LiberAmoris

Lucille's Room is a darkish floral, full of blues and purples, but it's not heavy. The oakmoss, lilac, and amber lead, with the violet leaf and lily of the valley right behind them...like a perfumed skirt trail going up a slightly dusty staircase. I gave the curtains in my office a gentle spritz, and now the whole room smells like soft florals, dark amber, and that bottom note of oakmoss, which gives it an old-world, slightly ominous feel. A great capture of faded decadence—aristocracy held onto by tooth and nail, and something fragile pinned.

I love Samhain, but I've been savoring my 10ml bottle of perfume since 2004...I find that I want to wear it just a few times each year, and then I cellar it again for the following autumn. The atmo is genius because this is everything I love about Samhain, but I can spritz a room and smell it everywhere without wearing it directly. This smells like fall to me—damp woods. fir, dark patch, and then all the spices of the season, plus pumpkin and apple. It's like a roundup of everything good at this time of year. I'm so glad I have a bottle, and will be using it regularly until first frost.

Mmmm, Candiru Cove Frisbee Tournament is really nice. This smells fuzzy, musky, and tropical to me. It has the subtle coconut and clove of Shiny Furball hair gloss and the lovely clove, carnation, and musk of Sylvia, but it takes things in a completely different direction with the lemon peel, vanilla orchid, and verbena. This is a brighter, sunnier Sylvia, like a beam of yoke-yellow light on fur. Like the other Sylvia fragrances, this reminds me of the smell of my dogs in the best way possible. Their fur is sweet and musky and has the tang of something outdoorsy and fresh. This is like an idealized version of that happy, happy smell. But I think if I sprayed this and invited people over, they'd pick up on the verbena and coconut and musk...and just think it smells like a great capture of dusky tropics.

Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse is lovely and red. The juiciness of the pomegranate works in an interesting way against the dry woods, and this reminds me a bit of of Blood Moon 2005. Here, the red musk and pom create a halo of decadence that's tempered by the black pepper, frank, and myrrh. It's both reverential and sumptuous...a study in contradictions for red musk lovers!

Sinus Amoris! It might be tough to find a bottle because it seems to be very popular, but it's fantastic. The only Halloweenie I've tried with sandalwood so far is The Sorceress. It's also great, but the sandalwood isn't too forward on me.

I travel with hair gloss decants often. I bought a bunch of 2 oz. amber glass mist sprayers, and use those. They've never leaked, in my carry-on or in a checked bag.

Wow, fortune cookies and incense... Mystical Aphorisms captures my favorite part of fortune cookies—the smell (because they never taste as good as they smell). The strong almond note burns off really quickly, and I'm left with an almond cookie incense that lasts for hours. So fun!

I love Mummeries—my favorite of the Scalias. I swear that this is so well blended that it's tough to actually find the edges of a single note in this. When I look at the list of notes, I can pry them apart in my mind and yes, they're all there. But they are so much more than the sum of their parts. The lavender and bergamot supercollide to cancel out any edges: the lavender goes pert and neon and the bergamot lowers its eyes. The blackberry and rosemary make this smell juicy and timeless and pitches it at the height of summer. The white musk makes that moment last. This is like blackberry musk with a highlight and a lowlight. Relaxing, pretty, and really unique.

Hoo boy, everything I loved about my Gourd of Deprivation atmo (which I used up faster than any atmo ever) is now available in a hair gloss. I agree with hammy, it's pretty great to be able to spritz with abandon ON MY HEAD. To me this smells like sweet grasses, dry and almost smoky, and broad sunlight at dusk. There really is something doughnutty in here, and at times this smells like an apple cider doughnut with spices and grasses in the background. It sort of defies description, but it smells wonderful. I will enjoy every drop of this.

Oh man, Peach IX is the softest peach ever. It's like peach on a pillow! The rose musk and vanilla cream are the strongest notes on me...smelling like rosy whipped cream or a milky rose candy. The peach blossom is a downy running stitch through it all, so demure and pretty. Agree that this would be a good 'gateway BPAL' for those who love commercial scent. I'll enjoy it on days when I need something light and lovely, or add a drop of Snake Oil to dirty it up a bit in the best way possible.

Apple IV is definitely red apple on my skin—I'm not getting the green apple as others above. The red apple note is tempered with the blackcurrant (counters the sweetness of the apple), and the clove and vanilla bourbon give it a spicy kick. This smells like a creative, upscale mulled apple cider on my skin...the clove really comes through on the drydown and the tartness of the blackcurrant also comes forward. I really like this!

Apple I smells like baked red apple and a bit of sweet oatmeal on me, with a touch of something fresh and outdoorsy (maybe the hay?). The red apple note is so yummy and true, and I love how the other notes soften it. They make it creamy and slightly blurry—taking some of the 'bite' out of the apple. Very pretty.

Candied Apple is sweet red apple on me, just like its namesake, or like a sweet cup of apple cider. It's really amazing how well this captures a red apple with a red candied coating. Fun and wearable on it's own, or would blend well with something spicy (like Pumpkin Spice Everything) or chocolatey (like Bliss).

