5mL ('04)
15mL
('05)

Affectionately nicknamed 'The Devil's Bake Sale'. (04 turned to cinnamony playdoh on me, 05 buttery caramel) 04 review;05 review

This is the 2005 formulation.
I didn't like last year's (2004) version at all. It had a cinnamon note, which was fine, on top of a vanilla base that turned into total play-doh on me.
This is completely different. It smells almost boozy going on, sort of a buttery rum scent. Throughout the day, it becomes less boozy, but remains kind of a buttery caramel.
It's nice, but to me, it's like Gluttony Lite.
Much better than last year, but if you want sugary, buttery, sticky sweet, stick with Gluttony. It's cheaper & available all year. ;)

15mL ('04)
10mL ('05)

Each bottle of Chaos Theory is truly unique, a fragrant fractal, and exercise in the joy of chance and uncertainty! Each is a one-of-a-kind, utterly random combination of scents, the composition of which is based on whim, mood and gut instinct. CII review; CCC review

CDLXXXVI
This reminds me a lot of something between Strawberry Moon & Bordello. It is very juicy, wet, bright fruits at first... strawberry, pomegranite, or possibly plum. Something red, I think. They are sweet sweet sweet with just a touch of tartness to them.
After a while, the intensity fades a little and becomes a bit more creamy (which is why it reminds me a lot of Strawberry Moon). It's a little more rounded out now and while it is still sweet, it is now kind of sultry. This is a Bordello-ish scent.
I think this is my favorite out of my Chaos Theory oils!

5 x 5mL

Pumpkin with cocoa, hazelnut and walnut. review

In the bottle, I could easily tell this was the blend MIT CHOCOLATE. I have a special chocolate sense, much like a spidey sense, except MORE DELICIOUS.
This stayed true all day and had pretty decent throw. Bonus.
Imagine you are holding a less buttery version of Jack, walking down the street. Coming toward you is someone carrying a vial of Bliss and a jar of Nutella.
WHAM. You smack right into each other!
"you got jack in my bliss & nutella!"
"you got nutella & bliss in my jack!"
it really is two great tastessmells that tastesmell great together. i am very tempted to bake a nutella pumpkin pie.
PP#2 doesn't smell quite *that* sweet or foody, but it's really rich and a nice, comforting smell, especially if you have PMS and you want to knock over little kids and steal their chocolate. not that i'd know anything about that.

A winter’s horror: smoke and stillness, faded incense and the metallic tang of blood. review

Caveat: this one? SO hard to review. Ugh.
Putting this on, oddly enough I got chocolately cocoa notes. No lie. That faded a bit and turned into a sweet incensey kind of aroma with a slight metallic tang. The metallic bit did not hang around very long, but it has remained a sweet incensey kind of smell, slightly like sandalwood and/or musk, going on 9 hours or so now.
I can't really pick out any specific notes with any certainty, which is frustrating to say the least. It eludes me a great deal. I will say that I do like it a great deal, and this is one yule blend that definitely warrants a second bottle.

Magus, toymaker, and Godfather to Klara. An enigmatic man, seemingly somewhat sinister, but bearing a gentle air and a sincere love for children. This scent is dignified, refined, but dark, and hints towards esoteric mysteries and the secrets that tie mechanics to magick. Pipe smoke, sweet leather, woods and linen. review

I'm not sure what to make of this one. I wore it all day, and I can still smell it on my wrists after doing makeup all day today, & washing my hands repeatedly.
Putting it on, and really, all day, it was mostly sweet pipe tobacco and just the barest, tiniest hint of leather. But for some reason, my brain vacillated between interpreting it as tobacco and saliva. Yeah, I know. There is clearly something wrong with me.
I think this is yet another Yule blend I am going to have to revisit in a few months. If it stays like it is, I really think I'll have to swap it. If the wood & leather & linen develop properly, I'll keep it.

