yellowrose

Not sure how I got Nine Mysteries, but I got it! When it goes on it is all yummy mints and flowers initially. A touch of green and softness. I cannot determine specific floral notes -- some descriptions mention lotus, others lavendar. I just don't know. After a few minutes … yowch! It has a tingling sensation that lasts for hours. Tested on the crook of my arm, which is a sensitive area. The upside is that should prove very cooling on a hot day. After several hours, the mint is less pronounced. The scent is nice and light. It doesn't fade entirely. Nine Mysteries is a very spring-y summer-y scent. I'm looking forward to using my imp during the hottest weather. It'll be perfect. ETA: With the latest wearing the SO immediately pronounced it melon-y. It does have some element of cuke or some such as well. And violets. Doink! I had a violet-scented doll back in the Dark Ages and yup, that's been evoked. ETA Part Deux: It's come to my attention that this oil is for ritual use rather than for use as a scent. The description: Aids in overcoming all domestic and financial woes and is frequently used to bless the home or business. I'm not adding the description for any reason other than that it seems to have been lacking when this thread was started. Had I known this was for ritual use, I would not have used it for any other purpose. And, had I known it, I would have busted it loose and used it like crazy during my own domestic and financial woes.

The Queen of Hearts may be some people's best bet, but I'm laying money on The Queen of Diamonds. This is one scent I was very excited about because I LOVE white grapefruit. Here, it's a beautiful white grapefruit with a hint of flowers. Not harsh, herbal grapefruit, but very distinct from pink or pomelo scents. This is a very sophisticated and lovely creation from start to finish. Very citrusy when wet. Dries to a lovely bouquet in about two hours. This queen is haughty perhaps, but not cold. I LOVE THIS! ! THANK YOU BETH ! ADDED Jan. 6: News flash! I have been advised by the SO that Queen of Diamonds is THE ONE scent I need to wear. Most of what was said, frankly, cannot be repeated in polite company Beth, um, can we talk about a vat? With or without spigot?

Tamora is a peachy-scent with vanilla and sandalwood. I'm eager to try Belle Epoque -- described as "Sweet opium, Lily of the Valley, vanilla, mandarin and red sandalwood." Still doesn't give you the rose or jasmine pairing. Desire contains the rose-vanilla combo. What I've noticed with the BPAL vanilla notes is that its frequent partner is honey. On the site, there are 20 scents listing vanilla as a note. A fifth of those also have a honey note. Ditto amber. Perhaps some new formulations might have these in combination. I wonder what vanilla and rose would smell like? The scent you posted sounds amazing. I honestly can't imagine what that might smell like! Best of luck!

In the "suggestions" section there's a thread on Aztec-inspired scents in which there are pleas for xocolatl in a scent. Gotta have it, Beth!

Wow, but I really wanted to like this scent. It's like stepping into a tropical garden just in one sniff of the vial. WET: The white flowers are overwhelming the beautiful muguet. (Yes, I know. It is a white flower as well, but you know what I mean!) Sadly, they do not like me. A headache is almost instant from the sweet intensity. Perhaps the pikake is the culprit here. Even after washing it off (and scrubbing), the headache persists, but I am still drawn to keep sniffing my wrists. It has lasting power and Pele *is* a lovely scent. I just happened to get the intensely wrathful side of her.

Snake Oil was included as a freebie in the latest order. Thanks Lab for the mondo terrific generosity. I must admit I didn't want to have expectations before trying Snake Oil, but the forum posts lauding its wonderful vanilla-ness seemed to be every where and completely unavoidable. The color in the vial was a bit off-putting and I was fearful the experience with the generic "spices" might be the same for me as they had been with (Old) Morocco and I didn't want the disappointment. Of course being a huge ho' fo' the orchid bean, I finally gave it a whirl. I'm really not crazy about this in the wet stage at all. It's very aggravating. My internal opinion-o-meter kept waflling as I was sniffing and driving. The spices of (Old) Morocco and several other spicy scents are here, but not overwhelmingly so. There was some medicinal pings and a bit of baby powder that I didn't care for, but I decided to hold on even tho' I did fear a headache. In short: A real love-hate. Why? There's precious little of the much- and often-touted vanilla until the absolute driest stage possible. Then the vanilla is a lightly-spiced almost-sweet scent. I'm going to keep trying this to see if it or I change. The ultimate vanilla this is not, but I'll keep looking. I want a dark, deep and rich, non-foody vanilla and I haven't yet found it.

