Starting with a week of Luper bottles. 🌹 This batch has a few notes in common: hay, rice milk, and roses make repeat appearances, and all of them are in the category of scents that, whenever I wear them, I always think, "Omg, why don't I wear this more often???" (the answer is that my collection is silly-big. that is all.)

 

September 1: Trois -- If you've been following along, at this point you're probably aware of my fondness for obsession with ambergris and white roses. I have a LOT of scents featuring one or both of those. I also have a lot of scents that feature orris or iris. This one is all three in a beautiful, simple, straightforward blend. Salty pale roses with a light dusting of orris powder. Just flippin' beautiful. I mean, provided that you're into that sort of thing. ;} Reasonable wear length, fairly low throw.

 

September 2: Flickering Lantern -- Taking advantage of a day off to wear something that I absolutely cannot wear to work. 😂 This is a very, very strong scent on me, a glorious, heady mix of sweet tobacco, big densely-petaled purple roses, and, above all, a really thick, lightly smoky beeswax. Time has given this one intense throw -- I left a room and my SO commented on my perfume still being present five minutes later -- and fantastic longevity. It feels like dimly lit rooms and velvet curtains. It's a little dirty. I love it. 💜

 

September 3: Cinq -- If I'd have thought this through a little harder, I'd have worn Trois today and this two days from now. But, no, I was not clever with my picks this week and went with gut feelings instead of brains. Anyway, this is a slightly tart biiiiiig fluffy pink tea rose perfume that dries down to shortbread cookies on me. It's pretty fun; I actually like it more now than when I first got it, though tea rose remains my least favorite rose. If this one were made with white or red rose notes instead, I'd love it even more, but the way it shifts abruptly and absolutely on my skin is something of a delight as it is. I wore it to work because it only has significant throw for maybe five minutes, then settles down to a soft, inoffensive buttery cookie scent. It lasted almost all day, and now, eight and a half hours later (including transit time), there is only the memory of shortbread and I really have to sniff hard to get that much.

 

September 4: Parlement of Foules '08 -- Oh, why not. One more rose before I move on to the hay and rice milk. (I actually swapped a couple bottles out because I felt like I had too much rose for one week. ...not that there's really any such thing BUT ANYWAY.) Another very simple rose blend: white rose and soft resins. I'm pretty certain the resins are frankincense, myrrh, and a bit of benzoin. The balance here is very nice, both aspects are distinct and present and, on me at least, neither overwhelms the other. It feels very pure, very smooth, and very delicate without ever being faint or weak. This was one of my first big rose loves (along with To Helen and Her Voice) and I still really enjoy wearing it. It's one that definitely needs rolling before wear -- the resins settle to the bottom over time. Throw is fragrant but not overwhelming, and it has a good weartime.

 

September 5: Round Dance -- This one hit me a bit out of left field, tbqh. About half the notes are ones I don't especially like (carnation, strawberry, pink ["blush"] amber) and the rest (lavender, hay, vanilla cream, candyfloss) are often iffy. But somehow, somehow this pulls itself out the realm of sticky sweet plasticky candle, which is what I expected when I originally tested the decant, and draws me into a softly sweet quasi-floral pink haze that drifts around me for hours, shifting slowly but constantly. The hay and lavender do a great job balancing out the sweetness and the whole thing is very smooth. I was very glad I took a chance on this one. I tested it three times before I committed to a full bottle because it was so generally outside of my usual tolerances, but it really does smell great on me.

 

September 6: Kitten with a Shamisen Daydreams of a Phallus Palanquin -- Obviously a Shunga. 😂 Soft, springtime pear with a background of cool rice milk blended with white musk. It really does what it says it does on the package. The pear is very mellow, more Bartlett than anything else, but not quite ripe, so it isn't too sweet; the rice milk is light and translucent and not as dense as the standard milk or cream notes; the white musk is clean and very slightly laundry-fresh. It's a very pleasant blend, with low enough throw that it's worksafe for me. The wearlength and tenacity is pretty impressive, though. I took a shower and the rice milk & white musk survived, though the pear completely vanished. Good stuff.

 

September 7: Rendevous With Her Lover Behind the Rice Straws -- The notes are hay absolute, rice milk, and sugar. It smells, on me, a bit like a scented eraser intended to smell like a bowl of cereal milk. This isn't a bad thing! 😂 It has the slightly lemony sugar note and a warm, almost herbal sweetness from the hay, plus that delightful rice note, but it doesn't smell natural, if that makes sense. It smells like perfume, and it has a very slightly plasticky aspect on my skin. So, scented eraser by association. I do like it quite a bit, and it has a decent throw and long wear time. It was very sharp when it was new, but a year and a half later, it's mellowed considerably.

