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My initial thoughts about the new GC oils

The Salon Cloister Graveyard in the Snow: Ozone tends to be too stinging on me, frankincense becomes too sweet, and I don't usually like mint. I didn't get this and I doubt I will. Death of the Grave Digger: I love opoponax and myrrh, and I even like snow. But soil is a bad note for me. It has worked out okay in a couple of blends, but most frequently not at all. I would try an imp just to be sure, but I'm definitely not getting a bottle unsniffed. The Fox-woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child: I thought this might be too floral to me. I'm not totally opposed to it, though, and I'll be happy to try to find an imp of it to try. The Penitent Magdalen: I have seen other people being really excited over this scent, so I bet it will be popular. I'm afraid it might be too floral for me, but it sounds like it could be very pretty. I will definitely want to find an imp at some point. Silence: The only Salon bottle I bought from this round. I'm not sure about the white mint, but I thought the rest of it sounded good. It sounds like it'll be slightly dry but bright at the same time, so I'm intrigued. Three Brides: This one tempted me, but I didn't end up getting it. I'm sort of regretting not getting it, though -- maybe I'll get one with my next order. It has the kind of flowers in it that I like, and I pretty much always like sandalwood, benzoin, tonka, and ambers. This sounds like it'll be rich, sweet, and a little bit spicy. I got imps of all the new GC blends, even though I'm almost positive a few of them are not going to work on me at all. Bewitching Brews I Died for Beauty: Pretty sure the grave loam is going to kill this one for me. And even if it doesn't, the violet and frankincense are problematic. Don't have high hopes for this one. The Jersey Devil: I'm afraid this one will be too resiny/woodsy for me. That tomato leaf worries me too, as it tends to smell a little too sharp to my nose. Worth a shot, but I doubt it'll work. Tavern of Hell: Hmmmm. This one might be good. Unless gardenia is prominent, I think I'll like this one. Love Potions Les Bijoux: I'm not expecting to like this due to the apple, rose, and frankincense, but if ends up being mostly peach, musk, and myrrh, that could be a good thing. Illyria Caliban: I have no idea what this is going to smell like. I expect it will be a little too masculine for me, but that's okay -- the hubby needs new scents to get excited about too. Wanderlust Mag Mell: I think this will smell too green and herby for me. Manhattan: This one interests me a great deal. I can't guess what it's going to smell like yet, but it sounds complex. I sort of expect that I'll like it, but I may love it. Pontarlier: Hmmm, rose and lavender. Probably not. But you never know. Port Royal: Salty sea scents aren't usually my fave, but I do like rum. This will probably be one of the first ones I try when I get my imp packs. Uruk: Red patchouli sometimes smells a bit foul on me, so I'm a little wary of this blend. I like saffron and fig leaf, but I'm not so sure about the rest of it. Cockaigne: I seriously hope this doesn't smell like sour milk or play-doh on me, but unfortunately that's what milk and honey notes tend to do on my skin. I can see this blend becoming quite popular with other people but not working on me at all. The Isles of Demons: Really looking forward to this. Can't imagine what it's going to smell like and was too afraid to buy a bottle unsniffed, but sounds like it could be really good for me. Here's hoping! Jezirat al Tennyn: I have no idea what this will smell like. Kumari Kandam: I also have no idea what this one will smell like. Lyonesse: I think this one could be really pretty. Looking forward to trying it. Ars Draconis Ladon: Not sure about that apple note. Didn't care for it in The Hesperides. So we'll see. Tanin'iver: My very first unsniffed GC 5ml order. I think this one is going to be really good for me. I love dragon's blood, patchouli, myrrh, blood musk, and smoke. All of them. The pomegranate note that was in Swank smelled artificial on my skin so I dearly hope it is not prominent in this blend. Panacea Elixir VIII: Bitch. Don't know what this is going to smell like, but so far none of these Panacea oils have been anything I wanted to keep. So my hopes aren't very high for this one. Elixir IX: TKO. Ditto the above.

