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BPAL Madness!

othelloperrello

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Everything posted by othelloperrello

  1. othelloperrello

    The Witch's Repast

    THE WITCH’S REPAST "Well," said the old witch, "I know them. But if I give thee the fire thou shalt stay with me some time and do some work to pay for it. If not, thou shalt be eaten for my supper." Then she turned to the gate and shouted: "Ho! Ye, my solid locks, unlock! Thou, my stout gate, open!" Instantly the locks unlocked, the gate opened of itself, and the Baba Yaga rode in whistling. Vasilissa entered behind her and immediately the gate shut again and the locks snapped tight. When they had entered the hut the old witch threw her self down on the stove, stretched out her bony legs and said: "Come, fetch and put on the table at once everything that is in the oven. I am hungry." So Vasilissa ran and lighted a splinter of wood from one of the skulls on the wall and took the food from the oven and set it before her. There was enough cooked meat for three strong men. She brought also from the cellar kvass, honey, and red wine, and the Baba Yaga ate and drank the whole, leaving the girl only a little cabbage soup, a crust of bread and a morsel of suckling pig. Kvass, honey-drizzled bread, roasted meat, and wine. The combination of these notes intrigued me, and I had to order a bottle immediately. For those of you not in the know, "kvass" is an olde world russian/eastern european fermented drink made from fruit, berries, and rye bread. [note: guy review] First wet sniff yields a number of fascinating notes vying for dominance. There is an overriding sweetness, a sourness (wine), and a spiciness that are very promising. Unfortunately on my skin these come together and resolve on the drydown into a pleasant, sweet autumn potpourri that doesn't much appeal to me. I recognize a specific note in here that I've encountered in other oils, notably Sugar Moon, which never works on me. Hopefully others will have better luck with this than I! It's got such potential, I'm thinking it's my chemistry that's not working so well.
  2. othelloperrello

    Chant D'Automne

    I Soon we will sink in the frigid darkness Good-bye, brightness of our too short summers! I already hear the fall in distress Of the wood falling in the paved courtyard. Winter will invade my being: anger, Hatred, chills, horror, hard and forced labor, And, like the sun in its iced inferno, My heart is but a red and frozen floe. I hear with shudders each weak limb that falls. The scaffold will have no louder echo. My spirit is like a tower that yields Under the tireless and heavy ram blow. It seems, lulled by this monotonous sound, Somewhere a coffin is hastily nailed, For whom? Summer yesterday, autumn now! This mysterious noise sounds like a farewell. II I love the greenish light of your long eyes, Sweet beauty, but all is bitter today. Nothing, not love, the boudoir or the hearth Is dearer than the sunshine on the sea. Still love me, tender heart! Be a mother Even to the ingrate, to the wicked, Lover, sister, ephemeral sweetness Of fall's glory or of the setting sun. Short-lived task! The tomb awaits, merciless. Ah! Let me, my head resting on your knees, Savor, regretting the white hot summer, The autumn's last rays yellow and tender. The scent of the year's fall and the setting sun, ominous and foreboding: dried leaves, charred wood, blood musk, amber, khus, and Nicotiana tabacum. Dearest Mods: If a thread for chant d'automne exists, I apologize; I searched and did not find one under this heading. Thanks! This scent is like a lighter version of Death in Autumn, and for that I love it so! The commonalities between the two oils are leaves (dried/dead), khus, galangal, and amber, so it does not surprise. Not as heavily draped with florals or plants, not as strong a throw, but this to me embodies the feeling of Autumn. This is autumn for the lover of this season, the lengthening hours of twilight, dimmer light and stronger winds, the colors of brick and wood, lengthening shadows on a lonesome walk. I can't give you much for actual non-metaphorical scents - this one just scoops me up into a world of feeling and nostalgia. For notes I would give sweet woodsmoke and light cologne. The scent does not change from initial application to drydown, and the throw is medium to strong. Love xo!
  3. othelloperrello

    Bub

    I get a light, fizzy spiciness - a vanilla egg-cream drank in a sunny meadow. Stays steady for several hours, very nice.
  4. othelloperrello

    The Hanged Man

    I feel the need to review this oil because it is my card, the one that most often means ME me of late when I do readings. What intrigued me when I sniffed it out of the bottle was that the scent was the most totally repugnant bpal I'd ever sniffed. It was like taking a good huff of that brush-on wet cement you use out of the can, it smelled utterly toxic. It started that way on my skin, but slowly changed. Over about 5 minutes the sweetness grew and the foul stench seemed to dry up. After 10 minutes I am left with a well-blended, sugery floral, still somewhat pensive like those last few summer days that are just waiting to end. Warm, comfortable, pleasantly spicy, one of those scents that feels like it belongs on my skin. It continues morphing and surging, and seems like it will stay fairly strong with a medium throw (it's been well over an hour). Yay
  5. othelloperrello

    Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah

    [Man review] What this really is to me, it's the spiced cider I'd been searching for and given up on finding. The pomegranate and the apple, no doubt aided by hyssop, combine into the perfect fresh red fruit note, I get ripe apples from the tree in deep fall. This is my first experience with Massoia, and from what I read of Cryptocarya massoia (Lauraceae) it's a sweet, coconut-milky blender, so I'm sure that works in this profile's favour (i.e., +++yumminess). I'm not sure if this is a common experience or it's just my skin, but all of the honeys add a great spiciness to the mix, as well as the sweetness. It's like when you get REALLY good raw honey and smell it up very close slowly, that spice within it but amped up to an overriding note. So yes, it is enough (with the massoia, I'm sure) to give it that mulled-spiciness on my skin. All in a festive sweet, spiced fruit. Once it settles it's solid, 3-4 hours which is a lot on my skin. :love!: Othello
  6. othelloperrello

    Dark Chocolate and Pepper-Smoked Caramel

    Guy review: Here is my problem with this scent, dammit: wet on my arm it smells perfect, all the notes coming out exactly how I want them. It's the drydown that kills it for me, because within 10 minutes everything seems to depart - that coveted chocolate note, that gorgeous golden caramel - and I am left with peppery smoke. Why why WHY? I am going to let this age just another year or so, and see what I have at the end of that. ...to be continued!
  7. othelloperrello

    Bezoar

    Copaiba balsam, Tolu balsam, hay absolute, cardamom, and hiba wood. Guy review: I love this scent. The overall feeling I get is rare for bpals, it's a sweet, light scent that keeps telling me it smells like something specific but keeps eluding me. This has been going on for over a year, and I think that's just part of its mystery. I get the cardamom coming out fairly quickly, and I feel it plays an important role in rounding this out against the balsams, the woods, and the hay. Such an incredible combination. The cardamom in turn is deepened by the woods, and the hay absolute adds what I can only describe as a golden glow that makes this surprisingly light, sweet, spicy and wearable. I am a big fan of resinous, woodsy scents; to me this is the lightest, most golden of my beloved resinous blends. Playful.
  8. othelloperrello

    Banshee Beat

    Yes, this is as it sounds: wonderfully strong hemp, patchouli, and vanilla. On my skin, all elements were about equal. This is one of the most forthright oils I've run into. Definitely reminded me of tombstone for the patchouli, but whereas that had some strange subtlety I could not deduce this one comes out clear and strong. Unfortunately for me it's a little much. So glad I got the opportunity to give this one a try, though, it's exceptional.
  9. othelloperrello

    Morgause

    I'll call it to my mind's nose rose, violet, and jasmine. Though it has become clear to me that there is, in fact, no rose in here to my way of categorizing the slight musk underlay fulfills the same function for me which is to give it a dignified floral scent, refined yet real. I feel it was caught best when it was said, "Sweet and gentle. The flowers are lovely and soft without powder. Just fresh and sweet... Slight incense in the background giving it a hallowed ethereal feel. A wonderful contemplative perfume." I'll keep her. O
  10. othelloperrello

    Katrina van Tassel

    A beautiful mix of wet white roses, and honeyed-cream. Really well balanced on those 2 sides, sweet and rose, a very nice scent. It reminds me of white chocolate in that I can appreciate it, but not really want to eat it personally. Someone should have it! think I'll frimp O
  11. othelloperrello

    Marie

    Guy review: Rose, and violets. Both at the height of summer, balancing rather well in power. Overall feeling is majesty, walking the royal grounds, and you feel perfectly at ease. I feel this is a necessary imp-keeper for the purity of it's scent, even for me. Thanks bpal! O
  12. othelloperrello

    Umbra

    Guy review: Well, it's deep, it's earthy, it's on-the-line-of-too-much-cedar, but the patouli is there and balances it out. As' said, a good general masculine/cozy scent, not my favorite wood. Gracias, O
  13. othelloperrello

