ElizabethOSP

I've not tried the previous Spanked, but it looked good to me. It IS good to me! Yeppers, I done been spanked. YUMMY! The cardamom sings above the other notes for a while, and then the patch joins in, and the two start blending nicely. Mr. Leather never hits me hard, but he sort of takes a pull off the bourbon bottle and exhales sweetness over the whole shebang. At extreme drydown, I get a sweetness like the last drop of whiskey in a glass on the nightstand, drifting off to bliss after an evening of questionable behavior. WOOF!

Thankyou, Hillary, for the icon!!!

When I saw the notes, I NEEDED THIS! Luckily, the lovely Ahania was doing a decant circle, and I stumbled in and joined!

So. This scent is utterly cracking me up. In the imp it's sweet and perfumy and resinous. And there's a familiar smell tugging at me, and I can't place it. On my skin, there's more of that. It's very pretty, and I like it a lot, and I am perplexed by the blend.

During early drydown, I'm thinking, "Is that rose? Or what?" And I decide it smells perfumy in a nice way, but maybe it's not a bottle purchase for me.

THENNNNnnnn...it finishes drying down and I AM IN LOVE. Beautiful, incensy, and complex. I finally reread the notes and said, "DUH!!! It's CHAMPACA!!! Sometimes I wonder if I burned out too many synapses in my earlier days. Oh well, I just grow new ones as I go. This is a really great scent for me. My wallet is screaming. I can hear it...poor thing. I smell wonderful!!! Oh and on the LONG drydown patchouli quietly comes out to play. LOOOOOVE!!!

I LOOOVE Boo 2010!

Now, I didn't try last year's Boo, so I cannot compare the two. However...Boo 2010 gives me heavy whipping cream with some sugar stirred into it, and this hint of sandalwood waaaay around the edges. I guess that's the ghostie's sheet. And I get a buttery scent on and off, but nothing overpowering. The way the cream wears on me, it gives me some vanilla. REEEEEEEEEALLLLLLLLY yummy stuff! The creamyness reminds me of a creamy note I get from Calaveras, which I absolutely adore. Boo 2010 is my new Comfort Scent.

I love this scent! A LOT! It's exactly as rich and beautiful as I thought it would be. However, much to my chagrin, my skin eats it--in ten minutes it's disappeared completely. This doesn't happen to me very often. *sigh* So I guess Pom V would be a scent locket candidate for me!

Saturnalia, if your body chemistry is right for the smoke. It seems to be 50-50 amongst us all. I happen to fall in the forest fire category. Saturnalia's vetiver smells like a fire, then a barbeque, for several hours on me. Then it turns into the Perfect Violet.

This is the surprise hit in the batch of decants a sweet forumite sent me. It's slightly foody, probably thanks to the vanilla and cajeta, but not bakery food. The incense and smoke-dried jalapenos give it a really nice kick that lingers on the skin. I do get non-candy bar chocolate, like you'd find in a Mexican mole sauce. Guess that fits with the theme of the scent!

Gryphon, you said it for me! LOVING Calaveras!

This one seems like red musk single note on me, too. I like red musk in blends--it adds a nice depth for me. However, when I put this on I mean SLATHERED it the first time, I got a funny but unfortunate connection to my childhood. I won't elaborate. Anyway, I let it sit for some time, then tried it, more LIGHTLY, again. It was better, but I was still wondering what to do with it. Layer? Swap? Enable a friend? Well, I still might eventually do one of those, but after reading the reviews of my more experienced companions in here, I am going to hold onto it for a while. You Ladies are saying that our Infernal Lover may age nicely. I'll join the waiting game! I mean, after all, I'M aging nicely, so.....

The more I wear this, the more I like LOVE it. Despite the whole Death vibe, this reminds me of something in my childhood. Orris does that for me. It makes me think of bubble bath! Soooooooo...Lady Death, lounging in a musk, myrrh and patchouli scented bubble bath, sipping very dry champagne. Smiling. Of course, I can't actually smell the champagne, because the Lady and her bath smell so very good, and their scent dominates one's senses. Heh. This is beautiful, earthy, sweet, and dry. I just got an imp of Dance of Death from the lovely opsgrl on ebay...going to have to get a bottle soon!

In the decant, rosy and floral.

Wet on my skin, it reads as tea rose. I get a wee hit of what I think is the jasmine and pink pepper, and maybe the vanilla bourbon, which backs off and then returns. I never do get an identifiable jasmine hit from Emma, and I theorize that some of the resiny feel I get comes from the vanilla bourbon. Then everything starts to blend, with the rose staying on top.

