Morrighana

*dies*

I did not expect this one to be SO FUCKING GOOD. I'm used to ordinary clove, I guess, and not sweet clove, but...wow. I almost can't believe that this is a single note!

So spicy, but without that sinus-clearing force that some very spicy sniffs carry, and still sweet enough to be wearable without people thinking you've had a cooking mishap. Very nice.

I don't like peaches. Never have; doubful I ever will.

I love this singlenote.

It is all of the wonderful appetizing sweetness of the ripest peach you've ever laid eyes on without the nastiness of having to eat it! Utterly gorgeous.

In the bottle, this is so sweet and lovely that I almost changed my mind about Ylang Ylang entirely! I'm crap at describing singlenotes, but to me, it smelled like a cool, sweet, citrus version of...gingerbread cookies? I know that makes no sense, but there you go.

On my skin, it morphs into a much more recognizable (to me, anyway) Ylang Ylang scent---herbal, tangy, and generally yellow-green. I still like it a LOT better than every other Ylang Ylang scent I've sniffed, as it's not...acrid...like most of them, but it's not a favorite in the end. Also, my skin eats Ylang Ylang up like it's going out of style, and I can't even catch a whiff after about two minutes. Oh well.

Even on my skin, I get such a wholly Cedar smell from the Red Sandalwood that I might've actually doubted that it had been labeled properly had Ladylatemar not mentioned the woody smell too! I also get a little bit of the spicy/powdery scent that she mentioned, but the wood is still very much there.

My skin seems to like to amplify wood scents, though, and I do not particularly like wood scents, , so I'm a little biased here, but I didn't really like it. It won't make me shy away from blends that contain Red Sandalwood, though, given Beth's genius!

Beth&Co gifted me with a handful of singlenotes in one of my recent orders , and this was the first that I tried.

It immediately surprised me how very true this scent is, and at the same time, how much better it is than any of the pears I've ever encountered! Crisp is certainly the word for it, and cool, but it still has the sweetness of a perfectly ripened fruit.

Most excellent.

I accidentally got Chimera on my lip once---no, I wasn't trying to drink the oil, I swear!---and, like your experience, it really, REALLY hurt. I can wear it on the rest of me, though, without problems, so it's not really a big deal.

If you still want to perfume your cleavage, you might want to try mixing a little Follow Me Boy into some unscented lotion and using that instead. It won't be as strong, thus it will not irritate so much, or, likely at all.

The only time I've re-used an imp, it was for the same scent that originally came in it, so there was no chance of scent contamination. Also, I did let the person know that it was an old imp.

In the bottle: Sniffing my imp, I could swear that there is a sweet melon note in this one, but as nobody else has mentioned it, it is entirely possible that I am just mislabeling one of the other notes. In any case, it is underscored by a soft, sweet spice, a dash of orange, and a faint herbal note. The combined effect makes me want to drink my impful of oil!

On my skin: Red Devil quickly deepens into a dark, lush herbal scent. The cinnamon is still prominent, but it never really becomes the focal point; instead, it supports and accents the herbal base. The melon-esque note is still present, but it alternates ducking behind and soaring above the spicy herbal notes.

Overall: This has immediately landed on my MUST HAVE 5mL list. It is soft and understated, to be sure, but the darkness of the herbal notes lends Red Devil an edgy, powerful undercurrent that is utterly irresistible! I've yet to test its effect on others, but in my own reactions I can certainly see evidence of the truth in Beth's statement of purpose for this blend!

In the bottle, and Wet on my skin: Oh crap. It's that damn cedar again! Out of the bottle this one smells *just* like Cathedral to me. But, I'm going to wait it out, because that one calmed down quite nicely, and hopefully this one will too.

Drydown: Is that...mint? Couldn't be. The cedar is still predominant, but there is a lighter, fresher feel behind it than there was in Cathedral. As the cedar receeds just a tad, I think I'm smelling the saffron there too, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm not getting any of the spices at this point, either.

Dry: I think my nose is playing tricks on me, but I'm still getting a cedar/mint blend. I can detect the lotus now, but it is soft, in the background, supporting the cedar and keeping its sharpness in check.

Overall: Surprisingly enough, to me anyway, I like this blend. It's actually quite nice, but I don't think it is something I would wear. It could be quite a lovely room scent, though, as someone mentioned earlier.

Edited to add: About an hour after my initial application, the cedar has moved to the background, allowing a delicate wisp of lotus to slip out in front. The scent still carries the feel of mint, to me anyway, but it isn't as predominant as before. Not a bad thing, at all. In fact, I think I'll have to try this again before I discount it as a personal scent.

sheh -pa-zon- ae

is how I would have pronounced it...does that sound right???

 

A linguistics major..how cool Morrighana! What languages are you studying?Are you a Virgo by the way..   I can be very picky about that kind of thing to ...its a Virgo thing

Nah, I'm a Pisces. I probably have some Virgo in my chart somewhere, though.

I'm currently studying German, and hope to do French as well, but my degree will focus on English, I think.

As far as Szepasszony:

It would be: Say - pass - son. The ssz is simply a double sz, so you don't add an English-esque z sound there, but you do repeat the s sound. The ny is one character...the sound is hard to describe, but it's like you were going to say son - ee, but you stop just before pronouncing the ee.

You were close, though!

the sound is hard to describe, but it's like you were going to say son - ee, but you stop just before pronouncing the ee.

that is hard to describe, but you did a good job!

