Amoraexcena

On my skin, this is almost single-note geranium, with a tiny bit of supporting white and black musk. I was hoping age would bring out some smooth patchouli and sweet vanilla, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I have a lot of sweeter florals, laces, and black musk scents that I prefer, so I think it's time to let this one go to someone else whose skin chemistry doesn't sadly flatten it into pure geranium.

It's a fun red oil that doesn't stain my pale skin. At first, it's almost all beeswax (this is not an issue, I love beeswax). Then, frankincense blooms and plants its feet firmly on my skin. Definitely a church resin incense vibe, as others have noted. The other notes play around the edges of the frankincense, but I probably couldn't pick them out without the notes listed except maybe the ambrette seed's light, white musk vibe. I think I prefer this one as a room scent rather than on my skin - it's definitely got great ambiance. Pretty good throw and wear length.

Thank you so much for your detailed recommendations!!! I liked Edith Cushing and love Lyonesse, though unfortunately something in Lyonesse irritates my skin. Lyonesse is the only one that I've tested that does this in the 100s of BPALs I've tried. I should really wear it in a scent locket. I also own The Bride (love!), MLST, and Tamora - excellent recommendations, I feel like you've read me like a book! I'll have to try Victoria, The Torture Queen, and Illustrated Woman! And I"ll try to find The Silver Scimitar and The Haunted Beach. Thanks again!

I need to cheat a little, because I have a "light" top 5 and "dark" top 5. Light are my ethereal tobacco flowers, light vanillas, brittle ambers. Dark are my sugary incenses, deep resins, dark patchoulis, oudh. Light 1. Antique Lace (OG) 2. Zorya P 3. To a Wreath of Snow 4. Crinoline and Lace 5. Pediophobia Dark 1. Sugared Lace 2. Banshee Beat 3. Shadow Lace 4. La Lugubre Gondola 5. Implacable Beautiful Tyrant (aged, after which it gets deeper and loses a bit of the ginger-brightness)

Gorgeous sweet patch, welcoming, refined vanilla, and golden, resiny woods. This is exactly what I want my room to smell like. It's got just a little too much woods for my skin, but for my home? Utter perfection. This has aged incredibly too, as you might expect from the notes. This is kind of what I imagine the guest bedrooms of Rivendell to smell like.

Have you tried Dracul? It definitely evokes Victorian gentleman for me. Notes are black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom - it's definitely dark to me, with that black musk and tobacco, and a touch of floral orange blossom.

Plum is a note I have very fond memories of. I was pretty adverse to fragrances growing up (my father hated them). The only thing I used with fragrance were fruity Body Shop butters, and their scent dissipates quickly. When I started making adult money, and started to frequent department stores, I usually avoided the overwhelming scent clouds of the fragrance sections. One day though, I caught a whiff of a fruity-floral-musky scent that I really liked - Mediterranean, by Elizabeth Arden - and I learned that one of its main fruit notes was plum. I went through a short department store perfume phase after getting that one, and then a year or two later, was introduced to BPAL. BPAL's plum is fantastic, and this is one of my favourite iterations. On me, Shadow Lace is a musky plum oudh, sweet, dark, mysterious, and utterly gorgeous. Something in it also suggests lightly floral too, maybe it's a floral vanilla. I get a similar creaminess to Sugared Lace under that dark purple veil. Really, really lovely.

I remember getting a few bottles of Banshee Beat when it was on sale - I was iffy on it at first, because patch rarely works on me and hemp scared me a little - but the reviews had convinced me I had to try it. One of my best BPAL decisions ever! BB has aged gloriously - the perfect blend of sweet vanilla and high-quality, gently earthy patch and a touch of hemp. It's the patch I reach for most. I'm probably getting a bottle of the recent OLOP Feed Me and Fill Me with Pleasure in the hopes that it's similar to this beloved scent. I hope RR is re-run again one day so everyone can have some of this comforting loveliness.

I love scents in this family - Zorya P, To a Wreath of Snow - and always on the lookout for variations. Pediophobia has that stunningly realistic cracked porcelain note that differentiates it from its cousins. It reminds me of a haunted porcelain doll that someone has shattered out of terror, its white shards littering the floor, ready to draw blood. It's somewhat disconcerting and absolutely perfect for a scent representing phobia of dolls. The cognac, white tobacco, and vanilla definitely makes it smell like it could be a Lace as well ("Porcelain Lace" or "Haunted Lace" would probably what I'd name it if I didn't know its proper name). Honestly, that porcelain is so fascinating and it boggles my mind how Beth is able to make a porcelain accord that's so real. Unique, captivating, haunting. I hope this one either makes a comeback or something like it - Haunted Lace, for Weenies? ? - is released one day.

