annemathematics

i looooooooove this one. it feels like an Indian-style musky rose attar. I'm a big fan of the lab's roses and ambrette notes, and this scent flaunts them wonderfully. the throw is enough to reach out and invite neighbors in closer. it's lasts and lasts. with some rose perfumes, the rose element fades after a few hours, but the queen of love's roses never quit, never falter. gorgeous!

i love the lab's ambergris, and this scent shows it off more purely than any other scent I've had the privilege to try (missed out on the SN alas) beautiful sparkly ambergris with a touch of herbal carrot seed. I like powdery orris, and while I'm sure that the orris does temper some of the watery/syrupy/liquid qualities of the other two notes, this blend isn't dusty or dry or powdery at all. it's very pretty and I love it. also appreciate the heartbreak of the winning story. thank you, beth and mel c! nice throw and last for hours and hours. just what greed-mongers appreciate.

I just have soooo many evergreen forest scents already, that I really don't need another...ha! what I am saying? I DO have a lost of forest scents, but this one is just so big and bright and pretty, the sap so bright and potent and gleaming. i kept coming back to this imp and wearing it always brightens my heart and makes me smile. the waft is moderate and it fades after a few hours. the forest sap scent stays true for the duration that it lasts, and doesn't morph into anything other than magical forest. compared to other evergreen scents in my collection, this one is all about that virile fresh sticky sap. brighter and truer and cleaner than the juice in my other bottles. I adore this.

the official cologne for metrosexual lumberjacks? this is indeed a lovely sexy thing. beautiful deep pine with a surprisingly subdued vetiver (more syrupy and less smoky than the vetiver in midnight reunion with his lost wife) over a spiced shadow of leather. I love love love the opening, when the pine is strong and rich and proud and beautiful. it's still nice when it dries down to a dark, grassy* clove-stained leather, but that opening! I'd wear the wet scent always and forever, but the drydown is something I'd prefer to snuggle up to on someone else. *vetiver-style grassy, not lawn grass

oh man, this is such a little beauty! wet it is a gentle yet complex blend mostly focused on the dry vanilla, given warm depth from the cypress, herbal richness from the fennel and brightened just-the-perfect-amount by the orange. everything is boosted by juniper, making this feel clean but not (to me) pushing it anywhere near the realm of bath product. as it dries down some of the complexity recedes and what remains is the *perfect* dry vanilla-anise goth juice. ugh it's light and simple in a way that suggests youthfulness of spirit, the fluttery gentleness of a butterfly's wings. good for layering but also perfect on its own. I adore anise-y smells when they are strong and in your face, but this isn't that at all. the anise here is very light and lends support to the vanilla, which is dry and not foodie. it reminds me of the vanilla from mummies of mexico city, sans incense and death. *perfect* vanilla-anise goth juice!!!! huzzah and thank you, beth!

this has a candy-like sweetness when first applied, dries down to something that smells like a department-store-esque kind of blend. verbena-focused, with a swirl of frankincense and a twist of angelica. the rose is so meshed in that it's hard from me to single it out. I tried this on a random whim for the theme and the angelica, and upgraded to a full bottle. good throw and lasts over twelve hours on me. there is something very happy and carefree about this scent. wearing it brightens my mood! bpal: the best medicine

very beautiful dark liquid purple smooooooooothness. although I don't work with this aspect of the fool in my actual tarot card readings, this scent jumped up and down at me as I read the release. it's a total winner of a blind bottle and my favorite fool scent that I tried. I wouldn't classify it as feminine, masculine, unisex...it's honestly kind of like the tao, in that it evokes many things but yet cannot be boxed in or labeled. I put this beauty on when I get home from work, and the scent washes the day clear away and brings me into my own dark, magical, beautiful space. the throw is good and it lasts until I go to sleep; fittingly, all traces of it are gone the next morning.

a smooth rich blend of resins and woods. cedar always amps on me, and I can easily suss it out here, but it's so nicely swaddled in frank, cypress and myrrh that I feel like this was the role cedar was born to play: to fill out this masterpiece and anchor all of the magic. I can't not huff myself when I wear this. I also love layering it with the lighter crescent moon.

spicy musky deliciousness with my favorite bpal frankincense at the base. love this. the first time I tested my magician decants, this scent kept wafting out at me and making me mash my nose in my wrist and huff like it was the air i needed to keep on living. fits me like the perfect little black dress. a 2018 favorite. gracias, beth!

