sarada

They used to have automated order confirmation emails but since they didn't always go through (they were filtered out by peoples' spam filters, or just took awhile to chug through the tubes of the internets) my guess is that the system might have generated even MORE "did you get my order??" emails than not having them at all. That's just a guess though. I do remember that I stopped getting them a couple of years ago, but even when the system was in place the automated emails didn't always make it through.

I think that the Paypal or CCNow confirmation should be sufficient to prove to a customer that a transaction occured, and they do give an estimate of ship time (14 to 21 business days) and send out a click and ship. The only thing that I wish could be done to help clarify things for new customers is some sort of large, red flashing notice on the CCNow site that indicates that "order status: shipped" has nothing to do with the actual order status. If I am popping in on the squee thread three times a week to clarify people on that point, I can't even imagine how many emails the lab has to answer about it! (and I'm not a mod or anything, I'm just a busybody!)

have we coined "squattles" as a term for the old style bottles yet? i've got about four of those left i think!

That looks like one of the ones that were sold on sites like eyespyeclectics.com, years ago, -- maybe 2003? it was before i was collecting BPAL but i remember seeing them on that site (gothic clothing; i don't think it's in operation anymore). there were about a dozen BPAL varities including Wilde, Absinthe, etc -- a lot of the early ones -- and they looked like that. those are the type of tags used for imps back in the day too. at the time i thought they looked neat but i didn't buy any because i didn't think i'd ever have a use for perfume oils!

I will never miss out on a blend with dandelion in it. One of the most stunning notes in the BPAL repertoire, it adds an incredible freshness and life to any blend -- a soft, bright glow, a tangy greenness, with crushed stems and pungent sap. Sunny but cooling, not quite floral but not quite herbal -- and a fairy bit grassy to boot.

Dandelion is very strong in this blend, lifted up by fragrant, fresh, sweet clover and grounded by faintest hints of wood. It is very much like 2007's incredible Sagittarius, one of my favorites of the astrological blends but without the hint of fig in that. Still, it does have a sweetness to it. Both the natural golden sweetness of dandelion (perfectly balanced with that bitter pulpy greenness) and the giddy nectar of clover.

On my skin it fades very quickly and it's as if I crushed dandelions on my arm and rubbed some fresh-cut wood on my flesh after a good roll around in the grass. But in the locket -- oh in the locket!! It it summertime forever in a little silver box. Glowing golden, warming against my skin, a little magical amulet of daylight, warmth and youth simmering near the heart. I might pass out from joy as I keep lifting it up to sniff.

Sweeter than "One to Tie, Two to Win" but not quite as sweet as Sagittarius, The Schoolhouse is indispensible for dandelion lovers or anyone who might need a splash of sunshine as we head into the darker months.

I spent about 24 hours just applying and reapplying this one to both skin and locket to really get a feel for it. It's that complex and interesting, and it goes through that many changes based on how you are wearing it.

The artwork perfectly suits this blend as well, with the muted twilight lavender tones. You do have to really lean in to get a sense of it. I am first intrigued by the dark green herbal notes that peek through when this is wet and just drying down. Even in the locket they don't come out as strongly as they do fresh on my skin. Dark green wet broken stems and mysterious evening herbs. Dew clinging to your ankles as you creep through the overgrown yard where berries grow over graves.

The next layer is that of the berries. Sweet, wine-like berries. A splash of communion wine perhaps, sloshed over the earth onto a soft bed of moss and midnight herbs. Frankincense is not very prominent but without its presence I think these notes would fade away very quickly. Its sweet, clear, strong tones add a touch of sparkle and earthiness at the same time, grounding the sweet berries and brief rustle of greenery. I would even swear there was a touch of stone in this one.

I forgot this blend contained rose, but now I realize that is what the truly intoxicating part of the blend is...rising above the other notes, the simple plaintive pinkish purple rose, blending seamlessly with the berries to create a heady floral wine. It only peeks through occasionally on my skin. In my locket it was much more prominent. A unique blend though, if you like things a bit complex. A distant rosy cousin of Fortunato perhaps. But really, it's quite unlike anything else and that's why I keep reapplying it to get that fresh rush of herbs and sweet berries.

When I tried this at will call it smelled a bit more airy and light than it does in its final form. And I adore it -- this is a serious contender for the sarada hall of fame.

