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how to use cocoa fruit - win

Bread pudding gets a bad rep for being soggy and mushy, so in Egypt we make Om Ali instead. It's a pudding that's made with pastry then topped with nuts for a simple yet delicious dessert. Full recipe inside

Om Ali (also spelt Umm Ali) actually means Mother of Ali, and it's a dessert that you'll find at any feast or large gathering in Egypt. It's a very simple bread pudding that is made with a sweetened milk mixture, and generous servings of clotted cream. Unlike most bread puddings, this is instead made with pastry and once baked, it is topped with all manner of nuts, sultanas, and even coconut. Om Ali is truly a regal dessert in texture, flavour and potentially origins, and it's definitely something you should try out.
If you want to see how I make Om Ali, or prefer video recipes, check out the full video recipe here

What is Om Ali

The simplest way to describe Om Ali, is a bread pudding that uses pastry instead of bread. This is traditionally made with Goulash (A pastry similar to filo, not the dish I covered last week) pastry sheets, which are baked and then soaked with sweetened milk. The benefit of using pastry, is that it will absorb some of the sweetened milk without developing a soggy and mushy texture like bread does. Personally I forego the Goulash pastry, and instead make this with either Croissants or Palmiers, which I toast before soaking in the milk. I find that the puff pastry used in those goods ends up with a very similar texture to the Goulash, while the crispy-ness of it, helps to give the pudding structural integrity. When the pastry has been soaked, it's added to an oven proof baking dish then topped with a healthy amount of clotted cream. Before it goes under a broiler, it's sprinkled with sugar and then allowed to caramelize and form a crystalline skin on top. Once it comes out of the oven, it's topped with your chosen toppings then served while steaming hot.
It's an extremely simple recipe, that is easily customised by the toppings added to it. It's common to add lots of nuts to the dish, such as hazelnuts, flaked almonds and pistachios, which provide the pudding with a crunchy contrast to the soft texture. Adding sultanas or raisins is also common, and they provide a squishy texture with bursts of fruity sweetness. You'll commonly encounter Om Ali at weddings and parties in Egypt, as it's a common buffet food and easy to make in large quantities. My mother in law likes to make it for family feasts when we have a large number of guests, but in my household we make it when we are having a Middle Eastern themed dinner. Despite it's easy recipe, a lot of people purchase Om Ali from a local dairy store, these are just like green grocers, except they sell everything related to dairy (Cheese, Yoghurt, Milk, Cream, Puddings, Butter). Another common place people get Om Ali, is from pudding shops. There's a number of chains operating throughout Egypt, that you can pull your car up to and get a drive through Om Ali, or Rice Pudding (My kind of drive through).

Cultural Context

The theory goes that Om Ali which means mother of Ali, is named after one of Sultan Izz al-Din Aybak's wifes who had a son called Ali. Izz al-Din Aybak, was the first sultan of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517). When the Ayubbid dynasty (Saladin's Dynasty) fell in 1250, Shajarat al Durr became the first Sultana (Female Sultan, not the fruit) to rule Egypt. The Syrian Emirs refused to pay homage to her, and so Izz al-Din Aybak married her and was installed as Sultan. Some time later a conflict between them arose, and in the fashion of sultans, Shajarat al Durr had the sultan assassinated in his bath by his servants. She was arrested and then beaten to death by the servants of Al-Mansur Ali (One of Izz al-Din Aybak's sons) and his mother (she's Om Ali). The pudding gets it's name from Al-Mansur Ali and his mother, who it's said, ordered the palace chefs to make a pudding to celebrate the new Sultan and had it distributed to the public.
Despite it's supposed regal origins, Om Ali is very much a dessert of the people. It's quite cheap to make, and it's common for the nuts to be replaced with cheaper varieties such as peanuts to save on costs. Egyptians have a strong sweet tooth and winters get quite cold, so the popularity of a hot pudding is no surprise. Of course modern twists on Om ALi are made, I've seen some with cocoa flavored milk, and you can even get Om Ali with ice cream for a hot and cold mix..

Flavor Profile

A spoon full of Om Ali, will have a number of different textures on it. First there will be the crispy texture from the top layer of pastry, this is usually coated in a thin layer of sugar which adds a crunchy sugar texture similar to creme brule. Then you'll have softened pastry, which will have absorbed some of the milk, but will still retain it's shape and will not be soggy. You'll also have some of the sweetened milk mixture on your spoon, which if you use a high quality milk, will have a creamy and silky texture. Then there's the crunchy textures you get from the nuts, and the squidgy textures from the sultanas. Together it's a wonderful mouthful of alternating textures.
In terms of flavour, the milk is supposed to have a creamy buttery flavour, while being quite sweet. My recipe is not as sweet as others I've tried, and it uses brown sugar as well as white sugar for some caramel notes. Most of the flavour you get will come from the nuts or sultanas you choose to use. Hazelnuts and flaked almonds are the classic choice though you can also use pistachios instead.

Ingredients

Om Ali (Makes 4 large portions or 1 family size serving):

Toppings:

Directions

To prepare the croissants:

  1. Using a bread knife slice the corners (ears) off of each end of your croissants
  2. Slice the body of the croissant in half and then slice it into bite sized chunks
  3. Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper, and place your croissant pieces on it in a single layer. Turn them so the inner part of the croissant is facing up
  4. Place the sheet in the oven to bake at 180c (350f) for about 6 minutes, until all the croissant pieces have browned and dried slightly
  5. Repeat until you have done all the croissants

To prepare the nuts:

  1. Peel your hazelnuts and remove any of the brown skin
  2. Using a knife chop the nuts into large chunks
  3. Place the nuts on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper and bake at 180c (350f) until toasted
  4. Remove immediately from the tray and allow to cool

To prepare the milk mixture:

  1. Add the milk to a large pot on high heat
  2. Add in both the brown sugar and white sugar, and stir the pot, allow to come to a boil
  3. Once it boils and foams up, remove it from the heat and use immediately

To assemble the Om Ali:

  1. In an oven proof baking dish, place your baked croissant pieces. I prefer doing individual servings.
  2. Add any toppings you want to include over the top of the croissant pieces
  3. Add enough milk so the pastry is just barely emerging from it. You can add more croissant pieces if necessary to get it to the right depth
  4. Spoon over as much of the cream as you can and then top with some more brown sugar
  5. Set your broiler to low and place the puddings beneath it
  6. Once the cream has melted and the surface of the Om Ali has caramelized, remove it from the oven
  7. Garnish with more nuts and serve once it is no longer a scalding temperature
submitted by ObiEff to Cooking [link] [comments]

Computer Generated Indies

TL;DR - we taught a computer to make up indie perfume names and descriptions. It was hilariously bad at it.
Inspired by this post about AI-generated candle descriptions, my brother and I decided to try training the gpt-2 (an AI computer that's available for people to tinker with) on indie perfume names and descriptions. Neither of us are experts (he does some coding for his engineering job; I barely passed one CS class in college) but it turns out that people who know much more than we do have been working to make artificial neural networks accessible, and it actually wasn't too bad.
To train a computer, you need data. Lots of it. Thankfully, this sub came through for me, with this spreadsheet of over 1500 perfumes compiled by the amazing u/vanityclaire (Sadly it's outdated for shopping, but still good for this.)
Then we had to train the ANN. We thought we had an instant success when it began giving us names like "Banana Peel in a Graveyard," but it turned out we were simply underestimating the enduring weirdness of BPAL names.
(Incidentally, I think BPAL should release a perfume called The Enduring Weirdness Of BPAL Names. Just for fun.)
However, eventually we succeeded. We found that the models that generated creative names were mostly the ones that generated boring descriptions and vice versa, so I'm giving them mostly separately. Feel free to match them up, or suggest names or notes for them :)

CGI Names

And finally, the computer would like to suggest that if there are Rose Mallow, Violet Mallow, and Cocoa Mallow perfumes, then there is no good reason not to create Cherry Mallow, Banana Mallow, Cobalt Mallow, and Python Mallow. Obviously.

CGI Descriptions

And then there were the descriptions, which ranged from normal to......I have no idea what some of these are about. Here's a selection:

CGI successes?

And then there's a few that I think the computer got more or less right! I bet these would sell:
So. That's the post. Favorites? Least favorites? Any that you want to make up notes or names or descriptions for?
Also, you can find the unfiltered dump of all our results here - feel free to go looking at everything I didn't include!
submitted by ladyphlogiston to Indiemakeupandmore [link] [comments]

Open slot- baking workshop

With everything that had happen, Diana thought camp could use a little moral. And one of the best way she knows how to do that is through baked goods!
And that is how the baking workshop idea was born. She spent hours thinking about what she should have in her workshop and after considering everything from frosting to to vinegar and baking soda volcanoes she found the right idea- her 1 recipe pleases all cupcake recipe!
She set everything up for the workshop and waited for campers to come.
"Hello everyone, today I'm going to teach you one of my classics- it my 1 recipe pleases all cupcake recipe. It's a very easy recipe for beginners and it's 100% customizable, so you each can make your own flavor of choice.
I will start with a demo with tips and tricks and show you how you can make different flavors all using the same basic recipe."
She started the demo giving tips along the way, starting from the first ingredient, butter.
"Make sure your butter is soft."
Then the sugar-
"We add the suger and we whip it up together, this method is called 'creaming' and this will get a lot of air inside and will make sure your cupcakes are fluffy!"
Through the eggs-
"Add your eggs one at a time and make sure ot got fully incorporated before adding the next. This will help maintaining the air as well as preventing lamps."
And finishing up with the flour, baking powder and milk-
"Mix gently only until combined! If you over mix the batter with the flour it will become dense and will lose all fluffiness."
After the basic batter was done she moved to the customization, she divided her batter into individual bowls.
"So now you can really make any flavor you want. My first example will be a chocolate cupcake- I'm just adding cocoa powder like so... the next is if you're more of a fruit person- blueberry lemon. I'm going to add some fresh blueberries and lemon zest, you can see how easy it is to customize cause like here you can have lemon, you can have blueberries or both!
Next we add crashed Oreos for cookies and cream cupcakes and for my final example carrot cake- I'm adding in my shredded carrot, my raisins, my chopped walnuts and some cinnamon.
Now it's your turn! I'll move around to see how you're doing but also don't be afraid to call me if you have questions!"
Ooc: hope you'll enjoy this! If you want to interact with Diana, ask her a question, need help costuming a specific flavor or anything else, feel free to tag me!
submitted by ImDanny0 to CampHalfBloodRP [link] [comments]

