fountaingrl

Many legends surround St. Valentine, and history has yet to show, conclusively, which ones are true and which are fiction. One tale claims that Valentine was a 3rd century Christian priest. When Emperor Claudius II declared that his soldiers were never to marry - the emperor believed that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and children - Valentine continued to perform wedding ceremonies in secret. When the emperor learned of Valentine's disobedience, he imprisoned the priest. The emperor chose to interrogate the priest himself, and despite his fury at his orders being flagrantly disobeyed, he was impressed with the priest's intelligence, wisdom, and passion. He attempted to convert the priest to the Roman faith, and was furious when he failed. While incarcerated, Valentine fell in love with his jailor's blind daughter. Through God's grace and the power of Valentine's pure and true love for this woman, he was able to cure her blindness with a touch. Before he was beaten and beheaded, he sent her a letter expressing his feelings for her, signed 'From Your Valentine'. Ecclesiastical incense, Roman flora, and the fruits of martyrdom: cypress, olive blossom, frankincense, myrrh, and blood accord. Wow, looks like I'm the first one on this? I searched and couldn't find it so here goes! Wet in the bottle, I got worried. It has a sharp, astringent, green quality that reminds me strongly of Ides of March 2007. I almost liked Ides but it went on and stayed sharp and was itchy in the sinuses. NO! Please behave, Roman flora! Wet on skin -- what's this? Almost as soon as it hits my skin the smell warms. It must be the incense, I smell what is almost cinnamon but can't be cinnamon because BPAL's cinnamon note makes me welt and burn. HOORAY! This is getting really good, very round-smelling, savory is a good word for it. Like compelling in a way that sweet usually is, but yet not sweet. For a minute, there is what oddly smells like a flash of minty?? But only for a moment then it blends back in. Not unpleasant, just startling. On drydown: Total love. I took a huge chance with this one unsniffed, without reviews, based on the notes because I am a resin nut and an incense fiend. I am so so glad! The cypress doesn't get woody, it only grounds it some, the herbal aspect goes from sharp smelling to sort of 'fresh', and I just want to curl up and huff my wrist. I smell amazingly good, as rich as when I am wearing Gypsy Queen even but with a cleaner feel, not so bump-and-grind, more soothing. Oh lord. Now all I need is to hit the Lotto so I can get five more bottles of this stuff before Lupercalia comes down!

Ok wish lists are hard! I will be pleased with just about anything that doesn't have cinnamon (burns my skin), but here is what I am lemming: Decants of the following TALs: Bright Fortune showers of Gold Fast Luck Dixie Love Hymn to Pan Haitian Gambler Friendship Grief Water Love and want, any amount: Queen (the GC, just plain Queen) TKO Dorian (had a bottle and sold it, cuz I am dumb) Morocco (same) Scales of Deprivation Motherhood 2016: Calderium Spider Witch ****Good Morning London**** (highest want) Don't remember, probably tried but want to try again: Dirty Paramatman Fallen Hellfire Deep in Earth Sea of Glass

I utterly adore this! Oddly, in the opening I get green olives. (Don't ask me - weird skin, apparently.) I am so glad I had to run errands while testing, otherwise I might have been tempted to scrub. After maybe 30 minutes, the olives disappear abruptly and for a couple minutes the scent is pleasant but very soft and I was worried it had disappeared. BUT THEN! Oh man oh man. This is a fantastic incense scent. Warm, delicious, unusual, but not overpowering and not 'head shop.' I kept catching wafts of this deliciousness and I was amazed it was me! I don't know that I can say I like Vital Fluid more than OLLA Eve, but consider this: I've actually pondered whether that might not be true today. It is beyond lovely and unique and perfect. I've already ordered two backups and I'm not even remotely sheepish about this. In fact, I'm proud of my restraint.

For lighter scents I like Wings of Azrael, Spirits of the Dead, and Seance.

For the first ten minutes on my skin, I get *pickles*. Sharp, dill-y, crazy pickles from a barrel in a deli. But if I wait that out it goes away, and I get fresh turned soil and a hint of flowers on wind. I wish I got the pine and juniper everyone else goes on about, that would be even better. Still, I love this and likely will need more. FYI: it smells strikingly like Clinique's Aromatics Elixir, but less 'musty' and doesn't give me a headache. So if you ever tried that one and wanted to love it but you just couldn't quite make it happen, try Burial.

I am familiar with it and recommend Lyonesse.

