filigree_shadow

A couple of days ago I was reading dawndie's blog, totally engrossed in her Sixth Sense Part 1 story. I don't usually talk about things like that because for one I'm afraid people will think I'm nutters, and for two it seems very private. But I feel encouraged by what she wrote, so... here goes. About a year ago, my husband and I were getting ready for work one morning after it had been raining all night. He was in the shower, I was in the bedroom. Midway through his shower, he thought I was in the bathroom because he heard the sink faucet turn on. When he got out and didn't see me standing there, he yelled at me for leaving the sink on. Problem is, I didn't turn it on. And it's not like I could have left it on and forgotten -- we have double sinks in the master bath, and it was his sink that was on. I never use his sink. We have the kind of knobs that you have to turn clockwise to turn on the water, and it was full-blast. We had no idea how it happened and discussed having a plumber come out to look at it. When my husband was leaving, he set the alarm as usual, then went in the garage and got halfway to his car door when he realized he forgot his lunch. When he came back in the door a few seconds later, the alarm went off. The whole shebang with sirens and bells, not just that buzzing noise that it does when you open the door and you have 30 seconds to turn it off. It doesn't do that. That's not supposed to be possible. You're always supposed to get 30 seconds of leeway whenever you open a door. When I heard the alarm sound I came flying downstairs to find out what was going on. He was standing there looking at the alarm panel. He turned and looked at me with this confused look on his face and said "What the hell is going on around here today?" He told me what had happened, and I couldn't figure it out either. I started to walk back upstairs, and when I got to the bottom of the stairs I heard water running. I yelled out, "Oh great, now the faucet has started up again." I started up the stairs, and quickly realized I wasn't hearing the faucet. I came back down slowly as my husband was coming around the corner. I said, "The faucet's not on. What's that noise then?" We stood there for a couple of seconds, and then I said, "Oh, wait. It's the sump pump. We had all that rain last night." He brightened and started to say something, probably to agree with me, when his face suddenly changed. He said, "I haven't heard the sump pump at all this morning." (Our sump pump makes this really loud THUNK noise when it switches off -- you can hear it all the way upstairs in the bedroom.) He ran down to the basement to see what was going on, and that's when he discovered that the sump pump was broken. Water was already coming out of the pit into the basement. We looked at each other strangely, and he said, "If we had both gone to work this morning, we would have come home to a flooded basement." We looked around at all our boxes of stuff that we store down there, and we both felt a bit of a panic. Anyway, he wound up calling the plumber, and I agreed to work from home until the plumber arrived. Right after he left the house (he tried opening the door again, no sirens this time), our dog Prudence started going nuts in her crate in the family room. Barking, whining, scratching at the door. She never does that. She was specifically trained to be quiet in her crate. Even after I said, "No" and "Quiet," she kept barking. By then I was pretty freaked out by all this weirdness, so I let her out of the crate. She ran straight into the kitchen and started barking at the stove. I've never seen her behave like that. She wasn't growling, just barking. I thought maybe someone had left food on the counter and she wanted it, but there was nothing there. Everything in the kitchen looked exactly the same as it does every day. She trotted off, and then turned around and came back and barked some more at the same spot. I opened the fridge to get a drink, and after I shut the door I turned around and looked at the kitchen counter again. I noticed that one of the demitasse cups had been knocked over, and the water that was in it had dumped out on the counter. I am 100% positive it wasn't like that before I opened the fridge. I checked the counter when Prudence was barking! Those cups don't just tip over, they're short and squat. And Prudence hadn't been charging into the cupboard or anything -- there was no huge bump that could have knocked it over. Then... nothing. The rest of the day, no weirdness. And nothing that strange has ever happened in our house since. I didn't feel anything spine-tingly the whole time. I didn't feel like I was being watched, I didn't feel like I was in danger -- nothing like that. I wasn't afraid. The bizarreness of it freaked me out, sure, but it didn't make me feel like the house was creepy. Actually I felt safe. Kind of protected. I don't know who or what was here that day, but ever since then I have always knocked on the basement door before I go down there. It seems polite. Just in case.

