MamaMoth

i'm gonna say black, brown, and red musks, because it seems like i smell them in very distinct stages. opens with black, kind of heavy and soapy. not my favorite musk, but it never reaches its full potency. black gives way to brown, furry and snuggly. eventually red musk wins out on my skin, sweet and snake-oily. i like that stage very much. the other musks are not invisible, but they're just bolstering the red and it's pretty sexy. now the other stuff. in the bottle, it's potent af. sharp evergreen and heavy musk and resin and scorchy vetiver. it's kind of a lot, but i know that my skin tames a lot of those things so let's do this. there's definitely a lemony type thing going on at first. not real citrus, something lemon-adjacent. myrrh, vetiver, and black musk have all thrown me a lemony curveball in the past, so it could be any or all or none of them. WHO KNOWS? i like it though. along with that evergreen note, it gives some necessary lift to all that heavy stuff. it threatens to go a little soapy for a bit while the black musk holds sway, but never quite gets there before another musk takes over. i love the way red musk and vetiver play off one another, the sweetness and the scorch. that's what came out on top for me, boosted by the darker musks and incensey myrrh, with green and lemony top notes that hold it aloft. it actually ends up quite sweet. i like this. maybe a lot. it smells a little like that first whiff when you open the bpal box.

baby's first first. no pressure or anything. preface: i'm newly converted to enjoying a touch of jasmine in my perfume. but every other ingredient sounded like very much my kinda thing, so i figured i'd give this one a go, hoping for less jasmine and more everythingelse. my bottle has rested about 5 days. unfortunately, this is pretty much the jasmine show right now. i can sense all those other wonderful things behind it, and they're very smooth. but i can't really get a grasp on anything in particular because the jasmine is a total diva. i will say it's a nice sweet jasmine. i'm also getting nothing offensive on the oudh front, but i've never encountered a truly stinky oudh, so take that with a grain of salt. as far as the "incense" goes, i never get any smokiness. after a little while, the jasmine dials back enough that i can clock the patchouli a little, and an ambery-oudh perfuminess. jasmine is still out front, but it's taken on an almost lightly candied floral sweetness. sweet jasmine incense? more incense in the throw, more jasmine close to the skin. i never get any vetiver at all. so yeah... nice, but a little outside my jasmine comfort zone. if you like all those notes, but most especially jasmine, it's well done and worth a try.

as i apply this, i can smell all the things very distinctly, in a discordant jumble. creamy vanilla and chocolate, sandalwood, myrrh: check. as it settles in, the chocolate vanilla recedes to the back. dry woodsy sandalwood pops out on top, backed by a velvety, incense-y myrrh. it's getting interesting now! fully dry and warmed up, here's where the strange magic happens. i can't pick out a single note, except maybe the sandalwood. no chocolate, no vanilla, no myrrh. that's not a complaint, btw, because it's shockingly gorgeous. if i only sniffed it at this point, i'd probably guess amber and/or oudh. what the what?! it's sweet, woodsy, resinous, and perfumey (in a good way.) very aptly named, because it is so very soft and velvety. 100% non-foody on me. this morphs into something very special on me, and i am feeling very blessed by the skin chemistry gods right now. there will be a bottle of velvet in my next order for sure.

i was gifted a sample of this by a sweet bpaler, and i'm so grateful that i got the opportunity to try it. ❤️ it's just lovely. i've had this on my wishlist so long that i had forgotten the notes. this starts off so very incensy on me, that i was surprised to reread them and find no resins at all listed. the spices are soft, dry, and snuggly, and there's a hint of sweet smoke threaded through it. as it warms up, a sweet vanilla rounds everything out. the incense resolves itself as a dryish sandalwood and smoky, creamy beeswax. i seem to amp those incensey notes, so it's never remotely foodie on me. the sandalwood reins in the creaminess of the vanilla, and the vanilla tempers the dryness of the sandalwood, so it's very well balanced. the spices are lightly sprinkled over the top, dry and warm and a little dusty. this is just so comforting. i want to scent a blanket with it and wrap up from head to toe. nevermind that it's literally 101 degrees outside, i'll just crank up the ac. off to the bottle iso with ye, little maggie!