Beneath a swirl of cool air I catch the very realistic scent of pine/fir resin (which I smear on myself straight from the tree whenever I see globs of it) and the warm, simmering resins of something like Midnight Mass or Cathedral along with a fresh-cut wood. All wonderful, wonderful things. A perfect mixture of green fir, deep natural sweet resin and its cousin in a censer in a dark wooden church -- with that freshly hewn wood scent beneath.

Not quite as strong as the church resin scents; instead of being contained just within the vaulted cathedral ceiling, this is open to the night air, with a thick evergreen forest all around. It doesn't have a pine scent so much as the thick dollop of sweet resin beneath the boughs. And yes I love the scent of lumber and pencils! Can't be missed, if you like wood and resin scents. It is different enough from the others in this family to deserve a place of singular honor in your collection!

I've been sniffing this one for a couple of days to try to describe it best -- it fades quickly on my skin but the woody notes come out more; in a locket the wet ivy smell is stronger longer (and it has a bit more of a cologney/fresh feel) but there is less of the wooden base note.

In the bottle I'm hit by a very wet, dark green ivy with the woodiness underlying it. Think of a less burnt Twisted Oak Tree covered in wet ivy. On my skin, a glittering wood emerges, dark and sparkling under moonlight, wreathed in dampness and sharp green foliage. The fresh, wet greenery is almost citrus-like at times. It fades to lighter woods on my skin but stays strongly green in a locket. Ivy fans will definitely want to try this out. If Twisted Oak Tree was too smoky, this might work better for you. Or if you like things in the Black Tower family of scent -- though this is a bit less complex, it makes a beautifully bleak and simple statement of silhouetted trees under a damp tangle of vines.

Few things are more lovely to me, in autumn or any time, than vetiver and sandalwood. The slightly burnt, sweetly earthy quality of vetiver and the dry, fragrant sandalwood are a perfect match. They are also the most prominent notes in this blend, which initially reminds me of the smoky wood qualities of last year's Death of Autumn. A few tufts of powdery, dry moss make this a blend you might want to nuzzle, on the right person. Smoky burnt earthen vetiver with layers of dry moss and wood, and perhaps just the slightest metallic hint lilting over these earthy-brown notes of blasted earth and ominous smoke. I worried that there would be much more prominent, cologne-like metallic notes, but nope, it's all lovely earthy burntness! Add another to the magnificent vetiver ensemble. Distinctly autumnal in the family of Death of Autumn and Samhainophobia.

Eatingthesea, I think that was the label for Sugar Skull, I'm familiar with the image as well but I'm not sure of the name...i think I thought it was Joan of Arc but I could be wrong!

Second review for CLXXVI (176)

ElinaMakropulos' review

My take on it: in the bottle, a beautiful burnt vetiver, smoky but sweet in a glistening, resinous way. A bit lighter than Malediction, somewhat comparable to the Grand Inquisitor's Heretic's Fork, and a little less burnt but similar to Smokestack. Sometimes when I breathe in deeply from the bottle I get a hint of that sort of "coffee and cigarettes" smell because of the burnt, roasted quality of the vetiver and the ashen, smoky scent, but somehow it manages to do this in a way that is not bad.

As it dries the smoke clears and we are left with a glistening dark brown surface, stained with ash but wiped smooth. Yes, yes indeed, this is one for me, I'm glad that I was able to give it a home!

ETA: Agnes Nutter! That's the closest to what this one smells like!

I got this almost by accident, but I knew that if there was chamomile in it I would love it. The chamomile really jumps out at me in the bottle and I relax. Ahh, yes, everything's gonna be just fine.

I am a huge rose lover. I rarely go for blends that are just rose + floral because they fade too quickly on me (I favor rose + wood, resin, etc.) but an herbal rose is an intriguing development. I adore herbal blends and greedily grab for any that come out.

The chamomile reminds me strongly of Vipralabda, but with those mellow pale powdery rose notes beneath. In the locket, the chamomile stays strong, and is joined by some dreamy, watery blue florals along with the slightly sharper note of juniper. Though I love wisteria and iris flowers in the garden they've never worked in perfume for me, but they manage not to become too prominent or powdery. And I don't have a headache, so that's a good sign. On my skin, it faded pretty quickly and the notes became less distinct, but that always happens with me and anything that doesn't have a very dark base note.

