DiesMali

The Marsh of Corruption: murky patchouli and dank oakmoss drowning in a mire of leathery bourbon vanilla, bitter clove, bog cypress, cumin, and vetiver. In the bottle: Murky bog water. Literally, this smells like the murky water and scrub oaks in the marshes up in the Rocky Mountains. Wet on my skin: ALL the vetiver and patchouli, with a bit of leather. Dry: This is incredibly evocative of the scent description. I don't know how, but it does actually smell like a marsh at first. This is definitely vetiver and patchouli dominant on me at first, with oakmoss and the leathery vanilla coming in under it. More leather than vanilla there, definitely. As it continues to dry and warm on me, the clove and cumin start coming out just enough to spice up the dank, damp bogginess of the rest of it. There's just enough cypress to "green" the scent, taking it from muddy brown to a muddy green-brown. The cypress isn't there really as a note in itself, and is under even the clove and cumin in terms of its presence. This is a fairly masculine scent, and I happen to really, really enjoy it. Definitely one for patch/vetiver lovers.

Sheer musk, cedar smoke, fir needle, chaparral, black amber and leather. In the bottle: Musky, woody cologne. Wet on my skin: Musky, woody, herbal cologne. Dry: This is a rather masculine scent, but I'm A-Okay with that! It's very well-blended overall, but I can pick out the individual notes as well. It's primarily musk and smoky evergreen, with a slightly herbal tinge, over a base of earthy leather. It's a little bit rugged and cowboy-like to my mind. This is not an in-your-face scent, though it's decidedly a bit seductive. Like what you'd smell if you got up close and personal with a handsome and charming Old West snake oil salesman, except he's actually taken a bath in recent memory. And then, as he winks slyly at you over his hand-rolled cigarette, you realise you wouldn't mind joining him for his next one. Ahem.

Almond milk, sarsaparilla, tobacco smoke, High John the Conqueror root, coconut hull, black patchouli and white pine bark. In the bottle: Oddly, it smells like cake. Sweet, almost vanillic, but not quite. Wet on my skin: It's a little faint while wet, but there's definitely almond, sarsaparilla, and coconut hull here. Dry: It retains that almost spice cake-like scent if I breathe deeply, but that is not at all unpleasant. It's a rather foody scent to me, with the almond milk, coconut hull, sarsaparilla, and spicy High John the Conqueror root taking center stage and combining to give this nutty, spicy, slightly-sweet aroma. Quite nice, actually. It's not at all root beery on me, despite the presence of sarsaparilla. The pine bark, tobacco smoke, and patchouli are more of a base to the scent, strengthening the other notes and taking it from what could maybe be too sweet/sharp to a more dry and earthy sort of spicy-sweet. After it's completely dry and has been wearing and warming for a good half hour, the cake fades a bit and it now smells more like a box of expensive herbs and spices. All in all, an unusual scent, but a good one.

In the bottle: Dark, smoky pine pitch. Wet on my skin: Scorched, dark wood, pine pitch, and bonfire embers. Dry: For years, I've been looking for a really true-to-life "bonfire in the woods at night" sort of scent, and I do believe this is it. This isn't a roaring bonfire, though - it's in the hours after the bonfire has peaked and begun to burn low, when the air is filled with smoke and ash and the air around you starts to get chilly now that the night breeze can cut through the fire's warmth. The pine and oak logs in the heart of the fire have burnt to charred husks, and clumps of gooey pitch blacken and then explode into sparks as new logs are added to keep the flames from dying. There's a little bit of spicy greenness from the pine needles and moss, but mostly, this is a dark, heavy, smoky-burnt wood scent. Very very atmospheric and scene-setting. This isn't gonna be something you want to wear to smell pretty, but if your aesthetic is "that creepy lady who just walked out of the creepy, dark forest and started floating above a group of terrified villagers," this might be your thing. It smells like this photo (plus more fire):

