LiberAmoris

GILF: billowing white agarwood, petitgrain, fossilized amber, and white musk.

Golden amber, vanilla musk, myrrh, cedar, carnation, and red sandalwood. Like the other Ladies of the Grindhouse, I'm really excited to be, in some small way, a part of Beth's Carnaval and her art. Thank you, Beth. I absolutely love that in an alternate universe I'm whoring it up with some of the finest women around. And Jenn's portrait is stunning---I only wish I looked that exotic and regal in real life (read: wow, look at that décolletage)! I was so excited when I saw the notes for Inez, because I am a complete amber fiend. I love the earthy sweetness and depth of it, and the way that it seems to ebb towards a skin scent over the day, until there's just a golden tracery of it around me and no way for me to tell where the smell of my own skin ends and the amber begins. BPAL blends that are amber-centric always fade like sunsets on me in the most lovely way. So I was hoping that Inez would be mostly amber with the other notes rounding it out and making it a little complicated and a little warm. And that's exactly what I get when I wear it. In the bottle, Inez is undeniably amber. To me, amber always smells a little like caramel and honey with something almost fruity on top and something rooty or earthy at the bottom. It's sweet without being foody, although it can be almost buttery. It smells golden and warm and rich. It's a dense note, and one that seems to envelop and encompass other notes when it's paired with them, rather than allowing them to sit above or below it in layers. I can smell the vanilla musk as well, which makes a lovely complement. And then there's the carnation, which always strikes me as a bit spicy for a floral. It gives Inez a subtle kick. On my skin, the bottom notes are more prominent. The myrrh, which I was most concerned about, is quite lovely here, beveling the edges of the blend with something pleasantly sharper. The cedar and red sandalwood anchor the blend from inside but do so almost invisibly---at times I catch wafts of the sandalwood, but it's not overpowering. Because Inez is at heart such a resiny blend, there is something incensey about her, something calm and meditative and slow and sexy. Sexy in a come-closer kind of way. Sexy in a slightly disheveled, not-trying-too-hard kind of way. Sexy like when women pull their hair up without using a mirror. Or like waking up after a long night out---to sunlight pouring in through the window and the smell of the perfume worn the night before suffused in the sheets, like goodness spent and scattered. She's just lovely, and I'll be wearing her often.

Sensual sugared patchouli. Editing my own review placeholder, ha! Silkybat Hair Gloss is like a patchouli-scented confection as whipped up by some masterful candymaker. The patchouli here isn't the deep, dark oil in some blends, but lighter, less earthy and more airy. In fact, the spray comes out entirely clear—no brown or light brown tint at all to this hair gloss. After applying and blowdrying, the scent in my hair is gently sweet and subtle and refined. Like a patchouli-inflected puff of cotton candy—but better. Totally sexy stuff. Would be fantastic for going out on Halloween, or just a regular Saturday at home. ETA: I now have several backup bottles of this hair gloss, that's how much I love it. It's absolutely stunning, and every time I wear it out, I get compliments.

Scorched orange holographic creme. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Peach and Moroccan sandalwood with wild strawberry, vanilla pod, and caramelized benzoin. My goodness, Peach XIV is so good. The description says it all: peach, sandalwood, strawberry, vanilla, and benzoin. The fruit, vanilla, and caramelized benzoin give this a very fruity-foodie feel, like some kind of scrumptious dessert dreamed up by an ambitious chef. The sandalwood drowns everything in its book, planes it down until it's smooth and golden. The strawberry is particularly nice here, there's just a hint and it gives a lovely blush to everything. This Peach Pit is right up there with my favorites Peach IV and Peach VIII...sweet, fun, and totally wearable.

Weed-smoke and lime-tinged vapors rising from a cauldron of green slime, suspended by cracked leather straps above the heads of an unsuspecting audience. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Of such passion, I could form no estimate: sanguine red musk, red benzoin, wild plum, vetiver tar, and Indonesian patchouli beneath a still pool of sheer white musk and vanilla-gilded lily. The Tumultuous Vultures of Stern Passion is such a wonderful surprise. I was seriously worried about the vetiver tar, because vetiver just doesn't do it for me, and 'vetiver tar' sounds like pretty strong vetiver. I can definitely smell it here, and for those who are really sensitive, it still may too much for them, but I personally think it's absolutely beautiful in this blend. It adds something rooty, earthy, green, almost citrusy...that comes down like a slender green spike through the other notes swimming around it. The red musk is mellow here, with the benzoin adding a resiny, woodsy base. The patchouli is very subtle. The plum brings sweetness and a bit of tartness. The white musk and vanilla-ed lily add a lighter, floral layer that gives a lot of depth and complexity. At times I catch a phantom note of very faint leather and I'm not sure what could be causing that, but it's not at all unpleasant. The lily and vanilla actually come forward as I wear this one, peaking about an hour after application. As with the other Ligeias I've tried, this feels like a classic, well-blended perfume that an Art Nouveau heroine would wear. I'll treasure my bottle.

