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Showing results for tags 'halloween 2018'.
Found 151 results
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Variety is the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor. ― William Cowper, 1785 Forget about the War on Christmas the years most contentious seasonal battle is actually waged over this inescapable melange of palate-massaging flavors. Weve got the formula down pat, and invite you to join us in a mad-science experiment: Just how far can we bend it before it breaks? I picked up two of these mysterious creatures as it's been a looooooong time since I've had some chaos scents in my life. Here's hoping at least one is amazing on me! First up, bottle #26: oh. my. g-ddess. Banana pumpkin spice. Not, like, banana *bread*. No. This is like, a fresh banana smoothie, right from the blender, with some pumpkin spice mix dusted into it for flavor. Never knew this was a thing missing from my life and now I find myself ecstatic to be the sole individual in the world to have this in my hot little hands!!! This is going to be a really really tough act to follow! Here goes #31: Pumpkin spice and...cologne? In the bottle and wet on skin, I'm mostly getting a sharp fougeré, like a bracing 1940s lavender-based men's aftershave, and a pice of pumpkin spice bread dunked into it. It's bizarre. As it dries, the cologne chills out and it becomes...Dorian and spice cake I can't tell yet if I like it enough to keep it, but testing chaos theory scents is *always* an adventure!!!
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In the black furrow of a field I saw an old witch-hare this night; And she cocked her lissome ear, And she eyed the moon so bright, And she nibbled o’ the green; And I whispered ‘Whsst! witch-hare,’ Away like a ghostie o’er the field She fled, and left the moonlight there. A leaper between worlds, the tiny trickster; she soars through liminal spaces, dancing in the strange shadows of dawn and twilight. Warm fur and mandrake root, blue sage and tall grasses, honeysuckle-tinged moonlight, carrot seed, comfrey, and dandelion. My mother would say, "Quick, quick, like a bunny," and here I am to give the first review. This one is soft, and sweet, and green. The honeysuckle is what I notice first, and then the carrot, which i haven't ever experienced as a perfume note before, but it's nice. Fresh, and gently sweet like a cup of fancy carrot juice. I'm guessing dandelion adds to the general sweet, green feel. A teeeensy bit of herbal spice starts to peek out in the dry down, but mostly, I think the herbal notes balance Hare and keep it from being too floral. Honeysuckle can smell very wet and sappy to me, but this is dryer and creamier. A fresh, tempered floral that wears close to the skin. I could see a baby smelling like this, or a pretty, shy woman peeking over a book and drinking her tea, or a fluffy brown bunny nibbling clover. Lovely.
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Truly the scent of autumn itself -- damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein. I'm not sure if this is a particularly helpful review as this was a limited edition scent and no longer available, but I guess it might be useful if any turns up on Ebay or as a swap somewhere... The first scent of this is heavily fruity: it smells like black cherries. When I put it on, this note lingers, but is deepened with a scent like tobacco flowers and cloves. It mellows into a rich musky scent with a little crushed greenery. Conventially speaking, I'd say it's definitely an evening perfume: I guess most people would find it too heavy for during the day. Not that I pay any attention to such things Overall, it's one of my favourites so far, totally different to anything I've smelt anywhere else, and for me now inexorably tied to memories of autumn.
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Fairly antisocial as bats go, Western Bonnie sticks to colonies of less than a hundred other bats. A girl needs her privacy, you know. Butterscotch tobacco. Butterscotch laced with tobacco. A yup. This one is sweet sugary butterscotch supported by some brown chewy tobacco. This will age to a sugary tobacco mess. Good throw and wear length. Which means, if you like sugar or tobacco, GO GET IT.
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Pumpkin candyfloss, funnel cake, apple cider, a swirl of dead, dry maple leaves, greasepaint, chewing tobacco, and sawdust. I had the good fortune to test this one at Will Call. I liked it best of all the foody/gourmand Weenie atmos except Pumpkin Popcorn Balls (my other favorite). Halloween Carnival Atmosphere Spray throws together all of the best carnival smells - salty kettlecorn! spun sugar! sweet funnel cakes! fresh sawdust! autumn air! - without the overlay of animal dung, diesel fumes, and overworked porta-potty that invariably accompany a *real* carnival. It's a glorious cacaphony that hangs in the air like a handful of glittering sawdust before gently subsiding to the memory of funnel cakes.
