SueDonym

Go Civeteers! Yaaaaaay JennyGardener!

 

Black Annis. At my first MnS, I'd heard someone mention this scent with a kind of infinite horror. At that point I believed I'd already tried it, but of course rushed right off to try it again, at which I was, hey that's not a bad scent, that's even nice...then blithely went about my business.

 

So, when finally reviewing the infamous scent of someone else's horror:

 

Imp: Nicely powerful! Usual earth-y suspects at the top, a bit of anise at the bottom. Reminds me that licorice is used in herbal medicine to root treatment, to bind it in. And that I tend to spell licorice with an s in there somewhere.

 

On skin: Wet, fresh, cedar-y, licorice (remember two c's) floats low.

 

As it dries it gets kind of creamy, smoky and yes, still a bit of herbal licorice (not candy licorice). It's almost sweet!

 

On me this is a nice, creamy, smoky, dark herbal.

Very pleasant! Lightly sweet. Fresh. Almost comforting.

 

Now to blithely go about my business.

 

The horror...the horror...

 

 

 

 

ETA: OMG! On full dry down this is a light, almost flower-like very fresh licorice. It's wonderful!

Courtesy JennyGardener and WOOT the Civet Circle:

 

 

Does it mean I'm a bad person if I say that Glasya and I are friendly?

Not in love. Not desperate for each other. But friendly. Passing acquaintances.

In other words, she ain't half bad on me.

 

In the vial I get patchouli, a little freshness, an oily slipperiness. That Glasya!

On the skin a nice rose is floating about there, sauntering around with the musks.

The rose really dances for a while, then falls back.

 

Frankly Glasya is really mild tempered around me and hangs about the skin.

Clearly she's not after blood so much as hanging out on the sofa with some mild tea and a good book...okay, maybe a book that's been banned somewhere, but that's about the extent of it.

 

I think she's going to get up and leave very soon. Probably doesn't want to hang around anywhere there's not much bloodsport. Something underneath is going to be very pleasant when it dries. Probably the rose and resin will hang around. The laugh of Glasya.

 

But the body will be gone and off to torment some other soul.

 

On me, she's a well mannered, fleeting guest. Sweet even!

 

I...I'm so ashamed!

Beautifully tarted lab-labeled imp from the generous JennyGardener, Civeteer amongst Civeteers:

 

Sniffing imp: Sweet, grape-y deliciousmusky old feetness.

Wait a minute!

*sniffs again*

Sweet, grape delicious, sweet grape delicious...

Okay then!

 

Application: Sweet musky feet and bum

Good gravy!

*sniff*

Sweet musky feet and rubber bum

Oh my. No. That will not do.

 

*sniffs with head away from arm*

Now this is odd.

When my head is not right up against the scent I get pleasant wafts of sweetness and a little grape and a little of this and that, but if I put my nose against it to pinpoint...

Musky feet, used condoms, ass...make that slightly floral ass.

 

Hmmm...

O-kay, a vivid image of bacchanalia perhaps, but not quite what I had in mind.

 

Dry: Better, but not quite...well, you know...

At this point it's a reasonable musky, unwashed sex scent, but I wouldn't wear it. Why not? Well, that's a nice scent to create yourself, but putting in on without the personal effort entailed feel like walking into someone else's bedroom the morning after a particularly eventful night. Good for them, but kind of icky for you.

Plus, on me it goes kind of rubbery and nobody wants that.

 

ETA:

Okay full disclosure:

On complete dry-down this devolves to a dark, kind of flattish musk that's not bad and throws a bit. There's a spice in there that's almost barely pleasant. It's not all that bad. But the previous review is much funnier, isn't it?

Lenore loves Moonarcana and the Civet Circle:

 

Impie: A little dark, a little floral.

 

Flesh fresh: Ah! An immediate opening up. Fleshy! Slightly bitter, but not unpleasantly so...oh wait, maybe. A definite harsh edge. Faint traces of floral dancing around. Old, flat florals. I'm thinking funereal wreaths or wedding bouquets kept in old drawers and then released.