A dreamy, somnolent, calming blend of mists and flower-strewn ponds at twilight. It is definitely a crepuscular scent to me, quiet and muted, a watercolor of wildflowers and summer herbs nodding in a faint breeze while mists rise from a still lake.

My eyes lit up when I saw the notes for this one. First, I am a sucker for anything with the words "blood" or "garden" in them -- and here's a blood scent without dragon's blood listed (which has a tendency to drown out other notes, I've noticed).

The combination of ivy, wood and leather made me wonder at first if this would be a fruity cousin of The Black Tower -- while the dark luscious fruits brought longtime favorite Blood Countess to mind. And with a bit of clove in there as well, this is an exciting combination to contemplate.

I know I always call things "incensy" when I like them, because that's my go-to word for anything that I just really like, but that's my first impression as it dries. It is also surprisingly fruity -- rather like a big box full of mostly fruity-scented incense, with the scent of dust and some dry woods mixed in. Leather and wood give it a nice, strong, long-lasting base. I don't smell clove, oddly, and I don't get a lot of the ivy or green notes, which is a shame, but those might come out in a locket better. I also don't get a lot of the metallic blood scent, because the wood and leather creates such a strong impression of dusty warm incense. I think this one might vary greatly depending on your personal chemistry and how you wear it -- wearing it on incense-amping skin, on very hot days where I'm always applying sunblock, I might not be getting some of the subtler notes. I think that as we head into fall this will create an entirely different experience, and the more subtle notes, or the ones that burn off quickly, will be able to fully emerge.

Put aside your expectations for this one -- it is quite complex, and a bit of a morpher. I should know by now that lavender + frankincense is always a good thing but I hesitated a bit on it. Still, that combo always signals something that will be bright and herbal, balanced with something resinous, with staying power and an anchoring darkness. The other elements were what threw me. All of those possibly licoricey herbs -- they can sometimes go wrong. But none of these turn out particularly licoricey. There is an amazing layered complexity to this, particularly in the bottle, as each individual note swirls up and takes its turn, bows, and goes neatly back into the mixture.

A bit of fresh wet garden greenery, just the barest hint of a spice cabinet (ah yes, a hint of that fennel and anise, but perfectly blended), something citrusy, something a bit like carrot -- all intermingled with a very steady, pleasant blood red throbbing pomegranate note.

Although I love pomegranate, it tends to turn everything into a pomegranate candle after it dries a bit, I've found. But this has so many other elements to play with, that it stays out of candle territory. The soporific spike of lavender and soothing smoked sweetness of frankincense really anchor it all.

Incredibly complex and surprising, and an unexpected hit from the set for me. Who knew necromancy could be so much fun?

I can't stop smelling this. I am so drawn into this scent -- the first layer of sweet, smooth beeswax luring you in, and then the scorched, smoking fingers close around you. Charred leather, burnt wood, smooth dark polished wooden surfaces brushed by wisps of smoke, all beneath the golden honey glow of beeswax.

In other words, this is one of the most beautiful things imaginable in my olfactory world. As it dries there is a slight powdery note developing that I can't place -- it might be the way the smokiness dries down, but it is as if the smoke dissipates and the charred leather flakes away to ash mingled with pollen. The darker smooth wood and beeswax cling to me for hours, and into the next day, so I catch tiny whiffs of it wherever I applied it, a ghostly reminder of the spectre.

Oh so lovely. It smells like someone just blew out the candles on the devil's birthday cake!

Mushroom gases and swamp mist made me long for this scent -- the scent of a will o' the wisp on a marsh, with ghostly white mushrooms sprouting among dead tree trunks, pale as puffy corpse fingers. The notes and imagery were spot on for this, as it is a completely otherworldly, haunting scent. It is barely there, but at the same time entrancing and all-consuming. It is not strong violet or mint, but both combine to form something new and just in between. A boggy aquatic herbal-floral? eta: and also, I would swear, a hint of melon or cucumber.

But that's not really doing it justice. It's a wet, misty flickering green-violet, swollen with moisture. The pallor of something that grows in the dark, but throbs with inner light. For something supernatural, it smells SO natural and fresh. As Tramp said, a perfect summer blend. I would not be frightened by either violet or mint, if those normally don't agree with you. If this sounds interesting, I say try it -- splash some on after a shower or a day in the hot sun and you will glow and possibly levitate.

