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BPAL Madness!

Lucchesa

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Everything posted by Lucchesa

  1. Lucchesa

    Recommendations for Liquor and Wine Scents

    There's a booze imp pack -- ones that haven't been mentioned yet are Absinthe, Elegba, Grog, and Juke Joint. Bard has bay rum -- seems like some of the piratey scents do too. Yep! Jolly Roger, Port-au-Prince and Mary Read, all with rum of some kind. Miskatonic University for Irish Coffee -- also Irish Coffee Buttercream and Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee, both ACLU activism scents that are still available. Good holiday scents! And Blood Kiss has a heady cherry wine note.
  2. Lucchesa

    Death on a Pale Horse

    I want MolyH's imp! Or skin chemistry! On me, Death on a Pale Horse is high-pitched white musk, high-pitched florals, and sharp citrus. I don't get mint, which is fine, but i also don't get patchouli, which is not. Eventually, a couple of hours in, the florals lose their potency, and I am able to make out the sandalwood and the vetiver, which is the dominant note in late drydown. And this phase is not at all bad on me. But these are definitely not my notes.
  3. Lucchesa

    Autumn Sun I

    This is rather nice but is definitely on the pale and limpid side. I really just get tea and amber and maple leaves. I would really love for some vetiver and loam to dirty it up. I like the notes that do appear -- I would definitely buy at least a decant of Dead Leaves with Black Tea, Amber, and Maple. But Autumn Sun I is not quite all the description promises.
  4. Lucchesa

    Gooped Familiar

    Gooped Familiar on me is black musk, cedar and hay with some warm amber giving it a perfumey vibe. After a few hours it's sweeter and fuzzy around the edges with some spices to it, though I never (sadly) get my beloved carnation note emerging. But it is still a winner on me, warm and comfy like a favorite feline and perfect for early fall.
  5. Lucchesa

    U Strip

    U Strip is almost entirely sweet toasted coconut on me. I was hoping for the darkness of some vetiver, but it's practically imperceptible. Instead, this is light and almost girlish. Low throw (normal on my middle-aged skin) and about three hours of wear length.
  6. Lucchesa

    The Gatekeeper

    The Gatekeeper is dry, dusty sandalwood and creaky leather. There’s a hint of old paper and some briefly sharp papyrus, but like nearly every library adjacent scent, it’s quite fleeting on my skin.
  7. Lucchesa

    Haitian Tobacco, Bay Leaves, and Patchouli

    I neglected to review this decant last year and haven't worn it since, but I really do like it. It's a warm, dry scent -- not a sweet sticky tobacco but a dry one, ditto for the patch and the bay. In fact this blend has very little sweetness on me at all, which is a welcome change from some of the foodies and other scents where the sweet notes can take over. It's clean but not in an aquatic way, more like a well-groomed man with excellent bone structure sort of way. Confident, a little rugged. Super nice.
  8. Lucchesa

    Back in the Recording Studio

    I am surprised I didn't reviewed Back in the Recording Studio last year. It was the first Lilith I tried and set a high bar for the rest. Cool lavender in the opening with what must be driftwood but definitely felt more evergreen to me (this does not tend aquatic on me, thankfully), but they give way to the warmer notes of tonka and amber and honey (dry not sticky). I never get much patchouli, unfortunately, and it's not obviously a beeswax scent on me, but it all coalesces into something absolutely lovely and long-lasting.
  9. Lucchesa

    Dead Leaves, Boot Leather, and Sweet Grass

    Dead Leaves, Boot Leather, and Sweet Grass didn't work for me last fall. Now it's gorgeous! I'm so glad I held onto the slonk. Soft brown leather dominates throughout, but the dead leaves note has finally come into its own. It is a wet green dead leaves note as described by Little Bird and others, but it doesn't become aquatic; it may be the sweet grass contributing the green feeling. Comfortable, outdoorsy, totally unisex, totally a pleasure.
  10. Lucchesa

    The Hanging Gardens

    Bubblegummy fruit on me with tropical florals. Nice but not my jam.
  11. Lucchesa

    The Witches go to Market

    There’s a lot going on here, and all of it good. Meaty fig and barley cake, spices, incense, roots and fungi and a pungent burst of evergreen… and then poof. It vanishes. I reapplied and same result. My skin vanquishes it. Very sad.
  12. Lucchesa

    Foreboding Buffalo

    Foreboding Buffalo starts out with a lot of chocolate on me — and like @dancingchair, I thought immediately of Muddy Armadillo. But it goes to a very different place. The patchouli is present, the vetiver is favor, and the reddish brown musk takes over. So a sexy earthy musk grounded in cacao. Nice!
  13. Lucchesa

    Philosopher Reading

    I was really hoping for more beeswax, but I can barely smell it at all. Instead, this is a dusty stone and frankincense scent with soft brown leather and maybe some dusty wood but not specifically oak. It reminds me a little of Adam but with a softer leather. And then it is subject to the curse of all library-adjacent scents on me and disappears almost entirely within an hour or so.
  14. Lucchesa

