tempete

Normally, lilies are instant soap on me, so I was bracing myself for the soap factor when I applied Dragon's Eye. And surprise, surprise... no soap! This scent is mostly lilac on me (though I can detect the lily-of-the-valley lurking in the background), anchored by the resins. During the drydown, the resins deepen and nudge the lilac to the side. Dragon's Eye is not your conventional floral scent and is likely headed for the keeper pile.

In Dragon's Hide, the leather note dominates over the dragon's blood resin, which adds just the faintest touch of sweetness. The dragon's blood resin does emerge a bit more during the drydown, but it's still mostly about the leather on me. Beth's leather note is very masculine-smelling on me, so this imp will go into my swap pile.

I never got an order acknowledgement email from the Lab when I was ordering through CCNow.

Unfortunately, I have to recommend Milk Moon which is no longer available. It's quite a bit less sweet than Au Lait, though. Try using the search engine to find scents in the BPAL catalog that mention "milk" in their description, because you may find other milky scents that you like even if they're not that similar to Au Lait. I personally adore Dana O'Shee and Alice. Other possibilities are Sudha Segara, Eden and White Rabbit.

Milk Moon is only the second Lunacy blend that I've ever tried Given that my first Lunacy blend was Chaste Moon, which I really had to slather on in order to smell it, I did the same with Milk Moon. BAD IDEA. I smelled of sour milk for two hours before the scent settled down into a creamy blend of lunar oils. The next day I could smell a faint whiff of milky coconut emanating from my wrists, which made me think that I was putting on way too much. So I applied much much less, and yay, SUCCESS! Creamy lunar oils after only about 10 minutes of sour milk! (Though I haven't been able to find that coconut drydown again.) And I never got any mint, which is generally a good thing for me. For milky BPALs, I think that I still prefer Dana O'Shee, Alice and Chaste Moon because these are all a bit more complex, but Milk Moon is very lovely in its own right and I can see myself wearing it often.

Zombi smells of dried roses initially - it's most definitely dried roses, rather than live, lush roses. The earthy notes appear in the drydown and the dried rose note is relegated to the background. It's not as earthy as I expected, given the other reviews. In fact, it reminds me a lot of The Apocathery, except with the dried rose note instead of fig.

Initially, Titus Andronicus is all about the dark musk, sweetened just a touch by the citrus. Next, the bergamot and perhaps neroli make an appearance, followed by a sandalwood and frankincense stage. An hour or two into the drydown, Titus Andronicus becomes almost purely amber, with tiny hints of the other notes peeking through. This is my favourite part of Titus Andronicus, since I'm such a fiend for amber. I can see where the comparisons to Haunted come in. Titus Andronicus definitely resembles Haunted, but is more complex and is also more masculine on me, especially during the dark musk opening phase. I put Titus Andronicus on one arm, and Haunted on the other, and in the end, I preferred Haunted more because it's more gender neutral, I like the drydown better and it doesn't take so long to get to the amber drydown.

I got a decant of Shub-Niggurath from the wonderful ChupaChup! Initially it does smell of evil gingersnap cookies to me. Fortunately, though (since I hate smelling like specific foods), the foodiness fades quickly and I'm left with a delightfully spicy scent that is warmed up and smoothed out a tad by the amber note. Later in the drydown, a very dark herbal note creeps in, adding an appropriate edge to the blend. I can see why so many people love the Shub. If it were to become available again, I would probably buy a bottle, but for the present moment, I'm content with my little decant. I'll leave the bottles of Shub-Niggurath on swap/sell lists and eBay to those who really desperately want them . ETA that I caved and snatched a bottle from a forum sale (thanks darkling!). The drydown is so awesome on me that I had to have more.

Temperance was initially a light, slightly sweet, somewhat grassy and green scent. I really liked the scent, until it dried down to soap . I don't have the decant anymore because of that soapy drydown, but I may attempt to swap for an another decant and try layering Temperance with other scents because it was so lovely in the wet stage.

The Magician struck me as a very changeable, morphable scent. It was predominantly a water scent, with a hint of soap and anise.

Ace of Wands totally surprised me. I got a smooth woody note (must be Beth's lovely red sandalwood) and a note that was reminiscent of cherry, but not quite. When I read other people's reviews, I realized that the pseudo-cherry note comes from dragon's blood resin. Normally, my skin does spectacularly awful things with this note, but in Ace of Wands, it just melds with the wood note so beautifully. This is a strong, confident scent, and I hope to pick up a bottle soon.

The predominant notes that I get from The High Priestess are almond (which fades away almost immediately), florals and mint. I really like TheDarkMother's description of a flower frozen in ice, and find it really appropriate for this scent.

The Hierophant is initially all about the cinnamon, and then a woody note creeps in during the drydown. I don't like smelling like cinnamon or wood, so this decant is no longer with me.

On me, Ace of Swords is initially watery with a distinct anise note. It morphs into a lavender scent, and has a minty drydown which gives the impression of airiness.

My notes for Ace of Cups are kind of confusing, which means that I had a difficult time with the scent. I think that I first got a sweet almond note with a bit of grass and water, which then dried to an aquatic floral with a hint of mint (I almost always seem to get mint from the Tarot Oils). Didn't keep this one.

It's hard to do a review of Quietude, because everytime I smell it, it makes me veeerrry sleepy... As others have mentioned in their reviews, Quietude is lavender with a bit of something behind it - I do smell citrus if I inhale deeply (and risk getting conked out) and I think that it is lime rather than lemon. It is a very soft and rounded scent that is relaxing and soothing.

Greed smells of power, the kind that is rooted in material things. The patchouli, oakmoss and copal weave together to provide a solid, formidable foundation, while the heliotrope is present as a light whisper of a top note, dancing upon the earthier notes and providing a touch of something bright and golden. This would be an awesome scent for a guy, but alas, it's too masculine on me.

I can see why Penance and sarada love Death so much! It's extremely earthy with a strong overlying note that reminds me of decay and decomposition and makes me think of civet, although it would make more sense for it to be vetiver. An extremely fitting olfactory interpretation of death.

I placed an order on Friday and never received the confirmation email from the Lab, so I suspect that whatever was affecting their computers on Thursday bled into Friday as well.

I'm so happy to find another red musk scent that I love! I mostly get red musk sweetened by a fruity note, perhaps fig. As paperdoll mentioned in her review, Judgement has a very positive vibe about it.

I don't get any cinnamon from The World, either. Initially, The World is earthy, with a pronounced vetiver note. As it dries down, some kind of mint or eucalyptus note appears, giving the impression of airiness. Conceptually, this scent is very intriguing but it didn't work so well on me as a perfume.

I get herbs, anise and bamboo (or some other light woody note) from The Chariot, which dries down to a sweet woody finish. Not really for me.

After reading the reviews for The Devil, I had high hopes for it. It opens with a light musk (maybe white) and then darker musks make their presence known. I didn't detect any red musk myself, but so far, so good! Unfortunately, The Devil dries down with a very distinct civet note that overpowers the musks. It was just too overwhelming for me.

The Empress is initially a very lush rose scent, very regal and proud in her bearing. She then dries down to a sweet, fruity rose. I quite liked this rose scent, but there are others that I prefer more (such as Alice, Spellbound and Seraglio).

I get a slight tang of citrus, and then Ace of Pentacles dries down to an earthy finish. This is a very comforting and grounded scent.