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The Organ Grinder smells like marzipan on me. I love it because it's an eerie, twisted marzipan. It's in Carnaval Diabolique so it's a limited edition--definitely check it out. Some people in its review thread say it's very, very almondy on them, while some say that they can hardly detect the almond on their skin, so it's one of those scents that hinges on your skin chemistry.

If you really want to read this, bear with me. I wish we did not have a Spring Break, I'd rather get the year done a week sooner. Just as I get into the groove of going to class, doing work, etc, I stop short and take a week-long break. So when I return to school, I'm still in break-mode. Also, midterms right before Spring Break burn me out. I'm cutting class today because I just can't make myself go, it's too painful and I want it to be over already. Summer vacation is just around the corner, but there's this god-awful hump of papers and exams I need to get over first. I've always hated school. I hated high school, and college is no different. I didn't want to to go college but my parents forced me to so here I am at NYU, miserable. Before I got here, I put a happy spin on it and thought to myself maybe I'll enjoy it, I'll grow intellectually. But I haven't. I can't grow intellectually when I'm fettered by deadlines, and cramming for exams, and writing papers. I read up a storm anyway, so I don't need classes and assignments to make me think or learn how to think. Before LBJ and later Reagan (who heightened this mentality), if you wanted to be a journalist, you'd get a job as a copy boy, and you wouldn't become a copy boy for a newspaper or magazine unless you had a genuine interest in jounalism. Or you would write for your small-town local paper and get noticed from there. Nowadays, you become a journalist if you have a degree from Columbia. This is why journalism has been going down the shitter. If I could do things over, I wouldn't have sat on Life in a Tree and Sunrise in Stalingrad for years and then dismissed them as rubbish I wrote in high school, deciding not to back them up when I got a new computer. I would have pitched them with the help of my father and hoped they landed somewhere. Instead, I'm stuck in hell, desperately wanting to claw my eyes out because any creative flames that were in me are being snuffed out by the drudgery of academia. College is not for everyone, and it's certainly not for me. I find it positively mind-numbing. School makes me hate learning, it always has. Sorry that this has nothing to do with BPAL, but it's something I want to get off my chest. Mood: Wearing now: Doc Constantine

And Grog, which is also a sort of buttery rum.

I'm sitting here, wearing it, wondering why I haven't reviewed it already--it's everything I wished Jolly Roger was on me, too bad it's an LE. On my skin, it starts out really sharp, and it stays that way for 15 minutes. But then it dries down to a musky spicy leather scent. It's masculine, but I love it anyway. Just, now I know to wait a little while before heading out with it on.

That's why I started my blog on here. Because nobody besides some BPALers wants to read two paragraphs about what I think of Possets' Giddy and so on. Frankly, I'm not crazy about the Lush bath bombs either. The first one I tried was Big Blue, and it was full of seaweed bits, which I didn't mind--it added to the oceanic experience of the bath. But they got stuck in the pipes somehow and now my shower takes a long time to drain. I also tried Honey Bee, which didn't smell as strong as I was hoping it would. I heard that I should look into the Bauble Bath bath bombs because they're better, according to an acquaintance of mine. Though I must admit, I like Lush's soap bars.

First of all, this is a blog for my BPAL-related ramblings. If you want to know about my real life, I have a xanga and an LJ, and both can be accessed through my profile, I believe. On 4/1 I placed an order for Taurus 2007 (which I doubt will work on me but I'm a Taurus so I had to have it), Milk Moon 2007 (which looked yummy), and some others I've been meaning to pick up: Kataniya the Clockwork Girl, Mad Sweeney, and Jailbait. I'm seeing that people who placed their orders on 4/2 and 4/3 are getting their CnS notofications in their e-mail. However, I haven't gotten one, and some others who placed their orders on 4/1 and even 3/31 haven't gotten theirs. I've always been under the impression that the Lab brews, packs, and ships in the order that the orders were recieved. So I'm growing pretty concerned over here... I figure I'll look into it if I hear nothing of it by Thursday. What I'm wearing now: Madame X (Possets) Mood:

I haven't tried any of those. You description of Eden maked me really want to try it.

