lothien

Incantation has awesome timing! I have been looking for more warm weather type scents, because I started collecting BPAL last winter, and all my scents are dark and resinous, and I need something more weather-appropriate; this one sure fits my qualifications! I got this in a swap, a little skeered of the vetiver, but wanting to try it, because the reviews said nice things about the vetiver, and I am finding that I am liking Beth's lemon more often than not. It's beautiful, and reminds me a little bit of the sun-heated smell that comes off the trees at the height of summer. Like Zephyr, the lemon rind isn't lemony, doesn't smell like lemon furniture polish (my initial fear), but instead smells like a lemon tree. The woods in it are well behaved and don't amp. I was afraid I would get something more burnt scented from it but it's only coming across as sun-scorched, not burnt at all, and as with a lot of the "more masculine" scents, it's sweet enough on me that I doubt anyone would think I was wearing a men's scent. I think I must needs a bottle of this for summer! I can SOOOO not make an accurate judgement from the descriptions! This is really not at all what I was expecting!

I got this as a frimp. Bless the frimpies - I have such good luck with random choices! In the catalog, Steamworks was the first category I looked at, and I loved the name of this one, it scared me. I love rose, but not all. Jasmine of any kind is entirely a crapshoot (acetone). There are a lot of notes that could be really awful on me, and what happens if they all go bad together??! ^^ In the imp I get wine, and it's not as boozy as I expected. It's a really yummy nice red wine scent, like the waft you might get from your glass at dinner. Unfortunately, and this is the only thing that knocks a star off of this one, is that once applied, the top notes go through a horsey phase at the beginning that literally only lasts a couple of minutes, but it's horsey. Then it settles down and I get a lovely night-blooming jasmine, and rose. It is thick and resiny and the wine note is very faint but doesn't disappear. It does seem more appropriate for fancy dress, which I don't do often anymore (the nightlife is a long way from here, unless you're talking about coyotes and raccoons...). I don't need a bottle of this but I really like that it feels more fancy and I may keep it for that. So I am not 100% sold on it - it's one of those I may or may not want to smell at a given time since it's not really a background scent and I would need to be in the right mood to pull it off. ;D As always, I need to try it later when it's not fresh out of the mailbox, too. But it is all around 100% better than I expected it to be on me, so yay! It's also been educational - keep trying jasmine, keep trying wine, keep trying patchouli, keep trying Steamworks. I should add some more to my wishlist.

I got this as a frimp, and it is another one of those that is thoroughly not what I expected. It's not really giving me as ash or scorched vibe. Dry, bright, and not nearly as smoky as I was afraid of... Part of this off the top is sage and lavender. I have a Bert's Bee's sage and lavender spritz deodorant that smells just like parts of this. Then I get some sort of citronella behind it? eucalyptus? lemony-but-not, and my first impression is a patio deck, so I am guessing citronella or whatever smells like that. Lemon balm (but I usually get Pledge from that)? Verbena? Once in a while I get a fleck of ash smell but it's mostly herbal. Actually, I think this would be nice in late summer when flowers or musk or something sweet would be too cloying. (That's when I use that spritz - when it's sticky and I want to feel less so. ^^ I don't know how well it works as deodorant, but it's refreshing. That said, I love lavender. I know that goes icky for some folks.) It's a combination that might also deter bugs, which would make it a great picnic party scent! (I hate wearing something out then finding out hornets or bees like it, especially when I'm somewhere I can't wash it off! To wear one that makes them avoid you and doesn't smell like bug repellant??!!! )