    Chocolate Babka

    Wet, Chocolate Babka is a whole lot of chocolate -covered marzipan (one of my favorite sweets!). As it dries down, a distinctive rye note emerges, and eventually the almond fades so it's a chocolatey rye. This has pretty good throw (rare on me) for the first couple hours at least. Really nice and now I want to taste chocolate babka!
  15. Lucchesa

    Brood X

    I love patchouli but don't get a lot of it in Brood X. It's more about the earth and roots. Despite the sugarcane and hazelnut, this is not at all foodie on me -- it's the wild notes before they've been domesticated into comestibles. The dark soil and woods notes are balanced by the warm amber and hay, and the whole is lovely, a green witch kind of scent.
  16. Lucchesa

    The Wild Swans At Coole

    These are not my notes, but Yeats. This is obviously a well-aged decant. I don't get any autumn leaves at all, just soft green aquatic notes, powdery orris and a hint of lily of the valley. After three or four hours it's barely perceptible but very beautiful. Glad I got to experience it.
  17. Lucchesa

    Thirteen (13): November 2015

    Cocoa at first, but that gradually softens into a sweeter chocolate against all the honey and sugar. I think one of the honeys must be an orange blossom one because I get a fairly strong chocolate orange vibe from this 13. The vanilla isn't strong, mainly chocolate and honey, with the delicate floral notes different honeys can carry, and the orange. Lovely!
  18. Lucchesa

    Scientist of Artistic Idleness

    I love the title of this scent, and I nearly love it, but the silvered musk makes it a near miss for me. It goes on as a marvelous spicy evergreen and sage, lots of lovely clove with peppercorn even I can perceive, but then the musk wraps all around it, and it's a close relative of white musk, which tends to be high-pitched on me, and it's not that it's bad, but it's no longer the kind of scent I love to wear.
  19. Lucchesa

    Hot Speckled Gloom

    I love this and my usually indifferent spouse likes it too. Spicy and deep with some sweetness from the resin. Rich and dark and I’m going to echo elissamay on this one, sexy. Good wear length on me, too.
  20. Lucchesa

    Einzelne Häuser (Häuser mit Bergen)

    Stupid skin chemistry. Wet, Einzelne Hauser is frankly unpleasant, medicinal, like liniment. Red musk very occasionally presents this way on me, and I think it's also interacting badly with the charred sandalwood. After about 40 minutes it's bearable, and eventually it becomes a pleasant dry blend of smoky sandalwood, red musk and pitch, but it's not worth the time to get there when I have so many other scents that work beautifully from the get-go. I WISH I could "find myself radiating a cloud of smooth, sweet, musky, woodsy, pitchy wonderfulness" like MamaMoth and elissamay!
  21. Lucchesa

    Mr. Jacquel

    I was lucky enough to receive a decant of Mr. Jacquel in a recent circular swap and I love it! It smells very classic BPAL to me, which means it's heavy on the amber with other stuff I can't quite recognize. The patchouli and hyssop are quite understated on me; it's really about the amber and whatever the embalming spices might be.
  22. Lucchesa

    Lady Reading Poetry

    Lilac is one of the only florals I enjoy, and testing blind I got lots and lots of lilac. No leather or frankincense; instead, this becomes something more like a creamy poofy pink lilac, with lace-like vanilla; this part lasted for ages, even overnight. Lovely!
  23. Lucchesa

    Schrödinger’s Checkmark

    Schrodinger's Checkmark is that gorgeous black patch the lab is so good at sweetened by floofy vanilla marshmallow. I'm not able to individuate the benzoin. The throw is low on me, but the wear length is good, going on seven hours at the moment. This is the sweeter, foodier cousin of You May House Their Bodies -- I think it's the same patchouli. And I love them both dearly.
  24. Lucchesa

    Elf Mutiny

    I tested this blind. Berry candy. Sweet tarts. Bright red fruit. Not my kind of scent at all — I couldn’t imagine why I’d ordered the decant. Later I checked the notes. Oh. Some of my favorites. Tobacco, carnation, labdanum. And it was the raspberry oud that had me intrigued. But on my skin? Raspberry single note. Sigh.
  25. Lucchesa

    Snow White Rider

    I love White Rider and was realty looking forward to the leather and sandalwood cutting the sweetness of Snow White. But at first, I got about 95% Snow White. My disappointment did not last long though. Over the wear length, which was about four hours on me, which is not bad for my skin, the balance gradually shifted towards the more masculine elements of White Rider. There is a perfect yin yang moment somewhere in the middle where the sweet vanilla snow and the leather and sandalwood are utterly in balance, but there are a lot of wonderful points before and after that as well. Late dry down is a faintly vanilla frosted White Rider. I love this one!
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