totheo

Cloves. Cloves with perhaps a few other spices mixed in. It's like you've opened the cupboard and picked up a jar of whole cloves and opened them to smell (because they're gorgeous, obviously) before you've closed the door again. Cloves mixed with the ambient scent of kitchen spices. A witchy scent, without being ridiculous (wool of bat and tongue of dog...) Not a bad thing to smell like, but not ZOMG WOW. Wait..... what? Spearmint? Where the hell did THAT come from? Morph to the shiznit - cloves to spearmint! And now it's cooling down on my skin. Wow. Now it's almost exclusively spearmint. Yum! Peppermint or spearmint? One of the two. How insane! Doesn't seem like anyone else is getting this... perhaps it's just the witch reacting to the witch?

Oh... um... yum? I'm getting some citrus here, but not like WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH LEMONSGRAPEFRUITSZOMG! Which is something I'm not a huge fan of. Just a a few drops of maybe lemon and lime, smothered in sweetness. And it isn't sugar sweetness, not straight up sugar. Something softer, more fairy floss like. Good throw. I was sitting here, trying to concentrate on another review and this sweet scent keeps wafting up to my nose. Delicious! This would be a good girly summer scent. Not as obvious as Embalming Fluid, with sugar that won't make you feel claustrophobic and hot. I want more. MORE!!!

OH HALLO VETIVER, HOW ARE YOU? But after that fades into the background a little (give it five minutes).... red musk. I'm guessing. From the other reviews. It's warm and dark. But I'm getting something a little different mixed in... like Avalon beach. It's SAND. It smells like red musk and SAND. How the... BETH, YOU GENIUS! It starts to lift a little after ten minutes... not so dark and redmuskftw. It becomes more like a desert wind. Harsh and dry and hot but GORGEOUS. I wants me a decant to sniff for always.

This is very odd... When I sniff TKO v3, I get a sort of green scent. Then it becomes sugary. Like the sugar of Candy Phoenix. The lavender is hanging about but it's Candy Phoenix sugar all the way. Then when I sniff the GC TKO, THAT one smells like fish by comparison! FISH! Very strange. This is a lovely scent, much lighter than GC TKO. But I think I prefer the released version all the same. Not directly after this, of course (..... FISH?!)

HERBY GOODNESS! Definitely medicinal. Not in an "ew, ointment" or "cough syrup" kind of way. Like an ancient medicine made from plants and flowers (far more herby and green than floral, though). Maybe steeped in water, maybe an extract or poultice. But natural and instinctual. Very appropriate. Reminds me of certain aromatherapy blends and soothing oils for sore muscles. Very outdoorsy and comforting. In particular, it makes me think of a place I spent a lot of time at when I was a child, during the holidays. It was a property up on a mountainside a decent drive away from a little country town, down the south coast. It was called Indooroopilly. The neighbouring property was Lothlorien and a wizard lived there in a tower with a lake, until he died of cancer. Along the road a little further, past an old tyre swing, is where we are. The main house was a mix of stone and wood. The living room with stained glass windows and a huge fireplace was all stone, with a writing desk between the two archways that lead to the dining room with a long, solid wooden table that could seat twenty, at least. There was a little open loft room above the kitchen that looked down on the table, and it was next door to the woman who owned the property's bedroom. She was blind, an author and a wit. Below her bedroom was a stone and slate bathroom that was dark and unnerving for a child, but obviously beautiful. A grown up place. There was a room with a small tv and hundreds of old tapes with things recorded on them, the only one I remember being The Little Shop of Horrors, which terrified me. A rocking horse and a basket of toys sat outside that room on a deck that graduated down in big steps past another bathroom, all wooden this time, that looked out on the rainforest that surrounded the property on two sides. The deck ended at a theatre, not entirely in the round, perhaps hexagonal. It had a stage to the back, a piano to the side and pillars supporting a very high ceiling all around. And outside the theatre, wending its way through the tall grass, was a giant snake made of concrete and mosaic. It had two big spaces for eyes where tealights would be lit at night. Pastures and paddocks to one side, rainforest down the mountain on the other. Gums and ferns and a creek that was freezing cold and meant leeches to all the kids who braved the slippery stones to see what they could see. The house and three of four other structures that housed guests in the middle, along with a cracking tadpole pond. When we visited, my mother and I often stayed in "the library", a little stone building beside the paddocks. There were books, a couple of beds and a shelf that I insisted on sleeping on more than once. And a large window to watch the grass wave and occasionally, a cow. That's what this smells like. Dry grass and eucalyptus and tea tree, something magic.