The Lab threw Black Cat in with my latest order as a freebie. I'm glad they did. It's been used fairly consistantly at night. Scent starts with lovely green, herbal bouquet. Very reminiscent of a mist called Prosperity Water I used to use. Dries to a pleasant herbal-rose scent. Very lovely indeed, especially nice to sniff upon waking. Can't stop using it and will certainlly need to order more soon.

FIRST TIME AROUND Enjoyed it. Couldn't sniff out the notes because busy sniffing other things. Seemed to fade fairly rapidly. SECOND TIME AROUND Wet: FIGS and lots of them. Drying: sharp smell of freshly cut timber. Mmmm. Lumberyard. Alternates between wood and figs. Hey! Where's the cocoa!? The more deeply I breath it in, the more cedar I get. Grrrr. Very heady and rich as it evolves. Unfortunately, very similar to Tombstone, only Intrigue is fruity rather than vanilla-sarsparilla. This is definitely a scent for a special night out, but when pressed, would I choose this over Tamora? Still pondering.

The Lab was generous enough to have provided this as a sample in my most recent order. In the bottle: yikes! Extremely medicinal. Wet: herbs and spices. Unexpected and undecipherable green note is pungent. Not enjoying the smell, which is very reminiscent of Ye Olde Head Shoppe. Drying: I'm having trouble getting to the dry-down stage. There's one note I really, really like that I'm hoping will mellow out the medicinal note. It's very tempting to grab the soap for a scrubdown. ACK! What's being so assertive? The scent is getting bolder with and I'm suffocating. Bracing. Masculine. Sensual. Not for the light-hearted. I waited to read the reviews until AFTER I tested and wrote mine. What a different experience I'm having with this. Scherezade is a pass for me. And, for the record due to the large number of comparisons to it, so was (Old) Morocco. yr

Wow. I just got the infamous Skittles Lottery rolltop bottle of Snow White from darkling. I couldn't wait and applied it IN the post office. Honest. There's no real way to smell the scent in a roller bottle. I'll skip to the good stuff. WET: Wow. What is this? I wasn't sure what to expect. This is white, crystalline, very floral and subtle. It's frustrating me to determine what notes these are. DRYING: Floral with mint and a touch of nuts of some sort. Is that fruit? DRY: Snow White is horribly enigmatic. She is minty at times, coconut and floral for other sniffs. In fact, I'm still sniffing at my wrists to figure her out and this after a couple of hours. What's that? Almond? There's one floral note that is threatening to give me a headache if I smell too deeply up close. That's frustrating, too. And it smells different on each wrist! I'm glad there's a 2004 edition bottle headed my way. I'm not sure I want this scent to be anything other than engimatic. Brava Beth! ETA: eye kint spel reel gud.

And it's so good that she is! yr

I was surprised, but my message of Thursday -- sent well after the announcement of Nella's departure -- was answered by Nella!

Can't believe I neglected to post a review of Moon Rose?! This was a gift from the delectable Emu Nymph. Probably the reason for no post was the few notes. "Smells fantastic," is really a poor review. It is a gentle rose scent which starts as a moonlit garden in bloom and fades to beautiful scent of silver roses. Sophisticated. What's interesting is this a good scent choice for the evening. Loverly.

This blend is so well executed, the notes do not come through on their own at all. Wet: difficult to discern individual notes. Fairly floral. Sweet and warm. Drying: The scent is flowery with a note of figgy-ness although there is no fig listed in the Lab notes. Nice. Dries to soft scent that is not over flowery. Very approachable. Got an unsolicited rave that I smelled really good after hugging someone I hadn't seen in a while. I know it wasn't just Tamora she was smelling. It and the mango-vanilla hair product I use probably were combined in the sniff space. ETA: Same thing happened this afternoon. This is destined to be a good scent for feeling girly moments. FETA: Decided this needs to be on the wish list for a big bottle. It may be a regular scent.

