LiberAmoris

Wow, yeah, the wet stage of Lenus Mars is really strong...and does smell a bit like a Ricola cough drop. But once it mellows out and dries down, it's nice on the husband. Ambergris/chamomile/white musk are such an interesting combo, and when they've settled down, they're like an herbal, ambery, sweet-ish musk? Clean and yet musky. At times I get phantom notes of a just-unwrapped bandage and honey. It's kind of fascinating, and I'm glad I got to test it.

I love a good gardenia perfume, and Venus Cloacina is lovely. White, bright gardenia, underpinned by light musk, frank, and vanilla orchid. It's the epitome of a summer scent for me, the kind of perfume I'd wear on a night out in July or August. Gardenia can skew heavy, but this is a really beautiful and almost translucent take on it—not cloying or overwhelming in any way. At times, it smells a bit like moonflower, which is a nice surprise. Once fully dry, it's almost like a 'white flower musk'. Throw and wear length is good. Definitely a keeper!

From the description, I was expecting 'woah pear' in Pleasant Embrace, but this is just so lovely and balanced between the pear and lemon musk. The pear is stronger when wet, but everything dries down to a lemony, pear-y musk that's actually very subtle. And it's not too sweet on me! It feels...sunny? But like pale sunlight, if it were somehow transmogrified into musk. Nice for springtime!

Yum, pink lady apples! Venus Obsequens is wonderful pink appleappleapple wet and upon application. After a minute or so, the blackcurrant, honey, and cardamom start to come through, and they soften that apple note and add a bit of spice. The apple note can be too strong on me at times, but I really like it here and this is very wearable and pretty. The cardamom is very faint, so if you love apple and honey and blackcurrant—give this a try!

Eyes Made Strong and Grave with Sleep is really wonderful. It does have a cologne-y vibe, which I also attribute to the musk and ambergris. Those notes last a long time on my skin, and the tobacco, opoponax, and cacao give them dimension. The cacao melts away first, and then the tobacco. They leave a subtle shaping on the ambergris, musk, and resiny opoponax—and the result is a sweet, musky, clean drydown that has very faint overtones of tobacco, chocolate, and something nearly marine (not really aquatic, more like sea salt). It's like if Lyonesse went out clubbing in the 80s! And yes, that's a compliment.

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No description listed at the Twilight Alchemy Lab website Please report this thread for merging after first review has been added. Thanks!

No description listed at the Twilight Alchemy Lab website Please report this thread for merging after first review has been added. Thanks!

No description listed at the Twilight Alchemy Lab website Please report this thread for merging after first review has been added. Thanks!

No description listed at the Twilight Alchemy Lab website Please report this thread for merging after first review has been added. Thanks!

I had the craziest experience with Faces Cleaving Each to Each today. Wet, it's strong apple. Dry, it smells so much like Honey I Washed the Kids soap...and I have no idea how that's possible, looking at the note list. But it is, and I love that soap, so this is a wonderful thing.

I get loads of that crisp white apple interior scent when I first apply Faces Cleaving Each to Each, which is really apple-y strong for a while. I really enjoy it, but it's definitely the lead note for a while. The benzoin and oudh are more prominent on the drydown, where they balance that apple zing and bring a woodsy, resiny feel into the picture. The drydown is definitely my favorite stage...the bottom notes meld and smell a bit like vanilla-infused oudh. Very pretty!

Knight in Shiny Armor is one of my favorite scents on my husband. Perhaps because it shares four notes with The Bow and Crown of Conquest (leather, vanilla, carnation, and lavender)? Knight is brighter, perhaps due to all the polishing—and the lavender is more prominent. The oakmoss and clary sage also add a nice mossy, herbal quality. An hour or so after he applies it, the metal dulls a bit, the other notes deepen and muddle, and oh my, does it smell good.

Mmmm, mossy white rose. This is a very slightly sweet white rose, framed with mosses and resins. It's the resin + rose combo that gets me in the end, because they're just so good together! On me, the closest comp is Parlement of Foules plus Zombi, minus the dirt note. Definitely white rose here. Very nice, relaxing rose. Good wear length as well.

Gold and Tears is glittering in the same way that the champagne blends are effervescent...there's definitely a shared quality between the two. It's also one of the strongest perfume oils I've tried in a while. It's really strong! Just a dab will do ya. The combo of amber, carrot seed, and grey musk is very peculiar and tough to describe. I also pick up on something watery in here (reminds me slightly of the warble-y amber from House of Mirrors). Wet, it's almost too much on me—it's sweet and musky and almost fruity, if there was a bright sweet fruit that smelled like musk. Dry, everything calms down a lot, and the carrot seed comes forward (smells a bit like carrots and earth and something herbal to me?), which is great. It ends as a sweet carrot musk, which is better than it sounds. I really enjoy the ride and it's wildly unique. I'll let this one age a bit before making a final decision.

