oakmoss

Trying to finish up a lot of things in the next week and a half -- major life stuff and minor annoyances. Feeling blocked at almost every turn, unlike the flow that's been happening over the past few months -- it's almost like a Mercury retro feeling, though that doesn't happen for another couple of weeks. So, let's try this oil! Pennyroyal is a good guess, like an herbal flea-dip, or tea-tree oil, and I also get a strong presence of what seems like wintergreen, definitely minty. I anointed my hands and then my head/hair. The scent definitely clears the air and opens your eyes! I can feel the intentional energy quite strongly, and a feeling that this needs to be continued over a period of some days, including when I'm sleeping. I'll report back on how it works!

Alice is one of my constant top ten, but it's much more carnation than rose, on me, anyway. Don't let that discourage you from trying it, just don't be surprised. My favorite rose blends (besides Two Five and Seven, which you already said didn't work on you) are the Peacock Queen, Ouija, Kurukulla, Lucy's Kiss, Marie (if you also like violet) and the absolutely divine Parlement of Foules.

Frumious Bandersnatch!

Coming back in to add a few more words about that -- I had a phone call just as I started to type.

FrumBand is a delicious spicy-fruity blend that smells like autumn to me, and I've got it at the top of my Get For Fall list. Also on that list is Verdandi, apples and amber, yum. Rather than looking for things that are incensey, I suggest you look for things that are smoky -- for me, anyway, it's really autumn when people start using their fireplaces and woodstoves again, and burning leaves once the rains start.

And if you can find some Hunter Moon, it really is the essence of the autumn forest in a bottle.

The first impression, in the bottle and wet on the skin, is roses, but very faint roses, the ghosts of roses, which seems apropos for Ouija. Ordinarily roses tend to overwhelm, and a little goes a long way, but I found myself reapplying this blend to get more of a hit from it, more throw. As it warmed and wafted around me, the spicy-dry wood notes come through the roses, pushing them to the background. Now I see the darkened Victorian parlor, polished woods and Persian rugs, a fringed cloth covering a table on which rests an old Ouija board. There is a rose lying beside it, fading fast. A whiff of candlesmoke as a candle is blown out by a passing spirit. This is a scent that would be good while reading a mystery story on a stormy night, or when sorting through old letters.

Many of the blends billed as being aquatic are too sharp for me, or they have that grapefruit thing going on. But in addition to the much-mentioned Danube, I'd also recommend Prague (like Danube, it's river-aquatic, not ocean-aquatic), as well as the Mock Turtle's Lessons, Temperance (from the Tarot group) and Yemaya (either BPAL or TAL). I'm still hoping for a scent that really smells like rain to me, or like the ocean....

It got really hot here yesterday for the first time this year and was still too warm at bedtime, so I put on some TAL Yemaya oil, and ahhhhh, delicious coolness! The scent is very melony, not like fake candy melon, but sweet watery-fresh honeydew and watermelon, and I'm sure that Yemaya's ocean energy helped with the feeling of cooling down and drifting peacefully. The Excolo scent is very similar to my nose, if you don't want the TAL effects. Both perfect for the summer months to come!

Plunging past the initial goofy grape stage, fanning my wrists desperately to get to the drydown, and ahhh, here comes the carnation, so spicy and red. These are the small dark red field carnations, not the bland fluffy "filler flowers" -- these have magic and oomph behind them. The plum ripens and deepens with the carnations, and there's a distant ping of sharpness from the chrysanthemum. I get the candle association others have mentioned -- it's almost like there's a beeswax/honey undernote that thickens this scent. Nice on a spring afternoon, but I'm sure it will be most delicious in the autumn and winter. I'll squirrel away a bottle until then.

Yes, this is like Milk Moon, and Chaste Moon too, but the milkiness of those two blends -- which I love -- are deepened by a stronger coconut note here, so creamy and rich that I am having a hard time prying my nose off my wrist. This blend is a wonderful tribute to the comforting and strengthening qualities of Obatala. The overall impression of white is very powerful... white ceremonial robes.... I want to curl up in this scent and sleep, safe and serene in the arms of Obatala.

I've sniffed this in the bottle a few times, but last night was the first time I wore it, in honor of the wonderful new HBO mini-series Elizabeth I, with the magnificent Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons. I didn't come back to read the notes, so I wouldn't be too influenced by preconceptions. I wanted to let Bess herself come through...

The scent was faint in the bottle, herbal, clean, and I hesitated to put it on, afraid it would be too perfume-y and sharp. Applying it to wrists and heart, I was pleased to note an immediately change to something sweeter, subtly fruity (grape) and a mixture of herb/flower essence I couldn't separate, just a lovely grown-up perfume that did indeed feel very old and evocative of times past. I was just settling into liking that very much when the neroli made its presence known, piercing the fruity softness with a bittersweet beauty -- ahhhhhhh, now THAT is a perfume that evokes Elizabeth! Complicated, alternating between charming and fierce, approachable and commanding. The other notes made a lovely perfume, but the addition of orange flower was a stroke of genius, as no other flower is so romantically yearning, endlessly yearning for something that is unattainable.

In the Twilight Alchemy oils, there are Temple of the Dark Maiden and Temple of the Maiden, both of which might work well for you. In BPAL oils, Artemis would probably like any of the forest scents, such as Yggdrasil, Hamadryad, Tintagel or Yew Trees. Other suggestions: Bewitched, Delphi, Dragon's Heart....

