LiberAmoris

There's that topic and there's also this existing topic, which I've merged this new thread into. The classic bedtime scent for me (and many other people) is TKO.

Mmmmn, the smoked honey here is really awesome. Impressions of the Floating World is patchouli leaf and benzoin dipped in that smoked honey and the vanilla silk...very smooth and definitely in the patchouli-vanilla category that many of us here love. The vanilla silk almost smells like a vanilla-linen-rice note, which is lovely and adds complexity. I also get a subtle nutty under-note (as called out above) to either the patch or benzoin that adds something I like to the blend. The smokiness is just at the right pitch, adding sophistication.

Joyful Dalliances in the Underworld is kind of an amazing progression. Wet, the vetiver, leather, and pepper are really strong. They're honestly too much for me at that stage. But once those start falling back as the fragrance dries, the cherry cognac, brown sugar, and apricot come forward. This stage smells like sweet, brandied cherries and apricots! The foil between dalliance and underworld is pretty great. This is going to be great on my husband like Yule Buddies is...this is going into his BPAL box.

I bought the The Head for the tuberose but am loving it for the gardenia and jasmine—this is one tall stack of white florals! If you're ambivalent about gardenia or jasmine (particularly gardenia), this might not be for you. But the execution here is lovely. In order of prominence on my skin when dry, I get: gardenia, tuberose, jasmine, red carnation, oudh, and benzoin. They sort of all bleed together, though, into a bouquet that smells very classic, very heady.

The first word that came to mind when wearing The Bride was pretty. This is just so pretty. It's sheer and delicate on the skin, almost like a floral skin scent. The magnolia is the most prominent note, but there's a dusting of vanilla chiffon and a drizzle of honey that seem to permeate and merge with the magnolia itself. A gorgeous blend for spring!

Filthy, indeed. The Imperfect Enjoyment is thirsty as hell and totally unapologetic. The notes collide in shadows, with the pitch, black musk, guiacwood, myrrh, and adolescent patchouli setting the backdrop for the scorched clove. There are so many base notes that the bottom practically falls out! This is dark and deep and sexy, and although some people will find this too much, others will really be into its raw, patchouli-infused beauty. It smells like a post-coital clove cigarette. I just finished up my bottle of Schwarzer Mond, and this will fill the same black hole in my heart.

Fleurette’s Purple Snails is layered violet to the Nth. Wet, I get a moment of the maple syrup as described above, but it's fleeting (and I think it might be the orris). Dry, this is like a symphony of notes, all violet, plus white sandalwood. It manages to be both dry and candied, which is so amazing. Definitely for the violet lovers, it's practically a paean. Not as sweet as Faith on my skin, but it's close.

Adante con Fantasia is very light and pretty. On my skin, it's as if the lilac fougere was dipped in honey. The fougere is gorgeous (and the lilac touch is just perfect here). I get no real lime to speak of, just a brightness that I attribute to the citrus note. This would be great layered with The White Bees Swarming, Honey, or Dorian hair glosses.

White rose always smells a little pickle-y and wood-y to me at first, but I try to be patient for a minute or two, because the drydown payoff is worth it. A Sublime Beauty goes that route on me, and I don't have to wait too long before this smells balanced and warm—the white rose, the orris, tonka, vanilla, and bergamot...all really balanced. The patchouli is nearly undetectable on my skin. I don't think I'd know it was here if it wasn't in the notes. Totally dry, this is a spiritual sister to Parlement of Foules. Whereas Parlement was a fairly straightforward balance of white rose and resins, A Sublime Beauty is multilayered chord of a scent. White rose lovers should definitely try this!

Departing Like Smoke hair gloss is very pretty. It smells like the spiritual sister to Pearl hair gloss, one of my favorites which also contains tiare and amber, and also smells light as a feather. The tiare and sandalwood are gorgeous together, and the result is a pale white floral-sandalwood scent with amber and oudh to anchor it. It's light enough that it's uber work-friendly, but I can still smell it in my hair—faintly—hours after applying it. The longer I wear it, the more amber I can smell. I'm not getting a lot of sillage from this one, it stays very close. I'm going to love wearing this one to work on days when I have a lot of in-person meetings and don't want to knock anyone out with scent.

Volcano in Springtime is so delicious and rich—this is the Stekk from my Lupercalia order, if you know what I mean. I smell mostly vanilla cream and just a bit of sandalwood. I don't pick up the lotus at all, although maybe that's what's adding a bit of candy sweetness? On and dry, this is pure and simple lovely vanilla cream with a hint of sandalwood. Worthy of the YUM emoticon:

The Poem Cloud is a delightfully simple and satisfying red musk hair gloss. If you've enjoyed a red musk-centric gloss in the past and you like honey and cardamom (balanced nicely here, at least to my nose), there's a good chance you'll find this delightful. I'm relieved that the honey note stays in check due to red musk's strong hand, and the cardamom is an accent rather than a prime player. This might also be a great gloss for those who want to love Smut, but find it a bit too much. The Poem Cloud is also sweet musk (singular, rather than layered musks) and has no dark boozy notes. Really glad I picked this up, and I think it will layer well with some of my favorite red musk perfumes.

I think that one is a hair gloss, but yes, agreed! It's lovely.

Ah yes, Brown Jenkin, Sinus Amoris, and Volcano in Springtime are all wonderful. I'm still so grateful that I don't pick up any lotus in Volcano in Springtime!

