shriekingviolet

Initial Impression: Yummy pumpkin pie! After Wearing It: Wet this smelled just like pumpkin pie on me. Sweet, well spiced pumpkin scent with something in it that even made me think I could smell a crust. Very golden and smooth. Delicious! After an hour the pumpkin note all but disappeared on me and the spices in the blend overpowered just about everything else in the oil. I could smell pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, probably nutmeg, and gods know what else. Just so many lovely warm spices with a pale sugary note at the core. Smells a lot like chai on me, which made me ecstatic. This is exactly what I wanted Three Witches to smell like! Very, very nice! Final Thoughts: I love spicy scents and this is the best one I've found so far. I will cherish my bottle.

There are no silly questions here! Well no there are but the number is very few especially for new people here The short answer to your question is this: We don't. Beth & the lab sometimes tell us what's coming up (ie the Lunacy blends) and others are guesstimates. We assume there will be an Imbolc/Beltane etc scent because there were scents for all the other holidays starting with Lammas. Just makes more sense but we have been known to be proven wrong! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I concur with the above that we don't have access to a set LE schedule aside from the Lunacy blends, but you can kind of predict when updates (they usually happen around sabbats, which I'm in the process of marking on the boards' calendar for this year) will occur and for the last 6 months, all major updates have come with LEs. So while you might not know the exact date of an LE blends' release, you can usually tell when it's time to start stalking the Announcements section of the board.

Initial Impression: Smells like roses pulled straight from the cooler at a florist's shop After Wearing It: I have to start off by saying that this truly is the most perfectly accurate rose scent I've ever encountered. If I closed my eyes and sniffed my wrist I might have trouble believing that I didn't have a chilled bouquet of roses right in front of me. You can smell the petals, the stems, leaves, the water they rest in, everything! And it never went powdery as rose oils sometimes do on me. Completely genius in the way it was captured and yet I totally hated every second of it. I hate rose scents. I don't know why, but I do. They don't really smell poisonous, but I have this aversion to the way they smell. Which is a shame because I like actual roses and think they're visually stunning and am thrilled to receive them, but you won't ever catch me sticking my nose into a bouquet of them. So having a scent that just so completely capture the smell of real roses wafting up from my wrist was a bit repelling and I had a hard time keeping myself from washing it off. The green notes in it didn't help much as green scents are definitely not my thing either. The scent has faded now and I'm immensely grateful. I can still smell it if I sniff my wrists, but it's softened so much the smell is almost pleasant. Lovely rose blend in its realism, but certainly not for me. Final Thoughts: Despite my feelings toward the actual scent, I'm glad I did have a chance to experience this one. Because it truly is a masterpiece in its presentation and would be a joy if I didn't have such a dislike for rose oils.

Initial Impression: Sweet, cold lime tinged blend. Cultured and interesting. After Wearing It: Havisham started out on my skin as a crisp, cool, white floral that was slightly astringent smelling. I could definitely smell roses here, bathed in salty aquatic notes. I don't pull off roses or white florals well and don't have a strong liking for aquatic notes, so I wasn't too terribly pleased with it. But it was still very interesting, and the blend made me think of the shock that comes right before a huge disappointment. That numbness that comes when you don't know what to think or what to feel because the news that has just been delivered is so unexpected and devastating. After a few hours, Havisham sweetened a bit and lost its salt and the elements of the white floral notes that I generally find off-putting. The rose backed off as well, and the blend just turned into a very pleasant but subtle elegant floral scent. Quite a nice surprise. Final Thoughts: I've grown to like Havisham, particularly in the end stages, but it's not really me. It's just too floral and too white for my taste. Yet it's so hard to part with!

