halation

....curry? What on earth? I have to return to this later, because I swear right now all I smell is madras curry powder. I opened the imp and got a sweet and promising rush of fantastic terebinth, my heart's true love, and then as I was dabbing on a bit to test... curry. SOMETHING IS AMISS HERE.

In the imp: sharp vetiver and leaves.

On: this is a very manly man scent on me. Somehow the vetiver + oakmoss is reading like pipe smoke to my nose -- almost like a Herr Drosselmeyer, but no leather, and sweeter because of the geranium. It's a very comforting scent, actually! I was kinda hoping for more dread. As it dries down it gets sweeter and sweeter and now I smell like somebody's charming and wise and reassuring grandpa. No leaves, no balsam, just smoky sweetness and oakmoss.

In the imp and wet, this is very sharply evergreen -- bit like Thanatopsis, actually, though without the musk beneath. There's a bright greenness here that almost makes it feel summery.

Drying down, the wildflower honey takes over very quickly. The floral quality of the honey almost threatens to veer into dryer-sheets territory on me, but mercifully it pulls back -- I think it's the cognac cutting underneath. The nuttiness is not at all pronounced; it adds a wet-earth-and-decaying-acorns note instead of anything foody. About half an hour after application, the patchouli comes out, but stays very much in the background, and works to turn the scent into that sort of generic-BPAL blend instead of standing on its own. As time wears on, the earthy note amps back up a bit: the plum leaf, maybe? It smells very much like cold, wet, fallen leaves. Yum.

I love earth and woods, so this is definitely my jam. The honey gets a bit sticky-sweet, but it backs off in the drydown. This is a less piney and more complex Thanatopsis to me, and I quite like it, though I wish it were just a bit pine-ier.

[eta: seems to be settling into a honey-and-cognac scent. Nice, and fortunately not too boozy, but I like the woodsy stage better.]

Allergies and sensitivities are weird. For me, frequent exposure to things can trigger reactions to things that never previously gave me problems -- if I wear or eat something every day, it can suddenly start causing me problems. But the good news is that a break from things that are giving me reactions is often enough to solve the problem. I love WILF, and for a while wore it nearly every day, until it started giving me a bright red rash. I stopped wearing it for a month (and avoided other blends with shared notes) and when I came back to it, no more rash! Since you're not sensitive to *all* roses, just the BPAL oils with rose, I wonder if it's something like that: a sensitivity to a specific compound caused by prolonged exposure. Time can fix that.

Also, sometimes it's a question of your body feeling overwhelmed by other environmental irritants/stressors, so if you have any other allergy symptoms currently (seasonal allergies or food sensitivities), your body might be more sensitive than usual. Don't get rid of your roses just yet. I'd suggest you switch to other scents (or no scents) for a few weeks and then try again.

You can also try scenting your clothes, if your reaction is limited to your skin -- some oils can stain, of course, but I like to scent my scarves and shawls in cold weather. Just a few swipes with a wand cap/imp wand gives you a lovely scent-cloud, and it lasts longer and doesn't interact with your skin chemistry. Of course, then you have that scent on that item til you wash it, so you want it to be something you don't mind smelling for a while. Someday I'll be able to afford a locket, but til then I have my scarf!

What makes it even weirder is that I do not appear to be allergic to rose in other forms. I don't have any problems with the actual flowers and I use a rose hydrosol to wash my face with no problems.

 

I don't want to get rid of them and can't afford a scent locket right now.

 

Has this happened to you? What did you do?

Fenris Wolf sounds amazing, and I have had one good amber experience (Bastet), so it's not a 100% deal breaker when blended in a certain way.

Bastet works on me, too! I think it must be a similar amber note, so I hope it works for you.

I love love love Smut, Snake Oil, Samhain, and Sacred Whore of Babylon, but scents tend to go all warm and sweet or girlish almost on me, making them awesome but subtle.

My skin can make anything sweet and fluffy. For me, red musk is good at counterbalancing notes that can get oversweet. You might try out Fenris Wolf -- it's gotten me compliments, doesn't get too sweet, and the amber's not very noticeable (at least on me) and doesn't turn to powder (as it does on me in many blends). Sin is another great one -- very sexy, but not at all girlish.

If amber is a dealbreaker, you could try Aperotos Eros -- dead sexy. Kind of aggressively dark, but so good. It's my favourite GC cooler-weather "notice me!" scent. If you like the darkness and woodiness of Samhain but it gets too soft on you, this might be a good one, although it doesn't have the patchouli.

Snake Oil blends might be another good bet. I love WILF and Green Tree Viper as going-out scents, and get a lot of throw with them, even though straight SO is very light on my skin and has barely any throw. You might try to track down some Snake Pit decants with notes you like and give those a try.

