forspecial_plate

How could I forget Death Adder?? I'm a fan of vetiver, so I like Death Adder a whole lot. However, it reminds me more of Snake Charmer than Snake Oil, maybe because of the coconut. Western Diamondback smells great to me, but it always fades really fast. After less than an hour it's just a ghost of a scent on me, unfortunately. And that's strange because Snake Oil lasts and lasts on my skin. I've held onto it because I do really like it, maybe I can wear it in a scent locket.

I've tried all of the Snake Pit, and the ones I kept are almost a year old now. IMO, none of them are actually better than Snake Oil. However, I like a good many of them on their own merits. I really like Coral Snake, Cottonmouth, and especially Green Tree Viper. All three of those got better and better with aging. King Cobra and Temple Viper are pretty damn good, too. Out of all those, I think Green Tree Viper is closest to Snake Oil. Especially after it ages, the Snake Oil sort of 'pops out' on that one. I personally didn't like Asp Viper or Australian Copperhead all that much, and swapped mine away. But I think Teggy's right....it's all subjective, and depends on what you like. Although I have to say I wouldn't have expected to like Green Tree Viper all that much......it just sounded so odd. Snake Oil with mint?? Then I tried it.

I found this toasty, slightly sweet and spicy. From the reviews I think I was expecting much more sweetness, actually. But this is comfy and toasty. To be honest it's hard to describe this without comparing it to Possets' Morgan Le Fay, because they smell very similar to me. I think MLF is more on the foody side, and this one is more on the woods/smokey side, although not by much. This is a great scent for this time of year! I was afraid of the beer note but I don't really smell it. And from the other reviews I thought the treacle would be more sticky-syrupy. Bonfire Night strikes a nice balance between the sweet and smokey qualities. To me the smoke is just a whisper. Edit! Wow....I wore this again, and I got almost the opposite of my first review. Very sweet, very smokey. Honestly, this time I had to wash it off, because I think I put on too much, and I think I was overwhelming the people around me! Definitely more sweet and smokey than the first time I wore it, and now I can't decide if I still like it! I'm going to set it aside for a while and try again, because I do think it has potential to be something I really like.

Wow....that is definitely a sharp blast of sea spray, and very little else! Over time, something sweet and powdery starts to rise up out of the blend. Mostly though, it's a salty sea-spray/sea air scent, very potent and nearly soapy but not quite soapy. It strikes me that if there is ozone in this, Beth is getting more and more skillful at using that note, because this blend doesn't shout "Ozone!!" to me. But it's definitely the smell of standing at the bow of a ship, crashing through a big wave, feeling the bracing spray hit your face. That powdery note that starts to come through......I think that could be partly the Snake Oil, which sometimes does have a slightly powdery element when I wear it. Otherwise, I really can't tell notes apart in this. I'm definitely going to keep it around and will enjoy letting it age, I bet it calms down a lot and maybe the other notes will come out a bit more.

I wore this yesterday morning and really enjoyed it. It's light, sweet, and slightly 'pink' from the cherry/strawberry, although I really can't tell those apart here. I don't like it as much when I sniff close to my skin where I applied it. Don't try to go huffing after this one, let it come to you on its own. It seemed to envelope me in a sweet pink and white cloud. Kind of reminded me of pink and white Cream Saver candies, with a slight hint of powder. It is similar to Bloody Mary, but does not have the deep, juicy red fruits of that scent. This is more of a creamy, cakey scent touched with a light berry sweetness. I think Moonarcana got it right....it's really similar to Perilous Parlour, except instead of pear it has cherry and strawberry. I did get the same sort of feel from both scents.

I wanted to try this because it seems that Beth has been exploring the 'damp stone' note a lot lately, and I wanted to experience that. What I get here is a lot of sharp floral. Very potent. I couldn't tell you which floral I'm actually picking up, or if it's a blend of the flowers in this scent. Actually, I don't know what a few of those things are in the description. After a while, the scent doesn't change a lot, but the sense of 'floral' transforms into something else. Some people are going to think this has a masculine edge to it. Maybe it's the underlying vetiver giving me that impression, who knows. I honestly wouldn't have known there was vetiver here without reading the description. The scent stays rather sharp, and once I was reminded of the Unheavenly City. This doesn't exactly smell like jasmine, but maybe what I'm smelling is 'hothouse orchids'. That seems likely. I will wear this again once or twice before deciding for sure how I feel about it. I've been craving a good floral scent lately, so this did come at the right time.

I second Antony, and perhaps Oneiroi......lots of lavender in that one. Comes across very herbal on me, even with the other notes.

