crimescenecleanup

Oh, thank you! I like the layering suggestion!

Oooh...I don't know any of the OUAT characters...but it is a popular show so hopefully somebody will chime in with ideas! OK, what scent would Molly Weasley wear? I am helping out with a series of gradeschool Halloween parties this year, and I'm with a group of teachers that is doing a Harry Potter theme. It was decided that I would have to be Molly Weasley, as there are a few similarities - similar body type, I wear goofy patchwork coats, generally kitchen-witchy-ness, and I want to have a dozen kids. So of course, I have to coordinate my perfume for this event! Not to mention how important scent association is to the creative process - maybe the right perfume will help me get in character and come up with an awesome costume.

in the bottle: lovely vanilla-almond-mint. This smells like some sort of lovely dessert. on the skin: Very strong, dirty, animalic musk. Slight hints of damask rose and a sweetness, like honey. Does it work? Yes, it works. If this stuff improved athletic performance, the Olympic committee would ban use of TALs.

First of all, Song of Selune is not an uplifting or relaxing blend. I use this on nights when my thoughts are racing, and my heart is full of worry, and I feel that I won't sleep well. It doesn't make me feel any better, but it does help me focus my intention, and meditate on the problems I would otherwise deny or ignore before going to sleep. I apply a few drops of Song of Selune (just a little - this stuff has CRAZY throw) to my chakra points before going to bed, and meditate on sleep that is restful and healthy for my mind and body, and on waking up with insight that I didn't have before. And for that IT WORKS. Since I've been using Song of Selune, I have have had vivid dreams and restful sleep. I wake up refreshed and ready to tackle a lot of difficult problems with renewed insight and resolve. I often still feel as sad and anxious about these problems as I did when I went to bed, but there is a better intuitive understanding of how to deal with them. I imagine this blend would be fantastic for lucid dreaming or other dreamwork. As for scent, I get mostly roses - lots of tea rose, and something like that white rose accord in BPAL blends like Dublin and MoonRose. There is a light background of bitter, almost metallic herbal notes. There might be some rose geranium, bergamot, and/or chamomile in this. But please take that with a grain of salt as I am really bad at identifying individual notes. Those are just my best guesses. The drydown of this scent is an old-fashioned tea rose perfume.

Well, seemed like a good day to try this one. The weather is overcast and rainy, I have pneumonia, and I am supposed to be boxing up the house for our move. I'm feeling generally icky and demotivated and could use some joy and inspiration. In the bottle: Have I mentioned how much I love the new parchment-colored TAL labels? the oil itself is mostly clear and colorless. First Impressions: At first sniff this is surprisingly dark. I get smoky resins and wine. Application: I applied this to my chakra points and combed some through my hair. At first I get a really rich pomander scent. What a pretty clove fragrance! There is something else about this scent that resembles sweet wine. It also seems to have a background of light resins, like little light golden grains of incense you would burn to clear a space and make the energy seem more clean and uplifting. The incense and mulled wine aspect gives it a sort of Dionysian edge - this is definitely a joyful "lust for life" kind of scent. Drydown: Surprisingly light in throw and very pretty. I actually suck at recognizing notes, but this seems like smoky clove and white carnations on the drydown. It doesn't come across as medicinal or mentholic, just warm and bright. It is very appealing. It's like a fuzzy blanket you just want to wrap yourself in on a cold day. Effect: My first thought after applying this was, no joke, "I WANT TO GO TO THE GYM!" but then I thought more sensibly no that would stupid I would pass out after like five minutes on the treadmill and give everyone my pneumonia germs. So I didn't go to the gym. But with my new burst of energy, I decided to do yoga and pilates at home. Surrounded by this cloud of Radiance of Ra, I actually felt physically warmer and my muscles were less achey and stiff, like I'd just had a hot stone massage or something. It was an extremely productive workout. I started remembering all of these poses and exercises that I haven't done in years, that targeted areas of my back and shoulders that I had been neglecting in my regular workouts. I also felt 100% better after exercising, which is awesome because exercise is essential for recovering, but my usual cardio-heavy workout just kills me when I'm having respiratory problems. I also feel really, really impulsive. But in a productive way? Instead of following my original plan, I started doing laundry and packing essentials in suitcases for the move. then I started cooking meals for the week and freezing them so we wouldn't have to cook while we were busy moving of fixing up the house. So basically, I am as prepared for this move as a troupe of boy scouts. After that I decided to start boxing things up, but with a completely different system than I had started with originally. Boxing is not going any quicker than I assumed it would with me out of it and sick, but I don't feel any anxiety over it. In fact I feel downright relaxed and flexible. I mean I changed my plan. Considering my OC personality, is downright miraculous. Usually a task that involves organizing and labeling things would bring out the worst of my stressy, control-freak tendencies. I feel so warm and mellow and relaxed. This is like drinking a bottle of mulled wine, without the loss of productivity and coordination! So there ya go. Radiance of Ra. It works.

