Clearly, this was the highlight of my weekend!

Although I had just designated this weekend as a time to get my whole life together. I did not succeed but I did build up some momentum.

Things I did manage:
- More Grey's Anatomy. I'm sad people universally say this show got worse, because it was damn good. Once again I am left begging for more.
- Filed a bunch of shit, making the office more approachable.
- Made level 61 with Pippye.
- Had a really fun, loose band practice. Mention was made of doing a tiny bar tour of North Carolina sometime.
- Posted a whatsinmybag to flickr. Ended up contributing to a bunch of kitty cat photo pools while I was at it.
- Made great strides in my project of adding all the album art to iTunes. A good 40% of my songs don't even have albums so that will be a whole new level for the project when I get to that. I am a lot like my dad, just not about stamps!
- Ordered some 8ml atomizers and perfumer's alcohol to turn some of my BPAL oils into sprays. I can't wait!

Before I forget: mountainwitch, I recieved your package! I am totally in love with Pool of Tears. Thank you so much!

To make up for yesterday's crapness, I went to the eye doctor and ordered Huge Black Hipster Glasses Even A Mother Couldn't Love. My precription hasn't changed but I tried on said HBHG and knew I had to have them. Also making things better: I won the free lunch from Chipotle business card in the fishbowl thing, so free burrito today!

We went to see Shrek 3 last night. Ew. The good parts were in the trailer, fer sure. Also there is a point where the computer animation is just showing off, and adds nothing to the actual quality of the film. We saw a rat preview, a penguin preview, and a bee preview. None very inspiring. Man... we liked Shrek 2 so much!

So this weekend was exhausting. I woke up 5 hours after getting back from the show and headed to my drum lesson. I got back from my drum lesson and did some food shopping, dollar store shopping, and a whole mess o' house cleaning. Irritatingly, the house still isn't all that clean. Went over to tzel's place for St. Patrick's Day potluck and got our green on.

Woke up sunday morning a little earlier than I wanted to, feeling a little tired still. I decided not to care, piped the ol' iTunes throught the AirPort, and finished the event prep, moving furniture around and zipping out for a last minute soda run.

Then it was finally time for the BPAL spree. ( details and questions beyond... )

Later on the remaining smellers (and their assorted heterosexual life partners) cleansed our palates with spicy food from Chapala, which seems to have upped its prices in the time since I last visited them. But man... that was good. Then I spoke with my parents on the phone a bit, and Jack and I watched Koyaanisqatsi which I quite enjoyed, if that's the right word for it. At some point all the motion started to get to me and I actually felt a bit motion sick, but other than that I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the score and patience and thoughtfulness in moviewatching paid off.

This morning we were greeted with news of the pet food recall and things have been kind of buzzing along since then. Still sort of hating on Crystal Reports at the moment.

Proof that I'm a nutjob.

So this lists the scents that I have tried and would be willing to buy in full size. And finds the notes that most commonly appear. I grouped some, like for example "red musk" will show up under "musks" and suchlike. The system needs some refining - suggestions welcome - but overall It's nice to be able to see clearly when things show up more than once.

I'd like to maybe give some weights - a 2 when something is clearly the reason I like the whole package, stuff like that. I could put in a -1 if it's something I have really disliked in other scents, and I could add ALL the oils and notes I have tried and weigh ALL their notes. But I probably won't - this wasted enough of my precious time. The silliest part is that it didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know - just helped reinforce. :)

First, I would like to state that Sea of Glass is my new favorite oil. I tried it for the first time this morning and it is everything I hoped it would be.

Second, the last batch of imps I got appears to have some kind of fault with the stoppers. They are sheared or broken in some way that the top part that sits outside the vial comes off, leaving the stopper part (with a hole in the middle) stuck inside the vial so that I can never close it again. This is particularly tragic with Sea of Glass because I feel like I need to use it all right away yet want to save it for special occasions because I can't order more right now.

