filigree_shadow

A sweet floral, soft and a bit sad. It's a little bit too green for me, but it's soft enough so that it doesn't bother me as much as it usually does. The sweetness of it balances out the green pretty well. It's just a tad too sweet for me when it's dry, but it doesn't knock me over or anything. I already have enough florals in my BPAL box, so I don't think I'll ever need a bottle of this one, but every time I wear this oil from the imp I do like it.

Hey, the affirmations do work, according to my husband. He wrote a single sentence ten times on a piece of paper every day for a month. He ended up accomplishing his goal. (Of course, he is a SuperGenius, so there's also that to factor into it...) And I've already signed up for the ATCs. I've never done anything like that before, but I'm itching to make a trip to the hobby shop with a purpose. Usually I have no purpose and I wander a bit and end up buying crap I'll never use because I have some wild-assed idea in the store that only sounds good for about five minutes and by the time I get home I don't want to do it any more.

Angst, ahoy!

Yeah! That speech -- what a delivery. The man has a fire in him. Random does want to go down to Springfield to see the announcement, which doesn't really surprise me all that much. He's almost as interested in Obama as I am, for different reasons. He says Obama is a statesman, and we haven't had a real statesman in office for a long time. I don't think he has enough experience yet to be a true statesman, but I think it's pretty clear from his words and actions that he's not looking for power for himself (which I personally think is the case with another candidate, sadly) but is looking for the betterment of the entire nation and all its people. I think he clearly has the potential to be a statesman, and I totally agree with Random that we need someone like that in office. So it looks like we'll be among the thousands standing in the freezing cold on Saturday morning in Springfield. Yippee! I can't wait.

What I'm mostly getting out of this is berries and tea. The berries are quite strong -- juicy and sweet. Tea smells really good in this, but it mostly gets overpowered by the berries. I'm not sure if I could wear this, but I do like the scent. I think it would be a good scent for a young girl. It reminds me of those flavored lip glosses that girls wear (and like). I think it would be a great room scent, too, especially in the summer.

This smells extremely perfumey to me. Like that drugstore perfume that smells practically fizzy. Not gentle or soft at all. I wonder if maybe the oil in this imp has gone funky, because I tried this many months ago and thought it was pretty and smelled just like honey and lilies. It sure doesn't smell like that now. Damn, I wonder if I've run into my first instance of not using an imp up before it went "off." It's kind of a sour powdery smell. Maybe the imp cap wasn't on very tight. I think I'll try sending the imp to one of my friends with expert noses and see if she thinks this smells right. Wow, this is terribly disappointing. All my other oils have been holding up wonderfully -- many of them smell much better aged than they did fresh. Oh, wait... wait. I just rolled the oil around in the imp for a little while and tried again. Much better this time. This is what I remember it smelling like: pretty lilies, nice and soft, and not too much honey. That's odd. I think that imp's been sitting there for so long maybe the oil just needed to be blended up a little bit.

This doesn't smell as hot or scorched as I expected. In fact, it's kind of pretty. Definitely warm -- warmer than the usual meadowy scent. It smells like a dry, wispy field after everything has turned yellow. But nicer than that because I think there are some light florals in there too. It's sweet and smoky. I think this would be a great late summer or fall scent. I gave the imp to my husband to try, and we both agreed it smells better on him. So now he's the proud owner of an imp of Scarecrow.

Wow, that's lotsa red wine. It smells nice with the honey and myrrh, though -- more perfumey and pretty than wine usually is. There's something about this scent that reminds me of the taste of the insides of the grapes my mom used to grow in our backyard. They were purple grapes, and they had white squishy middles that had a very distinctive taste. I used to peel off the grape skins just to get to the yummy middle part. That's what this scent reminds me of. It's more smoky because of the myrrh, but that's the underlying scent.

This smells mainly of vetiver and either clove or cinnamon at first, mostly vetiver. But the oil is bright red, so I'm waiting for the dragon's blood to come in any minute now. Hmm, still no dragon's blood. And then the vetiver mostly goes away and I'm left with only spice. Kind of a sweet spice, but this is still too spicy for me.

This smells mostly like gardenia on me, but I like it in this blend a lot more than I usually do. The apricot smells good with gardenia. Keeps it fruity and sweet and not as cloyingly floral as usual. I like the tonka with it as well. I think this might be my favorite gardenia BPAL blend. Pretty, sweet, and soft. Yep, I like this one.