August 3, 2006

My initial thoughts about the new CD oils

Carnaval Diabolique: Although I don't know what lemon flower is (is that like verbena?), the rest of this sounds marvelous. Heliotrope and tuberose are two of my favorite floral notes, and two of the few I can actually wear. Can't wait to see how they'll combine with the black musk and opium smoke in this. Midnight on Midway: I probably should have gotten a bottle of this but I didn't. I saw "flowers" and moved on. But often night-blooming flowers are good for me -- I really like the GC Midnight. And sugared incense sounds great. I waffled and then didn't get it. But this is one of the first ones I'd like to try after my current order comes in. The Phantom Calliope: The cassis (is that the same thing as cassia?) and cardamom scared me off of this one. I'm afraid it might be too spicy for me. The Candy Butcher: Yes, please! Chocolate and cream sounds great! Mme Moriarty, Misfortune Teller: Red musk is my favorite musk, plum is my favorite fruit, and I love vanilla and patchouli. (I'm not sure what patchouli leaf is, though.) I fully expect to love this oil. The Organ Grinder: I debated about this one and then passed on it. The tobacco smoke and black patchouli sounded excellent, but sasparilla and white pine bark and normally not so great for me. I'll have to wait for reviews. Pulcinella & Teresina: Cedar, teak, and rose are three notes that normally don't work on me, so I didn't get this one. Melisande, The Puppet Mistress: The mention of jasmine and violet scared me off (although I don't know what sambac is, and I'm also not sure how violet water is different from violet). Jasmine is a heady cloying floral on me -- the kind of floral I don't like. And although I like the scent of violet, every BPAL blend that contains violet winds up smelling virtually identical on me because my skin amps the violet note so strongly. Doc Constantine: I wavered about this one too, but I decided to pick just one of the ones I was iffy about and take a chance. This was the one I gambled on. The cedar smoke and fir needle sounded iffy, but the rest sounds fantastic. So I'm hopeful. Xanthe, the Weeping Clown: I got a very discordant strange feel from Tweedledee, which also has white pepper and an exotic fruit. I didn't think it was all that pleasant, so I passed on Xanthe. I'll be interested to read reviews of it through. Gennivre, l'Artiste du Diable: This blend has too many notes that don't work on me. Mint and lemongrass are very rarely good on my skin, and honey is often questionable. So I didn't get this one. Theodosius, the Legerdemain: This is the one I should have gotten but didn't. Rats. I saw "jasmine" in there and immediately moved on, and then for some reason I didn't come back to this one and read it again. Well, I'll get a bottle with the lunacy update. It sounds like possibly something between Dorian and Wilde, and I think it would be an excellent birthday gift for my hubby. Antonino, The Carny Talker: Another must-have. The verbena and lavender might have killed it on my skin, but this one will be a gift for my husband and lavender smells good on him. Plum, vetiver, and fig are three of my favorite notes, and I'm hoping this one will be a little reminiscent of King of Spades...

Fishnets and Frankincense

August 3, 2006

Non sequiturs

Today's non sequiturs begin with the fact that the Reverend Jim guy that I mentioned in my prior entry is, in fact, employed. I went into Meadowlark Coffee yesterday and he was sitting outside, wearing a shirt normally worn by U-Stop convenience store employees. I asked Debbie, the morning barrista, if he was actually a U-Stop employee and she said yes, she was rather certain that he was. I commented that I'd always thought that he was a client at the county mental health center. And Debbie said yes, she was rather sure he was. I was watching "Austin City Limits" on PBS last Saturday, and I know it was a rerun, but I was deeply amused at the contrasts presented by the two featured performers. I like both of them, but who decided to put Lyle Lovett and Jamie Cullum on the same show? Lyle is tall, skinny, taciturn Texan who smiles only on one side of his face, is so rigid when he performs that one suspects he might break in half if he made a sudden move, and is entrancingly weird-looking. I figured out that part of what makes him so very odd-looking is that his eyebrows are almost nonexistent. He has all that hair on the top of his head (which styling products have really tamed in recent years) and absolutely no eyebrows. But don't get me wrong, I like his voice and a lot of his music, although I don't listen to him that often. Did he burn his eyebrows off as a kid and they never grew back? Jamie Cullum is a hyperanimated little sparkplug from England who runs and jumps all over as he is singing and playing the piano. He's so little that I kind of want to call him "Frodo," but he's also quite adorable. Maybe the Austin City Limits crowd for his show was the same group who showed up to see Lyle perform, and they just didn't get what Jamie was all about. They were as lifeless as the day is long, and I've never seen a group of such unrhymtic-looking people in my life. What was the matter with those white people? Get up and move! At least sway a bit! Granted, I love Jamie's music and his style, but I felt sorry for him, having to perform on TV before an alleged "live" audience. Just. Plain. Cute. I bought three bottles from the update -- two from Wanderlust and one from Carnaval Diabolique. Specifically, Cockaige and Lyonesse from Wanderlust and Midnight on the Midway. What is life without at least one or two pending BPAL orders? About as boring as a Lyle Lovett crowd at a Jamie Cullum concert!