 

Dryer: I was a bit worried but it looks like this one dried down and the various component amalgamated. At this stage it really feels like winding sheets and old old florals to me. Almost linen quality, really!

 

It starts to break up a bit and seem a little powdery, but not much, and then the powder shifts to be that almost citrus edge. It's an interesting ladder when you sniff, going from something stale and dark and yes, death-like, at the bottom through that winding sheet and on up to the light crisp edge of lost love, longing, and belabored pain.

 

I have to say this is growing on me as it dries. It's not something I'm going to seek out, but it's strangely fascinating. So no, not nevermore. Just not now.

Blows a kiss goodbye.

Courtesy Moonarcana and the Civeteers:

 

As with the previously reviewed Debauchery (my first in the civeteer's circle), I'm getting a strange "freshness" from this scent. It's the only way I can think of to describe it, kind of crispy and cool. Which is making me wonder if civet smells "fresh" to/on me, which makes me think I'm weirder than I thought.

 

Of course, this scent also seems to be tinged with a fir in the initial stages, so perhaps that's where I'm getting it.

 

So...trees, freshness, and some sort of herbal quality similar to the proverbial Irish spring scent.

 

This morphs to a spiced muskiness, but that's pretty far down the line. There's a fruitishness too, which must be the wine note that people have spoken of, but it's much less alcoholic for me and more...fresh. There's a certain flatness that enters into it when the muskier part takes over later on, but I keep getting slight wafts of trees.

 

Again, I'd say not much throw, but that's not unusual for me. The part that does throw is the slight freshness while the darker stuff clings to the surface and requires nose to nook of arm work to explore. Unless that's TMI.

By grace of the fabulous Civeteers, with MoonArcana as topnote:

 

For me, this ends up being almost a variation of Hellion, of all things!

 

I get an astounding, dark but slightly grape-y freshness at first, which feels odd to me.

 

Then it goes all red musky with a bit of cedar, patchouliness and a little sweetness.

 

It continues to sweeten to an almost Smut-like moment, then it grows a bit darker, kind of sweaty.

 

Stays pretty close to the skin, barring that initial fresh jolt. Not a lot of throw on me.

 

Alas, I'm not debauched. It's almost schoolgirlishly civil -- a lass wearing her mother's best fuck-me pumps and smeared lipstick to the local soda joint for a milk shake. Must be that sweet freshness that skips it along. Cedar? Civet? Civet and cedar? Beats me, but she's barely legal.

 

Gonna be trouble when she is, though.

Death Cap is coconut-y earth to me. Yum!

This starts out very ozone-y to me, in imp and on skin, almost Yog-Soggoth like without the men's cologne aspects of that fragrance.

 

For me this is more about the wind in the sails rather than the salt and the sea.

I get a very air-y sense of things, maybe a snap of sail, but mostly just straight breeze. At one point I almost thought I had a very smooth lemon, but maybe that was the bladderwrack or the seaweed. In any event it is very smooth, very fresh, very...airy. Wind indeed. I thought there might be a very little ambergris here but, you know, could be/probably wrong.

 

On the drier areas of my body it disappears quickly, but in the crook of my arm gets much more sea-like in the dry stages. Still with that high air note, though. If I think about it too much, that's all I get. I keep wondering what it is, that note.

 

Very clean scent. Airy. Did I mention the breeze?

I ***LOVE*** this stuff.

So much so I'm reviewing just to be inarticulate about it.

 

It's creamier than the other BPTP soaps, much easier on the skin, and disappears fast possibly because it just seems a LOT softer and richer than the other soaps I've tried. It's incredibly lush, smells terrific, and layers well with Winter Maiden, by the by.

 

A little sliver will scent your bathroom and your life, making it just that much happier.

I just have to share that what made me most happy about this soap is that when I lathered, the clay in it briefly and occasionally turned the foam ORANGE, and I felt pure pumpkin Halloween happiness. YAY ORANGE!

 

Oh sure, it wasn't a lot and it was only briefly but I'll take my happiness anywhere I can find it.

