Thorne

My favorite Lunacy! One of my favorite BPAL scents of all time. In the bottle, it's a sweet, citrusy lemon burst, strong but not bitter at all. On my skin, the citrus fades quickly into a soft haze of creamy, delicious sugary vanilla rice pudding kind of smell. There's just a faint hint of the wood in the background, very very light. It's comforting and calming and fresh, so perfect for hot summer nights. Mad love for the ghosties!

Delicious! There's definitely a musk or an amber (or both - it actually reminds me of the base of Snake Oil) lurking around in here, and combined with the sweetness of the fruit, it's very sexy and strong.

Like everyone else says, this is some melon. Melon, melon, melon! Melon with a side of melon. Unfortunately, it also has this kind of high, searing chemically smell to it on my skin, so strong that I had to go wash it off.

Super rich buttered, salted sugary cake. Just so vile on me. Reminded me a lot of Midway. If buttery salty scents are your thing, you must try this, otherwise, I would give it a pass.

Delicious resinous and smoky sexiness. This might be what I want to smell like all the time, warm and rich and a little sweet. It lasts a long time on me too - I dabbed a little on last night to test and I could still smell it this morning when I woke up.

Oh, Lucretia, you sexy sexy bitch, you.

 

I was a little afraid of the violets in this blend, as they turn old-lady powdery on me, but here they are just purely sweet and light. Innocent, almost. But not quite. There is a warm round curve of vanilla, grounded with a resinous wood scent, like very fine, very expensive wooden furniture. And just for pure tangy deliciousness, there's a tart hint of mandarin orange. I want to lick my own arm, I smell so good.

Huh, I thought I had reviewed this. As far as scent goes, this is nearly pure lavendar to my nose. I love lavendar, so this is a good thing, but if you really don't like it, this blend may not be very peaceful for you.

 

As far as effectiveness...well, let's put it this way. The day I got this in the mail, I had a truly heinous day at work. I was just so glad to get home and away from the insanity for a while, but the stress and irritation was still clinging to me.

 

I sat at my dining room table, opened my TAL package, and took a sniff of Peace. Instantly - instantly! - I was calmer. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, and I swear it was like someone took a very soft mallet and thwacked me gently between the eyes. I wanted to fold up and take a nap right there. I couldn't, though, so I just stayed very still for a few moments, gathered my energy, and got up, feeling completely serene. This works tremendously well for me.

Oh, I had to order this one just for the name, people. It just arrived today, and I haven't had time to try it as a ritual oil, so this is a review of the scent only.

Brass Balls smells earthy and fresh, sort of like newly crushed green stems, or damp, shaded grass and soil. It has an astringent, metallic quality to it, but it's not unpleasant. It strongly reminds me of living things - warm furry animals and clean bedding, healthy plants and rich dirt.

I have a couple of presentations to do at school in the next few weeks, and I'm going to ask for a permanent extension of my temp status at work, so I'm planning on wearing/using Brass Balls for those, and I'll update with my take on the effectiveness of the oil. I was pretty stressed out from work when I came home, and just from sniffing this, I do feel calmer, so I suspect it will work beautifully.

ETA: I wore this for my presentation in a class I REALLY wanted to do well in. I felt very calm and confidant during my presentation, which is unusual for me, as I'm deathly afraid of public speaking of any kind. I'm pretty sure I aced not just the presentation, but the whole class, and as I was leaving, the teacher told me I was one of her favorite students.

This is my absolute go-to scent when I am grumpy, tired, or otherwise feeling low. It never fails to improve my mood. It's a bright lemony scent, with a soft powdery amber and maybe sandalwood base, and I think a touch of vetiver and honey for spice and sweetness.

 

As far as being effective, I have no "KAPOW I'm rich and happy now!" story. But since I've started wearing it, I've noticed that I'm noticably calmer, more even tempered, and all around more peaceful and happy. Cheerful, even, and I'm not generally known as a cheerful type (I'm not down in the dumps all the time, but I tend more towards seriousness and sarcasm than cheerfulness). And I did just get a promise of full-time summer employment and a school loan check. Neither were completely unexpected, but I'm going to count them anyway.

 

I don't ever want to be without a bottle of Milk & Honey, it makes me that happy.

Elegantly, divinely beautiful. This is almost purely sandalwood, amber, and honey on me, and I am absolutely ok with that.

 

When I was young, my father's best friend was from India, and we spent a lot of time at his apartment. I loved it there, because it always smelled so great, curry and incense and so different from most everywhere else I'd ever been. Khajuraho smells very much like the Indian incense he used to burn.

Wet, on: HOLY HONKYBISCUITS.

HA! Awesome.

 

Well, in one word, this scent is rich. Rich, sweet caramel. Rich, heavy tobacco. Rich, decadent coconut. Rich, exotic sandalwood. You could OD on this scent, if you weren't careful, but it would be one hell of a way to go. Deliciously, overwhelmingly swoonworthy.