valentina

August 3, 2006

Filling the Periodic Table

It amuses me to be seen as a monster

My boyfriend is very involved in politics right now, so we seem to be going to multiple events every week. Last night, we went to a meet-and-greet for two candidates, a woman running for the state Senate, and a man running for the Federal House. (My boyfriend is working quite actively on the guy's campaign) My sweetie is *extremely* progressive. We don't always see eye-to-eye, but we are always respectful of each other's views, and we take the time to understand each other's positions. As for my own beliefs, I'm a little disillusioned, kinda cynical, and am a strong believer in financial accountability, personal privacy, plain dealing, and giving everyone an equal opportunity - though what they do with it is their own business. 40 years ago, I may have been called a republican, but now, I just don't believe there is a place on the political spectrum for me, though I stick with the democrats, since the current republicans don't share my stance on *anything* (*grumble*grumble*fiscal mismanagement*grumble*insane war*grumble*intruding on my personal life*grumble*lying SOBs*grumble*grumble*) Let me preface my story by saying that the event was early in the evening, so I didn't change after work. I was wearing an ankle-length black velvet skirt, a button down shirt, and high heels. There was another lady there, who was wering a hat covered in progressive pins, and who was putting off a very activist vibe. (Which is fine, it's her right... But personally, I find wearing advertising, whether commercial or political, a little tacky. I am not a billboard.) I didn't think any less of her, after all I'm living in sin with a guy who is hanging out way to the Left of me politically. But anyway, she didn't seem to like the look of me. Anyway, in the course of conversation she lets loose with the statement that we should never have electronic voting machines because she doesn't want the democratic process to be ar the mercy of energy companies. I'm thinking, fat lot of good paper ballots do you if the lights are out! So I respond with mentioning that that could easily be adressed by requiring polling places only be set up in buildings that have generators (since the polling places are usually schools, community centers, and government buildings, it's fair to say a lot of them already have generators anyway) She looked at me like I had sprouted tentacles for even accepting the idea of electronic voting machines. I am of the opinion that the current electronic voting machine technology is a travesty. But this is America, and people like things that are shiny, new, and space-age. So we have to accept that they will continue to exist, and push legislation that requires a paper trail, verifiable security measures, and publicly auditable code. Honestly, if we took the requirements Nevada sets on slot machines and made the same requirements on voting machines, we'd be 90% of the way there. Well, that only made it worse! I was clearly mocking democracy by comparing voting machines to slot machines! She then railed on about how the requirements that I was talking about were never going to happen, and I was living in a dream world of woulda-coulda-shoulda. But *she* was only concerned with reality. And reality to her, was that because the voting machines available now were criminal, and paper works just fine, that the correct answer is to ban electronic voting machines, and go back to paper. Now who is in a dream world of woulda-coulda-shoulda? You can't put the shaving cream back in the can. Electronic voting is out there, people have bought into it, and I don't see any chance of it being abandoned wholesale across the country. Maybe we didn't need it, but we've got it, so as Tim Gunn says, we have to make it work. So, in the course of this discussion, she is squirming in her seat like she wants to scoot as far away from me as possible, throwing up her hands and exclaiming over and over again how she just can't talk to someone like me, and that I'm just impossible, and that introducing electronic voting machies was just like starting the Iraq war, and whatever. By the end of the conversation, I might as well have been Richard Nixon and Cthuhlu's love child. This has caused me no end of amusement. The whole drive home I was asking Rusty how he likes dating an evil republican baby-eater.