I may be in the minority here, but if you can nab a bottle of Yog Soggoth, I think it smells quite a LOT like the Old Spice I used to give my dad as a little kid on whatever occasion required it.

Am I evil if I add Peacock Queen and Rose Red?

I really adore this scent. I love smoky scents and this one has all sorts of good elements without being overwhelming.

 

My favorite Trick.

 

In the bottle, which has great art by-the-by, I get a buttery pumpkin waft with a harder edge coming through. It might be a bit like the asphalt of Black Ice coming in to play. There's a hint of waxiness and the pumpkin is a bit fresher/more vegetal perhaps than the pumpkin in the Pumpkin Cheesecake Treat.

 

In the dry-down I get a smooth, really well mixed, smoky pumpkin scent with maybe a bit of sweet waxiness. Really well blended though so hard to tell.

 

This is actually a bit of batch variance because the first bottle I decanted for my circle was MUCH smokier. In general I prefer the imps from that one because I love a smoky edge now and again. However, for a really well blended pumpkin blend, this one is *amazing*!

I feel this scent isn't getting the love it deserves.

It's really good!

To me, this isn't Creepy at all.

It's much fresher an apple scent and actually that goes for the caramel too which is more brown-sugary and wafty.

 

In the bottle -- this is juicy, crisp apples to a T! There's a sweet brown-sugar scent and actually I almost feel like I can smell the stick they stab into these things so that you can hold them.

 

On: I get mostly fresh apples again with hints of caramel-y sugar rolling around the edges. The apples tend to waft up first and come in waves and I have to lean in more to get the caramel, but then I get washes of generally sweet sugary apple-y kind of goodness that just gets better.

 

At some point it all blends into sweet apple-brown-sugar-faint caramel goodness but always with a fresh crisp edge and I just sniff and sigh contentedly.

 

It's a happy-making scent.

I've been remiss in my reviews and wanted to add before they're gone that this is a really lovely batch of Inquisitions -- get some before they go!

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake is likely my favorite of the Treats.

 

In the bottle:

Buttery, creamy, pumpkin-y and a little bit of spice.

On:

I actually get a decent waft from this which is fairly rare for me. It almost immediately goes to much more pumpkin pie spice and a bit of buttery creaminess.

There's a graham-cracker pumpkin and spice stage and then it seems to fade a bit closer to the skin and I get maybe a bit of the sweet sourness of cheesecake but again mostly pumpkin and spice.

However, after a full dry down...

I remember on my first application of this I was impressed with the waft and then it died down and I went on to other things and then sometime afterwards went, "Gods! What is that beautiful smell!"

On me this goes to the most lovely sugary pumpkin spice, a rich and beautiful spice. The winter pie spice to end all spices without being too foody or anything of the sort. It's gorgeous. I was huffing my arm uncontrollably. I want 10 bottles so that I can pour them on myself and just wait for it to dry.

 

Sooooo good. The love.

I have to add this one really fast.

 

This was the Inquisition oil that really scared me because I cannot stand alcohol. I don't drink, although occasionally I try for reasons of curiosity. As in, this one sounds interesting, maybe it won't taste godawful! I don't think I've ever managed more than a few sips. With few exceptions I don't like the smell of it at all.

 

That said, SPIKED PUNCH is actually quite good.

This is perfectly described as a scent that's both a Trick and a Treat.

 

TRICK: Evil booze smell in the bottle. 5 day drunk booze smell. Punch spiked by 12 year olds who throw a whole bottle in.

TREAT: It dries up instantly to a delightful sweet fruity succulent aroma with some faint florals. It's really, and surprisingly, LOVELY!

 

Very tricky Beth. Thanks for the treat.

As there has been much discussion and some disagreement about Destroying Angel, let us begin this review by what CAN be agreed upon, as absolutes.

1. Destroying Angel is currently the darkest shade available in the BPTP polish spectrum. It sits at the end of that rainbow, quietly and absolutely deeper than everything else. One's gaze is drawn, rests, and sinks into it utterly.

2. Like all the polishes available from BPTP, it glides on smoothly, and has excellent coverage with even a preliminary single coat and dries faster than it would take to think out a proper analogy. With two coats however...well, we'll return to that. Let us say then that it finishes very smoothly, has a wonderful glossy sheen and does it all without the use of formaldehyde, which leads one to question that if BPTP's polish can accomplish all this without that net, why isn't everyone doing triple jumps?

3. Wears. Handily. (Yes, I know.) In any event, at some point last weekend I put a streak on a nail, waited for it to dry then tried to scratch it off as a test. Which I did manage to scrape it, I entirely failed to chip. Also, residual pigment lingered on the nail some four days after, until I decided to reapply for this review. Now I *know* that nail polish remover will cleanly remove everything, because I confirmed as much upon my arrival home from Bat's Day with my nails painted every single shade of polish available there. Here too everything was dreamily easy. No sticky bits I had to douse with chemical to remove, just a little scrub and some cleaning around the cuticle and it's gone. Minimal staining of the flesh too. Impressive. However, without bending with the remover to remove, the fixed mark of remaining pigment seemed willing to stay on my hand indefinitely. MOST impressive for someone whose nails seems to reject polish after the first day and vigorously expel color like a cobra spitting venom.

Which brings us to...

4. The Color. In keeping with just the facts, let us clarify that it is based/inspired/looks towards a vintage 1920's shade. Wear it with beads and flapper fringe. Wear it as the tough new-age business woman/girl reporter when you're struggling to have your obvious talent recognized in a man's world. Wear it when you feel plucky. Wear it with a very very long, dazzling evening gown, but you're just dressing for dinner at the manse. Wear it when committing an unspeakable crime for the man you love. Wear it when stealing the leading role and leading man on a black and white movie set. Wear it when you're feeling a little very early Noir or a touch of German Expressionism coming on (and go watch Nostferatu or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari if you need to acquire the disease). Wear it to forget your first love who died in the trenches and to remember him when you attend the Wobblies meeting. Whatever your excuse, wear it.

Because...

5. It is one of the richest, most velvety colors I've had on my nails in quite some time. Deep. Plush. Velvet. I find it difficult to believe something that I know is glossy hard can look and feel so...sinkable...as if your eye were falling endlessly into soft thick layers of velvet. Putting that second coat on, while it fills in the nail, is as if someone flooded and then froze a patch of velvet before your eyes.

Which leads us finally to...

6. The Shade. But really, after all this do you need to know the exact hue?
.
.
.
.
.
Of course you do.


And yet this seems to be what the crux of the various interpretations are about.
Let me begin with what it is not. It is NOT black. I love black too, but this has far too much going on to be a simple flat black, or even a glossy one. Neither is it brown. As much as I love a good rich chocolate-brown, again, too simple a definition for something that is too deep and too rich. Nor, alas for all those wishing it, is it a true and simple dark purple.

When I was taking an oil painting class, back in the day, my teacher told me something I've never forgotten and which I now share with any aspiring artists, color aficionados, and, factually, anyone reading this post. To wit: if you want to make a shadow of any sort in your painting, an active rich shadow, then you simply cannot use black. What you must use is something that aspires to black but is more complex. If it's just black the eye will skip over it, pick it up less, it remains flat. BUT if you add a little mystery, a little addition to the color, or even create a blackish color out of other darks, what you have is something on which the eye will rest and never want to leave. Something which can be gazed into endlessly. In other words, mix a little dark green in with your black. Or, in this case, a little dark purple in your brown.

To me, this is a very deep brownish purple, but it may hold your gaze a bit differently, and the gaze of someone else when they look into your hands, and frankly that's part of the appeal.


I imagine the good folks down at the lab could tell us what exact shades were brewed to make this magnificent elixir, but *really* do you want anything as mundane as that?

Personally, I prefer a little mystery.

ETA:
Well I just read the site description and if the lab says it's brown, the damn thing is brown.
(With a little purple in it. )

Just to switch it up, here are some hardcore Chaos Theories.

