Thoughts on the BPAL Halloweenies...
...and other things I blather about at 11:30 at night when I'm too tired to be useful, but too awake to go to bed.
I actually ordered surprisingly few decants from today's BPAL Halloween update. Well, compared to last year, or the Sleepy Hollow year where I wanted basically everything. I got a couple of the mainstays-- I always get Samhain, to compare to other years. I got Lambs-Wool & Punkie Night as well, for the same reasons.
Everything else was a "I'll chance that." 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' has rooibos, which I'm nervous about. Pumpkin Latte sounds great in theory, but BPAL's coffee notes can wreak havoc on my skin chemistry (Misk U actually made me nauseated). 'The Wild Swans at Coole' sounds pretty, but will probably be the kind of white aquatic that turns to hairspray on my skin. Pretty much everything else has a note of death in it. I was alllll over 'Ecclesiastical Excesses' until I got to vetiver. Oh my god, my skin hates vetiver.
In any case, it made me nostalgic for the 'Weenies of yore. I pulled out my collection of favorites-- Pumpkin Queen (thank god I have a bottle and am considering a backup), Pomona (the only thing with hazelnut that has ever worked on me-- I probably should have gotten a bottle), Fearful Pleasure (the best mulled apples ever), The Girl (I am SO SAD I didn't get a bottle), Devil's Night (the perfect non-foody vanilla). It's amazing to me how much Samhain changes year to year while still having very similar formulations. '04 is bar none my favorite, though I wear it rarely because it is SUPER strong. It's a fleshy pumpkin pulp with fir and mulling spices and night air. So perfect. (Though it must've aged, because my initial note say something about candied apple that is not at all present when I skin-tested tonight!) I never did get to try Samhain '03 (the original formulation). I think the only version I didn't like was 2008-- it smelled far too bitter to my nose, and a little medicinal. 2009 was a lot darker and vetivery than earlier versions, too, and far less pumpkin/appley.
-- Bean is doing okay. She's still in solitary, though I swap her out with the other two for an hour at night so she gets out some. She's stumbling more than before surgery, though that could be because she's still on painkillers.
-- Pike Place Market's Market Spice Tea? MY TOES ARE CURLING. Orange black tea with a whallop of red-hot cinnamon. This tea is amaaaaaaaaaazing.
I actually ordered surprisingly few decants from today's BPAL Halloween update. Well, compared to last year, or the Sleepy Hollow year where I wanted basically everything. I got a couple of the mainstays-- I always get Samhain, to compare to other years. I got Lambs-Wool & Punkie Night as well, for the same reasons.
Everything else was a "I'll chance that." 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' has rooibos, which I'm nervous about. Pumpkin Latte sounds great in theory, but BPAL's coffee notes can wreak havoc on my skin chemistry (Misk U actually made me nauseated). 'The Wild Swans at Coole' sounds pretty, but will probably be the kind of white aquatic that turns to hairspray on my skin. Pretty much everything else has a note of death in it. I was alllll over 'Ecclesiastical Excesses' until I got to vetiver. Oh my god, my skin hates vetiver.
In any case, it made me nostalgic for the 'Weenies of yore. I pulled out my collection of favorites-- Pumpkin Queen (thank god I have a bottle and am considering a backup), Pomona (the only thing with hazelnut that has ever worked on me-- I probably should have gotten a bottle), Fearful Pleasure (the best mulled apples ever), The Girl (I am SO SAD I didn't get a bottle), Devil's Night (the perfect non-foody vanilla). It's amazing to me how much Samhain changes year to year while still having very similar formulations. '04 is bar none my favorite, though I wear it rarely because it is SUPER strong. It's a fleshy pumpkin pulp with fir and mulling spices and night air. So perfect. (Though it must've aged, because my initial note say something about candied apple that is not at all present when I skin-tested tonight!) I never did get to try Samhain '03 (the original formulation). I think the only version I didn't like was 2008-- it smelled far too bitter to my nose, and a little medicinal. 2009 was a lot darker and vetivery than earlier versions, too, and far less pumpkin/appley.
-- Bean is doing okay. She's still in solitary, though I swap her out with the other two for an hour at night so she gets out some. She's stumbling more than before surgery, though that could be because she's still on painkillers.
-- Pike Place Market's Market Spice Tea? MY TOES ARE CURLING. Orange black tea with a whallop of red-hot cinnamon. This tea is amaaaaaaaaaazing.