I have alot more reviews but I've written them all down in my BPAL binder instead of logging them here. :P

I got one of my ebay catches, so here are two reviews from that:

Empyreal Mist: A hazy, soft, veiled scent: mist floating through twilit skies, curling gently towards the heavens.

I tried this yesterday. It was lovely out of the bottle and lovely in another way on application, lovely in yet another way on drydown. I thought I caught a cycle of citrus in between the cold, watery notes and there was just a hint of something green - like some kind of vine. (Reviewers often attribute this to bamboo.) It felt nice and clean and had no unpleasant reactions. For the entire length of time it lingered, I was enchanted! Unfortuantely that length of time was about 30 minutes. It was gone by the time I got to work. *sigh*

Moon Rose: A crisp, pale, almost translucent rose dusted by moonflower and midnight dew.

This is the first rose scent from BPAL that has really agreed with me. I simply adore it, and never would have thought to order it based on my other rose experiences. But I'm wearing a pink t-shirt today so I decided to try it. And good that I did! It's perfect. I used to wear Tea Rose when I was about 12 (didn't everyone?) and I really like the rose without the tea, but it's not so incredibly sweet that I can't take it. It's gentle. And I can still smell it 8 hours later. And no powdery. Fab!

Exciting news: I actually won some imps on Ebay for cheap. It's a dangerous thing, is that Ebay. Anyways, since they will probably beat the actual order here, here's what I'm getting:

Batch 1:
Gaueko, Loviatar, Debauchery, Kabuki, Hamadryad, Lucy's Kiss, Silk Road, and Highwayman.

It sounds like Silk Road might be oldish. But hey, there's Hamadryad! And two things from the wish list I posted yesterday. This will also give me some trading material.

Batch 2:
Voodoo, Kostnice, Tintagel, Scherezade, Hemlock, Moon Rose, Psyche, Kumiho, Rapture, Bayou, Empyreal Mist, Perversion

According to my notes I've tried Bayou at our last smelling party, and it dried down soapy on me, but I loved it for the first few minutes... I want to try again, because it sounds PERFECT for me. I am a glutton for punishment. The rest are at least intriguing and don't contain any notes I already know go bad on me...

That should keep me happy for a while.

So as it turns out, I didn't do a great deal of reviewing for my last order. Many of the scents just didn't excite me that much despite being pleasant, and other things captured my fancy. The short story is, I will be looking to get rid of my imps of Gluttony, Umbra, and Alecto. And it's long past time to make another order. So today, I did just that. ( Lists: Ordering, Want to Buy, Want to Try )

I'm not sure if I can handle hosting another scent fiesta due to time constraints, but if anyone sees anything in my order they want to try, let me know and we can get together, or if you have something on my want list that you are willing to let me try, please help me out! Or maybe by the time my order comes in, I will be done with the Summer Of Road Trips. We'll see!

This one's for my BPAL friends out there.

( The details of my order and some semi-reviews. )

CALLIOPE
The eldest of the Muses, she is Eloquence, and thus, governs heroic and epic poetry, and her eloquence has served to calm quarrels even amongst the surliest of Gods. She is crowned in gold, and holds a roll of parchment or stylus and tablet. Hers is the scent of creative inspiration, and it is a boon to writers, poets and arbitrators: lavender and bright mint with bergamot, verbena, thyme and a touch of sweet orange and warm almond.

This scent started out very strongly green, fresh, and what I'd describe is figgy, although there is no mention of fig in the description. The lavender was prominent as was the almond, to my nose, and all of this despite sounding lovely really was uncomfortbale on me. I knew before I applied that I wouldn't like it, so don't account that just to my chemistry. It dried down to smell very powdery and gave off a clingy feeling not unlike Dior's Poison. Which I loathed (thanks for trying Rob, but you had to have known I would get the hint.) when I recieved it as a gift. This scent is definitely someone else's, not mine. By the end of the day a whiff of powdery almond was all that was left.

BLACK FOREST
This is the captured scent of a cold, moonless night, lost deep within the darkest wood. Haunting and desolate, this scent evokes images of fairy tale tragedy and half-remembered nightmares. Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress.