In the bottle: Sharp, chemical, and weird. Wet on my skin: This goes on smelling pretty weird, but don't be scared (like I was the first time I tried it)! The initially startling "crack" of sharp ozone and crackly electricity-smell mellows out pretty quickly, and it's actually a pretty cool scent progression. Immediately, it's that sharp electrical ozone and cool, medicinal benzoin, and I don't know HOW they managed to bottle the scent of a crack of lightning, but they did it. Dry: As this dries down, it mellows out pretty quickly into something dark and moody. That initial blast of chilly-electrical ozone-benzoin lasts for maybe a minute or two, and then roll in the blue clouds of indigo musk, tobacco, and opoponax. It's very much a grey-blue scent on me, and although it isn't in-your-face aquatic, there is an aquatic feel to it due to a hint of salty tang pairing with that ozone. The blue benzoin in this is definitely one of the medicinal, "chilly-vanilly" benzoins when paired with the ozone. That said, I actually bought this primarily for the indigo musk, which doesn't disappoint! It's a sweet, dark, smooth musk that is a somewhat rare treasure in BPAL releases, and I don't even really know how to describe it to anyone who hasn't tried it before. The tobacco in this is sweet and dark, like the tobacco in Hellfire, and the opoponax serves mostly to blend in with the benzoin as a sweet resin once everything's settled in to the skin. Overall, this is probably leaning toward the masculine side of unisex, and iI can't stop sniffing myself as I sit here in this cloud of "dark, cloudy blue." There have only been a couple BPAL releases since 2015 that might even be scent cousins to this, so it's also something that might appeal to folks looking for something a little unusual that is neither foodie nor floral.

In the bottle: Clean, citrusy tea and a little bit of something creamy-sweet. Wet on my skin: This goes on as basically a true-to-life but also perfumey Earl Grey tea. It's bergamot-heavy and the sweeter, creamier notes take a minute to come out. Dry: For the first few days I had this, the honey, cream, and marshmallows were the strongest notes, with just a bit of citrusy tea. Now that it's had a couple weeks to sit, the Earl Grey tea is the strongest note! As it wears, the tea starts to fade and I get more of primarily the toasted marshmallow, with the honey and cream adding some light, smooth sweetness. Eventually, after a few hours, it smells noticeably like Lucky Charms marshmallows. It's definitely the bigger morpher out of all the Liliths I bought this time around, but I like all the stages. It has sort of a "classy classic with a twist" feel to it for the first couple of hours, and then turns into something more cute and playful. As I suspected it might be, it's fairly perfumey, and like a lot of tea-based scents, it fades fairly quickly on my thirsty skin. Lasts ~3-4 hours before all I get is a faint whiff of sweet cereal milk, and then it's gone an hour after that. I can see this one getting a lot of use in the spring, and maybe it'll last longer when there is more humidity in the air!

In the bottle: Syrupy chocolate! Wet on my skin: This goes on mostly as chocolate-glazed cake donuts and a little bit of sticky maple. It's already quite realistic at this point, and smells like I just popped open a box of donuts and warmed up a couple of them in the microwave. Dry: This scent isn't super long-lasting on my skin, sadly, but it's nice enough that I don't mind having to reapply after 3 hours! I definitely get more chocolate than maple from this all the way through, but the maple is more present for the first hour or so. The chocolate donuts in this are specifically thick, bready cake donuts, not lighter, fried pastry donuts. I also get the glaze, which is chocolate glaze to my nose! After this has been on for a while (1.5+ hours), the maple and glaze burn off a bit and it becomes one of those dark chocolate cake donuts that has just a light dusting of dry powdered sugar. Dry, bready chocolate cake for the last hour and a half or so. It's really very nice, even if a bit short-lived on my skin!

In the bottle: Thick, sweet, boozy cream and a little bit of mixed resins. Wet on my skin: This goes on much sweeter than I anticipated when I ordered it, because I guess I didn't realize bourbon cream is an actual liqueur and that it's sweet like Irish cream. It's fairly boozy when wet, and the bourbon cream note is definitely the strongest on me for the first 10 minutes or so. I can smell the frankincense and sandalwood as well, and they get much stronger as it starts to dry. Dry: This blend took a couple days to settle down after the first test, and this is now the third time I've worn it, one week later. The thick, sweet, boozy bourbon cream now settles down fairly well after it's been on for 10-15 minutes, for which I am grateful! It is sweeter and less dry than I think I was anticipating with the listed notes, but not in a bad way. After the bourbon cream, the most prominent notes are sandalwood and frankincense, and I can pick out everything except the hazelnut, which seems to be combining with the oak to give it all sort of a woody, dry-gourmand warmth. It isn't outright foodie, but there's definitely something edible and sweet in it. The ink is hard for me to pick out specifically, because I've only tried BPAL's ink notes once before, but there's a whiff of something both sweetish and a little bit bitter, and I think I recognize it as ink because that's what is in the note description. Overall, it's a very "comfortable" type of scent, with the liqueur-sweetened woods and resins, and it wouldn't smell out of place if it had been released with the Yules rather than the Liliths. Golden-brown in tone, warm, and the descriptor "ecclesiastical gourmand" comes to mind. It's really nice, and I suspect a little bit of aging will go a LONG way with this blend.