antimony

August 3, 2006

This Old Snark

Whirled Peas

Snarky owns several statementy T-shirts that she used to employ to keep her sense of self at the gym. One had a giant, glaring Big Brother (from "1984"), another declared "RACIAL STEREOTYPES DEHUMANIZE" (a gift from her activist brother), and yet another one implored the reader to "Visualize Whirled Peas". Which really has nothing to do with this post, except that Snarky finally managed to download some photos and was thinking along the lines of helping y'all to visualize her life out here in the Pacific Northwest. More to come, eventually. First, some more house pics! A bad photo of our finished floor upstairs. Also an inkling of our whacky PeeWee color choices. The cats spend most of their day up in the hutch. Meant to give you an idea of the amazing candy-apple-green of the living room. Also our slovenly ways. And love for Kubrick. ... and some travel pics... One of our recent bike excursions on the Spring Water Corridor Trail. The red speck is The Mister. A mural by the Devil's Punchbowl on the coast. The poppies are real. Closeup of the strange sand formations on Hobbit Beach. This is why the Snarks love the coast. The Snarky's on the coast! The Mister has sworn to learn how to use the camera. Someday you might actually see more than just Reflected!Snarky. OK... that's it for now. Coming soon: more coastal pics, the IKEA run, and 'maters!

darkitysnark

August 3, 2006

How difficult could it be?

The update!

i never bother with updates as soon as they happen. never. so tell me why i am hurriedly making a huuuuge list of all the new things i want? huh? i wouldn't mind if it was just CD that i was after but oh no. it's GC as well......the 2 new elixirs and the other new GC stuff is calling me.....i can't afford this! i really need to get those 30 5mls that don't agree with me on ebay to pay for it all. that's how i managed to get pumpkin patch last year i can't be the only one suffering in 'can't afford all the bpal i neeeed' hell

Nemesister

August 3, 2006

Post-update blues.

The Carnaval is awesome, the Salon updates look wonderful, and I can't wait to try the new Wanderlust scents. Everyone involved has been working so much to get this accomplished, and they must be so excited for it to actually be live. And I'm really irritated that I've been watching that hijack thread about the people complaining about the price changes going into effect early. I shouldn't have done that. Now instead of feeling happy I feel pissed. I'm thankful we got any warning about the price increases at all -- I can't think of any other business owner who has warned me a few days in advance of increasing her prices. It appears that the only reason Beth did that is that she cares about her customers and wanted to give people one last chance at the prices that were sending her business into insolvency. For people to be complaining about that kind of generosity, mainly because their own personal circumstances prevented them from being able to take advantage of it, seems undeservedly harsh. And the nit-picking about the hours is very strange. I didn't hear one single person complain that the CD banner on the BPAL site said it would be coming in JULY of this year and it didn't. No one said "That's untruthful and bad business practices and when I tell my clients something will happen on such-and-such day it happens." (Which, let's be real, can't possibly be true. I worked in the business world for 12 years and precious little happened exactly when it was supposed to.) And yet when it comes to a $2.50 price increase, suddenly people want to quibble over a few hours. In fact they want to quibble about it SO BADLY they write multiple insulting posts about it and in general bring down the whole squeefest excitement of update night and try to make Beth feel like crap on what should be one of the best nights of her whole year. I call Bad Form.

August 3, 2006

This Old Snark

Legacy

Snarky knows y'all must be getting tired of her waxing all faux-philosophical and all and why can't she just get back to posting pics of the house, dag nabbit? Well, she does have a few pics, but of course she doesn't have them ready for you yet. On a lark she just looked up a former classmate from her architorture school days and has found out that she is now the happy mother of two wonderful kids. Snarky shouldn't be surprised, as she was one of the bridesmaids at this friend's wedding which took place as soon as they possibly could manage it immediately following graduation. The W's were an exclusive couple very early into the whole collegiate experience (from Snarky's held-over High School Sweetheart phase, through the embarrassing experimental Rugby moment, all the way to meeting The Mister online). It was almost a given that they were going to be married. They just complemented eachother so thoroughly and well. Still Snarky can't help but feel a bit of shock. Someone who has been frozen in her mind for the last eight years just got suddenly ultra-fast forwarded to being a Mommy twice over. The same happened a couple years ago when she got in touch with an old high school roommate who had also gone and had two kids. The shock was a bit lessened by the fact that Snarky knew about Child #1 (though #2 was a complete surprise as they had lost touch by then). The Snarks are still very much on the fence about this whole child-having thing anyway, but somehow Snarky is feeling like she missed the boat somehow - that she's in a moment of suspended animation just spinning her wheels, not really doing anything. If she decided not to have children, then surely she must be on some upwardly mobile corporate ladder or carving a bold new niche for some previously undiscovered marketable need. Right? Only... no. Snarky hasn't done that either. Snarky really hasn't done much at all on either the family or career fronts. Is Snarky a Slacker? If not children and not career... then what will be her legacy? (According to this week's issue of the local freebie paper, Portland is a city of slackers. Perhaps this is why Snarky feels so attuned to the place.)

