RainyDayGrey

In the bottle: it does smell like dirt, but it smelled more like I would expect a comercial dirt smelling perfume to smell like, good but kind of blah. On: Yeah, no worries here this just needs a little body heat and all of a sudden its wonderful dirty dirt. The best kind of dirt too, the rich dark fertile kind you want to plant your seeds in. It was like I was in the garden elbow deep in dirt on a Sunday afternoon instead of sitting on my coutch watching The Apprentice on a Thursday evening.

In the bottle: flowers, and something green in the back, like grass or leaves. Wet: jasmine city! I can still smell the nice spring flowers and green, but the jasmine comes out as the predominate note once this hits my skin. It only last for about five minutes before it settles down and blends back with all the other scents. Drydown: OMG it's gorgeous! Once the jasmine goes away you can't pick out any one flower, it just smells like spring! It smells like sunshine, fresh air, green leaves and spring flowers. This is spring in all it's glory. It's the most perfect scent for this time of year, and i don't usually say this about florals, but I think it will be perfect for summer too. It's so subtle on the skin, not over powering or cloying at all. It's just, well, perfect. Overall: I ordered this oil because I love Beltane, but some time between ordering it and it actually arriving in my mailbox I had started to wish I had ordered Hexennacht instead. I decided that if I didn't fall absolutely bonkers in love with it I was going to try and swap it for Hexennacht. Yeah, it's not going anywere. It really is amazing. It's my new #1 spring scent.

In the bottle: Wow, thick vicious pine is right. Thats about all I smell and it is strong! We're talking clear your sinuses strong. I probably could have smelled Black Forest through a bad head cold. Wet: Fresh on this smells the same as in the bottle, superstrong pine. And if you're imagining pine sol, stop, this smells like you where rolling pine needles between your fingers. And while I may enjoy the PINE phase, I wasn't to sure what those closest to me would think. Dry down: Once this starts to dry down it stops being super pine. It's still there in the back ground, with all the other tree scents, but suprisingly it didn't end up being the top note in Black Forest. I'm not to familiar with ambergris, but I'm guessing thats the sweet scent that rises to the top. It's not a sweet like I've ever smelled before. It's not sticky, or sickly, or sugary, it's a dark, evil kind of sweet (if you can imagine that sort of thing ). Whatever it is, I like it alot. I wish the Lab still did single notes, because I would love to smell it on it's own. Over all: At first sniff I really thought this was going to be a super strong, knock people down, kapowey pine (sorry, dorky, but I couldn't resist), but it mellows down and blends together beautifully with the other notes. And while ambergris may be the note I end up smeilling the strongest, it's still a very dark foresty blend. I love it. If you have fantasies about dark, wild lord of the forest types, definatly pick up some Black Forest. I wasn't sure if I would like this one or not. I really waffled over weather to order it, but in the end curiosity got the better of me. Truth is I've been looking for a good foresty/evergreen tree type of scent for ages. I grew up very near a forest, in fact I live very near one now, and I love the smell of evergreen trees. The problem is that all of the comercially produced foresty scents I've smelled (usually in the form of christmas candles) have all been super synthetic and pungent smelling. Not nice at all, I'd really given up all hope that I would find something that I truly loved. If I hadn't known that Beth uses 100% natural ingredients I probably wouldn't have bothered. I love Black Forest. This is the true smell of trees, there is nothing fake about this at all. I'm really glad that the weather took a head dive this week so I can enjoy my Black Forest properly. I think this will become a winter scent. Alot of scents are very sesonal to me, and Black Forest practically screams Winter.

I ordered R'Lyeh for my huge Lovecraft fan husband. I had no idea I would like it so darned much. In the bottle: water, clear, cold refreshing water. Not salty ocean wather though, this reminds me more of a rushing river than a tangy ocean spray. Wet: all sweet fresh water. Ok this was not how I expected this to smell. It's very nice though. Drydown: Wow, this did a complete 180 in the dry down. It does become more of a salty tangy ocean scent. It's got a touch of masculinity to it, but not so much that it would scare me away from wearing it. In the extreme drydown it morphs back into that sweet fresh water smell. This is definatly the most aquatic blend I've sniffed so far. The rest of the watery blends I've had all have varying degrees of floral to them, this one is all water to me. I didn't smell any of the grapefruit others have mentioned either. Now I don't know what to do. Like I said I ordered it for the hubby, but damn I really like this. We could share, but he thinks BPAL blends are too strong on thier own for his tastes and has requested that I dilute all of his down before he wears them, I find that a little blasphemous, but whatever. The thought of dumping this particular imp of the precious in a bunch of perfumers alcohol though seriously makes me want to weep. Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't like it as much as I do.