 

CDXIII I'm thinking this stuff might be almost pure vetiver if that's what I'm smelling. ETA: Aaaand it's probably not, but I'll run it by the MnS. Might be a patchouli, but it's unlike others. At any rate it's screaming EARTH. Okay? EARTH. My nose might be illiterate; it can't spell scents out, so to speak, but it can still smell. At any rate...

It's earthy earthy EARTHY, spicy, STRONG. Azathoth takes one stiff and goes running for cover. Gnome pretends to be a statue in a garden. Samhainophobia hides behind the smoke. King of Spades takes off his crown. Graveyard Dirt tries to play it cool but I can see the sweat. Those last two aren't even really in the running but you get the picture. Gnome's probably the closest. Yeah, that's some serious earthy scent. On it becomes a really delicious sexy musk, melds and gets kind of velvety/dusty and then lightens up a lot. I kind of wish it retained more of the initial scent actually because it's just that different and I like that.

 

Previously reviewed by Dymphna.

 

 

MCCLXXXII I'm a philistine but I loathe this scent in the bottle. It's apparently an almost pure JASMINE. Very *very* VERY STRONG. Did I say strong? Yes I did. On, the flower opens up immediately and scents the whole room practically. I don't usually get a lot of throw but whoah nelly do I here. Again, on my skin this lightens up, like a flower opening up and releases a pleasant scent and I find it...tolerable...whereas in the bottle it's a bunch of flowers smashed up and bleeding scent. Interestingly, after a time the scent seems to be more prominent and pleasant in the air than right at skin level which is an effect I like...if it were some other scent. This is purely a matter of taste, uncommon taste on my part since when I offered it up at a willcall some time back my buddies almost imped me out of it! They loved it, even the floral-haters. It does smell very musky and heady. Subsequently I don't have a lot of this to go around and will likely be selective. Why if it doesn't please me? Because it oddly does. It's like the proverbial trainwreck of BPAL scents for me. I can't look away. Sniff away?

At any rate it is an eeewwww-gross I must smell it again several time just 'cause keeper for me.

 

Previously reviewed by schackjj.

 

 

CI I adore this. Originally I thought this a pure tea rose. Not the velvety wild open ROSE of Rose Red, nor the hard florist imperial rose of Peacock Queen, but the warm wild inviting tea rose of my childhood. However, I've just done a sniff test against Rose Red and I can just barely tell the difference, except that CI smells slightly better, fresher and a little more wild. Better throw too. Amazing opening flower effect. You can try to pry it from my cold dead hands, but my zombie corpse will rise up to eat your brain and still come out smelling like a ROSE.

 

Previously reviewed by Reedsong.

 

 

By the way, the combination of all these scents wafting about after a pre-post re-trial is deee-lish-ious.

Vetiver(???), jasmine and rose. Who knew?

To begin putting up the great massive reviews of the great masses of CT's I've accumulated.

 

MISNUMBERED REVIEW (ARGH! I must find this! It *may* be MCXI) Light musk and mild fresh herbs/grass, some slight spiciness thereafter. Kind of like a very nice masculine aftershave. Less delicate herbs than Oisin but a little bit like that. Great drydown, very well blended here. Damn. It's sexy! Surprising, because I don't usually associate sex with the initial smell but right now I want my arm, or rather a man who smells like my arm does now. Dang olfactory impulses. Further drydown takes this away from the immediate lust impulse, but it's still nice. Wow. That surprised me. If only I could get my love to wear scent. On the other hand, guess I could happily wear this to pick up chicks. It's utterly delicious.

 

MXXXV Sweet and fresh! Light citrus, maybe some sweet fruit, very very slight herbal. Dries quickly on me to a slightly melon-like scent and very mild herbals. Like a slice of honeydew with a little fresh herb (mint, lavender) next to it.

 

Previously reviewed by wichapi.

 

MLXVI Very sweet light fresh (again, yes I seem to have collected those despite the randomness of swapping). Pink. A bit like Pink Moon. Carnation? If it's floral it's a bit of a candy one. Yes, definitely non-heavy sweet floral. Actually perhaps it's lilac. Reminds me a bit of one of the Dogs Playing Poker lilac scents -- NOT in the surrounding areas of scent because this is very sweet light feminine but rather in the note itself. Lilac, carnation, phlox perhaps? Maybe a tiny bit of light rose too? Nice. Great drydown.