Fixed earth: the essence of ownership and possession. This blend assists you in seeing the truth of what you need while highlighting destructive desires that wound your soul so that you may purge them. It is the scent of determination and persistence, devotion and drive, bound by silks of raw sensuality. Rose absolute and Moroccan jasmine with ylang ylang, red sandalwood, black pepper, and red patchouli. Taurus is a study in two parts. On one side: petal-soft, gentle rose and jasmine. On the other: a dash of spicy black pepper and sharp ylang ylang. The red sandalwood and red patchouli make a bullish base for these forces to play out against. The notes that end up winning on my skin in terms of strength are the rose and jasmine and ylang ylang—these are the notes that last well into the drydown. If you love the rose and jasmine combo in Mata Hari, this might work for you...they smell similar in concert here as they do in concert there, at least to my nose. Very nice!

A boggy poot of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide accord (but easy on the methane!) steaming up a marsh puddle of Spanish moss, creeping swamp jasmine, swamp creature hooch, osmanthus, tupelo, bald cypress, and mud. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Rice flower, white cream, tea roses, abalone accord, white moss, beeswax, tuberose, and red currant. I think this might be my favorite of the Lupers I ordered this year. It feels opalescent to me, with hints of color—like white streaked with fine pinks and reds. The rice flower, cream, and rose are the most recognizable notes, with the abalone adding a hint of salty tang and the moss gently grounding everything. The beeswax, tuberose, and red currant are very subtle. In the bottle I can smell the florals much more clearly than on my skin. On the drydown it's absolutely beautiful and incredibly delicate—and the kind of blend that even people who are a little wary of floral notes might enjoy, because everything is so well-blended. It has cream, but it's not foody. It has florals, but it's not stridently floral (at least on me!). It has abalone and red currant, but it doesn't smell of the sea or dark berries. It smells like cloudy light through white, pulled-down shades, and the intimacy of skin on skin. The closest comp I can think of is To Helen, from the 2008 Lupers...also a favorite of mine. And it reminds me a bit of Chaste Moon. It shares a creamy, dreamy quality with both of those blends—and yet, of course, it has a distinct and luminous voice of its own. Tough to describe but definitely worth trying. ETA: Absolutely my favorite from my Lupers order, and it's hard to keep myself from wearing this every day!

A tranquil scent, illuminated by joy and warm with the serenity of love: bourbon vanilla and soft sandalwood with tiare, white fig, sweet benzoin, guiac wood, French lavender, and a touch of warm patchouli. A Moment in Time hair gloss is vanilla and sandalwood goodness, with lavender and patchouli and fig woven through. I also have the perfume oil, and it's always seemed so well-blended and well-balanced. The vanilla and fig give it an almost foody edge, but the other notes pull it back and imbue it with other kinds of tenderness, like the sweet innocence of tiare flowers, and the warmth of guaiac wood and grounding benzoin. The patchouli is all softness and fuzziness here; there's nothing sharp whatsoever in this blend. I'll wear this hair gloss when I have a stressful day ahead or need a little comfort wafting around me. I think it would also be great on nights when I shower before bed and want to spritz my hair with a gloss that harmonizes well with my sleep blends. Beautiful!

Pale, elegant lily blossoms gilded with snow and lightly brushed with sugarcane.  This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Apple cider and dry red wine with a glug of maple syrup and a generous scattering of ginger, clove, and cinnamon, garnished with apple and tangerine slices, and dotted with black peppercorns for warmth. Spiced Autumn Cider smells a lot like the mulled wine cider that I make during the holidays. Apple cider and a light, dry wine note are the base, and the ginger, clove, and cinnamon follow. The tangerine and black peppercorn notes are the most subtle on me, rounding things out and adding a slight juicy citrus note and slight additional spice. Wine is not always the best note on me, but it behaves well here and doesn't come across like wine in the way I'm used to...it smells fully mulled and more sedate. There is a faint alcoholic 'sparkle' to this, but it's not overwhelming. This smells fantastically seasonal, and I wish there was an atmo of the same scent! I may end up using this in my diffuser because it's just such a great smell to have in the air at this time of year.

(Edouard Manet) Peach, white rose, and charentais melon with tuberose, French vanilla, Darjeeling tea, white sandalwood, and soft musk. Still Life with Melon and Peaches is a very light and refined peach, a gentle fruity-floral with a slight purr of Darjeeling, sandalwood, and musk running underneath. I wasn't sure I'd love the charentais melon, since I'm not a huge melon fan in general. But here it seems very...restrained? I can smell it when I unscrew the cap and huff the contents of the bottle, but via the sprayer, it seems to just diffuse and melt into everything else. In my hair it smells like a tea-dimmed peach, well-blended with a very soft touch of roses, woods, and musk. It's quite pretty and falls into the category of 'could wear anywhere'. At the end of the day, the peach is only faintly detectable, and it's just a whisper of tea, roses, and woodsy musk.