Ahhhh, Bella, you are my freaking hero! Thank you so much. OMG Hexennacht is so cute, just one more reason to kick myself for not ordering a bottle.

I have two imps of Wanda. One brand spankin new fresh from the Lab and one older one that I snagged off of Live Journal. They smell completely diffrent on me, so I'm reviewing them both. I slathered one on each wrist so I could sniff and compare at the same time. In the bottle: Fresh Wanda smells like wine, with leather peeking out underneath. Me likey very much. Old wanda smells like wine too, but wine thats been sitting out to long and gone sour, no leather at all. Wet: The leather note in fresh Wanda comes out strong when I put it on, dominating the wine scent, though the wine is still there and powerfull. Old Wanda has a fleeting moment where it smells like grape Kool-Aid, before morphing back into sour wine, or fruit that has started to rot. Not nice, at all. Dry down: As fresh Wanda starts to dry down the florals start to make an appearance. Luckily for me it's mostly the roses and myrtle. For about the first two hours this smells like wine spilled over leather in the hieght of passion, gorgeous flowers and hot sex (without smelling like body fluids, in case you were worried ). Seriously, Wanda is one sexy blend. It reminds me very much of hot passionate lovin, the kind that leaves you completely floppy and mindblown afterward. The best sex of your life kinda sex, and all the things that go with it. It's not particulary long lasting on me, though. It pretty quickly turns into a nice skin scent, and then eventually into a very faint baby powder. The violets finally making them selves known I sapose. Fortunatly it's not strong enough to make me hate it alltogether or give me a headache (I freaking hate baby powder). Old Wanda on the other hand is just more sour wine/bad fruit, no flowers, no leather. In the end it just goes super sweet. Not to worry, I'll just have to use up my imp fairly quickly and never order more than an imps worth at a time.

OMG, must have a Panacea bottle. Don't care wich one, so purdy. *goes into drooling zombie mode* Paaaaanacea! Ok and seriously *taps foot impaitently* Beltane and Hexennacht bottles, I must know what they look like! *whine*

In the bottle: Yummy berries and a bit of green tea. Wet: God this is so good. The berries and the tea and sage are perfectly balanced. They don't even smell like they are blended together. More like a cup of green tea sitting next to a bowl full of juicy ripe summer berries. Dry down: At first this is so fresh that it was like there was no musk at all, but eventually it comes up and just enriches the berries and the greeness with out smelling musky. I wouldn't have minded a stronger musk note at all, but this is nice. After about four or five hours the green notes kind of fade away leaving a nice juicy berry smell. I'm loving bewitched, especially since the weather has been warm. It's a gorgeous summery scent. I will definatly think about getting a bottle of this.

Haha, I realized later on that I did indeed spell it wrong, but was to lazy to come back and correct it. What the hell I think I will leave it that way.

Ok, I haven't seen them mentioned yet, and I know that a few lucky folks have gotten some from Black Broom. I want to know what the Beltane and Hexenaught (geez I hope I spelled that right) bottles look like. Not that I ordered a bottle of Hexenaught, which I am now kicking myself over. I think the pine note turned me off, but I've since discovered that beths evergreen notes aren't caca.

I've no clue what victorian spices consist of, but Lucy's Kiss didn't smell the least bit spicy to me. Instead it smelled like a very old fashioned rose perfume. I could totally imagine a victorian era lady wearing this. It doesn't smell like sniffing a fresh rose out in the garden either, more like a rose that some one dried and keeps in a box full of special things. It strikes me as very romantic, but in a tragic sort of way. Like feelings of intese love and passion, turned into sorrow. It's utterly gorgeous, and damn it's some strong stuff. It doesn't help that I'm a slatherer I'm sure, but I smelled Lucy's Kiss every time I moved all day long, and could smell it on my pillow when I wok up this morning.

