CIRCLE: Neil Gaiman, part 1

[synecdochic]

CIRCLE STATUS: Shipped and closed!

The Neil Gaiman scents won in the "what should I decant next" poll, but there are a lot of them -- 66, to be precise, if you don't take into account things that have been discontinued but that are still up on BPAL's website. (There are a few that are out-of-stock but not discontinued.)

I was also participating in a decant circle for these when the forums went down, so I've tried most of the ones I was interested in, but I'm happy to decant them for the sake of everyone else!

I juggled a bit and worked out a grouping that results in three even collections of 22 scents each that does not split up sub-groups. I figure I'll do one every 3-4 weeks, depending on Lab turnaround time, with pauses if the Lab releases another update in between.

This group: Anansi Boys, Coraline, Graveyard Book

This circle will operate under standard policies, with the following variables:

COST: $4.50 per decant, $3 US shipping, actual cost + $1 for international [first class padded envelope: assume 2 oz for up to 10 imps and 3oz for more than 10 imps]
MINIMUM TO ORDER A BOTTLE: 2/6 slots filled
ADD BOTTLE AT: Second person on the waitlist will trigger another bottle
BOTTLE LIMIT: 60 bottles total, across all scents
ORDER WILL BE PLACED: August 3
HALF BOTTLES/FULL BOTTLES/RIDE-ALONGS: Yes; add $1 in-US and $1 plus an additional 1 oz of shipping weight for every bottle or 10 imps for international.

Note: since I've pretty reliably been getting at least 6 decants out of a bottle, I'm going to experiment with signing up 6 people per bottle for this round. We'll see how that works out!

To sign up: comment here with the scents you want, one name per line, preferably in the same order they appear in the post. You must give me an email address for me to send the PayPal invoice to -- if you don't want to leave the address publicly, you can PM me, or use the screened email address post. If you have a wishlist of GC scents, give me a link to that, too.

Here's an easy template to copy/paste:
Name/Username: PayPal email address: US or international shipping: Link to wishlist: Please sign me up for:

( Scents and signup )

Email address post with screened comments

[synecdochic]

If you don't want your email address to be public, you can PM me, or comment here. All comments to this entry are screened, and will only be visible to me. (And to you, if you were logged in when you left the comment.)

DO NOT leave your signup information for any particular circle here. Sign up on the circle's signup post, and as part of your signup, indicate that you're leaving your email address on the screened email address post.

(I need your email addresses to send the PayPal invoice.)

Neil Gaiman decant circles: prototypes!

[synecdochic]

So, turns out elisem is also friends with Neil, and she happened to be one of the people who received bottles of the prototypes while the collections were being developed. She has very generously offered to contribute a portion of those prototypes to this circle: she'll be sending me a decant of each of the prototypes she has of each of the scents that did eventually get released.

There are a few ways I could handle that -- the obvious one being giving away each decant to one of the people who ordered that scent -- but I think what I'll do is further divide the decants so that everyone who ordered a particular scent gets a few drops of the prototype as a 'sniffie', with (hopefully) just enough oil to skin-test and compare the two. Elise says she doesn't have prototypes for everything (and, on the contrary, has several prototypes for some and isn't sure which one got chosen), so it will be a bit like a lottery! (I will try to make sure everyone gets at least one sniffie, though, even if it's for a scent you didn't order.)

The one caveat (which will be repeated on the label for each sniffie): if/when you decide that particular scent is Not For You, these sniffies are not for sale or trade. They can only be given away. (This is part of Elise's agreement with Beth for these prototypes: she can give them away, but not sell or trade them, and Beth would like for these to not enter into the secondary market for sale or trade.)

Thank you so much, elisem!