summer

What the heck??? In the vial, on my skin, and even hours later, this smelled like Strawberry Shortcake doll heads. I mean, exactly like them. Rarely has a scent evoked something so specific for me, but this one did. So perplexing. I wanted to like this so much! The ingredients sound right up my alley. But the Strawberry Shortcake doll head scent is so overpowering that when I sniff it, it's as if the smell STAYS in my nose! Even if I sniff other oils afterwards, all I can smell is Strawberry Shortcake doll heads. I like to think that I am an imaginitive sniffer, so I'm particularly annoyed at myself for not being able to get beyond this particular association. Perhaps I will try it again in a week or so and hope for a better skin chemistry reception. But for now, this one is on my "don't go near with a ten-foot-pole" list. Not because it smells bad -- I used to love sniffing my Strawberry Shortcake dolls! -- but just because it's so strong and smells so specifically like them. I just can't wear it! Waaaaahh. Edited to add: A-ha! After getting the single-note Fig, I realized that FIG is the Strawberry-Shortcake doll head component. So I'm NOT going crazy! I guess that the fig note is clearly what stands out for me in Carnal. So fig lovers, Carnal is your oil. I haven't tried it again since my review, but I think I will just to see if I can think of it as figgy and foody rather than plastic-like.

And here's another question too -- Some of my big bottles I got to use in oil burners. If the bottle doesn't have a dropper/stopper/whatever on it, does anyone have any ideas for how to get 3-4 drops into the burner without pouring the whole bottle out? Quite frankly, I'm mystified, and I'm really hoping that my Namaste and Oneiroi bottles come with stoppers, because I find it difficult even to pour from the imp bottles! *scratches head*

Could it be Glitter?? Dragon's Milk also sounds likely. Ag, now I'm dying of curiosity too!

The most sweetie-candy ones that I've tried are: -Dragon's Milk (marachino-cherry & almond candy) -Glitter (pineapple hard candy) -Bliss (pure milk chocolate) -Carnivale (another red syrupy candy one, but a bit more complex) -Akuma (BERRY) -Carnal (BERRY) -Maenad (BERRY) -Hollywood Babylon (BERRY) Also sweet, but not in a "candy" way: -Snake Oil (vanilla & spices) -O (warm honey) -Dana O'Shee (warm milk & almonds) -Regan (light floral sweet vanilla) -Black Lotus (smells blackcurranty) -Old Sybarus (sweet violet vanilla) -Le Serpent Qui Danse (also a sweet violet) -The Star (sweet coconut!) -Imp (apricot) -March Hare (apricot)

I just do not care for this at all. It's a very true earth scent -- bitter, slightly moist, darkest black dirt. Not mud, not clay -- but that soft, black earth that sticks under your fingernails as you comb your hands through it. On me, it smelled very very bitter, and a bit masculine. It also gave me a very "heavy" feeling. Dark. Unclean. While I can appreciate how evocative this oil is, it just doesn't jive well with my skin or my personality. Wearing it, I felt lethargic and dulled-down. I am starting to think that earth scents aren't my thing -- no surprise, since I have absolutely no earth in my astrological chart. I ordered Burial thinking that it would add a missing dimension, but instead everything about me just rejects it. I'm going to continue to experiment with earth by trying Zombi, but I don't have high hopes for it -- I think that Virgo may be a safer, less vicerally-earthy bet!

Ooh, Sacred Whore of Babylon sounds gorgeous. As does the Gardenia single-note. I love gardenias.

I would go for The Caterpillar (*swoon*)! Old New Orleans, Twilight, Midnight, and Voodoo all sound like good bets to me too.

This smells like something very naughty. Leather pants and roll-your-own tobacco and sweet rum drinks. Something about it reminds me of the beach -- not the breezy days of sand and saltwater, but the nights, when your burnished skin (freshly anointed with after-sun oils) glistens as the orangy tiki-torch lights of an outdoor nightclub dance across it, and as you sip your melting pina colada and scan the place (with smoldering, smudged-eyeliner eyes) looking for someone to go home with. It's coconutty, but dark and sweet and touched ever so slightly with that soft new leather smell. It definitely smells like the night before the morning after. Ooh, I like it. It's not an everyday scent, but I can see myself LOVING this to wear out at night. This fragrance easily manages to compliment the smell of cigarette smoke while still managing to smell sweet and sexy.

Oh god, this is divine. The kind of scent that makes me want to press my nose into my skin and inhale deeply. It's sweet, warm, melty honey (with the amber emerging more as it dries down). It's a subtle smell on me, but one that I keep catching whiffs of -- it's like a warm, sweet, delicious breeze wafting over me. Just perfect for when you don't necessarily want to smell like "perfume," you just want to smell wonderful. Big bottle, here I come.

