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elka_knits

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Everything posted by elka_knits

  1. elka_knits

    If your top 5 scents are... Then try these!

    Well our tastes are not very similar at all but I wore the heck out of Red Moon 2007 this spring. The other scent I kept reaching for to deal with the monsoon of 2015 was an old favorite Bakeneko. If I didn't have a back up I wouldn't mention it is on the lab's etsy site right now but I do so you might as well pick up a bottle Warm amber musk, Satsuma tangerine, black tea leaf, cardamom, cherry blossom and cinnamon. TKO is always good for sleeping
  2. elka_knits

    First Time BPAL-er looking for recs!

    Unlike others I get a strong rose from Alice but I call it my schizophrenic scent. It vacillates between a soft tea rose and spicy carnation one after the other. I probably amp them both and they duke each other out for dominance on my skin. In fact I think that was my review of alice on forums
  3. elka_knits

    First Time BPAL-er looking for recs!

    I would add Bien Loin D'ici.. I personally don't particularly like it because of the caramel and for the record I don't really get a ton of red musk to it: red musk, benzoin, caramel accord, golden honey, and spiced Moroccan unguents
  4. elka_knits

    Loved To Death

    So in the disappointment field there has always been a few slots the why do you use your magical cloaking power to totally erase all vestiges of scent from the air? the why do you use your magical amping power to overwhelm all nuances from this blend? and ugh note of hate {usually the above amping power is involved in these} and the I like these notes so why is it meh? A meh blend is Door. Everybody loves it and well I have no clue what anything but the golden honey really smells like in a bpal scent but honey is delicious on toast and on me so I gave it a shot. I try it over and over again to no avail. Years of aging have done nothing for this scent. Why do I mention Door? Because.... This smells exactly like Door. Despite not having a single listed note in common. I would be willing to bet my bottle is mislabeled. I mean I am sure it isn't since it hasn't happened yet in all the years of pal buying but this smells EXACTLY like Door. And thus a new slot of disappointment has been created in Elka's personal Bpal universe... a scent that should smell gorgeous but smells like something else that is meh. This is not the scent association I would have hoped for. And seriously I know and love everysingledarnednotelistedinLovedtoDeath so it isn't like me buying Door with no real clue of how much I like chamomile in a scent {Door smells like Echinacea to be honest but that is on me and to my nose--other people love it} 2023.08.18: Oh hai there. So I have been putting this on quite a bit lately. Like I put that black velvet bag in to reach for pile and I ended up loving this. And guess what? Loved2Death no longer carries this. After reading my above review it means I should buy a bottle of Door and let it age 8 years? Or try and hunt some down.....
  5. there is a pinned thread called Limited Edition equivalents in general catalog which this probably will swoosh into but until then I believe the general consensus at the time was roses, pearls and diamonds : Red roses, dazzling crystalline musks, and pearlescent coconut-tinged orris. I personally find Raptures and Roses of Vice much headier with more depth making it a winter time or night time version of the above. I am hoping it will make a reappearance sometime. Maybe with next years luper.... it was a Luper subset if I remember correctly.
  6. elka_knits

    Achluophobia

    I wore banshee today so that might be coloring my perceptions Gritty patchouli with something peppery tickling my nose.... cayenne? Went in for a sniff to figure out what spice was bothering me and got wafts of tobacco. Once it dried I still had chewy patchouli ala wet banshee but no softness from vanilla. Deep dark and murky. After a few hours I am getting mainly tobacco with musk.
  7. elka_knits

    Ameles Potamos

    The River of Unmindfulness: bittersweet black water swollen with forgotten tears. acquatic.. murky dark green tho. It reminds me of what I call plump green stems.... I imagine succulents and plush little leaves and and bigger soft stems all *taste* like this smells. I know makes no sense. And once I got that plump little green stems smell I knew I had smelled this before. *ranian Galbanum smells like this
  8. elka_knits

    If your top 5 scents are... Then try these!

    I came to BPAL as a long time carnation wearing gal. In the 80s {and I mean early 80's} I wore the carnation sn that was available at those scent your own places, along with the carnation glycerin soap, and scented shampoo, conditioner, lotion purchased as said places. In the 90's I wore Bellodgia which is a floriental created in the 20s put out by Caron. I wore that, and the scent your own places offerings until 2005 when I got tired of trying to hunt down Bellodgia and a fellow knitter mentioned BPAL. I started with all the carnation scents I could find. Thankfully there is a thread http://www.bpal.org/topic/21410-carnations/ although I started by searching for Bellodgia {or bellogia as some spell it} in the http://www.bpal.org/topic/30307-looking-for-a-bpal-that-resembles-a-favorite-perfume/ thread but HUH I cannot find any reference to Bellodgia and I could swear one of my first posts was in there asking for suggestions. Anyway you might also want to try things like blood amber. It is delightfully creamy and lush. BPAL is a wonderland.
  9. elka_knits

    If your top 5 scents are... Then try these!

    French Love reminds me of Dragons Milk but without the strong vanilla base {which verges as plastic on me when fresh/wet}. Same vibe spicy creamy warm scents: pepper, defututa, pickled imp when the carnival comes back, bastet, mama ji always reminds me of morocco but more floral, le lethe and almost anything with carnation will be a spicy creamy scent. Alice if you like roses as well and Bathsheba has depth due to plum. with the exception of pickled imp I picked all gc scents for you. The lab has tons of lovely snuggly scents with vanilla and or amber as base.
  10. elka_knits

    The Fainting Couch Atmosphere Spray

    I love this one. I am so happy to have a happy gentle rose scent to replace my Miss Emma Benedicts when it runs out {in about mumble mumble mumble years-- I stockpiled it} roses help you chill for bed yo
  11. elka_knits

    TKO Massage Oil

    I have used over 2 maybe 3 bottles by now and am out. GAH. My husband often massages my back before bedtime to help with my insomnia, bad back, being a general stress pot etc etc. Okay I am spoiled what can I say? I used to hate lavender. I mean it gave me headaches. I had no clue why anybody in the universe would choose lavender to help them sleep but this is so snuggly and comforting. I wake up smelling all sweet and vanilla ish... like a marshmallow or something. It is great for my dry skin-the husband loves the scent and the slip. My next post order will include TKO. Sadly I have been saying this for months. I have warned the husband that I will be making an order SOON. For plenty of this and whatever bath oil or hair gloss that takes my fancy.
  12. elka_knits

    The Wars of Venus Bath Oil

    I was very sad when I ran out of this bath oil. According to my notes in the bottle it smelled delightfully rosy but in the tub it smelled like honey. It was extremely faint on my skin post bath so more of a super nice pampering tub experience that didn't interfere with any perfume I might choose. Every time I reviewed it while it was in use I said it was disappointingly faint but then I really did get dismayed when I ran out.
  13. elka_knits

    Selbstverliebt Bath Oil

    Gorgeous. I love the orchid note and the sampaguita took me from liking some jasmines to unffff love. Or maybe it is because this shares the same jasmine note as sampaguita did. Perfect for layering with either my orchid perfumes or my jasmine beauties although it certainly is strong enough to stand on its own. I should definitely have ordered more. Much much more. Every time I bathe in this I am reminded of the orchid from Great Vampire Bat. Not as high pitched an orchid as Shadow Witch Orchid but lusher. :wub3:all around.
  14. elka_knits

    Once an order is placed, it is final.

    Hi WednesdayFriday the lab cannot be expected to combine orders... I sometimes make a note when ordering from say etsy with I will order X from lab as soon as this one goes through and then when I make the lab order say I just ordered from etsy transaction # this so they could cross reference if they wanted to but it is a time kill for them. Expect 2 boxes full of joy. I wouldn't even email them after the fact. Sadly that means double shipping charges for you but if they do notice it and ship in one box they *maybe* will refund the double shipping. Tho honestly I have never asked them to since they went and cross referenced two tickets :-/ Unlike the European poster above, where shipping is humongous, I just figure it is the price I paid for not being organized.
  15. elka_knits

    Sugared pink grapefruit?

    I think wormwood field starts off as grapefruit pith then turns to ruby red grapefruit sprinkled with sugar. There is a bit of muskiness I think from a melon in there as well. My daughter says it smells like pink lemonade with a hint of grapefruit... which she claims is necessary to turn the lemonade pink it doesn't have many reviews and I think that mellifluous said herbal essences ????? and everybody else said extremely bitter grapefruit pith. I honestly get a sticky sweetness from it. I can send you some if you like to try. I think I have your address. editing to add I do not get grapefruit from Vampire Tears but I can decant some of that for you as well.
  16. elka_knits

    Tiger Lily

    The great imp backlog is being worked on.... Oh My! It smells just like a lily on a warm sunny day. Was sad to see it was discontinued. I will have to put a call out for random imps floating about.
  17. elka_knits

    Frankincense, Myrrh, and Rose Petal Beads Bath Oil

    I am one bath away from being done with my bottle. Purchased directly from lab by me so I am lots of baths into this. Somewhere along the line I got a tinge of spic n span and now associate that with this scent. Which is the sadness. I was a great deep dark rose scent with lots of resins in there. Mainly resins with a rose undercurrent. I believe frank tends to amp on me {I have avoided both frank and myrrh heavy scents for a while now--- I have enough perfumes that I go on floral kicks or resin kicks or ahem coconut kicks so I guess it is less avoidance and more focusing on something else lately} and so I cannot think of which of the resins stomps all over the place at the moment. Overall I am looking forward to being done with this one. I have been giving myself a break from it with virgins blood and sugared peach bath oil. I guess it is safe to say I am wishing for lighter and brighter instead of deep and contemplative which is probably coloring my judgement. I also decided to start using/wearing stuff pretty religiously in an effort to cull the heard {along with PIFs and giftedness} and have finished several bath oils this way. This one has been the most difficult to finish. HOWEVER it is much lighter in the bath. Nowhere near as overwhelming in the tub as it is in the bottle for the record, and nothing at all to do with the scent itself, the religious scent of last winter was Glasya and the two layered beautifully. And I finished up a bottle of Glasya to boot. Both scents were heavy dark rose scents to my rather unsophisticated nose. editing to add I like my roses girly instead of dark... rose water, tea roses, pink roses, sugared roses, roses with cream, roses with strawberry 'LOVE' instead of dark roses. If you like somber roses this one is probably for you.
  18. elka_knits

    How full is full?

    I accidentally clicked on this forum and the topic popped out at me... in my experience the lab is super generous. I have decanted a wee bit now and I easily get 6 imps out of bottles. I have been told I fill my imps very very full so it is not me being stingy either. Most bottles go into the neck so if I get one that is just below shoulder I figure it is what it is 'supposed' to be. Now I have gotten plenty of bottles of hair gloss and atmosphere sprays that are just barely at top of label and I assumed they packed them that way since the bottles are squishier than glass until I got one super full. I certainly do not complain. I have enough hair gloss and bath oil and atmosphere spray to last a long time. Way longer than when the lab/post manages to tempt me with something oh so shiny and new. I have total anesthesia love since it is my sleepy time scent ~~ take a picture and send it to lab if you feel like your bottle is not full. The staff is really nice. But I do suggest that the lab's typical generosity may have skewed your sense of what a 5 ml looks like in the bottle. Not to sound rude but if you got a bottle of Dorian full to lid and one just below shoulder yeah that is proof that there is no exactness but to shoulder is still above 5 ml in my experience {and some people look at the dip of meniscus to gauge fill level and seriously if the top of the curve is at shoulder and you are decanting you can generally get over 5 full decants out of the bottle... trust me on this}. I have added two full imps from lab to full from lab {at shoulder}bottles and not hit the lid and not thought I was shorted in the bottle department.
  19. elka_knits

    Different smells/colors, same perfume

    yeah it is kinda sad sometimes when I get a back up and it smells nothing like my bottle or imp. Well it smells like but just not as awesome. I did recently take a old bottle of Dragon's Milk that is almost empty and a fresher bottle to show a friend the massive difference aging makes. My older bottle {from '07} is thick and gloppy and deep deep red and rich and lovely and smooth but my new bottle from '13 is relatively fluid and not nearly as blackened red and is raw smelling compared to the old. I know that dragons milk smells kinda raw on me when I first put it on and dries down to the creamy smooth resins and my old bottle starts off with the dry down smell and stays there whereas the new requires wearing for an hour or so to get close to it. I will be crying when my last few drops of the precious aged bottle is finished. Aging accounts for a lot of variance as well.
  20. elka_knits

    Different smells/colors, same perfume

    I had two imps of the same scent acquired a few months apart directly from lab. One was clear the other was orangish. So yes there are batch variations. And I would say a 4 yr old bottle is closer to a 1 year old imp than the other way around aging wise. If you look at reviews or requests for some LE's you will see batch variations in requests... i.e. red musk heavy version please. I was once offered my choice of note heavy scent from a seller.... apparently they had gotten 2 different batches and could tell the difference between them. Otherwise I would say personal skin chemistry accounted for the disappearing or amping notes. I am not so sure of mislabeling although I suppose it does happen. I know when I decant I am very careful about that.
  21. elka_knits

    Smoky, Sweet Scents?

    Defututa is my absolute favorite smoky sweet scent. I admit to not having tried many of the ones recommended and certainly not Liz with it's leather note of doom but sharing my love of the def Olive blossom, honey, smoky vanilla, cinnamon, jasmine, sandalwood, and champaca flower.
  22. elka_knits

    Lamia

    vetiver strikes its evil funk when wet. White scent in bottle and when wet during dry down unless the vetiver peeks through. Turns into a lovely skin scent that is slightly fruity due to peach and currant. There is coconut husk and a tinge of plum to it during dry down. No plum listed so probably the fruitiness mixed with resins gives it that depth. No throw at all for me and disappears within 4 hrs.
  23. I don't like aquatics in general but I try try try as many rose scents as I can. The rose in this is lovely and I like the scent after the first half hour burns off the sea. Interesting but a wee bit more gender neutral than I like. I know I won't reach for it so it might as well go to somebody who might appreciate it more
  24. elka_knits

    Gun Moll

    I was recently frimped some gun moll and I hesitate to review it due to my wretched cold from hell that just won't go away. Everything smells terrible on me atm and even my favorites are noxious so I assume this will be even more appealing when I am feeling better. Yes appealing and it isn't my style. I am getting bergamot heavy zinginess from this and finding it very refreshing. Not cloying, heavy, sexy or any of the other reviews. Maybe a hint of gunpowder. As a lover of all the notes listed except for bergamot and ummm gunpowder I am surprised I am enjoying this since that is all I am getting from it. Will be back laters when my nose isn't broken
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