    Troll

    Guy review: Ah, a hardy, earthy, swarthy scent - scent of the woods obviously pine maybe fir, coming thru strong and prevailing through along with a heavy vetiver presence. Medium-to-strong throw. Yet there is enough wet rich earth and clove in there to keep it in play and more than just a Pine Scent. This, for me, is definitely wearable on an evening walk alone or with company, or on a morning flight to keep me grounded and fresh. AND * - * Combined with graveyard dirt brings out the musk (black, brown, earth-musk) and does some interesting things. So the total composition of this, then, would be pine, vetiver, musk of earth, clove . Well balanced, good mix potential.
  14. othelloperrello

    The Feast For The Greatly Revered Ones

    Guy review: This continues to be one of my favorites, and as I sit here about to sell my backup bottle for hard cash, I find myself having serious second thoughts. It's so good, and what's more I think it's aging and getting better yet. So the obvious first notes are cocoa and cinnamon, and definitely ginger which gives a nice foody overtone to it. It's a given for me that chocolate notes fade quickly, which is sad, but there's lots of nice spice to fill in when that fades off. I think the maize adds to the wholesome baked foodiness as well, and reminds me very much of when I lived in southern mexico. There's a sourness over it all that seems to be blending a little better the longer the bottle ages, which is great because it plays really nice now instead of poking out. Looking at the notes I see "agave wine and octli" - well, I've never heard of agave wine perse, so I decided to look up "octli" and found that it was pulque! I couldn't believe that was in there! It was one of my favorite things in Mexico and totally unobtainable in the US. Wow. This really captures it too, because it's very fermented and fizzy, which I feel really comes through. One of the scent categories I collect are mexico scents, and this one really comes through. All in all, I would categorize it as a warm, foody scent with a lot of spice. Who am I kidding? I'm not selling my backup bottle!
  15. othelloperrello

    Pumpkin V (2009)

    Guy review I get an overwhelmingly strong pumpkin, immediately and irrevocably. Pumpkin so strong it's drunk. Seriously, this is has the strongest throw I have ever encountered in a bpal. It left an oily smear on my hand that is not going away. What I perceive is strong, ripe pumpkin liqueur and cinnamon. I am thinking that the pump + coffee + chocolate combo does this, with maybe the hint of vanilla to mellow & sweeten it out a bit. I can't understand where the sense of cinnamon comes from! Usually that alcoholic edge dies away on the drydown, but here it does not. So all in all it is to me exactly this: double espresso latte with extra squirts of pumpkin syrup and a nip from the flask poured in for good measure. I think I like it. For a guy this is a very wearable but noticeable scent, and the New Yorkers will know its smell!
  16. othelloperrello

    Mother Shub's Spiced Lait de Chèvre

    Guy review. A note on the throw of this scent: My experience was that it faded quickly to the point where I thought it was going to disappear entirely after 10 minutes. Then, strangely, it seemed to settle in and grow in intensity to about medium bpal strength. Go figure. I think the comparison to condensed milk is a good one. On the drydown I get a nice warm milky froth, slightly spicy (but moreso on my than on my beloved's hand. The chevre makes a stronger cream, and the coffee note is just barely there in the back. Coffee notes never seem to last long on me. All in all, it reminds me of cookies just ready to come out of the oven. Oh Mother Shub, you shouldn't have! But I'm so glad you did.
  17. othelloperrello

    Wezwanie / Hold

    Guy review: Have to put my two cents in to agree with most on this, it's a sweet/foody blend of hazelnuts balanced with vanilla, sandalwood, and honey. It reminds me of cozy-warm rooms filled with cooking concoctions, sweet nutty slightly alcoholic things; there's spice in the air and bustling people, friendly chatter, and a mug of something hot and nice in my hands. Great blend! Would really like to know what wezwanie/hold means. Guess I'll have to watch the movie.
  18. othelloperrello

    Wolfsbane

    Starts out strongly vetiver, gives that nice deep woodsy umph. After about 10 minutes dries down into a pleasantly sweet coating - sweet milky tea and crumbly cookies, or yes rice pudding perhaps. Doesn't stray into powdery; a little stuffy but rather nice. imp's enough
  19. othelloperrello

    Black Lotus

    Fruity cinnamon. The perfect combo, but has a kind of overbearing saccharine quality to its background that I can’t bear.
  20. othelloperrello

    Dragon's Heart

    My favorite of the dragon's blends. The perfect combination and use of dragon's blood's strong sap, with powerful musks and a little slightly-sweet fruit on the vine. bottle
  21. othelloperrello

