Sorry for being a bit spammy today, but I want to post this separately from anything else.

I have so many reviews that I didn't post over the last year, but it seems a little silly to backtrack now. These are reviews of recent (i.e., within the last month or so) acquisitions, and I'll post what my BPAL box holds now at the end.


ASP VIPER -- Snake Oil with red mandarin, myrrh, and almond. (CD: Act III, Snake Pit)

bottle: Yes, almond. Toasted. On top of snake oil. The mandarin hits softly at the end of the inhalation, like an afterthought. No freaking clue what myrrh is supposed to smell like.

wet: Still mostly almond with a teeny orange chaser.

drydown: The mandarin comes out more later, but really, thazzit -- dark toasty and kinda fruity almonds, with the warmth of Snake Oil a faint presence underneath and keeping it from being foody. It's absolutely delicious, so no complaints from me!

Good throw, once again without being overwhelming. Doesn't fade quickly, and even when it starts to, it's still around on my skin. I'll have to play around to see, but I think it's bumped Coral Snake one step down the queue.



ENRAGED GROUNDHOG MUSK -- Really ridiculous, insanely inappropriate, and staggeringly silly! Cranky groundhog musk sweetened up by chocolate-covered black cherries, cardamom, French vanilla, and caramel. (forum LE)

bottle: Not anywhere near as tooth-achy sweet as I was expecting. Kind of like PP2, actually. I guess I'm getting mostly the chocolate and the cardamom.

wet: yep, reeeeeally reminding me of PP2.

drydown: After a few minutes, I think I get some vanilla; it's something a lighter version of sweet than the chocolate, anyway. And about a half hour in, it's pretty much settled into a astringent-but-sweet cherry liqueur. Sort of. That's probably the musk; the sharp is what often turns Wrong and Evil with musks on me. But in the end, I really don't know what this smells like! Or what I think of it! Other than: not bad, but not me.

I also have no idea where all the cardamom that so many on the forum were raving/complaining about went. I'm beginning to think that the difference between cinnamon and cardamom is that the latter just up and disappears on me.

(Note later: ended up swapping it away, because I just couldn't imagine ever wearing it.)



THE OBLATION -- Ask nothing more of me, sweet,
All I can give you I give
Heart of my heart, were it more,
More would be laid at your feet:
Love that should help you to live,
Song that should spur you to soar.

All things were nothing to give
Once to have sense of you more,
Touch you and taste of you, sweet,
Think you and breathe you and live,
Swept of your wings as they soar,
Trodden by chance of your feet.

I that have love and no more
Give you but love of you, sweet;
He that hath more, let him give;
He that hath wings, let him soar;
Mine is the heart at your feet
Here, that must love you to live.

A stirring blend of dianthus, French lavender, blackberry, and white honey. (Lupercalia 2007)

bottle: Oh yes, the lavender, but something green and sharp (the dianthus?) and the blackberry, too.

wet: Even sharper, almost floral. Huh.

drydown: Oh, this is definitely a green, spring/summer scent, but those berries come right on out in the drydown. They're pure, fresh blackberry, too, which is the least sweet of all the berries I love. So in a way, it reminds me of Lady Macbeth and Bewitched, but those are pure berry, without the herbal background that this has. This is LOVELY.

Fairly good throw, and sticks on my skin even after the throw has faded. Very nice. I'll probably use this a lot come spring.



ELIXIR X: GRR -- Headache relief. (Panacea)

bottle: Peppermint oil (which makes sense, and is comforting, because I wanted this to see if it would actually help when one of my nail-to-the-head headaches hits). But with something else that's smoother, too.

wet: Yeah, not as sharp as pure peppermint oil, but that's still the major impression.

drydown: I started with this on my wrist, because that's the most accurate and yet least dangerous place to test any scent on me. Once I determined the scent wasn't going to do anything wacky, I quickly added some to my temples and the hollow of my throat to see how the throw would be there.

Scent-wise, I suspect there's some lavender in here, too; something calming and ever so slightly herbal, anyway. I'm glad, because pure peppermint oil is so sharp to my nose that it sometimes feels like it's giving me a headache all by itself.

Effectiveness-wise, a headache hit over the weekend and slathering this on didn't make the pain go-away-poof, but before the Aleve kicked in, it most definitely helped. I think a bottle of this would be worth my investment.



MILK MOON -- May marks the apex of the year’s fertility, expresses the reawakening of the sexuality of the Earth and her inhabitants, and May’s full moon celebrates both the fecundity of the creatures and flora of this world and the vibrancy, rejuvenation and life-affirming energy of Spring. Milk Moon is Flower Moon's warmer, gentler cousin; it is a scent that emulates the closeness of child and mother. In it, cream and warm honey soften our traditional blend of lunar oils. (May 2005 lunacy)

bottle: Milk, most definitely, wow, I really do wonder how they replicate some of these scents that aren't natural spices. Anyway, there's a hint of mint, too, almost like Lick It.

wet: just about the same, maybe a little warmer.

drydown: this has a good bit of throw to it. And it is very much MILK. Heated, kind of sweet, like what you get on the stove when there's just that bit of a skin in the pot before mixing chocolate in. It's...I don't know when I would wear this out and about, but for home, it is an incredibly comforting scent. Sticks around for a while, too, with just a single, small swipe. I'll have to see what happens when I wear it a tad more liberally.

