Muppetk

Lady of the Wind, Goddess of the Nine Skirts, the Lady of War, the Bearded Amazon, the Thundermaiden. Beautiful, tempestuous, elegant and graceful, She is the fury of the hurricane, the breath in our lungs, the air that cools us, the breeze that chills us, the winds that blow seeds that fertilize the land, the winds that pass disease throughout villages and townships, the moan of the wind within the cemetery, and the fury of the tempest that tears the landscape asunder. Oya is the sweeping wind of change and upheaval, She is revolution and progress, and She forces the destruction of old ideals while sweeping away our useless baggage; the broom is a symbol of Her force for change. As the Mistress that commands hurricanes, cyclones, and tornados, she tears down that which is old and decaying, compelling Her children to begin building anew. In Her hands She holds a mask, as Her presence is most often felt and not seen, and none have seen Oya’s true face. She is the moment at which the seasons change, the transition from life to death, and as the Lady of the Cemetery, it is to Her that we commit our final breath. Her closest friend is Iku, the Orisha of Death, and it is their responsibility to see to it that the natural order remains undisturbed. Once a man’s final breath is expelled, Oya takes it to Iku, who brings the spirit to the cemetery gates and then to its next passage. One of her symbols is the bed, as nightly we imitate death in sleep. Because of her close relationship with Death, the Goddess is very close to the Egungun, the spirits of our ancestors. Oya is the Goddess of the Marketplace in which fortunes and goods spin in a never-ending whirlwind of exchange, change, and flux. She is the wind that precedes the thunderstorm, and it is in this that She is seen as Shango’s companion and partner in battle, and without Oya, there is little that Shango can accomplish. She fans the fires of Shango’s blazes, and is the forked lightning that touches the treetops. Proud and willful, Oya is also a Goddess of War. Her wrath is so terrible and so devastating that none may behold her rage and survive. Oya has nine children and nine colors, and her symbols are weathervanes, windmills, kites, balloons, propeller planes, wind instruments, pinwheels, two naked swords, and buffalo horns. Oya’s ofrenda is a Nigerian potion of love and war, sweetened by darkest plum. Oya winiwini! This is for Oya, the bottle that Beth left behind (thank you Beth!) at the NYC Mad Tea Party. I believe that it will be released in the next update, not that it's an Orisha or Twilight Lab oil. If someone finds otherwise, and wants to move this review to the right place, please do so. EDIT: Apparently this bottle was a prototype, and the scent may not be entirely the same when it goes out into the general population. Sniffing outisde of the bottle: Freakin' gorgeous. interesting lightly musky, lightly floral, lightly spicy blend. I suspect this has nothing to do with Oya, but with the fact that the bottle was handled by a dozen women with 20+ purfumes on each. Inside the bottle: Sweet!!! Cherry syrup (or maybe dimetapp) and ocean and storm? Wet on me: light, ozone, storm-like qualities with a pinch of something still very sweet. 3 minutes in: Sweet is gone. There's probably something fruity in this that is stronger on everyone else as my skin eats fruit notes. It reminds me a bit of storm moon and thunderbird (ie, ozone-stormy), but actually works for me unlike those. Smells like after a storm has washed everything clean. (Said this to my SO, who piped up that it's theologically wrong, that Oya is the power and fury within a storm, not after, but I argue that her power of that storm fury of washing everything clean, and yadda yadda yadda.... and we'll argue again in 20minutes after it settle onto my skin.) 30 min later: light & ozone, similar to above, but a trace of something sweet. Almost like a trace of that dryer-sheet in Storm Moon that soooo disagrred with me, but nice in this case. I asked my SO what fruits are sacred to Oya and his answer was grapes, so I'm guessing that since the bottle smells so very much sweeter/fruitier than my skin, that this is my fruit curse acting up. I suspect that there's a strong, sweet grape scent in here, as my skin always eats the fruit notes, leaving only a light scent behind. [Note: my SO said that Oya should smell like honey and grape and blood -- sweet that is overcompensating for the dark underneath.] I actually rather like this one. This is the first ozone scent I've tried that works on me. But I suspect that it will be rather different on other people. I'm decanting and sending out to several so that some other people's opinions can be formed in the near future. When this scent gets released, I'll add the lab description. We can all see how off I am, and if my SO's interpretation of Oya has anything to do with Beth's. EDIT: Moved from Unreleased to Excolo, added description. --Shollin