Initial Impression: Gingerbread from heaven, gloriously foody After Wearing It: First on, Gingerbread was very hot and very spicy. I could definitely smell the ginger and the spices, but it didn't smell quite sweet enough to qualify as foody. It was like that hot rush of spices you might experience upon first opening the oven to check on a pan on baking gingerbread. Your senses are overwhelmed by the heat coming from the oven that you can only make out the strongest of notes. Overtime though, the ginger backs off slowly and the blend gets sweeter and rounder, becoming the scent of fresh baked gingerbread cookies that I hoped it would be. This is a very lovely and comforting smell and lasts for a while. Serves for a wonderful replacement for cookies if you can't have the real thing! Final Thoughts: Lovely! I love the smell of gingerbread so I was really pleased with this one. Can't wait to try it as a room scent!

Initial Impression: Like a light, fluffy, marzipan scented cloud After Wearing It: When I first put this on, I was a bit disappointed with it as it was too light for me and I actually prefer heavier scents. I kept thinking maybe if I actually bathed in it, it might work. My perfume style is oddly extroverted for my personality type, and I like to share my scent with everyone...whether they like it or not. So a scent only I can smell when I think about smelling it, no matter how pretty, doesn't hold much appeal. Fortunately (and surprisingly!), Snow White bloomed on me right after it dried. Wet it was just a sweet wisp of a scent, but once it dried, the notes just billowed out in waves, enveloping me in a marshmallow cloud. And then Snow White and I were in love. This is such a sweet, fluffy, gentle scent. It didn't smell cold to me at all, and while it wasn't warm, it did make me think of being wrapped in a blanket. The scent itself smelled mainly of almond and vanilla, laced with coconut. I could smell a bit of mint, but just a whisper of it every now and then. It did remind me of Dana, though it was less green in its finish and I liked it much better. The scent lasted surprisingly long and had great throw, so all around, Snow White's a winner! Final Thoughts: So glad I bought two bottles of this! It's too gorgeous for words and has definitely made it into my top ten!

Sweet pipe tobacco, cherry wood, the warm, worn leather of an easy chair and a pleasant, subtle waft of fireplace smoke. Initial Impression: Deep red scent: cherries, gleaming wood and sweet smoke After Wearing It: Wet, Hearth burned like fire on me everywhere I slathered it which is highly unusual as my skin isn't particularly sensitive to oils, and when it is, I usually only feel it on my neck. But this stung on my neck, my cleavage and wrists. Oddly appropriate I guess, that a scent called hearth should burn. I didn't wash it off though as I'm a trooper when it comes to perfume, and fortunately no welts appeared and the stinging sensation faded in about 5 minutes. Scentwise, this scent had a very warm glow from start to finish, like a gorgeous red aura that could protect you from the chill in any room. It was very, very cherry too, particularly toward the end. It was only for the first hour and a half that I smelled any smoke, tobacco or wood notes, but even then, they were more supporting notes. Later, this smelled pleasantly of dark, warm, syrupy cherries. Oddly buttery too, and I can totally get where diabolique smelled pancakes. Really, really yummy, but much more foody than I had been expecting from Hearth. Didn't mind a bit though! Final Thoughts: I really, really liked Hearth, though I think this might be better suited for a room scent for me. I think it'd lend an irresistibly cozy aura to any environment and I can't wait to try it in my burner.

Initial Impression: Very clean, crisp outdoorsy scent After Wearing It: Wet, this very much smelled like a walk in a park during winter. Not really cold, but certainly not warm. The pine was particularly strong, and while I appreciated the scent, I'm not really an outdoorsy type of gal so I wasn't expecting to like this one. Fortunately, winthin half an hour, the scent started to change. The pine backed off and the blend sweetened, the beerries coming through, though subtly. Those who have said Skadi smells like Dublin are totally right. This has the same wet & fresh, yet slightly tangy and sweet green smell that I fell in love with in Dublin, but with berries instead of white rose. So cheerful and lovely! After the scent dried, Skadi no longer reminded me of a winter walk, but one in early spring. It made me think of budding life, of that time of the year when the trees are preparing to bloom again and nature is struggling to throw off the mantle of winter. It's hopeful and full of life, yet pale and quiet. Final Thoughts: I loved this, though it's not my usual style. Not sure how much I'll wear it, but I'll certainly treasure my bottle as it's absolutely gorgeous.

