olympia301

There is something unsettling about The Masque, in a kind of thrilling and familiar way. I can really smell the carnation along with a huge bouquet of flowers. There is also a masculine set of notes thumping away underneath it all and adding a grounding air to the blend. I am sure it is the tobacco, and something reminds me of Black Musk...I don't think that's what it is but it reminds me of it (go figure). It's deep sweet and moody all at once. Don't let the flowers turn you away from The Masque, they are made to work so harmoniously with the heavier parts of it all that the total effect is a throughly new combination neither floral or masculine but a scent suited by its nature to be the scent of the last part of winter but not the first part of spring.If all this sounds too lyrical for you, get yourself a bottle of The Masque and discover it for yourself.P.S. don't experience this one too close up. It really needs atmosphere between you and the source, otherwise it distorts and is not shown off in its best lights. N.B.-I found that my review of The Masque had disappeared after the forum downtime in early mid March 2006. So, I replaced my review here. It appeared that mine was no where to be seen, and if it comes to pass by electronic mischief that my review appears twice here, well...I will just have to sigh and say "If I were God, that wouldn't have happened."

Very sugar to the point of almost being flowery. In other words sugar and caramelized sugar driven to such an extreme that they start smelling like a totally different entity. This one is just gorgeous wet and it dries down to a sublime foodiness on your skin which is a bit subdued and does diminish rather quickly. Mitzvah is a perfect candidate for the scent locket, so you can keep it and smell it all day long. It is a pure sugary rush, with very little complexity beyond the ssweet. Even its veering into flowery territory is an expected development in this case. It is just loveliness. What it lacks in character (for instance Trick or Treat's unexpected smokiness) it makes up for in likeabelness. Mitzvah should be all one thing and it is. If you are a foody lover, this one was a mitzvah for you. I will cherish my stock of it and think of the fun and good deeds lived through when I smell Mitzvah.

Elegba and Perversion and (I think) Black Pearl are all coconutty good. I really am digging Perversion at the moment. Just because the coconut is in the background, doesn't mean you can't love it while it is there.

Alice and Maiden. They are wonderful.

The Black Tower is a blend with great charm and it would be a wonderful day scent for a woman. You can easily wear this one into work without being accused of being a witch or worse. It reminds me of some of the great old perfumes of yesterday, I suspect that is because of the leather note, which was so very popular in the 1940's and '50's. If you are not familiar with that sort of thing, you would love to discover it here in The Black Tower. It is a romantic blend, sharp and long lasting (no that is not a contradiction in thoughts). somehow I don't get any red wine from The Black Tower but it's pretty delicate and I am not disappointed.

This is an absolutely scrumptious floral! It has elements of deep candy (yes that is pretty serious), bright lily sweetness, and though I see there is supposed to be something of the crocus in here, whatever it is it smells much better than any of the crocuses I have smelled. Somehow it generates a kind of spicy part which is alluring and stops it from becoming too "flowers/flowers/flowers".

What a neat idea, this blend starts out with a banana introduction! You might stop right there and say,"Ewwww". Don't. This one is very well done indeed. It does have a very beautiful floral background and scented woody kick which gives a more sultry backdrop to the funny fanfare that opened it. Alas, it doesn't last too long, and that banana note fades rapidly, but it was fun while it lasted. If you try Manila, you would definately want to put it in a scent locket. It's a good blend, I think it's one of the earliest ones and doesn't have the crisp sophistication that blends after about 2005 have, but it is well worth trying out and you might love it for all it's raw monkey goodness. It would be worthy.

As others have said, it is indeed a lovely soft lily floral with lily of the valley notes. Very pretty flowers. I don't find much character to this one, no set of notes which combine more than to make a pretty flower mixture. The name of it is wonderful, but the perfume doesn't quite have the unusual flair that Beth's blends are noted for and I would have to call it a very conservative perfume with a Goth name. If it were still around, I think I would have tried it and liked it but bought and used Asphodel for a floral rather than Spectre. Nice, but Beth did it better later.

A lovely "bright" jasmine and rose, as others have noted, and it has its charms. However, this one carries a scent which I interpret as being "old fashioned BPAL". Beth has come so very far, become much the Master Perfumer, and dared and succeeded far beyond Feu Follet. One of the consequences is that the older blends smell, well, as if they were markers in the road that Beth has traveled but not the glorious essences she produces now. A good scent, and one which gives you a good look at the way things were at BPAL back in the late 2003 time. The icon is a picture of a flying saucer. Since Feu Follet means "Will O The Wisp", what is more fleeting than a flying saucer? The font is Space Pontiff.

