Lucchesa

2 hours ago, Gwydion said:

I am so glad they suit!

@lawardrop_27512 Note that I made that jam! (It was lawardrop whose canning book gave me the confidence to get started in a 13 Nights swap 3/4 years ago. But she can't be blamed for the texture -- I tried a low-sugar pectin for the first time and the amount in the proprietary recipe was definitely too much.) 

@Gwydion Glad you're enjoying! Happy Halloween!!!

Oh it’s fabulous to see all the goodies coming in! @AbbyNormal I’m sorry about your hand, but I’m glad the delivery is underway. Look what I got from the amazing @doomsday_disco!!! A huge bag of her local caramel dark chocolate sea salt popcorn! Fabulous Magician socks! All these imps!!! Plus a bottle of Melichrous Dragon and a partial of the Edward Gorey Dregs of a Bottle of Vanilla Extract Discovered in the Mud!!! I haven’t been doing a great job of keeping up my wishlist with recent releases but d_d read my notes list so carefully and came up with a ton of things I know I’ll love! Then tea: August hazelnut chocolate which sounds divine, and Chestnut Grove from her local tea shop which is my favorite tea in the world. I know this because we were paired a few years ago for 13 Nights and she sent me some then. I’m so thrilled to have more!!! Last but not least, the Teeny Tiny Tarot, the only deck I’ve had my eyes on recently, which is also very Halloween themed with skull cups, a bat for Hanged Man, etc. I’m so excited about these! I’m leaving tomorrow for a week in Mexico and they’re going in my luggage! Thank you so much!!!!!

And I’m happy to run a card swap! Not sure if I have the spoons for 12 nights but I’m definitely on board for tacky ornament and solstice.

🎃@doomsday_disco Open it! 

Definitely a stealth dead leaves note here, which I imagined from the name. Spicy smoky vetiver against a backdrop of dead leaves. I don't think I have any DL + vetiver blends, and I like it a lot. 

@Gwydion I used this recipe: https://bakesbybrownsugar.com/shortbread-cookies/

I substituted half brown sugar, half white, and I added a teaspoon of Frontier Coop maple flavor. I think they would be even better made with maple sugar, but I didn't have any. 

I'm so sorry your cat is under the weather and hope it's nothing too serious. And your friends -- covid? I had a lecture cancelled yesterday because the retirement community was under covid quarantine. I hope you can get together and celebrate soon!

Dead leaves and a dry patchouli, beautiful. I hadn't thought of it until I read Poenari's review above, but yes, very much like Autumn Leaves and Haitian Patchouli HG, one of my absolutely favorites. After a while some dark sweetness emerges from the dried plum. Kind of hippie, kind of goth, exactly what I want to wear in October. 

I really never get snake oil out of this one. I get dead leaves and a lot of neroli, which is always a bully with my skin chemistry, and they continue to be the main players on my skin here. No amber, cardamom or smoked vanilla, just neroli, dead leaves, neroli. I wish this worked on me!

I think this must be a decant @Teamama gifted me as it would have been foolhardy for me to order something this violet-forward, even though all the other notes a good on me. But when there's violet involved, I barely make out the other notes. Between the violets and the plums, it's very purple, and I do get an opium note underneath and a vanilla sandalwood note on top. Still, everything pretty much ends up getting subsumed by violet, and it's not a note that works well on my skin. 

58 minutes ago, doomsday_disco said:

@Lucchesa I'm so glad your box landed safely (and earlier than the post office's estimate!). I followed the method of Twi and Usagi -- there's five types of things, but sometimes there is more than one of that thing.  I hope trying the day zero smellies helps to tide you over until Halloween!  

 

I haven't received a package yet, but I just wanted to let my bat know that I'm checking the mail every day on the lookout for it!

I have not actually had confirmation from your sender that your package is en route. I saw in another thread that she has been ill. I’ll let you know when I know more!

@Gwydion HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! I hope it was fantastic!!! The gargoyle dish towel didn’t come out as well as I had hoped — it’s a tricky print to pull even on paper — and I didn’t have time to wash it out and start again, so I hope it has kind of a faded old movie stills feel to it. (It won’t wash out now, I set it with an iron. It can get machine washed and dried.)

@Gwydion Your package is showing as delivered…

I got a box!!  From @doomsday_disco who apparently does not know how to count — not complaining! Look at all this!!!