The only other weird things that have happened in this house are very small, like lights turning on and off when there's no one near the switch. It has gotten to the point where when a light turns off I yell out "Hey! I need that light on! Don't turn that off!" My husband always says the light bulb is just burning out or something. (Funny that three different light bulbs in different rooms should behave the same way, but people ascribe different reasons to things they don't understand.) I always did think that someone or something was definitely trying to tell us about the problem in the basement. The weird stuff that happened was either water-related or it was related to leaving the house. If it was just the alarm going off strangely I would have just thought it was coincidence, an electrical problem in the alarm or something. But the faucet, the alarm, the running water noise, Prudence going nuts, AND the demitasse cup all within the span of an hour? Yeah, that's a little tough to explain. Some day when I have more time I'll write about stuff that has happened to my sisters and my mom. Now that's some freaky stuff.

I've had this bottle for nearly a month, and I've just now gotten around to trying it. I almost didn't get a bottle because I was afraid it would smell like Embalming Fluid, and that wasn't one of my favorites. I'm pleasantly surprised. The only part of this that reminds me of Embalming Fluid is the crispness. It smells mostly like limes at first, but then it drifts into aloe and tea, with a little bit of musk underneath. It smells clean and soft, but not like dryer sheets. I bet it would be awesome to make some bath products out of this, or a linen spray. If only I could figure out how to do those things. The next time I see my youngest sister I'll see what she thinks of this. She told me that the only perfume she's interested in is something that smells clean and fresh, but not like flowers. I was going to bring her Dirty and Lightning, and I think I'll bring this one too. I bet she'd like this. When my husband sniffed it, he said, "Mmm. I like it. It reminds me a little bit of R'Lyeh." YAY for hubbies who can identify BPAL oils by name AND scent!!!

When I first sniffed this, I immediately thought I had made a big mistake by getting only 1 bottle. It was a bright, fruity scent from the pear, and crisp from the cucumber. Only a little bit of floral. Now that it's drying it's becoming more floral -- but it still has the bright and crisp quality. This smells blue to me, and very few perfume oils smell blue. I'm not usually a fan of florals, but with the pear and cucumber I like this more than most. Very well done!

Oooo, yeah, I can definitely smell a similarity to Snake Charmer at first, but this is darker and smokier. The patchouli is great in this. OMG, the opoponax and myrrh... OK, Schwarzer Mond just shot up to one of my top 5 LEs. My hubby is going to love this too. I think the amber is making it just a little bit perfumey/powdery/sweet on me, but definitely not overly so, and I even like that quality in this one. For a dark-and-smoky-loving gal like me, this is heaven. Dammit! Only got 2 bottles. Crap.

Oooo, I can't wait for part 2!

YAY! School started today! I went to my statistics class tonight, and I think it'll be interesting. We have to do a statistics project for the class, and I'm thinking about doing something related to BPAL (of course). The only question is.... what? I thought maybe I could figure out from the descriptions which notes were most popular and least popular in the Lab's blends (which ones occur most and least frequently), and then do a small survey and find out which notes are most and least popular among people who buy BPAL. Obviously I can't list ALL the notes, that would be immense. So that would give me a chance to use the "random sampling" method to pick maybe 10 or 20 notes. And then ask people something like "do not like/neutral/like" to see if that tells me anything about whether the notes that are most popular in BPAL blends are also most popular among BPAL consumers. And vice versa. I'm kind of afraid to do it, though, in case the whole thing backfires. What if it turns out that there are notes that are consistently disliked in like 85% of the blends or something? I can't see that being something the Lab would want advertised, even if it's just among the 30 people in my class. Does anyone have a better idea for a project I could do? Or any thoughts about whether this would be an interesting project? Now that I've thought of it, I do kinda want to know how it would turn out...

Here's something that bugs me about the BPAL community. Whenever anyone (usually a newbie) comments or complains about long ship times from the Lab, at least four people jump down the person's throat saying things like "When I started buying BPAL we had to wait three months to get our orders. This is nothing. You should shut up and stop complaining." Or they say "It only seems long right now to people who started buying BPAL when the Lab's shipping times were shorter." Here's the thing: The Lab's shipping time two years ago has absoultely no bearing whatsoever on whether or not a newbie is feeling excited and impatient and wants her BPAL as soon as possible. It seems like people say things like that because they think they're defending the Lab, but it comes across to a newbie as "You're not allowed to have an opinion about ship times until you've been around for as long as I have." Or worse, "Your opinion matters less than mine does because you haven't been around for as long as I have." That's a personal insult, which is a lot different from the newbie's original comment about a business practice. I wish people would stop saying things like that.

Straight off I thought it smelled like honey and apples. As it dries it becomes a lot more floral than foody, and I can't smell as much honey. It's one of the good florals, though -- not heady or cloying. Just light and pretty. I like this one.

