myoubi

Yeah, so I just bought a partial of Mabon and a 10mL of Lex Talionis on ebay. In my defence, the prices were all right given the content (Mabon was a little expensive, I probably should've actually read the auction info...) Lex is a gift for Ian, because I feel a little guilty about realising that I'm keeping "his" bottle of Schwarzer. (He'd better like Lex, because he's got a damn huge bottle coming.) Mabon I just wanted to try, but not enough to actively hunt down an imp.. then this half-full bottle appeared in front of me, and I leapt. I'll wait until all the bottles I have coming are here, sniff through them all, live with them for a bit, then do a massive destashing. I think I'll email Jocosa about Ice Queen... I'm thrilled to have gotten to try as much as I have, and there are one or two bottles I still have my eye on (most notably some Havisham up on Ebay) but once all this has been gone through I think I'll stick to a small stash of fragrances. Still want to try Black Moon, but other than that... eh.

I've held off reviewing DD because even though it's one of my favourite scents, I can't pick out notes in it and it's hard to describe :/ But it's so beautiful that I had to write something here. TONE: Exactly what the name suggests -- dark but delicate. It's a ladylike blend, a bottled version of the blonde-haired dame in a forties film noir. Unique in that, while it has so many rich components and such a dark tone, it nontheless isn't at all a /heavy/ blend. I've never smelled anything like it, and it's purrr-fect for me. NOTES: The orchid comes on strong for a while, and what must be the devil's trumpet accord -- some unnamed floral diluting the high sweetness of the orchid. My mother smells something vaguely cocoa-esque, which I think is the coconut. After a few hours, it dries into this amazing resinous scent warmed by the fruit gums. Still, it escapes being heavy! VERDICT: I love this blend. Hunted down seven decants and then a bottle, and they all mine. Orchid is usually too sweet for me (Queen Mab) but now i'm curious to try Black Moon.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I rifled through my imp box trying to find an appropriately soporific blend. Dove's Heart was the closest I had -- soothing an unquiet mind in order to get some friggin' shut-eye. I applied it to my wrists and temples, and within ten minutes was sleeping like a baby I couldn't identify specific notes in this one (I'm bad with the voodoo blends generally) but there's something about it that reminds me vaguely of Come to Me -- a light herbal aquatic-ness that I actually really like. Dove's Heart is a bit too lavender-y for me to want to wear it as a scent, but it's not unpleasant to smell. On the whole it's a sweet smell, but with an herbal bitterness somewhere in there -- it's light, with relatively good throw and decent staying power, and dries down on me to a sweet powder skin scent that was still on my wrists when I awoke this morning. SO glad I had an imp of this lying around!

I don't like having a lot of bottles sitting around not getting any affection. I also don't like not having bottles of stuff I know I /do/ love -- like tarot: The Hermit, and Brisingamen, and Perversion. I do like being identifiable by scent, so here's the short list of what's staying, what needs to come in and what I know eventually has to go: STAYING Havisham La Fee Verte [signature... when it's not that time of the month] Snow Bunny [dance/saturdays/special-but-not-Going-Out stuff] Shub-Niggurath [winter comfort scent] Perversion --> NEED BOTTLE [Jon] Brisingamen --> NEED BOTTLE [work/professional scent] Tarot: The Hermit --> NEED BOTTLE [studying/focus/divination/introspection scent] Monster Bait: Closet [come-smex-me scent -- could use another bottle] Dark Delicacies GOING The Ecstasy of Passion The Ecstasy of True Love Spooky Snow White Skadi Ice Queen Trick #2 Devil's Night 05 [ach! How I wish I wore this more! it's beautiful... I just don't reach for it much :/] Bitter Moon Pink Moon 2005 Buck Moon Milk Moon Beaver Moon Stardust 05 Spanked Snowblind Cinnamon SN Siberian Musk SN EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED Vieux Carre Bruja Ingenue Brides of Dracula Gypsy Queen MUST TRY Black Moon -- even though it's the same niche as Dark Delicacies, which I looove too much to ever give up Storyville -- I have a weird feeling I'd like it. Yes, even though I've tried it. don't ask me why, I just go with my little hunches... Boomslang -- what can I say, i'm hopeful! MUST BUY Tarot: The Hermit/Brisingamen/Perversion Blue Moon Cancer astrological blend April Fool's blend, whatever it is