Death & Floral fragrance review of 19 scents

Death & Floral - Black Friday '20 & Winter '21
This review is long and long overdue, but I’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know these scents and figuring out what works for me, and I'm excited to share what I've learned. Before I review the actual products, I want to highlight the above-and-beyond customer service that D&F has shown again and again. Any time I’ve asked a question via the chat on the website, I’ve gotten a friendly and helpful response within minutes (can’t be easy for an indie company, I’m sure!) and they’ve always honored my requests down to the detail. I made a large order for Black Friday, but a lot of the scents I picked out really didn’t work for me. I discovered that the ones I didn’t like had either heavy musk or strong sweetness (which I do like on their own, but that’s the weird thing about perfume—it may work for your nose, but not on your skin). With fresh knowledge and a better understanding of my skin chemistry, I returned to the chat to ask for recommendations. They stayed and chatted with me for almost an hour! Based on what I said I didn’t like (strong musk and sticky sugar) and what I do like (fruit, citrus, and light sweetness) they picked out Painted Pears, Color Me Blood Orange, Honeycomb, and No Nukes Smog Spray. I can say, hands down, these recommendations were 100% spot on. This was such a great experience, and I don’t think I’ll ever want to pick out scents on my own again! I feel so fancy with my personally-curated fragrances, and they all work so well on my skin. I’m going to add the scents that didn’t work for me to my next donation to Project Beauty Share, and hope they end up in the hands of someone who will love them.
Another thing that I’ve learned after getting to know these fragrances is that D&F seems to have a signature note that appears in most (but definitely not all) of their scents. You know how all Lush products smell like Lush, regardless of what scent the product itself actually is? It’s the same phenomenon happening here. In my opinion, the D&F signature scent is botanical and musky—like the basement of a flower shop. It’s a blend of things fresh and old, which is a beautiful, literal representation of the name, Death & Floral.
This was my absolute favorite, and is the scent I keep coming back to. It’s fresh and clean, barely sweetened citrus. The honeysuckle is a mysterious background note that deepens the tart orange and, to be honest, I didn’t even notice the autumnal spices. As many other people have mentioned, D&F “autumn spice” notes are usually very subtle, which I absolutely love. Also, I can’t get over the fact that this actually smells like blood orange (not a sweeter cara cara orange) which elevates it as a more mature and unique citrus fragrance. In fact, I would say this isn’t sweet at all, just fruit and florals—a really great twist on orange blossom fragrances I usually gravitate towards. Overall, this is a perfect perfume for me!
Shout out to all the pears! I really like this one. It’s like a super-ripe, fancy pear wrapped in gold foil from Harry & David. It’s definitely sweet, but sweet like ripe fresh fruit, not cooked, preserved, or spiced. Vanilla is the next prominent note, and sandalwood & dark amber are very much in the background, just serving to deepen the scent a little bit. At its base it’s reminiscent of Bath & Body Works, but more subtle and complex. This is a perfume that the all-American girl next door would wear during her first week at college.
I was very interested in the Honey Accords collection, but stayed away from this one based on the description. I assumed “deep honey of the earth” would be extra musky, and if it wasn’t for the recommendation I would have completely missed out. It’s actually my favorite honey scent so far (even better than Bless Your Heart, Honey). It’s pure classic clover honey, clean and simple. I close my eyes and see the bear-shaped bottle. It’s sweet, but not sticky, with no D&F note. It’s the lightest of all the honey scents I’ve tried so far, and would make a great layering fragrance. It lasted several hours on clean skin, and the smell lingered a bit the next morning.
This is an interesting one. Smelling it right out of the tube, it doesn’t have much of a scent at all. If anything, it’s a little bit grassy. At the beginning of the day it still smelled like not much. Then throughout the day I was picking up a very unexpected and quite predominant herbal note that really reminded me of Scream Ferociously. After about 5 or 6 hours, I definitely do smell sweet honey. I still have no idea what the first top herbal note is, but like Scream Ferociously, I’ll call it an herbal tea shop. I really underestimated this one on a first sniff and I’m really glad I gave it a fair chance to develop on the skin.
I absolutely would not have bought this one if I hadn’t seen so many glowing reviews for it on this sub. You aren’t kidding! This scent really delivers. It’s crisp, sweet, juicy, red apple nicely balanced with light honey. I appreciate that the autumn spice notes were super subtle, because they generally don’t mix well with my skin. I tried it on after getting out of the shower in the evening, and could still smell some of it in the morning. I put on Cardigan after, and it layered really nicely with the remnants of the scent.
I picked this one out based on the description, because I wanted it to be Bath & Body Works Bright Lemon Snowdrop SO bad (RIP) which smells like lemon pound cake. This definitely isn’t it! On the first sniff, I instantly get the classic D&F note I mentioned earlier: floral and musky. I really don’t get any lemon or citrus at all, but more like sweet cake in general. I would describe it as a sweetened, lightened, tamed representation of the D&F note. This would be a great pick for if you like bakery scents in theory, but avoid them because of bad experiences with Bath & Body Works-style funfetti frosting-from-the-can body sprays—I can assure you that this is nothing like it.
I told myself I needed this one to complete the folklore collection. I feel like this scent ties Scream Ferociously and Cardigan together, and unites the three as parts of a set. Now, for the actual scent, it’s a refined, mature, dark, musky honey. Straight out of the tube, it’s almost sexy. Unfortunately, my skin really hated it. Almost immediately after applying, it started to smell musty and old. It’s not old like old lady perfume, but old like it’s been aging in an attic untouched for years. I will admit, that’s absolutely a vibe and one that totally resonates with folklore—but personally, it did not mix well with my skin. That said, I give it full credit for creating a vivid image in my mind, which is what D&F does best.
I remember Blockbuster enough to remember that it did have a distinct smell, but this is not quite it (maybe it needs more notes of plastic DVD cases and dirty carpet). I don’t get buttered popcorn, just “sticky” candy, but more like cotton candy than caramel. In my opinion, it pretty instantly makes me think “state fair,” and makes me feel like I just got off a rollercoaster and all the different sugary junk foods I ate that day are flashing before my eyes. I put this scent on right before I went to Target, and literally two (different) random people who passed me said “what IS that SWEET smell?” I did think it was sweet, but didn’t realize that it was strong enough to catch strangers’ attention—through their masks, even!
This scent is an instant favorite. It’s very similar to Witch Baby’s Rest in Peach, in that they both smell like something halfway between fresh peaches and peach rings. It’s not a true-to-life fresh fruit scent, but it’s not candy-sweet either. No matter what it is, it’s unmistakably peach. I think it will be very wearable.
I’ll admit I had high expectations for this one—who doesn’t love peppermint hot cocoa? I got some woodsy scent with a layer of herbal garden mint, but not sweet candy peppermint. I was hoping the hot cocoa note would be like Bath & Body Works Hot Cocoa and Cream, but to me, there’s not even a hint of chocolate. That said, I gifted it to my friend for Christmas, and she said she instantly smelled hot cocoa. Curious to hear if anyone else has tried this scent!
I got this one as a gift for my boyfriend, and I think it could actually be one of my favorites. Jealous! It’s a gentle, refined citrus scent with brown sugar and (subtle) whiskey undertones—it smells like a cocktail but not like alcohol. This is a really nice unisex scent that anyone could wear. If he doesn’t like it, I’ll be stealing it! This is what I used as a reference when looking for recommendations, and I think Color Me Blood Orange hit everything I loved about it and more.
I got this unlisted scent as a gift, admittedly just for the name. The scent is very reminiscent of Bath & Body Works Cactus Blossom, which is nice. It’s a very clean and fresh smell, and a little bit soapy. Oddly enough “warm rain” somehow actually translates here. It’s a pretty clean and subtle fragrance and it would make a great day-to-day scent, or even layer with others. I gifted it to my friend, who confirmed it smelled just like desert rain. This scent really nailed it when it comes to capturing a vibe, and I would recommend it to any nostalgic desert dwellers.
This one is strong. Seriously, it’s STRONG. No joke. The entire package smelled like just this one scent, and it permeates everywhere. I love figs and brown sugar, but I didn’t really get either note in this scent—honestly, it just smells like the D&F note, with heightened florals. This is a scent for anyone who believes that D&F fragrances aren’t strong enough. I wanted to love it for the label alone (which reads, “Don’t internalize your hatred of capitalism, hate it openly, clearly, and vocally”) but I won’t be able to keep it because the strong smell escapes the container I keep my perfumes in.
Single Notes
This one’s really simple and beautiful. Fresh, spicy, real ginger. Not much sugar or sweetness, but enough to tell that it’s candied ginger, and prevent the fragrance from stinging your nose like actual ginger does. This scent is very versatile and light, with no D&F note.
Okay, I’m impressed, it actually really smells like real buttered biscuits with honey. I’m pretty floored that this distinct scent could be captured in a bottle. I love unusual food smells in candles, but it smells too much like real, actual biscuits to wear on my skin! I really wish I had this scent as a candle or room spray instead, because I’m still amazed that it perfectly recreated the scent of warm, flaky, buttery biscuits.
I got this one as a gift for a fellow fan, and I was actually tempted to keep it for myself. Now I’m certainly no stranger to the stuff, but I was relieved that it doesn’t reek of weed. In fact, I personally found it almost unnoticeable, but your results may vary. This scent is classic fudgy chocolate brownies. I don’t know if the name is just for fun or if there really is a cannabis note somewhere in there that I’m overlooking, but like plenty of these others, the name is definitely what drew me to buy it. Curious to hear others’ impressions of this one!
I think this one is okay. I got a lot of honey scents, and this one doesn’t stand out much. I do get smoky notes, but I’m not sure I could identify whiskey. It’s like a lighter version of Bless Your Heart, Honey, but with a significant amount of smoke; however, it’s much closer to wood fire smoke than tobacco smoke. As a result, it’s not quite as sultry of a scent, and when combined with the honey, gets dangerously close to BBQ. It separates in the bottle, and needs a good shake.
Smog Sprays
This scent is very faithful to the description: “globs of sticky caramel” is completely, entirely, 100% accurate. It doesn’t smell like honey as much as it does smell like brown butter and caramelized sugar. It smells delicious, and the scent really lingers, but it did not mix with my skin when I sprayed it on. This is a scent I would love in a candle, but it’s not my personal perfume preference.
This is absolutely tangerine and sandalwood, and I really love it! Oh, Honey! was way too strong for me. I think this scent is my favorite use of the D&F note, meaning that it blends well and doesn’t overpower the other notes. The best way to describe it is earthy orange, and I think it will pair well with Color Me Blood Orange or Lush Karma. Both of the Smog Sprays have seriously impressive staying power, and usually linger in my hair until I wash it out.
Final thoughts
Hits and misses and all, I really love D&F. The hits totally hit, and the misses just helped me figure out what notes to avoid in the future. Another thing I love about D&F is the complete lack of FOMO marketing—nothing is truly limited edition, and can always be bought as a custom scent in the future. I think that this is so important, especially as someone who often gets got by the threat of exclusivity. I really appreciate the freedom to take your time, consider your options carefully, and muse over the possibilities before pressing order at your leisure. I’m glad that I have plenty of time to enjoy these scents and actually use them—but, when I’m ready to buy more, I will definitely be coming right back to D&F.
submitted by lapis-lazuli to Indiemakeupandmore [link] [comments]

Tuesday Tutorial: How to Describe a Tobacco?

Howdy Mixers,
Some simple ways you can contribute to the sub:
1) Respond to a post and even, just maybe, win a prize! (see the first paragraph here
2) Tell us What you are vaping on?
3) Share your recipe in the Monthly Recipe Thread
4) Upvote content you want to see more of or useful comments
​

Introduction

Smoking and vaping tobacco share similarities and differences. It is often said that vaped tobaccos flavors or aromas are more like the aroma of the unlit tobacco, akin to walking into a tobacco shop and inhaling the smell. And what a wonderful smell it is! I used to love when I was in Midtown Manhattan and passed by the Nat Sherman shop on 42nd St. If you have never been, don’t go. Not as a vaper, don’t do it. It glorious. Go to the Porto Rico Importing Co. stores and buy some fine coffees instead. If simply because the smell is like a blanket of warm, moist earthy rich goodness. Not that cheap dry chemically dirt raisin flavor of a pack of Pall Mall 100’s Unfiltered. This is an oasis for smokers like me, one of many. Yet, not anymore…
Switching to vaping, like many, I thought to avoid tobacco flavors to move as far from the drug that ruined-my-life. Despite that, my first mix ever was a House Mix cigar flavor that was gross and way over nicced but it took. I bought the device and the mix for an overnight trip where I was uninterested in either smelling like smoke constantly (and being found out) or wearing a patch and having those crazy nicotine patch dreams. When I returned, I pulled out of the glove box my packet of Nat Sherman Hint of Mints (I always had money for smokes), lit up, and gagged. Holy Smokes! All I could taste was ash and burning. And I had the damndest time inhaling it since all I could feel was pain and a tightening of the throat.
Decided to look online for e-juice descriptions. “Google, what is the BEST e-juice flavor?” That search came up with a few results that seemed sketchy but one stood out: Black Note. Black Note is a NET (Naturally Extracted Tobacco) that is quite good and comes with a steep and hefty cost. But, hey, what did I know and, if this new way of life were to take hold, let me buy the best and see if it can’t work for me. So I tried a small bottle of Legato. Notorious coil murder aside, my precious Baby Beast tank delivered the smoothest flavor compared to that OG Cigar bottle (which I still have from april 2017 in my drawer, black as night). Yeah, well, that led me to vape shops which would let you try stuff and, despite all the sugary fruits and strawberries and cream/custard ubiquity, there I was with a handful of pre-mixed juices that kept me off the stinkies solid since.
It was the stranglehold of not being able to reduce nicotine consumption efficiently (0mg/3mg/6mg/wha?) that led me to researching how to make my own ejuice that led me here looking for answers. In late 2017, the FLV Tobaccos were gaining in well deserved popularity for their complex flavors and you can see some early pre/post release reviews show how mixers were trying to figure out the flavors and how they mixed with the INW and FA tobaccos that were more widely available at the time:
FLV Cured
FLV Red Burley
FLV Native
FLV Kentucky
Etc. The point is, I tried many a tobacco flavor that was available readily shopping off the names (mostly FA -- still scarred) and was like nahhhhh this isn’t for me. But look how far we have come from My First Tobacco Order from 4 years ago to u/ChemicalBurnVictim’s wonderful post Getting in to Tobaccos and even more specifically, Battle of the Baccos: Turkish v. Oriental.
And with all that said, and nearly vaping tobacco flavors semi-exclusively for the last 3 years, I STILL struggle to explain what in the hell they taste like. I guess a strawberry can be realistic, juicy, authentic, jammy, or whatever. But how in god’s name do you explain a bacco? Mostly, if you vape a lot of them, you notice the accents and that can drive your pairings later on. Cedar note here, coffee note there, woodsy and leafy but what kind? Is it a brown crinkly leaf? This is madness.
So how are tobaccos described by smokers? And, how much of that relates to vaping, which can be significantly different?
That’s a great question. I’m not sure how deep commercial cigarette smokers go into describing their tobaccos but RYO (Roll Your Own) smokers may be more familiar with terminology relating to the source of the tobacco. Cigar and pipe smokers are going to be where our greatest body of information is at the internet search fingertips and a very quick search came up with some interesting results that may apply. Unfortunately, linking to these articles is against Reddit terms of use and I am remarkably lazy at using work arounds so I will keep this somewhat condensed. My hope is that the tobacco flavor community will chime in here and provide opinions at how to guide the ongoing discourse around codifying tobacco flavors to provide more consistent information for casual vapers looking to dip their toes into the flavors when they are ready. Most of this will apply as much to single flavor concentrates as to blends and mixes fairly easily.
Let’s start with an adaptation of some stuff I cobbled together from a 10 minute search online:
  1. Flavor
  2. Body
  3. Balance
  4. Strength
  5. Aroma or Room Note
  6. Finish

Flavor

We can say “Duh” all day long but, after having been heckled (and rightfully so) by u/mLnikon on Noted for saying “Leafy” as a descriptor for a ‘good’ bacco and “Leafy” again as a bad thing. I realized I lacked the appropriate vocabulary to describe what I was tasting. And, metaphors can only take you so far despite the joy of saying “Grandma’s bathwater” repeatedly. I’ve found a few charts that really help with identifying categories for describing categories and specific notes within those categories here:
flavor charts
The chart and the table should be self explanatory. Add some of your favorite tobacco vocabulary in the comments (or just the funniest descriptions you’ve heard)!

Body

Here’s one that we can probably all relate to with vaping. How do these flavors actually impact your palate? Texture, richness, weight and overall mouthfeel are all important components. For tobaccos, from a source that links to tobacco products: “in conjunction with body is texture. Words used to characterize texture include leathery, meaty, silky, creamy, soft, succulent, woody, chalky, dry, oily, and spicy.” TPA Western is leathery (actual leather lol), INW Vanilla for Pipe is woody, FLV Arabian is spicy, etc.

