myoubi

I just nabbed 4 50-slot ammo boxes off a hunting store online. The total with shipping to Canada was $13.74, which I feel is acceptable (even though the cost for the boxes themselves was $3.49 0.o) -- that's about $4.50 per box, which isn't insane, although it's a bit more than I'd like. Perhaps I'll swap two of them away for some imps -- I only have 50-some-odd imp/decants anyway, and some of those are going in bottles. Havisham (1 imp) and Ice Queen (4 imps) are going into the bottles I've found for them -- that's 5 of my 57 decants taken care of. I'll likely swap away some of my GC's, and I already know I hate Tarot: The Star (unfortunately). There'll be a whole row of 5 slots for my precious Ingenue, likewise for my Dark Delicacies decants. I can probably just save time and keep my swapping imps in one box. Or maybe I'll use one box for my intent blends -- like my voodoo blends and TALs... I'm so excited! I love getting new stuff, especially new ways to arrange my scents. Now I just need an adequate box for my bottles... as in, one that can fit 10mL's as well :/ I have four (and they're alllll La Fee Verte.) Now I'm feeling that lovely gloating that goes along with possessing things one loves.

mmkay. So I enabled a friend a while ago, and since then we've had a pretty loose arrangement regarding swapping BPAL. For a while I bought her BPAL and she paid me back in rave tickets, which worked out for everyone. I've also given her some things: most notably, I passed along first an imp and then my 2/3 full bottle of Voodoo Queen, because much as I liked it it smelled better on her than it did on me. If I see something I know she wants, I'll swap from my pile of stuff to get it for her. And that's why I'm a little bit frustrated, and I know it's not justified. There's a scent I /love/ -- Ingenue. Damn hard to find. A while ago she saw an imp of it for sale, and bought it for me -- and then she fell in love with it. :/ You can see where this is going, I think. I'm a little cheesed off, because in the past I've given her things I knew she'd enjoy, even though they were rare and swappable, and I could've used them to collect things I wanted. It's not fair to give a gift with the expectation of getting something in return; that's not really giving, and it's not fair to either party. At the time I didn't think that was what I was doing, but I find myself a bit upset that I gave up things for her, and she's not willing to do the same for me - even for one decant. It's not going to drive a wedge through our friendship or any such thing, but I'm materialistic enough that it annoys me. The biggest problem (insofar as there is actually a problem, which is debatable) is that there's nothing I can do about it. I didn't pay for it, she purchased it as a gift (and informed me it was such) before she decided to keep it; and I can't be angry at her for not reciprocating a feeling I had, or a way of doing things that I decided to follow. It just makes me upset, and I don't think I'll be looking out for her wants in the future. :/

Dotted my wrists with my nine-month-old Snake Oil this morning, and it's glorious. I can't believe I wasn't a huge fan in the beginning... it goes a little play-doh on me after a few hours and I have to reapply, but after it ages it's the most gorgeous sophisticated warm spice scent. On my skin the amber is prominent, and I love amber... so glad I have a bottle. Also, next time I order from the lab I need to buy a bottle of Vixen to put away. I sniffed an imp of Vixen that someone had aged for over a year, and it was heavenly. Things I'd like to try: Boomslang -- I'm not sure I'd want a whole bottle of this one, but I'd like to try it. Also, I'm pretty sure Sophia would like it. For her birthday, she's getting a bottle of Boomslang and a bottle of Velvet (she likes cocoa-y scents). Hope -- I want a bottle of this beauty. Faith, unfortunately, goes instant play-doh on me, and I don't think it's salvageable. Scent locket? I have a brimstone locket coming... Other than that, I'm prettymuch out of wants! I have almost a full bottle of Ice Queen, ditto Havisham, I have an imp of Voodoo Queen which is all I'll ever need (it's too heavy for my complexion... but it's oh-so-beautiful), I've got a bottle of Snow Angel and much as I love it I'll never need more, I've got more MB: Closet than I'll ever use (but it's soooo goood), I've got a bottle of Snake Charmer and seriously, I could decant from it, I like aged Snake Oil better anyway; I wouldn't mind trying Storyville, Formula 54 and Blue Moon but I'm not rabid for any of them, and I have an imp of Intergalactic coming and if I need another one I've got stuff to swap. The only thing I really want more of is Ingenue. I'd like to build up a collection of 7-9 imps, ideally, which would be enough for me to be comfortably sure that I wouldn't run out. I have stuff I can swap for this, too -- I can decant from my bottle of Passion if I have to, or dangle my Trick 2 out there as an enticement. I have two single notes coming that can be swapped away without breaking my heart, although I want to keep my Blood Orange SN no matter how it smells on me (I love the scent of blood oranges). I have bottles of Pink Moon 2007 and Ostara coming; I'm very much looking forward to Ostara, very much. In some ways, my lack of wants right now is good; through careful swapping, I've tried most of the rares out there that interested me at all, and I've kept the ones I wanted and let the others go, but now I get to look to scents that have just come out and decide right away, based on what's in them, whether I want them -- there's no reputation or legend attached to the new stuff yet. That's kind of exciting. I'm also looking forward to Blue Moon 2007, and the Cancer astrological blend, although if it's chamomile and lavender I'll load the bottle into a gun and shoot myself. I'll be purchasing any/all blends available for July because it's my birth month, and probably two bottles of 07 Blue Moon (just because I'm pretty sure it's going to be up my alley -- cool and soft and somewhat crisp and airy, gently sweet). So glad I got $1100 back from my taxes -- probably around $250 of that will go to BPAL... Another $250 will go to paying for my rave habit [$500] leaving about $600 to sustain the rest of my expensive lifestyle for three months. That's $200 a month, or $50 a week. I should be okay, although I'll have to stop buying so many books. :/

