Medici

In the bottle: HONEYDEW MELON! Note: Get a napkin. It's super juicy. Drydown: HONEYDEW MELON! It's ripe and fresh and sweet and delicious. After two minutes I get this insane, jibbering, bubblegum rush of sweetness, then it calms down a little allowing for the florals to settle in. After five minutes there is a hint of green - just a wee iddy bitty bit - like melon rind or like... cantaloupe. After ten minute I swear I get watermelon, but that's just my chemistry doing funny things. Verdict: I NEED A 10ML. 5/5 on Medici's Scale o' Love If you like Fruit Moon or Fee - bypass the imp and go straight to a bottle. You will not regret it.

...A gossamer scent, as light as a spider’s footfall, touched with sighing mists: pallid flowers, dusty woods and soft herbs. I have had this imp for the longest time, and... I never reviewed. Wow. I think this was actually from my very first purchase over a year ago. In the imp: Soapy fruit! Oh dear... this imp might be very old indeed... Wet: Salon Selectives Shampoo from 1992. I sh*t you not. It's a fruity-floral that is really powdery. No herbs as of yet have come round. Drydown: It gets a little herby, and only a little, as it wears. It is predominantly a powdery, sweet to the point of being cloying floral on me. Fifteen minutes in and it smells like shampoo again. Verdict: Not my steez. Off to the swap with you! (Edited to add description.)

In the imp: Lemon on the top, neroli on the bottom. Initial Impact: Sharp citrus getting bogged down by the floral. (Is neroli a flower? For some reason I always thought it was... though I don't find it to smell particularly floral. La la la la!) Wet: Lemon verbena dominating. It makes my nose tingle. There's a green edge to it, too - floral right below that. Drydown: Green tea is out as the lemon verbena takes the backseat. (My nose is still tingling.) Jasmine peeks out just a little to sweeten things up. Mmm. Very nice, and surprisingly fresh-smelling. I can totally see this as a good addition to any decent Spring lineup for the seasoned collector. Verdict: Me, on the other hand... I think I prefer straight lemon (Spirits of the Dead, June Gloom) to lemon verbena. It makes me want to sneeze.

In the imp: Old lady perfume! Ok, no, that's an exaggeration... white musk? Something creamy like vanilla maybe? Gosh, there's somehing on top of those two but I can't place it. Wet: Again, white musk and vanilla, and something else that is making me insane! Drydown: Damn damn damn what IS that? Ok - let's break it down here: creamy base, slight sweetness but not at all cloying, something distinctly "perfumy" to it, maybe just the barest hint of some unrecognizable floral note to my untrained nose. Verdict: I like it. I think it's maddening, but I like it. I do, however, prefer Antique Lace. To my nose, it seems like these two are in the same family - Black Opal is just a shade darker, though, and doesn't carry the overt musk phase of AL. It's more like a subdued musk phase that goes creamy almost instantly.

In the imp: Oooooooh hello tea rose! Hello lily! I LIKE you! Wet: Lily and tea rose rock my socks. It's a nice, sweet touch to a floral that usually finds a happy home in "colder" blends. I am a huuuuuuge calla lily fan, OMG. Drydown: Violet peeks through, blending nicely with the aforementioned, and followed quickly by a very calm chamomile. It gets a bit sterile at this point, as lily usually does with my chemistry, but that's something I particularly like. The question is, will this usurp The Ghost as "the lily blend?" Verdict: Oh dear, I don't know. I quite like this, actually. I'm going to hold onto my imp for a stretch - its the sweeter, more innocent sister to The Ghost on me, and without the greenery. Very nicely done.

In the imp: Predominantly a floral sharpened by lemon... for a second I was thinking geranium, but that's definitely not it. It's lemon at second whiff. Wet: Ok, geranium again - which makes no sense. It's a sharp floral, no lemon, no rose. Drydown: My chemistry is off this week, totally. Floral and vanilla below that. It's got a creamy white base to it which I would appreciate, were it not so overtly flowery. Verdict: It's definitely an interesting blend, but its just not me.

In the imp: Num num num violet and tonka! Wet: Violent violet, bit of greenery underneath and... dry earth? Wierd. Drydown: Violent violet again. It's pretty much set the pace for this blend and I can't get away from it. I might have to revist later to see if any of the other notes would like to pay me a visit. Verdict: Undecided. ADDED Oct. 4: Wet: Violet and… vanilla? It’s a little creamy. Drydown: It’s the tonka. It’s going all play doh on my wrist. Woe of the woes. It might be anything “Mediterranean” actually – since Athens does the exact same thing. This also gives me the same impression, dry, washed-out shores and a hint of sun-dried spice.

In the imp: What? Cooking spice and floral? Wet: Floral and... damn, what is that? My guess is I'm getting tulip and the previously mentioned coriander, because this is a really strange spiced floral... strange in a really good way though. Drydown: Spices are amping up, again, you could beat me over the head and I couldn't tell you what exactly it is that's making my nose tingle but its doing so very nicely. For a second I thought I got a touch of cinnamon, but my arm's not burning, so that's not a possibility. Verdict: I like it, even if I have no idea what's in it. Everything sort of fuses together on me. It's definitely a summer blend, though - for anyone who appreciates floral with a kick; two thumbs up.

In the vial: Cherries and sweet almond! Wet: Cherries and sweet almond. Drydown: Cherries and sweet almond and bubblegum. Verdict: Fairly consistent, fairly sweet - too sweet, in fact, for my tastes. After about five minutes it goes into its bubblegum phase which, while I think its kinda fun, I'd rather Aunt Carolyn and her Joy Mojo (strawberry hubba bubba) instead of cherry bubblegum.

