Carmencita

Ambition. It does'nt shame me to say that I have none. Aside from a general desire not to be a burden on anyone and to be a positive (or at least entertaining) influence in my community, I have no drive, no lofty goals, no metaphorical mountains to peak. Naturally, it would be nice to be wealthy, or at least financially comfortable, but it's not a big priority in my life. As long as I can still afford BPAL every once in a while (and books, and the odd costume), I don't mind living paycheck to paycheck. Don't get me wrong. I have passions in life. In these veins flows fiery dedication to certain pursuits. But there is nothing I could make a career out of. Or even successfully volunteer at. I love to juggle (stage balls, chiffon scarves, pins, even torches), but though there have been phases in my life when I practiced consistently, I was never good enough to charge even a paltry fee at a children's birthday party. One certain-to-eventually-occur miscalculation with a flaming torch and WHOOSH, there goes little Billy's mass of cherubic curls. Playing dress-up has always been one of my favorite past times, and was the only truly feminine element of my childhood. I was the proverbial tomboy. Even now that I'm a legal adult, I still spend hours of my leisure days floating around in frivolous knock-offs of Arwen gowns, reproductions of Anne Boleyn court gowns, saucy wench outfits, and feathered masks. But I can't draw, accessorize, or sew (and I've both attempted and studied all three), so costume designing is out. Could I make an occupation out of testing BPAL oils? Wouldn't that be delicious? Although, to be skilled I'd have to study perfumery and train my nose to pick out specific notes. Scratch that. I'd rather just enjoy my own oils and enable all my friends. The truth of the matter is, I'm a hedonist. To the core. I work to play, I don't play to work. Sensual pleasures obsess me, and the academic paths I follow don't lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, though they are rewarding in their own right. Still, I don't see a degree in my near future. I see the value in saving the universe. Hey Beautiful, I recycle, reduce, and reuse. I donate to help natural habitats and to end world hunger. But I don't know what my purpose is, other than to delight in the simple pleasures, to look after myself and offer assistance to some others, to not step on any human or other creature (either figuratively or literally), to nourish my addictions to music, BPAL, Firefly and Serenity, and of course, making out with boyflames. Mmm. Making out with boyflames.

For what it's worth, I too am a mermaid. I just saw Pan's Labyrinth last night. It puts the 'grim' in Grimm's fairytale. Not that Pan's Labyrinth is a tale by either of the brothers Grimm because, well, it just isn't. Admittedly, I'm curious what you thought of it. Will you be commenting on it in this blog? I found it to be grisly, poignant, honest, and straightforward (sometimes too straightforward.. I'll explain more about this later, once you've seen it). There were moments where I was literally silently begging the film to please spare its audience. It didn't. It pulls almost no punches.

I would think it would be an unspoken rule that even if five weeks from now (or five months) if you're still at the same residence, no bringing of romantic interests (or potential romantic interests) to said residence. Some people are just oblivious. Or mean. I hope it's not the mean. Again, no advice, just

There have been a lot of double posts in other areas of the board, I've noticed. As though the first time they posted, they didn't see it go through. However, if that was the case here, you'd eventually have a double blog post. Other than this happening to me on LiveJournal, I haven't seen evidence of the same problem here on blog island.

Sleet and ice are scary. An ice storm can be pretty to look at from the inside, but it's so deadly. I walk to work, and even though the entire path is the responsibility of the Environmenta Maintenance people for our city, they ALWAYS leave the section of the path in front of the poor neighborhood unsalted and sometimes just do a cursory snow scrape, which is worse. What happens is they leave a thin layer of snow, which quickly melts, and turns that section of the path into an ice skating rink. I have to hold onto the wire mesh of the gate on either side in order to keep from dying. You don't sound happy to have only had to work two hours today. Will you lose money over it? I always like unexpected days off, but I am an hourly wage earner, so I don't like too many of them or it digs into my pay. Hope you're keeping warm and slip free.

Yeah, we had the first snow of the winter a few days ago, and it was a pathetic and quickly-melting 1 1/2 inches. Things were lovely all covered for less than 24 hours. Now everything is dark and drab again. I never thought leaving the lights up was tacky. Unless, you know, you also left up a big candy cane or inflatable Santa past January. Some people (and restaurants I find do this a lot) leave up white lights or red or blue lights almost all year long. I like it. It's magical. Probably not so good for saving energy though.

I can't believe people. You know, it never made sense to me why couples (married or no) would completely merge their assets. Whenever they buy each other presents, it takes from the other's bank account (since it's a shared account). There can be no surprises, you can always cheat and see what the other is getting you by checking the account statement. Plus if you merge it is tempting to spend a lot more money, because it looks like you're drawing from a much larger pond. Whereas if you keep things separate, you budget better. And everyone has their vices. I still believe in sharing and helping the other out, and certainly sharing basic expenses (food, rent/mortgage, utilities) just so no one person is stuck with all the bills, but the disposable income in particular I think is better kept separate. And yeah, if things go sour (for whatever reason) and you don't have you're own money, you're screwed! Some couples merge their assets completely and make it work, but like has been mentioned, it is a rare couple who can fairly spend their money like that and where not one or the other might have a shopping addiction every once in a while. If one spouse dies abruptly and the surviving one finds out that they were in debt before they died, the government can seize the assets even though they're in both names, no? People are stupid saying you're not as married if you don't merge assets. I'd even say you're MORE married, because when you buy your partner a gift or something, it's really you giving to them, not you taking both your monies to give a gift. That's a frivilous example but you get the idea.