Apple, honey, cake, patchouli and herbs...On Halloween smells like an autumn cornucopia of delicious treats, but the herbs and patchouli keep it from feeling too foody. Instead this smells like scents carried on crisp night air. I've been spritzing my front hallway with this and every time I enter my apartment it smells like apples and mead and fall air.

Licorice Whip is fascinating...I would never have thought that I'd want a room to smell like licorice and leather, but it's oddly compelling. The black licorice note isn't too sweet, and the black leather note is clean and bright. Together, they make a scent that smells dark and gleaming, part edible and part formidable. If this smells like candy, it's candy for the fallen world, for sure. I'll keep spritzing this and enjoying the contradictions!

Zombie Moon atmo is really fun—I get cherry and vanilla and maybe a bit of the blood note and musk. In the air this mostly smells like cherry-vanilla-white musk, which works for me. I find this scent very cheerful and the cherry note is delicious...I think I'll try spraying the inside of my pink winter coat with this, and then wear Bordello.

I love the blackened and scorched notes in A Witch Riding on a Dragon. They're most prominent on me when wet, but are never overwhelming...they just make this blend more atmospheric and it's a great counter to the tonka and dragon's blood. The tonka and dragon's blood are stronger than the patchouli on my skin, and I don't always love the oak note, but here it works really well to ground everything. There is sweetness and soft char and resins in abundance here. I got this for my husband, but am glad I got to try it first.

Départ Pour Le Sabbat is definitely for red patchouli lovers. The red patch is glorious here, and I can also smell the honey and vanilla—they're not shy. The goat's milk accord is strongest on me when wet, but gives a subtle tangy creaminess to everything when dry. The oudh comes out on the drydown and I get some wonderful wood notes about 20 minutes after application. Another one that could be either sexy or comforting, depending on mood. Really glad I tried this, and I think it will age like a dream. Going to have my husband try it as well...I have a feeling this will be great on him.

En Garde smells like rum jelly beans on me—with a big dollop of caramel and a whiff of tobacco. It's really fun, but it might be just a touch too sweet for me...although every once in a while I get a craving for a candied scent, and this would definitely fit the bill!

Meus Amor Aeternus is another one I've had to try a few times to get a read on, because it shifts every time I wear it. Mostly, it's like Dorian and Snake Oil and honey, with a wreath of carnation and moss. That probably sounds weird, but it works. Like Lilith Victoria, this is a blend that takes Dorian and Snake Oil and blends them up with striking and unusual notes—and like Lilith Victoria, I find it very soft and comforting and cosy. It even smells a bit outdoorsy, like fresh breath breathed into our beloved BPAL classics.

Wow, Muse of Fire is like a firework of flowers and colors. I find it impossible to pick out any individual stem, but at times I think I catch: daisy, lilac, cotton blossom, clover, rose, and phlox. But I really have no idea, because it's an absolute tumult of petals, built up to the point where my brain is awed and then I can only think: flowers. In this sense, it seems wonderfully spring-y to me, like the month of May in a bottle. I wore it today at work and when I went to pick up my salad at lunch, the guy at Pret leaned in and said: YOU SMELL SO GOOD. This is so lively and hopeful, I have to keep it for those days when I need a rainbow on my wrists.

Ok, I'm going to try and be calm about this, but Captain Lilith and Her First Mate hair gloss smells like coconut Midway on me. The rum and hot toddy notes are very, very subtle, so mostly I get creamy vanilla coconut cupcakes wafting about in my hair, and it's absolutely delicious. I'm very glad I picked this one up.

In college, my work-study job was in the theatre costume department, where I was a stitcher and draper, and then a costume designer on a few productions. It was a fantastic job, full of creative decisions and geometry and quick changes. My boss, the head of costume design at the university and an incredible designer, also taught makeup. Before shows, while quickly whip-stitching some decorative element back onto a costume that fell off during rehearsal, she would pull out boxes and boxes of Ben Nye makeup (maybe Stella's uncle?) and, pre-Kim Kardashian, contour the hell out of some sophomore. The small room would fill with the smell of the makeup and the sweetness of whatever cookies or cake someone brought in. Clown White smells like makeup and sweets! There is a bit of a Play-Doh vibe, but to me it smells more like pale marzipan and marshmallows and something faintly reminiscent of grease paint. It smells just like that classic white makeup base and a faint trail of something sweet. This makes me so happy, and I'm in awe of Beth's ability to capture 'Clown White' so perfectly.

Oh boy, Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcake smells just like one...almost like carrot cake, as mentioned above. It makes me want dessert...badly. On the drydown, it's pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting. I'm one of the lucky ones for whom the cream note stays pretty true, and this is just delectable.

The Witches' Sabbath is kind of fascinating...wet, it's very 'red', with the Burgundy, wine-soaked red fruits, rose geranium petals, and red patchouli. But dry, this is immortelle, champaca, candles, and smoke on me—strained through the sieve of 'red' but mostly feeling white and pale yellow and pale orange. It really does have a moment where it smells a bit like Blood Rose and then it banks left. The remnants on my wrist after an hour smell like the wee hours of a Bacchanal, when the candles are moats of molten wax, dripping over their forms, and the smell of wine and flowers and spent lust are in the air. Really interesting and artful, and quite a progression!