Balance

This one, in my humble opinion is a bit trickier. A real cigar might touch on the taste receptors on the tongue: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, umami. We do know that some of these experiences are simply not in the cards for vape juice, most notably salty and sour. Maybe you can get impressions of them but it does seem to be a missing factor in flavor impressions. (Do you get a salty impression from FLV Beer Nuts? No, saline does not add a salty taste.) Bitter, I’m not as sure about (please chime in here, people) and sweet is a no brainer. Would umami be DAAP? I dunno, you tell me.
That said, balance for a tobacco flavor, in this mixer’s humble opinion would be more along the lines of “What accents/notes are needed to ‘complete’ this experience?” With this in mind, some tobacco flavors are very strong stand alone flavors and can carry a recipe all on their own while still having a function as an accent. Some are complex in flavor but seem to have one aspect a little more prominent than the others. All around, this comes most importantly into play in the mind and imagination of the mixer. Let’s say you have a flavor like FLV Red Burley that is very moist with a prominent nutty note and people say they also get a cocoa note as well. You may want to play to that cocoa to bring it out more or just use RB low in a mix to accent another bacco with that nutty note where a bit of moisture is also welcome.

Strength

This is going to be a less useful term as it relates to vaping as from smoking, but hear me out. Strength applies to the nicotine content of a given tobacco or blend. Since diy mixers directly control that nicotine strength level, how does this apply here. In a weird way, I personally find that some flavors behave differently at different wattages. A really interesting recipe that delves into this aspect can be found in u/matthewkocanda’s Amorphous. I am here to argue that some flavors/recipes do shine in different ways at different temps and vaping styles. I am by no means an expert on this but I do know that u/wh1skeyk1ing’s Gold tastes quite differently at low watts mtl over higher watts dtl (yes better and new gold ducat works quite nicely when you don’t know any better). So do make note here that strength does indeed have a kind of place in our lexicon.

Aroma or Room Note

This one may be the least important for you, yet more important for your loved ones. While you may not be Brad with your pack of donut lies, there can be some serious cat pissy room note vibes from some tobacco flavors. A traditional pipe tobacco room note can be extremely enticing, and occasionally in vape form we get that. To me this is a bonus, but the opportunity to create a vape with this in mind is there. Go wild.

Finish

An often overlooked aspect of flavors on my part, the finish is the lasting and lingering note after the flavor or mix is exhaled. This can range from lingering ashy notes to woody or spice notes. The way INW Bahraini Apple Gold leaves that lingering anise tingle on the tongue in u/tbx12’s Simple Apple Shisha Hookah is like heaven. Or like the way he blended it to cover it up in TB4 and end with a slight cocoa touch at the end.
​
That's all for now. Check out Prior Tuesday Tutorial posts written by a host of people. Please feel free to comment on anything you like at all, but particularly if you have an idea for a future post, if you'd like to write one, or if you caught a mistake or misinformation in my post.
​
keep mixin and keep sharin,
- i
Edit: wanted to add this post as part of the 'history' of discovery of tobacco vapes and you can even see a young pup doggo trying to make heads and tails of it all in there. Top 5 Tobacco Flavors from 3 years ago as FLV was gaining mucho traction.
submitted by isuamadog to DIY_eJuice [link] [comments]

40+ niche fragrance sample reviews

I went a bit nuts during this last month. There are a few more that I haven't smelled yet .So will add on to the list. I tend to lean towards musky, smoky, woody, (fl)oriental, 1001 nights, dark fairy tale, flying carpet scents. That sounds crazy. I know. But that's what I dig. But there are plenty of roze, floral and citrussy fragrances on the list! Exceptions are always a wonderful surprise.
​
Nishani
Ani:
The opening reminds me a bit of Light blue from D&G, then it melts into this vanillic, ginger, , warm cosy, yet light fragrance. Totally Unisex.
Hacivat-
A similar citrussy opening but where Ani is sharper, this is juicier, and then the wood notes comes through very nicely. It becomes dryer ( with that citrus) and more woody instead of sweet, the more it develops. This is a happy scent, simple fragrance, nothing mind blowing, but a very wearable and Pleasant one.
patchuli khoza-
I mainly smell Black pepper, Leather, Patchouli and a hint of honey at the end to sweeten it up. I'm sure there are flowers in there to lift the whole thing up a bit, but I can't detect them seperately. Simple, okay.
Heeley
bubblegum chic:
Wow, lmao, what is this. My brain just can't compute this. Yes, bubblegum, but made out of flowers? Bubblegum for grownups? In a non sweet way? I wan't to like it for its originality and accuracy, but it is not me. I'm not a floral, bubblegummy kinda gal. But A+ for imagination/creativity!
Hippie Rose-
Yeah, Woodstock rose water all the way. Fresh green opening, like wet morning dew and freshly cut meadows, with a crisp wet rose blowing in the wind. almost aquatic. And then there's that hint of hippie patchouli and smoky amber, and this clean innocent smelling musk. Super unisex to me. Def a spring/summer fragrance. Gorgeous and fresh!
Sel marin-
Growing up at the north sea, this is a pretty realistic interpretation without it becoming too realistic. As in, this gives you an abstract interpretation of marine like qualities of an ocean. It is what you smell at the pier without smelling the pier itself and all its glorious rotting decay. It is more of an experience than enjoyable to me. it has this fresh citrussy note, but then the salty sea air comes in, and yep, there's that tang of marine seaweed water that just keeps on going. I see how people like this, I prefer the real deal, just not on me when I'm around people lmao.
Cardinal-
This is love at first sniff. This is the most wearable church incense I've encountered so far. It has all the qualities of a churchy incense without it becoming too much. This is because of the linen note they put in. It gives this serious scent a modern, uplifting, fresh laundry vibe. Modern, mysterious, comforting, clean, gorgeous!
Amouage
Reflection man-
Yeah, watery, like a reflection pool, with oriental flowers in the background and some woody notes. beautiful, very wearable, stolen by husband.
Lyric man-
Yeah, no, I love Amouage, but this is a hard pass for me. It smells like musty old lady toilet soap. Sorry.
Lilac Love-
Big hit of pretty Lilac, that settles into this non sweet chocolatey floral goodness. Sophisticated, mature, gentle, non offensive, pretty without being too girly.
Memoir woman-
Oh Amouage, this is shockingly good. This smells like the fresh smoke of an oriental incense stick, dark woods, moss, smokey, mysterious, floral, dry. And that drydown. Just sensual dark mystery all around. This is not for softhearted girly girls. This is for more mature women that don't give a rats ass about what others think.
Opus VII- Incense bomb, too much of it. heavy, dark, very hard to wear for me or husband even.
Parfum de marly
Delina-
schreeching sharp synthetic smelling lychee bomb. You know that accumulated cheap headache induscing smell you get when you step inside a cheap commercial fragrance store? Yeah. that's what this reminds me of. Maybe for young girls that like Escada.
Delina exclusif -
Same as the previous one, only more cloying powdery loud musk added to it.
Meliora-
Affraid to say this, but all I get is cheap dollar store bathbomb.
Darcy -
again.....So generic that I can't even pick out individual notes. I really don't understand the hype. But maybe I'm just crazy!
Safanad-
And then there's this little pretty. Light airy pretty orange blossom, so light, it almost lifts up. But then there's this not too sweet vanilla note, and a hint of musk that keeps her grounded. Pretty, lovely, mature and classy fragrance for every day.
Layton exclusif-
A modern interpretation of a cold, wet mossy forest floor with dry woods. A rich dude in a sports car would wear this to show off his richness without too much substance.
penhaligon's
Halfeti-
Very masculine to me. Leathery, smoky, modern, almost like a leather seat in an office. I don't get too much else. It hits me in the face too much.
Elisabethan Rose-
This is a weird one. I starts out like a fresh pretty rose, but then the tangerine takes over, and it becomes a bit too old fashioned for me. On the dry down it turns soapy, and the tangerine still lingers. If you like rose fragrances, it is definitely unique enough to try.
Ruthless Couness Dorothea-
This is an interesting one too. I can smell boozy smoky wine with sage and vanilla and a hint of ginger. It is modern though, and quite wearable.
Bewitching Yasmine -
If you like Yasmine dominant fragrances, this is an absolute beauty. I however don't ( Alien by mugler...brrrr) So yeah, all Yasmine lovers, try this one!
Floraiku
Sound of a ricochet-
Simple good quality warm sandalwood, with a background on non sweet vanilla and tonkabean on the dry own. Simple, good quality, very pleasant. Stolen by husband.
Zoologist
Camel-
This is what an Egyptian night market smells like, and everything a camel would be carrying in a caravan through the dessert. Antique metal pots, sweet dates, dried fruits, incense, spices, herbs, some leather hides, dust, smoke, dirt and a hint of animalic mystery. This leans towards a vintage oriental...at its finest. One of my favorite discoveries.
Memo
African Leather-
To me this smells like a combination of L'air du dessert & Istanbul by Gallivant. Gallivant being more simplistic and light, dessert being more complex and dark, and African Leather a safe midway.
Lalibela-
It has this typical dominant Tabaco note that I don't like. It makes it hard to smell anything else, and when I do, the combination of rose, vanilla and Tabaco make me queasy. If you are a woman who likes smoky Tabaco, this is a winner, because it does lean quite feminine. I just don't like the tabaco.
Imaginary Authors
memoires of a trespasser-
Imagine an old Oak wood barrel that maybe used to contain vanillic rum, on a ship filled with dusty old books, dry woody dusty memories of a pirate's long forgotten glory days. The after ripples of it, now a long forgotten memory. Simple, not sweet, but effective, nothing mindblowing, but cool to try! My husband loves it, he stole it.
Indult
Tihota-
If you like a good quality simple vanilla, this is it. The musk gives it a hint of burned caramel. And holy moly, does this ever have good longevity. 12h in and I could still smell it. Yummy, edible, cosy, simple, but good.
Arquiste
Anima Dulcis
This smells nothing like the notes listed on Fragrantica. I do not smell any vanilla, or cinnamon, or paprika. I smell incense, oregano , wood, maybe a bit of the cocoa that is listed. Strange. Pleasant, but strange.
Hermetica
Sandalsun-
hazelnut, praline for adults. Not really sweet. Interesting, but it starts to become a bit overbearing after a while.
Hiram Green
Arbole-
This opens like a spicy dirty rose, even though there is no rose. Must be the patchouli! Then loads and loads of tonkabean/vanilla with a powdery and dry wood in the background. It is nice/okay :)
Histoires des Parfums
Ambre 114-
A good stable woody ambery dry scent with hints of herbs like thyme and spices like nutmeg in the background. Good in all its simplicity.
Xerjoff
Lira-
Lemon, vanilla cookie batter. Very linear, no depth or mystery here. Nice, but nothing shocking. I dare even say overrated, especially for that whopping price tag.
Naxxos-
Smokey sweet Tabaco and honey, almost cloying. My husband loves this one. I can appreciate short bursts, before I get nauseous. It is a well developed unique fragrance though. I just don't like heavy Tabaco scents. If you do, this one is a good one!
Andy Tauer
L'air du dessert du marrocain -
What can I say. Imagine lying under a dessert night sky filled with stars, next to a fragrant bonfire with fragrant wood, with a breeze of herbal spices drifting your way. Enchanting, dry, but beautiful.
Au Coeur du Dessert-
This one got stolen by my husband. It is like the previous one, but it continues where the bonfire started. More woody, more herbal, where the previous one is softer and a bit more floral. Either one are gorgeous.
Incense rose-
Uhm, wow! This almost smells like what I imagine a vintage coca cola drink would smell like, mixed with heavy incense. and then I realize it is the mandarin notes that are giving that metallic like vintage tang to it. It is interesting, but not for me, because I cant get over the metallic edge. Def worth a try though!
Une rose chypree-
This is like a hippie trinket shop explosion. Loud and all over the place, messy, happy, chaotic, a sour note even. Then she calms down, and it becomes more chill, like the spacy girl who sits behind the counter, reading some obscure hippie novel while laughing out loud. Intriguing, but too much of a good ( and a bit disheveled crazy)thing for me.
Phi une rose du Kandahar-
Wowzers, this is good. This is not your typical rose. This is your Incensy, musky, powdery rose with a hint of vanilla. And what a beautiful rose it is. Not sweet, not dry, but fluffy and musky. A bit smoky and incensy the more she develops. More mature and daring. I say a bit feminine leaning.
L'artisan Parfumeur
Mont de Narcisse- My husband smells Band-Aids, I smell wood chips/shavings from the swiss alps.
Safran Troublant- Pretty rose with a splash or Saffron, nothing too complicated. Okay.
Comme des Garcons
Series 3 Insence: Avignon- Yeah, this is a realistic Catholic church, with cold stone walls, and dusty dark passage ways. reflective/meditative. I appreciate this, but for me it is too dark and intense to casually wear. I would love to try the rest of the series, since I do love incense.
Gallivant
Istanbul- Turkish markets that smell of woody spices, light floral, anise, licorice, fenugreek like vibes. Stolen by husband...again.
Ex Idolo
Love & Crime
Linear sugary chocolaty cinnamon with a burst of pink peppery spice. Cute, but I've outgrown these type of scents.
Bonus:
Lolia Lempicka
L- Yeah, Xerjoff Lira, eat your heart out. You know that depth and mystery that is missing in Lira? L has it and then some. Warm citrus, cinnamon, vanilla, smoky, musky, ambery, sweet, yet dark and deep. This is gorgeous and complex for a Gourmand. Also discontinued, so I'm coveting the last 30 ml I own.
Guerlain
Shalimar- Oh how I love you.....In the drydown that is. Because that Civet opening? Omg, yeah, that's fecal. Like poopy baby diapers. It goes away in the dry down though. And then this powdery incense, vanilla comes rising up in the most oriental, glorious vintage way. Gorgeous. But be warned. This is not a modern every day fragrance, and she's pretty filthy and apologetic! Not for sugary girls!
Souffle Intense- Review On its way!
submitted by presh1988 to fragrance [link] [comments]

DAAP(Diacetyl/Acetoin/Acetyl Propionyl) limits

I recently got the accurate amount of DAAP(Diacetyl/Acetoin/Acetyl Propionyl) from TPA and i thought it would be a good idea to make a list of how much/little one can use of each flavor before it exceeds the recommended limit set by ANEC (ANEC).
The limits are:
​
When it comes to Acetoin i have used numbers from on of the few studies that looked at the conversion from Acetoin Diacetyl.(Study).
For the flavors that contains more than one of these ingredients i have chosen to only post the lowest percentage, for the flavors that also contains Acetaldehyde or Furfuryl Alcohol i have set it at 0%..