This perfume is like, stupid romantic and clean and soft as fresh linens and as intense as a teenage crush. It's like coming home from sneaking out to the goth club with my girlfriend, at the age of fourteen. We both use the same coconut scented soap and shampoo, but now our clothing and hair is soaked with the scent of tobacco and cloves and incense smoke. The only light in her room is candlelight, and summer roses hang from the ceiling and walls, drying so that she can preserve them into dead bouquets. We fall back onto her bed exhausted, still wearing our clothes and boots, and watch the flickering shadows on the walls. There is exhilaration at having returned without getting caught, and my heart is racing. She reaches out to hold my hand in hers. My heart beats faster and my breath catches in my throat... I think "I love you so much, it feels like dying" I can't move, or talk. It is all I can do to lay there in the dark, and keep breathing, I'm so overwhelmed by the closeness and presence of her, the feeling of her hand touching mine. Raptures and Roses of Vice is like that moment, frozen in time.

Daffodils. Real, fresh daffodils, a salad of baby greens, and chocolate malt-o-meal cooked with almond milk. This is all springtime garden and comforting childhood foods. This is the strangest combination of scents, and yet, it totally works. I dare you to smell this and not be happy.

WHOA spice. Lots of spice. Mostly clove, some "hot" baking spices, maybe cinnamon and nutmeg? A touch of caraway? I am not getting the cassia burn/headache reaction, so, yay! This is definitely the spiciest BPAL I have ever tested. It actually tingles the nose. Also RAISINS(!) and some kind of sour liqueur. The raisin note is super strong and it is dead-on. I don't think I've ever smelled raisin in a perfume before. There is also a burnt-sugar note that almost goes to plastic, but not quite. -------------------------- There might be a dough or cake note behind all of this to ground it, but from bottle to drydown this is like mashing your face into a bowl of 150-proof-booze-soaked raisins, gritty with spices, while somebody stands in the background using a blowtorch on a bag of sugar. It is...oddly... appealing. I...I...think I like this. I don't want to like this! --------------------------- If these are Christmas cookies, they have a Lovecraftian vibe to them. They are too intense to be normal Christmas cookies. These are the cookies of madness and you cannot resist them. Even while you cry out "NO, NO! I don't want to take the drunken cinnamon challenge in cookie form!" they will insinuate themselves into your life. You will awake late at night thinking of them. Finally, you will arise, and taking a recipe attributed to Abdul Alhazred, written in an ink that looks suspiciously like blood, you will bake them. Oh, the liquor-fueled debauchery of which no culinarian dare speak! Oh, the disembodied voices telling you to pre-heat the oven to a hellish temperature of 325 degrees farenheit! And when the act is done, you will stand before the cooling rack, and you will look upon the misshapen creations you have wrought and say in a distant voice: "These are my cookies. They were baked for me" nom...nom...nom. --------------------------- As one is doomed to taste the cookies of madness, I think I am doomed to like ICD37, in all of its fiery, alcoholic raisin weirdness.

Tart green apple (like a granny smith), something lemon-y, and hint of white musk. The lemon note is actually very pretty and mellow. No pledge here, this is some fancy-schmancy lemon, like a Meyer or something. It may be actually be an herb (lemon balm?) instead of actual lemons. ICD19 is like a really put-together older sister of BPAL's Delirium. She is well dressed, smelling of soap and clean skin and freshly laundered clothes that dried on a line out in the herb garden, in the sunshine. She just baked an apple tart she found the recipe for in Martha Stewart Living. The apples were organically grown in her own garden. She will bring the apple tart to her poor, deluded sister who is currently residing in a sanitarium for the insane. Good for you, ICD19!

yes, I definitely have to agree with t3andcrumpets. This is a sweet, fruity dragon's blood note, with an absolutely gorgeous golden musk and some exotic fragrant woods. (haha exotic wood! Dragon Pecker! I get it!) It is beautifully unisex and undeniably pretty. In spite of the NSFW name, this would be a great perfume for all occasions, formal, business, and casual.

