portalkat

A few of us are in the midst of a meet and sniff, and one of the imps is tied with a string and hand labelled "Goowa Goowa." Anyone have a clue what's in it?

It sounds like you have a tarted imp of Goona Goona. Here is the review.

I read somewhere that all scents now come in amber bottles, and any cobalt bottles are just left overs from when they stopped using them, whenever that was (before I got into bpal last July at least).

I think that this is the case. There was a quality control issue at one point with the blue bottles so the lab switched to amber. I think that the note on the tops of the pages are just left over from before.

This reminds me a bit of Valentine of Rome and Cairo and I love both. Dragon Moon 08 is a bit brighter and the magnolia gives it a lovely bit of floral note. I thought that this would be stronger on the herbs, but I think that it is heavier on the resins which I love. I think that this is one of my favorite lunacy blends and I am so happy because I was born the year of the Dragon.

Oh, this is a wonderful twist on a violet perfume. I love any kind of violet, but this is so different with the patchouli and the moss, both which give it a wonderful earthiness. The violet is sweet and rides over everything and that red currant rounds out the sweetness.I find this patchouli to be on the drier, woodier end of the spectrum. To me, this is a very understated and regal blend.

Oh, this is exactly how I would have imagined the farmhouse to smell. It smells like old dusty wood and I can smell the sweetness of the horehound and apple blossom. I love this because it is so evocative of that section of the book, but also because it is rather comforting in a rather odd way. It reminds me of the ruins of a house where a girlfriend and I were poking around when we were about 12 or 13 and some hippies had lived there (okay, this was a really long time ago) and there was the leftover smell of incense and dye from their sandal making supplies which permeated the old wood house. This is how The Norns' Farmhouse smells to me.

This is one of my favorite pine/evergreen scents. The pine and evergreen notes are so fresh in this and there is a vanilla like sweetness in the grass. The most surprising thing to me is that after a year, the smoke notes are more pronounced which makes me so happy. This is one of my favorite BPALs ever. The fact that the evergreen notes do not smell like air freshener is a huge plus.

And again today... I sent a payment to someone for a decant circle. I have $2 in my PayPal account, but instead of using that, it did an eCheck for the full amount from my checking account. Is there some setting that I need to look at in my account?

 

I'm really confused now.

 

--M

 

 

I think I figured out what my problem was...

My bank card expired in January. I have a replacement, but the exp date is different. After all of the kerfluffle last week, I added the new card as a back-up funding source, and then when I placed a lab order today, it looks like it took the $2 from my PayPal balance and then withdrew the rest from my checking account.

 

Still not sure exactly *why* it resulted in such strangeness, but it looks to have been corrected now.

 

--M

Glad to hear that it's straightened out, but it does seem sort of backwards, doesn't it?

I've ALWAYS found them to take from the available Paypal balance and then it will pull the balance required from my primary funding source unless I choose something else. I've always wished that it didn't happen this way, because sometimes I want to use a CC and save my balance, but there is no way to actually choose that option.

 

actually, you can choose another funding source for PayPal transactions. I've done that with my credit card instead of using instant transfers from my bank when I know I'd overdraft my bank account otherwise. There's a link under the default payment option that says "More Funding Options" and if you have the credit card already in your paypal account settings, you can choose that instead of instant transfer or your paypal balance.

I have always been able to do that if I have NO Paypal balance, but there has never been an option for me if I do have a balance. I gives me no "more funding options" choice. I think that others upthread mentioned the same thing. The choice has always been there if I don't have a balance and I can choose different CC's or bank accounts which are linked to my account, but not if I have a balance. This is what it says on the "help" site:

You can use an eCheck, the PayPal Plus Credit Card, eBay MasterCard, PayPal Buyer Credit or PayPal Pay Later to make a payment and not use your PayPal balance.

and also this:

Note: If there is enough money in your PayPal balance to cover the payment, you cannot use your credit or debit card as a payment method for that payment.

I've ALWAYS found them to take from the available Paypal balance and then it will pull the balance required from my primary funding source unless I choose something else. I've always wished that it didn't happen this way, because sometimes I want to use a CC and save my balance, but there is no way to actually choose that option.

Thanks everyone for posting pics. I love the Atomic Luau labels.

Just seconding the rec for Tushnamatay - it's like sweet Indian incense in a bottle. I absolutely love it.

I was just going to recommend Tushnamatay as well. I was thinking that the smell might be nag champa, but I went to this site here and realized that there were so many other things that it could be and got confused. I go for anything with the incense vibe and I think that Philosopher in Meditation is another good one.

