sarada

Looking at the note listing for this blend, I was not initially interested in all. Sure, I like sandalwood and French lavender, but these sort of Victorian light florals tend to be too light and, dare I say, powdery on me. I was really surprised when I sniffed it at ECWC and was blown away by how sweet and strong it was. I would swear there was a smoky vanilla and something like honey or honeysuckle in there as well. It definitely recalls some of the sweet creamy florals that the lab does so well that even ~I~ like them, like Hope and Faith, and Antique Lace (without the plasticky note that comes out in the latter sometimes).

 

This is a sweet, pure, honeyed floral over a pale wooden base with a slosh of exquisite smoky vanilla splashed on top. I don't like vanilla but I like whatever sweetness is in this.

 

I can't stop pouring this on me! Someone just said they thought it smelled spicy when I dabbed some on, and maybe that's the slight herbal bite of lavender.

 

Oh this also recalls Emathides somewhat to me, though with a touch more of the lighter rosy floral notes. This one isn't terribly atrocious after all! And it is not dusty, musty and atticky, if anyone is afraid of those sort of notes. I can see where it could have baby powder tendencies on some people but so far it seems to just be a lovely creamy floral on me, and this is coming from someone who does not like creamy florals -- but I love it!

November, aside from being my birth month, is definitely a favorite time of the year for me despite my freezing cold fingers as I type this right now.

 

November, as a fragrance, is a little colder than I expected, but absolutely perfect. It reminds me slightly of Talvikuu actually, but less white-blue in tone since the snowy scent is layers over some of the dry leaves we've seen before in October and Death of Autumn. There's just the slightest hint of those dry leaves though peeking through the minty frost layer as it dries -- as if that dark and gritty leaf scent from The Death of Autumn is being buried in a snowdrift.

 

After it has dried for awhile, it is mainly snow in the woods -- dry, dark trees and crystalline snow, crunching the leaves underfoot. Very, very natural smelling and though we don't generally get any snow in November here, it still sets the mood for the season ahead. I'll be wearing this one throughout the winter.

When I sniffed this at will call the main impression I got was a snowy scent with a hint of cold grape or wine and perhaps a touch of ivy or greenery. Testing it now that I have a bottle, it is even more complex and varied than I expected.

There is a sharp, cold feeling to this -- that wonderful BPAL snow note that we've seen over the years (in this, I'd say it's closest to the snow in Snow Moon or Death of a Gravedigger) but it's a little more piercing and "perfumey" because of a blast of ozone wafting over a snow-encrusted stone tower. There is an interesting effect produced by ozone and resins like labdanum and olibanum that creates a staticky aura of "perfume" over the other notes.

The vineyard aroma comes out as it dries and the crackle and fizz of that sleet and snow starts to fade a little. It's a pale, frozen grape wine, just barely there, to give a slight blush to the blend. I'm imagining frosted, frozen bundles of grapes lost in the snow in a stone courtyard.

Very evocative. The image and story surrounding it really make it for me -- if this had been given a more generic name I might find it too perfumey but looking at the picture of the stone tower on the label and thinking about a ghost and a snow storm, make me very eager to wear this out on a bleak winter day. Hopefully it will be a few more weeks before we have one of those in these parts though!

The story of Persephone was what first made me love pomegranates when I heard it as a child, and as the cold months begin and they start appearing on store shelves (in ever increasing quantities!) I cannot resist them. The rich, blood red, dripping fragrant juice is a delight, and I love perfumes in which it is a prominent note. This is a deeper, stronger pomegranate than something like Swank or Persephone, but it remains true to that sweet red almost berry-like scent.

It's given some depth and strength by...well, I'm not sure but it makes me think of amber. I was wondering if maybe this would have a strong earth or dirt note, but it is mainly pomegranate sweetened and deepened perhaps by amber or some other sweet, golden pale resin. A few notches different from something like Hymn to Proserpine, but it does recall a Yule time red sweet berry-fruit scent.

On the drydown there might be a hint of a rich, darker note, but that clear, bright red fruit is always on top.

