LiberAmoris

I love tuberose! Reviving this topic in case there are any other tuberose lovers out there. My fave blends with tuberose include: The Sorceress, Vain Sorceress, Plovers Above the Waves, Alma Venus, Lullaby, and Ava. I'm really looking forward to The Head from this year's Lupercalia release!

There are also a couple of cherry blossom scents available in the current Lupercalia update! First Cry of the Warbler on the Plum - Wild plum, blackcurrant, honeyed green tea, wisteria, and a flutter of cherry blossoms. The Instructional Manual - Cherry blossoms falling into folds of red musk, bourbon vanilla, and strawberry cream.

For cardio, I really like just a tiny dab of something with a citrus note. It's energizing and it smells nice and clean. My current favorite is Key Lime Pie. (Also, the smell of pie is a good incentive to work out!)

Another vote for Pleasant Embrace, if you can track it down.

Seconding The Radiance of an Opium-Dream if you can track some down—it's gorgeous.

The Ground Where all the Dead Lie really makes good use of the dirt note—this is one dirty, rooty scent. Honestly, if there's a floral in here, there's just a drop, at least on me. What I smell is everything below the bloom: the stem, the root, the dirt. I agree with Lycanthrope that there's something woodsy in here, and could be a bit of patch. This would pair wonderfully with Rose-Boughs and Rose-Roots Hair Gloss. For me, as much as I can appreciate the veracity of the dirt note, I like a little more rose with my root. Luckily for me, this is absolutely spectacular layered with The Rose.

Fresh and Blooming as a Rose is like a lightly ambered Snow White + white roses. This is like a cascade of warm whites—white roses, white amber, and snow. I don't always like the snow note, but it's lovely here, taking a backseat to the roses and amber. It's very clean and sweet and rosy.

Oooh, the chrysanthemum in Ghosts is very nice. The violet leaf is relatively restrained, and the funereal incense adds a bit of light smoke—a little blurring. This smells almost like old linens taken out of scented storage paper, very evocative of the past. It's very soft, and at times, the sillage smells a bit like a lighter Gypsy Queen. Very nice, a beautiful capture of the concept.

Mother Ghost really does smell cold, like something from beyond the veil. I'm surprised at how prominent and lovely the tea leaf note is here. This is mostly light tea, vanilla flower, white rose, and black orchid on me when wet, with the musk and amber coming forward on the drydown. Gorgeous and otherworldly, and mellows into a gentle tea-floral with good staying power.

Dr. Alan does smell a bit like Snow White in the bottle! Once on, it's really clear sandalwood and bay rum on my skin, with just a hint of something like Snow White in the background. Sandalwood is one of those notes that smells practically narcotic to me, so I quite like it here. Bay rum is one of those notes that I like smelling on others, but not on myself. I enjoy the clovey-cinnamon spice it adds to the sandalwood, and the overall effect is of a lovely aftershave or cologne that runs both sexy and clean.

Sir Thomas marries black amber with a pale fougere that's reminiscent of the fougere in Dorian. The fougere is gentle and mannerly, and the black amber is more raw and overtly sensual, so the combo is pretty effective at signaling the mix of aristocracy and scrappy that Thomas represents in the film. On the drydown, I get black amber, lavender, light musk, and maybe a bit of tonka. Very nice. I got my husband his own bottle so I won't have to steal it from his BPAL drawer.

Indulgence does smell a bit like washing powder at first. It settles down after a bit into a shadowy, grey-white floral with an almost lemony edge. I can smell a smidge of vetiver, but it's very subtle. On complete drydown, this is a big-broadcast floral—I agree that the sillage is phenomenal on this one. I'd definitely have to be in the right mood to wear this operatic fragrance, but I really appreciate how well-blended it is and how skillfully the vetiver and oudh slink up against the green amber and florals to cast a discomfiting shadow.

There's vivid rose and blurry snow in The Bear Prince, so I can see the comparison to the merger of Snow White and Rose Red. Not sure what creates the shaggy fur note, but maybe a touch of light brown musk? This is very wearable and light on me, like red seen through white. Somehow fresh and musky at the same time, which seems like a good capture of a fairy tale. As a BPAL rose lover, this is a great addition to my collection.

When I saw the relatively straightforward note list on Insects, I thought I could imagine what it would smell like. NOPE. Another great reminder to be very humble when it comes to imagining scent from description! It's really tough to pull individual notes from this. My husband said 'cologney' when I asked for his take, which is probably a synonym for well-blended and without edges. I would not pull patchouli, purple fruits, neroli, or opoponax from this on a blind sniff. What it does smell like to me is the iridescent, blue-green-purple-black exoskeleton of a beetle—a bit hard and dark and shimmering. It smells nice on me but amazing on my husband, who has added this bottle to his personal collection.

Rosewood always goes on a bit soapy and sour on me at first, but Between Your Heart and Mine deepens (quickly) on the drydown to a smooth vanilla-rose, like a woodsier, blushed shadow of The Waltz. The two scents are very complementary and they layer beautifully. Between Your Heart and Mine isn't sweet, and the rosewood runs a bit powdery (in a way I've come to enjoy), but this is really relaxing and smells antique in a good way.