    Séance

    I get this exactly as it is said, that is exactly as I would have been led to believe from the description ("dry, mellow rosewood, crushed rose leaf and the slightest touch of warm hazel", although I would not have picked out the note of hazel I can see how it adds to the mix. Lovely.
  22. othelloperrello

    Jezirat Al Tennyn

    It's true, this IS a fascinating scent to review. After ten minutes it's just settling in, so I guess we can start with its throw which is close to the skin (3-5in for the test dab) and dense. My initial on-the-skin impression was Mystically sweet heavy musks; crunching steps through a holy barnyard or am I among juniper? Definitely pinefloor, but not cedar. I jive with sarada, who said, " It strikes me as kind of a menthol scent at first, a strong impression of heat -- but also steam coming off of hot rocks. Mists shroud a pine forest, but it's not winter -- it's warm, and the air is thick and humid after a rainstorm. Now it's a block of ice melting in a cave in a tropical jungle. Maybe some sort of prehistoric beast is frozen inside, and coming back to life? After the menthol scent dies down, it has a sort of damp, mineral smell to it with some impressions of dark greenery...not floral, not sweet, just once again like some sort of evergreen, but not frosty pines. This is definitely worth trying, for the experience, and I think it could grow on me as a fragrance if I didn't just have so many to play with these days! Abstract, conceptual scents like these fill me with the greatest anticipation and excitement whenever there is an update." 5 minutes: After the pine fades, yes hot smoldering rocks and "the rage of the elements over primordial paradise". And perhaps blossoms emerging through the cataclysm, even now. Earth & steam, water and rock. I really like HOW Beth achieved this blend, it seems she went at it with a full range of elements that combine for this unique effect, including a hint of her signature sulphuric note that I saw in Maoi, from the Atomic Lau Lounge 3/2008, which I tried first; I really like how lightly it is used here and I feel it makes it more wearable for me. The lasting scent on my skin is a scent strongly earthy but sweet and light. I could see combining this with stronger scents for a good full effect. --- Like to continue reading the reviews to find specific notes that are in this blend.
  23. othelloperrello

    The World

    Hi, here's my 2 cents and thanks especially to TygherRayn for the excellent description of this card, so long ago. It was further illuminating to my query. I was doing a reading with the Tarot of the Trance, and my culmination card was the World. I decided to crack my special box and try the one slather I possess. The World is pure and beautiful, on me a strong sandalwood layered with cinnamon, light pine boughs, and cool life-giving mountain air. That's where it takes me: atop a cliff in the sun, amid forested mountains, fresh air and the sweetness of life all around me. It's the holy incense of Nature, of wholeness, contentedness, benevolence. I feel a renewel, after much struggle and much that has been lost, there remains a sacredness in what is before me every day. Great interpretation of this card. Sandalwood amps on me, but since it is my favorite single component I never mind. In the bottle: Earthy was my first impression. Cinnamon, perhaps. Something a little woody .. but it's not cedar, that's for sure. The cinnamon's tempered by something, making it not as strong as something like, say, mars or Wrath. Wet: Yes, cinnamon. After a minute or so it sweetens, like there's a floral scent in this as well. The World card is a depiction of the cyclical nature of things .. and this scent seems to mimic that. It morphs constantly, I can't pin down the notes except for the cinnamon, but I know there's more. Wearing: This scent makes me happy. It makes me feel connected and grounded. And that's rather what I expected of a scent pattered after this Tarot card. It's warm and soft, it's sweet and woody. It's 'Elemental', if that makes sense. It seems to have all the elements in it, and that's a lovely thing indeed.
  24. othelloperrello

    Rangoon Riptide

    This started out exactly like a pina colada on me. Pineapple dominates, but the other fruits add a roundness to the drink, kind of like a stirred up tequila sunrise maybe. The rum adds a slight buzz to it that's pleasant. Then I saw the review that mentioned Life-Savers - yes! The tropical ones, just like that. But also alcoholic. (Alcoholic life savers, that's an idea...) after about 10 minutes the passion fruit makes itself known, rounding it out a bit. The alcohol dies off and it's a nice tropical fruit mix. Ebullient and summery!
  25. othelloperrello

    Love-Lies-Bleeding

    On first application my impression was mulch, but Having read the other reviews, I have to agree: It's dark chocolate, with maybe a bit of a floral in the background but the cocoa really dominates. After about 1/2 hour the dominant chocolate starts to share the stage with dragon's blood, and it turns more musky. Still chocolat-Y, but more balanced. Very natural. I think it's a great blend if you like the darker scents, like I do.
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