I'm loving Grooming Scene in a Brothel: Vanilla saffron, carnation absolute, bois de rose, myrrh, and sandalwood incense. My other recent favorite is Crimson: The red of an open artery, the red of congealing blood, the red of a scarlet tomb: burgundy musk, bitter clove, crushed saffron, red sandalwood, and red oudh. Any other reccs with sandalwood?

I tried Grooming Scene in a Brothel a couple of times, and it seemed nice but wasn't knocking my socks off. I let the bottle rest and returned to it last night and it totally knocked my socks off. The sandalwood incense is no joke, and it's fantastic. The vanilla saffron and carnation absolute and bois de rose come in after the sandalwood mellows out a bit, and I can smell the myrrh and it's all very smooth, wrapped up in the sandalwood. The closest comp I can think of is Morocco, but this is more incensey, and the sandalwood note is far stronger. It smells a bit like a Mysore sandalwood soap from India that I buy by the case. This would make a wonderful meditation perfume, and I might use it that way, or I might just apply to feel my blood pressure drop after I get home from work. A real stunner from my Lupercalia order, and a testament to letting a perfume rest a bit before making a final decision.

My Renoir's Still Life with Peaches hair gloss has settled down quite a bit from when I first received it. It's a really complex scent, one that I'd classify more as spicy-fruity-floral than peachy. The orange blossom and red pepper do a lot to make this interesting...the red pepper is a bit strong at first on me, but it sits back after a few minutes and the lingering heat is actually very nice with the other notes. I can see the comparison to Fae that whoahorsey makes above, for sure. This is the peach hair gloss I reach for when I want something less foody and more layered. An hour after applying, it smells like I've shampooed with the fanciest shampoo ever.

I love my Key Lime Pie hair gloss! I don't smell a lot of crust, it's mostly lime custard...and it smells amazing. I brought this with me recently on a trip, and even thought I tried to keep up my regular hair gloss variety routine, I struggled a bit because I wanted to wear this every day. Definitely one of the scents that makes my mouth water, it smells so delicious.

The Geisha and the Samurai hair gloss is tough for me to describe. The blood orange smells naturalistic and bright and juicy, and yet, it smells gently dimmed and blurred by the wood amber. Almost caramelized a bit by the amber around the edges. And the white tea is very clean. The blood orange is the strongest note when first applied, but as everything settles and mellows, I get more amber and tea. It's very simple and beautiful, and the blood orange note is uplifting and happy. This is the kind of hair gloss that could really go anywhere—at the end of the day yesterday, most of the orange scent had dissipated, but my hair smelled clean and warm with the lingering amber and tea. Lovely.

Smut hair gloss is like a dream come true for me, because Smut is one of my favorite musky BPALs and I've long relished the idea of layering a hair gloss with the perfume. I don't know what three musks are in here, but they're awesome and the sugar is the just at the right amount—not too sweet. I never get the dark booze notes from Smut, but I'm not complaining, since boozy notes aren't always great on my skin. In my hair, it's totally Smut, but it's not too strong—I think I could wear this to work. Every time my hair moves, I get a hit of soft, sugared musks. Love, love, love.

Bumpity bump bump. In addition to the lovely Terra Vigoris I noted above last year, I'd add: Père Noël - Bright Sicilian oranges and sweet tangerines with a clink of lavender candy and a drop of anise. Fire Monkey - A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, orchid for luxury and elegance, pomelo for luck, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat for prosperity, pussy willow for growth, King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, and peach fruit to represent the fourth phase of Wu Xing. This year’s Lunar New Year blend also has an extra dollop of wild orange and flaming red dragon’s blood give you fortitude and strength, and, of course, to assist in scaring away the rampaging Nian. We've really been blessed with some awesome tangerine scents recently!

Père Noël is a lovely fragrance, but it took me many tries before it finally smelled the way others have noted it above. For the first 3 or 4 tests, it smelled a bit chalky on me, an issue I attribute to some wonky skin chemistry lately. Orange and lavender are fantastic together, and one of my first signature fragrances was a solid tangerine-lavender perfume that came in a tin. Père Noël reminds me less of Yuletime and more of that fantastic natural fragrance I wore as a teenager. Amongst the orange, tangerine, and lavender, the anise is a nice touch—it's pretty light-handed and just makes everything a little richer and more nuanced. So glad that I hung onto this and kept trying!

Wow, Fire Monkey is one glorious bouquet of notes. There are so many that it's tough to pick any one out. I mean, look at this list! Peony, orchid, pomelo, plum blossom, tangerine, lychee, pine resin, golden kumquat, pussy willow, king mandarin, cypress, peach fruit, wild orange, and red dragon’s blood. The overall effect is a luscious, lovely fruity-floral, dripping with citrus that smells so real it makes my mouth water. The floral notes come out after about a half hour, and they take on the glow of the fruits somehow. This is happy and bright in the way that Terra Vigoris is, and I couldn't be happier to have a bottle. This will be great for springtime!

Hmmm, the only lavender and coconut blend that I can think of off the top of my head is Antonino, the Carny Talker: White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender. But some people seem to pick coconut up in TKO, so that might also be worth trying?

I love this bump! Red musk is one of my fave notes also. A few suggestions: A Rosy Colour Paints Her Claws with Honor (if you're also ok with rose and bourbon geranium) Psychodynamic Discharge (if you're also ok with leather and vetiver) The Tumultuous Vultures of Stern Passion (more vetiver here) The Infernal Lover is really tough to find (and was released more than a few years ago), but it was AMAZING. I dream that it will come back some year.