The Perfumer`s Apprentice:

Flavorah:

Flavor West:

Wonder Flavours:

​

Capella:

submitted by baade89 to DIY_eJuice [link] [comments]

First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 391

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comes with twelve genuine patented BobCo(TM) Just Add Water RealCows(TM), holographic Treana'ad moomoo carers with their own VI, and everything you see here! (batteries not included, please wait 4-12 hours for delivery)
Dee dee dah dee! It's BOOOOOOB-CO!
TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Is it weird I want one?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Every time I see that had I have to remember they don't make those any more.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
CYBERNETIC ORGANISM CONSENSUS
Just fab one up. Templates are on GalNet.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
It's just not the same. There's just something about BobCo stuff that templates don't replicate.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
Cheapness?
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Don't be such a Grinch.
SIS! HURRY UP! IT'S ABOUT TO BE BACK ON!
There's just... you know... something about old BobCo stuff.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Don't start without me!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
We now return to the Sol System Broadcast Network Holiday Special, already in
PUBVIAN DOMINION
IT'S STARTING!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Whew. Made it.
Blow on it, it's hot.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAMAROOSA PINCHING TIME
What are the white things?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Marshmellows. Hush.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
in progress.

HOW P'THOK TOTALLY ON PURPOSE AND NOT AT ALL ACCIDENTALLY SAVED CHRISTMAS!

The spaceship was drifting as P'Thok looked at the unfamiliar controls. He'd only been on a few Terran ships, most of them captured military vessels, but he was pretty sure that none of them had control buttons and levers like this one.
Half of the buttons were different colored nubs with a clearish looking granular color. Most of the levers were colored with red and white spirals and either ended with a U or a wide multicolored disk. He wasn't precisely sure, but he was starting to think that there was something strange about the spaceship.
P'Thok adjusted his Moomoo tender hat and opened his faceplate, staring down at the controls.
His speed was five times a sparrow's flight but three seconds less than the day after tomorrow.
Chittering nervously he looked again. That made no sense, but he'd heard some Earthlings used bizarre measurements, but that was ridiculous.
"Mister P'Thok, I need to get back home and to my bed," the little Terran girl said. "After all, a Christmas story I've already been read."
"What was the cargo he was stealing so fast?" P'Thok asked. "I'm pretty sure the fuel in this ship isn't going to last?"
P'Thok frowned and tapped his translator. That last bit sounded weird.
"Presents and whizzbangs and tickle trikes for boys and girls galore," the girl said, kicking her feet where she was still in the chair. She was wearing a pink one piece suit with foot coverings that P'Thok had to admit looked pretty comfortable. Even the lace collar around her neck. "Fun stuff and neat stuff and some made with love not bought from a store."
"Umm, OK," P'Thok said. He looked at the navigation display. It had all of two markings on it. The ship, which was done in such a way that it looked like candy, and a star marked "Korvatunturi" underneath it.
P'Thok knew of most of the Terran settlements in the area. He'd just left New Terra with Moomoo's, ice cream, and tobacco, and there wasn't a Korvatunturi anywhere in the sector.
Maybe the ship had a new type of drive?
"I'm going to go check the drive. You stare here, little darling," P'Thok said, putting on his best Moomoo Carer Terran accent.
"I will Mister P'Thok. I'll watch the clock," she said, smiling.
P'Thok nodded and went back through the airlock. He hopped from outcropping to outcropping till he got to the bottom. He opened the next airlock and stared.
There were brightly colored packages, festooned with ribbons, everywhere he looked. They were piled haphazardly to the ceiling, in piles, and strewn about. There were large ornamented Terran foot coverings, laying on the floor, stuffed with toys and candy and fruit, some of them the contents spilling out onto the floor.
P'Thok held out his hand, catching a few flakes of frozen condensation on his palm.
The environmental system must be out, he thought to himself. He moved forward, skirting around the boxes and crates, the stockings and stuffings, even passed by a roast beast with all the trimmings that smelled delectable.
There were even evergreen trees festooned with decorations tossed here and there, complete with blinking lights and stars on top.
What primate madness have I found myself involved in? P'Thok wondered.
He passed several rows of compacted frozen precipitation that was fashioned into three spheres, each one smaller than the one beneath, stacked one on top of another. Each one had a black hat with a nifty brim that looked pretty spiffy to P'Thok, while others had small conical hats with a white puffball on the tip like the green thing had been wearing.
P'Thok grabbed one and shoved it in his pocket. Maybe the Matrons would like it.
At the back he opened the door to the engineering section, passing inside. He hit the lights and looked around.
There was fazoozals and caroozals, noomphy pumps and stungee dumps, marvelous condusers and fabulousa transoozters. There were wheedles wheedling and speedlings speeding. A whirling twirling jumping slumping spinning space of whirlamagig of contraptiopns and fantabulations.
P'Thok stared in shock.
Nothing he saw belonged in a spaceship engineering and drive room.
He wasn't even sure what any of it did, and he'd once stolen an armored ice cream transport.
He approached one of the many many many consoles, looking at the labels, which had such strange writing as "frosting thickening level thickener" and "creamy filling whipper stiller" and "choco-pecan-strawberry-injector".
The intercom clicked. "Is everything OK down there, Mr. P'Thok?" the little girl asked. "Of the equipment you should take stock."
"Um, everything's OK, small Terran female," he answered, looking around at everything.
He wasn't sure, but it looked like one of the wheels made of sugar and other ingredients had gotten slightly dislodged. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed on it.
It clicked back in place and everything around him began moving. Some equipment whistled, others chimed a merry tune, and still more began turning or pumping or clacking or clanking.
P'Thok rushed out of the room and closed the door behind him, slumping against it and sighing. He brought out a cigarette and lit it, standing next to the stacked frozen water, and puffed at it.
"The tinsel drive is almost charged up," the little Earth girl said over the intercom. "I'm making cocoa would you like a cup?"
"Um, yes?" P'Thok said.
WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK AFTER THESE MESSAGES!
LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
Did this really happen?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Yes. And we'll fight anyone claims otherwise.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
LEEBAW CONTEMPLATION POOL
OK, OK, take it easy.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
I get it. This was made right after you guys encountered the Terrans, wasn't it?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Yes.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
And you guys didn't really have any culture beyond "Must Lay Eggs!" and "Please don't eat my head!"
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
PUBVIAN DOMINION
>Laughs
Yeah, that was pretty much them.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS
I totally get it. Matron Sangbre and Matron Nakteti are making a movie based on when they met Daxin and how they got to Earth. This is kind of like that.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAKANIAN FLOOF ZONE
Woah, check it out! A hoverbike with a radio, jet boosters, max ceiling of three hundred meters and autopilot!
I totally want one!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
They don't make them any more. Too many kids slammed into each other or sucked birds into the intakes and crashed or flew into orbit somehow.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
HAKANIAN FLOOF ZONE
Wait, those are for kids?
Who the hell gives kids something like that.
ALL>TERRANS!
ALL>laughs
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Hush, it's back on.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
WE NOW RETURN TO THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL, ALREADY IN PROGRESS
P'Thok exhaled the last of the smoke out of feet, ignoring that it made perfect smoke rings, and moved back through the cargo area. In several places large dolls of small Terrans with pointed ears watched him, their outfits brightly colored and festive looking.
When he got to the bridge he looked around. The tiny human female gave him a large mug, hot to the touch, with whipped cream on top.
"Mister P'Thok, I made you a drink, you will like it I think," the human child said.
"Thank you, tiny human," P'Thok said.
The controls were all lit up and one big button was flashing. P'Thok moved up and stared at it, watching it flash. Idly he took a sip of the hot drink.
It was pleasant to the taste, reminding him of a heated bowl of Choco-Marshmallow Flavor Bomb Ice Cream. He took another drink, gave the equivelant of a shrug, and pressed the big red button.
The ship flew into motion. P'Thok shot backward, the mug in his hand leaving behind a long trail of whipped cream and hot chocolate, until he hit the back wall with an "OOF!" noise. Sparkles and small birds appeared around his head for a moment until he shook his head.
The ship picked up speed and P'Thok felt the chitin on his face began to ripple and pull backwards, deforming his head. It wasn't painful, but he could see his reflection and it looked like his mandibles were flapping.
The ship suddenly came to a stop and P'Thok flew through the bridge to slam against the viewsceen, all sprawled out, a leg or arm in every direction, still holding onto his mug of liquid choco-bomb.
He slowly slid down with a squeaking noise and landed on the floor.
The ship was making a beeping sound and P'Thok got to his feet, took another drink to calm his nerves, and looked at the panel and the viewscreen.
A large planet, all white and blue, with clouds swirling around, was getting closer.
"Oh no, Mister P'Thok, the controls have gone out," the tiny Terran girl said. "If I can't get home my parents will shout."
P'Thok stared at the instruments. "I'm not sure what to do."
The little girl pointed a long braid of multicolored ribbon twined with shiny metallic silver threads. "You'll have to take that, go out on the hull, lasso the cosecone, then give it a pull."
"I'll burn up on reentry," P'Thok said.
The little girl picked up the vanished green creature's red hat with the white fluffy border and white puffball on the tip. "Wear the Gurnch's magical hat, it will protect you from heat and things like that!"
P'Thok sighed, moved over and picked up the hat, and swapped it out for his moomoo tender hat. It fit comfortably between his antenna sheathes on his spacesuit helmet.
"All right. We're falling fast," P'Thok said. "I'll go out and pull the nose up on the ship."
"And then we'll land and be done with part of the trip," the little human female said.
P'Thok moved back into the central traverse tube, checking the long strand of ribbon and silver metal.
He'd practiced the art of lassoing moomoos on his own world, so he let the large loop fall out of the coil of rope, moving to the airlock.
It had power, allowing him to cycle it and go outside.
The ship was heading toward the planet, falling nose first.
P'Thok clumped outside the ship, his magnetic boots making it so he had to walk slow, stiltingly. He got halfway forward and let the lasso fall.
The ship was starting to enter atmosphere, heat from reentry making the round ball at the end of the nosecone glow a bright red.
P'Thok twirled the lasso over his head and let it fly, compensating for the pull of the planet and the thin atmospheric drag. The end of the lasso widened out and dropped over the nosecone, and P'Thok pulled back, expecting nothing.
The nose slowly began to rise as the ship dropped into atmosphere, rapidly dropping. P'Thok held onto the rope, pulling tight, like he was trying to get a meanmoomoo to stop.
Fire roared around the strangely shaped ship as it dropped into atmosphere, heading for the snowy expanse of trees on the surface. The ship left behind tree shaped puffs of white smoke as it fell to the ground, surrounded by fire.
Finally the ship slammed into the snow and P'Thok was thrown from the ship, flailing through the air, giving out a strange cry of "YA-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!" before landing in the snow and making a perfect Treana'ad shaped hole.
WILL P'THOK SURVIVE? WHAT SECRETS ARE IN THE BOXES? WILL THE TERRAN GRUB GET HOME?
YOU'LL FIND OUT, RIGHT AFTER THESE COMMERCIALS!
AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
This is so exciting, I don't even care that there's no way a 'magic hat' would keep him from burning up on reentry.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
I know, isn't it great?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
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submitted by Ralts_Bloodthorne to HFY [link] [comments]

Review Time! Kyse, Fantome, and Cocoa Pink

I've been getting quite a few new scents these past few weeks, so I figured I would put out some thoughts on a bunch of them! These are my first orders ever from Kyse, Fantome, and CP- so let's get started :D
I'm a fan of STRONG scents, I don't mess around much with super subtle perfumes. I'm also not a huge fan of indie style florals (which is wild, because my favorite perfume ever is Tom Ford Black Orchid and apparently that is considered floral, who knew?). I lean more gourmand / tea / fruit / boozy / tobacco / vanilla in the scent category, so keep that in mind.
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Kyse

