sarada

Okay. Wow. I've been wearing this on my skin, in my locket, at night, and during the day, for a week now and I am so overwhelmed with love for this blend that I don't even know what to say about it. But for anyone who watches my reviews -- this could very well be a new all-time favorite for me. Don't hesitate to scoop it up -- it is perfect.

First, there's an herbal beeswax scent that reminds me of my favorite parts of Luperci -- this is also the strongest when I wear it in the locket or first put it on. The simmering warm waxy scent of ritual, a perfect balance of the natural and the alchemical. On my skin and after long wear in the locket the overwhelming scent of warm, gritty, earthy resins is the main note -- the sort of ecclesiastical resinous incense of Heavenly Love & Earthly Love, but even stronger and without the powdery notes. Could this be any more perfect?? The resins are sweet, a tiny bit spicy (they seem to be playing dress-up in robes of carnation and myrrh).

I am constantly intoxicated with the beauty of this scent. It puts me in the mind of dark cathedrals converted for use as alchemical workshops -- green growth breaking through the stained glass windows, climbing over the wooden pews as the air fills with the honeyed smoke of beeswax candles and crackling, melting mounds of fresh golden resin.

This is really GC? Really?? I can get more whenever I need it??

How fantastic is it that I have a perfume with an Easter Island head on the bottle? Pretty fantastic.

This was the only one of all the Tiki scents that appealed to me based on notes but I would have had to get it anyway, for the image of the Moai!

It reminds me very much of the gunpowder/smoke scent from some other blends like Agnes Nutter, though a bit more like burnt wood. I don't really have a good handle on what palm should smell like, but as this dries it seems to have an almost floral undertone and I find myself thinking of humid tropical greenery and hot rocks. I have never had the pleasure of being in one of the places that this might evoke, but it definitely takes me to a wonderful, lost world kind of H. Rider Haggard place in my mind!

The original Hexennacht is a great and eternal love for me and I'm glad to see the concept revisited -- this is completely different, but equally gorgeous, and perhaps even more suitable for this time of year. Unlike the slightly sour and smoky undertones in the original (which I adored for those qualities!) this is much more fresh, clear and crisp. It is the scent of the evergreens in spring, wet and verdant with new growth.

I actually don't get much of the deeper musk or amber notes, though I imagine they are helping to anchor this in place -- it might become too light and high pitched without them to ground it. A clean, earthy evergreen, the sun-warmed pines no longer laden with snow. I've been wearing it in my hair and skin behind my ears and reapplying for a couple of days. Like many natural scents, it also really comes to life when you're out in the woods yourself, and the fragrance warms on your skin as you walk and let the woodsy air lift it up around you.

I haven't been reviewing my moons lately....which is a shame because I love them so much this year!

Worm Moon sounded pretty much like the ultimate dirt/garden scent so I was delighted to see it appear. I love the smell of dirt and potting soil and freshly-turned earth and moss and rot more than just about anything (along with burnt wood, fresh wood, wet wood, wet stone, and...well, you get the idea). Hearing the will call reviews that this was like peat moss or potting soil made me want to stockpile this before I even got my first bottle!

This is indeed a dirt scent to die for. If you had a chance to try Graveyard Dirt, this is much deeper and stronger with many layers to dig through. It reminds me also quite a bit of Premature Burial because in addition to the earthiness there's a lot of greenery and a bit of a floral hit. This is not quite so heady but has a similar quality.

I've been wearing this for days...on my skin, in my Clockwork locket, I just can't get enough of it. Not quite the sweetness of Death Cap, but nowhere near as pungent as Zombi, this is just the right combination of gritty dry dirt, moist garden soil and hints of bruised flower petals and deeply decomposed compost that has turned to humus.

Yet, oddly enough, wearing it I feel like it smells perfectly clean -- soil washed by spring rain.

It's an instant classic, and while Singing Moon has been my favorite moon for months, this one has to at least tie it.

wow, it's my old pine post!

Hexennacht 2008 is the newest entry for me in the pine happiness category.

Joining the newest Capricorn (as mentioned before) and I think Jersey Devil and Troll as having that particular pitch pine note. Mmm.

I am deeply in love with this scent. I wasn't sure I'd like it, since I have very bad luck with anything that has a pirate/sea theme (except Anne Bonny, which I love). Pirate Moon was a perfumey headache for me, for example.

