emzebel

Uruk smells like warm honey to me. Perfect for honey lovers, but it was just TOO much honey for me.

 

Mmm, must try that one.

 

All of these have already been mentioned, but none of them get enough love in my opinion -

Osun - pure honey sweetness, what I had wanted Honey Moon to be.

Skuld - rich dark honey with an undercurrent of muskiness.

Thaliea - fruity honey, absolutely sublime.

 

Oh, and as someone else mentioned, Luperci is much less dark and animalistic than the description would suggest and definitely has a honey undercurrent going on there.

 

There are a lot of honey scents in the Lupercalias, actually - The Oblation is blackberry shot with lavender and honey...and several others have honey as a base of the blend.

 

Honey lovers unite!

Thirding Western Diamondback, although I haven't tried the ones on your top 4 yet - but Western Diamondback has a very earthy, herbal, shot through with extra creamyness vibe going for it (the tonka) that sounds like it might be right up your Tombstone loving ally.

Mmmm. This is one of the Snake Pit I was most looking forward to - Snake Oil with some of my very favorite notes...I cannot pick out anything in particular, except to note that this is creamier than the typical SO, with a hint of the sage and leather, and a smokyness from the sandalwood that is just divine. Divine, I tell you!

 

If you have ever wondered what the bastard love child of Snake Oil and Corazon (minus the mango ;-) would smell like, run do not walk to buy this blend.

The scent of this is almost pure peppermint, with an herbal base - there is nothing sweet or candy od "Lick It" about it.

 

I've dabbed a bit of this on my temples and under my nose for a developing hormonal migraine (I just have the imp ATM, and would love to try Clover's remedy, but am lothe to be without until my bottle gets here, to be honest ;-).

 

This is a fabu blend, my lovelies. ThankYouThankYouThankYou!

Wow, so I wasn't nuts! When I tried this I kept thinking, man, I smell chocolate, that seems so...weird. Not in a bad way, but I didn't remember the notes on this one and I had forgotten that Wulric had is warm cuddly side.

 

This is a really interesting fun blend for someone like me who loves me some dark twisted vetiver, musky stuff, but generally only if there is something to really lighten it up - well, lavendar, vanilla and cocoa certainly do just that. And it is cocoa, not chocolate, which is a distinct difference in the BPAL pantheon.

 

This is a definite keeper.

On me, Banded Sea Snake is almost like Snake Oil light - I get the vanilla and spices of original SO, but the mossyness anchors it and gives it an earthy feel that makes it less sensual OMG SMELL ME and more mmm, spicy. I was actually hoping for a little more of the aquatic/mossy vibe from this one, but I am really interested in seeing how it ages...

Mmmm. Bakeneko is a good kitty. Yes he is.

 

It must be the amber musk, but this is a very masculine blend on me, especially at first (which is not a bad thing, to be sure). As it warms to my skin, it softens a little, and becomes more of a skin musk, clinging like that wee tuft of fur that clings to a pant leg. I really honestly get very little other than warm sweet amber and musk out of this, with maybe a hint of something almost aquatic (maybe satsuma tea?). It is quite a charmer, this little kitty, but not what I was expecting at all...

 

How like a cat.

So, what better time to try the PMS bomb than while in the throws of PMS, eh?

I have not had the good fortune to sample the oil that infuses this wonderful fizzing ball of diffusing goodness, but based on my experience this weekend, it is in my next order, I assure you. The "Bitch Bomb" was a quick fizzing, water softening, fresh scented relief - it relaxed my cranky forehead, it soothed my burgeoning cramps, and generally just made me feel much less like a raging ball of hormonal rage and random irritations.

I cannot really pin down a specific scent for this Boom, but it was nice, fresh, but not overly floral or fruity or anything really - definitely scented, but inoffensive, as something targeted for the cranky should be.

It was not as soft and moisturizing as the bombs I've tried to date, but it was still quite soft, and did not require any additional bubbles or fizzing or bells or whistles - just nice soft Bitch (b gone)...

This is the whiskey scent for everyone who has ever looked at the wine scents and wondered why there wasn't something harder.

The oak just cures this baby, because this is the whiskey-soaked Irishman all the way. Which is a good thing in my book, but probably not something I'll be wearing to, say, the office.

This scent is far and away my favorite of the new scents - it is the essense of key lime rum cake, rich, alcoholic, spicy...

 

There is enough tobacco and spicy bay rum to make this more than just a foodie feast, though - this is immenently wearable.

This is a sweet incense on me, with a definite smokey burning sort of note, but in a good way.

 

This is lighter than, say, Midnight Mass, on me, and has a more wearable feel - less immersed in high holiday and more walking next to a river after attending services.

Very sweet and bright pink - much like the label.

 

This is very like fruity bubblegum on me - I must be really amping the sweet notes, because I cannot specifically pick out "blackberry" or "honey" or anything that would pinpoint that scent - I would have put money on there being lotus in this, actually.

 

Still, it is definitely worth another test run.

 

So, I'm testing this again, and am definitely getting something more herbal and rich this go round, and a deeper, richer true blackberry scent. Absolutely worth the second try.

I'm wondering if anyone has a list of the ones that they used to no ill effect. I'm also wondering if the lab lists everything that goes into each blend (I'm guessing not, some things don't have *any* notes listed) so I could judge which ones might be safe. Oh can I use Antique lace or Bagdad? Or how about the foodie scents that I love like Eat Me and Cockaigne? I really miss those.

 

I'm only 8 weeks and I've had miscarriages so I'm staying away from it all right now, though I miss it a lot. So many things around me don't smell good, I'd like to use some of my nice smells to combat that, but the lab said a huge NO to everything. The scent locket is a possibility I've used before, but then the scents don't change on the skin and stay very strong. One of the things I appreciate about BPAL is how the scents change on you and as the day goes on.

 

I'm checking with my OB who seems to think that you'd have to go to extremes to make many of the oils dangerous (ingest them in quantity or use a considerable amount of the very bad ones like pennyroyal) but of course since I'm high risk I'm researching everything and being extra careful.

 

Any thoughts anyone has would be much appreciated.

 

I didn't know about BPAL yet when I was pregnant with my son, and hells, I'm not sure what I would do if we have another one to be honest...

 

But anyway - there are certain oils, such as pennyroyal (e.g. Mad Hatter) and rosemary (Bess), which are known to be dangerous during pregnancy. (There may be others as well, those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. ;-) You can research others and talk to your OB - however, not every component is listed in detail - what are "green herbs" for instance? What are "night-blooming flowers"? What is cake?

 

In the meantime, I would guess that the Lab has been advised by its lawyers to refuse to advise on the subject to avoid potential liability.

For the period between the release of the original formulations of 13, bottle color is definitely not a definitive indicator of the date of release.

 

From mid-'05 through the rest of that year, bottle color was largely random, unless a release specifically indicated that it would be released in a particular color bottle, and even then, amber would sometimes be switched out for blue iirc correctly, if there were supply issues.

 

The formulations for the May 05 and January 06 releases of 13 were identical, although there may have been batch variations. What might help is to look at the reviews for the original formulation and see whether they differ - it appears from the posts here that there are some variations, so that might help. Good luck!

How can I not have reviewed this amazingly wonderful scent (which catapulted into my favorited list the first time I tried it)?

 

Mme. Moriarty a rich, heady, sultry scent - a teensy bit sweet, a lot musky, with a dark patchouli undercurrent and just enough fruit to tempt the unsuspecting.

The Snake Oil meets Sugar Skull comparisons are dead on in my book for this one - Anaconda is an oiled snake encrusted in rich maple sugar.

Wow. Just wow.

 

So, this morning, I was looking over my Snake Pit (what a lovely phrase that is ) trying to decide what to wear. I sniffed each and every bottle, trying to decide what to wear today, but I didn't remember any of the notes, or which ones I was most wanting to try, etc.

 

And I picked out 4-5 that were my finalists. Then I narrowed from there, down to Cottonmouth.

 

I would never, in a million, billion years have guessed that solely from my nose would I have selected the floral scent to be my initial favorite of all of the amazingly wonderful Snakes Beth gave us for this series. What has happened to my floraphobia?

 

But really, this is such a beautiful little reptile...smooth and slithery and soft. The lily may well be what makes it for me - kicks the sultry spicyness of Snake Oil up into rich sophistocation. Because I do love me some lily. And there is a tropical touch there, which just makes this blend.

 

I am so glad I flew blind into this - because it is gorgeous.

I get a lot of sweet floral from this - mostly the iris, I think, sweetened by the plum blossom and grounded by the sandalwood and musk. I cannot really pick out any of the other notes, but alas, my skin amps the iris beyond my personal taste. Pout.

I get a lot of Beth's sweet patchouli out of this one, which is a good good thing to me. I would definitely put this in the same scent family as Hellion, Mme. Moriarty, Mum Moon - the spicy, rich, sweet sultry blends. It is a very red scent to me, which is not quite what I was expecting given the artwork, but it is definitely how my mind starts to fill in the colors here when I look at this piece.

Sweet green spring-summer florals. This is just a tad much for me, but it is a very bright pretty blend and very fitting to the tone of Klimt's piece.

This is all dark musky vetiver on me, much to my great sadness. Sometimes I do like dark musky vetiver, but I was hoping for some ginger and pom and sweet patchouli out of this, but alas, it was not to be on my chemistry.

This is Chioptera's more sultry, sinister cousin...I can definitely detect many of the same rich sweet florals here...and it is with great joy that I can exclaim that for once night blooming jasmine is not reaching up and strangling my brain!

 

This is a beautiful blend which will probably end up on my bottle list as my Chioptera bottle decreases in fill level...

Mmm...sweet smoky lungle musk. I would have sworn up and down that there was Dragon's Blood in here, and maybe that is part of what is giving this the firey/volcanic scent, but whatever it is, this is a surprisingly heady and delightful blend.

 

I am not one to go running into the warm embrace of tropical blooms, but this is really a wonderfully seductive scent.

Very very fresh - I am guessing from the aquatics and the cypress, but very very wearable. There is a sweet woody floral undertone in this one that is just lovely, and boy does it last on me.

Mmm...a very light honeyed tea scent with a hint of mint and something richer.

 

On me this is a light sophistocated scent with enough throw that I know it's there, but it is unobtrusive enough that I wore it to both of my interviews for my current job.