Ahhh... because a lot of people are allergic to, or have some kind of "ew, gross" reaction to the scent of saffron. When I put Old Morocco, Scherezade, and India Bouquet on, the first thing my mother zooms in on is the saffron, and she goes, "God, wash it off! Wash it off now! UGH!" <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Gotcha. Perhaps I should crack that imp of Scherezade in a few days. I've decided that weekend/Monday scents will be either Tamora/Amber (non-BPAL), then Tombstone, then Dragon's Milk. Still bummed about this... yr

Well ... None of my experiences with Old Morocco are *anything* like any of those reports I've read in this thread. I got this imp as one of the many generous extras in my recent order. When I read the description, I was VERY eager to try this. It should be "The intoxicating perfume of exotic incenses wafting on warm desert breezes. Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia." Sounds just like what I'd love. Wet: This smells good, and a bit oddly familiar. Drying: A ha! This is reminiscent of Estee Lauder Youth Dew. I've probably posted about this previously. For those who've escaped my rant in type, here 'tis: I cannot STAND, ABIDE or TOLERATE Youth Dew. I never wore it. Someone I knew did and there's a very strong scent memory/ies associated with it. Minutes later ... I smell that. That note. What is it? Could it be the cassia since I don't know what that smells like? Wish I got more carnation. I like the maturity of the scent, so does the SO. It smells very womanly and mysterious. After about 20 minutes, I couldn't stand to smell it -- whatever "it" is -- any longer. It is reluctant to come off even with much scrubbing. It sticks around. Once scrubbed and still faintly reeking, I went in search of some cassia essential oil to sniff in comparison. I'm confused. I let the aromatherapy/beauty clerk at the health food store sniff my arm. She immediately said "vanilla and cassia." Argh. I wanted so much to like this and my body just doesn't express some component or note correctly. Still trying to get to the heart of this. I'm sad that this scent didn't work. It was at the top of the SO's list thus far. Above Dragon's Bone even.

Thanks gals. I went to the local health food place to start some sniffing. I let the clerk who works in the aromatherapy/beauty section sniff my scrubbed down arm to which the scent was clinging. I didn't say anything about what I thought or, well, I just asked her to smell. Her immediate response was cassia and vanilla. I'm going to be careful with cassia for the present. I'm curious about why you'd single out saffron, t3andcrumpets? Hypothermya, yeah ... "spices." I'm really frustrated because I wanted so to love this scent and it's not what I wanted on me. I'd still be interested to read what others have to share.

Hiya Friends: I'm posting this in hopes more olfactory glands are better than, well, just mine alone. What does cassia/cassie smell like? Why do you ask? I'm trying to find out what this scent is in Estee Lauder's Youth Dew that I DO NOT like. To be fair, I never wore this. Someone I knew did and I could not abide the smell. Ever. Here's the list: Estee Lauder Youth Dew Top Notes: Orange, bergamot, peach, spices Heart Notes: Clove, cinnamon, cassie, rose, ylang-ylang, orchid, jasmine Base Notes: Frankincense, amber, vanilla, oakmoss, clove, musk, patchouli, vetiver, spices Here's what I found: that one note seems to be present in Old Morocco. Honest. I think they are very close -- or at least are between present and scent memory. Old Morocco is a kinder, gentler version of Youth Dew. It's giving me that achy joints and lungs feeling however. What in the Sam Hill blazes is it? It's driving me nutso. I'd like to isolate it so I can skip it. Or could it be the generic "spices" in both or a combination of notes that's at issue ... HELP! Please? yr p.s. i really hope someone from the lab will answer this question, not to divulge the contents, but to help me.

Initial sniff: rootbeer. Vanilla where art thou? Wet: rootbeer in the forest. More rootbeer than the sweetness of sarsparilla, which is what I expected based on the description. Still wet: YOW! Vanilla zooms in almost immediately. Just a tinge of cedar around the edges. Wholly different scent when up close on it -- more trees. Vanilla when doing normal activities (nose not buried in wrists). I'm liking this, but I'm thinking it's more of a playing out scent for gigs than an everyday scent. The SO claims to like this better than what has been my favorite vanilla scent, but wants us to continue the search for a scent. (His vote remains with Dragon's Bone.) Drying (after 30ish minutes): very heady scent. Later ... seems more vanilla than anything else. Much later ... vanilla with hints of cedar. Could probably stand to be reapplied after another hour has elapsed. Neh. Doesn't really need it. Seems to have nice staying power. Is a big bottle in my future? Perhaps. Errr, prolly.