Thoroughly revisited. This year’s Hearth is warmer, sweeter, and more traditionally comforting. This is the scent of candied chestnuts, buttered, covered in brown sugar and honey, alongside the scent of cedar smoke and soft pine. review

In the bottle, it's sweet, slightly buttery. There's a note that smells vaguely of frankincense, but I think it's actually pine.
Wet: The pine note becomes more prominent. The sweet buttery note is very strong.
After a few moments--> drydown: The pine settles in. It remains very faint in the background, but it's not all that noticable. The buttery smell softens. It isn't as strong as it is in any of the GC catalog oils, and it's sweet, almost caramel like. Maybe a hint of vanilla.
I can actually still smell this the next morning. It is really nice & comforting. And I like it SO MUCH more than last year's version, which went all wonky, nauseating syrup on me.
If you like foody ones, grab this one up before it's gone.

What else could possibly be more lickable at Yuletide? This is a candy cane perfume, minty, sweet and sugared. review

In the bottle: super peppermint.
wet, on the skin: super peppermint. nose tingling peppermint. it smells just like candy canes.
after about 20 minutes, the peppermint fades, quite a lot, but it is still detectable. there is a sugary-almost vanilla like note that comes out, and this takes over as the main component as the mint fades. i don't think it's vanilla, maybe a light musk or a sugar musk or something else that i'll just make up, but it's sweet and cool and yummy. it really keeps this from being a super kiddie type scent.
i really like this a lot!!
ETA: I let my aromatherapy friend sniff at this one (she loved the name of it, and had to give it a whiff). She thought the thing I thought was not-quite-vanilla was possibly tonka. FWIW.

This perfume is a traditional Roman Catholic sacramental incense, most often used during a Solemn Mass. Traditionally, five tears of this incense, each encased individually in wax that has been fashioned into the shape of a nail, are inserted into the paschal candle. This is, of course, represents the Five Wounds of Our Risen Savior. Symbolically, the burning of the incense signifies spiritual fervor, the fragrance itself inspires virtue, and the rising smoke carries our prayers to God. review

Let me start off by saying I was raised Catholic. I did 12 years of Catholic School. I'm familiar with the Swingin' Censor of Doom. Church never had it this good.
This is a warm, amazing resiny blend. This frankinsence (which I'm picking up as the main component here) is golden, almost sap-like. There's a nice sweetness to it, good throw, and all-day stamina.
This is nothing like the OMG I'M CHOKING DEAR JESUS HELP ME stuff they use at church. IT'S MUCH BETTER. Maybe if they used something closer to this, I'd still be Catholic!

Annihilation. The ice, desolation and barrenness of nuclear devastation shot through by a beam of radioactive mints. review

In the bottle, it is very minty. Frost Moon minty.
Wet, on the skin, it's very very simliar to Frost Moon. Cool, pale mints and no sweetness about it.
As this dries, there is (on me at least) an upsurge of a very cold aquatic notes. I don't like aquatics very much. Luckily, after about an hour, the aquatic tones down and the mint comes more into play. At one point this smelled decidedly dusty, but now it's all cold mints with a slight pale flower note somewhere in there.
I am enjoying this. It's a cool scent, and I bet this would be fabulous in the hot of summer. Not my favorite mint blend ever, but it's nice.

In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred. 05 review

Putting this on, wet... Roses and witch hazel (??!!!?). Honest to god, it smells like witch hazel mixed in. Kind of weird and slightly unpleasant, but not totally gross. This only lasts for a few moments.
Initial drydown, within an hour... this starts to turn into a pure rose scent. Tea roses, perhaps. The kind that are strong & heady with a slight citrus note to them. Now I'm wondering if I should bother with this. It smells like plain roses, but not so spectacularly realistic like Rose Red.
Of course, as I consider that statement, it morphs more. The roses have softened, and a dry base note has emerged. I cannot for the life of me put my finger on a specific component, but it is dry, slightly woodsy or herbal note, or maybe a resin. NOW I love it. Damn it.
I'm definitely getting more of this before she goes away.

The Nine-Headed nemesis of the Nutcracker Prince. Dust, wood and feral musk with a fang-sharp undertone. review

Going on, this has a bit of sharp perfumeyness to it, which fades after a few moments.
After about 20-minutes, it develops an earthy quality to it, like a softer version of Graveyard Dirt. There is a soft musk note to it, but it's almost like skin; I can barely detect it.
After about an hour or two: I can barely detect that I'm wearing it.
I like the earthy part, but this faded so quickly, and was barely noticable unless my nose was pressed to my skin. I'm going to try this again, but my initial reaction is nice, and slightly disappointing, so probably I will have no need for a backup. Perhaps some aging will intensify the notes.

I don’t always have to be sinister, do I? Here’s to finally being able to hit the slopes again! Soft white powder snow with a touch of youthful girlie perfume. review

Putting this on, it is almost a dead ringer for Skadi. It has very similar piney-juniper notes, crisp and cool smelling. After about 5 minutes there is an eruption of a citrus, which I also get with Skadi, but this is stronger. Grapefruit, possibly. There is a brief "clean/green" stage where it almost smells like it had some Embalming Fluid added to the mix.
Now that I've had it on for a few hours, it's still crisp & green with a slight citrus bite to it. There is also something else in the background... a musk perhaps. It has an almost creamy quality to it, not unlike Dorian's white musk note.
I was sad that there was no Skadi this year, but Snow Bunny actually surpasses my expectations and has eclipsed Skadi as one of my favorites! I'm definitely going to stock up on this one. I absofuckinglutely love it.

When the holidays roll around, not everyone has mistletoe, caroling and cookies on their minds. This scent is a paean to celebrating hard: nights covered in glitter and dusted with cocaine, flutes of Cristal clutched in shaky hands, leather and lace, the Spiders From Mars in the background, and twisting, sweaty limbs entangled in dark corners. Hairspray and cigarette smoke is the incense in this temple to decadence, strobe and mirrors replace the devotional candles, and Bolan sings the hymns. This scent is for everyone that has every drifted off into Quaalude-induced reverie to the beat of a tribal 4-on-the-floor: the sound of Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Slade or the Dolls. This scent reflects the futurism, self-indulgence and excess of the Glitter 70’s: champagne, hyacinth, tuberose, ylang ylang and flashing white musk with jonquil, tobacco flower, white sandalwood and a pale poppy. review

In the bottle, it smells kind of sharp.
Wet, on the skin, it's very perfumey; it's really floral, there's an intense floral topnote. Slightly cloying in intensity.
After about 10 minutes it starts to settle in. The florals are still there, but they smell more girly & sweet and less stinging. It adopts an almost fruity quality, but that might be the flowers morphing. I never really get the champagne notes, sadly.
I can still smell this after hanging out with my smoker friend most of the day and a breakfast of ihop. it now smells vaguely like a faded perfume overlaid with aquanet. i love long-lasting scents. ;)
I like this a lot. now the waffling about if this warrants a 2nd bottle.

Skeletal limbs of birch and fir coated in a thick, impenetrable blanket of snow. This is the death of the year personified. review

In the bottle, and freshly applied, this oil has a beautiful frosty pine smell.
Unfortunately for me, that changes after approximately 30 seconds. The piney, frosty top note disappears almost immediately, leaving me with a very sharp, soapy smell. I'm not digging this at all.
After about 30 minutes, the soapy abrasive quality simmers down a bit, leaving behind an aquatic base note. I'm not a fan of BPAL aquatic notes (nor any aquatic, really) because they tend to make me either queasy or headachey. This pretty much sticks with the aquatic note, one which my skin amps up to the nth degree. I don't get any other notes. No birch, no "snow," no fir. I guess the aquatic note is kind of cold, so maybe that's my snow, though it is more reminiscent of dripping icicles or cold running water than fluffy winter snow.
This is probably a great choice for someone who likes the clean/aquatic blends that the Lab offers, but for me, this is a prime candidate for swap.

A celebration of three years of decadence, determination, death and rebirth. Red musk, tonka, Chinese cassia, mandarin, patchouli, benzoin, wild plum and tobacco. review

I swear I must have either a mutant nose or mutant chemistry.
Putting it on & in the bottle, it reminds me of "new" Samhain. Like watered down cinnamon. After a few minutes, it starts to get a weird, wet, funky fruit note to it. It smells a lot like the pear note that BPAL uses a lot, and which I dislike. It smells tart and a little overly sweet, and in combination with the cassia, it's a bit plasticky and sour. I'm guessing the culprit is the plum, which is odd because it usually agrees with my skin a lot more than this.
After 2 or so hours, the sour-tart-sweet smell dissipates greatly, to my pleasure. I'm still not getting patchouli or tonka or tobacco (WHY NOT???). It seems to have gone a bit more perfumey, but not overly so. It's the red musk finally warming up and getting into the action. I like this stage a lot more. Still, there's a lingering sourness in the background, but it's not as bad as the wet & initial drydown stages.
The jury is out on this one. I really want to love it, but the weird sourness is quite off-putting. I think I need to try it a few more times, and perhaps let it sit for a few weeks to see my opinion of it changes with some time.

Silliness in the extreme. Vanilla bean, honeycomb, sugared pear, sweet pea and a dribble of strawberry. review

Heh. Seems like the last 3 oils I've reviewed have been strawberry!
In the bottle, I get glorious honey notes with sweet fruits. Slightly floral, but they seem to be all sweet top note florals.
On the skin, it's mostly sugar + strawberry. It's stayed this way all day without much perceptable change. The honey seems to have disappeared. It's mostly strawberry candy/gum. There may be a slight vanilla-ish tinge to it, but honestly, my skin amps up sweet fruits like WHOA, so it's hard to really pick anything else out.
Sweet and cute and very fun. =)

Oakmoss, sweet sage, juniper berry, civet and a drop of grape. review

I was a bit leary of this one, because most of the reviews likened it to cat pee + grape koolaid. Nevertheless, I really wanted to try it, so I took the plunge and ordered a 5mL bottle.
Going on, it does have very strong grape notes. Sweet. There's almost a lemony burst, followed by a strong eucalyptus type of scent, which is most likely the juniper. It sometimes goes lemony on me for some reason.
After the juniper dies down a bit, there is a bit of the oakmoss smell, and I think a bit of the sage. It's still a bit fruity, but a touch of earthiness. After a few hours, it gets a sort of floral tinge to it. It smells almost like fresh jasmine (not the usual BPAL jasmine). It is reminding me strongly of something else that I can't put my finger on. Something like modeling clay that I used to play with? I don't know.
I really didn't get any civet at all, strangely enough! Maybe it's just an issue of aging, since this is a fresh batch of Puck, but only time will tell.
Suprisingly, I really like this a lot!

This is a blissful, euphoric blend based on an ancient Indian love potion: honey, date palm, tuberose, davana blossom, amber, white sandalwood, vanilla bean, Damask rose, and champaca flower. review

In the bottle, it smells Nag Champa-ish. Resiny.
Wet, the sandalwood is the prominent note.
As it dries, it smells like spicy sandalwood incense. Just a touch of floral notes in the background. I love this blend!

This scent is for the Luperci, the Chosen of Faunus, the Brothers of the Wolf: raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk. review

This one is very evocative. Like a past memory or life or something.
It's a honey-sweetened patchouli with just a hint of woodsy juniper. I can actually smell the beeswax at times. Sweetish, herbally. It's pretty and I am just not very eloquent today.
If you like the more "masculine" bpal scents, you should really give this a try.