CCCII (302) This is my favorite of the CTVs so far. I did cheat and buy it from forumite marciabee (THANK YOU!!!) with her description - reminding her of SC:R - but only after trying some CTV decant circles. ^^ First thing I notice is how much it separates! It's hard to see until I get it into a pipette, but the bottom 70% is an orangish-colored oil, with the top 30% almost colorless. Rolled together it becomes cloudy. It's almost completely separated within a minute. Normally I assume the trip with the postman is enough to have agitated the oils; this one separates instantly, and the top oil smells like "nothing." Mixed together, Holy Mother of Somebody, it smells good. I pray to the dieties of smellies that it does not turn to play-doh smell. I would cry. I would buy a scent locket. This strikes me as Snake Charmer with some Egg Nog, in the best way possible. It's not sugary or boozy at all - less sweet than Snake Oil, but it's distinctively SO. The Egg Nog I'm getting might be nutmeg combined with the creamy vanilla from the Snake Oil. As it dries it becomes more complex, richer. Amber, maybe. Carnation, maybe. A sweet spiciness like Morocco (also a favorite). I don't get plum, but there's black coconut here that gives it its SC feel. I also get the barest edge of that creme-orange scent I get from Inez. I have no idea what that is (it's a combo of things I haven't figured out yet) but it's as good here as there. ETA that this could be the sweeter musk in SO, too. ETA, I think there might be an actual citrus note back here, not an imaginary one. Blood orange, maybe? It keeps reminding me a little of Haunted Palace that way (which has a not un-similar blood orange and toasted vanilla combo). It's also weird that there seems to be no smell on the skin, but it's all around me. My skin has the same faint smell it does the next day after I put on SC:R, but I dare not reapply thinking it's vanished. And no play-doh. ^^ Amazing. Pry-it-from-my-cold-dead-fingers good. Should age amazingly, too, I think. Sad that it's the only bottle of it that will ever be. Happy that I found it.

I got this frimped in a DC and it's way more interesting than I expected after my experience with 2/13. I didn't try it for very long today, and I will need to try it again in a week or so but it makes me think of a wicked gourmet chocolate cordial. The spices don't take over! I smell chocolate (I got no chocolate from 2/13) and distinct dark, liqueur-soaked cherry. Promising, and I hope that it ages together as well as I think it will...

Wow this is good. It smells exactly like what it's supposed to, and it's delicious. I get the chocolate buttercream truffle thing; no plastic, no weird herbal thing. As it wears on it's a little less rich, a more powdery cocoa scent that I love. I'm fine with the fact that it doesn't last too long - this one is aromatherapy! I'm not sure I would choose to wear it for "perfume" but I can totally see dabbing it on it as a pick-me up. Holy cow! Yum. I'm really happy to finally locate a BPAL chocolate scent that works for me, for those times when chocolate is the only answer.

CLXVI The first thing this reminds me of in the imp and wet, is lemon-lime Bottle-Caps candies, but more lime, and with honey for sweet instead of sugar. It's almost effervescent! It's very pleasant on this unexpectedly bright Spring day. It settles down and blends nicely. Maybe a green tea back there somewhere? I'm still not getting flowers, which is good. The O isn't dominant here - the skin musk doesn't take on the dirty smell I sometimes get from it. It's greener than I usually like, but it's got that thing that tells me I should keep it: I will wake up on a summer morning and say "ooh, lime bottle-cap O sounds yummy!" I look forward to seeing how it ages. A little goes a long way, but it's refreshing and not too sweet or heavy, but also not so light and girly that it doesn't feel like "me." One I'll hang onto!

The other thing about this, too, is that the descriptions don't often tell you what all is in a blend - obviously "cake" and "cotton candy" and "dirt" and "tomb dust" are not those things. ^^ I couldn't even begin to guess how Beth creates some of the less traditional notes, what natural smells she puts together to make them. I have learned, for example, to avoid blends with any sort of dirt component in any role (as much as I love the smell of the real thing) because 1) I amp it, no matter where it is; 2) dirt seems to involve patchouli, and that doesn't go over well in my household. Tomb dust is fine, though. Go figure. Love tomb dust. I have found that with some of the ones that are more descriptive, you might be able to make out the various notes as top, middle and base if you read very carefully, and some are very accurate/literal. May be differences in who writes the descriptions and how prosaic they are feeling. Still wary of anything with jasmine listed anywhere near the beginning....

Three in a row! Summer was the first thing this one reminded me of, too. I haven't had a BPAL with hibiscus, yet, to compare, but that would make sense. Very nice for sundress weather!