I adore this right out of the imp. A blanket of woodsy comfort... I know the description says this is haunting but I feel nothing but coziness. This smells alot like something i used to get at the drugstore as a pre-teen, called... well, it will come to me, but it was like cherokee or summit or something ridiculous. (Edit: I found it - it was called Santa Fe.) After a bit of time, I find the musk coming out in spades, a perfect counterpoint to the fresher woods, and a little salty, perhaps primitive is the right word. Finally it settles down and when I get a hint of it I feel like I'm sitting in a quiet sylvan paradise. This is absolutely a keeper.

p.s. is it just me or have the forums been down for 2 days? am i just having login problems?

An ancient blend, swollen with arcane power: galangal, high john essence, frankincense, cedar, and sandalwood.

When I opened the imp this morning, it didn't give me the resistance the others put up, and out popped what I thought was the vibrant smell of cocoa bean. Dark chocolate! I thought immediately. I hate wearing foody smells. You eat edbile things and you wear... wearable things! I don't cross the lines. But I needn't have worried because my mind was probably just playing tricks with the cedar and frankincense, making the combination fool me into wanting chocolate. This, again may have something to do with my crazy hormones. At any rate, the greeny galangal only ran as an undercurrent as this scent dried out such that I smell like the inside of a cedar chest, not a bad smell but a little... aged for my tastes. Many reviewers on the forums used the word "sawdust" in their posts and that's a perfect word for it. I can imagine myself using this on days when I want to feel the entitlement of the crone. I hope to find something like it, but fresher, instead though. P.S. What the hell is a high john, and what do you have to do to get his essence? ;)

"Dark musk and black amber with frankincense, red sandalwood, neroli and bergamot."

I am getting overwhelmed by the red sandalwood here. Although, since I don't know just what neroli and bergamot smell like, those could be factors. I have to wonder if my hormonal state could be effecting these scents and if I tried them on during another part of my cycle, they would strike me differently. Anyways, out of the bottle this was VERY green. Very much like they just chopped open whatever tree it is they get 'red sandalwood' from. As it settled any other notes seem to have bled out, and a sticky sweetness lingers. Not nearly as dark or spicy on me as I'd hoped. Considering it, maybe I get a little of the musk underneath, but it's not helping. Another "no".

So, probably many of you have heard of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. In case you haven't, other than "they make smelly stuff" I'll let the webpage speak for itself. For those of you familiar (har), I got my imps in last night! Despite a mad rush to get logged in for raid night AND set up dinner, I ran to the mailbox to check... it was there! A box about the size of a VHS tape. Tiny! (For some reason I envisioned something larger than perfume samplers, more like I found it impossible to make any first impressions because as you open the box you just drown in a scent overdose, so I had to wait until this morning to give anything an official test. (Not to mention I was busy Shadow Bolting things and getting gold.)

Under the cut is a list, by "element" (color coded) of all the ones I want to try eventually. The "element" choices are purely editorial; I needed a way to narrow down my order! They break down roughly into "watery/clean", "musky/firey/woodsy", "earthy/planty", "airy/flowery".) Bold means I now have them and Italics are ones I ordered tried. (Using this post as a reference necessitated me changing that.)

The first one I tried is the embalming fluid. I wanted to try some scents that have a "clean" feel to them, cold, watery, or icy. From the bottle, I got a nice whiff of each of the advertised scents. I couldn't make out the lemon in particular. But then, I put it on. HELLO! The lemon-drop quality of this one stayed prominent for quite a few hours. It was only around lunchtime that I found that the aloe had emerged. Now about 8 hours since application I have only the subtlest white musky residue left. This may be because I did not apply it very liberally. Despite the over-lemonyness, I did like this, but might not order a full bottle. The candyish nature is a turnoff.

I've suggested to a few friends who are also deeply into the imp ordering that we have a little imp testing/swapping/donating party for things we reject. I hope it flies! Comment if interested.

( The Imp List )