alexandra

I am wearing Autumn at the moment and it is beautiful. I also love Magnificent Autumn, October, Pile of Fallen Leaves, Lambswool and, of course, Samhain, but then I have never met a Weenie that I don't adore

Does the Trading Post also offer free shipping on international orders over $500? I'm tempted to try to do a mini group order if that is the case.

 

They certainly do

 

I wasn't aware of this. I thought the Trading Post offered free shipping on orders over $300 but only for US domestic orders.

AFAIK, shipping was free for orders over $300 to anywhere in the whole lovely world till the prices changed, now tis free anywhere on orders over $500.

Snake Oil is that beautiful girl/boy who doesn't acknowledge you and makes you wait at the edges of the school hall for them to come round to you.

Snake Oil was dismissive at first, harsh even. She mocked me with patchouli. I watched her, sitting on the window sill, growing darker and more languid. Every month I took her out. Sometimes she flashed me a vanilla smile and my heart clenched but then it was back to bitter laughter and powdered pills that stuck in my throat. What made it worse was smelling her on others. Sweet, undulating, convivial; putting out. But never for me.

Until today.

She loves me!

I took her out on my arm and she is a woman who has matured into a kind, commanding sexmonger. So sometimes there are flashes of condom, but that's okay, the moments passes and she's back to smelling of rich vanilla and snake smooth spices.

BPAL has taught me patience. Now I only have to wait 19 months for the bottles I'm about to order to mature.

Hello! I have fibro/ME and BPAL has helped so much -

TKO, as oil and massage oil, is fabulous for deepening sleep. I still dream constantly and jump out of sleep but it helps.

Urgh massage oil is so soothing for deep pain, also for flu-like symptoms.

Quietude calms my brain when it goes into overdrive/anxiety/paranoia.

And so many cheer me up, but Rose Red, Beaver'versary and Bliss make me grin every day, no matter what I feel like.

BPAL's main therapeutic effect for me is how an oil can open up sensory worlds away from pain, discomfort and sadness, one in which I am strong and creative and marvellous. Hope you have the most fantastic time trying things out.

In the vial: Lemon, ginger and a can of natural cola that's been left in the earth. Just a touch of pickled onion. I like to think it's a cute lil vial of ghoul wee.

Wet: Fizzy cola and cinnamon. The earth is far back in the background.

Dry:Dry, sweet ginger. Effervescent, light, happy. This is one jolly ghoul. For some reason I have the image of ghouls playing cricket. A sweet resin is grounding this on me.

I was looking forward to dessicated flesh and blood but I can hardly pick out the blood note at all. As Withnail said: 'I want something's flesh'. Nonetheles, Eau de Ghoul ischarming and happy-making. I want to layer this with a honey scent or something to bring out the vanillic base. And the name is amazing.

When to wear?:Summer's eve with a Dandelion and Burdock by the Cam, watching a game of cricket.

Makes me feel?: Giddy and giggly. Like Charlie Bucket after stealing Fizzy Lifting Drink.

This is the same for me whether in the bottle, wet or dry: the dried inside of a mug after I've downed the most delicious spiced mocha. It's dry but lovely. Just the thing on certain days when a duvet, a DVD boxset and a beeg mug of cinnamon chocolate are the only way forward.

In the bottle:Cake, carnation and grapefruit

Wet:Soft melty cakes with great wodges of sweet strawberry icing. The grapefruit is gorgeous, cutting through the uber sweetness to make it refreshing and cakey at once. it makes me think of making grapefruit cake instead of lemon.

Dry:Mainly soft, clovey carnation.

It is blended so exquisitely that nothing dominates - I get all aspects of the blend and it is lovely! The name is wonderful and the label is my favourite so far. It caused quite a stir when I opened it on Christmas Day thanks to surreptitious purchasing by my husband.

In the bottle:Warm, dark gingerbread taken out at just the right time.

Wet: I can smell it all: gingerbread, cookies, christmas cake, rum balls so hard they could take an eye out. The musk darkens it all beautifully.

Dry:Christmas cake fed hourly with ginger wine, distilled with a shot of pheromones. It is foreboding and delicious and just right. The smell of the witch's gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel.

A good while later:Still dark, sweet and complex but subdued now. The musk remains, making it a very sexy lady perfume.

I like all the stages of this. I love the ginger/bread scents of Shub and Gingerbread Poppet and will wear this when I want to smell less of food, more of sexiness. And I can't wait till someone asks what I'm wearing. Especially as, since I get tired very easily when I talk, I'll probably just say, 'Uranus'.

Tis love.

Wet: a butter blast that makes the husband queasy for a minute then the butter goes and the smell of rum 'n' raisin ice cream emerges. Then that melts into cooking gingerbread.

Dry: a cinnamon, oatmeal and raisin cookie with a crispy sugar crust! Oh it's gorgeous. Very strong throw, I only need a tiny spot of the stuff and it lasts for ages on me. I must have smudged the sheets when I tried it on in bed as my duvet smells cosy and sexy and delicious. Sir Labyrinthine loves it once the butter goes, but then he always loves bakey scents on me. The man loves cake.