I was so attracted to the art on this bottle, with the gorgeous, ghostly white peacocks glowing among dark greenery. And it's called Peacocks! I pretty much had to have it. The scent grabbed me even though I didn't know what was in it when I first sniffed it -- it's sweet, but the impression I get is vivid green and blue. I absolutely can't stop sniffing this.

The sweet fruitiness of the pear is wrapped in the distinctive fresh pale green crunch of bamboo. If you liked Holiday Moon or Dragon Moon or any of the other blends that have bamboo in them, this has that same note -- but the bright glowing green sweetness reminds me of something otherworldly like Shoggoth as well.

The strongest similarity I would say though is to Black Moon. If Black Moon had a stronger pear note, and was slightly sweeter and layered with bamboo, I think it would come close to Peacocks. Even though night-blooming jasmine and freesia have been headache culprits around here, I'm just completely digging this with all of its eerie ghostlike glowing. I think that the white musk and ambergris make all of those lighter elements behave themselves. So glad I got this one, since looking at the notes I might have passed on it if I hadn't been so captivated by the artwork.

 

 

"Lucifer" by Franz von Stuck -- his grey-brown form and piercing gaze are paralyzing. This glossy, golden-brown scent has me stuck in place like a bug in amber, I'm completely hypnotized. At first I think it is somewhat like the other glossy wood-resin scent I just tried (Heavenly Love and Earthly Love) but there is an additional element of sweetness in this, and it lacks the churchy resin and replaces it with the wild incenses of the woods. Something propels this blend forward and makes it completely wreath me in scent when I put it on my skin. I would have sworn there was a honey or skin musk in this, the way it comes to life on me. But the scent is all sweet amber and dark, incensy woods. The fig adds the extra bite of sweetness.

 

It dries down to a lovely amber-patchouli-wood, the golden afterglow of dawn lighting up the wood where dark passions reigned the night before.

 

What can I say but....Hail Lucifer!

 

 

You want to see me weep? Open a bottle of this near me. Seriously, this is the perfume I would have designed for myself if I had unlimited resources at my disposal. I will have to have someone else upload a picture of the beautiful artwork by Giovanni Baglione but I know a lot of people will be curious about these Salon scents so I'm going to try to describe the ones I have.

 

In the bottle, this is fistfuls of glittering beads of resin, pouring through aged hands onto a polished wood table. Deep, dark polished teakwood. A thin layer of incense dust coats the thick glossy varnish. Dark, sweet, crystalline wood. Sacred, holy resins. Not smoky, just clear and glistening. More stately even than Cathedral or Penitence, layer upon layer deepened and darkened with age. A darker Schwarzer Mond, even. I can smell every perfect note in this, they chime together like a chord on an ancient church organ, an absolute hymn of scent.

 

So yeah, I kind of like this one!

Three Witches was re-released for the BPAL anniversary in November 2005 but since it was an LE it was only available in 5 ML. A 10 ml Three Witches would almost certainly have to have been an original, not a re-release.

 

Otherwise, 10 MLs were discontinued in 2006. They were still available when the price change went into effect in July 2006 and were discontinued shortly thereafter.

I don't much care for Snake Oil, but I LOVE the Snake Pit scents. Snake Oil on its own is (gods forgive me for saying this) pure Playdoh on me and when I wear it, EVERYONE asks me all day long why I smell like Playdoh. It's very sad and makes me cry. I only have an imp of SO right now, aged two years, and I'm liking it more with age but I much prefer my one-year aged Temple Viper.

 

My first love was Green Tree Viper because it was so minty -- even though everyone knows I'm not a foody scent person it smelled like Thin Mints and I found it really delightful for reasons I can't quite put my finger on.

 

Temple Viper was my true love though, it's the perfection of what I always thought Snake Oil should be. So rich and deep and smooth, just enough incense to satisfy my incense tooth (?) and generally sultry and fantastic.

 

King Cobra is very similar but hasn't really stood out on its own yet to me. I also have Death Adder which I would hesitate to recommend to anyone that doesn't love vetiver as much as I do. But it's a perfect vetiver combo for me!

 

I also really like Banded Sea Snake, which really smells nothing like Snake Oil but really took me by surprise with its uniqueness. And Saw-Scaled Viper is a must for anyone who likes both spicy scents and Snake Oil. I don't like a lot of spicy scents but I like that one a lot.