In the imp, it smells like candy. On, it smells sweet and chalky, like Pez. I honestly can't smell anything but sweetness. As it's drying it becomes more floral, but it also turns powdery. When it's dry, I can detect a little bit of the grave loam, which makes the scent slightly pungent. It's very, very light -- I can barely smell anything at all 5 minutes after I put it on. I just sniffed all the way up my arm, and I can't even tell exactly where I applied it, that's how faint it is. I guess this doesn't work on me.

In the imp, it smells like dragon's blood and apples. On, it smells like dragon's blood with a tiny little sliver of crisp apple and a big bunch of hyacinth. As it's drying, the apple gets stronger, but the floral note definitely sticks around. When I got this imp, I took one look at it and thought, "Uh-oh." Dragon's blood is one of my favorite notes, and usually, the redder the oil, the better. Ladon is a very pale peach color in the imp, so I assumed that the dragon's blood wouldn't be very strong in it. Turns out I was wrong. The dragon's blood is very noticeable in this blend. It seems to be mostly dragon's blood and hyacinth to me, with the apple just giving it a sweet crispness. Wish I hadn't been so wary of the apple note in this (I didn't particularly like The Hesperides)... I could probably use a 5ml of it.

There's a sharpness to this one, like an edge. It's not at all soft and round. It smells a bit peppery to me, and I'm not sure which note is giving it that quality. I would never in a million years be able to pick out any of the notes just from smelling it. But since I know what's in it, I can tell there's a little bit of lavender (thankfully not amped crazily like lavender usually does on me), and I think that's the whiskey I smell. It smells crisp without smelling clean. Spicy without smelling hot. Sweet without smelling foody or floral. A little bit smoky without smelling like incense. This is another one of those blends that makes me think, "This could only be BPAL." It's complex, interesting, and unusual. I would never have to worry that I smell like anyone else when I wear this. Also, my husband sniffed it, said he liked it a lot, proclaimed that it smells better on him than on me, and confiscated my imp.

Hmmm. Lemony ginger, kind of herby. This is a little too herby and tangy for me. I have to be careful with a citrus and ginger combination because it tends to smell sour on me. The sage is just making it smell... well, dirty. 'Fraid this one's not gonna work for me.

When I first put this on, I thought it smelled like lemon custard. I was beginning to regret my 10ml purchase of Manhattan. But when it's drying, the grapefruit starts to come out, and I like grapefruit better than lemon. I love the scent that's underneath the grapefruit -- it smells like an amber and wood combination. The tea and orchid seem to give it a slightly feminine quality. I can't really smell any leather in it, though. Manhattan smells sleek to me. Posh. Glad I have that 10ml.

This smells like flowers. I don't really smell much of a salty sea in there. Or wine. Why am I getting flowers out of this? It smells like a very round, bright green scent. And it's bolder than most of the Illyria scents have been. This is much more green than I was expecting.

Hmmm... at first this smells slushy. Like the Lab's snowy blends. But instead of being paired with pine or birch or those foresty notes like the snow ones usually seem to be, this one has some humid floral notes with it. (I'm not 100% sure, but I think there may be some violet in there.) There's just a little bit of incense under there -- not a lot, just enough to make it seem kinda floaty. As it dries it loses some of that slushy quality but still smells cool and crisp. Kind of like a melancholy winter's day. I really like the incense with it, though. That's a nice touch!

Woah, this is good stuff. Lots of vanilla at first, but not overly sweet vanilla, it's smooth vanilla. It smells warm and golden. Then the floral notes come out but they don't overpower that smoothness. This is very pretty. Feminine and light, soft and warm. I like it! I think it has just the right amount of throw, too. You don't have to put your nose right next to it to smell it, but it's not going to knock anyone over from 5 feet away, either.

This smells very similar to Dorian to me. At first it had a bit of a citrus scent as well... I think that's because white musk tends to smell a bit lemony on me. But that went away after about 10 minutes, and what's left is... um, Dorian. Almost. Dorian has this very "white tea" sort of feel to it. Theodosius is more masculine, a little gruffer. I think it has a leafy undertone, something just a little bit wood-like. This was supposed to be a birthday present for my husband, but, um.... well, no. See, the thing is, Dorian is one of my all-time favorites. I love the scent of it, and I get a ridiculous number of compliments whenever I wear it. And I'm selfish. That's really the bottom line. I love Theodosius and it smells fabulous on me, so I'm keeping it. ETA: Also, I should have mentioned this: Theo's throw is not as strong as Dorian. It's softer, and quite faint after a couple of hours.