 

September 8: Pericardium -- One more Luper snuck in. :3 I'm pretty sure I got this mostly looking at the rice milk, but it's primarily a pale woods and resins scent with a punch of clove. The first review mentions a similarity to Liz (Hellboy) and I can see it. Liz is stronger and much more smoky, but I would consider recommending this to someone who wants something in the same ballpark, but maybe a little less on fire. As it were. The white amber, very perfumey, amps up as it sits on my skin. It never quite goes single note, remaining a lovely, complex blend throughout the wear (5-6 hours) but most of the other notes take a back seat. I find this one a moderately strong blend, but I'm also weirdly neutral about it. It's nice, but kind of boring after a while.

 

September 9: Öndurdis -- It was sweaty today, so I picked a cooling perfume. This is yet another one of the Lab's wintry wonders, bracing pine and snow first, but unlike some of the others, this really fades sweet on me. Towards the end it's almost entirely something like honey and berries with a hint of pine. Low throw, but good lasting power. I can still smell a hint of it on my wrists after a full day of work. This isn't a huge favorite, but it's nice and worth keeping a partial for days like this.

 

September 10: Scorched Oak & Blonde Tobacco -- I almost didn't want to put this on my skin. 😂 I know several people who loved this, so I'm glad to have gotten to test it, but hoo boy, it is not for me. It smells as it sounds like it ought, lightly burnt oak wood, perhaps hit by lightning, since there's some ozone that comes out on my skin, bolstered by pale, slightly damp tobacco, but on my skin that doesn't translate into something I want to smell like. It's perfumey and slightly tannic in the wrong ways and sniffing it makes my nose kind of wrinkle. Not into it. It has a moderate throw, but I'm not sure about the full wear length because I covered it up after an hour or so because I was tired of smelling it. 😅 The good news is that layered with NCD Ceraunophilia, the oak mellows out and it instead adds an extra 'this lightning definitely hit a tree' aspect to that scent, which is much more pleasant for me.

 

September 11: Mochitsuki Tanuki (proto 2012) -- Let's do some weird stuff! So in 2011/12 there was a Will-Call location near where I lived and they regularly got protos for upcoming series and sometimes allowed regulars to snag those bottles afterwards. Once in a while, those scents never actually materialized, and so there are some bottles floating around that are permanent protos. This is one of those. If you search 'mochitsuki' on the forum, you'll find a few references to it (some of which are me, lol). There was a Tanuki-centric release that spring, and I assume this was intended to be part of it, but didn't make the cut for whatever reason. I'll always be a bit sad about that, but not too sad, since, well, I have this bottle. It's mostly a mildly sweet rice scent -- having eaten fresh mochi, it does smell like a perfumer's interpretation of that -- possibly with a hint of light musk and a little sandalwood. I really love it. (As an aside, if you do that search, you'll see people speculating that it was supposed to be a Lunacy because tsuki means moon. They are 99% likely wrong. ^___^ Tsuki can mean moon, but 'mochitsuki' means 'mochi pounding', and is a traditional part of Japanese New Year's festivities.)

 

September 12: Great Hole Full of Stardust (Map of Dreams/proto 2012) -- The next three are a series. There was small collection that was based on Sydney Sime's Map of Dreams that came out around the right time, but they have different names and smell quite different from the ones that were released (I have decants of three of the four), so I suspect these ones were scrapped rather than renamed. I would honestly love to see The Lab revisit this map; there are a TON of amazing possible perfume names that could be pulled from it, both ridiculous and evocative. This one smells fizzy, to my nose, a bit gingery, with possibly some myrrh and a cooler aquatic note. One of the Will-Call reviews mentioned tea, and I could see that as well, it has some of the earthiness on late drydown that matcha can have. The bottle I have of this is a very, very low partial because at some point it spilled all over the others in this batch of protos. You can poke around the internet and find pics of these specific bottles (I got these three secondhand but Mochitsuki firsthand, long story) ...the labels on them over the Lab's labels are my handwriting because I helped clean up. 😂

 

September 13: Nightmare Brink (Map of Dreams/proto 2012) -- The source for this is the same as yesterday's scent. I said in my Will-Call review that it reminded me of Chaotic, and it still does, albeit without the sharp pungency of the wasabi. But I'm inclined to suspect a few musks (at the very least, brown) and some element that brings out a dried fruit scent as well as some woody notes, probably not sandalwood, but possibly cedar. Very, very late drydown I get something reminiscent of leather as well, but I don't think it's strong enough to be one of The Lab's actual leather notes, it's more like ... fruit leather. I know there's something fairly common that gives a leathery impression but isn't leather (like benzoin gives a vanillic impression but isn't actually vanilla)  but I'm excruciatingly tired and can't remember what it is atm. ^^;