It hangs out like this during initial drydown, with the patchouli as a subtle foundation for the rest of the crew. The final drydown ends up as sweet, resinous, rosy and delicious.

For some ungodly reason, I had this idea that apple blossom would smell wrong on me. And the "golden apple" listed for Ladon worried me, too. Again, why is this concern there? Was there some apple blossomy thing I used as a child that marred my psyche? SHEESH!! I am really silly sometimes.

Ladon is drop dead beautiful. It just IS. And as I wear it, the dragon's blood is gradually coming to the fore. I wandered into the Hesperides' garden when ol' Ladon was off rummaging in the trees on the far side, and now he's noticed me and is strolling over to take my measure. And he likes me.

Oshun worked with me when my husband and I were first getting together (as a couple) about 20 years ago. We're still together, making music, art, wild sex, and...oh! Did I say that out loud? Heh. Umm, anyway...since then, I've always felt a love for and from Oshun, but didn't do more active work with her. When I saw the TAL oil, I couldn't NOT get it! Last night, I did a quick ritual and anointed my easel with Oshun and Hymn to Pan before working on a painting that I was starting to fight with. They sang to me as I painted, and helped me release my fears about ruining the effect I was trying to get. I liked the results last night, but when I went and looked at the painting again tonight, I was taken aback--the results were GREAT! Suddenly you could see the spaces, there was more depth, the modeling on the hands jumped out like I wanted...yessssss. The emotion was there. The answer to the visual problem had been two-fold and extremely simple. Oshun and Pan danced me through it and out of it and teased me about having ever let myself get tied in a knot! I love 'em both!!!

Oh, I'm right there with ya, angelicruin!!! Add some tobacco and very dark chocolate on my skin. I would grovel remorselessly for bottles of this. BOTTLES!!! Oh please please pleeeeeease?!?!??

EAT: Oh wait! I meant ETA! Freudian slip...ahem. Several hours later, the drydown smells kinda dirty and sex-smeared. I want to roll in it.

Thankyou, Lab, for the frimp!

Snoofing the vial, yummy grapefruit! Perhaps a citrus blend feel, too. Yum! Wet on my skin, grapefruit and a whiff of floral skipping by in the distance. I then get an almost clementine scent, and then it goes back to...grapefruit, herbs, and floral. Emphasis on the citrus feel. It's a fairly gentle, happy scent on me. I may have to get a bottle!

But this is the really fun part: After a while, the main scent fades, and leaves the ghost of a citrussy smile on my skin! It really IS the Cheshire Cat!!!

The gracious Lab sent me this as a frimp, too. And as seems to be the case with anyone associated with BPAL, they're PSYCHIC! I've been wanting to try this.

Snoofing the imp, there was lovely wood... then unexpected sweetness! Oooh!

On my hand, wet, it was the same. Then it started developing. The wood turned into woodS, which was very intriguing, and then it started getting sweet!:thud:And that's a really GOOD swoon!

So now that it's dried down, I just NEEEEED a bottle. Really. Like, NOW. My nose won't leave my hand. I can't describe the mix of floral and woods, but it's utterly affectionate and fresh and wonderful!

This is my first Lunacy and I AM IN LOVE!!!

Snoofing bottle, I think I'm picking up the frangipani and white rose. BTW, I think white roses have a gentler scent. I love all roses, though.

Wet on skin, it gets a sharper feel which is very nice. As it dries down, it sweetens up again, but it's not a cloying sweet. It's soft, and comfortable, and...well, joyful! The sharpish edge is still there, but it only helps define the sweetness, if that makes any sense. When I layer it on, this stage lasts a while. After it's been partying with my arm for a bit,the sharp goes away and I get some very gentle poofs of orris and rose. Yum! I don't smell any vanilla, but I'll bet it's what helps to make everything feel comfy and cushy!

Joyful Moon is a gorgeous, soft, well-rounded floral blend. I want to huff my arm all night!

I've always loved Pan. My sort of guy, you know?

This is my first TAL oil, and I AM impressed. As for scent, it's lovely. I'm wearing it on wrists, base of throat, and over the heart. All the folks who've reviewed already have said it quite nicely. I do get lavender and ginger as the main notes...nom nom...and it reminds me of parts of Vespillo. I just tried layering the two, and WHOA! NOM NOM NOM!