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A joyous celebration of La Catarina, La Flaca, La Muerte... Glorious, Beautiful Death. In Mexico, death is not something to be feared or hated; She is embraced, loved, and adored. La Muerte is fêted, as the celebrant "...chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite plaything and his most lasting love." This is a Mexican paean to La Huesuda: dry, crackling leaves, the incense smoke of altars honoring Death and the Dead, funeral bouquets, the candies, chocolates, foods and tobacco of the ofrenda, amaranth, sweet cactus blossom and desert cereus. Okay, I've been wearing Dia de Los Muertos in my hair as it seems to be one of the best places for me to use many scents without smelling this overpowering scent on one part of my body. I put in one drop in my leave in conditioner (mind you it was a largish drop). When I first put it on, I definately smelled a smokiness that I can only assume is the tabacco. After about an hour or so I noticed that the scent had mellowed and that I was picking up smells that were a cross between Pan de Huevo (mexican pastry- it an egg bread type product with vanilla and other stuff) and Dulche de Leche candies. Later yesterday I noticed another scent as I was bowling, probably because I was sweating a little, That I believe was the cereus (I haven't been back to Tucson in blooming season for those in over two years). I washed my hair this morning and I can still smell the scent. Given that I normally go girlie girl with scents, this one is a bit out there for me (as it I wouldn't normally seen it smelling really good on me) but I think it smells amazing, and I spent most of yesterday catching whiffs and thinking man I want to go back to desert. Edited to add the lab's description--andrabell
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Every leaf tells a story. In the bottle: French Tobacco meets October. On my skin: We called this the perfume tour. Seriously, it was like touring a number of fantastic perfumes as it dried down - unfortunately for me, this means that at the end it dried down into a too-sharp tea scent that smelled like a number of perfume samples all stacked up. On someone else in my house: Fortunately for my testing partner, this means it goes through a number of warm, tobacco-rich, vanilla-adjacent scents and then settles into dry leaves, warm vanilla tobacco, and a little bite of tea. Absolutely delightful.
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Every leaf tells a story. I get mainly juicy blackberry over a dirty dead leaf note. So blackberries, dirt, and leaves. Medium throw and wear length.
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A strangely romantic, disturbingly erotic perfume. This is a weird one, but in a good way. The pumpkin is not what I usually associate with BPAL pumpkin notes-- it's none of the usual super sweet and spice. It does have sweetness, though. Pumpkin musk is an odd concept, but, yeah, that is what I smell. It's a gentle, sweet musk. A touch sexy. The oudh is dark and rich without being heavy. It's a nice oudh-- I get neither band-aids nor barnyard. I really like this one. Every time I smell my wrist, I catch another nuance to it.
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Every leaf tells a story. This is probably my favorite Dead Leaves scent ever. At first it's heavy on the classic dead leaves, with a hint of incense. As it dries, I get more of the incense, then just a wisp of dusty vanilla. Gorgeous!
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ALL SOULS A day of remembrance and intercession. Without the prayers and sacrifices of their families and loved ones, the faithful departed may not be cleansed of their venal sins, and thereby cannot attain beatific vision. On November 2nd, prayers are sung and offerings are made to aid lost souls in transcending purgatory. An incense blend that invokes the higher qualities of mercy and compassion, mingled with the soft, sugared currant scent of offertory soul cakes. When I first put this on, I could mainly smell soft incense. I thought that it was my imagination until I re-read the description. I can smell buttery cake notes in the background, but mostly I smell soft incense and what I think is the currant note, rather sharp coming out from behind the incense. My skin will tend to amp the sweet, but maybe others will smell more of the foody notes. I think that this is a lovely combination of foody and incensy, which for me is the best of both worlds
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There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these the dreams writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. A blackened lavender mist, thick with opoponax, licorice root, and benzoin. ahhhhh this is one of those scents that's just so perfect, I can start circulating a conspiracy theory that beth made it just for me. lavender and licorice===the hottest dream pairing of 2018?? those two beautiful notes play and blend and support each other so well that they are my new blueprint for #relationshipgoals. the lab's opoponax is one of my favorite resin notes, and it adds its magical richness to this blend. with the name and the lavender, I had anticipated wearing this as a sleep blend, but instead it's become my go-to scent to wear out and about. this blend is one of those "little black dress/favorite jeans" perfumes that has me smelling elegant in any situation from fancy to casual. prob my favorite bpal licorice perfume. thank you, labbies!
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In night when colors all to black are cast, Distinction lost, or gone down with the light; The eye a watch to inward senses placed, Not seeing, yet still having powers of sight, Gives vain alarums to the inward sense, Where fear stirred up with witty tyranny, Confounds all powers, and thorough self-offense, Doth forge and raise impossibility: Such as in thick depriving darknesses, Proper reflections of the error be, And images of self-confusednesses, Which hurt imaginations only see; And from this nothing seen, tells news of devils, Which but expressions be of inward evils. – Lord Brooke Fulke Greville Ink-black musk and dried blackberries, midnight opoponax and sweet labdanum. The dark sweetness of these notes called to me strongly before I ordered it. Upon initial application, the dried blackberries seemed to give this scent a sour funk, and I was worried. After a few minutes, however, that dissipated, and I was left with a dark, fruity blend with a grounding of dark incense. It's not foody or overly sweet, and the musk is not powdery. It's got some punch, too: I could still smell it on my wrist after exercise and a shower. I can see myself getting addicted to this one. I think this is going to age remarkably.