 

September 14: Sea of Moon Dew (Map of Dreams/proto 2012) -- So I thought this was waxy when I initially sniffed it, but now, several years later, I think it's mostly florals. It has that particular funk that lilies, especially, have on my skin, plus some very shimmering musk, possibly white musk and/or skin musk. I still think there's a bit of white rose in here, as well as some other pale floral. It's very soft, dreamy, and almost misty. Late drydown is mostly a soft musk. It's not bad at all, but I actually like it more in the bottle than I do on my skin.

 

Next up, I'll test the three that I have four scents from the actually released Land of Dreams collection. I'm missing Wake, but I have the others. Lol, actually, I do have Wake. I have a low partial instead of a decant. Friends, don't let your collection get like this. 😂

 

September 15: Sleep (Land of Dreams LE 2012) -- I poked my email archive to see what the Lab had to say about this release, and this is what I found: "As a preview for the upcoming addition to Somnium, we present the compass points of Sidney Sime's map of the Land of Dreams." But instead, a couple of things were DC'd and the expansion never happened. ^^; These were LE and have largely quietly vanished from the BPAL consciousness. I've got them, though, so I may as well wear them! This is almost entirely very herbal lavender on me.  The zdravetz is present but not overwhelming, enhancing the herbaceousness and adding a bit of woodiness. After it fully dries down, a hint of the lotus sweetness and darker tobacco and vetiver slide in, but by and large, it's a cool, mellow woody  lavender, not sweet at all, and very relaxing. I was already tired when I put it on (*after* work, like a sensible person) and I ended up snoozing out on the couch for a few hours. So, ah, I guess it works, though given my state prior, I'm not sure if that should be used as a metric. 😂 Judging by the amount I've used from this decant vs the other two, I'm guessing I must have worn it quite a bit for a while, but I'd be lying if I said I remembered it. This is not that unusual for me with sleep scents, however, since they're there primarily to assist in going to sleep so I don't pay as much attention to the experience of wearing them as I do those that I wear for the scent. I should have a bottle of Sopor, the recent TAL sleep scent, in the mail & arriving Friday (along with a number of other things, hooray!) so I'll be curious to see how that one does for me. :3

 

Wellllllllll...my Lab order(s -- it was three combined >_>;; ) arrived today instead of tomorrow. Soooo.... I'm going to let 'em rest a bit and finish this series and then it'll be a few new things. :3 (In case you were curious, Sopor, sniffed fresh outta the mailbox, smells approximately halfway between TKO and Sleep. It's sweeter than Sleep, but less so than TKO and much more herbal. Also, there's a ton of lavender buds and other small plant bits in my bottle. )

 

September 16: Dream (Land of Dreams LE 2012) -- This one's interesting. It starts with a burst of very fresh lavender, but that fades fairly quickly and it rapidly becomes a warm, fascinating, incense-like scent. If I sniff extremely hard, I can still smell a little lavender, but otherwise, it's buried under the other notes. The rose and white musk are purely assists here, I can only tell the rose is there because I obsess about it.   I looked up shamama attar and found that it's a bit of a trade secret, apparently, each place that produces it does so with slightly different ingredients. There's a pretty neat article about it here on Fragrantica (login needed) but other articles mentioned the same thing. But it's definitely a part of this scent, giving it a much more musky aura than the rest of the notes would indicate. I wore it during the day, so I can't say if it might result in odd dreams, but it's a very pleasant scent, lasts quite a long time, and is very fragrant. I can still smell it (5+ hours later) wafting off my wrists as I type.

 

September 17: Nightmare (Land of Dreams LE 2012) -- Hm. I do not especially like this one at first. It's very sharp on me, with thick, almost syrupy background. As it dries it gets nicer, the resins start coming up and softening it considerably. Late drydown the champaca takes over. It's fine, but not something I'm likely to seek out more of in the future. The lavender in this is quite mellow and chills in the background here; I never even get the burst like I did with Dream. Decent wear time, low to moderate throw.

September 18: Wake (Land of Dreams LE 2012) -- I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but man, I really do not like tuberose. 😂 It's thick, unpleasantly waxy (not like beeswax, like paraffin), and just so gross on my skin. And this, despite a very bright poppy beginning featuring a lot of citrus and a good hit of mint, goes strong on the tuberose for me. I wore it for a couple of hours, wrinkling my nose every time I caught a whiff, and after that, as it started to fade, I covered it up with something else. Tuberose smells fab on my bestie, however, so I will be passing this partial along to her to see if she likes it.