how hard am i digging on the haute macabre scents? they all have that deep, mysterious, velvety gothiness that i'm am straight up here for. on me, this is primarily a sweet tobacco/patch/fig with a swirl of light smoke. i sometimes get a hint of something fleetingly woodsy... without looking at the notes, i thought perhaps a drop of cedar, but maybe that's the pitch? it's fairly sweet on me, but it's the chewy thick sweetness that i amp from tobacco and fig. there's a velvety resinous tone to it, but i'm not clocking the frank or amber specifically. frankincense can get a little loud on me at times, but i'm thinking here that it's just brightening up the darker elements. i also would have sworn there was a little bit of spice, like a dry husky clove. totality is one of those of-a-whole blends, where each note is hopelessly interconnected to the others. i keep wanting to say that it's like a narcotic floral, but without any floral whatsoever. but that doesn't make much sense, does it? tbh, i don't think that i'm cool or interesting enough to actually live up to this scent, but wearing it makes me try to be. #lifegoals

expectation: snake oil sufganiyot, maybe? frankly, in the bottle this is rather unpleasant. salty, savory something-or-other and snake oil. blech. eta: reading other reviews, and yes, it is rather vegetal. i couldn't put my finger on it. freshly applied, i had a millisecond of "oh no what have i done?" before it started to resolve itself. then the snake oil pushed to the front of the line, and suddenly that salty yuck becomes a great counterweight to an extra-sweet snake oil. what a cool transformation! the snake oil continues to amp on me, and it's dusted with a coating of powdered sugar. it *almost* tips over too sweet, but that salty/savory note stays in the background, holding the leash. it's hovering right over the line of delicious/foodie and musky/incense, which is an area that i really enjoy. over time, the red musk is a LOT bolder than it is with og snake oil, as is the spice. this is a very, VERY good snek. delicious, but not exactly edible. extra-sweet, extra-musky, extra-spicy snake oil, with something a little bready fluffing it out on the back end.

i love kyphi incense. cairo doesn't smell like any kyphi i've tried before, but i know that there are many different recipes out there. it opens very sweet, bright, and lemony, but not actual lemon... some lemon-smelling herb or resin. whatever it is, i think it's also found in no. 93 engine, but i don't know which note. balm of gilead? lemon balm? there's a resinous undertone, and also something ever-so-slightly herbaceous. perhaps anise-like. there's a little honey/beeswaxy sweetness. it's a pleasant, refreshing blend, and i started imagining myself reaching for this on hot sticky summer days... then rose happened. rose and i are not friends. it quickly drowned out everything else, reeking of stale 20-year-old cheap soap. sorry, cairo. it's me, not you.

i'm currently on a quest to find the scariest oudh i can, because everything i've tried so far has been amazing. well, i'll have to keep looking, because this is about as far from scary as it gets. i don't know if the funk aged out of it, or if i just won the skin chemistry lottery when it comes to oudh. because this? this is absolutely stunning. the snake oil base is unmistakable. but it's deeper, richer, and velvety. less sweet and more complex. everything is so beautifully aged and mellow at this point, it's very hard for me to name what exactly i'm smelling besides snake oil. extra patchouli, most obviously. and a glorious patchouli it is... earthy and rich, not woodsy at all. a very smoooooth vetiver. the oudh is perhaps a trifle musty when it goes on, but that disappears almost immediately, and it was never wholly unpleasant to start with. if it's even possible, it just gets better and better on the skin. this is glorious. i need more. i need gallons.

what an inspired combination! the sharpish, medicinal anise is the perfect counterpoint to the sweet, musky smut. as it settles in, it's less SMUT + LICORICE, and more a darkly spiced, rooty-herbal smut tincture. medicinal in the way that super-aged snake oil is medicinal. really nice. i'm going to have to start layering smut with more things.