darkitysnark

August 2, 2006

Eoywin's Blog

I'm a bad CardSwap Faery :(

Or at the very least, a lazy one. I used to keep records of who got who in each swap... but the last few ones, I've gotten lazy. Mostly because my free time is pretty limited, so I quickly try and get everyone's assignments out quick as possible... and sometimes I do that at work. From now on, I'll have to keep that information... I feel badly about not having it for the several swaps in motion right now. Thank goodness I don't really have any swaps between now and the wedding (though I'll probably start the Halloween card signups before I leave for the wedding).

Eoywin

August 2, 2006

Entire GC Swap Reviews - pink.owl Package #2

These reviews are for pink.owl #2 package, which contains Aeval, Carnal, Hecate, Morocco, O, Red Queen, and R'lyeh. Aeval - A judicious yet powerfully sensual blend, a mingling of justice and sexuality: sage, sweet pea, bold pale musk and warm tonka. This oil smells almost entirely of sweet pea. It's way too sweet and way too floral for me, plus it's approaching powdery. This is just not at all something I would wear. Carnal - Bold, bright mandarin paired with the sweet, sensual earthiness of fig. At first it's almost entirely an orange scent that's quite strong. Then that fades out as the oil dries, and it ends up being a wonderful and nearly equal balance of rich fig and sweet bright mandarin. These are both among my favorite notes (especially fig), so I had assumed I would like this, and I definitely do. It's lush, round, and sweet -- divine! Also it reminds me a bit of Freak Show, so anyone who likes Carnal should check out that one. Hecate - Their scent is the crisp, inviting bittersweet tang of cranberry with smoky dark lilies, heady, sensual musk, a tingle of ginger and a brush of Mediterranean spices. The first time I tried this I thought it smelled smoky, hazy, and dark. Then I got a frimp from the Lab, so I tried this new one. It smells like cherries to me at first, not cranberries, definitely cherries. As it dries I think I can detect a little bit of ginger, but not much. There is something in this that strongly reminds me of the Glade air freshener (you remember those can-like things with the scented jelly-type stuff inside) that my grandma used to keep on the back of her toilet. So, as you can guess, I don't really want to smell like that. As it's drying it doesn't smell quite as much like the air freshener, but now that I've got that image in my head I can't get it out. The scent is getting better as time goes by, but now it's turning powdery. I kinda wish this one smelled like that first imp I had... wonder what I did with that one. I'll see if I can track it down. Morocco - Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. I was rather meh about Morocco the first couple of times I tried it. It seemed to be terribly popular, and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I thought the carnation was too strong and I thought the whole thing smelled dry like a desert and unpleasant. Then I got a frimp of Morocco from the Lab, so I decided to try it again. This time it's wonderful. The sandalwood and cassia is a great combination (and the cassia fortunately doesn't overpower everything else)... mmm, musky, dry, and spicy. And there's something creamy under there too. It's exotic and mysterious, and I love it! I think that the first time I tried this it was wintertime, and that was the wrong time to try this. It is perfect for a very hot summer day like today, just perfect. Wow. I can't believe how much my opinion about this oil has changed in just a few short months. Also I have a hunch that I should get a big bottle of this and put it in the back of my closet for about a year to let it age. O - Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla. [Reviewed on Feb. 22, 2006; updated review on Aug. 1, 2006.] Not much I can say that hasn't been said. On me, it's honey and vanilla -- after a while it warms up into a honey musk. After reading the reviews I was expecting O to bowl me over with sexiness, but it doesn't. (I guess Scherezade is still the reigning champ of sexy, for me.) It's not really what I expected. ETA: After trying many BPAL blends, I now know why O didn't work for me -- my skin turns the BPAL honey note to play-doh. However I have found that Mouse's Long and Sad Tale works great on me and is sort of what I was expecting O to smell like. Red Queen - Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant. [Reviewed on Mar. 13, 2006.] Very cherry at first. Not at all like cough syrup or fake cherry flavoring. Like I just stuck my nose in a jar of maraschino cherries. (Which is not to say The Red Queen smells like almonds, becasue I don't think it does.) It's really faint, which surprised me. For The Red Queen, I expected a much bolder and stronger scent. It's sweet and candy-ish, but not at all strong. After about 20 minutes the wood notes come out and give it a nice balance. I don't think this is for me, but it would be good for someone who likes the sweet resiny-wood blends. R'lyeh - A hellishly dark aquatic scent, evocative of fathomless oceanic deeps, the mysteries of madness buried under crushing black waters, and the brooding eternal evil that lies beneath the waves. Of the aquatic scents, I think this one is my favorite. It doesn't smell stinging in that way that ozone often does on me, instead it smells like clear, clean water. Like water in a fountain. Except better. I don't actually get anything evil out of this, nothing that evokes dark oceanic depths. Mostly it smells clean and fresh. My only complaint about this is that it softens up a bit too quickly and becomes faint... which is also unusual for an aquatic scent on my skin. Usually they're a little too loud for me. It figures that the one that I like a lot would be the only one that doesn't amp itself into the atmosphere. I wrote that paragraph before I looked at the other reviews, and now I want to add this: 1) Grapefruit? I wouldn't have guessed that. I have my doubts that Beth would put grapefruit, which smells sparkly, into something that's supposed to be like fathomless darkness... but maybe. I don't know -- I'm going to be a hard sell on the grapefruit possibility. I'm just not getting that. I guess there might be some citrus in there giving it that "fresh" feel, but it's not strong enough for me to be able to pick it out. 2) I agree with edenssixthday that most aquatic scents smell masculine on me. I blame that damn Cool Water cologne that everyone and his brother wore 10 years ago.