Soothes frazzled nerves, brings serenity to the heart and tranquility to the home. I can not believe I'm the first to review this. Maybe it's misplaced Scentwise, this seems like a fairly simple lavendar. A light one, not a reach out a thwap you upside the head lavendar. I think there's something more there though because it makes my skin tingle a little. However, my perceptions of scent may be a little off today, for cycle reasons. It's not bad, but I'm just not a lavendar fan. If I were wearing this just for scent, well, I wouldn't. Utility-wise, this is good stuff. I have had one hell of a day. Short of sleep, started my period, woke up to find out that a friend may have cancer and a few hours later my fiance got into a traffic accident. (He's fine, at least so he says. I won't buy it until I see him in person.) If I ever needed peace, now seemed like a good time, especially since I can't find (gah!) my bottle of white light. Since th I dabbed this on my 3rd eye, and the base of my neck (energy center there is supposed to be more connectected to the emotional/animal self than the rational). I would've used more, and I think I probably should, but dammit, I have snake oil on and I don't want to overwhelm that. Okay, so I'm a twit, but I like my snake oil. The result: Before was shaking and crying. After: not crying, just took about a half dozen slightly shaky breaths, and even that's smothed out now. Funny thing is, I feel solid in the center, but shaky limbs. I think I really should use a bit more of this on the shoulders, elbows, palms, knees & feet. I think instead I'll just wait until tonight and annoint my shabbas candles with it. In a word: Effective. EDIT: Just wanted to say that I use these on my shabbas candles most weeks these days. (Sometimes I use white light instead, or if I'm tired not at all.) I very much like it that way. It gives some peaceful oomph to the entire house. Very happy with it. NOTE: This review thread is for the Twilight Alchemy Lab oil. BPAL also sent out some freebie prototypes of an unreleased oil named Peace; you can find those reviews here. --Shollin

Going through an imp box that I haven't looked at for a while, and I've got a full decant ofsomething labeled: "WMO AJ" And my response is wtf?? A quick sniff smells lovely - woods and resin & maybe a dark musk? Definitely smells like bpal. help??

I have few to no skin problems with bpal oils, but you got me thinking. I haven't heard of anyone else getting acne from perfume... I wonder if it's actually an eczema. Eczema often looks like little fluid filled bumps, like many pimples, and is an allergic reaction. And allergic reactions to oils *are* pretty common. Maybe it's time to test out scent lockets and/or putting oil in your hair where it won't cause visible bumps? good luck.

I love this & think I'm going to find it very useful. Not to mention SO MUCH MORE ORGANIZED than my current wishlist. But is it just me, or aren't the BPTP perfumes an option? For example, I can't find L'Estate or Spanked in the dropdown box to add a perfume. And I only just discovered (way late to the game) that I love L'Estate, I'd love to be able to input it into my stash. Speaking of wishlists, it would be neat if there were an option to turn that part public or not, all at one stroke. Just a thought on a nice way of keeping all the lists & their comments tidy.

Wow! This scent was tonight's surprise winner! I have no idea why I held onto it this long... I got it direct from the lab when it first came out (which I can now see is 3 1/2 years ago!), and tried it a few times. Each time the lotus note had been overly aggressive bright pink bubblegum dominating everything else. Tonight though I tried again -- and it's gorgeous! The lotus was aggressive and pushy for about 3-5 minutes and then settled down in to one small note among many, for a final result that reminds me of a more ambery & non-foody gingerbread poppet. It's GREAT. I love gourmand scents, but hate when they go outright foody and this has become absolutely LOVELY.

