Casablanca

A jester’s balloon, a vagabond’s pack. The riddle and the punch line. The Consequence, the Mystery, the Untapped Collective Knowledge of All Mankind. Jasmine petals tumbled with a panoply of spices, suffused with incense smoke. The Bindle offers a jasmine-dominant blend with a dreamy, summery, honeyed quality, like there's a hidden honeysuckle in it. My first thought was actually that I smelled honeysuckle, and then jasmine, and I thought of Eostre of the Dawn, one of my favorites. It's a lovely jasmine, full rather than high-pitched, and closer to Winter Jasmine SN than a jasmine from some of the GCs I've tried. Freshly applied on me, The Bindle reads as mostly this jasmine and honeysuckle with a diffuse waft of gentle, calming incense smoke. This isn't the strong incense of walking into a shop where it's burning in the same room, but rather of incense burning from the next open door or two down the street. It's a mellow incense, like frankincense sleeping in a hammock, or like some sticks I would've bought in a Saturday market to burn years ago. I don't catch any spices from this until it dries, and even then they are barely there and seem part of the incense. This is a surprise for me, as I often amp spices, but something here is giving the dried Bindle a more exotic air, reminding me of India. The flowers have settled down by this point, leaving a really lovely exotic skin scent. Unfortunately, I'll probably want a backup of this.

Green chypre and clumps of moss with cypress, an oozing, sebaceous musk, and trampled dandelions. A mingling of greeny-green moss and cypress dominate the Zombie. The chypre brings an earthy -- not dirt, more figuratively earthy -- solidness. I get the dandelions. I'd hoped the note would bring a lilt of spring to what sounded like maybe a heavy blend, but that's not how it's working in this mix. It's more like a damp, grassy smell over it all, blending into the ponderous cypress-mushy moss tones. There's no smell of zombie rot, but there is dampness, a sense of greenery trampled down, sticking together. Good for the right mood.

The affable fool who uses his own obtuseness and ignorance to his advantage: milk, honey, and wild fig with ambrette seed and almond buttercream. Narr opens thick and rich and sweet. It's a buttercreamy milk, heavy with almond and honeyed fig -- that's about the order of strength of the notes on my skin. At first, the ambrette is just darkening the blend a bit, its nuttiness blending into the almond. But in drydown, after the initial honey cream rush (which was pretty heady stuff), the ambrette comes into its own on my skin, building its nutty sort of musk. It reminds me a little of the ambrette in Fortuna Primigenia, which was kind of ambergris-like to me, but here it's mingling closely with almond and harder to separate. The buttercream milk and honey settle down surprisingly fast. What begins as omghoneycreamheartattack quickly mellows on my skin into a nutty, sweet ambrette with creamy and figgy qualities.

Edvard Munch A snow-thick scent, chalky with sandalwood and clove, streaked iron-orange and tonka-brown. My decants haven’t come yet, but I got to sample my friend’s decants with her last night. Some snow notes come across as plasticky or chemical to me, but I’d found that the one in Tres Riches Heures is lovely. It reads to me as coldness + mint + a little vanilla. Winter Landscape opens, to my nose, with that same snow blend. At first I only get this snow, but with a subtle sandalwood instead of Tres Riches Heures’ blue musk. I don’t find any other notes and (like Tres Riches Heures) this opening is simple but pretty. After some minutes I find what might be hints of orange and clove. The former is so subtle on me that I didn’t even notice it when first testing last night. The latter is also soft, but more noticeable than the orange. They color the blend but don’t come close to overwhelming it. By drydown, some of the snow has melted away, but it lingers, blended with an orange-tinted, cloven sandalwood. The clove has strengthened on me slightly but hangs in balance, and the sandalwood stays soft. I never smell iron or tonka. Low throw and lasted a couple hours on me last night, somewhat below average for me.

Golden honey, white carnation, honey amber, ginger blossom, and white tea. Vagina Treasure on my skin is the wanton love child of Hair Loosened and Soiled in Mid Orgies HG and a slightly more clovey Morocco -- and better than either. Really. It smells to me like those two got together and made a greater sum. Golden honey-dominant, but with a nearly equal part of spicy carnation when fresh on. The spicy carnation settles quite a bit once this dries; at first it calls a lot of attention to itself. This has a lot of golden, sweet fullness, which is mostly honey, but I think amber is adding to it. I don't get standout notes of tea or ginger at any point, but I have a pleasant sense of Other Nice Things Happening in the Background. Lush, sexy brew.

