dorothy humbird

Just received this today - ordered a 5ml completely untested because vanilla and carnation are two of my very favorite notes. It immediately smelled familiar, reminding me of Maiden, and Alice, and (i think, it's been FOREVER) Pink Moon 2007 -- i.e., all the scents that helped me realize how much i love BPAL's carnation note in the first place! Freshly on it also struck me with memories of Luna Moth - one of my other carnation favorites. they are both sweetly rounded, almost juicy - in Luna Moth i have always attributed that to the Asian pear note, but apparently the carnation has more influence in that regard than i expected! will wait to see what the drydown feels like, but so far i'm DEEPLY pleased! 🌼😍

Wulric is my new scent boyfriend. I originally got a decant of this with the sneaky intent of conniving my actual boyfriend into wearing it for me. While it smells great on him (really! great!), it smells magnificent on me as well. My skin chemistry turns this into a chocolatey vanilla musk with the edge of lavendar that keeps it from being too foody (I prefer not to veer too far into "gourmand" territory). I wear this when I want to be a little mysterious but mostly cozy and comforted. The vetiver isn't obvious on me - just a backround thought, like the occasional recollection that a wolfman is actually pretty f'ing dangerous, even if he makes an excellent snuggler. Don't piss him off.

WHY DOES THE THROW OF THIS SMELL LIKE BLACK LACE ON ME OH MY GOD OH MY GOD H'ok. So, closer to my wrist I can smell the tobacco more, and sort of detect that the coconut is there. These two remind me of Perversion. Additionally, smelling this out of the decant vial, I was all "oh yeah this is kind of like Snow White I can see why others were putting that in their reviews." BUT. THE THROW. Hrnrnghrngnghgggh! Black Lace is numero uno for me, people. My brain hurts from wanting a bottle of this NOW. So that this is not all pure comparisons: this is a gorgeously shimmering pale-musky-sweet scent with a faint bright almost-lemony note sparkling overtop. Smooth as vanilla cream, but kind of effervescent. AND I WANT MORE OF IT. ETA: So... this doesn't actually throw that much like Black Lace to my nose anymore. It is still good in its own right, but definitely has more in common with Perversion - though it is quite its own scent, mind. It sticks around on my skin for a whole day at work, and I like every waft of it I catch.

Hoooooooly crap. As soon as I applied this, I was reeling. Honeyed-musky vanilla roses mrrrrrrrhrrrmrmrrn. This is a very seductive scent. The roses are sweet and golden on me, not heavy and ripe red -- all of the muskiness is coming from the other notes. The roses float over the base notes with a delicate ethereality, sweetened even further with honey. Basically, this is what I wished Abhisarika would do on my skin. So, so good. As this has been wafting up while I've had it on, I keep thinking I smell something chocolatey. Must be my brain confusing the cream for chocolate? It's good, though. Mrmrm. Also, this goes way beyond Alice for me: Alice is little-girl sweet in a way that Katrina van Tassel sways right past, into "enthralling" territory. This is sticking close to my skin as it's settled down. It'd be a good candidate for my scent locket, since I love how it amps when first warmed up and I would be sad to lose the wafting quality to my skin's voracious appetite. Oh, Miss van Tassel, I'm quite delighted to have made your acquaintance.

Very soft, smooth, and (dare I say it?) pearlescent. The hazelnut is lending a warmth to it that is comforting. (Whoops! No hazelnut in this one. Must be the orris-coconut combination.) I'm not sold on it yet -- something about it smells kind of lotion-y, or suntan lotion-y. (Got to be the coconut.) Still, oddly soothing. Reminding me of Cordelia? (They have no notes in common so this is kind of inexplicable.)

Sweeeet, sweet vanilla-floral. Goes kind of plastic-powdery on my skin after a little while, but is somewhat combatable with blending. There's something oddly appealing to me about the weird plasticy-sweet direction this heads, so I've kept Regan around. I like her best when she's accompanying another scent on my skin, but she's got a weird charm of her own.

Starts out too cloying-sweet for my tastes, and then something floral develops a presence that I'm just not into. On inspection of the notes, I think the magnolia is the culprit -- I kept smelling something that reminded me of The Grindhouse, and so there's two mysteries solved! Magnolia is evidently not for me.

Wow, this is so much more deeply beautiful than I was expecting. With all the florals, I predicted this would be high and bothersome, but on reflection, many of the florals in 'this blend have a sort of foodier component, or a resinousness, that is unlike the ones that cause more trouble (jasmine and magnolia on me). I get a very sweet headiness from this -- the honey, red wine, lotus, and osmanthus are probably all swirling together to create this effect. I expect the cassia is contributing a little bit of spice, and the musk rose a little more fullness. I get no tobacco at all, and couldn't tell you what balsam or hibiscus smell like in the first place, so there's no telling if they're present or not. Only 5 minutes on, though, this is already fading, and turning just a tad soapy. This isn't necessarily bad, because the intensity of application when wet is way too much to maintain. An hour and a half later, this has no throw at all. It was dubious that I'd fall for Kali from the start, but given this turn of events I'm not putting Kali on the keeper list.

Holy intense teak and tobacco. I can see the similarities people are drawing between Anti-M and Glowing Vulva, but GV stays just over the line of golden wearability for me, whereas the Anitkythera Mechanism is just a shade too manly for my tastes. Very, very strong, dark, and devious. I've noticed in a few blends with tobacco that I've tested that there is some danger in that note dominating. I can't handle its presence in Perversion, Elegba, and now apparently Anti-M (but it behaves on me in Black Lace, Red Lantern, and a handful of others). I passed this one on to another BPALer before long, but now I'm wishing I'd kept it long enough to wrangle the current gentleman friend into testing it. Ah, the intricacies of frugal BPALery.

First on my skin, strongly smells of sandalwood. I'm reminded of Anne Bonny, with less spice. Can vaguely tell there is some floral element at work, too, softening the wood a little bit - it doesn't smell as sawdusty as Anne Bonny (which I don't mean in a bad way, but the splintery woodiness is less prominent.) On my finger I can smell a lemony element that, not having looked at the notes list in a while, I am surprised to detect. It's a little peachy, too -- osmanthus? I guess I shouldn't be too chuffed with myself for calling that, since I did read the notes description at some point. But yeah - the osmanthus and peach are making themselves evident now, and I think the vanilla is smoothing things along, too. Peaches and cream served in a delicately carved rosewood dish. I'm glad the other notes are giving the woodsy notes more competition. Let's see what'll come with further drydown.... I'm really liking what Belle Vinu is doing on my skin. Comparisons I keep wanting to draw are to Harikata (but less sharply powdery), La Vague (but mellower), and still Anne Bonny - the sandalwood remains prominent, but I like how it is lulled here by the softer golden notes. I can't predict whether I'll end up reaching for this all the time, but I'll certainly be hanging on to the imp to find out.

Must just mention Shub-Niggurath as another spicy baked goods option. Less buttery and more creamy, but definitely puts me in mind of cinnamon buns.

How have I not left a review for The Illustrated Woman? Shame on me. Of the Act IV decants I picked up, this is top three (with the Torture Queen and Inez duking it out). Goes on sweet pitchy smokiness - smells a little like natural cleaning products from Seventh Generation and the like. I remember being dubious when I was testing it, but knowing the key was in having the patience to wait. And oh, man. The almost bubblegum-y sweetness of the pine pitch is finally overtaken by the musk, vanilla, and cohorts about 3 hours after I first get it on my skin. At this point into drydown, there is still a certain tingle of the pine left in the blend, but it is smoother, slightly deeper, and warmed all the way through with delicious golden vanilla-honey. I wish I was doing better in the finances department, because I would totally snag a bottle of this while we still cling to the CD.

This surprised me with how much I've liked wearing it over the past two days. I guess I was expecting something to go awry with the amber, or else the myrtle. Instead.... It starts off pretty warm with the amber, but there's also a strong green note that reminds me a little bit of Rose Red and some other greenish blends I've tried. I want to say possibly Cordelia? But now that I've looked up the myrtle note, I can see the connection with The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, also. Anyway. The green myrtle note doesn't dominate for very long. It's overtaken by the spicy creaminess of the carnation in short order, and the apple blossom kind of hangs out at the edges, sweetening things up a bit with a delicate petal-floral simper. For a blend with a relatively short note list, this smells surprisingly complex. Plus, it sticks around on my skin for a good while -- always a bonus! Update a few days later: This infused itself in the satiny (acetate?) scarf I was wearing one day, and remained as the most intoxicating spiced vanilla-ish scent. I was delighted. I'm definintely keeping this imp. (Frimp from the lab! This is the first Lab frimp I've ever received that was on my wishlist, amazingly.)

Holy goodness, this one's a keeper. It's all sweet, strong lavender going on, but mellows almost instantly into a lavender-tinged Dorian (like one of those old photographs taken before color, that was hand-stained after being developed... this is a portrait of a dapper gentleman that's tinted a purple-mauve.) Except, there's Snake Oil calling some of the shots here. While Dorian is super, super sweet lemon cookie on me, it's kept from that extreme here from the incense notes in Snake Oil, and the Lilith-y additions. I have been wearing this to sleep on and off over the past several weeks, and the best part is that it will cling to whatever I've worn to bed and then in the morning (and sometimes the next evening, if I'm recycling pajamas) it has dried down to a gorgeous, nuanced vanilla brushed with lavender. Absolutely glad I picked this one up. <3

I can smell references with this blend to Belle Epoque (mandarin, vanilla, opium), but there is more of an incensy feel, and slightly more sweetness. It starts out rather juicy-tangerine-sweet, but over time mellows a little under the influence of the opoponax and musks. Despite my relying on red musk to sex up a blend on my skin, this blend remains pretty refined for me. The feel I get from it is sort of a strawberry-golden glowing. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a ton of staying power for me... but I believe I'll hold on to my bottle. With age, it could turn even more beautiful.