stellans

It's taking me a while, but I'm slowly but surely catching up on reviewing the Lunacies in my current 31-day rotation. I've not had the privilege of sampling the original Hunter Moon released in '04, but the later release in 2007 became of my favorites due to its lovely musky, autumn woods scent. This is all about the hunt: the stalk, the chase, and the capture/kill. There is no blood note that I can tell, but the impression is there of a successful hunt. This begins a little sharply, but it doesn't take long to warm up into a very sensual wild musk, more animalistic than some other musk blends I've tried, and the woods/leaves notes are absolutely essential to make the Hunter's portrait complete. I get no powder from this blend, only sex. Lovely, lovely sex. 4 of 5 stars.

The first time I sniffed this blend, the aftershave impression took me aback and I nearly capped the imp without ever trying it. That would have been a shame, because once I get past the initial harsh aftershave note, this blend is really quite lovely. It doesn't take long for this to morph on my skin to a very nice, smooth salty-leather scent, reminiscent of how the leather band in my dad's old Stetson smells, only better. There is a definite ocean/seagoing sense to this blend, but the leather also comes out strongly, which delights my nose so much. 3 of 5 stars (it would be 4, if I didn't have to wait for the warming to like it).

I so looked forward to wearing this for the first time, after reading all the reviews mentioning resins, etc. Sniffing the bottle didn't at all prepare me for the immediate plastic attack when I applied this oil first thing this morning. Could not wash this off fast enough, and ended up with a headache. To the sales page. *sigh*

This is a glorious leather blend, and I'm so very grateful to have a bottle! There was a bit of a cologne-y note at the start, but it doesn't last long at all. The very slight cologne note mellows into a soft woodsy-grassy leather, like riding on a summer day to your best wooded pasture. I don't get a blood note at all, which is a little disappointing because I love Dragon's Blood, but nothing I can't live with, LOL! This blend is amazing, a different leather blend than anything else I have so far; I am obsessed with leather lately, and this is a great addition to my collection.

This blend is why I always give anything containing amber a chance. Though amber is not kind to my skin chemistry in most cases, scents like Carnivale are the exception I always hope for but so rarely get. The sweetness of the berry note is held nicely in check by the spicy carnation, and the amber is there too, but doesn't turn into powder on me (for a change). Musk underlies the whole thing, but doesn't overwhelm me. This is a very balanced blend (on me) and delights my nose. It has moderate throw and medium stay (3 hours before I needed to refresh it). 3 of 5 stars!

google doc updated to include the Tales of Death & Dementia...

You could also try The Snow Storm.

This Convergence 15 was the release I looked forward to the most, and the one which disappointed me the most as well. I love violets, love them almost as much as I love roses, and this sounded so wonderful. When I first sniffed it, it was love: pure violets, not overly sweet, but lovely. However, upon application, the mint came storming out at me and had to be washed off immediately. B340, I hardly knew ye...

I think this is my favorite of all the Convergence blends. I love a well-blended floral scent, and this one with it's slight fresh water note is wonderful. I could have sworn I smelled lilacs, but I have it on very good authority (Beth, via someone who talked to her) that the upper floral note is wisteria. There is also definitely green in this blend, though it's not strong - the florals are definitely the stars of this blend, and that's fine with me. I will say I was sort of hoping for a wet rock or cement note (like the one in Singing Moon). I don't know what it is about that note, but I really like it. 4 of 5 stars for this blend.

I love the way this smells in the bottle, all wood and leather, but once it gets on my skin it goes to straight men's cologne, and not a good kind. It smells like the drugstore-type knockoffs: English Pleather, or Draker, or something. Just not good. I'm going to hang on it (it's just a half-bottle) and hope age brings something to this.

I was so happy to see that link; it looks a lot like the lily I used for my icon!

The Dark Side of Air: a high pitched, tangy, clear scent -- light China rain deepened by murky vetivert. I loved this blend the moment I sniffed the lab frimp way back when, earlier in my BPAL membership. I knew it was bottle-worthy immediately, and didn't want to slowly accumulate imps to decant into a rollerball. In fact, Hurricane is responsible for my slowly burgeoning love affair with the Lab's vetivert note. I am totally fascinated with the deep, husky smokiness of it, and how it affects the other notes in blends in which it's found. In Hurricane, the "China Rain" note mentioned is so wonderfully light and sweet, it's hard to believe it is paired with the harsher vetivert, but it is to a wonderful effect. On my skin, the vetivert is uppermost, but the rain's underlying sweetness is what makes this blend so special for me. The throw is medium, and though others have mentioned how quickly it fades on them, on me it lasts a good 2-3 hours and in my Triple Dagger locket it lasted all day. 4 of 5 stars for Hurricane.

aw, that's the cutest story!