Like MamaMoth above, this is my favourite of the Liliths I ordered! In the bottle: Dark, sweet, slightly fuzzy, and "purple." Wet on my skin: As this goes on, it's primarily that black amber and candlewax, with a little bit of aquatic saltiness and vanillic sweetness. Black amber is my favourite type of BPAL amber, so this is off to a good start! Dry: This. Is. GORGEOUS. After having my order for a week now and wearing this blend a few times already, I'm considering a backup bottle, which is very, very rare for me. It's a little bit reminiscent, in the best sort of way, of an old Bath & Body Works favourite called Black Amethyst, which I wore through my college years (long before discovering BPAL). It's very well-blended on me, but the black amber, vanillic tonka-candlewax, and honey dust are easier to pick out than the other notes if I inhale deeply. The driftwood gives it a little bit of aquatic salt, but probably not enough to scare someone who dislikes aquatics, and the patchouli is a sweet patch that darkens everything and gives it a bit of earthy sweetness. I can't actually specifically pick out any lavender at all, but I'm sure it is doing something in this glorious purple cloud. Overall, this is a "more than the sum of its parts" perfume, and the vibe to it is sort of gritty-rocker-goth-chic, if that makes sense. I could imagine Joan Jett or Grace Jones wearing something like this. NICE. ...now, how many bottles are left?

In the bottle: Warm, spicy resins! Wet on my skin: This goes on spicier and more resinous than I think I was expecting, but in a good way! Amber, rose resin, galbanum, and clove bud are at the forefront, and I can tell the notes beneath those are rich and complex. There's something about it that reminds me a little bit of The Midnight Carnival, from the OG Last Unicorn line. Dry: This doesn't change a whole lot as it dries, aside from mellowing just a little bit. It's a bit smokier and spicier than I'd expected, but again, in a good way! Warm, spicy, and really pretty. The amber, rose resin, galbanum, and clove bud remain the more prominent notes, and the cardamom, chestnut, and fig add some extra warmth and a little bit of sweetness. The fig in this is dried rather than fresh, juicy fig, and is definitely more of a supporting note than a main player, so be aware if you were hoping for a juicy fig-forward scent. It still reminds me a little of The Midnight Carnival, and I think that must be the galbanum, because it's fairly prominent in both scents and gives them both sort of a "magical bonfire smoke" sort of feel (at least, on my skin). It is slightly on the masculine side of unisex, which is something I personally don't mind at all. Overall, glad I grabbed a bottle of this! I bet it'll be even better after some aging.

In the imp: Cologney bergamot and vetiver. Wet on my skin: This is almost a perfect balance of bergamot and smoky grasses once it's on my skin, and it is very much into "traditional mens' cologne" territory at this point. Dry: This blend doesn't morph a whole lot as it dries and wears, except that a bit of the bittersweet bergamot eventually burns off and more of the resin-smoked vetiver-hay combination comes out past the ~2-3 hour mark. I usually like high-end cologne scents, and I do like this one, but it's a bit too "traditionally masc" for me to really be interested in wearing it. There are only a few of those that I've tried from BPAL so far, and I guess we just added another one! Not quite my thing, but I can see older guys in particular enjoying wearing this! In fact, I'm getting a mental image of an ex-football player dad (the kind who'd consider Irish Spring to be luxury soap) picking out a "fancy" cologne to wear to his daughter's high school graduation ceremony and a nice family dinner afterward. Definitely a nice potential gift for dads and grandpas. Maybe drag kings, too.