This is easily my favorite of the shungas, of any year. It is so well-blended, I can't even pick out individual notes. The coconut makes this sweet and creamy. It is like a gourmet ice cream made with some fancy variety of lemon, and just the right amount of rare herbs and spice to complement it.

This a heavy, rich floral. It is like literally being buried up to your nose in calla lilies and lilac blossoms. It also has a sweet citrus kick to it. I could almost swear there was some sort of orange in this. Unfortunately, I don't get any lily of the valley, or osmanthus or anything like Asphodel, even on dry-down. All of the gentle, ethereal flowers were buried under that pile of funky-smelling lilacs and callas. Underneath it all is something deeply animalic. Maybe the Egyptian musk? It smells like...well...the zoo. Standing outside the giraffe or tiger enclosures. That is the best way I can describe it. Wild animal fur, with the animal still in it. So I don't light and innocent at all. I get a dirty, funky, musky perfume with a decadent floral overlay and a little citrus bite. I like the concept a lot but this perfume scares and intimidates me. I don't think I am woman enough to wear this.

This is a very complex vetiver - sure it has those mellow warm grass-straw-and-wood-like notes that make for such a lovely base in many perfumes, but this is also earthy, dirty, smoky and unapologetic! Those who fear the smoky goodness of VETIVER, beware. This one is aggressive. And I love it! It is perfectly blended with the moss, which adds just a hint of cool greenery, and the pomegranate, which is adds a hint of sweetness. I would not have recognized this as tart pomegranate, it just comes across as candied red fruits to my nose. If this is what scorched pomegranates smell like, remind me to throw some on the grill next time I have a barbecue.

The 2013 version smells exactly like a chilly florist's cooler. A touch of ivy, a touch of carnation and heather, but altogether it is the scent of opening a fridge full of bouquets.

It sounds like we have similar tastes...I'll try to come up with a list of vetiver and carnation heavy-blends that you might like.

nvm, forum hiccup

I have to second all the recommendations for mint - also anything with notes of menthol, camphor, and evergreens. The Snow Storm was always my favorite for this.

For some reason, Madame Tracy from Good Omens seems to fit. Also, anything with a cotton-candyish or spun sugar note.

For those who care a lot about how their ritual oils smell: lemon-lime soda. straight up. I don't get any melon or cucumber from this but it is a very fizzy and sweet, happy and bright. It's pretty much what I imagined Geek Goth to smell like, only more cheerful. I'll have to edit later with a review of efficacy and how this works out being used with intention. For now, I'll just say that maybe it is the Alchemy, and maybe it is the scent-memory association with highly-caffeinated Mountain Dew, but it is nearly impossible to smell this sparkling citrus blend and not feel perkier.

I've been feeling very fatigued lately, and having a lot of difficulty concentrating. Does anyone have GC (not TAL) suggestions that make them feel more alert and focused?

OK, I luuuuurve most of BPAL lotus scents, and to my nose they smell a nit like aquatic bubblegum. Let's see if this is as nice as Blood Lotus or Black Lotus or the golden lotus from Bastet. In the bottle: Banana Laffy Taffy, is that you? On skin: There is no hint of laffy taffy, banana, or any candy/bubblegum/fruit - in fact there is no sweetness at all. I am oddly disappointed. This is a very light, dry floral. After fifteen minutes: this is vacillating between wanting to be a clean floral and wanting to be dryer sheets. It won't make up its mind, and I find its indecision unnerving. Drydown an hour later: It has surprised us all and decided to be Ivory Soap. Don't try to oppress Eight-Petaled Lotus with your preconceived notions of "flowers" and "scent categories"! Now it is giving me a headache and a rash. Eight-Petaled Lotus is just too radical for me; I'm not ready for this kind of flower behavior.

ataindre - Well, the first scent I thought of for you - spice and pepper and sweet - was the recently discontinued Hermia from the Illyria collecton. Casanova - another a seductive librarian - would also be a good choice, but unfortunately that one has been discontinued, too. You could always keep a lookout for these in the swaps forum or ebay auctions. hmm...well, here are some others to try: Alice's Evidence from Mad Tea Party - spicy-sweet, and being trial-themed it also has that criminal justice connection Nanny Ashtoreth from the Neil Gaiman Good Omens collection - would be be appropriate for a primly dressed professional woman who knows a thing or two about alternative uses for handcuffs Pepper also from the Neil Gaiman Good Omens collection - a honey and floral sweetened pink pepper scent named for an infamous tomboy. Sounds perfect for a wild and spirited young lady. War from the Neil Gaiman Good Omens collection - a truly gorgeous femme fatale/dangerous woman sort of scent. Red from the Fraggle Rock collection - lots of sweet tart fruits and pink pepper! Hideous Heart from the Gris Grimly collection - spiced cherries Crib Girls from The District collection - spiced honey Avenger from the Grendel collection