Either Dr Bronner's Baby Mild, or Blüm towelettes for normal to oily skin. I like the towelettes for testing because they do a good job with everything but the most tenacious scents - I can actually smell the perfume in the towelette and the mild aquatic towelette fragrance on my skin. Like everybody, I get the ones you can't stand and can't get off, and I resort to a couple rounds of dish/hand soap, pref Dawn antibacterial apple blossom, and some cursing and swearing. ETA I have no idea where to get the Blüm towelettes - I found them at an outlet market.

I got a decant of Rez when it came out, tried it, and put it away. I had guessed I wouldn't like it much right away and stuck it in the Purgatory Bag to sit in the dark and think about what it wanted to do. Snake Oil, while I like aspects of it, goes from medicinal to cloying play-doh on me, but I thought Snake Charmer might work better for me if I gave it some time. I've thought about giving it away or swapping it a couple of times, but I keep passing it over to try later. Then this morning, a couple of times - in the shower, and while making coffee - I got an urge to find my imp of it, thought I smelled the edge of it. Now, I'm girly this week, and that sort of odd thought is sort of ordinary during this time. But more than once I have put on something I love during this time and it sends me off right away to find the Dr Bronner's. But whatever hunch told me it was a good day for Snake Charmer was correct. The medicinal similarity to SO has mellowed a lot in the 3 or so months, the coconut (and, well, everything) has smoothed out nicely and the vanilla is not-sweet and very pleasant. I like that its smoky quality is more toasted than burnt AND!! no sign of play-doh anywhere! It really is what I wanted today. But I don't get "dead sexy" from it. It's really nice on me now, comforting, but I don't think I was blessed with the chemistry to make this stop the boy in his tracks or anything. ETA a couple of weeks later: I liked it well enough to track down two bottles of it that folks weren't asking "swap only" for. ^^ I have found myself wearing this a lot, so it seemed like I should just track down moar. And people like it. I got a compliment from a (female) stranger later that same day, and I also thought it was cool that she didn't know if it was the DH or myself that smelled good, she just liked it. I think Snake Charmer has some high Charisma or something. =) It doesn't throw as far as I was afraid it would. It doesn't morph much and the smell of it on my jacket the next day doesn't turn me off. Snake Oil and Antique Lace were both scents I liked the first time I tested them, but were both cloying and yucky when I later ran up against the scent on a sweater or hoodie I'd worn the oils into. SC:R smells just as good to me the next day. Thinking back to my original comments, it's not so much 'comforting' as it makes me feel good. Morocco is 'comforting.' SC:R makes me feel like I can face a bad day. And that never sucks.

I have no idea how I have not reviewed this one yet! I got an imp of Inez a couple of months ago and fell for it immediately. I have since discovered that it has a few things that are always BPAL magic on me - vanilla musk, red sandalwood and carnation. Really, there's nothing in this one that should miss, as long as the cedar isn't prominent, and indeed, it's just gorgeous, and one of my favorites. I get a distinct butter rum lifesavers smell from the bottle that my imp sure didn't have, but it's gone almost as soon as it hits the skin. It's one of those oils that blends so well that I have looked at the components a dozen times trying to remember what all is in it. I love that after the initial sweetness burns off, it really doesn't morph much, just gets closer and closer to the skin as time goes by. Though I swear there should be lily in this and there's no lily. ^^ I catch the same warm, lovely edge of the sandalwood from time to time, the same as with Morocco. It's yummy but not foody, spicy but not incensey, and always seems to perk up my mood when I wear it. The woods and myrrh are the perfect balance to the sweetness of the combination of the vanilla/amber/carnation. The musk is less apparent at first, then becomes more delicious as everything settles.(Sometimes in the mornings the sweetness will make me second-guess my choice, but then 45 minutes later I'm giddy with the wonderfulness that is Inez.) When I first wore it, it was one of those blends where partway through the day I would forget I'd put it on, then catch a marvelous whiff and realise "Oh, that's me!" and that just adds up to a bottle, dunnit? Maybe moar. A kiddie pool's worth or so.