In the bottle: Heavy PURPLE flowers. Wet on my skin: Heavy PURPLE flowers and a little bit of musky smokiness. Dry: The lilac and wisteria in this, along with the vanilla, are so well-blended as to create their own new flower with characteristics of all three, and all of the other notes are this supporting haze of red-grey-purple musk with threads of silvery smoke and fragrant oakmoss. BPAL's indigo (especially indigo musk) note is gorgeous on me, and I specifically seek out new blends using that rare jewel, because they're literally always just beautiful. This is no exception. It's a "classy classic" sort of dark floral with that uniquely BPAL edginess to it. Picture an ancient mother-daughter vampire countess duo played by Dame Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett; Helen Mirren's classy-classic vampire countess wears this perfume, and Cate Blanchett's edgier vampire countess wears A-Rovin' from last year's Anniversary series. Also, this might be the most PURPLE scent I own.

In the bottle: Almost aquatic, vegetal, musky cologne. Wet on my skin: There's something in this that is very similar to the vegetal cologne notes in Pumpkin Chypre, a Halloweenie from a few years back. Unfortunately, that one never did work on me. This is better than that one so far, but it's still kind of oddly soapy on my skin, in a "handmade artisan soap" sort of way. Dry: I was hoping for more spice and smoke from this, and I might let it age for a few months and then come back to update this review, because I really wanted to like this more than I do so far. It's not bad, but it's also still got that odd, soapy feel to it. I remember now that currant is in this blend and is certainly the culprit there, as currant notes (and other berries) tend to push scents toward being like fruity-herbal Herbal Essences shampoo or body wash on my skin. Ginger can be either spicy or "clean" on me, and this seems to be a clean ginger note, which probably also contributes to the Herbal Essences feel to this. Overall, this is a fairly clean-green, smooth, chypre-like blend on me, and I must admit that I am a bit disappointed. Hopefully some aging will bring out the tobacco, myrrh, and pepper and dirty up that currant and clean ginger a bit.

In the bottle: A sweet, almost tangy wood scent. Wet on my skin: About the same as in the bottle. It's an almost cologney, sweet-tangy-shiny wood scent. Dry: I'm gonna admit right here that I'm not sure what in this is the lacquered bamboo, as I'm not familiar with those notes yet. This is slightly smoky, slightly salty, and also a little sweet, and is very much a "sum of its parts" sort of well-blended scent. If I inhale deeply, I can quickly pick out the smoked vanilla, oak, and a sort of spicy-tangy wood that must be the lacquered bamboo. The almond blossom, tonka, and amber sweeten it and give it this very smooth, almost cool feel, and I'm not entirely sure what the mushroom smells like by itself, but there's something in there giving everything a softer, slightly earthy-musky feel after it's been on my skin for 15-20 minutes. After this point, it doesn't change much through the rest of its wear, and it doesn't have a whole lot of throw even though it lingers for quite some time. It's on the masc side of unisex, at least on my skin. Overall, this joins the ranks of "very high-end cologne" type scents, which is something I personally enjoy!

In the bottle: Dark, almost liqueur-like chocolate. Wet on my skin: This goes on as a rich, dark, almost musky cacao with a hint of woody incense. Dry: This is a dark, slightly spicy, and fairly uncomplicated scent. Rich, dry cacao with spicy copal and a breeze of dry, almost airy-lemony palo santo. The cacao is definitely the leading note both in the bottle and on the skin, as the first thing I smell at the start of a sniff, but the copal and palo santo join it pretty quickly and are equally important to the end result, which is a well-blended, dark, masc-leaning cacao scent. I'd say this one is on the masc side of unisex, at least on me.

In the bottle: A somewhat nondescript haze of mentholic evergreen and musky moss. Wet on my skin: This is actually fairly quiet as it goes on, but then blooms into this warm, dark, earthy, spicy haze after a minute or two on the skin. Dry: This is definitely what most people would consider to be a masculine scent. There's a green spice from that mentholic-piney wood and ti leaf and a red spice from the mahogany and red pepper, and underneath that is this gorgeous, almost tea-like earthiness. Almost like black tea leaves and tobacco mulched into rich, dark soil. The mahogany in this is the same rich, dark mahogany from A Hailstorm of Knitting Needles, and there's almost a salty quality to the hinoki, which is a new wood to my nose. After it's been on for 30+ minutes, everything is settled down into the skin and now it's a smooth, very well-blended "masculine earthy woods" scent, with mahogany, oud, and tobacco being the most easily discernible notes. Overall, it's in the territory of very high-end mens' cologne, like the kind I'd smell on opera singer friends at the opera-night afterparties where they schmooze with the wealthy opera patrons, which isn't something I personally mind at all. There isn't a whole lot of throw, and this would be a good scent for a "classy" event where you want to smell good enough to be memorable when you squeeze past someone, but not enough for it to linger in your wake. Like...a fancy opera afterparty.

