joseybird

Definately Inferno

I wish I got a bottle of White Rabbit that smelled of apricots and milk!

Bengal=chai spices+honey+pale musk

Smells just like the black chai tea with honey I made earlier as I was trying it

Three Witches seems tame and traditional compared with Bengal Peppers! YOWTCHA! Three Witches is clovier though

Got this imp from the wonderful blackrayne *hugs!!*

In Vial: Like the crumb topping on a crumb cake with a peppery kick!

Wet on skin: Pretty much the same at first--very heavy on the cinnamon, and the peppers are more prominant than the pepper in Three Witches.

1st Stage: The honey becomes fairly obvious early on. BPAL honey invariably goes nasty on me (unless it's with milk), but the honey note in Bengal behaves on me the best way to describe how it relates to the other notes would be to direct you to put some honey in a cup of black Chai Tea--it's just like that =)

2nd Stage: I begin to smell the clove and the ginger, the ginger being the more prominant of the two. This is reminiscent of Three Witches, but the latter is MUCH more clovey, while here the cinnamon and pepper take front and center. I'm really getting the heat from the peppers, although it's definately not an Inferno-like heat (the cinnamon isn't Red Hots cinnamon, thank goodness!).

3rd Stage: As this dries down, the cinnamon softens and sweetens, and the musk finally peeps out. This is definately a pale musk (white?)--I love those!! The musk really serves to transition the firey spices down to "skin scent" stage in drydown. The ginger is more prominant at this stage, co-starring with the cinnamon and pepper. I can still smell the cloves in the background though--beautiful

Last Stage: The very late drydown of Bengal is a delicate, soft cinnamon and what smells like white musk, like the reminants of a dream of the Bengali spice market.

Conclusion: A winner!! Much more cinnamon and pepper than I expected, but I am SO glad to have a scent that smells just like Chai! The honey and pale musk are beautiful additions, and make this scent really wearable ^__^

If you love Three Witches, give this one a shot =D and if you love cinnamon and haven't yet ordered this...

WTF ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!???

Yeap--this is Snake Oil infused with a sweet golden amber! It's definately lighter than Snake Oil, which I found to be almost oppressive in intensity. It reminds me a bit of The Lion, except less..."orange" smelling, if that makes sense?

One of my fave LEs in recent memory I bet this would smell amazing with Milk Moon!

This is probably Snake Charmer, but I don't know for sure so I'm leaving it here --Shollin

I usually just spritz some EA Green Tea into my hair.

That's the only time when I wish I could spritz my BPALs--scents last a lot longer in my hair, but I'm not going to dab oil on my scalp!!

The base of this scent is definately Strawberry SN--the scent of pure gummy strawberry candy! I think I can detect the lotus in here, but the sweetness of the strawberry masks/blends with it so well I can hardly tell. The ylang ylang is invisible, but the herbs and slightly sharp tang of tea is in evidence here...

This actually reminds me quite a bit of Corazon, although I prefer the latter It's like a fancy Italian strawberry ice pop...nice for summer, but a bit out of season any other time of the year for this girlie.

Slightly aquatic, very "commerical cologne" smelling, and very, very masculine...surprisingly, this doesn't smell very deep and dark--I had been expecting something akin to Undertow. I can imagine a jock wearing this!

Shub's drydown reminds me vaguely of Three Witches...only vaguely though (not as sweet).

13. Hands down. Dries down to creamy iris candy on me

I hadn't expected to like this at all, as I didn't sit well with the Honey SN or any other blends heavy on the honey. But this blend actually smells more like real honey to me than those did! I get some soft florals, but they aren't turning to soap on me, and the ginger gives a lovely spicy kick to the blend so far, so good...if it changes any more I'll add the the review.

ADDED July 31:

I have not found a BPAL honey that worked for me...until now

This is soft, sweet wildflower honey, with a gentle pollon note and a tiny touch of spice from the ginger.

Oh yes, and this is DAH SHIZNIT when layered with Milk Moon!