It's funny: Ice Queen, the scent that spawned my love affair with BPAL's snowy/icy blends, is actually the one of them I like least now. I still enjoy it, don't get me wrong. It's beautiful, but it's just a little too sharp/hard for me: the white musks are just slightly too prominent, it's just -- well, "too hard" is the only way I can describe it. I have low hopes for Skadi, because it seems that Skadi is Ice Queen but slightly /harder/. Guh. I'm avoiding Frost Moon (eucalyptus smells like armpit funk on me) and Cold Moon/Snow Moon just don't seem worth hunting down. I've tried Ice Queen, Snow White, Snow Bunny, Snow Angel, and Havisham, and I have a bottle of Skadi coming my way. Of those, Snow White I have realised must go -- while she's lovely, she's just too sweet for me, and there's something slightly too aquatic about the scent for me to be comfortable. Part of it is the coconut, but there's this strange milky non-sugar sweetness to it that (while it's nice) I find ultimatel off-putting. and there's no sense in sitting on two bottles of something so sought-after if I'm not gonna love them. Weirdly, I like Snow Bunny much better than I like Snow White -- the Bunny has all of the good things about Snow White, combined with some of the powdersugar perk of Snow Angel. Honestly, while I like Snow Angel (especially on the drydown) I think I might like Snow Bunny better! But Shhh, don't speak loudly of my sacrilege. Havisham is, of course, achingly beautiful: a strange-yet-classic frosty aquatic rose, not a scent to wear every day but a scent to cherish. I'm almost glad I have so little of it -- peversely, it'll stop me taking it for granted, something I feel like I do with my GC loves Perversion and Brisingamen. (Incidentally, I need to learn to stop reviewing scents the first time I wear them: I'm usually too enraptured by their loveliness to step back and see how they /compare/ to things I already like/dislike. Thus my reviews all tend to be gushy, even though I only like some of what I've got.)

My ammo boxes came today. I have four 50-count green ammo boxes and I'm trying to decide how to sort my imps into them... one box is reserved for intent blends (voodoo, celestials, tarot, sephiroth [if I ever get any], panacea, and of course TAL) and one box is reserved for favourites/multiple imps, but I'm not sure what to do with the rest of them. Oh well... I'll figure it out Also, the imp-to-bottle ratio sucks. five imps (admittedly, 2 were partially empty so really about 4.5 imps) make up about 3/4 of a bottle. 4.5 imps = 0.75 bottles, so we're looking at 6 imps to the bottle. Some decanters say they get 7 imps to the bottle. ((glum)) Oh well... at least I have the equivalent of two bottles of DD. Orchid-scented deliciousness, apply here.

m'akay, here's how the next order is shaping up: Milk Moon April Fool's Blend [$35] The Ghost [$50] Tarot: The Hermit [$76.50] April 1, I can/not/ wait for you to get here... I'll ignore Rose Moon, so I should be safe next month (:S) but my beginning-of-June order is gonna start like this: 2xBlue Moon [$35] Brisingamen [$50] oh yeah, and I totally caved. Got a partial bottle of Black Moon. :/

Snow Bunny = teh SEX. I may need another partial bottle to make up one full bottle. I like it better than I like Snow White... it reminds me a lot of Snow Angel, actually, which is a good Now I'm just trying to convince myself /not/ to try Black Moon... even though I'm pretty sure I'll like it, Dark Delicacies fits in the same niche, and I already have a bottle and 7 (yes, seven) decants of that one coming. Mouse's Long and Sad Tale is okay. It dries down to a pleasant sweet vanilla-amber-sandalwood that reminds me a bit of Underpants, only cuter and nicer. I may keep the bottle. RUNNING TO h_f's PLACE!

I cautiously like MLST. PRECONCEPTIONS: I wasn't sure about at first -- based on the note list alone, I thought it would be too cutesy and sweet for me. But someone had a bottle up for sale, and she had other stuff I wanted, so I just bought it and figured what the hell. IN THE BOTTLE: it doesn't smell terribly pleasant -- it's heavy on the vanilla, but it's an odd thin sharp vanilla. Maybe that's the sweet pea. WET AND DRYING: it smelled better -- if I had to identify it I'd say it was a vanilla sweet pea blend. The amber started coming out after about ten minutes, which is good since I like amber, but it doesn't amp hugely on my skin, which is odd. At this stage, and for the next hour, it's almost a straight vanilla-amber made floral by the addition of the twining sweet pea. pleasant, but not a huge amount of throw, and a little too sweet for me... DRY: After about an hour, though, the sandalwood starts coming through. Mmmm. With the warmth of the sandalwood to ground it, and once the sweet pea has stopped twining around everything with its cloying sweetness, this turns into a lovely vanilla-amber-sandalwood scent that is stopped from being thick and too warm by the /hint/ of greeny-sweet floral. It's very pleasant, and I like smelling it. BOTTOM LINE: I do like it. I'll have to live with it for a bit to see if I'll really use it, and it is a bit gentle for me, but it's not something I'm aching to heave out of my box. Reccomended for those who like the sweet and gentle scents; it's everthing it promises to be, if you can get past the phase of choking sweetsweetsweet pea-vanilla.