 

September 19: Drow Yoga Instructor -- I picked up this bottle and imps of all the rest of the new RPG releases, even the ones I'm pretty sure I won't like (*coughbeholderoptician*), but this one especially because my current D&D character is a Drow Druid. :3 V. soft boy, very adorable, and this scent suits him pretty well. It's going to be even better after it's had time to mellow out a bit, but even right now, I like this quite a bit. It's got a big, dark lavender waft that you think is going to steamroller everything else, but then it recedes and a pleasantly tart plummy note pops up. After a while, the sandalwood incense starts to dominate the scent, but it's so mellow about it, it's lovely. The whole experience is indeed very calming, chill, and meditative, very faded purple in tone. I feel very comfortable wearing it, like I'm in my comfiest pants getting ready to chill out. Zero regrets on buying a full bottle of this untested.

September 20: Drider Crossing Guard -- When I was in high school-ish, I had a solid perfume from a mall shop -- Garden Botanika maybe? -- that was primarily plum, pomegranate, and some spicy notes. I loved it a lot. ...You can see where this is going. (almost) I love the way this smells in the vial, and hate the way it smells for the first half-hour or so on my skin. The plum is very commercial, like plum-scented candles, and a little too sweet, and the pepper is giving me a reason to call it a note I dislike. But then, after that time has passed, suddenly it's a dead ringer for that solid perfume (which I still had until quite recently, I'm embarrassed to say). I'm not going to lie and say I suddenly absolutely adore it, as black pepper is still a note I'm not super-fond of on my skin. But I like it a lot more, and huffed happily until it faded out completely after about six hours. Will I buy a bottle, probably not. Am I weirdly happy to have this imp? Yeah, you bet I am.

 

September 21: Kobold Barista -- Oh, this one needs aging. It's an already an earthy coffee and spices, but I'm betting a little time will give it a lot more heft and throw. It smells like the grounds at the bottom of a cup of spiced espresso, no sugar, no milk. Very nice. If I liked wearing coffee perfumes more I'd jump all over it, but I have a few others already and I rarely wear them because most of them smell just a bit odd on me. I like this, though, and if you feel sad about missing some of the LE coffee scents like Bah! or The Turkish Village, or find the shisha in Café Mille et une Nuits to be too much, this may just be your cup of quality espresso.

 

September 22: Lizardfolk Park Ranger -- This is really nice. The sniff from the vial was not overly exciting, mostly a foresty scent like many other BPAL foresty scents, but on my skin, the various woody and leafy notes really bloom, and especially the hazelnut, which I really enjoy in Blackbear Moon, and the mossy notes. As it dries, the other notes take turns being stand-outs, and the stone note, which I generally do not like, stays muted and soft, like a moss-covered stone. I feel like I should pull out Theoi Nomioi to compare notes with this, but IIRC that one doesn't have the lovely nuttiness that this does and is more purely forest. This gives an excellent sense memory of being a kid and getting into mischief while on family vacations to the North Cascades National Park, so I'd say it feels like a good scent for the name. Lasts quite a long time and has a mild-to-moderate throw. IDK if I'll get a bottle, since I have Blackbear and Theoi, but ... It's really good, and if I didn't have them (and Wolf Moon, and Oborot, and...), I'd scoop it up. It's an excellent addition to the GC, and very worth a try if you like these kinds of scents.

 

September 23: Bugbear Doula -- I'm kind of torn on this one. Part of me wants to like it and the other part is like, 'ew'. It reminds me a bit of some of the Metamorphosis (Butterflies & Moths, various years) blends, a couple of the Sasquatch blends, or even some of the Mad Tea Party. It's interesting. Ah, I know why it reminds me of Metamorphosis -- Paper Kite has angelica in it. Anyway, this is interesting. The motherwort is very bitter -- I've never smelled it fresh, only as a tea, but it's not really a note I'd ever have wanted as a perfume? -- and a little earthy. The angelica is brighter, along with the tea, which has that slightly citric acid-like note I associate with white tea on my skin. The chamomile is mild and brings a pleasant fruit-adjacent aspect, and the furry notes blend it all together in similar ways to Lady Cecily, though in a milder way. Later drydown is very mild and furry. The overall effect is very soothing and comforting and I find it very, very gently repellent. 😂 It's a very pleasant scent, but I don't like it. I'll give it some time and a few more tests before flinging this imp at someone else, but right now: 🙃.