2011 i bought this bottle straight from the lab, and it's wandered in and out of my destash pile ever since. back in the day, i tended to amp the caramel note to a sometimes nauseating degree. but i love the other notes so much, that i was always rather torn. buuuut as i haven't worn it in years, i decided today was the day i either love it or leave it. my skin chemistry and tastes have changed a lot over the years, so let's see what we get! goes on as rich, buttery, sweet, spiced caramel, much the same as before. BUT THEN. tobacco and amber start to take over. the buttery caramel recedes to the back, radiating a rich sweetness but mostly staying out of the way. YAY! this is all about the tobacco and spices now. i can't pinpoint the spices... they have a little bite at first, but then they settle down gently into the tobacco. the amber is bringing a little gorgeous perfumey-ness. i don't smell currant, but i bet it's keeping this from being too heavy, which this teeters on the edge of for just a bit. as it really settles in, the notes all blend so wonderfully that it's impossible to pick them apart anymore. it's sweet and rich, but balanced and not cloying. the caramel is no longer its own entity, but rather amplifying the sweetness of the tobacco. it's spicy, but not aggressively so. a little woodsy, a little perfumey. complex, exotic, mysterious, compelling. i am totally congratulating my past self for hanging on to this. it's absolutely wonderful, and i am most emphatically keeping it. ❤️

freshly applied, i don't get any cucumber exactly, but the paper has a bit of grassyness... kind of what freshly-made papyrus smells like in my imagination. it settles down into dry, peppery, slightly woodsy/pulpy paper, with a smoky perfumed chord from the oud. as time goes on it becomes a little resinous, as a gentle frank and patch bloom out. the hay is apparent now too, bringing a breath of sweet dry grass. it's very smooth, understated, and a touch fancy.

spiced, woodsy amber that's fleshed out by some chewy, sweet fig. goes on a bit aggressive, but settles in as a surprising close skin scent. it almost feels like there's some citrus hiding in the back, giving it a brightness. there may be a bottle in my future.

back when i was into bpal a million years ago, and O was available, i tested and rejected it. all i remember of it was a cloying, powdery honey. fast forward to me today: renewing my love of bpal, with shiny new skin chemistry and tastes in perfume. and of course i find it beautiful now, a golden glowing honeyed amber. and of course, now it's nigh impossible to find. o cruel fate!

this is a perfectly gorgeous, perfumey, powdery type of amber. i believe there's vanilla here, a powdery white floral.... some kind of wood? on my skin, it goes a bit flat and heavy. it's so very pretty, but it doesn't spark my joy.

this reminds me of eat me a bit, because i'm definitely getting cake and currants. but this cake is more buttery, less sweet. i believe this has red currant, but no black, so it's lighter and fruiter than eat me, where the berries take on an almost chocolatey, boozey tone. the ale note is a little hoppy, and ever so slightly sour. there's nothing i like about the smell of beer, but the ale in this is quite pleasant. but what really elevates this blend is the dry, herbal lavender. it gives some lift and interest to what could be stodgy buttery cake and sour ale, and it keeps this from being completely foodie. i like this quite a bit.

this goes on as an equally weighted trio, but settles in as a patchouli+. the patchouli is woodsy, the currant gives it some rich depth, and the grapefruit gives it zing. i never would have thought to pair grapefruit and patchouli, but it works wonderfully and brings something really unique. a great summer patch.

why have i dodged this one for so many years, again? oh, right: lavender, leather, white musk. with that many of my caution!notes in one place, it's no wonder this never pinged my radar. but i was frimped this, and it turns out that love it. whoops! this goes on as cedar and leather with a little spiciness from the carnation. i love the cedar, as i usually do. the leather is... nice. like really nice. what is this madness? almost immediately, it starts sweetening up. a lavender-tinged vanilla emerges: lightly herbal, creamy, quite sweet. it completely enfolds the cedar and leather. they're still there, but muffled by an almost marshmallow-y lavender-carnation-vanilla. white musk can sometimes read a bit sharp to me, but here it's just blending with the vanilla and probably contributing to the marshmallow vibe. sage is mia, but probably doing all kinds of Necessary Things outside of my range of perception. these notes do not sound cohesive to me at all, but it works so well. it all settles down into this seamless sweet-spicy-creamy-leathery-herbal vanilla that i cannot stop huffing. bottle, please.