Bah! Why?? Lovely in the imp -- pretty much as the description reads. Sweet violets, a touch cloying but very pleasant. On my skin -- instant play-doh. Violet /hates/ me.

Shub. I'm serious. The zippy ginger is like instant backbone on a day when all I want to do is curl up in bed and bawl, and the warmth is very comforting in the winter... it's an I'm-ready-to-face-the-world kind of scent. yumm.

Add another vote for Brides of Dracula, which shouldn't be too hard to find -- it's floating around. I tried Les Bijoux and it was like a fruitier Brides on me. I like Brides much better but YMMV

My imp of this has the consistency of syrup -- delicate, dusky-red syrup. I almost want to keep it for the shade alone. IN THE IMP it smells like... red musk. but fruity red musk, with overtones of sage. I like red musk, but I have three scents with it already, and it tends to stomp all over everything else... WET ON SKIN it smells like fruity red musk with lavender, which quickly dries down to... lavender and sage. What do you know, the red musk is actually taking a relative back seat in this blend. DRY I get lavender and mango. and sage. But not aggressive, dry sage -- it's sweetened by the mango. The mango is actually quite prominent, but not to the point of juiciness -- I'm normally put off by sweet, fruity blends and this is quite nice. It stays pretty true on me, a lavender-mango blend with a warm red musk backdrop that wafts up from my wrists. It has good throw but isn't obnoxious. Unfortunately, when I'm in the mood for a warm scent there are things I have bottles of that I can reach for, and it's not worth this imp's time to keep something so rare when it'll gather dust. I'll pass it on, but it's quite a nice blend -- not, however, something I am gaga for. Maybe someone will swap me for some Ice Queen or Ingenue...

Disclaimer: I'm sick and don't have the greatest nose in the first place. HOWEVER... ...it's hard to identify any single note in this scent, it's very well-blended; the only thing that comes out strongly is the peach blossom, with the patchouli behind it. Everything else just forms this slightly resinous, rather sweet warm haze. It's warm, and slightly fruity, and sweet in a non-sugary way. I like it, and I'm glad I managed to snag a couple of decants, but it's not really a 'me' scent. As lovely as it is, it's just a bit too warm and fruity for my personality. We'll see if I can swap for some Infatuation...

Thanks to the lovely Jocosa, who frimped me a 1/4 imp of this rare beauty As much as I love this scent, my nose sucks, so this review is almost completely impressionary and I'm awful at picking out notes... Ice Queen is lovely. It's a subtle, light scent that doesn't scream its presence -- the soft musks ground it in the skin, and when I wear it the wafts I get are of the iciest spruce and some light and unidentified fruits. They aren't juicy fruit scents, but a touch of sweetness that's rendered more complex by some unidentifiable floral. Other than the spruce, which is definately present, the scent is very well-blended -- it doesn't separate out into components and they're tough to tease out even when I'm really hunting. THis one is gorgeous, and will be lovingly saved.

Hmm-mm-mm. I'm not quite sure what to think of this one. Two things stand out: 1) it's very well-blended; and 2) it's quite a morpher. In the bottle and at first application, I couldn't stand it -- it smelled horribly "perfumey", too strong, tooo dark. Like someone trying too hard to be vampy and sexy. After about 20 minutes, though, it settled down into something I could stand and actually kind of liked -- green without being acidic, floral without being overpowering, dark without being bitter or super-sweet. I left it and went about my business. Four hours later it's dried down to a marvellous sexy blend with a base of white honey. I wish the white honey came out much more prominently earlier (and I might just try layering it with O to see if that helps...) and I don't like the beginning stages at all; but now it's this delicately swirling, very sexy scent that's dark without being heavy (!!!!) and that hugs close to my skin without being invisible. I love the dry-drydown. I just loathe the beginning. We'll see. I'll have to live with this one for a bit. But as far as the eventual outcome goes. Faiza is yummmmy.