Reviving this thread as we head into lilac season and my craving for this scent grows. Anyone have any new thoughts about lilac since last September, about any new scents that have come out since then? (Or even about old ones?)

Beth, any chance of you blessing us with some sweet cool moist delicious lilac for spring?

I agree with what's been said above -- I can't wear anything that is strongly honey either, but Alice stays very carnation-y on me. You might also want to try Bathsheba and Masquerade.

I'm sorting a pile of imps and came upon Ave Maria Gratia Plena, which I don't think I'd sniffed before. It might be just what you're looking for -- very light, ethereal, really lovely.

I would recommend La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente and Prague, both light fresh florals with a watery note swimming somewhere under the surface. Also Titania, very fairy-light floral, with soft fruity notes.

I love most aquatics in the bottle, but they tend to go very sharp and grapefruity on my skin. Two blends that don't do that -- that retain a watery loveliness -- are the Apothecary and Tarot:Temperance. Both are light and clean, with a subtle aquatic nature.

The moist cool sweetness of peony with a higher, lunar essence -- this blend reminds me of why I so admire the perfumer's art. I've never really understood the frenzy for collecting the single notes, because for me it's the way the notes are combined that turns simple scents into perfumes.... I can't identify the individual notes here, and I don't really want to. It's evocative and creates a mood of anticipation and quiet contemplation, like waiting for the moon to rise. Budding Moon isn't like spring, it's like the promise of spring, and that's a lovely thing to have captured in a bottle.

[i don't have the lab description for this blend -- I'll add it when I can get it.]

In the bottle, this is a rather sharp floral, with notes that my nose identifies as pale rose and ylang-ylang, and maybe a bit of cedar or some other wood to sharpen it up a smidgen. On my skin, it warms with a faint orange underneath, making the floral notes mellow without going powdery. (I'm actually one of those people who like the powdery blends, but this oil is juicier, more fruity.) A very wearable perfume.

I use this blend when I'm doing tarot readings for people at a distance, to help me attune to their concerns and their energy over the miles. I also use it when answering email from my correspondence program students. The sense of attuning works in two ways -- first, attuning to the object of focus, such as the student or tarot client, and then attuning in the more cosmic sense, getting in alignment with sacred energy and deeper wisdom. I can recommend this blend on both accounts, to be worn on the skin rather than used in the bottle as an aromatherapy sniffer. The alchemy with my own energy and chemistry seems to be an important part of the magical brew. When I smell Attuning on my wrist, I feel my eyes opening wider, seeing more, seeing farther, and my sixth chakra third eye opening too. A powerful and pleasant perfume blend!

Added description. --Shollin

Because you're going to be in a semi-outdoor waterside venue, I'd suggest Prague. It's watery-floral, subtle and sophisticated, romantic and evocative, and everyone I know who has smelled it loves it.

Edit: Oops, I just noticed you said this was in March, so the outdoor/waterside aspect isn't quite the same as in summer. Nevertheless, Prague will remind people of spring!

Penitence and Midnight Mass are sublime, long-lasting and powerful resin scents. You might also try Aureus -- in my review of it here I said, "A warm dry scent, with a whiff of sweet cedar like the inside of a very old cigar box, and incense amber underneath."

Fresh green notes don't really suit me, but I have to buy all the Lunacies because, well, because I'm obsessive and so are you, don't try to deny it. So I opened this bottle not expecting it to work for me, and..... on first whiff, tears came to my eyes. Completely unexpected reaction. A sense of peace and a strong feeling of Tea Mind came over me, centering me in the stillness of the moment, so that everything was suddenly very acutely present. Slight scent of lemon, now shading into green tea scent, water running softly through a bamboo pipe into a stone basin, one single song of a bird, repeated after a silence......

Chuparosa is extremely strong -- in my notes on this scent the first word is WHOA! It's a very powerful white floral -- I thought I could pick out lilac among the notes, but who knows. Erato is another very strong floral. And Gluttony gives a BIG foody sugar rush, if you like that sort of thing.

January: Storm Moon

February: Dublin

March: Tintagel

April: Fae

May: Marie

June: Two, Five and Seven

July: Athens

August: Alice (sleepy summer afternoon....)

September: Persephone

October: Hexennacht

November: Wings of Azrael

December: Skadi

This may sound strange, but the scent that really cracks me up, every time, is Graveyard Dirt. It isn't something I really want to wear very often, but just opening it and sniffing makes me smile -- it smells JUST LIKE DIRT! How does she doooo that?? The idea of a bag of moist dark potting soil being distilled down into a clear liquid is just too funny.

I'm going to stock up on faery scents for spring -- Dana O'Shee, Titania, Fae, a few others that smell like the scent that wafts through the open door between the worlds....

Of all the Yule and wintry blends I have, I've been hoarding a precious imp of Skadi, doling it out drop by drop, as it feels the most like this season to me, at some deep heart place. Well, I can stop hoarding (pretty much) because Snow Moon has that same essence -- gentle cold green forest, not overly sharp or metallic... quiet, dreamy, mysterious. It reminds me of Loreena McKennitt's Yule albums, specifically a song called "Snow":

In wood and water, earth and air,

A silence everywhere...