Dance of Death was my favorite scent of the Funereal Oils category for the first several months that I was into BPAL. Then one day out of the blue I put some on after not wearing it in a while and had a reaction like: "Ugh! How did I like this?" I shoved it to the back of the imp box and was prepared to wash my hands of our whole relationship. I've just pulled out the imp to try it again, and I'm glad to find out that I do like it after all. It smells dry, sad, and dark. I like the orris in this that's making it seem a little papery -- kind of fragile. It's slightly powdery, but in this scent it smells right. It's nice with the dark musk, patchouli, and myrrh. It's surprisingly sweet for being such a lovely eerily deep scent, and it smells perfect on this cold winter's night.

Wicked smells like a doctor's office when it's wet. I have NO IDEA what is causing that, but I've tried it about three times now and I always have the same reaction. I don't even know how to describe what a doctor's office smells like, but I do know that it's not a particularly pleasant association. When it's dry, it's kind of sour, powdery, and strange. Jasmine really hates me, so I'm not surprised about this outcome. Myrrh, which I normally love, doesn't really seem to be doing jasmine any favors here. It's an unfortunate combination on my skin.

What a crisp scent! I kinda like the moss in this, but the sharp herbal aspect of it is turning it into a non-keeper for me. It smells very high-pitched -- almost piercingly so. The green part of it reminds me of Irish Spring soap. It does smell clean, but I like the soft "clean" of scents like Dirty rather than the harsh green kind of "clean." Also I have something along the lines of a confession that's relevant to this review: I have had several imps of The Apothecary for quite some time because I confused it with The Caterpillar from Mad Tea Party. Why? Beats me. But I've been sitting here with this small hoard of The Apothecary when the scent I actually like is The Caterpillar.

Hmmm. Slightly green but not too much. There's some floral in it but it smells a little bubblegummy so I wonder if it's lotus. For a couple of seconds it went WAY green all of a sudden, but then that disappeared. Then my skin went mental because for some reason I smelled cinnamon. Then it went back to that herby bubblegum scent partnered with something slightly aquatic. It ended up being dusty (not quite powdery, but almost), herby, and more than a little sharp. This all happened within ten minutes, and then the whole shebang faded out almost entirely. I have no idea what this oil is up to. Obviously it's trying to fool me with some mischievous trickery.

I'm so sorry, Kitrona. You gave comfort and care to a tiny creature who needed you -- you did right by her while she was with you. I know it still hurts, though.

I organize thoughts with bullet points. I'm sorry. I spent 12 years writing technical manuals, and this is a habit I cannot break. Again, my apologies. On with the blog! - This is bordering on TMI, but: One of my dogs (or maybe both, I'm not sure) has been tooting all night. We had to evacuate the room twice. It's driving me crazy. As far as I know they've eaten nothing except kibble and their usual treats today, so I'm worried about what they've gotten into that I don't know about yet. - When we got our tax forms back I looked at my income from last year and started to wonder how much I'd be getting back. My husband said, "You mean WE'll be getting back." He reminded me that we split my income 50/50. I sputtered, "But, but... that was MY money, that I made, and I'm broke..." (I haven't worked since April.) He was right though, we did agree two years ago that my income was used as our discretionary money and it was split 50/50. I haven't worked in so long that I forgot. I was mad and stomped around and behaved like a jerk. I finally said I was REALLY looking forward to that extra $20 I'd be getting in the tax refund, in the most sarcastic voice I could muster. He said he expected my half of the refund would be much larger than that, considering that we split HIS income tax refund 50/50 as well. Whoops! I forgot about that agreement too. Here I was being all pissy that he was taking half of my paltry refund when he was also giving me half of his much larger one. I slinked off silently feeling like a toad. - I've been watching Father Ted on DVD for the past couple of days, and today I found this: www.doogle.org. This will make no sense to you unless you've seen Father Ted, but I think it's hilarious.

Very aquatic and a little bit salty, but not too gloomy, I think. It's kind of sweet and peaceful. The sweetness seems to be coming from something that smells a little fruity, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe lotus, because that tends to smell like bubblegum on me. This is more of my husband's kind of scent, so I've given the imp to him. He likes R'Lyeh and Cthulhu, too -- this is the same sort of scent as those. I like this one, and I'll be happy if he wears this.

This smells a lot like a commercial perfume that I'm sort of familiar with, but I don't remember which one it is. It's one I always liked, so this isn't a bad thing. I like the orange with the florals, and a little bit of smoke. Sweet and lovely. Kind of a unisex scent rather than being distinctly feminine, I think. It smells just slightly aquatic and very exotic. I meant to get a bottle of this a while back, but the imp disappeared in the back of my imp box and I kind of forgot about it. It's going back on my bottle list.