Gah, interrupted sleep is almost worse than no sleep. I feel for you. And sometimes all the tricks in the book have no effect. They say for consistent good sleep things like, exercise daily, but not within five hours of bedtime. Don't drink caffiene or it will mess with sleep patterns. Try to go to bed at the same time every night. Don't have a TV in the bedroom. Make sure you have a dark room. But sometimes, even all that and a hot water bottle, and you can still wake up after an hour and not get back to sleep. I'm sorry and I feel for you. Hopefully, you'll be able to work off your sleep debt soon and get a good rest.

Like others, I have not tried the oil, but I can't say enough about the fizzy. For the last two and a half weeks I have had the worst cold of my life. I've been trying to heal it with herbs and lots of sleep. After doing a dry-brush exfoliation, I prepared a bath. Man, these fizzies are HUGE. It ran around the top of the water, frothing like mad and releasing this inoffensive, calming scent. I sat in the bath meditating for at least a half hour. My muscles' soreness was erased. My head ceased to throb. My breathing cleared. I was able to body butter myself after and fall asleep, dead to the world, blissfully, for a solid four hours before I had to wake up to cough. Every night, I have not had even a solid ONE hour until the TKO bath. It calmed my system enough to suppress my hacking for a long stretch so I could get some uninterrupted downtime. Thank you TKO. Thank you BPTP. Addendum: Oh, and when this arrived in the mail it had a languorous hand-drawn black heart with my name penned into the top box flap. I'm going to save it! Handwritten by someone at BPTP. Swoon. I'm such a groupie.

In the vial: So sweet. A sharp sweetness. Fruit and concentrated sugar covered in artificial honey. On my skin: Cloying. Something spicy and a little peppery behind it. Candy and syrup and gellied fruits. Later: Fades to a soft sweet incense scent reminiscent of Scherezade (spelling), but with less incensey resin and more pure essence.

In the vial: Pure almond extract (YUM) but even sweeter. On my skin: Almonds and hard maple sugar sticks and orange honey comb. Lemons. Subtle florals. Later: This smells like Wonka's Wonderland. The BIG introductory room in the original movie. Where you could eat the tea cups that grew on trees and drink lemonade from them. Without the scent of the chocolate river. Sweet. Almost cloying. But not nose-itchy or gross out.

In the vial: Dirt and fizzy coke. But not Coca-Cola. Some imposter company's fizzy cola. The dirt is old and dead but moist. On my skin: Mint, morning graveyard mold. Something sick and rotten. Later: This still smells rotten. It's disturbing. Essense of corpse. Disgusting but fascinating.

I am sick right now (although my sinuses are clear), so I may come back and change my review and try this on my skin when I get better. The same in the vial, wet, and dry (just more intense in the vial). Unlike everyone here, these smell very watery. Drowned grasses and flowers. I smell carnation. Perhaps that's the geranium? The flowers are subdued with gallons upon gallons of fountain water above them. This smells deep and cool and so wet. Soaked wood. An old church with the roof caved in and rain water having collecting in the holy font where dead flowers are. But there is no smell of rot. I'm not sure if I would by a bottle of this, but I might not give away the imp. I think I may just keep it for myself.

I love Monterey (I'm a California native myself). I used to visit Monterey once a month with my dad. Caliban seems to fruity to be oceany to me. I didn't get a beachy scent from that at all. But I may just have weird chemistry. I agree that a very carefully blended violet can evoke the sea.

Luckily, I was able to test this at a Meet N Sniff and soon after I placed my second ever bottle order at the Lab. I've been so obsessed with it of late I just was too distracted to deign to review it. In the bottle: An apple orchard in late October at sunset, where there's a slight nip to the air and you are making out with someone who is bracing you against an old tree. I disagree with a lot of reviewers here in that these apples do not smell green to me. Nor do they smell 'crisp'. They are deep red and gold autumn apples, overly ripe, just fallen from the tree and laying in the roots. This is the most Autumnal scent ever to grace my nose save actual AUTUMN. There is a wonderful cider smell, but the scent is so naturally blended that it smells like cider if you could tap cider from a tree. It doesn't taste human-brewed, you know? On my skin: Doesn't change to a different scent but gets layers. Mulled spices, tree bark, and such, although the harvest apple scent is still true and the most prominent. I don't smell the cranberry individually, but it must be part of that mulled spices, cidery blend that is part of this scent. It does not smell like a candle to me. Or a tart. I have Yankee tarts in two different scents of apple and one called 'harvest wreath' and not any of them smell like this. I would not use this as a room scent simply because I can't imagine using a drop of it on anything but my skin. Using it to sweeten the air in a room seems too impersonal a use for this scent. Dry and later: Keeps its purity, especially if I put it in my hair, and it has a wonderful throw; intoxicating but welcome and wouldn't offend even the most perfume-sensitive nostrils. Stays for hours, and over a day! I put it in my hair yesterday morning and now it's evening the next day and I still smell it! I hate that I'm going to take a shower. Now I can't wait to try Hesperides with the comparisons to it. One of my top three BPAL scents so far (the others are Swank and Nephilim).