I was told banana leaves... and I'm going with banana leaves. But since it's been a while since I was well acquainted with that scent... There is a definite sweetness in the top note. For a second, you wonder if it's artificial. But you quickly surmise that it's closer to clear, sweet sap from a green cane than a chemical flavouring for candy. A lovely deep green underneath, makes me think of green and yellow. Banana leaf for SURE. A very fresh, living scent. Delicious!! So glad I have a bottle coming.

A blend of native Georgian flowers, graveyard dirt and loam. Ooooh.... Little precursor - See, I tried Graveyard Dirt '08, because I like the scent of earth. Not so much dirt, you understand, but earth. I kind of classify earth as the rich, growing, reddy brown stuff. And dirt is everything else. I am Australian, so earth does tend to come across as 'red' to me (our deserts = RED). And Graveyard Dirt is DIRT. Like, zomg dead things and blegh. Not for growing, for burying. And covered in old, wet mushrooms and decay. When I sniffed Old Roswell, I was like "Ick! DIRT!" I'm not a huge florals person, either, so florals instead of funky mushrooms didn't really help. Straight on, it smells like BPALs 'dead' note. You know... Graveyard Dirt, Nosferatu... that kind of dead. It's very hollow and kind of offputting. Then it started to morph into more of a cologne. So it becomes like what a smartly dressed live-dead guy would smell like. I kind of imagine it to be the scent of a man in an undead Gentleman's club, sitting in his leather armchair, reading a paper. Either a vampire or a non-putrefying zombie. Um. Yeah, maybe that's just me. But it does smell a little like Graveyard Dirt, with florals. After it sits for an hour or so, it loses the 'dead' note and becomes dirt and florals. It's actually quite a nice scent but I'll be swapping it for something a little more alive and up my alley. If you smelled this one someone you'd just met, you wouldn't be like OMNOMNOMNOM but quietly pleased with it. Very glad I got to try it!

This scent is gorgeous. Besides the fact I love the painting (and the label has framed a section beautifully), the oil is a really wonderful balance of foody and perfume. The tangerine and mandarine (I don't like to say 'citrus' because when I think 'citrus', I think grapefruit and lemon and I'm not a huge fan of those) add a lovely edible quality to a refined perfume. You can imagine a very classy, intriguing woman wandering around a gallery, wearing slightly offbeat but very beautiful clothes, smelling like this. This would be an acceptable perfume for those non-BPAL people who have trouble with the scents. You know, the ones who pull faces and don't want to consider the idea of perfume without the alcohol tang, that actually smells like things instead of 'perfume'. They'd smell this on you and go "Oh, that's from that Lab place you order from? Weird, it's so nice!" Philistines. But they'll like it!

My immediate thought was Lolita, cos it's fresh and girly. And literary. But... um... maaaybe not.

Oh good! cos I have a bottle coming my way - thanks for the heads up! And thanks SO MUCH Apple! You're a star <3 <3 <3 <3

Awww.. you say the sweetest things sqwook is very wise, those are some good suggestions. I would definitely second her on the Eden, it does have a similar "feel" to Bastet. Woo, okay. I shall keep Eden in mind especially. I'm trolling swaps/sales so much right now... I'm so pissed about time zones and email notifications. Did you spot that bottle of SCR for $15 last night/this morning? ARGH, TORTURE!!! Didn't have a CHANCE.

Lou, you're a mad tool It doesn't look aged much, so maybe I'll let it settle for a while. It certainly smells better than it did an hour ago. But it's still a bit I've been wanting to try Mouse's Long & Sad Tail anyway, so maybe I should have a go at it! I've done some searching on Bastet but couldn't find any other scents people compared it to (but I'm not a good looker). Thanks!

I absolutely love Bastet. It's gorgeous. Problem is, there's ONE note putting me off. And I think it's the almond, though I'm not sure. So I was wondering if anyone could rec some scents that are very similar to Bastet, just not the same. Maybe I already have them and am just not sophisticated enough to be able to pick apart the notes... distinct possibility! This probably shouldn't be a whole new thread D: but I searched and couldn't find anywhere that seemed obvious to post. If you know better (which you ALL do, I'm a complete BPAL baby), do redirect me.