Sooo, magickally? I feel...sort of like I've been drinking! And I feel kinda rowdy. And the tiniest bit...feral...? I'm smirking a lot. Hubby and I are putting together set lists for upcoming gigs, and I'm actually enjoying it. Which is great, because set lists often make me fussy. Tomorrow we're doing a wee performance as a weird quartet: One water theremin, one small-scale cello, two guitars, and me singing. I told our group that I'm anointing us before we play. I'll have to report back about the results.

Oh also: Hymn to Pan seems to be nudging me to empower my kids (oh! Kids...!)! Go figure! I'm having them do some stuff for themselves this evening while I go about my business, and they're rising to it happily. Interesting.

Edit next day: Whew! Loooove that Pan. Had extremely fruitful rehearsal last night, and then today Mr. Pan seems to helping to clear our heads on artistic/career decisions. Now we'll see if he joins in the gig tonight.

Edit day-after-gig! Yes, I'd say Pan joined in the music. First I should say that the "rock star debauch" thing is a part of my everyday life, and has been for a good 30+ years. It's not that I'm a scary hedonistic wench (wellll... maybe sometimes), but I've been a professional musician and artist most of my life, and I learned to mix the Perfect Martini for my Dad when I was about 12 years old. So alcohol, making art, and performing is just part of life. No special weird glamor, but without arts I'm dead.

The way Mr. Pan is working with us, he's inspiring me and my crew to focus in on the particular use we're making of our inspirations. Instead of splatter-shooting the things we can do--as we have been doing--we're all simultaneously zeroing in on a certain performance style, and it's working. Really well. And without reservations. For our performance last night, I anointed all four of us on heart, throat, 3rd eye, and crown chakras. I'd already put Pan on the rest of my chakras and my wrists. Oh, and I gave my guitar a couple swipes on the headstock, and I believe I added some to our cellist's axe, too. We did our thing, the folks watching were rapt, and we all had a helluva great time! Then after other folks did storytelling and such (which was REALLY fun!), my hubbie and I proceeded to play several more hours as the party petered out. Oh and my usual stage fright was...ermmm...gone! Yeah, Pan was with us.

So for me, the wild aspect of Hymn to Pan helps remove reservations about making art in the way I know in my bones is the way I should be doing it. Absolutely no patience for "well-I-could-do-that-but-it's-grit-my-teeth-and-survive-the-gig-time" with musical projects. Absolutely no desire to do anything but the visual art that completely fires my soul. And as for inspiration--and this includes mundane things like cleaning house--Pan works like a concentration aid for me. I'm able to just do what I should be doing, if that makes sense. Huzzah!

Edit a few days later... My elder daughter catches fallout from Hymn to Pan and goes into hyperdrive inspiration with her visual art and writing. Interesting!!!

In the bottle, I can smell frankincense and wood and something...other...

On my skin, wet, I get the tobacco. YUMMY! Then some very sharp wood...still yummy, and a bit incensy. This wood ***smirk*** is intriguing. And is there some herb, some other sharp thing sitting beside the wood? It smells--and this is a good thing--of my grandma Babe's inhaler. Is this the bunn? Ah! But as soon as I say that, the note steps back inside the blend and the Blend gets a capital B. Yummy, again!

In drydown, I agree with devilot that it's like a cigar box. A nice, loud, cedar cigar box (with a chunk of frankincense in the corner)! After it's been dry for a bit, it sweetens just a little. OMG swoon! I LOVE INTERFECTOR!!!

This is an absolutely wonderful scent. Makes me feel like vampfood.

P.S. What. Is. BUUUNNNNN?!? I found bunn feet for table legs listed on a woodturning site. They said bunn is a species of pine. Maybe that's my mystery note in Interfector...

Sanctus!

In the bottle, it smells nicely perfumy, and the frankincense tweaks my nose in a good way.

Wet on my skin, I get a beautiful burst of...rose!...and lemony frankincense that hangs out for a bit. Rose and Frankincense and I go waaaay back. We get along. However, Rose soon goes out for a beer or something. Must've been a hallucination...

When drydown starts, I begin to get a feel that I can only describe as round, and kind of golden. I start getting a slight fruity note--I think that's the osmanthus, maybe???--and something about all the notes mixing gives me some floral and vanilla whiffs! I put Sanctus on this morning, then walked up into the kitchen. My husband turned from the sink and asked if I was wearing something with peach or apricot in it, so that's the kind of fruit he gets from it.

I've not worn a blend like this before. Can't stop snoofing my upper arm. Sheesh! Looks like I'm checking for armpit stink, when I'm just enjoying the Holy Vampire!:wub2:Sanctus in nomine Striga?!