I need to go with my instincts more often on scents. Gorgeous, and now I need more. Snow Bunny is, as many people have said, a sweet soft pine scent, with the sugariness of Snow Angel and (somewhere) a hint of floral. I don't get the juicy berries a lot of people are talking about, but then again that's a good thing, because fruit sometimes stomps all over everything with my skin chemistry, and I"m glad it's staying nicely to the back. I never thought I'd say this about a pine scent, but this is very delicate and feminine -- it doesn't have the agressive forestyness of (say) Nocnitsa. This isn't a scent for everyone, it /is/ powder as the description suggests, but for those put off by the pine, don't be -- I am not a fan of smelling like a Christmas tree and that kept me from trying Snow Bunny for a while, but I am sooo glad I did. To me Snow Bunny smells like the best parts of both Snow Angel and Snow White -- it doesn't have the slushy watery coconut-sweetness that Snow White has, and it isn't overpowering like Snow Angel can be. It's girlier than Snow Angel (yes, it is possible!) but more cheerful than Snow White, which is IMO a good thing. It's crisp and girly and rosy-cheeked as the description suggests. Beth got this one spot-on, and I will treasure my half-bottle.

Someone frimped me a sample of Shub soap. I just bathed with it, and I am sooooo glad I have a bottle of gingery Shub-Niggurath-y goodness coming my way. Also, Bruja is divine. I have half a bottle and it's not a MAD QUEST FOR MORE scent like Ingenue... but of course, another DC I had to fall for. :/ Ah well. Mom fell in love with The Ghost -- I gave her a frimp of it and she wants a bottle. And there's probably going to be an April fool's blend when Milk Moon goes live. So the Milk Moon order is looking like this: -1 bottle Milk Moon ($17.50) -1 bottle Therianthropic (?) ($17.50) -1 bottle The Ghost ($15) -1 bottle April Fool's blend ($17.50) Sheila Ross also fell in love with my Brimstone locket! So we're getting her a Phoenix locket for her birthday, which has passed. I think I may slip some soaps in with that order...

Thanks to Ah Xia for helping me get ahold of some of this! This one doesn't change much on me, and for that I'm glad -- because it's beautiful. I get mostly creamy amber and dark myrrh, but it's saved from being heavy by what must be the lilac -- a gentle florally scent that smells almost like lavender when intermingled with the amber. This is a scent I could wear every day, if I had enough of it. The myrrh makes it warm and sexy, but it's also a scent I could wrap myself in like a blanket on cold winter days. I'm glad I have a half-bottle, and would not at all mind nabbing more.

((inhales wrist deeply)) mmmmm.... I think I'd sell a kidney for more Havisham. My love affair with icy, snowy florals is official. Purchasing Plans: -2 bottles of Blue Moon, when it comes out -a bottle of Milk Moon, when it comes out (depending on what else is in it...) -the Cancer astrological blend, when it comes out -some Brisingamen with my next order -some Tarot: The Hermit when I have the cash lying around So far we're looking at (est. $17.50 for LE's) $113.50 without shipping. And that's only the ones I *know* I'm buying.

Dear God this is beautiful. I was fortunate enough to come by a partial bottle of this beauty (thanks to the generous swapping of lj's miaandmoe) and I am so glad as it has rocketed into my top 10. Havisham is a freezing, vaguely aquatic rose, but a rose that's not at all old-ladyish -- it's slightly herbal, and somehow vaguely spicy. I get a hint of the dust that others have mentioned, but it's not at all unpleasant -- on the contrary, it's a nice grounding note in relation to the other florals. I'm not good at dissecting floral scents, and this one blends into my skin pretty quickly, but leaving a trace of itself behind, it doesn't just disappear (if you know what I mean). If this was a GC, I would bathe in it. As it is, I may never get my hands on more, but that won't stop me trying. ::