Huh. I don't get Snake Oil out of this. It doesn't have the powdery quality I usually associate with BPAL musks, either. It is musky, in the way that suede leather is musky. Here in the Pacific Northwest, if you take a walk through the forest early in the morning, you get his cold misty fog rising off the ground, and it smells like near frozen decaying leaves and mulch. Wet - this is true to that scent, the scent of running through the woods in the hour just before dawn. It is so cold, and yet very animalic at the same time. On drydown it develops a spicy vanilla note. This is really lovely. Mythical woodland creatures should smell like this - werewolves and silver hinds and whatnot.

oooh...I just got my latest BPAL order, with Siberian Musk and Eight-Petaled Lotus. I love the single-note labels! It's just a simple "Brimstone" symbol on a white background - but the brimstone symbol is a different color for each single note. This is so great for those of us who have strong color/scent associations. I think from now on I will be asking for reports on the upcoming "single note label colors" in will-call threads, because it will give me the best idea of what the scent might be like. When the year is up, somebody needs to take a photo of all the 2012-2013 single-note bottles lined up by color.

Well, these blends that come to mind: Dragon's Milk from Ars Draconis - rich dragon's blood with honey and creamy vanilla Sudha Segara from Bewitching Brews - another milk/cream blend with ginger, honey, and ambrosia Dana O'Shee from Bewitching Brews - milk, grains, and honey Eden from Excolo - a lush scent with coconut, honey, and fig leaf Uruk from Excolo - a city sacred to Inanna, a fertility Goddess. This scent has a lot of lush florals and fruits and incense. Centzon Totochtin from Excolo - because a hundred divine partying rabbits sound pretty darn fertile. Plus, this one always smells a little bit like easter candy to me, so I always associate it with birth/fertility rites. And BPAL has a ton of scents based off of mother goddesses: Meliai from Bewitching Brews - named for nymphs from Greek mythology that were the mothers of mankind Eve from Excolo - for the mother of mankind from Hebrew mythology Grandmother of Ghosts from Excolo - a title used to honor the Roman underworld goddess who was mother to the Lares, the benevolent spirits who aided humankind. Mania from Excolo - another name for the Mother of the Lares Iambe from Excolo - named for the laughing, dancing fertility goddess who comforted Demeter after the abduction of Persephone. Nyx from Excolo - the Greek personification fo Night, Nyx was also said to be a mother to many of the immortal gods Osun from Excolo - A beautiful Yoruban goddess of love, who helps women conceive Oya from Excolo - a Yoruban Goddess said to be a fierce protector of mothers and children, and a powerful warrior Yemaya from Excolo - The Yoruban Goddess of the ocean, the primal mother of all creation Dawn: Mother from the Dawn collection - a scent based off of the Goddess-as-Mother-archetype For days when you want to embrace your crankiness and need to get in touch with the Dark Mother archetype: Ekhidna from Diabolus - another famous mother from mythology, the mother of monsters and sea beasts Shub-Niggurath from A Picnic in Arkham - an elder god from H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories, described as a corrupted fertility goddess and the "black she-goat with a thousand young". This one is spicy and seductive - it smells like evil gingerbread cookies. Kali from Excolo - named for the goddess of cretive destruction and destructive creation from the Hindu pantheon. Mama-Ji from the Neil Gaiman- American Gods collection - another scent based off of Kali Lilith from Excolo - another fertile female from mythology who is known as the mother of demons and of the Djinn- her children were said to be so numerous they could not be counted. And here's a few random ones that might make you feel better: Fae from Bewitching Brews - because it is sparkly and pretty, and 'cause there's a joke going around the internet right now about how fairies have litters Tushnamatay from Bewitching Brews - a soothing meditation blend when you want to feel calm and peaceful and grounded and properly earth-mothery Marie from Diabolus - a sweet floral blend named for Marie Antoinette, who was supposedly a very devoted mother Titania from Illyria - this is another very pretty "fae" scent that smells like ripe peaches and night-blooming flowers - both great symbols of fertility. And finally, any of the Gratiae from Excolo - Euphrosyne, Thalia, and Aglaea - all very bright, feminine, and happy scents that are great for mood-lifting Good luck and congratulations! Do tell us what you find that works for you. edit: corrected typos in my first post