I was kindly frimped this, but when I first sniffed it all I got was... filbert. Sour, sharp, slightly-over-roasted filbert. It smelled like the taste of those nuts everyone eats around in cans of mixed nuts.

But then yesterday, going through the box, I was curious, so I decided to give it a try. Indeed, while wet, it still smells unpleasantly sharp and nutty, but the drydown is rich and dark and surprisingly like the LE Death of Autumn, which I love. The carnation is spicier and not quite as deep and elegant as the chrysanthemum in DoA, and it doesn't have the oud, and the throw is lower, but it's not half-bad as a GC equivalent, and I'm surprised it doesn't get more love. I guess the vetiver scares people off. My frimp is a bit aged, but the vetiver doesn't entirely overwhelm: the amber is deep and doesn't turn to powder on me (a rarity!), the musk and orris add depth and richness, and the tonka does a lot to tame the vetiver and sweeten the blend.

I do wish it had a bit more throw, and that it lasted longer, but I rather like it in the end. I don't want to take a bath in the stuff, the way I do with Death of Autumn, but now I'm not quite so afraid of finishing off my half-bottle.

Patchouli, tonka and rosewood are love for me, but on my skin, the lavender gobbles them all utterly. Not a whiff of anything but lavender. Lavender from the word go. In the dry stage, if I strain, I can just catch the barest hint of rosewood, but it never quite emerges from the lavender's iron grasp, and about twenty minutes into the drydown, amber crashes the party and there's nothing but lavender-scented baby powder.

Sigh.

I was hoping for something a bit more... diabolical. It's a nice lavender, mind you: very classy and smooth and suave lavender, but it's all gentility and no deviltry. I smell like a rather fussy gentleman's linen drawer. It's quite sweet and lovely and comforting, and it seems like a nice sleep scent for me, but it's not quite wicked enough for other purposes. Oh, lavender.

In the imp: Promising. Verrrry chocolatey. I roll the imp a few times, but a thick and stubborn sedimentary layer remains at the bottom. There is A LOT of cocoa in this, and the oil is the colour of chocolate syrup, no lie. Very thick. Goes on very dark, with fine particulate left on the skin.

On, wet: I... what? I'm getting... grape. Grape soda and Rolos. This is bizarre.

Unfortunately, the grape soda hangs around. There's some sexy Snake Oil underneath, and the cocoa is very creamy from the rice milk, but this weird fake grape is hanging over everything. I haven't had my skin react this way before to any of the listed notes, and it's deeply perplexing. Maybe this is how my nose is reading the 'sour' or 'black licorice' note others have mentioned?

After a few hours the grape has mercifully faded, but by that time so has everything else. I'm going to have to try this one again, because I'm baffled.

For the first hour after application, I get almost nothing but coconut. Very very faint hints of leather, now and again, but otherwise, coconut. It's a bit like a less-complex, less-smutty version of Perversion: an understated (but still tight) choker instead of a full-on-equipped-with-D-rings glossy black collar.

If I give it long enough, the sandalwood does come out to play, and it's quite nice, but Perversion's just sexier. I suspect it would smell delicious on the right person, though -- it's slightly musky and could compliment a yummy natural skin-scent really well.

For the first twenty minutes or so after application, all I can smell is banana smoothie. It's baffling to me... but oddly compelling. This could be the rice milk, but it's not something I've experienced in other rice milk blends. Somehow the creaminess and the greenness of the tree sap read as banana to my nose.

As it begins to dry down it has a strong green acrid bite, which hits me in the back of the throat. Almost medicinal, but not at all unpleasant. Very much indeed like tree sap, but not particularly herbal or vegetative. Just... green.

Dry, it's creamy and soothing and warm. A warm and sun-drenched field, fragrant in the noon heat. The almond blossom adds sweetness without being floral, which is pleasing to me. The amber never does go powdery, and the scent stays true on my skin for about five hours with no morphing and limited fading.

An evocative and wonderfully comforting scent, unlike anything else I've tried. It really does smell like a golden late-summer afternoon.

In vial: Definitely smelling the verbena, along with the cocoa butter and maybe a hint of sandalwood.

Applying: Strongly verbena, with a bit of the almond -- but definitely almond *milk*. It's far creamier than other almond scents, but not foody, just musky and soft and very slightly sweet. The throw seemed awfully faint, however, so I ended up slathering.

Wet: VERBENA VERBENA VERBENA. I feel like I've just bathed in a vat of lemon curd. It's so strongly lemony that I have a slight acid sensation in the pit of my stomach, like I've had a bit too much lemonade a bit too quickly. The verbena has utterly vanquished every other note.