It is almost NEVER a mistake to buy at least one bottle of a Lunacy. Even if you don't like it, someone out there will and would be happy to take it off your hands. I am so loving the Berry Moon label, and now I'm regretting not getting a tank top or t-shirt!

I am reviewing the first (or 2006) release of this scent, although I have a bottle of the newer incarnation waiting in the wings for later reviewing. I first tried this in early 2007, and loved it so much I hunted down 2 bottles, just to have. Hoarding struck me early in my BPAL addiction! Somehow reviewing this slipped through cracks till now, though I'm not sure how it happened. Oh well...I'm reviewing it now! Dark and cold, with a bit of dank herbs: myrrh, is that you? Balsam lightens up the blend a bit, and clove a bit more, but this is above all else a winter scent, and it's wonderful to wear such in hot weather! It's like opening the freezer and finding a snow ball carefully saved from last winter, with a sprig of evergreen sticking out of the middle. I still love this scent, and it only gets better year-to-year!

When I first took off the lid, I got a whiff that was a bit sour and off-putting but luckily that didn't translate to my skin. Instead, a sweetness bloomed, berries definitely, and with a hint of honey. Usually I amp honey like nobody's business, but in this blend it only serves to make the berry notes better. As it dries, the muskiness really comes to the forefront and makes this blend even more perfect to wear at night (my practice with Lunacies). The fig note seems to be underlying the other fruits, which is nice because it helps sweeten the raspberry a bit, IMO. It doesn't seem to have a lot of throw, but that's ok since I'm already in bed and not going anywhere, LOL! It also doesn't seem to last a terribly long time, but again, as long as I can smell it until I fall asleep, it's a win for me. I really like this, and I'm happy I bought 2 bottles... 3 of 5 stars.

Oh, immediate love! As soon as I uncapped the frimp from the Lab, I knew I wanted a bottle of this! I found an older bottle for sale (cobalt), and let me assure everyone who likes this scent fresh that it also ages very well... very well indeed. The herbs (bay, rosemary) are uppermost both in the bottle and on my skin. I get no lemon at all, which is a blessing to me because normally I amp lemon to the Lemon Pledge state and have to wash the oil off. The pine is also there, underscoring and deepening (to me) the blend to a place which makes this a gender-neutral scent, IMO. It makes me want to quote the Irish Spring soap commercial: "Manly, yes. But I like it too!" /Irish accent, badly done As the oil dries down, a sweetness emerges from the sharp rosemary and pine: it has to be the bay! I am so enjoying all the stages of this blend. I give Nero a surprising (to me) 3 of 5 stars.

In the bottle, I get the deep, deep herbal notes others have mentioned but no incense. However, once it is applied to my skin, the herbs give way totally to deep, deep incense! This blend needs very little on to cast a wide net of scent, and it lasts almost all day without needing refreshing. In my Carnaval Diabolique scent locket, there is the herbal/incense blending but there is a strange after-scent/taste of...soap?!?!? I think Binah is lovely to wear, but only on my skin. I just didn't like tasting soap when I sniffed my locket -- a first for me with BPAL!

I first wore Hymn to Proserpine quite some time ago, and loved it then for its perfect blend of sweet/tart fruit and incense, and I detected no amber at all. This made me very happy, as I love pomegranate and can't do amber very well. I wasn't writing reviews at that time, so I only have the notes in my database to go on, but the wearing today is a bit different from that first wearing. The pomegranate has all but disappeared, leaving behind a very nice incense blend, but not the Hymn to Proserpine I remembered loving for its fruitiness as well as its incense. The bottle I'm using now is a cobalt 10 ml, so it's older perhaps than the imp I tested first. I still like this blend because I'm a big fan of incense, and at least the amber didn't come out, but I do miss the pomegranate so much!

