Nepthys

This smelled exactly like I hoped - like my first Pink Moon from days of yore, sprinkled over freshly baked vanilla cake. Sometimes the Lab's cake/baked goods stuff can go syrupy on me (Sprinklecake and Monster Underbed) and turn me off very quickly - this doesn't do that, thank Goddess, but retains that warm strawberry cake smell. It is very long-lasting and strong - just a teeny dab is enough. Love it - this is very girly and innocent.

In the bottle, this is a beautiful scent, warm, sensual, earthy and cuddly, with a side of dominance. Unfortunately on me, it morphs almost immediately into the dirty animal smell I got from Smut. I'm going to layer with regular Snake Oil to see if I can steer it in a more wearable direction.

One of my favorites of the 5 Yules I bought. This is my first Skadi, and it reminds me a lot of Snow Bunny - cool and snowy and sharp, with a hint of something berry-sweet. The snow and pine definitely dominate, and it fades quickly. A keeper for sure.

This is SO pretty. It has an comforting powderiness that is sexy but innocent at the same time. It kind of reminds me of old middle school perfumes like Love's Baby Soft and Bonnie Bell's Skin Musk - not that it actually smells like that, but has that same cuddly feel. A keeper for sure.

This is one of those scents that is so quintessentially BPAL. As in, you could blindfold me and give me dozens of non-BPAL scents to sniff besides this one, and I would know this was the BPAL one. In the bottle it was very woody and I was lukewarm. On me, it turned into the child of Snake Oil and Cathedral - still woody, but a little sexier and warmer. This isn't a hippie patchouli, but a drier, more earthy one. The honey doesn't really come out on me, but instead amps the amber and makes it a bit cloying. Not sure if I'll be keeping this one or not.

The reviews that compared this to Hexxenacht got me excited, as that was one of my all-time favorite scents. This wasn't actually even a cousin to that - not on me, anyhow. It starts out as a severe snow & pine blend that is absolutely, sharply wintry. And a bit masculine (which I like.) Then as the first hour went on, it softened and became more suggestive of spring, like a damp forest and floral scent. I really love this; it's fresh and invigorating and doesn't turn cloying. Definitely don't regret buying a bottle unsniffed.

This is the description, exactly. Very green and marshy and wet, with some berry sweetness and poisonous florals, but mostly green. A neglected, wildly overgrown garden in a wet climate - more of a spring scent than an autumn one to me. I really like it.

I can see why other people love this so much. I think I might like it if I can tamper down its intensity, but right now its throw is quite powerful and the effect is a bit sickly-sweet after an hour. What it smells like: Snake Oil and Smut buried under a floral powder. That incensey base is very much present and after a while the floral powder part evaporates, leaving a smell like honey cake and something dirty.

This is for the 2011 version. I am so glad this smells just like my old bottle, which I really loved and smelled like Lush's Snowcake soap. It's eggnog laced with a creamy, sweet almond, and it's light yet persistent. Perhaps my favorite holiday BPAL of all time.

I was hoping for more gingerbread, but this smells like lemon drops and sugar cookies on me. It's sort of Sprinklecake's cousin. It's pleasant enough but fairly unremarkable.

This is for Boo 2011. In the bottle, it's absolutely delicious - a deep, creamy, inviting scent that smells like cream and fresh laundry. Seriously, I wanted to turn this into a fabric softener. But Boo was meant to be worn... and on me, it turns into a much simpler creamy vanilla. I have to be in the mood for this, because it reminds me so strongly of Bath and Body's Warm Vanilla Sugar scent, which a friend of mine slathers on to the point of making me sick. I'm thinking this will be a nice scent for cold winter nights.... it's still hot in AZ where I live, so it's not the right time for it yet. But overall, a nice scent.

In the bottle, this smelled cloyingly sugary. (And I like sugar.) On me, it morphed into something totally unexpected. It does smell like cake, but not the cake described (or that my mind imagined, more accurately); it smells like a combination of the vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing from Sprinkles and those rich chocolate cakes with raspberry preserve in the middle. Do I like it? Yes. But it's a little deeper and darker than the fluffy cake scent I had hoped for.

I'm only going to review its efficacy, not its scent. I've had this for months now and used in several rituals. I find it to be deeply effective in the work of transformation and re-direction; it's helped unmoor me from some entrenched bad habits and move me into more positive behavioral patterns and mentalities that have changed my life at a fairly deep level. Definitely one of the more powerful TALs I've worked with, though perhaps I perceive it as such because I use it for major inner work as opposed to more superficial spells for love, protection and money.

I tried this at a Meet and Sniff and fell in love with it. It reminded me a lot of my long lost Strawberry Moon and Pink Moon. I've been wearing it for two days now and.... it's beautiful. More beautiful for the first two hours than later on, but still nice. Honeyed strawberries underscored by that base BPAL note is how it comes on, but the sweetness eventually recedes and the sandalwood comes to the fore for a more incense-y scent. Still very pretty, though, and I can tell it will be my favorite scent this summer.

I tried two different bottles of this last year and one smelled like straight up Snake Oil, while the other smelled like a blend of O and Snake Oil. I like both (and am out of both) so I took a chance and ordered the 2011. At first it's just Snake Oil. Gradually a cake batter smell emerges from it, and then the O comes out, until it's pure honey cake. It's not as heavy as Snake Oil or O, oddly, but more like a lighter blend of the two. I am so glad I bought this.