Oh NOES! I am in love with another LE! I got a decant of this from my amazing Switch Witch, and I *never* would have thought it would work on me but it does! I can smell the heat, and the tang of the copper, and the men's cologne on me goes rich and deep and amazing, not at all like CK1 or generic body spray or manfume, OOOOOH this is so good. Ok Firefly fans?? This is what Kaylee would smell like if she stole a little bit of the doc's cologne, it would turn sweet on her and she would still smell like the hot engine? YEP, IT SMELLS LIKE THAT. Oh lord. Off to troll the swaps board to try to score more.

Oh this is SO GOOD. It is everything I had hoped for. I got it from my SwitchWitch FORTYTRICKS and I'll be using up every single last drop! Wet in the bottle it smells very powdery and not terribly complex but the moment it hits skin it opens up. I get soft deep musk, not a murky musk but a very 'clean' one if that makes sense (not smut-type, or dark). Plus the powder is still there and there is a *feel* of fur. I am having a hard time describing how furn smells but this is CLEAN FUR. If you have ever smelled a clean cat's fur, while wearing good perfume? Somewhat like that. On my skin this smells a lot like the perfume "Hiris" by Hermes, and it is amazing. Clean, fresh, powdery, lovely, and quietly comforting. LOVE. (edited to correct that Hiris is Hermes, and not Guerelin, d'oh!)

She "told" me who she was by sending 40 Twix bars! Nice reveal! And thanks to her I have Ivanushka AND a bottle of Great Sword of War, and decants of the two phoenixes I had coveted, and impies, and Lush bubble bar, and a bunch of Villainess.... and books, and a tarot deck, and socks....just... For anyone who is wondering, FORTYTRICKS is awesome and she spoiled me stooopid.

What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! Normally dragon's blood does not behave with my chemistry. Nor does apple! If I had known the notes in this before trying it, or if it had the word "draconis" or "dragon" or "apple" on the imp tag, it would have gone off to swap untested and that would be sad. Immediately on skin this smells like fresh cut melons on me! Not apple. It takes maybe 3 or 4 minutes for the smell to warm up and the crisp, slightly tart apple to come forward (melon note disappears). Then on drydown? Good heavens GUH, this has the same musk note on me as OISIN, but with apples! It is a slightly sweet, comforting, almost fuzzy musk with a bit of floral and apples! I have no idea where the dragon's blood went, or if it just is kept under control with the musk and hyacinth (I love hyacinth!), but I don't care. As long as it plays nice, it's all good. This just jumped to the top of my GC bottle wishlist. Me! The "hates dragons blood" and "hates all fruit notes" girl! What is the world coming to? I iz so confused now.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????? This has notes of COFFEE, and BOOKS? It's a bookish coffee house smell? This scent should be my signature scent. This blend is probably what my soul smells like, if souls can be said to have smells. But on me? Misk U is STANK on me. It bites up into my sinuses with spoiled oversweet crazy-strong fake chemical chocolate note and horrible buttery alcohol. I don't even get a real coffee smell. It just figures. I think BPALs coffee note hates me. El Dia De Reyes had that same sort of gross plastic candy feel, so I am betting it is the coffee. Which is kind of tragic, but what can you do? I guess I'll have to find amazing scents in the thousand-plus others I still haven't tried.

Oh dear. This smelled good in the imp, sort of man-fumey and bright. But the minute it hits my skin I get crazy sweet caramel-ish cookies with a chemical perfume note! I waited for drydown and hoped it would get better. No luck. It gets almost unbearably, nauseatingly sweet, superfoody. Buttery in a bad way, a tiny bit of the "ick!" butter note from Milk Moon 2007, topped with what I can only characterize as "Angry Maple!" Stupid skin chemistry! I don't know if I can stand it long enough to be able to say "after an hour...." but really, what is the point? If it is nauseating for an hour first, I don't care how good it smells on final drydown or whether it morphs. ETA: I can't speak to wearlength. I had to wash this off.

Oh delicious smell of spring breaking forth! Deep in Earth is a huge win for me. I love the *idea* of a dirt note? And have wanted the perfect and wearable dirt note from my very first newbie imp pack in which I ordered Zombi. And I liked Zombi, in the bottle, but it wasn't really 'wearable' on me. It was very strong, wet, sharp dirt, overlaid with a strong undercurrent of strong rose. Together, the mix was sort of yuck. Like putting together beef stew (which I like, and which is savory and tangy), with a tablespoon of marshmallow fluff or peanut butter (both big loves of mine, but NOT with savory stuff mixed in). I was sad. That was about a year ago. When the new GCs came out, I saw Deep in Earth, and I vacillated for maybe ten minutes then dropped it into my cart, a whole bottle, unsniffed and despite the problem with Zombi. What a great gamble! Deep in Earth has the dirt note of Zombi, but I don't know whether it is because it doesn't have rose with it or what, the dirt in Deep in Earth is soft, fresh-turned, damp, and clean. There is a moss note which I love -- it comes across as a dusty but not powdery feel on me -- and a very light wooden aspect. Plus flowers, but not ICK ZOMGFLOWERS!!! The note is rose geranium, and as I don't know if I have ever smelled a rose geranium in real life I can best describe this as: buttercups. I've had this on now for more than five hours and it is still cranking out scent, and it's a morpher in the best possible way! Drydown takes it from a wet, loamy, garden-after-storm scent to a drier scent that gets warm, and finally there is a salt note (????!) that comes out on me. I described this in a chat thread as smelling like a seaside graveyard, that is the best way I can describe -- I smell wet but old wood and moss (coffins? but not rot), flowers, salt air, and dirt. Yay! Color me a happy Fountaingrl! This is 4/5, maybe higher. I'll know after another few wears.