The Magician's Garden is rose of sharon and lily of the valley and despite that simplicity of notes, it's an elegant stunner. chionophobia is another lily of the valley/muguet fave, as is the snow queen hair gloss, shards of looking-glass.

a sweet plump creamy vanillic base under a fleeting hint of rose. the rose quickly recedes and I have something close to carnaval diabolique's hope or frau bei der selbstbefriedigung bath oil. I felt a tinge of disappointment due entirely to my hopes and expectations that this would be a stronger and darker rose blend. shoving aside said expectations, this is a nice and accessible vanilla scent for those who only want to flirt with the rose note and not spend the night together. very pretty and feminine.

a sleek and lanky amber anointed and washed with juniper. some ambers feel like syrupy labdanum, but this feels closer to frankincense tears to me. very light touch of non-smokey sage. this is a bright and happy resin blend. light and bright, not at all heavy. it's pretty on its own, but I wear it layered with the pillars as the combo sets me in a magical space.

this is a very bright and cheerful honey. youthful and comforting. easy to wear in that it doesn't morph or go raunchy on me (please note that I do adore morphing and raunch, but the straightforwardness of this means I can wear it with ease in different public situations aka workplaces and on the town alike) I like to put this on when I get home from work. just like it's name, it honestly is soothing. true to the card it represents, mixed in with the calm is the soft joy of anticipation, much like the freedom one feels when starting a nice long road trip or vacation. light-to-moderate throw and it's gone completely the next morning.

I'm going to add Advice of the Dead, Witch's Tea Party and the Magician's Garden as scent suggestions to this thread.

smokey marigold floral scent. smells like fancy department store perfume for the occult scholar. there's the barest hit of soil only at the beginning, which is the most resin-heavy stage. elegant yet slightly musty (like a fortune teller's unwashed heavy brocade curtains). if dia de los muertos is the jubilant scent of the maiden, this is the waft of the crone's wisdom, having replaced the bright creamy sweetness with dusty flowers and a memory of myrrh smoke. the sophisticated scent of a secret-keeper.

This to me is the classic bpal amber with the oooomphy deliciousness amped up to eleven. The spice is subtle and adds complexity. This is rounded and big and gawgeous. I feel almost guilty getting so much happiness from a perfume formulated in dire times, in response to federal government atrocities. May the ugly reality we're fighting against also end so beautifully. This has a low throw, but it's warm and strong in the tiny perfume aura. Lasted a few hours only but I gotta confess, the review is based upon testing it immediately after the post office handed it to me. It's a beauty that fans of bpal amber will adore and slather. Free the individuals and families locked up in cages! Abolish ICE! No human is illegal! Seeking asylum is not a crime! All power to the people!

Black pepper and vetiver with cardamom, blackened vanilla, and tobacco absolute. in the bottle, this is the dark chewy-ness of vetiver is boosted by the dark chewiness of tobacco. the smallest hint of spice and a gasp of sweetness from the vanilla. this swarm of flies is thick black oozing, tar like and so very dark. it will blot out the sun. when applied, a nicely spiced vetiver is strongest just out of the gate, but the smokey tobacco and vanilla come forward more with time. there really is a feeling of "buzz" from the pepper and tobacco against the vanilla and cardamom. the drydown is lovely. the vetiver softens and the scent is still dark and spicy and rich but it's softened considerably. the sweetness of the vanilla balances the smokey notes and the buzz quiets down until it feels...almost sparkley? this is one for vetiver lovers. it will not make vetiver converts. it is one of my favorite plagues and one of the darkest scents that I find to be everyday wearable on me. eta to correct my last paragraph: is you are a lover of dark scents but have been iffy on vetiver, this may be the scent that leads to your loving this deep and sticky note. the vetiver has shifted so that it really melds incredibly with the tobacco. the spices add so much without any of them amping. I've had this for less than a month, and it's only gotten better. deep, rich, spicy but balanced with just a gleam of sweetness from the (nonfoodie) vanilla. I have to come out and say I LOVE FLIES. bring on the flies!