This is just a general FYI in case someone else was thinking about sending payments with a Blackberry. I made a forum purchase, through Paypal, and tried to pay using my Blackberry. The 'comments' field never appeared, so I had to send a separate email listing my decants, forum name, etc....to make sure she had all my info. Well, I emailed Paypal to ask them how to add comments via Blackberry, and apparently you can't! With a Blackberry, all you can do is send a payment or view your balance....you can't add comments or look at your history (probably other stuff you can't do too). Which sucks!

Over the weekend I tested a number of scents including Kostnice and Sepulcher. Both of them turned horribly soapy on me. I guess lily is the note that they have in common, that caused so much trouble. They both developed a soapiness that got stronger and stronger until it was unbearable, and I had to wash them off. Not only that......both scents seemed to 'ruin' my nose for a good hour or two after I had washed them off. In other words, I tried putting on other scents that I really like, just to 'chase away' the horrid soapiness/memory of it, and nothing smelled right to me. It was kind of like trying to drink orange juice after brushing your teeth......everything smelled off in the aftermath of the soapy lilies! I don't think all lily notes have this effect. I swear I've tried other scents with lily that didn't cause such a violent reaction. But from now on I'll be eyeing that note warily. Already I'm afeared for 2 of the Yule scents (Noche Buena, and the one with candy-charcoal). Now, the candy charcoal one, I was already not real hopeful about because of the violets and lily. But I really want to like Noche Buena. We shall see!! I've already ordered decants of both.

Lysander is fantastic. Basically I agree with the other reviews on this one. A little sweet, almost foody but not quite. Someone mentioned 'salty' and I get that too, just slightly. And someone else got leather.....me too...I kept thinking there was leather in this, and was surprised when I saw that there isn't. However, leather sometimes takes over a scent, but nothing in Lysander takes over....it's extremely well balanced and blended. This smells fresh and clean to me at first, then it shifts slightly after a quick period of time (less than 10 minutes), and a woodier, more rugged side comes out. I really love that first burst of freshness, I think it's due to the lime partly. I would be afraid to get a bigger bottle of Lysander, because I think there may be some delicate components and I wouldn't use it up fast enough. And I found it hard to believe I was enjoying a scent with lilac and violet! Amazing! Usually I don't like either of those, Bluebeard being the exception for violet. Also.....this kind of reminds me of a Possets scent......it seems to straddle the line between 'modern' and 'classic'. I can see what people mean when they say it's old-fashioned, but I also get a real modern vibe from it. Gender-neutral to my nose, and wonderfully so.

I posted an ISO for 10ml bottles, and already I've got 3 coming to me! Well, 2 partials and one empty, but that's okay.....I can decant into the empty one (Morocco), if I get some imps or even a bottle (if I like it a lot, which I can barely remember what it smells like.......but I remember I liked it). The other 2 are Bloodlust which I've never tried, but looks promising, and Urd, which I do like, and have never really had an imp of my own....now I'll have plenty. So, that was more of a response than I was expecting! : )

More scent blogging because I'm boooored...... The one good thing about doing laundry is, it's a good place to test scents. It's good because it takes a couple hours, my mind kind of wanders, and with the movement of my hands there is plenty of wafting so I get a good idea of 'throw'. So as my mind is wandering, I might forget what scent I put on, until it wafts up at me again. And the whole process has a little bit of zen that I enjoy. Other than that......I hate doing laundry. : )

I'm still learning. Now I think some bpal scents are too masculine (Dee, I'm looking at you), and I really lean towards the truly gender-neutral ones. Death Of Autumn is my new favorite gender-neutral blend....I really love it! I also love October, and I do consider it pretty masculine although from the reviews, some of the girls really like it too.

I went camping this weekend (well, I was in a cabin at a camp-site), and didn't bring any scent at all! I just figured, what's the point. I did bring my pillow and blanket. So I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into my cabin after a few hours and smelled......Snake Oil! Just the remnants that rubbed off my skin were enough to scent the whole cabin, not really strongly but enough that I knew it was from Snake Oil or the variations that I wear. Cool! As for the inquisition, I think I got the one I wanted most. I may swap a decant or two to try some of the other ones. I'm mostly interested in Egg'd Mailbox and maybe Pumpkin Smash. We'll see. I am so antsy to get my hands on my Halloween decants! Gimme! The CnS came yesterday. Now I'm worrying that Bonfire Night is going to be too sweet, based on the reviews so far. And still am up in the air about Sugar Skull. I really don't wear it that much, even though I love how it smells. Do I really need a whole bottle? And finally, the Possets Halloween update is enormous, even bigger than I thought it would be. There is one scent that I feel like came from a suggestion I made in the Possets forum, so obviously I need to get that one. And of course 7 or 8 others that sound tantalizing. I like how Fabienne doesn't list the notes for us. For me that makes it more fun when the scents are actually in my hands, and there's more anticipation, wondering what the hell is this going to smell like (Infernal Bar-B-Que, anyone??). So, I think I'll make a smallish order first, then read reviews, and make one more larger order in a couple weeks. I could wait and order everything at once, and get free shipping, but I really don't think I can wait that long. I really want to know what Bat Fur Cloak smells like, among others.