Initial Impression: Sweet, dark chocolate swirled with smoke. After Wearing It: I had to wear this scent several times before I felt comfortable reviewing it because though I couldn't have predicted it after reading the description, Dia de los Muertos is a very subtle scent on me. The first two times I wore it I only noticed the smell of pipe tobacco and smoke, slightly sweet, but more smoky than anything else. After my skin got to know it better, I started noticing the chocolate and other sweetie smells, but the sweets were still rather soft and inobtrusive, hiding beneath the blanket of cigarette smoke. The scent makes me think of celebration and ceremonies past rather than present. This isn't the smell of the parades and the rituals as they happen, it's the smell you might catch walking through the streets early on the morning after. There are treats caught in the cracks on the road, reminents of trampled offerings piles in the gutters with the afterglow of smoke clinging to every hard surface. It's a memory that doesn't belong to your own catalogue of experience, it's one you read in the clues the event leaves behind. Final Thoughts: I like this blend though not as much as I expected to. The tobacco is a bit too dominant for my liking, and overall the scent is much too subtle for me.

Initial Impression: Spicy berries and pine. After Wearing It: Interesting scent, and fairly consistent from start to finish. I agree with what the others have said about this smelling like potpourri, because it really, really does. It makes me think of glazed pine cones and cinnamon sticks tossed in with a colorful mix of pungent wood shaving. I can even smell something like orris root, which is often used as a fixative. I can smell the berries here, though not as strongly as I would have expected from the description. They make a hazy base, crimson base for the an array of wood notes and spices that dominate the scent. Lots of pine and cinnamon, with maybe a bit of cedar? All and all, this is most certainly a scent that clearly represents the holiday season. Not just winter, but Yule/Christmas. If you could bottle tradition and holiday cheer, it would smell like Yuletide. Final Thoughts: Lovely, though definitely not my style. This sort of scent seems much better suited as a room scent than a perfume.

Affectionately nicknamed 'The Devil's Bake Sale'. Initial Impression: Mmm smells just like the real thing After Wearing It: In the bottle, this smelled just like sugar cookies; on my skin it smelled pretty odd. I got more of shortbread smell than a sugar cookie smell, and while I could smell the cinnamon others had talked about in this scent, it wasn't very strong for me. Flour was mostly what I smelled, almost to the point of the scent smelling mealy. About an hour into the scent something jam-like appeared in the scent too. Not exactly fruity, but fruity like. It actually made me think of poptarts, un-iced, the filling maybe something like apples or figs. But mild, like smelling it from across the room while it's in the toaster, rathing than holding it in your hand. It was very weird. Final Thoughts: I really wanted this one to smell sweet on me because I LIKE sweet, foody scents. I will wear it a few more times though before deciding whether or not I like it, because it's been in my experience that scents I don't like (but expected to like) the first time smell really different to me on the second or third I wear them.

Initial Impression: Plums, ripe and rosy! After Wearing It: Mmmm this is such a gorgeous plum scent. Wet and during the first hour, Midwinter's Eve smells wet and juicy, just bursting with the sweet juiciness of the best plums. I love plums because their scent manages to be bright yet dark at once, and ME really captures that. It's sweet without being too candyish. After a while the plum scent mellows a bit and something that smells oddly like gingerale bubbles up in the background, giving the scent an additional cheerful dimension. It's slightly boosy smelling at the point, making me think of plum wine. It's jubilant and beautiful, very festive in deed though I don't feel that this scent is too terribly seasonal. I've never really associated plums with Christmas, so I could just as easily wear this scent in July as I could in December. Final Thoughts: Very nice, though I usually like my fruity scents to have something extra added to them to make them darker or earthier so I might experiment with layering this with other oils. This would absolutely smell divine as a room scent too. Can't wait to try it in a burner!

hey everyone, finally made a tenative appointment to get the board moved by the software company. Unfortunately they don't have an exact date/time to give me on when the move will start but I'm told it'll be this week as soon as a rep gets assigned and shouldn't take more than a day. So I just wanted to tell everyone to back up any important info they might have on the boards right now. Not because it'll be lost, but because I don't want anyone to be without something when the boards are done. So grab your swap info and anything you might need at a moment's notice (lol no homework assigments this time though, right?) now.