 

September 24: Beholder Optician -- AHhahahahahahaa I hate this. 😂 I was pretty sure it would smell more or less fine in the vial and like hairspray and strawberry hard candy on my skin and I was completely correct. It's definitely translucent, it's not a thick or dense smell at all. On someone else or possibly to someone else's nose, this is probably lovely. On me and for me, aw hell no. ...Yep, hairspray and strawberry hard candy, the kind that's very smooth and shiny and clear, not the opaque kind that has a chewy center. ...Please excuse, I'm just going to go wipe this one off my skin. 

 

September 25: Tiefling Therapist -- This really reminds me of a new age store that I used to frequent during high school. Like, really reminds me of it. They usually had incense of various types burning in various corners of the shop, which was very clean and brightly lit, and the scents blended together into a peculiarly bright incense with a hint of smoke, and that's what this is like on me. Very clean, very bright, weirdly safe despite the Satanist's bibles mingling with the books about angels and astrology. This therapist will listen to you with zero judgement, and has created a very safe, cozy space for their clients. There may be a hint of brimstone in the air, but after a while, it doesn't matter at all. You're in good hands. (Minimal throw, so-so longevity, but as it ages that will probably change. Those notes are built to last.)

 

September 26: Sopor (TAL) -- Smells amazing, very lightly sweet lavender and chamomile and hops, plus a bit of additional soft woodiness. The vetiver sits low on my skin at first, but comes out more as the lighter herbal notes fade, until finally it's a beautiful earthy-almost-smoky scent with a bit of very soft lavender. It's very good. It doesn't make me sleepy at all, but once I get to sleep, I stay there, which is nice. I've been thinking of it as TKO++ because it's a little like TKO, but so much more. I've worn it to bed several times since I got it, and I'm pleased that I went straight for a bottle. As an additional note, there's quite a bit of plant matter floating in my bottle, mostly lavender buds, but bits of a few other things as well. The Lab warns for it with TALs pretty frequently, but this is the first time I've bought one that had this much. I think it's charming. :).

 

September 27: This is a Perfume About My Dog Eating Peaches -- I picked up two from this year's DragonCon scents, this one and Fuzzy Sweater. Fuzzy Sweater will be waiting a while, quite a long while. But I wore this one today for a ...third time, I think, since I got it? It's a really lovely little perfume, the peach is mostly sweet and not very sweat on me, and otherwise smells pretty deliciously creamy and marshmallowy with a bit of a tangy nibble. I'm pretty happy I elected to pick up this bottle. Also, the photo is adorable. I keep calling it a lot of different things: Peach Doggo, Peach-Dog Perfume, Dog Eats Peaches (news at 11!), etc. ^w^ Longevity is medium, throw is minimal on me. Late drydown is just a sweet haze.

 

September 28: Bliss -- I'm on vacation so I grabbed a couple of random GC imps I've gotten recently in Lab orders. Both are things I've tried and felt neutral about in the past, but figured why not, I'll try them again. This batch of Bliss smells more like cocoa powder, to me, really good cocoa powder. However, on my skin, it goes a bit sharp, then a bit tart, and then a bit waxy, like perfectly acceptable but sort of cheap chocolate. As it dries the powder aspect comes back, until after about an hour, it smells more like it does in the vial. I can't help compare it to some of the thicker, richer chocolate scents I own, and here Bliss comes up lacking. It does have a reasonably powerful throw, but only moderate longevity and very little depth. It definitely gives me SN vibes. I do have chocolate SNs, both absolute and accords, from other companies, and they're not quite the same as this, but the absolute has certain similarities that make me think that there is a bit of chocolate absolute in Bliss, but it's softened by other components, possibly a milk or cream note, since those not infrequently smell a bit dusty on me. Anyway, lovely scent, but my skin chem laughs at it a bit. I still wouldn't buy a bottle.

 

September 29: ...I was just wondering where my migraine was, and now it is here. 😐 I've got meds with me so it should pass, but bleh.

 

September 30: Goblin — The migraine subsided suspiciously easily compared to my recent experiences, but I’m not complaining. This fresh Goblin on me is mostly barely sweetened patchouli, very thick and a bit funky. The coconut is similar to the one in Tiki King, but I like that one more than this. …idk, this is just fine for me, not great, not awful, just okay. I like it a lot more with the added spicy-sweet gingerbread note. It’s got decent lasting power & a bit of throw, but it’s mostly patch after a fairly short time.

 

Nine months down, now it’s time to see if I can manage (or stand) a whole month of Weenies.  I have enough scents to do it, even with the ones I’ve already worn, but can I live with one theme for 31 days? Let’s find out!