Oooh! Edit! I'm getting the apricotty thing that hubby smelled earlier. Seems like I've read that osmanthus has an apricot feel to it. Lovin' Sanctus even more!

Tin Foil Hat...! Wow. First off, my parents were both newspaper editors. There used to be an annual UFO convention out on our desert, and my Mom would send a reporter and photographer out every year. Sometimes she and my Dad (aaaaaand some friends!) would go out and party with the UFOers. And, of course, my Dad and I were always watching for UFOs and aliens. Once the Goodyear blimp startled the holy hell outta us...

I had to have Tin Foil Hat.

When I rubbed some on my wrist, I thought, "Oooh! Foil! Yeah, it's SHINY!" So this super-sharp nicety has metallic notes. Ah! Comprehension dawns. Metallic is what I thought of as VERY sharp aquatic back in the pleistocene era. This reminds me of a men's cologne I used to play with when I was a kid.

Tin Foil Hat goes on my skin sharp and herby and citrusy and actually somewhat sweet. Then the sharpness backs off a bit, and I'm left with herby bright sweet refreshing gorgeousness. I agree with everyone who smells manliness in this. (Historical alert...) "Made for a man, but I like it too!" I wear guy-type stuff if I like it. After all, male/female scents are pretty much simple cultural training. I'll be wearing the living daylights outta Tin Foil Hat!

Any chance of this becoming a bottled delight...?

Illuminati Cotillion is so damned evocative that it takes me aback--in a very GOOD way--every time I wear it. I've never been gobsmacked like this by a scent. It has something that's hooked into my dna, or, more to the point, into my soul.

Sniffing the bottle, I'm immediately diving into one of my family's old wooden chests, rooting around for exciting stuff. I can even see the interior of the chest, with my great grandmother's and great aunty's tatted lace and other wonderful old things wrapped in brown paper and yellowed tissue. There's a vague whiff of dried rose petals. Aunt Ninie must have tucked those in amongst the dusty-rose velvet ribbons.

On my arm, I still get all the above, then a small breeze of dried roses (must have uncovered them when I moved the ribbons). The dried roses subside back into the lower left rear corner of the chest and the woods waft around me. This smells sooooo good!

As it dries down, I smell some fresh rose. Maybe Grandma Babe walked by with a bouquet, looking for a vase. Then all the scents meld into this INCREDIBLE blend. Like I've got about three of those old chests open, and I'm sitting in the middle, pulling out old clothes and trying them on.

So evocative. So magical!

My grandmother was a Rosicrucian. Guess what? On my skin, dried down, this really smells like her Rosicrucian incense!!! Before it dries down, it smells like one of the perfumes she used to wear. Now, this all is a good thing! I recently burned the last piece of her incense (which I'd hoarded for over 30 years, and it had gotten rather faint, but it was fun!). I figured a replacement would show up if I'd just stop holding onto it. Well, abra cadabra, voila, and boy howdy: This oil is IT! Thankyou, Beth!

The lab sent me this as a freebie in my last order. I am SOOOO glad!!! This morphs beautifully and ends as a lovely, light, sweet floral on me! Sniffing the imp, I get the earth note in a big way. On my skin, the earth gives way to a sweet herbal-almost-floral with a little soil underneath. I'm still iffy about wearing a strong earth note, but I do like the smell because I grow a lot of plants! Anyway, the oil gets sweeter and sweeter as it sits on my skin. It's kind of like sitting on the ground in the middle of a blooming flowerbed. The dry-down is a lovely light green-white floral thing that reminds me of a bubble bath I had when growing up! I agree with the folks who say this is reminiscent of Zombi (which I also enjoy). Oh, and it has some staying power, too. LOVE it!!!

XIV

When I got this (about a year ago?) I was intrigued. It came onto my nose like amber resin and cherry hard candy. On my skin, I kept getting more of the fruity smell, and I wasn't in the mood for that. I'd mix it with a crumb of a brick of honey amber resin on my skin and get on with life. Then I let the beautiful bottle sit for a while.

Fast forward to now. Pull out the bottle, rub some on, and wow! It's matured! It still goes on fruity, but I rub it in a bit and let it do its thing and...what the?!?...YUM! I have no idea what I'm smelling, but I LOVE it! The fruit blends seamlessly into an ambery/vanilla-ish thingie with maybe a bare hint of some kind of wood...and I could swear there's a faint, faint waft of chocolate...or maybe tobacco? Or...? Sophisticated, soft, hard to define, and with a tiny bite of...well, something!

WHEW! Now I truly understand what everyone keeps saying about aging these lovelies.