In the imp: Bouf! Who spilled the wine?! It smells distinctly boozy, nevermind the fact that there's no booze in the blend. I'll call that grape note here. Wet: Grape and rosemary, sharp herbal undertone kicking in. Drydown: Kinda sharp, herby-floral, a little too white and too "perfumy" at the point for me to jump for joy. If asked for a colour association, I'd give it a white green, but a hard white/green since the sharp underside isn't tapering off quickly enough for my liking. I do detect the barest hint of lavender, though. It takes about three minutes to soften, and my skin to gobble it up. I'm left with plastic flowers. Verdict: While I like foral/herby, usually, Bess and I were not meant to be.

In the imp: Pink popsicle! Wet: Pink posicle, slightly melted. Definitely a fruity overtone, though not explicitly so... it's more of a manufactured fruity. Drydown: Floral and fading fast. It lightens to a soft pink, rather sweet, but then its up and gone in a matter of seconds. Verdict: Too sweet, too fast, and not my cuppa.

In the imp: Smokey cocoa underscored with a barely-there floral. Wet: Cocoa and flowers. Dry: Cocoa and playdoh. (Woe!) There's a touch of incense, and if I turn my wrist a little "the other way" I get something herbal, but only for a second. It's mostly chocolate-scented playdoh though.

Thanks, love. I think I'm with everyone else when I say that I can't wait to see what the underpants Monster looks like.

Does anyone know if the new additions to Excolo (the Orisha in particular) have fancy shmancy labels?

Mmmm: Persephone, Dublin, THE GHOST, Bayou (when it rains - also a favourite rainy summer day scent), Queen Mab, Phantom Queen

Legend: Fenris Wolf: to me is brown brown Blood Moon: Red Brown Red Phoenix: Red Red Sin: brown Samhain: Brown/ochre Bordello: Red/violet Smut: Red/Brown Dracul: Red/brown Montresor: Burnt red/violet Snake Oil: Brown with a strip of creamy beige Haunted Palace: Brown, flecked with gold Hellfire: Brown/black Helle's Belle: Light Brown/gold Grandmother of Ghosts: brown brown brown grey brown black brown Alright, so this isn't BPAL, but when I think red brown I also think of Arcana's Burlesque. (Don't hurt me!) Edited: Best slip of the finger yet. Spelled "Snake Oil" as "Snail Oil"

Scarecrow and Devil's Night - both autumny, though.

Pink: Aunt Carolyn's Joy Mojo, Pink Phoenix, Pink Moon (The last two if you can find them. I find Aunt Carolyn and Pink Phoenix to be fairly close scent-wise.) Sweet Tooth Foody: Beaver Moon, Spooky (If you can find them) Syrupy: Gluttony Sugar Sugar Carmelized Sugar: Sugar Skull (LE again), Trick or Treat (LE), Gluttony

Anything with Lavender placates that particular savage beast. (Especially the "Mood Swing Beast.")

Lady Macbeth. The purplest of purple. And Midnight and Nocturne (GC, not TAL.)

*snaps fingers* Good call. I'm going to check the rerviews and do a little decant hunting. Thanks!

I had my first "experience" with Artemis a few days back, and since, as far as I know BPAL doesn't have a blend aligned specifically for Artemis (or her roman counterpart, Diana, for that matter) I'm looking to find a comparable oil. Simply put, I'm looking for blends aligned with athletic or warrior goddesses/women... excluding all aspects of the Morrigan. My mythology knowledge is fairly good, but there are things in the catalogue that really are beyond me. Help?

Thanks. Have both, though (with Oya on order). I was thinking along the lines of virginal goddesses, though.

As if I didn't spam my livejournal enough... Well, let this be the grand old introduction to Lucialand. Lucia de'Medici is my penname, and has been for about three years now. I stumbled into BPAL through a friend from the Harry Potter fandom, and like most good things, the hobby escalated quickly into obsession. Such is the course of good things sniffable. I'm very big on Lush, though not active on the Lush boards, as well as Villainess, Arcana, Dark Candles, GothRosasary and DarkSwan. As mentioned, I'm active in the Harry Potter fandom and especially in the Dark Fiction arena - you won't get any of that here, since my writing frequently runs gamboling into splatterpunk, and quite frankly, I don't want to upset anyone with my passion for psychological trauma. I reserve my indiscriminate habits for my LJ. I'm 24 and a Design Major from Montreal, currently finishing my second year Bachelor at Concordia University. I specialize in Web and Print design, but once in a while I fiddle with applied, three dimensional design (more often it's because I absolutely have to.) I'm presently procrastinating. I've got a project due tomorrow which wouldn't get done even if I tried. Accordingly, I've resorted to watching Jackass on teevee. There's the intro: wrapped up neatly. P.S. I spilled (for the first time and last time ever - knock on wood) a fair dollop of Bearded Lady on my sweatpants this evening while decanting. I don't know whether I should laugh at my sheer stupidity or cry at the loss of the precious.

In the bottle: This is where I rub my hands together gleefully. House of Night is one of my ranking favourites and has been for several months now. Bully me for not writing a review sooner. In the bottle - sobered florals, an undercarriage of something a bit woody, the ghost of something that would lend to just a touch of sweet and a touch of tart. Wet: Love! My love! Perfect balance of shaded, night bloomers, snipped and wilting and laid out over a park bench that is cooling as twilight takes over. There's a woody base to this which lets the blend settle nicely. Drydown: Florals come up, sweetening it slightly. Just slightly/ For me its just sweet enough, and with that dry, woodsy note centering the blend, this is probably why its one of my favourites. It's exceptionally well-balanced. Verdict: I have a 5ml but I want a 10ml. 5/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurrrrve