Round 2 of BPAL sniffing and testing continues. To recap, I basically tried everything I’d gotten from the “Wanderlust” collection first (except the freebie bottle of Manila), with a little break in there because my nose failed me. Now here’s the rest of the motley assortment.

Tushnamatay

Pure internal harmony and spiritual bliss: the perfected meditation blend.

When I smell this in the bottle, I begin to wonder if I’ve just got the wrong idea of what sandalwood smells like. Because other people have said this smells like sandalwood, but it mostly smells like citrus to me. Then I try again a little later, and find myself more able to detect the earthy notes that do begin to say “sandalwood” to me. Yay! Perhaps my nose was just contaminated by something else the first time around.

On me, though, it went back to a sort of sweet citrus smell at first… and then started to smell like bubble gum. And that was pretty much it. After a while I started to think I might smell the sandalwood starting to come out, but it never quite made it.

Sea of Glass

Upon the Sea of Glass, glowing with the perfection of spiritual union and the radiance of true wisdom, rests the throne of God. A scent of inimitable purity, crystalline grace, and limitless light.

In the bottle, I’m pleasantly surprised to find that yes, this does make me think of the seaside. It’s not the scent of the beach, but it evokes the feeling of the beach and the ocean. I couldn’t say what any of the components are, though. My nose isn’t that fine-tuned, I suppose. It’s a very sharp scent, though.

On me, unfortunately it got very perfumey very fast. I don’t know how else to describe it; it just smells like commercial perfume. It doesn’t remind me of the beach anymore. It just reminds me of the perfume counter at a department store.

White Rabbit

Strong black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen.

In the bottle, this one was hard to pin down at first. There wasn’t as much milk and tea as I’d expected, or perhaps they weren’t expressed the way I’d expected them to be. I definitely smell the ginger and spice and vanilla, though. This should be an interesting scent to try. (Which I mean in the best way possible!)

When I first put it on–wow, there’s the tea. Very strong, very… tea. After a bit it became more of a honey/milk scent, and seemed to fluctuate between that and the tea for a while. Then after a couple of hours it settled down to a nice soft scent of milk and spices. It’s different, but I kind of like it, really.

Manila

A tropical, humid, lush scent, with a faint echo of Pacific breezes, jungle blossoms, and deep wet woods. Sampaguita blossoms, banana leaf, palm, and narra.

Hrm. I’m not sure I know what half those things even are. In the bottle, I definitely smell fruit, though it’s not a strongly specific smell. Some banana and some coconut? Maybe a little floral. Certainly a tropical scent. I don’t know about lush and humid, though. I’d have expected some greenery from the description, but I don’t smell any.

On me, the scent sort of rounded out, eventually. At first the coconut kind of took over, but not in a suntan-oil kind of way. It must’ve been mellowed by something, although I couldn’t say what. In a bit, the greenery did start to come forward, and then it was a really tropical scent. Not tropical-drink tropical, but tropical-island tropical. If that makes sense. After a bit longer, though, an earthier, almost smoky smell started to make itself known. Eventually it came to remind me of tropical-scented incense, and that was pretty much where it stayed. Again, it’s really different from anything else I’ve tried from BPAL, and… I think I like it, in its own way.

That’s all, folks!

Overall, not as much success this time as last time. I’m kind of disappointed in several of the scents I got this time. But Athens is definitely a big hit! And it’s possible that some of the ones I like less right now I’ll find I like more after all. That certainly happened with the first round. As well, I’m well aware that my skin chemistry is undergoing a lot of change right now, what with all these unfamiliar hormones floating around in my system, so it’s probably worth trying many of these again at a later date. At the moment, though, I’m kinda thinking maybe I should’ve gone with the full bottle of Delphi instead of the Imp’s Ears assortment. Or a different assortment of Imps.

No Comments »

I say toys, but there’s a reason behind these things. No! Really! There is! Anyway. Some careful finagling, some selling of older electronics, and a lot of trade-in credit have enabled us to get two things of note lately that make me squee just a tiny bit.

The first, a few days ago, was a Wii. Yup. We got our grubby little hands on one. I suppose there’s actually not that much of a reason behind this one, but you do have to admit it’ll be a more family-friendly console than most of what we have right now when the time comes. (The XBox family of products focuses more on more mature content, it seems like, and while the PlayStation family has made more of an attempt to straddle the line, it’s still… not really. Nintendo? C’mon, it’s Mario and Zelda.)

I think Tim is going to blog this at some point, so I’ll let him get into the descriptions of just how awesome it is. But it really is. It really, really is. And it comes with a game, even, which consoles haven’t been doing lately. Wii Sports does not at first sound like something that would interest me that much, but the bowling particularly turns out to be damned addictive. And the motion-sensing controller really does allow you to mimic the motion of real bowling… but without the heavy ball, which seems to make a difference for me because I can actually bowl pretty well on the Wii. (In real life? Lucky to break 100. Gutter balls every other frame.)

The other thing… Tim just called me to tell me that he had just purchased my new computer. Well, his new computer; I’m getting his old one. (He has more need of the newer technology than I do.) We’ve sold the big honking G5 PowerMac tower and gotten a new MacBook. And a bluetooth mouse to go with it, since I can’t stand touchpads. (Not just any mouse. A Mighty Mouse.)

I have to admit there’s an “oooh, shiny” factor here, but we wouldn’t have gotten it if that were all there was to it. We figure a laptop will have less cables and things for a kidlet to get tangled up in–a serious concern since my computer area is one end of the coffee table, so any cables have to come across the floor–and it will be easier to put away somewhere safe when necessary.

I now need some sort of cool sticker or something to differentiate between my laptop at Tim’s at a glance. (They’ll look exactly alike.) I’m considering just seeing if Michael’s or someplace has sheets of sticker-backed paper that I could print my own on. Or maybe I’ll stumble upon some really neat stickers somewhere. I guess we’ll just have to see.

1 Comment »

Okay. My nose seems back on track. Let’s try this again. Sorry about the delay!

Shanghai

The crisp, clean scent of green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle.

In the bottle, I can definitely smell… exactly what the description says. Green tea, a floral touch, and a little sharpness from the lemon verbena. Pretty straightforward, and a pretty scent. The floral note isn’t too strong, so hopefully it’ll make a nice change from my current repertoire of “clean, crisp” scents (Veil and Muse, both florals).

When I put it on, the immediate scent was the same as in the bottle. It quickly faded, though, into something more… powdery, I guess. That’s the only way I can think of to describe it. The lemon was certainly gone, and I think what I was smelling was kind of the blend of the tea and the honeysuckle after it was gone. Not unpleasant, I guess, but not what I was hoping for. After a few hours, the lemon came back and the powder receded a bit more, but unfortunately the scent was already really faint by that time.

Neo-Tokyo

This scent was created for a very dear friend in Kyoto, with love, admiration and continent-spanning affection. The name itself was inspired by Vladimir. A scent that captures a meeting of the serenity and elegance of ancient Japan, the vibrant, shining, neon-lit and ultra-modern splendor of today’s Tokyo and the fantastic electric fantasyland of post-modern manga fantasy. Urban metallics and an ozone-tinged breath of electric light mingled with reedy bamboo, crisp mountain air, cherry blossoms, delicate orchid and a splash of playful, wet fruits.

In the bottle, the cherry overwhelms just as it did with Kyoto, and just as with Kyoto it smells a little cough-syrup-y. I can sort of detect that there are other notes under it, but can’t really say what they are. Cherry, cherry, cherry just keeps hitting my nose. I’m a little nervous about this one, but think that like Kyoto, the cherry will probably mellow some when it’s applied to my actual skin.

When applied, at first it was a nice soft cherry blossom scent, with hints of other things sort of peeking around the sides. After a few minutes, though, it turned sort of soapy.