August 2, 2006

Birthday woes

I don't know what to get the boy for his birthday. I can't think of anything. Wow, that's crazy. Any ideas?

Fishnets and Frankincense

August 1, 2006

A Reverend Jim moment

Does anyone remember the old TV show "Taxi?" See it in reruns? The character played by Christopher Lloyd, Reverend Jim Ignatowski, was the classic '60's burn-out, but he occasionally showed flashes of a former self, prior to all the drugs. There was a show where he was sitting in his apartment eating breakfast and a wrecking ball crashed through the wall -- the building was being demolished, and Jim had somehow failed to see the eviction notices. I think he said something like: "Boy, there's a draft in here!" There was another show where Elaine, the aspiring actress, needed someone to escort her to a cocktail party being thrown by a very wealthy theatre patron. Jim was the only one available to act as an escort, so Elaine got Jim all cleaned up and took him along. She told him to be quiet, and he was doing an OK job. But during the course of the evening, the pianist who was supposed to entertain the guests failed to show up, and the hostess was bemoaning her plight. Jim said he played the piano, and the hostess promptly took him up on his offer. So Jim sat down and began clunking out "Chopsticks." Elaine was slowly dying. Then Jim suddenly started to play gorgeous classical music; he stopped only briefly and said: "Hmmm... I must have done this before!" At Meadowlark Coffee, there's a fair number of Jim-like characters hanging outside, because it's across the street from the hospital that houses the county mental health facility. The outpatients sometimes sit outside at Meadowlark waiting for the bus. There's one guy who's obviously medicated to the gills, but he's still somewhat coherent, just a bit dazed. Last Friday I was sitting inside Meadowlark, reading, when someone began playing all sorts of songs on the piano. The repertoire ranged from jazz standards to show tunes to Beatles songs. I couldn't figure out who was playing the music, and I couldn't see the piano, so I stood up to take a look. And it was the Jim-like guy, playing them all from memory! A woman who was probably his caseworker from the mental health center was sitting with him, and every now and then, they'd start singing together. Amazing. It was really very funny in a Reverend Jim sort of way, and it was also sad, because you wonder what this person was like before the schizophrenia, or whatever is organically wrong, got to him. He never did say "Hmmm... I must have done this before," but he did at one point stop, look at the keyboards and say: "Not bad!"

valentina

August 1, 2006

Anxiety

I am actually in a full-blown panic over never finding a bottle of House of Mirrors. Beaver Moon to a lesser degree. This is sort of scary. I think I need some rest. But it's really, really freaking me out. Seriously, though? House of Mirrors seems to have vanished from the swaps. (I know there are a couple there, but what if nobody ever wants to sell it again? ) And it's not like I have any real reason to be afraid I'll never get my hands on either of them ever again. It's irrational. That's how I know it's a panic attack.

