordello with all of the red fruit and it makes you feel jolly whether you want to be or not. It is long lasting and will put you in a festive mood. Putting my nose in the bottle, I can smell pineapple and even a lick of banana. Such a festive and sweet perfume, you should keep it handy for the holidays and wear it frequently during the feasting.

Turpentine. I think this must be full of herbs associated with The Lion, but still it's a bit much. I can see Lime, Juniper, and Sandalwood that's an apt description, but it all combines in my head as turpentine. Granted I didn't have much to try and this is most probably much different if you have enough to get a good nose full. I also know this one has been out (and discontinued) for quite a while, and if it has lime in it, lime is not improved with age. But I know what I am smelling now, and as I first encountered it now, there is only one word for Leo: turpentine.

Wow! Sweet and crazy, not what I was expecting at all. Nice surprise but very big smell indeed.There is something old fashioned floral in the background and I would say this is for uber floral lovers only. I can only smell the grapefruit when I breathe out, and breathing in reminds me of the old old Avon favorite Friendship Garden. Not bad, but certainly not me.

Very bright blend which strikes me as coniferous on one hand, lemony on the other hand, magical on a third hand, clovey on the fourth hand, perhaps a drop of orange but that's just a small thing here and that's on the fifth hand.

Strong and punchy, this blend really says THE SUN! I love it for its uplifting properties and can truly say I have never smelled its equal for conjuring up the idea it's named after.

A great blend for celebrating the Winter Solstice (it is a great plea for the sun to return to ascending the heavens high), or the Summer Solstice (a thanks and imitation of the sun as it rides at its peak).

Floral as only an old bouquet can be, sad and winsome, Havisham delivers what it promises, a nosegay of regret. I somehow think that the Lab has sidestepped the cliches of mundane floral and injected a big note of dust here, which is disturbing and totally necessary to carry along the illusion. Abandoned love, love lost, humiliation of being kept at the altar and the groom never comes...this is the essence of chagrin. A great performance piece with the proper balance between outright bridal floral overdrive and the pulling back of hope into despair.

Of course the icon is Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, I thought it fitting for this scent.

This opens up with a swirl of juiciest red fruit. then it simmers down to a calm, balmy sort of a mix with a lot of suave fatty smell (which is actually an entrancing thing...the best parts of the fatty smell). This is a brash, stable, sharpish phase and it is hard to sort out here as all the notes are demanding your undivided attention. I can imagine there is clove in here as well as the red fruit. There is enough beauty to rise above the fray, but enough chaos to keep it interesting and keep you on your toes.

If Formula 54 were to come back tomorrow, would I pay any price for it? If I gave up my all time favorite BPAL so that I could have Formula 54 would I do it? The answer to both of those questions is no. So much legend has surrounded this scent that it is hard to smell it objectively. It is likable, even lovable. I don't get the connection to Perversion except in the most tenuous ways, though. Perversion has a more unified character despite the disparate ingredients, and not so much collision as I smell in here.

The drydown is something of a disappointment, it goes to indefinable light clove/incense/resin/hard red candy and ends up cloying instead of making me yearn for the bumptious top notes. However, lest you think the drydown is a failure, there is a very pretty rose note which I can only smell when I go outdoors which holds up the structure. The longevity of this blend should be admired as well. Just a dab has lasted strongly for hours.

I think this was a very good scent which fit into the character of the time it was created. I think Beth has become so much the superior perfumer since creating Formula 54 that this one could be looked at as the height of Beth's powers circa 2003-4 but but but...she has gotten far better since then.

What, pray tell, could be better? Snow White is one that springs to mind as excelling Formula 54. So I will leave the legend at the landmark. I am very happy I got to smell it once in my life.

This is a real nice classic voodoo oil. At first there is a heavy fruity scent which does remind me of cherry cough drops, it's playful and childlike. But there is a turpentine-like smell lurking in the background, heavy medicine for good magic sometimes smells tough to take. After about 10 minutes the cherries wear away and the child-like scent is gone replaced by the traditional voodoo oil scent and the pine resin scent. I bet this one really works wonders for the deprived. As a perfume it's not real good, but as an aid to providing, this one most probably overcomes any problems you have smelling like Horn of Plenty.

Strong, lemony and dry are the three adjective I would use to describe apricot single note. It is very attractive, smells like it was squashed right out of the heart of the fruit. Not sweet and juicy but woody and sophisticated. One of my favorites and I know why I like it in such faves as Fae. Wish the lab still sold this one. It lasts and lasts, too. A winner.

Good posts indeed. I would say that if you are concerned about putting oils on your skin, you might want to talk to a dermatologist.

Yesterday I finally got around to trying Black Cat. I was in a pissy mood. I had (as usual) just gotten screwed in the art world (peeps, art sucks, go in for something like plumbing or electrical work, dig?) anyway I was simmering and heading for full boil. I tried Black Cat and really loved the almost licorice smell I was getting. It was so pleasant and it physically lifted me out of my doldrums. Really. Within 60 seconds I was saying things like "I don't care if that gallery owner screwed me again, I have better things I can do than worry about that!"