Very pretty. Starts out slightly sharp citrus but quickly dries down to something lovely & warm and fuzzy - an orange-y version of Litha 2006 on my skin. Quite lovely... though having 2 bottles of Litha 2006, I don't think I need to drive myself nuts looking for more of this. But It does make me want to layer something citrus-y with my Litha.

Oh! This is surprisingly nice! Starts as sugared grapefruit and dries down to a grapefruit-blossom blend. It doesn't last that long, but that's actually a bonus in one way -- I can put it on when I need a perfume hit before work without worrying about wafting a lot of scent about in front of patients. Most of my favorites are deep & heavy & I *can't* wear them while working. This is a nice one to have! Very different from my others. And also, I totally want to try layering this over snake oil.

Wow. Dammit. This one completely shattered my expectations. I've never liked anything with coconut notes before, but this is beautifully blended... I think I need a bottle of it! wet: citrus?? smooth creamy citrus. How?? where did citrus come into this?? does white amber have a citrus note??? drying: this takes a loooong while to dry, and it's creamy citrus with a very fresh coconut - not the overwhelming suntan oil I've gotten from other coconut blends - with just a smidge of oakmoss underlying making it beautifully fuzzy - and yet it's a *decidedly* femme oakmoss blend! I haven't run into too many of those! dry: The amber comes out and rounds it out just a bit more. It's gorgeous. Overall - it has great throw while wet, but much less so when dry. Methinks I need to try it again on my hair to see if that amps it, as this is beyond gorgeous and I'm huffing my wrist nonstop! Three thumbs up!!

Can't comment on the effect quite yet, the candle I lit for a friend undergoing surgery is still burning & the surgery in question is still going. But the ritual came together very nicely - with a really good energy of love & joy. The scent itself though... I think I may be more inclined to use a different one next time. While wet it's okay -- sharp citrus & litsea (litsea smells like a furry lime lifesavers to me, and litsea EO tends to cause a feeling of warmth on skin, which this oil does) without being overly sweet. I can work with that. But dries down to that same jasmine-note I get from most of the voodoo blends. And jasmine just really goes bad on me. Really bad. And I can't get it off my fingertips. Feh. Next time, I'll try using Radiance of Ra instead, if it seems appropriate, (and if I can find it when I need it.) because I do greatly prefer the scent of that.

Wet: dark cocoa with a wee pinch of something interesting underneath. This is decidedly my favorite cocoa bpal note yet -- it's the first one I'm actually excited about! (I don't usually do foodie) Drying: still dark cocoa, with the leather starting to come out. Not really crazy about leather notes. This particular one smells, well, kind of band-aid like. *crosses finders* Actually, I wonder if one of the flowers is narcissus. That one usually turns straight to band-aid on me. Phooey! Dry: dark cocoa melds seamlessly with smoky non-sweet incense! Ooh! Band-aid scent faded but not gone! *has fingers crossed that over time this will go away* Dry after an hour or two: the bandaid scent seem to finally be gone, and I do love what's left. Still, it's an awful lot of time to wait. Will have to experiment more. verdict: (Mixed.) Wow. I'm not a foody, but I suddenly must try all the other dark cocoa (not sweet sounding) notes in the catalog. I had NO IDEA that chocolate could be so good in perfume! (I generally shun things like Bliss or candy butcher because they make me hungry. This just makes me want to stuff my wrist up my nose.) Until the bandaid note fades out on me completely, it's doesn't *quite* work, but without the bandaid its incredible -- of course, by the time the bandaid is gone, some of the gorgeousness is too. grrf. Whodathunk bitter chocolate & patchouli... like boomslang without the sweetness. Sigh. This is a layering experiment to happen - need to try mixing it with other scents that are patch heavy to see if that drowns out the bandaid...