 

CDLXXIV Sweet Fruit! A bit like fresh juicy bubblegum. Very fun! Candy-ish. I want to say it fades quickly but it doesn't, it's just light. Sits on my shoulder like I stuck a lifesaver there. What flavour? It feels red, so maybe it's a bit of cherry lifesaver. They always were my favorite.

 

Previously reviewed by euterpe414.

Selkie!

No description or notes available from the lab, although rumor has it that it is apparently Wrath and White Rabbit mixed?

 

For the curious, with thanks to Puddin' for making sure we got this before we left, Beth for dreaming it up, Corinthian, wickedgoddess and Jackie for being there with bells, beauty and brain well on, and big BIG B I G HUGS to all the BPAL fans at the Portland MeetNSniff.

 

I'm not sure what Wrath nor White Rabbit smell like and to avoid letting their descriptions or scents mess with my initial impression I'm going to just go for it, so if this is completely off the wall, well, you know who to blame. Me of course.

 

In the imp and early wet stages this has a big rootbeer scent to me. Saspirella(sp), slightly bubble gum but not in a typical way, just sweet and fresh and a bit bubbly (the rootbeer thing had really gotten to me).

 

As it dries it turns to a tropical, heady floral scent with musk. It reminds me of a chaos bottle I acquired that folks said was jasmine, so I guess it's jasmine or perhaps gardenia maybe? Or none of these because I'm not the note expert. Still with a light bubbly quality.

 

Then it goes mostly musk on me, very light floral.

 

Very nice.

 

Sorry so brief, this is getting interrupted in the writing. I'll try to return with a better one.

 

ETA

Or not. But I will return.

I guess I see where schackjj is coming from with the cinnamon, and the imp IS reddish, but I thought that was the musk. It DOES have a certain spiciness to it (bubbly-spice), but it is pretty musky-floral-with a little spice on the drydown for me, and then mostly musk. And sweet, but not sugary.

 

I like it. Not very masculine, rather pretty IMO. But I'd love to hear what you have to say. MORE MORE please!

Well, I'm glad things are working out.

 

It seems a little odd to me since the LAB'S addie is ALL OVER their website that the person in question would splash this and other areas instead of sending a nice legal letter over to the lab, but whatever. It's a good attention getter. Am I to take it that this has become wank over on LJ? I must rush and see.

 

Had they been paintings, even photorealistic paintings based on an actual photo, oddly enough the ownership there would fall to the painter, rather than the person who took the photo since the two are considered artistically separate entities, unless I'm mistaken...which is entirely possible. I AM mistaken! Or partially so. Copyright law...every time I think I've got a handle on it...

 

Harpers ran some interesting articles about this and Molotov Man.

 

At this point I'd like to applaud both LJ and the forum for keeping it off their space. If it's a legal matter between the lab and Sunkist's owner then it should remain a private thing between them, hopefully resolved shortly and to the satisfaction of all parties.

 

That said, hooray that the Snake Pit has invaded the herpetology community. How cool is that?!!!

 

...um...I guess that was more geeky than I...well, actually I AM that geeky.

Just out of idle curiosity...

 

...the labels on the Snake Pit are PAINTINGS Macha has done, rather than actual photos themselves? They are so pretty, yet surprisingly realistic.

Have any of the rest of you tried Emzebel's Chaos? (Chaos Theory III No. LXXXV)

To me it's beautifully burning paper. She gets burning leaves. Whatever your take on it, it's definite burns-ville and I *heart* it big time -- for originality as well as general good scents.

She's got another imp of it available on her sales thread and I'm shooting my self in the foot telling you (because I want it all to myself) but it's primo burning time.

IF you're into that sort of thing, sicko pyro.

Give it a whirl and tell the thread what you think.

Well, if you sent to Puddin' he's very very nice and would likely forward it to the right direction. No worries either way. Good luck with your post office.