This is gorgeous. Rich, almost spicy rose with lasting power over a soft, warm resiny base. The rose has almost a fruity quality, without being overly sweet. This is like a lovely fresh cut bowl of roses on an antique wooden table - perfectly beautiful in its simplicity.

This oil shocked the hell out of me. I ordered it because I wanted the full set of Elementals, but had no intention of really wearing it often, or liking it much. Aquatics simply do not work on me, ever.

 

And then there was Undine. Wow. This isn't a friendly scent, or a warm scent. It's a dark, cool, salty scent, deep and old and powerful. I was unprepared to wear this and feel like a goddess. I put it on and I feel elemental myself, like I have a tidal pull mere humans cannot understand or resist.

 

I won't wear it often - this isn't an everyday oil - but I will wear it. And when I do, watch out.

This had the same top note as Fire Eater did to me, something sharp like rubbing alcohol, something flamable. On the skin, it's a much softer scent than I expected, with some cinnamon and spice, but not too much. It's...rounded, somehow. And it dries to a sweet ambery resiny cloud, which I love. It's like a bright flash to start, then a steady flame, then warm cherry-red embers. Perfect!

I absolutely love this scent. It's lavender, yes, and lemongrass citrus fresh. It's clean without being at all soapy, like a very clear blue summer sky with the brightest, greenest grass under your feet.

 

I will also add that I've used this scent three times now to head off migraines. I can feel the headaches coming on, and I've been able to banish them with just a couple sniffs of Sylph, which is nothing short of pure magic to me. I'm going to cherish my bottle.

I love this. Love it. It's purely, sweetly comforting, so much so that I've been wearing it to bed the last couple nights. It's the same incense from Gypsy Queen that I loved so much, and it's only the incense. Just the quiet, soft smoke, with some sweet woody resin Love!

Sol is like pure liquid sunshine on my wrist. I put on two tiny swipes of the imp wand, and it feels like scent is pouring off my wrist. It's a strange scent, though, almost unclassifiable. It's a little sweet, like honey, but not. It's a little floral, like jasmine, but not. It's a little grassy, like...well, grass, but not. It's all those things, jumbled together and warm and strong, but more. I don't need a whole bottle of this, but I'm really glad I got to try it - I hope the other Celestials are as powerful and interesting.

Beaver Moon is just fun, man. It's happy, goofy - sweet cheerfulness in a bottle. It's a flirty wink and a swing in your hips kind of fun. Also, it makes me want to eat, like, a whole cake, which could be dangerous. Hee.

In the bottle, and wet on my skin, this is straight up cinnamon on me. It's a true spice cinnamon and not a candy cinnamon, but nothing more. After about an hour of drydown, the musk came out strongly on me, and I was afraid that was that. But then it morphed into a sweet, warm haze, vanilla, but not overwhelmingly so, with the barest whiff of cinnamon floating in it. Really beautiful, a soft, close-up skin scent.

 

I got no dragon's blood at all from it, and usually my skin makes DBR scents into nothing but dragon's blood, so I'm very relieved that it didn't appear for me.

Very light citrusy amber - a little like a softer version of House of Mirrors. I can't decide if I like it or not, but I'm going to hang onto the imp to try again in a couple weeks.

Holy perfumey bubblegum, Batman! The myrrh and amber do make a faint appearance after drydown, which I quite like, but I can't take the wet stage of this perfume.

I frequently get a "taste" of BPAL in my mouth, just from sniffing. And ususally it is a metallic kind of taste, especially from florals. I haven't had allergic reactions to many of the scents, though.

Fresh berries and greenery, with a little tiny bit of something warm and resiny underneath. There's some amber here, I think, in the drydown stage.

 

Slightly fruity, slightly earthy, slightly woody, entirely yummy. It's not as "bright" a berry as Wolf Moon or Bewitched, in my opinion; it's more subdued, deep forest berries - hard to find, but worth it.

Wow, that is some orchid! And, yes, I smell ylang ylang too, which gives the super sweet orchid some sharpness. It comes on insanely strong, but fades to a lovely soft warm floral pretty quickly - within 15 minutes or so, on my skin.

 

On a personal note, it kind of reminds me of my grandmother - not in an "ewwww! old lady smell!" kind of way, though. When she was in her 50s and 60s, my grandmother was a woman of adventure, taking many trips every year to exotic locations - Hawaii, Tahiti, the Alps, Africa...this reminds me of the way she smelled then, completely confident, feminine, adventurous, and a little wild...but still my grandmother. Exotically comforting, if that makes any sense.

This is lovely. It's similar to Persephone without the tart pomegranate, all sweet roses and wine, with the glowing red richness of dragon's blood to round it out.