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Once I said to a scarecrow, “You must be tired of standing in this lonely field.” And he said, “The joy of scaring is a deep and lasting one, and I never tire of it.” Said I, after a minute of thought, “It is true; for I too have known that joy.” Said he, “Only those who are stuffed with straw can know it.” Then I left him, not knowing whether he had complimented or belittled me. A year passed, during which the scarecrow turned philosopher. And when I passed by him again I saw two crows building a nest under his hat. – Kahlil Gibran Corn husks waving on an autumn breeze, beams of amber sunlight, hay bales, and late summer wildflowers. This is very pretty! I expected it to be fairly dry, but smells pretty creamy to me. Sweet and ambery, I don't get any hay and I can't say if I smell corn husks either. Three hours in and it's hanging on pretty well, which counts as fairly long lasting on my skin.
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And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus, too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise –then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust. Terror, horror, and disgust: a bowel-churning sweet clench of myrhh and green musk in a pool of suffocating black moss and a shock of white cognac. Call me crazy. This smells clean and fresh and herbal green with a white sheets background. Overall this could've been called Citrine Waterfall in a Serene Mossy Wood and I would've said "Uh Huh. For sure!". The myrrh comes out in drydown and stays meditational due to the cleaner notes. Quite relaxing actually.
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[No additional description provided.] Opium, dead leaves, and a touch of nutmeg. And a touch of opium. Good throw and wear length.
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Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos. ― Mary Shelley, 1831 This Samhain, were reveling in the desecration of a classic blend: Damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein. I was the lucky recipient of #12. It starts out with a bit of orange and maybe a bit more of the the eucalyptus vibe I get from regular Samhain. I love it! With time, it morphs into the sweet, honey/apple-like scent of regular Samhain. I love it!!! My best Chaos Theory gamble ever!
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In between earth and sea, in between days – the liminal space between lifetimes: driftwood and vetiver, chamomile and seaweed, ocean foam and tears. I get mainly driftwood, a hint of chamomile, and ocean. It's a watery woody blend. And I actually really love it. Would consider more.
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Engraving by G. van der Gucht after J. Wootton Bay rum, hay, dried alfalfa, aftershave, and cork stalk. In the bottle: oh! Did The Great Sword of War and Antikythera Mechanism have a spicy baby? On my skin: The first few minutes of this were glorious. That aftershave note really brought out the best of the feelings of Old Spice and the bay rum brought some warmth. However, as it dried down something added an ammonia scent and as it dried down it only got stronger. Boo. On someone else in my house: Warm aftershave with a slightly dry woodsy feel. It was described as "1930s sexy masculine scent" when dried down by the wearer. Definitely has a classic men's scent feel with some added woodsiness. Not a win for my picky skin but my testing partner got a win here.
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But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments. But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. Night-blooming jasmine and cereus reflected through ruddy musk and crimson amber. Jasmine, musk, and a whiff of amber. This one is a floral jasmine, with heavy red musk. It smells like dusty velvet jasmine. Medium throw and wear length.
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Red musk, saffron threads, molten honey, and tobacco oudh. Red, red, red. The Blood Red Window Panes HG smells like dark red incarnate. I would call this a red musk-prominent blend, but the other notes really get their fingers into it. The saffron and honey sweeten this and turn it sideways, and the tobacco oudh makes it smell decadent and perverse. It's a bit like if the Infernal Lover took a dose of debauched tobacco oudh and went out on the town. The oudh is definitely present, but I wouldn't call it overpowering.
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It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry –and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form. The wild courage of despair: a screech of blood orange and a splash of blood entangled in a corpse-mask of tattered white sandalwood stained with balsam and a grime-crusted winding sheet. Blood, sandalwood, linen. This is mainly a blood/sandalwood blend. Medium throw and wear length.
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On All Saints Day, Spanish families visit their loved ones in the cemeteries, keeping vigil throughout the evening, saying prayers for the dead. Family burial plots are cleaned and tended, and graves are adorned with gladiolas, chrysanthemums, and roses. Bone-shaped pastries called Saint's Bones, or the Bones of the Holy, are baked and shared in honor of the souls in Purgatory, and to remind us of those who no longer share our repast, but with whom we one day hope to be reunited with again. Orange-glazed cake, dotted with anise seed, and filled with custard, set beside a bouquet of celebratory funeral flowers. Hello deliciousness! This smells just like orange poppyseed cake with a thick layer of custard cream in the middle. (it also kind reminded me of the dry smell of orange fruit loops) This is the first bpal that has any kind of "cake" scent that works for me. All the others made me sneeze. But this is just wonderful without being cloyingly sweet. Nom
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Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos. ― Mary Shelley, 1831 This Samhain, were reveling in the desecration of a classic blend: Damp woods, fir needle, and black patchouli with the gentlest touches of warm pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, allspice, sweet red apple and mullein. #7. I was excited for my number. First sniff of the Chaos HG is fresh and floral which is an interesting counterpoint to the leafy deep smell I was expecting. I still get the lovely apple but its tropical fall. Pikaki or plumeria? Almost a cocoa butter undercurrent. Not chocolatey.
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Sexy and suckable: black cherry brandy. I was a little nervous after reading will-call reviews that this might go cough syrup on me. Not so! Suck It smells like exactly what it should, black cherry brandy. However, the booziness doesn't take over too much. Instead, it keeps things from smelling too much like candied fruit. I really love it!