I loathed this in the bottle. I almost sent it along to the next person without trying it because I was so sure I would hate it. Then I remember that my most beloved BPAL I had the same reaction to in the bottle and did a beauteous 180 on my skin. Well, this wasn't that fairytale, but it was still better on my skin. In the bottle: Decades expired Grandma perfume On my skin: Watery violet Dry: Violets in water. This is something I love the smell of but don't want to smell like. I keep sniffing my wrist. I'd use this as a 'smelling salt' in my purse to evoke a particular mood, but I would never wear it or use it as a room scent even. It's going to pass along to someone else. Still, to all you others who read this review, make sure you test it on your skin (and this goes for ANY BPAL oil) before dismissing it.

In the bottle: Gardenia-scented Sangria Wet: Gardenia. But not too bad as a floral scent. Smells like whiffing a fresh flower, not smelling perfumed flowers. I'm not getting any of the other layers. After a minute: Okay, it's still all flowers, but it's more complex. I can smell the peony and the jasmine separately as opposed to their combined 'gardeniaesque' scent. Still no pepper or ginger or fruit or tea. After a while: I can smell a bit of the pepper now, but only because I'm searching for it. I doubt another nose would pick it out. Crisp florals with a throw. I'm sure a flower-lover would relish it, but sadly I am not a Petal Princess.

Blessedly, this was the same in the bottle, wet, and dry on my skin. Perhaps a bit more intense in the bottle, but none the less, no chameleon activity. This scent is the experience of sitting around a kitchen table on a mild autumn evening with a group of giggling friends, eating vanilla ice cream and oreo cookies and molasses cookies, all in a mad sugar rush with something sinister going on in the background. That's what this smells like to me. Ice cream, cookies, and PURE EVIL. The evil part is underneath. Just this little bit of darkness, mischief, something awry. Perhaps there is a cunning demon beneath the table where the gigglers sit. Just about to gently scratch a long charcoal-encrusted claw across the ankles of the ice cream-faced bevy. Mmm. I might get a bottle of this. Oh wait. It's not available. FRELLLL!!!!

In the bottle: Sharp mint and pine, but the pine is dominant and something else in it reminds me of Nephilim. On my wrist: The mint and pine are strong, but some mellow, almost sweet scent comes through. Other people mention berries, but it's not quite that. Maybe a sweet moss. There is a coolness to it, in the scent and seemingly temperature wise. Now on my skin it's sweetness and cool trees and pine and mint still. I really like this. BOTTLE wish list!

I am getting some very unusual variations from this. It smelled the same in the bottle and on me for long hours. Like a little snowy cherub and faint violets. I love it. It does indeed smell like snow with something soft, ethereal, and bright added to it. I am getting a slight apple underneath that gets stronger the longer I wear it. It's not a crisp sharp apple, but a smooth, soft gentle apple, I forget which kinds taste like this smells. Not a red apple. But a yellowish one. It has that nice powdered sugar and maybe the lemon in it is what makes it smell like snow? It does not smell like lemon to me. And the peach I think is what is smelling more like a smooth, unubtrusive apple. Of course only after falling in love with this scent do I realize it's not currently available.

Off topic for a second. I smelled Midsummer's night yesterday in the Yankee store and thought it smelled awful. Does it smell different burning or in a wax tart than it does to sniff the lid of the candle?

In the bottle: Bitter lemon, but not unpleasant, and a pale musk. On the skin: The aloe comes through but smells waxy, like store lotion. The lemon gets even more bitter, but still not unpleasant. But the musk is too much and itches my nose. Dry down: Fades quickly, and the remnants still itch my nose. Not unpleasant overall, but definitely not for me.

Cosmo had that famous article showing that in scientific double-blind (or whatever) studies, the scent of pumpkin pie was the most arrousing and appealing to a guy. So Harvest Moon 2006, here we come! Or Jack. But go with other people's recommendations, as I've never fully tested my BPAL scents on random men.

Smells like (both in the bottle, wet on me and dry on me): Rootbeer, cinnamon, and musk It's too masculine for my tastes and too musky (but I'm sensitive to musk). Still, very interesting scent. I would recommend it to others, particularly men.

I got "Maenad" in a swap. In the bottle it is reminiscent of "Vice" with a citrus smell. On me in all stages it is sweet strawberry. It smells like a plastic Strawberry Shortcake doll my sister had when she was little. The florals I can't smell at all individually. They just seem to add a little complexity to the strawberry scent. I know a lot of you didn't like it, but I love it! I can't stop smelling my wrist. It's a very 'young' and innocent scent, reminds me of playing games when I was little, and for some reason of the 80s. Probably going to get a 5ml of this.