I love how gentle this blend is—it's like the perfume equivalent of a soothing word in a time of need. Wet, I can smell all the notes, although white plum is a new one for me. But the green tea, honey, pale plum, ambergris, and vanilla flower are all there. Dry, most fall away and I'm left with green tea, honey, and a just wisp of the others. It only lasts an hour or so on me, and then it's really difficult to detect. But it seems right somehow, like it whispers something sweet in the ear and then is gone. I reapplied a few times today and didn't mind because that wet phase is so lovely.

If you've never tried Shub, you should—it's a BPAL classic. It's one of those blends that walks the line right between foody (the ginger and resins smell like some amazing ginger candy at times) and sexy/incensey. If I don't wear it for a while, I miss it and have to find my rollerball so I can give myself a good coating. Shub hair gloss smells wonderful when I apply and for an hour or so afterwards, but then the smell is almost completely gone—which is so odd, because it's so intense right out of the bottle. I wish it lasted longer, but it smells great when I'm drying my hair in the morning and then my hair is smooth and frizz-free all day.

Venus Caelestis is really pretty. In my mind it's like a pale blue-grey sky dotted with stars. The blue lotus is watery and contemplative and wide. It pushes up like a vaulted sky. The amber, myrrh, and frankincense are like a dropped anchor for the blend, bringing everything down to earth and letting the top and bottom notes create a wide space between them, giving the impression of airiness and distance. The lemon is both sugar and peel, so the sweetness and bitterness are in balance. The citrus brings everything to a point, or many small points, that cut through the floral and resins like light...something clear and bright. Overall, this wears as an ambered, slightly incensy blue lotus on me with a lemon twist. The lotus is handled beautifully here, but I think this will smell even better on me after some aging, which should intensify those bottom notes.

Neutral was a frimp from the Lab in my last order, and I'm so glad I got to try this one! It is a lovely skin musk, and this would be perfect for people who want a low-key, clean scent to wear in a setting where personal fragrance is discouraged, as this smells like clean skin, or the remnants of a nice shampoo or soap. The smell is tough to pinpoint. I'm getting musk and white flowers, maybe gardenia or honeysuckle? The floral note is one that includes a very faint smell of banana. Normally the smell of banana is pretty much the worst thing in the world for me, but here it smells more like a pale, golden yellow, like unripe bananas and white flowers, rather than the ripe, too-sweet banana smell that I find off-putting.

I've had a bottle of Tombeur for years, but it lives in my husband's BPAL drawer. He doesn't usually wear scent unless I ask him to or it's a special occasion, but yesterday he was looking for something to go with an afternoon of drinking beer and playing Assassin's Creed Unity (otherwise known as 'Saturday' on his calendar) and this was what he picked out. And wow, it's aged so well! It's musky, lavendered vanilla sandalwood on him with a dash of Snake Oil. The lavender is particularly nice here...paired with the vanilla, there's a gentle, relaxing aspect of the blend that contrasts beautifully with the blood musk, patchouli, and vetiver. The vetiver is very light here, and I could barely pick up on it (although that could be due to the aging). So good!

A Peculiar Spirit has a good dollop of the black tea note that I really like and that seems to smell like licorice on some people...here, it has a licorice-y edge even on my skin, but I don't mind it. I get a lot of tobacco, and a bright spark of neroli, with the oudh and benzoin trailing. It doesn't surpass Furo or Blacker than the Raven Wings of Midnight as my favorite black tea perfume, but I like it and think the tobacco is particularly good here. I moved this one over to my husband's BPAL drawer, because it smells really good on him, like a smoky, woody, black tea.

John Watson is metal and oil—with a little linen and lime. I'm going to age this a bit, but my early impression is that I don't love wearing this on its own...but do really enjoy this layered with Sherlock. On the drydown I do get a bit of tweed...it's amazing!

Ugh, this is so good. Sherlock Holmes is tobacco plus soap (in the best way) plus Morocco on me. I've smelled a lot of rosin in my day (my best friend from childhood was an amazing violinist) and pick up on the rosiny resin from time to time, which hits me like a brick-wall flashback. But mostly this is manners meets man—something clean and leisurely up against something striving and dynamic. I bought my husband a bottle, but got a frimp from the Lab that's all mine.

Every time I wear Ivory Vulva, it smells a little different on me. Mostly it's coconut marshmallows, but sometimes I get more of the amber, and sometimes it smells a bit buttery or gingery, and sometimes I get a big dollop of the macadamia milk. But it's delicious no matter how it's sliced. I wouldn't reach for this every day—I have to be in the right mood for something this sweet and foody—but I really enjoy it. Yum!

Comparison of Celebrated Beauties is like floral marzipan on me! The almond/almond flower is the most prominent note, followed closely by the vanilla cream. The mimosa gives this a floral edge that's springy and cuts the foody-ness of it in a nice way. Even so, this is a bit like a flowery dessert in the best way possible. Feels like it's in the same family as (distant cousins to?) Boo and Dana O'Shee.