Pika

Floral-magnolia(?) very strong at first, then fading. I really didn't get the alcohol other reviewers had. The moss note is more prominent on me in dry-down.

Frankincense and dark green things, drying to more floral, with some sweet candle wax type scent underlying. Smells like ritual, with that kind of heaviness - not a happy-go-lucky perfume scent.

I wasn't expecting this to be as sweet and floral. It's pleasant, initially more green and wet, then drying to more pure floral. There's a little bite of evergreen or leaf/moss that lingers, but it's very subtle. I think "pleasant" is the right word... not love, but nice, and not as shadowy/dark/mouldery as I expected. I could actually see wearing this during the current season (spring/early summer).

2018:

I never got to try the older version, but this one is lovely! I do agree that there is some FRUIT of some kind in the imp and wet, but it dries down in a more subtle way... in fact it loses most of the top-note fruit whatever after 5-10 minutes on me. It's sweet, musky, and very subtly floral. The coconut isn't beachy coconut on me... it's that muted black coconut / coconut husk that lurks under other woody things. I like it!

Dang it!! I wanted exactly what Casablanca got... that's indeed what it smelled like in the imp, with a very sharp almond/amaretto that I assumed would dry down to a lovely scent on skin. What I got was soap. Stupid chemistry.

Beautiful early spring flowers. Really light and pretty, and works better on my skin than most florals. Does seem to fade in 3-4 hours, but not uncommon for a “light” scent. Glad I got a bottle.

Aeronwen. The first release label art had more corvid silhouettes, but the recent still has her dark wings. <3

This was my first year trying Hanerot Halalu and I got pretty much straight beeswax from it. I didn’t detect any olive oil, and maybe a bit of smoke, but it mostly dried down to beeswax, or a light, muted honey type scent. I don’t know whether this is good news or bad news for you. :-p

The honey note is great, and really steps to the front on me... I was worried it’d get lost or take a backing role. Something about the honey and the “snowballs” notes (which is very Snow White) turns into some kind of complex floral, like how really fragrant wildflower honey smells, compared to “normal” clover in-the-bear-bottle honey. I really like Snow White and the backing snow notes, so this is a great combination for me!

I posted a comment in the TAL discussion area, but thought I'd make one here as well. Blessing of Isis has seemed to work remarkably well and promptly towards helping my partner and me reconnect in the bedroom. The first time I used it, within days of actually receiving it, I dressed and burned a candle with the oil and focused on reviving the romance and "teh sexy" in our relationship.... did this two nights in a row, prior to the third night, when I was expecting him home from a business trip. That third night, when I got home from work, he was waiting there, ready to jump me... something that hadn't occurred in the past several months. I don't usually have this prompt a response from my ritual work, and while we were both aware of our drought and likely already thinking about ending it, Isis may have just been the nudge we needed to get us there. It was certainly unexpected, exciting, and most welcome!

ETA: Smell notes... not really my fave, gonna leave it on the candles. Heavy, herbal/musky? and makes me think a bit of Smut, which is the only BPAL so far that made me run screaming (figuratively) once reacting with my chemistry.

Used this at the last new moon. Anointed a white candle which I burned during a bath into which I added sea salt and a couple drops of the oil. I did a cleansing meditation while soaking.

I'm still a White Light fan first and foremost, but I did really enjoy this informal ritual and plan to repeat it with this oil each month, if I can. Worth it to wash accumulated gunk away.

I love those notes, especially honey and tobacco. I may have different skin chemistry than others, but I've tried both Tobacco Honey and The Illustrated Woman with disappointing results. Tobacco Honey came out all sweet, green, and flowery, and The Illustrated Woman was VERY pine-y and forest-y on me neither of which is how I like my tobacco scents. Those are good recs if they'll work for you though!

The best tobacco-and-sweet scents I've smelled are really hard to come by... Pinched with Four Aces is lovely... no honey, but gorgeous with sweet coffee overtones... and impossible to get. Sacrifice and Quincey Morris are also fabulous, sweet tobacco with leather notes too... and impossible to get now.

Kali is another favorite with tobacco and honey, but it's got strong, fruity red wine overtones. If you can do red musk, I LOVE Mme. Moriarty and it has a very "smoky-sweet" feel to me. Perversion is good like that too, and actually has tobacco as a note. Bengal is a good honey-spices, but not very smoky.