I have found the oil to wear during my period. (Sorry if that's TMI!) Normally when I sniff this, and even when I apply it, it smells too syrupy and sweet for me to associate it with anything lunar. It smells like fruit candy, and always puts me off -- not because it smells bad, but because it just doesn't seem to "fit." However, I'm mid-cycle, and I felt inclined to try it. INSTANTLY this became a beautiful, familiar-smelling light, sweet-yet-dry floral with just enough mystery and just enough depth. I am *so* pleasantly surprised, as there is no trace of the candied fruit that I normally smell -- rather the sweetness provides a gentle cradle for the shy, but powerful white gardenia. It defintely smells of gardenia to me -- the favorite flower of all of the older women in my family. This fragrance is definitely female, and is vibeing perfectly with my menstrual body chemistry! I'm so glad I gave it a chance. Wearing it now, it fits perfectly with the cool, white, feminine, soft complexity that I always imagined a lunar oil would have.

This started out very unpleasant on my skin, but quickly dried down into a warm, dry, smokey scent that reminds me of shops that sell middle eastern antiques. It smells like old fabrics and wooden boxes! It's definitely a beautiful oil -- I am sniffing my wrists every 5 seconds -- but it's not "me." Sandalwood is hard for me to wear. It's almost as if it's too dark, too dry, and too somber for my personality. However, the rest of the elements in this blend do a wonderful job of supporting the sandalwood and making it smell rich and warm and alive! I'm impressed with this, but probably will not wear it again. Edited to add: This has done strange things to my mood! I've just scarfed half a box of Hot Tamales, and I feel ... fiesty! Edited again to add: Now the cinnamon is coming through more as I wear it. *deeep sniff* That's it, that's the last time I review an oil before I've worn it for at least several days! This one, like so many others, is proving to be very changeable and is settling in nicely to my skin!

This smells like milk chocolate melting with heavy cream over a stove. It's rich, languid, warm, and chocolaty. It's gorgeous. I might not want to smell quite this edible (I mean, literally, I'm tempted to lick my arm) on a daily basis, but this is a delicious scent to have on hand -- I can see myself layering it with other fragrances, using it as a room fragrance, or dabbing some behind my ears on days when I need pure, sweet comfort! This would be a divine Valentine's Day scent. Edited to add: Wearing this is absolutely divine. It seems to melt right into my skin. And as it sinks in, it starts to smell richer and less sugary, but still luxuriously sweet and chocolaty. This is the ideal chocolate perfume -- it smells SO true, but somehow manages to be wearable.

This smells like a very aquatic gentleman's cologne, but not so masculine that it's unwearable for women. However, the masculine edge -- almost a sharpness -- is definitely there. As it dries down it gets mossier and more green. It's a lovely, calm scent, and although I probably won't wear it much as a perfume for myself, I really look forward to trying it on my husband. He's a Pisces; watery scents smell really nice on him!

MmmmmMMM! The Caterpillar is a heady, lazy, hazy, incensy sweet floral that achieves perfect head-shop hippy femininity. Very jasminey and round, with a hazy, earthy element that is sublimely relaxing. I find that this becomes more incency on my skin as I wear it, which is just fine with me, for it's a sweet, cool, floaty incense rather than a heavy, church-like one. Having spent the past 5 days in Amsterdam, I can tell you that this fragrance was MADE for spending a decadantly warm, golden summer afternoon in the park lying in that thick, hearty Northern European grass while the fragrance of the plentiful flowers mingles with the occassional wafts of sweet herbal smoke coming from the blankets of nearby sunbathers. It's warm, calming, a little bit subversive, and unabashedly feminine and luxurious. LOVE it, basically.

This smelled very metallic to me -- like hot metal that makes you draw your hand back away suddenly when you touch it. There's definitely a bit of spice (cinammon?) to this one, but it's not a warm, foody spice -- rather, it's a hard-edged spice. I found it pleasant enough at first, but it seemed to get more and more metallic on me with wear. I will update after I've tried it again.

I tried the following on my husband the other night (against his will, might I add): Jolly Roger -- this smelled fresh, but a bit too floral and feminine on him. He is a very sophisticated Lebanese man (his favorite fragrance is vetivert), and the scent of the fresh high seas just didn't work on him. Oberon -- this smelled nice, but also not quite "him." It was very piney. I look forward to trying this one on myself. Burial -- this smelled like wood and fresh earth. He liked the scent, but not to wear as a fragrance. Hemlock -- I liked this one on him. It was very herbal and fresh, but in a "bright" way, almost like a really flashy aftershave. This would smell great on him fresh out of the shower, right before going out into the hot sun. I'm thinking of ordering some imps especially for him, but I'm not sure where to start. He likes fresh, citrussy things grounded by vetivert and spice, but nothing overwhelming. He likes "understated." I look forward to experimenting with oils for him!