This is a surprisingly resiny scent to me, and really reminds me of Schwarzer Mond at first sniff, with deeper tones reminiscent of Anne Bonny -- deep, smooth polished wood, but with the sweet and complex added swirl of heady bay rum and just a touch of the more fragrant notes. The faintest hint of tea rose and the tiniest splash of currant. The deep wood notes, bay rum and patchouli combine to create something between Schwarzer Mond and Cathedral or Anne Bonny. But rather than being steeped in anything too dark or ominous, the twinkle of rose and currant keeps it buoyant and alive.

I've smeared this behind my ears, on my wrists and in my hair -- this is one of my favorites in recent memory. Wish I had a second bottle!

There should be some sort of an explanatory note on the CCNow site letting people know that their "shipped" status does not have anything to do with whether your actual order shipped. It just means the order was accepted by the Lab for processing. Nothing has shipped until you receive a click & ship email from the USPS. Sometimes the click & ships aren't working, but the CCNow status still does not indicate the actual ship date. They don't point this out anywhere on the CCNow site though so it's a bit confusing for a lot of people.

To see where the lab is in processing check the "click & ship" thread, where it looks like they're up to about Feb. 29 right now. They should be up to March 7 soon!

If you're using Paypal, they suggest not checking out through CCNow though if you can avoid it. On the main BPAL page it asks that Paypal orders be placed directly through Paypal, and not through CCNow. It will still reach them but they get charged double fees or something like that. If I'm mistaken, someone please correct me! That's just how I remember it!

ivyandpeony beat me to it! Virgo '07 is the most garden-herbal to me. I almost put it on today and then opted for The Passionate Shepherd because I wanted something more in that vein.

I haven't really found my herbal dream scent yet, oddly enough -- I'd like something that was straight-up sage and basil. I do find that anything containing sage as a note makes me pretty happy though.

Beneath the clear, light woody notes, the herbs in Yggdrasil do come out nicely though. And for bergamot, I want to say that the Apothecary, Dormouse and Severin seem to ring some bergamot/earl grey bells for me.

Ditto on Lear being kinda herbal too, if you don't mind cedar (I love cedar, so Lear is one of my faves!).

if u can ever hunt down a sample of possets sicilian...omG...

tomatoes and cilantro....perfection... i have a bottle that i have

been savoring for over 3 years now and it gets better and better.....

I was just curious about this, since I only remember Possets starting up less than two years ago -- was that an early, pre-web scent or did they have a previous storefront or perhaps was it a different brand? I ask because that sounds just freaking amazing! The scent of summer.

I'm dying for more herbal/fresh/garden scents. Wet potting soil and coriander seeds (from garden-starting) and fresh leafy cilantro (from chopping it for dinner) is actually what I bet I smell like right this very instant!

I am very glad I ordered a bottle of this unsniffed, because in the bottle I concur that it does in fact smell like hairspray at first -- and I wouldn't have ordered a bottle if I just smelled that! But it dries down to something completely different. I attribute the brief hairspray phase to grey amber combining with the resiny scents -- I've noticed something similar in a couple of other blends.

As it dries, something amazing happens, and a deep, lusty, spiciness emerges. Sweet, earthy and spicy with a bit of sharp greenery spiking occasionally. Incredibly, the sweet spiciness reminds me of Bakeneko from time to time. Myrrh has this wonderful spicy quality, and tonka is a gorgeous sweet smooth note that just creates magic wherever it goes. What is left of that hairspray feeling is just a sparkling shininess at the edges. I think this scent will largely depend on individual skin chemistry to determine how it works on you, but mine happens to interact very favorably with myrrh, tonka, oakmoss and resins in general. The odd little spikes of something perfumey, I'd chalk up to muguet amplified by grey amber.

If you bring out the spice in myrrh and the sweetness in tonka, though, this is going to do amazing things.

It doesn't take much to get my interest -- say incense and throw in a couple of resins and I'm there. The only question in this blend for me was whether there would be floral notes that would throw off the glorious green darkness.

In the bottle, it is very herbal, dark green, faintly smoky. I think of thick, darkest green cypress -- fresh and evergreen but also dark and smoky. The hot, burning resins in the background come out more on my skin and glitter as if sparking on coals. There is a distinctive herbal scent that does also make me think of kitchen herbs -- rosemary perhaps? Then it deepens again into those crystallized resins on a wood fire or burning in a censer.

Both natural and churchlike -- a darkened wood chapel in the forest, surrounded in silent evergreens and the smoking remnants of fires. This will definitely have a place of honor in my collection as I shuffle things around to figure out who gets bumped from the Top 50 to make more room again!

Damn, I won the Latin award two years in a row in high school and I didn't know what this word meant until I noticed other people posting about it! Maybe I should give back my awards...