Not the desperation, desolation and anguish of unrequited love, but the distant, chill and pitiless scent of the object of that doomed desire. White musk, osmanthus, Nile lily and frankincense. review

I got scared when I read a lot of "aquatic + lily" type of reviews. Thankfully that is not how it wears on me (I dislike lilies and most aquatic notes).
This goes on sweet. Not like candy or honey or sugar, but just not heavy or brooding or overly floral... with something else lurking. I think mainly on me this is a musk blend with just a hint of sweet frankinscense resin. It is sweet to the point that the musk smells more like the Egyptian variety rather than the White type. I'm sure there are flowers in here, but I'm not really picking them up at all (yay!).
This is cool and fresh and a surprise for me! I can see how someone would call this "aquatic," but it's more in the way it reminds me of water rather than how it smells. If that makes any sense!

Medieval romance and courtly love. White rose and soft resins. review

For me this is mostly white rose. Just a touch of the resin ever comes through. This lasts all day and has average-good throw. If you're not a fan of rose, this is not for you.
The overall effect is that of sitting in an old medieval chapel filled with white, translucent roses in which the smell of incense lingers on every surface and cold stone wall.
It is mighty pretty. It's sweet & innocent, much like the concept of courtly love.

The Perfumed Garden for the Soul’s Recreation. This scent is based on a venerable Tunisian perfume that was used to excite the senses, inspire sensuality and inflame passion. Myrrh and Moroccan jasmine with apple peel, Indian sandalwood, myrtle, quince, citron, and thyme poured over soft musk. review

I had really high hopes for this one. Sadly, it was not what I envisioned at all.
Wet: jasmine & apple.
Dry: jasmine and less apple.
This is predominantly jasmine on me. I don't get sandalwood, musk, quince, citron, myrrh or thyme. You know, all the notes I wanted to smell.
I like jasmine ok, but it usually takes over any blend I wear and gives me a headache. =(

A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930’s. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice. review

I was a bit scared of this one. Aside from having fantastic notes, it has opium in it. That note turns into screaming hell on me. But now that I've been wearing it all day, I can say with confidence that I'm SO SO SO glad this package got here before the Lupercalia scents went away, because I need another bottle of this STAT.
In the bottle: sweet & spicy. I can tell that there's caramel in there, but there's something sharper in the background, sort of perfumey-like.
Wet, on: HOLY HONKYBISCUITS. Rich, sweet caramel, luscious coconut and just a touch of the amber + tobacco notes. This is so sweet and sexy and naughty and yummy and I just want to drink it.
Initial dry: The caramel & coconut are still there, the tobacco gets a bit stronger and slightly overtakes the sweeter notes.
Drydown: just a hint of the drier golden notes and a wee tiny bit of sweetness. Absofuckinglutely beautiful!

What a great freakin’ word. BPAL LOVES TEH SMUT! Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes. review

This is similar to Snake Oil, but different enough. To me, Snake Charmer & Oil are almost identical. This has something more different.
Wet, it's like Snake Oil on a bender. Sweet, sexy, sugary, boozey.
Initial dry: something goes weird plastic-sour-playdoh. Gah. I put more on to cover it up.
More dry: ok MUCH better. It's the sweet, musky quality of Snake Oil with a lighter, fresher top note. I think as this ages, it's just going to get better and better. I'm stocking the hell up.

To this day, that night of foolishness is still celebrated! This is a light-hearted scent: apple orchards, bright cranberries, and a touch of warm cider.

SEXUALITY :: VIGOR :: FORCE :: ENERGY :: WILL
DESTRUCTION :: CHANGE :: PASSION :: COURAGE
ENTHUSIASM :: REVENGE :: DARING :: DOMINATION

THE SUPERCONSCIOUS :: FRIVOLITY :: KNOWLEDGE
INSTRUCTION :: STUDY :: THE LIFE PRINCIPLE
THE INTELLECT :: OPTIMISM :: DEXTERITY :: THEORIZING
PERSUASION :: GLIBNESS :: VISUALIZATION
CONCENTRATION :: TRAVEL :: INVESTIGATION :: ANALYSIS
GOSSIP :: FREEDOM