My review straight out of the mailbox...... At first this is very buttery on me. It's the same buttery pumpkin note that I recognize from Pumpkin Queen and Jack. That strong buttery-ness fades back a lot after about 15 minutes (which is the same thing it does in PQ and Jack), and the other notes start coming out. So delicious! The hype is all true.....basically, if you think you'll like this, you most likely will. I can smell the creamy cheesecake component, sweet and slightly spicey pumpkin, and I think I can even smell that graham cracker crust part, too (unless that's just the power of suggestion!). This scent is very rich, just like the dessert itself, with a strong throw.....and lasts for hours. Really nothing more to add, except that this probably fills my desire for a good Pumpkin scent quite nicely! I most likely don't need bottles of the Pumpkin Patch scents now, although I will enjoy my decants that are coming. Edit: I meant to say also, Pumpkin Cheesecake kept reminding me of Flossing, the Possets scent. I'm not sure why.....maybe there's some vanilla, and quite possibly some ginger, in PC.

I'm resisting the urge to order another Trick Or Treat Inquisition scent. I keep telling myself, just wait....because I don't even know which scent I'll get with my first order, because Possets' fall update is at the end of the week, because bpal may or may not have an update coming soon....not to mention the other bpal Halloween scents that I want, that I still haven't ordered yet.....all very good reasons, but I want another Trick Or Treat order pending, dammit!

[from my 2006 bottle] I knew there was a reason I waited months and months to review Samhainophobia. I tested it a few times, and just didn't get it. I read the reviews. I read the description. What I had didn't match up with any of that. No patchouli, no vetiver......in fact, none of the notes listed, as far as I could tell. To me, Samhainophobia smelled almost exactly like Samhain, with just a smidge of sharpness on top. [i should mention, when I wear Samhain, I mostly get the sweet apple note, almost like honey, and very little woods or patchouli or anything else like that. Samhainophobia is the same way.] Well, I wore it again today, and it finally 'clicked' for me. It still smells sweet, like Samhain's apple note. But there is a chill, like autumn woods at night, that just reached out for me this time. It's reminiscent of bpal's snowy blends, but definitely different.....this is an autumn chill, with the slightly spicy sweetness behind it. I think I finally just gave in and accepted the scent as it is, and found that I really like it. And since autumn is my favorite season, I'll be wearing this again, for sure.

I have so many different perfumes now, that sometimes wearing just one isn't enough. I get too impatient to try something else. So I end up smelling like 2 or 3 different ones, and it kind of turns into perfume overload. Like they all just get lost in a cloud of too much smelliness. I'm getting better lately, though, and trying to be patient and just wear one for a while before trying another one. I still have quite a few new scents that I haven't reviewed or even tried yet. It's a little out of control, and when I look at my wish list, I kind of think to myself "you're kidding, right? you need MORE??". On a different note....I already knew that I like fall scents year-round, including in the heat of summer. Lately, though, I've noticed that I don't reach for the 'red' summer scents, now that I'm in a fall mood. Red Moon and Corazon are two examples, I just haven't felt like wearing them at all lately. Maybe that's because I'm sooo hyped about the fall scents right now. I do sometimes like the winter scents in different seasons. I wore Jolasveinar and Midnight Mass a few times over the summer. Speaking of fall scents, I'm starting to wonder just a little about my decants. I've bought from this gal before so I'm not too worried, I'm just wondering what stage we're at......has the CnS come yet? Has she actually got the package yet? Are they on the way to us (doubt it)?? I'm just so impatient for these, so I can go ahead and place another order. Also, when I look at which Pumpkin Patch decants I ordered, I kind of wonder what I was thinking. I ordered 2, 4 and 5. Now I wish I could try 3 also. I'm pretty sure without sniffing that I'll like 3 and 5. I think I ordered 2 just to see how the champaca or champa plays out in it. It's a note that I like but it sometimes takes over a scent for me. I'm also really really excited about the Possets fall update, coming soon. One more week! I know I need to set aside at least $50 or $60 for that, probably more..... *sigh*

This smelled like aquatic, white floral, and white musk to me. A little powdery, and the familiar 'mist' note that I remember from other bpal scents......it became more powdery as it dried/faded on my skin. It reminds me very much of some perfume that my stepmom wears, but I don't know which one that is. It also reminded me of Empyreal Mist, a little bit, if I remember correctly. This is another scent that I could use for enabling, I think my stepmom might like it. I personally won't get much wear out of it, though.