The strongest note both in the imp and on my skin at first is champaca. Which, unlike the champa incense that I love, almost smells kind of tropical and fruity in a way, though it smolders with a honey-warm intensity. As this dries, the honey and olive blossom must be combining in a glorious way because it now reminds me of the Kiss my Face lotions and soaps that contain honey and olive oil. Body-heated, it hints at smoky sweetness and just the faintest kiss of spice. I don't smell jasmine, though I suspect it helps to add to the overall mesmerizing swirl. It's the scent of that moment when gentle kissing suddenly turn probing and a flush of excitement spreads across your cheeks.

It's also rather like the a 'greatest hits' companion to the Lupercalia blends -- a cousin to Khajuraho maybe, a year-round poetic incensy passion blend that does not linger too long in any corner, whether floral or sweet or woody, it nibbles just a little on each earlobe.

Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

Dirt is one of my my greatest loves, scentwise. Dirt, mineral scents, earthy loamy rot. Mmm hmm. I went for an imp of this to test first since rose geranium can be a bit much, but this really is mostly a lovely smooth almost clay-like dirt to me -- the dirt in the background of Penny Dreadful, the dirt buried beneath roses in Zombi.

The Spanish moss (which is really a rather floral, swampy, damp sort of scent) and rose geranium do come out a bit as I wear it, and they do a dizzying dance of humid moss and dead flowers, but it does not become as sharply, pungently rose as Zombi.

I'm at a loss for how to describe this poetically since it is so self-explanatory: it is, simply, layers of loamy earth and moss, a sprinkling of flower petals rotting after a rain storm, the promise of the garden rather than the sorrow of the grave. And it's almost certainly getting a place in my box o' bottles one of these days!

I was hoping this would be something along the lines of Hungry Ghost Moon & c., with the sharp green wood of Faiza, and I am not disappointed. It's just as I imagined!

Green sandalwood if I'm not mistaken smells much more fresh than any other sandalwood -- almost bamboo-like in its tart, sharp wetness. The familiar sour-sweet scent of rice wine that I love in HGM and Tamamo is present in here though the green sandalwood keeps it from getting too strong. Tonka adds a hint of sweetness and moss adds a damp earthy softness. Poured over the other notes, the tea is faint, more like green tea than black.

Fans of HGM, Tamamo, Foxfires on New Year's Eve, Holiday Moon, and similar Asian-themed scented with tea, rice wine, and bamboo or other wood notes, would definitely be advised to pick this one up. I don't think about penises at all when I smell this! I think about a bamboo tea house in the rain, similar to what the other reviewers described. More fresh than woody, and a lovely gentle mixture of naturally sweet and sour notes.

I was completely blown away when I first read the note list for this one: it's a stroke of genius to translate these vivid visual elements into scent so perfectly. The vampire, drawing you to him with a musky, leathery warmth, hypnotizing with the dusky, dusty aroma of ancient spices and antique resins -- coated in an eerie, ghostly sheen of glowing, throbbing green. Nothing suggests that eerie pulsating combination of pale green and shimmering white quite like the combination of sage, citrus, melon and white musk. I couldn't imagine how they'd work together so well but they do!

The green layer hovers around the deeper, darker spices and resiny leather, inviting you to breathe deeper and inhale every layer. The palest hints of citrus sparkle with ghostly pallor, muted somewhat by the round, unripe melon and the crisp tingle of sage. Sleepwalking into the glow, you're enrobed in the warmth of faint clove, spices, and nuzzle against musk-warmed leather. Just gorgeous. I go mainly for masculine scents for myself and this stuff just takes to my skin like you wouldn't believe. I'm going to have to practice saying the full name of this so I can remember to tell people what I'm wearing, because I think I'm going to be wearing it a lot.

I'm so relieved to be able to write a glowing review for this one! I was terrified of that clotted cream. Cream is one of my absolute worst notes, and anything that contains it tends to just smell like a pan full of burning butter, so I assumed I'd just test this and want to swap it.

This is one of the very few scents that could be classified as foody that I like. Think Beaver Moon '05, but awash in sparkling grapefruit and pear with a sprinkling of spice. A slice of snowy white cake with citrus rind curled on top and some fresh sliced fruit on the side. I can't specifically smell the ginger or lily but they must be adding the extra bits of non-foody sweetness that I catch in this, and along with the pink pepper, a dash of spice. The pink pepper creeps forward, not as strong as it is in something like Trick #2 or Hermia, but a beautiful glowing sweet peppery spice that lingers as it dries down.

