A grab bag of reviews
Apr. 17th, 2007 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynBPAL 13
The site says: In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris.
In the bottle: This is odd. I can’t figure out what I think about it. At first it seems to be this odd clash of different scents and associations. Then I inhaled properly – I can definitely smell the tangerine and mandarin, and I can smell the chocolate. OK, this is nicer than I expected.
On the wrist: Wow. Much nicer than I expected. I can smell the flowers now. This really doesn’t smell much like perfume at all. It smells like I’ve spent a day in a kitchen, or in a garden or something. This is gorgeous.
One hour later: Mmmmm…still edible. It has faded quite a lot – my skin doesn’t seem to hold these sweeter scents as well as it does musk and incense – but it’s left a lovely subtle aftereffect, which is making me very happy. I think a little dab applied on both wrists and the neck would probably hold a little better. God, the chocolate comes across nicely, I’ve got to admit!
Final Verdict: I really didn’t think I’d like this as much as I do, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. 9/10.
BPAL The Red Queen
The site says: Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant.
In the bottle: Is there furniture polish in there? And maybe some aniseed? Actually, I do smell cherries – but those quite vile cherries that have been soaked in liqueur for too long.
On the wrist: Dear god. This is a little overwhelming, and I can’t quite get away from the sense furniture polish. It also smells a bit too much like conventional perfume to me – it smells a bit like something my mother would wear.
One hour later: Nope. It still smells too much like conventional perfume for me, and although it has faded a bit, I think it’s still too heavy for my skin.
Final Verdict: 3/10. It isn’t a bad scent, I suspect. It just doesn’t suit me at all and is the first of the BPAL imps that I’ve wanted to scrub off my skin. This will be added to my list of swapsies.
I also tried Dragon’s Heart, Jester, and Haloa onwildrogue – one of each wrist and one on the elbow. I would have done this more slowly, but I had Elle for the evening, and wanted to see how they smelt on her.
The quick result was that Jester started off as smelling very strongly of citrus, and rapidly turned into soap on Elle’s wrist. Dragon’s Heart was just horrifically musky – it really swamped Elle’s skin, and Haloa was quite nice – I thought it had a nice warm fruitness to it on Elle, but Elle said it wasn’t entirely her kind of perfume, but she didn’t object to wearing it for an evening, and thought it smelled quite nice.
It was actually really interesting noticing just how different scents smelled on me and Elle – Dragon’s Heart mellowed really nicely on me, but just overwhelmed Elle.
By the way, why did no one tell me before that Anne McCaffrey had written an Arthurian novel? And an Arthurian novel about horses as well. I spent a very pleasant afternoon curled up with Black Horses For The King, being vastly cheered by this novel about King Arthur’s farrier. Next time I have a pony I shall call it Spadix.
Anne McCaffrey also seems to be much better behaved when writing about a male lead. She didn’t even begin to slide into Mary Sue-isms, although he was possibly the least blokey male character I’ve seen in a novel in some time.
Oh, I’m on the look out for comfortable books I can read in between ploughing through chemistry papers at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions? Bear in mind that I have a fondness for Anne McCaffrey, and a deep and abiding love for Rosemary Sutcliff.
Ideas?
The site says: In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris.
In the bottle: This is odd. I can’t figure out what I think about it. At first it seems to be this odd clash of different scents and associations. Then I inhaled properly – I can definitely smell the tangerine and mandarin, and I can smell the chocolate. OK, this is nicer than I expected.
On the wrist: Wow. Much nicer than I expected. I can smell the flowers now. This really doesn’t smell much like perfume at all. It smells like I’ve spent a day in a kitchen, or in a garden or something. This is gorgeous.
One hour later: Mmmmm…still edible. It has faded quite a lot – my skin doesn’t seem to hold these sweeter scents as well as it does musk and incense – but it’s left a lovely subtle aftereffect, which is making me very happy. I think a little dab applied on both wrists and the neck would probably hold a little better. God, the chocolate comes across nicely, I’ve got to admit!
Final Verdict: I really didn’t think I’d like this as much as I do, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. 9/10.
BPAL The Red Queen
The site says: Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant.
In the bottle: Is there furniture polish in there? And maybe some aniseed? Actually, I do smell cherries – but those quite vile cherries that have been soaked in liqueur for too long.
On the wrist: Dear god. This is a little overwhelming, and I can’t quite get away from the sense furniture polish. It also smells a bit too much like conventional perfume to me – it smells a bit like something my mother would wear.
One hour later: Nope. It still smells too much like conventional perfume for me, and although it has faded a bit, I think it’s still too heavy for my skin.
Final Verdict: 3/10. It isn’t a bad scent, I suspect. It just doesn’t suit me at all and is the first of the BPAL imps that I’ve wanted to scrub off my skin. This will be added to my list of swapsies.