And?: Yummothy Dalton. I'm a cookie monster.

This is an absolute essential of mine. It is a sweet minty marvel that sears through most of my headaches, tingling away the pain and numbing the area around it. There are some mega, gigantor migraines that even GRR can't get rid of but, really, it is wonderful - beating pure peppermint, the Origins one and Tiger Balm. Love it.

The surprise winner of the weenies!

Wet: rich pumpkin, spices and, good lord, CAKE! Can this be right?

Dry: the pumpkin rolls back and I'm left with a vibrant form of gingerbread. Warming, comforting, uplifting: it is a richer Bezoar, an unburned Poppet, a cheerier Shub. If I place my nose to my wrist then I catch sage incense, a light spilling of tobacco and a waft of smoke.

In the locket: smokey pumpkin cake with vanilla icing.

Somehow, the conglomeration of cedar and pine and tobacco and honey and pumpkin and sage and 'nilla join forces into cakey deliciousnosity. I actually love it.

In the bottle: Petitgrain! And strongly so. I use the essential oil for when I'm feeling down or for around my period and find it cheers me up. I reckon this goat will make me smile.

Wet: petitgrain SN, almost. Bright and refreshing.

Dry: The musk comes out now and it is lovely. It goes through a stage of smelling like Melisande so the dark musk they share must be potent on me. Smooth, powdery in the best way, comforting but enlivening.

And?...:I keep on turning to the Two-Headed Goat before and during my period and it smells even better then. Indeed, the name is quite appropriate for describing me in the week before, snerk. Another keeper from the Wunderkammer.

Wet: ooh, such resinous warmth, and so sweet. No rose though.

Dry: Comforting, rich myrrh, beautiful boswellia, just a touch of rose and the copal smells almost like benzoin I think, very sweet and warm. Orange-brown is the colour in mind.

And?...:This is a sweet, sombre, thoughtful saint in his cell the night before his undoubtedly grisly demise. I likey.

E.T.A

The BR just gets more amazing with age. Rich, deep and delicious. And more powerful. Now he's a stern sex monk.

Bottle: ooh, a lighter The Chapel, sweet blood and metal

Wet: Sticky blood and a tiny hint of smoke, quite nice.

Dry: Oh dearie me. The Grand Inquisitor is wearing Lynx and it is overpowering everything else in the room. Now that is pure torture.

And?:This turns into grossness on me. Bah.

In the bottle: Soft jasmine, far softer than expected.

Wet: Smells just like Lush's Flying Fox, which I do like, for a few minutes then smooths out into a sweet, soft jasmine.

Dry: The jasmine is so soft and lovely. Then there is the diaphanous underpinning of violet, the warm sweetness of vanilla bean, a breeze of mimosa, a sobriety of musk. It is grown-up, almost sad, and definitely sophisticated.

And?...Once it gets past the Lush stage then I love it. It is such a surprisingly soft blend, although the throw is quite good. All the usual edges of jasmine and violet are folded in on themselves, and smoothed: a blankie for grown-ups. Understated sexiness. Another bottle perhaps.

In the bottle: dirty earthy squeedom. Yum. I love rolling in damp earth, on the few occasions it is possible, and this makes me feel all wormlike.

Wet: Immediately the sweet flowers pop out of the earth, tempering the dirty dirt smell.

Dry: On my wrist there is no dirt at all, but flowers and sweet blood and a snifter of that berry. It is soft, warm and lovely. On my upper arm the dirt is still there, so I can nuzzle that and get my shot of soil while enjoying the waft of the corsage round my wrist.

And?...; I love Deep in earth and Zombi and it is lovely to have a soil blend that isn't so full on rose. It is so jolly and Spring-like. Worms must be happy little creatures if they get to smell this all the time. The only minor downside with the scent is that it freaks my husband out. I watched him go round the room sniffing the walls then look at me: "either you're wearing one of your earth scents or we've got mould". He he.

In the bottle: Disappointing. Like cherry tickly-cough medicine.

Wet: There is violet there but she is drowning in an infernal vat of pick n mix and children's medicine.

Dry: Ooh much better. Faith emerges, as it sometimes does in an emergency, as a mature, chastened violet in a veil of vanilla. yum.

And?...:While I prefer Hope, Faith is very nice. I like the dry down when the throw around me gets nom nom. The combination of Hope on one wrist and Faith on the other is gorgeous though, and appeals to my Geminian state.

I'm a sucker for sweet florals so I had to try H & F.

In the bottle: heavily sweetend rosewater

Wet: young pink roses dipped in eggwhite and sugar then placed in a jar of vanilla sugar. Swirly girliness.

Dry: Dries very quickly down into a rich, sweet rose, an older, darker rose now, nearing its peak. The throw is good, surrounding me in a waft of a masked ball in a rose garden. The sugared florals of lots of etailers tend to go dry, brittle and paperlike on me at the end of the drydown but Hope stays sweet and lovely. Hurrah!