Cacao Noisette: Cocoa powder, hazelnut, caramel, Tahitian vanilla, and soft snuggly musk. My thoughts: Smells just like Nutella, but with a little hint of heaviness to it…like musk. This is such a warm scent, I just want to cuddle with it and drink rich dark chocolate. Or, maybe just eat Ferrero Rocher. Very gourmand, but not fake sweet. A very adult cocoa scent. I really like this one. If you want a sexy hazelnut/cocoa smell, this is it. Verdict: 5/5 would FS
Vanille Debauche: Vanilla Bourbon, Beeswax, Boozy Notes, Amber, Dried Fruit, Wood, and Tobacco My thoughts: Soft, smoky, woodsy tobacco with fresh, sexy vanilla extract. Seems a little light, honestly, but I do get whiffs of it through the day. It is a really strong scent on the skin, so there's that at least. The vanilla extract scent is to die for and I like the aura of mystery this scent gives off with the booze and the gentle bourbon. I smell no fruit. The vanilla is the forefront of the woodsy aspect, so if you fear woodsy/tobacco, those aspects aren't super overpowering. The boozy vanilla extract it the forefront.
Verdict: 4/5 would FS
Macarons: Heliotrope, marzipan, hint of cherry, caramelized sugar, velvety vanilla custard, and a soft smooth myrrh. My thoughts: My husband picked this one over Cacao Noisette when I was wearing this on one arm and Cacao Noisette on the other. He was like, 'ooh that smells good, I like that one a lot'. It does somehow remind me of biting into a raspberry macaron! Not sure where I'm getting the raspberry from, but who cares, it's heckin' fab. Sophisticated gourmand and fruity. Very nice, will full size. I get strong whiffs of this during the day, very good sillage here. Once again, impressed with the quality, not tooth-rotting sweet, but instead very intriguing and wearable.
Verdict: 5/5 will definitely be full sizing this.
Sérénade aux Fraises: Strawberry, passionfruit, plum, Moroccan rose, cream, Tahitian Vanilla, organic sandalwood, violet leaf, musk, and black agar My thoughts: It reminds me of a sharp strawberry scent at first, almost like a strawberry vodka. I wasn't too thrilled with how it opened up, to be honest. There was something...bitter about it? It does dry down very nicely though, giving me the feeling of a strawberry cheesecake, but not overwhelming. Soft. It's okay. Not what I'm looking for at the moment...plus it didn't seem to really line up with the expected description above.
Verdict: 3/5
Gateau de Carnavale: Funnel cake, vanilla latte, toasted brown sugar, and apricot. My thoughts: Ehhh...a little disappointed. The scent is utterly faint and just not awe-inspiring for me. Sort of just smells like a faint, sugar dough. That's about it. If you like softer scents and also like funnel cake, you will like this. I just didn't get too much out of it and could barely smell this on at all.
Verdict: 2/5
Miele: Honey, mango, plum, apricot, jasmine, organic tonka bean butter, sandalwood My thoughts: Opens up with pure honey. This is a sweet scent and the fruits only add more 'oompf' to the honey aroma. If you love honey, this is what you have been looking for your whole life. Somehow, it sort of reminds me of a lovely tea with lots of honey. Comforting, delicious honey aroma with the mango and apricot in the background.
Verdict: 4/5
If anyone has any other Kyse reviews, I'm dying to know more about a few of their other vanillas! Getting ready to place another order with them, as I am very impressed with their scents (though, one warning, the small spray samples seem to leak terribly during shipping, which is disappointing).
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Fantome

Amria: Sultry, dark, mysterious. Crushed rose petals, honeyed figs, black currants, and black tea. Hints of tonka bean, orange blossoms, amber, and dragon's blood My thoughts: Starts out very berry heavy. There's something powerfully green in this. The amber is soft. Unique scent. Not totally in love with it yet. It makes me think of red berries and sharp green thorns. This isn't floral, but it also isn't straight fruity. If you like botanical and exotic scents, you will probably like this. Not a warm scent, sort of chilly actually. Literally, I think of thorns and berries when wearing this. Exotic and sultry is accurate, but also -green- and sort of sharp.
Verdict: 3/5
Ectoplasm: Spooky, goopy marshmallow over bone chilling white musk, sweet amber, a gossamer sugar glaze, dark myrrh, and creeping greenery My thoughts: At first glance I really liked this, but then it changed into straight botanical. The marshmallow gives me strong vanilla bean vibes for some reason, which I like. Perhaps it's that tasty sugar glaze? The greenery starts out a little strong and persists a little too much for my tastes. This scent is also very strong, I can smell it emanating from under my long sleeve shirt. I'm shocked I didn't like it, considering so many people have wonderful things to say about this scent...but the greenery is just overpowering on my skin.
Verdict: 2/5 - it's just a little too odd for me. It's not gourmand in my opinion, it's more botanical and green.
The Fox Sisters: Spiced cardamom cake with orange zest and candied red currants, caramel cream, dragon's blood resin, and flecks of vanilla bean. My thoughts: A winner! Spicy orange, vanilla cake! A little bit of tea is in the aroma, from what I'm getting. Pretty, but sort of faint. Maybe 2-3 hours on my skin.
Verdict: 5/5
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Cocoa Pink

Black Apple Noel: CP Black, juicy golden delicious apples smothered in mouthwatering sticky sweet caramel coating and rounded out with ghostly ribbons of vanilla bean noel My thoughts: OMG. Seriously, delicious apples just oozing with creamy caramel! The vanilla bean makes this totally decadent. Literally, this makes me think of biting into a delicious apple, the crunch, the tartness, and the yummy caramel make this a winner. So glad I bought this as a FS. I sprayed this on during the day and the next morning I woke up in a yummy cloud of caramel apple in my bed.
Verdict: 6/5
Jean's Ghost: Blood red rose petals, Madagascar vanilla, sparkling champagne overflowing her glass, vanilla ice cream flecked with aromatic beans, bright plum and maraschino cherries for Jean Harlow's ghost. My thoughts: Possibly too floral. Maybe the champagne is ruining this for me? Shock. Any time I try smelling this, I just don't like it. This is not a gourmand scent, FYI. Very heavy on the rose, I get no cherry or vanilla in this. This is basically if some drunk bro spilled his Brut all over you and then sprinkled you with rose petals XD
Verdict: 1/5 - not for me
Naughty Pumpkins: Sexy foodie scents. Spiritueuse Double Vanilla and exclusive triple amber blend CP Black mixed together. Then, sweet pumpkin is added in. My thoughts: light. Smells like sweet vanilla with pumpkin, a few fall spices. But, this is a very gentle scent and I'm not in the market for gentle at this point. The amber is way too soft, barely noticeable.
Verdict: 4/5 - it's yummy, I'm just not down for it at the moment
Magnetic: Exotic sandalwood infused with gorgeous streaks of black vanilla bean, sugar crystals, rum raisin, smooth tonka, tobacco leaf and golden amber - a blend to keep you coming back for more My thoughts: Oh, yes. Gorgeous. Deep and mature. Elegance in a bottle. Definitely smell the vanilla and the rum raisin. Kinda boozy, but the sandalwood makes this complex and warm. Sandalwood does get stronger on drydown. Would maybe FS
Verdict: 4/5
The Unred: This blend would make any vampire or other undead creature stalk your bathroom. Buckets of bloody orange juice, sweet vanilla, bourbon vanilla, sandalwoods and ambers. Hide this one well or you will find it missing by morning My thoughts: I'm mostly just getting orange juice from this, so...idk. Maybe a brunch sort of scent. It makes me think of drinking a mimosa with my gal pals. Sometimes, this also has a creamsicle scent to it, but I already have a perfume like that. Don't get me wrong, it's nice. I just don't need another like it at the moment.
Verdict: 4/5 - if you like mimosa's or creamsicles
Cranberry Noel: Tart cranberry with no spice notes, sweetened with vanilla bean noel My thoughts: OMG. Berries and cream! Rich, ice cream like vanilla. This is delicious. Does dry down a bit like a cherry throat drop though...yet, somehow still yummy? This was a freebie I received and it certainly surprised me!
Verdict: 4/5
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The end :D
If you are looking for Alkemia reviews, this is one of my posts, though now it probably could use some updating: 13 x Alkemia Reviews
I have a decent sized order coming from CultFragrances soon as well, so if anyone is interested, I'll probably do a review on those too.
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Norman Goes Grocery Shopping

It was the second Saturday of the month and a shopping trip was in order for Norman.
He perused his grocery list and decided he didn’t need quite enough items to warrant a delivery fee so hopped into his car and headed for the store.
He listened to his favorite talk station on the way, enjoying the musical interlude they played during the changeover of hosts.
He pulled into the lot and considered whether he’d rather have a spot closer to the door that was more convenient or one further away where people were less likely to dent his car.
He chose one at the midpoint, where there were very few other cars, but he could still access the store within a minute’s walk.
He shut his car off and ran his hand over his pocket to ensure he still had his wallet. He grabbed his masks out of his glove compartment. His sister, a geriatrics nurse, had advised him to try using a plain surgical mask underneath his cloth mask for two layers of protection.
He had a few KN95 masks but decided he wouldn’t be in the store long enough to warrant a filter. Besides, those masks were plain white, and he liked showing off his cloth mask emblazoned with the logo of his favorite minor league baseball team.
He stabbed the car off—he never had gotten used to driving a vehicle without an ignition—and sauntered over to grab a cart. The nice store clerk he always saw was just finishing sanitizing the handles.
“How do you do Brenda?” “Alright Norman, yourself?” She asked, pulling out a new row of carts to wipe down. “Long day, but a good day,” she replied.
Norman nodded to her as he unfolded his list and started down the aisles.
He was first in the produce section, but he always likes to loop around there last so his delicate vegetables didn’t get squished under his heavier meats and canned goods, so he bypassed directly to the seafood counter.
Norman liked to have fish at least once a week, for his health. He had also found some nifty ways to prepare it now that he’d been cooking at home more often. This week he had decided to sauté a few scallops. He ordered six large scallops from the man behind the counter, double checking to ensure they were dry and not wet treated.
The fishmonger was always in a jolly mood that lifted Norman’s spirits and wished him well as he packaged the scallops up in plastic.
Norman continued past the bulk aisle and selected some barley, some cornmeal, and after a bit of consideration, some oatmeal. He quite liked the flavored instant oatmeal packets they sold down further in the snack aisle, but he knew this contained less sugar.
Norman almost purchased some bulk walnuts to top his oatmeal, but remembered he still had some pecans at home, so continued on, bopping his head to the cheery instrumental playing over the loudspeakers.
Next he arrived at the butcher area. He didn’t need anything cut to order this week so picked out a box of chicken wings, with the gourmet hot sauce his brother generously sent for Christmas in mind.
He picked up a few pork and beef meatballs and a big frozen lamb chop for later in the week. He figured he could pop it in the oven and cook it up without much fuss.
The train of thought was momentarily interrupted by a robotic voice breaking onto the PA system to encourage people to maintain social distance, but his list reoriented him.
He passed by the pasta, oil, and broths aisle and grabbed a box of bronze cut tagliatelle to enjoy with his nice meatballs, then a box of regular store brand penne for an average noodles and sauce night. He’d been having more of those than he’d care to admit now that his big project at work was really in full swing.
This aisle also contained vinegars, and he was running low on balsamic, which he often liked to use on salads. He chose a mid-range one with a pretty rose embossed on the bottle.
He saw a woman on the other side of the aisle he thought he might recognize from a previous job site, but he couldn’t be quite sure due to how much time had passed, so didn’t wave just in case he was mistaken.
He spotted a box of chicken stock he needed to have on hand for cooking, but looked a minute longer to locate the store brand, for which he had a coupon.
He didn’t need anything from the baking aisle, but couldn’t resist grabbing a package of Instant hot cocoa from the end cap. He quite enjoyed the little marshmallows in each package, and it had been unseasonably chilly lately.
He perused the snack foods and settled on a bag of sour cream and onion chips for this week, though he did enjoy last week’s box of cheez-it’s so much that he’d purchased them twice in a row. However, he was resolute that it was time to switch things up. He placed the bag in his cart, careful not the crush the delicate morsels.
Next Norman found himself in the dairy aisle. He waited a minute for it to empty out a bit, then picked up a jug of milk, a box of eggs, a block of mild cheddar cheese, and a few single-serving packages of cottage cheese. He decided to go for a jar of strawberry yogurt this week, as well.
As he passed the freezer section he treated himself to a box of fudgesicles. He nearly grabbed the lactose-free version by accident, so quickly swapped them back.
He still had plenty of bread so walked past the fresh bakery department and arrived at produce once more.
He picked out four apples, three red and one green. He carefully selected honey crisp apples without bruises, an especially difficult task now that it was considered poor form to touch the apples while inspecting them.
He purchased a head of broccoli, a bunch of asparagus, and a couple boxes of spinach. Butternut squash were on sale, buy one get one half off, so he opted for those instead of the sweet potatoes he had planned to purchase.
There weren’t many exciting fruits and vegetables to procure during the winter so Norman looked forward to the first harvests of spring.
He considered looping back around to the baking aisle to grab a can of cooking spray he’d forgotten he needed, but the handle to his cart was slightly loose, and the wiggling annoyed him too much to make another extended trip.
Norman pushed towards the check out, controlling the wiggling as best he could. The shortest line placed him in the middle of the canned goods aisle. There were only about five people on this line, but they were spread far enough apart that it made the line appear longer than it actually was.
As Norman remembered his turn, he realized he needed a couple cans of green beans for a casserole. He also picked up a few packages of shelf stable tuna fish for the monthly food drive the store runs.
He got distracted trying to read the shirt of the person two carts ahead of him, something about a state championship but he still wasn’t sure for what sort of competition, when before he knew it there was an open register.
He placed his items on the conveyor belt with due consideration, holding his eggs in reserve to be bagged last and being mindful not to accidentally bring the tuna home that he meant to leave in the food bank collections bin.
He made some light small talk with the checker, but it was a teenager girl, so Norman didn’t have much to say that she found interesting and vice versa.
“Looks like it might snow.” He mentioned. “Huh?” She replied. “Outside. Kind of stormy. Might be a blizzard coming in.” “Oh, sure. Maybe.” She concurred, not looking up from her bagging. “I’ve been checking that weather app thing, but half the time it has no idea what it’s talking about.” Norman remarked. “Mmhmm.” The check out girl replied.
Norman realized he’d left his reusable bags at home and was momentarily frustrated, but then remembered the store still had a temporary policy against them unless you used self checkout, which was out of order that day. He set his worries aside.
“Thanks!” Norman smiled to the checker as he pushed his full cart towards the exit. “Happy new year!” He added. “Happy new year!” She smiled back.
Norman carefully positioned the cart outside his car to be sure it wouldn’t roll away, and loaded the bags comfortably into his trunk. They fit just right so as not to be jostled on the drive home.
He closed the back and pushed his trolley into a carafe, ultimately glad he didn’t park too far away from the store’s entrance. He sat down in the driver’s side and rubbed his hands to the wrist with Purell before pulling through the empty space in front of him and out into the street.
He arrived home, carried his bags indoors with a single trip, and promptly put everything away in it’s proper place, beginning with his precious fudgsicles in the freezer and concluding with his hefty squashes at the far end of the counter.
After washing his hands and changing his clothes from the trip, Norman bit into one of his crisp new apples with delight. He decided he had such a variety of delicious foods, it was time for Norman to enjoy some as well, so opened a fresh can of fish-medley flavored cat food for him from the treat pantry. Then, they both sat back, and enjoyed their tasty snacks.
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In Which I Discover That I Hate Wood Scents [Queen Bee Apothecary lotion review]