This is an astringent, slightly sharp lavender. It isn't exactly soft, and has a more herbal feel than a floral one. I am not even sure I *like* the smell. It is nothing I would ever wear while awake. But, I have tried TKO and while that smells better to me than Somnus, it smells too sweet, maybe too good, to work well. Somnus on the other hand works great. So great that I can say it is a little sharp and medicinal, then calms a bit during early drydown -- but I can't speak to after that because I'm always asleep!

Oh now this is lovely! It is sweet but not cloying, rich, resinous, but distinctive from the other resin blends -- nothing else is like this. VERY GOOD. The rose does something for the resins, it makes it softer and the blend is so seamless. At first I am really worried it is going to amp and be vomity, but it never does thank heavens! I love this and am definitely going to want a bottle. I will need to wear it a bunch more to be sure, but it might be in my top five incense blends.

An almost-perfect incense blend. It is somehow the incense-smoke scent I get from other blends but this one has a smoldering aspect, I can smell the fire in it. But beneath the incense, which I love, and the smoulder which is odd but lovely, there is a sort of crisp odd almost cucumber -- I know, my chemistry is screwy for sure! -- but it does NOT go with the other notes. It fights against them, and this makes it very jarring to wear. Not for me. :cries:

Alas! I have been rejected by the Angel of Light. On me, Lucifer does not have the sweetness so many other reviewers are getting. No amber, no powder-y aspect, no fig. It also isn't "warm." On me? This smells harsh and dark and scorched and sour. Very sad. Not a friendly scent -- but then again it is Lucifer, maybe it isn't meant to be snuggly.

Huh. This should have been perfect. I am a myrrh fanatic, resins love my skin like nothing else, and I am never happier than when I smell like incense. I even do great with vetiver. The only note in this that made me go HMMM was the almond, but even that only tends to go overly sweet sort of Jergens-y. But somehow, put all together, in this exact configuration? Every note that I love so much combines to make a stinky morass that smells like third-day socks. Every time I think I know my notes well enough I get cocky, Beth learns me! I guess it goes to show you never can count anything out necessarily -- though I do have 'death notes', and now I know you can't ever count anything as a sure thing.

This was lovely and friendly and warm, for about ten minutes. Then? It disappeared. On me, this is the shortest-lived scent of them all, which is sad because if it had kept that scent for even three or four hours it might have been a new favorite.

Oh so sad! The notes were amazing, and if this had worked, it would have worked BIG. The oil in the bottle smelled SSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOo good. Nuanced and deep and smoky and yummy but not sweet. I love something that smells like it should be sweet but isn't, and I am starting to discover that I really like a tobacco note -- I never would have guessed that, as a former smoker. I have been avoding them thinking they would stink. Newp! Tobacco is love on my skin. But cinnamon is not! I had had trouble in the past with some hot smells -- pretty rare, but every once in a great while a scent would sting and it would be unwearable. But I never knew for sure what it was. Now I know -- cinnamon is the DEVIL NOTE on my skin, it burns so badly. I tested it last night, and by the time I could walk from my bedroom maybe ten feet away to the bathroom sink, I had red welts on my wrists. It is a no-go, which makes me sad. I don't think I can even bear to keep it as a room scent, because I want to wear it so badly it'll just make me sad.

I'm on the fence on this one. Part of me LOVES!! it, part of me..... not so much. In the bottle this smells like what everyone else describes that O does for them -- it is sweet but smooth and glowing and YUM. Then it hits my skin. There's (at least on me) an immediate tang that is veeeeeery musky, but very soft. I cannot decide if I love that or if it is ick. And I normally like musk, but the other notes in this are amazing but *sweet*. I get a soft, honeyed, slightly powdery (almost like a rice powder clean, a cool-warm silky clean smell). Then, underneath it, this very soft but strong musk. Ok, I know! The scent is reminding me of Kama Sutra's "honey dust," how there is that cornstarch base scent, the powderyness of it, then the honey? That. I'll give it this. The blend is so complex I can't stop smelling myself. When that happens, it usually means that if I test it a few more times my nose will acclimate and I will end up loving it. (I have learned with some of the unusual bpal, like with some challenging music, you have to get past the "this is odd!" reaction of the first few times to really appreciate it).

I end up falling in love with various LEs, have the sexy smells, the perky smells, but the one that I find most comforting and keep coming back to is Morocco. And more recently I have found Spirits of the Dead and Angeronalia both really soothing (but less flannel-pjs feel than Morocco).

Please nothing with cinnamon, I am seriously allergic to bpal cinnamon -- it burns me and leaves welts, and besides makes me cry cuz it smells so good but I cannot has. http://www.bpal.org/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/icon_smile.gif DISO: Cafe Mille et Une Nuits, Templum Dei I will always purchase or swap for Gypsy Queen, Minotaur, OISIN, or LA FEE VERTE I tend to neglect GCs for some reason. I should not. I am interested in the following: Bottles: LADON TOMBSTONE Morocco The Chicken-Legged Hut BURIAL Crossroads Blood Kiss Athens Pretty much anything from the Dragons series is a possibility To try decants/imps: Alecto Blood Libertine To a Woman Mandrake Ouija Malice Sundew Hemlock DEATH CAP VAN VAN Al Azif Kumari Kandam Elixir: Bitch, Safari, Succor, Quietude Nanshe, Baku

I just majorly destashed. I am keeping bottles of: Blue Moon (x2), Minotaur, Death of Autumn (x2), Gypsy Queen, Tarot:Hierophant, Morocco*, Black Lace, Angeronalia, Thunder Moon, Centzon Tetotchtin, Velvet, Smut, Three Brides, Oisin. Also keeping my Holy Terror from Arcana, it is amazing how it smells like a roaring fireplace. (this does not include TAL of course, most of that is decant tho.) I sold my backup bottles of all but my most favorites. I even sold my partial of Oisin, but at a waaaaay low cost $20 incl ship for 60%) to share the rare love. I am trying to enjoy what I have and not be so GRABHANDS!!!! about it all. I'm also trying to remember that I love a good number of scents, and if I run out and it was an LE there will be another love that comes along. Perfume should not be stressful. Also, I am selling or swapping to get the funds for the new scents, that is how I do updates as I don't have a huge 'me spending' budget. It occurs to me: I need to learn to love GCs more. I probably wear Morocco most of all. Ordered Lupercalia scents, but only three and only one is actual Lupercalia -- Harikata (from the new Salon wing), Valentine of Rome, and the new GC Deep in Earth. I think I need to remember that I really some tried and tested GCs -- I never end up ordering bottles because I always gamble on an LE after raising paypal with a sale. I would wear the heck out of Dracul, Tombstone, or Great Sword, yet I don't have bottles. Silly! *this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite scents, it is one of my top four easily and is often my go-to scent...

Books: Reginald Hill Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries, books on the philosophy of housecleaning (I have a book called Home Comforts, it is my grail and I love stuff like that), books on art (doing -- visual journaling as art, ATC cards, DIY stuff; seeing -- voodoo arts in Haiti book, copies of magazine Juxtapoz or other in print art/painting mags), poetry (modern, not so much archaic, I prefer Barbara Ras over Emily Dickenson), books on running or training or traithalon and fitness for women, third wave feminist stuff Music: I love indie stuff, dark stuff. I would love some more Rasputina, Black Kids, LADYTRON, Elvis Costello, THE THE (!!), 80s cheese pop (bring on the Madness and the Men Without Hats, oh yeah!), really I like a lot of stuff but am not big on fluff pop, e.g. American Idol winner-type songs/James Blunt/Train/etc., and really dislike country and rap. OH! I would love more Rammestein too. And more Kitaro, I only have Silk Road. Oh hell, if it isn't country or rap, I'll probably like it a lot. Movies or DVDs I would love to have: 13/Tzameti, All About Eve, The Women, Event Horizon, actually I like a lot of movies that are scary (but not teen slasher films like Halloween, otherwise scary or even bloody is ok even to the point of 10000 corpses), anything with Bette Davis, almost any movie from 1930s-1950s but prefer they NOT have been colorized. I just saw Hitman and loved it and will need it on DVD when it comes out eventually. I like most movies really, and am getting a better appreciation for 'bad' movies with my husband now because he will watch literally anything. (he's a fan of Ready To Rumble, my people, and that is a BAD movie, can I get a witness?) ETA: Got "Bottom" for Christmas from the husband, yay!