Apparently there's another milk moon this year. Guess I'll be finding out what it's like, too.



WOLF MOON 2004 -- This is the dead of winter, the year’s dark hibernation, the crystalline silence of the depths of the world’s darkness. It bears echoes of the time before time, of primordial gloom. This Moon harbors memories of man’s life before fire. (December 2004 lunacy)

bottle: The description does nothing to explain what this is really like. Since I steer away from the unknown, I never would have even thought to give this a try except I got a sniffie frimp with a swap, and just off that, I ended up swapping for half an imp. "Forest" is the best I can come up with, at any rate, but in no way Pine Sol.

wet: Mmm, something almost fruity about the greenery. Not berryish or anything, but almost sweet.

drydown: There's something ozone-like about it, or maybe aquatic, but I can't shake the "sweet green kinda-pine" thought that's lodged in my head. It's not at all like sticking my nose into a Christmas tree, but it sort of reminds me of that. It's incredibly smooth, whatever is in there mingling and combining.

Not ultra-strong, and doesn't last very long. I do like it more than Holiday Moon and Hungry Ghost Moon -- it's smoother and deeper than both of them -- and maybe even more than Milk Moon, but I think it's just a little below Hunger Moon and Harvest Moon 05 on my lunacy ranking.



ANTIQUE LACE -- Nostalgia encapsulated. A soft, wistful blend of dry flowers, aged linens, and the faint breath of long-faded perfumes. (Bewitching Brews)

bottle: Another that I've glanced at and ignored in the past because of the description, but the forum reviews are right -- vanilla with the barest hint of something floral. Yum.

wet: Something else appears. I think it's the linens, or it smells like sheets that have had contact with soap, if you know what I mean. Still, the vanilla is primary.

drydown: It stays there, maybe getting a bit deeper as time passes, but never really changing its overall tone. It has some really good throw to it, and it sticks for quite some time, morphing a bit more to the vanilla side, but never losing that edge that keeps it from being just another random vanilla. Love!

(Note later: I was thinking, "My first GC bottle?" before I saw and swapped for another imp of it, and two full imps should last me quite a while...but I'm still kind of worried that Beth will decide to pull it again, and unlike other imps that I have to remind myself to wear, I'm sure I'll actually go through what I've got now of this... ::dithers::)



MAMA-JI -- Shadow saw the old woman, her dark face pinched with age and disapproval, but behind her he saw something huge, a naked woman with skin as black as a new leather jacket, and lips and tongue the bright red of arterial blood. Around her neck were skulls, and her many hands held knives, and swords, and severed heads.

Spices, cardamom, nutmeg, and flowers. (The Carousel)

bottle: Um, yeah, what the description said. And it's loud.

wet: It softens some when it hits my skin, which, thank goodness. It's like if someone spilled Three Witches in a Crabtree & Evelyn store.

drydown: It's amazing how the flowers are such a definite presence at the start, and they're big, heavily scented ones, not something yellow and light. They never really go away, but the spices calm the flowers down after a few minutes. Pretty good throw, although not tons, and once it's settled, it doesn't change and doesn't fade completely for a good long time.

I'd have to put some of each on each wrist as a true test, but as far as I can tell, this IS Three Flowery Witches. I really do like it -- if I were more of a florals person, I'd love it -- and I doubt I'll turn down the chance to swap for another imp, but I think I'm good with my bottle of Three Witches.



SPIDER -- There was a family resemblance between the two men. That was unarguable, although that alone did not explain the intense feeling of familiarity that Fat Charlie felt on seeing Spider. His brother looked like Fat Charlie wished he looked in his mind...Spider was taller, and leaner, and cooler. He was wearing a black-and-scarlet leather jacket, and black leather leggings, and he looked at home in them...There was something larger-than-life about him: simply being on the other side of the table to this man made Fat Charlie feel awkward and badly constructed, and slightly foolish. It wasn't the clothes Spider wore, but the knowledge that if Fat Charlie put them on he would look as if he were wearing some kind of unconvincing drag. It wasn't the way Spider smiled--casually, delightedly--but Fat Charlie's cold, incontrovertible certainty that he himself could practice smiling in front of a mirror from now until the end of time and never manage a single smile one half so charming, so cocky, or so twinklingly debonair.

White ginger, artemesia, vetiver, nutmeg, King mandarin, bergamot, and lime. (The Carousel)

bottle: The nutmeg, the bergamot, something herbal that I'm guessing is the vetvier? And a bit of the lime.

wet: Kinda floral, kinda citrus. Huh.

drydown: By mistake, I put this on the same wrist as Mama-Ji and, oddly enough, that's not a bad thing. As Spider dries, the citruses mostly go missing, which is a real shame, but the greenery that it turns into melds pretty well with the floral spice of Mama-Ji. Not much throw to it, though, once the fruits disappear.