Sometimes you just take a look at your choices and you go, “you know what, this is on me.”
Entranced by Queen Bee Apothecary’s massive scent catalogue, I snatched up one of her mini Luxury Body Butter 6-packs. 6 little 1/2-ounce capacity jars of lotion for $12 + shipping, a very good deal!
I chose some very experimental scents for me, here. I’m living with my family during these covid-times, and my mom has a massive aversion to sweet and gourmand fragrances (which I love!) so I was like “hmm, what could I choose here that she wouldn’t hate? … Wood?”
I’ve never tried wearing woody fragrances before, but I love the smells of the forest (I mean, look at my username), so I figured - why not!
This was a dangerous game.
I ordered Woods + Rose, Garnet Woods, Grinch, Chestnuts Roasting, Tea House, and Coffee House (the last two being gourmands Mom said she might not mind smelling).
Queen Bee’s TAT was 7 days, which was a pleasant surprise since her Etsy mentioned she was swamped with orders and experiencing two-week delays! She left me a very nice little thank-you note for purchasing, and I got nothing but good vibes from her all around. When I received my package, Tea House had leaked a little bit in transit (here's a pic of my haul), but everything else was fine.
So I sampled the lotions.
​
Chestnuts Roasting (vetiver, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, caramel)
COLD SNIFF: Wow, I thought to myself, this kinda does smell like roasted chestnuts! The vetiver mixed with the woods and sweet notes to create a pretty convincing replica of the real deal. I was optimistic about this one!
FRESHLY APPLIED: Oh boy! Grassy! So grassy. Then the cedar started coming in stronger and stronger, and for a while I just smelled like I was hiding inside of a big cedar chest someone was using to store lawn clippings.
DRYDOWN: Everything just faded into sandalwood, and I realized I smelled exactly like my mom’s ex-boyfriend, who lived with her for a while and used this sandalwood soap every day. It was weird. Smelling like your mom’s ex-boyfriend is weird.
RATING: 5/10, I am become Dave.
​
Coffee House (coffee beans, brewed coffee, rum, brandy, brown sugar & cocoa)
COLD SNIFF: Oof, heavy on the rum, brandy, and brown sugar. Kind of a bananas foster vibe? Where is the banana coming from?
FRESHLY APPLIED: Getting some real intense artificial “coffee Jelly Bean” vibes. The mystery banana is still extremely present. Bananas foster, coffee Jelly Beans, and a bit of a cologne vibe underneath.
DRYDOWN: Oh noooo it’s all rum now. Everything faded except the rum. A cologne-y rum.
RATING: 1/10, I didn’t really like this one at any point during its journey.
​
Garnet Woods (cherry, almond blossom, rose, jasmin, vetiver, cedar, tonka)
COLD SNIFF: Floor polish?
FRESHLY APPLIED: Floor polish?
DRYDOWN: Floor polish???
RATING: 1/10 FLOOR POLISH. To get more into detail, the cedar REALLY dominates everything, and the cherry adds this harsh artificial medicinal tinge to it. I didn't smell any of the floral notes.
​
Grinch (citrus, cinnamom, clove, cedar, fir & sandalwood)
COLD SNIFF: I was taking notes on these and I just wrote down the word “no” for this one. It just smelled like extremely harsh cologne. It was hard to pick out any individual notes from the sniff.
FRESHLY APPLIED: You know what, I like this one freshly applied! It smelled like a Christmas tree completely laden with clove-studded oranges. I was here for this one. Zesty.
DRYDOWN: Oh no oh no it’s getting cologne-y again!!! The wood notes muddied up the other notes REAL hard and it got pretty close to smelling how it did in the jar again, which was not good.
RATING: 2/10 I really liked it for like 2 minutes! :(
​
Tea House (Earl Grey tea, black teas, chamomile, ginger root, dried pears, crisp apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, anise, vanilla & cognac)
COLD SNIFF: This an extremely specific scent that I can 100% place. This is the scent of waiting in line to get your hair cut in a mid-price-range independently-owned hair salon while you treat yourself to a little wax-lined cup of free fruit-flavored Bigelow tea.
FRESHLY APPLIED: Cinnamon, apple, and cloves! This is pleasant! The hair product scent is gone.
DRYDOWN: “Autumn Spice” candle. All the fruits are gone.
RATING: 5/10, I was really hoping for either more of a tea scent or more of a fruit scent.
​
Woods + Rose (earthy notes, rose blossoms, mixed woods)
COLD SNIFF: Boy, uh… hotel soap shredded onto a bed of roses? Real soapy, this one, I’m definitely getting the florals but they’re overpowered by soap.
FRESHLY APPLIED: This got a lot more green when I put it on. I think I can smell vetiver in there. That might be the “earthy notes”. The rose kind of goes away, honestly. Still very hotel soapy.
DRYDOWN: I smell like an airport. I smell like I just washed my hands at an airport and I’m standing in line waiting to board, and the businessman in front of me has just splashed some cheap cologne onto his wrists.
RATING: 1/10, yes I miss the carefree days of unfettered air travel, but not like this.
​
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So I learned something about myself through this experience, which is that I heavily associate wood scents (and vetiver) with cologne, and that I don’t like it one bit!! Can’t fault Queen Bee for that one, I just took a scent gamble and lost. The lotion itself seemed nice and moisturizing, no problems with the formula.
I’ll be giving these samples to my woods-cologne-loving friend and moving on to other experiments!
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Mini-Reviews of Clinique "My Happy" Set

I recently purchased a discovery set of Clinique's six new additions to their "My Happy" line. I got my set on their website on sale for $20 and it's still available. It contains six travel sized spray bottles (0.17 oz each). The bottles are glass with plastic toppers. They range from lasting 30 minutes to about 3-4 hours so they're not super long lasting. Clinique encourages mixing and matching to layer different scent combinations but I haven't attempted to do that yet.
Here's my thoughts and rankings of these scents having worn one a day for the past six days!
1.) Cocoa & Cashmere - Cocoa, Vanilla, Golden Amber, Musks, Pink Pepper, Jasmine, Honeysuckle, Solar Salicylates.
This is my favorite of the bunch since it's unlike anything in my collection. Other than thinking the hot chocolate candle scent at B&BW was icky, I've had very little experience with chocolate in fragrance, even avoiding it. This one is COZY just like the name suggests. The cocoa is very much at the front and settles into a honeysuckle/musky drydown. I didn't know a cocoa scent could feel clean and sexy but it does! I look forward to wearing this one once the heat wave ends. I plan to buy a full size.
2.) Indigo Mist - Bluebells, wet green notes of melon and Violet leaf, Cashmeran and Orris root
FRESH! And beautiful. The violet is very prominant but it's also aquatic which makes this another unique scent for me. This is one I couldn't stop sniffing, it reminds me of these violet mints I bought at a health food store once, but in a good way. I wonder how this compares to Jo Malone's Bluebell? I would repurchase!
3.) Baby Bouquet - Bright mandarin and a tenderheart of orange flower petals.
I was expecting this to be my least favorite because I assumed it would smell like lavendababy powdebubble bath or anything else "baby" but I was pleasantly suprised as it's not like that at all! This one smells a like mint muddled with orange for a cocktail at first and then settles into a pretty basic jasmine. I love this for summer and might repurchase.
4.) Peony Picnic - Black Currant Buds, Strawberry, Passion Fruit, Peony, Rose, Plum, Cedar, Amberwood, Vanilla.
This is the most generic "perfume" scent of the bunch, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Reminds me SLIGHTLY of Chloe (which also has peonies/rose top and a cedar base) but not a dupe. This one lasted the longest for me out of all of them and smells very feminine but this one doesn't offer me anything I don't have already. Will gladly use up the trial size, but would not repurchase.
5.) Lily of the Beach - Bergamot, Solar Lily, Ylang Ylang, Tiare, Frangipani, Coconut, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Amber.
A "sunscreen" scent. This is one I would wear if I had the winter blues. But I live in Florida, so it's just kind of unnecessary. Not bad, but nothing special. This one also lasts about as long as Peony Picnic - about 4 hours. I would probably keep this one in my bag for touchups in the summer, but I do not plan to repurchase.
6.) Cookies & Kisses - Cinnamon, rich Vanilla, and creamy Chestnuts
This was the one I was most excited to try because my SO loves vanilla scents on me but there is really nothing to this one. It DISAPPEARS on me, after 30 minutes it is a skin scent and barely even that. I don't get the cinnamon or chestnuts, it's more like brown sugar but it's gone so quickly you hardly have time to analyze it. I may try spraying this on clothes/sheets to use up the trial. Would not repurchase.
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Let's make a d100 games, food, and shops that you would see at a winter festival.