I get the salty/lemony/aquatic thing, too. Almost furniture polish. No creamy, honey, beeswaxy anything. Like nearly all the Lupercalias, this one will go in storage to see if age improves it on me. If not, it's too citrussy for me and it will go away to someone else.

You know that neat compilation scent you get from your BPAL box that so awesome but there is no way to reproduce it? The Haunted Palace smells like my BPAL box (Not exact, but close enough to make me recognise it at work and say "How did that get here? Oh that's Haunted Palace! ^^ ) Nuthin more to say. Winner.

This turned out wonderful on me. I would say it's my new favorite rose, like a dark version of Psyche, but the rose is a component, not a feature. ^^ But that's what I think I love most about it. With some folks having a strong dislike of rose, I don't really want to go out in an intensely rose perfume and have people wish I would leave. This is a rose even those sketchy about rose could be okay with. The clove is a little intense for me for the first 10 minutes or so, but it's worth it for the hours of loveliness afterward. I love the rose and clove and tobacco together, something I really didn't expect to get all excited over. Red musk is *always* my friend, but it doesn't scream 'red musk' like many blends do. As most everyone else has said - it doesn't really feature rose, or anything else, for that matter. I get rose, amber, incense and red musk all to some degree, but it's really a great blend. I also get a fair amount of morphing, with the intense clove stage, then a long incense-and-rose/clove stage and finally a smoky tonka/red musk stage that goes on forever. I already have a bottle of this on the way. As soon as I tried it and realised how much I loved it, I found an order buddy and bought the set for the Red. I'm getting a decant of the White off the forums or something to try it, and to try them together, and maybe the coconut will be bearable/unnoticeable, like the fir (coconut makes *any* perfume smell like tanning oil or an umbrella drink to me and makes me say "Ew."). But I seriously think that a bottle of White Rose would end up sitting around, because I know I will wear this one without the other, probably a lot. ^^

I will have to side with the agers and state that I think this will be better with time. Whether it will be enough better that it doesn't turn entirely allspice and star anise remains to be seen. I like it in the imp, but it's hard to bear in the dry stage because the spices amp and never settle on me. I *did* actually clean out a spice cupboard today that smelled just like this... Off to the holding cabinet with thee, 13!

I have to admit I went into this one with a lot of trepidation. I love the concept; this is easily the coolest forum I have ever been involved in (dood! I send money to very-nice-but-total-strangers and they send me smellies! Sometimes I send them smellies. Sometimes we go together on a purchase. They listen to me ramble about something no one I knows cares about and gets excited, too, instead of staring blankly. How cool is that? ) and a forum scent that celebrated that camaraderie is a wonderful gift from Beth. But while there are a lot of things in here I like, it's not grounded in anything I can usually count on to keep a scent from becoming screaming meemees on me. So when I got this imp today and opened it and it screamed CANDY! at me in the imp, I cringed. Sugar (especially with vanilla) is like Jasmine. Lovely or Very Very Not Okaygedditoff. Then I prayed to the Scent Goddess, and I said "Oh please let this not go horribly, painfully wrong," and I put some on. It started out all kinds of sugared flowers and fruit. None of the vanilla that I was afraid of, an no bad sweet pea or cream reactions (unknowns in this one) just a big damn bowl of candied flowers and tropical fruit. A little bit of apple, but not enough to overwhelm anything else. So, sweet, to start with, yes, but not what I feared. I was not going to run for the "oily skin" towelettes to get it off fast. Thankfully, I got more guava - a RL fave - and not so much passionfruit. And while it was pretty intense while it was wet, that stage was not very long, and once it dried I got a wonderful soft creamy vanilla with the fruits and florals in the background - I can't really separate floral notes in this one, especially once it's dry, they all play nice and nothing amps uncomfortably. Dry, it's very comforting and sweet and soft. The horrible sugared-vanilla thing that ruins so many other BPALs for me doesn't happen here - Maybe it's the kind of vanilla I like, maybe the cream is the helper here, but it works. I also need to test it again when it's farther away from the mailbox, if you take my meaning. It might be even better with a few days to adjust. So, for an opium and musk and incense girl (well, carnation is always good), this one is a surprise winner. I don't think I'll wear it a ton, so my decant is probably sufficient, but when I've had a really sucky day and want something relaxing, this is one I will reach for.