In the bottle: Smells a little bit herby. On: Ginger, a deep musk, some dried flowers. As it's drying, it becomes more musky. It's kind of a gently spicy opium musk. I love this type of spice. The spice notes like cinnamon and cassia are too strong on my skin -- this one is just right. It smells warm but not hot. Hazy and dreamy. It gets a little bit sweeter as it dries, but not overly sweet and not powdery either. It's sexy without being aggressive. Kinda smoldering. Definitely a fall scent, and definitely one I'll wear. I like this a lot. ETA: Here's a photo of the beautiful label.

I know what you mean. And valentina too. Honestly, it makes me uncomfortable to read anything that's even slighty critical of the Lab. I think they work really hard, their products are better than anything else of its kind out there, everything is reasonably priced, and their customer service is great. Plus Beth is one of the most gracious, reasonable, and funny people on the entire forum. But I can see why there's confusion about some things for newbies. If I was looking at the Lab's website for the first time and being overwhelmed by all the pages of choices, I'm not 100% sure I'd notice that blurb on the front page about the ship time (even though it's in red and it's right there on the front page). I think it's a fairly innocent mistake to make your first order without realizing it'll take a month to arrive. I don't think it's necessary to be condescending in responses, like valentina said.

Rats. I don't think this smells like it's supposed to on my skin. I was expecting something like creamy chocolate, and what I got was a rather bitter cocoa scent... it smells like cocoa and metal. I'm not kidding, there's something metallic about it. Like that taste you get in your mouth when you drink from a glass bottle that just had a metal cap on it. It does get creamier as time goes on, but unfortunately it's an artificially-sweet-smelling creamy scent. I totally get what eleventhousand was talking about with the Chocolate Snow White, though -- it does smell like Snow White to me when it's dry (with very little chocolate). I'm beginning to believe that my skin actively rebels against BPAL chocolate blends and anything that's supposed to be creamy. It does this to me every time. I put on something I think will be great, and my skins says, "NO! Not this one! We want those civet ones, or something with vetiver!" Those are the notes that smell wonderful on me, believe it or not. Sigh. Another disappointing chapter in the creaminess quest. I'm kinda jealous of people who can wear blends like this one.

This smells Christmasy to me too. I think it's the pine and cranberry combination. The tomato leaf is really strong at first -- a little too strong for my liking. I like it better after it's dry, but overall this blend is too bitter for me. Nothing against this combination because I think it's interesting, I just tend to prefer smooth comfy scents. I'll give the imp to my husband and see how it works on him.

This is very foody... it's like honey and cake. It's buttery, too, especially right at first. I keep waiting for the honey to go wonky on me like it usually does, but so far it hasn't happened! The wine comes out a little when it's drying and saves it from being overly buttery/foody. I'm enjoying this. Not sure how much I'll wear it because I have tons of cupcake/donut-scented lotions that I wear all the time, and they really satisfy my cravings for this sort of scent. But I do like this.

In the bottle it doesn't smell so great. It's kinda pungent. But on... wow. This is a very soft haze of a perfume. It smells like a muted peach, with a little bit of a sweet woody scent lurking around the edges. The fruity part to it is beautiful; it's not overly juicy or acidic, just pretty and lingering. It doesn't smell anything like the strong peach I've smelled in other GC blends, and I don't know how to describe it. It's just... soft. Understated. Quiet. None of the notes are shouting in this blend, they're all lovely and whispery. It's not all fruit, either -- there's a slighty woody and floral complexity to it, and just a hint of a sparkle. Even the oil itself is soft; when I put it on my inner arm, it made my skin feel smooth and soft. I don't usually notice that at all with perfume oils. I think this is beautiful, and I'm so glad I have a bottle. I like this even better than Tamora, and I thought Tamora was my favorite peach blend ever.

I had no idea what to expect from this, judging by the description. What I smell straight off is extraordinarily sweet dirt. There's also a bit of of nose-tingle factor to it, which usually means something like mint or eucalyptus. I think there's a little smoke in there too, but it's kind of hard to tell because my skin amps any sort of dirt/earth note like you wouldn't believe. This time it's a minty dirt -- I smell like I've been digging around in the garden near my catmint plants. So on my skin evidently I'm getting mostly "earth and wind" out of it (I usually think of that minty scent as being kind of breezy). I would have liked smoke and fire, but my skin chemistry had other plans. I like the way it smells in the imp a lot better than the way it smells on my skin, so maybe I'll try it in a scent locket and see how it goes.