Help me make a winter festival to remember.
Help me make a winter festival to remember.
1.) Dragon horn ring toss
2.) Devil dragon egg pie!
3.) Woollen clothes shop for those cold noght.
4.) Fried manticore.
5.) Catch the Quickling scrambled.
  1. Hot mulled cider
  2. Fried cinnamon-spiced meat dumplings
  3. Snowball target throw
  4. Wandering magician apprentice casting Warmth cantrip for a fee
  5. Carolers
  6. Medical station with hypothermia treatments available.
  7. Snow sprites for sale (they look like little animated snowflakes, but they don't live more than a couple of days)
  8. Fun-find in the snow (a few small prizes are hidden in a fenced-off corral full of snow; for a price five people at a time search for the items for five minutes. No magic allowed!
  9. Your face (or your SO's face) sculpted in ice while you wait, only 10 coins!
  10. Hot bath/sauna (produces a LOT of vapor)
  11. Trained snow or ice golem (in tent, you must pay to see it)
  12. High-speed sled ride (basically like a roller coaster) Sledding (on sled, on shield / on board / on another person)
  13. Chopping logs into firewood (speed challenge)
  14. Climbing a steep ice hill
  15. Ice Block Smashing - trying to smash solid blocks of ice with a sledge hammer (strength)
  16. Ice Fishing (largest fish / most fish caught / rarest fish caught)
  17. Ice Sculpting (artistic skills)
  18. Igloo Building (survival skills) Ice / Snow Fort Building
  19. Snowshoes race
  20. Dogs/Reindeer Sled Racing
  21. Snowball Fight
  22. Tug of war on a frozen lake or pond
  23. Walking across a frozen log (balance test)
  24. Face Painting
  25. Festival Masks / Costumes
  26. Fur Clothing
  27. Hot Drinks (hot cider, hot chocolate, hot coffee, hot tea, mulled cider, mulled wine)
  28. Hot Soup or Stew
  29. Pies
  30. Pot Pies
  31. Meat Dumplings
  32. Roasted Nuts
  33. A drunk tank. Competitors drinking ale and balancing on a slippery log over two tubs of ice-water. Loser has to pay the bar tab, winner gets free ale and bragging rights until challenged again. Great entertainment!
  34. A religious play about candles, fire safety, and how flammable certain orphans' parents are.
  35. The bonfire leaping competition. Loser dies by third degree burns, but doesn't have to live with the knowledge that their failure had a good chance of failing to resurrect the Sun in the coming year.
  36. The Feast of Ice. All the orphans sit around the table and try to eat as many icicles as they can before the hourglass runs out and they are forced back to hard-labor. Losers have to go home hungry; as do the winners.
  37. Naked Ice Sumo Wrestling. Nothing like a little rancid bear grease and freezing water to really get the ol' adrenaline flowing! Followed by a soggy loin-cloth competition.
  38. The Hunt of the Wren. For some reason, a hundred and so years ago, the local clerics declared that human sacrifices were required in order to survive the Winter Famine. A sacrificial victim was chosen from the Orphans, according to rumor, named 'Wren'. The orphan was crowned Ruler for the Day and treated to the best meal the starving locals could afford. Later that night, Wren escaped and was never seen again. The whole village was out, calling for Wren, but never found them. Lots of people died that year, and even the Clerics died, and the whole town ate them to survive. Ever since then, at this time of year, the whole village searches for Wren, and then when noone finds them, the village goes to the local cleric's house and, you'd never believe it, there has never not been a feast prepared since then! It's a Winter Festival Miracle!
  39. Shoot the Festival Star! Every year, someone shoots down the star placed at the top of the Winter Festival Tree, and the mayor gives them a 100 gold reward. For the last ten years it has been a group of bandits that pull off the lucky shot. This year's gonna be my turn.
  40. The rich people hire waifs to stand outside thier windows as a sort of badge of honor. A silver penny for a bit of sorrowful sniffling for an hour or so? Sign me up!
  41. The Burning of the Festival Goat. For the last one hundred years, the Clerics of the Goat God Temple have tried to outdo the Clerics of the Sun God Temple by building an enormous goat out of straw. They try to guard it until after New Years, but it always burns before then. All Hail the Sun God!
  42. An alchemist selling lesser potions that keep people warm for a few hours (these aren't strong enough to give resistance to cold damage, but you definitely can tell the toasty-warm difference after drinking it). Due to the relatively easy-to-find ingredients for the potions, they're quite reasonably priced.
  43. An area set up for a snowball fight, even with a wooden fence around it. (the area is used for training horses in the warmer months.)
  44. A temporarily awakened snowman/snow golem next to the road/path who's happy to socialize . They're aware their time being sentient is limited, but this only drives them to have even more fun with the time they have.
  45. A play about the story of an adventuring party who defeated a cruel ice dragon ages ago. A few mages are helping with the special effects.
  46. A lodge where big game hunters gather to sell and brag about there most recent kills. It has a warm, cozy atmosphere if you don’t mind the many, many monster heads adorning the walls.
    • Smithin' Kearns - 2 parts cream, 2 parts coffee liqueur, 1 part ginger beer, nutmeg sprinkled on top.
    • Orange Chocolates - They are shaped and colored like the fruit known as an orange but they taste exactly like chocolate.
    • Tennover Topple - A game on a walled, slanted table with 30 pegs. 5 pegs are not secured to the table and fall over with a small nudge. You slide a weighted disk down the table using only gravity in an attempt to knock down all 5 pegs in one go.
    • Snow's Piercer - A pop-up shop which sells the finest tools to manage snowfall near your home and business. Specialty shovels, flame throwers, and coarsely ground salt are among the wares hawked here.
  51. My game has festivals, and we have a waffle stand - it’s called the Awful Waffle, and it serves different random things waffled. Somehow it’s become beloved by the players and I’ve looked up a million waffle recipes. (Sweet potato waffles, cinnamon roll waffles, tater tot waffles, falafel waffles.)
  52. Ice Tavern – What it sounds like, a tavern built out of ice, like the ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden.
  53. Waffle Stand – Serves hot, fresh baked waffles.
  54. Release of the floating lanterns – After dark the villagers/city folk gather and light lanterns made of very thin and light paper so the heat from the flame makes them lighter than the surrounding cold air and so they float up into the night sky.
  55. Stand serving heated wine containing local spices that makes it a little sweet, served with raisins and almonds. None of these are my ideas. I kinda grabbed these off the Internet and some other sources. I don’t remember where they came from but wanted to share some good ideas.
  56. Greased Pig Catching Cannot be completed without being unencumbered (movement rate of 25 or better) Individual initiatives for all contestants involved, each gets a chance to catch the pig in order of initiative (roll to hit AC 18, after all, it’s a greased pig you are trying to grab bare-handed), and must then roll successfully against Strength and Dexterity, failing either roll allows the pig to escape. Continue round-to-round until the pig
  57. No Holds Barred Racing This assumes all racers have the same movement rate, otherwise the whole thing is pointless. Make a fifty-space “track”, each competitor starts off at one end. Roll individual initiatives for each racer. Move racers their Initiative roll spaces each round. A racer can try to trip, grab, or otherwise screw up another racer by taking a -2 penalty on his racing roll and making an attack roll against the target who must be within 2 spaces. If the attack succeeds, the target suffers a -4 penalty on his racing roll (cannot be less than 0).
  58. Punch Drunk This paired “game” involves drinking a flagon of ale, then punching the opponent in the face. After each drink roll a save versus poison, or suffer a -2 on all further rolls this competition. After each punch, roll a save versus paralysis (with your opponent’s Strength bonus as a penalty) or be knocked on your ass and be out of the match. A breather between rounds allows you to reduce your drunken penalties from failed saves against the ale by 2 before taking on one of the other winners of the previous round.
  59. Dragon's Revenge Contestants fill their mouths with liquor and then spit it through a torch at a small cloth target made up to look like a knight. Roll to hit with this missile weapon (with a -4 penalty for not normally having training in spit-based weapon systems) against an AC of 13 (small target). But just hitting the target isn’t enough – it has to be flambeed. Roll 1d4 damage for the flaming alcohol. The target has 3 hit points.
  60. Fire Juggling Must successfully juggle balls of fire for longer than the other 1d12 contestants. Each contestant rolls initiative and turns go in that order. Each round, the contestants juggles an additional ball of fire, starting at 1. Must roll your Dex + Acrobatics - (# of balls of fire) or lower to successfully juggle for the round. (eg, Dex of 14, Acrobatics of 4, round 3. Must roll less than or equal to 14+4-3 = 15 )
  61. What's that Smell? 1d20 contestants are seated at a table with blindfolds on. Each round, something will put put in front of their nose and each contestant must guess what it is. Players are welcome to say anything from normal to absolutely absurd things. Last one around wins. Contestants must roll 1d20 to see if they were right. On a roll of 10 - Perception, they were correct. On being incorrect, they get one more try. If both attempts are failed, they are knocked out. The DM is expected to reveal an absolutely completely absurd thing as the right answer. (eg, roasted dragon's thigh, pickled basilisk lips, a dwarf's bum, etc.)
  62. Up and Over Contestants must successfully hurdle increasingly tall obstacles while running. This is a sprint. First to hurdle height of 20 wins! All contestants go at the same time. Must successfully roll 1d20 higher than (Height - Acrobatics) to hurdle, starting with Height of 5 and increasing by 1 every round. (eg. round 5 with Acrobatics of 2, roll minimum of 10 - 2 = 8 ). On a failed hurdle, you must keep trying to jump that height. (after jumping 5, must jump 6, then 7, then 8, etc. until jumping over 20 all as fast as everyone can)
  63. Ball Under the Cups Two contestants against each other. One is the Deceiver and one is the Perceiver. Deceiver has 4 cups and places a ball under one and then shuffles the cups. Each round, contestants swap as perceiver and deceiver. First to 5 points wins. Deceiver must attempt to hide the ball from the Perceiver in any way possible, either by moving the cups quickly or by attempting to completely remove the ball from the table. Deceiver rolls 1d4 either way, but the number is only important if they kept the ball on the table. Someone else (likely DM) must be aware of the Deceiver's choice. Perceiver gets (Perception - 1 - [Deceiver's Sleight of Hand] ) attempts (min 1) to guess where the ball is. Off the table, 1, 2, 3, or 4. When guessed correct, Perceiver gets 1 point. If it was correctly guessed Off the Table, perceiver gets 2 points. If wrong all attempts, Deceiver gets 1 point. If wrong all attempts and was off the table, Deceiver gets DM's choice.
  64. Hot soup in a bowl made of ice
  65. Goose cooked in the style of Bacon
  66. A Honey popsicle that is very attractive to bugs of all sizes
  67. Spicy Cabbage
  68. Guess the number of ferrets in a hole in a town park
  69. Extinguishing 10 candles in a room while blindfolded as quickly as possible
  70. who can wear the most clothes for ten minutes straight
  71. Icicle carving contest: first, contestants find the largest single icicle they can, then make an ice sculpture using only their single icicle and an ordinary hammer and chisel to do so. The winner's sculpture gets used as the centerpiece for the feast table that night.
  72. Snowball based bottle game: contestants get three snowballs per try, and have to knock over a stack of bottles, some of which may be frozen together. Offers packets of tea/cocoa that can be added to hot water(available elsewhere)
  73. Moose grazing: a particularly odd game, halfway between a contest and a kids game. Contestants must wear a hat with large, heavy antlers, then attempt to find a small item hidden under the snow, and must be on their hands and knees the whole time. There is a small group of adults who have set up a more difficult version, and they are oddly competitive about it.
  74. Some kind of magically frozen flavoured sherbet, in different colours of the rainbow!
  75. Stealing from the winter festival my DM ran last week:
  76. Snap-dragon: Place heated brandy in a large shallow bowl and light it up, then drop raisin in. Take turns trying to snatch a raisin out and eat it without burning your fingers or mouth.
  77. Feuerzangenbowle: soak a large cone of sugar in run, then place it on tongs above a vat of mulled wine. Light the sugar on fire and let it melt into the holiday punch.
  78. Mimic toss: a set of tamed mimics are laid out on the ground, with their mouths open. Pay your gold to get three chances to toss a ball into their mouths. Get all three shots in and you win the big teddy bear. The balls are, of course, sized slightly larger than the mimic's can swallow. A natural 20 on your toss will lead to the ball getting lodged in and you must try to get it back out before the mimic chokes.
  79. Has maple taffy been suggested yet? You pour boiling maple sap onto snow and then pick it up with a stick. A lot of places in Canada do it, it’s really neat (and totally delicious).
  80. Whittles Wooden Birds, a small stall form a traveling merchant named Whittle. The stall is run by a 35 year old gnome he sells various wooden birds as wells as a few rats and fish. If anyone asks if he sells dice or some sort of game pieces he will turn pale and deny every doing such a thing and timidly try to get them to leave him alone before closing.
  81. He was the victim of a cult cursing a dice set he made into summoning a demon and now he is on the run form anyone who brings it up this was just an idea in my head that I came up with so if you want to add it to you're game you could change the reason.
  82. A winter wonderland cafe served by snowmen. Ytsorf is a dwarven summoner, with strong magic he controls snowmen to walk around and serve the customers.
  83. Background if you want the option for a longer plot. In actuality he is a necromancer using the corpses of some children that recently vanished. A insight of 16 or higher will find the light scent of rotting flesh or a droplet of blood seeping through the snow.
  84. Snow show - Guest wizards who can cause the snow to turn different shimmering colors as it falls, while others cause it to glow or glitter. They put on a 15 minute show at the top of the hour. Winter is beautiful.
  85. Dragon teeth - the casting of runes by crone witches as the telling of a PC's fortune of the year.
  86. Pop-snaps - small firecrackers pulled by two participants that give a snap and a few small sparks, spewing forth small paper toys and perhaps a copper or two if you are lucky
  87. Hot Spiced Rum - Fire rum warms the coldness within. Drinking with a buddy or in a contest is most welcome during the festival. For some, that's the whole point.
  88. Tales by the fire - Large bonfires are lit to warm the gathering spaces, to ward off the cold and to remind the festival goers that the sun hasn't deserted them forever. Bards and elders gather to tell young'uns and all who would listen about the oldest stories they know, the founding of their village maybe or what they've seen in their many years.
  89. Snowshoe and ski hut - A place to rent snow gear for the day. For an extra fee, you can catch a sleigh ride up a large hill, where you can join the pandemonium of children sledding, skiing and otherwise rolling downhill. Watch out for Timmy!
  90. Butterscotch soup - Ya'think it might be a bit too sweet for you, but there is just something soul-warming about the flavor.
  91. Parsnip root - Giving one of these as a treat to your herbivore mount is better than your average carrot. Kinda got a spice to it, livens them right up on a cold morning. Rumour is that the winning sleigh team eats them every morning for breakfast.
  92. Potluck Feast - All the townspeople bring their favorite casseroles to share...odd dishes with some of the wackiest flavor combinations that you can imagine. Carrion Worm Curry? 7-Day Surprise? an Odd Jello that looks like a monster you fought recently? But it is a feast, so pile it on!
What else would y'all include?
submitted by Lovitticus to d100 [link] [comments]

Bunnahabhain 12 update

A couple days ago a posted a note about a bottle of Bunn-12 honestly wanting input into how its fans viewed it. Me and two friends sampled a bottle and the reviews were all pretty close with petrol/burning rubber flavours. Off putting. So I think I owe it the distiller and fans to give an update. After feedback that maybe I got a bad bottle, I checked and saw nothing seriously wrong but there was a bit of crusted sugar buildup around the rim of the opening. So I decanted it. (My wife will probably kill me for using her aerator decanter for her wine but too late to turn back now). Now I taste chocolate/cocoa at the front and fruit at the finish (a bit bitter like dried fruit or overripe fruit but not off-putting really). So decanting has transformed it. I’m still leary about buying it again but if I could be guaranteed I’d get the post-decanted flavours I define would buy another bottle. It sounds weird, but I’m telling you, decanting really changed it.
submitted by andsowelive to Scotch [link] [comments]

Trials and tribulations of setting up my LV desk agenda, 3 month review, and additional stationary and Hermes bag charm finds