Oh! Too bad this one is disappearing. It's one of the more subtle dragon's blood blends -- I tend to find the BIG ROUND CHERRY-ROSE of most dragon's bloods a bit over the top, (used to love 'em, then my chemistry changed, sigh) but this is lovely! It's like a drier, smoother, less sweet, more elegant chimera - having subtle dragons blood & spiciness grounded and smoothed with woods and patch. Really quite nice. I won't kill myself trying to find a bottle of it, but will appreciate the imps I have.

Oh! How could I forget: Also, if you find you like Snake oil, even a bit, check out the snake pit scents. They're technically LEs, (they're part of Carnaval Diabolique) they've been up for a couple of years and should be up for at least a few more months. The snake pit scents are all variations on snake oil (my guess, because people discovered that snake oil layers beautifully with EVERYTHING.) And a frequent foodie favorite is Boomslang composed of "snake oil, cocoa, teak wood and rice milk." Snake pits here, about 1/3 down the page: http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/cdiabolique.html

The only suggestions I have of the near-foody variety that haven't been covered are: Dragon's Milk & The Antikythera Mechanism. (The former is a wonderful honeyed vanilla, the latter is like a deeper, darker Dorian, which I'm sure has already been recommended to you multiple times.) They're not quite technically foody, but they straddle the foody-nonfoody borderline. I'd also suggest grabbing a few things that sound appealing that aren't foody. BPAL can really surprise the heck out of you. Be open to experience. And usually, I'd say skip LEs initially, but the Halloween LEs are generally the foodiest of the year & they're up right now. See if you can acquire samples from forum members, but you probably will want to try some of them. Ohhey, as to non-foody must tries that no one else has mentioned: The Lion (amber & dry spices), Shub-Niggurath (which to many people is foody, it was originally nicknamed spicy gingersnaps). (EDIT: aha! someone else mentioned them -- you! I think they're definite must tries.) And here's a link of forums favorites: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=51153 (Che the second list - it's all currently available scents. Only the first has LEs on it.)

in the imp & wet on me: citrus and sawdust. Not promising, but I know my favorite notes of this blend (amber, oud) are slow to come out. drying: well, the verbena is starting come out a little more. And the pencil shavings are dying down a little. Marginal improvement. drying longer: (this one seems to take a while to dry!) okay, so the saw dust has died down almost completely, and it's now a nice, sweet round citrus (with some base notes peeking through). IT reminds me a wee bit of an etrog (a citron), which I assume is the verbena sweetened by amber. barely dry: (srsly, this takes forever!) This is an entirely golden fragrance. The citrus/verbena melds perfectly with the amber and there's a deep furry undertone that I think must be the oud. It almost strikes me as a deeper, heavier, darker version of Khrysee. Maybe it's the Winter Queen to Khrysee's Summer Queen? Actually.. no, not that dark. It'a more like the auburn autumn version of Khrysee's summer. Yes, I know that misses the concept of the Aelopile entirely, but dammit, that's what it says to me. *nods importantly!* dries further: aw... I liked the golden stage. This is nice too though. The cedar comes back up, just a tad, making this a drier scent & the amber becomes more powdery. It's like the golden fusion is separating back out into its components. There's also a lightly burnt scent (I suspect the oud, it does that). The resemblance to khrysee isn't *entirely* gone, but it's more like a cousin than a sibling. It's got the magical mechanical thing going on now. It's definitely nice. But it doesn't have the rich glory of the barely dry phase. IT also feels like it has the potential to grow on me. Definitely worth trying again. Verdict: puzzled. In no hurry to ditch the imp, but neither am I panting for a bottle, like I might've been if it stayed Khrysee's sibling.