At first I did get a slight impression of a movie theatre lobby, where every type of candy is on offer, including cotton candy, and the slightest distant whiff of popcorn, but that turns much more into this powdered sugar, white spice cake and light fruit scent. Beaver Moon '05 and Eat Me are the only other two scents that achieve that balance of being cakey without being buttery or cloyingly, densely sweet, in my experience, and I'd put this alongside them for wearability for me.

Not sure how long it lasts because I've only had it on for a half hour, but so far it's great. I don't think this would work in a locket for me because the heavier sweet layers in the beginning might linger there -- I like how the more fruity/spicy notes come forward on my skin. As it dries I think I get more of the pepper and ginger and less of the fruit. I think it will dry down more to a spice-cake scent and again I'll throw in a comparison to the first Beaver Moon. Very happy with my cannibal!

If I smelled this without looking at it, I think it would instantly make me think of the moon. That distant, liquid mottled white-grey, with ghostly blue shadows, that the moon evokes. As I think more about it, it does smell very much like Lotus Moon, but is a bit more..cold and distant. While Lotus Moon had some hint of pine resin to warm on my skin, this fades away quickly and I can't quite grasp it. That was very much a summer scent though, and this fits nicely with the cold shadows of winter. Not entirely my bag, but I can dig it!

I had a feeling this would smell like Fire Pig without dragon's blood and the fact that it smells just like Fire Pig without dragon's blood in it, to me, might have more to do with my preconceptions than anything. But I like it a lot more than Fire Pig, which was kind of thrown off balance by the DB to me. This is much more of a pure, fruity-green, fun kind of scent that fades instantly on my skin but might stick around in a locket. Actually it is much more of a spring/summer scent so I might have a hard time 'reading' it right now in the depths of winter. I feel like a little trail of glowing fruits and flowers are following me around through the cold December night.

Like Fire Pig, it does combine qualities of some of the past lunacies in a pleasing way:Holiday Moon (bamboo), Budding Moon (plum blossom), hints perhaps of the other Asian moon scents we were treated to in 2006. I also love the crisp bite of yuzu and persimmon in this, adding a touch of tartness. Anyway it was perfect to wear while playing Animal Crossing! And it is one of those very rare things: a multicolored scent, synaesthetically, that I can wear when I'm wearing clothing that is every hue of the rainbow! Fruity scents are great for that!

The first Capricorn is one of my all-time favorites, and while this is completely different it will certainly take a place of honor in my collection, as an earth-scent lover. Here is a green spin on Capricorn: almost pure White Pine Bark at times, with gritty layers of earthy tobacco underneath. But more than anything, it is indeed that bright, green Christmas Tree pine, glinting and sparkling with earthen crystals. Fresh and grounding at the same time.

It Troll was taken out of his cave, brushed off, given a nice bath in a river of clean, clear cold mountain water, put in a nice suit, shaved and splashed with something nice and fresh, I think we'd have Capricorn. But he'd dirty up that nice suit again in a few minutes, as he played in the pine needles and had a nice pipe of tobacco or -- something!

It seems an obvious choice for me to want a second bottle, but I'm trying to control myself in that regard lately! Oh and it's different from Stranger in Camp -- this definitely has more of the Christmassy white pine bark as opposed to the deep dark resin of the summer woods.

I'm just doing a very simple review for the moment I think because I loved Honey Moon and this gives me a similar happiness when I wear it. Note: I don't like sweet or foody scents. But something about this honey -- it's so gold, sparkling, natural and fresh. This is a slightly thicker, sweeter honey though than Honey Moon was, without that herbal sparkle underneath.

In the bottle there's a slight nutty creaminess that puts me off. That would be the almond. I hate almond. And in a locket, I find it gives me a slight headache because of this. But when I test it on my skin, it's just a glowing, throbbing, natural sweetness and a drowsy glowing warmth, like bees asleep in the sunlight, the swirling sun-warmed smells of an orchard all around them. I do not specifically smell jasmine, which is probably a good thing, but just like in Honey Moon I think it must add a floral lightness to this. The earthy fruits and spicy florals only peek out slightly as this wears on my skin. It works much better on me than in a locket, for my tastes.

Though it doesn't surpass Honey Moon it comes close, as a honey scent brimming with fruit and flowers, and it's a bit odd to be wearing in winter as it feels much more like a spring or summer blend and I can't wait to try it then!

I love this scent so much. And so does my Sagittarius! He's very picky so I was relieved when he liked sniffing this on me, and he didn't immediately open a box of Claritin.

Dandelion, sage and chamomile are three of my favorite "I wish these were in more blends" scents. They are so amazing wherever they occur -- so fresh, green, crisp and herbal. They don't last very long on my skin but I just want to keep pouring it on so I can always be rubbing my face in that downy golden-white dandelion fluff; the soft leathery sage leaves; and the delicate buds of chamomile.