Pretty scent, though I'm not in love with it. For about an hour, it is way too heavy on the clove and ginger, a dry, almost burned-out scent. Eventually the cream and honey come forward just enough to soften this into something nice. This is a cozy autumn/winter night scent, and I'll probably layer it with scents like O or Womb Furie to bring out the honey in it.

I loved this for the first half hour it was on, then began to find it a little cloying. It smells initially like vanilla, honey and pepper and is sweet with a bite. Then the orange blossom begins to make it a little too sweet and it drowns out the leather, ginger and pepper. That lasts for a short while, and then it goes back to a perfect blend. Still, I can see myself getting sick of this if I wear if too often, especially as summer comes on, so I might dilute it and ration its wearing.

Scent-wise, this is a bit off-putting to me. Too sharp and astringent, which is a shame, because it's so powerful I would like to wear it everywhere. I haven't much to say other than this does what it says: attracts. This has become my most used oil in spellwork simply because it dovetails so nicely with almost every goal. Love, money, running into a specific person, creativity, finding the perfect sofa - you name it, high magic or low, this oil is your ally. Lately I've been using it in conjunction while visualizing more amorphous goals (peace, abundance, security, rewarding relations with my parents, and so on) and it definitely seems to help. I feel that my deepest energy is more aligned with my conscious desires. Great stuff.

Definitely works. I ordered this specifically to help silence wagging tongues in a matter that was hurting my reputation and social life and for no reason other than jealousy. The situation was wildly out of control and as always with gossip, whatever you hear is being said about you is often just the tip of the iceberg. So I used this in conjunction with War and - wow. The ensuing silence was stunning. This after months of gossip, rumors and lies. I've since used it for more general purposes, such as when I know people might react badly to someone I'm dating, or in another case, when I suspected a "friend" was talking shit behind my back but I had no way to prove it. Lovely results each time. A definite must-have for anyone who leads a controversial life or simply is surrounded by gossipy people!

A different take on crossing and uncrossing. This blend acts by disrupting your adversaries' focus and jumbles negative energies sent your way. It effectively severs the psychic conduit connecting you to the person crossing you. Works almost instantaneously and is most effective when the curse is in its infancy. Can also be utilized in a far less noble fashion: use as an assault tool, creating chaos and disorder in someone else's life. Scent: Pungent, piney and redolent of Lysol. There's an earthy base that makes it bearable but I would never wear this for the scent. Effect: Oh wow. I used this on a dark moon to do the aforementioned psychic conduit severing from 3 people. During the work I threw in a return of anything consciously negative sent my way. The next day one was robbed - and has been very submissive and obsequious with me ever since -- and the other came down with a severe flu that lasted ten days. The third doesn't seem to have experienced anything negative, though the link between us (my ex of 4 years) does feel lessened in intensity. So while I got impressive and instantaneous results, they were a bit more than I was looking for; I will not use this again without structuring my spell very carefully. I'd say this has packed the greatest punch out of my 8 TALs. Use this with caution.

Not at all what I expected. There's nothing girlie here, just a sharp pine/menthol smell that while cool, doesn't really convey any snow associations. It's pleasant enough as a room scent but nothing I would wear. It reminds me of an upscale Vicks chest rub and that just isn't how I want to smell. Oh well. Cute name, not so hot otherwise.

The mention of rose in other reviews made me nervous, as rose and I don't get along. We really don't. Luckily this smelled in the bottle like a darkly spicy/sweet lavender and resin incense... the rose was muted. Even better, this smells decent on me. Not Bastet-sexy, but still wearable and for that I'm glad, because this stuff does its job. It definitely is an attractant on the sex side, but it also has brought a lot of new people into my life. I noticed that strangers are much friendlier with me when I wear this, especially women. It's definitely nice in that it has turned my world into a warmer place. Great TAL.

This could smell like onions and sawdust and I would wear it faithfully to bed every night. It is so effective! I haven't felt this rested and refreshed in years. Scent-wise, it's lavender, roses and mint (catnip?) - not beautiful, not unpleasant. But it puts me to sleep and keeps me there for a good 7-8 hours. That is a miracle for someone who habitually wakes up repeatedly plagued by anxiety and nagging thoughts. Every worry I suppress in the daytime comes back at 4 a.m. Nocturne somehow rides over them and keeps me asleep. My dreams have been a little odd, but I imagine that's just the same anxiety that wakes me up, now working itself out in my dreams. I love this and I hope it keeps working. Recommended for any insomniac. ETA: I can't wear this too often or the law of diminishing returns kicks in. It stops working when I use it every night. The crazy dreams have intensified however.

I have an odd relationship with Bilquis as I think it smells fantastic, but two other people have wrinkled their nose at it... So now I'm afraid it smells off on me, and hence only wear it at home when I'm alone. It smells like an old-lady version of Bastet. I get the honey and almonds but there's something powdery and floral that comes through and makes it a bit too preciously feminine... kind of like how when a silver screen villainness would smell, overly feminine and trying to disarm men with her wiles. I do like it, but it's a bit heavy. I use this sparingly.

Overpowering incense - the hippie bookstore variety. My body amps this way hard and while it is pretty, I certainly can't wear it out... it's too intense. I tried just a dab in my car and everyone that got in made comments like, "Your car smells like church" or "did you burn incense in here?" Ultimately I used it as a candle dressing and that was pretty nice.