OK so I'm still waiting on hearing back from the board software's support, I'm still hitting roadblocks on my own, and if I have to look at anymore code right now, I'll gouge my eyes out and then throw up, so I'm giving your boards back in the old location for the time being. I'm sure you all want to chatter about holiday things and the Yule orders you're receiving (just got mine in today! haven't had a chance to really look at it), so knock yourselves out. And if everyone could please save any non-emergency forum tech-related PMs or posts until after the holidays, I'd appreciate it. I work retail so I'm in especially fragile state of mind right now (few things are as frazzling as working retail at Christmas time) and I don't think I could deal well with the added stress of having to rethink the forum move (which will happen after the new year, unless I get an appointment to have someone move it for me earlier) or something new you'd like to see implemented. Even if you're trying to be helpful. I should say that if you do have a real problem that you can't work around yourself, of course I want to hear about it. Just nothing nonessential for the next two weeks pretty please. That said, welcome back everyone. (cross-posted to the LJ and the progress log)

forum will come down late tonight, probably around 12 CST.

Hey ladies & gents! This is just a heads up to let everyone know that the boards are going to be down for at least a day or two sometime next week. The board will be moved to a new location, and unfortunately because it's so big, it's going to take a lot of time and effort on my part to transfer the database to insure that everyone's posts, records, etc. are kept in tact. For those who remember the first move last February, it took at least 8-9 hours for me to bring the boards over, and now the database in many times that size. Also, once we go back up, the forum will be at a new location: bpal.org! But the move is a very good (and very necessary) as I got a killer deal on a hosting package ('twas a sale I couldn't refuse given the way you guys drive up bandwidth costs) that will allow me to worry much less about our bandwidth usage. Plus the new host is a bigger company who can offer faster support, so I'll be better able to fix problems that aren't script related (like the one we had with our email server that causes the email notification problems recently) in a more timely manner. I'm not sure exactly what day next week the forum will go down as I'm not sure what my work schedule will be, but I'll let you know in this thread as soon as I figure it out. I'm planning on it being midweek, so possibly Tuesday. And I'll be keeping a progress log somewhere (I'll post the url on the bpal community LJ), to keep everyone informed on where we are and how much longer it might take. In the meantime, might I suggest figuring out IRC if you haven't already? The BPAL chat channel seems to get a lot of activity during downtime.

Initial Impression: Oh orgasm in a bottle. Yummy burnt, brown sugar with creamy caramel. I want to roll in this. After Wearing It: On this had none of the creaminess I smelled in the bottle which was a little disappointing. I love the smell of caramel, so I was really excited about this when I sniffed it in the bottle. But fir a while, this just smelled hot and dry. Could smell that burnt brown sugar everyone else smelled, plus plenty of spice. Reminded me a bit of cinnamon toast without the butter. It's odd, it smelled like sugar without actually being too sweet. Just hot, spicy, with a vaguely grainy texture. After thre hours though, the heat and the spice tone themselves down and Sugar Skull smells much smoother and sweeter. Plus every now and then I caught the insinuation of fruity notes that lurked in the bottom of this fragrance. For very short periods every hour or so after hour 3, I'd smelled a very clear, round juicy fruit note piercing through the spicy-sweet atmosphere of Sugar Skull. It smelled something like peaches or apricots in that it had a fuzzy-sweet-syrupy tone to it. But better than either of those as I'm usually not such a fan of apricots or peaches. But then it'd fade back as if I had imagined it, only to reappear sometime later. It added a very mysterious and beautiful element to Sugar Skull. Final Thoughts: I really liked this one! Definitely like it in the bottle and in the ending phases than I do when I first put it on, but it's still wonderful. It's just such a buoyant yet warm and sexy scent.