This is *very* sweet, girly, and powdery. To me, it's all bright purple and unicorns -- the kind of scent I would have loved to wear when I was 8 and I wanted to be a princess. It's definitely pretty. However, it's distractingly sweet, without any spice or dark notes or foodiness (apart from the fluffy vanilla) to bring it down to earth and make it wearable for me. I can see it being beautiful on the right person, however.

Very clean, watery, and lemony, with the green tea acting as a somewhat grounding (but still watery) base. I found this very pleasant, but it dissappeared from my skin in, like, 30 seconds. I think this would be a lovely scent for laundry, or to infuse throughout the house during spring cleaning. Pure, light, fresh, and natural.

Gasp! This is lovely. In the bottle and wet on the skin, it is the bitterest neroli -- so bitter that I feared I wouldn't like it. However, within seconds on my skin, it dries down to a sweet, creamy, slightly floral neroli with just enough thickness, darkness, and depth. This is what I wished that Lush's Prince smelled like -- neroli, but a lush, sexy neroli rather than a light, watery one. This fragrance has lifted me right out of the "blahs" today and is one of my favorite BPALs to date. Totally uplifting. A scent I could wear daily. Edited to add: My only complaint with this one is that the scent dissappears from my skin within about half an hour.

Persephone is a gorgeous red, wet, dripping, tangy rose fragrance. I hardly ever wear rose-based fragrances, but Persephone just bursts with that slightly sweet and tangy edge that the pomegranite gives it! It smells sharp and fruity on first sniff, and dries down to a sweet rose scent. The overall effect is absolutely brilliant, because rose usually smells dry and musty to me, but Beth has made it soft and wet and juicy in this blend. Thank you Beth, for bringing roses to life for me! I plan to get a 5ml bottle.

That information is very helpful, thank you! I've been looking for precicely such a chart. So what BPAL oils do you feel correspond, based either on the essential oil ingredients or on pure "feel" or intuition? I ask because the oils you might want to use for healing are not necessarily ones you'd want to wear as your daily fragrance. Do any of the BPAL fragrances evoke a particular chakra's energy for you?

Apologies if this has been discussed already -- my search didn't turn up anything. ( So, I'm wondering -- what oils, if any, do you think are useful for stimulating/opening the various chakras? I know that when I feel weak in a certain area, I tend to wear colors and use gemstones to focus my energy on that area. For example, if I feel that I'm having a difficult time expressing myself, I'll focus on the throat chakra by wearing a blue pendant, meditating on blue, and generally surrounding myself with blue images. I thought that using fragrances would be a marvellous way to do this too! What fragrances do you associate with each chakra? I haven't tried to articulate it before now, but my initial feelings (based mostly on the oils that I have) are: First Chakra (root chakra; grounding, acceptance) -- Burial; Zombi, Blood Rose Second Chakra (sacral chakra; creativity, sexuality) -- Carnal; Carnivale Third Chakra (navel center; commitment) -- Fourth Chakra (heart chakra; compassion) -- Venus! Fifth Chakra (throat chakra; truth, communication) -- Water of Notre Dame? Sixth Chakra (third eye chakra; intuition) -- Seventh Chakra (crown chakra; boundlessness, divinity) -- Eighth Chakra (aura) -- Pain; The Sun; Luna I've left some of them blank because I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly the right scent . . . I'm eager to hear your suggestions!

Vicious Mistress, that's an absolutely brilliant idea! I've been experimenting with oils the whole time I've been studying so it's hard to nail down one that will trigger my memory associations, but I will think about which ones I've been most productive and had the most clarity while wearing and pick one of those. Thanks!

Oh Twilight! Best of luck to you too. Two of my best friends are taking the New York bar, and all the distinctions are driving them mad . . . Thank you for posting! It really feels like we're all in this together, doesn't it? Let me know what oil you decide to wear!

What great suggestions! LOL, I love the idea of just taking them ALL. Actually, I think I may go the opposite end of the spectrum and only take ONE. One oil, just one, to be the scent that represents my travels. That way whenever I smell it thereafter I will think of the trip! I'm thinking of choosing one that I'm not already really familiar with (Snake Oil, Venus, and Libra are my current staples). Or maybe I'll take one staple (like Libra) and one "new" oil that I can get to know on the trip?