The process of extracting my head from my butt has been long and arduous, but I think I've made progress. I almost let _perfume_ damage a friendship with someone I care about. I'm such an idiot. :/ I sincerely hope i haven't fundamentally changed our relationship for the worse... although I guess now she's seen what a selfish tard I can be. Um, yay honesty. I'd write about that more, but I can just say it in person. GOD I'm such an idiot. In other news, we have lockets! I'm wearing my Brimstone locket right now, and h_f's gorgeous White Rabbit locket is sitting in its little velvet pouch on my bathroom counter. At first I looked at mine and thought O.o damn that's big -- but surprisingly, given that I usually don' tlike large jewellery, I'm very fond of it. It's quite elegant, and when strung on a ribbon is a lovely simple statement piece. I'm wearing it with LFV inside right now. Speaking of, I nabbed some more La Fee Verte. Okay, I think I have enough of it now. Srsly. Three decants, three bottles and two more bottles on the way (four of those bottles are partials, but even so -- about 40mL). I have enough of it to last me a lifetime, which is exactly what I intended. I also have a total of seven decants of Dark Delicacies. No more of that one, either. I've built up enough stuff-to-swap that if I'm really hankering for anything, I have a chance of finding it -- some SNs, some unreleased blends, Passion. I need to get more Green Tree Viper before it goes down, and perhaps bottles of Brisingamen and banded Sea Snake... but other than that, I think I'm done. ...Oh God, I'm _so_ not done. Maybe I should just stop trying to convince myself. Finished Season II of House. I need more House! Whyyyy?

DISCLAIMINER: None of the ingredients in this perfume, barring currant, agree with me at all. my review is biased accordingly. In the imp, this smells like red wine and thyme. On my skin, it's /very/ fruity -- sweet currants and berries, with an undercurrent of rich red alcohol. I was surprised at how sweet and fruity it was, given its namesake. Although I like currant, it was just too berry-y for me. Ten minutes later, it's basically all red wine. Have you ever put the cork of a bottle of red wine to your nose and sniffed it? That slightly dry, wine-y scent? imagine someone had opened a bottle of raspberry juice in the room, and there you have Lady Macbeth. I'm sure this is lovely and deep and sexy on someone. On me it just smells like I've been indulging in very expensive vino.

LIME! Coconut. (peppermint?) In that order. soooooo not for me.

The lab description prettymuch tells it like it is; unfortunately, I don't know why I keep trying lily perfumes, but it's a note that just doesn't jive with me. For the record, I get more lily than honey, but it is a bold, warm lily (! I swear, not an oxymoron). Lily also hates me. So out it goes.

This smells like it was described to me -- a grown-up, slightly floral vanilla. However, that's /all/ it is -- a grown-up, slightly floral vanilla. I like the scent of it, but it's slightly too warm and sweet for me. Also, my skin amps vanilla like crazy. *I'm picky about vanilla scents, because vanilla so often smells synthetic or plasticcy or cloying to my nose. This is a true, simple beautiful vanilla, that deepens into lightly floral complexity as time goes on. I like it, it's just not for me.

...over the last few days I have scored four decants of Dark Delicacies, a bottle of Hope (shipped!) for the price of a GC, imps of King and Queen of Diamonds, and an imp of Chaste Moon which through the magic of swapping I hope to turn into an imp of Ingenue. ___ ON BUYING THINGS TO SWAP 'EM: This is not a black-and-white issue. Buying stuff for the purpose of swapping it away for rare decants is frowned upon by many in the BPAL community, and I can sort of understand why: we're all here because we have a strong and sentimental attachment to our smellies, so if you don't actually want it for what it is, let someone who truly loves it have the scent. I can understand that perspective, and I guess if I was giving up something I loved 'cause I needed the $$, at the end of the day I'd rather it go to someone who would appreciate it rather than just want it for its value. But also, a couple of things: -once you sell something, it's out ofyour hands. Your attachment to that item has ended, and with it your right to make moral judgments about how it's used. Whatever-it-is is no longer yours. let it go. -As a n00b, it's really hard to see people raving about all these great rare scents, and then not being able to try them because they're only up for swap for things of "equally rare value". You _have_ to start with purchasing, and the easiest way to break into the rares market is to buy something to trade. Sometimes what comes up for sale isn't what you want at the end of the day; but then again, sometimes you bring home an imp you intended to just swap away, and find a new love. -buying things to swap is actually pretty utilitarian. Picture this: you have four people, A; B; C; and D (shut up, it's late I'm not imaginative). A has a decant of Voodoo Queen that she is selling. B has a decant of Storyville that she will only swap for Voodoo Queen or Lugh. C has wanted to try Storyville for ages, but she doesn't have Voodoo QUeen (and she def. doesn't have lugh). D really loves Voodoo Queen (but in order to know that, s/he would need to have enough to test --> probably has a decant already). If D buys the decant of Voodoo Queen, two people are happy: A and D. A has gotten $ for it, and D has more of what she already tested and knows she likes. This has no effect on B, but C still can't even access storyville. If C buys the decant of Voodoo Queen, three people are happy: A, B and C. A has gotten the $ that she would've gotten anyway. C now has access to something she really wants (Storyville; and in the process got to test Voodoo Queen) and B has something she really wants. D isn't happy, but you can't make all of the people happy all of the time. Purchasing decants to swap is, from a utilitarian perspective, a pretty good idea. More people get what they want out of the market -- where's the harm in that? it's like the idea of "too much profit". No such thing. If Beth wants to spend her $$ on a Lamborghini, I don't care, although since oil prices will have increased I'll probably be able to buy less perfoom. Which, in the end, might actually be a good thing for my pocketbook. How do you like fast Italian cars, Beth?