Stay tuned for the rest of it in a few days. Coming up: Tushnamatay, Sea of Glass, White Rabbit, and Manila (the freebie).

No Comments »

…Just one, thank you. And healthy and happy, to all appearances. We went in for the first ultrasound yesterday. It was pretty neat, to see our baby for the first time. We could even see her heart beating! (Not that we actually know it’s “her” as opposed to “him”; we won’t know that until the next ultrasound, in about 9 weeks.) Tim scanned in the pictures, if anyone wants to see them:

1st Ultrasound

Baby’s a little farther along than expected, about 11 weeks. So my due date has been pushed back to August 15. Which is funny, because as some of you may recall my initial feeling on the subject was that it would be August 14…

Mama’s healthy too. All the urine and blood and whatever they did last time came back clean. (And I now know my blood type, which I didn’t before.) I haven’t gained a single pound, which is fine at this stage, but I shouldn’t make a habit of it. The doctor said (and others had told me too) that some women actually lose a lot of weight in the first trimester because they’re so sick they just can’t eat, or can’t keep it down. So holding steady is good right now.

1 Comment »

My most recent order from BPAL arrived a few days ago, as previously noted, and I’ve been trying them out. Time for sniffing notes! Everything was tested, as before, with a little dab behind each ear. I’m not noting how long they last this time because I’ve been noticing that the scents I already had haven’t been lasting as long either, so something (pregnancy, perhaps?) seems to be affecting that independent of the oils’ actual quality.

Athens

A reformulation and modernization of a true Classical Greek perfume, myrrhine: voluptuous myrrh, golden honey, red wine, and sweet flowers.

I had hoped this would be somewhat like Delphi. In the bottle, at least, I am not disappointed. It’s a similar smell. The combination of honey and wine lurks behind it, but isn’t as strong as in Delphi. The rest of the scent… is almost chocolatey. I suppose that might be how the floral components mix with the honey and wine? Quite sweet.

On me, at first it smelled almost exactly like Delphi. Which is a good thing, since I like that scent so much, but a little disconcerting. After a few minutes, the wine began to fade and the honey came out really strong, though. And then by… maybe half an hour or so later, the honey had mellowed too, and the scent had smoothed out a bit. Still similar to Delphi, but different in the balance and undertones. I like it.

…And here I have to leave off for now, after only one scent. I tried Shanghai yesterday and got literally nothing. It was like I had no scent on at all. I thought it was a fluke and went for Neo-Tokyo today… with similar results. So at this point I think something’s up with my nose. I do have a slight bit of congestion, which could be affecting things, but I can still smell other things besides the oil I’m wearing so I hadn’t thought that was the problem. Who knows. At any rate, I’m going to have to delay posting any more reviews until I can actually, you know, smell the scents again. Hopefully things will clear up quickly and I can get Part II (Shanghai and Neo-Tokyo) up in a couple of days, and Part III (Tushnamatay, Sea of Glass, White Rabbit and Manila) a few days after that.

Weird.

No Comments »

Jimi Hendrix Energy Drink in the Works

It seems like there’s something just… vastly wrong about this. Of course, as usual, what really catches my attention isn’t the main focus of the article. Hendrix’s image has been licensed for baby clothing? Seriously? That seems like an even odder combo.

In other liquid-related news, I’ve figured out where all that extra fluid in my body during pregnancy is coming from. It’s being leeched out of my skin, I swear. I have had more problems with dry skin over the past month-ish… Especially the past week or so. It’s just ridiculous. (The one thing that seems to help is the aforementioned Curel Ultra Healing lotion. Bless whoever pointed me to it.)