Very strongly civet, I can't blame Beth for trying with Satyr. However, the effect is powerful and personal and not attractive on me. If you are a civet fan, great...Satyr and Czernobog are two scents you must try. One great thing about Satyr, it only takes a very small amount and it lasts forever. There might be a tiny bit of patchouli in this blend, too, along with some spice. However the whole thing is taken over by civet and there is little else that you can smell in Satyr.

This is a beautiful scent by itself, even if it had no ritual use or any other tie to magick other than the magic of scent. It is beautiful and not definable. I think there must be some form of a floral in here, but I cannot pick out the exact note, but it also seems to be full of herbal ingredients. It has a very attractive baby powder aspect to it which I think even powder haters would consider great, and there is definately a fruitiness (like a strawberry or a cranberry) to it which makes the entire thing so very pretty. Very hard to describe adequately and I am glad I got to sample this Temple Celtic TAL. The icon is of a Shiela-na-gig which is a figure found in some old Celtic Temples and represents a very jolly lady who is making note of her powers of procreation and sexual satisfaction. She is always shown smiling or smirking or looking as if she is enjoying showing off her juicy bits.

Bergamot, that's what I think I smell as the first note for The Lovers. Light but beautiful, slightly too sophisticated to be mere lemon. I suspect a drop of neroli lurking somewhere in The Lovers, too, with its "orange blossom" lilt and hint of nuptials. The Lovers dries down as a familiar, little bit of "face cream" smell, very pleasant, and somewhat Warm Spring Day with your Lover. Now I am thinking "neroli and pettigrain". It's a lemon/orange drydown which is clean and contains nothing perverse. It lasts surprisingly long for a delicate blend, and I can see this on a man or a woman equally well.

A very masculine and green blend. I was surprised by all of the ingredients in here because Death on a Pale Horse ends up smelling simple and straightfoward. That is a tribute to the seamless combinations that Beth can think up. Yes, there were some vague florals in the background and that is what keeps it from being too mundane a "men's cologne" scent...it is the charm of Death on a Pale Horse. It lasts a very long time and has a happily primative relaxed man's air to it because of its greenesst. Smells like a guy who has been chopping down blooming weeds all day long, in other words a great earthy scent. The icon is a sketch by Albrecht Durer, death on a horse. Look at the bell hanging from the horse's neck. I interpret that as a plague or leper bell to warn people of Death's approach.

Unspoken love. Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s poem. A scent brimming with pathos and memories of longing and loss. Rose touched with ylang ylang. I got the impression of roses and violets when I first put this one on. I knew it was discontinued and was delighted when the Lab sent me a frimp in a recent order. It is a perfect late winter scent for the frequent times you long for spring flowers and have convinced yourself there is a blush of green about the treebranches. I had never read a description of Silentium Amoris, and wasn't surprised to find rose and ylang-ylang as the primary notes, but no violet (which was either wishful thinking or BPAL alchemy). I love that sort of sweet mimicry, it's the thrill of perfumery. This is a beautiful blend and an imp I will treasure and use as my desire for spring increases.

There is a fir/pine opening to The Hamptons, and it could remind you of the smell of expensive gin cooling in some sort of arcane chrome cocktail device on a hot summer day. The Hamptons started out that way on me and persisted for a long time unchanged. So, of you are into the scent of gin or something even classier like Pimm's Cup, this may be the thing for you. I think on the right person you could pull this off as hopelessly classy. It is not perfumy and would be great on a hot day (or around the ski lodge with your amazingly rich friends). It is not for those who insist on florals or sweetness or perfuminess in their potions. This is a unisex and big scent. It lasted forever on me, and if I were in the mood, it might encourage me to talk too loud, to walk around with my chin too far up in the air, to dismiss other people's statements with a wave of my hand or the roll of my eyes (as in "how unbelievably boring").

Elegba is the most coconutty. Run to the swaps and see if you can get your hands on a bottle of Elegba before anything else. It is gorgeous. You might want to try Santo Domingo, too. Somehow it has the spirit of coconut but I don't think it actually has coconut in it. It is beautiful as well. Grog is buttery, rummy, coconutty goodness. Lasts for hours and is a beauty. Mmmm. me loves me teh grog. Perversion has a good shot of coconut in it and is a real winner. It is pretty close to Formula 54 and is great in the winter (for some reason).