As when the Sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams, or from behind the Moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. – John Milton, Paradise Lost Star-touched blue amber, gurjum balsam, pale orris, Somalian myrrh, benzoin, red sandalwood, and ylang ylang. In the bottle: Misty blue. I dunno, that's what it is. Wet on my skin: I have no idea what this is that I'm smelling. It's REALLY STRANGE but I also can't stop sniffing the crook of my elbow. It goes on smelling a bit like a nice herbal shampoo, but quickly loses that and settles into something I can honestly only describe as "misty blue" as it dries. Dry: This is a very, very unusual, atmospheric, and honestly just WEIRD scent. It's definitely in the Oriental family, with soft woods and resins lending a lightly golden backdrop to the rest of the notes. The blue amber, orris, and ylang ylang just do this THING, though, and I'm having a hard time describing it in terms of actual notes, because it's exceptionally well-blended and one of those scents that is more than the sum of its parts. It's the colour of the blue-grey mist that rolls over the Midwest in the early morning, as the sun just begins to rise. Cool, soft, a little bit powdery, and very, very smooth. I haven't ever smelled anything even remotely like this before, but I already know that I like it.

13 is significant, whether you consider it lucky, unlucky or just plain odd. Many believe it to be unfortunate… …because there were 13 present at the Last Supper. …Loki crashed a party of 12 at Valhalla, which ended in Baldur’s death. …Oinomaos killed 13 of Hippodamia’s suitors before Pelops finally, in his own shady way, defeated the jealous king. …In ancient Rome, Hecate’s witches gathered in groups of 12, the Goddess herself being the 13th in the coven. Concern over the number thirteen echoes back beyond the Christian era. Line 13 was omitted from the Code of Hammurabi. The shivers over Friday the 13th also have some interesting origins: …Christ was allegedly crucified on Friday the 13th. …On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights. …In British custom, hangings were held on Fridays, and there were 13 steps on the gallows leading to the noose. To combat the superstition, Robert Ingersoll and the Thirteen Club held thirteen-men dinners during the 19th Century. Successful? Hardly. The number still invokes trepidation to this day. A recent whimsical little serial killer study showed that the following murderers all have names that total thirteen letters: Theodore Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer Albert De Salvo John Wayne Gacy And, with a little stretch of the imagination, you can also fit “Jack the Ripper” and “Charles Manson” into that equation. More current-era paranoia: modern schoolchildren stop their memorization of the multiplication tables at 12. There were 13 Plutonium slugs in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Apollo 13 wasn’t exactly the most successful space mission. All of these are things that modern triskaidekaphobes point to when justifying their fears. For some, 13 is an extremely fortuitous and auspicious number… …In Jewish tradition, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy. Also, there were 13 tribes of Israel, 13 principles of Jewish faith, and 13 is considered the age of maturity. …The ancient Egyptians believed that there were 12 stages of spiritual achievement in this lifetime, and a 13th beyond death. …The word for thirteen, in Chinese, sounds much like the word which means “must be alive”. Thirteen, whether you love it or loathe it, is a pretty cool number all around. …In some theories of relativity, there are 13 dimensions. …It is a prime number, lucky number, star number, Wilson Prime, and Fibonacci number. …There are 13 Archimedean solids. AND… …There were 13 original colonies when the United States were founded. Says a lot about the US, doesn’t it? This 13 is a blend of blackened cacao and thirteen sacred oils: Siamese red benzoin, olibanum, black copal, fossilized amber oil, sweet myrrh, Coptic rose resin, guggul gum, dragon’s blood resin, Palo Santo, bdellium, dammar gum, and attar of onycha. In the bottle: UH. Popcorn? Buttered popcorn? Wet on my skin: While wet, and also while dry on the first 2 days after it arrived, this smells exactly like the contents of a gift popcorn tin on me. You know, the ones divided into 3 or 4 parts, and they've got butter, cheese, caramel, and sometimes chocolate-covered popcorn? This smells like that while wet. Dry: I waited a few days to try this again, in hopes that it would calm down a bit. Thankfully, the popcorn tin fades after it's been on about 10 minutes. It's cocoa and then a whole lot of dry, almost salty/sharp resins. It's lighter and sharper than I would have expected - I was hoping for/expecting a deep cocoa-incense-resin, and while this has the distinct possibility of aging into something like that, it isn't there yet. Benzoin and sharp, smoky cacao are at the front of this scent, and aside from a bit of myrrh, the rest of the resins are all sort of blended together to form an indistinct mass of sharp, smoky, almost buttery incense. It really does smell salty/buttery, even after the popcorn fades. This is one of the strangest blends I've tried thus far from BPAL, that's for sure. It isn't *bad*, but I think I'm going to put it away and age it in a box for a while to see if that deepens and un-salts the resins a little.