 

The ones I haven't mentioned, I wasn't fond of, so I don't think they'd appeal to someone looking for something a notch beyond Snake Oil. I tend to think that the "incensy" Snake Pits really accentuate what's great about SO while taking out the "Playdoh" component.

That's my lifelong dilemma as well. It sounds exactly like me -- even down to the chamomile tea having bad associations. My sleep problems started when I was just around 8 years old and mom would give it to me and all it did was make me have to get up and go to the bathroom, and I still felt freaked out.

 

I've basically had to arrange my life in such a way that I can stay up until 3-4 a.m. most nights and I can show up at work whenever I want to, because if I have the pressure of "you have to get up at X time" I can't sleep a wink.

 

I've only been able to, for the most part, overcome this problem in the past couple of years but that might just because I've had so little going on in my life that I haven't had anything to worry about. Although half the time I'd be up for no reason at all, just writing Christmas cards in my head or replaying incidents from 7th grade.

 

I know this is the TAL thread, but I don't have a recommendation in that regard since sleep and lavender perfume oils and remedies make my brain MORE active. I am the only person I know who has this problem, but the worst insomnia I've ever had was when I was using one of the sleep/dream blends. Lavender seems to act as a stimulant for me, while sweet and spicy scents make me calm down slightly, but not enough to sleep.

 

However, there are several homeopathic remedies that are surefire cures for me. When I take them, my thoughts stop racing and I feel like: "Hey, there's no reason to worry about anything right now, why don't I just go to sleep." It doesn't make me feel tired, it doesn't make me feel any different physically, I just don't feel the need to obsess as much.

 

One of the things that happens to me at night is my heartrate goes up and my breathing speeds up, partially out of the fear that I won't be able to get to sleep. When I take Anmien Pien (a Chinese herbal remedy, just google it to find suppliers) I find that I am able to have my breathing become slow and regular, which allows me to slip into a sleepy state more easily.

 

Otherwise there's a product available in many health food stores and even some drug stores, called Calms Forte, which has a similar effect -- as well as some Bachs Flower Remedies that purport to have similar effects. In fact, when I was having really bad anxiety last month (a rare occurrence and one that I do not need to take any medication for) those all worked together to help me a lot.

 

I sympathize completely. Despite having done yoga and meditation since a young age, it does nothing for me in terms of getting to sleep. If I try to visualize something, it just winds up turning into me thinking about something incredibly morbid or worrying about things like healthcare and social security. Yeah.

 

Once I started taking Anmien Pien, I was able to snap out of this cycle for the most part. It's like I "forgot" how to have insomnia, and now all I need is a book in my hand and I go right to sleep at the same time every night (still around 3 a.m. but like I said, my schedule allows for this). I don't go to bed until I'm so tired I can't keep my eyes open and after one page of an old Victorian novel, I'm out. I only took it occasionally for a couple of months, two years ago, and that was enough to shift me into a less insomniac mindset.

 

I am one of these people who won't take pharmaceutical drugs unless it's ibuprofen for a headache, or an antibiotic for a bad infection. The side effects and risks of dependency are just too great, in my mind. But there seem to be more products on the market now that promise not to cause dependency, though the side effects still make me nervous (i.e. sleep-eating, and the like). If nothing else works, something like that might be enough to help your brain adjust to a regular sleep cycle.

 

Good luck! I wish that I had better luck with the sleep blends so I could suggest one, but I seem to need to actually ingest something for it to have an effect. Maybe it's a placebo effect in my case but that seems to be the only thing that works for me.

Oh thank goodness someone else understands the non-foody chocolate vibe I get from vetiver! I have been trying to explain that one for years!

 

My favorite cedar blend is Lear btw, if you do like cedar...Alecto as well, though neither of those matches the deep dark stained glossy mahogany you described, they are a bit more of a greenish wood.

Definitely the Forbidding Foyer! Especially after it dries. It might be a little strong in the bottle. The Red Queen also is very strong in the middle (almost turpentine-like to me) but mellows into something entirely different. Those two recommendations are excellent!