with scents I like. Or, uhm, *think* I'll like. Or just get a weird hankering after, and decide for no logical reason that I'll adore. This is how it tends to go: I get curious about a scent, whether I just see a decant of it pop up or for some reason I like the name that day. I skim the reviews. I read the reviews. I re-read the reviews. I snap up the first decant of it I see. I re-read the reviews, decide I love it, and hunt down as much as I can find. I get the first decant, and try it on. It's oooo-kay. I have five more coming. Great. This is how I got so much Snowblind. Everyone was all "oooh! Snowblind!" and I tried it and it was... meh. I just really, reallly hope I like Havisham. Because I swapped 2 decant sof Passion and 2mL of Snow Angel for the bottle I have a-coming in the mail...

Preconceptions: Rose doesn't often jive with me -- whether it's lush (like Rose Red/Peacock Queen) or soft and florally, it usually just smells like old lady. That said, I loooooove the scent of rosehip tea, and I wanted Hope to fill that scent niche. It doesn't smell precisely like rosehip tea, but it goes one better: it smells like sweet rose candy, beautiful and fresh. It's (much) sweeter and prettier than I usually like in fragrances, but it doesn't go old-lady at all! It stays true to the description -- simple and innocent -- and dries down, after hours and hours, to the most subtle feminine perfume. So sad, because her sister turned to instant play-doh on my skin. I /will/ find a way to secure a 5mL...

Banded Sea Snake is one of the snakes that I instantly passed over in at first. I am sooo glad I found an imp. As many have remarked, it's tough to get a handle on -- and particularly since I don't wear mosses /or/ aquatics, I have no idea what the notes I'm sniffing really smell like. However, on my skin it's an androgynous-to-masculine blend that's warmer and smoother than the original Snake Oil, and less sugar-sweet. I get a little of the saltiness that other people have mentioned, but what comes out most prominently on my skin is the rich olive leaf -- over a backdrop of the Snake Oil spices. You'd never mistake BSS for Snake Oil, but the Snake Oil base is definitely noticeable. Although BSS has a somewhat masculine tone, I don't find it at all difficult to wear -- it has a gravity and depth that's different from my usual cold scents and I'd feel comfortable wearing this with a power suit to the office, or curled up beside the fire on a winter day. On me it hugs fairly close to the skin, but my nose is defective so YMMV. Once I scrape some more cash together I'm seriously contemplating a bottle of this 'un.

which is why I feel okay about posting in here. I'm getting scared of my own disinterest. The only thing I seem to have any enthusiasm for these days is my perfume collection! Yes, all right, BPAL is wonderful and blahdy blah, but I know why it's become such an obsession for me: because right now, there isn't anything else. and that's terrifying. There is nothing else I can muster the energy to care about or do. I can barely even speak to my girlfriend, although her gorgeous self is present in my thoughts. I thought leaving university would make the apathy better. It hasn't. Maybe I'm being impatient? I've been home a week... It's not as though there's some magic wand to wave to make everything fine. But I hate this. I can't care about anything, and I'm just unhappy.

Voodoo Punani amps the saffron on me. It's nice; I like it. It ends up smelling surprisingly sophisiticated, like I wanted Monster Bait: Underpants to smell. Underpants was just too vanilla, though. :/