No Comments »

You may recall that back around Christmastime, I got some cash and used part of it to order more good-smelling stuff from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (better known as BPAL). Last night the shipment came in, a little earlier than I’d expected, six trial “imp’s ears” that I ordered plus one freebie. I’ll be trying them on over the next few days and posting smelling notes as I did for the first round. In the meantime I thought I’d revisit Round 1, because over the long run they haven’t all turned out quite the way I’d initially thought. Here they are again, in order of how often I wear them:

Delphi (honey wine, laurel, bay, incense) there’s no change in. I loved it, I love it, it’s my favourite of the bunch hands-down. The only reason I don’t wear it most of all is because I don’t want to use it up too quickly. Fortunately, even 1/32 oz goes a long way when you’re using, like, a couple of drops at a time.

Rose Cross (rose and frankincense) I was initially very “meh” about wearing, but I discovered quickly after posting my notes on it that I actually liked it better than I’d thought. (Also? I mistook the frankincense for “perfumy” when writing those notes. It’s not actually perfumy.) I tend to wear it as a calming scent. It makes me feel a little mystical, which I like. It’s probably tied with Delphi and Muse for my most-worn scent.

Muse (tuberose, lotus, jasmine, lime) was another surprise. It actually changed a little over the next few times I wore it, the lime note coming out stronger, mostly. I began to really like it. I wear it now when I need a little emotional boost, to feel lighter, more carefree.

Kyoto (cherry blossom, white sandalwood, star anise) hasn’t changed much. It’s something that I like well enough, but have to be in the right mood for. I especially like to wear it when it’s rainy and/or cold outside, because the way it combines with the natural scent hanging in the air at those times makes it smell better to me.

Veil (white sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender, ylang ylang) is a scent that I turn out to like pretty well, but keep forgetting to actually wear. It’s become a sort of “wake up” scent for me. Why, I couldn’t say. It’s not a particularly energetic scent or anything. It just makes me think of fresh, new mornings, I guess, and waking up. It’ll never match Rose Cross or Delphi, but it’s nicer than I think I gave it credit for initially.

Twilight (lavender, jasmine, honeysuckle) is still a bit heavy and almost languid for my taste day-to-day. If I’m in the mood for indulging gloominess, or if I need something evening-ish, or if I just feel like wearing something a little different, I’ll put it on. I don’t use it that much, though.

French Love (dragon’s blood, spice, floral, vanilla)… Well… It’s not that it’s a bad scent. But… It doesn’t get worn much. Actually, I’m not sure I’ve worn it since I tested it. As I said, it’s not that I dislike it, or that it’s a bad scent. It’s just that everything else I have, I like better. So I don’t tend to even think of it, and it doesn’t tend to get worn.

The biggest surprise, actually, has been that I have started wearing scent so much. I didn’t think I would. I thought I’d wind up using most of the samples as room scent or something, because in the past perfume just hasn’t been my thing. And then I discovered that if anyone else noticed I was wearing scent, they sure weren’t saying anything. So I was wearing it more for me than anything. At that point I started using them as sort of aromatherapy, as scent triggers… And discovered that I liked it. And now I wear some almost every day. Who knew?

In fact, I’ve actually stopped liking scented body products like Bath and Body Works much… because they get in the way. I have all these lovely smelly oils and then I go to moisturize my hands, and suddenly I smell like ginger and citrus instead of Rose Cross. Bwuh? Thank the gods for Curel, which is both unscented and more effective than B&BW anyway.

No Comments »

I’ve been meaning to make frozen yogurt for a while now. Emboldened by the ideas I’d gotten from the Television Without Pity thread, I set out to do it and go beyond the basics. No vanilla for me–I was going to do my take on Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. Dark sweet cherries (frozen, as they’re not in season) and high-quality dark chocolate. Unfortunately, the cherries turned out to be harder to find than I’d expected, so I went with frozen strawberries instead.

The recipe I have called for one cup each of fruit puree and plain yogurt and one-third of a cup of sugar. Combine everything, chill for an hour or so, and freeze. About five minutes before the end of the freeze time I added two chopped-up Ghirardelli 60% Cocoa squares and about five or six strawberries, also chopped.