The first thing I thought of was Gypsy Queen: "A heavy-lidded perfume, the quintessence of beauty and power shrouded in mystery, swathed in a deep, velvet-clad cloak of dark omens: Romany incense and candle smoke mingling with an alluring, body-warmed whiff of bergamot, neroli, Bulgar rose, carnation, and amber musk." For me it's more floral than anything, but it has a lot of throw. When you described your costume it seemed to fit. (oh and it's LE from Carnaval Noir)

I've worn this a few times now, and still can't tell if I'm going to like it enough to wear a lot. It's much sweeter and.....brighter than I expected it to be, greener somehow. Basically the other reviews before mine are accurate. There does seem to be musk here, and it reminds me a lot of Devil's Night. Both scents are musky and sweet on my skin, and light on the booze notes. In Hunter Moon the wine is hard to pick out. Comparing it to the old Hunter Moon, from my decant......very different scent. That could also be because of aging, though. But I like my old-school, dark, incense and woodsy (also heavier on the wine note) Hunter Moon more than this one. This actually reminds me more of Buck Moon (which I've only tried once, but I think someone else mentioned the resemblance and I agree) than the older Hunter Moon. I've had good results with this when I apply very lightly. Too much of it becomes cloying but that's often a problem for me. Oh and as long as I'm comparing, Hunter Moon '07 reminds me a lot of Thunder Moon, like this could be its fall companion.

For some reason Umbra rubbed me the wrong way. I like many dark scents and this seemed like one of the darkest. I love patchouli and vetiver, and cinnamon sounded good here too....generally I like it in moderation. So what happened? At first I got strong, 'new' patchouli, and lots of it. Then as it dried the other notes came in. Something began to smell borderline powdery, and somehow the scent as a whole just didn't work for me. It was woody and earthy with a faint undertone that was high and sweet....a little cloying, almost like decay. Basically, just not for me. This scent reminds me of Typhon, but I love Typhon. Oh well, there are plenty of other scents to love. Edit....I'm holding onto my imp because I know that patchouli and vetiver can both age beautifully, and become smoother. Still pretty sharp today but no powder so far. Yay!

First impressions, straight out of the mailbox: This goes back and forth from realistic damp leaves to more traditional, but light, cologne or perfume. I agree that you could call it masculine. There is a hint of peppery bite at the top, from the leaves I think. Underneath the leaves, this scent has a 'golden light' mood or tone that reminds me of Minotaur and even Pumpkin King, a little (yeah, I said it!). I think there is some kind of soft, subtle resin at work here, like copaiba balsam or something....that must be the 'sap in the air'. The hint of smoke has echoes of Djinn. But mostly this is golden autumn light dancing on falling leaves. In fact, if there was ever going to be a Falling Leaf Moon like someone speculated, I think it would smell like this. Much later, as October dries, that peppery bite seems to gain intensity until I'm getting almost a cedar vibe from the scent. Woodsy now and spicy. October is light, and I don't think it has a whole lot of throw. Still, I am drawn back to my wrist over and over to sniff. I could wear this year round but I'm weird like that. In other words, I love it. I'm already resisting the urge to hoard another bottle (and I've never even finished an entire imp or decant of anything). [edited to remove clunkiness]

Ooooh, Hunter Moon looks very pretty! Can't wait to smell it too!

Ginger is a hit-or-miss note for me. I love Shub-Niggurath, but I don't like the ginger note in Saw Scaled Viper and War. I like Sudha Segara, but I don't love it, and I'm not sure I can smell the ginger in it. It smells more like sparkly lemon and lime to me. I have a wee sample of ginger essential oil from Nature's Gift, and I really like how it smells. Oh and I do like Pumpkin Queen, but I don't love it (wait.....PQ does have ginger, doesn't it?). I was reading reviews for Shub-Niggurath and couldn't believe all the variations people are smelling. I don't smell lemon at all when I wear it. And were there really different 'versions' of Shub? I always wonder if that's true or if it's just people's different perceptions of the same scent. I have a decant of pre-resurrection Shub, and also a bottle of the resurrected Shub, and they smell exactly alike to me. Of course, I don't know how old the decant is.