Initial Impression: Mmm a really warm grape-y wine. After Wearing It: This smells of very warm red wine on me but with a very animalistic edge to it. I can't pinpoint exactly what I'm smelling, because it doesn't really smell like musk and it doesn't smell like civet. It's kind of like the smell of fur, like the haze of a (just washed!) dog. That unusually pleasant puppy smell. During the life of this scent, I kept getting flashes of drinking hot, spiced whine in a dim pub somewhere from times past. Big leather arm chairs, roaring fires, and a cheer in the air that comes from the joy of a successful hunt. People have been out all in in the chilled, autumn air, pursuing game (fox would be appropriate, though it's rare than anything is actually caught in a fox hunt) and have now retired to warm themselves by the fire and with large flasks of sweet wine while boasting about the accomplishments of the day. The scent of the outdoors clings to them, the smell of their hounds and horses and blends with the scents of the warmth of the room, the smoke of the fire, and the wine they drink as they celebrate long into the night. It's a very warm and glowy scent, dark but cheerful too. Final Thoughts: This is a really unique and evocative scent! I'm not sure if I'll wear it often, but I'm very glad to have it a part of my collection.

Initial Impression: Bright, citrusy overtones over something warm and deeper. After Wearing It: I've been meaning to review this oil for ages, but have sadly fallen out of my old reviewing routine and keep forgetting to review what I wear. But I'm trying to catch up on a few now, so bear in mine my impressions here aren't quite fresh! In the wet and the drying phase of this oil, Red moon smells sweltering. It's the very portrait of August, in that it's the scent of the heat of summer at its zenith: that oppressive baking feeling in the air that manages to somehow feel both humid and arid simultaneously. It smells strong, majestic and powerful; a scent colored in tones of rust and orange. In this stage, the dragon's blood and amber are very prominent, enhancing the heated aura of the fragrance and adding a metallic, bloodied quality to red moon. There's also a fine thread of orange running through the scent, which was the only fruity note I experience during the life of the fragrance. After an hour and a half or so, the heat of the oil starts to wane, moving away away from oppressively hot and toward pleasantly warm. The dragon blood in particular mutes itself as the sweeter notes rise to the top. The heliotrope and chamomile blend with the amber to give Red Moon a new warm, sweet and almost bubbly quality that's gorgeous. Final Thoughts: The fragrance lasts a good long time on me (at least 10 hours) and has a decent amount of throw. It's just a lovely scent from start to finish and it so wonderfully captures the end of summer: the heatstroke rending conditions of its last push to the slow decline in temperature before we are released to the relief of autumn. So lovely & unique, I'm glad I got a 10ml of this one!

first week of august!

Initial Impression: OMG, sweet lovely fall. Almost intoxicating in its golden goodness. *Swoon!* After Wearing It: God I love this. For the first our it's very intensely fruity, primarily apple with touches of ripe, dark berries (more blackberries than cherries) and subtly but well spiced. I'm usually not much into apple scents as they're usually too sweet without being warm, but the way they were blended into Lughnasadh just blew me away. It just smells like the best kind of hot mulled cider. As the scent "ages" on my skin, the fruit notes mellow some. Not disappear, just mellow, and the spices come more to the foreground. I'm amazed how well the cinnamon, cloves and..... something else? can be so prominent in the scent at this stage and still stay so marvelously smooth. It was warm, but not fiery. Just toasty warm in that comforting, insulating way. There's impressions of the smell of corn bread baking in the background, and the occasional wave of firesmoke blowing in, and both just give Lughnasadh that much more character. This is just fall bottled. It's the reprieve from the scorching heat of summer and rejoicing in the abundance that fall brings before you have to worry about saving for winter. It's just a perfectly glorious, warming, cheering scent that I love to wear. I agree with Amy too, it does have a similar tone to Samhain but is less earthy and without the heavy pumpkin note. Final Thoughts: I'm so glad I bought two bottles of this! I'd hate to have to be sparing with it because it's such a mood booster and I know I'll wear it all year. If Beth rereleases this next summer, I'll buy it then too.