I really love Bastet but there's some note in it, I'm not sure what... it just doesn't work for me. I don't think it's the amber, I'm a pretty big fan of amber. Could be the almond. This is an absolutely gorgeous scent, I think every BPAL-er should try it but there's just something.... I wish I could find a few similar blends and eke out what's wrong for me. I wish I could love Bastet, I wish!!!

Fruit tingles!! At first, that's all I can think of. Fruit tingles and sherbet. But once it hits my skin, it becomes more juicy - more real. Less sugar filled, chemically balanced. More mature. It's delicious *licks arm*

Upa Upa is like... pineapple that's been soaked from the inside out in a brown sugar solution. Slightly fermented. Obviously, my skin doesn't like it. The rum has kind of curdled the pineapple, if that were possible. Once it's long dry, like three hours, it becomes a very pleasant, light vanilla/fruity scent with the very barest hint of booze. But it's not worth the drydown with my mad skin chemistry. Also I'm not a fan of Malibu and that's the impression I get from it, with the "alcohol" of the rum mixing with the coconut. Very much a tropical cocktail, though. If you like pineapple and rum, GO FOR IT. Just not my cuppa Zombie.

To me, Sapphics smells like Anactoria mixed with Luperci. Now, I don't know whether that's a verbal association thing between Sapphics and Anactoria but that's totally what I'm getting. The sexy, musky start with the feral, woodsy finish. The notes do not match (except oakmoss... interesting) but they all seem very similar to me, besides being Lupercalias. Gorgeous, though. Anactoria is my favourite scent so I'm glad to have some kind of variation on it (with such a fantastic name - GIRL LOVE PROVES ITS WIN ONCE AGAIN) Big, big love to Sapphics.

These are my bottles! Organised by... well, not very organised at all! Anactoria I Fell in Love with a Floating Brain Litha (09) Velvet Cthulhu Lick It One More Time Lick It Like You Mean It Lick It Again Dreamland Blood Moon (05) Midnight (very aged, maybe '06, maybe '05) 413 Miller vs California x2 Sticky Pillowcase Nuclear Winter Somnus Sapphics I Fell In Love With A Floating Brain Anactoria White Chocolate & Sugared Violets Kingly Moon Agape F5 Pisces Strawberry Moon Tiki King Velvet Unicorn Velvet Tiki Tanuki Chaos Theory V Recursive Self Similarity v2 - O series (L.V.V.VI) Chaos Theory V Recursive Self Similarity v2 - Snake Oil series (CX.X.VII) Sugar Skull (06) Angeronalia Holiday Moon The Pit and The Pendulum The Witching Time of Night The Goblin Rider Gunpowder Midnight Kiss Tabella Pirate Moon Crow Moon Worm Moon Bony Moon Smut The Carpathian Mountains Host of the Air 13 (March 09?) Beltane (06) Luperci (08) June Gloom Hexennacht (08) Jolasveinar Channukiyah The Sportive Sun Jazz Funeral Goblin (08) Mandrake The Witch's Garden Schrodinger's Cat Chrysanthemum Moon Flowering Chrysanthemums Tissue Giant Vulva B340 The Sailing Stones of Death Valley The Phantom Cow of Yeurba Beuna Island The Ghosts of the Arroyo Seco Bridge Eight Views of Actors in Their Dressing Rooms Punkie Night (06) Beltane (06) Puck Embalming Fluid La Befana Mead Moon (08) The Head of Holofernes Dark Delicacies Flower Moon Buggre Alle This Bible Taurus Cancer Libra Virgo Leo Aries Budding Moon Harvest Moon (06) White Moon (06) The Black Swan Sol Invictus Venus Candy Phoenix Berry Moon I Married A Vampire from Planet X Night's Pavilion White Rabbit Edge of Chaos DCCXLI Chaos Theory III Strange Attractors DCCCXIV Motley Villainess Friction Neisthai Arsenic & Old Lace Chloroform Ginger Snapped Scintillating Crushed Good Judy Uncharted Cobalt Blends Coldwater Firekeeper Cobalt Amber Tiki Queen - just above label Velvet Clown - just below label Thunder Moon - bottom of neck Jolasveinar - at shoulder War - at shoulder Allison Gross - at shoulder Dragon Moon (06) - just over 2/3 Marotte Villainess Blood I have a few other e-tailers that I haven't got around to listing yet.