Here are some pictures of my completed planner.
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Introduction/my life story
I like to think of myself as an organised and efficient person, however my subpar bullet journal has, for the least year and 8 months, been a source of anger and aggravation and general misery. To be honest, I find bullet journals overrated. Yes, they're a good concept but who has the time to draw out elaborate spreads, because I sure don't. I hate crafts and I don't have a creative bone in my body. For months I forced myself to try and draw new spreads, and weekly I was met with annoyance that my lines were messy (yes I used a ruler) , frustration at smudging the ink and irritation that it just looked sloppy. I began to hate my bullet journal so much I didn't want to look at it, let alone use it, which would cause me to be unorganized, which irritated even further.
Fuelled by loathing, I began to search for an escape from the toxic relationship with my bullet journal. I came across this video and fell in love with the aesthetics.
Despite being a replady for over a year, I had never really thought of getting a designer planner, or anything that wasn’t bags, shoes or clothing. I began to do some research to find the planner that would solve all my problems™. (no pressure!)
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My requirements
Despite my requirements being very basic, I immediately faced obstacles. I decided that the LV GM agenda was the one for me pretty quickly, however after speaking to OC and Redden, trawling the sub, every other rep sub possible, and exhaustively searching dhgate, Ali and TB, I discovered only the MM and PM sizes were repped. Not good.
After deciding to buy the authentic LV GM for around £550, I promptly received a sign that I could not afford it, in the form of an infected filling. After shelling out my planner budget and then some on dental fees, I decided that the LV desk organiser would have to suffice.
Challenge (reluctantly) accepted.
I sadly watched a few more planner videos on youtube, desperately searching for some #inspo that would be the shining guiding light out of my emotional black pit of gloom.
Here are some of the videos I watched and found helpful
Filled with cautious hope, I began to plan (in a separate notebook).
Since I couldn’t find the LV GM agenda repped anywhere, I decided to go for the LV Desk Planner.
After trawling DhGate, I found this one, which I deemed to be the most accurate in terms of size, monogram print and details. It also had an inner secretarial pocket which others seemed not to have.
Redden also has one for sale at 180 cny which is an absolute steal.
​
Notebook
I would need a front and back page to create the notebook to slip into the desk cover. My first idea was a clear file like this, but i didn't like the silver ring mechanism (yes, really), and the snap button closure would perhaps stretch the planner, or I'd have to cut it which may make it look sloppy. The clear plastic also looks cheap to me.
Engineering my own would have to suffice, and would probably be more customisable. I found these on ali, and bought two which will serve as my front and back cover. The back cover is necessary to slip into the desk cover, although you don’t have to do the same to the front. I considered black frosted pages, but they were difficult to find, and using frosted white would let me see my dashboard/opening page underneath, which is more visually pleasing.
I then went back and bought three more - I liked having the frosted pages to protect my pictures and I also used two pages in the back sleeve for some extra support.
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Ring binder
I would need a ring binder system as the desk agenda is simply a notebook cover. I looked at these and considered sticking or drilling them into the agenda with a ring binder repair kit (video here), but quickly abandoned fbat, because, effort. The planner is also one piece of canvas, and does not have the same double layer that the filofax or agenda does.I settled on this style of ring binders, and went for a gold colour to complement the planner colour. Making sure they fit a5 and the six hole punch system for the refill pages is important too. I am really happy I bought these. They are a tiny bit of a faff too open and close to move pages about but as I’ve said before, I’m lazy, but they are great for being able to move the contents of your notebook around as you wish.
​
"Dashboards".
These are cute picture pages which…..I honestly don't know. From my research, they typically seem to be made from vellum which is a stiffer paper, and have pictures, inspiring quotes or patterns on them. As they are typically decorative, I knew I would dislike most of the ones I would find (am I really this pessimistic or is this just my exhaustion with 2020?). Did I want to print my own? No thanks.
A lot of the ones on Etsy are very ‘motivational quotes’. I despise motivational quotes.
I found these which were more tolerable, but I didn’t love them. What’s the point of having stuff you don’t love?
I was heavily influenced by this picture of Miss Trenchcoats planner, and also found the medusa picture which she had on the front of her planner.
The next problem was pictures. What pictures and vibe did I want? This was actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the process. I scoured Pinterest and found some cool images I liked. I like clean, black and white, slightly edgy (yes, I’m rolling my eyes at all these damn buzzwords too) cool aesthetic (I'm cringing typing that). I like animals liek cats, kinda lame and kinda artsy designer pictures, churches and sculptures. I found some pictures I liked and created a board.
Here arose my next problem. How could I print something off nicely, on good paper, with putting very little effort into doing so myself? I pondered this for a while, looking up postcard printing companies and trying to contact people on Etsy. I then realised that I could print them online with a photo printing company. This posed the next issue. A5 size is slightly awkward. I could do A4 prints but I don't have a guillotine and even if I did that's too much work and room for error if I cut them incorrectly. I managed to get pictures printed on Snapfish at 8 x 6 size. These cost about 50p per photo.
Once I found all my images I used an online photo editor to whack a black and white filter on the picture (if it wasn't already black and white) and saved them.
Uploading these to Snapfish, I faced my next hurdle. A lot of the pictures were small and did not have the image resolution to be blown up to A5. After some frustrating hours fiddling around with various picture editors, I found this website. I uploaded all the images and enlarged them as much as possible,resaved them to my computer and reuploaded them to Snapfish. Sometimes I did this twice to make sure they would be able to be blown up to a decent quality on Snapfish. This was tedious but worked out well in the end. I printed 30 pictures which cost 15. (I don't need 30 but I admit I got carried away).
I also bought a six hole punch and it was surprisingly easy to use, unlike the two hole ones which can sometimes be finicky.
Once all my pictures arrived I was pretty happy with the quality, a few were a little blurry but it was nothing major. Having 30 pictures meant I had plenty of choice of which ones to use when I got bored.
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My pinterest boards
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Dividers.
I looked at these examples on Etsy. Whilst they're really cool I didn't love them. You can find ones which are specially personalised to you and your divider needs, like these but I didn't like the pressure of having to commit to these sections (even when I could choose them myself hahaha).
I decided to buy these Chanel bookmarks I found off TB to use as markers or just decoration. These are soooo cute but quite fragile, and as I bring my planner to work with my every day they have bent and come off. I keep them on a piece of paper in the front sleeve, but if your planner is just chilling on your desk or draw and you don’t move it around a lot, these would probably be fine.
I also ordered these leather tab dividers off Ali. They have a few colours, although predictably I went for the black ones with gold writing. I’m not sure if I’ll use all of the numbered ones, but I like the ‘notes’ and ‘to do’ tab.
These were *fine* upon arrival but they’re not great and the adhesive sucks. I think with some superglue and being placed under a book to dry will help them stay on better, but just be careful how you position them as mine ended up not being uniform when I stuck them down.
I then realised I had nothing to actually stick the leather tab dividers too (and did not want to ruin my photo pages), so I went on Ali and bought a few more frosted pages, which I used above to create the front and back of my notebook.
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Accessories
Charms
“What is the point of a planner charm?” I hear you ask. Honestly, god knows. I really really don’t. They look bulky and could snag or break in your bag as you take your planner in and out. But they are fun and honestly, what is the point of anything? I already have a hermes bag charm (a palm tree) which I hung off my planner. It looks fun and it is a splash of colour in my otherwise (intentionally) drab life. I like how the orange matches the colour scheme of the monogram canvas. I would like to find a rose sakura charm but that admittedly might be a bit too colourful for me.
Here are some more links to bag charms
Whilst the planner charm is a fun and zesty addition, again it gets in the way when i chuck my planner in my bag every day, so I typically keep it tucked into the front sleeve. I suppose it could also be used as a bookmark? But it might be quite bulky. I enjoy it but it could get annoying if it creased the pages.
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Clips
Clips are another thing I see people using, and I suppose they could serve a similar purpose to divider tabs. They are less commitment and you can find a variety of nice ones on ali or etsy.
As mentioned above, I found some Chanel bookmarks. I also like these black skeleton binder clips
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Organisational pages
Despite being the entire point of this planner, it’s also the most irrelevant to this post (lol). I like the bullet journal system of having a yearly overview, with monthly overviews at the beginning of my planner. I then do a two page monthly spread, for a more detailed look at each individual month (also fat handwriting), and then a week on two page spread to keep track of each week and write down anything that happens. (See this video on bullet journalling if this all sounds alien to you).
I couldn’t find any pages which would work for the yearly overview, so I planned to buy this calendar washi tape to stick on a blank page and then fill in appointments as they come. I prefer to do this for my yearly overview as plans can change and be crossed out, whereas there is less space on the ‘month on two pages spread’ and I prefer to keep that spread looking neater. There are also these calendar stickers but I didn’t like the brown colour. Neither of these are perfect, in the way that you can’t accurately see if the 4th May 2020 is a Monday or a Friday, but for the purpose of keeping a list of events happening in the future they will suffice.
I never got round to buying the calendar stickers, as I realised I can just use all my month on two pages spread for the whole year. I also use post it notes if I don’t want to commit to something in pen.
I bought this cheap 2020 overview from Ali.
I bought these refill pages from Ali
Month on two pages spread
Week on two pages spread - (currently sold out but from the same shop as above, and comes back in and out of stock)
It’s worth noting that you can buy ‘downloadable’ inserts, where you receive the PDF to print yourself. If you have an iota of patience this could be worth doing, and may be cheaper than rebuying preprinted inserts.
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My concluding thoughts
I am SO glad I switched my diary over to this system. The preprinted pages are a dream to use, and everything is formatted easily. I love being able to swap the dashboard pages to whatever I fancy at any current time. This planner is flexible, easy to use and feels so streamlined to my own individual wants and needs. I really love the outer shell, however my one gripe is that the covers can open in my bag (I use a Goyard Artois and lay the diary on its spine, so if my bag isn’t full it can flop open) and I have split things into it and creased pages. If this would bother you, I think you could easily find an elastic closure to keep it shut.
It is bulkier than my previous leuchtturm1917, and it is wider and higher. I personally don’t mind this, however if you have a small work bag then this might be an issue, so maybe a smaller cover would suit you better.
Overall, I am delighted with my little project and whilst it hasn’t fixed my life problems, it is easy to use, looks good and makes planning (or rather writing my angsty lockdown dear diary entries) a dream.
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Finds
Honourable mentions
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Additional finds
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Non rep stationary finds
Inspired by a post I saw on here before, where a Replady found barenia leather being used and made into artisan bags, I did a little digging on etsy for some nice leather goods.
submitted by brokeandfam0us to RepLadies [link] [comments]

how to use cocoa fruit video

Cocoa Powder - Basic Baking Ingredients - YouTube HOW TO OPEN AND EAT CACAO FRUIT - YouTube How To Grow Chocolate At Home From Seed!!! - YouTube Make fantastic chocolate from raw cocoa beans - YouTube How to make hot chocolate with cocoa powder - YouTube COCOA POD - How to Open & Eat a Cacao Pod - Fruity Fruits ... Fresh Cacao Pod Tasting and Seed Planting KOLA NUT - The Stimulating Fruit Once Used in COCA COLA ... Making Chocolate: Cacao Tree To Chocolate Bar - YouTube Tree to Bar How to Make Chocolate Every Step - YouTube

You know they must taste like cocoa because, well, it’s in their name. But what exactly Try topping your bowl of morning oatmeal, ice cream, yogurt, or even fruit salad. And let’s not forget savory dishes. Yes, savory: cacao nibs have no added sugar and bring a delicious, slightly smoky depth to meat dishes. We like to crust pork chops or steak with crushed up nibs before searing them Browse 3,220 cocoa fruit stock photos and images available, or search for cocoa bean or cocoa tree to find more great stock photos and pictures. Explore {{searchView.params.phrase}} by color family {{familyColorButtonText(colorFamily.name)}} cocoa powder background - cocoa fruit stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images . preparing homemade chocolate truffles - cocoa fruit stock pictures Cacao powder is not the same as the cocoa powder often found on supermarket shelves. Cacao is the raw, pure form of chocolate. Made from the fruit of the cacao tree, cacao is minimally processed (One Green Planet, 2014). In contrast, cocoa powder contains cacao that has been heated and processed to create a smoother chocolatey flavor; you can learn more about the differences between cocoa and Nestlé has launched its first product to use a unique chocolate made entirely from the cocoa fruit, using the iconic KitKat wafer to test consumer reaction in Japan. The KitKat Chocolatory Cacao Fruit Chocolate is coated with a 70% dark chocolate that uses the beans and pulp from the cocoa fruit as the only ingredients. Photo about Cocoa Fruit seeds are use to make chocolate and the fresh fruits can be eaten. Image of cocoaseeds, fruit, cocoa - 113420264 Melt the cocoa butter. Transfer the cocoa butter to the large glass bowl. Heat the saucepan over medium heat to boil the water and melt the cocoa butter. Stir the cocoa butter regularly with a metal whisk or spoon as it melts. Use fruit powder to help thicken a pie or add more intense flavor if your fruit is not quite 'fruity' enough. Whipped cream - if you make homemade whipped cream - imagine what it would taste like with just a little bit of strawberry powder mixed in and then put in between strawberry shortcake layers. The above photo is a sample conversion of fruit to dehydrated fruit to fruit powder - using Cacao, (Theobroma cacao), also called cocoa, tropical evergreen tree (family Malvaceae) grown for its edible seeds, After four years the mature cacao tree produces fruit in the form of elongated pods; it may yield up to 70 such fruits annually. The pods, or cherelles, range in colour from bright yellow to deep purple. They ripen in less than six months to a length up to 35 cm (14 inches Cocoa fruit uses from the pulp eat raw sometime can used for flavor, the seeds used for chocolate. Cocoa fruit yield after 3-5 years. Cocoa fruit can bear fruit most of the year. Cocoa fruit for sale. Related Plants. Buy cocoa tree. Cacao beans for sale. Cacao fruit. Cacao plants for sale. Cacao seeds for sale. Cocoa tree . Cocoa tree for sale. Cocoa tree seeds. Hairy fruits. How to eat Cacao Photo about Cocoa Fruit seeds are use to make chocolate and the fresh fruits can be eaten. Image of cocoaseeds, fresh, cocoa - 113420289

how to use cocoa fruit top

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Cocoa Powder - Basic Baking Ingredients - YouTube

Subscribe for free here! http://bit.ly/1SkwdvHTypes of cocoa, what is commonly available in India and a few more tidbits on cocoa. How to choose an oven for ... Hey all. This video is shows a few cocao pods my wife's uncle bought me. I was returning home from picking up my hot pepper seeds and I saw him leaving my building. He had just dropped them off ... A quick video on making chocolate homemade from scratch. I show the cacao tree, cacao pods, fermented beans, nibs and the final process in making chocolate. ... While hunting for rare fruit at a market in Madagascar, we found Kola Nut! Our local friend teaches us how to use this interesting stimulant. Also in this vi... In this video I show every step to making dark chocolate from cacao tree to chocolate bar. There is roughly 7 step to making chocolate so sit back and enjoy.... Did you know that you can eat the membrane surrounding a cocoa bean? Ha! me neither. So here we go, opening and tasting the contents of a cacao pod on this... Support the people who inspired us: www.guiasunidos.orgThis instructional video is intended to help people make chocolate using simple ingredients and simp... How to make a home-made hot chocolate. 1 glass of milk, 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder ( you can buy in a bakery department). Mix it well in a saucepan, put o... HOW TO OPEN AND EAT CACAO FRUITMT World are in Bali to try cacao or cocoa fruit. This is the fruit that make the chocolate. This chocolate fruit is very inte... Just an overall vid. of me opening and plating some cacao seeds from montoso gardens in Puerto Rico. These are theobroma cacao seeds which will one day give ...

how to use cocoa fruit

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