The verbena is primary for perhaps an hour, but gradually it lets up a bit and the beeswax and myrrh come out. At this stage it reminded me of No. 93 Engine, but without the greenness of the mastic. The resins are still mostly drowned out, but as the verbena lets up a bit more the almond milk comes back. The cocoa butter is kept very much in check, adding smoothness and richness to the almond milk without a hint of chocolateyness. About two hours in, the sandalwood comes out and blooms very warmly. In this stage, it's a bit like Bastet layered over No. 93.

Three hours in, the verbena fades way down, and Mourning Cloak a becomes fuzzy, comforting skin scent. I wore this on an incredibly hot and sticky evening, and though I loved this stage I found it a bit too warm and snuggly for such a close night. The verbena made me think it would be a good summer scent, but I think it'd be better for spring, or maybe just for cooler weather. Despite its being so hot, this lasted a long time -- even the next morning I still had a bit on my wrists. Quite nice.

Don't let the verbena intimidate you! If you like beeswax and lemon, this one is lovely once it calms down a bit. Just maybe don't take a bath in the stuff like I did... the throw might surprise you.

Both in the bottle and wet on the skin, I actually don't get much mint from this -- at least, not as much as I'd expected based on reviews. I've been using a lot of Grr lately, so my mint tolerances might be askew. The vanilla is sweet and very much in the foreground, but it doesn't overpower the bergamot and green tea; they're lovely. It reminds me quite strongly of a green earl grey tea. There is an underlying coolness that must be the mint base, and as it dries it strengthens. I never get a straight-up peppermint or spearmint, but I get a back-of-the-throat tingle from what seems like pennyroyal or perhaps catnip. It reminds me a little of Black Cat, but without the doom-note of rose.

This is definitely the scent of the summer for me. Usually my skin eats scents up, but GTV actually seems to get stronger on me as time passes. An hour or so after application it blooms fully and the throw improves. I got this strictly because I'm a mint fanatic, but I think now I'm actually tempted to get some straight Snake Oil and see what all the fuss is about. I wasn't interested before as I thought it sounded too sweet, but the vanilla in this is beautiful. I'd love to layer it with other scents. There's just enough mint-and-green in GTV to make me think I wouldn't want to combine it with other scents.

GTV is not what I expected, but I quite like it all the same, and it is quite cooling, even if it's not aggressively minty. As a bonus, it seems like mosquitos aren't too fond of it; at the very least, they left me alone when I wore it last night.

I think it worked! Awesome. Thanks.

halation -- wash it with dawn dish soap like mentioned above. It really does eat oil. And once it's dry it should be fine.. You can see if they have an unscented version too.

Is there a way to clean wand caps and re-use them / put them on different bottles without cross-contamination? I just got my first batch of wand caps and it turns out I didn't order enough. I realised I'd rather have one on a bottle I frequently use... but I put it on another bottle first, and it was on there for a day and now has that scent. I've rinsed and dried it, but is there anything else I could do?

Seven pages of discussion about Harry Potter scents and not one recommendation for Ron Weasley?

I love A Howl In The Darkness, but I can't quite imagine it on Ron... it's kinda dark and wild and animalistic and altogether more wolfy than Ron tends to be. Throw some black leather in there and you'd have Sirius. Yum.

Bogleis yummy and comforting and makes me think of The Burrow:

BOGLE

A garish shellycoat: red currant, Spanish mandarin, pumpkin, quince, wild blueberry, and ginger with green tea, vanilla bean, frankincense, tonka, and vetiver.

Ron himself I always picture snacking on something, so I feel like he needs a foody scent, something with toffee or chocolate. Maybe Gelt (chocolate and amber, has a sweet biscuit note to my nose) layered over Glasgow (blackberry and heather, so warm and cozy and a little outdoorsy)?

Not a BPAL suggestion, admittedly, but: I used to spend about 12 hours a week teaching in a super-chlorinated public pool, and I found switching to soap-free body wash did really good things for my skin. I was getting really itchy and scaly and miserable until I did, and just a week of using a different body wash made a huge difference -- and as a bonus, it seemed to do a better job of reducing chlorine-reek. This was my favorite; it worked really well for me.

I wasn't into BPAL at the time, but I remember that resiny/incensy scents -- sandalwood, spices, opium -- worked better than florals or citrus, and tended to go wonky less often.

I am a big ol' raptor nerd, so I needed this one, even though I usually stay far away from things that even have a chance of going powdery.

In the bottle, it's all carnation, with maybe a trace of vanilla.

Wet, it has considerable throw, especially for the first hour: strong sweet carnation, with a hint of sandalwood. No spice. Very seldom do I get as much throw as I did with this one. About twenty minutes into the drydown the patchouli shows up and close-up wrist-huffing gets me that slight whiff of urine patchouli always gives, and I got a little nervous, because 1) ew, urine and 2) I am just not really a florals person, especially not florals-with-urine.

But I gave it an hour, and oh! now it is so lovely. It's just so... warm! Beautiful and warm and reassuring, like bottled hugs and sunshine and your very favorite blanket. Very brown, a little sweet, and a little spicy from the bay and clove. The vanilla isn't crazy-amping the way it often does for me -- the vanilla in Antikythera Mechanism, for example, amps so hard it makes me a bit queasy. This is not that vanilla-and-wood, but just a slightly sweet, warm and sleepy wood. And somehow... fluffy. I swear. I keep thinking it's about to go powdery, but the bay keeps it from going over the edge. Every now and then, balsam peeps out, but it's shy.

Two hours in, and now I want it to stay just like this on my wrist forever. The drydown kind of sucked, but it's so worth it for me. This is what I wanted Lionheart to actually *smell* like for me -- not in notes, but the way it makes me feel: calm and strength and a general sense of everything-being-okayness. Due to allergies, Lionheart is just a big no for actual on-skin application. FRM fills that gap beautifully! This is just so... comforting. Perfect.

Maybe this is me being dumb, but it has XVII written on it in gold pen. Something cryptic?

That's your bottle ID number. Each bottle in a Chaos Theory series is blended at random and so one-of-a-kind -- that's where the "chaos" bit comes in -- and each is numbered when it's blended. You are the proud owner of Bottle Number Seventeen.

This is almost straight from the mailbox. I waited for twenty whole minutes, but then couldn't wait any longer.

In the bottle: delicious, delicious cocoa, with patchouli and vanilla in the background. It smells a little like a chocolate version of WILF, but with lemongrass instead of the juniper. The cocoa note is very strong.

Wet on skin: the lemony note begins to blossom, though the incense-and-cocoa remains in the foreground. On my skin, this is a lot like Tezcatlipoca is in the bottle -- not the peanut-butter-cup stage, but that awesome sexy cocoa that never happens on my skin. Except with lemon -- is this the cardamom, I wonder?

Beginning to dry down: the cocoa is gone! Gone completely. Aw, come back, I LOVE YOUUUUU.

Quite lemony now, with hints of rose. Patchouli does this awkward slight-whiff-of-Port-A-Potty thing on my skin about twenty minutes after application, but the lemon, mercifully, makes that hard to notice, and that stage is passing more quickly than usual with 13. The creaminess of the vanilla is coming out now and softening and sweetening the lemon, and I almost expected it to go in the direction of pound cake, but it stopped short of foodiness. Very light and breezy and summery, but with a sort of sexy, almost hot-and-sweaty feel underneath, which I think is the saffron? The grains of paradise? Something is definitely giving it a little heat. I was worried about the caraway, but if it's there, it just lends a touch of earthy richness. I do not smell like rye bread.

I only tested a tiny bit, but the throw seems fairly low. The lemon/patchouli element has more throw than the sexy spices; it sort of floats above the other notes. This is okay, though: the sexiness from the spices makes me want that layer close to my skin. The rose, like the cocoa, was fleeting: for me, that's a happy outcome, since rose usually stages a coup and takes over a blend completely. It didn't even make a bid for power, though.

I was hoping for more cocoa, but I kind of love it anyway. This 13 is like long, golden rays of sunlight stretching out over the grass on a perfect blue late afternoon in summer, with a slight breeze in the treetops, as shadows start to stretch out on the lawn. About an hour in, the lemon fades down, and as the incense comes out, that afternoon turns to twilight, then to evening. It's delicious, definitely lust-inspiring, and quite unlike anything else I've smelled. I think it will be a perfect scent for going out on summer nights.

After a few more hours, the lemony note faded away, and was replaced by sandalwood, blended with the vanilla. Then, after I went out into the miserably hot weather, the heat unlocked the cocoa! It came back to me! It's been more than five hours, so all I have now is just a hint of cocoa-vanilla-incense on my wrist. Quite lovely.

[ETA, 7/15/11: after two months' aging, I found the cocoa! Totally different scent. The lemon and spice is much much fainter, and the chocolate is strong -- almost like chocolate icing. I slathered, but the throw's pretty high and the staying power (10 hours and counting) is strong. I'm really surprised by the change -- it's quite striking. Happily, I like it both ways.)