Three Random Things
Dec. 1st, 2007 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraa1. First, and most important: I talked to my parents (my dad's home from the hospital). My father sounds good -- a lot more cheerful than any of the times I talked to him before he got sick, ironically (or perhaps not ironically). I don't think it was faked, either. My father is notoriously awful at faking cheer. My mom also gave me a health update that sounds very promising. Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes.
2. It's snowing. It's not sticking, but there are beautiful white flurries coming down. Prr! (I don't like the cold -- we need to get more wood for the fire! -- but the snow is lovely.)
3. I've been experimenting with BPAL scents lately. Here's the results of my first batch of trials, gathered at random from friends (and at a club in LA).
Antique Lace
Description: Nostalgia encapsulated. A soft, wistful blend of dry flowers, aged linens, and the faint breath of long-faded perfumes.
Vial: Vanilla. Vanilla sugar, in fact -- very sweet, almost candylike.
Wet: Still vanilla vanilla vanilla, and sweet sweet sweet, with a warm note. Almost buttery. Smells like dessert. (Not in a bad way at all.)
Drydown: Ooh. There's some almond coming out, and something else -- maybe a faint hint of a floral? And definitely creamy or buttery.
Dry: Vanilla-sugar, cream; almonds still there but fading as the faint hint of orchid and lavender and cloth emerges. Despite the florals, though, it still smells a lot like a really exceptional batch of sugar cookies. I want to eat my wrist.
Such a beautiful mild scent!
Depraved
Description: A salacious, lecherous, leering scent - dirty and dark, slapped with a wet sweetness. Earthy black patchouli swelling with apricot.
Vial: Patchouli, with a sort of earth-tobacco-leather note. A faint musky hint of sweetness -- apricots and maybe a little bit of honey.
Wet: Patchouli still strong, still tobacco-y and dark with an undertone of apricot. The patchouli scent is beating out the apricot, though...
Drydown: Yup. The sweet fruitness of the apricot is subsumed under the dark note of the patchouli, and seems to be vanishing entirely. Pity. The patchouli notes themselves are too harsh for my tastes, if they're not ameliorated by something sweet.
Dry: The apricot has come back, but only a little. Not enough to counterbalance the black patchouli, which really doesn't seem to play nicely on my skin. It's got an almost detergent edge to it, on top of the patchouli-tobacco.
Not for me, I think.
Black Phoenix
Description: Our signature oil. A dark, languid scent. Promotes hedonistic tendencies and extreme self-love. You won't stop kissing mirrors for a month.
Vial: Cherry coke! Some faint almond, but mostly... cherry coke.
Wet: Mmm, almond coming up. Still a deep, fruity cherry, with a lot of sweetness behind it.
Drydown: Yup, still almond-cherry-vanilla, with maybe a hint of spice in the background -- cinnamon? cloves? Sweetening, as most things do on my skin.
Dry: The sharpness of the almond and cherry scents has mellowed out quite a bit, and now I can smell more vanilla. And a sweetness like brown sugar, and maybe a hint of musk and the breath of spices. Very very nice. I keep sniffing my wrist and smiling.
I'll definitely use the vial up, and might get a bottle of this. Mmm.
Libertine
Description: Like a puffed and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Rosewood and chamomile with bergamot, violet, red sandalwood, primrose and Arabian musk.
Vial: Rose! The rose hits me right away, and then the violet. Backnote of something sharper, sweet-lemon. Smells very sweet, almost candylike.
Wet: The rosewood is very strong on me, the violet coming in second. This isn't surprising -- rose really stands out on me, which is just fine because I love rose scents. And there's another note, something sharper and cleaner, almost like lemon, coming up...
Drydown: The lemony note becomes more prominent... and now I can recognize it as the bergamot, probably, backed by chamomile. Still very much a rose scent on me, but I can smell the sandalwood now, too, and the chamomile and the violet. Mmm. A lovely mix of herbal smells, like a garden.
Dry: Sweet mild rose and lemon. The violet's almost entirely gone, but there's a very mild backnote of herbs -- I can't pick out individual herbal notes, though. Lovely, not-too-sweet floral.
Samhain 2005
Vial: Pine needles and cinnamon, and maybe wet leaves and smoke. Very very woodsy, and sweet.
Wet: The pine and cinnamon are really strong for me -- too strong, really; if this lasted very long I think it'd give me a headache. Sweetness mostly gone. Fortunately it mellows out into...
Drydown: Pine is calming down, though still definitely there. I can smell smoke again, the cinnamon is still there, and leaves (but not dirt), and maybe... nutmeg? And the sweetness is coming back. Little bit of a mulled cider/pumpkin pie scent.
Dry: Cedar. And cinnamon. But mostly cedar. Not bad, but a little strong for me.
I still have Coyote, Dragon's Eye, Bow and Crown of Conquest, and Centzon Totochtin to try, plus two more sets of imps coming to me. (And I'm flirting with the idea of getting some of the anniversary scents this year -- Mechanical Phoenix in particular looks fascinating!)
2. It's snowing. It's not sticking, but there are beautiful white flurries coming down. Prr! (I don't like the cold -- we need to get more wood for the fire! -- but the snow is lovely.)
3. I've been experimenting with BPAL scents lately. Here's the results of my first batch of trials, gathered at random from friends (and at a club in LA).