 

If you like something that has a dark, polished wood sense to it but with a bit of sweetness, that is how I perceive vetiver. Scents that are woody with vetiver in them might give you that impression as well.

....Who is out there giving us a bad name by not bathing?...I'll kick their hippie asses!

 

 

Um... I'm not sure what his name is, but he works at the Whole Foods in my neighborhood.

 

Some of us hippies bathe! We love soap! And cleanliness! And natural earth scents applied to clean skin! Who is out there giving us a bad name by not bathing?...I'll kick their hippie asses!

 

My pleasure!

 

Oakmoss is my pick for the favorite moss for its green earthiness. When I see oakmoss on trees I stop to smell it. I also rub pine sap on my arm though. My friend tarotbydiana makes these amazing bath tarts with oakmoss in them so I can literally bathe in it when the mood strikes me!

Spanish Moss is very strong, pungent, damp and even a little floral smelling in my experience (I've tried the BPAL single note). The GC scent that is strongest in Spanish Moss is Wolfsbane as far as I remember. It's even a little bit rosey in tone. Oakmoss is much more dry of a moss and the BPAL note smells exactly like fresh-from-the-tree oakmoss. A little dusty and rather earthy.

This was the only one of the Inquisition scents this round that does not contain foody/boozy notes (which make me ill) so I am very fortunate to be the proud owner of a TP'd Tree! That little roll of toilet paper on the bottle is just about the cutest thing ever, too.

 

I had sniffed this at ECWC but testing it is always more revealing. As usual, when I get a woody or forest blend I like to try it on right before I go for a walk in the woods. In the bottle, I catch the oak note from the Twisted Oak Tree, but not as burnt as smoky -- just a whiff of a hard, solid wood scent at the bottom, but there is a sweetness as well.

 

On my skin it immediately becomes a soft, powdery musk layered over gentle woods. Honestly, it reminds me very strongly of Buck Moon, but instead of a base of herbs there is a base of pale woods. I thought this would be a darker, heavier, pinier wood scent but instead it is gentle and sweet, sort of foggy and luminous.

 

Those who fear the strong, dark woods will be pleasantly surprised by the light sweetness of this blend, but wood lovers like myself should be able to find a little bit of wood to gnaw on, particularly in the early stages, even though it quickly dissipates in a powdery mist. Definitely the right Inquisition scent for me and I think it will be a good substitute for Buck Moon.

2007 version

 

I've never tried Sugar Skull before and the reviews made me back away slowly (I don't like foody scents and especially hate anything like caramel or molasses). However I've also found that I like the white sugar note in many BPAL blends a lot, and I even like one or two things with brown sugar, so hearing that this year's version might be more like that, made me buy a bottle.

 

It's a little thick at first, but I have to say, I can get past my initial dislike of baked good sweet smells to put it on and see what happens. Oddly, it is a bit perfumey at first, rather like the hazy perfume that I get from things like Antique Lace at first. But that quickly burns off and it's a lovely gritty sweet crystalline scent -- white and brown sugar, slightly burnt but not syrupy. I don't know how other people around me might interpret it on me, but as usual my skin acts like an incense burner, and brings out the warm and smoky-sweet notes the strongest. I think this could be one of the very rare scents in this category that I can wear well.

 

I never smell anything fruity in this at all -- and it manages to smell more like raw or slightly burnt sugar, than any kind of baked good, which is a very good thing in my book. I'm sure someone will tell me I smell like pancakes and I'll give them a dirty look, but it doesn't smell like that to me at any rate!

When I first sniffed this (with its adorable greenish label!) I almost fell over from the rush of scent memories it brought. It's a bit odd thought -- it reminded me of camping. It specifically reminded me of the smell of the old canvas tent when we'd pull it out of the basement each year, dusty, mildewed, and -- yes, I even swear I catch the scent of bug spray! It is a strong first impression but it quickly quiets down, and mellows out a little. Don't worry about that bug spray scent, I think that must be the cognac, though I have no idea what cognac smells like.