Beneath this incredible trio of the most beautifully sunny, herbal fresh green scents is the sweetness of fig and the warmth of clove, united by balm of gilead -- which I can't specifically pinpoint but I know I like it. Without those other elements it might be too fleeting and too green, but the other notes weave in strands of darker, golden aromas and hold them together.

Sweet, warm, but also green, herbal and clean. I love Sagittarius. This is second only to Scorpio in the Zodiac blends so far, in my book, but I know we still have a few to go.

I was dying to try this because it sounded a little bit in the description like something that would surprise me a la Snow Moon and come out smelling incredibly chilly and frosty and snowlike despite all those floral notes. Night-blooming flowers can be a big ol' headache and I am not a big fan of florals, but I love thyme, honeysuckle and mint and I can't resist the words "blue musk".

At first sniff it did make me think of the slushy crush of Snow Moon plus herbs. In the bottle, the frosty, slightly minty spikes of scent are stronger. On wearing it, it is a musky dusty herbal with a hint of dried flowers and a slight breath of cold. It's not really like anything else though, it is very much its own fragrance. I love herbal scents and I don't feel like I get nearly enough of them in my collection!

Blue musk is hard to put your finger on. There's something simultaneously dusty and aquatic about it. Visually I think of a blue plastic globe when I smell something with blue musk in it, but that's just me being weird. Otherwise I'd describe it alternately as antique, musky/dusty, dried flowers, frost, and -- well gosh, then it just has these wonderful little sweet floral moments where honeysuckle blossoms and herbs are warming in the sun, so it's a very complex scent, a strong morpher, and absolutely wonderful.

I think it suits December well too, since it's not a sunny summer floral, or the light and frivolous flowers of spring. It is a serious floral, aged and cold. These flowers are dried and ready for storage to keep their beauty -- pale and brittle as it is -- alive all winter.

I haven't tried any of the other brands you mentioned but this year's Yule LE Snow Storm is the perfect winter forest to me! Ice, snow, pine and woods, absolutely. (in contrast, Jolasveinar was very sweet and pastry-like to me, with some snow on top, not woodsy at all and not very floral, to this nose.)

If you need a hit of berries, Yew Trees and Jersey Devil also have a strong woodsy scent with a hint of berries. The discontinued scent Skadi might also fit the bill.

The new LE November also has a good amount of woods and snow.

But I think Snow Storm right now is absolute perfection!

I didn't give the Perilous Parlor a second thought at first -- pear and vanilla? Big whoops! I don't like vanilla, and while I like fruity scents I am not usually wild about pear.

Or am I? Oh dear, after I first smelled this I couldn't get it out of my head that I really wanted to smell it again. It's not a fresh and fruity or light and sweet as I had expected. This is a deep, smoky vanilla and a dark pear. It smells more like I'd expect a pear-scented tobacco to smell, than anything, really.

I put this one on at night because nothing helps me get to sleep better than something that is sweet and smoky. This is incredibly comforting to me. I agree with the comparisons to candle wax as well -- I'm seeing a recently extinguished pear candle in my mind, the scorched scent of the burnt wick and the hot wax.

I can even see the paint thinner comparisons as well, especially at first! There is something strong at first that burns off quickly, but don't let that scare you. The drydown reveals all of the warm and sweet layers.

It is not what I'd call a foody scent, and since I don't like foody scents that is a good thing. Sweet, smoky and fruity, with a strange layer of tobacco, candlewax and woodstain. A surprise hit for me!

This is another one that I tried first at ECWC and was surprised by -- I had expected something a bit more strong and earthy, but it is a pale, crumbling clay tinged with a powdery wine that starts out sour and becomes more sweet.

Oddly, this is one blend that increases in strength as I wear it. It takes awhile to form a distinct impression but once it gets its thing grooving it is gorgeous.

The mortar scent makes me think of the earthy notes in Penny Dreadful -- a sweet, slightly fruity dust and clay, like a pale purple and red stone powder. The slightly sour wine gradually becomes more sweet as it warms on my skin. I definitely see the comparison to Crypt Queen made above.

The description's inclusion of the words "vinegar" and "blood" made me a little wary to order it right off the bat, but really it's just a beautiful berry-grape wine that reveals itself in here, and not a pungent sour one. The clay might have a note of dusty orris in it, I agree, but the scent definitely sweetens on me. One for the dusty earth-lovers. If I had to form an impression of this without any kind of description or notes, I would think about a wine cellar or a graveyard.