East sat the crone, in Iárnvidir, Fenrir’s progeny: of all shall be one especially the moon’s devourer, in a troll’s semblance. Hati Hróðvitnisson, He Who Hates, the Enemy, He Who Swallows the Moon. The son of Fenris, he feasts on the flesh of the dead and on the final day, he will devour the moon and spatter the skies with blood. He is sated with the last breath of dying men; the gods’ seat he with red gore defiles: swart is the sunshine then for summers after; all weather turns to storm. Frost-limned fur, hackles hunched with insatiable, implacable rage, and death-white fangs crusted with clove-tinted blood. In the bottle: Faintly aquatic. Wet on my skin: Soft, fuzzy, gentle snowy-aquatic. Dry: Despite the rather ominous-sounding description, this ends up being a soft, fuzzy, comfortable scent on my skin. I can't really pick out specific notes, aside from a whiff of what I believe to be slightly spicy blood musk, because this is exceedingly well-blended. There's a slightly lavendery-ozonic snow, I think, atop...fur. It's fur. Clean fur, smelling slightly of high-end pupper shampoo. Having three cats and three dogs, it's an oddly familiar scent that took a bit to place, but which definitely smells like it smells, at least to my nose. Plus that bit of spicy blood musk and snow. It's a darker side of comfortable and snuggly, like a big ol' fluffy, smiling husky who looks uncomfortably like a wolfdog as he eyes your Shih-Tzu with an expression usually reserved for a raw steak.

In the imp: Clean, sweet, slightly soapy florals. Wet on my skin: This goes on very much lily and pear, with an undertone of sweet pea. Dry: As far as lily and/or pear blends go, this is actually a well-behaved, inoffensive one on me. Youthful and light, pretty, and sweet. My skin often blows up pear and lily notes into "entire mortuary worth of flowers" and/or soap, but here, it's fairly quiet, realistic flowers and a hint of juicy pear. I can pick out lilies, honeysuckle, and sweet pea if I try, but overall it's a well-blended bouquet. I think the white musk and some hints of 'green' stem notes in the flowers must be taming this just enough that it actually works on me! There's a slightly powdery quality to it as it wears, and that is (to me) reminiscent of the thick, fuzzy yellow pollen you get in those big, floppy lilies of various types. The scent overall isn't really something I would wear more than once in a blue moon, as fruity-florals are not quite "me," but this is really pretty and I'll be happy to have it on my skin while (re)testing it! Might pull out the imp from time to time, who knows.

HOLY HECK HOW DID I NEVER TRY OR REVIEW THIS BEFORE? OMG. I'm gonna preface this review by stating I need a bottle of this yesterday. In the imp: Thick, dark, spicy-musky anise. Wet on my skin: Thick, dark, spicy-sweet anise with a musky, feral edge to it. Oh, it's gorgeous even at this early stage! Dry: This scent doesn't change a whole lot for the first hour or two. It remains that thick, dark, sweet anise with a feral musk, now with the dark vetiver forest and deceptively soft clumps of lichen and oak leaves, which combine to be quite reminiscent of oakmoss. These are all notes that are generally good to great on me, and SOMEHOW I skipped trying this one for years, even though I got my first imp of it in...2015. Oops. Anyway! I like this even better when dry, because those oakmossy oak-lichen and vetiver notes are *such* a fantastic complement to the sharp, spicy-sweet, feral duet of anise and civet. It's a dark, dangerous, probably seductive blend whose seductive properties I wouldn't mind testing at some point. At least, I'd be seduced a bit if someone I was getting to know wore this. Maybe it'll work the opposite way...? Time to go order some GCs this week, I guess! Black Annis can't ride alone.

