marared
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Everything posted by marared
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Oh, yum. I can smell ALL of the notes in this, depending on how I turn my hand and how long the oil has been on my skin. Mostly, it's a little smoke, oats, and spiced wine. It gets a little wine-ier with time, a bit more honey to it. Fortunately, it does not amp to high heaven the way wine often does on me, and it's just so cozy and pleasant. If I sit there and really inhale and think about it, I can sorta understand how LdyKnight gets "band-aid" out of the scent, but it just doesn't have that effect on my chemistry.
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This was a hard pass when I first got the box, so I put it away for a couple months and brought it out to try again. Still a hard pass. It's gooey, thick and syrupy, reads almost like fig or raisin pastry filling. It's not sour or anything, but it's just blech. Absolutely nothing like RR/BB to my nose.
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When I first got this, fresh out of the mailbox, it was absurd and delicious - minty marshmallow with a hint of lemon. In the two weeks since I got it, it's gotten a LOT mintier - it doesn't smell like a cough drop, but it hits high up into the sinuses like cough drops do, if that makes sense. Almost like mint gum, but with a marshmallow element. That high pitch calms down with a little time, but I want to layer this with something a little sweeter. I bet this would go nicely with TKO...
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It is indeed very pretty, and very faint. I can only smell it when my nose is pressed to my wrist. On a really deep inhale, I get the smoke, otherwise it's a very warm amber with a slight hint of creamy vanilla. It's not a complicated scent, just calm and pretty.
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It starts out massively herbal lavender with a nearly camphoric note on deep inhale that's probably the chamomile. The rose geranium lays low (which is good because it can dominate blends a little too much), and the orange peeks out from under everything - but slowly gets stronger and stronger until it shines out over the lavender. Sweet and lovely.
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I wasn't entirely sure if this was going to be doughy, spicy, gourdy, or leafy, and the answer is ... all of the above. At first, this is spices and cologney leaves, and I like it a lot. The cookie aspect is there, but it's not gourmand, and I prefer it that way. But pumpkin blends are usually pretty loud and buttery, and while this is not pumpkinny at first, nor is it as assertive as usual, it does start rearing its head after a few minutes and changes the scent to spiced pumpkin leaves and no molasses. I don't like it quite as much once that kicks in.
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2021 edition! Whoa. This smells no-huh-huh-thing like the previous version - that was more green and fresh , and this is a punch of warm sunny flowers, heady and loud. Heavy floral, amber-rich, almost powdery but doesn't quite cross that line. Put on your most colorful frock, sail through the crowd with this on, and heads will TURN.
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I keep trying to figure this one out - one of my minions went "ooh you smell GOOD" this afternoon, though, so clearly it works ok on me! The bottle has a slight oud funk. Not barnyardy at all, but it is definitely oud. On my skin, it's got some kind of cool, almost metallic aspect to it. I think it's the musk and the tea that's giving it that impression. Nothing smoky about it. Oakmoss adds a layer of sweetness - it's not really floral at all, but the black orchid is definitely the most prominent of the flower notes - I don't think I have a decant of Tom Ford's Black Orchid anymore to compare, but I think TFBO is spicier. This is cool, calm, serene - melancholy is a good word for it.
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I really love this take on Morocco - the extra spices overtake the carnation and make it much drier, but the pumpkin also adds a buttery element. Jack to me smells different - it has the pumpkin in common, but Jack is sweeter and fleshier, and Moroccan Pumpkin is more like melange on the wind in Dune.
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A lot of the vetiver scents lately have been really low key - the vetiver has been a supporting note, a gentle river of smoky grass adding depth to blends rather than the assertive top note, and the same holds true here. This is very dry clove, almost cedar-pencil dry, and if you know the scent of vetiver well, you can pick it out, but otherwise it's barely there - definitely not something to worry about if you're on the fence with that particular note.
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Frottled in an order! I checked the notes first and was a little hesitant to try it, because those are all extreeemely potent notes, half of which can go rank with my chemistry. In the bottle: super-stanky patchouli-oudh. Not the barnyardy sort, which was good, but didn't help my hesitation. On my skin? Totally different - and way better - than I expected. Once it dries, it reminds me a little of Boomslang (presumably the patch, musk, and cacao), but less potent. (I have nothing that is potent as aged Boomslang.) It's a very dry scent and everything melds really well, nothing amps or tries to dominate. Rich, dark, musky but not obnoxiously so. The cacao really makes this enjoyable - it's not chocolatey, but it makes the blend less filthy. Everything behaved on my skin - the blood musk didn't amp to high pitch, the oudh was not stanky on application, the tobacco did not have that fresh gasoline-sweet stank, and I like black patchouli but even that can be a little Too Much sometimes - but everything works seamlessly here. It came out in 2018, so if this has been in the BPAL closet since then, it's benefitted significantly from aging.
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I randomly opened bottles to sniff and went OOH I GOTTA TRY THIS ONE. I wish it stayed as fruity as it is in the bottle - on my skin it's much drier with the char, the smoke, and the resin, but the bottle is like Halloween Fruit Punch in all the best ways.