Dark and Weary is really interesting...such a difference from wet to dry! The oudh and benzoin lead on my skin when wet, and it's a really strong dose of both. The effect is of something appropriately unsettling. That lifts after about ten minutes and I'm left with a new stage, one that's driven by the oudh and bourbon vanilla. The tobacco also emerges more strongly, adding a chewy, leafy, smoky feel. I like this stage, and the stage that follows—that's mostly like grey smoke with a touch of vanilla and oudh. I would definitely need to be in the right mood to wear this, but I can imagine such a mood!

The Snow at Dusk is gorgeous—my favorite of the new BPAL Yules this year. On my skin, this is the snow note from Snow White, blended softly with notes that smell like pale purples, pale oranges, and pale greys. It's definitely well-blended, with no one note leaping out at me—it smells the way a streaked sky looks at dusk, all swirled together with some warmth and some coolness. There's something hypnotic about this (perhaps the opium tar!) that makes me keep bringing my wrist back to my nose. The inspiration for this Yule sub-series was taken from one of my favorite short stories—James Joyce's "The Dead", which is the last story in his book Dubliners. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it (the whole book). I read "The Dead" each year at Christmas and take something different from it each time. This scent pays homage beautifully—thank you, Beth!

Second Spring is a pomegranate-currant to amber-honey to cypress-patchouli on me, with each note having a moment of prominence before melting into what smells like a currant-amber-pom-patchouli melange. Very evocative of the changing colors!

Woah, yes, this is dark and deep. I'm getting loads of clove and labdanum in Ketkrókur, with dragon's blood and patch not far behind. On the drydown, this is mostly dragon's blood and clove on me. Resin-strong and concentrated. I like this on my skin, but think it might be even better on my husband.

Fragments of a hellish distorted mirror: glassy lily, muguet, and mugwort. Shards of Looking-Glass hair gloss really does smell reflective and bright. I'm getting golden lilies, a touch of ozone, lilies of the valley, and mugwort—which I think is what's giving it a subtle herbal, camphorous edge. But mostly this smells like golden lilies with a bit of water. It's a lovely floral and the kind of hair gloss that, at least on me, makes blow drying my hair an absolute pleasure but then doesn't announce itself overmuch. This is very light about an hour after application, and I can only smell it if I bring my hair to my nose. When I do, it smells great. I'm so pleased to have another gloss that I can wear to work! This makes my hair smell like clean lilies and winter sunlight.

So, I saw the notes for Lullaby and basically had Wile E. Coyote eyes over it. Moonflower, tuberose, and vanilla orchid are three of my favorite notes, and they don't pop up all the time...and certainly not all together. I also really enjoy French lavender and white sandalwood, and gardenia, iris root, and moss can be lovely. But nothing could have prepped me for how much I love this. On my skin, it's lavender with all the other notes in its skirts, a purply, night-blooming flower-driven masterpiece. This is a sleep blend if you want to stun before you sleep, like if you dropped a dram of glamour into a Midsummer Night's Dream.

A Specific Aberration smells both ghostly and summery—it's such an interesting juxtaposition! I'm not sure if the white petals here are tuberose or some other white flower, but they do seem to actually drift through the ambergris and frankincense like an apparition drifting through a wall. There's something truly supernatural about it, and also supernal...there's an effect here of an open space. The ambergris here seems pale compared to ambergris in other blends, and the frankincense is light as a feather. This seems like the kind of scent I'd want to wear with a white dress in summer. There is something a bit soapy about it at first, but it doesn't bother me...it smells fresh and haunting at the same time.

Gelt 2015: This is the first year I've tried Gelt! I'm not sure why I didn't try it before, but am glad I took the plunge this year. In the bottle, it smells a bit like Nutella: hazelnuts and chocolate. On my skin, it smells like chocolate and amber and something a bit nutty. It's delicious. This is almost like Velvet + Bliss + amber on me, and I love it.

Fuzzy marshmallow goodness. This smells like the base of Lick It—if you take away the mint, there's this awesome vanilla musk base, and that's what Stekkjarstaur smells like on my skin. I also see the comparisons to Boo—this smells a bit like Boo minus the cotton note. As I said in the Yule thread, this is simple perfection. Not only is this fun on it's own, but I bet it will make for some layering magic.

I'll echo reviewers above and say that Palmyra was a real surprise. I also expected a cascade of full-throated notes, but this is soft and fuzzy, a scent with a very light touch. It's very well-blended indeed, making it tough to pick out individual notes. I can smell the amber, frankincense, and myrrh, and the vanilla-infused sandalwood is detectable and divine—as is the sand-smoothed leather. The cinnamon is so subtle that I can't pick up on it in any measure that might trigger sensitivity. On the drydown, this is amber, vanilla, sandalwood, and leather...all so light that they defy gravity and seem almost wispy. I like this a lot, and could see myself wearing it to work when I want light-as-air scent that's very soothing.