Yeah, there probably is a variation among the oils used from the supplier. they are also hand blended (I believe I read this) and there is bound to be some variation, especially if you don't buy one bottle right after another. Think of cooking...does your favorite recipe come out exactly the same from batch to batch? Mine don't. I just got a bottle of The Hesperides and it has a distinct wintergreen-like edge to it that the imps and bottles I bought before didn't have. I chalk that up to ingredient changes from the Lab's suppliers, or maybe it's a strength issue in the raw ingredients as well. It could also be my nose (and mind) interpreting minute changes in the raw materials (and that change may not be perceived by the next person).

My personal pick hits are all voodoo blends. Every one of them has worked for me in various sticky icky situations, and has brought a hard shot of good luck to me: Van Van-Preposterous amounts of Positive Personal Power Black Cat-Things work out divinely for you in very strange ways Has No Hanna-Good luck plain and simple I really think the goal is to have you be positive and on the high ground, not so much to bring down the other guy. You are after good things happening to you, right? So let the other guy's Kharma do its thing, take care of your own Kharma.

Violets, I smell violets in the opening fanfare of Budding Moon. It is certainly one of the nicest violet scents that Beth has ever come up with and is soft and alluring as the real blossoms. This was great timing for a pre-spring floral, around this time of year you are starting to yearn for green things to push their way out of the soil, and for the cheer of flowers. Budding Moon is the hopeful scent that lets you hang on to the illusion of spring coming soon with its floral and unobtrusive lilt. I read that there is peony and plum in Budding Moon, but I still get "violets" out of it, and that is a point which makes me luxuiate in the scent. Well done. The image in this moon icon is Van Gogh's "Almond Branch Budding". I know it's small, but it is so apt, even if it isn't violets.

I wanted to love Smut, if only for the name. It was ballsy and a fine concept. It is very Red Musk to me and dries down to a pretty blend of spices on my skin, but I detect acacia here and the Red Musk overpowered all of the other ingredients unless I put my nose directly on my skin to pick up the spice melange after it was dry. I also got a surprising backlash of Cashmere Bouquet which was just my interpretation of the scent combination, but I could not shake it. Too much association for me. I may not be a fan of Smut, but please note this is only personal taste speaking. If you love love love Red Musk (you are a big fan of Vixen, for instance) and you thought that the acacia in Red Phoenix made it specially lovely on you...then run to the swaps section and pick up Smut, because it is your blend for sure.

Acacia...that is what I get from Night's Pavilion. It starts off as a melange of almost oriental components which I expected to "gather together" and appear as one unified note. The opening remained swirly and non committal, but Night's Pavilion dried down to almost pure acacia on me, with a good and pretty incense playing coyly in the background. I smell an aquatic part as well, and the white musk is evident and helps it last after it is dry. So, I would highly recommend Night's Pavillion to anyone who loved the acacia in things like Chaos Theory and Red Phoenix.

Oh how wonderful this scent is wet! I adored the boozy carmelly lovliness that it sent me. I was plotting how to aquire a lifetime supply of Red Lantern. When it dries down, it becomes much more or a perfume, and I think I detect a good deal of acacia in it in the background. I admit that I am reviewing it just as I put it on for the first time and should give it a fairer try, but that first shot of delightful sugar and alcohol was too much to let me be "safe and sane' about my review.

have you considered putting the woman's perfume in a different bottle and giving it to him? *snicker* I'd do it.

I'll put in a couple of recommends for things you don't see talked about much on the forum but are wonderful and very sophisticated: Incantation-lasts and is very strong. Real green and I would call it a hard chypre (however you want to interpret that). It is beautiful and serious. Won't take a back seat to anybody else. Death-OK so wearing Death to a wedding is pretty Eros/Thanatos, so what. Death is beautiful, heavy and serious. Again it's pretty strong but it is oh so formal. Asphodel-great floral, I get an icy componant out of it but that is just me. Dirty-Something like the Estee Lauder Linen sort of smell. Just screems ultra thin wimmen who talk with lockjaw. Black Opal-Very musk and the more sophisticated cousin to Pink Sugar. Nice, very nice. Snow White-Real similar to Le Must by Cartier but much much improved. Le Must had a Windex-like componant which Snow White assuredly lacks (thank God) and replaced by what I describe as a hyasinth. Smashing. Just my thoughts on the subject.

Yeah, the only candidates for a scent locket are those which you love the wet phase. Scent lockets actually keep the scents from drying except at a very slow rate (that's how they maintain the scent) but that means that the scents you put in them stay at the wet phase the entire time. So, that's what I learned about scent lockets. If you like the scent wet, use them. If you are in love with the dried phase, they won't be much help to you.