Orange-toned, slightly powdery mimosa and star jasmine. The herbs and Snek don't really play here for me, and my skin eats the blend before long.

This Snek reminds of several other BPAL blends, almost like a Lab Rat mini-edition. Like a Lab Rat made from a small, sexy section of the shelves. But mostly I do get something like a wildflower Womb Furie with orange blossom and cinnamon. Lighter and less deep. The orange blossom is potent on me; the cinnamon is lightest, but still quite present. I like it. My immediate urge is to add dark vanilla and make a body gloss out of it, because that worked well with Saw-Scaled Viper, and this also reminds me somewhat of that.

Deep green swamp and glimpses of sap. I think of algae. Snek slithers under, but I barely catch it. The swamp encloses it.

Mild lemon and dry, woody vetiver on a Snek background. Spring in dry woods.

Well-oiled, new-ish black leather and something sweet. Almost a little sugary... But mostly oiled black leather.

Super-slushy sweet vanilla mint. And, yeah. More of that. After a while, a hint of Snek woods. But mostly the slush.

Snow-dusted cherry blossoms and white honey. This is mostly the lab's minty snow note. Enough that I decided to wear Winter Landscape with it, which is also mostly the lab's minty snow note. It's lightly sweetened with a pale honey -- definitely a white honey, rather than something like O's main note. I get a little sweet floral, but it's barely there for me, and I wouldn't have guessed which type of flower it is.

Well-misted lavender and oakmoss on a soft earthy background like slightly damp, decomposing leaves on the forest floor. The soft forest-floor earthiness has a patchouli hint and reminds me a lot of Earth Mother (patchouli, clary sage, dark mosses and lichens, wild grasses, warm acorns, dammar, burgundy pitch, pine needles, mandrake root, hay absolute, sweet vetiver). The white oudh is probably contributing, but it doesn't stand out for me. The oakmoss in this smells up front and detailed -- as if I can see its pale, spidery outline against the bark when I inhale -- but it's limned in lavender. This is really lovely at first. As it starts to dry, though, it turns a bit cologne-like, and also powdery in a white-musk way. I still find the lovely lavender-oakmoss in it, but there's too much of the cologne and powder for this to work on me.

I love the bat and butterfly blends... This one is as desert-like as described in other reviews. It goes on like desert scrub, dusty clove, and a breath of small, dry flowers. Over time I find something that reminds me of an actual spiny arm of an aloe broken open, as we used to do to rub on sunburns. An opened succulent smell, blending with the rest of the desert.

Bright gingery white tea with vanilla-amber, bergamot, and ... something of a more full-bodied orange than just bergamot. Mandarin? In drydown, I begin to find a light smoky incense in it, and then a bourbon hint that's subtle enough to be interesting instead of whoa corn booze. I didn't pick up a decant of this when it was out; I'd had trouble wearing Lab ginger. One of the only alcohol-based perfumes I've loved was heavily gingered, so that was sad. But lately I'm finding some Lab ginger blends I can wear, and this is another like that. It's quite good on me, actually, though not long lived. Pallid Bat reminds me of both Season of Ghosts (with its orange/bergamot, ginger, and frankincense) and Kumiho.

Orange liqueur aflame with red ginger and a hot little whiff of cinnamon. On my skin, Emergy shifts into orange lollipop liqueur aflame with red ginger and a little cinnamon. Neroli and orange blossom often turn to orange lollipop candy on me, so maybe there's some of that hiding here. Perhaps the sugared part is also bringing this toward liqueur for me. This isn't boozy, but it smells to me like the syrupy, fruity part of an orange liqueur. Pimento pops in, being its slightly sweet and strange self. In drydown, I also start to get cracked peppercorn. Strong red ginger, with hints of peppercorn and cinnamon or cassia. This is not a good combo for me, but I'm glad to try it.

This is a smooth vanilla cream steeped with lush fig and honey, and poured into hot black tea. This is the luxury black tea beverage you order after dinner in lieu of a fancy late-night coffee. Hints of drying grasses blend well. Fig-infused vanilla cream dominates the first phase. The honey is a mild touch; the tea and dried grasses add maturity. Once this dries, the fig vanilla cream has calmed. It lingers, but I find more honey, black tea leaves, and dried grasses around it. This smells to me like the honey from the Honey Pot blends I've tried: light and mellow, rather than heavy and sugar-crunchy. Hints of almond peek out of the honey. The blend goes softer on my skin. Lovely and complex.