 

The damp wood -- dark, soft, rotten -- is the strongest impression that I get at first, but it is just absolutely lovely because it is such a natural, evocative scent. Not the scorched smoky burnt smell that is in some of the other autumn blends this year -- a slightly warmer wood, a deep earthy rot. The odd bit of bug spray vanishes before it even hits my skin, so that was only in the bottle.

 

I wore this around a lot yesterday, it is quite different from the other wood, leaf and smoke-scented blends we have this year but complements them perfectly.

 

ETA: Incredibly, I think this is my favorite of the Haunted House scents! It's just so unique and so evocative.

I do so love the patchouli/vetiver scents. Woody, glossy, and slightly burnt -- sweet upturned earth, scorched or scattered with incense dust. This blend has some pretty forceful components and I think it might cause some to back slowly away, but if you like patchouli and vetiver, do give it a shot. The blood orange gives it a glossy sheen that makes me think of whorled wood, polished to perfection and set in the wall of a smoky study. It is a striking, powerful scent, but carries itself with dignity.

I'm not a fan of ylang ylang really but I don't particularly smell it here. Perhaps, as in Tisiphone, it matches so well with the patchouli that together they become something else -- fragrant, crumbling earthy incense. Still, the vetiver glossed over with throbbing orange is the main player here, set against the dark backdrop of the other scents. Patchouli slowly moves to the foreground as it dries, emerging from the shadow. It is fairly simple overall but makes its point quietly without a lot of fanfare. If you like these types of scents as much as I do, you'll want to try it.

First of all, this cat got a special bottle label that is just too cute for words!

This is a colorful, playful, buoyant scent, as whimsical as kittens playing with balls of radioactive yarn. It has the crisp bubble of citrus, grounded in damp moss, disoriented by a swirl of lavender and then dunked in a bouquet of hothouse flowers. Actually, the floral aspect is not very strong, but it is present. For those wondering about "chocolate peppermint," I would say that I smell neither chocolate nor peppermint in this blend. There is the slightest hint of it, perhaps -- a breath mint washed down with a sip of sweetness -- but it is not a major player at least on my skin.

The play of unusual citrus fruits recalls Croquet a bit, but is grounded in an herbal mossy haze. A cat wandering among strange plants in a greenhouse in the early morning fog, appearing and then disappearing among the foliage.

I think that the elements in this will shift drastically depending on personal skin chemistry. For me, the citrus is strong at first and then burns off. Oakmoss lingers beautifully (it actually smells a bit like Spanish moss, even -- I think the zdravetz is giving it more of a humid floral edge). Lavender seems to appear somewhere off to the side, blinking into existence right when I thought it had vanished. And that elusive chocolate peppermint never quite makes its presence known to me, though...is that it there, just for a moment? I can't be sure. As it dries down I think I am getting a little bit of a whiff of it, a tiny bite of a chocolate mint. But then it's gone.

A scent as complex and strange as the concept itself!

ETA: In the locket, this is a little different, by the way! The citrus notes stay the strongest and the longest, mainly a key lime pie-esque soft bright lime scent, or something that reminds me of rainbow sherbet. While on my skin it dries down very mossy (Spanish mossy actually) there is very little of that element when it's in a locket, just a hint of a floral-moss underneath the creamy citrus that stays strong throughout.

I've been looking forward to this one. I don't know why, but the thought of a perfume called Troll is the most delightful thing on earth to me. It makes me think of the trolls that turned to stone in the sunlight in "The Hobbit," and how they sit there moss-covered and craggy for all time.

This is truly the scent of black and green. In the Pine Barrens recently, I walked among the trees that had been blackened by fire, yet still grew fresh needles from the cracked bark, and fresh greenery sprang up from the ashes and coal-black wood on the forest floor. This perfectly captures that scent: the new growth of damp green among the brittle and dry burnt wood, and above all the scent of rich earth and fragrant deep pine sap.

There is also a faint hint of spiced smoke -- the scent of cumin seeds roasting in a pan, a whiff of warmth as a single clove is dropped into the mix -- permeates as this dries. If I was walking in the woods (which I might do, in just a bit...) I have a feeling that the early autumn air would lift these scents and enhance them. A deep herbal smokiness throbs just under the crush of pine and earth. Somewhere in the deep dark forest, the trolls are throwing some delicious herbs (and goodness knows what else) into a bubbling pot.