ETA: I've been dying to try Womb Furie (Snake Oil + Honey) but haven't gotten to it yet!

Be warned though...I used to wear Penumbra during my anatomy labs, but then I couldn't wear it ever again without the association with death/formalin! I had to swap it away after that.

Wow... incredibly fruity and strong at first! The honey is there for me from the beginning, but definitely comes to the surface more after the pear/FRUIT backs down a bit, and the creamy vanilla does come out at the end. (Thank goodness I don't get any artificial banana!) Kind of a "heady" scent, without a lot of grounding notes, and so sweet it almost makes my teeth ache. Still, this is great "creamy" scent, one of the first that seems to work on me, and I can't get enough BPAL honey.

I agree, no false advertising here! Lime and chocolate, which was what I was hoping for. They blend well, and I enjoyed it, and I think it's a lovely foody-in-disguise type scent. It's like the lime tricks my nose into not associating the sweetness with a candy bar, which is perfect. I might have to try to find more of this.

ETA: I do agree it fades quickly though. It's a morning-only type scent.

This was really nice and pleasant! The lime was a citrus that played nice with my skin, and brightened an otherwise cologne-y scent. Eventually the top-note lime faded away, but the leftover sweet-vanilla cologne was really nice too. It had a "traditional" scent feel, which made me feel ok wearing it to work (and wasn't too masculine), but also a "BPAL" feel, that is classic for the scents I like, and doesn't smell like department-store nonsense. It's pretty sweet (sugar cookies and all) but doesn't smell as "foody" as I was expecting -- I don't get that "butter" vibe. Very nice.

So sad! Not sure what is wrong with my nose, but I don't get any tickling, only assaulted by a very soap-smelling non-scent. I can tell the cigars are hiding under there, although I agree with porcelina that it's not the rich tobacco-y smoke I've loved in other blends, like Mme. Moriarty or Pinched. The overall effect is gross soap, though. This is total fail and heartbreak on me.

ETA: ok, tried again, and there was brief, sweet effervescence... for like a minute, until gross-soap came back. Dang chemistry!

Smells like lemon-rose-herbal (lavender? juniper?) to me. Not what I would choose as a perfume, but very pleasant.

This oil really has an amazing ability to energize and uplift me. It's like a breath of optimism and strength that can last me most of the day if I dab a bit over my heart in the morning. I haven't had quite these results with the other courage and joy/inspiration blends, and I'm sad that this bottle won't last forever.

... I am intrigued by what everyone said about The Star, but I couldn't find it. I guess this was a limited one that I missed, since I only just found this place a couple weeks ago? Much sadness if so...

Yes, The Star was part of the GC Tarot series that was discontinued quite a while ago (2007?). I had a chance to try a decant, and it was nice, but I didn't fall in love the way other people did. (And I'm a coconut lover, of all types!) Still, if you have expendable income, I just saw a bottle posted on eBay (2 days left)... so there's some still around, if you go looking for it.

Very nice. I can't remember if I've ever smelled oleander before, and I think it reminds me of magnolia more than anything else.

I was just popping in to say this reminds me a lot of magnolia. And that wet, it's a no-go for me, but as it dries, it gets better. Very faint, floral, with very little honey, but a lot of "sweet". Whoever said "pollen" above, I'd buy that too, at certain stages.

Seconding Hanerot Halalu - it is a beautiful, very simple beeswax candle scented blend.

 

Also, Candles Moon may seem obvious, but if you're specifically looking for candles...

Ditto emzebel!!

"October" and "November" 2007 were my faves for dead Fall leaves. So good they almost gave me headaches at times, and I had to swap them away because I stopped reaching for them.

Went very soapy on me, very fast. But also minty to almost pine-y(?) on the dry down. Not much like I was expecting at all.

This has a touch of metal along with the leather on me! Sweet flowers and a little musky. Lasted a few hours before fading, but really nice while it was on! I especially liked it strong and wet at the beginning.

Yeah, I'm with the people who were expecting some dry/smoky tobacco, and got FLOWERS!! SWEET!! GREEN!! instead. Very sweet and perfume-y early on, the honey is actually hiding well below everything else. As it dried, I got a little more of the smoky tobacco scent, but not much more of the honey. Very much a classic "perfume" type scent on me, and not what I was expecting.