It's okay and I don't dislike it, but I'm nowhere close to as being blown away as I thought I would be by the mix of those notes. I suspect that if the order were reversed, it would be a different story, but... ::snorts:: Appropriate that Spider is a disappointment, actually.



HUNGER MOON -- When Hunger Moon hangs high in the sky, the fields are frozen, and game is piteously scarce. Sleet covers the ground, and biting winds chill to the bone. This is a quiet, cold perfume: desolate and despairing. It is a clear night sky that and bracing chill wind that bears the promise of snow, sharpened by the pain of hunger, and the sharp, rasping stab of thirst.

Ozone, white sandalwood, crystallized white amber, verbena, oakmoss, clary sage, and a hint of white citrus rind. (January 2007 lunacy)

bottle: Oh my, the citrus rind. That's a "hint"? How'd that get out above everything else? Oh. Okay. I'm a dumbass who should have looked up verbena before now. So yeah, the verbena is what I get right off, kind of riding the ozone and keeping that note from it's usual habit of making me sneeze. Yum.

wet: Mmmmm. There's something sweet, too. Maybe the sage, because it's kind of an herbal sweetness.

drydown: This is gorgeous. I haven't the faintest where the sandalwood or amber go, and maybe it's just that they're the white versions, and so non-toxic, but it's like...this clean pool of fruit-tinged yellow-green airy yumminess. Reminds me of Wolf Moon 04, actually, but with lemon instead of pine. Man, I wonder what would happen if I layered them...

It doesn't have tons of throw until I really slather it on (well, "slather" for me means a swipe both in my cleavage and on my wrists, instead of just in my cleavage and then rubbing my wrists there), but once it's on, it doesn't fade quickly, although it becomes less bright lemony. In the end, I hate to disagree with Beth, but the lasting impression I have of this scent is -- it makes me smile. Damn it, now I really want to find a partial bottle of this.



BAKENEKO -- In sharp contrast to the stark sterility of Hunger Moon, we present a carnivorous chaotic charmer: the bakeneko. The Monster Cat is a shapeshifter, and is empowered to take the form of a beautiful woman (to entice lonely gentlemen) or a winsome young maiden (to the peril of childless couples). Though some bakeneko are benevolent, and only wish to find someone to care for them, or to show gratitude to a mortal that has done them a great service, others are furry balls of malevolent mayhem. Their mischief ranges from simply destructive—knocking over lamps and destroying property, tossing ghostly, freezing fireballs from their hands—to horrifying acts of carnage.

Warm amber musk, Satsuma tangerine, black tea leaf, cardamom, cherry blossom and cinnamon. (January 2007 lunacy companion)

bottle: Got this as a generous swap-sniffie from aevalin. Didn't want to risk a full imp, because a scent starting off with "warm amber musk" and my skin does not promise eternal happiness, but the rest of it sounded soooo goooood. In the imp, though, it's mostly a kind of harsh tea with a bit of the tangerine.

wet: A little more of the tangerine, and some of the cardamom, I think. Or maybe the cinnamon. So far, it smells good, although it doesn't have a lot of throw. Some of the cherry blossom shows up, as well, or at least that's what I assume the floral tinge I'm getting is.

drydown: As it dries, this is probably the most perfumey I've ever smelled any of the BPAL scents. Like department store spray perfume, I mean; there's something very cologne-like about it, which I suspect is the musk, since that's basically what happened with Enraged Groundhog Musk as the eponymous note tainted all the foody notes, too. It never gets to a "ick! ack!" smelling place, but...whoa! About five minutes in, this becomes the first cardamom/cinnamon scent to give me that stinging on my skin that people will talk about. Yowtch. Okay, that's coming off right now!

So anyway. Before the latest BPAL experience hit, the tangerine was still a faint presence when I sniffed my wrist directly, mixing with the spices to give me a taunting hint of the Constant Comment spicy orangeness that so many on the forum got, but it's definitely the amber musk that's the dominant note with the throw in this thing on me. Ah well.



The current inhabitants of my BPAL box, but open to change should the right swap arise:

BOTTLES
(at varying levels of fullness)

13 (original)
Asp Viper
Boomslang
Lick It
Lustration
Moxie
Pumpkin Patch 1 2005
Punkie Night
Quietude
Saw-Scaled Viper
Snow White 2005
The Oblation
Three Witches (original)
[also an empty of Peacock Queen that I will never, ever attempt to fill, but it is so much like my parents rose garden, I keep it around just to sniff every once in a while]


IMPS
(ditto)

Antique Lace
Coral Snake
Dana O'Shee
Detox
Dragon's Milk
Green Tree Viper
Grr
Jack
Harvest Moon 2005
Holiday Moon
Hunger Moon
Hungry Ghost Moon
Lady Macbeth
Madrid
Mama-Ji
March Hare
Milk Moon
Pumpkin Patch 2 2005
Pumpkin Patch 3 2005
Pumpkin Queen
Snow White 2004
Spider
Tanin'iver
The Hesperides
White Light (TAL)
Wolf Moon 2004


Good grief. Look at that. What in the name of all that's ever made me sneeze am I doing with that much perfume oil? And I have more coming, and am contemplating some of the new GCs, and yeeks.