I am going to try it out with a hex. Never threw one of those before but I think it's time to take this kitty witch out on a road trip.

As for how it smells, I second the possible dill. There is something volatile in here and it's not simple mint or eucalyptus. Rose, yes I think there is. It is unique, could be seen as a bit of candy like component to it. Really pretty. Now all I have to do is figure out how to cast a minor hex and I am in business.

Pussy.

The icon is a painting of my dear departed cat, Winston F. Pugh, esq. I painted him as the latter day cat at the end of Olympia's chaise longe in my double self portrait as Mante's Olympia. Rest in peace, little buddy. Miss you so.

Long known as "The castor oil of perfumery" I had to try Beth's single note. Had to. It's vetiver, alright.

Being about to use vetiver well is the hallmark of a great perfumer. Beth knows how to use this pungent plant to hold a scent without intruding on the delicate parts of a whole, or how to use it as an entire trumpet section when you want to say "Earth" but don't want to sound like you are burping.

Vetiver? What it is, man.

This is undoubtedly, the most exquisite vanilla I have ever smelled. It is round, slightly spicy, warm and with a hint of butter or cream but only the best parts of dairy. It is strong. It contains a hint of a tarragon-like backnote. There is something faintly like whiskey in the background.

It is not: woody, animalic, weak, overpowering, plasticy, chemical.

The absolutely perfect vanilla. Nobody does it better. Not nobody. This is to kill for. Why die for it, then you couldn't smell it, right?

Very light, pretty, woody version of peach scent. Not a trace of over-the-top "candy" flavor-smell here. This is more dry than what I am used to and I think it is a supremely sophisticated note.

Strong and true but not sharp and volitile. Roman chamomile should remind you of rosemary but have a sort of tarragon lilt with it. This one definately does. Very true to what I know as chamomile, and not so loud as to be unwearable as a scent by itself. Very nice.

The Honey single note has never struck me as smelling like honey. I even have a hard time teasing my imagination to say "honey" when I smell it. I don't think this one is meant for single note consumption and perhaps it turns into something wonderful when you mix it with the right ingredients.

This is at once better than real figs and very much like a stand alone perfume. Dark brown and warm, there is a musk-like part of Fig that signals it's there but try and find me. Fig disappears after you put it on. Like violet scent I think your nose receptors get numbed by it and you cannot examine it as closely as you would like. This is good to smell but it isn't a dead-on replica of the smell of a fig, it's the glorified smell of a fig.*

*The perfect sig line.

This is a pretty scent, but for the life of me I can't find the honey in it! It's more of a perfume smell than I am used to from BPAL. I can pick out the gardenia and other flowers but honey? Nope. I know there are 5 honeys in here from the description, but I'll be damned if I can pick them up. Too bad for me and I think that says more about my nose's blind spots than it does about this blend.

Overall I'd like to say this is a very feminine scent and would be great for anyone who has that persona. On the right person with the right skin chemistry, it would be a knock out.

Oddly enough, I do get the cedar notes out of Honey Moon. I think it's just a strange fact of the blend...something that happens when you smell it too close and the odor concentrates itself in your nose. It is pleasant and gives a uniqueness to Honey Moon that you don't expect.

Very jasmine on me. I really have a hard time smelling anything else. Actually, it is one of the jasmines which agrees with my skin chemistry more than most I have tried. Very nice, I may well keep this imp. I bet it would be great in a lotion or shampoo. Jasmine scented hair...very nice.

Really. I appreciate all the work that goes into pretty-ing up the BPAL. A real honor to redesign Snake Oil. Well done.

One of my two favorites in the Pumpkin Patch series, Beth uses orris as a very good compliment to the Jack-like pumpkin start. After a buttery and semi-spicy beginning with the pumpkin, this blend smoothly transitions into that autumny orris root which goes so "well with". I always get the illusion of a bit of peanuts with orris while it's drying, and that doesn't hurt the blend, it being a Halloween thing and there being a small expectation of candy/foodie component. The sandalwood part must be in there, but it sort of keeps up a suave background music and it is subsumed by the orris and pumpkin in the lead. This one is a surprising and harmonious blend of things you would not think of as going together, but they do! Three cheers to Beth for thinking this one up and letting us all participate in the fun of it.

This one started out Jack-like and then the woods and ivies started to take over. It dried down to a lovely old-fashioned scent which reminded me of the sorts of things you used to smell in old perfume bottles. Heart rending in many ways, like the favorite perfume of ghosts who died 30 years before you were born. This Pumpkin Patch paints a strong illusion. Real Halloweenesque.

Real good representation of what a Jabberwocky would smell like. Volatile and piney, their breath must be astounding (and they have teeth like ours, too, as you can see from the picture). I think this would make a potent and wonderful cold salve for a child. Mix it in with a bit of petroleum jelly, and you would loosen up the chest and have fun at the same time. Yes it does tingle a bit when I put it on.

I am very happy to have tried this notable part of The Mad Tea Party. Wonderful image, never took as good a look at it as I have now. Gruesome. The scent has an oddly soothing quality to it, though, in case I forgot to mention it. I bet it's the oranges. Dries down as an exceptionally natural smelling blend.