Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Samhain 2010

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

Scent of the Day:  Samhain (Hallowe'enies 2010) -- 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 stayed away from the annual Hallowe'enies offering of Samhain for years because of the pumpkin.  Once I finally took a chance and tried it, this signature BPAL scent became one of my darlings.

At first sniff it's evergreens, a dry grass, patchouli, and a bit of apple.  Wet on my skin the evergreen spikes but then subsides to blend with the patchouli.  It does smell a bit damp, but not mouldy nor ever quite aquatic or earthy.  There's a powdery note that might be all I ever get of pumpkin. 

It matures into warm, slightly sugary, spicy dark green magnificence.  The patchouli and the fir work really well together on my skin.  I think the sugary impression comes from the evergreen, because I've noticed it in Hemlock and some of the other intensely evergreen scents.  The curl of hot mulled cider running through it never turns the scent toward foody.

Something about this scent always makes me feel warm, nostalgic, and happy.

NB: Sadly, the 2010 version of Samhain is gone, but you can order the 2015 version here.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Liberty

purchased and reviewed by ThoraSTooth

BPAL Scent of the Day:  Liberty (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund charity scent, 2010):  frankincense, beeswax, olive blossom, chamomile, sampaguita, magnolia, apple blossom, gunpowder, and smoke.

In the bottle this is floral-honeyish.  I particularly notice the sampaguita and olive blossom notes, but when this bottle was new the gunpowder note was somewhat more strident than it is now that the scent has aged.

Wet on my skin the sampaguita does its usual jasmine-y climb, making it the top note along with a touch of ripe magnolia and the olive blossom which has a rich, almost woody scent.  Underneath there is beeswax and resin serving to prop up the florals.

Liberty dries down to a rich, un-sweet, beeswaxy floral on a resinous base.  The olive blossom shapes the scent, giving it a slightly dark and sober cast.  The sharp florals it displayed when fresh have aged to tasteful, cooperative ones.  The apple blossom manifests as more fruity than floral.  It also seems as if there is some sandalwood or other similar note helping the frankincense to hold this together. 

Note from Jammies: Thora wore this on Friday to celebrate, and I got to see Summit County residents taking advantage of their new ability to get marriage licenses.

Green Week Day Two: Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

I love this polish and have since I got it a year ago, when it came out as part of Orly's 2010 Holiday collection. I got a pleasant surprise today, though, because as much as I've worn it over the last year, I hadn't seen it in the sun until today. In artificial light or cloudy daylight, it's a rich green on the blue end of the spectrum, full of pretty glitter in green and gold. It takes three thin or two thick coats to be opaque, and the dry time is a little slow but not horrible. It's a great winter green for me, because I am not fond of yellow-toned greens.

Imagine my surprise when I saw it in the sunshine and discovered that in full sun, it's a greenish blue! I was staggered and fell in love all over again.

Behold the beauty:

In the sun:





With flash, looking blue-green:



Without flash, looking green:

China Glaze Sugar Plum: review & swatches

Sugar Plums is a gorgeous deep plum with subtle multicolored shimmer particles. It's rich and vampy without being in the least blackened. Sugar Plums was part of the 2010 China Glaze holiday collection, but can still be purchased online at a reasonable price. The formula was a dream to work with--the pictures are two coats, but if I'd been more careful, I probably could have gotten away with one! My only problem with the polish is that the "s" on the end makes my subject-verb agreement seem illiterate. :p

Indoor, no flash, and please forgive the giant divot:



Indoors, with flash and divot:



In the sunlight, where it belongs:

China Glaze Endurance: review & swatches

Endurance is from the 2010 Breast Cancer Awareness collection by China Glaze, but you can still find it at relatively inexpensive prices. It's a lovely deep rosy pink with matching glassfleck glitter. Despite being a year old, the polish was still runny, and did pool in my cuticles quite a bit. It also tends to the sheer--my pictures are with three coats and I could have used four. Still, the color and finish are totally worth it for me!

First, a bottle shot, because I grabbed the wrong bottle when I took my swatch pics:



Indoors, with flash:



Indoors, no flash:



In sunlight, sparkling its little heart out: