lookingglass

This scent is golden, light, and lovely sweet sandalwood with a bit of depth. I think anyone of any age could easily wear this and it would be perfect for layering. I wish my skin didn't eat it right up! It reminds me a bit of Scholar's Tower, which I also have to slather to fully enjoy.

THIS smells like Christmas feels to me: the house warm and filled with people wearing vintage, ambery perfume, smoking pipes, baking spiced sweets, the tree set up, and bringing in logs for the fire.

I love a jammy rose! Obsequens is a bright, flashy, sexy red rose. I'm getting a red musk with red rose-fresh and virile...slightly sweaty on the dry down. The patchouli and leather are very faint, just making the scent feel more mature, a faint shadow. I find this to be a very modern rose perfume, and enjoy it much more than many.

Yum, yum, yum! This has a subtle fresh, fruity top (mixed sweet fruits...peach...?plum...?) that goes great with freshly washed hair; drying out it is all sexy, dark, caramelized sugar. It's so good! I agree, it smells like aged Sugar Skull OG. DEEEVINE!

The Dead Leaves note smells quite green here mixed with the honey, like a freshly fallen raked pile of leaves...only their ends are crispy and dry. I get almost a neroli note-slightly bitter, green snapped stem...The saffron adds a soft, golden dusting. Oude and patchouli are embraced on the drydown, grounding the drying leaves with an earthy, slightly bodily, not too animalic sweetness. It's at once fresh and dry and warm, like modern chypres. I'm very happy here. Yes, I think this could be worn year round.

Scholars' Tower is my new favorite and latest full bottle purchase. It is a deliciously bookish scent, shelves, paper, and all, with wafts of incense and a creamy, sweet, honeyed, glowing, amber. It is so evocative of the illustration. I don't find it to have harsh edges at all. It is both atmospheric and one with my skin. It is intellectual, and easy to wear, like someone who really knows themselves. I highly recommend this sleeper and am shocked that it's not more talked about.

I find honey and beeswax scents super cozy: Lights of Men's Lives, O, and Hand of Glory come to mind.

Diabolical voluptuousness, a siren song from the grave: juniper and yew brushing against blackened violets and funeral roses, red musk and hot blood, veined white marble and icy, brittle musk, all pulsing with the sinister, hypnotic scent of patchouli, amber, oude, and cubeb. Apparently I bought this as a gift for a friend back in 2009! I was at his house last night and saw it on his perfume tray and dabbed some on. Holy. Mother. of GOD! Even my partner commented on the depth and complexity of this scent. Without knowing the notes, he said that I smelled like a sexy vamp at a funeral...surrounded by lush but quickly wilting blooms. It reminds me much of Spellbound, but not quite as rosey or incensey...more murkey red musk. Damn, it's good. I might have to go steal it back!

Give me your funky, your difficult, your vamps, warmed with the blood and filth of mere mortals! This scent is FABLOUS! She's unabashed, unafraid, self confident, and honest. She is wild witch kin to power house 80's frags like Chanel's Coco. Fresh on the skin yeah, the castoreum is very forward: weird, bodily, and skanky. But we don't slut shame around here! Oh, no! You OWN that sexuality, Betch! She is leather clad and dewy. Where did she come from? A bar? A dungeon? A concert? Somehow it could have been anywhere. Is she sweaty? Oily? So many questions! Drying down almost immediately, take a second look...lean in... she's now not quite as shocking. She's kind of sweet, isn't she, the way she cocks her head when she looks at you; yes, you're afraid, because you know you're seen...she makes you look at your self. The scent of incense is intoxicating...somehow freshening the air and making your thoughts go deeper, deeper...deeper............ Dried out she is embers of precious wood made flesh...round edges chard, center glowing. She's quieted, but make no mistake, she still has power. You know she makes things happen, and you want to do her bidding. I'm so glad she's mine.

So. Much. YES! The is beautiful, earthy, dank, leathery, vanilla...a homage to bondage. Slather. Yum. Lasts for hours.

Why...in the world...did I wait 10 years (?!) to try this scent?! One of my first perfumes was street vendor Egyptian Musk oil. It was thick, golden, clean, and sweet, and became impossible to find. I sniff EM oil in health food stores now and it's often so light I can hardly smell it, with either plasticy or bready notes, and no longevity. So sad. But! I can smell my old friend clearly in this blend, along with a dusty sweet, bookish note, and some cool watery notes that I don't find too soapy, surprisingly. It reminds me of getting showered and dressed in high school: sometimes I would use my grandmother's Chantilly dusting power before putting on my Egyptian Musk and red lipstick, grabbing my stack of books before heading out the door. I don't find it particularly masculine, either. It's an instant favorite of mine...soothing, clean, familiar...Thank you, BPAL. I really needed Mr. Ibis. <3

I am in love with the sweet, honey rose of The Best Lies...

When you don't have time to burn incense, spray this instead! It got "Mmmmm....incense!" from all the teens in my house. It's not too smokey, which I'm thankful for. It's a fine melange of tangy and sweet resins with a slight woodiness. I love it!

This is the kind of scent that haunts me. I knew I'd love it. I experienced it. I did. And I walked away. I dismissed her quickly because I have so many scents that are honey forward...but I need it. I can't stop thinking about her. Wet the honey's slap is strong and thickly sexy, slighly animalic, a bit fresh, but not as green as some BPAL honeys. It quickly dries down a bit, melting into my skin, and rose emerges...blush colored roses..a bit lighter than my skin, which is Classic Ivory in most brands of foundation. Quiet. Unassuming. But not innocent. I think of her as Pink Snowball's older, psychic sister. An oriental gourmand-sweet but not silly-as if flesh transformed into an expensive, exotic confection...the scent of a vampiric desire. Most of all, The Best Lies smells like that very idea: the answer that appeases that incessant gnawing, that little desire that continues to creep, sweating under your collar...that intangible question that slinks beneath your nightclothes...that all will be "rosey". There's an unspoken wisdom, behind that sweet, fresh, relief, though...My justification not to bring her home fails me because it speaks a truth I need to hear.

When I smelled this scent, I laughed out loud it was so spot on. This smells just like a dead wife learning in to speak to me, strawberry daiquiri on her breath; I can smell a faint whiff of her perfume, too...her clothes crusty and musty with earth. Wet, it's a chemically blast of preservation chemicals and earth, and the drydown warms up to something almost lifelike...reanimated, slightly putrefied, with the illusion of freshness, but not really alive. Creepy awesomeness!

Patchouli does this for me: Goblin, Snake Oil, Feed Me and Fill Me with Pleasure...

My pretties: Jezebel Snow White Antique Lace Fae Mouse's Long Sad Tale Morocco

This. This smells like if Antique Lace had fresh moonflowers instead of dried purple ones! LOVELOVELOVE! If someone said it was vanilla musk and moonflower, I would also believe that. Moonflowers are big and white and lemony. I used to grow them in my night garden. Dried out, it's kind of powedery, kind of old fashioned makeup-ey...sweet and white and creamy...a moonflower marshmallow blanket. It makes me smile and want to snuggle.

THIS is my new favorite. Wet it initially reminds me a bit of Fake News and Sed Non Satiata, perhaps because they share a patchouli note, but then the myrrh really comes out (bless!), and the whole blend transforms. It dosn't so much dry down as it warms up, like resins melting. The myrrh and opoponax are RICH and thick and everything I ever want them to do-RULING the blend- and yes, GILDED by violet...ever so slightly glowing violet. I do love violet scents, and I have several in my collection, I just don't usually wear them. They tend be nostalgic for me and make can me feel sad or dated or too fresh out of the bath. Not this one, though! It's badass and I can totally get shit done wearing it. It's just a bit floral, but mostly smells sleek...like wet pavement... at a crowded incense market... in the heat. Steadfast, confident, understated, dark, opulent.

Out of the bottle I smell musk, but because of the amber, I thought it was red for a minute. It dries down SO fast, though, and I know it's not red. It smells...not quite grey...like a transparent sepia...I can't tell if it's the iron on the black musk being ever so tangy, almost lemony...but not screechy or sour. The amber adds a touch of rich goldern sweetness. It does remind me a bit of Haunted, but it's not as ambery, and it wears much lighter- not as dense or strong; the white musk really changes the tune with her pale creaminess, not too "clean"...more gauzy...adding an airy haze. All dried out it smells like what my partner calls "warm woman". I think it's a beautiful, wistful incensey blend for summer or when you want a lighter oriental blend without much projection. I really love it.

2017 version: Honey baby sweetheart, how I've waited for your return. Back in the day, over a decade now, I blew through the 10 mls of you. When my babies were small, and I could only afford a bottle or two, it was you and Snake Oil. Oh, god how I've missed you. The vanilla musk is yes... so much yes, with dry, earthy, greige florals...you're sweet, and sad, precious, and delicate, but unmistakably you. You are no other. My precious....

Labdanum, a resin that is a primary ingredient in many ambers, is my partner's favorite note, but he's also super picky about, so I'm always on the lookout for new blends. He often finds ambers too sweet or powdery...frustratingly so. I snatched up a bottle of Ill Omen because musk and other incense notes WITH labdanum sounded like all the win, and it is! It is an amazingly resinous, incensey blend that sits close to the skin but has a long wearlength. I find it warm, soft, and slightly dry musky incense. The tang of the resins and blood beautifully blends with the slightly floral musky notes, all slightly sweetened with the labdanum. If someone told me this was a "black amber" blend from India, I would totally believe them. It's delicious, sexy, and soothing. My partner says it smells like bourbon, leather, with a touch of toasted marshmallow on him, and he loves it!

I wore a raspberry patchouli oil in the 90s and have had a special love of the notes together since. It's such a delicious and sexy combo! Right out of the bottle this is more red musk than I expected, but that's ok. The raspberry note is jammy, and gives more fruitiness to the musk. The orange blossom adds that fresh, white floral lift on the top, which keeps the blend from being very sweet. The patch is very woody on the drydown. This is a fun scent, but not too silly. It's like a Mme Moriarty light...perfect for me on these early spring days. I'm so glad this doesn't smell like an actual whoopie cushion! LOL!

There are nice little blobs of cacao in the oil-the real deal. Wet, this is dark and incensey, with a flash of astringency from the tar. The tar note reminds me of hard, black leather, a bit chemically, and a whole lotta badass. It quickly becomes sweeter and fresh cotton blossom really comes forward for a bit, reminding me of the ozone zing of Midnight on the Midway. The sticky, glowing, honeyed resins, though, are all melty, speckled with fire and shadow. The vertiver softens and plays a supportive role to the overally mellow, fleshy feel in the drydown. This scent is definitely not playing around, but it's very "wearable": It sits close to the skin and has distinct layers: a fresh, but weird topnote, sweetened blossoms, and a rich, deep base. It would be a good transition scent for someone who wears normey frags like Angel or Muse. I love complex gourmands, and this is a goodie. I think she's Kali's and Qandisa's vicious soul sister. It's one of my husband's favorites on him as well!

Weeeeeird. This reminds me of being a young girl and hiding in the vintage fur coat section of my favorite antique shop-faded, once overwhelming, oriental perfume , faded powdery sweet...all enveloping...dark...soft...cozy...creepy.