And the result? Delicious. I’m not sure the chocolate and chopped strawberries were distributed evenly, as the chilled mixture froze more quickly than I’m used to, so I didn’t get them in quite when I should’ve. (This has also contributed to the end product being a bit too solid and difficult to scoop. ) But that’s a matter of simply learning and adjusting. My only complaint about the recipe itself is that although it claimed to make a quart, it actually only made a little over a pint. I might increase it by half next time (1 1/2 cups each yogurt and puree and 1/2 cup sugar).

Now what I really can’t wait for is when fruit starts coming into season at the Farmers’ Market. My brain’s already playing with the possibilities.

2 Comments »

I initially e-mailed this to Tim, and then decided that hey, maybe I should just blog it.

Tim and I were instant and avid fans of Bravo’s reality series Top Chef when its first season debuted following Season 3 of Project Runway. However, the second season has proven somewhat… disappointing. The focus on the food has been lost in favor of the dramatic (culminating, in the most recent episode, in one contestant actually physically assaulting another, an act which overshadowed everything else that happened in the episode). This is rather disappointing because previously, Bravo’s reality TV had been of a higher quality than average, focusing on actual competition and eschewing the high-drama approach that makes other reality shows so laughable.

For those of you who, like me, are craving more Top Chef and less Top Bully, I suggest perusing certain portions of the forum at Television Without Pity. Not all of it; the drama is under considerable discussion. But some threads can be really nice. Particularly, this thread: TWOP Chef.

Here, posters weigh in on what they would have made for the various challenges. Some ideas, admittedly, sound less than stellar, but many of them sound tasty and different and like things I would very much like to try. You must especially be sure to see the discussion of Season 2′s Thanksgiving episode, wherein the contestants were challenged to present a cutting-edge Thanksgiving dinner using traditional flavors. The posters rose to the challenge much more satisfactorily than the actual contestants did.

The really great thing, though, is that this thread does for me some of what Top Chef used to do that drew me in. It inspires me. It’s not just reading a thread, it’s an interactive experience. I sit here and read about bruleéd bananas for the poker challenge from Season 1′s finale, and I think, hey, I could do that. I should try that sometime. I read through all the many suggestions for ice cream flavors and start playing with combinations in my own head, thinking of what I could do with a little imagination and experimentation. I read about chili and realize that I haven’t made it at all this winter, and think I should. I read about latkes and follow that train of thought to another dish I haven’t made for forever: potato pancakes, like Dad used to make with sauerbraten. Which of course gets me thinking what I could pair with it besides sauerbraten. (Not that I don’t love me some sauerbraten; just thinking outside my usual accustomed combinations.) And then about how I could mix it up a little with the pancakes themselves–what could I add to them?

I mean, dude. This is good. This inspires me to push myself, to be better, to expand my culinary repertoire. It makes me think about what I could do, if I tried. It makes me want to try. I need more of this.

Guess I’ll just have to keep reading.

No Comments »

Recipe: Homemade Root Beer Soda

I finally got the bottles together and remember to actually try this recipe. I brewed root beer! Uh… sort of. It’s definitely soda. The carbonation part of the recipe worked beautifully. But I don’t know if I’d call it root beer. It doesn’t look like root beer; it’s very pale and a little milky, almost more like the color of Fresca. It smells very sour and gingery, not at all like root beer. Actually, the smell is sort of off-putting.

But how does it taste?

First sip: “This isn’t root beer, this is weak ginger soda.” I poured myself a whole juice glass full, though, and the more I drank of it, the more the root beer flavor did come out. It could’ve been stronger, and there was still a ginger aftertaste, but… it was there.

Root beer or not, if one can get around the smell it’s certainly good enough to drink. And then wash out the bottles and try again with more vanilla, maybe. Or even a different flavor entirely; the carbonation method, one would think, could be applied to any number of flavors successfully. Just make sure the yeast and the sugar are there in the right proportions, and you should be golden.

No Comments »