Spices and musks. Very smooth & lovely. But except for the wet stage where it's light, the rose is almost invisible. (in-nose-ible?) Am starting to think of this as more of a layering scent. Have tried it two different times of the month, so it's not my skin chemistry monkeying with me. How odd. I've never had this un-rosey a rose scent before. The throw is certainly respectable about, I'm getting wafts while just sitting here at the computer... But again, no rose. Methinks it'd layer beautifully with a light & fresh rose. Maybe Eustephanos or Pothon Meter (sp?) or maybe Rose Red. *snicker* I officially need to start layering this with numerous floral scents!

In the imp: mostly fresh (actually, almost unripe, the brown variety - the one with the rougher skin, not smooth, I think Bosc) pear, and that smooth amber-patch-musk that seems to be a bpal signature. Wet: slightly less pear, slightly more musky-incense. Yummm. Drying: pear continues to dwindle, fading into the rest of the lovely amber-patch-musk yumminess. I think I could live without the pear in this, so won't be horribly sad if it disappears. Oakmoss is starting to come out now. OH -- I think that distinct Bosc Pear scent is actually ordinary pear + oakmoss. Dry: The scent is stabilized but surprisingly light. I'm thinking this might be a good one for my SO to try on as he's truly a first degree slatherer and it might overcome the faintness. Funny that this scent is supposed to be of a jester. It strikes me very much as a Green Man scent -- a great powerful scent of a deity, if only the Green Man were from the Pear tree rather than Oak.

in the imp: wood polish and slightly masculine cologne. Huh. Not quite what I was expecting. wet on me: The sharper notes back off a bit but the cologne doesn't. Maybe this is "black vanilla" I'm getting? drying: a bit sweeter, and the man's cologne is backing off a bit. Dry: OH! I get it! This is like a darker, slightly more masculine version of Dorian. Huh. Not sure how I feel about this. I know that teak likes me - it's in a favorite of mine. But there's that pinch of "just a little too masculine" that I usually associate with rosewood but I think might be the oak note in this. OTOH, dorian layers beautifully with a number of things, so maybe this will be too. This is one for experimenting with. Ooh, or getting my swetie to try!

in bottle: fresh cut grass! slightly sharp green. wet: GREEN! Not sharp, round, and a very familiar green... it's actually reminding me a bit of Tarot: Strength when fresh. Or maybe it's Ides of March. I certainly see where the other reviewer gets the comparison. drying: ooh, the resins start to come out! I luff this. If it stays this nice, it becomes roller-bottle worthy! dry: where'd it go? It's incredibly light, almost none of the basenotes are present... *scratches head* No wait, it's back. Ooo... and it's gone again. *looks at wrist funny* It seems to be gorgeous, but fleeting. Which doesn't jive with the listed notes. I wonder if the oil separated... I think I need to swirl it & try again with a larger amount. Second try, more oil: okay, the round resin-fig undertone comes out more strongly though its blended so well that I'm hard pressed to pick out the fig. Sadly, no tobacco on me. Still very pretty. I think I like this better than Ides. It's rounder. It's also fairly gender neutral & I could see this working well on a light hearted guy as well. *snicker* Not my SO the scorpio though.

In the imp: my favorite dessert wine! Bartenura Moscato! (NTS: Do not drink the imp!) wet on me: Bartenura + a pinch of rose. drying: ROSE SINGING BAWDY SONGS, FLUSHED NOSE, WITH THE BOTTLE OF WINE IN ITS HAND! WHEEE! [Author's note: omg, this has throw!] almost dry: Rose is in the corner, aggressively making out in the corner with Lily of the Valley, and clearly wears the pants in this hookup. The bottle of wine is discarded at their feet. [Author's note: where the heck is my ambergris??? wannit!] just dry: Orris quietly snuck in to take blackmail photos of Rose & Lily. [The scent is getting a little more rounded, but not what I was expecting, very FLORAL with a little powdery undertone.] dry longer: Rose has calmed down a bit and has decided to engage in a more equal partnership with Lily. Occassionally ambergris wanders over, gasps with shock at the floral goings on, cries "EEEK" and runs back out of the room. Finale: Rose & Lily are going to have a hell of a hangover. They're also not entirely sure what happened; fortunately, Orris has photos. (Nice enough I guess, but not what I was hoping for at ALL. Swap pile!)

OHHAI THAR LAVENDAR! I SEE WHUT YOU DID THAR! YOU HAD A BERGAMOT BUT YOU EATED IT. SRSLY.

imp: fresh AND dark with a slight undertone of burning! wet on me: same as in the imp. I *think* I like it. There's something in it I can't quite decide on yet... drying: and there goes the fresh! IT's definitely getting deeper, rounder, and I'm definitely getting the orchid and currant to stand out a bit over the more general bpal-basenote-fuzziness. (yes, this smells like and orchid and bunch of currants are sitting on top of my bpal imp box.) This is nice. Well. No. I like it. But "nice" is definitely the wrong word. The burning note is gone, but I'm not sure that's a good thing... Dry: And it's all melded together and smells like the inside of my imp box. Y'know, the one with about 100 imps in it. I'm amused.

In imp: huh... almost slightly masculine cologne. I'm thinking that has to be the soft mosses. Anything moss always smells like really GOOD aftershave to me. Wet on me: more gender neutral. Light. Slightly mossy, very slightly sweet & cherry. Very smooth, well blended. Cherry notes have a tendency to make me go EEEEW, CANDY, but this gentle cherry blossom is distinctly not doing that. dry: not too different from wet. This is a very nice, gender neutral scent. It's light in feel, but not in scent. I'm sniffing it easily, not going "huh, where'd it go??" I'm even getting some wafts from my arm while typing, so the throw exists. But it feels light. It's not the more usual bpal club-em-over-the-head-and-drag-em-into-the-bedroom scent. I'm not sure that's a plus in my book but it's quite nice.

VII: Did someone say FROOT? in the imp: HOLY GOD IT'S GRAPE DIMETAPP! wet on me: GRAPE DIMETAPP, slight incense undertone. I'm inclined to say it's a dustier incense than Penitence, but then again, the OMG!GRAPE may have blasted my ability to detect sweet. drying: the incense comes up a wee bit more... still mostly DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, THE GRAPE! IT'S COMING STRAIGHT FOR US! freshly dry: welllll, the penitence comes out slightly more, though I swear it seems awfully dry and even maybe a touch smoky as opposed to its usual sweet self, and the grape is tamer, it's true. It's still way too reminiscent of dimetapp on me for me to be able to enjoy it as a perfume. I give this 10 more minutes before I scrub and seek it a new home. 10 min later: not only does it still smell the same, but it makes the other lovely things I've tried on smell WRONG. WAAAAAH! Paging the prior reviewer, STAT.

CIX: Definitely not honey. My skin amps honey like nobody's business. Funny, on me, I barely get any snake oil from this one, but a lovely, light plum w/foliage scent with an underlying something sweet, I think a skin musk. (The note reminds me of something I've smelled in La Petite Mort, and in there it's described as "warm damp skin".) I wonder if the oil separated slightly before being decanted in the circle since I've got almost no snake scent at all (it only barely starts to emerge 20 minutes in) & the oil color itself is slightly lighter than my other SO chaoses. I may actually layer this one with some regular snake oil, because it is quite lovely. It's also far lighter and more delicate a scent than I would ever have presumed to expect from Snake Oil. And oh yeah, definitely a keeper. CLIII: This one is Very Snakey. Like 90-95% snake oil. I think aedes was right on with the notes. I think it has some ginger, but I can only say for sure because of the faint burning the back of my nose feel to it, though no lemonyness though so perhaps it's black pepper? And there's something sweet/smooth incense in there, definitely not frankincese... copal is a believable description! But it's hard for me to tell over all the snake.This one is definitely yummy, but not terribly different from SO itself. Though I could be confused, my "regular wearing" SO is about 4 years old, so I think my sense of SO is warped. I'll try it other times of the month to see if it brings out the other notes more.