omg so grateful to lilith and puddin for brewing this potion and for puddin for puttin' it up on the ol' etsy. I'm familiar with each of the notes listed in real life forms and as perfume elements in other bpals (and vetiver in EO form), but this blend stands out as being its own thing, not really playing like any of the players. this is very much a high class super tough glam scent, like angelica huston in witches or as morticia addams, maybe rosi de palma in latex (someone please layer this with the latex SN or a leather scent). very very expensive, refined, high class snooty department store concoction but with something sinister underneath...that, uh, actually reminds me of childhood summer camp bug repellent (yes, that sounds like a backhanded thing to say but I do mean it in the best possible way as I love this scent) there is, as ZZ mentioned above, something also nostalgic about it. I grew up with lilac bushes all around me so perhaps it's this that does also signal "teenage girlhood." but this teen girl reads a lot and pets cats and wolves and sneks and spiders and is a keen obvserver and makes art her parents kinda wonder if they should worry about. bravo, Lilith, bravo.

I like lily! I really do. but...don't really reach for gorgeous white flower perfumes all that much. this is a beautiful balance between the lily and the labdanum/cistus/rockrose. the lily isn't soapy to me/on me, but there's something about the drydown that does feel very clean (esp compared to the suggestive honey in the magus). this hovered gently in my aura for two hours and then stayed a skin scent for the remainder of the day/into evening. if I wore lily scents more than twice a year, this would easily be a bottle upgrade for me. it's beautiful!

remember the bpal and haute macabre collaboration ARADIA? soft, lovely, dang near impossible to find. the magician's wand magically resurrects that scent BUT AMPED UP TO ELEVEN AND LASTING FOR DAYYYYZ. my impression of aradia was that it was the lovechild of antikythera mechanism and banshee beat. this is as lovely but heaps stronger and huzzah!: easy for everyone to acquire and enjoy.

thick, heavy, raunchy, musky honey with a bit of frank with a subtle wash of lily in the background. on me, the honey morphed kinda like a heavy breather in perfume form. i do very much like this. something kind of primal about it. not office appropriate. editing to add that after a few weeks, this has become a bit more floral-forward. the honey merges more wit the frankincense. I still like this, but I miss the longer-smutty honey stage. very beautiful asphodel scent!

media, closet raid, claircognizance, an oiran of the yoshiwara and her customer, the fool's rose all kind of have that perfumey thing to me

this was thick and sticky as sap. slightly sweet with an edge of sinister. very very dark in feel. like a molasses oil slick reflecting a new moon. for those of you familiar with the bpal good omens scents, temperance smells like a hot lady demon that both hastur and ligur would want to date. Eta: description!! "XIV. TEMPERANCE She said she was a vampire. One thing I knew already, the woman was a liar. You could see it in her eyes. Black as coals they were, but she never quite looked at you, staring at invisibles over your shoulder, behind you, above you, two inches in front of your face. “What does it taste like?” I asked her. This was in the parking lot, behind the bar. She worked the graveyard shift in the bar, mixed the finest drinks, but never drank anything herself. “V8 juice,” she said. “Not the low-sodium kind, but the original. Or a salty gazpacho.” “What’s gazpacho?” “A sort of vegetable soup.” “You’re shitting me.” “No.” “So you drink blood? Just like I drink V8?” “Not exactly,” she said. “If you get sick of drinking V8 you can drink something else.” “Yeah,” I said. “Actually, I don’t like V8 much.” “See?” she said. “In China it’s not blood, they drink, it’s spinal fluid.” “What’s that taste like?” “Nothing much. Clear broth.” “You’ve tried it?” “I know people.” I tried to figure out if I could see her reflection in the wing mirror of the truck we were leaning against, but it was dark, and I couldn’t tell. Eyes black as coals: gleaming opoponax, black patchouli, sweet benzoin, and beetle-bright labdanum."

hellllooooo!!! has anyone here tried the post luper DIX and the yule ROSE OUDH AND MYRHH that can please compare the two? thank you!

can you describe how the candy tastes? otherwise I'd layer a pine-focused scent with something sugary, honeyed or sweets to the sweet.