The Lion's glorious golden spiced amber is perfect for early autumn And I can't forget the perfection of pure Sweet Clove...the perfect balance of spice and sweetness that dries down to an exquisite skin scent

Patchouli. Cedarwood. Vetiver.

:icon_eek:

This is indeed, as one would expect, dark and earthy, but the cinnamon gives this a nice warm spiciness

This smells like, quite literally, Tarot: Death...warmed over

This isn't the Kool-Aid apricot I smell in Tamora and March Hare; rather, it smells like apricot or peach gummies (it might be the orange blossom calming things down...?)!! The white musk gives this a lovely soft edge, too My fave of all the peach/apricot scents, this is bright and bubbly without smelling like sugary juice

Dark, warm, and murky...this is the scent of a ritual victim slowly loosing consciousness as the ritual incense drugs her into submission...sedative, glowing, heavy, and, yes, slothful.

A highly underrated blend

The lime, pine, and myrrh were immediately discernable. The clove soon comes out and the vanilla, and the lime makes a quick exit.

This is yummy, soft new-agey goodness the clove and vanilla make this totally wearable and sensual

Big Red gum+Bubble Yum gum=Jailbait interesting concept, but not me at all.

Tulzcha--light-hearted with a bit of a kick!

High-pitched, shrill mint and powdery violet. Chilly, metallic, and...yeah...

This is what the Technocrats wear in Mage: The Ascension

Definately chocolate-orange-cherry! This doesn't give me a "Bliss" feeling--it smells a lot more wearable and less like an actual dessert--more reminscent of a desert, actually. Very nice!

This is definately cedar/sandalwood, but the sweet variety, not the pencil-shavings one (which is more associated with Virginia cedarwood I guess). It's a soft woodsy scent--far less hard-core than I had been expecting. The incense starts wafting in after a minute or so, but it's pretty subtle.

The description scared me at first, but I'm so glad I got an imp and am trading for a bottle it reminds me of some mountain temple somewhere, where the wooden beams have been infused with incense over the centuries.

the cat description doesn't say that they are, so personally, i wouldn't assume that they were.

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Best not to assume anything about exact composition.

However, as we all know, Beth has a great deal of experiance in the field and makes her oils as high-quality as she can afford (ie, she proly can't use pure agarwood oil because she wouldn't be able to sell us a blend with it in it without loosing a ton of $!), and I'm sure that her panacea blends would pass the test of any aromatherapist

I can answer part of that: it's ALL 100% natural. The Lab uses no synthetics.

 

As for 100% essential oils? They've never made any such claim. The web site states that all blends are 85-100% pure perfume oil, and made from plant-derrived oils.

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Many natural oils are not essential oils--many are absolutes, concretes, etc

The term "perfume oil" can mean many different things, depending on who's using it. It can mean naturals, synthetics, etc, but it seems like Beth is saying perfume oil instead of essential oil because she might use stuff like concretes and absolutes and natural essences that aren't essential oils.

I know this keeps coming up but does Beth use, say, jojoba oil in any of the blends? Some oils/resins are of such high odor intensity that their true odor only comes out in dilution (I remember mixing some EOs/absolutes together according to a recipe and being terribly dissapointed when the pungent odor that greated my nostrils smelled muddled and overpowering. But when I diluted it in carrier oil--jojoba, as it's the best and really moisturizing--the characteristic odor of frankisence and other essences I had mixed--became a lot aparent, clearer, and prettier )

I was sure almost immediately after ordering 13 that I'd hate it. White chocolate, iris, and orange? The notes sounded to me like they'd completely clash, and the blend as whole sounded like it'd be a wierd sort of mishmoshed mess.

Well, I am happy to say that I was WRONG

13 starts off chocolately, like Bliss, but...whiter...I've smelled white chocolate, but this doesn't smell like white chocolate to me...just...milk chocolate but whiter (I know, that doesn't make sense!). The citrus enters and then eventually exits, but the iris (a bit green) springs out almost immediately and stays the entire time. I love the iris--so fresh and springy!--and in the context of the white chocolate, it smells very creamy

13 dries down to a lovely creamy floral very offbeat, but still lovely!