August 1, 2006

Update mania

I think I've figured it out. I sold the two bottles I had up for swap. If I can choose between Dorian and Alice, I'll make a big (for me!) order now and then snag one or maybe even two CD scents. Possibly a set of decants. Possibly a few decants eventually. If there are 13 scents, that's $65. Cripes. I don't know why that surprised me so much, heh. (I'm guessing about the 13 scents.) So I'll grab decants of whichever ones interest me most and then... gah. What about the BPTP update? The one it was insinuated/suggested would be a lot like the inquisition... That's what is keeping me back now. Ugh. I'm just driving myself nuts. An observation about shipping prices: It usually more than pays for itself in frimpage. That's kind of cool.

August 1, 2006

Entire GC Swap Reviews - pink.owl Package #7

pink.owl #7 package Dana O'Shee, Santa Muerte, Satyr, Thalia, Venice, Wilde. Dana O'Shee - Offerings of milk, honey and sweet grains were made to placate these creatures, and it is that the basis of the scent created in their name. Smells like cherries and honey at first. Then it gets milkier and sweeter and the cherry scent fades out almost entirely. I have a feeling that this would be a lovely scent if it weren't for my skin chemistry making the honey smell like play-doh. It's done the exact same thing all three times I've tried Dana O'Shee over a span of several months, so I'm pretty much giving up hope at this point. I'm glad this smells great on other people, but it's never going to work for me. Santa Muerte - A deep, resonant scent, both comforting and soft: lovers’ roses, solemn chrysanthemum, dark vetiver and dazzling cactus flowers. Disclaimer: I love vetiver. Santa Muerte is lovely. Gentle and cozy. Like cuddling up with a good book under your favorite blanket on your favorite comfy chair. It does kinda smell a little bit like cocoa at first, and then it smells a bit like cleaning products, but that's just the wet phase. It's pretty without being aggressively floral, soft and lilting. Santa Muerte was one of the first 5mL bottles I bought from the Lab. It was great to wear in the springtime. Satyr - Unleash the bawdy, unrestrained passion of the satyr! A ferociously masculine scent: sexual, vigorous, and truly wild. Yummy yum. To me this smells mostly like Scherezade with clove when it's wet -- kind of like an aggressive Scherezade. And it's a really dark brownish-red color, so of course I'm going to like it. There's nothing soft or gentle about this scent. But even though it's dark, it's not a brooding darkness. It's kind of playful. If there is civet in this, that's okay with me because the Lab's civet note smells pretty good on me. Nothing like poo at all. I ashamed to admit that I have about 4 imps of Satyr and I haven't given a single one to my husband yet. I just let him try it a few minutes ago for the first time, and it smells fabulous on him! Even better than on me. Rats. I guess he gets the imps. Thalia - Good cheer. Plumeria, pear and white champagne. Hmm. Plumeria, is it? I thought that scent was gardenia until I looked at the notes. This is a very yellow oil, and it smells like a very yellow flower. The pear gives it a nice crispness, and the champagne gives it a bit of a sparkle. Over all I like it, it's just a little more flowery than what I usually wear. This is one of the BPAL blends that doesn't suit me personally but that I find quite pretty. I also think it would be nice layered with one of the grapefruit scents. Venice - A complex, voluptuous scent that captures the robust beauty and of the Italian Renaissance: lemon, red currant, wisteria, red rose petals, heady jasmine, Florentine orris root, waterlily, red sandalwood, violet plum, and violet leaf. It smells lush; I don't know how she did that. It's also slightly sweet, but it's kind of a fruity sweet, not what I'd consider a floral sweet. It doesn't have as much jasmine as I was afraid of, and the tiny amount of lemon I can smell doesn't bother me as much as lemon usually does. It's a pretty floral that smells rather grown-up. It gets slightly heady when it's dry, but not offensively so. However... even though it's nice at first, after about an hour I don't like it. It smells like pretty floral soap. So this is one for swaps after all. Wilde - A sophisticated traditional gentleman's cologne, with just the slightest taint of patchouli's passion, tonka bean's decadence, the philanthropy of bergamot, moss' cynicism, the sharp wit of lavender, and the hopeless romantic longing of jasmine and thyme. This is one of my hubby's favorite GC oils -- he tried an imp of it a few months ago and then immediately bought a 10mL. It really is a great cologne, it smells wonderful. I can definitely smell a clean, crisp lavender in it, and it's just very slightly herby. The bergamot is a nice touch. Very gentlemanly, but not necessarily in a prim way. To my nose there is no mistaking this for a woman's perfume because it smells very much like a traditional cologne. But that could be because my hubby wears it all the time.