Pale pink jelly-like finish packed with iridescent Easter Grass flake. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Bright, lemon yellow linear holographic filled with holo microflake and a coppery sheen. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Use when words fail you, when you need aid in communication, or when you need a creative boost in your writing or speech. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Pale, moonlit musk, sea salt, and ambergris. I couldn't pass up a perfume with a moonlit musk note. The sea salt and ambergris make for a classic aquatic, but that moonlit musk really makes this wearable for me. As it dries down, it gets sweeter and brighter, until it smells less like a wave and more like a moonbeam...like it crashes over and over until it thins out and gets lighter. This is a clean smelling blend, the kind that I think I could easily wear a dot of to even the most scent-averse workplace.

With pumpkin cream cheese frosting. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

It would indeed be a difficult matter to find anything which is productive of more marvellous effects than the menstrual discharge. On the approach of a woman in this state, must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts wither away, garden plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits. Her very look, even, will dim the brightness of mirrors, blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish from ivory. A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her, will die immediately; brass and iron will instantly become rusty, and emit an offensive odour; while dogs which may have tasted of the matter so discharged are seized with madness, and their bite is venomous and incurable. -Pliny the Elder The copper tang of blood musk, swept by a cloud of dying bees and red poppies of madness, drizzled over a freshly-microwaved marshmallow treat. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!

Red musk streaked with black musk seed, leather accord, black diamond shards of gleaming labdanum, and cherry wood.

Snowballs of hay absolute, tonka bean, honeyed oak, patchouli, chestnut blossom, and oudh. Fulvous Snow is absolutely beautiful. The snow note here is very faint on me, and comes across more as a slightly creamy, fluffy undernote to the amazing golden-brown, tawny play of notes above it. Wet, everything is seamlessly stitched together—there's no one note that jumps out and asserts itself on my skin. Instead, there are moments where I can smell something individual, but then it's immediately subsumed by what smells like ambered sunlight. After it's fully dried down, the patchouli, honey, and tonka pull forward a bit but stay close to the skin. This is one sexy snowball, my friends. Although there is a touch of something wintry here, I think this is one that I would happily wear year round. A backup bottle will be necessary.

The whip-wielding Goddess of Divine Retribution, Justice and Vengeance, and is the force that balances the scales of Tyche's fortune. She is also called Adrasteia, 'she whom none can escape', and Erinys, 'implacable'. Nemesis is the executrix of Olympian justice, and her primary duty is to punish hubris and mankind's offenses against the natural order with inflexible, remorseless and raging fury. Her symbols are a sword and scourge, a measuring rod and scales. Cypress, ginger, fig, dried rose, red patchouli, tonka bean and cyclamen. After experiencing the wonder that is Kali, and the effect of wearing an oil named after a deliverer of retribution (I kind of went on a tear the first night I wore Kali), I thought perhaps I would try my luck with Nemesis. The cypress and patchouli vie for attention at first, but underneath them the rose, ginger, fig and tonka tumble restlessly. The ginger and rose win out on my skin, and the effect is of a black opal, where bright colored pink and yellow glints play out across the darkness. But overall the scents are so balanced that every time I sniff my arm I catch a different note order. Those who are not fans of patchouli, never fear. The patchouli is like a velvet backdrop to the delightful tumult of the other notes. (If I didn't know it was in here, I don't know if I would guess.) I love this blend and it's good for me personally, as I probably need to get in touch with my sense of fury. But I think I will also turn to it when I want to feel feminine and strong. This is for wearing with my knee-high boots and cashmere sweaters. It's gorgeous and I'm taking no prisoners. ETA: Because of the delicious tonka/rose mix, this reminds me a little of Mata Hari but is much smoother (and lacks the espresso scent!).

Gaudeamus omnes in Domino, quia Salvator noster natus est in mundo. Hodie nobis de caelo pax vera descendit. Apologies, I looked for my bottle of Cathedral so I could compare the scent of Cathedral Incense atmo to it (thought that might be most useful to others), but am unable to find it so am working from memory here. But I do think that Cathedral Incense is strongly reminiscent of Cathedral, and that people who like it would like this! I'm getting similar resiny-herbal-sweet vibes, with what smells like frankincense and myrrh with maybe benzoin and styrax? There's a hint of what smells like candle or incense smoke as well, although I wouldn't call it heavy on that element. It's really beautiful and smells like Christmas mass. So glad I got a bottle!

I guess we talk about blood a lot in our copy? Coppery, bloody blood and a squirt of lemon.