GAH! HOLY CRAP! *hides from elbow* Wow. In the bottle and straight on my skin, this scent makes me feel sick. Something really incredibly strong and foody about it, which I suppose is the red ginger. But there's something along the lines of cinnamon, nutmeg... okay, maybe it really is the ginger... makes me think of a pumpkin pie of steroids. Kind of Jack-esque. Starts to calm down after a while and the sickening, overpowering quality is almost gone. Very peppery, with the ginger hovering around going "Yeah, what's it to ya?" This is actually an interesting scent, it just kinda HITS you (which seems to be appropriate, according to the excerpt) Not really to my tastes but I would recommend trying it to adventurous types. Would definitely suit some fiery people down to the ground and anyone who's willing to handle the dry down.

The depths of despair, a dark Ecclesiatical triumph: the incense of the Inquisition. I had to try this because I read what must have been an abridged version of The Pit & The Pendulum when I was in primary school and absolutely loved it. What I get from this is a huge similarity to Bony Moon. They're both dry and dusty but tP&tP has a sweet note, which I'm guessing is frankincense or something similar. It's higher and sweeter, while Bony Moon is low and milky. I really should get rid of one of these because I have very little need for this kind of scent but it's hard to choose!

That's exactly what it is! I was having trouble finding the words but that's it entirely!! There was a florist in one of the tiny shops at the bottom of my apartment building when we lived in Japan and they used to let me come in and would give me one of those moisture blocks and some flowers to arrange in it. And this is what the shop smelled like. Thank you for opening up that memory for me!!

Centzon Totochtin absolutely does not work on me. But it is an extremely interesting smell that I think some people would adore. I get a lot of hazelnut, not really cocoa in this scent. That and upturned, fertile earth and definite splashes of rum. There is something a little Fenris Wolf/Wolfsbane about it, which should bring me over to the dark side but it doesn't quite sway me. It smells like the wax my mum's beautician used to use on her, when I was small and I had to come along and sit in a chair being terribly bored, wondering why someone would want wax slathered on them and ripped off again. It's not a bad scent (she was very expensive, still is, because she uses such lovely, high quality products) For an imp that's in my swap pile, it's pretty nice. I'd recommend giving it a go, it might be just the thing for you. Plus the image of heaps of debauching bunnies it pretty awesome.

This review may only be helpful to Australians but here we go - who knows Berri juice? It's this brand of fruit juice that is absolutely crammed with sugar and we all totally drank it as kids. Well, did anyone else have their mum put some of it in one of those little water bottles that fit in your plastic lunchbox? If you have, you know what I mean. In summer, these little juice bottles would heat and expand and when you opened them up, they would hiss and the juice would be semi-fermented. Since little kids don't have much to do, we thought this was reasonably cool and would drink it (because it wasn't bad compared to the normal juice - they were both pretty horrible) Well Delphi smells like fermented Berri juice. Specifically, apple and blackcurrant. And that's just all I can say! No redeeming factors just... off juice. Perhaps if you didn't have that scent memory, this could work. But for me, never ever ever. Which is a bit sad but oh well.

KIWI. Kiwikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwi. KIWI! I'm am honestly someone who likes to write proper reviews (in the few I'm posted) but seriously, that is all I can say. It sounded wonderful by the description but I thought, if it turned out to be a different scent, it would be minty. Or piney. Or something. BUT STRAIGHT OUT KIWI. Now that I sniff it again, I could say Kiwi with the slightest touch of mint/pine to cool it but seriously, Kiwi. And it's not just me - my mum picks out more pine but our friend says kiwi. Eek. Blergh. And eek! Definitely swapping/selling Oh well, can't win them all!

0.0 Alice smells like a floral, gentle version of Wolfsbane! I... what? Interesting combination. Perhaps Alice turned into a poisoner when she grew up, on account of all the mind altering substances she ingested as a child. Wolfsbane mixed with honey and warm water. I prefer the strength of Wolfsbane but when you're feeling a bit delicate, Alice is definitely the thing.