I really like orchids -- I have some in my house. This doesn't smell like orchids to me for some reason. I guess maybe my skin is messing this up, but it smells more like a powdery gardenia to me. Still kind of tropical, but... I don't know, it doesn't smell right. It lasts for a long time, and the whole time I keep feeling uneasy because I keep thinking it ought to smell like orchids but it doesn't. I don't think this works on me.

I don't usually like rose scents, but I like this one. It's a soft, dewy, almost creamy rose. I usually like moonflower, so maybe that's what's making me like this oil. I got a bottle of it and didn't wear it because I thought it was much too strong -- I was thinking that maybe the imp I had was more aged or something. But I think the problem really was that I tend to use more oil from a bottle than from an imp. I think I probably just used too much. I gave away that bottle, but after testing this again, I think maybe I should get another bottle. This is light and pretty. Very nice.

Andrabell's recent blog entry made me think about why I like to write blogs -- I started replying to her blog and then I realized that was WAY too much for a comment so I'm transferring it over here. ---------------------------------------------------- Here's why I write personal stuff in blogs and LJ: I'm extremely indecisive and I like to talk through things with other people, in case they have ideas or points that I just haven't thought of. Or maybe they can see possible outcomes of decisions that I haven't considered. Or maybe sometimes I just want to hear "Yeah, you're on the right track." The thing is, I just don't have very many real friends. Except for my three sisters and my husband, I have a total of three friends. One of them is a male drinking-buddy type that I see once every few months, one of them is a super-busy role model type (also male) that I talk to about my plans and ambitions, and the other one is so wrapped up in her own self and her own problems that mainly our friendship consists of her calling me and me listening to her. As far as "girlfriends" go, I am extremely lacking. I haven't chatted on the phone or in person with anyone about my own problems/issues in months. Literally. In real life it's hard for me to make friends. I don't seem to have much in common with most women I meet, and men usually have wives or girlfriends who disapprove of them hanging out with me. I'm extremely introverted, and I'm a housewife who leaves the house twice a week to go to class (plus running errands and stuff like that). Even if I did make friends easily, I don't have much opportunity to meet anyone. The women I've met through the forums and LJ have pretty much become my "real life" friends. I was watching the movie Tombstone yesterday, and in it a guy asks Doc Holliday why he puts his life on the line for Wyatt Earp. Doc says it's because Wyatt is his friend. The guy says "Hell, I've got lots of friends." Doc says: "I don't." I guess most people have a network of friends they can call up and talk to whenever they want. I don't.

I think you're definitely not the only one who has this problem. I "talk" to people online much more than I talk to people verbally. It still takes me a while to warm up to people online just like in real life, but for some reason it seems easier online. (Probably because no one can see me blushing and kicking the toes of my shoes while I try not to be shy and nervous.)

Heh heh. Well, I didn't say my classes were easy, I just meant I don't get out much. And I have to say I agree with you about introverted-analytical people being wired like that. Being around lots of people exhausts me. (Also there's that pesky crowds phobia I have.) Usually I'm pretty happy with just my husband and our dogs. I can't imagine not having my sisters around -- I can't imagine what it's like not to get along with family, either. I would hang out with my sisters even if they weren't my sisters. My sisters D. and L. are incredibly funny, and S. is absolutely the nicest and most considerate person I've ever met in my life. My husband tells me that there are NO other women in the entire world like me and my sisters. I tell him, "That's because my mother only raised four girls." My mom is fantastic. Anyway, I'm glad you've been able to find some sisters outside of your family. Sisters are important. Yeah! Sometimes I wish I were more of an extrovert -- it seems like being on the line between extrovert/introvert would be good.

This is strongly herbal on me, but it doesn't smell as sharp in the bottle now as it did when it was fresh from the Lab. The blackberry isn't prominent at all on me. I would say this is mainly lotus root and sage. The wild rose is apparently contributing something powdery to the scent. (Maybe it's not the rose, I don't know, but I'm guessing that's the culprit.) I took a risk on this one because I normally go for smooth comforting scents rather than anything sharp or herbal. Sometimes the risks end up being worth it, but this time it didn't pan out for me. I wish I could smell what this smells like on other people because the other reviews make it sound great. Ah well. I'm sure this bottle will go to a good home.

This is the kind of floral I don't like. It smells like gardenia or plumeria or something like that. And there's something else in it that's distorting it into something sour. I'm not really eager to sniff this further to try to determine what else is in it because I don't like it.