Fresh! First on, I get loads of cool, fresh blue juniper, tinged purple with a little lavender. This cool and ginny juniper is just owning me. I'm kind of juniper's bitch right now. In early drydown, I amp hops -- as my skin seems to do -- and then I have a deeply herbal juniper. Blue musk comes out of hiding. The resulting cool, shimmering combination of notes reminds me of watching the blue-aqua light-shadows on the sides of a pool. That's actually where this blend stays on me: blue-aqua pool shadows.

In the bottle, I get mostly an oudh, one of an unpleasantly indolic nature in the neighborhood of Bestla and Nevertheless, She Persisted. I feared I was about to get burned by an undisclosed-note-in-a-blind-bottle again, and procrastinated this blend's testing. When I apply Earth Pig, finally, I get a fair amount of this body-earthy oudh, but also a serene and pleasant orange, tangerine, and plum blossom mix. The oudh is thankfully not quite as fecal as it smelled in the bottle, though it has a somehow bodily nature. In early drydown, the oudh calms considerably and then the blend becomes cheerful with orange, tangerine, mandarin, plum flower, peony, and something that smells like golden frankincense. From that point on, the blend is very wearable and a relief.

I've tested this several times, and it's just not really showing up for me. Everything is very faint on first application, and is already nearly gone in a minute or two. For a few seconds I get a sheer, almost silken vanilla, rice milk, pale sandalwood, and a hint of clove. Then the sandalwood and clove slip away, and I just get a thin, faint vanilla rice milk. Then that, too, is barely there. I hope time helps this one become less shy.

I let this sit almost the longest among the blends before reviewing, because Snake Oil. First on my skin, it's pretty quiet, but this looks to be a very base-notey blend. A softer top-note phase doesn't surprise. But it warms up quickly, and then out drifts a cloud of dark vanilla with hints of smoke, caramel, and oak, all wafting over Snake Oil. Damn... That's good. In drydown I start to get oakmoss and a little tobacco, adding to the earthiness. I find ambergris when I look for it, but really, this is very well blended. After this dries, pinpointing one note is a bit like finding one piece of a table-wide jigsaw. I'll probably need at least one bottle of this snek. This is Snek++.

The first whiff on me is just of the pine resin. For some reason, I'm getting a little pine, and also a lot of something odd that reminds me of yew berries. That settles down quickly, though, into a faint, gentler pine. Magnolia and a mild jasmine come forth. From that point, the blend is a very pretty, soft white floral, though it doesn't last an hour on me.

On the wand, and fresh on my skin, I get lots of fresh grapefruit. Grapefruit SN. In drydown, I get a faint salty air hint. Still mostly grapefruit, with faint ocean air. Once this dries, I get fading grapefruit and a breath of faint ambergris. Then it fades out, leaving a dot of nondescript sweetness. My skin eht it.

I'm not sure I can get enough wildflower honey. Sweet wildflower honey, creamy vanilla marshmallow, amber, pink-scented cherry flowers, and a touch of lotus. Pink lotus? That's about the order of strength for the notes on my skin at first. The blend is creamy, honey-sweetened, and pink. The creamy vanilla and lotus part of it reminds me of the gentle blend Poor Monkey. As this dries, the mallow calms down and blends in more. I really like it then. When this is dry, I get an artful teak hint when I look for it. It does somehow smell like a pale teak and adds a little complexity. I like the way it works with the lotus. This smells like kindness. 🙂 It keeps putting me in mind of Poor Monkey and its theme of compassion. I'll need more of this one.

Red mimosa, pink grapefruit, and ... an actually airy white cedar. The mimosa has a reddish sweetness to it, especially in the first couple moments after applying. It seems that red mimosa is to mimosa as blood orange is to orange... This reminds me of the reddish, almost raspberry sweetness that blood oranges have versus oranges. This seems like a mimosa analog of that... The pink grapefruit smells just like it does out of my pink grapefruit EO bottle. Sweet, fresh, wakening. The cedar smells actually airy and white: like cedar, and yet not at all like heavy reddish cedar. I don't catch any amber until drydown. Its paleness has it blending in well here. But also in drydown, the blend turns a little tart, and then increasingly powdery. The powder reminds me of white musk but there could be another culprit. Pretty soon it's all fruit powder. This started out fresh and pretty, but it isn't a match for my skin.