 

my family is Hungarian and my mom guesses Szepasszony is pronounced:

 

zhea-pash-ohn with the emphasis on the first syllable.

 

thats not entirely correct but I'll get her to repeat it and edit this later. I'm a bad girl and didnt learn much of my home language.

My family is Hungarian, too!

Continuing on the pronunciation:

There may be a dialectic difference between pronouncing the consonant sz as versus [zh]...if there is, I'd love to hear about it! (I'm a lingusitics major, can you tell?)

I use the oxymoron that is MSWorks for mine.

My categories are:

Name

Category

Sizes owned

Like/Dislike

Buy More?

Comments

Status (swap list, to be tested, permanent collection, etc)

Reviewed?

and Travel (To or from whom)

I my spreadsheet.

I still think they are pure...that's one of the reasons Beth sells carriers on the site, so that if you are sensitive to a particular oil/all oils, you can dilute.

I don't think BPAL uses a carrier. I think the one year approximation for shelflife is taking into account things like blend stability...

It's really easy, Diabolique---and don't worry about sounding silly! You can't find out if nobody tells you, right?

To order using paypal, you just tally up the amount you owe for everything you're buying, plus the shipping amount (If you're local, just use CCNOW to tally and then hit the "pay and finish" thing to get your shipping amount...if you're international you have to get a quote from the Lab or use the shipping template Nella posted). Then, send that amount with a note detailing everything that you are ordering to paypal at blackphoenixalchemylab dot com. And Voila, you're done!

It really is easy, and it helps the Lab in that Paypal doesn't charge nearly as much in fees per transaction as CCNOW.

Diabolique-it will say the same thing forever and a day. It doesn't change when the Lab ships it.

Snake Oil layered with Bloodlust is quite amazing, IMHO. It's hard to describe exactly what the combination smells like on me, as there are SO many notes, but overall it is sweeter than either on their own (but not too sweet) and lighter/cheerier than Bloodlust on its own, but more resinous and spicy than Snake Oil on its own.

I would certainly recommend giving it a go!

Those little change of address cards are actually quite effective. Make sure you fill one out right away, and it'll get to you pretty much on time. That's the one department of Canada Post that is actually efficient and doesn't scew up much, lol.

There was a post around here somewhere about which scents had the greatest effect on the sexes (of all scents, not just BPALs) and the thing that I remember being the most effective with guys is the foody scents.

From your list, I'd say that Dana O'Shee, O, Snake Oil (this one I can personally back up, as I've tried it and it really gets noticed!), Hellcat, and possibly Black Phoenix would be the ones I'd reccomend you try first for this purpose. I don't know all of the scents' notes offhand, though, so there may be a couple that you can add to this list.

Basically anything that smells like food gets a nice nose-to-groin response!

In the Bottle and Wet: Fresh, cool, lovely. The mint and lime are certainly present in the wet stage.

Dry: The lavender reigns supreme once more! Now, if you like lavender, this will be great on you. Personally, I don't like lavender as a perfume. In bath products, Envy would be amazing. Envigorating and refreshing, it really is lovely.

Initial: Mmm...minty. Very promising.

Wet to Dry: Unfortunately, the lovely mint is gradually taken over by the lavender. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing! It turns into quite a nice, herbal scent---it's just not what I am looking for in a perfume. I wish the mint had stayed to play a bit more; that would've made it a great summer scent for me. That said, it would still make a great spring/summer scent for someone else!

I haven't worn this one in a long while, but I feel guilty putting it up for swap without giving my $0.02 here, so:

Unseelie is a gorgeously sweet, fresh scent in the bottle, but it turns to complete baby powder on my skin. I could certainly see using it for kick-ass body and bath products, if I made that sort of thing, but it's not the kind of perfume I would actually wear on a day to day basis.

This is my second favorite Dragon's Blooded scent, the first being Bloodlust, of course. The two scents are like sisters: one raven haired and latex clad, sexy as hell and lethal in word and deed; the other a stunning blond in a tight red dress, deceptively sweet and tantalizingly seductive. To me, Blood is the latter sister.

I can see how the clove might turn sharp on some people, but thankfully, on my skin the spice just adds warmth to the overall scent, rounding it out and keeping it from getting too sweet. Gorgeous.

Hmm...might have to go for that large bottle afterall...

My experience with Bacchanalia was similar to Xoe's, unfortunately. Usually, BPAL blends containing civet behave rather well on me, though, so I think that it may just be the concentration, not the ingredient, that is the problem. On my skin, Bacchanalia is probably about 90% civet and 10% angry musk, with no sign of grape or orange blossom.

I feel bad using this emoticon in a review, as I am 110% sure that this is the be-all-end-all of perfumes on someone else's skin, but it is a pretty good caricature of me wearing Bacchanalia:

The masculine blends and I really don't get along.

I think I am going to have to sniff this one just once more, to ensure that I am not crazy, because I really, really, really disliked it. So much so, in fact, that I had to wash it off right away, although I waited as long as I could to see if it would change.

It makes me sad to say anything negative about a BPAL, but it does seem as though none of the "masculine" blends like me. The pine really came out badly on me, and I didn't catch the slightest whiff of the vanilla and amber notes! It was just...not my cup o' tea, in the least.

This is certainly one for the swap pile...with any luck, it will end up in the hands of someone whose chemistry it will work wonders with.