thedragoncharmer

YEMAYA Lady of the Ocean, Queen of Mothers, Mother of the Children of the Fishes. She is the River of Life, the ocean is her womb, and she is the mother of many of the Orishas. Yemaya shares the oceans with her lover / brother / son / brother-self, Olokun, and She governs the uppermost part of the waters where the sun’s rays mingle with Her waters to promote life and growth. Yemaya is everlasting, She is motherhood, the universal drive for the survival of a species, the procreative urge, the instinct of a mother protecting her young, and She is the governess of all life on Earth. She is the Most Fruitful of Women, and both She and Olokun are the protectors and benefactors of those who wish to conceive. Yemoya, being the mother of Shango, also has jurisdiction over rain and snow. She has seven roads and seven manifestations, all corresponding to the Seven Seas. She is the blood that pumps through our veins, and the sound of our blood rushing through our bodies is Her lullaby. She is in constant motion, never resting, ever vigilant and though she may seem calm on the surface, there is always activity within Her waters. The Great Mother possesses breathtaking beauty, patience and a gentle hand, yet She is also fearsome, temperamental, moody and stern. She nurtures her children, but She is also a disciplinarian. She is symbolized by the fish, mermaid, seagull, wharf rat, ibis, vulture and duck, and She shares the beauty of the peacock feather with Oshun. Her ofrenda is a bounty of melons and grapes, strewn with the petals of the flowers of motherhood, draped with sea mosses. In the bottle: Pure sparkling honeydew!!! Gorgeous! Wet: Smells like I just rubbed a freshly cut melon all over my wrist! Drydown: Mostly fresh sweet honeydew. Definitely need a 5ml of this one! NOTE: This review topic is for the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab version of the scent dedicated to Yemaya. If you're looking for the Twilight Alchemy Lab's Orisha oil of the same name, that topic is here.

Here's a close-up of Mama-Ji... It's a book/journal with a fountain pen, inkwell and I believe a pocket watch?

I got my order which contained..... Mama-Ji and Enraged Groundhog Musk!!! And, a GORGEOUS postcard.... A big close-up of Mama-Ji LOVE the label...

Wet this is pure autumn apple joy. Drydown it's like a holiday version of Carnal. Definitely need another bottle.

YUM!! Of the two MBs (Underbed & Closet) Closet is my favorite!! Creamy Blackberry Cakeness!!! Bottle pics here. In the bottle: Cake & berries. Wet: Cake, creamy frosting & tart berry. (Kind of reminds me of the sour cream berry pies at Marie Callender's) Drydown: Still lots of cake with a darker berry scent, with just a slight twang. A delicious and true cake scent! I need to purchase an additional bottle before it's gone!!

In the bottle: fresh herb garden dirt. Wet: woody, rooty herbs and dirt... Drydown: I smell like pencil shavings. No green in this. It's all brown. Wood and dirt.

In the bottle: Hmmm...smells like a cocoa butter lotion I used to wear. I cannot quite place the scent. Wet: Definitely shea butter. Drydown: Shea butter and faint coconut. Not at all like suntan lotion. More of a mild fresh coconut. This is very unique from the other coconut scents I own. Where Elegba is tropical green coconut and Black Pearl is dark smokey coconut, Obatala is a warm soothing coconut. A mellow scent that has secured a spot on my summer scent list!

Thanks everyone! I am glad my pic could be of service! They are the same as the GC, except for under the name of the scent, it reads in RED ink: orisha blend and the usual BPAL at the bottom (in red also). And, the label is outlined in white. Also, the Shango I rec'd was in a amber bottle.

In the bottle: YUM! Definitely a spicy edible scent. Big Red came to mind... Wet: Really potent cassia and cocoa.... Drydown: Definitely a bakery scent. Molasses cookies with hot cocoa and whiffs of the golden crunchy outside of angel food cake (the best part!). A complex, warm and cozy food scent.

Monster Bait labels........ They are so perfect!

Some sweet candy-like GC's: Akuma (raspberry), Hollywood Babylon (strawberry), Lady Macbeth (cherry)

Maelstrom bottles....Montresor & The Masque The labels are so beautifully detailed.

I LOVE coconut and rum. Elegba is DELICIOUS! Out of the bottle: Wow..buttered rum lifesavers! My FAVORITE! Wet: butterscotch, mmm...did i just get a whiff of something green?? Drying: I smell like a pirate?...hmmm...a posh pirate, that likes to lounge poolside at the Hyatt on Kauai drinking Pina Coladas and Lava Flows all day.....mmm...yes definitely something green... Hours later: I smell like I just came back from the beach, then took a walk in the green tropics. A faint tropical scent, which the greenery keeps from turning suntan lotion on me. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being I MUST buy a 5ml): 5 (and that 5ml is going to be used up fast!)

Bordello is in my top 5 favorites (along with March Hare and Elegba). Wet: Very sugary/fruity. (I can see the relation to Smarties) Kind of reminds me of when I first open a box of Jell-o. Mmmm...love that scent. Drying: Scent remains the same on me, very sweet fruit. Hours later: Still pretty much the same. I smell like gummy lifesavers (yum). One of my favorite scents because it stays light and fruity all day on me. It is not an overpowering fruit smell. More of a lingering fruit scent. It's a great everyday scent. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being I MUST buy a 5ml): 5 (and, yes, I did buy a 5ml.)

I love Black Pearl, but the coconut almost completely disappears on me. Can anyone recommend anything similar but with more coconut??? No florals, or overly musky scents. I like warm, sweet, fruity and foody scents. Thanks so much!!!!

March Hare is a perfect blend of apricot and clove! My skin LOVES this one. My initial impression was Yum, this smells edible!! I love fruit/food scents. Wet: Lots and lots of spiced apricots (which also smells a lot like spiced peaches to me/on me?) Dry down: The clove is coming out now.... Hours later: It was a perfect blend of apricot and clove. Sometimes one scent was stronger than the other, but without ever overpowering each other. For hours I smelled like I was baking a spiced peach pie. (Again, I have a hard time differentiating between apricot and peaches on me. But my nose kept saying, Peach!) This is my favorite BPAL yet! Scale of 1-5 (5 = no doubt I MUST buy a 5ml) 5 (heck, I'm kicking myself cause I didn't buy a 10ml)

When I was a little girl my grandparents owned a strawberry farm. Just a slight whiff of this brought back so many memories. Wet: A field of strawberries! Strawberries and greenery. Dry down: Starting to turn into a darker strawberry. Strawberry incense??? Mmmmm....delicious. Hours later: A good throw of warm dark strawberry. Definitely on the sweet side, with a very faint touch of spice & floral. I layered this with some Dragon's Milk and the result was wonderful! Maybe a little like a less pink, Pink Phoenix. Scale of 1-5 (5 = there's no doubt I MUST have a 5ml) 4