August 1, 2006

Eoywin's Blog

On Birthdays

Today would have been my mom's 55th birthday if she was alive, and it's Todd's 31st birthday, so I feel a bit conflicted. I find a bit creepy that my mom and my husband have the same birthday. Mostly because he never met her, and we didn't start dating until after she died. Birthdays are a big deal to me, so I try and make the people I love's birthday a little special. This weekend, I took Todd out to eat and to the movies. He doesn't really like birthdays, so that's about all the fuss he'll let me make Today I'm taking him out to lunch, and finishing his cake (I was too tired to frost it last night).

Eoywin

July 31, 2006

Sourball Ho!

Cheap estate sales!

We set a record this weekend: we went to four estate sales and didn't buy anything. Which got us debating and deciding what is an estate sale, because 2 of the houses didn't qualify in our opinion. (We pulled these assorted addresses from a list of the local paper's, so estate sales were listed differently than garage sales.) One house was a young family obviously in the process of moving and had all their crap out in the front yard, and you could go into the living room and see the old-timey piano (which was pretty cool, actually), but you couldn't go anywhere else. That is not an estate sale! The other one, after we visited we were creating this whole backstory: stylish anorexic bobblehead mom and her bobblehead daughter wanted to sell ex-husband's stuff (because they got the house and some of his stuff in the divorce), but couldn't muster the carbs to lug the furniture out to the driveway, so they called it an "estate sale" so they didn't have to move from the couch after the filling lettuce leaf they had 3 hours before. Yes, we amuse ourselves It was a few pieces of totally overpriced furniture, and when I asked if they were selling the house they said "no." So it wasn't an estate sale or even a moving sale! Rip-off!! So our new rule is: if there aren't other cars in front, we're not going in. The first place and the last place totally passed that rule; the last place a bunch of cars and had so much stuff, we couldn't even look through it all. Most of it wasn't great, though, and the lady in charge wasn't giving any deals (even thought it was 3:00 on a Sunday) and at one point someone asked about the shoebox full of old postcards and she said they were $1 each! Ripoff!!! The first place was awesome: a local actress from the 1930s who built this beautiful house on a hill in this cool hidden part of town. We were having total Hollywood Hills flashbacks -- the house was seriously beautiful, gorgeous floors and ceilings and archways and staircases. There was almost nothing left to buy, but I was so jazzed to be able to walk through it, it was this great house and they had pictures up of her in her heyday. I left dreamy-eyed That's what I like: seeing a cool old house, that people lived and loved there. I like taking a piece of that back with me -- not like a vampire, but an appreciator.

dawndie

July 31, 2006

A confession

I am all over the place tonight. So I have this horrible confession to make. I'm too embarrassed to make it on the forum, though I might as well be. Everytime somebody dies, I resent my dad for still being alive. I don't have the energy to actively hate him, though when I think about it, I do. I wonder if anyone will hurt when he dies. Gah. This isn't productive. I need to get out of here for a bit. I was going to postsecret that (with less words, of course), but I think I'll just leave it here.

July 31, 2006

Birthdays and selfishness

I have about $50 in my paypal account. I really want to do whatever the BPTP event is going to be. I totally support the price increase and all that, but... I think I'm going to spend it on GC scents. I don't have anything for my husband's birthday. I don't have any ideas about what to get him. I... may actually not use it on BPAL at all. If I spend a ton of money on myself and don't have anything for him, that's just... wrong, to me. Wrong.