My day zero goodies: Fairytale Sorbetto scrub (fantastic timing, I was noting this morning that my correct scrub has not even one shower left in it!), mini Greyhound glycerin soap, Bohemienne wax cracks in Tarot and Grimoire which sound perfect, Pumpkin Incense atmo, and all these decants!!! I can’t wait to start trying them but this morning’s application of Pumpkin Tobacco is still going strong so maybe tonight…

THANK YOU, doomsday_disco!!!

Has everyone shipped their package except the person who is hand-delivering? I was a very bad swap leader and only shipped today due to life events that were beyond my control (caring for my nearly blind and deaf MIL visiting from out of town who was supposed to go to her brother’s house after two nights except said brother came down with Covid so I had her for five extra days and nights and only took her back to the airport Wednesday…). Fortunately my package doesn’t have to cross the country. 

Wow, these packages look amazing! I added an IGI thread but I'm not really sure we need it since we're a smaller swap.  @Em- as moderator I'm going to let you decide. If you think we need it, please approve the thread; if not, please delete it, which I don't seem able to do at this point.  Thanks!

In USPS news, I'm still waiting on an Etsy package that was supposed to be delivered Oct. 2-7. Tracking says delayed. Duh. I'd planned to ship Tuesday but it might be Wednesday...

So much big cherry energy! Juicy bing cherry right off the bat, lots of it, outpacing the dead leaves and incense tar which are pretty quiet throughout. Unlike doomsday _disco I love the dead leaves note and hoped for more of it, and given the descriptor tar I was hoping for something darker and smokier. I find this becomes exactly what I wanted it to be if layered with Dead Leaves on Fire. 

Dead leaves, though not emerging as clearly on my skin as some years' leaf piles. Faint clove and some cream that threatens to go off on my skin but stays in line. Some smoky whiskey sweetened by the other notes, or sweet on its own. I never really get burnt marshmallow, neither the burnt part nor the marshmallow part. This is not rapturous on me like DL & Scotch a few years back, which I was hoping for a version of, but it's nice enough after a year of aging. I had to reapply twice, once in the early afternoon, once around 6 before going out, and the throw is minimal, but that's standard for me. 

@Gwydion You are allowed to mail anytime, just not after October 15. Early is fine! We won’t open until Halloween or thereabouts. 
 

@Usagi Overgenerosity is always okay. How is everyone doing??

Skin chemistry changes have made some honeys go weird on me, so I was curious to try black honey. It seems to be a fruity honey that melds with a grape-y dark musk. I'm used to red musk being fruity, not black musk. It's confusing. This reminds me, I think, of Bess? I haven't smelled it in ages and don't have an imp to compare, but Black Honey and Black Musk evokes a strong scent memory linked to one of the imps in my very first BPAL order, and I think it was Bess. Once dry some of the fruitiness is mitigated, and it becomes a sweeter cousin to Haunted, with good wear length. I think this would be a good scent for a bad mood, or for counteracting some of the terribleness that is our world right now. 

I can’t believe some of you are in the wrapping phase! I am way behind as usual… 

Ugh, I did all Twi's questions on my phone last night and IT WOULD NOT SAVE THEM. And this morning the answers were gone. So off to redo them now. 

NEW QUESTIONS:

Do you need any storage for BPAL bottles or imps?

I need storage for the squat little bottles Ajevie calls slonks. I haven't figured out a good storage solution for them yet but they are easier for me to open so I've acquired quite a few. 

Is there a tarot deck calling your name? 

Teeny Tiny Tarot (Etsy and possibly elsewhere)

Could you please be more specific about what kinds of socks you enjoy wearing? 

Always crew, in winter also knee high and over the knee. My witchy garden ones are starting to wear very thin... 

A greener version of Graveyard Dirt. Super realistic garden center vibe!

1 hour ago, AbbyNormal said:

I also created a blog for my answers but since I only use mobile, not desktop, I have no signature to add anything to 🤷🏻‍♀️

Which is a drawback to the mobile site!  Your blog is pretty easy to find at least on desktop, but here is the link for your witch:

Everyone should have a match!!! Check your personal messages and let me know if you have any questions. Only folks in the continental US signed up, so our mailing deadline is October 15. Stalk away!

If anyone is on the fence, tomorrow is the last day to sign up. I'll send out matches by end of day Tuesday. So far I have EVERYONE's questionnaire -- great job, swappers!!!