I also tried Dragon’s Heart, Jester, and Haloa on
wildrogue – one of each wrist and one on the elbow. I would have done this more slowly, but I had Elle for the evening, and wanted to see how they smelt on her.The quick result was that Jester started off as smelling very strongly of citrus, and rapidly turned into soap on Elle’s wrist. Dragon’s Heart was just horrifically musky – it really swamped Elle’s skin, and Haloa was quite nice – I thought it had a nice warm fruitness to it on Elle, but Elle said it wasn’t entirely her kind of perfume, but she didn’t object to wearing it for an evening, and thought it smelled quite nice.
It was actually really interesting noticing just how different scents smelled on me and Elle – Dragon’s Heart mellowed really nicely on me, but just overwhelmed Elle.
By the way, why did no one tell me before that Anne McCaffrey had written an Arthurian novel? And an Arthurian novel about horses as well. I spent a very pleasant afternoon curled up with Black Horses For The King, being vastly cheered by this novel about King Arthur’s farrier. Next time I have a pony I shall call it Spadix.
Anne McCaffrey also seems to be much better behaved when writing about a male lead. She didn’t even begin to slide into Mary Sue-isms, although he was possibly the least blokey male character I’ve seen in a novel in some time.
Oh, I’m on the look out for comfortable books I can read in between ploughing through chemistry papers at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions? Bear in mind that I have a fondness for Anne McCaffrey, and a deep and abiding love for Rosemary Sutcliff.
Ideas?
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 07:42 pm (UTC)Remind me to hit Amazon :)
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Date: 2007-04-17 07:46 pm (UTC)Not too bad on the history, as far as I can tell, as well.
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Date: 2007-04-17 07:53 pm (UTC)<hides her horsey books>
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Date: 2007-04-17 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 08:10 pm (UTC)cool...
I still need to try most of mine, but I have a feeling that:
Dragon's Musk: Dominant, passionate, devastating. Dragon’s blood and five deep musks.
(this just makes me go "hmmmm?" when I smell it in the bottle)
Catherine: Named for the ambitious, vengeful poisoner Catherine deMedici, who used perfumes to perform her dark deeds. A sinful blend of orange blossom, rosemary and rose... allegedly the exact perfume she utilzed in her work.
(I swing between liking the smell of this in the bottle and hating it - I'm not certain about the combination of rosemary and orange)
Van Van: A venerable voodoo blend, used for purification of the spirit and to amplify positive personal power.
(This just makes me go 'meh' when I smell it in the bottle. I just don't smell anything in particular.)
I need to try the three above on me, just because they may be different on me than they smell in the bottle. I've then got a load coming in the next few days, so there may be a wider range come the weekend of ones I may want to swap.
I'm just happily sniffing Eve on my wrists atm. It most defintely is a very girly summer scent of hot days and crisp fruit in the garden. Going to try it again before I decide about putting a bottle of it on my wish list.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 10:55 pm (UTC)Swap her for this,
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Date: 2007-04-17 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 08:22 pm (UTC)Angie Sage - Magik, Flyte and Physik
3 books of a ongoing series.
Trudi Canavan - Black Magician Trilogy or Age of the Five
First triology is all about social classes and magicians.
Second triology is about religious bigotry and magic
Alison Croggan - Books of Pellinor
Very wierd series that appears to be a translation of an old scroll but also if I'm correct is a piece of fiction. All about magic in a kind of pre-medieval bardic world thing.
Garth Nix - Keys to the Kingdom Series
A series based on the days of the week and the 7 sins, borders on the concept of a creation story and parallel worlds.
erm... I probably can think of a few other books. Let me know what you are looking for in more detail and I can do a dig in my bookcases - if you are interested in any of the above I could probably dig out some of them, or rescue them from the school librarian.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 07:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 07:58 pm (UTC)I think it looked quite peculiar.
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Date: 2007-04-17 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 08:12 pm (UTC)Easy reading and make-you-grin loveliness :)
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Date: 2007-04-18 03:41 am (UTC)I have in the past found a few sites that specialise in the if you like.... then read these authors
so I dug it up for you.....
Anne McCaffrey try:
Poul Anderson
Ben Bova
Ray Bradbury
Marion Zimmer Bradley (nb loved the avalon books)
Octavia Butler
Jeffrey A. Carver
C. J. Cherryh
Glenn Cook
John DeChancie
Samuel R. Delany
Stephen Goldin
Dean Ing
Ursula LeGuin (nb- love some of her stuff!!!)
Vonda McIntyre
Frederick Pohl
Terry Pratchett
Melissa Scott
Robert Scheckley
Robert Silverberg
Norman Spinrad
Joan D. Vinge
Vernor Vinge
Walter Jon Williams
Gene Wolfe
makes me want to hole up with a book now!!!! its been so long!!!! just waiting for the next wheel of time pulp to come out :)
thought of you yesterday actually, wandering about the book shops on my 'sick day' off!!!! spend several hours just browsing, and idly hunting for a good book on Art noveau design
Grins
j
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Date: 2007-04-18 07:39 am (UTC)Thank you for the list of authors. I shall poke amazon's second hand market with the names.
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Date: 2007-04-18 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 10:43 am (UTC)