On looking at the notes for this I imagined something similar to Robin Goodfellow or perhaves Carfax Abbey. And indeed those come to mind as I wear it! Also, whenever I think about this scent the song "Two-Headed Dog" by Roky Erikson goes through my head all day.

Dark musk is easily recognizable by any who have smelled it, and it seems that many either love or hate it -- it is a sinuous scent, amplifying all that it touches, and comes off just a little bit powdery. The scattered, dry herbs and woods all smell like an herb garden in the summer heat -- some sun-bleached and crackling, some green and thriving, with a fuzzy dry pad of moss underneath. As a friend who tried this at will call told me, it bears a resemblance to an old Airs incense that I think also had petitgrain in it -- I can't say which note, but in general it gives me the impression of a woody-herbal incense, light and dry and hazy. And of course, if you like either Robin Goodfellow or Carfax Abbey in particular, I think this will be a particular favorite.

One of my favorite notes/concepts that has come about in the past year or so of BPALdom is the 'rot' smell. Forbidding Foyer is one of the most unique and wonderful things ever, for example, and lovely lush rot has cropped up in Worm Moon and some others as well.

The Winding Sheet is less rotty, but there is still that hint of lovely subterranean dankness, beneath the scent of perfumed dusty linen. White sandalwood is a very musty, dusty smell to me, wood bleached by sunlight through a dusty windowpane in the attic. That clean, bleached whiteness has moved into the shade, for this scent, layered by a powdery dust.

With time I get a stronger sense of the wood beneath, and the basement-like musty notes just add a hint of strength and pungent staying power to the blend. It moves quickly through these stages on me, into the mellow dusty wood (with a dab of sour darkness) that I like, but I imagine it would be slightly more of a perfumed linen scent if I had it in a locket.

Shrunken Heads is nothing like I expected -- I thought I knew the lab's leather note(s) well but this is much different and less, well, leathery than I anticipated!

If I didn't have a description to go by I'd even guess that a main note had been a green cedarwood or green sandalwood -- something deep and woody, but at the same time tart, fresh and wet. I imagine putting a green chunk of cedar on a fire and enjoying this combination of smoky wood and damp herbal greenery -- heads have never smelled so lovely!

Damp, sun-warmed herbs, trees and a comforting, smoky warmth with a hint of darkest leather -- far more woodsy and green than I even dared to hope. I should love to wear it in a little shrunken head locket around my neck on a leather cord. I do believe I'll place it in my top five from the Wunderkammer.

Looking at the list of resins in this, it was an obvious choice for me. There are already quite a number of resin and rose scents so I didn't expect it to be wildly different, but Blasphemare Reliquary really does stand out from the others.

The resins are very deep and rich indeed. If boswellia is basically frankincense, and it is coupled with myrrh, you know you're going to be starting off with a deep, dark base of something like Midnight Mass or Penitence. That scent, like a shadow beneath a cowl in a forgotten monastery, glitters with the dry, gold-dust shimmer of copal, layered with ages of ash. The rose is a faint memory -- someone walked through the catacombs once with a bouquet, and left them to fossilize in a lightless tomb.

All of the darkness of the finest resin scents, suggesting medieval cloisters, shadows and smoke, but alleviated with the brightness of copal and the soft breath of rose. Definitely one of my favorites in my favorite collection!

Before I even got it, I knew that it would be true love with me and Bezoar. I imagined a smooth polished ball of fossilized whorled wood and I knew what it would smell like. My prediction proved true, and this is everlasting love.

The only way I can describe the overall scent is one of a very rich, dark and gritty earthy amber/wood, smoothed over and shining. I don't know what the balsams smell like on their own, but it brings to mind something glistening, dark gold and ancient, smooth and resinous. Surprisingly, cardamom doesn't jump out, but I think that the hay note adds a bit of glimmer and shine to the surface.

This is so beautiful I am speechless and will have to wear it some more before I can figure out what to say beyond that. It's immediately one of my favourites, and I recognize in it instantly the scent that I have been longing for.

I agree heartily with the first review, and I was drawn into this dark stained glass chapel by the promise of dark wine and unspeakable rites...but so many wine blends become a powdery berry or an overwhelming Grape Ape on me that I did have a vague worry that I'd wind up with another berry blast when I was hoping for unspeakable darkness.

This one is all unspeakable darkness, and I love it! This is the really gorgeous deep rich bloody wine I was hoping for, splashed on a gritty, dark background of charred stone and blackened wood. I feel like people should cross themselves when I walk by wearing this. I don't smell anything resembling blood (it does give a nice metallic tang to some blends it is listed in) but the wine is extra super dark bloody red. Initially the more smoky and burnt notes are prominent but as it dries they soften and it becomes a rich, complex earthy smoky wine scent. It speaks of altars and sconces and braziers and light flickering off statues in dark corners, cracked stone and black cloaks. I want to go watch movies with words like "Torture Dungeon," "The Castle of..." and "The Abominable..." in the title when I wear this!

Oils that smell like incense are the whole reason I got into BPAL -- and now I have so many of them I hardly need to burn incense anymore! So things like this really get my attention. I was not sure what Rosicrucian incense would mean, specifically, except that I imagined there might be a rosy element, maybe something like Rose Cross, but this is even more beautiful. I don't know if I can ever get enough wood/resin-plus-rose blends, but I love every one and this is no exception.

It smells almost exactly like a patchouli-rose incense called Mayan Temple Blend that has long been one of my all-time favorites. Neither of those notes is prominent, but together they blend into something faintly rosy, rich, earthy and woody. In my locket or on my skin it smells just like I have a stick of that incense burning. As soon as I put it on my husband asked what I was wearing -- and if he says anything other than "God, you're giving me a headache with that stuff!" it's a good sign. He immediately recognized the rose and thought it smelled like really good incense.

In my locket as it dries a little I catch some strong deep sweet resins -- I swear it smells a bit like Cathedral at times, but again with that pinkish glow of rosy incense dust. And on my skin it becomes more radiant and warm with time, growing in intensity.

Yet another winner in the fabulous Wunderkammer set!

I was just thinking...that I need more vetiver blends. For all the time I spend championing the great cause of vetiver, I really need more bottles that represent my love of that most dark and earth, gritty, sweetly scorched scent.

If you love vetiver, and I know there are others like me out there...or you love smoke, you need a good poking of the heretic's fork! It's not entirely like the other burny smoky woody ones out there though it bears some resemblance to them. Malediction in the GC, or perhaps Agnes Nutter from the Good Omens collection, can give you an idea of the sort of burnt wood smell that lies beneath this, but there is also a cold glittering slightly rusted note that I take to be the metal and dried blood. It comes out more as it's drying, and really lifts the scent out of the realm of the purely burnt and smoking.

If you wear it around the right people they might just say "Pardon, but is that the smell of blood drying on a rusted metal fork of some sort amidst the charred remains of a heretic's bonfire?" To which you may answer, well, whatever seems appropriate for the situation. I'm getting some of the more glistening vetiver notes as this dries, as I always think of it as a smooth and polished woody surface blackened by age and soot. Mmmm.

The Wunderkammer collection looks like it's going to be my favorite thing in the entire history of BPAL -- the notes, the concepts, the art -- it's just everything that I read and think about! If I had time I'd write my review in the style of an HP Lovecraft story opening and talk about the trepidation with which I crack open this vial and let forth the wisps of forgotten nightmares, but since it's the first review let's just get down to business!

Being a lover of incense scents above most things on earth I was very excited for this one. I've always liked red musk as well because it is so incensy -- such a rich, spicy, deep scent that one might imagine would infuse the tapestries and brocade pillows in a den of beaded curtains and hookahs. I do get quite a hit of red musk for this -- a dry, smoky red musk, that has long since seeped into the fabric and wood of the room. Hypnotic and arcane, not overly smoky, but it drifts around me and hangs in the air as though I've been burning all of my favorite incenses throughout the night.

There's a nice dryness to it that I would imagine is from the parchment and brimstone -- but it's not acridly smoky, it doesn't smell like Brimstone the BPAL oil, for example. Benzoin adds a resiny incense kick, and I imagine that the daemonorops is making it just a teeny bit more of a glistening blood red. Overall a lovely, dry incensy red musk blend that incense lovers like me should adore. Scherezade fans take note! But this is a bit darker and smokier than that, and never powdery or perfumey.

The Chilling Cellar from last year's Halloween line could also fit the bill though it has some wine notes as well. If you can ever track down Shanghai Tunnel that might be perfect!

But Kumari Kandam is definitely something to try, I agree. Singing Moon from last year, another LE that isn't too hard to come by secondhand, has some nice mineral/damp notes.