Traditionally, Beaver Moon is named thus for a very obvious reason: during this time of year, beavers are hard at work building their dams and preparing for the onset of winter. Not here at BPAL, though! Its our semi-annual opportunity for absurdity and campiness. This years cheesecake is a werebeavers indulgence: chocolate espresso bean cheesecake with a chipotle caramel cocoa drizzle. In the bottle: Rich, creamy espresso and chocolate. Wet on my skin: This goes on with a wave of rich, thick, warm espresso and gooey chocolate. The caramel comes out to join it after a few moments, and my mouth is actually watering because it already smells SO DELICIOUS. No cheesecake yet, but it might be part of the warm creaminess. Dry: Foodie heaven. Seriously. This smells exactly like the description, and right now, I'm REALLY regretting being on a mostly-liquid diet for the next few weeks. It's espresso and chocolate, primarily, but more of a darker baking cocoa than milk chocolate. There's a dry, bitter edge to the coffee/cocoa if you inhale deeply, and the caramel and what I think must be the cheesecake itself give it all a sweet (but not TOO sweet), gooey, warm, creamy feel of burnt-sugary caramelized goodness. I am not getting much, if any, of the chipotle on the backs of my hands, but there's definitely a bit of a spicy kick in the crooks of my arms, so I suspect this is one that will smell better on warmer/less-dry body parts. If it smells THIS good less than two hours out of the mailbox, I can only imagine how good it will be with a few months' aging.

In the bottle: Spicy shampoo and dry wood. Wet on my skin: This is fairly shampoo-like for the first few minutes, for some strange reason. Like, expensive herbal shampoo though, not cheap Suave or something. It quickly morphs into something sensual, sweet, and boozy. Dry: I think my skin might be weird tonight, because this smells like a close cousin to Perversion and Pleasures of the Imagination III, despite only sharing a couple of notes with either. Apparently, something in this combines to smell like sweet booze on me - honey and something, because it's fairly mead-like. It's a lot sweeter and, well, boozier than I thought it would be, and while I can pick out the honey, vanilla, goat's milk, and tobacco, the darker/heavier notes are kinda just supporting them in the background at this point. I think that wood/vetiver/cardamom combination is going leathery on me, which, when combined with the spicy, boozy top notes, would explain why it smells oddly related to Perversion and Pleasures III. Not quite what I was expecting, but not bad at all! Hopefully that vetiver and tobacco come out a little more as this ages, but I'm happy with it now as well.

In the bottle: ...BBQ sauce? Huh? Wet on my skin: Peanut butter and BBQ sauce. Oh dear. Dry: 5 hours in, and this has faded from strong peanut butter and BBQ sauce to slightly spicy peanut butter with a hint of what I can only describe as ball sweat (sorry). I can't smell any of the sweet notes; it's all salty, sweaty nut butter and a bit of spice, no hint of gingerbread. I...think this one's gonna need to age for a while. This is the first blind bottle purchase that has gone this wonky on me since Pumpkin Chypre in 2017, which eventually aged into something wearable, so it's gonna go sit in the timeout corner aging box for a month or three (or more).

Of all the Yules I ordered this go-round, THIS - not the sexy gingerbreads or the sufganiyot - was the one I was most looking forward to! Indigo musk is my favourite of the BPAL musks, and yes. Yespls. In the bottle: Dark, slightly soapy-aquatic lilac and plum. Wet on my skin: My immediate thought is "this could be something from The Last Unicorn" series. Dry: This is a deep, dark, evocative lilac with a gleaming edge of purple-black plum. Indigo musk, opium, and tobacco flower give it a very velvety-smooth, slightly hypnotic quality, and the slushy snow note gives it a very slightly ozonic/aquatic feel, like a snowy bridge over a half-frozen creek that looks black and shimmery under the moonlight peeking out from behind grey-black winter clouds. The dark lilac and plum remain at the forefront, tempered mostly by the opium and musk, which is what I was hoping for, and I love it. Just a beautiful scent, and it will definitely be going into wear rotation as we get into the spring lilac season here.