*swoon* i love bloody corridor, and that was my first thought when i tried this. similar dragon’s blood-type red musk, and the "scorched" part of the vanilla is a dead ringer for bloody corridor's blackened vetiver. elevating those notes is a gorgeously sweet, syrupy labdanum. a lovely vanilla blooms as it settles on the skin, smoothing everything out and giving it a creamy softness. on me, the notes all pull just about equal weight. absolutely hoard-worthy as it is, but this is gonna age like a boss.

this reminds me of brown jenkin when it first goes on... but better! and this coming from someone who has enjoyed brown jenkin for many years. but whereas the jenks is a feral, sharp-toothed, prickly haired, little brown musk critter, brown cat is a domesticated and softly furry brown musk lap warmer. this goes on as soft cedar and brown musk. as it dries, the vanilla and cardamom take a huge step forward. the vanilla keeps everything soft, and the cardamom keeps the vanilla dry. the cedar hangs to the back infusing it with a soft warm woodsiness. the musk is really lovely; warm and furry and rich. after huffing small brown cat for a while, going back to brown jenkin feels like a sharp olfactory assault. i think this is what i always wanted brown jenkin to be. but brown jenkin gives zero fucks what i want. brown jenkin does what it pleases. sbc, on the other hand, is eager to please and sweetly accomodating. i can practically hear it purring on my skin.

the coconut reads a little watery to me at first, and the condensed milk has that initial dairy tang that i love, though i know it's of the variety that sours on some folks. it settles into a sweet, creamy white coconut with enough benzoin the keep it from being a pure confection. i never got any honey, but white honey is usually very faint on me and the other notes are a bit boisterous. this is lighter than i was expecting, which is a pleasant surprise. i love all these notes, so it's no shocker that i think this is lovely. very comforting and cuddly, as others have noted.

i LOVE plum, but generally i tend more towards the sophisticated, perfumey black plum-types, and less towards the cleaner, sweet, tart wild plum-types, which reads to me as kind of spa-like and not so much my thing. i also adore almost any kind of musk except white, which is usually just too sharp for me. also, lavender is iffy for me. so. i shouldn't really like this. but i do? this comes on initially with all those qualities that make me kinda meh. astringent lavender. tart clean plum. sharpish white musk. but then it starts to come together and softens up, and i keep going back in for huffs and enjoying it more every time. i'm kinda shook. the sandalwood is light, but it seems to ground all the high notes a little. the blackberry emerges as the most prominent note, and i'm reminded just how much i adore blackberry. it's juicy and purple and candy-sweet, but also fresh, herbal, and a little woodsy. i don't know, it's an anomaly! this just makes me feel light-hearted, youthful, and happy. i've decided i'm not going to try to deconstruct it too much, i'm just going to enjoy it

fate's jester reminds me a lot of silkybat. same lemony sugared patchouli (though less of it) with more lemon, and juicy red currant. the hay note in vanilla husk, nutmeg, and hay gives off a lemony-type thing, and mixes with the dry vanilla husk wonderfully.

ugh, this is so good. when it first goes on, i get the honeyed musk, (TO DIE FOR) the clean crispness of the tea, the green of the blackberry leaf, and maybe a bit of the vanilla. perhaps a touch of blackberry, since i'm looking for it. then everything starts to sink in and mesh. the spice gives it a soft warmth. is that saffron? the tea and green leafyness have disappeared, but i'm quite sure they're keeping everything light and fresh. i'm getting a little twinkle of blackberry now and again, and i love it! it's not a fruit-forward scent to me at all, it's just a great subtle layer. but the star is that honey musk. i'm obsessed, i tell you. it's so sensual and feminine. it's like a golden skin musk infused with the palest sweet honey, with zero honey funk. if i ever found a wish-granting genie, i think i'd wish for my sweat to naturally smell like honey musk. 😂 i was a little wary before trying it that una might be this ethereal spiced honey thing, and it is kinda? but it's so much more. it's ethereal, but not ephemeral. fyi, if there's even the slightest possibility that i'll be getting naked with a friend any time soon, there's a 100% chance that i'm gonna be anointing some key nooks and crannies with lady una. just sayin'.

snake oil iced tea goes on super minty, though the mint burns off pretty quickly. as is its wont. but it leaves behind a freshness, giving a lot of lift to a smoothly herbal snake oil-lite. i catch the vanilla and a tad of the spice from snake oil, but really none of the musk. this is fantastic for summer. i see myself reaching for this quite often as the thermometer pops 3-digits

powdery rich honey and a sweet glowy skin musk. very pretty. out of curiosity, i tried it side by side against skin musk, cream, and honey dust. smelled in tandem, this one popped a buttery hazelnut-type note when wet, but the drydown is 95% similar. this one reads just a bit sharper, which makes sense as it lacks the cream.