A lot of people said they were surprised by what they got in this inquisition, but the Ecstasy of Passion fit my story perfectly By fragrance alone I was hoping for True Love, but now that I have this, I'm not disappointed. In the bottle this kind of scares me -- the red musk is very prominent, and something about the red musk combined with the clove has an almost patchouli-like feel (I don't know, all right? my nose is weird.) On my skin this is still very spicy red-musk-y, and the clove is definately picking up -- a smudgy, sweet clove, not agressive. This is very well-blended, and I'm having a lot of trouble picking out individual notes, but it's a warm spicy blend... unfortunately, warm spicy blends are rarely my cup of tea :S The drydown, however, makes it all worthwhile. Curiously I get no vanilla until after about half an hour (vanilla usually amps like crazy on my skin) -- the rich dark bourbon vanilla isn't really present from close up, but from about half a foot away the scent of it begins to hover, mixing with the petitgrain and a hint of clove. Right up against my skin, it's still warm and spicy but the red musk is no longer eating everything else, and the amber is beginning to come out -- not as powdery as it usually is on me, more the creamy amber I've heard other people talk about VERDICT: I like Passion a lot, particularly after it's had a while to settle down. However, I'm much more comfortable in light, cool, slightly silvery scents than warm spicy musky fragrances, and so I don't think I'll reach for this one often. When I do, though...

This review is for Snow White 2005; I'll tack on my review for 04 when I test it out. Unlike most reviewers, this one doesn't morph a lot on my skin. It's a cool, fresh scent with a hint of florally sweetness, but it's nontraditional -- I'm not fond of florals /or/ "fresh" smells usually, but this is lovely. It's creamy without being thick, heavy or foody, and there's something dewy-fresh and slightly rosy to it. It hovers close to the skin, and there's a dash coconut in it, but again, it's not heavy or foody, just a touch of sweetness. Snow White 05 is a very unusual scent, and I'm glad I managed to snag a bottle. If you like light, sweetly clear scents a la La Fee Verte (my personal BPAL favourite) Snow White 05 is a must-try. ---

PRECONCEPTIONS: This was the blend I was most excited for in the entire update, by a long shot. Although Snake Oil itself was iffy on me (straight-up vanilla) I nontheless had high hopes for the Viper. IN THE BOTTLE: Mint! But not a cold mint like Snowblind or Lick It. It still has that freshness and kick but it's rounder and less nose-clearing. WET ON SKIN: Still mint! Green mint, though. This is complex -- beneath the mintiness is something warm and subtle. DRY: The mint is backing off now, and the other notes are coming out. There is a bit of vegetal green tea, but no bergamot as yet. After about ten minutes, the Snake Oil base starts to noticeably peek out and mingle with the other notes. 30 minutes later: This blend is at its best about half an hour after application. The mint, while it doesn't evaporate like Lick It Again, is much reduced to a slightly-buttery hint flitting round the corners. Once again, Snake Oil does its supervanilla thing on me, but here it's complicated by the dry Snake Oil spices, which miraculously I can detect here. I can still smell the green tea but it doesn't have combat boots on. No bergamot for me, though. I love this blend. I need a hoard of this so that i never ever ever run out -- I'll vacuum-seal and freeze them to preserve 'em if need be. My only caveat is that this blend doesn't last that long on me. While initially it's a solid medium-to-strong, after four hours this is mostly disappeared and after five I can't even smell it with my nose against my wrist. Since I don't carry bottles around with me for reapplication, this is a pain in the butt. Even so, this snake is yummy.

Snowblind is prettymuch as described. I like it enough to keep, but fortunately it's not something I'll die without. In the bottle, Snowblind is prettymuch 50-50 mint and vanilla. As it touches my skin, it becomes a rounded, creamy vanilla with just a touch of mint -- drying down, the peppermint mostly wafts off, leaving a cool, creamy and delicious vanilla with a hint of buttermint. It's very lovely, and as vanillas go quite tolerable (normally straight-up vanilla and I have Problems). It will live happily beside my dwindling bottles of Lick It Again and Green Tree Viper, and when it is gone there will be no need for more. -- An aside: I feel so ostentatious wearing this -- like a woman wearing big diamonds out to the grocery store. I put it on when I really feel like treating myself... then go splurge on something huge and creamy.

in the bottle: quite sugary. Wet on my skin it smells abruptly of champaca, then morphs within minutes to something strangely medicinal. For the next few minutes this smells reminiscent of cough syrup. This dries down to -- Snake Charmer. Darker, less sweet, and slightly stronger/heavier Snake Charmer. I've already got two bottles of that, so I don't need Temple Viper too.