I was wearing Whip out in the yard recently and the bees really seemed to dig it. It wasn't cute little honey bees either, but big old yellow jackets. Of course we have a nest somewhere in the yard, so there are a ton of them out there anyway, and bees have always seemed to like me. Regardless, I won't be wearing any heavy rose blends out in the yard any more. I guess it will be embalming fluid the next time I take the kids out to play.

A sinister, darkly seductive scent inspired by poetry of Charles Baudelaire. Violet entwined with vanilla and gardenia. In the vial: Baby powder, seriously, strait up Johnsons baby powder. I loathe, detest, hate, hate, hate the smell of baby powder. But in the interest of reviewing I slather some on one wrist anyway. Wet: For the first few minutes this remains baby powder, but as it starts to warm up on my skin the vanilla starts to come out. I love vanilla, but it's burried under a deep layer of, can you guess? Baby powder. Drydown: The vanilla dies a quick death and it's all baby powder, baby powder, baby powder. I've had it on for about an hour now, and I give up, it's starting to give me a headache. Must wash this off. I'm PMS'ing hardcore right now, I think my hormones are screwing this one up pretty bad. I'll give it another shot later in the month.

In the bottle: I could definatly smell the rose, and something sharp and green in the back ground. I couldn't remeber the notes when I sniffed this in the bottle this morning. But I was a little scared to put it on. Wet: The sharp green thing I smelled in the vial starts to take over when first applied to my skin. Luckily it's very short lived and the rose comes up. Drydown. After about 15 minutes of wear the orchid comes out as the dominant note on my skin. I had read the notes by then and was guessing that the Labdanum was what was giving it such a sharp green bite in the bottle and when first applied. So I looked it up and found out it was a resin, that's saposed to smell like every thing from moss to leather. So yeah I'm thinking thats definatly where the bite was coming from. This turns in to a really lovely orchid/rose scent with something deep and green in the background giving a bit of somberness to an other wise soft and delicate floral. It pretty much stays that way untill it starts to wear off, at which point it becomes a soft rose with a faint orchid base. It lasts for a pretty long time, and has excelent throw on me. As this one started to dry down, it reminded me strongly of my aunt. I'm thinking she must wear an orchid heavy perfume. I've never really given much though to her perfume, but the first thing I thought of when the orchid started to come up was hugging her, so that was really nice. This was the first of Beth's blends that has evoked strong memories of someone I love, so I had to throw that in there.

in the bottle: Honeysuckle and jasmine. I love honeysuckle, and it plays so well with jasmine, the two really smell beautifull together. This reminds me alot of New Orleans. But where New Orleans is a more sophisticated and rich smelling scent, Eos is young and playfull and a bit sweeter than New Orleans.

In the bottle, and when first applied Bayou is very floral. As it dries down the aquatic notes really come out. It ends up smelling very watery and flowery and just a touch mossy. I didn't get any evergreen or cypress, which was a bit of a disapointment since I would have loved that, but it's such a beautiful blend that I love to wear it.

In the bottle Whip is all roses, but it smells just like the description on me. Heavy on the rose and light on the leather. I really like whip. I schlepped my imp box over to the mother in laws and suprisingly she really liked Whip too. In an effort to enable I ended up giving her my imp. Considering how much I like it, and that she isn't one of my favorite people I though that was pretty darned generous of me, but now I need to get more.

In the imp: yep honeyed almonds, all honey and almond. Wet: when I first get this on the almond starts turning super sweet as almond likes to do on my skin, fortunatly it only lasts a few minutes. Actually Queen of Sheeba wasn't as bad as some of the other almond blends I've tried. Dry down: Ok Queen of Sheeba just went wierd on me. On the dry down I got powdery almonds instead of honeyed, and a few hours later, musk Musk isn't listed as one of the notes, but yep, musk. Weird. Anyway I don't think the Queen and I get along so well. I've tried it twice now and it wasn't good either time. ETA: Ok that makes it sound like I don't like musk, I do, alot actually. I did not like the powdery almond phase though, the musk isn't to bad. But as I can just go buy a good musk blend why bother with the yucky phase.