I finally got hold of a decant of this! I was hoping, like others, that this would turn out to be an ozone scent that I would like because of the other components. And again I am won over by another CD. ^^ It turns out to be just what I'd hoped. I love the blast of ozone at the beginning, and how it recedes to reveal the smoky, incensey goodness, which proves to be gentler and more comforting in the dry stage than I expected. I don't get any sort of floral, and the incense is there but not overbearing. This is really yummy, and fun to reapply to get the ozone stage again. I definitely like it better than I expected and should get a bottle while the Carnaval is still around.

Oh, yum! Morocco ftw! I am loving this. I was afraid at first, due to the initial sweetness, that there would be a repeat of Snake Oil: dreaded play-dohiness. I braced myself with a towelette to remove it quick in case it went horribly, horribly wrong... Stand down, men! Instead I have wonderful sandalwood and carnation and creaminess! This is brilliant. I would happily wear this out to visit relatives or other mixed-company sorts of situation. It's exotic without shouting. Personally I totally get the comfort side of this one. I was expecting something more like Scherezade, but this is almost a bedtime scent. Evening chai. I seriously need to remember that red sandalwood likes me - this is delicious. I think this has been my favorite BPAL sandalwood blend so far. Most have either taken over or disappeared. This one is my buddy. I don't think an imp will be enough.

I finally have a whole bottle of this one! I thought I would try another Lab opium, since I love The Caterpillar and wanted something with the opium a little more to the forefront, so I grabbed an imp of Darkness. "Blackest opium" calls to me! First of all it's "darkness" and I'm a big fan of that. ^^ and I get a nice beeswax-candle-smoke smell from myrrh, so I figured this might be a tasty combination if the narcissus worked for me, and yeah, testing turned to wearing and my little imp went way too fast, so I was forced to restock! I get the hairspray smell folks are talking about right out of the bottle, but it is gone instantly giving way to succulent narcissus, and then my sweet, smoky myrrh and opium. Not one I would particularly want to apply and jump into a car full of people, though. Once the narcissus settles down, it's heady and thick and exotic, myrrh and opium near the skin with whiffs of the narcissus. And while it seems like a close scent, I have a feeling it throws more than I think it does. But I love it. I will just have to restrain myself and not reapply when it seems I can't smell it anymore...

Huesos de Santo might be one to consider as well: Orange-glazed cake, dotted with anise seed, and filled with custard, set beside a bouquet of celebratory funeral flowers. I didn't have enough of it to try it on, but in the imp it's uncannily orange cake. ^^ It's LE from last Halloween, but I see it around.

Nice points! I like to remind people that arsenic is plenty natural and I don't want it in my cereal. And the nightshade in my garden is organic. ^^

These are what turn play-doh on me, too. Dorian, Antique Lace, Snake Oil. And I have a tarted imp (5yo) of Snake Oil that's as guilty as the rest, so the aging hasn't toned down the play-doh factor in that case. Non-sugary vanillas don't turn. Vanilla musk doesn't. Those are delicious! Honey is fine. Caramel is fine. Bien Loin D'Ici has both and that one doesn't go anywhere near play-doh. I'm inclined to blame it on the sugar, on me. So far, too, I haven't liked any of the sweet/sugar ones well enough (except for SO, and then not all-that) to buy a scent locket or something.

The first thing I thought when I tried Kathmandu is how nice it would be for a scented winter steam, like a bath, or a facial or general head-clearing or crabby sinuses. I'm not sure I'd want to wear this - the cedar and menthol is too strong for me as a perfume - but it will be definitely be nice as something else. Hm. Bath salts, maybe.

I guess I amp dirt. Of all things. This is the third earthy fragrance I've tried that turns to all dirt all the time. (Zombi and Badger were the others.) It ends up drowning out everything else, again. No cherries, no musk or tobacco. Maybe one of the other Phoenixes will like me better.