Got this as a bonus from the Lab. Two folks I *knew* would enjoy it are exactly the same folks who chose it as their "anoint me!" scent. (I was celebrating my first order.) And they were VERY pleased with their selections. Male response: mmmm, it's incense-y. Female response: I LOVE Dragon's Blood. I love this. How many "dragon" scents are there? Can I order a set? Can I order two Dragon's Blood and two Dragon's Milk? What are the others like? How will I decide? And they're ... (fill in the blank with enthusiastic happiness at smelling good). And I had it on my fingertips from applying a generous daub for them. It DOES smell good. More when I actually get to wear it! ETA: OK ... here we go. Wet: mostly incense and faint cherries. Drying: Vanilla starts to creep into the scent. Tried on wrists with Dragon's Bone in elbow crooks. The sweet and earthy combine well. Thank goodness the honey seems to be taking a back seat. The vanilla stays around as the incense exits and has good lasting power. It is a tad powdery after many (8+) hours, but not a sneezy type powder scent. Actually, I'm revising that last sentence. The more I've worn this scent, the more powdery it's become after many hours. It's the O baby powdery scent. Probably due to the honey. This is making it difficult to wear more often. The imp will be used up over time, but probably that will be it for this dragon scent.

This was yet another contribution from belladonnastrap. She's da best. Initial encounter when opening packet: berry and musk. Hectic smelling indeed. Berry, berry hectic. Wet: Berries! Almostly immediately fades. Something musky-musty this way comes. Barely any florals as it proceeds to dry. Oops. A little rash not too far in the drying either. And only where it was applied. Dry: I am lovin' the scent! Fades in a couple of hours, but to a nice NOT-powdery, soft, spiced floral. Noticed a little bit of a headache, but that might be from all the coughing. There is more in a pending order. I may dilute it to stretch it. Hmmm. I will miss it when it's finally gone. ETA: Because it seems right to tell everyone ... Since writing this review, I did place a big order, hoarded it, found imps where I could from whomever... and now Beth has re-released it. This is STILL in my Top Five List, if not the Top Five. It's just that good. And, yes, I'm still hoarding the original blend. Will probably order the reformulated and find myself editing this post again.

Where is the bit about sterilizing bottles before making a diluted oil? I've looked EVERYWHERE. Search isn't helping.

This morning, I was trying to decide what BPAL to try from a group of gifted imps (Can I please pause to publically thank belladonnastrap AGAIN!?! ) and thought I'd ask the SO for his two cents since we're sharing the scent-space at Chez Jaune. "What're my choices." "I'm gonna read the names. 'K? Undertow. ... Bayou. ... Unseelie. ... Dragon's Bone." "Wait. What?" Dragon's Bone." "That one." And with that, I rush in with the imp and pounce, demanding a sniff in the imp. "That smells good. Try that." Oooookaaaaay. Initial opinion:unsure what to expect. No experience with dragon's blood or any bones other than shanks in stockpots back in the day. Wet: Hmmm. There's one sharp, musty note that I don't especiallly care for. What is it? Teeny bit of greeny something poking out on close sniff. Didn't notice this on second wet stage. As it begins initial drying, it's a bit dusty. I can smell the sandalwood. The smell is very dry and I feel thirsty. I am puzzled because ... well ... I shouldn't. I didn't have any expectations going in and this may prove to be a good thing. MUCH LATER THAT SAME DAY ... Dries and fades to a lovely scent. Had to reapply after about three, four hours. The SO smelled at various stages and said it was "OK." Pretty resounding praise for someone who isn't big on scent. VERDICT: I really want to see if my opinion changes. I've applied twice today and stuck my wrists under male and female noses. No one was as vocally complimentary as they were, and without prompting, the day I wore Mata Hari. And it was a whole different group of people, save for the SO 'n' me. I'm thinking this might be great for another everyday scent. YAY!

There is a lot of grat information in the posts. Thanks everyone for shaing. I couldn't find this where it had been and was panicking. What I'd like to know, if anyone is game, is how much dilution might change a scent? Why? Because the SO keeps saying the scents I'm trying are too strong. I, for instance, have an imp of Mata Hari. I've got one on order. If I experiment using one imp per 10 ml ... think that will dilute it too much? There's always that second imp! p.s. i can no longer find the thread that explained how to sterilize bottles. i think there was a specific type of alcohol mentioned, but i can't find the thread for the life of me -- yr

Bon Vivant was a gift. It was not on my radar previously. In the bottle, the scent of strawberry is overwhelming. There is not a hint of crystalline anything. This immediately reminds me of Bonne Bell lip gloss and the overwhelming olfactory experience of walking into a Spencer's Gifts circa I'm not going to tell you (sorry!). As Penance said, ". I'm in 6th grade again and it's not a good thing." But I am not as brave as she. Too many scent memories to give this a fair shot. Bon Vivant will be placed in a good home.