There are also reviews for them in the discontinued section of the reviews. They have thier own sub forum up top.

In the bottle- rose, with something lurking in the background. Wet- this one does strange things on my skin while wet. It's still predominatly rose, but it's a salty slightly alchol tinged rose. Dry down- fortunatly it dries down really pretty on me. The moonflower really enhances the rose nicely, though rose is mainly what I smell. The other notes just enhance it's lovelyness. It envoke images of a dew covered rose shimering in the moonlight. Dry- after a while something light and aquatic comes out, almost making it more of an aquatic scent than a rose scent. And then it all but disapears into a light powder. Overall- while I really like this one, it's probably my least favorite rose blend so far. I really like my rose loud and in your face, which it is in the begining, but it dries down into a very understated gentle rose blend. I'm sure my imp will come in handy though for those times I want to smell rosey, but not a kapow kind of rosey.

Mmmm, I like me some Sudha Segara. It's milky, honey, gingery goodness in the imp, and on my skin. It's sweet but not sweeeeeeeet, and the milk and honey notes keeps the ginger from smelling antiseptic (which in my opinion fresh ginger does). I really do love this blend, but I couldn't tell you what it's like after hours of wear because it's my bedtime blend and it's usually worn off by morning (which is perfect so I can apply something else). Not that I would never wear this one in the light of day, I just find it sutch a soothing comforting blend that it's perfect for lulling me into dreamland, and as I only have an imp at the moment, I'm saving it for that purpose.

In the bottle- mmmmm, cinnamon! Wet- mostly cinnamon, though I can smell the clove in the background. Dry down- the clove comes out strongly on me on dry down, with the cinnamon in the background enhancing the cloves sweet spiciness. I don't really get any pepper at all. Was there any doubt that I would love Three Witches? Well, as the girl who likes to get into the spice cupboard just to smell the cloves, not really. I love it so mutch I want to have it's little spicy babies. I imagine they would look like little cinnamon sticks with clove eyes, little button clove noses and a sprinkling of white pepper freckles. I really hope they are reformulating because I would be really sad if I could never have any more of this.

The springiest blends I've tried so far: Alice- Light slightly sweet floral Danube- fresh watery and lightly floral Endymion- fresh clean white floral Persephone- juicy sweet rose The Unicorn- a little sweet, a little herby and a little floral, very clean fresh scent Blood Countess- Juicy and fruity and just a little bit floral Eos- Honeysuckle just screams spring and summer to me New Orleans- see Eos Embalming Fluid- fresh clean and citrusy I don't like really heavy florals when the weather is warm, they are just to mutch. I like them better in small doses when they are cut with something else. Unless it's a good honeysuckle blend (I do love the honeysuckle). Usually any thing really clean smelling, watery or fruity are ideal warm weather blends to me.

Holy crap, yep this is leather all right. Wet it smelled like a brand new black leather jacket, and dried down into well worn leather (kind of neat how it did that actually). I was really curious to see if Beth really captured the scent of leather, and by golly she did. I'm in awe here.

The first time I tried Eclipse it went over like a lead balloon. My skin decided to take the frankinscense amp it up to maximum volume, turn the almond it to sticky sweet cherry hard candy and kick every thing else out. I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my Black Phoenix review how not thrilled with this one I was. Made me kind of sad because when every one else describes it it sounds so yummy. Damn skin chemistry anyway, but after reading that some people have vastly diffrent experiences with some blends depending on what time of the month it is, and I did try it out right before I got my period I decided to give it another try. In the bottle- Almond, with just little bitty wiffs of cinnamon. Wet- Pew, there goes that cherry hard candy again, I mean it's so sweet and cherry candy the only word I can use to describe it is sharp. Dry down: After about five minutes it stats to change into something yummy. The almond mellows out, the cinnamon and vanilla come up to give it a spicy creamy kick, and the frankinscense gives it a nice smokiness. Now this I like. It stays that way for hours, eventually the frankinscense and almond almost disapear completely and it's mostly cinnamon and vanilla dancing around on my skin. I am so glad I gave this another chance! It's a very red foody scent to me. I just love it (but will be sure to avoid the hell out of it while expecting the monthly invasion).