Oh, this is beautiful and more than I had expected. I was expecting to find a rose based incense blend, but this reminds me so much of Cairo, a kyphi incense scent, with the lemon grass replaced by a deep dark rose. The olive blossom fills in for the honey in Cairo. This is subtle up close, but I keep getting hints of the sweet kyphi wafting around. I was hoping to only get by with a bottle of this, but I think that I will need to have some backup bottles to hoard. This is my favorite of the Lupercalia offerings

Oh, thanks Tramp.......Hanami is so pretty!

PM'd you.

I think Jolasveinar smells most like Snow Flocons, but it has been a while since I smelled it.

Wouldn't you know, I don't think that I've ever tried Jolasveinar - Thanks for the suggestion. *runs off to search sales posts*

i have a question re: the forum-only scent, and CCNow - there is no "comments field", as far as i can see, when paying with CCNow, in which to leave your forum name, as requested. i know that paypal has a comments field, but in the case of CCNow, is it neccesary to e-mail the lab with our forum names? don't know how strict they are about this, i think i have forgotten in the past, and still recieved the forum scent. please advise.

I was using my husband's CC for this order which I do not list on my Paypal account, so I used CCNow for this one order. There was a special instructions box and that is where I put my forum name.

I think that Luperci is a great choice. I would also suggest the retail Salon exclusive Heavenly Love & Earthly Love which is Ambergris accord, benzoin, teakwood, frankincense, myrrh, Mysore sandalwood, and incense and from that same collection El Amor y la Muerte which is Clove, red sandalwood, orris, rose, opoponax, benzoin, and patchouli. I like the same sorts of blends and my all time favorite is Midnight Mass.

I agree with everyone's assessment of Tranquil Breezes. That was one of my favorites and I found Green Phoenix to be a wonderful BPAL replacement. It is a closer match than B&BW's Cucumber Melon ever was.

I would love an oil that smells like their Ripe Fig room scent oil (might be White Barn, not sure). That one smells exactly like fresh picked blackberries to me, or the bushes warming in the sun when we used to go berry picking. Mmmmm

 

Ok, I was wrong... Its White Barn Candle Co.'s Brown Sugar & Fig room scent and its DIVINE!! Just wish I could find a perfume oil, lotion, anything for my body that smelled like it.

Well, since I can't recommend anything other than BPAL on this thread, have you tried the most obvious Strangler Fig? If the room scent smells anything like the Bath and Body Works lotion and body butter in the same scent, then SF might be a good one to try. It isn't as sweet as the Brown Sugar and Fig, but the fig note is quite pretty.

The first time that I tried this, it smelled mostly of rose and violet with a bit of resin in the background. I tried it a couple of days later and the wood with the frankincense and herbs were the strongest notes with only a suggestion of the flowers. This is what I had been hoping for, resiny woods softened and sweetened by the floral notes. It is really beautiful, a bit musty and somber and a wonderful tribute to those who have passed before.

Yesterday, I recommended Oborot, but I hadn't tried it for about a year. Now that it has aged, I don't get the same fur notes as I did when it was fresh. I did, however, try Crow Moon which is from the same lunacy and found that it smelled exactly like rabbit pelts on me. There is that soft muskiness with a bit of that hide note. When my bottle arrived from the lab, I could smell more of the soft floral notes, but I think that it's a bit more feral now. I think that if Hitchcock's movie The Birds had smellovision, it would smell like Crow Moon.

Thanks so much! I wasn't sure if there was a will call EVERY full moon, or just certain ones. I also didn't know if it was always ON the full moon, or if it was on weekends. Y'all are such a big help. Here's hoping I see at least some of you in Hershey sometime this year.

 

One last question: how about taking a minor? (My cousin's fifteen.) Would it be okay? Would my aunt lynch me? Would earlier in the day be better?

Pictures that Quikslvr tookof the most recent East Coast will call are here. The thread for the East Coast will call is here. As you can see, there are children younger than 15 at the event and there are specific hours for the will call - they generally don't go all day. I've never been to the East Coast events, but I have been to the one at the lab. Much fun!

Definitely Ivanushka, but I found that same quality in Hunter Moon as Heartlily had mentioned. Of course, both are LE's, but I can't think of something in the GC.

Does anyone remember The Body Shop's holiday LE from about 4 years ago called Snow Flocons? I absolutely love it and am hoarding my lotion and shower gel and wondered if anyone thought that a winter BPAL seemed similar. Of course, I am a few days past the most recent Yule update here, but maybe I can get lucky in the sales posts. *runs off to test Old Moon*

There are a few threads in the recommendations threads. Here is something about pirate blends. Here are ideas for salty scents. Hope that those help.