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In the bottle: licorice, for some reason. I knew I didn't order a licorice scent, so I waited a minute and sniffed again, and ... licorice. I think it's the ambrette seed plus the lavender. Once I put it on my skin it doesn't smell so much like licorice - it's a low-key floral lavender with a mildly sharp musky bite to it. I don't get any of the honey, but I think I do get the zest - only the barest hint of citrus, and it's just slightly bitter. ETA: Six weeks later, I get crayola crayons. WHAT EVEN IS THIS. So weird.
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In the bottle: leafy wool. On my skin: the tea immediately makes an appearance, very little cream. Amber is pretty far down in the blend. Over time it melds into a pretty, fresh scent that is probably going to be labeled dryer-sheets by some people.
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Deep resinous wood in the bottle. It is initially vetiver-dominant on my skin, but it's very dark and smooth, almost chocolatey - it's not vegetal or scorched. It gets dead-leafier with time, but the wood and the vetiver blend together smoothly and make a wonderful dry autumn blend.
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In the bottle, it's a gentle dark lavender. Freshly applied on my skin, it's a lot more ... herbal? It has more in common with Dreams Shape The World (which is sharper) than TKO, but it's still very different.. Once I've gone to bed, it develops this powerful, heady, almost opium-like cloud raising from my wrist that is completely different from the bottle. I remember thinking the first night that there was kind of a camphor aspect to it - which is, apparently, the blue tansy. Not lavender marshmallows by ANY measure. But it is indeed soporific! It doesn't make me sleepy or relaxed wearing it before bed, but I've worn it the last two nights and I have gone to sleep and STAYED asleep (other than a cat stepping on my face at 5am).
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Super plummy, just as Tom & Galen mentioned in their review. It's very pretty, very purple. It smells a lot like the plum in my beloved Dionysia. However, the elderberry flower doesn't play quite so well with my chemistry - after 10-15 minutes it turns into a mild sort of Craft Store Ambience.
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Delicate and feminine. The vanilla is very light, not the bolder variety often found in the Yule and Luper blends. More pear than vanilla once it dries down - it's straight up fruit when it's fresh out of the bottle, but the cream makes it settle into more of a golden pear syrup impression with time - sweet, but not tooth-achingly so. I bet you could dress this up with a spicy scent like Kobold Barista to give it a cool-weather/holiday twist.
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Wet, this is very high-pitched musky Snake Oil, and I get that citrus/orange blossom zing that someone mentioned in an earlier review. Dry on skin, it's pretty much just Snake Oil with cardamom. That being said, I don't get the play-doh note from SO like I usually do, so that's something - but I feel like this needs to be layered with something else. I think I need to let it age for at least six months, and then try it with some gooey aged Haitian Vetiver or maybe a brighter citrus/floral... hmmm.
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I gave this a shot because so many people are raving about it, and it's ... okay? Not bad? Not really my thing. It's extremely fruity and juicy at first sniff in the bottle - reminds me of a spicier Jovial Embrace. It's quite loud. I was worried about the tobacco, since BPAL's tobacco frequently is unappealingly gasoline-sweet to my nose, and I can smell it in the blend, but it mostly behaves itself. On my skin, it's HELLO RED/BURGUNDY MUSK. This was the other reason I was skeptical, because I amp red musk like crazy, About ten minutes in I can smell the smoke and the rose, but the opoponax, patch, and vanilla are nowhere to be found. Juicy fruity red musk is about the extent of it on me!
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This imp is probably about 15-17 years old, and the oil is deep orange. Right off the bat, I get a clean and soapy floral that is probably frankincense, and I thought for a while that was rose, but now I think is some other heady flower (not jasmine, honeysuckle, or gardenia, but from there I don't know). I can't detect any of the dragon's blood that everyone else smelled. After letting it sit for 10-15 minutes, I start to smell a sweet woody note underneath it all - might be oakmoss. I'm not a fan of the soapy start, but it mellows out pretty nicely.
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For the first few minutes, it's mostly dark soil with leather. The vetiver and tobacco aren't noticeable to me in this, but the tonka is just barely there. The soil fades about 75% after a little while, and it smooths out to a gentle dirty leather scent with low throw. ETA that it's also very long-lasting - 16 hours later I can still smell leather.
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I like orange blossom but it doesn't always like me. Fortunately, this doesn't go sour, but it's also not very strong. Like Mahogany & Incense Smoke, this starts out pretty sweet, but it mellows with time and leaves a slight honey funk. I would have liked a stronger citrus note in this - I have to sniff pretty deeply to pick up the orange under the blossom. It's pretty, but it just doesn't have a lot of zing or personality.
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I had to let this sit for a couple months because it was so gacky and high-pitched. It's calmed down a little, and now it smells like honey-sweetened cereal at first. After 20-30 seconds, the mahogany asserts itself, and yes, that is definitely *smoke* wrapped around it. It gets darker and sharper, and the honey fades more and more, as time passes, until it just leaves a slight funk on the mahogany and smoke. It definitely gets more interesting with time and not something you want to judge on immediate application!
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Beautiful - delicate and mildly sweet, not strongly fruity. The rice milk makes Peach Vulva smell kinda like peach yogurt, and it has kind of the same effect here, but the rice is more detectable. Mango rice yogurt? I think this will be fantastic for layering with other gentle scents.