Antique Lace
Description: Nostalgia encapsulated. A soft, wistful blend of dry flowers, aged linens, and the faint breath of long-faded perfumes.
Vial: Vanilla. Vanilla sugar, in fact -- very sweet, almost candylike.
Wet: Still vanilla vanilla vanilla, and sweet sweet sweet, with a warm note. Almost buttery. Smells like dessert. (Not in a bad way at all.)
Drydown: Ooh. There's some almond coming out, and something else -- maybe a faint hint of a floral? And definitely creamy or buttery.
Dry: Vanilla-sugar, cream; almonds still there but fading as the faint hint of orchid and lavender and cloth emerges. Despite the florals, though, it still smells a lot like a really exceptional batch of sugar cookies. I want to eat my wrist.
Such a beautiful mild scent!
Depraved
Description: A salacious, lecherous, leering scent - dirty and dark, slapped with a wet sweetness. Earthy black patchouli swelling with apricot.
Vial: Patchouli, with a sort of earth-tobacco-leather note. A faint musky hint of sweetness -- apricots and maybe a little bit of honey.
Wet: Patchouli still strong, still tobacco-y and dark with an undertone of apricot. The patchouli scent is beating out the apricot, though...
Drydown: Yup. The sweet fruitness of the apricot is subsumed under the dark note of the patchouli, and seems to be vanishing entirely. Pity. The patchouli notes themselves are too harsh for my tastes, if they're not ameliorated by something sweet.
Dry: The apricot has come back, but only a little. Not enough to counterbalance the black patchouli, which really doesn't seem to play nicely on my skin. It's got an almost detergent edge to it, on top of the patchouli-tobacco.
Not for me, I think.
Black Phoenix
Description: Our signature oil. A dark, languid scent. Promotes hedonistic tendencies and extreme self-love. You won't stop kissing mirrors for a month.
Vial: Cherry coke! Some faint almond, but mostly... cherry coke.
Wet: Mmm, almond coming up. Still a deep, fruity cherry, with a lot of sweetness behind it.
Drydown: Yup, still almond-cherry-vanilla, with maybe a hint of spice in the background -- cinnamon? cloves? Sweetening, as most things do on my skin.
Dry: The sharpness of the almond and cherry scents has mellowed out quite a bit, and now I can smell more vanilla. And a sweetness like brown sugar, and maybe a hint of musk and the breath of spices. Very very nice. I keep sniffing my wrist and smiling.
I'll definitely use the vial up, and might get a bottle of this. Mmm.
Libertine
Description: Like a puffed and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Rosewood and chamomile with bergamot, violet, red sandalwood, primrose and Arabian musk.
Vial: Rose! The rose hits me right away, and then the violet. Backnote of something sharper, sweet-lemon. Smells very sweet, almost candylike.
Wet: The rosewood is very strong on me, the violet coming in second. This isn't surprising -- rose really stands out on me, which is just fine because I love rose scents. And there's another note, something sharper and cleaner, almost like lemon, coming up...
Drydown: The lemony note becomes more prominent... and now I can recognize it as the bergamot, probably, backed by chamomile. Still very much a rose scent on me, but I can smell the sandalwood now, too, and the chamomile and the violet. Mmm. A lovely mix of herbal smells, like a garden.
Dry: Sweet mild rose and lemon. The violet's almost entirely gone, but there's a very mild backnote of herbs -- I can't pick out individual herbal notes, though. Lovely, not-too-sweet floral.
Samhain 2005
Vial: Pine needles and cinnamon, and maybe wet leaves and smoke. Very very woodsy, and sweet.
Wet: The pine and cinnamon are really strong for me -- too strong, really; if this lasted very long I think it'd give me a headache. Sweetness mostly gone. Fortunately it mellows out into...
Drydown: Pine is calming down, though still definitely there. I can smell smoke again, the cinnamon is still there, and leaves (but not dirt), and maybe... nutmeg? And the sweetness is coming back. Little bit of a mulled cider/pumpkin pie scent.
Dry: Cedar. And cinnamon. But mostly cedar. Not bad, but a little strong for me.
I still have Coyote, Dragon's Eye, Bow and Crown of Conquest, and Centzon Totochtin to try, plus two more sets of imps coming to me. (And I'm flirting with the idea of getting some of the anniversary scents this year -- Mechanical Phoenix in particular looks fascinating!)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-01 10:28 pm (UTC)So glad to hear your dad is feeling better!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-01 11:03 pm (UTC)and yee, thank you! Rose is one of my absolute faves, too. (I have a couple of rose scents coming in my next package of imps, and I'm looking forward to it!)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-01 11:00 pm (UTC)2: boo!!!!! You're not allowed to get snow unless i get snow too!!!
(Well, i can wish anyways =P)
3: I bet i know what club that was! ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-01 11:01 pm (UTC)(If I can get my camera to play nice, I'll post snow pics. It's started to stick. beautifully. :D )
no subject
Date: 2007-12-01 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 06:55 am (UTC)Also, I seem to recall (in that peer-review journal Something I Read Somewhere) that people actually respond really well to health issues that they can take specific, personal steps to correct -- in this case, he's supposed to exercise and adjust his diet -- because that gives them a sense of control over their own well-being and future.
At any rate, it's really good to hear him not only okay but sounding happy!