I'm going through my collection right now and trying to let go of some bottles that aren't getting enough love, and make some room for new. This is definitely staying. I don't remember which vintage this one is, unfortunately - I sometimes forget to log in to the site before ordering so I don't have full order history on me either. It's the label with 2 women, one with high-heeled feet/legs up. My guess is 2017. Anyway... It's gorgeous. As SO is wont to do, it's mellowed and aged into a gorgeous SO variant. The leather isn't medicinal to my nose, though it's not suede-soft either - I think of this as a high-quality, thick, brown pebbled leather scent. I get a touch of smokiness, not sure where that's coming from. Personally, I find SO a little too intense for me most days, and I think this blend is a little more wearable on my skin. Really beautiful. It's joining Batty Lace and CC:F into my autumn leather scent rotation.

I've been delaying my Luper order this year to wait for a few reviews, but I'm getting desperate for some nice sweet Shungas, so I'm wearing and reviewing some from past collections. This one is less vulva and more juicy fruit, as others have mentioned. I was looking for a peach- or apricot-centric scent at the time, so this definitely scratched that itch. The only other BPAL I have that has apricot is Haloes, and I find that one (though utterly beautiful) isn't quite apricot-y enough for when I want that lovely juicy stone fruit. This is a fresh, ripe white-peach-and-apricot fruit salad with a bit of light ricemilk syrup. I thought the amber and cardamom might become more noticeable with age, but not really! Still a sweet, satisfying stone fruit scent. Not much throw - I tend to slather this one more than I do with most other BPALs. I like wearing this with my Peach-Pulped Frankincense Hair Gloss if I feel like a tad more resin.

Snow Moon is coming back soon, and nearly 20 years after this scent's release, I'm reviewing it ? The 2005 version is in the beautiful cobalt blue bottle, which goes so well with the blue and white snowflake label. Even though it's in the blue bottle and almost 20 years old, the fragrance still somehow smells pure and fresh (and certainly not "off" at all). The scent is slushy sweet fir sap, frozen with fancy winter blooms. Rose usually amps on me but stays well blended. It's got some Yule-like spice dusting as well. A lot of people have said "pine", but I don't get much similarity with, say, The Wiley Grasser, which definitely has the pine note. They're both unmistakingly evergreens, but quite different. Another one of my favourite winter scents. I'm looking forward to seeing what the 2024 Snow Moon is going to be like!

To a Wreath of Snow was my favourite of the 2020 Yules. This is the blend that made me realize how much I love tobacco flower/nicotiana. This is perfect "winter-cold flower" in a bottle, with a touch of lavender, ambergris-saltiness, and the beautiful oudh (not-woody variety). This and Zorya P are also the scents that made me start collecting more tobacco flower perfumes. I look forward to every new one Beth creates now ? It's a top 3 winter scent - I wear it almost every day in winter for my dog's daily morning walks. So happy it came back in 2023 so more people can enjoy it (and so I can grab two more backup bottles!)

Echoing what Little Bird said - at first, I was honestly a little disappointed in this when I first got it, especially because I got two bottles blind. It was really cloyingly sweet, almost caramel-single-note. It's such a good reminder to never judge a scent by its just-shipped-cover. Now that it's settled down for a month or so, it's got a LOT more depth and chewiness. I get a well-balanced blend of leather and tobacco smoke, sweetened just enough by vanilla-caramel-musk. I don't get much floral, and it's not going to scratch my OG Antique Lace itch, but that's okay (I just wore some of my preciously hoarded OG AL yesterday - I'll just continue to treasure each drop of that). I'll definitely add this to my rotation for autumn scents. I think I might like it even better than Clockwork Couture: Female. This is a lovely, sweet, well-blended leather scent and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how it continues to improve with age.

Definitely Boo-adjacent! Sweet milky candy with a pretty hefty dusting of slightly powdery light amber. Lately I like my amber with a bit more oomph and depth, but this is very pleasant and youthful-feeling. If I don't wear it much, I might gift it to my younger sister.

Strangely, on me this is 98% floral - and not very similar to the tobacco flower I love in Zorya P or To a Wreath of Snow or Pediophobia. It's rather... austere? It definitely smells WHITE, almost clinically so, on my skin. This black tea is definitely has 0 sugar added! It's more "fougere" than tea (and I suspect there are other florals in that fougere that I'm amping, though I can't quite tell what they are). I'm going to let it age for a while in the hopes that I get a touch more warmth from the amber.

I didn't realize I hadn't reviewed this one! I knew from the notes that this was going to age magnificently, and it really has. It's the sweet amber-oudh of my dreams, with hints of cola (vanilla and light spices and an almost lime-rind undertone). It's thick and chewy and warm, it's comfortingly dark, it's great. The only sad thing is that I had a rare spill with this one and I lost a third of the bottle I so cherish.