Fans of the Jersey Devil should love this -- it has a similar feel in some respects but without the crunch of berries. It's darker, but still recalls the pines to me. For those worried about musk, I really don't get too much of it from this -- it must be holding the other elements together and adding to the throw and staying power, but it is not an overwhelming element.

A gorgeous, natural dark woods blend of smoke, herbs, pine and earth. I know there are other people like me out there who live for his stuff. Go buy it now!

Though the pig and the palm tree on the bottle will forever endear this to me, Aeaea is probably not a scent I would normally wear. I'm sure the perfect day will present itself: a day at the shore, perhaps, crisp and fresh and bright. Right now, it is in contrast to all of the Halloween and autumn scents that I'm swimming in, and it's hard to wrap my head around.

 

In the bottle, ocean and seaspray knock me over -- a perfumey ocean. It smells beachy. I am not really fond of that kind of aquatic, as it just makes me think of sunblock smells, sweat, and fish. Never fear though, none of those are present in this blend!

 

On my skin, the seaspray is quickly replaced by something floral and sweet. A pale, quivering golden sweetness ...but still held up by a slightly effervescent seafoam.

 

After it dries for a bit the strongest association I have with this scent is shampoo. I'm not sure which kind, just a general scent of shampoo. Maybe something aloe and herbal, with a few crushed flower petals. I was hoping for cedar and cypress to make an appearance, but unless they come very late in the drydown I haven't come across them yet.

 

The weather and time of year right now are probably not conducive to bringing out the best in this one -- it mainly smells like ocean, and shampoo, but I am pretty devoted to keeping all of the Therianthropic blends so I think I will hang onto this one for now, even though I can't see myself wearing it more than once a year. I think the aloe sets it apart slightly, but it also imparts that "freshly-washed hair" quality.

An incensy library scent?! Are you kidding me?! They didn't even have to ask me to order this, they should have just billed me for it automatically!

Don't be afraid though if incense is not your thing, this is a subtle incense, that has long since settled into the dusty volumes. It has soaked into the parchment, beneath layers of dust. A gentle, warm scent that really doesn't display its full lurid set of papery plumage until you put it on. These sort of scents really warm on my skin and become nuzzle-worthy. Put it on your favorite bookworm and then you'll want to distract him/her from their reading as it heats up on their skin.

I think I catch a glimpse of the incense I loved in Riding the Goat -- a soft, slightly sweet, slightly tobacco-like note, woody and glossy and rich, but muted and distant in this blend. Faint wisps of smoke, and a breath warming on the back of your neck -- but when you turn to face the sweet-smelling spectre, he has vanished and only a faint outline remains traced in the air.

Wear this one when you read at night, or study, or in the library, or a haunted mansion, basement, or haunted forest.

My reputation precedes me, as a lot of people guessed this one would be in my order! I'm not sure if this is different from the version I smelled at Will Call but it definitely fits the bill for a scorched tree scent. It is different enough from the other woody blends that I've tried so far this year to set it apart in its own perfect little blackened, damp alcove.

First, the label: love blue labels! A beautiful dark midnight blue scene complete with bats. Oh how I love twisted trees. It is a different sort of smoky, blackened wood from that which we smell in some other burnt wood blends -- it is not the smoke of Brimstone or Djinn, for example. It is not the smoky gunpowder burn of Agnes Nutter or Bonfire Night. It is more like a trunk where the fire was long ago extinguished, and it is now damp, rotted and caked with moss.

It also reminds me of a darker cousin of October, with the crackle of dusty dried leaves and the refreshing blast of autumn air. The ivy is surprisingly strong in this as it dries. A crisp, green almost watery flourish of ivy growing out of the charred trunk. Ivy fans would do well to try this out, and wait for the initial smoky wood to dissipate to get the full effect of ivy. ETA: Fans of the Black Tower take note, this is similar in tone when it dries down, without the wine note.

I'm still waiting for the longterm drydown on this, I'm just testing it quickly out of excitement. This year's crop of woody autumn scents is everything I could wish for.