And?...I have worn Hope three days in a row as the dry down is so rich and glorious. It is perfect day wear, leaving me feeling confident and approachable. I was complimented on it by three people. I expected to like her sibling more but Hope, at the moment is winning over Faith.

In the imp: Cider-doused cologne.

Wet: Herbs, yummy apple and a blast of the man-scrunched leaves of October. Gorgeous. M'husband comes into the room and asks what the lovely smell is.

Dry: Definitely dusty, this is bookish and lovely on me, far more so then the library-like scents which go all wood-polish. This is like reading old paperbacks in the attic of the Norn's farmhouse while munching on a basket of apples a la Jo from Little Women. Ahem.

And?... I really like. It'll be a gorgeous scent for the autumn in particular, especially if October does not return (the oil, I mean, imagine what BPALers what do if the month decided not to turn up? Chaos and uproar, I tell you). Anyway: a bottle when the decant is no more.

In the bottle: Very nice. Promising leather.

Wet: lovely smokey leather, like my husband's charity shop leather jacket he's had for 13 years.

Dry: I get greenery and leafery and leather and I can almost see those lil heads on sticks through a forest clearing. Then... it goes all adolescent boy's bedroom on me. I smell like a boy who doesn't know how to kiss.

And?... I wish I could wear this. When I sniff up close I get the worn leather sweetness and ferns but the throw is all Lynx awfulness. I'll try it on the hub though.

Oh my beautiful Bezoar.

In the bottle: Fresh, zippy cardomom being popped on a hay bale.

Wet: At Christmas I make Christmas wigs, an old-fashioned British rock cake with dried fruit, cardomom seeds, ginger and cinnamon. Bezoar smells just like them before they are baked. Gorgeous.

Dry:Deepens and becomes comforting, baked onto the skin in the best possible way.

And?: A lovely, refreshing alternative to my darling Shub. It is dry but delicious. Traditionally the wigs it reminds me of are eaten dipped in mulled wine after wassailing or after a mummers' play and I could see it layered with a wine blend. Delish. Another bottle might be required.

In the bottle: Skinny Dip indeed, people! Maybe that's the combination of orris, sandalwood and the spicy elements of champaca?

Wet: Cytherea starts off as a soft, whispering, violet-like wraith. I have to chase her round my wrist.

Dry: Then she stays in one place, barely breathing before jerking into half-life as a zombie. The scent gets weirder and louder and moans and becomes all sandalwood then back to orris then over to vanilla then back to champaca. And then she's all coy for a while before disappearing.

And?: An unusual girl: quiet in class, a romper in bed, leaves before dawn in her nightgown. Hard to pin down after the Skinny Dip phase but I kinda like her. She's an odd-ball and I like to look after my own.

Ooh, lovely.

Wet: a whoosh of blood orange, held back by amber. Very juicy. Bits of resin rest on my wrist like blood-black pips.

Dry: Lilac comes through but I can feel the orange, pulsing all orangely. The resins give such depth to it.

And?: It is lovely to have a rounded, warm citrus blend without spices. This way it works as a year round scent - refreshing in summer, comforting in winter, always grounding and uplifting. Keep it? Oh yes.

The Chapel is amazing. I punted for an unsniffed bottle as I loved the idea of it and I am delighted.

In the bottle: Oooh, deep and rich - like Green and Black's dark chocolate and cherry liquidised with a dark spice and a sploosh of mellow brandy.

Wet on the skin:The Chapel oscillates between deep, sweet, blood-thickened wine and swirling incense on my wrist. Then in pipes, like an infernal church organ, the smell of copper and acrid burning, but only for a few minutes. I feel powerful, like a high priestess. Ahem.

Dry: Still has depth but it has settled now into a deep fruit wine, like the home-made elderberry wine a friend of mine makes, with occasional blasts of incense and blood metal.

And?: The Chapel is addictive and delicious. It is not scary to me, or that dark, instead it depicts the mouthwatering and sensual temptations of sin and devilry. An S & M blend, or maybe just for grocery shopping, walking tall, with a sinful secret wrapped round me.

Stunning.

Darkness first sits me at my Nana's dressing-table, with ornate hairbrushes, powder puffs and antique bottles of Chanel and Yves St Laurent. I almost choke on the face powder. This ismakes me sad, mournful: my nana died two years ago and I miss her.

And then Darkness does something very interesting. The myrrh, a mourning scent, recedes and the opium takes over to try and ease my hurt. I want to give into the smoke, lean back, Dorian Gray style, and let it transport me to oblivion with its sickly-sweetness. It doesn't smell dark at all, it is swirling sweetness supported by myrrh, but the effect it has on me is dark, dark, dark. Not black, but a blank, dark brown. There is something sensual, exhilarating and libidinous about this stage. Inhibitions are exhibited and released. Very powerful.

The imp is enough for now but I turn to it when I want to remember, keep perspective and when I want to feel powerful and release inhibitions, both creatively and socially.