A very sophisticated, cool-toned floral. I amp rose, but it's not getting out of control here (thank goodness, I have enough rose-forward blends to last me several lifetimes). The florals are well blended and I wouldn't be able to pick out a specific one here without notes, I think. I was also a tad worried about almond blossom (almond loves to go bitter cherry on me), but this is most definitely not bitter almond, but the gentle flower. I wish this was a tad sweeter for my personal tastes, but it's beautiful - something I'd wear to a very "grown-up" gathering, like a black tie party in a private yacht. As mentioned above, fans of Ava should definitely give this a try.

It's always really interesting to me how different scents are from skin to skin. On me, Cat Churning Butter is creamy, salty butter that's been slightly sweetened by powdered sugar. Butter is definitely the spotlight here. It's not really what I was expecting or hoping for, but I adore the label art and I think I'll occasionally feel like I need to smell like buttery sugar cookie dough. The label art alone makes me smile.

Testing the frottle the lab generously included in my last order! It's peaches and berry port jelly when wet. Very sticky-sweet. The tobacco is subtle and gentle and only emerges after fully dry on my skin. It definitely gives summer fair vibes!

To a Wreath of Snow was my favourite of the 2020 Yules, and I'm overjoyed to see it return. I hope it's going to come back often! 2023 version is identical to what I remember the 2020 version was when fresh. It's got a bit of cool, almost-minty freshness in the bottle, but blossoms into a sweet and salty floral grounded with oudh. Someone in BPAL Parlour mentioned that this perfume is a "beautiful chord" - and I think that imagery is perfect. This is a harmonious minor chord played on the piano, a little melancholy, and heart-achingly beautiful. The ambergris is slightly stronger in the 2020 version now, with a little added depth from aging. I think the blends are pretty much identical, and any slight difference is either age or batch variation. Speaking of batch variation - I got 5 bottles of this perfume (and have already finished off a bottle), and one of them is noticeably more lavender than the rest. It's also less sweet - it feels like the lavender has swallowed the tobacco flower for this bottle. It's almost closer to The Air and the Ether. This is the bottle I'm using as a sleep scent, that's for sure! For the other bottles, lavender is a supporting note to the tobacco flower, which is one of my favourite notes. It works as a sleeptime scent for me, but my favourite use is wearing it when on walks in frosty winter air.

I got this in the hope that it's a little like To a Wreath of Snow, and while it's not similar really, the vibes are there. They're both scents that work super well on me in biting, cold North-American-winter air. This is a little less floral and definitely less sweet on me than WoS. While WoS is pure, soft white, this also has a bit of a green edge I attribute to ti leaf that reminds me of the scent of our rainforests after snowfall. It doesn't really have a woody scent, more resin-y, evergreen needles crushed underfoot. I'm surprised that the white sandalwood isn't turning into pencil shavings on my skin as it tends to. It's an intensely WINTER scent of slivers of deep green herbaceousness encased in pale ashy resin and layers of ice. It's already very nice and wearable, and I look forward to seeing how this ages. This is definitely going into my winter rotations, especially for walking my dog!

She's definitely witch's familiar! This kitty has been rolling around in her witchy human's incense again, the naughty thing. I don't reach for black musk too often, but this is really nice. The fluffy fur + musk + sweet incensy amber is making me want to play Cult of the Lamb again.

So I made my big Weenies and Yules order, and I was all excited to try all the new shinies. Then I sniffed this in bottle and I HAD to skin test this first. This is the soft, sweet sandalwood scent of my dreams. It reminds me of the fresh, milky-sweet skin scent of a baby. The sandalwood is super gentle, with only the lightest hint of wood. The vanilla is also a kind, sweet-but-not-foody one, and blends seamlessly into the sandalwood. For such a simple note list, it feels well-rounded and complete. It's not a strong scent, but it's got respectable throw considering its gentleness for an hour or so. After that, it stays very close to the skin. I want to keep reapplying, it's so good - I'm having a hard time resisting, even though I do want to test my other shinies!!! I absolutely love this, I'll need to get backups.

My friend generously gifted me a bottle of this as a wedding gift. It's probably the Lace that's closest to OG Antique Lace, as noted above. The tea rose is the main floral I smell, especially on my rose-amping skin, making it feel like the lovechild of Antique Lace and Sybil. "Phantasmagoric" is a great descriptor for this - it really has the ghostly feel of OG Antique Lace - I think it's the coconut+musk+cream that's causing that. I think OG AL, Sugared Lace, and this one are my top 3 favourite Lace scents now. This is beautiful.