I've just posted the new set of board guidelines. A lot has been added so it is very important that you read all of them. And because I've found that a good number of people just skim or ignore the admin messages I post, I've had to make it to where everyone's posting and swapping privileges are suspended until you've PMed me to let me know that you have read the board guidelines, at which point I'll reinstate them. And yes, I know they're long, but they're important and I spent a lot of time on them, so just read them. There will be no test to assure that you did indeed read them, but should anyone post a question in the next month that was clearly stated in the guidelines, they'll not be be in my good graces. Ah and so people don't have to ask later, the rewards program starts tomorrow. I still have some editting I have to do before we can begin. Now everyone go read the guidelines, and then PM me to let me know you've done so and I'll let you post again.

Initial Impression: Strong grainy smell with a sweet white undertone. Buttery overnotes. After Wearing It: Wet, this is gorgeously buttery. Smooth to the point of being slippery, warm, golden and wonderful. Butter and grains is all I smell and it is so delicious. I want to eat it, I want to drink it, I want to pour the entire bottle onto my skin and rub it in, just to be as velvety as Harvest Moon is. Unfortunately, this stage didn't last. Less than an hour later all I could smell from this was white wine. Semi-sweet pale white. Which is nice, even agreeable with my chemistry, but ultimately a disappointment considering how wild I was about the inital phase of the fragrance. Plus, this oil didn't last long on me: 4 hours later and it was gone! Final Thoughts: I'm happy to have a bottle of this, but because of the low lifespan and the brevity of my favorite stage, I probably wouldn't be tempted to repurchase. Which is good because it's LE.

Initial Impression: Mmm sweet and rummy. Love the smell of rum, LOVE IT. After Wearing It: Ohgodsohgodsohgods, this is so lovely. Wet, Grog is much sweeter, creamier and more buttery than I would have imagined. It was so yummy that after just dabbing it on and sniffing it, I immediately went back to the bottle and put more on because I want to reek of it! It was just sweet, lightly-but-well spiced, boozy perfection that I wanted to drink down. This scent really put me into a party mood almost immediately. I really mourned the fact that it was Monday night and I couldn't go out after putting it on. But I felt that same happy glow with grog that I feel with a good buzz. It gave me a terrible case of the smiles that I rarely achieve stone sober, and it elevated my mood to that buoyant place normally reached by a really great night out. Nothing masculine about it at all during the first few hours. It's not feminine, but it's not masculine either, so I would really suggest that all of the ladies here who are buying this scent for a guy in their life to try it themselves first. You may find this is way too good for them! In the last stages of Grog, the sweet, creamy elements of the fragrance mutes a bit and the spiciness and heat of it goes way up. It does get more masculine, but not so much so that it would smell out of place on a female. It still stays strong and gives off a lot of throw as well (I put it on about 7 hours ago), so it's a real winner as far as staying power goes. If pirates rum tastes this good, I'd definitely give up my life of fairly good morals and try to revive the life of debauchery and robbery at high seas. The tarnish on my karma would be worth the life of good feeling! Gods I love this!! Final Thoughts: I've always loved rum as a note in more complex blends, but I wasn't so sure about having it alone as a fragrance so Grog wasn't high up on my list. But this proved to really be an instance where Beth knew best, and I'm soooo grateful for her sending me a bottle of this. If this is the rum note that shows up in Egg Nog, that scent is going to be positively divine!

The chaos theory & k/s ones did! The Chaos Theory bottles had all white labels and had little multicolored snow flakes on them, and the King & Queen had their card on them. And if I'm not mistaken (too lazy to run up and check), the Lunacy oils had a different color border on their labels. Most scents (minus the celestials) with the standard label have blue borders, but I'm pretty sure that at least my bottle of Red Moon had a red border. Which isn't much of a change, but it's something. I will! hopefully within the next few days.