Ugh! Bubblegum and candy, that's it. Sickly sweet and cloying and won't leave me alone! It lives up to its name, and it's a great concept scent; I, however, never want to smell it again. Someone else can love it. I'm not even going to write a proper review because I need to wash this stuff off. Yuch!

opium and narcissus with an undertone of myrrh. A beautiful perfume, but I'm not a narcissus fan and it's not something I'd ever wear. Also, this stuff has throw! I'm wearing six different scents on different parts of my forearm and narcissus is the only thing I can smell right now. This made my skin lovely and soft in the area that I applied it. I can tell that on someone else, this would be dead sexy.

At first, Nemesis goes CYPRESS ginger fig patchouli (...rose, tonka). After about five minutes, the ginger and the cypress settle down and it mellos slightly into a cypress-patchouli blend. Not sweet and rahter too patchouli-y for my liking. Swap for you.

This smells like lemons. Ashy, faint, slightly chemical lemons. ...and something else -- maybe something musky? that I can't name. But definately not smoke. Not for me.

all of the yule labels this year looked the same -- I can't find a pic of Lick It Again specifically, but the label design is -exactly- the same as the other yule labels, like the Krampus label pictured here Also I'm soo glad that this year's Smut labels look the same as last year's. They're so cute!

IN THE IMP: I sniffed the imp wand and thought "Yep... definately Snake Oil family." With a sense of dread I realised that even though I hadn't smelled Snake Oil in months this was almost exactly the scent. WET: More complex; I'm getting more incense than I remember there being in Snake Oil, and there's a smoky/powdery feel that makes it likeable. Snake Oil was almost straight-up vanilla on me, so *anything* more complex is good news. DRY: mmkay, nicer. There's plum, but not too much, making it sweet; the vanilla is behaving, mostly. Spicy, rather sweeter than I like... DRY AFTER A BIT: My roommate says it smells like baby powder. That would be the amber. It smells very close to Snake Oil on me, but more complex -- vanilla is stomping on the notes a little less, and it has a delightful smokiness to it. It is ultimately elegant baby powder. Fortunately I've come to like the smell of baby powder, so I'm not sorry I have this. I don't feel the need to forfeit my Starbucks budget for more, though. (how did I end up with 8mL of this unsniffed? I think I just kept forgetting I'd already bought decants of it...) ETA: a note... this is not light. Leastwise, not on me. apply with caution.

[copied and pasted from my notes] NOTES: dayyy-um. Spicy, earthy, incense-y - lots of patchouli on my skin. This stuff has throw, I could smell the bottle from two feet away when it was closed and taped up. I smell clove -- maybe cardamom too? A little dusty as well. It's not what I was expecting, and surprisingly I'm not getting a lot of tobacco from it -- in other blends, tobacco amps on me like no tomorrow. From farther away I get a sort of berryish sweetness -- I can't reiterate enough, this stuff has throw, I put a very teensy dab on my wrists and they're a foot and a half from my nose and it's quite fragrant. It's definately not a tame blend. After about 10 minutes the clove dies down a bit, revealing something dark and dusty-sweet. Beautiful. It has some notes in common with Trick 2, that much I can discern, but my nose isn't sensitive enough to know what they are. I'm very glad I got to try this -- it's so different from everything I normally wear, but still very lovely. COMPARISONS: The comparisons to Perversion were what sold me on the blend, but on me this is nothing like Perversion at all -- Perversion is much sweeter on my skin, and more tobacco-y. This is dry and dusty with a twining dark sweetness underneath. It's very compelling, and if I had to I'd compare it to Trick 2 and maybe even Schwarzer Mond (although Mond didn't love me, they have at least one ingredient in common, methinks). It's not like Smut on me at all, which is universally good. Something about it reminds me very vaguely of Mme Moriarty, although I didn't love her either -- it has that same dusty-but-sexy tone. If there's vanilla in here, andI think there may be a bit, it's deeply buried because my skin usually amps it like crazy. CONCLUSIONS: this was a long review because this scent deserved it! I like it. I'm not head-over-heels for it, but it's in my top 10, and I'm keeping my bottle because there's nothing else like it in my collection. 4/5

verra sweet. Rather too sweet, actually. I smell all four notes, but mostly the pear -- with the white wine to make it alcoholic. I wish I could give a better review, but I washed it off after seven minutes because it was giving me a headache. If it helps, during that time it didn't really change much. Peh. Must give up on the fruity blends, they just aren't for me.

Sweet Orchid, with a hint of something dusty-musky underneath -- but mostly orchid. Mmmph. Way too pretty-femenine for me.

Three out of three testers agree that Siren smells like slinky goodness. And when I was wearing Blood Pearl, two male friends felt the need to hug me even more than usual...