This is such a fun blend -- I mean, drunken bunnies??? HI-larious /jayne cobb In the bottle, there is a definite alchohol smell, and it's more wine than rum to my nose. I also smell the cocoa, melding smoothly with the wine note. And it's important to me that the wine note is not a sour one, either. On, the wine/cocoa notes quickly smooth out and give way to what is to me a lovely incense scent; the blood note (is this dragon's blood? It smells like it, a bit) and the cocoa together are achingly lovely together, and I can't stop sniffing either my wrist or my Queen of Hearts scent locket. On drydown, the wine totally disappears, leaving only a smooth deep incense. I love this blend so much I hunted down a 10ml of it and I treasure every drop!

This was was a bit hard to pin down. In the bottle, it's very smooth and seems to have vanilla as a major note, but when applied the vanilla didn't hang around very long. This blend (true to its name) morphed quickly and widely: vanilla to honey to slight floral with honey to slight resin with honey, and then back to the start with vanilla + honey... a deeper, more nuanced vanilla. I don't like vanilla, but I like this blend. It's almost like Schwarzer Mond and O had a one-night stand, and this is the result: a daytime little one, shy but sweet, with a depth that's worth exploring. I'll bet this one grows up to be dynamite, and I'm looking forward to finding out for myself. ETA: the icon I made to illustrate this blend is a "Warhol-ed" photo of my Westie, Charlie.

Grass? yes. Herbs? check (although 'weeds' might be a more accurate designation). Airy/fresh? definitely. Water? .........whoa. Why yes, there's definitely an aquatic note to this prototype! This isn't salt water, nor is it rain water nor yet is it swamp water! What it is --at least to my nose-- is what one would smell if standing in the middle of a lovely spring meadow with the trickling sound of a small brook or stream nearby. This is the perfect blend to wear on a hot summer day, because with the eyes closed, that's where one is transported. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...bliss!

I've long loved the older version of Baba Yaga, collecting it imp by precious imp and decant, until I had a full 5ml rollerball bottle of my very own. When I saw a prototype on the Cobwebs list, it was the one thing I wanted above all others, so I was extremely happy and grateful to have a whole bottle all to myself of the prototype, thanks to a lovely forum member, butcherbaby, who attended the first Cobwebs event. The woods in this blend are very subtle, and while some other reviewers found hints of a cologne-like note, it doesn’t manifest on my skin. Whew! There are light florals, but the wood notes are the uppermost, and the slight earthy note lends an almost incense-like scent, which is another reason this is such a treasured rare for my collection. The throw is excellent, so that slathering is not necessary to keep this lovely scent wafting around me, and it lasts beyond my benchmark of 2 hours. Surprisingly enough, this blend morphs very little from what it smells like wet (or in its container) and when dried upon my skin. Usually I like blends much more after they've been on my skin a while, but this is wonderful from the very beginning. All in all, this is a rare well worth keeping...and wearing.

As soon as the bottles is opened, lovely lavender wafts around my nostrils with a come-hither glance: "hello there...wanna play?" Then as others have noted, a clean non-soapy evergreen note flashes up and takes control -- but only briefly. I do wish that note had stayed a bit longer, as it was ireally nice, but *sigh* moving on... As the lavender rests gently on my skin, a stronger incense-resinous scent comes into play: this isn't just sandalwood, oh no; this is also frankincense and myrrh, and the only thing lacking is gold. In fact, it makes me think of Yule and that time of year. This is definitely not a warm weather blend, IMO, but one for the winter. Final thought: this is a very strong blend, and I don't think I'll reach for it nearly as often as some of my softer, sweeter oils, but somehow I just can't give it up. Something about it is very compelling, and it will stay in my perfume collection...and wait for colder temperatures.

A bit harsh in the bottle, but once on my skin this is quite a lovely herbal incense-y kind of blend. I see the mention of particular herbs, but I'm not good enough to pick out the individual herbs, only that they are here, LOL! First on, the herbs are uppermost, and as mentioned above, a little harsh. However, the harshness doesn't last long at all, and in fact is rather a nice contrast to the smooth incense/herb mix which follows. As the blend dries, a creaminess comes out and smooths over the incense/herb notes and that's where the blend stays...for a little while. Unfortunately, Cesky Krumlov v1 doesn't last very long on, though while it is on, the scent is noticeable. This was money well-spent, and I thank Alicia Stardust for letting me buy it from her.