I have never tried Snake Oil. I keep meaning to, but I always forget. Boomslang works amazingly on me--seductive, spicy coacoa that sticks around all day. I decided to try another from the Snake Pit collection, and I was attracted to the notes in Temple Viper because of the frankincense and champaca. I like how it smells in the bottle, but let's just say that it does not like me. At all. It smelled faintly placticy while wet, and I gave it time to dry down. But then it just got more plasticy. After a couple hours, it smelled like baby powder, which was not as bad, but still not desirable. Then it faded. Damn my skin chemistry. I'm beginning to think that I just can't do scents with sweet or sugary notes, seeing as Aquolina Pink Sugar smelled like (yuck!) burnt plastic on me. Summed up in an emoticon:

Just from skimming this review thread, I gather that The Organ Grinder is not really a smash hit. I ordered it on a whim because I love all things almond--marzipan is my favorite kind of sweet. And when TOG dries down, I smell like marzipan all day, but it's marzipan with an interesting, dark, eerie edge. I think it's the tobacco and the patchouli. I love it.

I tend to buy bottles based on the names of the scents and descriptions. I do pay attention to the ingredients too. Well, I couldn't imagine a pirate smelling good (booze, sweat, open wounds), but I wanted to smell like one anyway because I was reading Under the Black Flag at the time and pirates are so cool! And judging from the notes, I thought it would smell great. It arrived and I sniffed the oil in the bottle. I was taken back to the days when I was little and used to spend the last week of every summer with my father at Cape Cod. Unfortunately, Jolly Roger does not sit well on me. It turns into a pungent odor of booze and BO as soon as I put it on--I smelled like a hobo! No offense, Beth, and this is in no way your fault. I blame it entirely on my body chemistry. I'm certain is smells cool and marine or sexy and swarthy on other people. But I do miss those summers with my father. I think I'll go to the Cape with him again this year even though I'm not little anymore. We have a lot of catching up to do.

I'm not familiar with any of those, unfortunately. But when I need something uplifting, I reach for Stardust 2006. Some happy GC/easily obtainable scents are Swank and Bon Vivant.

I know, my wedding's really far off, but it's still fun to fantasize about it, right? And I want to throw this question out there to see what kinds of answers I'd get back. Tell me something you could see yourself wearing at your own wedding, or suggest something for me: Generally, as in 98% of the time, "white florals" don't smell too great on me. Creed Love in white? Wet dog. Eos? Sunscreen that was beginning to curdle. Michael Kors Michael Kors? Flowery plastic, though it doesn't wind up being nearly as offensive as the other ones. I still wear it occasionally hoping it will miraculously work on me, but it never does quite kick that faint plasticy thing. So I'm going to say that, although "white florals" are typically associated with "bridal perfumes", they're out of the question in my case. The wedding is in very late may, so we'll be transitioning from spring to summer. I opt for woody scents--I'm a sucker for anything with sandalwood. So maybe something fresh and woody at the same time? With just a touch of fruit because we'll be on the cusp of summer?

If you like Inferno, then you will probably like Bond No 9's H.O.T. Always.

A lot of florals tend to not sit well on me, and Eos is no exception, unfortunately. I'm heartbroken that Creed Love in White smells something like wet dog on me after five minutes, and I'm sad, though not surprised, that this one turned bad. It's not as nasty as wet dog, but there's something sharp, almost stinky in there when it's on my skin... like sunscreen but with a jaggedness. Damn my body chemistry. EDIT: It was a frimp in my last order.

I love rose, so I ordered a whole bottle of this unsniffed. In the bottle it reminds of going to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens once and say that the roses in the rose garden were beginning to wilt. I think it was at the end of spring or the beginning of summer, but I'm not 100% sure on that. It's a sad, poignant, and beautiful fragrance. I'm a major fan.

The Hermit. It's a Tarot blend and someone in the review thread says it reminds him or her of a wizard in a purple robe. I completely agree.

It reminds me of my father, who is pretty much a hermit when he's doing work. As soon as I smelled it, I thought of his office which smells like books and cigarette smoke. But this fragrance is far more mysterious than my father, and, as other people pointed out, there is a purple quality to it. I was drawn to this fragrance and purchased it unsniffed because I do appreciate my alone time.